#yes these are notes app screenshots ❤️

[literaphobe]

literally nobody asked but here’s a snippet of ladynoir from the fic i’ve been writing ^_^

[madhatterbri]

Christmas Party | C.C.

Summary: you are invited to a Christmas party and you beg Christian to be your date to not look lonely to Jack.

Author's Note: I'm like in love with this story. 🥺🥰 Tried to make it funny and flirty. Hope I succeeded.

@theswitchbladessweetheart (hope you feel better ❤️)

@1dluver13xx

"Heeeeey it is my absolute favorite patriarch," you greeted seeing Christian backstage. He tensed at hearing your voice. Any time you greeted him that way you needed a favor. Nick chuckled and walked away giving you some privacy to talk. "Remember that favor you owe me for babysitting your daughter?"

"You mean that one time you were supposed to watch her for like five minutes while I cut a promo? And when I came back you spent five minutes looking for her because you forgot she was hiding for hide and seek?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. Of course the grumpy old man remembered the bad part. Typical.

"That very time, yeah, good, you remember. Listen, I was invited to a Christmas party and I need a date. Are you free on Friday night?" you told him. He looked at you puzzled. Christian never thought you would want to be with him outside of wrestling business.

"Why do you need a date exactly?"

"I just do, please, I will do anything,"

"Seriously? What is this high school?" Christian muttered and walked away. You yelled at him to wait and stood in front of him to block him. He rolled his eyes and looked at you. An amused yet annoyed look on his face. You had a few seconds to plead your case.

"I asked everyone else and they said no,"

"Who did you ask?"

"Max"

"And what happened?"

"He slammed the door in my face. I asked Roddy and he said he was going with Adam. Well, actually, he yelled Adam's name so I'm not sure. HOOK and Orange just stared at me while eating chips. I promise it will be worth your while,"

"Why?"

"A certain curly haired Jungle Boy will be there," you sung. The Captain Charisma figured it out. You didn't want Jack to see you alone while he had Anna.

Christian stared at you in deep thought. His blue eyes dazzled in delight. Jack would certainly not like seeing you with him. He simply nodded and told you he would text you when it's closer.

🎄

"And you still don't think he has a crush on you?" Skye questioned while looking at your reflection in the mirror. She agreed to help you with your hair and makeup. You never agreed for her to give you the third degree.

Ever since she made it to your apartment you were bombarded with questions about tonight. She started to sound like a parent. Every time she brought up Christian liking you, you shut it down. He was just doing it to mess with Jack nothing more or less. A point you frequently brought across.

"He's doing this to piss off Jack. He wasn't going to say yes until I told him he was coming," you insisted.

"Don't take this the wrong way but you are a blind idiot," she insulted.

"Oh good because I was immediately going to take that as a compliment," you scoffed.

"He trained you and was always there for you when Jack dumped you for Anna. What are we missing here, girl?"

"He is just really nice. I was his manager for a while and babysat his kid,"

"Are you really flexing on that time you lost his daughter because you forgot you were playing hide and seek with her?"

"It was one time and the new season of Stranger Things just came out!"

"And trust me he trained you because he wanted to be closer to you,"

"He wants younger talent to succeed. I bet if Kyle asked Christian would happily help him,"

"Kyle did ask him over text. Christian sent a screenshot of his cash app username and said he isn't a charity,"

You tried to hide a laugh. A pissed off Skye would not help your situation. A knock on your front door ended your conversation. The butterflies in your stomach now in full force. Despite always having a crush on him you honestly never saw anything from him. You looked in the mirror one last time.

"I look great. How can I ever repay you?"

"If I ever ask you for relationship advice please don't give it to me or remind me to do the opposite of what you say," she joked. You shot her a glare and stood up.

You called out that you were coming to the door and opened the door to see Christian. The man before you was dressed to the nines for the Christmas party. Long gone were the tights, t-shirts, and velvet sweater. Now he wore a tuxedo with a blue tie that made his eyes pop.

"You ready?" He asked leaning against the doorframe. A smirk tugged his lip as he saw you staring at him.

"Have her home by ten, Cage, I know where you work," Skye called out and winked at him. He smiled back at her.

🎄

"What a gentleman," you teased when he held the door open for you. He grabbed your hand and helped you out of the car.

"I'm not the little boys you are used to dating," he joked and closed the door behind you. He adjusted his jacket and tie before taking your arm around his.

"Really selling this, Christian, I knew you were a good choice,"

"Well I have to pay you back for that poor excuse you call babysitting," he chuckled. You slapped his arm playfully as he walked you to the backyard. His hand placed securely at the small of your back. "Let's get this party started,"

The backyard had curtains of Christmas lights covering the fence. A hot chocolate bar with assorted Christmas treats laid neatly on a wooden table. A DJ played a mix of Christmas songs and other assorted hits. A projector displayed a Christmas movie. Different Christmas games were spread out to get the guests to mingle with one another. Pillows and blankets of different styles laid around the yard to ensure maximum comfort.

"Isn't this amazing?" You asked and looked at him. His hand was pressed to his forehead. His blue eyes squinted as if he was looking intently at something.

