An Ode to Some of the “Lits I Love”
Hello, lovelies. I decided that the best way to celebrate this day of love was to have the characters I love do a little cosplay. That’s right, your faves are out here on these streets posing as characters from other Simlits. I tried to get the vibes of each story right, if not the costumes. If you wanted to know who was lurking on your pages, zooming in like a maniac to see what kind of earrings a character had on, it was me.
xoxo,
Ferosh
P.S. – I have a whole list of Simlits I love but I couldn’t do every single one for this post. You should definitely check the rest out though! You can read it here.
Almost Eternal
Cosplayers: Vladislaus Straud/Alice Martin as Seth/Faith
How do I love this Simlit? Let me count the ways. First of all, it is straight-up bonkers, and I mean that as a compliment. Snuffybucket comes out of the gate swinging in chapter one and doesn’t let up the whole story. To steal the highest praise from Sarah Maclean: Snuffy is hunting big game. The story is hilarious, but it doesn’t shy away from the dark. Snuffy dives into topics like consent with a level of mastery I couldn’t hope to achieve on my best day. In short, Almost Eternal is the sort of thing I dream about writing, but it would probably be a lot of work, so I’m glad Snuffy’s doing it so I can just read it.
Seth and Faith are a beautiful, complicated tangle of characters. They seem just as likely to eat your heart as have a drink with you—maybe both. Suffice it to say, Vlad admires Seth’s style, and Alice and Faith would undoubtedly end up getting arrested together.
Tales of Camelot
Cosplayer: Penny Pizzazz as Morgana Pendragon
This story. The love letter I want to write to it—sigh. It’s a supernatural King Arthur Times romp that will take up residence in your heart and live rent-free. Besides having the ability to edit killer screenshots, Yimiki has written a story that, quite frankly, slaps. The characters will have you screaming at them and rooting for them in equal measure, and the politics and plot are messy. Compellingly so. There are rarely easy choices, and it gives you the feeling of being a ruler in a complex world even as you read it from the comfort of your couch.
Morgana is, pardon my french, a total badass. Penny Pizzazz is the perfect character to cosplay her because they both carry themselves with a “fuck around and find out” energy that I just vibe with.
Catastrophe Theory & Haunted
Cosplayers: Morgyn Ember/William Redding as Bernard Shallot-Liu/Xiyuan Shallot-Liu
First of all, you should know my smol photo edit does not do Haunted justice. Haunted is a beautifully drawn comic, and honestly, Dolly, please do not perceive this cosplay.
I kid, I kid. Both Haunted and Catastrophe Theory have delicious layers of jokes. They embrace the complete and utter weirdness of the game unapologetically. It’s made me less afraid to show off the weird in my own writing. Both stories make you scratch your head, laugh, and then get a little bit emotional when you realize they snuck into your heart. It’s why I love them.
Obviously, reincarnated Bernard and Xiyuan are couple goals, and it only makes sense that Morgyn and William would portray them. They would invite themselves to a dinner party with the Martin-Strauds and Shallot-Lius, but unlike Vlad and Alice, they are likely to be asked back.
Vitriol
Cosplayer: Anastasia Barrister as Esther
Is it a bit dramatic to say a story is only as good as its villain? Maybe. But man, is Esther one heck of an antagonist. Snowbnuuy has managed to write a story with multiple large egos and difficult personalities, and the bad guy still shines without becoming cartoonish. Vitriol is a romp, which sounds like a strange way to describe trauma, magic, and interpersonal conflict. But I’m close to halfway through, and I’m having the best time. I would call Snow’s entire Magic Universe an exercise in “lore goals.” As in, I aspire to get my world-building to that level.
Now, Anastasia had to cosplay Esther because a) I love a villain, and b) they are both complicated women who sometimes do awful things. Even though Esther is a monster, and I don’t think she’s gonna be redeemed, she’s still written with vulnerability. Silk and steel, if you will. Anastasia approves.
Supernatural Misadventures
Cosplayers: Bella Goth & Caleb Vatore as Hailey Evans & Detective Bowen Soto
Crimes are in want of detectives to solve them. Naturally-talented, super-athletic, good-at-everything detectives? Not in this story, and I love it all the more because of that. The heroine is not a super-detective right out the gate, but she is determined, and aside from all the great comedic moments this creates, it’s heartwarming too. When I decided to give The Strauds a mystery subplot, I was mining this Simlit for tips. The mystery is fun and the side characters are 10/10. Basically, Lonecat82 is awesome.
