#i usually make sims instead of using real people

[letitbleedout]

White Hot

Gerard Keay, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, deals with one of his assistants who is too nosy for his own good.

this is for the prompt 'Burn,' and is a semi-direct sequel to the other prompt that I wrote the other day. 🫶 Archivist Gerry 🫶

---

The objects spread across Gerard’s desk refused to part with their answers. Several keys, a laptop, old books that were certainly esoteric but devoid of any supernatural properties, despite Jonathan’s apprehension. When Elias granted Gerard access to Gertrude’s flat, he was relieved to find she lived a relatively Spartan life; with so little, everything that she did own took on a new significance. Something here had to be useful.

To be fair, there probably was—the key, certainly. He just didn’t know how to use it.

Access to the Archive provided some answers, but here Gerard met a new challenge: his assistants.

Sasha, Martin, Jonathan, and Tim. Useless, clueless. He set them to work trying to make order of the Archives, a task far greater than what he imagined when he suggested it. At least it would keep them busy. What the hell was Elias thinking, shackling him with babysitting duty while the Stranger prepared for the Unknowing?

Every single part of his life was following the same script. He knew about Smirke’s Fourteen, but not what the Rituals actually were, much less how to stop them. Gertrude knew, but the information she left behind was impenetrable. And he had the whole of the knowledge contained in the Archives at his fingertips, but limited access as long as these four clowns were running loose. Not if he wanted to avoid their questions. 

Speaking of which—

“Enter,” Gerard called through the door, just as the man on the other side raised a hand to knock. In the moment that he hesitated, Gerard grinned. Everything else about this sucked, the power to just Know was good. Even if so far he’d only used it to fuck with people.

The door opened, revealing Jonathanathan Sims, Archival Assistant. Jonathan, as the other assistants called him. Under his arm were several statements.

“Another set that wouldn’t record,” he said. “Is now a bad time?”

He very clearly did not give a fuck if it was. In his face was something luminous, that from anyone else Gerard might have mistaken for a simmering anger. It reminded Gerard of a fierce hunger that he’d seen before, in the eyes of Mary and some of her associates.

It was, admittedly, not Jonathan’s usual nature.

Gerard sat up and reached across the desk for the statements. “Anything good?” he asked, flipping through them.

Jonathan had the clearest, most even speaking voice, and so he had taken responsibility for digitising the statements. His process was simple—type them onto his laptop, then record for ease of reference. A handful of statements refused to record, which Gerard had quickly realised were the real incidents. The ones about actual encounters with one of the Entities, anyway. He recognised the Stranger in the one at Old Fishmarket Close, the Buried down in Bournemouth, the Stranger again… and Ex Altiora. Mike Crew. Himself.

It was probably a good thing that Jonathan found this statement early. If his staff thought he was a matricidal maniac, they might just him alone.

“I wouldn’t call these good,” Jonathan said. “Not for the people involved, anyway—if what they’ve written is true.”

Gerard snorted. “What, you think people are coming down here to lie?”

“Obviously,” Jonathan said. “Even in the ones where the statement giver truly believes that what they really encountered was a ghost, that doesn’t necessarily mean—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gerard said. “What do you want?”

“I want to compare your burn scars to the description of what I just read in this statement,” Jonathan said. The look on his face when he heard the words leave his mouth were priceless. His face turned red, and he went through the five stages of grief. “I—well, you can’t blame me for being curious. If you aren’t going to tell me anything, and instead leave me to learn these facts in some statement…”

“Did I say that I blamed you?” Gerard asked coolly.

“No,” Jonathan said, clamping his mouth shut.

It was fascinating to watch him try to figure out what was happening. So far only Jonathan had clocked that there was something weird, and avoided Gerard most of the time. Yet here he was now, paying the price of his curiosity.

“I’m sorry,” Jonathan said. “That was really… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“So someone left a statement about that,” Gerard said, flipping through to the statement in question. He skimmed through it, frowning. “And, what? You wanted to check to see if it was really me? Do the eyes not give it away?”

He wiggled his fingers at Jonathan, flashing his tattoos.

“Of course it was obviously you,” Jonathan said. “But I wanted to see for myself the… effect that an injury like that would have on someone.”

“Never had a burn before?”

“Not like that. And I’ve never seen one of supernatural origin, either.”

Jonathan was the most vocal critic of the veracity of some of these statements (most, actually), but he wasn’t an outright sceptic. Gerard had heard him and Tim discuss which statements held merit, which might be true, and so on, and while Tim was content to just fuck around, Jonathan’s disdain was more precise. He believed there was something out there, and reluctantly even conceded that it could be called ‘supernatural.’ He just had ridiculously high standards about what qualified.

What have you seen that you’re measuring all these other statements against?

If Gerard asked he’d get a good answer. But for today he held his tongue.

“Alright,” Gerard said at last. “I’ll show you.”

“What?”

“I’ll show you,” he said, standing from his desk. He shrugged out of his jacket, revealing a long-sleeved black shirt. “You wanted to see, right?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said, although he no longer sounded so confident. “Why are you agreeing…?”

“Let’s just say I admire your balls to just ask,” Gerard said, smirking. “Before I do, answer me one question.”

Jonathan hesitated. He wasn’t yet entirely convinced that Gerard could make him talk—that was surely too ridiculous. But he wasn’t an idiot. Even if he’d come down to see the Archivist anyway.

“Fine,” Jonathan said. “What?”

“Did you show anyone else that other statement? About Ex Altiora?”

“No”.

“Did you talk to them about it?”

“No.”

“Or about me?”

“Not related to the statement,” he said. “Nor about your… history.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s your business,” Jonathan said. “It wouldn’t be professional.”

“I thought talking shit about your boss was, you know, normal.”

“If Elias put you as head of the Archives, clearly he believes that you weren’t guilty. Or if you were, that it had no bearing on your ability to do your job.”

“Hmm. I see. And you trust his judgement?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said. “Why?”

“No reason,” Gerard said. “So what do you think?”

“I think it’s possible either way,” Jonathan said. “But if your mother was involved with collecting Leitners—well, there’s no saying what actually happened.”

Jonathan’s had been the one spearheading the project up in Research for tracking down the whereabouts of all Leitners, but that clearly wasn’t the extent of what he knew about their danger. Again, the that flicker of interest burned brighter. What happened to you? What have you seen? Tell me about your encounter with a Leitner…

Before he could chase that thought, Gerard pulled off his shirt. A quick motion, as tempting as it was to drag it out. Give him something to look at.

Jonathan flinched like Gerard had raised a fist.

“Well?” Gerard asked. “Gaze upon it.”  

“I didn’t actually think…”

“It’s not like it’s a big deal. It barely even ranks.”

Despite Gerard being the one partially undressed in the cool basement, and the prickle on his skin of being watched—both by Jonathan and Gerard’s new master and no doubt Elias—it was, in fact, Jonathan who was frantic. He kept stealing glances to the door, then back to the Archivist. He couldn’t even look at his face.

Gerard lay his shirt across the back of his chair and smoothed it out, then stepped around his desk. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Come on. Look.”

This was probably sexual harassment, but Gerard didn’t give a shit. He leaned an arm against the wall next to Jonathan, rolling his shoulders back so that as much of his skin was on display as possible. It had been a long time since he’d felt this much like a whore, but the feeling clawed its way through him like a hand pulling on a well-fit glove.

At first Jonathan only stole glances, snapshots of Gerard’s torso, his navel, the tattoo on his throat. The burns healed as well as they could, but despite the fact that it had all been second-degree, there remained a warped, red pattern across his skin. The scars were raised in some parts, smooth in others. Occasionally another scar interrupted it—a long white gash on his chest or the cluster of scars on the inside of his elbow.

“How… how much did it hurt?” Jonathan asked. His gaze had settled on the tattoo over his heart, then travelled up to his shoulder, across the swirls on his upper arms. 

“More than you can imagine,” Gerard said. “Like being burned by pain itself.”

“Yes. It looks… bad.”

He sounded distracted, lost in thought.

“Bad?” Gerard asked.

“Well, what should I be saying?”

“Are you gonna ask how he did it?”

“No,” Jonathan said. “But I want to know. If you don’t mind telling me.”

“I’d suggest looking it up in a book,” Gerard forced himself to say, “except I burned the only copy.”

“Oh. You mean a Leitner?”

“Don’t think that old bastard ever had this one in his collection. But it’s the same idea, yeah.”

“Well… that makes sense.”

Jonathan came nearer, just a step. He didn’t seem to even realise that he’d done it, but he was drinking it all in, pulling himself closer as though by proximity he could understand.

Not closer to Gerard. Closer to the scars. The evidence. The Desolation.

