#so I won’t need specific outfits or cc

[star-mum]

Finally able to play The Sims 4 again

[simmancy]

Mods to Make School Better (High School Years + Discover University)

I really love The Sims 4, but I love The Sims 4 because I play a heavily modded game. I know that option isn’t for everyone, but for those who do... Sometimes it’s hard to know where to look. It’s like when you’re hungry and you open up your food delivery service of choice and are just overwhelmed by the options these days.

Luckily... I look around a lot.

This post is inspired by the other amazing posts here, here, here and of course here. It started as something just for High School Years but grew... very quickly...

This list was last updated 17 September 2022 / Patch 1.91.205.

More Students at High School (Ksuihuh) OR High School More Class Mates (Aramiteus)

Use one or the other here and read the descriptions because if you use Aramiteus’ version, you need to change MCCC Maximum Sims on Lot Value to about 40. 

The main draw is that more students will be on the High School lot. Aramiteus’ mod also adds 2 other teachers and an extra lunch person dependent on how many whiteboards/cafeterias you have on lot. It also requires you to choose your classmates before going to school.

Ksuihuh’s version comes with a script mod to increase the numbers of sims on the lot, as well an extra mod for an extra lunch person. It does not make you pick the sims going to class--you will need Rex’s Choose High School Classmates mod to ensure the sims you want are going to show up to school!

ChippedSim’s High School Tweaks

ChippedSim calls these “tweaks” but a full Active Class experience overhaul is a bit more than that in my opinion! 

Please note that updates are coming to this mod ACTIVELY - just today I saw that there were more in class interactions for the Active Classes! So keep an eye out on tumblr or twitter.

ChippedSim also overhauled the lockers so that you can keep more thing in there, as well as buy some stuff! Take a look at the full breakdown here, but I can’t recommend this enough.

ADeepIndigo’s Small High School Years Tweaks

Yes, I’m saying just download the whole lot.

More Discipline adds Parenthood compatibility--you can now discipline your kids for misbehaving/sneaking out/getting expelled. Why wasn’t that included by default? Ask EA, and thank ADeepIndigo in the meantime.

More Fun Pier Rides does what it says: raises the fun meter more!

Less Random Crushes makes it so that crushes are determined by Sims’ personalities instead of just randomly occurring.

Shop for Prom Outfit is just a really cute idea! It costs $100 to buy a prom outfit, and that can only be done once prom is announced.

My favorite has to be More Locker Notes. Don’t just let your sims cyberbully on Social Bunny. Let them passive-aggressively do it in person too.

ADeepIndigo’s Dynamic Teen Life

As of writing this, the mod is still in testing but I’ve been playing with it in my game for a few days and I’m still playing around with it, but it already adds sooo much more to my teen’s lives. More afterschool activities, popularity and cliques, new journal entries (for the Parenthood journals).... Gossip, rumors and having to actually try out to join the cheerleading squad.

Oh yes, I think this’ll become not just an essential mod for HSY users, but for most legacy players as well.

MissyHissy’s Form Groups in School

I won’t be surprised if MissyHissy comes out with some more mods but this is the one from their tweaks I’m currently using. EA didn’t let groups form in school which... you know, you’d think they’d want some cross-compatibility with previous packs to allow for literal cliquey behaviors but.

Anyway, this fixes that!

Lot51.cc’s Fashion Authority

I haven’t played much with this yet for high school but have it in my game for other reasons. This mod lets you take control of townie outfits... Including situation ones, and can restrict by regions. This is excellent if you want to have your sims wear a uniform to Copperdale, for instance, or you have a specific cheerleading uniform in mind, etc.

LittleMsSam’s HSY Bug Fixes

Hopefully we will not need these forever. Until they are patched though...

Take Exam Fix - stops sims from just getting up five minutes after the exam.

NPC Relationship Autonomy Fix - are you tired of random sims barging in, asking you to be BFFs after you added them on Social Bunny? fear not, because this should curb NPCs’ stalking you.

High School Promote Fix - helps the game promote sims from Cs to Bs if they’ve been going to school actively the whole time...

Stop Phone Change Color Obsession - I needed this one bad. Stops sims from changing their phone color every time they visited a new lot, and removed the camera focus as well

Ilkavelle’s Check Events & Sneak Out

A tiny little mod by Ilkavelle to help your sims sneak out, if they haven’t been getting invited out by their classmates!

Ilkavelle’s Teen Aspiration Bundle

I didn’t link this before as the teen aspirations hadn’t been updated to work with high school years... But now they have! This adds a few more teen-only aspirations for your sims (Prom Royalty, Overachiever, Towards Independence and Teenage Rebellion). 

ADeepIndigo’s Summer Camps

We’re moving away from High School Years fixes and enhancements straight over to the joys of gameplay. This mod adds Summer Camps to the game which is... actually really super fun? Summer Camp is for children and teen sims; there are a variety of different camps to send your kids off to. This isn’t an active experience; it’s a rabbit hole “job” that replaces school, and there are both day camps and away camps. It’s also ONLY available during the summer, and camp automatically ends when summer does.

Simston Private School [originally by SHEnanigans, adopted by ADeepIndigo]

ADeepIndigo adopted this mod by SHEnanigans after she was hired by EA, and updated it for the most recent patch. There’s not a current write-up about this mod available from a modding source, but there is a review by SnootySims that you can read, or you can read this capture from the Wayback Machine.

This mod recreates the TS2 Headmaster Visit event - if you pass, your child/teen is then enrolled in Private School. No more basic public school for your snooty rich sims!

Homework Tweaks & Subject Homework [originally by Scarlet, adopted by LittleMsSam]

I’ve had this so long, I genuinely forgot how long sims take to do homework. This mod comes in a few different flavors, but it makes sims do their homework... faster! Time is money, right?

Subject Homework also allows sims to raise skill while doing their homework. There’s a couple different options for what homework they can do, and I personally like to try to match it to what class my sims had in High School that day [maybe they write a persuasive essay after Social Studies, etc].

Zero’s University Custom Degrees & Tweaks/Fixes

Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve played TS4 a lot, and you’re tired of all those regular degrees. Maybe you’re a little annoyed that completing university plays into the lie we American millennials were told that going to college is the fast track to riches. Well fear not, because not only does this mod add 15 custom degrees, it also overhauls how degrees play into careers if you want it to.

This is very modular so read the post carefully. I personally play with Zero’s tunings, because I also use University Costs More, Higher Scholarships and  Harder Distinguished Degree Acceptance, as well as the Required Degree for Promotion that’s in optional folder. I know TS4 is a fantasy where I can have vampires and werewolves and also secret agents but I also like to make life hard on myself.

If you just want the Custom Degrees, good news: there’s also a file that goes by EA’s tunings so you don’t need to have everything cost an arm, leg and house or require degrees for jobs or anything. 

There are other tweaks available, mostly to adjust the autonomy from roommates in dorms.

Revy’s Get Back your Presentation Board

I don’t want to talk about all the times I’ve lost my presentation board. This mod provides a way to get it back. You just have to email your professor.

LittleMsSam’s Choose your Roommate

Lets you pick your dormmates or roommates :’) Great if you have a specific storyline in mind and already have the classmates picked out. This is another mod that has steps so read the post carefully. You can also pair it with LittleMsSam’s Chores mod to set up cleaning rotations :)

Zerbu’s Go to School V5 [Builder’s Tools]

Did you think I’d leave out the child stage? I’m not EA. I’m including this one here as while its actively in development, builders can get started building elementary schools now. You can also read Zerbu’s plans for elementary school here. I would not recommend using the old mod for now, as its considered unsupported and will be replaced by the new version requiring HSY.

But until then, I’m keeping it here as I know Go to School is a long running mod. V4 is here.

Ilkavelle’s Children Aspiration Bundle

Tired of the same 4 aspirations for each kid? Me too!! This mod adds four new aspirations for your kids to complete: Little Entrepreneur, School Star, Little Explorer and Voidcritters Master. 

Ilkavelle’s After School Activities Bundles

You’ve got more aspirations so get more things to do after school too! Bundle 1 adds 5 after school activites focused on creative skills, Bundle 2 is on mental skills. The second bundle also requires a few of her events mods...

Ilkavelle Event Mods

The three that are required for the after school bundles [& also usable with the children aspirations!]...

School Trip: take a trip with your class to a museum or park!

Science Fair: yes, HSY has a science fair too, but this is an active event for kids as well! Compete in a science fair against your peers, and perhaps be judged as the best

Debate Event: let your future lawyers compete against each other, starting from grade school. These events can also be attended by teens, in case you want them to go to debate club as well

Talent Contest: well if there’s a science fair, your artsy students should also get a chance to show off, right? This one isn’t required but it is a really cute idea.

Ilkavelle’s One Time Jobs for Teens & Kids

One of the childhood aspiration add-ons is about making some money as a kid. This allows kids to take up some jobs around the neighborhood (pet sitting, dog walking, lemonade stand, etc). Just a nice little add-on for your kids to do something extra.

credit and my many thanks to all the modders who enhance my gameplay exponentially, and to other simmers who have also made mod rec lists that inspired this one. If you have another category of mods you’d like me to post let me know - like I said, I have a lot of mods I play with 😊

[frenchiesimgirl]

Some points I’m tired to answer to in flows of DMs:

Many asks or DMs we get as creators are about how to create CC or mods. And it’s really really cool players are so interested in creating their own content and have many great ideas. Sure we can provide some help to some point, or share few tips and tricks or resources, but it’s ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to teach someone how meshes, textures, tunings etc etc work from A to Z in DMs! Which leads to the 1st point:

Stop being lazy, and READ!

If there are absolutely fantastic tools to help you creating your own TS4 content and making the process easier/faster, there’s no way that without reading tutorials and just by dropping an ask or a DM you’ll be suddenly flowed with all the knowledge about how the game works. Explaining step by step the whole creation process, texture formats, meshing etc etc is insanely time-consuming (btw be super grateful to all the simmers who took the time to share tutorials!) and it’s impossible to be exhaustive via messages. So imagine when you have to repeat all this to 5,10 or 20 different persons... Knowledge is NOT a magic thing which happens by snapping your fingers, you have to work, search, READ, and LEARN. The creator you’re contacting can help you finding the good resources, give you some tips when facing a specific problem, but there’s absolutely no way they can do all the learning and reading for you and in your place.

Sims4Studio is a good place to start learning, there’s plenty very good tutorials there, and most of the issues/questions you’ll face have already been answered there. There’s also Discord servers for creators like Creator Musings.

Know how to use your tools/softwares!

Another point is many people wanna create CC without any knowledge of texture editing or 3D softwares (or modding without any knowledge of Python scripting). Same as 1st point, there’s no way to make you a Blender or Photoshop/Gimp pro via some DMs. You betta work, honey!

Yes it takes time, you won’t be a pro in 2 days, but you’ll feel so happy each time you’ll improve your skills. Have fun in the process of learning, try things, experiment. Making mistakes is how you’ll learn to master your tools and softwares. Same as 1. , there’s plenty tutorials on the Internet depending on the softwares you wanna use.

CC creation or modding isn’t rocket science, but it doesn’t mean it requires no skills at all!

Start with small and realistic projects

The “I wanna create a super complex mod but I know nothing about modding” or “I wanna make a complete hair, outfits etc collection from scratch with no knowledge of Blender or Photoshop”, no, not realistic at all.

Start small, and take the time to do it well! For CC just try a nice recolor for example. Then, once you understood how textures and texture editing work, you can try a retexture (and create normal and specular maps). And create more and more complex things as you’re improving your skills.

(We all started somewhere, my first CC and mods were absolute trash, so don’t feel bad if you don’t succeed at the beginning, that’s ok).

If you start with too ambitious projects you may get easily frustrated to not be able to achieve them like it was in your mind. So stay realistic and take all the time you need to improve your skills. Keep your more complex ideas/projects somewhere in a folder, and go back to them once you’re ready :)

And the most important thing: HAVE FUN!!!

That’s just human nature, learning is much more easier if you’re enjoying what you’re doing. Don’t do a creation because it’s “trending” or because the community asks for it if it’s not your cup of tea. Use your own ideas, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. This is a super creative community, open to very diverse styles and ideas.

Find what makes you happy. Do things you wanna play the game with. Put your heart and personality in your creations :) It may sound cheesy, especially when it comes to a bunch of pixels or scripting, but it is what it is.

[seajaysims]

Submit a Teen! (Bachelorette-ish Challenge.)

Meet Cecelia and Lola Jones, two teens with big dreams who are hoping to find those willing to achieve them with them. The two moved to Windenburg with their parents and have been looking for a few new friends to hang with before they start to mess with cliques not suited for them. While the two of them are twins that doesn’t mean they’re anything similar. 

Lola Jones-

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

Aspiration: Master Actress

Likes: Acting, the color pink, sports, fashion, dancing, doing her nails, singing, flirting with various boys, academics. 

Small Story: Lola is the stereotypical pretty girl. She’s got good grades, a nice smile, pretty hair, and is on the cheer squad. She’s very invested in extra-curricular activities and is more often than not found at the gym. She’s much closer to her father than her sister is.

Cecelia Jones-

Sexuality: Bisexual

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire 

Likes: Painting, listening to music, guitair, cats, plants, tattoos, skateboarding, chilling with people on the weekends.

Small Story: Compared to her sister Lola, Cecelia is clearly quite different. While her sister loves the color pink, Cece loves black and various accents. Cece has always been into art since she was a child, and is often doodling in her notebook when she isn’t at the skate park with some friends. She keeps to herself but when she day dreams it’s over about finding the one...

What I need from you all-

I want you to submit me a sim who’s a teenager for their high school life into some college depending on the character. I just have a few rules:

Please make this CC light. I am on a laptop for this save and it’s very hard to keep a lot of space.

Non default/facepaint eyes only. 

I use lamaitesse skin tones as my basics. 

Maxis match hair! Similish tattoos please. Other than that, can be mixed. 

Everyday outfit and Formal can be cc, all else packs please! I have nearly all of them in my game atm save for Batuu and luxury party stuff.

Tag this as #JonesTeenagers and @ me when you make a sim! 

I will take about 8 families/teens so that both Lola and Cecelia can make friends along with find lovers.

I won’t be specifically choosing sims for partners! Things will progress naturally. 

Deadline is March 25th!

[pinayelf]

Hey, bestie, I just got my gaming pc set up and running!! What DAI mods do you recommend?

