#needs my input on BASIC DECISIONS

[rainyamy]

WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?!?!?! YOU’VE BEEN SAYING YOU WANT TO DO THEMED WEEKS SO DO IT!!!!! i will bully you regardless :3

Live prompts for Erisol week 2023!

Hello everybody, let me tell you about a wonderful week that is coming this November. From Monday the 13th to Sunday the 19th this event is back and still kicking!

This year the prompts are being kept simple in the traditional way: one word prompts to make your mind spring to action. Find more information about the event here.

As always, have a great and fun week! ＼(＾▽＾)／

[phantomrose96]

The conversation around AI is going to get away from us quickly because people lack the language to distinguish types of AI--and it's not their fault. Companies love to slap "AI" on anything they believe can pass for something "intelligent" a computer program is doing. And this muddies the waters when people want to talk about AI when the exact same word covers a wide umbrella and they themselves don't know how to qualify the distinctions within.

I'm a software engineer and not a data scientist, so I'm not exactly at the level of domain expert. But I work with data scientists, and I have at least rudimentary college-level knowledge of machine learning and linear algebra from my CS degree. So I want to give some quick guidance.

What is AI? And what is not AI?

So what's the difference between just a computer program, and an "AI" program? Computers can do a lot of smart things, and companies love the idea of calling anything that seems smart enough "AI", but industry-wise the question of "how smart" a program is has nothing to do with whether it is AI.

A regular, non-AI computer program is procedural, and rigidly defined. I could "program" traffic light behavior that essentially goes { if(light === green) { go(); } else { stop();} }. I've told it in simple and rigid terms what condition to check, and how to behave based on that check. (A better program would have a lot more to check for, like signs and road conditions and pedestrians in the street, and those things will still need to be spelled out.)

An AI traffic light behavior is generated by machine-learning, which simplistically is a huge cranking machine of linear algebra which you feed training data into and it "learns" from. By "learning" I mean it's developing a complex and opaque model of parameters to fit the training data (but not over-fit). In this case the training data probably includes thousands of videos of car behavior at traffic intersections. Through parameter tweaking and model adjustment, data scientists will turn this crank over and over adjusting it to create something which, in very opaque terms, has developed a model that will guess the right behavioral output for any future scenario.

A well-trained model would be fed a green light and know to go, and a red light and know to stop, and 'green but there's a kid in the road' and know to stop. A very very well-trained model can probably do this better than my program above, because it has the capacity to be more adaptive than my rigidly-defined thing if the rigidly-defined program is missing some considerations. But if the AI model makes a wrong choice, it is significantly harder to trace down why exactly it did that.

Because again, the reason it's making this decision may be very opaque. It's like engineering a very specific plinko machine which gets tweaked to be very good at taking a road input and giving the right output. But like if that plinko machine contained millions of pegs and none of them necessarily correlated to anything to do with the road. There's possibly no "if green, go, else stop" to look for. (Maybe there is, for traffic light specifically as that is intentionally very simplistic. But a model trained to recognize written numbers for example likely contains no parameters at all that you could map to ideas a human has like "look for a rigid line in the number". The parameters may be all, to humans, meaningless.)

So, that's basics. Here are some categories of things which get called AI:

"AI" which is just genuinely not AI

There's plenty of software that follows a normal, procedural program defined rigidly, with no linear algebra model training, that companies would love to brand as "AI" because it sounds cool.

Something like motion detection/tracking might be sold as artificially intelligent. But under the covers that can be done as simply as "if some range of pixels changes color by a certain amount, flag as motion"

2. AI which IS genuinely AI, but is not the kind of AI everyone is talking about right now

"AI", by which I mean machine learning using linear algebra, is very good at being fed a lot of training data, and then coming up with an ability to go and categorize real information.

The AI technology that looks at cells and determines whether they're cancer or not, that is using this technology. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the technology that can take an image of hand-written text and transcribe it. Again, it's using linear algebra, so yes it's AI.

Many other such examples exist, and have been around for quite a good number of years. They share the genre of technology, which is machine learning models, but these are not the Large Language Model Generative AI that is all over the media. Criticizing these would be like criticizing airplanes when you're actually mad at military drones. It's the same "makes fly in the air" technology but their impact is very different.

3. The AI we ARE talking about. "Chat-gpt" type of Generative AI which uses LLMs ("Large Language Models")

If there was one word I wish people would know in all this, it's LLM (Large Language Model). This describes the KIND of machine learning model that Chat-GPT/midjourney/stablediffusion are fueled by. They're so extremely powerfully trained on human language that they can take an input of conversational language and create a predictive output that is human coherent. (I am less certain what additional technology fuels art-creation, specifically, but considering the AI art generation has risen hand-in-hand with the advent of powerful LLM, I'm at least confident in saying it is still corely LLM).

This technology isn't exactly brand new (predictive text has been using it, but more like the mostly innocent and much less successful older sibling of some celebrity, who no one really thinks about.) But the scale and power of LLM-based AI technology is what is new with Chat-GPT.

This is the generative AI, and even better, the large language model generative AI.

(Data scientists, feel free to add on or correct anything.)

[gayf1hoe]

Risking It All

Scenario - Logan joins a brand new team to Formula 1 and is finally able to showcase his true talent however his new team principal catches his eye in more ways than one. But is his team principal willing to risk it all for his new driver.

“Y/N we have been going over this you need to choose the driver line up” 

“God if I had known it would be this stressful I would never have agreed to invest in this team” 

As Haas is leaving after this season in F1, me and my best friend, which is a term I use quite loosely, decided it would be a good idea to invest in an F1 team. We have always been passionate about F1 and it wasn't until we heard about Gene Haas pulling the Haas F1 Team out of the sport we decided to shoot our shot with the FIA and for some reason they agreed. 

As I have the biggest stake in the team I'm practically in charge of everything and I have been appointed team principal because our budget doesn't extend to the stage where we can employ thousands of staff. I have also been tasked with finding our driver line up and it's harder than it sounds because every driver wants a certain amount of money we don't have or wants to know what car we will have when it hasn't even been finished yet. I currently have a wall full of drivers' faces in my office with loads of red crosses on their faces. It basically looks like a hit list at this point. 

We have one driver confirmed and that's Pietro Fittipladi who was a reserve for Haas and we have decided to give him a chance in a full F1 seat. If he's shit then it doesn't matter because it's our first season so we can all blame the car. 

I'm down to my last 2 options and they are Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant. I can't decide which one I want but they are our only options as they are the only 2 people not trying to bankrupt us with their salary requests. Kevin is a good driver however his fines and penalties he likes to get from the FIA could be a problem but Logan is also a good driver but I fear what he may do to the car. 

“We need a decision,” my friend presses on.

“Listen Jarno I will give you an answer soon don't worry, but the more you press on the more it pisses me off” 

“Oh and by the way the new race engineer contracts are on your desk” 

That's another thing that has been a pain some of these Engineers have been asking for more than the drivers themselves but we eventually managed to get Pierre Hamelin who is Danny Rics engineer at VCARB and Steven Petrik who is Valtteri Bottas' engineer at Sauber. 

I stare Intensely at the photos on my wall of Logan and Kevin and make a decision like the responsible team principal I am going to be, I will make my decision by inputting their names into a random generator and choosing whoever it lands on and when people ask me how I made my decision I will provide them with some professional bullshit lie.

I press generate and look away from the screen and when I spin my chair around I see Logan written in capital letter on my screen so I pick up the phone and dial. 

“Is that Logan's manager” 

“It's Y/N L/N team principal of Apex Racing I was just calling to confirm logan as part of our driver line up for next year” 

We spent about an hour on the phone and when I left the factory it was pouring down with rain. 

Everyone else left to leave me to do the breaking stuff which is no surprise. I feel like it was a bad idea to create an F1 team with an Esports driver. Me and Jarno have been friends for ages but I was always into what I call “proper” racing not racing on the computer but the past year we have grown closer I mean we have had no choice we have been up until 2 am trying to find sponsors because there is no way either of us has the kind of money to spontaneously invest in and start an F1 team unlike some people cough cough Lawrence stroll. 

I go home and collapse on my bed ahead of tomorrow when we announce our driver line up. 

“Y/N maybe you should stand in the centre” 

“Maybe you should hurry up and take the photo” 

Who knew the media could take so long like it's just taking a photo? Why do I have to act like a model and do all these weird stances and things with my face which apparently is called smiling? I haven't done that since I set out to make this team. I mean there's not been a lot to smile about late night meetings, early morning meetings, travelling, emailing. I think I've forgotten how to sit down without doing some form of work.

Logan and Pietro are coming by to the factory later to finish signing their contracts, the current F1 season isn't finished yet and technically a team wouldn't be allowed to start manufacturing their car now but the FIA gave us permission as we have had to make major changes to the factory. We brought it from Red Bull it's one of their old factories and I guess they felt bad for the new guys so gave us a good price, well a good price for an F1 factory I guess, because I have never seen that amount of zeros on a price tag and been told “that's actually reasonable”. 

The first thing I notice about Logan is his smile and calm demeanour. He's had a tough time of late so it surprises me because I have had a tough time and I am probably the last person anyone wants to piss off. As I'm also team principal I will be seeing a lot of the guys at the track so it's imperative we get along, but the two drivers seem to get along. But it's how they get along on track I'm more focused on. 

Just because they are besties off track it doesn't mean they will be like that on track and I don't want any Hamilton Rosberg or Verstappen and Ricciardo situations because it will kill me and my bank account. 

We give the drivers a tour of the garage and I get talking with Logan as up until this point everything has been done through his manager. 

“So are you looking forward to joining the team?” I ask. 

“I am but I must ask how did an Esports champion and a former racing driver start an F1 team so quickly as well”

“It's a long answer and quite painful”

After a tour of the factory we get to singing contracts and doing the media posts and stuff. No one is surprised that Logan is leaving William's given they literally announced Carlos Sainz a week ago but I'm sure everyone thought he was done with F1 given his 2 year stint at williams has been far from extraordinary. 

Pietro I guess is a bit of a shock as well as he's been on the sidelines for a while he only really made an appearance after Romain crashed in Bahrain a few years ago but he's been pretty active in indycar and not been doing too bad.

“I will see you in Melbourne next year” I say closing waving logan off. 

I'm going on a long break and any issues Jarno or someone else can deal with. 

Pre Season testing was nothing to write home about, we had a few minor issues but I would be more concerned if everything was working fine because then we would have done everything right and not even teams like Ferrari can do that. 

Now FP1 is in session I'm looking to see what the two guys can do against the clock. 

We have a pretty decent car and by that I mean we are ahead of Sauber, Alpine, VCARB, William's we are sort of fighting between the Astons and Mercedes cars. 

“Let's do a simulated quali run on logan” I suggest turning to the race performance engineer. 

Logan comes in and puts on a fresh set of tyres and heads back out. I wish I could say I'm not sitting here thinking “please don't crash the car’ but I am. I mean Logan hasn't given me a reason not to think that my opinion of him is based on what he was like at Williams. But I'm not letting him know that as that would ruin his confidence. We have given him our full support and let him know of that. He has been told he will receive upgrades as soon as they are made he will never be sacrificed for his teammates mistakes and its seemed to improve his morale. 

Logan crosses the line and goes up to P4. It's not P1 but I will take it nonetheless and Logan's elation over the radio tells me we are in for a fun year. 

I'm on the pit wall with Sky Sports so after Logan's run I get the joy of talking to Karun Chandhok in the commentary box. 

Karun: Y/N first weekend as a team principal and a team owner of a new team and you have a driver in P4 and P6. It must feel pretty good right?

Y/N: Of course we have worked hard to put ourselves in a strong position and we want to give our drivers a car that can showcase their abilities. 

Karun: Well a question everyone is asking is why logan? His career at Williams surely couldn't have been the reason to choose him. 

Y/N: Well what I told Logan was forget William's ever happened or existed whatever happened or was said at Williams is the past. We have faith in him and we know what he can do with a good car and he showcased that to us on his simulated qualifying run. 

