#the thing is i was objectively correct about all the test taking skills stuff

[laurarolla]

So... I'm giving up on Daggerfall. I gave the game a good number of hours to try and get its hooks into me and it just wasn't happening. I can see where the appeal lies, and I can understand the game in its historical context, but I cannot actually have fun with it. I will post the playlist of what I did play, and maybe someday I'll take a second look, but for now, I'm done with it.

First off, I have to cop to the mistakes I made going into the game due to a lack of research and not looking around for an instruction manual. I built a character with too many advantages, chose not to invest in blunt weapons to deal with skeletons, didn't select easy skills for major catagories to have a better leveling speed, and didn't immediately buy a cart to carry my stuff. The cart one is definitely all on me being unnecessarily cheap, because that cart is awesome and a real bargain. It even connects to some things I like about this game: money has weight, and you can run/teleport back to a dungeon entrance to drop off your loot on long delves. The dungeon crawling is some genuine simple fun. Even when I got lost or took forever to find the actual objective in some dungeons, it was still an exciting part of the game. Unfortunately for Daggerfall, correcting my mistakes would not make the game more enjoyable to me.

Having played Skyrim colors with my perspective on Daggerfall's leveling system. The idea that leveling abilities gives you experience points is a cool system, but Daggerfall's design obfuscates and overcomplicates this system by dividing skills into four catagories with different impacts on your XP curve. Put Running in your Major skills, and you'll rack up XP just by sprinting through town, which you'll do a lot if you don't buy a horse. Casting healing spells, even when they don't heal, gives Restoration skill points, making the cheapest healing spell you can build an XP farm. However, which tier your skills are in matters so much that if you put something like lockpicking (which is near useless at low levels and difficult to actually level) in your higher skill tiers, you nerfed your ability to level up. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the ability to even progress the main quest of the game were not level gated. The "only gain skill points and level when resting" part isn't really an issue, since Daggerfall is so vast and empty you'll probably fast travel everywhere, which counts as resting. Combined with abysmal weapon hit rates and damage early on, some early game enemies being resistant or immune to specific weapon materials or damage types, and damage spells feeling like a scam for the mana to damage ratio they give, and you get a game that just isn't for me.

Daggerfall is historically important, and I am glad I gave it a chance. Heck, if the idea of exploring an extremely vast land and making up your own old-school D&D style fun sounds appealing, it might actually appeal to you. But if you are going in with the goal of experiencing a story instead of a world, I think you'll be sorely disappointed. Despite the impressive work done to port the game to the Unity engine and mod the heck out of it in so many ways, Daggerfall's core just doesn't stand the test of time, especially in comparison to it's own sequels.

[thebreakfastgenie]

🌻🌻🌻 (IDK how serious it was lol)

So today I've been fondly reminiscing about my terror campaign in 9th grade US History. At the time my school did this thing where they split AP US History over two years and you took the exam at the end of 10th grade. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway this was supposed to be an AP class.

Our teacher sucked and I was, basically, bored, and hadn't been in traditional school for some years, and also basically considered history teachers to be my equals because they were all my dad's coworkers.

We did our chapter tests on scantron sheets and he didn't want to print enough question packets for both classes (which, hey! saving trees is noble!) but the problem was he thought if the first class wrote on the test in any way it would somehow give the second class a clue. So he told us "do not write on the test." He never really explained this reasoning, it was just something I figured out, and I felt he was really annoying about it. I also think crossing out answer choices, underlining words, circling questions you want to come back to, etc are all good test-taking skills that are literally encouraged on AP exams so just flat out telling students not to do it isn't good. So I wrote on every single test out of protest. He knew it was me because on the final exam, after everyone was done, he came up to me with my test booklet and an eraser and made me clean it up. I don't know why because it didn't matter at that point??

Another time the clock broke and he didn't want to get it replaced and also I think he was mad that we all spent so much time looking at the clock wanting to leave his boring ass class. So he put up a sign that said "Time will pass. Will you?" A few days later we had a test. Note that I always turned my tests in with tons of time to spare. I was usually the first one done. But I said "how are we supposed to practice good test-taking skills if we can't see how much time we have left?" He glared daggers at me but he put up a digital clock on the smart board.

He also had this policy that if you convinced him a question was bad he'd throw it out and adjust the score by giving everyone in the class an additional point. I took this as a challenge. I'd go to the floor arguing with him about questions I had no trouble understanding and had gotten right. I don't think there was a single test we didn't get at least one additional point on. Most of them we got two or three. Classmates would come up to me and say "Sarah that test was rough. You're going to get us an extra point, right?"

He also assigned us these study guides and we were supposed to fill out a few questions each day but without exception we did them all the night before they were due. He knew we were doing this and hated it but couldn't stop us. Finally very late in the school year when it no longer mattered, we were looking at a picture of child laborers from the industrial revolution, and he told us those kids would love a chance to do study guides. I said "great they can have ours then" but the real coup was a kid in the next class (who I had Issues with but in this moment he was good) saying, completely straight faced "they were most likely illiterate."

In addition to the study guides which we were already not doing he forced us to do Cornell two-column notes whether we found them helpful or not. We complained so much and turned in what was so obviously the bare minimum designed to get the points that the next year he made the notes optional. We broke that man and I was the leader. He deserved it; he was a conservative Christian with a sign that said "God first, others second, myself third" in his public school classroom. He also said male teachers do it to support their families and female teachers do it for fun.

Also the entire time this was happening I was telling my mom all about it and she was encouraging me.

[liberty-barnes]

Done Wondering

Jock!Tom Holland x Female!Reader

Highschool AU

@danicarosaline requested: Hi pretty!! i saw your requests are open so may i please request a jock Tom x reader! Tom is a big softy and the captain of his football team and reader is a tough ‘not taking shits from anybody’ type of person? Like Tom gets in an argument with a team mate and he’s being all nice and calm about it but reader thinks his team mate deserves a good punch in the face so she punches him and it shocks the entire team and Tom himself even though he expected it!!

Warnings: F L U F F, not sure that the football talk is 100% accurate, all I know about American football is that Tom Brady's a quarterback, their jerseys are cool and apparently I'm supposed to cheer for the Pats? (yeah, that's my dad's fault), B99 references (i fucking love that show), cursing, a bit of violence ig

Word Count: 2.3k words (why can i not write short things?)

Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

A/N: so sorry it took so long to get this out! also, i got waaaaaay to invested in this... oopsie

Masterlist

You ran across the field as people all around you celebrated with only one goal in mind: kiss your boyfriend.

You and Tom had been dating for almost seven months now, to many people's surprise. The entire school thought you'd be together for a week tops, but you surpassed all their expectations by becoming the longest standing couple in junior year (not that it was hard, high schoolers change partners like discardable gloves). 

Tom was one of Sunset High's best and brightest, loved by the teachers, captain of the football team, and the object of many's affection.

You, however, were nothing like that. You hated sports (everyone knows art's better anyway), social interactions were your personal little slice of hell, and everyone was too scared to approach you since you threatened to gut Charles after he accidentally forgot to give you back your pencil.

All in all, there was no way you two could stay together.

There was no way you could even make a friendship work, let alone a romantic relationship.

But then there was that fateful summer night...

Your mind ran at a thousand miles an hour as you rocked in the park's nest swing. The stars looming over you were the only thing keeping you from spiraling, and after an hour of watching them, the peace in your mind was crumbling.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

You sat up on the swing and looked to your right where stood a sheepish-looking Tom.

"It's okay, I should probably leave anyway..."

"No! I mean, it's okay, you were here first I didn't mean to disturb you."

You cast your eyes down until he spoke again.

"You go to my school, right? (Y/n)? We were in the same English class in freshman year."

"Yeah, I think so... I'm surprised you remember me, we didn't have any classes together last year..."

He huffed out a laugh and leaned against the support beam, hands in his pockets.

"It's kinda hard to forget someone like you. You stood up to the teacher on the first day after he yelled at a kid and spent the next year having actual coherent debates about the books that most of the class never even read, let alone understood. You're kind of amazing."

You ducked your head once more to try to cover the blush on your cheeks, biting your lip.

"Thanks."

He nodded and took a deep breath, then sat in front of you and pushed so the swing was rocking softly, always catching it before it hit his face.

You giggled a bit and sat criss-cross applesauce, back straight, your mother's words permanently etched into your brain.

"So, what are you doing alone in the town's most secluded park at midnight?"

"Oh, you know, questioning my life choices, freaking out because in three weeks we're going back to school while simultaneously feeling stir crazy after having nothing cool to do all summer, regretting ever being born, the usual. What about you?"

"Getting crushed by everyone's expectations, feeling constricted cause I have to set a good example for my little brothers, freaking out cause I have no idea what I want to do with my life, the usual."

A comfortable silence settled between you.

"Do our lives really suck or is it just the teenagers in us that dramatize everything?"

He huffed out a laugh.

"I don't know, tell me your story and I'll let you know."

You scooched to the side and patted the now empty spot on the too-small swing so he could lay down next to you. Looking at the stars seemed like a better idea than looking at him.

"I never really liked school, people are jerks, cafeteria food is disgusting at best, I have no friends -not that I care about that, I'm better off alone. Still, it's better than being home. When my father isn't working in his study, he's berating me about getting better grades, even though I'm a straight-A student, not that he cares enough to actually know that. My mother's usually either gossiping with her other rich friends or telling me to correct my posture, dress better, act like a lady, it's infuriating...

"My older brother, the only person in that family that I genuinely like, left for MIT today, so I guess I'm just now realizing that I'm really... alone. I'll have to suffer through my father's lectures about getting high grades and act like someone I'm not so my mother doesn't take away everything I love until I "learn to act like a respectable woman". Jake used to get them to lay off me, but now he's not here. Sometimes I wonder why they even adopted me if I'm such a bad daughter. It just sucks."

You felt his hand twitch next to yours and his eyes on your face.

"Your turn."

He took a shuddering breath before speaking.

"My parents are amazing, they really are, they only want what's best for me, but sometimes it's a little much. They constantly remind me of going to training, doing my homework, studying for tests, and even though they always say it's okay, I see the disappointment in their eyes when my grades lower even by a single point.

"My little brothers look up to me a lot, and they're always telling me how much they want to be just like me when they grow up. I know they mean it in the best possible way, but it's just that much more pressure. I just... feel the need to always be the best at everything. The best football player, the best captain, the best student, the kindest person in that school, most helpful... it's all a bit much."

This time, it was you who were looking at his profile while he gazed at the stars.

"It's okay to feel overwhelmed, Tom. It doesn't matter that they have the best intentions, they're still putting too much pressure on you and you deserve the chance to relax."

He turned towards you and for the first time that night, you realized just how close you were.

"You're not a bad daughter just because you have different interests. I, for one, think you are a strong and independent woman who doesn't need to change because of some mere peasants. You're a queen... You deserve someone that'll treat you as one."

Your breath caught in your throat as you locked eyes with him.

"Wanna make a deal?"

You nodded tentatively, though at this point you'd probably agree to murder someone as long as he kept looking at you that way.

"I'll be your friend, give you something to do whenever you need it, save you from your asshole parents and remind you of just how awesome you are every day..."

"And in return?"

"And in return, you'll say stuff like what you said before when I get too stuck in my head, save me from my so-called friends when they're being jerks, and come to every practice with me so you have something to do and I have someone to make silly faces at."

"I'm pretty sure there are a thousand girls in that school that would kill to have you make silly faces at them."