Hey!!! okay this might get long lmao fhddhu

so the mods i'll be linking are both for frosty and dai mod manager so i'll just drop this tutorial on how to use both

also keep in mind i mostly play EF and HF so a lot of these are catered towards them jfidji

gameplay stuff

increase power - so you can give yourself a lot of power in the beginning and not have to grind just to get to val royeaux

war table no waiting - the war table missions are done instantly so you can just do a bunch in one go lol

open all halla doors - you don't have to get all the halla statuettes at the winter palace so you can get the outcome you want easier

spirit blade charge removal and spirit blade nerf revert - if you play a KE and you just wanna slice through enemies w/o charging your blade

some store overhauls (so you can get crafting materials/supplies easier) - crossroads crafting supply, anhamirak's store overhaul (only use one at a time tho)

infinite fade step - fun when you're a mage lmao fnhhfu you can literally just zoom thru places

prologue supplies - gives you overpowered armor/weapons in the prologue so you can just get out of there lmfao

cosmetic mods

enhanced character creator - a MUST mod for me tbh. unlocks a lot of stuff in the cc so you can really get in there and make your character the way you want to 

modded hair in DLCs - it used to be a giant pain to figure out which hair mods will work in DLCs and now you don’t have to deal with that using this god bless

complexions i really like (read descriptions to see which slots each one takes. you can only really use one at a time in most cases): gearhog’s complexions (male and female), assorted complexions (female quizzie only), aci male complexions, stronger freckles (male and female)

HAIRS. there’s lots of lovely hairs now. these are a mix of daimod and frosty: anto hairs, misc hairs, hairstyle day, tight curls, messy hairs, side braid w bun and there’s a lot more if you just search it up!!!

some brow mods i like: eyebrows 4 men (i honestly use this on ladies too it’s good if you have female quizzies w/ thick brows), sos brows, settrah’s brows

new and improved makeup - just makes the makeup look nicer 

vivid eyes - my fave eye mod because it FINALLY lets your quizzie have brown/dark brown eyes

give dudes body hair hehe

clothing mods

starting armor replacer - you can pick what armor you wear at the beginning! 

invisible starting armor - makes you wear the skyhold PJs instead of the starting armor. really good if you have a PJ replacer that you like and would rather wear in the prologue

PJ retextures i like - blue velvet (HF), casual jammies (EF), ornate orlesian PJs (HM and DM), ra’lah PJs (EF), skyhold lace PJs (HF and EF), Libelula’s PJs (EF & HF), warm knitted jammies (all female quizzies)

PJ replacers - EF PJ replacers, Inquisitor’s Closet (EF and HF)

Formal wear replacers - so you can pick what you want to wear to the Winter Palace! You can also find the mod to use the wedding dress then here

Wedding dress retextures - SK retext and mesh (all female quizzies), prestige couture (EF and HF), silvermoon retexture (EF, DF, and HF)

Champagne and Truffles - my fave vanilla formal wear (nutcracker outfit) retexture because it makes cullen look like prince charming

NPC mods 

i personally don’t really like to tweak the companions/advisors too much so there won’t be a lot here

NPC subtle tweaks - lots of different subtle tweaks options for the companions/advisors. it also has deshine!

sera deshine - deshine for sera specifically

Origin Alistair - make ali look like how he did in DAO

Anto Hair - there are options in here to give Viv, Dorian, Josie etc different hairstyles

Cullen 4k retexture - makes cullen’s armor 4k 

Padme’s Frosty Cullen Outfit Swaps - different outfit options for cullen! i like this because i think he needs to be in comfy casualwear sometimes hfudhu

and that’s all i can think of atm fjidfij if you need help w/ anything and any other questions feel free to ask 

[by-inky]

art trades open!

there that’s basically it

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE RULES AHEAD!! I’LL BARK AT YOU IF I SOMEHOW NOTICE YOU DIDN’T ÖWÁ ØWÅ

😎🤌🏼💖 what I accept:

ship art (you’ll get ship art in return ⇒ I can do cc x oc, oc x oc, or cc x cc if it doesn’t make me uncomfortable)

fics (I’ll very probably ask for oc x cc; I accept bulleted fics)

video edits (twisted wonderland voice lines, preferably without software watermark but it’s oki anyways) // THOSE ARE LIMITED; if someone offers to do video edits, I’ll only accept a certain quantity (5) since it’s all I need. After someone offers to trade for them, this option won’t be up anymore (I’ll edit this post if this happens)

😔🕶🤏🏼💓 rules:

I’ll draw the same you offer! if you offer a sketch drawing, I’ll give you a sketch drawing; if you draw a completely rendered pic, I’ll draw a completely rendered pic, etc. me = you

I have the right to reject your art trade request if it makes me uncomfortable. If you’re still up for an art trade before that, please request something else.

please be respectful while you request and understanding if I don’t manage to finish the piece after only a couple days. I have a social life too and my routine isn’t stable; it can change at any time.

the art trade order will go by request (FIRST ASK FIRST SERVE): the earlier you send me a text, the earlier I’ll put you on the list.

I’ll be accepting up to 3 art trades. Once those slots are taken, you’ll be put on a waiting list to reserve a slot once it’s opened again. f you're a mutual, it's more likely I'll get into your piece the first bc mutuals rights

please remember to give me references if you ask for ocs!! I can accept picrews too, but don’t get angry if I don’t draw some details you haven’t told me about.

I can trade art for video edits or fanfics too! I’d need some help for my ocs’ voice lines videos so it’d be very appreciated;;

→ about this, (pink text is what you’ll get)

- help on 2 video edits (I’ll give you the templates and the audio, you’d just have to put them together) = colored sketch

- help on 5 video edits (same as before, you’d have to put the audio to the pic) = rendered drawing, bust-height

- fic 100-200 words (accepting bulleted fics) = colored sketch

- fic 800+ words (accepting bulleted fics too) = rendered drawing, bust/waist height depending on the length

the piece can take from 1 week to 2 months, depending if I have free time or if I’m busy af

please send me a text via tumblr DMs or discord (by Inky#6188). It’s more likely I’ll answer quicker via discord since I’m more online there usually. We can discuss the trade easier that way!

I hope it’s oki if I post my part of the trade in this blog since otherwise I won’t post on weeks bANABDNDJH, ofc you’ll be properly tagged and credited for your oc if you ask for an oc drawing

I need you to add two specific emojis in your text. They’re written somewhere in this post, so you have to read carefully through all of it

you don’t have to have a pose in mind, but it’d be easier for me if you did! you can send me a pic or a rough sketch of it to facilitate the work

✅ will do:

ocs, canon characters

ship art (waist height max)

chibis

complicated outfits

❌ won’t do:

fullbodies (I’m sorry my anatomy sucks)

NSFW/ suggestive art

heavy gore

difficult backgrounds, like,, have you ever seen a drawing of mine with a proper background

nudity

pedophilia ships, or draw a person who resembles a child romantically with one who resembles an adult

mecha

furries, but I can do hybrids tho (example: cat ears and tail etc)

specific art style (I cry in agony to even draw my own stuff in twst or genshin style)

please add the emojis 🌸💖 somewhere in your text request so I know you read through everything!! if you don’t add them, I’ll conclude that you didn’t read them and I’ll mostly get pretty upset bBSNB

some art examples (you can see them all through my blog tho and in my masterlist)

colored sketch:

fully rendered drawing:

yeah and that’s it! thanks for reading until the end! art trades are open until I specifically state the opposite!! <3

[newswcanonprompts]

prompt #37 - Jedi are like Magpies and love their clones

sorry we haven’t posted in forever! to make up for it, i’m posting one of our longest and detailed prompts (maybe even the longest)- this came from a LONG discussion a few weeks back, and it was a lot of fun. this idea morphed a ton, and it became this huge thing. this is personally my favorite one, so hope you enjoy!

Jedi collect trinkets and wear them!!! Hand them to others as a very important gift

The Clones dont really get it, but they are happy

The jedi make them things like jewelry, keychains, little beaded things, colored strings, they’ll give them feathers, you name it 

Its another way to show that they are individuals, and that the jedi know them specifically 

The veteran clones have long keychain type things and the shiny clones want them very much and it’s something they look forward to 

The padawans hand the commanders things and being sad when the CC’s tell them they can’t take them into battle 

Krell gets found out earlier.

“Okay, look, i know krell is… well, he is *something* and i don’t want to accuse a master of the order but have you looked at his men?! where the hell are their keychains?!”

The padawans stage a protest at the senate because how else are they going to make sure that their troops know they are loved and get their trinkets 

This idea can get angsty really quickly (finding trinkets after battles, in ship crashes, or post-order 66), but we won’t do that because of how angsty this server already is, we need some fluff sometimes

Palaptine can commit self delete 

Clones will paint armor for padawans cause that is how they show honor and stuff 

The clones, upon figuring out what they mean, give their jedi trinkets also

Mirialan padawan holding armor they got: “ITS GREEN LIKE ME!” 

There are little figurines, some painted rocks, some little shiny things found on the battlefield

The clones who aren’t as good with their hands singing songs or telling stories

The jedi record them and keep them on little datachips that they keep on them at all times

Barriss doesn’t go bad because this is happy time

The jedi padawans start a riot / protest outside the senate building because some clones got their trinkets taken away by asshole civilians because they’re “not human”, just copies

The (now very pissed off) jedi sprung into action

If a snooty senator(s) takes away a clone’s trinket, the jedi just sit back and grind to a halt. Because if the clones, the PEOPLE WHO PROTECT THE REPUBLIC, are gonna get treated like that, the war can wait 

The jedi knights and masters just meditate wherever the padawans are protesting

This is done to ‘keep the peace’

If anakin hears a snooty senator degrade the clones, he starts ranting and shouting about their individuality and accomplishments, while pointing at each trinket.

Someone live streams this

Luminara joins in (barriss is right behind) 

Aayla too 

Luminara, anakin, aayla, tag teamed shouted speech 

Ahsoka and barriss are being held back by the CC’s (ahsoka is making some very crude hand gestures and barriss is like “i can name every bone in your body as i break it” - cause barriss has all that healer knowledge) 

Once these three are done, mace windu comes along with the council. They think mace is going to scold the three of them until mace starts shouting at the senators too. The council just lets mace do all the talking. 

This is the most watched live stream this year. It’s very funny and starts a ton of memes (obi wans face, yoda meditating, the look of “oh shit” on the original snooty senator’s face, the look of surprise on everyone when mace starts shouting too - there is also a gif made of the council looking at the situation, looking at themselves (mostly mace) and then they all step back to let mace do the talking, the clones faces when they see that three jedi and then the jedi high council are defending them)

Mace, rolling up his sleeves: “okay let’s do this” 

The senators: backing away in fear 

Obi wan might commit a war crime right now because no way people can talk about his troops like that

Obi wan: “am i allowed to kill a senator?”

Cody: “General, do not-”

This whole thing leads to a massive debate and overwhelmingly good PR for the jedi and clones

Shady sheev doesn’t like that. Good PR for the jedi? No thank you. But since this is a fixit he gets his ass kicked later on so everything’s fine (skeevy sheev has to scramble to try to fix his plans though) 

All the padawans from that one lightsaber episode (the one on ilum where the younglings got their kyber crystals) are there and SHIT’S GOING DOWN

Petro in particular is very close to kicking someone’s ass 

Caleb dume is there also.

“Master depa said we should never raise our blades in revenge or anger. But this is not revenge.” this is war, this is justice, this is defense of a defenseless group 

Padme also joins in all of this (but much more calmly)

She also might make some passive aggressive comments about the snooty senators trash outfit 

She and all her senator friends are gonna blacklist the original culprit 

Padme and bail organa (they also got help from many jedi) put in the clone rights bill the next day

In the halls outside the debate chamber, padme threatens to gut people with her hair pins if they don’t vote in her favor

sure, it’s *technically* extortion, but come on, who’s gonna stop her? those pins are pointy y’all

Anakin tried to help draft / present the bill but he spent most of his time ranting about the injustices the clones have to face (leia had to get it from someone)

Anakin, out of breath: “AND ALL YOU SENATORS JUST SIT HERE, DOING NOTHING, WHEN THEY’RE OUT THERE DYING FOR YOU-” 

Padme: “okay ani i got this, drink some water please” 

Ahsoka also jumps in 

Plo, who’s watching the debate: “little ‘soka, please don’t hurt anyone” (but he’s not about to stop her, after all these are his sons we’re talking about) 

If someone said “well they’re not slaves?” anakin would go OFF. if you thought he was angry before… you got another thing coming.

“I AM A FREED SLAVE! I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE! THESE MEN HAVE LESS RIGHTS THAN I DID AS A SLAVE!” 

If the public doesn’t know about his childhood before, they do now

Imagine the shock 

Padme: “Ani, deep breaths, it’s gonna be okay.” 

Also padme, to the other senators: “well i mean he’s not wrong you assholes”

Padme is also making very well timed comments and suggestions. It’s the most successful day she’s had since she became senator

She’s also revealing all the senators’ dirty secrets

Padme: “oh, senator so-and-so, i released all your finances and your voting history on the holonet. I’m sure your supporters will love that you’re embezzling funds. Oh, you lost your support? Tragic.” 

The jedi also have dirt on everyone and they just casually let everything slip like they weren’t secrets 

Shady sheev Palpacreep is in his little podium thing during the debate, and he is very pissed, because his plan is getting ruined, but he can’t let it show or else people will discover the truth about him

Anakin: “isn’t it great that we’re finally doing something about it?” 

Sheev, pained: “Of course-” 

This whole debate is still live streamed - and it’s very popular

The senate who made the original comment and started all of this is #cancelled 

This is the greatest thing the galaxy has ever seen / watched because drama 

If a jedi dies, and they aren’t brought back to the temple, they are burned with the other dead on the battlefield. Young padawans take their master’s trinkets in remembrance, wanting to follow their path and have tangible proof that the master passed into the force but that they left their mark in the world

You do not burn the trinkets. Krell tried once. It almost started a jedi civil war (maybe that’s how he gets found out) 

Or maybe krell was found out because he gives zero trinkets to his men, and everyone caught on and were like “hey wtf man” 

But if you wanna make it angsty ( cough cough umbara ) then krell tells the 501st to remove / burn / throw out their trinkets or he’d do it for them 

He gives them an example by slicing a very special one that anakin and ahsoka both gave to rex 

Krell also slices one of dogma’s. It was the only one dogma had because  he was newish to the battalion at the time and wasn’t sure if accepting the trinkets was against regs or not. Krell slashes it and dogma doesn’t say anything but there were tears in his eyes 

All the jedi who find out what happened replace all the trinkets so fast. They also give krell’s men a shit ton of presents.

Krell’s men have no idea what to do with them, but they are so touched a few shed tears when they get them 

The clones get small tattoos of patterns that the little padawans drew for the men

The tattoos are small because some of them *might* just be random squiggles but the padawans looked so happy the clones just had to get them tattooed

Anakin orders japor wood with padme's bank account to make snippets for the clones because it’s not only a jedi thing, it’s from anakin's homeworld - and that’s like the highest praise you can get from him

The clones might not know exactly what it means but they know its super special 

Padme figures out a way to buy japor wood in bulk. Anakin is very touched by this 

When snooty senators start badmouthing clones, yoda just sits there and meditates to drive the senators nuts

“Sitting, i am, because stand you bitches, i cannot” 

Padme gets many trinkets from the 501st because they all *know* about her and anakin

Any trinkets that she gets she likes to incorporate into her outfits (like the warrior fashionista that she is) 

She embroiders some of them into her dresses and hairpieces 

They both get a TON of trinkets when the twins are born

Padme also gives trinkets to the 501st, some of the 212th, and all of the coruscant guard. Especially fox cause she sees all the work he does and the senators he has to deal with 

She’s besties with the coruscant guard. Like yeah, she knows the 501st and they know about her and anakin (and she’s one of them because of it) but the guard is who she’s always with

She probably wore red on debate day to represent them

[indigoelfinspirit]

Casting Call

Hey, so I might need some college age background berries for gen 2 still, and was wondering if some of my followers might want to submit some. It can be existing characters or new creation just be aware of a few things: they may just be standing in the background, they might be friends with a character, or their is a very real chance they could be a one night stand for Orion or Drift (or one of the others) - my boys are cute not smart when it comes to relationships. If you submit a sim I am assuming that it’s okay for them to be temporary love interests (if you really want a character to be in it but just as a friend or in the background leave it in the notes section).

In particular i need boys -- specifically gay and bi boys. Having more girls is fine too, but I am just somehow short on boys. Nonbinary and trans sims welcome too. ANY color or color combo you want (yes even peach or purple).

Details and submission info below the cut. Deadline 7/9, but since I am currently “filming” Gen 2 the sooner you submit the sooner they appear and the more likely they are to be characters.

Here are the details:

Skin: can be Noodles Sorbet, Historian, Scientist, or Jewl skintones,

Eyes: I use Noodles Clarity Eyes and Ancenth’s 2pm eyes and have them in sorbets, historian, and scientist, but will match the color to get close to what you assigned if you use different eyes.

Hair: EA 18 (or 24 or whatever it is now), preferably EA hair (if you are submitting an existing sim include the links to important cc like hair and I will either download it or get as close to it as I can).

Skin details: I have all of Simandy’s  body blushes so you can use those, and I always am on the look out for new freckles. In general though I will add skin overlays, body blush, and point ears and teeth since I have that stuff in game that I know works in my game.

Clothes: no cc please, one outfit for each category (I may add more myself)

Warning: if you are using cc beyond what I mentioned keep in mind that I only use things in game with a package size below 6mb so if there was a large file I might swap it for something similar that won’t break my game.

I have all the EP’s and GP’s except Get Famous and Paranormal. For SP’s I have: tiny living, movie hangout, tot, kids, backyard, laundry, knitting, kitchen, and probably something else I am forgetting.

Multiple submissions allowed. If you have questions message me or comment on this post.

