#i went to delete them from the backup version

[wearily-confused]

fuck FUCK fuCkkKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!

[simverses]

Blowtorch, updated for Lovestruck (EP16)

Maxi's worlds emptied of era specific stuff – made for simmers who wants themed hoods of their choice.

Now updated for EP 16 - Lovestruck

So, you found T.O.O.L, the super useful mod by Twisted Mexi, and learned how to decorate your sim world.

But there is this problem with Maxis houses and items, which do NOT fit in your sim world. So far, the most used method has been to hide them, as in either move them away (if even possible) from sight or use a hider/override to make them invisible. That method has its limits, is very tedious (need to find, make an override, ect. , and there are SO MANY items)

Blowtorch has another approach. It takes out the items (houses, vehicles, modern deco, well - all silly deco really) from the world. You can then place nicer deco or game items instead.

The items are not hidden from catalogue, so you can place the same items back but in a different place if you so wish. Or use cc deco. Make the world medieval, or Victorian, or sci-fi, or whatever.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

This mod edits the preloaded deco in the world. It changes game files – and the changes will affect all your saves, old and new. If you decide that you want the deco back, you can do it either with the GAME REPAIR function or using the backup of the original folders that I included in the mods folders. If you do that, all your saves will have the original deco back.

You can either use all my edited files – or the ones you want. If you for example want Willow Creek to be as it always has, but want a blowtorched Oasis Springs, just delete the Willow Creek files before installation, and keep Oasis Springs.

I have blowtorched almost all the hoods in the worlds, both EP and GP: s (See list below for exceptions.) If you don’t have all EP/GP I recommend to delete the ones you don’t have before installing.

(Save the zip with the mod somewhere safe so you can add new worlds when you add a new EP/GP with a world.)

Here are some general rules I went by:

- All landmarks, architecture deco, street deco, vehicles, with special effects - blowtorched

- Functional objects: outside tables, playground items, and such – blowtorched. Place them again where you want them!

- All lights, both streetlights and built in hood lights, blowtorched.

- All palm trees, ever pink trees, wispy modern beeches, and other modern plants, blowtorched. (I of course kept the palm trees in Sulani and Selvadorada)

- ALMOST ALL THESE THINGS (not the built in lights) are still available in the catalog (debug, live edit) items though. So, if you still want a modern, but DIFFERENT hood, you can place them again, as you want them. This is a big advantage compared to hiders – those usually hide the items also from the catalogue.

- Visual effects belonging to vehicles and other stuff mentioned above, blowtorched. No modern yachts, no airplanes.

- The lights are gone. The world will be dark at night if you don’t place streetlights or such.

WHAT I KEPT

I kept the seasons stalls, where they are available (if you have the Seasons EP.) They can also be placed, but as they are in conditional layers (changes with the seasons) this can't be done by placing them manually.

I kept all spawners. All the fishing spots and all the bugs, frogs, dig sites, wild growing plants.

Lighting mod included

This mod also includes the Sunblind lighting mod by Softerhaze. Lighting mods also change these files, so I added Sunblind with the creator's permission.

This updated version includes the update from Softerhaze after EP 16.

https://softerhaze.itch.io/sunblind?download Read more here!

(You do not need to download or install the mod; it is included in the Blowtorch mod.)

If you want another lighting mod or no lighting mod, you need to edit the files manually.

This is done by replacing the resources “Sky Box Texture Data” and “World Timeline Color”.

ECO LIFESTYLE NOTE!

Unfortunately the Evergreen Harbor world that came with Eco Lifestyle (EP 9) has some special evil magic and the deco needs hiders anyway. If you play with that world and want it to be BLOWTORCHED, install the file ELHoodHidersMerged in your Mods folder.

Other recommended mods:

Check out T.O.O.L and Twisted Mexis other mods here: https://twistedmexi.com/Mods/

To add deco stuff outside lots:

T.O.O.L – at Tmexis page you also find information about his CAW-project, still in alpha testing.

I also recommend his Better Build/Buy mod, and his toggle mods, especially the Strangerville Story Toggle on if you want to use Strangerville as a normal world. And also his that enabled build/buy on the Secret Lab lot – in new saves.

Zerbu has a couple of super useful mods:

All Worlds are Residential https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/173398784785/the-sims-4-mod-all-worlds-are-residential

Venue changes https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/160347810775/the-sims-4-mod-venue-changes

Twelfth Doctor has a great mod for travelling to all the hidden/special lots, so you can edit them: https://td1sims.tumblr.com/post/635457539495084032/travel-to-venue

This mod is also useful if when you work with TOOL: Clickable worlds by Awingedlama

Q&A about Blowtorch mod

1. Can I use this on my old saves?

Answer: Yes. The mod does not affect the saves, or your CC, or anything other than the game files in the Windows directory. You can easily uninstall the mod by using the backup files (included) or do a Game Repair.

2. Why are there stuff not deleted? Annoying modern fences in Windenburg Ugly Modern Business district, for example?

Answer: some items are a part of the world mesh and is not yet possible to edit. If there will be a solution later, I will update the mod.

3. Will I have to update the mod after patches and new expansions?

Answer: Probably, but not always. When you load the game after the patch, you will see if the original deco is there. If so, re-install. If the patch/ep/GP does not include a new world, you just reinstall the mod (see instructions below) as you installed it the first time. I will make updated versions asap when new worlds are released.

4. I don’t have EP X or Y – can I use the Blowtorch mod?

Answer: Yes, but I recommend deleting the folders for EP/GP you don’t have. See list in the PDF-file with documentation.

Where to find nice themed hood deco to use with Blowtorch?

You can basically use any item, from game or CC, to decorate hoods. Try out the options with T.O.O.L to change the size of objects!

I already posted some Hood Deco CC – and I have much more to come. I have been converting/editing/creating and preparing hood deco from Sims Medieval, Sims 2 and Sims 3 and other games – my CC is medieval/historical themed but I hope for other creators to add to the hood deco options in the future.

Note: I now have all the files for download on my Dropbox. They are in a couple of zips. The main one contains a folder called "The Sims 4" which contains the modded files.

The Backup files - you don't DO anything with them, if you don't want to uninstall the mod. You can also use Repair game in Origin/EA App, it does the same thing.

I suggest you unzip the files to a folder somewhere to have if you need to reinstall the mod or the original files.

Dont forget to also download, read and save the PDF Documentation-file :)

If you have difficulties with the installation, please DM me and I will help.

Optional: Installer Script (for Windows only)!

This clever script from @tricoufamily can be used for an easy install of the Blowtorch-files (which include the Sunblind light mod)!

Like this:

Download the Sunblind Installer (link to creators page with download link)

Click on the file and open it, a text file opens which you can edit.

Check the path to the gamefiles. If you use the EA App, it should be: "C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4"

Now edit the path to where your Blowtorch files are located, for example: "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\Documents\Blowtorch\The Sims 4"

Now click on the script file (run it with Power Shell), and it will install Blowtorch. Note: Always read the instructions also for Blowtorch in general.

My Empty Save File - Start Fresh!

I also updated my Empty Save to include Ciudad Amorada with a builder sim.

Download Blowtorch here:

Blowtorch modded files (Dropbox) Backup of original game files (Dropbox) Hiders for Eco Lifestyle (Dropbox) Simverses updated Empty Save (all lots demolished, all sims besides my builder sim, deleted.) Use if you want to start fresh. (Dropbox)

Or Download Simverses Empty Save here (Curseforge)

[littlecherryhuanlin]

A Tale of a Lonely Heart- Na Jaemin

You may like: Ghost of You with Nakamoto Yuta

Disclaimer: Here is the prequel to "Love at Dawn", first I would like to apologize to those who had to wait so long for this, second this is not what I wanted to be delivering to you, u see I had a completely different story ready in Dec (I wrote on my phone and went directly to my drafts on the computer while reviewing and I was stupid enough to delete the backup since I would post it the next morning), for some reason Tumblr ate my drafts and I ended up losing not only the og version of this but also everything that was there, I'm not proud of this work, but I still hope u guys enjoy it.

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: Jaemin POV, but also contains the use of bad words, descriptive content, mentions of alcohol, kinda angst, short mention about Jeno's bed, angry behavior, Jaemin crying, fluff if you squint

Jaemin liked to keep his feet on the ground when it came to serious matters, despite the mixed image people had of the boy due to the near-bipolar discrepancy in his personality, everyone agreed that Jaemin was a carefree guy: unable to mind anything that wasn't on his priority list, which led to the belief that he wasn't a big fan of relationships, as his owns rarely lasted more than a few weeks.

What nobody knew, however, was that for him love was a very serious matter; the tales of souls carefully chosen to share the beauty of life with the children of the moon were universal, and having grown up listening closely to all the stories about how the imprint was the most precious thing in a werewolf's life, there was nothing he wanted more than find his mate and settling down, his short relationships being solely derived from the fact that none of the girls on campus were her.

And yet, he was completely taken aback when he saw her for the first time, things around him slowly losing focus as her scent completely overpowered his senses, his thoughts fading away and being replaced exclusively and immediately by her, a strange heat slowly rising through his body consuming every inch of his being, he even thought he would die trapped in the intoxicating sensation that took over his heart, the one that seemed to be on the verge of collapse the closer she got and before he even realized it, he was knocked down by the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life, his imprint.

Say that he had to hold back when she stopped in front of him would be an understatement, he violently fought the urge to get up and wrap his arms around her, which caused him to stare at the ground as Donghyuck introduced her as his best friend, obviously, her existence was no secret to any of them: Haechan spoke of the girl at every opportunity since the beginning of the school year, gradually making everyone extremely curious about the mysterious YN - being the means the boy used to keep her hidden from the group for half a year a secret to everyone.

Jaemin was so out of his mind that Jeno was the one to introduce him quickly, thank goodness the boys were too entertained with her to notice his strange behavior.

Unable to say anything, he just watched discreetly as the girl animatedly chatted with the boys about things he couldn't even understand. He was too busy trying to put himself in order to recognize any sound around him, everything has became a blur and he was no longer lucid, he would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid of the situation, he was terrified, trying all the time to calm down before he had a heart attack.

