#it's still technically 8/31 here. totally counts

[gcantread]

read in august 📚 | JOMP book photo challenge | 31 August 2024

this month I read what I'm calling the Lady to Liar Speedrun (the more lies you tell the less pink your cover becomes)

bonus: too many lies and guess where you end up

[thotpuppy]

20 questions for fic writers!

this kind of stuff is super neat to read from others and share and talk about sooo thank u so much for the tag @sugareey-makes-stuff!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

On its face, 40, but 5 are co-creator tags because i illustrated them, 3 of them are art for the steter bang independently posted separate from their fics, 1 was gift art for the steter vday exchange, and 1 is a 60k+ roleplay that i only wrote like half of haha. so its actually 30-31

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

365,587 but again, not all my words. Without the 8 fics mentioned up top, its at 250,197 total. the fic i co wrote is 69,599. Without any of that, my total is 180,598. if i only cut half out, its at 215,397 which is. still pretty good i guess???

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Published, I have fics for Voltron Legendary Defender, Teen Wolf, Danny Phantom, and Sk8 the Infinity. I pretty much only write for Teen Wolf right now. I have WIPs and ideas for DC, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and of course Danny Phantom.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Grandma, What a Big Dick You Have! (the better to fuck you with my dear) (Sterek, WC 5,644, one shot, Rated E)

Churn My (Peanut) Butter (Steter, WC 3,074, one shot, Rated E)

A Collision of Interest is Inevitable  (This is that role-play) (PompousPep, WC 69,599, part 1 of ?, Rated M)

Why (not) Me? (Sterek, WC 6,496, one shot, Rated M)

Now Hiring (Sterek, WC 5,724, part 1 of WIP series that's currently 4 parts. Rated E)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do my very best to meet my commenters however they meet me. If they just drop some emojis, i drop some back. If they give me a long, thought out comment, I give them one back. Etc etc.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This question and 7 are both hard because I pretty much exclusively write happy endings. A Snap, a Shudder, and a Home probably has the least upward lifting ending? It's not sad or angsty, but it speaks to unresolved tensions. The problem isn't over, even if they have a taste of peace. (Sterek, WC 1,669, one shot, Rated T)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

They all have happy endings! ARGH! The most outwardly enduringly positive fic I've written, however, is probably:

Daisies and Daffodils (You Make Me Smile) (Sterek, WC 3,864, one shot, Rated T) I was just in such a smiley, indulgent mood the entire time I wrote it, and it still makes me warm and smiley about it now.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not technically, though I have gotten two particularly unpleasant comments. One was on a Sterek fanfic trope challenge fic, for the prompt "Forced Proximity". Stiles and Derek get put into a '7 minutes of heaven' sort of situation by Lydia and one commenter was SO MAD that I didn't tag the fic as RAPE/NONCON ????? They also lectured me about being sexist and having double standards because it wouldn't be okay if Sterek were Women, which was just all sorts of yikes. (WC 2,912, Rated M, link here.) The other time I got a negative comment was actually on my most recently posted WIP Under My Skin, which is a Stackson fic. The hatefulness wasn't directed at the fic itself, but it WAS targeted at one of the main protagonists of the fic, as if implying I would be "punishing" said character for his "crimes" which were Being Human and Struggling. It made me super, SUPER uncomfortable and I ended up leaving the thread on read because I just got so unhappy every time I read the comment that I decided it wasn't worth even trying to explain myself. (WC 55,613, chapter 18/?, Rated E, noncon warning)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Haha.... normally I would say that's literally most of what I write, but I have a surprising number of lengthier non-smutty fics than I realized. I also legitimately have a Just Porn fic series, though, and I've written some pretty horny stuff in general. (Sterek+ others, WC 23,152, Rated E, parts 4/?)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven't, but I'm not opposed to doing one? I tend to prefer crossovers that are more, characters from X in setting from Y than, like, main characters interacting? But I have read a good few crossovers lately that have made me much more open TO writing a crossover in the future.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Thankfully not, yikes

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Naw, but I'd be open to it! I have blanket permissions for a lot of stuff right on my ao3 profile. (:

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah :,^)

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

If you'd asked me this like 5 years ago I would have said Drarry. I HAVE answered this question with Drarry many times. I think, at this point in time, however, it is shifting. It very well may be Sterek. Drarry has absolutely shaped a huge amount of how I create, how I write, what i read, etc. though so it would be inappropriate to say it held no influence over me.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I think it's entirely possible i will never finish the TBHK Wondering Prince fic I started. It's somewhere between traditional fairy tale, medieval fantasy, and the witcher, with a good bit of TBHK's whimsical supernaturality.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I tend to do well with dialogue IMO, as well as general world building, both fantastical and mundane lol

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

plot. The actual beats of the story. I have wonderful, grand ideas on what a story should be! I even have thoughts on the conflicts, major stepping points, etc, but MAN do i get tripped up on the actual getting from point a to point b thematicall.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

*wiggly hand gesture* I think if it is a language you speak, and it is only occasional words or a line or two, it makes sense to use the other language, but in every spoken situation in visual media, you would get subtitles explaining what was being said if it went on longer than that. If the audience doesn't speak the language and they have to go to the end of the chapter/fic/etc to translate it, that can be enough for them to just gloss over and not even read it. Or, if you don't speak that language at all and you use google translate? you might have written something very different from your intent that people who DO speak it catch and get tripped up by. I think it's better to just, say that the character is speaking in another language and translate it in text for your readers.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

teeeeeeeeeechnically homestuck? for 'posted on ao3'?? But also, I've lowkey been writing fanfic adjacent works since i was like 6, but i don't rly wanna count that LOL

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This bitch is my baaaaaaaaby. Stackson, WC 55,613, Chapters 18/?. https://archiveofourown.org/works/48834448 Currently a WIP but with a deadline, so it WILL be finished! This is probably the fic that got me REALLY into writing fic on my own though. https://archiveofourown.org/works/29829636 It really brought me back to my love of writing and was the first finished work in a long ass time. I also think it's really funny and a great example of what I can do when I apply myself. (PompousPep, WC 4,545, 2 chapters, Rated M.)

Tagging: @geekmom13 @always-mimits @sinnabon-cosplay @okdeannawrites @whimsicalmeerkat @clotpolesonly @hedwig221b @wolfspurr @lavender-lotion @adrianfridge

(Blank under the readmore)

20 questions for fic writers!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

[peculiar-potato]

My Art Fight 2024 Stats & Summary!

(This might be really boring but I like numbers and this is my tumblr so too bad)

For starters, here’s my progress on the Art Fight Bingo card, almost blacked the whole thing out! I hit a lot of categories with the same attacks, so to avoid too much repetition I decided to fill in the blocks with attacks I thought fit the brief the best, even if they weren’t the first one to check it off.

A few things of note, compared to previous years:

I had 28 level 1 attacks I needed to revenge (not counting chains). This most direct revenges I had to do so far! (Previous record was 21 in 2021). Essentially a lot more people attacked me first this year!

My attacks to defenses ratio this year (including mass attacks I was included in) was 42.2%. This is my lowest ratio of all the years, and the first time it fell below 50%. I did revenge everyone but I got a lot of attacks back for my mass attack so I technically received more art.

I did 38 attacks, which is my second-lowest amount of attacks (I did 31 in 2018). This was because my mass attack took up a ton of time, and now it just takes me longer to make attacks of the quality I want to.

18 of those attacks were friendly fire, which ties for the most friendly fire attacks in a year (I also did 18 in 2020), but friendly fire overall made up a higher percentage of my total attacks this year.

I had at least one character included in 19 mass attacks, which beat my record of being included in 12 in 2021. (Worth noting that between both 2022 and 2023 I was included in only 8, so I was not used to this many ahah).

This year my mass attack scored 9609.75 points, which absolutely destroyed my previous personal record of 3750.25 in 2021.

That helped my total points scored this year land at 12445.75, which is way more than previous years, my previous record being 7340.75 also in 2021.

In general, my fan characters took my art fight by storm, receiving wayyy more attacks than any of my original characters, which hasn’t happened before! I think a big contributing factor to this was all the mass attacks I was included in, but still, it was really interesting!

This year’s “fan favorite” (character who received the most attacks) was actually a tie between two characters- Twelve and Cyrus, both being included in 12 (aha) attacks each! Gray was a pretty close second being included in 11 attacks.

New/different things I did this year:

A lot more animation! I’ve done tiny bits here and there, but this year I actually fully animated a few attacks (including my mass attack)

Also my giant amv mass attack lol. So much fun but so much work ahah.

A traditional art attack! I’ve never actually submitted a traditional art attack in all my years of art fight despite originally being a traditional artist before I got into digital art in like 2017.

More comics! I did quite a few comics as revenge, (usually as revenge for others’ comics), and those were really fun too.

A lot more character interaction! I included my characters in attacks on other characters more, usually as revenge for people who already drew our characters together. Building off of other attacks and kind of “continuing the story” when I got a coupe comics was really fun.

Bonus doodle reward! Whoever was the first to draw one of my characters for the year got a bonus mini-doodle in my cartoony style of the character of theirs I attacked/revenged with. This was in an effort to try and get more of my characters attacked instead of people just focusing on some of the same ones. I don’t know if it actually made that much of a difference in getting more of my characters attacked, but it was kinda fun. I almost forgot to add the doodles though sometimes ahah. I haven’t decided if I’ll bring that back next year or not

Overall I had a great time! I would say this has been my favorite year of Art Fight so far, beating 2021 which was my old favorite. Only disappointment is not getting to do quite as many attacks as I wanted to due to time constraints- there were a few people I wanted to attack but didn’t get to. In general though, this year was awesome, and I’m sad to see it end. Already cooking up some fun ideas for next fight though!

Here’s a few screenshots from my overcomplicated spreadsheet that break down some of the numbers!

[screenandcinema]

How I Watched The Movies of 2023

Now that 2023 has come to a close, I wanted to reflect on how I watched the films of 2023. I watched a grand total of 45 films that were released in 2023, only 30 of which were in theaters, the rest were at home through a variety of channels or streaming services.

The full breakdown of the 45 new releases I saw is as follows:

30 in theaters - If you added in the 1 movie I saw twice, that is 31 trips to the theaters at two different movie theaters, though 77% were at one theater.

3 on Paramount+ - This includes two Paramount+ originals The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Good Burger 2.

3 on Peacock - I'm looking at you, HypNotic!

3 on VOD - One of which was Meg Ryan's What Happens Later my wife and I rented when laid up with the flu.

2 on Hulu - A pair of pretty bad romantic comedies that didn't get a theatrical release are the culprits here.

2 on Netflix - 65, which I missed in theaters, was one of them

1 on Hallmark Channel - Don’t blame me for this one. Blame the Hallmark Channel for making another Hanukkah movie.

1 on a Film Independent Screener - American Fiction, which still hasn't hit theaters near me, was the one screener I watched in 2023.

Zero on Disney+, Amazon Prime, and AppleTV+ - Strange, right? These streamers accounted for 6 new moves in 2022, but nothing in 2023.

 A further breakdown of those 30 trips to the theater to see 2023 movies:

7 were in XD (1 of which was the second time I saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)

2 were Sneak Previews/Early Screenings - I saw both Dead Reckoning and Gran Turismo before their release date.

8 were Opening Night Thursday screenings - Haunted Mansion was technically a Thursday afternoon, but I count it nonetheless.

11 were on Saturday - I went to the movies every day of the week in 2023, except Tuesday.

6 were in November - I never made it to the theaters in January 2023. Fun fact, I have already been to the movies four times in January 2024 so far, but they were all 2023 films.

Compared to the same information last year, I saw fewer new movies in 2023 than I did in 2022 (45 vs. 48). I did see the exact same amount in theaters in 2023 as I did in 2022 (30), though I made less trips (31 vs. 32) since I saw two movies twice in 2022 and only one in 2023.

I look forward to continuing to catch up on 2023 films in the early months of 2024 and at home, I already saw four in theaters this week!

-MB-

[bearlytolerant]

Tagged by @thevikingwoman @ejunkiet and @roguelioness thank you so much! 1. How many works do you have on AO3?

20

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

114587

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Vhenan’ara - a solavellan fic in which a happy ending for solavellan doesn’t mean perfect

the sun and the moon- Solas x Sarya Lavellan snippets I’ve written over the years

Free Falling- a modern solavellan circus/newspaper au

Soaring - circus au prompts that occur outside the main story

Say Something- a 5+1 Shega fic

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! I adore when writers respond to me because it’s my fave feature about fanfic. So I respond to people who do me the honors of commenting. Sometimes I’m slower at responding than I’d like to be though 😩

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t have any full fics.

But that one shot would be Apple Pie (ch 31) 😬

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Bitter on the Tongue - a pentahawke love story

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve ever written?

I don’t generally speaking but my mass effect fic, Unhinged, is technically.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Oh gosh, yes. Tbh it’s scared me off a few times but then I always come back with more spite to write. 😝

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes indeed. I don’t know. Porn with plot. Porn with feelings. I really like throwing in conversation. Sometimes I write more lyrical/poetic stuff. Things for twc have gotten a little kinkier these days. So a mixed bag of things. I don’t know. Depends on my mood I guess.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I started to co-write one before and it was a blast! 10/10 would co-write with someone again.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oof. I don’t know. Solavellan is up there but so is Bethistair. And current twc ship obsessions are up there.

You know what, I don’t like this question. I can’t pick a favorite okay.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but you don’t think you ever will?

Honestly, I don’t know. The dream is to finish every wip I’ve started. Maybe come back and ask me this in five years. Lol

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think I’m decent with dialogue these days actually. I’m also concise I think and I’m creative.

Oh I’m good at adding drama and decent at adding layers to my writing.

