#so please back up the documents if they go offline

[wolfnanaki]

The Cavemanon Files

This documentation is regarding Cavemanon. They are an independent development team that created Snoot Game (the parody of proudly LGBT indie game Goodbye Volcano High) and its spiritual successor, I Wani Hug That Gator!, which released on Steam February 14th, 2024.

The vast majority of this information had been compiled over the past few months by an independent team, and Caliber (ex-Cavemanon developer who worked on Snoot Game, credited as “Spigot The Bear Anon”), has volunteered to be the primary contact regarding this documentation.

Regarding the company’s newest game, I Wani Hug That Gator!, Cavemanon failed to pay wages towards many members of the development team, with the few members who did get paid being forced to sign a potentially fraudulent NDA contract and being offered as little as $50 for their work on a game that is estimated to have made $15k-$20k within a week of its launch. Among the people not paid – wages, royalties or otherwise – includes the creator of the concept, Loanshark, who had begun it as a passion project with his friends before Cavemanon took it over.

Additionally, “Nerd”, the head of Cavemanon and the originator of the Snoot Game idea, is openly anti-LGBT; he has admitted that anti-LGBT messages were fundamental to Snoot Game (and he’s upset more people don’t see it that way), and he has attempted to impose his personal views on the fandom. This has included attempting to assert control over moderation teams of an art server, sabotaging a gay mod for Snoot Game and accusing its creator of being a pedo, and having a Wani character be hastily redesigned a week before the game’s launch after finding out the artist had designed her as a transgender woman.

There’s a whole lot more, linked below, with citations in both links and screenshots. Some names and personal info are redacted for people’s safety.

[ download link ] [ backup link 1 ] [ backup link 2 ]

[ Internet Archive ]

(On a personal note: it’s cold comfort to me that I got doxed for calling Snoot Game transphobic, only to find out later that the guy behind it admitted that was the goal all along.)

[cozzzynook]

Hiii cozzzyyyy

What do we think about Rodimus adopting a lil human in secret on the LL, but Drift discovers it and tells Ratchet? And all three o them just look blankly at the human (that doesn't understand what's going on ofc ofc)?

Thank uuu <3

Hi Bee,

Hear me out.

The human he brings aboard the lost light that doesn’t know whats going on is actually cyberronian and a baby.

The found them crying next to their offline creators and couldn’t just leave them there. He was going to tell police officials but when he picked the fresh bitty up and they stopped crying. Reaching out and gripping his chassis and digit whimpering for him, he just couldn’t bare to part with them.

Sooo he snuck them on board and let the ship take off.

Of course he told officials about the bitty’s creators and told Prowl in secret what he’d done and that he wasn’t giving the bitty up. Prowl can honestly say he’s never actually heard Rodimus sound threatening and he admired it before putting official documents in stating Rodimus was the sparklings caregiver now before sending them to him and hanging up.

Rodimus was entirely pleased with himself and more than happy to get started on bathing the dirty bitty that wasn’t old enough to have plating on their exposed protoform. He learned the bitty was a little mecha and so as he had them wrapped in a soft warmer against his chassis he had to figure out a name and get a bitty berth installed.

He wasn’t entirely out of his league here since he used to caretake for orphanages on Nyon. He knew what sparklings needed and their development. So he knew this was a fresh spark that wouldn’t be able to be away from him for a long time since the connection with his creators was severed so early in life.

Of course..in all his plannings he forgot to tell his crew and co captain…who just so happened to walk into his hab with Minimus and stare at the sparkling with open jaws and he immediately had to explain the situation.

“So you weren’t carrying this whole time and popped out a sparkling on a dangerous mission?”

“No I’m not an idiot!”

He looked extremely offended and felt it too which upset the sparkling almost pulling them from recharge if it weren’t for him calming them down.

“I got the paperwork and everything. I got attached…don’t look at me like that Mins! I’m not popping out a sparkling!”

The smug look on the mini turbo fox face plates and his co captains was pissing him off.

Just because he was a carrier mech did not mean he would go following his coding and pop out bitlets.

He was destined for greater things than being a broodmare! He said as much too.

“Rodimus its not meant like that. Carriers just-”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” he was genuinely upset but trying not to take it out on them since they didn’t do anything wrong. He was just sensitive about his coding and frame.

“I’d like some time off from being in public to get a better bond with them and get all the supplies I need. I’ll do all my paperwork here. I’ll keep my comm open as well.”

He ushered them out after letting Minimus hold his sparkling who began to fuss but didn’t cry.

“Lets get you some panel wraps and bottles annndd I’m gonna need to find you a crib…and a name.”

The bitty just kept sucking on their hand and he was off to find such things in the storage rooms while the dead shift was at its quietest time.

He managed to luck out on getting multiple blankets and an abundance of reusable panel wrappers. He’d brought those things back to his hab and set them on a gentle wash in his cleaning closet before heading back out to find a crib and clothes and some bottles.

He was yet again lucky in his search. Finding bottles, clothes and even a few pacifiers along with a stuffed fox that looked suspiciously like Minimus handy work made him smile. He’d have to thank his friend for leaving this here for him.

He was bummed he couldn’t find a crib but he had everything else he needed and he decided to enjoy the win. He’d gotten everything clean and settled when the bitty began to fuss and he knew immediately what time it was.

“I’m gonna fix a bottle. I know, I know. You’re hungry its okay,” he soothed to the upset sparkling.

He felt his chassis growing tight and he groaned looking down at the shifted plating to the still unfinished diluted energon meant for sparklings. He wasn’t about to make his sparkling wait an hour for fuel that wouldn’t be half as good as what his frame decided to make against his wishes.

So with a final groan and a hope for his luck to continue and his sparkling not getting attached to this form of feeding, he unclasped his chassis and let his breast mesh free. They were already filling with milk and he grimaced at how natural it all felt.

He didn’t like being a carrier but he wasn’t going to let that get in the way of feeding his sparkling.

With that line running through his mind, he held his sparkling up to his nozzle and allowed them to turn their helm crying until eventually they smelled him and the energon his frame was building before opening teary optics and latching on.

The first few suckles felt weird but eventually he felt the milk begin to release and his sparkling was greedily suckling blinking the tears from their optics.

Rodimus didn’t want to admit how close and connected he felt to the fresh bitty letting them drink from him.

He’d always had a problem with being a carrier and few mechs knew that he was and all that did knew by accident. It was something he liked pretending he wasn’t but that was extremely hard to do when a bitty was nursing from his mesh.

He sighed and looked to the bottles on the drying rack and figured he might as well try organizing his hab and bitty proofing it.

By the time he was done, the bitty was finished nursing and he was burping them. They’d fallen to recharge immediately and he smiled looking down at them. They were tiny, even for a new sparkling they were tiny. He was going to comm First aid to come to his hab in the morning so he could get them fully examined.

Carrier instincts would’ve alerted him if something was wrong with a sparkling even if they weren’t his own. But he wanted to be completely sure.

He laid the sparkling on his lap and began squeezing the rest of his milk into a bottle.

He’d have to find a crib and milk pump the next time he went to the storage rooms.

He stood and held the sparkling to his breast mesh that was still too tender to close his chassis over. He really hoped his bitty would take a bottle and not his nozzles and that his milk could be turned off when he called First aid.

He laid in his berth, nest fresh courtesy of Ratchet and Drift who were on took an extra, with a servo on the bitty thinking of possible names when he felt his optics almost slip closed until panic gripped him.

“Frag I didn’t tell them I adopted a bitty…���

Recharge was not exactly restful due to his nerves and waking a few hours later to the bitty whimpering wanting milk was something that stole his attention from Drift and Ratchets reactions.

He’d tried getting the bitty to take the sparkling fuel he’d put on earlier but the bitty hollered energon murder and he sighed lowering his helmet trying to suppress tears.

He’d lowered them to his nozzle and they immediately gripped on. He looked to the warm energon bottle and picked it up slipping it into the bitties mouth only for them to spit it out and spit up the milk.

It took over ten minutes to calm them down before deciding never to do that again and just accept he would have to feed from his nozzles.

The bitty gave a little glare at him with blue optics that looked so much like Drift and Ratchets when he did something to endanger himself he smiled a little making the bitty giggle.

It was spark warming and asserted that he made the right decision in keeping them.

“Your gonna be trouble aren’t ya lil mecha,” he cooed, cleaning himself and the bitty while allowing them to drink. He’d put the sparkling energon by the door and thought of how he was going to tell Drift and Ratchet.

He went through the motions of burping the bitty and soothing them to sleep before starting on paperwork. By the time he finished he leaned back in his chair and looked down at his breast mesh and the bitty sleeping on them.

He maneuvered the bitty and tried to put his breasts back into his chassis only to wince and hiss in pain.

‘That won’t work. Damnit. I’ll have to get a new chassis supporter.’

He looked down at the bitty and couldn’t find it in himself to blame them or really be upset. He was still pushing off the mental breakdown at succumbing to his carrier protocols. But looking down at the bitty he found it a tad easier.

Things didn’t feel so bad…until he heard the hab door open.

He stiffened in his seat and slowly turned his helm to see Drift and Ratchet staring at him and their hab.

He tried to smile but it came off wobbly and afraid and the sparkling made a whimpering noise that pulled his attention.

He shushed them gently with a small bounce and they nuzzled into him.

He looked back up to see the spot by the door empty with Drift and Ratchet right in front of Rodimus staring shocked at the fresh bitty in his arms recharging on swollen exposed breast mesh.

“Hehe. Surprise? Funny story here.”

“Roddy were you sparked and didn’t know it?! Did you emerge our sparkling on a mission?!”

Drift was seething with a myraid of emotions but not one was anger. He was thankfully whispering as he did so and was visibly checking him over before getting closer only to stop so Ratchet could begin scanning the sparkling and Rodimus.

“No I wasn’t sparked! And no I didn’t emerge a bitty! They don’t even look like us!”

He whispered venomously before pausing. They all stopped for a moment before Rodimus apologized.

“I’m not getting sparked. Ever,” he spoke, looking them in the optic before motioning for Ratchet to keep working.

The mech gave him a look he didn’t want to see so he turned his helm and let Ratchet work.

“The sparkling is fine,” he stood, looking at the fresh sparkling still sleeping on Rodimus who had an arm covering his nozzles.

