#I am back in the modding building (temporarily)

[ilikedetectives]

Neve's freckles lovers (me)! I have great news and that is I have been cooking up a mod *accidentally sets the PC on fire*

[siaanme]

So this year I made the questionable decision to try and play (and beat) 52 different video games that I hadn't beaten before.

I managed.

And so I thought I would do a quick little summary of the games I played and what I thought about them.

Knight of the Old Republic - I really enjoyed this game, as I suspected I would since it's one of Sarah's favourites. Despite some early learning difficulties (hey turns out picking the Overload Terminal options when you're at the terminal is Bad actually), I had a great time. At some point I might play it again with a different build. Or maybe I'll find a way to play the sequel with the restored content mod. Point is, I'm a fan.

Li'l Gator Game - This game is just very wholesome and fun. Great characters, great story, fun to run around the world in.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - I'm a huge fan of the Ratchet and Clank games, and this one was my favourite since Tools of Destruction. I don't think it quite reaches the peaks that my favourite entries do, but it's very solid, and at the end of the day, it has fun guns. What more could I want? Oh, other than Rivet getting her own full spinoff. That'd be nice

AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative - Uchikoshi you crazy bastard, you did it again. This is one of two games this year I played where I basically had to take a lap after reaching a key twist revelation. Just recontextualising everything. Oh, it's so good.

Tinykin - Very good, Pikmin like vibes, though without any time pressure. Although if I remember, it does have the issue that collectathons often have when you're missing just a few small collectables and no way to easily locate them in game. That always sucks.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - As this was a pretty short game, I don't have a super strong memory of it. I enjoyed it I think, and Turnip Boy destroying everything that had anything to do with money or bills was pretty good, but I don't think it's one I'll go back to

Stray - Game where you get to play as a very well realised kitty, what's not to love? Other than when the kitty gets hurt of course. Also I think I felt it was a bit more of a slog than I expected? Still fun, but another one I probably won't go back to

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - This is probably one of my most played games this year. I've loved the Theatrhythm games since the first one on the 3DS, and they just keep making more, and having more Final Fantasy (and other Squenix games) music in them! I honestly would keep buying DLC packs if they kept making them. I am part of a problem.

Octopath Traveler 2 - I love me a good RPG, and Octopath 2 is a damn fine RPG. It improves on the formula of the first one a great deal, with plenty of character and class options to play around with. The main issue is that towards the end, some bosses tend to be a bit easier than others, simply because you've probably become overleveled at some point. It makes me wish all RPGs had a level slider, where you could voluntarily undo some of your levels temporarily. This is not the last time I'll have this problem.

Metroid Prime Remaster - Okay, yes, I've played the original before. Many times. One of my favourites games. So why is it on the list? Because it's my list, I get to make the rules, so shut up. Then go play Metroid Prime. It's a classic for a reason.

Superliminal - Very inventive puzzle game, lot of fun twists. I did get a headache from it though, which is something that I find can happen with first person games. Can recommend.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - I had previously played the demo for Klonoa 2, but never had a chance to play either of the first two games properly. I'm glad I got the chance to, fun little 2.5D platformers. Though screw going for completion on this. If they didn't have the x2 gem sections, maybe I do it, but with them? Nah.

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil - Basically take what I said above and repeat it. Though also, I've listened to the soundtrack for Klonoa 2 a lot, so it was fun to finally see the levels the music came from.

Bugsnax - This was an incredibly fun time. I love me a good collecting game, I love inventive creature design, I love body horror... no wait, I don't love that last one. But it's done so well in this it barely registers as body horror. Candy coated body horror. 100% completed this, though I wish I hadn't done some of the letter challenges. Some of those were a bit tedious.

Pyre - Despite being a huge fan of Supergiant games, Pyre was a notable gap in my experience. And while I think it's still the weakest of their games, it's still a really good game. An interesting take on a sort of sports game (basically fantasy basketball), and I do like that you don't strictly have to win all your games (though I definitely did, except I think the very last one). Can recommend.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Mile Morales - I enjoyed Insomniac's take on Spider-Man the first time, still really enjoyed it this time. This coming year I hope to get around to Spider-Man 2, since people seem to have really enjoyed that. Definitely some annoying challenges though. I'm glad I allowed myself to kick my completionist habit early this year.

Rhythm Sprout - Okay, it's fine? It's fun? But I don't think it's quite for me. I don't even fully remember what about it I wasn't fond of, but it definitely wore out its welcome by the end for me.

Deathloop - Arkane is another game studio who I generally quite like the output of (Dishonored series my beloved), and Deathloop was a fun take. Early game is definitely a bit weak, but once you start getting more fun powers, it's a treat to play around in this world as you try to figure out how to break the loop. It's just a shame about the multiplayer though. Asymetric invasion multiplayer just isn't for me, which is fine, it was optional-ish, but because of it's inclusion they definitely had to reduce the number of toys you could have at once, which was more frustrating.

Wario Land 4 - I really like Wario Land 2 and 3. I like the first one as well. But something about this one doesn't work for me. I think it's getting rated at the end of each level? Another one I don't think I'll replay.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure - So you're saying I can have the charming aesthetics of LittleBigPlanet, and in a 3d platformer? And not in a game super focused on user made content? Sign me up! Shame about the 2 player only levels, I never got to try them due to a tragic lack of a second controller. Otherwise, great. The musical levels remain a standout highlight.

Knight Witch - Oh I wanted to like this one more. A bullet-hellish metroidvania, but sadly the difficulty was tuned a little too high for me to really enjoy it towards the end. I had to turn on invincibility to beat it.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed - Yes I'm including a DLC campaign here. Get used to it. Anyway, as a big fan of Xenoblade games, this one definitely delivered for me. I'll basically take any chance to spend some more time with Xenoblade games.

Lunistice - Another quite fun 3D platformer. Movement felt fun, and I appreciate that there's some more variety for me if I go back to it in the form of other playable characters. Maybe I'll do that someday.

Souldiers - Another one I wish I liked more. It starts quite strong, and the idea of having three playable classes is nice. But the second major area, the pyramid temple... I don't know what it is, but it was a SLOG. Probably because it's a very vertical level, which is way more annoying to navigate. Also another one where I feel the difficulty was tuned a little too high for me to enjoy (and yet I love Hollow Knight).

Tears of the Kingdom - Okay, look. You've probably played this game. You've probably seen other people play this game. You don't need me to tell you this game is fantastic. There are still problems to be sure, but it's a really good sequel to an already great game. At some point in the new year I will be a madman and collect all the Korok seeds, but not yet. Not yet.

Pokémon Scarlet - Yes I played Violet when it came out. Yes I'm counting this anyway. My list, my rules. Anyway, As much as pokémon occupies my waking thoughts, there are lots of things I don't like about this one. I'm setting aside the graphics for now to focus on gameplay things. So. Most of my issues with the game stem from it being open world. I'm not opposed to this being the direction pokémon goes, but there are things I am opposed to. For one, I think there are too many pokémon spawns. The spawners should have been fewer and further apart, as well as more unique. Maybe not all the time, but more often. If I climb to the highest peak in Paldea, I should find a pokémon there that I can't find anywhere else. I shouldn't find the same five pokémon I encountered while climbing it. And navigating is terrible too. I'm of the opinion the game shouldn't have had climbing or gliding. It actually makes trying to find a path through everywhere less enjoyable. Look, I could go on, but this is the halfway point of the list so I'll hold myself back for now.

God of War: Ragnarok - Mechanically, this game is really really good. It takes what was good about the previous God of War game and polishes it further. Storywise, this definitely feels like it was two games smushed into one. What's there is great, the characters are fantastic, but some things felt like they needed room to breathe. Also I'm still really impressed by the trickery used to keep this game as a oner, shot wise. Also also I don't think I've ever cried after hearing the solution to a riddle before, so props for that.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Everyone go play Ghost Trick. Now. I'm serious. This game is one of my favourites of all time, so of course I was going to get the remaster. Yes I'm counting it, much like the Metroid Prime remaster. Go play Ghost Trick.

Picross 3D Round 2 - I got this game before the 3DS eShop closed, and it was a solid little puzzle game. I think I actually prefer it to regular Picross, though overall I still prefer the kind offered by Hungry Cat Nonagram. Not sure the technical name for that kind. Anyway point is, good game.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code - I like Danganronpa, so I was pretty interested to check out Kodaka's latest offering. It plays very similarly to Danganronpa, for better and for worse. In fact, maybe the default gameplay is a bit less good than Danganronpa's? Anyway, this is the second game on the list where I had to take a lap after a certain late/end game twist (in a good way). Kodaka you crazy bastard. I still can't believe it.

Pikmin - Despite having played Pikmin 3, I'd never tried the series' roots before. I was surprised at how well it held up, even without some of the quality of life changes from 3. I could see myself replaying it again, though it does still take 3rd place in my ranking of main Pikmin games.

Pikmin 2 - This on the other hand. Look, the core gameplay is still there, it's still fun getting your army of little guys and taking on the world. But there are two things that put this on the bottom for me. One, no overarching time limit. I honestly thought I'd hate the time-limit in the Pikmin series, but honestly I think it's a great thing to have. Two, the randomised dungeons. Oh I don't like these. I feel like it removes or downplays the strategy aspect of the games that I enjoy. It gets last on my ranking of Pikmin games.

Pikmin 4 - Sidenote, I did replay Pikmin 3 after 2 and before 4, but I've done that before so it doesn't get a write up. Anyway, Pikmin 4! This is a strictly better version of Pikmin 2. The caves are now always the same, which means they could actually design interesting challenges/puzzles into them. My main complaint about this game is actually that Oatchi is perhaps too powerful. My other complaint is the Dandori battles. I like the Dandori trials, but something about having an opponent to play against made me not enjoy the battles. Second favourite mainline Pikmin game.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - I already said I like Arkane studios and the Dishonored series. This game might be shorted and more limited (and thus a bit more frustrating for the way I like to play these games) but it's still solid.

Fire Emblem: Engage - I was expecting to not like this one as much as I did. And to be fair, I think I still like Three Houses (the only other FE game I've played) better, but the gameplay of this one is pretty solid. A few weird complaints about it, but overall quite solid.

Marble it Up! Ultra - There is a lot of joy to be found in marble platforming it turns out. The best way to sell you on this game is to just get you to watch it, so here you go, go watch Dan Floyd of New Frame Plus and PlayFrame play it.

Vampire Survivors - How do you judge when Vampire Survivors is beaten you ask? Well, firstly when you get credits. Easy. Also if you complete every challenge in the game and first 2 DLCs plus free update I think. This game is A Lot, but for me it's a good A Lot. Now to continue waiting for the Vampire Survivors x Among Us DLC on Switch.

Doom (2016) - This game has convinced me I'm not a huge fan of FPSs. Okay look, it's fantastic. It's high energy, fast paced, aggressive, it's great! But it's also headache inducing for me. I probably need to mess with camera settings some more in future FPS games.

Kirby: Return to Dreamland Deluxe - I don't have to keep justifying putting remasters on this list. I love Kirby, it's just always a good time. That's really all that needs to be said.

Sea of Stars - This is one of my games of the year. I backed the Kickstarter for this on the strength of their previous game, The Messenger (also a fave), and I was not disappointed. The gameplay is a fantastic blend of Chrono Trigger's battles and Mario & Luigi RPG's active hit system. The soundtrack slaps, the art is so pretty (who allowed them to make the cooking feature in this game look SO GOOD). It also receives the prestigious honour of being the only game that I wanted to immediately start another playthrough of right after beating it.

Frogun - This was a pretty cute little throwback platformer. I did give up on getting everything in it toward the end, but maybe one day I'll go back and finish it. Also look, it had Frog in the title, how could I say no to it?

Time on Frog Island - Okay look, it has Frog in the title, how could I say no to it? That aside, it's mostly pretty good, though there's definitely some mysteries I didn't have the patience for, so undoubtedly there's more I could do. Probably not for everyone, but an enjoyable little distraction.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Is this game perfect? No. Are all the complaints I have about it pretty much nitpicks? Yes. Again, this is a game you don't need me to tell you it's good. Plus it gave me an excuse to play as Fargrim Stonecleave, my 5e dwarf ranger again. And I got to have a pet owlbear cub! And I got to pet him! I have named him Owliver Cupcake Stonecleave, and he is my son.

Into the Breach - To clarify again, I considered this game beaten because I reached credits. There's still more I can do in this, but it's a great little tactics game that I will definitely be spending more time with in future.

