#screenshots of her and Tim in the Sims

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Here's a little thing I talked to my boyfriend about:

Brian comes into the kitchen in the morning to see Tim and Birdie listening to music and arguing about how many chocolate chips are acceptable to put in pancake batter before it just stops being pancake batter anymore, and he just sits there watching them with tears in his eyes. He's known Tim since they were both 16, he lost Tim after uni, then he found him again over a decade later, after he'd almost died and assumed that Tim had died. He found Tim again, but this Tim had a daughter he loved more than anything in the world, and this Tim had worked his absolute ass off to make sure he could look after his daughter properly, making sure she never had to deal with what he did growing up

And now Brian is a part of that life that Tim is so wonderfully happy in, they're together properly, far more official than they ever were in uni but still just as in love, probably even moreso. He loves getting to see what a good dad Tim is to Birdie, he loves getting to see how well Tim managed on his own for the first ten years of Birdie's life, and he's so in love with how happy Tim is now.

[sol-consort]

Characters part one

Ashley

Not over her

ME3 appearance change

Internalised homophobia

Drunk confession

I love her

Marriage

-

Anderson

Father's day

Shepard's as his XO

-

Alec Ryder

Family bonding

-

Hackett

Hot

-

Grunt

Adoption him

Respecting Shepard

-

Kaidan

Attracted to Shepard from the start

L2 implants symptoms

Biotic shields and hugs

Soft yandere

Losers in love

From knight to damsel

Noise sensitivity

Sharing custody of his biotics

His romance & attractive voice

-

Jack

Poetry

Appreciation post

Analysis

-

Kendros

Nyreen's cousin

Eager

-

Wrex

Buddy

Romantic potential with Shepard

-

Liara

Devotion

Bickering with Shepard

-

Thane

Doomed love

Child assassin

DLC expanded & Kolyat importance

Significance of calling you siha

Being ruthless

Appreciation post

boob window

-

Javik

Emotion reading

Biting

Fucking you on his lap

So cunty

Complimenting you

Best DLC companion

Airlock

-

Rejection

Following you around

Adrien

Building immunity to human bacteria

-

Mordin

The very model of a scientist salarian

Sucking him off under the table

-

Legion

Geth harem

-

Garrus

"That blaze of orange"

Magnetic bra clasps

Being mean to him by accident

-

Kasumi

Recording you all the time

-

Joker

Riding him in the pilot seat

Donor father

-

Kai Leng

"Your attention"

-

Saren

Most beautiful turian

Comic pretty

-

Udina

Hustling for humanity

-

TIM - The Illusive Man

Yandere potential

Making Shep and Miranda fuck

Peeping tom

-

Mix

In love with their planets

Fridge magents and metalic characters

Kaidan/Ashley Horizon angst

Aria, Nyreen, Shep toxic yuri

Bdsm levels - Kaidan Ashley James

Npcs I want to romance

Pervets with VI Shepard

Shepard babyshower and companions

Platonic yandere Anderson and Alec

Self-aware yandere Thane & Kaidan

Ideal threesomes

College au love triangle Miranda, Jack, femshep

Stardew Valley inspired dating sim

The Chora's Den club lines analysis

Asking the crew how old is Shepard

Battle royale Artex Arena with the crew

Normandy vs Tempest design

Cerberus potential ally

ME2 screenshots

Shepard's hobbies

"Please don't touch that"

ME2 screenshots pt.2

In another universe

Krogan breeding request for Shepard

Two years dead

Pictures of my Shepard pt.1

Spotting a cat on a planet outside

ME1 screenshots

Pictures of my Shepard pt.2

Normandy comm room

Make-up in the military

ME1 screenshots pt.2

ME1 screenshots pt.3

Vetra & Nyreen as your lesbian exs

The crew going undercover at a strip club

Perverted inner habits

As an ex-husband/wife

[captainsideart]

Updates:

I put Raph and Brian in the Science career, and decided Marius gets to be a real doctor. Carmilla is a self-employed inventor, obviously, and I'm thinking of making Ashes a firefighter just for the irony of it all. Do they start most of the fires they go to put out? Maybe.

Ivy immediately went to read, naturally.

Jonny is befriending the neighbours. He's having fun

Brian is a glitched out simbot so he walks with the simbot walk cycle despite looking like a human, which is very silly to see

Tim and TS went on a tour of the military base together, and Tim is now telling stories while TS sits happily to listen.

TS keeps getting the attractive sim reaction and autonomously flirting with people. First Marius and now Tim. I dread to think what shall happen next

They are all crammed into a two-storey house with one bed. There are not enough sleeping bags. I expect this will become a problem.

The Aurora is the name of the beat up jalopy in the garage. I gave Nastya the Vehicle enthusiast trait, so she will be able to build relationship with her.

Bonus screenshot:

Decided to do something real stupid

(Nastya & Tim aren't pictured here bcs I'm using mods to extend the household limit, but they are there!)

[pumpkinhrat]

     Martin has always had issues with taking pictures of himself. It probably comes as no surprise that he’s more than a little insecure about his looks; he knows he’s heavyset and pale and his hair is an awkward mix of red and brown that his mother told him washes him out. So, of course, taking photos of himself is always a challenge. And choosing photos of himself to put on an online dating profile is even harder.

     The photo he does settle on for his profile picture is more blurry than not, but he likes the way his smile looks in it and it’s the only photo that doesn’t make him nauseous to upload. The rest of the photos he includes conveniently leave his (round, soft jawed, uneven) face out of view, focusing instead on things like his hands and his jumpers. He doesn’t have any group photos with people, either, that he’s particularly keen on putting up. There’s one from a night out with the archival staff that he thinks he looks halfway decent in, but he’s stuffed under Tim’s shoulder. Greek god, jawline that could cut diamond, endlessly charming Tim, so he decidedly leaves that photo out.

