#Swimming Pool Progress Builds

[ann-ndsims]

Seasons of Love Challenge

If you want a mini-challenge that centers on romance, story, and gameplay, then this might be the perfect challenge for you! I introduce to you, the Seasons of Love Challenge! Pair up or create four pairs and be the matchmaker and the writer of their destiny. Get indulged with their story and help them find love by the end of the season!

For each season, we have different couple that may or may not fall in love before the season ends. I recommend that you edit the in-game season length, it can be up to 7, 12, 21 or 25 days per season, depending to you. This challenge can either be rotational or generational, it’s completely up to you. 

Feel free to remove and add some more activities to the following. These are not really rules, but more like guides or checklist that you can do so that you won’t run out of ideas to do for each round, and hopefully, help progress the relationship of the each pair. 

For those who prefer slow-burn romance (like me!) there’s a Slowburn Romance Edition by the end with some set of rules, be sure to check that out! This is supposedly a personal challenge for my game, but I thought it would be nice to share it with the community. If you do this challenge, please don't forget to add the hashtag #TS3SeasonsofLove and mention me, I would love to see other simmers enjoy this little challenge that I've created 💖

Note: You may play this in any order.

SUMMER

trope:  enemies to lovers

backstory:

 - sim A is demoted from her work because of her hotheaded nature, and was assigned in this town where her grandparents/(or) sister live. She absolutely hates that, she wants to go up the ladder and build her name, but how can she do that now that she's demoted and stuck in this town?

 - sim B is carefree and enigmatic, living his life to the fullest. He used to get sick a lot when he was a child and now that he's a teen and rarely gets sick anymore, he wants to break free from those restrictions and do the things he hasn't done in his childhood. 

how things started:

  ~ Just few days before his birthday, sim B is feeling rebellious and wants to spend the best of his teenage days, even if that means breaking the curfew. So, he stayed out late with his friends to party and even went to the beach and lit some fireworks just before he go home. But, on his way home, the police patrol saw him! He knew he's so screwed, but what can he do? He plead with the cop, which happens to be Sim A, but she don't take any of his bullshit. Which eventually leads to some misunderstanding, fight and disliking each other. Guess the last of his teenage day is remarkable afterall, especially if you're being escorted back to your house in police car. 

  ~ If things aren't already worst as they are, he, unfortunately, bumped with the same cop again when she joined the surfing/scuba diving club. Oh well, guess they have to see each other a lot now. Will this be the perfect summer as he imagined, or will it be totally ruined because of that one hot-headed cop?

traits:

childish, athletic, loves the sea

grumpy, natural cook, snob

skills:

Athletics, martial arts, logic

Diving/surfing/swimming, fishing, charming

jobs:

Police

Lifeguard/Scuba diver

misc:

pull booty traps and bicker

prank each other

activities:

scuba dive/surf together

play water balloon fight and pillow fight

throw a pool party and receive positive moodlets. you may do the following:

   * Perform Fireworks Extravaganza (Having three large fireworks i.e. Golden Dragon/Facemelter) during party    * Play in the sand    * play and swim in the water together    * skinny dip together

Try water balloon arena

Spend the summer festival together, join these activities and win Summer Festival Ticket:

  * get holiday greeting card in photobooth   * buy a snow cone   * Get Face Painted       * Skate together   * Soccer Shootout   * HotDog eating contest   * Water Balloon Fights

 date idea: 

Beach date, skinny dip, windsurf, and go boating together, take pictures!

Compete in a bowling alley

Watch a live show performance

Watch a band performance

Recommended Mods: 

Social Club Mod by @phoebejaysims

Surf's Up Sun & Fun Wave store content

SPRING

trope: distant childhood friends to lovers

backstory:

  ~ Sim A and Sim B where inseparable when they're kids. They spent afternoons playing video games, playing with their toys and painting together. But things changed when they entered High School. Sim B moved to a different part of town and became more distant as she found new circle of friends, and eventually, had a boyfriend. She thought it was forever! Only to find out that she's pregnant with someone who totally, totally dislikes children. So, she runaway from home and found herself back to the small apartment where she was raised, back to where sim A lives just next door. 

  ~ Sim A was surprise to see Sim B again. He always wanted to make up and be friends with her again, but he always felt shy and small when he sees her with her new set of friend and popular boyfriend. Now that she's back, will he finally have the courage to talk to her again? 

  ~ Moreover, can Sim B raised this child alone? And will she find comfort again with the boy next door?

traits: 

artistic, dramatic, friendly

socially awkward, artistic, handy

skills:

handiness, inventing, video game

painting

activities:

play video games together

go to karaoke and have a duet

play hopscotch together

compete in darts

visit each other's house and chat

Attend Spring Festival/Love Day together and do the following activities:

    * send love letters     * Slow Dance during Spring Festival     * Spring Dance Queen and Spring Dance King (optional)     * Hunt eggs     * Try kissing booths!     * Try the Love tester machine      * roller skate together     * Play horseshoes together

sim A must make a portrait of the other

sim B must make a toy for sim A's child

misc:

they must be distant friends at start

let Sim A go to parenting classes

let sim B know about the pregnancy before they start dating

Date idea: 

~ Park date, cook the dishes that you will bring, and watch the sunset/sunrise

~ Go to greenhouses and take pictures together in flower fields

~ Amusement park date

AUTUMN

trope: Second chance romance

backstory:

  ~ Sim A and Sim B are highschool sweethearts. They dreamed of living together and building their family when they were teens. They thought it was forever. But things took a drastic change when Sim B suddenly disappeared when his father died, leaving him to live with his mother in France, leaving sim B behind. Sim B never expected this, she never expected to bear a child with Sim A as well. She can't seem to find him anymore, but still, she decided that she will raise this child. 

  ~ Years later, Sim B discovered that their child was sick and only had a few months left. Pile with grief, the kid is constantly looking for his/her father as well. Sim B doesn't want to let her child rest without seeing his/her father. So, again, she tried to look for him. And she found him! Turns out that he's now a rockstar in France, with a name and career. After knowing all of this, he quickly booked the ticket back to their town.

  ~ Will him coming back after years of disappearance mend their broken hearts and finally build the family they've dreamed? Or will they stay together just for the sake of their dying child?

traits:

green-thumb, nurturing, coward

virtuoso, charismatic, materialistic

skill:

Guitar, drums, bass, charming

Cooking, canning, gardening

job:

Music career: Rockstar

Gardener

activities:

take care and grow a plant together

catch butterflies and fireflies on the cottage

play in the pile of leaves

Attend Fall Festival together (with their child). Join in activities and actually have fun!

  * Apple Bobbing contest   * Pie Eating contest   * Enter Haunted House

- Throw a costume or feast party during or before Spooky Time Holiday. You may do the following for the party:

* Plant and grow pumpkins    ~ make Jack-o-lanterns, or;    ~ bake pumpkin pies (or both) * wear costumes for the party * cook and bake the dishes for the party * Let their child do trick-or-treat

must spend time as a family every weekend together and go out of town

must teach the child and help with his/her homework

must accomplish every child's wish

must be a good parent to the child

Both must be best friends with their child

must not argue or fight in front of the child

the child may or may not die

misc:

sell harvestable or jams in the market

Sim B must play for tips on the park

optional woohoo spot:

 woohoo in pile of leaves

date idea: 

~ Coffee Date with just the two of you wearing couple outfits, take pictures!

~ Watch a horror movie together

~ Watch in theater

~ Go to a dive bar or lounge

recommended store content:

Canning Station (store content)

Produce Stand Mod

WINTER

trope: force cohabitation

backstory:

~ After getting tired of the big city, Sim A decides to travel, and he happens to land in this very town and rent in Sim B’s place. He’s a successful author, but he’s very shy and introverted and all the socialization and parties of the big city aren’t for him. He find this new town peaceful and gives him more inspiration to write. Perhaps, he can spend the winter holiday here, or will he decide to settle down in this quiet little town?

~ The death of her mother brings Sim B so much grief. Now that she’s just living on her own, she decides to open again their old bakery and let travelers rent her place. She’s a loner, more now that her mother, her only bestfriend died. Now she just spends her time baking and selling and knitting to ease her mind, will this new traveler who stays with her bring some color in her dull life? 

traits:

shy, brooding, bookworm

loner, perfectionist, unlucky

skills:

Knitting, baking

Writing

job:

Author

Bakery Owner

misc:

- Hang Holiday Lights

- Buy a mistletoe

activities:

- must give gifts to each other

- Attend Winter Festival Together

~ Snowflake Day is held last Thursday of Winter ~ don't do any work. make sure to have positive moodlets and enjoy the festival.   * Take greeting card photos   * snowboard together   * ice skate together

attend (or hold) a gift-giving party

* give gift to each other ~ gift idea: a book written by him, and a cloth knitted by her

make snowmen together

build an igloo together, sleep there

Make snow angels

Have snowball fights

Swim in cold water

kiss under the mistletoe before the season ends

optional: 

the author can sell his book in the bakery itself, or make a mini library space (You can use this mod from nraas)

Sim B can sell the knitted products she did in the bakery

they must work together while the other is writing and the other is knitting

the author must finish at least 3 novels before winter ends

sim B must make at least 2000 simoleons from selling bake goodies

optional woohoo location:

woohoo in igloo

woohoo in sauna

date ideas:

~ go ice skating together, have some cup of cold choco, make snowmen and snow angels, take pictures!

~ have a sauna date!

~ watch a musical performance

~ Library date!

~ Spend sometime outside by the fire at night

recommended mods:

Knitting Mod

Savvier Seller Mod (for the bakery), or

SimState Business Mod, or;

The Merchant Mod by @anitmb

Baking Station (Store Content)

A useful thread on setting up a home bakery

notes:

i know that setting up a home business can be a bit complicated, so you can have 2 alternative options, 1) you can just purchase another community lot near your house and have the bakery there; or, 2) just drop the bakery all at once and you may find a different job for sim B.

ADD-ONS

Of course, this challenge wouldn't be as fun if you didn't share your gameplay and screenshots with the community! So, here are additional things that you can do for all rounds:

Take a screenshot of every activity that you did.

Pick your favorite memories and you may edit them as Polaroid pictures.

Make them do couple poses and take amazing photos of them together!

For each round/season that you finish, edit the photos that you had like a scrapbook, photo album or whatever creative idea you can think of.

Upload them and don't forget to put the hashtag #TS3SeasonsofLove and mention me so I can reblog it!

SLOWBURN ROMANCE EDITION

Now, if you’re like me who likes to take things slow, this rules are for you! You may or may not apply them, just an extra challenge for those who wants slower romance to this challenge. 

You must only force up to only 10 romance interactions, the rest will be up to the sims autonomy and wishes

You can not force them to kiss and woohoo, it will only depend on the sims wish and/or autonomy

You can only force atleast 3 dates, the rest will be up to the sims autonomy/wish

This challenge is made by ann-ndsims. Huge thank you as well to @frostedshore for giving me the idea for the Summer prompt and helping me come up with ideas for this challenge💕 If you like to modify it, convert it or have some suggestions and/or mod recommendations, feel free to send me a message! Don’t forget to mention me if you do this challenge and use the hashtag #TS3SeasonsofLove, I would love to see other simmers enjoy this little challenge that I made. Enjoy and happy simming!

[psychopomp-recital]

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝

Let’s talk about working with the Water Element; divination, magical waters, workings and cultivating a relationship with it and its spirits.

🎶Sharing my experiences and thoughts, don’t rely on just this make your own experiences and thoughts.🎶

How do I grow my relationship with Water itself?

Begin opening yourself up to it more and incorporating it into your daily life. When I began building my relationship with it this is what I did:

To be done over a months period

Washed my hands & face with cold water when waking up and letting them air dry as much as possible.

Brushing out my hair and braiding it, picturing my hair flowing like a river with every movement of my fingers.

Beginning my day by intentionally drinking a glass of water, sitting down to really appreciate it and how it aides your body. I like cold water because you can easier feel it flow through you, I also like charging it beforehand.

Visit as many water sources as possible during this period. I am lucky enough to live by the pacific ocean and I would go and swim in it everyday to cultivate my relationship. However, if that is inaccessible for you there’s options such as sitting by a public pool, taking a bath, standing in the rain, eating your lunch by a river, etc.

While you’re spending time with water just talk to it. Tell it stories, sing it songs, ask it questions, water is living and it longs for a connection.

Record your progress throughout the month either in written journal entries, scrapbooking, or digital trackers. Just have a way for you to look back at how you’ve changed during this period.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝

Examples of Magic that can include water:

research topics

Magical or Blessed Waters

Baneful Folk Workings

Release / Banishing Spells

Water Plant Workings

Elemental Spirit Magic

Death Work

Charged Sprays

Travel Magic

Weather / Storm Magic

Meditation

Shell Magic (like crystal magic)

Hydromancy

Carromancy (wax in water)

Magical Baths / Showers

Glamour Magic

And Much More...

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝

What can I benefit from working with water?

Regardless on where you are from, what path of life you are following or anything else we are connected by our need for water. It is not only our connection to other humans but our connection to the natural world as well. It makes up 3/4 of our planet and 60% of your body. You can get a better understanding of yourself just by going back to that fundamental need to sustain yourself with water as a life-force. The element itself is well known to be a very introspective force and most spirits representing or associated are similar (spg). When you are inviting it into your home you are inviting that connection and energy in too.

Water takes life without discrimination, just as it gives life. Working within that provides a confidence and at least in my experience a sense of balance within ones self. If you are feeling like you are being tossed by the path of life, as if you are a lone ship at a storming sea, this might be your sign to stop fighting the current and start moving with it. If you can make the waves move at your asking then what is there to stop you.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝

Hydromancy

hy·dro·man·cy /ˈhīdrəˌmansē/

noun

divination by means of signs derived from the appearance of water and its movement.

Some argue this is the first form of scrying Hydromancy is a very useful tool. It can be done with natural bodies of water, or things like tubs, cups and bowls. It can be frustrating to begin so this is how I would begin if I were you: (works better with an established connection to water)

Go somewhere quiet and still, I prefer outside at night but do what is safe and comfortable for you.