He refused to move it because he didn’t want them seeing.

He knew they knew. They had since before they got together. He’d blown up almost saying some really nasty things when they revealed to him they knew by his scent, nest, clingy behavior he thought he shut down and the way he’d act around sparklings. Of course having this revealed made him all but destroy his carrying instincts and reject anything remotely like it.

It hurt. Physically and mentally to do so but he did it anyway and rejected any advice on not doing it. Of course he took it a step further and took preventative pills that kept him from going into heat and added an extra spark baffle. He really hated being a carrier and how it made him look to other mechs and femmes. He was not weak. He was not some birthing machine and he was not going to degrade himself by popping out sparklings and prove them all right. He was more than a carrier mech. He was a living being. He wouldn’t succumb to code.

Of course doing all this and having no heat put him in danger and made him sick but he truly would rather get sick than suffer another heat and possibly get sparked.

It took passing out after throwing up energon for his own medical right to be snatched away. He was taken off heat suppressants and his spark baffles were removed leaving him with just one.

He’d rode out his heat painfully by himself and left the medical center before they could try talking him into something he didn’t want. He ignored his teammates outside of battle planning for a long time. He ignored Ratchet and Drift, at the time Deadlock, for even longer since they just didn’t get it.

As much as he butted helms with Optimus the mech understood but still didn’t want him endangering his life. The only medic he really trusted was First Aid who admitted he didn’t understand but tried to give him the best option instead of getting snippy with him or pushing carrier scrap at him.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he feels Ratchet put a servo on his breast mesh and feel around it. He knows he isn’t being a perv but he still hates it. He’d never exposed his breast mesh to them before and hadn’t ever planned to.

“Well?”

He was getting more impatient and uncomfortable by the moment and Ratchet gave him a look that he returned with the beginnings of a snarl that he restrained.

“Milk won’t stop till the kid doesn’t need it anymore. You’ll need a new chassis plating. I’ll get to working on one-”

“I’ll have First aid make me one. Its fine. You both should rest. I’ll explain everything when you wake up.”

He was standing before either could get a word in. Was it fair? Not at all. But he really didn’t want this conversation nor the carrier slag they’d throw his way.

“Kid, get back here. This is a conversation we’re having now.”

He glared but didn’t go any further.

“I didn’t purposely attach the sparkling. It just..happened. I saw them crying near their creators when I went down to the lab. They were already gone and gray.”

“I wasn’t even thinking when I took them and decided to keep them. I’m sorry I didn’t ask first or tell you. You don’t have to care for them, I can do that on my own.”

He’d done it with sparklings at the centers and they’d recovered until they found a proper home during the war. So he knew he could.

“I’m not asking either of you to do anything and if they are a crying sparkling I’m going back to my hab.”

“Rodimus!”

Drift had yelled his name a little too loud to stop him from spiraling and putting distance between them. The mech was holding his arms on both sides and he wasn’t aware he’d been venting hard.

“Stop,” Drift vented hard, looking at him with his finials back and fangs poking out.

“You’re not going to your old hab. You’re staying here with us, where you belong,” Drift told him. “We’re not angry and we don’t blame you for getting attached. We just..”

“We’re surprised kid. Shocked really,” Ratchet came close and he felt crowded. The sparkling was picking up on his emotions and while that made him happy because it meant a bond was in place, he didn’t want them exposed to painful emotions or his cluster of feelings so he vented and bounced them. Keeping his gaze on the sparkling, trying not to notice how their gazes stuck to him and the longing in their optics, he started speaking again.

“I have the papers that say he’s mine already..Megs and Minimus know already because they came by unannounced.”

“Only yours?”

Ratchet was the one to ask and he felt bad that he didn’t think they’d want their names on the papers as well.

“I didn’t think you’d want your names on it. I didn’t think about anything other than your reactions honestly and I wasn’t fair in those thoughts either. I’m sorry.”

He owed it to them to at least get their frustrations out so he looked them in the optics expecting glares only to feel sadness and that was so much worst.

“Roddy…we aren’t..give us the papers.”

He went over to his desk and situated the sparkling while covering his nozzles and pulled the papers out handing them over.

They both signed it.

And he was both relieved and guilt ridden.

Both wanted a sparkling and were even partners with a mech who could carry by tank and yet…

“Why isn’t his name on here?”

“I couldn’t think of one…so I guess..as his sires, you can name him. If you want.”

They looked at him as if he’d revealed the secrets of Cybertron and he might as well have. Naming was a huge deal in their culture and for a carrier to completely allow the sires full handle of it meant a lot.

He looked down at the sparkling and stood beside them, “here, hold him.”

It was Ratchet who gently took the sparkling which made the bitty wake up looking confused. Their optics nor senses were actually developed but they could tell the difference between stranger, carrier and sire. They could smell that he was near but couldn’t feel him. And yet the sparkling didn’t cry which was a good sign. They did sneeze and Ratchet melted at the sight with Drift not far behind and he hadn’t even held the bitty yet.

It made Rodimus smile but the guilt ate away at him.

Truth be told, he really did want sparklings, but he hated the stereotypes, prejudice and weakness being a carrier brought on. He never wanted to be weak or seen as weak and he hated how he would be viewed if he were to get sparked. So he denied and rejected it and in the process, he denied himself and his partners something they all wanted. Its one of the reasons he wasn’t conjunxed with them while the two were. It was usually a guarantee a carrier would get sparked once they conjunxed. His fears greatly outweighed the speak of what if he still felt.

He was also certain they would one day tire of him and leave when they realized they could do better.

‘I sprung a bitty on them that isn’t even ours by emergence and they still want me,’ he let a few tears fall silently. ‘I’ve been unfair to them…’

He watched as Ratchet gave the bitty to Drift and how the mech melted completely with tears in his optics. Their bitty still didn’t cry which was also a very good sign he felt a connection to the two. He quietly bent down and grabbed a blanket to cover his exposed nozzles. He should let Ratchet make him a new chassis cover.

The feelings were overwhelming and he felt less of a warrior and solider and more the code he tried to reject for millions of years.

He..hated the vulnerability still and tried to quietly shift into the other room for a moment to gather himself but the two held him on both sides of his arms.

“What? Is he hungry?”

He didn’t want to make optic contact and tried to play off his sniffle until Ratchet pulled him in. He tried to move back but neither mechs allowed it.

“Kid..for once..don’t fight it..it doesn’t make you any less and it’s not a bad thing. Just for now..let it out..don’t reject it. Don’t reject us.”

The dam burst and he was sobbing with his intake covered by his servos to keep from being too loud. He kept his face plates hidden and felt Drift hug his back with their sparkling secure in his hold. Their arms tightened around him. He felt all the things he never allowed himself.

Safe. Vulnerable. Secure. Open. Tender. Exposed and held together as he mended himself whole with their comfort.

It felt as good as it hurt and by the end of his tears he felt raw and their nest had never felt so good to slip inside. He felt Drift and Ratchet pressed on both sides of him after giving him their sparkling when he whined for him.

Their sparkling nuzzled into him and made cooing noises, trying to fight their sleep but Drift wouldn’t let them. His humming was infectious and it was hard for him to stay awake but the plating that remained on his upper frame left him so uncomfortable. He knew what that meant but he wasn’t sure he could handle accepting it.

“It’s okay, Roddy,” Drift whispered in his audial, slowly taking the locks off his tank and back strut plating with Rstchets help. He felt pure relief at the metal being removed allowing his belly and wide hips room to breathe.

Accepting the sparkling as his own, his frame producing milk and allowing his emotions freedom in the presence of his partners triggered his body to go into a pseudo heat that was brought on from denying his code all these years.

“Let us take care of you,” Ratchet kissed along his neck cables, servos rubbing the chub along his belly, sending butterflies bursting within him at the love and comfort freely given.

Drift rubbed his palms along his hips and bit into his neck, hands making their way up to his sensitive breasts where he tensed and Ratchet cooed at him, reassuring him as he too cupped Rodimus breast. Both slipping the blanket free and wrapping the sparkling inside it.

The bitty inhaled the pheromones in the air and began to fall into recharge. What smelled of heat to adult mechs smelled of sleep pheromones to sparklings.

They placed the bitty on the edge of the nest yet still within close servo and optic contact.

Laid out bare for them to see, Rodimus tried to cover his nozzles but the two stopped him. Both Drift and Ratchet pressed a kiss to his nozzles before licking the dark milk duct and kissing the tender mesh again.

They enjoyed the way they bounced heavily and how his belly followed suit.

“You make an amazing person and carrier, sweet spark,” it was Ratchet who always spoke sweet words while taking them apart in berth. The medic popped his panels open and let his spike free, Drift followed pressing kisses to Rodimus’s belly, servo rubbing the chub as he worshipped it with kisses making Rodimus array snap open and lock.

Drift placed a kiss on his soaking valve before moving to let Ratchet do the same.

“You’ll look even more beautiful growing, swelling full with our sparkling. You already look so beautiful caring for our first one,” Drift soothed into his audial. They both were lining up to meet at the entrance of his valve, both their spike heads bobbing together before slowly slipping inside.

They all groaned together in unison until Drift and Ratchet nipped at his nozzles pulling them. Their servos resting interlocked over his belly as they rubbed the soft flesh stimulating his nerves. Bobbing their throats to a wave beat as they drank from him while fully sheathing their spikes deep inside him.

They left him a silent screaming, back arched mess that could do nothing more than cry and whisper his begging for their soft loving touches that left him exposed emotionally and a soaking, valve squelching mess that tried to cycle and lock down on their raw spikes that were struggling to keep from bursting inside him.

He felt their grip on his belly tighten and they rubbed his flesh as if he were already accepting their loads for a new spark when he felt their chassis open and his spark thrum to life.

Three different hues of blue made the dark room glow. Spike and valve bio lights pulsed and grew vibrant while Drift and Ratchet lifted themselves to hover and look down at Rodimus who looked up at them.

“We aren’t letting you go, Roddy. Not now, not if we never got to conjunx and spark you,” he leaned down, kissing the sobbing mech who gazed up at him before Ratchet leaned down capturing plump lips that quivered at his bite. “But now that we have, no more running and hiding from us. We love you Rodimus and we know you love us too.”