Super Mario Wonder - Another game that I probably don't need to tell you is good. But I will anyway. This game is wonderful. Except for the Final Badge Trial. Anyway, I thought I wouldn't find the online option interesting, but actually having Dark Souls style ghosts online, playing beside you was really fun. I think this might be the best 2D Mario game. All this game is missing is the ability to play as Rosalina, but it is nice that Daisy finally gets a turn in the spotlight.

Suika Game - I consider this game beaten because I made a watermelon. But yeah, this is a simple but fun and tricky puzzle game that is nice to play while I'm watching other things.

Unsighted - This is a really good top down Zelda-like. Challenging in places, sure, but really good. The main thing I didn't like was each character having a ticking clock, so I did disable that with assist features first thing. I would be interested in replaying this and sequence breaking it.

The Forgotten City - I don't really want to spoil this one too much, but it's a game that scratches the same itch that Outer Wilds does. That should be all you need to know if you've played Outer Wilds. It's not as long as Outer Wilds, but still good. This is the best Skyrim related thing* I've ever played, and that includes actual Skyrim.

*the game started life as a Skyrim mod before getting turned into a standalone game

Persona 5 Tactica - I like Persona 5, I like tactics games, so this was a natural fit. And I really enjoyed it. It wasn't overly challenging, sure, but I found a lot of fun in trying to complete missions efficeintly. The DLC was more challenging, and yeah it's frustrating that it's pre-third semester of P5R, but it was a nice addition. A shame I couldn't get Kasumi and Akechi in the main game until New Game+ though.

Neversong - Oh yeah. This. Okay, it's not terrible, but I guess it's just not my thing storywise. It was at least short though.

Fe - I wish I liked this more. It's got a similar, no-words vibe as Journey, a game I love, but it doesn't quite nail it I think. Plus it does that thing that some games do where it has stealth sections in a game that's not really made for it. Again, it's at least short.

Pokémon Violet: The Secret Treasure of Area Zero -SURPRISE IT'S MORE POKÉMON! YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE FREE BUT NO! Okay, anyway. The Teal Mask was okay, basically just more of the same from ScarVio. Also my reaction to Ogerpon is very much that Rosa Diaz with a puppy gif. But more importantly, the Indigo Disk is fantastic. There's still a lot of problems that come from it being attached to these games, but it does one thing very right - constant double battles. I am not super involved with the VGC scene (complaints for another time) but I do think that if it's going to be the official competitive scene, the games need to ease players into that more. I thought Raihan's gym in SnS was a good start, but I wanted more of that. So a whole expansion where every battle is a doubles battle? Allowing certain moves and abilities to actually get use in game more than just the two double battles in the main campaign? Actual competitive strategies getting used by the NPCs? Music to my ears, and such a refreshing change. I want the next mainline pokémon game to lean into this even more. The only thing I want more is A BATTLE TOWER IN THIS GAME WHY DON'T WE HAVE ONE!?

Anyway, that's my 52 games I played this year. This was an interesting exercise, one I will not be repeating, or at least not to the same extent. Also, shout out to the following games which I also replayed: Shovel Knight (Plague of Shadows, Spectre of Torment, and King of Cards), Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, Pikmin 3, Kirby Planet Robobot, and The Messenger.

Next year, my gaming goal is to play through a minimum of 12 different RPGs, ideally ones I haven't beaten before, but I'm not going to be as picky because I want to replay Xenoblade 1-3

[hellbornhades]

Hi hi and welcome to my Simblr!

My name's Hades! (they/them pronouns, please!) and I've been playing the Sims franchise for a while now. As a matter of fact, my very first Sims games were The Sims 2 and The Sims Bustin' Out (for PS2 console).

I am currently BACK to playing The Sims 4 on my PC/laptop, though I used to play on my PS4 as well. Because I play on laptop, some, of my builds contain custom content/mods, buuuut I do make another version of the build without custom content/mods so non-cc users can still enjoy my builds!

Below you'll find links to all sorts of things; sim stories, builds, CAS creations, etc!

Before you follow, please understand that my page is for MATURE audiences (ages 20 and older preferably).

The ages portrayed in my Sims gameplay stories are as followed:

Newborn: 0 – 1

Infant: 1 – 2

Toddler: 3 – 4

Child: 6 – 12

Preteen: 13 – 15

Teen: 16 – 18

YA: 19 – 34

Adult: 35 – 59

Elder: 50+

With that being said, my stories may occasionally talk about things that are NOT safe for work and usually contain topics of a more serious tone [ie: SA, ab*se, etc.], which are NOT suitable for all ages! Any story sections that DO relate to such things are also given a trigger warning before the start of the story.

If you are under the age of 19 or are someone who is triggered by such topics, please do NOT remain on this page!

If you have read all that applies, and are still willing to read my stories, then please press on and enjoy!

GAMEPLAY STORIES

Struck by Love Challenge [NEW]

(in progress: Played on PC w/ mods/cc)

Generation One — Nadya — Latest Post

Hidden in Plain Sight

(in progress: Played on PC w/ mods/cc)

Founder Generation — Mallory — Start || Latest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following the Dream

([TEMPORARILY ON HOLD] in progress: Played on PC w/ mods/cc)

Generation 01 — Ember — Start || Latest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chasing Happiness Legacy

(TEMPORARILY ON HOLD: My console -where this save was located- has stopped working)

Founder Gen — Meadow — Start || Latest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Griffin Gameplay Legacy

(TEMPORARILY ON HOLD: My console -where this save was located- has stopped working)

Gen 1 Start || Latest

====================================

CAS CREATIONS

The Soyers

The Delgados

The Greenes + Gyles Family

The Hortus Family

The Rowell Legacy

The Ashwood Legacy

The Hampton Legacy [NEW]

[more to be added]

====================================

BUILDS

Sunset Point Paradise (Beach Wedding Venue)

Sequoia Cottage (A Remodel)

[more to be added]

====================================

MY CHALLENGES

The Simplified (Challenge Set: Teen Runaway + R2R + Legacy)

Simplified R2R (Ver 2; this challenge has added details)

[more to be added]

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

@mod april. I hope this doesn't come off as rude because I don't mean it to but I guess I'm curious why you left the original blog but then came back to a new one?

Hi anon,

I do not think that you're being rude at all. It's a fair question.

When I left the other blog, I guess there was a part of me that felt comfortable that it would be there if I ever wanted to return to it.

When it got destroyed, I felt devastated. I still do. I am grieving that loss. It is something I started years ago and put so much time, energy and heart into. I cried over that loss and needed to be comforted by my partner. It still feels kind of like a hole.

There are no words for how hurt and sad I feel over it. It was important for me to build it back up to try and cope with the pain and because it's important for me to try and make sure the resource is there.

And that does not mean I plan on leaving once this is rebuilt. I think that losing the old blog made me realize how important it is to me. If I need to, I'll just step back from this blog temporarily.

You’re all stuck with me! (I mean that in a lighthearted way).

[lexidigredi]

Married at First Sight Challenge - Introduction and Rules

Introduction

Not long after I got The Sims 4 I started reading about all the different challenges that people were doing (some of them are compiled here).  I thought that was really cool, and I was particularly drawn to the reality TV style challenges: Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenge, Big Brother Challenge, Masterchef Challenge, and so on.  We do not watch much reality TV but Mr Lexi is, like, obsessed with Married at First Sight, so of course I started looking for a Married at First Sight Challenge.

Seriously: obsessed

I could not find one.  I did find BubblyQuinn’s story series on YouTube, but that was not really what I had in mind.  So I did what any reasonable person would do in these circumstances: I wrote my own challenge.  At this point having not actually played the game beyond CAS and building, which are enjoyable enough in their own rights but not a great way to get a handle on the mechanics of the game.

[NOTE: Although I wrote these rules before playing I did play through the first week of this challenge before publishing this post.  This allowed me to check that there was not anything horribly wrong with the rules and that they were at least fun for me to play by.]

Rules

Credit to XUrbanSimsX whose Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenge I used as the basis for these rules.

You are going to need eight young adult sims for contestants, and each of them is going to need their own family living elsewhere in your game world.  I suggest you either:

Create eight young adult contestants then create a family (parents, siblings, etc.) for each contestant or

Create eight families, and pick a contestant from each family (I went with the first young adult sim created within each family)

Each contestant must have at least one relative who is young adult or older (teen or older if you are happy with teens living on their own), as the families will be living on their own and will later be visited by the contestants.

Easy Mode: Heteronormativity Classic

Four binary men and four binary women (may be cis or trans).  May be queer but for the purposes of Married at First Sight they are looking for a spouse of the opposite binary gender.  24 possible ways of arranging the couples.

Normal Mode: Everyone is Bi

Eight contestants of any gender who are open to having a spouse of the same or a different gender.  This means that the only consideration when choosing your couples will be personality compatibility.  105 possible ways of arranging the couples.

Hard Mode: The Beautiful Rainbow of Human Diversity

Eight contestants of any gender.  Each contestant has their own orientation that determines which gender or genders they would consider for a potential spouse.  Determine orientation before you determine personality.  Hope that when you look at the possible couple configurations you can arrange the contestants into couples with at least some compatibility.  I have not tried them out myself but I understand the Wonderful Whims and Wicked Whims mods include options for orientation.

Move each family into a suitable house anywhere in your game world (you may use an existing house, download one from the gallery, or build your own).

For the duration of this challenge the contestants will be living in the Honeymoon Apartments.  You will probably need to build these yourself since the specification is quite unique, or you can download mine from the Gallery.  I am not particularly pleased with them since they are more function over form (my sims HATE the decor).

EDIT: If you are using mine you will need to delete the invisible fences at the top of all the staircases.  To do this, select the wall/fence tool, hold down CTRL, and click-drag the cursor across the top of the stairs.  Alternatively temporarily move the stairs somewhere else so the invisible fence appears, delete it however you would normally, and put the stairs back.  Etiher method may make a grey floor appear where there was previously open space, and this can be deleted with the sledgehammer tool.  There is some discussion of this issue on this Reddit thread.

The specification for the Honeymoon Apartments is as follows:

Four self-contained apartments with a communal living area

Each apartment may only have one double bed

Skill items may only be located in the communal area

Stoves, bookcases, mirrors and televisions do not count as skill items

Use the manage households screen to move all contestants into the Honeymoon Apartments (you are probably going to need freerealestate on).  Do not make any of the couples married in CAS as this will affect their behaviour towards each other in a way that undermines the challenge (e.g. married couples automatically have the option to WooHoo available).

Determine (by whatever process you like) which contestants will be paired up, have each couple walk into one of the four Honeymoon Apartments, and either lock or delete the door.

EDIT: Some mods (e.g. Wonderful Whims or Wicked Whims, and Slice of Life) include more complex personality and/or attraction systems, which could add another dimension to how you match up couples. 

You can use money cheats to make sure your sims have enough to live on - managing your budget is not part of this challenge!

You can meddle as much or as little as you like.  My personal preference is to generally leave the sims to do what they want to do autonomously but cycle through controlling each sim to make them fulfill one of their whims.  If no whims are possible in their current environment (e.g. it is week one, they are not allowed to leave the apartment, but all they want to do is go for a jog, view art at the museum and hang out with family members) you may cancel up to three whims per sim per day to try to get one they can act on.  If they still do not have any possible whims, move on to another sim and hope that their mood has changed by the time you get back to them.

Scheduled Romance

Every fourth day you must attempt a romantic interaction between each couple.  You may choose which sim will initiate the action, but you must choose an action from the highest tier available to you:

Tier 1 (top tier) - Ask to be boy/girlfriend

Tier 2 - Kiss

Tier 3 - Embrace or hold hands

Tier 4 (bottom tier) - Compliment appearance or confess attraction

If those sims are already boy/girlfriend you may choose any romantic interaction you like.  You can even WooHoo, but you may not try for a baby (or risky WooHoo, if you have that mod) before day 20 (if you have a full house of eight contestants this will not be possible without mods anyway).

Week 1 (days 1-4)

Each of your couples will spend time getting to know each other one-on-one.  They may not leave their apartment and may not receive guests.

On day 4 each couple must attempt a romantic interaction from the highest tier available to you before 16.00.

At 16.00, if any couples’ relationship status is showing as “bad match”, “terrible match” or “total opposites” they must divorce.  This means that they move out of the Honeymoon Apartments and back in with their respective families.

After 16.00, unlock/place the doors to the communal area.

For each sim decide whether to get them a job or whether they will be a stay at home spouse.

Week 2 (days 5-8)

Now the couples must adjust to real life, including going to work and socialising with others.  They can hang out with other contestants and receive guests.

You may choose to cause drama if that is your preferred playstyle - alternatively you may find that your sims get into enough trouble on their own!

