#if only i had infinite money and also didn't have to work 😭

[johaerys-writes]

Apart from your own country, which countries are you most interested in? Whether it's visiting, interest in the culture, interest in some type of media etc

Honestly anon the entire world interests me 😭 like if I could travel everywhere in the world I totally would, doesn't matter if it's a popular tourist trap or some remote region in the middle of nowhere lol, I love visiting new places and seeing how people live, how different the culture is in general. And the thing is that even if you visit a country once that's still not enough to know it, like at best you'll get to explore a really small part of it but there's so much more of it left to see, and a lifetime often isn't enough to really get to know even ONE country, ykwim? Something something, the futility of being a creature with such a short lifespan in such a big world, something something 😔

But ANYWAY lmao to answer your question there's a few countries I'm either planning to visit soon or I'd love to visit eventually:

Egypt: it's been a lifelong dream of mine to visit the pyramids and go to the Archaelogical museums there, there's just sooo much stuff to see and it's such a unique place, and also it's not too far away from here so I'm planning on going soon!

Croatia & Serbia: I feel like this summer half my insta feed is filled with photos of Croatia lolol so I'd really like to go there soon because it's so pretty!! Also Serbia is a beautiful country and most Serbs I've met were really lovely and friendly people, so that's another one for the bucket list and hopefully soon. It's actually one of my goals to visit all the countries in the Balkans eventually, so I'm slowly but surely making my way through those lol.

Japan: no surprises there, I think everybody would like to go to Japan at least once 😅 I'll probably be going within the next couple of years so fingers crossed!!

Peru: I've been dreaming for YEARS of going there, it's such a gorgeous country and I want to visit the Machu Picchu sooo bad 😭 It feels like such an impossible dream because it's so far away, but maybe one day 🥲

Other than that, I'd love to visit the Americas in general, and I'd also like to go to Australia at some point. I have family there so that's an extra incentive to go. And there are so many places in Asia and Africa I'd like to go to.... as I said, give me any place in the world to visit and I'll find something attractive about it haha.

Thank you for this ask!

[olomaya]

Honestly, I'm relieved. This game was still looking so rough and I'd feel much more comfortable with a June release than this coming out in 6 weeks.

I was watching a video from SatchoSims* and he talked about how LBY is more just a compilation of gameplay features without any gameplay and he definitely pinpointed my main issue with the game despite my excitement for it. I just don't know what I'm going to DO or what I will want to do because they haven't really done a good job of explaining the rules and structures and goals of the game (aka what the game is about).

I'm still excited for it and will definitely play it in June and am eager to check out the modding tools but yeah, what are we doing?

The Sims was a time management game. You had to figure your shit out and meet your basic needs all while juggling other mini challenges and responsibilities and TRY to become successful which would then unlock cool shit to buy or do that you would have the time to do because the money and rewards and perks you grinded for allowed you to do it.

And then TS2 improved on that by focusing on interpersonal relationships and making that more complex so that Sims felt more unique but also had to focus more on mental health and well-being and the drama that comes with interacting with other people.

Then TS3 took that even farther by basically unleashing chaos all around you with an open world so you have less control over what is going on so while you are grinding away to create a dream house for the Sim you want to marry and grow old with, you head over to the park and see your future spouse making out with some asshole in zebra print pants! And then on top of that, they deepened skills and hobbies so Sims have soooo much to do so that life goals are so much more diverse (though I will admit this came at the expense of interpersonal relationships). People often say that they wish TS3 had TS2's hobby system but in my opinion, it not only does but it's infinitely much better than TS2's. I would argue that TS3 at its core is a game about hobbies and interests.

