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jakeyp · 27 days

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GRID + TORN PAPER + RAINBOW LAYOUT TUTORIAL (yeah, i'm sorry, but that is the title i came up with)

Hi everyone! This tutorial was requested by an anon, and we're going to make a gifset like this. You need, as usual, basic gifmaking skills and basic photoshop knowledge, but i'll try to explain this as easily as possible!

You'll also need a torn paper brush, which you can download here.

And here are the links to download the fonts used in my gifset: x, x

Okay let's start!

→ First you're going to create a new canvas, and it will be 540x540 px. Make sure to click on create video timeline (if you dont have a timeline, go to window > timeline. We'll leave this canvas there waiting for us :)

Then, onto our first gif. We're going to make the small square gifs first. All i do is resize the image and make it 120 px high, and you'll see why in a moment.

Make sure to remember the number of frames of this gif!! All the gifs we're going to put in the same canvas should have the same amount of frames.

Okay, so we have our first small gif:

As you can see it's a smart object, and I added some brightness, but so far that's all. You can sharpen it, but i like to sharpen until i've colored it. Now onto the important part:

Most of the gifs i worked with were mostly blue (aside from the skin color), which is recommendable, because you can create lots of colors starting from blue, using the hue/saturation adjustment, or camera raw filter. I also recommend you to use a gif that doesn't move a lot, so it'll be easier to color the background:

For the tutorial, we have our predominantly blue gif, but we are going to make it yellow, which is the opposite color, so it's the hardest to get. I hope you can see how i manipulate colors, and do it yourself :)

Here, you can use camera raw filter (filter > camera raw filter) to turn the blues and purples greener, like this:

And click ok to exit the camera raw filter. Then, we're going to use hue/saturation (image > adjustments > hue/saturation) to turn it yellow:

Since it was cyan, i changed the cyans, but if you got a much greener result you'll have to use green (duh, right? i dont know i just dont want anyone to get confused akjsdhs)

And you can also add a selective color adjustment to make those yellows more yellow:

The reason i don't directly use hue/saturation is cause it might look ugly and lose quality, or it wont pick up all the colors i want it to but they're also very small gifs so if you wanna do that, do it :)

I sharpen it until this point, but if you already have that's okay.

Now we're going to color the background! For that, you just add a new layer, and set the blending mode to color.

Then you'll use your brush, set it to 20px and 0% hardness, and pick the color you're using for this gif, you can use the eyedropper tool. This is why it's important that the gif doesn't move a lot, so you can color the bg like this:

I colored carefully around the edges, and that's the result. In some gifs from my gif set I colored Jake's jacket too because i was too lazy, but this looks cleaner :)

You might want to select the color layer and the gif layer to convert them both to a smart object, just to make everything easier. So, be careful, because after that you won't be able to change anything!

But let's say you have a scene that you want to include, and it moves too much and has no blue and it's going to be a nightmare to color it.

Well, don't worry, you can! Simply, instead of manually coloring everything, you can just choose to add a gradient map to it (image > adjustments > gradient map), like this:

And this is the result:

Just remember, it has to be the same amount of frames as the other ones!

You repeat the process, until you have 10 small gifs. I made around 5 manually colored gifs, and 5 gifs with gradient for each gif. That's a confusing sentence but i hope you get it.

We are going to start pasting the small gifs on our first canvas.

(You can paste them one by one but i did this so you can see my 10 gifs)

You're going to create a square that has to be 108x108 px, using the rectangle tool. You can remove the default white background.

And you may be wondering, why did we not just crop the small gifs into those dimensions? Well, you can do that, but to me it's much easier this way, because sometimes cropping isn't accurate, or it's tedious.

Place the small square on top the gif you're going to crop, right where the face of the character is (or whatever objects you're giffing), and while holding ctrl, click on the square. It will select it:

You're going to create a layer mask:

And then drag that layer mask to the gif:

And voila! It's now the same size as the small square. Once that's done, right click on the layer and convert it to a smart object, because we have to remove that mask. Make the square layer invisible, and start placing your gifs where you want them:

You're going to repeat that process with the rest of the gifs, and then place them all together. Don't forget that if you're making the first gif, they will all be at the bottom of the canvas, if it's one of the middle gifs, one row should be at the top and the other one at the bottom, and when you're making the last gif, they should all be at the top. Here we're making the first one, so they will all be at the bottom:

If you forgot to check that all the gifs had the same amount of frames, you can fix it here, just make sure no gif is past this little guy:

Okay! Now, to create the gutter, we're going to add a layer mask to each small gif, so that we can cut some of it.

The gutter has to be 4 pixels, (i recommend you to REALLY zoom in). What i do is make sure the width of the gutter takes 2 pixels from the edges of the gifs, since they are all together. As you can see in the image above, there's no a single empty pixel between the gifs.

This is a close-up of what i'm talking about. I select two pixels from each gif, and go all the way down to create the gutter:

(I hope I'm not over or underexplaining)

I usually use this tool when i have to make so many selections:

But that was just an example :)

(Another way you can do this, is by changing the size of the small square from the beginning and make it be 104x104 px, but i don't know why that seems more complicated to me ajsdks)

Anyway, this is what we have so far:

Now we're going to create the big gif. Its normal dimensions are usually around 1920x1080, unless you have different dimensions and have to crop it, but whatever it is, we're going to resize it and crop it to be around 550 px wide, and 400 px high:

We'll do the same thing of adding an adjustment of gradient to it to make it the color we're using. For this, i usually add a brightness layer before, because sometimes the gradient is a bit dark.

And using a 600px brush with 0% hardness, you can add some "light" on a new layer, like this:

Selecting all the layers, right-click on them and convert them to a smart object. Again, be careful, because once its a smart object, you wont be able to change any of it!

Then we paste our big gif on the canvas with small gifs, and add a layer mask to it. Using the torn paper brush at 600px, remove some of the gif to shape it like the torn paper. Make sure you're using black, otherwise it won't work correctly:

To make the effect better, add a layer UNDER the big gif, and using the torn paper brush, with the same size, you can paint under it:

Yeah, I covered some of jake's face, but that's how it supposed to look so the effect works!

And finally for the text! I used Granesta, at 150 px, and at -10.00º to make it a bit askew.

We're going to double click on it and give it a color overlay, set to normal, and give it a solid shadow if you want, then place it right here on the corner:

But as you can see, it's too big for the gif. So we're going to add a layer mask to it, and again, shape it the same way that we did with the gif. Make sure they're exactly the same shape, like this:

And that's it! This is our final result:

As always I'm sure there are easier ways to do many of these things, this is just how i do it but if you know an easier way to do it, go ahead. I hope this was at least understandable enough so you can apply the logic of it any way you want :)

If you have any questions you can send me an ask and i'll clarify!

If you found this helpful i'd really appreciate it if you left a tip on my ko-fi!

Happy giffing!

#will i ever learn how to properly explain things 😭#tutorials #uservivaldi #userraffa #userbuckleys #userhallie #tuserheidi #usertina #userfern #usersole #usercera #userzaynab #userisaiah #usernik #userpriyas #usertj

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lesyasun · 2 years

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◆ 200 Essential Sims 2 Mods, Defaults and Fixes ◆

I have just reinstalled my game and currently reorganizing downloads folder. I thought that it could be helpful to share the resources that I use. If you're starting over just like me, good luck! We can do it :D

All the mods are listed in the random order. But important ones go first. I also added tiny descriptions of what each mod does. Also, let me know if you notice that some of these mods conflict. I’ll appreciate ♥

This is an endless list, so I’m hiding the part of it under the cut. I also decided to share the PDF and word version of the list for convenience. Have fun! ♥

◆ DOWNLOAD ◆

Clean UI - changes user interface to minimalistic and modern one.

Clean UI for Bodyshop - the same style interface for Bodyshop.

Bodyshop Brightening - redefines the lighting used in BodyShop. Must be put in Documents/EA Games/The sims 2/Config folder!

Minimalist Bodyshop Background - put in the Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder and click F5 when you are in Bodyshop.

Minimalistic Logo Screen

No Pause Frame - removes the red frame that appears when the game is paused.

Default book covers and novel icons

Better Bubbles - replaces the default blurry low-resolution Chat, Thought and Yell Headline Bubbles with brand new high-quality textures.

Talk to Me - a speech icon replacement mod that replaces (almost) all speech icons with TS4 icons.

Camera Mod Compilation

Widescreen Camera Cas

Maxis Match Lighting Mod by Dreadpirate

Maxis Roofs Default Replacement by Curiousb4

Clean Neighbourhood Templates by Jawusa - these neighborhood templates allow to create clean custom neighborhoods with no Townies/NPCs or if you want to play in EA's neighborhoods, but without the playables.

Clean and Empty Stealth Hood Plates by Jawusa - allow to get rid of Maxis families that appear in neighbourhood's bin.

Rural Charm terrain and road default replacement by Criquette

Linden HOOD Trees Replacement

Birch HOOD Trees Replacement by Sixfootsims4

Pine HOOD Trees Replacement

Palm HOOD Trees Replacement by Anima

Redbud HOOD Tree Replacement by Suratan-zir

Ginko HOOD Tree Replacement by Suratan-zir

Lowedeus HOOD skies + by Zena-dew-drop + by iCAD + by iCAD#2 + by iCAD#3 + by iCAD#4 + by iCAD#5 + by iCAD#6 - hood sky replacement which also can be seen from the hood view. Some of them have animated clouds!

Seasons Skylines - a custom objects that adds more realistic background in a hood view

No More Bluriness by Simnopke - replaces snow and beach textures into HQ.

Moon Replacement by Simnopke

Sun Replacement by Lowedeus

Neighbourhood decorations can be placed anywhere - enables neighborhood deco to be placed on/overlapping lots

No Rocks Hood Deco Mod - gets rid of those deco rocks that serve as placeholders when using certain hood deco.

Sim Shadow Fix - fixes Sims' shadows shown as black rectangles.

ACR - makes all the romantic interactions autonomous.

Pregnancy Wear Any Outfit - allows your sims to wear any outfit instead of maternity clothes. If the outfit hasn't got a pregnancy morph, it will appear on a sim without a pregnant belly.

Community Time Project - enables the passing of time on community lots to be spent on the home lot. When your sims come home from the community lot, they won't travel back in time as in vanila game.

Simblender - can teleport sims onto your lot, set family relationships, move sims in, make townies, give skill points, set career levels and more

No Plumbobs - removes plumbobs above sims heads and in hood view above lots too.

Sims 2 Sliders - various extra sliders for Sims faces in CAS. I have most of them except for asymmetry ones.

Invisible Stop Signs – makes the stop signs in the hood view invisible

Busy Roads NH Traffic Default Replacement - replaces Maxis’ neighborhood cars

OMSPs - special tiny shelves that add extra slots for clutter

White Roof Trim Replacement

White Floor Edge

White Wall Top

Antiredundancy - spawns one NPC per type instead of 3.

No Townie Regen - doesn't allow the game to spawn new townies when you create a clean hood

Breadfruit Tree Fix - yes, it’s a very important fix that must be in top 50 :D Maxis Breadfruit Tree is broken and when the lightning strikes it, the fire effect never goes away. This is so annoyiiing.

Build/Buy Mode Enabled on Community Lots

Community Skilling - enables your sims get skill points on community lots. By default they can’t gain them.

Sleep on Community Lots

Business Runs You - it will manage the employees, making them take breaks automatically, giving them reasonable wages automatically, etc

Autoyak - adds phone options to call friends. Automatically picks and chooses existing friends and calls until relations are repaired. This mode is required for the Business mod above.

Autosoc (AL directory) - adds "automatic socializing" to your sims. Sims will automatically use (un)friendly/romantic interactions to boost their relationships quickly.

Bathroomusesyou - handles many configurations of bathroom usage.

Macrotastics - tons of shiny features for automating tedious and repetitive gameplay, including motive-maintenance, businesses, socializing, and skilling.

Lighten Up! A Mod for Brighter Computer Screens

Custom Computer Screens

Sims play Sims 4 instead of SSX

Sims 3 TV Shows default

Day Setter - allows to set any day of the week. Can be useful when you move out sims.

