#its weird to put teens in the same category as toddlers

[vang0bus]

ok im gonna say something and some of you might not like it. but sometimes the way people refer to kids and teenagers as "minors" sounds a bit like referring to women as "females"

[dramallamadingdang]

A buncha replies about high-poly hair, fur-coated vacation locals, evil enablers, laziness, an old game being old, time management or the lack thereof, creepy pizza delivery dudes, terrain defaults that may or may not work, House Hunters and stupid Americans, nuzzling cats, cheap but AWESOME 80s knives, fermented milk and Canadian weirdness about it, forcing TV on people who don’t want it, annnnnnnd...Texas? Yep, Texas.

Quite a list, ain’t it? :) IOW, these go back a bit because I’m...me. 

These are for @immerso-sims, @nekosayuri, @fuzzyspork, @kairisu, @alawren4ever, @ajaysims, @didilysims, @delicatesoul88, @dreadpirate, @treason-and-plot, @jellybeanery, @pensblr, @twofee, @hemfbg, and @penig. Because Texas. ;)

Also, peripherally, @twofingerswhiskey.

immerso-sims replied to your photo “So instead of filling up my queue OR firing up my rebooted Castaway...”

I am guilty of having quite a few high polycount hairs, but I don’t have much CC in general and my Macie seems to handle them well, even with an integrated video card, so all is well, but yeah, 30k is a liiiiiittle bit excessive.

I have a few really high-poly hairs (20+K), myself. My game/computer does seem to be able to handle them without a fuss. (I really don’t know WHY, since both the machine AND the video card are older models, but...Hey, I’m not gonna argue. :) ) Even so, the ones I have are special and unique and very fabulous in some way, and if I later find a similar just-as-nice but lower-poly style, I’ll ditch the high-poly one in a heartbeat.

Mostly, though, I stick to hairs that are ~10K polys or less. I’ll have as many of those as I want because I figure if my game can handle the 30K+ ones without issue, it can handle a bunch of 10Ks. I have fewer that are 10K-12K. 13K is generally (and arbitrarily) my hard limit unless the hair falls into the “unique and fabulous” category and, really, those are few and far between.

nekosayuri replied to your photo “So instead of filling up my queue OR firing up my rebooted Castaway...”

@digitalangels lowered the polycount on Aviary, I'm pretty sure

I wouldn’t be surprised if she has. But really? There are already plenty of quite similar hairs that look just as nice as that one and that have much lower polycounts. I’ll bet it’s one of those that has thousands of backfaces that don’t even show in the game. :\ 

fuzzyspork replied to your photo “Well. This isn’t something you see every day. :) (Guess I missed that...”

The static she will collect on the way down will make that coat look like a tribble.

Yeah, like a tribble...or like they slaughtered a thousand-and-one poofy Pomeranian dogs to make her coat. :)

kairisu replied to your photo “Well. This isn’t something you see every day. :) (Guess I missed that...”

she's sliding in style ��✨

Maybe. But she’s gonna make a mess of that fancy fur coat. :)

alawren4ever replied to your post “So now that the second Blind Date gift I was called upon to make is...”

Fun thing of course!

See? THAT’S JUST NOT HELPFUL! :D I enable myself to do the fun thing quite well, thank you. ;)

nekosayuri replied to your post “So now that the second Blind Date gift I was called upon to make is...”

Get a mouse recorder to do it for you XD

That’s tempting, but the majority of the time spent on the “editing,” such as it is, is cropping the pics in the right place and to (more-or-less) the right size ratios. It’s never the same twice, so it couldn’t be automated.

(Confession: I had to Google “mouse recorder.” I mean, I could kind of tell what one would do from the name, but I doubted that such things actually existed. SURPRISE! :) )

ajaysims replied to your post “So now that the second Blind Date gift I was called upon to make is...”

I really know what you mean. My head is always bursting with a million different hood and story ideas but at the end of the day a lot of the time I just wanna play without thinking about editing pics after.