On day 8 each couple must attempt a romantic interaction from the highest tier available to you before midnight.

At midnight, if any couples’ relationship status is showing as “bad match”, “terrible match” or “total opposites” they must divorce.

Week 3 (days 9-12)

Family visits!  Each day, take a couple out to visit one of the partners’ families.  Take a vacation day if one or both of the sims were due to be at work.  Each couple should only visit one family this week - you can choose which family to visit however you like.

If some of your couples have divorced you may spend a day doing a “follow up” on how one of the separated partners is getting on, or you can just spend the day at the Honeymoon Apartments.

On day 12 each couple must attempt a romantic interaction from the highest tier available to you before midnight.

At midnight, if any couples’ relationship status is showing as “bad match”, “terrible match” or “total opposites” they must divorce.

Week 4 (days 13-16)

More family visits.  Exactly the same as week 3, except you are visiting the families you did not visit last week.

On day 16 each couple must attempt a romantic interaction from the highest tier available to you before midnight.

At midnight, if any couples’ relationship status is showing as “bad match”, “terrible match” or “total opposites” they must divorce.

Week 5 (days 17-20)

This is the final week.  Your couples have had time to get to know each other, and they have met each others’ families.

On day 20 each couple must attempt a romantic interaction from the highest tier available to you before 19.00.

At 19.00, any couples who are not boyfriend/girlfriend must divorce.

The remaining couples may move out into their own houses in the wider world.  If the option is there, you could have them propose to have a second wedding!

EDIT: I keep tinkering with the fourth day timings.  Originally they were all set for 16.00 but I found that once family visits started I was struggling to fit in the required actions for the sims who were not on the visit, particularly if they had unusual work schedules.

Limitations of the format

It is very difficult to get away from the fact that Married at First Sight very much reinforces the idea of marriage being between one (cis) man and one (cis) woman.  The series has been running for six years now and according to Wikipedia has been filmed in at least 14 countries, with America, Australia and Britain being the most well-known.  As far as I can tell there has been a grand total of one gay couple and one lesbian couple on the show (both on the Australian version) and I am not aware of any transgender or polyamorous people appearing as contestants.  There is also the criticism of marriage itself being archaic and patriarchal, but I am not going to get into that here.  If you want to learn more you could do a lot worse than starting with Wikipedia and going from there.

Whilst the source material is very heteronormative, I looked at different options for my challenge (see the rules section above) and decided that all of my sims would be bisexual.  They would therefore be married to their best match, regardless of the gender.  I guess I could have decided they were gay/straight after deciding the matches but bierasure is a thing and I decided I would rather have eight wonderful sims who are unable to use chairs properly.

(I can confirm that as I type this I am sitting entirely incorrectly on a kneeling chair.)

For more on incredible bisexuals see this Tweet, this Tweet and this Tweet - the last one is also available on Thread reader.

The mononormativity is somewhat more challenging to mitigate.  If you have a mod that allows polyamorous relationships (e.g. Wonderful Whims or Wicked Whims) you could approach this in various ways.  To preserve the basic principles of Married at First Sight you could assign each contestant to a polycule rather than a couple, with sizes and configurations of polycules determined however you want.  Then in the family visits weeks you could have them visit their other partners (and possibly children) instead of or in addition to their families of birth/choice.  Alternatively you could just have a free-for-all for the first two weeks before deciding how to configure your polycules based on who is getting on best, but at that point it seems to me less of a Married at First Sight challenge and more just… playing The Sims.  Which is cool too - you do you!

Looking at my contestant’s extended families I chose fairly heteronormative and definitely mononormative family structures, but there is no reason not to have more diverse families in your game.  There is no one definition of what a family is, after all, and my real life family is certainly a testament to this!

Other variations

At the end of the day, the only reason you should be playing The Sims is to have fun.  If I have put something in these rules that would not make the game fun for you then change or ignore it!  This is not a competition, there is no scoring system, and the rules really are more suggestions than anything else.

No scoring system?

I mean, I guess if you really want a scoring system you could have:

50 points for each couple that has a second wedding at the end of the competition

30 points for each other couple that is still together at the end of the competition

-10 points per week that a couple divorces before the end of the competition (the competition is five weeks so a couple divorcing at the end of week one gives you -40 points, whereas a couple divorcing at the end of week four gives you -10 points)

If you manage to have two (or more) couples divorce and contestants who were not originally matched get together you may score them as a couple but for half the normal number of points (25 points for a wedding, 15 points if they are together at the end, -5 points per week after they break up)

I have no idea if that is a viable scoring system, I literally just made it up.

Next time: I will introduce my contestants and explain how I generated both the contestants and their families.

[jessicaabuscemi]

Covid Chaos #2

November 20th,  2:03 pm

Another day, another adventure. This time it’s a Friday. I am heading home from my job at Mod pizza. Tired, but grateful I still have a job, since many others had been temporarily let go due changes from the virus. The sky is light with a slight breeze. I get home and receive a text from a friend asking to get together, I obviously accept. I first shower, change my clothes, and fix my hair. I finish and then we begin heading out a little later than 3 o’clock pm. We’re driving down Hall Road and Schoenherr, passing by not only the Target place, but an ongoing Trump rally. People holding signs and chanting, cars driving by and honking, an event that happens routinely over here. We decide to once again make our habitual trip to Target and just shop around. As we explore our favorite sections first, like clothing, pajamas, shoes, etc., we stumble upon the necessities. We walk down the aisle that normally stores the good such as toilet paper, and see it is all completely empty. Not a single home good in sight. Once again the panic is among the city. After we check out, we leave and make our way to Tacobell for some Baja Blast pops. All we see is an empty lot and a sign saying that the building is temporarily closed due to Covid. We have witnessed a to of empty buildings and closed facilities, because of the pandemic. We reminisce on how much our lives have changed since the current events taking place. Mentioning how upsetting it was to miss out on our graduation, prom, even our first year of college. So much has been taken away.  But then, we can not forget to look at the bright side. How lucky we are to be alive and healthy, and our families as well. Life is crazy, and I feel a sense of nostalgia. Wishing I could go back in time to when things were normal. When I could go to school, see my friends, see my family, without having to worry about putting anyone at risk. I never realized how much I had taken it for granted until it was gone. 

[jennileerose]

Wrongly Committed Sim Asylum Challenge Rules:

This is inspired by idea of “what if someone who wasn’t crazy was sent to a mental ward and had to prove they were sane” popping into my weird ADHD brain. It’s also loosely based on the existing asylum challenge. (Link below) In this challenge however, your sim is falsely sent to the asylum when they are not Erratic and they must prove themselves to be sane and able to go back into society.

Disclaimer 1: I am not minimizing mental health here. The scenarios described are exaggerated for dramatic and fantasy effect. If you feel lonely or have mental health questions, my ask box open to all. I am not a doctor, so it is likely that I may refer you to other resources, but I will always listen.

Disclaimer 2: I have been playing Sims 4 for 4 years but live on a very tight budget and as such, I do not have every single expansion/game pack/stuff pack available. As of the last time this post was updated (02/28/20) I have only the following:

Expansions:

Get Famous

Discover University

Get To Work

Cats and dogs

Seasons

Game packs:

Parenthood

Spa Day

Stuff Packs:

Laundry Day Stuff

Tiny Living Stuff

If you have questions about gameplay elements for packs I don’t have, please message me. I am willing to look at it and give a “ruling”.

Setup:

* Must have an Asylum lot (I have one in the gallery you can use) that features the following:

* Must have private dwelling lot trait if applicable. Other lot traits that are allowed are ones that increase skill building such as Homey, Natural Light, Great Acoustics, etc.

* The main building must have:

* 1 bedroom for each sim (minus the doctor) so 6-7 bedrooms with only a cheap single bed.

* 3-6 toilets in stalls (that’s at your discretion. Choose wisely.)

* 3-6 showers in stalls

* 3-6 bathroom sinks

* A full kitchen (stove, sink, fridge, counters and trash can) and dining area made from appliances on the low end of quality. If you have seasons and one of your patient sims is gifted a better item on Winterfest you can replace a cheaper item.

* Cannot have the money-making trash can in the main asylum building.

* A large dining table with chairs enough to seat all sims on the lot.

* 1 couch

* A chess table & chairs

* 1 musical instrument (a violin or a guitar)

* A book case

* Either a TV or a computer. (If you pick TV, then the doctor must have a computer for ordering medicine and upgrade parts.

* A painting easel.

* A workbench

* 1 piece of workout equipment.

* 2 garden plot boxes

* If you have the laundry day pack you can include laundry things but your sim must make sure that laundry is kept up on.

* The Dr. will live on the lot but has their own office/house separate from the main asylum building. You can design that however you wish. Your main sim must be able to be in the doctor’s office area but none of the patients can enter the main home of the doctor. IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO HAVE A WASHER & DRYER IN THIS BUILDING. I lost a doctor pretty early that way when I wasn’t paying attention and they didn’t clean the lint trap.

* Your main sim must be A Teen or Young Adult. Teen is recommended for Easy mode if you want more time and want to move them on to college.

* Lifespan must be set to long for easy mode or Normal for medium and hard modes.

* Must have Dr. Character (mine will be in the gallery) in the medical career. They must have an office where your main sim can have visits with the Dr. On days your Dr doesn’t work. You can cheat the Dr. Character up to level 7.

* You can only control the Dr. And your main sim. Send the Dr alone to work every day they work.

* Other 4-6 patient sims must be set up such that there is no possibility for baby-production. Any gender identity is fine but no babies!

* All but Dr and your main sim must have Erratic trait

* 1 sim must be evil, mean, and erratic. Two others must have 1 be mean and 1 be evil. All other trait combinations other than erratic are at your discretion. It’s recommended that at least 1 have the neat trait.

* Your sim must complete 1 Aspiration for easy mode, 2 for medium mode and 3 for hard mode. They must be from the following list:

* Painter Extraordinaire

* Musical Genius

* Freelance Botanist

* Writer Aspiration (only if you get a computer instead of a TV)

* Nerd Brain (get Rocket Scientist to level 6 then cheat the aspiration for the rocket stuff. Or buy the rocket, but fence it off only for your sim to get to and you can only build and upgrade, no launching.)

* Bodybuilder (Hard mode only, has to be the last one and jogging can only be done during daylight hours and only for aspiration purposes).

* You can use aspiration rewards EXCEPT the relationship ones (beguiling, great kisser), or career ones, re-traiting potion or the potion of youth.

* In addition to Aspirations, your sim must have the following skills at level 10 to prove they can be a decent member of society and can care for themselves:

* Logic

* Homestyle cooking

* Gardening

* Handiness

* They must have the following skills at least to level 5 for the same reasons:

* Charisma

* Fitness

* One creative skill such as a musical instrument or painting.

* Your main sim must have a positive relationship with the doctor and 2 other household Sims.

* If you haven’t completed all the tasks by the time your main sim becomes an adult, you fail the challenge.

* If your sim ends up in solitary more than 5 times, you lose the challenge.

* If your main sim dies then you fail the challenge.

* If the Dr sim dies you must replace them with another Dr. Sim.

* If one of the patients dies, you must replace them with another patient with the same traits.

* If you use cheats for needs or relationships, or for money to buy new items for the asylum you fail the challenge. But you are free to continue it as a let’s play anyway.

* The bills come out as part of the Doctor’s Salary since the doctor lives on the lot, so money shouldn’t be an issue.

* No maid/butler/pizza services at all.

* Mods/CC: the following mods are allowed, however cheating with them will make you lose the challenge.

* Slice of Life

* MC Command Center

* Faster Homework Mod is okay.

* Better Schools Mod is okay but you must set your sim to “Listen to Teacher” every school day.

* When it comes to CC obviously the style CC for CAS is fine. If you have custom traits, you can only use ones that don’t OP your sims (don’t use God/Goddess or Muse custom traits) a good rule of thumb is, if you have to question it, better skip it.

* Build CC is okay for the Doctor’s dwellling. The main building should be only Base-game/expansions/etc (EA stuff).

* Daily Rules:

* No visitors allowed.

* No sims other than the Dr are allowed to have a career.

* Fame must be turned off for all household members.

* Teen main sims are not allowed to socialize with classmates as they are taught in a special room away from the “normal” students.

* All sim bedrooms must be locked for its assigned Sim at all times. When Solitary is in effect it is locked for everyone.

* Any decorative items must have been made by a sim in the household.

* No emotional aura items are allowed, if a sim creates one, you are not allowed to turn on the aura for it.

* Any visits outside the asylum that aren’t for school must be to a park, library or museum. (No bars or lounges) and all sims including the doctor must go.