I once had someone tell me I’m great at writing the metaphysical. But I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not. I’ll just put it here anyway.

I’ll be honest, this feels really weird to write this out.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Brain is much more suited for this purpose. It wants to scream–everything—but too bad. Here’s some things though.

Getting discouraged easily.

Staring at a blank page for too long.

Adding too many subplots—a downside to my drama loving ass 😅

I feel iffy about my pacing.

I could get better at cutting the transitional sentences. Too many of those.

Editing is the bane of my existence and it probably shows–sorry about those grammar mistakes I still missed after 100 read throughs.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don’t know. I don’t have any. Now I’m wondering if I should be thinking about this 🤔…

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age 🥲

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Again with the singular favorite. Cruel to make me choose.

From Dragon Age: Birthday Boy (ch 4)

From TWC: plant saga

Tagging @ellstersmash @kittlesandbugs and literally anyone else who sees this and hasn’t been tagged (I feel like everyone else I know has already been tagged lol)

[captainsophiestark]

Fic Writer Review

Thanks for the tag @browneyedgenius !!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Only 31 lol, it’s the most recent fic platform I’ve joined so I still have a lot of work to do uploading all my fics from here to there (I have like 90-something on Tumblr 😂)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

… I have no idea how to find this information 😬😂

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Eight? Soon to be nine when I post something scheduled for later this week!

4. Top five fics by kudos?

I know this is in reference to AO3, but I actually have this info for Tumblr, so I’m gonna answer that way instead:

1: Cake: Pietro Maximoff x reader (249 notes)

2: Distraction: Regulus Black x reader (227 notes)

3: Yellow Paint: Elijah Mikaelson x reader (226 notes)

4: Paintball and Proposals: Elijah Mikaelson x reader (204 notes)

5: A tie between The Calm One: Elijah Mikaelson x reader (199 notes) and Birthmark: Kol Mikaelson x reader (199 notes)

I have no idea why Elijah is dominating so high key 😂 I also think it’s fun that Pietro and Regulus are at the top, even though they’re not necessarily the most popular characters.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

Yes! I love reading comments, and I try to respond to all of them I see. I’m not great at it on AO3, but for Tumblr and Wattpad I’m much more regular. I appreciate the people who read my work and leave notes, so I don’t want to leave them hanging!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably Grief. I literally had to take a break from writing angst after this fic, and I immediately posted the only spoiler I’ve ever given for my long fic on Wattpad, which is that I’m not killing Fred in that story. Angst definitely has an important place in fiction, but it’s not always my thing, especially in context like that.

7. Do you write crossovers?

HECK yes I write crossovers. I love crossovers. I write them less for Oneshots and stuff on here, but I’m in the middle of writing what’s going to be a five book Marvel/Harry Potter crossover series on Wattpad. Crossovers are my JAM.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Yup, unfortunately. On the bright side, Wattpad has a great delete comment feature for comments posted on your stories, and also a great mute feature for more extreme cases.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Unfortunately also yes! It was someone on Wattpad stealing Oneshots from here, and they took down the book thankfully. Apparently now there’s also something called teenfic.net doing the same thing? Sounds super sketch, and I’m currently trying to decide if I have the energy to try and deal with that at the start of my semester 🙄

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Nope! I am literally amazed with how good some of my international readers are at English, y’all are SUPERHEROES for learning this as a second language 🙌🏼

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Nope!

13. All time fav ship?

Percabeth, hands down. Also Peggysous, Feyrhys, and Maxerica. All four are tied for all-time favorite ship.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I got super hyped about this idea for a Pietro Oneshot, but it came during kind of a writing slump for me, and now whenever I try to start it again I just have this mental block about it.

15. Writing strengths?

Dialogue, and I think I’m pretty good at creating/writing different characters.

16. Writing weaknesses?

I over complicate plots and second guessing myself, and sometimes I get a little lost on my descriptions.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

To each their own. I think it can quickly become a problem if it's a lot of dialogue that your readers need to understand, but it can def be done well too.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically a Percy Jackson/Hunger Games crossover (like I said, crossovers are my JAM), but the first fandom I wrote a PUBLISHED fic for was Marvel (Saving Grant Ward for those of you who know it 😄)

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ugh this is such a hard question, frick, ok, I Am Burdened would probably have to take the title. It’s a Loki fic I wrote with an alternate version of what could’ve happened in the Battle of New York, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Also super proud of my American at Hogwarts series on Wattpad 😊

This was so much fun omg!! Super no pressure, but I’d love to hear from some of my other writer friends! (Also sorry if you’ve already been tagged in this lol, feel free to ignore it):

@lovelyavengers @darling-i-read-it @lady-salvatore @elijahs-wife @fightfortherightsofhouseelves

[fundielicious-simblr]

Character Recap! Gen 2

After a good break to sort my life out, I decided that it would be good to do an update on everybody (yup, this is one of those posts) Why, you ask? Because I enjoy driving myself crazy by creating unnecessary amounts of work for myself - but y’all knew that already 😂 Keeping in line with that theme, one night at 4am I decided that I wanted to revamp my character pages (which ended up being my whole Tumblr theme) which would require updated pictures of everybody. I don’t know what possessed me to dredge up my old coding knowledge - if you can even call it knowledge- but I’m still in the process of finishing the character pages for gen 3 because there’s so many of them. 😅

Even though we’re on gen 3 officially, these characters are still mentioned in some parts of the story, and I also find it hard to let go of these since they’re my OG 8, the first sims born in game that I’ve ‘raised’. I’ve only just had the time to sit down and calculate peoples ages, meaning that the first 2 couples should technically still be adults, but I’m not reversing the aging process - we’re too far in 😂

I’ve updated my character’s page for gen 2 (gen 3 is almost done, but this isn’t about them 😂) I decided to add the ‘labels’ for each couples (where they fall on the fundie scale) because then it would align with what I do for gen 3′s character pages and how I label them. I tried to summarize all the ‘yikes��� bits of the relationships with the bulletpoints to truly highlight the 🥴-iness of it all you know? 

Allan & Casandra 

Meet Allan (54) and Casandra Collins (51) - Here’s a quick recap of their relationship:

They met at Family Bible Camp at 22 and 18 respectively, and were married 5 months later - both had their first kiss at the altar.

They continued to live as quiverfull fundamentalists after their marriage, subscribing to conservative biblical modesty standards, meaning that Casandra (and their subsequent daughters) wear skirts and dresses. They pledged to allow the Lord to decide their family size which led to 15 children - 13 living and 2 miscarriages.

Allan works as the Head Pastor at Newcrest Baptist Church along with being on the Board of Directors for the Centre For Learning and Life, whilst Casandra homeschools their children still at home and ministers to the women of the church in her duties as the Pastor’s wife. When she’s not doing that she’s visiting her grandchildren that live in town, or traveling to see the children and grandchildren that live elsewhere.

Here they are with all their children:

Back L-R: Adalynn (32), Barrett (31), Macie (31), Zoe (29), Maggie (25), Reece (24), Beckett (23)

Front L-R: Amira (22), Priscilla (20), Annette (20), Allan (54), Casandra (51), Charles (18), Parker (17), Ashton (15)

Branden & Lea

Meet Branden (52) and Lea (50) Collins - A recap of their relationship

They met when Lea’s family visited Newcrest Baptist so her father could give the sermon as the visiting pastor when he was 17 and she was 16, and they were married a year later - they saved their first kiss for their wedding day.

They had trouble having children for the first year and a half of their marriage, eventually having their twin girls Abbey and Brittany (28), their son Tanner (25) joined the family 3 years later.

Branden is now a retired Christian novelist, whose books have been bestsellers and he travels from church to church to run writing seminars for authors who are hoping to make it in the business. Lea stays at home and tends to her garden now that all their children are grown. She started the garden in their time before children and that garden has grown to be a local hit - she’s been selling the honey made by their bees and runs workshops to teach young women how to start their gardens to promote healthy eating. She travels along with Branden when he's teaching somewhere, and if she doesn’t she’s visiting her grandchildren.

Here they are with their children:

Front L-R: Abbey (28), Brittany (28), and Tanner (25)

Claire & Ryan

Meet Claire (51) and Ryan Paulson (55) - Here’s their recap:

They met when Claire travelled with a music group to perform at Ryan’s home church when she was 20 and he was 24, they were engaged 3 months later and married 3 months after that - they too had their first kiss at the altar.

They too pledged to allow the Lord to decide their family size and ended up having 10 children, like their parents they subscribe to conservative biblical modesty standards, meaning that the girls in the family wear skirts and dresses only.

Ryan runs his own IT business whilst Claire is a renowned Christian musician. Despite her immense talent, Claire’s main focus was and still is homeschooling her children and being a keeper of the home. As Ryan is his own boss, he is able to travel with Claire whenever she travels to teach of perform, she’s taught their children (who’ve seemingly inherited her talent) and the family performs at various events.

Here they are with their children:

Back L-R: Carter (30), Valentina (28), Alan (27), Celeste (26), Kristyn (24), Sabrina (24)

Front L-R: Jarrod (20), Zachary (18), Conner (15), Jarrett (15)

Danielle & Sebastian

Meet Danielle (51) and Sebastian (53) Hunt - Here’s a recap of their lives:

They met when he moved to Newcrest for his Veterinary residency and started attending their church, where during their courtship they both realised they had a shared love of nature and animals. 6 months later they were married, at the ages of 28 and 30.

They struggled to have children, and when Danielle did get pregnant 3 years into the marriage they ended up losing that pregnancy in the 3rd trimester - Danielle was pregnant with a baby girl they named Sarah. The next year they got pregnant and had their son James (19), and 4 years later they had their daughter Gabriela (15).

Sebastian runs a Vet Clinic in Brindleton Bay and Danielle stays at home to homeschool Gabriela, she does work at the clinic when she has the time and is responsible for the bookkeeping.

Here’s their family:

Elaine & Taylor

Meet Elaine (48) and Taylor (49) Godwin - Here’s a recap of their lives so far:

They met when Taylor moved to Newcrest to be a commuter into the city for his job as an engineer, and started attending their church. They courted for a year before marrying at the ages of  24 and 25.

They had their daughter Kyra (23) a year into their marriage, followed by twins Rory and Ruby Rae (17) 6 years later, Ava Grace (15) was born 2 years after the twins, and the youngest Amelia (11) was born 4 years after Ava.

Taylor works as a mechanical engineer whilst Elaine uses her teaching degree to homeschool the children and teach at the local homeschool co-op. Elaine wanted her children to have the experience of being taught by more than one person, but wanted control of their curriculum, meaning that the co-op was the best thing for them.

Here’s their family:

Fletcher & Cara

Here’s Fletcher (45) and Cara Collins (44) - Here’s a recap of their lives:

They met at Cara’s university when Fletcher was 22 and Cara was 20 and married 3 years later at the ages of 24 and 23 respectively. They set their own standards and therefore kissed before marriage. 7 years into their marriage they had their only child, a son that names James Lee (14)

Whilst Fletcher was raised in a conservative, fundamentalist household, Cara was raised in a less strict conservative Christian home and they chose to realign with less strict rules for their lives. 

Fletcher works as a Sergeant for the Newcrest Police Department and Cara works as a fundraising specialist for the local Conservative party in Newcrest. 

Here’s their family:

Grayson and Keira

Meet Grayson (42) and Keira (40) Collins - Here’s a recap of their lives:

They met when Keira moved to Newcrest to work as a Nurse in the pediatrics ward at Newcrest General hospital, Grayson had begun his rotations and they were in the same orientation group. Keira also joined Newcrest Baptist, their relationship blossomed from there and married after dating for a year and a half at the ages of 26 and 24.

They were open to having as many children as the Lord saw fit to provide, and they had their son Matthew (14)  2 years into their marriage, followed by their son Archie (11) 3 years later. There were complications during Archie’s birth that lead to Keira having a partial hysterectomy to save her life, meaning that their family is complete with their 2 boys.

Grayson works as an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist at Newcrest General, and Keira worked as a Nurse until they had their children. They’ve chosen to homeschool their children until high school, after which they enroll them in a private Christian high school. Once Archie the youngest moves into high school, Keira plans to return back to work at the hospital.

Here’s their family:

Harley & Gabriel

Meet Harley (42) and Gabriel (45) Barnard - Here’s a recap of their relationship:

They met at a dinner party in San Myshuno, they became fast friends and started dating a year after they met. They dated for 2 years before getting married at the ages of 28 and 21.

Harley was the first of her female siblings to go to college, she has a 1st class degree in Fine Arts with a focus on Fashion. She’s also the first of her female siblings to work a full time job. After going to college, Harley realised she was more like her older brother Fletcher and his wife in terms of beliefs, so when she married Gabriel they both agreed that in terms of beliefs that they’d attend a conservative non-fundamentalist church in San Myshuno. They both chose not to have children, so they spend time with their nieces and nephews, as well as the children their nieces and nephews.

Gabriel works as the Head Chef of a 5 star restaurant in the city, and Harley is the Editor-in-Chief of the popular fashion magazine ‘Myshuno Madness’

Gen 2 total: 8 sims (16 if you count the spouses)

Aaaand that is the first reintroduction post! Posts will restart after this one, mostly because I need queue some things up before doing the gen 3 posts so that I don’t need to worry about spoilers 😂

[k-y-andjellysandwich]

would you answer all of the questions or is that asking too much

Well shit I guess if I must. But also good on you for using anon so I can’t get you back for this:

·         1. Are looks important in a relationship? Kinda, but I think the more emotionally attracted to someone you are, the more physically attracted you become too.

