#along with giving the gang a proper place to cook if they so choose

[victorluvsalice]

So I wasn’t able to actually PLAY my Chill Save this past weekend, thanks to not having the majority of my mods cleared for the new patch -- so instead I hit Granite Falls in my building save and decided to upgrade one of the cabin lots there for my Valicer trio! (You know, via giving it a makeover and then saving it to my Library to be slotted into the actual Chill Save later.) Ended up choosing “Green Getaway,” since I figured they didn’t need a huge place (especially since only ONE of them needs a bed to sleep in now). I made the following improvements:

-->First of all, the outside is actually green now. XD I actually chose that completely at random because I wanted just to make it something other than brown -- it wasn’t until I was renaming the lot that I realized “Oh, huh, that was apt.” XD Missed the back stairs, but eh, that’s the back, no big deal. (And if I really want I can fix it when I put it into the Chill Save.)

-->I also made the inside more colorful -- the main living space has yellow walls now, and the bathroom is blue with a STONE floor because I felt that was smarter than hardwood.

-->Changed the games table on the front porch to the nicer wood “Don’t Wake The Llama” one (I believe from Parenthood), as I thought that fit better than the base game one.

-->Gave the house a proper mini-kitchen! Pretty much all of it apart from the sink, paper towels, dish drainer, fire alarm, and bin are from Cottage Living, as I felt that fit the aesthetic.

-->Upgraded the couch from a two-seater to a three-seater, and upgraded the TV to match.

-->As this necessitated getting rid of one of the lights, I also upgraded all the hanging lamps in the house to brighter Cottage Living ones.

-->Changed out the bookcase and dining table for nicer ones/ones I felt fit the cabin better, added more dining chairs (Smiler may not need to eat, but I do intend for them to take their laptop on this jaunt), and rearranged decorative items so that they’re all visible with walls cutaway.

-->Also added curtains! From Cats & Dogs if I recall correctly. Just makes the living room look a little nicer. Bathroom got a shade, though I don’t recall the pack.

-->Added the little gramophone radio and an end table for it to sit on (finding one that it WOULD sit on was a task and a half, though!)

-->Moved the cool little corkboard with its pre-placed postcards into the bedroom; also changed the bed to the Rustic Dream bed (or whatever it’s called) that you unlock when you max out the “Patron of the Arts” branch of the Artist career. This is the bed Alice will be unlocking soon, so I figured I’d let her and Victor try it out. :p

-->Rearranged the bathroom so I could fit in a proper shower/tub combo and some better towels (another task and a half to find ones that looked good!).

-->Added a third log seat to the campfire; a third folding chair seat to the cooler sitting area (and replaced the log seat serving as a “table” with an actual log table); and a couple of counters beside the barbecue with appropriate decorative items. Oh, and changed the mailbox to the Werewolves one and the bin to -- don’t recall if base game or from Outdoor Retreat, but it looked better than the standard plastic one!

-->Added the new Werewolves telescope and a water balloon bucket for more activities!

-->Added lot traits -- Sunny Aspect (because it’s a pretty forest); Peace & Quiet (because it’s out in the middle of nowhere and should be pretty chill); Natural Lighting (because it should be a good place to get more pictures for the nonexistent photo album XD).

I think it came out pretty nice -- and it should serve as a nice base of operations for Victor, Alice, and Smiler’s vacation. And, if you agree, since I did this without my mods and CC installed, I put it up on the Gallery! It’s called “Green Getaway Makeover,” under username AliceNVictor. :) Hope you enjoy!

[belphiesreverie]

Second of the requests! Some fluffy interactions with the Bucci gang for @pezahut

—————————————————————

Let’s just say, your days were usually pretty hectic. When you have 7 friends who all want to spend as much time as possible with you, it gets kinda hard to have a peaceful day.

Mornings were the most relaxing. You spent them with Bruno, slowly waking yourself up as he cooked breakfast for the both of you. He always managed to look so lively, even at 8am, that it filled you with your own energy to face the day.

“Good morning cara, I’ve got some fette biscottate for breakfast today. How many would you like?”

His smooth voice reached your ears and you instantly perked up. He sounded like he was in a good mood, so he most certainly had some interesting stories to tell this morning. One of your favourite things about spending time with Bruno was hearing about all the things that were happening around Naples since he was out and about all the time. He didn’t like to call it gossiping when he told you about all the things he overheard when walking around, but it was most definitely gossiping.

“You sound happy Bruno. Did something interesting happen?”

He placed the plate with your biscuits down in front of you, a devious glint in his eyes. He heard something really interesting.

*

Your next stop for the day was to see Giorno. He had a rather large garden that he tried his hardest to look after, but it was a lot of work for one person. That’s why you volunteered to help him out every morning.

Gardening was something you enjoyed doing anyways and you got to spend time with one of your friends whilst doing it. There was nothing better in your eyes.

You found it rather cute how Giorno would instantly smile when you arrived at his garden every day. It was a small smile, but it made your heart melt.

“Ah, Y/n! Just in time as usual. Thanks again for always coming to help me out!”

You two didn’t talk much, but it was still very enjoyable with small conversations peppering the comfortable silence every now and again. Just being in such a pretty and tranquil environment with Giorno was brought to put you at ease and prepare you for the chaos the rest of the day had in store.

*

Trish was your up next and she was probably your last chance to relax again until later in the evening.

It always amazed you how organised and neat Trish’s room was whenever you went in there. With how much stuff she owned, it was a mystery how she found the energy and patience to always make sure everything was in its proper place.

“Y/n! Can you grab my lipgloss for me? It’s on the bedside table.”

You noted Trish was in the middle of styling her hair and had already gotten dressed and applied most of her makeup. You must’ve spent longer in the garden today since usually you’d help Trish pick out what she was going to wear. Maybe Giorno had added some more flowers and you hadn’t noticed?

Waking over to Trish with the lipgloss in hand, you helped with the finishing touches to her hair. She didn’t seem annoyed that you’d come up later than usual, but you knew it meant you’d be spending a little more time with her this morning, which you didn’t mind at all. After all, you two had quite a lot in common and nothing could beat being able to lounge around and talk with Trish for a few hours.

*

You finally left Trish’s room when Mista was practically about to bash the door down with his knocking. Time had flown by and now you had to go out for lunch with him.

You appreciated Mista letting you choose where you went to eat whenever you went out since he would normally choose the same couple of places. However, you liked to visit all types of establishments from the popular restaurants to the more niche cafe’s.

“So, where are we going on our date today?”

Mista always made jokes about these lunch trips being dates and despite knowing that he was just kidding around, it never failed to make heat rush to your cheeks. Although lately, it was getting harder to convince yourself he was just joking around.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of your mind, you dragged Mista along to a quaint little cafe you’d been wanting to try out for the longest time. Letting yourself relax in the comforting atmosphere, you chatted endlessly with Mista and listened to him complain about all the trouble the pistols had been causing him.

*

Standing in front of the door to your next destination, you had to prepare yourself for what was to come next. From the sounds that were coming through the walls, you already knew it wasn’t gonna be pretty.

Pushing the door open, the sound of yelling increased tenfold and you knew you’d have to break those two up before they started throwing things. It was honestly a miracle how Narancia and Fugo still persisted in with hear tutoring sessions despite them always ending in chaos.

“Ah, y/n! Tell Fugo his teaching sucks and he needs to get better if he wants me to understand what he’s saying!”

“As if! You need to actually start paying attention and try to start using your brain! There’s noting wrong with the way I teach!”

The two continued to bicker back and forth as you made your way further inside the room. Picking up the worksheets that had been thrown about in a fit of rage from one of the boys, you made your way towards the table they were sat at.

You gave them the look and they immediately settled down. With a little more nudging, you managed to get them to apologise to each other and try the problem again, minus the yelling. Sitting down, you continued to watch them try and fail to subtly poke and prod at each other without you noticing.

*

Letting out a big sigh, you relaxed into the spot on the sofa next to Abbacchio. He acknowledged your presence with a small nod in your direction before taking a sip of his wine and returning his gaze back to the book in his hands.

You two were the only ones up right now, but that’s how you liked it. Since everyone else was always pulling you this way or that, you never really got to spend any time with Abbacchio. The time you got with him was always cherished as you always felt relaxed in his presence. Whether that was because you felt safe around him or it was just because he was one of the few people around here who knew what the word calm meant, you couldn’t really tell.

“You want a sip?”

Shifting your gaze over to Abbacchio, you saw him holding out his wine glass for you. Accepting it with a small smile, you took a little sip before returning it to him.

The wine was sweet which is something you’d come to expect from Abbacchio’s taste in wine. You’d inquired if he liked bitter wines before, but he didn’t give you a straight answer, just saying that he ‘doesn’t drink bitter wine anymore’. You weren’t sure what that meant, but you didn’t want to pry.

Slowly, the exhaustion from the day started rolling in and you could feel your eyes closing, finding it hard to fight off the sensation of sleep. Your head fell to the side and onto Abbacchio’s shoulder. If he was bothered by it, he didn’t say anything, instead letting you slowly drift off to sleep accompanied by the rhythmic sound of pages turning.

You awoke in your room the next day feeling refreshed and prepared to do it all again.

[lloydshoulddyehishair]

I think I’m lost [1/3]

Remember the angst oneshot I was working on? It turned out to long so I decided to turn it into a multichapter fic

Also posted on: ff.net, ao3

Summary:  He was thin. Oh, so thin Kai feared that if he went to hold him he might snap him in half. His once so shiny emerald eyes were barely anything like they'd been before. They were so empty and dull, holding no joy or hope behind them like how they used to. Like how they still should.

aka

Lloyd hadn't felt at peace for a long while. Ever since the Sons of Garmadon had made themselves known to be exact.

Trigger Warnings: Eating Disorders, Drug Use, Self-Harm, Referenced Abuse/Suicide/Abandonment

Lloyd hadn't felt at peace for a long while. Ever since the Sons of Garmadon had made themselves known to be exact.

Back then none of them would have expected things to escalate the way that they would later on. They all had just thought that they were just a silly little biker gang that they'd be able to stop in a matter of weeks.

They didn't expect that in the end half of the team would be stranded in another realm being hunted down by dragon hunters and the other half would still be in Ninjago being hunted down by the purely evil resurrected Lord Garmadon and the Sons of Garmadon, all while mourning the “deaths” of their friends and trying to save the almost completely destroyed city.

Ninjago never recovered completely from the destruction Garmadon had brought upon them. Of course most places were rebuilt but there were still huge holes in the streets from where the Colossi stamped it's feet into the concrete – those were things Lloyd could overlook though. What he couldn't overlook were the overfilled hospitals and orphanages. So many people had lost their lives, so many people he couldn't save.

And in a sick way it was almost funny. It was very ironic – Harumi created the exact thing she despised. She wanted to give Ninjago a proper ruler but in reality she just gave it more people who shared her pain.

But maybe that was her plan all along; making everyone feel the way she felt.

Now Lloyd was sitting at the window of his room on the newly rebuilt Destiny's Bounty – thanks to the Mayor and the city – staring at the grey clouds they passed through while listening to the thunderstorms. He had always loved thunderstorms, they seemed so full of rage but yet so calm.

'Much like yourself.'

Lloyd shook his head a little, letting the pen he had been holding in his hand fall to the ground while looking through the drawers of his desk. Finding his lighter, papes and the tiny green substance that had been making his days all the more easier.

