#than managing accounts and worrying about putting stuff out in the wild

[sindumpster]

Accidentally logged into my old mistake blog and only notifs I had gotten in the past year were for that one post with almost 1K notes

And I remember absolutely hating it and now I have the reminder that I really don’t crave that kind of attention anymore

[unpredictable-probabilities]

Azul Ashengrotto of Royal Sword Academy || Chapter 14: Birds of a Feather

Summary:

After shopping for Halloween decorations, Jamil meets up with Azul for a promised trip to the aviary, where he slowly builds up the courage to ask him out.

Word Count: 4,593

The Prefect meeting about the upcoming Halloween Week just ended, and Jamil is preparing to leave for town to get some decorations.

It's when Jamil is walking to his room, noticing the distinct lack of traps laying around, that his phone buzzes and he checks the message.

It's a text from Azul.

Jamil's mood instantly perks up. Right, the aviary!

Azul replies almost immediately.

It is? If he had known it was so close, he'd have visited more often.

Almost an hour later, Jamil has just gotten out of the store where he was supposed to pick up the decorations.

Apparently since there was a high demand for carved pumpkins and floating lanterns, the store had run out of stock. They're waiting on new stocks arriving today, and Jamil was told that they'd just deliver the items to NRC.

Normally he'd be annoyed, but he has plans here in town today, anyway.

Jamil easily finds his way to the cat café. He wonders if he should go in or if he should wait for Azul out here on the street.

Then he hears a playful voice.

"Hello, Viper."

He looks to see that Azul is approaching, wearing his purple hoodie.

"Hey, Ash. You're definitely dressed for a nice and comfy day today." Jamil remarks. He, too, is wearing a thicker hoodie than normal on account of the colder season coming in. He walks over to him, smiling. "By the way, you really went and had the nerve to change things up around Scarabia after just one visit, huh? Not only are there less traps these days but last night, I got ambushed by my dorm members just so they could talk my ear off with their opinions of me."

"Oh?" Azul says in pleasant surprise. "How did that go? What did they say?"

Jamil pauses and scrunches up his face. "You can't expect me to recite what they told me. I'm sure they already told you those sentiments first. Point is, the new stuff that's been going around the dorm… I guess it's not so bad. I just still find it wild that you managed to change all that in the span of one day."

Azul shakes his head. "I didn't do much, your residents have already been wanting to tell you those things, they just needed a little encouragement and a nudge in the right direction. What did you tell them?" he smiles at Jamil.

Jamil scratches the back of his head. "I… Well, I didn't know what to say, so I just said whatever came to me in the moment. It looks like it made them happy, so whatever works. Now the only trap I really gotta worry about is a sudden party in the middle of a study night." He sighs, but there's clearly no real bite to it. "Anyway… dorm matters aside, how have things been at RSA? Did you give Kalim that package I sent you?"

Azul nods, smiling. "I did. He teared up and hugged me. You really made him happy with that. And he asked me to give you this," he pulls out a small box from the pocket of his hoodie.

It looks like a small thermal lunchbox, similar to those he used to pack for Kalim's lunches in middle school.

Jamil's eyebrows raised in surprise. He did not expect to get anything in return.

He gingerly takes the lunchbox and opens it up to check the contents.

He sees the dark orange color of the dish and the smell of curry hits him.

"He cooked it himself," Azul says proudly. "He said that he had been practicing that recipe ever since he joined the Cooking Club. He told me to tell you that he hasn't perfected it yet but he hopes that you enjoy it, nonetheless."

Jamil sees a note stuck to the inside of the lid of the box.

You were always cooking for me, I wanted to try cooking for you, too! I hope you like it! ^_^ - Kalim

"Whoa..." Jamil widens his eyes in wonder before he closes the box and carefully puts it in his backback. "I can hardly believe it... I didn't think he'd ever touch this type of food again."

Azul nods. "He told me the story. I'm surprised you still like to eat that dish after what happened."

Jamil shrugs.

"What can I say? It's curry."

Azul smiles. "Indeed. Well, then. Shall we go see some parrots?" he nods to the direction away from the café.

"I still can't believe you went out of your way to search for parrots for my sake," Jamil laughs. "Let's."

"Seems like there's a lot of things you can't believe about me," Azul says playfully as they walk along the street. "It just makes me want to surprise you more."

"Hmm… I don't think I mind such an intimidating prospect." Jamil pleasantly hums, before he falls a little serious. "Have you heard from Rielle since we last talked?"

Azul’s expression sombers. "He messaged this morning, but it's more of the same thing. He just keeps insisting that he's fine. I'd been considering making an appointment at the palace so that I could visit him. I had brought it up to the king, and he said that I'm allowed to visit as soon as tomorrow, when Rielle gets back from his diplomatic trip to the next city."

Jamil grows concerned. "You're heading off? Will this be until the end of Rielle's tasks with his kingdom?"

"I don't know yet,” Azul says. "The king always expects Rielle to accomplish his tasks, but I'm not sure how long that particular one will take. The best we can hope for is a compromise, perhaps the king would lessen Rielle's responsibilities for the diplomatic gathering if he sees that Rielle is having a particularly difficult time handling them. I'm hoping I can convince the king of that, at least."

"Oh, so you're gonna be the diplomat to decrease Rielle's responsibilities as a diplomat," Jamil observes. "You think the king's gonna listen to reason?"

"I certainly hope so," Azul says quietly. Then he turns to Jamil. "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone when I go to the Coral Sea, that's also why I wanted to spend time with you today," he smiles shyly. "I can give your number to Rahzel if you like, so he can send his updates about Kalim to you directly. He'll be messaging me today about it, I can bring it up to him then."

Jamil falls quiet for a moment, but he nods, understanding Azul's plight. "Take care of yourself when you do get there, okay? Let's make this day count, then."

Azul smiles. "Of course."

A few minutes later, they reach an open gate with a colorful sign above its arched top, Abu's Aviary.

"Ah, here we are," Azul says as they walk in. "Have you ever been to such a place before?"

"Not at all," Jamil shakes his head, eyeing the security booth and the visitors milling around. "I think I passed this place once or twice but I never really had the time to look and visit."

Azul nods, then he goes to the ticket booth–which fortunately had no line–and gets two tickets for him and Jamil.

"Do you want to see the parrots now, or look at other birds first?" Azul asks as he hands Jamil his ticket.

"Hm. Might as well save the best for last.” Jamil pockets the ticket. “Besides, I'm curious to see what sort of birds they're keeping around here."

"Let's see the first exhibit, then.”

They entered a garden populated by small birds of different colors; shades of blue, yellow, red, green, brown.

The garden is filled with the sounds of wings flapping and soft chirping as the birds fly around from one plant to another. Some of them flew near the guests, blinking at them curiously before flying away.

There's a sign on one wall showing that this is the finches section, and indicating what types of finches are in here.

Jamil watches the birds fly by, enjoying the sights and sounds as he starts to recall the memory. "This reminds me of how Kalim seems to attract all sorts of animals to him. I bet if he were here, we'd be surrounded somehow."

"Then we must take him here someday," Azul smiles. "Does he attract bugs as well?" he asks playfully.

Jamil visibly shudders. "Fortunately, no. But it definitely won't stop him from befriending them..."

They pass through the finches section and go to the next one, the sign indicating that this area houses nightingales.

They hear a guide telling a group of children that the nightingales frequently sing during the spring and summer seasons, so they're quieter around this time of the year.

A few of the birds perched nearby are twittering in a variety of different sounds.

Azul turns to the pictures and illustrations of nightingales on the wall.

"Adorable," he smiles. "They look like babies who are constantly singing, screaming, or hungry."

Then he reads the text detailing the characteristics of a nightingale.

"They have impressive eyesight." He turns to Jamil. "How's your eyesight? You don't wear glasses so I assume you don't need them."

"My eyesight's always been fine," Jamil casually brags. "It pays to be attentive when you're guarding people. How about you? Have you always needed glasses? Do merfolk usually even wear glasses?"

"My eyesight is excellent underwater, but on land I need glasses. I think it's because my hometown is always in darkness, so the bright light on land does funny things to my vision. It's not the same for all merfolk, though. Rielle doesn't need glasses, and as you know neither does Jade nor Floyd. Maybe cecaelia eyes work differently. My eyes do look different than theirs, after all. In my merform, I mean."

A nightingale with blue feathers on its chest lands on Azul's shoulder, making him stay still in surprise. It chirps and nips at Azul's ear, then flies away again. Azul chuckles as he watches it fly.

"My, it must've thought you were seafood for a moment," Jamil jokes, watching the bird fly away. "Are you telling me that your eyes do those horizontal slits like octopi do?"

Azul nods. "Yes, my pupils are horizontal. And my irises are a brighter shade of blue than this," he slightly raises his eyebrows and he blinks to indicate his eyes.

They approach the next section, the sign indicating that it houses lovebirds.

Based on the amount of birds flying together in pairs or feeding each other with seeds via their beaks, the section is certainly appropriately named.

"Man, if any species needs to learn to get a room, it'll be these guys," Jamil mutters.

Azul laughs. "Ah, let them be happy. Besides, this is their room. We're the ones intruding," he says playfully.

Like in the other sections, there are pictures here of the different types of lovebirds, and a group of kids are reading their names and trying to find them among the flying birds in the area.

One bird with red feathers catches Jamil's attention. It flies onto a low branch next to a bird with purple feathers and snuggles against its neck.

Then they lean against each other, reminding Jamil of him and Azul on one of the rooftops in Scarabia just yesterday.

Jamil stutters to a halt and finds himself staring at the pair.

Wordlessly, he brings out his phone to take a quiet picture.

"Oh, they're beautiful," he hears Azul say softly behind him. "Can you send me that photo?"

Jamil glances up to hold Azul's gaze, aware of the colors they share in resemblance to the birds.

"... Sure. I can send it to you later,” he nods, looking a little shy all of a sudden as he turns away and continues walking like he saw nothing.

Azul falls in step beside him and they stop to let a group of kids in uniform pass by in front of them. They must be in the middle of their field trip.

One of the kids, a little boy, looks at them, then looks at the branch above them, and smiles widely. He turns to his friend and says something, then points to the branch then at Jamil and Azul. Then both kids are staring and smiling at them in fascination.

Jamil looks up and realizes that the kids are staring at them and the lovebirds above them in similar colors.

He immediately knew what they were ogling at. He glares at them and shakes his head.

They just nod at him in defiance.

Sighing, he leans to Azul and whispers, "Little children seem to think that we're the human incarnations of those birds up there."

Azul looks at the children, then at the branch above them, and he chuckles.

He smiles at the children and puts an arm around Jamil's waist, pulling him close.

"Wh—" Jamil was about to exclaim, but he freezes as Azul rests his head against his.

The children gasp and their smiles grow brighter.

Their teacher calls them from in front, telling them to follow and not separate from the group.

They both wave enthusiastically at Azul and Jamil before hurrying after their classmates.

Azul lets go of Jamil and stands up properly again.

He stumbles a little once he was let go and he stares at the other in bewilderment. "What was THAT all about?"

"They seemed so happy, I thought I might give them a little more wonder," Azul is smiling, then he looks uncertainly at Jamil. "Did it make you uncomfortable?"

"I... well…" Jamil can feel his cheeks reddening. "I guess I didn't mind, but you owe me for that."

Azul looks relieved. "Of course. Just let me know how I can return the favor.”

"You'll have to wait for it. I want to make this favor worth your sudden gesture," Jamil teases as they proceed to exit the lovebirds section.

Azul raises an eyebrow at him. "I don't think I mind such an intimidating prospect," he smiles playfully, mimicking what Jamil had said earlier.

Eventually, their trip around the aviary ended with them entering the parrot enclosure.

Squawks and fluttering of wings greet them as they step into a botanical garden.

Jamil gazes around, clearly taken by the sight of the birds.

Their colorful feathers are even brighter than he had expected.

Hues of red, green, blue, and yellow all swirl around them. There seem to be more variations even compared to the pictures on the wall.

Jamil can't decide where to look, there are so many things catching his attention; he ends up spinning around to take in the view.

He eventually decides to approach a bright red parrot with blue, black, and white patterns in its feathers, watching it preen itself.

"So cool…" he mutters under his breath.

The parrot flies away, and Jamil turns to follow it with his eyes. Then he sees Azul, looking at him with the softest smile.

Azul's eyes twinkle when he catches Jamil's gaze. Then he looks around as well. "I don't think I've ever seen this much bright colors before, they remind me of the bioluminescent fish in my hometown."

"... How do you feel about the Sea Witch, Ash?" Jamil asks out of the blue, curious.

"Hm?" Azul blinks at him. "She's known to be a benevolent mage, according to my hometown's legend. I grew up hearing a lot of stories around her, and I had actually gotten the idea of my magic contracts from the stories. She used contracts as well, right? And the fact that she was a cecaelia inspired me. She's part-octopus, and everyone respected her. I thought that if I granted wishes like she did, I might earn that same respect," he gives a small smile. "Why do you ask?"

Jamil turns his gaze upward. "That's sort of how I feel about the Sorcerer of the Sands, too. He was in a servant's position, just like me, but he climbed his way to the top through patience and sheer wit. He got the position—the acknowledgement—that he deserved and I grew up wanting to end up like him one day."

He blushes. "It's... kinda silly when you think about it. Even more so when he's why I started wanting a parrot. He was said to have one that served as his trusted companion through thick and thin… And one that apparently talked coherent sentences. I looked into it, though, and found that parrots nowadays can't achieve that same level of intelligence, but I suppose that that only goes to show how advanced the Sorcerer was."

Azul steps closer to him. "I don't think it's silly at all. And if the Sorcerer is here now, he'd be proud of all you've achieved…" he looks up at a branch and smiles. "... Jamil Viper," he says in a voice louder than normal.

A squawk sounds from behind Jamil, and there's a flap of wings as a parrot lands on his shoulder.

"Jamil Viper!" the bird says in its squawking voice. "Hello, Jamil Viper!"

Azul grins, then pulls out some bird seeds from his pocket and holds out his open palm to the parrot, who eagerly pecks at the seeds.

"Whoa, hey there, lil' fella..." Jamil greets after jumping a little from the sudden weight against his shoulder. He watches Azul feed the parrot. "Since when did you get bird seeds?"

"I bought some earlier before I met you at the café," he says, brushing off the crumbs from his hand after the parrot finishes eating. "It's his favorite brand," he pats the parrot on the head.

Jamil looks at him in surprise. "Favorite brand? Huh? Wait, you two know each other?"

Azul smiles. "I'd been coming here every other day since last week, teaching three parrots to react to your name and say hello. They allow you to do that here, just ask the staff to help you, since civilians aren't allowed to train birds on their own. I picked three because it's more likely that at least one of them would be within earshot when we come here. And this guy here is our first responder." He holds up the packet of bird seeds. "Do you want to feed him?"

Jamil stares at him with his mouth slightly agape. Then slowly, he blinks himself back to conscious thought and holds his hand out to receive the packet and feed it to the parrot on his shoulder.

"I… I don't know what to say. Why would you go through all that trouble?"

"I don't know… I had a lot of free time," Azul chuckles at his own joke. "He likes you," he says fondly as the bird eats the seeds from Jamil's palm and gives him a few affectionate nips on his braid.

A smile slowly appears on Jamil's face. "Ash, this officially makes you one of the coolest people I know.”

The parrot squawks, as if in agreement. "He likes you!" it mimics Azul.

Azul chuckles at the parrot, petting it again. The bird ruffles its feathers affectionately. "I'm really glad you like it," he smiles, gazing into Jamil's eyes.

"Ash!" the parrot squawks, trying to nip at Azul's hand as he pulls it away. "Ash! Ash!" Then he nips at Jamil's ear. "Ash… likes you! Likes you!"

"Well, I certainly hope so," Jamil jokes, though there's an undeniable grin on his face from the parrot's words. "With everything he knows about me, it'd be terrible if he's secretly gunning for my downfall this whole time."

"I told you that in confidence!" Azul feigns a scolding tone, staring wide-eyed at the parrot. Then he looks at Jamil and shakes his head in mock disappointment. "This one is a snitch."

"Oh yeah?" Jamil raises an eyebrow, turning his attention back to the parrot. "What else did Ash tell you in confidence? It'll be a secret just between you and me."

"Secret! Secret!" the parrot squawks, and just blinks at the both of them, tilting its head side to side curiously.

"Ah, a shred of loyalty remains in the bird's heart," Azul says dramatically. Then he smiles at Jamil. "We can go here whenever we want, they're open everyday. Oh, and you don't need to have me with you if you wanna see this guy or the other two who'll react to your name. Just say your name loud enough and if any of them are within earshot, they'll come to you."

"Fantastic..." Jamil breathlessly utters, still completely blown away by this arrangement. "What's his name?"

"Al," Azul says.

At that, the parrot perks up and ruffles its feathers. "Al! Me! Al!"

Azul smiles. "Oh yeah, he reacts to his name quite loudly as well. So if you ever want to find him, you can call his name."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Al. You're a really smart parrot, aren't you?"

"Al! Me!" The parrot screeches, bobbing its head up and down like its nodding.

It flies off of Jamil's soldier and lands clumsily on top of Azul's head, leaning forward to stare at Azul upside-down. "He! Likes you!"

"Do you just say that to everyone?" Azul asks playfully, looking at the parrot.

The bird begins to walk in place on Azul's head, earning a surprised "Ow!" from the merman, though he doesn't seem to be hurt.

"Jamil Viper!" Al squawks, blinking at Jamil. "Jamil Viper!" he leans forward to stare at Azul upside-down again. "Likes you! Ash! Ash!"

"Well now, he's snitching on the both of us," Jamil playfully retorts, walking over to lightly wave the bird away. Al soars up with an indignant squawk and flies off to a nearby branch.

Azul chuckles. "So, I take it you enjoyed the aviary?" he proudly gestures around the place like he owns it.

"As long as these birds are enjoying it, then absolutely," Jamil grins. He reaches over and brushes off some crumbs in Azul's hair from Al's earlier perch. "... This place would not have been as cool as it is if you hadn't shown me around today, though. Thank you."

Azul tenses up in surprise for a moment at Jamil's touch, then he relaxes and smiles. "It's my pleasure, Vi. I had a lot of fun with you today. We really did make this day count," he gazes into Jamil's eyes.

From this close, Jamil can see the tinge of red on Azul's fair cheeks.

…

Jamil recalls Al's words, and his conversation with Rielle back at the Autumn Dance.

He likes Azul, and Azul likes him back... At this point, there really is no doubt to be had, is there?

He takes a breath and begins to speak. "... Ash, I—"

A phone rings.

They both get startled at the sound; Azul blinks and smiles sheepishly at Jamil before stepping back to take out his phone. "I'm sorry, I have to take this," he says as he looks at the screen. “It's Rahzel

Probably an update about Kalim." He answers the call. "Hello?"

"Huh? Oh…" Jamil snaps out of his daze, trying not to look disappointed. "No problem."

Al makes a sad trumpet sound up on a branch.

Jamil narrows his eyes at the bird. How could a parrot even make that sound?

"Kalim's Blot Levels are fine," Azul smiles at Jamil while still on the phone. Then his smile slowly disappears as he listens some more. "What?" he asks Rahzel. "Lower than Rielle's– Rielle had elevated Blot levels? When? You're only telling me about this now?" his voice is rising and he's starting to sound angry. "No, he didn't tell me, Rahzel. Why–" He cuts himself off and closes his eyes, taking a breath. "I'm sorry," he says quietly. "Thank you, Rahzel." He hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket. Then he puts his hands on his hips and takes deep breaths, his jaw clenched.

Jamil turns his attention away from a mental stare-off with Al to Azul, bewildered. "Wait… Elevated Blot levels? Rielle's developing Blot, too?" He should've expected this, given that he and Azul are both facing the same stressful circumstances. "When did they pick up on that?"

"Apparently Rielle had gone to the infirmary the day before he left for the Coral Sea," Azul says in an evenly measured voice. "Rahzel doesn't know why, but he had himself checked for Blot. His had spiked more than Kalim's did. No one at the infirmary told me because they had assumed that Rielle would. I had assumed that as well…" he closes his eyes for a moment and massages his forehead. "I have to check on him," he says decisively. "Now. Especially with how he's been disappearing lately."

"What?" Jamil says in surprise. "How? Don't tell me you're planning on swimming all the way to the Coral Sea."

Azul looks at Jamil apologetically. "I'm sorry that I have to cut this day short, I'll make it up to you when I get back, I promise. There's a mirror portal at RSA that leads directly to the Coral Sea, but RSA is farther…" he trails off, then looks at Jamil. "I'm sorry to ask you this, but can we fly to NRC? It's nearer here compared to RSA, and Jade told me that Octavinelle has a mirror portal that leads to the Coral Sea. There's a broom rental right outside this aviary." Azul is trying so hard to be calm, but Jamil can see the worry in his eyes.

"..." Jamil nods, taking the role of the calm and composed in a situation of duress. "First, deep breaths, Azul. I know this is concerning news, but you won't be able to help Rielle in such a panicked state. I'll help you get to NRC, but for now, breathe…" He demonstrates, before gently taking Azul's hand and leading the way out and over to a small building for broom rentals.

Azul laces his fingers through Jamil's and grips his hand tightly, mimicking his breathing.

Seeing that Azul seems too frazzled to pilot a broom on his own all the way to NRC, Jamil had asked the clerk to rent them only one.

He gets on and gestures for Azul to do the same. Then he kicks off the ground, keeping the ride as smooth as possible as they head for the cliff towering above them.

Azul has one arm wrapped around Jamil's waist, and with his other hand he takes his phone out of his pocket. "Jade. I don't have time to explain, but I need access to Octavinelle's portal to the Coral Sea. It's about Rielle."

There's a moment of silence before Azul speaks again.

"Thank you. I'll meet you in the Hall of Mirrors in 15 minutes at most. And Jade… Remember that potion we brewed together…? I'd like to buy a bottle from you today."

Another beat of silence.

"Yes, I'm sure," Azul says, sounding like he's trying to convince himself.

Jamil doesn't ask. He knows that Azul is too mentally preoccupied to tell him much of anything right now.

He gets them to land right by the front gate. With the broom being seen as a foreign substance, they'd just fly right into the invisible barrier.

Jamil is automatically identified as a student and, because he's holding Azul's hand, whatever magic regulations are used here seem to recognize him as a guest.

The broom was left behind. They run all the way to the Hall of Mirrors.

<- Chapter 13

Chapter 15 ->

(Masterlist)

[phoenixyfriend]

For your suddenly omegaverse au what exactly happened? Like I think obiwan and Anakin hop over from cannon verse to omegaverse but I am unclear on if there already existed obiwan and Anakin in omegaverse. Did they die early or do they just not exist or are they just not force sensitive and therefore not a part of the order? Is there still a sith conspiracy around Anakin?

Context: Original Post, Surrogacy, Worldbuilding, Obi-Mom, Soap Operas

So, from the original post:

There is no preexisting Anakin in the Omegaverse

Obi-Wan and Anakin just straight up don’t exist until they drop headfirst into the council room, already covered in blood.

To clarify: There has never been an Anakin Skywalker in this AU. There has never been an Obi-Wan Kenobi.

They don't know this for sure when they land in the AU, though. All they know is that the Jedi have no record of either of them. They figure, well, maybe they just got lost in the shuffle. Anakin wasn't found until he was nine, after all, and that was only by great coincidence.

The rest of this post has almost no mention of the omegaverse elements, FYI.

Warning: References to the Tusken massacre, explicit sedation and isolation of a mentally unstable individual threatening violence.

I don’t want to make light of institutionalization and involuntary holds, but Anakin is a character with a history of violence talking about repeating such an act, and that’s... a bit of an extreme case.