·         2. Are relationships ever worth it? Obviously yes

·         3. Are you a virgin? No

·         4. Are you in a relationship? No

·         5. Are you in love? No

·         6. Are you single this year? Yes

·         7. Can you commit to one person? Yes

·         8. Describe your crush. Don’t really have a real “crush” per se, just people I’d be dtf

·         9. Describe your perfect mate. Ew don’t use the word mate

·         10. Do you believe in love at first sight? Uuuuh I guess? It had to have happened once, the world is weird.

·         11. Do you ever want to get married? Maybe idk

·         12. Do you forgive betrayal? Yeah, probably too easily

·         13. Do you get jealous easily? I don’t think of it as jealousy, I think I just need a lot of attention. I think I might be needy, but idk for sure

·         14. Do you have a crush on anyone? See 8

·         15. Do you have any piercings? No

·         16. Do you have any tattoos? No

·         17. Do you like kissing in public? Sometimes yeah

·         20. Do you shower every day? I’ve been trying to do every other day lately but its hard I love showers

·         21. Do you think someone has feelings for you? Idk dude maybe

·         22. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Yeah probably

·         23. Do you think you can last in a relationship for 6 months and not cheat? I’ve done it so yes

·         24. Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years? Fuck probably not

·         25. Do you want to be in a relationship this year? Right now not really I’m looking for something more casual, like friends w benefits-y

·         26. Has anyone told you they don’t want to ever lose you? Yep

·         27. Has someone ever written a song or poem for you? Poem yeah not song

·         28. Have you ever been cheated on? No but like…kinda? Complicated

·         29. Have you ever cheated on someone? No

·         30. Have you ever considered plastic surgery? If so, what would you change about your body? Unless you consider removing the mole on my eyebrow plastic surgery, no

·         31. Have you ever cried over a guy/girl? I cry over everything so yes

·         32. Have you ever experienced unrequited love? Yeah

·         33. Have you ever had sex with a man? Yep

·         34. Have you ever had sex with a woman? Yep

·         35. Have you ever kissed someone older than you? Yep

·         36. Have you ever liked one of your best friends? Yep (I’m a fucking sucker for this)

·         37. Have you ever liked someone who your friends hated? Nope

·         38. Have you ever liked someone you didn’t expect to? The fuck does this mean?

·         39. Have you ever wanted someone you couldn’t have? See 32

·         40. Have you ever written a song or poem for someone? Yeah a poem. I also remixed some songs for someone once

·         41. Have you had sex so far this year? Yes

·         42. How long can you just kiss until your hands start to wander? I mean there’s a point where they SHOULD wander right? Otherwise you’re just not taking the hint

·         43. How long was your longest relationship? Like 3 years-ish

·         44. How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had? 3 total? Maybe 4

·         45. How many people did you kiss in 2012/2013? Huh this really aged this post huh. Lets do 19/20. I think like 3?

·         46. How many times did you have sex last year? Listen I don’t think we have to get into the specifics. Zero, its zero

·         47. How old are you? 24

·         48. If the person you like says they like someone else, what would you say? Hell yeah go for it dude.

·         49. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what is your favorite thing about him/her? Don’t have one

·         50. If your first true love knocked on your door with apology and presents, would you accept? Accept the apology? Yes. Accept their love? No, its over.

·         51. Is there a boy/girl who you would do absolutely everything for? Yep

·         52. Is there anyone you’ve given up on? Why? Yeah, because they weren’t into me like that

·         53. Is there someone mad because you’re dating/talking to the person you are? Nope

·         54. Is there someone you will never forget? I’m gonna get Alzheimer’s so I’ll probably forget everyone

·         55. Share a relationship story. The first time I ever had sex we were caught by their grandparents. Good times.

·         56. State 8 facts about your body Pretty eyes, purple hair, strong legs, no abs, big-ish dick, bigger booty, hairy everything, unusually long tongue

·         57. Things you want to say to an ex Sorry

·         58. What are five ways to win your heart? Open up to me, be empathetic, love animals, love cuddles, have a HUGE booty

·         59. What do you look like? *Ghasp* well I never! (See below)

·         60. What is the biggest age difference between you and any of your partners? Pulls neck of shirt, 5.5 years

·         61. What is the first thing you notice in someone? Hair

·         62. What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you? Tie me up and tease me/edge me for a long time

·         63. What is your definition of “having sex”? penetration

·         64. What is your definition of cheating? When you’re in a relationship with one person and you have sexual relations or try to date another without telling the first (or the second)

·         65. What is your favourite foreplay routine? See 62. But also oral, if that counts as foreplay.

·         66. What is your favourite roleplay? Only sexual roleplay I’ve ever done is masseur and customer, so I guess that one

·         67. What is your idea of the perfect date? Either pizza, cuddling, and movies, OR elope and move to another continent.

·         68. What is your sexual orientation? Bi

·         69. What turns you off? I guess like terrible people or things? Like if you say something reprehensible, I’m not gonna be into you

·         70. What turns you on? Almost everything I’m on a fuckin hair trigger

·         71. What was your kinkiest wet dream? Never had a REAL wet dream (never came while sleeping) but the kinkiest sex dream was probably just when I had one about a friend at the time.

·         72. What words do you like to hear during sex? My name. Just general feedback is good too. I like to know what I’m doing right and what I can do better.

·         73. What’s something sweet you’d like someone to do for you? Ask me to eat them out or suck their dick

·         74. What’s the most superficial characteristic you look for? With men in general, I tend to have higher standards for physical attraction (provided I don’t know them. If I know them, all bets are off). But like big and/or tight, well defined muscles

·         75. What’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you? One time a partner asked me how my day was while I was at work and I said a bit rough so they dressed in cute lingerie for when I came home, and said if I’d said I had a lot of energy they were gonna dress like a dominatrix and I still think about it

·         76. What’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for someone? One time I drove from Boston to New York to pick someone up at the airport because they were nervous. Or maybe the time I laid down rose petals on the floor of a minivan so we could romantically fuck in the back

·         77. What’s your opinion on age differences in relationships? Be careful. Its hard to avoid a bad power dynamic, so big age gaps will only work if you’re conscious of the gap. But being conscious of the gap makes the relationship more difficult.

·         78. What’s your dirtiest secret? I don’t really have one, I’m kinda an open book about stuff. I guess the fact that I was into step sister porn for awhile was gross, but that was just cause it’s the only porn with plot most of the time. Also it grosses me out now.

·         79. When was the last time you felt jealous? Why? In my last relationship, but again see number 13

·         80. When was the last time you told someone you loved them? Today lmao

·         81. Who are five people you find attractive? Conveniently, I know 4 people on here in real life so @circumlocutive, @slutty--flamingos (sorry it wont tag for some reason), @jimbobzinga, @fernfolly, and I need a fifth so … I guess one of my exes? I find most people in my life attractive tbh

·         82. Who is the last person you hugged? @circumlocutive

·         83. Who was your first kiss with? My first girlfriend, technically when we were like 5.

·         84. Why did your last relationship fail? Long story, basically I don’t think I’m compatible with polyamory in a relationship setting. If its just fooling around I don’t care, but I have a hard time dating someone who also wants to date other people. I don’t care if my partner wants to fuck other people, that’s fine, but dating others brings up the problems from number 13.

·         85. Would you ever date someone off of the Internet? I mean I have a tinder so yeah

[grenawitka]

I was tagged by @u-okay-hen- thank you! 💛💛

1. What is the color of your hair brush? i had a red one, but it broke. and now im using my parents that is black and purble but i just ordered one that is made of wood and another ne that is light blue. 

2. Name a food you never eat? im very picky with what i eat so the list is long

3. Are you typically too warm or too cold? too warm

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? daydreaming about the life ill never have lmao

5. What’s your favorite candy bar? i like a lot of candies

6. Have you ever been to a professional sports game? no, the only other sport i like besides hockey is fútbol (football or soccer), but the fans get a little aggressive after the games, and shockingly enough i wouldnt like to die out there, so no, i havent.

7. what was the last thing you said out loud? ella es tan linda (she’s so sweet) (about my tutor being the nicest person on earth)

8. What is your favorite ice cream? its a bar of chocolate that they made an icecream. its called sahne-nuss and its delicious

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? a glass of coca-cola (coke, whatever you guys call it)

10. Do you like your wallet? yeah, i guess. its plain black, i like black.

11. What was the last thing you ate? a banana

12. Did you buy any new clothing last week? i bought a corey perry jersey, because hes my king👑

13. What’s the last sporting event you watched? stars winning game 5. lets go for game 6 tonight!!

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? sweet

15. Who was the last person you sent a text to? nh-ell! shouout to my girls💖

16. Ever go camping? not technically. every summer, me and my cousins set a tent in my backyard and we spent the night but i dont think the world would count it as camping, even tho we totally do lol.

17. Do you take your vitamins? im not exactly trilled with the idea of living so why try and be healthy to make it longer 😌😌

18. Do you regularly attend a place of worship? no

19. Do you have a tan? nope, we just got rid of winter here.

20. Do you prefer chinese or pizza? ive never had chinese food, and pizza is the best invention EVER

21. Do you drink soda through straws? not really but i actually like drinking from straws. reusable ones - LETS SAVE THE PLANET YALL

22. What color socks do you usually wear? i was just gifted a huge amount of socks of all colors and i am living my best life right now

23. Do you ever drive above the speed limit? i can barely drive

24. What terrifies you? losing the people i love, but i guess we all fear that

25. Look to your left, what do you see? my wallet, which reminds me i owe my dad money for buying me the corey perry jersey

26. What chore do you hate the most? i hate aking my bed but i love when my bed is made. i guess is the price to pay.

27. What do you think when you hear an australian accent? i think about a movie where a group of friends go into the middle of nowhere in australia and when they go back to their homes the world was at war. i cant remember the name of the movie, it wasnt good either, but the trauma of that happening stayed with me. also chris hemsworth. 

28. What’s your favorite soda? coca-cola. i think americans call it coke. nothing better than something that kills your liver

29. Do you ever go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? drive thru arent very popular in my country. i mean, they exist but we usually dont use them.fast food places are where is at

30. What’s your favorite number? 27

31. Who’s the last person you talked to? my mom

32. Favorite cut of beef? whatever is eatable, idk. i just eat it

33. last song you listened to? punto y aparte by morat 🎼

34. Last book you read? guys, i dont read, stop asking me this 🙃

35. Favorite day of the week? friday’s but only at night because i have classes in the morning. friday’s are ussually family day - we all gather and we dance, drink, sing and do something stupid. i love my family.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? if im drunk enough i can do whatever 💯

37. How do you like your coffee? i dont drink coffe

38. Favorite pair of shoes? i just bought a pair of brown boots, and theyre so fluffy and warm and pretty, but dont wear them because im in lockdown :(

39. Time you normally get up? 8:00am, but only because i have classes either way it would probably be at 1pm. i love my sleep😌

40. Do you prefer sunrise or sunset? sunset

41. Describe your kitchen plates? a have a few that are plain white, others have an organge adge, others have flowers, others have blue and red stripes. i own a lot of plates

42. How many blankets are on your bed? 4, we just reached spring in my country, so its still a little bit chilly down here in chile

43. Describe your kitchen at the moment? white, with a table... i dont know how to describe places, sorry😅

44. Do you have a favorite alcoholic drink? i change favorite drink, like i change socks but right now im really into diaquiris. also, i like making my own drinks.

45. Do you play cards? yes, tho i just know how to play a few type of games. i usually play with my family

46. What color is your car? my parents have a car and its black👍🏻

47. Can you change a tire? kinda. i struggle a little but yeah i can do it.

48. Favorite state? new york - its my dream place (i love cities. oh to ignore everyone!), tho im poor and i could never afford to live there 🙃

49. Favorite job you’ve had? i’ve never worked before

50. tagging: tagging people gives me anxiety because i think they may not like it and therefore won’t like me, and today sucks so i won’t do it (unless anybody wants to)

[bilgisticallykosher]

Selfishness vs. Selfishness Redux

Pre-episode thoughts. I don't think they're going to address the dark side Everybody-already-knew-that thing right away. I'm still thinking Deceit's gonna be Virgil, but I'm also not so certain that's going to wind up going down. Because there's a lot of other stuff to get into. We know from the first Asides that stuff between Virgil and Patton is growing, and simmering. It's coming, and while that's in the future, there's probably going to be more build-up here. Is it that Patton knew about Virgil's past? Is it something else entirely? This is going to be a two hour episode, geez. 

Also, I can't believe he's actually going to the wedding. Idk. All those people saying he got the date wrong, though? First of all, Logan is in charge of the schedule, he'd never let that happen, how dare? And also, I always double check dates and invitations for stuff. I really doubt Virgil wouldn't have looked at the invitation and checked the information again. Watch me be totally wrong now. 

I don't know who I think the cloaked figure is. Could be Deceit ("like a freaking Scooby Doo villain"), could be Thomas himself. Probably not Organization XIII, but I'm not completely eliminating the option, let me have this. 

Things I'd like, but am 99% certain won't happen; Deceit's name (which I'm both hoping and expecting to not start with D), a new side, Remus and Deceit interacting on camera, or really Remus at all. Except for that green score of BOOBS, I maintain that's Remus's contribution. 

ALRIGHT, LET'S GO, I'M NOT READY!!!!

First impression of the thumbnail. You vs. Yourself???? Oh my gosh. Ohhhh, I'm freaking out. Patton looks so apprehensive, and I don't know if that's on general, or because of Roman or in response to Roman, because Roman looks so annoyed at Patton! He's so angry oh my gosh. I mentioned I wasn't ready, right? Okay. Okay. So their sprites are different styles, which is cool. Patton's looks risk-based stroll around town type of RPG, Roman's looks fighting style. 