For his whole life – which he wasn't quite sure how long it was because he didn't even remember his birthday anymore, was it in September or in October? He really didn't know – he never had healthy coping mechanisms. As a little kid, before the others had picked him off the street, he would just start to eat sweets when the sadness and pain he felt became unbearable, when he thought of his parents or Darkley's for example. Then when he lived with his uncle and his students he made it a habit to just refuse to eat. He felt unworthy of the food they offered. He had made them go through so many hardships and made their lives living hell. He really hadn't understood why they would take him in. But besides the others needed it more they were Ninja after all and needed to get as much energy as possible.

It was back then when the team slowly picked up on his unhealthy habits.

As he grew up because of the tomorrow's tea incident, whenever he would feel down or depressed he'd train as hard and long as he could, telling himself that it would make him stronger and his family proud. He barely noticed that he was actually just draining and destroying his body.

All the time his friends – his family said nothing. Always thinking his behaviour was just a phase and he'd grow out of it. Maybe they should have.

Now after everything that had happened, him losing his uncle, his team splitting up over the whole realm with him taking on all criminals in Ninjago alone, the Sons of Garmadon popping up, Harumi turning out to be the Quiet One and basically pulverizing his heart, his father being resurrected as a purely evil shell of Lord Garmadon, being humiliated on television across the whole country, his friends dying (or at least so he, Nya and the rest of the city thought), being literally hunted by the Sons of Garmadon and his father plus his technically-psychopath-ex-girlfriend and the list could go on and on – he lost it.

He could barely go a day without panic attacks just a few months ago, having mental breakdowns on the weekly making the energy in the city go out in a nasty blackout every time. His friends had noticed of course, it would have been hard not to. And they had tried to talk and reach out to him he the first three times it had happened. Lloyd didn't want to talk though, shutting them out completely and his family just – gave it up. Thinking he wanted to be alone and sort things out on his own. The young Garmadon thought so too. He thought he just wanted to be alone as well. But as he sat all by himself in the guest room he had been sleeping in – because he had refused to stay with his brothers – he had realized that loneliness was actually what pulled him down emotionally and what made him feel even worse on top of everything.

That didn't stop him from keeping on shutting his friends out anyways – old habits died hard.

And Ronin – who had obviously noticed the blackouts too – being Ronin and meaning well but... being Ronin, had offered him something to calm his nerves with, one day he had been over at the Destiny's Bounty, just in case he wanted to. Of course Lloyd didn't decline, he was desperate for anything that could make his pain go away, that could make him stop feeling, so he accepted the offer and shortly after found himself high with Ronin on his bed while spilling his heart out to him.

The thief loved the kid, really did, he had already protected him with his life and he'd do it again any other day. The other members of the Ninja team always knew that and respected him for it.

Yet he knew getting the kid weed to help him forget his sorrows wouldn't be left without consequences for him by them. Not that he cared though.

But if he had known what kind of behaviour Lloyd would spiral into shortly after he surely would have never made that offer in the first place.

And so here the blond was, standing in front of his (now) opened window smoking his second joint that day – just anything to numb his feelings with.

It was kinda funny to him how much of a hypocrite he was. He remembered how he had screamed at Kai to stop smoking cigarettes and how he shouldn't ruin himself like that and would you look at him now. Doing exactly the same, maybe even worse. Kai at least hadn't been high as a kite on the daily and Kai at least hadn't isolated himself like Lloyd did now.

“So much for the great Green Ninja.”, Lloyd hissed mockingly into the nothingness throwing the end of the joint out of the window.

Maybe he should go into the living room and talk to the others, spend some time with them. The last time he saw them was about 2 weeks ago? He had been avoiding them, mainly because he felt like the odd one out whenever they were together.

He couldn't bring himself to enjoy playing video games with Cole or laugh at Jay's silly jokes, he also wasn't quite interested in having talks about Ninjago's history and culture with Zane and he usually loved those conversations. Hell, he didn't even like to cuddle with Kai and Nya while mocking the other in a childish but affectionate manner anymore.

He didn't feel like himself anymore but instead just like an empty shell.

And Lloyd couldn't help but wonder

Was this how his father felt all the time?

-------

The blond made his way to the living room trying to ignore the way his limbs shook like he was about to collapse.

He had been feeling weak lately, probably due to malnutrition. Lloyd had been barely eating the past few days because- well it was a little difficult.

The easy answer would be that he just simply didn't have the strength or motivation to get out of his bed. Plus he had gotten used to the stinging pain in his stomach hunger caused and barely noticed it now. If anything he felt weird when it wasn't there.

The longer answer was way different than the easy one.

When his uncle had disappeared and his friends searched for him all over Ninjago he had been left feeling out of control because there was nothing he could do to change all of it. There was nothing he could have been able to do to bring his Sensei and his friends back.

He hadn't been in control of even his body at this point anymore. He had grown taller all of a sudden, his voice got deeper and he noticed how he had been putting on weight. Everything had been changing and Lloyd didn't like changes.

Back then the only thing Lloyd had power over was – even though it seemed cliché – food.

He could choose whether or not he'd eat, he could choose how to prepare the food and how to put it all together. It was satisfying – cooking food, getting it ready and then being in full control of his own body and mind and refusing to eat despite his stomach basically screaming at him.

It was control that made him feel alive and that reminded him of the fact that Morro was no longer possessing and using him as a pawn against his family and Ninjago. His need of being in control was probably also what had made him hit rock bottom during his father's reign over Ninjago – well that and being disowned and thrown through multiple concrete prison walls probably did the trick.

He had felt so horrible after Harumi's betrayal, his fathers resurrection, his friends' deaths and all of the other horrible incidents – but back then Lloyd hadn't even been able to control his food intake properly anymore because now Nya was there with him and she would make sure he'd eat.

She hadn't seemed suspicious on his eating habits, after all he was a normal weight even if he was on the slightly thinner part of the spectrum. The only reason she had made him eat was to make sure he'd stay strong in case he'd have to face trouble – like the Sons of Garmadon, Harumi or even worse his father – any time soon. If he'd just faint on the battle field that wouldn't have been too great. It had been a hard time for him and her and he was just glad all of that was over now, even if it hadn't been easy.

Now, something that wasn't easy either was keeping on walking towards the living room as he heard sounds coming from it. Talking. Laughter. And Cole's voice screaming at Jay for whatever the reason was. He didn't want to ruin their good mood. Maybe he should just go back to his room and come back later? No. If he didn't do it now he would put it off for another two weeks. He leaned against the wall with his arm, feeling like he was going to lose balance caused by the sudden wave of dizziness that hit him.

“Lloyd?”, he heard someone behind him call out. Turning his head slowly towards the direction the voice came from he saw an old man down the hall where he had just come from. He was wearing a rice hat and had a long white beard. His eyes looked at him with nothing but concern but Lloyd could have sworn there was something in them that looked haunted.

“Are you alright?”, he stepped towards the younger, the sound of his staff making contact with the wood floor sent chills down the Ninja's spine.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. The simple gesture made him feel warm inside like back then when he was just a kid and his father would do simple things like that while telling him he was proud of him.

But it was gone. All gone now.

He shook the thoughts off. He didn't want to start crying like a baby in front of him, especially since his father was a sensitive subject to Wu as well.

His gaze fell from his shoulder to the man's face, the concern in his features just increasing.

“Yeah, I guess so.”, he muttered. “Wanted to go see the others.”

“You've been locking yourself up in your room for a pretty long time.”

Lloyd snorted. “Haven't noticed.”, he quickly moved away from his uncle's touch and went inside the living room, everything suddenly going quiet.

He felt uncomfortable under the stares directed at him, felt like they were burning through his skin. But he didn't want to feel that way because of them. They were his friends, his family and yet here he was feeling so unsafe and helpless in front of them, as if they could see right through him.

“Uhm.”, he started slowly lifting his hand a little and waving awkwardly. “Hey?”

Maybe not his best introduction. He knew he sounded and looked emotionless. And maybe it was because he was, in fact, emotionless.

No. Who was he trying to fool? If anything Lloyd was completely emotional. Just waiting for the bathtub of kept in and hidden feelings and memories to overflow – to spill it all out.

Right now was not the moment though.

“Am I interrupting something?”, he asked as the looks on their faces shifted from surprise into something else, a look the Green Ninja had seen way to often in the past few years probably so often that he could sense it from miles away by now. Pity.

He wanted to throw up.

“Oh, Lloyd.”, everything stopped for a second.

There was something about Kai's voice, how he spoke his name, that irritated him. He sounded like back then when he saved him from the volcano when he was just a little bratty child or just like when he comforted him about his fathers death after the tournament or like when he had just been saved from Morro's possession or when- Oh.

Okay now he actually wanted to throw up.

“What has happened to you?”, his voice was careful, he didn't want to alarm Lloyd in any way. He wanted to make sure his little brother knew that he was safe with them and that he was loved and protected and there really wasn't a need to look at him like a scared and hurt puppy because that was exactly what he was doing right now and it made him go crazy.

They should have interfered sooner, should have called Lloyd out of his room instead of just leaving him, letting him succumb in his own darkness probably, like they had done after a while.

His little brother, his baby brother, whom he had sworn to protect more than anything in this world, needed him now more than ever because Lloyd was currently fighting a war that he wasn't going to win – at least not all alone. Kai had to protect his perfect baby brother from himself before he could do any more damage to his mind and body.

He was pale, so pale he might as well have been dead and he was thin. Oh, so thin Kai feared that if he went to hold him he might snap him in half. His once so shiny emerald eyes were barely anything like they'd been before. They were so empty and dull, holding no joy or hope behind them like how they used to. Like how they still should.

“What do you mean?”, the blond spoke out again, his voice small but yet so angry.

And it really took a bit for it to reach them but then Kai noticed the smell – the smell he was so familiar with from going to parties or walking through Ninjago City Park.

Kai's eyes widened and by the looks on his friends' faces they noticed to.

“What the hell, Lloyd?”, he called out, finally jumping up from his sitting position on the sofa, making his way to the blonde and grabbing his – way too thin and bony – wrists. The now slightly taller boy was too slow and weak to react in time though. Kai felt like screaming, eyeing the youngster's bloodshot eyes. “Are you smoking weed?”, his voice came out way louder than he intended to, but he barely had any time to really realize that because the next second his blood was boiling, because Lloyd fucking snorted and started chuckling.

“Is this a freaking joke to you?”, Lloyd really couldn't help but laugh and as he felt Kai's grab on his wrists loosening slightly, he took his chance to break free. He didn't bother to step back though.

“You are funny.”, the Green Ninja muttered and the grin on his face turned bitter. “I've been starving myself, cutting myself, have had panic attacks on the daily and you're-”, Lloyd felt like a maniac for laughing but oh well, maybe that was a trait he got from his father. “You're focusing on me smoking weed?”, he watched Kai's expression fall, as everyone else's in the room. Normally it would make him feel bad and sorry but right now he didn't feel anything but bitterness. “Priorities. Right?”

“Lloyd, we didn't kno-”

“Oh, of course you didn't.”, he interrupted Cole rudely and basically stabbing him with his glance, eyes turning red. “Because you didn't look. You looked away, away from everything. All of you. And maybe you shouldn't have. Even Wu knew that something was going on before you guys and he is basically a shitty excuse of an uncle.”, he breathed out trying to calm himself. “By the way, Wu, you can come out from your hiding spot, it's quite pitiful watching you hide behind that table.”

The old man rose from his kneeling position on the ground, no one really caring how he got there in the first place. His eyes though, didn't rise with him. Looking at his nephew in this state would just break his heart. Would remind him so much of his broth- Garmadon.

“And you know why you did that? Because I do.”, no one dared to reply, too scared to make Lloyd even more angry and hurt. Seeing their little brother like this broke their hearts and the worst thing about all of this was that he was right. They had looked away and had left him alone when he needed them the most. They had thought that he would be okay on his own, that he'd be able to pick the pieces of his broken mind up all by himself like he had always done. Turns out this time it had just been too much for him alone.

