#populous 2

[wifeyoozi]

Just a reminder that this pookie wookie cutie pie wants 13 children

[sandflakedraws]

How about Floyd, who came back as promised, hugging little Branch who just saw Grandma Rosiepuff get taken/eaten by the Bergen Chef?

Or how about Floyd, who came back as promised only to find the Troll Tree devoid of life and Rosiepuff's pod empty, going grey as he mourns baby Branch whom he thinks got eaten?

Hey so! Totally fun (and not hurtful at all) fact-!

For Trolls Band Together, the story the writers wanted to go with (according to the Artbook and novelization), implies that Brozone's disbandment happens before Bergen Town is even a thing, which has such severe implications to me.

so.

tfw you return to your home to find that

actually, the forest that sheltered you is eradicated, replaced with a giant town whose occupants' sole form of joy consists of devouring you.

the tree that served as your home is the only thing left of that forest, and it is decayed, withered, and desiccated... displayed in the middle of the town in a cage.

your pod, your home, is empty. every home around it is empty too. there are no trolls in sight.

as far as you know, everyone that used to be here is gone. or dead. most likely dead.

you will never see them ever again.

you were just a teenager.

[shallowseeker]

I have two questions for you, really. Just as proof of the point. But first:

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[episims]

Fewer Visitors on Community Lots

I've thought this little BCON tuning is too low effort to share but recently @grilledcheese-aspiration was looking for something like this and then reported that using this mod made a larger community lot of theirs more stable to play, so. Maybe it would be useful for others, too?

If this aspect is unmodded, when you visit a community lot the game summons 3–8 non-playable sims to populate the lot with, the maximum number depending on the time of the day.

With this tuning mod, there will be only 1–3 sims instead. The cap doesn't affect OFB businesses or how many playable sims you can bring to community lots.

Download (SFS) (alternate)

Conflicts with other mods that edit the BCON Avg. Lot Populations (of Townies). If you want to tune the cap it's easy, just open the mod with SimPe and adjust the numbers.

I recommend combining this tuning with this mod by @belladovah that makes the game only populate community lots after your playable sims have arrived.

[feluka]

"don't pretend you actually care about this you only heard about this cOnFlicT on october" have some respect do you have any idea how long we've been blocking this oxford comma guy

[oh-abhy]

the rdr fandom is so funny bcs on one side you have horsegirls who play dressup with arthur, pick flowers with him, make him the cutest little fluffball in existence, a little bbgirlyfied cutie patootie, and then theres sports lovin' 12yo boys who make him a cold blooded serial killer thats wanted in 14 states and 7 countries for the most heinous crimes imaginable

[splinterclan]

Imagine if Clangen makes Whorlstar or Moorsnow get pregnant then die while giving birth

That would be awful ;ooo; Rn I have "pregnancy ignores biology" and "have kits with unknown parent" off so it won't happen luckily - if they get kits they adoptin em

[executables-sims]

Some more Craftsman homes! Ramping up house building for the growing population. :)

[clonerightsagenda]

Growing up my brother had a medical model of a skull that glowed spookily in the dark so he wrapped it up in brown fabric like mummy wrappings (which made it much scarier). I rehomed it when he was cleaning out his room because it was a vital part of our childhood but uh. I can't find it. Where did it go

[pcktknife]

the way everytime we get a inkfish with a slightly different eye mask everyone's like 'ohhh shit what the hell is this' and it's just diversity

[dadrielle]

Part of the reason I am so jazzed about the conversation with the Arch Heart is because it has removed the illusion of this being an easy choice. As Orym said, and as he has been operating on the assumption of, the people of Exandria are like ants to something like Predathos, likely to be crushed underfoot. Correct, yeah. But the point of the Arch Heart's responses was that the same is true of the gods. The world is faced with a scenario where one way or another, some power is very likely going to be unleashed and put quite a lot of people in danger. Unless they can somehow very quickly quell the gods' fear*, either the gods or Predathos will be freed and stomping ants.

That refocuses the question. People are going to die. The question is, how long will the danger go on? And what kind of world will be left, after?

Juicy!

[kabutoden]

what blood color would round out this cast?? theres no seadwellers, and a couple blood colors already had multiples in other age groups, so they're omitted as options. ill be posting the trolls you can see mentioned here all week long :)

[yellowocaballero]

I admire your commitment to writing tim drake as having spent his formative childhood years on a different awful forum in every universe. it fills a conspicuous void in the fandom ecosystem.

I want to put this ask on my wall. Thank you for understanding me. Thank you so much.

Look, I think there are reasons why characters act the way they do. So often when writing Batfam people put in 0 work into actually establishing why or how a character is Like That, which feels necessary when the character is the most Like That of all time. You end up with a father-son or brotherly soulmates situations and it's bizarre. Why are you adopting this child you saved, you save fifty children a day and there is nothing special about him.

Tim Drake is a fucking freak and there needs to be a reason for that. Child neglect isn't enough. Somebody like Tim needs a very specific thing to happen in their lives to get them to the point of making his decisions. He needs to be obsessive, to spend time in a place that feeds and validates his obsessions, to be in a place where he can easily collect a great deal of data to construct a pathway model, and for all of this to happen without leaving his room. It has to be the internet. Tim is a guy who the internet churns out. I know he's from the 80s but Tim as a person is somebody who is so chronically online in the weirdest way. Not chronically online how WE'RE chronically online. He's on the weird forums. Like those military simulator game forums where military personnel post classified blueprints for future military tanks in order to win an argument. Those kinds.

If you were a domestic terrorist in the early 00s you were probably on Something Awful. All I can say (Actually, technically the SA thing is an anachronism - it didn't actually pick up until the early 00s. But it was the website that worked the best, explained the most, and I fucking needed to make the 'But he wouldn't tell her what the awful thing was' joke, so here we are). This is also the reason for the other anachronism of NW. Homestuck.

[episims]

Chase "Turn it down!"

Blair "What? I can't hear you."

Chase "TURN IT DOWN."

Blair "Sheesh. Why didn't you say so right away?"

Chase "This is exactly why I asked you to read the paper. Your lease includes the roof accommodation and access to tap water. In addition, you may use the living room and the kitchen without causing disturbance."

Blair "And who was I disturbing just there?"

Chase "I can't stand noise-"

Blair "It's music, old man. An electric guitar won't turn quiet even if I play without the amp, it just sounds like shit."

Chase The world is full of idiots who can't understand simple rules. "...This is my house, not a space for you to perform. I expect you to respect that from now on, by the contract."

Blair "You butchered my vibe to play anyway, so as you wish. Enjoy your silence, senior."

[aondaneedles]

And another batch of new townies. Atypical aspirations edition.