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daresplaining · 2 years ago

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Mike Murdock's Sunglasses: On Character Design and Autonomy

I've written a little in the past about character design in regards to the translation of zany alter ego 1960s Mike Murdock into slightly-more-grounded, at least 85% more real 21st century Mike Murdock. Specifically, I talked with artist Phil Noto about Mike's outfits in Daredevil #606-612, and analyzed the clothing choices made by the creative team in the 2020 Annual. However, one specific detail that I find interesting in Mike's transformation from Matt's hyperactive id to his own autonomous person that I haven't really written about yet is his sunglasses-- when he wears them, when he stops, and how this shift may or may not align with his journey.

Matt: "Let's see now-- I'll just muss up the mop, to give myself that carefree tousled look! A fella like Mike wouldn't be caught dead with a simple Ivy-League hair comb! And, I'll have to give my specs a coffee break for a while, as I cover my sightless eyes in a more colorful way-- If the attorney-at-law business ever gets slow, I might just decide to open a school of method acting! Yessir! Stanislavsky had nothing on me! Now, all I've gotta do is change my personality! I figure a clown like Mike Murdock is sure to be on all the time!" Daredevil vol. 1 #26 by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia, and Artie Simek

Matt and his dark glasses were inseparable in the 60s-- literally, to the point that he even apparently wore them under his Daredevil mask (fortunately, he doesn't do that anymore). The clear hesitance of DD artists in this period to draw their blind protagonist's uncovered eyes is likely one of the reasons that when it came time for Matt to invent himself a fake sighted twin, the sunglasses stayed on. This has not always been the case. In the years since, Matt has taken on several sighted identities in which he does not wear glasses at all-- notably, con artist Jack Batlin in the 90s. Of the two approaches, the former makes slightly more in-universe sense. As someone with no vision at all, who was blinded in a physically damaging accident, logic suggests that Matt's eyes would look different from those of a sighted person-- most likely due to chemical burns/scarring, but at the very least from things like a lack of eye contact. Thus, the choice for Matt to simply switch up his style of shades for the Mike look, rather than taking the risk of foregoing them entirely, feels logical (even if it doesn't always match up with the way Matt's eyes are actually depicted, but that's a topic for another post).

As it turned out, the oversized, colorful shades ended up tying perfectly into the loudness of the rest of "Mike's" outfits, becoming a memorable staple of the look that Matt crafted for his fake twin-- a look that was as distant from the classic Matt Murdock suit and tie (and simple, dignified shades) as he could manage. These shades were iconically, undeniably Mike's. However, they were still born from the use of sunglasses as a visual shorthand for-- and Matt's in-character response to-- his blindness. A Daredevil reader in 1968 might have looked at ol' Loudmouth Mike and asked the question: If this guy were a real person, independent of Matt, with his own backstory and reasons for dressing the way he does-- would he still choose to wear dark glasses?

Mike: "Well, as I live and breathe! You're Daredevil, right? Friend of my brother, if I don't miss my guess. Real pleasure to meet you at last." Daredevil vol. 5 #606 by Charles Soule, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles ("As I live and breathe" is such a funny thing for him to say in this scene.)

Enter: Fragment-Boy Mike, and the beginnings of an answer.

When it came to transforming the concept of Mike Murdock into a fully realized character of his own -- not to mention pulling him out of the 1960s and into the 2010s-- some core Mike Murdock elements were dropped by the creative team, both for the sake of streamlining the narrative and in order to match the tone of the contemporary comic. Fragment Mike is no longer Daredevil's alter ego; in fact, he claims in his first appearance in Daredevil #606 that he has never even met DD before. Gone are the loud clothes, the primary colors, the waistcoats, the fedora with the feather in it. Curiously, all that remains of his original Look(TM)...is the sunglasses.

Foggy: "That is...correct. How did you...?" Mike: "Because I ain't him. I'm me. And now, Foggy...you need to call my brother." Daredevil vol. 5 #608 by Charles Soule, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles

Fragment Mike existed in a kind of limbo that neither he, nor Matt, nor even his "creator" Reader really understood-- a tortuous state of both being and non-being, in which he believed himself to be real and then had his worldview shattered by learning that no one else saw him that way. Mike claimed his autonomy and fought for his right to live throughout that story arc, but the simple truth was that he was born out of Matt-- specifically, out of Matt's case files, from which Reader accidentally spawned him-- and the memories he possessed of being anyone/anything else were false. He was nothing but a twisted, reanimated echo of an identity his brother had created, dark glasses included; Matt but not Matt, physically separate but still bound to his brother.

Mike: "I'm Matt Murdock's twin brother, but...but I'm not. I've got some fake memories. I'm like a shell of a thing...but inside...I can tell I didn't live through anything...and I think...I think it's driving me crazy." Daredevil vol. 6 Annual #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Manuel Garcia, Le Beau Underwood, Chris Mooneyham, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles

But! Fragment Mike, just like Matt, maybe because of Matt, is a fighter. He does not take being fake lying down. Through some Norn Stone magic, our fragment became a Real Boy, with real memories of a real backstory. And if we take a look through that backstory, we finally receive an answer to that 1968 DD fan's hypothetical question, because...

Daredevil vol. 6 Annual #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Manuel Garcia, Le Beau Underwood, Chris Mooneyham, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles

The moment Mike Murdock becomes a real person, the sunglasses vanish.

Look back through Daredevil volume 6. Once he is officially, cosmically real, the only time we ever see Mike wearing dark glasses is when he is dressed up as Matt (ohhh, the poetry of it all!). He is wearing them, standing in Matt's apartment, when he dies in Matt's place-- fated, in the end, to never entirely escape his brother's gravitational pull-- but what matters is that the sunglasses tied Mike to his origins as his twin in a costume, and the loss of them indicates fully and utterly that Mike has broken away and become his own person. We even get this fascinating scene at the beginning of volume 7:

Matt: "...It was Matt. He came back from rehab, went to his apartment... I don't know what the #$@% Fisk was thinking, but I know they've got history and... Ah, Butch. He killed my brother." Daredevil vol. 7 #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson, and Clayton Cowles

This is Matt Murdock, in the year 2022, once more pretending to be Mike...post-Norn Stone reality rewrite. And this time? No sunglasses. In fact, Matt claims that the key to a foolproof Mike Murdock disguise is in the eyes: "Not just making sure they faced the right direction...but that no matter what, he had kindness in them..."

Do I love Mike Murdock wearing smarmy shades? Of course I do. But I love a good piece-of-clothing-as-allegory just as much, and I love peeling back the layers of identity to discover who Mike really is when he is not his brother.

#Mike-ing like I've never Miked before here...#Daredevil #Matt Murdock #Mike Murdock #Mike Murdockalypse #Adventures in Continuity #ID in alt text

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ballsballsbowls · 9 months ago

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@ms-demeanor - I didn't want to make your post about writing romance any longer than it already was, but I've been trying to make a post about this specific phenomenon for a while now (every time I start to do it an adjacent topic is lighting up the horizon on tumblr and I'd hate for people to think it's a direct reaction to any of THEIR posts), and I think it's something that might also help you when thinking about writing romance.

So, I took a set of screencaps of two romance ebooks, deliberately pretty terrible because I am not out to say specific things about these specific books but about a phenomenon that's pretty apparent in the romance world right now, and you don't need to be able to read the words or ID the books to see what I'm talking about.

The book on the left is a romance book I'm currently reading and enjoying; the book on the right is a random Top 10 Paid Amazon Romance that is showing what I am trying to convey and wasn't picked for any other specific purpose.

Check out the paragraph size, length of line, how much white space per page in the book on the right.

Peace and love on planet earth etc, I think both kinds of books can, should, will, and must exist in the romance retail space because people want different things out of their books. But I'll admit that I vastly prefer books that look like the book on the left, even if I am just reading erotica. I'll read books like the one on the right, they're nice if you want something you can finish in a few hours or can read in a spot you'll be distracted, but they're not my favorite and they're not what I actively choose to pick up.

I'm tagging you in this specifically because I can sense you are hesitant about Writing Romance because you think that you don't have anything to say that romance readers want to read, which is blatantly untrue and I have already told you that.

But I sensed a second undercurrent of, "I am hesitant because I'm under the impression that nobody wants to read my long-ass shit in the romance space," since you get more than a little pushback on your long-ass stories on tumblr. And I wrote all of this in this specific time and place to tell you that there's still a market for dense romance novels with a lot of worldbuilding and commentary. In fact, we need more of them in the romance novel space, as a romance novel reader.

Sometimes I really want something I can sink my teeth into that also has sex in it, you know?

#stop b think of the children

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cepheusgalaxy · 10 months ago

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Hello, I saw your post about Brazilian OC because I'm researching to write one too. May I ask for tips please?

The premise of my story (the plan is maybe 15k-20k words) is about an American who moves to Brasil alongside his sister to restart a new life because of a dark past. He meets a 12-year-old girl whose perspective inspires him to face his past in the end.

I set the story in the Northen Brasil; more accurately, Rio Preto da Eva, Amazonas (long story on why but I got suggested to by a friend then I got attached to the place). Do you have any tips for me for portraying this little girl? Like her mixed race, her disposition, her family, her culture, food, her mannerisms, her body language, her English speech as a second language is like (she's bilingual just so they can communicate, maybe imperfect but fluent enough); how to show that she's Brazilian, basically? Not just a random kid in a random country that you can replace with another country and it will stay the same.