Rodimus sobbed even harder.

Feeling their sparks glow and leave their chambers to meet between them and merge making them all conjunx and completing the connection.

They overloaded together, squeezing each other, Rodimus’s valve clamping down on their spikes that buried within his soft tank lining spilling into him. Their sparks dancing getting lost in each other until none could be distinguished and they all held a large piece of each other once their sparks returned to them.

Rodimus was enternally grateful to have Drift and Ratchets servos in his belly as he felt the flesh stretch and grow heavy at all the transfluid that sloshed and flowed inside him. He felt his valve and cheeks grow hot all over again and he moaned, rocking into them.

“Please,” he cried, feeling them rub his distended belly full of transfluid, valve throbbing hot as his tank wanted more. “Please,” he begged again, seeing the two smirk.

“We’ll give you everything you want and need, sweet spark,” his medic promised.

“We just hope you don’t mind carrying two or three by the time we’re done with you.”

“Although, it’d be nice to see you so round and full of three while feeding our first,” Ratchet chuckled.

“Maybe we aim for three next time?” Drift kissed along Rodimus’s face, nuzzling into his olfactory sensor when the mech needed the reassurance and care.

“We can discuss that later. For now,” Ratchet pulled Rodimus close, washing his em field over the mech who needed their affection they were more than happy to give, “lets focus on mending him. He needs our love first, we can think on that later.”

With a nod from Drift and a quick check on their sleeping sparkling, they made love to their conjunx.

-

My mind…went elsewhere..anyway if anyone wants to tip me the link to my kofi is on my pinned post.

[safficranger]

Contraband

Pairing: Alexandra Cabot / Casey Novak

A/N: a little ficlet for the prompt “Summer Treats” of @storiesofsvu `s birthday bingo. This is my first time participating in a bingo. I hope I got it right. English is not my first language, so please excuse any mistakes. A shoutout to my dear (offline) friend who proofread to help minimize errors. Thank you @saurgaeee for moral support!

It was Friday afternoon, and the first warm day of summer in New York City. The sun beamed from a cloudless sky, flooding the streets with dazzling light. Everyone in the city seemed to agree: it was time to kickstart the weekend early. They poured into the parks in droves, eager to soak up the sun and unwind with loved ones. The entire city had suddenly come alive, and there was a sense of excitement buzzing in the air. For a moment, the usual worries melted away as people embraced the simple joy of welcoming the warm season together.

Sadly not everybody had the freedom to go out and enjoy the weather. With the latest case wrapped up and a win under her belt, Alex found herself buried in paperwork at the office. She had toyed with the idea of just packing up and finishing her work from home, but the promise of a work-free weekend with Casey kept her pushing through. The tension of the past few days had left her feeling drained, her muscles practically screaming with exhaustion.

She was desperate for a brief escape, a chance to recharge and let go of the pressures that had been weighing her down. While reading documents and filling out forms, Alex couldn't stop thinking about taking a leisurely walk through the park with Casey, talking about nothing in particular, enjoying the warmth of the summer together. It felt like ages since they'd really caught up.

Whenever work got this hectic, Alex usually just holed up in her apartment, trying to stay on task and avoid distractions. But no matter how many texts and quick calls they exchanged, Alex missed her girlfriend like crazy.

A gentle knock on the door snapped Alex out of her thoughts. The door eased open, revealing Casey, who slipped inside with a mischievous grin before quietly shutting it behind her.

"Casey!" Alex's face lit up with joy. "I know it sounds cliché, but I was just thinking about you."

"Shh,” Casey playfully hushed her, placing a finger against her lips. “Everybody thinks I headed home for the weekend. They might find some urgent files for me to review if they see me back here."

Alex looked up at Casey curiously. "And what's the real reason you came back?"

Casey strolled over, planting a quick kiss on Alex's cheek before perching herself on the edge of the desk. With the mischievous smile playing on Casey's lips, Alex knew there was more to her surprise visit.

"I heard the good news," Casey said happily.

“I won,” Alex replied, unable to contain her proud smile.

"Thought we'd celebrate," Casey grinned back. "Plus, I didn't feel like going to the park without you. Figured since you can't leave, I'd just bring a little bit of summer to you.”

Alex raised an eyebrow suspiciously "And what exactly did you have in mind?"

Casey hopped off the desk, shooting a quick glance at the door before rummaging through her bag. "I've got a little something special," she whispered.

Curiously, Alex leaned in to see what Casey had brought. She chuckled when she discovered the contraband. "Ice cream smuggling, huh?"

"Shh... Liz will kill me if she finds out. You know how she is with her 'no sticky food' rule."

As Casey opened the container and passed Alex a spoon, they both burst into giggles like a pair of mischievous teenagers.

"Here's to you, love. I'm so proud of you!" Casey cheered, her eyes sparkling with affection. They both dug into the creamy treat, savoring each spoonful.

"I can't even remember the last time I had ice cream! Didn't realize how much I missed it," Alex confessed, a wide grin spreading across her face.

Suddenly, a knock at the door shattered the moment. Casey's eyes widened in panic. With the spoon still in her mouth, she swiftly grabbed the container, snatched the spoon from Alex's hand, and dove for cover behind the desk.

Luckily, it was just Alex's assistant dropping off some remaining case files. Alex quickly dismissed him with a wave, barely containing her laughter until he left and closed the door behind him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex's eyes met Casey's, who was crouched beside her desk on the floor, holding the ice cream container on her lap and looking up at Alex with wide eyes.

"That was a close one," Casey whispered, a giggle escaping her.

"I feel like we're back in high school," Alex replied, chuckling along. Sliding gracefully (after all, she was still Alex Cabot, with a reputation to uphold) off her chair, she settled next to Casey and surprised her with a warm hug, pulling her close for a loving kiss on the cheek.

"I love you, you know that?" Alex said softly.

"I've heard rumors," Casey teased.

"Well, consider them confirmed," Alex replied with a grin.

"I love you too!" Casey smiled.

"Alright, let's dig in and celebrate. Or are you planning on hogging all the ice cream to yourself?"

As they devoured the ice cream, their conversation flowed easily, accompanied by laughter, all while making sure to keep their voices down to avoid any unwanted attention. To an outsider, it might have seemed a bit odd – two grown women sitting on the floor, hidden behind a desk, giggling over a little summer treat. But for Alex, there was nowhere else she'd rather be. These moments with Casey reminded her of just how much she cherished her girlfriend's quirks and rebellious spirit. She couldn't think of a better way to start the summer.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi there, Steph! I have a little question about the way that you handle the (queued) reblogs of your previous posts. Obviously you usually reblog posts the next day but what about older posts from years back? Are they also still following some kind of rotation or queue or do you just go through your own post history ever now and then, looking for stuff that looks thematically/interesting?

Whatever your system is, it is working great for me! I found a lot of great fics and meta-posts from your older posts as well and I probably wouldn't have found those just by browsing on your blog. I am just curious to maybe get a little glimpse behind the scenes!

Thanks for all your great compilation work over here!

Hi Nonny!

So my NEW posts always get a "next day reblog" and a queued "final" reblog (usually with "queue" in the tag name), which usually posts a month or two later depending upon how long my queue is, so that the content is seen at least three times guaranteed.

Lately though, because I haven't been getting a lot of asks, I have been just... going through my offline file of my blog (a 384 page Text Edit document) by just doing keyword searches of whatever comes to my mind and then tag them as "filler content". I used to never do this, as many come to my blog because it's visibly updated daily. But lately I just haven't had the spoons or mental capacity to answer long asks and instead I just pick whatever comes to my brain. Mostly my "classic posts" (ie. posts that I received a LOT of feedback for in the past or posts that are STILL making the rounds years later and I happen to see it cross a mutual's dash so then I reblog) or if I see a topic is popular, I'll find my old meta masterposts about said topic and try to get new eyes on them, since I didn't realize until this year that not everyone knows I used to be more known for my meta writing. Many people like the rabbit holes they can end up in reading my meta. Sometimes I'll go on my art blogs (@stephratte and @stephdrawsjohnlock) and find some old art I'd like people to see. It really does just depend upon my mood in the moment.

I try to fill up my time-slots in my queue hourly between 8am and 4pm DAILY, so that my blog is ALWAYS active and a place people can come and be entertained. I like having a very active blog. In turn, though, that comes with the cost of me spending EVERY NIGHT going through my blog daily, FILING EVERY SINGLE POST on the aforementioned Text Edit Document, and then setting up the queue accordingly. And if I don't answer a new ask, I just randomly type whatever I'm in the mood to re-read on my own blog and search for filler content. It's a lot of work but I think it's worth it since I get a few comments that mention that they are happy that I am so active around here.

That said, I'm SOOOOO happy to hear that my older posts intermingled with my new ones are doing it for you. Like, you have NO idea how pleased I am to hear this, because the immense guilt I feel for NOT having new content has been eating at me for months. I just... DON'T have the energy these days to ensure new stuff all the time AND work on making new fic lists for each Sunday. I have a nearly-ten-year backlog of blog here, I should really take advantage of that.

Thank you so much for giving me that validation I feel I needed for it, and I'm happy you enjoy your time here! This is SUCH a kind comment, and filled me with sprinkles and sunshine. 💜🖤

[simnostalgia]

@hugelunatic Hi, it's me, the person who scraped GOS! Sorry I couldn't reblog the original post so, here is my response.

First of all, I wanted to say. Thank you for everything you do for our community. You've really been a major part of The TS2 community from the beginning!

Second, you'll stop me from archiving when you pry the archiving software out of my cold, dead hands.

Do you know about Plumb Bob Keep? That's a real question because as the TS2 modding community gets ever smaller and becomes more and more insular it gets harder to know who is on what moderation team and who co-runs what. However, if you do know Plumb Bob keep you'd know that recently the owner died. Which meant that suddenly the entire community had to scramble.

Fortunately, they were able to get in contact with the family (in their time of mourning) to ask "Hey, sorry about the dead girl, can I has password please? I need my fix of virtual doll clothes"

I don't blame them for this. They'd obviously put a lot of time into this and the reason I know that is because I got approached to see what I could do when the site was offline and they were still trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, when a site's only existing documentation exists in the WayBackMachine that makes it basically impossible to scrape.

