#making a new post set because i keep randomly taking screenshots so guess i should start a new tag for it huh

[josephslittledeputy]

Welcome To Hope County ~ FC5 & FCND (1/∞)

[mayisani]

Timmy & Y/N podcast

A/N: Thank you so much for all the love on California Sun. Hope you enjoy this new imagine. I was inspired by listening to podcasts so I decided to write one about if timmy had a podcast with y/n. I’m also thinking about making this a series which will basically will just be them talking about different topics. Send in requests if you like. Anyways hope you’ve had a lovely day and enjoy reading. 💕

Warning: Mentions of sex, fluff, cuss words

Word Count: 1692

Update Part 2 OUT NOW!

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During quarantine you had been quarantining with Timothée your Manhattan apartment. Which you were very grateful that had already been living together. You both laid in bed cuddling each other and your two bunnies that you had recently adopted right before lockdown.

“What if we did start a podcast I mean we have more than enough time on our hands. Plus, we can donate the money to Charities. And it will let us be more connected to everyone. I’ve already talked to my team and they think it’s a great idea. So, I’m a go.”

You looked over completely at him having the biggest smile on your face. “Wait you’re being serious right now?! I mean you know this is what I’ve been wanting and talking about for some time now.”

A couple of days later

Timmy had just finish setting up all the podcast equipment.

“Okay so I’ll post about this podcast on my twitter and Instagram and you can post on your socials.”

“Sounds perfect.”

You walked out to the balcony and started posting on Twitter and Instagram saying that you’ll be starting a podcast with Timmy soon to be able to raise more money apart from what you’re already able to donate. You walked back into the room and saw Timmy sitting down ready to record. You sat down next to him and put on headphones. Timmy started recording.

“Hey guys it’s Timothée.”

“And Y/N, and welcome to the podcast.”

“We’re live from New York. So, I know many of you are probably very confused right now on why we’re starting a podcast out of nowhere. Mainly because we’re both pretty private people. But we know we’re going through hard times so we wanted to raise money for charity so we are able to donate more.”

“Yes, this is all for a very good cause plus we thought it’d be a good time to connect with you guys since that’s what you’ve all been asking for so we’re now finally going to deliver. Also thank you for getting us trending on twitter.”

“Well this mainly going to just be a co-existing podcast so don’t expect much from us. But I do want to thank you all for being overall pretty respectful about my relationship with Y/N.”

“A lot of you have been wondering how Timmy and I meet. That was about 5 years ago we meet out in Seattle which was basically destiny because as you know neither of us live or have lived in Seattle. We were there randomly traveling I was with my best friend and Timmy was there with his sister Pauline.”

“Yea I was there with Pauline since she was out there doing a film she was working on at the time. I was basically dragged there because I didn’t want to go not because I didn’t want to be with Pauline but because I had some stupid party. And honestly, I don’t even know why I wanted to go I mean I didn’t even know the people who were hosting it I just heard about it through Ansel. But anyways getting back on track Pauline convinced me and I ended up going with her to Seattle.”

“So, if you’re listening thank you Pauline thank you for dragging your stubborn brother along.”

“Hey I’m not stubborn…” You let out a chuckle “Okay okay maybe I am a little stubborn.”

“We basically met through Pauline because she saw me at some restaurant and I guess loved my look for her film which I don’t know why. But she took me over to the hotel she was staying at to talk about the film and then Timmy comes into the room and he basically was just staring at me the entire time.”

“I mean what do you expect I was just coming back from eating at some small shop in Pike Place Market and I walk into my hotel room and see a stunning woman.”

“Honestly Timmy was not scared to talk to me at all. He was very upfront well we both were.”

“I mean I don’t really believe in playing hard to get I mean what’s the point in that if you like each other go for it you’re not going to win anything for it.”

“So, after that we became friends pretty quickly we got into a serious relationship.”

“I mean I knew I wanted to be with you since the moment I walked into the hotel and I didn’t want to waste precious time or risk losing you to some dude.” You were blushing bright red being touched by his sweet words.

“Okay so now that you basically know how we met I’m going to look at some questions that I screenshotted and ask to Timmy.” You turned on your phone and looked at the questions.

Username1: Why was your relationship so private for quite some time.

“Well at the time I was starting off as an actor we were already very serious. But at the time I honestly thought it wasn’t that important. Our relationship was an if you know you know situation. And we could have stayed like that for a longer time but about a year ago or two I really started to blow up everyone was seeing my work which I will forever be grateful for don’t get me wrong. But the reason I decided to confirm it publicly was because Y/N was getting a lot of hate and death threats. And I of course didn’t want to cause any more pain to her. I mean I’m madly in love with this girl, I don’t want to be the reason for her unsafety and pain. But I’m grateful that once I confirmed everything, things started to calm down. Y/N was no longer seen in a bad light or some random girl.”

“Those were very tough times but I always had Timmy with me so it made things bearable. And once people starting seeing me for me I gained a lot of love, support, and respect which is more than I expected that I’d get but I’m grateful that I did.”

Timmy grabbed your phone and read out the next question

Username2: What relationship advice do you give?

“Well firstly I think it’s very important to have trust. Don’t build your relationship on lies that’s a horrible foundation. I mean Timmy knows basically everything about me and likewise. I’ll be peeing and he’ll be shaving there’s no boundaries in our relationship really. We tell everything to each other we’re very close.”

“Definitely trust is important in a relationship but I know what I’m going to say isn’t going to be the best advice but personally for me I knew Y/N was who I’d wanted to be with. I mean within a month into our relationship I knew I wanted to move on with her, marry her, and start a family. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you can see all that with the person you’re seeing then you have a good relationship.”

“Here’s another one”

Username3: How often should you have sex in relationships?

You quickly became very quiet so Timothée took over the question.

“I’ll probably only be answering this question since Y/N is over here blushing. But it has a simple answer whenever you both feel like having sex. If you both want it, then you’re good and one if you don’t then you’re not good why because consent is everything.”

“I mean if you want to fuck then fuck there’s not much stopping you.”