------

It's not that hard to convince the Temple to let them run a mission that lets them stop by Tatooine or Stewjon. Anakin cares a lot more, so Tatooine it is! Obi-Wan can tell there's something sketchy going on with Anakin's particular anxiety about this, but he rolls with it. Anakin was very specific about the timing for some reasons, and at this point, it's easier to just let it all play through.

They go well after the whole “congrats, you’re omegas... somehow,” thing has happened, a month or so before Geonosis would have happened. Obi-Wan has managed to help the council sabotage and delay the Separatist side of the war enough that they’ve gained... maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months. Just a little more time to keep a few more people alive. Nobody’s reached out to Kamino yet, and Jango isn’t staging a failed assassination to draw someone in, either. They’ve bought enough time for Anakin to spend his vacation time checking in on his mom seeing if he exists here, and Obi-Wan can go with him.

They get to Tatooine. They wander about, and Anakin doesn't actually explain where they're going, but takes them straight to where the Lars farm is. Obi-Wan lets Anakin tell him that it was the Force that led him to the right area. Anakin can sense that his mom is in there, and Obi-Wan chalks up the relief from his former padawan to 'she's here and we don't have to look for her.'

Anakin is... panicking. Just a bit. What if he shows up and it turns out this reality's Anakin is off doing something completely unrelated and she realizes he's the wrong person? Or what if she doesn't recognize him and he calls her Mom anyway? What if he fucks up and says something stupid or just starts crying on her? She'll think he's insane.

Obi-Wan... takes over.

Anakin stays hidden, listening. Obi-Wan knocks on the door, and asks if there's a 'Shmi Skywalker' in residence. Someone in town mentioned her. He explains that he has a young friend of about twenty years--they're not sure, exactly, because the friend doesn't know his own birthday, but it's about there--who happens to be a Skywalker, and they're trying to see if they can reconnect him with a parent. They don't have much to go off of other than the surname... the Shmi that lives here wouldn't happen to have ever had any children about that age?

No. She hasn't had any children of her own blood, actually, her only child is her stepson, but she'd be happy to meet this other Skywalker, if he's in the area. It's always nice to find family, and connecting with those that were separated from you is a big deal on Tatooine. She's not going to look a gift bantha in the mouth.

(Cliegg, dear, put down the rifle.)

Obi-Wan promises to let his friend know, bids them goodbye, and goes to find Anakin.

Anakin is having a bit of a breakdown.

As one does.

Anakin insists that they stick around for a bit, that they do what they can to protect the farm, because that's his mom, even if she's not really his mom, and Obi-Wan can tell there's a Lot Going On here. He assumes it's because Anakin's upset his mom doesn't know him, which is a little irrational on account of their two options being "Anakin doesn't exist (and so Shmi doesn't know him)" and "Anakin does exist (but Shmi doesn't know this Anakin, so she still doesn't know him)," but Anakin's not a very rational person.

Obi-Wan thinks tamping down the current crisis is probably a little more important than chastising Anakin's attachment issues, mostly because Anakin's hands are shaking, and he's looking a little wild-eyed, and like. Obi-Wan's not great at dealing with Anakin's many and varied emotions, but he's learned at some point when it's best to just... roll with it Until There's Less Risk of Stab or Sobbing Laughter.

He helps figure out some minor fuckery with the Force to hide the family in the homestead behind them from visitors, and to warn them to hide when someone comes by. It’s not a lot--mostly just meditating and asking the Force for a helping hand--but it’s nice.

Except, well, Anakin keeps fidgeting. He keeps panicking. He has them coming back almost daily for a week, always too scared to talk to his mom but insistent on protecting her, and always looking at the calendar. Obi-Wan wants to get back to the Temple, but whatever the actual hell is going on with Anakin is too big to just ignored.

A specific day comes and goes. Anakin is a mess of jitters and nerves, and finally Obi-Wan asks just the wrong (right?) question, and... they visit Shmi.

Anakin says they can talk later, he just wants to see his mom One Last Time.

(Obi-Wan is getting more and more worried, but he sits through the incredibly awkward meeting between Anakin and his alt-universe mom, watches as Anakin has no idea what to say and almost cries, and Shmi just kind of lets him do that and Beru--a sweet girl, Obi-Wan thinks, and very practical--tells him that this is all very normal for reunited slaves.)

(Obi-Wan wonders if maybe there’s some stuff Anakin never told him about how being a slave affected him.)

(Obi-Wan had thought they’d moved past most of this, but..)

The meeting ends. There’s hugging.

They get back to the ship, and Obi-Wan gets to watch Anakin fall apart. Obi-Wan gets to watch Anakin cry and scream into a pillow, hyperventilate and nearly punch a hole in the wall as he rages about how it was all for nothing! Obi-Wan gets to watch Anakin break into a million pieces in a way he’s never seen before.

Obi-Wan gets a confession.

Anakin tells him about the Tuskens.

It’s not an easy conversation. It’s not a short conversation, either. Anakin’s full of pain and misery and rising guilt, talks about how he’s been asking himself if it would be easier to keep his mother safe if he just killed them all now, except Obi-Wan would know, and be disappointed, and sure the Chancellor had said that they were little more than rabid animals, but Anakin doesn’t think he can kill the younglings again when his mom is still fine, and--

Obi-Wan sedates him.

He wants to say that he’s not proud of this, but... Anakin isn’t well. Anakin isn’t well in a way that is currently, specifically, revolving around doing extreme violence. Anakin is talking about going out and committing a slaughter as preventative maintenance.

Anakin stays sedated until they get back to the Temple, and he’s put in Force-suppressant cuffs--Obi-Wan quietly tells them to use something that can’t be sliced or taken apart by a droid specialist, and to avoid collars because Anakin was a slave for nearly a decade, and has a lot of traumatic associations--and in an isolated room.

It’s not a cell. Not technically.

He can’t just leave, though.

Obi-Wan hates himself for it, just a little. He doesn’t want to be doing this, not to his padawan, his brother, his son, but... a massacre. Even the younglings, he’d said.

(“He said he didn’t think he could do it again,” Obi-Wan mutters, half to himself and half to the mind healer that asks for his rundown of the situation. “I think he knows it was wrong, but...”)

(But he still did it, of course.)

It’s... better than Obi-Wan feared, but worse than he hoped.

Anakin is emotionally unstable. He has been, for a long time, but he’s usually functional. When the mind healer isn’t directly poking at his worst wounds, Anakin can more or less pass for... not okay, necessarily, but no worse than anyone else in the war had. He can say the right words. He can do a joint meditation. He can talk about philosophy the way a Knight that’s taken all the right classes does.

But part of Anakin still holds to the idea that the Tuskens deserved to die.

“This is my fault,” Obi-Wan whispers, more than once, resting his head in his hands, elbows on his knees. “I should have...”

“He was an adult,” says Mace, who isn’t Mace, not the one that Obi-Wan knows, but a newer friend, one that’s still figuring how to act around him. “Young, but still an adult. He made that choice.”

Obi-Wan doesn’t answer. Things aren’t that simple.

“The timing can’t have been a coincidence,” Obi-Wan mutters to himself, later on, but in the same spot, and the same position.

The Quinlan of this universe shrugs. He knows Obi-Wan better than most, right now. Psychometry’s helpful that way, and sharing Obi-Wan’s heat hadn’t hurt. “Seems likely. You said Sith were involved and setting traps, and a kid like yours, with that much power and trauma... ripe for the molding.”

Obi-Wan whines, and then catches the noise and stuffs it back down, locks it up tight with the other ‘instinct’ things he doesn’t like to think about having. The sound already has Quinlan shifting closer, and the smell is... intended to be comforting, he thinks. Reacting to his own distress, which he’s probably just pumping out right now, because he still doesn’t know how to--

“Can I help?” Quinlan asks, and Obi-Wan lets him.

Someone gets through to Anakin, maybe, or he just lets himself be ground down, or Obi-Wan’s entreaties that he can’t teach Ahsoka until he understands his crimes get through. He won’t be trusted around the clones until the Jedi can trust him to do the right thing, they inform him.

“I wouldn’t hurt the clones.”

“Nobody’s going to believe that until you understand your crimes and truly, actually feel remorse for them.”

There wasn’t a crime, technically. Not in this universe. That tribe is still alive, here, unknowing of the fate they escaped by dint of Anakin talking himself down from committing another slaughter.

(He tells the mind healer it’s because Obi-Wan was there.)

(He might have done it, he says, if he hadn’t thought Obi-Wan would be disappointed in him.)

(He says it like it’s a foregone conclusion, that Obi-Wan’s opinion is worth more than the horror of what he might become.)

“We’re going to keep an eye on anyone talking to Palpatine,” Shaak tells him one day, after Anakin’s been mental instability hold for two weeks. “We don’t know for sure how far the similarities extend from your universe to ours, but given everything else you’ve been right about...”

“That bad?” Obi-Wan asks.

Shaak grimaces, fangs glinting in the light. “I want to believe we’d have never allowed a child into such a position, but I can’t know what political leverage may have been used in your dimension... whatever reason was had to put Skywalker in those rooms, we know the consequences now--”

“What did he do to my padawan?” Obi-Wan demands, because Anakin won’t even tell him that. Anakin hasn’t mentioned Palpatine since they left Tatooine. Not to Obi-Wan.

“Nothing physical,” Shaak manages. “But the lies he told and the suggestions he planted... it’s good they haven’t met again yet in this life. We’ll all be keeping them far apart.”

He wants to take solace in that. “Why do you know before I do?”

“Skywalker values your opinion,” she says. “Only yours. He doesn’t want you more disappointed in him than you already are, so much of what is relayed to the council as a matter of security goes no further, but this was deemed necessary to share. He agreed to it, if you worried we’d broken his confidence.”

Anakin’s therapy would normally be entirely private.

Anakin’s therapy would normally not be in response to confessions of mass slaughter.

He hasn’t asked to be let out, which Obi-Wan hopes is a sign that he realizes at least subconsciously that he was in the wrong. The mind healer says he could have been released under watch by a Master probably a day or two after he arrived, but seems to be drawing some kind of comfort in knowing he couldn’t hurt someone even if he tried.

Obi-Wan is Anakin’s emergency contact. His next of kin. His healthcare proxy. Anakin has a right to privacy, minor as it is in such a situation, and everyone recognizes and treats him as an adult, but... Obi-Wan learns as much from the mind-healer as he would have back when Anakin was actually a child.

“He trusts you to make the right decisions,” the mind healer tells him, careful and unassuming. “He has... a lot of conflicting opinions about many things, including the order, the coming war, the nature of human reproductive dynamics, the Code... but he seems keen on the idea that you are his best reference on morality and ethics.”

Oh, good, more horrifying responsibility.

“He’s better,” the mind healer tells him. “I want to get him out of here before he starts going stir crazy while still relying on the perceived safety as a crutch for his mental health. And he--”

“He’ll be staying with me,” Obi-Wan says, heavy as anything. “I know.”

“Well... there’s a war coming,” the mind healer says. She offers a thin smile when he looks at her. “I don’t want him going out, but it makes him feel useful, gives him a direction for the aggression, and... the Council is adamant that we’ll need him as much as we need you.”

It’s true.

“Did he tell you why everyone called him the Hero With No Fear?”

“No.”

“Ask him.”

[1-800-seo]

1-800-SEO presents: — Where Is My Mind?

genre: dystopia/slight angst/escapism

pairing: Johnny Suh/Gender Neutral Reader

warnings: IV’s/needles, intravenous use of narcotics, bad coping mechanisms, alcohol use, depictions/descriptions of poverty to a degree, implied sexual activity, dreams

word count: 2506 words

in affiliation with: @127-mile ‘s

drive in fic collaboration

summary: Based in a future where your wildest dreams can be lived in for a few hours through intravenous methods, vices and virtues blur. Scraping by is all you can do, and escapism is all you live for. Maybe that will change when you meet him. (Loosely based on Inception.)

The familiar haze of mental fog clouds your mind, it coats the edges of your thoughts like a viscous syrup. You find yourself in a wheat field, the golden crops stretching for as far as the eye can see ahead of you. The swirling breeze passes over your hands and you feel it tickle, a sensation you’ve not felt in a long time. After taking a crisp piece of the surrounding plants into your hands, you feel each and every texture it offers with a fingertip. It’s not like you’ve ever touched real wheat before, you want to imprint it to memory. With the piece of crop still in your dominant hand, you turn your head, body following its arc too, and your eyes meet a cottage. The building just exudes a comforting energy, it's homely even when your real home is nothing alike. The trees that are positioned off to the side of the cottage provide the right amount of shade, one side of the house has full direct sunlight and the other is gently shaded, but in a comforting way. You drop the wheat and make your way over to the cottage. As you make your way up to the front door, following the perfectly placed path, you take in the smell of the decorative flowers that adorn the surrounding gardens. The smell of real flowers is something you’re not used to. Finally upon reaching the door, you outstretch your hand to grasp the door handle. The moment your skin makes contact with the sun-heated metal, a blinding hot white shoots across your vision, and pulls you out.

Waking up is never easy, but it’s not like you’re not used to it. The moment you open your eyes you are met with the same dingy apartment as almost every other wake up. Your arms feel weak from lack of circulation as you reach across to pull out your IV. It doesn’t sting, you’ve done this so many times, it’d be surprising if it did. As your eyes adjust to the light you start to make out the time, it’s displayed on the heads up view of your plexi-wall, and reads 11:36PM. Stars, it’d been 7 hours since you last ate, and your body is definitely letting you know as it starts to wake up from its lulled state. You shift your wobbly legs away from the crusty office chair you were sitting on and begin to make your way over to the food dispensary. You hold your palm over the sensor as a silver sachet slides out and into your palm. You make quick work of depositing its contents into a bowl and mixing it with hot water, your hunger spurring you to be swifter.

Before you know it, all of the food has been devoured, your stomach full, and the night is ready to be conquered. You have no desire to leave the flat, nothing calling you besides money to leave the (lack of) comfort of your home. But of course, money always beats out desire, and so you hastily put on your shoes and proofed jacket, grab your safety umbrella and backpack, and leave. Things had to be paid for, and your credits were seriously running low, if you wanted to continue with your expensive hobby, it meant scrounging. You’re not dumb, you knew that daydreaming wasn’t a cheap, safe, respectable, or even remotely healthy hobby to have, but at this point it was escapism, freedom from pain, and so you’d do anything for that sweet peace.

Once you’re at street level, you put up your umbrella. At this point it’s better to be safe than sorry, the acid rain warning that you saw on your dash ringing out in your memory. It never used to be like this, acid rain was once unheard of, but in the last ten years pollution came to the point that even the water cycle couldn’t be trusted. That’s the joys of living in urban scum, you think to yourself. Your ears register the faint sounds of sizzling rain droplets on your umbrella and you're grateful for it now. Your pace quickens, and after a blur of around 20 minutes walk, you arrive at your workplace.

Workplace was definitely too light of a word to call the building that stands before you. The imposing structure juts out into the dark with brightly coloured lights on its each corner, signalling its presence, as if it was easy to miss without the lights. The commonplace sound of thumping bass echoes about the street for meters, and it only gets louder as you walk up the stairs and into the building. A sign reading ‘Sondaero LivingSpaces’ greets you, but you know full well the people here are barely living. Oh no, this type of place is home to some of the most prolific daydreamers; well, the most prolific for the underground scene. You step through a set of large doors and out into the main courtyard. It’s an indoor park, filled with neon bioluminescent plants, and jarringly placed speakers. If this was any other establishment, the sea of ravers surrounded by people daydreaming on cot beds would be jarring to you, but you’re so used to it that you couldn’t care less; or more so, you’re plainly desensitised to it.

You find your way out onto the dancefloor and surround yourself with people - the more people the better, it just makes your job easier. Safely hidden in the palm of your hand is a biometric chip you crafted yourself. Implants are a little drastic in your opinion, especially when cosmetic, but this was a necessary thing to you considering it earnt you money. The function of the chip worked like this: every person is assigned biometric numerical values by the government of their country, this is to make controlling their finances easier without having a physical device like a debit card or a mobile phone. Instead each user is assigned these numerical values based on their facial bone structure, and the chip's job was to scan this using minute sensors. All you had to do was simply wave your hand in the direct vicinity of their face, and await results - those results being the chip draining their bank account of credit and depositing it into yours. The waving part is complicated in normal use, but when at a club, where wild dancing is the norm, it makes hand movements so much less conspicuous. As you imagine the small amounts of money gradually making its way into your account a man approaches you to your side.

The guy has long-ish dark brown hair, with eyes of the same colour and a tall stature. He begins dancing near you, slowly moving closer and closer towards your vicinity. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t attracted to this man, he was objectively good looking, and the smirk he was wearing on his face was hard to ignore. Before you know it, he’s leaning in your ear and shout-whispering: “hey, do you wanna get a drink with me, angel?” The confidence in him to skip all normal greetings is astounding to you, but in some ways that makes him even more attractive to you, so you whisper-shout back “yeah!” and lead him over to the bar by the elbow.

After you have a few drinks in you, dancing becomes thoughtless, and swaying and grinding on the nameless man is even easier. “Yo, what’s your name?” You ask over the pulsing beat. His response is a finger trailing up your spine with the words ‘Johnny’ leaving his lips. Maybe those disquieting thoughts aren’t only silenced by daydreaming, maybe this could be another outlet. That thought curls in your mind, the wispy tendrils of a coherent thought fading like a misty night.

A few more drinks in your systems leads you to going home with the man, but your memories fade away as the night (or should you say early morning?) carries on. It passes by in a blur and the next thing you know you’re being startled awake by a cat sitting on your chest, with an unearthly headache.

Once you finally manage to extricate yourself from the cat’s grasps, you sit up and immediately notice the sleeping form of Johnny next to you on the tatami, his chest rising and falling with each breath. As quietly as you can, you tiptoe up off the tatami floor, acknowledge the ache throughout your entire body and move towards his kitchenette for a glass of water. Unbeknownst to you, Johnny apparently has a rudely noisy water purifying outlet attached to his faucet, and it decides to make itself known the moment you hover your palm over the on sensor. Johnny quickly stirs awake at the noise, and he sleepily opens his eyes in your direction.

“Wha-what’s going on?” He asks, squinting as his dark eyes adjust to the light. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was just trying to get some water.” You respond, tottering back over to the tatami, glass of water in hand. “Um, I’m sorry, I don’t really remember much of last night, did we uh- what did we do?” You’re aware your question was haphazard, but the incessant hangover looming in your head has your thoughts less than clear.

“If you are wondering if we had sex, the answer is yes, but the only thing I remember is waking up covered in… unsavoury stuff...so that certainly was a way of knowing how. I also know that apparently at some part of the night we decided to dream ‘cause I had to tidy up the gear earlier, but to put any worries at bay, I’m clean and vaccinated so...yeah.” He finishes the end of his sentence, trailing off. Well, at least the mystery man is somewhat of a gentleman, and he’s not gonna give you anything nasty which is always a good thing. You realise his late night cleaning must’ve turned to yourself at some point considering you are somewhat dressed and clean, but you can’t find it in you to care, you’d come to this shameful point so what did a bit of aftercare matter.

“Oh ok, and thanks for letting me know. I’m clean and fully vaccinated too.” You respond, unsure how to act around him. Perhaps he feels your apprehension, and in answer he pats a spot on the tatami next to him, just away from his cat too. You make your way over to the spot, feet padding on the floor as you go. “Your cat’s cute, they decided to sit on my chest this morning. Despite knocking the breath out of me, they’re pretty charming.” Johnny’s eyes widen at this knowledge before throwing his head back and letting out a hearty laugh. It’s somewhat comforting to hear such a genuine laugh; it takes your mind off the world of insincerity around you.

“I apologise for Ten, he gets cuddly in the mornings.” Johnny picks up his cat to give you more space, Ten’s legs sprawling wide in the air before being put down to safety.

There’s something so warm and familiar about Johnny’s presence, it has you naturally leaning into him, and his arm comes to rest around your shoulders as your head gently leans on his chest. The feeling is just so warm and despite knowing you don’t know him well, it almost feels like you do. It feels like a lover long lost, and now he has returned a warm feeling spreads throughout your chest. It’s almost inexplicable, and if you were to try to justify it to anyone other than yourself, a wave of embarrassment would certainly wash over you.

Looking down at you, he meets your eyes, and they seem somewhat fond; not what you were expecting to see. “Do you fancy dreamin’?” He asks, still maintaining eye contact? “Hmm, sure, hopefully I’ll remember it this time.” You reply with a smile and he reciprocates.

Before you even open your eyes you’re met with the sensation of skin on skin. Beneath your fingertips you feel, what you suppose is a firm chest, and when you open your eyes your suspicions are confirmed. Your hands are resting on Johnny’s taut chest, and of course this is what an unscripted dream with the two of you looks like. You feel that you are naked too, and his hands rest gently around your waist, a relaxing gentle weight reassuring you he’s still there. You meet each other’s eyes and the tension is palpable in the air. He dips his head down and kisses you, lips melting together with ease. His hands move from their placing and trail down to cup the small of your back, your bodies meeting infinitely closer.

The two of you move together like jigsaw pieces slotting into place, there’s no conscious thoughts, only the two of you existing in this dream space. Part of you can feel Johnny’s thoughts swirling as you share the hazy unstructured scape. There’s hints of lust mixed with a sleepy mindset, probably left over from waking up moments ago in the real world. He’s set on being a lazy lover right now, selfishly devouring you with no haste in any of his actions, just taking these moments for himself. He can feel your thoughts just as much as you can feel his, he knows you’re feeling relaxed with him and he’s pleased at that, he knows how good you feel right now and he’s proud. He wants to use all of this time to make you feel good. You’re both in agreement that losing yourself in each other is ever so easy, and so you both fall into the other's grasps.

The second time you wake up, Ten is resting on your feet, warming them from the slight chill of the room. Johnny had roused quicker than you, and he’d already removed the IV from your arm. You spot him winding up the fluid bags and putting them into the insulated case they reside in. “How are you feeling?” He asks whilst disposing of the needles in the marked sharps box. “Good, lighter than usual. I’ve enjoyed spending time with you, albeit mostly imaginary.”

The floaty feeling remains in the forefront of your consciousness. Despite feeling lighter, less burdened, you’re aware that you need to change your vices. Constantly daydreaming, forming relationships through them, isn’t healthy. Continuous escapism isn’t a way to live; numbing yourself over and over again won’t solve anything. With a new fervor to gain meaning in your life, you rise from your place on the tatami. “What are your plans for today, John?” You ask, perhaps vices and meaning aren’t that different from each other.

long time no see! this is my penultimate fic :(( hopefully u guys enjoyed it! I know it’s not like my usual style and is somewhat offbeat but I hope it makes sense hehe <3

[youryanderedaddy]

Hello, dear 💛 firstly, I am congratulating you for your blog, you’re doing an amazing stuff and I’d very delighted to support ya’ 💕 so here’s mine; what about a hitman/assassin yandere who is very infamous in underworld for his reputation finally finding his darling, what would be his first encounter and the after? A little bit smutty maybe? It’s up to you, 🌹

Aww, thank you so much for the support and for the idea. I hope that you will like how it turned out. It isn’t as filthy as I wish it was, but oh well, there is always a next time lol

 Title: Stone cold 

 Tw: female reader, obssessive behavior, non-con, dub-con, veery slight knife play, slight dirty talk 

   You should have known that something was up the very moment someone knocked on your door on a Friday night – it was unusual. Especially when you take into an account the weird accidents that had been happening the last three months. People in the neighborhood went missing one by one, some of your personal items like clothes, lipsticks and even toothbrushes were stolen and you always felt a pair of eyes burning a hole through your back. But still, you didn’t want to freak yourself out and tried to stay positive, reasonable. If someone wanted to take you out, they would have already done it, right?