Thank you! I'm sorry if it's too much.

Hello! ^^ You can definitely ask for tips, and I'll help in any way I can. As a warning, this may be a bit rambly.

Firstly though, I'd like to say that I myself am not from the North, but from the North East, and there are a lot of cultural differences from here to there so I may not have advice as specific and as accurate as another person may give, but I'll give the tips I can. This is a somewhat long so I also put it under a cut :)

Now, moving on. I decided to divide this into topics so it's easier to understand:

Appearence (hair, clothing, etc.)

You ask about her race first. Amazonas is known for having the biggest amount of Indigenous communities from all the country (i fact checked that just to be sure), but the majority of people in there is also Parda [mixed black and white, you could translate that as Brown]. White people are at a minority of 24% of the population, following the <10% of Black people, so the Brown population is three times the white one. You may, ofc, chose whatever you want for her if you haven't already. Just throwing these statistics there in the case it might help.

If she's Brown, she probably will have coily hair, and she may wear it tied back or braided with a fun color, you decide. The climate in the North is mostly very warm and humid, so having her hair falling on her neck might be a bit uncomfortable so she probably wouldn't wear it loose unless it's for a special occasion or a party where she would want it super neat.

Ofc this changes from person to person, but at least in my city, girls with long hair tend to tie it for the most part and take especial care to leave it loose when they want it neater, since combing your hair with cream for it to look good loose takes a little bit more of work than just making it look nice in a ponytail or pigtails or a fancy bun. Short hair works differently and its more common to wear it loose, since there are less options for tying it and it's not as hot in your back and neck.

As a side note, she may also have straight hair. Girls her age sometimes like to straighten natural curly hair, or maybe she has indigenous ascendance if she's not indigenous herself and her hair is straight and her skin, dark.

Lots of girls also like to wear earrings and usually at twelve i don't see a lot of big ones so she may prefer to wear tiny ones, bracelets, etc.

An acessory you might also see is this one:

[ID: A toddler wearing a blue stripe turban, a bandana-like cloth on their hair, tied in a flower at the front. /end ID.]

For some reason I couldn't find an example of any older kid but it'll do lmao. This is a turban, or headscarf, that is common among women here and comes from African influence. We have the ones that cover more of the hair, and this one, which is more common for younger children, that has the shape of a stripe and has a stylized knot in the front. They can come in patterns or plain colors, like this. It's pretty cute, although not very popular amongst tweens and older teens, with some exceptions. The kid's ones usually come already tied and we call them tiaras.

Moving on to clothes, as the northern areas are very warm we usually wear tshirts, small dresses and short shorts or trousers. That is probably where the stereotype of Hot Skimpy Brazilian comes from (hand in hand with racism ofc). I notice that in colder countries people tend to layer up and wear long sleeves and pants in the summer but unless it's a party, an event or a particularly cold day that's really unusual here. Bc of the warmth, leggings and crop tops are super popular too.

Patterns are also really really common, not just in shirts but in dresses and shorts as well. That's also from African heritage.

Though I am pretty sure that patterned, long skirts are very common in Amazonas. You may want to research this one a bit more.

Accent

You also note that she speaks English, and I don't know exactly how the subject is in schools there, but in my area we learn English in a very basic and very simple range, especially at her grade. I'd say it's very unlikely that she'd have learned it there, but there's always exceptions though! If she didn't learn it in school, however, the most common way to learn it is by engaging in content in English. I learned it by engaging with the PJO fandom that is mostly in the US, for example, and my cousin learned it by playing pirated Pokemón that he couldn't get in Portuguese. Maybe she loves subtitled shows and learned there!

I'm not sure about her accent bc I'm not generally good at pointing them out, but a few things in her native language that may influence it are that, in Portuguese, vowels are a little bit more open most of the time, and she may also have trouble spelling the r in the way you do, and will probably acentuate it to compensate (my little sister does that) or switch it to a french r or a spanish r (if you've heard French or Spanish you may know what I'm talking about). She probably also speaks a little slower or accentuating each syllabe to make sure she's speaking right.

She may also just make some sounds completely wrongly, like spelling the S as a Z sometimes, like "azexual" (in portuguese when the S is between two vowels it has the sound of Z), pronounce X as "CS" or "SH" like Asecsual (asexual) or Eshtra (extra) or accentuate the Ts at the end of a word, something native anglophones tend to set aside for the most part, I've noticed.

School (coz I think that this might appear sometime, if your story doesn't take place in summer break)

A thing I'd like to note is that schools in Brazil work very differently than in the US.

Firstly, the "grades": We call them Years and they are divided in three parts: Fundamental School I [Ensino Fundamental I], Fundamental School II [Ensino Fundamental II] and Highschool. Before all of that, optionally we also have preschool or "childhood garden" or just daycare, that we also refer to as alphabetization.

F. I or E.F. I -- from 6 to 10yo. Here we have 1st year, 2nd year, etc allup to 5th year. Kids learn the basics and may or may not get in already knowing how to read and write.

F. II or E.F. II -- from 11yo to 14yo. Here we start from 6th year and go up till 9th

Highschool -- You know this one. Three years, called 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. A literal translation of its name would be Middle School. (Ensino Médio.)

We don't have homeschooling, and by law kids are obliged to attend school as soon as they are old enough to.

Schools here also have a pretty big difference from public to private that idk if you have in there.

Private schools are owned by individuals and Public schools are owned and funded by the government, as you probably know. All schools in Brazil also have uniforms.

Each private school has their own particular uniform, and you have to pay for your child's subscription, uniform, materials and snacks.

Public schools are divided in two categories: State schools and Municipal schools. State schools are owned by the state, and municipal schools are owned by the city. The state and the city all have separate uniforms, so every municipal school from a city is going to have a shared uniform, and every state school from a given state is going to share a uniform too. In public schools, the subscription is paid by taxes, and so are the uniform and food; you just have to pay for your personal material, not including books, that are provided by the school, and any school outings your child may attend to.

I took the liberty to take a look into the Amazonense public uniform and the uniform from the city you choose too:

[ID: A bunch of students wearing jeans or black pants and a white shirt with a green and yellow arc at the bottom, and a small crest on the chest. /end ID.]

^ Amazonense State Uniform

[ID: A little kid wearing black trousers and a white t-shirt, both with an orange crest. /end ID.]

^ Rio Preto da Eva Municipal uniform.

As you can see, the uniforms usually consist in trousers or shorts for younger kids or pants for the older ones and a plain shirt with the school, state or city simble. Unlike other countries, where the (girl's) uniform usually consists of some kind of skirt, the uniforms here are the same regardless of gender and come in some different sizes (Small, Medium, Big and Big-Big). Private schools also follow this model.

In Municipal Schools you usually get both the shorts and shirt by the school, and in State Schools you just get the shirt and can wear whatever pants you want, but following a dress code (usually it's "jeans or black or dark blue pants and closed shoes" and trousers are only allowed if they're a certain lenght, but maybe Amazonas has another code I'm not aware of)

Another difference from State and Municipal schools is also the offered curriculum. Fundamental I, sometimes II, is offered in Municipal schools, and highschool and Fundamental II are offered in State schools. Some schools may not follow this rule and have more or less stages.

And also the school year is a bit different: The year starts in the beggining of February, then there is a starting weekbreak for Carnaval, then the classes start for real. The year goes on till July where we get around 15 days off, then the classes come back and end at the start of December. This may change a little depending on the school's jurisdiction (Private, State or Municipal).

Schools also work in turns: Morning "Matutino" (7 to 11AM) and Afternoon "Vespertino" (1 to 5PM) or Full-Day "Integral" (7AM to 5PM or earlier). Most Municipal Schools as far as I know are morning + afternoon.

And lastly, as a side note, some medical services in Brazil are also public and free, like the SUS (unique health system), where your insurance is paid by taxes so you don't pay for it unless the service costs more than what your plan allows for.

Food

Now about food, I'm not completely familiarized with culinary from the North, but we share some dishes in common and I also did a quick search. So we have:

Lots of fish -- the Amazonas is cut by a lot of big rivers so fish is very important to the culinary

Cupuaçu -- a tropical fruit that gets delicious in ice cream

Açaí (another fruit you can make great ice cream with) with beans. Half of the people like it and the rest claim it tastes like mud.

Maniçoba -- a dark soup made of cooked cassava leaves and meat basically

Muqueca -- a kind of fish soup

Pirão -- it has the texture of mashed potatoes and it's made of cassava flour cooked in fish broth

Fried banana - you cut up banana in slices and fry them in the pan till they go gold and it's very sweet, crusty and delitious tbh. Some people put it in couscous

A lot of fruit juice, like guaraná, cupuaçu, graviola and any other fruit you can find in there

Beiju -- beiju is a sort of flour you prepare like pancakes (rolled up pankakes, that is) and they are crispy and you usually put salty toppings like chicken and cheese in there. some people like it alone though

Pão de queijo -- technically "cheese bread" but it's a completely different kind of cheese bread. it is very small and round and also crusty

You can search for more of the food but this should give you an idea.

For table manners, at least where I am from, idk about Amazonas, it's considered rude by some people to support your elbows on the table, and by most it's also considered rude to speak while your mouth is full.

