#it’s was just supposed to be a fun cat sim but now I’m sad about how humanity is living on in those we left behind

[recently-diagnosed-lady-knight]

In one point of Stray a mural says “It’s been 2544875556 days since robots gained their Soul”.

That is 6,972,262 years.

It’s heavily implied that humans have been gone for almost 7 million years.

And humanity is still living in their creations. They still play songs that humans had created. They created art in their image. They talk as if they are just around the corner, as if they haven’t been gone for longer then they have been alive.

Humanity’s creations following in their footsteps steps never to forget the impact they made. As B-12 said “I see a future in the companions and in you.”

Humanity will survive into the future in those it left behind. It’s a new dawn. Light shines on an ancient city for the first time. And no one really dies as long as they left something behind.

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

The Nina Project. Nina makes me think of Fullmetal Alchemist (both original and Brotherhood) which makes me sad, but also I had a friend with a cat named Nina. Although that cat is probably also dead. Either way, RIP Nina and let’s get started with episode 5.

1.) Yeah, I knew that dude wouldn’t last long enough to tell them how to find Nina. Also, my deepest apologies to Argyle. I think you’re gonna get fired for this. People are super not supposed to die in the back of your delivery van.

2.) I straight up forgot that the other fed was still alive to be threatened.

3.) Okay we’re going back 12 hours. Hey wait, guys. Lmao. I know it’s kind of generic but I find the secret base entrance 1.) hilariously obvious. 2.) looks like the entrance to the underground home in Sims 4 thanks to Strangerville. I can’t remember which came first and I don’t care enough to check. I’m gonna pretend Sims did it first because that’s funnier.

4.) “You built all This?” El, Owens hired people to build all this.

5.) “You’re bigger than Madonna to them.” Eh, fuck Madonna.

6.) Oh, Nina’s a fuckin’ metal thing. And there’s Brenner. BUDDY, THAT’S NOT FEAR. THAT’S ANGER AND HATE. Oh my god I hate Brenner.

7.) Brenner better die, I swear to god.

8.) Actually, Owens can die too since they’re drugging her and recreating a scene from episode 1. But also why was Owens stupid enough to actually reveal Brenner? I hope that shit has a purpose, because otherwise he’s a moron.

9.) “He is not yours to kill.” Okay who is Hopper’s to kill? I guess we’ll find out after they finish dragging him past ominous double doors. Oh nvm, I just remembered the end of season three.

10.) Hey, Hopper. I know you’re mad, but like, Antonov or whatever his name is, is telling the truth. Or at least I think he is. He had no reason to actually want to put himself in danger like that. He does not benefit from being a prisoner.

11.) Oh that dweeb is still getting up into the air.

12.) “I have 3 kids.” Aw. Joyce counted El. <3

13.) Hi, Eddie. You need to be more subtle, my baby boy. I get why he wants a six pack though. And why Max bounced for breakfast.

14.) Ted Wheeler, I hope you die and leave your family a ton of money.

15.) Max is not good at art, but they’re fun. Also can we talk about how everyone is talking super openly around Holly and Ted?

16.) Nancy draws super straight lines. That’s not important, but nice job.

17.) Was cutting El’s hair actually necessary? Joyce should buy her some fun wigs. Like a few different colors. For funsies.

18.) No offense, but I don’t understand people who would fuck Henry Creel. He’s not attractive before his transformation and after his transformation his design is boring and goofy. Like he’s not a fuckable monster.

19.) Truly don’t understand Owens and Brenner working together. Like not to be a fucking dumbass but it seems outside his personality.

20.) THEY ARE NOT BURYING THAT BODY DEEP ENOUGH. Actually, Argyle is losing his mind so probably not a good time to bring this up. Also, people who write Argyle as chill in the face of danger are fucking HILARIOUS to me now. Like how did that get started?

21.) Hey, Netflix. Why are you starting the ‘tender emotional music’ on Will/Mike over them burying a body in the desert? Like I know this conversation warrants it, but maybe cue up the music like 5 seconds later.

22.) Argyle is super not understanding hiding a body. But GOD, it only happened so Mike could notice the pen. But couldn’t the group just talk about how all the dude did was hand over a pen???????

23.) “I can make you rich.” Can you, bud? Oh nvm, you’re lying about Hopper being rich. But also it was a terrible plan even if Hopper had helped. The guard would have demanded money and Hopper doesn’t fucking have it.

24.) Hopper is giving backstory but is also using his tragic backstory (which is tragic) to try to pretend he’s too dangerous to be near. Hopper, ‘everyone I love, I hurt’ is the depression talking. And the PTSD. You are not the curse. Except for in season 3. You were the curse then because you were deeply annoying.

25.) Damn, one backstory and guy I refuse to call Enzo is giving up.

26.) People came to talk to Wayne and see the burgeoning crack in his ceiling. I am glad Wayne is being moved.

27.) This funeral for Chrissy was fast.

28.) Hey how the fuck does that rando know who Eddie’s supplier is and that two old men thought they saw Rick in his house this goddamn morning????????????

29.) Aw damn, why’d you have to break that fucking stained glass. It was nice.

30.) Well, we got a shot of the walkie talkie as the bag was dropped on the floor so that probably is a hint.

31.) Steve has such a bitchy sigh. I love it.

32.) Hell yeah, Joyce. But also lmao Jeremiah the 16 year old fighter is very fast. Yuri < Jeremiah.

33.) “Never mind how” means the show does not want to actually come up with a rationale for how they can suddenly force El to go back to any memory, let alone this specific one.

34.) I understand they needed to use CGI for younger El, but they actually didn’t do a great job in some of those shots.

35.) Oh, they wanna get Susie to figure it out.

36.) Damn, Eddie, you are firmly just bored now. Oh well, not bored anymore. A bunch of douches in tailored suits are here to murder you. Also, bud, did you not close and lock all the doors?????? Why the fuck would he leave it open and unlocked? Also WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘IT’S HIM’? IT’S A STONER’S HOUSE. IT’S LITERALLY THE STONER’S FOOD!!!

37.) Yeah, they couldn’t hear the radio.

38.) Dustin is being a douche and did not answer Steve’s very reasonable question. And also I would also freak out from spiders. ROBIN THT’S SO MEAN.

39.) Second Platonic with a capital P. Still no sign of the word soulmate and I’m starting to wonder if it’s purely fanon.

40.) Steve Harrington is a himbo and I love him.

41.) Lucas is so cute. And Max and Lucas are the only cute het couple amongst the kids.

42.) So far there’s no actual explanation from the show of how there are so many kids with powers. We know how El got hers, but Kali was kidnapped as a child and presumably didn’t get her powers the same way. And I don’t think the rest of these kids were made the same way El was either.

43.) Owens, are you actually surprised Brenner is putting El’s life in danger?

44.) a;lkdsjfaskdjf;all Murray oh my god. You should have just hit Yuri. You’re a black belt in karate, not intimidating.

45.) oh damn plane going down. And Joyce shooting a gun in the cockpit did not help.

46.) Okay Murray is terrible at intimidating but he did get to knock a dude out. Unfortunately.

47.) Murray oh my fucking god. That’s a nat 1 on operating a plane, bud.

48.) I just realized I think they’re doing Digital lighting for these effects of following the lights in the Creel house and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Rubbish. Swine. BOOOOOOOOO.

49.) This is fully breaking and entering from the boys. But also damn that’s a bad boat and damn piece of shit carver is a good swimmer. And is unhinged.

50.) Yeah, we fucking get it. Vecna is in the upside down attic.

51.) Damn, that death is still goofy as hell.RIP Patrick, your death was hilarious.

52.) I don’t think it’s actually possible to be up and at ‘em that soon after needing to be resuscitated. Even if you do have superpowers.

53.) I hate Brenner so much. El HAS A DAD. IT’S HOPPER.

[voiceless-terror]

And Many Happy Returns

a sequel (or companion piece) to Inseparable, my childhood friends AU. chapter 1 of 2.

“Next week?” Jon shrieks, slamming a hand down on his desk and startling the nearby students. “That’s not nearly enough time to prepare!”

Martin does that blinky-eye thing that means Jon’s being too loud, but he can’t help it! Martin’s turning eight in six days (less than a week!) and didn’t think to tell him. They’re best friends, he should know these things. He curses himself for not asking about this at the beginning of their relationship, when he was collecting Martin facts. Favorite color and book seemed more important at the time. 

And while Jon doesn’t think birthdays are that important, it’s still a fact he ought to have known. Well, his Nan doesn’t consider birthdays important. These past two birthdays he’s gotten one new (!) book and a dessert after dinner, but that’s about it. Nan doesn’t have money to spend on frivolous things, and Jon’s never needed much, but he wouldn’t mind a bit of fanfare. His mum always made sure he felt very loved- he got plenty of hugs, a fun cake, an outing where they would do his favorite things. But maybe that’s something only mums do. Nan, with her rare, stiff hugs and general stand-offishness was never one to put up much of a fuss.

“It’s not that big a deal,” Martin mutters, his pencil twitching in his hand as he refuses to meet Jon’s eyes. He doesn’t like it when Jon starts fretting about him. “We never do anything for it, anyway.”

Martin’s mum isn’t anything like Jon’s, that’s for sure. It’s not every day you turn eight. It’s a nice number, very even and divisible. Much better than boring old seven. When Jon turns eight, he’s going to get fifteen extra minutes added to his curfew, and he’ll be able to walk to the corner store all by himself. He’s already walked there several times, but it’ll be nice to have permission. That’s the real treat.

“So you’re not going to bring in cupcakes for the class?” he asks, remembering the last birthday they celebrated- it was Lydia’s, a quiet, unassuming girl that Jon doesn’t mind but also doesn’t think much about. As soon as Jon asks it, Martin gets that sad look in his eyes again, the kind that’s always followed by an “I’m sorry” or something equally nonsensical. Jon hates that he’s the cause of it, him and his stupid mouth. Think before you speak, that’s what Nan always says. She says that for most anything he talks about, though, so he takes her advice with a grain of salt.

He reaches out to pat Martin’s arm consolingly, giving him his best sympathetic head tilt. “It’s alright. I’ve never brought any in either. Just thought I’d check in case you needed help bringing them to school.” Jon’s not very good at carrying things, but for Martin he would make an attempt.

“That’s nice of you,” Martin replies, though it’s not really nice, it’s just a normal thing a friend would do. Jon’s read books about it, he ought to know. “But yeah. I don’t think Mum’s planning anything, much less making cupcakes. She’s really busy.” Martin’s always saying how busy his Mum is, but Jon’s pretty sure she doesn’t do half the things around the house that she’s supposed to. Martin already knows how to cook and make tea and do the laundry without hurting himself. It’s very admirable. The last time Jon attempted to do laundry, he flooded the cellar.

“Do you like cupcakes, though?” Jon asks, scooching closer to Martin’s desk. “Lydia’s mum brought some for her birthday, but they were all carrot cake. Blegh.” He makes an exaggerated face to get Martin to laugh. It works.

“Carrot cake’s not so bad,” Martin says, poking lightly at Jon’s hand with the eraser of his pencil. Jon flinches back dramatically, putting on his most wounded look. “You just don’t like it cause it has the word carrot in it.”

“I don’t like it cause it has actual carrots in it,” Jon sniffs, turning away from Martin to show his displeasure. He decides not to talk to him for the rest of the day, or at least until he has something else to say to him. He’s got a lot on his mind now, and he needs to be left alone with his thoughts. Besides, Martin will poke him again once he gets bored enough. 

Jon flips open the school planner that he’s never used for actual school work and starts to write. He’s got a birthday to plan, and he’s going to give Martin a Mrs. Sims birthday special.

______

It’s a Thursday, which means Martin can’t play on account of his many, many chores. Jon hates Thursdays.

But this time it works in his favor, as he’ll actually have time to plan without Martin thinking something’s up. Jon very rarely cancels on Martin; he’s his most important (and only) friend. But he does on occasion get a little mixed up. One time, he thought it was a Wednesday instead of Thursday, and wound up at Martin’s flat when he didn’t show up at the park. Martin was very nice about it, though, and gave him a cup of tea to ‘calm down’ to drink in the hallway, before he went home. Martin thinks a cup of tea is calming. It doesn’t really do much for Jon, but it is tasty, and Martin gives him extra sugar just the way he likes.

But today is most definitely a Thursday so he scurries on home, slamming the door open and screaming a greeting to Nan that goes unanswered.  She must be off at the shops, otherwise she’d be giving Jon an earful for being too loud. He kicks off his shoes and gazes at the picture of him and his mum on the wall. If his mum were here, she would know exactly what to do to make Martin’s birthday extra-special. But she’s not, and Martin’s mum seems like kind of a jerk, so it’s Jon’s responsibility. “I won’t let you down,” he solemnly tells her smiling face, and turns to take the steps two at a time.

After grabbing his planner and throwing his backpack into the corner,  he pulls out the chair to his messy homework desk, which is usually only used for doodling or writing stories or reading when he wants the activity to feel more official. He flips open his planner to next Wednesday, Martin’s birthday (!!!) and taps his pen impatiently against the page. 

What do birthdays need? Food. Presents. Happiness. The first two might be a bit difficult to pull off, considering his lack of money and cooking skills. Martin deserves a lot more than stale discount biscuits from the grocery. He can get those any day.

But a whole cake is going to be hard. If Nan won’t make one for Jon on his birthday, she most certainly won’t do it for ‘his little friend,’ even if she thinks he’s a good influence. Martin is always very quiet and polite when he sees her, and Nan always gives him a smile in return for his good manners. She doesn’t smile at Jon like that. He tamps down his jealousy and gets back to birthday thoughts.

He thinks he had a purple- or was it pink? - cake on his fifth. It saddens him that he can’t remember. He thinks he’d forget his own mother’s face if he didn’t look at it every morning and night. Memory’s fickle like that, as his Nan likes to say.

Maybe, if he’s very nice and good tonight, Nan will take him with her on the weekly shop and he can convince her to get Martin a cupcake, a good one. One that doesn’t have any carrots in it, even if Martin says they’re alright. He must like them so much because they’re orange, like his hair. Unsurprising. 

He stops wiggling in his chair and straightens his back, as if Nan can see him in his room right now. It’s good to practice, he thinks. If he can sit still all through dinner and not make a mess, she’ll come round. 

Next, an essential part of any birthday: a good present.

His mum never really showered him with gifts, but she always gave him something good, something from the heart. The last present he received - Augustus, an orange cat plushie- still sits on his bed. It’s kind of babyish to sleep with a stuffed animal at his age (or so Marcus declared during recess one day) but Jon doesn’t really care. It helps him sleep.

Unfortunately, Jon can’t buy Martin a stuffed cat. He doesn’t have much money except for what he’s found on the ground and in sofa cushions. And he’s supposed to give that to Nan if he finds it (which he does, mostly).

He could be creative. Make him something. Jon’s not very good at crafts, though. And he doesn’t have a lot of supplies. But he has almost a week to figure something out, minus the times he’s playing with Martin. Well, even then he can stare at him and hope it jogs a good idea.

Lastly, he’s got to make it the happiest, most special day he can. Martin should feel special all the time, but Jon knows how hard that is, especially when you go home and you’re lonely and it seems like you’re the least special person there is. But if Jon is very nice to him and makes the day as fun as possible, maybe he’ll be able to keep that happiness all night, even when Jon leaves. 