Karun: Lastly Y/N what is the goal for Apex Racing both this weekend and for the end of the year where do you want to be? 

Y/N: Ideally and realistically with the car we have we would like to finish P5 in the constructors with our main rivals being Aston Martin however with Mercedes taking on a rookie driver maybe we could capitalise on the lack of experience at the team as we have two experienced drivers. We haven't told the drivers where we would like them to finish in the standings, it's just go out race and have fun. 

At the chequered flag of FP1 I head up to the engineering office in preparation for the debrief, that's when I hear someone calling my name. I turn around to see Logan doing a light jog over to me. 

“Is everything OK?” I ask. 

“Yes i just wanted to say thank you for giving me such a good car and having faith in me I guess it was really nice to go out and show my full potential to everyone” 

“You're more than welcome Logan” 

He embraces me in a hug and as an automatic response I hug back not contemplating the implications of a team principal being this affectionate with their driver. But surely this won't come too much. Engineering meetings to someone who doesn't understand half of what they are talking about are quite boring. I mean I haven't got the first clue about the brake shape setting into turn 1 but I just nod as if I do. 

Throughout the whole meeting every time I look up I make eye contact with Logan. It's kind of like when you're in school and look at your crush and they are looking right back at you, not that I have a crush on Logan. 

Most of the day is spent doing admin stuff, things are still all over the place and we are just seeing how we function as a team. Most of our team is from Haas and we have taken on a lot of staff from F2 as it seemed the most economical way, as people with less experience don't cost as much. 

Qualifying. 

“OK before we go out I want to just say that this is our first weekend and anything above P20 I will be grateful for but we know what the car and both drivers are capable of so let's work hard and show to everyone we are not a joke” 

Both drivers hop in the cars and we time it so that on both drivers flying laps they get a tow which will gain us a few vital tenths. Logan's first lap puts him in P8 and Pietro’s P6 so they will definitely have to go out again.

We send both out at the same time and by now I have no nails, my eyes are just fixated on the live feed and sector times and as they cross the line Logan shoots up to P4 and Pietro P5. 

I can hear the team cheering behind me as the chequered flag waves on Q1. Q2 was just as successful with both drivers making it to Q3 knocking out the likes of Stroll, Piastri and Antonelli. 

Now the pressures on I can see the live telemetry showing how much Logan is pushing his car and I quite literally can't watch. And I don't look up until I hear the ecstatic cheer from being. 

Pietro P8 and Logan P4. Not bad for a new team I guess and a driver people had written off ages ago. 

We may be the only team happy with not being on pole but this is a great start in comparison to other teams when they first joined. 

In the team meeting later that day I don't have much to say other than “That was fucking exceptional”. I have never seen Logan smile so much. 

We are using Honda engines which are known for being quite powerful and the drivers are constantly praising the amount of power they have. It was a great day and I can't really fathom how any of this is real. 

As I'm sitting in my office writing a press statement about our first day there is a knock on my door. I get up and open the door revealing Logan standing there. I motion for him to come in and he takes a seat at the table so I pull out a chair and sit next to him. 

“What can I do for you?” I ask. 

“I was wondering if it would be possible to go out for dinner one night this week”

“Sure I think that would be a great idea, allow everyone to get to know each other it will be good”

“I sort of meant it as just me and you”

I don't really know what to say. I don't want to ask if it's a date because that makes it weird but then if I don't ask I will be left with this looming question of what does it mean. 

“Why do you look so confused?” Logan asks. 

“I'm just wondering why a driver would want to go out for dinner with their team principal”

“Well because I would like it to be a date” he declares whilst rubbing his hands together.

I stutter for a moment and Logan's face flushes with a pale red colour of embarrassment. 

“Sure I would love to go on a date with you” 

I haven't even been a team principal for one race weekend and I'm going on a date with one of my drivers that surely goes against every professional standard ever. I know that if I end dating Logan I will never hear the end of the fact that I am ‘biassed’. 

I spend ages looking through my limited outfit choices, I mean 85% of my clothes are work clothes and the rest are beach clothes. I eventually settle on a pair of light blue shorts and a white shirt that doesn't look too formal but also looks like I made an effort. 

Apprehensive, I open my hotel room door and make my way down to the car where Logan said he would meet me. It's kind of awkward as I'm just stood by his car whilst everyone looks at me weird or that's what I think they are doing I could just be very paranoid. When he finally turns up he already has an excuse ready. 

“Sorry I got held up by Alex who wanted to show me photos of his new cat” 

Dinner goes well, I mean we don't get spotted and the food is nice, the waiter did refer to Logan as my boyfriend although we booked a table for two at a romantic restaurant it's understable as to why he would make the assumption about us. 

Being on the pit wall before the race is a strange alien feeling. I mean sure I've been sat here for testing, free practice and qualifying but there's a completely different atmosphere today. Both me and Jarno are intently staring at the screens and both drivers know it so the pressure is on. 

Before the start of the race I make sure to give the drivers a few last words of encouragement over the radio and then I sit back and close my eyes for the next 2 hours. 

It's a fairly good start if you minus Lando’s jump start and Ocon nearly taking out Gasly. Logan gently introduces his tyres which will give him the edge on other drivers later. Today I'm not worried about gaining places or getting a podium. I would be happy with P9 and P10. 

There is a brief problem with Logan's car but the engineers give him some sort of code that fixes the issues, how that works I do not know but if I could fix my car with a few numbers I would have saved a lot of money. 

Pietro is first to pit and all attention is on the pit crew for their first Grand Prix pit stop and it goes fairly well being a 2.6 second stop. It's not as good as Red Bull and McLaren but we have to start somewhere. Logan's next and as he's coming down the pit lane William's release Albon way too close to Logan and he enters the box, it's almost as if they are jealous of the unlocked potential Logan has. 

5 Laps to go. I begin to see everyone's faces become more focused in the crucial last laps. Logan is in P6 Pietro P9 if they could just hold on to this I can cancel my meditation class. 

2 Laps to go. Yuki has been lapping on average a 10th faster than Logan each lap and is within attacking distance. 

“Tsunoda 0.8 with DRS” I hear the engineer say and this is when I spin my chair to look in the pit lane. 

Last Lap. Logan manages to fend off Yuki each time and they are approaching the finish line. All the team members are stood up out of their seats and are cheering. 

Anyone who said Logan was talentless must be regretting their words now. 

There's a firm knock on my door. 

“hey” I say looking up to meet a smiling face.

“hey, I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to prove everyone wrong I never thought I would get P6” 

“You are welcome logan” 

“How about I show you how grateful I am” 

“How will you do that?” 

He pushes me against the fibreglass wall and pulls our faces together. I can still see the shimmering layer of post race sweat on the bridge of his nose. He inches closer making a firm connecting between our lips. Edging his tongue out of his mouth to connect with mine. Then the moment of pure euphoria is disowned by the sound of the team obnoxiously singing in the hallway. 

“I guess we will have to continue this later” I say with a suggestive smile whilst opening the foot to be greeted by the entire team in a small corridor. 

[witchpassing]

interview_3aC

I got into piloting during the Third Generation. For the historically illiterate, that’s before the breakpoint, not after. Summer Offensive, Chelsk Offensive, ‘81, ‘82… All that shit.

When you say pilot now, people get a certain mental image. It wasn’t like that, back then; end of the day, a G3 frame is basically just another kind of tank. Hot like hell inside and full analogue control. You had to think five, six, seven seconds ahead sometimes, because that’s how long it’d take you to string together the inputs for what you were doing next.

I was good. I mean, I’m good at my job now, sure, but… you should’ve fuckin’ seen me then.

... Anyway. Long and short of it is, I got unlucky. Everyone does, sooner or later. Coterie railcannon caved in part of my cockpit, crushed my leg to dogmeat, and that was that. A few years later, they’d have amputated, plugged in a spare, and sent me back in, but this was ‘83, the tech wasn’t there yet. We were hearing about it, you know, shit on the grapevine about the brain-machine barrier, weird tests underground out in Lysk, but I don’t think any of us really believed in it.

I wanna say I knew what was coming, but I didn’t. Nobody did.

So. Cockpit breach. Fucked leg. They did a lot of work, got it to where I could walk on a good day, but it was obvious I wasn’t gonna cut it any more. Took my pension, checked out, spent eight years in the worst dyke bars I could find. Don’t really wanna talk about that part. That’s not what you’re here for, anyway.

So I’m a few years down the line, losing my mind somewhere in Sengrade, and I get a call. It’s this guy I used to know, I never really nailed down what he did, Information maybe, and he’s telling me about this program they’re spinning up over in Lysk, and sure that rings some alarm bells but what am I gonna do, say no? I don’t even need to hear the specifics, he’s trying to tell me it’s the next big jump in frame tech, it’s gonna win us the war, whatever, I’m already halfway onto a train.

The job turned out to be the Fifth Generation. Not only was the brain-machine barrier real, but they’d smashed clean through it. I said a G3 is basically a tank, right? So I was expecting an iteration on the form. Sharper, sleeker sure, but at the end of the day just a prettier-looking tank.

Well, I was dead fuckin’ wrong. Seeing something that size move that way, it’s… I don’t think I can put it into words. Go find a poet or something. Ask them what they think about Gen 5.

… Didn’t come for free, of course. The neural throughput on a machine that size will cook an unprepared brain like a fuckin’ egg. You need to be dosed to the gills on a whole cocktail of ten-syllable shit to take it for more than a few minutes, and the drugs make you weird. Horny, mostly - I’m sure you’ve heard about that - but you’re also looking at impaired impulse control, difficulty with long-term thinking, emotional disregulation, mania… Plus, there’s something in the cocktail or the link or both that is bastard habit-forming. You see them counting the hours between sorties. They adjust to the hyperstimulation, get calibrated to it, and then everything else is just too god-damn quiet.

Think maybe it’s carcinogenic, actually, but you didn’t hear that from me.

So, yeah. Weird. Command doesn’t want weird operating superweaponry. Weird doesn’t make sound tactical decisions. Which means all the shit that makes somebody a functioning soldier - the long-term decision making, the impulse control, the ability to give a fuck about the rules of engagement - it had to be outsourced.

The term they used at first was “special consultant”. Then “special consulting officer”, once we hit field testing. It wasn’t “handler” until later.

The first crop of us - I’m just gonna say handlers, I know how you’re gonna wanna spin this, I get it - were all ex-pilots. G3, mostly; Gen 4 didn’t leave a lot of material to work with. I guess the idea was we were the closest you could get to a G5 candidate’s frame of reference, but it was pretty clear within the first few months that that was bullshit. Some of us took to it, some of us washed out. A lot couldn’t take the wetwork, which I guess I can sympathise with.

Me, I handled it fine. Better than I should’ve, maybe. Being a tanker didn’t do shit for me, but my dad, he was a dog trainer, and… Yeah, well, you get the idea.

… No, no. The other kind of wetwork. You know what I mean.

…

The leg? Ha. Yeah, they offered me a prosthetic. ‘Course they did. But, call me a hypocrite, whatever you want - by that point I was six months in and I knew with total fuckin’ certainty I didn’t want the link. I spend enough of my time helping the military put their shit into peoples’ bodies, you know? I don’t want it walking home with me.

… No, I don’t understand why they keep signing up. Early days, sure, nobody knew what it did to you back then, but there’s been leaks, people’ve talked - hell, I’m talking right now. You can find our burnouts in any dive in the country, or what's fuckin' left of them. The candidates now, they know what we do to people here, and they just keep coming, and coming…

Though, you know… I think sometimes about the first time I saw a Gen 5 machine take off, that first day on the program. The way it moved against the blue-black of the sky, like it weighed nothing at all. And I almost get it.

[windvexer]

On what I'm going to call "peer positioning" in witchcraft, and the scary empowerment it can bring you

I think a lot of people who get into witchcraft have a problem with being able to see themselves as peers & equals to the powers they cultivate around them.

I see this most often discussed when it comes to gods. "Just because your god asks you for something doesn't mean you need to do it!" Etc. I think we've all heard that.