Prepare your space and yourself however you normally would set the tone for a divination reading. Some choose to say a blessing prayer, drink a divination tea blend, or anoint themselves with particular salve or oil. I will usually ritually prepare myself (let me know if you want me to go more into this).

In a shallow dark colored bowl (or scrying bowl), pour your preferred water of choice. I usually go with waning moon water.

Relax and begin to gaze into the water. Let yourself open up to messages. Sometimes it comes as scenes of images, or a shape or even words that can come through.

Write down anything you receive to interpret later on.

If you are struggling try this ritual but use the light of a candle or the moon to interpret those shapes. Or meditate with the bowl and pour it out onto the ground and scry the shape it leaves behind.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝

Magical Associations

✦ Death & Life ✦ Duality ✦ Change ✦ Rage ✦ Grief ✦ Peace ✦ Creation ✦ The Moon ✦ Ice ✦ Emotions ✦ Mental Health ✦ Cleansing / Purification ✦ Storms ✦ Distaster ✦ Dreams ✦ Cancer / Scorpio / Pisces ✦ Psychic Abilities ✦ Shape-shifters ✦ Travel ✦ Corrosion

Irish Divine Beings Associated

✦ Brigid (keening mother & keeper of the sacred well) ✦ Boann (river personification) ✦ Aengus (The Young Son) ✦ Lir (sea personification) ✦ Manannán mac Lir (son of the sea)

[feeder86]

The Third

Three years was a long time to be in a relationship. But if Mike was honest, he’d known that things had been declining for at least the last twelve months. That wasn’t to say that it didn’t hurt like hell when Bill finally finished with him and moved out. Worse still, Mike knew that he was mostly to blame for their end. He’d become too comfortable being part of a pair and slid into bad habits, feeling secure in the fact that he didn’t always need to watch himself: what he was eating, how active he was, how much effort he put into his appearance; all because he had already found someone.

When Mike met Bill, he was fresh out of college and just starting to build up his career. He’d had more time back then and was, admittedly, a little more naive about the world. He’d fallen hard for Bill, believing completely in their shared vision for a future together. They would work hard, progress in their careers, retire early to the country and buy one of those beautiful fixer-uppers, with a large yard where Bill could grow his own vegetables. But where Mike found himself at the end of their relationship was very different. There he was, sitting alone in their rented apartment without a single thing of Bill’s remaining anywhere. The guy had insisted on a clean break; he didn’t want to try being friends, or see how they both felt in a few months’ time. For him, it was absolutely over; dead; as if it had never existed in the first place. As if it all meant nothing.

In that sort of scenario, it could have been easy for Mike to feel bitter. But as he looked in the mirror, he could completely see Bill’s take on things. In vast contrast to his sleek, toned physique when they’d got together, Mike had clearly started to let himself go. Having done so much swimming throughout his adolescence, a six pack had always come so easy to him. Yet, now, Mike couldn’t see a trace of it left beneath his doughy middle. On the scale, he didn’t appear to be more than twenty pounds heavier than he had been three years ago, yet the muscle in his arms seemed coated with a softness that spoiled all of their previous definition. He had love handles that pressed unflatteringly against the waistband of his underwear and his face had filled out with the ever so slightly puffy cheeks he had developed; almost like a squirrel filling its mouth with nuts. No wonder Bill was turned off by him. He was twenty-four and already had a dad-bod.

Mike convinced himself that he would have done something about his appearance by now, had it not been for how demanding his job had become. After a long day at the office, he didn’t have the energy to go to the pool, or work out at a gym. He was exhausted. Instead, he looked ahead to the future; to the next promotion, when he would be the one delegating tasks. When that happened, he would give himself more time to focus on himself and find a better balance between work and leisure. What he needed to do wasn’t to burn himself out with a gruelling after-work exercise regime, but work harder and focus on his career targets: long term goals over short term wins.

However, the strategy was failing; at least when it came to Mike’s waistline. He looked down at himself and shifted his tie across his torso awkwardly. There was a button, looking torturously strained just above his belly button. Six months after the break-up, it seemed like the flesh that had draped itself over his six pack had begun to merge with his stubborn love handles; all melting into one. They’d built themselves, forming the start of a little tire that was now spreading itself all the way over Mike’s middle. He tried hard not to look in the mirror at how soft his pecs were becoming and bought himself larger pants, convincing his ego that he just wanted to feel more comfortable in work, rather than admitting that his rear was getting considerably more swollen.

“Hey, Mikey!” came a familiar, deep voice behind him at the supermarket one Friday night. He felt a large hand going straight onto his shoulder and turned to see the best looking gay couple he had ever met in real life.

“Hey, Rob!” he smiled at the man who had reached out to him. He’d almost forgotten how absolutely stunning they both were. “How’re you doing, Liam?”

Mike had met Rob and Liam a few times during his relationship with Bill. He didn’t quite remember how they knew each other. Was Liam a second cousin of Bill’s? It wasn’t really something he had paid particular attention to. After all, it was Rob and Liam’s stunning looks that garnered them the most attention. They were good looking in a way that only Holywood could normally portray; still going strong as a couple after many years together. Yet, they were also quite different from each other. Whilst Rob was incredibly tall, broad and built like a jock who could turn his hand to any sport, Liam was a lot smaller, slender and toned, with the prettiest of porcelain faces. Mike had had steamy dreams about the two of them in the past, both separately and together. And so, whilst his heartbeat raced like a teenage schoolgirl to be stood beside them again, he also felt himself cringing. Today was not a good day for his appearance. His hair needed a cut and he’d tried to get away with a shirt that he could feel clinging to his sides; reducing the full movement of his arms.

“We’re great!” Rob smiled, flashing those perfect teeth and wrapping his arm over Liam’s shoulders to present them both as a united front. He was definitely the top in their relationship, Mike found himself thinking. It was the way he always seemed to take charge and the fact that his body was so much more built and imposing than pretty-boy Liam’s. “We were really upset to hear about you and Bill,” the handsome guy went on, looking like he was settling in for a real chat, rather than a brief supermarket fly-by. “We’ve missed seeing you when we’ve been out.”

Mike smiled, despite knowing that he would hardly be missed by Bill’s friends. He was too quiet and introverted for his personality to be appreciated by outgoing guys like Rob; although he’d had a couple of good conversations with Liam in the past.

“Rob likes those doughnuts as well,” Liam chirped, gazing into Mike’s shopping cart and making him cringe even more. It had been a long week and Mike had come to the supermarket already feeling hungry. He’d loaded himself up with more beer and treats than usual, determined to reward himself for just getting through to the end of Friday.

“Oh, no,” Mike began, stumbling in the way that he always did when he tried to make up a lie on the spot. “These aren’t for me. I’ve got family over tomorrow,” he tried, seeing only fruits, vegetables and plenty of lean meats in Rob and Liam’s shopping cart.

Rob and Liam seemed to share a look, communicating silently in the way that all long-term couples seemed to be able to do. “You should come over for dinner tonight,” Rob suggested. “You’re not doing anything, are you? We bought a new place just two blocks away and we’ve not had anyone over yet to see it.”

Mike wasn’t the spontaneous kind and his mind immediately set to work, thinking how he could get out of saying yes. But after a week at work, his brain was slow and sluggish, and he stood there, grinning awkwardly, in a way that seemed to make Rob and Liam believe that he was up for it.

“We’ll meet you out in the parking lot,” Liam nodded, already pushing their cart away to finish their shop. “We’ve just got to pick up a few supplies.”

Mike looked on, already knowing it was too late to get out of it. He’d have a good night, he tried to assure himself, getting a sneaky look at the guy’s butts as they walked away: Liam’s small, tight, slender ass and Rob’s larger, muscley and powerful looking rear, a good few inches above Liam’s due to the surprising height difference between the two of them.

“Excuse the mess,” Rob laughed, kicking a cardboard box out of the way as they entered the hallway about twenty minutes later. 

The new place was lovely, Mike thought, but it was obvious that they hadn’t moved in more than a couple of days ago. He sat down on their couch, taking a box filled with Liam’s clothes and underwear and setting it on the floor. The underwear in particular, seemed to sit there, staring up at Mike, reminding him just how much he was attracted to both of these guys. Rob had conducted the tour while Liam had unpacked their food shop in the kitchen and started preparing something for them to eat. Rob sat proudly in his own chair just in front of the TV and, even as he spoke to Mike about anything and everything, Mike’s mind couldn’t help picturing Liam stripping off and sitting his cute butt down on Rob’s crotch, bouncing on top of him right there in the chair, until they both came.

“Wouldn’t you agree?” Rob asked, finishing what he was saying.

Mike nodded, not wanting to admit that he had lost the thread of the conversation to his lustful thoughts quite some time ago. That was the point at which Liam came in, placing a large, cheesy pizza on the table; previously frozen, but cleverly loaded with extra cheeses and meats that had turned it into something a lot more appetising and special.

Rob’s dinner was much different, uncliking a food storage container with his pre cooked lean chicken and other high protein foods that he religiously stuck to in order to maintain his perfect, muscular physique. “You’re vegan, aren’t you?” Mike asked Liam upon seeing how many different types of meat and cheese he had added to the pizza. “Aren’t you going to eat some of this pizza too?”

“No, I’ve got this instead,” he smiled, bringing in a large bowl of salad, alongside many strange, colourful accompaniments that Mike couldn’t even begin to name. It made him feel thankful that Liam hadn’t tried to seve the same thing to him; a salad like that wasn’t his type of food at all. “The pizza is for you,” Liam confirmed, pushing the plate a little closer to him on the coffee table.

Feeling like he had made Liam go to a lot of effort for him, Mike took a slice and marveled at the taste of it. Who knew that a simple frozen pizza could be made to taste so much better like this? He made a point of enjoying it, heading back for slice after slice as Rob carried most of the conversation, talking about a vacation they’d taken recently; pulling out his cell phone to show Mike pictures of where they had been. Image after image of Rob and Liam, dressed only in swimwear, or standing shirtless infront of stunning scenery were presented to Mike as he ate. The boys were so incredibly hot, it was ridiculous. When he got back to his own place that night, he’d have to shoot a load off like never before.

It wasn’t that Mike was unaware of how much of the pizza he was eating, but the embarrassing realisation only really hit as he looked down at the plate and saw nothing but crumbs left. He placed it down on the coffee table, only then noticing how much more stretched the buttons of his shirt were. He’d not been aware of how disgusting he’d looked, having balanced the plate of pizza just at the top of his stomach, where his little paunch had started to round out in the last few months. He cursed himself for having taken off his tie. The boys must have seen it; how fat he was getting. Already knowing it was too late, he cupped his hands and rested them on his stomach to hide the gaping stretch, determined not to show his own embarrassment.

“Liam’s got an amazing dessert lined up for you,” Rob smiled as Liam took the plates back to the kitchen. “You’re going to love it!”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t!” Mike protested. “I’m absolutely stuffed!”

Rob brushed Mike’s concerns right away. “You’ll be fine,” he chuckled. “Just try your best for him. Liam loves cooking for people. He gets off on it; hence why I’m so strong now,” he grinned, tensing his bicep and leaning across to Mike so that he could feel how hard it felt. “This is a lot of work in the gym, and almost as much work in the kitchen to maintain a body like this,” Rob explained, detailing the gruelling eating regime he kept up on a daily basis.

It wasn’t long until Liam was back with them, carrying a large ice cream sundae that appeared to be even bigger and better than anything that could be bought at a restaurant.

“That looks amazing!” Rob marvelled, as if determined to boost Liam’s confidence in his dessert-making skills. “I think it’s your best yet!” he stated, as the whole thing was presented to their already overfed guest.

“It looks incredible,” Mike agreed, feeling compelled to continue Rob’s barrage of compliments towards Liam. However, he noted that neither of them were having a dessert like he was.

While he ate, Rob went on listing how much effort his boyfriend, Liam, had gone to to make the dessert. The ice cream was his own, the chocolate sauce made fresh only moments ago. The ingredients had been sourced from several different market places across the city, all chosen based upon word of mouth as to which were the best places to go. Mike felt like he couldn’t waste even the tiniest bit of it, forcing it down into himself even as it became a strain to do so. Then, just as he gladly finished it all and leaned forwards to place it on the coffee table, there was a sudden, unmistakeable pop in his middle; a heartstopping new sensation concerning the way Mike’s shirt was fitting and, to his horror when he looked down, Mike could see the previously strained shirt button had now given way entirely. 

All three of them looked on in stunned silence for a couple of seconds. In a flurry, Mike’s brain tried to compute what would be the best thing for him to say. Should he show his embarrassment? Try to ignore it? Laugh it off? The quiet was unbearable. Mike felt like he could never look at the pair of them in the eyes again. How soon could he make up an excuse to run home and hide away for the rest of his life?

As it was, Rob had already sprung into action before Liam even got the chance to react. “Don’t worry about that,” the hunk smiled, sitting himself next to Mike and seeming to command the situation in much the same way that he always did.

The large, muscular body squeezed in next to the humiliated Mike, and he appeared to becon Liam over to sit on the couch as well. All of a sudden, Mike felt his overindulged body being pressed between two of the most attractive boys he had ever known.

“The truth is, Liam and I were kinda hoping that your clothes wouldn’t stay on for very long,” Rob grinned, reaching for Mike’s shirt buttons and confidently starting to undo them from the top down. Mike could feel the guy’s hot breath on his face before noticing that Liam’s hand was also sliding up his thigh.

“Are you up for a bit of fun with us tonight?” Liam asked, lacking just a little of Rob’s assertiveness, despite sharing his lustful passion.

“I think he is!” Rob smiled, nodding down at Mike’s throbbing hardness pulsing against the crotch of his tight pants. Then, without any need for words, Rob leaned in to kiss him. Their tongues fused immediately and Mike realised that any hope of saving his broken shirt were lost when the strong man simply tore the rest of the buttons open as they were kissing.

