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starry-crossing-zone · 6 months

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Nail Polish - Hunter (TBB)

Summary: After Omega shows an interest in some nail polish, you steal some for her. Hunter pretends to be annoyed. Length: 1816 words Warnings: Female Reader; Former Bounty Hunter Reader; No Physical Description of Reader; No Y/N Used; Pickpocketing; Mentions of Dark Pasts (Reader)

Walking through the busy streets of a Mid Rim planet, you kept a close eye on Omega as you made your way back to the Marauder. The Bad Batch had split up to gather supplies and you and Omega had been sent to get a new water purification filter, which was securely strapped to your chest.

“Come on, Meg, this way,” you directed, resting a hand on Omega’s shoulder.

“Wait, what’s that?” Omega asked, pointing at a stand to the side.

You glanced over before slowly leading Omega over to the small stand. A group of merchants greeted you as you approached, and you quickly sized them up. Glancing down at what Omega was curiously examining, you bent down to Omega’s height.

“That’s nail polish.”

“What’s its purpose?” Omega questioned, turning to you.

“You paint your fingernails or your toenails with it. It’s pretty to look at,” you explained to her.

“Is it permanent?”

“No, just temporary. It’ll last longer if you add more layers of it,” you continued, glancing over the various colors at the stall.

“And can you only pick one color?”

“No. You can pick as many as you want. In the Inner Rim, there’re artists that spend their whole day painting people’s nails.”

“Really?” Omega gasped, causing you to nod.

“Where are you two from?” the vender asked, eyeing the two of you.

“Outer Rim. Just passing through,” you replied, shrugging your shoulders nonchalantly. You stared down at Omega, who was still curiously studying the vials of nail polish. You paused for a moment before nudging Omega in the side. “Come on, Meg. Let’s get going. The boys will worry if we’re late.”

“Alright,” Omega agreed, setting the vial of nail polish back.

Bidding the venders goodbye, Omega and you turned to head back to where the Marauder was docked. You waited until you were a few streets over before sliding two vials of nail polish out of the hidden compartment in your vambrace.

“I thought that you liked these colors the best,” you stated quietly.

Omega’s eyes widened in surprise when she spotted the two vials of nail polish in your hand. She quickly grabbed them, smiling giddily, before she quickly connected the dots. Turning back to you, Omega frowned.

“When did you pay for these?”

“That’s not for you to worry about, Meg,” you dismissed, pushing Omega forward to stay on schedule. Omega hissed your name, looking around nervously.

“We can’t do that," she insisted.

“Why not?”

“It’s illegal.”

“Well, I can think of quite a few other illegal things that we’ve done,” you replied evenly, leading Omega into the docking bay. “We’ll just add it to the list.”

“How did you do it?” Omega asked curiously.

“That’s far from the most impressive move that I can pull off,” you stated, shooting Omega a smirk. “Come on, Meg, give me more credit than that.”

“Can you show me?”

“I don’t think that Hunter would approve of that,” you mused. After a moment, you added, “We can start tomorrow.”

Omega grinned, but you shot her a look to keep a low profile. Omega stowed the nail polish into her pockets as the two of you walked towards the Marauder. Tech looked up from his datapad and perked up when he spotted the water filter.

“Ah, just what I was waiting for.”

“Sorry, got a little sidetracked,” you replied, tossing it over to Tech.

“What kind of sidetracked?” Hunter asked, stepping off of the ship. “Imperial trouble?”

“Just some window shopping,” you spoke evenly, folding your arms over your chest. “Don’t get your bandana all in a twist.”

“We now possess all of the items that we needed to acquire on this pitstop. We should depart shortly, if we want to return to Ord Mantell for a new mission,” Tech announced, causing the Bad Batch to make their way onto the Marauder.

You were about to take your seat in front of the computer when Omega gestured for you to follow her to the back of the ship. Smiling, you headed back, missing the way that Hunter turned in his seat to look back at you. He heard the clinking of glass earlier when Omega and you approached, but now he was certain that it was coming from the two of you.

“Can you show me?” Omega asked quietly, holding out the vials.

“Give me your hand,” you instructed, sitting across from Omega.

Opening the nail polish bottle, you gently grabbed Omega’s right hand and started to apply the dark gray nail polish. Omega watched, fascinated, as you worked to carefully paint her nails.

“Where did you learn how to do this?”

“I used to paint nails. When I was about your age,” you explained elusively.

“For who?”

“A lady.”

“Did she paint her nails like this too?” Omega asked, causing you to shake your head as you switched to Omega’s thumb.

“No, she preferred this weird green color. It looked horrible but apparently it complimented her eyes.”

“Can I paint yours next?” Omega questioned, causing you to look up.

“Course you can. Maybe if you ask nicely, you can paint the boys’ nails too,” you mused, dipping the brush back into the polish.

“They didn’t have nail polish on Kamino,” Omega continued, causing you to nod.

“I wouldn’t expect the Kaminoans to have much need for it. Do they even have fingernails?” you snorted, working on Omega’s left hand. “But a lot of species use this stuff. And there’s other types of polish or things that people put on their nails. But you have to be really rich to get those.”

“Like what?”

“Some people get gems and other valuables embedded into their nails,” you explained, causing Omega to frown.

“Why?”

“The same reason that why rich people do most things. Because they can,” you stated a bit blunter than you intended.

“Did you ever get your nails painted?” Omega asked, causing you to shake your head. “The lady whose nails you painted, she never painted yours?”

“No,” you replied, placing the brush back into the vial and screwing the bottle shut.

“Why not?”

“She wasn’t as nice as I am,” you responded, not meeting Omega’s confused gaze. “Now, keep your fingers apart and don’t touch anything. You have to let the paint dry first. It could take some time, but I didn’t put too thick of a layer on it.”

“And then what?” Omega asked, looking at her newly painted nails.

“Then we can put another layer on, or I can start with the red,” you explained kindly. “Your choice, Meg.”

“What did you do when you painted nails before?”

“I would put another layer of the gray first,” you stated, causing Omega to nod. “It could make the polish a little more durable.”

“What do we have here?” Hunter drawled, leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest. He noted the nail polish bottles on the floor and paint on Omega’s nails. And even if she hid them, he would have smelled it. “I didn’t realize that we had a salon back here.”

Hunter’s gaze drifted over to you, and you stared back at him with some measure of defiance, knowing that the edge in his tone was directed at you. But Omega got in between the two of you.

“Look at my nails, Hunter!” she called, causing Hunter to turn to her. He bent down to her height and reached out to grab one of her hands, but Omega quickly drew them towards her chest. “Careful! The polish is still drying!”

“I’ll be careful,” Hunter assured Omega before looking down at her nails. “Dark gray, huh?”

“To match your armor,” Omega explained, causing Hunter to nod. “We got red too. She said that she’s going to do designs on my nails once the layers dry.”

“Anything specific picked out?”

Omega turned to you with a questioning look, but you simply smiled and casually leaned back against your hands.

“It’s whatever you want, Meg. You get to pick,” you assured her.

After the top layers of the nail polish dried, you got to work on the red nail art that you promised Omega. You did a horizontal stripe to represent Hunter’s bandana, two adjacent dots to represent Tech’s goggles, an ‘H’ to represent Wreaker’s lula, and a ‘V’ to represent Echo’s kama. And then a '99' symbol too.

“They should be all set now,” you stated, causing Omega to smile and get to her feet.

You watched with an amused smile as Omega ran around and showed off her nails to every member of the Bad Batch. Wrecker seemed most excited for Omega, though the others offered her their praise in their own ways. And it wasn’t long before Omega was going around and painting all of their nails.

You walked over to where Hunter was sitting in front of the computer, watching as Echo offered Omega his hand. Wrecker was blowing on his nails, not wanting to disappoint Omega by ruining her hard work. You folded your arms over your chest, as Hunter had done earlier.

“You going to give me a lecture on pickpocketing again?” you asked him, not taking your eyes off of Omega.

“I’ll make an exception. This time,” Hunter replied, slowly turning to look at you. “I still don’t like it though.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” you stated, pushing off the computer table.

“Then why do you keep doing it?” Hunter asked, causing you to raise a playful eyebrow.

“Well, someone has to teach her how to have fun,” you responded, brushing past Hunter. He turned slowly in his chair, watching as you kneeled down beside Omega. You smiled at her work and offered some praise. “You’re getting the hang of it, Meg.”

“You think so? It’s still sloppy compared to yours,” Omega replied, glancing down at her own nails.

“With practice, comes perfection, as with everything else,” you assured her before standing up.

Walking past Hunter once again, you could feel his eyes on you, but kept walking. Hunter shook his head and turned around to find Wrecker staring at him with a grin. Nudging Hunter in the arm with his elbow, Wrecker let out a teasing laugh.

“Did you want her to do your nails, Hunter, huh?” he teased, causing Omega to pick her head up.

“She’s the best at it,” Omega vouched innocently.

“I’ll just wait for you, Omega,” Hunter replied awkwardly, sinking in his seat.

#the bad batch #tbb hunter #sergeant hunter #star wars tbb #bad batch #the bad batch x reader #hunter x reader #sergeant hunter x reader #tbb hunter x reader #the bad batch x you #tbb hunter x you #sergeant hunter x you

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simverses · 1 year

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Blowtorch!

Maxi's worlds emptied of era specific stuff – made for simmers who wants themed hoods of their choice.

So, you found T.O.O.L, the super useful mod by Twisted Mexi, and learned how to decorate your sim world.

But there is this problem with Maxis houses and items, which do NOT fit in your sim world. So far, the most used method has been to hide them, as in either move them away (if even possible) from sight or use a hider/override to make them invisible. That method has its limits, is very tedious (need to find, make an override, ect, and there are SO MANY items)

Blowtorch has another approach. It takes out the items (houses, vehicles, modern deco, well - all silly deco really) from the world. You can then place nicer deco or game items instead.

The items are not hidden from catalogue, so you can place the same items back but in a different place if you so wish. Or use cc deco. Make the world medieval, or Victorian, or sci-fi, or whatever.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

This mod edits the preloaded deco in the world. It changes game files – and the changes will affect all your saves, old and new. If you decide that you want the deco back, you can do it either with the GAME REPAIR function or using the backup of the original folders that I included in the mods folders.

You can either use all my edited files – or the ones you want. If you for example want Willow Creek to be as it always has, but want a blowtorched Oasis Springs, just delete the Willow Creek files before installation, and keep Oasis Springs.

I have blowtorched almost all the hoods in the worlds, both EP and GP: s (See list in Documentation PDF for exceptions.) If you don’t have all EP/GP I recommend to delete the ones you don’t have before installing.

(Save the zip with the mod somewhere safe so you can add new worlds when you add a new EP/GP with a world.)

Here are some general rules I went by:

- All landmarks, architecture deco, street deco, vehicles, with special effects - blowtorched

- Functional objects: outside tables, playground items, and such – blowtorched. Place them again where you want them!

- All lights, both streetlights and built in hood lights, blowtorched.

- All palm trees, ever pink trees, wispy modern beeches, and other modern plants, blowtorched. (I of course kept the palm trees in Sulani and Selvadorada)

- ALMOST ALL THESE THINGS (not the built in lights) are still available in the catalog (debug, live edit) items though. So, if you still want a modern, but DIFFERENT hood, you can place them again, as you want them. This is a big advantage compared to hiders – those usually hide the items also from the catalogue.

- Visual effects belonging to vehicles and other stuff mentioned above, blowtorched. No modern yachts, no airplanes.

- The lights are gone. The world will be dark at night if you don’t place streetlights or such.

WHAT I KEPT

I kept the seasons stalls, where they are available (if you have the Seasons EP.) They can also be placed, but as they are in conditional layers (changes with the seasons) this can't be done by placing them manually.

I kept all spawners. All the fishing spots and all the bugs, frogs, dig sites, wild growing plants.

Lighting mod included

This mod also includes the Sunblind lighting mod by Softerhaze. Lighting mods also change these files, so I added Sunblind with the creator's permission. Read more about their mod here.

(You do not need to download or install the mod; it is included in the Blowtorch mod.)

If you want another lighting mod or no lighting mod, you need to edit the files manually.

This is done by replacing the resources “Sky Box Texture Data” and “World Timeline Color”.

ECO LIFESTYLE NOTE!

Unfortunately, the Evergreen Harbor world that came with Eco Lifestyle (EP 9) has some special evil magic and the deco needs hiders anyway. If you play with that world and want it to be BLOWTORCHED, install the file ELHoodHidersMerged in your Mods folder.

Other recommended mods:

Check out T.O.O.L and Twisted Mexis other mods here: https://twistedmexi.com/Mods/

To add deco stuff outside lots:

T.O.O.L – at Tmexis page you also find information about his CAW-project, still in alpha testing.

I also recommend his Better Build/Buy mod, and his toggle mods, especially the Strangerville Story Toggle on if you want to use Strangerville as a normal world. And also his that enabled build/buy on the Secret Lab lot – in new saves.