But today my thoughts are on the tarot, and how some people seem to treat tarot readings as "the truth" or "the answer" that then must be followed, even if they (the living, breathing, human practitioner) don't really agree or don't really want to do that.

I'm really big on the analogy of a witch as a monarch, and the concept of various powers (like gods, spirits, tools, and spells) being counselors in the throne room.

In this context, it's easier to adopt the mindset that all of these powers have their own personalities, abilities, and goals - and that they can & will provide conflicting information when you ask for advice. (Especially ancestors - so opinionated!)

Imagine Captain Picard sitting in the meeting room with Geordi, Riker, and the rest of the space nerds.

Captain Picard is like, "the power core is failing and the away team is stranded on the planet. I think we should use the nebula to hide until the Gromflomites stop searching for us." And then Geordi is like, "but Captain, the engines would never make it! We have to go rescue the away team immediately!" And Captain Picard is like, "damn... Wow. I really wanted to go to the nebula, I thought it was the best choice :/ but if you're saying we literally don't have to worry about the Gromflomites..." Then Riker is like, "Captain, no. Geordi isn't saying the Gromflomites aren't a problem, he's just expressing his top concerns as Chief Engineer." And then Picard is all, "oh, so... this is conflicting information? Did that mean I did a bad reading on Geordi, or that negative spirits are stopping me from being able to communicate? Is Riker possibly a trickster?"

If you're captain of the ship, monarch of the kingdom, (etc.), then it might be important to ask yourself:

Am asking for input from my counsel of allied powers, and then making choices for myself?

Or, have I inadvertently signed over my decision-making process to these powers?

And I think it all kind of comes back to "peer positioning," or, witches being able to develop a spiritual framework within which they are equals to the powers around them.

Since beginning practicing witchcraft in earnest, I have often demanded a course of direction. Instead of asking, "how do I accomplish this?" I would ask, "what do I do?"

And the answer was the same every time, deeply infuriating, but also very scary: "Do whatever you think is best."

I think that's the problem of being the captain of the ship. Once your counselors are done giving their input, you are the one who has to make the final call.

Lately I've really been on a kick about witchcraft as a path of empowerment, and I think that viewing spiritual input as just that - input - is a vital part of the process.

Even if you are a true-blue believer in the magical power of tarot, tarot is still just one counselor sitting in your throne room.

Even if you have tutelary spirits, guardians and guides, gods and angels, providing blessings and support - they are not sitting at the head of the table.

You are.

I think that a framework of allied powers as peers and equals is relatively basic, and does have its flaws. But I also think it can be helpful in a variety of ways:

It can provide a system of understanding why allied powers can give conflicting advice, or even seemingly bad advice that doesn't align with our personal desires.

It can provide a tool for processing spiritual input.

It helps restore a sense of personal authority to a practitioner.

It can help a practitioner reclaim control of a path that's grown a mind of its own.

It aids in practicing that most oppressive of skills - liberated autonomy.

I just think it's something to consider. At the end of the day, most of us have probably got to make our own calls.

[I'm making this post because in the past few months I've been helping witches consult the tarot, and they've been giving feedback like, "so this is what I should do, right?" or, "what is it telling me to do?"

I can basically see the huge reblogs where people are explaining that a period of time where they signed complete personal autonomy over to their god was the most empowering and spiritually electric time in their lives,

and I want you to know, I'm not speaking about vows and oaths made to entities that gives them control over your life. I'm talking about situations where witches put down their autonomy so they can have both hands free to shuffle tarot.]

[midnight-fox-boy]

I know this is a very high emotion topic right now but I think I need to say this.

To my USA pals; If you see any posts from a trans person talking about potentially detransitioning/going back in the closet and they list strong reasons as to why they're considering it (living in specific areas for example), please do not react with "No! Don't! Don't let them win that's what they want!!".

Like don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should encourage people to go back in the closet or to "give in". But I DO think that this mindset places an unfair responsibility onto that person. It comes off as seeing it as a betrayal, as "giving up and conforming", as a "loss".

It comes off as thinking someone needs to put their life on the line to loudly fight for what is right. That they must exist as they are publicly regardless of the dangers.

If someone GENUINELY feels that they will be safer going back into the closet until this is all over, that's valid. We shouldn't support them in whatever choices they make and remind them that they are still welcome within his community.

Buuuuttt, I think it's also okay to speak logically, especially if the person is asking for input or something. Helping the person find any potential helpful resources (or how to find those resources) to live as safely and healthily as possible.

I think it's okay to suggest waiting and seeing how things go before hastily making an emotionally charged decision that they may regret. I think it's okay to remind them that there's options in-between fully detransitioning/going into the closet, and being OUT loud and proud. For example maybe that's boy/girlmoding at work/school or going partially back into the closet, but not fully.

By basically telling people they have to be okay with being in danger no matter how scared they are or else they've basically done something wrong or bad, you're just going to contribute to more guilt, fear, and feelings of being alone.

And remember that many trans people are parents. Sometimes a parent may choose decisions they really don't want to do in order to keep their children safe.

I know this is not intended..I know you're not trying to guilt them or imply that they're contributing to the "enemy winning", but it can very much cause those kinds of feelings. They have not failed us. They have not failed themselves.

We will fight as a community, and we will fight for those who have to do whatever they can to survive and be safe, even if they can't be on the front lines. Our collective strength is enough to carry them.

[mookymilksims]

ULTIMATE REALISTIC Sims 3 Roleplay Guide | Transform Your Slice of Life Gameplay! | Part 1

What is up my little MooMoo's, welcome back to my channel! If you are new, thanks for dropping by.

So I promised you all a slice-of-life roleplay guide, and here it is! This might be the single most important guide for my ultra-realism roleplaying series in The Sims 3. Traditional roleplaying in this game is a bit tricky, so you’ve got to get creative. With mods, you can maximize your roleplaying efforts with little to no labor.

And whenever you look up how to roleplay in the sims 3, you'll find yourself quickly being redirected to challenges, except when you come across my input.

I have so much planned to show and teach you all in this guide. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but I promise to make it simple and effortless. This guide is easy enough for beginners who’ve never roleplayed before, yet packed with fresh ideas and twists for veteran roleplayers.

I want you to think of roleplaying as a Sims 3 challenge, but not as strict or difficult. Everything I show you in this video are just suggestions, meant to inspire you and ignite your creativity. I want to excite you into playing this game differently and unlock the true potential of The Sims 3.

Unfortunately because there is so much ground to cover I am going to have to break this guide up into several parts.

There are in total 10 sections of this guide I want to be able to teach you, in today's guide we are going to be focusing on section 1: Basic Roleplaying: and things you need to understand about the game.

So, let's break down exactly what we're going to cover today:

Basic Roleplaying - Things you need to understand about the game.

Curating Your Sim's World - Setting the stage before you play them.

Personality Templates - Creating Sims you care about.

Style and Taste Bud Palettes - Refining your character's personality.

Hobbies and Routines - Enhancing your Sim's day-to-day lifestyle.

Vacations and Traveling - Adding excitement and variety.

Socializing Roleplay - Making your Sims’ interactions meaningful.

Mods for Day-to-Day Gameplay - Essential mods for realism.

Challenges and How to Transform Them - Keeping things interesting.

Storylines and Easy Ways to Put Them Together - Creating compelling narratives.

I care about your time, so we’re going to steamroll through all of these sections and videos together! Let’s dive right in and get started!

Basic Roleplaying

Remember when I said earlier that you need to have the right perspective to roleplay in this game? Most of you have been roleplaying to some extent even if you think you haven't.

Challenges are basically stricter roleplaying incentives. They give you a set of rules to follow in-game, where doing the opposite wouldn't make sense.

And this is the crux of roleplaying, essentially. It's about understanding the person you are playing as and what they would realistically do. It’s not just about completing goals, but about making choices that reflect your Sim’s personality, desires, and circumstances.

So, what exactly is roleplaying? At its core, roleplaying is acting out the life of a character you create. You’re not just controlling them like a puppet; you’re thinking and making decisions as if you are that character. It’s about stepping into their shoes and seeing the world through their eyes.

For example, if your Sim is an artist, you might decide that they spend their mornings painting in the park, meeting other creative Sims, and visiting art galleries for inspiration. On the other hand, if your Sim is a fitness enthusiast, they might start their day with a jog, followed by a healthy meal, and then head to the gym.

Roleplaying is about adding layers to your Sim's story. It's not just about what they do, but why they do it. Every decision should reflect their personality and circumstances. If your Sim is shy, they might struggle with social interactions, but if they’re outgoing, they’ll thrive at parties and gatherings.

This perspective transforms the game from a series of tasks into a rich, immersive experience. You're not just playing The Sims; you're living a story. And the best part? It’s your story, crafted by your imagination and choices.

What actions do you find yourself doing more than anything else in the game? What action is it that you focus on the most?

Skills. Jobs. School. And motive maintenance. These are the actions you find yourself doing the most in your gameplay instead of creating memories and developing your story.

What if I told you that skills, jobs, high school, and elementary school are actually not as important in the game as you think? There is nothing in the game that requires you to master a skill. So why are you maxing out their skills?

You don't always have to become the leader of the free world, especially if it's not even a lifetime wish for your Sim. The only thing you need to pass school is to not have a consistent F. Your children and teens were going to graduate regardless.

There are hundreds of mods dedicated to rebalancing The Sims 3 motive decay that would allow you more time in your day playing as your Sim instead of just feeding them.

When you change the way you think The Sims 3 was meant to be played, you begin to see just how much fun you could really be having in this game. I'm only saying this as the kid who stressed out about getting a B in-game, not getting that promotion by the end of the day, and freaking out every time my Sim's hunger bar got halfway full.

We should be having fun, relaxed, and enjoying our Sims' actual lives. Once you remove this stress from the equation, you're left with a bunch of freed-up open time in your Sims' day. And now, you have to fill it with creative roleplaying scenarios.

But don't worry, I've already got you covered on that in sections 5-10.

LifeSpans

If you already watched my lifespan and relativity guide, then you already saw me extensively go over this entire system. I realized very quickly how important a Sim's lifespan was to my roleplay. If the lifespan is too short, I don't have enough time in-game to care about my Sims, develop their stories, and complete pivotal moments in their character development. I used to turn their aging off, but in doing so, I missed out on the natural progressions of not just my active household but also everyone else.

A well-balanced lifespan is crucial for meaningful roleplay because it allows you to:

Build Deep Connections: With a longer lifespan, you have the time to truly get to know your Sims, form deep bonds, and invest in their personal stories. You'll witness them grow, change, and evolve over time, making their journeys feel more significant.

Develop Complex Storylines: Longer lifespans give you the freedom to create intricate story arcs. You can explore your Sims' lives in great detail, from their childhood dreams to their golden years, ensuring that no pivotal moment is rushed.

Experience Generational Play: Watching multiple generations of Sims grow up, interact, and leave their marks on the family legacy is one of the most rewarding aspects of the game. It brings a sense of continuity and history to your Sims' world.

Allow for Realistic Progression: A longer lifespan lets your Sims achieve their goals at a more natural pace. So that if the roleplay allows it, they can climb the career ladder, master skills, and pursue hobbies without the pressure of an imminent aging up.

Thank goodness I learned how to curate a mods list and create my own mods that addressed all of these issues. And thank goodness I shared it with all of you, so you don't have to do anything but install them and jump into the game.

Remember, a well-thought-out lifespan not only enhances your roleplaying experience but also enriches the entire game world, making every Sim's life story more impactful and memorable.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a great way to delve into the mind of your character, understand them inside and out, and effectively roleplay them in-game.

Think of this section as breathing life into your Sims' lungs. I personally find this portion to be fun while also gaining incredible insight into how my Sims think, act, and feel in-game.

This practice gives me so much confidence when roleplaying them. Without it, I find myself improvising without as much confidence, making certain interactions more awkward for me. I have to rewrite the interaction in my head, out of the game, to rectify it, when I could've just used this practice and character breakdown beforehand.

Why Use Questionnaires?

Character Depth: Questionnaires help you create multifaceted characters with rich backstories, motivations, and unique personalities. This depth makes your Sims feel more real and relatable.