Just like being a kid again. The way some of Mary’s contemporaries looked at him, noting his proportions and all the ways that he looked like his mother. Even after he started dyeing his hair, piercing his nose and lips and eyebrows, there was still that scouring gaze that searched for his blueprints. The part of him that was Mary’s son. The part of him that could be touched, that could be impressed, that felt fear.

Only a few months ago he’d stood in Elias’ office, hating himself for what he was about to do. Until the moment he’d signed the form, Gerard had told himself that he didn’t have to do this. He could walk out, wait, let the police arrest him. Die.

Then it was over, and Elias was smiling—admiring his signature, talking about how this was the choice that Gerard would have made in a few years, anyway, if he’d had the chance to get there. Something about the privilege of knowing the critical moments in his life that would colour the rest. The whole time his eyes danced across Gerard’s body, seeing only the Archivist.

“Anyway,” Gerard said. He stood up straight, and Jonathan jumped back. “Seen enough?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said. “I won’t lie and say I’m not curious.”

“I said you could look. Didn’t say anything about answering questions.”

They stared at one another, an unspoken acknowledgement. One day Jonathan would say something. Gerard didn’t need to serve Ye Great Eye to work that out. For now he only had a scattering of an idea about what was wrong, and he was too thorough an academic to put forward a theory without substantial evidence. But he didn’t need to know every detail to know when he was at a disadvantage.

“I have some statements to read,” Gerard said. “If you don’t mind fucking off.”

“Oh, yes,” Jonathan said, now back to being flustered. “Of course. I have—I have statements of my own to sort through…”

“Great,” Gerard said. “Glad you have enough to keep yourself busy.”

Jonathan could tell that he was being insulted, but wasn’t sure what angle it came from. After a pause that lasted just a moment too long, he huffed, straightening his shoulders and turning away. “Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me. In the meantime we’ll continue to manage, without disturbing you.”

Then he left, and Gerard was finally free to sag back against the wall, sinking onto the ground. His head ached fiercely, while his heart beat so fast that he was dizzy.

His whole body burned, an echo of the Desolation blooming in the shadow of Jonathan’s searching gaze. He wanted to pull away from himself, set fire to every part of him that anyone had ever looked at.

[gwynndolin]

Screenshotting and posting myself to avoid having to subject miss punkitt to any potential resulting discourse

I think the “blame” has come down to Mojang, being a Microsoft property, and always needing to make money, must always be updating the game. And it creates a weird scenario where they must continue to add content, but have not really decided on an actual direction; the updates have become vapid and fluffy.

Vapid and fluffy would NOT usually be an issue, Minecraft has ultimately become a “pointless” game, in the same way that Animal Crossing is a “pointless" game. So content gets added with no real gameplay value, but since Minecraft has become a "pointless game", the valueless content must be defended as "Not everything needs to have a use!", which is true! But...

Minecraft's original gameplay is to exploit all of the resources around you and to use them to do Minecraft colonizing. Minecraft has contradicted its core gameplay by adding things that are not able to be exploited (no use value), or only have a promise of becoming exploitable, but ultimately get dropped when the next major update starts being worked on. No one is logging on to play Minecraft to see a sniffer, people want to do the Minecraft colonization. So the question then becomes "Why does Mojang bother with these updates that aren't with any clear intention to add onto the gameplay? Players clearly don't want this, so why continue?"

I think ultimately, the banal, directionless nature of the recent Minecraft updates is less indicative of a desire to add interesting spectacle and more of a loss of drive. I think Minecraft needs to be put to rest. Mojang needs to put a pin in it and say "We're done, this isn't what we're interested in working on any longer (ostensibly), and we feel stifled by how limiting the framework of Minecraft has become and desire to move on to different projects".

So, when you consider that survival games (or at least variations in the genre are, simulation, colony builders, farming sims, etc.) are still one of the most popular genres on Steam, I think saying "Minecraft is itself, conceptually, to blame for getting stale" is a much smaller portion of the picture; Mojang has the opportunity to keep the game interesting, they simply have not, be it poor priorities, low resources, lack of desire, lack of confidence, a limiting engine.

All that said, I know the recent snapshots have been working on reworking the NBT data system for all items in the game into something more accessible, allowing for ease of use in data packs and probably mods too. And maybe this is a hot take, but I think that this is all they should be focusing on at this point. I think if Mojang is interested at all in maintaining their (dwindling) playerbase, they should be going all in on optimizing for external player creation and allow for players to revitalize the game themselves, instead of wasting resources on trying to come up with a new flower to put in, or something.

[orange-foxes]

The Minyard-Josten Rivalry

💥 Secrets and Honesty by fullyvisible (43k, series: Part 1 of 3)

Neil and Andrew aren't on the same professional teams, but that doesn't mean they're any less together. When a photograph gets taken out of context, they decide to go with it, as long as they're both having fun. And they are. Right?

💥 The Crooked Kind by youreyestheyglow (10k)

Neil went pro a year ago--and not on Andrew's team. The problem: they're private people, and when the press takes their declarations of hate at face value, Andrew and Neil find themselves unwilling to end the rumors.

💥 Minyard-Josten: A Rivalry For The Ages by dustbottle (4k)

After four years of playing together at Palmetto State University, Neil and Andrew end up on different professional teams. Neil is the new striker for the Atlanta Hawks; Andrew is goalie for the Boston Rebels. This is the story of their so-called rivalry. Three guesses as to who starts the rumours. (Spoilers: It’s Neil.)

💥 Captured moments by simplydevotedtoyou (9k, series: part 3 of 3)

Neil has finally made it to pros, joining the RedSock Lions in Chicago. Andrew however is with the Houston Hornets. When Andrew is asked about how he feels about seeing his ex team mate on an opposing team, he makes a comment which starts the supposed 'rivalry' between the ex team mates. What the majority of people don't know is that Neil and Andrew are in fact together and have been since college, well that is until someone releases photos of them which show that the whole rivalry wasn't 100% real. or Neil and Andrew are both too stubborn to let the other have the last word.

💥 The Truth Behind It by wematch (3k)

Neil finally makes a Twitter account the year after he leaves the Foxes. His PR has been nagging him about making a social media account since he joined the team but ultimately he uses it to annoy Andrew. Of course things escalate and the rumours of a rivalry between the two form, that is until Neil clarifies everything.

💥 Reputation by lemonicee (8k)

The rise and fall of the Minyard-Josten Rivalry. Usually when Neil starts shit in a post-game press interview, he does it on purpose. This time, he really just meant for it to be a joke. “How do you feel about the possibility of ending up on a team with a former Fox teammate?” is the next question. “Great,” Neil answers, sincere. “I would love to play with Matt or Kevin again.” “What about Minyard? Would you sign with Atlanta?” Neil says, “Andrew? He’s a nightmare.” He knows it’s a joke. His team knows it’s a joke. Andrew will know it’s a joke. The press does not seem to know that it’s a joke.

💥 Rivalry? by loverloverlover (3k)

"In their first pro-game against each other last year, Andrew had greeted him with a middle finger and his signature two-fingered salute. Neil had shot back a mockingly flirty wave, but no one else saw the affection behind their gestures—only the taunts." OR Andrew and Neil are on different professional Exy teams, and after being apart for months, their teams are finally playing each other. In true Neil Josten fashion, something goes wrong.

💥 Minyard vs Josten ;) by introvertedtiger (2k)

ever since Neil and Andrew had gone pro and started playing AGAINST each other, the media thought they hated each other. in reality they’ve been married for two years and Neil’s getting bored of the rivalry and is finally ready to change the name on his jersey.

💥 The societies we despise by This_Witch_Writes (5k)

Technically it all started because of two cats. Andrew’s phone number had been leaked and he was waiting on a new sim card. So when Neil saw the cats, one black and one ginger, play fighting beside the Chicago Bean, he had tweeted the picture to him instead of texting it. An innocent enough tweet on the surface, tagging Andrew and adding the caption “us”. To Neil, Andrew and their family, an obvious and even uncharacteristically sappy statement of long-held affection. To exy fans on the internet, a declaration of war.

[pudding-parade]

This is the second (and probably last) post I'm going to make about inZoi, and I'm cutting it for those who don't care/are already sick of inZoi. LOL After this, it's back to posting in my usual flaky way about TS3 and other irrelevant nonsense. :)

I had a peek at the discussion forum for inZoi on Steam before I went to sleep last night. There was the usual gamerboy fussing about gender because apparently the body types are/were called "A" and "B" instead of "male" and "female" and some people were/are pitching fits about "woke." *eye roll* Then there were the triumphant "THIS GAME WILL KILL THE SIMS!" posts, which it won't given that you need a pretty high-end computer to play inZoi, and most people who are just Simmers and not "gamers" don't have that. There were threads from people trying (and failing) to run the demo on integrated graphics, for heaven's sake. Given the uncertain nature of the economy, at least in the US thanks to TrumpMusky shenanigans, I doubt that many people are going to be rushing to upgrade or buy a new computer just to play inZoi.