Zerbu has a couple of super useful mods:

All Worlds are Residential https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/173398784785/the-sims-4-mod-all-worlds-are-residential

Venue changes https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/160347810775/the-sims-4-mod-venue-changes

Twelfth Doctor has a great mod for travelling to all the hidden/special lots, so you can edit them: https://td1sims.tumblr.com/post/635457539495084032/travel-to-venue

This mod is also useful if when you work with TOOL: Clickable worlds by Awingedlama

Q&A about Blowtorch mod

1. Can I use this on my old saves?

Answer: Yes. The mod does not affect the saves, or your CC, or anything other than the game files in the Windows directory. You can easily uninstall the mod by using the backup files (included) or do a Game Repair.

2. Why are there stuff not deleted? Annoying modern fences in Windenburg Ugly Modern Business district, for example?

Answer: some items are a part of the world mesh and is not yet possible to edit. If there will be a solution later, I will update the mod.

3. Will I have to update the mod after patches and new expansions?

Answer: Yes. If the patch/ep/GP does not include a new world, you just reinstall the mod (see instructions below) as you installed it the first time. I will make updated versions asap when new worlds are released.

4. I don’t have EP X or Y – can I use the Blowtorch mod?

Answer: Yes, but I recommend deleting the folders for EP/GP you don’t have. See list in the PDF-file with documentation.

5. Does this mod clash with Timeless mod? Answer: No, but it makes Timeless obsolete. Timeless hides stuff - Blowtorch removes the same stuff.

6. How about mods like Nandos Egypt (Strangerville) or The Sense Medieval's Medieval Windenburg? Answer: if you have a mod that changes one hood or one world, and want to keep them as they were, don't install the Blowtorch files for that world/hood. The Senses default replacements are not affected.

7. Should I keep my hiders of stuff used as hood deco? Answer: Better to take them out. This mod eliminates the need for hiders.

Even more detailed explanation here.

Where to find nice themes hood deco to use with Blowtorch?

You can basically use any item, from game or CC, to decorate hoods. Try out the options with T.O.O.L to change the size of objects!

I already posted some Hood Deco CC – and I have much more to come. I have been converting/editing/creating and preparing hood deco from Sims Medieval, Sims 2 and Sims 3 and other games – my CC is medieval/historical themed but I hope for other creators to add to the hood deco options in the future.

Due to filesize all the downloads can be found on Patreon (of course for free): Download Blowtorch (Patreon, always free)

There seemed to be some problems loading the Patreon page so I added a SFS-folder also with the same files. Download Blowtorch (SimFileShare)

#sims 4 #sims historical #sims 4 mods #sims 4 hiders

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evilbihan · 7 months

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Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father was not a good father

And now it's no longer a theory. Now I have proof.

The last thing I expected to get out of this very strange invasions mode season was confirmation for a theory I've had ever since I first finished the story mode. Despite other characters in the game claiming that the father of the Lin Kuei brothers was an honorable man, something about that never sat right with me, given how cruel that man was in all the previous timelines and how vastly different Bi-Han views his father compared to his brothers, Liu Kang or Sindel.

I made this discovery on the mesa of Shang Tsung's laboratory.

At the very beginning of the mesa when you come in through the portal and head to the right (your character's right) towards the two crates that are next to each other, there's a node featuring a fight against Scorpion.

That node, loosely translated from my language, is called "Daddy's favorite".

It might seem like a small and meaningless detail and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but if the name of that node is anything to go by and if it's a reference to MK1's canon lore (which it has to be, otherwise I don't see why it would be there) this adds a whole new layer to the tragedy of the falling out between Bi-Han and Kuai Liang and Bi-Han's decision to let his father die.

Was he neglected? Despite being the oldest son and the grandmaster's heir, Kuai Liang was the favorite son. He was his father's pride and joy, not Bi-Han. That explains Bi-Han's bitterness and his resentment towards his father as well as his eagerness to earn the respect of others. Because his own father didn't give that to him.

Sub-Zero: I helped you, but I've earned no respect. General Shao: Because there's nothing lower than a traitor.

Johnny Cage: I thought I had daddy issues. But you? Sub-Zero: My family is none of your business.

Would a good father have a "favorite son"? Should a good father not love his sons equally, without picking favorites?

Another small but noteworthy detail is one of Bi-Han's invasions mode encounters being named "Joyless initiate" (again, loosely translated because my game is in my native language, not English). You have to wonder what kind of life Bi-Han lived for the game to refer to him that way and how much of that is owed to his father's strictness or lack of care towards him since he wasn't the favorite son. It certainly implies Bi-Han faced hardships that the main story never really talked about or even mentioned.

It might not seem like much, but I'm sure some thought was put into making these nodes and the references and hints exist for a reason.

I'm aware that a lot of people think the father of the Lin Kuei brothers was a good guy, but as a reminder, in the original timeline, Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father was ruthless enough to kidnap the brothers from their mother, potentially even killing her and their younger sister in the process, and turned them both into assassins for the Lin Kuei. Of course, the reboot is set in a new timeline, but as I said in my previous post, all characters are still essentialy the same. Some backstories and allignments have changed, but not the character's personalities and even in this new era, the old grandmaster is no saint.

I think it's messed up that his response to the Lin Kuei killing Smoke's entire family and turning him into an orphan was to take Tomáš in and turn him into a warrior for the very clan that murdered his family.

Sure, some might view it as a noble gesture that he took responsibility for the mistake he made and decided to give Tomáš a home after he was orphaned, but if that man cared at all about Smoke's wellbeing, he could have found a better solution for the situation. He could have told Liu Kang about what happened and asked him to let Tomáš stay at the Wu Shi academy instead of turning him into an asset for the clan that killed his mother and sister.

While that's only a side note, it proves that Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father had a twisted idea of what it means to be a good parent if he thought that taking in the son of a family his own warriors murdered was the "honorable" thing to do without sparing a second thought to what that was going to do to Smoke mentally.

Anyway, this subtle hint is one of the few good things to come out of this invasions mode season and I'm glad I found it.

#bi han #bi han sub zero #mk bi han #mk sub zero #bi-han #kuai liang #mk scorpion #tomas vrbada #mk smoke #mk1 #mk1 2023 #mortal kombat 1

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transgenderteensurvivalguide · 6 months

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Hey I just got my first period and I'm so fucking dysphoric about it what do I do I'm so confused I feel like shit and my dysphoria is through the roof

Lee says:

I would start off by exploring your menstrual product options which can make it easier to cope with having your period.

Period underwear is probably the easiest product to use because you already know how to wear underwear so you don't have to worry about putting it on wrong. Period underwear has built-in absorbent layers and is reusable and discreet to wear, but some people might feel self-conscious about washing them at the end of the day if they aren't used to washing their own underwear and don't have a private bathroom, or they might have dysphoria about washing them. You will likely need more than one pair (at least 2 pairs) even if you wash them daily because they need to dry, so there's a bit of an up-front cost but then since they're reusable it can be cheaper than pads and tampons in the long run.

The step below period underwear in terms of usability is probably pads. They tend to be pretty easy to use and also don't require insertion into the body, but if you don't place them right sometimes blood can leak around the edges where the pad isn't. Another placement issue might come up if you wear some styles of men's underwear, like boxers, it can be hard to use pads unless you wear a different type of underwear underneath which can feel bulky. Similarly to period underwear, blood on pads might feel more noticeable than internal options, which might increase dysphoria for some. You will need to buy pads over and over, so even they aren't that expensive to buy, the cost of buying them can add up. If your family buys the pads for you or you can get them at school for free then that isn't a big of a deal, but it does matter for some people.

Some trans people swear by menstrual cups because they're reusable and cost-effective. Once inserted correctly, they can be worn for up to 12 hours depending on flow, and the feeling of the blood can be less noticeable than pads or period underwear since it's not coming out. It can also be useful if you like swimming or have swimming classes, and/or if you're in a situation where you're stealth and have access to a private bathroom to wash the menstrual cup but don't feel like you can hide a whole package of pads in your stuff. But it can be hard to find the right size/model sometimes, so it can require multiple different brands and sizes to get the one that works best for you. Some people find the feeling of wearing one uncomfortable, have a hard time with the insertion, worry it'll affect their IUD, etc.

Tampons and menstrual discs have similar pros and cons as menstrual cups, although tampons are not reusable and some menstrual discs are. In all three cases, the process of insertion can be dysphoria-inducing for some trans individuals, but you also have the benefits of not having to feel the blood. You will also have more security to avoid leaks since you could choose to wear a tampon/menstrual cup/menstrual disc and then also wear a pad or menstrual underwear as backup.

After you've figured out what products work for you, I'd switch gears to the long game which is trying to stop your period in a healthy way. If you're out as trans, talk to your guardians and doctors about trying puberty blockers or using birth control to stop your period.

If you're not out as trans, you can still try convincing your parents to take you to the doctor to discuss the use of birth control in stopping your period without mentioning gender dysphoria:

You could say you have a heavy flow and starting birth control will make it lighter

It can help with anemia because you aren’t losing any iron through your period blood if you don’t get your period

You could say your friend/s have done it and it helped them

To stop period related cramping and pain

You could say you have gross period side-effects (like diarrhea and more farting) for the week of your period

It can make your periods more regular (or make it so you can control when it happens so you’re not caught off guard)

Helps with PMSing so you don’t have to deal with any of that

It’s more convenient and you don’t have to remember to change your pad/tampon

If you’re disabled, it can help save spoons and effort and make your week easier

You may not be able to change your pads regularly if you’re disabled and that’s kinda unsanitary and the pads can break so stopping your period can help with that type of stress

Save money on pads/tampons

Save time having to use pads/tampons and keep visiting the bathroom during class

It can help with migraines if you get headaches or migraines near your period

It can help with PCOS, PMDD, and endometriosis if you have any of those conditions

It might lower your risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer (but increase your risk of breast cancer) so that's something to discuss with a doctor based on your family history and personal risk factor

If you swim, it’s better to not have your period (And it’s inconvenient for athletes in general)

It can help regulate your mood (especially if you’re mentally ill and find mood fluctuations around your period hard to handle)

Why have a period when you can not have one? Some people feel there are no positive things about having a period because they feel it is inconvenient/[insert personal adjectives]

It’s pretty safe and many people do it, and if your doctor prescribes it and monitors you then there’s not a big risk in it

How do I talk about birth control with my dad?

Here’s a NY Times article called “For the Teen Who No Longer Wants a Period”, I’d start the conversation by sending them that link then if they ask more, give them the excuses above!

Finally, there are coping strategies that you can explore to manage the feelings of dysphoria that you may experience when you have your period-- this post has more info on that.

Followers, any advice for anon?

#Lee says #menstruation #dysphoria #periods #trans #blood m

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tm87lord · 4 months

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it's been a month since i started streaming (and therefore just over a month since i started trying out pixel art) so i'm sharing my brb screen and a couple of the other short pixel animations i've made exclusively in regular procreate for my twitch channel!!!! also i truly just forgot to share these here sorry.........

i'd always planned on just streaming as myself instead of having a character to stream with, but since it felt way too awkward to draw myself in my usual art style for a pngtuber......i started trying out pixel art instead a little over a month ago (?)..........and now my entire overlay is pixel art.....

i was also incredibly worried that i wouldn't be very talkative and that just watching me stream my art progress would become boring for those who stopped by, so i decided to add some interactive features like gacha-type commands for viewers to play with

but i also wanted a fun way to advertise said commands while giving viewers the option to focus on something else visually

so, inspired by those subway surfer/minecraft parkour reddit videos (lol) i tapped into my old flipnote hatena days and added a TV of various animated "channels" and "ads" to my overlay that can be turned on with the command !tv

(i have since proven that i'm actually an S grade yapper but the tv is still a fun time for everyone)

all of my channels (like everything else on my stream) are an amalgamation of media i've loved in the past, my personality/likes, and things i've watched on tv growing up!!

and yes that's indeed a self-insert shoujo anime jotaro confession episode based on my animal crossing island ok it was serious business and very involved.....

also everything was made entirely in regular procreate on ipad on a small 134x102px canvas! i have a tendency to not use shortcuts and use my art programmes like a caveman would, so i actually did not realise that the animation assist feature existed until the final 2 animations whoops

which meant to check the frames per second i would be test-exporting all of my layers (that i onion-skinned by hand lol) as an animated gif just to check the animation progress!!! i have since started using the assist but we started off truly dabbling in some unga bunga art fellas

anyway, thanks for reading all this if you did hehe i just wanted to document some stream stuff on my blog since i've been using this thing since 2013 and plan to keep using it for much longer.....have a good day and feel free to stop by and say hi during streams :¬)

thank you for being here!

#original #pixel animation #pixel art #twitch #pngtuber

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sgiandubh · 11 months

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A tale of two brands

Sophie Mancini's Departures paper on S in NY started a flurry of comments even before the whole content was made available on blogs. That people - mostly in Mordor - jumped in to add their two booing cents on the matter, based on two or three Instagram Story screencaps only, is a testimony to Tumblr's community deep interest in S's slightest PR/sales move and the easiness with which people like *urv managed to push their own agenda, in the process, to her unsuspecting, bicep-loving crowd.

