#I’m saying all this when I don’t even have a mods folder set up yet | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

travissimblr · 3 years

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Sims 3 Performance Guide

Lately I have found the direction of The Sims 4 to be rather lackluster. Let’s face it. The game is boring. Still looking for that “Sims Fix” I found myself going back to playing The Sims 3. The Sims 3 can be tricky to get running correctly on modern computers so I figured I would share what I learned over the years. I made this guide a few years ago for another forum so I’m always open to new suggestions/edits etc. Some things may work well for others while some may not make a difference at all. I have applied all of these fixes in my own game and I still experience lag so this is by no means a guide to completely eliminate the lag in the game but a guide to perhaps help your game run a little bit smoother. All of these tips have been gathered from all over the internet and also some things I have picked up on my own over the years. I own a legit copy of the Sims 3 and have never owned a pirated version so I can't say whether or not these settings will work with a pirated version of the game. I also only have a PC so I don't know if any of these settings will effect the Mac version of the game. If anything I hope this guide brings people back to The Sims 3 or allows people to give the game another chance. The guide will be pretty extensive and I take no responsibility if you mess up your game :P

Limit Game FPS - This one has been a godsend. I was experiencing major lag especially in build/Buy mode. My computer is way over spec for this game much like most computers today. What would happen is that while in Build/Buy Mode my FPS would spike into the 200's! During these spikes the game would almost be un-playable.

To fix this issue:

Download this file: https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34]https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34

I know it says it's for Skyrim but it will also work for The Sims 3. After downloading it unzip the antilag.cfg and d3d9.dll into X: > Program Files (x86) > Origin Games > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin if using Origin. If you have the steam version of the game use : X: > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin . By default it is set to limit the game to 30FPS. I have been using this and it works fine. You can change it to 60FPS if you want by opening the antilag.cfg using notepad. I haven't had a chance to test the game at 60FPS but its not like The Sims 3 is a First person shooter or anything so IMO its probably not necessary. Run the game and your FPS should be capped at 30.

Alternately you can try turning on Vsync in either Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Catalyst software however I wasn't able to get it working. I'm using a Geforce 1080 and the latest Nvidia drivers. When I turned it on in the control panel it did nothing in the game.

After installing this fix I no longer experience massive lag spikes while in Build/Buy Mode the whole game also seems to be running a little bit smoother as well. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about EA's terrible coding of the game so there will still be lag but this one has helped my game more then any of the other fixes as of yet.

**It also must be noted that FPS fix uses the same file as Reshade, d3d9.dll. I haven’t tested if this works using the d3d9.dll file from Reshade but I can assume it probably doesn’t. I do however believe there is a frame limiter built into reshade which should accomplish this same thing as this mod.

In Game Settings

1. Graphics

Resolution - You should always play at the native resolution for your monitor. Most monitors today use a native resolution of 1680x1050 or 1920x1080. If your game is struggling at this resolution you should always lower the graphics settings not the resolution.

Windowed? or Fullscreen? - This one is something that you will have to test. Some people say that the game runs better for them in Fullscreen and some say it runs better in Windowed Mode. My personal game runs better in Windowed Mode.

Object Hiding - Enabling this can help to increase performance especially if you have a large house. Essentially what this does is that the game renders every object on the lot you are in even if you aren't on that floor. So if you are playing on the first floor the game is using resources to render the items on the second/third floor etc.

Reflection Quality - Setting it to Mirrors and Water will work well for most people but adjusting this lower can offer a slight performance increase.

Edge Smoothing - I personally have not noticed much of a difference in performance adjusting this setting but this is the Anti Aliasing settings for the game. Try lowering it and see if it makes a difference in your game.

Visual Effects - According to the game "Controls the quality of particle effects on objects, Sims, and the town" Medium would be the recommended setting for Visual effects. It offers a happy medium between performance and visual quality.

Lighting and Shadows - Adjusts the shadow quality in the game. I run this on high in my game as there isn't a noticeable difference in performance between medium and high settings. Turning it to low will give a slight boost in performance but the shadows will be ugly.

Tree Detail - Keep this setting on high as there really is no difference in performance between settings. All you end up with are some ugly trees and no real boost in performance.

Enable Animation Smoothing & Enable Advanced Rendering - Both of these items should always be checked. Enable Animation smoothing makes no difference in performance and Turning off Enable Advanced Rendering can actually decrease performance.

Draw Distance - Keep this on high as it does not effect performance.

High Detailed Lots - With this turned up all the way I noticed a fair bit of stuttering in my game. I have mine set to 4 lots but this is a setting that should be tested to see what works for you.

Texture Detail and Sim Detail - Most computers should be able to handle both of these settings maxed for a small boost in performance you can lower the texture detail to medium. Sim Detail should always be set at Very High as lower this setting has only a very small boost in performance that probably wouldn't even be noticeable.

2. General Settings

Enable Shop Mode - This will disable the Sims 3 Shop from In-Game. Turning this off can help with stuttering.

Enable Lessons - Turning this off can possibly help with performance. I haven't noticed a difference but at this point we all know how to play The Sims.

Memories - Disabling Memories can offer a boost to performance and reduce in game stuttering.

**Alternately you can try using this mod if you don’t want to completely disable the memory system in The Sims 3

No (or fewer) automatic memories by velocitygrass on Mod The Sims

https://modthesims.info/d/446281

Enable Interactive Loading Screens - Turning this off has been said to reduce some in game stuttering. Besides nobody wants to play that stupid game anyway.

3. Online

Keep Me Logged In & Enable Online Notifications - Turning off both of these settings will help game performance and reduce stuttering.

4. Advanced Demographics Options

Enable Story Progression - Turning this off will reduce stuttering in the game. If you like this setting you can use the NRASS Story Progression explained further in this guide.

Advanced Settings

I will try to guide as best as I can with these but always MAKE BACKUPS of every file modified in this section.

In order to make this process easier be sure that "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked in the Windows Folder Options. In Windows 10 Click on View > Options > Change folder and search options. Switch to the view tab and under Files and Folders uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"

Edit GraphicsRules.sgr - This setting will help the game run smoother and make for faster clothing changes.

1. Got to X:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

2. Copy the GraphicsRules.sgr file and back it up in either in a safe location or even in the same directory just name it GraphicsRules.sgr.orig. Click yes when prompted with the rename.

3. Now Open GraphicsRules.sgr with notepad (not the copied version)

4. You will see four lines that look like this: seti cpuLevelUber 4

seti cpuLevelHigh 3

seti cpuLevelMedium 2

seti cpuLevelLow 1

5. Change the four lines to this: seti cpuLevelUber 4

seti cpuLevelHigh 3

seti cpuLevelMedium 3

seti cpuLevelLow 3

6. Save in Notepad and close Notepad.

Edit Sims3.ini - This is how you force the game to use more then 2GB of RAM. I noticed a massive improvement in both CAS and Build/Buy mode with this. Clothing,Objects etc load almost instantly when this is changed. The Origin version of the game has already been patched to use 4GB of RAM however adjusting this value to reflect your systems total ram amount if above 4GB can be beneficial. If you currently have 4GB total of RAM and are using the Origin version of the game you can skip this step. It’s questionable whether or not this makes a difference in the game as The Sims 3 is a 32 bit game that only uses 4GB to begin with but it seems to actually make a difference in my own game.

1. Go to X:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (same as GraphicsRules.sgr)

2. Backup the Sims3.ini in the same method as the GraphicsRules.sgr

3. Open Sims3.ini in Notepad

4. Under [ResourceSystem] you will see this:

MemoryUsageLimit = 20000000 ( 10000000 for legacy/disc versions)

5. Ignoring the zeros this is showing that the Sims 3 is only using 4GB of ram (2gb for Legacy/Disc versions of the game). Depending on the amount of ram in your system you should change it to half of your total amount of ram. Examples:

8GB Total Ram MemoryUsageLimit = 40000000

16GB Total Ram MemoryUsageLimit = 80000000

32GB Total Ram MemoryUsageLimit = 16000000

**Be Sure to only change the first number not any zeros. For 32GB+ its the first 2 numbers. Putting this too high could cause your system lock up or crash and possibly do damage**

Modding

First go here and follow the instructions on this page to set up your Mods folder: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=9187.0

1. Must Have Mods - Even if you don't plan on putting any CC in your game these Mod is highly recommended if not needed in order to keep the game running Smoothly.

NRAAS Master Controller -

https://www.nraas.net/community/MasterController

This mod is a must have. It fixes many of the errors in the game and helps immensely with game lag and stuttering.

Under Modules Download: (Not Required but useful)

MasterController Cheats - Adds "cheaty" functions to Master Controller.

MasterController Expanded Tatttoo - Expands the number of locations provided in Tattoo CAS

MasterController Progression - This mod adds progression related interactions to the "Master Controller" menu. Addition to Story Progression (below)

MasterController Integration - (Must have if you install a lot of sliders) This mod replaces all the CAS interactions in the game with the one managed by MasterController, including the "Create-A-Sim" button in "Edit Town".

Now go to this Page and download these other “Must Have Mods” by NRAAS

https://www.nraas.net/community/Mods-List

Overwatch - (Important) Contains error correction and periodic game maintenance/clean up to reduce issues and improve game longevity.

Error Trap - (Important) Core-Mod that performs save-game corruption cleanup, while catching and reporting unhandled script errors.

Traffic- (Important) Controls autonomous vehicular traffic such as the Food/Ice Cream Trucks, and provides some minor vehicle routing settings.

Saver - (Important) Adds autosave function to the game.

Register - (Important) Replaces the EA Role Manager with a custom version that corrects several bugs and allows for greater flexibility.

Other Useful Mods at NRAAS (Optional) Same page as above:

Story Progression - Basically a less buggy, less performance heavy replacement for the EA story progression in the game. Be sure to tick off “Story Progression” in the In Game options as stated above. (Install all the optional modules as well)

Decensor - We all know what this does

Dresser - Adds automated outfit control for inactive sims, adding accessories, and restricting CAS parts.

WooHooer - Alters the romance and woohoo interactions, provides greater flexibility and attraction scoring.

Retuner - Provides fine tuning of many settings in game like autonomous settings, pricing etc. This one can seem daunting at first but there are plenty of Returner settings to be found out there and its really isn’t that difficult to change the settings in game albeit time consuming.

Be sure to look over the other mods if you see something you like download it. Any of these mods should be safe to add to your game with little to no performance impact.

After that extract the files you just downloaded into \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages\Overrides If you don't have an Overrides folder create one. The “Overrides Folder” is essentially a priority folder. Mods put into this folder will be loaded before any other package files you may add to the game.

In-Game NRASS Settings

These are just some settings to change to improve game stability. This is by far not comprehensive. For Retuner settings I would suggest a Google search of other users settings or consulting the NRASS help section for explanations of how to use this mod.

Click on the Town Hall in Map View Under NRASS

Traffic

Ice Cream Truck - I hate that creepy Ice cream truck so I change everything to false and set Max Ice Cream Trucks to 0. If you like having it around still change the Max Ice Cream Trucks to 1

Routing

Allow Performance Career Limos - False (Limos create a lot of lag in the game)

Allow Use of Cars During General Routing - True (if disabled your sims will only use cars when you tell them to)

Always Use Taxis for Inactives Lacking Vehicles - False (Townies will no longer use Taxis)

Allow Immigration - False (Random Townies wont move into your town keeping the population down and helping to keep performance from decreasing as sims move in.

Animal Control - Change the settings below for a performance boost

Maximum Deer - 2

Maximum Raccoon - 2

Maximum Stray Cats - 3

Maximum Stray Dogs - 3

Maximum Unicorns - 0 (Sorry Wild Horses and Unicorns add a good deal of lag to the game)

Maximum Horses - 0

Custom Content (CC)

Much like any other Sims game moderation is key. The more CC you download and put in you game the slower your game will perform. I'm not going to go into detail about how to install CC in The Sims 3 in this guide. These are just a few important tips to take into account when installing CC,

Try to install Sims3Pack files as much as you can. Sims 3 automatically merges these files and this leads to better game stability.

Merge you package files. Girl Meets Pixels made a great guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZ2LdoT-HY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZ2LdoT-HY

Keep an eye on the size of your Sims 3 Folder in /Documents. It may seem crazy to imagine but massive CC shopping sprees can lead to a massive folder to the tune of 30GB+. Skins and Hairs are a killer. These files are usually rather large sometimes in excess of 80 - 100mb. My suggestion would be to find a default skin you like and just use that. Don’t install any non default skins. Also go easy on the hair. You don’t need 20 different variations of the same ponytail in the game. Clothing is usually fine but pay attention to the size of the CC. That cute dress you found on Tumblr that’s 65mb more then likely has way too high of a poly count and will just lag and be slow to render in the game. Sure it looks great in screenshots but it wont be practical in game. I’m not sure of the exact cut-off for CC but eventually the folder gets too large for the game to handle and it will lead to issues like save corruption or in some cases not being able to save the game at all because the game has run out of memory. Sadly if this happens there is no fix for this and you will lose all of your progress and possibly your save file as well.

Advanced

World Fixes EA left many routing issues in a lot of their worlds that are known to cause lag and often times crashing as Sims bunch up in broken routing areas on the map.

All the World Fixes can be found on Ellacharmed's Wordpress page. Follow the instructions very carefully and install the fixes for all the worlds you have installed in your game.

https://ellacharmed.wordpress.com

Other Useful Tips

Delete your cache!! This one can't be stressed enough. I delete mine before every game play and never have issues starting the game up. A guide can be found here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files

Turn off Origin In Game - This will give a noticeable improvement.

Close all other programs running in the background.

Turn on Game Mode or Silent Mode on your Antivirus

Useful Sims 3 Programs

s3pe http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/189/

Sims 3 Dashboard Tool http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006

CC Magic http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=461888]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=461888

Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038

Save Cleaner by Kuree http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/1532/

#ts3 #s3 #s3cc #sims 3 #tutorial #guide #the sims 3

649 notes · View notes

naminethewriter · 3 years

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Vacation

This is my entry for the @sandersidesbigbang! I had a lot of fun participating 🥰 Thanks to all the mods for organizing this! Also huge thanks to @just-a-pintrovert & @5-falsehoods-phonated for beta reading 💙 There is also some artwork also from @just-a-pintrovert here! They did a fantastic job and I highly recommend you check out her blog! And now, enjoy!

Here on Ao3

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Roman, Janus, Logan, Remus

Relationships: platonic Intrulogical, platonic Prinmoxiety, platonic Moceit

Rating: T

Words: 12,502

Summary: Logan doesn't show up for breakfast one morning, leaving behind a letter declaring he's going on vacation. Unsure of its authenticity, Roman, Patton and Virgil go to look for him on Remus' side of the Imagination with a certain snake as their guide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It started out like any other day. Patton entered the kitchen around 7 in the morning to prepare breakfast. Logan should join him soon, then Roman around an hour later and Virgil after that. When exactly was hard to say, the anxious side’s sleep schedule was the most inconsistent, but most of the time he was up last. Today Patton wanted to make an extra special breakfast since their discussion the day before had gotten a bit out of hand and nobody walked away from it happy. He just hoped all his kiddos would show up. 

Half an hour later that fear proves to be warranted. Logan still hasn’t come down. Patton had even checked the coffee machine to make sure he hadn’t missed him. But it was still as clean as he had left it yesterday. Nervously his eyes flicker from the stove to the clock and over to the stairs before he focuses on making breakfast again, but his eyes would stray every few seconds. 

Five minutes later he finally hears movement upstairs. Logan probably had been exhausted yesterday and stayed in bed a bit longer than usual. Someone was coming down the stairs now and Patton turns around with a big smile, expecting Logan but coming across Virgil instead. 

“Oh,” Patton says, his smile slipping. But he immediately catches the insecure look on Virgil’s face at his reaction. “Sorry, kiddo,” he laughs, trying his best to seem cheerful. “I thought you were Logan, but I’m happy to see you, too! It’s quite early for you though. Did you not sleep well?” Now that he takes a closer look, Patton can see the tiredness on Virgil’s face, who gives him a weak smile. 

“Morning, popstar. I just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep so I figured might as well get up, y’know?” He moves over to the coffee machine, looking at it confused for a few seconds before he seems to realize what else Patton had said. “Logan wasn’t here yet?” 

“I don’t think so,” Patton shakes his head, his eyes now fixed on the stove so that Virgil doesn’t see the concern across his face. “I’m sorry there’s no coffee, you know I’m no good at making some.” He tries to play it off as a joke with a laugh but even he knows it’s not convincing. Virgil hovers at the coffee machine, unsure of what to do, how to comfort Patton. Instead, he moves to make the coffee himself and trying to cheer the other up with words. 

“It’s fine, Pat. I can do it and I’m sure Lo’s gonna come down soon. We all had a lot to think about yesterday… Maybe he just needs some more time to think it through again this morning. But you know how he is, he’ll come down and act like it was nothing later. You’ll see.” At the end of his little ramble, the machine is in the process of brewing and Virgil gives Patton a short hug before moving to set the table. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Patton mumbles, more to himself than to Virgil and continues to work on breakfast. 

Around 20 minutes later, Roman arrives, a lot more energized than Virgil had been. “What a wondrous morrow! ‘Tis a day to sing and dance, I say!” Both Patton and Virgil chuckle at his boasting. 

“Good morning to you too, Roman,” Patton greets as he pulls him into a loose hug before going back to distribute their breakfast onto the plates Virgil had sat out. 

“I’m surprised to see you arrive before me, Doom-and-Gloom,” Roman says to Virgil while preparing his own mug of coffee. The other had taken seat on the counter after finishing his part of breakfast preparations and watched Patton work the rest of the time while slowly nursing his coffee (I say slowly but he is already working on his second mug). Virgil just shrugs. 

“Couldn’t get back to sleep.” Roman hums in acknowledgment and then silence falls over the kitchen, only Patton scurrying around is heard. Not long however before Patton cheerfully announces: “Breakfast is ready!” 

“Wonderful!” Roman exclaims loudly. “What a marvelous feast you prepared for us, padre!” Patton giggles. 

“Thank you for the compliment, my prince.” 

“My, of course! What kind of ruler would I be if I couldn’t appreciate my subjects!” 

“A pretty standard one,” Virgil adds with a small smile. Roman huffs. 

“Only more proof that I am exceptional.” 

“That you are, Roman,” Patton laughs, but he sobers up suddenly, now looking worried again. 

“What’s wrong, padre? Tell me your worries and I shall strike them down with my sword!” Roman proclaims loudly in hopes of banning that expression from Patton’s face. The other gives him a small smile before looking over to the stairs. 

“Logan still hasn’t come down. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’m worried,” he explains. Roman quickly looks towards the stairs as well, this is the first he’s heard of their nerd not arriving this morning. It wasn’t unusual for Logan to go back upstairs after having his first cup of coffee, opting to get a bit more work done before the rest of them get up. But not coming down at all was rare. A glance towards Virgil shows him that the anxious side is worrying his bottom lip, eyeshadow a bit darker than normal. Roman places both his hands on Patton’s shoulders in a reaffirming grip and smiles at him. 

“I’m sure our nerd just got lost in a book or something. I shall go fetch him at once.” 

“Thank you,” Patton says with a small smile that Roman returns before he heads back up the stairs. Logan’s room was the one furthest away from the common area. He’d always reasoned that he didn’t want any of the noise to travel to his door and Roman could see his point. Logan was the only one of them that stuck to a regulated sleep schedule and was often the first one to retire back upstairs. And sometimes Patton, Virgil and himself could forget to be quiet afterwards so choosing the longer distance was reasonable. Roman finally arrives at the door to the logical side’s room and was about to knock when something catches his eye. Rather it is hard to overlook. Taped to the door is a thin, dark blue folder that stands out against the light brown wood of the door. On the front ‘To Patton, Roman and Virgil’ is written. With furrowed brows, Roman pulls the folder off the door and opens it, scanning the first page before hurrying back downstairs. 

“Guys!” he calls out, halfway down the stairs, apparently interrupting a conversation between the left-behind sides. They don’t look bothered by it however but rather concerned at his sudden re-entrance without the side he was supposed to get. 

“What’s wrong?” Patton asks, voice rising in concern. Roman just hands them the folder. Virgil takes it since Patton seems to be shaking from the nerves and flips it open. The first page was a simple, printed letter that read: 

Good morning fellow sides. 

After the conclusion of yesterday’s discussion, I have decided to finally 

follow through with something I had planned for a while now: 

I am going on vacation. 

In the last few months, following Janus’ acceptance and further involvement 

in our daily lives, the tension in our group has been rising and I must say, 

it figuratively suffocates me. Any attempts to resolve said tension has been 

disapproved of and you continue to disregard my contributions to various 

problems. I cannot work in this environment any longer. I have finished  

Thomas’ schedule for the next two weeks. I did my best to consider your 

and Janus’ previously given advice to ensure that it covers selfcare and  

productivity. If you want to make changes, go ahead but do not complain 

to me if it does not work out as you hoped. I have done my part now. I am 

not sure when I will return but I should not be gone longer than those two 

weeks. Do not summon me unless it is a life-or-death situation. I have  

prepared a place to stay and I am being provided for. I will continue to keep

an eye on Thomas regardless but I do not see any need to appear in person. 