Family and other details

I'm not sure how family would be very different and idk much about family in Amazonas but where l live specifically (northeast) I've seen these elements in families very commonly

single mom (usually black and poor)

a dad or grandfather with a lot of abandoned children with many different woman so you may have 7 unknown siblings/uncles

idk about other areas but here we greet our older relatives by 'asking bless' (pedindo a benção or just bença)

I am not really aware of mannerism differences but I can give you a silly list of swear words because 12 is just the age kids are really sweary and I think she could literally translate some of these by accident and some don'r rlly work in english but here they are:

Desgraçado - disgraced. Medium swearing

Miserável - miserable. Light swearing

Filho da puta - son of a bitch. you know this one. Can be very heavy or very playful

Filho da mãe - son of a mother. Heavy swearing

Filho da égua - son of a (female) horse. Medium swearing

Seu cu - your ass. Light to medium swearing.

Tomar no cu - go take it up your ass. Light swearing but can be heavier depending on circumstance.

Seu porra - the only translation i can think for "porra" is cum but it can also mean fuck. this one is calling someone a porra. a bastard in this context. light to medium swearing

Porra

Foda - can mean fuck, can mean shit, can mean badass, can mean 'it sucks', can mean 'hella cool' and really really depends. light swearing when it's used like that

Caralho - i am not sure how to translate this one. it's usually a term for when things suck. or are very cool.

Rapariga - calling someone a bitch lightheartedly. light swearing

Viado - faggot. can be very heavy or very playful

Quenga - similar to rapariga but more agressive

Desgraça - disgrace. usually to express frustration. medium swearing

Portuguese has a lot of curse expressions actually.

Some other things that may be worth noting are:

Most brazilians, unless they're very wealthy, don't have dishwashers. Or drying machines for that matter. Since it's hotter here we mostly dry up things in the sun. We use strings for that or just hang them up the wall at the back of the house.

Some brands we refer to when we mean certain products (but this one may not apply to Amazonas): Maizena (corn starch), cotonete (cotton swab), QBoa (bleach), Veja (disinfectant), Nikito (a brand of stuffed cookie), Springles (you have that one too), Play-Doh (play dough), Amoeba (a weird slime toy) and Oreo

'Gringo' is a word that means foreigner. If you're not from here, u a gringo

Your character may struggle to use 'it' to refer to some objects, because in portuguese we don't have it as a pronoun. Objects are either he or she so your girl is probably gonna call the table a she and the car a he a lot of the time. I do that too sometimes.

Very specific anime thing if she likes anime: there's a culture here that if you watch dubbed anime instead of subtitled ur a loser. it's silly but it exists.

If she's twelve she probably grew up watching Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo. It's a child's cartoon based off a classic child's author work, Monteiro Lobato. And she probably read Turma da Mônica as a child (the comic books ever)

She also prob watches a lot of dramas. They usually air in channels like Globo or SBT. Three very popular and classic ones are Chiquititas (a show about a bunch of children from an orphanage and one of them was the secret heir of some rich guy idk. my sister loves it), Carrossel (i don't watch novellas but i know there's a school and a black boy and this racist girl. it's also a meme) and Chaves. Some more recent ones are Romeu e Julieta and As Aventuras de Pollyanna.

We tipically use the 24 hours format so if your mc can't understand that he'll probably confuse himself a lot

"Meia" (half/middle) usually refers to the number six, when we're talking about phone numbers. That's because three and six sound way too similar and you may confuse them up so to avoid that we replace six with meia

A dozen and half a dozen are also used a lot, like when you go get groceries and eggs, idk about other countries

Vasco -- vasco is a soccer team that is a meme because they Always Lose. We have the expression "went vasco" to express someone got fucked over

She will probably refer to soccer as football when speaking english bc in portuguese, soccer is "futebol". Depending on her personality she may refure to correct herself

The girl almost definitely cheers for a soccer team. I know few people who don't cheer for a soccer team.

Talking about soccer, another team that is a meme is Flamengo. Bc they don't ever win a "world" medal. Idk much about soccer but a world medal or a mundial is a class of tournaments?

Soccer is a big thing here. We cancell classes when the soccer world cup is near.

Now for your last line--how to show that she's brazilian. I'm not really skilled in showing different nationalities in writing, but I think that the most effective tool you could use is the cultural difference. How do things work differently here in opposed to there? What is your usamerican character used to or not used to, what does he have to adapt to? What does the girl think your character should know, or be used to, when he isn't? What are the things your character prides herself for in her culture (like soccer or the food bc of the meme of Bad USamerican Food)?

Anyways, this is a really wide topic but I hope I have been able to shed a little light or offer some guidance. If anybody who sees this is from Amazonas, your insight could be helpful too!

Good luck with your story, anon!

#this is VERY long sorry #and tx for waiting!#damn i rlly managed to finish my stuff today thank god #asks #anon #brazilian characters #brazil #writing advice #character tips #amazonas anon #sami long post

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james-hinchcliffe · 2 years ago

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alright you have me convinced!! what should i know before i watch indycar next season??

yooo i'm so glad i convinced you!! this is a pretty long post, and is kind of all-over the place. i tried to break it up by general topic, but i'm adding randomly as i think, so just a warning. i'll add some info links i like at the bottom. (if you or anyone wants to talk indy or f1, asks or dms are so very welcome, i love making friends <3)

one thing about indy is unlike in basically every else, many cars look very different even when on the same team as well as special liveries that are nothing like their normal ones, so i'd recommend getting the indycar app (it's free and user friendly once you figure out the weird layout) as it has a spotter's guide. it also has onboard cameras and radios for free (!!!!).

indycar is (usually) a pretty friendly sport, but as is the case with american sports, we like chaos, so the drivers can pretty much say anything except swear words lol. there's a few different clips of drivers threatening each other, which is great. id say most drivers are friends or at least acquaintances, expect santino ferrucci (huge bigot, pay driver, got kicked out of f2 for extremely dirty driving, and i personally hate his hair) and often romain grosjean as he hits people a lot. as for 2024 rookies, kyffin simpson's dad bought him his seat, and kyle larson saying the n-word in 2020 means he has some really, really racist fans.

the safety rules are strict and the cars are very durable which is good for high-speed crashes. the safety people (shoutout amr indycar safety team i love y'all, amr the company i hate you more than i hate the fia) travel with the races and have extensive training. they are also stationed in places that allow quick access to any location on a track. this is most apparent at ovals as they are much faster and more dangerous. at the other races, they are stationed where there is higher likelihood for a more dangerous crash that needs faster reactions. they take trucks to the site that are full of basically anything that might be needed. this is especially important as indycar refuels and are at high risk of combustion compared to f1. the calling yellow flags is also a lot more liberal which is nice. during longer yellows, and reds at ovals they'll run a sweeper truck to clean the racing line so people don't slide into walls.

for flag code info, as i don't have the patience to write it out, it is is section 7.2 of the rule book (page 27). i've linked it at the bottom of the post.

with the cars, they're all required to have the same chassis and aren't allowed to change a huge amount, so the racing is mostly down to skill, though andretti, ganassi, penske, and mclaren are better as they have more money. there are two engine suppliers, honda and chevrolet, iirc (don't quote me here) chevy is a bit more powerful, but honda is a bit more handleable. fast pit stops are usually about 7 seconds due to smaller pit crews (7 people maximum) and refueling. each car also has it's own pit box as teams have variable car numbers based on what they can afford. firestone provides tires, and there are two compounds, primary and alternate, as well as a wet tire. primaries are the harder compound and have a black sidewall. alternates are softer and have a red sidewall, except at street circuits where it's green to signify all natural rubber. use of both compounds are required. on broadcast you'll hear them mention "sticker reds" which are just the brand new ones.

more tire info in section 15 of the rulebook (page 84). there's some complex rules if you like tires.

the biggest difference between indy cars and f1 is f1 has power steering, indy doesn't. if you watch onboards, the drivers are wrestling the car the whole time, and most of the racing comes down to skill. the actual racing is often chaotic (indycar app helps with this. i keep it open always) and since there are many pit stops in a race (the cars use a lot of fuel) the leaderboard will change a lot.

the points system is very different, i'll try to cover it as succinctly as i can but i'm going to put a link for the wiki on it at the bottom anyway. (this is going to be formatted real weird, but i want to be brief). p1 50; p2 40; p3 35; p4 32; 4th-10th decreases by 2; p10 20; 10th-25th decreases by 1; everything p25 down is 5 points. drivers get points for finishing the race, basically. (unless there's more than 33 finishers, then 34 down get nothing, but that doesn't really happen). there's some bonus points also, 1 for leading a lap, 2 for most laps led, and 1 for pole position. the final bonus is for indy 500 qualifying. top 12 get points from p1 getting 12, descending by 1, to p12 getting 1.

as for the circuits there's three types: ovals (6 races, 4 tracks), roads (6 races, +1 non-championship race), and street (5 races). ovals are very high speed with little to no breaking. road courses are just your average circuit made for racing, the roads tend to be a bit rougher than f1's but that's kinda just how american tracks are. street circuits are, well, on the street. american roads suck major dick. the smoothest indycar street circuit is comparable to the worst of f1's. very bumpy, usually some good crashes (watch 2023 st. petersburg start. shit was insane).