Many of these comments asked just one question, more or less kindly and more or less openly: who are you, Sam Roland Heughan? Some of them, more along my alley, took a different angle: who are you talking to, Sam Roland Heughan?

Let me count the US crowds: the Wall Street yuppie crowd? the old money, WASP Knickerbocker / Colony Club crowd? Tribeca's sophisticated, culture-ish snob crowd? the UN international crowd? the laid-back (-ish) brownstone Brooklyn crowd? the DC politico types? the Boston Brahmin crowd? the Silicon Valley Bitcoin crowd? the Florida Latino crowd? the Bible Belt crowd? the Deep South charmingly old-fashioned crowd? the yee-haw, witty and ambitious Texans? the gourmet, nature-loving Seattle crowd? I am sure I am missing some (it's been a while I haven't traveled to the States and I have to say I miss all 50 of them, plus and perhaps above all my beloved DC :), but you get the idea. And the problem, or rather its first layer.

The second question this very poorly written article prompted is: what are you talking about, Sam Roland Heughan? I mean, what destination are you trying to promote? Scotland, through your Scottish gin, which I truly believe is exceptional? The Big Apple, like a counterpart to Sting, you know - a Scotsman in New York? That's not very clear, since that superficial girl just whirled you to a couple Chinatown speakeasies, rat pitter-patter included (bye-bye, Knickerbocker crowd right there) and that's pretty much it. New Zealand, that you mention at length, Maori tattoo story re-hashed, just because the book comes out next Tuesday? Ha-wa-wee, perhaps in a belated attempt to mitigate Tunagate? California, even, because it takes you back to humble beginnings? Granted, the Frisco one, not LA: that would be a horrible faux-pas, in a NY centered paper, much like me whimsically and idiotically mentioning Istanbul (instead of Constantinople), in a conversation with my Greek friends.

My head spins. And then let's add to that a ladle of recycled talking points, yours and C's altogether, like this gem:

Aspirational. Mmmhm. She said that. You said that. Multiple times, in multiple contexts that probably didn't even call for it. This is *** PR right there. I am not JAMMF. I am not Claire. But we aspire to that. Stop thinking we are these characters. No sane fan ever did: the insistence is unnecessary and has a real backfire potential. Stop thinking, period. But let it be my shipper sin, then, not to believe an iota of it and stubbornly think you people are, by now, way past the aspirational stage.

So, I took a long walk down memory lane today, while driving, trying to understand what the hell your personal brand is. Once upon a time, things were clear: you and C were a single brand. S&C - the fresh-faced, candid, witty and funny and oh, so in love new kids on the block. The spark was real and it was strong (it still is, only dampened and muted by PR-prompted shenanigans) and OL's audience was under its spell. People loved you, both of you, and some of us still do. You showed us as much as you could and for a while, it seemed to be convenient for just about everybody. That created expectations, but at the same time, you could have sold us land concessions on the Moon and we would have bought them, no questions asked.

And then, things happened. We know what: IFH, EFH, Remarkable Week-end. The spell was broken for many, who left in droves. Fans turned into bashing other fans. The S&C brand was progressively compromised and along with it, your Barbour Ambassadorship (for different reasons). Let's stop a bit at this point, in fond remembrance: that was the perfect pitch, for the perfect kind of corporate brand, for the perfect niche, for the perfect guy. A guy who had a credible, authentic story to tell, with a really strong potential to attract people outside of OL's crowd. Image and message perfectly aligned. Best case scenario.

So, with ***'s and your own PR benediction, what once was your solid gold starting point was ridiculed, trampled, shot to shambles, in a (failed) attempt to be sent to complete oblivion. You then had to think of something and try to branch out of both the blessing and curse of it.

MPC suddenly became more important than just any other charity project, of which there were a few (Cahonas Scotland comes to mind, the blood cancer one, as well). Cue in Sam the Athlete, Sam the Healthy Living Evangelist. The project was turned into a lucrative business, with a strong charity side. People bought subscriptions, people changed their eating and lifestyle habits, people lost weight - but really, I shouldn't write 'people', but 'women'. This was a women-oriented endeavor. A problem, again, on the long term.

Ha-wa-wee 1 happened, to more scandal and shrieks (that, I believe, was the reason you lost the Barbour project, another gold opportunity squandered because ten Internet bitches knew better). Then we were told another avatar was born: Sam the Entrepreneur. With a genuine, carefully curated, labor of love first alcohol product that clearly used the discarded S&C brand: The Sassenach and believe what you want, but just buy it. Mommies obliged. Antis obliged. Shippers obliged. All wallets are created equal, as I (often) use to say. And then COVID-19 came, putting a very real, very dangerous logistic strain on it.

Yet, you still had to somehow mitigate delays and losses. The Sassenach went exotic, with that limited edition tequila that probably won't be remembered by many outside OL's fandom, and that is a pity and a shame. The reason it won't be remembered is that you almost did not promote it, spare one or two Tick-Tock and Instagram clips. Does that justify the investment, the trips to Mexico, the very expensive retainers and commissions your tequila friends took for their trouble? I very much doubt it. That was, until being proved completely wrong, a flop. It brought absolutely nothing in terms of personal branding, spare perhaps a new faction in this paranoid cesspool of a fandom: the Gay Crowd, fueled by the image of a Lonely Bandana Cowboy, instead of the intended Sophisticated Traveler and Connoisseur. Yes, people are stupid, like that. Your PR and Sales team, too - and this comes from a place of deep understanding and appreciation.

We are now talking gin and boy, am I glad we do! This is perhaps an opportunity. Finally, a more democratically price-tagged, carefully tailored (again) drawing card product. But who is selling it to me? The California Boat Party Host? In that case, I won't buy it, but never mind me: maybe the fun-loving California Millennials would (we know the Smuggling Mommies would do it, anyways). The Sophisticated Traveler and Connoisseur you tried to show us again in Mancini's abysmal Departures paper and who is invited to important events, in recognition of his efforts?

You can't have the two of them, Sam, whatever those incompetents told you. You're either a 43-years old midlife crisis-stricken and shirtless clown or an Old World Industrious Thespian, with a stature and a status to match. A real Entrepreneur, not a cartoon scuba diver/beach boy Influencer. Eye Candy vs. Brain Power: after all, you are a '3x NYT best selling author', aren't you? Your pick, not mine. Stop the Sri Mataji-style Hugging and Booze tours: it's nonsense and that geriatric crowd is nowhere near what you need to make your dream come true. Do some real soul searching and stop listening to clueless 28-year old journalists, who tell you tacky rings are fun: they aren't. They make you look like an ageing Atlantic City Sinatra wannabe:

Sam Roland Heughan: currently at crossroads, trying to not choose between two opposite personal brands. Tricky position and an even trickier context, with the strike still lingering on and the pressing need to find an after OL strategy.

I promised you a tale of two brands and I think you wonder, by now, what happened to C, the other half of the primary SC brand?

The answer is, I honestly believe, not much. She has no personal brand, so to speak. Until now, she is just an Enthusiastic Dilettante. Book Club - started, unfinished and with that, farewell to any fan engagement. Cinema production rights - bought and then silence. Botanical Gin - first batch released (?) with no promo, no interviews (mentioning it in a podcast does not count), no reviews. Then teasing, then crickets again: a bit late, now, for the end of year celebrations. And I have to say I miss her or the part of her I never witnessed in real time (is such a thing possible?). I miss that starry-eyed, funny and witty girl. That girl was somehow completely swallowed by an Acrid Matron, who thought it was intelligent to yell at an Internet nobody, on Christmas Day, 'I am not married to Sam!' (ok, you aren't, but you're still lying). And I honestly don't know which one is best (or worst, for that matter): try to build something and make mistakes and try again until you hopefully find your way, or say nothing, do nothing and of course, never be controversial.

Now I am really interested to see how is she going to promote her gin. But you know what, I am not holding my breath, for some reason.

#BoozeWars

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orgverse · 1 year

Text

space pirate!seonghwa for @sanjoongie please suffer with her, everyone! sorry if this sucks, i'm trying to get back in the writing grove.

you had joined the crew when they had found you running away from some galactic guards and saved you. you remember bumping into seonghwa, his eye boring into you deadly, but not as deadly as when he looked at the guards. you begged them to help you, not wanting to be arrested – you had no idea why they were chasing after you and you really didn't want to find out.

however, despite running into seonghwa, it was hongjoong who took pity on you and killed the guards before they harm you.

since they saved you, hongjoong decided that you were now in their debt. they made you a part of their crew and had you doing meaningless task on both the ship and when you docked at a new planet.

that's how your journey with the notorious space pirates, ateez, started; however, what you originally dreaded has now turned into something completely different.

which is how you regularly end up underneath one or more of said space pirates. some of them more than others, but all of them seeking your comfort in one way or another.

which is how you are currently spread out on the quartermaster's bed as the pink haired pirate pounds into you. you can feel the slight burn in your thighs as your legs were thrown over his shoulders, properly bending you in half. his cock filling you up so well that you couldn't help but let your eyes roll into the back of your head.

seonghwa's grunts fill the room up even when he shoves his face into your neck. he starts to press open mouth kisses over a certain area of your neck and you brace yourself for when he bites down into your flesh.

you still couldn't full understand why seonghwa did this. you remember yunho explaining one time that seonghwa's race likes to mark their territory and biting your lovers was just apart of that. but you won't lie, it was hot knowing that he was marking you as his. just like how he did it to the others.

"s-seonghwa," you moan out, hand running though his bright pink hair as he laps at the bite mark. you notice how his hips begin to stutter just a little bit and you can't help but clench around his cock.

seonghwa lets out another grunt at how you clench around him and he does a particularly hard and deep thrust that makes your toes curl.

"f-fuck!" you moan out as seonghwa moves his head to look at you. his usual sharp eyes, now full of lust as he thrust into you. he adjust the two of you a little bit, but his pace is still ruthless and deep. you can't help but arch your back at how fast you felt your climax approaching.

your eyes drifted away from seonghwa and over to the window in his cabin. the vast darkness of space engulfing everything in sight. the twinkling of the stars, planets, galaxies around you remind you that despite getting fucked good right now, you are still just drifting through nothingness.

seonghwa grabs your face and turns you to look at him. his eyes staring down at you harshly as if silently telling you not to look away from him.

"don't look anywhere else," he says, "nothing else is making you feel this good, but me," he adds and you have to bite back a smile and laugh at his words. you sometimes forget how jealous and possessive seonghwa can get, but its moments like this that remind you.

"s-seonghwa! please~" you moan out when he does another deep thrust, hitting your sweet spot nicely and making you begin to see stars.

"who's making you feel this good?"

"you are!" you tell him, feeling your climax beginning to approach quicker and quicker. "please, hwa, i-i'm close!"

"yeah?" he says with a smirk as he continues to thrust into you. you moan and nod in agreement, not wanting him to stop. "gonna cum around my cock?"

"yes– yes, i am, please," you ramble, your hands coming and running down his back before running back up and through his hair. its now that you finally notice the thin layer of sweat covering him and giving his body a glow that makes him look godly.

"i'm still amazed b-by how good this pussy is," he says leaning his forehead against yours. "who knew a sneaky brat like you could entrance me this much?"

you couldn't help but laugh this time, "captain knew," you teased making the quartermaster groan as you also clenched around him.

"fucking brat," he says before he's thrusting one more time and that's when your orgasm washes over you in a sudden wave. you can't help but gasp at the feeling, clinging onto seonghwa like he was your lifeline as you felt him painting your walls with his cum.

the two of you remain close to each other, you clinging onto him for several more minutes before he's finally peeling away from you. the quartermaster rolls onto next to you before he's pulling you on top of him to rest. you flinch when you feel his fingers playing with your used pussy, slowly pushing his cum back into you so that it doesn't escape.

when the overstimulation finally hits, you can't help but push his hand away. seonghwa lets out a small huff, but obeys your silent request to stop. however, you know he'll try again once your climaxed bliss has worn off.

"so... another round?"

"shut up, you're starting to sound like wooyoung."

