#i think it's a good enough compromise? :3

[specialagentartemis]

I also think AO3 is just, NOT a good place to build community. It was never meant to be. As you said: it was assumed that AO3 was like a library, and that there were not only actual places to socialize elsewhere, there were also other libraries. Trying to kludge AO3 into being a community-building space is trying to force it to work against what it’s meant for. I’ve never made fandom friends via AO3; I’ve made fandom friends by following AO3 profile links to tumblr, yeah, and by being offered an invite to fandom servers in the comments of AO3, but those are social spaces. Not through commenting on AO3 itself.

I once got in an argument with someone who said that “kudos require slapping a button and you’re done; a comment, even if it’s just ‘<3’ is more meaningful!” and I countered “a comment where you slap two keys and press enter tells me the literal exact same information as a kudos. If this is about anything other than number-go-up, what is the meaningful difference?” And they either deleted the comment or blocked me.

“But this is not community-building. This is a transaction” is an issue I have had with the rhetoric on tumblr around commenting on AO3 for years. It’s not talked about like community building, it’s talked about like the PAYMENT you OWE to the author who WORKED SO HARD and GAVE THIS TO YOU for FREE. It makes me want to engage with fandom at all less, not more. Frankly at this point I think compromising on the archive aspect and allowing comments at all was a mistake on AO3’s part. However I clearly am not a big enough person to turn comments off on my own works, so.

Idk I think we need a flourishing social space environment, with lots of spaces and lots of options. Discord, social media, blogs, dedicated forums, lots of spaces built for talking to people. Because talking to people without Producing fanwork or Paying Your Taxes with comments is an important part of fandom.

feedback and fic in fandom (3 f's of our own)

This conversation about feedback on fic says everything I’ve been wanting to say better than I could say it. But I’ll go ahead and try anyway.

Over the last five years or so there have been some great discussions around the rise of commodification of fanworks and decline of fandom community. This commodification looks a bit like enshittification of the internet: a cool site exists; its popularity makes someone realize they can get money from it; it has more and more ads; the site adds features to drive engagement, including The Algorithm; the things that made the site cool start to fall away. The site exists now as a vehicle purely to get clicks, and the people on it are on it solely to get clicks—to make money, to be successful, for some kind of social cachet.

AO3 doesn’t have advertisements. It’s not making money. But what is happening to fandom is proof of concept that enshittification changes the way we as humans engage. A cool website in 2004 was often a community space where you could meet people, have conversations, find cool things, and make cool things. A cool website in 2024 is either a content farm that will continually feed you enough content to hold your attention, or a social media site where your participation will come with stats to show you whether you are holding the attention of others.

AO3 wasn’t built to be a community space. It doesn’t have great functions for meeting people and having conversations. The idea was that, because fandom community spaces already existed, AO3 would serve the part of that community where you can find the cool things and store the cool things you made. It was meant to be a library in a city, not the whole city itself.

But it was also never meant to be a website in 2024, a content farm constantly generating content solely for your clicks and eyeballs and ad revenue, or a social media site where the content creators themselves vie for your clicks and eyeballs.

The most common talking point when people discuss the enshittification of fandom is the folks out there who are treating AO3 as that first kind of enshittified website: the content farm. This discussion is about how people treat fanfic as a product for consumption.

The post that kicked off the discussion on @sitp-recs’s blog was about someone who wasn’t getting very many kudos or comments on their fic, and was feeling pretty demoralized about it, then joined a discord server and found an entire channel dedicated to people loving their fic. But those on that server had never come to share that love with the author, which the author found really discouraging.

There are more and more stories like this. Someone on tiktok pulls a quote from a fic on AO3 and makes a 10-second video with them staring at a wall, the quote pasted at the bottom, music playing over it. It has 100,000 hearts, and 100 comments with people gushing over the fic, which has 80 kudos on AO3. Overall, people notice more and more hits on their fics, but fewer and fewer comments or even kudos. Fewer and fewer people seem to feel the need to interact with the author, instead treating the fic like a product to be used and discarded—which the enshittified internet (a stunning feature of late-stage capitalism!) encourages. The fandom community is dying, these stories conclude.

I agree. 100%. Both of the stories above have happened to me—viral tiktoks about my fic, secret discord channels to follow and discuss my fic—and let me tell you, it fucking sucks.

But from these observations about fandom enshittification, the discussion continues in a very odd direction. The solution to the death of fandom community is our favorite enshittification buzzword: engagement. We should engage the authors. They’re producing these products for free. We consume them at no cost. We must demonstrate our gratitude by paying them back.

It’s as though the capitalist consumption that the enshittified web encourages is so ingrained within us that we must think in terms of payment, in terms of exchange, transaction. Or as though, by forgoing payment, authors are some kind of martyrs defying capitalism, and the only way to honor their great sacrifice is comments and kudos.

Indeed, the discourse around this sometimes does veer away from capitalist rhetoric into something that smells almost religious in desperation. Authors are gods who bestow us mere mortals with the fruits of their labor benevolently, through love; the least we can do is worship them. Meanwhile the authors adopt the groveling sentiment of starving artists: I produce great art; I only humbly ask that you feed me in return.

These kinds of entreaties make my skin crawl for a number of reasons. I’m not a god. I’m not writing because I love you. I don’t expect your worship or even your praise.

I think the thing that disturbs me the most about it is that it suggests that authors (or, if the OP is feeling generous fan work creators) are the most important people in fandom. I’ve even seen posts stating that without creators, fandom wouldn’t exist—as though readers aren’t just as important. As though conversations where people discuss characterizations and plot points and randomly spin out interpretations and ideas and thoughts related to canon are meaningless. I’ve even seen people scramble to include folks having these discussions as “creators,” as though realizing that these people are necessary and integral to fandom communities but unable to drop the idea that the producers are the ones who are important. As though that person who just lurks can never count.

Is this what community is? When you join the queer community, are you expected to produce a product of your queerness? If not, must you actively participate and give back to the queer community in order to be considered a part of it? Or is it enough that you are queer, that you exist as a queer person and want to be around others who are queer, you want to be a part of something? What is community, anyway?

The problem with people raising the authors above everyone else in the community and demanding that tribute be paid is that they are decrying the “content farm” style of 2024 website out of one side of their mouth, but out of the other side are instead demanding that AO3 become a 2024-style social media website. Authors are influencers. “Engagement” and clicks are the things that really matter. They are in fact suggesting that the way to solve the commodification of fanfic is by “paying authors back” with stats.

Before anyone comes at me with the idea that comments aren’t just “stats,” I will clarify what I mean. There are literally hundreds of posts on tumblr alone claiming that any comment “helps” the author. Someone replies that they are shy to comment. Someone else replies that incoherent keyboard smashes, a single emoji, or the comment “kudos” are all that is required to satisfy the author, all that is required as tribute—all that is required as payment to keep this economy healthy.

I’m not condemning the comments that are keyboard smashes or emojis or a single kind word. I receive them. They make me happy. If anyone wants to leave such a comment on my fics, I’m really grateful for it. But this is not community-building. This is a transaction. In @yiiiiiiiikes25’s excellent response in the post linked at the beginning, they point out that “you have a cool hat” is something that is “perfectly nice” to hear from someone—and it is! We all want to be told we have a cool hat! But as they go on to say, what builds community is interactions that are deep and specific, interactions that are rich in quality, not in quantity. A kudos or a comment that says only ❤️are lovely things to receive, but they don’t build community.

My reaction, when I see people begging for kudos and comments as the only means by which to keep fandom community alive, is very close to @eleadore's. I want to say, “No. Readers do not need to comment or kudos. Believe not these hucksters who claim to know the appropriate method of fandom participation. Participate as you feel able, or not at all; nothing is required of you.”

I’ve been told before (several times) that I’m not qualified to participate in such discussions because I am an established author who has some fics with very high stats. It doesn’t matter that I have also been a new writer with almost no one reading my fics. It doesn’t matter that I still write in new fandoms where no one in that fandom knows me. It doesn’t matter that I, like any human being, still care about receiving recognition and attention and praise.

And maybe that’s correct. I personally don’t think that billionaires have a place in deciding the direction of the economy, and--if we're really going to consider fandom an economy--in fandom terms, if I’m not a billionaire, or even a millionaire, I’m definitely in the infamous “one percent.” So, just as no one wants to hear Elon Musk say “money isn’t everything,” maybe it’s not my place to say “kudos isn’t required, actually.”

That said, I’m not the only one who has a problem with the stats-based discourse around fandom community. However, the main counter-response to this discussion I see goes something like this: you shouldn’t be writing fic for validation. If you’re writing for attention, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. Authors should write fic because they love it without any expectation of return.