I wish you a pleasant time, 

Logan Logic Sanders 

Silence hung over the three for a few moments. 

“You think he’s pranking us?” Patton finally askes. Roman hums in consideration but Virgil scoffs. 

“Since when is Logan a prankster?” He pulls out the other sheets of paper from the folder. “These are definitely from him; I doubt even Deceit could fake them so accurately.” Truly, the schedule was color-coded and formatted in a manner that was very familiar. Roman pulls the papers out of Virgil’s grasp. He quickly scans it and whistles appreciatively. 

“This really is his best one yet, I must say.” 

“Where do you think he went?” Patton askes, his gaze fixed on the stairs. “He wrote he’s being provided for but what does that even mean?” The other two could immediately tell how worried he was. They exchange a quick glance and Roman puts a hand on Pat’s shoulder. 

“Well, there aren’t many places he could be... Him staying here in the mindscape would defeat the purpose of going on vacation. He could have gone to the dark side but I doubt that, it felt like he’s avoiding Deceit as well and if he’s in the imagination, I should be able to tell but I can’t feel him there...”  

“Where did you find this anyway?” Virgil askes and holds up the folder. 

“It was taped to his door.” 

“So you didn’t actually check his room, right?” Roman brightens. 

“I did not! Great idea, Hot Topic. Let’s go!” He runs back upstairs. 

“How does he have so much energy in the morning?” Virgil groans but he follows after him, Patton in tow. When they arrive upstairs, Logan’s door is wide open and Roman could be heard humming inside. Virgil immediately pales. 

“Princey, what the fu-” He glances at Patton. “-frick are you doing?” he hisses, not crossing the threshold. Roman, who was currently going through the papers on Logan’s desk, shoots him a look. 

“Searching for clues, like you suggested.” 

“I never said that!” 

“You said to check his room!” 

“I meant knock to see if he’s in here, not waltz in and go through his stuff!” 

“Why are you whisper-hissing? Logan’s not here, I already checked his bathroom, closet and under the bed.” 

“Why would you-? Ugh, never mind,” Virgil groans and does cautiously enter the room, followed by Patton who looks around curiously. 

“I haven’t really been in here for ages!” he gasps. Virgil furrows his brows. 

“You go to his room all the time though?” 

“Yeah, sure, to check on him. He doesn’t really invite me in though and I don’t wanna pry...” He takes another look around, this time more apprehensively. “It feels kinda wrong to be in here. Without his permission, I mean.” 

“That’s what I’m saying!” Virgil exclaims, biting at a nail nervously. “C’mon, we verified he’s not here, let’s go.” 

“Verified? Boy, the nerd’s room’s already getting to you, huh?” Roman scoffs and lays back a few papers he doesn’t find interesting. “And we haven’t found any clues yet, leaving would be a waste.” 

“Roman, we are not here to snoop through Logan’s stuff. We just wanted to confirm that he is not here.” Patton scolds, both he and Virgil are already back by the door. Roman rolls his eyes. 

“Hold on, I’m almost done. How is it that I’m the one who’s been in here the longest but I’m the least affected by the room?” he mumbles a bit loudly to not be intentional while checking around the desk. 

“No, Sherlock Homeinvader, we’re leaving,” Virgil insists, presses the folder he was still holding on to in Patton’s hands and goes over to him to drag him back himself as Roman dramatically gasps. 

“What do we have here?” he asks even more dramatically and bends down, grabbing something out of what appears to be Logan’s trash can. Virgil nose wrinkles. 

“Disgusting, dude.” 

“Relax, it’s just a bunch of paper. Well, paper and this!” He holds up a container. A very familiar container. Pickled Poo Logs, Remus’ favored snack. Easily recognizable by his face at the top, though there are dicks doodled over the rest of the label. Virgil immediately snatches it out of his hand. 

“Remus was here?” Patton hesitantly comes over to take a look himself. “Maybe Logan was just curious about it? He gets like that sometimes, you know?” His nervous tone sabotages his attempt at lightening the mood, especially since he doesn’t sound convincing, even to himself. 

“With dicks drawn all over it? No, Nerdy Wolverine would have asked for a clean one,” Roman comments and turns the case over in his hands, inspecting it. 

“You think Remus kidnapped him?” Virgil asks, panicked. 

“Considering the folder, unlikely. Oh, there’s the room’s effect!” Roman hums, pleased. “No, it is unlikely that Logan left involuntarily but he may have been tricked. Remus is an idiot but he’s not totally stupid. And he kind of fixated on our braincell after his introductory video.”  

“What has Remus done now?” calls an exasperated voice from the door. All three of them spin around to see Janus leaning against the doorframe, inspecting his gloved fingers with a small smirk on his lips. Virgil growls at him immediately and Janus rolls his eyes in response. “Oh, yes, please do keep acting like a guard dog, Virgil, it is so becoming of you.” Before he could snap back, Patton lays a hand on Virgil’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. He continues glaring but falls silent.

“Hello Janus, what brings you here?” Patton asks, trying to sound cheerful but even to Roman and Virgil it sounds forced. It doesn’t fool Janus for even a second.

“I went to the kitchen to make my morning cup of tea and no one else was there as usual so I decided to come up here for no reason at all.” His smirk stays however he seems to eye Patton very carefully who laughs nervously in response.

“Oh, sorry about that. We didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Oh, I wasn’t worried, merely… curious. You lot seldomly break your morning routine, especially Logan, so seeing him in particular absent from this group despite us being all gathered here in his room, I do wonder what is going on. Care to enlighten me?”

“We don’t care to. This is none of your business, leave Deceit!” Virgil practically spits. Janus tuts and shakes his head.

“On the contrary, dear Virgil, if this does indeed involve Remus, it is entirely my business. He has been acknowledged by Thomas, not accepted. It is still a part of my duty to reign him in from time to time. To make sure he does not hurt Thomas’ mental health excessively.”

“Oh yeah, you did a great job of that before the wedding,” Roman scoffs. Janus glares at him.

“In that instance I let him looser than normal precisely to protect Thomas’ mental health in the long run. He was pushing himself too much, acknowledging Remus’ presence was supposed to help him clear his head a little,” he hisses and Virgil snorts.

“That worked out so well.”

“Sssssshhut up!”

“Kiddos! Please, let’s not fight, we have more pressing things to deal with right now!” Virgil and Roman grumble but don’t interject. Janus looks defensive, still glaring at the two of them. “Logan is missing,” Patton continues. “He left us this note but it’s so unlike him, we aren’t sure if we should trust it. While we checked his room, Roman found one of Remus’ deodorants, so we suspect he might be involved somehow.” Apparently deciding to abandon his staring match with Virgil, Janus walks over to Patton and lays a hand on his shoulder.

“I understand the situation. Could I look at the note and the deodorant, please?”

“Oh, sure,” Patton says with a light blush and hands over the folder. Janus quietly thanks him before thumbing through the pages. The letter he looks at last.

“Ah, yes. I did indeed warn him about his habit to overwork himself a few times recently. If he is taking a break, then I am more inclined to let him do so.”

“We don’t want to stop him from taking a break!” Patton hastily clarifies. “We’re just worried about the how. We don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. And if Remus is involved, I don’t know how much of a break he is really getting…” He trails off at the end, staring at his feet. Janus hums and quickly walks over to Roman to pluck the deodorant out of his hands.

“Hey!” The prince protests, but Janus doesn’t pay him any mind. Instead, he looks over the case in his hand. Once he was finished, he drops it back into Roman’s hands who squawks at him offendedly.

“From recent conversations, it did seem like Remus was getting rather attached to Logan and I don’t think they have a bad relationship. It might very well be that Logan asked the Duke for his help in this matter.”

“As if,” Virgil pouts, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced of that himself. Janus ignores him.

“But if you feel like you need to check then I do have an idea where to look.” Patton beams at him.

“Really? Could you take us? Right now??”

“No way am I going anywhere with that snake!” Roman yells. “He might just be leading us into a trap!” Janus gives him an unimpressed look.

“And why would I do that? My job is to make sure Thomas’ mental health is in good shape. Getting all of you injured, or whatever you imagine I would want to do to you, would be nothing but counterproductive.”

“Like I believe that!”

“Regardless,” Janus says to brush off Roman’s protest who in turn only seems to get angrier, “I am afraid you do not have much of a choice. If the two are where I think they are, then you have no chance of getting there without a guide.”

“I can navigate Remus’ side of the Imagination just as well as my own, I do not need your help, Jack the Fibber!”

“I do not doubt that my prince. However, that place in particular is designed to keep unwanted visitors out. I doubt you would even find it, not to mention getting inside.”

“And what place would that be?” Virgil hisses before Roman can start yelling again.

“The library.”

“Remus… has a library?” Patton asks, doubt clear in his voice.

“No, he doesn’t. The fact that you do not know about it just proves my point. It is one of the most fortified buildings Remus has ever created. The layout constantly changes, there are traps and monsters roaming the halls.”

“If the layout changes, then why do you think you could take us there?” Patton interjects.

“Because there is one path that leads to the actual library within, and I mean only one path. Make one wrong turn or otherwise go off course and you will not find your way out easily. I got lost only once and I do not recommend it.”

“And why should we believe you?” Roman challenges, head raised high. Janus seems amused by his stubborn antagonism.

“I do not care if you believe me or not. You are the ones that want to check on Logan. I am only offering to take you since I had planned to go there soon anyway. And I need to see what Remus is doing from time to time. You can come along or not, it is totally. Up. To. You.” Janus emphasizes the last words by poking Roman lightly in the chest after each syllable, all the while smirking up at him. Roman continues to glare but he couldn’t quite repress the slight flush of his cheeks at Janus’ proximity. The snakelike side laughs lightly before making his way back to the door.

“I will leave after breakfast. You do what you think is right,” he calls over his shoulder before disappearing back down the hallway, leaving the others in silence.

“He has got to be tricking us, right?” Virgil growls after a few seconds. Roman nods in agreement but Patton looks thoughtful.

“I don’t think so. He has no reason to.”

“He’s Deceit, Patton. It’s all he knows.”

“Look, I know you both had your differences with him and I’m still adjusting too, but Janus is an integral part of Thomas, we cannot deny that anymore. I am sure he does not want anything truly bad to happen to any of us, so if this is a trick then it is probably only a small prank.” Virgil and Roman share a look of disbelief but Patton doesn’t stop there. “And besides, what other options do we have? Sit around and hope that Logan is truly okay? Or comb through Remus’ side on our own? Your powers barely work over there Roman, and the place is not small, right?”

“Right,” Roman admits with a sigh after a few seconds of silence. “And I am worried about Nerdy Wolverine, if we don’t do anything about this, I will go stir crazy, so I guess I can try and trust that snake for a bit.”

“Thank you, Ro!” Patton pulls him into a hug, beaming. Roman chuckles and pats his back.

“Yeah, yeah, anything for you, padre.” He turns to Virgil. “Are you going to come along?”

“…Fine,” Virgil grumbles, still clearly unhappy about the situation. “But if it turns out that he’s up to something, I am totally going to tell you ‘I told you so’.” Roman rolls his eyes.

“Sure, whatever makes you happy, Emo Nightmare.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The track through Remus’ side of the Imagination hadn’t been pleasant. The atmosphere was tense and Patton’s attempts to lighten the mood didn’t cheer anyone up. Roman and Virgil did their best to ignore Janus and the deceitful side himself accepted their stubbornness quietly. Only Patton really talked, though even he gave up after a while. Thankfully, they didn’t come across any of Remus’ monsters but the landscape they had to track through was nightmarish enough and won’t be discussed here. Now they stood before their apparent goal.

“This… is it?” Roman asks, doubtfully. The building in front of them is a rather cliché-looking mansion from horror games. It is a wide, stone structure with two floors that seems to have high ceilings. It’s dark and intimidating looking though on closer inspection, the construction style seems to change randomly. A different kind of stone here, another window frame there. Apparently, Remus stitched together different buildings and haphazardly added details wherever it pleased him. For example, the house of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas is sticking out of the roof, completely intact but just… there.

What stands out most though, is the glass dome further back on the building. Not because it is the most impressive but because it’s the only thing that is illuminated, emitting a soft yellow glow. All the other windows are pitch black.

“Not satisfied, Roman?” Janus smirks.

“Well, yes. I expected more from my brother’s so-called masterpiece!”

“I definitely called it his masterpiece,” Janus says as he rolls his eyes. “And the interior is the more impressive part. The exterior Remus changes every so often when he gets new inspiration. I think the last remodeling came after Thomas researched that giant lady and the game she’s in.”

“You mean the one you stole your skirt look from?” Virgil smiles, mischievously.

“Yes, because my look wasn’t almost finished by the time Thomas found out about her!” Janus hisses at him with a glare. Virgil shows him his tongue.

“Kiddos, please stop. We’re here for Logan, let’s concentrate!” Patton tries to encourage teamwork but again is not really successful.

“Ugh, fine,” Virgil scoffs and glares at Janus one last time before turning back to the building in front of them.

“Let’s just get this over with. Remus’ side always gives me chills,” Roman complains.

“Very well.” Janus adjusts his gloves before clearing his throat. “Once we enter, as I haven’t told you before, there is one path we need to follow, so I need you to listen to my instructions carefully and let me take the lead. I know it’s very hard for you to go along with other people’s plan but trust me on this one, Roman.” He grins over at the prince whose face is turning red in anger. Before he can explode, Patton steps in.

“No provocation from you either, Janus! If we have to rely on you as you say, then make an effort to be reliable in return!” He leans close to Janus and pouts, giving him his best I’m-disappointed-in-you-and-I-know-you-can-do-better look.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop as well.” Janus waves him off. “The instructions can be stupidly specific sometimes, at one point we will have to stick to one side of a corridor, for example, but there will also be traps, distractions and monsters. Though – and make sure to remember that – nothing truly dangerous can access the path. So even if something comes charging at us, I need you to stay calm and not run around like headless chickens. I will not save you from your own stupid decisions.”

“Oh yes, so trustworthy. Thank you greatly for your generosity.” Roman rolls his eyes and Patton shots him a slight glare, making him huff but refrain from further comments. Janus ignores him completely.

“Our goal is the dome and usually it should take not over half an hour to arrive there.” Now Roman looks sceptic for a different reason.

“If we just need to get to the dome then can’t we just climb the building and get in from the roof?”

“Oh yes, what a great plan, I can’t believe I have never thought of that before!” Janus exclaims, hand on his heart but quickly drops the act. “The interior and exterior aren’t connected like that. Since Remus shifts the inside around as much, no window or door – other than the main entrance – connect to a specific room. It will just drop you randomly somewhere in the mansion. And as I’ve stated before, that is not something you want to happen. So no, we can’t do this like a heist movie.” Roman looks angry again but doesn’t comment. Patton pats him on the shoulder (which only seems to sour his mood more) before addressing Janus.

“Alright, we will follow your lead.” he says with a smile. Janus nods at him stiffly before moving towards the front door without another word, the others following behind him with tense expressions (though Patton tries, and fails, to hide his).

The door to the mansion is made of a heavy, red wood that Janus pushes open without hesitation. Behind it lies… a rather normal looking entrance hall. There is a long carpet that leads to the grand staircase in the middle of the room. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling and the decoration is tasteful. Or rather, it used to be. As impressive as the hall is, it is rotting away. There’s dust everywhere, as well as spiderwebs and the air is thick and unpleasant.

“This place has so much potential if my brother bothered to take care of it,” Roman huffs as he looks around. Janus doesn’t respond but instead gives more instructions.

“Follow behind me in a line. And please do walk next to each other, that wouldn’t be risky at all.” After saying that, he moves toward the back of the hall, left of the staircase where a door is situated. “Behind here is where the dangerous path starts. Be. Very. Careful,” Janus stresses, looking back at the others who had followed him.

“Will do!” Patton responds, with faux cheerfulness. Roman and Virgil sigh but they do line up. Their marching order is Janus, Patton, Virgil and Roman in the back. The first few hallways and rooms they pass aren’t all that bad. They have a few disgusting gimmicks – bleeding walls, gooey carpets, a mirror that insults you when you stand before it – but nothing too severe. The first truly shocking room (though it really should have been expected, in hindsight) they come across is…

“Is this the playroom from Fifty Shades of Grey?” Virgil asks after they all simply stared at the contents of the room for a few moments.

“Thomas hasn’t even seen that movie!” Roman exclaims, very red in the face. He is also holding Patton’s glasses to protect his purity while Virgil holds his hand while he is effectively blind. Janus shrugs his shoulders.

“The scene has been referenced in enough videos and interviews that we have a basic understanding of what happened in it. And that might have been where Remus got the idea from, but he definitely modified it to be more to his taste. It is a room for BDSM though.”

“How… How do you know that?” Roman asks, still very much embarrassed.

“… Just be grateful that there are no people in here today,” is all Janus is willing to admit before heading towards the door that allows them to continue. The corridor behind it is dimly lit and a few lights even flicker. Janus leads them on confidently, the others follow him back in line and with Patton’s glasses returned to their owner. However, the creepy feeling of the hallway has Patton continue to cling onto Virgil’s hand, who is the side of the group most comfortable with horror. Roman has one hand on his sheathed sword – that he had strapped to his side before they entered Remus’ side of the imagination – and the other has a tight grip on Virgil’s hoodie. The anxious side isn’t very happy about how the two clinging to him limits his movement, but he can understand their worries, so he lets it slide.

“Did you hear that?” Patton squeaks out and for a moment Virgil doesn’t know what he means before a thump echoes down the hallway. They freeze, bringing Roman to a stop behind them.

“What’s wro- “

“Shhhhhh!” The rumbling becomes louder and now Janus notices that they had stopped following. He, unlike Roman can guess as to why so he just waits ahead in slight annoyance. He had warned them before entering, he won’t tell them again. By now Roman had caught on and he grips the sword tightly, ready to draw.

Ahead of them, a monster comes around the corner. It has the body of a gorilla and walks on all fours, but its head is that of a snake and a pair of wings grow from its back. That would have been enough to scare Patton, maybe even Roman, but the most noticeable and gruesome attribute of the monster were its injuries. Maybe it was supposed to be a kind of zombie, since there are large chunks of flesh missing from its gorilla body, other patches lacked fur and again others ooze a liquid that may have been blood if it wasn’t so obviously sticky.

The snake head isn’t fairing much better. It misses some scales and there are a few black spots that might have been burn marks. One of the wings seems undamaged though its partner looks all the worse for it. There are hardly any feathers left and the bones that are now left exposed seem broken in a few places and hang limply in a way that looks very, very wrong.

The monster spots them easily, makes a noise that sounds vaguely like a mix of a hiss and a roar and charges at them. Roman curses quietly and quickly pushes Virgil and Patton behind him. Janus looks unbothered, he is leaning against the wall and waits for it to be over. The monster gains more and more speed (considering the length of the corridor, it doesn’t make sense how long the charge takes), sprinting at them, until – oh so suddenly – it collides with something and crashes to the ground. Roman, Virgil and Patton stare at it with open mouths.

“I told you: as long as we stick to the path, nothing can hurt us,” Janus explains nonchalantly before resuming his way down the corridor, towards the beast that twitches on the ground. The others stare at it a moment longer before they hurry after Janus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few corridors and rooms were not all that difficult. One hallway was filled with spike traps that they had to avoid, and they passed three different torture rooms, all with different equipment. Janus explained that Remus liked to separate them by era and country, so he had, for example, one room filled with torture instruments used in the witch hunts in Germany from 1550 to 1650. And while they weren’t nice to look at, the rooms were empty and so it was left to their own imaginations as to how the instruments might have been used.

The next impactful incident happens in a corridor with a ceiling that falls down and crushes everyone beneath it. To avoid it, Janus told them to stick as close to the right wall of the hallway as possible. Their pace is significantly slower this way but none of them wanted to be squished so they carefully set one foot in front of the other.

“We’re almost there,” Janus calls to the others. The passage isn’t all that long but with the literally looming threat, it sure feels like it.

“Pat, you’re not stepping right,” Virgil hisses and pulls him more to the side.

“Sorry!” the moral side squeaked. “I think my glasses are smudged a bit. It makes it hard to see.”

“Oh, sorry, padre. That might have been me when I held them for you,” Roman apologizes.

“It’s alright, kiddo. I do it myself all the time.”

“Well, better clean them before one of your feet get crushed. Everyone stop!” Virgil commands and though he seems annoyed, Janus complies. Patton gives them an apologetic smile before taking his glasses off to wipe them clean with his shirt as best as he can.

