#i'm in a fairly liberal area

[witchstone]

i'm aware that a large portion of it is just the fact that i'm 26 years old, but i do also think one of the reasons i struggle with a lot of mainstream lgbt+ media aimed at teens and young adults is due to just how fast everything's moved since i was in high school

[nobuouematsu]

had to yell at these kids at my job today bc they would not stop saying shit like "homosexuality is a sin you can't be gay and christian" "all gays are sinners" "if you're pansexual that means you have sex with dogs" like children!!! 11 years old!!! where the fuck are they learning this and what adults in their lives do i have to slap for getting them to parrot this shit goddamn

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

Rural Communities, Illyria, Yt Liberalism/Leftism + Classism

I'm having a hard time putting into words how I feel performative activism and political pandering plays into the way the IC works with Illyria

like

ok so I'm from rural Iowa. I am from a community of people who are prideful and hate handouts. we'd rather break our backs working ourselves into the ground instead of asking for help

now, I am looking at these Illyrians. these close-knit peoples who are prideful and work themselves ragged. As someone from a poor family, in a poor, prideful, relatively 'conservative' area, I can see a lot of similarities between Ilyria and my home. Not so much the rampant wing clipping and violent misogyny, but the pride and stubbornness that gets in our own way (note: misogyny, racism, ableism, etc etc etc are often the results of settler colonialism + yt supremacy. they just don't come out of NOwhere and were/are used as a tool to keep yt rich folks in places of power by causing class divide)

enter Cassian and the IC, people who greatly dislike the Illyrians, who routinely look down on them and call them backwards, uneducated, etc (note: this stereotypical language is due to racist undertones, canonically. This is just from my own perspective as someone from a low class rural area)

Cassian, who somehow has a victim complex due to the systemic problems of Illyria, but also does not actively push for Real Systemic Change outside of making the women Also be warriors, comes into the camps, he brings blankets, small tokens to help aid them and personally, if I saw someone from my home town who had made it very clear of how he actually feels about us try to give us blankets? I would not take a damn thing from him bec which is it? are we just the absolute Worst People Ever or do you feel *sorry* for us. And even if that is not his intention, which I don't think it is at all, he has proven time and again he's "better" than them

Cassian more-or-less scorned the Illyrians, as did Rhys and Azriel, and the more Cassian keeps aligning with Rhys compared to finding solidarity and alliances and progressivism with the Illyrians, the more alienated and isolated he's going to make himself from them

Cassian aligning himself with Rhys and the IC and Velaris and the High Lord's family removed him from the class and community solidarity if his own community. He profits off of the systemic problems that are in place despite having been a victim of the same problems

a lot of the ICs performative actions and pandering towards the Illyrians, just enough to get what they want out of them (bodies for a war), and their inability to push for actual, progressive and real change quite honestly reminds me a lot of the yt liberal and democratic politicians who look down on rural folks and have called us backwards and uneducated and hicks.

The IC hide their own prejudices and bigotry behind a shield of contempt and the systemic problems of the Illyrians, the same way I see from a lot of leftist + yt liberals here in the cities

The Illyrians have very real problematic systemic issues that need addressed and actively changed. And it's very interesting, for me, that the wing clipping and violence towards Illyrian women are so highlighted when violent misogyny seems to be fairly normal/common among the fae, in general, according to SJM, anyways

The way you combat systemic issues is through education, social programs and funding, policy changing, etc

what, exactly, is the IC doing for the people of Illyria outside of small performative gestures and "change takes time"

I see the same social problems of "change takes time" with democratic policies and I look at rural areas, and the Illyrians, who need help NOW. they're people getting routinely abandoned or forgotten unless we're needed for something bec they're "backwards" and "uneducated" and "hicks"

I'm not sure if I'm wording this well, tbh, but it feels very... familiar to what I have experienced living in rural Iowa for most of my life compared with the last few years here in the city

tagging: @bookishfeylin @kateprincessofbluewhales @acotardeservesbetter @ae-neon @andramoreaux

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I asked my girlfriend for more physical affection in public?

🫂

^ to recognize my post when it publishes

(TLDR at bottom but with much less detail obv)

I love my girlfriend very much. We've been together for almost 9 months. I am 16FtM and she is 16MtF. us being trans is relevant here.

I am a very affectionate person in general, I love holding hands and leaning on people and hugging and whatever. My personal brand of thinking about the world includes that idgaf about what other people think. My girlfriend however does, and doesn't feel comfortable with physical affection in public. I know a lot of this stems from her issues with trust, feeling of unsafety because of her being trans and queer (both out in a fairly liberal area), and general emotional issues. However, I really do need some form of physical affection in public, to the point where it's actually becoming an issue: when I feel bad (upset, sad, whatever) she gives me more attention and affection because she feels like I need it. Both of us have depression and anxiety (varying levels of each but still similar in some regards) so we understand it. However sometimes if I space out for too long and she notices she'll ask me if I'm ok. that's great! that's fine! the problem is that I've started subconsciously acting like I'm not fine when I am, or generally skewing more towards the sad side whenever she asks me, and I think it's because if I'm feeling worse I can get more affection. I've also taken more to grabbing her ass in public (100% CONSENSUAL, SHE LIKES IT AND HAS SAID IT'S OK) but I realized today that I do that only because its one of the only prolonged physical contact things that she's ok with in public (which ??? idk I'm asexual so I don't really get it) but I'd rather have a non-sexual way to show affection.

She's really affectionate when it's just the two of us or we're with close friends and/or family but in public, she's completely closed off and it makes me feel shut off from her too. It hurts and makes me feel bad.

I want to ask if there's something I can do to show affection to her in public that she would be comfortable with. Something like a quick hand squeeze or grabbing her shoulder or smth that's small and not inherently romantic but that way I can feel more secure.

TL;DR: my gf isn't super comfortable with affection in public (no handholding, kissing, hand kissing, hugging, leaning) but I'm very openly affectionate and it's driving a bit of a wedge between us because I need physical affection to feel connected to her. I want to ask if we can figure out a small way to be physically close (like a hand squeeze) while in public so I can be happy and she can be comfortable. I might be the asshole because she's very uncomfortable with people seeing us affectionate in public. We're both 16 and trans, out in our fairly liberal school.