That’ll be the hardest part, Jon thinks. He’s not the type of person to make someone happy. Sigh in aggravation, maybe. Roll their eyes. But Martin does neither of those things, so Jon might have a chance. He’ll try and ‘tone it down,’ though. His Jon-ness can be too much at times, and he doesn’t want that to get in the way of what should be Martin’s day.

Everything’s going to be perfect. 

________

And then it’s Saturday, and Jon still doesn’t have a present for Martin. 

He somehow managed to get Nan to agree to the cupcake bit- he’d asked very politely, ate all of his dinner and didn’t spill a thing. Though he thinks it has more to do with her liking Martin. She always acts surprised when she sees him over, like she’s shocked Jon kept a friend for longer than a week. He’s not that bad. But Tuesday she promised to take him to the grocery with her, so it’s fine. One part of his plan is done.

But the present. 

Actually buying something is clearly out of the question- he already exhausted his Nan’s good will in that department. And Jon, for all his usual creativity, is plum out of ideas. He could give him one of his books, but he does that already without prompting. He doesn’t have any good toys, and Martin certainly isn’t getting his best pen, the one that glides real smoothly on the page.

“Are you alright?”

He’s been staring at Martin too long. “Of course,” Jon snaps. “I just like your shirt today, that’s all.”

Martin looks down at his worn t-shirt. It’s not Jon’s favorite, but it’s Martin’s, so he likes it. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

They’re out in the woods behind Mr. Fletchley’s house to investigate what Jon thought was an ancient ruin but just turned out to be a couple of crumbling cinder blocks. It was an incredibly disappointing find, but Martin wasn’t discouraged.

“We don’t know where they came from, or why someone dumped them here,” he reasoned, a hand on Jon’s shoulder. “What if they were stolen? What if they’re part of a...a crime, or something?”

Jon doesn’t know what crime would need a cinder block, but he intends to find out. They’ve been walking down the relatively short path (it’s not so much woods as it is a cluster of trees) and haven’t seen anything suspicious, besides a few empty wrappers and a particularly sharp stick that Jon’s been whacking against the ground. He thinks it could’ve been used as a weapon.

“What are you going to do when you’re eight?” he asks, nudging Martin in the side. He hasn’t mentioned his birthday since the first time, so he’ll be in for a real treat come Wednesday. Jon just hopes he can think of something good in time.

“Mm, I don’t know.” Martin slows down to a mosey, and Jon tries to match his strides no matter how much he wants to jump ahead. Martin’s a real ‘slow down and sniff the flowers’ type of guy. Jon’s more of a ‘run ahead and accidentally trample them’ type. “Probably the same as I’m doing now. It’s not like it’s an important age. I can’t drive or anything like that.”

“It’s a very important age!” Jon insists, though he doesn’t have much to back that up. He’s mostly just excited because it’s Martin’s very first birthday with him. “You should look forward to something.”

“I dunno, I don’t want anything to change,” Martin says, his face going a little red as he stares at the ground. “I’d just like to spend more time with you. Have fun. That kind of stuff.”

Jon blinks. “We do that now, though.”

“Yeah. It’s the best.” Martin gives him a toothy grin, the kind that Jon puts away and thinks about later when he’s at dinner with Nan or getting ready in the morning. People don’t smile at him like that, only Martin. He does it all the time when Jon tells him a good joke, or shares his food, or passes him a particularly funny doodle.

And now Jon’s got the perfect idea for a present.

part 2

[yellowocaballero]

He’s Just Not That Into You: Web!Jon and Martin ficlet

Another ficlet written in the same universe as The Convention on Chronographer Lane/The Monster at the End of This Book. As before, you don’t need to have read that to read this. These ficlets are being written as character studies so I get a good handle on the uniqueness of the characters in this AU before I actually write something longer. Which is why they’re...like this. 

Very slight content warning for internalized fatphobia and Jon being interpreted as being a creep again. Reverse content warning for Martin’s tasty pasta. 

EDIT 2/4/2021: With the release of Sucker’s Bet, which this story was a kind of pilot study for, this story is no longer canon. However, you can still consider it a 15 page summary of that entire story. I’m sad I couldn’t keep the ‘join my spider cult’ thing but we all make sacrifices. 

Martin was in the middle of making a delicious pot of pasta when Jonathan Sims crawled in through his kitchen window.

Martin stared at Jonathan Sims, too out of it to even be surprised. Jon halted halfway through his entrance, sitting on the windowsill with one leg swung over it to rest on his floor, one leg on the fire escape above. Martin was on the sixth floor of his flat complex.

“Hullo,” Jon said, as if he was not in his window, “have you reconsidered my offer of -”

Martin threw his spoon at Jon, hitting him squarely on the forehead. Jon cursed, shocked into leaning backwards, and he accidentally topped off the window and onto the fire escape. He landed on the metal grid with a loud crash and a rattle, and the muffled sounds of his cursing echoed through the flat.

After a second to grab a new spoon and turn down the heat on the pot, Martin walked over to the window and wiggled it down again. He looked Jon dead in the eyes as he locked it, before going back to his pasta.

It was good. He should add some pesto and herbs next time.

Martin was in the middle of making a delicious pot of pasta when Jonathan Sims crawled in through his kitchen window. 

Martin stared at Jonathan Sims, too out of it to even be surprised. Jon halted halfway through his entrance, sitting on the windowsill with one leg swung over it to rest on his floor, one leg on the fire escape above. Martin was on the sixth floor of his flat complex. 

“Hullo,” Jon said, as if he was not in his window, “have you reconsidered my offer of -”

Martin threw his spoon at Jon, hitting him squarely on the forehead. Jon cursed, shocked into leaning backwards, and he accidentally topped off the window and onto the fire escape. He landed on the metal grid with a loud crash and a rattle, and the muffled sounds of his cursing echoed through the flat. 

After a second to grab a new spoon and turn down the heat on the pot, Martin walked over to the window and wiggled it down again. He looked Jon dead in the eyes as he locked it, before going back to his pasta. 

It was good. He should add some pesto and herbs next time. 

***

Martin had never really bothered to learn how to cook, but now that he was unemployed he had plenty of time. 

Now that he was unemployed, he had plenty of time for lots of things. He was finally taking up knitting again. Lots of seasons of Jane the Virgin to catch up on. His severance package from the Institute had been pretty good, not to mention the check Rosie had slipped him with a wink that she had worryingly called ‘Hazard Pay’, but this was London and even Martin could only make the money stretch so far. He spent eight hours of his day looking for jobs, touting his five year experience as a librarian and six month experience as an Archival assistant. But there was only so far you could go without a degree, and the market was shit, and really wouldn’t it just be so much easier to list a master’s in library science from some huge, anonymous university…

But Martin had the feeling that line of thought was what had put him on Jon’s radar in the first place. 

***

A week later Martin was halfway through a comforting Gilmore Girls rewatch when he heard a knock on his door. He had been fastidiously avoiding answering knocks on the door ever since Jon had pulled his first Jehovah’s Witness impression, but he had ordered a replacement washing machine part and it was arriving that day. He put his knitting down and got up, peering through the eyehole - hair not nearly long enough to be Jon, great - and opened the door. 

“Hullo,” the man said in a thick Cockney accent, not looking up from his clipboard, “I got a package here for Mr. Blackwood?”

“Yes, that’s me.” Martin held out his hands to take the little screen and sign for the package. After a second of clumsy fumbling, the man passed the package and the screen over, and Martin boredly scribbled his name. “Thanks, mate -”

But the man was gone, and Martin had realized belatedly that the man had slipped past Martin to enter his flat. He easily slid the cap off, letting his tightly curled hair cascade down to his shoulders, and propped his hands on his hips as he spun in a circle, admiring Martin’s extraordinarily boring and cramped flat. 

“Really love what you’ve done with the place!” Jonathan Sims said loudly. “Your sense of interior design is really impeccable, Martin, truly. A man’s home is his castle! Oh, is that vintage chintz? So cute.”

“Get out of my house.”

“Look at this ceramic kitten!” Jon was already in front of his mantle, carefully scrutinizing his little row of ceramic figures. They were fifty pence at the charity shops and Martin found them precious and charming, okay? “Your place has so much personality. My flat has personality too, but I’m afraid that personality just screams a propensity towards arson, so it’s much less impressive. How old is that couch, from the 70s? Very grandmother. Is it inherited?”

Yes. “No,” Martin said, resisting the urge to throttle the man as he dumped his washing machine part on the end table, “and please get out of my flat. I’ve said explicitly I don’t want you where I live -”

“Really, Martin, I’m hardly a vampire,” Jon said, having the gall to look offended as he cradled a little meowing ceramic kitten in his hand. “If I needed permission to enter dwellings I’d never go anywhere.” He paused a beat, something seeming to occur to him. “But I get a lot of permission from many different people of a variety of genders to enter their homes for sex, which I am very good at.” He paused again. “I really am very thirsty. I don’t suppose I could trouble you for a spot of tea…?”

Because Martin was British, he made the tea. But he resented every second of it. 

Jon hadn’t started stalking him immediately after he and his weirdo friends had murdered Martin’s boss, but it was pretty close. He had probably thought a week was enough time to emotionally recover from the ordeal of finding out that your boss’ boss was an immortal apocalypse cultist or whatever and that your boss was actually just a plant from a different and somehow creepier apocalypse cult inserted into your workplace to assassinate his boss. He had probably thought that a week was enough time to emotionally recover from the fact that Jonathan Sims - prickly, rude, pretentious Head Archivist with a heart of gold - was an elaborate fabrication, and that the man whom Martin had been falling for had never truly existed at all. 

A week had not been enough time. 

He didn’t even know Jon’s real name. 

“So what is your real name, anyway?” They were, unfortunately, sitting at Martin’s rinky-dink kitchen table, complete with little pock-marked burn scars in the wood and a wobbly leg. Martin had a magazine rolled up and jammed under the leg, which he was uncomfortably aware of as Jon lounged in his hard little wooden chair as if it was a thousand dollar gaming chair. The fake UPS uniform helped make him look like something other than a movie star, but it was hard to disguise the sharp and haughty features and the cold grey eyes. He had kept the ceramic cat, placing it in front of him with its little plainative face turned towards Martin. 

“What makes you think it’s not Jonathan Sims?” Jon asked archly, sipping at his PG Tips out of a chipped black mug. He made a faint face. “Sorry, is there cream for this? I hate black tea.”

“You always take your tea black,” Martin said automatically. Jon stared at him until he got it. “Of course. Right.” 

By the time he got back to the table with the sugar and cream Jon was going through his mail, with absolutely no shame whatsoever. “Bill, bill, overdue bill. You’re hurting for money, aren’t you? You know, I might know someone who’s hiring -”

“If you’re about to say a giant spider that’s going to lay eggs in my stomach and then burst out of my skin and transform me into a spider person, I have to pass.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Jon blatantly lied. “I just don’t think you’re hearing me out. Has anybody ever told you that you’re very unwilling to listen to new ideas?”

“When the new idea is joining a spider cult, then yes. Actually, no, because nobody’s ever asked me that before I met you.”

Jon didn’t seem to pick up on Martin’s extraordinarily pained expression, or maybe he just didn’t care. He leaned in instead, easily dropping a grotesque amount of sugar cubes into his tea. “Just consider it. Let the idea percolate in your mind. There’s a lot of benefits. No more worrying about money. No more putting in all that work to manipulate people. It’d be as easy as breathing for you. Anybody you want to like you likes you, and anybody you hate has their life ruined in days.” Something glinted with light in Jon’s grey eyes, like a spotlight shining off a raincloud. “Anybody you want to fall in love with you does so instantly. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

“All for the low, low price of selling my soul to a giant spider god,” Martin said sarcastically. Jon nodded fastidiously, as if it really was a low price. “Seriously, Jon? I have no interest in any of this. I don’t even know why you’ve singled me out to stalk. I don’t - I don’t like manipulating people, it’s not some kind of hobby -”

“Liar. You love manipulating people.” Jon sipped his tea, as if bored. “Honestly, Martin, we’re all friends here. I won’t judge. You don’t need to virtue signal. We both love manipulating people, getting what we want, putting on personas. We like to control how people see us, no matter what that perception is. You believe that ends justify the means, I believe that good means result in good ends. We’ve very similar.” Something strange entered Jon’s expression, almost entirely hidden by the tea, and for the first time Martin wondered if this was an expression Jon hadn’t meant for him to see. “You’re the only person I’ve ever met who is exactly like me. We should work together. You’re so well suited for the Mother. You’d be a treasured son. Valued, celebrated, loved. Everything you always wanted, you can have.”

Silence stretched between them. Martin let Jon think that he was thinking it over, staring into his own cup of Earl Grey and letting the slowly wafting steam fog up his glasses. Jon sipped his tea again, still posed casually yet attractively. In a brief yet stupid spurt of nostalgia Martin found himself missing the man he thought Jonathan Sims had been. 

Stupid. Loving Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist, had been as real as crushing on a love interest in a dating sim. Instead, Martin leaned in, and Jon leaned in to match him. Martin locked eyes with him, as sincerely as he possibly could. No lies, no artifice. “Stop projecting your insecurity about your own bad decisions on me,” Martin enunciated clearly, and Jon’s eyes widened in shock. “and get out of my house.”

He did, eventually. Maybe that was one of a million surprising things about Jonathan Sims, or whatever his real name was: Martin could always get him to do what he wanted eventually. 

***

Martin did not spend time thinking about Jonathan Sims, mostly because he had the feeling that this was what Jonathan Sims wanted. 

Instead, he frantically piled more and more projects and work into his free time. Ever since he was seventeen, Martin had always held down at least three jobs. His life was a never-ending rotation of a six am to three pm shift at Papa John’s, then a three pm to ten pm shift at Panera, and then stumbling home to stuff a ready meal in the microwave before doing it all over again only to work his third weekend job on the weekends. It had gotten to the point where he had paid the unemployed downstairs neighbor living on disability cheques to feed and occasionally take care of Mum because he hadn’t had time to do it himself. Martin could have have just dropped a job and scraped by on two so he could take care of Mum himself, but - well, it wasn’t hurting anybody. His neighbor had needed the cheques, right?

In comparison, the Institute had been an absolute dream. Work from nine to five, every day, then come home and crash. There had been benefits, insurance. It probably said something that even after discovering that both of his bosses had been cultists to Lovecraftian horrors who wanted to end the world or whatever, it was still the best job he ever had. He even missed it, sometimes - missed listening to Sasha and Tim joke around, missed the repetitive work, missed harmlessly and shallowly crushing on his persnickety boss who sometimes flashed a smile at him that made his heart melt. 

Fucker had known exactly what he was doing. 

That was what got Martin, even now. What had been the point? Jon had been there to infiltrate Elias’ plans for a Head Archivist, or so Sasha had confusingly explained after the fact. The skeptic, pissy act was to show himself off as an ideal candidate: willfully ignorant, psychologically vulnerable, and utterly isolated from everyone. What was the point of...of...seducing Martin?

The thought made Martin want to die. Imagine living a life where you woke up in the morning and thought to yourself, ‘Today I’m going to seduce the ugly, fat, high school dropout in my extensive long con to save/destroy the world’. It was like he was a movie star in a heist film or something, only cruel and pointless. 

Was it just to make fun of him? Martin had thought it was. But as he...interacted with Jon more and more, he got the sense that his fascination with Martin was genuine. He genuinely saw something of himself in Martin. 