Unable to hold still, Roman shuffles a bit on the ground and that’s when he makes a mistake. One of his feet lands too far away and a click comes from the ceiling. With a whoosh and a bang, part of the ceiling comes down. Virgil startles so bad that he lunges forward a bit, upsetting Patton’s balance and sending him to the floor, taking Janus with him. Thankfully, they don’t trigger another trap, but Patton’s glasses fall to the ground and skitter down the hallway.

“Are you alright?” Virgil asks, frantically, moving to help Patton up.

“I’m fine, but my glasses…”

“Do not worry, I will get them back for you!” Roman proclaims before starting to climb over Virgil and Patton still on the floor to get to the front.

“Watch it, Prince Douche!”

“I am, Emo Bitch!”

“Language!”

Roman manages to get past both of them and Janus before the latter grips his arm to stop him.

“Don’t!” he hisses. Roman eyes him skeptically.

“And why not, oh Great Deceiver?” he mocks.

“Because we need to make a right here! The glasses are off the path!” Understanding blooms on Roman’s face and he looks back towards the glasses, a few feet away from the crossing they need to take.

“I can’t just grab them real quick and come back?”

“No. Once you’re off the path you can’t just turn around. I doubt you’ll even be able to still see us then.”

“It’s okay,” Patton calls from the back. He and Virgil are back on their feet. “I have a spare pair in my room, if you guide me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Again, I’m so sorry, Padre.”

“Please stop apologizing, it’s really fine, promise!” Patton smiles but his eyes are obviously not focusing on Roman and it’s apparent just how little he can see like this.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Virgil mumbles and leads him forward and into the crossing where they are safe from more falling ceilings.

“It’s not fine,” Janus suddenly speaks up. All eyes turn to him (or where Patton thinks he is). “We’re almost at the library but Remus, as charming as he is, of course made the last stretch the most annoying. Most of the time it’s a ladder we will need to climb with traps all over them to try and get you to fall over and over and over again. I can warn you about the ones I spot but if Patton can’t see them himself, he won’t be able to avoid them properly. We need to get his glasses somehow…”

The three with working eyes pondered for a bit before Roman speaks up.

“I think Virgil might be able to reach if he lays on the ground…”

“Why me?!”

“You’re the tallest.”

“By a few inches at best!”

“Well, those few inches might just be what we need here,” Janus chimes in and Virgil glares at him.

“C’mon, Beetlejuice, you want to get out of here, right? And we can’t leave Patton behind.”

“Really, kiddos, it’s fine! I’ll manage… somehow.”

“Yes, keep saying that, it’s sooo helpful!”

“Don’t take it out on him!”

“Just stop it!” Roman yells over the chaos. “Virgil please. I’ll hold on to your foot, it’ll be fine!” Virgil eyes him for a moment before he sighs.

“Fine but you use that,” he taps against Roman’s sash, “to secure my foot. I don’t trust your milky hands.”

“Milky?!”

“Ugh, just do it!” Janus groans and is met with two glares for his effort but both Roman and Virgil get to work. With the red band firmly bound around Virgil’s shoe and Roman’s hand, the former carefully lies on the floor. Just as he is about to start robbing over to the glasses, a door down the hallway opens and a figure emerges. Virgil stares at it in disbelief.

“Why Pyramid Head?!” Indeed, the creature now slowly making its way toward them, knife dragging across the floor, was the iconic monster from Silent Hill 2. Janus is the first to regain his composure.

“At least he’s slow! Quickly grab the glasses before he gets over there!”

“Easy for you to say- “

“Stop arguing, please,” Patton begs from his position against the wall of the next corridor they would traverse. Virgil grumbles under his breath but makes his way forward. And so does Pyramid Head.

It’s like watching a (very slow) head-to-head race toward the finish line. Robbing forward on his stomach, Virgil is about as fast as Pyramid Head’s walking speed. Inch by inch, Virgil gets closer to the reach of the gigantic knife still dragging along the floor. The creature doesn’t even need to get to him, just close enough to swing its weapon.

Virgil’s ankle leaves the path as he gets close enough to try and reach the glasses. And if Pyramid Head used its blade right now, it might have a chance to hit but still it moves forward, into a position where it is more likely to strike true.

Virgil’s fingertips hit the frame. Just a little bit more. Half of his foot is still within the barrier. Roman has a firm grip on the sash. Virgil’s hand closes around the glasses and Pyramid Head raises his knife to swing down.

“Got them!”

“Janus! Help me pull him back!” Roman calls as he holds Virgil’s shoe with his tied-up hand and places the other on his ankle. Immediately, the other is beside him, grabs onto his arms and pulls. And not a second too late. The knife lands where Virgil’s head had been moments before, and Roman and Janus fall onto their asses while Virgil is trying to catch his breath and to not go into a full-blown anxiety attack.

“What happened?? Are you okay?” Patton calls over, worriedly.

Roman lets out a breathless, unbelieving laugh and collapses onto his back, the adrenaline rushing through him. Which turned out to be good because as soon as his head hits the ground, a click comes from the ceiling once again.

“Shit-!” Quickly Roman rolls to the side before his head is flattened by the trap. He must’ve moved within its range by an inch. Janus stares at him in disbelief.

“How are you alive?”

“I’m too fabulous to die.” The ridiculous response got Virgil to laugh and forget his panic for long enough to calm down.

“Guys?” Again, Patton tries to get their attention.

“We’re all fine, Pat. And I’ve got your glasses, hold on.” Virgil climbs to his feet, wipes the lenses on his hoodie to clean them as best he could before heading over to Patton and pushing them onto his nose. “How’s that?” Patton doesn’t answer, just pulls him into a hug.

“Thanks, kiddo.”

“Um… Sure. No problem,” Virgil mumbles nervously. Patton gives him a smile before looking over to the other two that are in the process of standing up. On the other side of the barrier, Pyramid Head has lost interest and was now moving away again. The sides pay him no mind.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad, right?” Roman comes over to Virgil and Patton with a grin, Janus on his heels.

“Speak for yourself, princey. I’m so ready to get out of here.”

“I’m having so much fun with this. Let’s go, sadly, we’re almost there.” Janus takes the lead once again and the others follow. They pass through one more room, a laboratory of sorts with lots of blood on most of the surfaces (thankfully, the floor is mostly clean), before they enter what seems to be an elevator shaft. And indeed, the only way forward is a ladder.

“How surprising,” Janus mutters under his breath before turning back toward the others. “As I’ve said before, this part is not really dangerous, but pretty annoying. There will be traps to try and get you to fall but even if you do, you will fall slowly. Remus implemented this more as a prank than anything else. I’ll tell you about what I spot but we may need several tries.”

“Okay, we’ll trust you to not let us down,” Patton says with a wink. Janus stares at him with a blank look.

“That was terrible.” Then he starts to climb, Patton after him, then Virgil and Roman is in the back again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They do indeed need more than five tries to get to the top. It was especially annoying that Patton fell for the same trap twice, requiring the rest to wait where they were until he climbed up again. Their arms are gonna be sore tomorrow for sure. But they had finally made it.

The ladder ended in another corridor but this one was clean and wonderfully decorated in greens and silver. Portraits line the walls, most of them of Remus himself, but there is one of Janus and one of both together. Most peculiar are two others however. One shows Remus grinning, arm out to the side, probably hugging someone but the other half of the painting is missing. The second is simply an empty frame.

“Self-centered much?” Roman scoffs.

“Oh yeah, like you don’t have at least a dozen different self-portraits in your castle, Prince of Narcissists,” Virgil retorts. Janus doesn’t pay any attention to the banter or the pictures for that matter. He strides ahead with purpose. Patton watches him in concern, but he feels like this isn’t a moment to pry.

At the end of the corridor is an enormous double door, also in green and silver. The handles, however, are made of gold.

“Does he have some sort of obsession with Slytherin or something?” Again, it’s Roman commenting. Janus hisses at him in disdain.

“For your information, he is a Gryffindor, same as you. And his second choice would be Ravenclaw. No, green and silver just happen to be his favorite colors.”

“Jeez, sorry.” Roman holds up his hands in surrender. “What made you so cranky?”

“Please, keep talking.” Janus rolls his eyes. “Let’s just get it over with.” He grabs the handle on one side and pushes, Patton quickly helps him with the other. Slowly the heavy material gives away and swings open. And suddenly their vision is filled with green.

In front of them is a jungle and as they take the first steps in, the humid air hits them. Birds can be heard singing somewhere but none of them are able to spot them. They stand in a clearing, although the tree line that surrounds them is only about ten feet from them. The trees themselves tower over them, their leaves lush and green, vines hanging between them. The ground is littered with bushes and plants and only one way seems to lead further inward, its stones wide and beautiful. As they look up into the sky, they can see the glass of the dome incasing them, the sun beaming down outside. Which was weird since when they had been in front of the building the weather had been quite dreary.

“Are we… really in the right place?” Patton asks, his voice hushed as if he was afraid of breaking the serenity of their surroundings by being too loud.

“Yes, we are. If you look closely, you can see a few shelves on the far side of the dome.” Janus points upward and the others follow his line of sight. Indeed, quite a ways away, they could see some brown structures following the curve of the dome.

“How are the books not falling?” Virgil questions, his eyes squinted to make out anything in the first place. Roman snorts.

“This is the imagination, Doubtful Central. Remus doesn’t want them to fall, so they don’t fall.” Virgil sticks out his tongue at the prince’s condescending tone. Patton lightly scolds them to stop fighting. Janus clears his throat.

“We need to track along the path for a bit until we reach a river. Behind it is the library.”

“And hopefully Logan,” Patton sighs. “I hope he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he is, padre. You know our nerd, he isn’t easy to beat,” Roman jokes, his hand squeezing Patton’s shoulder in support. Patton smiles at him.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“I’m always right!”

“You wish, princey.”

“Kiddos…” Patton almost sounds defeated and Janus pats him on the shoulder in sympathy.

“He used to be like that with Remus, too. It’ll be fine.” Patton nods and gives Janus a grateful smile. He, in turn, gives a nod in acknowledgment back and turns to back to the bickering two. “I hate to interrupt you but one more warning. Watch your feet in there. There are some books that have gone… wild.” The others stare at him a moment.

“He stole the Monster Book of Monsters, didn’t he?”

“… He created something similar at least.”

With a groan from Virgil, the group sets out and follows the path. Even though it is made of stone, there are still quite a few branches and vines to dodge. The jungle isn’t quiet either, various sounds resounding in the air. Rustling in the bushes, noises that might belong to a kind of monkey, the birds’ continuous songs. A collage of different sounds that is almost overwhelming.

Roman keeps one hand on the hilt of his sword in case one of the animals decide to come their way, his eyes scanning the trees continuously. Patton clutches one of Virgil’s hands in his own, both also checking their surroundings nervously. Meanwhile, Janus’ eyes are fixated on the ground.

After they had walked for a few minutes, the tension drops a bit. Most of the jungle’s inhabitants seem to go out of their way on their own without hostility. In that moment, a bush on the right side rustles suddenly, then one to the left and unbelievably quickly, two books shoot out of the greenery and try attacking the groups feet. Patton screams and jumps into Virgil’s arms whose eyeshadow turned a very deep black.

“Just give them a good kick, that usually scares them off!” Janus calls over the ruckus Patton is making, mostly directed at Roman who had unsheathed his sword. He is trying to stab the books, but their binding is quite resistant, and he can’t really get a good hit in. As he hears the call however, he shoots a quick look over to Janus, who has taken a few steps away to protect himself, before swinging his leg with all his might, hitting one book directly into the spine and sending it flying into the canopy.

The second one snarls and turns its attention from Virgil, whose shoe it had been trying to chew through, to Roman, and (again quicker than you would expect from a thing with no legs) darts toward him, in a zig-zag pattern so it wouldn’t suffer the same fate as its companion.

“Shit,” Roman curses, earning a weak ‘Language!’ from Patton who was calming down now that the book wasn’t focused on him and Virgil anymore. Roman tries to land another hit but the book is too fast and lunges forward, most likely to bite him in the leg.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Virgil’s heel digs into the cover, throwing the book back down to the ground. It whimpers and quickly disappears back into the bushes. With heavy breaths does Virgil set his foot back down, Patton still in his arms. Roman whistles.

“Damn, Hot Topic! You’re stronger than I thought.”

“Well,” Virgil shrugs while Patton climbs down, “fight-or-flight, remember?” Roman laughs and pats him on the shoulder.

“Right, right.” They smile at each other for a moment before Patton speaks up.

“Where’s Janus?” Surprised, the three quickly take a look around. The deceitful side was nowhere in sight.

“I knew that slimy snake could not be trusted!” Roman yells angrily. Virgil has a similarly dark look. Patton doesn’t look convinced.

“Maybe he just went ahead? It’s not like there are any other paths we can follow, so he could have just gone ahead to scout for more bad books?”

“You really are too trusting, padre,” Roman scoffs. “But you are right, there is only one path to follow, might as well take it. Turning around now would be pointless anyway.” He and Virgil start walking forward. Patton nervously gnaws at his lip, not liking how this is turning out at all.

They do find Janus not all that far up ahead. He is crouching down in front of a bush, apparently muttering to himself. The path had winded at bit and with the branches in the way they hadn’t been able to spot him earlier. Still, Roman continues to be mad and stomps over to him.

“So now is the point where you try to abandon us?? Just what is your game, snake?!” Janus looks over his shoulder, as calmly as ever.

“Abandoning you was definitely my intention,” he scoffs before turning back around, reaching for something, and standing back up after. When he then turns to face them fully, he is holding a long, yellow snake in his arms that is winding itself around his torso. “This is Jake, I used to keep him in my room, but he took a liking to the jungle, so I let him live here, most of the time at least.” Jake stops his climbing and watches them for a moment, his tongue flickering out.

“Aww!” Patton coos before stepping a bit closer. “Can I pet him?”

“Sure, he doesn’t bite. Most of the time.” But the moral side has already stopped listening, instead stroking the snake’s head which he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Roman, who had been a bit stunned at the sudden animal in Janus’ hands, regains his composure.

“So why did you disappear then?” he demands. Janus shrugs.

“I figured you could handle two books with no actual teeth and Jake called out to me, so I went ahead to find him. There is only one path after all, I doubted you could manage to get lost.” Roman is practically fuming but Patton interjects before he can blow up.

“You can speak with him??”

“Yes. You really think Thomas modeled me after a snake and didn’t give me the ability to speak Parseltongue?”

“Cool!” Patton whispers, staring at Janus with wide eyes, who looks a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. He clears his throat.

“Anyway. Jake tells me that Remus is indeed here. And he’s not alone.” Immediately, Virgil’s gaze snaps to him.

“Logan?”

“Most likely. Jake has never met him before, but the description fits.”

“You don’t sound all that sure.” Janus shrugs.

“He’s just a snake. He doesn’t lie to me, but he could be wrong.”

“We should hurry,” Patton says with determination, pulling his hand back. Jake hisses in displeasure from losing the scritches he was receiving. Janus rolls his eyes.

“Come back with me today and I’ll scratch you wherever you like.” That seems to please the snake since he gives another, smaller hiss and continues his winding around Janus until he finds a comfortable position.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They continue along the path for another few minutes without incident. Some bushes rustled but no more books tried to attack them. Finally, they could hear the sound of rushing water. The river must be near. Unconsciously, they increase their pace until they end up before a cliff, the path just suddenly ending there. The cliff isn’t all that high, only a few feet away from the rushing stream. Some type of fish jumping out of its waters every now and again. The jungle continued to the left and right of them, no bridge in sight.

“Um… How do we get across?” Patton asks, eyeing the drop. Janus takes a second to answer, not focused on the below but the beyond.

“We don’t,” he finally answers.

“What’s that supposed to mean??” Virgil demands, yet again glaring at him. Janus shrugs while he pats Jake’s head, eyes still focused ahead of them.

“This place is one of Remus’ most treasured places and there are times when even he wants to be left alone. If he doesn’t want anyone to come here, he simply removes the bridge. There is nothing we can do.”

“So we made this entire trip for nothing?!”

“I wouldn’t say that. Look.” Janus points ahead. The others reluctantly follow his gaze. None of them have really focused on the other side yet, too preoccupied with trying to go further.

A few more trees stand along the cliff but way less dense than on their side. The path continues for a few more feet before it ends at the steps of a lightly raised wooden platform, the true start of the library. Behind a reading area, rows and rows of bookcases tower, each row bigger than the one before it until the ones merging with the wall that reach way, way higher, following the curve of the dome and still somehow letting the natural light from outside shine through.

What Janus was referring to, however, is the aforementioned seating area. Among the few tables and chairs, are some sofas, beanbags, stools, and various other seating opportunities, all in different styles and colors. Because of course Remus would never settle on one theme alone. Only one of those seats was currently occupied though.

Lying on a chaise longue, turned towards them, with a book in his hand and a steaming cup on a small table beside him, is Logan. Seemingly without a worry, their nerd is relaxed and reading. Without looking away from the pages, he reaches over, takes the cup and sips whatever drink it contains before placing it back down without a second though. It seems like their worrying had been unnecessary.

“He looks fine, right?” Virgil says, though he sounds rather nervous, and he raises his thumb to bite at the nail. Patton instinctively stops him.

“That’s good, right?” he adds, also not sounding quite convinced. Janus watches their reactions without commenting. He hadn’t been worried about the logical side, he just wanted to avoid the others working themselves up over the next few days with their wild theories.

“It is too early to say yet!” Roman proclaims. “That could just be an illusion to fool us. To let our guard down! I will not leave until I spoke with him in person.”

“Nobody said anything about leaving though?” Virgil mutters. Roman ignores him.

“But we can’t reach him,” Patton objects. “How do you wanna do that?”

“Hmm…” Roman hums and takes another look at the raging water below them. “It’s not that far across. If I jump far enough, I’m sure I could make it. And I’m an excellent climber and swimmer!”

“I would advise against that,” Janus speaks up, Roman immediately eyeing him suspiciously.

“And why is that? Huh?”

“Oh, my mistake. I assumed you would be able to recognize piranhas when you see them.” Quickly, Roman’s eyes flickered back to the river and the fish still jumping out of it occasionally. “I’m also pretty sure Remus put some sharks in there just because he could. And I mean the bloodthirsty kind.” Patton’s face is now white as chalk and Virgil had a firm grip on Roman’s sleeve.

“Fine, fine!” the prince exclaims. “No swimming, I get it!” He gestures widely and Virgil lets go of him, turning away, his ears pink in embarrassment. “Then I guess we have no other choice!”

“And what choice would that be?” Janus asks, eyebrow raised. Roman grins at him before cupping his hands over his mouth and yelling at the top of his lungs:

“LOGAN! OVER HERE! HEY! ACROSS THE RIVER!” The other three slap their hands over their ears, glaring at the prince. Roman doesn’t quiet down however, until Logan obviously takes note of them. Then he switches to waving widely. Janus rubs his temples; he has had about enough for today. Patton joins in on the waving though less enthusiastically. Virgil buries his hands in his pockets and shrinks back.

Logan does not look happy to see them. Not that they could make out much from the distance in terms of facial expressions, but he had gone stiff once he realized what was happening. He bookmarks his page before setting the book down and stands up. He turns away for a moment and Janus thinks he can hear him calling out to Remus, but the rushing of the water makes it hard to be sure. Afterwards, Logan makes his way over to them, down the steps and toward the edge of the cliff where he stops. Now they could make out the frown on his face more clearly.

“What are you doing here?” he calls over, sounding displeased. Roman hesitates to answer because of his tone, so Patton speaks up instead.

“We were worried about you, kiddo! You just up and vanished and we didn’t know where to!”

“I am aware, that was intentional. Did you not find the folder?”

“We did, but we weren’t really sure if we could trust it,” Virgil explains. Having to yell over the sound of rushing water quickly became annoying.

“What do you mean, you weren’t sure if you could trust it?” Logan frown deepens but before one of them could answer, Remus appears behind him suddenly.

“Boo!” he yells, grinning all the while. Logan rolls his eyes but doesn’t react further. Roman stiffens, Patton bites his lips and Virgil buries deeper into his hoodie in displeasure. Janus is standing to the side, petting Jake, and acting like this situation doesn’t involve him.

Remus cackles at their reactions before saying something to Logan and summoning what appears to be a soundboard. He lowers a few regulators and immediately their surroundings quiet down. The river now sounds distant, like the cliff just became a few miles deeper than before, the rustling of the leaves falls quiet, as do the birds. The surreal situation stuns all of them for a moment.

“There! That’s better, right?”

“Thank you, Remus,” Logan says before turning back to the others, not having to yell anymore. “Now please continue your explanation of why you did not heed my instructions?”

“Well, um…” Patton tries to find the right words, but before he can, Janus speaks up.

“Remus, please unmute your brother.” Everyone turns to look at Roman whose face is red and seemingly trying to yell but no sound comes out. Quickly all eyes turn back to Remus who is pouting.

“Do I have to?”