What are these acronyms?

[a-thread-of-green]

Reasons why I'm glad I bought the Nintendo Switch re-release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door:

It allows me to access special dialogue about Vivian being trans which wasn't available in the original English translation.

If I wanted to play the original, I'd have to go to my parents' house to pick up my sister's old Gamecube, which would mean either going in boymode (ick) or going as myself and facing my mom's rage at seeing the real me.

The access code didn't print out on my receipt, which led to an extended conference between a number of different Target employees. Since I live in a fairly liberal area where retail people don't say "sir" or "ma'am" much, this was my first time to see if strangers would gender me correctly since they were talking about me in third person. And they did!

So, in summary, there are no non-transgendered reasons for me to own the Nintendo Switch re-release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

[bestworstcase]

Out of curiosity (and some confusion), how do you think Faunus came about? Unless I'm misremembering (in which case this would be pretty awkward) Faunus didn't exist in the First Wave of Humanity, and given that the two creation myths we're presented with (not even by an actual Faunus) disagree on almost every point I'd be surprised if there was an actual answer-

you’re remembering correctly that the faunus are unique to remnant. also tonight has been one of my periodic episodes of being unhinged about this so here is some Background Reading.

of the two faunus creation myths one is explicitly a very old faunus oral tradition and the other reads to me very strongly as a syncretism with the (human) brother-cult, in that the earlier conceit of freely chosen, joyful transformation and liberation by a wild but benevolent trickster god is retained but presented within an explicit framework of divine judgment and moral imperative to be peaceful and harmonious or else bring about self-annihilation through conflict. which is exactly the sort of cultural evolution that you’d expect to get from refracting ‘the shallow sea’ through the eschatological prism of ‘the two brothers’ and the doctrine of the brother-cult generally.

(for a real historical exemplar of this sort of shift occurring, see the cultural remapping of ambiguous deities in many pre-christian polytheistic traditions onto the christian idea of The Devil; this is fairly ubiquitous but the most generally accessible case is the popular conception of hades as an evil god and hades as hell, whereas in actual practice hades was the god who ruled over hades, which was where everyone went when they died and encompassed a variety of different areas raging from very nice to okay to unpleasant.)

see also: ozpin’s commentaries on ‘judgment,’ which gestures at exactly this phenomenon. “faunus always cast their god as a wise and noble figure, while human stories portray the same god as a trickster, not to be trusted.” he identifies both tales as faunus in origin (& certainly the characterization of the god of animals in ‘judgment’ is more ‘wise and noble’ than ‘trickster,’ although i think ozpin is also showing his own biases here because the god depicted in ‘the shallow sea’ is a trickster who is also very wise, honest, and fair. so ‘wise and noble’ vs ‘untrustworthy trickster’ is something of a false dichotomy, but also one that maps perfectly onto the gods of light and darkness as depicted in brother-cult doctrine.

<- the way rwby Handles religion is really excellent

anyway. i have a theory.

it’s lightly implied that grimm and faunus came first, humans second. (per WOR: there has never been a time in human history without grimm, and faunus have been around as long as humans “if not a little longer,” and there was a historical period when faunus were more numerous than humans.)

which is incongruous with the faunus’ own creation myths, both of which hinge on humans choosing to be transformed into something new by divine power.

salem squares that circle. salem was the last human of the old world, all that remained of humanity, and by extension she was also the first person of remnant. if faunus came to be before humans were revived, and salem embraced the faunus as her own people as discussed in the background reading post, it’s perfectly cogent for the faunus to be older than this humanity whilst understanding themselves as a people who came from humans, because for the very oldest one of them that was true.

which explains the myth, more than the factual history, but i do think it probably gets at the factual history too, because…

mechanically speaking.

what did salem do when she jumped into the pool of grimm? she combined the waters of life (pure creation) with the waters of grimm (pure destruction) into a new kind of being (herself, a grimm-person) in the same pattern as before (herself, a human-person with free will and a dualistic nature).

that’s, uh, how the brothers created humankind. and the jabberwalker. and the cat by combining their magic (dark’s fire, light’s smoke) into new kinds of beings modeled after themselves.

what did salem hope to achieve by rebelling against the brothers? she wanted humanity to “claim the powers of their creators and perfect their own design.”

and she failed but also succeeded in the end because she Did That—in the very literal sense. salem Remade Herself in the pool of grimm; jinn’s framing of the story through ozpin’s point of view elides salem’s agency at every step and implies an uncomplicatedly suicidal motive for jumping into the pool of grimm, but—i mean–

—the blacksmith has been right under our noses this whole time because she’s the form that salem gives to the idea of remnant’s souls. the lore put forward in v9 recontextualizes and clarifies a lot of what happens in the lost fable, not just in terms of the interpersonal history with the brothers but also the reason certain things unfold as they do and (most importantly) where the missing pieces might be.

the god of light’s understanding of balance is wrong. death as permanent unconscious stasis is not the natural order of things, it’s an arbitrary rule the brothers made up, and they themselves are beings from a place where death is a moment of rest and healing before rebirth as yourself again. they made humans in their image. balance is something that happens when things are given the time to figure themselves out.

what happens to the nature of life and death on remnant when the brothers remove themselves from the artificial system they created? it’s not balanced. it’s like a ball perched juuust at the upper rim of a ramp after you pull your hand away: it might not start rolling right away, but if you leave it long enough then something will eventually give it a nudge, whether the wind or the vibrations of a truck passing by or tiny imperceptible movements of the earth, and then that potential energy will be released.

the “death is when you stop and don’t change, forever” system was a ball sitting on a ramp in a room with someone who both really wanted to get the ball rolling and had absolutely nothing better to do than figure out how to give it that nudge. for millions of years.

yeah? here’s salem telling ozma “our souls transcend death.” that’s a surprise tool that will help us later.

the natural order of things, in remnant as in the ever after, is change. changing, it rests. ascension is just how it is in the ever after, meaning it’s in balance, meaning it’s the rhythm the ever after kind of settled into over time. the ball is on flat ground down there, jabber and all.

but the ever after didn’t begin the way the brothers’ world did—it wasn’t created ex nihilo with a specific prescription for how life/death were going to work, it was cultivated into a garden from wilderness. (ascension is the cycle of the harvest: when you have finished, when you are ready, the tree calls you back—you’re reaped—and then the seeds of you are sown and you begin again. this is a life/death system that developed through gardening!)