Mike felt Liam’s hands unbuckling his belt and moaned as a hand touched his erection for the first time. By the time he came out of the kiss, his crotch had already been opened and a shirtless Liam was spreading his legs, ready to go down on him. With his boundless energy, Rob suddenly sprang up, throwing off his shirt and ripping his shorts and underwear down. Even his dick was beatiful, Mike thought to himself as Rob guilded it into his mouth. Moans were heard from all three of them over the next few minutes until, naked and excited, they slipped into the bedroom to continue the fun times.

Mike felt like he was living in a daydream the next day. A threesome? Him? He never imagined that he would do something like that; especially not with guys who were so unbelievably attractive! He chuckled at the memory of it and could barely wipe the smile from his face. He looked at people, wondering if they would ever be able to guess just how lucky he had got last night: the experience of a lifetime! He hadn’t expected to hear from Rob and Liam again afterwards, so it came as no surprise when he didn’t. He’d obviously just bumped into them at the right place and right time, when they were on the lookout for some kinky fun. Even back when Mike was with Bill, he had always sensed that the pair of them were kinkier than they appeared on the outside. However, the way that Rob had fucked him whilst Liam sucked his dick… there was no way anyone could have prepared him for that amount of pleasure.

“We hear it’s your birthday next weekend,” came a message on one of Mike’s social media accounts. He clicked through, seeing which profile it had come from and spotting the unmistakable, handsome face of Rob.

Mike’s fingers stood motionless, thinking how to reply. So many different possibilities, but which one was best? He needed to get this right.

“Are you doing anything FUN for it?” came a second message, as if impatient for Mike to respond.

“Not yet,” Mike simply typed, deciding to click and send it before his brain started to overthink things again.

“Good. Our place next Saturday night then?” shot back the next message, with a swiftness that would have surprised even the speediest of responders. “9pm?” snapped another message straight afterwards.

With a smile and a boner, Mike didn’t question his decision. “I’ll see you then,” he replied in an instant.

Mike had always considered himself to be someone who sought sex only through being in a real relationship. He hadn’t been the type to play about and his new casual attitude to messing around with Rob and Liam both thrilled and excited him. What better way to begin a new year of life than to find a whole new perspective on how to enjoy it?

“You’re going fat!” Mike’s grandmother commented as he showed up at his parents’ place that Friday. She poked her grandson in his stomach, looking sour and disapproving.

In an instant, Mike brushed it off, chuckling to himself and nodding at his grumpy grandmother. “Thanks. I love you too,” he grinned sarcastically. Had it not been for the ego boost provided by Rob and Liam, Mike realised he may have taken such a comment to heart. Having a little extra mass on his frame was hardly hindering his ability to get guys, given that he had two of the hottest boys he had ever met eagerly awaiting his arrival tomorrow night.

“Will you have another slice of your cake. Sweetheart?” asked Mike’s mother, eager to tidy it away.

“Sure,” Mike nodded, feeling like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Rob was the one to answer the door that Saturday night. “Yes? Do you want something” he asked playfully, pretending that he wasn’t expecting a visitor. Then he smiled and pulled Mike inside and into a short, strong hug, pecking him on the lips. “Liam is through there,” he pointed down to the kitchen, already sending Mike on his way by patting and pinching his rear with horny grunts of approval.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you to cook for me,” Mike mumbled after Liam had embraced and kissed him as well. He didn’t want to admit to either of them that he had stopped by a burger place on the way over, spoiling his appetite. “I’m not sure I could eat a lot,” he went on, seeing just how much food was already plated up.

“Just give it a try,” Rob grinned, boucing to sit on top of the counter and grabbing Liam from behind, pulling him into an affectionate hug. “My Liam loves to cook and feed people. It’s just his thing, isn’t it honey?” he whispered seductively into his boyfriend’s ear. Mike had only just arrived and he already felt like clothes were going to be torn off any second. “Don’t worry,” he smiled consolingly at his little chef. “We know Mike has got a good appetite. He won’t let you down.”

Mike had the overwhelming feeling that he was about to perform in some way. He was sat down at the now clutter-free table, with the two sexy boyfriends positioning themselves on either side of him. Handed his fork, Mike set to work as Liam began filling up the plate; Rob watching on with nothing but love in his eyes for his handsome partner of five years. 

“Is this the dish you were deep frying earlier?” Rob asked curiously as yet another item was brought out ten minutes later. “I’m sure Mike is going to really enjoy it after all that effort you went to today,” he went on, silently piling on the pressure for Mike to keep eating through his already bloated stomach.

The food kept on coming. Mike realised, with a lot of guilt, just how much time Liam must have spent in the kitchen; probably consuming most of his day to prepare all of this for him. He knew that Rob wasn’t about to eat with him; not on his strict low-fat, high protein diet. But Liam didn’t seem at all interested in eating anything of his own food either; even the bits that must surely have been vegan-friendly.

“Do me a favor,” Rob whispered to Mike after he’d finally finished with all of the main dishes. “Let Liam feed you the dessert. He’ll love it. It’ll make his day and be super hot,” Rob went on, trying to give Mike the heads-up whilst Liam was out of the room. “Come on, we’ll move your chair out here so that you’re in a better position for him,” the hunk went on keenly, seemingly determined to give his quieter and more reserved boyfriend a better experience. “I reckon we lose that t-shirt now as well,” Rob finally suggested, pulling it up and over Mike’s shoulders.

The t-shirt, which Mike had taken a considerable amount of time for Mike to choose, had done a good job of hiding his bloated form up until that point. Now he sat there, feeling fat, stuffed and not at all sexy to the beautiful guys he was there with. 

However, Rob simply smiled with delight at the sight of him. “Much better!” he grinned. “Hurry up, Liam!” he called out. “Mike says he’s getting hungry again!” he teased, winking playfully at their guest.

In walked the irresistible form of Liam, holding an enormous chocolate birthday cake that he had clearly hidden in another room so that Mike wouldn’t see. His eyebrows rose with excitement at the shirtless form of their new lover, sat in the middle of the dining space, waiting for him.

“Mike says he wants you to sit just here, on his lap,” Rob lied, guiding his boyfriend over to their half naked friend. “He said you can feed it to him yourself if you like?” the bold hunk went on, facilitating the whole thing.

Liam seemed to accpet Rob’s words without question, passing the cake over for the large, muscular man to hold whilst he removed his shirt and straddled his sexy butt across a very excited Mike’s lap. “Can you get me a fork?” he asked Rob, suddenly realsing that he had forgotten to get one. He clearly didn’t want to get up now that he was sat and Mike’s lustful hands had found their way onto his hips and butt, holding the sexy boy up. 

“You don’t need a fork!” Rob chuckled. “Just use your fingers. It’ll be sexy!” he encouraged wickedly.

“It could get messy though,” Mike mumbled cautiously.

In response, Rob simply grinned, scooped his finger along the ege of the immaculate frosting and then smeared it over Mike’s nose and mouth. “You bet it’s going to be messy!” he enthused with a giant smile, before feeding his finger into Mike’s mouth for him to lick clean. “Go on, babe,” he prompted his sexy boyfriend. “Do it. Feed him like you did in your dream!.”

Flattered that Liam had supposedly dreamed about this moment, Mike happily opened his mouth to accept the first few fingerfuls of cake. He chewed, grinning at the kinkiness of it all. He felt bits of the cake falling apart and sliding onto his chest and stomach. The frosting was all around his mouth, even more than before, but what did it matter? He had a beautiful guy straddling him right now; he was holding his cute butt in his hands and could see the extreme, sexy bulge in the guy’s pants that was just for him.

Scott yanked the table across with ease, placing the cake down conveniently close for Liam so that he no longer had to hold it up. He seemed to only have eyes for Liam, stroking the sexy boy’s back as he acted out his dream scenario on their guest. “I love seeing you enjoying yourself like this!” he whispered, pulling off his shirt and unbuckling his pants to tug himself off as he watched his boyfriend feeding Mike. “Push more in. We know he can take it!” he suggested, seeming to get hornier and hornier as he played with himself.

Mike soon began groaning from how full he felt and Liam quickly got the hint, getting up and assuming that they were done.

“No, no…” Rob smiled. “Mike can still keep going for you. You just have to get creative!” 

Then, with that, Rob pressed his hardness down into the only tidy part of the cake that remained. With his hand, he smeared the sponge and frosting up and down his shaft, making it almost twice as thick as it was before. He then turned to Mike, who opened his mouth without question, so keen was he to have another chance to suck the sexy guy off.

Pretty soon, Liam was doing the same thing, and the two men alternated until Liam slid his naked body down on the table and smeared a large section of the cake all over his crotch and torso. Despite being so full, Mike rose to his feet and set to work; his hands, fingers and tongue exploring Liam’s perfect body as he nibbled and licked at the birthday cake that covered him. As he did so, he could feel Rob’s keen finger sliding up his butt crack and he hoped, with quiet desparation, that the gorgeous hunk was about to fuck him, just like last time.

“Is he ready for me to fuck him yet?” Rob seemed to be asking Liam, still down on the table, enjoying his hardness being sucked clean.

“I want him to eat more of the cake,” Liam replied, sounding almost out of breath from how overwhelmed with pleasure he was.

“You’re the boss,” Rob laughed, sliding the cake stand between Liam’s legs until Mike understood that he was to eat straight from there now. Suddenly all three of them were stroking their dicks up and down as Mike stood, hunched over the cake, nibbling straight from the stand and presenting his butt ready to be taken. Mike had never felt more kinky, submissive and turned on in his life. Above his head, he could hear Liam and Rob kissing passionately, as if congratulating each other on how well they were doing in this scenario.

Then, after a short amount of time, at which point the cake had become a messy pile of only frosting-smeared chunks, Mike heard Liam announce grandly to his boyfriend: ”I think he’s ready. Fuck him, Rob!”

Staying over in the guest bedroom had been the last thing Mike had anticipated that night. But it had been late by the time they’d finished and he’d had to shower more than once; finding traces of the chocolate frosting in all sorts of places across his body. The boys had been sweet and thoughtful towards him, setting him up in there and making sure he was comfortable. He’d slept soundly as well, only waking up once the door was opened and the two of them came in, dressed only in their boxers and obviously excited to see him.

“Morning, Sexy!” Rob called out. “Liam’s been busy making you breakfast. I hope you’re hungry!”

Opening his eyes gently, Mike saw the large tray being carried in by Liam and set down on the side of the bed. Despite how much he had eaten last night, he was surprised to find that he was quite ready for something else, and he sat himself up in bed, taking in the wafting smell of the fried bacon and sausages. “There’s enough here for at least three people!” he chuckled,seeing how full the already large plate was piled up.

“Liam likes to keep his boys well fed,” Rob smiled, using the opportunity to tense his strong arms and show off his impressive size. “You’re always in the kitchen making up something full of protein for me. Isn’t that right, babe?”

“That’s right,” Liam nodded, looking slightly up at Rob with adoration in his eyes.

“You two are so damn cute,” Mike smiled, making a start on the plate of food. “Is this your secret for keeping your relationship fresh? Just have the odd threesome every now and then?”

Liam laughed at the idea. “No. we’re not that interesting! We’ve actually never done anything like this before with someone else.”

“You mean I’m the first one?” Mike asked, feeling completely shocked.

“You’re the ultimate!” Rob countered. “We’ve both had a little crush on you for ages. Not that we would have done anything whilst you were with Bill, of course. Liam was so into you after the camping trip we all went on a couple of years ago. You remember how drunk you got? You ended up eating almost all of the supplies that second night. Liam’s got a thing for guys with a hearty appetite. He’s been desperate to cook for you ever since.”

Mike looked across at the handsome guy who was nodding his head in complete agreement with everything his boyfriend was saying.

“For me,” Rob went on, “it was when you showed up at Colin’s Christmas party the year before last. You’d started to lose that thin swimmer’s look you’d had up until that point. I rember seeing how big and juicy your butt had become and, I’m sorry to say, Mike, but it was always inevitable that I lured you into my bed one day. We used to talk about you a lot in our bedroom at night,” he joked.

“Jeez! Had I known that you two were into me back then, I would have finished with Bill in a microsecond!” Mike shot back with complete honesty.

“Thanks for last night,” Rob began, sounding more sincere than he did usually. “We had a really good time, and Liam here managed to act out a little fantasy he’s had about you for a long time!”

“Happy to help!” Mike smiled back at them, knowing that the pleasure had been all his. What a birthday weekend this had been!

“You know, if you’re keen, Liam and I would be quite happy for this little arrangement of ours to be a lot more regular? Next time, maybe you’d like to sleep with us in our bed as well?” Rob suggested, holding Liam’s hand and presenting themselves as a united front.”I know Liam has got so many more recipes he wants to try out on you…”

“It sounds creepy,” spat an unimpressed friend of Mike’s a few months later, after Mike had opened up and confided in him about his current situation. “This Liam guy cooks way too much food and then gets off on watching you eat it all?” he asked. “And the boyfriend gets off on watching him watching you..?” he went on, seeming to lose track of how it all worked. “Is this why you’ve been getting so big recently?”

Mike scowled. “I’ve not been getting ‘really big!’” he shot back. “I’m just a bit more relaxed about my appearance, and so are they. What’s wrong with that?”

“Plenty,” the guy replied, looking over Mike’s plump body with mild disgust. “You know they’re probably just getting off on making you fat? There’s a word for that, you know. People call them ‘feeders.’”

Mike knew he’d been piling on the pounds even more than usual in the last few months. His little paunch had swollen over time, turning into a full belly. He knew his ass had grown as well, although he minded this less because Rob could never keep his hands off it whenever he was around there. His chest didn’t look that great though. His pecs had now properly started to become more pointed in appearance and he could feel that the muscle had turned into fat, jiggling when he walked; not that he didn’t enjoy it when Liam stimulated his nipples during sex - one of the many sexual pleasures he had had his eyes opened to since playing around with the boys. “Let me show you a picture of them though,” Mike declared, pulling out his cell phone and determined to make his friend jealous.

“Fuck!” the guy shouted, despite the fact that they were out in public. “You’re joking right? That’s them?”

Mike smirked, pleased with the reaction. He knew that Liam in particular would be exactly his friend’s type. “That’s them!” he nodded, swiping through even more pictures and watching the guy’s jaw drop even more. “I’m staying with them all weekend again, starting tomorrow.”

