#pc tag

[eastwindmlk]

do as I say (not as I do)

for the title game

Ohhh this one is fab!

Sirius Black, dating coach extraordinaire, is amazing at giving relationship advice. He can tell you precisely how to woo a witch (Or wizard) and how to keep them. He is the mastermind behind the most successful couples and attends weddings almost every other weekend.

If you don't believe him? Read his critically acclaimed book 'Wand, Willpower, and Winning Hearts' or his wildly popular column in Witch Weekly where he answers owled in questions and saves marriages.

If only his own advice worked for him...

Curious what I would do with your title? Drop one in my ask box!

[closertotheheartofthesunrise]

cannot BELIEVE i did all that research and drove all the way down to [REDACTED] anmd STILL bought. an aio cooler that doesn't fit in my build

[degusart]

(Un)Holy

[jamesunderwater]

The latest chapter of you’re dead to me… let’s talk about that, bc you say things like it’s not perfect… but it was/is. The way you give us a James Potter in this chapter who is so far from perfect but such a genuinely real teenager/adolescent going through things… even if his parents aren’t like the blacks or the Evanses (spec in this fic) doesn’t mean he wouldn’t feel these things. Saying things you don’t really want to but you are saying/doing them anyway (which you’ve written out SO well) it was like reading your own 17 yr old diary and wanting to scream at the world and your loving parents for the patterns they put you in- even if that was all done lovingly. It was as if I was watching my own son’s actions through this fic. Which was absolutely incredible. So … imperfections aside… (where where we’re they ? I didn’t notice) the feelings and the depth of emotions you wrote in this chapter- just wow (I tried to come up with superlatives that didn’t just sound like flat shitty things. I can’t)- it was a feeling. The feelings were raw, real and complex and REAL and I loved it all. The ending with the glasses (oh his mum- she’ll never stop) - your family and social relations are so well described which makes me care and feel a lot for your characters! sincerely, Thank you for that! Thank you for writing this story,

x

@practicecourts PC <33 I told you I didn't forget about this ask! Even 7 months later, it pops into my head so often… I really needed the encouragement in this message -- back when you sent it, because I really was so insecure about that chapter, and for the months since, as a reminder that the story has meaning to people. Maybe that's why I held onto it for so long. But I can't say thank you enough sending it to me <3

In that chapter, the thing I agonized over the most was wanting to get the angst of being a teenager right, without making James unrecognizable from the man we know him to be. It took a LONG time and a lot of agonizing to get it there, but I was pretty happy about it by the end, and hearing that it felt like reading your teenage diary and reflected your own son's actions, too -- agh, wow, I don't think I could ever be paid a better compliment!! Writing "Real" stories is what matters most to me, so the fact you described it that way makes me so happy.

And yes, the end!! Euphemia!! It makes me ache in the best and worst ways, thinking about how there can be nothing but pure love between people, and still it can be imperfect and cause pain. 💔

Okay, not to keep repeating myself, but just -- thank you again, my friend <33

[leftsidebonfire]

Liatris: I'm gonna eat the chicken breasts!

Enma, snickering: Yeah, eat what you lack.

Rosie, deadpanning at Enma: Then maybe I should order brains on delivery for you. 

[bamsara]

A quick tutorial on how to Download Fics from AO3

After making this poll about the panic that comes when Archive of Our Own goes down, there seems to be a chunk of folks who didn't know they could download fics for offline use, or don't know how to go about it. Here's a quick tutorial for that.

You do not need an AO3 account (unless the fic you are trying to download is restricted to AO3 users only) you only need an internet connection and a device to download to, whether it's PC or a phone.

These instructions work for both desktop and mobile. At the top of the fic, where the chapter index is, there will be the download option on the right side, and an 'Entire Work' button the left side.

For One-Shots: Go ahead and click the download button.

For multiple chapter fics: In order to have the fic download all together instead of downloading each chapter individually, make sure you select the 'Entire Work' button. Like the names says, it displays the entire work on the webpage, and will download the entire fic with all it's chapters in the correct order when you go to download.

Click the download button. You've got a couple of options:

AZW3 - Amazon-developed ebook format that is designed for Kindles and Amazon's systems. Good if you want to read off of a kindle.

EPUB - Standard file format for Ebooks and is basically used as the default for pretty much most ebook readers. This is what I prefer to use when downloading to my phone.

MOBI - An older version of the AZW3. Older but standard as well.

PDF - Downloads the fics as a PDF. Can be read anywhere you can open a PDF.

HTML - Downloads an offline version of the exact webpage you are looking at. Fine if you want to keep the 'look' of AO3 but you can't change the text size or reading style like you can with ebook formats.

Not sure which one to download? Use EPUB since it's standard and readable by pretty much everything, retains images too.