Painting Easels by AnoeskaB - adds new easels and canvas sizes.

Exercise Equality - a fix that makes all the exercise machine equally used when they are used autonomously.

Exercise Tweaks - fixes energy drain for some machines/activities.

Batbox - there are many fixes. But I mostly use it to fix First-Born Syndrome. It’s a bug that causes all children born to the same 2 parents to look exactly the same. Save your game. Pick "Fix..." and then "Rerandomize Sim Generator." The game will boot you out of the lot, which is why you need to save the game first. Go back to the lot and give birth.

LTW Variety - lifetime wants for careers are no longer strictly aspirationally correlated, and will instead vary by appropriate interests and personality.

Physiology Fix - fixes the broken physiology skill that makes your Sims gain body skill points instantly.

Maxis Modular Stairs Passage Fix - sims can walk under modular stairs.

No 20k Handouts - eliminates the magic 20K handout when a sim moves out or graduates from college.

No Eat Crap - Sims will talk considerably less when eating, especially if they are in a hurry (because they're tired, starving, need to pee, have more orders.

No More Leafy Plantsim Hair

No Memory Uneducated - your sims won’t get a bad memory about not going to college when they grow up into adults.

No Quitting - prevents employees from quitting just because you didn't read their mind and realize they wanted a raise. They will complain but won't actually quit.

Nossrespawn - eliminates respawning of Secret Society members.

Townie No Memory Loss - prevents the game from erasing townie's memories when you marry them or move them in to your house.

Perfect Plants - gardens & shrubs will always stay in perfect condition.

Pet Coats Enabled All Ages - kittens and Puppies with patterns! ^_^

Pets and Children Share Bed - allows Pets and Children to use the bed at the same time.

No Rod Humble - this mod will nix Rod Humble from coming to your lots, and dropping off presents filled with computers. EDIT: This mod seems to conflict with Visitor Controller. Use this one instead.

Rug Fix - allows to place Maxis rugs diagonally or off grid.

Same Sex Marriage - replaces Joined Unions with Marriage for same sex couples. Includes relevant wants, fears, and memories.

Separate Top/Bottoms for non-Everyday Clothes Mod

"Shop-at-home" Hacked Coat Hook - allows to buy clothes at home.

Gussy Up Mod - allows to change your sims and townies/NPCs appearance and clothes for each category.

Simply Leftovers - allows your sim to put away leftovers as single plates instead of a whole dish.

Slot Enable Package - enables additional slots on the Maxis counters

Smarter Ep Check - the mod itself does nothing but requires for many mods by Cyjon5.

Television Placement Mod - allows to adjust the height of TVs

Watch TV from All Chairs - allows sims to watch TV from 45 degrees angled chairs.

Townie Apartment Residents - apartment neighbors and roommates will be chosen from the townie pool rather than social groups.

Traits Project - adds extra traits to your sims. The traits are objects that must be put into your sims inventories. Some of the traits are actually not just pictures and can influence sims’ behavior.

Use Inaccessible Beds - lets your sims get into a double bed where one side is against a wall.

Centerpiece Enabler for Maxis Small Objects

Equal Genetics - changes genetic rules for eyes and hair. It allowes recessive eye/hair colours to overcome dominant ones.

No More "Dance Face" - fixes the stuck confused face animation.

Pregnancy for All Genders

Same energy gain for any bed

Smart Beds - makes sims smarter about bed usage

School Vacation Mod - kids won’t go to school in summer and winter. EDIT: Unfortunately, doesn’t work for me.

Sunbathe Anywhere

Build Sandcastles Anywhere

Visitor Controller - allows to ban or control certain sims groups on community lots

Turn On and Offs Replacement

Zodiac compatibility overhaul

Personality Please! - opens up the more extreme personality interactions and animations (usually only available to sims with 0-1 and 9-10 points in a certain personality) to more sims by changing the threshold to 0-2 and 8-10, respectively, and other fixes.

Go Steady for Adults + Last Name Dialog

Visitor Snacking Fix - visiting sims will no longer raid the fridge for snacks during parties if other food is available.

Interest Age Mod - now all sims’ interest levels are truly random and not dependent on their age stage.

University Lifetime Wants (uni_ltws) - enables University career LTWs.

Sim Transformer - turns your sim into any supernatural.

Freezer Clock - this object will allow you to stop the time in the sim world and/or freeze a sim individually in a middle of an animation sequence. Useful for portraits.

Abort Bed Making - fixes the issue where once a Sim has "Make Bed" you can't cancel it (they won't stop moving, they just have to do it).

Age Transition Teens Keep Love - stops teens from losing their crushes/loves when age transitioning to adult/YA.

Antidateflowers - resident sims no longer drop off date flowers on their own doorsteps.

Glowing Desserts Fix - baked alaska (from the base game) and crepes suzette (from Nightlife) don’t glow after you load a lot or take them out of a Sim’s inventory or a fridge.

Community Lot Arrival Delay Fix - your sims will always be the first to arrive, and other visiting sims will start to appear shortly after.

No Welcome Home Hug - prevents kids from autonomously hugging their parents when they arrive from work.

Brighter Autumn Leaves

Bring Hobby Friends From Work Fix - fixes bug that causes a sim to bring the same Hobby Friend home from work EVERY DAY for the rest of their lives.

Arms at Side poses for BodyShop - in BodyShop, the thumbnail poses show the arms at the sides, but the poses used inside BodyShop are with the hands-on-hips.

Default replacement noses for cats

Chinese&CoffeeSitDownFix - sims will now look for somewhere to sit down other than just the room they are in when eating chinese food or pizza, or drinking coffee/espresso, juice, or an instant meal.

Apartment Buttlers - butlers and nannies can now enter the apartments of the people who hired them.

Call NPCs - reverts a "fix" made in FreeTime that prevents sims from calling almost all NPCs.

Fewer Tourists - the game is hard-coded to expect 12 tourist families of 4+ members each. If it doesn't find that, it gets annoyed and pouts by not generating tourists at all.

Genie Initialization Fix - fixes a critical EA bug regarding genie creation.

No Auto Urn Cleanup - prevents sims from cleaning up urns autonomously.

No Neutral Spell Alignment Shift - neutral spells such as Cleanius Corpus and Creatum Nutrimens won't cause any alignment shift.

Plantbaby Changes - plantbabies now get only half the skills of the parent sim.

Reputation New Friend Fix - fixes a reputation rewards bug where the game overwrites a variable, potentially befriending sims like Baby New Year.

There Can Be Only One Professor - game will generate one rather than two professors for each major. Gender will be random.

Community Phonebooth Replacement

Community Lot Parties - allows you to throw any party at any time on any lot.

Dazzle No Motive Loss - this mod prevents motive loss when using Dazzle interaction it adds energy instead of subtracting it.

Desk Locator - makes your sims to put their homework on a certain desk and not drop it on the floor. + some mesh recolours.

Pregnancy Controller Fix - removes unused and excess Pregnancy Controllers from your lot. All they do is bloat your saved game files and slightly slow down your game.

Leaf Pile Fix - if you tell a Sim to rake leaves, they will stop at one pile instead of continuing with more piles if they aren't having motive failure issues. This mod fixes that.

Default Glass Doors and Windows by Slig - fixes Maxis blue glass.

Put Your Books Away - sims will not drop the books on the floor after they finish reading them.

"Talk About Hobby" Want Fix - with this mod, the Talk About Hobby want is not fulfilled when the other Sim rejects the interaction.

Toddler Pet Stroke - toddlers can now use a cute stroking interaction on pets.

First Kiss Interaction Enabled - enables first kiss to be used any time you wish as long as the relationship score is high enough between your sims.

Food Already Available - before a Sim decides to cook or take a snack autonomously, the game checks if there's food already available on the lot. If so, it prevents them from doing it.

Front Door Hack - deliverypersons should no longer be irresistably drawn to the inaccessible door of the mausoleum in the backyard when making their deliveries. Garage doors are not considered front doors regardless of level.

Blocked Doors Can Close - doors that stay open because they are blocked by objects on the same tile are able to close with this hack.

Gypsy Matchmaker Fix - allows to interact with Matchmaker on a community lot.

Mean Interactions to Any Age - enables mean interactions for teens towards adults/elders and vice versa. Now teens can argue/be argued, tease/be teased, annoy/be annoyed, gross out/be grossed out and fight with anyone older than them.

Random Stereo Station - makes newly bought stereos choose a random station when being turned on for the first time instead of always choosing salsa.

Accessible toddler high chairs - allows sims to access any high chair from left and right sides and also access diagonally placed highchairs.

Already in Crib Fix - this is for the problem of parents and nannies getting babies and toddlers out of one crib only to place them in another.

Kittens and Puppies Eyes Fix - fixes the bug when new born kittens and puppies do not use default eyes.

Children can get cereal from fridges

Timing Fix - fixes broken aging or aspiration decay or any other timed event not working in certain lots/neighborhoods.

Transparency Fix - will prevent Sims from randomly getting broken transparency.

Pie Menu Strings Text Fix - fixes broken pie menus plagued with redundant functions, grammar mistakes and missing translations.

Look at Me Now - makes your sims look straight at you. Useful for posed screenshots.

FX Cube Default Replacement - this is a small package with replacement for fx cube, that shows only in nhood decorating mode and disappear in other modes, so it’s very useful for skyboxes and skylines.

Less Square Water Lilies Default

Baby Bottles From Mini-Fridges - sims can now grab baby bottles from the University minifridge.

Listen to Music - allows your sim to listen to music from chairs/armchairs.

Ladybug Extender - now ladybug loft can protect more squares from the bugs in your garden.

Nobabyharassment - sims spend less time around toddlers/babies and don't try to bathe them for 57th time in a row10.

No Dishes in the Bathroom - sims will not autonomously wash the dishes in bathroom sinks.

No Corrupt Death - the formation of the corrupted death memory, as seen in gossip of the form "jagged lines", "tombstone", "dead Sim", is now suppressed.

No Drop Tired Baby - eliminates pointless dropping of tired babies and toddlers.

No Reassign - attempts by non-selectable sims to reassign workers are ignored. Managers and community lot owners will not be able to randomly reassign workers when not controllable.

No Road Pillows - sims may no longer hold pillowfights in the road: The target must nowbe in the same room, and a nearby bed in the room is required.

Studio Lamp - the best lighting for portraits.

Mixedup Background Rug - the plain background for portraits of your sims. Some recolours in Curiousb Colours + Aelia's Retro, Jewels and Autumn colours, Pooklet's Unnaturals + Anna's Colours + Nyren's Colours.

Basic CAS Background

Prettier Bubble Bath Texture Default

Level Numbers Added to Job Titles

Phonehack

Plant Fixes - seasonal maxis plants fixes + some texture defaults.

No More Stupid Werewolf Hair

No Maid Hair - allows female maids to spawn with a random hairstyle.

Buyable Aspiration and Career Rewards

"Select your cemetery" after sims died - fixes the bug when last sim died on apartment lot, his/her urn/tombstone is sended on random community lot.

Mirrors Go Down with Walls

“Ask Sim on Date” by Phone Want Fix - with this mod, the Ask [Sim] on Date want is not fulfilled when a Sim you ask out on date by phone rejects the invitation.

Couples Counseling Icon Fix - replaces the icon of the Learned Couples Counseling memory, which originally has broken transparency, with almost the same icon of the Reunited With [Sim] memory, which is not broken.

Crepes Suzette Fix - this mod fixes the serving plate with crepes suzette. By default, it looks empty when there’s one crepe on it, and a crepe shows up on it when it’s actually empty. Now, it looks empty if it’s empty, and a crepe shows up if there’s a crepe on it.

Exercise Bike Fix - fixes various problems with the Exerto Super Exercise Bike.

Glowing Computer Fix - turned off computers don’t glow as if they were turned on, each time you have loaded a lot, or taken them out of a Sim’s inventory.

Go Under Spiral Stairs - with this mod, Sims can go (and you can also place objects) under the highest part of newly bought spiral stairs.

Half Wall Fixes - fixes meshes of half walls' rails and posts.