"Maybe so, but they aren't you. A lock of your hair is worth more than all of them combined."

You bit your lip and smiled.

"Okay."

"Cool."

"Cool."

He pecked you softly on the lips before he lost his nerve, quick and fleeting, feather-light but strong enough to leave fires in its wake. You pulled him back and gave him a slightly longer kiss before setting your head on his shoulder and going back to stargazing, now with someone to keep you company.

Three weeks later, you walked into school hand in hand and haven't let go since.

"Tommy!"

You jumped into his arms, ignoring the smell of sweat and how it would probably cling to your clothes.

"You did so good baby!"

He kissed you straight on the lips, not minding his teammate's wolf-whistles, having grown used to them already.

"I had a pretty good motivation."

"Oh?"

"Mm-hm, my girl told me she'd bake me cookies if I won this match, and I really like her cookies."

"Sounds like you have a great girlfriend."

"The best."

You kissed him again and he smiled when he felt the fabric of his spare jersey adorning your figure.

"Yo, Holland!"

You forced apart by Teddy's call, one of the newer players. Since you went to every single practice, you knew that Teddy was being an ass lately, always wanting the glory, never passing the ball to his teammates. If it weren't for Tom's skill as captain of the team, he would've cost them most matches, including this one.

"Why didn't you pass me the ball?"

"Pardon?"

"That last play, I was free and you passed the ball to Harrison even though he almost lost it. You should have passed it to me, we almost lost because you want to make your useless bestie feel included!"

"Johnson was closing in on you, if I'd passed it to you, we would have lost for sure. Passing it to Harrison bought me the time I needed to get out of danger. It was purely strategical, you would know that if you paid attention to your teammates instead of playing all on your own. Haz is an amazing player and I don't treat him differently just because he's my best friend. I'd like you to apologize to him, please, it's not kind to insult your teammates."

You admired the fact that he managed to remain calm and collected throughout the whole conversation, looking like the embodiment of 'I'm not mad, I'm disappointed'. You, however, were not having such an easy time keeping your cool, hands firmly clenched at your side.

"The hell it was! You just feel threatened by me because you'll never be as good as me, so you never pass me the ball, it's ridiculous!"

"Okay, buddy, you need to back the hell off and close your mouth before I punch it shut."

His eyes flickered to you and he rose a brow mockingly.

"Oh, your little slut's standing up for you know? I always knew you were a chicken, guess my theory's been pro-"

You cut him off with a punch to the nose, smiling when you heard the satisfying crack of his bones and his howls of pain.

A collective 'ooh' came from the crowd, and they took a few steps back (excluding Tom of course, who was only looking at you with wide eyes).

"What the fuck?"

"I warned you, didn't I?"

You smirked evilly as Teddy was pulled away by the coach to check his injury.

"You're a bitch!"

"Baddest of them all, sweetheart. Have a fun time at the hospital!"

The whole crowd had gone silent by the time you turned back around, seemingly satisfied with your vengeance.

"What?"

You tilted your head in confusion at the awestruck looks on the team's faces.

"You broke his nose!"

"Uh-huh."

"With just your hand."

"Uh-huh."

"Since when are you so violent?"

You were actually kind of offended at that.

"I know that I bring you guys snacks after practice, but do none of you hear when I threaten other people? It's a daily occurrence."

The rubbed their necks sheepishly.

"Well, you see..."

Haz started, seemingly measuring his words.

"You're kind of like Rosa from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. No one actually knows what you're capable of, no one thinks you'd actually kill someone, but we're also kind of too scared to test you, so we just... wonder."

"Well, when you're done wondering, go take a shower so we can go celebrate, I'm hungry."

They all scrambled away in a chorus of 'yes ma'am' before you turned back to Tom with a smile on your face.

"You didn't have to punch him, you know?"

"Yeah, but I've been wanting to for weeks now."

He huffed out a laugh and kissed your forehead.

"How're your knuckles?"

"A bit sore, but I'm pretty sure that if we put some ice it'll be good, the rings took most of the impact."

You wiggled your hand, showing off the array of rings covering your fingers in what you deemed to be an aesthetically pleasing way.

"I love you, babygirl."

You kissed him, smiling into his lips.

"I love you too. Now go, shower!"

You patted his butt and laughed at the look he threw you, standing next to the field while you waited for them to get out.

Their coach came to stand next to you and you smiled at him, having taken a liking for him. He was a good teacher and treated the team well.

"Coach Jeffords."

"(Y/n)."

"What's the verdict?"

"Nurse says it's broken but we'll only know the full extent of his injuries after he gets examined at the ER. He's on his way there as we speak."

You nodded.

"You'll be pleased to know that he's been taken off the team and suspended for a week for unruly behavior. His parents aren't going to press charges since they feel it's deserved."

You smirked evilly.

"I'd advise you to watch out for Pembroke. He's starting to become a nuisance. If he keeps it up, he might be next."

He nodded, fighting back his smile even though you knew damn well he agreed.

"I'll do my best."

"And I'll do mine."

"(Y/n)! Ready to go?"

You nodded in goodbye at the coach and walked over to a freshly showered Tom, interlacing your fingers.

"Always."

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Taglists: (if your name is striked through it means for some reason tumblr wouldn’t let me tag you)

PERMA TAG 

@jeezkiddo @beananacake @yoinkyourheart @averyfosterthoughts​ @onebigolemess​ @samoney69​ @agirlwithpointlessideas​ @ddaawwssoonn @inhumanwithpowers​ @imagineshere-forall​ @stiles-banshees​ @orowit​ @spideynut​ @deathofmissjackson​ @ephemeral-limerences​ @write-from-the-heart​ @cardboard-ben​ @my-alignment-is-bisexual​ @mendes-marvel​ @shawnsnovel​ @inthecornerchair​ @lovelynerdytraveler​ @niallssweetheart22​ 

ACTORS/RPF TAG 

@bubblegumbarnes​ @sofiaconlaz​ 

TOM HOLLAND TAG 

@tomsirishgirlx​ @dreaming-lia​ @markleehee​ @juliebean247​ @gypsystuf​ @quechulitaaa​ @theoretical-theo​ @bubblegumbarnes​  @sofiaconlaz​ @underooling​ @hannahholland1811​ @bellaaa321-blog​ @parkerpetertingle​ @emily-louise-hynes @clara-licht​ @ekelly2015​ @inlovewithmobtom​ @quaksonhehe​ @danicarosaline​ @arts-ismything​ @peachyafshawn @tutuabby28​ @sovereignparker​ @tokhalaxoxo​ @cathwritestragediesnotsins​ @incorrect-things​ 

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Have you noticed over the years that the SJW stuff is seeping into STEM?

Wow, that sounds like a right-wing conspiracy theory to me that must be dismissed and never spoken of again. As long as you ignore all the following examples of social justice seeping into STEM, there is no evidence of social justice seeping into STEM. 

In a 82-page training manual titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction”, the Oregon Department of Education plans to root out “white supremacy” in mathematics, by not asking students to show their work or placing any emphasis on getting the right answer, which will stop white supremacy from “popping up in the classroom.” The racist implication is that non-white students are incapable of “showing their work” or “getting the right answers,” and so teachers must scrap the academic bar altogether. To fight such white supremacy, math teachers are urged to accept TikTok videos from students instead of math work. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fund the training.

Seattle public schools created a framework to protect children from racist and “oppressive mathematical practices.” Included in this report, educators and students will learn, “How important is it to be Right? What is Right? Says Who?“, “Who holds power in a mathematical classroom?“, “Can you recognize and name oppressive mathematical practices in your experience?” “Who is doing the oppression?” “Who does the oppression protect?”, “Explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.” The Seattle school district also put into place a K-12 curriculum that encourages students “to explore how math has been ‘appropriated’ by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression.”

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Wake Forest University now offers a “racist and anti-racist uses of math and statistics” class because “The time has come for us to focus on fighting racism and making plans to create a more equitable educational space.” In addition to the new anti-racism math class, the math department at Wake Forest has placed a declaration at the top of its webpage that affirms Black Lives Matter, pledges to try and hire more faculty of color and launch microaggression trainings, and organize a math/stats colloquium on social justice.

The University of California now require ‘diversity contributions’ and statements from future math professors. Applicants are asked to write a statement in which they explain how they will advance the university’s diversity plans. “The Division of Physical Sciences has a strong interest in ensuring that all candidates hired have the professional skills, experience, and/or willingness to engage in activities that will advance our campus equity, diversity and inclusion goals.” The purpose of the diversity statement as a method of evaluating a candidate’s “awareness of the barriers that exist for groups historically under-represented”, “past efforts in diversity and outreach activities” and “future plans to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.” One math professor at the University of California, Davis, wrote in opposition to the required “diversity statements,” referring to them as “using a political test as a screen for job applicants.”

The Mathematical Association of America released a statement in which it argued that mathematics contains “human biases” that can only be corrected by promoting critical race theory to math educators and students.

A math education professor at the University of Illinois argues that the teaching of math subjects such as Pythagorean Theorem perpetuates white privilege because they were developed by Europeans. “Mathematics itself operates as whiteness and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white.” He also argued there’s no such thing as objective truths.

A Math Education professor from Brooklyn College argued that the "trope” of “2+2=4 reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.” It was also promoted by several academics at colleges around the nation, with another suggesting math should be reevaluated because it was primarily developed by white men. He also complains that “meritocracy” in math classes is a “tool of whiteness.” Teachers who claim color-blindness - that is, they claim to not notice the race of their students—are, in effect, oppressing them. “By claiming not to notice, the teacher is saying that she is dismissing one of the most salient features of the child’s identity and that she does not account for it in her curricular planning and instruction.” He recommends that math teachers incorporate more social justice issues into math lessons, but warns that even “teaching for social justice” can be a “tool of whiteness” if teachers are not sufficiently sympathetic to minority students.  

A University of Rhode Island professor claimed that science, statistics and technology are inherently racist “because they are developed by racists living in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not.” The professor also recently came under scrutiny after condoning an Antifa member killing a Trump supporter last year. After a commenter called him out for his position on his post, he replied “He killed a fascist. I see nothing wrong with it, at least from a moral perspective.”

Duke University has a new computer science course that will focus on race, gender, and class within the world of computing, in order to change the “working environment” of the field. “This course explores the diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges in computing through an introduction to and analysis of various social constructs and their impact on not only computing departments and organizations but also the technologies developed. This course also introduces students to cultural competence in the context of computing.” “We have to change the mindset of a workforce that is overwhelmingly white, Asian and male.”

A group of mathematics professors argued in their published book that math teachers must “live out social justice commitments” to fight privilege in the classroom. Math teachers, “must learn how to advocate for students, self-examine for biases, and strategically subvert the system in which they teach to counteract student oppression,” adding that the development of “political knowledge” is key. “Any amount of connection to issues of equity, diversity, social justice, and power is better than none at all.”

Activists persuaded top science journals to stop work for a day and to validate their claims of “white supremacy” throughout the American science sector. The small group of black academics and scientists demanded that science be “reorganized” for black Americans as they pushed the hashtag #ShutDownSTEM. One of their manifestos demanded that the goal of “justice for black Americans” be prioritized above scientific discovery and objective reality. Another manifesto portrayed all scientists who put science first are racists: “Unless you engage directly with eliminating racism, you are perpetuating it.” In response, two of the leading science publications, Science Magazine and Nature, agreed to not talk about science for a day and instead use their Twitter accounts to post the demands and claims by the radicals.