“If you don’t want them to continue assuming that you kidnapped our dear Logan over there, than you might want to consider not annoying them, yes,” Janus shrugs, apparently not really caring whether Roman gets his voice back or not. Logan raises an eyebrow and shifts his focus back toward his fellow light sides.

“You assume I was kidnapped?”

“It all happened so suddenly; we didn’t know what to think!” Patton tries to explain, eyes jumping between Logan, Roman and Remus. “Please give him his voice back,” he begs after a moment of Logan glaring at them, obviously not happy with the answer.

“But-!” Remus starts to whine before Logan puts a hand on his arm and in a low tone says: “It will only make this take even longer. Please just do it so we can get this over with?”

“Ugh, fine!” Remus groans before flicking one regulator back up but not to full volume.

“You stinking rat, I’ll run you through with my sword!” Roman yells, or at least tries to, only managing to raise his voice a little louder than his normal speaking tone. He glares at his brother when he realizes this, who flips him off in return.

“Stop fighting, kiddos, please.”

“He started it!” Roman protests but Patton just shrugs.

“And we came here without permission. Plus, we’re here to talk to Logan, not to antagonize Remus.” The prince clicks his tongue but doesn’t say any more. Remus laughs.

“Yes, listen to your Daddy, Ro-bro! Or you might get spanked later!” Logan squeezes his arm that he was still holding on to and frowns at him.

“You stop starting fights as well, Rem. I just want them to leave.”

“You know how to shut me up,” Remus grins and wiggles his eyebrows. Logan simply gives him an unimpressed stare. After a few seconds, he drops the grin and sighs. “Fine, fine. You deal with them, and I’ll go play with Bruce.” He summons his tentacles before diving into the river below. Patton gasps.

“Is he okay?!”

“He’s fine. It’s his realm so nothing he creates here will do him harm unless he wants it to,” Roman reassures, almost too quiet. Regulating his volume is going to be hard for a bit and he already looks annoyed by it. Patton nods at his reassurance before turning back to Logan.

“Where were we, kiddo?” The logical side, who had also followed Remus’ decent with his eyes, looks back up and returns to frowning.

“You were attempting to explain why you assumed I was kidnapped despite me leaving clear instructions to prove the contrary.”

“It was just very unlike you, Lo,” Virgil chimes in, still deeply buried into his hoodie. “You didn’t say anything beforehand, and we thought Deceit or the Duke might have forged the folder.”

“Exactly! And then we found my brother’s atrocious deodorant case in your trash and…” Roman trails off as he realizes what he just said.

“You… went through my trash?” Logan is now undoubtedly seething, glaring at them with cold eyes.

“Well, you see…” Roman tries to explain with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head. Patton looks just as likely to come up with an excuse, so Virgil speaks up again.

“I asked Princey over there to check if you were in your room or not. He took that as an invitation to go snooping.”

“Very helpful, Doom and Gloom!”

“Well, it was your fault!”

“And you didn’t have to tell him that!”

“So,” Logan interrupts, voice calm but so icy that the others shiver, “let me make sure I understood this right. You found my notes and instead of trusting me and my ability to decide for myself, your first thought was that I was some damsel in distress that needed rescuing? And in your attempt to be the heroes once again you invaded my privacy as well?!” He continually got louder and louder, clearly very much angry.

“Logan, calm down, we just-“ Patton tries to interject but Logan continues, probably not even noticing that the other had spoken.

“You trust me so little, that you cannot even consider that I make decisions for my own well-being without consulting you? After pushing me aside again and again, you concluded that I cannot take care of myself? I have listed reasons for my decision in the letter I left you. Did you even consider those? Or did you assume that I would continue to let you figuratively walk all over me?” Logan takes a few deep breaths, the others stunned into silence. Once he feels like he is back in control of himself, the logical side continues, in his normal speaking voice.

“To me it is obvious that our current co-existence is neither beneficial to Thomas nor ourselves. We continue to figuratively turn in circles and no issues are truly being resolved. We all are stressed out, which makes finding a compromise even more unlikely. I had discussions on this topic with both Janus and Remus, as well as smaller conversations with all of you, if you cared to remember. And the conclusion I reached in the end was that we needed to take a step back and reevaluate. So, in order to do that, I asked Remus to help me arrange a place to stay for a few days to give us all time to reflect. He ended up inviting me here, to his library and I decided to extend my original idea into a vacation. I assure you, this all happened through my own volition.” With his arms crossed, he stares at the others, apparently awaiting an answer. Patton was the first to find his voice.

“We’re so sorry, kiddo. To us it was just a very sudden turn of events and we panicked. We should have trusted you more.”

“I trust him!” Roman huffs. “It’s Deceit and my brother that I don’t trust!” He points a finger accusingly towards Janus, who had continued to silently watch from the side and now raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment. Roman addresses Logan directly. “You said you talked with them about your plan but how do you know that it wasn’t part of theirs all along?!”

“Their plan to do what exactly?”

“To drive us apart, obviously! Ever since that snake showed up, we keep fighting! It must be his fault; he wants us to not trust each other so that he can influence Thomas!” Roman’s rant was undermined by his inability to truly raise his voice and none of the others seem convinced. Not even Virgil. Logan sighs.

“I understand that Janus’ past action have hurt you, Roman, but you need to accept that he is not the villain you make him out to be. He is doing his best to protect Thomas, as we all do. And he is not always in the right, none of us are. As much as I hate admitting it, my plans and wishes for Thomas are not always the answer either, which is why I try to incorporate your suggestions into my planning. But since you all seem to refuse to acknowledge my contributions in the same way, Thomas ends up neglecting his responsibilities. I would not let Janus make all the decisions, but he deserves to voice his opinions as much as the rest of us.”

“But he lured you away!”

“As I’ve already said, the decision was mine alone. Janus was the one who brought the idea of a vacation up to me first, that is true, but I was the one to decide to ask Remus for help and not discuss it with you beforehand.”

“And why didn’t you?” Virgil chimes in. Logan glances at him before turning his eyes toward the sky.

“I was trying to avoid this exact conversation. I am tired of justifying myself to you all. I needed a break, somewhere you cannot easily get to. As I’m sure you have noticed on your way here, this library is exactly what I was looking for. I am frustrated, maybe even angry with you. I raised my voice against you earlier, which I did not want to do but I just cannot hold back anymore. I need this distance from you for a while. I need to sort out my” – he stops and bites his lips for a moment before continuing – “feelings and I do not have the room or time to do so properly while in the mindscape with you all. I had hoped that I would be able to explain this to you when I came back but you couldn’t wait, apparently.”

“And you expect us to trust them in the meantime?” Roman growls, again pointing towards Janus and then down towards the river where Remus disappeared to. Logan glares at him.

“No, Roman. I expect you to trust me for once. I can take care of myself, I can defend myself against your brother and I can do so better than you, as we all have seen before.” Roman goes red in the face and tries to retort, but Patton holds him back.

“Enough. Logan’s right, we’re in the wrong here.”

“But padre-!”

“No buts, mister.” A giggle is heard from down below. “We jumped to conclusions and came here without permission. Logan is allowed to make his own choices and while I’m not happy about it either, we should trust him.” He pats Roman on the shoulder before turning back to Logan. “Then I hope you have fun, and we’ll see you soon, okay?” He said it with a smile, but Logan frown deepens.

“Stop patronizing me, Patton. I am the same age as you and it’s demeaning. I do not need your permission to stay here.”

“I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry, I- “ Patton stutters, embarrassed and not able to meet Logan’s eyes. Virgil sighs.

“Let’s just get out of here. We all have a lot to think about, apparently.” Roman clicks his tongue but doesn’t argue. Patton nods and stares at the ground. “Hope you have a nice break, Lo. See ya.”

“That is the plan. Please leave now,” is all Logan says before turning away and going back to his book. Janus claps his hands together, gathering the attention of the others.

“Follow me, there is a shortcut out of here.”

“Let me guess, it only works one way?” Roman huffs, his voice still quieter than he’d like. The effect would likely only disappear once he’s out of Remus’ territory.

“Very clever, my prince,” Janus says and claps his hands again, this time in mock applause. “100 points for Gryffindor.” Roman glares at him but even he has lost the will to continue their arguments.

The group makes their way back in silence, through the jungle, down a hidden elevator off to the right of the gallery, out a side door of the building and back towards the mindscape. Patton is the only one who glances back towards Logan before he is obscured by the foliage of the jungle, but the logical side is already back on the chaise longue, drinking his still hot beverage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Due to the sounds still being muted, Logan could clearly hear the ‘ding’ of the elevator, signaling the departure of the others. With a sigh he puts the book down that he had only pretended to read. He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes tiredly. What an ordeal this has been. After setting his glasses back in place, he takes another sip of his tea – which never cools thanks to Remus’ powers. Speaking off, wet slapping sounds reverberate through the air as the Duke makes his way over to Logan, dripping wet from his impromptu bathing session.

“So, how is Bruce?”

“Fine! He tried to bite my leg off, but he only got a few scraps of flesh!”

“Are you going to heal it or do you want me to bandage it?” Remus grins and with a snap he removes his damaged pants, at least from mid-thigh down. He knows Logan’s comfort zones and nudity wasn’t one of them. At least not yet. The logical side sighs as he summons a first aid kit. “Why am I not surprised?”

“’Cause you know I like it when you bondage me!”

“You mean ‘bandage me’, correct?”

“I know what I said.” Logan rolls his eyes and starts examining and dressing Remus’ wounds which, while bleeding, were all pretty superficial. For a few moments, he worked in silence, but as usual with Remus around, that didn’t last long.

“Felt good, right?”

“I do not know what you are referring to.”

“Pff, don’t bullshit me, Lolo. You know exactly what I mean.”

“Fine, but I do not wish to comment on whether I found it satisfactory or not.”

“You can be such a prude.”

“That may very well be, but I do not see how that relates to our topic.”

“Do you wanna talk about it or not?”

“I am… unsure.” Logan finishes dressing the last wound, cleans the kit up before vanishing it away. Then he sits next to Remus with a sigh. “I do feel a bit better, having said what needed to be said but I also feel like I was too harsh with them.” Remus hums a moment before answering.

“Nah, I think they needed to hear it, ‘specially Daddy-o. He’s been treating not only you but Virgin as well like kids and he needs to stop or you’ll never get anywhere. Breaking out of your mold is exactly what you need, and they need to accept that.” Logan nods along but doesn’t look all that convinced.

“I am aware, but it still feels” – he grimaces at the word – “weird. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“And that’s fine, Specs! You only just accepted that you have feelings, it’s gonna take a bit to figure them out. And dear Tomathy is in a weird place at the moment anyway, so it’s double confusing.”

“I am exhausted.”

“No wonder. Wanna take a nap?”

“Are you going to dry off first?”

“Ugh, fine. But only for you, Nerdy Wolverine!”

26 notes · View notes

dathen · 3 years

Text

Word Search

Characters: Jonathan Sims & Sasha James Word count: 1,172 Spoilers: None Other Tags: Nonbinary Sasha, Nonbinary Jon, Agender Jon, Autistic Jon, Autistic Sasha Link on ao3

Summary:

Despite the unwelcome shift his promotion brought to their interactions, rambling about linguistics with Jon was an easy pastime to fall back on. -- Featuring burgeoning Jon and Sasha friendship, mutual infodumping, and Fun with Gender (or lack thereof). Set during early season 1; written for the @t4tma event.

Sasha fidgeted with her jewelry. It wasn’t the usual nervous energy that she rode like an ocean wave while chasing down a lead or digging into a subject that snagged her attention. No, today, she just felt...off. Was it the new outfit? It was a bit dressier than her usual trousers-and-cardigan style, with a full length skirt that she’d finally found to be long enough for her height, and a scarf that she bought for the soft texture alone. Maybe it was the jewelry…? But that was the same as she usually wore, and yet each time she passed the mirrors in the break room or washroom that off-balance feeling returned. Finally, she gave in to the impulse to take off her earrings before snatching a file from her desk and marching towards Jon’s office. A distraction would help.

“Found that statement you said was missing in the sequence, Jon,” Sasha announced as she opened the door and poked her head in. (Oh good, he wasn’t recording. Though she was pretty sure the others were exaggerating how grumpy Jon got when interrupted; he never seemed too bothered when she dropped by out of unannounced boredom.) “Looks like it’s still missing a page, though—no translation with it.”

Sasha was surprised that Jon’s answering sigh didn’t send papers flying off his desk. “If it was translated at all. Nothing about the state of this place would surprise me,” he answered. Jon took the offered file and peered at it with what was now a too-common scowl, but the sourness radiated exhaustion.

Oh, he was wearing earrings again today. Small silver hoops not too different from a pair she saw Tim wear sometimes. I wish I could look like that when I wear earrings. She stomped on that thought with a short shake of her head. Where on earth did that come from?

“Looks like my staples were a good idea,” she pressed on with as much brightness as she could muster. “At least if we get a translated copy, we can be sure it won’t get separated from the rest.”

The tired scowl melted into a tired smile. “Thank you, Sasha. That has been a very helpful solution.”

The gratitude in his voice stifled the usual irritation she felt at being called "helpful" by someone she’d seen fidgeting before his first interview with Mr. Bouchard. How someone who’d been hired during her fourth year here ended up with her dream job...no, she wasn’t in the mood to wallow in that on top of everything. Instead, she flopped down into the chair across from him. “Mandarin, looks like. Don’t we have a sister institute in Beijing? The Pu Songling Research Centre? Maybe it’s from their archives.”

Jon hummed. “We can inquire if they originally lent it to the Institute; I don’t know if they translate to other languages in their collection, but perhaps they could put us in touch with someone who can…?”

“Either that or run it through the ol’ google translate. My Mandarin is a bit rusty.” At that Jon laughed, a tight-lipped huff of a thing. He used to laugh a lot more before his promotion, and she found she missed it. Sasha grinned before she continued. “I did try learning some once! When I was sixteen. I thought the writing was so nice, and wanted to impress my Gran. Didn’t last long, though.”

“I’ve heard it’s remarkably difficult to learn,” he said.

“Oh, for sure. Switching to French was easier, though I wasn’t a fan of memorizing word genders for everything.” Her thoughts skipped ahead a step or two, and she found herself adding, “Did you know that Mandarin only has a single pronoun for all genders?”

Predictably, Jon brightened and sat up in his chair, suddenly looking like someone who’d slept sometime in the past few days. Despite the unwelcome shift his promotion brought to their interactions, rambling about linguistics with Jon was an easy pastime to fall back on. “Is that so?”

“Yup! I won’t pretend that the rest of the grammar wasn’t brutal, but that almost made me jealous, you know?” Sasha answered, toying with the edge of the cardboard folder.

Jon’s attention was like a physical weight. “Jealous how?”

“Dunno, I kind of wish English had something similar, you know? Instead of needing words that say right out ‘I’m a woman’ or ‘I’m a man!’” She kept her voice light, but shifted in the stiff-backed chair. Sasha hadn’t expected the sudden discomfort, but saying the words aloud felt suddenly vulnerable, like pressing a finger just beside an old bruise—just enough to ache.

The Encyclopedia Look immediately fell over Jon’s face (apparently, according to Tim, Sasha had one too; she wondered if it was as obvious as his). “You know, even in English some people use singular ‘they’ for their pronouns. It’s been used as a singular gender-neutral pronoun for hundreds of years; examples easily date back to the fourteenth century. Did you know that ‘you’ used to be plural as well?”

“I did know that! And formal, too—it’s funny to think how ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ were the informal means of address.” Sasha forced down the urge to continue the thought; English shedding the formality divisions in its grammar was a subject she could talk about for hours, but she was curious where this was going. “Still, I had my papers marked up with enough use ‘he or she,’ not ‘they’! back in secondary to know I can’t get away with it now.”

“That’s changing,” said Jon with a sudden fervor. “And besides, people aren’t research papers.”

Sasha hesitated, that off-balance feeling suddenly returning. It wasn’t discomfort this time, but why did it suddenly feel so personal?

Jon seemed to notice her faltering. “O-of course, it’s not the only way to depart from the binary,” he rushed on. “I mean, I still use 'he/him' because those are comfortable for me, and—“ He froze, eyes flicking towards the wall before he picked up the statement and held it in front of him like a shield. “A-anyway, ah...yes. If someone asked me, I’d have no issue using ‘they’ for someone who asked me. Regardless of what the Chicago Manual of Style has to say about it.”

It didn’t seem to be a pointed comment (except a grudge against the style guide), but Sasha felt the sudden conviction it was meant for her, even if Jon didn’t mean it for her. Sasha felt the familiar bite of curiosity that she knew wouldn’t let go, but for once she wasn’t sure if it was directed outwards or inwards. But Jon looked a bit flustered, still feigning interest in the unreadable document in his hands, and it was getting near the time that she agreed to meet Tim for lunch. “Good to know,” she answered easily, then tapped the top of the statement. “I’d best get back to work—let me know if you hear back from the Research Centre.”

She had some thinking to do.

------

Thank you to the Magnus Writers discord for answering the absurd amount of questions and fact-checking I somehow needed for a 1k word fic, to evanescentjasmine and Ixempt for the beta reads, and to TheDeafProphet for inspiring the concept! Also an extra shout-out to the Magnus Writers mod team for being my own Linguistics Mutual Infodumping Squad.

#tma #the magnus archives #t4tma #tma fic #jonathan sims #sasha james #my writing #HEY HEY I WROTE A THING!!!#FINALLY!!!

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glowyjellyfish · 3 years

Text

I started writing down an updated collection of thoughts and plans about my Megakingdom project, but they got very rambly and so I am beginning anew.

And no, I have not forgotten about Grimwood Abbey, but for my undiagnosed but likely adhd brain I gotta follow the fixations where they lead. It’s actually quite helpful to have several different Medieval Sims 2 concepts I want to play with while working on the excruciatingly long CC Sorting portion of the project, because I can bounce around from one to the other to find fresh things to think about without abandoning the CC project. I got through all the Teen and Child clothing, and everything in Buy Mode! I am halfway through Walls in Build Mode! I have some broken things to identify, some Star Factory stuff to check on updating (accidentally overwrote my fresh install of all those with some older duplicates and could not actually undo, Mia culpa), and a bunch of empty folders to check and remove. Then comes the real sorting. And a backup.

But today I am here to talk about the Megakingdom. I have realized I can’t just play it as a straight MCC, because I already have a king. And yet the Warwickshire rules are wayyyy too complicated for somebody who has yet to complete an MCC. So I am going to play mostly MCC, with a few Warwickshire rules incorporated early, using the advancements to replace unthematic community lots and make sure the community gets well-rounded. I’ll also be using the social advancement rules to earn sims the right to fill in a few empty class spots (for example, Pleasantview currently has no Gentry). I will probably start using some of the Warwickshire title guidelines once each subhood has a reasonable amount of sims in each class and sims start purchasing titles outside the basic ones. And I am thinking I might roll a THS for babies born in-game, but avoid randomized health hits and pregnancy health concerns until I get used to the system and/or those babies grow into adults.

The big difference I am planning from both rule systems is… frankly, I want to use the colleges and the college sims. The college sims are going to be a flexible marriage pool, but also, three is too many for just a couple of social classes to attend, and it really bugs me that college sims get more lifespan than non-college sims. So each college is open to a different selection of social classes. Academie Le Tour is the upper class university, and only royalty, nobility, and heir/firstborn gentry may attend. La Fiesta Tech is for non-heir gentry and merchants, and Sim State University is the trade school for yeomen and peasants who are sponsored by a noble. I’m not sure yet about the other two colleges, but SSU will for sure have a strong tuition fee, which peasants may request from a noble in exchange for becoming their serf. There will absolutely be many sims who still cannot afford to attend, and for those I’ll get some YA mods, but this plan will ease me into that play method AND will prep up some serfs for the megahood.

(I… will have to reread up on the lower classes and determine exactly how and who I want to set up as serfs, if I feel I need to start with any. For some reasons, I am constantly assuming that the lowest classes in these challenges do not automatically equal serfs and I might also just be wrong on that, and if I am I’ll figure it out.)

Some story plans and concepts:

Faith and Herbert Goodie are going to be church sims, with the Newsons moving in as a collection of orphans being raised by the church. Coral Oldie, meanwhile, is going to be a midwife (probably not the only one, but I haven’t identified anyone else for the role yet); I have set the Oldies as Merchant class, and so I might have Herb run a small business that complements her midwifery, perhaps selling herbs they grow or something.

I’m trying to figure out what’s to be done with Jessica Peterson; without the game lore she’s just an obvious peasant, but with it she’s divorced from Armand DeBateau, a duke, and therefore must be at least Gentry. I feel like the thematic way to handle this would be having her join the church or become an outcast, but I haven’t decided yet. By a similar token, I really want to keep Alexandra Teatherton nee O’Mackey’s “left family to become a pirate” story, but then I’d have to set up pirates and junk. Otherwise, she’s in the same position as Jessica.

