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oliversrarebooks · 1 year ago

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Hunting Dog Part One: Lowell's Mistake

Masterlist

This is a spinoff of The Rare Bookseller! It takes place in the same world, but you don't have to have read Bookseller to understand this story.

April 1922

TW: human auction, capture, drugging

Oh, he'd hit the absolute motherlode.

Lowell couldn't believe that the tip he'd received at the speakeasy had actually panned out. He'd spent all night in surveillance observing the vampires -- and there was no question that they were vampires -- bustling in and out of the old but well-kept mansion. With a specially crafted scent to disguise the smell of his blood and the moon nearly full, it hadn't been difficult to conceal himself in an a gnarled oak tree and confirm that this was likely the infamous, elusive auction house.

He watched cars and carriages arrive and depart, well-dressed vampires chatting on the porch, struggling humans being dragged into a basement entrance, and clearly enthralled individuals carrying out trash and carrying in crates of supplies, their sleepwalking movements and glassy eyes apparent even from a distance. If this wasn't the auction house itself, it was certainly a major hotbed of vampire activity, more than worth his time.

Every vampire hunter worth his salt dreamed of finding and taking down the auction house. Between all the thralls the hunter's guild had rescued over the years, they had a very good idea of what the interior was like, how they processed humans, and what kind of clientele frequented the place. But no thrall knew where it was located -- about an hour away from the city by carriage, somewhere secluded in the countryside, memories far too vague to have any success locating it. The vampires were careful to make sure that the thralls were unconscious, drugged, or hypnotized while taking them to and from the cursed place.

Lowell hadn't thought much of the alcohol drenched, barely lucid man who had stumbled into the speakeasy that night, until he claimed that he had escaped from a fledgeling vampire. Purchased at the auction for a thousand dollars, a pitiful sum for a human life, the poor thrall had managed to get free in just two months' time. His memory of the auction house had proved shockingly clear, giving Lowell the final few clues he needed to track the place down.

And now, it was within his sights, that wretched house of misery where humans were bought and sold like meat at a butcher's. Even now, within those walls, innocent victims were having their minds spirited away, their wills bent towards serving monstrous masters, their very lives stolen from them.

All there was to do was wait until sunup, when he'd have all the advantages against sluggish vampires who could not flee outdoors. He briefly toyed with the idea of gathering more hunters and returning the next day, before discarding it. The security around the auction house, especially as the sun began to rise and the vampires retreated within, appeared to be minimal. It was obvious that they counted on secrecy and remoteness as their main way of keeping humans out -- the security was no doubt focused instead on keeping humans in.

And if the allure of being the vampire hunter to destroy the notorious auction house was clouding his judgement a tad... well, you didn't get to be a hunter with this many dustings under your belt without a lot of confidence and a lot of risks.

Once the sun had crested the hills and the vampires had all either left or gone back within, the only souls remaining outside the mansion were some unfortunate thralls enlisted as guards. While they had clearly been chosen for strength and size, their slow reactions were no match for a hunter in possession of his full faculties. Lowell quickly dispatched the guard near the basement door with a sedative dart, liberating the poor man of his keys and entering the building. He used a small block of wood to prop the door open, a trick he'd learned from well-seasoned hunters to always leave himself an escape route.

The vast majority of vampire manors Lowell had entered were ornate and packed wall-to-wall with furniture and collectibles suiting the vampire's particular desires, an expression of their innate possessiveness. Lowell knew for sure that he was in the auction house and no ordinary manor the second he laid eyes on the hallway -- painted white, free of obstruction, sterile, resembling a hospital or military base.

It was deathly quiet, so Lowell took extra care that his footsteps did not make noise against the polished wood floor, lest he alert any vampire that happened to be awake. He passed a few rooms, cautiously peering in with weapons drawn. One was an infirmary, one was a shower, one seemed to be an office, another couple were occupied primarily by padded chairs with leather restraints.

The laundry room and kitchen each had a couple of dazed thralls doing chores. In each case, Lowell shut the door again before they noticed, if they were even capable of noticing. The guild would have a lot of work on their hands rehabilitating all of these thralls once he cleaned out the vampires, that was for certain.

Truthfully, Lowell didn't have a lot of patience for thralls himself. He felt compassion for innocent victims, and tried to rescue them when possible, but when it came to rehabilitating them... he couldn't stand their foggy, dazed expressions, their nervous flinching, the way they laced their speech with 'sirs' and empty courtesies. He especially hated to hear freed thralls begging for the touch of a cruel master, longing for fangs in their neck even months after rescue. So many of them who tried to live on their own ended up back in the sway of a vampire within a year or less. Once easy prey, always easy prey.

Lowell was eternally thankful that he was a predator instead.

Rounding the corner, he encountered the first vampire, a drowsy, scrawny thing stationed in front of a double door. It was beyond obvious that he'd never encountered a threat before -- even with his vampiric reflexes, he was far too slow to react before Lowell was on top of him, hand pressing to his mouth to stifle his cry, a sure hand driving a wooden stake straight through his heart.

It was easy. This had all been easy so far. Too easy, for such a legendary place. He knew he shouldn't let his guard down as the dusted vampire had.

But maybe this would be easy. After all, it was clear that the vampires were only concerned about humans escaping, not humans infiltrating. And despite their enhanced strength and senses and their many supernatural powers, vampires weren't especially clever compared to humans. Undeath and immortality made them stagnate -- most vampires were eternally stuck in their ways, and that made them careless and unimaginative. Lowell couldn't help the rush of pleasure that came with beating the vampires right in their own territory.

He quietly pushed open the double door, crossbow at the ready, cracking it just slightly with a doorstop. It was a long, dark hallway, and the scattered noises Lowell could hear didn't sound like vampires. It sounded like soft breathing, quiet snoring, the occasional mutter or sob. It was pitch black, and Lowell had to risk lighting a match, its flickering light revealing iron-barred cells.

Holding cells for the poor humans waiting to be processed into thralls, just as he'd expected. The motherlode, indeed. Most of the humans seemed to be either asleep or unresponsive as he passed their cells. It was just as well, because it meant they couldn't raise an alarm.

"Ah --"

Lowell could see his matchlight reflected in a pair of terrified eyes, hands gripping the bars of her cell. "Shhh, be quiet," he said.

"Sorry," she said in a voice so quiet that he could barely hear her. "Are you... you're not a vampire, are you? Are you here to rescue us?"

"Yes," he said, with a swell of pride. "That's the idea."

"Oh, thank you, thank you. They told me I was going to be taken and hypnotized tomorrow night -- and I've been so scared -- I want to go home, please -- "

"All right, all right, keep your voice down and let me do my work."

"Of course," she said, slinking back into the shadows. "Thank you, thank you."

As Lowell approached the other end of the hall, he could see another pair of double doors, and considered his options. The doors hadn't been locked against his entry, but if the vampires were concerned about potential thralls escaping, they might lock the doors to prevent exit. If he tried them, he'd be likely to alert the vampire guard that may be lurking on the other side, who could fetch backup.

Too risky. He'd have to go back the way he came.

But when he turned around and reached the door he had entered, he found it shut tight.

No -- he had certainly left it propped open. There was no way it had closed without him hearing it, not unless --

Shit, they were onto him.

He dropped his match, snuffing it out with his foot while preparing his crossbow. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his nerves steady. There might not be many vampires in the auction house at this hour. This wasn't even the worst situation he'd ever been in. He'd fight his way through them and have an amazing story to tell the guild once they showed up here to help with the cleanup.

Several tense moments passed as the hunter readied his weapons and reassured himself of his impending victory.

The double doors at both ends of the hall slammed open, and the electric lights overhead flashed on and off in quick succession -- with his eyes acclimated to the darkness, he was blinded, shooting his bow half on instinct. He shot one in the shoulder -- saw another crumble to dust -- before cold hands wrapped around his arms, forcing his crossbow to drop and pinning him against a vampire.

Vampires weren't any more clever than humans, but they were strong. Even the weakest looking vampire was stronger than any ordinary human. That's why hunters relied on skill and surprise, because their odds were so poor when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

This was it, then. He'd fucked up, and this was how he died. It was happening so fast. He'd had this nightmare so many times, and he braced himself for a knife in his gut or a snap of his neck. At least he'd died bravely. The way he always wanted to go out, really, fighting the goddamn leeches.

But then a damp cloth was pressed against his face, a cloth with a thick chemical smell. His eyes widened as he realized that he was going to be subjected to a fate far worse than death.

Capture. They were going to capture him, and with vampires, that only meant one thing -- they were going to try and make him into a thrall. A nightmare worse than death, one that he'd never even let himself entertain.

He saw the cruel grins of the vampires surrounding him as two of them held him tightly restrained and another pushed the cloth firm against his face. He held his breath, thrashing, hoping for an opening to escape, even as their grip held firm.