Yep, that’s me, too. I mean, I have (literally) about 1200 GilsCarburg pics to post. I mean, they wouldn’t all be posted because a good chunk of them are similar, where I took a lot of pics knowing I’d pick the best one of the bunch to post, but still...a lot. It’s going through them and making the posts that I drag my feet on sometimes. I kinda have to psych myself up to do it -- although once I start, I enjoy doing it, so it’s not a chore or anything :) -- and it’s easy to distract myself by, for instance, downloading a bunch of hairs for my Castaway game because I want to try my hand at making defaults for it.

nekosayuri replied to your post “You're my Senpai. Lol jk but for reals I adore you! You make amazing...”

Senpai XD tbh this is one of those things though, people actually PLAY the game AND make cc AND download stuff AND organise downloads folder/Tumblr posts. How do people have time for all of that??

I honestly don’t know how most people do it. For me, the answer’s easy: I’m mostly retired -- I’ll do paid gigs if I get bored and want to, but otherwise? Eh. -- and I don’t have to worry about money. And I have employees. That helps, too. Also, I have health issues that prevent me from doing a lot of things I’d LIKE to do. So, I do Sims-related stuff a lot. And go on a lot of dates with my husband, but he DOES work, so I can’t be doing stuff with him all the time. So, for now, unless/until I decide to do some kind of volunteering, I occupy a good chunk of my time with Sims stuff. And with hanging out with friends and whatnot, too, of course. But...Yeah, I don’t have a “normal” life. I don’t know how people who DO have a normal life manage to do all the Sims stuff they do.

delicatesoul88 replied to your post “Hi there, I’m pretty impressed that you create and use a lot of high...”

@dramallamadingdang I feel like I should print this and place it up right next to my monitors for the next time I take the cc cleanup plunge. The flashing pink bug is real and has caught up to me, I also know its my own darn fault for having so much cc. My computer can handle it but my game can't, and this is the swift kick in the rear I needed to remind me of that.

dreadpirate replied to your post “Hi there, I’m pretty impressed that you create and use a lot of high...”

Personally what works for me (since I love my sims 3 and 4 conversions and my pretty hairs) is playing with smaller lots as much as possible and going easy on the clutter

Yeah, it’s all a matter of prioritizing. You truly can’t have everything because “old game is old” even if you personally own a supercomputer. So, you focus on what’s most important to you and sort of skimp on the other stuff. So if pretty hairs and conversions are your thing, OK, but you might have to sacrifice, yeah, large, heavily-landscaped lots and lots of deco-only clutter and/or a heavily-hood-decorated neighborhood. Or if you’re a person who doesn’t actually play the game and just does, say, decorating, you can have all the converted, high-poly/high-res shit your little heart desires because you don’t need the high-poly hairs and clothing or the neighborhood stuff. Or if you’re mostly a Sim-maker, you can have all the high-poly hairs with gigantic textures that you want because you don’t need anything else that taxes the game. 

And if you want to do everything...Then I say: Separate user accounts/different downloads folder for each purpose. So, if you wanna decorate, you load up the high-res conversions. You wanna make Sims, load up the high-poly hair. You wanna actually play...Don’t go batshit with the big stuff and you’ll generally be OK.  Conscious downloading is the way to go. Know what you’re putting in your downloads before you put it in there and make conscious, aware, informed decisions so you’re not surprised by any consequences (i.e pink flashing) that you experience..

It’s all balance, man. Like, be in harmony with the universal spheres, totally.

treason-and-plot replied to your photo “This pizza delivery dude that my game generated…looks like a pizza...”

He has seen things...

Seen many things, yes. Let’s just hope that he hasn’t done anything...to the pizza... :)

didilysims replied to your photo “This pizza delivery dude that my game generated…looks like a pizza...”

Just as long as he doesn't get any of those long hairs in the food.

Things like that, yes! :) Or, you know, worse. Ah, all those urban legends... :)

jellybeanery replied to your photoset “Happy Monday! Now that Blind Date is over, I’m back to doing Monday...”

Eeeee! Thank you! I'm grabbing this and gonna check it out tomorrow! ♥

Well, I hope it worked better for you than my first stab! :) Please let me know if it didn’t! 

fuzzyspork replied to your post “To be or not to be...a bitch.”