However, in between all that, there were useful and constructively-critical threads about how frustrating and unoptimized the building aspect of inZoi is. It's pretty obvious that most of the focus has been on the character-creation stuff, which when combined with the always-online aspect makes me think the game is going after the Second Life/IMVU market more than anything. And from what I saw of the character-creation, it looks needlessly detailed and complicated, with dozens of (sometimes hard to see!) click-and-drag points on the face alone that you can individually change. I guess if you're really into sim/zoi-making or if you want to make a zoi that looks exactly like you or some other real person (which to me is kind of creepy, frankly), that would be a good thing, but since I'm not into that, it just seems "too much." Then there were the concerns about the developer, who is apparently known for microtransactioning their games to death, so it's ironic that people who are screaming about that with TS4 are now, apparently, salivating over inZoi?

I don't know. I'm not impressed. I didn't expect to be impressed, so I'm not disappointed, but as I said in my other post about inZoi, I was kind of interested in maybe just building in it. However, the AI stuff and always-online aspect gives me pause. Plus, from what I read on the forums, I don't know if I'll even bother having a look at the build mode in the demo, let alone buying the game. Because apparently, even in the functional game, you can't build foundations(!), walls don't automatically snap together and getting them to do so is fiddly, roofing is terrible, and if you ever want to change wall coverings, you have to destroy and rebuild the walls to do it. Oh, and you can't put microwaves and other small appliance on kitchen counters! They have to go on the floor! LOL Among other complaints. All of which makes it seem very primitive and frustrating, even if it looks nice in the end, and I don't know if I'm in the mood to be frustrated. We'll see, I guess.

But overall? I'm happy with my modded-out-the-wazoo TS3, so I'll be sticking with that for the foreseeable future. If I was a TS4 player, maybe I'd feel differently. Maybe. But since I've never touched TS4, not even with a 99.5-foot pole…well.

[stargazer-sims]

Maybe public character development is going to be my new thing for 2025.

I don't usually make sims and then develop characters around them. I usually do it the other way around; making sim avatars for characters that I've already created independently from games or other media. With Scout and Gabe, I'm already seeing them as entire characters now, though, and thinking of them independently from their avatars, so I guess creating characters this way isn't significantly different than the way I usually do it.

One thing I haven't really done before however is to develop a character as publicly as I'm doing with Scout and Gabe. I'm going to be doing a lot of info-dumping with them, I think.

Scout already has a backstory. It's under the cut, so anyone who may be sensitive or who just doesn't want to read an enormous info-dump can skip it easily.

A lot of this will make more sense if you also check out the first half of my Aliens & Science Babies post.

Scout was born on Sixam, or more technically he was born on board his parents' ship on the way back to Sixam. He was an "oops" baby, and his mother was somewhat annoyed when she found out his father was pregnant with him, as she felt that having a child would interfere with their careers and future missions. His father was equally unhappy about it and blamed himself for being careless. He largely tried to pretend his pregnancy didn't exist until he quite literally couldn't ignore the fact any longer. An unmedicated birth in space was not what he'd envisioned, but ready or not, Scout arrived.

Scout's parents are diplomats. His mother is an interplanetary negotiator with a high-ranking position in the planetary government and his father is a lawyer & contract analyst.

For the first eleven years of his life, he lived on Sixam and was raised by a series of professional caregivers, some of whom he tolerated and some of whom he despised. When he was eleven, his parents were sent on a long-term mission to Earth, and they decided to bring him with them, assuming there would be full-time care for him there as well. Needless to say, there wasn't the same sort of child-rearing service available on Earth, unless they wanted to hire a full-time nanny. Consequently, they ended up having to parent him themselves,which was something they hadn't previously done. Things did not go well.

Scout effectively ran away from home when he was thirteen. For a period of about two years, he lived with his friend Gabe Devereux and the rest of Gabe's family. Scout and Gabe had met at the the local pool shortly after Scout's family came to Earth, and they initially connected over their love of the water. Gabe remarked on it because love of the water is rare for Sixamish people, and the majority of them avoid pools and large natural bodies of water, never mind learning how to swim and dive. Gabe and Scout became very close, very quickly. As far as they're concerned, their friendship is for life, no matter what.

Gabe is three years older than Scout, but Gabe has a sister who is Scout's age. When Scout was living with them, he and Gabe's sister Annabelle learned all about boy bands, middle school crushes, social media, fashion and makeup together, and Scout came up with his human camouflage and his human name.

Scout's "real" name is Evren'azak (the name in the Sixamish birth registry), and his common name is Evren. He hasn't used his Sixamish name in over ten years, though, preferring to use his Earth name, Scout Ryder McCoy, instead. He also prefers to stay camouflaged in his human disguise all the time. He almost never shows himself without his camouflage.

Gabe hasn't always had the best relationship with his parents, and he moved out of the family home when he was 18 and Scout was 15. It was around this same time that Scout's parents made an effort to get back in contact with him. They'd been working on arranging a marriage for him for when he'd turn 16. Scout is polychromatic like his mother, and he's tiny. Males like him are considered extremely beautiful by Sixamish standards, and it was easy for his mother to find a female willing to bond with him.

Scout wasn't against the idea of bonding until he realized the female his parents intended for him was in her late 20s. He wanted to marry someone his own age and he dreamed of marrying for love. He didn't dislike the female his parents had picked for him, but he wasn't particularly interested in spending the rest of his life with her.

Gabe and Annabelle's parents were scandalized when they learned about Scout's arranged marriage. They were even more horrified when they found out that his parents had already "given" him to her (meaning they did not object if Scout and his "fiancée" had sex before marriage). Mr. & Mrs. Devereux thought Scout was too young to be sexually active, and much too young to be getting married.

As for Scout, he discovered that he was ready for sex, physically if not necessarily psychologically. His "fiancée" taught him things that he didn't even know were possible. Soon, he wanted to experiment and he quickly became addicted to physical pleasure. They didn't have much of a relationship beyond the physical aspect of it, but in typical teenage style, Scout was recklessly enjoying himself anyway, heedless of any potential consequences.

That is, he was having a great time until he fell pregnant.

He absolutely panicked when he found out he was pregnant. The first person he ran to was Gabe, who promised he'd do whatever he could even though he had no idea at the moment what that might be. Scout eventually told his fiancée too, and she immediately told Scout's parents. They, of course, insisted that Scout and his fiancée should perform the bonding ritual as soon as possible.

Scout had no intention of marrying or of raising a baby with her. He fled straight back to Gabe, and the two of them plotted to run away as soon as possible. They decided they wouldn't tell anyone until they got to where they were going and had settled in somewhat. They'd only contact Gabe's parents, and no one else.

Gabe's parents weren't thrilled when they finally found out their son had run off with his then sixteen year old pregnant friend, but they said they would try to be as supportive as possible from a distance. Scout and Gabe agreed that was as much as they expected, and they were grateful that Gabe's parents promised to keep everything they knew to themselves.

For the first several weeks, Scout was afraid to leave the tiny bachelor flat Gabe had rented for them, paranoid that his parents would find him and force him to go back and get married. After a while, when it became clear that his parents weren’t coming and probably didn’t even know how to find him, he began to relax. He started to realize he actually enjoyed being pregnant too; loving how it made him feel both mentally and physically and how heightened his enjoyment of food, sex and other sensory experiences was.

Meanwhile, Gabe found a job as a bartender and was able to support them. Scout was able to do several short-term online jobs to earn some money too.

Scout had already decided he wasn’t going to keep the baby. He and Gabe decided that after he or she was born, they’d drop them off at the hospital or a Sixamish clinic, preferably anonymously.

Scout gave birth in the flat, essentially unassisted because Gabe was at work during most of his labour. Gabe arrived home to find Scout on his knees in the middle of the kitchen floor, already pushing, biting into a towel so he didn't scream out loud. Both of them were clueless, but Scout thought he’d handled himself pretty well. Just like they’d planned, Gabe took the baby and dropped her off at a Sixamish clinic.

Several days later, when Scout was feeling well enough to travel, he and Gabe took off again for a new location. That was going to be their “final destination” so to speak, as they’re still there, living at the hotel, and considerably more well off than they were eight years ago.

Scout is currently 24 and Gabe is 27. They’re far less clueless and naive than they once were, and they’re closer than ever. They don’t consider themselves an official couple and they aren’t monogamous, but they are definitely together.

Gabe is a bartender and assistant manager at a nightclub, and Scout is a vlogger/influencer and part-time host at the nightclub. However, Scout’s main “mission” is a surrogate carrier. He’s done it twice at this point, and is currently waiting to be matched with a new client family.

[ruvviks]

🎻🍎🥯😖🤓💯 for jeannie + can i get her phone number please im gonna be so normal about her

jeannie asks!