And this isn't even the first time this happened, when Yahoo Groups shutdown, ArchiveTeam had trouble talking to MOST older simmers because they were so fucking touchy about their content. Literally our community has a reputation for being obnoxious about TOUs and 'rights' to the point where they'd basically given up trying to archive anything that had to do with The Sims.

So if you thought that this was because I was concerned that you were running into the ground. Rest assured, I'm doing this in case you get in a fatal car accident so we don't have to call your mourning loved ones to ask the very cringe question: "Do you know about the forum from 2008 that your spouse/son/father/sister/daughter/mother ran? Can we have access to it please. I have recolors that I'd DESPERATELY love to get back."

As far as bandwidth goes, I do my best to make sure that I scrape with as little intrusion as possible and your load is lighter since you don't host any of the actual CC or even 75% of your own images.

Now, we could talk about what this really is: a pissing contest. But don't worry. I have no real interest in encroaching on your territory of running an alternative style sims 2 forum from 2008. I love GOS, or I wouldn't have made sure that it didn't fucking disappear into the ether.

But believe me, no one is choosing to look through a list of 10,000 zip files without images or descriptions as a replacement for a fully functional forum with like... images of the items. My archive of GOS is pretty much only for creators and people who know EXACTLY what they're looking for.

And that goes similarly for everyone worried about their precious TOUs in the comments of the original post. No one, and I mean no one, prefers to dig through an entire fucking ass ton of files labeled shit like "[POOKLET] SKYSIMS MESH 007 - UNNATURAL COLORS"

In fact, I've had several creators thank me because the scrape unearthed some shit they'd thought they'd lost. And if you don't like it, or me, get in line. I assure you there is metric fuck ton of people from patreon who hate me far more.

However, I would like to say that whenever you / or any other creator who is mad about this / literally any simmer, is searching for a dependency because someone got in some obscure internet drama and deleted all their cc or Mediafire got shut down by the RIAA or whatever the fuck.

You, for as "annoyed" as you are, will remember the big ass zip file and CTRL + F your ass to what you're looking for. And I'm going to say it now, for when that moment comes:

You're welcome. No hard feelings.

[rainofaugustsith]

We've recently had a number of large, important news archives suddenly going offline, taking everyone's decades of writing work with them. Writers who have anything online, be it professional articles or fanfic: for the love of God, please back up your published work with offline copies. If you are on AO3, you can download a PDF copy of your work. If you are on a website like Tumblr, you can download an entire copy of your blog from the settings menu. If you have published something on a website, you can save a copy of it as a PDF. On a computer, go to your article. Press the little print icon that appears somewhere on the page, or else right click and choose 'print.' On the menu that appears, 'save to PDF.' You will get a copy of your article that you can keep, that is yours offline. It will also have the URL of the page it was printed from at the bottom and the date and time, so you have proof of where it was published and when. If you do not have a PC, it might be worth spending an afternoon at your friendly public library with a flash drive to save your own work. Make a habit of doing this every time something is published or posted, so you have it. Can't do that? At least go to the library and print the articles out on paper, so you have them. Save things on your own flash drives. Don't depend on clouds. That way, if a website ever mysteriously goes poof or gets hacked and altered, you have documentation of your work.

[johannestevans]

New works published, December ahead, and plans for the new year!

Good evening and happy December!

Here's the sign-up link to get these sorts of updates and lists directly into your inbox.

Happy second night of Hanukkah for anyone else celebrating, we lit our first candle last night and have also been doing a Hanukkah gift box with little bears and accessories, so we'll see if our first bear gets a yarmulke or something to wear tonight.

In the past month, I did go along to the Wakefield Makers Fair and it was a brilliant day, was lovely to speak to lots of other queer people in Wakefield and to chat around - I also did Honeypot comedy at the Room Above in Bristol for the first time, and it was a gorgeous night, super fun!

I am in the end stages of finalising my new apartment in Bradford, and once all the paperwork is done and I have my keys, I will be uploading pictures and videos as I move in and redecorate the place. The building went up toward the end of the 19th century, and while it was converted to apartments a lot more recently, only a few decades ago, I'll of course be decorating in more Victorian styles and with contemporary furnishings, and I'll be documenting my progress as I go.

In the meantime I've been wrestling with paperwork and the whole process whilst being technically homeless and going between partners' homes, so apologies for the delays and periods of quiet, work-wise!

I tend to be quite active in writing and publishing over the month of December because Christmas and the Gregorian new year aren't really my thing, so hopefully if you do spend a lot of time celebrating those or generally being offline, you'll be able to come back to a backlog when you've time to read again!

Speaking of, I have updated my commission guidelines, which are here pinned on my Tumblr page, and I'm in the process of editing and collating some short stories into collections at the moment. There'll be a few eBook and paperback collections of fantasy, horror, & romance short stories, and then depending on what I can do on Amazon, I'll also do some collections of erotica. I will not be able to post most monsterfucker stuff on Amazon because of Amazon's restrictions, but I will probably still do some eBooks and make them available on Smashwords and perhaps on Gumroad or Itch.io.

I will also resume podcasting in the new year too hopefully!

Relevant to restrictions, not everything I might want to write is always going to be permitted on Patreon in line with their own guidelines, so I have set up a SubscribeStar as a backup, and also to permit me to publish anything that might be too taboo for Patreon in future. I will be uploading my backlog of previous works and setting up a tiered system on SubscribeStar, hopefully while we're working on collating other stories together in the next month or so.

In the new year, I will of course be doing various markets and conventions, and if you'd like me to come and be part of any queer or trans events, or any writers' events, where you are in the UK, please do let me know! Definitely always feel free to recommend any events to me, whether they're cons or festivals, or local markets and events, or even stand-up comedy things - you can send me messages on whatever platforms, or my email is always contact@johannestevans.com. As well as working on new paperback short story collections for the new year and the badges I already sell at events, I also want to work on some sticker designs and similar.

I was super happy this year to submit to a few publications and get accepted, and I do want to keep that up as we come into 2024, so recs for those would also be appreciated!

I'm going to do a list this month of my favourite films and new releases of 2023, but in the meantime, I would just like to recommend Down Low (2023, dir. Rightor Doyle) - it's such a bizarre and unexpected gay movie, horny in the best and most ridiculous of ways, and bittersweet at its end but in a way that really clicks.

December having come around also means there's new prompts on Trans Erotica! If you're trans and write erotica or erotic horror, romance, etc, come and submit!

November's Most Popular Works

November's Most Popular Non-Fiction: Close Reading: A Deep Dive into the Process

An in-depth guide into applying analysis to a piece of text and extrapolating meaning.

Read on Patreon / / Read on The Writing Cooperative

November's Most Popular Fiction: Confession and Penance

A priest takes a hands-on approach to addressing a worshiper’s poor working habits.

11k, cis M/M, rated E! Tiernan, a manipulative workaholic who only ever relaxes during Mass services, is taken aside by Father Mullen when it all gets to be a bit too much. D/s, BDSM-approach to enforcing self-care, spanking, painplay, bit of a priest kink but it doesn’t go into that aspect too much, faith. Also some anal.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

New Works Published

Erotic short: Enhanced Parts

Bear goes home with a cybernetically enhanced butch.

NB/NB, rated E, 2k. Commissioned by Bear Blue. Featuring cybernetic enhancements, breeding kink, dirty talk, size difference, large insertions, objectification, humiliation, mild dub con, rough sex, struggling, some tears, implied overstim.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium / / Read on Tumblr / / Read on Ao3

Romance & Fantasy Short: The Arena Fighter

An arena brute enjoys one of the attendants.

3.5k, M/M. Nasty violent guys getting off on treating each other a bit roughly. Adapted from a TweetFic.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

Our Flag Means Death Fanfiction: Repentance & Forgiveness

Held hostage by Blackbeard on the Queen Anne, Frenchie can't sleep.

Desperate to just get whatever he can away from crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge, he knocks on Izzy's door and invites himself in.

---

Slowly unfolding relationship between Frenchie and Izzy Hands, as well as an exploration of their relationships with Edward Teach and the rest of their crews, delving for Frenchie into what it means to really experience one's feelings, to get into touch with and truly grapple with the depths of one's worst experiences; and for Izzy and Ed, into what it means to transgress, to repent, and ultimately to be forgiven.

Read on Ao3

Erotic Short: Punishment

A man takes penance over the priest’s��desk.

1.8k, rated E, M/M. Featuring spanking, mild anal play, power dynamics, of course the priest aspect, age difference. Tiernan Borel and Marshall Mullen first appeared in Confession and Penance. 

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

Romance Short: Sleeper Train

Romance short. Two boyfriends head up north on the sleeper train.

850 words, rated T, M/M. Short, sweet, romance and slice-of-life. Adapted from a TweetFic.

Read on Patreon / / Read in Prism & Pen

Erotic Short: Knight Tactics

An elf serves as a distraction and an exhaustion tactic for a bandit camp. By letting them fuck him.

3k, trans M/loads of cocks, assumed as cis M. Amaethon gets himself stuck in a wall so that the bandits will work out their stamina fucking him rather than fighting off the king’s guard.

Stuck in wall, free use, fully (and gleefully) consensual whilst pretending he isn’t, mild belly bulging and come inflation, gaping, exhaustion, messy and come-spattered, etc. All the fun stuff.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Trans Erotica / / Read on SubscribeStar

Read on Tumblr / / Read on Ao3 / / Read on HentaiFoundry

Erotic Short: Free Ride

An elf is given a free ride — not with a saddle, but under a centaur.

1.8k, rated E, cis M/trans M. Centaurs, belly riding, huge stomach deformation, huge penis, suspension, implied inflation, size difference.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Trans Erotica / / Read on SubscribeStar

Read on Tumblr / / Read on Ao3 / / Read on HentaiFoundry

Erotic Short: Snake Eggs

An elf lets a naga lay her clutch inside him.

2.5k, rated E, M/F. Amaethon helps out his friend Gitte, a naga, with laying this year’s clutch of eggs. Size difference and size kink, belly bulging, vaginal and anal penetration, paralysis from her venom, some banter, oviposition, inflation, impregnation.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Trans Erotica / / Read on SubscribeStar

Read on Tumblr / / Read on Ao3 / / Read on HentaiFoundry

Erotic Short: Mimic Studies

An elf experiences a mimic’s tentacles, and then a reward.