My reply to this sort of thing is "Oo, this is short notice. We already have plans!" Even if those plans are to watch Netflix in our underwear. They are probably just doing the Christian thing by inviting you guys and they may not even care if you come (my sister is of the High and Mighty mindset and she invites out of "duty" but is always relieved with people can't come or cancel, lol).

You know, of anyone else, I’d believe this. But whenever we’ve turned down an invite, there’s always been tons of wheedling about it. So, either they’re really good actors or they really do want us there. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter, since entertaining and cooking big meals and all that is what the female half of the couple lives for, since aside from going to church, she’s stuck at home, homeschooling their 7 kids, ranging from infants to teens. (Which is another reason to avoid their house, as far as I’m concerned. I’m done with kids. I don’t hate them or anything, but I really don’t enjoy being around them. Especially not toddlers. I’m not even goo-goo for my own grandkids, so I don’t want to deal with anyone else’s kids anymore.)

pensblr replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

Just going to leave this here. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/75/a2/2d/75a22d07e38b1fedd15834c67bea0bb2.jpg

*sporfle* Yeah, that about sums it up, I’d say. :)

immerso-sims replied to your photoset “Kitten spam, with captions.”

The nuzzle animation is so cute :3

It is! I think they could’ve done so much more with pet-to-pet interactions, personally. Like, cats and dogs sleeping in piles like they do IRL. Also, pets sleeping on beds with Sims. (I have the mod that enables that for children, but it would have been nice if that was possible for all Sims.) But at least that one interaction is cute. :) 

fuzzyspork replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

Oh god House Hunters. What gets me is when they decide they don't want to buy "the perfect in every other way" house because the paint/wallpaper/carpet is hideous. I always yell at the TV "THOSE ARE EASY TO CHANGE YOU PRISSY IDIOT!" But we ditched cable TV a few years ago and I've never been happier. It's so much more relaxing to just watch what we want streaming, when we want, not bound to a show's schedule.

Yeah! I saw that, too! I was like, “You know what? There’s this thing called painting. And if you don’t want to do it yourself, there’re even people who you can pay to do it for you!” But when the realtor says something like that (with not NEARLY enough snark, IMO), they’ll say “Oh, we don’t want any big projects.” As if painting one room before there’s anything in it is a “big project.” Stupidity abounds!

And yeah, I’m much happier without squawk boxes around. The only remotely good thing about it is Cartoon Network. And some of the HGTV-type stuff is fun to watch, I suppose, if only to get ideas for my game. ;) But I much prefer no TV. I mean, yeah, I know no one forces anyone to turn it on, but we feel like we should watch SOMETHING since we’re paying through the nose for it. :p

twofee replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

house hunters international is hilarious because they always want to be in the center of whatever city, pay almost nothing in rent, and at least one person in the couple expects everything to be americanized. plus if they are asking for it to come furnished, they always complain about how its not their style or whatever. i just want to see the pretty scenery of the country youre lucky enough to be able move to. have you been able to guess which house theyll pick?

I can pretty much always tell the house they’ll pick because it’s usually the one that’s most like what the female half of the couple wants. Which is so stereotypical but...there it is.

And yeah, I watched an “International” one the other day. Some chick looking for a place to rent in Spain who was bitching about the lack of central air conditioning (In buildings older than America, that she said she WANTED to live in) and freaking out because -- OMG! -- the washing machine was installed in the (small) kitchen! Americans, SMH. Of course, she ended up in a new place with central air that was very American and also above her budget, but she justified that by saying she’d be more “comfortable” there. :p Moron. Why go live in another country if you just want to drag yours along with you? Isn’t that exactly what a certain sector of American citizens bitch about when it comes to immigrants? But what do American émigrés do? *sigh* Swear, most Americans just need to stay the hell in America because God forbid they deign to adapt to anything else. :p

hemfbg replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

It's funny that you mention House Hunters- it's playing on the tv in the other room. Sometimes I'll watch it when it's on just because I like to look inside other houses, though I agree with you about it being very safe-for-tv and every episode being the same.

