#the hex-files

[rockingrobin69]

Winner

Beyond the farmhouse the fields lasted forever, stretching goldeny-crisp in the morning air. The sound of cows in the distance, the gentle gurgle of the stream, but—

“No chicken,” the man in the red cowboy hat said. “Noticed? Not roosters, no clacking, no nothing. Usually at this time there’d be a racket.”

Some clacking: just Malfoy’s boots, with the sharp, pointy edges that Harry couldn’t help but stare at indefinitely. Coming out of the barn, and the gleam of his hair in the morning light made something clench in Harry’s belly, too tight.

“All there,” Malfoy said and came closer. The crease between his eyebrows was familiar: the look of a puzzle. Harry lived for the mystery: Malfoy lived for this. The answers. He was sort of perfect, as a partner, at least.

“See? Just as I said. Chickens all there, roosters all in their place, but nothing. Like someone’s come and zipped their little beaks shut.”

Malfoy jotted something down in his notepad. “You say it began three days ago?”

“At sunrise. Everything suddenly went quiet. Thought, something this weird, I gotta tell my Marge, and then she called you folks.”

“Has anything like this ever happened before?” Harry asked. “We got reports from the neighbouring farms about something they call ‘the alligator’. Ever heard of it?”

Cowboy-hat went still. “Alligator, you say,” with an exaggerated tilt to his frown he definitely didn’t have before, “no, don’t think I have.”

“Hmm,” Malfoy tapped the notepad with his pen. “Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Griffin. If you remember anything else, please let us know.”

He nodded, chewed his bottom lip, opened his mouth, then closed it. Walked away to his truck, to the sound of a tractor in the next field and, still, no chickens.

“He knows something,” Harry said.

“Obviously.” Malfoy was already collecting his things in that little bag he always insisted on carrying. He looked so strange in those boots, in that shirt, so oddly different and blaringly himself and annoyingly, overwhelmingly handsome. It was too early in the morning, and Harry was losing his mind. Malfoy being a condescending arse shouldn’t make him feel like that.

“Obvious? What’s so obvious about this?”

The tip of Malfoy’s mouth tugged upwards. “You mean you didn’t notice the secret hatch in the barn?”

Oh, he forgot how absolutely brilliant Malfoy could be. Fighting his own grin: “Of course I noticed it.”

“And you noticed, I presume, the carving in the chicken coop that is probably the password to unlock it.”

“Naturally.”

“A bit tacky, if you asked me, but then of course I don’t farm chicken, so. ‘Winner winner, chicken dinner’ it is.”

Harry shrugged. “Got a charm to it. So, do we try it right now, or…”

“Potter,” Malfoy laughed, a hand out to stop Harry, already on his way back to the barn, “I was joking. There is no carving. Although I do think there should be a way to crack the hatch open, in the right time. Sunrise or sunset, I reckon. Sorry, I just—you’re too easy.”

The problem was that Harry really was. Too easy for him, too charmed and too out of it in the heat of Texan summer, too early in the morning. “You’re an arse.”

“Astute observation, Special Agent Potter. Now, we have some hours to kill before out next chance at the spells. How about we take a drive to the river, see if we can dig up anything more about that ‘alligator’ from the fishermen?”

“Sure thing, Dr. Malfoy. If you wear the hat again.”

He frowned. “It really doesn’t match the shape of my face.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your face,” Harry growled, somehow not for the first time since joining the Hex-files. “Come on, let’s go. The river’s not a bad idea, but you still owe me breakfast.”

“Anything for you, Potter.” With that tiny almost-smile that drove Harry mad.

*

“I’m just saying,” Harry started, arms waving—

“Say it, then, don’t spray it!” Malfoy dabbed his face with a napkin. The movement so gentle, so prim, it dragged a reluctant smile out of Harry; made for something inside him go warm. Distracting. “Honestly, Potter. Don’t pout. One must insist on at least some table manners.”

Harry flipped him off with a chip. “All I’m saying is, it’s connected. The fish disappearing, the alligator, the chicken going silent—there’s something that connects them all.”

“The chicken curse,” Malfoy said with a delicately-arched eyebrow.

“Something of the sort.”

“You don’t truly believe it, do you?” without the mocking Harry still half-expected. “The chicken conspiracy those farmers were talking about.”

Harry took his time with the plastic cup of soda. Let the last couple of days untangle in his head, collected the bits and pieces of information. “I think I might,” he said carefully. Malfoy nodded, and laid down a couple of napkins on the table.

“All right. Show me.”

He’d do that sometimes: when Harry built theories upon theories in his head, make him stop and lay it out. Then say something that would shake Harry’s world to the core, like you’re a bloody genius, Potter or it’s amazing how you can do that, all delivered in a neutral, level tone.

So Harry pulled out his wand and threw a covert Notice-Me-Not. Drew it all out: from the fish in the river to the wheat in the fields to the ever elusive ‘alligator’ whom, he suspected, wasn’t so much a wild animal at all. Malfoy took it in with his calculating look, and tipped his head slightly in the way that meant he was interested.