“Look at y/n finally joining the conversation but yup in conclusion have sex whenever you both want to.”

Username4: Do you guys want any kids?

“Funny thing so we recently got bunnies two to be exact we named them clouds and moon. So, he’s seen my motherly side and this has caused him to constantly be like Y/N let’s have a baby. And of course, I want to have kids but right now is not the best time to have kids.”

“Well I know it’s not the best times but I really do want kids and I always have and always will want kids. I know kids isn’t for everyone but it is something we both want so no worries it’s just we need to get timing right.”

“I think that this will be the end for this episode we will have more episodes coming out soon of course. So, thank you to everyone who stuck around and put up with this. We promise we’ll get better at this so don’t worry.”

Timmy turned off the recording equipment and put it all away.

You walked over and sat on your bed your back resting on the headboard. You got onto Instagram and went live.

“Hey guys Timmy and I just finished recording the first episode to our podcast which we’ll be naming Timmy & Y/N I know pretty original of us. But we’re excited for this new journey. So, for the next couple of hours we’ll be editing and then our podcast will be posted onto all the places where you can listen to podcasts.” Timmy was laying his head on your shoulder being silent reading all the comments.

Username5: Hi loves hope you’re both staying safe

Username6: Timothée what do you think about tik tik

Username7: Are you guys going to join tik tok

Username8: You know I’m going to watch all these episodes

Username9: Finally you show your face Timmy. Thank you Y/N

“Hey everyone thanks for all the support I promise I’ll be more active don’t worry.”

“But that’s all we’ll say for now it’s starting to get late we’re getting take out from a local restaurant tonight. Don’t forget support all your local businesses in these crazy times. Much love to everyone stay safe.”

“Bye everyone I’ll maybe go live later I’ll think about it.”

Username10: You better go live Timmy we’re starving over here

Username11: Timmy & Y/N content is the only thing that’s keeping me going

You ended the live and put your phone on your nightstand.

[aqvarius]

HLITF: This is not the story of your first night: Soma - otona love - chapter 4 summary/translation

anyway i guess you didn’t have to wait that long for chapter 4 but only because i couldn’t wait and had to keep reading. you can find the previous chapter here, or check my new translations page to read from the beginning. my translations masterpost is not rebloggable or mobile-friendly yet but i will update when i make one! otherwise, you can always just search the tag “summary” or “translation” on my blog or follow the links in my previous chapter posts to find the previous posts. 

previously, soma had just said that what he was refraining [re: verbal attacking] from was... 

naturally, he finishes his sentence outrageously:

soma: “i’m only refraining ..... in bed”

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) <-- btw, the mc reacts the same way

he whispers this to you so closely that his lips are basically touching your ears again. 

soma: “are you displeased?”

keep reading for irritated momose, soma being the best boyfriend ever, and him asking something of you that is so predictable of him...

side note: i know you are probably all sick of me gloating about how well i understand soma that i can predict his behaviour/know what to expect but i’m just so pleased to see all this teasing and manipulation in canon. anyway how dare he ask that with such a sweet smile on his face. he knows exactly what he’s doing. 

soma: “or is it better to refrain in the workplace after all?”

you say that you’d prefer that he doesn’t [use verbal attacks] in the workplace as well, but you’ll leave that up to his judgement. deliberately letting his breath fall on your ears, soma drew back with an innocent face. you lament that you really can’t win against soma. 

“by the way, shouldn’t you get going soon?” soma asks.

soma: “tsugaru-san’s loyal dog-kun is about to bare his fangs” (lmaooooo)

you panic that if you wait around any longer, you’ll get bitten. so you “ittekimasu” and soma replies “itterasshai” and you run off after momose. 

this is a new background!! 

you apologise for the wait and momose flashes you one of these:

momose hops into the waiting car and glares silently at you. you can’t see his fangs but it really seems like he’s gonna bite you! 

momose throws the case documents from tsugaru at you and tells you to hammer it into your head before you arrive at the site. you try to ask “site-?” but momose just tells you to read it to understand and then he steps on the accelerator. meanwhile i’m here lamenting the fact that we don’t have a momose driving sprite. i guess they are only reserved for real love interests ;~~;

you exclaim “isn’t it dangerous to start [the car] like that?” and momose says that they are late because of you. you apologise but plead with him to drive safely lmaooo this is so on brand. 

while in the car, you start reading the case files on the target. there’s a group that has been showing suspicious movement right as a summit in tokyo is approaching and one of the members is the target this time. you’re going to the apartment that’s supposed to be their hangout. 

momose doesn’t respond but no response means “yes”... 

you note that there are more than 10 [more than a dozen] targets coming in and out and then momose randomly says “today is friday”. it takes a moment but you suddenly see something in the wording of the case document. turns out that every friday there’s a chance of contact with the terrorist mastermind.

“in other words, today,” says momose. 

“we’ve got to hurry!” you exclaim and momose gives you that silent look again lol. you apologise, saying “who’s the one who’s been saying that...” since you were the one who kept him waiting.  

“but those eyes... they’re too scary...!”

in order to escape from his accusatory glare, you turn your eyes back to the case material. 

“momose-san doesn’t say a lot, so the pressure of his gaze is intense”

“in other words... a shisenzeme [”glare attack”] type?” 

you inadvertently returned your gaze [at momose] that had turned away. he asks “what” and you’re like “nothing!!” you scold yourself a little because you have a job to do today and you need to concentrate on your work. 

i’m just adding these backgrounds here bc i’ve never seen some of them before lol.

it’s late and you couldn’t get any results from today’s work so you return to headquarters at night. you leave the division at 9pm after doing paperwork. 

“i promised i would go to soma-san’s house tonight...!” (😏😏😏)

i’m gleeful about what’s to come but also worried bc it takes me like 5 mins per slide to translate all the euphemistic sex scenes. you send him a text saying “i’m leaving [work] now!” and rush out and - 

your phone chimes with a reply:

“thanks for your hard work*. i’m making paella and waiting for you.”