* If your sim is a teen they must get to and maintain an A in school. If they miss a day or drop a grade, they must spend the next non-school day in solitary.

* If any of the sims fight, both sims go into “solitary” (see solitary section for explanation) this also applies to the uncontrolled patient sims and this is the only time you’re allowed to control them.

* If the doctor sim enters the asylum at any point and becomes uncomfortable due to cleanliness/disrepair issues, your main sim has 12 sim hours to get it back to tidiness or they go to solitary.

* Solitary:

* Each sim patient must claim a bed. That is their room and if they are in solitary, they must stay locked in that room for 12 sim hours, only being let out temporarily for bathroom breaks. They are served food in their rooms. No books or fun items are allowed in solitary. (Clean out inventories of books and instruments)

* Once all your aspirations, skills, and friendships are complete, your sim must have a meeting with the doctor in their office. During the visit with the doctor, you can only control your main sim. The visit must have 3 socializations and cannot be less than 1 sim hour. Both sims must be in a positive mood at the end. If you succeed at that then you can be released from the asylum and you win the challenge!

[daeiran-morran]

LFRP: Daeiran Morran (Goblin)

The Basics ––– –

Age: 26

Birthday: 3rd Sun of the 6th Astral Moon

Race:  Miqo’te Keeper

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Demisexual

Marital Status: Taken, has a boyfriend (See below)

Alignment: Neutral/ Chaotic Good

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Blue

Eyes: Red

Height: 5′4 (Tall for a Miqo’te, but fairly short in comparison to other races)

Build: Well muscled, but not very large overall

Distinguishing Marks: A scar under his right eye

Common Accessories: A necklace with a golden star shaped pendant

Personal ––– –

Profession: Warrior of Light/ Dragoon/ Order of the Twin Adder (2nd Serpent Lieutenant)

Hobbies: Dancing, Singing, Training

Languages: Common Eorzean, Miqo’te Huntspeak

Residence: Has an apartment in the Lavender beds, but also frequently resides in Ishgard

Birthplace: Black Shroud

Religion: "Ehh- It’s complicated, don’t worry about it...”

Patron Deity: Nald’thal

Fears: Failing to save those that he cares for

Relationships ––– -

S.O.: Haurchefant (Welcome to the “Everything is Fine” AU)

Children: N/A

Parents: Is on good terms with his mother, but not his father

Siblings: N/A

Other Relatives:  N/A

Pets: 

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: N/A

Drugs: N/A

Alcohol: Only a little, during dinners or parties 

RP Hooks ––– –

Blessed by the “Stars”-

No, he will not explain what exactly that means to him, but his blessing makes him fiercely protective of anyone that he has bonded to, and he is capable of temporarily pushing past his normal limits to protect the few people that he has truly bonded with. This blessing, though it has its uses, cannot be used in the defense of people outside of his bond. This ability only activates when these specific people are in danger, and he seems to lose almost all other forms of reason in exchange for an almost feral state where he becomes almost impossible to approach as he seems to lose all concept of friend or foe until this ability deactivates.

Canon Divergent AU

As mentioned in the relationships section, all asks/rps are set in an AU where  Haurchefant is fine (Ask Daeiran on the specifics regarding that one), and the two of them now do a majority of their adventuring together.

What I’m Looking For ––– –

Mostly just acquaintances, but after getting to know someone, they may be seen as a friend to Daeiran.

OOC information –––

I have not officially done any sort of RP in quite a long time, so please be patient with me... ^^|||

I am happy to answer any character asks (probably as Daeiran unless I state otherwise in my response)

I am open to AUs, as seen above in “relationships”

I will mostly be active through Tumblr, and through FF14 itself, so feel free to start something if you happen to run across me in game! (I may refuse if i’m occupied with an important quest, but I am generally open!)

I will try to be as active as possible, but as a college student, I may not be able to get back to an RP/Ask as quick as some may like, but I’m trying

I may play a fairly outgoing character, but I am a very anxious person irl, so again,, please be patient, I’m trying to get over it as much as I can (Which is one of the reasons that I am trying to become more active online ^^|||)

Despite playing a male character, I am female irl ( I don’t get to test my male OCs often, and playing males is a nice change of pace sometimes)

Along with saying that male characters are fun to play, I also made Daeiran to expand more on him as a character, since he is also going to serve as a character in a video game that i’m currently in the process of making! (Which is why I intend to tag posts about him here under “#Daeiran Morran (FF14)”, as to not confuse the two versions of the character!

If you want to know about my game, you can find it through my main blog, which is linked on my blog page~

While OOC, I am just Mod “Elenaer”

[mydearestreaderfanfics]

Fondness at the Fair (Lance x Reader)

Warnings: swearing

Word Count: 2,188

Prompt/Request: Fourth day of the October Special: State Fair.

Summary: Lance asks you out on a date to the state fair. Cute date events ensue. 100% pure unfiltered fluff.

Author: Mod Alex

Lance had burst into your apartment one afternoon, waving two slips of paper in his hand. He had pulled you close in a side hug before peppering your face in kisses. You giggled, trying to catch his lips with your own. “Lance, mi corazón, what’s got you so happy?” “Well, mi vida, you’ll never guess what I’ve got.” “What did you get?” He held up the hand with the slips of paper in it. Two tickets to the state fair. He grinned at you, melting your heart just as much as he did when he asked you out on your first date years ago. “So?” “That sounds great! Thank you so much.” You finally managed to press a kiss to his lips, smiling all the while.

That’s what led you to where you were now: the ticket booth to the fair. Lance was swinging you around in a little dance while you waited, making your heart soar (and making the lady behind you roll her eyes). “Lance, baby, we gotta stop dancing.” He pouted. “But why?” “Because we have to give them our tickets.” His mouth formed an ‘o’ and he let go of you long enough to give the ticket taker your tickets before pulling you through the gates.”Where to first, mi amor?” “Hmm, can we go to the petting zoo?” The words were barely out of your mouth when Lance wrapped his arm around your waist and began walking.

After getting temporarily lost (in hindsight you really should’ve grabbed a map) you found yourselves in a barn-shaped building. “Oh my goodness, look! It’s a baby pig!” You shook Lance by his shoulders, pausing long enough to point towards a tiny baby pig that was running about in the corner with his siblings. Nobody seemed to have noticed them yet meaning you got to hog the baby hogs. You kneeled down next to them, scooping the one the that had caught your eye up into your arms, cooing as he oinked. “Who’s the cutest little piggy, you are!” The other piglets had taken a liking to Lance, they’d taken to trying to climb into his lap. “Aww, they like you.” You snapped a picture of him, making note to post it later when you weren’t distracted by cute baby animals. After the piglets, you and Lance made your way to alpacas, ponies, goats, and sheep. Several of the animals had started following him, making you laugh. “Hehe, I think you have company.” “Wha-?” He turned only to come face to face with the alpaca. He hopped backward making you double over in laughter. “Hey, don’t laugh.” He walked over to you and the alpaca obediently followed, successfully causing you to laugh even harder. “Sorry, sorry. You just looked so startled.” He gave you a pouty look and you waved your hands apologetically. “It’s not my fault you looked cute. But maybe we have pet enough animals for now.” The alpaca tried to follow after, bothered that it couldn’t reach Lance. At least until some kid started petting it, effectively distracting it. A sign on the wall on the way out showed a picture of prize cows and the giant pumpkin weigh in. Lance looked at it curiously. “Sweetheart?" “Yes, honey?” He turned to you, stars in his eyes. “Can we go?” “Anything you want.” “Really? Yay!" He took your hand, intertwining your fingers and gently swinging your hands as you walked toward the contest winner’s displays.

You two had briefly looked at the cows, but you were both curious to see the giant pumpkin so you didn't stay too long. On the way to the giant pumpkin you saw the prize-winning flowers. “Hey, Lancey, if I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I would be walking through my garden forever.” “Sunflowers are yellow, dahlias are pink, my love, you are my missing link.” You blushed, kissing his cheek. “Aww, that was really sweet.” “It’s true, you know.” Best boyfriend ever, truly. “I love you.” “I love you too.” The flower arrangements soon gave way to produce. “We're almost to the pumpkin, come on.” It was glorious. It was the size of a small car and, according to the sign, weighed 1,388 lbs. “Do you wanna take a picture with it?” “You bet your fine ass I do.” Lance laughed, taking out his phone. You both posed in front of the pumpkin, faux shocked looks on your faces. Your stomach rumbled as you were taking a regular picture. “Huh? Guess I’m hungry.” He checked the time. “Me too, we’ve been here for a while.” “We passed some food trucks on the way here, some of them looked really good.” “Then lead the way.”

After a ridiculously long line, you and Lance sat down at a picnic table you’d been lucky enough to find unoccupied. “So what do you wanna do after this?” “Um, well there’s the carnival over there, but it’ll light up later, so maybe we should wait till then…” “We could play some games?” “Yeah-” “Come one, come all! The great Hira requests your presence! Do you want to win a rose for your sweetheart? Or perhaps you just love the thrill of winning a race? Either way, come join us in Tent C in ten minutes for a barrel of laughs and fun!” The promoter for the show continued on their way. “(Y/N), mi cielo, can we go?” You grinned at him. “Oh, I dunno.” “Don’t you wanna see me win you a rose?” He winked at you and you waved him off playfully. “Who says you’ll win?” “You don’t think I'll win?” “Oh, I don’t know, baby, we don’t even know what the race is.” You were barely containing your smile, teasing him was just too much fun. “I’ll prove it to you. I promise you’ll be leaving this fair with a rose.” “I guess we can go,” you giggled, “but I want to finish eating first.”

You grabbed a bag of cinnamon almonds before heading to Tent C. “Hello all! I am Hira and this is my show! I will need three volunteers from the audience.” Lance stood up along with a handful of other people. “Ah, this crowd is so enthusiastic, how wonderful!” She clapped her hands together. “My assistants will go out into the crowd and choose three of you.” The assistants wound through the crowds, stopping in front of standing attendees, one of which was Lance. His grin was brighter than any of the sunflowers you had seen earlier. The assistant led the three volunteers to the front where they stood on stage in front of Hira. “Fantastic! Now, my dear volunteers, you will be competing against each other to win your beloved a rose.” She explained how they were going to be going through an obstacle course. You and the other significant others cheered for your respective volunteer as they spun in circles, hula-hooped across the stage, riffled through a ball pit to find large foam puzzle pieces, hula-hooped back across the stage, and assemble the puzzle heart. Lance had started off in last, having gotten dizzy, but having hips to rival Shakira’s, he took the lead during hula-hooping. The race evened out at the ball pit. “Come on, mi corazón! You’ve got this!” Lance looked up at you briefly to blow you a kiss before resuming his search with renewed vigor. He and one of the other competitors had found all of their pieces. It was neck and neck, all they had to do was assemble the puzzle. You were on the edge of your seat. “It looks like we have a winner! What’s your name?” “Lance.” Hira held up his hand. “Lance is our winner! Good job to all of our competitors!” She handed him a rose and he took it, jogging back over to you. The crowd watched with admiration in their eyes. “Here you go, sweetheart. Just as promised.” You took the rose, smiling at it before setting it down and smooshing his face between your hands, pulling him into a kiss. “You are the sweetest. I am so lucky to have you.” “I’m the lucky one.” The crowd gave whistles and “awww’s”. “You all were a great audience, thank you all for coming! If you’d like to tip, I’ll have the assistants at each door. Thank you again!”

It was starting to get darker, but you still had a couple of minutes before the rides turned on their lights. “Hey, it’s a balloon pop. I used to be pretty good at those.” “Look there's a blue stuffed shark.” He pointed at the large prize. A look of determination settled on your face. “I’m gonna win that for you.” “But you have to pop three balloons with a green circle behind it.” “Easy peasy.” He laughed. “If you say so.” You paid for five darts. The first one popped a balloon in the corner. “Green.” “Yes! Only two more.” The next dart resulted in an orange circle. The one after that hit an empty space. You sighed. C’mon, was it too much to ask that you could win your boyfriend a comically large plush toy of his favorite animal? You carefully aimed at another corner balloon. Pop! “Green.” One more. You threw the final dart and it hit a balloon in the bottom center. It was green! No way! “You can get three small prizes, one medium and one small, or one big.” “The big blue shark, please.” You hopped on the pads of your feet, excitement radiating from you. As soon as the shark was given to you, you shoved it at Lance. “For you~!” He grinned, pulling you into a hug, smooshing the shark between you two. “Thank you.” “Anything for you, honey.”