-

Jaemin was never really able to speak properly to her, not the second or third or any of the times that followed over the next year, little by little he managed to answer back, but for some reason, everything that came out of his mouth sounded like snarling attacks and the more time passed the more "what ifs" occupied the boy's mind as the unfriendly tension between YN and him grew. Slowly the hopes he had upon the relationship with the one he had imprinted on disappeared, and despite the frown that he put on every time he was around the girl the feeling that had taken over him the first time they met never really disappeared.

Although he considered himself a strong guy, there were moments that Jaemin had broken because of her, like the first time she spent the night in the house he shared with Jeno, Haechan and Renjun:

The first time the boys totally lost control around her (which, to Jaemin's dismay, only meant one thing: she was one of them now) and she ended up having to stay the night because everyone was too drunk to do anything, imagine Jaemin's surprise the next morning when he opened his best friend's bedroom door only to find the girl tangled up in his covers while Jeno was passed out on the couch next to her.

Jaemin drove for four hours straight, he realized at that moment that not only Haechan -to say that he had grown to hate his friend a bit would be more than adequate; their closeness disgusted him, Haechan and YN understood each other so deeply that the boy often doubted the veracity of the supposed connection he allegedly has with her- was a threat, but all of them, other than that, he couldn't help but dislike her at that moment not only for showing up in his life but for also stealing his friends.

-

Even though Jaemin wanted to hate the girl he found himself completely in love with her, so in love that the next time he broke down- so badly- over her was also the first time one of the boys found out who she was to him:

YN had a boyfriend, the news that Haechan shared so excitedly with the group while making fun of YN brought immediate tears to the boy's eyes, his heart squeezed so hard that Jaemin thought he was going to pass out, he was so busy trying to breathe properly that he couldn't he noticed his friends entering the library much less Mark approaching him worriedly. Fortunately, the older boy managed to drag Jaemin to the back of the building and patiently waited while he calmed down, however, the moment Nana noticed the sad and surprised expression on his friend's face he knew that the pieces had fallen into place for Mark and his secret was no longer so secret.

When her relationship finally ended Jaemin found himself having mixed feelings: he was happy that she was single, but hell, he hated to see her sad and was ready to kill whoever made her cry, in the end, Mark had to convince him that broke Hyunjin's face was not a good idea.

At a certain point, Jaemin found himself rooting for the end of any minimal relationship that the girl had with any man outside their circle - it was difficult, but the boy was proud of having reached an agreement on the closeness of YN and the boys: he decided that he would be happy that she had true friends who would always take care of her instead of hating his friends for it - on the other hand, the more time passed, the more he questioned whether the girl's permanence in his life was, in fact, a good thing: at the same time that he loved her, he hated the way his heart always seemed to be torn apart because of her.

Please do not copy or translate any of my works, all creative work is copyrighted and therefore plagiarism is a crime.

[mymoonagedaydream]

Part 5

Pairing: Biker!Bucky x y/n

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: Language, anti-religious sentiment throughout

Author’s Note: So I would’ve posted earlier but I wrote this whole chapter once and then accidentally deleted the whole thing without a backup. Could’ve murdered someone. Anyway, here’s version 2.0.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

---

Soft sunlight bled through the gaps beneath the blinds and caused your eyes to flicker open. As they adjusted to the brightness, the slightly stained roof of the trailer came into focus. Only a few more seconds passed before memories of the night before began to trickle back into your mind, prompting you to smile to yourself, stretching your arms out sideways with a groan. Your blissful mood dissolved, however, when they both dropped straight onto the mattress. There wasn’t another body there to break their fall, you were alone.

You jerked upright and started scanning the inside of the trailer for any signs of life. The bathroom door was wide open, no inhabitants there. Maybe he was having a cigarette outside? Wrapping the sheet around yourself and scooching over to the window, you tugged gently at the blind and peeked through the gap, but you couldn't see him outside either. It took you another second to clock that his bike was missing too.

A mild panic started to set in as you were unable to prevent hundreds of depressing scenarios racing through your mind simultaneously. Why would he drive off without saying anything? Why didn’t he leave a note or wake you? Was he planning to sneak out on you like this all along? Was this even his trailer? 

You gathered your clothes, dumped unceremoniously in a pile on the floor, and threw them on. Your muscles were tense and your fingers were starting to shake. Taking a few deep breaths, you tried to calm yourself down, but you struggled to fight off the intrusive thoughts. The rational part of you knew that he’d probably just nipped out quickly, that he’d return soon, but in the back of your mind you couldn’t stop worrying that he’d got what he wanted and left for good. You spent the next fifteen minutes searching, pacing and overthinking until finally you heard a motorbike engine approaching in the distance. A wave of relief hit you.

‘Oh hey,’ Bucky came through the door with a paper bag full of groceries, circled an arm around your waist and planted a kiss on your cheek, ‘I grabbed a few things from the store, figured you were probably tired of hot dogs.’

He waltzed over to the kitchen and dropped his cargo, beginning to unpack what he seemed to think was a successful trip's worth of food. You were distracted for a second, wondering how he figured a meal consisting of sliced cheese, M&M's and garlic mayonnaise would be an improvement on hot dogs, but that issue quickly fell by the wayside as your eyes wandered up to his face. You moved over to the counter and lent yourself against it.

‘You didn’t wake me up, I would’ve come with.’

‘You’ve never seen yourself sleeping, waking up that face would'a felt like slapping a puppy.’ Chuckling, he glanced over, noticing that you were a little subdued. He squinted, ‘were you worried?’

You slid your hands into your pockets, trying so hard to look relaxed that you probably ended up looking like a junkie in withdrawal. ‘Worried? About what?’

Admittedly, you might have overreacted to his unexplained absence a little, but you really couldn't help it. You knew that if this fling with Bucky went on much longer it would grow into something with the potential to absolutely shatter you, it was terrifying to think how invested you were in a guy you’d only properly known for a matter of days. You couldn’t shake your mother’s shrill voice, incessantly warning you about him and his reputation; at least if it ended now it’d be a little easier to pick up the pieces.

‘Man, I can read you like a book. You thought I was gone for good, thought all I wanted was a roll in the hay, didn’t ya?’ He grinned and stopped what he was doing, instead moving over to you and placing his hands on your waist. ‘I mean, that last part is true, but I thought I might as well come back for seconds.’

You smacked him on the shoulders, trying to suppress a smile. ‘Asshole.’

With a reassuring kiss on the forehead he waved you away while he finished unpacking. You wandered back over to the bed, folding up all the sheets before attempting to convert it back into a couch. In all fairness, you’d only seen it done once, but even so you knew that your efforts were pathetic. Bucky just snickered behind you.

'I think this thing is broken,' your words were punctuated with grunts as you tried to ram one confusingly shaped piece of wood into another, 'how the hell do people live like this full time?'

Your host swooped in and took over, fixing your mistakes in a matter of seconds. 'I hear ya, this place can get kinda cramped. Maybe we should head out for a while.'

'Yeah? Whereabouts?’

He curled his arms around your waist, smiling at your obvious excitement. ‘Wherever you want, baby.’

‘I might need some ideas.’

‘Hmm, there’s a beach nearby?’

‘Great,' with a kiss on his nose you unlatched his grip, turned and headed towards the shower, adding over your shoulder, 'I've never been to a beach before.'

Then, suddenly, you weren’t moving any more. Your arm had been grabbed from behind by a young man wearing an incredibly shocked expression.

‘What, never? Seriously?’

‘Seriously. Church summer camp was more of a deep-in-the-forest type deal.’

‘Jesus, looks like we gotta do some making up for your tragic childhood then, eh?’ He winked as he slipped past you, maintaining heated eye contact while strolling backwards into the bathroom. ‘Plus fresh air will take your mind off the whole runaway boyfriend complex thing you got going on.'

The rickety door clicked shut. You folded your arms and once again leaned against the counter, preparing yourself for a long wait while Bucky showered and intricately styled his hair. That was, until his head and bare chest reappeared around the corner, a suggestive flash of the eyebrows beckoning you in to join him. The rest of the morning was a write off after that.

---

You’d only been driving for ten minutes when you started smelling the sea air. Fresh and briny, you couldn’t stop pulling in lungfuls of it, drinking the scent like a thick soup. You watched over Bucky’s shoulder as the green horizon was gradually swallowed by blue, as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking.

The bike eventually pulled up close to the edge of the sand. The weather was cool and breezy with clouds covering the sky, so the beach was basically empty. The only signs of life were a few dog-walkers dotted about and a group of fishermen hanging their poles from an old jetty in the distance. You swung your leg free and took a few steps towards the water, surveying the vast expanse of sand stretching in both directions. It actually began to make you feel quite emotional. You didn’t know why it took an intervention by Bucky for you to realise how much more there is to the world than god and grades, but you did know that you owed him a hell of a lot for doing it, and you wouldn’t let him forget that in a hurry.

Too distracted by the view and by your profound inner monologue, you didn’t notice what he was up to. He’d pulled his shoes and socks off along with his jacket and dumped them next to the bike. He only caught your attention when he raced out in front of you, shouting.

‘What the hell you waiting for, doll-face?’

You quickly followed suit, undressing and running to catch up with him. The crisp sea breeze and soft sand between your toes should probably have been relaxing but the gradually closing gap between you and Bucky was making your heart thump like a bass drum; as soon as he slowed down you took the opportunity to jump up onto his back. Holding onto your legs, he started spinning around, but you somehow slipped from his grasp and landed in the sand with a loud thud.

‘Shit, are you alright?’ He dropped onto his hands and knees over you, concern melting from his face when he realised you were laughing.

‘Didn’t realise you had such a weak grip, Barnes.’

‘Right, that’s it,’ he gathered you up in his arms, ‘you’re going in the sea.’

He hastily waded up to his knees, threatening to drop you whenever you tried to wriggle. It took some convincing before he let you down amicably and he roared with laughter at your reaction to the freezing water. The two of you only managed to paddle for a few minutes before giving up, willing your numb legs to carry you as fast as possible towards some comfortable looking rocks on the shore.

You brushed all the windswept hairs out of your eyes, your feet were tingling and sand was making your thighs chafe, but the giddy grin didn’t shift from your face for a second. Bucky took out a pack of cigarettes and placed one between his lips, fumbling around in his pockets for what was now probably a very soggy lighter. You considered for a second before hesitantly holding your hand out to him. He looked down at it then up to your face, raising one eyebrow in suspicion.