Unless that was a lie too, and he just needed something from Martin. Unless Jon knew that Martin knew that he was conning him, and that there was another reason -

Martin had the terrible sense that Jon lived his life like this, always guessing and second guessing and triple guessing. It sounded...very tiring. 

He didn’t know how to explain any of this to Tim. They got together every so often for drinks - actually, Tim texted him asking to hang out, playing it all cool as if he went out and got drinks with tons of buddies all the time but was doing Martin a favor. Martin had the sense that he was hiding a deep and pervasive loneliness, but these days whenever Martin went down too deep a spiral of teasing out motivations he felt like Jon, so he quickly cut it out. 

“What’s there to get?” Tim said, throwing back his pint. “He’s an asshole who pretended to be our friend for months, and he turned out to be a total creep who leads a spider cult. You know, as happens sometimes!”

Sometimes Martin got the sense that Tim was a little bitter about what happened at the Archives. He didn’t really have a good thread on why yet, but he had the sense it was because Tim had ‘adopted’ Jon as his friend very intensely and that made him react badly to the perceived betrayal - no! No psychoanalyzing! Not today! 

“It do be like that sometimes,” Martin said wisely, peeling away the label at his shitty beer. The bar was crowded, noisy, and dim, and it was hard to hear Tim over the noise. “I don’t know, though. If that was all there was to it, he wouldn’t be showing up at my house all the time…”

“Wait, what?”

Martin explained in short order, trying not to feel embarrassed about it. Tim seemed to grow increasingly furious, and Martin found himself trailing off uncertainly near the end. 

“He’s doing the same thing to Sasha,” Tim said lowly. “Fucking freak.”

“Wait, what? He’s been bothering Sasha?” Jesus, that really was creepy. Come to think of it, Martin hadn’t seen Sasha around lately - she used to come get drinks with them right after they all got fired, but the last three invites she had begged off and said that she was ‘dealing with a lot right now’ and that she was ‘really swamped’. Martin was pretty sure that she was also unemployed, so he didn’t really know what she was swamped with, but it wasn’t any of his business. Maybe she was depressed. “Like, is he also trying to recruit her into the spider cult, or…?”

Weirdly, Martin felt a weird pang of disappointment at that. He had thought that what he and Jon had was special. 

Ha ha. As if. 

“I don’t know!” Tim cried, frustrated. He was gripping his pint glass tightly, as if he wished he was wrapping his fingers around Jon’s very slim and attractive neck instead. “First he keeps bothering Sasha, and now he keeps breaking into your house and flirting with you -”

“What!” Martin squeaked. “He’s not -”

“He’s a predator,” Tim said finally, as if he was a judge delivering a verdict. “Fucking freak. Martin, next time he drops by, I want you to call me immediately. I’ll kick his ass for you.”

“I’m a grown man, I can kick his ass by myself,” Martin said lamely, fully aware that he had never kicked an ass in his life and never would. 

“Don’t let that bully intimidate you,” Tim lectured, like the overbearing big brother Martin had always kind of secretly wanted. “He’s just a grifter, spider cult or not. Seriously, Martin, next time he bothers you call me. I have more than a few things I want to say to the bastard.”

It was heartwarming, almost. “You haven’t seen him since he killed Elias, right?”

Tim looked away, scowling. “Nope. Dunno why, if he’s hassling you two. I’m the only one with some serious questions I need to ask him, and he hasn’t even - whatever.” He looked back at Martin, forcing a great big smile. “Really, if he wants a hottie, why isn’t he knocking on my door, right? Like, come on, I’m single and ready to -”

“How’s the job hunt going, Tim!”

“I’m trying to get back into publishing, what do you think! Kill me!”

Martin liked Tim. If you had asked him four months ago if they were really friends, he would have smiled and deflected, because he was pretty sure that Tim was just that friendly to everybody. Martin always felt insecure with friendly and nice people, because he never knew if they were being friendly to him because they liked him and considered him a friend, or if they were just like that with everyone. 

But they still got drinks when they didn’t have to, and the expression of tight and barely controlled rage that flashed through his face when he thought that Sasha and Martin were in danger from Jon was real. Maybe they really were friends. 

Maybe there was something deeply buried and long since repressed in Tim that was destroying him slowly from the inside. Maybe Martin and Sasha had that too, that rot: the way Sasha would carelessly invade privacy to hack inside people’s private files without even thinking about it, the way that Martin would almost instinctively balance impression management with playing down to expectations with always dissecting people in a ruthless search for a weak point without even thinking about it. 

Maybe they were all bad people, every one of them. It felt sometimes as if Martin had a corrupt and diseased heart, that infected parts of his body with a sick necrosis. He hurt people when he didn’t want to; he said things he didn’t mean. There was something rotten and evil in Martin, and sometimes it felt as if he couldn’t help but pass it along from person to person.

Man hands on misery to man, Phillip Larkin said, it deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself. 

Well, Martin had the second part down. He was still working on the first. 

***

But Martin was right to worry, because when he woke up at seven the next morning to shamble into his living room, he flipped the light switch to see Jonathan Sims sitting on his grandma couch flipping through his meager collection of books. 

“You don’t read very much, do you?” Jon said.

“How did you get into my house.”

“Told the landlord I was the exterminator and needed to get in to spray for bugs.” Jon tossed the book on the battered coffee table - 1984 - and reclined on the sofa. “You really do have quite a bit of spiders, though. Want me to take care of that? Do you want more spiders? I can get you as many spiders as you like.”

The way he sat was purposeful, the way one of his black boots with a low heel was propped on the coffee table, the way his dark and closely cut trousers were slightly splayed, his tight black turtleneck highlighting his figure was slightly hidden by a fine white silk jacket. The small part of Martin’s mind that used to work at a dry-cleaners inanely wondered how difficult that jacket was to keep clean. Most of Martin’s mind was occupied realizing that Tim was right, and that Jon was flirting with him. 

“What do I have to say to get you to leave my house,” Martin said, instead of asking why, why, why, why. He knew why - spider cult purposes - but why -

“Lots of poetry collections, though,” Jon said, and Martin knew that he had caught him looking. He had a little half-smile: half encouraging, half shy. “You have great taste. I’m a Yeats fan too.”

Sure. “Name one Yeats poem.”

“The Stolen Child,” Jon said instantly.

Martin narrowed his eyes. “What do you like about it?”

Jon was silent. 

“Thought so.” Martin pointed at his door. “Out.”

There it was, a brief explosion, so quick that Martin might have thought he imagined it: grinding teeth, sloping eyebrows, a scowl. A flash of irritation: here one second, gone the next. “I like your poetry, though,” Jon attacked, a different angle. “Your imagery is very vivid.”

What the fuck. “You went through my diary?” Martin screeched. 

“Yes?” Jon looked slightly flummoxed. “I was doing research. People like it when you display interest in their hobbies.”

“I am making coffee,” Martin said, voice strangled, “and I am making breakfast. And if you refuse to leave, you are not saying a single word until I’ve had caffeine.”

And then Martin refused to acknowledge Jon any more. Martin quickly realized that Jon hated this very much, used to being the center of attention wherever he was, and it was an extremely effective method of making him throw himself into a kitchen chair and sulk as the coffee pot sputtered out a cup. Martin focused himself on heating up the pan and cracking a few eggs into a bowl, whisking it absentmindedly as he clenched his mobile. 

He should call Tim. He had never known Jon to get violent, but that didn’t mean anything. The guy was...he was…

He glanced back at Jon, who had his arms crossed and was frowning down at the stained wood of the kitchen table. He didn’t seem to know Martin was looking, and it occurred to Martin for the first time that this might be the authentic Jon: tired and frustrated and uncertain what he was doing wrong. 

The eggs sizzled on the frying pan, and Martin pushed them around with a spatula. “What do you like on your eggs?”

Jon looked up, surprised, before rearranging his expression into something cool and distant. “Surprise me.”

Martin served them cheesy with herbs, just for that. When Jon took a bite he looked surprised, as if he had been expecting something spiteful and received only something good in exchange. 

When he put a cup of Early Grey in front of him, with sugar congealing on the bottom and rosy brown from the cream, he looked surprised again too.

“You’re excellent at reading people,” Jon said, carefully directly after Martin had a sip of his coffee. “Mother would -”

“Do you want to make a bargain?” Martin asked. 

That caught Jon’s attention. He smiled winningly, leaning in, hair carefully arranged to fall over one shoulder in a painfully attractive way. “I could be convinced.”

“If you knock on my door at a reasonable hour, then I will let you in and we can talk or whatever. I’ll make us tea. I don’t care.”

Jon’s grin only widened, and when Martin felt a foot brush his leg he had to fight the urge to jump a foot in the air. “What’ll I do in exchange?”

“You let up on the sales pitch,” Martin said severely, and physically moved his chair further away from Jon. “And you stop lying to me. And for christ’s sake, stop pretending you’re into me.”

 Jon blinked, expression falling in shock. 

He scrambled to paste something back on, but it was as if he couldn’t decide. Martin saw him half-cycle through different expressions, different appearances: abashed, eager, flirtatious. It was as if he was frantically guessing which Jon would work best to convince Martin to do what he wanted, but he just couldn’t decide. 

Finally, he weakly asked, “What makes you think I’m not into you?”

Martin couldn’t help it: he scoffed bitterly. “Guess someone like you was never asked out as a joke in secondary. Nobody would honestly find me attractive. Everything you do is calculated, Jon, and I’m not vain enough to think the flirting is an exception. It’s obvious.”

“I’m not obvious,” Jon said, physically fighting to keep his expression from twisting into anger. It was...obvious. He eventually forced his expression into something wide-eyed and sincere, reaching out a hand to place on Martin’s arm. It was warm, but it settled oddly on Martin’s skin. Something about it didn’t feel like a human arm. “That’s just your low-self esteem talking, love. When I look at you, I see -”

“A sucker?”

Jon opened his mouth, then closed his. His hand was still on Martin’s arm. Martin didn’t know why he hadn’t shaken it off. “I see someone very kind,” Jon said, almost lamely. “I like that in a man.”

“Yeah, sure.” Martin shook his hand off - disgusted with Jon, disgusted with himself. Someone like Jon - attractive, confident, smooth - could never understand how it felt. He didn’t know why he expected him to. “I don’t know why you aren’t leaving me or Sasha alone, or why you’re trying to recruit us both into your spider cult -”

“I’m trying to recruit Sasha into my vigilante superhero team, actually.”

“Whatever. Point is, if I can’t get rid of you, I don’t want our conversations to be exhausting. These...games you’re always playing,” Martin waved his hand demonstratively as he chugged coffee with the other, “are tiring. Maybe - maybe you and I are similar, Jon. But the difference between us is that I find these games tiring. I don’t like doing it. I - what I want is a relationship where there’s no games. Where I can just be me and the other person can just be them. Don’t you want that too?”

Jon stared at him, eyes wide, almost shocked, almost hesitant, almost hopeful. 

Finally, he said, “I only trust three people.”

“I’m not asking you to trust me,” Martin, who trusted nobody, said exasperatedly. What did it say, that the leader of the spider cult trusted more people than Martin did? “I’m just asking you not to lie to me.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Jon said, before pausing a beat. “I’d trust you if you joined my spider cult.”

“You’re shit out of luck, then. And you’re not going to convince me.” Martin took another sip of his coffee, hiding his trembling hands. “Because you can’t lie to me, Jon. Face it: I’m almost as good as you are.” He smiled wryly. “As good as someone can get without supernatural powers, anyway.”

Jon stared at him, just stared, and Martin let the moment linger in silence as he cut into his eggs. Finally, he said, “You’ll tolerate my presence if I agree to drop the act.”

“Yep.”

“I’m not sure how to drop the act,” Jon admitted, somewhat embarrassed, as if he was admitting to not knowing how to tie his shoes.

Martin rolled his eyes. “Do your best. You must have been normal at one point.”

“When I was normal,” Jon said, “nobody tolerated me at all.”

The shocking honesty made Martin almost gag on his coffee. Jon’s eyes widened again, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just said, as if he had never meant to say it. As if nobody had ever heard it at all. 

“Now that we’re actually getting somewhere,” Martin said, tactfully not touching that barrel of worms - er, spiders - with a two meter pole. “Can you please tell me your real name? Unless it was, like, wiped from your mind by your spider mom? Is this like one of those cult things were they rename you for indoctrination purposes?” Something terrible occurred to him. “Is every guy in your cult named John and every woman named Annabelle? It was just a fake name you gave to Elias, right? Right?”

Jon - whoever he was - stared at Martin, completely and utterly dumbfounded. 

Then he laughed, long and hard, hoarse and wheezing and breathy, and Martin knew that this, at least, was real. 

***

Martin: I think I’ve taken care of the Jon thing

Martin: Probably

Martin: The guy’s kinda hopeless

Tim: ya sash said that hes cool

Tim: apparently shes a vigilante now? or smth? Idk

Martin: Yeah that seems about right

Martin: At least she’s living her best life?

Tim: ya good for her honestly

Tim: ….so does Spider-Man KNOW how to use all eight of those arms ifyaknowwhatimean

Martin: WE! ARE! JUST! FRIENDS!

***

“ - so then after my father passed tragically of brain cancer, I was raised by my emotionally distant and disaffected Gran. I think she’s the one who taught me that if I ever want anything in life, I have to secure it for myself. I’ve been very independent ever since I was a child, and although my social skills have always been naturally lacking I’ve worked to compensate for that by studying the art of social interaction. I guess you could call it somewhat of a special interest of mine, I like to sit in coffeeshops with my sister Annabelle and study passerby -”

“Uh huh.”

“Did you know forty percent of Britons own pets? I think it reveals interesting things about the human psychology. The domestication of dogs has always been fascinating, of course. Did you know that all dogs are descended directly from the grey wolf? There were other wolf species at the time, but they’ve long since gone extinct.”

“Wow.”

“I know! The evolution of what we today determine as dog breeds were only created in the Victorian era. I’m sure Jonah would have had some thoughts on that, if I hadn’t fed him to my mother. Actually, few people know this, but our modern conceptualization of the wolf pack hierarchy has been thoroughly debunked. Alphas and omegas only exist in captive populations. Tell that to the werewolves, huh! Actually, I organize the weekly Avatar poker games - you can come if you’re interested, great way to make some money - and I actually did tell that to the werewolves, and they were not very happy with me -”

“Jon? I can’t hear the movie.”

“Right, right.” Jon passed Martin the popcorn. “So what’s this one about?”

Martin scooped up a handful of the popcorn without shame, feeding it in a steady stream into his mouth. “About a guy who gets turned into a fly.”

“That’s fun,” Jon said warmly. “I turned a guy into a fly once. He got stuck in a spider-web immediately and everything, it was quite entertaining.” At Martin’s horrified look, he quickly followed it up with, “Gerry had found out that he was illegally evicting tenants who were undergoing cancer treatment, asking for rent before it was due and physically intimidating the tenants and everything. He also stole one thousand dollars worth of goods from Whole Foods and everything, which is quite funny if you think about it -”

“How does someone steal a thousand dollars with of stuff from Whole Foods? It’s a grocery store.”

“I know, right!” Jon threw up his hands, accidentally sending some pieces of popcorn flying. “The rich are the true parasites, Martin! I’m speaking as an insect person!”

“Word.” 

Martin ate more popcorn, and noticed Jon carefully brush his crossed legs against Martin’s knee. 

Well, he was trying. He’d stop pretending to like Martin eventually. 

