#cc starter

Pressing the ‘schedule’ button, Sugie waited until her episode was well and truly loaded into the server before shooting an email to her sound editor/ bestie and beginning to close down...that is, until she saw something come into the Coolsville Confidential inbox. An email. With the subject line “The Strand”.

She knew where that was. Everyone did. But no one really thought about it anymore. Still...if this email was to be believed, something weird was going on over there. Phantom music. Lights.

It did sound like just the sort of thing “Miss Scarlett” would be into. Now shutting down her computer properly, she grabbed her bag and left her room...heading for the front door.

So, I tried my hand at creating a custom t-shirt for my sims, and to test my skills, I used the top image of the band DNCE (you might’ve heard of them, they have that AMAZING song Cake By the Ocean that got stuck in everyone’s heads). The t-shirt only has the one swatch and should be disabled for random. (I haven’t tested it that far yet. It should also be base game compatible as the shirt I recolored is from the base game. Also, I promise it looks better in game than it does on my sim here. (She’s included as a bonus in the download, though the rest of her CC is not.) Download below the cut, if there’s any issues, let me know, I’ve never done this before...

“Hrrngh! Hrraaah!”

25. Takashi was letting himself go. He hadn’t been through a hardy workout since his root beer meltdown with Hideki. It seemed like nobody else could see but himself (which was the case), though Takashi could feel a Russian gut forming by his stomach. 26. He had blamed the situation, and being too busy working out his brain coming up with ideas to get off of the christing moon! Admittedly, that does take considerable thought, but was no excuse he would take for becoming lax with his exercise. Why the sudden motivation. however? Well, that’s the word right there. Motive. 27.

The title of Marine Biologist isn’t tied to a specific part of the body. What would MonoMANU do to him in the event that he was unlucky enough to be chosen? Maim his limbs, cut out his tongue, or if they decided to not bother thinking which part mattered more to him, than simply lobotomized. Takashi didn’t like either option, but murder would always be the worse, in any scenario. 28. Speaking of, both scenarios required him to be in peak physical shape. Whether it was assisting in their escape, which would happen, or resisting whatever crippling punishment he may receive, his health was more important than ever. And as Takashi struggled to have his arms support his 29th rep of the sixty-something kilogram weight, he thought himself as too weak to do save anything. His goal... was thirty... and after he hit that he could start to work out his-

“OOooowwfffffffFFF-!!”

Today, Takashi discovered a few facts pertaining to life here. There was one that made it’s presence known again and again, and that was Takashi’s unpopularity. There were more people that disliked, even hated, him than there ever were on Earth. He wanted so desperately to stop the murder, get everyone back home, and try to live decently again after witnessing these horrors. It wasn’t about being the hero any more; proving his worth to others by being some white-coated knight. If another incident like Moe’s happens, he feared he may break.

Hideki was at the top of the list of people Takashi knew looked at him with negativity. Hideki undoubtedly hated Takashi more than anybody else here that was still breathing... or operating, which made the fact that he knew Takashi’s secret worse. It not being used as blackmail against his stubbornness in the trial was a miracle. Nobody must know the secret that brought nightmares, never ending, tormenting him for years. Takashi would not have that same torment in the realm of the awake. All of this is why it was so hard to put these words together for Adeline.

Takashi caught up to her in the hallway after the trial, but only after keeping a hand outstretched for some seconds while he arranged the words in his throat.

“A-Adeline, I need your help with something... someone, rather. It’s regarding the secrets. I need to talk with Hideki, but I don’t suppose he’ll even part his lips facing my way when we aren’t in a trial. I’m not taking you to just be bait, by the way.. The reason why I ask you, specifically, is because you've been a very good friend to me, and I don’t have damn near as many as I thought I would. You deserve to know.”

Takashi, wet and cold, wandered throughout the entire courtyard. His effort was fruitless in the previous scenario where he was convinced something of note must have tossed outside in haste. Now the courtyard was the scene of the crime, and thus made sense to try again. But how does the saying go? A man who repeats the same action twice expecting the same result is the mark of a fool. Takashi left for inside, feeling foolish and marked with an overt brown stain on his white lab coat. 

The stain was a very minor thing that just happened to sit atop the rest of the problems, and so even though it wasn’t more important than the corpse of a friend, had to be dealt with immediately!.He headed for the laundry room with haste.

Once there, Takashi found an empty washing machine to take his anger out on by whipping his coat inside it, sounding a low metallic *tong* that resonated through the room. After finding a towel and drying himself, he tossed it in as well. He only needed to do a quick rinse and a dry afterwards. He set the timer for 15 minutes and hoped that the settings he chose were enough to save his symbol of- oh shoot his WA card! He forgot to unclip it from his coat! Oh well... it was laminated, and would survive - unlike...

There was the reminder of how selfish his petty clothing quarrel was. Moe was dead, murdered, no less, and he had stopped to do a load of wash. Takashi was no good at investigations, though! He scanned the entire room, as if anything would appear to him that hadn’t while looking anywhere practical- oh my? 