Insects Sanity - a bunch of mods that make insects sensitive to weather and environment, and make insect-related interactions more reasonable.

Jump Rope Outside.

Memories About Roommates Fix

No Greetings NPCs - gypsy matchmakers (from Nightlife) and Garden Club members (from Seasons) don't come to greet your Sims and present themselves whenever you play a particular family for the first time or right after you have installed an expansion pack that introduces one of those NPCs.

No University Aspiration Change - with this mod, the game doesn’t ask you if you want to change your Sim’s aspiration, right after they have finished their sophomore year.

Passers Dress Properly for Cold

Smooth Firefly Jar Light Animation

Basketball Fix - fixes the lot view of the basketball court.

Marriage Postmortem - the marriage "spouse" line is no longer automatically disconnected after death.

Functional Yoga Mat

"AnyCounter" Espresso Bar Station - invisible espresso bar counter.

In-And-Out Invisible Pool Spot - sims can dive in the pool from the floor anytime they want : no need to go all the way to the ladder or diving board to get in the pool, they can also get out without a ladder, and big dogs can swim in the pool, too.

Visitors can't take from Money Tree

Eat More Talk Less - will completely bypass the conversation if the sims is in desperation for energy, hunger, fun or bladder, or is in a bad mood. Sims with maxed social will talk less.

Better Phone Messages - replaces the pointlessly nasty telephone messages with more courteous ones. It also adds the feature that when the sim you are calling isn't home because of work or school, it will tell you when they will return.

Diagonal Easel Mod

Maxis Premade Sim Templates Hider - hides Maxis sims templates in Bodyshop and CAS.

#ts2 #the sims 2 #sims 2 #sims 2 maxis match #lesya2022ts2restart #sims 2 mods #sims 2 mods compilation

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stusbunker · 2 months

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Spotless: Pomposo

Chapter Fourteen

Featuring: Dean Winchester/Reader, Dean/Bela

Other characters: Sam, Dean/Jo, John/Kate, Adam, Ellen, Garth/Bess (in passing), Cas and Mary (mentioned)

Word Count: 4559

Warnings, etc: Mutual pining. MORE BACKSTORY AHEAD, story takes place currently in Dec 2017, flashback to Jan. 2004 in italics, talk of Sam's past use of hard drugs, hangovers, vomit, car accidents, injuries, character death, guilt, John was not so great a parent or husband, some paraphrasing of last chapter unbeta'd

Special shout out to @thoughtslikeaminefield who helped immensely on sorting out the backstory for this chapter too, way back when I started outlining this thing.

Series Masterlist

Sam settled on some old school soul music to start their road trip and Dean couldn’t even come up with a reason to complain. Aretha sang in the background and they headed east, the world was their oyster and all that. Dean held onto the small bit of smug satisfaction from the interview with Meg as the city disappeared behind them. She really wanted him to crack, but he hadn't and that gave him some hope for going home.

They veered north for a bit and continued on I-40 until they hit Flagstaff. Dean liked the mountains, the air was infinitely better than LA and there was something about spending the holidays where it got cold that made sense. Unfortunately, it was just an overnight stay. How they managed a room in the first hotel they tried, he’d never know. He just shuffled in with his duffel bag and his ball cap over his now sleep-sloppy hair. There was a player-piano in the lobby and Dean had the fleeting thought about how Cas was spending the holidays.

Maybe he’d try and leave him another message, it had been months.

Sam called Madison after dinner and Dean decided to check out the amenities in order to not have to watch Sam get all goopy. Dean hadn’t packed a bathing suit, but a gym’s a gym even if it’s just three treadmills, a stair climber and free weights. So, he jogged for a little bit, watching whatever passed for news. He forgot his earbuds in the room and it really wasn’t worth going back for, he was finding his groove even without music as a buffer to the world around him.

After a solid 5k, Dean stepped down to stretch. Which worked out because a couple in their fifties came in just as he started some curls, leaving the treadmills open for their evening stroll. They talked about their family, the wife explaining what she got each of their grandchildren and where they were supposed to be on which day. Perfectly normal people conversation, but something about it made Dean sad, so he tried to tune them out and focus on his reps.

Part of his life after Cain and Alistair was a loss of gym time. Sure, he could work out at home or even do laps around the neighborhood, but it wasn’t the hours in the ring or at the bag or with a jump rope full-body-punishment that he had worked himself up to. It was also a lot more peaceful, less reactionary. And Dean decided he would find a balance between stagnation and self-destruction. Twenty eighteen was just around the corner afterall.

Dean got back to the room in time to shower and crash. If they wanted to push it, they could make it to their Dad’s place the next day. But neither of them were in a hurry, even in Sam’s fuckboy Charger it was nice to be on the road together. Dean took the first stretch towards Albuquerque, but Sam called it in Santa Fe. He had thought ahead and booked them a hotel instead of chancing it again, which surprised Dean for some reason. Sam had gone and gotten to be responsible while Dean was busy fishing himself out of professional purgatory.

“You talk to Bela?” Sam asked as they waited for their pizza to be delivered.

“Uh, she texted me that she landed at Heathrow, but not really. Why?” Dean asked after taking a sip of his beer.

“Wasn’t sure if you guys were doing the whole gift exchange thing,” Sam shrugged. “Madison made me wait until after we get back to give her hers.”

Dean chuckled. “I don’t want to know what you’re giving her, alright?”

Sam rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored the innuendo. “Won’t people be asking about what you got her?”

Dean hadn’t really thought about it. “I guess I could ask Trouble for some ideas, see if she thinks it’s necessary we post about it. I don’t know, I was kind of hoping of forgetting about the whole thing until New Year’s at Elizabeth’s, you know?”

Sam leveled Dean with a glare. “You know Dad is gonna ask to meet her.”

Dean set down his beer. “Well it’s a good thing she’s halfway across the world then.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Mom loved that show,” Sam said thoughtfully.

He was right. Dean had completely forgotten about why he’d recognized Bela the first time they’d met at your housewarming party way back when. But, yeah, Mary had watched ‘Red Sky in the Morning’ every Tuesday night after she put them to bed. Once Dean reached junior high, he was able to persuade her to let him stay up and watch too.

“I can’t believe it was on as long as it was, it was fucking awful,” Dean said playfully.

“Yeah, but it was her escape,” Sam added gently.

Dean took a long pull off his beer. “I guess so.”

When Sam went to meet the delivery driver, Dean turned on the television, banking on some sort of Christmas special to take his mind off memory lane. They ate quietly, letting last minute sales commercials drown out their thoughts. Tomorrow they were going home, or as close to it as they had outside of LA. Dean felt lopsided over getting to see Adam, having to navigate his dad, and tiptoeing Kate’s well-meaning but invasive nature.

But that’s family for you, nothing more important than that.

Dean rolled over on the couch, something had woken him up and he was too hungover to let it win. But it didn’t stop, a trilling sound coming from his pants pocket, fuck, it was his phone. He cracked one eye open and checked the caller id.

He closed his eyes and answered. “Morning, beautiful.”

“Dean Winchester?” a harried voice asked, decidedly not Jo.

“Ellen?”

“Yeah, listen— there’s been an accident. Jo and Y/N were T-boned on Hound Drive last night. Can you come to the hospital? I just came home for a change of clothes, but I’m heading back there now.”

Dean sat up, liquor and a headache dulling his reflexes. “Ellen? What are they saying?”

“She’s in the ICU. I— we need you there.”

Terror flooded Dean’s system, churning with a relentless guilt. Jo wouldn’t have been out so late if it wasn’t to see him. He swallowed. “Uh, of course. Do you want me to drive you? I can be there in ten minutes.”

“I’ll pick you up. I’ve got my truck, the roads are still a mess.”

“Right, okay, I’m at Dad and Kate’s— do you–”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Ellen? Be careful.”

“Don’t you start young man.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ellen hung up.

Dean stumbled into the bathroom and threw up. He didn’t have time for a shower. Instead he grabbed his shaving kit and threw on a fresh layer of deodorant and brushed his teeth. He pounded three Advil with the water from one of those flowery Dixie cups Kate kept in a plastic dispenser on the counter. He couldn’t look at himself in the mirror, he knew how bad he must look. He stomped back into the living room and swapped his sweaty flannel for one that smelled neutral from his duffel. Adam showed up as Dean was shoving his boots on.

“Dean? Can I put on cartoons?”

He didn’t jump, Dean didn’t get scared of six-year-olds in footie pajamas. He was just on edge, was all.

“Knock yourself out,” Dean said.

“Where are you going?” Adam asked, stealing the afghan Dean had left on the floor.

“Uh, friend of mine had an accident, so I’m heading to the hospital. Can you tell Dad? I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“You can tell me yourself,” John’s voice pressed in behind Dean as he came in from the kitchen, mug of coffee in hand.

“Dad—,” Dean looked at his father, a man who had been on the road cheating on his mother for years. The same mother who died in a fire because John couldn’t bother to make sure to keep the electrical in their shitty double wide up to code. “It’s Jo. Ellen’s gonna take me to the hospital. Dad, I—”

John’s entire stance changed. “Go. Call when you know something. I’ll send Sammy when he’s up, he’ll know what to do.”

They both knew Sam couldn’t stop whatever was happening, but he’d keep Dean from causing a scene.

A car honked in the driveway.

“I gotta go. Thanks,” Dean brushed past his dad without even a glance at Adam.

Dean wouldn’t let Ellen drive, even hungover he trusted himself behind the wheel more than a desperate mother. She only pretended to argue before sliding across the bench seat and letting him in. The roads were a mess. In the thirty minute drive to the hospital, Dean saw another two cars in the ditch. Though, it was clear now in the morning sunshine, everything was blinding in its whiteness.

“Listen, you shut up and keep your head down. Let me do the talking,” Ellen warned him as they approached the reception desk.

“Hi, I’m Ellen Harvelle, I’m here to see my daughter Joanna? This is her fiance.”

Dean squirmed, but nodded at the nurse who looked at him like she wanted to reach over and hug him. “Of course, right this way.”

She led Dean and Ellen down a hushed hallway, the beeping of machines and huffing of ventilators the only sounds escaping the doorways as they passed. Dean looked around for a trash can, the painkillers in his stomach threatening to come back up. Ellen took his hand and pulled him into a room.

Jo was hooked up to more machines than should have fit in the tiny room. Her hair was matted with blood and she was drowning in the hospital gown. Her beautiful face was swollen and red, the bruises still forming where she hit the passenger side window— or maybe that was the dashboard, Dean couldn’t tell she was so misshapen.

“Oh, Jo,” Dean’s voice broke. He stopped himself from saying anything as the nurse talked, but all he wanted to do was sob.

He didn’t realize he had let go of Ellen’s hand until he was clenching the rail along Jo’s bedside. Ellen stood on the other side of her, carefully brushing the hair out of Jo’s beaten face. Her one arm was framed in a metal fixator, skin angry from where the bone sliced her open from the inside. Her leg was in a brace, but at least that meant those bones were more salvageable.

“What happened?” Dean said eventually, unsure of when the nurse left. He eyed the machines tracking Jo’s heart rate, but he wasn’t sure if the readings were good or bad.

“Someone was driving on the wrong side of the road— couldn’t see the lines and Y/N swerved to miss them, they spun out and the other car didn’t stop. They took her to surgery– her right knee was shattered.”

“Jo took the brunt of it,” Dean stated the obvious, still too terrified to reach out and touch Jo. She was suddenly so very fragile.

Ellen sniffed.

“They are watching for internal bleeding before they’ll operate. Her brain—," Ellen couldn’t finish.

“Hey,” Dean rushed around the bed and pulled Ellen against his chest, finally giving his hands something to do. “They’re doing everything they can.”

“It’s not enough,” Ellen argued.

“I know,” Dean agreed, squeezing her tighter.

Ellen pulled back and wiped her eyes, muttering to herself about going soft. Dean needed to give her a moment, hell, he needed a minute to catch his breath. He told her he was going to find coffee and she told him they had a waiting area down the hall. He nearly ran out of Jo’s room.