so it’s silly to imagine remnant’s balance will necessarily look exactly like the ever after’s balance. different beginnings, different variables, different environment. neither the ball nor the ramp are identical, so why in the world would the outcome be the same?

here’s pyrrha chanting that it is in passing we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death, i release your soul. that is also a surprise tool that will help us later.

but we can look at the ever after to get an idea of what the “lowest energy state” for the rolling-ball of a life/death system is, practically speaking, because—like i said—ascension is a cosmic repetition of how the ever after was made. the garden is populated by living fruits and blossoms of the tree who are reaped and sown in a continual cycle. the proverbial level ground is a pattern that wears in some grooves for the changing to follow. rivers, to change up the analogy a bit, don’t go flooding around everywhere all the time; the water flows through its channels, generally.

so, what patterns has remnant got, potentially?

death either takes a really, really long time (because it was dammed up for so long, the reservoirs is deep) or happens really fast, in a flood (what happens when a dam breaks?)

dying once makes you infinite (salem drowned in the fountain of creation, and became immortal)

dying twice unbinds you (salem drowned again in the pool of grimm, and remade herself into something new)

the “really fast” way of dying can maybe bind you to someone else, changing both of you in ways you may not like (ozma’s soul is continually recombined with another and he is changed against his will)

penny ambrosius bootleg ascension (i hope ambrosius enjoys his probable eventual new role as the chthonic god of remnant’s very complicated afterlife. he cannot possibly do worse than the guy who built the dam.)

however ozma’s curse gets resolved is likely to complete or alter the existing pattern(s)

gestures at the maidens. that’s a “really fast” way of dying that follows both the ozma pattern (the maidens cleave to new hosts) and the unbinding salem pattern (maidens choose themselves and also do not compromise the free will of the host or corrupt or take over the host’s conscious mind or identity)—maidens are twice-dead because they were cut out from ozma’s soul (<- spiritual death) and their cycle began with the deaths of the first four women who were given this magic.

gestures at whatever the hell is going on with silver-eyed psychopomps and the white liminal space between life and death. ruby’s eyes make her a conduit of some kind for that passage through the void; she hears pyrrha’s and penny’s cries for help (and pyrrha’s last words) after they die, and in the ever after she is haunted by penny’s sword. and the light motivated by her desperation to save people she cares about appears to be the white light that fills the void where life and death both part and come together again.

if death is a reservoir behind a dam and it happens either quite fast or very slow, what—or who—are the floodgates? [checks notes] the biological children of the “really fast” pattern-maker absent the interference pattern of salem. obviously.

notably, ozma’s influence as a pattern-maker is constrained to specific things with a direct spiritual or biological connection to himself, which tracks because his reincarnation sitch is relatively new. (likewise, i expect the penny ambrosius bootleg ascension deal will not have far-reaching effects any time soon; there are much older, deeper patterns at work here.)

salem, on the other hand, is two fucking hundred million years old. probably. on account of plate tectonics. which means that she has a much greater gravitational pull, so to speak, and is most likely to be that pattern that life/death on remnant ‘wants’ to fall into. the ball rolls down; water will flow into the deepest available channel.

so she died and became infinite and then died again in a manner she hoped would “take [infinite life]” away from her (TAKE AWAY FROM AN INFINITE QUANTITY AND AN INFINITE QUANTITY REMAINS. WAS SHE SUICIDAL OR DOING MATH.) and so remade herself.

salem wandered the face of the planet alone, awaiting a death that would never come. then she jumped into the pool of grimm. then ???. then the god of light pulled ozma out of stasis and told him “mankind is no more, but in time they’ll come back” and also he’ll kill everyone again if ozma doesn’t make them obey teach them to live in harmony with each other and stop demanding things from the gods :). THEN ozma comes back and there are human civilizations everywhere and all the faunus he encounters are in cages.

remember how the faunus are older than humankind? tha-at would be our “???” gap between salem crawling out of the grimm pool and light digging up ozma. probably.

you’ve got grimm. there have, as it’s said in ‘the shallow sea,’ always been grimm. they survived the moonfall.

you’ve got faunus. they were created when salem remade herself—the infinite life taken away from her brought them to life, in her image, just as original humans were brought to life by the brothers’ power in the brothers’ image (and of course the power salem has now was the brothers’ power and is now hers). this is maybe not what she was expecting to happen but she’s not alone anymore and, unlike humans of old, the faunus can coexist peacefully with the grimm with salem to mediate.

you’ve got the god of light taking a peek to see if perhaps salem is ready to grovel in repentance yet and going HEY WHAT THE FUCK THAT’S NOT ALLOWED…

…and hastily attempting to get the situation back under control by arranging for the “right” creations (he and his brother’s) to crowd out the ones salem defied him by making (WHEN WILL SHE LEARN HER LESSON!) and for good measure sending her beloved to punish her (SURELY THIS WILL MAKE HER SEE THE ERROR OF HER WAYS. BECAUSE SHE’S DEFINITELY THE ONE WHO’S WRONG.) because he is the god of the sunk cost fallacy first and foremost.

of course, the mere fact of allowing mankind to rise again achieves nothing but completing the “very slow” pattern—humans were dead for a long time and now they’re alive again. whoops! this is what happens when you meddle with forces you don’t understand.

anyway i think probably everyone on remnant reincarnates very slowly, not the way ozma does and also not the way ascension happens. i think when you die in remnant a part of you stays behind—infinite—to wander the face of the planet until it finds a way to guide the rest of you back home, in whatever form that takes. (BUT AS A BABY PROBABLY.) ’cause that’s the salem pattern.

points at the autumn leaf dancing around pyrrha’s memorial statue that guides jaune to see her so he can meet her mother and say goodbye. That’s Actually Pyrrha For Real. maybe. probably. a sliver of her soul left behind to find her way. i think faunus have the same cycle but it’s a bit smoother for them because they were never stuck in the old artificial death-as-stasis system and also this is why faunus genetics are so FUCKING weird, it’s because if you’ve got cat ears the first time you have cat traits forever even if in one of your lives your parents are, like, a crab faunus and a tortoise faunus. possibly children of interracial couples are more likely to be new, hence the more genetically logical outcome of usually inheriting the faunus parent’s animal.

but yeah i think the faunus like popped into existence as a consequence of salem grimming herself. that was my working theory prior to volume nine on the basis of mechanically how humans were created but in light of the v9 lore it’s quite literally the most thematically coherent explanation.