I did actually see a gay couple on it the other day! Of course, they were a white, middle-aged well-off gay couple looking for a place in Palm Springs, CA, which is pretty much a place you can’t live in unless you’re LGBT (and well-off), but still! Gay people, OMG! 

nekosayuri replied to your post “˜Tis reply time! \0/”

Maybe you could suggest it over at MTS to people who actually mod? it is a great idea overall! and it *might* be possible, but wont know till we try right? :D

I did post the idea in the “Hacks & CC You’d Like To See” thread over there. It’s not a request thread, though, because MTS doesn’t allow requests. It’s more like an “I wish” thread, and a lot of the stuff wished-for IS impossible, but sometimes people have picked stuff out of the thread and actually done it, so...Well, it’s out there in the world. Of course, right after I posted it, a little argument broke out about something unrelated, so it quickly got buried, but maybe something’ll come of it. Who knows?

didilysims replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

3) I need to get me some of those knives! I feel like I'm sharpening my junky knives every time I use them because I refuse to crush my poor vegetables instead of cutting them. Never heard of the brand but I looked it up and apparently they're still making them. Probably not as good quality as back in the day but...I'll keep my eyes open in the stores now. :)

I was amazed to find out that Ginsu still exists. But yeah, those knives are way nicer than their 70s/80s ancestors. Which, yeah, probably means they won’t work half as well. :) Gimme my cheap plastic-handled bread knife made of God-knows-what ANY DAY!

didilysims replied to your post “Random non-Sims things”

1) Pretty sure internet packages try to include TV these days because the TV stations are paying them extra money to force it on people. 2) I say it the American way (never heard the English way in my memory) but I spell it with an H. There are almost as many different spellings as there are different Canadians, however. I've also seen yogourt, which is an odd one.

1) I’m pretty sure you’re right. I’m also pretty sure that most people do still want TV...although I’m pretty sure that, as time goes on, most people will prefer to stream what they want when they want it, so I think standard TV’s kind of on its way to dinosaur-hood. So perhaps one day it will no longer be forced on people. Probably won’t happen before I croak, though. :P 2) Yeah, @twofingerswhiskey reblogged with a pic of a yog(h)(o)urt container spelled “yogourt,” which is apparently how they spell it in Quebec (so I guess that’s how it’s spelled in France? Who knew?), which is apparently where most of y’all’s yog(h)(o)urt is made. :) Which is kinda weird, if you ask me. Why Quebec? Are there no dairy cows in Saskatchewan or Ontario or Alberta? :) I’ve seen dairy cows in BC, so I know they’re there...

penig replied to your post “˜Tis reply time! \0/”

Army bases can be beautiful. Ever go to Ft. Sam Houston? There's a reason all the officers retire here...

Nope, never been there. I’m sorry to say that I avoid Texas as much as I can. No offense to you or to any other individual Texan out there, but...y’all have a lot of bombastic asshats amongst you. And y’all seem to elect sexist, grabby-hands asshats at an alarming rate, too. Whenever I’ve been in Texas, I’ve had bad experiences at the hands of those two groups. So...Yeah, not going there if I can possibly help it. THAT said, I know that the cities are generally better and I’d like to visit San Antonio one day -- and maybe Ft. Sam Houston -- because I’ve heard that it’s, like, the artsy/hippie capital of Texas, kind of like how Santa Fe/Taos is the artsy/hippie capital of New Mexico, but....yeah. *sigh* 

[lianabrooks]

Mondays In Publishing - Genre

Originally posted on www.LianaBrooks.com

GENRE

It’s a scary word for some people.

I’ve met people who will argue genre until they are blue in the face. I have met people who think genre is a form of gate-keeping. I have met people who think genre is a waste of time.

I have never met someone who hated the word Genre whose books sold well.

Keep in mind, this is a publishing post, not a writercraft post, for a reason. Genre influences writing to a degree. You need to know your genre and genre conventions before you can play with them. But genre is – and always has been – primarily a marketing tool.