‘You ever tried one before?’ You shook your head faintly, a little embarrassed at your lack of experience. He smirked and pushed the pack back into his pocket. ‘Nah.’

‘Nah?’

‘I mean I’m flattered, but you don’t have to do shit like that to impress me,’ he lit the cigarette and put an arm around your shoulders, ‘I like you just how you are.’

His words prompted a warm glow to ignite in your chest and spread through your entire body. Embarrassingly enough, you had been aiming for a Sandy-from-Grease type situation there, but it was reassuring to know that Bucky was as unimpressed with the whole change yourself to impress boys message as you were; besides, it was probably a good thing that he shot you down before you humiliated yourself with a violent coughing fit.

‘C’mon,’ he stood up and offered you his arm, ‘you’re freezing, let’s go back.’

---

'Honestly, I'm all good.'

You did your best to reassure your nurse as he draped yet another blanket around your shoulders, the soup he was warming on the stove beginning to audibly bubble.

‘You might wanna tell your hands that,’ he removed the pan from the heat before it boiled over, ‘s’like being touched by a vampire.’

You rolled your eyes, attempting to hide how touched you were that he was looking after you so attentively; you’d barely managed to talk him out of wrapping you in aluminium foil after he’d felt the temperature of your cheeks. The soup was decanted into a bowl but it was pretty quickly abandoned on the table, the delivery boy instead deciding to abruptly dive onto the couch and squirrel his way under your blanket fort, somehow managing to pin you on your back.

‘Right, s’no good, time for extreme measures. We gotta warm you up quick.’

You smiled at the sensation of his toasty hands making their way under your shirt and connecting with your admittedly chilly skin. ‘What do you have in mind, Dr. Barnes?’

‘Do it like they do in the north pole, body heat.’

A sharp breath entered your lungs as his face disappeared into your neck, his hands gradually caressing their way further and further up your torso. You involuntarily threw your head back, fingertips digging into his shoulders and back, thighs squeezing his waist and pulling his body closer to yours. You were so close to being completely lost in the moment when, suddenly, the trailer door swung open, hitting the outside wall with an almighty crash. The sound made you jump out of your skin. Bucky snapped his head round before swiftly launching himself off you.

A heavy boot landed through the entrance, followed by two shaking hands fumbling around to grab the door frame and heave a stooped, burly body through the gap.

‘The hell are you doing?’ Bucky was almost shouting at the swaying figure standing in the doorway, ‘I told you I was here.’

‘You didn’t tell me nothin’, boy.’

The stranger had the voice of a lifelong chain-smoker or an alcoholic who only drank kerosene, and by the looks of him he was quite possibly both. The two of them stared at each other, unwavering, the tension in the room growing to an unbearable level. You swung your legs off the couch and scooched yourself to the edge of the seat, readying for some kind of fight-or-flight situation, not that you’d be much use in either.

The guest nodded towards you. ‘Who’s the broad?’

‘This is y/n.’ Bucky spoke through clenched teeth, then turning to look at you with some kind of vague warning in his eyes. ‘Y/n, this is my old man.’

Ah. Shit.

---

Part 6

---

[keldjinfae]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

Okay, so first off, thanks to @dear-massacre for this one. I got to filter through a lot of things I wrote for other fandoms besides Teen Wolf, and while I won't be sharing them (purely because most of them fell victim to the Great Strikethrough Purge, and the "clean" versions I have up on the Pit that is fanfiction.net are... frankly, things I would delete if I could remember what the hell my log-in is), I did remember one I co-wrote with a friend of mine over a decade ago. And neither of us remembers how to log into that old account we created solely for the purpose of writing something together (let me just say, AO3 allowing for co-creators is a fucking godsend), so the link for that one will have to direct you there instead of AO3. I may be able to update this with an AO3 link, provided @caseyvalhalla (said cowriter) is able to find a full version of the fic in their backup drive (which would be outstanding, seeing as how my copy of the fic was lost at some point about three or four PCs/laptops ago).

I also left WIPs out of this list because I feel like that might be too cruel of a tease, seeing as how I haven't updated them since about 2011.

Freaks and Fools is a Halloween-themed fic that Casey and I brainstormed together in about two hours after the initial joke of mashing up Kingdom Hearts and Peanuts. One of us said "Axel is Snoopy, sleeping out on the lawn," and it suddenly turned into him also being Johnny from The Outsiders; what followed was a feverish brainstorming session of determining the perfect way to balance drama and humor. Then we wrote and edited the whole damn thing over the course of three coffee-laden weekends.

I'm Not Asking Questions, I'm Taking My Chances is the first fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Bang. I'd previously written a fic for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, and it was my very first Teen Wolf fic, period, while I fucked around and found out if I'd be able to write for the fandom. Turns out, I could. The minimum word count for the RB was 5k, so naturally I wrote something up in the 80k range because I have zero chill.

It's a fantasy AU that very loosely (seriously, so loose that you definitely don't want to be relying on this fic to catch you in a trustfall exercise) incorporates themes from the Merlin series. Writing it helped teach me how to better plan out scenes, in terms of "do I really need to write out this whole scene independently or could I just incorporate it briefly into this already-existing one?" It also gave me better practice at determining when I was going to have to let scenes go altogether, maybe with the notion that I might write them someday and add them on later.

You Gotta Promise Not to Stop When I Say When is a fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, during which I was paired up with the same artist who I'd written for during my very first RQ. She wanted comfort, made a moodboard about it (sadly, Discord stopped image hosting so the links to all of her previous artwork are all broken), and I decided I wanted to write comfort as well. I gave her two choices (Derek takes Stiles's pain, or Stiles is a vampire sharing a house with Derek, and both of them accuse the other of being a squatter--it's a long, stupid story that has gone off the rails in a meme prompt thread on Discord), and went with the one that both of us could sink into.

This one is probably my absolute favorite because I literally just wrote what I know. Stiles is disabled, Derek helps him cope with it. I can't really sell it any better than that, other than to say that I wrote my own personal experiences, but Sterekified.

We're Floating in the Moonlit Sky is a Sterek fic I wrote for a little something called the 1000 Cakes Challenge, which provided the writer and artist participants with a word, an action, and a setting, and had us all spin our own take on them. The word was "kumquat," the action was "pursuit" or "sleepwalk" (I incorporated both--again, zero chill), and the setting was a gorgeous painting of a snowy forest that one of the moderators made herself just for the challenge. Initially, I wasn't even going to participate because I'd literally just finished writing my latest Sterek RB fic and thought I was burned out. Then an idea smacked me in the face right as I was falling asleep.

I love this one because it's more or less just me allowing myself some pure self-indulgence. There's some angst, there's some drama, but most of it is just seeing how many Christmas carol references I can squeeze in as puns. Stiles is half-elf and half-frost sprite, Derek is still a werewolf, Peter is Krampus (thanks to @ice-mage, because "of course Peter is Krampus"), and Noah is Santa Claus.

My Echo, My Shadow, and Me is the Sterek Reverse Bang fic I wrote before I got started on Floating. I somehow managed to write 100k+ words in a bit under four months, and satisfied my desire to write a season 3a "fix-it" (of sorts--more like a revision) in the process. I don't know if the experience would be the same for @nerdherderette, who wound up beta-reading "the Beast in Blue" in the course of about 20 hours, but it was damn satisfying to write.

Essentially, all of season 3a still happens, but Jackson never leaves and Cora never arrives. I wanted to explore everyone's strengths and flaws, and I wanted to write an alternate take on the nogitsune without having to rewrite 3b as well.

[mimic-from-the-lab]

N’s character and place in the story

**Bit of a ramble at the start but bare with me till the end.**

N’s a bit weird, I love him to bits and would die for him. But he does suffer from the amnesia issue in story writing at least in the start. How can someone stand for something if they themselves have no memories to go off to help decide on how to act. (Suppose his base can be that of his worker OS if it isn’t modified by Cyn or solver, answering why he is still so base worker in how he acts.)

This doesn’t mean he can’t have opinions but he hasn’t ever been very opinion or goal orientated, having been a second to Uzi in story. (Even though he steals the show all the time.) People work off experiences and so far the only experiences or a time frame of experiences, I guess his base, come from after the pod landing which has been of him wanting to please people. 

Him wanting to please and still working off his worker OS would work perfectly if a bit strange for the job he is supposed to go do. I would think that Cyn, if in control of all that, liked N like as he was too much to change that about him or force him to as what could have happened with V.

He was naturally friendly as a worker in ep 5 to Cyn where he didn’t even see the danger of, even when told of it. I could see that being a problem in the future if he remembers but doesn’t believe it. 

In the early eps, the few times he has given an option has been when he questions Uzi on killing humans, he looked worried sure, but nothing did come from it both against him and plot wise so far. There hasn’t been many others, happy enough to go along with Uzi. I would like to think its all because he doesn’t know what to do besides understanding some gut feelings. 

Hell the first time he had ever put down his foot and been serious has been to keep Uzi safe, maybe he has made friends with rocks but a thinking, independent person is rather damn important. Why would that shock V at the fact he did, can’t imagine he wouldn’t be willing to protect friends and family. Maybe she was shocked it happened again, not sure if N has saved others in the past or it is a real first. Also a help that J got taken out around the same time and didn’t manage to kill Uzi right at the start.

Now how often Cyn has needed to reset N’s memories is also a big question, and if that meant when ever he has developed more character or started to remember the past that he wasn’t just knocked back to the start as a blank sheet. 

I do have an idea. Cyn does say they have backups in ep 5 while playing with toys and if the pilot stands, J infecting N with a virus which would mean death at least for that version of him that “rebelled” or moved away from his base state. All Cyn needs to do is reinstate the backup before his rebel, the body wouldn’t need to be rebuilt with solver. Morbid as hell but would make sense as to the virus bit. I originally assumed the virus was just to make sure solver doesn’t take over into a eldritch him if he was killed, but I never understood why J would want to kill him besides not liking him and that seemed like a weak reason.