He checked his watch, it was just after ten o’clock. And as exhausted and hungover as Dean felt, he was pretty sure Ellen hadn’t slept at all after closing the bar. He wondered if she’d even made it home before getting the call. He found the coffee maker and pushed a button for something hot and thin and caffeinated. He wondered if Y/N had passed a breathalyzer, knowing how much Jo had been drinking didn’t make him certain her driver was much better off.

He was gonna be sick again.

He left the paper cup on the grate and fell into one of the stiff plastic chairs around the small table. He put his head between his knees and breathed, resting on his elbows. Dean counted the flecks in the white linoleum squares beneath his feet.

Nothing made sense. They were just getting started. Last night there was the impossible giddiness of seeing her in person after so long and now the unabashed horror of her mother sneaking him into the hospital as her fiance so he could see her before…

She was eighteen-fucking-years-old and he was going to lose her.

And it was all his fault.

He stared at the floor until he couldn’t anymore. The coffee was nothing more than a passing burn on the way to his knotted stomach. But he couldn’t stop the tears and he wouldn’t go back to Ellen until they were dry, she needed him to be better than that. When he couldn’t cry anymore and after he used his last single for a pack of peanut M&Ms, Dean went back to Jo’s room.

Ellen was asleep in an ugly mauve chair with her hand clutching Jo’s good ankle over the thin hospital blanket. Dean found another blanket from a CNA and tucked it around Ellen’s shoulders. He stood guard, through Ellen’s brief nap and the three o’clock shift change, even after Sam came by with lunch but left because he wasn’t allowed on the ward.

The seizures started around five and Ellen and Dean were asked to wait outside. Before six, she was wheeled away from them into emergency surgery and by seven she was gone. Dean had to hold Ellen back from slugging the surgeon. He caught her when she finally sank into reality, and somehow Dean found more tears.

Nothing felt real, least of all Dean himself.

Adam looked Dean in the eye and grinned.

“Get over here you little shit, I told you to stop growing the last time I saw you didn’t I?” Dean hugged his youngest brother hard, thumping him on the back as he rocked from foot to foot. “Good to see you, man.”

“You too,” Adam grunted out before Dean could release him.

Then came John, waiting for Dean as he walked through the front door. They didn’t say anything, just gave each other the once over and went in for the hug. John held him tight until he cleared his throat, stepping away from the vulnerable moment. Sam came in with his bags and hugged Kate first, who had been waiting in the hallway to the kitchen.

“Sammy,” John said, holding out his arms.

“Hey Dad,” Sam hugged with genuine warmth on his face, Dean never thought he’d see the day. But time does things to a person, and forgiveness was always Sam’s superpower.

“You boys hungry? I can reheat dinner, I know you’ve been on the road, wasn’t sure when you’d get in,” Kate offered as Dean went in for the obligatory hug. She had colored her hair, instead of her natural blonde it was a mature auburn, covering the gray and giving her a different air.

“Don’t worry about us, we can scavenge for something later,” Dean assured her. “I like your hair.”

That startled her. “Oh! Thank you, yeah I just figured I’d do something different for winter, you know.”

“Don’t she look good? I told her redheads are feisty,” John teased, wrapping his arm around her waist.

“Gross,” Adam called on the way to the basement, where Sam had headed down to watch him finish his game.

“Beer?” John offered and Dean gladly accepted.

Arriving three days early was pushing their luck, Dean knew that, but there was nothing keeping him in LA. And after the novelty of catching up and last minute shopping in the tiny downtown of Mills’ Crossing, there wasn’t much more small talk to be had.

Naturally, John started it. But it was over Sam that had Dean’s hackles up first. They were sitting down for a late lunch, having gone to church as a family for the first time since Kate and John got married when John made a comment about it was good to see Sam’s forearms ‘healthy’.

What he meant was he was proud of Sam for kicking his habit, for staying clean. What John didn’t know was that Sam was so good at hiding it, Dean had to check between his toes before he finally got him into rehab the last time. Seven years since Sam had kicked it and John still needed to point it out.

The jam session that night seemed to clear the air. Adam had decided he was a drummer sometime after Dean and Sam’s first platinum album so John built him an entire soundproof room in the basement to go wild. Which meant the Winchester men were a full four piece, if they got to pick their parts. Dean abstained from playing lead because it was John’s house after all, but the old man’s hands weren’t what they used to be. And that gave Dean a little bit of satisfaction.

They rolled through the classics, even playing a couple of Phantom Traveler’s songs that didn’t rely too much on the keys. Dean made John sing though, laughing when he made up his own lyrics.

They ended the night with a drunken, almost punk rendition of Jingle Bell Rock after which Kate shut the lights out on them and told them to go to bed.

Christmas Eve was boring, Dean had gotten stir crazy and kept checking his phone. He knew you had gotten in the night before, but he couldn’t justify trying to hang out while you had such little time with your family as it was. Sam gave him a look and they started playing poker, teasing Adam that he needed to know every version of the game if he was gonna hold his own one day.

Kate wiped the floor with them all.

They had eggnog and exchanged one round of gifts before going to bed, no expectations of Santa Claus or any set wake up time scheduled. It was just another day. Dean barely slept, anxiety churning inside him. He tried meditating. He even prayed, but God, who was understandably busy that night, didn’t save him. Because he woke up with a bug up his ass and, naturally, his father was the first one to point it out.

“You kiss your girlfriend with that mouth?” John asked after Dean cursed at Adam’s obnoxious ringtone.

“Do a lot more with it than that,” Dean muttered before he could stop himself.

“Dean Winchester,” John snapped as if Dean was still sixteen, still living under his roof.

“Oh, come on, kids in college, he’s heard worse,” Dean griped, going back to his coffee.

It all went downhill from there. Naturally, Adam got the lion’s share of gifts. Sam and Dean didn’t need anything, but it was so uneven it looked like John and Kate didn’t even remember they were coming to visit. Meanwhile, John’s plasma screen had arrived two days earlier and Sam and Dean were tasked with installing it in the living room midmorning.

Nothing says family time like manual labor and micromanagement.

Dean started drinking before Kate had taken the ham out of the oven. And while Sam wasn’t exactly keeping track, Dean felt like he was asking for whatever bitchface he got next. He just couldn’t stop himself once he started snarking.

Adam was telling them about the musical composition class he had finished and how he had written something for a string quartet.

“Our new keyboard player went to Julliard, you should send it to him,” Dean said off the cuff, before shoving some venison sausage in his mouth from the snack trays Kate put out.

“So you upgraded from Cas officially now?” John asked suspiciously.

“Dad, Cas left the band last spring, of course we made it official,” Sam cut in. John already knew this.

“I know, I just hoped you boys would work it out.”

Dean laughed darkly. “Nothing to work out. Dude left, we moved on.”

“And why did he leave exactly?” John goaded Dean.

Dean rolled his eyes, John was one to talk. He had pissed off half of all musicians between the Rockies and New Orleans before he hung it up.

“Let’s call it the Winchester temper and leave it at that,” Dean smiled without teeth, then popped more snacks into his mouth.

“Yeah, cuz the Campbell blood held only saints,” John muttered.

“Dad!” Sam admonished.

“That’s fucking rich! Talking about her when she’s not here to call you on your shit. I fucking punched Cas, alright?! You happy?! And who, DAD, taught me how to do that? Huh? Winchester temper. Not Campbell. That one was all from you.”

John stepped into Dean’s space, but spoke to Sam. “Sam, take your brother outside for a walk to cool down before dinner.”

Sam grunted in confirmation.

“Watch how you talk to me in my own home, Dean. Or I’ll show you a Winchester temper,” John said lowly. “You understand?”

Dean rolled his shoulders and looked his father in the eye. “Who exactly paid for this house again, Dad? Yeah, I’ll talk to you how you deserve it. I’m out of here.”

Dean felt Adam watching from the corner as Kate pulled John out of the kitchen and into their bedroom to give him a piece of her mind. Sam nodded at their younger brother, silently thanking him for holding down the fort as Dean stormed out the front door.

The Roadhouse was blissfully the same, with only a handful of beaten down cars in the parking lot. Dean had spent enough Christmases at bars or taverns throughout his life, but now he just wanted something that felt like home to get through this tightness in his chest. What they found inside was something altogether more special.

Ellen’s entire face lit up as they walked in, an empty plate in front of her and Garth manning the food line. Dean got his hug in first, but Sam took his time asking about what was going on. Then you were there, and Dean felt a hot shame creep up because he was this close to falling into old patterns. And that wasn’t how he ever wanted you to see him. He zipped his lips, pleading with himself to get a handle on his temper already.

He felt you breathe him in, the truth was never hard for you to suss out. And yet Dean held on, needing you close, being stupid and selfish as ever.

They took their free meal and ducked into a corner, watching as Ellen played angel to the downtrodden of Boone county. Slowly, Dean was able to set his shit aside. With Sam talking about anything and everything across from him; he accepted his resentment for his father, his frustration at himself and the stupid fucking feelings he had for you. It all seemed much more manageable when faced with people who had to get over much bigger obstacles with so much less. There was one more thing he promised he’d do while he was home, now that he’d visited Ellen. And he double checked that Sam was still good to go with him, to be his chauffeur.

They helped clean up, though Ellen moved a mile a minute and did tasks faster than she could explain them. And then Ellen was handing you off like a Christmas present, one that Dean couldn’t ever accept.

Ellen said her goodbyes and left Dean standing in the parking lot without much of a guess on what you wanted to do next.

“I guess we better get going,” he said, asking Sam more than anything.

Then Sam reminded Dean about the cemetery and a new wave of guilt seeped into Dean’s stomach. When it came to Jo, you had first dibs. She was your best friend and Dean’d be damned if he’d visit her without you getting a chance to too. As macabre as it was, he felt he owed it to you.

You looked like you were going to be ill.

“Maybe we should ask her if she wants to go,” he told Sam, searching your eyes for permission at the very least.

You took your time with the idea, but turned him down. “If it’s okay, would you mind dropping me off first? I know it’s in the other direction.”

Dean felt you sinking behind a wall the further they got from the Roadhouse, you asked questions and made conversation, but you weren’t really in it. He probably shouldn’t have brought up Jo, but with Ellen and Christmas and the Roadhouse, she was already everywhere anyway.

They let you out at your parents’ and headed back across town. The streets were almost empty with the sacredness of the holiday. The cemetery was decorated in pine wreaths and cheap red ribbons. The narrow paths were silent beneath their feet. Dean had thought he knew what he wanted to say when he decided to take this little side quest to see Jo.

What he said once Sam was safely back inside the Charger was something else entirely.

“So, I’ve been better. Not like I’m bad now, but I’ve been doing actually better. I was a mess for a long time. And not just from you, but a lot of shit. And last year, I guess earlier this year really, I kind of imploded. I started hurting people, like actually hurting them and justified it to myself somehow. Then I pushed Cas away from helping me, after breaking his nose. And well, the bands a lot different now. But we’re still doing it.

Look, Jo, I know you wanted me to live my dreams and see the world. Things I always wish you could have done. But sometimes dreams are regular everyday things, like bringing home pie or having somebody to say goodnight to. And I haven’t let myself have dreams in a long, long time. But I think maybe I’m starting to again.

And I just need you to know that I’m gonna be okay. And I am gonna do what I can to keep your people safe, because they’re my people now too, you know? You gave me another mom and a best friend without even meaning to. And we all miss you like crazy. But, we’re okay. Merry Christmas, beautiful. I hope the angels pull out all the stops up there.”

Dean exhaled, his nose thick and eyes stinging in the cold air. He wiped his face and looked at Jo’s name one more time before turning back towards the road. Sam waited until Dean was buckled in before asking, “you good?”

“Yeah, man. Let’s get back before I cause more of a sensation,” Dean said, not meeting Sam’s eyes.

“Okay,” was all Sam said.