Consistency in Roleplay: By understanding your Sims' traits, goals, and quirks, you can ensure consistent behavior and decision-making throughout their lives. This consistency enhances the realism and immersion of your gameplay.

Enhanced Storytelling: Detailed character profiles allow you to craft more compelling and believable stories. You'll have a clear sense of your Sims' desires and conflicts, making their journeys more engaging.

Improved Interaction: With a solid understanding of your Sims, you'll navigate social interactions more naturally. Knowing their preferences and relationships helps you respond authentically in various scenarios.

Reduced Improvisation Stress: Having a well-thought-out character profile minimizes the need for on-the-spot improvisation. You'll feel more prepared and confident, leading to smoother and more enjoyable gameplay.

How to Use the Questionnaires

Now, you don't always have to answer every question. You should aim to answer just enough questions in just enough categories to confidently roleplay your character in improv gameplay scenarios. Use the link below to the character question generator and begin breaking down your character. This practice not only enhances your roleplaying experience but also brings your Sims to life in ways you never imagined.

Remember, only answer enough questions where you get to know your sim inside and out. To enhance this further, consider their fashion style, and mini backstories behind their favorite food and color. Write this down somewhere where you keep a back up of your save file, so you can always reference it in the future if you get stuck on what they would do in a roleplay scenarios.

Link to Character Question Generator!

Conclusion

So here is where I feel is a good time to end the video, since I've given all of you a lot to think about. Let's quickly recap what we've covered so far:

Basic Roleplaying: We explored how to shift your perspective on gameplay, understanding that roleplaying involves making choices that align with your Sims' personalities and realistic behaviors.

LifeSpans: We discussed the importance of adjusting your Sims' lifespans to allow for more meaningful story development and character progression. I shared my mods and settings to make this process seamless.

Questionnaires: We delved into the practice of using questionnaires to breathe life into your Sims. This helps you understand your characters deeply, ensuring consistent and engaging roleplay.

Make sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell to become a part of the Milky Way Squad on your way out, so that you can be notified and come back for Part 2!

Thank you for watching and see you in the next video!

[centrally-unplanned]

I have been taking my fit-and-starts second stab at playing Victoria 3 - I did a Japan run, and a Korea run, and this is a very frustrating game. It bothers me because its deep core is probably the best of Vicky so far. It understands that the appeal of these game is Factorio-esque; you want to build up this cool little supply chain that goes chug chug chug I make-a the widgets and numbers go up.

Vicky 1 was ofc just pure cheese; most goods could just be dumped on the global market with no buyer and do fine, certain goods were just hard-coded to be profitable, and insane things like 100% of import costs coming out of the government's budget pushed you towards a kind of samey, slapdash hyper-industrial mercantilism. Vicky 2 was the opposite - so opaque in its function that you as the player didn't really have agency over it, as the vaunted World Market just does its thing. Your strategies "worked" no matter what you really did though, so you just kind of followed basic "build factory in same territory as RGO" logic and let the system run itself. Both of these systems made for functional-but-not-exceptional gameplay loops.

Vicky 3 is more complicated than its predecessors, but in ways that makes how the economic system functions more concrete. You have local prices for goods, wider markets with clearly labelled high-and-low demand, and clearly defined "production methods" where buildings can commit to better tech at the cost of different inputs. As a player you can build factories, farms, and mines of a dozen different types anywhere, so you always have agency - and those new production lines gives you goals. Invent steel tools, so now your tooling workshops can make more tools but will need steel instead of iron as a input? You can switch over the lines...but make sure you have enough steel mills! And oh, that drives down the price of tools once you do it...so now your cattle ranches can justify switching their line to tool-assisted butchers! And now you make more meat, your local cost is low, but oh in the Russian market meat prices are high - as shown by that little gold coin icon it - so you can export it now!

Things are looped, contingent, and based on your decisions. It is simple, of course, you are making lots of little, easy calls that build you up over time - which is what makes it fun. It has to be simple, because otherwise it is a dizzyingly complex web of a million markets, it would never work. You feel like you are actually building the economy without being overwhelmed by it.

Which would be great if it wasn't stapled to one of the worst political & military systems I have ever seen, played with a UI God abandoned in shame.

So you can join the markets of other countries? Like you have your own market as a default, so you can click the "market" tab and it will show you how much wheat your country makes, how much iron it buys, etc. All good. But if you join another country's market, now that tab shows the collective market, everyone's wheat, iron, etc. Useful but like obiously I am not playing the market, I am playing the country; so how do I see how much wheat I make?

You can't.

You actually can't! Idk maybe they patched it in recently, but I couldn't find it and all the reddit threads I google from 2023 say you can't. Are you planning to declare independence and wanna see if you make enough food for your people? Too bad! Fuck around and find out I guess. I saw one thread where someone's advice was "save the game, declare independence, screenshot the new market, then reload". Quantum timeline level of experimental design going on in these guys' Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It isn't even the gameplay implications that bother me the most - this is a game about building an economy. You want to see what you built! And they stop you. It is baffling, and is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many things like this. One of my favourites is that your "construction sector" is a hybrid of government and private projects, sometimes it is you spending the money, sometimes investors. Okay, cool, when it is you spending it comes out of your treasury, right? Well, yes, but the way they show that is when everyone spends it comes out of your treasury, but the private sector reimburses you for their share. Which you will not understand your first ~3 games, and instead just see huge red numbers on your budget screen and panic. And you are just left asking why? Why do that?

Beyond UI, the political system is just half-baked. It is "interest groups", each has baseline popularity, and verrrry slowly that changes as your economic structure changes (or revolutions). And to change laws you initiate campaigns to drum up support with roll dice to pass/fail. Which isn't a bad baseline, but it completely fails to capture how political change occurred in the era. Like the Meiji Restoration is "done" by you putting industrialists in power and kicking out the "landlords" lol. Japan didn't have industrialists then! Landlords are the ones who did the restoring of Meiji.

More importantly than inaccurate it isn't fun - to change a law you just arrange a coalition in power than kind of backs it, then pray you get good random events. In Vicky 2 they had a lot more railroad-style decisions and stuff you could do to capture history, "hit this military score benchmark and launch a civil war" kind of stuff. It wasn't complicated, and it was less organic, but it was pro player agency, you could take active steps to achieve it. In Vicky 3 it is mainly waiting or cheese - people often talk about getting the Meiji Restoration by deleting all your armies at game start and launching a civil war immediately that the AI will lose by default. A checkbox decision is better than that!

The military mechanics are the epitome of their "systems over gameplay" approach. What they wanted to do was two-fold; reduce micro in Vicky 2 where it is "click army to province" over and over, and "balance" the game by making combat not reward micro where players could cheese the AI. Very valid goals, I totally support it. What they did was built a system where armies auto-move to "fronts" and their AI can't handle it, but now as a player my agency over my units is gone so I can't fix it. The UI is awful, you can't even really tell armies to attack or defend, they just ~whim. You have to do a lot of clicking to fight the system - yes it is less clicking than Vicky 2, but in Vicky 2 that wasn't mentally taxing, it was fun enough to wage the war you wanted to wage. Everything was concrete and in your control.

Here...look, as Korea I declared war on China to gain independence. Then the UK - not my ally, just separately, declared war on China as well. So now we are kindaaaa on the same side? At which point half my army auto-reployed to Hong Kong because a "new front" had "appeared". One my one boat. Then the UK declared war on me as well and then 50% of my army was fighting the UK in the South China Sea alongside the Russians (???) while the other half of my army is sitting there at home facing the Qing troops along the Yalu River going "bro, wtf?". At one point a newly spawned army of mine tried to auto-redeploy to Senegal.

All of this is just so preventable - you wanna reduce micro? Make combat provinces really big. You just invade "Manchuria", no clicking from Jilin to Mukden, and have bordering armies support each other defensively or something like that so you don't have to dash back and forth. Don't try to make your AI "do it for you" because it clearly can't and you want to play your own game. I'm sure the above will get better as I learn the system but I can just see the hundreds of players who saw this system and insta-quit, because until you "understand" it, it stabs you in the back. Not what you want out of a game.

Anyway enough me whinging about the game for way too long - the fundamentals are strong in the end. I will test out mods, I could see an overhaul mod really fixing everything except maybe the combat (and then you just cope). I definitely want it to work, the potential is high.

[bibibbon]

Ok a question center about Izu, in a way. Hm, ok let me gather my thought:

Mirio is either stupid or naive? I ask this bc well nighteye was a miserable bitch against Izu for no reason but petty. Is Mirio aware Nighteye is a creep or ...nighteye fake around mirio?

Now to Izu...I think I'm the only one who can see this but...Izu getting the quirk, ofa, is now a mean spirit joke. "Huh?what you mean?"

Mirio is the perfect candidate for ofa. He has a good grasp on his quirk, he knows how to act and is a mini am. He could fill the gap right away and AM was in a hurray.

Why pick Izu?

"he saved PoS" which ok...but is that enough to grant him a special quirk? No discussing or get to know Izu? Am doesn't know this kid...for all he knows Izu could have used ofa for evil.

To me, the way I see it. Izu got the quirk bc am is stubborn and nighteye was a mega creep.

Like Mirio was a perfect option for ofa. Why Izu? Not asking this to shit on him (I'm not Hori) but while Izu does work to make this quirk his...AM was putting pressure...he needs Izu to be the symbol of peace in a second.

Mirio already was a symbol or coming closer. Why not him?

What makes Izu special of ofa? It's bc am picked him and it's a good reason if we saw why am picked him. Am picked him way too quick.

One good and frankly suicidal mission was enough to make him his heir. Why? We will never know.

Again, not shitting on Izu. I wanted to see a reason as why Izu is worthy of ofa. But we don't. The relationship of am and Izu is ...no. Existent. Really make me think he picked Izu too quick and if nighteye wasn't himself...the ofa would go to Mirio.

Hi @mikeellee 👋 sorry for not answering this sooner!

Hmm interesting I would say mirio is naive with a dash of biases. Let me explain, what I mean is that Mirio believes that nighteye wouldn't do such a thing especially if it's towards someone he thinks is a friend. Mirio and nighteyes relationship is what I like to describe what nighteye wanted his relationship to be with all might in a way.

I don't think that Mirio is aware of nighteye's creepy behaviour as canon never alludes or implies it at all and Mirio someone who has a strong sense of righteousness and would probably be very irked if he found out about nighteye.

My theory is that due to all mights and nighteye's strained relationship all might didn't trust nighteye's input or decision so he may of left Mirio getting OFA as a last resort type of thing. However, you are right Mirio is basically perfect for the role especially if they wanted another mini all might in a hugely short span of time but I think the message was supposed to be that with society changing that another all might may actually harm society a lot more than do good for it. Now I think that if horikoshi actually allowed Izuku's character to go through proper development that izuku would be perfect in delivering that message however this idea doesn't hold much weight after Izuku's fight with shigaraki that parallels all mights kamino fight.

Also maybe Izuku reminded all might of himself so that's why he picked him. In reality how would all might really know that though??!?! All might and izuku bonding time is basically non existent in the manga or anime their relationship is also non existent. All might doesn't know much about izuku and neither does izuku. All might is a bad mentor and it's never brought up or used as a point to develop him and his relationship with Izuku.

Iam not sure what's so special about izuku for all might to pick him or why all might never picked Mirio. I remember a few years ago I saw a video talking about how in the overhaul arc we never actually got proof as to why izuku is the better candidate for OFA and i have to actually agree. Izuku never ended up differentiating himself from Mirio and frankly we don't even have any logical reasoning from all might as to why it was izuku himself. Or it's how he broke the bystander effect and wanted to help bakugo even though he couldn't do anything that maybe inspired him to help this kids dream of becoming a hero become a reality but oh well I guess we will never know the true answer.

[hold-him-down]

🤝 - Some help performing a basic task

✥ I Got Something For You ✥

Trigger warnings: semi-explicit noncon. 18+ only.

Notes: 2-ish months into West Peterson.