🎻 VIOLIN — does your oc play any instruments? what is their skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced/virtuoso/etc)?

jeannie plays the guitar (electric, bass, acoustic; she can do it all), piano, and surprisingly enough knows her way around a harmonica too despite never using it for her songs. she's been playing all these instruments since a very young age and has kept up with all of them over the years, to the point she's real good at it now; though she doesn't always perform with her own instruments, mainly because most of her shows are focused on just the singing performance of it all

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

jeannie was born and raised in appaloosa park, kiwi bay, on the outskirts of night city east of rancho coronado! she moved to japantown in westbrook at a fairly young age to focus on her musical career, but she still loves visiting her old neighborhood; her parents still live in the house she grew up in and she still knows all her old neighbors, which is why she generally tries to visit every week or at the very least every other week if her schedule is very busy

🥯 BAGEL — what does your oc's typical breakfast look like? do they usually eat breakfast?

jeannie used to be a chronic breakfast skipper because of how busy she tends to be in the mornings, but she's getting better at it! generally grabs a piece of fruit for on her morning walk or eats leftovers from the night before if there's any, or she grabs a bagel or pastry from a local cafe if she's going out for coffee :] in the rare cases she doesn't get out of bed before 10am, she will instead prepare a big brunch for herself and sometimes a friend or two as well!

😖 CONFOUNDED FACE — is your oc an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert? do they let people in easily, or are they more reserved?

jeannie is 100% an extravert! she loves being around people and feels most at ease in a crowd, even if it's just with a bunch of strangers. because of her fame there's always gonna be people to talk to out in the city and she really enjoys having conversations with fans, and if she happens to be in a store at the time she will end up joining them for their shared time in there and sometimes even ends up paying for what they're buying too. even when jeannie is minding her own business, she always tries to have people as background noise; either she will sit by herself in a cafe and work there, or she will open the window of her apartment or sit on the balcony and listen to the sound of people conversing and having their dinner on the terrace downstairs

🤓 SMILING FACE WITH GLASSES — is your oc chatty or quiet? are they at ease in social situations, or are they more shy?

jeannie is very chatty :] as mentioned above, she likes striking up a conversation with fans and this extends to just random strangers as well, whether it's a mom with child in the grocery store, the bus driver, or the man selling flowers on the corner of the street. she believes the best memories are made with other people and this connection that she has with others is what makes life fun and interesting to her!

when she's on the job in a more professional setting (a gala or event, usually; when she's glued to the arm of her next target) she will act a little more reserved, to essentially present herself as mature as humanly possible. she speaks only when she knows it'll get her approval of the people she's with, and generally knows to nod along and agree; even the way she smiles and laughs would be controlled. to an extent this also shows in her behavior in public with fans in comparison to how she acts when she's alone or with people who know about her double life, but that's more out of habit than anything else. her smiles and laughs with fans are genuine, but simply curated in such a way to keep up the appearance she wants people to recognize and remember her by

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

jeannie can drive and she owns a little peach colored maimai :] she's not very tall and fits in the car perfectly and she loves driving around in it so much, but now that she has a bodyguard she can't really take her own car anymore because he's tall as fuck and doesn't fit in there </3

she's bisexual! it wouldn't be obvious from her public persona since her targets (which she dates sometimes in order to get closer to them) are all, well, rich old men, but in her personal life she's been on little dates with both boys and girls. that being said, she's never really been in a romantic relationship that actually felt right for her; a lot of them are obviously fake since she feels nothing for her targets, but also the few actual relationships she's tried out never lasted much longer than a week because she always felt like the other person deserved better than her :(

while she doesn't have any pets, jeannie LOVES animals and would love to have a pet one day. i know night city has rules for this canonically but in the blorboverse we ignore this entirely because we have different history for the city. she really likes dogs and any type of rodent; she would love to have a little hamster one day :]

[ducky-bah]

hi!! love your blog, i was wondering if i could get a medium pack, but add personality traits/quirks & transids? we would like them to be motivated/good with tasks. please do NOT make them feminine identifying or presenting (& no she/her pronouns). the rest is creator's choice.

they can be brainmade OR a fictive, but if you choose to make them a fictive, i'd prefer it if they were from one of the following sources (so that we are familiar with the source):

the magnus archives, hermitcraft, my little pony, cluedo, the muppets, welcome to night vale, greek mythology, monster prom, gravity falls

again, they absolutely don't NEED to be a fictive, just giving options if you need them. sorry if all the choices overwhelm you, just trying to give you some creative liberties (i personally like it when my askers do). ty in advance!

- @roses-bah-garden

tma wtnv and greek mythology mentioned. you get us out of everyone else. as per usual feel free to take off things that doesn't fit.

༄~𖦹︎ Name(/s) ➪ Jonathan, Jon, Tiresias

༄~𖦹︎ Pronouns ➪ he/him, they/them, know/knowledge, eye/eyes, fear/fears, sight/sights, watch/watches, view/views, gaze/gazes, look/looks, stare/stares, mind/minds

༄~𖦹︎ Gender ➪ agender

༄~𖦹︎ Orientations ➪ aroace

༄~𖦹︎ TransIDs ➪ PermaAnger, TrisSFD(perhaps), TrisCoffeeAddict, TransEternal, MultiSona/MultiPersonality, MultiSelf, TransBody, TransCode, TransMUD, TransParasocial(?), TransPillAddict, TransVocabulary, TransInumimi(?), TransMentallyStable, TransHarmless, TransPeaceful

༄~𖦹︎ Age ➪ immortal/ageless adult/eldritch being

༄~𖦹︎ Species ➪ avatar of the eye if that can count as a species in itself

༄~𖦹︎ Role(/s) ➪ dutere and/or motivation holder and/or taskdoer

༄~𖦹︎ Source or Theme ➪ Jonathan Sims [Magnus Archives]

༄~𖦹︎ Appearance or Faceclaim ➪

➪ Art Links; 1 & 2

༄~𖦹︎ Likes ➪ process of organisation/categorisation and categorised spaces, clear instructions and lists, comparing and contrasting, most tea with added milk, white rabbit milk candies, documentaries of any kind (the longer the duration, the better.)

༄~𖦹︎ Mixed Feelings ➪ eye motifs, being watched (mostly while completing the tasks), anything that happens in real life that seens somewhat aligned with a Fear (he mostly finds them intriguing), candles.

༄~𖦹︎ Dislikes ➪ People (mostly), bitter things like unsweetened tea and long-black coffee (he drinks them anyways for the caffine boost), crowds (tend to feel overwhelmed), overly complicated fancy chocolates.

༄~𖦹︎ Proxy Option ➪ 📼👁️/👁️‍🗨️📕/👁️‍🗨️📖

༄~𖦹︎ Personality Traits/Quirks ➪ finds comfort in completion of a task and enjoys the process. instead of searching up how things works, he prefers deconstructing the object based on knowledge he already possesses before confirming if he is right or not. minor alleric to citrus, but if he were to eat a citrus he would go through all the prep work known by man and almost surgically remove and isolate each part of the citrus before eating the flesh of the fruit in it's little pulp capsules. not a single drop of juice would be dropped in the whole process. partially antisocial.

extra image from bee:

link

our first time doing this honestly, usually we just supply ideas and watch the others do the work. needed some help from Bee (<333333) but alas it is here. most of the extra help comes from being on call with Bee and writing down random spoken thoughts.

was tossed between tma or wtnv, but we do have a brand to follow.

-Leitner

[banamine-bananime]

just listing some of my headcanons (mostly appearance/demographics) because i like listing things and i’m procrastinating hard

caboose - 18-19 in 2552. went straight from hs graduation to basic to sim training to blood gulch. he was gonna do a program where the UNSC provides a hefty scholarship for completion of an engineering degree with a few years of service upon graduation, but got enlisted instead through a combination of paperwork being confusing for bureaucratic nonsense reasons, paperwork being confusing for deliberate predatory we-need-as-many-people-for-cannon-fodder-as-possible reasons, and him being confused by any paperwork. 6'7”, ~250 lb, very muscular and not thin but not quite chubby either, very mixed but mostly latino and arabic ethnicities, thick fluffy 3A chin-length dark brown hair that's always in his eyes, round face with cute fuzzy eyebrows and aquiline nose. him and tucker (and kinda donut and perhaps sarge) are the only motherfuckers here with a stable happy childhood. uses-no-specific-label queer cis dude.

church - we know church is 5 in blood gulch lol but it think he thought he was like 23-ish/jimmy was around that age. in jimmy's body, 5'10, ~230 lb, chubby and "normal" level of muscularity for someone who has a somewhat active job but doesn't work out much, untidy thick straight black hair that's like 2" grown-out from a buzz, face passably similar to the director if you squint but not really (e.g. shorter/squarer face, eyes hazel instead of stupidly light green). epsilon projects a similar bodytype but would probably default to a young-director-ish face if he had to make one. i think he would at some point consciously change it around if he were doing a face with any regularity. bisexual and nonbinary and will probably never fully acknowledge it but she can have some pronouns as a treat (from tex or in her own internal monologue) sometimes.