A physicist at the University of Zaragoza is using cross-dressing drag to “empower” minorities in science and technology fields. In an article on the website, Lady Science, he says drag is still uncommon in scientific fields, because “sexism, racism, ableism and LGBTphobia remain very much alive in academia.”

A recent paper published by a team of various college professors makes the case that STEM courses should be made easier for female students. The researchers argue that “gender” inequities in the STEM majored could be lessened by artificially inflating grades. The study claims that the STEM fields would see an 11.3 percent increase in female students if STEM classes practically erased grading.

A Vanderbilt University professor complained in an academic journal article that the field of mathematics is a “white and heteronormatively masculinized space.” In the article titled Unpacking the Male Superiority Myth and Masculinization of Mathematics at the Intersection, he argues that the apparent “gender gap” in mathematical success is socially constructed. He concludes by expressing a hope that future analyses of gender in mathematics take a more “intersectional” approach, after noticing “intersectional considerations of mathematics achievement and participation shaped by whiteness and sexuality” were left out of many of the studies he reviewed. Intersectionality theory from black feminist thought, he adds, can allow for “more nuanced analyses of gender” and its relation to mathematical performance.

Auburn Drive High School in Canada offers a class in “Africentric” mathematics. It incorporates “discussions about the students’ cultural backgrounds, history and their lived experiences,” all the while teaching them math and associated concepts “through an Africentric lens.”

A scientific journal retracted a professor’s article which criticized hiring based on skin color and sex, leading to apologies from both the journal and the professor’s university. The professor had wrote, “The rise and emphasis on hiring practices that suggest or even mandate equality in terms of absolute numbers of people in specific subgroups is counter-productive if it results in discrimination against the most meritorious candidates.” The journal withdrew the article “amid a backlash” and reassured the professor’s “views do not reflect our values of fairness, trustworthiness and social awareness,” and added they “stand against discrimination, injustices and inequity.”

Two national mathematics organizations are on a mission to prove that math education is “unjust and grounded in a legacy of institutional discrimination.” The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and TODOS: Mathematics for All, aim to “ratify social justice as a key priority in the access to, engagement with, and advancement in mathematics education for our country’s youth,” the groups declared in a joint statement, elaborating that “a social justice stance interrogates and challenges the roles power, privilege, and oppression play in the current unjust system of mathematics education and in society as a whole.”

Students at the Claremont McKenna Colleges staged a protest to make it known that objective truth is a ‘white supremacist’ myth devised by “white supremacists” to “attempt to silence oppressed peoples.”

Boston Public Schools have suspended their advanced academic program due to racial ‘equity’ concerns. Acceptance to the program was decided on standardized grade test scores and the successful students would be required “to study in greater depth, with more schoolwork and more home study than the traditional curriculum.” Because 70 percent of students in the program were white and Asian, the program was scrapped. A committee member said she was “very disturbed” by the racial statistics and noted they are “just not acceptable.” The superintendent said “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist.” Advanced programs for gifted students often are targets either for complete abolition or restructuring due to “incorrect” racial and ethnic demographics.

A recent Washington Post article lamented the fact that biology textbooks contain a disproportionate number of “white men.” “They’re all men. They’re all white, and are written from a very white perspective.”

Cell, a prominent science journal, published a statement accusing their entire discipline of racism. “Science has a racism problem,” they assert, apparently concluding that underrepresentation of a given ethnic group must equate to a deliberate wrongdoing against that group. “Cell stands with our Black readers, reviewers, authors, and colleagues. We are committed to listening to and amplifying their voices, to educating ourselves, and to finding ways that we can help and do better. We alone cannot fix racism.” They go on to list all of the affirmative action changes they can make.

Fordham University’s Political Science department announced it had voted to adopt a new policy that mandates professors must use a student’s “preferred” name and pronouns. The decision was announced just two weeks after student activist groups demanded that the university publicly “resist transphobic rhetoric.” The activist students were inspired to make these demands after reading an article by the New York Times, which reported that the Trump administration had been considering defining sex as “male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics states on its website that “mathematics teachers should “reflect on their own identity, positions, and beliefs in regards to racist and sorting-based mechanisms” and “notice students, learn about the worlds they live in, and build mathematics that comes from these worlds.” They also hold webinars titled “Developing Social Justice Mathematics Activists in Pre-K-Grade 5,” its description states that “mathematics should become a social justice tool that empowers students to mathematically recognize and address oppression they see in their own world.”

Wayne State University, Detroit, dropped math as a graduation requirement and is replacing it with mandatory “Diversity courses.” UCLA also approved a “diversity graduation requirement,” which stipulates that every student in the College of Letters and Sciences take a course about “inequalities based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religion, among other factors.”

Radical Math is “a resource for educators interested in integrating issues of social and economic justice into their math classes and curriculum.” Radical Math boasts over 700 lesson plans, articles, charts, books, and websites that cover a wide range of socio-political issues from redistribution of wealth to racial profiling.

A professor at the University of California-Davis has vowed to “challenge the authority of Science” by “rewriting knowledge” through a feminist lens. Science, she worries, has “earned its epistemic authority through its co-constitution with colonization and slavery,” and therefore “relies on a colonial and racialized form of power.” Not only is science rooted in racism, she alleges, it has been used to perpetuate racism and colonial practices. “At the root of the justification for social inequality then is Western science,” she says, claiming that science’s distinction between “humans and non-humans” has allowed “capitalism to be justified as a natural economic system.

The New York Times published an article highlighting several academics who say “Earth Science has a whiteness problem.” One of them, from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said white geoscientists should help increase a “sense of belonging” among non-white groups by “separating their privilege as a white person from their identity as a good person.” Another, who helped create a book club which fellow geoscientists talk about “race and white privilege,” added that earth science classes could be “enriched” by more Native American voices since “Indigenous people have a unique connection to the land.”

University of Wyoming added a diversity course in geosciences meant to address a lack of diversity within the field. The course was the result of a diversity survey conducted by the university in which 67 percent of faculty responded that diversity, equity, and inclusion classes should be required for all students. “The primary goal of the class is to raise awareness that lack of diversity, equity and inclusivity is a problem in our scientific community and in academia in general. The lectures aim to make students think about implicit bias that we often have and don’t recognize and students have the chance to learn from life experiences of scientists from underrepresented groups. The systemic racism that is present in our society also is present in academia. Black, Hispanic, women and LGBTQ scientists are disproportionally underrepresented in the student and faculty population, and students from underrepresented minorities are often the target of microaggressions on campus.”

The National Science Foundation is paying for a multi-million program at Drexel University to help teachers learn how to work social justice into their classrooms. “This project intends to promote social justice teaching, which emphasizes connecting science, mathematics, and engineering instruction to students’ personal experiences and culture. The long-term and far-reaching benefits to society of this project are the potential to document and share sustainable approaches, steeped in the context of social justice.”

The University of Louisville had an opening in its physics and astronomy department, but it ruled out white and Asian applicants. “University of Louisville is an affirmative action, equal opportunity, Americans with disabilities employer, committed to community engagement and diversity, and in that spirit, seeks applications from a broad variety of candidates. The Department of Physics and Astronomy announces a tenure-track assistant professor position that will be filled by an African-American, Hispanic American or a Native American Indian.”

UC Santa Cruz hosted an event called “Research Justice 101: Tools for Feminist Science” where “Participants will be challenged to apply principles and practices of justice to their own work, interrogating questions such as: Who benefits? Who is harmed? Who is most vulnerable? And ultimately, who do we do science for?” The workshop concludes with practical skills and resources for participants to push their research “to be more inclusive, equitable and attentive to social justice.”

A professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago wants others to teach “math for social justice” to help fight the “oppressive status quo” in the United States. He argues that teaching “critical mathematics” isn’t an option for math teachers, but rather a “responsibility to our future.” “We have a responsibility to our future and our planet, to life and all species. What we do in the classroom matters, for today and tomorrow, and the myriad possibilities for resistance and transformation.” “In my work, I argue that K-12 students need to be prepared through their mathematics education to investigate and critique injustice (such as racism and language discrimination) and to challenge, in words and actions, oppressive structures and acts.”

Central Connecticut State University is running a contest, asking students to "express their personal connection to the Black Lives Matter Movement” and reassures students that it’s lowering the racist grammatical standards for the contest. On the website, the school notes “submissions will not be judged on traditional literary or grammatical standards.”

A science education professor at the University of Arizona believes elementary schoolchildren are being taught “heteronormative” and “limited” ideas in science classrooms, and queer theory curricula is the answer. She explores in her lectures how “inviting sexuality into the elementary science classroom” and “queer theory can be useful tools for re-imagining elementary science education and elementary science teacher preparation.”

An academic journal article suggested appointing a “Safety Officer” and rewarding participation in “diversity programming” to combat “gender inequity” at scientific conferences. “Addressing gender inequity should be a primary consideration for all societies hosting conferences, yet many STEM conferences are struggling with gender biases and the understanding that gender inequity also applies to non-binary gender identities and intersectional diversity/overlapping social identities.” They call for the introduction of a gender-based Code of Conduct for all attendees to abide by, appointing a “safety officer” at each scientific conference to make it easier for people to report if they feel they have been subjected to harassment or discrimination, and paying the cost of travel for women who wish to attend the conference.

The director of libraries at MIT argued that tech workplaces need to ditch “Star Trek” posters and other geeky stuff to be more inclusive and welcoming to women. “Replace the Star Trek posters with travel posters, don’t name your projects or your printers or your domains after only male figures from Greek mythology, and just generally avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes. Those kinds of things reinforce the stereotypes about who does tech.” She is a self-described “butch and queer” cis woman and “the work of libraries and librarians is to support feminist research and agendas. She also complained that “A profession that is 88% white means 5000% agony for people of color, no matter how liberal and enlightened you think you are.” She also said we need to have “a f**king reckoning about the pain we cause, and that we need to do some hard work on decolonizing our organizations and our professions.”

PLUS ignore these hundred other examples.

[mollyscribbles]

Owl House rewatch thoughts

* Hard to say from what little we see of her, but I think Luz' mom might have been less worried about her daughter reading fantasy and more about the "multiple incidents of bringing uncontained live animals and explosives to school" thing.

* If Eda considers Luz' Azura book as being only useful as kindling, it means she's not inclined to view human books as something she can make snails on.  Considering how unique her portal to the human realm is treated, where did Amity get her Azura books?  I've seen people suggest the author travels between realms, but if that were the case, Amity would've been able to get the latest volume from a local store rather than needing to borrow Luz' copy.

* Suggestions for other species that escaped from the Boiling Isles: the platypus and peacock mantis shrimp.

* "Weak nerd arms" ok really identifying with Luz here.

* Really love this take on Chosen One stories.  Because yes, there is an appeal in being told you're special, you're unique in the best possible way, but ultimately this is a story about people who aren't "special" so much as outcasts who do their best with the situation they're in.  Which is something that a lot more people can aspire to be.

* The fact that this was a set scheme(as the multiple fake maps would indicate) rather than a trap specifically designed for Luz indicates that even people who've spent their lives on the Boiling Isles would be drawn to the idea of being a magical chosen one. I bet Amity's not the only one to have an interest in fantasy literature around here.

* Oh wow Amity's first appearance outside the credits is . . . something.  It's easy to forget just how far she grew in one season.