*otsukaresama = good job/thanks for your hard work/you’ve worked hard

i hope you’ve all realised by now that soma is the greatest boyfriend of all time i love him so much 🥰🥰🥰

clearly hlitf mc thinks the same thing:

“paella! i’m so happy!!”

soma’s immediate reply makes you smile. (same girl, same ;~~;) since soma’s paella is full of seafood, you decide to buy some delicious white wine. 

“you’re arrived so late,” soma says when you arrive at his. he opens the door, looking a little displeased. you apologise and say you bought wine. 

soma: “taking such a detour...”

you show him the wine but his expression doesn’t change. you wonder if he’s angry... you were working late and you wish you had come straight to his. he asks you if it’s a white [wine] from spain, and you say you think it would compliment his paella. he says it should. 

soma: “a wonderful selection” 

i’m so happy to be praised by him lol. you’re like “yokatta...!” (i’m glad). soma says it was worth the wait. it’s a little disagreeable when you arrived (not really sure if i translated this bit correctly) but he’s not criticising/reproaching you. 

“let’s go eat,” soma says, and you say yes!!

“mm~ soma-san’s paella is the most delicious after all”

soma: “i’m honoured to receive your compliment”

he jokingly bows his head, and you enjoy a late dinner together. he says that the wine you chose is also delicious. you agree, but you apologise for keeping him waiting. he asks you if things went well [at work] and you’re like “um...” and then he apologises for asking about things related to another team’s investigation. 

soma: “excuse me. i shouldn’t say anything about the contents of another team’s investigation.”

you think that you can’t talk about it even to soma, even though you got no results today. 

“but [seeing you] in that state...”

“no, it’s nothing.”

you think that just now, he definitely saw through you [that you got no results]. “is that so...” you say, and soma just continues to eat while smiling as if nothing happened. you’re glad he left it there today. usually he’ll push you a little more or tease you. soma-san is good at listening to team tsugaru’s movements/happenings.

soma: “if you [eat] too slowly, it’ll be too late to take a bath”

i had to include a screenshot here bc it’s my policy whenever soma talks about baths. i bet he’s gonna ask to go in together too lmao. 

you realise that’s why he didn’t ask you about this and that. you apologise that things are rushed just because you were late. 

soma: “ahh, sorry... i don’t mean to blame you”

you say that ah no, you don’t feel like he was blaming/criticising you! and he says “that’s good then”. 

soma: “it’s getting late, so it’ll be quicker if we go in together”

I KNEW IT I KNEW HE WAS GOING TO DO THIS!!!!! i’m ALSKJFSLDSDS?!!!!J LKSJFLDK!??!???! fLSKDJLKJF!!!!! 

“soma-san grins flirtily while swirling his glass of white wine”

soma: “i got new bath salts, shall we enjoy it together?”

YESYE SLYEEYESYEYYEYESY

“could it be... i was skillfully manipulated!?”**

**it says “guided”, basically meaning he like led her into this. remember when i said mc’s entire relationship with soma was one big trap? this is what i mean lol!!

--

anyway, that’s the end of chapter 4! i can’t believe how quickly it went by (maybe my language skills are getting just a little better lol... or maybe i just don’t have to spend ages trying to figure out what parts of whose body are being touched in what manner in these everyday scenes lmao). i can’t BELIEVE WE GET SOMA WANTING TO BATHE TOGETHER AGAIN. i mean i can believe he because he wants to do it constantly but i’m like giddy with excitement seeing it again lmao. i love seeing overly legalistic hlitf mc as well (the fact that she was late but still nagged momose to not start the car so abruptly... sis........) and also how cute that soma made paella and waited for her a;lsjfdlsk supportive boyfriends are the best. 

i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you’re as excited as i am for the next chapter and hopefully the inevitable bathing together scene...   

i’m sure i could probably draw more traffic by updating that scandalous kazuomi story but i am selfish and i want to finish this story first bc i just can’t get enough of soma.

i’ve also set up a ko-fi page here and would be incredibly grateful if you would like to support me for translations and being able to purchase more routes to recap in english!

[nikatyler]

Short replies today just because I feel like writing them down. 

I’m playing with Realm of Magic now and I’m unsure about when to post it. Probably expect my RoM gameplay when the whole RoM excitement is gone and everyone is playing University or something. But hey, in a way, it’ll be a breath of fresh air, right? Right? I mean, I’ve never really cared about following simblr trends, I’m just doing my own stuff. But in case anyone was wondering when I’m going to post this Josie & Lucian gameplay I’ve talked so much about: I will. Later. Oh my god, Josian...I’m having so many feelings about them. I might post some screenshots without context, just like I did for the yellow gen. I love them so much.

As for i’m-about-to-enter-uni updates...is it just me, or are uni freshmen really just a bunch of confused kids released into the world of adults with no clear instructions? Because I feel like that’s exactly what me and my new friends are. A bunch of confused kids. This is going to be fun. In a way. Fun with a lot of freaking out on the side.

Alright, onto those replies. Also click if you want to see more of Josie. 👀

autistichatkid replied to your photo “Oooh boy. Why do I feel like I should go straight to the replies, or...”

WHOA WHOA WHOA jsyk you ABSOLUTELY dont have to redo settings for mccc... as long as you dont delete the mc_settings.cfg you never have to redo those

Wait so you’re telling me that this youtuber I watched years ago lied to me?? Because I remember her saying something along the lines “I hate redoing the settings after each update, I never know where it is”

My life has been changed now, thank you very much.

ayusims3 replied to your photoset “Roxanne: “What are you doing here? It’s 3 am.” Vanessa: “I was hungry....”

Lol I love this

Algebra, and maths in general...is definitely not missed here. I don’t know how I was able to get through it, all I remember is that I forgot everything right after finishing the test.

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “In case you were wondering what I’ve been thinking about since the...”

I was just saying on another post, Morgyn is so cute. I gave them some skin details but otherwise left them alone.

Yes! They’re one of the miracle townies who are perfect already and editing them is mainly just making them fit my style a little more.

desira-sims replied to your post “��for Ross and Caleb and then ��for your favorite.”