✥ ✥ ✥

When the doorbell rang, and Mr. Peterson inclined his head toward Leo, that should have been the first warning. The, “I got something for you,” should have been the second. Neither, though, prepares Leo for who greets him on the other side. When Leo opens the door to find a man, no older than he is, with short black hair and deep, charcoal eyes, wearing a Department of Labor Services branded t-shirt staring at him, there’s only a brief moment of confusion before the pieces fall into place.

✥ ✥ ✥ 

[Weeks Earlier]

“Come over here,” Mr. Peterson calls to him one night, abrupt but not exactly unexpected. Leo finishes the plate he is cleaning and sets it aside. He dries his hands, unrolls the sleeves to his crisp black button-down, pours himself a glass of wine, and makes his way over to the older man who currently holds his contract. 

He sits down cautiously, and Mr. Peterson offers him a genuine smile. “I'm– I'm just going to cut to the chase, Leo. I’ve been giving this some thought..." He reaches for his tablet and turns it on. “Now that you’ve been here for a few months, and you know– well, you know how fond of you I am,” he continues.

Leo returns the smile and nods, mouthing a soft, 'thank you,' to be on the safe side.

“I just have been thinking it’s too much for one person,” Mr. Peterson continues. Leo takes a breath, his eyebrows rising. “All of this. And, not just that. But they said, uh–” He runs his hand over the back of his neck and takes a long sip of his scotch. “Well, they said you like interacting with your peers. That you crave companionship. Something like that.”

A silence buds, and so Leo, eager to prevent the void from growing uncomfortable, says, “I suppose neither of those things are untrue.”

“Great. So I've– I’ve been thinking it has to be hard on you. When I’m away, or when I’m otherwise occupied. I thought it might be nice to… I don’t know, procure you a… a companion. To help keep you sharp, and uh– to help keep you happy, I guess,” he finishes. 

Leo swallows, tilting his head to one side, as Mr. Peterson turns his tablet so he can see the screen.

“I know that some might think of this as some type of perversion of justice,” he continues, immune to Leo’s curiosity shifting into something more tense. Leo takes a long sip of wine, peering at the screen. “I asked the director at Greenwood to pull a few options for us." Leo's jaw drops. "Before you say anything,” Mr. Peterson adds quickly, “I want you to know that I’m doing this as much for me as I am for you, and I don't... I'm not asking you for permission here, or for your blessing. I think it’ll be good for you to have someone here, but it’ll also be good for me.

"All that said, I do want your input." Mr. Peterson shows him the picture of a worker, and Leo forces himself to remain neutral, if for no other reason than to disguise his discomfort. At seeing this. At getting his first glimpse into this side of things.

“I don’t need you to make any type of final decision about the suitability of these boys,” Mr. Peterson continues. “My attorneys will review their files and ultimately determine if they’re a good match to my, and by extension, your needs. But I’d like to give you the opportunity to veto any, or if you feel strongly attached to any, I’d like to know that, too. Ideally, I'd like to find someone we both find attractive, and someone who may hold your interest through the duration of your contract.”

The evening is spent scrolling through the pictures of seventeen workers, with Leo mostly silent, entirely focused on keeping himself calm, and Mr. Peterson running a verbal pros and cons list for each one. Occasionally, he requires commentary from Leo, and in these instances, as subtly as he can, Leo tries remind him of their humanity. And all through it, Leo actively avoids thinking about the last time Mr. Peterson did this, about his own image appearing on the screen. What he had said then, with whom he had reviewed these files. Inevitably, those thoughts do creep in, but Leo shuts them down as quickly as he can.

And when Mr. Peterson closes the last of the files, glancing finally at a stunned silent Leo, and then, perhaps because he notices something in Leo's expression, excuses himself to bed, Leo finishes his wine in silence and promises himself he will not think about this night. Ever again.

✥ ✥ ✥ 

“Oh,” Leo says now, opening the front door wider. He shakes his head in a kind of detached disbelief, then steps aside, turning in time to see Mr. Peterson making his way to the foyer. “Mr. Peters–”

“You must be Will,” Mr. Peterson says, and Leo, in that moment, wishes he could be anywhere but in this room. Will is… around his age, he guesses. Around his height, around his build. Dark eyes, easy smile. He can’t help but think that Mr. Peterson has a type, and he also can’t help but wonder what– 

“Leo, introduce yourself,” Mr. Peterson says, sharply enough that Leo doesn’t hesitate to reach out his hand.

“I’m Leo.” He smiles, as he would greet any other of Mr. Peterson’s guests. “It’s nice to meet you,” he continues.

Will takes his hand, offering a gentle, if not a little bravely assertive, handshake. He watches Leo closely, holding his eye contact for just a moment too long.

“Well,” Mr. Peterson says, loud enough that Leo drops his hand abruptly, locking his fingers behind his back. “Looks like you two will be just fine.” He nods, as if to punctuate the thought.

Leo can’t shake the unease he feels as Mr. Peterson looks over Will once, then lets his gaze shift to Leo.

✥ ✥ ✥ 

They spend the first few days falling into a new routine. Leo, on edge since the day Will showed up, waits for the other shoe to drop, and Will puts a razor-sharp focus on assimilating with as little fanfare as possible. And he’s good at it.

Will, who, it turns out, is one year younger than Leo but has been in the system since the day after he turned eighteen, is, in a lot of ways, a perfect product of the training. He meets Leo in the kitchen every morning at seven, and while Leo makes breakfast, Will sets the table. While Leo cleans the bathroom, Will does the laundry. While Leo helps with the restaurant, Will does the yard work. 

Will seldom attempts to speak to him, but when he does, he keeps it light. It’s almost too easy, Leo thinks constantly, so at the end of their fifth night together, when Mr. Peterson stops Will from going to his bedroom with a terse, “Wait,” Leo immediately goes rigid. Partly because it has, he’s decided, been way too easy, and partly because Mr. Peterson is on his third scotch, but mostly because of the way Mr. Peterson looks not at Will as he speaks, but at Leo.

“Sit down,” Mr. Peterson says, and he inclines his head toward Leo. Will feels the danger here, too, Leo thinks. He’s hesitant in his step, maybe not noticeable to Mr. Peterson, but noticeable to Leo, who has watched him navigate the house with nothing but undiluted confidence for the last week. “I want to try something,” he says then. 

Leo nods, and Mr. Peterson says, “Finish your drink,” and so Leo does so without waiting, taking two big gulps of thousand-dollar wine, and then discarding his glass. “Would you like another?” he asks, and Leo eagerly agrees. Mr. Peterson looks to Will, who fills both of their glasses, and he watches as both of his workers body their drinks.

“I thought maybe,” Mr. Peterson eventually says (and here, he has the audacity to sound nervous), “I thought it might be nice for the two of you to get to know one another a little bit better.” He stands, stretching, and says, “I’m going to help myself to another scotch. When I get back, I trust you’ll both be ready to move things along here.” He looks only at Leo, with an expectant stare that makes the hairs on Leo's arm stand up.

Leo waits until Mr. Peterson has retreated out of sight before he speaks.

He looks straight ahead as he speaks, but he knows Will is listening. In his peripheries, Will leans forward, and takes a slow sip of his wine.

“Whatever happens," Leo hears himself saying, shoving his hands under his legs to keep them from shaking, "I want you to know that I didn’t want this." He keeps his voice low, loud enough to reach Will but not loud enough to reach the bar. “Whatever he makes me do, or whatever he makes you do, just know that I didn’t… I didn’t choose this.” There’s a panicked edge to his tone that grows with each word, and he knows he needs to lose it quickly. He takes the deepest breath he can, as his eyes track Mr. Peterson making his way back to the living room.

“I know,” Will responds, equally softly. And then, as Mr. Peterson lowers himself back down onto the sofa, he says, “It’s okay.”

✥ ✥ ✥ 

Leo waits until he’s sure both Mr. Peterson and Will have fallen asleep before he allows himself to stand, unsteady on his feet but eager for this night to end. He walks as calmly as he can to the bathroom before he doubles over the toilet, expelling everything his stomach has to offer before letting his forehead rest on his arm.

The feeling of Will’s hands on him, of Will’s mouth on him while Mr. Peterson coaches every movement. Mr. Peterson's voice, look at his face, and he likes that, and god, fucking perfect, and keep going, and use your tongue, and don't be afraid to go a little rougher, and fucking hands down, Leo, and you're doing good, and you're so fucking hot, and every word plays through Leo’s head on repeat and Leo wants to scream to make it stop, but he can't. There's no stopping it, and there's no end to it, and it reminds him, in some ways, of how... He thought he was done, but as images of Mr. Peterson's weight landing on the sofa next to him, of Mr. Peterson stopping Will to look at him, to touch him, as Mr. Peterson's guides Leo's hand, he doubles over the toilet once more–

A knock on the door pulls Leo back to the moment, and there's a second of sheer, perfect panic where he realizes he was too loud, and someone's awake, and things are going to get infinitely worse, before he looks up. And it's... it’s Will who stands in the doorway, backlit by the dull yellow of the hall light, and Leo can breathe again.

“I was that bad, huh?” Will asks, kneeling to a crouch next to him. Will smiles, an apologetic, soft smile that Leo isn’t accustomed to, because frankly, he's not accustomed to Will speaking to him at all, before he lets the back of his hand sweep the slightly overgrown hair from Leo’s neck.

“It’s not you,” Leo says, voice hoarse and still teetering on the edge of hysteria. “It’s me.” 

Will laughs then, and it's a genuine sound that Leo hasn’t heard in years, and something about it is all too much, setting off the months, or maybe years, of pent up anxiety, and Leo can’t stop the cascade of tears that silently begins to fall.

Will, for his part, sits next to him, and with no pressure for him to stop, and no one waiting for him to get his shit together, Leo cries harder.

Until eventually, he takes a long, deep breath, and he forces himself to calm down.

Several minutes pass, with both boys silent and processing the events of the evening, before Will finally says, “Did I hurt you?”

Leo replies, almost instantly, “No.”

“Okay," Will says. "Good.” He pauses, leveling his gaze on Leo. The silence draws out again, until finally, Will stands, putting his hand out to help Leo up. “I wish I could promise it won’t happen again,” Will says, quietly. “I… whatever I can do to make it easier, I’ll do. But I’ve been with guys like Mr. Peterson before, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and I… I think this wasn’t the end of something, it wasn’t a satisfaction of some dark repressed urge he had as a one time thing. I think it was the beginning of something.” Will opens the door and gestures Leo out first, but squeezes his shoulder as he does.

“I know,” Leo replies.

FIGHTER TAG LIST: @whump-cravings @afabulousmrtake @crystalquartzwhump @maracujatangerine @pumpkin-spice-whump @distinctlywhumpthing @thecyrulik @highwaywhump @batfacedliar-yetagain @finder-of-rings @dont-touch-my-soup @skyhawkwolf @suspicious-whumping-egg @also-finder-of-rings @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump @peachy-panic @melancholy-in-the-morning @urban-dark @nicolepascaline @quietly-by-myself @pigeonwhumps @whump-blog  @seasaltandcopper @angstyaches @i-msonotcreative @mylifeisonthebookshelf @anonintrovert @whump-world @squishablesunbeam @considerablecolors @whumpcereal @whumperfully @pirefyrelight @whumpsday @whumplr-reader @lonesome--hunter @darkthingshappen @alexmundaythrufriday

[qqueenofhades]

I get the concern for the youth vote but like, people between the ages of 18-29 don't vote anyway. If they did, my 30 year old ass wouldn't have spent the last decade running around trying to get my peers to vote on basic local housing levys in a blue state with mail in voting. For withholding the vote to be a threat, we'd need to be a substantial voting block first 🤷🏻

Once again, this is surely the Old talking, but I started voting as soon as I turned 18 and have done so ever since, and it utterly baffles me (especially given the state of the world today) why anyone would just be like "nah, I don't care, I don't want any input on this decision, I would rather spend my time in an echo chamber of angry lies and wallow in feeling helpless and miserable and self-righteous about how we can't do anything and it's all doomed." Now, I know this is the case with a depressingly large percentage of the population, but the right wing, despite spending just as much time in an echo chamber of angry lies, does fucking vote every time, which is largely why we are in the mess we are in. I know that the whole world is a mess and it is difficult to deal with and young people are bombarded with "it's all hopeless don't even bother" messages, but like?? I still don't understand it. Lack of civics classes? Social media is the devil? Young people are self-absorbed and think the state of the world doesn't matter as much as their own lives? I know that every one of these makes me sound about 95 years old, but still.