A vampire with the appearance of a young, innocent woman was standing nearby, watching the scene, yawning wide. "Nice work," she said. "Worth staying up late for."

"Are you sure you don't want to kill him? I mean, he just dusted Tim," said the vampire holding the cloth.

"He's too valuable to kill. A hunter turned thrall will make a fine prize. I know just the right buyer, too."

No! No, he couldn't let it happen. That would never happen. He couldn't be a mindlessly adoring pet to some prideful, cruel monster. He couldn't fawn and offer his blood and call a vampire 'sir'. That couldn't be him. He'd rather die, he'd so much rather die.

He wasn't fucking prey.

But his struggles were fruitless, especially as more vampires surrounded him and helped to immobilize him. He couldn't hold his breath forever, and he was forced to gulp down the noxious drug along with the air he needed. His head started to spin, his extremities going numb.

He had to get free, right now, before it was too late.

But as he began to sag in the vampires' arms, his limbs heavy and his eyelids beginning to droop against his will, he knew in his heart it already was too late. He was growing exhausted, the drugged cloth slowly but surely putting him under, and his fight to wrench himself from the vampires' grasp had now transitioned into a fight to keep himself awake.

"That's a good hunter," cooed the young woman, petting his hair, and he was too drowsy to move his head away. "Just go right to sleep. I'll take such good care of you."

"You won't. Whatever you're planning... it won't work," he said with all of the fire he could muster, his voice muffled by the cloth. "You might have caught me, but you're not going to turn me into some pathetic, simpering thrall."

"Oh, I'll do that and more," she said, her sugary voice growing more sinister. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be nothing more than an eager little puppy of a thrall, laying at a vampire's feet and begging to be fed on."

The thought sickened him. He thrashed weakly, one last vain attempt to get free, but it was beyond hopeless. The urge to just shut his eyes and go to sleep was so strong, and every blink made it harder for him to open his eyes again. But he couldn't sleep, couldn't let the bloodsuckers take his mind.

"Aww, is the mighty hunter getting sleepy?" She scratched lightly at his scalp, a gesture which might be affectionate under different circumstances. "Go to sleep," she sang in a mocking lullaby, "go to sleep, go to sleep, little hunter..."

"No... don't..." His head sagged forward into the cloth, his vision blurring, his eyelids fluttering.

"Off to dreamland with you now, little hunter-thrall. You'll feel so much better after a little nap. And once you wake up, we're going to have so much fun together."

Lowell could do nothing but groan, defeated, as his eyes closed and refused to open again. His mind began to drift far away as he sank helplessly into a drugged sleep.

Masterlist

I'm not sure how many parts this side story will have, but knowing me, too many.

#whump #whump writing #vampire whumper #vampire hunter whumpee #vampire #vampire hunter #mind control #drugging #sedation #captivity #hunting dog #lowell #lily

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theslipperysloth · 2 months ago

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It's a Phrase! Legacy Challenge

I wanted to create a legacy challenge unlike any other. As a fan of comedy and jokes, I wrote a legacy challenge based around common idioms in the English language and taking them literally. Sounds fun, right? I’ve never written a legacy challenge before, so with this one being my first, please feel free to give me constructive feedback. This legacy is like my child and I’m absolutely ecstatic to share it with y’all.

Before we begin, here are some basic guidelines :

All aspirations, skills and careers must be maxed/completed for each generation.

If you don’t like a certain rule or generation, change it! Remember, the goal is to make this as fun for you as possible.

Most cheats are not allowed (things like motherlode, FreeRealEstate on, etc.) except for debug.

You don’t have to start on the first generation, you can start with any of them, but you are encouraged to follow the generations chronologically after (trust me, it makes more sense that way).

Let loose and have fun! Happy Simming!

Generation One - “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

Traits: Gloomy, Dog Lover, Cat Lover

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Career: Veterinarian

Skills: Pet Training & Veterinarian

Rules:

Start as a young adult and move to an empty lot.

Build a vet clinic on another lot and buy it.

‘Live’ in the vet clinic (your house is connected to the clinic).

Marry one of your patient’s owners.

Have only one child.

Generation Two - "Break a leg!"

Traits: Self-Absorbed, Snob, Mean

Aspiration: World-Famous Celebrity

Career: Actor

Skills: Acting & Charisma

Rules:

Join Drama club as a child and leave when you become a young adult.

Move to Del Sol Valley.

Achieve five star celebrity status and have an atrocious reputation.

Receive at least two awards at the Starlight Accolades.

Divorce at least three times and have at least one child.

Generation Three - "A bad apple."

Traits: Evil, Noncommittal, Kleptomaniac

Aspiration: Public Enemy

Career: Criminal

Skills: Parenting & Cooking

Rules:

Rebel against your parent as a teen and run away.

Never achieve anything above engaged status in every relationship.

Have at least one child who is the light of your life, be mean to everyone else except them.

Cook apple pies for your family regularly, it's a staple!

Steal things from work occasionally.

Generation Four - "This is a piece of cake."

Traits: Good, Family-Oriented, Foodie

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Baker

Skills: Baking & Charisma

Rules:

Run your bakery on your front yard.

Introduce yourself to every customer.

Marry a regular customer and have at least one child.

Hang out with your friends at least twice a week.

Buy the Marketable reward trait.

Generation Five - "It's like watching paint dry."

Traits: Creative, Perfectionist, Art Lover

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire

Career: Painter/Freelance Artist

Skills: Painting & Logic

Rules:

Max the Creative aspiration as a child.

Have an entire room dedicated to your artistry.

Spend every date at a museum.

Marry anyone and have at least one child.

Donate all art pieces to a museum when you become an elder (sell them to a collector).

Generation Six - "Work smarter, not harder."

Traits: Genius, Bookworm, Overachiever

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim & Mansion Baron

Career: Politician & Business

Skills: Charisma & Logic

Rules:

Join any after-school activity.

Achieve an 'A' in high school and graduate early.

Marry four times and have at least three children.

Reach the household limit of eight.

Never retire, you work until the day you die.

Generation Seven - "Make waves."

Traits: Child of the Ocean, Loves Outdoors, Clumsy

Aspiration: Beach Life

Career: Conservationist

Skills: Logic & Fitness

Rules:

Complete the Seashells and Buried Treasure collections.

Meet your spouse at a kava party and have at least one child.

Gain fitness skill only through swimming and jogging.

Have the Volcanic Activity lot challenge.

Befriend a mermaid.

Generation Eight - "Beat around the bush."

Traits: Romantic, Dance Machine, Outgoing

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Bartender, Mixologist, Babysitter

Skills: Mixology & Dancing

Rules:

Never woohoo in a bed, always woohoo in a bush.

Cheat on every partner you have.

Have twins from accidental pregnancy, these are your only kids.

Never reach the top of any career, you bounce between a bunch of different jobs.

Host dinner parties constantly and make the best drinks for all of your friends.

Generation Nine - "Call it a day."

Traits: Lazy, Glutton, Slob

Aspiration: Grilled Cheese

Career: None, you're unemployed.

Skills: Rocket Science & Handiness

Rules:

Buy a rocket and build it with your partner's money.

Never cook anything except for Grilled Cheese for you and your kids.

Never exercise or workout.

Spend your days sitting on the couch watching television.

Get divorced by your partner for being too lazy.

Generation Ten - "The show must go on."

Traits: Goofball, Self-Assured, Ambitious

Aspiration: Joke Star

Career: Entertainer (Comedian branch)

Skills: Comedy & Charisma

Rules:

Resent your parents and move out when you become a Young Adult.

Move out with a childhood friend who is an aspiring musician and live together.

Marry them and have at least one child.

Always introduce yourself in a funny way (funny introduction).

Write a book full of all of your best jokes.

In all seriousness, this challenge was so fun to write and I hope that, if you decide to play, you'll find it fun. Thank you to everybody in the Sims community who makes it an amazing place to be a part of.

~ The Slippery Sloth

#sims 4 legacy challenges #sims 4 #sims #ts4 #ts4legacy #it's a phrase legacy challenge

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lotussuns · 1 year ago

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implied fem! reader. she her pronouns used. kind of suggestive but no smut, talks about porn mostly. minors don’t interact please. i just spat it out in one sitting so lots of spelling mistakes probs. ooc gojo! he’s a loser

just a thought that i had today hihihi. i imagine a future where both gojo and geto are in their early twenties, in the middle of getting their teaching license to teach at jujutsu high. they are both young, healthy, attractive men so they sleep around a little bit, and of course share their experiences and preferences with each other. that further escalated to porn.

so geto and gojo have a tradition of sharing porn with each other. if geto finds something super hot, he most likely will send it to gojo to get a second opinion and they both talk about how that actress looked super hot while getting pounded from behind, or that they should find a hottie to have that specific threesome with.

anyway geto starts noticing a weird trend with the actresses that gojo sends him. why do they all … kind of look similar, they all kind of look like you.

it’s either the same hairstyle, same body type, similar facial structure. and geto is fucking freaking out because they have known you for like 3 months?? you just started here?? and he knew gojo was obsessed with you, everyone could tell (apart from you) but he didn’t know it was this severe.

he sends a quick text.