Rated E, 2.5k, trans M/a mimic. Featuring multiple tentacle penetration in one hole, vaginal sex, some mild objectification and dehumanisation, some academic silliness, object insertion, cervix penetration, belly bulging and stomach distension.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Trans Erotica / / Read on SubscribeStar

Read on Tumblr / / Read on Ao3

These last four stories - Knight Tactics, Free Ride, Snake Eggs, and Mimic Studies - are all ones I'm publishing for free everywhere as well as in the usual paid places.

I've been in the mood to do all this sort of weird and monsterfuckery and body horror-y erotica, so definitely feel free to send asks or requests for similar themes!

Get merch on TeePublic | | Look through my Directory of Published Work | | Listen to my Podcast

[shiroi---kumo]

Hey so like I had a seizure at work on Wednesday (not a grand mal) and I took yesterday off to recover from it but I still feel a little scatter brained if that makes sense. I'm documenting, please don't worry.

I'm just exhausted.

I worked through it and that sucked and this isn't the first time I've done it. My brain power is not here today. Please be patient with me. So like my actual Boss (chris) (he made that very clear today) sat me down for like 45 minutes to talk to me about actually relying on my team and trusting people enough to tell them in the moment that I'm struggling.

I told him(chris) why I don't and that I told my lead (terry) (lead housekeeper; not my boss apparently. Terry doesn't think that though) that I had been experiencing numbness and nausea, dizzy etc and he(terry) cracked a joke about it.

So Chris said he'll talk to him about it and all that but was really trying to be validating that i can and should talk to people and he made me promise I wouldn't push myself through a migraine or a seizure again. I said I'd try.

I just feel really scrambled eggs brain still. So like it cool if I just sleep a lot? I think I need to catch up on my Zzz's. I have been trying to push myself to get things done and deal with my medical and get my life to be more organized but I have been sacrificing a lot of other things to do that. So I dunno, I might slow down a little bit during the week. I can't have another seizure any time soon. (I can't say again because even though i dont want to my body is laughing and going you don't get a choice that's cute.)

I only have brain power to write the one thing tonight. I'm sorry. Today was rough. I am not used to people offline having my back or hearing me. So I spent that 45 minutes trying to stone face and not cry. I succeeded. I did not on the car ride home. I know I have drafts and shit building again but like I'm just so exhausted this week.

I'm working on trying to get FMLA though and HR is helping me so fingers crossed I guess.

I guess just patience please.

[imagine-the-energon]

PRIME DIRECTIVES, CHAPTER 4

They had barely been able to get out of the Dam before it shut down, and she could see fire coming from the generator area.

“Shit,” she whispered, motioning to Morgan and Nathan. “Who do you think shot out the generators? Will it cause the cryostasis to fail?”

“Maybe if it were all of them, but just one looks damaged,” Morgan answered. “He might thaw a little, but he should stay here until the rest come for him.”

A dark blue Mustang sat in a pick-up stall, a man with blue hair looking anxiously between them and the generator. “There’s Overboard,” Nathan began to push them towards the said ex-Prime, and as they entered, she could see dozens of agents starting to flood the bridge. “Shit.”

“Car checks,” she murmured. “You’ve changed alt modes between the distraction and now, so you should be fine. Did you take the EM neutralizer?”

“Yes, but I don’t like it. It’s itchy,” he answered, and they were the next car.

Seymor Simmons was not a pleasant man to look at, but she grinned at him from the passenger seat. “Where are you coming from then?”

“We just got done with a tour,” she said. “We’re going to Vegas next. Can’t wait to see the ma-”

“Gambling,” the other three quickly interrupted, shooting her genuine scandalous looks. Simmons pursed his lips but also looked ready to laugh.

“Do you have proof of purchase for this car, as well as the tickets for the tour?”

Overboard offered up all of the documents, and one of the other agents took it for a few minutes before returning it with a nod, making Simmons sigh before stepping away, waving them forward.

“Well, enjoy your stay,”

-----------------------------------------------------

“You should’ve extracted the second you realized what His plan was,” Stormdrive all but screeched as the femme finished scanning her. “She’s absolutely doused in unstable radiation! It’s amazing that S7 didn’t sniff her out immediately.”

“I’m right here,” she muttered, glaring up at the femme, all the while holding a bucket in case she vomited again. “If we didn’t, the Allspark would’ve been destroyed.”

“And you wouldn’t be suffering from radiation sickness that we can’t treat unless we rob a hospital,” the femme countered.

“What do Megatron’s scans say?” Nathan interrupted, pinching his nose. “Please tell me you can gather some intel off of it.”

“Aside from his systems are absolutely wrecked by the constant sub-zero temperatures and his spark pulse is far too slow as a result? His EM field showed improvements the longer Riley had stayed near him. Three scans from different angles tell me nothing. I need a more in-depth scan,” she sounded ready to cry as she continued. “The fact that his EM field reacted to Riley shortly after transferring the Allspark, with the latent energy still enveloping her…”

“My theory has proof?” At her question, Stormdrive gave a single nod.

“It’s likely his EM field was corrupted by something, and when he became Lord Protector, the Allspark made that corruption go deeper into his processor banks.”

She closed her eyes, letting her head rest against one of the barn’s pillars. “I can’t exactly be with him for the next ten months to flush his field,” she whined. “And the day he unfreezes, he offlines.”

“So we’ll focus on cleansing his processor afterward,”

She felt sick again, and she could hear the various noises of concern and disgust as she heaved what little crackers and water she had gotten down back up. As she stopped, a sudden bout of dizziness hit her, causing her to moan before pitching forward, Morgan was barely able to catch her before she landed face-first in what the bucket used to hold.

“Let’s get you inside,” he soothed, pulling her onto her feet. The world spun with each step she took, until she finally had to pause, leaning against the hood of her car. “Tired? Headache?”

“Dizzy,” she murmured. “Hot. ‘M not feeling vomity anymore.”

“Is that a good sign? Storm, is not feeling sick good?”

She could feel Nathan trying to tug her away, but she closed her eyes, refusing to budge. After a few seconds, she felt considerably better. “I’m fine,” she murmured, trying to shake off their hands.

“You’re looking green again,” Morgan argued. “Let’s at least get you to some bushes.”

“No, I’m fine,” she insisted, physically shaking off their hands, the feeling of frustration slowly building up.

“Oh, for pit’s sake, just get in the house already. You’re swaying.”

“I said I’m fine,” she snapped, but they continued. She couldn’t describe how the more frustrated she got, the higher her fever spiked, or how she started to glow by faint Cybertronian runes seemingly tattooed into her skin appearing.

All she could describe was the sense of… of loneliness that filled her as she realized they weren’t listening to her. Their voices overlapped as she squeezed her eyes shut tighter, doing her best to ignore their raising voices. The mantra of I’m fine falling on deaf ears reminded her too much of her old life, of constantly lying through her teeth and putting on a smile.

Like her old life, it came crumbling down when they touched the back of her neck.

Her eyes flared open, and she slammed her hands on the car hood, snarling the same words she had been saying over and over again, except this time, what interrupted her was the sudden blast of energy that had the humans flying and hardlight forms flickering out of existence.

She lay there, stunned and staring at the sky as the others did the same, the birds slowly chirping again.

“What was that?” Nathan croaked out, prompting her to slowly sit up.

“I… I think it was energy build-up,” she answered in the same hoarse tone, horror leaking through her voice. “Oh god did I just…?”

“I sense a New Spark,” Overboard answered, stepping out of the barn. “Congratulations, Riley. It’s a Mechling.”

She felt ready to cry as she stared at the seemingly normal car in front of her, waiting for it to transform with red optics. She could tell the others were too before Morgan let out a choked snort and stood.

“I don’t think it took,” he said slowly. “Would’ve modified already.”

For some reason, her heart broke at that and she turned towards Stormdrive for confirmation, who frowned. “The spark pulse is fluctuating, but otherwise within stable range for a Cold Construct.”

-----------------------------------------------------

She was aware that they should’ve been in Tranquility by the end of the week, but she couldn’t bring it in herself to leave the still motionless muscle car behind, and none of the ‘bots could currently tow anything. She could rent a truck that could, sure, but she wasn’t allowed to touch anything tech related until they were sure she wouldn’t make any more.

Arguably, the others should drive then, but they all had some excuse as to why they couldn’t do it. She didn’t trust a third party to drive him, which led to moving day.

She gently knocked on his hood. “Your systems are fully formed,” she said, more for herself. “You can’t spend all year sleeping.” When there was no response, she sighed. “C’mon kiddo. Are you pitching a fit because I was upset when I made you? I already said I was sorry.”

Stormdrive stepped out of the cabin in her hardlight form, her head tilted to the side. “I believe he… wants a designation.”

“He doesn’t have one already?” She asked, blinking.

“No. Often, our creators choose a designation, or it is encoded in our frame if we are Cold Forged.”

She suddenly felt shitty and turned back to the mech. “How about you transform and we’ll work on a name, ok?” For a split second, she swore his armor began to shift before settling back, making her sigh. “I’m not exactly a good person to get named by.”

“Perhaps some basic names?” Stormdrive suggested.

“Basic,” she sighed. “Something like, what? Sunjaw?”

“Usually just one,” she corrected. “Like Trident of Thunder,”

Instantly, she shook her head. “Those don’t feel right. Dynamo?” No, it still felt off.

“He’s colored like fire.” Storm mused. “Firewing, perhaps?”

“Definitely Fire, but ‘wing doesn’t seem right,” she agreed. “Are you sure you don’t want to transform and help us?”

Finally, there was a noise, a whine that sounded like someone was about to start crying as the car broke apart. She watched in amazement as the mech transformed, ending as his doors clicked across his chest, bright blue optics looking at her with a frown. Almost immediately, she noticed how tall he was. The tallest ‘bot she’s seen (aside from Megatron) was Velocity, who stood at 22 feet tall, yet he was definitely four or more feet taller than him. Maybe even taller than Optimus, but she was definitely sure he was smaller than the Decepticon leader.

“Primus, if he’s what you make when angry, what will you make when happy?” Storm joked. “We might have Titans again!”