Submit either through my dms, or the google form here (does not collect data)

[oversimplify-it]

Story Process Tag by @herpixels​

I was tagged by @dynastiasimss​ - Thank you so much for tagging me!! 😊💖💗 This will most definitely get a bit wordy because I’m terrible at explaining things concisely! 😂 Also, I’ll mostly be talking about my process for 2.B.A Grandmaster but I’ll touch on my process for Erin in San Myshuno too!

I’m also going to get tags out of the way up here so that no one has to scroll all the way through this ... absolute novel that is under the cut LMAO so I tag: @cyansimblr  @x-simss @matchacake and any other simblrs who wanna do this!! and feel free to skip if you want!

1. Your writing process My writing process is very, very chaotic, and changes with the wind... Erin in San Myshuno doesn’t really have a process, I just play the game and then put in some dialogue based on the events. None of it is guided by my hand at all though! 2.B.A Grandmaster on the other hand is written in part based on what happens in game and in part by my own creative vision. Most of the time, I let stuff happen, and then fill in the blanks in between events. I go in game, play Sims as I normally would (skill build, take care of needs, go out to venues, etc.) and then watch what weird and interesting things happen. For example, Augusta’s meeting with Xavier in the beginning was completely the game’s doing! He was the only one to show up for the Welcome Wagon event, so I rolled with that. Scenes like Kaitlin’s meeting with Maverick and those sort of things are planned by me, as they’re necessary to create a more full narrative! It’s like collaborative storytelling, but my “partner” is a game that is weird and random and crazy. 😂 After stuff happens in game and I get screenshots, I then actually write for it. I chose to write novel style for the series because - as some of my long-term followers may remember - I had another story that was just screenshots with dialogue on them? And it was very hard, LOL, it didn’t suit my workflow very well and I ended up dropping it after a month or so. I wanted 2.B.A Grandmaster to be something I could post consistently, and so I opted for a style that I was more familiar and experienced with!

2. Scene building For the most part, I just work with what sims gives me, but as I mentioned above, some scenes I actually go to the trouble of setting up. For those, I still use the sims animations mostly (I’ve used poses about 3 times in 2.B.A Grandmaster so far) but I do usher my sims around the "set” as I see fit. I build a lot of my own lots and locations for 2.B.A GM because I tend to get a vision in my mind of what I want and refuse to settle for less. 😂 One such case is the scene where Maverick meets up with Octavia--

I made the alleyway we see here - it’s two entirely empty buildings sandwiched side by side on an otherwise empty lot in Oasis Springs. The only part I bothered to decorate was the alley itself because I knew I wasn’t going to use the rest of the area, but maybe we’ll revisit it sometime and I’ll finish the two buildings! I actually loved making this set and like how it turned out, LOL~

Then I just have whatever sims are involved in a scene interact with each other for ages until I feel like I have enough screenshots to make a scene. I usually have a vague idea of what’s going to be said in any given scene - especially the ones I actually planned out beforehand - but I get some excess screenshots to be safe. I try lots of different interactions and pause like every few frames to get interesting expressions and stuff, LOL. Lots of “Complain about Cold Weather” and “Give fake bad news” ...

3. CC/Pose making I don’t actually make my own CC for 2.B.A GM specifically (I’ve made a couple eyeshadows but I don’t use them super frequently) but there is a scene coming up in the future that I plan to make poses for. I have a very clear image in my mind that includes a lot of subtle expressions and very specific things that I doubt I could find poses for, so I’m gonna have to brave the terrifying landscape of blender in order to make it a reality. 😧

4. Getting in the zone I don’t have any sort of “ok, show time” ritual like some people do but I wish I did, because my motivation waxes and wanes so unpredictably. Some days I just don’t feel like doing anything, and other days I edit and write for 5 posts in a row! I am always listening to something though, usually music, every once in a blue moon a video with lots of talking. 5. Screenshot folder

UGH... 

6. Captions I don’t do captions on 2.B.A GM posts, but for my city living gameplay I do! I keep them simple, because I don’t want to make it too much work for myself. Erin in San Myshuno’s style of editing is 100% based around ease, because I wanted something to post often that didn’t put too much of a strain on me. Verdana in white, typically 35-40 px, with a gradient border. Each sim we encounter has a different gradient color, usually based on their outfit or just the ~vibe~ I get from them. Erin’s gradient is Hot pink to ... gee, what would you call it. Sonic the Hedgehog Blue LMAO-- I chose that gradient because that’s the color of the overlay, which I’ll talk more about in the next section!

7. Editing My two ‘series’ - and I use that term loosely LMAO - have different editing processes, so I’ll try to summarize them both. Basically, for 2.B.A Grandmaster, I touch up the saturation and brightness depending on the scene. If it’s evening in the shots, I usually won’t touch brightness, and if it’s night, I might even lower it a bit for more accurate lighting! Once that’s done, I blur everything but relevant elements of a scene, usually the character we’re following or who is speaking. I have to select the character from the background manually which takes a bit, but other than that it’s very minimal.

My shots aren’t super glamorous, but I prefer simple screenshots and actually being able to keep up with a story schedule as opposed to what happened with my last story. 😬 As for Erin in San Myshuno, barring captions which I only do when I feel it’s necessary, it’s literally just an overlay on otherwise untouched screenshots. 😭 I would do more, but again, it’s supposed to be an easy downtime sort of series for me so~

This goes over top all screenshots on the “Add” setting at 20% opacity. It brightens things up and softens them, as well as making the colors slightly more harmonious! If anyone wants me to go more in depth on editing, or maybe captions, please let me know! I’m happy to talk about it if it’ll help anyone, and I know that a lot of tutorials cover how to do stuff in Photoshop, whereas I use FireAlpaca (which is 100% free btw! It’s more of an art program, but not bad for editing) 8. Throwback!

Oh boy, so this is one of my first posts on simblr. For starters, I didn’t know about camera mode at the time, so that’s the first thing I would change obviously LOL. 😬 The framing I did at the time was ... cute, but it makes the pictures feel kind of cramped and small in my opinion, so I did away with that for all of my later stories. Also, Amy and Gemma aren’t very well centered in this picture! Other than that, this isn’t actually terrible I don’t think, so aside from maybe blurring the background as I do on 2.B.A GM now, I wouldn’t change too much! Thankfully, I had observed other people’s stories before making my own on here for a little bit, so I wasn’t starting with absolutely no idea what to do, but I still think I’ve improved since I made these. 😊

This was a ton of fun!! If anyone has questions or wants more info on anything I covered in here, absolutely feel free to ask, and thank you so much if you actually read through all of this - I know I rambled for quite a while!! 🙏

[mrsfullbuster500]

OC Redesigns - Star Wars

Since I got into the habit of redesigning OCs with my Gotham characters, I decided to start looking into my other OCs and see if any more need the same treatment.

Next fandom I looked into was Star Wars, although I’ve left Luna as she is for now, I did redesign some other characters. Those characters being Numae and Aetiss specifically.

Aetiss Benoth

The one thing that prompted this particular redesign was coming across Sims 4 cc of some of the Miraluka face covers from SWTOR. I’ve honestly never hit download so fast in my life 😂

I do still need to find her a faceclaim, but that should be a little easier this time though as I won’t need to worry about matching eyes since the Miraluka have no eyes. 

Here’s a fullbody picture of her so you guys can see the outfit that she’s wearing properly.

Numae Uvar

Thinking back on it I wasn’t entirely happy with Numae’s look before, but didn’t initially know what direction to take his design. But as I recently found a faceclaim for him I decided to tweak his facial features to make him look a little closer to his faceclaim. I also did some tweaking of his scars and skin colour as well.

I did a fullbody picture of Numae as well, although I used one of the outfits from the Journey to Batuu gamepack as a placeholder since I haven’t found any cc for Inquisitor outfits yet.

I’m very happy with how the redesigns for these two turned out, and I hope you guys like them just as much as I do.

Taglist: 

@seldomabsent @ocfairygodmother​ @thevanillerose​

[pixelatedrose]

HEY!!! I need some INSPIRATION baybee!

I want to draw some mcyt but idk who i should draw or what i should draw them in/doing :/

Sooo!!! Gimme some sugestions/requests!! Ask me for my own personal og design for one of them! Ask me for a design that closely matches their mcskin! Ask me for a design inspired by something else! Idk man, I'm bored as hell and really want to draw :)

Rules are though:

Nothing too complex- i won't be doing backgrounds or multiple characters in one drawing (unless you can convince me somehow)

Absolutely nothing nsfw- I'm a minor and these are real people. Please leave if you think I'm gonna draw smut

Nothing shippy- i don't have a problem with shippy things as long as the ccs are okay with it and have stated in the past that they are okay with it, but I'd rather not draw anything shippy rn. Just feel good block men :)

What i will do:

A little blood, a little gore- i don't mind a drawing a little blood and gore, though I'm not the best at it so take that into consideration

Complex character designs- i won't be doing complex settings or postioning, but i would love to try and start drawing more complex designs!

And anything else within reason- just cause i didn't explicitly put it on this list doesn't mean i won't draw it. I already said I'm looking for really good inspiration here- even better if you give me a story to go off of! I just know people will be hesitant to ask for some things which is why i made the "what i will do" list in the first place :)

And there we go we got a good set of loose rules to follow! Now send me those art requests PLEASE!! This is me BEGGING you to come up to me and scream-demand in my face to draw your favorite mcyt in a pretty dress or a complex outfit. Please i want to draw

Edit: when i made this post i was hoping mostly for people to ask for specific character designs/outfits, but i don't mind the open ended asks I've gotten :)

(This is still valid until i unpin the post. Even if you've already sent an ask, you can send another :) I will make a post saying my inbox is closed when i no longer want art reqs)

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

The Sims 4 Realm of Magic - Early Access CAS Review

Huge thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play the Realm of Magic Game Pack early!

I have been quietly hoping for a long time that we would get some kind of Makin’ Magic style pack, so needless to say I was VERY happy when Realm of Magic was announced. I was even happier when the Gurus started “leaking” gameplay images, and completely ecstatic when the trailer came out! So you can imagine how psyched I was when we were given our early access codes and I could finally get in and look everything!

You all know by now how this works, right? If I like something, I generally can’t think of much else to say besides screaming at the top of my lungs “OMG I LOVE IT!”, and if I don’t like something I will straight up tell you guys and explain why... Yeh I’m looking at you Moschino reviews. So with this pack, there are a couple things I had issues with (not as many as Moschino lol) so if you don’t want to hear my nitpicky opinions about those things you can just skip straight to the "The Verdict” section at the bottom of each review.

As per usual, I’ll be posting both CAS and Build/Buy reviews, but instead of a gameplay review (because let’s face it, I never seem to be able to get around to that damn thing lol) this time around I’m going to be posting a short gameplay “story” instead, and will be voicing my opinions about certain things on the posts as it goes along. The gameplay won’t be all posted before the pack releases though, so...

Anon will be back on for the next few days so if you have any questions about Realm of Magic, feel free to send me an ask! ✨

See a preview of all the new CAS items here

I’m still a little uncertain how I feel about CAS as a whole. It has a lot of great stuff and it’s definitely worth having in my game, but it also has quite a few things I don’t like, things that (in my opinion) should have been included that weren’t, and the usual issues with some of the meshes/textures that continue to happen with every new pack. 

✨The Hair

For some reason I was expecting more than five hairs? I don’t know why, but based on the trailers this pack seemed like it was going to have a lot more content than any other Game Pack, and it does to a certain degree... just not hairs; there are only five of them. Because let’s be honest, there might be six hairs in the catalogue, but they’re are only five new hairs... and one identical hair with coloured streaks.

Probably a completely unpopular opinion but I’m not a fan of this new trend of getting extra hairs with ombre and streaked textures, I’d rather leave that up to CC makers and have the Sims team work on more new meshes.

Which brings me to the only real issue I have with the hairs in this pack. The streaked version of the long braided hair is really weirdly textured in my opinion. The streaks start right at the hairline and haven’t been feathered/blended out into the rest of the hair very well so it kind of looks like when I accidentally add one of my accessory overlays to a hair it doesn’t belong on LOL

✨The Clothing

The clothing in this pack falls into two categories; Netflix Sabrina and Hand-me-down Winter Harry Potter. Normally that wouldn’t bother me, and in this case the clothing is really well made and looks great, but I do find myself a little disappointed by the lack of what I call “Comfy Casual” clothing.

This could be entirely just a me thing but much like me in real life, my sims rarely leave their homes, and I dunno how you live your life but I don’t walk around my home in fancy button-down shirts and dress pants and shoes. I wear leggings, a hoodie and slippers; and that’s provided I even bother to get out of my PJs that morning! I keep waiting for more comfy casual clothing to be added so my sims don’t have to get all dressed up just to sit around and play video games or finish off that novel they were writing.

But with the exception of a few things in this pack, everything is either ripped, leather, mesh, buckles, collars, or corsets. Which works really well with the whole magical theme of the pack, but spellcasters deserve to be comfy too! That’s not to say the clothes we got aren’t amazing though, they definitely are and I will definitely get a lot of use out of them!   

But we all know I mostly talk about the issues I have in these reviews so let’s move on to them properly shall we?

Let’s go from left to right, starting with the drop-crotch pants. This one is quick and simple: can we all just agree that this is not a good look and move on please? It was bad enough in the 90s, we don’t need to be over here in 2019 looking like we’re wearing diapers, thanks.

Oh, key necklace... I was really looking forward to using you. Sadly, unless my sims have literally the smallest possible breasts hanging all the way down to their knees, you look like someone threw you in a fireplace to melt a while 😭

The yellow dress is another classic example of “Instagram vs Reality” meme that tends to happen with every pack. The dress looked really good in the trailers and promo images, but sadly looks butt in game.

The leather bodysuit is cool, huh? Yep, it’s definitely cool. The mesh looks good, the texture is really well done... oh what’s that? You want to wear leggings under it? Well you can’t, sorry. No leggings at all can be used with this bodysuit.

Up next we have the... ahem, Slave Bracelet. I promise you I tried to find a better name but this is the name it usually goes by and the only other one I could find, Harem Bracelet, wasn’t much better 😬 Not the point though! This bracelet/wrist cuff has some weird things happen when you pair it with an outfit that shouldn’t technically allow the bracelet to show up underneath it. As you can see in the example on the far left, with some long tees it doesn’t show the bracelet but still shows the specular for it, and in the image on the far right, with other long tops it kind of merges with mesh and flattens itself on top of them.

Next is one of my pet peeves with quite a few of the clothes in this pack; the addition of gloves, scarfs and other accessories to the outfit/top that should have either been made into their own separate meshes, or left out completely. That top in the image would have been really nice to wear during all seasons, but because of the gloves, it now only makes sense in the colder months.

Then we have the new makeup options, which I know isn’t clothing but shhh lol. It’s EA makeup... do I really need to say more? It probably wouldn’t look as bad if it weren’t so pixelated but whoever is in charge of creating makeup looks for this game needs to get in touch with @crypticsim ASAP ‘cause OOF!

And the last of the pics is something that has constantly bugged me about a lot of meshes in this game, all the way back to base game; why do they change the shape of my sims like that!? Like look at this comparison of my model sim with and without the outfit... WHY!? HOW!? WHY!?

Lastly... This is probably the biggest disappointment with this pack for me and I just don’t even know how to begin to describe how annoyed I am that ONCE AGAIN there is nothing for kids and toddlers. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not a damn thing. That’s two packs in a row with no new content for any sims under teen age and I just don’t get it. Moschino actually make kids and baby clothing! And with this pack, Gurus specifically mentioned that there was a special trait for sims who were born into spellcaster families...

SO WHY NO KIDS/TODDLER STUFF!? 😡

✨The Verdict

I know this all probably came off as sounding really negative, but as I said at the start, when I don’t like something I have a lot to say about it. But I do genuinely love the clothing, it fits the theme of the pack really well and most of it looks great. I just wish a little bit more attention had been paid to certain things, that there was more comfy casual stuff, and that kids and toddlers weren’t once again neglected.

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. I am not paid by EA to “hype” their games; I am given the opportunity to review their games early in exchange for an honest review.