“i didn’t know anyone could be this down bad.”

which gojo quickly responds to with

“HUH?!”

“WHAT HAPPENED.”

geto answers with a vague. “i know what you are doing lol did you think you were slick like that.”

gojo fucking spirals.

“WHAT DID YOU FIND DID YOU TOUCH MY FUCKING LAPTOP?!?!?!???!??!!!!”

“HOLY SHIT YOU FUCKING TRAITOR IM TELEPORTING HOME YOU FUCKCKDMND.”

geto is super confused like what the fuck? gojo sent that shit himself, it was quite obvious the actresses looked as close to you as they could. was gojo not even realizing that? he couldn’t understand what the man was so worried about.

“?”

“what are you talking about lol. you sent that shit yourself.”

gojo responds with another wave of panicked texts.

“FUCK I CANNOT TELEPORT HOME IM TOO BUSY WHAT DID I AEND WHERE.”

“PLEASE SUGURU DONT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS PLEASE YOU CAN MAKE FUN OF ME ALL HOU WANT JUST DONT TELL ANYONE.”

and now geto was super confused what else did gojo hide from him. he decided it was the perfect opportunity to fuck around and find out.

“you’re absolutely insane i cannot believe you did that. sick fuck.”

geto’s phone once again lights up like crazy from all the notifications he’s bombarded with.

“PLEASE DONT TELL HER PLEASE.”

“AND DONT DELETE ANYTHINF DONT TOCUCHHF IT.”

“I WORKED SO HARD ON OUR LITTLE FAMILY.”

“SHES PREGANANT WITH OUR 6 CHILD ND IT WAS SO HARD TO GET OUR PENFHOUSE WITHOUT ANY CODES I EARNDNDD THAT SHIT WITH REAL WORK SUGURU REAL HONEST WORK NO MOTHERLODE AND SHIT.”

“I EVEN PAYED FOR OUR WEDDING MYSELF.”

and it was then that geto realized gojo was talking about something more cringe that his porn preferences. he was talking about the sims.

gojo fucking satoru made you guys in the sims. married. with 5 kids and 1 on its way.

after the initial wave of tremendous cringe geto felt in his body (he almost collapsed from how intense it was) geto didnt know if he should laugh or cry from how much of a pathetic loser gojo was, but he knew he would never let him live it down.

#gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #gojo x you #jjk x reader #gojo satoru #jujutsu kaisen x reader #cw suggestive #gojo satoru x y/n #gojo satoru x you #gojo x yn #geto suguru #jujutsu kaisen

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iliss4 · 2 months ago

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"Au where Rosie and Alastor immediately try to convince Charlie to eat Vaggie instead of repair the relationship and do nothing to help" (c) @urproblematicfav-arsonk

Ok so

Imagine if Charlie actually tries to eat Vaggie

Like, she's an angel, she can get her powers this way (at least alastor insisting on it)

Imagine if she *lets her*

How far her devotion will go? Will she let be killed and desecrated for someone she thinks she loves? Or will she snap out of it and leave the hotel for good?

Will Vaggie being partially eaten before the shock wears off and she ran for her life?

"you... Want to kill me?"

"No! No! You don't have to die for it!"

"...you want to eat me alive?.."

And Charlie's pushing it like any other her hype idea

Imagine she loses her arm

Vaggie - lute parallel with both losing an arm for someone they loved, but lute gave it away willingly and Vaggie was robbed

Cannibalism as a metaphor for rape

We still can turn it into moth4moth or Vaggie adoption au 2.0 by her running away in shock, Val picking her up and making a deal with her, offering help and sanctuary to get info (coz the alleged princesses gf running away bloodied and crazed is a motherlode for a blackmail material)

He listens to the "my gf tried to eat me alive and not in a sexy way because some psycho deer told her so" and goes "this is fucked up and I'm concerned what's Alastor's play here" and then kinda shelter her from further pestering by Vel and vox

Damn, I'm such a sucker for "people I trusted and thought good betrayed me in the most painful way and someone who I thought was the worst and my enemy offered me help and understanding"

#hazbin vaggie #hazbin valentino #hazbin charlie #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel #iliss4 fic #cannibalism #tw chaggie

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cyberm0sh · 8 days ago

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hey (canadian) sticker enthusiasts. wanna learn how i got a huge box of blank ups labels for free??

here’s what ur gonna do. go on this website: https://www.ups.com/ca/en/shipping/order-supplies.page

ur gonna log in on this bad boy (or create an account, then log in.)

now. when u log in it will probably bring you to a new page. you don't care about this page. go away. go back to the previous page (or just open a new tab with the same link above). if it still asks u to log in just press the log in button again and it'll be like Oh Right hello yea! you're logged in my bad

next you're gonna be asked to select a UPS account, it's optional, just say "no account"

now: the motherlode

go to labels and stickers, then you're gonna have a bunch of options

here's the three i got, i recommend the top two. the first option is a roll of labels, middle one is the box of labels at the beginning of this post, and i don't really recommend the bottom one. it's a huge amount of stickers (i cannot emphasize enough it was easily 5x the weight of the box of 4x8 stickers) but here's what they look like:

there's like. stuff on it. and the backing is weirdly cut? idk i do not like them i think it's more advantageous to get the first two!! anyways on the right ur gonna see checkboxes, just check the ones you want then scroll down and press "add selected to order". the page is gonna update and u will see this!!

view ur supplies order, then i wont take a screenshot of this part because it's just like. My Address, but just submit the order and bada bing bada boom it's on its way. i think theres a certain limit on how often u can order (for example i couldn't order more stickers because ive ordered some recently) but like. there's SO MANY who cares i have barely made a dent and i am using them like crazy and giving them to people.

ANYWAYS HAVE FUN! MAKE SHIT!

#punk #stickers #resources #free stuff #how to #guide #diy craft #streetart #remember kids graffiti's only illegal if they see u!#activism #canada #canadian punk #label 228 #diy or die #graffiti

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fallin4fiction · 2 months ago

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Struck by Love Gen 8: Spooky Day and New Friends

Spooky day rolled around again and it was amazing to see the difference a (few) year(s) makes. Lynn and I were more in love than ever.

Holden: Are you my Final Girl?

Lynn: I better be your only girl. Anyway, we should set up a party for the kids.

First ever Festive Family Photo! And in the background, Butterscotch made their presence known.

We put the girls in the local kids club and Kendra made friends with Lynn’s ex roommate’s daughter, Willow.

After Spooky Day, I decided to quit law enforcement and become a handyman,so I could continue to work on my handiness skill. Also, I made time for Heath in our glitchy hallway.( We were in the middle of small renovations) He was the only kid to master all his required toddler skills. Third time is the charm.

Holden: Ok girls, how about we make your little brother a birthday cake?

Kendra: Do we have to?

Helena: Can we hire people for that? Didn’t Granny K leave us like a bajilllion Simoleans?

Holden: No, it was a motherlode amount of Simoleans and this will be a nice bonding activity.

Age up time!

Like before, Kendra decided to be by herself during the party. She was eating cake on the front porch when a boy strolled up.

Boy: I heard cheering and smelled cake , so I came here. I’m Edward Eggard by the way. Why are you sadly eating cake?

Kendra: I’m still sad about my grandma Kora passing away. I heard she held me once, but I never really knew her and I wish I did. I heard she climbed a mountain once.

Edward: Aw, I’m sorry you lost someone important to you. But maybe she’s in the After Save, or she’ll be reborn into a new sim and you can meet her again.

Kendra: *sniffles* Maybe

Edward: I should go. My mom doesn’t like me walking outside on the dark by myself. See you around, Goldie!

Kendra: Such a weird kid.

#sims 4 #struckbylovelegacy #sims 4 legacy #gen 8 #spooky day #henford on bagley #Holden Daw

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waitmyturtles · 2 years ago

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Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: I Told Sunset About You (ITSAY) Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, in a long post, I work my way through Nadao Bangkok’s cinematic motherlode: ITSAY. Thanks to everyone for your patience with this post: I did major due diligence with it, with the absolutely TREMENDOUS help of @telomeke, @lurkingshan, @wen-kexing-apologist, and @bengiyo to ensure I had facts and analysis correct. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to these dear friends for holding me down and offering your sharp eyes.]

