#four's a crowd

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[eagle-eyes-sideblog]

Four's a Crowd

Summary

Mostly follows the story of SAMAU. However, this time, it's not just you that gains the attention of the Employers. Your roommates do so as well. (This piece is basically just a description of your roommates; there's not any SAMAU in this. Sorry!)

One other thing to note: Although I use 2nd person in this, the Player has sort of grown into their own character over time. Oops?

Being a streamer often kept you up late. It took a huge portion of your time, and your schedule basically revolved around your streams.

Often you were unable to do your share of the housework, so it fell on your roommates.

You were lucky, then, to have roommates who were not just okay with, but happy about your work.

In fact, they even joined in sometimes. If the game allowed, they would play with you from their own computers; otherwise, they often sat on your bed and provided commentary from off-screen.

Your community had come up with silly nicknames and backstories for all of you based on the little information that you'd revealed.

All of this had begun as a series of running jokes. Your "brand" was something like a phoenix; your screen name was Firehawk, after all, and you really did adore fire. Thus, your fans liked to draw you with the traits of a firebird.

You'd even seen some very interesting, well-written fanfiction about yourself. Even if it was a bit odd to read about your own streamer persona kissing your favorite characters or, god forbid, your roommates.

Of your friends, the first to appear, surprisingly, had been Tick—named for the antique pocketwatch he'd showed off on his first appearance. He was very busy and didn't show up often; he also had a very handsome voice, according to chat.

He wasn't much of a participant, either, preferring to sit and comment about your performance. Considering his love for math, he tended to approach things from that angle, sometimes discovering mechanics that you hadn't even noticed. Because of these traits, he was often portrayed as a mysterious and brooding timekeeper, with many secrets to hide.

(In reality, Markus was the only one of your roommates to have a traditional office job. He worked as an accountant, running the numbers for a construction company. He didn't really like the kinds of games you played; he said they were too stressful for him. You said that the way he played Stardew Valley was plenty stressful, but to him, there was a huge difference. He was also the calmest of all of you, although he was quite socially awkward, another reason why he didn't appear very much.)

Then came Rosebud, which came from the rose hair clip she wore 24/7. He was another fan favorite; sometimes you wondered if they liked him more than you. She was very charismatic, unhinged in just the right way to become adored by the masses.

He happened to be the most frequent guest on your streams, since his schedule matched so well with yours. She seemed to enjoy interacting with chat, often riling them up, much to your chagrin. Your fans seemed to think that she was a flower demon of some kind, which she delighted in.

(Honestly, you couldn't blame them for adoring him. Akemi's cheerful chaos really was infectious. Chat thought Tick was the most mysterious, but they had no idea just how strange Akemi was. She often simply... vanished into the night. Because of this, he was even more nocturnal than you—you didn't think she'd seen the sunlight in at least three years. You were also fairly certain he ran a Twitter account dedicated to you, which you decided to take as a compliment.)

Finally, there was Chroma, who had gained the nickname because of her brightly-colored, ever-changing style. Especially her colorful wigs. She'd taken to wearing outfits themed around whatever game you were playing, so she was usually the first to learn of your plans for the week.

She mostly appeared at either the very end or the very beginning of the stream. She was incredible at video games, and sometimes you even recruited her to help you out when you got stuck. She also adored insects, so she'd always try to sit in when you played insect-themed games. Chat was, naturally, head-over-heels in love with her.

(As a line cook, Josie had become excellent at dealing with pressure, even growing to enjoy it. Her attitude, both in work and in personal life, was efficient to a tee. In the past you'd associated that with insufferable perfectionists... but she was so passionate and caring that it balanced it out. She was an optimist who saw the best in people. No, not just saw—considering the stuff you knew she'd been through, she fought tooth and nail to believe that there was good in the world.)

[onefootin1941]

Rosalind Russell, Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland in Four’s A Crowd, 1938.

[catella-ars]

Scribbly cuddle puddle sequence drawn before Zen got a cat so here comes Matthew

@espressoth​

[cat-arsenal]

Think About It (Warden Yearning)

Stream-of-consciousness drabble about my Warden OC being kind of into their friends and also Vega, prior to a lot of character development and conversations that eventually become a healthy relationship.

Zen and Taza (and the shared braincells about this foursome) belong to @espressoth

They’ve never let themself think, for more than a moment, about relationships. They have a few friends, in and out of the Department (not that they spend much time anywhere outside of work,) but none of those are the kind of relationships that cause others to blush and shout and sigh. They don’t think about it because they have neither the time nor emotional energy to spare.

They don’t think about it.

But sometimes, when they’re with Zen, or when Zen is with Taza, they yearn. Just a little. Just for a moment.

They never think about it for long, because thinking about it causes the kind of anxiety that would distract them from the task at hand. Thinking about what could be, good or bad, is too much to bear.