They’d get there. ;

[nxsmss]

Movies I watched in February

fyi, I have zero knowledge on how to professionally rate or review a movie. I am not gonna pay attention to every little detail. these rating are simply based on how much I enjoyed/liked the movie

Follow me

Unhinged

In Time

Avengers Age of Ultron

Songbird

Star Trek

Step up all in

Project Almanac

Ant Man

Space Sweepers

Christiane F.

Jurassic World

Jurassic World the fallen kingdom

1. follow me

A social media personality travels with his friends to Moskow to capture new content for his successful vlog. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, they enter a cold world of mystery, excess, and danger. 

starring: Keegan Allen, Holland Roden, Denzel Whitaker, Ronen Rubenstein, Pasha D. Lchnikoff

the end was very predictable and i pretty much already knew halfway through the movie what was gonna happen. but it still was quite thrilling and I did enjoy watching it

6.5/10

2. unhinged

After a confrontation with an unstable man at an intersection, a woman becomes becomes the target of his rage. 

starring: Russel Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Batemen

hm idk, I didn’t really like it, my sister didn’t really like it but my mom did, I think. it just seemed so, no overdramatic but just too much in a way

3/10

3. in time

In a future where people stop aging after 25 and need to buy time to live, the rich become immortal while others cease to exist. So, Will is on the run with a hostage in a desperate bid to survive. 

starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer

yes, such a good movie. Ireally like the concept. can recommend

7/10

4. avengers age of ultron

When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it’s up to Earth’s mightiest heroes to stop the villanious Ultron from enacting his terrible plan. 

starring: Robert Downy Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johanson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany

hell yes, one of my favourite marvel movies. Wanda and Pietro.. Hawkeye.. all the little jokes throughout the entire movie and of course the scene where everyone tries to lift thor’s hammer, what’s not to love about this movie

10/10

5. songbird

In 2024 a pandemic ravages the world and it’s cities. Centering a handful of people as they naviagete the obstacles currently hindering society: disease, marital law, quarantine, and vigilantes. 

starring: K.J. Apa, Sofia Carson, Demi Moore, Bradley Whitford, Peter Stromare, Alexandra Daddario, Craig Robinson

I really enjoyed watching this. yeah sure, the ending was obvious but I was still glued to the screen. I also felt super weird watching this, kinda surreal because we are basically living a more harmless version of this rn. I really liked seeing sofia carson in such a movie, I’ve only seen her in the descendants so this was a bit of a change haha. I’m not that big of a fan of kj but he was great as well and i really loved his characters style.

7/10

6. star trek

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father’s legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time. 

starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Carl Urban, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Zoe Zaldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin

I put it on because I wanted to have some background noise while playing sims but I ended up playing like 20 minutes and then just watching the movie haha I forgot how good it was, and the others as well, aaand I totally forgot carl urban was in it, so that was a little surprise. anyways, can recommend watching them if you’re into sci-fi action movies but at the same time, if you’re into that I’m pretty sure you’ve already watched them.

7.5/10

bonus: I also watched star trek beyond the other day but this time I was barely paying attention so I can't really say too much, but it's also quite good👍🏻

7. step up all in

All-stars from the previous Step up installments come together in glittering Las Vegas, battling for a victory that could define their dreams and their careers.

starring: Ryan Guzman, Briana Evigan, Adam Sevani, Misha Gabriel Hamilton, Sephen Stevo Jones, David Schreibman, Mari Koda, Alyson Stoner, Izabella Miko

definetly one of my favourite dance movies. highly recommend it!! I’d like it more without the romancde but it’s fine, I guess, I can live with it haha and the last performance... wow just wow that’s all I can say to that. y’all go watch it

9/10

8. project almanac

A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.

starring: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, Virginia Gardner

okay... I did enjoy watching it! the beginning was a little slow imo but then it just got more and more intense which was kinda nice. god, at some point the main guy kept making the wrong decisions and that was very frustrating to watch. the ending was alright, spoiler ahead (I guess) I would have liked the ending more if it was the exact same as the beginning, meaning that the movie is just one big time loop and the events from the movie were about to repeat themselves. but that's just my opinion🤷🏻‍♀️

6.5/10

9. ant man

Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his Mentor Dr. Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, David Dastmalchian, T.I.

another one of my favorite mcu movies. it's just fun and easy and doesn't have a lot of pain in it. the giant ant it's my favorite part haha I want it as a pet

9/10

10. space sweepers

Set in the year 2092 and follows the crew of a space junk collector ship called The Victory. When they discover a humanoid robot named Dorothy that's known to be a weapon of mass destruction, they get involved in a risky business deal.

starring: Song Joong-Kim, Kim Tae-ri, Seon-kyu Jin, Hyang-gi Kim, Richard Armitage, Ye-Rin Park

I really loved this movie. I cried like 6 times haha, which came unexpected. (or maybe it's because I'm suppose to get my period any day now) I did not think I was going to enjoy this movie as much as I did, at all. it was fun, it was exciting, it was sad (even my dad said that) the plot was good, the visual effects were amazing, it did feel like I was watching this movie for like 5 hours but not in a bad way and I am now kinda emotionally attached to the characters haha (I might do a rewatch). another thing I really liked was the language/synchronization. in the original version they speak mostly korean and english but also some other languages and it's the same in the synchronizations. the dialogue of the main characters is in the language you pick but every other character (I guess) is a different language and I absolutely love that. I highly recommend watching this!!

also, its was super weird seeing Richard Armitage not as a dwarf hahaha

10/10

11. christiane f.

A teen girl in 1970's Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.

starring: Natja Brunckhorst, Thomas Haustein, Jens Kuphal, Christiane Reichelt

I binged the series the other day and after the last episode this movie was in the "watch next" thingy idk and I thought "well, why not" and watched it. good movie, definitely!! I really liked that they didn't show the highs of doing heroin but focused on the negative effects it has on someone and what it's doing to your body. it is a super realistic but very very dark movie. the actors were all about 15/16 years old and looked very young which was a good and kinda disturbing thing because christiane and her friend were like 13/14 when that all happened and it made you realise that there were kids doing all that stuff

9/10

12. jurrasic world

A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree.

starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio

13. jurassic world fallen kingdom

When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.

starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Isabella Sermon

I am tired and don't really want to say all that much other than both of them are very good and I do like them. good action/adventure movies. can definitely recommend them. I definitely like the first one more because it feels like (just a little bit) that the main story in the second one is the same as in the first one, someone creates a new dinosaur species to make more money and something goes terribly wrong along the way. but it's still entertaining!

jurassic wolrd: 7.5/10

jurassic world fallen kingdom: 7/10

[sage-nebula]

Game Review — Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

In the past, I was never really one for farming sims. In fact, I used to pass on every single Harvest Moon game because the idea of farming just didn’t seem fun to me. Then I heard you could have same-sex romance options in Stardew Valley, so I played that, fell in love, and thus got very excited for the newest Story of Seasons game, since I knew that Story of Seasons was Harvest Moon previously, and Harvest Moon inspired Stardew Valley.

And all I have to say is . . .

Overall Score: 5.5/10

. . . oh boy.

Well, I actually have a lot more to say than just that, but that should give you a general idea of what the rest of this review is going to be like. I do want to say up front that I have played through the entire first in-game year to give the game a fair shake, so please trust me when I say I did my due diligence to give this game a real chance before I reviewed it. If you’re ready, jump under the cut (best read on my blog for formatting reasons) and let’s get into it. 

The Pros: 

The character customization, while not perfect, is definitely several leaps in the right direction. None of the clothing or hairstyle options are gender locked, which is amazing. There is a variety of skin tones to choose from. You pick your pronouns independently of everything else, voice included, so you can 100% have a trans character if you want to (or a nonbinary character if you don’t mind using gendered pronouns for your nonbinary character). I do wish the clothing selection was better (especially at the start, when you only have two outfits to choose from) and having different body types would be cool as well, but the fact that you have so much freedom with regards to gender presentation is a definite plus.

Likewise, being able to have same-sex relationships is a huge plus as well. Honestly, it was what convinced me to pick up the game; I might not have gotten it if it didn’t have that option in there, but that pushed me over the edge. I mean, the fact that it’s 2021 means this sort of thing should be expected, but with Japanese games on Nintendo systems it’s really not always guaranteed, so the fact that it was included still does deserve to get a mention as a plus.

It’s easy to raise affection with the villagers by just talking to them, which is an improvement over Stardew where you pretty much had to give gifts to raise affection (because I don’t think talking did it, or if it did, it was abysmally slow). I was able to unlock heart events pretty quickly just by running around the town and talking quickly with the villagers each day, which is particularly nice since the preferred gifts can be pretty expensive at first.

I enjoy that not all of the heart events necessarily involve the farmer, especially for characters that aren’t romanceable. It’s nice to see the villagers interacting with each other more, to see that they have lives and relationships outside of the farmer’s sphere of influence. It also gives you unique insight into the characters, because how they act around or with each other isn’t always how they interact around or with the farmer.

Being able to sow seeds in multiple patches of dirt at once is nice, especially since otherwise it takes much longer than it does in, say, Stardew. I mean, in Stardew you can hold the A button and sow everything at once, whereas in Olive Town you have to do it one press at a time. So to be able to do a multi-plant is very nice.

The pet and mount selection is pretty great, too. I love how many different types of breeds of dog there are, how many different cats and different types of horses, and of course the unique mounts like the unicorn or the wolf. 

The farm has a lot of space once you unlock the different areas, and is divided into neat sections to make organizing easier. 

Having not played a Story of Seasons game before this one, and knowing that Stardew Valley’s developer was inspired by Harvest Moon, I can’t say entirely which features were unique to Stardew and borrowed and which ones Stardew borrowed first. However, I have seen others claim that the tool bar at the bottom of the screen (which is nearly identical to the one in Stardew) was unique to Stardew, so I can say that this is one area in which they copped something from Stardew and did it well. The fact that you can put your tools into a separate tool bag to make some emergency room in your bag is nice too.

The Neutrals:

While there are a lot of villagers and they all have their own heart events and interactions, the day-to-day dialogue can get very repetitive. I can’t tell you the amount of times Laura has told me about losing track of time during Laura Things, or how many times Jack has told me about how his mom told him about planting different crops and he thinks that’s just too much work. The dialogue only really seems to change around festivals / after plot changes, and it can really make characters that might otherwise feel fleshed out feel more like . . . well, NPCs. Which they are, but you don’t really want them to feel like that in a sim game. So while the characters are (mostly) unique, sometimes they can feel a bit repetitive.

The plot is a bit weird. It’s not bad, per se, but it’s weird that the plot focuses on wanting to turn the local town into a tourist hotspot. I get that the idea is that they want to bring commerce into the town (I guess), but that everyone is on board with it and the fact that it’s essentially gentrification just feels a bit . . . weird, for a game that’s supposed to focus more on nature. The tasks associated with it also get very repetitive, and that’s not even talking about how you literally have to improve the roads and lamps twice to make a difference.

The holiday festivals are also pretty average. It’s either a cutscene, or a tiny minigame (or sometimes not even a minigame, but I’ll get to that). The minigames are charming, but they’re not something that I’d want to do the following year. You’ve done it once, you’ve done it a million times. It’s also strange that there’s not a festival to celebrate your farm at all, whereas at least in Stardew we had the Stardew Valley Fair and I hear that in past Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons games they had farm celebration festivals, too. It’s just a bit strange.

The music is hit or miss, and mostly miss if I’m being honest, but I’ll still put it here. The songs are too short; they loop far too fast, and often sound no better than you’d expect a game on the GBA to sound (especially that first cave theme, ugh). There are some nice melodies, but again, when I compare it to Stardew (which I know isn’t exactly fair, but also Stardew is made by a grand total of one person when this game had an entire team so I feel it’s at least a little fair), it’s a pretty big letdown in the music department.

The bachelorettes are not very unique. Like, they are different, you can tell them apart, but . . . the primary difference between Bridgette and Linh, for instance, is that Linh is Korean (and also looks like a child which I don’t like at all if we’re being honest) while Bridgette is white. Otherwise they’re both sweet and shy and have basically the same personality. Reina and Blaire are also pretty similar, in that they’re both outgoing party types. The main difference between them besides their hair color (brunette and blonde respectively) is the fact that one works at the museum while the other is a waitress. The only one who really stands out is Laura, and while Laura is great (and the one I chose to marry), it’s still disappointing when you see how varied the bachelors are. It feels like not a lot of effort was put into designing the bachelorettes, which is sad when you consider they’re kind of major characters since they’re part of the dating pool.

The Cons:

This game is AWFUL to play. How, you may ask? Well, let me count the ways:

To start with, the loading screens are atrocious. There are loading screens between everything that you do. You go to town? Loading screen. You leave town? Loading screen. Start your day? Loading screen. Go in and out of barns or coops? Loading screens. And they take ages, or at least in this day and age it feels like they take ages. Particularly when you go into town, immediately realize you forgot a resource you needed for an upgrade, and go back so you get back to back cutscenes, they’re fricking awful. I cannot believe that loading screens this annoying were necessary for this game. I refuse to accept that as truth. They absolutely could have cut out the time it takes to load had they spent more time on development instead of rushing this title out for the anniversary, and speaking of things they could have ironed out in development . . .

THE LAG. THE FREEZING. THE CRASHING. THE POP-IN DISTANCING. If I didn’t know that an entire development team worked on this game, I wouldn’t believe it. This game is, put simply, a mess. Even when my farm was brand new and had pretty much nothing on it, I was noticing framerate drops both in docked and handheld mode. I’m talking, I had maybe one coop and two planted areas for crops, and the framerate was noticeably dropping. And now that I do have more stuff on my farm? Not only is the lag atrocious, but the game can’t load everything on the screen at once and so things have to pop into view after a few seconds. You can see video footage of this here, which also features one of the delightful loading screens. And this doesn’t even get into how the game will randomly freeze, or how I’ve had it crash once already. And from what I hear, I’m not unique in this. The fact they had the nerve to release this game as finished when it performs like this just boggles the mind.

Despite the fact that the Switch has two control sticks, this game plays only with one. This means that you can’t, you know, aim your tools with anything but the main control stick. And when you’re both controlling your character and aiming with the same control stick, the latter gets pretty hard. This leads to me missing things with my axe or hammer even when they’re right in front of me, as well as taking a lot of damage from the cave enemies simply because I couldn’t get in the sweet spot to both hit them with the hammer and also not get hit myself, particularly before they escape. It adds a lot of unnecessary frustration because the controls are so flawed and imprecise.

Similarly, there is a sweet spot when it comes to harvesting or picking up items off the ground, and it’s impossible to determine what that sweet spot is because you don’t get a little aiming box for that. So you can be right on top of an item and unable to pick it up because you’re not in that sweet spot. 

Apart from the framerate drops, there is input lag as well. This is most noticeable when swinging axes or hammers, or trying to pet cows and other animals after milking them. And yes, I know it’s the game and not my Switch, because it’s not consistent (and also doesn’t happen with other games). Again, this is something polish and more time in the oven probably could have handled, but now it’s too late and just makes the game frustrating to play.

Technical, mechanical gameplay issues aside, though, there are still a ton of other issues. For instance: makers. Again, I can’t say if previous Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons games had these, or if they were invented by Stardew and copped by this dev team, but what I can say is that while makers also exist in Stardew, they are handled way better there than the absolute nightmare they are here. Again, to count the ways:

In Stardew, the makers can sit flush against each other and buildings, as well as flush against paths, making everything nice and not taking up too much space. Here, not only are the makers gigantic, but they can’t be flush with anything. They can’t sit up against each other, against buildings, or against paths. This means that not only do they look ugly, but they also take up a tremendous amount of space that therefore can’t go toward anything else.