Tagging:

@deans-spinster-witch

@mrswhozeewhatsis

@cosicas-cuquis

@fics-pics-andotherthings-i-like

@suckitands33

@ladysparkles78

@deans-baby-momma

@stoneyggirl2

@sassy-pelican

@leigh70

@globetrotter28

@winharry

@lastactiontricia

@rockhoochie

Chapter 15: Rubato

#spotless series #dean angst #dean/reader #dean/jo #dean/bela #slow burn #character death #grief #guilt #dean winchester fanfiction #rockstar au #fake dating

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iplaysims4 · 1 year

Photo

FIXED/UPDATED 4/29/23

FIXED/UPDATED 4/30/23

~~ I think it’s safe to say that I was rushing a bit yesterday when I fixed the Onesies and forgot to go back and clear up one onesie, and when I saved, packaged up the file, updated this post...I realize that I forgot to go back and fix that one Onesie...Smh pic to show what I forgot to clean up...👇

I apologize again. I be too excited to share these clothes for our infants...Lol! This is the last update. New Link will be replaced below. ~~

Hi Guys!

Now I HAD to hop on creating some little cutie patootie clothes for the infants! I have fallen in love with them and love the fact that we can interact with them-probably the best thing EA has given us besides adding toddlers. Anywho, I got some ONESIES for you guys and not just any Onesies but spongebob and his pals! LOL!

There is a total of 12 swatches within this pack

Reblog this post so a friend, of a friend, of a friend can know!

Do not claim as your own

Do not upload as your own

Do not upload on paysites

As always, Shout out to @sims4studioofficial for such an Awesome program that you can grab at Their Website!

Shout out to @ellcrze for the CAS background!

Hope You Enjoy!

Gone Head And Grab Dat Fa Ya PhatPhats! (Old)

UPDATED ONESIES FOR YA PHATPHATS! (New)

SN: I fixed an issue that made the Onesies have a bit of distortion when the infant is sitting in CAS. Delete the old package file and replace it with your new shiny one! Fixed the coloring and they should be good to go. Sorry about that. Also added a Custom thumbnail.

#ts4 #thesims4 #ts4 Infants clothes #TS4 Infant Onsies #CC #My CC #TS4 Onsies Recolors #TS4 Infants #SpongeBob Onsies

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 27 days

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03/28/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Leslie Jones; Taika Waititi; Vico Ortiz; Samba Schutte; Kristian Nairn; Watch Parties; Trans Day of Visibility: Cool Pirates; Fan spotlight; LoveNotes; DailyDarby/Today's Taika

Hey lovelies! I'm taking your advice and not stressing too much if I can't get the recap out by end of day due to life stuff. So! That means if you don't see one from me, it doesn't mean it's not gonna happen, it means I probably fell asleep and I'll finish it up the next morning :)

=Cast & Crew Sightings =

== David Jenkins ==

Chaos dad popped into to show @bainecessitiesco some love for their amazing affirmation cards we've all seen circulating :) If you haven't seen them yet, feel free to check out Mik's Instagram

== Samba Schutte ==

Samba's been a busy man today! Roaches Rascal's over on the Cameo discord server got another cameo from Samba! This one features some great impressions from Samba, but also a "legend" of how Rhys as Merstede got out of the water with that costume on.

= Cameo =

"How Merstede Got Out of the Water"

Full Cameo

== BTS ==

On top of his cameos, Samba gave us yet another pile of BTS Videos! This time shouting out the background and stand in actors! As usual, Tumblr only allows me to upload 1 video per post, so here's the videos on various tumblr posts below:

Video 1 - Spanish Jackie's

Video 2 - "How you hanging there?" feat Alex Sherman

Video 3 - Spanish Jackie's 2 - "Hey How you doin?"

Video 4 - Con O'Neill and His Middle Finger

Video 5 - Cursed Ship Background Actors

Video 6 - Republic of Pirates In The Evening

Video 7 - Goldie The Cow

Video 8 - Hot and Bothered Practice

Video 9 - Truck Full of Actors

Video 10 - The Red Flag Crew == Leslie Jones ==

Leslie's back at The Daily Show rocking it!

== Taika Waititi ==

New video on Rita's IG, see it here on tumblr on @fuckyeahworldoftaika's post

== Vico Ortiz ==

There's another episode of Date My Abuelita, First! Season 2, Episode 5 is out!

Source: Date My Abuelita, First Instagram / Website

== Kristian Nairn ==

Kristian Nairn is joining the list of the crew going to the San Jose Galaxy Con August 16-18, 2024! For tickets and info visit: Galaxy Con Tickets

= Dominic Burgess =

Jeffery Fettering is poking his head out again!! Can Dominic get any cooler, truly? Thank you JessieB for giving Dominic the inspiration to hit the high seas! Source: @edteachseawitch's Twitter

= Event Calendar =

For Friday It's #PhoneInFriday in the UK!

== Watch Parties ==

=== Boy ===

Sunday 31st, @tillychmo and @regg_official on Twitter will be hosing a 'Boy' Watch Party

Hashtags: #OurBoyMeansEgg

2 pm GMT

10 am EDT

7 am PDT

== Cool Pirates ==

First #CoolPirates for the celebration was Vico Ortiz! Feel free to visit the @saveofmdcrewmates tumblr to see the new ones each day!

== Fan Spotlight ==

Tonight's cast card is Mama Teach! Thank you @melvisik for giving our lovely Simone Kessell some love!

== Dead But Delicious ==

If you're near Alameda CA, there wil lbe a WWDITS Themed Variety Show going on at the Alameda Comedy Club on June 20th! 8 PM! Feel free to check them out! Learn more on their IG!

== Kudoboards Reminder! =

REMINDER! KUDOBOARDS close on the 31st.

Go send the cast and crew some love folks!

David Jenkins

Nathan Foad

Con O'Neill

Ruibo Qian

Leslie F*cking Jones!

Matthew Maher

Vico Ortiz

Samson Kayo

Alex "Ass Tonight" Sherman!

David Fane

Gypsy Taylor

Kristian "Wee John Wondays" Nairn!

Samba "BTS and Baking King" Schutte!

Fellow OFMD Fan Crew!

== Love Notes ==

Hey Lovelies! This is a bit of a silly love note today because I'm behind on everything, but I just wanted to give you some silly permissions (I dont have any real authority to give permission but this is a reminding you YOU have the authority!) to go out and do something out of the norm today.

I decided that I was going to have some ice cream after breakfast today. Why? Idk cause this weeks been crazy and ice cream sounded good.

Give yourself a treat today, whatever that happens to be for you-- going for a walk, eating ice cream, going to see that movie you have been holding off doing. Do something that makes you smile, you deserve it!

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

I think some of these may be repeats but they make me smile every time I see them so tonight's dance time!

Darby courtesy of @thunderwingdoomslayer

Taika courtesy of @celluloidbroomcloset

#ofmd daily recap #ofmd daily recaps #daily ofmd recap #daily ofmd recaps #ofmd #our flag means death #vico ortiz #rhys darby #taika waititi #leslie fucking jones #ofmd bts #samba schutte #cameos #cameo #dominic burgess #david jenkins #save ofmd #long live ofmd

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nocturnalazure · 5 days

Text

Not-a-tutorial - Camera shots: Part I

Absolutely nobody: ...

Me: I’ll share with you tips and tricks about Sims storytelling and camera shots!

And this is how it all started.

I’m far from being an expert and this probably won’t be new to many people, but I just felt the drive to ramble about camera shots because I think it’s such an interesting topic. (warning: long – see under the cut)

I sometimes have a feeling that we, as simmers, tend to repeat the same angles over and over again when telling a story. And I think that may be because we still adopt a player’s perspective. We may want to show how the Sim is dressed because we spend one hour in CAS dressing them up. Or we want to see the Sim but also the background because we spent hours decorating the scene. Or simply because we like the background and think it deserves to be shown! Zooming up on a Sim’s face is uncomfortable because that’s not how we play the game: we zoom out to see what we are doing. I know, because that’s what I used to do too in the past. Many of my screenshots were taken at hip/knee level.

And at shoulder level when I wanted to “zoom in”.

That was okay, but not necessarily very engaging. The thing is, I started using more and more screenshots in my story, dropping descriptive text entirely and using only dialogues. Soon my story became a graphic novel. Telling a story using mostly visual means implies that 1) I have to shorten the dialogues as much as possible to keep it dynamic, and 2) I have to find visual ways to express what characters are not saying but what I want the reader to understand (note that my Sims are no longer Sims but characters xD). This comes very close to storyboarding and it is what I’m doing now. It is much more planned and requires more work. But it pays! (at least according to me: I rather like my way even if there are many ways I can still improve!) So I'm going to show you a few concrete examples of how I apply to my shots some techniques from photography, comics, mangas and filmmaking.

First, I use wide, establishing shots to show the reader where the action is taking place.

Sometimes to express an idea, like that of a crowded place for example:

What I do A LOT is use a random landscape or zoom in on a detail to indicate the passage of time, like for transitions within the same scene: we find the same characters in the same place but they are leaving, or they are now seated, or they are still in the same building but not in the same room, etc. I often use sky pictures because I like them, sue me. :D

I use full shots when there are several characters in the room and I need to show whom and where they stand in relation to each other.

It is actually quite important for the reader to be able to locate a character in space. It sounds pretty basic, but we as authors tend to forget that the reader is not in our head. The reader needs to be able to follow your story every step of the way, even (particularly!) at the most basic level. The more characters in a scene, the more important this step is. A wider shot is perfect for this.

Or a bird eye view.

This is a standard shot of two characters having a seated convo:

What I I try to do is vary the angles as much as possible in a single conversation. It’s easy to use only an “over-the-shoulder” perspective but if the conversation is long, using only that kind of shots can give an impression that it drags on and on.

The character that is talking should be to one to which the eye is attracted to. If I used only that kind of shot, the eye would quickly get bored going from one character to the other, and since the conversation here was long, I used different angles to make it more interesting and play with different effects depending on what the characters were saying.

First, I reminded the reader of where the characters are in space:

Then, I got some close-up on small details while the characters are talking. This one shows that they have finished their meal.

I used an overhead shot for variety, but also to suggest that my characters are confronting their points of view, with the table separating them.

When a character is having a long monologue, I like taking my time to show a bit of the décor. It allows to break a long block of text into several more digestible parts and it gives the eye something more relaxing to look at so that it can focus on the text.

Doing a close-up on an interesting detail works too. It can add an emotional impact as readers do not see the character's face and will try to connect what the character is saying to what he does not say.

Same idea here, more experimental. You like it or you don’t. I chose not to show the character’s face while she’s asking a personal question. It fits her and it fits the story.

In general, I like cutting off part of a character’s face to maximize impact.

Another way to show emotions is a close-up. Like here, Anh is shocked so I chose a low angle to emphasize it.

I use close-ups for the reader to better see a character’s emotions. This close, emotions can be read and interpreted right away.

On to Part II!

#ts3 #sims 3 #sims 3 story #sims 3 storytelling tips #random #not-a-tutorial

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adelarsims · 3 months

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Hi, you are more than welcome to ignore especially if you have answered before and I missed it/it's elsewhere on your blog but can I please just ask how you get your CAS photos to look so incredibly clean? Especially around the edges, they're so smooth it's incredible. Thank you in advance, I really appreciate it! You inspire me so much tbh, everything you post is so beautiful. (Also also also the eyebags you released recently are my new gold standard and I use them for everything now tysm for sharing them) 🖤

thank you!

ok so here are a few tips, you don’t need to follow all of them, but if you like exactly my cas style, maybe some of them will help

1. edge smoothing. sorry for being obvious, but use either in-game anti-aliasing, or a smaa shader if you’re a reshade/gshade user, or you’ll get a pixelated staircase for the edges that will be hard to fix. if your PC doesn’t handle high graphics well and you play without edge smoothing, you can toggle it on temporarily just for taking a few good cas pictures and then turn it back off.

2. use MXAO. if you use reshades, use mxao shader for pictures, it's really a life changer. though i don't use it during the regular gameplay and only turn it on when i take pictures, because moving a lot with it is a visual overload for me.

3. but don’t overdo it with MXAO. seriously, don’t go all out with mxao. for a cleaner look shadows need to be delicate, just to overline shapes and give your sim more dimension. every time i tweaked my reshade presets, i made mxao even more thin and gentle and realized that it only got better.

4. background makes a huge difference. solid colors. in my personal opinion, grey gives the "cleanest" look (i said while still using my old dirty yellowish that i'm too lazy to find a replacement for). also, if i want to use black or white background, i make it a little darker than white and a little lighter than black, they look pretty much the same but will attack your eyes less (especially the white one).