So they don’t think about romance, or sex, and it takes more than a few heated glances from Vega before they notice his interest. It is, with shame and horror, that they realize his interest is returned.

They can’t afford a relationship like that. Not with a good person who they trust implicitly, and certainly not with a criminal, a cruel Demon who cares only for himself.

They try not to think about it, but sometimes they look, and looking makes them think, and thinking makes them guilty.

[coquelicoq]

if you're wondering what the big deal is about the louis-philippe sentence in les misérables, it is, in the original french, 760 words long. the subject of the sentence doesn't appear until 95% of the way through, at word #711; the main verb is word #712. the sentence contains 91 commas and 49 semicolons and is almost entirely a list of laudatory adjectival phrases describing the erstwhile king of france. this is perhaps especially notable because les mis is, shall we say, not known for being particularly gung-ho about the monarchy.

this sentence copied and pasted into Word takes up more than one page single-spaced. in the 1800-page folio classique edition, it is fully two and a half of those 1800 pages. that means that les mis is 0.14% this single sentence. more of les mis is made up of this sentence than earth's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide (0.04%). if the page count of les mis stayed the same but every sentence was the length of this one, les mis would consist of only 720 sentences total.

incidentally, guess who named hugo a peer of france 17 years before the publication of les mis?

[dogerbooger]

if art requests are still open, red life gem perhaps?

Love her I wish her slaying a plenty

Thank you for the ask!!! :3

[james-p-sullivan]

this is it, the panel that ruined my life

[judaswail]

they could never be you......

[fansids]

Dang, I haven't touched my lmk art folders in months.

Have an old conceptual piece of one of the Four Spiritual Primates, the Tongbei Gibbon

[rainymoodlet]

Kiss Me in Komorebi+ 🌸

[ First Mini Vacation: Nolan! ]

And here we go, folks! With our first sim being the returning Nolan Langford, let’s see what he does with 48 hours of uninterrupted Premium Access to our Bachelor! 👀

Part 1 of 5 🌹

@wastelandwhisperer

[joron1a-stardustlor]

ok but like what do you call these four????

[night-patrol]

[mothfables]

Modern Day Chain Work at a Christmas Market

so i work at a seasonal christmas market and had this idea today while we were doing set-up. time to induce my misery (lighthearted) on my favourite characters lmao

under the cut so it doesn’t take up your dash haha

Time is the closest thing they have to a manager. he does not like this. Warriors is a close second

Twilight + Four are in charge of physically setting up the tent/stall

Legend, Wild, and Four are in charge of displays (well, when Four isn’t fed up from setting up the tent)

Wild works in the back/warehouse, Time the register with regular breaks on the floor, Legend on the floor (he refuses to even touch the register), Hyrule the floor, Twilight on the floor and occasionally register, Sky’s the greeter and occasionally works the floor or other things, Warriors is mostly on the register, and Four does a bit of everything. Wind is technically, on paper, on greeter duty (cause, yknow, child labour) but he sticks his nose into everything, much to literally everyone else’s chagrin

Time tends to put Sky on greeter duty because he knows the other man tends to tire easily, but he does surprisingly well at whatever he’s assigned. that being said, whatever he does, he passes out immediately upon getting home

they tried the ‘My Name is Link’ nametag thing exactly once. they lasted two days before everyone was sick of it

Hyrule is still shy + uncomfortable around crowds, despite working there for four years. Time has tried putting him on the floor to try to boost his confidence, but he still escapes to the back at every opportunity

Legend flat-out refuses to work their busiest weekends. he told Time they’d have to drag him kicking and screaming into the store if they absolutely want him there. Time has yet to test this

Time + Twilight are physically intimidating, which tends to be a deterrent for most shoplifters + Karens. when that doesn’t work, though, they have a secret weapon: Hyrule

shy he may be, put him in front of a Karen and you’re in for a show. more than one of them have stopped what they’re doing to watch things go down. Time has berated them for it but they don’t pay him any mind considering he’s guilty of the exact same thing

also, Hyrule has a sixth sense for potential shoplifters, no matter where in the store he is. Four + Legend have been trying to figure it out but after four years they still don’t have an explanation

Time asked Mallon once if she wanted to work at the market with them. she laughed and told him she’d rather stay on the ranch. there are many days where Time regrets not doing the same thing

Wild does not work the floor. he has stated in no uncertain terms that if he’s put out there he will bite someone. to this day Time doesn’t know if he means a customer or one of them

everyone has their own organizational system that directly contradicts everyone else’s. they all hate it

Wind works the least hours out of all of them (considering he’s fourteen). he’s pouted about this many times, but the rest of them agree he should save his back + knees while he still can

Ravio is perfectly happy with his own shop. he does pop in sometimes to say hello, though, and on occasion brings treats for everyone

[nat-20s]

Thing I learned about crowd surfing is that in order to do so you have to go through the mortifying ordeal of asking a tall person close to you for uppies