“Shit!” the guy marvelled, as if he was seeing Mike in a whole new light. “You are one lucky fucker!”

Mike was well used to the mouth-watering aromas as soon as he stepped into Rob and Liam’s apartment. The attention that he got upon his arrival was always thrilling. It was as if the two guys had been hard for hours before he showed up, and they were always ready to pounce upon him straight away. Rob removed his shirt and kissed him, his large hands sliding onto the fleshier regions of Mike’s torso that most people seemed to think he should be embarrassed about.

“Look at that,” Mike heard Rob whispering to Liam as he stroked his fingers delicately across a crease of fat on Mike’s back, caused by the ever increasing swell of his lovehandles. The pair shared a look of excitement and then Liam’s fingers too began to caress the little crease. Each week, the pair of them had seemed to become a little bolder in the appreciation of his chubby body. Last time, Liam had grabbed a full roll of Mike’s belly fat as he came all over the three of them.

By the end of the weekend, Mike did the one thing that he had been avoiding for an insane amount of time now. Wiping the steamy mirror clean after his shower, he took a long, hard look at himself. No wonder people were shocked by him. What on earth were guys like Liam and Rob doing with him, looking as he did these days. He’d become used to his fuller appearance, but the last few months had done something completely different to him. It looked like the fat had been added in ever increasing layers all over his body, softening his appearance each time. Everything looked rounded, lacking in any sort of definition; almost as if someone had inserted a bicycle pump into him and inflated him from the inside. The fat around his face and neck! No wonder his colleague from the other office hadn’t recognised him straight away. He tried to reason with himself; he was still bloated after luch; his stomach wasn’t this severe normally. Still, under the harsh bathroom light, casting shadows on his bulges and creases, it wasn’t a good look. 

Mike pulled Rob’s scales out of the cupboard and set them up on the floor. He hadn’t been on a set of scales in such a long time, but he remembered his swim coach being surprised at how heavy he was back when he was at his peak fitness; all that muscle had taken his weight to not far off 180lbs. Although, he noted sadly, he knew most of that muscle had gone by now.

The scale was surprisingly complex and Mike couldn’t really make sense of it as the numbers began flashing up. Rob’s extreme fitness regime meant that he took all of this stuff very seriously. Meaningless numbers went round in a cycle. It was only on the fourth time of coming up that Mike finally saw the figure for his weight. The number was so far beyond anything that he had braced himself for; it was no surprise that he had missed it. He stepped off; a look of shock and horror upon his face. Standing there in the reflection of the mirror was a 262lb fat guy.

“I need to go on a diet,” Mike declared as he went back into the living room after his shower. “And you two are going to help me, considering it’s mostly your fault that I’m getting this big,” he grumbled, without a hint of humour in his voice. “I know you two have been getting off on it!” he shouted, no longer willing to sweep their obvious little kinks under the table.

“I guess I could take you to a great vegan place this week,” Liam nodded guiltily. “I could teach you about some good, healthy recipes and… maybe cook some up for you instead of all the high-fat stuff I usually make,” he sighed.

Rob looked on at his partner seeming to share in his guilt. “And I suppose I could get you in at my gym and show you a few exercises for weight loss that you may enjoy.”

It was the darkest way he had ever left things with Rob and Liam that weekend; as if a grey rain cloud hovered over them all. But it had to be done. Otherwise, there was no way of telling what would become of him.

“So, just tell me what the healthiest thing on the menu is,” Mike insisted, knowing that his hour for lunch would soon disappear. 

“I’m going to order you a couple of dishes so that we can get more of an idea of the things you like and don’t like,” Liam smiled, taking this all very seriously. Food was his speciality.

The order didn’t take long to arrive, yet Mike’s face clearly didn’t hide anything when the colourful dishes were placed in front of him. Salads had never been his thing and there were plenty of things on those plates that he already knew he could not stand. He picked up the fork, going exploring through it all, hunting for something that might actually taste nice. He poked the very tips of the fork fork in like a toothpick, tasting the smallest amount of each and coming to the worst conclusion: it all tasted disgusting! Every last bit of it!

“Don’t be such a baby!” Liam laughed, still determined to get Mike to eat at least some of it.

“No. No way!” Mike declared, pushing the dishes away stubbornly. “I’m not doing it! Didn’t you say this place does good desserts though?” he asked; his stomach rumbling. 

Mike looked at the choices on offer, selecting the thing that was most similar to what Liam would usually make him: the chocolate waffle and ice cream. 

“Eurgh! What the fuck is this?” Mike asked upon its arrival, throwing a large piece into his mouth because it looked, on the outside at least, to be pretty decent.

“It’s vegan and low fat,” Liam tried to explain. “Of course it’s not going to taste exactly the same as mine.”

“That’s just inedible!” Mike complained bitterly, spitting it back out onto a paper napkin. Most of his lunchbreak was now gone and he was still starving. There was only one option, and that was the burger joint across the street. “I think I must be more of an exercise person,” he decided. “I think I should just focus on that instead.”

“So, you don’t want me to try out some of these healthier recipes when you come over next weekend?” Liam asked gingerly.

“Fuck, no!” Mike bellowed, frustrated with the lack of time he’d have to eat before he was back in work. “Just do what you normally do,” he suggested, hugging the slender pretty boy and heading straight off to find some real food before it was too late.

Mike had bought himself some new trainers for his gym session with Rob that week. If he was going to go on the way home from work a few nights a week, he’d probably want to think about getting some decent headphones for when he was on the treadmill; so he’d already started investigating the best ones online.

“I’ve written up this list for you,” Rob explained, passing over a slip of paper. “This is a pretty decent cardio workout for fat loss.” He went through the routine and showed Mike how he would use all of the machines on the list; adjusting his times downwards as he saw how inexperienced Mike was with most of the equipment. “Is there anything you think I might have forgotten to explain?” he asked, ready to leave Mike to it.

Feeling pumped, Mike shook his head and, clutching the list in his hand, he set off to begin. However, that enthusiasm only carried him so far. Maybe he was coming down with something? He felt so lethargic after only the first machine and he was sweating so much that it was probably his body’s way of telling him that he needed to take it easier. He stood by the water station, gazing across to the weights area, where Rob was completing his workout. 

“You can’t be done already?” Rob laughed as Mike suddenly stood beside him at the leg press machine. The muscle stud was lifting an extraordinary amount of weight and, Mike thought, ogling, Rob’s thighs had never looked so massive and pumped before.

“Do you always press this much?” Mike asked, trying not to get a hard-on in the middle of the gym as he watched.

“It’s leg day,” Rob stated, as if he was answering the question. “I have you and Liam that like a rough fuck. Of course I’ve got to have strong legs!” he grinned, finally finishing his repetition and winking at Mike, knowing that he was turning him on.

It was easier, and a lot more fun, to just follow Rob around the gym as he went through his routine. He began to feel that, instead of cardio, maybe weight training was more his thing, given how easy Rob managed to make it look. But as Rob finally set him up on one of the machines, interrupting his own gym routine, Mike realised that, actually, it was a lot harder than it looked.

“So how about we meet here on Thursday night as well?” Rob finally asked on the way out.

Mike considered. He could do Thursday night, but it would be a bit of a rush. “Maybe we’re best leaving it until next week,” he decided.

“All right,” Rob smiled, graciously deciding not to make fun of how little a workout Mike had actually had that evening. “Fuck you on Friday then?” he winked, patting Mike on his large rear that he had always enjoyed immensely.

By Friday, the shock about how much Mike weighed had seemed to dissipate, and he was ready to take a lot more of a relaxed stance about it. He might go back to the gym at some point with Rob, but he wasn’t going to get caught up about it. The guys didn’t seem to think his weight was much of an issue, so why should he? Surely that was one of the perks of being in a relationship with people who had leanings towards those feeder kinks? Perhaps, now that he had spoken a bit more openly about the guys enjoying his weight, he could even make more of a thing about it; use his weight to get them more excitable when he wanted.

Rob sighed with longing whenever he saw Mike’s butt. He said he liked it so much because of its sheer mass; voluminous ass cheeks that bounced when he fucked him. ROb had always found the contrast between his body and Liam’s to be his biggest turn on. Liam was so much smaller and slighter than he was, he said it made him feel like a giant monster to fuck him. But now he also admitted that it was this same contrast that turned him on about Mike. Sure, Mike had the size, but he also had the softness as well. Rob enjoyed bouncing and stretching his glutes out so that he could better push himself inside. It was part of the reason why Mike started to make more of an effort getting through Liam’s desserts. This, in turn, had the bonus effect of making Liam want to suck Mike off more, which encouraged him to eat more and, simultaneously, make his butt even larger and more appealing for Rob’s poundings.

“My two sexy boys!” Rob exclaimed, standing over the bed as Liam and Mike lay next to each other. Their bodies were so very different from each other, yet also very much contrasting with Rob himself; sending the horny hunk into a constant haze of lust. “I can’t decide which of you I want to fuck most,” he growled, rubbing both of their butts. “Then again, Mike does look like he’s put on a little more weight recently…” Rob teased, bouncing Mike’s rear and seeming to have made his selection.

“He’s definitely gained a few pounds,” Liam agreed, spinning to look at Mike’s belly himself, as they lay in bed together. He stroked the slight shelf where the gut was pushing out and slid his fingers down until they fell over Mike’s belly button, stopping briefly to grab a little of the flesh and jiggle it.

“That’s down to all your cooking!” Mike teased the slender boy, having realised how much pride and satisfaction Liam took in overfeeding Mike to the point where he continued to pile on the pounds. But Mike had also become a lot more hungry in general; everyone had said so. ‘Greedy’ was generally the word they used, and it was the word that Rob and Liam seemed to like to throw about when describing him as well; although in a much more sexy and erotic way than everyone else. Liam even said that it was the quality that had first attracted him to Mike all those years ago. Mike had come to love it as well. He really was greedy; greedy for food, for dick and for pleasure. Surely he was living the dream life that most guys would kill for?

“I got you some new sexy underwear this week,” Rob smiled, throwing over a box to Mike a few weeks later. “The lady at the store thought I’d picked up the wrong size when she saw they were XXL,” he grinned. “But I told her they were for one of my boyfriends. She gave me that snooty, sort of disapproving look and I just found myself enjoying explaining to her how much Liam and I have been delighting in seeing your butt growing bigger and bigger.”

“You didn’t?” Mike laughed in disbelief and decided not to take Rob’s stories as verbatim. After all, he did tend to have a habit of playfully exaggerating things.

“I sure did!” Rob nodded, clearly aroused at the memory of it. “I told her we’d be back as soon as you were ready for the XXXL,” he winked. But then Rob stopped, looked more carefully at Mike and went to stroke around the guy’s neck and chin. “Jeez! You really are packing it on pretty fast at the moment,” he smiled in delight. “Hey, Liam, what have you changed in Mikey’s diet recently?” he shouted through to the kitchen area.

“Coconut milk,” Liam replied back straight away. “It’s good. Have you noticed the difference in his face yet?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I was just looking at,” Rob nodded, going back for another inspection and rubbing his own crotch with arousal. It was exactly the sort of conversation that, twelve months ago, Mike would have been horrified to hear. Now though, Mike knew the love, attention and pampering he would get once the boys spotted a noticeable weight gain. As such, his dick was already harder than Rob’s as his double chin went under an even more in-depth inspection.

Mike had all but moved in with the boys, speeding up his gains in quite a dramatic fashion. Rob and Liam had literally held a party for themselves as Mike crossed over three hundred pounds, Mike remembered, laughing to himself. He’d woken up the next morning, fuzzy headed from the beer and draped across the bed, still stuffed and covered with the mountains of food that had been pushed into him over many hours of sexual pleasure. Needless to say, his work pants did not fit all that well the following week. The boys had also conducted a large decluttering of the place, noticing that Mike was starting to find their tightly packed furniture a little more tricky to navigate around; althought both of them seemed to delight in seeing Mike knock stuff over with that hefty, oversized butt.

It was a Tuesday, when Mike was working from home. He’d set himself up in the spare bedroom of Rob and Liam’s place, given that his sister was now sub-letting his old apartment these days. Liam had left him with plenty of snacks while they were both out, but Mike simply enjoyed being able to slob out in his sweat shorts whilst getting paid. It was all so much easier than having to go into the office.

A knock came at the door and Mike got up, predicting that the little old lady across the hall was wanting a cup of sugar, or some other such poor excuse so that she could come across for a chat. She loved the boys, but seemed to have not made her mind up about Mike just yet; not quite understanding the set-up, or why he was even living with them now.

“Oh! Sorry!” gasped a man at the door as soon as Mike opened it. “I was told that this was Liam and Rob’s place?”

Mike cringed, recognising his ex-boyfriend, Bill, straight away. He hadn’t changed in the slightest. Mike lowered his head, hoping that Bill would continue to not recognise him. “They’re not in,” he grunted, starting to close the door and hoping for a lucky escape.

“Wait…” jumped Bill, suddenly alerted by the sound of his ex-boyfriend’s voice. “Mike?” he scowled. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“What’s it to you?” Mike shot back, deciding that Bill was the last person he wanted to be speaking to right then.

“Jeez, dude!” Bill exclaimed, looking over the three hundred and thirty pound fat guy and finding him uttterly repulsive. He stared at his bulging belly, flabby chest and puffy arms that looked nothing like they had when Bill and Mike had been an item. “What the fuck have you been eating?”

Mike rolled his eyes, realising that, despite the years that had passed, Bill was never going to be anything but critical towards him. “I just decided to enjoy life a bit more,” he answered simply.

“Wait…” Bill exclaimed again. “I haven’t seen Rob or Liam in a couple of years now, but…” his mind seemed to be whirring, recognising a few of Mike’s old furniture pieces in the apartment. “...Are you the boys’ kinky third that I heard rumours about?”

Mike didn’t reply, but Bill suddenly burst into a roar of cold, bitter laughter. “Shit! It’s YOU, isn’t it?” he bellowed, trying to conceal his shock with a tone of pure mockery. “What the fuck were Rob and Liam thinking?”