With all resets it would mean he never actually went anywhere story or personally wise in his existence as a disassembly drone. Stuck with possible multiple versions that have all deleted back to the start.

Then Uzi comes along and has possibly broken this chain, maybe that’s why he has stuck with her so hard. Something internal having told him that she isn’t anyone he knew before or runs the risk in something happening to him like it has being around J and V. I don’t think he even remembered Tessa before the small bit of memory was returned to him but not sure why, if he did remember he might have been more against Uzi’s murder all humans thing.

Him being against J might not affect her as much as being against V would. They both have a gain in him staying as he is, either to keep Cyn and Tessa happy or to protect him. After all if he isn’t with them then he could anger Cyn, with it being seen as a betrayal to them. Hell maybe he has already and the reseting was Cyn’s way to keep him from doing so again.

What happens now that Uzi is the admin to his systems and Cyn can’t do a reset or Tessa to keep him safe from them. 

[tobiasdrake]

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Episode 11 - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Part 1

So, for clarity, this is Haruhi content but it's not Disappearance because Disappearance is the movie that closed out Melancholy. This is Disappearance the series, but it's specifically the Disappearance arc of Disappearance the series, not to be confused with the Disappearance movie.

Check. Weirdly enough, both show title and episode title are entirely different contexts that both make sense and are meaningful in different ways.

At the end of the previous episode, I asked,

"WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR BRAIN

EMOTE YOU USELESS ROBOT"

She is now telling us what is happening in her brain and I am still lost. I thought before that maybe she was running some kind of backup of her original program but now it seems like she was just... wiped. Like somehow her new Escapist Yuki persona got deleted in the car crash and she's just... rebooted at factory settings.

Are we going to get to see Factory Reset Yuki opine about all of her friends? Because I'm down for that. Can't wait to see her shit-talk Haruhi in strictly clinical terms.

That's okay, Nagato Yuki's just as perplexed so you're fine. The practical difference between Anxiety Disaster and Unfeeling Robot is marginal.

I mean. In this reality, yes. I'll grant you that.

At least Factory Settings is coming right out with it. Now that she's been confronted, she isn't going to withhold anything.

Ryoko is taking this way better than I am. She's sitting there like, "Well, this is weird and I do want to get the old Yuki back but this version of Yuki's existence is equally valid, and it's not my place to make judgments about which Yuki is correct."

Meanwhile I'm over here like "DEATH TO THE INTERLOPER RESTORE OUR YUKI" because I was invested in her journey and want it to continue.

See, this is why Ryoko isn't my character. Haruhi is. Ryoko is a way better person than me.

What we in the medical field refer to as "Panicked so hard she reset to factory settings."

Oh hey, I can actually say that because I work in the medical field! ...in accounting.

Again, I love that we aren't making any effort to hide this. Her factory reset is not a secret to everybody. It's a medical condition that our friend just got hit with. It's being handled as such.

Every time they say stuff like this, it makes me afraid that this might be permanent. And I have. Very confused feelings. About that.

Because I wanted Yuki to have nice things, and if Escapist Yuki never comes back then all that time spent rooting for her just... fizzles. It would effectively be a character death for our main protagonist, as her body and memories remain alive but her personality and identity and hopes and fears are all dead.

But it's not less transformative, going from Escapist Yuki to Factory Reset Yuki, than it was going from Original Flavor Yuki to Escapist Yuki. It's functionally the same. Yuki lives on but has metamorphized into a new state of being.

And then the LGBT part of me is like, "Is this trans?"

Like. There's parallels to when a person comes out as trans, and everyone around them has to put aside their previous interpretations of that person and accept the new reality.

But it's. Not exactly the same, either, because those interpretations are a falsehood while both versions of Yuki are presented here as equally valid. Coming out as trans doesn't fundamentally change who you are; Only how you are perceived by others. The part that went bon still goes kyu; It's just that other people didn't understand before how it goes kyu, and now they do.

For Yuki, the part that went bon no longer goes kyu.

But that's also. Like. Part of how life works too? People change. Sometimes, as you get older and have new experiences, the part that went bon stops going kyu. That's just part of life.

I don't know. Very complicated feelings right now.

She's made her way back over to her houseplant corner. Yuki is once again a room decoration.

AAAAAAAAAA He is trying so hard but she is a houseplant again. This is killing me. T_T

TRY HARDER

I WILL SHAKE YOU

XD Okay, for real, Factory Settings Yuki intaking a slice of toast like a paper shredder nuked a lot of the tension and inexplicably has me feeling a lot better about this development.

Amazing tension-killer. Okay. I'm fine. I will live. I can be patient and see where this is going.

T_T The part that went bon no longer goes kyu.

Factory Settings over here is starting to... fill in over time. She admitted to being embarrassed earlier. She enjoyed helping Kyon with his homework.

It's unclear if the Escapist Yuki identity is regenerating or if Factory Settings is simply growing into being an emotional human being, but she is starting to develop back into a three-dimensional person as the days pass.

I'm still nervous and freaked out and everything but seeing this blank Yuki start to grow into her humanity once more has put me more at ease. I'm no longer at "DEATH TO THE INTERLOPER".

[ktarsims]

K’tar reverts to 1.67: Some notes...

So in the wake of EA forcing everyone to update from the Origin App to the EA App, which sporadically seems to cause even more problems than the Origin App for many TS3 players, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge and stop playing on 1.69. Below the cut, What I did, how I did it, issues and questions I ran into, and some notes.

First, I started off using this tutorial here: https://sims3tutorialhub.tumblr.com/post/176328544696/installing-sims-via-torrent Simply using the NoCD mod would not have worked for me, as I only own a few of the TS3 expansions and stuff packs via disc, and own most of them digitally. By the time I realized this might be an issue for me later, I already owned them all, and I don’t believe in paying for an entire franchise a second time just because game companies like EA will bleed you dry if they can.

Question #1: Do I need to uninstall first? After backing up the EA folder in my docs folder and the everything in the program files folder as well, per the suggestion in the above tutorial, and having already downloaded all the needed files, this was the first question that popped up for me. I don’t actually know the answer, but I decided that since my current installation was in Origin, which I hope not to use again (at least for TS3), I would uninstall everything from Origin, so I did so.

After that, I abandoned the above tutorial and instead followed the instructions that came with the downloaded files. They’re fairly concise and easy to follow. I went back and checked eventually and they’re basically the same as the ones in the above tutorial, except you’ve no need for further downloads, because everything is already included in what you’ve downloaded. If you are following the above tutorial to download the 1.67 super patch, be aware that you may have to copy and paste the link into a new browser tab to get the download to work. (I did.) This took me to having completed step 7 in the above tutorial.

Next, a step that isn’t mentioned in the tutorial, or the instructions in the download. Copy over your GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr from your old Program Files x86/.../Bin folder to your new one. This way your game will still recognize your graphics card and any changes you previously made to the graphics rules will remain.

Then I installed the proper version of @lazyduchess ’s Smooth patch into the same Bin folder. Thanks again for making it work with 1.67!  I had a bit of trouble editing the TS3Patch.txt file, because the Bin folder properties had been set such that it wouldn’t let me edit the file directly. I ended up creating a copy of the file on my desktop, editing that, deleting the one in the Bin folder, and then moved the edited file into the Bin folder and gave the admin permission confirmation required.

As a last step, I installed the Nraas No CD mod to my mods/packages folder with the rest of my nraas mods and discovered that all of my game folders were still present, complete with logs, saved games, mods, everything. I wasn’t expecting that, as I thought everything would have been deleted when I uninstalled things, but nope. Everything was present and accounted for and I didn’t need to retrieve anything from the backup I’d made of that folder.

My game started up just fine. Nothing was missing, all mods seem to be working fine and are present. The game seems to take just a tad longer to start up than what I’ve been used to lately, but it’s like... maybe an extra minute, which is completely worth no longer having to deal with Origin and/or whatever online DRM crap EA may come up with in the future. Now I can play... with NO INTERNET. FREEDOM! My graphics were perfect, I didn’t need to adjust any settings at all, and everything was good to go.

Edit to add: If you’ve only ever played on 1.69, be aware that 1.67 does not have a built-in easy way to enable/disable expansions and stuff packs. However, someone shared with me this link to a mod that someone created to do precisely that! You can find it here: https://modthesims.info/d/499140/sim-game-selector-3-0-support-for-quot-into-the-future-quot-and-quot-movie-stuff-quot.html 

Of course, your experience may vary... I’m running on a desktop computer with Windows 10, with all expansions and stuff packs installed, nearly 25k individual pieces of CC installed via CCMagic, plus a couple hundred other un-merged script mods and default replacement files installed in my Mods/Packages folder. (In case that helps at all.)

Cheers! I’m off to play my game!

[nochi-quinn]

legend of vox machina season 2 episode 10: The Killbox OR message deleted

visible ruidis, moon stole whitestone

I want the chess set with the little dragon figures

"I hate the bloody Fey Realm" never meet your heroes

man vax trying to let gilmore down easy is gonna hurt so much more here

keyleth's little snort

I don't know if I've said this already but the colors this season are absolutely batshit, I know they said it's bc of the color scripts and they should do them more

"did he get…smaller?"

kima read the room

I'm still sad we didn't get the Ghost of Stonejaw

"history won't remember a blood smear on anyone's axe"

I enjoy "power activation as emotional expression" as a trope

(the example here being the knuckles activating and breaking the railing as he gets more pissed at grog)

toothpick barricades!

god the blade on that axe is fucked

grog tanking that hit even though he's Little

mala: he lost his strength, not his constitution me: I think his constitution is leaking out all over the ground

setting up that scanlan is incapable of saying no to kaylie

(and kaylie is incapable of doing literally anything scanlan asks)

pike smashing that guy's head in with her shield

"they're more than just friends" kevdak now thinks grog is in a gnome polycule

oh that shot of the barricade poking under grog's skin, very dislike

GOD ashley and travis in this scene, I wonder if this is what they were talking about seeing how brutal it was and wanting to redo it because jesus

WHERE

DOES YOUR

STRENGTH

COME

FROM

FRENZIED RAGE (I assume)

and then the soundtrack exploded

MAKE MY MONSTER GROW

grog crater

the parallels, I hate them

because when I think of backup I think of an engineer on a roof

"the thing is…I got more"

FUCK

SHIT

UUUUUUUP

and then the soundtrack EXPLODED

my partner pointed out this is referencing sam's attempt at metallica

this is more effective

it also makes me think somewhat of the rwby soundtrack, which is in no way a complaint

scanlan: fuck these six barbarians in particular

percy's fucking glasses

"that is badass"

the way everything went south when the song ended, ie when they all used up their bardic inspiration

grog crater 2 electric boogaloo

and now he doesn't have any bones

"we gotta work on your landings"

just casually toss aside the dead man's arm

so weird seeing him all bulked out again

this is grog's version of "do you know how smart I am in Spanish" - this is his native language, dealing with the herd

"I almost shat myself" "me too!"

bard duel BARD DUEL

vex: oh look I'm suddenly too drunk to talk

keyleth's little smile

MA'AM

leave this boy alone for ONE NIGHT

"I thought I was being cool ;-;"

her little pout

I really like kaylie's actress' singing voice

album drop when

(there were SO MANY songs this season, they HAVE to)

pike's >:| face

"we need to take out umbilical" "umbrasyl" fuck! him too."

percy: DID SOMEBODY SAY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

AT DAWN WE PLAN

oh no now we're getting overt Local Man Unknowingly Tries To Sleep With Own Daughter

"I disguised us all as COWS"

not the monogrammed briefs

"not opposed to being called 'daddy' if the mood suits" banned word

is the marquesian sun purple

"I'M DADDY?!"