Cassandra Goth is betrothed to King Malcolm Landgraab IV. I think that Don Lothario, a yeoman at best, has been trying to seduce her and making all kinds of promises in his efforts to bed her, but he never intended to actually try to marry her and is shocked at how seriously she took all his talk of running away together. That is way too permanent for Don Lothario, he just wanted to WooHoo her.

I did this same basic setup for a Steampunk Strangetown I played a while back, but I think the quickest and most interesting way to set up a kingdom in Strangetown is a. Olive Specter is the ruler, b. Ophelia has been raised as her heir, but c. Nervous is the true heir, kept secret because of his parentage but Olive plans to officially recognize him before she dies, and d. Loki learned the secret a while back and has been holding Nervous hostage in an attempt to either marry Nervous to Loki’s sister Erin or otherwise gain power. So that’s essentially what is happening here, Olive is the Duchess, Nervous is her heir, Loki is a mere Gentry trying some ruthless means of acquiring power and advancing his family’s status. Erin is a viable match for Nervous, but in my experience they usually don’t like one another; I think generally speaking I’m not going to force sims with X attraction to marry just because they’re a good match. Maybe for story purposes or if the pickings are too slim, but not in round one.

Oh, and I have designated a few ladies to be Duchesses of their subhoods, and a Gentry lady heiress here and there, but for the most part I will be sticking to full classic primogeniture. This is mainly for setup; I just picked the best/most interesting choices to rule each subhood. I.E., I’m not gonna make the Roths be the Ducal family of Riverblossom Hills when the Goths are right there ruling over Pleasantview, that is dumb, and Catherine Viejo makes a very interesting setup. Is Betty Goldstein her secret lover and/or lady in waiting? Is Andrew Martin her secret lover and/or gardener/serving man/serf? ...so Cleo Shikibu, heiress to the Duchy of Riverblossom Hills, and Florence Delarosa, Lady of Bluewater Village, will both have to find second sons or college sims to marry in order to preserve their respective inheritances (meaning, basically, they can marry Kent Capp or a college boy, because maxis families are really light on siblings generally). Olive Specter is technically another example, but since she has a male heir in Nervous, Ophelia is not being treated as an heiress and will just get married off wherever. (...not to Johnny, unfortunately for them. Johnny is a merchant. And thanks to Johnny’s heritage, it will be Difficult to cheat discretely. Sounds like Fun!) But I will be avoiding situations like this in the future, and will only allow heiresses if there is no possible male heir, and even then her duty is to marry a hapless guy and produce a male heir as soon as she can to preserve her family line.

I’m also pretty excited about my spreadsheet for the Megakingdom, making pages for simple round info, a full resident census, individual families and family trees, records of deceased sims and events, the neighborhood and treasury, maybe one day including full economic notes on sensible pricing for SMSF goods. And charts on viable marriage prospects for each class, which I am pretty proud of. They’re sorted by rank, red means not allowed, bright green is preferred, and light green is allowed. Generally speaking, sims get bright green within the same age group and light green outside it, making it easy to prioritize same age marriages over, say, adult-teen marriages or teen-child betrothals. Both of those are allowed but not preferred. And these charts will change as sims age, and sims will be removed when they get married and added when new sims are born or rolled.

I am very excited. The spreadsheets also give me something I can work on during down time at work!

#the sims 2 #sims 2 medieval #MCC #the Megakingdom of Simland #god how did I even tag this before #simblr

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notbellabutcassandra · 4 years

Text

Get to Know Me Tag

Get to know me tag - Simmer Edition

I was technically tagged by @savvysweet 🖤 since she had an open tag and I like talking about myself sometimes.

Your name: Toni

Languages you speak: English, bits and pieces of Japanese and Spanish

Are you a mermaid: Man, I wish.

Your playstyle: hahahahha I haven’t even opened the game since Simblreen so...lol

Your simself picture: I’ve never made myself in the sims. Maybe I’ll try this weekend.

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I love looking at them all, but I’m eventually going to try lookbooks, room builds, sims, and maybe just maybe...gameplay.

Your favourite age state: Not toddlers for sure! I guess I would say young adult since there’s so much room to do stuff.

Your favourite season: Summer

Your favourite holiday: New Year’s Day...or whatever that goal setting and achieving day is.

How was your day: It has been great. I’m a teacher irl and today and yesterday were snow days.

Your favourite career: Writer

Your favourite aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire and Bodybuilder because they’re the only two I’ve actually accomplished.

Your favourite EP, SPor GP: EP: It’s between City Living and Get to Work, GP: Parenthood and Dine Out, SP: I don’t have a favorite of these because I always feel like they could’ve just been part of a truly finished gamepack or expansion pack. I’m just glad I didn’t spend my own money on any of the stuff packs.

How old is your simblr: Turning 2 on March 2.

Have you woohooed: ^_^

Your favourite skill: writing, painting, fishing and gardening

The size of your mods folder: 2.50GB (This is pretty good for me tbh. It used to be damn near 2x that...before that 3x that.)

Your 3 favourite mods: More CAS Columns, All of Luumia’s Lighting Mods

Your interests (other than sims): linguistics, mysteries, true crime shows and movies, crocheting, education, cooking, sewing, comics, and music

Your favourite sim (picture if possible): @myverycoolnickname ‘s Diego Lobo, @ridgeport ‘s Penny, @ceechalla‘s Bambi, Emerson, and Urain, @boomchicapopdatsims‘s Joy (I certainly have more but this would be a very long list)

Which sims games you have played (including mobile games): 1, 2, 4 (I really didn’t play 3 so I’m not going to claim it), and Sims Castaway

Propose a crazy scheme: Me opening up the game and actually playing and enjoying myself.

Best part of simblr: The creativity of all the great creators. It can be such a great, inspirational and motivational platform. For some reason, I really like how the vanilla players and minimal cc players really show the good things that the game has to offer.

Worst part of simblr: When they’re wrong...they are so embarrassingly, disappointingly wrong.

What other games do you play: Toy Blast on my tablet. Not going to lie--outside of Sims--I’m not a gamer. I might try Stardew Valley , but that’s it.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter, etc..): My origin is MoonyKayne (Names of some OCs I made up back in middle school. I thought they were cool at the time, but the names sound stupid in retrospect. Yet, I figure no one would have that username.) I also use pinterest and youtube to hold sims inspo, but those are private. :)

If you read this consider yourself tagged

#my posts #i was bored so...enjoy

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mellindi · 5 years

Note

I'm sorry for always bugging you with mod questions 😅 but when you put multiple venue types on one lot, how do you set that up? Will the Auto Employees by Littlemesam be able to make all the shops and such functional or is there no way to make these things more than decor minus one shop on the lot? I've never used to Auto Employees mod yet, so I have no idea if that's even meant for this.

Don’t worry, you’re good 😊. I haven’t tried the auto employees mod so I’m not sure how that works but what I usually do is, for let’s say a lot with a restaurant and a cafe on it, is set the lot as a restaurant. If I want it to be a cafe, I’ll just hire a vendor when I get there (I have that mod that makes hiring vendors free for this reason) to have a barista show up. This way I get both parts running at the same time. Or I’ll just go in build mode from the map view and change the vendor type to cafe before they go. Either way works. Just try to avoid putting places next to each other that will distract the sims. Like a library or nightclub on the same lot as the restaurant cause everyone will constantly get distracted by the books and music and never get anything done. I do have a “bookstore” on the same lot as a vet but I have mods (or maybe it’s mccc) to stop them from auto reading and computer obsessing so I felt like it was safe to put it on that lot but I still wouldn’t try it with a restaurant. I’ll link those mods here when I get out of bed, lol.

Edit: Actually, I checked,my mods folder and I think I have the no reading and no computer thing turned off with MCCC. Here are the hire vendors for free mods: market vendors, baristas and bartenders.

Edit #2: @capricornsim says “Auto employees works on anything that can be used via hiring, so expresso machine, bar, DJ booth/instruments, stalls. I always set the lot as restaurant (if there's one) and use auto employees mod to occupy anything else.” Thanks girl. Going to download right now!

#replies #theglowworm2008 #game advice

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mademoisellegush · 5 years

Text

Nectar

Happy Galpalentines Day!! Have a NSFW Chargestep

@fallenhero-rebirth

Solana hasn't hung around the Rangers much, in the months since the Gala and her rebirth, but for Ortega…

For her, Solana would make some exceptions, however the cards may fall.

The elevator opens to uncover Lady Argent, eyes lost somewhere far beyond the drab walls of the base, until she focuses on her drab grey overalls and the beers she carries.

"Argent."

“Birchwood.”

The rest of the ride up is just as silent. Argent's presence is a heavy weight as always, both in mind and in flesh - silver or not.

The bottles in her hand clink softly against another, and for a moment she's tempted to offer her one. Bridge the gap of years and animosity with a gift.

The elevator chimes, and the door to her floor opens unceremoniously. Too late, then.

She walks out, head held high, and doesn't smile.

"Hey, Ilio," she says softly as the door closes behind her. It feels wrong to speak any louder.

"Hey, Sol," Ortega replies, parsing through a thick beige folder. "What are you doing here?"

Solana puts down the beers on a stack of old files, newspapers and police sketches.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

"What do- mierda. Oh, Sol, no, I'm sorry, I forgot. Let me finish up and I'm all yours."

Solana can't help the wry smile on her face. Ortega's mind runs a thousand miles a second, able to switch tracks in the span of a breath, but there are times she focuses so much she loses track of everything else. Solana doesn't know if she'll ever be used to it, but. It's very Julia, and she missed her sun so, so much. Too much to be healthy, too much for what she has to do. Too much to move on. She shakes her head, warding away some of the cobwebs.

"I don't mind. I'm just here for you anyway. And those beers."

"I'll take you up on that."

Solana goes to hand her one, unsure of what to say. Ortega always did keep her on her toes, and not being able to glean anything other than Julia's body language makes it... difficult, at times. But it's also been a comfort.

She's holding her.

Solana looks down, sees Julia's tanned skin against her scarred flesh, wants to jerk her limb out and cradle it close and punch her and-

"Oh. You cut your nails," Julia says, not letting go of her hand.

Solana nods. She shouldn't, but she's blushing now, entire body and mind focused on the fingers linked with hers. Ridiculous; she's thirty... something, not some foolish teenager who's never made out with her only friend (and supposed enemy) by now. But Ortega - Julia, Ilio, her sun - brings out something fragile in her.

Something that shouldn't be alive anymore.

"Sol," Julia says, shit-eating grin spreading across her face like the rising dawn, and then, leaning in close as if sharing a secret, "so did I."

She still hasn't let go of Solana's hand.

It doesn’t feel as bad now.

And like in the hospital, Solana pulls Julia down and presses her lips to hers, too afraid to second-guess herself. Julia smiles against her lips, and deepens the kiss.

So, two problems now. One, Julia's zipped up in her blue Ranger skinsuit, which isn't easily taken off. Two, Solana absolutely cannot let her reciprocate.

The offensive it is.

"Sol," laughs Julia, lips open on the "o" as she breathes out her name, as Solana corners her against the table, as wandering hands run over the deep blue of her Ranger suit, "stop tha-a-at, I've got a meeting soon."

"Liar," Solana answers, and reaches up to untie Julia's ponytail. "Like that's ever stopped you before."

Julia's hair falls, grey streaks at her temples framing her face. Perfect for running her hands through it, kiss the laugh and worry lines that turn the larger than life Greek Statue that is Charge into just a woman. Scars she left, scars she didn’t. Old and New.

Solana is enamoured with the softness of Julia's flesh, with the way the taller woman's skin and muscles move and bend and hold to her own. It's not what she needs - no way to stay detached and harden her heart for what's ahead, the terrible choices and revelations. But it is what she wants.

Who she wants.

Julia lets Solana raise her arms to unzip the skinsuit along her ribs, though she does her best to distract Solana from her chosen path with slow kisses. Getting one of Julia’s legs out of the skinsuit is difficult, and Solana has to take a second to laugh when the matching neon blue sports bra and lightning patterned undies emerge from underneath. Trust Ortega to wear her own merch regularly and willingly.

“I know you like them,” Julia winks, hooking her hands in Solana’s salopette’s suspenders. “I can get you some so we match.”

“I’ll pass, Ilio. Blue never was my colour.”

A lie, what with the mask that is Blue Rocket; but Julia doesn’t have to know. Not yet.

The legs on either side of her waist bring her back to the present. Nonchalantly, she helps Julia shrug off the suit, steps back to let her take off the underwear, running her hands up the newly-uncovered skin. Scars again, a lifetime of fighting and modding and, well, life.

Solana kneels at last, her cheek to Julia’s thigh, and takes her time.

The one advantage to this weak, scarred body of hers without the armor is this: how easily it bends and contorts as she needs it to. How she can feel, taste, touch - and be touched - without shedding any of the layers upon layers protecting her secret. Like now:

The hand in her hair tightens with every secret she hums between Julia’s thighs. The sort of secret that would make one go half-mad, set ears bleeding and alight flames on the edge of thought. The sort of secret an ex-almost-hero should never have heard of.

One of Julia’s knees hangs off her shoulder, ankle digging at her upper back, and she holds the other spread out, nipping at the soft skin of the bare thigh until it is as marked as she dares, so sensitive that any pressure seems to be the source of excruciating discomfort. The soft breaths she tears out from flushed lips are worlds away from the screams of agony that should be the only thing a villain takes from a hero, but not... unwelcome.

Every moan and shallow breath shoots heat through her spine, unfurling in her belly like a fire threatening to start again, and yet bare embers to the furnace when Solana looks up to meet Julia’s gaze, half-lidded and focused entirely on her. This is her work. This is something she's done; and that thought shouldn’t be as frightful as it is.

Julia suddenly stands upright, spine straight like someone's stuck a stick up her back with her suit only on one leg, and Solana's been pushed back on her ass on the floor of a messy office, with a knee to the face for her trouble, she's about to snarl when she hears-

"-done with the reports?"

Oh, she grins. Opportunity for torment. She crawls forward, one of her hands sneaking back to Julia’s skin, climbing ever upward across her body.

"Yes, yes,” the taller woman mutters on her brick of a phone. “I'll have them done in time for the end of the week. Was there-" she shivers as Solana’s mouth finds her skin, "- anything else?"

Julia’s voice is steady. Too steady, Solana thinks. She presses an open-mouth kiss to a bruise. With her other hand, she nudges Julia’s knees apart again, enough to allow her to breathe a path up the woman’s inner thigh, kissing the already bruising skin she left there not minutes ago. The only visible reaction is a hand to her cheek, calloused palm comforting. Urging her on.

Time to bring out the big guns, she thinks, and teases a hand higher and higher up.

She starts rubbing small circles on Julia’s clit with her thumb, light enough to tease, heedless of the foot digging into her ribs. She's not really listening to what is being said, focused as she is on Julia and her limits. To Julia’s credit, her only reaction is to clench around Solana’s fingers, the foot still in the skinsuit digging a bit more harshly into her ribs.

She hears hastily exchanged goodbyes and the thump of the phone thrown somewhere close by before hands knot themselves in her hair. Solana laughs at the sensation, scalp stinging as Julia pulls her closer; swallows the sounds her maybe-but-not-quite… lover? Girlfriend? makes, hungry mouth on hers, before she kneels again between Julia’s thighs.

It’s a full-on moan that answers Solana’s lips pressed to Julia’s ones; and her name is the answer she receives when she kisses as deeply as her lungs allow. Warm, the taste of Julia and sickly sweet sweat and her need, her want, drawn out syllable by syllable and the desire that lances straight to Solana’s gut.

It doesn’t take long for Julia’s breath to quicken, the hard pane of her stomach tensing, one hand to the back of Solana’s head. Solana keeps at it, picks up the pace of her tongue and fingers, even as Julia’s thighs tremble on either side of her head, as modded hands tighten in her hair, as her sun unravels above and around and before her.

There's nothing but the two of them in an off-grid office, no shady past or torturous secrets; just two souls with nothing to hide.

Solana stands up once she's drunk her fill, wipes her mouth on the sleeve of her shirt.

“That was fun,” Julia grins, and runs her hands through her loose hair. “C'me here, we're not done yet.”

“I have to go,” is all Solana can say. At least her voice doesn’t shake, doesn’t betray anything but how sorry she should feel about running away. No, not that. She’s not running, she’s walking. Deliberately. Minor victories.

“So soon?”

“You’ve got a meeting, don’t you?”

The look Julia throws her is painful. Solana is weak, knows she would stay if Julia asked. And that same small part that should have stayed buried wants her to.

She leaves before Ortega gets the chance.

#fallen hero #julia ortega #sidestep #chargestep #oc: solana birchwood #no matter the universe solana will take *charge* of the situation

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harmoniouspixels · 5 years

Photo

Island Paradise Male Maternity Set - 8,000 Posts Gift

Well, if I don’t reblog anything between when I’m writing this and when this post goes live, this is technically eight thousand and two. Regardless, this is a milestone worthy of celebration!

Oh, and this time I’m looking out for mobile users. Sorry indent text, while you were fancy, you’re broken on mobile (as in, any text using it becomes BIG for no reason). Bullet points this time!

What’s Required

The Island Paradise EP for the content to show up and work.

What’s Included

I added pregnancy morphs to all most of the outfits from Island Paradise! I didn’t touch the hidden scuba diving outfit, and THIS jacket. The morph on that one borked, and to be quite frank, I personally don’t use it, so sorry about that. Everything pictured above is included in the .zip! Click the images for higher quality! I think the format looks good for once, but Tumblr will have inevitably crunched the quality.

A note on the mermaid tail: I did allow the mermaid tail to be valid for maternity, but even with a bare top allowed for pregnancy, the sims didn’t show a baby bump. They will still get their tails in water, just no bump. There are images in the “Images” folder showing off this issue.

Outfits still have their usual categorizations. So if you would find it in everyday and outerwear, those have stayed the same.

Pop these files into your mods folder (in packages) and you’ll find them next to the original outfit. Sorry, as much as I want to make defaults, I’m not that apt yet, so these are non-defaults.

Merging is a-okay! It’s safe to merge these since they’re just clothes and not script mods.

NEW IN THIS DOWNLOAD: Pre-merged files! If you don’t want to merge yourself, you’ll find the options for you! TM and AM as separate files, or one big file with both TM and AM together! If you use these, you won’t need the separate files, or have to merge them yourself.

These files have been compressorized! Lower file sizes for the win.

Wait. No nude mesh files?

If you’ve downloaded from me before, you know I’ve pushed the nude mesh files as an upgrade to Cmar’s. The nude top has bump recognition and shows up in the applicable categories such as sleep and swim. Since my Seasons set I haven’t included them. However, you can still find them in my sets before Seasons!

Where are your other sets?

Base Game and World Adventures Set

Late Night and Generations Set

Town Life and Master Suite Stuff Set (AM ONLY)

Seasons Set

University Life Set

A Notice in Regards to the “Feel Tummy” Interaction with Child Sims

While playing a save several months ago, I had a child sim interact with her pregnant father. However, despite efforts at having the game recognize the bump, her hand went right through the bump. I have not tested any other combinations of my male maternity wear with child sims, but I can say that teens and up will not put their hands through the bump. My apologies. I’m not the best CC creator on the market, and I’m sharing items I made for personal use since I figured there’s never too much male maternity CC out there.

A picture of this issue is included in the “Images” folder in the .zip.

TOU

None! I just slapped a preg morph onto EA outfits, so there’s no need for a TOU.

Crediting and linking back here would be appreciated! I spent a good chunk of time on these, so it would be nice to get some recognition.

Credits

cmarNYC for sharing the reference files (here for AM and here for TM) and for the initial morph sets that served as inspiration to do this.

dreadpiratevinna for the tutorial on adding pregnancy morphs to store clothing, specifically the second half (where you get the game to recognize the bump on male sims.)

lunarsteal for the video on adding pregnancy morphs to clothing.

nraas for the Animator, which I used for the first banner image of the sims rubbing their bellies.

s3pe for the editing of the BOND files.

TSRW for allowing me to add the pregnancy morph to the clothing in the first place!

Download the Set! [Mediafire]

#ts3cc #ts3 cc #sims3cc #sims 3 cc #sims 3 male clothes #sims 3 maternity #sims 3 male maternity #male maternity #male pregnancy #sims 3 downlaod #jack whoring himself out in the tags? you bet #listen i'm proud of these images and set i want to show the world #harmoniouspixels download

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bestest-badgers · 6 years

Text

Unexpected Event

By Mod Seto

Review by Mod Haruka: “It’s really heckin’ good, dude”

[KageprOTP Month 15/07: Affection]

This is it. This is the day I’m gonna die. What was I thinking? Why I agreed to this… this… disaster, I’ll never know. I could’ve got out of it. I should just said I had the flu, or have Ene send out an email saying I died. Not that Ene would’ve done that. She’d have probably laughed and sent something private. It just seemed like something so innocent, albeit terrifying, at the time. But this is too much. I can’t help but go back through the event that lead to this, just to see if I missed something, anything, that could have gotten me out of this nightmare.