as a fan, i cannot recommend irl indy more. some races are busier than others, obviously, but it's cheap considering it's a big racing category. 3 day entry for the less major races is usually $60-ish, and paddock passes are an additional $120-ish. not 100% on the price for pit access, but that is a bundle with three day tickets usually. the races aren't super crowded and there isn't assigned seats which is nice. the paddock is super open (check my "fenrir indycar" tag, quick access on my pinned) and you are able to walk up to and touch the cars if you really want (i wouldn't) as well as have conversation with engineers if they're not busy. if you have pit access the drivers are usually just wandering around and are often happy to stop and talk/sign something when not busy. there's also a high risk of nearly getting run over by drivers on their scooters. will power is notorious for this.

for my non-americans, (love y'all) we are very happy to have a conversation with strangers. the indy fans are often thrilled to talk about their favorite drivers and thoughts with anyone. when i went id say the only bad experiences i had was getting overwhelmed (my fault, i went to a place that i knew would cause a meltdown) and my dad getting hit twice by a man in a golf cart twice (same guy, not my dad's fault, the cunt didn't try to move, warn him, or apologize, just hit him, let my dad stumble, hit him again. i'm still mad). the seats are usually right on the track, so it's extremely loud and smelly. 10/10 can not recommend irl indy enough. i am biased to the pnw and it's the only race i've been to, but the portland race is great. it's not got masses of people, you can walk right up to the track to watch with the only thing between you and the cars being a concrete wall and a fence, and as it's a smaller race with less fans compared to the east coast and mid-west races, it's cheaper. biggest con is its built on a swamp, so super humid. (another pro, i'll be there <3 [joke.])

any questions you've got or clarification needed, my notifications are on and i'll respond to relevant stuff as soon as i see it.

LINKS:

rule book (clicking on a section of the table of contents will take you there)

points format wiki

schedule (tickets can be bought here)

app link

2024 series wiki (so helpful)

#f1 #indycar #fenrir indycar #indy 500 #2023 indycar #2024 indycar #formula 1 #anti santino ferrucci #portland indycar #ask #anonymous #anon

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stormblessed95 · 11 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/stormblessed95/758157050982318080/httpswwwtumblrcomstormblessed957581451949578?source=share

Okay it sounded angry to me so sorry to misunderstand. To explain myself, my ask was initially a bit different and I wrote a lot of things which after reading it, I felt might be a bit weird so I removed them but I can see now that what I sent ended up being very empty so you might've misunderstood it as me wanting validation or something about jikook.

What I wanted to say in the ask was just that neither option is completely right or wrong at this stage right? We don't know if jikook are together or not together and we may never know so technically both options aren't incorrect. It doesn't matter if you tell me yes jikook are bfs or no they aren't since neither of us really knows them in real life. Now if I logically think about it the best option would be that they're not dating. But my brain coming to that conclusion doesn't actually convince me of anything because when I see their dynamics everything about them screams 'boyfriends" to me. My ask was supposed to be about how logic versus instinct plays into our view of their relationship. And then I had initially written some stuff about religion (the logic of atheism versus the instinct of spirituality) but it felt like a trivialisation comparing shipping to God even if I felt there was a similarity there in the psychology behind it so I removed all of that.

The crux was that it's always fascinating to read about the pretzels the brain will twist itself into to not have to change it's opinion on something. So I'm constantly wondering if continuing to be a jikooker is okay or if I'm falling into the same trap. Sometimes it feels like you can't trust your brain because are these real reasons or is your brain tricking you because it wants to believe something. I was just wondering if you ever had thoughts like that yourself. Or if it even matters? But I feel like it matters a little. I hope this was a bit clearer about what I meant

Your original ask

You do realize that this ask is a completely different ask than your first one right? Lol I also didn't think you were wanting validation. I didn't know what you wanted other than to state your opinion AT me. 😂 Which like okay, you do you. But those asks, I normally delete. Because what's the point of them? And I say that genuinely. They read like a twt post or blog post you should make on your own pages. And they don't have anything to do with me. Which, not to be egotistical or anything, but this is MY space. Lol not the Jkkrs space. It's just mine, only storms. If you choose to hang out here, I'm happy to have you though.

Neither of us knows them in real life, so everything we say and share on here is just various spewed opinions.... Yes. That is what i say CONSTANTLY. Soooo what more did you need from me there? Lol

I'm not sure where religion comes into this, but as someone who is not religious, Im not sure id want to touch on that topic either, especially if not handled very sensitively. So that was probably a good idea to drop that one.

Psychology of the brain is absolutely a super interesting topic and I've spoken lots, especially also in my later posts about confirmation bias and the natural biases that every human has and how that colors everything we see hear and do, no matter how much we try to not let it.

Being a Jkkr is still okay, even if you don't think they are dating or if you do and they turn out not to be. It's also okay to be a Jkkr who doesn't think they are dating and is surprised if it's ever revealed that they are. There are no rules here. As long as you are respectful to the members and to their private lives, how you conduct yourself and the parts of fandom you participate in, is always okay.

My opinions are my own, I share them here pretty consistently. If you want to know my opinion on things, it's easy to ask nicely and respectfully. It's also easy to check my posts and make sure I haven't already shared said opinion. If you have a different opinion and want to have a conversation about that RESPECTFULLY I am always more than happy to do that too. But it has to be a discussion. Not just someone speaking at me, because I have no interest in participating in that kinda dialogue.

And anon, this isn't just me calling you out specifically. I get asks like your first one CONSTANTLY. And I had asked 2 people with similar types of tones in their asks of just stating things AT me the same questions I asked you. You were just the unfortunate kind person who cared to come back and give me an answer. Lol so thanks at least for returning and trying to explain your thoughts further. Hope you take my response here in the kind hearted tone I mean it to be taken in as well.

Have a good day, enjoy AYS with me when it comes out 💜💜

#jikook #kookmin #jikookers #messages from storm

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tauforged · 1 year ago

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Could we learn more abour Seiber?

YESS ABSOLUTELY!!

tragically i’m at work rn and have much to be doing so i can’t go TOO too in depth rn, but i CAN give a quick summary of who he is and what his deal is and then link to some other posts i’ve made that go into more detail . he is my silly guy and i liek him :)

- Seiber Starwalker is a NPC in the dnd campaign i’ve been a part of for the past few years now, Feywild’s Folly! He’s an aasimar priest of Mystara*, Goddess of knowledge, who resides in the port town of Horton, which has been kind of serving as the party’s ’home base’ for the past few story arcs. While the chief deity worshipped in Horton is Njord (a god of the sea is going to be pretty popular in a place where a large amount of the population are sailors or dock workers), the religious district is home to a lot of different altars and tertiary places of worship for a myriad of other “””lesser””” deities

( *very early on in the campaign, every single one of us somehow managed to confuse ‘Mystra’ as ‘Mystara’, and it’s been so long that we’ve just rolled with the change. the entire campaign is homebrew anyway so it’s probably like the most insignificant difference from ‘dnd canon’ LMAO but it can cause confusion so i thought id clarify

- to help give our lovely DM a break here and there and also to better involve us all in the worldbuilding and give us chances to shake things up since this has been a very long and convoluted campaign, each of us players get to come up an additional NPC that we can RP as during the course of the campaign in addition to our actual PCs. seiber is mine! :3

- one of the most significant things about him is that, as a part of his vows to mystara, he cannot willingly say or suggest anything that he knows to be false — basically, he can’t lie, and also if anyone asks him a question he knows the answer to he’s compelled to tell them. this is unfortunate for him because despite being a holy man, he’s also not exactly on the up-and-up legally speaking a lot of the time, but if he ever got caught he would be compelled to confess immediately. also because the party uses this to ask him embarrassing questions that he has no choice but to answer because they find it funny to torment him. which is fair. it’s pretty funny to put him in situations

- mystara has no actual problem with any of his antics. she actively encourages him in most situations. he’s her favorite and she’s motivated by curiosity, so on top of egging him on to get into bar fights and send letter bombs to people (long story), she will occasionally physically compel him to do some impulsive thing to satisfy her curiosity. like putting a raw egg in his mouth or touching a hot stove. he’s capable of resisting her if he sees it coming, but he’s often deep in thought and doesn’t notice what’s happening until it’s already been done. there’s no malice on her end — she simply doesn’t always remember that mundane beings have bodies that can sustain permanent harm. he often has to gently remind her that people die when they are killed.