“You all looked away because you don't care. You don't care about me, you care about the Green Ninja. Not Lloyd Garmadon. Because Lloyd Garmadon is still just a silly, bratty child to you who just can't do anything right.”

He hated it. Hated spilling his heart out to his teammates like that, he never wanted to tell them all of this, wanted to keep it a secret he would take to his grave.

Seems like the bathtub overflowed after all.

With tears starting to stream down his cheeks and blurring his vision he found it difficult to look at them. He didn't want them to see him like this.

“And it sucks.”, he choked out, voice cracking. 'God dammit you are such a crybaby.'

“Every single day of my life sucks because I know there is no way to change it. To change the things I've done. People died because of me and there is no way to bring them back! There is no way I can 'redeem' myself, no matter how much good I do or how much evil I defeat! It doesn't bring them back! It doesn't put destroyed families together again and it doesn't give people the life back, that they deserved, that I have taken!”, Lloyd was just screaming at this point, falling to his knees and holding his fists to his chest, crying hysterically. “Ho-how many more children are out there, who-whose parents I-I have taken. Ho-how many pa-parents lost their ch-children be-because of me?! How ma-many more Harumi's a-are out th-there?!”

Her name tasted toxic on his tongue. And he despised himself for bringing her up in the first place because this really didn't have anything to do with her (except it did). She just made him realize of the consequences his actions caused, made him actually realize the weight of it. Technically he had probably killed as many people as his father at this point.

Day by day the blond noticed more and more how similar him and his father actually were. Though he didn't like it. He didn't want to be like him.

“And I can't do it. I can't live with that.”, he felt himself being wrapped in a hug and he didn't even have to look up to know that it was Cole who had rushed to his side, cradling him in his arms while he was still crying hysterically, pretty much unable to breathe at this point.

“Ssh.. Lloyd, listen to me. Focus on my voice. Can you do that?”, his deep voice was soothing, calming in some way, but it wasn't enough. “Breathe with me, okay? Come on, you can do it. 1... 2... 3... Hold. 1... 2... 3... And out. 1... 2... 3... In. 1... 2... 3... Hold. 1... 2... 3... And out. 1... 2... 3... You're doing great buddy.”, the teams leader felt himself relax more and more as the elder kept on reassuring him and holding him tight. Exhaustion soon took over and then compunction.

“I'm sorry.”, he muttered against his chest, grabbing tight onto his black shirt. “I'm so sorry.”, his eyes were shut, still not wanting to look at them and see their faces and the expressions probably full of hatred and hurt after his little pitiful speech.

“There is nothing to be sorry for.”, Lloyd wanted to punch Cole.

Nothing to be sorry for? Lloyd fucked up his own life and now here he was taking it out on his only friends and family while it wasn't their fault. None of his actions were their fault, because he had made them.

Of course there was something to be sorry for.

Cole watched his fellow teammates, still standing helplessly in the room, not knowing what to do and by the look on Jay's face Cole could tell that he really wanted to say something but wasn't too sure if it was either the time or the place to do so.

“Of course there is.”, Lloyd's voice choked out again and it sounded so broken and weak, Cole thought he was holding the little nine year old in his arms after his dad had left, once again. “It isn't your fault. None of this is and I am sorry for taking it out on you. I'm- I just don't know anymore. I-I'm so unsure of everything.”

“Lloyd, it's okay.”, Nya spoke out for the first time. “You were right, we should have done something. We are your siblings for heaven's sake and we left you alone with your pain. That's unacceptable.”, he felt a hand being placed on his knee and dared to open his eyes, staring right into Nya's bloodshot ones. She looked like she'd been crying- Oh. She probably had. “But we are here for you now. We are right by your side and we listen to everything you want to say. We are there for you and we love you for you, not for being the Green Ninja.”, Lloyd nodded slightly, blonde strands of hair falling in front of his eyes.

“Okay.”, he spoke quietly.

“Uh.”, everyone's eyes fell on the Blue Ninja who was playing with his sleeves. “You, uhm... Said some stuff earlier about you... cutting?”, Cole felt Lloyd tense up in his arms and could have sworn he heard the fire ninja curse as well. “Was that... true? I'm just worried you know... because if you are you totally don't have to feel bad about it! I swear! But I think it would be better if you let Zane or Nya check up on you? Just to make sure everything's alright! Well not alright obviously but- You know?”, he began to ramble, not wanting to offend Lloyd. He out of all people knew what it was like to feel so lost that you would hurt yourself just to get judged later on. He didn't want his little brother to feel like that.

“Yeah.”, the young Garmadon spoke, silently pushing himself away from Cole, yet still staying on the floor and not looking up.

“Yeah, to what exactly? Yeah, you're... cutting or yeah, you'll let Zane check you up?”, Jay asked carefully.

The blond looked up at his red-haired friend, his eyes had turned green again by now. “Yeah.”

“Oh my God, Lloyd.”, and he felt himself getting wrapped up in a hug once again just that this time he immediately took a step back.

It wasn't fair to Kai. Not at all. Lloyd was being stupid and selfish and he was being a brat. It wasn't Kai's fault that all these awful things have happened to him over the years, if anything it's Kai's fault that nothing more happened. If the Fire Ninja hadn't been there for him all this time he'd be long dead or would be bearing double the amount of traumatic experiences. He had always been there for him and always stood behind him even in the worst of hardest of times.

So it really wasn't fair of him to flinch back and push Kai away like that.

But he couldn't help it. Because he felt so, so guilty.

“I-I'm sorry- I can't- You can't do that-”

Something in Kai's hazel eyes shifted. Lloyd mentally slapped himself because he did it again, he hurt someone who was so dear to him once again just because he was being selfish.

“Lloyd, no, what do you mea-”

“You died and- and I-”, and what? How was he supposed to tell him that he was a little ungrateful brat and that Kai deserved better? How was he supposed to tell him that he should just leave him alone at this point because whoever was close to him eventually got hurt. Either by the hands of some villain or by Lloyd himself.

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.”

“But I have to or else I won't ever be able to looking at you and without feeling guilt!”, Kai just nodded understanding.

“When you died I- I was so sad and devastated and lost and-”, Lloyd sucked in a breath as he looked at Nya for a mere second. “We both were. But- but Nya was so much better at dealing with it than I was. Nya stood strong but- but I gave into grief and I was just so depressed and hopeless.”, Lloyd hated thinking back on it. Hated thinking back on the emotions he had to live through and he was so glad he had his family back, all of them.

But it was true. Nya was much better at dealing with their family's deaths than him because Nya was stronger, because Nya was great, because Nya was so much better than him. She should have led the resistance, maybe she should have even been the team's leader or the Green Ninja. Any of them would have been a way better fit for the role than him but Destiny hated him. Though in all honesty he was also somehow happy that he was the one who turned out to be the Green Ninja in the end because that spared them from lots and lots of pain. Of course that meant that he was the one who had to deal with it but if it was for keeping this burden from his friends he'd do it any day.

Lloyd placed himself on the sofa carefully next to Jay. “And when- when I thought of you-”, his eyes fell on Kai for a second before he buried his face in his hands. “I got so angry like I've never been before and I was thinking about ho-how you could just leave me like- like that and it-”, he felt himself beginning to shake.

This wasn't easy for him, because Lloyd was not just the Master of Energy or “Master Lloyd” but also the Master of 'if-I-don't-admit-to-my-issues-and-feelings-they-aren't-real-and-what's-not-real-can't-hurt-me-or-my-friends' and the fact that he was to admit to hating his own brother at some point was definitely something that could and probably would hurt him and Kai.

“I hated you.”, his words were rushed and for a second Kai thought that Lloyd wasn't being serious but then the emerald eyes looked up at him and it was clear he meant exactly what he had said.

“I hated you so much. I hated you for leaving Nya. I hated you for leaving Ninjago. I hated you for leaving me, when you had promised to always be there and to protect me.”, Lloyd tried his best to ignore the tears streaming down his face and the cracks his voice did as he went on. “I've grown so used to having you- to have a big brother. I didn't know how to live without one- and I still don't.”, he murmured the last part, eyes meeting the floor for what felt like the 600th time today.

Kai said nothing. Stayed completely still and silent, just listening to what his little brother had to say because he knew he just needed to get it all out now, but to Lloyd Kai's silence was one of the most terrifying things ever. Probably up there with the thought of him turning out like his father and being possessed again.

He had to continue anyways.

“And it isn't fair.”, he whispered sounding heartbroken. “And I know that. I'm selfish, I'm dumb, I'm ungrateful and you deserve better. I- I don't understand why you keep on pu-putting up with me.”, the crying had stopped right now and Lloyd was sure that it wasn't because he felt better but rather that there were just no more tears left for him to cry.

But with every word the blond broke out he felt himself getting calmer, the storm in his head slowly calming down. “It wasn't fair of me to hate you for something I technically caused. It wasn't fair of me to hate you for leaving anyways. You did so much for me over all this time. You all, but especially you, practically raised me. You risked your life so many times and have always supported me. And it's not even like you chose to leave. It wasn't your fault but all mine. But I was so selfish and only thinking of myself because-”, because I couldn't bear to loose anyone else and I couldn't bear having any more names on the list of people that died because of me. Lloyd ends up not finishing that sentence.

“I don't hate you. I love you with all my heart but when I look at you I can't help but think about how I did hate you and it makes me feel so- so guilty and awful.”, Lloyd let's out a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding because what he was about to say next was without a doubt the hardest thing for him to say out loud.

“If you, all of you I mean, hate me now that's okay, I get it.”, a sob escaped his lips.

“Lloyd-”

“I really won't judge you if you do-”

“Listen to me-”

“And if you want me to leave now, I will-”

“Please just-”

“If I were you I wouldn't want me to stick around-”

“Greenie-”

“As well-”

“I hate myself too-”

“Lloyd, don't you dare finish that sentence! Just listen to me!”, Kai rose his voice making the blond flinch and look up at him in shock.

Kai hated to see him like that, so hurt, so broken, so small, so young because in the end that's all he was. Their younger brother who had to grow up way too fast, much like Kai himself had to. Of course Kai also knew that his little brother wasn't a child anymore. He knew he was already seventeen but even that was way too young of an age for carrying the burden of being the Green Ninja and everything else that had happened to him.

“I'm not mad at you. It's completely natural to feel anger and sometimes even hatred when grieving. When I-”, Kai bit his lip for a second. Normally he wouldn't talk about it, wouldn't talk about his childhood and his parents absence. But he had them back now, everything turned out okay. “When I thought that my parents had died I was constantly getting into fights with random children to let out my anger. Because I hated them for leaving me and Nya all alone. So believe me I get it and I am not mad at all.”, he let out a sigh and sat down next to him pulling the blonde's head close to his chest. This time Lloyd didn't push him away. “I love you. You're my little baby brother and there is nothing you could ever do or say to change that or to make me hate you, I care too much about you for that. And don't you dare think about leaving us and don't you dare hate yourself. You are beautiful from the inside and outside. You've done so much good and you are so important to every single one of us, we want to help you and go through this with you together. Please just let us- let us help you.”, he felt Lloyd nod against his chest murmuring a silent 'okay'.

“We are going to get through this all together you just have to let us in.”, Nya smiling softly at the blond who nodded once more and sat up straight again.

“Thank you, guys.”

“It's what friends are for, Lloydie Boygie.”, the half-human scrunched.

“Jay, please-”

“Never say that again.”, Kai finished for him but couldn't hide his amused smile.