The options for the character select???? Oh my gosh, that's. Hi, Remus. Anyway, uh, I don't know what this means, but there's three character options on top and- DARK SIDES ARE SEPARATE FROM LIGHT SIDES! Oh gosh, I was thinking maybe it was something to do with specifically Logan. Ooh, Deceit's in his lawyer outfit, nice touch.  THERE'S AN EXTRA BLANK PLAYER OPTION. I don't know if that means he'll be revealed this episode, or just that he exists. I mean, we just had Deceit's logo, Remus's reveal and name reveal… here goes.

IT STARTS WITH THE VIDEO GAME??? THIS IS THE INTRO????? THE WEDDING??????!!!!!!! Oh hey word crush. Oh hey, it's the couple! Starting to think this is a dream or fantasy, btw. Also, Lee and Mary Lee sound like...Esteban and Valerie? Maybe? Idk. Omg, Life is pain. 

This is awkward, beautiful. Pfft, hence the marriage. Photographer is great, no idea who he or the emcee are. Ooh. Crushed. 

INTRO??? EXCUSE ME??? Oh was SvS originally on 3/31? Yeah, good, play a review like all of us haven't been obsessing over what happened last time. "APRIL 13" I'm just going thi pause forever now. Oh this is going to be the angry walk in that was previewed in the bloopers, I can tell. Oh no. OH NO! And it is at night and he seriously freaking actually went to the wedding????

Oh my gosh he's so angry. Ohhh, Patton rethinking his phrasing, nice. You should never→I'm surprised that you etc. Oh Roman! Oh, maybe we should… not review. Oh boy. 

Oh there's Patton's avatar. In then guitar hero thing. Oh, Thomas is associated with the color white, confirmed??? I like how they did the notes there. So much detail. The talk sprites are great, but the expressions on the dancing sprites are worth paying attention to. Okay, Patton's still very, um, defensive, I guess is the word? Thomas is angry and bereft and confused and full of doubt, and Roman's heavily on the confused side (ha) about him aligning with Deceit. This is why he stole his hat. Great animation work, everyone, that was fantastic, artists! 

"Why didn't I just talk to them before the wedding?" THOMAS. Also, because Deceit specifically prevented Logan from being too close to the courtroom scene by benching him and not asking him what his idea of a compromise was. "I brought that up," well, you did, but Deceit kinda made it seem like you were suggesting lying to them, so you got shut down. Sorry, Ro. Listen, I love Deceit, but the boy's a manipulator. 

We learn to predict the future!!! Roman, no. Woah, Patton's just being completely dismissive. I mean he's been through some hard times the last few episodes, minus LNTAO, but damn. Oh. Roman's very much defending Patton. This forebodes very badly. This is going to explode terribly. Oh no. 

Okay, so, the thing with the feral cats. Is Roman okay? Did someone do this to him? More importantly, did he do this to me? Also, on a serious note, I'm super shocked Deceit hasn't come in yet, because he (and Thomas, and arguably Patton) is obviously regretting going to the wedding. I mean, Virgil's not coming in right away because of the reveal at the end of DWIT, but- hey where's Logan?! Logan and Deceit should both totally be here! *gasp* Except in the one on one episodes (Heart vs. Mind, My Negative Thinking, Logince; the argument) it's always primarily been the two sides that are featured with the others either not there or off-screen or making small cameos. But Deceit was and is an important part of this decision past, present, and going forward! 

Oooh, I like the Lee and Mary Lee backstory. Hm. Patton does bring good points, but. I still agree with- oh, Thomas just solidly saying no made me snort. Okay, so speaking of the coin bleeping, why the video games? I know there's more to come with it, how do they come into play? Oh okay metaphor. 

That was clearly not the good ending, Roman. Bringing up Is Thomas A Good Person again. OOH xylophone, is he a-comin'? Oh he's directly blaming Patton. Wow, Roman. 

A BAGEL?! Oh, game sssssssstore. Really? Frogger, Pat? 16 graphics. Oh there's the hotdogs. OH and there's the cloaked guy! Smashing our theories. That does not seem like Sondheim. 

The puns, oh my gosh, brilliant. Getting to the meat of them here. Gosh these graphics are fantastic. 6AM dull. 

Oh. Hm. Technically, he does not have to give him the 'dog. The building tension is fascinating. 

HI, LOGAN! Patton looking real uncomfortable at "regret." I mean, they all know they regret it now, right? Roman making fun of behoove, that's so funny, I have no idea why. Seriously, whoever's doing the art, I'm dying at Logan's expressions. Woah good thing viewers have the pause button. I'm all for not buying X-mas decorations. I'm doing my part, goyim. 

I'm counting "it's not like Kingdom Hearts" in lieu of that having been Organization XIII. Oh boy, Patton. Right thing vs. Feeling good vs. Feeling good about doing the right thing. This is falling apart. Patton's noise. 

BOOBS omg Deceit is Bowser. I love that painting in the background! Scutes! Time went from limited to being lost to poorly spent to wasted! I'm standing by the purple being Virgil. Fyi, in Judaism, doing a good thing for the wrong reasons doesn't matter, because you're still doing the good thing, even if it's just for the reward. There's a thing about it with Avraham and a King.

Roman's getting close to breaking. Reptilian rapscallian guy. And who's to say he can't be doing it for the reward and to help people? 

"... an individual's happiness and the amount of selfless acts…" that should be number, not amount, Logan! Can't judge good deeds only by how good you feel when you do them. 

Okay, here we go. How do we know what's Right? Killing and stealing is illegal everywhere, yes, Thomas, what are you doing, Thomas???

Oh my gosh, not the trolley problem. They're referring to Deceit as Denial and Roman as Passion! Oh gosh, that looks like Joan, Talyn, Dot, Valerie, and Terrence, and Leo by himself, maybe? Oh geez, I jolted. Logan index carding for trolley problem. 

Unus Annus is right, the trolley problem is stupid. Oh my gosh, Logan's giant wall of text physically pushing Patton back, I spit all over my screen. Skip All. 

Roman's… blaming himself? Oh!!! Are we getting Roman's insecure arc???!!! This is a complex issue, and Patton's having a hard time backing down, and everyone's feeling bad.

Scared?! I hear music! NO. Why is he scared, oh my gosh?????? That's not a tired metaphor. Oh! I've heard of hypoxia! It was hypothesized (and disproven) to be the reason for a specific Bermuda Triangle incident. 

Good point, Logan. Regarding theory and in the moment instincts. Remus mention with intrusive thoughts! Shocked that Logan is arguing for leisure time. Logan's self satisfied smirk at the self-sacrifice. GLITCHY! Oh he's a frog. Lilypadton. 

Oh my gosh I'm getting so stressed. Yes, thank you, Logan for the scream. I… don't. The conscientious comment. No, it's not. This seems… Deceit-y. IT IS! SHARP SIDE OH MY GOSH! Oh, he didn't rise up, he popped out in the freaking dialogue box, NO, FRICK IT WAS RIGHT THERE! And the Nietzsche and the specific examples that he used!!! I'm so angry! I DIDN'T THINK HE'D TAKE LOGAN'S PLACE AGAIN! I MISSED THE SIGNS! 

Hey guys, look, it's Deceit. Bull… frog. Lord of the lies. Oh! 8-bit Deceit theme. Okay, the first thing Deceit said about him not doing it on purpose was nice, but yeah, those words striking him is accurate. Yeesh, harsh. 

Is Patton eating his own words? Oh, uh, is anyone going to acknowledge he hit Thomas? Is that telling of the situation instead of just being a funny background event? 

The crick in Thomas's neck is so funny. SNAKES ON THE PLANE!!! ...Hm. Happy that he brought that up. Oh my gosh, Deceit's spluttering, he's like so bad at things sometimes, I love it. 

Logan! No, don’t do that, everybody appreciates you! Double curse? Pffffft, Logan. Deceit…definitely smiling at Logan's logic. Deceit is interesting here. Oh wow, yikes. He's really fascinating here. Legitimately complimentary? Oh, no, kind of not, maybe. Roman looks distressed.

"...Trees?" Roman's super pumped up. Good for him! Ha, his imitation. Deceit looking confused? Patton looking all sorts of things, I really think that Deceit is being genuine here- NAME?! I'D THIS HAPPENING? Why is he stripping? His, no, what does his glove have to do with his name? 

………. Janice? Did he say Jenus or Janice. It sounded like Janice. Deceit. No. Oh, burn, Roman. Damn, he almost got me. His name is not Janice. No. It's not. Don't even. Deceit was being so straight(ha)forward for the past couple of minutes. Awww, Roman. Insecurity addressing time? Wait, why is Deceit nodding at the hero thing? His lip is trembling, his voice is cracking and oh no! Roman just sank out.

Don't call him Janice, that's not his name. Oh he's being genuine again. Patton's talking about himself. WAIT WHAT. He had a five second cameo, omg. 

Yeah, those are the easier questions. No, Deceit, bad Deceit. Man, his facial expressions in this episode. Fractionally fiendish fibber. Oh, I like the reasons for Deceit being a part of him! That's… cute? Oddly cute, maybe. So, freaking how far in the future is the Asides? 

Stop calling him Janice, that's not his name. Oh, Deceit and Thomas bonding. That snort, oh my gosh. Oh, serious Deceit again! That reaction to "you're right" is oddly similar to that fake laugh at the end of Embarrassing Phases. 

………. Virgil's not here yet. His reveal isn't being addressed. Accepting Deceit. That's why he's so pissed at Patton in Asides. The next episode proper they're going to reveal that Deceit's accepted, more or less, and Patton was a big part of that, hugely changing his mind, that's why he's so pissed at him!!!

April 30th? Oh is this Lee and Mary Lee? I was wrong on the voices. Door-yelling! Hm. I mean. It's nice that they're acknowledging him, but I really don't think that sways the situation one way or another. Cute more background, and Thomas being awkward. They. This could have been instead of the wedding. Kingdom Hearts again! 

Oh hi, Patton and Deceit. He seems annoyed at the situation. Patton and Deceit bonding. Hi again, Leslie. Wild. 

This video really didn't go at all how I thought it would. Roman was barely miffed at Patton. Oh man, this was intense. I. Oh man. I need to process a lot. But I think we're on the right path, here. Janice is not his name!

Okay, I went on tumblr and two seconds in, I saw Janus, which I looked up and that makes way more sense. Another, more condensed post to follow. And several thousand reblogs.

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW THE NEW BEGINNING in Sapporo 2020 Review (Feb 1st & 2nd, Hokkaido Prefectual Sports Centre)

(Feb 1st)

Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori  ***

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yota Tsuji  **1/4

Will Ospreay, Ryusuke Taguchi, SHO & YOH vs. Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI  ***1/4

Ryu Lee & Robbie Eagles vs. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI   ***1/2

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs. KENTA & Jay White  **3/4

Kazuchika Okada & Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi  ***1/2

Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL  ****

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Shingo Takagi  ****1/2

(Feb 2nd)

Toa Henare vs. Yota Tsuji  ***

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tiger Mask  **1/2

El Phantasmo vs. Gabriel Kidd  ***

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Robbie Eagles vs. Shingo Takagi, EVIL & BUSHI  ***3/4

Jon Moxley, Ryusuke Taguchi, SHO & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI  ***3/4

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi vs. KENTA, Jay White & Taiji Ishimori  ***1/2

BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Will Ospreay  ****3/4

Kazuchika Okada vs. Taichi  ****1/4

Photos.

The New Beginning shows kicked off with a two night stint in Sapporo, as has been the tradition of the last three years or so. Night 2 was great, but the first night of action suffered from a smaller house and a very cold crowd, which hurt pretty much every match on the card (you could easily have added an extra 1/4* at least to everything, had there been a better crowd). The audience had maybe 80% more face masks than usual, likely down to ongoing concerns regarding the Corona Virus, and as a result, it is obviously dificult to make much noise in a face mask, hence the unusual tepid response from the Hokkaido faithful.

The first night really picked up when Hiromu and Ryu Lee faced off for the first time since Takahashi broke his neck in 2018, in a very good doubles clash. On any other day, in front of any other crowd, this would have been easily a **** match, but alas, it wasn’t. It was still a fun, all-action outing, with the Lee/Hiromu exchanges being the undoubted highlight. The finish saw Robbie Eagles tap BUSHI out with the Ron Miller Special at the 11:47 mark, and set himself up as a potential next challenger to the Jr. strap, after Lee. Jay White pinned SANADA to further build heat for their impending match at Osaka-jo Hall next week in a decent, though overly long (18:42) tag match which built around Naito and KENTA’s fiery exchanges. This wasn’t anywhere near as good as the New Year Dash encounter between these teams, as it had a fraction of the crowd heat. Minoru Suzuki pinned US Champion Jon Moxley at 17:48 to end another decent doubles outing. This had some flaws that really hindered it, namely a lack of any real heat, and some really slopy exchanges at times, but was never anything other than entertaining. Taichi destroyed Okada in the post match with his mic stand. Okada made a comeback, but Zack Sabre Jr came in and locked a sleeper on, which brought out Will Ospreay, who was taken out with Zack’s Michinoku Driver. Taichi nailed Okada wih the dreaded Iron Fingers From Hell, a Black Mephisto on the ramp, then locked in the Stretch Plumb. This did a really good job building Night 2′s top matches.

Things really picked up next with the Ishii vs. EVIL match. Whilst this built to a hot closing stretch, there were moments where this was perfromed in front of almost total silence, which again, really brought this one down. After the usual EVIL chair nonesense, they started swinging for the fences which woke the crowd up. They slammed into each other with hard shoulder tackles and Lariats, before EVIL escapes a brainbuster attempt, hitting a German and the half-and-half suplex, only for Ishii to fire back with a big Dragon Suplex of his own. EVIL fought back immediately with a headbutt and Lariat for a near fall. After an exchange of Lariats, Ishii nailed some headbutts, another big Lariat, and the Vertical Drop Brainbuster to take the win at 21:14. As I say, this ended up being an excellent match, they won the crowd over in the last few minutes, but it took a while getting there. 