This is, in my opinion, missing the point of what is meant by fandom community.

I wrote fanfic before I knew that fanfic, as a concept, existed. I read books; I wanted them to be different; I wrote little stories for myself with new endings, with self-inserts, with cross-overs, with alternate universes. I did it for myself in the 90s. It never occurred to me that anyone else would do this, much less that people would share.

As @faiell points out—creating and sharing are two different things. I created fics for myself, but I decided to share them in the early 2000s because other people might like them, too. And of course, I wanted to hear whether other people liked them. How could I not? I might decorate my home just for me and not for anyone else’s preferences, but when people come over and say my house is nice, how can I not enjoy that? And if a lot of people think my house is nice, which encourages me to post pictures of it online, isn’t it understandable I might do so with the hope that more people will say my house is nice? And, honestly, if no one is appreciating my pictures, I probably won’t continue to go through the trouble of taking them and posting them. I’ll just enjoy my house that I decorated without sharing, the end.

When I found out there were whole fannish communities where people discussed canon and tossed ideas around about it, made theories and prompts and insights into the characters, fics they had written and recs for other fics and analyses of fics and art based on fics and fics based on art—I wanted to be a part of that, too. Now, sometimes, I write fic not out of an internal need to do so but out of a desire to participate in that community.

The idea that we write fic only for the love of it, then post it only because we possess it, is a process entirely centered on the self. It’s fandom in a vacuum. The idea that we share this thing, that we feel pleasure if someone likes it but feel nothing at all if no one says anything about it, that it’s completely okay to be ignored and unseen—that’s not what a community is either. That’s some weird sort of self-aggrandizement through self-effacement—because yes, there is often a weird kind of virtue-signaling in this kind of discourse.

I say this as someone who has virtue-signaled in that way: “some people write for stats, but I write for myself.” It’s bullshit. Sure, I write for myself, but why post it on the internet? Honestly, said virtue has a whiff of the capitalist machine, which would like you to produce for the sake of production, work for the sake of work. The noblest among us expect no recompense for that which they give!

The reason that I’m bringing this back around to capitalism is that capitalism actively works to dismantle community. The reason that folks are out here pleading for “engagement” in order to “pay back” authors for the products they give us “for free” is because people no longer even have the language to discuss how to participate in meaningful community. And frankly, how to build back fandom community, in the face of enshittification, is getting harder and harder to see.

But I do think that if we value fanfic and the fanfic community, it’s really, really not constructive to judge whether someone’s reasons for writing fanfic are valid. It’s also weird to me that it would be considered wrong that someone’s reason for sharing fanfic is because they would like to receive some recognition for it, when in fact that seems to be the most natural reason in the world for sharing something so private and vulnerable with the world.

Let’s go back to that idea of how hurtful it is to find out your fanfic is trending on tiktok without anyone from tiktok saying anything to you about your fic, or how it can be painful to find out there’s a secret discord channel dedicated to your fic. The people who respond to that with, “Ah, but you shouldn’t be writing to get attention!” are missing the point. The fic did get attention. It got lots. Attention obviously wasn't why the writer was writing--they were writing to participate, and they didn't get to. At all.

However, if your conclusion is that the author was upset because these particular stats were not accruing under this author’s profile, thereby preventing them from achieving the vaunted status of BNF and influencer—I don’t know, maybe you’re right. But I don’t think that’s why I, personally, have been hurt by these things, and I doubt it’s what hurt the people in these posts either. They’re hurt because they want to participate, and they have been systematically excluded by the very people they thought were part of the community they thought they could participate in.

Sure, if those folks from tiktok and the discord server all came and showered the author with kudos and comments that said “kudos,” the author might have felt satisfied enough with the quantity of this recognition that they would continue writing. But in the end, this still does nothing to address the problem of fandom community, in which the deep, meaningful recognition, interactions, and relationships in fandom are getting harder and harder to have and to build, as a result of how people now expect to engage in online spaces.

So, how to address the problem of fandom community? You probably read this long, long post hoping that I had an answer, and for that I must apologize. I don’t have solutions. My intent was to be descriptive, rather than prescriptive. I wished to outline the problems that I’m seeing in what was hopefully a slightly new or at least thought-provoking way, rather than offer solutions.

But, now that I’m talking about being prescriptive, maybe I can offer one suggestion, which is—maybe the solution to this isn’t about prescribing behavior. I do understand the irony in writing a prescription saying we shouldn’t prescribe people, but I’m going to write it anyway:

Maybe we shouldn’t be telling anyone the appropriate reasons for writing fanfic or for sharing it. Maybe we shouldn’t be telling readers they need to kudos or need to comment. If we’re going to go pointing fingers, we should be pointing at the institutions of capitalism that have made the internet what it is today—but I don’t think that’s going to solve the problem either.

But I do think that describing this problem, understanding what it actually is, not blaming readers for it and not blaming authors for it—I do think that helps. The discussion I linked at the beginning of this post is what I think of as the fandom I miss, the fandom that's now harder and harder to access, the fandom that is dying. That fandom was a social space where people had opinions and disagreed and went back and forth and gazed at their navels and then talked about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In the words of @yiiiiiiiikes25, it was a fuckin’ discussion about hats. And we’re hungry for it.

[mullermilkshake]

Heeey, I few days ago i found your blog and I'm absolutely obsessed with your Yakuza!AU, and I was wondering if we can get more of Yakuza Suguru <3

Love your posts btw💞

Thanks so much!!! That's so kind of you to say, I'm literally so obsessed with the AU and there will be TONS of content to come over the next year.

I love Yakuza!Suguru so much it hurts XD

Enjoy some fluffy stuff <3

A gold band

Yakuza!Suguru x Wife!reader Tags: Yakuza AU, Wife reader, Fem reader, twin children, daughters, fluff, guilt, established relationship.

Suguru fiddled with the gold wedding band on his ring finger as the car pulled up to the house outside of Shinkuju. He was running far more than late than he anticipated, by now he was sure the girls were tucked into bed and you were waiting up for him fuming for missing dinner.

How on earth was he going to make up for this?

"Anything else you need before I go, sir?"

"No, that'll be all for tonight Miguel. Be sure to pick me up in the morning to visit the Nanami office though, you know how he likes punctuality."

Suguru opened the car door by himself and slipped out, eyeing the dingy night sky behind a torrent of dark stormed clouds just waiting to unleash its pressure over Tokyo.

Miguel leaned over and wound the window down. "Of course, should I bring breakfast?"

"No, I think I'll have breakfast with my girls in the morning, so just get what you want and head over after. Thanks for everything tonight."

"Sure thing, goodnight."

As the car drove away, Suguru drew in an anxious breath and adjusted the cuffs of his suit. By the time on his watch he had neglected to read on purpose as it would only make things worse, the time read way past the appropriate time to eat.

The depressive point being that by now, Suguru wasn't even hungry any more.

She's going to kill me for this, isn't she? Maybe. But that wouldn't be all that bad, because then he wouldn't have to deal with all this drama currently within the Ryomen clan to his name.

It couldn't be so bad to have his neck squeezed he supposed.

When he approached the front door, it was already unlocked. That wasn't ever a good sign. The lights were off besides the low table lamp in the living area, amber in the corner with warmth, and there you were sitting on the sofa with Mimiko and Nanako resting their sleeping heads on your lap.

"They wanted to wait for you to get back. Nanako threw an absolute fit because you weren't there to read them a story, so I compromised that they could wait."

"I'm sorry, dear. I never intended to be this late."

He knelt down in front of you and took your hand, feeling the same gold band on the same finger. Your body warmed it through, practically burning away at his guilt for leaving you sitting there in an empty room for dinner.

"It's alright, Miguel is quite the charmer when he wants to be," your smile was devious, more likely enough to show that Suguru wasn't in the dog house.

Thank goodness.

"I bet he can, I told him as much to tell you in person that I would be late. I'm counting on that he got his fill of dinner while he was here?"

You nodded slowly, watching the girls sleep. "He spent a little time with he girls before he was called away to the club."

The club was something he didn't need reminding of. The break in, the calculated theft and all round fuckery with Ryomen Sukuna's expectations.

Not tonight.

"So he was fooling around when he should have been working? I'll have him reprimanded immediately."

You stifled your laughter at his sarcasm, pressing your finger to his lips. "Leave the poor man alone."

The fact was Miguel loved the girls. Mimiko and Nanako adored him just as much and by this point in Suguru's life, Miguel was far more than just a fellow Yakuza.

He was true family.

"Daddy?" Nanako rubbed her little eyes and yawed, shifting her head from your lap to sit up and dangle her legs over the edge of the sofa.