[vaguesxrrow]

Heyy, I was wondering if you could write one of niko from dbd with a nb ghost character? With the prompt 'kissing to make them stop talking' xoxo

ty for the request !! im actually kind of proud of this one so show it some extra love please guysss

niko/nonbinary!ghost reader

prompt: 27. kissing them to make them stop talking

tags: nonbinary!reader, ghost!reader

wc: 1,333

a/n: i got kind of carried away with this, but i really love niko :')

two times you had to kiss niko to get her to stop talking, and one time she had to do the same to you.

1:

you emerged from the wall into niko's room, nose deep in a book you thought would help with your current case - niko's input on your research would be valuable. you looked up from the pages to find edwin and niko in the corner, engaged in an apparently heated conversation.

"i am not telling them!" niko hissed at edwin.

"and that is your decision." edwin rolled his eyes. "i am simply saying they would never reject you-"

"ahem," you cleared your throat. "uh, hey guys."

niko squeaked.

weird. she had never been caught off guard by the whole ghost-materialising-from-the-wall thing before.

"hello," edwin greeted."i- uh, i remembered i have a lead to follow up on. i'll be back." he shot a wide-eyed look at niko before he strode out, going through the wall as well. she had no reaction to his method of travel - just a slightly panicked look in his direction. maybe you should warn her next time.

"oookay," you drawled. "guess it's just you and me, niko. not that i'm complaining." you smiled at her sincerely.

she seemed to be panicking more and more, to your confusion.

"niko... you didn't get another case of supernatural parasites, did you?" you asked, half joking and half seriously concerned.

"i need to tell you something!"

"shit, did you get another parasitic infection?" you crossed the room in three big strides and planted your hands firmly on her shoulders, tilting your head as you inspected her form for any signs of illness. "you look a bit flushed. are you burning up?"

"no!" niko cried. "i mean, i may be a bit flushed, but it's not because i have parasites. i've googled the symptoms of supernatural parasites - generally, there'd be more fluids coming out of my mouth and maybe evn tremors. which, now that i say it out loud, don't they seem like symptoms of a crush, as well?" she bit her lip. "okay, i'm just gonna say it - you make me feel like i have parasites."

"uhh. what?"

she continued speaking. "as in, you make me feel warm inside, and the warmth is so... warm that it makes my face heat up. and my legs go weak around you, and i have definitely fantasised about you catching me in your arms when i fall. or saving me when i'm about to die horrifically. basically, what i'm trying to say is i like like you, and maybe even lo-"

your hands were still on her shoulders, which made it easy for you to pull her into a kiss. being a ghost, you couldn't physically feel it, but if asked, you would've said that your first kiss with niko felt like warmth and weak legs. sunshine and thawing trees. when you finally pulled back, niko was staring at you in shock, lips parted and head cocked to the side.

"yes, niko," you said, answering her silent question. "you make me feel like i have parasites, too."

2:

"i have something for you!"

niko had made that admission nervously, blurting it out right before shutting the door in your face. you could've walked right through it, but instead you stood there waiting. like an idiot.

you stared at the cartoon faces on the poster stuck to niko's door.

"do you know what she has for me?" you mumbled at them.

2 minutes passed. you heard muttering and pacing, and the aggravated yelling of niko's sprites from within the room, but you couldn't make out what they were saying. you wanted to say 'fuck it' and just go in, but what if it was a surprise? you didn't want to ruin it for your girlfriend.

finally, the door flew open, revealing a flustered niko. "hi," she breathed.

"...hi?" you said. "is everything okay-"

she thrusted a box at you. it was clearly diy-ed in a very much niko sasaki fashion; a hand-crafted paper box with cute drawings of flowers and love hearts on it, complete with a sparkly bow on the top.

"aww, niko, this is so cute!" carefully, you took the box from her. "can i open it?"

she nodded quickly.

gently, you pried it open. the inside was just as thoughtfully made as the outside. a folded satin cloth sat inside, and on top of it were two silver rings. you picked one of them up to inspect; engraved on its surface was a skeleton hand, fingers poised up as if ready to make a pinky promise. as you presumed, the second ring had a corresponding engravement. you grinned.

"they're promise rings!" niko interjected. "they're supposed to symbolise a commitment to each other, and loyalty, devotion, and dedication. and, the reason why i'm giving you this is because, well, i really like you, and i like being with you. i don't know if we're there yet, or if you'd want to wear it, but i want to commit, because after the dandelion sprites thing, i realised i could die horrifically at any time, and i just don't want to die horrifically without you knowing how much i lo-"

you took a step forward and kissed her.

"niko," you said slowly, as you slipped the rings onto both your fingers. "i will never take this ring off."

3:

furniture crashed behind you. it was such a shame, you thought. this house was so adorably vintage. you couldn't believe it was inhabited by a giant, enchanted spider that was also murderous.

everything in the house was enchanted - you and niko knew that before going in. apparently, a witch had died in there during a spell gone wrong, and the magic seeped into the very structure of the house. one thing you didn't account for was the house's creepy crawly population also being affected.

you stumbled, but niko yanked you upright again. she tugged you along into the living room, both of you breathing heavily. too out of breath for words, you pointed to a cupboard and wordlessly pulled her inside, shutting the door behind you and jamming the doorknob with a broom.

an even worse discovery was that the mirrors were also spelled, so you couldn't even travel through them. you couldn't keep niko safe. niko, who was currently screaming at the top of her lungs as you both ran down the stairs. the spider skittered down the steps, hot on your heels until you turned a corner down the last flight to the ground floor.

the spider was very loudly wreaking havoc outside. niko surveyed the cupboard; it appeared to be a storage unit for cleaning supplies. she picked up a large canister of something. "will this help?"

"niko," you whispered. "niko." you took her by the wrist. "listen. you're always talking about how you may die horrifically, and i've never wanted to think about it because i care about you too much, but in case you do, and it's because of me, i just wanted to say that you are the best person i know. you really are the best out of all of us, and you make me feel so special inside like no one ever has before. becoming a ghost, i thought i'd be cold forever, but you're so bright, and warm, and i guess what i'm saying is i lo-"

niko kissed you. it wasn't the strongest of kisses, because running for your life was bound to take a toll on energy levels, but you felt the affection in it all the same.

she pulled away, just as a sinewy leg splintered through the cupboard door. you both shrieked as the wood was torn down bit by bit, and the beady eyes of the overgrown spider stared at you.

suddenly, it reared back as a spray of white, foamy stuff hit it in the face.

niko was holding out the canister, courageously spraying the spider with whatever was inside. eventually, it shriveled down, until it was reduced to a small, twitching creature. you stared at her incredulously.

"bug spray," she said, shrugging.

you exhaled. "i love you."

hehe notice how they didnt get to say i love you till the end??

[ultraflavour]

Tackling the Toxic Culture of Play around "Epic" length campaigns in Fantasy TTRPGs

Definitely watch this video, but I'm also going to be touching on 4 major topics:

How I fucked myself big-time by over-committing to running a long-term game of Fabula Ultima;

Why the expectation of "Epic" length campaigns causes unnecessary stress on GMs;

How Lancer solves this problem by imposing structure and enforcing strict end-points;

How classic D&D and the "West Marches" concept applies these principles through a shared set of assumptions, and how we could apply those same assumptions to our own games.

Fabula Ultim-Oh No

A little while ago, I shared my experience running Fabula Ultima, specifically the Shared World-building portion of the game.

At the end of the article, I listed one of my 4 mistakes as being "Over-committing." That part was only tangentially related to the problem of Shared World-building, but it was related.

The group I was running for wanted to create a massive world. I gave them 3 maps to choose one of that's we'd fill out. They chose two, each representing a separate hemisphere.

I didn't know enough to say no, so I agreed. What was the worst thing that could happen? Our shared world would be too awesome?? Well.

What ended up happening was that all of the elements that the players had created during the world-building session were so far spread apart that in order to incorporate even a fraction of what we had created, this game had to be long.

So in order to live up to the expectation that I had believed to be there, I made an insane commitment that I should never have done: I promised the group that the game would go for at least 4 months, then I'd try to wrap things up in another two months, for a total of 6 months. Then, I'd leave the decision about whether to keep playing to the group: If they wanted to continue their adventures in our shared Fabula Ultima universe, we could do that.

Fast Forward Two Months

Two months into the game, and I am not vibing with the game. At all.

Fabula Ultima is a game that requires a lot more input from the players than other games do. Because at any time, a player can introduce a story element, that basically means that the GM can't really prep much of anything. The game expects the game to emerge as a constant conversation between the players and the GM.

But for whatever reason, the conversation just isn't really happening. I'm constantly feeling the pressure to provide the story to the players. And when they try to introduce story elements, I inadvertently have to shut them down because they interfere with something that I've prepped.

Suffice to say, I'm not having a good time. And because I'm not having a good time, I think my players are also not having a good time. It becomes a spiral. I start calling sessions earlier than I need to. I cancel. I don't do any extra prep, because I'm wrapped up in knots before the session.

Flame-Out Ultima

It's now the 3 month mark and I know I'm not going to make it. I'm throwing a lot of energy into my job, for reasons I won't go into here, and I don't have the energy leftover to commit to the game in the evenings. It's a Thursday evening game, and Thursdays are one of my mandatory in-office days at work, so I've fucked myself harder than I possibly could have.

So I inform the group that it's time to wrap up the game. I feel terrible. I promised them that I'd try to run the game longer, and now I'm a liar.

This guilt turns to anxiety. It begins to interfere with my work and my sleep. I'm now frustrated with myself even more, because I'm allowing this stupid tabletop game, which was just supposed to be a silly fun time (I literally nicknamed the campaign "Vibes Ultima") has gone wrong in possibly the worst way it could have.

I know that the reality is that I truly have nothing to feel guilty about. I put more effort into making that game work than anyone had any right to expect of me, and part of the reason why it failed was that the energy just wasn't there. But I'll let Rona tell you what reality means to people with social anxiety:

WHY, THOUGH?

I began to wrestle with the question of why: Why did I feel so compelled to make that stupid promise of running the game for 4 months to half a year? What was the reason for that arbitrary length of time?

I narrowed it down to three reasons:

The group had just come off of a very long-term 5E campaign, all set in a homebrew setting. The GM of that game was a player in my game, so I wanted to reciprocate the gesture of the long campaign by at least attempting something long-term.

My previous attempt at running a TTRPG campaign was Lancer, and I had made it about 6 months in that game, so I figured that was my time limit. This will be important later.

The group was excited about Fabula Ultima, but our previous attempt at running it flamed out early as the GM was unable to commit to the game due to their parenting duties. This GM had previously run epic-length campaigns for our group in the past, so I feel a sense of obligation to this player as well to try to give them a nice long character arc.

All of these factors led to the decision to set the minimum length of the campaign to 4 months, as if that arbitrary length of time was some magic number that meant literally anything.

And truly, what was the downside of only promising a short-term game? One of the players remarked during the character building session that they "weren't interested in going to the trouble of creating a character just for a short-term game." This... frustrated me deeply, but I didn't say anything at the time.

This decision ended up being not good for anyone. I had set the parameters of the adventure at the start of the game as the party needing to retrieve an object from a thief. It was a flimsy premise that should have only taken 4-6 weeks, not months, to complete. But I wasn't sure what to do after that initial adventure, so I stretched the game out over a long segment of travel (which I also felt compelled to do so that the players could experience the world they had had a hand in creating).

Truthfully, what would have been the downside of running an introductory adventure, completing something, and then calling it quits? Well, Fabula Ultima is a little bit of the problem here. Fabula doesn't really have the concept of an adventure, it's very much a "just show up, have some laughs, and get some XP at the end of the session" kind of game. You're supposed to get the feeling of having accomplished something every session, because the players are always able to stimulate the story with Fabula Points.