“Was that a Clifford reference?”

The femme just smirked before walking around the mech, who shifted, side-eyeing her as best as he could. “He’s got a good arsenal too,” she announced. “I think you made yourself a guardian.”

“No!” she instantly denied, making the mech flinch. “Hey, no, don’t- I’m saying no because you were made literally this week. I’m going to be a really high-risk target, and I don’t want you in danger like that, ok?”

There was another whine, a bit lower, and she sighed, looking at Storm for help. “He wants to help,” she translated. “He thinks it hurts when you’re sad.”

“All kids think that,” she murmured. “Do you like the bit that we have so far? Fire?” The mech let out a warble before shrugging, making her let out a laugh. “I know it’s not complete, but it’s a start, right?” He nodded, making her smile. “Do you think you’re ok with following Storm to our new home for the next few months? I’ll be in the driver's seat to help.”

-----------------------------------------------------

She had a three-bedroom house that had a two-car garage attached, but a three-car in the backyard that had an open loft, so the ‘bots could transform in here. Well, maybe not all of them, but Prime’s alt mode would definitely fit.

She still had enough of a backyard that she could decorate it as she pleased. As it were, since Michael was enrolled, as was ‘Bee, they had to decorate their own rooms, though ‘Bee’s was more for display than use… Or it should’ve been, had he not discovered her switch and immediately begun playing on it.

“I only have one of those,” she said, building the desk as he lay on the bed, the switch above him as he mashed buttons. “If you break it, you’ll have to manually replace what you broke.”

He paused, looking between her and the console before signing out Common.

“Nope! It was released in 2016. So the tech for it hasn’t even been made yet. I have one, and I’m not sure if the others do, but again if you break it, I will cry. I’ve sunk at least a hundred hours into Breath of the Wild.”

He nodded as if agreeing before frowning and pointing at the desk before himself.

“If someone thinks you don’t live here, I could get in trouble,” she answered. “Plus a desk will help with schoolwork.” She then paused. “Ah, shit, I’m pretty sure you’re going to have a genealogy report in history. We’re going to have to figure something out about that.”

He frowned again, tilting his head before reaching for the notepad he had on the bedside table. What does that entail?

“Family history,” she answered. “Like a family tree or someone important in your family. Sam will do a report on Archibald, as an example.”

I never knew my creators, he wrote. And one of my adoptive sires tore my vocal banks out.

“Well… We’ll work on something. Maybe even get some of the other bots in on it.” He let out a silent laugh alongside her, but her heart hurt at the confirmation that Megatron had helped raise ‘Bee. “Have you decided what classes you’re going to take?”

Same as Michael, he wrote. The school said they’d let me.

“So you’re going to be a band kid,” she muttered. “God help me.”

-----------------------------------------------------

Michael already knew how to play the trumpet, but Bumblebee spent too much time browsing the internet for memes, apparently, as he chose a trombone and just laughed when her face showed his dismay.

What was even worse was that he locked himself out of the datapacket that would’ve taught him how to play, which meant he actually had to learn like a human.

On a completely different note, Albert and Aaron, Alpha Trion and Alchemist respectfully, were able to infiltrate S7 and Gould Industry, so now they had a full scope of the Decepticons and Government activities. It was made slightly worse as Particle and Aeroblade, Prima and Amalgomous, were off planet attempting to scout Sentinel’s ship and then finding any signs or sightings of Quintessa.

This immediately put four of quite possibly their best scouts in immediate danger, as both Gould and S7 have proven they’re willing to end anything that stands in their own way, and if Sentinel was woken ahead of schedule, or if Quintessa was indeed real and brought to Earth, that meant Unicron would wake up far too soon.

Sitting in her study, she let out an aggravated noise and pulled on her hair for a few seconds before taking a deep breath. She could deal with this. She could handle this.

Her phone buzzed.

It was Optimus.

She stared at it, feeling herself slowly get flustered as she reached for the phone, taking another moment to try to calm herself before reading it. She needed to get over this crush of the Autobot leader if they were to work together. It wouldn't be fair to him for her to put him up on a high pedestal than he already was on.

[O. PAX]: [VIDEO ATTACHMENT]

[O. PAX]: Bumblebee has informed me that despite having achieved basic space travel, many humans have not yet seen footage of another planet. He also stated that you often stargaze.

[O. PAX]: I hope that this may satisfy any curiosities you may have.

She stared long and hard and the blank video image before slowly accepting the datapacket, letting the video play.

At first, she couldn’t quite comprehend what she was looking at. It was just a bunch of people laughing and walking around a strange, yet beautiful park. That was until she took a closer look. Cybertronians. The Towers of Iacon. She could see what seemed to be 6 various colored lights shooting up in the sky.

This was Cybertron before it fell.

[SECURED PHONE 1]: I… have no words. Your planet is very beautiful. I can understand how one can fight so long for its survival.

[O. PAX]: Your words are appreciated, but flawed. Cybertron is dead. Even if the Allspark was to be recovered without Decepticon intervention, there are other items required that are needed to ensure its survival.

[SECURED PHONE 1]: Tell us what you need. 

[SECURED PHONE 1]: Please?

[galactic-pirates]

4, 31, and 35 for the wip asks, please! :) (If I've already sent in my request ignore this one - my brain is not co-operating today.)

4) Last sentence written?

I debated about this question because I haven’t written anything in a month, and what I was working on then is a redraft of an original novel and I’m not confident enough to share that. So I think I will skip (sorry) and instead use the random number to pick another question to answer for you. Which is….

26) Google docs, word doc, or neither?

You are around my age I think? So does this question amuse you a bit too? I predate those options. Well maybe not Word but we didn’t have it until I was in high school. I started off with good old pen and paper. My grandparents had a computer (a BBC-B) and they let me play frogger on it sometimes but not work. My mums first computer was a Windows 3.1 which predates the taskbar start menu and all of that. That had a program on it called “Microsoft Works” which from google to shore up my failing memory looks like it was word/excel/publisher etc. all in one. So that was my first foray into digital.

But I digress because yes of course I went on to wordpad, and then I got Word 2003 (still haven’t upgraded btw) but then when I got an iPad which has no stinking USB socket, I couldn’t carry around my stick with my word files anymore to work on everywhere so then I jumped to google docs.

Buuuuuut I have recently jumped to… something else. The problem with google docs is it is rubbish at large files (lags horribly), it doesn’t have a decent dark mode, it doesn’t have any integral backup options for changes, and I just don’t think it is really intended for 80k novels. I used it for years but it was really starting to frustrate me. It’s free which is why I tried to stick with it but I have moved to use NovelPad. By the name it’s designed for novels. It is web based but with a good offline mode, backs up every minute automatically, you can split everything into scenes, the revision feature is my favourite (no more juggling multiple documents) and the dark mode is so good. It’s also not overly complicated like Scrivener (which I could never get on with). The only bad thing is it’s a subscription. But as serious as I want to take my writing and with all the quality of life it offers I decided for me it was worth it.

31) Are you doing this instead of actually working on your wip?

No… well I suppose technically all ‘free’ time could be used for writing. But it’s 7:30am and I am going out this morning to buy a new mattress. I have had mine for 25 years and I am now waking up with backache everyday (no springs poking through but I can feel them grinding). But yeah I am terrible if I have appointments for not being able to focus (even more than I usually can’t haha).

35) Are you more likely to make grammatical errors or spelling errors?

Hmm. There are some words I just can’t spell (like guarantee thank you auto correct), and there are some words I spell so badly that spellcheck can’t fix it and I have to go “google you are my only hope”. But for the most part I can spell. It’s more automatic than thinking about it, I think if you used me to spell out words I would probably be worse haha. So maybe grammatical? I’m not too sure what comes under the heading of grammar. I don’t do any of the big things (I think/hope) but comma splicing probably, passive voice definitely etc. I don’t get that many wavy underlines either way to be honest.

Thanks for the ask ❤️

[simslegacy5083]

Updating Your Mods After a Major Game Update/Expansion Release

Disclaimer: This can’t guarantee nothing will go wrong/break in your game, its simply the tricks I’ve found to be helpful when managing my own mods/cc after an update.

Back Up Your Files!

Its always a good idea to have a backup of your saves and tray folders, but it’s especially important when you want to take that “with mods” plunge after a major update.  Your saves and tray should be found in “Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4”… grab a copy and save it off to another location like your desktop.

Even if you are going to try updating and playing in a fresh save, a really broken mod could potentially corrupt your game entirely, affecting your whole saves/tray folder.  No one wants to lose their beloved saves/sims!

Keep Your Mod Folder Organized

Mods will work 1 file folder deep, so you don’t have to dump everything into your main mods folder (and I don’t recommend it).  Its much easier to update if you have some organization upfront. In my game, any mod that has more than 1 file associated with it goes in a subfolder.  

Note: .rar and .zip files won’t work unless they are extracted. Once you extract them, if the files are only 1 layer deep you can just copy/paste the unzipped file into your mods folder.  If there’s a folder inside a folder move the files out of that subfolder into the main one before moving to your mods folder.

Here’s a sample of what my mods folder looks like:

Give the Modders Time to do Their Thing

For a small, regular update you are usually safe to try and update right away, but for a major update or expansion pack a lot of changes have been made to the game code and its expected that most mods will break and need updating.  That takes time.  

The modders don’t get ahold of the game files early, so they have to do all their work once the changes are released to the rest of us. I highly recommend in this situation to play offline for a few days at least to give the modders time to make updates.  Then you can start checking the download pages to see if updates have been made.

Know What Mods are “Can’t Live Without” for YOU

Modders update at different speeds.  I recommend having an idea of which mods are “can’t live without” in your game.  That way you have the option of keeping an eye on those important mods and updating them/updating the game potentially sooner if your favorite mods are updated more quickly.

Food for thought: If you aren’t sure exactly what a mod is doing, can you try going without it? Personal example: I have played with “Personality Please” forever, but with all the work the sims team has done in recent years to enrich the sims natural personalities I wasn’t even sure what it was adding.  I removed it and haven’t seen any noticeable difference in my gameplay.

You don’t have to wait for EVERYTHING to be updated

Non functional cc, like clothing, is not nearly as likely to break after an update as functional/gameplay/script mods.  You can probably try loading with it in and see how it goes.