 While mentally encouraging yourself, you slowly got closer to the black door. By now the knocking had stopped, but you could hear the soft breathing of your visitor outside of the apartment. In a way you really wanted to stop for a second and rationalize why this unknown person was breathing so damn loud, but decided against it – what good would it do anyways? With that in mind you finally reached out to unlock the door and slowly opened it to reveal a man, covered from head to toes in black. The darkness of the corridor had swallowed  all of his recognizable features and you could only make out his eyes, while his mouth and nose were hidden away by a ski mask. And if this wasn’t alarming enough, the bulge in his right pocket looked suspiciously close to the shape of a gun.

“Caught you.” The intruder hummed, looking more than pleased with himself, and his eyes sparkled with a wild emotion you didn’t know the name of. Your body was paralyzed at the sight of the weapon and you were starting to regret moving into such a dangerous area where no trace of a police involvement could be found. Not that you would have the time to call them anyways since the next moment the man had managed to push you  to the floor with a loud „boom”, pinning your body down with his own. You finally gained the courage to scream your heart out, but your terrified cries were quickly muffled by the gloved hand, covering your mouth.

 “You scream one more time and I will drill a fucking hole into your pretty little head.” The man whispered into your ear in a dark, eerie voice. “Right here.” He gently touched your forehead in a clear warning. You broke out into a cold sweat, but remained motionless, immobile. “Do you understand me?” The hitman asked huskily and pressed his elbow into your shrinking stomach. You nodded quickly, your heart now racing so fact you could almost feel the abrupt beats against your skin. You had made a grave mistake opening the door, but it was too late now.

 “Good.” The stranger smirked like a wolf, ready to tear apart the innocent lifeless lamb in front of him. He finally raised his hand away from your mouth. As if to prove your darkest fears and theories, the man suddenly took a sharp shiny knife out of his left pocket and slowly ran it trough your exposed collarbone. He only let the very end touch your skin but its coldness, combined with the adrenaline rushing into your veins, were enough to send you over the edge with fear. “Don’t panic. I have already decided to keep you for myself, so as long as you behave, I have no reason to hurt you. ” The man finally uttered after watching you squirm helplessly for a while, the stupid teasing smile never leaving his lips. He took off his mask and dropped the knife on the ground, just a few inches away from your carotid artery, and fiddled with the first button of your thin shirt. This mere action of his made shivers run down your spine and you couldn’t help, but shut your eyes tight, just for a moment, just to put yourself together.

 “Why are you doing this?” You whimpered, cringing at the way your voice broke into a sob right at the end. You never thought that you would be violated on the cold, hard floor by an unhinged psychopath, but fate always finds a way to screw with us, they say.

 “Do you know who I am, princess?” The man asked with a smug, arrogant expression on his face. You shook your head in response. In an alternative universe you might have thought that the intruder was quite handsome – broad shoulders, dark green eyes, a well defined jaw line and a strong muscular body. But in the current situation the only word you could use to describe the dangerous fellow was insane. He had shamelessly attacked you in your own home, your supposed safe heaven, and showed no remorse whatsoever. “You might not know me, but I know you.” The man continued. “I used to work with your father. ” His gaze was now fixed on you. “I doubt that daddy dearest has ever shared with you what he does for a living, but tell you, it isn’t pretty.” The trespasser lowered his head to bite at the soft skin of your neck, making the hairs on your neck bristle due to the unexpected contact with his teeth and because of that you couldn’t even register the hurtful words he was spitting about your father. You didn’t want to believe him anyways. “But he made a mistake.” The man added, still licking your sensitive skin. “The bastard messed with the wrong people. Stole money from my boss too. Lots and lots of it.”

 “T-that can’t be true.” You moaned in discomfort against your better judgment and tried to kick at his joints out of impulse. But of course, he quickly grabbed your leg before any damage was done and pinned it back to the floor.

 “Oh, but it is, princess. And that’s where I come into the picture.” The man purred contentedly, his attention on you once again. “I am quite infamous in the underworld, ya see. ” He stopped to make air quotes with his fingers. “ My name is Edgar, I am an assassin. I would kill anyone and everyone for the right price. ” For a second the murderer stared at intensely. You could swear that his eyes turned red in a spar of moments and in them you saw a mixture of bloodlust and a desire for flesh. “So when  they asked me to hunt you down in order to mess with your dad, I obviously agreed. It started off as a way to make an easy buck, but the more I followed you around and collected private information, the more I postponed killing you.” The man sighed, seemingly frustrated with himself. “At first I thought that I wanted to plan out your disposal well ahead of time and that’s why I was wasting so much time, but soon enough I realized I was interested in you.” He smiled softly this time as if he was recalling a pleasant memory, involving you. “You were so sweet, so… normal. I wanted you.”  The assassin admitted at last and took a deep breath. His little confession had made you vivid, frantic with worry, and suddenly you were a living, breathing creature again. You scratched at the back of his neck and summoned all of your strength left to get your hand out of his grasp. You tried to punch him right in the face, but your attempts were fruitless as he easily overpowered you. Before you could strike again the ruthless killer picked up his knife from next to you and put the blade under your chin. His eyes sparkled with childlike excitement.

 “There is no point in fighting me. Everyone already thinks you’re dead, I made sure of it.” The man moved the edge down, stopping at your cleavage. He licked his lips suggestively and the alarms in your mind went crazy all over again. “Your life belongs to me – your body and your heart too. I will take you right here and there is nothing you can do to stop me.” Edgar laughed cruelly as he cut the fabric of your blouse, revealing your chest, hidden by your plain bra. With one swift move the string holding it together was ripped apart and your upper body was fully exposed to the hungry eyes of the stranger. He cupped your breasts with his palms and massaged them gently, twisting your erect nipples lightly with his fingers. You wanted to numb the unfortunately pleasurable feeling but it wasn’t going away as the intruder kept on teasing the swollen tips.

 “S-stop!” You protested, shaking your shoulders violently. Everything was starting to feel too real and you couldn’t let the savage man take away from you something so intimate and personal. In the end he paid no mind to your continuous struggles and selfishly did as he wished.  Soon enough his hand traveled down your thighs, to your crotch. Edgar slid his wrist beside the elastic waistband of your panties and wasted no time, starting to rub the sweet spot between your legs. You held back a moan, as the embarrassment washed over you.

 “Don’t hold your voice back, princess.” The assassin growled in your ear, pressing harder on your sensitive bud. You couldn’t help, but cry out due to the intense pleasure you were receiving. “Yeah, just like that, let me hear you.” The man kept fingering you, while you arched your back, and eventually you felt yourself getting damp down there. The killer chuckled, satisfied with your cute reaction and the way you were squirming around his forefinger.

 “You act like you hate all of this, but your pussy is so wet, baby.” He suddenly drew his fingers in and out of your entrance, making a lewd pop of splashing juices just to get his point across. “You might turn out to be a little slut after all, huh.” Edgar whispered in your ear and licked the trace of salty tears down your scarlet cheeks. Your face felt red and hot, your eyes were still shut tight. The way his touch made you feel was so invasive, yet ecstatic none the less

 After the man had stretched you properly, he was ready to claim his prize. The assassin had spent so much time stalking you, following you, desiring you and now he finally had you in his arms, exposed and split open for him alone. Moving down to leave wet kisses and love bites along your shoulders and collarbone, the intruder lowered himself onto your tight, sloppy hole and you felt his hard erect member rubbing onto your tight entrance. A new powerful wave of hot, choking tears fell down your cheeks as you shook your head violently.

 “Please, I am begging you, don’t do it!” You whimpered, defeated and light-headed from the fear, arousal and adrenaline, pumping in your veins. Edgar ignored your pathetic pleas and instead decided to shut you up by gently pressing his lips against yours, moaning into his little seal of love. He pushed his big throbbing cock into your heat ruthlessly, unable to wait any longer, simply using your wetness as a lube. The murderer started thrusting into you in a steady, harsh rhythm, without giving you the time to adjust to his inhuman length. In just a few minutes your mind had stopped worked and you were reduced to a mumbling mess of tiny moans and mewls.

 “S-shit, you feel so good, princess. So fucking tight.” The man exclaimed, breathing heavily and quickly moving his hips back and forth along the way. One particular move of his send you very close to the edge and your walls clenched down on his dick, which didn’t go unnoticed. “Did I hit your sweet spot?” The man smirked, running a hand trough his sweaty dark hair. The other one went straight to your nipples, twisting and rolling them once again. You couldn’t stop yourself from crying out in unwanted, but intense pleasure. “Wanna cum, baby?” Edgar teased, as he touched every part of you  – your breasts, your belly and your soft thighs. “Wanna squirt all over my cock?” The criminal kept taunting you, driving you crazy little by little. “Do it. Cum for me, princess.” Soon enough your sensitive, over stimulated body convulsed as the powerful hot orgasm washed over you. You felt dizzy, tired and lost. Unfortunately, the crazed man wasn’t finished yet – he kept thrusting and thrusting, until he finally released into your very core.

 Once his breathing calmed down, the intruder pecked your cheek tenderly, pulling you in his lap. It went better than he had imagined it would.

 “You did so well, princess. So good for me.” Edgar stroked your hair lightly, whispering sweet nothings into your ear. But you couldn’t make half of his words as exhaustion and shame overtook your tired mind, the voice in your head screaming louder than the man’s love affirmations. But maybe it was better that way – anything else would be too painful after everything that had happened. “You are mine now.” The killer spoke after a while, before hugging you even tighter. Soon enough you would realize there wasn’t an easy way out of his warm, deathly embrace.

[rennybu]

hey man, so i've been wanting to start taking art commissions, but i have no clue where to start or how to advertise for myself or anything like that. do u got any tips u can lend 2 a newbie?

HMM!!! A COMPLEX ASK i will do my best to keep my answer concise! my first disclaimer is that my PayPal account is a business account, and I don't know how a personal account is different or if it lacks any of the features! my second disclaimer is that this stuff is hard and i'm constantly adjusting my own methods around organization and pricing! READ ON

For starting out, it's good if you have a fairly active following (amount of followers doesn't really matter, as long as a handful of folks are willing to engage with your posts and share them) - you can bring up your interest in taking on commissions, and see what the immediate interest is in your circle, and plan from there.

I got a lot of my following from DA fanart, and that helped when I first started. Most of my commissions starting out were portraits of Dragon Age OCs!! So it can be helpful for the advertising/awareness side of things if you have a small niche to fill!

For your first time taking commissions I would recommend sticking to what is most comfortable for you to draw. A limited selection (for example, only portraits with some colour or line options) is less overwhelming for someone to look at and choose from, and it helps to manage your own expectations of the workload. Put an emphasis on fun style stuff or techniques you enjoy using!!

Offer what you know you can reasonably do and feel proud of! And don't be shy charging more for things like backgrounds or things outside of your comfort zone, if a request for one comes up.

PLEASE go wild with all the relevant tags when you post your information! Commissions, commission info, character commissions, character art, art commissions, fantasy, portrait, fullbody, GO NUTS! its helpful to cover everything in the post if you're worried about your reach!

as well, you can link your commission information in the captions of your other art posts. It makes it a bit more accessible and obvious that you're open for commission work! AND DONT BE SHY TO SELF-REBLOG!! and if you have multiple social media accounts, share you information on all the ones you're active on.

it also helps to spend some time making your information and examples look neat. I Am Not A Graphic Designer so this part takes me hours/days because I'm picky, but I try to keep in mind things like legibility and eye strain and lay out my information in as accessible a way as possible. Also its fun to play with fonts

I still struggle with undercharging on my work, so I think a good way to consider your pricing is to think of what you would be willing to pay someone else for a similar amount of work. Nothing should be single digits. On your invoices, allow the option for customers to tip you. If you're just starting out and your prices are low out of self consciousness or uncertainty, someone who's excited to work with you or who enjoys your style may surprise you with a very generous tip!!! Tips in the past have helped me reevaluate my rates!! If you're a commissioner who regularly tips I'm kissing you on the forehead so so sweetly

PayPal does take a % and fee on every invoice BUT for archiving and organization its great. I would recommend looking up PayPal invoice tutorials for digital artists, and writing up a simple Terms of Service you can post with your commission info and attach to your invoices. (The TOS basically serves to say what people can or can't do with the art they buy from you, whether or not you do refunds, what the turnaround time is per commission, etc. the Professional Stuff)

um. umm other than that. Try out spreadsheets or other types of organization to keep track of contact information, $ amount, type of commission, etc!!! it's nice to be able to look back at what you've done in a more data-oriented way than just the images alone!

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

MORE

@anastasian-dreamer mentioned to me they didn’t think I had ever thought about how the vigilante/villian and hero system worked. I went: Actually I have a rough idea… and here we go.

Vigilantes

First, let’s do the differences between villains and vigilantes… intent.

 That’s like actually it. Intent is the only thing actually separating villains and vigilantes. They break the law just like villains and they are hunted by the police and often heroes like villains…

 Like sure there’s vigilante laws but at the end of the day it’s just intent separating them.

 Even then there’s a fine line for how the police classify them. If someone is simply helping out using their Quirk, not like actively looking to fight anyone and just does stuff like help rescue people or help during a villain attack, then it’s minor vigilantism and not that big a deal. Honestly a police or a hero would go: Don’t do that, finger wag and move on their way. 

 If you actively look for fights, but do not engage until the first punch is thrown at you, then it’s more moderate vigilantism and you will be arrested but let go as you rely on the self defense laws which do actually allow you to use your Quirk. If they can prove you went looking for a fight, then you’ll get a fine or community service.

Now if you go looking and act like a hero by interfering before they throw the first punch then it’s actually vigilantism. Now this is where it gets tricky and the fine line appears.

If you do not do harm that is more then a few bruises, or knocking someone out or tying them up then you are still a viglante. 

If you break bones or wound them badly enough to bleed TECHNICALLY you are a villain. But this is actually a technicality and you probably won’t be tagged that unless they die. 

As for how ranking goes- honestly it’s just who the police are actually worried about. Most don’t care really. Unless you’re going out and actively hurting people on purpose, they’re more worried about other criminals.

 It’s the heroes who fret the most because technically vigilantes are threats to their jobs. If George from accounting can use his Quirk to stop a robbery, they’re out of a job. So it’s heroes who go after vigilantes more often.

 There is a program for vigilantes to become heroes as well, but that’s a hush-hush no one talks about it and they only become underground heroes so like no one cares. 

 If a vigilante does attract media attention, that’s when the police actually get involved more and try to get them. And if the media attention is overwhelmingly positive then the vigilante might get publicly offered a hero position… which yes I have another OC for this.

Blank Spot- a vigilante who evaded police and heroes for three years and not only routed out two villain organizations, but managed to change a slum into a booming neighbourhood. 

 Now, lets go into Quirkless vigilantes.

 Technically they aren’t. I think this is fanon- and it is- but there isn’t actually a canon law saying you have to use a Quirk to be a vigilante… and I like it so:

Vigilante: Defined as ‘using their Quirk in a matter restricted to those who hold a Heroic Licesnse or a Job Specific Permit given to police personal or emergency responders.’

So technically, a Quirkless person isn’t a vigilante which is what then the Quirkless people call the golden rule because it enables them to be able to go around and help their neighbourhoods if needed.

 They can though be charged with assault so most let the villains hit them first.

 Most stick to low level stuff and just keep to themselves, so heroes don’t care.

 The only one who managed to get fame? Blank Spot and even then NO ONE knows who she is. Blank Spot got an Underground License and while she is ranked at 300 in the hero ranking, she mostly sticks to infiltration missions.

Villains

We now get into villains. Villains are those who use their Quirk with an intent to cause harm to others or property.

 That’s like it. 

 The bag snatcher in episode one isn’t actually a villain though, he’s a criminal. 

 Yes there’s a difference.

 The difference is in fact how much damage is cause as well as intent. Large-scale damage will term you a villain. Bad snatcher technically is on the edge but his intent wasn’t to do that, it was just to snatch a bag. 

 Someone breaking into a store to steal things? Criminal because the intent to be a villain isn’t there and the damage isn’t widespread.

 Breaking into multiple stores? Still not a villain.

 Purposely doing so to then fund a criminal organization? Villain.

 So there is a bit of a fine line.

 Funnily enough- Gentle Criminal and La Brava technically are more criminal than villain because their goals are more for fame than actual villainy. It’s a big grey area though and they got marked as villains because ‘hey. They’re calling themselves that, let’s just do it and call it a day.’- as per the very annoyed analyst who had to deal with Nezu and the yearly argument over his Class 1 Quirk designation which gets shuffled around the various agencies because it is so annoying.

Now, villain ranking… it actually isn’t a thing. Sure, they have people they are more interested in catching but the idea of a ‘ranking’ is more of a media term because it’s dramatic.

 You ask a police officer, an analyst, an intelligence hero or any like government official? They’ll sigh.

 “We don’t have a villain ranking. We have villains we are interested in catching more than others.” 

 Some limelight heroes call it a ranking but that’s more to play to the media and often have their staff chucking things at them in annoyance.

 At most, the top ten villains have ranked only to demonstrate how interested they are in catching them. AFO for example is ranked one because he is without a doubt the one who needed to be caught. Shigaraki then moves up.

 Then we get to villain organizations.

 I refuse to believe that villain organizations are rare. It’s just usually it’s only like five people working together and the idea of a huge organization is less common. These organizations also operate more like yakuza or gangs and will claim parts of a city to be able to rule.

 Meaning that really, underground heroes are the ones dealing with them rather then limelight. 

 The LOV is uncommon enough that it draws attention from the entire public. And it is actually now drawing attention from people wondering if they should rank villains as well.

So like any: oh this villain is ranked whatever is actually Media or heroes just pulling it out of their ass or an analyst making shit up because they’re BUSY Karen.

However- I want everyone to look at what I said. Using a Quirk.

 THUS! Quirkless people can ONLY be criminals and not villains legally, a loophole that is used by Quirkless people to get much lighter sentences as villains are the ones who have the heavier punishments compared to criminals!

Hero Ranking

Okay so using some research stuff: in 2017 there were 296,700 police personal in Japan. This however isn’t JUST officers (as in foot police which I equate heroes with). 

 Now I don’t think there would be more heroes then police, actually I think that there would be two-thirds of the amount of police. So two-thirds of 296,700 is 197,899 (numbers rounded). 

 Note, I legit just pulled that out of my ass myself but it makes sense that there WOULDN’T be the same amount of heroes compared to police and two-thirds sounds reasonable! 

Alright, so there are 197,899 people involved in the heroics career. This doesn’t just mean heroes. It also means people like PR managers, official analysts who work with the heroes, support people who work with heroes, business managers… so, let’s shorten this amount some more.

Now as there are at least 411 hero rankings (Wild-Wild Pussycats are there) I think it’s reasonable that there are a lot of heroes. So… thinking about this a bit more… I’m just gonna say there are 100,000 heroes in Japan because like there are independent ones who probably don’t have an entire agency with them. I also doubt said agencies are actually that big. At most a couple hundred people maybe are part of the agencies. It’s not like Microsoft or McDonalds or anything where they have multiple franchises and employment stuff around the world. No, agencies just have one building and that’s like it. So… yeah. 

 There, done. I’m happy. 

 Now then… how many are actually heroes with licenses though? 

 As I mentioned before many people who have sidekick licenses remain sidekicks for the rest of their lives and never advance past that. So… this has me halfing the amount because fuck it I can. (Also, because sidekicks can act as a hero, they just cannot act independently so… fuck it.)

So 50,000 people are actually heroes with licenses. Of that 50,000- 10,000 of them are underground heroes. Like actual underground heroes and not like Blank Spot, All Might or Nighteye who have underground licenses but act as limelight heroes.

 That gives us 40,000 limelight heroes who can be ranked.

I highly doubt the ranking system goes that far. As mentioned, there are at least 411 hero rankings. I have come to the decision that it makes sense there would be 1000 rankings. Most only care about the top 500 though.

 When a hero goes limelight their names are put in the system and then they can be added to the ranking list depending on: how many missions they have logged, how much patrols they do, amount of arrests they have accomplished and their popularity.

As such…. IT DOES NOT MAKE FUCKING SENSE THAT MT LADY IS RANKED 23 AND KAMUI WOODS IS 7 WHEN THEY FUCKING ARE TO NEW. MT LADY ONLY HAD HER DEBUT BARELY A YEAR AGO AND KAMUI WOODS IS REGARDED AS A ROOKIE. MAYBE THEIR EFFORTS DURING KAMINO WARD HELPED BUT FUCK THIS SHIT THIS IS FUCKING STUPID. I REFUSE TO FUCKING BELIEVE KAMUI IS HIGHER THEN RYUKU. THAT IS FUCKING BULLSHIT.

 AS SUCH: I respect canon has made a decision, but as it is a STUPID ASS DECISION I have elected to ignore it!

So fuck that shit. Kamui Wood is in the top hundred along with Mt Lady for their actions but that’s it. 

The top ten are the best of the best with the top three being actually… 100000% rigged. 

The top three aren’t just titles either but actually come with jobs. Number One is responsible for checking the HPSC records and making sure things are above board and legal. Number Two is supposed to be a police watch dog, and Number 3 is supposed to be the… honestly they’re supposed to be the watch dog of the top two. 

 Of course, as it is right now, how it is set up before was good for the HPSC which is why they partly wanted Best Jeanist killed by Hawks because he would have noticed if they weren’t doing their jobs properly. Endeavour is bribed by HPSC hiding the abuse he gave his family, and Hawks is owned by the Commission so they can’t do anything. 

 They then would have called for a new ranking and oooh, sorry Edgeshot, but we found some stuff so instead Crust is number 3. 

 But stuff happened! 

 So… there. That’s how I see things going!

[shhhhyoursister]

photographer!au

hey yall this is the first of the unfinished aus im going to be uploading, im leaving in all my notes and unedited bits so you can see the process and everything!!! i hope you all enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Matteo felt a bit like a ghost at times, with the way he slowly paced the hallways of his home. It wouldn’t be too out of character for him to have become a ghost without even realizing it, especially being alone in an old, large, dismally lit house for as long as he had been. He was sure the air was swimming with spirits, could tell from the shadows that would quietly slip from room to room, slithering along the walls with nothing really there to cast them. 

When he was a kid, he was terrified of his house. Understandably, considering the constant creaking and tapping and thudding that came from the basement, the attic, even the walls in Matteo’s own room. His parents would always tell him “Houses just make sounds, Matteo, you have to get over it,” and eventually he did (figure out how to end)

(start new paragraph) around the time he started realizing how much of a ghost he was, amongst his family and even his friends. Quiet, woeful, longing for some kind of life to live. He could sympathize with them, and his fear vanished.

(rearrange) It still made him laugh, though. His house looked haunted, from the outside and the inside, and the fact that it was surrounded on almost all sides with dense, thick, dark woods didn’t help. Matteo was still sometimes horrified by the noises he heard coming from outside, never knowing quite what was out there. At least his father had updated all the locks before he left. 

Another ghost, but one that managed to escape.

The more Matteo thought about it, everyone in his house was a ghost in some way. His father left, leaving almost no trace except for the money that went into the house and Matteo’s bank account, keeping the place safe and livable for a young adult who had never lived on his own before. His mother was also gone, but her departure was much more like something out of an actual scary story. He didn’t like to think about it.

Matteo filled the silence of the empty house with music. He had begged (guilted) his father into buying him a set of bluetooth speakers that were always playing something, usually quieter stuff or instrumentals when he was feeling it. It helped make the house feel more alive, make Matteo feel more alive and connected to the world, and honestly helped hide the noises that would come from any direction with no warning.

He knew that he could also feel more connected to the word if he ever went out into it, but it had been a few months. Sometimes Jonas or Hanna would come over, but people didn’t tend to stay long. He could get why, but it didn’t make him feel better about it. He couldn’t control where he lived, his family was making sure of that. Something about the house being in their family since it was built, it was an important piece of their history, whatever. Matteo was just waiting for some distant cousin of his to call him and say they’re moving in; he was pretty sure he had heard whispers of it happening soon.