     What he ends up with is an awkward profile devoid of clear photos of him but overflowing with personality in the written sections. Which, he decides, is a good representation of him as a person, anyway, so he hits save and doesn’t look back. If nothing comes of it then so be it, but at least he’s tried.

     Yeah.

––

     Jonathan Sims is not a ‘dating app’ sort of man. In fact, he’s turned his nose up at friends who’ve used the ridiculous applications in the past, not-so-silently judging them for their borderline desperation. It just seems like a bit of a farce; you put up pictures that are supposed to entice people into wanting to talk to you, but half the time the only thing they’re interested in is sex. And even if they’re not immediately opening with thinly-veiled innuendo, the conversations are awkward and stilted at best. Tim has loudly shared enough of his messages in the archives break room for Jon to be more than sure that he wants no part of this dating app nonsense.

     And yet, Jonathan Sims has a dating profile. He didn’t know he had one, not before Georgie had texted him a screenshot of his profile on Tinder with just the caption “?!?!?!?!?!” and a slew of uninterpretable letters and symbols. The revelation comes as quite a shock to him, as does the fact that he’s apparently a Tinder+ member. He quickly checks his bank account online to make sure his funds aren’t being used for this ridiculous endeavor, but it seems whoever set up this account is using their own money.

     The fact that his profile photo is a sloppily edited picture of his Magnus ID badge and the rest of the pictures have clearly been taken within the archives itself gives him a good idea of who the culprit is, though. 

––

     “Ooh, Sash! We’ve got another match! And whoo boy does this one look promising.”

     Sasha perks her head up from where she was curled over her computer, brushing errant braids away from her face, to make a face at Tim.

     “Are you sure? Because last time you said that they opened with ‘if you were a fruit you’d be a fineapple’ and then a bunch of pineapple and eggplant emojis. So, like, I’ve sort of lost my confidence in your definition of promising.”

     “Aww c’mon, eggplant emoji users deserve love too! Besides, this one seems perfectly respectable. His profile is about poetry.” Tim waves her over and Sasha crosses with a sigh to read the profile over his shoulder, flopping her arms around his neck.

     “Martin, 29, likes tea, poetry, and cows…” She squints at the profile and leans in further to see, ignoring Tim’s squawk when they nearly overbalance. “What’s with that profile picture? You can barely see his face!”

     “Yes, well,” Tim says, righting his chair so they’re no longer leaning dangerously. “Jon doesn’t seem particularly concerned with looks anyway, so I’m sure it doesn’t matter.” Sasha shoots him a look and Tim shrugs. “What? He said he wasn’t ‘as invested as all that’ when I was probing about his dating life, so I’m sure he’ll like this Martin no matter what they look like.”

     “Tim, he’s ace not blind. What other photos does the profile have up?”

     The two of them click through the profile, skimming the long paragraphs of text and swiping through the few photos. Sasha pulls back, her hands on her hips.

     “Y’know, I’d say this seems suspiciously similar to another Martin we know.” She tips her head to the breakroom where their Martin is currently eating his lunch. “But the ages don’t match and he doesn’t seem the type to lie about that sort of thing on a dating app.”

      “Ooh, do you think someone’s catfishing as him and just got the age wrong? I mean, our Martin doesn’t look 33, I can see how someone would mess that up. Plus all the photos are intentionally vague! Maybe he’s being–”

     “Tim.”

     “What?”

     “No one’s catfishing as Martin.”

     “We’re catfishing as Jon,” he points out. This earns him a glare.

     “No, we’re setting up a profile for Jon. There’s a difference.”

     “Is there really, because–”

     “Just swipe right on the profile and get on with it, will you? Jon can decide for himself if he likes him when we hand over the account.”

     Tim pouts as Sasha returns to her desk and blows him a kiss.

     “Whatever. I still totally think this ‘Martin’ is a catfish.”

ANON, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

And i love the idea of Martin having a cute pic with Tim. Had such a hard time sketching it out cuz my hands were shaking so much out of excitement - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING IT! [second part here!]

UPDATE: You can read the whole story by JJanuaryRain on AO3! Go give them lots of love -> "all's fair in love & tinder"

(And i'm totally keeping the "likes tea, poetry, and cows", so cute)

[Image ID: Picture of Tim embracing Martin with one arm over his shoulder. They are both smiling, though Martin in a bit shy manner. End ID]

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Yes, my Vast!Jon fic features Archivist!Sasha. Whaddaya gonna do about it?

Part Four.

Oh. Oh, I am doing things with this fic.

I may never be forgiven.

P. S. Yes, Jon lists his middle name as "K" because he uses Kartin.

He and Martin grew up together. It means a lot, and no one in this world will ever know but the two of them.

----------

I’m alive.

Martin stares at the text from a blocked number, speechless.

Across from him, Danny’s date - Sasha James - is still talking about Jonathan Sims and the spider-leg illusion.

Which was distracting enough.

Martin had already been distracted by the fact that Tim and Sasha immediately got on like wildfire, and that Danny honestly seemed not to care, which Martin would never understand.

He had already been distracted by the fact that he (as always) found himself talking about Jon, just constantly doing it, and Sasha was simply polite until he mentioned the photography.

“You don’t mean Jonathan K. Sims, who works for the National Rage,” she’d said, clearly expecting him to disavow it.

But of course, he hadn’t because that’s who Jon was.

“The young Steve McCurry. You’re serious?”

Martin was.

Which revelation started a rant.

Okay, it wasn’t a rant, exactly. It was, however, a deeply enthusiastic appreciation of a body of work including photos Martin had forgotten existed. 