Click here for my Build/Buy Review

[sixrandompirates]

The “Shit I Paid For” Build

I started off playing Skyrim on PS4. I was just getting back into gaming and building a PC wasn’t even on my radar at the time. As a PS4 player, I was deprived of a lot of great mods because Sony is a dick, so I ended up picking up a lot of the Creation Club stuff. My go-to creations, depending on the build,  have been the paralysis rune, the Netch Leather armor, and the Lord’s Mail. I like this stuff so much that when I ended up getting on PC I bought them again. Everything else gets stuffed into a chest because I haven’t had any use for them once enchanting hits 100.

Been trying to get back on the PS4 because I paid for this shit and want to use it, but I keep doing the same things I always do. Therefore, when I sat down last night and loaded up the game I decided to freshen things up with a “Shit I Paid For” build, with a few more catches.

(And should anyone decide to soap box about paying for CC stuff, I’ll remind you that I paid real money for an imaginary Nord boyfriend to live in my house in ESO, so your opinion is about as valid to me as the Prince Irnskar-sized hole in my wallet. I just don’t care.)

So here’s the gist: I’m playing a Nord (because I haven’t played a Nord in years) who is mostly a spellsword, but depending on the situation she may lean more towards battlemage or warrior.

MAGIC:

I can’t buy traditional spells, but I can buy spells that I bought from the CC. Right now that means the Arcane Accessories pack, starting with Choking Grasp and Elemental Flare. Eventually I’m able to get the entire set of spells from this pack from Hobs Fall Cave, but until then I can buy the spells from wizards.

Aside from these spells, the only other spells I can buy have to come from Tel Mithryn and be Dragonborn-specific. The reason for this is I never use these spells. My illusionist used the bound dagger, but that’s it. I also can’t wait too long before I start trading with Talvas, and assuming you’re familiar with how you achieve this you’ll know how involved such a plot is. There’s a trick to it, but it doesn’t always work on the first try so I’ll have my face sanded off a few times before I can report my success to Talvas.

Dawnguard spells, as in the spells you buy from the Dawnguard, are off limits, mainly because my current OC on PC is a Dawnguard-centric character who only uses Restoration magic with an emphasis on sun spells and I just don’t want to do this again - not even the free Sun Fire spell you get at the fort.

Note how I said I can only buy spells from these sources. If I find a spell out in the wild - in dungeons, Apocrypha, or the Soul Cairn, I’m free to use them. So if I open a chest and find Invisibility, I can use it if I have the skill to do so. I can also make spells in the Midden if I have the resources. Then there are the Saints & Seducers spells, and possibly the gross zombie spell.

Staves and scrolls are a free for all. I can buy them, make them, or find them in the wild. There are some CC staves I can get, but I don’t relish being murdered by angry Dremora at level 10, so this is it for a while. As with Talvas, I’m going to need to make nicey-nice with Neloth pretty early so he can sell me unenchanted staffs, which relates back to the face-sanding from above with the addition of angry ash spawn trying to kill me with fire. The catch here is that I can’t use any staff enchanter until Neloth lets me use his. Myrwatch, one of the CC houses, has a staff enchanter and supplies to make 2 staffs, but doing so levels you up super-fast so I have to put the work in with Neloth first. 

Spider Scrolls! I never use these. By the time I get to that dungeon I’m just “heh, spider buddies” and never use them. Like going to Tel Mithryn, I’m going to make a point to visit White Ridge Barrow sooner rather than later. Wish me luck, and by that I mean wish Lydia luck because she’s going to have to take more than a few spiders to the face for me.

I also rarely use shouts. This is ridiculous. The game is centred around your character being able to shout and I only use four shouts in four very specific scenarios (Dragon Aspect for fighting Miraak, Aura Whisper for fighting Harkon, Become Ethereal for jumping off shit, and Unrelenting Force for shouting Delphine off of Sky Haven Temple.) So in this playthrough I’m going to shout the shit out of anything and everything.

WEAPONS & ARMOUR

A little bit more flexible based on the difficulty of some of the CC quests. Until I level up I’ve got to take what I can get, because there’s no way I’m getting Duskfang or Umbra at a low level, and grabbing the Civil War Champions stuff means putting a brutally mean Stormcloak out on the tundra and I will inevitably forget about her and walk face-first into her battleaxe while picking flowers, so I’m not going near that quest for a bit.

Nord is going to be a heavy armour girl. This decision is based entirely on the fact that initially the only armour in the CC was heavy - Lord’s Mail, Vigilant, Civil War Champion - so I have more heavy armour options than light. When I pick up light armour I’ll save it for a follower, who will probably be a mage or an archer so they don’t GET IN MY DAMN WAY WHEN I’M HITTING THINGS BELRAND.

While I’m going to be rolling in CC stuff, I also want one single set of bad-ass Daedric armour to pull out for special occasions. Because it just looks epic. There’s a light alternative in the CC, but I’d rather just stick with heavy since I’m going to be investing in the heavy perks and won’t need light perks by the time I can respec.

She’ll use crossbows, first purchased from the fletcher in Solitude, and later picked up from a quest. Bolts will need to be purchased from the fletcher as well until we get into Dawnguard and the Dwemer Nerd sorted. She’ll also use Ruin’s Edge on occasion, because it’s a bow with an eyeball and I’d be crazy not to use that. Arcane Arrows will be used sparingly until I’m sure my follower isn’t GOING TO GET BLOWN UP LYDIA.

She’ll also use both 1H and 2H, because I have a mixture of both weapon type creations and they’re wasted on followers, and because I’m a goddamn Nord. This should be doable since I’m not investing many perks into soft skills or much magic outside of the destruction tree.

OTHER STUFF

Otherwise, there’s a bunch of random shit to make use of. 

For housing, I’ll live in one of the CC houses, with Winstad Manor as more of a working house for alchemy and the other properties/houses just as something to buy for gardening and a place to sleep when I’m in town.

There are several pets I can adopt, which I will, and some of these pets will put more mobs into the world, like goblins. I’ll probably take the goblin buddy as a follower once I park Lydia at Breezehome and Marcurio (future husband) at a house.

New ingredients will be introduced into the world with Saints & Seducers/Rare Curios and the goblin mod, so those will be used - Night Eye is a must before Darkfall Cave.

Dead Man’s Dread is a housing mod, which I’ll use as a showroom because it takes 3 frigging loading screens to get in there. This home also introduces new clothing to the world. I’ll use enchanted versions of the clothing at a much later level for running around or when I’m doing the thieves guild (exception being Nightingale Armour, which as tradition I always wear during the final quest because I refuse to be the only one not in the cool outfit.)

Most of the CC stuff adds some questing, but for actual quest mods there’s Saints & Seducers and Forgotten Seasons for later levels.

So that’s my build, made up of Shit I Paid For and shit I never use (which is technically shit we all paid for.) It’s going to take some finesse, since some stuff is just OP at low levels in terms of damage and levelling, but otherwise I’m looking forward to something new.

[sushigal007]

The Sharpe Household

Now I know I still haven’t finished posting all my genderswapped uberhood pictures yet, but now I’ve edited this draft, I absolutely do not trust Tumblr to save the changes, so I’m just gonna go ahead and post it. So! Back to my uberhood, where it’s time to tackle the second University subhood, Academie Le Tour! Our first stop is the Sharpe Household.

Here’s their cute little house.

Unfortunately, because it was made pre-Seasons, I had to spend a whole chunk of money making their attic work.

As in, ripped out all the wallpaper and floors to do it. In the end, I couldn’t even afford the spiral staircase, so they can’t actually get up there yet.

Anyway, the household consists of Jonah Powers, who has a rather unfortunate-looking face, Roxie Sharpe, who we already met, and her dorky baby brother, Edwin. Roxie and Jonah turned out to be triple-bolt Romance Sims, so I don’t even get to finish makeovers before they wind up glued at the lips.

Edwin happens to be a Knowledge Sim and so instantly rolls a want to write his term paper, so I locked that and made him work out. Need that sweet, sweet A+ money to redecorate!

Meanwhile, Roxie and Jonah went out to Skin Graffiti to get some new tatts painted on their skin rather than on their outfits. Roxie: Where’s the stylists though? I was kinda wanting some new lipstick.

Yeeppppp, it was an owned lot and there was supposed to be two stylists and a cashier, but when I sent them , there was just the regular game generated teen cashier. I wasn’t sure if maybe it was something to do with them being YAs and daring to venture beyond the Uni subhood, so I loaded up my townie business owner and checked the business info and got this rather ominous pop-up. Several others were the same, so I sold them all, bulldozed a couple and brought this one back. Hopefully it was just a random glitch and won’t happen again!

I then sent them to the student center to pick up their welcome packs and try out the custom food stands. Unfortunately, the chef kept erroring out. Happily that turned out to be a much easier fix - I’d just accidentally deleted the food during my mass CC purge.

In the meantime though, it’s time to go home and eat dinner in the unpapered kitchen. At least there’s floors now!

Roxie: I wanted soup. Next time, pinky swear.

I moved the bass downstairs so they could use it. Jonah: :D

Edwin: Do you have to? Jonah: YES.

I got tired of making Edwin work out in front of the TV. You need tons of space for it, and it’s ANNOYING. So I sent him to the pool instead.

You can’t afford it. Jonah: Watch me buy it anyway. (He didn’t even get to drink it, some dormie snuck by and yoinked it before he got the chance.)

Roxie: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Turns out her OTH is Music and Dance, so it’s nice to have a ‘musician’ Sim who’s actually into music.

She is not into games. Roxie: Why are you doing this to me? Because you wanna write your term paper and you need a logic point.

Delilah O'Feefe invited herself in and made a beeline for Edwin.

Specifically, Edwin’s lips.

Edwin: *SPLAT* Perhaps she’s an energy vampire.

Jonah: Oops.

Jonah: I REALLY REGRET DOING THIS IN MY UNDERWEAR! Delilah: NOT AS MUCH AS I DO!!!

First semester grades.

Roxie: Babe, you could just wait until I’m done. Jonah: I could, but I don’t want to.

I guess all that personal hygiene got them in the mood.

Jonah: Goodbye virginity! Roxie: Goodbye your virginity! Jonah: And yours. Roxie: Of course!

Edwin: Excuse me, coming through.

Family dinner in the newly redecorated kitchen.

Coach: GET DOWN AND GIVE ME FIFTY! Jonah: I’m busy. Coach: I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS!

Jonah: Fine, I’ll do the stupid situps.

Jonah: Gonna cry about it though.

Back to the student cener! Everybody rolled wants to write their term papers this time, so I was able to order Roxie and Jonah to play chess.

And the food stand’s all fixed! Jonah: Soup-er!

Roxie: You cheated. Jonah: Only at chess! Roxie: What are you insinuating!? Jonah: Uh, nothing? What? Roxie: What?

Term paper time!

Has Roxie left because Jonah cheated or because of his stanky armpits? You decide!

Actually it’s because she needs another charisma point.

Roxie: I DON’T WANNA DO THIS. Yes you do! It’s literally in your wants panel!

Roxie: NUH-UH AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME! IT’S LITERALLY AT 99%!

Edwin: Well this is awkward.

Some pool.

While Jonah works on his term paper.

Finally, ten million years later, they go home.

Llama Mascot: Gimme a woo! Gimme a hoo! You’ll be lucky if they don’t give you a punch.

Edwin: Noooo my dinner!

Streaker: Would a little naked hula make you feel better? Edwin: No it would not. Streaker: Killjoy.

I think this is the first time Jonah’s managed to take an actual bath! Jonah: It’s overrated.

Edwin: Just playing a movie in my head before I go to sleep. Any good? Edwin: Yep, except there was a single line of dialogue I didn’t like and now I have to start the entire thing from the beginning.

Oh, Jonah didn’t finish his term paper at the student union, so he’s doing that now. Jonah: Idea!

Roxie: Yay, drums!

Roxie: Wait, I’m hungry. Roxie: Time to play bass guitar!

I decided to try and find out Jonah’s OTH. It’s not science. Jonah: The stars are still pretty though.

Roxie guitar spam.

Edwin: So the thing is, you’ve really gotta- Jonah: LA LA LA DON’T GIVE A SHIT.

I guess Edwin decided his revenge would be cockblocking. Edwin: Good night, sweet sister.

Really creepy cockblocking. Edwin: I shall watch over you all night. Roxie: SNORRRRRE.

It didn’t work.

Edwin: It’s not that I don’t like you, you just set off all my warning sirens. Jonah: Rude.

A+ all round!

A little sibling football.

Cockblocking again? Why don’t you use your own room? Edwin: It’s busy.

Roxie: Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Edwin: Fada soola gor! Jonah: Fada soola SHUT UP.

Edwin: We can play football though? Jonah: Sure!

Jonah: THINK FAST, NERD!

Roxie: I’m so smart, go me.

She’s feeling so smart, she decides to try her hand at making robots.

Roxie: Robots were boring, decided to do something better with my hands.

Roxie: Which is your cue to leave. Cheerleader: But but but... balls.

Cheerleader: You guys are done, right?

Cheerleader: Harder! Better! Faster! Stronger!

Jonah: DO YOU MIND!? Cheerleader: Lol no.

Cheerleader: WOO TERM PAPER!

That’s disgusting. Jonah: Eh, I’ve had worse in my mouth.

I like family dinners.

Robot repairs.

Roxie playing drums in her underoos.

Roxie wanted a music player, so I let her go and buy one.

Roxie: -And it was THIS big!

Edwin: Please can we move the bathroom door some place else? Anywhere else?

A first kiss soon soothes the mental scarring.

Jonah: She’s NAKED!

Roxie: And aiiiiiiieiiiiiiiieiiiiiiiii will always love yooooooooooooooo...

A+ all round again!

I feel like impaling Roxie to kill the roaches is a slightly extreme reaction.

Roxie: Candy counts as groceries, right? YES.

Jonah: And stretch, two three four...

Edwin: Ew, snow.

Edwin: Ew, roaches.

Skillz.

But not the skills she needs, so it’s back out to the student union to play chess against random teenagers.

Jonah: Help, I’m stinky. *gorilla impression*

Oh, I was tired of roaches, so I tried fencing the bin in on three sides to see if that would stop people kicking it over. Marla: It doesn’t. Excuse me, what the fuck did they do to you to deserve bin kicking?

Marla: Me? Kick bins? I would never! I’m the nicest possible person! I literally just watched you do it.

Roxie: You’re damn lucky I don’t have enough influence points to make you clean, but if you do it again, I will break your fingers.

Oh, Jonah wants to fuck more people and befriend his professor, so why not screw two birds with one woohoo? Jonah: Hello professor, you’re looking very sexy today. Now please leave, Roxie’s due home in ten minutes.

Roxie: Hi professor! Do you wanna build a snowman? Professor: NO I DO NOT.

And the semester ends with a few grades slipping. Oh well, at least everybody passed!

UBERHOOD INDEX

[clansayeed]

Hi there i just wanted to ask how did you recolor the outfit for your model on Lysimachus? Its great btw I hope you dont mind sharing how you did it

Hey there anon! I don’t mind sharing at all it’s actually super easy and simple and not one of the more involved recoloring projects I’ve done.

I work with a Windows version of Photoshop CC 2014 (outdated but I’m in it at this point). 

The base transparent for his clothing is actually from Derek from AME (long story short the skin color needed the least amount of editing and also the clothes for guy!MCs suck I’m not even gonna lie so his worked for the post). You can find the transparent PNG [HERE] courtesy of the Choices Asset Database!

This ended up turning into a quickly-made mini-tutorial, so I’m putting it under a read more!

Going from green to maroon y’all...

If you happen to have any version of photoshop, a few pics are following showing where to look and how to start off. But I think even on most browser-based picture editing platforms there is typically some form of color replacement filter or another, and that’s really all I did??

So a tip: make sure your photo is in RGB format in Mode (the section above Adjustments) you can use CMYK but I just think it looks better this way. But you definitely don’t want to accidentally find your image in Grayscale that’s just annoying.

So when you open Replace Color its gonna give you an eyedropper to find the color you want to replace. Make sure the first time you pick a color you’re using the neutral eyedropper, not the one with a +/...