To dive into a topic as complicated, as beautiful, as reflective, as impactful as a macro-analysis of I Told Sunset About You is to take on...a lot. As I’ve discussed with @lurkingshan, from a filmmaking perspective, as so many of us who have watched ITSAY know -- it occupies the top spot of Thai BLs by way of pure cinematic quality. (If you follow my late-night liveblogs, you’ll know that this was the first show -- not even Bad Buddy did this to me -- where I needed to stop multitasking, to just sit and watch the episodes. No drama has done that for me in the years since I became a multitasking mom.)

As with 2gether and Still 2gether last week, this watch of ITSAY is a definite milestone on the OGMMTVC list, and I really thank @shortpplfedup, @bengiyo, @wen-kexing-apologist, @lurkingshan, @telomeke, and others in advance for what we’ve talked about in direct conversation regarding ITSAY, its many influential tentacles, and the influences that the show itself may have come from.

I’d like to touch upon a couple of frames to structure this piece, but the caveat here is that by no way will I consider myself an ITSAY expert, because there’s a tremendous fandom that knows much more about the Nadao Bangkok studio, about PP Krit and Billkin Putthipong, about the director and screenwriter, Boss Naruebet, and much more. I will have a substantial postscript to capture loose notes and learnings that didn’t make it into the main analysis.

Inspired in part by direct conversations with @telomeke and @lurkingshan, I’d like to dive into the following:

1) From a question that @lurkingshan posed to me: what shows from the start of the OGMMTVC watchlist -- and, more broadly, what art out there -- do I think spoke to ITSAY and its development, 2) The important story of Chinese migration to locations like Phuket, Penang (in Malaysia), and other locations on the Malay Peninsula, and how Chinese and Thai-Malay-Chinese-Peranakan cultures flavored ITSAY’s storytelling, 3) A discussion of internal and external homophobia on Teh’s experience, and how his conversation with Hoon encapsulated our understanding of homophobia, filial piety, and socioeconomic pressures in Teh’s particular life, timeline, and culture,

and more, I’m sure. Let’s boogie.

I warned some folks prior to this review that my thoughts on what may have spoken to ITSAY may turn some people off, so I offer this as a flare to y’all in advance. Acknowledging that episodes three and four of ITSAY were as emotional as anything I had ever seen in Asian BLs, Teh was just such a PERFECTLY written character. (The ITSAY supporting documentary episodes state that the show was in part inspired by Billkin’s and PP’s personal lives, and I know there’s fanon that the show was meant to deeply depict their personal stories with each other. I don’t have primary source material to point to regarding this, so I’ll leave it alone, with the understanding that there are interpretations of the show that read between the lines to bring that lens in. I acknowledge the existence of the theories, but will not dive into that here.)

So, in regards to Teh, as I chatted with @lurkingshan as I was watching the series, I just kept thinking to myself... hello, Fuse.

CHAOS BOYS! (Fire Boys? No, no, chaos boys, ha.)

This is where I think my analytical read might get a little controversial with folks, because to compare Make It Right to ITSAY -- from a LOOKS perspective, CERTAINLY from a storyline and narrative structure perspective -- no, it’s not there, not by a long shot.

But when I wonder about what ENERGIES and inspirations opened the door for Boss Narubet to WRITE the way that he wrote, and to DIRECT the way that he directed, Teh’s ENTIRE EMOTIONAL PROCESS AND BREAKDOWNS, his back-and-forth, his hesitations -- I saw chaos, and when I think of chaos, I think of Fuse.

I think of Fuse, and how Fuse was held back, particularly in Make It Right 2, regarding Fuse’s CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ASSUMPTION that he couldn’t break up with his girlfriend, all while being in a nascent give-and-take, back-and-forth relationship with Tee. And how that ASSUMPTION held BACK the full expression of commitment, honesty, and trust that Fuse and Tee ended up having at the end of MIR2. Fuse was being rather unsophisticated while he was struggling with this, and he was bringing Tee along, frustratingly, for that ride.

Something that you said to me also really resonated, @bengiyo, in conversation with @lurkingshan, about comparing TeeFuse and TehOh, in that Fuse and Teh weren’t necessarily SPARKLING or GIFTED presences. As you two both pointed out to me: Teh had to work much, much harder than Oh-aew for the talents that Teh achieved, and somehow, chaotically, he managed to lose his grip on those talents and achievements as he gave up his hard-earned opportunities for the sake of the overall-better-off Oh-aew. MESSY, BRO.

Besides MIR/MIR2, there’s somewhere else where I saw chaos. @bengiyo, you pointed out to me that you felt that you saw more of Thai queer cinema in ITSAY than in BL. I don’t think ITSAY *doesn’t* speak to BL and vice versa (I don’t think there’s anyone who thinks that, considering what Nadao Bangkok achieved with this show), but when I think of chaos -- and of the structures of storytelling that allowed us to get such an in-depth experience of Teh -- I also think of 2019′s Dew the Movie, and to a different extent, the before-its-time show in 2019′s He’s Coming To Me.

ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM have:

a) multiple chaotic leads (including actual ghosts and dudes who see ghosts), b) overarching cultural backgrounds rooted in extremely specific Asian cultures and/or practices and/or time periods, and c) interplays of emotional revelations vis à vis those specific cultural backgrounds.

- Fuse introduced to us, way back in 2016 and 2017, an internal holding back of an emotional engagement with Tee that was rooted in internal homophobia by way of his negotiation with what Fuse’s girlfriend expected of him, and what HE expected of HIMSELF regarding HAVING a girlfriend, while falling in love with a young man.

- Dew featured two young men in chaos, in 1990s rural Thailand, one of whom (Dew) who had previously lived in a different city where, likely, his sexual orientation would not have been met with such dystopic scrutiny as it did in the movie. The movie made clear that Dew wanted a solid relationship with Phop, but with both Dew’s and Phop’s families and cultural expectations holding them back, they both met untimely and unfortunate ends that hammered, in extremes, the perils, in cinema, of being gay and out in an incredibly restrictive and old-fashioned Asian society.

- HCTM featured a young man (Thun) who could see ghosts, along with the ghost that he ends up falling in love with (Med). The revelation of Thun’s being able to see Med is deeply connected to Thun’s Thai-Chinese Buddhist practices, and how his family has engaged with spirituality over the course of his life. While the structure of the show has often been described as having a happy ending, I argue the opposite -- that the ending is left open-ended, as it so often is in some of P’Aof Noppharnach’s shows, with the assumed understanding on behalf of an Asian audience that Med will one day be reborn and will leave Thun’s side (unless he’s reborn into another person that knows Thun) (hello, Until We Meet Again).

So what do all of these shows/movies -- ITSAY, Make It Right/MIR2, Dew, and HCTM -- have in common?

ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM have the common background of an old-fashioned culture serving as a MAJOR anchor to their stories. Their stories are leveraged by the micro-level, individual-level interplay between their main characters and old-fashioned worlds, complete with old-fashioned notions, assumptions, and expectations. ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM negotiate boundaries with these cultural guardrails, and we see -- Teh at the end of episode 4, Thun on the rooftop in episode 5, Dew talking to his mother -- what those expectations and boundaries have done internally to our dear young men.

Make It Right’s Fuse, way back in 2016, internalized this slightly differently, without us seeing as deeply the WORLD in which he grew up. The directors and screenwriters New Siwaj and Cheewin Thanamin gave us a guy in school with a girlfriend. FUSE’S world, that we see, is a school world, so apropos for that time of Thai BLs, complete with very heterosexual expectations for a young man WITH a girlfriend. And Fuse struggles with his push-and-pull throughout the two seasons.

What I love about the OGMMTVC project is that by having watched these projects before ITSAY, I can somewhat predict what the journey of chaos, by way of internal revelation, will be for these characters.

However.

What ITSAY DESTROYED for me, as compared to these dramas and movies, was the high level of acting that Billkin leveraged to get Teh to the emotional levels that he reached. Teh, episode 4, and Thun, episode 5 = handshakes.

This is where ITSAY’s structure just brings ITSAY to the top of the cinematic list and runs away from everything else. I posted in my liveblogging that the ending of episode 3 blew me away with a subversion of the four-act structure of screenwriting. @bengiyo corrected me to say that it was, instead, a rare example of Thai BLs achieving a successful five-act structure.

Just -- fuck.

You combine this UTTERLY FUCKING BRILLIANT STORYTELLING STRUCTURE, NARRATIVE STRUCTURING PAR FUCKING EXCELLENCE, ALONG WITH BILLKIN’S PORTRAYAL OF TEH IN HEAT AND CHAOS, and I’m eating, fam. Five-star Michelin tasting menu-level.

But before I start that meal, there’s even more that ITSAY did to really hammer in what I’m referencing by way of the anchors of old-fashioned culture to this story, which, clearly, Boss and Nadao Bangkok value, in the show’s indirect commentary on Chinese culture and migration in Thailand, and what it meant for Teh and Oh-aew to grow up in Phuket and prepare to leave for Bangkok. (If you haven’t watched ITSAY, I highly recommend that you plan on watching the supplementary documentary material, because those docs give a ton of insight into the Thai-Malay-Chinese background of the show. As a SE Asian homey, those revelations gave me the wonderful warm and familiar vibes.)