* Eda's not a *bad* teacher, so much as she has yet to learn that teaching requires expanding on a concept you introduce and explaining your reasoning.  "Here is what you can learn from tasting snow" instead of just "here, taste these different kinds of snow"

* Hm.  For someone who despairs at the concept of the school teaching blind obedience, her teaching style kinda relies on it.  Bit of a hypocrite there, Eda.

* Gonna be honest, the first time I watched this and King mentioned Eda sneaking a drink of elixir, I thought it was going to turn out to be a magic-looking flask.

* It seems slightly odd that King's apparently known Eda for a while but didn't have any idea of the curse.  Maybe she was just REALLY good about keeping up with her elixirs pre-series.

* Really like the metaphor for a chronic illness that's kept under control by medication.

* If the Emperor's Coven provides access to all forms of magic, you'd think others aspiring for a spot would be permitted a multi-track education at Hexside.  That might be why none of them seem to be that impressive at magic when they're supposed to be the "best of the best" -- even if they have *access* to all forms of magic, they've only had training in one specific field during the bulk of their education.

* lbr, Lilith's cheating was worse because at least Eda told Luz what she was doing.

* You'd think Willow and Gus might have caught on that Luz didn't have permission for them to come over when she told them to hide from Eda.

* It's nice that Eda realizes raising a kid with a "screw the rules" mindset will result in a kid who breaks her rules sometimes.  Cleaning up the mess she caused is really the correct punishment for Luz; directly dealing with the consequences of her actions but otherwise considering it a lesson learned.

* Reading to kids in the library is an A+ way to shift Amity from "Jerk" to "Jerk with a heart of gold" territory.

* Prediction: At some point, Luz will return to the human world (probably only briefly but Eda won't know at the time) and Eda will come across the "Coping with empty nest syndrome" book Luz got her from the library.  She'll cry.  King will cry.  Hooty will cry.  Every viewer will cry.

* Pretty sure that, given what the world is like, if any of them ended up questioned about their actions during the body swap episode, they could just say "Oh yeah I was body swapped that day. What'd I get up to?" and everyone would consider this a perfectly logical explanation for them acting out-of-character.

* HC that Hexside is fully aware some illusion-track students skip class by having an illusion of themselves attend in their place, but they figure a student maintaining a decent replica of themselves for the duration of the class period requires enough effort to count as a form of class participation, so they just let everyone think they're getting away with it.

* Gus and Willow are really ride-or-die friends.  Always nice to have.

* Probably some of the mystery appeal will be gone from the Human Appreciation Society once a legit human is just attending classes on a regular basis; being able to get definitive answers to questions rather than spending your time speculating would cut back on the draw.

* I love all the details they include on this show -- a lot of other shows would just stick in scribbles while panning past pictures instead of writing out all of Eda's incident reports.

* The pallisman is a neat concept; sort of like a mix of a wand and a familiar, a magical control that will have opinions of its own.

* Given Bat Queen apparently has enough of, um, a biological aspect to have kids, I wonder if that means Owlbert is capable of laying eggs.  Or having eggs with another owl/pallisman if the male pronouns are anything to go by.

* I mean even Phineas and Ferb didn't question Perry laying an egg when he uses male pronouns so could go either way in terms of what Disney would allow.

* Reading the book fair signs, it looks like sci-fi is a popular genre in the Boiling Isles.  Makes sense, since what we'd consider Fantasy would be more contemporary/urban fantasy to them.

* Getting the vibe that someone on staff had a less-than-amicable experience co-writing with a friend to inspire this one. And/or experience with shitty contracts.

* The Hexside requirements also required knowledge of basic runes, but given Luz apparently had no issue with that I'm guessing she just picked those up offscreen.

* "I've seen worse" is the ideal admissions response tbh.  Like . . . she pulled off the required spells and the headmaster has seen decades of students' awkward first attempts.  It probably counts as a good day when no one's admissions test resulted in needing to bring in someone from the Construction Track to repair the building.

* It's very reminiscent of D&D that the majority of the cast has the response of "This is clearly a trap.  Let's check it out!"

* You'd think that carnival fortune tellers wouldn't have the same appeal in a world where it's something you study at school.  Unless it's viewed the same way as those "magic" shows they have sometimes where the tricks all involve chemical reactions.

* Kinda surprised a school that teaches kids fire spells doesn't have some kind of fire suppression system in place.

* Hrm.  Guessing the mind guardian went back and undid their own damage offscreen; otherwise they'd have had to go re-do the repairs before leaving.

* Good they had the wifi and charging cable coming through the portal to explain why Luz' phone still has service and the battery's not long dead.

* Luz, how have you survived this long with your instinct for pushing buttons.  The same as the rest of humanity in a world full of buttons, I suppose.

* Probably if they thought about it, the best criteria for picking Grom royalty would be less who's the most skilled at magic and more who has the most low-key fears. . . . nvm, having a Stay-Puft incident would cause them to reasonably scrap that approach.  Maybe appointing someone who obsesses over grades would have better odds of producing a relatively-simple-to-combat exam paper.

* I'm thinking the letters are written by Eda, who doesn't intend anything sinister by it so much as being the type to cover her bases when pulling off a scam and realizing Luz' mother would need some evidence to indicate her daughter was safely at camp.

* The band-aids clearly have some healing spell built-in, considering they've been used to heal inanimate objects.

* someone on the writing staff has a long-standing rant about Quidditch they've been holding back on.

* I know that normally the humor in the cut from "she's finally growing up." to Luz planning the heist would be that she's doing something that sensible adults would consider to be a bad idea, but if Eda saw her just then she'd wipe away a tear of pride and go "Her first self-planned heist! They grow up so fast!"

* Eda's the one who talks about cheating at stuff, but Lilith has a habit of playing *dirty*.

* I would like to say I appreciate them going with a more serious credit sequence because it was disconcerting with Star Vs when a dark ending was followed by "I THINK EARTH'S A REALLY GREAT PLACE"

* Lilith may have made a 30-years-late attempt to redeem herself, but I really don't trust her.  I don't quite want her dead, but she DID spend decades trying to force her sister to join the Emperor's Coven as a prerequisite for curing her curse.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

after i posted that reblog & was washing dishes it was like, oh no, there was what now feels like an obvious neon point to make that i sure did not, so here i go also just giving it its own post

basically just that, in the context of this “do other people think winston is Smart, do they think he is ‘smart’ in a way that is considered an intinsic positive quality attributed to that person rather than like, well this external result i guess indicates the mechanics of your brain are good enough to produce this but it’s hardly a positive for you as a person, b/c you’re probably worse at being a person for the fact all your stats go into running endless arithmatic in there, on that note do they think he is definitively Not smart outside the [external results] of math aptitude, has winston internalized anything from this assessment & according treatment by others” that point of winston so often being right about things outside of stuff to do with math / otherwise directly quant related matters sure seems to indicate he’s not Just Good / Smart At Math, but having to compile a post about instances he’s had these valuable / accurate contributions to make was sure motivated in part by these instances not necessarily being obvious, b/c in the show when he says “off topic” things / isn’t just sticking to the quant stuff people are mostly just trying to get him to shut up / even as he’s saying this Correct, Useful stuff people are just like, revving up the disdain b/c he’s talking / acting wrong & annoying. the Extrinsic quality of his social approach making the inferred Intrinsic quality that winston’s clueless/useless or whatever & thus so’s whatever he’s actually saying, it’s wrong & it would’ve been better if he hadn’t said anything at all

plus it only kind of backs things up that i don’t think like, for viewers it’s meant to be completely obvious that winston is out here like, being insightful & perceptive & generally paying attention to everything on his own & keeping up with all of it & being attentive to / right about social elements of goings on, w/his ideas about what other people are like & what their feelings & motivations might be & how that might be playing into / relevant to various situations....a particularly clear & relevant example being his 4x11 admonishlogue, which was naturally a subjective spontaneous spiel while he’s worked up & irritated rather than like, yes this is the objective 1000% accurate rundown of the situation, but it was right enough for taylor to have listened & then we get their 4x12 conscious course correction / them acknowledging They Were Wrong & Are Sorry, & if you’re not a billions viewer failing to realize axe & taylor have these parallel plot threads in 4x11 & that taylor’s speech in 4x12 wasn’t out of nowhere, about & inspired by nothing, with no context, the implication is that taylor recognized winston made some points / was influenced thusly......but also, [all the billions viewers who didn’t get that at all] is kind of relevant here b/c you Can just suppose that automatically everything winston says is wrong & useless, & furthermore the 4x11 scene “resolves” with mafee jumping in & saying as much & just taking the Pwning A Nerd route to shout someone down into dropping the point, as always mafee doesn’t really argue with any of the actual things winston was saying, but if you’re operating with the understanding that the Axe Cap Approach of bullying less epic winner guys into shutting up is the extrinsic behavior that indicates any & all intrinsic positive qualities, aka they’re just Always Right b/c they’re the cool guys, & annoying insecure math nerds like winston are always wrong, well then

which is then also relevant to how winston of course wouldn’t / couldn’t fit in at axe cap but Can work for taylor.......thinking of how, you know, there’s these characters who are regarded as Extra Smart who also have to be perceived by other characters & viewers as having these extrinsic qualities that Intuitively indicate / prove their intrinsic smartness, i.e. / e.g. how, say, taylor has to “seem” smart pretty much immediately, to a character like axe (who can also have these moments of, without external successful results that would “prove” anything, will just be “evidently” smart in what he does/says in an exchange & how he does it), because their other extrinsic qualities would seem “wrong,” & thus what people might infer about their intrinsic qualities based on that would be negative, but axe can recognize their smartness & prioritize it over them being The Tough Guy / having successfully bullied their coworkers (or co interns) until they had some superior position because of that or the other stuff that’s supposedly the Right way to do things that proves you’re a Winner in any / every way....but, while at axe cap / dealing with now coworkers (or now subordinates) or other people in the business, taylor still had to navigate those situations even with axe’s conferred protection / approval / blessing, requiring having to consciously adopt certain extrinsic / external approaches b/c they know it’s the only way to get people to listen or take them seriously (on top of how already the approach they had re: interpersonal / social exchanges & presenting themself was titrated in the hopes of people taking them seriously / inferring helpful/positive things about them)

and then when it comes to tmc / taylor for real having the final word / ultimate authority on everything, they don’t want their employees to Have to put on the same kinds of performances they sometimes did, and they sure don’t want their employees to have to act like what was the norm at axe cap re: cool tough guy winners being terrible to everyone as a way to prove your worth, and they sure are not going to Make or even encourage anyone to do any of that. and even if any intrinsic smartness(tm) of winston’s doesn’t extrinsically manifest in the way axe cappers, or even mase cappers, think that it could/would/should, taylor’s more concerned with his intrinsic talent than extrinsic demeanor, and even if they’re suggesting these are at odds, they aren’t quite 100% directly connecting them, i.e. they’re not saying “well, your demeanor means you’re a dumbass but you’re still smart somehow,” the issue is just that he was too grating & rude to them in 3x03 (& beyond that is still Not sweet / “being a dick”) which is now, in some notable contrast with what they said in 3x03, being considered as this separate matter rather than “of course you can’t work for me b/c you hate yourself too much to Really be effective,” now it’s like, well yeah you were annoying but also you’re still skilled enough to consider....and by kompenso they obviously think he’s actually worth hiring, b/c there he is, hired, & kept on, & brought to tmc at axe cap, & still here (with him only Apparently being on thin ice when taylor has given enough control of mase carb to wendy that they no longer exactly have the final word / ultimate authority (and even if they kinda do, they don’t just wanna immediately / completely take advantage of that))