And in the main event, Hirooki Goto defended the NEVER Openweight Title against Shingo Takagi. This is their third match together, and I had their previous two at ****3/4 each. Watching this show, I just knew they probably weren’t going to reach those heights. And unfortunatley, they didn’t, but still had another excellent battle regardless. Again, much like the previous match, the same old story here was the quiet crowd, as these guys worked their behinds off, having a really hard-hitting and compelling bout. The closing stretch saw Shingo hit a second rope Death Valley Bomb for a near fall, and Goto hit his old Kaiten sunset flip bomb off the top for a near fall of his own. They had an exchange, before Goto hit a draping reverse GTR for another near fall. Shingo hits his own version of GTR, then scores a near fall with a massive Pumping Bomber. Goto turns a Last Of The Dragon attempt into Shouten Kai for another great near fall, and they had an intense headbutt and forearm exchange, which was the loudest reaction all night. Goto nails a headbutt, then the reverse GTR. he tries the regular version, but Takagi turns it into Made In Japan for a near fall. Shingo follows that up with Last Of The Dragon to end the match and win the title at the 20:10 mark. As I’ve written ad nauseam in this review, the lack of crowd heat was a pretty big detriment to this show, and nowhere was it more obvious than here. This could easily have been a MOTY contender in front of another crowd, but as it is, it was just excellent. Though I must say, I’m very excited about the Shingo win here as it offers up a plethora of potentially great programs, whereas realistically, there wasn’t much more Goto was going to do with the belt. He had a brief exchange with SHO in the post match, which should be interesting.

The second night had a considerably livlier, and bigger crowd (over a thousand more) which enhanced this show exponentially. The first great match of this show saw the CHAOS trio of Ishii, Goto and Robbie Eagles, victorious over the LIJ team of Shingo, EVIL and BUSHI. Shingo and Ishii brief battle was the highlight here, and I hope we get to see a NEVER title encounter between the two soon. The finish saw Eagles lock BUSHI in the Ron Miller Special as Goto and Ishii both hit Ushigoroshi’s on Shingo and EVIL respectively, meaning the masked man had no choice but to tap at 9:42. Eagles gets another big win here. Moxley and Suzuki had a wild, non-stop brawl throughout the next 8 man tag, which was better than anything either did the previous night. Taguchi submitted DOUKI with the Ankle Lock after 13 minutes of fun action, to score another big win himself, as Moxley and Suzuki brawled through the crowd to the back. There’s a chance that Funky Weapon is also being built to challenge for the Junior Title at some point soon. And in another all-action outing, SANADA submitted Ishimori with Skull End to win a very good 15:34 bout. Everyone looked really good here, and again, the story was KENTA and Naito’s brawling, hyping up their Double Title Match next week.

The British Heavyweight Title Match between ZSJ and Will Ospreay was, by far, the best match all weekend. This was a fantastic outing between two of the smoothest, most consistent workers out there today. It went 27:04, but never felt like it, and I probably could have easily watched an hour of this. It started off as a great technical battle, before breaking down into the big moves and near falls you’d expect. The story to this was that Ospreay has never beaten Zack, and with the title being on the line for the first time ever in Japan against two native British wrestlers, Will was more determined than ever. ZSJ constanly had a counter to Will’s signature spots, but Ospreay would always find a way out of Sabre’s counters. After countering a Hidden Blade into a Breaks Special, Ospreay made the ropes. Zack tried the Michinoku Driver, but Will turns it into a reverse brainbuster for a two count. Ospreay escapes a European Cluthc and hits a big head kick, then they had a great sequence in which Sabre Jr kept escaping Storm Breaker attempts, finally locking in a triangle, but Ospreay free’d himself with a powerbomb. A Shooting Star Press gets a near fall for Ospreay. Will tries Storm Breaker again, but ZSJ turns it into a Manjigatame, then pulls Ospreay to the mat, turning it into a grounded Cobra Twist, the same move he won their G1 match with, and adds a leg triangle for added measure. Will struggles for the ropes but eventually passes out, and Red Shoes calls for the stoppage win for Sabre. This was an incredible, and almost perfect wrestling contest.

This left a lot for the main event to follow, but whilst it wasn’t as good, they still had an excellent match. The major problem with this is that nobody, not even in his hometown, realistically bought Taichi having a snowballs chance in Hell of winning this one. And to make things even more problematic, it went a whopping, and completely unnecessary 31 minutes. Had this been 10 minutes shorter, it would have been even better, but it did get a bit long in the tooth. It started slow (really slow), but the final 12 minutes were great. After bludgeoning Okada with a chairshot, and getting a near fall with an Axe Bomber, Taichi went to the old Kawada play book, hitting a head kick and locking on the Stretch Plumb, but Okada refuses to quit. Taichi lets go and makes the cover for a near fall. Okada hits the dropkick, but Taichi counters a Rainmaker attempt into another Stretch Plumb, but Okada escapes, trying a Tombstone. Taichi escapes that and hits the Dangerous Backdrop three times, for a great near fall. They traded Yakuaza Kicks in the middle, before Taichi hits a dropkick of his own, and goes for Black Mephisto, but Okada counters into a short Rainmaker. Okada tries another, but Taichi bumps the ref, hits a low blow, and a super close near fall with the Gedo Clutch. Taichi back to the Kawada playbook with a Gamengiri and the folding press Powerbomb gets another near fall, but Okada caught a Superkick and hit the spinning Tombstone, then the Rainmaker to end the match at 30:53. Okada told Taichi to “go home” in the post match, thanked the fans for coming out, and told them he’d see them on the impending Hokaido tour in July.

NDT

[echodrops]

The Promises I Made (2019 Edition)

For the past thirteen years, I’ve spent every New Year’s Eve compiling a list of fifty promises I intend to keep or fulfill over the next twelve months. The results have been truly amazing, and I have kept some promises I never thought I could. 2019 was… a nightmare that I can barely believe I survived, but I still kept some promises that I honestly did not expect I ever could.

This year, for New Year’s, there will be a new set of promises for to me keep, but here are the old ones, for review!

The Promises I Made (2019 Edition)

1) Be more proactive about tracking and following up with struggling students to decrease the number of students who drop from my class when they realize they cannot pass. Status: Somewhat broken? I tried really hard to be proactive with my students; however, there were some massive issues outside the classroom this year that made it extremely difficult to keep the focus on the students. When administration drags your attention away from the class, there is not a lot you can do…

2) Find a place to put in volunteer hours because uhhhh like this is actually important to my work evaluation and I definitely need something to write in that section… Yikes, this spring is my last chance to do this!! @_@ Status: Kept. I volunteered with the Utah Shakespeare Festival and it was super fun!

3) Install the fire escape window in the Utah house, no matter how much it might cost, because I can’t get a totally unrelated tenant in that basement without said window… Status: Somewhat kept. Okay. This one is a LONG story, but to be fair to me, I worked my ASS off to try and make this happen; just every single thing in the world prevented me from completing this promise, up to and including the city telling me I needed a permit AFTER I had already dug a massive hole in the ground for the window…

4) Buy sod to add grass to the front portion of the lawn so that it no longer looks like garbage. Status: Broken, but I did buy grass seed and put that out there. Unfortunately only some of it sprouted, but there is indeed SOME grass now growing there…

5) Fix the bricks near the windowsills on the Utah house to prevent long-term damage. Status: Broken. After dealing with the stupid window disaster, I had no time for this at all.

6) Get a watering system for my roses at the Utah house because I think my bro is probably killing them and that’s just not cool. Status: Broken, see above.

7) Work on the patio at the Utah house before it just flat out falls down. Status: Somewhat broken. Again, I tried to make progress on this—I called a patio guy to come out and assess how much it would cost to fix the patio—but the price I was quoted was so high that there was nothing I could do at the time.

8) Paint the stairwell so that there’s no chance of anything like lead paint or asbestos being exposed. Status: Broken. The leftover wallpaper glue continues to confound me…

9) Trim the backyard bushes so the neighbors don’t hate us anymore… Status: Broken. We trimmed a few bushes and at least got to the trees out front, but definitely a majority were left uncared for.

10) Move into a new house in Texas where I can get real internet, please for the love of god… Status: Kept. I moved into a very nice house with no scorpions!

11) Save money for my upcoming trip to Japan! 2020 baby! Status: Uhhh, broken. I’m not sure how I thought I’d be able to move into a new house AND save money for an international trip at the same time…

12) Get my wisdom tooth removed because it’s still there and still killing me, yikessss. Status: Broken. AUGH. I’m an idiot.

13) Make an appointment with an eye doctor for like the first time in years. Good job, Yehn, good job. Status: Kept. I got my glasses fixed and even got a new pair of glasses too!

14) Get my prescriptions refilled because I’m dwindling on asthma medicine and like… I could die from this… I should never have been left to care for myself; I’m not mature enough for this responsibility… Status: Kept, surprisingly. But I still need a new doctor because the last one I was going to wouldn’t give me any refills…

15) FINISH THE GIVEAWAY PRIZES I PROMISED LAST YEAR because holy shit I am incompetent and the worst and everyone has permission to hate me for starting things and never finishing them, fuck. Status: Broken. So broken. I am the worst.

16) Go dolphin watching in the Gulf for real this time. Seriously, it’s $10 Yehn, you can do this. Status: Kept, amazingly. It wasn’t as impressed as hoped; however, there was a lovely sunset.

17) Return to the Channel Islands to take better pictures. D; Status: Broken. T_T

18) Level all my classes to 70 in FFXIV before next expansion, please. Status: Somewhat broken. I didn’t have everything to 70 before the expansion, but I kind of feel like I should get credit for this one, because HEY, look at me now:

19) Organize and properly label all the photos on my computer so that I’m no longer desperately combing through folder and folder in blank confusion, looking for a single picture in a sea of thousands… Status: Kept. It took me like eight hours of work, but I actually did this.

20) Update Home and a Half more than once? PLEASE??? The guilt I feel over this currently is crushing. Status: Broken. And the guilt grows…

21) Complete the online American Literature class I am designing on time and with no corrections needed. Status: Kept. I’m counting this as kept even though TECHNICALLY there was one thing I forgot to finish and it came back and bit me in the ass; however, I was approved with no corrections needed.

22) Earn 100% completion for Kingdom Hearts III. So excited! Status: Broken. Um… This just didn’t happen.

23) Update my calendar with important dates—holidays, birthdays, etc.—and be productive about sending cards and well-wishes. Status: Somewhat kept. I wasn’t any better about sending cards really, but I did at least save all the birthdays in my phone so I remember them.

24) Get the garbage disposal in the Texas house fixed ASAP so I don’t have to wash the dishes by hand anymore because I absolutely hate that particular chore. Status: Kept. Then I moved, so it didn’t even matter.

25) Finish all the books my coworkers and friends bought for me recently so I can thank them for their recommendations! Status: Broken. So broken.

26) Actually move into my new place instead of leaving it completely undecorated and lifeless. Status: Remarkably, kept. Nothing has plastic on it, unlike at my old house where the nightstand didn’t get unwrapped even after two years of living there lol.

27) Try hard to get Creative Writing into a different area of the general ed. core so that more people will enroll in it. Status: Kept. I’m counting this because I did my darn best, but we are still waiting on the state to tell us whether or not the class will be accepted.

28) Get caught up on my Ebird reports, even the old, old, old ones I never put in because I was slacking. Status: Kept, actually. Whoo.

29) Throw away/return/sort all the stacks of old mail in the house (OMGGGG they’ve made me look like paper hoarder and I’m nootttt). Status: Broken. There’s just… a lot of papers to go through…

30) Clean up the garage before moving so that I don’t have to fight spiders to move when the time comes. Status: Broken, in that I did not clean up the garage in advance and did, in fact, have to fight spiders when it came time to move.

31) Find a way to boost grading productivity so that each class takes only two days to grade, maximum. Status: Somewhat kept. I was definitely better this year than last year; however, I really think the “two days per class” thing was too optimistic, so for the future semester, I allotted myself three days per class and I think it will work better.

32) Go to a totally new restaurant and try their food. Status: Kept. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I had trompo tacos (al pastor) which is probably not anything special to anyone else but it was my first time so lol.

33) Cancel old credit cards to make sure my credit is good before trying to buy a house (although I just checked my credit score and I’m in the great range already, so this is mostly for posterity’s sake). Status: Broken. But it didn’t affect my loan, so I guess it was okay. And it ended up being good I didn’t cancel my Best Buy card because I was able to get good financing on the new appliances I needed for my house.

34) Get official contracts from my tenants so I can use my rental income in my next loan calculation. Status: Broken, but I ended up not using that as part of the loan calculation anyway >_> so…

35) Talk to an HR rep about my retirement savings so that I can consolidate all my retirement accounts into one. (Man, look at all these ADULTING promises.) Status: Broken. Look at me failing all these adulting promises.

36) Really finish decorating my office so it looks super cute and all my students want to visit me. Status: Broken, but I think it sucks that I have to write this because it was really not my fault I couldn’t finish decorating my office. Our offices were all moved and disrupted by building remodels so I spent the entire year basically working out of a couple cardboard boxes.

37) Not sign up for ANY more new responsibilities at work in the spring semester. This is the biggest challenge. D; Status: Kept, by technicality. I was able to avoid signing up for anything new in SPRING… But fall… was a whole other story. XD

38) Migrate all the rest of my books to the new Texas house instead of leaving them in Utah… SOMEHOW. Status: Kept. I’m going to count this as kept. The only books left at the Utah house are my manga—I managed to bring literally every other book, which is very impressive considering I had only my small Camaro with its tiny truck space.