tucker - 18-19 in 2552. went straight from hs graduation to basic to sim training to blood gulch. enlisted because he was a “fuck around without any motivation or particular goals in life” kind of teenage dirtbag who was like “oh hey predatory recruiters absolutely dominating every career fair in Covenant-war-era earth. i’ve heard being in the military is very sexy and exciting and makes you a chick magnet so sure sign me up”. 5’4”, ~110 lb scrawny guy in blood gulch -> ~135 still pretty skinny but more muscular later. 4C hair with a grown-out buzz from basic in blood gulch becoming locs when it's long enough. *takes you by the shoulders very seriously* repeat after me, his eyes are BROWN. and the only acceptable other option is when they’re turning gray as in a body horror way, gray as in your body becoming something uncanny to you, gray as in the horribly blinding cold light of unfathomably vast stars lightyears away from anything you’ve ever known (read lazarus left the tomb btw. treat yourself). very handsome face in a boy-next-door-looks-very-sweet-until-he-opens-his-mouth kinda way. an only child or had like one older sibling he wasn’t very close to by the time he enlisted. i think of him as a bi cis guy but i enjoy trans hcs.

kai - 20 in 2552. 5’2”, ~200 lb, fat and top-heavy hourglass and broadset. a little muscular (it’s not immediately obvious) as she was always athletic and basic training helped, but she’s made more for endurance (body by “dancing 7 hours and walking home across town drunk and sleep-deprived”) than strength. thick upper-back-length black 2C hair that she sometimes dyes streaks in or ombre (usually brown highlights but she mixes it up). broad face and nose, big adorable eyebrows, life-endingly cute eyes and smile. alternates between no-makeup all-leg-hair realness, and full femme glam for funsies with 5 sets of fake eyelashes trying to take flight (at least three of them are inevitably going to be Just Fucking Gone by some point in the party). pansexual ipsogender intersex gal (tbh the original reason i headcanoned her having mosaic turner’s is the colorblindess [x-linked recessive traits are rarely gonna show up if you have 2 X chromsomes vs having one, so i was like, “hey her retinas could be some of her XO tissues, and with mosaicism, fertility isn’t uncommon, so it doesn’t contradict her having had abortions”] and then years later i thought about it harder and was like wait she has achromatopsia and that’s autosomal. biology nerd fail moment. but anyways she’s intersex.)

tex - her body is modelled after allison aged 33 (when she died), but bigger stronger faster idealized-by-memory-and-wanting-her-to-be-invincible-to-the-point-of-looking-more-like-she’s-on-gear-and-photoshop-than-a-natural-body. 6’2”, body looks like ~220 lb of muscle and low-body-fat (but not like, cut for bodybuilding competition level of low-body-fat), but being made largely metal, she is heavier. whereas allison was like 5’9”, 170 lb, serious-crossfit-competitor kind of build but nowhere near as built as tex. face looks very similar to allison but just… weirdly airbrushed look and looks… sharper. harsher features. more intimidating. but she’s got this crooked smile that looks kinda like a smug smirk but also like she’s not laughing at you exactly, she’s just vibing with you and the inherent comedy of the absurdity of life. but when she’s Not Smiling it's the kind of expression you start backing away from expeditiously. i think of her having shoulder-length hair she wears in a ponytail but i do love short-hair tex dearly. gnc butch gay/bi (mostly attracted to women, uses both labels) cis woman who uses any pronouns.

wash - around 31? in 2552 (would put him being recruited to pfl at about 26 which feels right for being able to slide into the Goofy Innocent Rookie role but also plausibly have achieved a pretty high non-commissioned officer rank). 5’6” -155 lb, functional muscle with a build in-between lean and stocky (“otter” as a label keeps coming to mind). i don’t have a super settled facecanon but picture him as either white or mixed white and east asian. he has not changed his bleach-blonde crewcut since he was 17 and the shock of allowing himself to change it now might kill him. gay ace trans man.

carolina - 29 in 2552 (actually the youngest among the high-ranking freelancers. she would kill (jk) to protect this secret). she did the whole 4 year military academy to commissioned officer training thing and had a couple years of normal UNSC service before unfortunately getting wrapped up in her dad’s mad science pet project. 5’8”, ~150 lb, leanly muscular. i think of her having natural red hair she dyes bright red but i love a black-haired carolina too. we’ve seen her face. straight trans woman (transitioned as a preteen). i know, i wanted her to be in the wlw club, too. unfortunately every time i try shipping her with a woman she’s like “meh. thinking about my weird khaki man.” and i’m like oh. sorry about that affliction.

sarge - 62 (?) in 2552. 5’6”, ~200 lb, stocky and solidly muscular barrel-chested slight-beer-gut old dude. chinese-american. if you somehow catch him without his helmet he’s got wraparound reflective shades so good luck ever seeing his face (he’ll tell you it’s classified). another eternal crewcut guy but his is shorter than wash’s. bi and definitely a robofucker tbh. he is cis or trans depending on what’s funnier in any given circumstance.

grif - 24 in 2552. worked in honolulu a couple years after hs graduation until kai was old enough (17) he felt he could leave. did a year at university before realizing he’s smart enough to be admitted to cornell but not to get the scholarship he realistically needs to not be in crushing debt on graduation and also there’s not nearly enough regimentation to college life to prevent him from rotting in bed paralyzed by Problems. went through basic and stationed on the doomed outpost. that Whole Thing happened and he was reassigned to sim troopers. 5’8”, ~300 lb, fat and a little bit strong against his will from an involuntarily active job (he has valiantly resisted picking up cardiovascular conditioning. he works very hard on unfitness). he’s kinda cute in a “hasn’t washed his face in 5 days and his peachfuzz/stubble patches combo is very uneven but you caught him smiling for 2 seconds and oh no it was VERY charming” way. thick 2C dark-brown hair that’s a few inches long, wears it longer later. gay trans guy (because his little sister is named “younger sibling of the same gender” so like… also lmfao how unfortunate for kai that her name, which she did not choose, misgenders her big brother. like 😭 god it is very on the grif siblings brand of “hello so the circumstances we have been put in mean that my existence [kai]/how i have to leave you here to protect my own sanity [grif] is actively making your life much harder. i am ashamed of this, let us never communicate about it ever. i love you so much.”)

simmons - 23 in 2552. tried to do university several times and had to drop out for mental health reasons (a very polite way of putting “rapid spiral into absolute disaster every time”. it leaves room for giving him the benefit of the doubt that this was a proactive “ah i should take care of myself and this is not working for me :) #selfcare #therapy” decision. this is not benefit of the doubt that anyone who knows him would extend.). I go back and forth on whether to roll with the “suspiciously specific denial of being in a unit that was stranded and had to eat their dog to survive” thing or just say he was assigned straight to sim troopers. 5’11”, ~160 lb, wirey build and has to be standing at attention or else he holds himself so awkwardly. i pretty much go with the Standard Ginger Simmons Fanon Face but light brown hair also feels right and i think his hair should be very short. i really like when people draw his prosthetics very industrial/bare mechanical frame not trying to imitate biological form, just whatever’s functional. Red circle eye, hell yeah. bi and i used to firmly believe “this guy has to be cis because there is NO WAY he would have the hutzpah and willingness to put self-authenticity over doing what he’s Supposed To Do. we’ve seen how he deals with anxiety. he would just be white-knuckling his way through dysphoria to this day” HOWEVER i have really come around to trans simmons

donut - 19-20 in 2552. i see him taking a gap year or two to work on the farm and think about what he wants to do with his life (not productively introspecting on his deeper desires in life and what would allow him to fulfill them, god no, of course not. daydreaming unrealistically. obviously.) before enlisting. i think his upbringing was fairly happy but kinda weird and a bit insular within a small community of some Beliefs and possibly homeschooled. not like exactly Fundie Christian America as you might assume with that background; american subcultures have changed enough over 500 years that this is one of many totally unrecognizable to us. like it has some roots in Fundie Christianity and homesteading-from-a-weird-reactionary-tradfamily-can’t-trust-the-gubernment-place and some in Hippie-dippiness Spirituality, not-actually-a-cult-but-sometimes-you’ll-hear-him-say-things-he-thinks-are-normal-and-you’re-like-ummmmmmmm. (Idek how that headcanon started. i think i was just like so how DO you build a guy like donut). he’s 5’10”, ~185 lb, sturdy build, i don’t think people would consider him chubby but definitely not thin. his face and hair looks like he should be on a 1960s white america boyscouts poster but like, goofy about it. i think of him being mostly white but some latino heritage he’s curious about but was not raised connected to (hence wanting to learn spanish). acearospec and gay (he’s like…. mostly asexual and aromantic but it’s complicated. he is barely aware of being gay let alone ace or aro. he just fully makes up what he thinks sexual attraction and romance are and assigns it to random feelings/experiences). cis dude or nonbinary.