“All right,” when Harry was finished, “if alligator is code, what do you think it stands for?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he confessed, heart hammering in his chest. This was the moment when his old partner would laugh at him, or his boss start shouting, or his friends would roll their eyes.

Malfoy said: “Okay. Where do you want to start?”

And Harry thought, I love you. Swallowed it, distilled into something he could use, the way he’s been doing for weeks now, for months.

“I think we should go back to Mr. Griffin. Got this feeling we’ll find what we need there.”

“Your feelings are usually right,” Malfoy shrugged, and got up. “Shall we? Sunset’s in about twenty minutes. Give it another try.”

I love you, Harry thought again, nonsensically.

*

It turned out the hatch opened to a wardrobe, and in it were—

“Alligator costumes,” Malfoy, with his eyebrow, with his eyes only slightly round in surprise. “Part Animagi, I assume?”

Mr. Griffin shrugged. “How did you know it was me?”

“Special Agent Potter figured out your schedule had to do with the fish disappearing.”

“I didn’t mean to scare the chickens,” Mr. Griffin said sadly. “Do you think they’ll ever forgive me?”

“Probably,” Malfoy again, more gently than Harry thought he was capable. “Let’s go inside and think of a way to reverse this. Suppose no one was actually hurt. No harm, no fowl.”

Harry grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Malfoy,” a little choked with it, “want to have food tonight? With me. I mean, a meal. I mean, a date. I mean—”

“Yes,” Malfoy’s lip did that thing, this almost-smile that was the dearest thing in Harry’s heart. “Yes, Potter, I’ll go on a date with you.” After a moment: “But I’m not wearing the hat.”

“I think you look very charming in it.”

The tiniest of blushes. “Wherever you take me, they’d better not serve chicken.”

I love you, Harry thought. Grinned with his whole face, and raced Malfoy back to the ranch, where Mr. Griffin was going to undo the curse.

Another mystery solved. And something bigger, too, he thought: something much brighter.

For my dear @short666bread​ who gave me the coolest prompt from this list. Hey, you could do it too! 

[just-ornstein]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE BEAKER CASTLE EVEN - A SimPE Deep Dive

Alright, so after stumbling upon some of the Beta pics on the Russian TheSims.cc site and this analysis post about the Beaker mansion, I became deeply curious if some of this would be reflected in the lot relationships. After all, some characters like Viola, Kelly, on top of several others could be found when digging through the raw and somewhat encrypted code of lots.

By now it's pretty clear that the Beaker home once belonged to this dude and his army of girlfriends (definitely check out the post I mentioned earlier). On top of that Loki (and possibly Circe) seems to have gone through at least two iterations before eventually settling on their final forms.

And on top of that whenever you scan the mansion in a completely new game, you will find fingerprints of primarily deceased Sims everywhere!

Now to get to the Sim relationships on the lot...

712 freaking Sim Relationships, all of which are unknown. Some of which still have stats set such as married, friends, relationship scores, etc. I tried comparing this to other lots in their neighborhood and NONE even come close. Both Olive and the Smiths have around 400. The other lots have below. And the only lots that are even a tad higher in this number are the Capps and the Summerdreams which makes sense when you realise that hood went through at least one other iteration before turning into Veronaville.

Now I wondered if the encrypted code (despite being very hard to read due to being partially encrypted) had any old Sim remnants left in there. And yep, several even. Many of which even have information such as their gender, hair, clothes and age in there. So lemme go over some of them:

1. First one, a guy who's name is partially encrypted so it will never fully be visible. It's not Johnny cause Johnny also has his character file on this lot.

A male teen with brown hair who used to wear the "tmbodyhoodedsweatshirtboardshorts" + the "tmhairhatcap" hairstyle.

2. Second is another teen, this time by the name of Zeeshan. He had black hair, the bucket hat hairstyle and wore the hooded sweatshirt, except with pants this time around (and grey apparently?).

3. The third was an adult male Sim by the name of Kenneth with black hair. Based on his info he was likely meant to be a Gardener Sim.

4. The fourth was one named Kana... Possibly a longer name cause once again the code becomes a bit shambled here. She too was meant to be a Gardener as seen by her outfit and hair data. Her hair would have been brown.

5. Elle, another female Gardener Sim, this one having red hair.

6. Vasyl, an adult male Sim who wore the busdriver outfit. Sadly his hair data seems to be blocked behind the code. For funsies I like to give the name to Bald Beta Loki, since he gives off that vibe. BUT, I think this was an NPC busdriver due to the outfit.

7. Joanne, an adult female Sim with an unknown hair colour in corn rows style and the classy afbodyjacketturtlesweaterdressboots. Sadly her ID is hidden behind the encrypted code, so it's hard to fully make out.