#ateez smut #ateez x reader #ateez imagines #ateez seonghwa x reader #ateez seonghwa smut #seonghwa x reader #seonghwa smut

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pokeberry5 · 5 months

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do you have any tips for drawing dynamic poses? i always love the way you draw bodies!!

i know this has been said a million times but the way i draw bodies significantly improved after i started drawing more frequently from reference. if i cant find a reference for a pose on the internet, i'll just use myself or a friend. i spend an unfortunate amount of time just standing in front of my mirror looking at my own joints. pay attention to where your body curves!!

other than that though—honestly my anatomy/pose knowledge is a whack amalgamation of art tips i've accumulated over the years (i miss old school deviantart/tumblr style art tutorials). i also like to look at how artists i admire draw bodies—what details to they include, what anatomical short-hands etc

i think i'm still figuring out how to draw dynamic poses, but here are some cheats i've picked up (under the cut coz this got long again):

gonna use this stray!tim as a base

the easiest way for make up a pose is to start roughly with the head, collarbones, ribcage, and pelvis — you can build everything from there

here's a couple more of what i mean by the ribcage-pelvis deconstruction:

2. push your perspective a little!! imo things look more dynamic if you move your sight-line up or down—the horizontal orange line here. if you look at the panels above, the sight lines tend to be a little low, at around the character's torso or waist. i did the same below with stray!tim

to do this i usually try to get a sense of the space im working in by putting in some sloppy perspective grids

3. S curves!!! exaggerate the lines of the body. the body naturally has parallel horizontal lines—an easy way to get a body to look less rigid is to tilt those horizontal lines which in turn curves the vertical line of the body

this is what a mean by horizontal lines—usually i use the eyes, shoulders, and hips:

i'm gonna use caterina as a better example—usually you want the horizontal lines to sort of zigzag:

i've also picked up a couple visual tricks that don't exactly add dynamism to a pose? but they do give a static pose a little more oomph. a lot of this is done by visually highlighting one specific point of the body

for our purposes, i'm gonna make the focal point tim's face

motion blur! there are a couple ways to do this. i actually dont like working with traditional motion blur because you have to mess around with selections, so i usually fake motion blur using postional perspective blur:

2. gradient lighting—you can add a lot of depth this way. usually i like setting the gradient in the direction of the focal point, e.g. tim's face

below, i added a layer above the base drawing, used an airbrush to get this gradient, and then set the layer to color burn and lowered the opacity. you can also clip the lighting layer to the base drawing and set it to multiply

below, i did the opposite—instead of adding a gradient shadow, i added gradient light. i set the layer to add this time (instead of color burn) and then lowered the opacity again.

this kinda serves to desaturate the parts of the piece that are less important (ish i was kinda sloppy here), driving the eye to face—the most saturated. the motion blur does a similar thing, where the only thing "in focus" is tim's face

the gradient also sort of adds a directionality to the piece—it starts at the bottom right corner and goes up towards the upper left, causing your eye to follow that same path, which drags your gaze up tim's body

here's what it looks like when i combine 1 and 2:

3. chromatic aberration's been pretty popular recently. it does a similar thing as perspective blur but with more eyestrain (although i went with a really exaggerated version below just to show you what it does) but it looks cool!

bonus cryptid tim as a reward for getting to the end :-)

#red talks #sart #art tutorial #YeAH UH this got long lmaooo i was on the bus for a Sec plotting this out so #also i am neck deep in a reincarnation/regression manhwa stress hyperfixation so i havent had the brain space to draw #so you get this instead!#if anyone wants recs lemme know lol #thank you anon :)))

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uhcasual · 17 days

Text

drawing prog stuff

here's prog on the day in Yiling drawing! I like this kind of stuff so here anyone goes if ur interested. Most of these were taken on my phone of my pc's screen so apologies for that orz

(am not very well-practiced in coloring anything to say the least so was taking lots of pics to compare stuff along the way. Also severely out of practice when it comes to drawing in general, it's been years)

Used Paint Tool SAI for everything but the "post-processing", which I did in Photoshop.

Final pic

Original reference (very straight, time to homo-fi)

Sketch phase! Hair's a mess because I couldn't figure out where I wanted the strands to go, so just drew them everywhere to get an idea of it

Lineart phase! I'd call this rough lineart phase now but I actually thought this lineart was fine. Idk how to do lineart (and still don't)

Base colors done! Plus some shadows on WWX.

Highlights on hair for Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan, plus some shadows for A-Yuan.

Highlights and shadows for all complete! Didn't like how the highlights looked on WWX's hair so severely desaturated them. Later ended up regretting this because I just added different kinds of highlights.

At this point I messaged my friend and asked her if she thought A-Yuan looked like a demon child from a 1930's children's book, to which she responded with yes 😭 so time to redraw

Sketch phase of A-Yuan redraw!

Redraw finished! (Minus colored in eyebrows)

At this point I realized Wei Wuxian's hand didn't make any sense. Redraw time!

After around 5-8 different renditions this is what worked (finally). After this trial realized that I only know how to draw left hands so bought an articulated (right) hand mannequin model right after. Too many hours were spent on this.

Ice cream time! This is before the extra swirls. Gave it a happy face (was crying in the original line art).

Most of the other coloring was done utilizing the lineart but this, A-Yuan's face, and Wei Wuxian's hand were done freehand. Ngl I've never drawn food before so of everything in the pic am most glad that the ice cream finally ended up looking like ice cream even though it's just a dumb reference

Finally!! It's done!!! Friend pointed out that it looked empty without a background.

Background time!!!!

Day 2 of background time

Background good enough, I gave up. Was gonna add more layers and make it more realistic but attention span is short and wanted to do something else. Moved over to photoshop

All done! Added light and shadows to interact with the rest of the picture, and added some canvas effects to the background buildings and tree to fade them a bit. Lights and shadows done with overlay layers of various settings.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #wei wuxian #a yuan #wen yuan #mdzs fanart #art process #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation

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emberfrostlovesloki · 2 months

Text

Silver Linings [Hotch x Reader]

Photo credits: (@xin-bloomx) Center (@itsthegreenaesthetic) Right (@pennyspearl)

Prompt: During a girl's trip that seems to keep going wrong, the reader’s swimsuit falls apart in the pool and she has to ask the nice man in a suit - Aaron - for a helping hand. Sparks begin to fly when the reader pays Hotch back for his help that morning.

Pairing: Aaron x Non-BAU!Reader, fem!Reader. The reader uses she/her pronouns

Category: Fluff/comfort

Word Count: 7.7K

Content Warnings: Language, awkward situation, mention of drinking alcohol, break-ups/fighting [reader's friends]. Please let me know if I missed any.

A/N: Hi all! I hope you are all doing very well! This fic is based on a prompt from my July Prompt List (linked). A swimming suit mishap leaves Character A in an awkward position until Character B comes to the rescue. I had fun writing this and trying to make the silly situation seem realistic. My tone in this story is heavily based on the current book I’m reading, A Little Life, so it feels slightly different, that’s why. I did make up some friends for the reader, I hope you don’t mind too much. Please be kind to yourselves this week and do something you love, you are so special. If you enjoy this fic, likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated! Love Levi - ❤️

List with all stories

y/n = your name

y/l/n = your last name

y/s = your situation (i.e. living/job situation)

y/f/c = your favorite color

g/s = gold or silver (whichever matches your skin tone best)

Aaron woke up with goosebumps on his arms. He groaned slightly, rolled over, and shut off his alarm, disturbing what wasn’t an unpleasant dream. It hadn’t been anything extraordinary, but still, it was nice. Hotch placed a forearm over his eyes as the brightness of the room overwhelmed his senses. As he moved around beneath the covers, the slightly starchy sheets crinkled and made small sounds as the sheets adjusted to his shifting weight on the mattress.

He closed his eyes to add another layer of darkness apart from his arm, which was draped over his eyes. He closed the privacy curtains last night in his room along with the smaller, more decorative white sheer curtains in his hotel as he’d returned from the conference he was attending this weekend. Aaron observed that no matter what hotels he was booked for this kind of thing, two elements almost always remained consistent, the air conditioning was always frigid when he entered the room or woke, and no matter what he did to try and keep his room dark, in the morning, the sun managed to wake him. There were four more minutes of silence before his alarm rang again and he cursed Rossi slightly under his breath before turning off the alarm, swinging his feet over the side of the bed, and fully waking up.

He took another moment for his eyes to adjust to the light, as his vision cleared, he watched as the smaller white curtains billowed from the air coming out of the air conditioner housed under the window of his room. It was like unseen hands were playing with the fabric, tossing it back and forth. Hotch yawned once, stood, and made his way to the bathroom. He hadn’t overslept which was good. It would give him time to shower and do a proper shave, and if the traffic wasn’t bad, he’d be able to get some good coffee before heading to the first lecture of the day. He never had high praises for the coffee at the Quantico Field Office’s break room, but somehow the caffeine offered at the sad beige-looking conference center in the heart of D.C. was worse.

He could taste the bitter acidity of it on his tongue as he thought about it, so he moved to the sink and washed his face, then brushed his teeth. He relieved himself before turning on the hot water in the shower. As the water came to an acceptable degree, he stripped off the white t-shirt he often slept in, and his boxers, leaving them on a chair near the desk. He walked past the bathroom mirror, already fogging up not taking time to notice of his reflection. He wouldn’t do that until he had to. As he stepped into the shower and closed the glass door around him he felt the aching in his feet and joints. The Friday session had been grueling with lots of standing and walking around and then loads of boring conversations that dulled his brain to hell and back. He was expecting more of the same today and was already dreading it.

As he cleaned every inch of his body with his lightly scented body wash, his fingers lathered the soap, he ignored the feeling of softness on his stomach and upper legs. Instead, he focused on the muscles he could still feel. His daily wash was like a ritual in grounding. If he had the time or the belief in meditation he might try that, but he never had - even if his therapist had suggested it multiple times. Aaron let his mind wander to the annual Technologies and Crime convention that the Cyber Crimes Unit annually hosted. All of the higher ranking members of the FBI were required to attend, or at least a member of each team. Really, the event was more for the administrators who often stayed in their offices while everyone else went out on the field. Not that those positions and jobs weren’t important, but those agents did seem older and less familiar with technology than some of the younger agents.

Not that he considered himself young, but he at least knew how to convert a PDF into a Word document and how to attach a file to an email. The specific topics being covered this year were AI and fraud, cryptocurrencies, and possible attacks on the failing infrastructure system in the U.S. which had actually been interesting. He chose to attend the sessions that dealt with the legal side of these issues as he had possibly the smartest tech whiz on his team, Penelope Garcia, to cover their backs whenever any technology was concerned. For a moment, when he’d drawn the short straw with Rossi, he considered bribing Garcia to go in his place, but one, bribes weren’t technically legal, and two, Penelope was sure to start fights with the presenters about how they were incorrect about their codes or something, and he wanted to avoid that conversation with Strauss if he could. So, he sighed, packed his bags, and left that Thursday for D.C.

Aaron finished with his shave, moved back to the bedroom, and dressed. As he slipped on his shoes, he looked over the room. It was nice. It didn’t need to be, but it was. The hotel was some sort of upcycled, repurposed office building that had an open floor plan and industrial exposed architecture. He tried to think about what it must have been like working there before it had gone under. He cringed at the thought and quickly moved out of his room. He made sure to grab his suit jacket and car keys along with his badge. As he moved into the hallway and toward the elevator, he considered the hotels to be very much like hospitals. Bland, cold, hopefully clean. Spaces meant to comfort and emulate home but somehow had an uncanny-valley-esque effect on him. He was suddenly relieved that he was checking out early tomorrow morning. Excited to see Jack and pick him up from his mom’s house. Excited to see his team. There would be relief in the familiar. If this was a flaw of his, he didn’t hate it as much as he hated some of the other things about himself.

y/n lay flat on her back, letting the chlorine water of the pool, unnaturally blue, wash over her body. The heat of the morning sun wasn’t too hot, yet. She’d hoped the pool would be empty, but a few guys and girls were sitting on the edge, and even more kids with moms who looked tired or hung over. y/n didn’t blame them, she’d be wasted too right now if it there hadn’t been such a bad fight last night between her friends. She was glad then, to be the sober friend so she could stop anyone from doing more than emotional damage to each other. Her reputation as the ‘mom friend’ had seemed to stick past college. She didn’t mind really, she just wished there was one time when she could be fully carefree, maybe have someone looking out for her back instead of doing the same for others all the time. A splash of water from one of the kids cannonballing close to her hit y/n in the face. y/n stood up, adjusted the straps of her swimsuit that were a size too big for her, and waded to the deep end where the boisterous children hadn’t congregated yet.

y/n closed her eyes and kept one hand on her swim top. The last thing she wanted to do was flash some, and the shoddy construction of her swimsuit didn’t give her much confidence. As she looked up at the blue sky spackled with light grey clouds floating above her, she considered that the trip had been ill-conceived since the beginning and that she really should have seen this outcome in the cards. She had been farther out from her friend group and always had been. All five of them met at college and lived on the same floor in one of the oldest dorms on campus. They ended up taking a lot of the same classes and forming a pretty tight friend group.

Four years later, they’d all moved on to jobs or marriage or another degree. Personally y/n found herself in y/s. It wasn’t wholly bad. She made money and had a place to stay, but in terms of fulfillment and success, she felt like her life was a lot less than many of her friends; their relationships, jobs, and houses. Even the idea of it made her annoyed, not at them, but at herself. She hated pity, especially if she was the one being pitied. “Suck it up, Buttercup” was a phrase she stated a lot, but it seemed harder to do that now while her mind was more empty. Since college, it had been harder for them to all get together as they moved away and started their adult lives. They always texted in the group chat during Spring Break or Summer that they should get together again. Then there would be a slew of anecdotes from their time in uni, pictures from the beach or study abroad, laughter, and nostalgia for a time that seemed ephemeral now that they were older.