5. CAS lighting makes a huge difference. maxis light isn't that bad, but cc lighting definitely give you more clean, crisp image. my personal favorite neutral one that i use by default is v2 by helgatisha. sometimes i use lightings with side highlights for more “rendered” look, but they aren’t always comfortable for everyday use and i only use them for specific pictures and then get back to my default neutral one.

6. shadow overlays. i mean cc that imitates shadows on sim's face, it gives sim's face so much dimension. there are spotlight v1 and v2 by simandy and lighting overlay v1 and v2 by joshseoh. i'd say josh's overlays are for fancy portrait pictures (they imitate a very strong light source from different angles, cool for sim photographers), and simandy's are more neutral. personally, i only use v2 by simandy, it's my holy grail and i don't take sim's pictures without it.

7. SRWE. it's a program that emulates having a bigger display resolution than your monitor can afford, meaning much better screenshot quality and cleanliness for small details. srwe can be a bit of a hassle to use for a lot of pics and most of the time i’m too lazy to use it and just take my regular small pixelated screenshots, but sometimes i want just one, but extra clean picture.

8. Topaz Clean 3 (photoshop). i don't usually edit my pictures and just drop them like whatever, mostly because i can't, but i make them sharper and cleaner with a gentle touch of topaz on very low strength.

#adelar ask

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buttertrait-old · 2 years

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Edie Walker

She/they

Pansexual

Bookworm, creative, jealous

#i also got a new cas background #and new cas lighting #ts4 #ts4 cas #ts4 screenies #the sims 4 #sims 4 #sims cas #my sims #simblr #the sims community #maxis match #maxis match custom content

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dreamlandforever · 11 months

Text

Welcome? To Hellfire Club - Part 3

Here's part 3! It is a lot more introspection into Jeff than anything else, but I have had this in mind for a bit. Hope you like it!

Part 1 Part 2

Part 3 - Hellfire Club

Even though Jeff was really invested in the game, he had also kept his attention on his surroundings all evening, and unlike Gareth, Jeff doesn’t really have anything against Steve, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still make him feel a little nervous. Jeff, and he is almost certain Freak as well, believe that Steve deserves a chance, especially because he is sure that whenever Eddie talks about “some dude” who saved him from the Earthquake, and “just a friend” that is driving him to and from his physical therapy, and “my buddy” who has his fridge full of Tupperware with food ready to just be re-heated, he is always referring to Steve Harrington. He has no proof, but he also doesn’t have any doubts, because pretty much every other friend Eddie has is sitting around the table.

He is almost certain that Gareth’s hatred towards Steve doesn’t have anything to do with Steve himself, but more with what he represents. Jeff is aware that Gareth is younger than he is, by about two years, which means he doesn’t really know Steve, but he certainly has heard the rumors. Tommy Hagan. Billy Hargrove. The King. He wasn’t there to see Steve’s fall or to know that no violence ever truly came to them freaks during his reign. But he was there for all of Carver’s ruling.

Jeff remembers his Freshman Year, and how the worst bullying he got was a few taunting words here and then. Whenever Tommy would get violent, Steve was there to divert his attention. If anything, Steve could be considered a lot more of a mean girl than a bully. He knew exactly what to say to make you feel like trash, but he never once raised a fist against anyone. Until Jeff saw him come in with a black eye and a lot of bruises, but he still didn’t know what that was about. And, honestly, he seemed much too busy dating to really give them the time of day. Jason Carver was in no way the new Steve Harrington, and while Jeff hadn’t really given it much thought before now, he was realizing that Gareth didn’t know that. Carver had been his entire high school experience.

Still, it feels like a betrayal to just be friendly to Steve.

But here he was, taking care of the children Eddie had adopted, who all seemed to consider him more like a brother rather than a babysitter. And there was Eddie himself, who spoke like the guy was heaven sent. Jeff still didn’t buy the idea of his mysterious friend, it simply had to be Harrington, even if it didn’t exactly match Jeff’s pre-conceived idea of the man.

Looking around the dining room as inconspicuous as possible, and Jeff has gotten really good at blending with the background as a way of survival ever since his first year of high school, he noticed that the only people who seemed tense were Gareth, Eddie Freak, and himself. Steve had appeared to be anxious about having them over when they first got there, and that had set off Jeff’s alarms. What had the man been expecting? But now, looking at everything Steve had done to ensure everyone was comfortable, and how he was now nodding off next to Robin, but still grasping the napkins where he kept the notes of the campaign, he was pretty sure he was actually nervous, and not anxious about them being there.

In a way, it made sense. It also made absolutely no sense at all. Steve Harrington at his own home, and all they were, were the freaks of their high school, who had been hunted for murder in the spring.

Somewhere between Jeff trying to decipher his feelings towards Harrington and following Eddie’s rather complex story line, Steve had woken up again. Standing next to the loveseat, instead of sitting on it, cracking his spine in a way that seemed absolutely horrifying to Jeff, but Harrington seemed to find lovely.

“It’s already 8 pm, guys. I am making some sandwiches for a late dinner. You cannot go to bed with only sugar in your systems, your parents will kill me.” Steve said, breaking the silence that had fallen after Eddie had informed them that the corridor they had chosen was a dead-end, and they hadn’t figured a way out yet.

“Don’t you guys have a curfew?” Jeff asked, before he had realized he was even speaking.

Steve let out a nice laugh, “Yes, they do. But they are having a sleepover at Will’s, so I talked Joyce into letting them arrive a little later today. A little.” He responded, the last sentence an obvious threat directed at Dustin. Jeff wasn’t sure why Dustin, if Eddie was the one that called the shots here, but he ignored it, deciding to focus more on if they would also get sandwiches or just the kids.

“I will help you.” Robin said, standing up slowly and yawning loudly.

Steve shook his head again. “No, I can handle it, Bobby. Make sure I don’t miss anything?” She sat down with a nod, looking for the pen that had fallen while Steve and her had nodded off a few minutes ago.

“So, requests?” Steve asked, making his way to the kitchen. The kids started to scream so loud and so fast that Jeff couldn’t understand a thing, but Steve nodded along like he understood what they were saying, and then they shut up. Just like that. He saw Gareth’s impressed face as well, but it soon slipped back into a mask of indifference. Jeff wasn’t that in control of his own face, how the fuck did Harrington got them to shut up? Eddie always has to threaten them to achieve that. Jeff noticed that Steve was looking at them, still standing in the dining room.

“Guys?” He asked, prompting them to speak.

“Yes?” This time the question came from Freak, who seemed just as confused as Jeff.

“Sandwiches?” Steve repeated himself, as if that explained everything. When it didn’t elicit a response, he clarified. “What can I get for you? I know Eddie’s, but I don’t know yours, Kevin.”

Freak almost jumped out of his seat in surprise. “I…uh, like cheese?” He said, stumbling over his own words. Jeff wasn’t sure anyone had called Freak by his government name in months.

Steve just nodded, unaware of any of this. “Is grilled cheese okay?”

Freak nodded back. “You can…no one calls me Kevin” He said finally, and that seemed to make Steve nervous again.

“Oh, I am sorry. Did I get your name wrong?”

“No, no. My name is Kevin. I just…I go by Freak.” He explained. “Please?” He added at the end, his voice a mixture of confusion and frustration.

“I will have whatever Eddie is having.” Jeff said, as soon as Freak was done talking, to break the tension before it had any time to settle.

“Alright, grilled cheese for Freak, bologna for Jeff and Eddie, Gareth?” Steve asked, without missing a beat. Jeff wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he knew Freak was a little sensitive about being called Kevin, so he Steve got some brownie points for that smooth move.

“Nothing from you, Harrington. You are not our babysitter.” Gareth answered venomously.

Jeff expected Eddie to say something at that moment, but instead it was the kids who came to the man’s defense.

“No need for that!” Lucas half-yelled at Gareth.

“Not cool, man!” Dustin.

“He is not my babysitter!” Mike.

“I don’t think there’s any need to be rude.” came Will’s much calmer response. Jeff liked him, he had a good head on his shoulders.

Steve just raised his hand, making the kids fall silent again. He nodded once again and went into the kitchen, patting the wall he was leaning against twice before going. Jeff had always thought it was a weird thing for jocks to do, just pat or slap things around them.

Jeff forgot about the sandwiches about five minutes later, because Lucas just led them to a trap, and they are now head-to-head with a hoard of fucking Mephitis, until Steve comes out again with great smelling food.

“Okay, first up, Mike, Will, and Freak.” He informed everyone, waiting for them to open enough space on the table for him to set the plates in front of them.

“Thank you, Steve!” Will says, taking his own plate. Mike just nods, and Freak looks at a loss, so he just nods too after a few seconds.

Mike had what seemed like grilled cheese with tomato, Will had half a grilled cheese and half a peanut butter and jelly, and Freak had a regular grilled cheese. Steve must have noticed him looking because he quickly told him “It’s blueberry jam. I don’t know how bad the allergy is, but no strawberry anywhere in the kitchen, man.” Jeff nodded; he honestly hadn’t even thought about that.

“Thanks, man” Jeff calls after him, as Steve was almost out of sight back to the kitchen, but he saw him raise his hand up in acknowledgment.

Steve re-appears once again with three more sandwiches, now one of them Jeff’s, the other one Eddie’s and the last one for Dustin. Jeff can see he has a bologna sandwich, with mustard and pickles. Eddie loves that shit, and Jeff is okay with that. Dustin has half a ham and cheese sandwich, and the other half of the peanut butter and jam that Will had.

Steve comes out once again, but instead of handing out sandwiches, he sets two big plates on the table, one with an array of chopped up vegetables and another one with different chips. Instead of immediately going back to the kitchen, though, this time he clears his throat loudly. The kids immediately start complaining but started grabbing different vegetables to add to their sandwiches. Eddie does too, after Robin starts lecturing him on iron deficiency. Jeff decides to do so as well in case anyone starts nagging at him as well.

In his last run, Steve places what seems to be a ham and cheese right next to Gareth without a word, and goes to sit with Robin with their sandwiches. “Disgusting gilled cheese with bacon and apple for you” he announced, while Robin makes grabby hands at him excitedly.

Will is rolling his dice in between bites of his sandwich, and Steve looks at Eddie meaningfully, Jeff sees his eyebrows almost reach his hairline. Eddie lets out a sigh, before announcing they were all taking a 15 minute break for dinner, and makes everyone put their dice away. That takes Jeff by surprise. They were always supposed to eat once the session was over, or make do with easy snacks they can eat while playing.

And here they were, with a full 15 minute break, warm sandwiches in their plates, a big plate in the middle with different veggies and chips in case they wanted to add them, and drinks.

___________________________________________

Steve knows that the Harrington charm will not work this time. It might actually work against him. So, after Robin shoots him a weird look for the umpteenth time to get him to relax, he decides to do that and act as he normally would, just Steve. He is trying to make them like him without having to be someone else, anyway.

However, if he can force feed Max after physical therapy, he can make a sandwich for Gareth even if he won’t eat it. So he places the plate besides the man and goes to sit himself, without saying a word. He can be angry if he wants, but Steve is not going to sink to that level. He doesn’t feel like he has to.

And that’s when he notices that Will is eating with one hand, to be able to hold his dice with the other. Steve shoots Eddie a look, which the man ignores. Steve doesn’t move, though, so eventually after a few seconds, Eddie just groans and, after letting out a sigh tells everyone to take 15, as he himself gets to eating.

Eddie usually gives them 10-30 minutes to eat whenever the game went long enough to clash with lunch or dinner time, depending on how hard Steve was willing to fight him on that, but considering that he had just made them sandwiches, the 15 minutes were enough.

“Dustin, chew better before swallowing you are going to choke” Steve scolds, after the boy has to drink half a juice box to be able to swallow for the second time. Dustin rolls his eyes at him, but does start to take smaller bites. Steves ignores him, in favor of continuing to eat his own sandwich, already loaded with vegetables and mayonnaise.