39) Use my twitter account more often to make it worth following. I will try!! Status: Kept… sorta? I mean, since I didn’t use the account AT ALL before, making even one Twitter post kind of counts as using it more, right? >_>

40) Keep my hair cut nicely so I look less like a mess (than I really am). Status: Somewhat broken. Although I think I got my hair cut more often this year than before, I don’t think I looked any less like a mess. XD

41) Successfully find a bridesmaid dress for my friend’s wedding that matches the rest of the wedding party. Status: Actually kept! It was incredible. The wedding I was in was even featured in a magazine because of how pretty it was!

42) Make sure my skin is in good condition for the wedding so I don’t look like a disturbing ghost… Status: Kept? I mean, in the end, looking like a ghost ended up being the whole point since it was a Halloween themed wedding so I kind of won either way.

43) Complete my BNHA manga collection. Since my bro bought me a bunch of the volumes for Christmas, I might as well. Status: Broken… I bought like… one volume. XD

44) See a groove-billed ani. (It’s another type of bird.) Status: Broken. Very illusive bird. T_T

45) Respond to messages, asks, and comments more quickly. I promise I’m not ignoring people… D; Status: Um, broken. I left many people on read this year, sorry.

46) Lose ten pounds so that I feel more fit and comfy. Status: Broken. I didn’t exercise at all this year, uff.

47) Pay down credit card debt by at least 1/3. Yikesssss, I really need to do this quick. Status: Broken. It’s hard to pay down a credit card when you pour all your money into buying a new house…

48) I will finally fucking finish that chapter 73 analysis of Noragami… I swear to god… Status: Broken. Uh yeah. This didn’t happen. V_V

49) Reach 1700 followers on Tumblr. You should follow me—I’m only marginally a waste of time and space! Status: Kept. Over 2500 followers now!

50) I will keep these promises. LOLLLLL. Status: Somewhat kept/somewhat broken. One year I really will keep them all…

 Totals Kept promises: 18 Broken promises: 24 Somewhat kept/broken promises: 8

Well, there are more kept promises than last year at least… It was another really hard year, what with moving in the middle of the year, over-working, dealing with so much drama with the reaccreditation on our campus, and just EVERYTHING all at once this last year… I keep thinking things are going to calm down and then they never do. Please 2020… just let me rest…

My new set of promises will be up on the 1st!

[foofygoldfish]

Seven Dimensions of Whumpness (For your least know character: I haven't been following for a long time so I'm not super intimate with your characters)

oh god okay

technically i’d probably say it’s cassie, but i never actually finished the outer worlds, and i don’t have enough of her backstory hammered out to do this for margaret, so… i think i’m going to do this for claire, one of faith and alice’s adopted daughters!

also, because i mention them more than once lol: mom is faith and momma is alice

~Physical~

1. Do they have any sort of physical condition or mark that impacts their daily life? (chronic disease, deep scar, disability)

nope! perfectly healthy, strong as an ox, and only mildly clums— oh shut up caro, i’m only a little clumsy

(carolina: she’s super clumsy, it’s hilarious)

2. What is their pain tolerance? Do they close their eyes and block it out, or go into a full blown panic?

i think i have a pretty high pain tolerance? i’m totally immune to the sight of blood and i can usually walk off an injury

3. How long do they typically take to recover from illness or injury compared to average?

…..okay so i don’t really follow directions? if i did it probably wouldn’t take that long, but uh, like i said, i walk things off? typically not good for like… sprains and stuff.

4. What are the most telltale signs that they’re sick or injured?

carmina says that i get whiny

5. What is their response to their friends or loved ones in pain?

i don’t like it. 

~Emotional~

6. How easily do they cry? Is it different alone vs in public?

caro here. she’s a total crybaby.

7. Is there any emotion they find difficult to control (anger, sorrow, anxiety)?

mom’s always said that i have just a bad a temper as momma - i haven’t seen momma get that mad, but everyone that knew her before agrees. it’s not like… i don’t get violent or anything? i just get… it’s hard to explain, i guess?

8. Is there a place, name, object, etc. that holds painful memories for them?

not really. i was only a few weeks old when the bombs hit, so i don’t remember our old house like caro does, or the really rough years. i mean, i remember some of those years, but… it’s been easier for me than it’s been for caro.

9. In a dire situation, are they fight, flight or freeze?

…see the ‘emotion that’s difficult to control’ question…

caro: i literally had to lock her in our room once after the highwaymen came to town

10. How stable do they consider themselves? How stable are they really?

pretty stable. i mean, we’re all a little fucked up now, but all things considered, pretty stable.

~Social~

11. Within their group, where do they fall during emergencies? The leader, the support, the cause of the emergency, etc.?

support. ‘mina and try to help when we can, where we can. caro won’t let me near the radio equipment, and our moms don’t like it when i’m on the front lines, but i do what i can.

12. Do they have someone they trust during their own time of need, or do they prefer to handle it alone?

carmina.

13. Is there a character who often finds themselves worried about your OC?

mom. momma too, but mostly mom. i’d say carmina, but she’s usually just as mixed up in trouble as i am…

14. What kind of image would they like to portray to their group? How does the group really see them, good and bad?

good. 

15. Is there an antagonist or someone who would like to see/make your OC suffer?

i don’t want them to suffer, but i really want the highwaymen to leave us the fuck alone

~Spiritual~

16. Do they have any regrets in their life?

uhm, this doesn’t really count? but i know i would have regretted it if i hadn’t snuck out to go with carmina. momma gave me hell when i got back, but i needed to go with her.

17. What is something they dislike about either themselves or the world?

i wish i could do more. my moms say i’m too young to do much, but… i dunno, that seems flimsy. 

18. Is there a situation that might make it impossible for them to relax?

fuck, the entire situation with the highwaymen - the picnic after willow and rush got here was the first time most of us had relaxed in a while, but that didn’t last for long

19. Are they honest to themselves, or do they ignore feeling hurt or sad?

i… carmina says i ignore my feelings a lot.

20. Do they like to be alone with themselves often or surrounded by friends?

surrounded by friends. i hate being alone - the world is too quiet.

~Environmental~

21. Does the weather in your setting ever affect their health?

i think it affects all of us, ‘specially the ones that came out of the bunkers early.

22. Is their community unsafe for them in any way (violence, pollution, etc.)?

if i stay in prosperity? it’s pretty safe. outside the walls, not really.

23. How do they feel about hospital environments?

…the closest thing we have to a hospital is selene’s little clinic

24. In what season do they typically get sick?

the winter. the air’s too dry.

25. How easily do they catch any bug going around?

most of the year, i don’t get sick. i usually get sick in the winter, though.

~Occupational~

26. Are there any risks for illness or injury specific to their job?

...i twist my ankle a lot

27. Have they overworked themselves into sickness or collapse before?

a few times, after the highwaymen came and after the seige. i couldn’t stay still, there was too much to do.

....28-30 aren’t really relevant to her lol

~Intellectual~

31. What’s one skill or aspect of themselves that they feel self-conscious of? / 34. Do they have an interest/skill they excel at but are embarrassed of? (combining these two, since they’re basically the same answer)

i really like singing, but god, i hate it when people pay attention to me when i do.

32. Do they push themselves too hard/give up when minor things get difficult?

caro here again - she pushes herself a lot. she

33. Have they worried before about never meeting anyone’s expectations, or always having to meet them?

not really. 

35. How do they respond to being criticized for their shortcomings?

caro again! she sulks. a lot. but she gets over it pretty quickly.

[mtvswatches]

Wynonna Earp 2x08 No Future in the Past

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) We begin the episode with a flashback of little Waverly running on very thin ice because evil Willa threw her stuffed rabbit there. You know, in case you needed a friendly reminder that Willa was the worst. Waverly uses this anecdote to explain how, in a way, she always knew she didn’t belong in the Earp family. Willa hated her, so that must mean she wasn’t one of them, right? Well, wrong, Waverly. Willa was the fucking worst and that’s the only reason she hated Waverly. Wynonna tries to comfort Waverly and argues she saw her come home right after the hospital and that she even named her herself (how cute!) But… the fact that their parents brought Waverly home as a newly born baby doesn’t mean she was their daughter, right? I guess we’ll soon find out. While Willa tried to kill Waverly, Wynonna saved her, although she doesn’t remember that part. History does repeat itself, doesn’t it?

2) The Widows pay JC a visit, and it’s not looking good for old Juan Carlos…

I truly hope they don’t kill him off because I was hoping we would find out more about him and what’s his role. He seemed like a prophet of sorts?

3) Doc is headed to the salt flats so I guess he’ll soon find out Clootie is gone and he’s in trouble, right? Also, kind of bummed because I thought he would go to the doctor’s with Wynonna.

4) Wynonna saw her baby for the first time and totally freaked out. I mean, the doctor is giving her lectures about taking proper care of the person growing inside of her and then suggesting adoption is a viable option and then boom, here’s your baby! She had, what? all of two or three weeks to process she was pregnant and the baby might be a revenant hybrid? I think she’s handling it quite well, to be frank. She didn’t want to know the baby’s sex, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a girl.

5)  Wait, what happened? Was Wynonna kidnapped?!

Was that blood?!

6) The truck that took Wynonna was JC’s, so that means the widows have her, right?

7) Nicole makes a GREAT point…

NICOLE: Waves, Wynonna remembers you coming home from the hospital. Okay? So, who are you gonna trust more, your sister or a sociopathic revenant in a fuzzy coat?

But to be safe, Waverly sent in the blood samples. Okay, I’m calling it, she’s not an Earp. Or she’s a hybrid. The latter. She’s hybrid. Calling it.

8) Rosita suggests they should throw Wynonna a baby shower, and that’s very sweet of her? Unexpectedly sweet.

9) Oh, he’s back!

10) So, JC did kidnap Wynonna, the question is why? Is he possessed by the Widows or something? It didn’t look like he’d survive that bite at the beginning… Is the Church where the third seal is located?

11) So… JC has apparently a curse of his own. He claims he’d like to give Wynonna answers but he literally can’t because his burden is “to survive and witness, never to decide.” He also says that Wynonna is “all choices,” which is kind of funny considering how she really didn’t get to choose whether she wanted to continue her pregnancy or not. He then proceeds to instruct Wynonna to go into the church and do a ritual that will show her the truth, but I feel he’s leading her into opening the third seal?

12) She thinks the ritual didn’t work but she left the gun there…

13) And now she’s talking to Doc and he’s ignoring her and WTF! She’s traveled in time?!

“When am I?”  That sounds like a line out of Back to the Future.

14) OMG BOBO IS BACK!!!

And he looks like Spike before he was a vampire?! And Doc is bullying him in front of everyone? He’s being an asshole and I don’t care for it one bit.

15) Doc tells Bobo to sod off, basically, and that he’s been dying since he was 14 years old. He starts coughing, and I’m afraid my prediction that he’s getting his tuberculosis back might be on point…

16) Bobo, on the other hand, seems like a righteous dude, and he expresses absolute loyalty towards Wyatt Earp, so this means that his relationship with the Earps goes way, way before he was a revenant. And how did he become a revenant? And now I’m imagining he’s Waverly’s dad and he gave her to the Earps to protect her and that’s why he had that weird connection with her since she was a little girl? Am I insane? Please, don’t tell me.

17) I really enjoy the call back to Waverly’s safe phrase from a few episodes ago, “tacos are tasty.”

18) Wynonna finds her way back to the church only to find a dying Bobo del Rey after Wyatt shot Sheriff Clootie and his THREE WIVES are pissed off. So, I guess, Clootie the Stone Witch was one of these widows and the other two are the ones that possessed Mercedes and her sister, right? But how did Bobo die and why did he become a revenant?

19) Father Juan Carlo! So this dude also goes all the way back, huh? Did he try to mediate between Constance and the two widows? Is that how he got cursed?

20) Rosita is being super friendly and sweet, and Waverly is kind of suspicious and so am I? Nicole is trying to understand Rosita from the outsider’s perspective, but I don’t know, it seems too iffy.

21) Dolls is threatening JC and the padre says “she needs to see the past if we have any hope for a future.” And what does it all mean?!

22) So… Constance Clootie locked her demon husband away with the three seals. I guess if the three seals are opened, the Big Baddie will be released in the present, right? If I’m correct, there’s only one seal left…

23) And the reason JC finally decided to intervene was that he’s dying. Is it because of the Widow’s bite? Why didn’t they kill him? I still think he might be playing Wynonna…

24) It turns out Wyatt shot Bobo while he was being held by Clootie as a human shield. And that’s how he became a revenant! Before dying, Clootie cursed Earp by saying that all those killed by Peacemaker will go to Hell until Earp’s death when they will be resurrected until the next Heir kills them all. So… Bobo became a revenant because of his loyalty to Earp. Constance offered to give him a way out if he helped her find her sons’ bones. And that’s how their deal was born.

25) Oh, no. The DNA results arrived and Nicole kept them hidden from Waverly because “she was trying to protect her.” She’s not an Earp, is she? I love Nicole, but… why would she take the choice from Waverly? I think this was the worst possible way she could’ve found out she was not an Earp. Instead of being there for Waverly to support her when she found out, Nicole kept it hidden from her and hurt her. I don’t like this.

26)  The third seal… is a ring on Doc’s finger, a ring given to him by Clootie since the moment she threw him in the well. Bobo was given a choice… rescue Doc, get the ring and be cured, and allow Doc and Wyatt to be reunited. Or let Doc in the well forever, die, come back as a revenant and fulfill Constance’s wish to get the bones of her sons back. I guess Bobo was very jealous of Doc and Wyatt’s relationship, wasn’t he? Was the guilt over this choice what led him to work with Wyatt after he was a revenant, even though they were technically enemies?