When I’m changing the whole outfit I pick the majority color, switch to the + eyedropper, and go around just dragging my mouse around so as much is selected to be changed. The - eyedropper removes colors from the selection. Easy peasy!

Then you just mess with the bottom sliders until you get what you want, really. 

For Lys I tried to get a darker version of the maroon/purple pantsuit Kamilah has going on in the majority of BB. Because twins and why not. That’s just a rough rendition of it though anon, I’m one of those people who selects the increments up number by number until it’s just right but for the demonstration I didn’t.

There are other things I personally do, like working with the color selection sliders and other things not in the Replace Color section specifically, so I won’t mention them here since they’re really just about refining things to your personal taste.

Now on the last picture you see how some of the neck skin shading went a little green? That’s because some of the pixel colors in the original suit color and skin shading were the same. That can happen when there’s a lot of shading involved like in PB transparents. You can either work around them or recolor the neck only ot a myriad of other things, but the big ticket item is changing the suit and that’s what we did!

If you don’t have PS, try looking up ‘color swap,’ ‘color filter,’ ‘color replace’ for different browser apps. It’s kind of just about finding one that works for your purposes and that you like the results for!

[saiilorstars]

It Had To Be You

Ch.9:  A Partner’s Beginning // Story Masterlist

Fandom: The Flash

Pairings: Barry Allen x Original Female Character

Summary: Belén and Barry are just starting to figure out how to work with each other as partners. Around the same time, Barry comes face to face with an old childhood bully that still manages to hurt him. It’s only when he remembers that he’s no longer alone that he’s finally able to leave the past in the past.

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Rayan Palayta couldn't stop reading articles and reports of the new vigilante that had made her debut in Starling City with the Arrow, Black Canary, Speedy and so on. That same vigilante was now one of the top stories being sold by the CC Picture News despite it being weeks after her first initial appearance in the city. Iris West was one of the lead reporters in that area and Rayan couldn't help suspect that the woman had no idea who this new vigilante was.

"So-" Maritza's voice made him look up from the laptop in front of him, "-this is where you're keeping yourself up now?" she made a gesture to the abandoned warehouse they were in. She walked into the small office where Rayan had secluded himself in for almost the entire day - as stated by Angela (or Pixel as she now liked to call herself).

"It was part of the gang of robbers I took care off a while ago," Rayan gave a shrug of his shoulders and clicked the link to a new article on the computer. "Decided to use it since Pixel's beginning to give me headaches," he rubbed his temples where he could feel an echo of said headaches.

"Pixel?" Maritza repeated, musing on what the switch of names could mean. "Is that what you're calling the ex?" Rayan rolled his eyes but said nothing. Instead, he focused on the article that gave origin points of the new vigilante. "Can't say I'm not happy to see that ending," Maritza said, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall, "Angela's kind of weird, but even I have to say that it's not technically her fault she nearly killed our dear sister."

At the mention of Belén, Rayan's eyes raised from the computer again. His face was stone cold and yet...he was guilty. He was guilty he nearly killed his sister without realizing. He had given the order to eliminate the new vigilante that was seemingly in the city to help out the Flash. He couldn't believe his ears when Pixel had returned with the news that the new vigilante had turned out to be none other than Belén. Rayan had raged, and somewhere along there, had blasted Pixel across her own living room, crashing several of her ornaments.

"If it helps-" Maritza leaned off the wall and moved towards the desk, "-my friend has nothing new to report on Belén. I thought that maybe Belén knew who the Flash was so I set my friend up in her job but she's been perfectly normal with no vigilante business."

"That he can see," Rayan reminded. "Let's not forget that he's not exactly friends with her."

"Alright, so he becomes closer to her, makes friends with her," Maritza shrugged. "Then what? What are we going to do now that we know Belén is a metahuman?"

"Metahuman," Rayan rolled his eyes at the silly name they'd been branded with apparently.

"Rayan," Maritza called again, sharper. "The plan was to get Belén away from the city but now that it's clear she's not going anywhere, we're going to need to do something else."

"What else can we do?" Rayan rubbed his temples again. That headache was starting to come back. "If she's a meta like us, then we should get her to join us."

Maritza blinked and straightened up. "A-are...are you sure about that? Let's not forget Belén thinks you're dead."

"I know, I know, but...once I explain to her what happened...she'll see why I preferred to stay dead. If she's so keen on finding me...what's the big deal?"

"I think the 'big deal' has to do with that speedster already getting into her head. Let's not forget the fact she's already been a hero in Starling city with the Arrow. Why would she want to join us?"

"Because we're her family," Rayan stood up from his chair. "Who else would Belén choose over us?"

Maritza leveled his stare for a moment before looking away. "It won't be easy...but...maybe you're right."

"Of course I am," Rayan smirked. "So we should start working on that before she really becomes a hero and loses us."

~ 0 ~

"Cisco, I'm not wearing a skirt," Belén shook her head in the most polite way possible, but the action still had Cisco groaning in frustration. Caitlin sat at the other end of the desk, laughing to herself but giving the appearance of working on something else.

"But why not? It'll be a very pretty skirt, I promise, see?" Cisco gestured to the computer in front of them with the design of what would later become Belén's new super suit.

Now that they had began examining Belén's new biology and grasped a basic understanding of her powers, Cisco felt it was time for her to suit up. He would rather die than let her continue on with the outfit given to her by the 'Arrow cave'. Belén was excited for it, honestly, but they were just having creative differences.

"I'm not wearing a skirt if I'm gonna be out there helping Barry," Belén still refused much to Cisco's dismay.

Cisco made a motion with his hands for them to be calm and start over. "Okay, hear me out now," he said, warning her to let him speak first before she shot him down again. Belén got comfortable in her seat, crossing her arms and legs, to listen to him. "You need your suit to be more open to accommodate your powers. You said your vines can come through your hands and body which means the suit needs to have some openings. True or not true?"

Belén rolled her eyes but gave her confirming nod. "Yes, I know. And I am all for it if it means it'll make it easier to use my powers. That, however, does not mean that I have to go out in a miniskirt. Caitlin?"

Cisco glanced back at the silent brunette who of course had a side to choose. "She's right," Caitlin said with a small smile.

"You can't send me out there barely clothed, Cisco. I fall and I scrape my legs. I like my legs, Cisco, and I want them to be protected. Don't you?" Belén raised a questioning eyebrow. Cisco couldn't help give her legs a look-over. She chuckled and playfully hit him in the arm. "Stop looking at my legs!"

"Then work with me here!" Cisco let his head fall on the desk with a thud, causing Belén to lose it with another round of laughter.

"I think I broke Cisco," she told Caitlin, quite victoriously.

"Oh, he's finally quiet, thank you," Caitlin patted Cisco's back.

"Shut up," came Cisco's muffled order.

"Bells?" Barry had come into the room, making the ombre-blonde look back. He was about to say something when he saw Cisco still with his head on the desk. "What's…"

"I broke the great Cisco Ramon," Belén giggled and poked Cisco on the arm. "And over a skirt."

"Over a skirt?" Barry scoffed and came up to the three.

"When you say it like that of course it sounds bad!" Cisco pulled himself up and shot a warning look to Barry. He would not have Barry also ganging up on him like that.

"Cisco's trying to help me with a new suit," Belén finally explained. "But we seem to have disagreeing ideas…"

"Many," added Caitlin.

"It's not my fault Bells is being complicated!" Cisco exclaimed, earning himself a sharp look from said woman.

"You're the one trying to make me wear a mini-skirt for me to fight crime!"

"A mini-skirt?" Barry raised his eyebrows, barely getting a minute to think about that when someone smacked him on the stomach. He doubled over, groaning.

"That was for thinking about it," Belén got up from her seat then turned to Caitlin. "Honestly, Caitlin, I don't know how you put up with these two."

"I try my best," Caitlin dramatically said, now earning herself some sharp looks from Barry and Cisco.

"Bells, c'mon," Cisco began but the ombre-blonde cut him off.

"No! I don't want skirts," Belén left it clear for him. "I'm not made of steel, I do get hurt."

Barry was recovering from the blow and exhaled deeply. "Follow her instructions, Cisco, please." He then made a gesture to Belén for her to walk ahead.

"Hm," Belén threw him a look before grabbing her bag off the desk.

"Don't forget your treats," Caitlin reminded as she got up and walked across the room.

"Cait, that makes me sounds like a dog," Belén crinkled her nose.

"You know what I meant," Caitlin returned holding three wrapped up bars in her hands. "These should help you with your sugar levels."

"Yay," Belén said meekly as she took the bars and shoved them into her bag. As it turned out, her dizzy spells were part of her new metahuman abilities. Because her body was now divided with new Azalea genetics, her body required more sugar that she was not ingesting.

Cisco joked it was her needing to do photosynthesis.

Belén had promptly smacked him upside the head for it.

The bars that Caitlin and Cisco had made were specifically created to raise her sugar levels on a daily basis and thus prevent anymore side effects from harming her. Belén could definitely go without those min-episodes.

"Let's go," Barry told the ombre-blonde metahuman. She gave him a nod and in a second he had sped them to her block.

"That's still weird," she giggled as they began normally walking towards her house.

"Didn't seem so weird when 'the Streak' did it to you," Barry smirked. "In fact, you looked more in awe. And you certainly liked it."

"Shut up befoe I smack you again," she warned then came to an abrupt stop. "So, um, when exactly were you planning on telling me that you and Iris are on a no talk basis now?"

The question froze Barry in his tracks. He turned around and met her expectant look.

"I know I'm a bit slow sometimes but I've figured it out. It's been a while since I got back, and coincidentally the next day you stop talking to her. What, was it my fault you argued?"

"No," Barry quickly said to her, coming back to her, "It's just…" he sighed, "...she's been writing about us, Bells. Joe asked me to talk to her and it didn't work. I got frustrated with her not listening so I...may have asked her not to talk to me."

"Why would you do that, Barry?" Belén whispered, looking horrified. "She's your friend - practically sister!"

"I know-"

"And if there's anyone you should be upset with that she's still writing it's with me! I visited her and now I gave her more fuel. Don't be mad with her. Be made with me."

"No, it's not your fault. I'm genuinely worried about what could happen to her…"

"I get it, don't think I don't. Joe wants to keep his daughter safe and you just want her to be okay. But in the long run, I think it's Iris who should make the decision. I understand completely what it feels like having this passion for writing. It's my life, honestly. And once you find your subject, there is hardly anything anyone can do to make you stop."

"Hardly?" Barry repeated and noticed a strange shift in Belén's face.

"Let's just say...I had to leave some things..." she said and left it to that. "Thanks for bringing me home. Dad's been a bit on the fence of where I'm at now that I'm back. He thinks by having me hitch rides it's a sure way that I'll come home early." Because when she came back to the city, her father had taken the car privileges away for a while. Belén thought that was a bit fair.

"Tell him you were with me then," Barry then blinked when he realized how it came off and immediately set to correct it, but his stammering prevented a full sentence, "I-I m-mean...y-you know...like, uh...l-like...w-well...I mean…"

Belén covered her laugh with a hand and walked past him for her front porch. "I think I'll just say I was with some friends." She turned around, taking small steps backwards to the porch. "Cos if I say I was with the Streak he wouldn't get a kick out of it like others would."

"Yeah…"

"Take my advice about Iris though - just tell her already." And with that, Belén bid him goodnight.

~ 0 ~

Some time later that night, Belén had pulled out her laptop to finish her work for CC Pictures. Her father walked by with a coffee mug and sat down beside her on the couch. When Belén realized he was staring at her she gently closed the lid of her laptop and met his eyes.

"Hi, Dad," a fleeting smile graced her lips. "Can I help you with something?"

"What were you reading?"

"Um, well, to be honest, I was giving Iris' blog a glimpse. She posted something new a couple minutes ago." And Belén was not happy to see it. While she stood by her statements she didn't want Iris getting hurt. Perhaps if she knew the truth it would sway her from that specific topic, or at the very least make her articles more cautiously.

Belén's father sighed and shook his head, clearly disapproving as well. "That girl is just looking for trouble. I like Iris, she's a very sweet young woman but this blog is going to get her in trouble. The city's not safe anymore with all these people with powers. They're all evil."

"Not everyone," Belén softly disagreed.

David scoffed, picking up his mug from the coffee table. "Honey, you've seen the news. Lots of people are getting hurt out there."

"Yes, but many of others are getting saved. Let's not clump all metahumans as evil."

"What?" David gave her a sharp glance.

Belén's eyes widened and coughed nervously. "Nothing. I said we shouldn't brand all people as bad."

David tilted his head and stared another minute at Belén. Sheepishly, she rubbed her arm and tried upholding his look. "Are you okay, Belén?"

"M-me? Yeah, Dad," Belén lightly smiled.

"You know, ever since you got back, you're...you seem different."

"D-different?"

"Yes. Time was you used to be completely engulfed with school and your friends and your internship."

"Dad, I graduated..."

"Yes, but your friends, they're not around anymore."

"What are you talking about? I do have friends-"

"Not the same ones." David put his muttered on the coffee table and shifted in Belén's direction. "Hilary, remember her?"

"Of course I remember Hilary."

"And then Jason, and Meghan, and all the others. They're not around anymore."

Belén sighed. "Dad, Hilary is getting used to her new job across the city. Jason moved and Meghan went on to graduate school. Everyone's got things to do."

"What about Iris?"

"What about her?"

"Haven't seen her in a while either."

"She, um...she's a having some complications with, uh, with Barry. She's not exactly in the talking mood."

"But you are," David gave her another look that she didn't understand. "It's just, since you got back I rarely see you with Iris now. It's either that Caitlin Snow-"

"Dr. Caitlin Snow," Belén wagged a finger. "She didn't go to school for people to overlook her title."

"Right," David playfully rolled his eyes. "Dr. Caitlin Snow, and Cisco Ramon, or Barry. They're not exactly the people I would expect you to be around…"

"They're good people and I like being with them," Belén smiled. "Don't go all 'They're from STAR Labs so they can't be good' on me."

David shook his head. "No, I wouldn't do that. despite what Harrison Wells caused to the city, I do respect his employees' loyalty to him. But sweetie, how long have you known Cisco and Caitlin, again?"

"Ten months."

"And then you met Barry how?"

"Through...Iris…?" Belén was barely making the connections when her father finally explained.

"You've known Iris for years and I don't think it's right you sideline her for these new people you haven't known for long."

"Oh my God Dad!" Belén chuckled. "I am not sidelining Iris for them! I just happen to have, um...a connection with them. That's all."

David raised an eyebrow and said nothing for the next minute. Then suddenly, he asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm fine," Belén couldn't help smile out of flushness.

"Alright," David clapped his knees and got up, appearing to be done with the subject but Belén doubted it would be the last she would hear about it. He grabbed his mug and walked by, planting a kiss on her head. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Goodnight, Daddy," Belén smiled after him.

She waited for him to leave before diving back into her computer. There was much to do after all!

~ 0 ~

Caitlin was in utter shock as she went over the various injuries Barry had managed to get in the span of a five minute fight with another metahuman.

"13 fractures," she began listing off to Barry, who laid in bed wincing at her scolding tone, while Cisco and Dr. Wells listened silently. "That's a whole new record! And not to mention that's only just in your hand. You also have a concussion, three cracked ribs, and a bruised spleen. Even with your powers, you'll need a few hours to heal."

When Dr. Wells was sure Caitlin had finished, he made the question all of them were curious to know about. "What exactly did you hit?"

"A man," Barry sighed, recalling the terrible fight. "A big, bad man. His skin changed when I hit him. Like, it turned to metal."

Wells raised his eyebrows as he thought about the new metahuman. "Interesting. A man of steel."

"So you went after a meta-human alone?" Even Cisco was disappointed in Barry for his abrupt encounter with the metahuman. "Dude, why didn't you call us?"

"I didn't know what he was," Barry said meekly before adding, "Besides, I was off-duty." And he would rather not go into detail about what that meant exactly.

"You're lucky he didn't knock out your teeth," Cisco pointed seriously. "Those puppies don't grow back."

"The strange thing is I feel like I knew him…" Barry admitted, still confused himself.

"What do you mean?" Wells inquired.

"He said something that was familiar, but he's gonna hurt someone if we don't stop him. So how do I fight a guy that's made of steel?"