“Shintaro? Are you even listening to me?” I blinked back into life, my eyes greeted by a particularly scorching light. I turned my head and saw her. My old friend, Ayano, was looking particularly annoyed at me that morning. I couldn’t help zoning out. I was too busy thinking about what torture Ene was going to present to me when I got home, while she was lecturing me about something. Was it my attitude? My lack of social interest? Both? Probably both. “Ah, sorry, what did you say?” I gave the weakest of smiles to her. Hopefully that would smooth it out a bit. She shook her head and sighed. “I knew it. You should pay more attention to what people are saying to you. It might help you one day. Anyway, I was just saying you should really get out more. It’s not healthy for you to be shut away all the time.”

Yep, the social lecture again. I’ve heard this so many times. Not just from her. I knew it so well I could easily predict the outcome. I would moan and refuse, she’ll get annoyed, I’ll agree to try to make her calm down and nothing would change. To be honest, the lecture didn’t bother me all that much. It’s become some sort of ritual for us. This must have been the 7th or 8th time this month. This was different though. So many little details I missed the first time, that looking back, I should have noticed. She looked more flustered than usual, her face was red and her voice was unsteady, yet somehow firm. She was definitely embarrassed, but was filled with a sense of purpose, like she was on a long, rewarding quest, but she had to do some bizzare side quests to start the journey.

“We’ve had this conversation too much recently. You always say you’ll try, but you never do. So, to make sure you actually try this time, you’re taking me to dinner tonight. I’ll pick you up at 7 pm on the dot, just to be sure you actually make it.” I sat upright, like a ghost had just passed through me. “H-hold on! I c-can’t do something like that. That involves people and crowds and talking to strangers. All the things I’ve worked so hard to avoid.” Ayano put her hand on her face and shook it. “Well, you can either come with me to dinner or you can spend the night with Ene. Or did you lie to me when you said anything is better than spending time with her.” Shit! She had me there. I didn’t exactly hate spending time with Ene. Sometimes we could have lovely, deep talks. But those we extremely rare. Most the time she just tortured me. “Okay fine, I’ll go with you.” I muttered. “Good! You won’t regret it!”

And that was that. I had somehow been coerced into going out to dinner with a girl. Most guys would kill for this. Hell, the thought of it didn’t exactly bother me, but the execution was terrifying. I had to go somewhere that was probably crowded and talk to someone for a long time. I spent most the day panicking about it. I had hoped to find some sort of wisdom from Ene as to what I could do, but she kept saying things like ‘Master has a new woman in his life. He should be thankful I haven’t shown her his secret folders.’ I should’ve guessed she’d be overjoyed at the chance to torture me over something new. I scolded her slightly, telling her it was just Ayano trying to boost my self-esteem, but Ene insisted it was more than that. I kept try to think up plans to cancel and still keep Ayano’s respect. But ultimately, I knew there was nothing I could do to avoid it. Ayano wasn’t going to take no for an answer today. She had made up her mind and put her foot down.

The dreaded time hit and, as she had said, Ayano appeared right on time. I let her in and she wasted no time. “So, where are you taking me?” Crap! I was so busy trying to not go out that I forgot to look for a place. I ran around frantically, looking for any trace of an idea. I considered asking that demon program of mine for recommendations, but I didn’t see that lead anywhere but my demise. Ayano started giggling. “Geez, if I had known you were gonna be this bad, I would've done this ages ago to get it over and done with. I already booked a place for us to go. I figured you'd forget. You’d be too busy panicking and thinking of ways to avoid it.” I gave her a small grin. I had to hand it to her, she knew me well.

I let out the smallest sigh of relief before we left. Partly because her happiness made me relax, but mostly because she covered for me. Still, I couldn’t help being uneasy. I kept thinking about what Ene had said. No way was this anything special. That blue haired deviant was just looking to get into my head. It took about half an hour to get to the place. It was an Italian place. We sat in silence until we ordered and Ayano suddenly spoke. “I'm proud of you Shintaro. The fact that you managed to come here without much of a fuss shows a lot of growth. Even if you can't talk right now.” I could feel myself blushing slightly. Honestly I was still a little on edge. “Either way," she continued, “I'm having the best first date! Thank you so much for agreeing to this!”

And that brings me back to the now. The disaster. I had no idea what to say. I sat there in stunned silence for so long, the food turned up before I could even offer a piece of a response. So many thoughts rushing through my head. Ene was right, this wasn’t just about my self-esteem. Ayano had really decided to confess her feelings to me in this abrupt way. She probably assumed I knew what this was, or that this was the easiest way to get my attention to it because of how oblivious I’d be until this point. Of course this was a date. Thinking about it now, it seemed so obvious. If it was social skills for the sake of self-esteem, she’d have invited more people to come with us. Yet, it was just me and her, in a romantic restaurant setting. A classic first date scenario.

But this is completely nuts. No-one has ever shown much of an interest in me beyond a friend. I want to run and hide, but I resist the urge. Instead, I decide to tell her the truth. “Ayano, I had no idea that's what you wanted. I had no clue you felt that way about me. I-” I trailed off. I had so much to say, but nothing came out. The longer the silence lasted, the more awkward it became. Even worse, Ayano started to cry, ever so slightly. The silence was getting to her. No, my lack of response was getting to her. She must feel like an idiot right now. I can’t even imagine how she felt right now. Confessing and getting rejected immediately was bad enough. But this lack of response was too much. Her tears were getting bigger and I was the cause of all this sadness.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence and tears, Ayano managed to speak through her sobs. “Well, Shintaro? Do you feel the same way?” I was lost for words. She did look extremely cute and I had thought about it but I just never dreamed she’d actually go for it. “Yeah I think I do.” I whispered in a hushed tone. “What did you say?” She looked at me, with inquisitive eyes and tears streaming down her face. I shrank in my chair. I was hoping she’d hear me so I could avoid being heard by anyone else. “Never mind. I’m just an idiot. I shouldn’t have told you!” Ayano gave a weak smile and started to leave. An attempt to hide the pain she was going through right now. If I didn’t say something now, I could never look at her again without feeling like a jerk. I choked back any anxieties I had and spoke, almost with purpose. “Ayano wait!” She stopped in her place. “I said, yes, I feel the same way. I have for a while now I think. I just never thought you’d return my feelings.” She turned round and sniffed. “Shintaro, don’t be silly! Of course I do!” And all of a sudden, I could say this disaster had become the best first date ever, as well as being the first of many.

- Mod Seto (who is very sorry at how long this is)

#kageprotpmonth #kagerou project #ayashin #shintaro kisaragi #ayano tateyama #mod seto #i'm sorry it's so long

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dramallamadingdang · 6 years

Text

Wee-plies.

Or, not-so-wee-plies, as the case may be, because, you know, me. *eye roll*

First of all, thank you to those who wished me a happy birthday in comments as well as to @kairisu and some anons in my ask box! It was a quiet day -- we’re celebrating both our birthdays this year with a cruise in August -- but it was a nice day, so we took the horses out riding in the morning. Then I got the usual phone call from my bro with the usual razzing about being older than him again. (We’re only 10 months apart in age, so for about seven weeks out of the year, we’re the same age.) I talked to all three offspring I birthed and to their SOs/kids, too, where applicable, so it was nice. :) Oh, and I yakked with my mother-in-law for an hour, but we do that quite often, anyway. She’s only a few years older than me -- the perils of having a younger husband. ;) -- so she’s more a buddy than a mother-in-law. :) (She called to tell me she’s sending me birthday tamales, yum!)

BUT ANYWAY! These are for @katatty, @didilysims, @alawren4ever, @catnip-sims, @deedledops, @criquette-was-here, @penig, @tamtam-go92, and @immerso-sims...

katatty-main replied to your photo “iCad Does Urban Planning. AKA: iCad Is Nuts. Buuuuuut, on the plus...”

oh, i love seeing this sort of thing! always gives me a ton of inspiration :)

Yeah, me, too. So, that’s pretty much why I shared the image, to maybe give other people some ideas AND in the hopes that they’ll share those idea in turn. I kinda love how Simmers feed off of each other that way. :)

didilysims replied to your photoset “This morning, because my hand needed a break from painting hair...”

Ugh that stupid disappearing Maxis bridge. I thought your monorail bridge looked kind of cool, honestly. :)

The monorail bridge is growing on me. It works best on that particular suspension bridge, though, because then the train doesn’t smash through the girders. :) Can’t really say the same for the others, but we just ignore that on the other side of town. *cough* In any case, though, it IS better than the endless monotrail track magically hovering over water, so there’s that. :)

That being said, I HAVE crossed bridges that were shared by road and train traffic where the train tracks ran above or, more often, to the side of the road-deck. Which probably isn’t often the case since trains and vehicles don’t often share road/track beds like that and most often railroad bridges were built before large, modern bridges for automobiles, but it’s not TOTALLY unrealistic.

And yeah, I totally hate the stupid Maxis bridge. One, it doesn’t always fit in with the look I want for a neighborhood. It’s often too modern or not-modern/urban enough. Two, it isn’t visible from lots, which often looks stupid. Three, you can’t get rid of the damn thing other than by “sinking” it below the terrain in SimPE. And then four, after you sink it, you still can’t modify the terrain around where it was, so it might not be suitable for a replacement deco-bridge and....ARRRGH! Hate it hate it hate it.

didilysims replied to your post “Why do I keep doing this to myself?”

The curse of this open game!

IKNOWRITE??? It’s hell playing this game. HELL, I TELL YOU! :)

alawren4ever replied to your photoset “So yesterday, I posted about this fire hydrant object that randomly...”

Very cool that you can control the level of traffic by the number of hydrants!

It IS cool. And I didn’t find out that it can work that way until I accidentally had more than one on a lot when I was trying to figure out why the remeshed one I made was invisible. SERENDIPITY! :D

But it makes sense, I guess, because the “calls” it puts out to summon a vehicle seem to be randomly timed, not at regular intervals. So, if you get a bunch of them on a lot, each putting out calls at random times, rather than all at the same time in the same time intervals, it makes sense that the traffic level would increase with the number of objects on the lot. I shoulda thought of that sooner, really.

didilysims replied to your post “Info and testing things RE: the number of visitors that show up at...”

Ooh I've never see that mod to up the lot visitors before. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing!

It works pretty well, although it does have its pitfalls. The obvious one is that you might have to experiment a bit to see what “level” your machine can handle without the game lagging on you. The other is if you play community lots of widely variable size. Like, if you put in the mod that ups the visitors to, say, 25, that’ll be fine on a big community lot if your machine can handle it, but not so fine if you have any that have a “1″ in the size dimensions, where you’ll end up with an overcrowded lot full of stomping, complaining Sims who can’t move. :)

I kinda wish there was a customer/visitor-number adjuster that could be used on ALL lots, not just owned ones........Although maybe that object can be used on regular community lots. OOOOH EXPERIMENT FOR SCIENCE!

catnip-sims replied to your photoset “This morning, because my hand needed a break from painting hair...”

I like parking filler lots too! I recently came up with a 1x3 lot with just a bunch of bushes along the street & a big "YOUR AD HERE" banner, lol. It looks nice from the neighborhood view :D

THAT IS A GREAT IDEA I THINK I WILL STEAL IT THANK YOU! :) Except now I need to make banners. *growl* And maybe billboards, hmmm....

deedledops replied to your post “Why do I keep doing this to myself?”

This, but a whole neighborhood tailored to each specific thing with a special downloads folder I can switch out for each theme. But I know if I did it I'd want all the Sims to know each other next

Yeah, “ whole neighborhood tailored to each specific thing with a special downloads folder“ is kind of how I play in general. :) Only I use separate user accounts on my computer, each with its own Documents/Sims 2 folder tailored specifically for it because I don’t trust myself to put in the right folder before I load up the neighborhood I want to play. (Did that once with the wrong neighborhood deco loaded, and POOF! All the painstakingly-placed neighborhood deco in that neighborhood was gone. NEVER AGAIN!

But yeah, how I play is pretty much this: Step 1: Come up with idea/theme. Usually, this happens like a bolt out of the blue, things just blooming fully-formed in my head, just like how story ideas happened to me back in my fanfic-writing days, so it must be how my brain works. Whatever the case, it’s very jarring. Step 2: Create an unnecessarily complex rule set for playing out the idea/theme. Step 3: Create a complex spreadsheet to use to keep track of the neighborhood. Step 4: Build a neighborhood around the idea/theme. Step 5: Play the neighborhood.

Currently, I have some neighborhoods that are at each step of the above process. :) Often, steps 2 and 3 happen concurrently, and sometimes steps 4 and 5 happen at the same time, all BACC-like. But not always!

criquette-was-here replied to your post “Why do I keep doing this to myself?”

@dramallamadingdang ***laughs for a second and then cries thinking of road and terrain DR project*** I feel your pain,lol! @immerso-sims you actually can (I'm on mac) ***cries even harder***

*laugh* Yeah, this is probably a pain that all serious simmers feel at least once in a while. For some of us, though, it’s more like a constant thing. Chronic pain. *sigh* :) So then you’ve got all these ideas but not the time or stamina to work on/finish them all.

penig replied to your post “Why do I keep doing this to myself?”

Alternate between play and projects. You'll get Better Ideas as you play anyhow. Also, projects are play if you choose to do them.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I do things, in general. It’s just that sometimes my brain/imagination is particularly fertile, and I get lots of big ideas that require big projects all at once, and it all gets a little overwhelming sometimes. It’d be nice if the brain kind of spread out the big ideas a little more....

tamtam-go92 replied to your photo “Let’s call this a “Cool CC That I Think Everyone Ought to Have” Post....”

THIS is just amazing!!! #things you didn't know you need until you see them

Right? I was surprised (but also kind of not-surprised, because it is a really old object) that more people didn’t know about that thing. I only learned about it a while back because of a stray post in the MTS forums that mentioned it, and fortunately that was at a time when the Graveyard was working reliably. I don’t often bother using it in less-densely-populated neighborhoods, but it does add a nice touch when playing downtowns.

immerso-sims replied to your photoset “I needed a bit of a break from hair retexturing and alpha-painting and...”

Looks great and I really like the idea. Looking forward to following the challenge :)

I’m not sure I’m going to document it, unfortunately. When I first play one of these ideas I get in my head, I like to see if it’ll actually work the way I think it’s going to, first. So, the initial playing is more like a dry run, where I’m still experimenting and coming up with new ideas and tweaking the rules and such. I have played the first batch of “runaways” through three seasons, and three of them have “escaped” from the vacant lot into better housing, one of them skipping the “livin’ in the slums” stage entirely because she married someone who came with a ton of skill points, whose LTW career came up in the newspaper right away, and who got a bunch of job promotions one right after the other. I haven’t decided yet if it was all too easy! *laugh* I should probably take out the “no friends needed for promotions” mod when playing this, now that I think about it. And maybe I shouldn’t even allow marriage when they’re still homeless -- because who wants to marry into that?! -- but she got “risky woohoo” pregnant on a date, and.... Well, anyway, I plan to play these initial four for a while, and once I have them all established so that I know everything works, I’m going to add a new group of “runaways” for a less-dry run, and perhaps I’ll document them.

Anyway, I might post some highlight pics from this first batch of runaways, and maybe I’ll write up the rules once I know they work. I mean, you don’t HAVE to build an elaborate downtown to play this way or anything. It can be just a mini-challenge that you play within something else...although longer lifespans kinda help with this, at least with the rules I’m using. Anyway, the downtown’s just something I’m doing because I want to, and it seems to go along well with this rule set idea.

#katatty-main #didilysims #alawren4ever #catnip-sims #deedledops #criquette-was-here #penig #tamtam-go92 #immerso-sims #replies

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matesclever218 · 3 years

Text

Calibrate Mac Mouse For Parallels

Mac Cursor

How To Open A Mac Mouse For Battery Change

Calibrate Mouse Touchpad

Calibrate Mac Monitor

Calibrate Mac Battery

Mac Mouse Cursor

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It is happening more and more often: When I start my iMac the mouse pointer is moving normally but when I click on, say, Finder nothing happens, or when I click on the Dock nothing happens. It will not stay or land on any app. It is just hovering and nothing seems to be affected by the mouse pointer. I turn the mouse off and back on and it works fine. So it is an erratic behavior which baffles me. I have read numerous cases in the discussions and all point to a PRAM reset. Will a PRAM reset delete or revert modifications I have made to my iMac, such as disabling the startup sound, via sudo? I don't mind restarting the mouse but it is a hassle Info: iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

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Sep 4, 2014

had problems with the trackpad - when I tap to select an item the mouse pointer 'bounces' off the item I'm trying to select. It happens randomly - not every time. I migrated all my data and settings from my old Mac Pro (2011 model, also running Mavericks) via Time Machine - could that have an impact? Not using any non-Apple power supplies or other devices. Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

OS X :: Mouse Pointer Converted Into Black Square After Sleep Mode

Jun 22, 2006

A bizarre thing: when I wake my Cube from sleep, the mouse pointer seems to have converted itself into a black 1' square. As soon as I click in a program it changes back to an arrow.

Software :: Mouse Pointer Freezes When Multiple Applications Are Open

Oct 16, 2008

My mouse continuously freezes when I have to many applications open. I have the mirror door G4. When it freezes I can access the F11 and F12 buttons on the keyboard, but have to restart the computer. I have switched the mouse, but it does not fix it. The more I use the computer the less it happens. It appears to happen more with multiple browser windows open in Safari.

Mac Mini :: Mouse Pointer Disappear And Webpages Drop To Bottom?

How To Open A Mac Mouse For Battery Change

Mar 23, 2012

My mouse pointer disappears when still, if I open a webpage or app store the page drops to the bottom and I cant get back to the top with the mouse. I have tried six different mice (blue tooth and wireless including mac magic mouse) , all the same. Also when the sound is on and the system starts up there is a low buzzing sound until I move the mouse or open something up. Should I just restart the whole os as this is only one week old and I am over it already! Info: Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

MacBook :: Get The Colorful Circle Thing On The Mouse Pointer Every Time?

Mar 25, 2012

Calibrate Mouse Touchpad

I have a 2008 Aluminum Body MacBook and recently its been working extremely slow. I always get the colorful circle thing on the mouse pointer every time I try to click on anything. I was wondering if anyone had this problem before and what you did to fix this? Or if anyone knew how to fix this problem. Info: MacBook, iOS 5.1

Intel Mac :: How To Stop Scratching Sound When Moving Mouse Pointer

May 6, 2012

For approximately one week I have been getting a scratching sound when I move the mouse pointer accross desktop no matter what program I am running. Current OS is MAC OS X 10.7.3. Sound continues when I turn sound off. Info: iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

MacBook Pro :: Track Pad Doesn't Work Properly And Mouse Pointer Is Jumping All Over Screen?

May 19, 2012

it feels like someone else is controlling my mouse. This just started happening. My trackpad doesn't work or works sporadically. While typing the pointer is scrolling all over my screen.

OS X V10.7 Lion :: Why Doesn't It Give Us The Possibility To Change The Mouse Acceleration Or Pointer Style

Jun 21, 2012

as a former Windows user I really miss the option to tune the mouse pointer acceleration or to change the pointer looking!why can't I simply use my trackpad for my iPad supporting the multitouch gestures available on the iPad's OS just on the track pad? Info: MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

MacBook Pro :: Mouse Pointer All Of A Sudden Started To Move Slower With A Small Delay

Jun 30, 2014

my mighty mouse pointer all of a sudden started to move slower with a small delay. I have checked the battery but it's 100%. Macbook Pro 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 / 16GB RAM / 751 SSD

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Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

Virtualization

When I last reviewed virtualization software in 2008, I found Parallels Desktop 4 for Mac effective, but saddled with a bit of bugginess and lacking some DirectX support. Parallels 5 Desktop for Mac (I tested build 9308) solves both problems, while adding features and improving performance.

Among the most notable of those new features: a much-faster virtualization engine; automatic compression of Windows’ hard disks; a new virtual machine manager; and a new lockdown mode, which requires a password to exit full screen mode, make changes to the virtual machine state, or manage snapshots (perfect for system administrators who don’t want end-users mucking up their machines).

Installation, setup

I tested Parallels Desktop 5 by using it to install Windows XP Pro, Windows 7 Ultimate (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions), and Ubuntu Linux 9.10 on my Mac Pro (2.66GHz quad core with 8GB of RAM, running OS X 10.6.2).

Installing both Windows and Linux is easy in Parallels; it has assistants that automate the process for both. It also installs Parallels Tools, which handles the task of mouse integration between the guest OS and Mac OS, as well as allowing easy guest desktop resizing by resizing the guest OS window.

There are a couple aspects of installing guest OSes that could be improved. First, every time you create a new virtual machine, Parallels creates an alias to that virtual machine on your OS X Desktop. There’s no way to avoid this, so if you find the aliases useless (as I do), you have to manually remove them each time you create a virtual machine.