(scanlan has been removed from chat by moderator)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Two Pixar veterans, Angus MacLane and Galyn Susman, are out at the Emeryville studio following layoffs that axed 73 other employees...

MacLane and Susman, most recently, directed and produced last year's LIGHTYEAR, respectively.

Susman's tenure goes way back, all the way back to the first TOY STORY. She is the very woman who, while working at home on maternity leave, kept a backup of *a version* of TOY STORY 2 after the files for the film at the studio had all accidentally gotten deleted. I say *a version* specifically, because this was for the TOY STORY 2 that we never saw. The one that was being developed as a direct-to-video sequel and done by a B-team, that Pixar heads ended up throwing out - deliberately - less than a year before the film's projected fall 1999 release. Even then... Talk about saving the day! In a studio that was, for many years, predominantly a "boys club", she was a prominent woman there and managed to have a long career within those walls: All four TOY STORY movies, MONSTERS INC., FINDING NEMO, RATATOUILLE, WALL-E, etc., she had a hand in.

And now she's no longer there...

MacLane, who helped make TOY STORY 2's epic Lightyear video game opening sequence, who went on to direct TOY STORY OF TERROR!, co-direct FINDING DORY, and direct LIGHTYEAR... Among many other endeavors... Now also gone...

Whatever the reasoning is for these layoffs, they're unfounded. But this is what happens in capitalism-land... A studio faces hardships, or is about to face hardships, they or their parent company land the hammer... And often times, it's the filmmakers and talents and creatives that get hit the hardest.

If you ask me, Susman and MacLane are not at all to blame for the failures of the people on top. Unless they were toxic people to work with for so very long, there - to me - is no good reason to axe them like this. No matter who ordered it, whether it was Bob Iger or Pete Docter. LIGHTYEAR might not have been considered a good movie by many, but it was no less a labor of love than the other movies made at Pixar. MacLane, Susman, the crew, give it their all and they all felt during its 5-year journey from idea to finished picture that they had something going. That they made the right choices, but the late screenwriter William Goldman will always be right about this kind of thing: In that, no one knows anything when a movie is being made, and if a picture hits it big at the box office, it was luck. A good guess. June 2022 was not the right time for LIGHTYEAR, and the world is an ever-changing place... How could the film crew behind LIGHTYEAR have known what 2022 was going to look like when beginning production on that movie circa 2018-2019? It failed to make much of a stir at the box office...The first two months of its existence... Its infancy, never mind that the movie will exist forever and that a movie's life merely begins at its original theatrical release. Nope, its status is defined by existing for two months in a building with big screens. Box office is often fun to predict and watch, but the deification of it... Especially post-COVID-outbreak, is all utterly silly and not really conducive to moviemaking.

This makes me worry about other directors and creatives at Pixar. Peter Sohn, whose new film ELEMENTAL is out in less than two weeks, made his feature directorial debut with THE GOOD DINOSAUR... Which was Pixar's first money-loser, and yet, he locked another picture. I fear, if ELEMENTAL doesn't do well for whatever reason, his long and impactful career at Pixar might be on ice as well... Which is why I don't get why many so-called animation and film lovers online, armchair experts they are, seem so gleeful about its possible floppage, much as they were with LIGHTYEAR last year. In a very condescending "that'll teach'em!" manner...

I don't root for animated movies I dislike to fail, because it's a loss for a team that worked hard for years on, and honestly, we kind of all lose when this kind of thing happens. It hurts employees more than it forces a studio to make the kinds of movies you specifically want to see. Hell, LIGHTYEAR (and ELEMENTAL, knock on wood) flopping could have an adverse affect and make Pixar greenlight nothing but franchise movies and a slew of movies that are required to be something people don't like. They could very well turn around and say "let's make movies for 3-year-olds for here on out, and compete with Cocomelon!" Okay maybe that's an exaggeration, but you catch my drift, right?

I think, ultimately, MacLane and Susman will be fine. Their experience speaks for itself, and other studios would be silly to not hire them, and I wish them well in the endeavors they pursue...

But, this is very saddening news no doubt. Much like director jail, this is obtuse punishment, not at all a reflection on the real meat of the problem: The ever-changing zeitgeist, how Disney themselves handled the release of the film in question, how management up above messed around, how much money was spent...

I know people online like to cut to the chase and say "Well, they should've made a better movie!" THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE made over $1.3b at the worldwide box office, but most of its critical reception has been mixed to negative, and many have called it a subpar movie. That's all subjective, and box office doesn't validate or invalidate a picture. In another universe, movies like INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE or COCO or PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH or ZOOTOPIA would've flopped hard. In another universe, the likes of LIGHTYEAR and GOOD DINOSAUR and STRANGE WORLD and TURBO and RISE OF THE GUARDIANS would've been blockbusters.

You see how silly this all is? Strip away the recognizable IP, pretend this is a world where the Mario franchise never happened: How would THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE had done at the box office? As an original weirdo-cutesy isekai adventure picture about two plumbers and a fantasy world with little mushroom guys and funny turtle bad guys? That could've been a massive flop. Heck, Mario itself literally exists because Nintendo couldn't get the license to adapt Popeye into an arcade game circa 1980, so Shigeru Miyamoto and crew chose a similar concept - a man who uses powerups, a woman to rescue, and a big brute bully - to make a marketable project. Because, what Nintendo games before DONKEY KONG do lots of people know? Is there any pop cultural footprint that RADAR SCOPE left? Or SHERIFF? I thought so... And little did they know what this simple concept-turned-game would metamorphose into some four years later...

No one knows what'll work, and in the world we live in? You gotta make an impression, or else. It's a brutal game, like these big works of art enter an arena and have to survival the initial brawl.

[drakothedragon55]

Here’s the last six devlogs written by my version of Kaycee for the Apocalyption AU :)

— Devlogs and DATA (Part 2/2) —

LOG 7

I found that a portion of my Inscryption-related files got corrupted for some reason, so I moved Olcard’s file to my desktop as I restored my backup. But then I came back to my computer after a small break to see him literally googling things. Like. What?

I moved his file back to Inscryption, but that didn’t stop Olcard from ‘exploring’ my computer. We had a chat in notepad about why I don’t want him to do that, and he seemed to understand.

I know he’s ‘special’ and all, but I won’t hesitate to send Olcard to the recycling bin if he keeps this up. The higherups are starting to notice me and I don’t want him blowing it.

LOG 8

Olcard’s been messing with my computer again. I remember closing everything before turning it off after work yesterday, but when I turned it on this morning, both the search engine and Inscryption were open.

According to the search history, Olcard was brushing up on his spriting knowledge. I almost didn’t want to see what changes he made to the game, but I knew I had to for the sake of my job. Long story short, he messed with some of the Challenger’s sprites. Now this wouldn’t be concerning if it wasn’t for the fact that he completely covered their faces in red.

Olcard must’ve known that I would be mad, as I couldn’t find him anywhere on my computer. This is getting ridiculous. I think I’m just going to keep working on dialogue, and deal with undoing his tampering later.

Speaking of Olcard, I caught a glimpse of him on my desktop for a split second. I might be wrong, but he looked a little bit different.

LOG 9

Olcard definitely looks different. I managed to keep him on my screen long enough to talk to him. He’s still a mass of red pixels, but he’s definitely got arms and what looks like a singular leg now.

You know what? I’m just going to include the conversation we had. It speaks for itself.

Pardon my language, but what the fuck? I don’t have a working microphone on this thing AND the webcam is covered up! How did he know I had a water bottle with me?! It might have just been a lucky guess. Yeah.

I think I’m going to move his folder to the recycling bin, but not emptying it. That should get my point across.

LOG 10

I think it worked. I haven’t heard from Olcard in a few days, and I haven’t found any new corrupted files or tampered sprites. Maybe I should just go ahead and delete him. I mean, he was helpful at first, but as of recently all Olcard did was get on my nerves.

I’m being asked to help test out the mox mechanic. Don’t get me wrong: I hate playtesting, but I feel like I’m in need of a change of pace. I think I can finally put this weird AI thing behind me now.

——

So I’m about to play a few rounds with Magnificus, and I noticed a new, completely static covered card in my starting hand. I played it, and it crashed the game. Now Inscryption refuses to start. Great. Just when my luck was starting to turn.

LOG 11

I managed to get Inscryption to run again, and I only have one thing to say: what the heck is happening? Some NPCs have gone missing, and there’s zero trace of them anywhere in the files. And all of the scrybe’s dialogue keep mentioning ‘the red’ or ‘the data.’

The higherups are asking for a status report. What do I say? “Oh, the Prospector, the Melter, and one of Magnificus’ students went missing, and now Inscryption is starting to look funny. Everything’s a-ok here!”