And I was even in the perfect situation to hand off the game to someone else, because the world was 100% shared. Everyone in the game had an equal stake in creating the game world, so any one of them could have picked up my slack. And if nobody wanted to? Then I was right to think that the group was not engaged at the same level as I was, and I was totally justified to cut things off early.

So what was the way that I should have gone about things? Well, as with many things, the answer lies with Lancer.

Lancer Loves You and Wants You to be Happy

You bet your ass I'm gonna find an excuse to talk about Lancer in every article I write.

I had previously had the most success of my entire TTRPG career running Lancer. I managed to make it to the 6 month mark, running a totally homebrew setting, and I was able to cap it off in a satisfying way that tied together all of the setting elements I'd established prior to the final mission. I set up a big bad, and the campaign ended with the players sending it straight to hell.

It's to date the only TTRPG campaign I've ever run that I've felt proud of. I didn't really know what it was about Lancer that made it actually work as well as it did for me. It wasn't a perfect game by any stretch, but I actually felt good enough about it that I felt like I could run another game of it later on down the road, and it would be even better.

In retrospect, I now understand a big part of why I was able to make it work, and that was the Mission Structure. It goes a little something like this:

Planning: The players and the GM collaborate to choose a mission to undertake, either in or out of character.

Preparation: The group collects information from the base, or puts boots on the ground in the mission area, to increase their odds in the coming mission.

The Mission: Play proceeds as the players and their Mechs enter the combat area. Importantly, the mission assumes that there will be 3-4 fights before requiring the players to take a Full Repair (Lancer's equivalent of a "Long Rest"). Also importantly, the mission ends prematurely if the players take a Full Repair.

Downtime: After the mission parameters have been achieved, or the party can no longer continue in their mechs, the team returns to their base, gains a level, and engages in downtime activities (Get a drink, gather information, etc.)

That's basically it. The loop repeats 12 times, and that's a campaign. Though it might seem needlessly restrictive, this imposition of structure prevents a lot of problem behaviours from both players and GM alike.

For the GM:

By forcing collaboration with the players during the Planning step, the GM can never plot too far ahead, because they can't make any assumptions about which direction the players are going to choose to go;

The 3-4 fight guideline prevents the mission from stretching out overly long. The mechs are usually falling apart after 3 fights, and the party can't artificially prolong the mission by taking a premature Full Repair (ie. they can't "take a Long Rest in the dungeon");

The mandated Downtime means that the GM can't put a ticking clock over the party's heads, preventing maladaptive signposting behaviours.

For the Players:

The planning phase allows players a chance to impact the narrative by providing guidance to the GM about what they want to do and where they want to go;

Being able to predict how many fights there are in the mission means the players can plan how aggressively they are able to play, as well as how many resources they can spend per fight;

Downtime gives the players time to roleplay and further their personal agendas without being under the gun of a ticking mission timer.

All of these bullet points were problems that I'd encountered in other games. Most recently in a game of 5E, I tried to suggest that the group adopt the "No Long Rests in the Dungeon" policy, or at least try to do the "Adventuring Day" thing of getting 4-6 combats under our belt before resting. My character was a martial character who was increasingly irrelevant to the game as the spellcasters in the party were always easily able to recharge their spell slots through long rests.

If, by contrast, we were operating under the assumption that we would not be able to take a long rest mid-adventure, we would have had to be much more judicious about our spell slots. But because we never really felt that pressure on our resources (because the GM was too unwilling to say no to us), the spellcasters were basically always topped up, so there was no real need for a martial who wasn't as affected by attrition.

GM Fanfic Syndrome: It Could Happen to You

But much more importantly, forcing those "end points" every 4 fights and requiring player collaboration meant that I couldn't engage in the extremely destructive behaviour of over-planning a plot. Once the adventure was set, then I could prep to my heart's content. I could even create adventure sites beforehand, but as long as I didn't attach any time-sensitive story beats to them, the players could tackle them in any order they pleased.

I can't stress enough just how much trouble is caused when the GM feels like they have to make all of the important decisions about the plot. It leads to what I have taken to calling GM Fanfic Syndrome (I got this name from someone else on Tumblr but I can't find the post any more). You write a long, epic story, but never ever finish it because the conclusion of the story is always too far out for the players to directly tackle.

The symptoms are caused when the GM thinks way too far ahead about how their game is going to play out, but fails to think about all of the steps required to get there, and how many ways that those steps might fail to come to fruition.

People who spend a lot of time in their own heads tend to play out these scenarios like little movies in their head. By the time they get to the table, they've thought it out a hundred different ways in every direction, and yet somehow it still doesn't end up playing out how it did in their heads.

So by creating these little inflection points where the players get to choose which missions they want to undertake, the GM never gets the chance to write too far ahead. For GMs with ADHD, depression, or anxiety, this can actually be somewhat helpful. The rules act as guardrails, to prevent you from over-preparing on things that don't actually help you run the game better. And it forces the game to be run in units of time that never exceed a few sessions, so there is always a hard limit on how long the campaign can go for.

Marching to the West

The assumption that there should be a hard limit on adventure length, and that players should take part in the process of adventure planning, is not new. Lancer did not invent these ideas, it merely codified them in its own rules.

You can trace these ideas back a long ways, all the way back to the beginning of the hobby. The original game of D&D was billed as being "for 4-50 players." Obviously that sounds crazy on the face of it, but when you realize why, it starts to make sense.

Early games of D&D were designed to be run as part of a "Gaming Club" of up to 50 people. The idea was that the GM would run games for different groups of people at different times. Those players would schedule a time to attack a dungeon, so the GM would know what they needed to prep and when it needed to be done by.

There are two more really interesting mechanics buried in those old rules:

Adventures needed to be completed in a single session. Regardless of whether or not the dungeon was complete, the player is sent back to town at the end of the 3-6 hours allotted to play, possibly with a negative consequence applied to them;

Time moves forward in real time in the game world between sessions. If it's been 6 days since the player last played, it's also been 6 days since their character has done anything as well.

The reason for these rules is that other groups are also undertaking adventures elsewhere in the game world, and those adventures might even interfere with the adventures of other players. For example, some other players might schedule an attempt to complete a particularly juicy dungeon before another group, so the second group arrives to the dungeon to find it's already been looted.

While some of this might not sound overly fun, there are a couple of other assumptions that this style of game makes that I think are really helpful:

The game world is a small portion of the total world with a town at the center of it.

The town is never used as an adventure site. It's always assumed that if the players can undertake adventures in the town, they will choose to, because the town is a place of safety.

The adventure is always close enough to the town that the players can get there in a day.

The player is never assumed to have only one character, rather they have an entire stable of characters so that they aren't playing the same class over and over again every adventure.

These assumptions rhyme closely with another very influential culture of play called a "West Marches" campaign.

The basic idea of a West Marches campaign is thus: A DM assembles a group of players, up to 50, and perhaps nominates some co-DMs as well. The players are responsible for scheduling and deciding on an adventure to tackle. They come to the DM and say "We would like to go here and do this on this date" and the DM says "You got it."

This still has the "Everything has to be done in one session" requirement, because you can't guarantee that this exact group of people is going to have the same availability at any time after this. So it's not necessarily the best idea for a smaller group, which doesn't have the same problem of scheduling.

Solving the "4 Month" problem with a new Play Culture

But what you can see here is that there are ideas here that actually help us in the scenario I laid out above. Remember, here are my problems:

I'm not getting the input from the players that I need, so instead of finishing the adventure and starting a new one, I stretch the current one out;

Because I don't have a finish for the adventure planned until weeks out, I can't give up the GM chair until the adventure is through;

I've set too long of an arbitrary time limit compared to the amount I was able to commit to.

So how would I solve these problems, knowing what I know now?

Well, I would implement a set of rules, directly inspired by that classic culture of play that didn't even assume that a GM would be running the same adventure for longer than one session. Let alone 4-6 months! So what do we do to make the game more sustainable?

Keep the action of the campaign centralized to one area. The party should always have the opportunity to take downtime, pursue projects, etc. and it's much harder to do that when they're on some long journey to the other side of the world.

Keep every adventure to about 4-6 sessions total. Don't let the players take long rests mid-session. If they can't complete the adventure without taking a long rest, then they can't complete the adventure at all. Letting players take a long rest resets their attrition and allows them to unnecessarily prolong an adventure.

Don't place the adventure sites too far away that the party might take more than a session to get there. The party should not be able to take a long rest in the wild, so don't bog them down with pointless random encounters before they arrive at the adventure site.

After the adventure, work with the players to set clear goals for them to pursue over the course of the next adventure. You can come up with a consequence for failure if it happens, but at the very least, the players should have an unambiguous goal to tackle. Or, allow another player to jump into the GM chair, so I can play.

This set of assumptions accomplishes two really important things:

It alleviates the requirement on the GM to plot out a long campaign with narrative arcs that require the players to essentially follow a script;

It creates inflection points in the narrative where anyone could swap out, including you, the GM. Because nothing is planned out too far in advance, anyone can swap out between adventures, no problem. The continuity of the world is retained in the town and the players' characters.

That last part is really important because it directly alleviates a major source of GM burnout, which is that sense of obligation to keep the game running. The task of keeping the game alive now falls on the entire group, so the players have an equal stake in the game. If they don't want the game to flame out, they always have an opportunity to pick up the slack.

In a long-term game with an intricate plot line, it's incumbent on the GM to see things through to the end. If they set up a plot line, they now have a responsibility to execute on it. They can't hand a game off to another GM mid-adventure, and they can't expect another GM to execute on a plot that they introduced.

So a better way of doing things would be to simply not make up a long overarching plot at all. Keep things simple so that you could theoretically hand off to someone else if you had to. Or you could even switch systems! Let the smaller adventures and the downtime sessions in town handle the heavy lifting of the storytelling. Allow a story to emerge naturally from the players' behaviour, rather than imposing it through a rigidly defined plot.

These are rules that I'm likely going to be implementing going forward for the sake of my own sanity. If you ever find yourself feeling over-committed to the role of GMing, and it's causing burnout, then maybe these ideas that I've linked to might help you alleviate some of that pain.

In Summary

I caused myself to burn out by over-committing to a game because I let my anxiety about letting down my group override my better judgment;

I examined the reasons why I felt pressured to run "Epic-length" campaigns, and how it negatively affected my ability to run games;

I remembered a time when I ran Lancer and it actually worked because of the imposition of structure that prevented me from over-preparing;

I adopted a new set of rules for my future campaigns that allows more flexibility and less stress about having committed to a long "Epic" campaign.

[kingsandbastardz]

@bbcphile asked about Di Feisheng and neurodiversity and it's something that's been on my mind for awhile, so here we go.

100% thought DFS was on the spectrum when he first popped up on my screen. Cue Leonardo_DiCaprio_pointing.gif I related to so, so many of his behaviors.

Trauma/ptsd can often create symptoms similar to autism/adhd/etc due to how it fucks with your brain

Autism/adhd/etc are often co-morbid with ptsd and trauma due to abuse, bullying, increased sensitivities and higher risk taking behaviors that lead to impulsive decision making which then leads to higher rates of death.

Thoughts regarding why I think so:

1. Hyperfixation/special interest being his obsession with fighting only LXY

2. Extremely high masking - as in almost 24/7 except when alone, in front of Wuyan and possibly LLH. He doesn't have any of the perception, motor skills or speech issues some people on the spectrum have. This means he can fine tune his social skills as much as needed. He's incredibly opaque through the entire drama. His behavior is completely different from how others perceive him, how he portrays himself, what information is known about him. There's a solid disconnect between himself and what is revealed to the rest of the world. I strongly suspect he's the type that makes scripts for every social interaction he has with others and behaves based off that.

Masking at that level for so long means it's basically you. Until it's not. It's internalized. It's hard to differentiate between the you that is a mask vs you the unmasked weirdo that wants to sit on the floor all day in your underwear because it's grounding and limits sensory input.