but naturally what really counts even beyond this is that, besides being the person who of course hired winston in the first place / wants him around b/c he’s good at math, taylor also just actually also always listens to & genuinely considers what winston says and, as seen in 4x11 to 4x12 for one, can actually change their mind / reevaluate a situation / decide they might’ve been wrong because of what he’s said, on top of instances like 5x03 where they’re also listening to him like, yeah he’s talking about math, but he’s Also contributing some personal, qualitative leaning insight, thanks to admitting that, you know, This’ll Be The First Live Test, he’s not saying “well yeah the numbers totally back us up” but he’s still saying that he himself thinks they can do it, and they do it.......so yeah the point is taylor must of course think he’s Smart At Math but they must also consider / (realize) that he’s also smart at other shit / just in general and, even if other characters / viewers might think that the way winston behaves / seems he must Not be smart, taylor is always listening to him & is definitely not instantly writing it off / interpreting it as outright Wrong / simply experiencing radio static ft. “ugh hate that this guy has to be so annoying” as soon as he speaks....so shoutout to taylor for that, and maybe there’s a parallel in how, their first time around at axe cap, taylor could sort of avoid axe cappers giving them as much shit as they might’ve b/c they had some protection from axe, the top shit giver, and here’s winston able to be treated as smart & valuable despite the fact other people wouldn’t see him that way b/c taylor, the smart value detector,  wants him here

but you know, Not shoutout to the fact that taylor’s kind of the exception in reliably listening to Everything winston might have to say / taking him seriously & realizing that he has good contributions besides Just strictly in the quant realm, and that for the most part characters (and viewers) are kind of just automatically like boooo everything winston says is dumb and wrong and we hate him.....while, you know, the whole time he’s so often “secretly” Right about plenty of things, as long as there’s anyone actually listening and not just automatically writing him off as The Guy Who’s Wrong About Everything But Numbers

(feels relevant enough to put in the text as a postscript here: Of Note the way that axe cappers react to winston in s5, the weird contradictory 5x01 quantphobia like “they’re smarter than us and better at us. at math ig, but i guess also in general. and this is an own i guess” and “also they’re not better than us at math even or whatever,” and then dollar bill’s apparently assuming some quant would just guaranteed be able to make him money, but he’s also stomping in with no real leverage and so you’ve just got him pitting his usual bluster and bravado “this means i’m intrinsically a winner” approach against winston, whose social approach means he’s a dumb wrong nerd, but also please do your good math for me, and you know, it doesn’t really work out for bill and was just a waste of everyone’s time, kind of a failure of bill’s not only to convert his Winner Axe Cap Behavior directly into making money / succeeding but trying to do so by actually getting the math guy to do the valuable shit for him....and then they kind of all forget he exists which is very fine by me b/c you know, winston can’t really just exist in the general axe cap scape and ideally taylor should always be in the group he’s in, although it also helps if rian’s someone who just listens to him normally / hadn’t immediately judged his extrinsic / intrinsic qualities negatively (she is))

[orangeoctopi7]

Back to School

: Chapter 1 : Chapter 2 :

Stan was sullen as they left their morning math class.

“That was great!” Ford chuckled, “I thought Mr. Grauberger was going to spit out his dentures when you answered that tax-cut problem!” But he noticed his brother wasn’t laughing along. “What’s wrong?”

Stan fidgeted with his backpack strap. “Yeah, the look on his face was definitely worth it. It’s just…” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “The minute he passed out that quiz, I froze! I should know that stuff, it’s finance, it’s what I’m actually good at, but I just couldn’t think!” He scuffed his feet on the linoleum floor. “All this time, and I’m still just the dumb twin.”

Ford scowled. "That's not true. It doesn’t matter what some arbitrary scholastic test says, you’re smart! I never would have made it home if you weren’t!”

“I know, you’re right.” Stan gave a small smile, “I just... wish I could’ve proved it to them.”

“They don’t matter.” Ford said shortly. “If it makes you feel any better, you can copy off my answers the next time you freeze on a test.”

“Yeah, just like the good ol’ days.” Stan chuckled sardonically. 

They tried to lie low through the rest of the day, not answering questions in class or talking to their fellow students. Neither of them really had any friends, outside of each other, which hadn’t been great for their social development, but at least it made things easier from a time-travel perspective. Nobody found it odd that the twins were keeping to themselves.

Of course, they didn’t have all the same classes together. Ford had advanced classes in Physics and Chemistry. Stan had an extra hour of PE that was basically just more time for boxing practice, and Choir, simply because it was an easy A. 

Stan was enjoying taking some of his frustration out on a punching bag in the weights room when a hulking figure, almost as wide as he was tall, stepped behind the sandbag.

“D’you mind?” Stan complained. He didn’t want to hit whoever was back there when the bag swung back.

“Well, well, Stan the lesser. Practicin' for tomorrow's match?” Crampelter’s ugly visage peeked from behind the bag.

“Ugh. I forgot they held you back a couple of years.” Stan rolled his eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The bully demanded.

“You wouldn’t get it even if I explained it to you.” Stan smiled smugly.

Crampelter stepped up to Stan. He was still almost a head taller. “Your brother’s supposed to be the smart-mouth.”

“We’re trading shifts.” Stan replied flippantly, not even remotely intimidated. “Now do you wanna do this right now, or can we save it for the ring? Y’know, where I can get paid to punch your face in.”

“You’re just scared to take me without a ref!”

“Not even a little. I just need the cash. I got a parking ticket to pay, apparently.”

With that, Stan swung a powerful left hook into the punching bag, swinging it directly into Crampelter’s gut. The bully doubled over, and Stan took the opportunity to get out of there. While he was confident he could take Crampelter even in a dirty fight, it really just wasn’t worth the trouble. 

He decided to skip Choir today and check on Ford. It seemed like their childhood bully was looking for a fight.

It took Stan a while to remember where Ford’s classroom was. He tried to just peek in quietly, but the teacher’s head immediately snapped to the door.

“He’s not here.” She said brusquely as soon as she saw who it was.

“Uh… d’you know where he went?”

“Said he needed supplies for his science fair project.” and with that, she returned to the board, where she was writing what Stan now recognized as the equation to calculate the gravitational forces two objects exert on each other.

There were a few places Ford could have gone to find supplies. First Stan checked the Chemistry lab and the art room. He finally found his brother in the auto shop, which was empty this time of day. When Stan opened the door, Ford was standing at the back of the room casually, with his best ‘innocent angel’ look.

“Oh, it’s just you.” the scientist went back to rummaging through the welding equipment as soon as he saw his brother.

“What are you doing!?” Stan hissed as he crossed the shop.

“Well I can’t fix the time tape using whatever dad’s got lying around.”

“Yeah, I get that part. But you could get kicked outta the science fair for stealin’ from the school!”

“As a wise man once said,” Ford flashed his brother a knowing grin, “Only if I get caught.”

Stan couldn’t help but be a little proud, but there was too much at stake for that right now. “At least let me do it, I already swipe enough stuff that they’ll expect it, and it doesn’t matter if I get in trouble.”

Ford rolled his eyes but relented. “Knowing how the administration feels about you, even if I did get caught, they’d probably find a way to pin it back on you anyway.”

Stan took a look at the box Ford had been ransacking. “So whaddya need?”

“The smallest soldering iron you can find.”

“What kinda filling?” 

“It’s called solder.” Ford corrected him automatically, “Ideally, Lithium, but I know they’re not going to have it. Tin or Copper should suffice.”

“Anything else?”

“A face shield and anything else you can find that'll help working with small circuitry."

"Pretty sure Dad's got some jeweler's lenses in the pawn shop. If you tell him it's for the science fair project, he'll probably let you use ‘em."

Ford grimaced. “I’m worried if I ask to use any of dad’s tools, he’ll want to see how it’s coming.”

“So just show him the preliminary frame. It’s not like he actually gets how the perpetual motion machine is supposed to work. You can just hide the time tape in a drawer or something.”

Ford nodded reluctantly. “Well, I suppose I’d better leave, if we don’t want to get caught. I wish cell phones had already been invented; I’d text you if I thought of anything else I might need.”

“Pch, we never needed those pieces of junk before!” Stan scoffed. “Oh, wait! Before you go, I was lookin’ for you to warn you. I ran into Crampelter earlier, seemed like he was lookin’ for a fight, so, uh, might wanna watch your back.”

Ford flashed him a vicious smile. “Honestly? I welcome the opportunity.”

“Tryin’ to stick to the timeline, remember?”

“Fine, fine, I’ll try and stay out of his way, but if he comes after me…”

“Then you can use your 30 years of sci-fi survival skills to get out of there without causin’ a scene.”

“You’re no fun.” The scientist pouted.

“If I can’t leave Shermie a note, you can’t beat up Crampelter.”

Ford wanted to argue that one of those would alter the timeline significantly more than the other, but he also knew that Stan would not want to hear it. And besides, he really needed to get out of there before anyone else showed up.

[rockshortage]

*Cracks knuckles* Ow. Let's see, how about: A6, 16. B1, 12. C1, 2, 3, 5, 8. D4. E2, 3, 7. F2, 5, 10, 12 (Sorry, but also not sorry) I6. L1, 2, 4, and 9 :)

hoo boy that took a while

A6) Does your OC tend to assume their interpretation of events and reality is correct, or do they question it? I.e., “I’m sure that’s what you said” versus “It’s possible I misheard you.”

Ah, he questions himself a lot. Maybe he wasn’t listening well enough because he was too distracted by being anxious? Maybe he misinterpreted this event, because his background knowledge on it was lacking, he doesn’t know the full story and opinions from all sides, he’s not sure he can form a well educated opinion on this--

A16) Does your OC have to go through their own trials to learn a lesson, or do they listen and learn from observation and lecture? I.e., does your OC listen when someone tries to tell them the importance of budgeting, or do they have to go experience what happens if you don’t budget first?

Hector needs to do it himself for Science, because how else is he to truly know, if not from his own personal experience? Trusting what people tell you is good and all but gathering data yourself is better.

Unless we’re talking about raider politics, in which case there’s not really a good way for Hector to gather data without seriously endangering him and friends, so he’ll just listen to Gage.

B1) Do they believe you have to give respect to get it, or get respect to give it?

Generally, he believes it’s necessary to give people respect before you can expect it in return. He learns that many people do not in fact think the same way. He’ll still want to extend basic courtesy to them even if they’re assholes, unless they disrespect/piss him off to the extremes, or if their actions threaten his position and in turn the well-being of himself and friends.

B12) Your OC orders something to eat and gets their order done in a pretty wrong way, something they can’t just pick off or whatnot to correct, or something major is missing. What do they do?

Have a back and forth about it in his head – ah it’s not so bad it’s still fine, but then again he really wanted it differently… but he doesn’t wanna bother them and be entitled about it, but man… :( Might get close to pointing it out but chances are slim that he’ll actually get someone to correct the order. It’ll be disappointing but he’ll eat it.  

C1) Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it?

Eeeh, not a super strong one. His baseline are general societal morals and norms, like… help person good, kill person bad. Most of the time he’ll base his actions on what feels right for him and for his friends. He’ll consider: will doing this make me feel bad afterwards? Will it have a negative impact on other people, who don’t deserve it? Is that consequence worth it because it saves my own skin or helps/protects my friends?