The game refuses to close, and I’m stuck playing it normally. The bridge is broken in three spots, leaving me with only one option: Leshy’s zone. But the trees have multiplied on the overworld map, and it looks like there’s more than just a cabin now.

I’m not dealing with this. If this is what Olcard wants the game to be like, he should have asked me to make a mod once it’s complete. I did what I should have done a long time ago, which was unplugging the computer.

But it didn’t turn off.

LOG 12

He didn’t let me in the cabin. Told me to wait, so I did. I waited until everyone left the building. Can’t believe this guy is making me work overtime. I am beyond mad at him at this point and can’t wait to finally erase this jerk (after having one last talk, of course.)

As I finally was let into the cabin all the lights in the building turned off, leaving the computer monitor as my only light source. The power had been iffy the last few days so this was just a coincidence, right?

I didn’t see Leshy anywhere inside the cabin. Instead, a red person with an animal-like head was in his spot. I audibly muttered a “who the heck-“ and to my surprise, the figure answered me.

Y̸o̵u̵ ̵k̶n̸o̶w̴ ̸f̷u̸l̴l̸ ̷w̷e̸l̸l̸ ̴w̸h̸o̵ ̶I̷ ̸a̷m̷,̴ ̴K̶a̴y̴c̶e̵e̸.̵

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t have a working microphone on this thing.

I̵ ̴a̸s̷s̸u̴m̸e̶ ̴y̸o̷u̶ ̷w̷a̵n̷t̵ ̸t̶o̶ ̶t̵a̸l̴k̶,̷ ̵y̸e̶s̶?̴ Completely awestruck at this point, I silently nodded.

T̶h̵e̸n̵ ̷c̶o̷m̸e̸ ̸c̷l̴o̵s̷e̸r̷.̷ ̴L̴e̷t̴’̸s̴ ̷h̷a̷v̷e̷ ̷a̴ ̸n̵i̵c̶e̸ ̵l̴i̸t̴t̸l̴e̶ ̵c̴h̴a̸t̸.̴

Part of me wanted to rush up to the computer, it’s fan droning louder and louder in the pitch-black space, but I resisted. Well, I resisted long enough to write this down on my phone.

I’m not going to pass up the chance to give Olcard a piece of my mind before emptying the recycling bin. I’ve had it with him. This ends today.

[the-silent-windchime]

Deleted Scene from South of Witch's Valley

This is an alternate POV version of the most recent chapter of my fic, South of Witches Valley, which you can read here. I ended up going with Jonathan's POV for the actual chapter, but this version with Billy's perspective is a lot of fun too, so I'm sharing it here. Enjoy!

“There’s another one coming up on the right! Hey Hargrove, hit the gas!”

Billy threw the Camero into low gear and stomped on the accelerator. The engine whined and revved and Carol, who had been leaning halfway out of the window, shrieked as the entire car bucked. 

“C’mon, floor it!” she screamed, hair flying around her head like a cloud of static. Hefting a massive pipe wrench that she must have stolen from her dad’s garage, she shimmied even further out until Tommy’s hold on her shins was the only thing keeping her from toppling out and splitting her head on the asphalt. 

The mailbox appeared out of the gloom, bright white and shiny in the glare of the Camero’s headlights. 

“Batta batta batta–” Tommy shouted as it whizzed towards them. “Swing!” 

The wrench connected with an ear-splitting crack and a scream of metal on metal. The mailbox went hurtling off into the darkness, little red flag proudly erect, and they heard the distinctive crash of shattering glass.

“Hole in one!” cried Tommy, to Carol’s uproarious laughter. 

Then came the whoop of a siren; they all yelled as a cop car came peeling out onto the road, lights already flashing. 

“Smokey in the brush,” Carol said breathlessly, clambering back into the car. Tommy’s arms came up around her like a seatbelt. “He’s rolling discos, keep the left door closed and let’s feed this bear.”

“Speak. English,” growled Billy.

“Drive!” they yelled in unison. 

And drive they did, going seventy in a forty-five zone, ripping around corners so hard that the wheels came up off the ground. The cop matched them turn for turn, almost as reckless a driver as Billy. 

Almost.

“Hold on you your assholes,” Billy grinned, and swerved right off the road into a ditch. 

The ground rushed up towards the windshield like a cresting wave. Billy’s blood sang, with Tommy and Carol’s screams running backup chorus as he yanked the wheel to the side. The bumper clipped into the soft mud and caught, until by some miracle the madly spinning front wheels found purchase and the Camero screeched out of the ditch and into a bristly field of felled corn stalks.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Tommy chanted as the car bumped up and down on the frozen ground, not stopping until the wheels touched back down on smooth asphalt. 

“Shut the fuck up, Hagan, you’re giving me a headache,” Billy said. “Did we lose him?” 

Carol twisted in on Tommy’s lap. In the distance, the tiny figure of the police officer stood next to his parked car, just watching them drive away. 

“We sure did,” she said triumphantly, as if she and Tommy hadn’t probably wet themselves the moment the lights started flashing. 

“I bet he’s kicking himself right now,” cackled Tommy, “He must have been waiting up all night for us. I mean, did you see how fast he came blazing out of those trees? He knew we were coming and he still couldn’t do jack shit about it.” 

“Oh my god, do you think that was his car window we heard breaking?” Carol gasped, then dissolved into giggles. 

“He definitely got a good look at your car, though,” Tommy said, sobering slightly as he turned to Billy. “You think that’s going to be a problem?” 

“Eh.” Billy slid his eyes to the side, making a noncommittal gesture with one hand. “Fifty-fifty my old man kicks my ass or offers me a beer when he finds out. He might even be proud that I’m doing the same shit he used to do back in his day.”

It was a bald-faced lie, and they all knew it. There was no way Billy was going to be able to show his face in school tomorrow. 

Tommy just beamed and clapped him on the shoulder.

“You’re the best, man,” he said, “If you loosened up about letting me drive your car, you could take a crack at the next mailbox–”

“Not a chance,” Billy snapped, and made the mistake of taking his eyes off the road to glare at him.

The deer came out of nowhere. One second the highway was dark and empty, then the car took a dip in the road and it appeared out of thin air, head turned to stare unerringly at them. Its eyes glinted red in the hot white light of the headlamps.

Billy didn’t even have time to swerve out of the way before the creature’s soft brown body came crashing into the windshield. Glass shattered and metal crumpled, and one spindly leg clipped the rearview mirror, knocking it clean off as the deer rolled over the hood of the car and crumpled to the ground in the middle of the road. 

The engine coughed and died. The Camero spun to a stop, barely avoiding going off the road for real this time. 

For a moment, they all just sat there in silence, absorbing the smear of viscera painted across the windshield before the headlights trembled and cut out abruptly, leaving them with only the dim red of the taillights. 

Then Carol started laughing. 

It wasn’t long before Tommy joined in, and then it was just the two of them howling and wheezing like a pair of zoo animals while Billy remained stone-faced in the driver’s seat beside them. 

“I’m not going to be able to shit for a week,” Carol announced. “You’d need a frickin’ prybar to unclench my asscheeks right now.” 

That, of course, only set them off laughing harder. Billy’s knuckles were stark white on the steering wheel.

“Get out of the car,” he said flatly, cutting through the noise like a knife. 

“What?” Carol asked, choking on a couple more uncertain chuckles. “What do–”

“Get out of the car right now. We’re going to push it back to town.”

“Are you insane?” Tommy balked, “That’s got to be at least five miles.”

“Then we’d better get started,” Billy gritted out. With some difficulty, he kicked open the driver’s side door and resisted the urge to put his fist through the window. 

The front of the car was scrambled like a pile of eggs. It was going to cost a fortune to repair, which just meant that Billy no longer had a car for the foreseeable future. The irony of it was, he couldn’t remember a time in his entire life that he had wanted to fire up the engine and just drive away more than he did right at that moment. He had just lost his freedom - and his get out of jail free card. 

Try not to hit any deer at night! seemed to echo through the woods like a taunt - or maybe that was just the ringing in his ears. He was so distracted that he barely noticed when Tommy and Carol’s heated whisper conversation stopped. 

“We passed a car parked on the side of the road about a mile back,” Tommy said, approaching him hesitantly. “We were thinking… what if we went and asked for help? Or if there’s no one there, maybe we could… you know. Try and hotwire it?”

Billy’s hands flexed at his sides. He said nothing.

“We have to do something.” Tommy’s face took on a hint of steel, even as he took a measured step out of swinging range. “There’s no way the three of us are going to be able to push your car back to town man, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?” Billy roared, rounding on him, “You want me to be reasonable? You stupid piece of shit, do you have any idea what this means? When my dad finds out about this, I’m dead! Do you hear me? I’m dead! Dead!”

His hoarse shout was deafening in the silence. Billy turned away, yanking handfuls of hair out of his face and leaving long red welts where his nails caught his own skin. The cold air was sour with the smell of smoke and blood. 

Billy jerked around when the dragging sound started. He half expected, half hoped that it was the sound of Tommy and Carol enacting some sort of plan that would make this all better, but no. 

It was the deer. Its bones were cracking and blood was pulsing onto the asphalt as it dragged itself off towards the woods, heedless of its injuries as if it was following some silent siren song.

“Oh my god, what is it doing?” Carol gasped, repulsed. 

“It must be crawling off somewhere to die,” Tommy said. “Don’t watch, it’s gross.”

Crawling off to die, huh? Billy’s feet carried him after it without any conscious thought.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Tommy shouted after him.

“Fuck off!” Billy retorted, and ducked into the woods.

The deer was moving surprisingly fast, and leaving a snail trail of blood in its wake that made it very easy to track. He was surprised to hear Tommy and Carol following after him, but not surprised by their shouted pleas to just forget the deer and try and find help. Cowards and sycophants, both of them. 

Cowards and sycophants with futures, unlike Billy, who had known he was a waste of space since he was ten years old. 

Maybe what happened next was inevitable. 

The deer had come to a stop beside a whip-thin sapling and lay there with its flanks heaving and legs kicking listlessly. Billy stared down at it numbly. He couldn’t be sure in the darkness, but the glint of light off its glassy eyes seemed to be directed back up at him. 

“Try not to hit any deer at night,” said a voice from above him, clear as day, and Billy shouted in surprise. 