“We’re very happy with this arrangement, actually,” Mike grunted back.

“Oh, I bet YOU’RE very happy with this arrangement!” Bill laughed. “But what the hell they get out of it, I have no idea!”

“You just couldn’t understand it,” Mike shrugged. “You never did have much of an imagination.”

“Get real, Mike. Even you must see how mad this is? You can’t seriously be happy? This is Rob and Liam - the golden couple. They’ve been in love with each other since Liam was just eighteen! You can’t genuine;y believe that they think about you in the same way that they adore each other? You’re a third. There’s no fulfilment in being a third in someone else’s relationship! They’ll drop you in a heartbeat, and then you’ll realise what a fool you’ve made of yourself!” He shook his head one more time, seeming to take in the monstrous size of Mike’s stomach all over again. “Jeez, dude! What the fuck have you done to yourself?”

“Bill, go fuck yourself!” Mike finally snapped, throwing the door shut. He retreated back to his desk. However, he soon found that his concentration had been lost for the day. Seeing an ex was always difficult. But, seeing an ex and having them openly citicise you for every single life choice you’d made since your break up… it was like being hit by a bus.

“I hear that you’ve had an interesting day?” Liam asked quietly, entering the apartment just behind Rob and holding his cell phone up as if he had just received a rather interesting message from someone.

“We had no idea that Bill would stop by,” Rob added. “We haven’t seen him in ages. He’s never even been over to this apartment before.”

“I know,” Mike nodded, not wanting the boys to feel at all guilty about how things had played out that afternoon. He looked over at the dishes, realising that he had perhaps eaten a little more than usual after the encounter; comfort eating. “He had quite a go at me when he realised that the three of us were…” he began explaining, suddenly realising that he no longer knew the right word to describe what their whole relationship even was.

“Well, he never was the most enlightened soul, was he?” Liam smiled thoughtfully. “We were actually thinking…” he went on, looking to Rob as if to see if he also felt it was the right time to bring this up. “...Maybe it’s time that we all had a fresh start.”

“A fresh start?” Mike asked, feeling suddenly alarmed and depressed. There was no way Bill was going to keep what he had learned to himself, and the boys had most likely been spooked; deciding to cut ties with him now in order to save the embarrassment later.

“A fresh start for all of us,” Rob nodded in full agreement.

“You want me to go back to my apartment?” Mike asked, feeling more dejected than he had ever been in his entire life.

“What? No!” Liam countered, shaking his head emphatically. “We’re talking about this place. We want to sell up and get somewhere that is more suited to the three of us. Somewhere that is all of ours; stop people, like Bill, from guessing about our status as a threesome.”

“Plus, you’re only a few pounds away from being too fat for our shower,” Rob chuckled, lightening the mood by patting Mike on his hefty rear. “I want to find somewhere a little closer to my gym. Liam would like somewhere closer to the markets in town. And you definitely need somewhere a little more fat-friendly! We’ll get a giant bed; one that we can all fit in together again. A bigger kitchen for Liam would be good as well, because you know how much he loves cooking for you…”

“I thought you were about to…” Mike began, finding it hard to express how relieved and flattered he felt that the boys were willing to make such a big change to include him properly into their lives. “You’re right, I am a little too fat for the shower here!” he joked.

“That’s not to say that I don’t love watching you trying to squeeze yourself inside,” Rob shot back, immediately rubbing at the boner that was already coming his way. “But Liam is getting so damn good at ensuring you continue to pile on the pounds, I’m starting to think that we may need to make this move sooner, rather than later.”

“Do you think you may be ready for the next adventure?” Liam asked, holding up the bags of groceries he had set down when he came in.

“You mean, the next hundred pounds?” Mike smiled back, finally wise to exactly how his feeders’ minds really worked. 

Rob and Liam simply looked at each other, grinning.

“Sure,” Mike nodded happily. “Bring it on! Fatten me up! I’ll make you both proud.”

With that, Rob wrapped his strong arm over Mike’s shoulders, pulling the guy in to kiss him on the forehead. “Good man!” he grinned, rubbing Mike’s wide, spherical belly and growling with lust. “You know, Mike, I think that may be the wisest decision you’ve ever made!”

[notbecauseofvictories]

what's ur fave bldg in chicago? I went on an architecture boat tour and I'm obsessed with marina city

first of all, the architecture boat tour is great, and yes, people do look at me weird when I recommend it for residents and tourists alike---but I'm right and everyone who has taken the tour agrees with me.

anyway, I have many, many favorite buildings in Chicago (seriously, I have a list) but I'm going to talk about one of the less-discussed:

The Garfield Park Fieldhouse!

To set the scene: many Chicagoans (including architects, and social activists) had attended the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, hosted on the south side of the city. Many had been inspired by Fredrick Law Olmsted's landscaping, and fervent belief that public green spaces were an important asset to any city. Driven by this belief, the existing park commissions (founded 1869) started getting more aggressive about translating the newfangled "city park" concept into reality. The group that oversaw the establishment of Garfield Park was the West Park Commission, and they were instrumental in fundraising for and then helping oversee the project. The architects were Michaelsen & Rognstad, who designed a number of eye-catching buildings in Chicago.

Initially, the building was intended to be the West Park Commission's headquarters, though it also had facilities for boating and skating on the nearby pond. However, it only lasted that way for a few years. Shortly after its completion in 1928, the various park commissions were folded into the brand new Chicago Park District, and the building was converted into a fieldhouse.

(The "fieldhouse" concept---large buildings anchoring public parks, and providing space for meetings or classes, as well as gymnasiums, locker rooms, and swimming pools---was loosely based on the settlement houses scattered throughout the city. By creating its public parks and fieldhouses, therefore, Chicago was twinning two great progressive movements---and establishing the landscape of the city that still exists today.)

Anyway, in a city that's largely built from behemoth skyscrapers and the clean lines of Classical architecture, the Garfield Park Fieldhouse stands apart. It is not clean. It is not smooth or glassy. It is a riot of Spanish Baroque Revival design and every possible crenelation, scallop, and twining vine pattern they could shove into the space. Given how large the building itself is, this is a lot:

Researching the Garfield Park Fieldhouse was the first time I ever read the word "Churrigueresque." (It means "baroque, but more".) Even better, this elaborately designed building is topped by a burnished metal dome, that incidentally looks like gold when the sun hits it:

Not to mention that this sense of elaborate decoration continues inside, though updated slightly for a more beaux-arts feel:

In short, it is a microcosm of turn of the century Chicago, its history and the history of Garfield Park is fascinating (I have a wild crush on Jens Jensen, fyi) and while the building itself might not be to your taste, you can't deny it's got buckets of style.

[upsidedownwithsteve]

WAIT UNTIL YOU TASTE ME 18+ Hawkins community pool offers a range of swimming lessons, from tiny tots, to diving for beginners - and the private kind, of course. Just ask for Steve and don't mind Eddie, he likes to lurk in the bleachers. Loosely based on the movie float, lifeguard!steve, a summer full of swimming lessons. mentions of drowning, eventual smut 18+

LIKE IT’S LOVE? 18+ Steve knew he’d fight a god before he let them take you.

“I love you,” Steve whispered and his voice cracked on each word. Tears from his eyes stream the dirt on his face, running rivers down your cheek until they mixed with your own. “I’ll find you again. In the next life, and the next again. I prom—”

MY NAME IS WHATEVER YOU DECIDE 1/2 18+ MY NAME IS WHATEVER YOU DECIDE 2/2 18+

He came into the dining room of the club one Saturday afternoon. Sunkissed, tall, broad, stubble on his jaw and a gold chain glinting from the collar of his white shirt. He had a navy sweater draped over his shoulders, expensive sunglasses in his shirt’s front pocket, an unassuming looking leather strapped watch on his wrist - but you’d learned well before then how to tell the difference between new money and old money.   And Steve Harrington was old, old money. 

SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY 33K / 18+ Welcome to Camp Upside Down, an idyllic spot nestled in Yellowwood State Park, Indiana. Founded in 1959, Camp Upside down hosts an array of many summer activities, from lake sports, hikes, arts and crafts and team building experiences… and Steve fucking Harrington. An enemies to lovers story.

MEET ME IN THE AFTERGLOW 33.5K / 18+ Camp Upside Down seemed far too quiet when you finally opened the car door and set a foot on the old pine needles. Like something was missing. 

“Hey,” Robin rushed in with a hug, warm and sweet. “You’re here early.” She gave that same frown, lips set into a confused smile as she looked through your windscreen, at the empty passenger seat. “Where’s Steve?”

“Uh,” your voice broke, just a little, enough for Robin’s eyes to widen. “We broke up.”

WE TRIED THE WORLD 50K / 18+ Steve Harrington gazed at you with a shockingly sincere expression, with a little furrow knitted between his brows and he asked you: “D’you wanna run away with me?” The road trip au where you’re trying to find a home.

BAD FOR BUSINESS 18+ / 23.6K An enemies to lovers AU. Join the team at the Upside Down Arcade, where the machines eat your quarters and the staff have some personal issues. Stay tuned for the Pick Your Own Adventure polls to progress in the story.

SWEET ON YOU SUGAR, SUGAR HARD CANDY 18+ He stole glances at you, not so subtle gazes from under his lashes when he thought you weren’t looking, as if he wondered where this night was going, where those white lines were leading you both. You turned the corner into his street, the houses growing bigger as you went, the cars on the drive more expensive and the smell of chlorine filled the air, the soft trickle of backyard pools and front lawn fountains filling up the silence. “You staying?” 

FULL OF IT ASK FOR IT 18+ “Full of what?” He asked, voice low, a little hoarse now.

You nipped at the curve of his bottom lip, the tip of your tongue soothing over it, making him groan, chest rumbling against yours. “Cheek,” you grinned, another kiss pushed to his lips and Steve hummed. “Trouble,” you added, another kiss, a tug of his hair.

He tasted sweeter when he kissed you again, like leftover summer, and when he pressed his mouth to your ear, you shivered, delighted. “Wanna be full of me later?”

A LITTLE MEAN FOR ME A LITTLE SWEET FOR ME 18+ “I’d give you anything you wanted.” There it was, that sweetness, that softness that made your chest hurt, your knees weak. You hummed, so utterly happy beneath the boy. 

“Yeah?” You asked, a whisper.

“Fuck, yeah,” Steve answered, lips at the shell of your ear, trailing heat down your jaw, across your throat. His nails were blunt against your waist, dipping into the slope of your sides, pulling at the waistband of your skirt. “Tell me.”

“Want you to be a little mean to me, Steve.”

SOMETHIN UNHOLY' DIRTY, DIRTY BOYS 18+ Steve and Eddie shared a lot of things, you’d noticed.

Steve’s car when Eddie’s van inevitably broke down, Eddie’s stash of weed, a lighter, sometimes clothes when parties got out of hand and everyone crashed at the Harrington's. They shared cassettes, mixtapes, the key to your back door, the way they looked at you.

A COUPLE DAYS IN (I CALL YOU BABY) 18+ CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO You hit the button at the top of his profile, the one that said: “send a message.” A new page popped up, a little chat box that was intimidatingly empty and you stilled, staring at it. What did you say? How did you begin?

‘Hey, I’ve looked at precisely five photos of you and I know you work at some video store and I think you’re hot. Wanna have sex?’

You cringed, eyes squeezing shut as you quickly deleted the words, groaning at the empty space once more. You remembered what Robin had said, about how wanting to hook up with someone was okay. Loads of people did it. It was fine. 

[charlesoberonn]

If you put aside widespread use of slave labor and corruption, I can respect gulf state billionaires because they're just like "You know what, fuck it. I will build the world tallest swimming pool inshallah."

Meanwhile, American billionaires just ruin social media platforms.

If you put aside the pillaging and mass murder and conquest, I can respect Genghis Khan for his progressive views on religious freedom.

[lou-struck]

Honey, I shrunk the Devildom

Obey Me Brothers x MC!

Featuring: Lucifer, Mammon, and Leviathan

~Another magic troupe lol, here’s how I think the Obey Me men would respond to being magically shrunk down.

Part 2, 3

Warnings: None

(I want to do this series with BNHA guys too! let me know what you think.)

Lucifer~

It’s another late night for the avatar of pride, he’s slumped in his office chair filling out another pile of neglected paperwork. Normally he would’ve paid more attention to what he was filling out but his mind was focused on his date with you tomorrow afternoon.

Scanning one document in particular, he began absentmindedly mumbling the words on the paper without even noticing. With a final swipe of his pen, it was discarded and filed as he decided to call it a night and head to bed.

When he wakes up he feels odd…

When did he add all these extra blankets?

He feels like he is roasting under the weight of his sheets.

Looking around his bedroom he realizes that somehow he has accidentally cast a shrinking spell on himself last night. His bed is so far off the ground he has to shift into his demon form just to fly over to his nightstand where his DDD is currently placed.

After his attempts to turn back to normal fail. It embarrasses him greatly as he struggles to press the buttons to call you for assistance.

“MC, I require your assistance. Come to my room right away and do not speak a word to anyone.”

Although confused, you come into his room and look around for him until your see his adorably shrunk figure on the nightstand, wings flapping in displeasure.

He doesn’t dare let his brothers or anyone else for the matter know of his current state. His Pride wouldn’t allow it. But he elects to spend his day at your side wanting to keep you company and see what happens when he is not around.

You take it upon yourself to help him with the missed paperwork as he checks your progress while on your shoulder softly telling you what to do in your ear. He smiles knowing that his constant presence has quite the effect on you. But it goes both ways.

Every time you call him adorable his little fists clench in embarrassment, he loves the extra attention but not like this. He was supposed to be the one flustering you. He makes a mental note to get you back at a later time once the spell wears off.

Mammon~

You find Mammon’s wallet in the hallway of the house of Lamination and find it odd that he would leave it anywhere. But when you crouch down to take a close look you see a Mini Mammon is trying to drag the leather wallet down the corridor and into his room.

When he sees you are standing over him he sighs in relief and holds his hands out to you for you to lift him up he seems to be saying something to you, but he is too far below you for you to make out what he is saying.