In Stardew there are a handful of makers that do things. You’ve got furnaces for making bars, mayonnaise makers, cheese makers, fabric spinners, etc. There’s a variety, but it’s not so much that your farm becomes nothing but makers. By contrast, Olive Town is drowning in makers. You have all the above, but also more that contribute to those because . . . okay, let’s take the fabric spinners for example. In Stardew, you can put any type of wool onto the fabric spinning wheel, which will make one kind of fabric. In Olive Town, you first have to have a thread maker to make thread out of grass, AS WELL AS a yarn maker to make yarn out of wool. THEN you have to have a thread fabric maker to make fabric out of thread (and the thread differs depending on the grass used, which means you can make many different types of fabrics, but only one at a time), AS WELL AS a yarn fabric maker to make fabric out of yarn. So whereas in Stardew you have one maker if you need cloth, in Olive Town you need at bare minimum two, at max four, and that’s not even getting into how slow the process will be if you only have one of each kind. Because each maker only makes one of an item, and then you usually need multiples of that one item to make the next item in the series. So for instance, your thread maker makes one spool of thread, but it takes THREE spools to make one piece of fabric. Then you might need TEN pieces of fabric for a recipe. And the makers all take literal in-game hours to make. When you consider that the costs for some things are very high (the house upgrade I’m on right now requires 80 ingots and 120 pieces of lumber), you pretty much have to have at least four of each type of maker to get things done at any kind of reasonable pace, hence the factory hell my farm is currently in as seen in the above linked video. It’s a fucking nightmare.  And yes, maybe it’s more realistic that you can’t go immediately from wool to fabric, but this is a farming sim where you interact with spirits, ride unicorns, and befriend wolves. This is not a game where you need to push realism.

The mining is also just . . . not fun. At all. Not only do you have the “it’s really hard to aim properly, especially when you’re trying not to take damage” issue mentioned above, but there’s also the fact that there’s just no variation. In the first mine there are no enemies at all, you’re just breaking rocks. The second mine introduces enemies, but only one type of enemy (basically little moles that you have to whack with the hammer). The third mine has the same enemies, but they’re stronger and appear in multiples. And that’s it. Unlike in Stardew, where there were tons of different monsters that did different things that made the mines exciting, here it’s pretty boring because the enemies are easy to avoid (and it’s best to avoid them because of how much of a pain in the ass to hit them without taking damage from running into them is) and the levels all pretty much look the same. Whereas I loved dungeon crawling in Stardew, here it’s something I purely do to get ore to make ingots in the stupid fucking makers because there’s literally no entertainment value to it otherwise, especially since the music is subpar at best.

Related to the mining, when you defeat enemies or drain lakes you can find bags of items that need to be identified at the museum. You can only have Reina identify these bags one at a time. So it’s a bunch of spamming the A button and hearing her go “oh!” over and over and over again because they, for some reason, couldn’t implement identifying items more than one at a time. And the best part? Identifying items comes with a LOADING SCREEN between you selecting the item to be identified and Reina identifying the item! How fun!!

You can really tell that they cut corners in this game, content-wise. For instance, the first festival in spring is an egg hunt. You would think that it would be a minigame where you look for eggs (again, like Stardew). You would think that, but you would be wrong. Instead, you get to watch an extended cutscene of your character finding eggs. That’s it. That’s the “egg hunt.” I skipped the mushroom hunt in fall because I assumed it would be the same, but apparently that one actually was a minigame, so joke’s on me, I guess. But either way, the fact that the egg hunt wasn’t an egg hunt at all speaks to cut corners and rushed dev time, just like the myriad of other problems that plague this game. It’s pretty bad when you can’t even include an egg hunting minigame for whatever reason (or at leas come up with unique events for spring and fall).

There is a ton of furniture with which to decorate your house, which is great! Or it would be, if you were actually given freedom to decorate, but you’re not. You can buy whatever furniture you want, but there are very specific places where you’re allowed to place it, and nowhere else. For instance, furniture and rugs can only go in the little space in front of your counter in your house in the first two house upgrades (Log Cabin and Small House). This space is very small. Despite there being a GIANT ASS FLOOR with which to cover a rug, I wasn’t able to use it until I got the third house upgrade. You have a huge empty table that you’re not allowed to put anything on. You can’t move any of the furniture around, nor can you rotate furniture that you buy when you place it. You also can’t place furniture on rugs either. Seeing so much furniture in the game is pretty exciting until you realize that you can do basically fuck all with it. Apparently they didn’t have enough time to implement real decoration into the game either. (Then again, imagine the lag in your house if they did.) As a final complaint, you can buy picture frames that claim to let you place framed memories in your house. You have a camera as an in-game tool, so you’d think that you could place pictures of your pets or your love interest in your house. You would think that, but you would be wrong. There’s no way to change the pictures in the picture frames, or at least none that I’ve been able to find just yet.

Just like Stardew, when you first arrive at the farm in Olive Town you find that it has been completely overrun with nature, and you have to spend time clearing away the debris so that you have a place to build your farm. Unlike in Stardew, the debris comes back at a ridiculously fast rate. Several in-game hours, if not more, of each day are spent cleaning up puddles (even if it didn’t rain), breaking rocks, clearing weeds, and chopping trees. Your farm can easily become overrun with nature again in just a few days’ time, meaning that a lot of your time that you would spend doing things like scavenging the mines or talking with villagers is instead spent doing basic, boring chores around the farm so that you still have livable land. And while farming sims like this one are games that are basically built around doing chores at least in part, the extent of the damage in this one (given that it happens all day every day, instead of just at the start of each season like in Stardew) really kills any fun or enjoyment you’d otherwise have as a player.

Farm upgrades come as entirely separate buildings, rather than expanding on the current building you have. So while in Stardew you could turn your existing Barns into Big Barns (and then Deluxe Barns), in Olive Town you have to buy an entirely separate building, and then painstakingly move all your animals to the new building one by one. Similarly, you can buy a silage to upgrade from your silo, but you’ll still have the silo on the farm. It doesn’t upgrade your existing development at all, despite being an upgraded form of that existing development.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Pioneers of Olive Town has some good ideas, but ultimately the terrible gameplay and lackluster execution of those ideas leaves so, so much to be desired. I will say that a patch was released recently which improved the loading screens a little, and for that I added the .5 to the score. (I took notes on things I liked / disliked / was neutral on as I played, so that I wouldn’t forget anything.) But a slight improvement to the loading screens doesn’t do much to help it when the lag is still terrible, the game still has freezes, and overall the gameplay itself just isn’t very fun. I probably will keep playing it for a bit longer to get to the marriage scenes at least, since I’ve almost maxed out Laura’s hearts. But honestly, there are so many better life sim games out there (the oft-mentioned in this review Stardew Valley being one of them) that if someone asked me if I recommended this game to them, I would have to say no. 

Let’s hope the dev team does better with the next game. Maybe not feeling the pressure of it being the series’ anniversary will take some pressure off of them while they make it.

[natalilysims]

Legacy Questionnaire

Thought this would be fun to do so I can look back on it after a few more generations pass and see how some answers change. This can also be done as a ‘send me a number’ game so if you want to do that you can find the original post by @melien​, here. Inspired by @an0nymousghost​, you can check out their post here!

1. When did you start your legacy? What inspired you to do it?

I started this Legacy on March 28, 2019. I usually do challenges where there are a lot of rules for each generation but I wanted to start something where I could do pretty much what I wanted and play a little bit more out of my comfort zone. And I’d seen a lot of amazing Legacies on Simblr that made me want to do my own and post it.

2. Are you following any strict rules there or just play how you want?

Nah, I’m basically just doing what I want.

3. Post the oldest picture you have from your legacy save.

The first ever Sharp house. Originally created by lilsimsie but I gave it a renovation. It’s up for download if anyone wants it!

4. What’s so special about your founder that you wanted to start a legacy with them?

She wasn’t really special to be honest. I just finally made a Sim that I managed to enjoy playing enough to not give up and start a new family like I’ve done a few times before with Legacy Challenges.

5. Favourite generation(s)

Generation 1 was probably my favourite. Which makes it sounds like I’ve enjoyed the family less and less as the challenge has gone on but that not the case at all. I think it’s because even though it was only a little over a year ago, I have a bit of nostalgia for that generation? Idk, I’m weird.

6. Favourite heir.

Probably Harper, the Gen 3 heir. 

7. Favourite spare.

Either Abi from Gen 1 or Jordan from Gen 3. 

8. Favourite spouse.

Alessia, the Gen 4 spouse. I’m gonna be really sad when I have to move on to Gen 5 and stop playing her.

9. Top 5 favourite legacy sims.

1. Jordan 2. Alessia 3. Sonny 4. Abi 5. Hayley

10. Top 3 favourite couples.

1. Safiya and Milo - the OG couple of this challenge. I have to stan. 2. Jordan and Jackson - kinda look like brothers but I just love them so much. 3. Eli and Alessia -  currently playing them and they’re so cute.

11. If you ever did any story lines, what is the one you’re most proud of?

I’m not a huuuge fan of making big story lines for my Sims but sometimes I have little things in my head about the Sims’ personality or their motivations for doing certain things that someone looking through my legacy won’t know because I don’t necessarily put them into my posts to make a huge story.

12. Any memorable moments?

Mango, a cat from Gen 2, randomly going into labour. I literally don’t know how she got pregnant.

13. Any funny moments?

None that I can think of. That’s upsetting.

14. The most unexpected twist in your legacy?

Some of the kids were unexpected twists - Harper and Hazel weren’t supposed to exist and neither was Eli but I have a problem with making my Sims have too many kids. 

15. Favourite name used on your sims?

I remember being very excited about naming Gus. And I love the name Sonny, especially for a boy. For surnames, I was really proud of Nair and Lane, even though they’re pretty basic lmao.

16. Who of your legacy sims you can relate the most to?

I don’t really relate to any but if I had to choose it would either be Abi or Harper.

17. Do you usually get attached to them or just play without deep thinking?

I get kind of attached in that I love looking back at old screenshots and remember how fun it was to play them but I don’t cry when my Sims die or anything like that because I usually have other Sims that I can move onto and focus on. And like... if I really wanted to see a Sim again, I probably have them saved somewhere.

18. Any surprise babies? What was the story?

Not really a surprise because I made it happen, but Harper and Hazel were not part of my original plan for Generation 2. I planned on Faye only having 2 kids but I was bored and when that happens I usually cure the boredom by having more kids, which I’m trying very hard to stop doing because after the excitement of having the baby is over, I can be even less interested in playing than I was initially.

19. Who of your sims has the best style?

I feel like none of my Sims have the best style, they’re all pretty generic, but if I had to choose... Jordan or Harper.

20. Who is the best genetic mix of their parents?

This is definitely a flaw of The Sims 4 and its shitty skin tones but I quite like that Max and Jordan (who are twins) have a slight mix of their parent’s genetics. Max has Harper’s hair and Cheyanne’s skin tone. And Jordan has Cheyanne’s hair and Harper’s skin tone.

Again, this shouldn’t be a thing. The kids should have a skin tone that’s in the middle of what their parents’ skin tone is but I just thought it was interesting when I noticed it.

21. Is your legacy berry, vanilla, banilla, or a mix of those?

Vanilla in the sense that they aren’t berry sims but not vanilla in the sense that I use a lot of CC and some mods.

22. Have you ever done another legacies apart from this one?

I’ve started a few, two of which I began posting on here but then deleted because I didn’t like how they were going. I was 100% expecting to give up with the Sharp family as well but it’s going pretty good so far.

23. How many generations are you aiming for? When you reach a certain milestone, are you going to continue playing or just wrap up the whole thing?

If I lose interest at any point and genuinely get bored of the Sharp family then I’ll probably stop at the end of whichever generation I’m on but ideally I want to complete 10 generations. I might take a Sim born in the final generation and use them in another legacy/challenge I start as a spouse or something but I’ll stop with the Sharp Legacy after 10.

24. Have you ever done any other challenges with your sims from the legacy?

At some point I probably will use someone from the Sharp family in something else but so far I haven’t. I will be using a Sim from another challenge/family in Sharp Gen 5 though.

25. What do you do when you feel uninspired playing the legacy?

Either stop playing The Sims 4 altogether or play another challenge/family for a bit.

26. Have you had your sims die? Which death was the hardest to take?

I’m on Gen 4 so a lot of Sims have died at this point, all from old age. So far, Harper’s was probably the hardest to take.

27. Do you have this one OTP that stands out among the other legacy couples? Tell us about them!

Jordan and Jackson. I don’t know what it is about them, I just love them so much. Sometimes I wish I made Jackson the heir. I knew that for Gen 4 I wanted to live in Sulani and do Island Living stuff but I didn’t mold Jordan into an Island Living type of Sim so it wouldn’t have fit very well.

28. Have you had a sim who you grew to like?

Eli was very unplanned and I had no idea what to name him and I was like ugh why did I do this but now I love him a lot. Originally, I named him Casper.

Bailey was also very hard to name. I’ve always really loved her, it’s just the name that I’m not sure about. I like the name Bailey but something about Bailey Sharp isn’t my fave. And Sonny and Bailey don’t go together that well imo. But at the same time, now I couldn’t imagine her having a different name so... idk.

29. Have you had a sim that you fell in love with right away?

I’m always obsessed with the first born in a generation so - Abi, Hanna, Max & Jordan, Sonny

30. Do you choose your heirs yourself or make heir polls?

I have thought about making an heir poll when I’m not sure what I want to do for the next Generation but so far, I’ve managed to figure it out so I haven’t needed a poll.

Also, when it comes to choosing an heir, I usually like to choose when they are still a child so I can kind of mold them into what I want for the next Generation as they’re growing up. So making a poll would be hard because the people voting wouldn’t know my plan and I wouldn’t want to give major spoilers for what’s to come.

31. The first legacy memory that pops up in your head?

Safiya going to a cafe to make friends but she ended up just sitting alone drinking coffee. Or when Cheyanne and Harper went on a date and Harper died...

32. The hottest sim?

Gus, Max or Brandie

33. The prettiest sim?

I feel like I’ve been very lucky with this family because all the kids have been really pretty but if I had to choose, probably either Abi, Hayley or Jordan.

34. The most unique sim?

I feel like all my Sims are pretty basic to be honest. If I had to choose... maybe Jordan? I’m not sure. 

35. Have you had any sims that remind you of someone?

I’ve never really thought about it, so I guess not.

36. Do you use other people’s sims in your legacy?

I think most of the Sims I’ve used for this Legacy are either pre-made Sims in the saves I’ve been using or I’ve made them. I don’t think I’ve specifically downloaded anyone from somewhere for my Sim to marry. I probably will do that at some point though.

37. Imagine if you had a chance to meet one of your sims. Who would it be?

That’s so weird for me to imagine but if I had to, either Jordan or Harper.

38. Do you have that one generation you wish you’d done differently?

I love Brandie and Eli so much but I sometimes wish Harper and Cheyanne had Max and Jordan and then were done with babies because 2 generations in a row with 4 babies is a bit much.

39. Your favourite non-romantic relationship in the legacy?

Harper and Hazel were fun to play with at the beginning of Gen 3 when they went to university.