- on the topic of mystara, she knows Literally Everything which in turn makes her quite forgetful. even a god can’t possibly store all the knowledge in the known universe at once, so she’s in a constant state of forgetting and relearning things. this is why her preferred method of ‘worship’ is for her followers to engage in rhings like researching the world around them or learning new hobbies, and why her favorite offerings are academic papers or textbooks or personal anecdotes — she subsists on knowledge and the act of learning itself is what sustains her

- if you squint you might notice he vaguely resembles a certain erm. video game astrophysicist from a bad team shooter whom i still hold dear to my heart. he was originally meant to be a one-off joke reference character but we all got attached to him very quickly and hes just a part of the campaign now despite being a dollar store sigma ovw. it’s fine im better at writing than blizz will ever be. i’m treating him right.

here’s a few more posts about his background / personality / relationship with mystara as well as some art of him and his gf rilith (who is a WHOLE OTHER CAN OF WORMS but as much as i adore her i can’t possibly type any more rn. there’s more about both of them in their respective tags though)

#seiber #ocs #feywilds folly #dnd #he’s a MESS but he’s my mess <3 someone help him

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fetish4juggalos · 3 years ago

Text

Gotham villans with their s/o pt.2

Ive decided that since im tryna post more frequently that Id do a part 2 to my 'Gotham villans' post since after alot of procrastination i finally finished the show around 2 months ago

Id also like to apologize for the quality since my last post was on oct 3rd so this is a little rushed

I apologize in advance for both grammatical errors and spelling errors:)

Jervis Tetch

Hes absolutely obsessed with you no doubt about it

Because of the loss of his sister he automatically is gonna have a near ridiculous attachment to you

Constantly keeping tabs on you, KEEPING YOU FAR AWAY FROM JIM GORDON, and following you around from time to time

Constant reassurance is necessary to make sure he knows you love him

Your past relationships are trivial to him because you're his now and there's no changing that but if an ex comes into a picture he's pissed

Goes from rhymes and dilly dallying to an absolute psycho in a matter of seconds

Kissing is something he uses to calm himself or take control of a situation especially when hes overwhelmed. Its also something you can do to him to reassure him and keep him calm

If you're up to the challenge he might even let you cut his hair seeing as his hair and facial hair change lengths throughout the show:)

Gifts from him are always extravagant and meaningful. Things like teaparties, watches, antiques, jewlery, and various items that he's selected just for you

I feel as if he'd be a great cook since he has such well put together teaparties with cakes, sandwiches, sweets, ect.

Has crazy personality switchs. One second he's overly excited the next hes seething and on the break of insanity

I feel like he too just like jerome commits crimes as a declaration of love. Things like making your ex jump off of the clock tower or hurting people to show how far he'll go for you ect.

Edward Nygma

Pre-riddler

Ed would be an absolute sweetheart

A little strange and a bit creepy but with good intentions

He'd be a little overprotective/territorial but that would only be the case if people around the GCPD started making moves on you/flirted with you

He wouldn't have any inherent issues with you dating others previously since you're your own person and he respects your past but if an ex came around we might have another officer dorty situation

Gifts normally consist of wordplay or riddles. Like cards with riddles in them or gifts that go along with a riddle. All the things he gives you always have an Ed touch to them

He also like oswald follows you around but in less of a needy way and more of a wanting to get to know everything about you way. Like learning your interests, telling you riddles, listen to you go on and on about different topics, ect.

Post-riddler

Edward is alot more confident and alot more unhinged than Ed

Very foward and very jealous

Unlike Ed the idea that you've been with others irks him. And as much as you reassure him that your exs are out of sight and out of mind he'll always have this itching feeling that they're still in love with you

His gifts I imagine consist of about the same things. Riddles and wordplay. The only difference is instead of them being more nerdy sweet gifts they're more complex, intricate, possibly stolen gifts (Bigger budget when you're a criminal I guess)

Hes not as clingy as pre-riddler Ed if anything he'd be a bit more reserved, only realizing the true impact that his feeling for you have on him later on

Would he be super affectionate? I cant imagine him being incredibly affectionate but he enjoys it as much as pre-riddler Ed just not as open about it

Jeremiah Valeska

If you want utter honesty I cant image him being very clingy or incredibly lovey-dovey

I just cant imagine him following you around or keeping a incredibly close eye on you

The thing about Jeremiah that makes him so different from Jerome is how cold he is. Very well composed, takes control of any situation, doesn't go with the flow, always has a plan. If he wants to have tabs on you he'll just ask echo to follow you around

That being said it doesn't mean he isnt territorial of you. It doesn't have to be said for everyone to know that you're Jeremiah's

In the case that an ex was to come into the picture they would be dealt with privately and by someone other than Jeremiah but if he sees fit I doubt he'd be opposed to allowing you to watch as your ex is tourtured

Physical affection is something that can also be used to calm him when stressed out about a plan going wrong or just in the case that he feels like showing you off

He doesn't have a very wide range of emotion

He's either cold and composed or pissed and stressed out on the break of a mental breakdown

Gifts from him are almost always luxury items like jewelry, timepieces, clothing, and shoes.

Even though he is very public about his relationship with you he keeps you out of his crimes for the purpose of the bigger picture. Turning you from a possible accomplice to the poor girl who suffered from Stockholm syndrome all comes together in his big plan and also gives you a out of he ever is taken in

I cant imagine the two of you would go on dates very often. He spent most of his life as a recluse in a maze so I doubt he got out much. Most of the time hes hunched over a desk or blackboard planning his next attack on gotham but if you were to ask to go out me may have something private arranged for the two of you

#jervis tetch #jervis tetch x reader #jeremiah valeska x reader #jeremiah valeska #edward nygma #edward nygma x reader #the riddler #gotham

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rq-described · 4 years ago

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hey is it ok if i ask for a bit of advice with writing ids? /gen. i've seen quite a few posts about people over-describing in their ids, and i have a feeling that i do that (i tend to overcomplicate everything i do skdsksjd). what kind of information is unnecessary in an id that i can try to cut out in future? thank you so much!

Hello! It’s totally okay to come to us with questions, we’re always happy to try and help!

To be completely honest this topic is something that a lot of us are still working on. The line between under and over-describing can be a bit hard to place, especially since it differs depending on the piece, and the person using the IDs. It’s impossible to make it perfect for everyone, but here are some tricks we’ve found helpful.

1) Ask yourself what the purpose of the piece is.

Art showing off a character design will have very different priorities than a comic or a meme. A drawing of a character just standing in a cool outfit suggests more in depth descriptions of their design whereas a long action filled comic should center the action or dialogue. Trying to describe characters and actions in the same part when a piece has multiple characters and/or significant action will often bog it down.

For example writing:

"X enters the room. They have blonde hair and pale freckled skin, and they wear a sweater vest over a white collared shirt and a pair of dangly cherry earrings. They are drawn from the waist up. They say to Y, 'What’s up?'"

doesn’t flow as well as writing:

“X enters the room and says to Y, 'What’s up?’”

Understanding the purpose of the piece often means being succinct for the sake of comedic timing, too. Putting the punchline of a comic in the middle of a paragraph of description makes it less impactful than saving it until the end, and breaking up dialogue with several sentences describing a background or outfit means people may lose the thread of the comic.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t describe the character design if you can find a way to significantly shorten the description or include it separately. We’ll go over one possible way of including them in the line breaks section.

2) When dealing with complex settings, backgrounds, or clusters of items, ask yourself what needs to be described individually, and what can be generalized.

Complex and/or cluttered surroundings can get incredibly wordy when describing each component as it’s own thing. If certain components are not individually important to the viewer’s understanding the piece, generalizing or sometimes even leaving them out can significantly cut down on words. For example, writing:

“A mahogany shelf sits above his head. On it sits a blue mug with a spoon sticking out, a ceramic container filled with utensils, and a set of salt and pepper shakers.”

is significantly wordier than writing:

“A shelf holding various utensils and kitchen items sits above his head.”

Sometimes you can bear to cut individual details entirely if they aren’t particularly relevant to understanding the image. For example, if describing a drawing of characters at the beach, and there’s a buoy in the ocean way out in the distance, you probably don’t need to describe it unless it plays an active role in the piece.

3) When describing the appearances of characters, keep in mind what features are important to understanding the artist’s depiction.

Certain aspects of a character’s appearance can say a lot about how the artist wants them to be interpreted. Things like body frame, hair and clothing style, and especially race can vary drastically by artist, and in result change how the character is understood.

Other things like eye color, nose shape, or specific body proportions often do not change the general understanding of the character, and can cause the character description to become bloated. They typically should not be included.

There are certainly exceptions to this however, for example, if a character has unnatural features like glowing eyes or a snout, it changes how the character is meant to be perceived and should be described.

4) Play around with line breaks.

Sometimes pieces are just too complex to avoid having a long description. In order to make sure all important details are included while also including action, consider breaking the description up into chunks. Putting the action first and then writing out the character designs allows the people who want to know what’s going on in the image but don’t particularly care about designs to skip to the next post after the first paragraph, while still providing the descriptions for the people who do.

5) Be aware of what your audience already knows.

When there’s a reasonable expectation that your audience might already know something, it’s okay to use some shorthand. This comes up often when describing memes.

For example, writing:

The Spiderman pointing at himself meme, where one Spiderman is labeled X and the other is labeled Y.

is much more succinct than writing:

A screencap of a cartoon. Two people in identical Spiderman costumes are standing in front of an NYPD vehicle, with one facing away from the viewer and one facing toward the viewer. They are both pointing at each other in identical poses. The Spiderman facing away from the viewer is labeled X in white text. The Spiderman facing toward the viewer is labeled Y in white text.

You’re writing for an audience of Tumblr users, so you can assume most Tumblr users are familiar with the meme. If they aren’t, you’ve given them enough information to look up more about it.

This is also something to consider when describing fanart. Most podcast characters by nature don’t have canonical appearances, so the choice of how to portray a character is often intentional on the part of the artist and something worth paying attention to when considering the purpose of a piece. This isn’t the case for all media, though, and re-describing characters with canonical appearances over and over again isn’t necessary unless those appearances differ significantly from the norm.