Mike reaches over the table for more chips for his sandwich, while Will places half of his peanut butter and jam on his plate. Mike smiles at him, placing a fourth of his already cut sandwich in Will’s plate.

Jeff finds that interesting. He had heard a lot about Will, the missing member of the kid’s group, but he never really thought he would fit it that easily in Hellfire in general.

___________________________________________

Eddie calls it a night at 9:30, since Steve had been shooting him looks since 9 pm and Eddie figured the most he can stretch that out was half an hour without really getting in trouble with the man. While he is marking where everyone was and the last actions they took in his notebook, he tells them he will let them know when and where the next session is.

“I thought we were now playing here?” Mike asks, looking at Steve instead of at Eddie.

Steve nods without missing a beat. “I thought so, too. You know you can keep coming here, Eddie. No need to move anything, either. I rarely use the table, you can just continue instead of taking a bunch of notes.” He said simply, continuing to clean up the snack table with Robin’s help. They were probably going to sleep over at Jonathan’s as well, since they were going to be driving over so late and the movie was at least an hour and a half long, so they had to finish before leaving.

Mike nodded, going back to his conversation with Will, shouldering his backpack without moving anything on the actual table. Jeff stared at that interaction.

“We don’t fit in the car, so you guys are going to have to squeeze together in the back” Steve informed them, before disappearing inside the kitchen.

Just like that, the decision seemed to be made, because all the kids stopped taking notes and just grabbed their bags.

Dustin was about to complain, when Robin stuck her tongue out at him. “I am older, I have shotgun privileges.”

“I have known him longer, I have seniority!” He fought back, sticking his tongue back at her.

“You are fifteen, Dusty-buns, you do not get seniority.”

“She’s right, man, she gets shotgun tonight. You can ride shotgun tomorrow on our way to your house.” Steve said, coming back into the dining room.

Now it was Robin’s turn to complain, if her outraged expression was anything to go by, but before she could utter a word, Steve interrupted.

“We are just dropping him off, Robin, you can ride shotgun again when we pick Max up for her appointment tomorrow morning.” Robin nodded at that.

“We are taking her to the mall afterwards, don’t forget.” Robin reminded him.

“Oh, you are right. I need to get jeans, then.” He said, running upstairs.

“Bring me one of your swim team shirts!” She called after him.

When Steve came back, he had a bag thrown over his shoulder, and he handed a shirt that was probably too big for Robin at her, which she stuffed in her own backpack.

“We are going to Jonathan’s to watch movies, if you want to join us?” Steve invites the older members of the club. “We are watching Friday the 13th or The Evil Dead, I am not sure, if you want to join us.”

Gareth refuses with a snort, and the rest of the guys turn down the invitation following his lead. Although Jeff seems to consider it, he ultimately sides with Gareth.

Jeff looked back the kids, trying to come to some sort of conclusion. They seemed to trust Steve completely, even Mike Wheeler, who seemed to be angry at life. He seemed to give Steve a hard time, fighting back on everything the man said, but he never once said anything against Steve himself. And when the question of where they were playing next had come, he had immediately looked at Steve, like he was sure the man would let them continue coming to his place. Like he was used to Steve making decisions.

The most surprising part was that the man had agreed easily, and Mike had nodded like he knew that was the answer before he said it and had only spoken it out loud for the rest of the people in the room.

Dustin had nothing but praise to sing about the man. Lucas too, when given the chance. If you got that kid started on sports, he was off on basketball and Steve. It’s just that Jeff never thought he actually meant Steve Harrington. They all just used his first name.

Eddie refuses, too, but Jeff sees he seems even more hesitant to refuse than he did. Steve looks at Eddie weirdly, like he was expecting him to accept, but nods, saying goodbye to everyone, agreeing to meet back at his place next Thursday. Steve says they can start earlier this time, if they want, because this Thursday is his and Robin’s day off. Steve Harrington is hosting them on his fucking day off.

And wait, did he say he works with Robin Buckley? Doesn’t she work in retail or something like that? Is that what The King is doing now?

Jeff decides that he will give Steve Harrington a chance. Most of his uncertainty comes from Eddie’s very telling silence. He is the one who brought them here, but has yet to say anything about Gareth’s comments or behavior. If by the end of the campaign, which may or may not be next session, the former king does anything that seems like a threat to him or any of his friends, anything that lets him know that Steve is anything but genuine, Jeff will side with Gareth and they can all find somewhere else to hold Hellfire Club. But if he keeps behaving the way he has been so far, he himself will call a Corroded Coffin meeting and speak on the man’s behalf, because Jeff believes in autonomy and earning your respect, not letting society determine every one’s role.

taglist: @steddie-as-they-go@cinnamon-mushroomabomination@queerdeerling@space-invading-pigeon@starman-jpg@swimmingbirdrunningrock @sofadofax @lessqn @hyperfixationgoddess

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #steddie #platonic stobin #robin buckley #jwritessometimes

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herlittlel0ve · 9 months

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I feel weird (jeggy)

Regulus is looking in the full body mirror wearing a dark purple dress that is cut at the middle of his thigh with fluffy ruffles at the bottom trim and a sunk in waist with a modesty neckline. Barty, Evan, Sirius, and Dorcas sit in his bed discussing the dress.

"I think it's very pretty Cas" Evan says looking between Regulus and the mirror.

"Thanks Ev but I feel like it's missing something" Dorcas says while finger brushing her braids away from her face.

"Yeah a new model" Regulus says while pinching at the waist line "Why do I gotta wear it again?"

"Because Pandora got stuck at the studio and I need the dresses modeled so I know which one's to put in my profolio. You just happen to be around the same size as her"

"I know I just feel weird" Regulus drops the fabric and looks in the mirror again.

"You look weird" A voice says from the door way. Regulus whips around to look who the interruption is. There's a struggle in the background a mermer but Regulus continues to star and James.

"You don't think I look good?" Regulus says with a small half smile.

"I think you look gorgeous. You are gorgeous." James says and kisses the middle of Regulus's forehead before grabbing his waist and twirling him back towards the mirror. "But this dress does not show that off, does Dorcas got another one?"

"There's a pile over there" James picks up a royal blue silk dress with strapy shoulders and a open back. "Hmm go try this one on" He says handing the dress off to Regulus who smiles and goes to the restroom to change.

As soon as the door shuts everyone starts talking at once. "What are you playing at?" "What the hell was that Prongs?" "Dorcas worked hard on that!" But they're soon cut off by the door opening and a anxious looking Regulus walking back to the mirror.

"What about this one?" He says looking through the mirror at James. James leans down and peppers kisses down Regulus's shoulder. "Much better, 'ts a bit long though huh?" The straps are falling off and the length of the dress falls overs Regulus feet. "You think Dorcas would mind if I fixed it a little?"

"She wouldn't mind at all" Dorcas replys with a smirk on her face. At that James pulls out his wand and tightens the straps before crouching down and fixing the length. Then steps back up to look through the mirror. "Hmm" He gabs Regulus waist and drags the top of his wand from the top half of Regulus thigh down to the floor, creating a slit in the dress. Regulus gasps. "Much better don't you think, love?" Regulus hums with a blush in his cheeks before leaning back into James chest. "I look better?" "You look amazing" James messes with Regulus hair making it fall just above his eyes. "Breath taking" He says before grabbing back onto Regulus waist and kissing down his neck to his shoulder.

"Not just because I'm in a dress?" He's felt self conscious this entire time because of the dresses he hasn't worn one since he transitioned. He also doesn't think he could take it if James said he preferred it more if he wore one. The only reason he can stand to look at himself in one is because he's cut his hair and started T, not to mention he's taped his chest for this occasion instead of wearing a binder. "MmMm, dresses have always been Remus's thing" he shakes his head and continues to kiss back up his neck again. "I'm not gonna lie I wouldn't feel the same if anyone else was wearing it like Sirius, Marlene, Lily, or Mary. But it's no different then seeing you in one of my shirts" He continues "Although" He looks up to meet Regulus eye in the mirror. "I think I'd all but die if I seen you in a suit"

Regulus whips around and grabs James face and presses they're lips together. He tries to pour everything he's feeling into the kiss. It's not short but there's no tongue. When they finally pull back James rests his forehead against Regulus'. "What was tha-" "I love you" James pulls back but not away and looks down at Regulus though he doesn't seem upset about the interruption. So Regulus stand on the tips of his toes and places a short warm kiss on James lips again. When he pulls back his hands are still holding James face in place. "I love you" It's sure and proud and leaves no room for leeway. "You've never said that before" Regulus shakes his head. "I haven't needed to" He pecks James on the lips again. "I didn't need to here either, But I couldn't help it" James leans down and gives a low slow kiss before pulling away. "I love you too"

#regulus black #james potter #jegulus #sunseeker #starchaser #pansexual james potter #gay regulus black #trans regulus #marauders era #dead gay wizards #established relationship #crossdressing? maybe? idk regulus in a dress

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pleasetakethis · 4 months

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New favorite ep of the season acquired the moment it opened. Some shippy rambling in the live blogging ahead.

If you know me at all, you know right off the bat that I AM UNHINGED ABOUT THIS EPISODE.

NATPEGGY YASSSSSSSSSSSSSS

THE BACKSTORY INTRO!

"What are new friends for?"

THEM SHOWING OFF THEIR MOVES TO EACH OTHER !!!!!

Wasp, too??? Yasss, all the ladies!!!!!!!!!!

Peggy and Nat already working so well together in combat and the level of trust that already exists between them, I just--slkdjflasdjfklajflajlfkjas

Them sassing Loki !!!!!!

Intro credits: Elizabeth Olsen???? Wanda's here, too????? Super spoiler alert: I waited so long for her to show up 🤣

Me and the Watcher feel the same about Captain Peggy Carter <3

The role reversal when Peggy picks up Nat in that slick ass car while Nat's running... guhhhhhh.

I am here for all versions of evil Steve, including brainwashed.

SCRUFFY SKINNY STEVE!

CA: TWS parallels got me in my feels, too. Peggy/Nat is THE SHIP for me, but there's something about Peggy/Steve that hits just right the same way as Tony/Pepper, Steve/Tony, and Steve/Bucky.

The framing of these shots got me--Peggy in the background pissed because she wasn't told about the rumors of the Hydra Stomper, while Nat (listening) definitely knew about Steve:

AHHH, PEGGY'S FACE WHEN SHE REALIZED NAT KNEW:

AND DIDN'T TELL HER:

SDALKFJLAKJFLAJS

Natasha quipping "Didn't see the point in breaking your heart twice," fucked me up, oh.

DILF old man Bucky <3 Bucky getting to grow old!!!! WIBBLES.

Guess it's gonna take both of the loves of Steve's Rogers life to get through to him? lmaooo

Peggy is the perfect mirror of Captain America Steve. In goodness, selflessness, AND their particular brand of self-righteous selfishness. I love both of them for it, but especially Peggy <3

Bucky standing up and saying Steve would be stupid enough to do the same for him. 😭 Bucky trying to get through to Steve. 😭

"What can I say, Peg? I'm a sucker for a good love story." Damn, that hurts for a million different reasons. oh, Nat. <3

UMMMM the way Nat sits back and says, "You know, I always wondered how you got all those G.I. boys to follow a woman into war? Question answered." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRAIN EMPTY! ONLY PEGGYNAT! And Nat couldn't be more obvious if she tried, but she does it so well and Peggy is distracted.

Are you kidding me with the framing of this shot?

I feel like it's foreshadowing but IT SCREAMS pining. A lot of pining:

Barton introduced Peggy to dad rock <3 fuck yes

Widow bites interrupting the kiss, lol.

Peggy being a weak point for Nat, to the point Nat gets nabbed by widow bites, JFC.

Peggy will die for Steve, the same way Steve would have died for Bucky--ughhh I do not like but I understand.

"Mission accomplished." !!! Hot damn, that was slick, A++, AND Nat tells Peggy she doesn't want to fight about it. 😏

THERE WAS A MUSICAL!

BAMF Melina. Love to hate her when she's on the wrong side, parent/child issues me in a weird way these days and this ep got under my skin.

But also: guhhhhhh these Widows.

