#devon miller

[analiza-beta]

Happy Holidays! This is a little Misha and Devon (modern AU?) for @lorata as I continue to suffer brain rot. Maybe they’re trying to decimate each other on Mario Kart or something.

[talesofdelight]

Sugar City Rockers

VC: Bonnie MacFarlane from the Red Dead Redemption games

Background: From the same town as Cheri yet they never really interacted. Another who comes from a big family, and being one of the younger siblings, she was challenged with trying to get her parents attention. When they discovered her talent for singing and songwriting, things went a little bad. Being about 17 and thrown into a singing competition gave her attention from different labels but also incredibly overwhelmed her. After releasing a few songs in the country genre, one of them being a top hit, she ultimately quit. She met SCR when they were doing a small gig at a bar in downtown Sourbite City and cringed at how disorganized they were. She offered to help them out with the connections she had as well as give them tips on how to be better organized and as they grew in fame, she ended up sticking around (and the band didn’t want to lose her anyway). 

Special ability: “Sugar Coating” - This allows her to make her words incredibly persuasive if she chooses

VC: Marshall Lee

Background: From Confectia. He grew up in a pretty rowdy environment though, his parents pretty much gave up on raising him and his older sister, so his sister was always taking care of him, sometimes having to shoplift before she was old enough to get a part time job. When he entered high school, he was now living with his sister and her husband (no, the husband wasn’t a jerk), but during that time Devon wasn’t the best person. He would shoplift, bully those he deemed weaker than him, and kept giving his sister a hard time about their living conditions. When he moved past this era, he hated himself for how he treated others, especially his sister. He joined SCR in college when Eric reached out to him after watching him play the guitar. About a year before the main story takes place is when his sister and her husband passed away in a car accident and he took custody of his niece Lulu. He doesn’t feel like he’s good enough to be her guardian, but they’re all the other has.

Special ability: “Crackle” - He can generate electricity from his hands and mouth

VC: Leon Kennedy

Background: He spent his school years not really caring about anything and went about his days doing whatever he pleased. In college he had this bright idea to start a band similar to the rock bands he loved and looked up to so much. So he made it his mission to find musicians for this hypothetical band. First he recruited his childhood friend DJ, after that Devon, and finally Natalia. He had to convince his parents over dinner to let him and the band practice in their garage.

Special ability: “Shock Toss” - Eric can create small electric orbs in the palms of his hands that he can throw

 VC: Dark Choco Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom

Background: Only child. Grew up with Eric. DJ is just a nickname. He’s not shy, he’s just antisocial but he tries to talk more with his bandmates. Does his best to be a good uncle to Lulu.

Special ability: “Crystal Ball” - If DJ concentrates hard enough, then he can see events no matter where they are, though the farther the distance the fuzzier the image. He mostly uses this ability to keep track of his band mates

VC: Gwen from Total Drama Island

Background: From the Bitterlands, but doesn’t act like it, she is a fire cracker. Another where the city lights of Flavorvale drew her attention. Went to college for music studies which is when she met the guys and ultimately joined their lil ragtag group. It was around this time that she met Lyrica online and later on they began dating. 

Special ability: “Sweet Screech” - Anyone who is unfortunate enough to hear this ability at full volume will become completely paralyzed

VC: Anais Watterson from The Amazing World of Gumball

Background: Before the incident, she was actually very happy go lucky and loved being with her parents and hanging out with her uncle Devon and his friends when they would visit. Afterwards, everything flipped. She remembers sitting in the office of child services and listening to the adults talking about what happened. Then her uncle Devon showed up and everything seemed like it might be okay again. She knows that he’s doing his best, so she also does her best to not have him worry about her.

Special ability: Hasn’t formed yet... or has it?

[simstryingtheirbestok]

"--just as I always do. I always measure twice. So what I can't understand is how the heck it went wrong!"

"Had you ever done a Snowglobe Enchantment before, Mom?" Aunt Wendalyn said.

"Well, no," my grandmother said, "but I don't think it matters. It's considered fairly trivial to work. Children can do it. It's a simple illusion, meant to dazzle your Snowflake Day guests on their way out, by helping them step into a sparkling, magical, winter wonderl--"

"Out there it is summer, Grandma," I said crossly. "People are swimming. Everyone is in tank tops and shorts and sandals."

"I have heard they do things different in the Nordics--" Violet began.

"Shut UP, Violet. God!" I threw up my hands in frustration.

"Grandma," I said, "if it's a winter scene you wanted, wouldn't it have been a billion times simpler just to make it snow? Look! Everyone has their lights--okay. Backtrack--everyone in Elmira City had their lights up. Maybe they still do. I mean, I'm assuming this enchantment didn't nuke the city from orbit or anything, right?

Nods from everyone but Violet, who suddenly looked frantic. I shouldn't even suggest possibilities like that around her.

"Plus! PLUS, we were out in the suburbs with no lack of trees, right, and it was cold enough that I super regretted wearing a halter dress, although I'm much happier about that choice now because, like I said, it's fucking summer. But come on! The weather stone was just--"

My aunt interrupted me.

"We can only do Reviving Sprinkle at the Weather Stone, Velma. Sorry. No snow."

"Is that the one with the rainbow?" asked Violet.

No one answered her right away, so I jumped back in before anyone could.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that you're both fairies--one of you is even Queen of all of you--and you can't just make it snow whenever you want? How is that possible? Even witches have Ice Blast!"

My grandmother's turn to throw up her hands.