Genre is an essential part of publishing successfully.

So what is genre?

gen·re

ˈZHänrə

noun - a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

A category defined by similarities in form, style, and subject matter. Pretty simple, right?

Humans love grouping things. It’s why we put hamburgers and peanut butter-and-jelly in the same group as Sandwiches but debate whether hotdogs and layer cakes belong too.

Hotdogs might get a pass, but is layer cake a sandwich?

It has two pieces of bread with something smashed between, right? So the form is sandwichesque. But the style? That’s trickier. And the subject… ah, there was have a problem. Sandwiches are Savory, layer cakes are Sweet.

The subject doesn’t match so we move the layer cake to the dessert table.

If it helps you define the genre of your book think of the genres as a giant potluck. You want to put your book on the right table so the readers who want what you wrote can find it.

Genres As Types Of Food

Picture Books – Toddler Food – easily digestible, small, and seemingly bland to adult palates the books for small humans get their own table.

Early Readers/Middle Grade – Food In Fun Shapes – All the same foods as adults enjoy, but trimmed down to appeal to younger readers. Cheese shaped like stars, sandwiches cut like dinosaurs, sparkling apple juice in small cups… everything is fair game. Write it all but keep in mind your reader is 8 and only remembers about four years of their life at this point. Keep it simple.

YA – Like a healthy donut this table does not exist. YA is not its own genre, it’s an age category that allows booksellers to easily find books about teens for anyone who wants to read about teens. Any genre of fiction can be adapted to being a YA story or an adult story depending on whether the author focuses on internal conflict and growth or on external stakes with personal growth as part of the subplot.

Honestly, there’s probably a seven hour debate and several doctoral theses lurking in this topic so let’s move on…

Horror – The Weird Foods – The green jello casserole with hot dogs in it, the cookies made from cockroaches, the very questionable “stu” with unidentified piece of food in it. Horror makes you feel weird. It makes you question reality. It makes you uncomfortable, scared, and shivery. Some people like living dangerously.

Literary – The Undressed Vegetables – Plain, simple, straightforward with a huge ethical debate about locally and seasonably sourced. You know it’s good for you but sometimes it isn’t fun to eat. You might love your veggies raw, but you might prefer your moral conundrums baked into a delicious political fantasy.

Fantasy – The Savory Baked Goods – Hearty fare compiled of pieces of all the other genres this genre can change from Norse folklore to Chinese all by switching the spices. People come to fantasy not just to escape, but to escape while learning something about themselves and the world around them.

Science Fiction – Futuristic and Fusion Food – While Fantasy takes pieces of other genres to create something distinct Sci-Fi likes to present these disparate ideas besides each other like the very best fusion cuisine. Sometimes it’s like getting french fries with your spicy tuna roll, sometimes it’s like discovering French bistro cooking with a hint of lemon grass and lime. It’s sublime, new, and always an adventure.

Thriller – The Meats and Beans Food – These are your heavy proteins. Good alone, and a solid choice for part of your meal, but the chase scenes and intrigue usually get blended into something new.

Western – Regional Food – It isn’t quite fusion or fantasy, but a culturally distinct food that everyone instantly recognizes as being from That Place. Westerns rift a lot off fantasy and romance by creating an imaginary history. It’s Tolkien minus the pointy ears, and you either love it or hate it.

Mystery/Crime – The Casseroles – This genre includes all the whodunits, the police procedurals, the cookie cozies with the crime-fighting bakers, and everything else. This genre is a beloved casserole. Is it a dessert casserole? A sweet, cozy mystery in a small town? Is it a seafood casserole with unnamed bits and spies? You don’t know until you bite in because this is where everything gets mashed together. Eat up and enjoy!

Speculative Fiction – The Lollipop With The Question Mark – Specific is the home of everything that doesn’t quite belong anywhere else but also doesn’t belong to Literary. It’s the mystery meat and the grab bag of snacks. Sometimes it’s delicious and just what you wanted and sometimes you wander away wondering what you just put in your mouth. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Magical Realism – Unicorn Frappes and Foam – This is the magical table of food done with glitter. There will be foam! There will be smoke in a seashell next to your pasta. There will be a soundtrack. You will either love this completely or you will hate it intensely.