Once he is closer to your face you see him shift embarrassedly in your hands and his tiny face is a blushing mess.

“There was a piece of Grimm in the hallway,” he cries “But when I picked it up it shrunk me down. I can’t be the Great Mammon if I’m so small. You gotta help me out.”

You laugh because of course Mammon would get cursed by a loose piece of Grimm but take him and his wallet back to your room so he doesn’t get stepped on or worse, found by his brothers.

You’re doing some homework at your desk as Mammon wanders around until his eyes feast on the little container holding your loose Grimm. It's mostly pocket change but this little treasure trove is too much for him to pass up.

His eyes light up as he basically tries to rock climb the ridges of the container to reach what he sees as a giant pool of Grimm. After falling on his tiny tush a few times, he reaches the summit and jumps into the bowl using it as a ball pit so he can play with it.

Amusedly you watch him swim through your money clinging it together and giggling like a child. He even builds himself a tiny home out of the coin. Your homework is forgotten as you are entertained by the tiny Avatar of greed.

Levi~

He picked up a new Manga from Majolish the other day called Help I Got Shrunken Down By Cursed Manga and Now My Crush Has to Take Care of Me! and was immediately shrunk down to the size of one of his figurines.

When you come by his room to read with him you are more than surprised to see him curled up in a tiny ball red-faced and embarrassed that you have to see him in such a pitiful state.

“Why would this happen to me?” he sniffles looking at the big world around him “I’m just an Otaku, this stuff only happens to normies.”

You tell him that this doesn’t really happen to anyone but that only makes him more upset as he begs for your comfort in these hard times.

After you gently pick him up off his desktop and soothe him you brainstorm a few things he could do in his small size since he is too small to read his manga or play any video games.

Get gets an Idea, Now that he is the same size as all his figurines he asks if you could take a picture of him with them like he is at a convention. Posing himself with Rui-chan and the others so he can post it to his Devil gram a bit later.

Satisfied with his Mini-Con, he feels a bit more open to his current predicament. He shifts into his demon form and takes a dive into Henry 2.0’s fishbowl to swim with the little guy and give him a bit of love as you research how long the effect of the curse will last.

 Once he is done you help him from the fishbowl and settle down into one of his giant bean bags as he watches anime using your DDD as a tv screen before dozing off clinging you your fingers.

[satellite-sims]

Get to Know Me ⭐ Sims Edition

thanks @descendantdragfi @auroraeternal @pixelatedpretties for tagging me! 💘

What's your favourite Sims death?

Usually i don’t kill my sims but if it’s needed...hehe. I choose “fast” death by pool, but my favorite is death by jelly bean. Like, this is so funny to me to die because of jelly beans? This is so resonating with me because i love candies so much i could die lol. And i also love the ghost it’s purple, haha.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Alpha for sure!

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Only once when i played with Tatyana at the Isla Paradiso. She used to swim a lot and her chubby shapes have constantly dissappeared and i always had to get back her normal chubby weight, hehe.

Do you use move objects?

Yes! But i try not to use it that much when i play casual gameplay. Sims might not like my way of placing the objects 🙄

Favourite Mod?

Master Controller! I can’t imagine how i lived without this mod earlier. And the story progression mod is must have tho.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

Hmm, i can’t really remember, it must be Late Night. Back then, i was soooo amazed by the Bridgeport and vampires in game. This EP completely changed my view of the game. I still love the aesthetics of this one.

Do you pronounce live mode or aLIVE or LiVing?

I don’t actually speak english, but i think this should sound like aLIVE.

Whos your favourite sim that you've made?

Are you serious? I have like 30+ sims and you force me to choose only one? That’s cruel. I’m torn apart between Tatyana and Francine. Okay, Francine. She is one of my sims that have really detailed story and biography.

Have you made a simself?

Yup! It’s Marzia.

Which is your favourite EA hair colour?

I don’t usually use them, but i like how the default red looks like.

Favourite EA hair?

Of course Deb’s hairstyle. I really love this hair since i first saw it installed in my game and still amazed of how it styled. And i love how the roots look like. A true EA’s masterpiece.

Favourite life stage?

Adult

Are you a builder or are you in it for gameplay?

I don’t know how to build, lol. Only decorate (still not very good tho) sometimes i love to gameplay but still i’m more like editor and CAS person.

Are you a CC creator?

More like CC converter. Well, this still counts, i think. I would love to create something by myself and i already have some thoughts about what it can be, but currently have no time for it :(

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I have a lot of friends only because of simblr community!

@myopicshen is my one and only best friend! We have seen each other last year and hope to see again this summer! She is not into sims community anymore but we still communicate. I show her my edits and screenshots, tell something about my OC and etc. I’m trying to get her back to the sims but she didn’t want to 😭😔 I loved her sims and edits sooo much.

@agnelid is my hair maniac (as do I) hehe 💇‍♀️

@falturilturaltura is my lesbian bae 💃🏽

@die-ginsekatze is my german aesthetic queen 🖤

Do you have any sims merch?

Does printed portraits of my own sims counts? @myopicshen gifted me them for birthday <3

How has your ''Sims Style'' changed throughout your years of playing?

There was a long road, huh. This picture is not so accurate bc it’s old but my style was always volatile. I love to do something noir styled (or close to that) at the same time i can’t refuse to do something colorful and experimental.

Whats your Origin ID?

I’m using my friend’s account lol and only for ts4 (which is rare) so i wouldn’t share.

Who's your favourite CC creator?

@rollo-rolls @smallsimmer @sourlemonsimblr @nemiga-sims-archive

@pleaseputnamehere @agnelid @billsims-cc @plbsims3

How long have you had simblr?

Since February 2016. It’s turned 8 this year!

How do you edit your pictures?

Since i had graphic tablet my possibilites have become bigger! I love to draw shadows, highlights and hair strands to make the portrait more realistic. I also use liquify tool to smooth edges. And of course color correction. Reshade is good, but not really accurate for me. At the end of the editing i put some filters from Alien Skin Exposure and the final touches: portrait blur and noise.

What expansion/ stuff pack is your favourite?

Uhm, university? I’m torn apart between Supernatural and University. These are both my endless vibing favorites. They are like completely two other worlds!

Tagging: @avirein @you-will-never-find-me-anymore @agnelid @rollo-rolls @sagasimsworld @cas-sims @jolifleurbleu @papermint-airplane @simimpala @pleaseputnamehere @niscomo @obscurus-noctem @joosiiims @nectar-cellar @camisulsul @simplybecauseiam​ <3

[daman19942]

Work in Progress - Burnaby Hall Remake (new on left, old on right)

I said this in my other post, but I've been looking for a house for Guy Wrightley and Jasmine Rai. I imagine Guy comes from old money, so it needed to be something that would speak to legacy and stuffiness, while also being a place to raise a family in 2023 (or whatever year it is in my Sims game). I wanted a Tudor, but didn't find anything that quite did the trick.

Turns out I had just the very lot sitting on my TSR profile in Burnaby Hall, a house I built in 2008(!!!!) with the Base Game starter. I had the crazy idea that this shell might work as a Tudor, and after downloading my own lot (because I don't have most of my downloads from the 2000's in my game), I got to work.

The shell hasn't changed at all, but that front walkway was too large and weird, and the landscaping was pretty naked. The new back patio is better designed, and I'm quite happy with the English-style swimming pool that stands alone on the right side.

The interior layout was a MESS, so I'm saving that for another post. It's obviously unoccupied since I play to share it, but I'm furnishing it with their future family in mind (whatever that means). Still more to do, happy with how it's coming even if it's taking forever because I'm so out of building practice!

[carlos-in-glasses]

Hi cgi!💚💚

I just finished reading “When soulmates swim,” and I wanted to let you know that I was deeply moved by it‼︎🥹🥹 English isn’t my first language, so there might be parts I didn’t fully understand, but this story had everything I look for – it’s emotional, funny, hot🥵,and beautiful!! The way it portrays TK, who has been through so much, building a relationship with Carlos is incredibly well done. TK diving into his relationship with Carlos, much like diving into the pool, was such a beautiful metaphor😭💚I was so engrossed in the story that I forgot to leave kudos for chapters up to Chapter 6 because I was so engrossed. Thank you for this amazing fic! I’ve been reading it for about a week, and every time you mentioned my art or work in progress, my heart raced.

It inspired me to draw the final scene from the last chapter, and I’m eager to do that‼︎ However, I’m concerned it might be a spoiler. Would that be okay with you? 🥲🩵 I wish I could have asked on Ask Day, but I'm a bit slow😔😔

Oh my gosh hello ❤️❤️❤️😭 I have had a hard, sad day - so logging in to find this message has helped me so much. I can't thank you enough. I'm honestly over the moon that you enjoyed it and took the time to read and found so much within it that you like. All I want is to write and give people a Tarlos that they can recognise and connect with.

I love your art - you are beautifully talented! I would LOVE to see your interpretation of the final scene. That would be so amazing!!! Thank you!!! I can't believe how lovely this is! (And no worries about not asking sooner!!!) I wish I could say thank you a million times!

Tarlos smoochies for you!:

[missathlete31]

Dead On Your Feet- Chapter 11

Chapter Summary: Maverick struggles with his memories as he tries to find his pilots in the open ocean

Warnings: Suicidal Thoughts and actions in this chapter. Maverick hits a very low point and starts to give up, so please, be warned.

Masterlist for previous chapters Here

Despite his functioning parachute, Maverick hits the water with a force that drives all the air out of his lungs. It makes a horrible situation even worse as he instinctively goes to take a lung full of air and is only met with the burning ache of ocean water pouring down his gullet. He hacks, his eyes widening to see the bubbles he is producing and his brain scrambles to send a signal that he needs to kick up to the surface sooner rather than later unless he wants to give himself a watery grave.

It’s not easy to find his bearing this deep in the ocean, certainly not as easy as their training in the Navy’s pools had led him to believe, but Pete manages to re-orient himself enough to catch the brightening light indicating sea level. He uses the rays as a homing beacon, swimming his way to the top and capturing the biggest breath of air his lungs can manage when he finally breaks through the waves.

He’s rewarded with a cough, then another, and the burn in his esophagus seems likely to remain for the rest of his life with the amount of liquid he spits up. Maverick has never been comfortable in the water, his preferred element of course being the air, and his experience today is clearly not going to be changing that opinion any time soon.

When he is finally settled, or at least as settled as he is going to be in a situation like this, Maverick’s mind clicks back into his predicament, remembering his ejection and the subsequent events leading up to it. He turns, as well as he can manage bogged down with his parachute, to look at his surroundings, hoping to find something to guide him.

There’s something up ahead. Maverick can’t tell what it is but he knows with an impregnable certainty that he needs to get to it.

He drops as much weight from his gear as he can spare before he begins to pull some strokes out of his water-logged limbs. Its slow going; his movements jerky from his lack of swimming experience. Pete’s used to speed at dangerous levels so this snail’s pace of tempo seems even more contemptuous. He tries to ride the crests of waves to speed himself along and by the time he starts to develop a steady rhythm he’s close enough to identify the hulking mass floating aimlessly in the water.

It’s a body.

Maverick’s heart squeezes as he paddles over, his eyes catching the enlarging red tint to the water the closer he gets. “No” he gasps, choking as a wave surges forward and knocks his progress back, as though the world is preventing Pete Mitchell from seeing what he has caused, “God no” he pleads as dread settles like a weight in his stomach.

He reaches the body in two more strokes, his composure slipping as he struggles to take hold of the prone mass in front of him and misses. There’s a steady battering of the tides around them; bringing him closer one second before callously pushing Mav away the next like the ebbs and flows of a shoreline.

He grunts, finding a resolve he didn’t think he possessed, and uses it to fight against the current enough to grab a hold of the other man’s body and keeping it firmly in his grasp. He pulls himself forward, snug against the still unmoving entity when he notices the position of the man’s front is face down into the water. It’s a bad sign, with devastating ramifications that Maverick can’t even begin to fully process at the moment as he forces himself to only focus on turning the man over. Though it takes him a minute to build up the momentum, Mav finally achieves the feat after a few tries and is compensated for the effort by being plunged back underwater. He finds his way back up much easier this time but two seconds above and he is falling back once more, this time from shock.

Because Pete Mitchell is met at the surface with the closed eyes of the only man he considers family.

The closed eyes….

And the bloody face…

And the broken neck of his best friend.

Bradshaw is dead.

No.

NO!

Maverick’s eyes open and it’s somehow 30 years later and a hell of a lot colder. He’s not in the warm ocean under the rays of the hot California sun of 1986 but instead in the frigid cold waters off the coast of enemy territory in 2020. The moon is taunting from up above; a half crescent sharp in the sky with the rest of the stars. Besides the celestial light there is nothing. Just a dark, lonesome abyss that chills Pete’s bones more than any water temperature could.

His parachute floods around him and the man trudges it off to allow himself to float listlessly in the waves. His 60 year old body is feeling the brunt of a second ejection in under a month and he’s not sure how long he will have the strength to keep himself buoyant. His mind struggles even worse to avoid drowning in the memories of decades ago.

Bradshaw is dead.

No.

But yes.

Yes Nick Bradshaw is dead and it killed a piece of Maverick too but Bradley Bradshaw might yet still be alive and Pete Mitchell would die right here on the spot no questions asked if it meant that kid got to outlive him. He can’t lose him, he won’t lose him and he knows that these precious seconds he is wasting could mean the difference in how many coffins are put in the ground when they get back to the states.

Maverick steels himself, focusing on his surroundings and ignoring the tingle down his spine that tells him he is too late and the F-14 with Rooster and Hangman is already down and drowned. Up ahead, vaguely, he makes out something burning. He doesn’t know for sure it’s them, can only imagine the level of devastation he would have had to wreak on the world in order to earn the karma of the plane being the 5th gen bogey instead, but it’s the only thing he can make out in the vicinity so Pete swims towards it.

It’s a struggle. Not only is he contending with the aches and pains in his body, but the water is freezing and making his skin feel numb every second it’s exposed in the air with his strokes. Hypothermia is a concern, not for him of course- he couldn’t care a fraction for himself, but he worries for Bradley and Hangman and the exposure they’ve already been subjected to.