The only times he really saw people, besides the couple times a month his friends would dare to enter the house, was when he went out to buy food or weed, the only essentials he had been restocking. He couldn’t remember the last time he got a new shirt, or pair of shoes. He sometimes worried that he had forgotten how to communicate outside of simple small talk and asking for an ounce, with how little he saw people. He didn’t even know if the people physically closest to him could be considered neighbors, as the amount of miles his property took up was too much for him to think about. He sure as hell never saw them around.

Which was why it was so strange when Matteo saw him for the first time.

He wasn’t as scared as he should’ve been to see a dark figure creeping around his property. He was mostly confused, as he lived far enough from any real towns that he had to actually learn how to drive, and had an old pickup truck parked outside to prove it. He looked out the other windows, and didn’t see any cars or anything else outside. It was dark out, and especially dark with the trees around him, and he didn’t even have any lights on his house besides the small lamp next to the couch and his TV. He had been watching something when he noticed the person.

He started wondering if it even was a person. There were tons of wild animals that could have come out of the woods, sniffing around his property looking for scraps. He had seen bears behind his house before, and there was no reason to assume that the thing outside was a person.

Until, as Matteo watched from the window, there was a bright flash from where the figure was standing. Matteo jumped back, yanked the curtain closed, his heart pounding in his chest. He had no clue what the flash was but it confirmed that there was definitely a person behind his house.

The person was still far away, right at the edge of the woods, and Matteo didn’t feel like he was in any imminent danger. He slid the curtain open the tiniest bit, just enough so he could peek an eye out, and saw another flash. After that second flash the figure stood still for a moment, and then bent down, and stood up, lifting what looked like a bike up off the ground. The person mounted the bike, and rode away quickly. Matteo watched the bike disappear in the direction he knew the road was, and he let out a breath.

It might have just been a weird neighbor who got turned around on a nightly bike ride, even though he had been warned since he was a baby to not go outside his house without some kind of light to scare away potential animals. Or maybe it was someone from some organization in his area, making sure the properties were being taken care of. Matteo thought of a million excuses, all of them seeming rational enough to not panic. He triple checked his locks before going to bed, and everything looked good, so he made sure his phone was fully charged and he pulled an old baseball bat out of a closet just in case. Better safe than sorry.

He was still thinking about it the next morning, as he stood at the door leading out the back of his house, steaming a mug of coffee clutched in both hands. No matter the season it was always freezing in the mornings where he lived, and to compensate he was wearing his purple jacket over a sweater over a long-sleeved shirt, two pairs of sweatpants, and a pair of fuzzy rainbow socks over a more boring white pair. The socks had been a gift from Abdi his first birthday after coming out to them, and he had rolled his eyes in the moment but they quickly became his favorite things to slip on in the morning.

He took a sip of the coffee as he stared over the grass leading to the woods, feeling warmth spread all the way to the tips of his fingers. He leaned back against the doorframe, took another sip and then dropped his head back and closed his eyes. He hadn’t slept great the night before, still too full of adrenaline from the person on the bike to even close his eyes. He shivered a little, remembering the previous night, and looked out again, at the spot where he had first noticed the figure. 

He was about to turn away, go back inside to text Jonas about the whole thing and joke about it to make himself feel less nervous, but his eyes caught on something. Something flat and dark, lying in the grass, he couldn’t quite make it out but it looked like a book. He stared at it for a good few minutes, and then placed his coffee cup down and wrapped his arms around himself, shoved his feet in the boots he kept by the door, and started walking towards the woods.

There was a wet chill in the air, and he could see his breath as it shakily left his lips. His heart was pounding again, his hands shaking a little where they were clutching his sides, but he strode on, his eyes fixed on the book. He reached the spot, and stood some feet away, glancing around as if the person was going to come running out and snatch the book out from under him. He didn’t see anyone, didn’t hear anything besides the usual morning song of the birds around him, and the rustling trees, and he bent down as quick as he could and grabbed the book.

It was cold, was what he noticed at first, so much so that he almost dropped it right away. He wrapped his hand in his sleeve and looked at it, his second observation being that it seemed to be a journal or something, with no title on the cover or the side, the front and back a dark, brown leather. He tucked it under his arm and quickly shuffled back inside, closing the door behind him and putting the book next to his coffee so he could reabsorb some warmth. Once he could feel his hands again, he looked at the book, and felt a chill go through him that wasn’t from the cold. 

Great, he thought to himself, his breathing picking up as he did so, the mysterious dark figure creeping around your backyard in the dark totally isn’t going to be mad that you took their journal. They totally aren’t going to come get it back and they totally aren’t going to have a weapon and they totally aren’t going to kill you when they see that the only person here is a scrawny gay baby who hasn’t even talked to another person in two weeks.

Not the most helpful path for his mind to take. His eyes were still fixed on the book, his brain spitting out thousands of awful things that could be inside it, and he quickly walked over and flipped the cover open. And he titled his head.

The first thing he saw wasn’t words like he was expecting, but what looked like a drawing stuck onto what Matteo thought was a photograph. The background was a dark tree, the black leaves clear and crisp against the background, and the sketch on top was of a bird. It was cool, even if it belonged to someone who was going to come kill Matteo to get it back.

[He flipped the next page, and saw a drawing of a boy in what looked like a dress, with his fist up, and an angry face. He flipped to the next one and saw some sketches of a few different random faces, probably not random to whoever owned the book. He kept looking through the pages, eventually grabbing the book and turning page after page as he started his usual ghostly path around the house. (change to more generic creepy sketches/photographs of houses and Matteo realizes that that’s probably why he was taking pics but he keeps flipping and sees some more personal sketches and some of people)

He must have flipped through hundreds of sketches, photographs stuck onto paper, and combinations of the two, which he knew there was a word for but he couldn’t think of it no matter how hard he tried. When he got to the last page, a little disappointed to be nearing the end, he saw one blank page. The page right before it had a fox, with writing at the bottom that Matteo didn’t read before his attention was caught by the only completely white page in the book.]

He shook his head, dropping the book back onto the table in his kitchen, deciding to forget about it until he ate something and called Jonas to whine to him about it.

He walked to his fridge and pulled it open, frowning when he noticed how empty it was. He sighed as he realized that he needed to go shopping, and looked in all the drawers, only finding a few random pieces of fruit, some tupperwares of old leftovers that he needed to throw out, and some beer. He really needed to go shopping. He pulled the freezer open and smiled when he saw a carton of ice cream he had forgotten he had bought. He wasn’t below eating ice cream for breakfast.

He pulled it out and set it on the counter, and heard a sudden thud thud thud on the wall closest to him. He jumped, but rolled his eyes, and said out loud, “I’m sorry Helena, but I don’t have anything else!”

There was another thud and then quiet, and then a weird scraping sound that got quieter and farther away. He didn’t have names for all of the ghosts in his house, but there were a few prominent ones. He had made up a story about Helena, an old cook who died in a tragic onion slicing incident, who was going to spend the rest of her days scolding anyone in the house for inadequately feeding themselves. He would hear thud anytime he reached for candy over fruit, or pizza over vegetables, or made another pot of spaghetti instead of learning how to make anything else, or closed the fridge without taking anything out. Helena was the loudest by far.

He happily ate his ice cream, and then called Jonas. Jonas not only sounded worried, but a little annoyed at Matteo’s lack of worry about the whole situation. 

“Bro, you saw someone creeping around near your house in the middle of the night, found a fucking journal in the same place the next morning, and decided to take it?” Jonas asked, his voice getting higher and higher as he spoke, “do you want to get killed?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone died in this house,” Matteo joked back, making a ghostly wooing noise into the phone, but Jonas didn’t seem to find the humor in the situation.

“Do you want me to come stay for a few days?”

Matteo snorted, “You? Staying over at my house? Jonas, you can barely spend five minutes here without pissing yourself.”

“It’s not my fault that my best friend lives in a fucking haunted house, but I’ll come stay if you if you need me too. I honestly might do it anyway.” Jonas said, and Matteo rolled his eyes.

“Dude, I’m fine. Weirder things have happened here.” He didn’t know how true that was, but he was hoping it would just further deter Jonas from wanting to come by. He didn’t want to spend a week with Jonas jumping at every tiny noise, insulting the ghosts that Matteo considered his friends. That might’ve been a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn’t fun to have people in your home who were so obviously uncomfortable. 

“Well, call me the second anything else happens,” Jonas said, and then said, “no, call the police first, and then call me. Promise?”

“I’m not going to call the police, dude.”

“Matteo,” Jonas said, suddenly serious in a way that made Matteo shut up, the smile slipping from his face, “I already worry about you so fucking much being out there alone, can you at least promise me that you’ll be smart about this?”

Matteo bit his lip, feeling guilty. He didn’t know Jonas worried about him so much. He sighed out, “Okay, okay, if I see anything I’ll call the police, and then you, and anyone else you think I should.”

“Probably Amira too, but don’t tell her about this because she’ll come there and kill you before that other person even has the chance.”

Matteo laughed, and heard Jonas chuckle on the other end. He did really appreciate that his friends cared about him, but he kind of wished they would show it in ways that didn’t involve him getting scolded.

“I’m definitely not going to tell her,” Matteo laughed again, and then got quiet and his own kind of serious and said, “and thanks, dude. I’m sorry I’m scaring you, but I promise I’ll be safe and if I’m not someone will know.”

“Okay, good,” Jonas sounded relieved, “and I will come visit soon, okay? I miss you, man.”

Matteo smiled. They ended the conversation, Jonas relieved that Matteo wasn’t just going to let fate take its course with things. He went back to his fridge after, started looking through the cupboards too, and made a list of everything he needed. He got himself dressed and ready to go out, and hopped in his car and started the engine.

And it didn’t start. He turned the key again, and again, and finally on the fifth try the pickup roared to life. His car was a piece of shit but it usually got him from point A to point B, so he couldn’t complain. He also didn’t have the money for a new one at all, and was planning on selling it whenever he moved to the city. He hated driving.

He made his trip out as quick as possible, feeling strange with all of the eyes of the other store patrons on him. Nobody was actually looking at him but he was so unused to being around people, especially as many as were crowded into the aisles. He grabbed everything he needed and had paid and was back in his car in under twenty minutes, a new record. He blasted music as he made the drive back to his house, and brought the groceries in and shoved them in the fridge with little thought. 

He lazed around for the rest of the day until he realized he should probably start making food, and he eyed the fresh produce he had bought, trying to remember the last time he had ingested a vegetable, and he grabbed a bag of spinach and a few other things to make some nutrition-packed eggs to make up for his ice cream breakfast. There was a quiet bang on the wall next to the fridge, Helena’s usual way of giving her approval for Matteo’s food choices. 

The sky had darkened as he was cooking, and he was standing in the middle of his kitchen eating the eggs out of the pan with the spatula, because why not, when he saw movement out the window. He paused with the last forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth as he tried to focus his eyes in the almost pitch black outside, and they suddenly caught on what he could only assume was the same person as the night before, standing in the exact spot Matteo had found the book, standing perfectly still. 

He held his breath. The figure didn’t move for a while, at least not that Matteo could see, and he put the pan down on the counter, his hands shaking hard as he grabbed at his pocket for his phone. He had just dialed Jonas’ number, not wanting to jump to the police quite yet, when the person suddenly whipped around, grabbed their bike, and rode away, much faster than the night before. Matteo lost track of what direction the person was going in, and his eyes widened as he started panicking that that direction was towards his house.

He dropped his phone, probably the dumbest thing he could have done in the situation, and stood there hyperventilating until he caught the briefest glimpse of what had to be the figure on the bike, once again following the path back to the road. It didn’t completely calm Matteo’s nerves because the person knew that the book was gone, knew that the only house for miles around was Matteo’s and the speed that the person had left at was a little concerning. Not enough for Matteo to call Jonas, but he spent another night wide awake, eyes wide open, on the couch because for some reason it felt safer. He passed out from pure tiredness just as the sun started to creep up over the trees.

And then nothing, for a few days. Matteo found himself constantly glancing towards the windows, sure he was going to see someone right outside brandishing a weapon and demanding entry, the book, and Matteo’s life. He didn’t know why he was so sure that the person was going to kill him for taking it, but it just seemed like the kind of thing that would happen to him. He’d just become an actual ghost and haunt whatever random family member they shoved in the place to keep it in the family.

No, nothing happened until a few days later. Matteo had even started feeling less tense, his eyes darting to the window less, less convinced that he had even needed to be worried in the first place. It wasn’t the first time he had seen someone in the woods near his house, even though all of those times had been during the day and he had at least one parent in the house. It really wasn’t that big of a deal.

Until he was making himself breakfast one morning. He hadn’t wanted to hear it from Helena so he was making eggs again, with peppers instead of spinach for some variety, and he heard a bamg that didn’t sound like one of his usual visitors. He froze, but didn’t hear anything else so he continued sliding his spatula around the pan. He gasped when there was another sudden bang, and few more, and what sounded like something pounding on his door until there was a crack, and even though he wasn’t in the room he could tell by the sound that his door had been forced open.

He turned the stove off, and then again, froze completely in place. His eyes were darting around the room, eyeing the knife on the counter and the thick wooden rolling pin that was leaning out of the sink. He had options to protect himself, if only he could fucking move. He heard footsteps, heavy ones, loud ones, and he snapped into action. He grabbed the rolling pin and strode out of the room, filled with enough adrenaline to be convinced that he could take whoever had just broken into his house.

It didn’t take long for him to find the intruder. He was facing away from Matteo, and when Matteo spotted him he stopped moving. He didn’t see any weapons in the person’s hand, could only really see a large black jacket, black backpack, black pants, black shoes, and the back of a head of curly, dark hair.

Matteo shifted his weight and felt his blood run cold when the floor under him creaked. The person whipped around, and yelled out a terrified, “What the fuck?”

They stared at each other in a shocked silence. The guy in front of him didn’t seem too scary, or like he had come to kill Matteo for stealing his book. He looked scared himself, his bright brown eyes still wide, his lips parted.

“I thought-” the guy stuttered out, shaking his head in shock, “I thought this place was abandoned.”

Matteo tilted his head, wondering if he really was a fucking ghost, or maybe his house was abandoned and he was just considered abandoned along with it. He took a breath when the guy tilted his head back, and then quickly said, “Well, nobody told me that.”

He didn’t know why he was trying to joke around with the person who had just broken into his house. Remembering that fact he felt his breathing speed up a bit, his hands clenching tighter around the rolling pin, and he must have moved it enough to be noticed, because the guy quickly raised his arms, with his palms out as if Matteo had told him to put his hands up and drop any weapons.

“I promise, I really thought this place was abandoned,” he said quickly, stuttering over his words, “I’m a photographer, I take pictures of abandoned places. I promise I didn’t know anyone lived here. Please don’t call the police, this isn’t the first time I’ve accidentally broken in somewhere and they don’t like me very much.”

Matteo furrowed his brows. He noticed the strap around the other’s neck, leading down to a very fancy looking camera gently resting against his chest. His story seemed to check out, so it would have made sense for Matteo to kick the guy out with some stern words, and go to the store and buy the strongest locks on the market.

He didn’t of course, because he’s Matteo, but what he did do was drop the rolling pin to his side and ask, “What’s your name?”

The guy smiled at him, and Matteo couldn’t help but notice that it was a really great smile, and said, “I’m David, and I’m really sorry I kicked your door in. I’ll pay to replace it, and to get you new locks because the ones you have definitely aren’t doing their job.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Matteo snorted, and at the expectant look from David said, “I’m Matteo. And this place is haunted, so it’s good you weren’t trying to break in. Well, trying to break in to do something bad.”

David’s eyes lit up, and he asked, his smile growing, “Haunted?”

“Yep.” Matteo replied, popping the p, smiling when from behind him he heard what sounded like a doorknob being shaken, and then a door creaking and a thud, and said, “that one’s Timmy. He died from shock after walking in on his parents having sex.”

David laughed, his grin growing bigger until his eyes were almost shut from it, and Matteo had to tell himself that it was not the time to start ogling. Just because a boy with the prettiest smile Matteo had ever seen and the nicest laugh he had ever heard was in front of him didn’t mean he had to fall for him. Especially considering the guy had broken into his house.

David started looking around, his eyes only staying on each feature of the house for a second before moving on, and Matteo got so lost in watching his calculating gaze that he jumped when he suddenly said, “This place is amazing, when was it built?”

“Um, I don’t really know,” Matteo said, trying to think back in his memory because he was sure someone told him at some point, “a long ass time ago.”

David laughed again. Matteo’s stomach fluttered at it and he quickly turned around, running his hand over the top of some cabinet that was probably hundreds of years older than him.

“If you want,” he started, ignoring the voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Jonas yelling at him not to, “you can still take pictures here. If you want it to look authentic you might have to move my Switch and the flatscreen but I’m sure we can work something out.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want to intrude, I’ve already done that enough.” David replied, shaking his head, though his eyes were still roving around the room, his fingers twitching towards the camera around his neck.

Matteo shrugged, “You wouldn’t be intruding. I don’t really do much, as long as you don’t steal my shit or look through my stuff I don’t really care.”

It was dumb as fuck for him to offer a complete stranger free range of his home, his home in the middle of nowhere, a complete stranger who again, had broken into his house, but it didn’t seem like he needed to be scared of David. He seemed nice, and was way too apologetic about the situation to have any ulterior motives. Matteo hoped, at least. And what did he really care if a cute boy came around a few times to take pictures of his house?

“Are you sure? I can pay you a bit, or have my sister bake you something in return. Is there anything you want?”

Matteo smirked, and said, “Just knock next time and you’re good.”

David smiled back, held a hand out, and said, “You’ve got a deal.”

Matteo grabbed his hand, but quickly pulled away when the second their skin touched, he felt a shock. He looked at his hand, and then back at David who was doing the same, and said, “Might have to cancel that arrangement if you have superpowers.”

“Well, you live in a haunted house, how do I know you aren’t a ghost? Maybe I shouldn’t be accepting offers from ghouls anyway.” David quipped, the corners of his mouth turning up.

“A little late for that, we did shake on it.” Matteo replied, smiling at the back and forth. He hadn’t had such smooth conversation with someone who wasn’t a close friend in years. He kept trying to remind himself that David was there in his house because he broke in, kept trying to stare at the scratches on his boots from kicking the door in, but his eyes were always drawn back up to David’s face.

“Good point,” David said with a grin, and then he looked towards the door, and continued, “I should probably go, I’m sure you’re busy.”

Matteo looked down at himself, at his sweatpants and shirt that had a stain on it, and his rainbow fuzzy socks because of course he was wearing those, and said, “Yeah, lots of important business to take care of.”

“Like buying new locks? And making sure I didn’t break your door? And making sure you get the receipt for everything so I can pay you back?”

“Yep.” Matteo said, popping the p again, blushing when David smiled at him.

“I’ll let you get to that,” he said, and then his face dropped and he said, “and again, I’m so sorry about all of this. I can’t believe I broke into your house and you’re being kind to me.”

“Maybe I just want someone else here for the ghosts to focus on,” he said, and grinned when there was a bang from somewhere behind him, “It can get a little tiring.”

David looked thrilled, and started heading towards the door, calling out on his way, “I can’t wait!”

Matteo watched him walk out the door with a wink thrown over his shoulder, and walked over to the nearest wall, pressed his back against it, and slid down until his ass hit the floor. He dropped his head into his hands, and muttered to himself, “What the fuck just happened?”

There was a quiet knock on the wall a couple of inches away from his head, and he didn’t know who it was from but he appreciated it nonetheless.

***

Matteo made the executive decision to tell absolutely nobody that the first thing he did when someone broke into his house was invite him back. He knew that Jonas would be in a car on his way over in a second just to yell at Matteo in person, and he was sure Amira would learn how to teleport so she could get there first to kick his ass. He figured it was better to keep them in the dark until David turned out to actually be a murderer or something.

He did realize, about an hour after the entire situation happened while waiting for an employee at the hardware store he went to to get him the strongest locks they sold, that he and David hadn’t actually arranged a time for him to come. He didn’t have his number either obviously. And with these new locks he won’t even be able to break in if you don’t answer the door, Matteo thought to himself, laughing just as the employee walked back over. He shot Matteo a strange look as he handed the locks over, and Matteo bought them and left as quickly as he could.

It didn’t really matter too much because a few days later, just as Matteo was twisting the end of a joint he had just rolled, there was a knock on the door. He paused, knowing immediately that it was David because nobody ever came to visit him. He tucked the joint behind his ear and got up, shaking the nerves out of his hands as he walked to the door. He didn’t want to admit how much of his nerves were purely because David was attractive. 

He pulled the door open and felt all the air rush out of him. David was standing there with a huge grin on his face, wearing a simple tee shirt and shorts, the camera around his neck and a bag strapped to his back. He tilted his head when Matteo didn’t say anything.

“Hey,” he said finally, stepping back and inviting David in with a slight bow and sweep of his arm, “enter if you dare.”

David took in a dramatic breath and closed his eyes as he stepped over the threshold, and then opened them again, darting around in faux fear at the surroundings. Matteo rolled his own, and crossed his arms over his chest, not really knowing what to say.

Thankfully David seemed to want to get right into working, and he stepped further into the house, his eyes darting around again with actual interest as he studied the foyer of the house. “Can we start in the kitchen?”

Matteo nodded and led him that way, hoping that he had cleaned up from cooking breakfast that morning. He was pleased to see no pots or pans out on the counters, and nothing in the sink, either. David looked around, smiling at the older features and furniture and stepped forward to look closer at the cabinets. He ran his hand over the wood, and then stepped back again, raised the camera to his face, and pressed his finger down. There was a click, the sound of the shutter going off, and then David pulled the camera away from his eye and started clicking through the buttons on it. He turned, took a picture of the open space of the kitchen, and then checked that one too.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 15

First

Previous

Next

Ladybug woke up the next morning to her phone going off like an alarm. She groaned and slowly reached to her bedside table, gently nudging away fabrics in search of her phone. She found it, eventually, and tapped her finger on the screen repeatedly in search of the snooze button, but it didn’t seem to be working.

She grumbled to herself, snatching the phone off the table and looking to turn it off…

Only to realize that it was a good hour before she’d set her alarm to go off for her meeting with Audrey Bourgeois. She rubbed her eyes tiredly as she watched another round of notifications come in.

Ugh. That’s what she gets for turning her ringer on at night in case her friends had nightmares. She silenced her phone and fell back in her bed.

After ten minutes of staring at the ceiling and attempting to trick her brain into thinking she was asleep, she reluctantly pushed herself out of her bed. Phone in hand and blanket around her shoulders, she shuffled downstairs for a cup of coffee.

She waved to Chloe absently when she saw her in the kitchen making a bowl of cereal and got a hum in response. That was their entire conversation, though. Chloe always seemed to know when exactly it was a good time to tease her or not without Ladybug ever saying a word.

Maybe she should have figured out that Chloe was some kind of minor telepath.

Whatever.

She scrolled through her phone as she waited for her pot of coffee to finish.

The Parisians on TikTok were going wild.

There was a group freaking out about Chat’s account (because it was cute, but also because he might actually be a dog person considering that was the first thing he’d uploaded). Carapace’s video was full of comments analyzing their group dynamic or pitying the people who had been on shift at the time. Rena’s account had thousands of people screaming about having actual information on the miraculous holder’s daily lives for once and people attempting to use the footage to figure out where they were living. Chloe’s video had people speculating on what she would be doing or commenting on their day-to-day outfits.

And Ladybug’s…

It was full of people saying things along the lines of “of course Ladybug would have a lifestyle account”.

Part of her was kind of offended. Sure, her persona was definitely different than her and if she knew a person like ‘Ladybug’ in real life she probably wouldn’t be all that close to them, she’d made it that way on purpose… but still. It kind of hurt.

Then again, there was another part of her that was tempted to sing. Her ruse was working! She had accurately guessed what would be in character for her persona! Nice!

She poured herself a cup of her quickly cooling coffee and headed up to get properly dressed for the day.

