I'll See Myself Out

Oooh this is inspiring me to write some poetry about Mike's love for Will and how El feels like a momentary placeholder after Will disappeared

The Cyrano Trope & Byler

The byler painting lie is such a clear example of a literary trope where a character receives some form of courtship that makes them feel "in love", however the character does not know the true identity of WHO they got it from. 

This trope has a full fledged name called "Playing Cyrano". It comes from a famous french play from 1897 about a character named Cyrano, who felt that the love of his life, Roxane, would never love him back because he was not good looking enough. Still, he tries to find the courage to convey his love to Roxane through a love letter (think~ painting) and this is what happens: 

(link to full article)

Will is the one "playing Cyrano" here for El, as a means to make Mike happy, help Mike and El's relationship, and also to secretly convey his own feelings for Mike in the process. 

This trope very obviously ends with Roxane (Mike) falling for Cyrano (Will) upon learning the true identity behind the letters (painting/van speech). 

And it's also precisely why Mike makes the expressions he makes at Will in the van; why his eyes shine with awe, why he takes breathless gulps as Will speaks, the whole nine yards. 

I've spent a long time wondering why Finn Wolfhard acted the way he did in the van scene (the expressions he makes are VERY distinct and emotive, he was given clear acting directions for it), and this is the most concrete reason why: The writers/directors here were trying to show us how Mike is perceiving Will's gift and words, and what it's making Mike feel. The van scene is not ONLY about Will, but about Mike's feelings too!!!

Mike's expressions in the van scene clearly tell the audience that he feels like he's falling in love all over again. It's giving him hope for his relationship with El. It's making him forget about his insecurities with her, and making him feel needed and loved. 

And the obvious catch here is that it's all Will doing that. Not El. And that's the missing piece to how they're going to segue into byler in season 5. 

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Beyond Stranger Things, obviously the idea of 'Playing Cyrano' has been adapted for literally over a hundred of years, into hundreds of stories, cementing it as a trope in romance plotlines. Here are just a few other examples:

Ben and Beverly from It

Ben gives Beverly a poem, but she thinks it's from Bill and ends up with Bill in the first movie. In the second movie she learns who the poem is really from and rightfully ends up with Ben.

Olivia and Sebastian from She's the Man

Olivia quickly falls for Sebastian while reading a sheet of song lyrics he wrote. But she thinks the lyrics are written by his twin who is disguised as Sebastian at the time. She spends most of the movie chasing after his twin, but eventually finds out the truth and ends up with Sebastian. 

Ellie and Aster from The Half Of It

Ellie agrees to help a jock named Paul write letters to his crush Aster. Ellie is in love with Aster and communicates it through the letters under Paul's name. This helps Paul and Aster's relationship a lot and they begin to date. Eventually Aster finds out the real person behind the letters, which leads to Ellie and Aster ending up together.

I especially love how the Cyrano trope is used in this story, because it shows how easily the trope can be molded to fit the queer perspective: in the original, Cyrano believes his love will never be reciprocated because he's not attractive enough. While in the Half of It, Ellie believes her love will never be reciprocated because of her gender.

Otis and Maeve from Sex Education 

Otis plays Cyrano for Jackson who is hooking up with Maeve at the time. Otis is in love with Maeve and knows everything about her, and essentially meshes with her perfectly. But he's too insecure to confess to her. Meanwhile, Jackson doesn't mesh with Maeve super well, and gets Otis to play Cyrano (eg. Otis telling Jackson Maeve's favourite books) . Maeve and Jackson end things when she finds out the truth about Otis's involvement, and her/Otis are the main couple of this series. 

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Overall the moral behind Cyrano's story is about how love at first sight is foolish and that appearances are not the basis of true love. 

Reading about this trope struck me with the thought that maybe this is why the writers forcibly shoved El and Mike into the love at first sight trope— even when it doesn't totally fit Mike's behaviour or words in S1E2 (after he sees El the first time, he does not behave like someone "in love" at all and plans to send her away). 

In most cases of the Cyrano trope, the love that exists between the "wrong" pairing is mainly based off of physical appearance and cyrano's masked courtship. There is little else holding them together. So by writing Mike declare that it was "love at first sight", it makes me question the whole basis of his love for El and how superficial it might be. I mean sorry Mike, how did you know you loved her the moment you saw her? You didn't even know anything about her. Meanwhile there's an undeniable depth to byler's bond— their friendship deepened and evolved over the course of many years, and it's anything but superficial.

(Side note: this trope sometimes involves Cyrano actively aiding the other love interest -Christian/El- but sometimes does not. In byler's case it does not. Will does not directly plan with El to woo Mike, and instead uses her name to an unknowing Mike to help their relationship. This trope can be executed a million different ways, but the main point is: the one in Roxane's role doesn't know who is causing their feelings of love)

whatever dude. dream daddies your jayvik

Spice Market №2—a San Myshuno Shell by Moonwoodhollow. Spice Market №1 was definitely in need of a neighbouring lot, which would fit just as well as the first lot into the Spice Market and I hope I did it justice! While I wanted both lots to go well together, each one of them needed to have distinctive characteristics so for this lot you'll also get two 'classic' brownstones + a former harbor factory. Oh and 6 empty shops/businesses that you can fill with whatever you like!