Romance – Dessert! – You want it sweet? Spicy? Chilled? Flaming hot? Romance has it all in exactly the flavor you were looking for. With a guaranteed sweet ending – a Happily Ever After or Happy For Now ending is a genre requirement – you know you can settle down with a tasty romance any time you need a treat.

What food do you think matches your favorite genre? 

Want to know more about genre? 

Get the full post on my blog, read #MondaysInPublishing in advance on Patreon, and - if this helps you out - drop a tip in my Ko-Fi cup. :)

Blog: https://www.lianabrooks.com/mondays-in-publishing-genre/ Patreon: patreon.com/LianaBrooks  Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/lianabrooks

[namestaybutfriendscallmetrash]

Parks and Wrecks

Fic #2 of the day for @davekatweek 2017 Day 5 Prompt "Leave it up to Fate"

The prompt I used in in the link below, and okay maybe it wasn't exactly random but that's still okay right? Right?

http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/158049080336/person-a-is-super-sad-and-its-super-late-so-they

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandom: Homestuck

Relationship: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas

Characters: Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde, Karkat Vantas, Roxy Lalonde (Mentioned), Gamzee Makara (Mentioned), Kanaya Maryam (Mentioned), John Egbert (Mentioned)

Additional Tags: Tumblr Prompt, Davekat Week 2017, Day 5, "Leave it up to Fate" Day, hardly any romance but whatever right, alternately titled "Taylor has a problem and can't stop writing pesterlogs because they're pretty", tw for:, abuse mention, Mental Illness, (unspecified)

Read it on Ao3 through the link below or under the cut :)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11769885

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]

TG: rose TG: heu rose TG: whre are you rigght now TG: rpse TG: rose TT: Dear gods Dave are you drunk? It's nearly midnight! TT: What do you want? TG: i need yu to comr gett me TG: quicjly if posssivle TT: What? Where are you? TT: And what's going on? TG: th park TG: itss hapenng again TG: pleaase help m TT: What park? TG: cannt read the sing TG: fuck i cn hardlt see TT: I need to know where it is if I'm coming to get you. TG: h sometingg TG: maybe higglans TG: highlad TT: Highland? TG: plese come egt me0 TG: m freakin the fuccout TT: I'm on my way, just sit down and wait for me.

You shut your phone off and shove it in your pocket with shaky hands and try to remember what your psychiatrist told you to do about these attacks. Deep breaths, silence, stress ball, vitamin d? You have no idea, and it's making it worse.

You all but throwing yourself onto the bench beside you, the only one free of the influence of any streetlight.

All it took was a stroll along the side if the road, a piece of gravel kicked into a street sign, a distinctive clang of metal, and it all hit you like a damn semi.

Swords, swords, why did everything sound like swords? And why did the sound make you shake, make your scars tingle?

You pull your legs up onto the edge of the bench and wrap your arms around them tightly, shutting your eyes to block out what little light the nearest streetlight throws and wait for your sister.

...

Eventually you hear tires on gravel, and when you take your hands away from your face you hand see headlights nearby.

You sit upright immediately and stare at the black sedan, which has now stopped in the parking lot hardly 60 feet away from you. A short, dark dressed figure gets out of the driver's seat and you stand.

“R-Rose?” You call, and it turns to look at you.

You're running before she has a chance to answer, bridging the gap between you in seconds and all you hear is a startled yelp as you cling onto her like a toddler that lost their mom in the supermarket.

“Rose thank fuck you're….” a lot less curvy than last time and also have no boobs…?

You look up at not Rose's extremely confused and slightly alarmed face.

“Shit, shit,” You pull off the visibly uncomfortable stranger, face going even whiter than usual.

Not literally though. You're albino so it's more like a figure of speech in your case.

“I'm sorry, you're not Rose, shit,”

“Yeah, no. Sorry?”