[chronotsr]

No. 2 - G2, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III, David A. Trampier (cover) Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #199, Tales from the Yawning Portal

On the heels of being more impressed with G1 than I expected, will G2 be similarly impressing? Time to find out!

The intro blurb is mostly a repeat of the text of G1, including admonitions that running stock is for villains. Our motivation remains: figure out why the hill giants did that, no matter how fucking dangerous it is. Interestingly, the other main objective of G1 (give 'em a bloody nose) is not relevant here, because that teleport means that the frost giants aren't a threat to the villagers themselves. In fact, the room teleportation schtick kind of means G2 is filler? Like, the big reveal that the G series leads to the D series is not really impacted by the events of G2. So, oops!

Conveniently, the magical chain teleports out outside the rift so you can once again have a secret cave HQ. I feel like you have a responsibility as a GM to have a giant counterattack to at least one of these caves.

I really like the imagery of the descent into the rift here. I mean, I don't think this illustration really does it justice, imagining the deep blue color of light barely passing through the ice and how that gives the area beneath the surface an eerie oceanic glow at all times other than noon -- that's some good vibes. Gary opts for green, which is a fair enough choice. Unfortunately, Gary is more interested in simulating the mounting climbing than vibes, which means that at least one of your party members is going to fall face first into the snow drift below. Gary "generously" caps the damage at 10d6 (avg 35 dmg) -- a level 9 fighter, to be clear, has 9d10 hp (avg 45 hp) and a level 9 magic user has 9d4 hp (avg 23), so that's not ideal. Also recall that you recover 1hp per full day of rest normally, so if you fall and survive you're probably still fucked unless your cleric has a lot of spells left. I'm also pretty sure your cave HQ is above the cliff face, so, risking the descent seems like suicide to me. You're going to lose people and even leaving to heal them back up is simply taking another chance at oblivion. Take the stairs.

If you have the audacity to slow fall down, you will be blown 75ft off course in a random direction. Very cool Gary!

Another interesting detail: monsters in classic DND have a pretty short attention span and will lose you fairly quickly if you flee around a corner. This is particularly amped up here to a breezy 4 in 6 odds of success, due to blizzards blocking chase.

Anyway, we're into the room by room, so let's do some room by room shit.

There is a kind "spiked heads of our enemies at the gates" situation, with corpses mutilated and frozen in transparent ice as a warning to not intrude. Honestly that's badass. What's not badass is if the players have the wherewithal to try and free the corpses (for loot or kindness), most routes lead to the treasure being destroyed and the roof collapsing -- probably instantly killing your squishies.

The hill giants from G1 are lolling about waiting for an audience, so points for continuity. I have to imagine they're freezing their asses off, though.

There are yetis here? Which, going on the graphic and the listed intelligence score in the MonMan, I have to conclude are sentient bipedial apes but like, NOT like the Frost Giants. Actually apparently the average yeti is smarter than the average frost giant, so I guess it's a Diogenes situation where they choose to live in a shitty cave when everyone else has a nice cave?

The 5 hill giants visiting the Jarl have 1k to 6k gold fur cloaks, which like. Imagine a 6,000 gold cloak. Not only is it got to be huge (Hill Giants are 10.5ft tall), for it to be worth 6k to a vendor that's got to be a one-piece fabric cloak off a particularly rare and good condition animal. I guess the players could use it as the world's fanciest comforter?

The official appearance of a Remoraz! These are awful creatures. They swallow you whole and then superheat their insides to cook you. Nasty side effect: its outsides become furnace-hot and destroy nonmagical items and burn people to death. Look at this horrible thing! And of course it's guarding the swankiest loot to date -- a +2 Giantslaying Sword and a 3 Wishes Ring. It's been a weird trend lately that the best loot is, not owned by the leader of the Giants? The best hoard seems to always belong to Some Guy. Naturally this awesome loot "sinks into the ice" if you use a fireball, because this adventure has an addiction to telling the wizard to fuck off. Note that the sword being lost punishes the fighter for the magic users' decision. Note also that the Remoraz going into superheat mode doesn't do the same thing? It sucks. This clause sucks. Cut it. The actual room itself is kind of neat, the implication is that the Remorhaz melted a spherical hole into the ice to make a den, which is awesome.

Another iconic Garyism: ". They have had audience with the Jarl, and after a special wassail to be held on the morrow they will depart for home with a treaty scroll." Translation: They're goin to have a drinking party tomorrow to celebrate a treaty signing.

And like, one room later, we get "leman", which means lover, and "durance vile", which means long imprisonment. The text implies that basically, she's a hot butch storm giantess being held in chains until she agrees to fuck the Jarl. Gary, simply ask a tall woman out. You don't have to be weird about it.

Rather than torches, the feast hall is lit with jarred fire beetles, which is kinda cute

There is a thick iron bar that "transports whosoever is standing on the floor to the entrance of Snurre's Hall [G3]". The iron bar is a lever, obviously, but is this a lever-operated teleporter? An elevator that goes straight down? G3 eliminates the elevator theory, since apparently you can arrive here via pegasus and there are caves one can access overhead. So it's a literal teleporter, and at least how I'm reading it makes it sound more science fiction than magic. Weird.

On the whole, G2 is a massive step down from G1. G2 lacks the factionalism of G1, punishes players for damn near anything attempted, and is broadly less imaginative than G1. It's a pity, really, because it's a far more interesting locale on paper, but the reality is that you could generate a cave like this by scribbling randomly. Meh. Next time we poke G3, and hope hope hope that it's more like G1 than G2.

[pudding-parade]

Louisiana by MURPHTHESURF

"But Pudding," you say, "why do I need another swamp world when I have Twinbrook?" To which I say, "Because this one is better."