Finally the most active and the planner of the five friends actually made a plan and asked everyone to list good dates when they actually could see each other for a weekend. Just them girls, no husbands, boyfriends, or children allowed. It would just be them and fun in the sun. They’d all made it work because they knew if they didn’t have a meet-up soon, they’d never do it, and even if this was their last hurrah, at least they’d kept their word: ‘friends for life.’ y/n had to fight with her boss for a weekend off at her second job, but she’d accrued the time and had good relationships with her co-workers who said they’d cover her shift if their boss, a real stick in the mud - gave her trouble. Then there was the problem of the ticket prices. y/n didn’t make a lot, and a flight was out of the option. They’d all picked D.C. because it was the closest to all of them combined, and there was a lot to do there, sightseeing, decent food, and such, so y/n had gotten an Amtrack ticket. It took twice as long for her to get to the hotel, but it was twice as cheap, so she was happy even if she was tired.

Apart from planning problems, the first issue came up when the first girl had to drop out because her kid caught the flu. This woman, Kelly had drawn far away from everyone since her marriage. Only one of their friends, Grace, had gotten an invite to Kelly’s wedding. So it wasn’t a huge deal, even though that thought made y/n feel bad. y/n often wondered if Kelly was happy with her four children, her husband, and her big house out in the suburbs of Maryland. From her Facebook posts, it seemed like it, but it was hard to tell. Then Veronica’s luggage got lost at the airport, or the airport in Denver where she’d had a layover. After she finished complaining over the group's first drinks of the vacation, all four of them, y/n, Grace, Veronica, and Kira went into town and watched Veronica spend an exorbitant amount of money to replace her lost things. She brushed off her causal spending and y/n and Kira’s eyes grew wide at the check out. Veronica sheepishly looked at them and said, “Drinks and dinner on me tonight, gang.” Veronica knew she was much better off than her friends, thanks to her parents. No one in the group was mad about this. Veronica didn’t flaunt her money, or she hadn’t in college. Actually, she’d helped them all out a lot, including buying y/n’s textbooks sophomore year. y/n had promised to pay her back, and after months y/n had saved enough to do so. When y/n presented Veronica with the money, she declined it instantly and told y/n to spend it on something she wanted, or needed. After y/n had gotten back to her apartment, she cried. She wasn’t sure why, but she had.

The last issue, the big issue that had gotten y/n out of bed early to avoid her friends was a fight between Grace and Kira. It just wasn’t a fight, it was a friendship-ending fight. Of all five of them, Kira and Grace had remained the closest, mostly because they lived in the same town and in the same apartment. They still hung out like all of them used to. They had the same circle of friends and, surprisingly to everyone, the same boyfriend. There was no getting around it. It had started while Kira and Tom were taking a break. He’d slid into Graes DM’s trying to not look shady, acting like he wanted emotional support, but he ended up wanting more, and Grace had given it to him. Then, when Kira and Tom had patched things up, Grace promised herself she’d never do that again, but it turned out she, nor Tom had that much willpower, or decency to stop seeing each other on the sly. The truth came tumbling out of Grace’s mouth in a much less composed way. She’d begged and pleaded to all of them, to Veronica and y/n more than Kira for forgiveness, but everyone was too stunned to do anything for a while. Then Kira started sobbing profusely and then screaming, and that’s when y/n pushed Grace out of the room and toward her own which she was sharing with Veronica.

Not that Veronica couldn’t afford her own room, it was that y/n couldn’t and Veronica had taken pity on her. Again that work pity had popped up, and y/n shook it off. At least there was one person who y/n had little pity for, and that was Grace. It ended up being a long night as y/n sat with Grace and listened to her ramble once she’d stopped crying and moved to the bar in the lobby. After an hour, y/n got a text from Veronica asking to trade places and y/n agreed. Veronica was kind and generous, but not the best with comforting people in the face of big emotions, or any emotions, so y/n told her where she was, swung by their room to grab an unopened bottle of wine she’d bought at the store earlier, and made it to Kira’s room where she spent the next two hours listening and finally tucking her friend under the covers.

The fallout from the fight last night had effects that changed y/n’s anticipated vacation and catch-up, and greatly dampened her mood. The first was that Veronica had bought Grace an early flight home that morning which would leave in an hour and save them all some awkwardness. Veronica had also bought herself a ticket home as well. The richest of the group had justified her choice to leave early because she was sad about the situation and didn’t want to be sad before she went on her big summer vacation in Italy in two weeks. This had all been explained in the new group chat, sans Grace, in a load of bright messages that y/n had woken up to that morning. y/n realized this was probably for the best, but it still made her sad. She had hoped for it to be like the old days and it wasn’t. Nothing about growing up and finishing college and getting a job had been what she’d expected, so she didn’t know why she’d hoped for a change this time.

y/n blinked away the sleepiness in her eyes and sat up on Kira’s bed. Her friend was still asleep and y/n replied to Veronica’s texts saying she’d be at the pool, and to come and see her there before Veronica’s flight left which was shortly after Grace’s. y/n decided to not waste her time off. She’d planned for it and spent money on it, and wanted to have a good time even if it was by herself. y/n had also grabbed her backpack last night with her clothes and the color of her new swimsuit jumped out at her from the other clothes inside. With a smile, y/n grabbed the two pieces and put them on in the bathroom. y/n turned on the bright light and examined herself in the mirror. The swimwear was from SHIEN and not well made, but it looked good on her. It was y/f/c. There were g/s rings on the top and bottom. The two pieces of fabric were connected in the front with a ring and both sides also had rings with straps that connected at the back. The neck closure was just a traditional sting bikini-style top. The two halves of the bottom of the suit were also held together at the sides with rings. With the design of the suit, there was lots of exposed skin, but y/n was comfortable with that; it would allow her to get a nice tan which didn’t happen when she was at work all hours of the day. The rings weren’t real s/g, they were a cheap plastic knockoff. She left Kira a note with where she’d be and then grabbed a towel, her sunscreen flip-flops, and a tote bag with her essentials before heading out the door.

y/n was just fully relaxed after being splashed when her senses picked up something she didn’t want to hear. She lifted her head slightly further out of the water so she could hear and it confirmed that Veronica and Grace were walking in her direction. There was a clattering of suitcases on the ground and y/n quickly pressed herself to the side of the pool so that neither of them could see her, or more specifically, so Grace couldn’t see her. y/n did want to say goodbye to Veronica but not at the expense of having to see Grace. She knew that was selfish, but she and Kira were good friends, and y/n hadn’t fully processed what Grace’s betrayal had meant for them as a group yet. It would change the whole dynamic and she didn’t want to hear Grace apologize again, to grovel at her feet. She was angry with Grace and what she’d done. For now, she wanted to be justifiably angry. Plus, if Veronica was leaving early, she could stay hidden, both were forms of coping. y/n’s chest was pressed against the wall and the texture of the pool scratched her skin slightly. She listened as Grace talked to Veronica. She groaned for a while and Veronica reminded Grace that she expected to be paid back for the flight and highly recommended she stay below the radar for a few weeks before talking to y/n or Kira. Grace agreed and then the sound of someone walking away and pulling a suitcase behind them.

y/n held her breath, not that that was going to do anything, and let it out when Veronica said, “You’re safe y/n, you can come out of hiding now.” y/n let out a chuckle and pushed herself off the wall so she could see Victoria. She watched as her friend ditched her bags and moved to the gate separating the pool from the outside of the hotel and didn’t notice as the ring holding the front of her suit together cracked and the fabric on one side of the suit slowly started creeping down to the opening. Veronica moved to the side of the pool and knelt near y/n who was about to get out of the pool, but Veronica said, “You don’t have to get out y/n. You look like you’re having fun and you should enjoy it.” y/n looked up at her friend and could tell she was being serious. After all, y/n would get Veronica’s perfect travel outfit wet if she tried to hug her goodbye, so instead she asked, “Are you leaving now too?”

Veronica nodded and replied, “Yeah. You know how crazy flights are right now with all the cancellations and it’s going to be a long wait anyway, so I might as well get there early. It can’t hurt.” y/n nodded along even though it had been years since she’d flown. y/n was looking for something to say apart from bye, but couldn’t find the words. Veronica smiled and said, “I enjoyed catching up with you yesterday, y/n. I promise to come down and see you more often, okay?” y/n nodded suddenly feeling emotional. She blinked rapidly a few times before saying, “Please. I’d like that Ver. I’m sorry it ended like this.”

Veronica snorted and said, “You don’t need to apologize y/n. Grace does. Now, can you promise me something before I go and let you get back to the pool?” y/n nodded not sure what to expect. Ver took a breath and looked over at the street where her Uber would be to pick her up in a second before turning back and said, “Do something fun today. Go out, eat something good, drink something nice. You deserve it.” y/n felt herself soften and the tears recede. She and Ver were not much alike, but Veronica was a good person and could read her well. y/n finally replied, “I will. Promise. Now you’d better go, those four bags aren’t going to carry themselves to the Uber.” Veronica laughed loud and bright as she stood up and replied, “I bet if I paid them enough they would.” As she got to her bags and started pulling them toward the waiting car y/n shouted, “Oh get out of here, and have a safe flight!” Ver gave a final wave and then moved beyond where y/n could see.

y/n turned around to relax again, and this was when her swimsuit fully betrayed her. The other half of the front ring snapped and it fell into the water leaving her front fully open. If it hadn’t been for y/n covering her chest in embarrassment, she would have flashed everyone at the pool. As y/n gripped the thin fabric to her chest with one hand, she turned around with the other and grabbed onto the wall again. To add insult to injury, her left strap also fell apart, the thin stitching fraying with y/n’s small movements in the water. y/n let out a breath and firmly kept her hand in place as she rested her head on the hand that was holding her to the wall. She thunked her head softly against her arm a few times. Her suit falling apart felt like a metaphor for this trip and her adult life in general. The cheapness of her clothes was a reminder of her economic status that none of her other friends seemed to worry about, even if they should. After a moment of accepting the situation, y/n looked behind her shoulder to see the rest of the pool. For some reason it seemed like the number of people enjoying the water had increased, especially the children present even though she knew it wasn’t possible. No one apart from Veronica had come or gone from the space. y/n took a breath and considered her options. The most obvious would be to just get out of the pool, but now the kids were running around as their moms paid less attention to them.

The simple choice was to use both of her hands to heave her body from the pool to the side, but that would require both of her hands and would result in her top opening or coming off altogether, and with the kids around, she didn’t want to flash them, or anyone for that matter. The next option was to shimmy all the way around the pool with one hand, make it to the ladder in the shallow end, and climb out that way. However, the ladders were both near couples and she couldn’t bear the idea of having to make her way out of the water with the younger and attractive couples looking directly at her and realizing what was happening. Then there was the option of calling for help, either from one of the younger people closer to her age, or to one of the parents, but everyone suddenly seemed so involved: gossiping, sleeping, reading, scolding a child for running around. Although everyone seemed occupied, it also felt like everyone was also looking at her. Like they knew what was happening and having a little laugh about it at her expense.

y/n turned quickly back to the wall when one of the moms did look her way. y/n closed her eyes and knew she was making up the other people’s reactions. No one really cared about her and that was part of what made her so aware. Where was her mom friend when she needed one? y/n also knew she was tired; she’d hardly gotten any sleep last night and it was wearing her out. y/n wished she wasn’t so self-conscious. With those thoughts, she also tried to think of any other means of escaping her current situation that didn’t involve someone who was at the pool in that moment and she realized she could just wait for someone who seemed less judgy to come outside and she’d flag them down to help her. It’d be embarrassing as hell, but she’d likely never see them again, as she was leaving tomorrow.

This idea seemed great until it felt like hours before anyone else came outside. The first few people weren’t great candidates. They were either elderly or had kids, or were attached at the hip. y/n was beginning to give up hope and feel the skin of her fingers wrinkle from the water. She was also cold now, half from being in the shadow of the tall hotel, and half from the humiliation of being in such a position. Finally, someone came out of the building’s side entrance and toward the pool. The hotel was really nice, above her budget, and the pool area was buffeted by greenery and an interior courtyard that had a path leading to the parking out in the back. So unless a guest wanted to use the pool, sit in the courtyard, or take the scenic route to their car, there wasn’t much need for the path sitting a few feet from where y/n now clung to the wall shivering. But the man who walked out the door and was quickly getting closer seemed like an apt candidate to help. He looked older, but not too old, and he was moving at a leisurely pace. He was wearing a suit and held a briefcase which meant he was probably leaving to go somewhere important and would quickly forget this inconvenience ever happened to him.

Aaron took the long way out to his car. Through the lobby and then around by the courtyard and pool. The little courtyard was cute, enclosed by plants with a small fountain in the center of the space. There were benches around the space that would be nice to sit at and have a coffee and read for a while. Aaron assumed the space didn’t get used very often. Not many people came to hotels to just stay on the property. He stood there for a moment enjoying the quiet, the solitude he was sure he wouldn’t find at the conference. Beside the small trickle of water from the fountain, he could hear splashing from the pool. The water looked bright blue and he imagined himself spending a few hours there instead of the cold convention center.