"Hello Princess," He opened out his arms and pulled her into an embrace as she leant forward into him. "I heard you gave Mama a hard time when you had to sleep."

Her sleepy little head drooped suddenly as she fought to stay awake. "You were far away... and you promised to read us our book."

"I did, didn't I? I'm sorry I couldn't be there."

"So I ate your cake."

"My cake?"

Scooping Mimiko up who was long since passed out in her heavy dreamed sleep, you watched Suguru stand with such a nurturing smile. "I made cheesecake. The girls demolished it and almost nipped Miguels fingers off. He was lucky to even get a slice."

"I missed cheesecake?"

He missed your matcha cheesecake for that travesty at the club? Your special cheesecake that was his absolute favourite?

Nanako stretched sleepily and clung to his neck. "Uh huh..."

Maybe it was time for Suguru to leave his Yakuza life behind and just beg you to open up a sweet shop so he could taste your baking every day. It was a hell of a lot safer. Though one shop wouldn't pay for this house or the best of everything for his girls.

A pipe dream was better than nothing.

Suguru led the way to the stairs and took each step with you following close behind him. "How about this then? I'll make sure I'm home really early tomorrow and we'll go to the children's park."

"I love the park..." Mimiko's eyes rolled open, she clutched her little doll and snuggled into the crook of your neck.

"I know you do sweetheart, if you two sleep well then maybe you can do that with Daddy tomorrow. But only if you both go back to sleep and be good," you nuzzled back into her and brought your lips to her hair for sweet consecutive pecks.

"We are good... Mama," Nanako's words began to slur.

And by the time you and Suguru reached the girls bedroom, they were out in dreamland once more. They clung to their blankets and toys sprawled across their covers and balled up close with delicate snores and breaths.

Suguru could have watched them all night snoozing away innocently, totally unaware of the horrors and disgusting shit out in the Shinjuku district.

All the unspeakable things their own Father had done.

"Don't do that."

"Hmm?" Suguru turned to see you leaving the bedroom.

"That thing you do when you feel guilty about what you do for a living. Whenever the time comes and they find out, they'll still love you. Just like I do."

"I know you do, just like you always have. I just can't help but wonder what we'll be like in fifteen years."

Will the Yakuza still be the height it had been for the last decade, or would it shift completely? Suguru had two twin girls to think about.

That wasn't to say he didn't enjoy his lifestyle. He did. He grew up alongside his sworn brother and became a man in a way that was respectful. He evolved with you right there next to him.

Still, this wasn't the life he wanted for his girls.

And it was obvious to him that you knew that too. "We'll still be a family, Suguru. That's all that matters, right?"

He only nodded and closed the gap between you to hold you close to him. "I'm sorry I was late, Dear. You and the girls are what matter most to me."

"I know, and there's still some of the night left," you pulled away just a fraction to look up at him. "I managed to sneak a slice of cheesecake away from the girls when they weren't looking."

"You know the way to my heart, don't you?"

"That's one way to your heart for sure. I just so happen to know to you like the back of my hand."

Suguru leant in and pressed his lips to yours, so short and sweet it would have melted the very foundations of the house. "I can't deny that. You're best at reading me like a book when no one else can."

"Besides Satoru I suppose."

You often joked that Satoru was a third member in this marriage. Just the thought made Suguru hide his chuckle into your shoulder as he leant down.

"Yeah, Besides Satoru."

On a night like this, Suguru knew that whatever happened, things would be alright.

Because he had his family.

[mookymilksims]

🌟 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲: 🌍✨ 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐬 💖🎭

What's good MooMoo crew, welcome back to my channel! And if you are new thanks for stopping by! I hope part 1 gave you all enough to think about and you're ready to move onto part 2

So,let's talk about curating your sims worlds:

As promised in the last part, we are going to steam roll through so let's begin!

Remapping Your World

Setting up your world in The Sims 3 can either be a fun or frustrating process, but with this guide, my goal is to make it an enjoyable and easy experience!

I always recommend building up your world before you start actively playing in it. This approach helps prevent early-game burnout, boredom, or the temptation to scrap your save file because you've accomplished too much too quickly. By taking the time to build up your world, you'll commit more deeply to your save file because of the passion, creativity, and energy you've invested in crafting it perfectly to your tastes and needs.

Why Build Before You Play?

Longevity: You're more likely to stick with your save file because you've made it uniquely yours.

Purposeful Design: Not a single space in your world is wasted; everything exists for a reason.

Endless Possibilities: You'll never run out of ideas or places to send your Sims because you've given yourself so many options. Focus on Consistency

Aesthetic Consistency: Keep your lots on theme with your world's style—whether it's a city, small town, forested area, Italian-inspired, African-themed, etc.

Lot Functionality: Make sure your lots serve a purpose and provide activities for your Sims. Avoid the typical EA community lots that lack functionality or cohesion.

Opened Rabbit Holes: If you're like me and find traditional rabbit holes to be the bain of your existence, consider replacing them with interactive lots that fit your theme.

For example, in a medieval-themed world, replace a modern grocery store with specialized shops: a meat shop sold by hunters, a marketplace for produce, and a general goods store for items like pet food or household supplies. Other themed replacements could include:

Tavern instead of a bar

Brothel instead of a strip club

High-society tea club instead of a coffee shop

Castle instead of City Hall

Apothecary instead of a hospital/pharmacy

Tailor shop instead of a fashion boutique

These specialized lots keep you immersed, encouraging you to see the world from your Sim’s perspective instead of having to imagine it.

Choosing the Right World

Select a world that already runs well on your system. Small worlds perform best for everyone, while medium worlds provide more space without compromising performance. Large worlds can be hit or miss, depending on their optimization and your computer’s specs. My favorite large worlds, such as The Big Apple and Fairhaven, run smoothly thanks to well-done street routing and the use of decorative buildings instead of active lots.

Remapping Your World

This is the most creative part of the setup. You can design your world however you want, with a lot of freedom to explore different layouts. I recommend building lots in a separate, optimized builder’s world like Rosie’s, then placing the finished lot into your main save. Save frequently, and decorate the surrounding areas to “lock in” your progress.

To help organize your world, consider dividing it into different districts:

Wealthy Neighborhood: A gated community of mansions.

Middle-Class Neighborhood: Suburbs or other moderately priced housing.

Apartment Complex/Starter Homes: This could be a slums area, basic apartments, or smaller starter homes.

Downtown District: Include essential lots like opened rabbit holes, nightlife spots, and specialty shops.

These divisions help create a balanced and complete world. When paired with NPC households, you’ll find less pressure to fill every home, allowing you to focus on the most important spaces.

I want to add that if you are following my NPC Household method, then you don't need to have any empty houses during this process. All of your houses should either be filled or deco. Especially if you only plan on moving to another world at some point in your save file. SP will try to find sims to populate these empty houses which can cause lag and eventually an overpopulated world as more sims have been added who will eventually have children. Removing empty homes prevents both of these issues. And if you do plan on moving in-world at some point, and you're like me, then you would only leave 1 empty mansion, as the only reason I would want to move is because my sim has now made a lot of money and wants to enjoy the benefits of that in the world.

Debunking Myths About CC

It’s possible to have a detailed, CC-heavy save file without lag—optimization is key. The right mods and CC can ensure smooth gameplay, even with lots of detail. If a particular lot crashes in one world but not another, consider adjusting the lot size or the CC used. Test your lots thoroughly to find what works best.

Designing Lots for Your Active Household

If you’re unsure what kinds of lots to add, consider the traits and interests of your active Sims:

For my vampire Sim, Pandora, I created an underground rave in an abandoned greenhouse as a secret hangout for vampires.

My scientist Sim, Solomon, works at a custom science lab and gathers herbs from an apothecary for his potion-making hobby.

For my chaotic Sim, Moon, I revamped a dive bar lot to serve as a seedy hub for his illegal activities.

These personalized lots add layers to your roleplaying experience, providing endless opportunities for storytelling.

Opening Up Rabbit Holes

Replacing traditional rabbit holes with functional lots can add depth to your gameplay. Use a hospital lot for pregnancy roleplay, a police station for criminal activities, and a City Hall for bureaucratic errands, such as getting a license or applying for family services. You don’t need to be a master builder—download lots from the community, or re-decorate existing shells to suit your needs.