“So.”, Zane spoke up for the first time during the whole conversation. Lloyd wasn't mad at him for it, he knew how hard it was for Zane to comfort others due to his sort of blunt nature - it just wasn't his thing. “Should I look over your self-inflicted wounds now?”, Lloyd made a face and swore he could hear the others breathe in sharply. Yes, definitely blunt.

“Uh.”, he murmured while standing up. “Guess so. Med-Bay?”, Zane just nodded and made his way out of the kitchen being followed by the young Master.

[the-awkward-outlaw]

Arthur denying his feelings for reader be like: plays Hercules (1997) - I Wont Say Im In Love

Anon, this one turned out so cute and fluffy, I’m literally on the verge of death!

Masterlist

Read on AO3

Arthur’s leaning against a tree at the edge of Clemens Point, feeling like a lovestruck idiot. He’s been watching you for longer than he cares to admit. Despite being the newest member of the gang, you’ve continuously surprised him over the past few weeks. It was the obvious stuff at first, the way you wore your hair, the way you talked to people (especially him), how you treated your horse. Now it’s the small things he’s taken notice of. How you brush the hair from your face, how you like to watch the sunrise while drinking your morning coffee. 

He rubs his hand down his face, knowing he shouldn’t get involved with you. He’s a fool for falling for you in the first place. Not that there’s anything wrong with you, he thinks, but no one would want his affections. Besides, he’s had too many bad experiences with romantic relationships that it’s just easier to be alone. He’s still heartbroken about how things ended between him and Mary, and thoughts of Eliza and Isaac still torment him. The last thing he wants is to add you to his list. 

He crosses his arms, still leaning against the tree and watching you walk across the camp to go and feed the chickens. He watches them gather around your feet, pecking at the grass for the food you’re tossing down. He’s almost tempted to join your side, to look for any excuse to talk to you. You’ve become close friends after all, talking comes easy. But he’s decided to try and push you away, he can’t risk falling for you. Or at least falling for you more than he already has. 

“Hey ol’ man, grumpy Morgan!” Sean chuckles, coming towards him. He’s clearly on guard duty, the repeater in his hands. 

“What you want, boy?” Arthur says, clearing his throat and looking towards the lake, trying to look innocent. 

“Nothin’. Just wonderin’ when you’s gonna ask that girl out. Y’know, Karen was tellin’ me the other day how Y/N fancies you. It ain’t a secret you fancy her too. Why not just do everyone a favor, take her out?” 

“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Arthur growls. “It ain’t like that between us.” 

“Oh I can see it all over your face, Morgan. You. Love. Her.” 

“You’re the world’s biggest fool, Sean. If you know what’s best for ya, you’ll shut your mouth.” 

“I knew it, I knew it!” Sean laughs. “Yer the most predictable person. Whenever someone says somethin’ about you that’s true, ya get all defensive and angry. Just do yerself a favor, take that girl out on the town. Hey, if ya need an excuse, I overheard her sayin’ she’s been missin’ the ‘forests of West Elizabeth’.” He makes air quotes. 

Before Arthur can snap at him again, he walks away, chuckling lightly. Arthur sighs and leans further against the tree. Sean’s definitely given him something to think about. The forests of West Elizabeth, he repeats silently. What exactly does that mean? He knows you come from out west and that you prefer it out there, much like himself. He’s never heard you talk about forests or anything like that. 

Against his better judgment, Arthur comes up with a plan and decides to bring it to you. Besides, he’d be lying if he didn’t want a reason to take you out somewhere alone. Not to try anything, of course, but he enjoys your company. There’s something about you that he finds addictive. 

He walks slowly up to you, wringing his hands a bit. He’s nervous that you’ll see right through him. When he gets close to you, still feeding the chickens, he notices something’s wrong. It’s your energy, you just seem down. Your shoulders sag, as though a weight presses down on you. He clears his throat, catching your attention. 

“You a’right?” he asks quietly. 

Your head snaps up and you look at him. Instantly, the sadness from your face flickers and is replaced by your soft smile. He can tell you’re faking it though. 

“Oh hi, Mr. Morgan. Yeah, I’m doing just fine. How are you?” 

“Just dandy. Hey listen, I was plannin’ on goin’ out huntin’, figured I could use a partner. You wanna come?” 

You pause for a moment. Arthur wants to take you hunting? Why? Sure, you’re familiar enough with a bow and a gun to use them, though the results aren’t always perfect. Maybe word’s gotten around camp that you were crying last night. You were just overwhelmed by everything and had to let it out. The mood still lingers. Arthur must be inviting you because he feels obligated to cheer you up. It doesn’t help you to feel better. It makes you feel like an even bigger burden since Arthur’s constantly bigger running jobs. Still, you have a hard time finding a reason to say no to him. 

“Sure, I’ll go hunting. I, uh, hope you don’t mind dragging me along.” 

Your choice of words catches him off guard. He’d heard nothing about you breaking down the night before but the dimness of your eyes and your words tells him how bad your state is. 

“Don’t mind at all. Would you wanna go now?” 

You look over at the setting sun. It’s nearly gone by this point. 

“Now?” you ask. “Wouldn’t it be better to go in the morning when it’s light?” 

He huffs a bit. “Well I suppose, if that’s what you want. Course I don’t mind spendin’ a night under the stars. But sure, we’ll leave in the morning.” 

You feel stupid all of a sudden. You’ve spent plenty of nights in the open, away from camp. It’s just harder to hunt at night. “Mr. Morgan, wait. Wait. I… Yes, we can leave now. I don’t know why I was being stupid.” 

He turns back around at your words. He smiles a bit. “Okay. I’ll uh meet ya by the horses. Five minutes?” 

You nod and finish feeding the chickens. You try clearing your head, especially the nasty thoughts swirling around. You don’t want to seem like a self-pitying fool around Arthur. You’ve been low-key flirting with him the past couple of weeks and he’s noticeably pulled away from you since. You didn’t want to give him another reason to run away. 

After gathering your things, you meet him by the horses and mount up. The two of you head out at a brisk trot. Arthur starts leading you north along the borders of Flat Iron Lake. You want to ask him where he’s thinking of hunting, but your current mood forces you to keep quiet. No one would want to hear you talk anyways. You start questioning why he even wanted to bring you out in the first place. The only thing you can come up with is that it’s because he’s a good man and he heard you were in need of a friendly face. It makes you feel like even more of a burden. 

On the northern side of Scarlett Meadows, Arthur pulls to a stop. The sun has set properly now and given way to a nearly full moon. He dismounts and the two of you set up camp. As you sit around the fire, waiting for your meat to finish cooking, he can tell by your eyes that you’re far away. He doubts you’re in a good place. It makes him want to put his arms around you and tell you all the things he feels about you, but he made a promise. He can’t tell you. 

“You uh want the tent tonight?” he asks. “I can sleep out here tonight.” 

“No, Mr. Morgan. It’s your tent, you should sleep in it.” 

He huffs and smiles a bit. “Ya can call me Arthur, miss. Ain’t exactly like we’re strangers.” 

You smile a bit. “Right, sorry.” 

He pulls the meat off the fire and gives you some to eat. When you’re done, he sits next to you. He feels like you just need a friend to help you out, yet he isn’t sure how to do it without admitting he’s got feelings for you. You yawn heavily. 

“You should get some sleep. I’ll stay up a bit, not quite tired yet.” 

Instead of agreeing and getting up to lie in your bedroll, you lean over and put your head on his shoulder. He stiffens up a bit at your touch but it’s such a welcome feeling, he can’t pull away. He realizes now that you, like everyone else in camp, have just been overworked and underappreciated in camp. This will be the best medicine for you, getting you away and just taking a break. He wonders again about the phrase “forests of West Elizabeth”. As he’s pondering, he’s also fighting with himself. Nothing would give him more pleasure than to wrap his arm around you or pull you in his lap and hold you against him and watch you sleep. He won’t do that though. He can’t do it. 

As he’s arguing with himself, he hears the softest snore come from you. He smiles when he realizes you’ve passed out on his shoulder. He gently picks you up and places you into hsi bedroll in the tent. He covers you with his blanket and then he sits back down by the fire. He smiles a little as he thinks about what could be between you if he were dumb enough to take that chance. 

***********************************************

In the morning, he notices you seem a little happier, a little more like yourself. Like you’ve finally been able to relax a bit and get a good sleep for the first time in days. You talk a bit more, yet he can tell you’re choosing your words carefully, which is unlike you. One of the things he admires about you is that you say what you think, even if it’s brutal. He knows he can trust what you say. 

You expect him to take you somewhere like the outskirts of Emerald Ranch where game is plentiful. Instead, he keeps leading you west, across the wide mouth of the Dakota River and into West Elizabeth. Seeing the tall pines and green grasses lifts your spirits greatly and you feel like you can take your first proper breath in weeks. 

Arthur can see the visible change in you, how your eyes begin to light up again. You smile more easily and start talking more. He notices you even make some of your light jokes. He’s always liked your jokes, cheesy as some of them are. You’ve got a natural sense of humor he finds endearing. He thinks to take you to Big Valley, but something tells him it’s not enough. He needs to take a bigger risk with you. 

After arriving at Lake Owanjilla, he pauses. He knows where he wants to take you, but it’s incredibly dangerous. Not because the land but because of where it lies. He just hopes that no one will see the pair of you and if they do, they won’t connect the dots. 

“Come on, we’re almost there,” he says and he kicks his horse into an easy trot. You follow him across the dam, down the trail and over the river. You wonder what he’s up to as you enter Tall Trees. You know the risks of going anywhere this close to Blackwater. Word is bounty hunters and Pinkertons have gathered here like flies to a rotting corpse. You want to tell him it’d be wiser to go back, but something tells you to not question him. That he knows what he’s doing.��

After a while longer, Arthur slows his horse down. You’re in the thick of Tall Trees, the pines growing high above your heads. The world has turned from green to red with speckles of blue and purple. You’ve always loved Tall Trees, the tall red pines and the green ferns growing between them. The smell is indescribable, addictive. Somewhere hidden in the trees, a squirrel begins to bark. 

Arthur looks back at you and grins. You don’t see him as you’re busy gazing at the trees. He can tell that this was exactly what you needed, despite the obvious dangers. He keeps leading you down the trail until the trees break and give way to a small lake nestled in the bowl of the mountains. This is where he finally stops and dismounts. You do as well, though you’re still staring around like a complete moron. You finally turn to him and give him a genuine smile, which makes his knees feel weak. 

“Arthur, this is beautiful. But… what are we doing here?” 

He shrugs his shoulders. “Just seemed like this would be a good place to come and… fish.” 

“Fish?” you giggle. “You came here to fish?” 

“Sure, why not? Hear there’s a real nice bass livin’ in this lake. Figure if anyone’s gonna catch him, might as well be me.” 

“Not if I catch him first!” you shoot and run towards the water. He calls to you and chases after you, the two of you laughing madly. You reach a broken pier first and pull out your rod. “Beat you, Arthur!” 

“Oh trust me, sweetheart, runnin’ ain’t fishin’. We’ll see in the end who’s the real winner.” 

The two of you cast out and slowly pull your lures back. With the sun beating down and the wind carrying the intoxicating smell of the forest, you couldn’t be happier. You can practically feel the black cloud that’s been hovering over you getting drawn out, like venom from a snake. 

Arthur’s line gets tugged hard and he yanks back his pole, setting the hook. “Ooh I got somethin’.” 

“Well pull it in, quick!” 

You watch him fight with the fish and then he pulls out a beautifully colored bass. You laugh and pat his shoulder. 

“He’s a beauty! Good catch, Arthur. Guess you won this round.” 

He chuckles and wraps the fish up before putting it into his satchel. “Yeah, guess I did.” 

