#ask hormelfoods

[empiredesimparte]

What kinds of wild rumors/conspiracy theories exist about your royal family? Do they have any basis in truth?

Hi! catching up on old asks!

On the current royal family, I don't think there is any (yet). On the inner circle, Charlotte's father is known to be a womanizer, that's pretty much a given.

Madame Mère, Marie-Joséphine, is also said to have had a sulphurous past, and is rumoured to be a lesbian. This would explain why she was pregnant only once in her life - it was suspected that she and her husband didn't love each other. But she never commented publicly on the subject.

I think Napoléon IV was the source of many rumors of political machinations, both true and false!

Also, I think everyone in Francesim wonders whether Hortense is as wise and innocent as she seems. Given all the commotion she's caused with Oliver over the last few months

Thanks for asking!

[lelelego]

I really love your fallout drawings! I was in the NV fandom when the game first came out, and one thing I really love about your art is how youthful you make boone look. I can't remember if there's a canon age for him, but the fan consensus at the time was that he was like, 22-24 but your art is the first I've seen where he looks that age. bravo!

thank you so much!! :"D i remember seeing he's 25-26 on the wiki or somewhere but i'm 50% sure that's not confirmed/has no source. while part of it is just my style, but i do love a younger look for him because i think it makes the shit that happened to him worse (emoji where it's the sunglasses emoji but also it's crying.jpg) and hones in on the fact that he's... borderline still a kid. he should be at the club.

anyway thinking about him at the club -> me drawing what i think he would wear on a run to the corner store

[door]

4 and 17, for the book asks

hello!!

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

yes! i read a bunch of stuff by Josh Lanyon, who writes queer mysteries. my library had a bunch of her work on hoopla and i read it all. i loved how dated (affectionate) they felt, to the point that i was surprised how contemporary a few of them were. i also fell in love with Lev AC Rosen’s Evander Mills books, a queer noir series. i also discovered some great folks in the anthology Future Crimes: Mysteries and Detection through Time and Space.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

oh, yes. both A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall and The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel were entirely unknown to me so i was unprepared for how good they were.

book ask meme

[funkyllama]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but nobody else is doing royal simblr like you! I really love the way you use color and the way you compose your shots. You have such a distinct and amazing style, your posts are just immediately recognizable.

thank you, lovely friend!

I really pride myself on aesthetics, and love getting these compliments, but story & composition are what I'm focusing on for my own next chapter of writing/creating. It's fun to be reminded that you're good at your fundamentals, but damn!! I can't wait for the day I'm complimented on things that don't come easy >:D

[earthmoonz]

Max and Lena are EVERYTHING to me! It's so much fun to get to read a thriller/crime story full of queer characters who remind me so much of my friends and loved ones. It's so fresh and exciting and I wish there were 4,000 stories like yours because I am addicted.

gabe!!!! this made my day! I spend a lot of time second guessing my writing/if my story is being received the way I'd hope and this message means the world to me. I too wish there were more stories like mine! even in simblr alone there's a gap for dramatic queer romance, esp when the oc's are of colour but hopefully that'll begin to change! 💖

[simblorbo-bracket]

Thank you for running this bracket! It's so fun and I'm so excited for the sad, wet meow-off 👀

Happy to hear it! I've got a few more bracket ideas in the queue after this one, too. But first we have to find the saddest wettest meow meow of them all!

We are at 13 participants now! An even number would be best for when we get things started, but there's still time to submit, so who knows how many we'll have by launch day :3

[armoricaroyalty]

what's something you'd like to see more of on royal simblr?

Great question, me! There's a number of things I'd love to see more often in the royal simblr community, such as:

More non-western influences and royals. European monarchies are the most accessible to English-speaking westerners, but in the modern day, most monarchical systems exist in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. I can only think of a few royal Simblrs that are meant to have non-Western settings--I'm sure there are more that I'm not aware of, so I'd love recommendations on that front!

More stylistic diversity. @warwickroyals touched on this in her answer to this question, but there is a prevailing style for women on royal simblr, which is very classically feminine with a lot of dainty features and soft pastels. I'd love to see more people try to differentiate their characters a bit more in terms of silhouette and personal style. I think there were some royal simblr fashion police a few years ago who sent rude messages to people who broke "the rules" of royal dress, and I think that's had a bit of a stifling effect on the community. Even if you give your royals strict dress codes, I think there's a lot of room to play around and experiment within those parameters. For example, I was actually watching that Prince Philip doc produced by the royal family after his death, and I was struck by how distinctly all the women dressed. Princess Anne was in jeans and a blazer, Zara Tindall was wearing a sleek skirt suit, Beatrice and Eugenie were wearing flowy floral dresses...there's a lot of ways to be polished and stylish while still expressing individual style, so I'd love to see some of that on simblr.

More diversity, just in general. I'm not going to pretend I'm not also guilty of this, but royal simblr is very white, very able-bodied, very cisgender and heterosexual, very thin, and very conventionally beautiful by western standards. There's no reason why made-up countries with made-up histories should follow all the patterns and prejudices of the real world, so it'd be nice to see more of a range of types. I love my beautiful, icy brunettes as much as the next person (you will pry Rosalind from my cold, dead hands) but it'd be great to see more representation of different types of people.