You played a few more games that were nowhere near as successful as the balloon pop. They were still loads of fun, though. The sun had finally gone down and the carnival lights had finally turned on. “Where to first, baby?” “That looks fun.” You pointed to the tilt-a-whirl ride. “Sounds good.” On the ride, you and Lance spun the wheel in the middle as fast as you possibly could. The momentum caused you to slam into Lance who then put a protective arm around your shoulder. “My hero.” He kept the wheel going with one hand, effectively keeping you close to him by keeping the cart spinning, not that you minded. After stumbling out of the ride, Lance pulled you over to the Haunted House. It was cheesy and the scares weren’t all that scary, but the excuse to snuggle up to Lance was still nice. Your dizziness had since passed and you both decided to get on the carousel. A slow paced ride was nice and it gave you both a chance to talk and decide where you wanted to go next. “The fair is gonna close soon, with the lines we probably will only have time for one more ride.” “How about the Ferris wheel?” The height of it made you a bit nervous, but it did sound like the perfect ending of the perfect day. “That’s a great idea.” The line moved as slow as you had expected, but you were up soon enough. You and Lance climbed into the small cart, sitting close like you had several times throughout the night. “Thank you for this. It’s been a lot of fun.” “I’m glad you’ve had fun. I thought it would be a little different from our usual dates. And to be honest, this ride is kinda the reason I wanted to bring you here.” “Oh?” “Yeah, I thought it would be the perfect spot.” “The perfect spot for what?” You were almost at the top, but funnily enough, you didn’t feel nervous at all. Lance stood up. “Honey, what are you doing?” The Ferris wheel stopped at the very top, just as Lance got on one knee. “(Y/N) (L/N), you are the light of my life. I knew you were the one since the day we met. You’ve made me a better person and I can’t imagine my life without you. I love your eyes, the way you laugh, the way you dance in the kitchen when you’re making breakfast, how you smile when you see a dog. I love everything about you. You are my world, mi vida. Would you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?” You could barely see Lance through your tears. You shook your head, yes, not caring whether or not you looked super eager, because you absolutely were. “Yes, oh my god, yes!” You wiped at your tears, holding out your hand so he could slip the ring on. Once he stood up, you lunged at him, smothering him in kisses and “I love you’s”. “I love you so much, oh my god.” Your eyes darted between the ring on your finger and your now fiancee. “I love you too. I love you so much.” You kissed him again, smiling all the while. Yeah, definitely the perfect day.

[pmdthecampaign]

First off, sorry for the lighting on these! Hope everyone can read it. This is the character sheet template I made for the basis of PMD tabletop. For an explanation on what you’re looking at, see the “Read More” below:

For those who play D&D or other tabletop games, this sheet shouldn’t be too unfamiliar, but let me explain some stuff.

So the very top of course, has your character’s Level, the Pokemon they are playing as, that Pokemon’s Type, your Personality (which is the equivalent of having an “alignment”), and the Experience section.

To be honest on the Experience thing, for my campaign I am going by the Milestone system; basically, when I think my players have done enough things in game/gone on enough missions, that’s when they will level up. There’s no formal “you need x amount of points to level up” because...all Pokemon in the regular games level up differently based on species, and I thought that mechanic would be too complicated to take into this setting. Nonetheless, as DM if you want to set a standard, that’s what that section is for.

 On the side you’ll see that there are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed and Charisma stat blocks. There are also spaces for the Temporary Points of all of them except Charisma. This is of course because in Pokemon, your stats can be temporarily increased or decreased depending on Moves used. UNDERNEATH each block is also a space for the Mods on all of them. I will be doing a formal post to explain how all of them are going to work and how to determine mods, but yeah mod is UNDERNEATH the stat (I’m emphasizing that because it confused my players at first lmao). 

There are also blocks for AC (Armor Class), the amount of Spaces your figure can move each of its turns, Hit Dice, Proficiency Bonus, and Faint Saves. Again, there will be formal posts on all of these, but this is where you’ll be able to place that info.

Near the bottom there’s two huge blocks for your Proficiencies/Traits, as well as Equipment that has an even smaller block for Poke, the currency of the campaign/PMD world. The traits can hold the details on your Personality as well as your Pokemon’s specific Ability. 

The Skills section will once again, have its own post to explain all of them, but for now take note of what skills are related to what stats. Once you know your stats, you’ll be able to fill in what your mods for the stats are. The bubbles on the side are something you can fill in if you’re proficient with that stat, but otherwise they remain blank. 

There is also a Saving Throws column, but you’ll probably notice that there’s no “Charisma” save in it like in D&D. That is actually more of an “oops” on my part when building the sheet, but the reason I haven’t tried to incorporate it is that your Charisma stat will never change, and therefore the mod won’t either. Your Saving Throw is exactly the mod for the stat, and you cannot be proficient in that type of saving throw. 

Lastly, there is a column for your Pokemon’s specific Strengths and Weaknesses for every Pokemon Type. This of course will vary depending on your Pokemon’s type, but when I post how to figure out Types, remember that a 2 symbol means that type will do double damage to you, 1 means normal damage, 0 means they do NO damage to you, and 1/2 means exactly that: that type does only half damage to you.  

Now on the back, there’s space for DC (Difficulty Check) for your Pokemon’s moves, but as it says on there, the DC is only used for the prevention of status conditions, stat reductions, and “Special” moves, which means moves that use Special Attack/Special Defense instead of Attack/Defense which are Physical moves (AC).

Like regular Pokemon, you can only know 4 moves at a time, but each move has a set amount of Power Points (PP) that tells you how many times you can use that move, or “spell slot” like in D&D. Now if you are NOT playing the storyline I am creating for this campaign, ignore the “Hidden Move” section. It’s only relevant to what I have in store for my players, and will have a formal post for it later.

[llameleabdup1975-blog]

Their practice emerged from the heady Cooper Union environment of the '70s, where dean John Hejduk had instituted a strict pedagogy mixing modernist ideals of structure and function with poetic ruminations on timeless subjects such as beauty and death.That Dilier + Scofidio are beginning to produce sizable buildings elicits a tinge of trepidation. Their work has until now remained uncompromised by budgets and bureaucrats. Will the theory survive the plum commission? If their recent Blur Building, an exhibition pavilion on Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland, is any indication, it will, and in spectacular fashion. I think it largely a matter of doing it enough that the kids are used to it, which is clearly the case with them. We have a 3.5 year old, and for most of her life we lived on the 장수출장샵 opposite coast from my family and a 5 7 hour drive from my husband The city we lived in was expensive AF and therefore not really conducive to having visitors, so our choices were basically to start traveling with her from a very young age or just not see our families ever. I sure there are kids out there with temperaments that make traveling a challenge no matter what, and illness is unavoidable at times, but I would generally say, the more you travel the easier it gets. I then went to the main screen and was reminded I still have too many Heroes in my 장수출장샵 barracks, so I reluctantly Sent one Home (being a hoarder sucks) and went back to the main screen to be greeted with no Confession. Cue another bout of confusion until I finally remember the new at the time Hero Catalogue. It in there that I see Chrom Confession and am reminded that I wasted crystals and shards on two Chroms now.. I saw this on my facebook news feed and thought about bringing it up here too. Guys and gals, nobody wants you to become another statistic or another news article. With mech mods it can be a little more complicated, but most mods are pretty safe these days, but this posting has nothing to do with our current technology. The second one was a rather creepy one I was renting a house with a couple of people (not the same as the previous story) and this house is pretty old and believed to be haunted so you can see where this is going. There was only 2 of us living there at the time as we had just kicked someone out. This particular night I knew my remaining roommate was working the night shift and wasn home. Some people can work a job they arent passionate about and be happy outside of that. Some people need a better mix of work and passion. Figure out who you are and in the meantime try to save your money and develop good habits.. Each cat show also has a master clerk to keep records organized. The CFA accepts breeds into this class temporarily on their road to full championship status. After being handled by a few judges, one cat got spooked at the CFA Iams Cat Championship and was lost in Madison Square Garden for 14 hours.. That what a partner should care about. You really want to be with someone who is embarrassed of you and makes you feel bad? For starters, being single is way better than that. Being in a relationship where you feel like an equal and that you loved is what you deserve. Still, can one really be ready to say goodbye? My role will be to support my partner and family, that I can do. All parties have therapists and large support networks, which is a good thing. Not all people are so fortunate.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                                       6033 words

The Archer

I stood on the roof of the building overlooking the city. It was incredibly peaceful tonight. I felt bad for what was about to happen. The city would erupt into chaos. There would be riots in the street. I looked towards the sky and saw my target. A giant blimp. It was moving faster than predicted. Not that it would be a problem. The EMP would temporarily power it off giving us a few seconds to attach to it and get on. The blimp started to lower to the city and the EMP went off. I put my crossbow on my back and grabbed my grappling hook. I aimed and shot through a window. Within seconds I was on the blimp. I heard a couple more windows break which means the rest of my team made it on the blimp too. I put on my mask which covers my entire face except for my eyes, and put on my goggles. I put on my hood and started for the middle of the blimp. I checked in every room looking for the target. I wasn’t quite sure who we were here to kill, only that this particular mission promised big bucks. Mostly do to what the client told us would afterwards. We were ordered to kill the target and then crash the blimp into the building that only our boss knew about. I opened a door to find the boss crouched in front of a safe.

“Something important in that boss?” I asked. She jumped and threw a knife at me. I barely jumped back before the knife went into my head. She slumped and looked relieved to see me.

“Archer, don't scare me like that. I’d hate to kill you on our last mission.” I knew that was false. She’d probably kill any of us in a heartbeat. If she didn’t she probably would call us by our actual name. Not the jobs we got because of our skills. 

“What’s in the safe boss? Something important?” She turns back to me with an upset look on her face. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for the target? We don’t have that much time before the blimp arrives at the building we need to crash it into. What don't remember about what the target looks like? He’s the only one wearing a brown jacket. Well, go on. Get going Archer.” I stepped outside of the room and closed the door. I guess she doesn’t wanna talk about what’s in the safe. I kept walking through the blimp when The doors in front me busted open and a bunch of guards ran out. Thanks to the new modification on my cross I can shoot multiple arrows within seconds. With any mod I want on it. Fire, gas, electric, or explosive. The guards however aren’t looking for a long range fight. The first guard threw his gun at me and then punched me in the face.  I fell back and tried to regain my posture when two more guards joined the first one. I managed to hit the first one with my crossbow which threw him off balance and knocked him into the others. I took a step back and raised my crossbow. I fired an electric arrow into the one in the front electrocuting all of them. I stepped into the room they ran out of and saw the man in the brown jacket. Without thinking I shot him. His body slumped then fell to the ground. I heard gunfire coming from the other side of the blimp. The others were taking out any guards still running around. I was going to turn around and walk out when curiosity got the best of me. I walked over to the body and flipped it over. The face of the president greeted me. 

“Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no no no.” I turned around to leave when I saw the boss standing at the door. She was holding some files in her hand. The look on her face was that of pity.

“Oh Archer. Why did you have to do that. This was it. The last mission and you could’ve been done. You would’ve been free to do whatever you wanted. But now I have to kill you.” She raised her gun to chest and a smile appeared on her face.

“What am I saying. I’ve wanted to kill you for a while now. You’re nosey, impatient, loud, obnoxious, and plain annoying. I am very much going to enjoy this Archer.” Without thinking I swung my crossbow and knocked her on the ground. I raised my crossbow to shoot her when the blimp started going down. I fell into the wall and the boss landed right beside me. We both forced ourselves up and she swung at me. I ducked and swung my crossbow again. She kicked it out of my hand and kicked me in the face. I dropped as she reached for her knife and lunged at me. I grabbed her wrist and threw her into the floor. I heard a click and saw the furniture which was locked onto the floor was breaking from its locks. I barely moved as a couch crashed through a wall. The boss got up as a chair crashed into her and they went through the wall. I saw the files start falling towards the walls and I made a split decision to dive at them. I grabbed them but I also fell through the hole in the wall. I fell into a couch and dropped the files. The locks on the couch gave out and it slid down and crashed through the wall. Me and the couch hit a metal wall. I got to my knees but was instantly kicked in the back. I flew forward and landed on my face. I turned to see the boss standing on the couch. 

“Hey, no fair. I thought you were knocked out.” I said as I got back up to my feet. The boss lunged at me and pushed me into the window. I punched her in the stomach. As she fell back I opened the window. I grabbed her by the hair and threw her out. I looked out the window to see her boots erupt into flames. She started flying back towards the window.