For the next hour, the two of you fish a little more, bringing out multiple trout and bass. Then, just when you think the two of you might be able to get away with staying here for a long while, you hear, echoing across the water, voices. It sounds like a small group of men. Your heart drops at the thought of bounty hunters. There’s no doubt in your mind they might be scouring Tall Trees. It’s the perfect place for a gang to hide, after all. 

“Think we’ve outstayed our welcome,” Arthur says and collapses his pole. You do the same and then you both swiftly remount your horses and run off from the lake, avoiding the path. Over the next half hour, you dodge between trees and carefully navigate around the steep drops of the mountain until you hit the trail right above Owanjilla. There, you make your way across the river and into safe lands again. Arthur leads you over to the north end of the lake where he finally dismounts. 

“Well that was a fine outing, Mr. Morgan,” you say, patting your horse’s neck from the ground. 

“Sure. Well, figure we can hunt here the next couple of days. Know there’s plenty of game in Big Valley.” 

You nod and smile at him. “Yeah. But tell me: did you really take me there for a fish?” 

He blushes a bit and hides his head beneath his hat. “Well… well no. I known the fish was there a long time, but I didn’t go for it. I just thought you could use the fresh air.” 

This makes you laugh. “Arthur, I can get fresh air in plenty of places that have fewer risks.” 

He blushes more. “I know. But… well, I won’t lie to ya. I figured the place could do you some good. Heard you were tellin’ Karen you missed it and you seemed down the last couple of days. Just thought I might be able to help.” 

You smile at him, your eyes glittering. “Thank you, Arthur. You’ve no idea how much it helped.” You lean up and place a soft kiss to his cheek. He grins, his cheek burning. You look away and say you’re going to go and hunt. He lies by saying he’s going to try and fish a bit more. 

When you’re out of sight, Arthur sits down on a boulder. “What is the matter with me? Ya think a miserable outlaw like myself would learn. Morgan, you have the world’s best record of bein’ the biggest fool.” 

He sits there for some time, arguing with himself. He can’t love you, but he can’t help being in love. A voice in his head asks what’s the worst that could happen by just letting himself feel what he’s already feeling for you. He argues back by using Mary and Eliza as examples. 

“But she isn’t Eliza or Mary,” the voice says. “She’s Y/N and in completely different circumstances than they were. She knows how to protect herself, she’s been robbed and shot at before and came out alive in all those situations.”

“No no no,” he says. “She’ll come to realize I’m a fool like Mary did. I’ll mess things up and she’ll hate me for it.” 

“She already knows you’re a fool. She’s seen your crazy side, she knows how scary you can get. More than once, in fact, and she’s still around isn’t she? Mary saw that side one time and she ran off running. Y/N’s different. Never once has she asked you to change or to control yourself.” 

“It’s a dumb move!” Arthur says. “I ain’t in love with her nor am I ever gonna be in love with her! She deserves someone better.” 

The voice is a bit quieter this time. “It seems like it’s too late for her. You saw the way she looked at you in Tall Trees. She’s already got it for you.” 

“Well, she’s a bigger fool than I thought for doin’ that.” 

“No doubt. But if you leave her like this, she’s not going to wait around forever. She doesn’t deserve that either.” 

Arthur sighs. He knows you don’t deserve him playing you the way he’s been lately. “Well fine,” he says to the voice in his head. “I love her. I love Y/N, but I ain’t sayin’ it out loud.” 

********************************************

Night has fallen and you and Arthur are sat around the campfire again, nestled in Big Valley. You’re leaning your head against his shoulder once more like you did the night before. Arthur’s arguing with himself again. He knows he loves you but he’s still unsure if he should act on it. To act on it would be to admit it. 

“Arthur?” you say, breaking him out of his thoughts. 

“Hmm?” 

“Thank you again for today. I… can I tell you something?” 

“Of course.” 

“I’ve been real sad lately. Don’t know why, but my brain keeps telling me I’m a burden on everyone, I’m merely tolerated. But going back to that lake helped me feel centered again. Like going home. I know that doesn’t make any sense.” 

He smiles a bit. “No it makes perfect sense. And for the record: you ain’t a burden or tolerated. People in camp like you, darlin’. You should hear Jack tell his mama about your stories. Sounds like you been helpin’ Mary-Beth too. And you were the first person to get Karen to stop drinkin’ the other day. Can’t tell you how long we been tryin’ to help her quit.” 

“Really?” you ask, looking up at him. “And… and what about you? I know you only took me out today because you heard I needed a pick-me-up.” 

“No, no that ain’t the reason,” he says. “I didn’t know you needed help until we were away from camp. Like I said, you ain’t a burden. You work hard, I see that in camp. Work as hard as anyone else and eight times as much as Uncle.” 

You giggle a bit.

“Point is, me and everyone else who counts sees how much you work in camp. We notice. I know we don’t voice our appreciations, especially ol’ Grimshaw, but it doesn’t mean we don’t see it.” 

You surprise him by grabbing the hand on his knee and squeezing it lightly. He knows at this moment he can’t hold back any longer. He withdraws his hand and your heart sinks. You’ve crossed a line. You’re about to pull away from his shoulder until you feel him shifting himself and his hand winds over your hip. He pulls you into his lap and you settle your head on his chest. 

Arthur’s heart pounds hard in your ears. He’s wanted to do this for so long with you, imagined doing this. He’s held women like this to him before so he knows what it feels like, but this is different. You’re different. You fit against him like a puzzle piece, perfectly molded to him. You’re warm and it feels so good the way you wrap your arms around him. He kisses your hairline and settles his chin to your forehead. 

After a few moments, he feels you place a soft kiss to his chest. It makes him smile and he holds you tighter. 

“Arthur?” you say, looking up at him.

“Hmm?” 

“I think I love you,” you say quietly. He swallows heavily. “Well I hope so. Because… I know I love you.” 

[brownstonearmy]

2020-04-24: A Party You Can’t Refuse

July 21 (Tuesday morning)

The rainy weather of the past few days has given way to a fair summer morning with light cloud cover. Our band of intrepid adventurers has once again converged at SHART HQ for their newest assignments. Dave has been training Bob (the slightly damaged monodrone modron from Mechanus) to do some work as a receptionist and document service requests from the citizens. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Bob doesn't quite grasp the concept of what is an appropriate request that requires SHART's attention. Dave informs the party that someone has requested their presence at a birthday party in a few hours.

Normally Dave would disregard cases that don't require sanitation expertise, but Dave isn't about to let some poor kid get disappointed. But the rest of the service request isn't very helpful. Aside from identifying the birthday boy as Alston Cormellis and giving his address, there's no information about his age or even what the party is supposed to do at the party.

Do they need to bring a gift? Nobody's sure, but Lucky has an idea for a surprise gift. When asked as to what the gift is, she declines to specify, probably because the party would try to talk her out of this particular surprise. Spleenifer suggests making a doll, or perhaps bringing some goats along to make an impromptu petting zoo. The party's appearance is requested just before noon, giving everyone about an hour and a half to get prepared. Lucky and Spleenifer use this time to change in to appropriate clothes, with Lucky putting on actual clothes underneath her magical ones, and Spleenifer going on the Minor-Goat-Retrieval-Quest-of-Tuesday-Morning.

Meanwhile, Q (who goes by Sparkle today) and Norm set off to the address to do some recon for the situation. Sparkle is wearing their finest sparkly purple tunic and fuzzy pants, though the warm July day causes Sparkle a small degree of regret for choosing the fuzzy pants part of the outfit. The walk to the party's location is only a few blocks to the southwest, just past the Brownstone Park Memorial Grotto. As the pair walk past the park, they notice several shadowy figures congregating around central statue in the small park. The shadowy figures scatter as soon as they are seen.

A moment later, Norm and Sparkle arrive at address where the party will soon be taking place. It's in a poorer part of town, outside a tiny house next to a run-down stable where horses are shoed. A woman who looks like she hasn't slept in a few days is flitting around an improvised table made from stacked crates while Alston the birthday boy wanders around. But before Norm and Sparkle can approach, a halfling dad and his daughter pass nearby. The halfling dad is low-to-middling level crime boss in the City Runners gang named Average-Size Tony. Norm recognizes Tony as a potential source of intel for the next steps in Norm's secret investigation of the drug trade after the incarceration of former Devil Boys distributor, Magic. Average-Size Tony walks up to Alston's mother and gruffly reminds her that under no circumstances is anyone allowed to enter the house until he's done, then gives his daughter a kiss on the cheek and sends her to play with Alston.

Once the coast is clear, Sparkle and Norm introduce themselves to Leah Cormellis, Alston's mother. She's grateful for everyone appearing on such... SHART notice (no, I will not apologize for that pun). Norm and Sparkle start discussing business with Leah, and asking some questions about Alston's preferences. Sparkle mentions possibly getting King Chonk to attend as an honored guest and also that they were the performer behind the famous song about King Chonk. Leah is interested, and Sparkle wonders if this might turn into a "flirty single mom" situation. Before excusing herself, Leah mentions that she was able to scrounge together some cake but she would like there to be some more food for the kids if it's not too much trouble.

The time of the party draws nearer and the (adventuring) party reconvenes again. Spleenifer's got her goats, and Lucky knows some folks who might be interested in catering the event. Yep, it's the Folks From The Yolks, Kosja and Turalisoth! It's not too difficult to find a wandering house on the outskirts of town, and Kosja is more than happy to have the opportunity to test her experimental cooking on soft-skins. The lizardfolk in disguise have recently discovered the soft-skin food called "cheese" and wish to expand their menu offerings before opening up a proper restaurant. Lucky hops in the house and directs Kosja where to park for the party.

As the house lumbers over to the party site, Lucky sees an unusual covered wagon parked outside the farrier's stable with a sign on it that says "JUICED! Energy Drinks". Lucky helps Kosja get set up and start cooking, but the resulting food doesn't smell too appealing to non-reptilian sensibilities. With some tactful suggestions for possible improvements, Lucky gets the culinary ship sailing in the right direction.

Spleenifer shows up to house with her goats and tethers them to the chicken legs of the lizardfolk's mobile home. Norm appears in clown garb and starts up a juggling act. As Sparkle is setting up, they notice more shadowy figures congregating on the perimeter of the party site. Children start arriving, but the lurkers on the periphery keep on lurking. Sparkle recognizes the street urchin nicknamed Nosebleed hanging out with the lurkers, intensely watching Alston's house. Sparkle walks up to Nosebleed and questions him about what's going on.

Nosebleed informs them that his friend, Pokey, is in the house. Pokey is an older kid in the Devil Boys gang who started running drugs when Magic got busted. But Nosebleed saw Pokey get beat up and kidnapped by some goons from the City Runners gang. Sparkle tells Nosebleed to enjoy the party and go back to working at Robin's ranch when it's over. Sparkle promises Nosebleed that Pokey will get rescued one way or another.

While this discussion is happening, Spleenifer's goats are getting a lot of attention in the makeshift petting zoo. One kid gets a big chunk of their shirt eaten by a hungry goat, but the kid didn't seem to mind. Norm's act gets more interesting when he incorporates knife juggling. And once the lizardfolk start prepping their next dish, Cool Cheese Soup, Lucky wades into the party entertainment gig with an impressive display of blindfolded knife-throwing.

Lucky conjures up a floating target and starts slinging knifes. She gets two bullseyes, one right after the other. And for the finale, Lucky asks Alston what his favorite animal is. It's an Owlbear! Lucky throws another knife, which ricochets off of multiple surfaces and still manages to hit the target. Alston claps with excitement, but wants to know if he can ride in the walking house with Lucky's friends. If the lizardfolk say it's okay, it's okay with her. Alston races over to the house to get permission, and Tony's daughter, Meri, chases after Alston.