27) Oh, Padre JC…

28) Well, here’s demon Dolls to save the day…

It’s his love for Wynonna what brought him back, right? These two are going to be a thing, I feel it in my bones, but I’m Team Doc ugh! And now he mercy-killed JC and damn, I really liked him.

29) Aaaand the Widows are setting the church on fire while both Wynonna and Dolls lie there unconscious. Cool. Cool cool cool.

30) Now Bobo actually sees Wynonna and can talk to her and calls her his angel, and… did she give him his nickname? And told him to remember how much she loved Wyatt Earp even after he becomes a revenant. So…? This means this trip back in time altered their future? OMG! It did! She told him that his angel’s name was Waverly so that he would protect her!!! That’s why he’d always protected Waverly!

31) In return, Bobo saved them by ringing the Church’s bell and waking Wynonna up.

32) Shit, Bobo saved his angel.

Can I just say that I love the relationship between these two A LOT? Like, a lot.

33) Dolls actually counted the seconds Wynonna didn’t breathe. That’s sweet.

34) OMG how didn’t I realize this? WYNONNA DIED. For a few seconds, but she did die! THAT MEANS… the revenants will be back! BOBO WILL BE BACK?!

35) YASSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

36) Wow, what an intense episode! I feel like this a pivotal episode in the show, isn’t it? A game-changer. Like, it goes back to the beginning of the story and sets up the future while tying some loose ends. I guess Waverly and Bobo are not related after all, but how amazing is it that Wynonna’s quest is the reason Bobo maintained a good relationship with the Earps and protected Waverly? And what will it mean for Waverly to have Bobo back? Will she go ask him for answers about her real parents? And will Wynonna dying have other ramifications? I mean, she’s sort of reset the cycle, hasn’t she? That means that another Earp must become the Earp when she turns 27. But if Waverly is not an Earp, then who?! Wynonna’s baby? Will they do a time jump? Is this a Connor situation? So many questions!

More questions: Wynonna mentioned how her mother called Waverly her “angel”, which is Bobo’s monicker for her as well. Could it be that Waverly is her mother and Bobo’s love child? I mean, she was looking at the test results as she remembered how Bobo rescued her, so that has to mean something, right? And if she is a hybrid, does that mean that she could still be an Heir? Can you tell that I’m obsessed with this storyline? Like, Wynonna’s one-night-stand mentioned that it had happened once before, so this has to mean something, it must be connected to the main storyline...

Even more questions: If the revenants are those killed by Peacemaker, not an Heir, does this mean that both Willa and Wynonna’s father might return as revenants? She did kill them with Peacemaker, after all. 

Even MORE questions: Where does this whole seal-in-the-ring leave Doc? Why were Wynonna and Dolls so cozy in the bed as if they were a couple? Has Wynonna’s quest altered their past and their present as well? 

TOO MANY QUESTIONS, I’M SORRY, BUT PLEASE DON’T ANSWER ANY OF THEM, I’M JUST TRYING TO ORDER MY THOUGHTS AND LET YOU KNOW WHERE MY MIND’S AT AFTER WATCHING THIS AMAZING EPISODE. 

I’m truly in love with this show, I think it’s the closest thing to Buffy in the sense of how it blends different genres while still being a mainly supernatural show and how it has the characters and their relationships at the forefront while building this captivating mythology. I’m super glad you all got me to watch this show! I just hope I finish watching season 3 before season 4 is released, I’d love to watch the new episodes as they come out!

37) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[bereft-of-frogs]

Fanfic Author Asks

Thanks for tagging @veliseraptor ! Drinking red wine, wrote 1.5k words, ready to answer some questions!

Author Name: bereft of frogs

Fandoms You Write For: I’ve really gotten onto an MCU streak. I’ve never been this productive in my life. And churning out like...actual completed fics. MCU is apparently my current home. I also sometimes write for Les Misérables, and, despite my griping earlier today, I do still have my ‘Death Gods magnum opus’ planned for Supernatural. As far as ‘fandoms I write for and never publish’ that list is much, much longer. ;-)

Where You Post: now I only post to Ao3. I have a fanfiction.net account, but I haven’t crossposted anything in years. I still have some bookmarks saved there that I’d like to keep, but it’s unlikely I’ll start regularly posting to fanfiction.net ever again.

Most Popular One-Shot: My most kudo-ed one-shot (defining ‘one-shot’ as self-contained story in one chapter, not part of a serialized narrative’ so I excluded ‘hard road’), is ‘hurts like ghosts’. (If I was counting ‘hard road’ which I maybe should because this one was, technically, a one-shot when I posted it, the answer would be ‘bone and broth.’)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Easy-peasy answer. ‘pain and other human sensations.’

Favourite Story You Wrote: I honestly, absolutely am super proud of ‘dark underground//violent sky’. It’s pretty fucked up, and I multiple times in the notes said it was “the worst fandom thing I’d ever done” but that was just to cover how much it delighted me. I’m real proud of it.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: I’m nervous for a couple upcoming works, right now, but of what I’ve already posted, probably the third chapter of ‘bound at the end of the world’. Oh no, I remember, it was definitely the chapter ‘Betrayal’ in ‘pain and other human sensations.’ I was rambling in the notes, I was nervous to check for comments. It was not the most Tony Stark friendly chapter, very anti-Sokovia Accords, and introduced a female OC...I was hella stressed. It worked out well though, and really was probably one of my best chapters of that fic.

(I’m frequently nervous posting fics so this question had a lot of possible answers.)

How Do You Pick Your Titles: Honestly it’s mostly ‘how dramatic does this sound’? Rarely it’s song titles (Like ‘spare me over’ from ‘O Death’ and ‘hurts like ghosts’ adapted from Lord Huron’s ‘Love Like Ghosts’.)

Do You Outline: Yes and no. Sometimes fics just pour out of me in a slightly horrifying word-vomit. Bigger projects often have a rough outline of scenes in brackets (example: [background info here] [conversation about X]). The Biggest Project (the Endgame AU) has a very, very detailed outline.

How Many of Your Stories are complete: So far all of them, because I’m terrified of repeating my youthful mistakes. I don’t start posting until I’m 100% sure I can complete it in a reasonable amount of time. Right now I have two in-progress series (the nine in the tree and hard road) but all of my individual fics are technically complete on Ao3.

In-Progress: Um. Well...I guess I have like 10 currently in some state of existing?

Coming Soon:  Been mostly concentrating on the big bangs, but here’s what’s coming:

Marvel Big Bang: ‘of the stern agony and shroud’ (Part I of ‘the dead reign there alone’. Part II ‘his chambers in the silent halls of death’ is also coming along quite nicely, so should be ready by the time the big bangs posts!). Hela reigns in Asgard. Thor and Loki struggle with this.

Thorki Big Bang: (very nervous to post, first foray into the ship) ‘water all around’ A young Thor and Loki go off by themselves and find themselves investigating a mysterious set of disappearances in a small village. (Hundreds of years later, aboard a refugee festival with the last remnants of their people, they’re circling each other again.)

Grandthorki Day: (also so, so nervous to post. It’s really fucking dark. Real dark. I’m sorry. But hey, it’s over 7k words and has a title now.) ‘actors without props//beasts without names’. The Grandmaster likes to put on a show.

Whumptober 2019 Project: (thus far untitled). I picked 8 prompts, a totally reasonable number. Totally. Reasonable. My goal is to start posting on October 24, to culminate on October 31, which is Halloween but also my fandom-versary! I can’t believe I was smart enough a year ago to make my first day actively posting fanfiction Halloween. I truly am, That Spooky Bitch.

I know people are looking for the ‘Endgame AU’ (alone amidst the ruins) to appear on this. But I decided that, personally, feeling satisfied with the narrative is more important to me than rushing it out. The Worst Draft is about 2/3 done, then I’ll start rewriting, I’m really hoping to hit a groove and get it done soon, but I don’t want to make any promises about how soon that will actually be.

Do You Accept Prompts: Sure why not! I’ve asked for prompts before for ‘hard road’, but I’d be happy to take general prompts, or prompts for other series (like ‘the nine in the tree’) or whatever! I had a lot, a lot of fun answering all those AU headcanon asks, so I’m always thrilled when I get asks/questions/prompts! (Can’t always promise that how quickly I’ll get things done, but I’ll do my best!)

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: As much as I’m nervous to post the Thorki big bang, because it does feel a bit like tipping over a cliff, not just taking on a challenge to cover a really popular pairing but also opening myself up to possible intense criticism, or future scrutiny*, I’m honestly really, really satisfied with the narrative and the quality. I’m proud of it. I’m excited to get to share it.

*Even though yes, I am the one who, just hours ago, when faced with the rumors that VE Schwab was an incest shipper/supported incest shipping (accusations thrown around by the Supernatural fandom of all people) did say that if it turned out to be true I’d actually probably respect her more. I’m still a bit nervous.

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions: Ahhh you all know how bad I am at tagging people. I’m going to try, just a couple, but you’re under no obligation and I’m sorry if you’ve already been tagged: @kiwimeringue @adhd-loki

Okay I tagged two actual humans, other than that, please do consider this an open tag! If you want to go for it!

[bountyofbeads]

2020 Iowa Caucus Updates: Delayed Results Lead to Confusion https://nyti.ms/391M8gE

I know the voters of Iowa takes their role seriously, but I am so tired of being beholden to the interests of a single small state in the Midwest. We need a national primary, not to mention an end to the electoral college.

First the Des Moines Register poll is cancelled at the last minute and now the caucus results are delayed beyond reason for “quality control”. Both events drastically altering the news cycle about the candidates in the race. It really makes you wonder.

2020 Iowa Caucus Updates: Delayed Results Lead to Confusion

Multiple Democratic candidates said they expected to finish strong in the caucuses, though official results appeared to be a ways off.

By The New York Times |Published Feb. 3, 2020 Updated Feb. 4, 2020, 8:01 a.m. ET | Posted February 4, 2020 |

The release of Iowa caucus results was delayed after inconsistencies in the reporting of data. “This is not a hack or an intrusion,” said a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party. The party is using photos of results and a paper trail to validate the results.

The lack of results didn’t stop multiple Democratic candidates from addressing their supporters late on Monday night. Nearly all claimed that they expected a strong finish in the state, whenever the results are eventually announced.

There are 41 delegates up for grabs, a tiny fraction of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Follow our results page here.

Here’s what you need to know:

IOWA DEMOCRATIC PARTY HOPES TO REPORT RESULTS ON TUESDAY.

Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, said shortly after 1 a.m. that he expected to have caucus results to report “later today” after party officials had manually tallied the data.

On a brief conference call with reporters, Mr. Price stressed that the caucus results were being delayed because of problems reporting delegate totals from the more than 1,600 precincts, not because the system had been hacked.

“This is taking longer than expected,” he said. “The system is in place to make sure we can report results with full confidence.”

Several hours after the caucuses ended, the state party still has not publicly reported any results. Mr. Price did not take questions, and the call ended after he finished reading his statement.

He said the system the party put in place for 2020, which requires written records for each precinct’s results, was implemented in case such a communications breakdown took place. “We have backups in place for this reason,” he said. “We are updating campaigns and will continue to provide updates as they are available.”

‘INCONSISTENCIES’ IN CAUCUS DATA LEAD TO DELAY.

Results in the Iowa Democratic caucuses were delayed Monday evening, creating widespread confusion among the presidential campaigns. Party officials said the results had been delayed because of “inconsistencies” in their reporting. The reporting problems are believed to have only delayed the results, not called them into question.

“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” said Mandy McClure, the party’s communications director. “In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”

On a conference call with the presidential campaigns, Iowa Democratic Party officials said the delay was because of the new rules requiring caucus leaders to report three sets of numbers to party headquarters, rather than just the delegate totals.

Representatives from the campaigns became angry at the party officials, who hung up after being asked about when results might be known, according to two people who listened to the call.

Since the caucuses began 50 years ago, Iowa Democrats reported only one number: the delegate count from each of the state’s precincts.

But after the razor-close 2016 race in Iowa between Hillary Clinton and Mr. Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s allies pushed the Democratic National Committee to require caucus states to track and report the raw numbers of how many people backed each candidate.

For Iowa, the new reporting standards meant counting how many people backed each candidate on the first and second alignment. That change, requiring the reporting of three separate numbers from each of the state’s more than 1,600 precincts, has slowed the gathering of data to a crawl.

Additionally, many precinct chairs across the state abandoned the new app that was built to help tabulate and report results as they struggled to log in. They opted instead to use the telephone hotline to report.

“I have had three precincts unable to report results,” said William Baresel, the Floyd County chair.

One rural county chairman took to Twitter to report results from a handful of precincts before calling it a night.

Already, a number of prominent Democrats have questioned the role of Iowa casting the first ballots in the primary process, criticizing the largely white, older state as unrepresentative of the diversity of their party.

Technical issues, happening in the midst of such a highly-watched caucus, could contribute to doubts about Iowa’s standing in the primary process.

Listen to ‘The Daily’: A Very Long Night in IOWA A story of caucusing and confusion from a middle school GYM. TIME 38:58, Listen on website)

TRUMP CALLS CAUCUSES ‘AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER.’

In the annals of expected news, President Trump won the G.O.P. caucuses in Iowa.

The contest was largely symbolic: While Democrats have saturated the Iowa airwaves for over a year, Mr. Trump faced little opposition in the Republican caucuses. In past years, Republicans have canceled their caucuses when an incumbent president was running for re-election.

Still, Mr. Trump and his team have used the past week to try and grab some attention away from the Democrats. On Thursday, Mr. Trump drew more than 7,000 fans to a rally where he predicted that Iowa would deliver for him again in November. He also deployed cabinet secretaries, top Republican officials and Trump family members to the state.

Early Tuesday, Mr. Trump called the confusion on the Democratic side “an unmitigated disaster.”