And it was always so weird to hear people talk about Jon like that. He was amazing, sure, but… people who met Jon tended not to talk about him like that anymore.

“And we actually have his infamous first photo at the institute,” Sasha says. “The spider-leg illusion. Can you believe it?”

“How’d you get that?” Martin asks, horrified because he’d thought that photo had been destroyed.

Then he’d gotten the text, and missed the answer.

Because it -

No.

Someone was pranking him. Because why the fuck would Jon have reached out like this?

“Hey,” says Tim, and nudges him. “You okay?”

“Weird text. It’s nothing,” says Martin, and tucks his phone away. “How’d you get the photo?”

“Estate sale,” says Sasha proudly. “It was one of my first acquisitions for the Institute as Head Archivist.”

“Right, so… how does that work?” says Martin.

His phone buzzes again.

What do they want me to do? I can’t reply to an unknown number, he thinks.

“The Magnus Institute is an academic institution dedicated to researching the esoteric and paranormal,” she says. “I mean, we’re not ghost-hunters, or anything. We research the unknown. It’s all really academic and dry.” She laughs. “Most of the time, anyway. Though of course, there are some… mysteries.” Her eyebrows waggle.

His phone buzzes.

Tim laughs. “Gods, you make me want to work there.”

“Well, why not? The pay is actually pretty good, and the benefits are solid. It can be spooky, sometimes, but it’s honestly fun most of the time. I mean, if you’re into learning things.”

Tim looks like he’s into something here, all right, and it’s not spooks.

Danny glances at Martin. “You okay? You look… pale.”

“Yeah, I… hang on.” Martin sighs and checks his phone.

Oh. It wasn’t texts.

He’s had an alert set up for years now to let him know whenever Jon made the news. 

(He had, in fact, a private collection of screenshotted articles praising Jon’s skill, the power of his photos, the way he always managed to see things no one else could, and through his lens, let others see them, too.)

“He’s alive!” Martin blurts.

“What? How?” Tim says, and immediately crowds him.

“What?” says Sasha.

SOLE SURVIVOR OF TIBETAN CRASH FOUND

“He… what?” says Sasha, very pale. “No. He was in that flight? The one - oh, gods, of course. The expedition to that abnormal subgroup just discovered - the ones with the genetic adaptation for hemoglobin-binding capacity and nitric oxide production. Of course, Jonathan Sims would be sent in as photographer.” 

Then she looks really surprised.

“You looked into it?” says Danny.

“No, I… I’m not sure how I knew that.” Sasha looks a little confused. “Anyway. Nobody could capture their lives better than Sims. I hadn’t realized…”

Martin is ignoring everybody.

Tears are streaming down his face. He’s shaking.

Reading.

“They found him,” he says. “He’s in a hospital in Kathmandu. He’s coming home. He… he’s coming home.” And Martin loses it.

Tim holds him.

Danny pats his hand.

“Whoa,” murmurs Sasha.

“They’re close,” says Danny, unnecessarily.

“Should I…” Sasha nods her head toward the cafe’s exit.

“No, it’s fine, it’s fine, I’m sorry,” Martin says, wiping his face, ruining his napkin. “I didn’t mean to cause drama, I…”

“Drama? You didn’t cause drama! You… I mean, you’re obviously close? And I wouldn’t be okay if someone I knew had disappeared in a plane crash?” Sasha’s leaning in.

Martin really is good at reading people, no matter how confusing the sea captain had been. He believes her. “Thank you,” he whispers.

“What’s it say?” says Tim. 

“I think he just answered that,” says Danny.

“No, you dork. I mean… specifics. How’d he survive? How’d he get to a hospital in a major city? Who found him? Is he fucked up? The really important question: does he still have leg hair?”

“Tim!” says Danny.

But Martin is laughing. “You screwball, what are you saying?”

“Maybe he’s bald now,” Tim says. “Everywhere. He’s coming back as Baby Jon.”

Martin laughs more. The tears are still coming, but it’s all been redirected via the power of complete absurdity. He wipes his face. “There is something really wrong with you, you know that?”

“Yep!” says Tim. “For real, though - when’s he coming home?”

“Three days, according to this. There’s this whole… thing. He’ll be interviewed, it looks like. From the article, nobody else survived.” 

That’s terrible.

Jon loves his crew. 

Loved.

Martin had come to like them quite a lot. They’d become like the family Jon didn’t have. People who understood how weird he was, and how brilliant he was, and could handle his moods and his prickliness and bring out his best.

They were all dead?

Oh, that was gonna take a while to work through. For everybody.

Tim hugs him. “I told you he’d be okay.”

Martin’s shoulders shake. He cries into Tim’s shoulder, just a little.

Danny proceeds to buy them shots of whiskey. “To Jon!” he says.

“To love!” says Tim.

“To Jon,” says Martin, but he’s really repeating Tim.

Danny buys them all another round.

Three shots in, Sasha is practically vibrating. “When he’s better, do you think I can meet him? I have so many questions about the spider illusion.”

“Sure!” says Martin, who never would have agreed four shots ago. “He’s great. The best guy who ever… anything.” Martin considers this. “Yeah. Yeah.”

“By which he means, Jon’s a hedgehog,” says Tim, who doesn’t sound like he’s six shots in, but he never sounds drunk. “Crunky on the outside. Soft belly.”

“That’s not your belly,” says Martin.

“To… touch?” says Tim, trying to translate.

Martin goes beet red and finishes his whiskey.

Sasha is still giggling at them both when they all say goodnight.

#

The alcohol has to be the reason he clicks it.

The link. The one from the QR code on that sea captain’s card.