"We will find a way. Tonight, you heal."

Barry had no energy to fight about that. He nodded his head and prepared for some sleep, or at the very least a nap.

~ 0 ~

Belén was close to finishing her article for the day and couldn't be happier about it. It was nice getting back to a normal life - especially one with a good income. CC Picture News had been happy to receive her back as an official employee and had already tasked her with several important articles. She'd even made some new co-worker friends besides Linda and Iris.

"Scuse me?" a young man stopped by her desk with a manila folder in his hands.

Belén looked away from her computer to meet the freckled-face of a dark-haired man with blue eyes. She'd seen him around but never actually talked to him. "Hi, can I help you?"

"Yes, and I'm sorry about it..." the man started, chuckling nervously. Belén raised an eyebrow, confused of course. The man cleared his throat awkwardly and smiled at her. "Um, I'm Noah Gilan and I'm sort of a cub-reporter..."

"Oh, you're the new one Linda took on, right?" Belén recalled the various times she'd seen him tail Linda around.

Noah nodded his head. "Yeah, and she said you might be helpful in helping me write an article."

"Me?" Belén repeated, sounding (and looking) surprised. "I don't know, I mean...I'm sure there's plenty more experienced writers. I literally just started as an official employee a couple weeks ago."

"No, that's good - I mean, for me, cos...you know...some of the older people around here are sort of..." Noah leaned forwards to whisper, "...rude."

Belén chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Anyways, Linda said that you might be interested in being partners for a while. Just until I get the hang of things around here."

"I mean...if I can help then I will," Belén shrugged, not finding a problem. "It'd be nice to co-write some articles. I've done some already with my friend, Iris?"

"West?" Noah recalled. "Yeah, I've talked to her but I don't really know her."

"Well, she's a fantastic writer too if you ever want to find another partner," Belén said. "But in the meantime...you got any ideas for some new articles?" she asked with a sly look.

~ 0 ~

Come lunch time, Belén found herself swept by a certain speedster only a couple steps from CC Pictures. She was all fond of the easy manner of getting around but not when she had literally promised her new co-worker/partner she would have lunch him. She already wasn't very happy with Barry and the others for not informing her about his encounter with the new metahuman last night. Getting a simple text in the morning was not sufficient.

"Woah, new guy we need to talk about?" Cisco immediately raised an eyebrow at the ombre-blonde, apparently having selective hearing because that was the only thing that caught his attention.

Belén rolled her eyes and hopped onto a table, letting her legs dangle. "I'm helping someone," she shot Barry a look, the latter currently taking a seat on the edge of the gurney-bed. "Next time call me, no?"

"Sorry, I was a bit distracted," Barry sighed. "I found out who our new metahuman is and I happen to know him."

"From where?" Caitlin came into the side room with a mug of coffee.

"His name is Tony, and he was my goddamn awful bully when I was eleven," Barry still appeared angry about the whole thing. "He used to bully me whenever he got the chance, and I was never able to do anything about it."

"Your childhood nemesis is now an unstoppable meta-human," Cisco gawked at the idea. "That is seriously messed up."

"I had a childhood nemesis. Lexi La Roche," Caitlin narrowed her eyes as she thought about her own bully. "She used to put gum in my hair."

"Jake Puckett," Cisco pretended to shiver. "If I didn't let him copy my homework he'd give me a swirly."

"I didn't really have a bully," Belén had her head tilted to the side, seemingly trying to think about one bully in her childhood. "Everyone just...seemed to like me…"

The other three traded looks among each other while Belén continued to think.

"Now that we've established that we're all uber-nerds," Barry began and glanced towards Belén, "except Belén who was clearly one of the popular girls-"

"Hey," Belén frowned his way. "It's not my fault no one wanted to bully me. I was nice to people, unlike you who speeds people out of their lunch plans." And as a mature gesture, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Nice," Barry remarked, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, what are we gonna do about Tony?"

Cisco clapped his hands together, smirking. "Glad you asked. We're gonna train you, man. Karate Kid style."

"Hmm, I'm interested in seeing how this plays out," Belén said to Caitlin as they followed after Cisco.

He led them into another side room where a metal figure had been set in the middle. With its makeshift head and metal bar arms, it could almost be seen as a punching bag.

"Behold! I call him Girder!" Cisco gestured to the figure as he went over to a table.

Barry raised an eyebrow and glanced back at Caitlin. She, seeing his thoughts, immediately said, "For the record, not my idea."

"What is this supposed to be?" Belén seemed oddly amused by the metal figure as she walked around it. "It looks kind of funny...oh!" she clapped her hands, "Like one of those villains on movies!"

"I don't understand how you didn't get bullied," Cisco returned with a control hanging from his neck. "You just have that…thing people want to mess with."

"What thing?" Belén stared at him a long while, not understanding his insinuation.

"Nothing," Barry reached out for her arm and pulled her away from the metal figure.

"But he just said…"

"It really doesn't matter, he's wrong," Barry left her by the doorway where Caitlin was and turned back for Cisco, making a cutting motion across his neck. The last thing they needed was to further annoy Belén for the day.

"So," Cisco received the message and focused on the 'training' that was supposed to happen, "fighting is physics. It's not about strength. It's not about size. It's about energy and power. Channel your speed the right way and you can totally take this bad boy down. Now obviously your Girder is a moving target. So... I have ice and bandages standing by."

"What a reassurance," Caitlin mumbled so that only Belén was to hear. Both were completely disapproving of the idea. Nothing good would come out of it.

While Barry wasn't so keen on the idea of fighting this metal thing, he realized his options were oh-so-limited. He started to punch the figure in a speedy manner while dodging its movements Cisco enacted via the control. He would switch sides every so often but in the end the device proved a little quicker and punched him near the shoulder. Barry fell to the floor with a loud thud...and a crack somewhere.

"I'm pretty sure I just dislocated my shoulder," Barry groaned and clutched said shoulder.

While Cisco remained back to fix the Girder, Caitlin attended to Barry in another room. Seeing it was definitely a dislocated shoulder, she prepared him for the worst. "Okay, not gonna lie. This is gonna be quick but extremely painful."

"This was a stupid idea from the start," Belén was watching them attentively from the threshold. "Even I'm not that clueless!"

"Thanks, Bells," Barry winced. "I can always count on you to make me feel better."

Belén shrugged. "Great that you can!"

Barry heard his cellphone go off and struggled to answer it with one arm. "Eddie, hey."

"Allen, we found the stolen Humvee in the alley at Fremont and Lawrence. Need you down here to do your thing."

"Great. I'll see you in a sec," Barry hung up and looked at Caitlin, resigned to what would come next. "Okay…let's do this."

As he laid down on the bed, Belén rushed over to his side and grabbed his hand. "It hurts less if someone holds your hand. Trust me, I've broken and sprained bones so many times."

"You?" Barry asked, clearly doubting her words.

"Mhm, from when I did my aerial dancing," she said casually, but because of his coma-state Barry didn't know about that part of her life.

"What!?"

Caitlin chose that moment to snap Barry's shoulder back into place. The metahuman screamed and unintentionally squeezed Belén's hand in the process. She ended up screaming too and nearly fell to her knees in response.

~ 0 ~

"You were an aerial dancer?" it was now Barry who was standing on the side of the bed while Belén was treated for a broken hand. Feeling incredibly guilty for what he'd done, Barry had gone out (or sped out) and brought her back lunch that she had missed...because of him as well.

"I really was," Belén laughed at such doubt she received from him.

"And a good one," Cisco spoke up on her behalf. "I've seen videos."

"Very graceful," Caitlin added while she wrapped a gauze around Belén's hand. "I don't think I could balance myself with silk ropes..."

"It's not that hard if you got the practice for it," Belén shrugged.

"You don't look like the sort," Barry said to the ombre-blonde. "But what happened, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Um..." Belén's smile faltered a little bit but it came right back before she responded fully, "My Mom said that it wasn't a real career. See, my plans weren't to become a writer at all - I wanted to dance. But my parents talked it over with me - over and over - until I just agreed to leave it for journalism. I found that I actually love to write, but..." she sheepishly looked down, letting the other three figure it out.

"You wouldn't mind going back," Caitlin said it for her.

"Yeah," Belén nodded her head, looking pretty excited just at the thought of returning to her dancing. "I had a team, actually, here in the city. I haven't talked to them in a while..."

"You should go and see them some time," Cisco suggested, like many of the other times they'd gotten into that conversation. "You know, and maybe show some us some moves."

Belén laughed, face flushing pink. "Right. I'd probably fall on my ass now that I haven't practiced."

"No you wouldn't," Cisco shook his head. "I'm serious. Go back and do some dancing, girl."

"Well, now I can kind of understand why you didn't have a bully," Barry said distractedly. "You were like a triple threat."

Belén shot him a look. "Seriously?"

"Good writer, cute rambler, and an aerial dancer?"

Caitlin exchanged a look with Cisco whiled Belén blushed. She finished up with the gauze and Belén jumped right off the bed the moment her cell phone went off.

"Shoot, it's Linda," she made a face and rushed off to go answer it.

Cisco managed to contain himself a minute before he mocked Barry. "A cute rambler…" Caitlin giggled as Barry shot a glare on Cisco. "That's not a triple threat, that was just what you thought of her."

"I...I didn't mean it like that," Barry soon what he was talking about and became flustered. He panicked at the idea that he may have overstepped with Belén. But if that'd been the case she would've said something right after, no?

"Sure you didn't," Cisco made the last statement before Belén returned.

"That was Linda. I have to get back to work! Barry? Can I get a lift back please?"

"Yeah, I gotta go anyways." Barry was all too pleased to be leaving the mocking room behind. "Eddie's waiting for me anyways."

"See you guys later," Belén waved goodbye to Cisco and Caitlin. In a flash, she and Barry were gone.

~ 0 ~

When Belén returned to work, the first thing she did was stop by Noah's desk to apologize profusely for her sudden departure. Noah just chuckled as he got up from his chair to go make copies.

"I was wondering what happened to you," he said thoughtfully.

Belén rushed after him, her hand reaching to keep her purse's strap over her shoulder. "I-I am so sorry! Th-there was, th-this...there was a thing…"

Noah pressed one paper down on the printer's scanner and closed the lid. "There was a thing?" He repeated the question and Belén meekly smiled. Yeah, so she would definitely need to become better at lying if she was intending on becoming a full fighting metahuman.

"A-an important thing," Belén added as if it would make her excuse much more plausible. "But you should know that I am, under no circumstances, a ditcher! I don't skip out on plans I make with people! Once I agree to something I stick by it! I honor what I say and I-"

Noah turned around to face the rambling woman and promptly laughed. Belén straightened, confused. "Do you normally ramble like this?"

"U-um…" Belén leaned on her hip, one hand nervously scratching her head. "I've...I've been told...I, uh, I tend to…"

Noah laughed again, quieter this time. "It's kinda cute," he turned back to the printer and took out the scanned paper.

"I've been told that too…" Belén mumbled, thinking back to Barry's words earlier. She felt her face warm up and was glad Noah still had his back to her.

"I get it, Belén, something unexpected came up," Noah stuck in another paper to be scanned. "It happens. No need to feel bad about it."

"But I do feel bad," Belén moved around the scanner to face Noah. "You have to let me make it up, yeah? We could do lunch tomorrow? Big Belly Burger?"

"Yeah but I feel bad. Please, let me make it up?"

Noah turned around with a quizzical look on his face. "How about we make it dinner instead? We can stay in here and continue working."

Belén thought about it for a minute before nodding her head. "Yeah, I can do that - I meant that I want to do that!" she quickly corrected herself, flushing from embarrassment. "Not that I was doing it because I had to in that I'm being forced to and-" Noah's laughter cut her off. "I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"A bit, yeah," Noah removed the second scanner paper from the printer. "Save that for the reporting, though. You're quick!"

Belén nervously chuckled while he continued to scan more papers. If only my rambling could help me make good excuses, she thought.

~ 0 ~

"Barry! Check it out!" Cisco waved Barry to come over to the desk where he had several tabs opened on the computer. Barry had taken to him a sample of gravel he'd retrieved earlier from the crime scene of Tony's. "The gravel you pulled from Tony's ride? It contains 76.8% hematite. Consistent with the mines at Keystone Ironworks."

"Which closed down ten months ago. It's the perfect hideout," Barry realized with an air of relief. He needed to bring down Tony before someone truly got hurt.

Caitlin cleared her throat and walked over to them holding her tablet towards them. "Barry, do you mind telling me about this?" She read aloud Iris' new blog post to them. "I have info about someone you're looking for. He was here. You know where to find me.' Now who could she be talking to?"

Barry nervously looked away.

"Belén told us what she did, meeting Iris one time but she never said she was going back," Caitlin's motherly glare was enough to make anyone squirm. "Belén can't be doing this, Barry...she can't…"

"Alright, it wasn't Bells," Barry sighed. "I couldn't help it. I went to see Iris to try my hand at getting her to stop with her blog."

"Hm, and how'd that go?"

"Clearly not well seeing as she's sending out SOS posts now," Cisco mumbled.

"Okay! It wasn't my best idea!" Barry exclaimed. "But look, Iris clearly has something we can use and we can't pass that up."

"Clearly," Cisco nodded and received a sharp look from Caitlin.

"Who's side are you on!?"

"The side that wins obviously," Cisco rolled his eyes.

There was a buzzing noise coming from Barry's cellphone and when he looked at the ID he did admit he was a little afraid. "H-hello?" He winced.

"Why am I reading 'I have info about someone you're looking for. He was here. You know where to find me' from Iris' blog?" Belén asked in an edgy tone.

"See, what had happened was-"

"Barry, I'm a journalist, I can put two and two together. You clearly went to see Iris as we agreed but instead of making her stop, as we also agreed, you only made her put herself out there even more."

"I didn't mean to!"

"No of course you didn't. So, what's the plan? How are you going to fix this? I'm working late tonight and I can't be whisked away again so don't even try it.'

"It's quite simple, actually," Barry sucked in a breath, his eyes flickering from Caitlin to Cisco who remained at bay from the conversation, "I'll be visiting Iris."

~ 0 ~

As Barry planned, they all did. While Caitlin and Cisco monitored their conversation, Barry spoke to Iris who truly did have something useful (and important) to say. Tony had the audacity to visit her earlier in the day, simply to flirt but made a threatening gesture when he was close to being caught. Needless to say, Barry was furious. Tony was his bully and it was his responsibility to find him and put him away in the pipeline before anyone was hurt. Yet Tony easily slipped through the radar and visited Iris in broad daylight!

What kind of hero was he!?

Well, he was not going to be the hero that let enemies like this get so close to his family.

That was his brand new (and abrupt) idea.

"Barry, talk to us. What are you doing?" Caitlin nearly demanded from the metahuman as he sped out of Jitters without saying a word to either.

"Dude, don't run angry," Cisco said, but his words went unheard. "We don't know how to defeat him yet."

Barry ignored both until he came into the Keystone building where Tony was allegedly staying. As he walked further inside he took notice of all the empty beer bottles and upturned machines. He stopped when he came across a decent sized, dry hill of what looked like...steel? Yes, that was it. It had to be.

"This is definitely the place," Barry spoke to other two still anxiously waiting for an update.

"You're trespassing, freak!" Tony suddenly appeared behind Barry and wasted no time in punching him.

He swiftly grabbed Barry and threw him into one of the nearby shelves. As Barry fell to the ground, Tony went for the shelf and pulled it down. Everything on the shelf, including things nearby it, fell over Barry.

~ 0 ~

As promised, Belén and Noah stayed in at CC Pictures to finish their work. Dinner was a pick up from the local Big Belly Burger. They had made very good progress and were nearly halfway done with the work. Plus, Belén had a chance to see who Noah was. She decided only thirty minutes after beginning to work with him that she liked Noah. He was nice, and very understanding. He was well aware of her family issues and minded how he worded his questions or even just how to act correctly when they spoke about sibling matters. He was reserved, surprisingly, but not enough to not laugh once in a while. Belén could definitely see a good friendship between them two.