Section 2: Functional but aesthetic lots

While creating a visually stunning world in The Sims 3, you might find that a lot of EA lots were very empty, oversized, and boring. This quickly prompted players to fill this space up with a bunch of deco, leading many lots to be primarily for taking pictures and lacking actual playability. However, you can cleverly incorporate functional elements into these decorative spaces to enrich the Sims' experience without compromising their visual appeal. Aim for 80% decorative features and 20% functionality. If you remember my populated world guide, then you know that fewer functional objects on a lot can lead to better optimization and smoother gameplay. This balance makes decorating and building lots a more manageable and creative process! Here’s how you can achieve this:

Maximizing Functional Value in Decorative Lots

Integrating functional elements into decorative lots allows you to create engaging spaces that serve a purpose while maintaining their visual appeal. By adding a small percentage of functionality, you enhance the gameplay experience without sacrificing aesthetics.

Examples of Combining Decoration with Functionality

Coffee Shop:

Decorative Elements: Fill the coffee shop with deco Sims in seats to create a bustling atmosphere. Use stylish furnishings and art to set the scene, you don't have to be able to sit on all peices of furniture, you can easily set up deco purses, books, or deco sims in it's place. You can also place deco cafe food at a table where your sim can sit. Since drinking coffee doesn't actually require a table slot. The only open table slot you would want on this lot is for sims who have laptops.

Functional Enhancements: Incorporate the UNI coffee bar to allow Sims to order and enjoy coffee. Use Flo Theory’s relax-to-sit mod to let Sims sit comfortably at various seats, making social interactions more fluid. This way, your Sims can have a pleasant outing while still interacting with the environment in a meaningful way. You won't have to worry about sims you came to the lot with sitting seperately from you, you can just have them all sit at a table together using this mod, and watch them talk and slowly build relationship as they sit.

Park or Plaza:

Decorative Elements: Fountains, flower beds, tree's, flower's, bushes. You can become a real landscaper, even adding a fake creek or river running through the park.

Functional Enhancements: Place a few functional items like picnic tables or playground equipment. Sims can use these items for activities such as eating, playing, or socializing. You don't always need a chess table. And you can even just design this lot as a year round seasonal festival lot, with a functional carousel, haunted house, ticket booth, etc.

Art Gallery:

Decorative Elements: Most of this deco will be in paintings and sculptures of course. But did you know your sims can view cc paintings and sculptures and still gain the art museum buff on these lots?

Functional Enhancements: I usually love putting a souvenir shop and mini Art cafe on this lot. This makes this lot perfect for family or date nights. You can add romantic lighting for the night time, a little lobby with dining chairs and little tables. View art with your date or sim by setting up a bench in front of exhibits and talking on them using Flo Theory's relax to sit mod. And then ultimately ending the date or family gathering with a savvier seller gift shop you can gift to the other sim or sims you went with! You can also add a little wine and painting class somewhere in the lot, somewhere you can sample nectar and then paint on the lot with other sims.

Fashion Boutique:

Decorative Elements: Design a chic boutique with stylish displays, mannequins, and fashion déco.

Functional Enhancements: Include a fitting room where sims can check themselves out in the mirror. You can use Ani's ITF mod to make some mannequins functional, and add more than 3 outfits to your sims "closet".

Design Tips for Balancing Aesthetics and Functionality

Strategic Placement: Position functional items in less conspicuous areas to maintain the decorative focus of the lot. For example, place the coffee bar in a corner of the café where it complements the overall design.

Use Mods and CC: Leverage cc and mods to integrate functionality seamlessly. Mods like Flo Theory’s relax-to-sit make it easier for Sims to interact with various parts of the lot without disrupting its decorative theme.

Minimal Functionality: Aim for about 20% functionality in decorative lots. This small but impactful addition ensures that the lot serves a purpose without overwhelming its visual design.

Benefits of This Approach

Enhanced Immersion: Adding functional elements to decorative lots enhances the overall immersion, making your Sims’ interactions more realistic and enjoyable.

Increased Versatility: Functional yet decorative lots can serve multiple purposes, allowing Sims to engage in various activities while maintaining the lot's aesthetic appeal.

Creative Freedom: This approach provides creative flexibility, allowing you to design visually stunning lots while still offering practical features that enrich gameplay.

By incorporating functional elements into decorative lots, you can create a world that is both visually captivating and interactive. This balance ensures that every lot contributes to the gameplay experience, offering your Sims opportunities to engage with their environment in meaningful storytelling ways.

Section 3: Curating Households

So again, if you watched my Populated world guide then I breifly touched on the technique of mixing official townie households and NPC households in your world. I have always wanted to dive further in depth with this technique so let's do that here!

Creating a set of unique, official households is essential for bringing life and personality to your world. These households can be filled with dynamic characters who have distinct backstories, relationships, and daily routines that align with the overall theme of your world. By thoughtfully designing these Sims, you can foster engaging neighborhood dynamics that encourage players to interact with and care about their townies.

Designing Diverse and Engaging Households

Aim for 10-12 Households: To create a lively and interconnected neighborhood, populate your world with 10-12 households that feature a mix of personalities, aspirations, and relationships. Here are some ideas for structuring your households to create a balanced and engaging community:

Random Families: Include families that feel authentic and relatable, complete with quirky traits and unique personalities. Think of creating a mix of traditional, unconventional, and blended families that reflect the diversity of real life.

3 Neighbors: Design households that live near your main Sim’s home or have storylines that overlap. These neighbors can be friendly, flirty, or even hotheaded, providing opportunities for interactions ranging from casual chats to petty rivalries.

3 Potential Lovers: Create Sims who could be love interests for your main Sim. Whether they are charming, awkward, or mysterious, these Sims can add romantic intrigue and plot twists to your gameplay.

3 Potential Enemies: Introduce households with clashing personalities or conflicting interests that naturally lead to drama. This could be the rebellious teen that your Sim's parents despise, a rival co-worker, or a former friend turned opp.

3 Friends: Develop friend households that align with your main Sim’s personality and goals. These Sims can be classmates, co-workers, or simply kindred spirits who share similar hobbies and interests.

Flexibility in Design: Remember, you don’t have to limit each category to a single type. For instance, a household meant to be a potential friend group could consist of three siblings, two of whom might get along great with your Sim while the third becomes their nemesis. Mixing up traits, aspirations, and personalities keeps interactions fresh and engaging.

Creating Connections and Dynamics

Neighborhood Dynamics: Think about how each household interacts with others in the community. Who’s the “wealthy family” that throws extravagant parties? Who’s the “eccentric artist” whose quirky lifestyle intrigues the neighbors? Who’s the “troubled teen” seeking acceptance? These roles help shape the world’s story and create opportunities for roleplay.

Roleplay Inspiration: The dynamics between households can inspire various roleplay scenarios. Maybe the artist’s daughter is secretly dating the son of the uptight politician next door, or the town’s most notorious slacker finds himself working at the café owned by his worst enemy’s family.

Tips for Making Townies You Care About

Unique Backstories: Giving each household a rich backstory adds depth and makes interactions feel meaningful. Consider each Sim’s past experiences, dreams, and secrets. Even a small detail—like a lingering high school rivalry or a secret talent—can make a Sim memorable.

Defined Roles in the Community: Assign roles that affect the world’s story. For example, a “troubled artist” household might be at odds with the conservative neighborhood watch leader, while the “aspiring chef” could be the go-to Sim you invite for neighborhood gatherings.

Personalities that Pop: Use traits and career paths that complement or conflict with other households, ensuring a mix of harmonious and challenging interactions. A mix of friendly Sims and Mean-spirited Sims creates a more dynamic and unpredictable world.

Household Rotators: Special Note

If you rotate your households you may already have a natural connection to the Sims you create since you’ll be actively managing their lives. However, even rotators can benefit from carefully designing each household’s role in the neighborhood to ensure every play session feels fresh and interconnected.

Backstory Generator:

To make the process easier, I’ve made a backstory generator that can be used to quickly develop engaging backstories for your active households and official townie households. This tool will help you add depth and personality to each Sim, making your world feel rich and alive.

NPC Households and Defining Their Need

The Role and Impact of NPCs: NPC households add flavor, depth, and unpredictability to your Sims 3 world. They can serve as the town drunks, rivals, eccentric loners, or just that quirky neighbor who always seems to show up at the wrong time. These Sims bring an extra layer of storytelling that enhances the overall roleplay experience, making the world feel alive and filled with unique characters outside of your active household.

Strategies for Placement and Management: To keep your world optimized, consider placing NPC households in lower-functioning homes like basements or tiny apartments. This encourages the game's engine to push these Sims out of their homes more often, making them more active participants in the community. Another tip is to convert their homes into apartments using NPC doors; this setup not only increases the number of visible Sims around town but also creates a larger pool of bin townies that you’ll see around your world.