Apart from his qualms about his older body, he would love it, and he could always wear a t-shirt over his trunks. After heaving a sigh, he checked his watch, and if was very much time for him to head out. He was already stalling, so he moved toward the pool. His mind was in another place when he heard someone calling, “Sir. Sir, could you…” Aaron’s head snapped toward the pool when he realized the small voice was calling him. It had to be him because he was the only one there and he was the only “Sir” around. He caught the eyes of a woman close to him. She was on the edge of the pool and he could just see her head and shoulders. As soon as their eyes met she suddenly turned her eyes away and flushed like she was embarrassed about something. Hotch blinked a few times trying to determine if he was the source of discomfort, or if it was something else.

He finally cleared his head and stepped forward and asked, “Yes. Sorry, can I help you?” The woman only seemed to be more flustered as she replied, “I’m sorry to bother you, but could you get my towel from the chair over there?” and then much more softly, “Sorry,” again. Aaron’s eyes flitted from her to the chair and back. It was an odd request. By all means it looked like the woman could just get out of the pool and get the towel herself. However, Aaron paused here. He never wanted to assume someone’s story even though that was a huge part of his job.

He reminded himself that he didn’t know this person’s background or medical history and that she might not be as able-bodied as he assumed. After all, she had seen embarrassed to ask for help and her avoiding his eyes was indicative of her discomfort about something. Hotch had decided to help y/n before he understood why she had asked for help. ‘Be a gentleman’ Aaron reminded himself. It was what Garcia always called him when he opened the door for her or got her a little treat. He didn’t feel like he deserved the title, but now was his chance to live up to the name. He stepped toward the gate as she said, “I’ve got you. I’ll be right there.”

There were other people at the pool, but Hotch didn’t pay attention to them. He moved to the chair the woman had gestured at and picked up the white towel that was warmed from sitting in the sun. He moved back toward y/n and as he got closer he realized what was happening. He noticed that only one of the straps on the woman’s suit was attached, and the style was clearly not meant to be asymmetrical. As he moved forward y/n with the towel, he averted his eyes to make sure he didn’t get a look at y/n’s chest which she was covering to the best of her ability. He knelt at the lip of the pool and asked, “Um, how would you like to do this?”

y/n flushed looking up at the man. He was attractive, more so now that she had a closer look at him and the sun wasn’t shining directly in her eyes. She wanted to nod her head at the stupidity of thinking the man was hot, but couldn’t avoid memorizing the shape of his face in the back of her mind. For a second she wished he was ugly, it would make her situation less awkward. y/n shook her head slightly to clear it before saying, “You can just drop it down. I’ll figure it out. Sorry to have bothered you.” Hotch bit the inside of his cheek and replied, “Don’t be sorry. Stuff happens.” Hotch felt bad just leaving like that and he continued, “I can hand this to you and I’ll turn around. And when you’re comfortable I can help you out if you like. That way you don’t have to cross the pool in a wet towel. No one else will have to know.” He said the last part softly like he understood what y/n was going through; deeper than just in that moment. y/n looked up at him and tried to avoid shaking with how cold she was. The man seemed so sincere that she nodded her head and pushed off the wall slightly as he handed her the towel in her free hand. True to his word the tall man turned away, giving y/n a nice look at his long legs. She stopped herself from leering and pulled the towel under the water getting it wet. She pulled it around her and wrapped it in the front so it would cover her chest. She let her hand that had been giving her privacy for a while rest and it ached with how hard she’d been pressing against her skin. When y/n was happy that the towel was secure to her body, she moved back to the wall and said, “I’m good now.”

Aaron turned around and knelt back down. y/n looked up at him and said, “You don’t have to do this. You’ll get your suit wet.” Hotch brushed off the woman’s concerns. He could sense the tiredness in her voice and he wouldn’t leave now until he knew she was okay. He did, however, slip off his suit jacket and tossed it onto an empty chair. Then he slipped off his shoes and socks. The warmth of the ground warmed the soles of Aaron’s feet as he crouched down again and said, “There. Now it’s not a problem. Can you give me your arms? I’ll pull you up.” y/n didn’t really think as she nodded and lifted her hands out of the water and into the strong grip of the stranger's hands. Aaron pulled back and up slightly, heaving the weight of the woman and now sopping fabric out of the pool. It wasn’t hard work, but y/n’s knees went a bit slack as she got back on dry land and Hotch quickly moved to hold her under her armpits.

It wasn’t until Aaron had more contact on y/n’s body that he realized she was shivering, but hiding it well. Without asking, Hotch carefully helped y/n to a seat next to the one he’d tossed his jacket on. y/n let him lead her and she watched as he moved toward the towel bin to get her a fresh, dry towel. He grabbed one from the bin and then moved back to y/n whose eyes were on the ground. She felt a bit disoriented but better now that she was sitting down. When Hotch was in front of her again he pulled the new towel’s edge in his hand and moved it to y/n’s chest. He half suggested, half commanded, “Why don’t you slip off the wet towel and I’ll tie this in the back?” y/n nodded listlessly and did as the man said, letting the cold towel fall into her lap. She placed her arms over the dry fabric and she watched as the man moved behind her to tuck the ends of the towel over itself to keep her modest.

Hotch moved back in front of y/n and rubbed her arms trying to get her grounded and her circulation going. y/n snapped back to herself when she realized that the man’s sleeves were wet, pressed to the arms and skin underneath. She looked up at him and in a clearer voice said, “Thank you so much. Really, I’m fine now.” Aaron stopped his hands midway up her arms and said, “Don’t mention it. You should maybe get inside. Drink something sweet to get your blood sugar up.” y/n nodded and said again, “Thanks so much, this is so embarrassing. Could I pay you back the kindness? If you’re going to be back tonight I’ll grab you a drink at the hotel bar. Or a better bar if you know one in town.” Aaron’s face broke out into a smile and he said, “I’d like that. How about we meet at the lobby at 8:00?” y/n smiled back, suddenly not so cold, and said, “That’s perfect for me.” Hotch stood and started moving to his car, knowing he was late now. As he rolled up his sleeves he said, “I’m Aaron Hotchner, by the way.” y/n waved sheepishly and said, “I’m y/n y/l/n. See you tonight, Aaron.” By the time her words were out of y/n’s mouth Aaron was almost out of sight, but they had a plan and it made y/n feel much better than she had this morning, something she’d have to think about all day.

Once Hotch got to his car he let himself relax. Yeah, he was going to be late to the convention, but he didn’t care. Others had been late yesterday so he drove toward the coffee shop, he felt lighter now. Better. Something to look forward to tonight. Being able to do something just for the fun of it, something that would be so easy for Morgan, Penelope, or Em was a nice change of pace. It would help him get through what he was sure to be a long day.

y/n also felt better. Mostly because she’d been seen by someone. It was a stranger, but a kind one. One that hadn’t begrudgingly helped her and then left instantly. No, Aaron had done more than he needed, and even though she felt like a teenager being set up on a blind date, she was excited for the evening. y/n went inside and grabbed a glass of juice from the cold juice bar, an amenity that hotels she normally stayed at didn’t have, before moving back to her empty room and falling into bed. An hour later she found that Kira had texted her and invited y/n up to her room where she went and described what had happened that morning. Kira seemed excited for y/n and even after y/n asked if she was sure it was fine that she left her friend for a few hours, Kira said, “y/n, you should go. Have some fun. God knows you deserve it after last night and this morning. Put on something pretty and get a drink, and just have a good time, okay?” y/n smiled in a way that showed the small wrinkles near her eyes and said, “Alright, I think I can do that. God you would have loved the way this guy looked this morning. Tall dark and handsome. It’s like I won the jackpot or something.” A few moments later Kira and y/n were in fits of laughter as her friend came up with a more and more outlandish way for y/n to get a picture of Aaron without him knowing about it.

y/n stood in the lobby at 7:55. She was wearing a nice outfit, but nothing overdone. She reminded herself that this wasn’t a date, multiple times, but had given her makeup a good attempt. Kira had helped her make sure it looked good. y/n was sure that this outfit wouldn’t fall apart on her. It was a skirt she’d had for ages and a shirt that flattered her. She paired it with some black tights and creepers, which she kept shuffling around in while she waited for Aaron. The ding of the elevator made y/n turn her head, and she smiled as Aaron walked out. He had changed from his business attire. Now he was in a pair of slacks and a dark polo shirt. The man kept looking better and better each time y/n saw him. She raised a hand and gave a small wave as he walked over to her. When Aaron got in front of her he said, “Hey, y/n. You’re looking well.” y/n was flustered by the compliment and replied, “Um, thank you. You’re looking well yourself. Those dark colors compliment you.” Hotch let out a little breath and watched as y/n eyed the bar skeptically. She looked back at him and asked, “So what’s the plan, Stan?” Aaron also looked over the crowded, overpriced hotel car and replied, “Well, there’s a place three blocks from here that has better and cheaper drinks than… that.” He eyed the bar, and from his periphery saw y/n relax. He wasn’t sure why she calmed, but did add, “That is if you’re comfortable walking with me.”

y/n took a second to think about what Aaron had said. Not that she was reckless, but she’d done dumb things in the hope of love before. Stupid really given she was a woman. That had been years ago, and she’d been single for so long it had become her norm. This had been helpful last night as her friends looked singleness in the face for the first time in years. It seemed that y/n’s old habits in dating hadn’t fully left her, and only Aaron mentioning that she’d be walking alone with him reminded her how stupid she had been. However, Aaron didn’t seem like the type of man who would harm her. He had helped her that morning and she slowly said, “No, I don’t mind. It will stop me from drinking too much probably which is a good thing. I fly out tomorrow morning, so no drunken foolishness for me.” Aaron smiled and said, “Alright then. We’ll get you back after one drink.” The pair moved outside into the cool air of summer. It was slightly humid and the walk was short. The bar was small and cozy. It was full of neon signs, and although y/n had offered to buy their drinks, Aaron picked up the tab anyway. He got a gin and tonic while he ordered y/n’s favorite drink. She asked for it to be a double as she was only having one.

They found a table in the corner and y/n and Hotch clinked glasses and each took a drink. There was an awkward pause as neither knew what to say. y/n finally came up with the words she wanted to, “Thank you for this morning. I hope I didn’t make you late for whatever you were heading to.” Hotch let out a chuckle as he replied,” I was happy to help. I was a bit late, but I wanted to be honest. I even got a coffee before heading to the conference.” y/n smiled happy to know she hadn’t been an inconvenience. She always assumed that corporate conferences were boring as shit and asked, “What was it a conference on?”

Aaron took a moment to think about this response. He rarely started out that he was in the FBI. He found that it garnered immediate distrust with many, so he went with the easier option of, “Tech and AI.” The comment piqued y/n’s interest. Aaron didn’t look like a pretentious tech bro, and he was older than most of the men that she’d seen who were Musk fanatics. She probed for more information and asked, “Oh like ChatGTP is ruining students and enabling plagiarizing, or that The Patriot Act is good and we need for of that for State security?” Aaron hadn’t expected those two options and replied slowly, “More along the lines of the Patriot Act, but mostly cybercrime and cyber security.” y/n found herself relaxing again. ‘So he’s not a tech bro type.’ y/n continued speaking, “To be honest I never fully understood The Patriot Act. We covered it in high school APUSH, but it was at the end of the year and we breezed over it so fast. I just know its bad and scary but even that’s just from people I hear talking about it.” Hotch took a sip of his drink and said, “Well, it’s, complicated, that’s for sure. I could try and fill you in, but it’d take more than one drink for that.” He paused before asking, “So what brought you here?”

y/n thought about why she’d exactly said yes to her friends. Why did she spend so much money? y/n said, “Well it was supposed to be a girl's trip, but it didn’t end so well. I guess I was hoping to rekindle some of that college energy, but I didn’t. I’m excited to go home if I’m being honest.” y/n stopped talking, realizing she was saying more than she intended. She tried to blink back her emotions and Aaron placed a hand on her shoulder. He understood what it meant to be sad somewhere else, somewhere far from home. Not an earth-shattering sadness, just a longing for something long gone. Something that had passed away with time. He swallowed and replied, “I’m sorry. I hope at least tonight is fun, has been fun?” y/n looked up at him and smiled, saying, “It has, it’s been great. I might actually get another drink, kind of fun. I’m down to learn about The Patriot Act after all.” Aaron couldn’t stop his laugh and caught y/n eyeing the dance floor. After he got her a second drink he’d suggest it, and he’d have a story to tell Morgan for once. If things felt good between the two of them when they got back to the hotel, he might offer y/n his number. He picked up his glass and y/n did too. They looked at each other and clinked glasses again. Aaron started the toast again by saying, “To learning U.S. history,” and y/n said, “To silver linings.” As they finished their drinks, Aaron looked down and noticed y/n’s hand brushed up against his. He moved his fingers slightly and brushed her fingers with his. The night was early and they both had flights in the morning, but there was still time to make it one to remember.

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simverses · 2 months

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Blowtorch, updated for Lovestruck (EP16)

Maxi's worlds emptied of era specific stuff – made for simmers who wants themed hoods of their choice.