You now have your fic downloaded to your device and can read it on whatever reading app you have. YAY!

Do keep in mind that these are offline files that do not synch with Archive. So if you download an ongoing fic that updates or is edited since you last downloaded, you will need to download it again to have the updated version.

Happy Reading!

[basslinegrave]

pin-up

b&w originals

[izsect]

first art post yada yada lets get this ball rollin (+ some stuff from months ago with a completely different art style whoops)

small little mention: any art i post from now will contain the hashtag #art tag for easy lookup

[critter-of-habit]

Avvar Armor is my favourite look for Sera 😌

[rebouks]

Keeping Lag to a Minimum...

I was chatting about a few things I do to combat lag over on discord and realised I do quite a bit of maintenance to reduce lag/load times. I decided to write em all down and before I knew it, I had a big ol' list. Here's hoping it helps!

Save/File Tips:

Clear your caches (located in the same spot as your mod folder fyi) I usually delete the onlinethumbnailcache, avatarcache and localthumbcache caches every time I exit the game, the main one to delete regularly is the localthumbcache file, they're just temporary files but it can get pretty big after a while.. if you're having any mod issues, particularly ui ones, it's always worth deleting that to see if it helps.

Remove any saves you're not using from your saves folder, and keep an eye on save file sizes. In my experience, any saves over around 30-40mb start to get a bit laggy. Things that bump this size up are the amount of townies in game and the amount of lots/objects in the world.

Regarding the above point, I regularly bulldoze lots I don't need anymore, just to save the game from having to cope with extra shit to load in the background and reduce save file bloat.

Similarly, I delete a lot of unnecessary townies. Also, try to keep the amount of outfits on townies to a minimum, ain't no townie need four swimsuit outfits, the game will thank you..

If you have cheats enabled you can usually shift-click/delete object on things like random coffee cups or stray cupcakes sims foolishly drop around the world (or eat em.. whatever tickles ur pickle) just get rid!

Whilst we're keeping objects in game to a minimum.. I try to clear sims inventories now and then, including townies. You can do this via mccc even if you're not currently playing that household by heading to MC Cleaner -> Sell Sim Inventory/Sell Household Inventory. RANDOM LUMPS OF CLAY BEGONE!

Think of a save file like a lot.. the more objects in it, the laggier it gets! Try your best to remove anything or anyone unnecessary where you can.

Hit "Save As" instead of "Save" now and then - the more you overwrite a save, the more chance it has of going wonky, treat your game to a fresh one now and then and remove the old one from your saves folder (maybe don't delete it right away in case you wanna roll back, keep it somewhere safe).

If you can (although ik it can be a pain) set up a new/fresh save, you'd be surprised how bogged down old ones can get! For legacy players, it's usually best to do this whenever you have a small family to save yourself some pain, since you can just save the household and take em to a new save (you will lose sims inventories/household inventories/relationships with sims outside the household tho so beware! Pictures/other collectables can be saved to a lot however, and you can always cheat back relationship bits etc.. bit of a last resort but new saves are shiny and fast!)

Make sure your Screenshots/Video folders are empty - move em somewhere else, it works, trust me. If you have a lot of custom music installed try n' clear some of those out too.. the smaller that Sims 4 directory is, the better.

Delete any last exceptions/last crashes (same spot as your mod folder again) you don't need em unless you're planning to upload em somewhere for help.

Settings Etc:

If you get a bad lag spike, opening the main menu and/or saving can randomly stop this. If it doesn't, try exiting the game, clearing your localthumbcache and restarting.

Clearing all notifications from the game panel can also help.

If you can, close all other apps and background apps you don't need whilst playing, ts4 is super memory hungry so it can definitely help.

The GraphicsRules Override file by Simp4Sims can reduce lag/latency and make your game look a little better in the process!

Srslysims Simulation Lag Fix mod can help reduce lag too (if you've altered the game speed via mccc tho, don't use this unless you plan on resetting it to default).

If you aren't keen on, or barely use a pack, consider disabling it.

Not ideal, especially for those of us taking screenshots, but lowering the graphics settings whilst playing definitely helps.

If you use re/g-shade, consider switching it off whilst playing and only turn it on for screenshots.

A clean and tidy pc/laptop runs better in general. Remove anything you're not using/don't need anymore to free up space, remove temp files, clean up your folders now and again etc etc.. especially that dreaded mod folder, speaking of...