NPC Household Concepts:

Potential Lovers, Enemies, and Friends: Create a mix of 8 single male and 8 single female Sims who can serve as potential lovers, enemies, or friends. These Sims add a dynamic layer of spontaneity because even though you may initially label them as potential enemies or friends, gameplay might surprise you. A planned enemy could become a lover or vice versa, adding a twist to your story that reflects the unpredictability of real relationships.

Teen and Child NPCs: If you’re interested in family play, consider setting up NPC households of teens and children. These Sims will help populate your high school, giving your teen Sims more peers to interact with—whether it's friendship, rivalry, or romance. You could even theme them as “Class of [Year]” to create a sense of time and narrative progression.

For smaller towns, consider fewer households, like 4 male and 4 female teens in a single home, creating a tight-knit yet diverse school community. For child NPC households, you can include a Nanny or Adoption Agent adult to add context and provide adult supervision.

Toddler Households and Daycare Setup: If you plan to set up a functional daycare, NPC toddler households are essential. By including toddlers in a daycare run by an NPC adult, you can add adorable chaos to your world. Place 5-7 toddlers in a household along with daycare staff, and watch as these little Sims are occasionally taken out on outings, adding to the town’s realism and charm. I’ll be releasing a guide soon on setting up a fully functional daycare that can include these NPC toddlers as well.

Maintenance Townies:

Savvier Seller Cashiers: For those using Savvier Seller items, NPC cashiers are essential for running various shops like grocery stores, boutiques, or arcades. Create a household of Sims with the last name “Savvier” to easily identify them when assigning them roles. These NPCs ensure your businesses are always open and thriving without pulling from your core storytelling townies.

Business Sims for UC Mod Players: If you use the UC (Ultimate Careers) mod, adding a household of business-oriented NPCs can populate your offices, adding a sense of busyness and realism to your community lots. These NPCs can actively work alongside your playable Sims or simply populate the area, making it feel like a bustling, lived-in environment. You can also alternatively just use Deco sims to achieve this but I still wanted to give you guys some examples of how you could embellish this category.

So for a themed world:

The big Apple NYC world I recommended could have a:

Hispanic/Latino NPC Household

African-American NPC Household

Asian-American NPC Household

Starving Artist NPC Household

Political Activist NPC Household

Civil Service NPC Household (half could be police, other half could be first-responders)

Homeless camp/shelter NPC Household (you could make a homeless camp district for them to live)

Criminal NPC Household

And you can just keep going with this. Make the NPC households fit for your theme or story.

In a Life-is-Strange Core small town kind of world:

Indie Music lovers NPC Household

Mine Workers NPC Household

Starving Artist NPC Household (this household could easily fit here, you wouldn't even have to make a new one just drop them down in this world)

Motorcycle Gang NPC Household

Indigenous NPC Household (Maybe the town is located near a heavy indigenous population?)

And again, just to give you some ideas to string along.

Let's do a Fantasy Supernatural themed world:

Elves NPC Household

Witches NPC Household

Dwarf NPC Household

Orc NPC Household

Barbarian NPC Household

Werewolf NPC Household

Vampire NPC Household

Fairy NPC Household

Mermaid/Siren NPC Household

Now let's try a medieval themed world in general:

Nobles NPC Household

Royalty NPC Household

Merchants NPC Household (can also be your savvier seller cashiers)

Hunter NPC Household (these could easily be your love interest household with some hot hunters in the mix)

Peasant NPC Household (with some torn rags)

Beggar NPC Household (for your homeless population, optional)

Pirate NPC Household (move them into an IP pirate ship kind of boat)

Knight NPC Household (could also be your "police" population if you want to establish that)

Theives Guild NPC Household (your criminals)

Mage's Guild NPC Household (could also be your witches and wizards)

Slore NPC Households (these are for your brothels if you establish that, you could alternatively just use Arsil's custom generic role mod to place them).

And as a final example let's do a Cyberpunk/Scifi themed world:

Robot NPC Household

Hologram NPC Household (dead robots will have a holographic effect in game)

AI humanoid NPC Robot (I like to use the Detroit Become Human blue circle cc accessory)

Alien NPC household (there is plenty of cc to make all kinds of aliens so you can stretch this across various "species")

NetRunner NPC Household

Corpo NPC Household

Outskirts Gang NPC Household

So as you can see, the NPC household making process is pretty simple and very fun. And as you go through these households and plop them down in your world, you will find your world very quickly becoming more alive and more immersive!

As a pro-tip. consider changing the look of your bartenders and various NRAAS Register assigned role sims, just to make them look the part of the world's theme.

Custom Role Generator

Creating and Assigning Roles: To bring a fresh, dynamic feel to your Sims 3 world, consider using Arsil's custom role generator mod. These roles can range from regular customers, librarians, to strippers, adding depth and intrigue to your gameplay. By defining specific roles for certain Sims, you can create more immersive and interactive storytelling opportunities that push your Sims’ narrative beyond the typical game mechanics.

Arsil's Custom Role Generator: Arsil's mod allows you to assign unique roles to NPCs, enhancing the realism and unpredictability of your game. Here are some creative ways to use it:

Park Rangers: Assign Park Ranger roles to Sims for your camping lots. These Sims, equipped with the “Loves the Outdoors” trait, add a touch of realism to outdoor adventures. Another sim you could interact with on your camping trips outside of yourself or who you brought with you.

Librarian: Use Arsil’s generator to assign a librarian role, complementing Olomaya’s Library mod for extra immersion. A dedicated librarian adds a layer of interaction to your Sims' visits—whether it's asking about book recommendations, renting out study rooms, or simply catching up on town gossip. This little touch transforms a simple library visit into a social experience.

A Mayor: A Sim who can fill your city Hall, placing down a UNI podium you might even find them making speeches every now and then.

A manager: Give your uptight sims someone to insult and complain to when you're not happy with a bussiness' services.

A regular customer: A Sim you always see hanging out at the bar after work. I remember when I played a save file where I won a Daycare in China, I ended up making one of the customers (assigned by arsil's mod) a roommate, then I randomly decided he had a brother who needed a place to stay as well. You can easily transfer any of these sims back into your gameplay for an engaging story!

A therapist: A sim you can assign using Olomaya's medical overhaul mod, someone your sim can set up appointments with and go speak to when they need to unload something off of their mind!

Deco Sims

Bringing Worlds to Life: Deco Sims are a fantastic way to make your public spaces feel lively and engaging. By populating areas like parks, cafes, or arcades with these decorative figures, you can transform static lots into vibrant, bustling community spaces. Deco Sims give the illusion of a thriving world, helping to fill in gaps and make your builds look and feel more dynamic, especially in screenshots or videos.

Using Deco Sims Effectively: Placing Deco Sims strategically is key to enhancing your lot without overwhelming it. I've optimized Deco Sims specifically for The Sims 3, ensuring they won’t lag or crash your game even when used in larger quantities. Here are some tips to make the most of Deco Sims:

Placement and Density: Be mindful of how many Deco Sims you place in a single area. Aim for a balance that creates the illusion of activity without cluttering the space. For example, a bustling café might have 3-5 Deco Sims scattered around, sitting at tables or standing by the counter, whereas a quiet library might only have 1-2.

Theming and Storytelling: When placing Deco Sims, think of how they contribute to the story of the lot. A Deco Sim reading a book in a library, teens playing arcade games, or a couple chatting at a park bench can create a narrative that makes your lot feel alive. Don’t be afraid to mix it up; these figures can add character and ambiance, blending seamlessly with your active Sims during gameplay.

Creating Immersive Scenes: One of my favorite ways to use Deco Sims is to set up scenes that tell a story. You might have a Deco Sim “waiting” at a bus stop, another browsing magazines in a shop, or even someone appearing to make a phone call. These setups might seem static on video, but they add so much visual interest when you’re actively playing or capturing screenshots.

Gameplay and Interaction: Though Deco Sims don’t move or interact, they can still play an essential role in your gameplay. For example, in an arcade filled with Deco Sims, it may look like they’re enjoying games, which makes your lot look lively even when your active Sims are there. In photos, Deco Sims appear as though they’re fully part of the scene, letting you capture moments that look vibrant and social without the need to pause and manually set up your shot.

Technical Tips for Seamless Integration: Use the OMSP (One More Slot Please) to position Deco Sims on furniture, ensuring that active Sims don’t route to these spots, maintaining the illusion without disrupting gameplay.

Place Deco Sims in front of decorative objects rather than interactive ones. For example, setting a Deco Sim in front of a deco arcade game rather than a playable one ensures your active Sims won’t try to interact with them, preserving both immersion and routing.

Deco Sims are a simple yet powerful tool to enhance your Sims 3 worlds, making each lot feel vibrant, dynamic, and always photo-ready. Incorporating them strategically can significantly elevate the atmosphere of your builds, offering a richer, more immersive experience.