"I think one of the lights on that curtain doesn't work,"

🎄

The night wore on with you trying to avoid Anna and Jack. It was pretty easy. Jack stayed on his phone on a bench. He mindlessly scrolled as if that was the only thing going on. Every so often he would stare at you with Christian. He glared at you if you happened to meet his gaze. Anna stayed inside the house complaining about Jack.

"Do you mind if we dance?" You asked expecting a no. Jack used to never want to dance with you. Any time you went out you had to dance with your friends. Christian looked at the dance floor and back at you. He took one last drink from his beer.

"Fine but don't get intimidated by my dance skills," he accepted your invitation.

"Wait, really?" You asked and smiled wildly. He grabbed your hand and led you to the dance floor. He spun you around before placing an arm securely around your waist. His other hand grabbed yours.

The music played softly through the speakers. You were glad the song wasn't too fast. He was surprisingly a good dancer and easy to follow. The man certainly had many talents.

"You look beautiful tonight," he whispered in your ear. "I forgot to say that earlier,"

"Are you saying I'm not beautiful on most nights?" you giggled and looked in his eyes. "You are not so bad looking yourself,"

He spun you around and pulled you closer to him. You wondered if he was trying to sell this to Jack or if Skye could be right. A part of you wanted the latter. You just needed a sign. Anything to prove that maybe you weren't just another wrestler to him. You would get your wish shortly after.

He placed his forehead against yours. His blue eyes stared into yours as if to read your reaction. When he noticed you didn't pull away he placed his other hand to your hip. You placed your hands on his head running them down to his neck. Your hands rested on his shoulders.

"Christian, you don't have to do this," you whispered. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable,"

"He's not looking. It's just you and me," he confided in you. "If you want me to stop I will,"

"Please don't stop," you pulled his jacket so he was closer to you. You could barely hear the music with how loud your heart was pounding. Your cheeks burned brightly. With the help of your high heels, your lips pressed against his. He stood in shock momentarily before kissing you back.

Growing up you always read about a spark when you kissed the right one. You always told yourself that the spark would eventually ignite when you were with Jack. After the break up you were sure it was just a fairytale. Now maybe it was time to live your own real life fairytale.

He looked at his Apple Watch and sighed.

"It's Adam. I gotta take this call. Don't go anywhere," he apologized and kissed your forehead. He walked inside to a quieter place to take the phone call. You walked to the hot chocolate bar to warm up a little.

🎄

"Seriously? The whole you bringing one of my ex-friends to not look lonely is a little pathetic," Jack sneered. You jumped not expecting him to bother you. He was so adamant about not being anywhere near you. "Can't find someone your own age?"

"You cheated on me with one of my closest friends and I'm pathetic?" You asked bitterly. Not only did your friendship with Anna end but your relationship with Jack. "You and I clearly have different definitions of pathetic,"

"You being the type of person to fuck around with anyone in the business just proves that leaving your ass was the best choice i could’ve ever made,”

Tears immediately sprung into your eyes. This was exactly what used to happen while dating him. He made outlandish claims against you. Things that were never true but still hurt. The party was no longer fun for you. Maybe you could text Christian to meet you at the car.

"Want to say it again, Perry?" Christian asked from behind Jack. The younger wrestler turned to see his now enemy and ex mentor. Everyone knew he would never repeat himself after getting choked out by CM Punk after an altercation back in August. He was more respectful to the veterans to their face. "Come on, Y/N. We are getting out of here,"

You slowly walked past Jack and into Christian's arms. He pulled you in for a hug and kissed the top of your head. His arms felt so safe like he could save you from anything and everything. The sound of his heartbeat calming you.

"Oh, and Jack, go fuck yourself," he hissed. He took your hand and led you back to the car leaving a shocked Jungle Boy in the backyard.

[alltimefail-sims]

May I ask how you edit cas screenshots and what apps you use?

Yes, of course!!

The only program I use is the free online photo editor "Photopea."

First I open my image and sharpen it (Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen). Then I'll crop it to the size I want: for CAS screenshots that's usually 500 x 720, but it could change depending on what I feel looks best. (Note that your monitor size might change what looks good for you, so just find what you like best!) After that I always set the exposure to 0.40 (Image > Adjustments > Exposure... > Exposure: .40). Then I will change the contrast. The contrast number depends on the sim, but usually I do somewhere around 20 (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast > Contrast: 20).

Finally I soften the image: I set surface blur settings both at 4 (Filter > Blur > Surface Blur > Radius 4 and Threshold 4) and then I do Gaussian Blur settings at .1 px (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > Radius: .1 px). This final step is similar to adding "Topaz Clean" in Photoshop, and it just makes the image look really smooth and cohesive, in my opinion.

Also, I just want to note that I use this CAS lighting (Cas_L), have the game graphics set to the highest settings, and have edge smoothing and laptop mode turned off!

I know that seems like a lot of steps and words, but I promise it's intentionally very simple in practice! I'm not tech savvy at all and had no experience with digital editing prior to making my simblr, but this process came together after a lot of trial and error and cobbling together what much more experienced/talented simblrs were doing (lmao).

I hope this was helpful! ❤️