Why not, really? Jon’s coming home (with or without hair), and it’s not like anything else matters.

To Martin’s surprise, it brings up a link specifically for him.

LucasEntertainment.co.uk is a vague website, promising “results” and “synchronicity” and other empty buzzwords, but this code carried a unique identifier for Martin alone.

Hello, Mister Blackwood! It says, followed by several screenshots of him in apron and lip gloss, beaming away. We are a consortium of people deeply interested in promoting individual talent - and no, this is not a form letter. We’ve chosen you.

“Yeah, right,” he says out loud.

What we want to do, Mister Blackwood, is sponsor you.

Martin snorts.

Yes, we’d ask to change your format a little, but not much - and what you give to the world, to your viewers, is the true goal of our proposal. You haven’t heard of us, but you have heard of - 

And it proceeds to name several YouTubers whom Martin has definitely heard of - the cream of the crop, primo influencers, whose private lives may be hidden from the world, but whose videos always make numbers in six figures or higher.

If you are willing to work with us, we’d offer you this:

And then comes a number he has to squint at for a while before he’s sure he’s reading it right.

This can’t be.

It would be more than enough to pay for his mother’s expenses.

He could tell Antoine to fuck himself.

He could move into a real apartment that wasn’t probably illegal.

This couldn’t be real.

We know this comes as something of a shock, but we make it our goal to prioritize and promote individual talent - those people who are willing to make their way alone against a willful world.

Feel free to ignore this, of course - there is no pressure. But if you decide to take our offer, Mister Blackwood, we can promise that your videos will reach people who never would have otherwise seen you, and will have an enormous effect.

We hope you’ll say yes.

Sincerely, the Lukas Family

Specifically, Peter, who first recognized what you can do.

Martin stares.

He rereads it.

He squints, changes his browser to night mode, and reads it again.

This simply can’t be right. He bakes muffins, for crying out loud.

But that monetary number….

That amount of money would change everything for him, in the best possible way.

For a moment, he goes wild, imagining being able to travel with Jon for his shoots, paying his own way, maybe sharing a hotel room, sitting on a beach under the moon and sipping Mai Tais, maybe stealing a little kiss where none of the team could see - 

Martin giggles like a besotted teenager and cups his face, which feels hot in his hands.

Right. This should not be decided tonight. He’d had too many shots, courtesy of Danny.

Which he does not regret at all, because Jon’s coming home.

But if this is real…

If it actually is real, and he could stop slaving for money and actually do what he enjoys….

If.

Tomorrow is a good day for questions like that.

Tonight, Martin closes the browser (because, he tells himself, if the QR code doesn’t work tomorrow, then it absolutely wasn’t legit), and he takes a shower, and he goes to bed.

And he dreams of Jon being bald and cranky, and it makes him want to touch Jon even more, and most of his dreams are simply holding Jon and telling him never to almost die again.

[kristsune]

There was very much silliness during the first sims stream, but I also needed to capture the creation of Hoverdaughter Meredith, because it was a delight and a joy. Some other fun moments include: screen holes, prime time, mucked up gain, stole his thundies, WhoopsieDaisy Pavilion, the brother adoption detante, mean, Ben is darth maul, dias de le muwanker, benbro, pinky boi, donKEY, this! man! is! ford! tough!, grab the ball, cat Tim, saucier pervert, they/them dad!, lithgow chin, curly or tight, comedy wanker, beef beEF bEEF BEEF, every slider to the top, purple is the most deviant color, demon clown, but doctor i am hoverdaughter, stink guffah, nonconsensual hotbox, tobacco tooter, bacco turd, carpet bugs, hoverdaughter emerges from her oubliette, The Happening, FATHERS!, and to bed hoverdaughter.

art by erebusodora, screenshot by me

[crossovernonshipstournament]

I don't know if anyone's done art of BEE (she looks like a bunch of test tubes <3) I would recommend using a screenshot of one of her well-known dialogue bits (examples below 1 and 2)

But you are welcome to use my fanart of Jon Sims (credit to me cobalt-knave), here are a couple options

and the only good quality one I have of Tim Stoker is a little chibi, but if you want it you are welcome to use it as well (same credit)

Excellent, thank you! And I may use the dialogue option you offered, as that does seem like a good idea, especially if I format the card in a clever way so that it looks a bit like a letter or email or something 🤔

[sims2squared]

Rotation 1 - Brandi Broke & Kids

The Broke family is like my benchmark for noticing differences from the previous times I've played them. Every tim I restart the save file they get along differently! On this go round, they appear to get along pretty well most of the time and they are actually a very sweet little family. In my last save file most of them hated each other. lol I spent most of the time with the Broke family at home... because it was just too hard to get everyone's needs up to get them out the door. lol Sound familiar to anyone with kids (I don't have 'em, but I used to babysit when I was a teen, so I'm familiar with this issue)? Even with staying at home for the most part, with the Broke's there was PLENTY going on... from colds to a tonsillectomy, from Skip's ghost trying to seduce Brandi to Skip's ghost terrifying his children, to not being able to keep the house clean or the needs up, birthdays, earthquakes.... you name it. lol And now I have to weed 89 screenshots (I was too busy with them to remember to take more!) down to 10...

So we may as well start off with Skip back from the dead and attempting to seduce Brandi while she was delusional from a cold & fever....

Little Beau also aged up to a child. He's shy and introverted this time around (in my last PH save he got randomized traits that made him a little hellion!). Spends a lot of the time quietly helping out his mom by picking up dishes, mopping up messes, and taking out the trash.

Twins Sharla & Kashton popped out of their bassinets! They are... pretty adorable, but also a complete whirlwind of crazy.