These two make me so happy. ��

Me too, me too...♥

1o8percent replied to your photoset “Waffle faces pt. 1”

Waffle faces are always so cute!

Yup. If I ever make my sim prepare waffles and don’t take a picture of them, just assume I’ve been abducted and a clone of me is playing the game.

1o8percent replied to your post “W-what? I didn't have my sim graphic settings on the highest option?...”

Was it for ts3 or ts4 because for some reason my graphics settings keeping getting reset after every update in ts4. ��

It was ts4...interesting, I don’t think that has ever happened to me. I had all my settings the way I remember them, only the sim settings were on high or medium, and not on the “very high” (or whatever the setting is called in English).

I’m a little bitter about it because I’ve only noticed it now and looking at my NSB screenshots, it’s been like this for months. I’m not sure if anyone else will notice it though or if it’s just me because I’m so used to my sims’ faces.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “~ stay beautiful”

She's so cuuute!

She is ;-; I randomly created her one summer night and fell absolutely in love. Actually, here are some more screenshots of her, just because.

She’s my cutest sim at the moment, there’s no doubt about it. ♥

plumbobhart replied to your photoset “In case you were wondering what I’ve been thinking about since the...”

I KNEW IT

I’m predictable haha. But looking at the notes, I feel like this has been on many people’s minds :D They do make a cute couple for sure.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “9, 18, 28”

I'd love anyone called Nebula *coughing*Favorite Avengers character*coughing*

I’ve never seen any Avengers movies *runs and hides*

Buuut, throwback to my middle school Winx Club obsession, there was a fairy named Nebula in my favourite season, season 4 (the last season, nothing after that is truly Winx, fight me - okay that was off topic but I feel strongly about this 😂). She was a bit of a bitch, but I loved her character. My Nebula is totally different though. I mean...I guess. She’s still a child, anything might happen. Ross was a sweet child and then he was an insufferable brat in high school, sooo...

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Lantana: Vanilla sims…my favourite snack!”

oh...urhhhhh... OK! XD

Did I mention that my sims are weird sometimes? Like really weird? :D

[lowtldes]

GUN FOR HIRE OC  ↠ Tristan Ong

MELEE / “The Up-Close and Personal” / Fights because he doesn’t want to move. Again.

AGE: 27

HEIGHT: 5′8″

SPECIALTY: The Brawler

WEAPONS: an engraved 1911 / his fists

OCCUPATION: Freelance Photographer / Fall’s End General Store Employee

LOCATION: Fall’s End, standing outside the General Store

SHORT BIO:  Tristan is a freelance photographer, new to Hope County. Tristan’s spent the last few years of his life moving from couch to couch, place to place. He needed something stable, so when his younger sister Thea got a job at Hope County Police Department, she suggested he move there with her since they could both use a change of scene. Tristan didn’t have to follow, but after their mother died and their father abruptly moved back to the Philippines, he wanted to be close to the only family he had left. He got a part-time job in the General Store at Fall’s End, which gave him a lot of time to hike around the county and pursue his work in photography. Then, barely two weeks after moving to the county, the local cult got violent. He hasn’t even unpacked all of his boxes, and now he’s getting into fistfights with every cultist that crosses his path. When Tristan wanted a change of scene moving to the county, he never thought it would have meant getting into fistfights with crazy religious cultists. Makes for good pictures, though.

RECRUITMENT MISSION: Shutterbug -- Help Tristan get his camera equipment from Deep North Irrigation Reservoir. [Talk to Tristan / Follow Tristan / Eliminate all Peggies / Pose for photos / Talk to Tristan] "Hey, I’m Tristan. Still new in town and boy is shit crazy right now, huh? I used to work at the General Store... well, I worked there for like five days and now, ah, I think my boss is dead so does that count as working there? Never mind. You look like you can fuck people up. I left some of my camera equipment on the roof of Deep North, could you help me get my shit back? The place is crawling with Peggies. I got some money from the register I could give you as a reward, just don’t rat me to my dead boss, heh... Oh, and I can snap some pictures for you too if you want.”

SPECIAL ABILITIES: MEAN SWING -- Glass jaw or not, if Tristan gets close enough he can down enemies with a single punch. Angels? Three punches. His hand wraps are always bloody for a reason. CAMERAMAN -- Tristan will randomly snap photos while he travels with you. Yes, even in combat. [pictures are located in the same folder as screenshots]

RELATIONSHIPS IN HOPE COUNTY:

Mary May -- He tried to apply for a job bartending at the Spread Eagle, but Mary May laughed at how terrible his bartending skills were. She still wanted to help him find work so she pointed him towards the General Store.

Jerome Jeffries -- Complimented Tristan on his photography once and Tristan was head over heels for the guy for the next three days. A little guilt about it too, the man’s a Pastor, after all.

Joey Hudson -- Tristan admires her, she’s a survivor. She’s pretty hot too, but he’s not gonna comment on that or try to ask her out. She looks like she just needs space, and Tristan steers clear.

Nick Rye -- Tristan thinks the guy’s okay, Nick won’t let him take pictures of Carmina, though.

Sharky Boshaw -- Tristan sees him set a guy on fire and thinks yeah, i’d tap that. Then Sharky opens his mouth, says something dumb and becomes another person Tristan is kind of in love with.

Hurk Drubman Jr. -- Same as Sharky. Turns out Tristan likes jolly idiots, Hope County is truly taking him through a journey of self-discovery. He’d join Hurk’s Gate.

Jess Black -- Scares Tristan a little. But she’s a great photograph subject, it takes him a long time to convince her to let him take photos of her.

Grace Armstrong -- The second Tristan saw Grace, he was fucked. Totally in love. She’s so awe-inspiring, and he’s pretty sure she isn’t interested in him at all.

Adelaide Drubman -- She looks like a blonde, slightly younger version of his mother. Nope. He stays away from that.

AMBIENT QUOTES:

[getting into cars] “Fuck yeah, let’s Mad Max this shit.”

[picking herbs] “Dude, I don’t think you can smoke that... but you do you, I guess.”