Any big, UI type mod, like MC Command Center or UI Cheats, is likely to be broken and need an update.

Not every mod touches all game code.  An expansion like Growing Together is likely to mess up a mod that deals with elders or children, but not as likely to mess up a mod that is specific to University gameplay, for example.  

Once most of the mods you care about, especially your “Can’t Live Without” mods, are updated, you could give updating a try and see what happens. Just remember, once you pull that trigger you can’t go back.

If you do this, I recommend adding to the front of the file folder of any mods that aren’t updated something such as “NOT UPDATED” for the initial post update launch. That way if something goes wrong you’ll know at a glance what subset of your mods are most likely to be the culprit, which makes troubleshooting that much easier.

Troubleshooting: 50/50 is best, but you don’t have to start there

No one with a big mods folder loves the 50/50 method of mod troubleshooting (i.e. take out all your mods, put back in half, see if your game is broken, repeat).  Also if you try updating too soon after a major update so much might be broken this would be a very frustrating/futile endeavor anyway.

Once you take the update plunge, if something is still not working right start with those mods you know weren’t updated.  Those are the most likely culprits and will be a smaller list to work through then the full mods folder.

Another thing to consider: if something isn’t working, are you able to look at your mods and have a general idea of what mods could be affecting it?  

For example, if the photo booth from HS Years is messed up, what mods do you have in your game that you know are directly impacting the HS Years gameplay?  It’s mostly likely one of them is your problem, so try removing those mods first.  

Of course, a mod that says it’s been updated could still have issues.  If you’ve tried removing the “not updated” mods and something is still wrong then you’ll have to start looking at the updated ones.

----------------------

That’s all I’ve got! I hope its helpful.  Happy Simming!

[saving-word-crawls]

World of Warcraft Crawl

By: Nikata_Richtofen

Before we begin:

Get a dice set ready - Online dice set is allowed

A notepad or sticky note to keep tabs on the words you need to write or log your tasks for stacking is also recommended.

There are prompts if you are playing, but this should also work if you are not (And you’ll write less if you’re not playing to reward those who are focused) There will also be prompts if you wish to exchange words for irl task/events to allow a better place of sitting at the computer and getting up. I also suggest a stretch and a glass of water per hour on the computer.

I recommend writing this crawl in a separate document so that you can “collect” rewards by copy pasting to your main document. If you are not writing on the computer, feel free to ignore this recommendation and suggest your own in the replies!

This will also focus on pve content for a max level character. Currently this will not include DF content, but will be updated accordingly (as this is part of my word count). It’s also my first word crawl so please let me know how it goes!

Let’s begin!

First, pick your character! - A ooc head start!

Low pop / New player servers - 15 words! Medium pop servers - 20 words! High pop / Full servers - 25 words!

Base Race or Allied Race? - Base Races get 10 words, Allied Races get 20 words Class? - Base Class get 10 words, Dks get 15, Monks get 20, DHs get 50

So the adventure begins!

Your faction leader is calling your character to return! Head to your faction city!

Out of game: Round up to your next 100th In game: 150 if you take your hearthstone, 100 if you take a portal, or 50 if you take a flight path, +5 if this also includes the boat IRL Task: Pick up around your desk.

They are asking for them to show their loyalty, to do so you must complete a set series of tasks! To start, they ask for vocal agreement.

Out of game: Write a d10 roll In game: /roll for your words! IRL Task: Stretch out your fingers

Once you have agreed they send your character to speak to Chromie. “She will send you back in time, where you must complete 3 challenges.” They say.

Challenges could be: recovering a rare item. (Ingame Mog run) …or Saving a rare creature. (Ingame Mount / Pet run) …or Speaking to a special person. (Ingame Questing) …or You have your own reason. (Personal Choice)

Depending on what timeline you choose, the challenge will be weighted more favorably. Asking for help is not frowned upon on greater challenges. In fact, friends bring great power. Share your fellows some attention and respect.

Out of Game: Find a “last three numbers is your word goal” forum post! In game: Write your friendlist amount! 10 per online friend, 20 per offline friend. IRL Task: Message a loved one that you love them or a friend that you care for them! Pet a pet if you have one!

Now you know the goal and met up with Chromie, ask her to send your character to the right timeline. (You may select all three timelines for now, and mark them down for later use)

If you are going to the “Classic” timeline, write a word goal of a d100 roll. Easy goals to help the world of Azeroth are always needed, even if not always participated.

If you are going to the “BC” timeline, write 200 words! There’s some challenge in Outland. It’s called traveling.

If you are going to the “WotLK” timeline, write 150 words! There’s honor in fighting the Lich King. Except there’s a hitch! Add 50 words if your character isn’t dressed for the weather!

If you are going to the “Cataclysm” timeline, write a d20 X 10 roll! Deathwing’s shadow no longer lingers, but his chaos still remains! Your words are a chaotic fate!

If you are going to the “Pandaria” timeline, write a 10 minute sprint! Finding your challenge in the peaceful mists? It’s going to take you time to make it through the looming clouds.

If you are going to the “Warlords” timeline, roll a d100 twice for your word goal! Running through crossing timelines is a struggle even for a bronze drake! And no one wants another “other Guldan”

If you are going to the “Legion” timeline, roll a d10 for a sprint time! You were prepared this time you’re sure of it! But there are a lot of demons to face, maybe you should get a quick practice in. Roll to see just how ready you actually were!

If you are going to the “BFA” timeline, write 200 words! While not as far in the past, the foes you may face will be better at countering you! Chromie will also have to adjust the sands to avoid you meeting yourself at a bad time.

If you are going to the “Shadowlands” timeline, write for 10 minutes! Chromie’s magic can’t quite reach that far. Give her time to find the way to go about it!

Upon reaching the first timeline, they take the time to enjoy your small amount of peace in your selected timeline. Afterall, with time altering magic, they don’t need to worry about a time limit right? So what do you do first?

Do they go see an old friend or fellow? (A NPC from that timeline, try to go find them before starting your journey)

Or….

Do they go visit an old place? (Find a location in the timeline you like the music or look of!)

Spend some time here, write for 5 minutes without a word count goal. Take your time.

Work must still be done however. You did sign up them to complete a challenge, and unsure if how long you take would be held against them, your character finally begins their journey to the challenge.

Out of Game: To head to a close location, write 50 words. To a far location, write 100 words. If you need to cross a sea, write 150 words. Mark your journey!

In Game: For every area you have to cross, write 10 words. If you have to use a portal or boat, write 100 words.

IRL Task: Walk in place or go for a short walk? This can be altered to personal preference.

They finally made it to the actual location! What is it?

Questline start? Write 15 words to greet the quest giver.

Dungeon? Write 20 to act as a map!

Raid? Write 30 to journal your journey so far!

Enemies are about! Mostly small fry! Get at them!

Out of Game: Roll d10 for 3 times. That’s the amount of enemies you must fight. Write that many words! In game: For quests, 1 word per enemy slain or item collected. For Raids or Dungeons, count how many groups of trash you have to get through to the first boss. IRL Task: Roll d20, pick up that many pieces of trash, or clothes, or etc!

Uh oh! The battling has attracted the boss! Aoe go too far? Butt pull? Doesn’t matter! They need to fight right here, right now!

Out of Game: Roll a d10 twice! Sprint for that much to pull through the fight! In game: Questing: How many quests can you complete in a time period? (roll a d6 for time!) Dungeons/Raids:How many attacks does it take to kill? If current content, half your number for D/R, for Quests Double. If not current content, X expansion: Classic/BC/WotLK/Cata - 100 Panda/WoD/Lg/Bfa - 10 SL - 2 IRL Task: Clean a whole object like all the countertops! Complete a home/work assignment! Complete a work out cycle! Get something (however small) done today!

That boss was tough! But it only made your character better at fighting! Your experience is rewarding!

Roll a d20 + 10, take a break for that long! Relax some!

Can’t stay around for much longer! It’s time to continue!

For those not in game or running something with only one boss: Roll a d4 to see how many times you need to loop the previous steps with your own flavor text! In Game: Loop for however many bosses or questlines you wish! Normally recommend one per boss if you need a lot of writing, every two bosses if you need some, or one per wing of bosses on low content!

Your first challenge is complete! Take inventory as fast as you can! Sprint to your word count!

Out of game: Roll a d100 two times! In game: Sell all your extra loot! How ever much gold you get is your word goal! You can either move a decimal point or half or such if it seems too high!

For Mount runs: Roll a d100, if you get a 1 or 100 you got the mount! Write an extra 20 words! For Mog runs: Roll a d20, a 1-5 is how many mogs you got! Write an extra 10 words per! For Questing: Roll a d6, this is how many questlines/loremaster progress you got, write an extra 15 words per!

Your character is back to the current time before you know it! Your faction is proud! Time to cheer a task done! Here’s your reward from your faction!

“Subtract” from your total: However many you want/have! (Feel free to use other rewards you’ve set up forself, here’s my suggestions) Small snack or a piece of candy per 200 words! A free run of anything in the game for 500 words! Youtube/Netflix break! Watch a video/show/movie for 1000! (ot 100 per 10 minutes)

Now that you’ve been justly rewarded, it’s time to run again! Return to the top to flow the charts again!

After completing the third task, all of the faction leaders of your faction are impressed with your character’s dedication and skill! Time to hold a feast in your character’s honor!

Is the mog ready? Write for 15 minutes while you wait for everyone else to get ready! Need to change mog? Write for 5 minutes while everyone gets the table ready!

After this, take a screenshot of your character near your favorite faction leader! (Or the closest you can get to them, Chromie can help if you need her too!) ((Or skip if you can’t!))

Write 100 words for your character telling them the story! Then round up to the nearest 100 for them to respond to your character!

From there, write 10 words for all the dishes your character would eat at the feast!

Wrap up for the evening! Stretch out your wrists and legs as your character sets up for the night. Drink some water and let yourself also have a break!

Congratulations! You completed the word crawl!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hey steph! i hope you’re doing well!! i know you have all the fics you’ve read in a masterlist doc you made yourself, and i was wondering if it was worth the time it took to make that? if so, do you have any tips on how to go about doing that? thank you :]

Hey Lovely!!