Belén placed down a clear, colorful photograph on her desk of Plasticine in the middle of a jewelry heist. She then put down another photograph of Plasticine robbing a plain, old liquor store. Unbeknownst to Noah, the photographs had been retrieved by good ole Felicity Smoak when Belén was staying over in Starling City. She thought the best way to let Plasticine know she was being hunted was for Belén to publish an article on her. She just felt a little bad for not telling Noah.

"This metahuman is a weird one," she stated with arms crossed and a pensive look. "I mean, one day she's stealing priceless jewelry and then the next day..."

Noah picked up the photograph with Plasticine robbing the liquor store. "She's stealing milk."

"She's stealing milk," Belén hummed in agreement. "What kind of metahuman steals milk?"

"Metahuman?" Noah raised an eyebrow, his blue eyes boring onto Belén. "What is that?"

"Um..." Belén mentally slapped herself for being so careless. This wasn't STAR Labs and Noah certainly was not one of her friends who knew about metahumans. "That's just...what, um...I've heard they're calling themselves."

Noah shrugged and moved closer to see the pictures again. Before she said anything else that could out her, she grabbed her soda can and took a big drink.

"I honestly think she's just doing some grocery shopping," Noah joked casually and put down the pictures side by side.

Belén swallowed her soda and laughed. "Really?"

"Hey, just because she's evil doesn't mean she doesn't like to eat," Noah raised his hands defensively.

"Well, the fact is that she does this a lot..."

"So she does grocery shopping!"

"I need you take this seriously!" Belén whacked him on the arm and took a minute to calm herself. She wanted to truly analyze the movements of this metahuman. So far, she had nothing concrete on Plasticine because the woman only came out on rare occasions. "Plasticine comes out and makes several heists, makes a clean getaway with usually no victims."

"She's good at what she does, then," Noah tilted his head thoughtfully.

"But most metahumans usually like to...play with their food...and Plasticine doesn't seem like that," Belén remembered what she learned from Plasticine's favorite jewelry shop the night she decided to visit in her vigilante form. Plasticine never made to harm anyone, and she only went in when Alizae - an employee of the shop - was there. "She's very calculating."

"And you are very Sherlock-like," Noah picked up a french fry from a bag and dropped it into his mouth.

Belén rolled her eyes, about to retort sarcastically when her cellphone went off. She moved to turn it off but saw it was Cisco. She made a gesture to Noah she would only be a moment. He nodded and went back to his desk for other papers.

"Cisco, what's up?" Belén went for her soda again and took a sip. She nearly choked on her drink when Cisco told her what Barry had done. Well, he added the word stupid in there and a bunch of other words Belén had never heard him say. "Y-yeah, I'll come and help! Don't worry, I'll -I'll be there!"

Like a spring she jumped into action, stuffing things in her bag and clearing her desk off. When Noah saw this he hurried over to see what was wrong.

Belén didn't give him opportunity to ask. She started apologizing instead. "I'm really sorry, Noah! There's something I gotta do! A thing! Yes!" She was midway towards the door and turned back to the confused man. "Another thing came up! Believe me, important, it's a very important thing! I'm…" her hand was desperately trying to find the door behind her, "...I'm really sorry, I'm not a ditcher! I'm really not! I promise!"

But as she left she felt her actions sharply contradicted her words.

~ 0 ~

"Who let him do this!? I can't believe he thought this was a good idea. I thought he was a scientist!"

"Bells, he's not te-"

Belén was shooting glaring daggers at Cisco. This was not the time to correct her. The two and Caitlin had driven up to the Keystone building hoping to find Barry. He wouldn't respond to them anymore but the sensors still indicated he was somewhere inside the building.

"Eugh, it stinks in here," Belén crinkled her nose the moment they entered the place. It reeked of beer and other smells she would rather not identify.

"Perfect hiding place, though," Cisco mumbled and went ahead.

"Barry? Barry, where are you?" Caitlin began calling out throughout the horrible mess that was the place.

Cisco saw a glimpse of Barry's elbow hidden underneath a shelf and dashed towards it. "Caitlin, Bells, over here!"

"Of course he got thrown under a shelf!" Belén exclaimed and hurried with Caitlin beside her.

"Barry?" Cisco tried pushing somethings out of the way. "Please, say something! Say something so we know you're okay."

"O-ow…" was all Barry could mutter at the moment.

"Get him out of there!" Caitlin ordered.

Belén moved over to Cisco's right side while he continued clearing a way out for Barry. With one hand, she created a vine tendril that shot out to the shelf. She raised another vine and together pushed the shelf up momentarily. "C-Cisco! It's heavy!" Belén groaned through her struggle to keep the vines working.

Cisco and Caitlin hurried to pull Barry out from underneath. The moment he was safely away from the shelf, Belén growled and let the shelf fall again. She, too, fell back on the ground from the force.

"Bells?" Caitlin quickly looked up from Barry.

"I'm fine, don't worry," Belén waved a hand as she got back to her feet. She hurried over to the three and took a look at Barry. He was in an awful state, so much that he couldn't properly move nor say his 'thanks'.

Thanks to his fast healing, by the time they got him back to STAR Labs the physical injuries had already faded to a point of only seeing a couple bruises here and there. Still, that didn't mean anyone's anger nor concern had lessened by then.

"What were you thinking!?" Dr. Wells was practically fuming at the metahuman lying on the bed. "What were you thinking? I told you that we would figure out a way to deal with him."

"I'll heal…" Barry was trying his best not to snap back at any of them, though it was becoming incredibly hard to do.

"That's not what he meant, Barry," Belén had her arms crossed and more or less the had the same angry face she had since they found him. "When I agreed to you visiting Iris I didn't think something stupid like this would happen! How could you do that!? What were you thinking, seriously!?"

"I-"

"No, you weren't thinking!" Belén went on, and no one dared to interrupt her. "Because if you had, you would've seen how stupid this idea was!"

"It was-"

"Who in the hell makes such an abrupt, thoughtless decision!?"

"Uh, how about you!?" Barry found himself snapping back in the moment. "Don't you remember you were the one that made a ridiculous decision to leave with a stranger for two complete months without so much of a word to any of us!?"

That shut Belén right up.

The flash of hurt in her eyes made everyone uncomfortable. She dropped her arms to her side, and pursed her lips. Overwhelmed, she left the room with haste.

Barry sighed and turned his head to the side, seeing all the disapproving looks from the others. "Too far, I know," he mumbled.

"She wasn't wrong," Dr. Wells continued on like nothing had happened. "This was an incredibly stupid idea. He could have killed you."

Exasperated, Barry got up from the bed. "I know, alright!? I know! In the past 36 hours I've had my ass handed to me twice by the guy that tortured me as a kid. I couldn't stop him then, and I can't stop him now! Even with my powers I'm still powerless against him."

Surprisingly, Wells didn't snap back. "Not necessarily. Cisco?"

Cisco nodded and went for the computers. After pulling up the right page, he began to explain. "Any material, if struck at a high enough velocity can be compromised. We ran an analysis on the metal in Tony's footprint. Based on its density and atomic structure, if you impact it at just the right angle, at just the right speed, you could do some serious damage."

"How fast would I have to go?" Barry, intrigued, calmed only slightly.

"Factoring in the metal's tensile strength, estimated dermal thickness, atmospheric pressure, air temp, you'd have to hit him at approximately... Mach 1.1."

Caitlin's mouth fell open. "You want Barry to hit something at 800 miles an hour?

"837, actually."

"I'm glad Bells isn't here to listen to this!" Caitlin blinked, putting her hands on her hips in that motherly way that let the others know she was completely against the idea. "That's faster than the speed of sound!"

"I know. He would create a sonic boom, which, as I've said before, would be awesome," Cisco couldn't help giggle of excitement.

"I've never gone that fast," Barry felt the need to remind everyone.

"Yet," Wells corrected.

"I can't believe we're actually entertaining this idea!" Caitlin shook her head, now wishing Belén hadn't left so she could back her up on this.

Cisco went back to the computer to give it another glance. "I mean, he'd need a straight shot from Miles away yeah, 5.3 Miles, theoretically. Do it right, you'll take him down."

"Do it wrong, you'll shatter every bone in your body, Barry," Caitlin also sharply reminded him.

Barry sucked in a breath and re-evaluated his limited options. This...would not be easy.

~ 0 ~

"Maritza, hey," Belén greeted her older sister at the front door the next day with a confused expression. It was fifteen minutes till eight in the morning - Belén was still in her pajamas while her sister was already professionally dressed.

The older brunette was holding her son's hand and was looking rather urgently. "Look, I know you probably are busy but...can you please look after Axel for the day?"

Belén's eyes flickered to her nephew, the latter probably already having been told he would be staying with her judging by the toothy grin he was giving her. "Mar, I...I have work," Belén glanced back into the empty house.

"Please Belén, I am desperate!" Maritza exclaimed. "I have to substitute the morning and do my class today and I can't afford the babysitter right now."

"Look, I would really like to help but I'm not exactly off to a good start at work right now. I actually have to majorly apologize again to my co-"

"Belén I will do anything you want but please just take him for the day?" Maritza put her hands together.

"Maritza…"

"Please?"

"What am I supposed to do with him all day?" Belén spoke in a hushed voice. Her nephew may be a four years old but he was incredibly smart and the last thing she wanted was for him to be upset that his 'auntie Belén' didn't want him.

"He's four," Maritza had taken the question as another form of 'yes' and so handed Axel to Belén, "Give him a coloring book and that'll be enough for hours."

"Maritza, I have work…" Belén said as a last resort but even she knew this was already a lost case.

"I know, and I am so sorry but I have to keep this job," Maritza planted a kiss on Axel's head. "Be good to your auntie Belén, okay?"

"Yes!" Axel clapped his hands and looked up to Belén. "Are we going to play games?"

Belén gave Maritza a brief look. "I don't think I have much of a choice."

"Sorry," Maritza gave her a quick hug then hurried away.

Belén backed Axel into the foyer so she could close the door. She yawned and turned around, looking down to Axel again. "Well, since I clearly won't be coming into work today, how's about we get more sleep? Nap time?"

Axel nodded his head and pretended to yawn, clapping his small hand over his mouth repeatedly. "I'm so tired..."

Belén chuckled and headed for the staircase. "You are such a good liar, Axel. But I swear to God if you draw on my face someone's not getting their chocolate milk later on."

~ 0 ~

Early morning turned into noon, and when Tony Woodward's case was turned over to the state Barry thought it suitable to find his friend whom he had offended the previous night. Now, his first idea on where to find her was her work…

Once more, he came across a stumped, and genuinely upset, Linda Parker.

"I love her, I really do," Linda was saying as she took a seat on the edge of her desk, "but she's not acting very professional like. She hasn't been back long enough to keep coming in late. Not to mention the fact she's about to miss her deadline this week because she keeps ditching a co-worker?"

Throughout this, Barry was guiltily listening to the woman go on and on...knowing that each time Belén had mysteriously disappeared had been because of him. "Listen, Linda, Bells is just going through some stuff," Barry began cautiously.

"I get it," Linda raised her hands, "Girl hasn't had it easy this year. But work is work. She can't keep doing this."

"She won't," Barry assured, promising himself that he would start being more mindful of the actions he took that would inevitably lead Belén into more trouble. "I'm...I'm gonna go talk to her…"

"Please do," Linda sighed and got off her desk. "I can't keep protecting her from the major bosses around here. Larkin has an attitude..."

Barry nodded. As soon as he could, he said goodbye to Linda and went to Belén's house. Knocking several times, he waited impatiently, and rather nervously. She probably had half a mind to slam the door on his face when she saw him standing there. Well, he wasn't the fastest man alive for nothing. He would have to keep the door open just enough to make his apology and hope for the best. Yes, that what he needed to do.

But, he was heavily surprised when Belén opened up and did nothing of the sort.

"Barry? What are you doing here?" she instead asked calmly, like their spat hadn't existed.

"You didn't come into work today and...I thought that was my fault…" Barry slowly explained, still wondering what she was planning on doing because so far her face had maintined completely at ease. Was this some sort of girl trick? Iris did it often with him when they were kids...and it was not fun!

"Don't flatter yourself, Barry," Belén chuckled a bit before gasping, "Oh my God I didn't mean to sound mean! S-sorry! I...I didn't...didn't really...sorry," it was her turn to be nervous. "Was that mean?"

"Bells, I...I thought you were mad at me, not the other way around."

"Oh, and you thought…?" Belén smiled and shook her head. "I was mad at you for a bit, then I got home and started thinking...and then I realized 'what the hell am I mad about? You were right'. Leaving Central City the way I did was completely rushed and stupid, no matter how logical I thought it was afterwards."

"I still had no right throwing that in your face," Barry sighed. "You were right about me - I shouldn't have gone out after Tony like that. It was stupid."

"But you did it for Iris, someone you consider your sister. If someone had done the same to my sister or brother, you bet your ass I would've gone after them no matter what."

"Still, I'm really sorry for what I said. It shouldn't have been said, period."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't stop my mouth and you were already pretty injured and frustrated so really this is still my fault and I should be apologizing so you shouldn't-"

"Bells breathe," Barry had to interrupt when he saw parts of her face going purple from lack of oxygen intake. Belén blushed and took in her needed air.

"Sorry," she apologized meekly.

There was a strange noise coming from the inside and while Barry didn't directly ask, he leaned slightly forwards. "Am I interrupting?"

"I'm literally just netflixing right now. Cisco's got me with the Walking Dead," Belén chuckled. "Well…" she motioned to be followed inside.

As Barry shut the door and followed her out of the foyer, he heard several distinct noises of a...gurgle? Was that a gurgle? Oh, there was a giggle too.

"Axel stop gurgling your milk and swallow it," Belén scolded when she walked into the living room.

"I like the sound," Axel called from the couch. He was very focused on a tablet he held but noticing his aunt had not come alone, he lowered the tablet for a moment. "Auntie Belén, Mommy says I can't talk to strangers..."

"Right," Belén pushed her hair behind her ears and motioned Barry to follow her again. "Barry, this is my nephew, Axel. He's the reason I didn't show up to work today."

"I told Mommy I didn't need a babysitter," Axel said in such a serious state that both Belén and Barry laughed.

"Axel, be nice and greet Barry," Belén motioned the boy to get up from the couch.

The small boy sighed but never got up. Instead, he let go of the tablet just to wave a hand at Barry then reach for the cup of milk he had on the coffee table. "Auntie Belén I'm watching Toy Story. Sh!" he then grabbed the small Woody doll beside him.

Belén made a face then turned to Barry. "As you can see, I'm very busy today."

Barry chuckled. "Right. Um, and he's...he's Maritza's son, right?" he vaguely recalled meeting Maritza and the small boy at Jitters.

"Yeah, my only nephew in the city," Belén shrugged. "And he's definitely worth the shouts Larkin will give me later."

"Big boss?"

"Big boss."

"Yeah, Belén, about your job...I'm sorry I've been causing problems there too-"

"Barry, please don't even worry about that," Belén waved a hand. "Just promise me next time you won't go into a fight where they can kill you without a proper plan first."

"I can do that," Barry nodded his head.

"Thank you, on behalf of all of us at STAR Labs," Belén rolled her eyes. "You're free to go without any guilt."

"U-uh, actually, I, um...you know," Barry decided to just start over again, "I've yet to catch up on zombies too…"

Belén followed his gesture to the television and blinked rapidly. "Oh...do you want to stay and watch with me?" she glanced back at him. "Of course, if you don't mind Axel. He's very shy when it comes to new people. Although he didn't have that problem with Iris - he frikin loves her."

Axel looked up with a big smile on his face. "Iris makes good chocolate milk."

"I taught her how to do that..." Barry said, leaning over the back of the couch.

Axel shifted so that he faced Barry. "Did you really?"

"Oh yeah, Iris and I grew up together so we taught each other a lot of things. She's like my sister, you know."

"Are you annoying?" the boy suddenly asked.

"Axel!" Belén scolded immediately while Barry laughed.

Axel simply looked between the two adults without realizing what he did. "My Daddy used to say that his big brother was annoying. Mommy said that uncle Rayan was annoying too. That's why I don't want to be a brother - I don't want to be annoying either." And without waiting to be scolded, Axel re-positioned himself on the couch and grabbed the tablet still playing his Toy Story movie.