It's an unpopulated 1024x1024 world, with about 60 total lots, fairly evenly split between residential and community lots. It has a lot of spawners, particularly rock/gem ones, but it has all of them except the Island Paradise and Into the Future ones. Despite the name of the world, I don't think it particularly looks like Louisiana, other than it has lots of water/wetlands. There are lots of fog emitters. You can almost smell the methane.

The lots are either EA lots (possibly edited; I'm not familiar enough with them to judge) or ones that the creator downloaded from other creators and then placed in the world. In particular, many of the lots were created by ruthless_kk, who creates very nice, very detailed, cc-free lots. The creator has meshed the lots together pretty well, so that the world feels cohesive even though the lots came from many different sources. And the scenery that the creator built is lovely.

The world has no CC. As far as I can tell, the Store content that it has is mostly in the lots created by ruthless_kk, and it's all just decorative stuff, so if you don't have it, it's probably not a big deal. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure it requires all EPs except Into the Future. It also needs the Town Life stuff pack because it uses the gym lot from that pack, so if you don't have that pack, that lot will have the wrong windows, and the equipment will be replaced with base game stuff, etc. If you don't have that pack and don't want to fix the lot, you could just plunk down a different gym instead.

There's more pics and info behind the cut, but first: As usual, the title of this post is a link to the world's incredibly useless Exchange page. If you'd rather not deal with the Exchange/the launcher/sims3packs, I have upload a .world file here. If you download the .world file it goes in your game install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

First up, some Edit Town/map view pics of the world. Each set shows roughly half of the world.

Basically, one half is the more "urban" part and the other half is more rural. So, you can have your sim live in one of the Late Night apartments in the city part. Or they can live in a nice little farm like this one...

...which is set up as a winery. Or they can live in lovely Victorian/Second Empire house like the one in the pic above the cut, of which there are several in the world. Or they can live in...

...a swamp shack, complete with its own dumpster and a bayou "beach" in the back. Or they can live in...

...an ultra-modern place? Yeah, there are two such lots and while they are very nice lots, I don't think they fit in all that well. If I was playing the world I'd replace them. But, if you like ultra-modern houses, there you are.

The world doesn't have an abundance of houses, but the houses that it has are all fully furnished and ready to go, and there are definitely enough of them to get you started. There are a number of empty lots, particularly in two areas of the world that are somewhat unfinished. There are also areas where it would be easy to add new lots. All of which you might want to do because the world has only two lots that are starter-priced, and the swamp shack above is not one of them. The lot on the right side of this pic is one of them:

So, if you aren't as liberal with the free real estate cheat as I am, you might need more starter lots. But if you are liberal with free real estate, here are a few more of your options:

And here are a few non-EA community lots:

This is a dive bar with a junkyard theme, complete with junk piles in back. (There is an actual junkyard, too.) It has a professional bar, seating, and shuffleboard. Other entertainment in the world includes a a disco, a fusion lounge, and a dance club. It does have the "event center" from Showtime but no other Showtime venues, so those would need to be added if you want to play the Showtime careers.

This is a nectary, though it's designated as a small park. It has all the grape plants, a little place for weddings, nectar sales, a nectar-making machine, and a "restaurant" with a food register and a buffet table. I'm pretty sure this lot is placed backwards, though, because the back of it faces the road. I don't know if this was done deliberately, but I think it would look better flipped around.

This is a little comic shop, in a more unfinished section of the city part of the world. It has the science objects from University Life on the top floor.

Other community lots in the world are:

Festival (the Sunset Valley one)

A Chinese garden

A fire station

A gym

A consignment shop

A small resort

A salon

Several parks/fishing spots, including the butterfly dome from Bridgeport

So, there are some common lot types missing -- a beach, a library, a public pool, etc. -- but since there are a good number of empty lots in the world, these could be added, whether you build them yourself or plop down EA or downloaded ones.

Overall, this is a nice world. Parts of it are unfinished with some empty lots placed but not much else. There are some lots that have community designations but are empty. (For instance, there's a lot designated as a public pool, but it's empty.) But the scenery is quite beautiful, and if you need a smallish, ready-to-play world, this might be one for you, especially if you happen to like Victorian-style houses.

We'll finish off with some more scenery pics, because it's a pretty world.

[not-a-space-alien]

Hey Valen! I heard you talk about that when you lived in vampire territory, you used buy ethically sourced blood from a different country... Does that mean that there is a society made up of vampires and humans living together? like, Symbiotically, and not a predator/prey relationship? And if so, have you ever thought of moving there?

Sorry for a scary question, but... now that you are surrounded by humans everyday, are you ever worried about controlling yourself...? or other humans controlling themselves too, sorry!!!

Okay end on a high(er) note! What's one thing that shocked you about living on the human side that surprised you? Like, I imagine Vampire's don't have dogs, since the only thing they hunt are humans... although I suppose you do have snowball... maybe certain sayings like 'that man was born with a silver spoon in his mouth'?

Okay thanks for answering all these questions!... Again~ make sure to cuddle with snowball for me!

"Yes! There are areas of the world where relations between vampires and humans are friendlier. They're not... abundant, and it's not like humans and vampires are nextdoor neighbors in those places... But they at least don't live in fear of each other, which is a wonderful first step. There's no violence. I've toyed with the idea of moving there before. The culture is different, and they have fairly strict immigration policies... I'm not sure they would let me in because of my connection to the blood farms. They're protective of their humans... I mean, the human populations nearby who provide them with blood voluntarily. They go to great lengths to avoid anything that could potentially upset the status quo of nonviolence they have there. They're fairly liberal with using exile as a punishment for violence."

"I was scared about controlling myself before, yes--not anymore. Before I learned what starvation felt like, I had a silly notion that smelling human blood would make me lose control. That's why I wore the beaked mask--it held scented plants under my nose. That's what they were originally for. It feels...silly in retrospect. I have been hungry enough to lose control of myself now, and I know I would never reach that state again unless I was starved of blood for a long, long time." He shudders at the thought.