Bella and Caleb were the perfect characters to play Hailey and Bowen. Bella definitely got Hailey’s tenacity, and like Bowen, Caleb is a grump with high professional ethics. Okay, okay, fine Caleb is a kind of a dick and so is Soto, but they are good dudes. Mostly.
And because I couldn’t resist…
Cosplayer: Morgyn as Morgyn from “VirtrioL”, Morgyn from “Baking By Death,” and Morgyn from “THe Blackwell Chronicles”
It’s Valentine’s Day. How could you not expect me to put on my Morgyn Fan Club t-shirt and stan? Really though, it’s been one of my great joys to see how different stories approach this character. What do personality traits do they keep? How do they balance Morgyn’s charisma and cruelty? I assume that if the Morgyns were ever in the same space together, it would be the end of the world. You can’t really see it in the photo I chose, but they are all posed at a lot called “Highway to Hell” by Simoniona.
This also gives me a chance to shout out one of my most adored Simlits, The Blackwell Chronicles by The Plumbob. It’s so, so good, and it’s been a massive inspiration to me on my writing journey.
And that’s all! Happy Valentines Day. Love each other, keep vibing, drink wine if you want even though it’s Monday. I can’t wait to dig into some more stories this year and some new faves to the list. I am so grateful to this whole community; y’all have no idea. I <3 you.
Credits
In addition to the CC I regularly use in the game and buildings from the Fleuralia Save File, I also used the following builds and custom content:
POSES
Strange Creatures by Sciophobis
Poses with an Umbrella by Rethdis-love (umbrella by soloriya)
Like a Queen Posepack by Natalia-Auditore
Female Model Part 6 by Sciophobis
W-witch Poses by Sciophobis
BUILDS
“Highway to Hell” by Simoniona
I love this so much! I’ve been trying to type this comment for 30 minutes but keep having to pause to squeal.
OK. I can do it. Make words, Snuffy.
Excellent taste in stories! I spy a few of my faves on this list and you totally nailed the scenes and costumes; I recognised all the characters immediately. I’m imagining some hella disturbed double date dinner thing now though between Faith, Seth, Vlad and Alice. Oh my god, like, it definitely shouldn’t happen but… 💀
❤️ Happy Valentines! ❤️
Gah! WordPress gobbled this comment into spam so I couldn’t find it at first. HAHAHA, I’m glad you loved it!
Would Vlad demand that a still-beating heart be served? Would Alice call down the lighting from the sky and electrocute him for being rude. Would she and Faith actually leave to go on a bar crawl by themselves?
LOLOLOLOLOLOL all possiblitities
Lol, so when you said your Valentine’s dedication took up too much time, I assumed it was for your spouse. Shows how much I know!
Alice as Faith is perfection. Plus, all the gassing up is working! Tales of Camelot is next on my reading list, as in ‘leave comment on the first chapter’ is right on top of my to-do list for the day. Supernatural Misadventures has been added, too! And HAHAHAHAA. MORGYN. Glad there was room in there for BC—though I stand by my BC fanfic, still, I do.
Do you know how raining hard I laughed when I realized you were representing CT by throwing in random-ass captions? DO YOU?!
William’s ebay search history is like: opera costume, Chinese opera costume, Peking opera costume, water sleeves, those old-school Chinese lipstick paper things, books about Sondheim, etc. I’ll name this cosplay variation of Aurelius, uh, Hong Weilang (红卫朗). Apologies to Morgyn for not getting the intel out in time that HC&L!Nard has pink nails now.
Ah, Ferosh. We all love you. Stay weird.
Oh my gosh! This absolutely made my day! I showed it to an off-forum Simmer friend and they said they love the Esther cosplay and the Morgyn homage as well < 3 I really love how you made the characters cosplay who are similar personalities as well, like Morgana and Penny's shared 'don't try it or I'll break your legs' vibe : P Vlad as Seth is perfect, honestly- the two characters remind me of one another in ways. Also Alice makes a perfect Faith! I think that's what Strauds/BBD and AE have in common as well, they're both stories that are both as dark as they are humorous, and you really don't know exactly how to feel about almost every character because of the ambiguous morals of a lot of characters.