More interesting men. This is one that's a lot more subjective, but I feel like there is a general tendency toward blandness when it comes to male characters on royal simblr. Speaking very broadly, the menfolk tend to be either irredeemable dumpster creatures OR perfect husbands and fathers who wait patiently for their "messy" love interests to realize that he's the man of their dreams. I don't think there's anything wrong with either of these things in a vacuum (and there's tons of stories that I really enjoy that make use of those archetypes), but I feel like there are some missed opportunities for more interesting and dynamic male characters, especially as love interests. For me personally, it's hard to get invested in a romance where one or both parties is certifiably Nice (tm) without any other defining character traits.

Anyway, all this to say that these are really broad trends, and I'm sure you could cite strong counterexamples for each OR point out places where I've fallen into the same patterns. But in general, those are the community-wide tropes that I think could use the most refreshing.

[trentonsimblr]

can we see vanessa's ring 👀

GABE! These are the best shots I have from the proposal outtakes. It is a custom ring that @ardeney-sims made for Vanessa :)

[llumisims]

For the longest time, I changed my default skin almost every time I saw a new one on my dash. None of them were exactly what I wanted, but ever since I started using your lily default skin, I haven't thought about changing it even once. I don't know what it is I love about your skins so much, but they are PERFECT for my game!

💖💖💖💖💖

Thank you so much for this ask! Before I started making skins I was the same way, so I'm glad one of mine was the perfect look for your game!

[honey-and-sims]

🥶⛄️

Thank you for the emojis! 🖤

🥶: Whats a moment where one of your OC’s froze and was unable to deal with the situation before them?

I think Winifred's response to the loss of young Flora is definitely her being stuck in that freeze response from trauma. Though, there will be other instances this response comes to show itself as well.

⛄️: What character is the most likely to freeze someone out if they’re angry? How could someone get them to thaw out?

You guys haven't met her yet but 100% Millie.

She is actually freezing Winifred out now, as alluded to in the letter format in this post. How she will be thawed out...is yet to be revealed ;)

Send Me A Winter Wonderland Emoji Ask! ❄️

[crownsofesha]

What is your single best piece of writing advice?

That your first draft is a story made for you. It has helped me just get words down on an empty page more than anything else.

And when you have something like a book title or a character name, but you don't have it created just yet put [BOOK TITLE] or [CHARACTER NAME] in place of it and continue writing to keep the flow. It also works well for things like [INSERT FIGHT SCENE HERE]. This also helps me soooo much in writing.

[empiredesimparte]

I said it elsewhere, but I'm so glad your story's back! more simpartes!!

You're right! more Simparte!!! Thank you so much it's lovely ❤️ I love your story too, as you know!

[honeyjars-sims]

Which of your characters is the most daring/risk-taking? Which one is the most cautious? Do they/would they get along?

I would say Bonnie is probably the biggest risk taker simply because she acts in the moment and doesn't always consider the consequences. She's a very emotional decision maker, and her emotions aren't always stable. It's not an intentional recklessness, though, as she often feels she's doing the right thing and can easily justify her actions.

Solomon would probably be the most cautious. He is very deliberate and practical. He's in touch with his emotions but he knows how to balance his head and his heart. I can see him making lists of pros and cons and using that along with his gut feelings to make a decision.

Aside from the very brief relationship they had 19 years ago, Bonnie and Solomon don't really get along though they have kids together. Solomon is the type to put aside his personal feelings in order to maintain a peaceful relationship with the mother of his children, unless she is making unsafe decisions that could harm the kids, in which case their safety comes first. Bonnie is petty af and doesn't always make it easy. Everything is black and white with her, so if the kids have a good relationship with their dad she sees it as a threat to her relationship with them. She's trying to do better, but she's not very self-aware which impedes her growth.

Also this might be a good opportunity to mention that Johnny is more like his mom than he realizes, though we haven't seen much of that...yet 👀

Thanks for the ask, this was fun to think about!

[morrigan-sims]

11 and 13 for the editing meme!

Hi Gabe! Thanks for the ask!!

11. tell me something you really like about how you edit

I'm really proud of how I draw my shadows, and that's one of my favorite parts of editing. It's time-consuming, but it's so satisfying to see it play out. And lately I've been experimenting with adding more detail via shadows, like the definition of wrinkles and veins in this edit.

13 answered here.

Thanks for the ask, and I hope you had a great weekend!

(answering this ask game)

[covingtons]

If your current monarch could freely choose their successor with no limits placed on their decision, who would they pick? would it be different than their current heir?

this is such a good question that I have such a boring answer for bc Harrison would choose Adeline as his successor regardless of laws and all of that. She is young enough that she still has so much time to learn how to be a good monarch and levelheaded with a good temperament for leadership

[earthmoonz]

🤫

“you believe he’s still alive then?” “don’t you?” “at this point it’s more of a wish than a belief. the implications of him actually being alive are…so fucking bleak.”