Dear @telomeke (I don’t know what I’d do without you, friend!) helped me to understand, back in my HCTM days, that I inherently know more about Chinese migration, immigration, and culture into Southeast Asia than I previously gave myself credit for as a part-Malaysian, because many of the migratory patterns and cultural assimilations are similar between Thailand and Malaysia. I appreciated that confirmation, and had my inspector’s hat on during my watch and rewatch of ITSAY.

I’ve spoken with @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm about the impact of migration and diasporic existence, in that, I think, oftentimes, immigrants to another country often hold a more conservative view of the cultures they bring with them -- in order to hold onto the tenets of those cultures, and to keep those tenets from getting influenced or maybe even watered down by the new environment in which immigrants are living. (My example to Shan and NBW was that I find that South Asian immigrants are often MORE conservative than my relatives in my homelands -- so as to keep a tight grip on assimilation, or, say, moral/ethical weakening by way of Western culture.)

I think the background of Phuket and EVERYTHING it lent to the show...

- Teh’s mom selling Hokkien mee at a stall storefront and the boys eating it in Teh’s old-fashioned house, - The old-fashioned o-aew dessert shop, selling a Hokkien Chinese dessert, which is often preceded by a shot of the “Phuket Old Town” sign, - Teh’s mom’s traditional Chinese-Peranakan outfits, particularly when she’s celebrating Teh and Hoon’s successes, - The tight streets and alleys,

...all of it, visually and culturally, reminded us that the boys live in a world that was DEEPLY INFLUENCED by the way back when. I posit that Teh’s mom is the encapsulation of this kind of old-fashioned culture, from the architectural style of her Hokkien mee stall, to the clothes she wears, to the heavy decorations and rugs and furniture of her old-fashioned house -- to her old-fashioned notions of filial piety that both her sons will be successful and will help to take care of her as she ages. I posit that this old-fashioned mindset also likely led Teh to believe that Teh’s mom would not accept him for liking men, which I will delve into more in a bit.

I mentioned cultural assimilation earlier: I brought up Penang, Malaysia, earlier, because I’ve spent time in Penang -- and Penang was referenced by Boss in the ITSAY documentaries as being similar to Phuket by way of cultural structure. @telomeke educated me on the tin-trade-influenced links from Phuket to the Malaysian towns of Penang and Kuala Lumpur, all towns that experienced heavy immigration from China and feature the strong presence of Chinese-Malay-Peranakan cultures in their social fabrics. The Peranakan population developed when the first Chinese immigrants to these regions began marrying the local ethnic Thai and Malay residents, creating a brand-new culture, complete with unique foods, clothing, architecture, and much more.

Having not been to Phuket yet, I believe Boss. As well, I want to note -- very important to me as a part-Malaysian -- that Boss referenced Teh’s nickname as the Malay word for tea. @telomeke noted for me this distinction as one that’s notable for how ITSAY differentiates the culture within the show -- again, a culture that’s influenced by Chinese and Malay migratory history -- against the backdrop of Bangkok, where tea is not “teh,” but rather is called “cha,” the Thai word for tea. [The most famous “teh” drink of Malaysia is teh tarik, a sweet, creamy, and strong tea drink that you see everywhere in Malaysia. While o-aew is a distinctly Chinese-style dessert, teh tarik comes from Indian immigrants to Malaysia (and is usually drunk with roti canai, another Indian import to Malaysia)].

In other words: we are talking a TREMENDOUS, a TREMENDOUS amount of references to cultural mixing, development, and assimilation here, all INTENTIONALLY placed by Boss Narubet and his screenwriting team -- and all of this serving as a reflection against what Teh and Oh-aew will experience as being “different” in their futures in Bangkok, where this Thai-Chinese-Malay cultural differential will make them different when they get to college. (Not having seen I Promised You The Moon yet, I wonder if IPYTM sets up Teh and Oh-aew as potential country mice, à la Ji Hyun and Joon Pyo in The Eighth Sense.)

One more pertinent note of cultural intermixing by way of the historical Thai-Chinese-Malay linkages. @bengiyo was surprised that I didn’t initially exclaim at the presence of hijab- and songkok-clad Muslim women and men eating at Teh’s mom’s Hokkien mee stall; Teh and Oh-aew’s friend, Phillip, is also shown with his Muslim parents. It’s funny, @bengiyo, as I said to you: because I was watching ITSAY with such a trained eye towards spotting the Thai-Chinese-Malay cultural mixing, seeing Muslims on screen did NOT ring a bell of differentials because -- I expect to see them there, in those kinds of spaces, anyway. (In fact, seeing Muslims on Thai television is rare, which I will get into more in the postscript.)

So we have: MANY CULTURES MIXING OVER MANY GENERATIONS. Migratory patterns intertwining. Indications of physical and emotional movement. And even though, and even DESPITE, these cultures mixing, we ALSO HAVE an OVERARCHING message of old-fashioned customs and ways of living that dominate the lives of the children in the show -- ESPECIALLY Teh. Teh and Oh-aew -- literally, their NAMES reference places ELSEWHERE than Phuket and Thailand. Phuket’s old-fashioned roots. Teh’s mom SELLS a dish that comes from somewhere else (the Hokkien Chinese population mostly hails from Fujian, China, as its origin).

What happens with migration and immigration? Cultures collide and combine -- social mores and expectations change -- one’s standards of HOW TO LIVE ONE’S LIFE changes.

Teh and Oh-aew, during the entire series, are facing a moment in time where THEIR lives, THEIR cultures, THEIR micro-interactions WITH THEIR cultures, ARE GOING TO CHANGE, definitively, by way of their burgeoning same-sex relationship. Teh and Oh-aew are already different in Thailand by way of their cultural backgrounds, as I’ve established -- and now, with a potential public revelation of their relationship, will they be even more different. And their families -- especially Teh’s mom, but Oh-aew’s family as well -- are going to collide with the very PRESENT present vis à vis their boys and their love.

As this happens with migration and immigration, CHANGE WILL HAPPEN vis à vis Teh and Oh-aew’s queer revelations as well.

Boss focused on the aspects of Phuket that were anchors to the culture that Teh and Oh-aew were raised in -- an immigrant culture, a migrant culture from China, that has had a long hold over many, many towns and societies in Thailand. We didn’t see the modern 7-11s that we know are there in Phuket, serving the tourists of these towns.

And, just like the physical dystopia of Dew, and even vis à vis the spiritual practices built into He’s Coming To Me, the slice of Old Town Phuket that we SAW as that anchor was a HEAVY PRESENCE in Teh’s life -- it was PERFECTLY matched with the old-fashioned, conservative ANGER and DISAPPOINTMENT that we saw in Teh’s mom in episode 4, when Teh shares that he dropped out of university for Oh-aew. That anchor, to me, was meant to SMASH into, FEED into Teh’s overwhelming emotionality at his queer revelation, and at the revelation that serving his mother via filial piety would be automatically made more difficult, thus maximizing the impact of his internalized homophobia and his fear of recognizing his love and attraction for Oh-aew.

COUPLE THAT with the previous hints -- and then the SMASHING WRECKING BALL -- of the visual depths of Oh-aew’s own realizations earlier in episode 4, his own internally different place, the way he reveals himself to the world vis à vis the fast Instagram post of him wearing the red bra. And how Teh reacts to it. And how it sets off such an unreal chain of emotional unraveling for Teh, the SECOND of that episode, even before he goes to Bangkok to drop out.

WHOA.

THIS, TO ME WAS FUCKING STUNNING

and very important to me to see as a South/Southeast Asian. WHEW.

And, good lord. How Hoon comes in at the end for Teh. Hoon, the eldest son, the one who has very quietly borne the financial responsibility that his mom, Teh’s mom, too, has placed on Hoon’s shoulders, naturally, through generations of family custom. (Super duper thanks to @lurkingshan for talking me through this in detail with me.)

And Hoon gives his family, his little bro, Teh, comfort. How Hoon says, listen. Mom’s gonna be mad if and when you tell her about Oh-aew and your feelings for me. But guess what? She’s gonna come around. You’re a crybaby, Teh, but I’m here for you.

Hoon knows that Teh’s mom will come around -- because Hoon is also a part of the next generation of change, much like his Thai-Malay-Chinese-Peranakan community before him -- as he brings his Japanese girlfriend home to his mother and brother. (THANK YOU, @wen-kexing-apologist, for pointing this out!)

Teh’s mom, too, will move. She will move from her old-fashioned mindset, to migrate to a new mindset, where she will accept her son. Teh needed to hear that, to know that that movement would be possible.

