Technicolor Seating, which I originally created for The Sims 4, is now available for Paralives! ✨Read more and find the link to Steam Workshop: www.patreon.com/myshunosun/p... #paralives #paralivescc

and then she died... I'm kidding, I turned emotional deaths off a long time ago 😂

It's happening again... It's an hour before midnight and I swear upon everything holy if they don't turn their shit down I will lose mine 😤

Kechi@obigem.bsky.social · 5d ago

To the neighbor who we share a wall with who spent half the night playing their tv just loud enough that I barely got 4 hours of broken sleep across 7 hours. Thank you so much, waking up cold, tired and irritable and calling out of work so I could make up my lost sleep was exactly what I wanted 🫠

Matthew took a deep breath, braced himself, and set his jaw. 𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘢𝘣, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 With a swift turn he swung the balcony doors open, turned on his heel, only to almost immediately be stopped in his tracks. "Oh, hello there little brother. Fancy meeting you here." Tylor sneered.

It was a necessary course of action, but it had elicited an unforeseen series of events that he now needed to fix. On the bright side, he knew how to fix this. He just needed to find Cordelia. And this time, he knew exactly what he needed to say.

He needed to not be so consumed by thoughts of her. Being away from her as long as he had been had been good for him. He felt lighter, all things considered, but his mind was certainly clearer in a way it never would've been if he'd stayed, if he'd replied, if he'd let things stay as they were.

Suddenly it all made sense why she had reacted the way she did when she saw him at the party. He felt like such a fool. If he had known she had texted him...no, that was the worst of it. Because he knew had he known he would've went to her, but he needed that time away.

It came in a barrage of text messages. The first innocuous enough, but the second he read the question, his stomach dropped. The messages from there did little to lift it out of its bottomless pit.

It didn't take Matthew long to swipe to Cordelia's contact details, the block symbol still present next to her name. It was an action he made hastily. He thought it necessary, but his heart ached now thinking what a grave decision that was. He quickly hit the unblock as messages poured through.

Cordelia had mentioned text messages during their brief exchanged. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. That's what she said, but...the look in her face. There was something there. Perhaps if he did look, he could understand, he could fix this. He could steady them. Matthew slipped out his phone.

The truth of it was, at some point, something had shifted between them, and they'd been operating on unsteady ground ever since. He wished to steady it. Whatever that looked like for whatever they were to each other right now, but he needed some kind of anchor. And that's when he remembered it.

He kept playing it over in his head. Seeing her face. Grabbing her wrist. A confession on the verge of spilling from his tongue. If only he had gotten it out. What then? Would she have so easily run from him if he had? He couldn't form a clear answer, but he knew the answer wasn't clearly no.

Meanwhile, a floor above what might be impending trouble, Matthew Landgraab exited out onto one of the mansion's many balconies for some fresh air. He'd been searching in vain for Cordelia Fletcher and decided now was as good a time as any for a headspace reset.

"Shhhh!" Jai hissed through clenched teeth, and then in a whisper, "no more talking. Don't move. If the door handle moves, get over here." "So you can do what?" Liana hissed back. "You let me worry about that!" He barked back as they waited in anticipation in what they hoped wasn't big trouble.

They both froze in silence, and a silence from the hallway answered them back just long enough for Liana to remark, "Looks like you're crazy, J. Now about this folder I just found—" But then the traipsing picked up again, and neither of them could ignore it. "Never mind. You're certified sane."

Just outside the hidden office's doors, they could hear a traipsing. "Please tell me I'm crazy and you don't hear that too." Jai's heart was in his throat. He knew it. He knew this was a bad idea, but he just had to push and push and now here they were illegally trespassing about to get caught.

"But never mind that. What files should we snoop through first?" Jai's mind raced. "Gee, that's a good question. This would be easier if this was Matthew's computer, not Malcolm's. This is hard." "Maybe, but, ooh...this looks promising." Lianna started to click around when they both heard a noise.

"Wow, I can't believe you actually did it! No offense, but I was starting to think you were full of it when it came to your hacking skills." "Yeah, well, serves you right. I'm an amazing hacktress. It also helps Malcolm isn't too bright and left a sticky with all his password stuck under his desk."

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Liana squealed. "What? You didn't trigger an alarm, did you?" Jai began to worry. "No, dummy! I did it, we're in!" "We're...no way, you really did it? You hacked into the computer?" "Hold your applause, I'll take my heaps of gratitude and praise now."

"Umm, thank you?" Those were the words Jai settled on though he was still unsure whether it was a true compliment or a backhanded insult. "You're welcome." Liana replied with a practiced smile. "And on that note..." Her fingers started to clack faster before pausing and scrutinizing the screen.

"Because if you are, I'm flattered, but I'm crazy about my girlfriend. I mean, I wouldn't be doing any of this if I wasn't, so—" "Relax, J," Liana sighed. "I'm not hitting on you. It's just a point of fact based on looks alone. Matthew isn't my type, and as dumb as you are, you're not bad looking."

"𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵, huh," Liana smirked. "Well, I can't say I have a very high opinion of your girlfriend if Matthew Landgraab is her type. Between the two of you, you'd easily be my pick." "Matthew 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 her type. She—" Jai paused, his brain registering all of Liana's words. "Wait, are you into me?"

"Seems you've got bigger problems if your girlfriend's sweet on him." Liana remarked. "She's not! She's just, too nice sometimes. He makes himself so available to her all the time and he's always around her and she just doesn't see what he's doing. She's just falling for it." Jai's anger raged.

"Matthew Landgraab. Why are you so dead set on finding dirt on him? He piss in your cheerios or something?" "That's easy. From the moment he returned to Oasis Springs, he's made it his mission to insert himself in my girlfriend's life, and I'm sick of it. I need him to back off. Permanently."

"Admit it. This is just one big joke for you. I'm your entertainment to pass the night. Tell me now before we trip the security system and I end up in jail." "You're very entertaining, but I swear part of the fun really is me helping you. But I am curious." "About what?"

"Depends. What's a 5 syllable word for a phallic fruit? Wait, don't answer that." "You're really not taking this seriously." Jai huffed. "I knew it. I knew this was a bad idea. But get dirt on Matthew, I said. It'll be easy, I thought—like an idiot." "Take a chill pill, she says." Liana snickered.

Back and forth, and forth and back he went. His steps leaving a distinct disgruntled clacking in his wake. "Leaving a well-worn trail, J?" Liana said dismissively as she continued to clack away. "It's just, how much longer is this going to take? You said you were good at this."

"Live a little, Jairo." Liana smirked. "You let me handle this, and while I'm being a computer wizard, you can snoop in a closet or something. We're fine." That's what Liana claimed, but the whole ordeal had Jai on edge as he began to pace the length of the office.

"Relax, J. I know my way around a firewall." "Do you?" Jai looked on at her skeptically. "Sure. Or at least I've seen it done before. I know a girl who makes this kind of thing look like child's play. I'm not as good as her, but I'm sure I can figure it out." "Liana." Jai said in warning.

"Because it's so boggling to the mind that I'm so beautiful and multi-talented? Yes, I know, it's a curse." Liana deadpanned. "No. I was going to say because it's bad enough that we're in a secret office, but we could set off some serious alarms if you're not joking about hacking into a computer."