[in a church] “I grew up Catholic. Sunday pants and everything. Now I don’t know if I believe in God. If he’s real, he definitely doesn’t give a shit.”

[getting headshots] “What are you, an aimbot? God. I miss video games.”

[blowing up stuff] “Ah, it’s moments like these that make me miss Vine.”

[looting bodies] “That guy shat his pants and you’re going through his back pockets? Brave. I respect that.”

“Hey, can you kill that guy again? There was dirt on my lens.”

“God, I wish I could post stuff online. My photos about this war crap would get so many hits.”

“I really don’t know shit about guns. Seriously, if you even ask me what kind of gun I’m holding right now, I have no idea. I just took it from the store because I thought the engraving was pretty. Pretty. I don’t know shit. But hey, as long as I can shoot it, right?”

“All the Seeds are kind of hot, don’t you think? Crazy, of course, but hotter than they have any right to be. Except for Joseph, though. I mean I can see that he’s hot too, but the whole Jared Leto look doesn’t do it for me. That’s just me, though. If you think he’s hot, I support you.”

“You know, when my sister and I moved here, I really thought I was gonna be bored. I was scared I’d turn into a farmer or something. But nope, now I do murder. Life’s funny. Really makes you think.”

“I wonder if this shit’s made it to worldwide news. I wonder if my dad thinks me and Thea are dead. Dunno if he’d care, to be honest. That’s not who he is now.”

“Well, will ya look at that? My hands are shaking so much I can’t hold my camera properly. Maybe I should stop punching cultists in the face for a while, it’s really hurting my artist hands.”

QUOTES IN JOHN’S REGION:

[at Fall’s End] “Ugh, just thinking about unboxing the rest of my shit from the move makes me wanna take a nap. Seems pointless too. Why would I bother unpacking when there’s a war going on? Yeah, I know I’m procrastinating. But God.”

“John Seed. Sadistic motherfucker, isn’t he? Hot though, I’ll give him that. Definitely the kind of guy I’d blow in a nightclub bathroom stall and never see again.”

“Dude, we gotta stop that John Seed. Let’s blow up some silos and shit. That’ll get him pissed. Maybe he’ll tattoo us. Which I’m... definitely not looking forward to, I mean. Shit is fucked up.”

“So John was a big city lawyer, right? Why the fuck would he come all the way here? It’s just... cows and shit. But--ah, yeah, I can’t say shit about that though, can I? I moved here from the city too. I’m a dumbass.”

QUOTES IN FAITH’S REGION:

[at Hope County Jail] “Time for some prison photography, I guess. Never thought I’d get here.”

“Oh, you know that guy Tweak? Wonder if he’s alive. He gave me some good weed my first week in town. Don’t tell my sister.”

“Um, I’m not the only one seeing hippie Seed frolicking in the grass, right? Right?”

“Faith Seed is what happens when you go through your pretty princess phase and zombie apocalypse phase at the same time. Next thing you know it’ll be an emo phase.”

“Let’s run through some Bliss fields! The flowers would be beautiful props for portrait photography. Though, I wonder how good my photos’ll be while I’m Bliss high. The angles and focus would probably be all wrong. Yeah, never mind let’s not. The composition in my head will get so fucked... Actually, fuck, let’s do it.”

“Those angels, man, I swear I clocked one in the face and she bit my hand. What if it spreads like an actual zombie disease? Promise me you’ll kill me if I ever go bald, Deputy, promise me.”

QUOTES IN JACOB’S REGION:

[at the Wolf’s Den] “Is there only one bathroom here? Do they all share the same bathroom? That’s a lotta people for one bathroom. Eugh.”

“Oh god, we’re hiking this place, aren’t we? My legs are gonna kill me tomorrow. The things I do to keep my ass tight... And save civilians, yeah. That too. That’s also important.”

“The views we’re gonna see up here, oh man. I hope my camera’s got enough battery for today because I am not putting this bad boy down.”

“Jacob Seed is a goddamn fool. If he wants to put people in cages, he doesn’t have to kidnap them. There’s a whole community for people who are into that, someone’s gotta tell him. Not me, though. I like my balls where they are, thanks.”

“I think my sister’s kind of into that Jacob guy. Which is fucked up and stupid, but I’m the self-destructive idiot in the family so she’s not gonna listen to me. As her big brother, should I be worried? I can’t threaten that guy, I’m pretty sure. I think I’d die, but shit, I really feel like I’m supposed to have some kind of brotherly obligation here.”

“Those wolves--those Judges--that shit is so wrong. If we run into one I’m gonna piss myself. I can’t punch a wolf, can I? Oh wait, I have a gun. Right.”

[lonesomealley]

A Short Hike - In Depth Analysis and Review WRITE UP

DISCLAIMER: If you haven't seen the video that this write up is based on, I highly recommend you watch that before reading onwards.

This is a video project that, frankly, I didn’t expect to take so long. And I can’t really go into details as to why it did outside of just immense family issues taking place. Sprinkle in a little procrastination, school work, and a part time job, and it’s kind of a miracle I had the space and time to finally put this together. But it’s here, I’m alive, and I can finally do this write up to give a little more insight into the design philosophy of this video.

I stumbled upon A Short Hike sometime back in June or July when I saw that it was in Humble Bundle’s humble trove that you gain access to when subscribing to their humble monthly service. We had subscribed to this service for my girlfriend’s birthday just as a way to give her a large library of games that she can sit down and slowly churn through, while I was all about playing this game. So I sat down and played it, and played it, and played it. This was one of those games that would cause me to zone out and just put all of my focus towards the game while I’m playing it. That sounds like an odd statement to say considering it should be your goal, as the player, to be fully immersed in whatever you’re playing. However that’s more of a fantasy than a reality, at least with me, because I find myself taking many notes or going between tasks while playing video games.

A Short Hike is also just one of those games that really hits you right in the feels with its message. Now I’m not one to be very receptive to emotional ploys or to be hit by the sad music that plays whenever a character dies in a media piece, but this game somehow nailed it. It’s kinda weird, especially given my videos, that the only two games I would attribute with legitimately evoking an emotional response from me are A Short Hike and The Beginner’s Guide. So given all of the blog posts and video ideas that I had failed to really kick off so far, I decided to write up a 3700 word review for the game and put it into full production.