Ladybug couldn’t help but be a little anxious as she changed from her red and black pajamas into a completely different red and black ensemble. Her mind wandered to all the messages she was getting about how consistent her persona was.

If she didn’t give her persona any kind of depth, how long would people keep falling for it?

She didn’t know. She was out the door in minutes and heading off to the park where Audrey had wanted to meet, the prototype of the dress she’d made for a ball in the United States in her hands. She had to remind herself constantly that, even if the stuff she’d used for the prototype was just there to simulate the real thing and wasn’t all that expensive, she still needed everything to be intact when she gave it to Audrey.

She was a little distracted during the meeting, her mind on what to do about her persona, so it was a good thing that Audrey’s only complaint was that the prototype fabric was a little coarse. That could be fixed.

The persona thing…? Not so much.

Rena was already suspicious, Ladybug could see it in the way her eyes narrowed ever so slightly whenever she let little things slip through.

(Thanks for telling her that everyone has personas, Carapace, now she had to be even more careful.)

She forced herself to relax. There wasn’t anything to gain from worrying about people figuring out just how fake she was outside of a possible akumatization.

No. Instead she would concentrate on something she could fix: Hawkmoth. If she figured out his identity they could beat him, and then she would never have to worry about personas ever again.

The moment she got home she walked over to the conspiracy board. She glared at the millions of closeups of every part of Hawkmoth’s body.

~Want to skip some calculations? Here’s your chance! I nerded out a little, sorry~

Hawkmoth was about 230cm tall in costume. That’s what Rena had found out through calculating his height in comparison to some of Nino’s plates in the photo, but Ladybug had (stupidly) offered to do the math to see how tall he would be without the miraculous stuff...

She knew the man’s shoes gave him a little extra height than most normal shoes would; she’d seen them up close, they were practically heels.

She spent literal hours sitting down with her computer at the kitchen table, a cold look on her face.

(Thank the kwamis for Chloe, because every time someone came near she would quickly come up to play interference. Ladybug didn’t know if she was doing this for their sake or hers, but either way it was appreciated.)

She scrolled through page after page of shoes, trying to find a model that looked close to the fashion disaster Hawkmoth was wearing.

Did she have a theory for the type of shoe they were? Yes. Was she going to just go with that? Of course not. She was Ladybug! Ladybug doesn’t GUESS --!

Maybe she’d been pretending to be Ladybug for too long. She made a mental note to go out with friends as a civilian sometime.

Still, it took until midnight to find a model that was similar enough for her to feel comfortable using it as a base. She printed out the picture and put it beside the picture of Hawkmoth’s shoes and nodded to herself. Great. His shoes added about 3 centimeters to his height.

Now onto the next part of height calculations.

Miraculi gave everyone extra height.

She didn’t know for sure if it was a flat rate or proportional, so she went out on the town, looking for some kind of measuring tape -- the type she used for work wasn’t long enough for a person’s actual height. She managed to find a place unfortunate enough to be open past midnight and she and the person checking out her item shared ‘I wish I was dead’ expressions.

It was here that she dragged everyone out of bed to measure their heights as civilians versus as heroes (without shoes, obviously).

They were clearly very annoyed by this, but it was nearing three o’clock at this point and she had spent an entire day looking at shoes. The look on her face was absolutely murderous. They opted to just quietly do what she said so they could go back to sleep as soon as possible.

5 centimeters. Everyone grew by 5 centimeters.

She wasn’t quite sure why this happened, nor did she really care. It was just important for her calculations.

~Calculations over~

So he was anywhere from 215 to 225 centimeters. Unreasonably tall, really. There could only be a few people of that height in Paris.

After doing some searching she figured out that there were probably about 5 people in all of Paris that were that height.

She just had to… find them? Somehow?

Whatever. She should also do some quick things to distinguish Hawkmoth from the others. She grabbed an extra sheet of printer paper and started writing things down.

A semi-muscular build, possibly bald, stupidhead, terrible fashion sense...

She fell back on the couch for a quick breather.

She was getting a headache. What was it from? The caffeine? Dehydration? Was she clenching her teeth? Who knows.

Ladybug pulled her phone out and checked the time…

Four-thirty.

She had time to finish that sketch for Jagged Stone before their eight o’clock appointment. It would be close, though.

She changed while she waited for her coffee to brew (How many pots had she had since yesterday? Four? Five? Whatever, it was probably fine) and then got to work.

She looked up a while later when Chloe walked down for breakfast. It was seven now, then. She would need to leave soon…

“Kwami, Ladybug, you look awful!”

“Thanks,” she said, her eyes falling back to the sketch. It didn’t have enough… yeah, that was the end of the sentence. It was too plain, but she couldn’t seem to --.

She felt hands rest over her cheeks and she looked up to see Chloe standing over her. “You need to sleep.”

“I need to get to an appointment.”

“I WILL use Sticky Situation if I have to.”

Ladybug wasn’t impressed.

“Pollen, buzz on.”

Ladybug blinked at the miraculous holder in front of her and then gasped. Of course! She’d forgotten accessories! No wonder it felt empty!

Kwami, she really was tired, huh?

She put some quick accessories down, careful to make all the items kind of tiny so Jagged wouldn’t be able to tell the ideas weren’t fully fleshed out yet, and then smiled at Chloe as she got up to leave. “Thanks, Queenie. I gotta go, I’ll sleep later.”

“But --!”

She was already gone.

The meeting went well. Yay. She kept her job.

She walked home, happy to just be done with that really long day --.

She randomly chanced a look in the window as she passed and winced when she saw Chloe waiting for her on the couch. She was far too tired to deal with a lecture. She transformed and flew into her room through the window.

… now what? Should she sleep?

Nah. She had patrols that night. Might as well just stay up through it all.

She yawned into her hand and headed down to Rena’s room. She might as well tell her what she’d figured out.

She knocked her head against the wooden door instead of her fist in an attempt to wake herself up a little and smiled when it opened.

“You look…”

“I’ve been told. Anyways, I’ve finished doing math and stuff. Come look.”

Ladybug grabbed Rena’s arm before the other could even say anything and pulled her down to the kitchen where she’d done the calculations.

Rena looked over everything for a few moments before her eyes widened.

“... hey, quick question, why does it say he has a ‘condom-head’?”

That got Ladybug awake. Her eyes found their way to the list of attributes she’d written while sleep-deprived.

Her eyes went wide with horror.

Because there, in handwriting that was definitely hers, were the words ‘stupid-looking condom-head’.

Fuck.

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @mialuvscats @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write

[ereawrites]

HCs: Camboy! Batboys

this was requested by: anon

taglist: @daddyissuesmademe

Dick Grayson:

He probably gets into cam work after Barbara mentions it: not necessarily as a suggestion for Dick to do it, maybe just mentioning it in passing while she’s doing her genius computer-y stuff. Dick laughs at first, but he definitely goes home and researches it a little more, and he thinks it’ll be some fun if nothing else. No one has to see his face, right? He can just wear a mask!

Cautiously makes an account (careful to hide it from Barbara) and ends up getting 100 subscribers in under a week. His first videos are pretty tame, just recordings of him doing some light exercise and a few stretches, working up a bit of a sweat before he starts playing with himself. No toys that are too fancy at first, but people love it.

Probably didn’t realise that he would get off so much on this. He’s definitely a bit of an exhibitionist, past lovers can attest to that, but he didn't anticipate how much it would turn him on to be watched by total strangers. The anonymity of it is actually quite comforting, and he feels like he can let loose in a way that he hasn’t been able to before. Probably comes harder on camera than he’s ever been able to achieve by himself before. Definitely goes for another round after he switches off the livestream.

Dick’s a natural performer, and that shows when he’s on cam - he kind of loves being the centre of attention like this. You can visibly see him get excited when people leave comments or tips on the livestream, and he’ll always thank the person and put on a little show for them, maybe even moaning their name. People go crazy for it, so his livestream comment section is always buzzing.

Audience is probably a good mix of male and female. Everyone has a crush on Dick Grayson, and everyone finds ‘Nightwing’ hot. Dick’s completely fine with this, and he tries to appeal to everyone with his videos by keeping them pretty ambiguous most of the time.

He definitely does a few male/female-oriented livestreams though, maybe as subscriber milestones or special events. Sometimes he lets his subscribers buy him toys (usually vibrators or cockrings) to use in these videos, or he’ll let them vote on a specific act to do. Not so many private videos - he kind of wants as many people as possible to see him.

Entry fee to his livestreams isn’t too high - he doesn’t necessarily need the money, and he really enjoys doing it, it’s one of the sexiest things he's ever done - but oh boy, he’s going to empty your bank account through the tips alone. You just can’t help it when you’re in there. He teases, he grinds on pillows instead of showing anything, he takes his sweet time, and people get desperate. He’s hot, okay?

Top tags: flexible, athletic, male moaning, striptease, toys

Jason Todd:

Jason probably gets into cam work as a way to reclaim his body and sexuality. He definitely watches camboys and camgirls a lot, and one day he sees one with scars - this guy’s totally owning it, and Jason wants to be able to do that. He's very, very tentative about it, and probably spends a few months just filming himself and not putting it anywhere, but it does wonders for his confidence. 

When he finally decides to make an account, he probably puts a limit on the number of viewers for a while, just to get used to things. It’s pretty standard stuff: him getting himself worked up, stroking up and down his body, then masturbating on camera. He keeps his face completely cut off, and doesn’t really talk much, but his body is on full display and...wow. He gets great reviews, and the exclusivity of his streams only build the hype.

Slowly, Jason will remove the limit on the number of viewers, but that entry fee is pretty high. He tells himself it’s a smart move (hey, guns are expensive), but he also kind of likes the idea of people paying to see his body. At first, it’s purely as a confidence boost, but soon the concept of people actually getting off to him really sinks in - then, when he's on cam, he’s imagining people getting themselves off at the same time as him. It does wonders for him.

After this little revelation, he branches out a bit more with his videos. He lets himself be freer vocally (and he’s loud), and when people go wild for that, he manages to push himself to do some dirty talk - saying what he’s imagining, or what he wants to do to his watchers, or describing fantasies. Maybe with a voice modulator, like in his helmet, or maybe without so people can hear how hot he is. Tips start absolutely pouring in at this point.

His audience is around a 40-60 male/female split. He normally keeps the dirty talk pretty ambiguous. Part of his cam persona is being a rough top/dom, so either way, he can cater to his viewers. If he builds a rapport with a certain viewer (someone respectful, who tips well and gets along with him), he’ll definitely consider doing a private stream; he might even switch to his more subby side, for the right person.

Sometimes, maybe once a month, he brings out the leather gloves/jacket. Jason loves the way that people go crazy for it, even though he feels he’s at his most dangerous like that. Possibly even does a few roleplay scenarios - it feels a little awkward at first, but he finds his rhythm quickly, and he really enjoys it. He’s considering branching out into audio porn, too (now that his confidence is soaring).

Top tags: dirty talk, buff, edging, interactive, growling

Tim Drake:

Yeah, he definitely knows about Dick and Jason’s accounts, and they definitely inspired him to start his own cam account. For Tim, it’s a way to explore his sexuality in a way that he doesn’t really get to in real life - he can be whoever he wants to be, live out whatever fantasies he wants, and he gets to control whatever happens. He probably toys with the idea for a few weeks, but he just can’t resist the temptation for any longer than that. It's just so appealing to him.

Tim absolutely gets off an insane amount from cam work (knowing he’s exposing himself like that is a huge turn-on), so he probably hacks into the website to send his account to no.1 on the recommended page. He goes viral for the content, though: he’s got a super high-quality set-up, he knows his angles, he plays things up for the camera. He does his research, and he loves to look pretty for his viewers.

Very much into kink, and not shy about it. He’s 100% confident that no one can trace his account, and he wears a mask (inspired by Dick), so he can totally let loose. This is basically just a way for him to explore what he’s into - think anal, overstimulation, breathplay, etc - and people watching just heightens all the sensations tenfold. He’s always sure to tell his viewers how much he gets off on them watching him play with himself.

He loves doing private shows, too. It’s all very exclusive and professional. People will pay ridiculous amounts of money just for 20 minutes alone with ‘RR’, because he’s always so busy with other viewers: Tim lets each private viewer tell him exactly what to do to himself, though, so it's definitely worth it. He ends up with a whole drawer full of toys and accessories that people have bought him as gifts.

Probably a more male-oriented audience, but he gets a few girls as well - Tim also often finds himself interacting with other popular camboys/ camgirls on the site. He does a lot of collaboration videos, for example mutual masturbation or letting himself get bossed around by another creator, and viewers go absolutely nuts for it. He probably gains around 500 new subscribers each time, purely because he’s so cute and everyone on the site just wants to ruin him.

His absolute favourite thing to do is carve out a whole day in which to cam. He starts with teasing himself (nipple play + breathplay, mostly) for a few hours, on and off, interspersed with chatting to his followers - he works it up into something more intense, comes once, and then breaks out the toys and does it all over again, multiple times. Poor baby is absolutely exhausted by the end of it, but very pleased, and approximately 5000 dollars richer.

Top tags: anal, gag, lingerie, multiple orgasms, femboy

Duke Thomas:

Duke gets a lot of comments on his physique, a lot of attention on both social media and IRL, and he loves to brighten people’s day. Cam work was kind of a natural move for him: he probably stumbles across it while he's watching porn one day, and he’s drawn in immediately. Sets up an account after a few days of working out the technicalities - he's coming into this prepared, so he can enjoy himself without a worry while he’s working.

He probably flies under the radar for a few months, with a few dedicated subscribers who tip well and love him, but he doesn’t mind, he really is just in this for a little fun and a good orgasm. His account blows up after he posts a particularly lengthy video with lots of edging (requested by one of his subscribers), and stuff just takes off from there. Duke still maintains close relationships with many of his viewers after this, and most of his videos are inspired by suggestions.

More than anything, Duke enjoys knowing that people are getting off to him, and it makes his day when people thank him in the comments (plus, he gets a little power rush from it). He’s a people-pleaser, and while being watched is definitely a turn-on for him, it’s mostly about the knowledge that he's satisfying others. That’s what really gets him going, and he’ll often edge himself until he knows all of his viewers have gotten off too.

While he’s never really explored the world of kink, beyond a few things with partners, Duke’s absolutely open to branching out. It’s all good fun, after all. He gets his followers to decide on something new for him to try out every week, and makes a little series of it: his favourites so far have been wax play, semi-public settings, and making himself come while still in his jeans (that video got thousands of views).

He’ll do a private show now and again, but the majority of the time, it’s livestreams that everyone can watch. Duke likes to randomly pick out a few viewers on each livestream, and make them feel special for a while, so people can mostly get their fix off that. He probably also makes an OnlyFans, where his viewers can pay a little extra to get some exclusive pictures and shorter clips.

His audience is majority female - girls just fall for Duke, with his sunshine personality, and the way he can be cheery and sweet right up until the moment he comes. Duke’s also very much about making porn more female-oriented, so he probably plays to this demographic a lot, and asks his viewers a lot of questions about what they want to see.

Huuuuge praise kink. If people rave about him in the comments, he literally moans when he reads them, and more often than not he has to take a little break to cool down.

Top tags: loud, popular with women, grinding, ball play, spitting

[maxismatchccworld]

Patch Notes

Update 06/03/2020 PC: 1.63.133.1020 / Mac: 1.63.133.1220 Console: Version 1.25

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack drops in just a mere few days, and since we know that living your best Eco Lifestyle can take a little extra elbow grease, we’ve added some exciting quality-of-life improvements to help pave the way.

Between Inventory updates, new CAS assets from a surprise partnership with M·A·C, the return of two beloved NPCs, as well as some really cool new Build features, we hope you enjoy the update.

-SimGuruJill & SimGuruRusskii

NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES

INVENTORY UPDATES

Fellow hoarders, this one’s for you: We have updated the Sim Inventory with the ability to Filter, Sort, Favorite, Multi-Select, and Multi-Sell in one easy flick of the wrist. Managing that cumbersome pile of collectables you’ve been racking up for the past five years has never been so easy!

FREE PLACEMENT OF DOORS AND WINDOWS

Following in true Eco Lifestyle fashion, Door and Window placement is now also Off-the-Grid. But not that kind of grid. The limiting kind of tile grid that used to keep you from placing your windows and doors precisely where you wanted them. By holding down the Alt key while dragging, you can enjoy the smooth sensations of free Door and Window placement.

LADDERS

Ladders have been added as part of the Build System. Find your free Classic Wooden Ladder in the Build catalog in the Stairs (& Ladders) category. Unlike Island Living’s Dock and Ladder objects for use on water lots, these Ladders can be placed anywhere on your lot and like stairs, they can be used as a means for Sims to traverse from one floor to another.

M·A·C COSMETICS

Did you say you needed some fresh looks for your Sims? We’ve collaborated with none other than M·A·C Cosmetics to bring you 12 fashion-forward makeup assets suited for everything from everyday to night out glam. If you’re not already using it, on PC and Mac we recommend trying out the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” setting in the Options Menu, which is now enabled by default on the High and Ultra graphics settings profiles in order to see these looks really shine. While console versions of The Sims 4 do not have the setting in the Options Menu, each console spec is automatically using the optimal graphical settings based on system resources.

REPO PERSON NPC

The Repo Person NPC has graduated with honors from Discover University’s University of Britechester with a Degree in Villainy and has comfortably taken up residence in Base Game. Now everyone can taste their wrath if Bill payments fall behind.

BILLS UPDATE

Speaking of Bills, we’ve added a cohesive breakdown of Sim’s Bills information that can be accessed via an interaction on the Mailbox or Phone. Now instead of lumping everything together, you can see what percentage of your Bills go to Water, what percentage go to Power, insight into any Fees, Reductions, or Penalties. All this and more, calculated and cleanly presented for your finer understanding.

LEGACY NEIGHBORHOOD MAP TAGS

We have gone back and added Map Tags with Neighborhood Descriptions to existing neighborhoods that didn’t yet have them. We now have delightful icons, names, and descriptions for the no-longer-forgotten Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, and Windenburg. Ok, feel free to freak out now.

OFF-THE-GRID UPDATES

This one is tricky to list out in a single paragraph with attempted wit, so I’ll just drop this bullet list off right here:

The Off-the-Grid Lot Trait now ties into our new Bill updates, drawing from Water and Power utility. Without excess utility, lots function off-the-grid as they did before. With excess utility, they function more like an on-the-grid lot.

There is a new Off-the-Grid Build category that will allow players to find Off-the-Grid and survival-esque objects.

We've done a pass on candles to ensure they properly work when electricity is out.

Off-the-Grid supported Fridges now have an "Add Ice" interaction that will allow them to keep food preserved—so long as the ice remains!

Sim will now autonomously use stoves and fridges when Off-the-Grid, not just grills.

Harvestables now grant unique buffs when consumed off-the-grid.

Dogs and Toddlers now have a unique interaction to be bathed in Bathtubs even when Off-the-Grid.

Objects can now be cleaned using the "Use Elbow Grease" interaction. Yummy.

Players are able to gather Water utility from fishing spots in base game. With Island Living they can gather from the waterfall. Water can also be gathered from any world with swimmable 'ocean' water. With Seasons, water can be gathered from snow drifts.

Off-the-Grid specific buffs will now take into account motives and Sim traits when determining if a Sim should receive a positive or negative moodlet when living Off-the-Grid.

We've added multiple new recipes that can be cooked while Off-the-Grid given a Sim has the proper cooking skill level. Some recipes require special ingredients like the Boiling Frog Hot Pot—which adds a really neat survival element to off-the-grid gameplay, while providing Sims with powerful new moodlets that will help them survive in the wild.

NO TRESPASSING

Some people who have the Vampires Game Pack appreciate Vlad’s antics more than others. I personally love receiving a charming visit from Vlad, and sometimes I could really use a kind compliment about my neck. But we’ve heard there are a select few that don’t quite like having their Sim’s necks bitten and motives tanked by an invasive nighttime visitor with no respect for boundaries. Keep Vampires and other unwanted visitors at bay with a new No Trespassing interaction we’ve added to the Door.

SEND HOME INTERACTION

Speaking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve also added a new Send Home interaction that’s available on visiting NPCs or as a self-interaction in the case of multiple visitors. How is this interaction any different from Ask To Leave or Go Away, you might ask? Convenience. Unlike its less efficient predecessors, this interaction is nearly instantaneous and leaves your visitors with no hurt feelings or Relationship impact. We added it as a useful tool for players, not necessarily as a story-telling mechanism.

BUILD MODE ITEMS GRANT GAMEPLAY EFFECTS

How you build your lot can now affect your gameplay. Certain objects such as wall patterns, floor patterns, fences, and columns bring different gameplay modifiers. Some of these modifiers affect how your Bills and utilities are calculated by decreasing or increasing your Power or Water utility production or usage, as well increasing or decreasing the price of bills. Environment Score can now be impacted by certain objects and materials. Drywall walls without wall patterns applied now decrease environment score like they did in The Sims 3! The choice of floor and wall materials used can also affect the ability to spread fire or puddles at an increased or lessened rate. And if you’d rather build your lot without having to think about these things, don’t worry. There’s an Option in the Gameplay menu to turn all of this off.

FIREFIGHTER NPC

Oh hey, and speaking of Fire, that reminds me. Did you hear that we’ve added Firefighter NPCs to the game? We took nods from classic Firefighter NPC behavior from The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 and added a few small twists for The Sims 4. When a fire breaks out, Firefighters will come automatically to your lot if you already have a Fire Alarm installed. That way, if you still like to let things burn baby burn, you can just “accidentally” forget to place a Fire Alarm. It’s okay. We won’t tell anybody. If you honestly did forget to place a Fire Alarm, you can call the Fire Department from the Phone or by clicking on the fire itself. If the Fire Department is called, but there is not an active fire, they will call you on your lapse in judgement and charge you a fine. You won’t be punished if there was legitimately a fire that was extinguished before they arrive though. The Firefighter Uniform can be accessed in CAS and gives any Sim wearing it the Fireproof Buff, which gives them some extra protection against fires as well as make them more efficient at putting out fires themselves. It’s worth noting that Firefighter NPC’s do not show up in Island Living’s Sulani. Sulani already has their local Fire Brigade to handle these kinds of emergencies and besides, who wants to wear all that heavy Firefighter gear in the tropics?

STYLED LOOKS FOR TOTS AND KIDS

More than 20 New Styled Looks have been added for Children and Toddlers, using existing Base Game CAS assets to better flesh out some outfit categories that previously felt sparse.

BALANCING PASS OF PHONE CALL INVITATIONS

After five years of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs our phone call invites were admittedly starting to get a little spammy. Moments after moving in, you’ve got Lucas Munch hitting you up, asking you to go to the Bluffs with him. Then not long after, you might have had Vivian Lewis asking you to join her at The Spice Festival. Jeez, let me get settled in first, why don’t ya? We’ve done a tuning pass to rebalance all of these previously competing Phone invites to give you a more meaningful and holistic experience.

LESS INVASIVE EARBUDS

In the same vein as the above balancing pass, we wanted to smooth out one of our more pressing notifications. The free earbuds pop-up that comes with Fitness Stuff has been changed to a more passive TNS and gifts your Sim the earbuds automatically when it triggers. The days of telling the game over and over that you don’t want free earbuds, or worse - hitting OK by accident - is a thing of the past.

CONSOLE UPDATES

Eco Lifestyle releasing on the same day across all platforms marks an important milestone for The Sims 4 as Simmers get to play the same content and share new creations on The Gallery together. In this update Console Simmers have a few additional features to improve their quality of life:

We have added a new Controls Overlay Reminder that shows up throughout CAS, Gallery, Live Mode and Build Mode which should make it easier for new Simmers to jump in and not need to remember all the controls.

If you don’t want to be reminded and you know all the controls by heart, you can turn off the Controls Overlay Reminder in the Game Options > Other menu

The controller overlay screens remain available for those who want them.