Just like the movement of the many swirling cultures around Teh and Oh-aew, the hustle of Bangkok before them, nipping at their lives like the ocean to the beach.

What ITSAY captured for me was a cinematic moment of movement on so many levels. It was a pulsating reflection of change. It was meant and designed to insidiously shock viewers out of complacency. Like a beanstalk climbing from the ground, the movement begot movement to these two young men beginning to address and empty themselves of the homophobia that kept them back, Teh especially.

GAH, THEIR MOVING PHYSICALITY, IT NEVER STOPPED -- the end of episode 2 on the boat, the end of episode 3 in Teh’s room, GAWD -- Teh’s ABSOLUTE HORMONAL DRUNKENNESS, Oh-aew’s STARE AFTER STARE AFTER STARE, Oh-aew’s SILENT DEVASTATION AT THE END OF EPISODE 3, the way Teh would nod and FLOP his head uncontrollably in desire, the nuzzles, the sniffs, the uncontrolled reaches -- GAH. It gives me the shivers.

It was a lot.

ITSAY was just -- y’all know it. It was fantastic. While HCTM was before its time, I feel that ITSAY was RIGHT ON TIME. It brought so many elements of this GORGEOUS, HISTORIC, culturally Southeast Asian experience into the intersection of the queer lens, as well as the *migratory* lens of the Southeast Asian region specifically. It showed us, from a micro-perspective, the very tremendous macro-level implications and pressures of filial piety, of internalized homophobia, of the huge socioeconomic expectations that families have on Asian students to succeed in education, and so much more. IT WAS *DEFINITIVELY INTERSECTIONAL*, MORE SO THAN ANY BL BEFORE ITS TIME.

Yet again, for me, just like Bad Buddy, just like Until We Meet Again, I have another show in my arsenal that makes me proud to be an Asian watching these shows -- and in ITSAY, I feel particularly proud that a slice of my own personal culture, as an Malaysian, made it in there, intentionally. I will FOREVER, and ever, be grateful to ITSAY for that.

-------

I’d like to offer this postscript as a means of making some quick points that @telomeke, @bengiyo, @lurkingshan, and @wen-kexing-apologist shared with me as I was writing this review -- and I thank them all deeply for reading drafts of this post before publication.

1) I was previously unaware of the history and current state of Islamic culture in Thailand until ITSAY and Be My Favorite included women wearing hijabs in their shows. This is an important slice of culture for me to know about, as I’m part-Malaysian, where Islam is the dominant religion. @telomeke shared with me that the majority Muslim population in Thailand is in southern Thailand (although, of course, Muslims live across Thailand), and that there have historically been separatist efforts in those southern provinces that have often led to violence.

There are many reasons why discrimination of Muslims exist in Thailand, as it does around the world, including references to the separatist efforts in the southern provinces. As well, ethnic Thais can trace their heritage back to various towns and communities within China, thus possibly making northern Thailand, with its proximity to China, potentially more lauded in Thai culture, and contributing even more to a perception that southern Thailand, with its Muslim population, as potentially “less desirable.” (And I want to take a second to note @telomeke‘s excellent point to me that “Chinese” as a catch-all word is often incomplete, as Han Chinese make up a sizable portion of Thailand’s population, but as we see in ITSAY, the Hokkien Chinese population also flourishes in certain parts of the country, and there are populations of Teochew and Hakka Chinese as well, as there are in Malaysia.)

All of this combined -- the geographic proximities to China, the places where various populations have settled, from the places that various populations of Thais track their heritages, plus global and/or popular misconceptions and stereotypes of “other” communities -- can contribute to discrimination of Muslims in Thailand. Of course, that is not a universal statement, as we do see Muslims beginning to show up in Thai drama art, which is heartening. To me, it strikes me as more realistic for the region to see Muslims on screen, but I don’t know Thailand well enough to say that for sure (that’s my Malaysian-side talking). I really want to thank @telomeke for taking me on SUCH a deep dive with insight into this part of Thai culture that I think is very necessary and fascinating. (Politics in Thailand is quite complicated at the moment, but at this very second, Thailand’s current Parliament speaker, from the Move Forward party, is Thai Muslim, with a Malay Muslim name -- Wan Muhamed Noor Matha. Very cool, but this is going to change soon, as Move Forward will make way for another political party to take control of the government.)

2) If you know me well enough, I cannot leave food well enough alone in our wonderful dramas (exhibit A: Moonlight Chicken and khao man gai, exhibit B: coffee/kopi in The Promise, lol), and I want to make sure that we were all aware back in 2020, and/or make you aware now, that Hokkien mee is a VERY regional dish, with styles unique to each town in which it is famous. @telomeke, I know you feel differently, but Hokkien mee from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia is my.... it’s my heaven, my soul, my heart, HA!

Here’s some linkies to get you educated. And also! Oh-aew prefers his Hokkien mee with rice vermicelli noodles, instead of the usual, thicker egg noodles. You know what I like to do if I see that a stall has the two styles of noodles available: I like to get them mixed together. Hokkien mee, Hokkien prawn mee noodle soup, curry laksa -- I like the best of both worlds of noodles in my bowl. YUM.

Phuket Hokkien mee KL Hokkien mee Penang Hokkien mee (this one is the prawn noodle soup, not the fried noodles -- omfg so good) Singapore Hokkien mee (note the lighter color -- and the m’fing mix of thick and thin noodles, hell yeah!)

(If you made it this far in the ITSAY review, I have an easter egg for you. Guess what the Malay name is for rice vermicelli noodles? Bee hoon or mee hoon.

Hoon and Teh, two Malay names: thin noodles and tea. What Teh’s mom serves at her stall, and what Teh and Oh-aew represent, symbolically, by names and their noodle preferences, as a pairing. AND! @telomeke gave me one more easter egg! Teh O is a popular way to order tea in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s black tea with sugar, no milk. Another pairing reference. ITSAY never stopped with all the layered references!)

[WHEW! What a ride. Thanks to all y’all who held me down during my losing-it liveblogging of ITSAY. More to come when I get to Last Twilight in Phuket and I Promised You The Moon.

Next week, I’ll release my review of YYY into the wild -- listen, honestly. Yes, chaos, confusion, all of it. But I am not writing this show totally off. There was definitely stuff in it to chew on. And: POPPY RATCHAPONG. And Pee Peerawich. The acting was actually stacked on this show. There’s stuff! More soon.

And I also finished Manner of Death, so that review will drop in two weeks. I LOVE MAXTUL. UNABASHEDLY. Yes, I know I’m years late, yes, I know Tul is retired, sobs. Let me live my 2021 dreams! These guys are so good together, and MoD was fuckin’ great.

I have so much good stuff on the way: I’m fully in my ATOTS rewatch, and I’ve added 55:15 Never Too Late, very specifically its BL storyline. I may not give 55:15 a full review because I’ll fast-watch the rest of it, but: Khao, come to me, boo-boo! I have an INSANE August ahead of me as I’ll be moving in a month (GAH), but hopefully this schedule won’t fall back too much.

Status of the listy! Hit me up if you have feedback!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 11) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 13) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 14) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (not a BL or an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 15) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 16) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) 17) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 19) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review coming) 20) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review coming) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 22) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (watching) 23) Lovely Writer (2021) 24) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) 25) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 26) Not Me (2021-2022) 27) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 28) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) 29) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 30) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 31) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 32) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 33) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 34) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 35) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 36) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 37) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

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monstersdownthepath · 9 months ago

Text

If you're curious about the Book of Unremitting Horror, I do feel obligated to give some warnings, because the book does get intense

It contains blood, gore, and intense body horror throughout, and thorough descriptions of such. Murder is a matter of course. Other specific triggers include, but are not limited to:

Themes of self-harm (the Bleeder, Dementia Larva)

Cannibalism (the Blossomer)

Pregnancy as horror (Blossomer, Skitch, the Empty One, and technically the Motherlode)

Emotional manipulation and gaslighting (Man in the Bar, Ovvashi, Kooks, Soliloquy, the Mystery Man)

Harm, trauma, or death of a child (Clootie, Strap Throat, Kooks, Skitch, Sleep Hag)

Drug abuse (Man in the Bar, Ovvashi) ('offscreen' drugs are mentioned in many of the entries, as in-universe it's one of the most commonly available ways to open one's mind to the supernatural)

Sexual assault (Feral Drowners)

Protracted torture (Torture Dogs, Snuff Golems)

Unreality/entries which exist to make the reader nervous about their own memory (Dream Tearer, the Outsiders, Scourger, technically the Sisterite)

Mentions of incest (the Empty One)

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simmancy · 1 year ago

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Happy Spooky Season, pumpkaboos!

Here’s what’s happening this month / going forward on simmancy-dot-tumblr-dot-com.

𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜! 👋

Hi there if you’re new! My name is Kit, I am 32 now, this is my simblr, I am active on and off. If any of that bothers you, unfollow, it's okay! If you're here because I posted a mod list or a random piece of CC you like, then I have good news - I do those things occasionally! When I am actively posting, I usually dabble in gameplay. I don't do much storytelling anymore because... well, I don't have the time!

𝚂𝚒𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚎 🍬

I have SOME stuff I've been poking at in my ~spare time~. I love Simblreen, it's the best time of the year imo and it's just... a tradition. It's a tradition. So I'm going to try 🤞

I have been writing out a mod list centered around occults/spooky gameplay at least. So that's seasonally appropriate????? If you have a mod list request hit my inbox because I still fucking LOVE WCIFs and that's a sort of WCIF.

𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝 🎃

This year (and likely going forward), I'm going to try to use my blog to showcase the community. There's SO many cool things in the ts4 tag!! So I've been scouring it at the dead of night to refill my queue 👻 That's what you can mainly expect this month. No CAS challenges, no CC challenges, just some creepies and kookies from others around simblr.

𝚁𝚎𝚐𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝 🌕

Hi regular followers!! I’m so sorry if you've been here a long time, because I don't have much updates on my ~classic~ gameplays and saves and they just...... won't be. For a while.

Not So Perry... I have a bit of Gen 4 but I haven't played in a whiiiiile so. I might revisit that/redo/we'll see.

Star x Crossed is indefinitely on hold - I will probably revise how that was posting because the full episodes just aren't possible right now. I might do it more as like... an edit type thing, where the edits tell the stories or whatever. It SUCKS because I had really big hopes and dreams for that save and instead I... had a child.

The Nobel ABCs will return because I have 10 generations done in game. I just need to queue.

Maggie's Wonderful Life WILL eventually be done LMAO. I'm hoping to get back into that save soonish. I LOVE farming gameplay! So I want to play/finish it. I had about half of the introductions shot before I got distracted with other things and then... well. yeah.

New saves? When I manage to play, I play a lot of newer saves LMAO. Mostly because when I have time right now I need... something easy.

𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚄𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 🔮

I decided I like doing this once a year Simmancy Newsletter during my favorite time of the year. Halloween remains the BEST season, and there's also no guarantee I won't drop off the face of the planet again.

Obv the main thing is that, as previously stated, I had a baby. A whole ass baby. She's now 3 months old, and she is so much in the best way. We're currently teething and if you're like "Kit that seems a bit early," you're absolutely right but this is the lot I've drawn in life. She likes to be sat up, and stood up, and to talk to the Baby in the Mirror. She also is obsessed with trees and the cat. I know new moms are annoying and I'm absolutely that annoying new mom, I literally cannot shut up about her and therefore make my sims blog also about her.

I go back to work next month and I'm absolutely dreading it. Can I just be a sim and have someone press motherlode for me? Please?

Otherwise, there's very little in Kit World. The past 6 simblr years remain wonderful, and I've met some of my best friends on here. I go between BG3 and Sims when I have game time (which isn't a lot because Baby Simmancy is increasingly awake and mobile). I WISH I had more time to hang around here but maybe in a year or so.

Anyway, that’s my update of the year. Happy spooky season everybody! I hope it’s a good one!

Stay safe & spooky out there!

#blog update #kitkat chitchat #'i will be putting that baby in a pumpkin' sound #yes i am continuing to use my simblr to also update you on my child

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hollowtones · 1 year ago

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hey what do u think u wanna do build-wise or area-wise for trailblazer league? the combat relics all look fun to work with

I'm having a really hard time deciding... LOL

There's a ton of stuff in "Old School RuneScape" I have yet to look up, let alone unlock and do, so any of the picks would be fresh and new and exciting for me, and having scary power-ups could be a fun way to learn some bosses / raids for the first time. It doesn't really feel like I can make a wrong choice!! So I'm feeling a lot of decision paralysis, haha.

I'm eyeing the melee relic right now, though. I'm a sucker for being a tank and slugging it out in video games, so it feels a little targeted to me. Asgarnia's got some good looking melee gear but most importantly it has Motherlode Mine. Kourend has the cocks raid and big hammers but also it's got the woodcutting and farming guilds. Realistically I might fuck off into the woods and just power-level woodcutting at some point.

#Thinking about the league has me more excited to get more progress on my ironwoman account soon.

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fagaroni-and-cheese · 1 year ago

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Family Faults Legacy Challenge

I wrote a Sims 4 legacy challenge! This challenge is designed to have you play through different kinds of family and relationship structures, as well as playing sims who have negative traits. Oftentimes I get stuck in a rut playing with happy nuclear families, so this is my way of going outside the box. I hope some of you play this and have fun!

Required Packs:

Cottage Living, City Living, Snowy Escape, Island Living, High School Years, Discover University, Seasons, Parenthood, Nifty Knitting

Optional Packs:

Horse Ranch, Vampires, Growing Together

Rules:

- You may build or buy a house using your starting funds, but money cheats like motherlode are not allowed

- Lifespan stays on normal unless attending university, in which you can pause aging

- You may have any number of children unless the rules of the generation state otherwise

- You may make a spouse for your heirs in CAS if you wish

- Be creative and have fun!

Gen 1: Matriarch/Patriarch

From the time you were a teen, all you wanted was to be a parent. You treated all your baby dolls like they were real kids, and that want for parenthood never left you as you became an adult. After inheriting your grandpa’s old farm, you move to Henford-on-Bagley to start your new life as a farmer and animal caretaker. As your farm grows, a small town romance begins to blossom between you and a local. Together, you run the farm and make it into a success. You’re the messiest person they’ve ever met, but they love you just the way you are. You sell produce and eventually, when the time is right, have children, coming full circle and accomplishing your life goal.

Rules:

- Complete the Country Caretaker and Big Happy Family aspirations

- Master the Cooking and Gardening skills (you may choose to master the Nectar Making skill if you want an added challenge)

- Have no official job, just make money by selling produce/animal products

- Move onto a lot in Henford-on-Bagley and build a farm (you may build this farm with starting funds ONLY)

- Have the Wild Foxes and Simple Living lot traits on your home lot

- Marry a townie

- Have at least three children

- Have one of the spares take over the farm when you become an Elder

- Have at least one horse and a cellar for nectar making (if you have Horse Ranch)

Traits:

Slob, Animal Enthusiast, Family Oriented

Gen 2: Wild at Heart

You’ve always dreamed of traveling the globe. You want to experience different cultures and know what it’s like to live in other worlds. Unfortunately for you, fate has other plans. You get pregnant as a Teen with your high school partner, and break up as a result. Your parents help you raise the kid while you’re in school, and you get a job as soon as you can. You move to the big city the first chance you get, to start your traveling journey. You hop around different places for a while, working different jobs and having different flings. You never do end up settling down, but you make sure your children always come along for the ride.

Rules:

- Complete the City Native, Beach Life, and Mt. Komorebi Sightseer aspirations

- Reach level 5 in at least 5 skills

- Get to at least level 3 in 3 careers (switch jobs when you move)

- You may do odd jobs if you so choose

- Move to San Myshuno as a YA

- Live in the corresponding world to your current aspiration. When you complete an aspiration, move to the next world (example: when you finish the City Native aspiration, move out of San Myshuno and go to Sulani)

- Have at least five sims at friendship level at all times (your child does not count for this)

- Achieve the “Adrenaline Seeker” and “Frequent Traveler” lifestyles

- Never live with a partner or get married

- Have a baby as a Teen (you may cheat or use mods for this)

- You may only have one child

Traits:

Non-committal, Outgoing, Adventurous

Gen 3: Reclusive Genius

From a young age, you got to see a lot of the world. Traveling with your parent made life exciting, but also left you feeling isolated. You tried to make friends, but nothing ever seemed to stick. You were an overachieving child, so your grades were good enough to land you a spot at Foxbury. There, you spent all of your time studying robotics and how different mechanisms work. You had no time nor interest in friends or parties. After years of study, you had finally crafted a Servo. While its original purpose was to help you around the house, you quickly realize that this robot is more than it appears to be. You become best friends with them, something you’ve never experienced before. While you don’t desire romance, you do want children, so you have a science baby by yourself and raise the child with your best friend.

Rules:

- Complete the Goal-Oriented (teen) and Super Parent aspirations

- Master the Robotics and Logic skills

- Complete the Engineering career (Mechanical Engineer branch)

- Try to make friends as a child, but remain at acquaintance level

- Get A’s upon graduating HS

- Get into the Physics Distinguished Degree at Foxbury (you may pause aging while at university)

- Obtain the “Indoorsy” and “Techie” lifestyles

- Don’t make any friends until you have crafted your servo

- After crafting the servo, slowly form a close friendship with them

- Have a science baby as a single parent and raise the baby with the servo

Traits:

Loner, Genius, Unflirty

Gen 4: Suburban Sweetheart

You’ve always been your parents’ little darling. You did well in school, you were kind, smart, and infinitely curious about the world. Unfortunately, you were also cursed with social anxiety. It was always hard for you to make friends, god forbid flirting! You spent a lot of time with your hobbies as a result, and knitting ended up becoming a major passion of yours. You work really hard to become better at socializing, so that you can have lots of friends and maybe even a partner. You finally manage to overcome it and fall in love, eventually getting married and having kids together. Now that you’re settled down, you can focus on your career and raising your kids.