And that brings us to the release of the video, which took about 4 or 5 months to produce. . . Now I have an excuse for this that I stated previously. And ummm, I was hungry? That’ll do it. BUT, it’s here now, and I can write this paper.

This video was relatively simple, and honestly I could’ve (and probably should’ve) completed this a lot faster than I did. During the production of this video, I played A Short Hike 3 times, and 100%’d it. I feel that playing through games multiple times, and 100%ing them when reasonable, is necessary to understanding the more complex or abstract design of the game I’m playing. Hence, this allows my reviews to become in depth and hopefully more worthwhile than the standard review videos.

When it came to writing the script, I was primarily interested in the narrative design and atmospheric setting of the game, because the way the game goes about doing this was quite interesting. As noted in the video, the game puts its purpose right at the end, no hints, no anything, just a big twist right at the end of the game. And that’s a very unique way to design a video game’s story because it breaks typical writing norms. Usually you’d include tid bits here and there of where the game is going or what the underlying tone is, but nope. A Short Hike says, “fuck it,” and gives you a game that is unapologetically and completely invested in itself. And that’s something that deserves to be documented, which is ultimately the point of my channel: To highlight things that deserve to be talked about, that no one else is really covering.

After I had come to a satisfactory amount of thorough analysis with the writing, I decided to write a review for the entire game. This was because the amount of information I had on the relatively simple plot of A Short Hike didn’t make for a long enough video. Something like this may ultimately drown out the point of the video, which was to highlight the anomaly of ASH’s design, however through this medium I was actually able to also convey other points like the effective world design and gameplay.

If you haven’t read through the script yet, you can do it HERE!

Going into the editing, my project folder will often start out as just some footage files of me playing through the game, and as I begin putting stuff together and deciding on what pace I want the video to be, I’ll go out and collect other resources. My final video project folder ended up being about 67 gigabytes (including the files used for this write up.)

I unfortunately don’t have too much to write about with my editing, because it’s super basic. It’s a lot of cross fades, cuts, and key framing. If you know even the most basic stuff about Premiere Pro you can decipher how I did a lot of my edits with ease, so instead of going in depth about them, I’ll just show you how I put together the video and my workflow.

The first screenshot is how my secondary desktop typically looked while I was working, and the second is my primary desktop which features the default look and layout for Adobe Premiere.

I don’t have any real specialized work flow or editing process for how to put a video together, I just linearly piece the video together until I get a finished project. Going into the script I’ll come up with several ideas for how I want certain bits of the video to work, and will either keep a mental note of it or put some [brackets] in the script to signify what I want down there visually. This keeps the pacing of the video somewhat in check, but a lot of it ultimately comes down to whether or not I want to put in the effort to make a video that’s super stylized. I already tried this once with a previously cancelled project and it turned out horribly. So the editing for this video was a lot of just cuts to different gameplay pieces.

My general philosophy when it comes to editing is that I want exactly what I’m talking about to be on the screen whenever applicable and present visual information in a way that will back up the audio. So while my editing style and workflow are pretty free form and otherwise unfocused, I do try to at least have a reason for why I edited something the way I did. As I’ve said this video was designed to be straight to the point and contain just enough information to make a very snappy video. And the goal of these write ups is to explain a lot of the decisions made during the video editing process and things that influenced the video to get made the way that it did. As I continue making these videos, I hope to improve the conveyance of information over time so that what you’re being told is much more concise and comprehensible for many different audiences.

That isn’t to say my design philosophy is flawless though. One major problem with this format comes down to not having the right footage for a certain thing, or not having enough time to properly show it off. There’s one part where I briefly mention the direct shortcuts you can use on A Short Hike’s island and I couldn’t use a piece of footage of me using it because I simply didn’t have enough time. So I compromised with just a brief close up shot of one of the shortcut entrances, this was the best I could do to convey that this was what I was talking about.

I think in many instances the pacing of the cuts is done effectively enough that you can pick up on all of the information I’m trying to portray, but in some others it may fall flat or be convoluted by the use of filler footage. Filler footage is, and will always be, a problem in the medium of video essay because you aren’t going to have an example for everything you’re talking about from gameplay alone, especially if you like discussing hypotheticals. Of course, you can spend a lot of time developing those concepts in your own mediums such as through a game’s development tools, but that takes a lot of extra time and effort that I simply couldn’t afford to put into this video. On this note, let’s talk about the audio quality. This has been something that primarily just comes down to not having the proper equipment to really make my audio sound good. And I can really only subsidize this so much through the use of audio editing to the point where the effort that I put in just isn’t worth it in my opinion. That’s why there’s several moments in the video where my audio cuts out or goes a bit wonky. I want to clarify that in these moments that isn’t me just being terrible at audio editing like my Beginner’s Guide video, that’s actually my microphone just randomly refusing to pick up audio information. This can be worked around if I really sought to, but that would take too much time and effort on my part when I could purchase new audio equipment.

My overall goal with this video was to construct a snappy, well paced video that put all of the game into one convenient roll up. It might be a little strange for a review video to have massive game spoilers (as the point of reviews is to inform customers who haven’t played the game yet) but I feel it was necessary to be able to explain what exactly this game does.

A lot of my external resources and information either came from Adam and Mark, or were just some google images regarding what I was talking about. You may notice that in my video I use screenshots of DMs from Mark but not Adam, this is because Adam said that while I could talk about the information he gave me, I was not to screenshot it. I guess you’ll just have to take my word on that.

The final thing that I’ll really talk about video wise is the part where I play my own remix of a rock song to demonstrate how music affects video games.

This is basically a vaporwave version of an alternative rock song called “Black Domino” created by the band Ozma. And trust me, I really have no rhyme or reason for making this outside of just pure boredom. I loaded this song into Audacity, threw a bunch of effects on top of it like phasers and slow pitching, and it turned into this monstrosity(?). I figured since some people might want to listen to the full thing that I’d include it here. This song is technically part of a full album that I’m working on, that’ll feature a bunch of vaporwave or just weird songs constructed very shottily in Audacity or whatever I feel like working in. If a blog post ever appears about the album, now you know ahead of time.