More troubling is that, when creating a new Windows virtual machine, the default settings are for full integration of the Mac OS and the Windows guest—the default even sets the Windows’ user folder to the Mac’s Users folder. As someone who has personally experienced Windows malware infections, total integration is not something I recommend for most virtual machine users, and yet it’s the default behavior in Parallels.

Parallels also defaults to booting Windows virtual machines in the fully-integrated Coherence mode, where the Windows desktop vanishes, and Windows’ windows are intermingled with those of OS X. For someone expecting a standard Windows interface after installation, this can be disconcerting.

The basics

Like Fusion 3, Parallels 5 now supports Windows Aero in Windows 7, and also includes OpenGL 2.1 acceleration in both XP Pro and Windows 7 (Fusion only supports OpenGL 2.1 in Windows XP Pro). In addition, OpenGL acceleration is included in Linux guests, enabling full visual effects (such as windows that deform when dragged) in Linux systems such as Ubuntu 9.10. More usefully, you’ll also be able to run Linux programs that require OpenGL acceleration. Parallels is alone in its support for OpenGL 2.1 in Linux and Windows 7. I found the Aero effects worked very smoothly in Windows 7 on my Mac Pro.

As with its competitors, Parallels handles typical office productivity applications with ease, in both Windows and Linux. Microsoft Office (Windows) and OpenOffice (Linux) both ran well, and had no troubles with the mixture of spreadsheets and documents I tried opening and editing in both. Web browsers and e-mail clients also performed well; if this is the extent of your virtual machine needs, Parallels 5 will easily meet your requirements.

Parallels 5 was also the fastest of the three programs I tested in the vast majority of the benchmark tests I ran—including the all-important real-world tests. Whether it was copying files to or from the Mac, or expanding zip archives, Parallels easily outpaced its competition. As one example, copying 2.5GB worth of files from the Mac to a Windows 7 machine via a shared folder took just over a minute in Parallels. That same task took nearly two minutes in VirtualBox, and about a minute and a half in Fusion.

Suspending, waking, booting, and shutting down were all quickest in Parallels, too. There’s a small caveat there, at least with suspending. When I tried sleeping the machine while a 3D game was running, it worked, but the game didn’t work after waking from sleep. In Fusion, the same experiment worked just fine—so one tradeoff of the faster sleep time in Parallels is, at least in my testing, an inability to sleep and then resume a 3D game. As a user, you’ll have to decide whether the faster suspend times in general are worth this tradeoff when trying to suspend an in-progress 3D game. (This may not be an issue with all games, but it was in the two I tested with.)

Like Fusion 3, Parallels 5 offers improved multi-monitor support, treating two displays as separate monitors in Windows, and as one large gargantuan display in Linux. Adding a third screen to the mix worked perfectly in Windows. In Linux, however, the third screen was seen by the system (the horizontal resolution reflected its existence), but it was all white, and I couldn’t see anything that I dragged onto that screen.

To make working in full-screen mode easier, Parallels 5 lets you specify behaviors for mousing into the four screen corners—you can switch to one of the other available view modes, or show the Parallels menu bar. Once you’ve set a behavior for a corner, moving the mouse into that corner will “peel down” and reveal a bit of your OS X desktop. Unfortunately, there’s no visual indication of what happens if you then click the mouse, so you’ll need to remember which corner you’ve assigned to which task.

New looks for Windows

Parallels 5 features a new view mode, Crystal, along with a new Mac-like theme for use within Windows. Crystal view mode takes Coherence mode one step further. You won’t find the Start menu or task bar anywhere in Crystal mode—in fact, you won’t even see the Parallels Desktop icon in your Dock. Instead, a menu bar icon lets you change view modes, see the Windows Start menu, or work with attached devices. You’ll also find your task bar icons (optionally) in the menu bar, and Windows Applications folder in your OS X Dock. Any open windows will be integrated with your OS X windows, as in Coherence mode.

Crystal mode works reasonably well, though you can’t Command-Tilde to toggle between multiple windows of the same Windows’ application, nor can you use Snow Leopard’s Dock Exposé mode with Windows’ windows. Both of these features work as expected in Fusion. I also found that dragging windows around in Crystal mode, when using an Aero theme in Windows 7, was quite laggy on my Mac Pro. I had much better results after I disabled Aero in Crystal mode (you can control this in the virtual machine’s Settings).

I experienced some strangeness when I had Windows Media Player window open in Crystal mode, and then used Exposé’s All Windows mode. In addition to the opened windows, I also saw three “ghost” windows for Windows Media Player, and some visual distortion was visible in the Excel window.

Selecting any one of these “ghost” windows would simply switch to Windows Media Player, so it wasn’t a critical issue, but it definitely looks odd when using Exposé.

The second new look for Windows in Parallels is MacLook, which is actually an OS X-like theme for Windows (XP, Vista, and 7). You apply MacLook via the View menu, and Parallels then works for a minute or two to install the theme. The objective is to make Windows less visually shocking for someone switching between the Mac OS and the Windows OS.

While that’s the idea, I think MacLook fails fairly badly in achieving the goal.

Because not every element in Windows is themable, what MacLook winds up giving you is a series of different-looking windows within Windows—some look something like OS X windows, others look like native Windows windows, and still others look like some strange Frankenstinian mixture of the two.

Some windows are square, others are rounded; none seem to have shadows and some are missing edge borders; some have the red/yellow/green buttons from OS X at the top right, some at the top left, and others lack them completely.

I can’t imagine that anyone who likes and uses the OS X interface regularly will find MacLook to be an improvement over the stock Windows theme—at least there’s some consistency there, and the windows all mostly look the same.

When I unchecked the MacLook entry in the View menu, which should disable MacLook, I had some issues in Windows 7—the uninstall process didn’t quite complete, leaving an even odder mix of window appearances. I was able to resolve that issue by using the Personalization section of Windows preferences to pick a stock Aero theme.

Graphics and gaming

Parallels Desktop 5 has a very good engine for gaming. I had excellent results with older games, and very good results even with more-recent releases. The demo version of Call of Duty 4, which I was unable to run with decent frame rates in Fusion, ran acceptably (albeit at minimum levels of detail) after some tweaking in Parallels.

With OpenGL acceleration in all main versions of Windows (and Linux), Parallels can handle programs that the other two virtualization apps just aren’t capable of running at present. In addition, Parallels’ OpenGl implementation, as measured in the Cinebench benchmarking test, was the fastest of the three programs in any version of Windows. (All game tests were done in Windows 7, to stress the virtual machine as much as possible.)

Calibrate Mac Battery

Parallels also does an admirable job with DirectX games in Windows. For example, I was able to play the MotoGP 08 demo with good frame rates in a 1024x768 window, though the audio did stutter a bit.

More impressively, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, a program that just a few years ago required a high-end PC to run at all, ran admirably well in Parallels. The audio was mostly stutter free, and the frame rate in a 1024x768-sized window was more than acceptable in the missions I tested.

That’s not to say I was getting anywhere near the frame rate I’d get if I were to reboot my Mac and run Flight Sim X natively via Boot Camp. However, for someone who doesn’t need every bit of speed in their games, the loss in frame rate may be worth the convenience of not having to reboot.

Most older games run very well, so much so that there’s no reason to reboot via Boot Camp to play “vintage” titles. Note that some older games may need to run on older versions of Windows; Windows 7 won’t run all your older games.

Given what was possible in gaming and graphics with the first version of Parallels a few years back—basically nothing—it’s amazing how much progress has been made in a very short period of time.

Multimedia performance

To test Parallels’ media handling, I watched a 1080p Windows HD media file in full screen mode in each version of Windows. I was watching for visual glitches, listening for any disruption in audio playback, and tracking CPU usage to see how each virtual machine handled the task.

In short, all three of the Windows OSes handled the HD video file without any major issues. The one-CPU Windows 7 box had a bit more variation in frame rate than did the two-CPU machines, but it was very hard to spot unless watching the video back-to-back (which I did, many times).

Other features and observations

This version of Parallels cleans up the installation on a Mac—in prior versions, Parallels’ virtual network drivers were visible in the Network System Preferences panel. In Parallels Desktop 5, those drivers no longer appear, preventing possible user confusion.

Also new in Parallels 5 is support for Apple’ multi-touch gestures (swipe, rotate, pinch) using an Apple Magic Mouse or the trackpad in a multi-touch capable Apple laptop (you can also use an Apple Remote for some basic control, if you wish). Parallels Tools takes care of the communication between the mouse/track pad and the guest OS, so there are no special requirements on the Windows side—gestures simply work in Windows XP and newer.

I tested this using XP Pro on my MacBook Pro, and it worked as described. I was able to use pinch to zoom in/out on images in Microsoft’s Picture Viewer, and to change the size of the text on an Internet Explorer page. Rotation gestures also worked as expected on the images. If you’re a laptop or Magic Mouse user, this is a nice addition to your Windows virtual machines.

Mac Mouse Cursor

As you can probably tell from the features described in this review, Parallels is a feature-rich program. Sometimes, though, feature overload can lead to a complex user interface, and there are spots in Parallels where that’s the case.

Take the virtual machine Configuration panel, for instance, which contains 15 separate sections. Or the Preferences panel, which includes 11 separate tabs, some of which contain a large number of items that can be configured. While these sections and tabs are relatively well laid out, the sheer number of choices can cause confusion.

For example, you might think that defining how Mac and Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts coexist would be found in the virtual machine Configuration panel…but that’s not the case. Instead, you define the shortcuts in the Preferences panel, where you can set up definitions for Windows, Linux, OS X, and generic guests.

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

Pros

Multi-touch support

Very fast in all facets of use

Very good DirectX and OpenGL support

Cleaner installation than prior releases

Feature rich

Cons

Sleep mode may prevent resuming 3D games

MacLook theme for Windows isn't all that good

Features add complexity

Defaults to fully-integrated OS X/Windows mode

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weedsekatzefollowers · 6 years

Photo

WK Followers - Weekly Creation Kit Update 02

Curious about the progress of the mod? Then pay this blog a visit at the beginning of the week and take a look at my weekly CK Updates! Developer Journal: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Again, unfortunately a slow week. But still, I’ve finished a couple of things on my to-do-list. So, adding onto what I wrote about last week, let’s begin.

HIGH PRIORITY:

Interior Cells:

As you know by now, the cells don’t need to be built, they need to be optimized. And - honest to god - I am bad at that. It can take me up to several days to properly optimize a dungeon, and even then I’m not entirely satisfied with it. This week, I optimized exactly... you guessed it... one cell. And this mod adds a lot of cells.

Also, as I predicted last week, I wasn’t able to tackle locations and encounter zones yet. Why... I’ll tell you why.

Quests:

Because of these. I was halfway through implementing one of the personal quests, when I realized (during playtesting) that the follower barely had any lines when I picked them up, told them to wait, to leave, to do something for me, etc. I expected a minor mistake in the dialogue conditions (since I usually copy those from one follower to another and tend to forget to point them to the right direction), but to my horror I found most of the dialogue lines empty! Somewhere between making sure they can follow me for now, and dragging them all across Skyrim to see their reaction to their surroundings, I completely forgot to add more follower dialogue. Which... sets me back quite a bit, since I was about to hold auditions for the voice actors some time this week and didn’t want to do that without having the basic quests and dialogues completed. Now I’m paranoid about having skipped over other essential lines and thus, I’m carefully combing through all of my quests, making sure these kind of things don’t happen again. Auditions will be held once that’s done, I think.

On a more positive note, I finished the first drafts for the re-worked personal quests and right now I’m satisfied enough with my work to edit them. Which is very easy for me, since I’ve been writing since my teenage years. Did you know that I love writing? I guess it’s pretty obvious by now. (Unrelated: Hit me up with your favorite books, authors... anything, really. I love talking about books.) Implementing them, though, well... that’s another story. Theoretically, with all the modding experience I’ve gathered over the years, it should be a piece of cake. On the other hand... you know what they say. What can go wrong, will go wrong. And when you’re working with the Creation Kit, you’ll witness this quite often. You’ll come to expect the worst. Always. But I’m confident I’ll figure it out as I go.

So... taking all of my high priority points into consideration... What does that mean? Well, first and foremost, the follower dialogue for two of my followers, Brionna and Laoghaire, to be exact, isn’t quite as finished as I thought and I’ll have to remedy that before I can broaden my horizons regarding working with voice actors. I’m actually quite excited about that. What I’m less excited about is the dungeon optimization I’m still stuck on. It’s going to take me a while, I just know it. Combined with ironing out the mistakes I made inside the dialogue view of my mental models (for newcomers, the quests where I store thousands of lines of dialogue and their respective branches regarding opinions, thoughts, and the likes), I’m certain I’m looking at several weeks, if not months, of work. I wish the Creation Kit was more stable. Part of me is to blame for this, too. My younger self needs scolding.

LOW PRIORITY:

Actors:

I’ve decided not to make any of the supporting or minor actors standalone, except for one or two exceptions (you’ll understand when you see them). That still means I’ll have to properly dress and rework their placeholders, too.

Magic:

Nothing’s changed about this, yet. You’ll see that statement quite often down here. Low priority points on my list will only be tackled once I’m done working on the top priority ones. Thus, if nothing’s changed during the week, I will not comment further on these points. Instead, you’ll be linked to the last update that mentions changes to them.

Models & textures:

Unchanged (read more here).

CK & folder structure cleanup:

Unchanged (read more here).

TES5Edit:

Unchanged (read more here).

So... TL;DR?

Dungeon optimization, quest implementation and bug fixing are still eating up most of my time. I’ve decided against standalone supporting actors and spent a couple days working on optimization, finishing up drafts, filling in missing lines of dialogue and looking for voice actors. Yes... but when’s the release? No ETA yet.

… And that concludes our CK update of the week. Thanks for your interest in my mod and the support you show me! It’s quite overwhelming, actually. I’m really excited to share this journey with you and hope to see you around!

#Skyrim #TES: V #WK Followers #Developer Journal

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simlaughlove · 7 years

Text

Hello!

I just thought I’d drop in and give everyone a little update on what’s to come over time. Cause I know I don’t post very often and I don’t want you all to think I’m inactive again lol. Everything I want to say is a bit jumbled in my head, so I’m just going to list my thoughts and hope it makes sense lol. Sorry in advance for any and all typos! And you are awesome if you actually read everything below the cut!

Summer Pigtails

I’ve been slowly working on updating texture issues with the Summer Pigtails set of hairs I released last year. You know the one where lines would appear on the hairs when zooming out?

I’ve slightly edited the textures to fix that problem and remapped a few sections to better to completely separate the right and left sides for duo colors (think Melanie Martinez or Harley Quinn).

I’ve added proper hat chops! They broke all my packages... as in crashed my game! Apparently trying to update the newly extracted meshes didn’t want to work. I had to completely remake all the packages. Problem fixed!

Bad news: Recolors will no longer work with the new packages (not that they would have worked with the new remapping anyway, sorry!).

Good news: Pigtail accessories will be released with the updated packages!

More good news: all adult hairs are done and children hairs are in progress!

I won’t release any new hairs until I get these pigtails updated, it’s just a super duper guilt thing on my part. That won’t stop me from releasing other things in between though!

Bodysuits?!

So, with my newly released swimsuits I’ve had requests to make them top version bodysuits that can be used with any bottoms (or a nude bottom for use as a swimsuit).

I’m almost done with this, a post will be made about it and links will be added to the original posts.

Now my question is, would you all prefer the more versatile bodysuit over actual swimsuits? Or both? Also, when I do tucked in versions of tops (as I have in the past) would you all prefer those to be bodysuits as well?

I don’t mind doing it, since my actual purpose for them can still be achieved.

Gift for followers!

I have one, I do. I’ve had it since before I hit 10k I promise! I know @bowl-of-plumbobs really wants me to release it lol! He saw it before it was even decided it would be a gift, no asking he won’t tell!

Thing is, my gift is a gift of haaaairs (and that is the only hint you get!). Which kind of conflicts with my deepens voice “no new hair releases until pesky pigtails are updated” lol.

Soon though, soon!

Current WIPs

Other than the hairs I’m updating, I have quite a few projects that I’m working on. Some are big, some small (pft me with a small project lol).

Hair, clothing, accessories, shoes, conversions... you name it I got a WIP for it in some way, shape, or form.

The status of various WIPs is really random though, just depends on what I’m in the mood to work on.

I also have plans to update previously released custom content, such as things with small issues that appear in game. I also have some explody lower LOD dresses that I need to fix, oops!

Did you know that there is a small seam issue where the head meets the neck on all older custom content tops and full body meshes? I’m not sure when the issue popped up though. I’m thinking sometime during or after December 2016 (since the Cut It Out! tops I released don’t have it, but stuff before that does). The only way I’ve found to fix this is to make a new package (cloning the old package doesn’t fix the issue, it has to be an all new package)! Weird.

In the top left corner of my blog is a pink box that once clicked produces a menu, at the bottom is a checklist of some of the projects I’m currently working on. I plan to actually check things off once I get something done that is listed on it lol.

Side Blog & New Pages

SimFindLove - this is an ongoing project, it’s not meant to be a typical custom content finds blog, but more of what is in my mods folder. My mods folder gets a clean, so does this blog. Everything I use in preview pictures can always be found on this blog. New pose used? It will be reblogged. I’m still trying to figure out how I want things tagged, hopefully in the future it will be easier to navigate through clothing lol. I also reblog tutorials and resources I like!

Resources - this is a list of all the overlays, makeup, default replacements, and mods I use in my game. Some of these haven’t been reblogged to SimFindLove yet, I dunno if they will or not yet since I update links once a month if needed.

Custom Content Creation (CCC!) - this is a list of tools and tutorials I have bookmarked, along with a few notes that I thought I would share. I get a lot of asks and messages about how to make hairs or clothing, so I thought this would be a good starting off point. And it’s not that I don’t want to help people out, it’s just that I suck at explaining things. I tried to keep the list organized by subject. This is by no means all the tutorials that are out there, only what I have personally learned from or have found useful in some way. Also, keep in mind this tutorial list is centered around sims4studio and/or blender.

Hey you! Yeah you!

Help a girl out! If you see any issues in game with custom content I’ve released, please let me know! Don’t be shy! And screenshots would really be helpful. You can either send an ask or message me xD

Sometimes when I work on stuff, then test and play with it in game I miss things. And I’d really like to fix any issues that pop up!

THANK YOU!

#simlaughlove #nonsims

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briteboy · 7 years

Photo

WHO is Santi and WHERE is his face?

i am LIVING for your warm & colorful posts right now!! your editing is so amazing and it brightens my day everytime i see a new post of yours *.*

THANK YOU!!!! <3 i am so happy/relieved to be using warm colors once more, i feel like myself again. don’t get me wrong, i do like evoking different moods, but sometimes (a lot of the time, especially with santi) too much is too much. today’s posts were HOPEfully my last emo edits..............for now

LOL I actually made a comment about Fiona naming a cat/dog (once Pets comes out) Rodrigo. I'll go back underground now haha (still a great story, cant wait to read more) -Runaway NONY

OH I DIDN’T EVEN SEE THAT wtf. either tumblr ate it or i accidentally scrolled past it i’m sorry. i always enjoy seeing messages from anons who return to my inbox! but lmAO that’s a good idea. i actually met the most perfect dog today and now i know the breed and name of dog santi needs immediately

Hii! If you dont mind me askin, how do you edit your darker screenshots? I always end up making them too light or too dark to see a thing :( Thank you!

hmmm idk what to tell you about making them too light or too dark, because that’s a very specific thing that really depends on the picture. BUT i know that the dodge tool is my bff for brightening up dark pictures while still retaining some of the darker elements you want in them (aversely, the burn tool will help darken parts), messing with the exposure can also really help, coloring can also help too, selective color is my bff especially with blue shadows and orangey skin...this is kind of a broad answer, i’m sorry, but if you needed help with something specific, let me know!

I remember you answered an ask and said you drew tears when you edit right? Is there a reason you don't use CC tears?

i answered this like two weeks ago but i can’t find it so whateveR i’ve used cc tears a few times but there’s only like three of those in existence and my characters have cried a LOT. i feel like it would be kinda weird if they had the same tears every time. also there are just some variations that i like to customize myself by drawing, like sometimes they’ll be full on sobbing, sometimes just one single tear...it just depends on the situation, that’s why i draw ‘em.

Santi is my favorite Harvest Moon character.

idk shit about harvest moon so idk how to respond to this :[ here’s a small picture of michael cera with a cactus

Would you recommend buying a macbook for playing sims?

if a macbook is what you already have, then yeah, i’d say it suffices without many problems. if you’re specifically going out and buying a computer with the knowledge that you’ll be playing sims on it, then mmmmmm i’d probably say no...but it also depends on if you’re like gonna get REALLY into storytelling and cc n shit or if it’s just casual gameplay with a mods folder that’s like 5 gb or less...if it’s the latter i think it should also be fine. but yeah it just depends on what kind of gaming you’re planning on doing.