Rules:

- Complete the Admired Icon (teen) and Lord/Lady of the Knits aspirations

- Max the Charisma and Knitting skills

- Reach level 10 of the Politician career (Charity Organizer branch)

- Be part of the cheer squad as a Teen

- Win Prom Royalty

- Live in a suburban neighborhood (examples: Willow Creek, Copperdale, Brindleton Bay, etc.)

- Have your human parent move in with you when they become an Elder

- Overcome your social anxiety to fall in love and get married

- Have at least two children

Traits:

Socially Awkward, Romantic, Good

Gen 5: I Hate This Family!

You’ve always felt really out of place in your family. Your parents are such goody-two-shoes, it makes you sick. You’re not good at much in life, but you do have a talent for two things; mischief and writing. Writing has been your escape from your family since you were a child, so it was only natural that this would be the career path you’d take. You’re actually really successful as a writer, but you still manage to get up to nefarious things in your free time. Once you’ve had your fun though, you find that that other Evil sim might be good to settle down with after all.

Rules:

- Complete the Villainous Valentine AND/OR the Master Vampire aspiration

- Max the Writing and Mischief skills

- Complete the Writer career (Author branch)

- Gain the Evil trait as a Child

- Marry another Evil sim

- Be turned into a vampire as a YA (if you own Vampires)

- Have at least two children

- All spare children also have the Evil trait

Traits:

Evil, Bookworm, Proper

Gen 6: Black Sheep

You are the most immature sim to ever live. At least, that’s what everyone says anyway. You grow up with extremely low self esteem, no thanks to your evil family. They always compare you to your more evil siblings, and it isn’t fair! Sick of feeling like an outcast, you decide to rebel against them as a teenager, and start sneaking out of the house to go hang out with your friends at the bar. That’s when you discover your greatest passion…partying! Coming from such a traumatic background, you act a little strange..but other sims still seem to really like you. You decide to become a bartender, since that’s where the people (and the party) are at! You get into a hot and cold relationship with a coworker, and decide to elope on a whim. That turns out to be a horrible decision. In fact, you spend so much time arguing with your spouse that your children end up falling by the wayside. After the divorce, you decide that romance doesn’t matter after all, only partying does.

Rules:

- Complete the Party Animal aspiration

- Max the Mixology and Charisma skills

- Reach Level 10 of the Culinary career (Mixology branch)

- Have a Difficult family dynamic growing up, switch to a Distant dynamic as a Teen (if you have Growing Together). Have a Distant relationship with your own children

- Age up to a YA with at least 3 negative Character Values

- Go drink Juice and dance at a bar every Friday night as a YA

- Elope with a coworker soon after you become a YA

- Get divorced shortly after having your second child

- Do not get married or date again for the rest of your life

- Your firstborn child must become the heir

Traits:

Erratic, Party Animal, Childish

Gen 7: The Overcorrector

Your parents didn’t really pay you much attention as a kid. They were far too busy squabbling over random things to bother to care for you. That’s why you as the oldest had to step up to the plate and become the parent that your siblings needed. You raised them and yourself, by yourself, which made you a hyper-independent adult. You attend college on a loan, determined to make it completely on your own. You’re a success, and get hired at a prestigious law firm right out of university. Determined not to make the same mistakes your parents did, you wait a bit to get married. Unfortunately for you, sometimes things don’t work out, even if you plan them to. You have an amicable divorce, and afterwards take the time to focus on yourself and heal. Sooner than you expect, you fall madly in love with a sim who is just right for you. Together, you build a beautiful life and help each other achieve success.

Rules:

- Complete the Academic and Mansion Baron aspirations

- Max the Research and Debate skill

- Reach level 10 in the Law career (Private Attorney branch)

- Age up with at least 3 positive character values without help from either of your parents

- Join the Chess club in high school

- Go to University soon after aging up to a YA (you may pause aging while attending university)

- Get a Language and Literature degree

- Get married midway into your Young Adulthood, get divorced soon after aging up to an Adult

- Get remarried before you become an Elder (your second spouse must share at least one trait with your heir)

- Have at least one child with each spouse

- Obtain the “Coffee Fanatic” lifestyle

- Have a Distant family dynamic with your parents (if you have Growing Together)

- Have a Strict family dynamic with your children, a Difficult relationship with spouse #1, and a Close relationship with spouse #2 (if you have Growing Together)

Traits:

Overachiever, Snob, Materialistic

Gen 8: Just Take It Easy, Man

Unlike your parents, you never really felt a drive to do…well, anything. If chill were a person, it would be you. They tried to instill the same ambition in you, but it kind of backfired on them. All you ever really enjoyed was cooking, but being a chef sounded like wayyy too much pressure. Why not just become obsessed with grilled cheese instead? You have a ‘go with the flow’, easygoing attitude towards life. You spend your days lazing on the couch, eating grilled cheese (of course), and letting your partners take over the housework. After all, they both love to clean, and they also know that you HATE it. You help with the kids as you can, but the best days are always spent snoozing the time away.

Rules:

- Complete the Grilled Cheese aspiration

- Max the Cooking and Video Gaming skills, but do not reach higher than level 6 in any other skills

- Have any part time job, but use up all your vacation days and frequently call in fake sick, be late to work, leave early, and slack off on the job

- Have two partners, both must have the Neat trait (you may use mods or cheats to avoid jealousy)

- Help with childcare, but no household chores

- Have Cooking and Video Gaming as your likes, every other activity your sim must dislike

- Order pizza every Friday night

- Obtain the “Sedentary” lifestyle

- Eat a grilled cheese at least once a week

Traits:

Lazy, Glutton, Cheerful

Gen 9: Star Athlete

If anyone loves sports, it’s you. While one of your parents was spending their time on the couch, you were spending yours on the monkey bars and the basketball court. While you dream of being a pro athlete, that’s not all you want out of life. You also strive to be popular and liked by everyone! Some might think you’re a little self-absorbed, but you don’t care. You marry young, against all of your parents’ wishes, but you think you know best. That is, until you catch your fiancé cheating the night before the wedding! You say nothing in the moment, but soon take your revenge by leaving them at the altar. However, there’s a problem; you already had a child together. You decide to raise the child anyway, because you already love them, but you refuse to let your ex ever see them. You move your childhood best friend, who’s been by your side your whole life, into your place to help you raise your kid in their other parent’s absence. You live together as friends for years, until one day you begin to see them differently. You fall wildly in love, and get married soon after, giving you a gift you never thought would be within your reach again.

Rules:

- Complete the Friend of the World aspiration

- Max the Charisma and Fitness skills

- Reach level 10 in the Athlete career (Professional Athlete branch)

- Live in a “Needs TLC” apartment your entire Young Adulthood

- Be best friends with another Bro sim

- Have at least three keg parties as a YA

- Get engaged as a YA to a Mean sim, but leave them at the altar after witnessing them cheating

- Have a baby with your fiancé before they cheat

- Move your best friend in after you leave your fiancé, have them adopt your kid/s as care dependents

- Have a home gym from YA onwards

- Fall in love with your best friend as an Adult

Traits:

Active, Jealous, Bro

Gen 10: The Sea’s Sweet Serenade

You have two passions in life; the sea and your music. You move to Sulani as a YA to gather inspiration for your music, with the goal of someday becoming a famous artist. You’ve always felt a deep pull towards the ocean, and you fell even more in love with it when you saw it. One night, you meet a breathtaking sim on the beach, and you have a lot in common. They’re a creative type too, a painter, and you both have a great respect and admiration for the ocean. You slowly fall in love, move in together, and have children. The strange thing is, you’ve never seen them in the bath. They always insist on showering or bathing alone. One day, you find out their secret; they’re a mermaid. That doesn’t bother you in the slightest, though. They’re still the love of your life, after all. Turns out they were the muse you needed all along, and soon you become a popular musician.

Rules:

- Complete the Soulmate aspiration

- Max the Guitar, Violin, and Piano skills

- Reach level 10 in the Entertainer career (Musician branch)

- Move to Sulani as a YA

- Marry a mermaid who has the Child of the Ocean trait, place them in the Artist career if they’re not already

Traits:

Music Lover, Child of the Ocean, Clumsy

#the sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 simblr #simblr #sims 4 #ts4 legacy #sims 4 legacy #family faults #family faults legacy challenge

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