Next I want to talk about the artwork that I commissioned for the video thumbnail. For this I went and picked out an artist that I already knew somewhat. That artist is Kagu, aka NeroNero, aka Totoaba. . . She really needs to decide on a name. But anyhow, she has fairly exceptional design skills and I saw the potential in her making a good, catchy, and flashy thumbnail that would show another level of effort and philosophy when it came to YouTube thumbnails.

So we started by discussing what I was expecting and how much I was going to pay. That went along the lines of, “Hey I need a thumbnail for a YouTube video and I will pay you at most $50 to make it.” Fortunately for me, she said yes. There was just one issue, however. Kagu was all about character design, and I mean that. There are next to no scenic pieces of art on the entirety of her twitter. Although considering I wasn’t sure how much scenery was really going to be needed for the composition, I went with the most comfortable option and pressed on. For reference, here’s a couple pieces of her art.

Again, please visit her twitter!: https://twitter.com/neru_nero_/

Having to go out and commission art was a really interesting process that I documented as it went along. Going into the commission I didn’t really know what I wanted (don’t be me), but not wanting to be that commissioner who just says, “Surprise me,” I had to quickly assemble a basic composition. However the only drawing program, and access to actual drawing tools, was Microsoft Word on my laptop. What resulted was the below abomination.

However, I feel like I should carry you, the reader, through the commission process so I want you to take a close look at that first sketch and this finished product:

After this first sketch was sent to her she immediately went to work and came back to me with this:

It’s not great, but it’s definitely a start. What may stick out to you immediately is that Claire, a big focal point of the composition, is pretty stiff and otherwise blocky. So she went through a redesign.

And then, deciding there wasn’t enough in the composition, we added a waterfall.

Once we had finalized the composition sketch, the next thing was to make a nice outline for it all so we could start coloring.

I knew from the get go that the background was just going to be some gradient that would mirror the colors and tones from A Short Hike. We used several official art resources and in game screenshots to come to the conclusion of what this gradient looked like.

Now given my standards, that’s about where the thumbnail would’ve ended. Just slap a logo on there and I would’ve been like, “Alright cool here’s some money thanks.” But she didn’t stop here.

I feel the need to point out that Kagu was entirely gracious in trying her own thing and putting her own spin on the rather simple ideas that I gave her. She wouldn’t just stop at adding basic shadows to something, she really went the extra mile to make sure that things aligned and matched. And while she had some communication issues where some of my feedback she would seemingly ignore, we did eventually work through those to produce something that looked better each and she was always willing to adjust something even without my input. An example of this is the clouds.

Initially, I had no idea what I wanted these clouds to look like and how that process of describing it to someone else would go. All I knew was that I wanted the clouds to appear like how they do at the end of the game with their odd flat appearance blended with the use of gradients. (The screenshot was rendered in high resolution for clarity.)

When I sent her that, she took a good amount of time to just experiment and figure out what she was doing. She then came back with clouds that were way above my expectations. And even as we adjusted the background gradient, she was happy to change the tone of the clouds along with it.

And speaking of that background gradient, I believe we spent a good hour making sure that the gradient in the background was just right, and she did it joyfully and productively.

And so we eventually came down to the final product.

This piece was well smoothed out, and I used my eye as an observer to catch all of the little details and errors that she made along the way, and she was entirely happy to clean them up. In the end we settled on $50 for me to own the rights to the art, and the money was promptly sent through PayPal.

Something that my brain didn’t quite register in time is that I’d possibly want to have a logo-less version of this piece polished and available to be put up here. So unfortunately I don’t have the most polished logo-less piece in the world, and I deeply apologize for this. However if you’re able to look over some of the rough edges that the logo was previously covering up, then you are entirely free to download and use this however you please.

I have a download link to the full resolution (1920x1080) pictures (plus some little bonuses) HERE!

In retrospect this video write up wasn’t as impressive and as grandiose as I had previously hoped for, and this will hopefully resolve itself with time as I build up a fan base and figure out more things to talk about with these write ups. But hopefully what I’ve put out so far gives you a little bit of insight into how I develop my videos and I plan on continuing these for every single essay video that I put out there. If you have anything you want me to talk about in the next video write up, please send me an email at countunderscore@gmail.com.

-Count_

[heavyyhearts-blog]

actually heres my side

“ first, before getting to real stuff, aya has done this to other people in the past too. when she talked about them to me she said they abused her or abandoned her suddenly. i’ve only talked to one of these people, but they confirmed that aya actually abused, and then stalked them when they cut her off. i don’t have permission to post these logs so out of respect i won’t put them here. “

ive never been very clear in talking about my past experiences with most people. you make this sound as if every person that's ever "abandoned me" were all "abused" by me, when that's not the case. have i acted in shitty ways to some people? yes, but it never had anything to do with me being abandoned, at any point. one of these people, actually straight up disappeared from my life, and i have no idea why. they disappeared off skype and i havent seen them since. we had no problems between eachother whatsoever. a different example i can think of for someone i was talking about? they left because i was too stressful to be around. as in, i always complained too much and that kind of thing and it was too much to be around. i didnt even know them very long.  another example of a person i mentioned with that: they had really bad schizophrenia and like, trauma issues, and what happened there? they'd randomly like? actually start basically splitting on me and getting extremely angry at me out of nowhere for no reason, which i tried to be really tolerable of, until things basically got too much for either of us to handle and after a bit of dumb drama, we separated with , i believe, no hard feelings.

my point being? when i say "ive been abandoned by a lot of people" or whatever, im not literally claiming that i was abused by literally everyone and im some huge victim, lol. that last example? you could probably say i was abused due to the level of pent up anger they were throwing at me, , unprovoked