C2) Would your OC feel bad if they acted against their morals? If not, would they find a way to excuse themselves for it?

Bringing back the point about sacrificing for the greater good. He’d consider that the morally right thing to do because it impacts fewer people negatively. But making that sacrifice endangers his friends, whose lives for him personally are worth much more than an abstract crowd of people. So he chooses to not do the thing for the greater good and save his friends instead, and yes, he would feel very bad on the one hand, because oh boy. As far as most people are concerned, he did a horrible terrible thing and was extremely selfish and absolutely chose wrong. But on the plus side, and that’s a very big huge plus- he still has his friends. And still having his friends makes him feel less bad than how he would have felt if he didn’t have his friends anymore.

So uh… yes and no.

C3) Is it important for them to be with people (socially, intimately, whatever) whose major ideological tenets align with their own?

More or less. He can’t hang out well with people he completely disagrees with in every way, of course that’s not going to work. But Hector is… how to say… kinda boring when it comes to ideals and opinions and all that stuff. He just doesn’t have very strong ones in general. Which can make him a little bland and potentially spineless, but also pretty agreeable. As long as they don’t constantly shove their great big opinions in his face, they’ll get along well enough.

C5) Do your OC’s morals and rules of common decency go out the window when it comes to those they don’t like, or when it’s inconvenient? Aka, are their morals situational?

I think I kind of answered this in C2. Basic morals do get thrown out the window if friends are threatened, or if he gets pissed off enough. He’d have to be really pissed off though. As well as being post having-grown-a-spine(-at-least-partially). Hurting people bad but being insufferable to Hector also bad so guess what fucker

C8) Is your OC more practical or ideal morally? I.e., do they hold people to high expectations of behavior even if it’s not realistic for the situation, or do they have a more realistic approach and adapt their morality to be more practical?

Again a little tricky because I’m having trouble coming up with a scenario that would help me make up my mind with a definite answer. I’m leaning more towards a practical approach 1) because Hector is more of a realist/pessimist in general, 2) he doesn’t want to like… be overly demanding

D4) Would they like to be immortal? Why, why not? If they are immortal, would they rather not be?

The more he thinks about it the more meaningless life seems to get for someone like him. Solution: don’t think about it! Repress that shit because it’s not like you can do anything about it anyway. Also an involuntary solution but one that helps nonetheless: have shit memory so that you don’t feel like you’ve lived too many lifetimes.

If you were to ask him, the answer you get completely depends on the headspace he’s in at the moment. If he’s just vibing, going about his day and things are going well then yeah! Immortality isn’t so bad. If you catch him on an off day, things aren’t going so well, maybe he just thought about having to deal with losing his friends eventually… then you obviously get the opposite answer.

E2) Which of the nine types of intelligence is your OC strongest in? Weakest? (Linguistic, existential, naturalist, et cetera)

I know I talked about this before and I grouped them from strong to medium to weak but I can’t for the life of me find the post anymore (thanks tumblr for your useless garbage search and tagging features). So I can’t even check if I’m still on the same wavelength with past me :v

From strongest to weakest we have…

Logical-mathematical

Spatial

Linguistic

Bodily-kinesthetic

Musical

Naturalist

Interpersonal

Existential

Intrapersonal

E3) How many languages do they speak?

Three… and a half.

The half language being Swiss German, because I don’t know what the fuck it is even after graduating from language uni

The others: Standard German, English, and French, from strongest to weakest.

E7) Are they a good note-taker? Are they a good test-taker? Do exams make them nervous?

Yes, yes, and yes. He’s very good at taking notes considering most of science is documentation. And even now when he’s not doing a lot of Formal Science things, he still writes in his journal almost daily, summing up events and making notes of important things. He gets nervous with tests with all the self doubt if he really prepared well enough and the unpredictability of the questions that will be asked, but once the pen is in his hand, he just blazes through it.

F2) What’s their ideal home look like? Where is it?

Someplace underground, safe and sturdy like a vault. Industrial aesthetic is welcome and he wants to have plenty of space, but it shouldn’t feel huge and empty. Needs to be homey, even if it might feel a little rustic to the average person. Having it built into a mountain would be sick, so he still has the perfect protection from the sun, but he doesn’t have to crawl out of a hole in the ground like some kind of worm – instead he opens the door and gets the most amazing view immediately.

… and I promise, only after writing the above did I remember that he pretty much lives in a mountain already, just a plastic one. Close enough.

F5) How handy are they? Can they fix appliances, cars, cabinets, et cetera?

Quite handy indeed. He can fix most things, he usually just needs some time to (re-)familiarize himself with the object and its functions. A lot of it also involves trial and error, but he’ll figure it out eventually.

F10) Do they engage in any of the arts? How good do you intend them to be? Would they agree they are?

He’d actually be really good at pen/pencil drawing, what with making technical illustrations and blueprints of Science Stuff, but it’s not a skill that’s applied in an artsy setting. When the goal is to draw for the sake of drawing, evoking emotion, or paint with a brush, that’s probably when shit would fall apart. I can’t remember who the artist was, but it reminds me of this little comic about Paladin Danse – in which he’s extremely good at technical drawings but then he attempts to draw a dog and it just looks…wrong.

Now with music, he’s more likely to engage in it in an artful way. He likes to sing, even if he very rarely does it now that he has people around him more often than not. Before, he’d just be alone in his lonely place and sing and scream to his heart’s content, but now he’s too awkward to do it, because someone might hear him. He is pretty good at it though, considering how much alone time he’s had to practice.

F12) Would they enjoy a theme park?

The rides and junk food? Yes absolutely. But the giant crowd and every little consequence it entails, nope, no thank you, he’ll just leave it be.

You bet he’s gonna go on the rides at nuka world though once they got them back up and working, because the crowd isn’t as big as pre-war and he’s the fucking overboss and can skip lines and restrict access to others however he damn pleases.

I6) Could they eat the same thing they enjoy over and over and not get bored of it quickly?

He can, but that doesn’t mean he enjoys it. The first month or so at nuka world he almost exclusively lives off of some shitty nutrient bars. In some scenarios, food just exists as sustenance and not as something to be enjoyed.

In a preferable scenario though, it is to be enjoyed. And I think while he would get bored of it after a while, it’d take longer than for the average person. And even then, he’s just happy he can eat something enjoyable at whatever pace he likes instead of having to scarf down Compressed Nutrient

L1) How have your characters changed since you created them?

He stopped existing in a void, which is a pretty damn big change. Now he has a whole world and other characters to interact with, that contribute to shaping and developing his personality.

L2) What do you consider the biggest themes in your character, if any?

Oof, this is hard. Maybe�� getting to know yourself? Accepting change, personal growth?

L4) Would you hang out with your OC if you could?

I’m actually not sure sjdfsdnsv

Like yes he is sweet bean who must be protected, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a weird little old man. I guess if we can just chill listening to music and he can go off about crustaceans or something and we speak The Horrible Language, why the fuck not

L9) How did you come up with your OC?

Masks cool. Me especially like gas masks. Unhinged science characters also cool. Make generic but still sliiiightly unique design and make it a point to not have him be a young pretty boy character despite having immortality. Add lots of weaknesses to compensate for the immortality. Add science personality things and complete the picture with projections of my own personality. Boom, you’ve got yourself the beginnings of a Hector

[tayerroos]

Patchwork Tales: Book 1

A “9" roleplay compendium.  Read on AO3 Chapter: 6 [First] [Back] [You Are Here] [Next] Warnings for this chapter: Dysphoria

Mesos smiled as she allowed her optics to close and bury her head into his chest. She felt so safe and warm in his embrace.

[damn-daemon]

Chapter Three

Washington, D.C. – 2014

Erskine’s formula had done wonders to Steve Rogers. Immediately, all his medical issues evaporated. His asthma, heart troubles, and all the little things that stuck around from his brushes with rheumatic and scarlet fever. He was stronger, taller, faster, and felt all around like a different person, to the point he often convinced himself he was dreaming. 

In fact, he’d had nightmares of waking up in his old body, back home in Brooklyn, back to square one while Bucky remained with Hydra, helpless and alone. Good things just didn’t happen to the little people anymore – and when they did, they could be just as traumatizing as the bad.

But while the formula had essentially performed a miracle, that was only half the battle. He’d had to train. Driving, weaponry, land navigation, tactics and strategy, basic leadership skills, even typing – he never dreamed of owning a typewriter. Some of these things he had picked up before the process, but most came after the fact, usually on the fly in some half-raised tent in the middle of nowhere. 

At least he’d never been bored.

Of course, most of those things didn’t apply in 2014. The weapons were new, the maps were digital and spoke to you, and typewriters were a thing of the past – only just coming back around because people had a fascination with all things ‘old.’

(Tony had more than his fair share of fun with that one.)

Nat was quick to show him where the world stood now, and boy did he have a way to go. 

It started with sparring sessions, and was probably going to end there too. There were so many variations of techniques it made his head spin – when he learned, the focus was solely on boxing – but the master assassin combined them all together flawlessly. He still had to think on it, a lot, and most of his work was reactionary at best, but Nat insisted he was a quick learner, and not bad for a man his age. 

Because those jokes never lost their charm. 

All that said, Natasha Romanoff was still very proficient at laying him out on the ground when it suited her. 

“So,” she started, rewrapping her hands as Steve stared at the ceiling for the fifth time that morning. “When were you going to tell me about her?”

“Who?” 

“Clara Garcia.”

Steve sighed, sitting up. Of course, she knew about her. Really, the only thing that should have surprised him was that it took her this long to bring it up. They’d had a few meetings over the past two weeks, discussing either the exhibit or Yvonne. Clara had proudly unveiled the new, grammatically correct memorial for Bucky just the other day, before immediately realizing how inappropriate it might have been being excited over that particular object and turning a shade of red he hadn’t seen since the last time the Howling Commandos got drunk.

The word ‘adorable’ came to mind.

“You get that from drone surveillance footage or were you actually tailing me?”

Nat rolled her eyes. “Please, no one in Shield has to tail you. That’s what the gossip columns are for. Lot of middle-aged housewives wanna know who Captain America’s latest fling is.”

She almost laughed at the last part. 

To be fair, so did he. 

He used to blush at stuff like that, and wasn’t afraid to admit that it was only recently that he stopped. Things were certainly more open now, freer, and for the better as far as he was concerned. There were a lot of good people he used to know that could have benefited from the societal changes that occurred over the years. 

That said, he still lived by the old conventions, they were ingrained in him, even if he didn’t exactly have the chance to use them much before the war. Turns out short, skinny, occasionally dying fellas weren’t the sort women fell head over heels for. Go figure.

“My fling, as you like to call her, is a highly qualified associate at the Smithsonian,” Steve replied, taking Nat’s offered hand. “She’s in charge of my exhibit, and I’m helping her fill in the blanks. That’s all.”

“Really,” Nat said, squaring up, clearly unconvinced.

“It’s the truth.”

They circled one another on the mats, turning around the small Shield logo on the floor. Occasionally, they had an audience, but they were alone this time around. It was also three in the morning, so that might have had something to do with it. 

The two agents traded glancing blows, testing one another. Steve had been working on finding her tells, but every time he thought he had one down, Nat turned that idea on its head. She was purposely doing it, and he fell for it every time. 

Nat feinted and came under his guard, landing a hit on his midsection before sweeping his legs once again. Only this time, as he fell, Steve took out her legs as well. He recovered quickly, and pinned her on the mats. 