He should be getting closer but the fire up ahead looks more to be extinguishing. If it goes completely out, Pete knows he runs the risk of not finding them, of forever being lost in the shadows. He wills himself faster, finds a gear in his swimming he’s never reached before; taking each push against the waves harder, each kick stronger, until he’s making advancements once more.

When he finally reaches the downed plane, Maverick’s gasping from exertion. He’s winded in a dangerous way, his body deciding right this minute to finally tell Pete Mitchell that he’s not in his 20’s anymore and he needs to start acting like it. He swallows roughly to stop the panting, burying his exhaustion in the back of his mind because there is much more pressing matters at the moment.

Like the fact that he’s still alone out here.

It’s the correct plane, the F-14 still showing signs from its battle in the sky, but there are no pilots to be seen. The left wing of the jet is charred to a crisp yet it still nurses the tiniest flame from the direct hit by the 5th Gen missile. The right one is snapped clear off and floating. Pete remembers seeing Bradley trying to get both pilots on the piece of debris but the weight didn’t hold and they crashed back in the water. It was the last sight Mav had seen before he made the decision to eject. He could have sworn he saw Rooster re-surface, could have sworn the two were still floating when Mitchell shot out of his plane.

But how much longer could they have lasted?

Maverick’s heart stutters.

He’s too late.

He dives down in the water, not caring about the statistical impossibility of being able to find them in good conditions, let alone in the pitch darkness, but determined to try. He takes dive after dive but each time he sees nothing in the murky waters, not even fish, and the abstract desolation he feels when he resurfaces for the fifth time strangles a sob from his throat.

Two jets streak overhead, Coyote and Fritz providing cover but to Maverick they only serve to mock him. Two times he has ejected over water and two times he will have been left with a dead Bradshaw to his name. The first time all but killed him; the strength of Carole, Charlie, Ice and Viper being the ones to get him through but this time, this time will finish him. He can’t go back, can’t face the team or the brass or even Penny with this failure in his soul. Ice brought him on to this mission to bring everyone home; he hasn’t done that, so he can’t go home either.

Pete would rather face his failures in the afterlife than live a day with them on Earth.

He feels his legs stop kicking, his body immediately lowering in the waves. His chin is kissed by the chilly sea and he flinches, the cold still packing a bitter punch. It can’t touch the hollowness in his heart though, the coldness there still wins.

 The water laps at his lips before it reaches his nose and then his eyes as he continues to descend. His sense of self preservation is the only thing not on board with his plan and so he doesn’t immediately take a breath even though it would speed the process along. It’s anti-climatic in its slowness but Maverick knows that milking it out is his penance, his chance to think of his regrets. He’s completely submerged now, fallen under for the last time when a noise sounds muffled from above.

Pete kicks back up from the water immediately. He doesn’t fully come up, rather stays tense with only his head exposed, his ears cocked to see if he hears the sound again. For the longest moment there is nothing but then suddenly a voice calls out from the darkness.

“H-Help” it croaks softly, and it’s hard to tell if it’s weakness or distance that makes it so hard to hear but Maverick gets enough of it to know it’s Bradley. “Please-“ the younger man calls again, and Pete looks up to see he’s timing it with the flyovers from the F-18’s. “Please help us.”

Maverick swings his arms down to raise himself up even more. There’s a swell of warmth in his body despite the frigidness of the environment, a rebirth of energy that was all but drained not a minute before. A wash of shame redden his checks, of what he was so close to doing but those are thoughts for a different time. He has more pressing matters. Pete has always found his purpose in concentrating on the ones that he loves and that’s not about to change. Bradley is alive and that means Maverick’s work isn’t done.

He can still make this right.

He cracks one of the precious glow sticks he gathered from his supplies and an eerie green lights the area. He clips it to his flight suit, and gets his arms under him, swimming around the now darkened F-14 and looks around. “Bradley?” he hollers, cringing at the shakiness of his own voice, “Bradley?”

“Mav?” It’s relief, plain and simple, and the sound of it from Rooster’s voice is enough to bring tears to Pete’s eyes. He focuses on the direction the voice came from and raises his glow stick as high as he can manage in the air, “Do you see the green Bradley?” he calls out, waiting with baited breath for the answer.

“Y-Yeah” comes the response. It’s still not the strongest but it’s all the motivation the older man needs. “Okay,” Maverick swallows a mouth full of seawater when he lunges into a swimming position, “I’m going to start heading towards you, keep talking, I need you to guide me.”

He’s prepared to hear Rooster talk about something mundane; the Eagles, the weather, how his favorite color for a long time was yellow but the younger man decides to hit him with an emotional grenade right away. “I’m sorry” the voice calls over, “I’m sorry for being mad at you for so long Mav. I shouldn’t have-“

“No-“ a sob throws off Pete’s strokes and he goes under for a minute at the sucker punch his godson gives him with that apology. When he re surfaces he chokes, tears beginning to fall, “not that. Talk about… anything else.”

Rooster stutters in the darkness, “b-but-“

“Anything else Brad, please.”

There is silence over the waves for a moment and Maverick panics thinking that what he cut off before might not have been Bradshaw filling air space but Bradley saying goodbye as he loses the energy to keep swimming. Pete’s ready to yell over himself when the voice is back, albeit a little meeker. “We-we stole a F-14” he calls out across the waves.

Pete nods to the obscurity, gets his body ready and lined up once more, “yeah” he answers, taking the next couple of kicks a bit faster, “I’m actually impressed you kids knew how to get it in the air.”

“It was Hangman- Jake” and Maverick wonders idly to himself when the two pilots got on a first name basis. He imagines it’s a new development, forged from the experience the two must have gone through together. Pete’s not surprised though, more than familiar with how trauma can cool even the most heated rivalries. He tunes back in to hear Rooster’s awe-struck tone, “he got us up in the air, shot down two 5th gens before… before-“

Maverick’s mind unhelpfully conjures up the images of the jet being shot down. Of flames licking closer to the cockpit and a gloved hand from the backseat reaching for its pilot. Bradley’s stopped talking, lost in his own memories, but it doesn’t matter because Pete can finally make out the younger man in the slivers of moonlight.

There’s another shadow next to him but it’s flatter in the water, not bobbing like Bradley in the waves but much more stagnant movements indicative of most likely not being coherent. The vision of his two pilots finally within reach spurs Mav on and he swims up to see his godson floundering as he treads water.One arm is leaning on a shattered remain of one of the jet’s seats, keeping the man afloat as his other hands holds onto an unresponsive Hangman. Seresin is lying on his back, his limbs prone, blood on his handsome face running from his hairline and dried blood looking to have come from his mouth.

A prone body battered in the waves. Its face covered in blood.

Maverick blinks and he’s seeing Goose. His breath catches at the sight.

A blood face, a broken neck-

“Mav” Goose is speaking to him now, his mustache wet, his expression scared, “Mav please!”

 Bradshaw is dead

“Pete!”

The older man snaps out of the memory, out of the past and finds enough wherewithals to take a shuddering breath. It doesn’t help so he tries another, reciting in his brain over and over that it isn’t 1986. This isn’t 1986 and it isn’t California. He’s not in Top Gun and fighting Ice and Slider for the trophy. He’s not 24 and trying to impress Charlie. Maverick shakes himself, shakes himself of the memories, of the guilt that has plagued him for three decades. He cannot allow himself to get lost in them again, his pilots need him.

When his panic subsides enough to actually focus, Pete finds Bradley watching him, his eyes wide and clearly frightened. “Mav?” he ventures carefully.

The humiliation of having a panic attack in front of someone else has to wait as Maverick instead closes the distance in the water to the two younger men and moves to assess properly. Bradley looks younger than he can ever remember, the angry scowl gone and just the drenched curled haired young man that life has been so unjust to remaining. He holds the floating chair and Hangman each with an iron clad grip as one leg kicks furiously underneath him and the other stays stiff in the water. Maverick doesn’t have to be a doctor to know the leg is most likely broken and he feels a well of pride at how strong Bradley must have worked to save him and his wingman’s life. Pete swims closer, offering his arms to shoulder some of the stress of keeping two grown men afloat but Rooster doesn’t engage.

“Bradley” Pete speaks slowly, clearly, “let me-“

The brunette shakes his head, “No I got it” he explains but his body sinks a little in his exhaustion and his argument loses its merit.

Pete sighs, “You’re hurt Bradley” and just to prove his point Maverick points down to the still barely moving leg. Rooster follows the movement but he shrugs it off nonchalantly, “Jake is worse” he declares and his kicking leg begins to shift a little faster, almost like he’s afraid to stop kicking in fear he might not be able to get the energy to start again.

It’s a fair statement because Jake clearly is more injured. Now that he is closer, Maverick sees more bloodstains so deep they haven’t yet been washed off by the water and tattered remains of a flight suit barely covering the dark shadows of bruising along Seresin’s body. “What happened to him?” Pete asks, because he knows this isn’t from just the plane crash. Something looks to have taken a bite out of the blonde kid’s arm. “Bradley?” he reiterates when he notices the younger man has followed his view and is watching the unconscious man as well, “Rooster can you tell me what happened?”

 When the man still doesn’t reply, just continued to stare, lost in his own mind, Maverick turns to his Captain voice to try to command the man back to the presence, “Lieutenant Bradshaw!”

Brown eyes rise to greet him, years of military decorum so engrained it overrides even shock and Mav makes out muddled confusion behind the orbs of his godson. It’s hard to tell if it’s from poor lighting or a concussion but it’s worrisome just the same. It also doesn’t help when Rooster sniffles loudly in the night sky, “He shifted the angle of the plane” he begins softly, his eyes on Seresin’s injured face.

Maverick sees the moment himself, and he cannot help but look at the blonde too. Jake Seresin joined his team with a reputation that said he was the man who leaves his wingman hanging, yet when it mattered, he did everything but.

Bradley’s body shakes with his emotions, “He took the hit for me against the SAMS, he went running through the woods for me after I went down too. He fought a wolf and he carried me all the way to the airfield. He fought 5th Gens in an F-14 for me and still as if he didn’t do enough, he angled the plane to take the hit when we crashed.” Rooster’s eyes finally shift, finding Maverick’s own. “I promised him before we stole the plane that we would bring each other home” the young man explains, clutching tighter to his wingman’s body. “It’s my turn now. It’s my turn to save him.”

Mav could fight him for it. He should fight him for it. But if anyone in this world understands the need to fulfill a promise, it’s Pete Mitchell. So the older pilot only nods, before taking a place around Rooster’s back and helps him take some of his burden from there instead. Up in the sky, Fritz and Coyote continue to circle, high enough to not disrupt the water but close enough to have a lock on the green light emulating from their glow stick.

Everything feels strangely silent for a few moments as Pete clutches Bradley and Bradley clutches Hangman. Three men, so different and yet so similar reduced to quivering and injured messes from the mercy of Life’s malicious hand and Mother’s Nature relentless pounding. They are just a speckle in this giant world, would be lost if not for this creation of neon green liquid in a plastic tube and yet the fate of millions of people on this planet is safer because of them all. Because of what they and their team did today. The karma they should have for it, the good will owed to them, is all Pete can hope for as they wait for rescue. That somehow the universe will realize they have all been tested enough.

As if on cue, a helicopter is incoming, the sounds of its blades rotating closer whisking like music to their ears. Maverick yanks for another glow stick and cracks it as well, combining the two and making their presence even more seen in the dark waves.

The chopper hovers a small distance away before a figure leaps into the water. Pete loses sight of them quickly before a huffed breath rushes forward and a Navy diver cruises to them. He stops on a dime, his demeanor calm and cool like he’s done this a hundred times before as he reaches towards Hangman first. “Unconscious?” he questions but it’s clear he doesn’t expect them to answer when he plugs two fingers to Jake’s neck and feels for a pulse. Something shifts on his face but it’s gone in the next second so Maverick can’t tell if he imagined it or not. The pilot knows he never actually checked Jake’s vitals but he assumed if Bradley was clutching so hard and so protectively that it meant the man was alive. Suddenly that argument doesn’t seem as valid, especially with their rescue operator starts to wave at the helicopter above them and a line is being brought down.

“He’s going first” the man explains before he swims a little to catch the rope. Pete offers a strangled nod but Bradley makes no reaction. When the diver comes back he moves to grab Jake and Rooster stiffens, his grip on the prone man as strong as ever. “Sir I need to take him up” the Navy diver explains.

Bradshaw doesn’t move, keeping Hangman tucked under his arm. He hears the command though because he makes sure to swing his body around in the waves, exposing his back (and by association Mav) to the rescue operator, almost as though protecting Seresin from this stranger.

Maverick can see the exasperation on the diver’s face. “Sir?” the Navy diver tries again, alternating between both Rooster and Maverick to see if the older man will offer some help, “you have to let him go.”

Pete knows this order, he’s lived it and if Bradley is feeling anything like he did that day with Goose then Maverick knows his heart is breaking at the thought of entrusting his friend, his wingman, with anyone else. But the precious seconds they are wasting right now didn’t matter for Nick Bradshaw, he was already gone; they matter to Jake Seresin though.

“Bradley” he swims around and takes a hand to the brunette’s chin, turning until they gazes lock. “You have to let him go” he urges.

Rooster’s head shakes, his lips tremble in the cold air, “N-No” he stutters, “I have to-“

“You kept your promise” Mav interrupts as he gently moves to pry Bradley’s hands from Jake’s body, “he’s going home. You did it. Now you just have to let go.”

“I- I have to-“

Pete takes his godson’s hand in his own and gentle releases his fingers off the injured man. The minute Seresin is free the Navy diver is pushing forward and grabbing him, hooking up a line and getting him situated. Maverick doesn’t look, his eyes only on Bradley. Rooster meets the stare for only a moment before he shifts to see what’s happening to his wingman. He doesn’t fight but he does watch sternly as the diver gives the all clear to his crew above.

Pete shifts to block his godson’s view and tries to offer a reassuring smile. Unfortunately it’s lost in the gloom of the night. It doesn’t stop the older man from trying to provide some sort of comfort though so he continues to talk aloud. “He’s going home” Maverick explains, his voice startling enough to get Bradley’s eyes back on him, “and so are you.”