"Vampires do have dogs, actually! They have the same domestic animals that humans do--Vampires never actually domesticated any animals ourselves, as you said--we have little need for them in reality. But vampires take a fancy to animals the same way humans do, so we have dogs, cats, horses, rabbits--most of the same ones. We keep food animals like cows and pigs mostly for keeping our humans fed." He flaps his hands with excitement as he stumbles upon a particularly interesting train of thoughts. "The domestication of rats actually started in the 18th century, which is well within the lifespan of a single vampire. It's plausible that if a vampire were so inclined, they could single-handedly oversee the domestication of an entire species if it had a particularly short generation time. We could even establish our own lines of fancy cat and dog breeds. Can you imagine it? That would be so interesting!" He takes a brief pause as he imagines himself trying to breed a domesticated line of opossums.

"Oh, but the question was about differences. Sorry... You're right that there are quite a lot of linguistic differences. Most of them have to do with food--so much of human culture is structured around food. The most egregious example is the ubiquitousness of the coffee table, which I still don't quite understand no matter how many times Lex and Ari explain it to me." He does understand it, he just thinks it's stupid. "Light and dark symbology are reversed between our cultures, too. We view the moon as the primary celestial body and the sun as the secondary one. Nighttime is safety and light is danger. The first time Ari said something about death and Lex said it was 'dark humor'--well, I had to think about that phrase for a while."

Valen pulls Snowball onto his lap and cuddles her.

[reader6898]

Forbidden Romance

Pairing: OC Amilyn x Commander Cody

Series Summary: When someone keeps threatening Amilyn's life Cody is appointed as her personal bodyguard. As they spend more time together feelings start to form between them. In a time of war will duty and honor get in the way of what they want most?

Series Rating: 18+(no minors), attempted assassination, bit of violence, bit of a slow burn, secret romance, eventual smut

A/n: Cody and bodyguard romance just do something to me

Chapter 1

Cody hated this. It had already been fifteen minutes and he was already exhausted from being around politicians. While he finished healing from a wound that he recently sustained from battle he was given bodyguard duty. He would've rather been stuck behind a desk but instead here he was stuck being a personal bodyguard to a senator. He knows that not all the senators are rich and snobby but from what he experienced most of them were. Cody hasn't even met you yet so until he does he's going to assume you are just like those senators. Cody was standing outside your office while he waited for you to get done with a meeting and answered a message from one of his brothers when the doors opened and out came two senators. He stood to attention as they passed by him and your aide came up to him. "Senator Shysa is ready for you, commander." Cody followed behind her as she brought him to the sitting area. "She'll be with you in a moment."

Cody nodded his head and went back to the message he was sending. As he pressed send you walked in with your aide and another guard. Cody looked up and you greeted him. "You must be commander Cody." Cody stood up just a little bit straighter. "Yes, ma'am." You gestured to the seat behind him. "Please, take a seat." "Thank you, ma'am."

Cody took his seat as you sat down on the couch opposite him with both your guard and aide standing close by. "Can I offer you anything to drink, commander?"You ask as you gesture to the water in front of the two of you. "No thank you, ma'am." You nodded your head in understanding but went and poured yourself a glass as you hadn't had anything to drink since breakfast. You quickly took a sip before getting to the task at hand. "I'm sorry we had to meet like this, commander. I know that you would rather be doing something else than be a bodyguard to a senator." "I'm just doing my duty, ma'am." "Right. Anyway, did General Kenobi or someone else give you a rundown by any chance?" "Only that someone has threatened you. The general didn't really go into much detail. He figured it would be better if you explained it to me."

“Of course. I’m sure that you are aware that I just became senator of my planet so I am fairly new to this. My planet was recently liberated from the separatists and we became part of the republic. To thank the republic I decided to open up trade routes to the clones so that it would be easier for you to access resources. I started to write up a bill to show my loyalty to the republic and that my people promise to provide whatever they needed but a few nights ago my office was broken into. Nothing was taken but the next day I found this note.” You take out the note that you had received and hand it over to Cody who took a look at it. “Like all other senators I’m no stranger to death threats as I had started to receive them not long after I became senator. Most of them were harmless so I ignored them. Along with this one of course.” Cody looked up. “Might I ask why you’re taking it seriously now?” “Yesterday I brought a draft of my bill to the senate. Most of the people support it of course and so I thought it went well. But then last night I went back to my apartment and someone had broken in. Everything had been turned over and one of my pet Tookas had been killed. I..also found another note and it has blood on it.”

Your guard handed the note to you which you then handed it to Cody. The note was definitely more threatening than the one he just read and was definitely cause for concern. “I wasn’t sure who to turn to so Senator Amidala brought it to the Jedi and they had suggested that they provide me with a bodyguard. So, that’s why you’re here.” Cody put both the notes down and looked at you. “I promise I’ll do my best to keep you safe, senator.” You smiled a little at Cody. “I have complete faith in you, commander.”

You stood up and Cody followed suit. “If you excuse me I have another meeting starting soon. I will be busy for the next few weeks so I will have my aide send you my schedule.” Cody bowed a little. “Of course, senator.” You walked back into your office and Cody took up his post at your door.

For the rest of the day Cody studied your schedule on what your week looks like and when he wasn’t doing that he was accompanying you to talk with other senators about upcoming bills or keeping watch while you worked. While it was only his first day as your personal bodyguard all of it was pretty boring. He never understood how Fox and the rest of the corries could do this every day. But he will admit that it’s a nice change of pace. He didn't have to deal with his own men or paperwork and he wasn't worried about getting shot at. Not that he wasn't used to it but he was actually grateful to his general for forcing him to do this. He would have to thank general Kenobi after the job was done.

As he thought about this your office door opened and Cody stepped to the side to let you out. "Please make sure these get to Senator Amidala and Organa right away, Tasha." "Yes, my lady."

After your aide walked away you let out a sigh as the stress of the day got to you. Luckily you didn't have anything else to work on tonight. You looked at commander Cody and approached him. He stood a little straighter as you stood in front of him. "Ma'am." "I'm all finished here commander. We'll be leaving shortly." "Yes senator."

Tasha returned shortly after and after you sent her home for the night both you and Cody took off.