"This isn't us! I am done fighting, Steve. [drops shield] I have been fighting for so long: to end the war, to forget what I lost. I'm… I'm tired." oh, Peggy.

oh, Steve.

oh, Nat.

This ep got me in the feels, all of them.

Peggy going back for Nat AND them running out together <3

Ugh, Nat and her transparent, "Okay. Let's hit the road." Just: THEM.

...and oops, Peggy's gone.

But then! OOOO, this Fury! AND FINALLY, WANDA!!!!!

Overall: similar in ep 4 in that it was close to the emotional impact of Stephen's ep in the first season but still missed the mark (and tbh the Tony ep hit harder, but more because of Tony's characterization--Peggy is fairly consistent, Tony is not, so getting him so right (for me) was incredible). I adore this ep, I love Peggy, I love Nat, I enjoy this universe, and I hope we visit their universe again (if not, there's always fanfic, my beloved).

#what if #what if s2 #what if s2 spoilers #s2e5 #what if captain carter fought the hydra stomper #watched with shipping goggles FIRMLY on #peggynat #all the peggynat #but mostly nat pining #that's my takeaway #i loved it #i loved the touch of stucky #i loved older bucky #i loved all the peggynat interactions #i loved peggy being peggy and letting herself be manipulated by steve #but ultimately getting through #i loved nat at peggy's side #i loved evil (brainwashed) steve #i did not love peggy giving up and saying no matter what she was done and she'd go out with steve if that's what it took #i understand it #esp after the bar scene in the s1 finale when she wanted to go back to her time #but i hate it #what i want for this peggy's character development is for her to understand she can be happy in the current timeline without steve #buuuut i don't see that happening outside of fanfic so #i'll take what i can get

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bloodydeanwinchester · 27 days

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hi jenna gif questions for u 💜 what's your favorite part of making gifs? what's the most valuable thing/tip/trick you've learned? what's some of your favorite gif sets you've made?

hi ida!!!! sorry i took a couple days to answer this i wanted to wait until i had some time to think about it before i answer! i loooove these questions tho so thank you so much for sending them 💜💜

my favorite part about making gifs is probably coloring and like...that moment when i get the gif to look exactly how i want it to. i like to play around with coloring and try a lot of different things with it and that can be so fun! i think over the last like 6-8 months my coloring has really improved a lot and i've been having a lot of fun learning new ways to do things! but i actually had a really hard time coming up with an answer for this question because i mostly enjoy the entire process! the only part that i don't really enjoy is picking out the frames for each gif. i always start with way too many and then i have to cut stuff out and i hate that part. also it's reaaally hard sometimes to not end up with like 20 gifs cause there's so much i want to include!!!

okay im gonna cheat on this one and give a few things i've learned since i started that have been sooooo valuable to me. first is the importance of having a good quality download to start with. i think my gifs got significantly better when i finally downloaded all of the episodes in 1080p instead of using the screen recording on netflix like i had been before. second sharpening is so important! i did not do any sharpening on my first gifs i made! sharpening makes the gifs loook sooo sharp and crisp and pretty. third and kind of similar to sharpening was learning/figuring out how to use the camera raw filter. there's sooooo much you can do with camera raw filter (coloring sharpening lightening). and finally one thing i learned that i think made my coloring look significantly better was to try not to lighten the gif too much and/or to figure out ways to lighten darker gifs without it messing up the background too much (sometimes when they're lightened too much it will like pixelate the background and it looks awful)

and finally (in order of when they were made from oldest to newest) here are links to some of my favorite gifsets:

Bloody Dean Throughout the Seasons Set - this one actually came out really good considering the fact that it was made only a month after i first started making gifs! if i remember correctly it's the first set that i ever used sharpening on.

6x20 F+TM King Set - this one is a favorite mostly just because i love the song so much and tmwwbk is one of my favorite episodes. i think some of my favorite sets to make are the ones that i add lyrics to.

2022 Nov 5th Set - i was really happy with how this one came out! it's so hard to get gifs from episodes over different seasons to look the same! and this one had gifs from 12 different seasons! also i think this was the first set i ever made that got over 1000 notes which i remember being really excited about!

Laughing Dean Set - this one is a favorite purely based on the content of the set. it feels like injecting serotonin every time i look at it<3

1x12 Faith Set - another one based on the content of the set. i just love this episode so much.

Season 9 Dean Set - i LOVE the coloring in this set! and season 9 dean is so beloved to me. he is just so beautiful and bloody and sad.

2023 Cas Day Set - another f+tm lyric set! i love the space overlay that i added and the blue-pink of the coloring so much!

4x18 Destiel Every Episode Set - i loooove this scene so much! this gif series has by far been more popular than any of the other gifs that i post and this set is definitely the most popular in the series. no other set has ever even come close to getting 4k notes like this one did. also i really like the purple coloring a lot<3

#thank you so much for the questions ida ily<333 #jenna.ask #gif making things

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 months

Text

By: Colin Wright

Published: Feb 18, 2024

There was a time when biologist PZ Myers was relevant. This period spanned the late 2000s and early 2010s, coinciding with the rise of “New Atheism” (as some called it). In 2006, Myers’ blog Pharyngula was celebrated in Nature as the world’s most popular science blog and was deemed the top atheist blog by Hemant Mehta in 2009. In 2008, Myers was part of a memorable incident where he and Richard Dawkins were planning to attend a screening of Ben Stein’s pro-Intelligent Design propaganda film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Despite Myers being interviewed and featured in the film, he was barred from entering by a security guard on orders from the producer, Mark Mathis—but Dawkins was allowed in!

In 2010, I invited Myers to give a talk about Intelligent Design at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, CA, where I was studying before transferring to UC Davis for my bachelor’s degree. I picked up Myers from the Sacramento train station, and we enjoyed a stimulating conversation about evolution en route. Before his talk, I gave him a tour of the school’s esteemed natural history museum. After his talk, we all went out with Myers for food and drinks and had a great time. I share this to show that my starting attitude toward Myers was nothing short of admiration.

However, as gender ideology gained a foothold within the atheist movement, the brains of many prominent and once-rational figures began to melt. Philosopher Peter Boghossian has poignantly characterized this shift among Left-wing intellectuals from being quick to point out the limits of their knowledge to a tendency to pretend to not know what is undeniably known.

This trend is exemplified by Myers, as I will illustrate.

Recently, Richard Dawkins shared on 𝕏 the lecture I delivered at the Genspect conference in Denver, CO, last year, titled “The Sex Binary: What It Is and Why It Matters.” Dawkins praised my talk as “superbly clear & totally correct,” and reaffirmed the reality of the binary nature of sex. Following this, gender activists bombarded Dawkins with absurd articles challenging the binary concept of sex, including a particularly misleading piece in Scientific American titled “Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia,” which asserts that “Actual research shows that sex is anything but binary.”

In response to this onslaught of dubious science, Dawkins countered the article directly: “This ridiculous article…ignorantly misunderstands the nature of the sex binary.” He went on to underscore the important distinction between how sex is “determined” versus how it’s “defined” in biology that I outlined in my talk.

In turn, Myers, seemingly desperate to regain some of his previous prominence, criticized Dawkins in a blog post. Myers’ misunderstanding of the biology of sex, especially given his background in developmental biology, is on embarrassing display in his post.

Myers begins his criticism by suggested that Dawkins’ expertise in ethology (the study of animal behavior) means he lacks the sufficient expertise that would give him better insight into the biology of sex.

Did you know that Richard Dawkins began his career as an ethologist? He got his Ph.D. studying animal behavior under Niko Tinbergen. If you’re an ethologist, you might study things like courtship behavior and parental investment and feeding strategies etc., etc., etc. Dawkins studied how animals make choices.

This argument is a common strategy used by gender activists to undermine those who present biological facts that contradict gender ideology’s central dogma. I receive this criticism incessantly because I am also an ethologist. I studied the collective behavior of spiders and social insects, and this often gets me dismissed as some “bug guy” out of his depth commenting on issues well outside my academic wheelhouse. This portrayal, however, is couldn’t be further from the truth, and it is often medical doctors and biologists who study a narrow group of taxa who are most likely to form misguided views about the biology of sex.

In reality, ethologists (now usually referred to as behavioral ecologists) are uniquely well-situated to address questions pertaining to the fundamental and universal meaning of male and female. That’s because the most profound behavioral differences to be found in nature within a species are those of males and females. It turns out that the evolved reproductive strategies of producing either fewer large gametes (ova) or many small gametes (sperm) results in divergent selection on many behavioral traits between males and females. Moreover, understanding that the universal defining feature of males and females is rooted in gametes allows us to account for instances where behavioral sex roles are reversed, as is seen in some birds and other animals. In fact, such role reversals would be indiscernible without identifying the males and females based on the gametes they produce, underscoring the relevance of ethology in discussions about biological sex.

For instance, how do we know that male seahorses are the ones that gestate young and give birth? Or that in northern jacanas (J. spinosa), it is the females who are larger, more ornate, territorial, and exhibit less parental care than males? This knowledge stems from understanding that male and female are categories that exist independent of mere morphology and behavior.

Myers makes an uninformed argument:

Somehow, an awful lot of biologists study sexual behavior — like lekking, or sexual displays, or fidelity, and on and on — that don’t necessarily involve sperm collection or measuring ovulation or that kind of thing. It is absurd to insist that only gametes define sex. I recognize spider sexes by the morphology of their palps, and by their differences in behavior, not gametes. I see the birds flying outside my window, and I discriminate sexes by color, primarily.

Myers could not be any more confused here. How does he recognize that it is typically males who form leks, or that males often display more elaborate mating behaviors and exhibit less sexual fidelity? This knowledge comes from studying these species and correlating these behaviors with the type of gametes an individual produces. Once we discover that males of the Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina niedda) possess highly decorative plumage and engage in elaborate sexual displays, we no longer need to continuously verify this. We know it’s the males because we learned that only those with decorative plumage and elaborate sexual displays in this species produce sperm.

However, Myers insists that defining an individual’s sex based solely on gametes represents an “extreme reductionist” approach, and suggests we should consider “all the other valid signals they openly display.”

Dawkins is just being an extreme reductionist to the point he’s making himself and his position look silly. Go ahead, all you reactionary biologists, rant about how there can be only two true sexes because people have some cells that are almost never seen in public, in defiance of all the other valid signals they openly display. Better biologists will go on recognizing all the factors that define sex without your self-imposed, narrow-minded blinders.

The core and critical flaw in Myers’ argument for using other traits to determine the sex of an individual is that these traits are only reliable indicators of sex in species where we already know which individuals are males and females, based on their gametes. In humans, we associate breasts with females and facial hair with males because adult human females typically develop breasts and adult human males tend to grow facial hair. But how would Myers propose to identify males and females in a newly discovered species without any prior knowledge of their secondary sexual characteristics?

Consider a hypothetical new mammal species with some individuals small and blue and others large and brown. Since we know mammals are anisogamous (i.e., reproduce via fusion of a sperm and an egg), we can be as certain as possible that this species also exhibits males and females. But how do we determine which is which? Should we assume the blue ones are males and the brown ones females, as is the case with blue groper fish? But in blue gropers the males are large and the females are small. Should we therefore consider the blue individuals of our new mammal species female because they are small? But in spiders the males are smaller than the females, suggesting perhaps the small individuals should be considered males?

Do you see the absurdity of the approach? We know human males tend to be hairier, male blue gropers are blue, and male spiders are usually smaller, because being male is a trait independent of hair, color, or size. What unites these males is the type of gamete they have the function to produce. That is what makes them male.

Thus, the only way we can know which individuals of our new species are the males and which are the females is to find out which individuals produce sperm and which produce eggs. The. End.

Myers has to understand this, but he is too afraid to tell the truth.

The people who say, "but, but clownfish!" conveniently leave out the part where they explain how we know a clownfish has changed sex. Does it like mimosas and shopping, or is there some other indicator compared to before?

What is it about a clownfish changing sex that tells us it has changed sex?

🤔

#Colin Wright #gender ideology #queer theory #gender identity ideology #biology #human biology #reproduction #human reproduction #gametes #biological sex #PZ Myers #evolution denial #evolution deniers #religion is a mental illness

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