40. Random fun fact about your legacy you want to share!

I’m trying to make each generation a bit different and focus on a pack. Gen 1 and Gen 2 were both fairly generic but Gen 3 had a university theme for a while and Gen 4 is Island Living. Gen 5 will probably be a mix of Island Living and Eco Lifestyle (if I can be bothered to figure out how to properly work Eco-Lifestyle).

[34ofusonanisland]

Now, it’s been officially seven days since this experiment. So now we get to tell you everything that happened in those days starting with me: Izuru

Day 1 (Izuru): I fronted for most of the day. Grey was just making some last preparations, when I started fronting it was fun...but it was not to last as the body’s mother had called us a joke. Which motivated me to banish Grey from the front for a whole week.

Day 2 (Mukuro): So, I fronted at 8 in the morning which really upset my schedule. Izuru was the one to hand front over to me this time. On this day I had walked up to the body’s grandmother’s house to get a puzzle to do. It’s still not done because it’s quite difficult. I recounted my days in fenrir to the curious members. And we also did some boring study but who cares about that. Our endeavour in growing crystals was unsuccessful and the body’s parents didn’t notice or care about us

Day 3 (Junko): Ugh, I am NOT a morning person. We went with the body’s mother on a short walk but she noticed nothing different. Even when I had lunchtime festivities with the family they had NO idea that anything was off. And then I got to walk along the beach at sunset and I loved it. The next day I had filled in for Himiko for a few hours because we were getting our hair dyed purple and she hates sitting still

Day 4 (Himiko): the purple hair was amazing! I really loved it. I was kinda irritated that I couldn’t bite anything but I took my mind off if that by watching hitman 2 gameplay. I had checked out of front early because I was quite bored and I realised I’m a bit like Rin who would much rather stay in her wonderland

Day 5 (Celestia): Well I tried to play Sims 4 in the morning but it was so laggy and then my game had the audacity to crash! I created my own fronting bracelet using loom bands after since I was rather irritated. So I decided to play roblox to live out the life as a queen that I had always wanted. And then for the rest of the time I was fronting I had decided to watch Vampire Knight. I’m team Zero all the way! Screw Kaname and Yuki, those two can screw right off with their “happy” ending.

Day 6 (B’loody Mary): Honestly I enjoyed my time in front. I got to buy new colours of play dough and it was quite exciting. The new colours were: dark green, light blue, light pink and purple. I also watched a murder mystery series which I liked but it also made me sad. And the cat came back. Celes was really sad not to see him on her day but he showed me more love. Sensing Celes’s sadness it seems. I kinda checked out of front early because of stress so I let Ebony take front early

Day 6 (Ebony): The first thing I did when taking front is to cuddle with my boyfriend and talk with him more. (My in-sys boyfriend that is) he felt weird that I was in the body of his former crush/sister but we got over that. In the morning I had decided to read crappy creepypasta and my source again because it’s really good, I went for a walk and I got kinda scared so walked the opposite way. And the cat came back and I gave him a good patting

Day 7 (Izuku): so I had gained more individuality. Being a member of DICE was certainly one of these. Kokichi and I became close really quickly and I just watched some gameplay where all sorts of destruction was caused for the fun of it. I felt bad for Celes when the cat came back so I let her front for half a hour to pat him and she clearly enjoyed it. I wrote a page of a short story we were supposed to write for English and that was good

Summary of the parents and how many shits they gave

Day 1: A little

Day 2: none

Day 3: none

Day 4: none

Day 5: none

Day 6: none

Day 7: none

In conclusion: we can reasonably conclude that fronting is safe because the body’s parents do not give two shits about us or their precious daughter

[i-swear-this-is-for-homework]

Short fluffy tma character headcanons

Cause this podcast and these characters are taking over my life

Jon Sims

Has a lot of really great hair - thick and wavy and soft

But its already going grey cause he is ~stressed~ literally all the time

Used to wear glasses but doesn’t need them anymore

Is not really an animal person but would literally die for any cat

Sleeps with his eyes open

Martin Blackwood

Wanted to be a high school English teacher before dropping out of college to support his mother

LOVES dogs and has always wanted one but never had the space or money

He actually doesn’t like tea very much

He’s more of a hot chocolate guy, but tea was his mother’s favorite and now it’s Jon’s, so he keeps making it

I said these were fluffy headcanons but literally every headcanons about martin is sad I’m sorry

Ummm he definitely jots down poetry and draws artsy flowers on his hands when he’s supposed to be working

Constantly suppressing the urge to ruffle Jon’s hair

Sasha (the og Sasha)

No time for Jon’s shit

Seriously I believe they became friends because she sat down with him at lunch one day like “please drop the terrible accent you’re not impressive and nobody respects you, if you actually want to make friends here’s what you’ve gotta do - ” and Jon interrupted her like... “but it’s my real voice”

They’ve been friends ever since

Constant prank wars with Tim

Small flower tattoo behind left ear

Tim Stoker

I like to think of Tim as the shortest original archivist

Sasha once made fun of him for it

He showed up to work the next day rocking spectacularly bedazzled 6-inch heels and towering over Sasha

Sasha was very impressed and ended up asking him to go shoe shopping with her

He’s kinda ripped - like, he actually goes to a gym and has probably eaten more vegetables in a week than Jon has in his entire life

Running joke with Sasha that Jon is actually a vampire

Is currently taking a fun family vacation camping with his brother, who is 100% alive

Elias Bouchard

He’s a total Taylor swift/ generic pop music fan

I don’t know why I believe this but it has become firmly fixed in my mind and pop music just feels so right for Elias

He uses his beholding powers to implant annoying songs into people’s heads

Every time an employee has a song stuck in their heads it’s because of Elias

He also occasionally air-drops memes into his employees brains

He literally just does this for fun

Basira Hussein

Has always been a bookworm

Joined the police force because she wanted to help people and go on adventures like the heroes of her favorite stories

Sometimes disassociates/ zones out because she’s making up a story in her head

Actually started writing a sci-fi novel but it got pushed to the side as her life became busier and busier

Has never told anyone but daisy about this novel, and even Daisy’s not allowed to read it yet

“Daisy” Tonner

Used to have really long hair but she completely shaved it after a vampire grabbed it in a fight and almost strangled her with it

Has lots of scars running up her hands and arms from the same vampire

Sorry I’m really failing in my “happy headcanon” quest

Has a kill list of people/ things she intends to hunt, she repeats it over and over to herself when she needs to focus or calm down

Jon Sims is 100% on this kill list

Melanie King

Bright purple hair

Elaborate, artsy tattoo running up right arm

Kinda looks like a harmless, artsy hipster

But she’s trained in jiu jitsu for like 14 years and could seriously fuck you up

Her dad worked at a jiu jitsu training center so she got free lessons from the time she was a little girl, and always loved competing

Always has at least 3 knives on her person

Seriously she’s started accumulating them at an alarming rate, someone should stop her

Georgie Parker

Redhead with extreme freckles

Loves cooking and experimenting with new foods

Isn’t actually a good cook at all

Jon did all the cooking when he was in hiding at her place

Doesn’t actually like cats very much - she’s more of a dog person

But she still loves the admiral and will loudly insist that he’s the only good cat she’s ever met

[esotheria-sims]

50 OC QUESTIONS - Marcus Blackbird

Got tagged by @thepathofnevermore, whee! :D Thank you for the tag, dear, this was fun! ^-^

01. How old is your sim? My headcanon is that he’s 15 at the start of the BaCC.

02. When is your sim’s birthday? June 28.

03. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Cancer.

04. What is your sim’s ethnicity? Neo Margitavillean/human with magic ancestry.

05. Does your sim have any nicknames? Mark, and his sister Annika calls him Marky sometimes when they play-fight and she wants to annoy him. He pretends to be awfully offended by the nickname, but it’s more a running gag than anything else; he actually doesn’t mind it at all.

06. Do they have a job? Not at the moment.

07. Where does your sim live? Wyvern’s Bay since recently, Neo Margitaville before that.

08. Who does your sim live with? His dad Gabriel and his little sister, the aforementioned Annika.

09. What environment did your sim grow up in? (strict, loving, cold etc.) He was brought up in what could be considered the ideal familial environment - a friendly, safe neighborhood, a snug and cozy home, parents who doted on him… But his mom passed away when he was only 6, which came as a huge shock to everyone in the family, Marcus most of all. He managed to bounce back from the loss eventually - his dad was a huge source of support for him and his baby sister proved to be a wonderful distraction - but it took him a good amount of time to process it all, and even though he’s fine now, he still misses her dearly and feels her absence.

10. What is your sim’s favourite food? Pizza… and Watcher, what he wouldn’t give for a slice right now. Did you know that Wyvern’s Bay doesn’t have any pizzerias??

11. What is your sim’s favourite drink? Water.

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favourite color? Blue.

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés? (love at first sight, etc.) He firmly believes that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. And before anyone asks, no, he’s not the most ambitious of sims. :P

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Heterosexual.

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Male.

16. Is your sim type a or type b? Uh, what the hell is type A and type B…? Next question!

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Introverted.

18. What is your sim’s favourite woohoo position? The kid’s still a virgin, so who the hell knows.

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favourite animal? Yes, he loves animals! I think he’s more of a cat person than a dog person, though he likes both well enough. He’s also very partial to small birds.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? His sister Annika, and since he came to Wyvern’s Bay, Phillip Gladwyn.

21. What is/was your sim’s favourite school subject? Back when he went to “regular” school it used to be Art, Biology, and Literature, and after Dominick Irving took him and Annika in for tutoring, his favorite lessons were in Robotics and High Elvish.

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? He was an overachiever in both elementary and high school, but due to unfortunate circumstances (read: a hoodpocalypse) he was forced to cut his education short. Now that Mr.Irving has taken him under his wing, though, he continues to excel in his studies. Once a nerd, always a nerd! 😁

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? 

He’d really love to be able to go to college, but the way things are now, it’s highly unlikely that’ll ever happen. :/ Wyvern’s Bay doesn’t have a university of its own, and any other universities are completely out of his reach. But if he could go to uni (dreaming is free, right?) he’d probably major in Biology or Art.

24. What are your sim’s political beliefs? He doesn’t have much of an opinion on the matter.

25. What is one thing your sim wants to do before they die? Just one thing? D: Marcus is so young, there’s so much he wants to do with life! Like find the love of his life, get married, start a family… it’s a long list!

26. Does your sim have a favourite TV show (cable) and/or movie? He doesn’t have any particular movie or show he considers his favorite, but he generally enjoys comedies, superhero films, and documentaries about ancient civilizations. Or well, used to enjoy. He doesn’t get to watch much television these days…

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? No.

28. Does your sim like books? Yep! He’s a complete bookworm!

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favourite one and do they play on PC or console? He’s not a hardcore gamer by any stretch, but he used to love playing video games as a kid and younger teen. He had a PC at home that he’d play on, and one of his friends from school (who had a console) would sometimes organize game nights. When he played on his home PC, it’d usually be single-player offline games, and when he played with his friends on console, they’d go for multiplayers.

30. What is your sim’s personal style? He’d describe it as “comfy & casual”, but these days it’s closer to “wears the same old rags every day and will continue to do so until the clothes literally fall apart”. It’s not easy to be fashionable when you live off grid, in the wilderness.

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Not per se, no… but he used to dry press four-leaved clovers whenever he’d come across them. He called it his “lucky collection”.

32. Is your sim religious? Nah. 

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favourite artist? He doesn’t have a strict preference re: music genre, but he likes ballads, anything with an acoustic guitar in it, and also rock, when he’s in the right mood. His favorite bands are The Beatles (got the love for their music from his dad) and The Police.

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favourite holiday? If asked he’d probably say that he is, but to him it’s not so much about the holiday itself as it is about having a chance to get together with friends and family.

35. What is your sim’s favourite type of weather? He doesn’t have a preference, he enjoys all sorts of weather: warm, sunny, rainy, snowy… As long as it isn’t anything extreme (e.g. rainstorms, overly hot, heavy snowfall), he’s happy.

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? He’d like it best if there was no fight to begin with!

37. Does your sim have a dream job? A professor, researcher, or any similar vocation that is intellectual in nature and allows for acquisition of new knowledge. As a kid, he’d always say that he wanted to become an archaeologist when he grows up… and while this isn’t necessarily something he’d consider his “dream job”, he probably wouldn’t mind being a stay-at-home dad.

38. Does your sim have any siblings? I’ve probably mentioned her like, what, ten times by now? Annika, his younger sister. He loves that kid to bits.

39. Does your sim get along with their family? He does, yes. His dad and sister are all he has left and he cherishes them above everything else.  

40. What is your sim’s favourite hobby? Fishing! He started doing it out of bare necessity after his family got stranded in Wyvern’s Bay, but he really came to enjoy it as a hobby as well.

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? Kindness, respect, loyalty, and above all, a lot of love and affection. Marcus’ ideal partner is someone who isn’t afraid to shower him with love and who will, in turn, allow him to love them just as much.

42. What is a secret about your sim? He cries like rain to sad movies, which is why he avoids watching them in the company of others… he may be a certified softie, but he still has his dignity. 

43. What is a wish your sim has? For his family to find a safe place to live. That’s all he asks for, really. ;_____;

44. What is a flaw your sim has? He’s very emotional and tends to let negative comments get to him a bit too easily… He also has a tendency to get overly defensive when he’s been hurt.

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Very nice, soft-spoken, a bit shy.

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? Surviving the total annihilation of your hometown, surviving a shipwreck, AND surviving in a fiendish new environment is a pretty big achievement, I’d say.

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Not spending more time with his mother while she was still alive. Or rather, not making the most out of the time he had with her.

48. Does your sim have a favourite emoji? Long gone are the days when he used to have a phone for texting… but back when he did, his most used emoji was a plain old smiley face.

49. Does your sim use simstagram? No electricity, no social media. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Though he was never much of a simstagram user even when he had the necessary equipment… he only had an account because all the other kids had one.

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? “I’m gonna b late. Sorry” - sent to a classmate he was supposed to do a school project with. Needless to say, they never got to meet up for that project…

[nardaviel]

Part 8 / ?. You know that time in December when there are too many holidays all squished together? That’s this part. Nothing else I promised at the end of the last part has happened yet, but soon! Soon.

Once again some new packs have come out. I’m not sure I want them to do Strangerville, but I’ve already done some stuff with Get Famous and Island Living, either in this part or the next one, which is also complete and just needs to be edited.

Winterfest morning dawns at Ibushi’s new house.

That greenhouse is way, way, way bigger than he needs, but I don't care. I just got so sick of his miniscule greenhouse at his starter home.

On the inside, the house is extremely green, and where it's not green, it's full of mismatching wood tones. You can blame that on me, if you like (except for the mismatching wood tones, that’s 99% EA's fault). I blame myself. I built this house ages ago and I judge my past self real hard when I look at the interior decorating. But it's funnier to blame it on Ibushi's own tastes. He has a favorite color, okay? He knows what he likes.

In any event, he wanted to have a gathering for Winterfest. Just a little one, with his three best friends and the little bit of his family who he's on good terms with. However, while Atsushi obligingly chats with him in the kitchen...

Atsushi: No, honestly, Ibushi, I'd love to help, are you sure you don't need anything?

...his workaholic cousin Sora closets himself in Ibushi's tiny office and smiles down at the laptop...