Managing Mods:

SORT OUT YOUR MODS FOLDER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.. skdsjdjs it doesn't have to be immaculate but at the very least try n' clear it out now n' then. Also try to separate your script mods/overrides from the rest, patch days don't need to be so stressful ;-;

Personally, I don't merge my mods; if something breaks it's much harder to pinpoint! It makes it easier to find/delete specific mods too.. and let's face it, there's usually one or two items in that set you could do without lmaooo.. also, don't think it helps much tbh! Yeah you could say the game doesn't have to work as hard to load merged files but that's debatable, it's still the same amount of items/polys at the end of the day ¯\(°_o)/¯

If you like merging files and/or see results from doing so, you can merge stuff you definitely know you're never getting rid of, especially CAS/BB stuff.. but steer clear of merging gameplay/script mods! If a merged file seems to be the culprit when using the 50/50 method, try unmerging it and 50/50ing it again! You might not need to get rid of everything if something's borked.

Bulk Rename Utility can be used to remove all spaces and special characters from your mod files, the game doesn't particularly like loading those so it'll thank you.

The Sims 4 Mod Manager is a great way to sort through your mods, you can easily see, move and delete files from here (not great for build/buy, poses etc as thumbnails are usually missing, but great for CAS stuff). An extra hint with this that I've noticed is that if any of my mods get renamed with [D1] at the beginning after looking through them via the mod manager, it means it's a duplicate file so you can get rid.

I also use the Sims 4 Tray Importer to help me sort through mods. Simply save a sim/lot with any cc you don't want and find it in the importer, you can then go through all the cc in the cc tab and delete/sort it (I also use this to sort cc if a bunch has the wrong tags etc, makes it easier to find in my folders by saving em to a lot or w/e - it also spots duplicates which is handy).

It's a ballache, but the 50/50 method is tried and tested if you're having issues.

I like to keep an abandoned cc folder tucked away somewhere, that way you can remove mods willy nilly without stressing about losing them. If you change your mind, you can always grab it back!

[kirkwall-age]

exploring Origins Toolset (a gift that keeps on giving) and the V.A. directions for Arl Howe are FASCINATING. he has a secondary thought appended to every line of dialogue during the opening scene of Human Noble Origin -- and the insight into his psyche is somehow even more fucked-up than I thought

Bryce: I'm sorry pup; I didn't see you there. Howe, you remember my daughter? Howe: I see she's become a lovely young woman. Pleased to see you again, my dear.

Friendly, but hollow. "Here's the necessary exchange of pleasantries nobles must go through. I'm kind of preoccuppied with making sure your father is on track for my secret plan."

Cousland: Is your family here, Arl Howe? Howe: Oh no, I left them in Amaranthine, well away from the fighting in the south. They do send their best wishes.

Distracted. "I left them well out of harm's way. Though I don't want you to know harm is coming."

Howe: My son Thomas asked after you. Perhaps I should bring him with me next time.

Gauging the player's reaction. "My son wants to marry you. I don't approve, but mentioning it may get you to trust me."

Cousland (version 1): To what end? Howe: Ha! "To what end", she says! So glib, too. She's just like her mother when she talks like that.

Friendly, slightly menacing undertone. "You don't fool me, girl. You're playing dumb, but you're smarter than your reply suggests. I won't underestimate anyone in your family."

Cousland (version 2): ...Thomas is a few years younger than I am. Howe: As you get older, those years make less difference. A lesson often hard won.

Elsewhere. "It doesn't matter how old you are. You won't be getting any older."

THIS IS CRAZY. THIS IS A CRAZY THING TO SAY. OR THINK SECRETLY AS YOU'RE EXCHANGING PLEASANTRIES

[closertotheheartofthesunrise]

going mad with power (got a modular psu for my pc build)

[tessasbrainrotbin]

matching yippees for you and your homoerotic bff.

please handle them with care they are fragile

[jamesunderwater]

if you get this, answer with three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs! anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog <3 (no pressure, though, feel free to ignore! 😘 Love, PC)

Hmmm okay. I'm always so bad at random facts, so I thought hard on these, lol.

I went on a solo trip to Ireland for Christmas in 2022, but because I didn't realize my passport had expired until 5 days before the trip, I had to go down to Puerto Rico to get it changed last minute, then up to Canada, then finally to Ireland. Ended up stranded at the airport when I was trying to return home, sick with what I later found out was bronchitis, and had to find a last minute room for the night to catch a different flight home the next day - which meant that completely on accident, I got to experience two midnights on New Years' Eve. No regrets though ✌🏼

As a teenager, I was so in love with Sirius Black that I started filling out forms with Black as my last name. I even started getting mail under that name, including, somehow, from the U.S. Marines...?

I sang karaoke with a live band at an emo night last year - the song was Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional (and it was wayyyy too high for me, lmao)

[simmyfrobby]

*And people are wrong about urban myths. Logic and reason say that these are fictional creations, retold again and again by people who are hungry for evidence of weird coincidence, natural justice and so on. They aren’t. They keep on happening all the time, everywhere, as the stories bounce back and forth across the universe ... Urban myths are alive.

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad.

(inspo.)

[thebarrows]

put them in a room together and no one will come out alive (●'◡'●)