“Oh hell no. She has rocket boots? That’s totally unfair.” I ran towards the files as the blimp crashed. I got sent flying into the  wall. I woke up a couple hours later with a ton of furniture on top of me. I managed to climb my way out of the blimp and I collapsed on the floor. I threw my quiver off and took off my armoured jacket. I took off my mask and walked over to the window. The blimp was still intact somehow. But it went into the building. So the building did get destroyed but not in an explosion like the client wanted. Meaning the boss wouldn’t get paid for the job since all the requirements weren’t met. I collapsed to the floor before I could make it to the window. I looked down to see some glass in my leg. I ripped off my shirt and tied it around my leg. I’d get Annie to look at it later. I looked around the room and saw the desk. Not just any desk. The presidential desk. I suddenly became very aware of the situation that I was in. The blimp didn’t explode which means they’ll find the president’s body with my arrow in it. The boss will get away with this and will pin it on everyone else involved. I’ll definitely get killed for this. If not by the law then by the boss. I got up and started looking out the window. I grabbed the chair and broke the window. I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could. I went far around the lawn and disappeared into the city. I have no idea where I am. I’ve never been to Washington D.C. before. I’ve rarely been outside of New York. I needed to get back to New York. Annie would know what to do. She always knew what to do. I limped my way into an internet cafe. I plopped into a chair and started looking up a map of Washington. I looked over to see a little girl staring at me. 

“Hi.” She said with a sniffle. 

“What are you doing?” She asked as she looked at my computer.

“Looking up a map of this place. I’ve never been here before.” I say as I click the option to print out a picture. I got up and started to limp away.

“Can you find my mommy’s house on the map? She left me here and it’s been a long time and I’m cold and hungry.” I stop and look at the girl as she sat there playing with the strings of her pink hoodie. I lift up one finger and walk to the guy in the front.

“Hey bud. How long has that little girl been here?” The guy looked up and shrugged.

“I don’t know a couple days maybe.” I stood up as straight as I could and puffed out my chest to make myself look bigger. 

“And why didn’t you call the cops or anyone so they could come help this kid?” They guy sighed and looked up at me again. 

“It’s not my problem. She’s not my kid. I don’t care.” He looked back at his phone and I lost it. I grabbed his hair and slammed his head into his desk. He was out instantly. I looked around everywhere to make sure no one had seen that. I walked over to the little girl again. I patted my pocket to make sure that the money Annie had given me in case things went wrong was still there. 

“Come on kid. Let’s go get you something to eat and find your mommy.” She grabbed my hand and we walked out the door. 

“Why is that man sleeping?” She asked 

“He used too much of his brain and needed to take a little nap.” I said as I looked at the map I printed out. I saw the nearest restaurant was some place called Chicken King. I just hoped this place was cheap. I needed the money to get to New York City. 

“So what’s your name kid?” I asked as we waited for the light to change so we could cross the street. 

“Annie.” She said. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Funny that I would end up meeting someone else named Annie tonight. As we walked to the restaurant I noticed there weren't as many flying cars as there were in New York City. I mean yeah not everyone had flying cars but a ton of people did. Maybe two of every twenty people owned one. Maybe because there were less people here. In fact the flying cars here didn’t look anywhere as nice as they do in New York City. Plus everyone’s outfit looked a little older than they do in New York City. They weren’t anywhere as colorful and flashy. Before I could think of anything else we arrived at Chicken King. I walked up to the register and looked at the menu. 

“Yeah uh I’ll take a number one and the kid’s meal. Both with a coke to drink.” I said to the woman behind the register. 

“That’ll be twelve dollars and thirty-two cents.” She said with a sigh. I paid her and took Annie to the table. As I sat down the phone I kept in my boot started to go off. I walked outside and took it out. The number was blocked. 

“Hello?” I asked as I started to walk around. 

“Goodbye Archer.” As soon as the voice finished talking the Chicken King exploded. I was sent flying down the street. I struggled to my feet as I looked towards the burning building. My leg buckled and I fell down again. I felt my chest tighten up. I should’ve taken her to the police station immediately. Or left her at the internet cafe. At least she’d be alive. No, now's not the time to think about that. I need to find out who the call was from. The voice didn’t sound familiar but they called me Archer. They must know the boss. I got up and started down the street. The train station was a couple blocks from my location. I needed to get to my Annie. I need to avenge little Annie and she’d be the only one who could help me right now. After some walking I saw the train station. I heard a loud explosion from behind me. I turned around to see that half of the flying cars had exploded and went down. Out of the flames an armoured car emerged. Before I could react, a missile hit the armoured car and brought it down. I turned to see one of the FBI’s jets fly past. I started again for the train station when I heard screams. I turned to see another bigger plane emerge from the clouds. I didn’t recognize the flag on the side but I knew it wasn’t friendly. It dropped bombs on the street. I dived into the alley and jumped into a dumpster. As soon as I closed the lid the bombs exploded. The dumpster was sent flying into the next street over and it landed on the lid. I was trapped. I threw all of my weight into the bottom of the dumpster and managed to flip it onto its backside so I could climb out. I tried to run but my leg buckled and I fell. My leg was in excruciating pain. I looked down to see the bone sticking out of my leg. My tumble in the blimp, the crash, all the running, and finally getting thrown around in the dumpster had messed up my leg. I forced myself to stand and I limped myself the last couple blocks to the train station. After a couple hours I made it to New York City. Luckily for me Annie lived close to the train station so I wouldn’t have to limp much further. As I moved down the streets I noticed everyone stopped and watched me as I passed by. I looked across the street and saw the wanted sign holograms. They were me and my entire gang. Ten in total but six were red which meant they were found dead. The boss and her brother were green which meant they were in police custody, Smith’s was blue which meant they had no idea where he was, and mine was orange which meant they were investigating the area they thought I was dead in. Which means they knew I was in the area of the bombing but they couldn’t find my body. I was about to turn and leave when Smith’s hologram turned red. They found his body. Most likely in the armoured car that tried to kill me. I turned and limped to Annie’s apartment. I rang the buzzer and waited.

“Who is it?” Annie’s rung out from the machine. 

“Annie! It’s me! It’s Will! Can you please let me in.” There was nothing for a while. She must’ve heard the news and didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I started to back up when the door buzzed. I went in and limped my way up the stairs to her apartment. As I reached her door my leg started hurting really bad again and I fell. I passed out as soon as my head hit the floor. I woke up to the sound of the rain hitting the window. I was laying on a couch I had never seen before. I started looking around but I noticed I was in Annie’s apartment. It had her dark pink walls with pictures of the two of us everywhere. We were never officially dating but we did everything together. I even spent most nights at her apartment. She even knew what I did for a living. She didn’t always agree but she knew it was what I had to do. It was all I could do. I forced myself to put my feet on the ground when I noticed my leg felt fine. It hurt a little but it didn’t feel broken. Annie must have taken me to get it fixed. But even with the advancement of modern medicine it would still take a month for my leg to fully heal. Which means I’ve been asleep and Annie’s kept me hidden for a month. I got up and went to the bathroom. As I looked in the mirror I saw my hair had gotten long. It was put in a ponytail though. Also I had grown a decent looking beard. I looked like a true hitman. Not the one with the short curly hair that almost got himself killed over three weeks ago. I heard the front door close. I turned the bathroom light off and jumped into the closet in the hallway. 

“Will. Are you still here? You better not have woken up and ran away. The FBI is still looking for you. Especially since Janet broke out two days ago.” I stepped out of the closet and went into the front room. 

“Boss broke out of their custody?” This was bad. Annie sat down on the couch and nodded.

“They rushed her trial on account of the fact that she accepted and helped carry out a hit on the president. She also had a file but they wouldn’t release what the file was about only that it was top secret and dangerous in anyone else’s hand. She told everyone that you technically killed the president and that she’d help track you down but you know. She’s the boss. She alway had that file and order Smith it try and bomb you while you were in Washinton. So they labled her a terrorist. Her brother tried to escape and got shot. Now they really want you.” I plopped down on the couch. 

“Why aren’t they worried about her? She was able to escape from them. She’s more dangerous.” I looked at Annie but she was looking out the window.

“They know Janet is in Washington. They have planes and agents everywhere. She hasn’t been able to leave Washington. But they don’t know where in Washington she is. They think if they can find you and bring you to Washington she’ll come out of hiding to kill you. Remember she had an escape plan to get all of you out of there but you interfered and everyone else died. She absolutely hates you now. She talked about you all the time in the trial.” Annie turned to the wall and was looking at the pictures of us.

“So they want to use me as bait to get Janet to come out. I’ll do it. I’ll turn myself in.” Annie looked back at me with fear in her eyes. 

“No, you can’t do this. Please, they’ll kill you after it’s done.” She grabbed my hand and squeezed tight.

“Annie, listen I have to do this. I think we both know I have to. I killed the president. I’m responsible for the Chicken King getting blown up. That random plane in the street bombed me and Smith. I’m responsible for all those deaths. I have to turn myself in. To try and do one good thing in my life.” She let go of my hand and I got up and walked out of the apartment. It was cold outside. If I was only in a coma for an entire month it would be the first week of December. As I walked down the street I saw the holograms the police kept up. Me and Janet weren’t the only ones but we had the highest bounties. I walked up to the hologram and clicked the button to alert the police to the location. The police were here in minutes. They handcuffed me and threw me in their car. A couple hours later I was being interrogated. A blonde woman walked in. She was taller than me and looked meaner than anyone I’ve ever met.

“So Mr. Marcus. Why did you kill the president?” 

“I didn’t know it was the president until after I shot him.”

“Yeah, an unlikely story. Why did you decide to turn yourself in a month after the crime?”

“Due to the injuries I had endured I fell into a coma.”

“What injuries? You look perfectly fine to me.”

“A friend treated me and healed me while I was in my coma.”

“Who is this friend of yours?”

“Respectfully I’m not telling you ma’am.”

“Alright. So why did you turn yourself in Mr. Marcus.?”

“I want to help catch Janet. And pay for all the deaths that I caused.” This seemed to catch the woman off guard.

“Alright then. You can help. But you do exactly what I say. The head of the FBI himself has requested to join in on the hunt for Janet. That means you’ll go and see him now.” I followed her to a plane located outside the building. Inside was a suit similar to my old one, a bow, a quiver filled with arrow’s, and a razor. 

“Alright, make yourself look nice. We’re gonna go catch a crazy person.” She went to the front of the plane as I got dressed. I shaved my hair to almost nothing and trimmed my beard. When I finished, a bulky man got onto the plane and closed the door. He looked over and saw me standing in the bathroom. 

“AH you must be William Marcus. Master archer, skilled in hand to hand combat, great with swords, and master of stealth. I have heard a lot about you. Such a shame that this will be your last job before they lock you up. Don’t worry I talked to them and if you help us kill your old boss they won’t kill you for killing the president.” The man walked over and plopped himself on the couch. 

“Ah don’t you just love private jets Will. I think it’s the only way to travel.” I nod my head but I can’t take my eyes off of this guy.

“You must be the director of the FBI. It’s nice to meet you. Surprised to hear that the FBI is so involved with this case. Usually the CIA are the people more involved with big stuff like the president’s murder.” He let out a little chuckle.

“Where have you been the past couple of weeks? The CIA is in trouble because people believe they’re the ones that hired you. Not that you would know or Janet would tell. So they’re being looked into. Looking for any proof that they’re behind this. I think the reason they want to find Janet so bad is so they can get her to say who hired you guys. They had a lot of insider knowledge to figure out when and where the president and those files were.” He put his head back and got quiet. 

“If you don’t mind me asking. What’s your name?” He looked down at me.

“Jack. Now will you let me take a nap? It’s been a long month. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep since you killed the president.” Jack passed out. I didn’t feel bad for him. Something about him felt scummy. Like he wasn’t being honest about something. I couldn’t put my finger on it though. After a couple of hours we arrived in Washington. I went to the front to check on the lady who interrogated me and flew the plane. 

“What are you doing up here Marcus?” She snapped as I opened the door. 

“You can just call me Will. And I came to ask what the plan was as soon as we landed. Janet won’t attack me or anything if she sees you all with me. Plus she has people everywhere. She’ll have spies checking the airport.” 

“How do you know that?”

“All of the people who join her main team start out as spies. I was one of her spies in New York. Before she found out about my ability with a bow. She taught me how to sneak and how to kill without remorse.”

“So a female Charles Manson.”

“Who?”

“Nevermind. Don’t worry about it, we'll figure it out. You worry about staying out of trouble.” The lady didn’t say anything after that. I started for the back when I saw Jack put a parachute on. He turned to me and threw another one at me. 