Both Dustin and Beau are pretty helpful with keeping the twins entertained. Dustin plays with them a lot, and Beau is good for a shy hug or a chat.

Dustin is still dating Angela, but I have noticed their relationship bars declining a little almost every time they hang out... Dustin mostly invites her over when Mom is out of the house.

During this rotation Dustin graduated from high school (barely - he had a D grade and it was slipping) on his birthday. Immediately after ageing to young adult he required emergency surgery for tonsillitis. I love that with the education mod (I think) there is a high school graduation ceremony that the whole family can attend! I didn't know that was a thing (I'm terrible about reading mod descriptions, tbh), so I was very pleasantly surprised!!

Poor Beau nearly froze to death at one point! Winter is a key ingredient in the recipe for popsicle-sims. Luckily, Beau was already on his way inside. Related note: I keep telling my sims not to take off their winter clothes when they preform an action outside, but they just won't listen! Why put on your cold weather clothes for the walk to whatever they are doing outside, just to take off the cold weather clothes to do the thing they are doing outside??? My google-foo is failing me on this silly behaviour too, ugh.

Brandi briefly had a job in the culinary field, but got fired for catering a party on her own... behind her bosses' back. She got some extra cash, made friends with Judith Ward, and became a minor celebrity though so she wasn't mad about it. I'm not sure she was thinking ahead on that one.

Skip's ghost may have tried to seduce a delusional Brandi at the beginning of the rotation, but most of the time he's pretty scary. He doesn't have the nicest personality... At one point he was terrorizing poor Beau and an earthquake happened! I wish I had caught a better photo as I don't think I've ever seen a sim quite that scared! The poor kid was just cowering and screaming. Better Ghosts has basically won my "Best Fun Mod" award. I just can't get over how great it is. Lights flickering, haunting wails, sims actually afraid of the ghosts... it's so great!! And I think that puts me at the 10 photo limit, so I'll leave this here. Playing the Broke family was very fun in this rotation! I was so busy with them and they had a lot of memorable moments!! If you are interested in playing this save file for yourself, you can! It's packed full of fun features (like 170 clubs, for starters) and your favourite TS2 sims! Get more information about it on my google drive.

[retro-plumbob]

13 Dead end Lane house of the specter household. with graveyard with real ghosts! Sadly my game didn’t save all the screenshots i made of the house so i only got these three. Will upload it to the gallery this weekend! Gallery Name: 13 Dead end Lane Gallery Tags: #sims2 #Strangetown #Specter Gallery ID: XMadhatster

Soo i finally got around to make the specter house! i filled the graveyard with a couple of sim that i thought would be fun for some good old haunting the house. Sim included in the graveyard: Danielle Greaves first person to die on the Specter lot. Died of starvation Earl E. DeMise Olive’s first love he left her at the altar. died of electrocution Tim Lee DeMise Brother of Earl, died of electrocution Lerato Muendo Mother of Olive, died by Fire Peponi Muendo Father of Olive, died by fire Rigger Mortis First husband to Olive, Died by fire Lyla Grunt Ex to General Buzz Grunt, died on Olive’s lot, died of electrocution Lou Thanasia Brother of Hugh, Died by fire Hugh Thanasia Second husband to Olive, Died by fire Ichabod Specter Third and final husband of Olive, Only one who died of old age Creon Nigmos Husband of Willow, died of drowning Willow Nigmos Sister to Olive mother to Ophelia, died of drowning

[annabelle--cane]

some good tma ao3 tags (and one title). fun challenge if you haven’t listened to tma: try and explain any of these.

(image description under cut)

[ID: a collage of many screenshots of tags from the website archive of our own. the tags read as follows: “jonny sims do not interact,” “Unforgivable acts of poetry,” “more jurgen leitner pipe death (for the soul),” “Stoner Elias Bouchard, Vape God Peter Lukas,” “dubious Polish,” “canon-typical jon being sad,” “1 - 20 of 32 Works in ‘Good Cows (The Magnus Archives)’,” “no beta we die like our favourite eldritch archivist, Meaning, we don’t die,” “sometimes depression entities that love you can be something that’s actually deeply personal,” “Not beta read because how can you look someone in the eyes and ask them to concrit this,” “Canon-Typical Jon Getting Kidnapped,” “Jon Sims and his Gang of Angry WLWs Take Over The World,” “no Peter Lukases were harmed in the production of this fanfic, I’m lying but he has it coming,” “uk class accent discourse but make it, Childhood Trauma,” “when Tim gets back from kayaking,” “No beta we kayak like Tim,” “if Dr. Faustus met the Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Jonathan Sims/Being a Dumbass, Archival Staff/Terrible Plans Really,” “Alice ‘Daisy’ Tonner/Oscar Wilde,” “1 - 20 of 85 in ‘Canon Typical Worms (The Magnus Archives)’,” “Georgie sleeps with every female Avatar and we’re all very proud of her for it,” “cw: graphic descriptions of elias,” “technical misuse of the sadness cot,” and “the inherent adoration of jam.” there is also one title, which reads, “The Fifteenth Entity Is Actually Georgie Barker With A Gun.” end ID.]