Next Chapter >

Tagging: @wings-and-beskar @523rdrebel @cw80831 @anxiouspineapple99 @cloneloverrrrr @moonlightwarriorqueen @dystopicjumpsuit @eternal-transcience @sev-on-kamino @wizardofrozz @multi-fan-dom-madness @deejadabbles

[dionysus-complex]

faithblogging below the cut

one of my 2024 resolutions is to start incorporating faith into my daily and weekly life which also means finding and settling on a congregation and idk I'm struggling with that process. I've settled on the Episcopal Church as being the right place for me theologically and in terms of overall vibes (I'm looking for a more high church congregation and am theologically drawn toward aspects of Catholicism, but the Roman Catholic Church's positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights are dealbreakers for me and as the child of two ex-Mormons I'm very hesitant about getting involved with anything that high-demand and hierarchical. plus I attended an Episcopal Church-affiliated school for 9 years so the rituals are familiar.)

but the thing is that in my massive West Coast metropolis there's a number of congregations near me, of which the following four seem like options:

a fairly large congregation across the street from my university; my spouse and I attended a service here on Easter last year and enjoyed it but it's also in a very wealthy neighborhood and is closely linked with my university for better and for worse

a larger congregation in the downtown area of a nearby independent city; this one seems like it might be a bit more diverse but it's a bit further from where we live

the closest to me and most convenient, located in an upper-middle class neighborhood of mostly single-family homes. seems like it might lean older

a smaller congregation that self-identifies as Anglo-Catholic, located in a diverse neighborhood of mostly apartments and renters that is also fairly close to where we live. parking is more difficult though and it's a bit too far to walk; could maybe take the train there?

while the last one is intriguing, I'm very introverted and I think that I'd like a larger congregation at least at first where I can blend in a bit more and take things at my own pace. but it feels like there's so many issues to consider - I'm married and turning 30 this month so I feel much older than the college-age demographic, but at the same time some of the other congregations seem like they might lean toward older adults, and I also would like a congregation that embraces liberation theology and ideally one that is not overwhelmingly wealthy or white which means maybe #2 or #4 would be good options

anyways idk man this stuff is difficult and I think I just need to get out of my head about it and pick one and try it out

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

yeah see seeing all these ✨️city people✨️ and people with a lot of privilege and classism routinely calling rural iowans (SPECIFICALLY iowans) 'hicks' makes me angry and it makes me sad

we're not fucking STUPID. and a lot of the "stupidity" is often intentionally CREATED by making sure our schools are underfunded without access to proper education to build critical thinking skills and proper RESEARCH skills and limited access to news outside of newspapers and fox news. it's intentional. it's by design.

Educated rural folks who have the luxury (yes LUXURY and PRIVILEGE) to go to college to get educated LEAVE the areas where they could be the most beneficial for change and making communities diverse and more progressive and it furthers right wing, republican agendas by keeping people without access to resources and desperate and angry with the wrong people

"well you have access to the internet" yeah and the internet is full of misinformation and a lot of people are not taught how to look for credible sources or websites or how to look at biased language in writing so they ARE more susceptible to propaganda via fox News and the internet. you know what the internet also has? targeted ads and algorithms making sure you keep seeing the same kind of content and people who don't know DON'T know

however a lot of practical skills? knowledge that isn't BOOK SMART? I know plenty and they're so, so, so smart. but all I see from liberals and leftists is the refusal to use layman and simplified terms and "um! actually you need to educate yourself ☝🏻" and use unnecessarily difficult phrases

you say "defund the police" and people hear "be lawless and have no safety networks to prevent crime" instead of trying to find less #edgy slogans for what you ACTUALLY mean

you don't know what you don't know and calling us fucking hicks and ignorant isn't helping anyone. Tumblr was my first experience outside of Facebook where I learned about asexuality? it Didn't have an algorithm so I'll was able to be immersed in different cultures and view points

I'm not trying to make excuses for anyone being in rural Iowa for being hateful or racist or queerphobic but after living in the city for the last few years, I still see the same shit. it's just less covert in rural Iowa and in your face and I see leftists and liberals using their proximity to cities, and the problems in rural america as a Shield for their own bigoted and hateful behavior

I remember being on Tumblr, slowly inching into the queer community spaces, bec I wasn't used to online spaces, i was too poor at the time to have access to computers [2013+] and I came across the terms "trans man" and "trans woman" and I thought that meant a someone assigned male at birth who was trans and identified as a woman was called a 'trans man' bec I didn't know the terminology or how it was supposed to be used. I didn't know "transsexual" was considered a slur and I got attacked online for accidently using the wrong terminology because I couldn't remember the term transgender

I was from rural Iowa, a notoriously white, cis het area, fairly religious area, without a lot of access to the internet so I just. didn't know. and then i was afraid of ever saying anything again or asking questions. pls for the love of God use discernment and don't immediately vilify and attack well meaning people for not knowing what they don't know. that is EXACTLY how you can prevent people from ever being willing to grow and become educated

I remember watching the movie "Boys Don't Cry" with my mom about Brandon Teena, a trans man, and we both didn't know enough or understand enough about trans people we were unintentionally misgendering him when we talked about it but we both were so empathetic and heart broken for him

rural people I know are Prideful! they're constantly working to make ends meet and they have pride in themselves and their communities, often to the point it's at their own detriment and republican law makers KEEP it that way and rely on the classism and anger and diversion to keep it that way

a yt rural American in Appalachia is going to have more in common with a black American living in the city in the Projects more than we ever will with upper class yt folks. the wealthy yt #liberals will mock us and call us fucking stupid and ignorant and get in their own way of wanting any kind of progression. it! is never! black and white!!! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE KIND

why do you think rural Republicans don't trust the government? couldn't possibly have anything to do with the government IGNORING us or preying on poor folks who live paycheck to paycheck. of COURSE it makes sense they'd be leery about government wide programs. the government DOESNT CARE ABOUT US. and most rural "Republicans" I know aren't even republican. they don't have the time to invest in politics when we have to Work and can't Miss Work to go vote or find ways around road blocks.

most people don't know enough and vote for people they know and most don't Know democrats or their policies or their progressive goals and you know WHY that often happens? BECAUSE DEMOCRATS IGNORE THEM IN FAVOR OF CITIESSSSS. they call them STUPID and IGNORANT and can you really blame people for "not voting in their best interest" when the people who "care about their best interest" are people calling them stupid and ignorant and HICKS