As the two children are clambering up the ladder into the house, a bloodcurdling scream erupts from inside of Alston's house. The scream startles some nearby horses and Spleenifer's goats, which in turn startles the lizardfolks's home. The walking house lurches off as fast as it can, and Spleenifer's goats are still attached to the legs. The cauldron of cool cheese soup spills all over the children, and the partygoers on the ground start a food fight with the globs of partially-melted cheese.

Average-Size Tony emerges from the house to ask just what the heck is going on, only to get rushed by the Devil Boys under the cover of the food fight. Sparkle grabs Nosebleed before he can enter the house and convinces him to stay out of the fight. Meanwhile, Spleenifer is trying to untie the goats, but the rope refuses to budge. So she tries her backup plan, which is to attempt to ride one of the goats and untie their collars.

Except that doesn't work as planned, either. Her long legs trip up one of the goats and the both fall prone to the ground, but the rope breaks for that goat and thus both are safe... For now. Lucky casts Misty Step and teleports into the rampaging house, but it triggers a wild surge and she ends up covered in flakes of rust upon her arrival. She looks for a way to convince the house to stop running, and finds a perfect little pressure point that stops the house from fleeing. Lucky cleans up Alston and Meri with some trusty prestidigitation and sends the pair back to the ground.

Back in Alston's house, Norm sneaks inside and hears the sound of a scuffle coming from behind a cracked door. Average-Size Tony is giving out free samples of halfling Kung-Fu to three other Devil Boys while another kid whom Norm recognizes as Pokey is tied to a chair and bleeding. Norm uses some of his flash paper to temporarily blind Tony while Sparkle sneaks in to untie Pokey. As Sparkle is working on this task, she sees that there isn't any men's clothing in the house. Maybe Leah is single and available?

Alston runs into the house with Lucky following closely behind. It's finale time! Lucky polymorphs Alston into an owlbear and directs him to sit on Tony, which he does. While Tony is pinned, Norm takes out a knife and makes a deal with Tony: give up knowledge about the Devil Boys leadership in exchange for Tony being able to keep on living. He readily accepts the offer and spills the beans on everything he knows.

Spleenifer, having finally gotten the goats under control and joins the rest of the party inside the now-trashed home. She has many questions, such as whether it's socially acceptable to the collect a poop sample from an owlbear at a birthday party. Lucky politely discourages that plan since that owlbear is actually the birthday boy in disguise. She conjures up a little birthday hat and places it on the owlbear's head to emphasize her point. Lucky and Sparkle clean up and repair the house to better-than-new condition.

Pokey tries to sneak away, but Sparkle flags him down and tries to get some more information out of him. He reports that he was attacked by the City Runners and they offered him a lot of money to flip from working as a distributor with the Devil Boys to helping launder money for the City Runners. He refused, and that's why Tony started beating him up even more. The City Runners were using a terrible energy drink called JUICED! as their front for laundering money. Sparkle and Pokey loot the JUICED! wagon behind the house, and Sparkle uses some of the coins to help out Robin's ranch and also to give a monetary gift to the birthday boy. Sparkle also grabs a few energy drinks for fun and research purposes but doesn't consume them.

Once the house is cleaned up, Pokey takes the empty JUICED! wagon and lights it on fire in the middle of the street. Spleenifer offers one of her goats named Marge Thatcher as a gift to Alston. You would be forgiven for thinking that "Marge" is short for "Margaret," but it is actually short for "Margarine" and the "Thatcher" part of the name comes from the goat's propensity to munch on thatched roofs. Norm relieves Tony of all his ostentatious jewelry before letting him go.

The adventure concludes for the evening and everyone advances to the next level. Stay tuned next time for more!

[blythephillips-blog]

How to Look for a Great Restaurant for Having a meal

Great food is something which is desired by every person. Dining out has developed into a major trend nowadays. Rarely relocate families eating in your own home on weekends anymore as long waiting lists for tables at restaurants are getting to be perhaps the most common phenomenon. Going out to restaurants is not hard, fast and fun. Be it a family gets together, business lunch or kids house party, folks are always planning outings to relish great food and conversation. Restaurants today are buzzing with customers. As restaurants provide specialized menus and themes that suite every occasion, a growing number of industry is taking advantage.It would appear that people everywhere will almost always be in search of great food inside a comfortable atmosphere they can tell their friends & family about. How do you know which type of restaurant is best for your occasion? Whether or not it's just a quick bite or perhaps a fine restaurant, you can expect which you quick guide below that may help you pick the perfect place. Next information, you will note tips on how to select good dinners once you're sitting at the table. Outdoor and Live Entertainment Specialized restaurants are feature live entertainment, typically in the outdoor setting, like over a patio. These restaurants are fantastic for friendly gatherings where everyone is able to have a great meal together and like the sights and sounds of live music entertainment. These restaurants usually offer table service plus a good number of dished from which to choose. The atmosphere in these restaurants is filled with energy with individuals conversing as well as the music playing. When you are wanting to enjoy yourself using a gang of friends, choose an outdoors and live entertainment experience. Casual Dining Casual dining usually represents junk food joints serving quick food through self-service. They do not typically offer table service and meals are usually served in disposable plates and containers. Casual dines would be better if you are on the go and wish to seize an instant bite. They serve moderately priced food in a casual atmosphere. Cafes and tea houses also be taught this class of casual dines. Casual eating places are ideal for students and friends getting together.

Fine Dining A good dining experience combines food and art together. It focuses more on the service, presentation, and giving an excellent overall dining experience towards the guests. You normally need to be formally dressed in such restaurants as jeans as well as a t-shirt might create you really feel a lttle bit homeless. The services are high quality and the meals is served with all the utmost delicacy appealing just as much towards the eye since it does to your palate. Fine dines are generally priced above other places to eat as the focus is not just on food but on the ambience too. A lot of people choose fine dining restaurants for a big day to make it an unforgettable experience. It's also the ideal setting for any romantic date. Quality Dining Quality dining establishments give you a specialty menu. As an example: Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Thai, Barbeque or Indian. Typically, there aren't a number of different cuisines to choose from, only specific menu items from region. Each Quality Dining restaurant represents an unique element of the restaurant industry and conveys a unique personality. Like fine dining establishments, quality dining restaurants have a very nice mood-setting ambience, genuine hospitality and a welcoming environment that keep customers coming back. It does not take ideal restaurant acquire the best to offer the authentic flavor of a specific cuisine. However, it lacks all of the choices  from different cuisines a fine dining restaurant would serve. Dining Restaurants Dining restaurants are suitable for any casual setting. They're typically restaurants where one can take a moment and enjoy your meals, as opposed to carryout restaurants that will not provide a seating space. Moderately priced, and frequently loaded with variety, these dining restaurants are also ideal for kid parties and small get together. The way to Select a Good Dinners Be it seafood, chicken, steak, or other dish, right here good guidelines to follow along with when ordering with the table. Seafood Dining Ordering seafood dishes might be tricky, particularly when there are numerous options to choose between. Seafood can range from a continuous list of fish platters to an choice of different shellfish dishes. It doesn't matter what you end up choosing, there are a few things to bear in mind. First, find out the freshness in the seafood. It is very simple, the fresher ingestion, the higher tasting it will likely be. You wouldn't want seafood if you have to settle for a catch from your couple days ago. Be polite and enquire of the server discover sure. Chicken Dining Chicken dishes are extremely common for most restaurants, and the way they may be prepared can vary a whole lot. Ordering chicken just isn't complicated so long as you understand the basics. When ordering chicken, beware of heavy sauces. Restaurants usually mask poor people quality of their chicken dishes with heavy sauces. An excellent restaurant uses sauces moderately to easily blend along with the quality taste in the chicken. Steak Dining Steak is really a man's best friend. Commonly found in restaurants, steak is often followed by simple side items to create a meal. In picking the proper steak dinner, one thing to bear in mind may be the different cuts of beef available. From sirloin to filet mignon, the cut of beef has the most about the texture and flavor of the steak. The second criteria to take into account is when cooked that suits you your steak. Stick to congratulations for very thick cuts of beef and medium to medium-well for thinner cuts. Some individuals even prefer medium rare but be aware of experiencing a steak that's not fully cooked. More info about restaurants london internet page: this.

[maniactypewriter]

The backlog Week 4 [where the hell have you been edition]

I LIVE! In all seriousness, when im at school, I don't have access to my gaming computer and my laptop doesnt have enough space free for a project like this. Anyway, I am back for the next month, so let's get to the first game(s) 

Anomaly warzone earth + Anomaly 2 playtime: 4 hours total

Im bundling these two together as they are very similar in game play. In Warzone Earth, you play as the 14th platoon deployed into the heart of the Anomaly, a giant mysterious dome that crash landed on top of Baghdad and tokyo. As the platoon leader, its your job to make sure the convoy of APCs and walking missile platforms gets through the level safely. The game refers to itself as a tower offense game. Essentially its a tower defense game, but instead of placing down towers, you are the targets that the towers are shooting at. Your vehicle team is constantly moving forward and its your job as commander to choose the right path for the vehicles to drive down and to strategically deploy the four power ups at your disposal. Your tools include a repair which heals your units, a smoke screen which makes enemies less likely to hit your units, and a decoy, which enemies will shoot at instead of your units. Usually the player is spending their time babysitting the convoy and rushing to collect more powers as they are dropped from killed enemies. Each mission has a different objective, but it usually devolves into, get to a place and kill all the towers. 

Anomaly 2 is much the same as its predecessor. Set in the far future after an alien invasion, the earth has frozen over and humanity’s numbers are dwindling. Humanity’s only hope is a single convoy on their way through a frozen america to get to New york. As this is the future, humanity's weapons have evolved as well. The standard ACP with a gatling gun on top has evolved into a car with two gatling guns. And it also turns into a walking mech flamethrowers mounted on either arm. Bad ass. The power ups have also changed a little. You have your standard repair bubble, there is a focus power up which will tell all your units to focus fire on one tower you want particularly dead and an emp type power up which will disable enemy towers for a short while. Anomaly 2 also has multiplayer, but I didn't play that as it is most likely dead at time of play. 

Antihero playtime: 70 minutes

Antihero is a competitive digital board game where each player plays as a master thief in a victorian england type setting. As the leader of a thieves guild, you have to go around a burgle the good people of “London” to fund your operations and buy pieces to put around the board. You can hire urchins to occupy specific buildings for special bonuses, hire thugs to block access to areas, and gangs to off your opponent's units and hunt down targets (as well as making a little extra dosh along the way.) this game takes advantage of being a digital board game because everything your opponent does is done mostly in secret. Obscured by the smog of war, you can not see what your opponent is doing, which could spell your doom if you aren't fast enough to look into his territory with your master thief. 

I am not great at this game. I couldn't get past the second level on easy mode that's how bad I am. However, I can see it is a fun game, and I can see how this game’s multiplayer was popular for a time. However, I dare not go there as I fear that I may be utterly stomped by a player who has had several years more practice than I have at this game.

Apotheon playtime: 4 hours

Apotheon is the story of one greek guy not named kratos going to olympus to kick the butts of all the greek gods. The most striking thing anyone playing this game will notice is the artstyle. It is drawn to resemble Greek pottery paintings. You know the kind. The ones that depict Hercules doing his trials or some other greek hero doing something impressive. Anyway, story. The earth has been screwed over by the gods because chronic rapist Zeus decided to revoke humanity’s access to the things that are necessary to life. Hera picks you as her champion then sends you to mt Olympus to gather the gifts of the gods and maybe smack some sense into her cheating husband along the way. The game play is a 2D mix of dark souls and metroidvania games that are so prevalent in the modern day. However, Apotheon came out before the current wave of soulslikes so there is some small growing pains. Combat is kinda clunky and your character can sprint at 30 miles an hour but immediately slows down to a crawl whenever he so much as touches a staircase. Combat as mentioned before is mildly clunky. It uses a physics engine to do all its swings and stabs. Heavy weapons like a club have a wide swing arc and is directed by which way you tilt the left analog stick. The Reliance on physics to get the job done can lead to some interesting results. I saw one raider in the first area get launched into space after being double teamed by me and a friendly malita man. Apotheon is an interesting game with a stunning artstyle and compelling exploration. Which in this modern age of soulslike metroidvanias, is all you really need to stand out. 