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Also because I have the screenshots now, this is what Birdie looks like :D Though, when I draw her I might give her lighter hair more like Jay's but still, she's so cute and strange looking

the cutest kid in the world, I'm so glad my boyfriend made her in the sims

All the different outfits we gave her are under the thingy

Lots of greeny colours because thats her favourite colour. I'm pretty sure she and Tim had matching onesies at one point too lol. But yeah, this is probably how she looked and dressed when she was like 10 or whatever and I love her. She's so cute. The cutest girl. The prettiest girl.

she is my BABY

Also she has a tooth gap like Brian and needs glasses like Alex, because she's my OC and I can be as lame as I want

[whypolar]

YEAH I made Magnus sims. What of it

Images under readmore, open in a new tab to zoom (if it’s still small, change 500px in the address bar to 1280px). Now with image descriptions

[id: Two screenshots of Jon ’The Archivist’ Sims made in Sims 4. He is a thin black man with dark skin and a gaunt face. His hair is cropped short and greying at the temples. He has a short beard and is wearing glasses. In the first screenshot he is wearing an orange sweater with an olive suit jacket, light grey dress pants, and two-tone derby shoes. In the second screenshot he is wearing a white button-down with a plaid green suit jacket, beige dress pants, and dark brown dress shoes. end id.]

Jon was the easiest because my image of him is so specific that I just kind of became possessed by my Vision

[id: A screenshot of Not Sasha made in Sims 4. She is an east asian woman with light tan skin and bleached sandy blonde hair in a bob. Her eyebrows are dark and she is wearing eyeliner and dark red lipstick. She is wearing a long black cardigan with black skinny jeans, boots, and a mauve button-down blouse. end id.]

Not Sasha was just made by tweaking the first random female sim it gave me, which I think is in the spirit of things. I gave her the evil trait lmao

Martin... I’m SO pleased with him

[id: Two screenshots of Martin Blackwood made in Sims 4, showing a front and back view. Martin is a fat man with chestnut brown hair and light tan skin. His hair is long and pulled back into a thick fishtail braid. He has a small goatee and large glasses. He is wearing an unbuttoned grey vest over a white button-down, beige dress pants, and dark brown dress shoes. end id.]

[id: Two screenshots of Tim Stoker made in Sims 4. He is a broad-shouldered east asian man with light skin and mid-length dark brown hair. He has a close-trimmed stubble beard and his ears are pierced with small black studs. He is wearing a black dress shirt and khakis. Hanging over his shoulders there is a blue sweater, with the arms tied around his neck to hold it in place. end id.]

Tim took a lot of messing around and compromise because I had some very specific ideas that wouldn’t be possible unless I searched for custom content. I am too lazy for that. 

[id: Two screenshots of Elias Bouchard made in Sims 4. He is a thin white man. He is pale, clean-shaven and somewhat gaunt, with thin lips. He appears to be middle aged and his hair is greying. He is wearing a cardigan over a white button-down shirt, and dress pants. end id.]

Elias was hard because I don't have a solid visual appearance for him in my head, just mannerisms. I picture him as a disembodied series of smug gestures. I literally do not remember if he’s ever described in any way.

It’s important to me that he be kind of blandly unremarkable on the surface though. Your secret all-seeing murder boss.

I’d like to make more of the characters later, but maybe in different households. Then if I actually finish them I can stick them all in the same world for my domestic slice of life horror podcast simulator

[newcatwords]

islands as settings in video games

the populace has not all moved to islands - they are playing “animal crossing: new horizons”, a game where you get your own deserted island that you build & farm on:

given that we’re in quarantine, this game where you get to do nice things outside is doing well. but every time i see someone say something about “my island”, i have to remind myself that they’re talking about a game...that they’re not actually growing turnips on their island. i grow lots of stuff on the island where i live & i’m always trying to connect with others who are growing stuff (especially on islands! maybe they’re even on the island i live on!), so every time i see something about someone growing something on an island, i get hopeful that it might be someone i can connect with - learn from, share with, whatever. but each time it’s from a game lol.

this all got me thinking about other games that take place on islands. here are a few:

the sims island living expansion (2019)

you go shopping for island lots...maybe you get the one with the active volcano..

what does a sims shopper want out of an island home? beach access? what about fresh water & good soil??? what if a hurricane comes through? you would NEVER build that close to an active volcano, and most volcanoes don’t look like that anyway (but it turns out that if a westerner thinks of an island, it’s almost always roundish & is very likely to have a volcano on it!). how much electricity are you going to need to power such a huge house with so many appliances? where are you going to get the solar or how much are utilities? what if there’s a hurricane?! you can’t build at ground level on the beach!

here’s some “island living” gameplay: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntqnwK4HPtE&feature=youtu.be&t=259

in this game the player is buying real estate, choosing from a number of luxury beachfront properties. they are probably not planning to fish, grow trees, or farm (can you even farm in the sims?). they’re not going to grow the trees they need to build their houses. they don’t care that it can be extremely difficult to grow food on a low-lying atoll. for them the land isn’t going to feed anyone..it’s a site of consumerism (buying stuff for your house & improving your house) and recreation (for the sims). it’s the dream of living in the beachside hotel or airbnb forever. so it’s the dream of the visitor, not necessarily the dream of the local. in many cases, the fancy upscale bungalows where the foreigners live and the hotel zones are bitter reminders of who exactly the land is currently for (not the locals).

this gets to the center of a lot of questions relating to islands in video games:

* why is an island an appealing setting from the perspective of game designers?

* who is the player meant to be in the game?

* what does the player do on the island in the game?