We hope this was able to help! If anyone sees this and would like to add anything, please feel free to do so, and as always, if you have any more questions, feel free to reach out.

~The Mods

#not rq #not id #accessibility resources

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legends-live-in-memories · 4 years ago

Text

Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century

AYO! Day 2 of MGI Trope Tussle! Team Enemies-to-Lovers for the win. I bring you another oneshot. but this time i used 3 prompts like a dumbass.

Fics Masterlist

Daminette Oneshot 4.3K words (no warnings except slight cursing)

Summary:

“Marinette is invited to the Super-Rockin' Wedding of the Century and she needs a date. Alya is both her best and worst wingman.”

Day 2 of MGI Trope Tussle, I used 3 prompts to make this thing: 1. "You don't have to like me, you just need to pretend you do." 2. "I like your costume. You look very cute." "Are you making fun of me?" 3. 'Write about a very unusual wedding proposal.' this is the culmination of all my efforts.

without further ado:

It was the biggest news on the internet. Global sensation, international rockstar, Jagged Stone, was officially engaged to childhood friend turned manager, Penny Rolling. Memes and fan theories stormed every corner of the web. Trending topics including #rockstar_wedding and #RollingStone permeated every social media platform. Guest lists were speculated, dress designers were tagged in every post that even mentioned the words ‘wedding’ or ‘bride’. It was total mayhem but none felt it worse than up-and-coming Parisian designer, M. D. Cheng, privately known as Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The young adult was up to her neck in design templates, and was drowning in half-baked ideas and sketches. While the internet has only heard about the proposal for a solid two weeks at this point, Marinette was in the know for six months. Jagged Stone had contacted her in advance because he needed her help with the proposal itself.

And what a proposal it was.

Jagged had outlined his idea in simple terms but it was still so mind-boggling that Marinette needed him to draw some visual aids to completely convey his idea. Initially it sounded simple enough but the more the man spoke, the more Marinette felt her brain fry at the mental picture. It first involved recreating a scene from Penny’s favourite movie. Which sounded rather romantic, if you ignored the fact that her favourite movie was Bride of Chucky. Then it involved Jagged dressed as the Tinman from Wizard of Oz. Oh, and the proposal had to happen on Halloween because that was the anniversary of their first date apparently, and based on everything else this plan entailed it might as well have been. Marinette’s role in all of this was to simply re-make the white wedding dress Chucky’s bride, Tiffany, wore because Penny already had the leather jacket to match. Of course she did. She didn’t even want to know how Jagged acquired the Tinman suit. Not her barrel of monkeys.

While many thought Jagged was the eccentric one of the pair, due to his loud personality and being an actual rockstar, the more Marinette worked for the two of them over the years, the more she learned how absolutely wrong they all were. It turned out it was Penny’s idea for Jagged to dye his hair purple, and she was the one to ask him out on Halloween all those faithful years ago. Her calm and collected demeanor was an impressive cover for the absolute weirdo she actually was. And Jagged had planned a proposal that was undoubtedly perfect for her. Regardless of how abso-fucking-lutely bizarre it was.

To each their own and let’s move on.

The set-up for the proposal started with Jagged, dressed as the Tinman, playing the part of Chucky, who begins the body-switching chant from the movie. Everything from that point on was resting on Penny’s love for the movie. Without hesitating, Penny, dressed as Tiffany, and playing her part, knew the lines by heart and immediately began reenacting the scene with Jagged. Her lines involved telling ‘Chucky’ to kiss her while she reaches for a knife that’s supposed to be in his pocket. Instead, as Jagged was still dressed as the Tinman, Penny pulled out a slip of paper. On said paper, the words ‘All the Tinman wanted was a heart’ were written in Jagged’s almost illegible chicken scratch. When Penny was distracted with the piece of paper, Jagged had gotten down on one knee and pulled out the engagement ring. The actual words of his proposal were never actually said because, upon seeing the ring, Penny flung herself into the man, clipping her chin into his metal-plated shoulder, but she wasn’t complaining.

So that was how the proposal went.

Wedding planning started almost immediately since the newly engaged had already picked a theme. And this is where Marinette began to regret every life choice she has made since she was thirteen; starting with opening the mysterious box she found on her desk and ending with agreeing to being the main designer for the Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. One thing that wasn’t well-known but not a secret about Jagged was that he was a superhero fan. He grew up enjoying the fictional ones in his childhood comic books and he adored the real ones he witnessed in his adult life. His song that he dedicated to the teenage Ladybug was only one part of his… appreciation. His hero-worship went so far as to beieve that a hero-themed wedding was appropriate. Or he didn’t, but also didn’t care about adhering to societal propriety and went with that theme anyways. So the Rockin’ Wedding of the Century was now the Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. And twenty-three year old Marinette was incharge of the entire wedding party’s outfits.

Perfect.

As a small mercy from some god, both the bride and groom to-be had a rather short list of people in their parties. Marinette was also able to design appropriate hero-themed outfits for all of them and scheduled them for fittings in the coming weeks. That, surprisingly, was the easy part as there were plenty of heroes to draw inspiration from. However, that wasn’t the cause of her current crisis right now.

No. Marinette was up to her neck in unnecessary designs and ideas because she’s been avoiding one particular contingency in her acceptance of the wedding invitation.

She needed a date.

She needed a date because she had promised Penny that she wasn’t overworking herself and to prove it, she would bring a date to the wedding. Rather than call any of the people who expressed interest in her at some point in time, she designated herself to wallow in her situation and distract herself with designs. In the midst of her one person pity party, her phone rang under the sea of ripped out pages. She scoured for the device and hastily answered before she could accidently send the caller to voicemail.

“Hello?” She didn’t check the caller ID and was delighted at the sound of her best friend answering her.

“Marinette! How’s it going over there?” Alya’s voice was mixed in with the busy street life of Metropolis. She had moved there immediately after high school, snatching an internship with the Daily Planet and attending the local community college. She and Marinette don’t call often due to time differences, but when they do it’s like they’ve never parted. She always looked forward to her calls.

“It’s going great, Als,” if she ignored her current dilemma, then yeah, everything was perfect. “But you wouldn’t happen to have an available bachelor willing to be my date to the ‘Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century’ in your back pocket, would you?”

Alya’s answering laugh was both comforting and teasing and Marinette felt herself missing her even more. What she said next, however, took Marinette by surprise.

“Actually I do.”

“Pardon?”

“Well,” she took a pause to build suspense. “I know a guy who knows a guy. But it’s nothing shady, I swear.”

“That’s not comforting.” Oh god. What has she unintentionally signed herself up for?

“You know my coworker, Jon? The guy who does the photography for all my field work?” Alya had met Jon as soon as she had started her internship. Both of his parents were top journalists at the Daily Planet so he volunteered to act as tour guide for all the new interns. He and Alya, from the exasperated stories Marinette has heard from Nino, got along like a house on fire. If he was involved, Marinette was starting to doubt even further that this was going to end well for her.

“Yes, I know Jon. How is he by the way?”

“He’s fine, but I remember him telling me how he tried to set up his best friend on several dates over the years and how they all ended poorly. He’s as approachable as a brick wall; not just a prick but the whole damn cactus. Or so Jon says.” How does that sound like someone Marinette wanted to bring along with her to the wedding? “But he’s totally your type so I could ask Jon to wrap him up in bubblewrap and send him your way whenever you want.”

“How,” and Marinette said this with a lot of feeling, “is he my type exactly?”

“Green eyes with daddy issues.”

“ALYA!” Marinette was absolutely floored at her bluntness. She wasn’t even sorry about shouting into the receiver.

“Am I wrong? You have a type and he fits that type. Jon mentioned how this guy and his dad hit several roadblocks when they first met. And I’ve seen pictures of him so ‘green eyes’ checks too.”

“That is not my type of guy.” She can’t believe this was how this conversation was going.

“Adrien.”

“I didn’t even know who his father was at the time, Alya.”

“Felix.”

“His dad is dead! That doesn’t count as ‘daddy issues.’” She can feel her cheeks flaming as the call went on. Any hotter and she was going to set her sketchbooks on fire. “Besides, I dated Luka so he doesn’t fit the criteria.”

“He’s an outlier and that’s only because his eyes are blue.” Okay, fine she had a type. “And besides, you don’t even have to date the guy. You only need him to accompany you to the wedding and you both go your separate ways after. No harm, no foul.”

Right. That was true. No strings attached. She could do that.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but,” she held her breath and let it out loudly, ignoring Alya’s chuckle at her dramatics.” Give Jon my number to give this guy. And send his number to me.”

“Wahoo! Look at you, girl,” Alya was hooting and hollering over the speaker and Marinette found herself going along with the theatrics. “Okay, I will. But I gotta go, my cab is here. Bye!”

“Bye! Stay safe. Oh before you go, what’s Jon’s friend’s name anyways?”

“Uh, Damian, I think.” The call ended before Marinette could respond, but it was okay she mused. Tossing her phone onto her couch, she flopped down onto her floor and stared at her ceiling contemplatively.