“I mean, because one has to wonder how Steve Rogers, the guy who abstains from all social activity, is suddenly spending a lot of free time with a pretty, single, age-appropriate girl,” Nat said casually as Steve attempted to put her in an arm bar. 

“I’m either an old man or age-appropriate for Clara, pick a side, Romanoff.”

“Stop deflecting, Rogers.”

“There’s nothing to deflect,” Steve countered, releasing Nat. He didn’t really have the energy to argue this point and lose a fight to the master assassin. “I lost a lot of good people when I went on ice, and a lot more before that. Clara and I are making sure they get remembered.”

Natasha nodded. “Okay, but you take her jogging.”

Steve shrugged. “I’m a little out of touch, Romanoff. Is that how the kids do it these days? Take their crush out on a jog to show their interest?”

Was it the new fondue? 

He still wanted to hit himself over that sometimes.

“Sounds like something a socially awkward super soldier would do,” Nat said with a smile, standing. “Look, Steve, I don’t mean to tease you too hard. I’m not exactly the expert on relationships, but I do know what it’s like to be alone. All those little memories in your head do not make for good company.

“I’m not saying you have to date her, but maybe don’t lose track of her when the exhibit is done.”

[gegenji]

RP Partner: @aigaiap​

Loloki Loki || It is a fine day/night in the Goblet, and the sounds of the city could be heard off in the distance. The door opens, with a ring or whatever Chach has installed. What passes through first is... a frog on two legs - it holds the door open and bows dramatically. A Dunesfolk woman walks through - her face half-covered by a turban popularized by a certain Monetarist with goggles of Sharlayan make attached. She stops to look around the shop. The walking frog closes the door behind her.

Chachanji Gegenji || The smithy itself is rather... well, perhaps even a bit stiflingly... hot. A bit less so given the colder months giving a bit of a chill to the air, but that also just makes the buffeting of the hot forge air that rushes out with the door opening all the more noticeable.  The windchime by the door seems to have been set up for this exact thing, and its ringing causes the wiggling of Chachan's ears as he pauses in his inventory. Hopping from step to chest, he peers over the counter with a- Chachanji Gegenji | - cheerful smile. "Hallo! Welcome ta th' Usagenji Ironworks!"

Loloki Loki looks around the room - the heat doesn't seem to bother the Dunesfolk - or maybe because she's already wearing airy robes. She's covered with a variety of trinkets and knicknacks. Her face is obscured, but there no sense that she is impressed with what is displayed. She sniffs in the hot dry forge air before turning to face Chachanji, "Greetings, I have an appointment with this establishment's master."

Chachanji Gegenji: "Master?" he repeats before clambering down from his perch to be more on eye-level with the other Lalafell. He's pretty short even for a Lalafell, so eye-level might not be the correct term. His physique is mostly blurred by his own heavy attire, but the hammer strapped to his back at least implies he has some modicum of physical strength - given it seems to be sized to be used by a Roegadyn rather than a Lalafell. "Well, I wouldn't call meself a 'master' but th' smithy is mine so... I 'spose-- Chachanji Gegenji: -- tha's me?" Chachanji Gegenji: "Chachanji Gegenji. Nice ta meetcha." You perform an Eastern greeting for Loloki Loki.

Loloki Loki: "Oh? Pardon me, I assume that... No....", the Poroggo decided to open it's mouth, "She thought you were the hel...." The Dunesfolk turned back and glares at the frog. It froze immediately like a deer caught in headlights. "It is a honored to meet you, Ser Chachanji Gegenji. I am Loloki Loki." She curties to him.

Chachanji Gegenji glances between Loloki and the poroggo, scratching idly at his freckled cheek with a stout finger. Still, he doesn't comment on the unspoken back-and-forth between them and just give a smile as he returns his hands from the eastern-style greeting he had given. "Oh! From tha'..." A pause, obviously trying to think of a good word to describe the complex verbiage that had been written. "... Fancy! Fancy letter!" He nods. "Ya had some... armor ya wanted me ta look at?" The tone has a brief hint- Chachanji Gegenji || - of uncertainty. Of trying to make sure he deciphered her writing correctly.

Loloki Loki remains silent for a moment. The way her head moves indicates that she's looking him over. His gear. His physique. His eyes. This forge. Evaluating and grading behind her mask. After a moment, she sighs - in a manner that sounds of disappointment - but she shakes her head after a few seconds before lifting it with a smile, "Indeed. I have a item I need evaluated, and you were highly recommended by my sources. My normal avenues are either not available or are back in the Old World." Loloki Loki shrugs at you.

Chachanji Gegenji blinks as he's examined - his violet eyes seemingly more... reflective than a usual Dunesfolk's. He subtly adjusts his garments at the gaze, seeming to try to ensure as little of his physique is identifiable as possible. When she looks to the forge, he turns to it as well and then back to her. The sigh - apparently caught by those long ears - causes them to droop slightly, but he rallies well enough. "A-ah. Sure thin'. I'll do what I can ta help."

Loloki Loki nods - face obscured by a smile. She reaches into her back and takes out a rather heavy-looking pair of darksteel gauntlets. "I would like these gauntlets to be evaluated by a professional armorer. I am told you specialize in protective equipment. As I noted in my missive to you, would it be within your abilities to determine to what extent does the armor's materials integrate with the absorbed aetherical density post-recovery?"

Chachanji Gegenji: "A-ah, I do, yeah," he agrees as his eyes shift to the gauntlets. He moves closer to get a better look at them - even taking one and looking it over himself should she let him. Despite his rather plain and - perhaps childish - facial features, the intensity with which he observes the equipment is solid proof that this establishment IS his and he knows what he's doing. "... So these were made ta... absorb aether?" he queries idly as he looks them over.

Loloki Loki shakes her head and sighs again, "No. These are just gauntlets. Ser Chachanji, what do you know about spiritbinding?"

Chachanji Gegenji: "They aren't jus' gauntlets, though," he states, holding the one gauntlet up. "'s Darksteel, 'n really *good* quality Darksteel. 'n th' craftin' style - along wit th' the wear 'n tear - makes me thin' these are pretty old. Couple decades at least." Is he trying to show off his skill or is this all just tumbling out because it's his nature? Hard to say. "Th' sheen is interestin', though. 've seen it a couple times... us'lly from stuff folks needed repaired 'r resized tha' they got outta dungeon-- Chachanji Gegenji: divin' 'n th' like." Chachanji Gegenji: "Izzat tha' 'spiritbindin'' yer talkin' 'bout?"

Loloki Loki: "Not wholly." She sighs again. Loki steps a little to Chachanji's side and looks him over again, "I was wrong to assume too much. You have provided useful information, but allow me to explain." Her tone changed, "Spiritbonds is the spiritually-charged connection that an individual forms with their equipment, clothing, and other effects that they wear on their person over long periods of time. Your favorite tools for instance. Or a accessory from a old friend." She reaches up and rubs a - Loloki Loki -- earring that looks like aetheryte. "It is this connection that is exploited for use in the creation of materia. You are familiar with materia, I presume?"

Chachanji Gegenji pouts a little at being talked down at about this. "A'course I know 'bout th' bondin' ya can do wit yer equipment," he states, perhaps with a little hint of indignation. "It jus' dun cause th' sorta sheen thi' has - 'r th' ones folks get from their dungeon-divin'. Otherwise me hammer here'd be shinin' up a storm." He motions to the tool with a brief tilt of his head. "'n I know 'bout materia 'n affixin' it. Jus' never learned th' process fer how ta make th' materia in th' first place."

Loloki Loki 's in her lecturing mode, "Materia is a piece of the wielder's aether. As you wear or utilize a piece of equipment, your 'spiritbond' imparts a piece of your aether to the object. Once it is of sufficient density, it can be extracted to create materia. As for the sheen, it would take many lifetimes for that to happen. Certain materials do it more efficiently and faster, such as Eikon metal. It is related to spiritbonding in the sense that it also -- Loloki Loki || involves the wielder's aether. The process is similar to how crystals form naturally. Do you understand, Ser Chachanji?"

Chachanji Gegenji gets the feeling he should have a notebook and be taking notes for a test later. Which makes him pout a little. "W-well, tha' jus' furthers me belief tha' these gauntlets'r pretty old if'n they've managed ta bond wit enuff folks tha' they're shinin' like thi'."

Loloki Loki: "That is not the only means. In fact, I have seen this phenomena in newer items. Some crafters in Sharlayan have learned to infuse aether into their creations to enhance their abilities without the benefit of eons. The Garleans, domineering warmongers they may be, have learned to do this with aetherochemistry to an extent. However, for these gauntlets, I hypothesize that this is a case of aetherical gear - when an individual dies violently, there is a chance for their aether to become -- Loloki Loki: || trapped in their equipment. A more superstitious interpretation would be their souls are trapped in their equipment." Loloki Loki: "I need confirmation if this was the case. I know especially talented and skilled crafters are capable of similar infusions, and have the knowledge to distinguish between artifical and 'natural' aetherical gear." Loloki Loki watches Chachanji silently once she finishes.

Chachanji Gegenji looks a little bit frightened and upset by that last bit, idly fidgeting with a bracelet of prayer beads under his left sleeve as he murmurs a quiet prayer for the departed. He might very well be one of those superstitious types. He seems happy to focus on the former topic rather than the latter, and latches onto it quickly enough. "W-well, if'n there's a way ta do tha'... tha'd be neat ta know. Could help me make ev'n better equipment fer keepin' folks safe. ... if'n I can do it, a'course." Chachanji Gegenji: "As fer these gauntlets, th' age 'n craftin' style makes me thin' it's prolly one'a them 'natural' aethericamacal types rather'n somethin' created wit it ta start wit." Chachanji Gegenji: "But I'd need examples'a both a'fore I can be super sure 'bout tha'." He shrugs.

Loloki Loki: "That is an assumption. It can be 'natural', but it is forged expertly enough that it could be 'artificial'. I had heard you were a particularly skilled craftsman - have you or the master to which you were apprenticed to - done aetherical infusions before?"

Chachanji Gegenji: "Ya mean me Papa? He's back home in Doma, helpin' wit th' reconstructin' efforts," the little smith answers. "'n he always talked 'bout puttin' a bit of yerself inta yer work... but I dun think he meant it so... literally?" The Gegenji style was mostly a focus on artisanship and effective design. Exceptionally powerful equipment made just through raw talent and craft than imbuing aether into it. Though, given the amount of effort and energy spent in the process... some infusion may happen-- Chachanji Gegenji: incidentally. Though, these oft led to those sorts of weapons that were "control or be controlled" - the Gegenji concept of Intent. Chachanji Gegenji: "He did warn tha' ya gotta be careful when makin' stuff, since th' Intent could prove too strong fer th' user. 'n then they get used by th' weapon rather than them usin' it."

Loloki Loki: "What do you think, Ser Chachanji." She's got a instructor's tone. Loloki Loki gazes upon you in deep reflection.

Chachanji Gegenji: "Well, like I said... thi' seems more like tha' natural type ya said rather'n it bein' designed tha' way... I ain't sensin' any solid Intent innit."

Loloki Loki: "Intent is a form of belief. Belief is a form of spiritual aetheric energy. Overtime, that aetheric energy can harmonize with its environment. But I suppose you are correct in that there needs to be a sample and comparison. What if I commissioned you to craft something with a large concentration of your 'Intent', then compared between them? Gil is no object."