“God damn it, I'm, no, shit,”

You shove your violently trembling hands in your pockets and turn away from the guy because it's getting worse even faster now, and you really don't want anyone to see you like this, not even a stranger.

Speaking of stranger, you hear a cautious sounding footstep behind you.

“Hey, um, are you, like, okay?”

You don't turn around, just nod your head.

“Y-yeah, just… looking for someone.”

Good one, Strider.

The guy behind you seems to shuffle in place like he wants to say something, but he doesn't. That's probably for the best, he's got one of those voices that can't be quiet and quite frankly you can't handle that right now.

You back over to the dark bench and sit down again, trying and failing to control the shaking in your shoulders. You look over at the guy and he's staring, but once he realized you can see him he turns back to his car.

“Where the hell are you Rose…” you mutter under your breath as you put your head between your knees. You wish you hadn't gone out tonight, and you really wish you hadn't turned down John's offer to drive you home. ‘It's cool bro I'm only a 10 minute walk that way, save your gas’ was, in hindsight, not your best decision tonight.

Judging by the fact that someone just sat down beside you and cautiously placed a hand on your arm, smother hugging someone before you were sure they were Rose is pretty high up there on tonight's regret scale, too.

“Hi, so I know you said you were fine, but I kinda think that's bullshit and I'd be an ass to leave you here alone, so…”

He trails off, and you have to look up and make sure it's that same guy because that same grating voice just got really soft somehow.

He half smiles at you nervously when you turn your head enough to look at him out of your left eye, and you sigh shakily.

“Thanks, but I really am fine. I'll be back to my usual cool self in no time, I'm just down a bit right now, you know like, uh, shit I don't know, just whatever.”

You really wish your voice didn't sound like you were on the edge of tears. It doesn't help that you're on the edge of tears, wait what the hell why are you crying now?

“Fuck off, I'm not leaving until someone shows up to take you home.”

You tuck your head back between your legs and you feel hot tears begin to run down your cheeks.

“So who's Rose? Girlfriend? Oh, or ex maybe? Shit, sorry-”

“Sister. Rose is my sister.”

“Oh.”

You'd laugh at the total ass he's making of himself right now if you weren't in the middle of having a mental breakdown. Thanks a lot past traumas.

“Does she know you're here? I can call her to come get you, or something, if you want…”

“Yeah. She's coming.”

You don't know when he took his hand off you but you know he did when he shuffles awkwardly beside you, then goes silent for a minute or so. His voice cuts in just when you had almost convinced yourself you were home and it was Rose beside you.

“I, uh, I'm sorry if me being here is stressing you out or something… I can leave if you want.”

You don't say anything.

“It's just that I used to have a friend who would do this all the time, I mean break down alone at night, he usually came to this park too.”

You think he's balling his fists in his lap by the way you can hear skin and fabric brushing together.

“That stupid kid, he'd just drag himself here and wait for me to come get him, balled up under the slide and spouting nonsense at no one. I wish he'd have fucking realized he wasn't… Nevermind. He doesn't matter anymore.”

You actually kinda want to see where that story was going, but you're finally moving into the exhaustion stage of your little fit. Your eyes still sting from the tears that stopped not long ago and your eyelids desperately want to cover them. You think maybe you shouldn't let that happen, you don't want to add ‘falling asleep in a public park’ to the list of stupid shit you've done tonight.

You sit up, but let your head hang lazily in front of you. You make no effort to move it when you speak, either.

“He wasn't what.” You sound half dead, and you hope his voice can keep you from flatlining.

“He… he thought he would be fine if he just waited for me there every night. He'd get high out of his fucking mind, wander the streets in a stupor then come here when he started to feel bad again and wait for me. I'd find him passed out, crying, biting his fingers, pissing himself, you name it. But…”

He gulped.

“I'm not a doctor. I couldn't help him with the after effects or the mental problems he was trying to escape. He wasn't safe like he thought he was.”

This time the silence was worse. You peer at him through your left eye again, and he's staring off into the pitch black sky.

“You okay man.”

He looks at you suddenly like he didn't know you were there before scowling and turning his head away.