What could go wrong?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Alya had described this Damian guy as ‘not just a prick but the whole damn cactus,’ she was right. Marinette had been texting back and forth with Damian for a month, and the guy was making this idea seem less and less worth it by the day. Whenever Marinette tried to learn more about the guy, he would ghost her for days on end before replying with a half-assed response at best. She knew nothing about him other than that his first name was Damian and that he was from Gotham. She had no idea how the ball of life that was Jon was even friends with someone like Damian. She asked as much to Alya in their most recent call.

“How did they even meet?” She was pacing the floor plan of her apartment, ready to tear her hair out. “Did Damian bully him in school or something?”

“Apparently their dads knew each other and introduced them,” Alya sounded half awake, stifling a yawn; probably because Marinette had called her at 1 am, Metropolis’s time. “Their brothers being friends also forced them to get along.”

“And that’s another thing!” Marinette had paused in her pacing and was now staring intently at a potted plant in the corner of her living room. Any more rage in her glare and the plant would have wilted and died. “He doesn’t tell me anything about him. I don’t need to know all his personal information, but if he’s going to be flying out to Paris on my behalf, I think I at least deserve to know his last name.”

“Hey, M,” another yawn echoed through the speaker, “I love you, truly, but maybe this could wait for holier day time hours?”

“I guess,” a vindictive part of Marinette felt like this was payback for all those inopportune calls when Marinette was busy with clients. “Sorry for interrupting your sleep.”

“It’s no big deal. But have you tried talking to him about it? If he’s ghosting your texts, try calling him. If he ignores you then too then maybe you should try finding another person to be your plus one.”

“The wedding is in two weeks, Alya!” Marinette partially regrets waiting so long to vent her frustration about the situation but she had tried to tough it out. “I would have much preferred if you were my plus one. You sure there’s no way to convince your parents to skip out on the family trip?”

“Sorry, M. Once the news about the proposal hit the internet, I tried everything. I even tried to use work, saying that I could cover the ceremony for the newspaper. My folks won’t budge though. My dad’s aunt is important to him and he wants us all at the funeral.”

“Right, right, I forgot about that.” Now she felt like an ass. “Send you dad my condolences when you see him again.”

“Will do. Good morning, Marinette. And don’t worry too much about the guy. Everything will turn up great. I can feel it.”

“Thanks, Alya. Good night, get some sleep.”

The line went dead and Marinette let out a rather weary exhale. She had no idea how this was going to work. She pulled up her contacts and searched for what she had Damian saved as.

‘Douche’ flashed on her screen and she hit the call button without remorse. She didn’t care that it was also currently 1 am in Gotham. He didn’t deserve that much consideration from her.

“What?” His voice was gravely and deep. And also really pissed if his clipped tone was anything to go by.

“Damian? Hi, this is Marinette, the girl you’re accompanying to the wedding in two weeks?” Her voice was pitched as if she was dealing with an irritating customer. Fake and polite.

“I know who you are. Why are you calling me at this unreasonable hour?” Fair, but Marinette was still aggravated at him so she wouldn’t concede.

“I’m calling because we need to talk.” She heard him scoff over the line and she felt her blood boil even hotter. She took several calming breaths to reign her temper in. “Don’t hang up.”

“Look,” She didn’t give him a chance to refuse and kept talking, getting everything off her chest. “This wedding is important to me and I promised the bride I would bring a date. After that you can delete my number and we never have to speak to each other ever. You don’t have to like me, you just need to pretend you do.”

“Whatever,” he sounded less annoyed from when he first answered the phone. “I will act as cordial as the situation requires, and nothing more. I also have my attire secured for the wedding and accommodations in Paris already prepared. I will see you at the wedding.”

“Than—” The sound of the call ending interrupted her and her frustration was back tenfold. With a cry in anguish she flung her phone onto her couch and stomped into her kitchen to channel her rage into baking.

Three loaves of bread and a dozen eclairs later, Marinette felt calm enough to finish the final touches on her outfit for the wedding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the day of the Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. The Rolling-Stone’s, as they were asking to be called, had kept the ceremony small. Relatively. Only two hundred invited guests, few of which were asked to bring a plus one. Marinette was over the moon at the array of outfits people were sporting. Some chose full-on cosplay while others, like herself, went for more subtle nods to the heroes. In honour of a previous Ladybug, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, Marinette based her outfit off of Wonder Woman’s uniform, Hippolyta’s daughter. A navy blue sequined halter top bodice that flows into a blood red A-line skirt. She paired it with a thick silver belt, silver gladiator heels rather than boots and broad silver arm cuffs. It was simple but effective. Besides, all attention should be on the bride and groom today.

A tap on her shoulder caught her attention and she turned only to come face first with red with black spots. Ladybug. Someone chose her as inspiration. How flattering. Looking up to see who was wearing the Ladybug-themed suit jacket, she stared at a pair of deep forest green eyes and a sneer to ruin that ridiculously handsome face. She recognized him from the photo Alya had sent some time ago. Damian.

“Hi, Damian,” at least one of them had to be civil and Marinette knew it was going to be her. But the idea that of all the heroes for him to choose from he chose her sent her into poorly stifled fits of giggling. Images of him going ‘Lucky Charm’ and ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ were almost too much to bear.

“I don’t know what’s so amusing about my choice of attire,” his face was starting to flush in similar shades to his jacket and that made Marinette laugh harder. “Ladybug is a well respected heroine and I thought it appropriate to pay homage while in her home city.”

“No. No no. There is nothing wrong with it. I like your costume, you look very cute.”

“Are you making fun of me?” His irritation was rather cathartic for the still giggling woman.

“No, I just didn’t think you would have put that much thought into your outfit for today. You always gave me the impression that you were ready to back out at any time.”

“I made a commitment and I had all intentions to see it through the end.”

“Could have fooled me.” And her snark was back. Now was not the time to pick a fight with the guy, he did fly all the way to Paris on her behalf after all.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” and Marinette wanted to know how he managed to sound so condescending with that statement. “How did you even get an invitation to this wedding anyways? You’re not a celebrity and you don’t look like family either.”

“Actually,” she said it with more force than what was probably necessary but his slightly accusatory tone was just so irritating. “I am the lead designer for the wedding party,” her chest was swimming with confidence at the chance to talk about her job. “I’ve worked with the bride and groom for years; M. D. Cheng, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette will deny to her grave the rush of satisfaction at the absolute gobsmacked look on Damian’s face. A real fish out of water. Mouth open wide ready to catch flies. She wished she could capture this moment forever.

The moment was over too soon because Damian was regaining his composure and slipping into his default stoic expression. He cleared his throat and fixed a look at Marinette. It was rather intense.

“I believe I owe you an apology then.” He looked put-out at admitting something so menial. “I believed you were nothing more than a socialite chain climber.”

“A what?”

“When Jon reached out to me saying that a friend of one of his coworkers needed a date for an event, and when that event turned out to be the wedding of someone of such popularity, I figured you were only trying to increase your own social status by showing up with me on your arm.”

“And you said ‘yes’ anyways?” Marinette was confused but pieces of the mystery that is Damian were starting to fit in place. But something else stuck out as odd to her. “Also, how would you being my date increase my social status anyhow?”

He scoffs before answering. Bitch.

“What? It wouldn’t be the first time one of Jon’s set-ups ended that way. Besides, we’ve had an agreement that I can’t turn down an offer until meeting the person face to face.” Weird deal but some friendships are just like, Marinette supposes. “And being seen with me is enough to make anyone more popular.”

“...And you are?”

“Damian… Wayne…” He spoke as if he was talking to a small child. As if it should be obvious who he was like he was some celeb— Oh shit.

A name had flashed into her mind. On the finalised guest list, Marinette had only seen it once in passing, there was a name that belonged to someone Jagged was rather excited to see. He said the friend was an old college buddy. She remembered that much. She had completely forgotten that ‘a billionaire playboy’ was also attached to the name. Damian was the son of Bruce Wayne. Suddenly everything in the past few months made perfect sense. The cold shoulder, the ghosting, and his prickly disposition. He was overly guarded because he had justified reasons to be. Now she felt like an ass.

“Oh.” Real intelligent, Marinette.

“Oh? What, you didn’t know?” He sounded incredulous at the notion and he had every right to be. Marinette could only shake her head. Words were failing her now, her brain trying to rewrite the memories of every interaction the two ever had.

She was saved from further mortification by a call for everyone to find their seats. The wedding was about to begin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ceremony was beautiful. Penny’s dress was a silver grey, tied back with a golden belt. Instead of a long train, Marinette had attached a black cape that shimmered in the right lighting. Penny wore a tiara with two peaks to imitate the ‘bat-ears.’ A Batman-themed wedding dress was not something she ever saw herself making, but she was proud at how beautiful and confident Penny looked in it. Jagged was adorn in a royal blue suit with bold red lapels. He also had a matching red cape. His hair was styled in the familiar sleek way Superman wears it. The two made quite the pair.

The reception was a lively affair. Jagged had dedicated several songs to his new wife and they dazzled the crowd on the dance floor. Marinette didn’t pay much attention to the speeches beyond a quick glance at Damian when his own father stepped up to the podium. He had buried his head in his hands, looking like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. A courtesy pat on the back was all Marinette gave to him.

The two hadn’t really spoken much since the revelation that they had completely misjudged each other. The awkward tension was almost palpable. As Marinette was gathering the courage to speak to him, to try and officially clear the air, she was being dragged by one of the bridesmaids onto the dancefloor. It was time for the bride to throw the bouquet. All the unmarried women were being corralled into a tight cluster and Marinette got swept up in the tide.