[freezerbnuuy]

Act 1:1 - Have Faith (Page 1)

LORE | CHARACTERS | ABOUT / CHAPTERS / WARNINGS

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DISCLAIMER: The Peteran and Jacoban religions are from The Sims Medieval, and the lore is based on the offical EA lore. They are not intended to bear similarity to any real-world faith.

[Excerpt from The Book of Peter]

Do not be fooled; not even the Watcher has any power over nature, over fate, over whatever story the unpredictabilities of life choose to pen for us. The Watcher is no master and no author- they are a guide. They are the candle's flame on a dark night, a listening ear for the lonely elderly man, a hand on the shoulder of a grieving wife. It is not the Watcher's responsibility to alter the events of time to suit us- to assume such is human vanity, which has no place in our way of life. It is up to every Peteran to do whatever they are able to make positive change to the world, so long as they make every effort possible to keep the peace. If we go about our methods without peace, our efforts to make a better world will shatter, and the hand that feeds the poor will also be what poisons them.

Áine

The entrance dwarfs me, as does the cloaked statue who greets me. There's a smell I can only describe as archaic. I'm a little unnerved by the place. In all my life I've never been to a building of faith. Most towns seemed to have their own beliefs, whatever gave them hope most of the time. None of them really had a dedicated place of worship, usually just doing talks outside in the villages. This feels more like a place of organised faith, something across towns and perhaps even countries. I know nothing of the etiquette, and don't wish to cause immediate upset- so I try to relax myself before I enter. 

The singing has died down, and has become replaced by a man's voice. If this is the man doing the sermon, it sounds like a much younger voice than I'd expected.

The huge doors take quite the push, and make a roaring creek as I enter. I half expect a full hall, but instead it's only about four or five people. No-one looks back or acknowledges me at all, thankfully, so I take a seat at the back whilst the others are completely absorbed in the speech. That said, one woman near the front seems bored out of her skull.

I feel as if I have travelled back a few hundred years just sitting in this room. I almost feel as if the roof is about to collapse on my head. Once I finally settle down and relax, lost in the sometimes-rambling speech of this young man, I sense something in this room which completely distracts me from the sermon...and not a feeling I can easily explain. A sort of vibration, maybe, is a better way to describe it. Mother told me that we could sense each other, if we were nearby. Could it be someone outside? Someone in this room? My nervousness wears off a little, to at least know I am in some kind of shared company- even with a stranger. There is comfort in knowing you are not the only one, and I hope whoever else is near me feels the same way.

"I understand that, in trying times, it becomes tempting to believe any scary story you may hear, but you mustn't give in to fear. If you let fear take control, you easily let everyone else take control, and the only person who should be in control of yourself is you."

"You know, Mother Joyce was a lot more fun," the red-haired lady says, prompting the others to laugh. Even the young man behind the lectern stifles a chuckle, even if it ends with a sort of awkward grimace. 

"I understand, but it can't all be fun and games, can it?" he replies, with an unexpectedly-bouncy tone. "If...When things improve, then we can have fun- but until then, we all have to reflect on ourselves and the current events, and do what we can to help those in need- as we always do."

He gives a nod, and everyone leaves for a moment, joking amongst each other and laughing. As everyone else leaves, they wave to me, and I awkwardly return the greeting. I'm glad that I am at least welcome, but I'm still working up the courage to ask for some kind of next step. I notice his eyes meet mine, and he approaches me with a warm expression. That sensation from earlier, it's still here...

[spacestationstorybook]

okay my official opinions on the‏‏‎ ‎endings for the‏‏‎ ‎repurpose‏‏‎ ‎routes in the order in which i did them (and the ending to the overall story). spoiler alert: this definitely goes in my top 5 dating sims but that's not quite as big an honor as it seems because the amount of lesbian inclusive dating sims out there is truly just depressing.

overall story: kinda cheesy but also fun. i liked that our character actually got to do stuff for once. my biggest issue with Most dating sims is having a protagonist who just stands around and it was cool that we actually got to do stuff even if the big mecha god battle would have been a lot neater if there was like...gameplay. of any kind. this isn't a "visual novels are a lesser form of storytelling" thing it's an "anime style battles are just straight up not as satisfying in a written format" thing.

irene: in the camp Better Than I Thought It'd Be. she's the only character with no real tie in to the main story which made her flashback scene pretty unsatisfying in comparison but i thought it was kind of sweet that they stressed the platonic relationship between her and the player really was as important to her as a romance would be. even if we came across like we were lesbian baiting the audience.

ramon: listen he's fine as a character but i am SOOOOOOOO not attracted to him romantically at all. multiple times during his route i had to recoil because of how much I Wouldn't Fucking Do That. best part was the fact that we got to canonically get him (a cis man) pregnant because of demon biology. that's awesome.

noel: i still only like him in a strictly platonic way but i really do like him a lot. he's really such a sweetie pea. i like how many references were made to the fact that he used to be a girl in a genderfluid way. he will be one again one day...fandom didn't even need to genderfuck your white boy this time he did it to himself

kalei: sweet....also not attracted to him in a romantic way but i love his positivity and the fact that the mc is the fighter between the two of them. very niceys.

mitts: also better than i thought it'd be!! her early routes really didn't do her justice tbh i really liked seeing her leading the charge to reform utopia and getting more glimpses into her past. really sweet she definitely came into her own with this update

dj: had cute elements but also disappointed me in some ways...i knew their pronouns had been changed to he/they instead of just they/them and i was fine with that but they kept calling him a man which i didn't expect and was kind of weird. i guess nonbinary people can call themselves men that's fine but i don't know why the change was made in the first place. also the issue of them treating you more like a friend than a partner persisted sometimes. i like them enough as a character that i still had fun though.

rosita: REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD!!! my goodness!!! PINK FEMMES AND GOTH BUTCHES ON TOP FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!!!! it feels so silly to say a cutesy dating sim made me feel more butch but i just love the fact that we got a genuine femme for once i'm literally still riding the high. oh rosie i love you forever let's go on a milkshake date...

cheri: really cute :) i wish we had gotten to see her true form at some point. interesting that this is the only route where the angel that was our parent gets revealed. that combined with the fact that you have to do her route last and the fact that she can present as any gender for you just makes me feel more like if any of the routes is supposed to be the True Route it's this one which usually ticks me off with dating sims but i do like cheri so it's okay

faye/luci: a lot of it was really good i liked fighting alongside her and her encouraging you and the sweet bits with lilith but. okay i'm finally going to talk about the hordes thing. turning him into adam was a MASSIVE DOWNGRADE IMO. literally his best quality was that he was really funny and now he's not funny and goes around naked all the time. Sir. Put a Fucking Shirt On. i did not sign up to see this naked guy and his abs i want to see my wife. the polyamory thing doesn't bother me very much on its own i like that they navigated it to find a satisfying solution for everyone and this is the first dating sim i've ever played where you get to have a metamour but WHY IS HE ALWAYS FUCKING NAKEDDDDD.

polyamory route: actually did this one before cheri and faye but it felt more fitting for it to go last. pretty funny i liked dj being the official polycule organizer and i really liked the fact that it canonized a bunch of other ships including the hordes/mitts/rosita thing i was hoping for...rosita and i are holding hands in "my girlfriend really likes this weird guy so he's around all the time and i guess i'm happy she's happy but PUT A SHIRT ON." and we're also just holding hands :) a version of this is probably canon for me except i'm not dating‏‏‎ ‎ramon‏‏‎ ‎or‏‏‎ ‎kalei‏‏‎ ‎or‏‏‎ ‎noel. they can be part of the polycule just not through me directly

images i took while playing under cut because this is already long as fuck

using the discord version because it comes with commentary. this ship did Not get canonized but in the polycule ending it still could

UNIONIZE (sorry about adam i warned you he would be naked.)

a bunch of rosies because i love her. god i just KNOW she would leave lipstick marks on my collared shirts...this is a compliment. also her flashback scene in the beginning (which i did not screenshot) made me go waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh like a little baby.

Rosie I've Got A Game For You About The Power Of Communication (sorry i can't escape‏‏‎ ‎ggg‏‏‎ ‎even when i'm playing other stuff.)

something else that made me very giggly and feeling all sorts of ways.

my fuckass they/them dad who faked my suicide and put me in the torture dimension for a bit for shits and giggles ^

okay that's all back to‏‏‎ ‎spekta‏‏‎ ‎for the rest of valentine's day. and reblogging my friends' stuff.