How can I read your story from the beginning? Is there a link or something? I keep seeing it on my feet and it looks so great!

thank you! there’s a button at the top of my page that says “story directory” but if you’re on mobile you can just go here or copy this link: http://femmesim.tumblr.com/tagged/story/chrono

I've talked to u like once before and I'm to shy to talk to u again... Why am I like fish?

This**

we are all like fish if you really think about it lmao but really just reach out my dude! if we talked once then y’know you already broke the ice so just go for it!! i am here and ready to talk about all the things under the sun

Do you use Topaz Clean?

yep

hi hello so maybe I am just a blind bean but may I ask how in god's name do you get your images to be so crisp? I have everything set up, but it seems as if when I do my thing in Photoshop, everything turns out lookin like a blobfish. I'm not sure if you use another person's topaz settings or if you have your own. Thank you so much if you do respond bc I was too much of a wuss to message you *cries in Spanish*

OMG well it’s mostly just resizing, smart sharpening, and most importantly topaz clean (see above) that makes them so crisp. i also use the sharpen tool on sims’ faces, and the smudge tool when something is particularly pixelated or whatever. everything i do is listed in here! UR NOT A WUSS *hugs you in spanish*

youre my inspiration to be a better writer. I know i'm good and giving characters depth and backgrounds and coming up with a rough story idea. but i rush things and i'm not great at putting it into a good story so ya. My story on simblr started out as casual gameplay but i wanted it to be more and i'm trying to get better @ everything

OMG ;_________; it sounds like you are a good writer already, and it’s awesome that you recognize your strengths while also acknowledging that you need to work on some things as well. i try to do the same and i think that’s what keeps me level headed. it sounds like you just need to dedicate some time to planning, that way you start to realize all the nuances of your story that come together to flesh out that initial rough idea. you seem to have a positive attitude, so that’s great!! you’re already getting better and better, i know it <3

now Santi's song is Post Malone - Congratulations

OMF LMAO u sent this when santi finally got to mexico and it’s fitting

sos i was listening to the song fight song by rachel platten when i saw the photoset of santi making it to mexico and now i can't stop ugly crying please make it stop

omG i see it TAKE BACK UR LIFE SANTI U GOT THIS

This is so random but like, can I just say that you're so amazing like?? Why?? You're so sweet and funny and I love you very much ok

AKJSKJDFKJS THANK YOU THIS IS SO NICEEEE ;-; i try but a lot of the time i feel like a sarcastic asshole lmao thank u for thinking otherwise <3

Am I the only one who's like... really mad about pets being NPCs? I just feel like being able to control them was the best part. I don't really feel like the EP is worth it without them. Like, don't get me wrong, I understand that the team worked really hard on it, but I feel like they didn't do it as well as they could have.

hmm i’m kind of meh on that front because like on one hand i did like controlling pets and the novelty of the fact that you could just see their different interactions firsthand, but ultimately i think i’m okay with not controlling them because it makes it more realistic for me and honestly they’re probably more likely to take care of themselves a little bit more if they’re automated, because i’m just thinking about ts3 pets and how i literally had to make them go pee outside otherwise they’d pee in the house...even if they were well trained and stuff lmao. plus there might be a cheat or mod that lets you control them, like there was in ts2? so don’t lose hope yet.

hey your blog is AWESOME, i read through your stories in a day and am obsessed (kind of in love with gianni) ❤ what are some of your favorite ts4 blogs? i'm trying to find more awesome blogs to read through during my miserable journey of trying to get the game to work on my computer lol

heyo here’s some! thank you btw, and i hope your miserable journey ends soon :{

(I really need to get this off my chest) ok so my aunt is currently in a critical condition after having a kidney failure and she's in desperate need for a new one and I'm the only one in my family that's a match (so far) but I'm not allowed to donate bc I myself have severe health issues affecting my day to day life that would make it extremely dangerous for me to remove a kidney. I'm so fucking frustrated you don't understand like I just want to cry most of the time

first off i’m so sorry that this is even happening to you ;__; and you’re an amazing person for being willing to help out your aunt like that, so just know it isn’t your fault that you’re unable to. don’t guilt yourself for it okay? is there any other possible donor at all? i wanna know how this situation ends up. i really hope your aunt will be okay. just stay close to your family for support and don’t blame yourself.

how did you get photoshop for free? I'm trying to find a link that won't give me a virus, but I had no luck yet

the pirate bay is ur friend

Ok I gotta rant. GoT does NOT deserve the hype/amazing ratings. Like, sure the cinematography is pretty great and they have ok actors but the freaking script is so mediocre I actually think I could write a better one. Me. A 16 y/o tiny child. There are so much better shows out there! Hell, even Supernatural has a better script than GoT

whenever ppl agree with me about how much GoT sucks i grow stronger and stronger even the actors are iffy at this point. watching daenerys act is painful, jon snow is wooden as hell, it’s just bad. ur 16 yr old self has more potential than these writers tbh. it’s just completely mediocre; it started out as something great because it followed the same layered storytelling pattern as the books, but it’s diverged from that completely because the writers got too caught up in the hype. and you’re right, it doesn’t deserve that hype! omfdkjsgkj i’ve never watched supernatural but i haven’t heard good things. that’s a low bar

#nonsims #saviorhide #anonymous #sunny answers

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royaltyjunk · 7 years

Text

Brighter - Ch. 1 [T, Perceval/Cecilia]

Summary:

[Mod!AU] It's not the way he laughs, or the way she smiles, but it's the way they enjoy each other's company that makes the world seem a whole lot brighter.

Author's Ideas: HOLLAH HOLLAH GUESS WHAT MY FIRST LEGIT (NOT A TWO-SHOT) MULTI-CHAPTER FIC IS

IF YOU GUESSED PERCEVAL/CECILIA YOU'RE RIGHT

Jokes aside this has been sitting in my WIPs since like… March? To be fair, there's another WIP that's been there since June last year, but we're going to ignore that ha ha ha ha ha

*hint hint that might be my next one-shot hint hint*

Also, I tried out a new style of writing with this chapter, and I like it a lot. It's a little more casual and a lot more playful, but since all my fics are so somber [as y'all know], I'll hardly get to use it. Ah well :p

As always, readable on FanFiction and AO3.

Disclaimer: What's owning Fire Emblem? Obviously something I'm not a part of.

I: Sunrise

She shoots up like a sprout over the fifth Christmas break of work, and Perceval's genuinely shocked that she can't serve as his armrest anymore (yes, she used to be that short, and yes, she is a really late bloomer).

He didn't know what to say when she appeared on that first day back at work and marched over to him, her nose touching his cheek as she grinned up at him, standing tall on her flat feet.

Cecilia changes in more ways than her height, though.

Perceval always knew her as Miss Alessandra's daughter, who was his father's friend. She was the girl who worked hard for everything she got, and loved nature more than anything. She was the girl who helped him on his literature homework when he'd almost flunked the class on accident, the girl who sat under or, Miss Alessandra forbid, in the tree, flipping the pages of books containing medieval stories. She was the girl who had that sort of natural hand in economics and business, she was the girl who had always had her sights set on the Elibean Leagues. Yet, when did she start to grow into a woman?

Her voice gets deeper. What used to be a high and soft pitch turns into a sweet, slightly deeper tone. Her eyes grow wiser, more attentive. The curves in her body grow more obvious, and she looks much more feminine, like a real woman, and not like a short girl who tries her best to look like one.

She can do makeup like a pro now, and often does it in his car on the way to work, although she's always done that. What's changed is how well she wears that coral-colored lipstick, how nice her eyes look under that thin eyeliner and mascara she's known for. Her taste in fashion doesn't change, but she wears her clothes more naturally.

It takes more than a while for Perceval to register it: she's a woman.

There's still downsides to her growing up, though. There always are. First and foremost, he doesn't get to tease her anymore. He used to grin and muss her hair, laugh whenever they went shopping together and she had to get the smallest things in the petite section, or buy larger clothes hopefully. He doesn't get to do that anymore, and scrunches up his face whenever she stands on the tips of her toes and ruffles his hair, or how comfy she looks in his sweaters whenever she comes over, instead of looking like a mess of cloth and limbs.

Everyone takes her so seriously now. They look nervous when they approach her, and they stammer when they talk to her. She's expected to act mature, she's expected to present herself appropriately when Perceval knows that she's the same as before.

He becomes worried for her, though. When they walk down the sidewalk, he can see men, staring at her ravenously from the corner of his eye. Their hands twitch, and he doesn't want to think about what would happen if he wasn't there.

"It's ridiculous," Pent interrupts Perceval's aggressive train, or multiple trains, of thoughts.

He nudges Cecilia, who's sitting beside him. "What were we talking about?" he whispers.

"Promotions and business trips," she answers, glancing at him beneath long lashes lined with thin mascara. "Were you not paying attention?"

"No," he mutters back, and she gives him a playful punch on his leg under the table.

"Well, pay attention."

"Actually…" his mother's voice interrupts their banter, and Perceval looks up. "There is one more thing I would like to bring up in the Security Department."

"Go on," Douglas nods from his seat beside her. Amber Eques stands, a determined look in her eyes.

"At the urging of my husband," she lifts her head courageously, "I wish to step down from my position as the Head of Security-"

Perceval is on his feet at once, slamming his hands on the table in front of him. "Mother-"

"-And pass my post on to Perceval." Amber interrupts him.

He shakes his head as everyone's eyes swivel to him, pursing his lips together.

"Amber is right in appointing Perceval." Cecilia speaks up then. "He's experienced in the field, and will serve well."

Perceval looks at the green-haired woman, who stares at Douglas. Pent nods from his place next to the brunette.

"I trust Perceval. I've known him long enough to know he'll do better than any other candidate."

Louise smiles. "Pent is right, Perceval. I'm sure you're reluctant, but we all believe in you."

Cecilia places a hand on his then, ignoring the blatant stares. He stares down at her pale hand, and glances over at her. Her face is glistening with a smile, and he bites his lip before nodding hesitantly.

"Very well. If my mother believes me to be the one most capable for the job, I will accept it."

He gets a round of standing ovation, and Perceval shoots Cecilia his best "please help me what have I gotten myself into" look.

Amber Eques is waiting for her son outside of the meeting room, and she grins, snagging Perceval's elbow and reaching up, ruffling her son's hair.

"Don't let me down, kiddo."

"Thanks, Mom," Perceval rolls his eyes. "Way to put on the pressure."

Cecilia jabs her elbow into his bicep, and he glares at her playfully, a smirk on his lips. Amber lets out a boisterous laugh, rubbing her son's back.

"You can do it, Perceval. Your dad and I believe in you."

Perceval groans. "Right. Dad persuaded you to do this."

Cecilia grins. "Just shut up and be happy."

He doesn't see her for the rest of the weekend, too busy to meet up with her because of his new responsibilities that warrant attention from the public media. She sends him paragraphs and broken messages between interviews, wishing him luck and reassuring him it'll be okay.

The first day in Elibean Leagues on Monday is a circus. The minute Perceval pulls up in the parking lot, he's showered with "congratulations" and presents. He's pulled into a party, then piled up with work, and all this time, he's never seen Cecilia, only catching a glimpse of green behind Douglas's grinning face.. Eventually, he shows up in her office through the connecting door of their offices, and the reaction he gets from her is interesting, to say the least.

"Cecilia? Douglas said something about needing documents in a red folder, I think. I'm here to get them."

"Hold on, let me…" she spins around in her chair, then trails off. "...get through these…" She looks him over once, a grin on her face before turning her back to him, sorting through her cabinet of files and folders.

"I didn't know the first day of being Head of Security required cufflinks and a suit," Cecilia teases. Perceval rolls his eyes.

"I didn't either, so you're two for two for not knowing about how formal we have to be on the first day of work."

"Hey, my first day was your fault and you know it."

Perceval gives her a doubtful look that she knows he's giving her, and she sprays her bottle of perfume in his general direction.

"Cecilia!" he scolds, scowling. She turns to look at him, a red folder in her grasp.

"Great! Now I get to tell everyone how I made the Head of Security smell like peaches on his first day!" Cecilia beams, then pushes the spinning chair in front of Perceval, dropping the folder into his hands. "Now go on! You have work to do now, don't you?"

"Shut it," Perceval brushes off his suit, but grins. She smiles back and stands, giving him a tight hug.

"Congratulations," she murmurs. He rests his cheek on the top of her head and pulls her closer.

"Thanks."

When he goes to Douglas's office, the older man takes the folder from him and asks him, in an insinuating tone of voice, why he smells like the peach perfume that Cecilia uses so often. His only response is to flush as red as a ripe strawberry and swear incoherently under his breath. Douglas snorts and tells Perceval to scram and pick up the pieces of his scattered love life. Perceval glares at the older man before exiting his office, leaving Douglas hollering over how "young'uns these days don't seem to know what love is" and how "Perceval is the most oblivious bloke I've ever met".

That little episode elicits a response in Pent and Louise, who pull the new Head of Security out of a meeting one day to give him The Talk. Cecilia's mother, Miss Alessandra, takes an hour off of work just to join them, and by the time the trio are finished with Perceval, he is an unimaginable shade of crimson, from his face to his neck, even to his hands and feet, and there's a mental image in his mind that doesn't go away for the rest of the two hour meeting he clambers back into clumsily, muttering "I'm fine" to anyone who asks questions as to why the Head of the Financial Resources department, his wife, and Miss Cecilia's mother were lecturing him in said Head of Financial Resources's office.

"What were they talking to you about?" Cecilia raises an eyebrow over her lunch, and Perceval coughs, swallowing.

"I'd rather not think about it right now."

"What did they do now?" Cecilia rolls her eyes, standing. "I should go talk to them…"

"No, wait, Cecilia, you don't have to-"

She ignores his half-protests and stalks over to her boss, a fiery look in her eyes.

There's a collective moment of silence, then Pent bursts into laughter.

"Perceval, I thought you were tough!" he yells, and the Head of Security rolls his eyes, adjusting his tie.

"Technically, this is all your fault!" Perceval calls back, cupping a hand around his mouth. Pent waves him off, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Shut up and come get your girl!"

That hits both of them, and Cecilia kicks Pent in the shin, making a face while Perceval covers his face with his hands. Louise laughs.

The whole time, they're being recorded by Mildain, who's working the register at the Western Isles Café.

The next day, when everyone gets the video in a company inclusive e-mail, Perceval feels like curling up under his desk and never coming back out. He knows he's never going to hear the end of it, but his co-workers drop the subject as soon as the Elibean Leagues announce their next project at the annual company wide meeting.

"We're going to be starting a branch of Elibean Leagues in Lycia. They've agreed to send in candidates for employees and leadership positions, but for now, we're going to need some people to go over there and make sure the company can run itself while some people need to teach them," Pent clarifies.

"Which brings us to our current situation," Mordred rasps. "I have a list of people who will be going to the new branch in Ostia. They have already been informed of their qualification, and have agreed to go along. They will be leaving one week from today, on May 4th."

Some intern sitting behind him shouts out, "May the fourth be with you!"

Perceval pins him with his best glare, and he quickly shuts up. Perceval sighs, turning around, and Cecilia stifles a giggle beside him.

"Eliwood Pherae, Hector Ostia, Lyn Sacae. You have served us well, and I'm pleased to tell everyone that you three will be heading the development of the new branch of Elibean Leagues, and are thusly allowed to move from Etruria."

There's a large round of applause for the three veterans of the company, who scuffle on stage looking a little more than intimidated by the task laid out in front of them.

"At least you get to yell at your kids again," Pent murmurs offhandedly into the microphone, and everyone laughs.

"You will not be alone in your efforts, I promise," Mordred chuckles reassuringly. "Guinivere Desmond, Melady Sarkan, Zealot Sniegs, and Cecilia Icae."

Perceval's head shoots up at the mention of Cecilia's name, and he stares at her.

"You're going?" he whispers. She nods, standing to take to the stage.

The rest of the meeting is a blur for him. There's something pounding in his heart, growling at him whenever he sees Cecilia up on that stage.

Pent and Louise jump at the chance of sending their pretty much second daughter off to a new branch of Elibean Leagues, and the last time Perceval sees her is when they're at her house, head-deep in her closet and her wardrobe.

Cecilia disappears from his life for an hour, and then a day, and then a week, and that's exactly when Perceval realizes he has no clue how long she'll be gone.

It's also while she's gone in Ostia that he realizes how boring his life is without her, and he tells Douglas, who just pats him on the back and says, "Congratulations, Perceval, my boy, you've discovered love."

His workspace seems so lonely. The wooden door inside Perceval's office that connects to her office in Financial Resources gets rusty, and he can't help but want to clean away all the dust that's settling on her shelves, chairs, and books whenever he looks inside. He takes home the bomber jacket that she'd accidentally left on the coat hanger, and isn't surprised to discover that it smells like lavender and peach with a dash of vanilla, her favorite smells.

His weekends are suddenly free. Every Saturday afternoon, he usually goes up into the mountains for a hike with her, they go out to dinner afterwards, and then head to the Reglay house for Movie Night. Instead, his mornings (which were already dull because he spends them in the café at the office) become even duller when he realizes that he has nothing to do during the afternoon. He finds himself staying at the Western Isles Café longer than he usually does, and Mildain grins at him.

"You've been here for a while. Don't you usually do something with Cecilia in the afternoon?"

"She's in Ostia. Business trip. She's teaching a class or something," he shrugs angrily. "I couldn't be bothered to listen in on what she was doing. Something about Roy and Lilina was all I caught."

"Oh? Is Perceval being a lovesick boy?" Mildain asks, and Perceval reaches over the counter to swat him with his folder of paperwork.

"Just get me my damn coffee," he grumbles, scrunching his face up as he looks down at the paper in front of him.

"Echidna!" Mildain calls, and a few seconds later, a tall aqua-haired woman pokes her head out the backroom. "Get the grumpy Head of Security his coffee, please."

"Aren't you nice?"

"When did you rediscover your sassiness?" Echidna asks as she reaches for his mug.

"I don't think it's him rediscovering his sass, but it's more so the fact that Cecilia isn't here to tell him to be nicer and not sass everyone."

Perceval just sighs, and everyone's laughing when Geese walks in and promptly asks, "Did I miss something?"

Cecilia stays in Ostia for three months, and Perceval thinks the three months she's gone are the worst thing he's ever been through, and it's like his cat Calico agrees because every morning when Perceval wakes up, Calico's always in the guest room because Cecilia always stays over during her late-night business trips to Chanchester even though her house is only an hour away in Valkin.

Thankfully, she's called back to Aquelia before he loses his sanity, and he tells her over the phone that she's going to be taking Pent's place as the Head of the Financial Resources Department and that "Narcian looked like he had swallowed a live fish" when Galle was also to be promoted alongside her as the Vice Head of the Department. She tries not to laugh because she's stepped out of class to take his call, but he keeps jabbing at it and she ends up having to hang up on him mid-description because she can't teach class with the image of "just swallowed a live fish Narcian" in her head.

He's assigned to go pick her up from the airport when she arrives, and for the rest of the day, every time he walks by his subordinates, they all whoop and cheer like he's trying out for the god damn Olympics, when all he's really going to do is pick up the girl he's loved for twenty two years from the airport. Sain tries to get him to write some fancy poem, and he vehemently denies it in favor of his wife's advice, who just looks at him and says, "Tell her, you prick."

Turns out her advice was actually a message from Mildain.

Douglas sees him off like he's going to college or something, and even insists that he come along (to which Perceval denies). Perceval honestly doesn't know how to feel about it the entire ride towards the airport until he pulls up and sees her, waiting under the shade of the airport, and then he's suddenly grateful that Douglas didn't come with him.

She's beautiful, he thinks, and it's the only thought buzzing through his mind aside from the whole "I love you" thing.

She's wearing the white trench coat they bought in Europe together, and underneath is the open-sleeved, shoulder-cut black silk shirt that he gave her for her birthday. She has on the white jeans they found while cleaning out her wardrobe, and the slip-on black heels he bought for her while they were finding outfits for the class reunion just months ago. Her green hair still looks the same, but it's grown longer, frames her face perfectly, and he loves it.

She spots him and smiles, and he's suddenly seeing stars. She makes her way through the mass of cars towards his and slips her suitcase into the trunk of his car before getting into the car. He has to chide himself mentally that "you're not a kid, goddamnit, just tell her".

He blurts out "I love you" when she shuts the passenger door, and she stops and looks at him, and he's so scared that he can't breathe until he sees that familiar look in her eyes, that look of "I know, damn it, why didn't you tell me earlier", and then she smiles and whispers "I love you too", so he kisses her and kisses her until the cars behind them honk, and he never lets go of her hand during the drive back to Valkin.

#fire emblem #fire emblem 6 #fire emblem: binding blade #fe6 #Perceval #Cecilia #Pent #Douglas #Louise #Elibe #avietta writes fire emblem #avietta writes

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