He looked around wildly, but there was no one else nearby. This voice had been distinct, almost familiar in a way that made his brain itch like it had a rash, and nothing at all like Tommy’s scratchy cackle or Carol’s annoying falsetto, both of which were far behind him anyways. 

No, this voice had sounded like–

“Munson?” Billy said disbelievingly, “What the hell?”

A trilling, disjointed laugh answered him. Billy’s blood chilled. He must have hit his head during the crash, because his ears had almost tricked him into thinking it didn’t sound human. 

“Who’s out there?” he yelled, “Show yourself!”

Another laugh, and the branches above Billy’s head shook and shook until, suddenly, a small black bird burst out of the dry leaves. 

The bird worked its throat, and a cold, raspy noise erupted from its beak. The noise slowly began to resemble coherent noises, until with a bright chirp, the bird turned its head and fixed him with one beady black eye.

“You hit my deer,” it said accusingly, in Billy’s voice. 

“What the hell?” Billy stuttered, tripping backwards.

“You made things difficult,” it repeated, “But maybe we can make this work.”

Then it turned its head and the faint light of the moon was enough for Billy to see that the left side of its face was bare of feathers - gouged down to the glistening white bone as if by a very blunt spoon. 

It was the last thing he saw. The bird tilted its head again, and the deer came alive with a sudden, rabid ferocity. Its face and neck split into four and peeled open to reveal a pulsing, glowing red rip where its guts would have been. Billy didn’t even have time to scream before he was engulfed and everything went black.

[simverses]

Blowtorch, updated for EP 15

Maxi's worlds emptied of era specific stuff – made for simmers who wants themed hoods of their choice.

Now updated for EP 15 - For Rent

So, you found T.O.O.L, the super useful mod by Twisted Mexi, and learned how to decorate your sim world.

But there is this problem with Maxis houses and items, which do NOT fit in your sim world. So far, the most used method has been to hide them, as in either move them away (if even possible) from sight or use a hider/override to make them invisible. That method has its limits, is very tedious (need to find, make an override, ect. , and there are SO MANY items)

Blowtorch has another approach. It takes out the items (houses, vehicles, modern deco, well - all silly deco really) from the world. You can then place nicer deco or game items instead.

The items are not hidden from catalogue, so you can place the same items back but in a different place if you so wish. Or use cc deco. Make the world medieval, or Victorian, or sci-fi, or whatever.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

This mod edits the preloaded deco in the world. It changes game files – and the changes will affect all your saves, old and new. If you decide that you want the deco back, you can do it either with the GAME REPAIR function or using the backup of the original folders that I included in the mods folders.

You can either use all my edited files – or the ones you want. If you for example want Willow Creek to be as it always has, but want a blowtorched Oasis Springs, just delete the Willow Creek files before installation, and keep Oasis Springs.

I have blowtorched almost all the hoods in the worlds, both EP and GP: s (See list below for exceptions.) If you don’t have all EP/GP I recommend to delete the ones you don’t have before installing.

(Save the zip with the mod somewhere safe so you can add new worlds when you add a new EP/GP with a world.)

Here are some general rules I went by:

- All landmarks, architecture deco, street deco, vehicles, with special effects - blowtorched

- Functional objects: outside tables, playground items, and such – blowtorched. Place them again where you want them!

- All lights, both streetlights and built in hood lights, blowtorched.

- All palm trees, ever pink trees, wispy modern beeches, and other modern plants, blowtorched. (I of course kept the palm trees in Sulani and Selvadorada)

- ALMOST ALL THESE THINGS (not the built in lights) are still available in the catalog (debug, live edit) items though. So, if you still want a modern, but DIFFERENT hood, you can place them again, as you want them. This is a big advantage compared to hiders – those usually hide the items also from the catalogue.

- Visual effects belonging to vehicles and other stuff mentioned above, blowtorched. No modern yachts, no airplanes.

- The lights are gone. The world will be dark at night if you don’t place streetlights or such.

WHAT I KEPT

I kept the seasons stalls, where they are available (if you have the Seasons EP.) They can also be placed, but as they are in conditional layers (changes with the seasons) this can't be done by placing them manually.

I kept all spawners. All the fishing spots and all the bugs, frogs, dig sites, wild growing plants.

Lighting mod included

This mod also includes the Sunblind lighting mod by Softerhaze. Lighting mods also change these files, so I added Sunblind with the creator's permission. Read more about their mod here.

This updated version includes the update from Softerhaze after EP 15. It includes EP-15 files but they also updated changes to EP3 and EP9. All are included with my new update. 

https://softerhaze.itch.io/sunblind?download Read more here!

(You do not need to download or install the mod; it is included in the Blowtorch mod.)

If you want another lighting mod or no lighting mod, you need to edit the files manually.

This is done by replacing the resources “Sky Box Texture Data” and “World Timeline Color”.

ECO LIFESTYLE NOTE!

Unfortunately the Evergreen Harbor world that came with Eco Lifestyle (EP 9) has some special evil magic and the deco needs hiders anyway. If you play with that world and want it to be BLOWTORCHED, install the file ELHoodHidersMerged in your Mods folder.

Other recommended mods:

Check out T.O.O.L and Twisted Mexis other mods here: https://twistedmexi.com/Mods/

To add deco stuff outside lots:

T.O.O.L – at Tmexis page you also find information about his CAW-project, still in alpha testing.

I also recommend his Better Build/Buy mod, and his toggle mods, especially the Strangerville Story Toggle on if you want to use Strangerville as a normal world. And also his that enabled build/buy on the Secret Lab lot – in new saves.

Zerbu has a couple of super useful mods:

All Worlds are Residential https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/173398784785/the-sims-4-mod-all-worlds-are-residential

Venue changes https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/160347810775/the-sims-4-mod-venue-changes

Twelfth Doctor has a great mod for travelling to all the hidden/special lots, so you can edit them: https://td1sims.tumblr.com/post/635457539495084032/travel-to-venue

Q&A about Blowtorch mod

1. Can I use this on my old saves?

Answer: Yes. The mod does not affect the saves, or your CC, or anything other than the game files in the Windows directory. You can easily uninstall the mod by using the backup files (included) or do a Game Repair.

2. Why are there stuff not deleted? Annoying modern fences in Windenburg Ugly Modern Business district, for example?

Answer: some items are a part of the world mesh and is not yet possible to edit. If there will be a solution later, I will update the mod.

3. Will I have to update the mod after patches and new expansions?

Answer: Yes. If the patch/ep/GP does not include a new world, you just reinstall the mod (see instructions below) as you installed it the first time. I will make updated versions asap when new worlds are released.

4. I don’t have EP X or Y – can I use the Blowtorch mod?

Answer: Yes, but I recommend deleting the folders for EP/GP you don’t have. See list in the PDF-file with documentation.

Where to find nice themed hood deco to use with Blowtorch?

You can basically use any item, from game or CC, to decorate hoods. Try out the options with T.O.O.L to change the size of objects!

I already posted some Hood Deco CC – and I have much more to come. I have been converting/editing/creating and preparing hood deco from Sims Medieval, Sims 2 and Sims 3 and other games – my CC is medieval/historical themed but I hope for other creators to add to the hood deco options in the future.

Note: I know its confusing with all the files to download, due to the upload limits. In short: The Backup files - you don't DO anything with them, if you don't want to uninstall the mod. You can also use Repair game in Origin/EA App, it does the same thing.

If you have difficulties with the installation, please DM me and I will help.

My Empty Save File - Start Fresh!

I also updated my Empty Save to include Tomarang. A totally empty save with no houses and no sims besides my lonely builder sim.

Download Blowtorch here (SimsFileShare)

Download Simverses Empty Save here (Curseforge)

[positivelybeastly]

Should hank (post x force 50) have his time travel memories? No idea how that should work here

"My what now?"

So, I actually had a whole ass argument over about maybe 20 Reddit posts about precisely this topic, because of course I did, I'm me.

I'm of the opinion that he absolutely should, they just wouldn't be unlocked yet because he skipped over the trigger that Jean set for them to unlock, back post-Extermination.

Every single version of Hank McCoy in the Cerebro cradles should have had those memories, because that's how time travel works - he went forward in time, had his magic adventures, went back in time, they were sealed, and then, going forward, he always had them, just locked.

The other person's logic was that X-Force Beast would have intentionally deleted the teen Beast time travel memories because they were were either A) compromising, or B) emotionally traumatic, and he didn't want them included in the 80s backup?

I don't know enough about how the Cerebro back up process works to say definitively. Hell, I don't know if enough has been said about the back up process to say definitively!

I was of the impression that they're saved like hard drive back ups, dating to distinct versions, that Cerebro scanned Hank's brain back in the 80s like it did to everyone, and that version was saved as Hank McCoy Brain 1985.brainfile.

This person seemed to think that back-ups dating back were created by editing present day brain scans to remove current day memories, and kind of sculpt the old version out of the newer, but that doesn't make a ton of sense to me?

Brass tacks, I'm rolling with the assumption that Hank does have those memories, they're just locked. It's the explanation that makes the most sense to me from what I understand of how everything all works.

I also very much doubt that anyone is ever going to bring this up again in the comics, because if you aren't Scott or Bobby, nothing that happened with the time displaced team really mattered in the long term.

Which is a shame, magic Hank was fun for the brief periods of time it got some focus in X-Men: Blue . . . before it got subsumed under the tidal wave of Jean-Scott-Bloodstorm-Jimmy Hudson love quadrangle bullshit.

God, that was a painful book at times.

[persimnon]

Games on my phone and iPad breakdown because I’m sick and procrastinating

Phone first:

Yes all four flow free games. I had them all completely beat at some point during quarantine but not since they’ve added some new levels. I still have my data saved from when I started playing on my mom’s phone in elementary school

DragonVale obviously. My main bitch. I play every day and I still have the same park I started 11.5 years ago. My DV sideblog is @malefice

Blades of Brim is by the Subway Surfers people. I don’t play much anymore but I’m afraid to delete it because I went through a LOT to restore my progress that I made in high school from an old backup of my phone

I Love Hue is very nice and calming. I like to play it while I listen to audiobooks

DUAL is one of the few apps I’ve spent money on (for the full version). Basically if someone else has the app you both play on your phones and shoot at one another’s spaceships. Good and simple fun

NYT games is self-explanatory. I still do Wordle daily and the mini whenever I remember to.