Now updated for EP 16 - Lovestruck

So, you found T.O.O.L, the super useful mod by Twisted Mexi, and learned how to decorate your sim world.

Blowtorch has another approach. It takes out the items (houses, vehicles, modern deco, well - all silly deco really) from the world. You can then place nicer deco or game items instead.

The items are not hidden from catalogue, so you can place the same items back but in a different place if you so wish. Or use cc deco. Make the world medieval, or Victorian, or sci-fi, or whatever.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I have blowtorched almost all the hoods in the worlds, both EP and GP: s (See list below for exceptions.) If you don’t have all EP/GP I recommend to delete the ones you don’t have before installing.

(Save the zip with the mod somewhere safe so you can add new worlds when you add a new EP/GP with a world.)

Here are some general rules I went by:

- All landmarks, architecture deco, street deco, vehicles, with special effects - blowtorched

- Functional objects: outside tables, playground items, and such – blowtorched. Place them again where you want them!

- All lights, both streetlights and built in hood lights, blowtorched.

- All palm trees, ever pink trees, wispy modern beeches, and other modern plants, blowtorched. (I of course kept the palm trees in Sulani and Selvadorada)

- Visual effects belonging to vehicles and other stuff mentioned above, blowtorched. No modern yachts, no airplanes.

- The lights are gone. The world will be dark at night if you don’t place streetlights or such.

WHAT I KEPT

I kept all spawners. All the fishing spots and all the bugs, frogs, dig sites, wild growing plants.

Lighting mod included

This mod also includes the Sunblind lighting mod by Softerhaze. Lighting mods also change these files, so I added Sunblind with the creator's permission.

This updated version includes the update from Softerhaze after EP 16.

https://softerhaze.itch.io/sunblind?download Read more here!

(You do not need to download or install the mod; it is included in the Blowtorch mod.)

If you want another lighting mod or no lighting mod, you need to edit the files manually.

This is done by replacing the resources “Sky Box Texture Data” and “World Timeline Color”.

ECO LIFESTYLE NOTE!

Unfortunately the Evergreen Harbor world that came with Eco Lifestyle (EP 9) has some special evil magic and the deco needs hiders anyway. If you play with that world and want it to be BLOWTORCHED, install the file ELHoodHidersMerged in your Mods folder.

Other recommended mods:

Check out T.O.O.L and Twisted Mexis other mods here: https://twistedmexi.com/Mods/

To add deco stuff outside lots:

T.O.O.L – at Tmexis page you also find information about his CAW-project, still in alpha testing.

Zerbu has a couple of super useful mods:

All Worlds are Residential https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/173398784785/the-sims-4-mod-all-worlds-are-residential

Venue changes https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/160347810775/the-sims-4-mod-venue-changes

Twelfth Doctor has a great mod for travelling to all the hidden/special lots, so you can edit them: https://td1sims.tumblr.com/post/635457539495084032/travel-to-venue

This mod is also useful if when you work with TOOL: Clickable worlds by Awingedlama

Q&A about Blowtorch mod

1. Can I use this on my old saves?

2. Why are there stuff not deleted? Annoying modern fences in Windenburg Ugly Modern Business district, for example?

Answer: some items are a part of the world mesh and is not yet possible to edit. If there will be a solution later, I will update the mod.

3. Will I have to update the mod after patches and new expansions?

Answer: Probably, but not always. When you load the game after the patch, you will see if the original deco is there. If so, re-install. If the patch/ep/GP does not include a new world, you just reinstall the mod (see instructions below) as you installed it the first time. I will make updated versions asap when new worlds are released.

4. I don’t have EP X or Y – can I use the Blowtorch mod?

Answer: Yes, but I recommend deleting the folders for EP/GP you don’t have. See list in the PDF-file with documentation.

Where to find nice themed hood deco to use with Blowtorch?

You can basically use any item, from game or CC, to decorate hoods. Try out the options with T.O.O.L to change the size of objects!

Note: I now have all the files for download on my Dropbox. They are in a couple of zips. The main one contains a folder called "The Sims 4" which contains the modded files.

The Backup files - you don't DO anything with them, if you don't want to uninstall the mod. You can also use Repair game in Origin/EA App, it does the same thing.

I suggest you unzip the files to a folder somewhere to have if you need to reinstall the mod or the original files.

Dont forget to also download, read and save the PDF Documentation-file :)

If you have difficulties with the installation, please DM me and I will help.

Optional: Installer Script (for Windows only)!

This clever script from @tricoufamily can be used for an easy install of the Blowtorch-files (which include the Sunblind light mod)!

Like this:

Download the Sunblind Installer (link to creators page with download link)

Click on the file and open it, a text file opens which you can edit.

Check the path to the gamefiles. If you use the EA App, it should be: "C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4"

Now edit the path to where your Blowtorch files are located, for example: "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\Documents\Blowtorch\The Sims 4"

Now click on the script file (run it with Power Shell), and it will install Blowtorch. Note: Always read the instructions also for Blowtorch in general.

My Empty Save File - Start Fresh!

I also updated my Empty Save to include Ciudad Amorada with a builder sim.

Download Blowtorch here:

Blowtorch modded files (Dropbox) Backup of original game files (Dropbox) Hiders for Eco Lifestyle (Dropbox) Simverses updated Empty Save (all lots demolished, all sims besides my builder sim, deleted.) Use if you want to start fresh. (Dropbox)

Or Download Simverses Empty Save here (Curseforge)

#sims 4 #sims 4 cc #sims historical #sims 4 cc updated #sims 4 blowtorch mod

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princeloww · 11 months

Text

Stuff We Know About Campbell Bain (From Both the Show and the Play)

Since the play has some things that clash/contradict with the show, things I've taken from the SHOW will be marked (S) and the PLAY (P).

- (P) Campbell comes from a small place (Hector calls it "dead wee") called Invergellen, which is in the middle of nowhere. There are not a lot of job options, but there does seem to be some kind of tourism industry - the only job options Campbell can list are "sheep", "fish" and "tourists".

- (P) Campbell's dad lies about where Campbell is, telling people that he's off doing a youth volunteer placement in Africa. He even makes Campbell lie to his friends about it, too. Campbell says it's because he doesn't want anybody in Invergellen finding out. He also says his dad is reluctant to visit too often, out of fear that people will grow suspicious of his trips to Glasgow.

- (P) Campbell has siblings: an older brother and an older sister. His brother owns his own building company, and his sister works in Forestry - possibly for the government? Regardless, Campbell views his siblings as very successful and compares himself to them. He also believes that his dad compares him to them, and calls himself a "loser" who's "never gonnae amount to anything".

- (S) Despite having many past jobs and dreams he was seemingly dead set on achieving, Campbell states that he's never been good at anything other than the radio. He includes flirting with/getting girls in the things he's bad at. He also only learnt guitar to impress said girls, but must have failed pretty miserably based on his comment.

- (S) Before Campbell came to St. Judes, things must have been hard at home/school. Campbell's dad says that his mother is so worked up about the whole thing that she's had to take medicine, and (P) Campbell says that his dad says he "doesn't want to put (Campbell's aunt) through what (Campbell) put (Campbell's dad) through".

- (P) Campbell is excited when his dad is coming, and he is disappointed with him constantly letting him down/not showing up. I believe that Campbell's parents do love him and do TRY to understand him, but simply don't, and end up thinking/acting selfishly instead. They want to help but do not understand their son, and therefore do not give him the support he needs. Whatever Campbell "put them through" was likely due to them not understanding him or knowing how to react to his condition, or the education system and teachers also struggling to understand and accommodate for his needs.

I assume worry was also a big part of what he "put them through", but the line about Campbell's auntie still rubs me the wrong way.

- (S/P) Campbell's dad believes the radio is just another one of Campbell's "loony ideas" and thinks he is manic. Campbell (P) seems disappointed by this, and says he thought he'd be proud of him. Which is just kind of heartbreaking.

- (P) Campbell has to be wrestled by Stuart as he screams at his dad, the doctor and then eventually Stuart, too, to "fuck off". Which is very sad but also kind of funny because Stuart deserves that. This is after he finds out he has to go back to Invergellen (before he then fakes the manic episode).

- (P) Campbell believed he was the greatest comedian in Britain at one point and even went to the BBC in Glasgow to tell them. They were less eager to give him a chance and ended up calling the police on him. He says it's "kind of how" he "ended up" in St. Judes, which adds a bit of an extra layer onto (S) the police being called on him, Fergus and Rosalie when they snuck out.

There's probably, definitely more that I've forgotten to mention, but there's what I've got. There's obviously also the big difference between the show and the play with Perth/Invergellen, which makes some things canon only in the play and others only canon in the show. I'm totally choosing to take Campbell's siblings from the play and accept them as canon all around though,,, and the extra family details we get too.

OK thats all, stay proud loonies

(Sources - Takin' Over the Asylum (TV), Takin' Over the Asylum (official stage play script book))

#takin over the asylum #takin' over the asylum #taking over the asylum #campbell bain #campbell bain takin over the asylum #david tennant #i love campbell bain #TOTA #TOTA stage play #TOTA script book #was this an excuse to just talk about campbell #yes it was #im not ashamed #im a loony for god's sake

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petrichorvidae · 5 months

Text

Mushy May Day 2: Late night snacks

Rating: Teen Word count: 3,560 Pairing(s): Swiss/Dewdrop + some Phantom/Rain heavily implied on the side, as a treat. Additional: Recreational drug use, minor blood and injury, references to sex, the ever-looming threat of an earth ghoul whose weed was stolen, and the existence of cheese singles. Summary: Dewdrop and Swiss raided Mountain's personal stash, and now they raid the kitchen too! Link to it on AO3 for those who prefer!

I had to take a day off for health reasons, and then I forgot to post this last night, but now I'm back with some swissdew shenanigans!