[yuu-mao]

Slaps Lyney: this boy can fit so many issues

I feel like the fandom has already started the Lyney flanderization, and that's ok and all, it's just the way fandom works, but I'm obsessed with this guy and about to make it everyone else problem

(Disclaimer it has been not long since Lyney has come out I'm connecting the points yet. I will probably look at this in a year and want to strange myself. I just wanna talk about the boy)

The first and biggest misscharacterization I keep seeing is people believing he is so flirty and charming around Traveler because he has a crush. And I mean probably this is Genshin "date sim" Impact we are talking about, but that's not all of it

Lyney is a extremely guarded and fake person. He projects a version of himself that doesn't actually exists, because he feels like he has to be charming, he needs to be. If people don't like him, if he doesn't make himself a part of their lives, then they will leave him, ignore him, and he can't take that

(From his character stories)

He also seems to hate being an inconvenient with a passion. Instead of asking for help or just talking about his feelings, he masks. He acts like his flirty, confident self and acts very hard

And this goes back to the flirting and the spectacle. I think he genuinely enjoys it, and it's something that he does by choice. But. I think it's also like 75% part of his facade

It's mentioned multiple times, by his sister or by himself, that he is actually not that outgoing of a person. He actually seems to almost completely drop it when he is serious. I genuinely believe he is a pretty insecure person. He just can't let that show, because that's against what people expect from him, so he lies. Or just avoids saying anything. Not even his siblings are safe from that, or at least from him trying to

So, to put it into perspective, Traveler is someone who Lyney wanted to be friends with. He went there, and everything was going amazingly. He probably was acting even less guarded than usual!And then someone dies.

Now, all this trust he cares about so much he had been building with the traveler is gone. Now, his little white lies have been discovered. His tower of lies have been struck by the God of Justice like the Babel tower, and now he has to live the consequences of almost reaching heaven

You have to understand, if there's something Lyney seems to care about, its loyalty. He cares so, so much for his "family", and for as little as he knew the Traveler, you were his friend. So he feels guilty, and desperate, and he just wants you to understand him and not leave him. To not look at his real self and find it lacking

So he tells you a truth. He starts waxing poetry about his (honestly disturbing) backstory, and how he came to be the person he is now, how no matter how much he lies and how much he acts in behalf of the House, he is honest to his own ideals. He wants you to understand

And after the Traveler (understandable reaction I love Lyney a lot but this was honestly just in character for they considering he has outed himself as a lying liar) cold and ambiguous reaction, the story quest comes

Honestly its difficult to understand where exactly they stand to each other during it thanks to the Traveler usual silence, but it seems like it's still kinda awkward. Actually, Lyney starts the story quest just lying to our face about the Weasel Thief. But he seems like he wants us to follow him in this deeply personal quest for revenge

He wants us, in a way, to see through his deflections and see his truth

So, when the final act comes, and is time to pay the debt, he wants us as his witnesses. He wants us to see something deeply personal, a side of himself he just doesn't show. This isn't charismatic and flirty Lyney, this is the Lyney that will go to unimaginable lengths for the people he cares about, the Lyney that lies and is cold at times and say things like "Your freedom will cost you dearly. From now on, you'll be all alone in a world full of lies and falsehoods. I do hope you'll be able to bear it — you've still got a long life ahead of you, after all.". A part of him that's also part of his whole

But that's also not all. He is also capable of good things, of miracles, of giving people joy. And that's what he does right after. He cherished the people he cared about, and made people happy on their behalf, and that's as much part of his truth. He may be a liar, but he can use that to entertain, to help, to protect. And that's what we see right after

In the cementery, right after explaining everything to you, he has to be incredibly raw and vulnerable. So the last side of him shows. Might be a lie, a mask, but that mask is the one he wears and therefore as important

Honestly this started as an attempt to a character study and ended as a absolute mess of a too long ramble. So without any last words or flair, I will have to end here

[sunspire-knight]

INFODUMPING TIME I GUESS

yes, i'm collecting headcanons about the character who has been my special interest for 4 dumb years now, dojt judge–

Marcurio my beloved, but it's real world AU, I'M GONNA START

First of all, I think that Norway can be an analogue of Skyrim, there is no some strong logical reason for this, I just like the idea and also I headcanon my own Dragonborn as Norwegian in this AU (actually any Nordic country can be used) (Zendar is half Norwegian half Spanish actually because in game he's half Nord half Redguard so it's how it is)

Secondly, I prefer to always keep the characters' canonical names, so I suppose Marcurio is his full name, but he usually goes by 'Marc' (he would say, 'cause people are too dumb to remember my full name, so they can call me Marc, but God forbid they write or type my name as 'Mark' with the K instead of C')

I think he could have had a historical education; he could have worked in a library, archives (yes, i'm comparing him with Jon Sims in my mind, you got me, I love charismatic black haired man who are mess and gay), museum (by anyone except a tour guide, because "yew, talking to people"), at a university, etc

Meeting the Dragonborn in the bar while drinking wine and smoking a cigarette sounds hot

No magic in real AUs, so his power is autism /srs, I mean I've already written a whole post dedicated to my headcanon that Marcurio is neurodivergent, I still believe it and I'll fight for this opinion /hj

HE HAS A CAT!! a tortie cat!!!

His relationship with the Dragonborn is the black cat boyfriend + golden retriever boyfriend kind of relationship (Marc is the black cat bf lmao)

I believe he could've enjoyed wearing dresses or long skirts– I dunno it's like magic robes kinda look like a dress or a skirt, so yeah– also it's actually really comfortable for him, because I got the impression from the game that he is quite a sensitive person to everything–

Continuing the previous point, his appearance is still quite masculine, but rather still more androgynous

I run out of my own memory about headcanons of him so I'll finish this post later I guess (maybe I will, maybe I won't)

he's a baby boy I'm not the one who makes rules

[nursesimblr]

Sul Sul!

ATTENTION: This is part two, if you would like to know a little more about general rules, which include how to set up the game before starting the challenge, holidays celebrated in SimNation, Sims lifespan, naming convention, rotations, marriage, aging and how to adopt a child, please click here and enjoy!

WHIMS-BASED SYSTEM

In this part, we're going to talk a little bit about the "whims-based gameplay" system I'm using. I noticed that after a while on the same save, it tends to be quite tedious, and maybe, just maybe, that was why I didn't continue the challenge when I tried it a few times. The thing is:

In real life, some people are not ambitious. Some people never become rich. Some people never get promoted, and some people even get fired from their jobs for poor performance. As The Sims is a life simulator, I want it to mirror real life in this way too. That's how I found out (thanks to @pleasantsims) playing whims-based adds an extra challenge that makes the game more fun and dramatic. But what is this system?

HOW TO PLAY WITH WHIMS-BASED SYSTEM

Instead of making my Sims do things, I let them choose their own paths in life. So basically, I'll fulfill whims for my Sims as I can, allowing them to pursue their interests, have fun, buy new things, have children, etc.

If Sims need to have fun, for example, I look at their whims and see if they want to do anything that would give them fun. If they need to talk, I look at their whims and see if they want to do something with a specific person. If they're currently just sitting around the house, I'll look at their whims and see if they want to go any specific place (like a park, museum or tavern).

CAREER WHIMS

Since the challenge won't survive without a Mayor/King, and this is the only career unlocked from the start, I need to make tough decisions early on. I usually play for a few days with all the sims (on my current save, all winter) in hopes that someone will get the whims to have a job. In that case, that sim automatically becomes my mayor/king. If not, I choose one. I have my Sims join a career in four instances:

1- They roll the whim to start a certain career (thanks to The Personality Mod).

2 - They roll the whim to start a new job.

In case two, when Sims don’t roll the whim for a specific career, I use their aspirations as a guide. If they don’t have an aspiration that corresponds to a certain career, I look at their traits. A creative Sim may go into the artist career, a foodie into the culinary career, etc. If their traits are no help, I roll to randomly choose. If a Sim gets a whim for a promotion at work, I lock in that whim and have them work on whatever they need to get the promotion. 

DATES AND GOALED EVENTS

When you play whims-based, you can make them more challenging by only completing a task if your Sim has a whim for it. I find it really fun, especially on dates, if your Sim has a whim to flirt – direct them to flirt. If they don't, then don't. This way, the date may not work out.

This gives more autonomy to your Sims when they're on dates. If they aren't really into the other Sim, maybe they won't want to continually flirt with them. Or maybe they just want to take it slow. So yeah, I allow my Sims to fail – at relationships, at their career, at college, and just at life. I don't like all my Sims to reach the top of their careers and get super rich. That's just not fun to me.

By following their whims, you let them make the decision to progress in their careers or work on skills. Some Sims will have NO interest in learning new things or improving their skills. Instead, they'll stay at the bottom of their career ladder and remain poor.