More screenshots, info + download link under the cut!

So what do you get?

Spice Market №2 is a 30x30 lot best placed in San Myshuno in the Spice Market neighbourhood. The lot is currently set as a residential lot, but you could set it as a residential rental, or with the new pack combine a residential lot with a business. The lot consists of 1 apartment, that comprises 2 floors. The factory could potentially be used as a residential space as well, it has 2 rooftop terraces and consists of 2 floors. The 2 brownstones have 3 floors and a rooftop terrace each.

-> a tip: The brownstone townhouses aren't very big, because the size of the lot wouldn't permit it, but if you'd like to play with them and have more than 2 sims, I'd advise you to combine the 2 brownstones into one home. That way it should be more spacious.

There are also 6 businesses/shops/cafés/restaurants/etc. shells. 1 of these is in the basement, while the others are all on the 1st floor and potentially have more floors.

I also added a Chinese food stall next to the factory, that does work, but you'll need to click on it and pay for someone to arrive and work there (100 Simoleons, I believe).

Uses items from the following packs: looks best with almost all packs. But a tip: take a look at the build in the gallery and click on the packs to see the items I used from that pack, it might also look good with fewer packs.

Download: google drive (455mb) | and up on the gallery: aeromantica (but you’ll need the cc from the drive folder)

Is the cc included? yes.

TOU: Please don’t claim as your own or put behind paywalls etc. If you find any issues please let me know + tag me if you’ll use the building, I’d love to see it in your games.

If you like what I do and want to show your appreciation, I have a ko-fi!

Gremmie's Cozy Kitchen

12 Base Game compatible items.

A cute base game kitchen with country charm and a whimsical touch. Pastel tone & light-wood.

Items included:

Plant pot

Hand-painted candles

Wall art

Cooking utensil pitcher

Bar stool

Dining table (4 variations)

Dining chairs (5 variations)

Area rug (5 variations)

Fruit bowl

Kitchen cabinets

Kitchen counter (4 variations)

Aprons on wall (2 variations)

Download on SFS

For a preview of all color variations per item, please keep reading.

messy stuff

I keep seeing complaints about how the Hexgate/Anomaly polluting the undercity, specifically poisoning the Firelight tree, subplot and Ekko and Jayce’s conflict over it, never got any payoff or resolution.

But…uh…yes it absolutely did: Ekko got to blow up the two guys who built the Hexgate, using a miniature replica of the anomaly to do it.

The guy who saw firsthand how much better things would have been (specifically for the undercity) without Hextech got to literally throw their magical bullshit back in their faces. And the fact that the device he used to do it had a design reference to Powder’s monkey bomb is just *chef’s kiss*

Honestly, for me, that was actually the most satisfying “Zaun takes vengeance on Piltover” moment in the entire show.

Dogwood Records 🎧

Have you ever wanted to own a record store? Now you can! Well, in game at least (lol). I always had this vision of what I wanted my store to look like- and I have finally created this set that kind of brought that vision to life. Dusty wooden furniture, neon lights, record players and records scattered everywhere were just some of the things I had in mind but I hope this set will bring you so much more.

To download everything and get some more info on the items + the monthly Patreon's gift set, CLICK HERE to visit my Patreon page (the set will be public on 4th May).

Fun fact: I wanted to add functionality to this set so the records can be sold & bought (when placed on the Stairway To Heaven retail shelf) at your small business (requires the Business & Hobbies EP)! Once your sim buys them, they can be found in the Household Inventory. What's a better b'day present for a sim than their favorite record? There's also a magazine/comic book rack so that your customers can entertain themselves while listening to their favorite artist. 🎵

Special thanks to peacemaker for the stunning wood textures; myshunosun, nucrests, helgatisha and trillyke for various textures + simlish graphics <3

Like father like daughter 🐰🔪

this was written as foreshadowing that they are going to end up together lol

you don't put this in a (queer) romantic coded conversation where Will is looking at him like he's completely smitten

and they JUST had a flirty exchange with each other

...opening the options of "will they, won't they" to the viewers, if you don't plan to do anything with the ship!

Will even took the painting because he had a little hope blossom in his heart after this conversation, even against all odds (in his mind)

Conan Hair (Hair Commissions)

For all frames

Basegame compatible

24 EA swatches

For teen to elder

Custom thumbnail

Hat compatible

Shadow map

Specular map

Normal map

Disallowed for random

Compatible with Universal Hair Overlay

V1 (left), V2 (right)

Read my Terms of Use before downloading!

Download here

Public release: 23 January 2025