...while Sora's daughter Antigone makes a beeline for the bookshelf in the otherwise deserted living room.

Not unlike I would have done as a teenager, I guess, except I'd have brought my own book.

A brief introduction of the OCs: Sora is Ibushi's older cousin, featured in this Ibushi fic that I wrote if you're interested. His wife Sarah is mentioned a few times. As of the end of the fic he hasn't had time to have kids, but in the canon verse he has three. However, the Sim Yumura family is based more on a Harry Potter AU than on canon, so Sim Sora has five. The blonde teenagers are Auden and Antigone, the green-haired child is Caelan, and there are two toddlers who you won't meet for a long time, if ever, because I can't be bothered with them.

Do any of them look like the actual characters look in my head? No, not really, so if you have read that fic, please don’t replace your existing mental image with Sim Sora. But the canon third years don’t really look right, either. They’re recognizable, and so are the OCs.

Listen, the trio needed friends, and I never care enough about random townie Sims to try with them. The OCs will only be supporting characters in these posts, I promise. Party guests, that type of thing.

Anyway!

En is pleased to see Atsushi when he at last wanders in.

While this is sweet, Sora and his two teenage children are still over in a far corner of the house away from their host...

...possibly because Caelan kicked his dad off the computer in order to play Tetris Blicbloc badly.

You might be wondering where Kinshirou is. If you've read that fic, you might also be wondering where Sarah is. I have no answers for you. Maybe they're just going to be really late?

Look at all the food Ibushi made :D and the pretty flower arrangement! With flowers that he (mostly) grew himself. What a talented guy.

Ibushi: Dinner's ready! Come eat! (If the rest of them don't show up now, I'll just give up.)

You might have noticed in the last screenshot that Woody grew up! He looks like he's sad because he has no food, but in reality he has no food because he just ate.

Sora, in the meantime, has started opening presents on his own. What a rude guy. No wonder he's raised such rude children. This is all so OOC all I can do is laugh tbh

It worked lol. Welcome, Sarah and Kinshirou.

Also of note: Antigone went straight for the cake, she didn't even bother with the ham. Maybe if Sarah hadn't been so late, she could've told her daughter not to eat dessert first.

She feels guilty, I can tell.

Sarah: So how has it been going? You’ve been keeping the kids in line? Sora: Yes. Definitely. They’ve all been very well-behaved. Sarah: ...sure, Sora.

This game is so weird about sitting down... not just when eating but in so many contexts. Let the Arimas sit!!!!!

ok but joking aside though this warms my heart.

Ibushi: Kinshirou, it's Winterfest! Lighten up. Kinshirou: I'm perfectly content, thank you. Ibushi: Try to laugh more! It's the spirit of the season. Like this! Kinshirou: Ibushi, no—

Ibushi: HO HO HO!!!!!!

Ibushi: Come on, it's only once a year. Try it.

Kinshirou: No.

He looks like he's still in a pretty good mood, though. I guess it’s Winterfest spirit.

The kids get sent home (it's literally just across the street lol) so that the adults can open presents. Makes you wonder what kinds of presents they're exchanging...

... oh :C

It was En's present, wasn't it? Wasn't it, En?

It totally was. En, how cruel.

This is one of the most perplexing and worrying screenshots in the entire series to date. Ibushi stares at Sora in disappointment while Kinshirou, who disappeared with Sora a few screenshots back, tries to exchange a smug and meaningful look with him. However, Sora is smiling (nervously?) at his wife, who, in turn, is staring into space, smiling obliviously, probably thinking about work.

Sora, what clandestine political plot have you dragged Kinshirou into? He might have family connections but he's a pure innocent bby, don't corrupt him! You know Sarah would never approve!!!

Sarah: *whispering* Yes, Sora, this is the right time to open presents. Sora: (Oh, god, she knows... how does she always know?)

Eventually, even the lure of presents isn’t strong enough. En can't help himself: He finds Atsushi again and grabs him in another passionate embrace.

Finally, once night has fallen...

Father Winter shows up! :O

...even though the fireplace is lit. Must be a tough job being Father Winter.

He's about to laugh, but it looks like he's got cramps. Too many cookies?

Despite his agony, however, he replenishes Ibushi's present pile. What a nice man. Not like you, Sora.

He's a much better gift-giver than En, too.

Just casually chatting with Santa, as you do.

Don't give Ibushi a hard time about his hygiene, okay, he's been working hard all day.

Finally, the holiday comes to a close. It's just Ibushi and Woody again, both passed out in Ibushi's extremely green bedroom.

:D

But now it's back to Kinatsuen. We have to switch households now or else we'll miss

En's favorite holiday, Pretty Boy Day. Look at all those hearts around the traditions I can't believe it

Atsushi has decided to be more thoughtful in choosing holiday decorations from now on. No more going to the store and grabbing the first thing he sees! He's going to think carefully about what'll look good and where.

Meanwhile, En has dragged Kinshirou onto the couch to set the mood early.

En: Look, what I was talking about earlier, with the tongues. Isn't it weird? Kinshirou: Yes, En, this is all very strange. (Oh, no, this is too vulgar, I can't watch... how is this even permitted on television... yet I can’t give En the satisfaction of reacting too strongly...)

Atsushi... you tried your best.

It’s actually not awful, for the most part, but the ribbons on the fences make my eyes hurt. The colors clash too much.

As Kinshirou flees the house to escape from that TV show...

...Atsushi comes downstairs to take his place.

Atsushi: Good morning, En-chan. What are you watching? En: ...you'll see. Atsushi: All... all right then...

At least they both get invested in the same plot points.

As an aside, Kinshirou has come back and started a fantasy novel, and the game suggested that I name it Cat Lord, Cat Counsel which is absolutely a book I would read.

Don't remember the last time I showed one of these so these are the books Kinshirou is currently getting royalties for. I don't even remember what some of these titles are based on? What AU would inspire a title like Forever Quiet, that sounds depressing.

Or that’s what I was thinking when I was typing this commentary as I played. Now, going through it again to post, I have an idea for what AU it might have been, and I was right. It’s depressing. Kinshirou, sometimes your books are real downers, you know that?

The sun has finally come out. Perfect weather for Atsushi to show the world his smuggler costume, right?

...well, En sold a painting and I got the Get Famous notif, even though the option itself didn't have the (+Fame) next to it when I clicked on it. So I guess this is the first step down the path to En Yufuin, famous artist.

I sound reluctant but actually I'm kind of excited haha. I even thought about having him not quit his job, since I think that would give him the chance to get things like fame chance cards, which would let him get fame faster... then I realized how OOC that was and changed my mind. En and Kinshirou, Atsushi's famous artist boyfriends.

En: Atsushiiii... Hey, Atsushi. How do you like my costume?

Atsushi: I like it, En-chan. It's subtle. I can barely tell you're in costume at all.

En: ...hey, what's that supposed to mean? Atsushi: Anyway, are you coming in for lunch? En: ...no. I was just showing you my costume. It's probably not getting any warmer than this, so I'd better do the best Pretty Boy Day tradition now. Atsushi: En, really? It's the middle of winter, you'll freeze!

En: Pretty Boy Day is still Pretty Boy Day even when it's snowing! Atsushi: Yes, but... you know what? You go ahead, En-chan. I'm going inside. En: You won't even stay and keep me compa⁠— Atsushi: Have fun.

En: (Well, fine, I'll just go by myself... what did that even mean, "I can barely tell you're in costume at all"? God, it's fucking cold. ...I wonder if they're watching, heheh. Although, actually, it’s so cold I’m not exactly at my best here.)

Atsushi: Hey, Kin-chan, don't look outside. En-chan is⁠— Kinshirou: *averting his gaze, his eyes barely open* YES, THANK YOU, ATCHAN, I CAN IMAGINE

Your sense of propriety is fooling no one, Kinshirou.

That's okay. They can have their own Pretty Boy Day in here while En is out having a good time.

Kinshirou even reprises his grim reaper costume.

...for just enough time to realize he feels stupid and take it off again.

Kinshirou: Yes... this is much better.

Kinshirou: What is that... ensemble. En: Do you like it? Kinshirou: No.

En does his best to change Kinshirou's mind.

In the background, Atsushi listens and laughs to himself. I would say he's watching, except, of course, he isn't wearing his glasses.

Have you ever looked at a character and just thought, "Yes... he is perfect"?

A happy ending to PBD. Is Kinshirou entranced by En's beauty, or is he annoyed that En fell asleep in Kinshirou's own bed before Kinshirou could even lie back down after the WooHoo? (The answer is: both.)

But then, he thinks, how sad will it be for Atchan if he comes home after a long day at work, after having to work on Pretty Boy Day, and he finds us both asleep?

So he goes down to wait for Atsushi instead.

Cute.

All right. The time has come. En wakes up and realizes he has no more vacation days remaining.

Employer: En, hello. Are you finally ready to come in to work? En: Ah, actually, no, I'm quitting, effective... now. Employer: You're quitti— En: Bye!

Bye.

This is the second time in a row he's painted this exact painting. He painted it, sold it, and started a new painting which is also this painting. I guess he just really wants to go to the beach.

Then, fuelled by black tea, he decides to improve his logic skill by observing the sky. I was laughing to myself at how slowly it was progressing when I remembered that he actually had several points in it already for work. That's how long it's been since I've paid attention to En's job lol

Who brings food to the computer and puts the bowl ON the keyboard, though? En is a madman.

It begins...

That was fast, though. Only two books. Maybe it made a difference that they were both bestsellers? Either way, congrats, Kinshirou. Although actually, I'm not sure he's going to be thrilled about the idea of fame.

That unsettled, perturbed stare as he gazes into the distance, imagining his growing fanbase massing on the horizon...

Okay, here’s a bit of a text wall, by the standards of these posts: I'm going to be honest, none of the fame perk trees are aimed at any of the Boueibus, but in particular not Kinshirou. Half of why this idea is so funny to me is that I love the idea of them getting famous through their writing or their art (or their cooking? celebrity chef Atsushi??) but being completely unenthusiastic about it and just wanting a chill life.

I think with Kinshirou and En, I'm going to go at least halfway up the tree that gets you more money from crafted objects, for obvious reasons. You also get some neat stuff in the mail every day! And, unfortunately for them, you gain fame faster from skill-based actions, which I assume includes writing and painting. If Kinshirou was still trying to be a villain, he could put points the negative reputation tree too, where being a douchebag in public makes you famous. But he is reformed now, thank you very much.

Anyway, all that is to say, here's Kinshirou's first fame perk (and En’s, once he gets to this point):

Now on to the story.

En: En, you're an artist, he says... En, Atchan's ribbons looked so horrible for Pretty Boy Day, he says... I don't have time, he says... Jeez, give a guy one success and he thinks he can order anyone around. After I'm done, he'll never ask me to decorate anything again.

I would probably have done something like this for New Year's Eve, left to my own devices:

Sadly, En wanted to repulse Kinshirou so we are instead left with this:

As many flashing lights and tacky prints as possible, all in different colors, none of which are New Year’s Eve colors. The anti-Kinshirou decorations. It’s actually not completely horrible. Maybe En was incapable of making something that looked completely horrible. But it is not great.

...and now I've found En's least favorite holiday. He doesn't like to decorate, as Kinshirou will soon discover, and he doesn't like to party. That's half the things you do on New Year’s Eve.

Maybe this will cheer him up, though. No more having Kinshirou boss him around. (Ha. As if. Kinshirou will always boss him around.)

Kinshirou: Good morning, Atchan. Atsushi: Good morning... Kinshirou: What's wrong? Atsushi: Oh, it's just... last night, when I got in from work... Kinshirou: ...yes? Atsushi: ...you really thought that was better than my Pretty Boy Day decorations? Kinshirou: What?

Kinshirou: Kinshirou: At least Ibushi's moved. ... Oh, no, Ibushi’s visiting later. Yumura-san is visiting later. We’re having guests.

En admires his own animal painting. He's feeling very pleased at the moment, and he's not sure why...

Turn around and you'll find out, En.

Atsushi has an ambition. A burning ambition. His goal is to make three fancy dishes and serve them all during a single event. And since they're planning to have people over for New Year's Eve, this is the perfect opportunity!

...or so he thinks. Ibushi, who has randomly come over without being invited or let into the house, is distracting him, making the whole thing take twice as long as necessary. Kinshirou is just cheering him on, deeply impressed as always by his boyfriend's kitchen skills.

But if they're going to have company, I need to remember that they own a thermostat so that everyone isn't stuck wearing jackets in the house.

As the sun sets, Atsushi calls the other two over.

Atsushi: Okay, guys, before Ibushi and his cousin get here... you know what time it is, right? Kinshirou: Yes, En. You know what time it is, don't you? En: Huh? What time is it?

Atsushi: It's time to make our resolutions! I wonder what I should work on next year... Kinshirou: *pointed look* En: ...he doesn't actually think I'll make a resolution, does he?

Kinshirou: Yes. I must focus on self-improvement. En: (They seriously think I'm going to do this.)

Atsushi: All right! I can do it! This year for sure! Kinshirou: Yes. I will be sure to... where is En?

Please appreciate my dedication to characterization over gameplay. Kinshirou could have chosen to write a book, which he does all the time anyway, and Atsushi could have chosen to complete an aspiration milestone, which he is about half an inch from doing. Forget the week-long time limit, he's going to do it in a few Sim hours. They were both so tempting.

(Also: "Kinshirou wants to work on a skill for his resolution! Start working on a skill to get this done!" Thanks for the tip, that clears up a lot.)

Everyone is here!

Kinshirou: I've been making progress with your request, Yumura-san, and I think... Sarah: Sora, what are you talking about over here? Sora: *thinking fast* A book we've both read. Kusatsu-san isn't a fan. c: Sarah: Hmm...

A nice, low-key New Year's Eve party. Except that Atsushi wasn't satisfied with his fancy salad so he's scrambling to make some extra. (That is to say, the gourmet dish counter for his aspiration reset unexpectedly lol)

Congratulations, Atsushi!!!!! That reward trait is incredible, too. Way better than En's.

Kinshirou is lagging behind a little with his aspiration but that's okay. I'm working on it behind the scenes.

Unlike some Ens I could mention, Atsushi already knows what he wants to focus on next. He wants to hone his nerdy instincts with the Nerd Brain aspiration, which focuses on logic, books, rocket science(!), and handiness. The video game-focused one would require him to change careers, sadly, so we're going with this.

As of right now, though, Kinshirou is the resident repairman. I guess Atsushi will have to slowly take over. Even though Kinshirou is already at 6 skill points... oh, well.

:D There they all are. And now Atsushi can finally eat his sparkling excellent!-quality food.

Ibushi and the Yumuras head home after dinner. Atsushi waits for the countdown to start on TV, but if En wants to stay up for that, he needs to take a nap while he can...

Then, once the clock ticks over to 11pm, the three of them commence the creepiest thing I have ever seen in The Sims 4.

Kinatsuen:

Kinatsuen: *in eerie unison* Shushoobie!

Kinatsuen:

Kinatsuen: *in eerie unison* Shushoobie!

Kinatsuen:

Kinatsuen: :D

It was honestly like watching a cult ceremony. Very scary. Happy Sim New Year???

Atsushi: Thank you for staying awake, En-chan. Or for waking up again, I guess.

Okay, well, that's cute. But is it cute enough to justify all the creepy chanting...