I am SO sorry for the delay in a reply to this... I saw it and then it just got buried LOL. I'm SO SO SORRY, wasn't intentional!!!

I do indeed have all my fics listed on an offline RTF Text Document (not even a word doc, it's Apple TextPad lol) and OOOF when I first decided to start filing it, UGH it was A CHORE. I'm talking a LONG time because I went through, at the time, all 500 of my bookmarks and just spent DAYS AND DAYS of holiday time just copy pasting them all into a tumblr post, and then copying those over to the lists. I chose to use the Tumblr formatting since that's where it would inevitably be posted to.

"Why not use a spreadsheet??" I've been asked before. It's literally because I hate spreadsheets, I don't like using them, and by using an RTF formatted document I can keep the formatting consistent between Tumblr and the lists offline. I wanted to make it as PAINLESS and easy as possible to copy-paste between Tumblr's ever-changing UI and my offline lists. I literally just have to double click a block of text and I highlight the whole rec :)

Now, at the time I thought I was wasting time doing it, thought it was all for naught re-reading EVERYTHING so I could properly add tags to fics that didn't have them or so I could sort them better. But it's now 500 more fics later, and I'm SO glad I streamlined a process to do it. Having the posts this way, WITH my own tags makes it MUCH easier for me to call up the fics you guys are needing, or if I need to make a quick-list in-a-pinch. It was well-worth the time to initially sort the bookmarks. It's worth the time to format not-read fics on a separate list so I can quickly find them again and add them to my Bookmarks list already-done. And I keep going back to my bookmarks every couple months to add those new fics to my offline lists.

That said... it's a lot of work, and it's REALLY fortunate that my OCPD actually functions well for this kind of website. I like digital organization, and I'm meticulous about how things are organized, because it feeds that need for control in my brain. So I can say it's ALSO not for everyone, but if you're just looking to do it for yourself, just add tags to all your bookmarks on AO3 (make sure all your bookmarks are private, otherwise the authors can see what you're tagging or noting them as. All my bookmarks are private because my tags are all spoilerific and I don't know if those would show up for other people).

BUT if you want to run your own blog, check out this post here for some past things I've written on the organization and time management tips for your own :)

Finally though, Yes, it's worth it. While not getting the traction I used to, I know that my recs bring joy to people, and honestly being someone who people can come to to find what they're looking for is heady and humbling. I love being able to leave my mark on the fandom in some way. :)

Sorry again for the delay, but I hope this helps answer your question. Please don't hesitate to ask something else if I missed anything or misunderstood <3

[pauie]

My Dilemma with My Android to iPhone Switch

I'm that girl who would literally switch to a new phone just because it's a shade of pink I like. Then I marathon a few videos about that phone only to find myself placing an order after thinking it's meant for me.

That's exactly what happened with my iPhone 13 in- of course, Pink.

This post isn't too technical. I just wanted to document the whole experience so I can look back and learn from my [possible] mistake.

When Apple announced the Pink iPhone, I was immediately obsessed. I'm so on board for the light pink rather than the salmon pink that everyone thought it would be. This was around the time that Samsung released one of the latest phones from the S series that had such beautiful shades of pink (do you see where this is going?). So for weeks, I would watch videos of both releases and would consistently save photos of them on my Pinterest. As a previous Samsung user, I was so used to the interface and how easy it was to navigate everything despite the little changes they did. Okay, let's head on over to my switch.

I got the iPhone 13 in Pink on February 15, 2023. I knew I was gonna love it because, well, it's pink. But I think that was it. It being pink was what sold me. I set up everything that same night and was able to use my phone no problem. But boy was I confused.

You see, I download music on Androids with no hassle at all. The iPhone wouldn't let me do that unless I was on Apple Music or Spotify. I never had to use Spotify on my Androids because I could [don't sue me] download music for free. Now I'm paying for a Spotify plan just to play music offline.

The screen is impeccable, I have to admit. Crisp and clear. Helps really well with my eyes (I have horrible eyesight and I always had to turn on the Eye Comfort Shield thing or whatever on the Samsung and it would turn so warm it messes up my vision). It's so easy to properly fit a wallpaper which was a little hard to do on my Samsung [S20 FE].

Battery life is not the best. Androids are known to last a full week in an island. Okay, that's too far a stretch, but you get me. You can play games, switch screens to others apps and you wouldn't need to worry for an uncharged phone the next day. On the iPhone, I blink and I go from 90% to like an 86%. You would think I got a defected one but I have a friend with the same situation.

Moral of the story is; if you're considering on switching to an iPhone, do it if you're not as extra as me where I want my phone so freaking cute without some restrictions. You can customize your iPhone but it's a tad bit more complicated.

Also, the emojis are so aesthetically pleasing on the iPhone but we get a baby pink heart on the Samsung. There's also so much more options. I don't mind camera resolutions as much because both are doing a great job.

Think very well about switching.

[pacexlikexaxghost]

❝Lucky, and some were very smart to make up for the failures of those who weren't. It doesn't do well to forget the hard work that went into it, especially as seldom few of those gems are still around, most having met the displeasure of their diamonds one way or another over the millennia.❞

It was something she was struck by when reading all of that documentation. They were, even then, the words of long dead gems that she was reading. Gems don't... die of natural causes often. They don't age, they don't starve, or dehydrate, or fall ill...

There are only two ways it really happens. Long term light isolation, and catastrophic code failure, and both are extraordinarily rare because of the countless fail safes in every gem to prevent them.

Low energy modes and the ability to go entirely dormant automatically past a certain low magic threshold to come back when exposed to magic again. It takes thousands of years dormant to have enough magic leak to cause a gem to die that way.

And catastrophic code failure? Even rarer, especially with Homeworld's tendency to cull even the most minor of defects if they're caught.

Every defective gem who has been allowed to live is... aware of it. The concern that whatever errors there may be in their code might lead to an eventual complete breakdown of function. But it's not common, by any means. Pearl looked, and only found one actual case of it ever, which did a great deal to ease that anxiety from her mind. Base codes are written with many catches and fail safes specifically to avoid that; even if part of the code ceased working, the rest of the gem can compensate.

Both ways a gem can die naturally are exceedingly rare, and yet starkly few gems that old are still around. It just goes to show how... no one can please the Diamonds forever.

And even one of them is gone now, in some sense.

❝Caring about organic life is a threat to their power. I had been led to believe organic life couldn't even be sentient before I came to Earth, and saw that it wasn't true. If gems as a whole knew, if they cared? The Diamonds would never be able to create a functioning colony again.❞

She lets him consider it in silence for a moment, already feeling better, but she still quickly jumps on it as he asks further, beaming, genuinely.

❝Oh this is something I love. Homeworld, for all it's flaws, is beautiful. And uniquely so! There aren't... cities on Homeworld, in the way they are here on Earth. No clustered population centers, but instead the entire planet is covered in structures, all densely interconnected and hundreds of levels tall, spanning even over the oceans. It makes the entire planet appear to be one large, incredible shimmering crystal.❞ She laughs breathlessly. ❝What it took to get there was atrocious, but it is stunning. What I would give to see it one more time...❞

She trails off for a moment, staring up at the sky. Lapis got off planet. She'll get to see Homeworld.

Pearl can only hope that she doesn't send Homeworld back their way. Stars, they need to double check that the Galaxy Warp is all offline. They chipped every pad ages ago, but it's important to make absolutely certain that none of them work.

❝It's beautiful on the ground, too. Every surface crystalline, and lit from within, in whites, yellows, blues and pinks, depending on what court controlled that part of the planet. And shared spaces are in all four colors.❞ Her gaze is still fixed on the sky. ❝I miss Homeworld at night. There were towers stretching even higher, with the lights turned down low so all the stars could be seen. And the shining civilization below and the endless stars above... seldom little compares to that.❞

She looks back at Valor. The only thing that has come even close is looking out on the dark sea on a clear night here. There's no significant light pollution in Beach City, and the way the stars reflect on the water is breathtaking.

❝It's so strange, to miss such an awful place. To know I would hate to ever return in reality, but still... not all of it was bad. It was home, once upon a time...❞

Titan, that was a lot. It was fascinating, in a morbid sort of way, but it was a lot. "They must have been very lucky." And her words about them having the ability to turn the gravity generator back on answered his follow up question about if the pieces ever got out of alignment.

Valor made a face when she said even just having a public record of any organic creatures would be granting them dignity and respect, and he replied, "Titan they really care nothing at all for us, huh." Not even just to note what was already there!

He sat processing the explanations for a while, before realizing, "Oh, I meant to also ask. You said the oceans can't much be seen? What do you mean by that?"

[hazelminesims]

⋒   Patch day tomorrow…July 26th   ⋒

My to-do list today:

Back up my saves.

Remove all mods - UI mods, script mods-everything that affects core game behavior. In other words, if it makes the game function differently, take it out. (I keep them in numbered folders so I can grab them all and move them outside of the mods folder.)

Delete the file localthumbcache.package from your Sims 4 My Documents folder.

The save I plan to play in after the patch: open it without mods installed and create a new save point using “save as”.

•  If you don’t want to deal with things breaking right away, turn off automatic game updates. Go to Origin > Application settings and look for the heading Client Update and make sure it is grayed out to turn off auto updates.

Then, go into offline mode through Origin before you start your game. It won’t prompt you for an update.

•  Last but not least, please please be patient with the wonderful creators of custom content and mods. Quite a few things will probably get changed behind the scenes with this patch and EP. They are people, too. They may want to just play the game like you. Give it time, give them grace.

And hopefully, we won’t have too many tears tomorrow ..lol!

The Cats and Dogs EP corrupted all my saves and I have a routine now that has worked for me.

And if you have something to add, please do. I really do believe in “sharing is caring.“ It is how I have learned so much over the years.

↪  Status Updates on Mods - very helpful list

TIPS FROM OTHER SIMMERS

•  From @mellindi ::  I usually move my saves and mods folder from my Sims 4 folder before I update just to be safe. Not sure if it makes a difference or not but I'm not trying to have none of my saves corrupted lol

•  From @gednaaahhh ::  I backup my Tray as well as mods and saves folders. I've lost my tray after an update before, which was devastating at the time. All my long time played families gone, never to be seen again... So please backup your tray often! :)

Happy Simming! 😊