Anastasia dressing up as Esther is so fitting, the outfit suits her! Also thank you for your kind words about Vitriol, it means a lot, especially since the comparative breadth of the story to TSAHF is inspired by the breath of BBD's characters, plot and lore. I'm glad you love the lore as well < 3 Most of it is 'borrowed' from other Simmers, DnD and sometimes video games : P I'm glad you don't think Esther is cartoonish because I worried a few times that she was. Sometimes later on in the story, I do intentionally make her seem more cartoonish to outline how pathetic she becomes.
Thank you so much for this surprise! I hope you didn't mind me putting the Morgyns and the Anastastia/Esther on the Extras page on my blog? I put credit to you and linked back to the page for the pose credits!
Thank you so much for this, it's made my day < 3 and Happy Valentine's day!
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/white-rabbit-valentines-easter-rabbit-18268576.jpg
Also this makes me wish I could actually use poses XD Vitriol!Morgyn looks so darn cute in that pose. Also BBD Morgyn is one of my faves. First chapter that involved them I was like ‘YES, this is exactly how I imagine them to be!’
Absolutely, share away! Anastasia is honored. Honestly, it’s prolly going to her head. And thank you for the compliments and lovely bunny pic!
JABHDGVWJQACDG!!! BDJFHVAWDHGV! WJHFJUVF@V!!!!!!
ER. MA. GEWD. 😍🥰🤗🤩
They all look amazing! I had to look twice for Vitriol- Anastasia looks absolutely perfect for the role! And Alice, Vlad and Penny, too 🤩 Haha, you very much captured her “mess with me and I’ll bite your head off” vibe.
Right. I need to stop talking now before you get nothing but gibberish again. But I love this so much 😍🤩
JHEFbgvwhevfscf!!!!
COSPLAY VALENTINES
Lololol!! Morgana is not here for anyone’s foolishness and I STAN
♥️♥️♥️ glad you liked it!
I loved it 😁 you’re on my catch-up reading list and you’ve almost reached the top. I’m super excited to dive back in, even more so after seeing this 🤩
(I think the WordPress Weasels ate my comment, so let me try again!)
Lol, so when you said your Valentine’s dedication took up too much time, I assumed it was for your spouse. Shows how much I know!
Alice as Faith is perfection. Plus, all the gassing up is working! Tales of Camelot is next on my reading list, as in ‘leave comment on the first chapter’ is right on top of my to-do list for the day. Supernatural Misadventures has been added, too! And HAHAHAHAA. MORGYN. Glad there was room in there for BC—though I stand by my BC fanfic, still, I do.
Do you know how raining hard I laughed when I realized you were representing CT by throwing in random-ass captions? DO YOU?!
I’ll name this cosplay variation of Aurelius, uh, Hong Weilang (红卫朗). Apologies to Morgyn for not getting the intel out in time that HC&L!Nard has pink nails now. But I want to warn them right now: if they invite themselves to the dinner party, the Shallot-Lius will try to pick them up. So unless they each want a long string of “hi”/”hey”/”hey” texts from Bernard while Yuan backseat drives (“WHAT DID THEY SAY TO ‘HEY’?!”), best not.
Ah, Ferosh. We all love you. Stay weird.
I may not have captured the art but I captured the vibe! YAS weird ass captions for the win.
(The scene that precedes the dinner party is this car scene 😂😂😂😂😂)
This was probably the nicest/sweetest thing I’ve read. I am humbled by the love/support I see within the Sim Community.
I love your use of cosplay in each of these Simlit stories, as well as write a love letter to each of the Simlit authors. This just hits me in the feels…. It’s also great as a guide to find more Simlit stories (I am saddened by how much of a n00b I am at WP, and didn’t even think to search out the actual word “simlit”).
Thanks for this, Ferosh <3
Awww you’re welcome! So many dope simlits, I’m just glad I get to read them and highlight them ☺️ (lol btw I did not search SimLit either. I came through a story on the forum and just kept getting recs! So trying to pay it forward!)