Aquaria play time: 1 hour

Speaking of metroidvanias, Aquaria. As the name suggests, the game is an underwater metroidvania mostly concerned with puzzle solving over combat. You play as Naija, a lonely fish lady who can use the power of song to do magic. As a fish lady, you can swim around the oceanic caverns with relative freedom. The game wants to be played with a mouse and keyboard, as my attempt to play it with a controller was thwarted swiftly. As is fitting for a game where the protagonist’s main power is singing, the game has a killer soundtrack. In the little bit ive heard when I was playing, it was some pretty good music. Visuals are decent. The game has a hand painted aesthetic, however some of the animations are kinda stiff and stilted. This game was originally released in 2007 after all. Small indie metroidvanias were not knocking it out of the park yet in terms of animation yet (im sure someone will correct me on that point eventually…) the small amount I played had me swimming around a claustrophobic map going around and solving puzzles that lead me to new areas and new song powers. One of the first i got was the ability to pull around large rocks. The second allowed me to transform into an old fish goddess and shoot energy missiles at hostile fish. While the game is focused on puzzles and exploration, that doesn't mean it is devoid of combat. I feel as this is the weakest part of what i played. I gave up on the game when i died to a puzzle boss who’s apparent solution didn't work. There is probably a lot I didn't see in my short time with the game. There is a whole cooking mechanic that I didn't fully grasp, as well as pets and the ability to decorate the main character’s house with special decorations you found out in the world. I may revisit this game at some later point, but for now its going back into the backlog as I search for more interesting games with less obtuse boss fights. 

Armello playtime 2 hours

Armello is yet another digital board game. Set in a fantasy version of zootopia, the king of the land has fallen ill with the Rot. and all the clans of the land have sent their strapingest of adventurers to go and try and claim the throne for themselves. This can be done in one of four ways. Having the most honour points (gained by killing other players, or completing quests), gather four spirit stones and cleansing the king of Rot, having the most Rot yourself, or just straight up murdering the king. In the few matches I have played, the easiest one to achieve is the Honour victory, although that might just be my play style. Like most board games, rounds are taken in turns. Each player has a certain amount of hexes they can move, and landing on spaces will have different effects. Most events that happened as a result of landing on a space are luck based. “Perils” have you rolling dice, quests have you selecting from a circle of icons trying to pick the one that will net you a reward, and a random spinner that could give you anything from rot to gold to teleport you to the other side of the map. Once everyone has had their turn, day turns to night and new monsters spawn on the board. When the sun rises again, the king dies a little from his fantasy aids and gives the person with the most honor points the choice between two Decrees which will most likely be terrible for everyone involved. On top of all this, players have access to a hand of three cards. Which have various effects. Proper use of your cards can lead to victory or defeat depending on who you're playing as. Armello has an online mode, but like the other online modes in this batch of games, I dare not touch for fear of getting crushed. The game also has an online store where you can buy new skins for your dice and new character packs. It's a fun little board game, but im putting it on the shelf for now because i’ve had my fill and have  no friends to play it with. 

[electricianswitchboard-blog]

Will That D.i.y Project Improve Or Decrease the Price Of Your Home

There are main places in a kitchen just as food preparing area, cooking area, serving area and washing neighbourhood. The appliances should be place onto the correct places in a manner which things can finished easier. Always choose More info about your kitchen to be employed with the appliances, from specialist suppliers such as Bespoke Kitchens Wakefield. Cheaper furniture and fittings won't always be so durable with some appliances like, ovens and hobs. An issue heat it will wear quickly and together with may distort in very little time. Then, has been that big dream We back within 1970's when all which really, really wanted in life was a log housing. I toured hundreds of model log homes therefore i was in love. I stopped dreaming while i read of how difficult and dear it was to run wiring in log walls. In most cases, the time you investin stage is proscribed. Getting your point across in a proper time frame can be challenging. This is especially true if you have several points even worse. By practicing your speech and making timed Power Points in Melbourne each and every topic, a person are successfully cover all your facts along with the presentation of them. While the judges deliberated on saving him Matt performed Love a Woman in a test to persuade the judges to save him. He did an awesome job and intensely got the gang in for the song. Just like at home, plants on the job can help remove dangerous toxins from the air you breathe every single day. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that indoor carbon dioxide is just one of the top five public side effects facing workers today, with pollution levels inside an energy-efficient building as much as 100 times more toxic than outdoor air. Medical costs using indoor pollution-related illnesses costs the You.S. economy between $17 and $43 billion annual. So buy a plant for your desk and another one for a co-worker showing your company spirit and that you care. Do your trim work first. The trim work includes your whole edge with the paint job, including other places that butt up against areas will probably not be painting. When you trim first, you are able to to rollover the area with a roller and take away most of this brush Power Points In Melbourne strokes. This gives you a professional, clean line. Some call these "passage cairns", pointing out that these burial chambers only for very influential citizens. That instead of a grave, the chamber may be likened instead to a womb, and they may are linked a good earth goddess and virility. Working your own can have it's much simpler negatives, and interruptions can occasionally be a challenge to manage, like friends popping in, friends ringing up, there is your kids with their disorders. This can be very testing of your patience. Be firm with friends, just let them know that at certain times, you at work, so they can't visit.

[minhthangcoi9993-blog]

Review Game Red Dead Redemption 2

There’s a sense of connection in Red Dead Redemption 2 I’ve never seen in a game before. Everything has its place and everyone has a purpose. Importantly, it’s not just a veneer either. Other games give the appearance that life continues around you regardless, but stop for a second and it’s easy to see past the façade – the guy with the broom isn’t really sweeping his porch, he’s stuck in a never-ending cleaning loop that even a gun to the head cannot break.

In Red Dead 2, people exist. They have work to do and schedules to stick to, regardless of whether you’re there to see it or not. But if you are there, they’ll react accordingly - so point a revolver at the guy innocently sweeping his porch and, depending on his demeanour, he could drop to his knees and beg for his life, or at the opposite end of the scale draw a six-shooter and retaliate. There’s deep-rooted connection between you, your actions and the surrounding world, which is critical to everything that Red Dead Redemption 2 is. Rockstar doesn’t just want you to play as outlaw and protagonist Arthur Morgan, it wants you to live as him.

Morgan is one of the senior members of Van der Linde gang, a band of outcasts led by Dutch van de Linde. The year is 1899 and the Wild West is being tamed, with outlaws driven into hiding as the authorities grow in size and strength. When a robbery in the town of Blackwater goes wrong, Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to run, chased by gangs of bounty hunters led by the law.

For the purposes of the 45-minute demo on show, we join Morgan on the outskirts of Dutch’s camp. The makeshift base, comprised of wagons and tents, is the foundation on which the gang is built, a place where Dutch, Arthur and the other desperados can relax, reflect on the day’s events and plan for the next.

The camp is a living community. Hidden from prying eyes by thick brush and towering trees, it’s the people that bring it to life and as such it’s constantly changing. Here, it’s early morning and the sun is slowly rising over the plains. It’s a view we take a moment to soak up – it’s a fresh spring morning and the wilderness is washed in a pale yellow glow. Sparks of white sunlight flicker off the river below, which snakes from right to left, dividing the landscape in two. Huge pine trees dominate the foreground and they’re more of a lush, alpine feel compared to what we saw for the majority of Red Dead Redemption. In the distance a thin wisp of smoke drifts lazily into the sky, while the horizon is framed by snow-capped mountains.

Play now Skeleton Launcher 2

Hot new Stardew Valley Silo

Red Dead 2 is a strikingly beautiful game. We’re only seconds into the demo and it’s immediately apparent every inch of this world and everything in it has been painstakingly crafted and every detail pored over. The opening close-up of Arthur depicts an outlaw who’s wise yet kind, his blue-green eyes and stubbled square jaw painting the impression of a man you don’t want to mess with, but he’d probably be great to share a pint with.

Arthur is standing on the edge of camp, looking out over the wilderness. It’s eerily quiet, as if the world hasn’t quite woken up yet. Turning, Arthur walks towards camp, pausing to pull a cup from his satchel and fill it with coffee, and it’s here we get our first proper look at some of the other gang members. Sean McGuire is a cheery Irish joker who’s telling stories around the campfire with boundless enthusiasm; Uncle is a bearded, hungover wreck, slumped against a barrel dressed only in his underwear, and mutters something as you walk past. There are others, deep in conversation or otherwise going about their daily business.

This is a working camp, so everything has to… well, work. Clothes have to be cleaned, wood is needed for the fire, water must to be collected from the river, and so on. Each member of the gang has a role to play and their own duties to fulfill, and if you take a minute to look around you’ll begin to notice how everything works as it should and everyone has their place.

As Dutch’s right-hand man, Arthur plays an important role in the upkeep of the gang, not just in terms of supplies but also the morale of the gang. If food and resources are aplenty then spirits will be high, which is reflected in the mood of the camp. People will be singing and dancing, and you’ll be greeted with cheer. But if the food supply runs low, you’ll quickly know about it ��� people will mutter angrily about where the next meal is coming from. As a senior member of the gang, many will look to Arthur to provide, through hunting or buying supplies, and he’ll be rewarded for doing so. But thankfully the responsibility doesn’t fall entirely on your shoulders – Rockstar is keen to emphasise the camp will continue regardless of your input and is spending a lot of time balancing Arthur’s responsibilities with having fun.

Pearson is the camp cook and when Arthur walks past he’s told the meat supply is running low. Importantly, this isn’t a cutscene that triggers a mission, it plays out as Morgan is walking along, still sipping his coffee. That’s the case with almost every interaction we saw throughout the demo – the camera doesn’t cut away, instead keeping you at the heart of the action, with interactions triggered through a combination of proximity or Arthur choosing to continue the conversation. As a result it felt Morgan had a choice: he could ignore Pearson’s plea and talk to someone else, but in this instance he agrees to help.

From what we’ve seen, this level of choice is threaded through the entirety of Red Dead Redemption 2. Obviously there’s a beginning and an end (or possibly even ends – we don’t know right now), but Rockstar is trying to blur the lines between what’s a story mission and what’s a side quest, instead presenting them all as opportunities given to Arthur. Many are contextual too, dependent on the time of day, where you are and who you’re with.

Choices aren’t just made at a high level either; you’ll be presented with decisions every step of the way, and how you act determines the reaction you get back. When Arthur exits the camp and rides his horse along the dirt track, he’ll soon meet other people. Much like real life, they’re a mixed bunch; some are pleasant and polite, others are less welcoming. You have complete control over how Arthur acts in the world, thanks to a sophisticated interaction system represented by a number of choices displayed in the bottom right of the screen, such as Greet or Antagonise. These dynamically change depending on a number of factors, including where you are, who you’re talking to, choices you’ve made previously in the interaction and so on, and even though most of the HUD was switched off for the demo it was still obvious how much freedom the player is given.

[victorluvsalice]

Sims Challenge Wednesday: Fallout 4

And for my second challenge -- one themed around the settlement-building mechanics of Fallout 4! Because that felt like a better fit than trying to do the main plot. . . here we go!