I love that LBY seems to be wanting to improve on TS3 (because TS4 definitely didn't) and give us a true life simulator but I still don't understand what the game is about. They show off how many traits they have and how we can mod in our own traits but what do the traits means? If a character has a Difficult Childhood trait, how is that going to affect their ability to form relationships, fall in love, be a good parent? They said we could have truly homeless characters to play Rags to Riches challenges. That's awesome! Can we see that? How does the economic system work? Could it be integrated, for example, where household taxes and bills actually go towards community development? Like THIS is gameplay. I don't want to see another treasure trove video or someone doing work tasks. Those are features, not core gameplay and if it is then I'm afraid Rod Humble is making TS4 competitor, not TS3 which would be a shame.

*I don't know if I like him or not, but he has good viewpoints compared to the other high-profile Sims 4 YouTubers who at this point are practically on the Maxis payroll desperately trying to pretend that game is interesting because it literally pays their bills 😭😭

[lea-andres]

ALRIGHT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Not mentioning what happened to Tikal (which i have written on my AO3), as no one really knows about her but only sees her spirit.

i'll also give a link to what the spirits are like if you so want cause i wrote that somewhere on tumblr-

It was with Blaze was staying at the luxurious and huge hotel to go into hiding, as she was getting death threats and she needed protection. Unfortunately while waiting for a secret meeting, she was shot in the chest (we decided who her killer was but not sure i'll reveal that here lmao), but our girl wasn't gonna go down without a fight. What eventually killed her was that she was far too close to the edge of roof, and the killer simply pushed her off.

Scourge is the second one, his story is very interesting in this au. He was actually caught and arrested but during prison time he got some therapy and was in a deep state of reflection and just wondering wtf is he doing with his life. They hire him as an informant in an attempt to find Blaze's killer. To skip over the details of him trying to get his life together while trying to keep his identity and 'job' a secret to avoid getting into trouble. He is staying at the hotel meanwhile as he has nowhere else to go, need to get that money. A gang finds him and keep asking him to join them, he says no because he's fucking done with crime now, and when they wouldn't take no for an answer; Scourge loses his shit. The gang did not like this so decided to give Scourge a nasty taste of revenge (all because the shitheads couldn't take no for an answer smh), they gave Scourge what's called a Glasglow Smile and... yeah that makes Scourge go fucking crazy when he wakes up and finds that. Green boy is seeing red and goes after them, who are still in the hotel. Unfortunately, they shoot him a lot.

NEXT ONE IS BIG OH BOY, now not a lot of people knew this but in the story Big had been with Zero, who was in hiding and in a rough patch after the whole 'Infinite' thing. Big was sweet to him and helped him and they became a thing, although Zero asked to keep it secret so neither of them would get in trouble because of him. Wanting to help him more, Big decides to get a job at this hotel, he was warned about the... incidents that have happened that have made getting this job harder but since he's going for a gardening job he figured he would be okay, how much trouble could he get into? the job is fine for a little while, simply gardening and taking care of the pond life outside the hotel and minding his own business. Unfortunately one night he noticed something.. weird, he heard the sound of a window breaking and went to look and found a clearly unstable person at the window who quickly ran off. He tried to report this (albiet it was very difficult since talking is hard), but the manager simply shrugged him off saying 'he'd look into it'. Big was almost finished so he tried to get Froggy (Who would just chill out by the ponds while he worked during his shifts) and leave. Too bad for him that same person from before had found him and attacked him from behind, the big guy got struck on the head multiple times which didn't kill him but yeah he was definitely weak now... his attacker then pushed his head under the water and held him there until he stopped moving. The most tragic part of this is that Big's death was simply a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the attacker didn't have a reason to do, they was just in a crazed state related to drugs and he quickly got caught after trying to escape on foot. IF THE GANG GOT THEIR HANDS ON THEM IT PROBABLY WOULDN'T END WELL FOR THE GUY.

I'LL ADD MORE LATER THIS IS GETTING LONG-

If you find the link, I'd love to see it!

Also, OMG BLAZE SCOURGE AND BIG NOOOO!!! I love it. 😭 Big Hotel California vibes, TBH.