“Come on Will. If we’re gonna find your old boss we gotta do it our way. It’ll be more believable if you have the cops chasing you. Trust me.” I put the parachute on as the lady walked out of the cockpit. 

“Wait Marcus no…” Jack threw me out of the plane and jumped out himself. I watched as he pushed a button on his watch and the plane blew up. He let out a laugh as we fell to the ground. He pulled his parachute and fell back. I kept falling. I needed to get as much space between me and him as I could. He screamed my name as I plummeted closer to the ground. With second left I pulled the line and my parachute opened. As I got closer I noticed there were people everywhere. The police, Janet, and her men would turn this place into a warzone. People would die. As I landed people shouted and clapped like it was a cool stunt. But they saw my bow and quiver and took a couple steps back

“RUN! GO! NOW! THIS PLACE WILL BE A WARZONE!” People started to run screaming. I turned to see Jack approaching the ground. Then everyone started running back towards me and I turned to see an armoured car fly towards me. I reached towards my quiver and clicked the button on the side which added an explosive bolt to my arrow. I drew it and shut the armoured car. I shut into the little opening that led to the engine. It exploded into pieces and I watched as people died from the fiery parts thrown around. Jack finally landed and went to draw his gun. I drew another arrow and shot him between the eyes. I turned to run deeper into the city. A couple of blocks later I noticed a sniper on one of the buildings. He shot at me but missed and only scraped my left leg. I however didn’t miss mine. I got him somewhere in neck. As I started up again I realized something. The sniper wasn’t aiming for a kill shot. He went for my leg that got injured last month. I started running again. I didn’t quite know where I was going until I got there. The old Chicken King. The place where little Annie died. The subconscious reason I was doing all of this. To get revenge on her. Yeah Smith died in that random bombing. But Smith wouldn’t have tried to kill me unless Janet ordered him to. As I started to walk away a car pulled up and a man in a suit stepped out. 

“Will Marcus. Nice to see you again.”

“Wait…again? Who the hell are you?” 

“You wouldn’t recognize me but I’m with the FBI. Well actually I kind of am the FBI. I’m the agent in charge. I hired your services to kill someone so I could run for the position.”

“You hired us to kill the president? 

“Yeah. You see I’ve been doing some stuff that would label me as a terrorist in the eyes of some. And he had a file of all the crimes that we’ve done. I hired you to kill him, take the files, and crash the blimp into the White House. But after you killed the president you had to grow a conscious. Ruined everything. Caused problems and we weren’t able to come and extract your crew. Your boss’ brother got himself caught with the files. Luckily it was an FBI case. So we got the files back. But that left you. We couldn’t find you. Until that idiot Smith blew this chicken place up. Which led us to you. Thankfully we kept that plane from the Japs all those years ago. Now of course I’ll have to make up some story and declare war on them when I become president but no matter. We’ll just kill you now and then find and kill your boss. No witnesses and I win. George kill him. As the man named George stepped out of the car I drew my bow and shot him in the shoulder causing him to drop his gun. I turned towards the director but he already had his gun. He shot me in the side. I fell into the building. George ripped the arrow out his shoulder and walked up to me. He stabbed the arrow into my left leg. All of the pain from a month ago swelled into my leg again. I opened my mouth to scream but George punched me in the stomach. I dropped to my knees causing the arrow to go deeper into my leg. 

“Now now George. What did we talk about? We don’t have the time to play with Will. We have to kill him and go find the girl.”

“But boss. Let me finish up here and you go find the girl.” George pleaded. I tried to stand up again but George ripped the arrow out of my leg from the opposite side he stabbed it into and stabbed in the back in my left leg a little bit lower than he did the first time.  This time I let out a scream as I fell to the ground. 

“Alright. Just don’t let yourself get caught.” The man got back into the car and it sped off down the corner. George turned back towards me and ripped the arrow out again. 

“I gotta tell you this is a nice arrow. Very durable. Very strong.” He stood admiring the arrow as I grabbed my bow and swept his feet out from under him. I grabbed the arrow from the air and stabbed it into his right eye. I fell on my back and grabbed at my leg. The pain was immense. But I needed to get up and find Janet. Now I needed to find the director of the FBI. Or find someone to warn about him. I ripped George’s shirt and used it to patch up my leg. I needed to find Janet fast. She is priority number one. Then the guy in the suit. As I limped down the road I noticed an abandoned building which had a message on it. ARCHER ENTER HERE. This is it. Once I go in I’m probably not going to come out. I limped into the building. The second I stepped in I got punched in the face and was out before I hit the ground. I woke up tied to a chair surrounded by people with black hoodies. They had blask masks covering their full face. The attire Janet made us wear when she executed a traitor. The people directly across from me parted and Janet walked in. She had my quiver on her back and my bow in her hand. 

“I have to be honest. I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to walk through the front door. Then again I didn’t think you’d betray me so I guess I’m still learning about you. Unfortunately for you I hate learning.” She turned to face the crowd as the ceiling broke and FBI agents repealed down. They dropped guns blazing. Janet’s men pulled out their own guns and more of them came in from the entrances. An FBI agent cut the ropes and freed me. I forced myself to run as fast as I could to reach Janet. When I caught up to her I threw myself onto her. We slammed into the wall. I tried to go for the bow but she was faster and kicked me in the face. I fell back as she went for an arrow. I grabbed a pole off the ground and threw it at her stomach. As it connected I got up and jumped at her. We went through the window only to get lucky at the fact there was another building super close. We crashed into the second building. I tried to get up again but she still had less injuries and was faster. She grabbed the bow and started beating me with it. I kicked her in the leg and tried to jump on her again but a shot fired and a bullet went into my side. Almost in the same spot the other one was. I fell over and grabbed my side as a scream escaped my mouth. Laughing filled the room. 

“Well well Will, and if it isn’t Janet. I didn’t expect to see both of you here.” The man in the suit from earlier was here. I did my best to sit up beside the window. Janet got to her feet and looked back and forth between me and the man. 

“What do you want, Steven? I’m about to kill Archer and then everything will be fine. We can go back to how things were before.” Steven only laughed as he shot Janet in the leg. She buckled and fell to the ground without so much as a wince.

“I can’t trust you guys anymore. You promised professionalism and here we are in the country’s capital while it’s burning to the ground. It should’ve been quick and it should’ve been easy. But no.” Suddenly an explosion from the other building sent all of us flying to the other part of the room. The quiver flew off Janet’s back and I managed to quickly crawl over to it and lay on it. I took out a bunch of arrows and laid still. Steven got up and looked at me and Janet. 

“Something’s not right. Women, where'd your quiver go?” At the question I turned and threw the quiver directly into his chest. He stepped back with blood dripping from his chest. He dropped his gun and started laughing again.

“Oh Will funny how you think this is enough to kill me. You’ll bleed out before me and then I’ll get taken to a hospital. This’ll look good on the papers. Not only did I kill two terrorists but I survived an arrow to the chest.” Once again he started laughing. I reached for my quiver and added an explosive bolt to my arrow. 

“I’m sorry Steven, but I’m afraid you won’t be making it out of this either.” I grabbed my bow off the floor and shot the arrow into his heart. The explosion sent me through the window where I landed in another dumpster and passed out. 

A couple years later and I was sitting in a prison cell. Because I helped bring an end to Janet and her secret army and exposed the FBI I wouldn’t be executed. I wouldn’t be allowed to see the outside world again except for the thirty minutes of yard time. Annie came to visit me once but only to tell me she couldn’t stand to see me anymore. They gave me a new knee replacement but I’d forever limp. Not that it mattered anymore I didn’t do a lot of moving around. I laid on my bed all day. As I was laying down about to drift off a guard came into my room. He ordered me against the wall for inspection. As I stood there I felt the barrel of a gun against the back of my head. 

“For Janet.” I heard the voice say before nothing.

[chiripepe]

Like a month ago I switched from using a subohm tank to a rebuildable tank atomizer and the flavor upgrade is amazing. Overall switching to vaping has been... a pain. First of all learning how to do this shit took weeks and I am a person that runs on full confidence on my understanding of everything I jump into before I do so. Vaping is treated like a kind of hobby community, you can't simply go somewhere and learn everything vital to understand in order to decide what the best device/tank is, instead you have to sit through HOURS of video and articles online to get your knowledge. This RTA though, is amazing. First of all the price of resistances v prebuilt coil heads is astronomical. A 5-pack of coils online runs about 10 bucks and at a shop twice that, like everything else. The resistances on an RTA are like 8 for 4 bucks and a set can last more than a month. Cotton is even cheaper, a gallon size ziploc of organic muji pads is like 6 bucks on amazon. Second the flavor you get from a rebuildable is like 4x better than what I was getting from the NRG tank that came with the kit I purchased to start. What's different is convenience because instead of just popping in a coil head and changing it a week later when it burns out I have to actually build on the deck and rewick when the cotton goes bad.

So many things have gone wrong but like... I have no desire to smoke a cigarette. In two months I’ve saved so much money and actually I’m gonna add it all up so I can see it on paper and feel even better about it. I’m not waking up with a sore throat and coughing after terrible sleep and then reaching for my first nicotine hit of the day from a cigarette. I’m not running out of breath as much, I don’t smell like cigs. My pussy got FATTER!

As far as issues, the 510 connector on the Revenger mod I purchased started coming loose within a month and I’ve had to disassemble the whole thing to fix it temporarily till the manufacturer finally approved my claim. A new replacement is the mail. Second, I made the mistake of ordering 2 packs of replacement coil heads when I was still using the subohm tank from a chinese site and they’ve YET to get to my house. I don’t even need them at this point because I’ve already moved on to an RTA but still, wow that delivery. I didn’t know at the start that the entire vaping industry is run out of China and it can actually be very economical to order items from Chinese sites but the delivery times are from two weeks to two months. Speaking of two weeks abou three weeks after I purchased my RTA the positive 510 pin snapped and I had to order two more from the manufacturer who is also operating out of china. It was dirt cheap, 99 cents per pin, but they took a full two weeks to get to my house and without the pin the tank is literally useless. In the meantime I went back to using the subohm tank that came with my kit but had to purchase individual coil heads at five bucks a pop from the local vape shop even though I had 10 that the chinese seller still hadn’t sent. Still cheaper than 8 bucks for a pack of American Spirits a day though since coils would last up to a week. I had to also purchase an extra set of 18650 batts to eliminate downtime and an external charger because box mods themselves do not properly charge batteries and it’s a safety issue with all of vaping. I had to buy wraps and learn how to rewrap batteries, which is incredibly easy, in order to properly maintain and use these batts safely.

So much stuff and it takes so much time but it’s all been worth it. I want to buy another mod to have a spare and then later in the year invest in making my own eliquid which is actually the most expensive part of vaping at 11 bucks for 100ml per bottle which is the cheapest I could find. Making my own liquid would be even cheaper. A 100ml bottle lasts about a week and making my own I’d be getting that for change.

Anyway, vaping update.

DISCLAIMER: Do no start smoking it’s not cool. If you pick up vaping for fun and have never smoked before do not vape eliquid with nicotine. You will become dependent and will die behind a dumpster. If you smoke and want to pick up vaping as an alternative or to try to quit GO FOR IT!!1

[chaotictempleknight]

Saryn’s 2018 updates...

... in a nutshell:

Me: You know, Saryn really did not need that big of an update to begin with...

Random Warframe player: Go play another warframe.

Me: Okay then... Well I am not too sure about switching spores to corrosive damage. Corrosive is only really effective against...

Random Warframe player: Go play another warframe.

Me: Um, could you let me talk? Anyways: I do not think making Molt immune to spores was the best idea. It just removes some of the utility that saryn had and...

Random Warframe player: Go play another warframe.

Me: STOP...doing that and let me talk. Removing spread on enemy death from spore was a bad idea. It just makes things more tedious and...

Random Warframe player: Go play another warframe.

Me: You are not interrupting me! As I was saying: Removing death spread just makes it so you have to cast Spore more often. This just makes Saryn more energy hungry and goes against the idea of Saryn not needing energy generation in regards to having toxic lash not grant energy for popping spores anymore. Yes, Spores still spread, but they have one less method of spreading and death spread was the easiset and most convenient method. And do not even get me...

Random Warframe player: Go...play...another...warframe...

Me: ...started on low level content. Gee, if you go in with a powerful Warframe, low level enemies will die pretty quickly. That does not warrant a rework. Now Saryn is only viable in end game content. Why would I use a warframe who is only good in something like sanctuary onslaught or sorties? I want a warframe that is good and fun everywhere. And someone will say “Use your weapons, that is what they are there for...” I DO, but sometimes I like casting abilities or need to cast abilities to clear out a room. The new Saryn changes make that more tedious as death spread is gone and...