I've been around Republicans in the city and Republicans in rural Iowa and if you look and listen close enough the *reasoning* for their racism (especially) tends to differ. racism is a social construct (that does NOT mean it isn't real or not important) and it was used specifically as a tool to create tension and a divide between the poor yt folks and the poc *by* yt, wealthy capitalists. the Irish were finally allowed to be #white bec they were identifying with the struggles of the marginalized folks being targeted just like THEY were in Ireland by Europe

the cold hatred I have seen from rural Republicans vs city, wealthy Republicans has been vastly different. don't get me wrong there are plenty of rural Republicans that are just as disgusting (I'm related to some lmao). often a lot of racism i see from rural folks is tied to anger and desperation from the lack of jobs and its designed that way. a lot of the racism from yt wealthy folks is tied to greed and wealth and capitalism. Donald Trump is a blaring example of an unchecked, racist, vile, classist man

I'm sorry I've had a REALLY bad week and living in a city with people who are so self centered and selfish and refuse to help has only made me miss home and despite all of the raging issues of rural america, I know a lot of kind and well meaning people who are just doing their best and willing to help you because we fucking know the government doesn't care about us

just. be kind. you don't know what you don't know and I think a lot of well meaning people shouldn't be getting attacked for it. empathy and grace should be given (when able) and people should be allowed to grow from innocent ignorance and mistakes

intersectionality and empathy and grace are so important and honestly rural america can be really beautiful and it really sucks to see it given up on in such a cruel way

I follow a person on tiktok who really embraces the idea of radical love and I think more people should too

[catholic-on-main]

thank you so much for your blog lol. i've unironically learned a lot from it. i'm 17 and interested in becoming a catholic. i read the new testament and i believe it, i try to pray and learn more about christianity as much as i can, and from the research i've done on different christian denominations i think catholicism seems the most correct & resonates with me the most. never been to church though yet, but i plan on going when i move out lol. but i'm from a secular/ethnically jewish background and i'm nervous to talk to the people in my life about wanting to convert to christianity, because they think religious people are stupid and misguided and that christians are bible-thumping rednecks with no critical thinking skills basically. my friends make fun of christians a lot, and my dad doesn't want to take me to church while i live with him. i've also realized i am more conservative-leaning, for lack of a better word, on issues such as transgender and abortion, though honestly i never thought these were good things on my own but got peer pressured into supporting them. but my area is so liberal/secular and people constantly talk about these issues in ways i very much disagree with or make fun of religious people and i just stay quiet because i'm too much of a coward to say that i'm the person they're talking about. i feel like i would lose a lot of my friends online and irl if i started talking about the impact christianity has had on me and how much it means to me. i know christians are supposed to be open about their beleifs and be able to explain and defend them. i want to explain to people that i want to be a christian and that i don't mean any harm for having different beliefs from them, but i'm honestly too scared to lose my friends. do you have any advice for this situation? (i'm sorry for the long ask!!!)

Anon, thank you for the kind words! I'm glad that my blog was able to help you out. I'm sorry you're in that kind of situation. It's definitely difficult to be in that position, and it's very scary.

I recommend looking into videos on catholic apologetics (how to explain and defend your faith to others). Father Mike Schmitz has lots of videos explaining different aspects of the catholic faith, and I highly recommend his videos! I watch them fairly regularly myself, as he's energetic and can break down difficult subjects into smaller pieces. I also recommend looking into catholic groups you can attend for support. Local churches tend to have groups for young adults that can range from Bible studies to more casual hang-outs. If you cannot attend these due to your family, then look online! There are groups on social media and apps like Discord that can be a healthy access point for others of the faith. You can also reach out to local churches via e-mail to get in contact with someone who can talk to you and get you any resources you might be looking for.

As for difficulties with friends, that's probably the scariest thing. First off, do not feel responsible for changing their mind. If you strive to live your life as a good example of the faith, then you've done your best. Pray a lot over it! I pray rosaries often when I am stressed out about something. I find the repetition helps soothe my anxieties. Ask that you might find the words to best use in your conversations. And feel free to ask others to pray for you as well! You are not in this alone, though it may feel like it. Going into a conversation, ask that they be respectful and hear you out, and say that you will be respectful in return. Make it clear that you aren't accusing or attacking them. If they come at you with questions that you struggle to answer, you are absolutely able to say that you aren't certain how to answer at the moment, and you can get back to them later after you look into that topic. Especially since you are rather new to the faith, but even people raised catholic can struggle with how best to address certain concerns.

Your situation is difficult, and I'm sorry if my response does not seem super helpful or instructive. While I have lost friends in the past due to my faith, it was more of a gradually growing apart rather than direct confrontation, so I don't have the same experiences. I will be praying for you. Feel free to contact me again if you'd like.

And if any mutuals or followers of mine have some of their own advice, especially those who converted to the faith, you all are absolutely welcome to reblog with your experiences!

[trans-leek-cookie]

i don't wanna downplay how lucky I am wrt to racism (even tho I look Asian I'm fairly pale and live in a fairly liberal area so I rarely if ever deal with real life racism) but like. Sometimes sinophobia really fucks me up. And I'm not even a real target most of the time (a lot of it is racism AND xenophobia bc it's directed toward Chinese ppl In China, plus. Half white) but god sometimes it just knocks the wind out of me

[psychomorphary]

My local Unitarian Universalist church is going to do a service about nonbinary people.

My heart leapt as soon as I read that.

I'm going to be validated, included, represented. And in a church, no less.

I know UU churches are really liberal and inclusive. But still, I live in a fairly conservative area, so this is still really exciting to me.

This means a lot.

[aroacesafeplaceforall]

TW for (maybe?) assault threat

About your post asking about discrimination for aspec identity... one time a straight guy tried to hit on me, and when I told him I was ace he joked about putting drugs in my drink. I got away before anything worse happened, but still... eugh. I think I have it better than a lot of aspecs because I live in a fairly liberal area, but I still lie that I'm straight and have a boyfriend because that seems to work better than telling people I'm ace.

Oh fuck, honestly people like that should be on a list. I'm glad you got out of there Anon!

Its honestly so sad AFAB (and some AMAB) have to lie and say they are in a relationship to avoid unwanted advances. It happens far to often, even if they aren't ace spec/aro spec and are attracted to the persons gender. I had to do it, I've had friends who had to do it. I don't really know any AFAB who haven't had to. Its so fucked up

Stay safe anon and I hope you know you are always valid and it is your box!!!