* why are there so many games set on islands?

but first, the games:

rust (2018)

survival game set on an island. you have to do everything from scratch and the world is filled with other hostile players who are ready to gank you. "Every time you join a server, your life begins the same way: you wake up on an great-looking island, completely (and graphically) naked" [IGN]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEAaUMzwo1c

crysis (2007)

in crysis you’re a hand with a gun on a tropical island. you’re in the US military rescuing some american archaeologists who’ve been taken captive by north koreans. so you’re on this island to rescue the archaeologists & you make a big discovery.

the islands in the game are supposed to be in the philippines, but have the same name as an island in china: lingshan. they even have a complicated fake history: “one of the Koreans [in-game] referred to the island's lucrative business in minerals as the "influence of capitalism", indicating that the island's inhabitants participate in international trade and are partially Westernized.” [crysis wiki - lingshan islands]

gameplay: https://youtu.be/rBtZhws2P9E?t=13

tomb raider

there are many tomb raiders & i’ve never played any of them, but in tomb raider (2013), lara croft is a white lady seeking adventure. her ship crashes & she ends up on an island, which is where the game takes place.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHea-oMh6k

far cry 3 (2012)

another game where you are a hand with a gun on a tropical island. this has a funny setup though: you are a nasty dudebro on vacation with your fellow boorish dudebros at a tropical island. you go skydiving & crash. you wake up as a prisoner of a weird gone-native psycho.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYXgC5RT32A&feature=emb_title

just cause (2006)

this is a third person shooter set on a tropical island. here’s a cut scene from the opening:

the player is some kind of special ops parachuting into san esperito, this fictional caribbean “island in turmoil”. “San Esperito is a tropical island-nation, composed of several islands. All islands are covered with mountains and jungles, with over 10 million trees. There's even a large volcano.” [just cause wiki]

screenshot is from this gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRE8G64vXCM

myst (1993)

in this game the player travels via a magical book to the mysterious island of myst where you explore and solve puzzles and stuff. this was a really big game in the nineties. it was known as having really great graphics. i never played it, but i remember wanting to play it as a kid.

on its production: “Cyan took inspiration from games like Zork, Star Wars' mythic universe, portals to other worlds like in C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, and the mysterious islands of old literature like the works of Jules Verne.[9] The game's name, as well as the overall solitary and mysterious atmosphere of the island, was inspired by the book The Mysterious Island by Verne.” [wikipedia]

Crash Bandicoot (1996)

platformer that takes place “on the fictitious Wumpa Islands, an archipelago situated to the south of Australia” [wikipedia]. you play as crash bandicoot, an escaped animal test subject of some mad scientists.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhAKTBfWKYQ&feature=youtu.be&t=65

plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Bandicoot_(video_game)#Plot

assassin’s creed 4: black flag (2013)

this game has some complicated plot in the caribbean in the 1700s. something something pirates.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1NUunvO0Hs

plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin's_Creed_IV%3A_Black_Flag#Setting

yoshi’s island

there are many yoshi’s island games going back to the 90s. i guess a lot of people love this game, but i’ve never played any of them.

the actual yoshi’s island appears in a number of mario games and is the home of the yoshis.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8btNneN8ew

fallout 4: far harbor (2016)

this is an expansion pack for fallout 4. the game is “set on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine.” the player rescues a missing girl. [fallout wiki]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYgbS-Poubk

donkey kong country (1994)

platformer that takes place on donkey kong island, the tropical home of the kong family. it appears in a number of donkey kong games. there are neighboring islands as well.

the 1994 game was super popular and was “one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics” [wikipedia]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4EUEsEM328

animal crossing: new horizons (2020)

very popular at the time of this writing (may 2020). the game starts with the player having booked a “getaway package” to a “deserted island”. you are moving there and starting your new life of growing things and crafting. 

regarding the setting: “In terms of why they chose a deserted island environment for the game, they explained that they wanted to give players a new experience from the previous game titles. They wanted to give players the freedom to choose what they wanted to build and where, opposed to having a preexisting village.” [IGN]

people love this game, but i am skeptic. look at what happens AFTER you’ve flown to the island, upended your life to ‘start again’, named the island, set up your tent, and been given a phone provided by the same company that has provided all the other services you’ve received so far:

the player sounds like any other tourist who’s been hoodwinked into a timeshare, but in this case it’s indentured servitude! how convenient that your bill (which you can’t dispute) is in a currency you don’t have..guess you’ll just have to work it off!

i do not trust this tom nook guy:

gifs and tom nook screenshots are from this video: https://youtu.be/IPT0fG8gOJI?t=1785

the island of dr. brain (1992)

puzzle/adventure game that takes place on a mad scientist’s volcanic tropical island.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnEBo0UICY

the legend of zelda: windwaker (2002)

action-adventure game that takes place across multiple islands. it looks like the setting followed from some earlier decisions about the game’s art style: “The team quickly decided the setting would be islands in an ocean, determining it would provide interesting visuals and mechanics in the cel-shaded style.” [wikipedia]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xnA9tAqaUg

grand theft auto 4: liberty city (2008)

the player does gangster-type things while driving around a stand-in for new york city. check out the map: https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/16701/google-maps-powered-street-view-of-liberty-city-via-gtanet.html

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVS3TGJmc0c

monkey island

this is a series of games: “Each of the games takes place on fictional islands in the Caribbean around the Golden Age of Piracy sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries.” [wikipedia]

“Ron Gilbert's two main inspirations for the story were Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides.“ [wikipedia]

some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAo3O2qZR0

i wanted to provide a sampling of games set on islands. this is not an exhaustive list. there are so many more games...but i’m going to stop here for now. in the next section, we’ll talk about why islands are an attractive concept for game designers...

check out part 2 here.

[bitterjuries]

WELCOME TO THE FINALE OF SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS, AKA THE MESSIEST SIM YET.

CAST: @accioevans, @audreysusbb17​, @bb19xoxo, @bbcrackedt, @ilov3tv, @momma-day, @sindysnguyen, @tlffanypollard, @wokequeendominique, @youaregoinghome, @bblunatic, @beckybasic, @davonnebb, @dominiquecoper, @huntyhex, @lickeyrogers-wong, @mrjenkins-4-allstars, @sirdirectioner, @tims-reality-blog, and @vanessacries.