Now onto the fixes and updates:

The Sims 4

macOS players should no longer encounter the setLocale.zsh error. However, both Origin and TS4 must be up to date.

Sims will not have random accessories or clothing pieces when changing into towels.

Style Influencer Sims can now remove trends they have created, with the Reset Trend interaction.

Fixed an issue where Sims were not able to Care for Self after they had been in daycare when they were a Toddler.

Some roofs were updated to remove the appearance of black sides when placed on ceilings.

Active Sims will no longer get a Tense moodlet for lack of exercise when finishing exercising. Do you even push up bro?

Sims will no longer get the Fatigued moodlet immediately after starting a workout. Now, we know that endurance takes time to build, but we decided to give Sims a chance to enjoy their workout before being completely fatigued right away.

Child Sims will now be able to unlock the Video Gaming Skill after they have maxed out their Mental Skill instead of their Motor Skill, which was causing adult skills to reset for Child Sims when they completed aspirations.

Fixed an issue in which some Households did not have their names displayed in Manage Worlds.

Corrected requirements for completing the Great Landscaper task that is part of the Mansion Baron Aspiration.

Fixed an issue in which when utilities are shut off (either because of past due bills or Off-The-Grid) adding objects from Build Mode such as Lamps, would add them turned On.

The Water Pump, Fishing Holes, Romantic Garden’s Whispering Wishing Well, and Get Famous’s Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden now have the Gather Water interaction when the Off-the-Grid Lot Trait is applied.

Fixed an issue in which the Subtle Saucer Light was not being so subtle and made objects added from Build Mode be placed randomly when dragged near it.

Teen Sims will now see the appropriate tooltip when trying to acquire the Fertile Trait from the Rewards Store. No, they are not Robots.

Fixed an issue in which some Roof Eaves were clipping into enclosed blocks.

Fixed an issue in which the Clean Up interaction would drop off the queue if dirty dishes were placed on a counter.

Since we added a new trash bike to Eco Lifestyle, we’ve made the bicycle helmet available for everyone in CAS. Now you can outfit your Sim in a helmet, regardless of owning a pack that includes bikes.

Sims will now not receive occasional text messages asking them for a Date from other Sims that they are not romantically involved with. Because it was aaaakward…

Toddler Sims will not be able to Ask for Mentoring on some in progress mentoring interactions to strangers. Except for “Invite to Bob to Music” because we can dance if we want to, we can leave our friends behind, ‘cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance well... they’re not friends of mine.

Fixed an issue with textures for the tops and landings on some Staircases.

Fixed an issue that did not allow randomizer to work correctly when Male Sims had Makeup on Create a Sim.

Plants can now be placed closer to foundations with moveobjects cheat enabled, as long as most of the plant's footprint is outside of the foundation.

Fixed an issue in which Simoleons were not added to Household Funds when moving and selling furniture.

Fixed an issue in which previewing certain windows on diagonal walls reverted their color back to the default color swatch.

Simmers on macOS Catalina and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU will no longer experience seeing a squared shadow under their Sims.

Fixed an issue with the Wooden Prairie-Style Two-Panel door in which color swatches were not displaying correctly on both sides of the door.

Sims now can dispose of packed lunches that have spoiled. Out, foul food!

Fixed some oddness with disappearing Stairs within enclosed courtyards.

Fixed a Stair issue with Landings not working properly on lots with raised foundations and basements. Sims will no longer walk through walls and things should now look appropriate.

Fixed missing Career Promotion screens for careers in various packs.

Fixed User Interface elements and Icons across multiple packs.

Spandrels can now be properly applied on Fences.

Stairs will now not shrink when increasing Foundation heights.

Get Together

Fixed an issue in which non local Sim Townies would spawn in Windenburg’s Island, now named The Crumbling Isle.

Fixed an issue that caused an error to occur when deleting or editing Clubs.

As much as Windenburgians (Windenburgers? Windenburguese? Windenburglites?) love visitors from other worlds, they have voted them off the Island. Sorry, not sorry!

City Living

Fixed an issue that caused time to be desynchronized at Speed 3. Bending the space time continuum no more!

Vet Clinics can no longer be placed in Penthouses.

Yard Sale customers will no longer wander inside Sims’ houses and interact with their belongings. While prospective buyers are nice to have in any sale, this was just rude, this is NOT a Welcome Wagon.

Cats & Dogs

Game progress will no longer be lost when editing/adding/deleting career outfits in Create a Sim.

Fixed an issue that made Pets’ needs to not be fulfilled if not playing an active household.

Pets’ ehm… poop is now able to be used as plant fertilizer. Happy gardening!

Seasons

Sims can now sell Flowers in stacks from their Inventory.

Sims will now appropriately put their Umbrellas away before performing some interactions. Because WooHoo while having an Umbrella out in the open, seems complicated, we are not judging… but seems complicated.

Fixed an issue that made Simmer created Holidays in the Calendar populate after a season ended.

Father Winter will now be able to remove his beard and change in Create a Sim if he is part of an active Household. But who would dare shave Father Winter’s beard?? Who?!

Get Famous

Fixed the issue with the Actor Career where Sims were unable to complete their gig when they would travel and return home before it was time for the gig.

Island Living

Lotta Cocolatas will now be made with actual Coconuts taken from Sims’ Inventories. What were they made from before? We will never know! Never accept imitation Lotta Cocolatas… never!

Fixed an issue in which some quick meals were requiring a Microwave while being Off-The-Grid when it is not needed. Yogurt needing a microwave? I think not!

Mermaids in Create a Sim will no longer be able to have their Traits randomized. This allows them to keep their Mermaidism, as well as their air of mystery and charm.

Mermaids now will wear appropriate career outfits when going to work. So I can picture this now, Mermaids as Doctors would be a great TV show.

Fixed an issue in which some Island Living Tank Tops were categorized incorrectly in Create a Sim.

Mermaid Children made in Create a Sim will now grow up to be fully-functioning Mer-dults.

The Go To Work button for Odd Jobs has been fixed for Sims on Vacation.

The Eyedropper tool will now work on Stilts instead of only working on the Foundation Trims.

Fixed an issue in which Sims in Off-The-Grid lots were showering constantly. Now they will shower when appropriate. Though, with this heatwave, anything goes in my opinion!

“Dr. Mermaid/Merman, what do you recommend?

“I am prescribing some Vitamin Sea”

Give Russkii more coffee please...

Discover University

Student Sims will not lose their Term Presentations Boards when signing up for another term.

Simmers with Seasons additionally installed: Student Sims will no longer receive Academic Probation if they were on planned Holidays through the Calendar.

Student Sims will no longer be labeled as Graduate after completing the Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!

Fixed an issue in which homework assignment progression was too slow and timers might have been missing in some instances.

Fixed an issue in which Sims were taking showers fully clothed. As much as the current heat wave is giving us creative ideas to cool off, it would be more efficient to not be fully clothed when showering.

Hair Style ymHair_EP08MensShavedPonytail_Black has been updated for Teens, Adults, and Elders to display all swatches. Similarly yfHair_EP08ShortBobBraid_Black has been fixed to appear as an option for Teens.

Sims that re-enroll in University after graduating or dropping out, can now rejoin their Secret Society. Likewise, if Sims get suspended and re-enrolls their progress will not be lost.

Fixed an issue with the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" chair that occasionally could make Sims invisible if they placed it in their Inventory. We don’t know what other powers the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" may have but invisibility is now not one of them.

Sims in the Law Career can now Attend Depositions from their Computers and Phones. Because you don’t need to break your computer to complete an assignment, that seems impractical.

Vampire Coffins and Sleeping Pods can now count as Beds in University Dorms.

Fixed an issue in which the Write and Publish Research Paper interaction would disappear from the options if it was cancelled midway. I mean, I understand rage quitting something but not to the point of my options to do it disappearing...amirite?

Fixed an issue with yfBody_EP08DressParty_SolidPurple in which pendant necklaces were not able to be seen if this asset was worn by Sims.

Fixed an issue that could make the Soccer interaction Study Plays with drop out from the interaction queue.

Corrected Final Exam Requirements for Elective Courses to say that for studying they need to do so on Computers or Research Machines.

To anyone who may have noticed the tiny head effect in the thumbnails if you wore the Dragon or the Lobster mascot costume without their hats, that issue has been fixed.

Humanoid Robots will no longer be able to have Traits or Aspirations modified in Create a Sim. You are a real Sim to me Robot friend, you are to me.

If a Sim already knows about the Secret Society, is it still a secret? Time will tell.

Outdoor Retreat

Herbalism recipes can now work while Off-The-Grid, however only on Off-The-Grid supported stoves.

Dine Out

Random NPCs will not leave Hamburgers on tables at restaurants anymore. As much as we like to receive free food, we don’t think it is proper to get them randomly from a stranger.

Vampires

Vampire Sims working on the Master Vampire Aspiration will no longer have the task “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” reset after traveling.

Vampire Sims with Full Sun Resistance are now able to properly tend to gardens and not tend to plants one at a time.

Fixed an issue in which you could set the Registered Vampire Lair Lot Trait for Venues.

Vampire child ears can now be changed after being aged-down from adult Dark Form.

The Rustic Candle Chandelier now has flame effects on the candles.

Jungle Adventure

Fans/Stans will no longer follow their adored celebrity into the jungles of Selvadorada.

Realm Of Magic

Spellcasters have regained access to Styled Looks.

Fixed an issue in which a Tank Top belonging to this pack was not categorized correctly in Create a Sim.

Hot Tubs that have been upgraded to unbreakable will no longer be broken upon performing the Zipzap Spell.

A Spellcaster is never not in vogue, but it’s always nice to have options.

Moschino

We fixed an issue in which some hotkeys in Photo Mode (particularly E and Q) were not working.

After popular demand, the Libearian bookend will now cost Simoleons. Nothing’s for free, nothing’s for freeee... take it away!

Tiny Living

Murphy beds will now be more resilient after first use. Warranty terms pending.

Fixed an issue in which Game Consoles were not usable with the all in one entertainment systems.

Fixed an issue in which Hair Styles from this pack appeared with their color swatches out of order in Create a Sim.

Fixed an issue in which Sims could not Put Bed Up their Murphy Beds after WooHoo.

We have also adjusted their pricing and comfort levels, bang for your buck!

Now the “Media Marathoner All on the Wall” will be actually the Media Marathoner All on the Wall.

[lambourngb]

This Hard Choice

Fic prompt: “I don’t want you to go.” set before THIS HARD LIFE and THIS HARD JOURNEY - an AU after the shed, set sometime after the moment in 2x05. Alex doesn’t join the Air Force. I’m writing these each day- so thankfully I didn’t have to work today because this “ficlet” is 3,600 words. This is finished on Ao3 here.

****

The careful crunch of loose gravel and abrasive echo of a skateboard stopping on the rough pavement let Michael know that his attempt to avoid Alex had failed. 

Parking down by Spring River, not far from where the concrete shelter of the Atkinson Ave overpass sported some of the late Rosa Ortecho’s graffiti murals, would have been an excellent place to hide from everyone in his life but Alex. It was insane to think that in such a short time, Michael had basically shared all of his favorite spots with him, from the private desert escape on a cut back gravel road not far from the crash site to the places in town when Michael couldn’t spare the fuel to drive far, like Loveless Park or the back acres of wrecked and salvaged cars at Sander’s Auto.

He would care more about his failure in evading Alex if he wasn’t so currently high.

Old man Sanders had let him crash on the couch last night with Rusty, his dog, and then left him the next morning with scrambled eggs and a small paying job of cleaning out the machinery tools used for alignment repairs. “Gotta use that MEK shit on it, it smells awful, so it’s a perfect job for you, kid, only need the one hand to clean the threads,” Sanders had instructed nodding to his bandaged hand as he handed over a pair of twenty dollar bills with a metal canister of solvent.

The money put gas in the truck and the leftover solvent was carefully hoarded for an experiment. Even with Michael’s careful handling of his make-shift cast while he worked on the task, he still finished having jarred the break one too many times.

Blue, cloudless sky stretched above him, keeping him warm and comfortable with a rare full stomach of breakfast. It was the perfect time, with his hand pulsing in unceasing agony, to test his theories about the effects other solvents had on his body outside of pain killing effects of acetone. There wasn’t much to lose, he reasoned darkly as he drank two quick swallows of MEK and laid back on his sleeping bag waiting for the effects to kick in, for better or worse.

Acetone reduced pain to a soft buzz in the background, like a gnat circling on the edges of his periphery. This solvent made him feel like the gnat, flying wildly through the negative space. 

Negative space, he mused with his eyes closed. That fit with close-tailored accuracy to his future prospects.

“Guerin, hey, Guerin!”

Right. Alex was here. Alex had found him. He was trying to avoid Alex for some reason. He couldn’t remember why at the moment as he opened his eyes to Alex’s handsome worried face. Christ, he was beautiful. Those eyebrows were bridged together though, closing the distance. Michael wanted to be that in the moment. A bridge, not a chasm. Not the negative space.

A warm, soft hand caressed Michael’s face, bringing his fluttering attention back to Alex’s. Sometime in between his thoughts, Alex had clambered up into the truck bed to sit next to him. The hint of amusement in his dark eyes won out over concern, “Are you just really high right now?”

“Yeah, super high,” Michael breathed, smiling broadly before moving to make room for Alex next to him.

Alex pursed his lips together, taking in a deep inhale of the surrounding air, “I don’t smell pot-”

“Not pot, something better.”

The concern and alarm was back as Alex started to pull away from Michael’s clumsy hold and look around the truck bed. “Like what, like, meth or OXY?”

“‘S fine, don’t worry, ‘kay?” Michael wrinkled his nose at the movements, and patted the space on his chest with his right hand. “Come lay back down, okay?”

“No, not okay, you need to tell me what you took so if you start to O.D. I can tell the hospital how to treat you-” 

The talk of a hospital cut through the fog. Michael pushed himself up with his good hand, before reaching to still Alex’s searching through the discarded blankets around him. Thankfully the discarded canister of MEK was in the cab of the truck with the contents of his pharmacy robbery, the box of nail polish remover and clean bandages. “No hospitals ever, okay? I’m fine, I promise. It was just… um, OXY like you said.” 

Staring in Michael’s eyes, Alex paused, still concerned and wary. “How much did you take?”

“Like two pills, and um, it wasn’t even off label, okay?” Michael raised his left hand, the dirty ragged cast punctuating the need. Like it had every time before, the reminder of that night in the shed sent a wave of shame and regret over Alex’s face. An effective subject killer, but it still pained Michael to use it. “Before you ask, I got the pills from Isobel. Her mom had dental surgery so they were left over. I didn’t rob the pharmacy for drugs.”

“I know.”

“You know?” While the rock-solid belief was nice, that wasn’t a part of his experience. 

Dropping his gaze down to Michael’s sloppy cast, Alex shrugged. “I overheard Jim Valenti telling my dad about the robbery, no drugs or money were stolen. Just beauty supplies and first aid stuff. It’s getting dismissed as kid type vandalism, not evidence of a drug cartel in Roswell.”

“That’s good.” Finally, news that brought relief to Michael, instead of increasing the heavy weight of dread in his chest. He started to lay back down on his sleeping bag and this time Alex followed, removing his keys and wallet from his jean pockets. Resting his face against Michael’s chest, his warm breath cutting easily through the thin cotton t-shirt, the argument was now forgotten between them as they took comfort in the closeness.

The high from the MEK was slowly fading, tiptoeing from his veins like a thief in the night. The echoing ache of his hand started up, the footfalls of sensation, getting closer and louder as the afternoon wore on until it was time for another bottle of acetone to chase it away. At least he knew the other solvent wouldn’t kill him, whatever that was worth.

“I looked it up, Roswell has a free clinic on Main if it’s about money-”

Not this fight again. It was his least favorite one, after the scholarship to UNM. Michael kept his voice soft, even though a surge of impatience tightened his throat.  “Alex, I can’t, okay? I can’t go to the free clinic because people are going to ask questions.”

“My dad deserves to get punished for what he did-” Alex lifted his eyes up to Michael’s from where he was tucked against Michael’s side.

“Not just about what happened. First question they ask is about ID, okay? And the address on my ID is two foster dicks ago. I can’t risk it. Attention from the authorities has never brought me anythin’ good.” Michael reached to stroke his fingertip over the renewed worried line on Alex’s face, “I know you think it should just be easy, like seeing a doctor, or going to UNM even though my scholarship only covers tuition and housing, not food, or gas, or school supplies outside of books.”

Alex frowned in response, “I’m not naive, Michael, I know all of that.”

“Yeah? Do you know how expensive it is to be homeless?” Pride nearly stopped that admission to Alex, but he was tired of fighting with the one person that seemed to care about him. “It’s ironic, but it’s true. No address, no bank account, but at least I’m finally eighteen with a high school diploma, so I can have a fighting chance at taking a cheap retail job to serve the tourists. ‘Cause right now my budget covers gas for my truck, food, and paying to use the truck stop showers out by Cowboy Ruckus twice a week, so I’m not shown the door as soon as I show up somewhere.” Michael had to shut his eyes to keep from seeing pity on Alex’s face. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t understand the ins and outs of how well the system protected everyone who worked within it but no one that stood on the outside.

It reminded him why he was avoiding Alex today in the first place. 

Last night Alex had seen him at the Wild Pony. At Ranchero Night. While Alex was there to help Maria and her mother, the assistant manager of the bar and restaurant to host the outreach night, Michael had no other reason for showing except for the obvious one. He was hungry and the grudgingly offered program by Old Fred that Mimi Deluca spearheaded meant he was going to get a full belly of hot warm food with no questions asked.

The stories behind his favorite parking spots in downtown Roswell weren’t romantic discoveries to share with Alex, they all revolved around proximity to safety and soup kitchens. Even showing up too many times at a particular food bank carried risk, from other men who lived rough. The fights that happened between prime sleeping spots, between two people comparing their nothing with less than nothing, spun up quickly. It was ugly, dangerous and Michael’s telekinesis could only keep him safe up to a point.

“And sometimes I go places where there’s free food and no questions. Like Ranchero night.” There was no disguising how hard his heart was pounding under Alex’s ear, but Michael could concentrate on keeping his breathing steady as he waited fearfully for his response. Finally, unable to stay quiet, Michael ventured, “still want to be with me?”

Alex lifted his head, biting his lip briefly. Slowly, with a mindful eye on Michael’s cast, he shifted closer to kiss Michael’s mouth gently. “I didn’t realize how hard things were, um, I’m glad you told me. I wish it didn’t take me seeing you at the Wild Pony for you to tell me.”

“You’ve got your own shit with your dad at home. At least I know my truck is safe, you don’t have that luxury.” It was something that Michael couldn’t help but worry about every night since the shed when he wasn’t worrying about Isobel. The level of violence and the comfort that Jesse Manes had in using that against his own son, while it shouldn’t have shocked a veteran of Child and Family Services, it did. Every night Alex went home to that. 

“It hasn’t been bad since that night, but I’m dodging my dad as much as I can. He’s probably just waiting until I’m 18.”

“Waiting for what?”

It was Alex’s turn to evade as he laid soft, suckling kisses down Michael’s throat. Michael chased at Alex’s lips, threading his fingers through the fading evidence of the black hair dye warring with the summer bleaching. They traded long, deep kisses, the heat of arousal building layers over the question until it slipped from view unanswered.

*** 

Michael walked confidently down the halls of the Roswell Travellodge toward the back stairs. The key to trespassing was to act as naturally as possible and hope he didn’t run into someone who knew him. Using the free ice machine in the various motels around town to stock up his small cooler was just one of the many life hacks he picked up since striking out on his own at sixteen.

His face was still throbbing from the lucky hit that jackass got in earlier after Michael had picked up dinner at the Ministries of Light community event. Someone felt like Michael needed to pay the unofficial cover to partake in the meal, and Michael had flipped off the guy, because every year on this planet had taught him how to treat a bully. A bully always has friends, and walking back late at night with a full stomach meant he hadn’t noticed his crowd of ‘admirers’ until they had him surrounded just a block from his truck. 

Thankfully between rolling a dumpster with his telekinesis and his fast retreat, he made it to safety with only the slowly swelling eye as a souvenir.

It had been at least three days since he had last crashed at Sanders, long enough to impose again on the old man’s couch. Michael finished filling his cooler with ice, wrapping a cold chunk in a discarded t-shirt to press against his face, and drove toward the auto yard with a plan in mind. Maybe the old man needed Michael to fix something. His left hand had improved enough now to move from awkward plaster to a drug-store brace, leaving some of his fingers free for more dexterous work. 

His headlights picked up a vague flash of movement just outside the office of the auto yard. Mindful of Rusty the dog, Michael slowed his approach to a crawl until he realized the movement wasn’t the yard dog, but Alex.

Michael swung out of the truck quickly, dropping the wrapped ice on the seat. Alex being here, unannounced, could only be trouble related to Jesse. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Straightening up from his seat in front of the office, whatever Alex was going to say originally abruptly vanished as he caught sight of Michael’s face under the wavering beam of the security lights. “What the hell happened to your eye?” 

Belated he reached up to touch his face, and joked, “A fight, but you should see the other guy. Or guys. I think it was at least four on one. But I’m okay.”

The bruise must have been more impressive than Michael realized because Alex just paled in response. Agitated Alex crossed his arms in front, turning half away as he rubbed his hands bare of jewelry against his forearms. “What the hell am I doing?” he asked himself quietly. 

“Alex?” Michael stepped closer, fear dropping his stomach downward in nausea. It was a dark survivor’s thought, but it would be a shameful waste to get sick now after a good meal. “Are you okay? Is it your dad?”

“I’m turning 18 tomorrow,” Alex replied in a non sequitur quietly. 

It didn’t sound like a joyous thing to reach the age of legal adulthood for Alex. “Happy birthday?” 

“My dad- listen, it’s never really been a choice okay? I’ve known it for as long as I can remember. I mean, fuck, I have to sign on my own, he can’t do it for me, but he might as well hold the pen in my hand.”

Michael wasn’t stupid. He knew enough about Alex’s family, his brothers, that the expectation of military service was less of a question and more of an accepted fact. He also knew Alex, who Alex was, and that was not a soldier of any kind. All of his reasoned arguments against this action jumbled in Michael’s throat, until the only thing that burst forward was inane words, “but you’re gay though, you can’t enlist!”

Huffing a tired sigh, Alex smiled sadly, “there are gay people every branch of the services, Michael. They just have to hide. My dad… my dad expects this of me. To join, to hide, to be...to be a Manes Man finally.”

“You can’t, you just can’t-” he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, breathing through his nose as he fought the nausea again. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to go either.” Alex reached for Michael’s face, keeping his touch light over the hot swelling bruise. The mark on Michael’s face seemed to deepen the grief in Alex’s eyes. “It’s never been a choice for me.”

“It can be. It can be a choice, if you just tell him no.”

“He would kill me.”

“The Air Force is just as capable of killing you too.” Michael reached up to guide Alex’s hand down to press against his chest, letting the wild beat of his pulse thrum against Alex’s palm. This boy, this kind and beautiful boy, brought the spark of life to all of the lost and deliberately discarded opportunities in Michael’s life. The thought of Alex being shuffled off to that same, colorless existence that he was stuck in after lighting Rosa Ortecho’s car on fire, threatened to break something in him. “Cutting yourself off from who you are, it changes you, and it’s not a good change. Please don’t do this to yourself.” 

Instead of responding, Alex looked back at the dark office of Sanders Auto behind them. “I don’t have to be home tonight, Sarge is letting me have one last night of freedom, so is it okay if I stay with you?”

“It’s an ancient couch I share with the dog,” Michael warned, licking his dry lips in response. At Alex’s nod, he led Alex over by the hand to the customer keys drop box and mailbox. After a moment he fished the key out from the hideaway safe and unlocked the office door. 

One last night together as innocent kids before the hard choices had to be made.