Once again, a huge thanks to @forlorn-crows for organizing Mushy May!

~~~~~~~~~~

Dew woke up with a start when something wet touched him, hissing out into the open air and looking around wildly trying to find whatever unknown had dared to disturb his sleep. His body was still adjusting to the suddenness of being awake, and that didn’t play favourites with his eyes, so he wasn’t able to do much more than squint and swish his tail back and forth in agitation.

“Whuh…!?” Seems his brain is still too mushy from sleep to even finish getting out a single coherent word.

He continued to swish his tail but his hiss faded away into a low growl, near-silent in volume as he was far too tired to do anything more. Dew kept blinking his eyes hoping to open them each time with a newly granted sense of sight, and if he had energy left in him he would have jumped for joy when he finally acclimated to the light. Wait, why would the light be on?

He feels stupid when he goes to pull his blanket off of him only to find that it’s not there, as a matter of fact, it’s nowhere to be found in the room, which only serves to add yet another layer to his confusion. He wouldn’t be caught dead without that thing, be it in his bunk in a tour bus, serving as a protective layer between him and whatever uncomfortable sheets the hotel they’re staying at has, or just as a source of comfort and warmth back here, home, in the abbey. Not that he needed the additional warmth though, definitely not with how things had been warming up recently combined with his Fire ghoul nature.

He looked to his side, hoping maybe he had kicked it away in his sleep after getting too hot or something, but instead, he was met with the glorious sight of none other than Swiss, sleeping like a rock, snoring louder than even Aether, and with a long and luxurious strand of drool trailing down the side of a pillow he was holding onto for dear life. And then everything clicked.

Memories flooded Dew’s head of how he and Swiss had broken into Mountain’s stash earlier that evening, getting their grubby mitts into the real good shit that he usually kept for himself, giant selfish bastard. He also remembered how they had then raided his entire Stash and left very few survivors in their wake, and how they then locked themselves in Swiss' room before participating in some stupid fucked up contest of seeing who could smoke through the most of it in a single day. Dew looked back to Swiss again, that puddle of drool had definitely grown by a few centimetres since he’d last looked. Judging by the state of him, and how Swiss was apparently dead to the world, they probably weren’t finding out who had won any time soon. Dewdrop groans and flops back down onto the bed. Of course, the one thing he couldn’t recall was both the reason for and the result of them getting into this mess.

What he hadn’t been anticipating was for his coordination to still be a little off after only being awake for a few short minutes, and thus he hadn’t been expecting his elbow to hit a sleeping Swiss right in the face. Swiss’ poor nose certainly hadn’t been expecting it, that’s for sure.

The most pathetic and hurt-sounding yelp he’s ever heard let Dew know that all those comments about his elbows being unusually bony may have some basis in truth after all. The ghoul that was dead asleep just a few seconds ago was now wide awake and hunched over himself while he clutches his nose. What Dew thinks is the slightest dribble of blood serves to sober him up a bit from his self-imposed high. He immediately starts looking around before finding what he’s looking for, locating the box of tissues on the nightstand next to Swiss’ bed and grabbing it before he can think too long about why it would be there in the first place.

“Ah shit! M’so sorry Swiss, didn’ mean to.” He blabbers out an attempt of an apology as he holds the tissues out to Swiss, who now has tears of pain threatening to spill at the corners of his eyes as he snatches the tissues from Dew, hissing at him all the while, and, yeah, he did kinda deserve that.

“Th’fuck s’wrong with you? F’ckin’ asshole.” Not even the shock of having his nose bashed by Dewdrop’s elbow could truly wake up Swiss, as it would seem. In true Swiss fashion, the larger ghoul continued to spit and hiss out more slurred insults at the smaller while he grabbed a bunch of the tissues and held them up to his bloody nose which would definitely have a pretty purple bruise on it later on that would lead to them being subjected to another of Aether’s interrogations while the Quintessence ghoul would try to figure out how two idiots like them survived for long enough in the pit to be summoned, just for them to be even bigger dumbasses.

Once Swiss had cleaned up his face and shook off his shame from being defeated by Dew’s bony as-shit elbow of all things, the Multi decided to dedicate the rest of his life to giving the Fire ghoul the dirtiest look he could muster. He wasn’t even giving him daggers now, he was giving him full-on swords. It was almost funny how mad he was trying to look, his nose all scrunched up with his ears down, fur puffed up to further set in how pissed he was with him at the moment. And yet, Dew wouldn’t forget this moment between them for Swiss' ire, which he had rightfully earned to be fair, but for how that heated silence was suddenly broken by one of the loudest growls he had ever heard come from Swiss' stomach.

They stared at each other, both looked down at Swiss' stomach, and immediately looked right back up to each other again, before simultaneously bursting out into a fit of giggles. All of Dew’s elbow’s transgressions are forgotten as they roll around on top of Swiss' bed.

After a few minutes of giggling and another interruption, this time from Dew’s stomach, Swiss finally let out his first fully formed words since he’d been so rudely woken up. “Woah, easy there tiger, don’t gotta go roaring at me.” He put his hands up in a mock surrender “How ‘bout we go and raid the kitchen for whatever good stuff we can find? We can bring it back here and have ourselves a feast.”

Dewdrop thought about it, and he was really hungry now that they’d both been made aware by their bodies, and rather loudly at that. But, and there was always a but, Dewdrop looked over to the locked door leading out into the hallway and his thoughts stilled for a moment. The whole reason it had been locked in the first place was because they both Mountain would be out for blood once he found his stash desecrated and gone, and another memory from the evening was returned to him, this one of Mountain pounding on the door when he had finally found out what they’d done, and how the only thing stopping him from going through with his threat to kick down the door and collect retribution for his precious weed was Aether quite literally dragging him away to cool down a bit if the scuffle they had heard was anything of substance. One thing was gnawing away at his mind right now, and he made sure to voice it; “What if he’s still out there.”

Swiss understood what he meant, and looked like he was speedrunning through the exact thought process Dew had just gone through judging by the slight panic in his eyes, but apparently, he wasn’t anywhere as worried as Dew was, because he just shrugged.

“You got any idea what time it is?”

Dewdrop chews at his lip before digging around for his phone. He manages to find it under a pillow, the very same one that now had a damp spot from Swiss drooling on it, gross. After a more than slightly judgemental look sent the taller ghoul’s way, Dewdrop turns the screen on and goes to look at the time. Swiss leans over his shoulder to take a peek for himself.

Both of them are left in silent shock at the time.

“Shit…”

“Did we really sleep for that long?”

“Must have, the phone doesn’t lie Dewbug.”

“Thought I told you to stop calling me that.” The Fire ghoul hissed, though they both knew it didn’t have any real bite to it.

“But it’s just so fun getting to see your cheeks go red like that, Dewbug.” There it was again, that toothy grin that would make a baby cry. And speaking of the devil, the Multi’s teasing paid off when he got to watch as his partner tried to hide himself amongst the pillows. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the very blush he was referring to would be found spreading its way across Dew’s cheeks at that very moment if anyone were to get a good look.

With perfect timing as always, Swiss' stomach chooses that moment to remind the two of their shared hunger, possibly saving Dewdrop from any further torment and teasing.

Getting back on track, Swiss pads his way over to the door and opens the bolt lock, but before he can even get his hand on the handle Dew is diving across the bed and towards him. “Wait!”

Swiss gives him a look that hopefully reads as ‘You really wanna starve in here?’, but goes out of his way to voice the rhetorical question anyway.

“I mean, no, but-”

“Excellent! Then let’s get-a-going and get some grub.” And with that, Swiss swings the door open, but is careful to make sure it doesn’t bang against the wall and make a noise. He may be crazy, but he doesn’t want to risk being the one to disturb anyone’s sleep. Then they’ll really be helpless when Mountain inevitably gets his claws on them. “Just, y’know, be quiet. Sneaky.” He adds in a hushed tone with a wink at the end for emphasis. And with that, the two ghouls are slowly and stealthy tiptoeing their way down the hallway, making their way to the den and by extension the kitchenette as they pass by the doors to all the rooms that the band ghouls call home. They can hope each and every one of them is occupied by sleeping ghouls, especially as they pass by the room of a certain abnormally tall Earth ghoul. Step after step, they slowly inched their way down the hall, getting closer and closer to their goal.

Finally, the narrow length of the hallway spreads out into a much wider and vastly more spacious common room, or the den as it’s come to be known. The room is near pitch black in the dark of the night, and with their minds still a little hazy from all the weed they had indulged themselves with smoking several hours ago, even with their more advanced ghoulish eyesight, they can't really make much of anything out. Swiss, showing a brief moment of rationality and even using a little logic to boot, reaches out to his side where he knew the lightswitch to be and suddenly the large space is flooded with light, though thankfully on a dimmer setting so it isn’t too much of a shock to their eyes.

What does come as a shock, is the ghoul staring at the pair from where they stand by the kitchenette, looking like a deer caught in headlights, a freshly opened pack of crackers in one hand and an entire brand new tube of Primula cheese in the other.

The atmosphere is palpable, the tension in the room so thick you could cut it, right up until a cracker falls out from the packaging and clatters when it hits the floor, that is.

“Phantom? Why the hell are you up at this time?”

That seems to make the Quintessence bristle up a did. His ears pull back when he whisper-shouts a defensive and very creative “Why are you!?”

Swiss and Dew look at each other at the exact same time, both thinking about whether they should tell him about their escapades and Mountain.

“Uhm… stuff…” Dew blurts out. Very articulated. Swiss gives him a look but he just shrugs. Well, what did the Multi want him to say?

“Hey, are those Cirrus’ crackers?” Swiss tries to deflect Phantom’s deflection, and it seems to work as Phantom is immediately right back to looking like he’d just been caught with his pants down.

Looking around and finding no way to escape from the situation, Phantom resigns and answers the question. “Yes…”

Oh, this was gonna be good. It’s nice to know they weren’t the only ones dumb enough to steal from their packmates tonight. Everyone knows how defensive Cirrus can get over her snacks, and those crackers were her favourite. The fact that they’d only just been bought and she hasn’t even gotten a chance to try them yet will just add to the drama of all this.

“Oooh~ Somebody’s gonna be in trouble~”

Phantom snaps his gaze right over to Dew, glaring at him while he utters his next words. “You don’t tell Cirrus it was me, and I don’t tell Mountain.”

Dewdrop just had to go and tease him.

“Ha, nice try kid, but the big guy already knows all about what we did.”

“Trust me, we all know.” Phantom puts it bluntly, and it doesn’t come as a surprise at all considering how loud Mountain had been earlier, and that was just what they heard through the door. “I meant I won’t tell him exactly where you guys will be tomorrow.” When raises an eyebrow at him. “I’ve been speaking to Sunny, and I’ve seen your guys’ schedules for your chores tomorrow. I’ll do it.” Oh, okay, so the new kid had finally grown some fangs it would seem. Swiss almost barks out a laugh from the shock of it all, who knew Phantom of all ghouls would be the one threatening to sic a pissed-off Mountain on them?

“Okay, okay, you win kid. Sheesh.”

And with that, they seem to slip into a truce of sorts. Phantom sets his pilfered crackers and squeezy cheese off to the side so he can find a plate, and Swiss and Dew walk past him to start rummaging through the cupboards and fridge for anything that speaks to their hunger at the moment. Swiss flipped through the cupboards whilst Dew searched through the fridge.

“All I’ve got here is a bag of chips and a half-empty box of breadsticks that may or may not be on their way to going stale already, any luck over there?” When Swiss receives no reply he looks to check on Dew, and finds his companion doing a silly victory dance as he holds up a pack of some deli meat like it’s the cub in that one lion film they’d watched a couple months back. Swiss had to bite his tongue and hold back whatever laugh or teasing comment he would have let out. It was just so pure. They were both still decently high from Mountain’s weed, raiding the kitchen in the midst of the night as quickly as possible so they could return to Swiss’ room to continue hiding from Mountain’s wrath, and Swiss couldn’t bring himself to look away from Dew. He wondered if this was what people mean when they say that it sometimes feels as if time has frozen when they look at their partners.

“Dew, you look ridiculous.” And the moment is ruined. Swiss turns to bare his fangs slightly at the younger ghoul but Phantom is unphased and just sticks his tongue out in return, the cheeky fucker. By the time Swiss turns back to Dew, he’s finished his celebration and has placed the pack of sliced meat on the nearby side, right next to where Swiss has placed his findings, before diving back on in to grab the final piece to make this meal truly perfect.

“Boom! Cheese singles.” He smirks up at Swiss while she waves the individually packaged slices of processed cheese in his face, positively pleased at himself with his findings.

Phantom decides to pipe in again from over by where he’s now got everything he needs, the entire tube of Primula now squeezed out onto the plate with a knife carefully placed beside it, his crackers still in their pack off to the side where he’d been snacking on a few when trying to find the knife and plate. Truly a charcuterie board for kings. “You’re seriously gonna eat those? Are they even real cheese?”

Dewdrop is quick to defend himself. “First of all, yes, I am seriously gonna eat these cheese singles, and I’m gonna love every second of it. And second, I’m not gonna be judged by the ghoul who is about to eat a fuckton of crackers with squeezy cheese!” He presses an accusatory finger into Phantom’s chest. Now with being so close to him, Dewdrop takes in how the ghoul is blatantly wearing clothes that aren’t his. The shirt is obviously one of Dew’s, while not tight it was definitely on the shorter side and left a bit of Phantom’s tummy out for all to see, and if he had to take a guess on the owner of the slightly too-big boxers he had on Swiss was probably the safest bet. He didn’t miss the messy hair or how a certain bassist’s scent was clinging to him like moss to a rock right now either, and gave the ghoul a small grin and a nod of acknowledgment before deciding to tease him some more.

“I’m gonna want to wash that in the morning, aren’t I?” He refers to the shirt.

“Someone’s going to be losing their weed privileges, aren’t they?” Phantom shoots right back.

“Touché.”

“Too soon, man, too soon.” Swiss can be heard whining from off to the side of their little standoff.

“Alright, I’m heading off now. Good luck I guess, you’ll need it.” Phantom stretched for a second before grabbing his plate and crackers and heading back towards his room, where there was no doubt a Water ghoul would be awaiting his return.

“We know.” They reply in unison and wave him off before they go grab their harvest and do the same.

Swiss is emptying all of the chips and breadsticks out into two separate bowls when they’re alerted by another door down in the hallway opening, that eerie creak causing their hackles to become raised and their ears to pull back. Dewdrop instinctively put himself between the hallway and his precious cheese singles and meat slices, ready to defend this meal with his life. “Who’s there?” Swiss calls out into the dark hallway.

Their blood runs cold when it’s none other than Mountain who emerges from the dark hallway into the dim, though still much brighter, light of the den, his imposing figure slowly approaching them with heavy steps. Swiss sidesteps over to Dew and holds the Fire ghoul’s hand in his, it was his idea to raid Mountain’s stash and if anyone’s getting their tail ripped off here, it’s going to be him. Before they know it, Mountain is stood right in front of the pair, practically snarling at them as a low rumbling growl permeates throughout the kitchenette. In what is possibly up there amongst the dumbest things he’s ever done when being growled at by a much larger ghoul he’s crossed, Dew reaches behind him blindly, grabbing around until he finds what he hopes will be their saving grace. He picks it up and, wincing as he hopes the Earth ghoul doesn’t just bite his fingers off, presents his peace offering.

“Deli meat?”

Mountain stares at the presented cuts of ham for a good long while, but his decision is finally made when his face softens, rumble dissipating as he lets out a heavy sigh. He wordlessly takes the offering and opens it up, taking a handful of sliced meat for himself before passing it over to Swiss, who only just about manages to hold onto it as he’s still stood there in shock and awe, amazed that Dew’s offering had actually worked as the Earth ghoul scarfed down the ham in record time. It does wonders to show just how hungry a ghoul can get after being mad for hours on end.

Dewdrop feels bold and a little stupid, so he decides to crack out the cheese singles too, and sidles up to Mountain before holding one out to him.

Swiss questions all of his life choices as he stands there in silence while they both watch Mountain eat the entire cheese single within seconds. He hadn’t even removed its plastic covering. Dewdrop was near tears at the horror he was witnessing. This must be their punishment for what they had done, surely.

“You two are just lucky that it wasn’t my main stash.”

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