Marinette wasn’t focusing on the actual game, trying her hardest not to get trampled, when she saw something move in her periphery. Years of being Ladybug had left her with finely honed instincts so she could not be blamed when she immediately jumped and caught the incoming object. The bouquet. She had caught the bouquet. Oh that was just her luck. Deafening squeals of delight brought her out of her own head and she was suddenly being embraced in Penny’s arms. She returned the hug, sharing in her delight, before breaking away to sit down.

“Nice catch.” His voice had surprised her, she hadn’t expected him to speak to her for the rest of the night.

“Uh, thank you. Just lucky, I guess.” Damian didn’t get the chance to respond because he was being dragged by his own father to join all the bachelors in catching the garter. Marinette was equally uninterested in this spectacle and had let her mind wander to other things.

A loud uproar caught her attention again and her eyes zeroed in on Damian holding the tossed garter. He made his way back over to her, dropping himself into his seat gracelessly. The two sat in silence, contemplating the implications of them both catching the garter and bouquet. The games were done purely for tradition’s sake, with total disregard of what it was supposed to symbolise. Still. One’s mind couldn’t help but wander. Minutes ticked passed and Marinette was beginning to wonder if someone was going to talk about the elephant in the room.

“So,” Damian’s voice was slightly strained, like he wasn’t used to being this flustered. It was kind of endearing. Wait what?

“So.”

“While marriage seems far out of reach for right now,” Oh god. He was going to talk about it. “How does dinner sound, next Friday?”

“Wait,” he wanted to spend more time with her? After their disastrous first impressions? “Really?”

“Really. I believe we started off on the wrong foot,” he let out a soft chuckle, almost self-deprecating. “Which isn’t really new for me, but it’s not everyday I meet someone who doesn’t recognise me at first glance. I think you’re someone who I would like to get to know better. If that is something you are also interested in.”

“Yeah,” Marinette knows all about wanting to get acquainted with someone who she’s had a bad first impression of. Just look at her past relationships. Wow, she really does have a type. Damning thoughts for later. “Friday works for me. Seven pm?”

“Perfect. I’ll text you the details then.”

“Wonderful, I can’t wait.”

The rest of the evening was spent in companionable silence with small bouts of conversation in between. They shared a couple dances on the floor and parted ways at the end of the night with budding anticipation for Friday.

As Marinette was preparing for bed that night in the comfort of her apartment, she sent a text to Alya that her friend would see later in the day.

You were right, I do have a type :(

#maribat #daminette #maridami #mgi trope tussle #mgi- server event #enemies to lovers #speedrun #i #like a dumbass challenged myself to use three prompts and i delivered #i hope #i hope yall enjoy #tumblr do me a solid #dont hide my posts #please #im begging #ml x dc #mlb x dc #tumblr please stop hiding my posts #no beta this is tussle

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justmiha97 · 5 years ago

Text

TS3, boderderless, new machines and FPS limit!!!

UPDATE 2.0 Except borderless gaming app and initial explanations, this guide is now OUTDATED!!! Read new guide HERE: https://justmiha97.tumblr.com/post/633811982604222464/another-way-to-limit-ts3-fps IMPOTANT!!! UPDATE FOR 1.69 GAME VERSION INSTALLATION!!!

Check down in step 4.a. for changes on how to do this properly. For people who renamed their files to:

Rename them back to: TS3.exe to 3booter.exe TS3W.exe to TS3.exe TS3W.exe.backup to TS3W.exe

Original post:

I never knew I would be making this post till few hours back, but until now it wasn’t really much known that sims 3 in windowed mode could be run with FPS limit, which forced a lot of people to run the game in full screen. Recently a friend (find him here) and I discovered how to limit FPS for both 1.67 and 1.69 game versions in windowed mode.

Why is this important?

Well, on newer PC’s, ones with a GPU processing power that can easily render recent games, Sims 3 is expected to run exceedingly well... but because Sims 3 is so poorly designed/optimized on a technical level, there is a problem with that. Sims 3 has no FPS limitation, so on newer cards, FPS can get up to even 1k FPS which is INSANE. Personally I had from 500-700 FPS on loading screens myself. This means that: 1. Your card is being overworked and overheated and will be damaged 2. The in-game micro stutter that happens frequently is because the game constantly has short but extreme peaks in frame rate (from 60 - 600 FPS) This is why it’s desired to FPS limit TS3.exe or TS3W.exe!!!

What does windowed mode have to do with all of this?

It’s possible to limit your game FPS in full screen mode trough your graphic control panel application. Though for me it did not work, a lot of people report it working for them. Until now it wasn’t known that the same could be done for windowed mode, meaning users with high end PC running the game windowed were doomed to experience GPU crashes or even worse component death. Now however, a fix has been discovered.

But why would I want to run windowed then?

In full screen mode, game is rendered way darker, which is why EA just lazily slapped on a brightness filter, which makes the whole game brighter than it actually should be. This also means that screenshots of the game taken in full screen (unless they are taken with in-game screenshot feature, which is lower quality) are practically unusable since they are too dark.

When in full screen, the game goes out of memory faster, especially if you are alt tabbing (switching windows) a lot.

Ok, ok but how do I get rid of borders now?

That’s why this guide is here. For that you will need a third party borderless games application. You can find it here, but this will be detailed later in this step by step guide.

THE GUIDE

Before we start, if you want to have your games set up to run well, read trough and apply fixes from these guides:

-https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131162350

-https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/The-Sims-3-How-to-Minimize-Lag-and-Stabilize-the-Game/m-p/9647783

-https://twitter.com/crosimmer/status/1291882081191170048?s=21

They are all similar in nature but have their own additions to making the game run better. They are extremely helpful and effective. They even include guides on how to FPS limit the game in full screen if you want to keep playing the game that way. Also, be sure to read the last ( 7.) point in this guide as it is important and will determine if you even want to do this or not.

Now that that’s out of the way...

1. First thing to do is run the game and make sure that full screen is off. This is luckily easy to do. If it’s not off, turn it off in options:

2. Next, if you’ve applied FPS limit trough your graphic control application as advised by guides, make sure it’s disabled because it will interfere with this fix. 3. Once you are sure that it is disabled, get 3booter and FPSlimiter from this page: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=15585.0 (files in first two posts) 4. Open both .zip archives and extract all their contents to: - C:/Program Files (x86)/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or -C:/Program Files x(86)/Origin Games/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or whatever your install location of the game is.

4.a. If your game version is 1.69 there is one more step here. Once the files are extracted, you will need to rename launcher like this: Sims3Launcher.exe to Launcher.exe And then download and extract this new launcher exe in the bin:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lMmkXBF_5sknVo0UvxbNp6h_JZu9z7E/view?usp=sharing

Rename it to Sims3Launcher.exe 5. Now that you have the fixes set up properly, you can run the game: - Trough 3booter.exe if you are on version 1.67 (feel free to make a shortcut) or - Trough new launcher, Sims3Launcher.exe, if you are on 1.69. Note that your shortcuts to game launcher will now point to this new launcher due to filename. If you want to use the old launcher, make a shortcut for Launcher.exe

6. BUT WAIT!!! What about that borderless thingy m’ bob? Well here comes that part of setting up windowed mode to look like it’s full screen. First you want to go to the link of the program, I’ll post it again for convenience: https://github.com/Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming/releases Then scroll down a bit and download this:

Once that’s downloaded, install it and run it, after you’ve ran the game in windowed mode. You will be greeted with this:

To have your game in borderless mode, add it to the list on the left by selecting your game name from the list. It will be the name of the last expansion you are running, with [TS3W] next to it ([TS3] if you haven’t installed FPS limiter on 1.69). After the game is selected, click the arrow

And your game will automatically turn into a full screen-like application. IMPORTANT!: DO NOT CLOSE borderless gaming app, only minimize it. It has to run at all times while your game is running or the game will stop being borderless. Make sure to set borderless gaming app to run on windows launch if you don’t want to bother reopening it every time you start your PC.

7. Final notes. (Still IMPORTANT) If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations, you are one patient simmer willing to put in effort to perfect your sims 3 game experience. Not everything can be perfect however, and there are some additional notes to take care of. - First, the FPS limiter program only limits the game to 30FPS. People who have had the game run at 60FPS might be disappointed by this. However the game already runs it’s animations at only 30FPS so there is no need for additional frames. However it’s still you choice. If you do see a difference with 60FPS and don’t want to change it, you can still run the game full screen with 60FPS graphics control limiter. -Second, if you are NOT experiencing FPS higher than 60 in any part of the game (even load screens and main menu), there is no need to install this fix. However be vary that whenever you change hardware, especially GPU, you might need to take care of this. -Third and final, as a side note, there is a program that lets you unpark your CPU cores for that final addition of sims 3 smooth experience. This is completely OPTIONAL. Here is the program’s page (scroll all the way down for download): https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu To set it up to unpark all cores you just have to do this

And click Apply.

FINALLY DONE?

Yes, yes. Finally done. That’s it Folks. Have fun with your games and good luck simming! And thanks to crosims for helping me out get this working on 1.69.

#sims3 #thesims #ts3fixes #sims3fixes #sims #ts3 #sims3mods #sims3performance

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