***

The next day, Michael ignored his schedule, the scratched out decisions that kept him functioning and moving with one foot in front of the other. Instead of partaking the truck stop shower or heading for laundry day the Evanes, as Ann and Bob always did a late brunch at their club, he instead decided to join Max for his thrice weekly coffee stalking of Arturo Ortecho. 

The scent of Alex was still all over him after he slept soundly on top of Michael, the only way to share that narrow couch. Rusty the dog had to settle with wedging his way between their legs and the less said of the amused look on old man Sanders face when he discovered them that morning, the better. 

Alex’s probably finished signing his life away at this point, Michael reminded himself.

“Jeez, he looks like such a tool,” Max commented, breaking into the cycle of Alex-related thoughts abruptly. Michael turned to look out the window of the Crashdown to see Kyle Valenti beaming and gesticulating excitedly in front of a new red Camaro. Both his parents, in uniform already for work, were watching their son proudly, arm in arm. “I don’t know how the Valentis raised a jerk like Kyle.”

Nice parents, nice car, nice life ahead of him for school as rumor had it that Kyle was headed to Michigan, and it was clear from Michael’s eyes the guy had no appreciation of the privileged ease of his life. All of that love and support in his life, only for Kyle Valenti to use it to bully people. Bully Alex. 

Anger was never far behind these days for Michael, his ever-present cellmate as he served his time for Isobel’s crimes. It swelled inside him, as the sun sparkled off the hubcaps and dazzled the eyes of onlookers from that deep cherry red car. Red like Rosa’s lipstick. Red like Liz’s prom dress. Red like the blood after the hammer dropped.

“Yeah, Jim Valenti deserves better.” That was Alex’s voice. 

Michael jerked his head away from the window to find Alex standing next to their booth. He had to be dreaming. Alex was supposed to be at a recruiter’s office, losing his freedom and all evidence of his personality right now, probably getting the remnants of that emo black hair dye job buzzed off at the barber. 

Except he wasn’t. Alex’s hair was still long and shaggy, brown sun-lightened locks spilling over his warm dark eyes. His earring and septum plug were back in, along with his jewelry. A lot of jewelry actually. Like maybe all of the jewelry Alex owned. Resting at his feet was a heavy duffle bag, the seams straining under the force of clothing packed inside. 

“Alex.” 

Shyly, Alex looked over at Max back to him, “Michael. It’s good to see you guys hanging out together again.”

“Alex.” Stupidly Michael kept staring at Alex, as if he was going to disappear if he blinked. “You’re here. You’re- you’re actually here, you didn’t-?”

Max creased his forehead, watching Michael completely unravel before him. “I kinda feel like I’m missing something here?”

“Alex Manes,” Alex held out his hand to Max jokingly, a small smile on his lips. He took a deep, audible breath and continued more seriously, “the disowned son of Master Sergeant Manes, currently homeless, and um, also Michael’s boyfriend.”

“Disowned?” 

“I had a choice, joining the Air Force or getting kicked out of the family. And um, so I’m going to be crashing on Maria’s couch for a while, just until I can save up-” Alex’s explanation was abruptly silenced as Michael launched himself from the booth toward him. His bag hit the ground as Alex wrapped both arms around Michael tightly. 

The patrons of the café faded into the background as Michael pressed his suddenly wet eyes into Alex’s neck. “Oh, thank god, you didn’t go.”

“I never wanted to go, okay?” Slowly Alex drew away a few inches, keeping his gaze on Michael’s face. His eyes narrowed at the bruise still blackening Michael’s eye, “and the choice wasn’t hard, when I realized it was you I was choosing. You gotta pick me too, okay? No more fights or robbing drug stores, I can deal with a lot, I know this won’t be easy being together but I can’t deal with violence. You gotta try, Michael.”

“Yes, yes, deal.” Aware of Max’s growing distrustful gaze, Michael ignored it. That could be their next fight with his brother after the subject of Isobel had been worn out, whether being close to someone human constituted a threat to their safety. Right now, the hard choice between their secret and Alex, didn’t have to be made yet. 

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (June 3rd, 2020)

There’s a new Sims 4 PC update available via Origin.

Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game

Update 06/03/2020 PC: 1.63.133.1020 / Mac: 1.63.133.1220 Console: Version 1.25

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack drops in just a mere few days, and since we know that living your best Eco Lifestyle can take a little extra elbow grease, we’ve added some exciting quality-of-life improvements to help pave the way.

Between Inventory updates, new CAS assets from a surprise partnership with M·A·C, the return of two beloved NPCs, as well as some really cool new Build features, we hope you enjoy the update.

-SimGuruJill & SimGuruRusskii

NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES

INVENTORY UPDATES

Fellow hoarders, this one’s for you: We have updated the Sim Inventory with the ability to Filter, Sort, Favorite, Multi-Select, and Multi-Sell in one easy flick of the wrist. Managing that cumbersome pile of collectables you’ve been racking up for the past five years has never been so easy!

FREE PLACEMENT OF DOORS AND WINDOWS

Following in true Eco Lifestyle fashion, Door and Window placement is now also Off-the-Grid. But not that kind of grid. The limiting kind of tile grid that used to keep you from placing your windows and doors precisely where you wanted them. By holding down the Alt key while dragging, you can enjoy the smooth sensations of free Door and Window placement.

LADDERS

Ladders have been added as part of the Build System. Find your free Classic Wooden Ladder in the Build catalog in the Stairs (& Ladders) category. Unlike Island Living’s Dock and Ladder objects for use on water lots, these Ladders can be placed anywhere on your lot and like stairs, they can be used as a means for Sims to traverse from one floor to another.

M·A·C COSMETICS

Did you say you needed some fresh looks for your Sims? We’ve collaborated with none other than M·A·C Cosmetics to bring you 12 fashion-forward makeup assets suited for everything from everyday to night out glam. If you’re not already using it, on PC and Mac we recommend trying out the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” setting in the Options Menu, which is now enabled by default on the High and Ultra graphics settings profiles in order to see these looks really shine. While console versions of The Sims 4 do not have the setting in the Options Menu, each console spec is automatically using the optimal graphical settings based on system resources.

REPO PERSON NPC

The Repo Person NPC has graduated with honors from Discover University’s University of Britechester with a Degree in Villainy and has comfortably taken up residence in Base Game. Now everyone can taste their wrath if Bill payments fall behind.

BILLS UPDATE

Speaking of Bills, we’ve added a cohesive breakdown of Sim’s Bills information that can be accessed via an interaction on the Mailbox or Phone. Now instead of lumping everything together, you can see what percentage of your Bills go to Water, what percentage go to Power, insight into any Fees, Reductions, or Penalties. All this and more, calculated and cleanly presented for your finer understanding.

LEGACY NEIGHBORHOOD MAP TAGS

We have gone back and added Map Tags with Neighborhood Descriptions to existing neighborhoods that didn’t yet have them. We now have delightful icons, names, and descriptions for the no-longer-forgotten Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, and Windenburg. Ok, feel free to freak out now.

OFF-THE-GRID UPDATES

This one is tricky to list out in a single paragraph with attempted wit, so I’ll just drop this bullet list off right here:

The Off-the-Grid Lot Trait now ties into our new Bill updates, drawing from Water and Power utility. Without excess utility, lots function off-the-grid as they did before. With excess utility, they function more like an on-the-grid lot.

There is a new Off-the-Grid Build category that will allow players to find Off-the-Grid and survival-esque objects.

We've done a pass on candles to ensure they properly work when electricity is out.

Off-the-Grid supported Fridges now have an "Add Ice" interaction that will allow them to keep food preserved—so long as the ice remains!

Sim will now autonomously use stoves and fridges when Off-the-Grid, not just grills.

Harvestables now grant unique buffs when consumed off-the-grid.

Dogs and Toddlers now have a unique interaction to be bathed in Bathtubs even when Off-the-Grid.

Objects can now be cleaned using the "Use Elbow Grease" interaction. Yummy.

Players are able to gather Water utility from fishing spots in base game. With Island Living they can gather from the waterfall. Water can also be gathered from any world with swimmable 'ocean' water. With Seasons, water can be gathered from snow drifts.

Off-the-Grid specific buffs will now take into account motives and Sim traits when determining if a Sim should receive a positive or negative moodlet when living Off-the-Grid.

We've added multiple new recipes that can be cooked while Off-the-Grid given a Sim has the proper cooking skill level. Some recipes require special ingredients like the Boiling Frog Hot Pot—which adds a really neat survival element to off-the-grid gameplay, while providing Sims with powerful new moodlets that will help them survive in the wild.

NO TRESPASSING

Some people who have the Vampires Game Pack appreciate Vlad’s antics more than others. I personally love receiving a charming visit from Vlad, and sometimes I could really use a kind compliment about my neck. But we’ve heard there are a select few that don’t quite like having their Sim’s necks bitten and motives tanked by an invasive nighttime visitor with no respect for boundaries. Keep Vampires and other unwanted visitors at bay with a new No Trespassing interaction we’ve added to the Door.

SEND HOME INTERACTION

Speaking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve also added a new Send Home interaction that’s available on visiting NPCs or as a self-interaction in the case of multiple visitors. How is this interaction any different from Ask To Leave or Go Away, you might ask? Convenience. Unlike its less efficient predecessors, this interaction is nearly instantaneous and leaves your visitors with no hurt feelings or Relationship impact. We added it as a useful tool for players, not necessarily as a story-telling mechanism.

BUILD MODE ITEMS GRANT GAMEPLAY EFFECTS

How you build your lot can now affect your gameplay. Certain objects such as wall patterns, floor patterns, fences, and columns bring different gameplay modifiers. Some of these modifiers affect how your Bills and utilities are calculated by decreasing or increasing your Power or Water utility production or usage, as well increasing or decreasing the price of bills. Environment Score can now be impacted by certain objects and materials. Drywall walls without wall patterns applied now decrease environment score like they did in The Sims 3! The choice of floor and wall materials used can also affect the ability to spread fire or puddles at an increased or lessened rate. And if you’d rather build your lot without having to think about these things, don’t worry. There’s an Option in the Gameplay menu to turn all of this off.

FIREFIGHTER NPC

Oh hey, and speaking of Fire, that reminds me. Did you hear that we’ve added Firefighter NPCs to the game? We took nods from classic Firefighter NPC behavior from The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 and added a few small twists for The Sims 4. When a fire breaks out, Firefighters will come automatically to your lot if you already have a Fire Alarm installed. That way, if you still like to let things burn baby burn, you can just “accidentally” forget to place a Fire Alarm. It’s okay. We won’t tell anybody. If you honestly did forget to place a Fire Alarm, you can call the Fire Department from the Phone or by clicking on the fire itself. If the Fire Department is called, but there is not an active fire, they will call you on your lapse in judgement and charge you a fine. You won’t be punished if there was legitimately a fire that was extinguished before they arrive though. The Firefighter Uniform can be accessed in CAS and gives any Sim wearing it the Fireproof Buff, which gives them some extra protection against fires as well as make them more efficient at putting out fires themselves. It’s worth noting that Firefighter NPC’s do not show up in Island Living’s Sulani. Sulani already has their local Fire Brigade to handle these kinds of emergencies and besides, who wants to wear all that heavy Firefighter gear in the tropics?

STYLED LOOKS FOR TOTS AND KIDS

More than 20 New Styled Looks have been added for Children and Toddlers, using existing Base Game CAS assets to better flesh out some outfit categories that previously felt sparse.

BALANCING PASS OF PHONE CALL INVITATIONS

After five years of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs our phone call invites were admittedly starting to get a little spammy. Moments after moving in, you’ve got Lucas Munch hitting you up, asking you to go to the Bluffs with him. Then not long after, you might have had Vivian Lewis asking you to join her at The Spice Festival. Jeez, let me get settled in first, why don’t ya? We’ve done a tuning pass to rebalance all of these previously competing Phone invites to give you a more meaningful and holistic experience.

LESS INVASIVE EARBUDS

In the same vein as the above balancing pass, we wanted to smooth out one of our more pressing notifications. The free earbuds pop-up that comes with Fitness Stuff has been changed to a more passive TNS and gifts your Sim the earbuds automatically when it triggers. The days of telling the game over and over that you don’t want free earbuds, or worse - hitting OK by accident - is a thing of the past.

CONSOLE UPDATES

Eco Lifestyle releasing on the same day across all platforms marks an important milestone for The Sims 4 as Simmers get to play the same content and share new creations on The Gallery together. In this update Console Simmers have a few additional features to improve their quality of life:

We have added a new Controls Overlay Reminder that shows up throughout CAS, Gallery, Live Mode and Build Mode which should make it easier for new Simmers to jump in and not need to remember all the controls.

If you don’t want to be reminded and you know all the controls by heart, you can turn off the Controls Overlay Reminder in the Game Options > Other menu

The controller overlay screens remain available for those who want them.

Now onto the fixes and updates:

The Sims 4

macOS players should no longer encounter the setLocale.zsh error. However, both Origin and TS4 must be up to date.

Sims will not have random accessories or clothing pieces when changing into towels.

Style Influencer Sims can now remove trends they have created, with the Reset Trend interaction.

Fixed an issue where Sims were not able to Care for Self after they had been in daycare when they were a Toddler.

Some roofs were updated to remove the appearance of black sides when placed on ceilings.

Active Sims will no longer get a Tense moodlet for lack of exercise when finishing exercising. Do you even push up bro?

Sims will no longer get the Fatigued moodlet immediately after starting a workout. Now, we know that endurance takes time to build, but we decided to give Sims a chance to enjoy their workout before being completely fatigued right away.

Child Sims will now be able to unlock the Video Gaming Skill after they have maxed out their Mental Skill instead of their Motor Skill, which was causing adult skills to reset for Child Sims when they completed aspirations.

Fixed an issue in which some Households did not have their names displayed in Manage Worlds.

Corrected requirements for completing the Great Landscaper task that is part of the Mansion Baron Aspiration.

Fixed an issue in which when utilities are shut off (either because of past due bills or Off-The-Grid) adding objects from Build Mode such as Lamps, would add them turned On.

The Water Pump, Fishing Holes, Romantic Garden’s Whispering Wishing Well, and Get Famous’s Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden now have the Gather Water interaction when the Off-the-Grid Lot Trait is applied.

Fixed an issue in which the Subtle Saucer Light was not being so subtle and made objects added from Build Mode be placed randomly when dragged near it.

Teen Sims will now see the appropriate tooltip when trying to acquire the Fertile Trait from the Rewards Store. No, they are not Robots.

Fixed an issue in which some Roof Eaves were clipping into enclosed blocks.

Fixed an issue in which the Clean Up interaction would drop off the queue if dirty dishes were placed on a counter.

Since we added a new trash bike to Eco Lifestyle, we’ve made the bicycle helmet available for everyone in CAS. Now you can outfit your Sim in a helmet, regardless of owning a pack that includes bikes.

Sims will now not receive occasional text messages asking them for a Date from other Sims that they are not romantically involved with. Because it was aaaakward…

Toddler Sims will not be able to Ask for Mentoring on some in progress mentoring interactions to strangers. Except for “Invite to Bob to Music” because we can dance if we want to, we can leave our friends behind, ‘cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance well... they’re not friends of mine.

Fixed an issue with textures for the tops and landings on some Staircases.

Fixed an issue that did not allow randomizer to work correctly when Male Sims had Makeup on Create a Sim.

Plants can now be placed closer to foundations with moveobjects cheat enabled, as long as most of the plant's footprint is outside of the foundation.

Fixed an issue in which Simoleons were not added to Household Funds when moving and selling furniture.

Fixed an issue in which previewing certain windows on diagonal walls reverted their color back to the default color swatch.

Simmers on macOS Catalina and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU will no longer experience seeing a squared shadow under their Sims.

Fixed an issue with the Wooden Prairie-Style Two-Panel door in which color swatches were not displaying correctly on both sides of the door.

Sims now can dispose of packed lunches that have spoiled. Out, foul food!

Fixed some oddness with disappearing Stairs within enclosed courtyards.

Fixed a Stair issue with Landings not working properly on lots with raised foundations and basements. Sims will no longer walk through walls and things should now look appropriate.

Fixed missing Career Promotion screens for careers in various packs.

Fixed User Interface elements and Icons across multiple packs.

Spandrels can now be properly applied on Fences.

Stairs will now not shrink when increasing Foundation heights.

Get Together

Fixed an issue in which non local Sim Townies would spawn in Windenburg’s Island, now named The Crumbling Isle.

Fixed an issue that caused an error to occur when deleting or editing Clubs.

As much as Windenburgians (Windenburgers? Windenburguese? Windenburglites?) love visitors from other worlds, they have voted them off the Island. Sorry, not sorry!

City Living

Fixed an issue that caused time to be desynchronized at Speed 3. Bending the space time continuum no more!

Vet Clinics can no longer be placed in Penthouses.

Yard Sale customers will no longer wander inside Sims’ houses and interact with their belongings. While prospective buyers are nice to have in any sale, this was just rude, this is NOT a Welcome Wagon.

Cats & Dogs

Game progress will no longer be lost when editing/adding/deleting career outfits in Create a Sim.

Fixed an issue that made Pets’ needs to not be fulfilled if not playing an active household.

Pets’ ehm… poop is now able to be used as plant fertilizer. Happy gardening!

Seasons

Sims can now sell Flowers in stacks from their Inventory.

Sims will now appropriately put their Umbrellas away before performing some interactions. Because WooHoo while having an Umbrella out in the open, seems complicated, we are not judging… but seems complicated.

Fixed an issue that made Simmer created Holidays in the Calendar populate after a season ended.

Father Winter will now be able to remove his beard and change in Create a Sim if he is part of an active Household. But who would dare shave Father Winter’s beard?? Who?!

Get Famous

Fixed the issue with the Actor Career where Sims were unable to complete their gig when they would travel and return home before it was time for the gig.

Island Living

Lotta Cocolatas will now be made with actual Coconuts taken from Sims’ Inventories. What were they made from before? We will never know! Never accept imitation Lotta Cocolatas… never!

Fixed an issue in which some quick meals were requiring a Microwave while being Off-The-Grid when it is not needed. Yogurt needing a microwave? I think not!

Mermaids in Create a Sim will no longer be able to have their Traits randomized. This allows them to keep their Mermaidism, as well as their air of mystery and charm.

Mermaids now will wear appropriate career outfits when going to work. So I can picture this now, Mermaids as Doctors would be a great TV show.

Fixed an issue in which some Island Living Tank Tops were categorized incorrectly in Create a Sim.

Mermaid Children made in Create a Sim will now grow up to be fully-functioning Mer-dults.

The Go To Work button for Odd Jobs has been fixed for Sims on Vacation.

The Eyedropper tool will now work on Stilts instead of only working on the Foundation Trims.

Fixed an issue in which Sims in Off-The-Grid lots were showering constantly. Now they will shower when appropriate. Though, with this heatwave, anything goes in my opinion!

“Dr. Mermaid/Merman, what do you recommend?

“I am prescribing some Vitamin Sea”

Give Russkii more coffee please...

Discover University

Student Sims will not lose their Term Presentations Boards when signing up for another term.

Simmers with Seasons additionally installed: Student Sims will no longer receive Academic Probation if they were on planned Holidays through the Calendar.

Student Sims will no longer be labeled as Graduate after completing the Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!

Fixed an issue in which homework assignment progression was too slow and timers might have been missing in some instances.

Fixed an issue in which Sims were taking showers fully clothed. As much as the current heat wave is giving us creative ideas to cool off, it would be more efficient to not be fully clothed when showering.

Hair Style ymHair_EP08MensShavedPonytail_Black has been updated for Teens, Adults, and Elders to display all swatches. Similarly yfHair_EP08ShortBobBraid_Black has been fixed to appear as an option for Teens.

Sims that re-enroll in University after graduating or dropping out, can now rejoin their Secret Society. Likewise, if Sims get suspended and re-enrolls their progress will not be lost.

Fixed an issue with the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" chair that occasionally could make Sims invisible if they placed it in their Inventory. We don’t know what other powers the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" may have but invisibility is now not one of them.

Sims in the Law Career can now Attend Depositions from their Computers and Phones. Because you don’t need to break your computer to complete an assignment, that seems impractical.

Vampire Coffins and Sleeping Pods can now count as Beds in University Dorms.

Fixed an issue in which the Write and Publish Research Paper interaction would disappear from the options if it was cancelled midway. I mean, I understand rage quitting something but not to the point of my options to do it disappearing...amirite?

Fixed an issue with yfBody_EP08DressParty_SolidPurple in which pendant necklaces were not able to be seen if this asset was worn by Sims.

Fixed an issue that could make the Soccer interaction Study Plays with drop out from the interaction queue.

Corrected Final Exam Requirements for Elective Courses to say that for studying they need to do so on Computers or Research Machines.

To anyone who may have noticed the tiny head effect in the thumbnails if you wore the Dragon or the Lobster mascot costume without their hats, that issue has been fixed.

Humanoid Robots will no longer be able to have Traits or Aspirations modified in Create a Sim. You are a real Sim to me Robot friend, you are to me.

If a Sim already knows about the Secret Society, is it still a secret? Time will tell.

Outdoor Retreat

Herbalism recipes can now work while Off-The-Grid, however only on Off-The-Grid supported stoves.

Dine Out

Random NPCs will not leave Hamburgers on tables at restaurants anymore. As much as we like to receive free food, we don’t think it is proper to get them randomly from a stranger.

Vampires

Vampire Sims working on the Master Vampire Aspiration will no longer have the task “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” reset after traveling.

Vampire Sims with Full Sun Resistance are now able to properly tend to gardens and not tend to plants one at a time.

Fixed an issue in which you could set the Registered Vampire Lair Lot Trait for Venues.

Vampire child ears can now be changed after being aged-down from adult Dark Form.

The Rustic Candle Chandelier now has flame effects on the candles.

Jungle Adventure

Fans/Stans will no longer follow their adored celebrity into the jungles of Selvadorada.

Realm Of Magic

Spellcasters have regained access to Styled Looks.

Fixed an issue in which a Tank Top belonging to this pack was not categorized correctly in Create a Sim.

Hot Tubs that have been upgraded to unbreakable will no longer be broken upon performing the Zipzap Spell.

A Spellcaster is never not in vogue, but it’s always nice to have options.

Moschino

We fixed an issue in which some hotkeys in Photo Mode (particularly E and Q) were not working.

After popular demand, the Libearian bookend will now cost Simoleons. Nothing’s for free, nothing’s for freeee... take it away!

Tiny Living

Murphy beds will now be more resilient after first use. Warranty terms pending.

Fixed an issue in which Game Consoles were not usable with the all in one entertainment systems.

Fixed an issue in which Hair Styles from this pack appeared with their color swatches out of order in Create a Sim.

Fixed an issue in which Sims could not Put Bed Up their Murphy Beds after WooHoo.

We have also adjusted their pricing and comfort levels, bang for your buck!

Now the “Media Marathoner All on the Wall” will be actually the Media Marathoner All on the Wall.

[datawyrms]

Thief

Dannymay 202 Day 29: Heat

It had been a gradual thing. Keeping away and avoiding too much physical contact only made sense if you had a nasty habit of vanishing limbs and passing into already occupied spaces. It had been the right thing to do, the safest way to act. It wasn’t weird for a teenager to start being a bit more insistent on less physical affection from their parents as they figured themselves out, as Jazz put it. Setting boundaries, or something like that. Now, though? He had a grip on those unnatural powers, it wasn’t really a risk. He shouldn’t shy away from friendly contact anymore, honestly. Yet he did. Hugs and holding meant heat and warmth and the quiet reminder of how cold he was.

Being like this was way better than being dead. He couldn’t really imagine just being human again either. So why did the natural heat of warm blooded creatures get him jealous? It was stupid, he was still alive. He still had a heartbeat and warmth in his body, just not as much. Just a little bit colder, not so much that anyone would notice if they weren’t looking for it.