All of these Sims appear to be NPC/Townie Sims. None of them match ANYONE in the Beta pictures. And the current Townies/NPCs seem to have replaced them. Interestingly enough, those that were NPCs are still NPCs and those that were Townies are still Townies. Making me wonder if this is a thing that translates to other Sim IDs too. That Sims that were Townies in earlier iterations are still Townies in their new form. Same for NPCs and yep, Playables. This is merely an assumption I'm making on what I'm finding here, but if anyone can help research this further, that would be greatly appreciated, especially as this could mean the Viola ID may not belong to Viola Monty.

Viola is an odd case cause no outfit, hair or other data can be found in the lot file and she's only ever mentioned once in the context of lines filled with "sleep in pyjamas". But for now I cannot say anything with certainty unless more remnants of these old Sims could be found somewhere. OR, if these files could be read in its entirety which is quite difficult.

It's very hard to get a Sim ID attached to a lot (believe me I tried) and often times seems to rather happen accidentally than intentionally. Moving a Sim out or having a Sim die usually removes the data they once held to that lot. Good example is Loki in my current Strangetown who lived on this lot all of his life and when he died he had no remnants left on this lot.

REGARDLESS! The Beaker lot is ancient and seems to have been ground for a ton of testing, Sims and many more things. No wonder the Beakers got this home with its incredibly shady history. Half of the beta town was partying here!

[kat-rose-griffith]

Now that Watcher is doing mystery files I hope they get a mystery files van and call it the file cabinet or something and a dog and name the dog “spooky” because that’s technically not copyright

[craftykit]

I did more animal jam paintings. If I get membership I will be printing these as masterpieces to sell, most likely

[thehexapothecary]

Our bestseller from Sydnova! Smells just like fresh buttered popcorn, perfect emotional support for hunting ghosts. Topped with luxury popcorn embeds and a touch of gold bioglitter.

Soon to be restocked on our Etsy.

[myreyisbae]

I think that TV shows that only have 1/2 seasons get too much hate some people even think that "it isn't worth investing time in watching stories that aren't finished" well anyway here are some shows with 1/2 seasons that i liked (yes they are older shows (from the early 2000's)

*Moonlight (2007)

1 Season 16 Episodes

*Pushing Daisies (2007)

2 Seasons 22 Episodes

*The Dresden Files (2007)

1 season 12 Episodes

*Birds of Prey (2002)

1 season 13 Episodes

Here are more shows with 1/2 seasons these ones I haven't watched yet but would like to

Blood Ties (2007)

2 seasons 22 Episodes

Valentine (2008)

1 season 8 Episodes

Demons (2009)

1 season 6 Episodes

*Hex (2004)

2 seasons 19 Episodes

[spookierdeer]

closest i'm getting to halloween art this year

[solradguy]

Every time I come into possession of more money than I typically have on average (holidays, birthdays) the devil tempts me to buy a 3D printer and start on that 1:1 scale Outrage MK.II model

[helsex-moved]

I have decided that in Hels they enchant their horses’ horseshoes with soul speed so that they can go nyooom in soul sand valleys (Ex is not a fan, horses are scary enough at normal speed, thank you very much)

Credit to @/fantarain for making me think about exhels on horses btw

(Reblogs > likes - this took me ten hours!!)

[sovonight]

24 hrs later the custom character mod finally runs!

but of course i need custom textures and to attempt to edit the anims so i’m extracting the game and just downloaded a hex editor

[coinandcandle]

Cursing in public tips:

-(don't smoke but if you do) extinguish a cigarette w focus mediating on a sigil, or specific intent. Drawing it in ash if you can

-biting the inside of your lip while silenting delivering your intent via thoughts

- a broom closet friendly sort of "pray breads" necklace you can hold close to heart to mediate with or call upon your deity

-learn local plants around you, you'd be surprised how many have them have protective or "bitey" aspects

- throw a rock (with intent)

-leave an offering for tree/lake/local spirits (they will have witnessed what they have done. Water spirits, especially are strong a one-off curse

-spit! (with intent)

Love all of this, especially the throwing a rock on lmao. I can imagine myself putting all of my anger or feelings of injustice into a rock and just chucking it (safely). It would also be cathartic if nothing else

Only thing I'll add is to make sure that whatever offering you leave is environmentally friendly! And try not to leave food out in nature (aside from birdseed and whatnot) otherwise it may mess with the wildlife.

Happy cursing! <:

[antirepurp]

nooo fuckk the tool i need for physics editing doesn't have a free version only a Free Trial(TM) im going to eat Mulch

[the-hexfiles]

Part of me wants to write fan fics, part of me thinks there's no point because my fics aren't that popular/well liked.

Should I give a new character a go? New fandom? I like writing SW Clones but maybe I should swing something different?

Let it go and just reblog fics that I like to support other artists?

Heeellppp.

[hexavexen]

hex im curious how fast can you swing your sword like swings per second ?

Yes.

[0x4468c7a6a728]

ok yeah this is really fun to mess with

[thehexapothecary]

Our bestseller from Sydnova! Pina Colada scented, this candle is still more drinkable than most of Steven's cocktails. Split yellow and white wax resembles an actual Pina Colada, topped with a sprinkle of coconut bioglitter.

Soon to be restocked on our Etsy.