Everyone is still avoiding any final alliances. The remaining castaways aren’t making any F3 promises to each other, apparently. 

audreysusbb17 manages to pull through with yet ANOTHER immunity challenge win! His resume is stacked right now.

momma-day and sindysnguyen get into a small debate over who to vote out in the next tribal. sindysnguyen is pushing for tlffanypollard, but little does she know momma-day is secretly considering her instead. Will this argument cause sindysnguyen to use their last idol?

Although there have been so many attempts to vote him off the island in nearly every tribal, tlffanypollard is now finally heading to jury. You’re a Survivor sim legend, king!

I guess audreysusbb17 and sindysnguyens are cool again. And wow, all of yall like each other that much, but won’t bother making any F3 deals? 

Resident idol holder sindysnguyen steps it up in the final immunity challenge of the season and guarantees herself a spot in F3!

Your former alliance members must have been afraid the jury was going to vote for you to win, youaregoinghome! You’ve played an amazing game, though, icon.

Wow. We were really close to having Bad Bitch 101 in the finale.

It’s been a messy ass season, but we’ve reached the point where only 3 Heroes are left and a winner will be crowned. Who will it be?

Congratulations to audreysusbb17 for winning the Survivor: Heroes vs Villains! I'd say it’s very well-deserved since he’s lost so many sims already.

Majority of the jury voted for audreysusbb17 for being such a comp beast, while the rest saw sindysnguyen as the more strategic player. 

Your crackedt antics were entertaining and fully appreciated from the audience watching at home, huntyhex. Congrats!

I forgot to screenshot the summary, but eh.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR PARTICIPATING! CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN TO AUDREYSUSBB17 AND HUNTYHEX ON THEIR WINS.

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Hello have a sketch of Birdie and Tim while I line and colour it properly. I did the sketch before my boyfriend was able to send me the screenshots of Birdie from his sims save, and honestly I'm surprised how much I actually did remember what she looked like, even if I thought I didn't

Anyway, this is probably Birdie at like 5 or 6 or something? I think? (I'm really bad at Knowing what people look like at different ages so uh??? I'm saying this is her at like 5-6 or something)

[bitterjuries]

WELCOME TO EPISODES 10-13 OF SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS, AKA THE MESSIEST SIM YET.

CAST: @accioevans, @audreysusbb17​, @bb19xoxo, @bbcrackedt, @ilov3tv, @momma-day, @sindysnguyen, @tlffanypollard, @wokequeendominique, @youaregoinghome, @bblunatic, @beckybasic, @davonnebb, @dominiquecoper, @huntyhex, @lickeyrogers-wong, @mrjenkins-4-allstars, @sirdirectioner, @tims-reality-blog, and @vanessacries.

We’ve finally reached the merge! The Heroes outnumber the Villains by 6 to 4, but with castaways playing their own individual games, that could easily change.

2 new alliances have formed, but only with former tribes that aren’t necessarily the most loyal to each other. Yikes.  

tlffanypollard is the first to win an individual immunity challenge now that we’re at the merge! He did not want to chance his former tribe backstabbing him again.

sindysnguyen is still holding onto their idol, while the Heroes tribe alliance has already broke up before they even got started. Not much of a shocker.

Another split vote? You bitches are killing me.

You hung in there as long as you could, ilov3tv. At least the last Totally Spies member made jury.

bblunatic is the only one to change her vote in order to avoid that cursed rock. I can’t blame you for that, sis.

Comp king, audreysusbb17, is victorious with getting immunity for the next tribal! sindysnguyen was a bit salty about it. 

I don’t know that movie or Robert whatever, but congratulations to these three legends for winning the rewards.

sindynguyens @ audreysusbb17: TWO IDOLS, KRISTEN!!!

Wow, that was close. One more vote and momma-day would have been off the island. We’ll be seeing your crackedt ass on finale night, huntyhex!

tlffanypollard and momma-day were both contemplating voting for youaregoinghome? Hm.

We have two three-person alliances left with the same amount of disloyalty to one another. Mess.

I see you, bblunatic! Snatch those challenge wins and build your resume up, queen.

The Villains tribe are tired of pretending to be fake to each other and split up. 

sindynguyens used one of her idols on youraregoinghome, but it appears she could have saved it for another tribal (unless she was trying to earn some trust back?) because tims-reality-blog was voted off anyway. Yall might want to screenshot this because it’s the only time you’ll see Paul apart of a jury.

Bad Bitch 101 is our last remaining alliance. They’ve done pretty well in the game so far, but can they put their differences aside enough to even make it to the end together?

audreysusbb17 is killing it! Winning so many challenges, however, may be putting a bigger target on his back if he isn’t careful.

I’m screaming at sindysnguyen being the only one to find all these damn idols. However, her alliance must be pretty sick of it because they’re no longer a thing.

Another close call! Your win from last week and lack of an alliance made you too much of a threat, bblunatic. Robbery.

...tlffanypollard and lickeyrogers-wong might be in trouble in the next episode.

This is lowkey depressing, but I guess the time has come where everyone is playing for themselves from now on.

momma-day is doing the damn thing! She chooses youaregoinghome and audreysusbb17 to share her reward with. sindysnguyen asked for them to bring her a cookie back, and audreysusbb17 told her to try winning a challenge next time instead of relying on production rigging the idols for her.

Unforgettable icon youaregoinghome beasted through the comp and gained immunity! I’m living.

Sadly, the last castaway of the Villains tribe, lickeyrogers-wong, is our next jury member. A legend like you deserved to be in the finale, but I’m shook over how there will be all Heroes in the F5. 

Christ, everyone stanned each other so much that they just threw their votes at lickeyrogers-wong. He was truly #thatbitch, though. 

STAYED TUNED FOR THE FINALE OF THE SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS SIM.