Random Warframe player: GO PLAY ANOTHER WARFRAME!!!

Me: 

YOU F***ING STARTED THIS BY TRYING TO SHUT ME UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Random Warframe player: (silence)

- - - - -

Now before you go flipping your lid on me in the comments, asks, or reblogs: The words of the day are Hyperbole and Satire. I mean seriously, I would not have used the best clip on the web if I was being 100% serious. And I have yet to see anyone pull that kind of stunt.

But this post does underline my frustrations with the 2018 Saryn updates. I feel she has been made overly complicated and energy hungry. Yes, I am a console player and the update is not out as of me typing this, but I have been keeping an eye on things and watching videos. And the general sentiment I have seen from people (or at the very least: interpreted) who are in full support of this update is "Go play another warframe.” And yes, that could be a bit of a generalization, but still.

It is frustrating. Now I don't want to play Saryn. I had a similar situation with Ember. She got a power boost with World on Fire, but her range gets cut in half and her energy consumption ramps up. Yes, she has other abilities, but that change was a kick to the balls. World on Fire was barely good to begin with. The only thing that saved it was Firequake. It is kind of pointless when your range gets cut in half.

And before there is that one smart ass in the notes who calls me a "scrublord" or "Noob" or something to those effects: I did not use Ember all the time (you legitimately could not use Ember all the time). I do get bored using a particular loadout after a short while. I was on a Nova kick, a Nidus kick, a Chroma kick, a Mirage kick, a Mesa kick, an Excalibur kick, a Valkyr kick, a Limbo kick, a Titania kick, a Volt kick, and an Atlas Kick. Seriously, I am nut case when it comes to what Warframe mood I am in.

And yes, I will openly admit that Chroma is overly complex. I did not say he was not.

Sorry if all of that was unnecessary, but we all know there will be that one person.

I feel like there needs to be a balance between simple and complex in Warframes. Ash is too simple. And now Saryn has be come an example of a warframe who is too complex. You could argue she was a bit too complex back in Saryn 2.0 and that was the primary complaint I saw. And yes, she was indeed a little too complex.

Saryn 2.0: So you need to cast spore to have them spread to other enemies. The spores will cut the enemies health in half with viral procs. Use molt to create a base for your spores. Now cast toxic lash and use your melee weapon to pop the spores. Then cast miasma to AOE the area. But do not randomly cast Miasma. If you do it without spores, it will be very weak. Miasma will do more damage to enemies that are proc'd and will do corrosive damage which is effective against armor. Make sure you give your spores enough power strength to deal decent damage and so your miasma does damage too. Do not forget power range so you have good range. You will also need duration so your spores last and you can have more time on toxic lash and molt. The health of molt is also affected by power strength. And do not forget efficiency as you need to activate 3-4 abilities to make this startegy work.

Saryn 3.0/3.5: You need to cast spores to have them spread to enemies. The spores will do corrosive damage which is effective against armor. The spores have a 50% status chane to proc corrosive on the enemies, Damage ramps up based on how many are affected. The damage ramp up caps at 10 enemies infected. Spores will not spread on enemy death by the spore so you need to keep casting. Toxic lash will not grant you enenrgy like it did before, but it will allow you to pop spores so they can spread and grants a toxin buff to your weapons. Now if you re-cast spor on an infected enemy, it will detonate the spore and do twice the damage. The damage you accumilated will decay quickly if nothing is infected. Keep an eye on your energy. You can metigate this decay with duration mods. Molt can no longer be used as a base for spores, but it will be temporarily invincible and will grant you a speed boost. Miasma now does Viral damage is has 100% to proc viral and it will refresh the proc. Idealy you want to run effeciency because of how much casting you will do, but remember you need duration to slow down the damage decay of the spores and you need power strength to get goo damage. And you still need range to spread spores. This will be hard to juggle with corrupted mods, but anything is possible.

See how long those paragraphs are and how much I had to explain? I can describe Valkyr in less.

Valkyr: Ripline is ability that allows you to bring enemies to you or grapple to a location if you hit the terrain. Warcry speeds you up and slows down your enemies that were caught in the cast. Paralysis is a stun ability. And Hysteria is a berserker state where you become invicible, gain a claws based weapon, and can recover health. But you need to be careful as Valkyr will be vulnerable after deactivating it. Your best bet for Valkyr is power strength.

How about Harrow?

Harrow: Condemn allows you to stun enemies and gain overshields. The base range is good enough not to need range mods. Sacrifice sacrifices your current shields to give you a speed buff and team healing based on the damage you do to enemies. Thurible drains your enenrgy to allow you to generate energy for your squad based on your kills and how much energy you sacrifiiced. Headshots will grant more energy than bodyshots. Covenant allows you to absorb damage for a brief time and convert into crit chance for your weapons. While absorbing damage, you and you squad will be invicible.  A simple build giving a basic boost to all stats and giving you a lot of shields and good health is ideal for Harrow.

Almost as long as Saryn 2.0, but I did not have to explain as much. Harrow is pretty straight forward.

As you can see, Saryn is a bit of a complicated mess at the moment. And the updates made things worse. Saryn is a good idea in concept, but the execution is questionable. 

And the thing is: I will probably use Sayrn for Toxic lash and molt and miasma if I can get a good strength build. It is just that this whole situation leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Saryn is not ruined, she is just a bit of a mess right now.

And the true kick to the balls is this: Even though I mocked the sentiment of "go play another Warframe," it is actually a viable solution and I hate that fact.

And if for some reason this post upsets you, remember this: I am just a random nobody venting his frustrations. I have no influence over DE and they would probably not listen to me either way.

I am just frustrated. Not angry, just frustrated.

[dramallamadingdang]

Replies for wiksims. :)

wiksims replied to your post “And another thing I'd like!”

i recall there is a mod that makes vampires to gain energy from normal bed same as normal sims do... it's possible to do. maybe someone on mds would be able to?

Yeah, I remember seeing that, but I still would like vamps to use coffins for sleeping. I’m a traditionalist. :) I just don’t want the coffin to require as much space as a double bed. :\ With the way supernaturals are created in my neighborhoods (by aliens, via the “Alien Experiments” mod), vampires happen in totally unplanned ways, often in established families where there isn’t enough room anywhere in the house for a coffin, and it doesn’t often happen that I can “remodel” to dig out a basement crypt, either. So I’ll end up doing things like building an outbuilding for a coffin or, if that fails, just sticking it in a corner of the back yard. *laugh*  If I could have a coffin that doesn’t take up so many tiles, there’d be a lot more flexibility as to where to put them.

wiksims replied to your post “i think cyjon has a fewer tourists mod? i’ve somehow totally lost...”

you could try editing hotels and make fewer rooms? or maybe "no townie apartment neighbors" would help somehow, though i am unsure if it affects hotels

Yeah, essentially I’ll be “editing” by demolishing the hotels and replacing them with “rental” houses. :) Which are just regular houses only with the hotel room door on them and a check-in desk hidden somewhere on the lot. Because of the thing that’s happening, the only thing that would totally work is a “hotel” with only one room, anyway. Which is essentially what the “rental” houses are.

I have “no townie apartment neighbors” and that only affects apartments, not hotels, alas. Hotels are weird, coding-wise, because they’re a hybrid of a residential and a community lot. Sims live on them, temporarily, but they can also be visited as community lots when there aren’t any playables in residence. Apartments are strictly residential.

[a-study-in-ginny-archive]

Song Fic #2: Happier

Walking down 29th and Park / I saw you in another’s arms

Finny hummed to himself as he wandered down the street. He spotted a familiar head of dark hair and stopped walking, checking again to make sure he had seen correctly.

Gene Forrester, walking hand-in-hand with the boy he recognized as Ana James, someone they’d gone to school with.

Only a month we’ve been apart / You look happier

Finny frowned at the wide grin on Gene’s face, and immediately felt guilty for the brief wave of jealousy that he experienced. He watched them laugh together and talk eagerly as they passed him.

Saw you walk inside a bar / He said something to make you laugh / Saw that both your smiles were twice as wide as ours

Finny sighed, forcing a smile. Gene and Ana looked so genuinely happy, and he knew he should be glad for them.

You look happier, you do…

Yeah… His Gene looked happy.

Ain’t nobody hurt you like I hurt you / But ain’t nobody love you like I do

Finny forced himself to turn away and keep walking. As he wandered away, he wondered where they’d gone wrong. More specifically, he wondered how Gene could possibly fall in love with someone else.

He’d messed up, sure. He was impatient and distracted Gene at bad times and got obnoxious, but Gene never would have met someone who loved him more than Finny did.

Promise that I will not take it personal / Baby, if you’re moving on with someone new

Finny turned the keys to his apartment - god, his apartment felt lonely these days without Gene’s books on the shelves or papers on the desk - and clicked the light on.

He hummed under his breath but stopped as soon as he realized what song it was. Can’t Help Falling In Love With You was hard to listen to these days.

‘Cause baby, you look happier, you do / My friends told me one day I’ll feel it too

“I don’t know, Brinker, I just… I just miss him,” Finny sniffled, sprawling out on his bed. No matter how much space he took up, he still avoided touching Gene’s spot.

“What brought this on, Finny?” Brinker sighed. Finny could already see him, rubbing the bridge of his nose and looking faintly annoyed. Finny cracked a smile at that mental image, then spoke.

“I saw him today.”

“Him and Ana?” Brinker asked.

“You knew?” Finny asked, sitting up.

But until then, I’ll smile to hide the truth / But I know I was happier with you

“I couldn’t just tell you that Gene was with Anahel so soon after your breakup, Finny - “

“He never gave me an explanation, Brinker!” Finny said, pacing back and forth. “All he told me was that he was in love with someone else and then he moved out while I was at work. I tried calling him, and calling him, but - “

“You think I don’t know, Finny? Gene called me in tears once because he felt like he betrayed you. He couldn’t tell you goodbye, Finny. He knew he wouldn’t be able to leave if he saw you,” Brinker explained calmly. “He couldn’t stay and know that he wasn’t happy. You deserve to be with someone who makes you happy, Phineas.”

“I gotta go, Brinker,” Finny said hastily, clicking the end call button and wiping his eyes.

Sat in the corner of the room / Everything’s reminding me of you

Finny sat at the same desk Gene would write at. He lifted the bottle to his lips and paused. Phineas, fingers loosely wrapped around the bottle stumbled to his feet.

“Hellooooooooo, New York,” he slurred, staring out the window. He opened it and climbed out, his feet roughly hitting the fire escape.

Nursing an empty bottle and telling myself / You’re happier, aren’t you?

He took another drink and shuddered as it burned on the way down his throat.

“I miss you,” Phineas sighed heavily. “You’re happier, Gene, aren’t you? I hope you’re happy. I never liked seeing you sad.”

Ain’t nobody hurt you like I hurt you / But ain’t nobody need you like I do

Finny set the bottle down and stared out at the city lights. Gene had once said that he wanted to live in New York City because there would always be activity and things happening. The city inspired him, and Finny was eager to move to the city with him because really, why wouldn’t he? Why would he want to go back to Boston?

Why wouldn’t he? Gene and Finny always talked as if they’d be together forever, so the idea of breaking up had never occurred to either of them.

I know that there’s others who deserve you / But my darling, I am still in love with you

Phineas growled under his breath in frustration. He wanted so badly to make Gene happy - had tried so hard to make him happy - that he never considered the idea of Gene with anyone else. The idea hurt him deeply but he couldn’t do anything about it. As much as he loved Gene, he was still nothing but Gene’s ex.

But I guess you look happier, you do / My friends told me one day I’ll feel it too

Finny woke up with a hangover, much to his displeasure and faint pain. It had been over six months since he had seen Gene with Ana, but it still throbbed like a fresh cut.

He went through the monotony of the day - getting dressed, getting ready, eating breakfast, then leaving for work.

He had met a boy at work that seemed very keen on Finny, but he didn’t particularly care for him - Finny thought his name was Maddox, but he wasn’t sure and he didn’t particularly care.

It had been a long time since he had cared about anything, if he was being honest. He wasn’t as carefree as he had once been.

‘Cause baby, you look happier, you do / I knew one day you’d fall for someone new / But if he breaks your heart like lovers do / Just know that I’ll be waiting here for you

Finny hurriedly ran through his leftover paperwork - he was only working temporarily at some office building until he could find a teaching job - and stopped when his phone rang.

Without looking at the contact, he answered.

“Hello?” Finny mumbled, more focused on his work than the conversation. “Brinker, what’s going on?”

“Hey Finny,” Gene’s voice said softly.

-Mod X