“ i’ve only talked to one of these people, but they confirmed that aya actually abused, and then stalked them when they cut her off “

first of all, this happened literal years ago. second of all, this person is still full of shit and i can't believe they still insist all of these bullshit lies. "aya stalked me" i hadnt visited your blog for months, i'd literally forgotten about you, yet you somehow still had it set in your head that i was "stalking" you. i wanted to remake my blog for a multitude of reasons, and one of them being, a more back of my mind thing, was, i didnt want you viewing my blog. so i remade. and, like, 2-3 days later, i got paranoid that you had somehow found my new blog, entirely new, so i asked my friend to go see if my new url was on there, because i didnt want to go back on your blog myself. and sure enough, there it was, my new url, even though i hadn't given it out to anyone or posted it anywhere, meaning you literally searched through notes of a post or something along those lines to find it. yeah ive explained this so many times now its fun :) not to mention your shitty friend(s) that would constantly twist my words around and lie saying i was doingthings that i didnt. and your only "proof" was logs of talking shit about me behind my back to one of my friends, you had no screenshots of me doing anything, because guess what, i never did it. wow. "i dont have screenshots because i deleted them all" okay bud. anyway

and now here's my main issue with everything: you are "calling me out" for things we have already personally talked about, that we either resolved, or i apologized for/said that i would try to stop doing so i can better myself which i have actually done? so i literally do not understand why youre calling me out for shit as if im some malicious person trying to hurt people that's just completely incapable of getting better or whatever. lets start

“i’ve tried to cut her off several times, both by trying to talk and express my want to stop talking to her first and by just blocking/ignoring her on everything. i made it clear i wanted to stop talking the first couple of times. she will spam and beg me and make new accounts if she has to. once ive added her back however she’s used that against me”

okay youre calling me out for this but you admitted what you did was fucked up too? and i dont know what else to even say to this other than im going to try to stop getting so attached to people like that so i maybe dont have such bad mental breakdowns every time i thnk someone close to me is leaving like sorry i cant. help feeling that way or control this thing specifically unless i just dont get attached like that at all, which is my fault.

[x] [x] [x]

here, you post a completely out of context rant from me, where i got mad at something you did that you literally admitted was fucked up. full context!

[x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

you even told me you had no idea what you were talking about with any of it.

“ one of the times that we weren’t talking she DMd my twitter mutuals asking them to screenshot my recent tweets. “

i told you my reason for it. i was extremely paranoid that you were talking shit about me behind my back and i wanted to know if you were or not, even though i did it in a really shitty way. i instantly felt so beyond terrible that i had done that. i was sobbing the entire time i was trying to apologize for how fucked up and wrong it was of me to do that, and even apologized for it again later after it had happened already. because i wanted to make sure you knew how sorry i was for it. i cant take something like that back.

[x] [x]

“recently, after getting so upset with me for doing the same thing in the past, she randomly blocked me on everything and refused to talk to me. i would understand if she hadn’t previously gotten so mad and upset at me for the exact same thing. “

?? i split really bad just like i already have been, due to , as i've already exlpained, the nonstop bad things we've had between us for months, to the point i havent been able to talk to you like normal anymore, because just seeing you pisses me off and everything you say/do will just piss me off. i cant help that. its not my fault. i cant just not split like that because we've had fucked up problems for months, that, guess what, shouldnt even be public here for all reasons ive already stated! but i also did it just because ive been deciding i need to get away from you for good, that i dont WANT to talk to you at all anymore. sucks to be treated the way you treat others right.

“ i posted on my twitter saying i wanted to drink and she instantly messaged me begging and spamming me not to “

and everything else like stalling, pressuring you etc. this is still. we talked about this. i said sorry. i got better about it. why do i have a callout.

[x] [x]

like this is literally all just trying to make me look bad in ways that i'm not. nice try, though!

“ when i cc’d bakugou and she tried to make me explain my trauma to make it Valid “

you're trying to make me look bad again. i was just asking because i was anxious wanted to know the reasoning for it and im sorry for pressing it at all but that doesnt mean i was trying to make you explain it so it could be "valid" shut the fuck up lol i even explained to you afterwards why it made me so uncomfortable and that it didnt bother me anymore, that i thought you were just blindly cc'ing him for no real reason like i just assumed it wasnt a coping thing or anything and thats my fault but??? youre trying to make me look bad for it so??? i'd even keep sending you fanart of him like.

[x]

“ she was extremely dependent on me and would spam me if i fell asleep before she woke up, she’d got upset and started splitting on me because i didn’t return her feelings of attraction. “

wat...

“ second, she’s blaming everything on her BPD and “not being able to help it,” or “can’t control herself” “

well, as you can clearly see, ive been anything but that??? but if you wanna keep telling yourself that, go ahead. have i said things LIKE that before? yes, when i was freaking out, over certain things i actually can't help, for example: abandonment trauma??? and like i said before: i need to try to not get so attached to people in the first place so that doesnt happen anymore! otherwise, should some sort of situation like that happen again, i can't handle getting that level of upset. so i prevent that by not getting that level of attached at all. like sorry but theres certain things nobody can help, even you. you're just trying to make it sound like this entire thing has been nothing but "i cant help it"

and lastly, we can't forget the fact that, for a long time, you wouldn't tell me anything. literally anything. i would repeatedly ask you. "what do i do that bothers you what am i doing wrong" etc and all you'd ever say was "idk" 95% of the time. i had absolutely no idea that for the longest time, i had been saying a lot of manipulative, shitty things and acting bad and etc, slash i had no idea that some of my episodes were actually affecting you that badly until way too late.

when you first told me that i had been acting so shitty, through a jpeg meme that was making fun of me, did i realize how awful i was being. i honest to god never had any idea and i explained this to you countless times. that i was  oblivious/i can be oblivious to shitl ike that and that i need you to tell me, otherwise I WONT KNOW.

nice meme. :) but yeah clearly this is still an accurate representation of me, right?

[x] [x]

yeah, you got me though. im a toxic, abusive piece of shit that will never get better, all i do is hurt others, i can't change, ive never apologized, ive never gotten better. totally

and since we're playing this game,

and now that i've said all this, i have nothing else to say. i can't make anyone believe me, but if you do, thanks.