“Me?”

He's gone back to the loud voice, but you don't really mind at this point.

“When the fuck did this turn into my therapy session? You're the one who tackled me in the parking lot in search of your surely more stable sister.”

You snort with as much humor as you can muster, which is none.

“Hey how about instead of talking about my fuck ups you tell me why I was assaulted today?”

You turn your head back down with uncertainty. As much as you usually love spewing your personal life at people, you feel kind of weird about talking to a stranger about this part. Apparently the guy could tell, because when he speaks, his voice seems kind of panicked.

“Fuck, sorry, you don't have to say anything, you don't even know me-”

“I'm not good at change.”

You don't really know why you said it. It's true, you guess, but it's not really the root of the problem.

“I'm 22 years old and I just moved in with my Mom, for the first time. It's… Really different than what I'm used to.”

You yawn, and slouch a little further down on the bench. You think maybe it should be Rose you're retelling this story to again, not whoever this poor guy is, but she's not here and he is. Too bad it's not a couch like you're used to.

“It's so nice, so much better than before. Before was… Really bad. But I didn't know how bad it was until I had something good. Does that make sense…?”

You look to your left fully for a response this time. The guy nods, his fluffy hair nodding with him.

“You don't know what you have until it's gone, but… worse.”

You face forwards again.

“Exactly. And now that he’s- it's gone, I'm learning that my brain got just as fucked up as my body did.”

“I'm really sorry to hear that… uhm…”

His voice was soft again, and you turned your head so see him staring awkwardly at you, his dark eyes peering out at you nervously from the mess of coarse black hair that hung around his face.

“Dave. Strider.”

He looked away, clearly embarrassed that he hadn't asked sooner.

“Thanks. Oh, and I'm Karkat by the way.”

You stretch your legs out in front of you, which you're starting to be able to feel normally again.

“Nice to meet you Mr.Karkat, and welcome to Dave's mental trauma- the only talk show where literally no one wants to be there.”

The guy- Karkat- chuckles a little bit, then sighs.

The two of you sit for a few minutes which seems to translate to ‘an uncomfortable amount of time’ for Karkat beside you, because he's fidgeting and keeps opening his mouth like he wants to say something but quickly turns away any time you start to turn your head towards him.

You guess about five minutes total have passed when you get up and stretch, about ready to start walking home. You're about to turn around and say bye or something when he finally speaks up.

“So, Dave…”

You make a short “Hm?” and half turn to see him on his feet as well, standing a surprising foot shorter than you- how did you think he was taller when you were sitting beside him?

“Do you need a ride home? Because I've got my car here, and I'm not busy... or whatever.”

You decide not to take any chances this time.

“Sure, thanks man. Here, give me your number and I'll text you my address so you can put it on maps or whatever.”

He complies, and you send the message before following him back to his car and getting in the passenger's side.

You hear him start up the car and mess around on his phone for a minute, then he pauses before shifting gears.

“Wait, you're like three blocks from here- couldn't you have just told me the way to your place?”

You don't answer, and instead keep your head rested against the door and your eyes closed.

The car starts backing up and you smirk as you hear an exasperated “Asshole,” from the driver.

…

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]

TT: Dave where are you, I'm at the park on Highland like you said. TT: Hello? turntechGodhead [TG] is an idle chum

TT: Come on, don't worry me like that then stop answering me. TT: Dave if you don't answer I'm calling Kanaya to come help me find you. TG: oh hey rose TG: wait did I say highland TG: i meant henson TT: That's half an hour from here, are you serious? TG: sorry TT: Whatever, do you still need me to come get you? Or are you fine now? TG: im fine just talked to some guy who showed up instead TG: he drove me back to mom's place too by the way TG: and don't worry about hunting him down like some deranged stalker bent on thanking people for me, I gave him my number so we're cool TT: That's great to hear, TT: Leave it to you to hit on a stranger after dumping your feelings on him. TG: im the king of getting ass, and not even a panic attack can slow me down TG: you know how it is/span> TT: Yes Dave, of course. tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]