"I don't understand any more of this than you do, Velma--"

"Then you shouldn't have been playing around with such things, Mother," I heard my own mother say.

I stared at her as though she were an alien in our midst. She might as well have been! My mother...? talking that way to her mother...? Since fucking when?!

Aunt Wendalyn sighed.

"I have to agree with Wilona, Mom. This was... this wasn't your best-ever idea."

"It was a TERRIBLE idea," I said. "I love you, Auntie W, but let's not euphemize it. It was an absolutely batshit awful idea and now--I mean, look at Violet. She's terrified something has happened to her family. --Oh, you are too, Violet, and I don't even blame you, okay? Like for once your reaction is exactly normal."

I caught my breath and continued.

"And what about Devon? Devon teaches school now, Grandma, did you know that? He has class in the morning! Those children depend on him, and now you've fucked it up for a... for a... for a spectacle," I said.

I wasn't even sure that was the word I wanted, but Vivienne nodded at me. "Yes. A spectacle. Almost Situationist, so I applaud it in that sense, but... these are our lives, Grandma, and, um, they're severely messed up right now."

"And we know you meant well, Grandma, but please," said Violet, plainly near tears, "please find some way to fix it."

My grandmother looked dazedly around the room. Seeming uncertain which of us to address, she finally raised a hand at the television and directed her question to it:

"How?"

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Wilona threw a house party on Love Day. WHAT.

The reason for Wilona's slightly abashed expression and Velma's faintly disapproving one concerns the guest list.

Gooooo Girvans! (Or however you hear or spell that.)

Devon is labeled an Old Friend in Velma's relationship panel so it really wasn't a big deal. They did a little catching up outside

while the band was taking a break from playing. By "the band" I mean, of course, Velma's aunt.

This completes my "Wendalyn plays a random instrument in public" collection! She's played the drums (in the park), the keyboard (in the damn library, which still kills me), the bass (at her own party, so--semi-public? I'm counting it), and now the guitar.

Is there a mod to get her a saxophone?! In theory, the possibilities are endless. Besides, she's a fairy, she's gonna live for 500 years and I would hate for her to get bored, musically.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

After ending the call with my grandfather, I stomped outside and found Devon in the backyard.

"I have to get out of here," I told him. "I cannot stay here even one more minute."

"I can understand that," Devon said. "It's been a rough couple of weeks."

But of course, now I had no place to go back to in Elmira City. My grandfather didn't really have room--especially not if he was already storing my stuff. I didn't have a lot of things, but he didn't have a lot of space, either.

And I couldn't stay with Ian; he, too, had fallen under the spell of Aurora Skies and was busily furnishing a run-down farmhouse in the country here. He kept raving about the independent music scene in Aurora Skies and the amazing acoustics to be found in old barns.

I hated him.

Worse, he planned to invite Marco to come room with him. So there went two guys I could have stayed with back in the city!

I said to Devon, "I think… I think I'm going to look for a vacation rental here, just for a few days, until I can turn up a place to live back in the city. So, hey. Once I get a list of prospects together, you want to come with me to check them out?"

Devon looked down at his feet.

"I can't, Velma," he said, sounding sincerely disappointed. "I have to pick up keys from the agent in half an hour."

Keys?

Agent?

Oh. Oh.

I glared at him.

"Et tu, Devon? Really?"

I guess cross three guys off my list of possible places to crash in the city.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Enya and Wendalyn threw a gift-giving party. We'll get to that, but right now I just want to note that until I moved her out of the way behind the couch, where she couldn't be seen, mostly, Wilona ruined EVERY screenshot with her moping.

I mean I'd be sad too if my husband no longer loved me and I couldn't stop my hands from clipping through the skirt of my dress so okay, I guess, but... yeah. The life of the party she is not.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

After dinner, we played chess outside the bistro and talked. Then the rain started, one of those autumn storms that begins as a gentle mist and ends in thunder and lightning.

"I've got to get going, Velma," Devon said regretfully. "I have an early start time tomorrow."

"Start time?"

"I took a job teaching English at the junior high," he said. "It pays the bills, more or less."

But you could be doing that with your writing, I wanted to say. Remembering his face at the party, however, I didn't.

Instead, I said, "Those kids are lucky to have you."

"Thanks."

"Can we do this again sometime?" I asked.

"Maybe not this thing exactly," Devon said. "Junior high teachers' salaries and the bistro's prices don't play well together. But I'll call you, okay?"

"Please do," I said.

I stood in the rain watching him, until he found a cab. Then I stood there some more, until I was nearly soaked.

I don't know what got into me. I felt so strange, but in a good way. I couldn't put a name to the feeling, but I didn't really want to. It was better just to feel it.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Velma's pursuit of, or attempt to become the object of pursuit by, Devon Miller has had its share of challenges.

The mystery job: Although I used MC to put Devon in the self-employed writer career, the game still likes to treat him as though he were in an active career like, say, stylist, and never ever give him time to talk or come visit. He ran out on a date with Velma at 7:00 p.m. Saturday night by saying he "had to get to work soon" and just 😠.

He's neither ambitious nor a workaholic, so his traits aren't the problem (they're another problem instead; see next item).

I finally took him out of the Writer career and gave him a job in Education instead, which I hope fixes his availability issues, because David was easier to track down than this.

Trait incompatibility: He's a Hopeless Romantic, she has Commitment Issues. It's a tale as old as time the game's launch. Not a dealbreaker, just a bump in the road.

Whatever you call this:

It's nice to see roommates getting along and everything, but.