See you in PART THREE 

[the-missann]

Honestly, I was talking to my brother and got another idea for a game. Especially after Princess Peach Showtime.

I'll preface this by saying PPS is the perfect game for girls and women imo. Female main character, outfit changes, aesthetic color scheme--everything about the game gave me nostalgia and it isn't even out! I'll be looking forward to playing it (if I have the money 😷) because it makes me actually feel like a female without the color pink as the only color or horrible gameplay attached to it.

But it's sad as hell that it takes so long for something like this to come out. I got Super Princess Peach a few years after it came out and as a little girl, that was the most enjoyment I got out of a game that didn't have hot male characters keeping my attention.

Obviously, the main issue is men game developers. I'm not gonna be all "video games are men's fantasies and bla bla" I don't care because all I want is for some games to be a woman's fantasy ☺

If I knew a female game developer, I would help her in a heartbeat to make a game that actually caters to what women look for in games. Men can keep Cammy being literally butt naked if I also can get Lee Chalon in more swimwear 😌.

I understand the sentiment of girl gamers and that if games didn't have "heterosexual man juice" sprayed all over it, things would be better for us; but it's not gonna change and I wouldn't want it to because I grew up with games that had big breasted women and useless damsels I had to save, and I love some of those games *cough*DMC*cough*. I just want there to be more on both ends of the spectrum.

So, honestly, that's my TED talk, but I at least wanted to show the kinds of ideas we could be getting alongside our usual games.

~Read on if your interested~

Speaking of usual, where is the Huniepop with male characters 😤

Like, do people not realize that a game full of hot dudes with the main point being to engage sexually with them would be the first thing I'll throw $20 at?

Anyways 😀

My first real idea is a collectathon for house items, clothes/outfits, and other accesories.

Imagine Mario Oddessy, but just with the clothes. Instead of collecting the moons, you'd collect various items of clothing you could dress your character up in. A sofa for the house you live in or an accessory to style an outfit with.

I think, just maybe, there's a correlation with Animal Crossing and The Sims being popular with a female audience.

Personally, I don't like the current climate of ignoring a woman's natural interest in fashion and things that look good. I get that it's a stereotype, but all stereotypes are based in reality.

It's bad that girls are being shunned away from wearing a pretty outfit just because that's seen as "girly", but guys are "cool" when they have a good fit and even get praised if they "break gender roles" [insert sigh here]. I even think about how much this would help trans girls to discovery themselves more.

And it doesn't have to be something stereotypically female either. I'd never wear a skirt or dress, but you best believe if a flowy jacket or cute sweater came my way, I'm wearing that shit and I'd love to play games that allowed it, if they weren't unplayable and unbearable.

I usually hate platformers, but I'd love one if my objective was to get clothes and other designing items for a house or my character.

Next Idea

Obviously, VNs are usually the games associated with women, but I'd enjoy one that had gameplay on the side. You know, scratch the itch that Obey me! just doesn't.

Obey Me! Is perfect having guys who are likable without forcing random female hate as "conflicts". However, there's nothing to the gameplay so I'm usually pretty bored after a while.

And even if there is some kind of gameplay, you usually are forced to be romantic and there's no platonic options. Like, I was reading a post by Hamilton Hour and a review said exactly how I feel, they said this:

A lot of the time, I feel like romance games often push you into pursuing a relationship with someone, and when you don’t, the character will get sad and then you feel awful about it.

Original Post here

And no truer words have been spoken!

Seriously, what is with games doing that? Why not give us more content in the game and make all three if you want. Like Stardew Valley, there's options to be an asshole, to be platonic and options to be weird/overtly romantic. It makes it interesting to replay the game and see different choices.

I got off track though, back to the VNs with no gameplay. I really mean for there to be more romance oriented VNs with male characters that have gameplay. Like, Phoenix Wright, Danganropa, or Professor Layton but with romance lol.

I say this because there's tons of dating sims where the primary objective is to date women and they're always super good. Again, if anyone needs help I'd be willing to work on creating a story. Just ask.

Next idea

This isn't really an idea, but just something I wanted to say.

I super want more fighting games with male options that don't look like they were made for no one to love. I just think it's so convenient that female characters who are made to be "unattractive" are still the prettiest things on the planet.

Also, has anyone ever noticed that male characters in fighting games that are attractive are always married or devoted to another? However, most women aren't. Like Mortal Kombat for example. Now, I don't play this franchise so I could be wrong, but I have seen it and try and keep with the latest releases.

And I just happened to notice that the human characters who are male are usually married or dating someone.

On the opposite end, females in Mortal Kombat are either widowed, single with someone who has just a crush on them, or so butch they don't care for romantic relationships.

You can't be more blatant than that.

Street Fighter takes the design approach to turn away women. Seriously, name one male character from SF who's traditionally attractive then name a female, I guarantee you, you'll run out of men.

Then there's Tekken, my favorite.

Tekken is my fav for that very reason. There's a wide range of characters who have no romantic involvement, but they look human and *gasp* they're attractive?? What kind of sorcery...

Lee Chaolan

Hwoarang

Jin

Leo (ik they're essentially non-binary, but all that means is both get a victory)

Shaheen

Miguel

Hell even Paula and Law fit this imo.

And my personal fav, ❤ Dragunov ❤

I know he doesn't (sometimes) fit the traditionally attractive group, but bro have you seen some of his renders?

Idk I just find him pretty

Bite me any day sir *rawr xD*

Yeah he's 27, and looks about 40, but someone likes that irl (aka me) and I ain't special. So I know others would probably appreciate the older looking gentlemen type and not just the baby faced hottie (dilf come on).

Any-fucking-way

Next Idea

The last thing is more related to writing than an actual game idea.

You know how in Zelda you're saving... Zelda?

Well, why the hell isn't there a game where I'm saving Link (and no, the CDi games DO NOT count).

I mean in general, I'd love a game where you play as a heroine and you're saving a male character. Don't even get me started on the many ways that could work.

A god is wounded and it's up to her to save him

A prince is captured while on enemy lines, no one else is capable of infiltrating but her.

Needing a vessel, your childhood friend's body is snatched

Afflicted by a curse, she knows where to find the remedy

Like come on, is it that hard to make a male in need? No it's not, dudes are human too and sometimes they need help. Enough with this solo shit, if men could be alone than why the hell do they all want girlfriends or need wives make it make sense

All this is to say, female coders, developers, writers, we need ya'll 🗣🔊

And as I've said throughout this, I would not be opposed to helping someone create the story of a game they're developing.

Thanks for reading, if you got to this point, be sure to take care of your self, drink some water if you haven't or get some sleep if it's late 🍂

~Buh-bye now~

[meawinda]

My family almost died for Skyrim. No this is not a joke statement, but it is really funny in hindsight.

So, the day that Skyrim released we lived in a little middle of no where town with only about 300 people in it. And the Walmart we usually went to in the next town over did not have it that day. But like... My parents played every elder scrolls game that ever came out. I was raised learning to read because my mom let me sit in her lap while she played Morrowind at age four and she would fight monsters and ask me to push the inventory key for her (because it was awkward to reach around a small child). I also played Oblivion CONSTANTLY on the little hand-me-down computer from my parents that used to be our in house server pc. It was a family favorite.

So we abso-fucking-lutely weren't going to miss out on Todd's new masterpiece we had waited for for years. SO we decide we're going to get in the car after school and drive all the way to the nearest real city to get our hands on a disk copy of Skyrim for the PCs. Seems like a nice family outing right? Well you'd be right if it weren't for the fact that it was one of the worst storms I've ever had the displeasure of being on the road during. It started as a light drizzle half way on our hour drive up there, which quickly became horrible winds and sleeting rain that had us driving 30 mph on a 75 mph road.

We also got hit by a semitruck with like an inch to spare between him and our little bitty blue Honda. After that decided to pull over and wait out the storm. After an hour on the side of the road, it passed, and we saw a couple of wrecks both on our side and the others side of the highway. But we did make it to the big city Walmart to get our pc disk copy of Skyrim, that we had to bind to my younger siblings Steam to play. Mom also let me by an expansion for The Sims 3 that our local Walmart didn't have because we spent three hours in the car. I called this a win. I skipped class on Monday and Tuesday and faked sick, because I felt like if I almost died for a game I might as well actually play it instead of going to class. And the guys in my class still didn't believe I actually played video games because I was a girl and the top of our class at the time ( but you know, small town middle schoolers were like that I guess).

Today is the thirteenth anniversary of the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Skyrim became a teenager before we got The Elder Scrolls VI. We hope that there is never as long a gap in main series releases ever again.

[sinsofsinister]

Neverwinter MMO ocs - Kal & Bel 🏹☀️     ↪  [template] by @siilverfoxs