"Barry, I'm sorry about that," Belén cleared her throat, obviously feeling bad for that bit.

"He's funny, I like him," Barry finished his laughter and moved around the couch. "And to answer the question, Iris was the annoying one, not me!"

"Now I'm telling," Belén playfully warned him as she went to sit down as well.

~ 0 ~

"This is definitely gross, I don't want to keep going," Belén cringed over and over as she saw blood spilling from a character's limb. She was glad that Axel had fallen asleep earlier. Despite being four years old, Axel seemed to like scary movies and whatnot. Maritza always said he got it from his father.

"Then why you'd watch it in the first place?" asked Barry who seemed to be studying the television rather than being entertained.

"For Cisco!"

"And what did we learn today?"

Belén groaned and threw her head back against the couch. "I can't watch..."

"You can definitely tell it's fake, though. The blood's not even the right color! Heck, barely anything on the show seems real!"

"It's a show-" Belén tried to remind but Barry was too excited to stop there.

"Look-" Barry shifted on his seat, eyes scanning the current scene on the television screen, "-it's a known fact that, technically, these zombies would have decomposed within like...a year, maybe a year and a half. Zombies in hot and humid places would have had their skin practically melting in weeks! They would literally be skeletons and maybe even just heads on the grounds. Plus, if zombies can turn you with a bite or a scratch then wouldn't that mean that nearly everyone would have been turned when they got blood on them? I'm talking about, you know, when someone stabs a zombie over and over and the blood splatters on their faces. One drop of blood in your system and you're..." he trailed off when he saw Belén staring at him with the widest of smiles. He was now aware of the mega rambling he'd done and suddenly felt his face warm up with embarrassment.

"Do you always get so analytical when you're watching TV shows?" Belén tried her best not to laugh.

"I-I tend...to do that...a lot...sorry," Barry shook his head. "It's kind of why Iris doesn't like watching television with me."

"I can see that. I mean, we watch television we mostly just...watch," Belén chuckled. "But when you watch television, you go on some other level...like a...like a 'Barry-level' that only you can reach."

Barry tilted his head at her, seeming completely offended. "What? I have a level now?"

"I think you always had a level," Belén nodded. "I should talk to Iris about it, maybe she already gave it a name."

"I have a level?"

"Yes."

"No I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"Belén!"

"Barry!"

There passed a long minute in which nothing was said and only stares were exchanged. Barry was just not amused and Belén was trying her best to suppress her smile that was already leaving noticeable traces on her lips.

"So, I have a level?" Barry finally began again, and when Belén nodded he quickly asked, "Why do I have a level?"

"Because," Belén let loose just a blip of her real laughter, "you look at the details no one else would. Take me for example," she gestured to herself. "When I watch a show, I don't go looking to see if the blood is the right color. I just go 'oh look, they're bleeding' and then move on."

"But how can you do that!?" Barry exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Because I'm just watching TV, Barry!" Belén said matter-of-factly, and giggled. Barry exhaled in resignation and shook his head. "Maybe it's just the fact you're a forensic," she added after feeling a little guilty, "You're trained to analyze things. It's just your custom."

"It's an annoying custom, or so I've been told," Barry muttered.

"No it's not, it's...interesting," Belén shrugged, "And kind of funny, not gonna lie. You get so into it - and excited too! You stay like that, alright? It's just part of you being an adorable nerd."

The last sentence had Barry in a mixture of flush and sadness. Belén saw that quick and sobered from her playfulness.

"I said something wrong didn't I? I...I didn't mean to-"

"It's not your fault," Barry said grimly, "Those words just sounded a lot like something Iris would say."

"Probably where I got them, to be honest," Belén mumbled and then spoke louder for him. "Why don't you talk to her? We can continue watching this some other day. It's obvious you miss her and this whole petty fight is just hurting both of you."

"I can't Bells…"

"Yes, you can," Belén said sharply. "Last time I checked, your sibling wasn't kidnapped or anything. She's probably at home right now...which is where you need to be." With that, she got up from the couch. "I have to bring Axel upstairs. When I come back, I would hope to see a little note from you-" she made a gesture of a squared note in the air that did, eventually, make Barry lighten up with a smile, "-saying you listened to my advice and went to see Iris."

She collected Axel from the other couch and headed for the stairs where. It would've made her feel good to know that Barry was planning on following her advice if it hadn't been for the phone call that he answered just as he had stood up from the couch to leave.

"Barry?" Belén had made a scowling face at him when she returned, though in his defense he had his back to her which didn't let him see it. "What are you still doing here? I know I was being a little sarcastic but I did mean for you to go to Iris and-"

"He took her," Barry turned around, angry yet completely terrified. "Tony took her right out of the house!"

"Wh-what?" Belén froze in her tracks. "Well...well...we gotta...we gotta do something! We, um, Star Labs, yeah! They can help us right?"

He nodded and made way for the doors. "I called Caitlin and Cisco, told them about it and they're working on it. This time he has to go down, I have to take him down."

"Not with that super punch you're not," Belén was coming right behind him. "Caitlin said you would break every bone in your body!"

"If I don't have another way then I'll have to take it!"

"I need to be with you so you don't have to do that awful option!"

"Bells!" They were now at the doorway, and Barry had turned around to remind her of her situation. "You have Axel upstairs, remember?"

Belén glanced back at the staircase with a thoughtful stare. "Well, he's only four. It's not like Maritza's gonna believe him if he says anything about you. Plus, he loves Cisco, so he'll be fine."

"Bells…"

"If you don't speed us there in the next minute I'll take back the 'adorable nerd' compliment I gave you."

"That was supposed to be a compliment?"

"Barry!"

"Fine!"

~ 0 ~

It only took another hour or so to get a clue of Iris' whereabouts. It appeared Tony had taken her back to their old school and somehow, mysteriously, there had been a report of a fire alarm going off in that building. The group assumed it had been a sign from Iris' part trying to signal her location. Smart girl because it worked.

"Okay, but how do you intend on taking him on?" Belén asked, for what the others counted as the tenth time.

"Fighting, clearly," Barry didn't want to be rude to her but at the moment his patience was low because Iris was off somewhere with an incredibly dangerous metahuman.

"That's not a plan!"

"She's not wrong," then came Belén's backup, Caitlin. The bioengineer sat at the desk concerningly preparing the computer to monitor Barry's future movements with the suit. "The idea of this sonic...punch, is completely a 'what if'."

"Well then hopefully we won't have to use it," Barry said his last sentence before speeding out of the building.

Belén looked at the remaining others with a straight face. "He's gonna have to use it, won't he?"

"The chances are very high," even Dr. Wells had to admit.

"Then someone should be there to make sure he has a better chance," Belén walked towards the desk.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Cisco exclaimed as Belén placed down her nephew on the chair between Cisco and Caitlin.

"Look after him, please?"

"I don't need a babysitter!" Axel grumbled but was not acknowledged.

"Bells, this isn't a good idea," Cisco earnestly said. "You haven't seen this guy, alright? You haven't even tested your own powers completely-"

"I've tested them enough," Belén made sure to look at everyone whilst saying that. "I've trained with the Arrow, with the Canary, and I think I've learned enough to go out there. You're going to have to excuse me but you've only seen a glimpse of what I've learned to do." And Belén thought that was an understatement. There was a side even she hadn't really seen and wasn't very interested to.

"He's dangerous," Caitlin reminded meekly, though knew this was a lost case.

"I know, and strong. Look, I'm not going to go in to punch him. You're right, at one point, Barry will have to do that stupid sonic thing and when he does, I'd like to make sure this Tony is already weakened."

"What do you mean by that?" Caitlin furrowed her eyebrows.

"Well, Tony might be metal but he doesn't stop having human lungs," Belén smirked.

"I don't have your suit ready," Cisco said as a last resort to get her to stay back, but he shoould've known better. Belén was a journalist - they persisted until the end.

"I've still got my original outfit," she winked and ran off.

"Where is auntie Belén going?" Axel was left asking but none of the adults could come up with a good answer for a four year old.

~ 0 ~

Iris was completely terrified as she watched from her spot on the ground as the Streak (tentative name, she noted) fought against her deranged kidnapper. She was frozen on her spot, thinking if she moved she would perhaps get in the way. But then just like that, in the middle of the fight, the Streak sped out.

Smugly, Tony glanced back at Iris. "There goes your hero."

Iris was well overconfused, but she said nothing. Then, out of nowhere, several pink Azaleas dropped and formed a neat circle around Tony.

"What the…" Tony looked down at the flowers and had a mini-laugh, "...what's this?"

"Over here," came the order of a modulated voice. Iris perked up when she recognized the voice.

He looked ahead and saw a woman in a green leather jacket that faded into pink, and matching pants. "Buddy of the coward I assume? Well, your little flowers aren't gonna do much for you sweetheart."

Belén keenly listened to the earpiece for a status on her time before speaking again. "Do you know what Azaleas can mean sometimes? Death."

"What? And you're gonna kill me with them?" Tony was close to laughing again.

Belén felt something in the pit of her stomach while the man laughed. She flexed her hands, not needing to even look at them to know they were sporting green blotches. She fought against it, pushing it away and focusing on the little time she had left until Barry would return. "I'm not a murderer, I'm a partner." She extended a hand towards Tony and turned her palm over. A bright pink Azalea formed at the center of her hand and released what looked to be like pollen into the air. "Azaleas, while beautiful, are quite poisonous." Tony began to cough as he felt something prick at his throat. "It's not enough to kill you, don't worry. I've learned the correct amount to weaken someone." The flowers around Tony were now opening up and releasing the same pollen into the air around him. Belén calmly walked around Tony who was coughing violently and stumbling. She stopped by Iris and helped her up. "We need to move!"

"What-" Iris barely had time to say when Belén yanked her to the side.

It had been a well calculated moment because a mere two seconds later Barry reappeared, faster than ever, and in a great leap his hand collided with Tony's face...creating the perfect sonic punch.

Barry fell back against the lockers and Tony staggered back, completely disoriented. Belén mumbled a 'stay here' to Iris and hurried up to where Tony had landed to deliver a final punch that would knock Tony out for real. She then made the Azalea pollen from the air disappear before Iris got a whiff of it.

"Nice one," Barry remarked after a moment, still feeling rather weak. "But what are you doing here?"

"Helping your ass, what else?" Belén couldn't help chuckle then glanced back to Iris who was slowly coming forwards, looking shaken up. "You'll be fine now, we promise."

Iris nodded, her fear slowly fading and replacing with awe as she looked at the two heros. As bad as it may have sounded to anyone else, this was the closest she'd ever gotten to either of them.

~ 0 ~

When Tony awoke he found himself in the small containment pod in the pipeline that would become his new home. "Hey! What is this? Where the hell am I?"

"Somewhere you'll never hurt anyone ever again."

Tony got up and pounded on the glass door that turned out not to be as fragile as he thought after putting up with several of his steel punches. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Barry stepped out from the shadowy archway and allowed Tony to see who he was in reality. "You know who I am."

"Allen?" Tony went in a momentary stupor.

"The thing that happened to you, Tony, it happened to me too, but it didn't just give us abilities. It made us more of who we are. You got strong. I got fast. Fast enough to beat you. You used your gift to hurt people. Not anymore."

"Allen. Allen. Allen, don't walk away from me, Allen!"

Barry stepped back and let Tony be promptly shut up in the pipeline. Once the door was fully shut, he whirled around and did some sort of victory dance that everyone else in the room decided to ignore for the best.

"Dude, that had to feel great," Cisco laughed alongside him.

"You have no idea," Barry nodded his head.

"Almost as good as proving us wrong about the supersonic punch?" Caitlin asked with crossed arms.

"Actually, that part hurt. Like, a lot," Barry looked at his fist that was already healed...lucky him.

"I hate that you heal faster than me," Belén glumly looked at her gauzed up hand.

"Nobody said you had to punch him afterwards," Barry couldn't help laugh at her face.

"Excuse me for coming to help you!"

Barry sobered and gave her a light smile. "Well thanks."

"Okay," Cisco clapped his hands together as they headed out, "I need to know which childhood bully we are gonna take down next? Mine or Caitlin's?"

"Seriously, Cisco?" Belén gave him a sharp look.

"What? Oh, right, I forgot little miss adorable didn't have any bullies," Cisco made a faceand earned a whack on the arm.

"I told you people just liked me! It's not my fault!"

"Sure," and she was surprised that it came out of all three of her friends' mouths.

"You're all just…" Belén scrunched her nose as she thought of something to say, "...big nerds! You're just nerds and you're jealous because I never had someone pick on me." She left them very amused as she went ahead to go collect her nephew. It was getting late and she knew it was only time before Maritza would arrive at the house.

"Dr. Wells I am so sorry," she quickly apologized when she walked into the cortex room, "It took longer than expected to put Tony away."

"Don't worry, I assumed Barry had to have a couple minutes to gloat to him," Wells shot the said man a look as the others came in.

"I did not gloat," Barry said proudly.

"No, he just danced," Belén cleared her throat and suppressed a laugh. She moved to the chair where Axel had been left at, the boy babbling to himself while he scribbled over a worn out journal. "What are you doing there, Axel?"

"Drawing," he said distractedly, not even glancing at her.

"He's very interested in the technology around," Wells gestured to the computers and screens on the wall.

"Oh, he gets that from his uncle Rayan. He used to let Axel use one of those drawing programs on a tablet." At that moment, her phone went off and she didn't need to answer to know who was the caller - she had seen the time. "Maritza's at home and I need to get there fast…" she eyed the speedy metahuman, "...up for one last trip?"

"Always," Barry nodded and moved forwards.

"Uh, Bells, I know this is probably ridiculous to ask but don't you think Axel might mention something about all this-" Cisco gestured to the room as well as Barry and herself, "-to Maritza?"

"Don't worry Cisco," Belén had picked up her nephew into her arms, "Maritza would never believe it."

"I'm not telling," Axel hopped off chair and snagged his paper with his newest drawing. "I can keep secrets too." He quickly looked at Barry with big eyes. "I won't tell, I promise!"

"We believe you," Barry reassured him but silently concluded that Belén was right. Even if Axel accidentally let it slip that he was the Streak, Maritza would never buy it.

"Hey Axel," Cisco came by the boy wearing a suspicious smirk Belén was already not liking, "Sonic?"

"Boom!" Axel threw his hands into the air and giggled, much to the dismay of everyone else in the room.

"I cannot believe you taught my nephew this," Belén playfully scolded Cisco for that but the man was busy high-fiving with Axel to care. "Barry, get us out of here!"

Barry thought it would be a good idea since she looked close to hurting Cisco. As they approached Belén's house, they could see Maritza's car already in the driveway.

"I'm gonna need a good excuse," Belén said as they walked down the sidewalk.

"She won't buy the one where you say you were 'out with friends'?" Barry made a face at her.

She turned to him with an amused smile. "Maritza is very delicate when it comes to her son - especially since she lost her husband. But don't worry, your name nor anyone at STAR Labs will not come up."

"Why don't I go in with you and we make up some excuse together?"

"That's very sweet of you but I would rather you went to go find Iris. You have spent all day with me and frankly it makes me feel guilty."

"Guilty?"

"Iris is your best friend, your sister, your family, I don't think it's right that you ignore her and do it by spending your entire day with me. Iris is also my friend, a really close friend whom I completely love. I feel like I'm betraying her by not helping this icky fight between you both."

"Okay," Barry gave in rather easily after hearing her logic. Truth be told he didn't feel well with himself either. More than anything he wanted to fix things with Iris and get back to normal. Ignoring her probably wasn't helping.

"Thank you for today," Belén said softly. "I can't wait to see everything back to normal tomorrow."

"As much as it can with all these metahumans?"

"Yes," Belén laughed, "As much as it can be with all these metahumans."

"What's a 'metahuman'?" Axel looked up at them both, curiously.

"We're going to talk before we go back to your Mom, okay...?" Belén said back, nervously smiling at Barry while motioning him to get going.

"Good luck," Barry told her before leaving.

"Good luck to you," Belén felt the need to say back. When he was gone, Belén took Axel by the hand and slowly walked for the house so that she could come up with a good story on what to tell Maritza.