That’s all for today. Part 9 begins at the start of spring, the start of the new year, &c. &c. I can absolutely 100% guarantee this time that part 9 is the wedding episode, and I suffered so much to make that wedding happen that I’ll probably post it soon just to get it out there and away from me.

[leonbastralle]

@pixeldemographics aka the savior of my blog tagged me in the...sim facts? meme, thank you my sunshine! please enjoy my very sad attempt at characterising (and picturing) the boy with the worst sense of fashion this world has ever seen.

name ➔ pavot benayoun

are you single ➔ so it seems.

are you happy ➔ uh…that’s not…really something i think about a lot. but i’m not sad, so…yeah? probably? i’m chill.

are you angry  ➔ …you mean like, right now? nah. though…i’m generally not. too much work.

are your parents still married ➔ you bet they are!

nine facts

birthplace ➔ might come off as a surprise, but i was born in the land of baguettes...or...maybe not, considering my name, i guess. (poppy? dunno what my mum was thinking, but i’m rolling with it.)

hair color ➔ dark brown

eye color ➔ well…fun story. you see, if i closed my right eye, you’d say it was extremely dark brown…if i closed the left, you’d say…greyish blue, or whatever the fancy color term is. heterochromia, my dudes. it’s kinda neat, to be honest.

birthday ➔ january 28th

mood ➔ chill. not a mood? fuck you, it is. i made it one.

gender ➔ male

summer or winter ➔ summer

morning or afternoon ➔ afternoon

eight things about your love life

are you in love ➔ i…i, uh, y’know, i might be. but then again, i wouldn’t know what it’s supposed to feel like, so there’s that. either way, it’s really dumb, because he’s a damn good friend and- you don’t need to hear about that.

do you believe in love at first sight ➔ nah. attraction, though, yes. can confirm that’s a thing.

who ended your last relationship ➔ ha, funny you think i’ve ever been in one!

have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ i mean…kinda? would rather not think about it.

are you afraid of commitments ➔ i suppose not! though so far i haven’t really needed to think about it.

have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ does…a pillow count?

have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ well, if so, they were really good at the whole secret thing.

have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ nope.

six choices

love or lust ➔ love, i guess, but it’d be boring if there wasn’t a bit of lust in the mix too, ya feel me?

lemonade or iced tea ➔ iced tea is far too cool for me, to be honest.

cats or dogs ➔ cats!

a few best friends or many regular friends ➔ few! i…only have like two or so at the moment, but i’m working on it.

wild night out or romantic night in ➔ romantic night in? i guess i’d be down to leave the house for a date. exploring is nice when you’re not alone, and there’s always a cool sound here and there, a busker, interesting convos for eavesdropping, just…y’know. background noise. treasure chest for me. but wild? i’ll pass.

day or night ➔ night

five have you evers

been caught sneaking out ➔ my dudes. i love being, y’know, not active. not at parties. just doing my thing in my room without having to move. i have no reason to sneak out.

fallen down/up the stairs ➔ really? really? is that what we’re doing? do you want me to count so it’s more humiliating?

wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ i…well, maybe. maybe i do, these days.

wanted to disappear ➔ yup! many, many times.

four preferences

smile or eyes ➔ smile!

shorter or taller ➔ does…that really matter? i’m pretty tall myself, so it’s not super easy to find someone taller than me, not by much at least. then again, dudes are generally tall, and i like dudes, so…yeah, not the point, i know.

intelligence or attraction ➔ i mean…intelligence…contributes to attraction? correct me if i’m wrong.

hook-up or relationship ➔ relationship. if someone was interested.

family

do you and your family get along ➔ i guess. they’re no fun sometimes, but who isn’t? they’re good. they’ve been good to me. my parents, that is. my mum’s family…i…let’s not. they’re far away now, just like my dad’s has always been, so it’s mainly just us. can be a pain in the ass, you know, being the only child. expectations and shit. that i could never meet. but i’m good. they’re good.

would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ uh…not really. disappointing, amirite?

have you ever ran away from home ➔ have you met me? that’d be inconvenient as fuck.

have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ oh boy, no. thankfully.

friends

do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ uh…why the hell would i? ain’t nobody got time for that.

do you consider all of your friend’s good friends ➔ yeah.

who is your best friend ➔ i…don’t really have a best friend right now. used to, a few years back, but…not really a fun story.

who knows everything about you ➔ my best friend did, but obviously i’ve grown up a little since then, at least that’s what i like to think. she’s got no reason to remember, anyway.

[dramallamadingdang]

Replies!

I feel like I haven’t done a reply post in YEARS! :D So, I figured I’d do one now. These are for @tamtam-go92, @lilleputtu, @princesspiratecat, @jennamaxon, @ellupelluellu, @penig, @ajaysims, @taylors-simblr, @skyburned, @kayleigh-83, @nimitwinklesims, @immerso-sims, and @pensblr. Mostly, about alpacas with a few other things thrown in. Like...haggis? :)

tamtam-go92 replied to your photoset “Sienna Leatherdale, Spring 2, Part 6/7 MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!  :D”

Finally some love for sienna!

I hope so! But honestly? She’s just as likely to do something dumb and violent to piss off Hattie, who can be just as jerky as Sienna is. So we’ll just have to see. :)

lilleputtu replied to your photoset “Sienna Leatherdale, Spring 2, Part 4/7 And a few days later…FOUR...”

So many pups! Excitement!

I’m totally excited to see what they’ll look like -- hopefully not all the same! -- when they grow up! If they DO all look alike, then I bet there’s something wrong with wolf genetics... :P

princesspiratecat replied to your photoset “Gabrielle Thompson, Spring 2, Part 5/6 And then it was birthin’...”

That's tough!

Single parenthood is at least a LITTLE easier in this neighborhood, since no one has a job. So, no need to arrange for childcare, at least. But since there’s also no school (yet), that also means the parents can’t get the kids out of their hair for a little while, either.

jennamaxon replied to your photoset “Gabrielle Thompson, Spring 2, Part 3/6 Child labor FTW!”

Crack that whip! Love those PJs

They are cute, aren’t they? My version of them are defaults, but the originals are Fakepeeps’s on MTS. But you’re probably aware of that. :) And yep, since the little bastards don’t go to school in this neighborhood (yet), they gotta earn their keep! *whipcrack*

ellupelluellu replied to your photoset “The last residential lot for the queer hood. It’s a beach lot,...”

Okay, I volunteer to be the idiot who keeps asking "are we there yet? .. are we there yet????" (Quote from: Mummy returns)

Heh. I’ve still got some community lots to build, but I’m hoping to start playing the neighborhood in a couple of weeks, if I can discipline myself to get ‘em built. But I think before I build those lots I’m going to get the playables installed and moved in and all that. So pictures of them will probably be the next thing I post regarding that neighborhood.

penig replied to your photoset “Arthur & Zara Stowe, Spring 2, Part 3/7 Eldest child Cohen is kind...”

There's lots of dick nerds out there.

Yeah, some, but they’re USUALLY not as common as non-dick nerds. :) Of course, I suppose it depends on the type of nerd. Sci-fi nerds are usually pretty inoffensive, and those are the kind I’ve always hung with, but gamer nerds can be real dicks sometimes.

ajaysims replied to your photo “Happy Rabbie Burns Night to all the Scots out there! :) If only I had...”

I had a really nice vegan haggis once. I'm not vegan, but I enjoyed it. I bought stuff to make scotch broth, but today and yesterday been too sick to cook. sad times.

Aside from the mashed-up sheep guts, haggis is mostly oatmeal + seasonings, and those are already vegan. (Similar to scrapple, which is mashed-up pig guts + cornmeal and seasonings, fried in patties.) So it’s really just a matter of finding something that can convincingly stand in for the mashed-up sheep guts. Maybe minced seitan? Or maybe even TVP would do.... Time to experiment! :D

taylors-simblr replied to your link “ModTheSims - nymph leaf clothing”

Oh my gosh, tumblr never gave me any notice of you replying sorry :C I'll get on with messing this mesh up right away :D

Yeah, I hardly ever get those notifications, either. :\ I have to go and look at the posts I replied to...and I rarely remember which ones that was, or even if I do, I don’t want to scroll for an hour to find them. :P Tumblr really needs some better communication tools. But they’re too busy screwing around with color schemes, I guess! :P

ANYWAY! There’s no rush at all. I’d like to makes some Plantsim outfit defaults because I’ve not found ones I really like, and I’d like to not always dress them in regular clothes. But, yeah, no rush at all. :)

skyburned replied to your photoset “I needed a break from makin’ stuffs and had a little time to kill...”

Love the monochrome blue and special love for that kinda different painting in the dining room. The garage door would have caught on those flowers all the time

Sometimes monochrome color is fun. Sometimes it makes me want to poke out my eyeballs because sometimes the shades don’t QUITE look right together. :) I kinda liked that dining room, though. 

kayleigh-83 replied to your photo “I was just outside with the critters, and bearing in mind the anon who...”

So adorable!! Looks like they know where to get the good stuff from!

Oh, yeah. They’re totally spoiled rotten. God forbid you DON’T show up bearing treats. They won’t leave you alone! :)

nimitwinklesims replied to your photo “I was just outside with the critters, and bearing in mind the anon who...”

Cuteness overload!!! Also, snow! It's fun to see a pic from your real life :)

*laugh* Yeah, we’ve gotten quite a bit of snow this year so far. I’m hoping we’ll get a nice, long ski season out of it! And, hopefully, no avalanches because they’re such a pain in the ass. :p

immerso-sims replied to your photo “I was just outside with the critters, and bearing in mind the anon who...”

Awwww. I love the white one who's just standing and smiling there lol

:D That’s Blanca! She’s currently my favorite of the herd. She’s 3. Her mother rejected her when she was a baby, so for a while she lived in the house and we bottle-fed her. So, kinda got attached. The cats would sleep cuddled up with her, once she stopped freaking them out, and it was adorable! She’s going to have her first cria this spring. Hopefully she won’t be like her own mother....

pensblr replied to your photo “I was just outside with the critters, and bearing in mind the anon who...”

Too cute! I love how there appears to be a line forming in anticipation of receiving said treats.

*laugh* Yeah, they totally know the drill. Too well, I’m afraid! *laugh*

[thedragonhoodiegirl]

Rules: 15 questions, 15 mutuals

Got tagged by @tottwriter

1. Are you named after anyone?

I was originally supposed to be given a different first name but mom and dad say that when I was born I looked so much like my first name that they changed it. My second name came from my dad’s grandma, I think

2. When was the last time you cried?

Last night, there was a sad bit in a tv show

3. Do you have kids?

Nope

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

To the point of being rude sometimes. I’m trying to cut back a little, to be kinder

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I have a really bad habit of not looking at people I pass on the street, so clothes I guess. Also if someone has exciting hair, I’ll notice that

6. What’s your eye color?

Green

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

I refuse to watch scary movies bc they always ruin my life for about a week. I get so scared of everything, it’s not fun. So happy endings, definitely. Who wants to be scared when you can be happy?

8. Any special talents?

Uh... I can sort of make my eyes vibrate. Does that count? I’m not very talented

9. Where were you born?

The countryside in southern Finland

10. What are your hobbies?

I’m almost finished with a course on embroidery, so that. I also like reading sometimes. Oh, and Sims and Overwatch when my computer still worked, but it hasn’t worked in a while now and I miss both a lot

11. Do you have any pets?

No. I live in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. I’d like a cat one day though. Or a hedgehog. Or a chicken! Or just a bunny. We used to have bunnies when we were younger, but it was a long time ago

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

Nothing. I don’t really like sports

13. How tall are you?

167cm

14. Favorite subject in school?

Math, physics and chemistry. They’re so simple. There’s only one correct answer, so you either get it right or you don’t

15. Dream job?

This is my 6th year in university and I’m still not 100% about what I want to study, you think I know what I want to do after? Maybe working in a lab or something.

@voicedheadcannons2 @tonorono @oikawas-hair @voltronicworld @omegas-m @ladysorbus @nishinoyalovesyuu @sound-of-inspiration @piratesplunderedmymemories That’s not 15 but it’ll have to do. Anyone else can also answer this, of course.

[waywardqueensims]

SEASONS TAG!

I was tagged by @sandisims @nwcrest @anxious-depressed-cool-loser @cheapsimmer @sundaisims​ thx sm

I tag ANYONE who wants to do this cause I don’t know who’s already been tagged lol

1. which season are you gonna play with first?

Probably spring because that makes the most sense??

2. from what you’ve seen in the trailer, what are you most excited about?

THE SWINGS AND THE BEES AND THE GREENHOUSES AND THE KIDDY POOL AND THE SPRINKLER AND THE SNOWBALL FIGHTS AND THE SKATING AND THE SNOW ANGLES AND THEE LEAVES AND THE HOLIDAYS

3. what’s your favourite season irl?

Probably summer because where I live it rains a lot in every other season to the point where everything looks grey and sad but this summer is supposed to be the driest one yet so um yikes

4. what’s your favourite flower / plant?

Daffodils are really pretty and they are yellow so thats always a plus

5. are you going to create a new sim/family or are you gonna keep your current household?

I will probably play in the same household but I’m definitely going to do all the things with them 

6. what would you like to see in this new add-on that you haven’t seen yet?

Oh idk, as of right now I’m really hoping they include a variety of swing sets, not just the one we saw in the trailer so we can have a VaRiEtY

7. how do you feel about not getting a new neighbourhood with seasons?

I’m not upset about it at all, I’m just glad seasons will be applied to all worlds and all future worlds aswell

8. snow, rain or sun?

Sun, 100% everything is just generally better when its sunny 

9. favorite refreshing summer drink?

Lemonade or Icetea idk

10. favorite hot drink in the winter?

HOT CHOCOLATE

11. walk through the forest or by the beach?

The beach, beaches r fun

12. swimming pools or the ocean?

In the ocean because the waves, waves are fun 

13. where would you like to travel if you could go somewhere right now?

I’d love to go visit my pals but like they live all over the place so idk where

14. how is the weather today?

Today it was cloudy but then it got really sunny and hot

15. what new traits would you like to see in the new add-on?

I just found out that in the sims 3 there was a trait called over emotional and I know that has literally nothing to do with seasons I think it would be funny 

16. do you like to play with supernatural creatures like vampires and aliens? and if so, would you like witches/faries/elves?

I literally never play with supernatural bois but elves sound pretty cool

17. what is your favourite thing to do during winter?

Going skiing or staying inside with a good book

18. … during spring?

Going for walks with my dog but also reading on the patio in our garden

19. … during summer?

Swimming and hanging out with humans

20. … during autumn?

Staying inside watching Netflix and playing sims

21. have you pre-ordered seasons? and if you haven’t are you going to pre-order it or wait till it comes out?

I haven’t but I’m definitely going to try and get it when it first comes out 

22. in which neighbourhood are you gonna play in sims first?

It depends where my current household is living but it will probably be willow creek

23. do you listen to music while playing? and if you do, what are you favourite songs to listen to?

When I play the sims I either watch tv or listen to music, usually musicals lol but also I love IDGAF by Dua Lipa and Good times by All Time Low

24. What’s your favourite thing to do in the sims? creating sims, building, etc?

I love playing with families or messing around in cas

25. what’s your favorite kit/pack/add-on?

My favourite pack so far probably city living because I use the apartments so much but also cats and dogs cause CAtS aNd DoGs

26. and finally, what add-on / pack would you like to see next?

UNIVERSITY or cars but like now that we will have seasons I’m pretty happy with the game