Yes all four geometry dash games. This is because the three spin-offs don’t back up secret coins to your main GD account and I only have them on there. I have been told this will be fixed in 2.2, which is miraculously coming out next month. Haven’t really been into GD since 2020

Subway Surf I had a brief but very passionate fling with, and I keep it on my phone to play very occasionally and because I can’t back up my progress on cloud (I’ve tried)

Covet Fashion is a game I played a lot in 7th grade and have regrettably picked back up on the last year. It’s essentially competitive dress-up with actual real-life fashion brands and their clothes.

iPad (ignoring duplicates):

Blockheads I should really delete. It was my minecraft growing up but I lost all my old worlds and all the multiplayer servers have been sundowned. Very sad. Amazing soundtrack, I now have nostalgic associations with extremely popular royalty free songs you’d recognize from vlog-era YouTube as well as a few good classical pieces—as opposed to minecraft music.

Fluid is just a fun little liquid simulator. Lots of cool customizations. Entertaining when high.

I regret buying BTD6 on my iPad because I play it almost exclusively on my laptop. Enough said

BubblePop I took up this summer to play while listening to TMA. It gives me the Tetris effect pretty bad so I don’t play it as much as I did.

I have not touched Among Us for years, but I would like to again someday with friends.

I don’t remember exactly why I redownloaded Jetpack Joyride, but I think it was to play while I listened to or watched something long. It’s as fun as it was when I was a kid.

I redownloaded Plants vs Zombies in summer 2020 and beat it in its entirety. I keep it to preserve my progress.

[ideas-on-paper]

Despite being the acquisition mission for my favorite character, the Reaper IFF is probably one of my least favorite parts of ME2. The fighting is just exhausting (all the more if you hate Husks and Scions), especially the final battle in the core room.

During my recent research, however, I found out that the original plans for the mission might have been a little more interesting: Instead of destroying the core, you were supposed to fight a Husk version of Dr. Chandra at the end (the guy who recorded the logs you find during the mission) who incoherently retells some of the history of the Reapers. (Here is the post where it's mentioned, and here are the cut lines Dr. Chandra was supposed to say.)

If you think about it, the original concept actually makes a lot more sense. I mean, Legion gets knocked out by a random Husk - you would think that if the Geth create a single unit for a mission without any backup or support, they would do their best to construct a durable shell. Instead, Legion just... goes into standby mode because a normal freaking enemy (not even a particularly strong one) managed to hit the off button somehow. (Wasn't there something about the Geth deleting their memory cores if they sustain critical damage?) It just feels so much like one of those last-minute ME2 plot changes - BioWare hastily threw something together that kind of made sense, hoping that the audience wouldn't look into it too deeply.

Still, good to see BioWare actually didn't forget about Cerberus researching indoctrination and Husks. A plot point from ME2 still being relevant in ME3? Never thought I'd see the day. xD

Now, you've given me some interesting ideas about Geth accompanying their Quarian masters abroad. I suspected many Quarians had Geth as personal adjutants, so one can assume they took them with them if they went off-world. But what happened to them when the order to terminate all Geth went out? Did they keep tabs on all active Geth units, and these were the first to be called back? Also, what about processing capacity? Since these units would have to operate independently without any other Geth to interlink with (like Legion, essentially), they would need to consist of more programs than usual.

Oh, I love the idea of Legion simply being picked up by the Geth if Shepard airlocks them! xD Also, it would be really interesting regarding the consequences in Mass Effect 3: Legion still knows who Shepard is, but unlike when you recruit them, they have no basis to trust Shepard. Would love to see how this affects the interactions.

I think Saren mentions that Sovereign doesn't really care about the Geth, despite the Heretics viewing Sovereign as a kind of god. I like the idea that the Heretics developed the virus because they felt vulnerable on their own - after Sovereign's defeat, I can definitely imagine that.

The question of who provides the Codex entries in-universe is an interesting one. Maybe files like the one about Sovereign are just the "standard" Alliance docs, and stuff like the Derelict Reaper entry is top-secret? Idk. xD

Mass Effect 2 replay, Reaper IFF:

Schwarzschild

-Etamis – A post garden World. An advanced spacefaring species was bombarded by dreadnought class weapons 20-40 million years ago.

Once again: Probably reapers.

-Atahil – Also has signs of orbital bombardment. Probably had been settled by the same species as the one on Etamis.

-Linossa – Its rings contain nano-manufactured materials. The species from Etamis and Atahil probably mined it for helium-3.

Century

-Klendafon – The Great Rift Valley was made when a mass accelerator round glanced the planet 37 million years ago.

Presumably this is from the round that killed the derelict reaper.

Thorne

-There’s a geth ship beside the Reaper. Understandably, everyone assumes the geth killed the science team and that’s why they stopped reporting in.

-Mass Effect is one of the better series about women, but sometimes unconscious bias shows.

For example: “Default NPCs” are frequently men. Such as all the members of the Reaper research team we hear from or about are men.

Once named characters are involved women start cropping up more frequently, but I’ve noticed that when the writers need a character for a bit part it’s normally a man.

-This mission feels like a missed opportunity. Shepard is exploring a dead reaper from the inside! There’s so much they could learn.

But instead the mission is very brief, and most of it is fighting hordes of husks or listening to logs the researchers left behind.

Why doesn’t Shepard have the opportunity to examine any Reaper tech? To interact with any of the Reaper’s systems? To explore the inside of the Reaper more extensively?

Imagine if Shepard had to find the IFF on their own, instead of collecting it from where the researchers had placed it. Determining where it might be located, making a way to it (it would be beyond where the research team had gone), detaching it from the Reaper...

Just… There’s so much potential for this to be a fantastic mission, but instead it’s just fight after fight in minimally differing environments.

-Cerberus Researcher in a log: But even a dead god can dream.

Very good line.

-Miranda and Kasumi have no dialogue for the Dragon’s Teeth. Google tells me that only triggers if Garrus, Tali, or Jacob are in the party.

You think they’d have something to say about people pierced on spikes in the middle of the Reaper, but apparently that’s an uninteresting sight.

-Geth are not known for speaking.

Hmm. Maybe I was too hard on Project Overlord.

Still, Cerberus should know the geth are capable of speech, even if they normally choose not to use it. The geth served the quarians; it’s safe to assume they communicated verbally with them.

There should be records of that; hell, probably videos. I’m sure quarians took geth with them all over the galaxy when they traveled.

-There are so many husks. And scions! Scions are made of multiple humans.

How big was this research party? And why is this dead Reaper creating the same type of enemy we normally encounter?

I can almost understand the husks. The Dragon Teeth are used in every cycle and create an enemy based on their DNA or whatever. But the Scions? Those must be crafted.

-Kasumi, about the iFF: So the Cerberus team did recover it. But where are they now?

...Kasumi knows what Dragon’s Teeth are, doesn’t she?

-Thank goodness for the Cain. I did not not want to fight that battle the “proper” way.

-The Mission Summary states that Cerberus is researching indoctrination and the husk conversion process. Some nice foreshadowing for ME3.

It could be seen as benign, although we know it’s not. Understanding how something is done is the best means to develop a countermeasure for it.

Normandy

-Jacob keeps advocating for airlocking the geth, but that isn’t even an option I’d have.

It’d be amusing if that was a neutral option, than in ME3 we find the true geth recovered Legion.

-Jacob, if you choose to keep Legion: Tali’s going to freak when she hears about this.

As said before, I don’t think Jacob’s actively malicious towards Tali. Insensitive at worst. Here, he’s fully aware that she will not be okay with a geth being onboard.

…I presume this line is skipped if Tali hasn’t been recruited?

-Edi warns that linking the Normandy with the IFF poses a risk. Hah. Bit of an understatement.

-Legion says that the term Reaper is a superstitious title the Protheans gave. The Geth refer to them as the Old Machines.

This almost feels dismissive of the term “Reaper” and the Protheans. Which is notable, as the geth don’t have emotions.

Well, we know they have opinions. Apparently superstition is not held in high regard.

-Legion says Shepard was killed by the Reapers and rediscovered on the Reaper.

Did Legion know Shepard was alive? Surely he did – Shepard’s been active for quite a while at this point and word gets around.

Still, the way it’s phrased it sounds as if Legion did not.

-Legion was on the Reaper to learn the information necessary to prevent the heretics from using the virus to overwrite the true geth.

How long have the true geth known about this virus?

-For that matter, why has it taken the heretics this long to be ready to deploy it?

They’re storing it on a data core provided by Sovereign – you’d think if Sovereign was involved he could have completed the virus and it could have been used years ago.

But maybe Sovereign didn’t care or the data core was originally intended for something else and the heretics repurposed it. I suppose we can assume they’ve been working on this for the last two years or so.

-Why do the heretics wants to reunite the geth but the true geth do not?

Perhaps it’s because the heretics faction is smaller, and they accordingly feel the loss of the other more. We know geth are smarter when there are more of them.

With the loss of the other geth, Sovereign, and all of C-Space hunting them I bet the heretics feel very vulnerable at the moment. If they can sway the true geth to their side, their abilities will increase and they’ll feel safer.

-Geth believe all intelligent life should self determinate.

Not shocking from a former slave species, but good to hear.

-There are paragon, neutral, and renegade options to accept Legion’s loyalty mission. No other loyalty mission has that.

Only paragon expresses concern for the geth. Neutral and Renegade focus on eliminating a threat to organics.

Codex

-The entry for Sovereign refers to the “Eden Prime War”. This includes the Battle of Citadel.

Does everyone refer to it as this, or just the Alliance?

-The entry is written like Sovereign was just Saren’s flagship, not a Reaper.

This is puzzling because the Codex waffles over whether or not Reapers are real. In Sovereign’s entry they’re not, but in the Derelict Reaper you get an entry on Reaper Indoctrination.

-The heretics might be as small as 5% of the total geth population.

Yeah, I’d hazard the Council is frantically preparing for a possible war with the geth. Wrong enemy, but the preparations will still be handy when the Reapers show up.