“The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump,’” he tweeted.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is “Trump”.

6:33 AM - Feb 4, 2020

The Trump campaign also questioned the legitimacy of the contest.

“Democrats are stewing in a caucus mess of their own creation with the sloppiest train wreck in history,” said Brad Parscale, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager. “It would be natural for people to doubt the fairness of the process. And these are the people who want to run our entire health care system?”

THE CANDIDATES MOVE ON TO A FULL DAY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

While the caucus results remained in limbo early Tuesday, most of the Democratic candidates boarded planes and left the state behind, flying east to New Hampshire to start a new round of campaigning before the Feb. 11 primary there.

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., appears to have the first event of the day — a stop by Riverwalk Cafe in Nashua at 7 a.m. — before going on to a full day of five town hall events around the state.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was also set to campaign in the state on Tuesday morning. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had events scheduled there through the day as well.

Ms. Warren landed in Manchester shortly after 4 a.m., surrounded by senior aides and top surrogates. In brief remarks to supporters, Ms. Warren said she felt good about her campaign’s position, even as the official results remained unclear.

“When I left Iowa, I said it is too close to call, and it still is — but I feel good,” she said. “We are in 31 states and have thousands of people on the ground.”

Ms. Warren thanked her team in Iowa and said organizers would disperse to other states for what her campaign has said it expects to be a long race. In previous statements, her campaign manager and chief strategist said they believed that Ms. Warren had finished in a closely bunched top three in Iowa, with Mr. Buttigieg and Mr. Sanders.

BUTTIGIEG CLAIMS VICTORY BEFORE RESULTS ARE REPORTED.

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but candidates abhor it more.

And so, in the absence of any official results from the Iowa caucuses, they all tried to frame the vacuum in the best possible light.

Ms. Klobuchar said she knew one thing: “We are punching above our weight.” Mr. Sanders joked about the delay and said he had “a good feeling” that when the results finally arrived, “we’re going to be doing very very well.” Mr. Biden said he was going to leave Iowa with his “share of delegates.” Ms. Warren of Massachusetts said it was “too close to call” but assured her supporters that they were one step closer to beating President Trump.

Then there was Mr. Buttigieg, who decided the vacuum didn’t exist.

“What a night!” he yelled to a mass of cheering supporters late Monday, declaring — with zero percent of precincts officially reporting — that “by all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”

“Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”

In truth, that reality was very much deniable.

A Buttigieg aide said that his campaign had received results from 77 percent of its precinct captains, and that those results showed him in position to win the most state delegates.

But this was hardly conclusive: Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign, said he had similar numbers from Mr. Sanders’s precinct captains showing him ahead. And even if the internal results are accurate, results can vary hugely from precinct to precinct, so there is no way to say that 77 percent of the precincts accurately reflect the whole.

“So we don’t know all the results,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “But we know by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa, you have shocked the nation.”

CYBERSECURITY EXPERTS WARN OF PROBLEMS WITH APP.

Christopher C. Krebs, the director of the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity agency, said late Monday evening that the mobile app being used in the caucuses had not been vetted or evaluated by the agency.

Cybersecurity experts also said that the app had not been properly tested at scale, and that it was hastily put together over the past two months. Iowa Democratic Party officials only decided to use the app to report results after a previous party proposal — which entailed having caucus participants call in their votes over the phone — was scrapped, on the advice of Democratic National Committee officials.

J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, and David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said Monday night that they had warned state officials that the mobile reporting app was vulnerable to what is known as a “denial of service attack,” in which hackers flood the central servers used to power the app with traffic, stalling them or knocking them offline.

“This app has never been used in any real election or tested at a statewide scale and it’s only been contemplated for use for two months now,” said Mr. Jefferson, who also serves on the board of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election integrity organization.

“This is an embarrassment but it shouldn’t shake people’s confidence in the results,” Mr. Halderman said. “If this had been an election conducted by phone, or online, that would have been a major disaster. We might never know the results and would have had to re-run the entire contest.”

“This is an urgent reminder,” Mr. Halderman said, “of why online voting is not ready for prime time.”

Mr. Jefferson warned that Nevada is also currently slated to use a similar mobile app to report its caucus results in a few weeks.

Warren: ‘WE ARE BUILT FOR THE LONG HAUL.’

Ms. Warren said the early returns in Iowa showed an appetite for her campaign of “big, structural change,” even as official results were muddled by technical difficulties.

In a rare set of prepared remarks, after being introduced by her grandchildren, Ms. Warren repeated a new refrain: “This campaign is for you.” It was in keeping with her attempts to paint herself as the candidate best suited to unite the Democrats’ moderate and progressive wings.

She acknowledged that the race’s official results were still muddled. “It is too close to call. But I’m just going to tell you what I do know,” she said. “As the baby daughter of a janitor, I’m so glad to be on this stage tonight.”

She then gave the sort of positive speech often given by victorious candidates.

“This race started here in Iowa, but from tomorrow it will run ocean to ocean, east to New Hampshire, and then west to Nevada, then down to South Carolina,” she said. “This fight will stretch across all 57 states and territories that make up this great nation until we unite together as a party in Milwaukee. The road won’t be easy. But we are built for the long haul.”

SANDERS IS FEELING CONFIDENT.

On a frustrating night for every candidate, all of whom were hoping to declare victory quickly and then jet off to New Hampshire, Mr. Sanders tried a bit of humor.

“Let me begin by stating that I imagine — I have a strong feeling — that at some point the results will be announced,” Mr. Sanders told supporters at his election-night watch party. “And when those results are announced, I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa.”

BIDEN CAMPAIGN COMPLAINS OF ‘CONSIDERABLE FLAWS’ IN THE REPORTING PROCESS.

The Biden campaign sent a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party late Monday night citing “considerable flaws” in the reporting system for the caucuses and seeking information from the party before results are made public.

“The integrity of the process is critical, and there were flaws in the reporting systems tonight that should raise serious concerns for voters,” Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Biden, said on Twitter.

Addressing supporters, Mr. Biden said he wanted to make sure the state party was “very careful in their deliberations” and added that he expected the results to be “close.”

“We’re going to walk out of here with our share of delegates,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what it is yet, but we feel good about where we are.”

In the letter, the Biden campaign’s general counsel, Dana Remus, wrote that the app to relay results from the caucuses had “failed,” and that the backup telephone reporting system had not work either.

“These acute failures are occurring statewide,” Ms. Remus wrote.

Ms. Remus said that campaigns should get more information from the state party — as well as a chance to respond — before official results are made public.

“We believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released,” she wrote.

KLOBUCHAR: ‘WE ARE PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT.’

There may have been no official confirmation of how anyone was doing, Ms. Klobuchar told supporters Monday evening, but she knew she was doing well.

“We know there’s delays,” Ms. Klobuchar said, speaking at the Des Moines Marriott. “But we know one thing — we are punching above our weight.”

“Even in a crowded field of candidates, even during the well-earned impeachment hearing of Donald J. Trump, which had me bolted to my Senate desk for the last two weeks, we kept fighting and you kept fighting for me,” she said. “Somehow, some way, I’m going to get on a plane tonight to New Hampshire, and we are bringing this to New Hampshire.”

‘WHAT’S THE MATH?’ ANDREW YANG ASKS.

“I gotta say, I’m a numbers guy, and we’re still waiting on numbers from tonight,” the former tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang said in a speech to supporters in Des Moines. “We’re all looking around being like, ‘What’s the math?’”

“But the math that I care most about is the fact that this movement has become something that has already shocked the political world,” he added. “And it’s going to keep on going from here — it’s going to keep on growing from here.”

BLOOMBERG LOOKS BEYOND IOWA.

There’s one candidate saying that whatever happens in Iowa tonight does not matter all that much: Mr. Bloomberg.

The former New York mayor spent Monday flying through California, stopping in Sacramento, Fresno and Compton. He shook hands with voters, took a few questions from reporters and plans to get on a plane to Michigan tonight.

Mr. Bloomberg is waging an extremely unconventional campaign, skipping the first four early states entirely and instead focusing on Super Tuesday and beyond.

“I’m a believer that if you want to fight the last war, you believe things like whoever wins Iowa goes all the way,” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview at a community center in Compton on Monday. “You believe that only six states matter. That was the last election. That’s not true today.”

Early voting officially began Monday in California, and Mr. Bloomberg is urging supporters to cast a ballot for him now. Though Mr. Bloomberg mostly demurred from playing pundit, he stands to gain if the moderates stumble in Iowa.

______

Reporting was contributed by Maggie Astor, Nick Corasaniti, Reid J. Epstein, Trip Gabriel, Shane Goldmacher, Michael Grynbaum, Astead W. Herndon, Thomas Kaplan, Lisa Lerer, Jennifer Medina, Jonathan Martin, Nicole Perlroth and Jeremy W. Peters.

_______

"I’m sick to death of these never ending Iowa caucus stories. Any state that sends the likes of Steve King, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to Congress has absolutely no business determining the Democratic candidate. They don’t represent this country and the hype they get is nauseating." NANCY, LAKE Oswego OR

"Just watching the Iowa caucuses on TV. It's the first time I have seen the process live. I did not see one black person in any of the caucuses. Yes, I am African American. And it all seems like backroom dealing is the way it all works. It's not really voting. It's politicking. I don't get it. Even among Whites who vote in the state, so many people apparently cannot participate in these caucuses and are excluded because the time required to caucus makes it prohibitive. Some people attend the caucuses and are so frustrated that they leave when their candidate is excluded because they cannot reach a critical number. Why are the Democrats still using this arcane nearly all white system for its first primary? Folks who care need to push for a very diverse state to be on the same day as, or even before the Iowa caucus. Let's rethink this. Traditions have their place. Traditions that give the power of the first primary to a 95% white electorate where the process is about back-room dealing needs to be scrapped." TONY GLOVER, NY

" I just spent a half hour being attacked by Sanders supporters online for a mildly critical comment about the difficulty of passing socialized medicine. I was accused of being a plant, of being a stooge, and of being a part of a DNC conspiracy. It's as if none of them read or trust anything "the media" says. Who does this remind you of--the non-stop conspiracy theories, the constant attacks from supporters, and the belief that the media is out to get them? I know who it reminds me of, and I know that I will not be voting for Sanders." SUZANNE, NY

"I live in France. People vote on a ballot made of paper. These are collected and counted locally after polls close. Results are transmitted to central offices and, within a few hours, final results are announced. Thank goodness America has a far more hi-tech, sophisticated system." FRANKSTER, PARIS 🇫🇷

"We just watched Klobuchar, Biden and Warren all give speeches thanking their supporters in Iowa. Senator Warren’s supporters were enthusiastic and Senator Klobuchar had her fans as well. Mr. Biden’s crowd was very quiet and we couldn’t see any placards or signs promoting Biden’s candidacy. I asked my husband if he thought it was a room full of journalists - people clapped politely but without enthusiasm. Senator Sanders is speaking as I write, surrounded by HUGE numbers of overjoyed supporters. The corporate media is unified in its determination to prevent Bernie from winning the nomination. If Bernie’s supporters feel cheated by this process, the Democrats will be handing the election to Trump. But maybe that’s the whole point."

ANNIE GRAMSON HILL, MT KISCO, NY

" "Problems with the app". "Quality control". Meaning: no-one stress-tested the app before it went live? I'm sure caucusing worked really well in 1848. It's 2020. Why is Iowa still holding caucuses? Have they not heard of voting and counting ballots? Does this look good? Not by a long shot."

BOB THE BUILDER, NYC

"I grew up in Des Moines. I remember participating in the caucuses when I was 18 (for John Kerry). It was an interesting experience, and it definitely contributed to my interest in politics as I got older. Fast forward 16 years--I now have two little kids. Even though I remain very actively engaged in politics, and have watched every single debate start to finish, I still would not be participating in the caucuses tonight if I still lived in Des Moines. There is a reason the vast majority of Iowa caucus goers are either very young, or very old--its because they have no other commitments (i.e kids, full time jobs, etc) and can easily devote an entire evening to participating in this event. I just can't imagine the results from this being an accurate representation of the voters of Iowa, let alone a projection for the country as a whole. If Iowa wants to continue the caucus, fine, but it should no longer receive the insane media coverage and endless months of obsession and money by the potential candidates." TO THE MAN, CHICAGO

"As a precinct chair, who actually had no problems with the app, the phone lines were jammed by not only those trying to call in results, but also my those trying to get help with the app. That created a mess. I'm also guessing the state party had fewer people answering phones, figuring more people would be using the app, which turned out to be faulty." NANETTE, IOWA CITY

" Yet another example of the perfect being the enemy of the good. Democrats are passionate about making sure everything they do is transparent, fair, and representative of the nation's growing diversity. In Iowa, party leaders developed a caucus reporting strategy that, in retrospect exceedingly complicated -- and thus virtually certain to fail. But we should not go overboard in attacking the process. The motivations behind this failed effort were positive, and it is worth noting that it contrasts significantly with official Republican policy, which is to limit voting of minorities, reduce even the opportunity to cast ballots, and try as hard as possible to sabotage the other party (the Democrats) from a fair chance of even competing for voters." PAUL, NC

"Since the caucuses began 50 years ago, Iowa Democrats reported only one number: the delegate count from each of the state’s precincts. But after the razor-close 2016 race in Iowa between Hillary Clinton and Mr. Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s allies pushed the Democratic National Committee to require caucus states to track and report the raw numbers of how many people backed each candidate." So, the guy who isn't a member of the party pushed the Democrats around to get what he wanted, and it's a mess. Do away with caucuses and have primaries where folks vote the same way as in the general election- a much better barometer. And, while we're at it- Iowa is a weird place to start. Lump it in with four or five other, more representative states." TOM, HOLLY SPRINGS NC

*********