Masking is also exhausting. He runs off to be by himself as soon as he is able. He stays in locations where he can be alone and limit sounds.

3. LLH's behavior with DFS: Yes, it is due to closeness, past history, and also unexplored emotion, but that doesn't explain the bonkers level of accommodation and lack of vitriol toward a man he spends many episodes believing killed his brother. Yes he was emotionally burnt out after 10 years. He could have been playing along to get DFS to work with him (which he didn't need to because he soft-poisoned him with asura grass - the stuff that doesn't have weird side effects like killing a person. Contrast that with wuxin huai JLQ and SGD use)

But that isn't all there is to it - he fully believes DFS wouldn't try to kill him seriously. When arguing or trying to convince him of anything, he doesn't hide the truths he hides from everyone else. He barely exhibits anger toward him beyond that one early "Do you still refuse to admit it?"

Imo he's like this because he knew DFS well enough to know that being angry won't work; he believes DFS thinks differently enough he there may be a disconnect in understanding the source LXY's anger. Considering how happy and clingy DFS was when he first showed up, I don't blame LLH for thinking this way? DFS certainly didn't share any information regarding his suspicions. More on DFS' style of logic later. He communicates with DFS a certain way because he knows:

DFS is very good at spotting lies. This is both autistic or trauma-related behavior in ppl who are very good at masking. He's hyper vigilant to begin with and pair that with him likely being very experienced at picking apart micro expressions, context vibes, logic holes, etc at high speed -- high masking individuals that create personal scripts for their interactions will often do this as a defense, to create a convincing enough set of behavior to 'behave like a person' with the rest of the world.

DFS will so strongly act on decisions based on the information he accepts that it's imperative he has as much of the needed info as possible. This speaks on a lot of experience interacting with DFS. LLH behaves this way because he doesn't want what happens when he doesn't.

4. Sensory issues: Specifically pertaining to sound/noise and food. He complains repeatedly about how noisy FDB and Su Xuayong were. In the women's mansion arc, the signaling beacon was making enough noise that it bothered him so he goes and pulls it out.

Using other preferred sounds: His preferred locations of the waterfalls or the top floor of the Lotus House makes me think of ambient noise machines where people play certain nature sounds to drown out other sounds and relax to. (again, grounding and sensory control)

He was very likely lying about his sense of taste to LXY to avoid rudeness, but there are multiple scenes implying some form of disordered eating. And there is also a scene where he comes in randomly and takes FDB's bowl of rice and walks out without taking anything else. It implies he may actually have certain food preferences even though there are other cases where he eats fine like at the grave robber banquet where he pretended to be someone else. So imo one partial possibility for this, aside from trauma, is autistic eating issues: not being able to eat in certain locations, having preferred tastes or textures, not wanting to combine their foods, eating very little. One common preference is for carbohydrates or processed foods - aka bread or rice. I know someone who's Special Food was chicken. They wouldn't have a problem having it very meal - but as an adult, understood that wasn't something they could always do.

5. Logic that makes perfect sense to him but not necessarily to others:

looking for LLH by flying to and investigating every single mountain peak until he found him (in a savant level display of power and skill)

end goal of wanting to be with LLH and fight him repeatedly forever (special interest, desire for repetition and a routine)

kidnapping QWM for LLH is totally not a bad thing since he wouldn't hurt her and is strong enough he can guarantee her safety

he doesn't communicate with LXY about his suspicions regarding Shan Gudao's death - which most sect leaders would have lead with. He didn't see this information as important to share until a purpose for it popped up later on.

his special interest takes priority over everything else: handing over control of the sect to JQL in favor of the Guyin map, Dongahi battle full of death and destruction and all he thought about was the dual

well, until his priorities change. The entire drama is his single-minded quest to heal LLH -- but it's still linked tightly to his special interest of fighting with LXY.

also "my only rival is LXY, let's fight fight fight fight"= "I only want to fight LXY" but framed in a manner that people of jianghu will immediately understand. But that's not actually what he wants. Here is a prime example of a communication issue where he's created a presentation of this strong fighter - he walks and talks like one perfectly - so LLH and everyone else is of course convinced he wants to be number 1 swordsman. That is the language he's using to present himself. And he wants to know this because, why wouldn't he want to measure himself against a benchmark? However his end goal isn't just to be number one. He wants to be able to fight and win and lose and win and lose against LXY and only LXY.

possible: won't kill women or even engage with them seriously if he deems them too weak, but will still fill his organization's leadership with them and give them huge amounts of power --- this logic doesn't make sense to me, but clearly does to him??

6. He shows love by allowing people in his personal space (LLH, Wuyan, etc) or sharing his hyperfixation (fighting). So him doggedly trying to get LLH to fight him? Well. Also whining to Wuyan every day for years about LXY? He's... sharing his special interest! Wuyan, feel loved! Also, another common form of showing love for autistics are doing things for people -- and dfs' love language is clearly acts of service.

7. One can argue he's a bit on the savant level of skills, but without typical disabilities. Also he's high masking enough that any disability he does have, you wouldn't see it at all. -- ok this might just make him a regular genius, then.

8. DFS' strict adherence to his own code of honor regardless of what anyone around him is doing

9. Need for routine or repetitive behavior - one can argue that martial arts being a special interest of his would actually make a ton of sense because it's about training over and over and over again until it becomes instinct. Daily training for years and years. You never stop. And you do it in quiet spaces away from people or places that can cause sensory issues.

10. Argument for some form of alexithymia: This one is a reach - as there's no evidence of this. But as it's often co-morbid with autism, I think could be an interesting internal reason for his ability to mask. As in, unless it's a very big feeling or a very large event, he may not recognize his own trauma as trauma. His bar for what is 'bad' is somewhere in the basement of hell, and every other traumatic event are just things that happen. He may not actually recognize fear. He chases happy things because at his age, he knows what anger, sadness and happiness are -- because they have easy to parse physical manifestations.

EDIT: I wasn't very clear up top - but I consider severe trauma to be a form of neurodiversity due to the long lasting and sometimes permanent changes it makes in a person's brain (especially when young and the brain is still being formed). So when I say I think it's possible for dfs to be neurodiverse, I'm referring to a range of things. Autism is very difficult to separate from ptsd/trauma for the reasons above, and will often manifest in the exact same ways with overlapping patterns of behavior. Any one of these things or many of these things collectively can exist without someone being neurodiverse.

Anyway this is just off the top of my had. I have this under a cut so I'll add more later as it comes they mind. (I think this gets called moral stubborness? Something like that?)

[originalaccountname]

There are some posts I've seen floating around that at the start Dazai may not of known that Chuuya wasn't a vampire which I kind of agree with. I'm at work currently so I cant double check but when he goes "that's a nasty trick you've pulled fydor" im pretty sure its in his thoughts?? To which why would he think that if he knew the whole time. I think dazai must of caught onto the fact Chuuya was faking it at somepoint but not sure when that would of been. Also at the end of the ep Dazai said he didn't have a plan. (I did watch the episode at just after 2am my time when it came out and then fell asleep afterwards so my memory could be not correct). I do think chuuya not being a vampire at all is a little disappointing tbh but this idea softens the blow. Would like to know your thoughts on this idea if you are open to sharing?

I'm in that category too, yes. I've left a few tags saying basically the same thing on some posts.

First, there are a few things the anime didn't answer (more than failing to justify Chuuya faking it since the start, there's Sigma's case about needing to help the ADA, which... didn't happen at all) so either we haven't seen the repercussions of this arc yet, or we got the shortened version of what the manga will offer. Which could work either way. (not ideal necessarily, but besides huffing what can we do huh)

Dazai not knowing though! Dazai did admit to his "plan" being to mostly adapt on the fly and trust his allies to help him back. He implied this prison break was one big trust fall. But that's how I've always interpreted Dazai's way of planning! I even made a post about it a full year ago!

Since Dazai knows Chuuya slowed down the elevator (which I can accept, Dazai's ability shouldn't affect random objects he touches, and Fyodor had told Chuuya through a comm to go finish off Dazai because he wasn't in the room), I assume that by then he was aware. Maybe not before though. Definitely not at first. Because this?

I refuse to believe was entirely scripted. Why is he acting? For Sigma? For corpses? I'm of the opinion that no matter what is going on through Dazai's head, his expressions are always genuine (ex: he might react with surprise at something he completely expected, if only because of how sudden it was, or when/how it ended up happening. Here? genuine distress.)

And I extend that feeling to Dazai having an emotional moment, complete with flashbacks, while "drowning" Fyodor and Chuuya. He did say he wasn't expecting to kill them that way, but perhaps it really was a moment of weakness triggered by concern or guilt.

I can accept Dazai having caught on during his face-off with Chuuya. That's Mr I-know-your-breathing-patterns we have here, so if they didn't high-five after the elevator crash-landing (still broke Dazai's leg), I would say Dazai knows physics enough to go "hold on" and connect the dots. So yes, that baiting of Chuuya, the light taunting, the bratty attitude he only really has with Chuuya, the angry YELLING and insults when Chuuya shot him in the shoulder? The destiny talk? Yeah I can re-contextualize those as Dazai over-acting his part. And then not being able to shut up after being shot in the head.

Maybe there's some reaching here, maybe this will not be totally accurate to the source material. But Asagiri does have a habit to write scenes from an outsider pov while knowing whats happening in the characters' heads and behind the scene, but then not give us that input directly. Never before today was it confirmed that Dazai improvises a lot in his plans. And yet! That's something I've believed in for a very long time.

This all could very well be covering Asagiri's poor decisions, but between this being the adaptation and bsd being an unfinished story, I have a hard time deciding at the moment how much of a poor decision this was. Maybe it's worth a raised eyebrow. Maybe it deserves some criticism in hope the author takes notes. Maybe this was an anime-original resolution due to time constraints (think of the Fifteen final fight). I can only raise concerns for now, and wait.

[toxicroyjamie]

Kinkiest Roy/Jamie thought - Go!

KinkiEST omg...how do we quantify this....

I guess in terms of the most extreme kink....total power exchange. Jamie giving Roy full control of everything in his life for mutual enjoyment/benefit <3 The idea of a full-time, all-encompassing d/s dynamic makes so much sense for them and I think about it literally All the time. "I thought you said I couldn't have beer anymore" "you're with me so you get a pass"....

Basically. Roy wants to be needed and valued and clung to. He wants to be the most important thing in his partner's life, bar none. He wants to be worshipped. He's deeply insecure, and he wants a partner who will fuel his ego by putting him above anything else. His relationship with Keeley ultimately fails because she doesn't need him in the way he wants to be needed, which makes him feel unwanted and lonely (he has an emotional affair and everything, because he's insane). Keeley is completely self-sufficient and independent, and I honestly think Roy feels threatened by that. Keeley is literally insulted by the idea of needing Roy so badly that she would ask for his input on the basic tenants of her daily life ("maybe I should ask for your permission every time I have to make a decision, then"/"my bladder is full, can I go pee?"), but that's exactly what Roy wants. He wants someone who actually leans on him like that!!!!!

Jamie actually does worship Roy. Jamie has been worshipping Roy for most of his life. Jamie values Roy's guidance more than anything else in the world, because Roy is his God. Roy is his role model, Roy is his inspiration, Roy is his hero, Roy is his coach, Roy is everything. Roy is everything to him!!! Jamie lets Roy decide when he should wake up in the morning and what he should eat and what he can drink and how he should work out, because he just thinks that highly of him. Roy shapes his career, Roy shapes his routine, Roy shapes his body, and that's okay with him because Roy is everything!!! And that treatment is what Roy needs to feel like a person!!!

On top of the hero-worship element, Jamie wants to be praised and loved and paid attention to, and that's exactly what Roy gives him. Jamie is constantly vying for attention and praise, especially from older men, which is something he feels like he's missing:

And that's what Roy gives him!!!!! All the time and attention and special treatment from daddy that he could ever want!!!

So like in a total power exchange, Jamie gives Roy everything he wants - devotion, obsession, worship, submission - and in return, Roy gives Jamie everything he wants - attention, praise, and structure from an older man.

It's literally perfect for them