Showtime Crowd Cheat with Fog Emitter

Simulating Crowds and Events: The Showtime crowd cheat, combined with fog emitters, is a powerful way to bring more life and energy to your public spaces. Whether you’re looking to simulate a bustling marketplace, an active concert crowd, or a vibrant downtown scene, these tools allow you to create highly atmospheric environments that feel lively and dynamic.

Creative Use Cases: The Showtime crowd cheat generates ambient Sims that act as part of the scenery, enhancing the immersion of your builds. Here’s how you can use this effect creatively:

Bars, Clubs, and Concert Lots: One of the best uses of the crowd cheat is on nightlife lots like bars, clubs, and concert venues. By combining the cheat with fog emitters, you can create a dense, energetic crowd that perfectly captures the chaotic fun of these spaces. The fog emitter can add layers of special effects, such as smoke, flashing lights, or even fireflies, making the environment feel alive.

Marketplaces and Festivals: For outdoor settings like farmers’ markets, festivals, or community fairs, use the crowd cheat to simulate large groups of people wandering, shopping, or enjoying the entertainment. Placing deco Sims strategically among the crowd adds to the illusion, making these spaces look packed and vibrant without heavily taxing the game’s performance.

Busy Downtown Areas: For bustling city centers, set up clusters of crowds in specific areas—around cafes, bus stops, or shopping districts. By placing fog emitters and deco Sims in key locations, you can turn an ordinary lot into a lively downtown scene where your Sims feel like they’re part of a larger world.

How to Use the Showtime Crowd Cheat:

Activate the Cheat: Open the cheat console by pressing Ctrl + Shift + C and type testingcheatsenabled true, followed by buydebug on.

Fog Emitters for Added Atmosphere: Find the fog emitter in the BuyDebug catalogue, it's a green circle that looks like this. Now you shift+ctrl click the circle and pick "Set Visual Effect". A box will pop up prompting you to type in the code.

ep6crowdposreaction_main ep6crowdposreactionb_main ep6crowdnormal_main  ep6crowdnormalb_main.

This generates this moving crowd effect, now you can shift+ctrl click it again and select "Clone", and just place as many as you like to tell a story!

Combining with Deco Sims: Mixing in deco Sims among the crowd adds a diverse visual experience. For instance, in dark settings like clubs, the lighting effects can obscure the fact that some of these figures aren’t animated, making the whole scene feel full and immersive.

Tips for Optimal Use:

Strategic Placement: To avoid overcrowding or performance issues, be selective about where you place crowds. Focusing on key hotspots—like dance floors or near stages—ensures that the crowd feels dynamic without overwhelming the entire space.

Dynamic Movement: Because the crowd cheat creates non-interactive Sims, you don’t have to worry about them being pushed to the lot by the game’s routing system. This can be a relief if you’ve tweaked your mods or settings to increase foot traffic, as the cheat keeps the lot visually busy even when not all active Sims are present.

Atmospheric Storytelling: Use this setup to tell visual stories within your gameplay. Crowds at concerts create the feel of a real event, while a packed bar makes social outings more vibrant. Even when your active Sims aren’t interacting with every person present, the background noise and movement add depth to the experience.

Using the Showtime crowd cheat with fog emitters creates an illusion of activity, turning your Sims 3 worlds into lively, engaging spaces. With this method, your lots will always look full, fun, and photo-ready, enhancing your roleplay experience without the need for constant manual adjustments.

Conclusion

So in general,

If you follow all of the suggestions in this guide, by the time you start your gameplay you will have a completely revamped world and households with optimized population. This will all intertwine and interconnect with each other.

This process can last as long as you want it to last, it can be time consuming but it really depends on how much detail you want to add.

The sims 3 is also a building game, and it hangs a lot of it's merits on creativity. Which means you could spend a lot of time creating before playing.

I also find this process to be quite soothing as I often turn on some music, bring some snacks, throw a netflix show on in the background, bring my iced coffee and water, and just go silently crazy with my idea's.

If you have ever built or decorated in the sims 3 then you've probably hit that creative spark at some point in the game, where a build could initially start overwhelming or even boring, but the further you get into it you just started feeling the vibes out and throwing things everywhere like it was just supposed to be there.

I personally enjoy decorating and roleplaying so that is why this process moreso excites me, however, if you're not a builder and you just enjoy gameplay but you still want beautiful cc builds in your game, consider searching the community for their uploaded lots, and if you stick around I have big plans to upload my own cc lots to the community as well.

As I convert more cc I get inspired and like to build from what I have converted, so I plan to do speedbuilds and tours and then upload those lots for download. I offer this as an alternative because you don't have to build or decorate if it's a stressful process for you.

While I highly recommend it, because you get a better sense of what you actually like in the game, what your aesthetic truly is, you can also just plop down community projects all the same and jump right into the game.

Combining this with official households and NPC households just ensures your world is already full once you actually hit play, and sims will start being sent out into the world immediately.

I want to thank you all so much for joining me in this video today, and for the wait, guides like the topic I am doing have to be made very carefully and are a bit more time consuming than my other guides, since I have to visually show you many examples for the information to connect and to prove that this is even doable in the game. So I really appreciate your patience, and I will see you all in part 3! Bye MooMoo's!

Disclaimer:

I have no issue with you sharing this information on your platforms, and in fact, I would prefer it. However, I do ask for proper credit, as I believe it’s important to respect the original creators of content. I’ve put a lot of effort into developing my tips and techniques, which I’ve shared publicly in very specific ways. These concepts predate your "guide," and the only other place you would find this information is in my own work.

It’s particularly concerning that, as a creator, you privately asked if it was okay to credit me when using my techniques in your guides, yet you proceeded not to credit me and even claimed to have discovered these techniques "on your own". This is especially frustrating considering you directly asked me to explain my concepts in more detail privately.

The community we're part of values ​​sharing and collaboration, and when a creators' work isn't respected, it discourages further contributions. If this continues, creators like myself may be less willing to share ideas, which ultimately harms everyone.

I’ve received messages from many in the community who recognize where these ideas originated, so the situation is becoming increasingly embarrassing (for you). This will be the only time I address this publicly. If you’re reading this, I imagine it’s because you’re seeking more ideas to steal for your “groundbreaking guides.”

Yes, everyone knows, please stop. :)

Resources:

Custom worlds for CC builders

NPC Household guide

Decorating Tips and Tricks for Community Lots

How to Upload sims 3 lots with cc

Building Inspo To-Do List

Lots for travel roleplay

NPC Door

CC and Mods:

Alien cc

Forsworn armor

Relax to Sit mod

Functional Ferris Wheel

Ani's ITF Stands

Arsil custom generic role mod

Backstory Generator

Credits:

FarfallaSims

Galladriehel

CJ Plays

House of 84 Sims

Ani

Sims

ATS

SlytherSim

Sims2EPer

SimmerKate

DonSalami

Callia-Evergreen

Girls Meets Pixels

LegitLovely

Simstiful

EllieSimple

pitheinfinite

nightosphere

JuliLux3

AuroraEternal

Clumsypxel

Aurora

Pelixel

VixenSims

Simplicity

Cleotopia

StarrySims

MythicalShoes

S-club

Yellow Ninja

Severinka

Carl's Sim Guides

ButchSims

Murfeelee

PuddingFace

BeoCreations

Brennachan

NG Sims

SaterlySims

FairySims

LadySpira

Simarex

Sprinkle of Gaming

Insomnia

LizzieLilly

[avoicebehindthestars]

Why 90 minutes are not enough

As a hyperfixated fan, I will never believe 90 minutes will do Good Omens 3 justice.

The Second Coming storyline was intended as something of similar complexity to the Armageddon - and that took 5 hour-long episodes to tell. People who claim that many good films only take 90 minutes should consider that those production were always intended to last 90 minutes - that's the way they were plotted. Frankly, I can't think of a single satisfactory book-to-screen adaptation that would fit into this time restriction. Other STP books adaptations (Colour of Magic, Hogfather, Going Postal) are over 3hr long each. Stardust is over 2hr, and has a much simpler plot.

Added to that is the entire Aziracrow storyline that - let's be fair - is the main thing we all want to see done well. I'm afraid I'm not in the "just kiss and fuck off to South Downs" camp. That ending never held much meaning for me, because we all know how it ends. What I cared for was the path there - healing the heartbreak, becoming an "us". A simple apology dance, or "whatever let's just stop the world from ending" won't cut it. They're lovestory has so far been told through the fluffy, casual, seemingly unimportant details. The kiss isn't evidence of their love. It's the "don't go unscrewing the cap", "three tones of voice", "our car/our bookshop", it's the way Aziraphale's hand remains upright when Crowley's almost wraps over it, or how Crowley gives up the whole argument the moment he learns Aziraphale might be in danger. And through the flashbacks and minisodes now almost certainly lost.