No! He had patrolled, hadn’t he? Takashi had been all around the campus and the commercial district that day, seen just about everyone, It would be stupid to even think he hadn’t seen anyone suspicious, and that means that this scenario could not have happened. Yet here he was thinking it, at the base of the lake, and against the sight of what floated in the water just so he could keep his hypothesis status ambiguous. 

“No... That’s impossible.” Did anyone here the bell? The telling sign that Moe was definitely dead? Takashi hadn’t. Too many people were staring at the scene for there to not be an alert. Their captor was dilligent and cunning, and surely would have sounded it as soon as appropriate.Moe had to still be alive!

Takashi threw off his coat in one fluid motion, appropriate since it ended up skimming the edge of the pond anyways, then sprung into the lake with good form. His motion made him appear like a creature that belonged there. The ocean did practically raise him, and it showed in every stroke. He grabbed Moe’s head and shook it around. Non-responsive. Could be unconscious, but they needed to be back on land to do anything about it. With one hand on the hoodie and the other pushing against her back, Takashi swam Moe to shore. This was no Hasslehoff rescue. Everyone was in panic, and a life was in danger, at best. Takashi didn’t bother calling for help when he practically tossed Moe’s waterlogged body out of the water and into the grass, himself following shortly after.

“Somebody here specializes in medicine, right? I need some help! Somebody has to help me, damn it! We need to get air into her lungs. Keep count for me!”

Here's a common fact. Fish do sleep, and have similar related traits to humans, including taking naps and having insomnia. However, if they stop swimming, they die. This means that to fish, swimming is like keeping the heart beating, and it happens naturally when they need to rest. Takashi might have channeled his gilled brethren too well last night. He tossed and turned, and didn't have such bubbly dreams. They were frightening, but I wouldn't classify them as nightmares either. It was rewind to the harsh reality he had to reface through text (which was for lack of a better word "stupid"). Not to mention Kaoru's demise was scarring in itself.

Takashi rose from bed at 9 AM. Despite his going to bed at 12 AM last night the boy spent no more than half of that time asleep, and even less of that truly resting. He had an appointment, though, and he refused to let a robot arrive there earlier than him. If they thought him as late or forgetful, it'd be even worse. Takashi liked to think he didn't care what people, and androids, thought of him, but appearance is everything, and there is a tiny judge inside all of us forging opinions solely based on it. 

Seeing his secret forwarded to him was a major kick in the gut, but perhaps that’s an understatement — considering how important it was to keep the content a secret. It’s something very important to him, something he’s been trying to hide for a very,very long time… and it seems to have been especially haunting him here. He thought the chances of this secret getting out were gone the second those chairs were, but unfortunately, from the words of MonoManu, he learned that someone already knows that secret now — and with the message he just received, he has a feeling he knows who. His hands waver, when typing a response to Takashi. So, this was it, huh? Everything I’ve built is going to come crashing down right in front of my face, isn’t it? Hahaha… shit…

[hideki > takashi] eh? oh, sure thing~! [hideki > takashi] hey… by the way… i don’t think i have your secret. and besides… secrets are secrets for a reason, you know. [hideki > takashi] don’t share the secret you have. i think that’s a bad idea.  

The last message comes out as a threat — apparently when he’s desperate, he chooses fight rather than flight. It’s only when he sends it, that he realizes it was a terrible, terrible idea, especially if he wants his secret safe — but it’s not like he can take it back now. He sits on his bed for a few long beats of silence, before he takes his long trek to the kitchen in equal silence. The time he takes walking is spent with him trying to calm his nerves to the best of his ability — but it didn’t do much, evident by his shaky words when he finally enters the kitchen.

"T-Tak… ahem. Takashi-san…?

I'm normally so self-conscious about my health, Takashi thought as he drank his fourth can of root beer in the kitchen, drinking it there to prevent publicly displaying his humiliating state in a more busy area such as the lounge or the dining hall. Takashi hated himself. After his second soda he'd given up on convincing himself that he was a subject of teenage angst. That wasn't the case; he'd done something terrible and now the past was catching up to him.

His nervousness was audible in the rapid tapping of his fingers on the can. His mind was busy being occupied by anything to bide his time until Hideki arrived, such as why the soda was canned. Yes, it is a low-cost, easy-to-store way to manage your stock of soft drinks, but they were on the moon. How many hundreds of thousands went into research to make sure that special moon cans could withstand the atmospheric pressure. Or perhaps the artificial environment was made to be 'sudz-friendly'. With that in mind, what kind of-

"Oh, Hideki!" Takashi rolled his back out of it's slump and strolled toward the one who he had a lot of choice words to say to. Unlike last time, however, these were well thought out and not purposed to insult his listeners intelligence (at least not intentionally). Hideki's hand was snatched by his, removing any choice Hideki had in the matter of this handshake.

"Listen, Hideki. I am so sorry about the way I treated you during the last trial. You were right on every point I was wrong on and- well, I'm man enough to admit where I've faltered. I mean- nevermind. Anyways!" He released Hideki began to reach for his ID card, the one that mattered, not the one clipped to his coat which he barely felt worthy of. Bah! Pull yourself together, Takashi!