Rooster nods once and they watch as Hangman begins to lift from the water. His head hangs down as the water drips, his body limp with a freeness that makes him swing in the wind. It’s a petrifying sight, more so for its familiarity to Goose’s death, but seeing anyone’s lifeless body sagging like a rag doll with only a thin rope supporting them is always going to be particularly horrific.

When Seresin reaches the opening of the helicopter, hands come out to greet him. They haul him up quickly and he’s out of view before the rope is sent down once more. The diver swims back out for it before joining the two remaining pilots, “okay” he begins carefully, unsure if he will be getting anymore pushback before he locks eyes on Rooster, “you want to go next?”

“He does” Pete answers, his tone brokering no argument. Bradley’s eyes flint to his but they both know the young man is exhausted from supporting Hangman and needs to get out of the freezing water sooner rather than later.

Rooster is strapped in fast and sent up soon enough. Maverick watches the ascent the whole way with hawk like vigilance. When Bradley disappears as well, Pete counts the seconds before he can see his godson again, willing the rope to come faster when it seems likes it’s been an eternity already. To Maverick it seems like the rescue swimmer must not sense his unease because he swims out with what seems like the slowest stroke in the world, although it’s only a matter of seconds before he’s finally heading back to the older pilot. “Ready to go” the diver questions as he clips the rope into place. Pete nods and watches as a signal is raised. “Then lets get you guys home” the man tells him and as Maverick slowly lifts into the sky he prays that the words hold true. That Hangman and Rooster and even Maverick himself make it back home, safe and sound, once more.

[jacquelynlscott]

✍️  How to Develop a Writing Routine

If you’re first getting started as a writer, a writing routine can help you establish a habit of writing regularly, improving your productivity and creativity. Writing routines can also help you stay motivated and focused on your work.

📅 The Basics of a Writing Routine

Writing routines are different for every person, and what works for one person might not work for another. You might have to play around and try different things to find what works for you.

Here are some tips to help you establish a writing routine:

Set clear goals. Define your writing goals, whether writing for a set amount of time per day or writing a certain number of words, etc. Having clear goals will provide direction and motivation for your routine.

Determine your optimal writing time. Identify the time of day when you feel most energized, focused, and creative. It could be early morning, late at night, or any other time that works best for you. Choose a time slot that you can consistently dedicate to your writing practice and schedule those blocks of time in a calendar. Treat this time as a non-negotiable appointment.

Create a conducive writing environment. Designate a space that is conducive to writing. It could be a quiet corner in your home, a local coffee shop, or a library. Eliminate distractions as much as possible and set up your writing area with the necessary tools and resources to support your writing process.

Start with manageable commitments. Begin with small, achievable writing goals to build momentum. For example, commit to writing for 15 minutes daily or a specific number of words. As you develop consistency, you can gradually increase the duration or intensity of your writing sessions.

Develop rituals or triggers. Establish rituals or triggers that signal the start of your writing routine. It could be making tea, listening to a particular song, or reading a few pages of a book. These cues help condition your mind to transition into the writing mode and enhance focus.

Experiment and adapt. Be flexible and willing to adjust your routine as needed. If your chosen writing time or location is not working optimally, try different approaches until you find what suits you best. Experiment with different techniques, such as freewriting, outlining, or brainstorming, to discover what enhances your productivity and creativity.

Hold yourself accountable. Find accountability measures that work for you. It could involve sharing your writing goals with a writing partner or joining a writing group where you can regularly discuss your progress. Alternatively, you can use productivity apps or tools that track your writing time or word count.

Read more: The Different Types of Editing

⭐  The Routines of Famous Authors

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for your writing routine, try borrowing practices from some authors you might know:

Ernest Hemmingway

“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not.”

Stephen King

“I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places…The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.”

Alice Munro

“I write every morning, seven days a week. I write starting about eight o’clock and finish around eleven….I am so compulsive that I have a quota of pages. I’m also compulsive now about how much I walk every day….Three miles every day, so if I know I’m going to miss a day, I have to make it up. I watched my father go through this same thing. You protect yourself by thinking if you have all these rituals and routines then nothing can get you.”

[willowcreektrait]

suburban~ish save | build diaries.

so, I been observing others save work in progress and honestly, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and instead of using the gallery for builds. . . I'd try making some my own! so this is my early wip of the copperdale Institution, currently there's a gym with an underground swimming pool area, outdoor basketball area, main building, study/classroom building aaand... I'll find somewhere to fit the cafeteria area.

[pizza-games-and-more]

Pizza Tower: The Series Episode Concept

Title: "You Cruise You Lose"

Season: 4

Summary: The cast go on a cruise vacation! Most of the cast have mixed feelings on this, but it was a free vacation offer so they figured why not. Enjoy the cast getting into the crazy situations only a cruise can provide, with plenty of cameo appearances from other Pizza Tower OCs and AUs!

Notes: Thanks to some encouragement I was inspired to post this! Thank you so much for not finding this Author Appeal idea too cringeworthy!

As everyone boards the ship, Vigi is notably nervous but decies to go along anyway because he wants to attempt to conquer his aquaphobia. (spoiler: he makes a comically small smidgen of progress)

After everyone heads on the ship and finds their rooms, the fun begins. The Noisecouple immediatey head to the pool and proceed to splash and bother everyone.

Peppino decides to hit up the mini-golf course, having developed a taste for the sport thanks to a certain Greaseball. Mr. Stick and Fake Peppino follow despite knowing nothing about golf, mini or otherwise.

Vigi heads to the side of the ship, trying to safely expose himself to the ocean to build up a tolerance to it. That backfires when Pepperman almost accidentally knocks him off the edge and Maria has to grab him just in time.

As Maria and Pepperman are arguing (they're basically Vitriolic Best Buds at this point lmao), Clove leads Vigi into a nice cafe and library area to calm him down as he himself took shelter in there from the more crowded areas. The two have a bit of a wholesome bonding moment as a result.

Gustavo and a comically disguised Brick (no pets allowed) hit up the arcade and end up winning so many prizes they struggle to take them back to their room.

The gang meet up for dinner at the buffet. Peppino surprisingly shugs off the low-quality buffet pizza, since it's oddly part of the charm of the vacation experience. Plus he had worst things to worry about, namely losing at mini-golf to beginners.

Maria coerces Pepperman into apologising to Vigi, who accepts his apology while discussing the books he'd just read with Clove. This piques Maria's curiosity and they tell her about the library cafe.

The next day, Clove, Maria and Vigi have ended up forming a book club at the library cafe. However, they quickly find out that Maria is... very opinionated when it comes to literary depictions of secret agent work, much to Clove and Vigi's comical horror.

Peppino and Noisette decide to try out the water slide. While Noisette ends up going down normally (albeit in a very silly fashion), Peppino... kind of overdoes it and ends up sent flying off the boat and needs to rush back to climb to the top.

The Noise and Pepperman head to a comedy show and proceed to ruin it with their heckling. Which prompts them to get kicked out of the theater.

And Gustavo and Brick head to the casino and end up winning a LOT of money at the slots. How the hell these two get so lucky is anyone's guess, but they celebrate by treating everyone to lunch on the shore trip soon after.

Too bad everyone else is too exhausted from everything that happened that day (except Noisette) and Mr. Stick has Fake Peppino stuck to him from when he tried to go swimming in the pool.

Once all that is over, they head back to the boat and things go relatively normally.

The next day as the ship heads back, it starts storming.

Everyone is cooped up inside while the storm goes on. Most are annoyed. Vigi is terrified. But then Pepperman of all people saves the day by suggesting to head to the indoor sports hall for a game of basketball.

They end up having so much chaotic fun doing so that they almost miss the fact that the storm cleared up and the ship just got back home.

A surprisingly wholesome end to a chaotic episode. Sorry if it turned out bad I just really wanted to write it.

[stealthnoodle]

Engineering 101: Let's Play Tears of the Kingdom

I haven't liveblogged a game in mumblemumble years and I've got Tears of the Kingdom in my hot little hands, so here we go! There will be spoilers, obviously, so everything's under a cut. Mute "stealthnoodle plays loz: tears of the kingdom" to opt out of this ridiculous experience.

I'm not sure far in yet--there are two quests under Main Quests marked "Complete" and two in progress, if that helps orient without spoiling!

Had to restart 5 seconds in because this game detects the language from the console setting and I don't want my first playthrough to be (slowly) in Japanese, lol.

Zelda wants to do her nerd shit but I want to spiderclimb on the ceiling, and guess who has the plot reins right now? Imma skitter.

A kingdom of weird-looking people in the sky, you say? Zelda's ancestors confirmed for bird-fuckers.

I am so intensely SMT brain-rotted that I saw a glowing magatama and expected Zelda to eat it. I don't care if it just tumbled out of a freaky mummy, it is probably full of skills and stats!

Aw man, I got Metroid Fusioned. :(

And now I got Luke Skywalkered! :D

I am truly in my element now: half naked and plummeting recklessly to an uncertain doom.

Robot foes AND robot friends! What a world. Zelda wants me to come meet her in what I presume is her new nerd paradise but I have frogs to catch. Surely she's known Link long enough at this point to expect my behavior.

SHAGGY CRANE WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME

Shows up 15 minutes late with toasted mushrooms

"Rauru - Source of the Right Arm" is fully hilarious, no notes. Full marks for long flowing hair, taking advantage of big ear real estate for piercings, and goat face. Top 10 Glowups of All Time

I can't wait to find out who my new pussy is gonna come from.

Oho, I got a bow now. It's over for you shaggy crane bitches.

ULTRAHAND. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE. Everything I own has a rock permanently fused to it now and I've never been happier.

I should be allowed to build with birds.

LOL I just got my first game over by dropping a heavy metal hook on my own damn head

After a tremendous amount of fucking around I have finally entered the Temple of Time, found another magatama, somehow still not eaten it, and gotten a magical handshake from a brief apparition of Zelda that lets me reverse the motion of an object. This is by far the magical power that would have the most practical application for me, a person with two cats.

Ascend is the funniest one, though. Love swimming up solid stone and popping out of the floor like I'm surfacing in a backyard pool. Canceling it is even funnier, like, well, now that I've had a peak at what's going on up here, I am choosing to return to the depths. Ta-ta.

I stuck my broken Master Sword into a ball of light and it went to what I guess is the Zelda Dimension so she could give it a little hug? That hug agitated a dragon and cleared up the weather. At least we go to show each other our new outfits.

(I will NOT wear a shirt except when the plots mandates one onto me. That is how I played BotW and I'm not giving in to Big Modesty now. Tiddies of the Kingdom)

Anyway I'm loose on Hyrule so further bulletins as event warrant.

I lied, one more important thing: I solved your little engineering puzzle on my first try with my hardcore GAMER STRATS.

I am very good at building sound structures, you see.

[etrehumxin]

Meridiem Republic

Once Selkie become known to the wider human world, the five major cities assembled to declare themselves the Meridiem Republic, the only country populated primarily by the non-human sophont selkie.

Recognized by the United Nations, Tengais is considered to be the capital and is the most developed moulin throughout the continent. Here, the temperature is akin to that of humid tropical subclimate so vegeation grows in abundance. Structures are in abundance here, built into granite formations which dot the center of the moulin. These structures consist of wood structures from the trees which grow in the moulin along with stacked, carved stone. Roads are paved with flat stones and plumbing is common. Agriculture is present, however, selkie practice a style of agriculture where the crops are integrated into the city and countryside in non intrusive ways. No one family owns these crops but it is good practice to either tend to the plants yourself or to alert someone from the city that a crop needs watering or replanting. Among the many buildings is the Repository, a great library were a record of selkie history resides.

Second in population is Aisimur, considered by Tengais to be a ‘hick’ town despite its booming fish commerce. Aisimur has diminished in population because of intense flooding in the past, leaving old homes carved into the ice abandoned as the city moved further inland. Still, fisherwoman regularly make the trip to the open ocean. Government is very decentralized here and life of a slower tempo than Tengais. The climate is colder than Tengais, being closer to the ocean, and has more temperate flora.

Then comes Saljitam which has the unique feature of having many hot springs. These small pools are ideal for teaching pups to swim and many couples will migrate to Saljitam once their pups are old enough to walk. However, it is effectively run by a male selkie named Lyre who is generally disliked for his ornery temperment and entitled attitude. Not many families stay permanent in Saljitam except if they’re part of Lyre’s harem.

Being the only above ice settlement, Peraljis has a duo population of selkie and leopard seals. The leopard seals regularly use the rocky shores to give birth when the ice floats aren’t avaliable and both species have comes to a truce to refrain from attacking one another. While it is still debated if leopeard seals are sentinent to the same magnitude as selkies, the two species can communicate, albeit cruedly. Among the squat stone settlements is a stone observatory where scholars of astronomy, geography, geology, and meteorology gather to debate a number of topics.

Finally, Barais has the lowest population, with most of the city being flooded in the climate crisis of the mid 21st century. Selkies have just begun to reclaim the moulin and rebuild although progress is slow going.

Interspered between the four great moulins are smaller moulins which are usually inhabitated by one or two families or dedicated to specific tasks such as raising flightless birds or cultivating specific crops.

Humans are tentatively allowed on the continent with a majority of those people being sciencts coming to Antartica for research, primarily in the summer. While there is no immigration quota, humans who move to the Meridiem Republic experience intense culture shock and the importation of foreign flora and fuana is heavily controlled including domesticated pets and livestock.

Infrastructure is centered in the moulins with most of the continent being underdeveloped. On ice infrastructure is heavily regulated and primarily consists of packed ice to form ‘highways’ between the above ground entrances of the moulin alongside human built research stations. Humans typically employ solar powered vehicles to move across the continent or more popularly, sled pulling thylacine who are bred for such a purpose.

Their GDP remains unknown because while selkie in Tengais use oyster shells crafted into small, circular disc (”shells”), a majority of their economy relies on barter economics. They also have a low import and export rate, being highly self reliant though their primary trade partners are Aotearoa, Australia, Agrentina, and Chile.