And then there's the whole intellectual side of Good Omens. The show is often praised for being a wonderful queer representation, but not enough is said about it being autistic representation. Most ethereal and occult characters on GO are autistic-coded, but contrary to such productions as House MD, Sherlock, or Atypical, the plot doesn't revolve around them being ND. Instead, we, the neurodivergent recognise ourselves in tiny details - when Shax suddenly asks about hot water, when Muriel doesn't realise the Metatron has just offended them. But that isn't all. We, the ND people are drawn to the whole meta side of the show. The tarot card parallels, the mirror structure, the bloody camera filters! We are treated while being represented - this show is about us and for us. Have you read any of the mindblowing metas on tumblr…? Many people say that Good Omens is full of fillers that are easily omitted, but those parts are simply the ones whose significance the less invested audience didn't recognise.

Nothing of that will be left in 90 minutes. It can be a pleasant experience, an entertaining narrative of stopping the end of the world with, hopefully, a few sweet moments stolen away by Aziraphale and Crowley. And that's all. No nuance or riddles to be tracked over the next years, no grandeur of an epic story told with patience and no compromise. No narrative legacy to leave a mark in contemporary storytelling, the way season 1 did. No satisfying return on everything season 2 discreetly hinted (and how ridiculous that what was basically a backdoor prologue to the final arc will now be 3 times longer than the story itself!). And, above all, no carefully planned and slowly delivered healing.

Just. A 1.5h fantasy comedy to consume on a winter evening before moving on when they're gone forever.

[desifemininewoman]

Dating in your twenties 101

It's heartbreak season everywhere. Girls are crying left and right, and while I empathize with their pain, I can’t help but think: girl, you really need to learn how to date.

The major problem is that no one — including me — truly realizes how much growing up affects things. We don’t take it seriously enough, or we refuse to face the reality of how our decisions impact us long-term. Instead, we make choices impulsively, without fully considering their consequences.

But here's the thing: your decisions matter, and some of them, especially who you choose to date, have long-lasting effects. The person you date is one of the most important decisions you will make. So, let’s get this right.

1. Accept That You’re Growing Up and Start Thinking About Relationships Wisely

First things first: accept that you are growing up. It’s time to get real about relationships. You can't keep thinking about dating the same way you did when you were younger. As you mature, your perspective should shift. So, what do you want in the long term?

This post is primarily about dating with the intention to marry, but honestly, whatever your end goal is, you need to understand the nuances that come with it. If you want a serious, long-term relationship, then dating just for the sake of dating is no longer an option.

You can’t just start dating the first person who shows interest in you. The person you choose to date now needs to have the potential to be a life partner. That means asking yourself: Does this person align with my values, my future, my vision of marriage? If the answer is no, then it's time to walk away, no matter how good the chemistry might feel in the moment.

Dating with intention is not about settling for someone because they show up. It’s about consciously choosing someone who has the potential to grow with you, who shares your goals, and who respects the idea that relationships are a serious, long-term commitment.

2. You Don’t Date Out of Desperation

Let’s start with the most important lesson: don’t date out of desperation. You cannot go into your twenties holding on to this outdated, fairytale idea that a man will come along and magically fix all of your problems. Newsflash: He won’t. You are not a damsel in distress, and we don’t victimize ourselves here. We work on ourselves.

Before even thinking about dating, you need to heal. Get introspective. Ask yourself, why do you really want a relationship? Is it because you're lonely? Or do you believe a relationship will somehow solve all your problems? Spoiler alert: It won’t. Healing comes first, and that means getting to a place where you are truly okay being alone, before you can consider being with someone else.

The end goal shouldn’t be “find a partner” — because when you make marriage or a relationship your only measure of success, it messes with your head. You start to feel like there’s a ticking clock, and society starts pressuring you. Fear creeps in, and suddenly you’re compromising things that actually matter to you just to “secure” the relationship.

So, the first step is to heal and work on yourself. The real goal is to be whole on your own — so you don’t ever have to settle for less than what you deserve.

3. Make a List (and Stick to It)

Once you’ve done the work on yourself, it’s time to get serious about what you want. Make a list. Not just any list, but the ultimate list of what you want in a partner. I’m talking about values, lifestyle, personality traits, where he wants to live, what kind of life he wants to create. Write down everything that matters to you.

And then, get real. See where you’re willing to compromise. But don’t lower your standards just because you’re afraid you won’t find someone who meets every single thing on your list. Your list should be non-negotiable on the big stuff. If he doesn’t align with your core values or your vision for the future, don’t waste your time.

Dating in your twenties is serious business. Your future is on the line. So be crystal clear about what you want. Whether you’re dating casually or with marriage in mind, your goal has to be crystal clear.

4.. Don’t Date Below Your Standards

You know what you want. You’ve made the list. Now, don’t settle. I don’t care how charming he is or how many boxes he checks — if he doesn’t align with your core vision for your life, walk away.

You need to make these decisions from a place of strength, not fear. When you’ve healed yourself, when you’ve worked on being okay on your own, you won’t be swayed by surface-level charm. You’ll be able to recognize red flags and walk away before they even have a chance to hurt you.

This is the problem I see with so many women today. They get caught up in the idea of love and forget that relationships are decisions — decisions with long-term consequences.

5. Understand That Relationships Take Planning

Let me give you an example. Two of my closest friends have been together since the first year of college. They were young, falling in love, but now, they’ve realized they want completely different things in life. Even though they still care about each other, they understand it’s not going to work. Why? Because they never had a plan.

And that’s the point. Relationships, especially the serious ones, require planning. You need to know what you want, where you’re headed, and whether your partner’s path aligns with yours. It’s about a shared vision for the future, not just about finding someone to fill the gap in your life.

So, if you're serious about getting it right, make sure you’ve healed, make your list, and stick to your standards. Don’t settle. Relationships are a big deal — and they deserve your full attention, intention, and care.

[boilingsyrup]

made another bot 🥹 part 2

the cat shifter AU is made by @tame-the-lion-writes !!

retired!TF141 finds a feral kitty :0 it's you!!!

i love writing for this stuff.... have fun gang>:p

as always constructive criticism is accepted!!!!

[youngchronicpain]

"it's okay to take your pain meds as prescribed when you need them" I sing to myself while taking 3/4 of a dose because even after all these years I'm terrified of being fully dependent on a medication that I know I need

[skunkes]

almost fell asleep on my parents bed in front of the heater after coming back in from the cold so i drew talon doing the same

[theswedishpajas]

The man truly can’t take a genuine compliment 🙄

[fox-guardian]

i am going to pet sam on his silly little head i love him so much. ough.

[shoutsindwarvish]

pros of my current job:

I’m good at it

I make enough that I can comfortably afford to buy myself a little treat without guilt (let alone not having to worry about making rent)

I genuinely like my in-office coworkers now that the toxic one left

Commuting is actually nice in the summer because they’ve got AC and my apartment becomes an oven

I adore my team lead and wish she lived closer so we could get lunch (she’s in virginia and i’m in minnesota)

cons of my job:

The leadership sucks

It sucks so bad

My manager (a middle-aged white woman from northern wisconsin who gives off republican vibes) very obviously believes in the Protestant work ethic that suffering is noble and anything else is laziness and lack of commitment (example: she once denied my request to be exempt from mandatory overtime when i had a stomach bug because there are “no exceptions”)

She is also trying to “fix” things that aren’t broken and making them actively worse because she doesn’t understand what my job actually is and keeps giving me conflicting coachings so that nothing I do pleases her

Related to #4, she’s telling my team to cut corners without saying it explicitly or in writing and it’s obviously so that she can claim plausible deniability if it blows up and can throw us under the bus (i am also refusing to do so which I’m pretty sure has me labeled as a problem)

went weeks without interacting with her and presumably not being noticed by her (which was a blessing) but the micromanaging eye of sauron turned on me this morning and it’s like.

you’re so stupid. if you fire me or push me to the point of quitting then your department will be so fucked. you need my ass. and everyone i’ve spoken to in my line of business feels the same way as me, even people i didn’t expect. she is shooting herself in the foot in the name of “production go up.”

capitalism (especially corporate capitalism) is one hell of a drug.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

You dont have to answer ofc but: what are kuron's feelings towards the Black Lion? Cause it(she? they?? i never know how to refer to em) saved him, then ignored him, then let him pilot, and after that kinda. allowed Allura to take Shiro's soul and put him in kuron's body sooo..... i feel like its complicated

That is an excellent question. And you are right it would feel incredibly complicated but also i think Kuron would feel just really used by Black. Like to him Black had to have known that he was a clone, it had to have known that Haggar was in his mind and can control him, it had to have known that Shiro was "dead", it had to have known and yet it did nothing. For all he knows Black didnt even see him as a person but a replacement which is why he "saved" him and let him pilot when Keith flunked on them. So yeah Kuron does NOT trust Black's intentions, he does not trust Black, he lowkey hates Black for letting this happen, and if it were here he would have yelled at it for hours. Unfortunately Black and the other lions are not here and galavanting across the multiverse so this also goes to the backburner.