Not that it mattered that he knew all this. The reaction didn’t care about logic or being reasonable. It was like a little monster scrabbling in his chest, long seeking claws straining from behind his rib cage, desperately trying to reach out and steal the warmth and life of whoever had more than a hand on him. Like if it could only reach he’d stop being cold and be whole again. The feeling wasn’t his, it shouldn’t be his, but it couldn’t be from anything else.

He couldn’t tell anyone about it. He’d sound like a monster. A freak at the very least. It was easier to just avoid contact, he had practically perfected dodging straying arms. The disappointed looks were easier to ignore. He got those for lots of reasons nowadays anyway. Dash, bully that he was continued to be a nuisance, but if he could avoid getting pinned to the lockers or otherwise grabbed it wasn’t a big deal. It would be so easy to retaliate. He could take over his body with a thought, freeze an arm solid and shatter it on a whim and just listen to the bully scream and wail as the life giving blood left the body to cool.

He’d never do that. Yet he could. Easily. The scrabbling always reminded him of that. You’re cold and wrong, not like them. You don’t belong. The more it shrieked for the contact, the warmth, the love and attention, the harder he shoved any of it away. It was wrong, you don’t deserve it, can’t you feel how you’re stealing from them? It isn’t meant for a ghost in a human skin. Not for a leech.

The fact sweltering weather was a suffocating weight only proved it. Goths might simmer, but apparently ghosts just slumped. He’d been more on Tucker’s side before, enjoying the hot summer days, but the very idea of the tropics now made him want to make a pile of ice and sleep on it. Why couldn’t he even be consistent? If he wanted warmth, why did getting it because it was the height of summer exhaust him? Mom and Dad probably had some scientific reason for that. Some other ghosts might even know. Or they might not, half ghosts weren’t exactly common. He probably cared too much, was thinking about it too much. So what if some preferences changed? Lots of people didn’t like heat waves.

Why couldn’t he kid himself into ignoring the small changes? It wasn’t a big deal. Yet warmth had somehow tangled itself with his perception of life, and he couldn’t manage to get them separate again. It was nonsensical, he knew that. Of course the summers were more taxing, he had ice powers. Ice powers that had almost managed to deep freeze him before figuring them out. It didn’t mean there was more life in the world than a dead thing like him could stand. He knew that. He KNEW that.

Maybe Spectra had been more right than he thought. Who’d care for a thing like you indeed. You don’t even make sense to yourself.

He grew colder. More noticeable. Which only caused worry and concern and warmth from his friends again that he had to struggle to fend off. He was fine. Of course he was colder, his powers kept growing. They were worrying over nothing. Yet still they insisted with the worry and care and the thing under his ribs just wanted it so badly that he had to flee. It would steal from them, it would hurt them, couldn’t they feel how it wanted to latch on to them and steal that warmth for himself?

“So, do you think all ghosts are evil?”

She’d cornered him in the kitchen to ask that? “No. That’s Mom and Dad, Jazz” he muttered, trying to figure out a way to get past her without walking through walls.

“Really? We’ve all noticed you’re avoiding us,” she reached out a hand to touch his shoulder and he flinched backwards, eyes narrowing.

“Don’t touch me.”

“See, like that! You don’t need to hide from us, but you’re doing it anyway.”

“Yeah. It’s called brothers not wanting their nosy sister touching them. I’m not seven anymore,” he crossed his arms, wondering if he kept them folded that it would keep the scrabbling thing trapped.

“You look scared, not annoyed. What are you afraid of?” her eyes were searching for something in his face. Why did she have to be so nosy? Why couldn’t she just shrug and give up like Mom and Dad?

“You’re seeing things,”. The counter was cool against his back. Maybe he should just slip through it, get away from the heat in front of him.

“No I’m not. Are you going to tell me or should we all just keep asking until we guess?”

“You can waste your time if you want.” It was hard to ignore how her worry, concern and affection tainted the air, how it awoke the cold thing inside him. How it delighted in having someone suffer on his account. He should leave.

Jazz frowned at him, edging closer despite his efforts to gain more distance, “You know the cold doesn’t bother us, you don’t need to be ashamed or anything.”

Easy for her to say. She didn’t hear or feel the starving refrain of want. Of course it was bad, of course he had to make sure it didn’t hurt anyone. That he didn’t hurt anyone. “I’m not. Are we done yet?”

The scowl was expected. Considering how much she harped on boundaries, the hug was not. Heat and safety, worry propelled by love and it was for him and he could take it. It would be so easy to just stay there, or hug back. He couldn't, that was stealing, it would hurt, these cravings and thoughts were ghostly and wrong and he wouldn’t hurt them. That gave him enough sense to phase free of her, eyes wild.

“I said don’t touch me!”

“Are you afraid of us?” She looked a little hurt, but he could feel the worry coming like waves. Still caring too much about how he felt when she’d been in danger.

“Now you’re just making stuff up. I don’t like being hugged, okay?” Lying had become almost second nature by now, but judging by her eyes she wasn’t buying it.

“You seemed to pretty okay with it until you panicked.” He felt strangely like a specimen trapped on a tray as she pondered, watching him. Why did she have to keep digging and pushing? “You’re afraid of yourself?”

He snorted. “Really? No. There’s nothing wrong, you’re just being nosy.”

“So if I grabbed your hand right now, you wouldn’t try pulling it away with that panicked look on your face.”

Shoot. How could he squirm out of this, she’d just keep pressing and pushing and caring and the thing in him might finally snap his ribcage if it was constantly tasting the heat in the air. Slow your thoughts down. Yet he couldn’t. “No. It’s stealing.”

Something in that only seemed to strengthen Jazz’s resolve. “What do you think you’re stealing?”

“The heat. I’m cold. I can’t-” he tried to keep his voice low, holding his head in his hands. He shouldn’t be admitting this, shouldn’t let her know how much of a freak he was.

Being hugged again was startling. “Danny. You’re not stealing if we’re giving it to you.” Her voice was firm and would not take any argument, the warmth in it almost stronger than the emotions he felt and craved and wanted so very badly. Surely this hurt her, to have some half human thing clinging back. His emotions weren’t warm like life, not healthy and needed, she wouldn’t want them.

Yet she didn’t seem any colder even after letting go. Even as his insides purred and muscles relaxed from feeling wanted, safe and important.

“Are-are you sure?”

“We’ve always been sharing how we feel Danny. You’re just a little more sensitive to it now. You aren’t stealing, you dork.” she ruffled his hair and the warmth only reinforced the contented hum instead of awakening the starving scrabbling.

He wished he could know for sure. Yet this did feel better for now, at least.

[crasherfly]

What the Hell is a Fumo Anyway?

So how did you learn about Fumos?

I don’t know when I first became aware of Fumos. I’d guess it came up in a stream at Spriteclub.tv, where many of the users are fans of the Touhou series, or at least its characters. 

Streams tend to be ground zero for memes, and Fumos have quickly become the flagship meme of the rapidly growing Touhou community. I’m sure what happened was that one user mentioned the word Fumo, and me, being the curious soul that I am, googlged it, and the rest is history.

Since then I’ve obtained 4 of these precious plushies. I’m in the process of obtaining my 5th. I’ve posted hundreds of pictures and a few videos. I’ve dug up my old lighting kit for the first time since my old film days. I’ve made cross country trips and visited landmarks in pursuit of getting pictures of my fumos in unusual or interesting places. And in the meantime, I’ve been learning via trial and error how to become a digital personality in a way I hadn’t before.

What’s the reaction been like?

The results have been decidedly mixed- amongst the Fumo community, my pictures have traveled pretty far, racking up tons of likes and retweets, especially recently as bigger accounts started picking up my work. More engagement means I create more Fumo content, which reached a point where this was pretty much ALL my main account was dedicated to.

The negative side of this is that my IRL friends and mutuals have all but dropped off my Twitter map with the exception of a select few. Weirder still, not only have they not engaged with this latest hobby of mine, but they won’t even like, acknowledge it exists. Like, you’d think there’d be questions about what a grown dude is doing taking pictures of dolls- but nope. Nothing but silence- and a likely place on their mute lists.

But I don’t think I can blame this entirely on Fumos. The same irl people who ignore my Fumo photography also ignored my film work back when I made movies and ignored my writing when I was working on Alice and the Pale Horse. While Fumos are a bit more off the map than those hobbies were, it just goes to show that the first people you should count on for support of your art are total strangers- and the last ones you should be worried about liking your work are the people you actually know irl.

What IS wild to think about is that my fumo work has been shared more widely than anything I’ve ever written or directed. I’m finally being sorta seen! -just...not in a way I ever expected. 

So why did you decide to start playing with dolls???

I’ve always liked cute stuffed things. When I was a kid I had baskets full of stuffed animals. As an adult I have tons of plushies- everything from Club Mocchi Mocchi to pillows. I like soft, smushy things that are in the shape of things I enjoy! So Fumos were an easy sale for me, aesthetically. 

But from a more serious, psychological standpoint- I’d say depression was probably the driving factor. I don’t see many people IRL- I’m a bad initiator, I’m deeply introverted, I don’t have many social skills, I’m not neurotypical and I didn’t make many friends in adulthood. When I started looking into Fumos, I saw this vibrant, deeply positive community that rallied around taking wholesome pictures of plushies out in the world- a world I was pretty scared to get into because of my aforementioned emotional problems as well as the pandemic. 

Fumos gave me an excuse to find courage to get out there and see the world again. Whether it’s a walk down the street or a trip to New Orleans, it is no exaggeration to say that if not for the Fumos, I’d likely still be at home.

But what’s more, Fumos also woke up a creative impulse in me that I’d thought had been dead since I quit making film. I found myself behind a camera again, lighting shots and keeping an eye out for interesting moments to photograph. I kept a Fumo with me everywhere I went just in case I’d find an interesting shot. I felt creatively alive for the first time since maybe college.

So to sum it up, Fumos became a framing lens for me finding the courage and creativity that depression and anxiety had robbed from me during my 20s.

I hear you made a Fumo alt. Why make an alt when your photos were JUST taking off and doing numbers?

Honestly, I was toying with the idea of doing a gimmick account for a while. I just didn’t want to put in the work of managing two accounts. 

A few bigger Fumo accounts found my content this weekend and started RT’ing me, and that’s when I started doing bigger numbers than I’d expected. At first this was fine- the Fumo community, by and large, is really chill, gentle and kind. But like any community, there are fringes that you’d rather not have within a few degrees of separation of your personal life. So Sunday night I decided to lock down my personal account and finally do the thing and create a new alt handle for Fumo-only content called @FumosOfCrash.

The alt is already pulling in decent numbers and followers. I’m reposting a lot of my old content and finally getting it some attention. It’s been fun to watch the numbers go up. I’m a big RPG fan so you know I love that stuff. And I also have the pleasure of not stressing too hard about who is following the alt- I don’t feel like I have to check everyone’s credentials at the door, ya know?

I guess I just got really, really nervous Sunday night about some of my new follows. I’m normally a very private person, and the sudden deluge of followers felt very overwhelming. I try to keep an open mind and stay off of controversial topics in the interest of welcoming all sorts of new people into my life, but there are some places I just can’t travel, and my work was reaching some parts of Twitter I just wasn’t comfortable with. So I took action to protect my personal account while creating a new handle where I could be more public-facing without having the worry about anything goofy carrying over into my real life.

I’ll probably keep my personal locked down for a while until things chill a bit. If you’re a current mutual of mine reading this- don’t worry, we’re good, we’re cool. I have nothing against you or anyone else in the Fumo community. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my new pals on Twitter and there’s a handful of accounts I’d even go so far as to call my “friends” now, even if we’ve never talked IRL.

So what’s next for you and your Fumos?

Well, currently, we have Sakuya, Marisa, Meiling and Alice. We are currently trying to track down a Reimu, but it hasn’t been easy.

I’ll be reposting my old work to my alt with a few updates a day, as well as retweeting work from my mutuals. I may also start doing videos again. From there, it’s just a question of how high the numbers go. I’d like to think I could get to a thousand followers, even if that number makes my head spin.

But the truth is I’ll post Fumo content for as long as its fun. And then someday, when it stops being fun...I’ll just stop. Who knows, maybe there will be a day where I won’t need the dolls to confidently go out in public or visit a new city? Or maybe this trend will die or the engagement will totally die out. I hope it doesn’t, ‘cuz I’ve really enjoyed it to this point, but all good things have to come to an end.

Until then, I’m just going to have fun, take breaks when I need them, and enjoy wherever this ride takes me!

[skeeter-110]

 Don’t Worry Darling (I’m Right Here)

Chapter One: Home’s Where You Go When You Run Out of Homes

By: Skeeter_110 for @joyful-soul-collector

@friendly-neighborhood-exchange

Rating: General Audiences

Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Ned Leeds

Summary: It’s been a year since the Vulture incident, and Peter and Tony have thankfully gotten closer since then. Because of this, Tony’s noticed for the past month that Peter has been acting weird and decides to get to the bottom of it. 

Tony knew that this was a bad idea. A terrible idea; one filled with multiple accounts of invaded privacy and possible stalking. But, Tony didn’t know what else to do.

For the past month, Tony has noticed that Peter has been acting strange. Tony hasn’t been getting voicemails lately from Peter and - when he checked the suit logs - has noticed that Peter hasn’t gone out as Spider-Man. 

The teen also has been a lot more withdrawn during their internship days. Tony just brushed it off as Peter being exhausted from school - lord knows just the memories of high school was enough to exhaust Tony - but eventually Peter began calling and cancelling lab days. Which turned into him just plain not showing up a few weeks ago. 

Tony knew he was risking nothing short of getting the cops called on him from sitting in front of a high school filled with kids, waiting for said kids to come out, but he didn’t know what else to do. He had to see Peter and make sure the kid was okay. 

Tony waited with a baited breath once the bell rang, instantly searching for Peter through the sea of kids that were running out of the building. 

“FRIDAY, look alive, Baby Girl.” Tony says after a few minutes when he realizes that Peter wasn’t coming out of the school. “I need you to help me get into the school’s systems. Check Peter Parker’s attendance record for the past couple of weeks and see what we got.” Tony commands, typing away for a bit on his phone before letting FRIDAY do the rest. 

‘It appears that Peter Parker has no attendance record for the past thirteen days.’ FRIDAY informs, confirming what Tony was afraid of to be true. 

He honestly didn’t know where to go from there. It wasn’t like Peter was going out as Spider-Man, so Tony couldn’t track his suit to see where he was, the Parker’s apartment was empty when he knocked on the door, and Peter hasn’t been in school for weeks. 

Peter wouldn’t move away without letting him know, right? Even if the teen didn’t know how to tell him, May at least would have been able to; but she’s not answering her phone either. 

Tony had a really bad feeling stuck like a pit in his stomach about this whole situation, and for once, he had no idea where to go from here.

Or, well, he didn’t, until he saw a familiar friend of Peter’s walking out of the school.

“Hey!″ Tony shouts, quickly scrambling out of his car, not quite caring that he seemed a little too desperate to want to talk to a high school student. “Ed, or Ned, or whatever the hell your name is, wait!” Tony says as he runs up to Ned, gaining the teen’s attention. 

"Uh, M-Mister Stark. What - uh - What are you doing here?" Ned asks, looking around a bit with shock and a little nervousness.

"Well, I was looking for Peter, but apparently - not only has he not shown up to his internship - he hasn't even been in school for the past couple of weeks. Do you know where he is?" Tony explains.

"O-Oh, he hasn't told you." Ned murmurs, making Tony's eyebrows furrow.

"Hasn't told me... what? Did the Parkers move or something, because their apartment was empty when I stopped by." Tony continues to pry, knowing that he was going to hate the answer by the way Ned was shifting on his feet.

"May died a little over a month ago. Car accident." Ned quietly informs, making that pit in Tony's stomach tighten even more.

"Where's Peter?" Tony hesitantly asks, selfishly praying to any higher being out there that Peter wasn't in the accident with her.

"I'm not sure." Ned tells him, not helping quell the man's worry.

"What do you mean 'you're not sure'?"

"I mean after the funeral someone from social services came and took him to a foster home. Apparently the guy who ran the home was abusive - I don't know, Peter didn't give me many details. The last thing I knew, he got a job at Delmar's and found a new place to stay. At least, that's what he's told me, I haven't really seen him either."  Ned rambles.

"Alright. Good talk, thank you for this." Tony says, beginning to walk away now that he has the information he needed to find Peter.

"Uh- M-Mister Stark!" Ned calls out before Tony could go too far. "You- Can you keep me updated? Please?" Ned requests, Tony softening at the clear concern Ned had for his friend.

"Of course."

*   *   *

Well, it's official. Two extremely creepy things relating a minor in one day; it was a new record. Not that Tony was actively trying to break that record. But seeing how his day has been going so far, who even knew at this point. Currently he was staking out the bodega that Ned had told him Peter was working at.

Tony couldn't stop his spiraling thoughts as he waited for any sign of Peter to show up. He couldn't help but wonder if the boy had actually managed to find somewhere warm and safe within that short period of time. He couldn't help but wonder if the man that ran the foster home had hurt Peter. He couldn't help but wonder about Peter.

Apparently all of those crazy scenarios his brain was making up passed enough time for all of the lights be turned off in the bodega. Tony waited for a bit, but the only people that walked out of there was two other men with no sign of Peter around.

Tony just sighed, leaning back in his seat and waiting for a few minutes just in case Peter came out also. When it was clear the teen wasn't there, Tony pulled his phone back out again.

"FRIDAY, is there any way you can get in touch with Karen and pinpoint her location?" Tony asks, silence filling the car once again before the A.I'S voice echoed through.

'I've managed to locate Karen's location. I've taken the liberty of putting the address in your GPS.' FRIDAY tells him. Tony just let out a long breath, berating himself a bit for not doing this in the first place and sending himself on some wild goose chase.

It only took twenty minutes for Tony to wind up parked in front of some abandoned warehouse. Tony just sat there and stared for a while, trying to choke down the lump that formed in his throat.

Peter could be in there. This is where Peter's been staying for the past month. No doubt hungry, cold, scared, and alone the entire time; and Tony had no idea. That fact alone was enough to make Tony feel sick.

Steeling himself, he slowly got out of the car for - hopefully - the last time that night and began making his way into the building.

Once he got inside he could hear shuffling coming from the upstairs so Tony quickly found the stairs and hoped that it was Peter and not some crack-head who manage to find Peter's suit and was planning on how to sell it for crack.

What Tony didn't take in account for, was the fact that this building looked to be abandoned for about ten years and no doubt would be falling apart. It wasn't until his foot fell through one of the steps that it actually crossed his mind.

The loud noise echoed throughout the whole building, making Tony cringe as footsteps rapidly came running towards him. All he could do was pray that it was Peter not actually someone on drugs.

Sure enough, the teen was soon standing at the top of the stairs, staring down at Tony in complete shock.

Tony took this opportunity to look Peter up and down, taking him all in and taking a mental log of his physical damage. Other than looking beyond ran down and exhausted it was clear that Peter had lost weight within the month.

His cheek bones looked a lot more prominent and his eyes looked sunken in. the kid also was filthy; Tony was barely able to pick out some scrapes and cuts Peter had through all of the dirt and grime. Which was another thing. The kid clearly wasn’t getting nearly enough nutrients if his super-healing wasn’t able to super-heal. 

“Hey, Kid.” Tony whispers when it became clear that no one was going to say anything. Peter just continued to stare at Tony in shock, his skin pale like he was looking at a ghost. 

"So, uh, I went to your school today - to look for you - and I ran into your friend Ted. He explained everything to me when I told him I hadn't heard from you in a while. Peter, I am so sorry. I wish I had known, I would have done something sooner." Tony continues. Peter just kept right on staring at him, which definitely got real uncomfortable real fast. Especially considering his foot was still stuck in the step.

"Do you think you could help me get my foot back so we can go somewhere and talk?" Tony asks, Peter blinking a couple of time before seemingly snapping back into his body.

Peter quickly ran down the steps, avoiding the ones that would assumingly break also, helping Tony free his foot out of the one it was trapped in. Once Tony was finally able to move freely, he didn't hesitate to pull the teen into his arms.

He couldn't help but cringe at how bony the kid was now, and how freezing his skin was to the touch. It was getting a little too close to the beginning of winter for the kid to only be wearing only a short sleeve, and with Peter's thermoregulation issues, Tony's just thanking whatever deity out there that kept his boy alive until he was able to find him.

"Come on, Kid. We can talk in the car where we can blast the heat and get you warmed up." Tony says, rubbing his hand up and down Peter's arm before releasing him.

"Do you have stuff you need to grab?" Tony asks, getting a nod in response. "Alright, you go and get everything all gathered and come meet me out in the car." Tony tells him, leaving him to do so.

Tony allowed himself promptly two seconds once he got back in the car to freak out and process everything. He didn't quite know where to go from here, but he knew that he couldn't bring himself to send the kid back on his way. Every instinct inside him was screaming to take Peter home and let him live there.

Tony quickly pulled it back together again when the passenger side door opened, placing a small smile on his face as the teen climbed in the car. The smile slowly slipped off when he realized that Peter only had a tiny backpack and that all of his belongings managed to fit.

Deep silence filled the car, both of them trying to figure out where to go from here. Peter - thankfully because Tony still didn't have all of his thoughts together - was the first to speak up.

"How did you find me?" Peter asks, his voice sounding a bit worse for wear.

"I had FRIDAY track Karen's location. Even if you're not in the suit FRIDAY can get in contact with your A.I." Tony explains, allowing another short silence fall on them before speaking again. "Pete, why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you."

"Because if you had found out, you would have called my social worker and she would have sent me back to the foster home and - I can't! I can't go back there, I just can't." Peter tells him, his tone getting a bit hysterical at the end.

"Why can't you go back there? What happened?" Tony questions, already feeling sick at whatever the answer could be.

"The man that ran the house - Steven Wescott - He touches the kids there." Peter whispers, refusing to look up at Tony.

"Did he touch you?" Tony lowly asks, bile and rage rising up his throat at the mere thought of someone doing that to Peter.

"No. He tried, but I fought him off and ran before he could do anything." Peter quietly says, still looking down at his hands.

Tony just nodded his head, allowing himself to take everything in and figure out the game plan from here.

"Okay, so here's what I would like to do; you can accept or deny afterwards, just hear me out right now. We're going to go to my place, we're going to get some nice food in you, get you a nice hot shower, and then we're going to call your social worker-" Tony begins to list out, hold a hand up when Peter began to protest.

"Just hear me out for a second. We're going to tell her about this Wescott guy, report everything he's doing and make sure all of those kids there get put into different homes and that he'll never be able to foster anyone again. Then I'm going to talk to her and see what needs to be done in order to get you to stay with me." Tony finishes.

Peter just blinked at Tony for a bit before what he said actually clicked. "You want to adopt me?"

"Well, if it's okay with you and if your social worker says that adoption is on the table. If not I could become like a temporary guardian, or a foster parent, or something else that allows me to-" Tony rambles before getting cut off by Peter slamming his body into Tony's.

Once the shock wore off and he could breathe again, Tony wrapped his arms around Peter also, hugging the kid tight to him when he felt the teen's shoulders begin to shake.

They sat there for a while, just simply holding each other. Tony held Peter close to him, allowing the teen to get all of his pent up emotions out.

"Can I please stay with you?" Peter cries, taking stuttering breaths afterwards to try and stop the flow of tears.

"Of course you can, Buddy. Of course you can." Tony comforts, rubbing Peter's back while he tries to regain his composure.

"Why don't we go pick something up to eat and then go home." Tony offers once Peter pulls away. The teen gave a nod accompanied by a shaky smile. Tony gave a small smile in return, wiping away the tears under Peter's eyes with his thumb before giving the boy's hair a ruffle.

"Thank you, Mister Stark." Peter whispers as Tony turns the key in the ignition.

"Of course, Underoos. We'll figure everything out, it'll be okay." Tony reassures, pulling away from the warehouse.

"Now, lets go home."