Fallout 4 Sims 4 Challenge

Premise: It was all going – fine, you suppose. Sure, you were living in an embarrassing imperialistic and xenophobic nation, which was fighting a terrible war with the other superpower over the last of the oil reserves in the world, but you yourself were doing good. You had a nice home in a little suburb, you could take advantage of personal domestic robots, you were getting enough to eat despite the food shortages – all in all, your life was pretty okay!

And then some asshole had to go and drop the bombs. By sheer luck, you’d been admitted to nearby Vault 111 mere minutes before the alarm sounded, and you made it there just in time. The staff there was very friendly too, telling you that your new life underground could start just as soon as you were decontaminated in these weirdly-cold pods. . .

210 years later, you wake to discover that:

a) you were totally lied to and you’ve been frozen for the past two centuries as part of some mad experiment

b) you are the only survivor of that experiment – everyone else’s pod failed, and a revolt by the security staff six months into your freezing means they all either died or skedaddled long before you woke up

c) oh, and the revolt was over dwindling food supplies, so you can’t even stay in the vault, you’ll starve

So out you venture into the world, to find – hmmm. People seem to be surviving, but they could probably use some help. Good thing you’ve got nothing but time on your hands. Time and the desire to make proper homes for the new friends you’re finding. Time to build a settlement and make it something this post-War world can be proud of!

Now if only you could shake the feeling you ought to be looking for someone. . .

This is a challenge loosely based around being the Sole Survivor of Fallout 4, specifically being the General of the Minutemen and building settlements. The goals are to build up the world of Brindleton bay from some ramshackle farms into a bunch of thriving settlements, create and manage a club for helping others and improving the world, and defeat the nasties that are making life harder for everyone else.

Packs required: Get Together, Get To Work, Cats & Dogs, City Living, Eco Lifestyle, Cottage Living, Island Living, Discover University, StrangerVille

Your Sim: Create your “Sole Survivor” in CAS. They can be a Young Adult or Adult, and have any traits. However, they are only allowed to have two outfits – a set of everyday wear (for everyday, formal, athletic, party, hot weather, and cold weather), and a set of underwear (for sleeping and swimwear). They will get more clothing as they survive out in the world.

Optional: Rather than start right out of the vault, you may play a brief one-week “pre-War” period with your Sole Survivor to gain some skills and whatnot. The Military or Law career is recommended if you want to follow the actual given backstories of the Fallout 4 Sole Survivors (Nate and Nora respectively), but you’re welcome to give them whatever pre-War occupation you like.

Their World: Set up the rest of the save file as per these guidelines:

Go to Brindleton Bay and wipe out all the existing architecture – you can keep the pre-made families, but not their houses. The apocalypse has happened, and the world has got to look the part! (If you really want, you can keep the lighthouse on Deadgrass Isle, but give a makeover to look wrecked.)

Pick one lot in either Sable Square, Whiskerman’s Wharf, or Cavalier’s Cove to serve as your “Diamond City” marketplace. This should include a small bar, a small clothing store, a grocery stall, a food stall, and whatever other stalls and vending machines you think your Sole Survivor could use to survive out in the wasteland.

In a different neighborhood to “Diamond City,” pick another lot to serve as your “Goodneighbor.” Build a lounge there (The Third Rail) with a bar, microphone for a singer, and plenty of seating. If you want, you can double up and have your lounge in the basement and put a little spa-type building (The Memory Den) up top. Feel free to throw in a goodies stall too.

All remaining mainland lots should be residential, and need to have the “Off The Grid” and “Simple Living” lot challenges enabled. You may enable other lot challenges or traits at your discretion (“Filthy” is recommended, given the state of post-nuke Boston in Fallout 4).

Pick two residential lots on the mainland (in different neighborhoods) to serve as “raider outposts.” Build up these lots to have three or four beds under minimal shelter, and off-the-grid compatible appliances. Each of these lots should have three or four Sims on it, all with either the “Mean,” “Hot-Headed,” “Kleptomaniac,” and/or “Slob” traits. Put all these Sims into a “Raider” club (you may choose your own gang name) and set their club activities to encourage them to “Be Mean,” “Fight,” “Swipe Items,” and “Sabotage Items.”

Set up the remaining residential lots with the bare minimum for survival: If the lot has Sims living on it, make a small hut for them to sleep in, with just enough beds for everyone, and one outhouse with a toilet and sink. No working lights, and they must have only a small fridge or cooler. If the lot doesn’t have Sims living on it, you can only have two beds maximum, and no food source at all. You can build whatever structure you wish there. Regardless of whether or not it is occupied, each residential lot must have a woodworking table, and an outdoor cooking station of some description. Other crafting items (candle-making, juice-fizzing, fabrication machine, robotics station, etc) may be placed at your discretion.

Choose an uninhabited lot for your Sole Survivor to start on – once they are moved in, set their money to zero.

Goals: Your Sole Survivor is looking to complete the following:

Build up every empty residential lot in the world so it can support at least five Sims, one pet, and one robot helper

Improve the occupied residential lots so everyone has adequate food, water, and shelter

Complete the Master Maker aspiration

Complete the Leader of the Pack aspiration as the “General of the Minutemen” and build up the club to full strength by befriending the other “settlers” in the world

Defeat all of the raiders in fights and force their club to disband

Rules:

Your Sole Survivor cannot have a normal job, as those just plain don’t exist anymore. They must earn their “caps” via selling things they have found or made (or, with the right traits, swiped) to other Sims, or via doing Odd Jobs for the people already living in the post-War society.

Your Sole Survivor is only allowed to purchase basic build mode items (e.g., walls and wallpaper, floors and flooring, roofs, doors, windows, columns), animal sheds, chicken coops, and basic pet supplies (food bowls and beds) directly from the catalog. Everything else must either be obtained by scavenging (dumpster diving for items or harvesting wild plants), building it themselves (making furniture at the woodworking table or using the fabricator), or “purchasing” it at the DC marketplace (either by genuinely buying it from a stall or visiting the lot and spending money on SOMETHING to represent a shopping trip). This includes clothing – you may either visit the marketplace once every three days to buy a new outfit for any category, or “scavenge” one by finding something that could reasonably contain clothing from a dumpster.

In order to increase the variety of their scavenging, your Sole Survivor may visit the Bramblewood of Henford-on-Bagley, or go on brief vacations to Granite Falls. Other locations depend on if you can make them look suitably post-apocalyptic (for example, creating a post-apocalypse Newcrest or Forgotten Hollow shouldn’t be too hard, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to justify San Myshuno!).

Your Sole Survivor must build up every lot in their world to the standards of a good settlement – enough food, water, and sheltered beds for all residents, along with power for items that may need it: Food is produced by farming crops and owning livestock. A small crop counts as 0.5 units of food; a tree or over-sized crop counts as one unit of food; a chicken coop with at least four chickens, a cow, or a llama counts as two units of food. (Yes, you are strongly encouraged to regularly trade animals for meat – or, if you feel bad, ingredients and produce.) You must have enough units of food to cover all residents (so a minimum of six). Water is produced by setting up dew collectors or water generators. Each dew collector or water generator counts as one unit of water. You must have enough units of water to cover all residents (again, a minimum of six). Sheltered beds are beds in an enclosed area with a roof. There must be one bed per Sim – you may use double beds, but they only count as one bed for one Sim! (Think of it as making sure there’s “spare beds” for anyone passing through who may stay overnight – Fallout 4 has traveling traders, after all!) Power is generated by generators, solar panels, and wind turbines – each provides one unit of power. You don’t technically need any power on your lots, but it will make your settlements happier if you can actually power things like salvaged TVs and computers.

Once a settlement is set up with all the basics, if it is empty, your Sole Survivor should go out and find homeless Sims to populate it. You may move the Sims in normally, or ask them to be roommates – though given your Sole Survivor will be moving to each settlement in turn to “renovate” it, it’s recommended you move in at least one Sim normally to look after everyone. Once you have all the human Sims, your Sole Survivor should adopt a stray cat or dog, then build a helpful robot to help with gardening, repairs, or generally just keeping people happy. Optional: If you have the Dream Home Decorator game pack, you may, at your discretion, allow your Sole Survivor to join THAT career and make use of it to renovate the lots of settlers who already live in the world. Given how buggy the pack is reputed to be, though, I’m not sure how much I recommend this! (Though I guess if you’re just willing to go room by room, since those gigs seem to work relatively well. . .)

Your Sole Survivor needs to form the “Minutemen” club to help out others in the wastes, by befriending other Sims living in the world and inviting them to join. The club’s required activities should include any of the activities from the following list: Be Friendly Tend Animals Tend Garden Fish Woodwork Work Out Build Robots Fabricate Objects Fight (Raiders)

Related, your Sole Survivor needs to get rid of the Raiders making life harder for the people just trying to survive in this world! Have regular fights between your Sole Survivor and their Minutemen versus the Raiders and keep track of the winners and losers – once each Raider has been bested in at least one battle, disband the club. Your Sole Survivor will then take over their outposts to turn them into functioning settlements. The Raiders themselves can either be moved out or rehabilitated and allowed to live in the new world so long as they don’t start too many fights.

Optional Hard Mode – Expand The Map: More space, more problems – rather than setting up in Brindleton Bay, set up in WINDENBURG. You are allowed two community lots to build up “Diamond City” and “Goodneighbor” in this instance, and a third of your choosing.

Optional Hard Mode – Join The Clubs: Your Minutemen are not the only faction out there in the Wasteland – there’s three others, and oh look, they all seem to hate each other. Set up three other clubs, one each for each of the mainland neighborhoods:

The Railroad – required activities “Debate,” “Hack,” “Be Mean (Institute),” “Be Mean (Brotherhood of Steel).”

The Brotherhood of Steel – required activities “Swipe Objects,” “Work Out,” “Be Mean (Railroad),” “Fight (Institute)”

The Institute – required activities “Build Robots,” “Use Science Objects,” “Fight (Railroad),” “Fight (Brotherhood of Steel)”

All members of these clubs should live and hangout on the same lot (The Old North Church and its basement for the Railroad; the Boston Airport for the Brotherhood (though if you think you can make the Prydwen, go for it); the CIT Ruins and the labs beneath it for the Institute). Make sure they all dislike each other, and make them all “invitation only” clubs. Your Sole Survivor needs to join all of these clubs, work toward becoming the leader of each other, then decide who stays and who goes based on your “ending:”

Railroad Ending – Disband the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Brotherhood of Steel Ending – Disband the Institute and the Railroad once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Institute Ending – Disband the Railroad and the Brotherhood of Steel once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Minuteman Ending – Disband the Institute once you’re the leader – at your discretion, the members may keep their lot, though they have to give up their basement labs and live in the ruins up top. The other two clubs may remain depending on how friendly their members are with your own Minutemen club. Check everyone’s relationships with each other – if the majority of either club hates the majority of the Minutemen, that club must be disbanded.

Given the size of this hard mode, I would recommend running it in tandem with “Expand the Map” above so you have more room to breathe with each club!

Optional Hard Mode – Automatron DLC: Create a placeholder Sim, get their Robotics up to ten, have them make a Servo, then kill the Sim and either let the Servo live on the lot alone or have them wander as a homeless NPC. In order to get access to the Robotics station, your Sole Survivor must find and befriend this Servo.

Optional Hard Mode – Vault-Tec DLC: One of your lots is not a traditional settlement, but an unfinished Vault-Tec vault! This settlement must be built entirely underground, and does not have any beds, water, or food when your Sole Survivor arrives. However, it does have at least three generators for power! Also, the first Sim you recruit to live there must have either the “Good” or the “Goofball” trait.