I am not saying that that is how Black saw him like a replacement. I am saying that Kuron believes Black saw him as a replacement

[cryolyst]

~

[helluvapoison]

Could I get Adam, Lute and Lucifer and how they 'court' the reader? Like how birds with court each other, little gifts, wing 'dances', nesting, etc...

Also, could I be your 🐌 anon? <3<3<3

Birds of a Feather

Adam, Lute and Lucifer courting you

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

˚✧₊⁎ Adam ⁎⁺˳✧༚

• Peacocking has nothing on The First Man

• His personality is amped up to the highest level when he sees you walk in a room

• (Overcompensation for how fucking nervous you make him)

• Adam gets cocky when he knows he has your attention

• Tossing grapes high in the air and catching them in his mouth, bragging louder than usual about something or the other

• Heaven forbid you laugh at any of his antics, (His smirk is dangerous, “Oh you like that?”) he’ll start singling you out in front of everyone, calling your name before he acts up

• Performances include inviting you to watch his band play and miraculously getting more energy

• Casually tosses guitar picks in your direction— and when he finds out you kept one!? He’s over the moon

• He won’t go out of his way to get you food but he’ll order you something if he goes somewhere

• Adam hates nesting. He doesn’t like being stressed in general and nesting is really fucking stressful!

• The very fact seeing you pricks the urge in him to nest drives him insane

• (AKA, he likes you a lot more than he thought he did!)

• Seeing you in his space does something he doesn’t particularly hate though

• “It’s whatever if you don’t like it.” Adam shrugs

• “No, I think it looks nice! Very you. Tell me about these pictures?”

• He’s fucking done for

˚✧₊⁎ Lute ⁎⁺˳✧༚

• Like they have a mind of their own, her wings stretch out and audibly fluff up when she makes eye contact with you

• Mortifying is an understatement

• She picks out trinkets to give to you at first, something small that could be waved off as insignificant

• Later, when Lute realizes her affections are returned, she brings useful offerings or something you offhandedly mentioned needing

• She wishes she could tell you about the exterminations solely to brag

• See how fierce she is, how skilled she is, how good of a protector she could be for you

• Lute will ask you to arm wrestle as a compromise. She gets to hold you hand and show off her strength!

• Nesting was fine, it was the judgment part that drove her up a wall

• Watching your eyes roam over her apartment, deciding whether or not it was good enough for you? Gah!

• “What, uh—“ Lute clears her throat, she’ll hate herself for even asking later, “What do you think?”

• You smile knowingly, something else that makes her absolutely mad, “It’s perfect.”

• Lute beams with pride like she’s won a great victory

˚✧₊⁎ Lucifer ⁎⁺˳✧༚

• Never before has he felt the need to actually flaunt.. anything?

• With you it hits him like a fucking train and it’s even harder to supress it

• He’s Lucifer! That’s supposed to be self explanatory, that’s supposed to be enough

• Suddenly he’s checking every mirror on his way to you, making sure he looks better than he feels

• He tries to find other ways to steal your attention or show that he would be a worthy partner

• …But showing off his wings couldn’t hurt, right? He has six after all. If you needed to get to the other side of town he’d be more than happy to fly you over!

• Nothings too good for you! If Lucifer thinks you’ll want or like something, he’s buying it!

• Did you notice he can make things too? He’ll make you something— or fix something for you!

• Quick, break that so he can show you he can fix it!

• Lucifer pulls all the stops trying to prove himself, nesting is no exception… he’s just not great at it

• He starts! However a little after beginning he realizes just how big his mansion is and gets overwhelmed so he closes all the doors and focuses his energy on the only room that matters; his

• “I mainly stay in here,” Lucifer explains while squishing a duck in his fist, watching you explore his room, “I cleaned it up for you! N-Not for you, not for that— I mean not that I’m opposed! I just meant so that you could, uh, see?”

• “I see why you like it, I’d never wanna leave.”

• You’re gonna kill him saying shit like that

~

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ 🐌 CAN I GIVE YOU A KITH BECAUSE THIS WAS SO FUN!!!!!

[portpebble]

[Image ID: a chart sorting the turtles from TMNT 1987, 2003, 2012 and Rise into Teams. From top to bottom:

Team 1: 2003 Donnie, 2012 Raph, Rise Mikey, 1987 Leo Team 2: 2003 Leo, 2012 Donnie, Rise Raph, 1987 Mikey Team 3: 2003 Mikey, 2012 Leo, Rise Donnie, 1987 Raph Team 4: 2003 Raph, 2012 Mikey, Rise Leo, 1987 Donnie

End ID.]

[buntanteen]

bestie fwb!mingyu headcanons (nsfw)

summary: kim mingyu and reader's bestie fwb dynamic headcanons :3

contains: 18+ nsfw writing so mdni!! implications that reader is smaller than gyu

✩ svt writing & fic rec masterlist ✩

bestie!minyu who is just a poor puppy not catching a break from anyone 😔 especially from you lmao. you're one of his biggest supporters but also biggest teasers. post-concert, you'll be imitating how he's trying to make carats swoon with his charms (the both of you know how proud you are of him <3 you just love seeing him pouty) 

bestie!mingyu who lets you use his chest as a stress balls. you once said "honk honk" while squeezing them and got your mingyu tiddies card revoked for a week😢

during bestie!mingyu’s night dance practices to finish, he'll come whine to you that "jeonghan hyung is being mean🥺" or complain about whichever member is pulling jokes on him. he should've known better that you’d be riling him right with them 🥰

fwb!mingyu who comes home to bury his face in your chest after a long day. you think he's knocked out...only for him to start licking, nipping and sucking marks onto your skin :3

bestie!mingyu who will always provide you delicious meals����😌 is constantly cooking you a something when you come over and has deemed you his official taste tester! if you insist to cook alongside him, he'll refuse. he might let you peel the veggies tho <3

when you go out to eat, bestie!mingyu will always insists on picking up the cheque. since you get pouty about him not letting you pay, he lets u buy the dessert at the convenience stores or cute lil cafes as a compromise

bestie!mingyu who always asks you to take pretty boyfriend pics of him for his carats🥹 ofc you oblige, loving to see his fans fawn over new pictures that you so carefully asking him to pose for  

fwb!mingyu who begs to eat you out and hits you his 🥺 puppy eyes so you to let him (you were going to anyways)

bestie!mingyu who comes to you for relaxation or advice when he's stressed out of his mind. he lets you pamper him with gentle touches and soothe away his worries with sweet words. you tuck him into your bed so he rests well to tackle the next day😊

feeling safe enough to initiate touch with bestie!mingyu :) he gives as many piggy backs as you desire as long as you let him bite his fangs into your arm when he's bored 🥰 sits you in his lap in crowded group hangouts. you've insisted that he sit in yours too, but your legs became numb after 5 minutes😭😭

good puppy fwb!mingyu whimpering pleads against your neck or between your legs for you give him permission to cum while he ruts against the bed sheets 🥺

always having sleepovers with bestie!mingyu. atp you could be another roommate to the minwon household for how often you're just vibing at their place when they arrive home

fwb!mingyu who got caught sniffing your underwear post sex when you went to get him water. you end up stroking his hair with his head in your lap, jerking him off with your underwear around his cock...but you leave him blue balled as a punishment <3 "oh! i'm late to work, see you later after your tour?😘”

while he's on tour, fwb!mingyu won't have phone sex with you, but leaves you voice notes of the pretty noises he makes jerking off as payback <3

ames note: hi hi! this is my first time writing wooooo~ this was definitely self indulgent😅 i just wanna be friends with mingyu! he seems like the most fun guy to hang out with...and to get dicked down by lmao. i hope y'all enjoyed it and are doing well!! i tried for something gender neutral but i'm not sure if i achieved it? feel free to kindly give feedback <3 ς(.-‿-)

author note: do not distribute my work on other platforms without my consent. if you see my writing in places other than this tumblr account, please let me know. my writings are purely fictional fantasises for fun. the people i write about are real human beings and should still be treated as such. please do not take my writings seriously or as truth.