Chachanji Gegenji looks VERY nervous about that. "O-oh... u-um... I-I act'lly try ta AVOID makin' stuff wit Intent when I can... I-I dun want it ta be too much fer someone ta handle, y'know?"

Loloki Loki: "Hmm? I am sure I can handle it." She points to the tattoos on her neck and the weird glowing necklace. "Or are you not up to it? How long has it been since you have done so, Ser Chachanji?"

Chachanji Gegenji still doesn't seem entirely convinced. "W-well, I haven't really... ACTIVELY tried ta do it at all. Mostly been tryin' ta avoid it." Chachanji Gegenji: "Keepin' yer mind clear when makin' th' extra strong stuff, y'know? Tha' sorta thin'"

Loloki Loki: "Hmph. Then this is a request. I need a comparison. And a means to evaluate your ability as so many have vouched for your ability. Your Intent is most likely aether. And I wish to evaluate it. I am a specialist in the field of aetherial accumulation, particularly natural accumulation, although as you know from our discussion, I do not shy away from artifical means. I can provide you with the materials you need."

Chachanji Gegenji frowns and scratches at his cheek.

Loloki Loki: "As I said, you do not need to worry. All precautions will be taken."

Chachanji Gegenji: "W-well, I dun have much doubt in me ability ta make good gear," he insists. "I hafta in order ta keep peoples safe. Addin' Intent jus' makes it more... dangerous, y'know? 'n I dun want anyone gettin' hurt or forced ta do thin's they might not wanna do because'a it."

Loloki Loki: "As I said. No one will be hurt. I have been exposed to artifacts with 'primal' aether." She touches her faintly glowing necklace. "I have encountered a large range of aetherical types and entities over my career and studies, and I guarantee you that all necessary precautions will be taken. As strong as you believe your Intent is, I doubt it is stronger than an artifact infused with the 'intent' of a primal."

Chachanji Gegenji: "A-ah... I-I 'spose..." he relents. He had never encountered a Primal himself, but he HAD heard tales of the tempered. Hard not to around Limsa and Ul'dah with the likes of Leviathan and Ifrit being called upon. "S-still, I'd feel more comfortable tha' - after ya do yer... um... 'tests' 'r whatev'r - what I make fer it be destroyed afterward. I'd feel better knowin' tha' it won't get inta th' wrong hands."

Loloki Loki: "It will be fine. Why should it be destroyed? It will be sent to Sharlayan to be collected and archived. If it is deemed as dangerous as you believe, it will be recorded and sealed. There are far more dangerous items in the world. Or are you concern as matter of your legacy?"

Chachanji Gegenji: "Um... more tha' it could end up hurtin' someone, like I said," he insists. "I do what I do ta help people, not ta hurt 'em. Havin' somethin' out there tha' could - 'n not wit someone I fully trust, though prolly wit 'em too - would jus'... eat at me, y'know? Make me worry." Chachanji Gegenji is a worrywart.

Loloki Loki: "Artifacts sealed away in priority containment cells will never see the light of day. In the worst case scenario, the cells will self-destruct or banish their contents to the void. If it worries you so much, you may be allowed to journey to the Old World to see the precautions. The Forum has been moving towards an isolationist approach towards the outside world, but they would be glad to welcome a visiting Disciple of the Hand of obvious skill and capability. Provided, of course, -- Loloki Loki: -- ' that your creation is as 'dangerous' as you say it is."

Chachanji Gegenji still doesn't seem very appeased. Being asked to make something potentially dangerous for someone he doesn't know on the promise that it'll be kept somewhere supposedly safe. "I dunno..."

Loloki Loki sighs, "Do you seek knowledge? Do you want to know how to create greater and greater creations? I - We can open the door. If you do as I ask, and if it is as potent as you say, it will be put in the care of stewards far more capable than any you would find here in this... land. You will be allowed to learn from the knowledge we have collected. To know of other cultures, present and past. Would that not expand your horizons, Ser Chachanji? To know the true extent of your abilities? Or...." Loloki Loki motions to the room. Perhaps the house. Perhaps the city. Perhaps more. "...Is this... all you desire to aspire to?"

Chachanji Gegenji frowns. "I want ta help people. Keep them safe. Make sure - if'n they hafta go out ta fight - tha' they can return home to their loved ones afterward." Chachanji Gegenji: "It ain't about jus' tryin' ta see how good I can be. It's bein' as good as I can be ta make sure tha' what I make helps keep those peoples safe."

Loloki Loki: "And new knowledge can help you do that. A technique from ancient Nym that infuses metal with regenerative ability. To know about a leather which would sap the aether of those who wear use it. Knowledge to protect and shield the ignorant from the dangers of this star."

Chachanji Gegenji looks uncomfortable. "L-look, I won't lie. Summa tha' sounds nice - not th' aether-drainin' leathers, a'course - but yer still askin' me ta make somethin' potentially dangerous. 'd already be trustin' ya plenty 'nuff tha' ya could handle it... but I still dun like th' idea'a it bein' carted off afterward. I'd rather it be returned back ta its base materials rather'n risk it gettin' mishandled 'r misused 'n ultimately hurtin' folks."

Loloki Loki: "We do not know if it will really hurt anyone. As you said, you have not actually created any in awhile. And if it will allay your concerns, we can do the first evaluations here." Loloki Loki: "If you want, I can give you time to think on it."

Chachanji Gegenji: "... I dun mind ya doin' yer studies here, tha's fine," he admits. "Th' point is tha' if'n I feel it could be dangerous - fer any reason - 'm destroyin' it afterwards."

Loloki Loki: "That is acceptable."

Chachanji Gegenji: "Akay then," he huffs, looking at the gauntlet. "So... assumin' thi' is th' 'natural' aether. I figger makin' a similar gauntlet in my method would work?"

Loloki Loki: "I leave it to your discretion. You are the expert."

Chachanji Gegenji: "Well, yer doin' a compary-son, right?" he states. "So ya'd want as lil' differences between th' two as possible other'n th' aether innit." Chachanji Gegenji: "So I'll see if'n I can get ahold of some Darksteel 'round thi' quality 'n try ta replicate th' design. Jus'... also not doin' me usual exercises ta avoid puttin' Intent inta it." Chachanji Gegenji scratches at his cheek. "It'll be weird not doin' 'em, honestly. 's basically habit at thi' point."

Loloki Loki: "Yes. It would be ideal. I could provided it to you. Think of it as a new adventure, as one of my students would say"

Chachanji Gegenji: "Mm." He seems on the fence about that. "W-well, 's less adventure-seekin' 'n more wantin' ta be helpful. 'n knowin' how strong th' Intent I can put inta somethin' can be... might be nice ta help me make sure folks can handle me strongest stuff. Though I wouldn't mind knowin' how ta strengthen equipment wit aether tha' dun risk puttin' Intent inta it..." Chachanji Gegenji: "Which is kinda th' only reason 'm agreein' ta thi'. 'm trustin' ya a lot here. Plus knowin' I can get rid'a it if'n it's too dangerous... it makes me tha' lil' bit less worried."

Loloki Loki: "Intent may just be aether. If they are the same, then you will know."

Chachanji Gegenji: "I 'spose..."

Loloki Loki: "You trust easily, but I promise I will do my best to uphold my end of the bargain." Loloki Loki motions to herself.

Chachanji Gegenji: "I'd rather trust than not, if'n I can," he explains. "But I also know tha' jus' trustin' folks blindly can be dangerous too. 'specially when we're dealin' with Intent."

Loloki Loki: "Understandable. But as I said, this 'intent' of yours may just be aether. We will have to see. I am interested in this. I hope it does not disappoint."

Chachanji Gegenji: "W-well, we'll see. I dun think I'll have pro'lems recreatin' a copy'a one'a these gauntlets. 'specially if'n I have one wit me 'n all th' materials ta do it." He holds up one of the aforementioned gauntlets for emphasis. "'s... jus' actively tryin' ta put Intent inta it tha' might be difficult."

Loloki Loki: "I trust your skill and professionalism. You are free to modify them slightly, if you believe it to be necessary. Comparison is one objective. How the aether make-up changes between artificial and natural is also of interest."

Chachanji Gegenji: "Ah, r-right," he nods a nod of someone who doesn't really get what you're saying but trying to at least make it less obvious. "Well, um. Once I have th' materials, I'll see 'bout knockin' thi' out. 'm assumin' it's akay fer me ta keep one'a th' gauntlets fer ref'rence?"

Loloki Loki nods to gauntlet that Chach has, "Sure. I can have the materials delivered to you in a few suns. It will take time to find enough Darksteel of sufficient quality."

Chachanji Gegenji nods. With some of the safety concerns checked off now, he seems less... skittish about the idea. If only a little. "W-well, if'n yer havin' trouble, I can always reach out ta some'a me contacts. I... kinda inherited a Smeltin' Guild a cycle'r so ago through thi' whole trial thin' involvin' ingots 'n stuff..." A pause, then a sheepish smile. "S-so I have access ta some mines 'n folks what can provide raw materials if'n needed."

Loloki Loki: "I leave it to your discretion. As long as the materials are of sufficient quality."

Chachanji Gegenji: "'m sure they will be," he offers. "... 'course, 'll know if they ain't."

Loloki Loki nods to you.

Chachanji Gegenji: "So... um... anythin' else I can help ya wit t'day?"

Loloki Loki reaches into her robe and offers a linkpearl to Chach, "If you need to contact me. I may not always be available, but an assistant will answer instead."

Chachanji Gegenji: "Ah, sure thin'." He takes the pearl and it disappears into one of the many pouches about his person.

Loloki Loki reaches again and pulls out a heavy sack, "Your pre-payment, for materials and this consultation." She offers it to him.

Chachanji Gegenji: "A-ah, sure thin'..." he repeats, a bit more awkwardly as he feels the weight of the coinage. He usually is on the cheaper side of things - he's making his equipment to help people, not turn a profit - but he's a bit less argumentative about this one since he's dealing both with high quality Darksteel (which isn't exactly cheap) and the creation of something potentially dangerous. So it the sack also disappears into one of his pouches.

Loloki Loki: "Is that sufficient for your needs, Ser Chachanji?"

Chachanji Gegenji: "Oh, uh, yeah. Should be fine," he states. "Though, um... ya dun need ta call me 'Ser.'"

Loloki Loki: "Worry not, Ser Chachanji. It is a habit of mine." She smiles.

Chachanji Gegenji scratches at his cheek. "... If'n ya say so..."

Loloki Loki: "With that, I believe our business is concluded." She snaps her finger and her frozen frog minion reanimates, and rushes to open the door for her.

Chachanji Gegenji: "'spose so," he agrees. "Well, I'll keep ya posted on how th' glove's comin' along, then."

Loloki Loki bows courteously to you. Loloki Loki: "May the Twelve grace you, Ser Chachanji Gegenji."

You perform an Eastern bow before Loloki LokiMateus. Chachanji Gegenji: "Ah, 'n may th' kami watch ov'r ya, Ms. Loloki."

Loloki Loki leaves just like that. Her ears twitch upward, but otherwise, there's no sign of her hearing Chach's farewell.

[do-your-socks-have-holes-in-them]

Til the End of the Night / Ch9: In which even weirder stuff happens in the forest

Previous / Masterpost / Next 

Summary:  Virgil is fully prepared to throw down with the local flora. Logan experiences a videogame tutorial level. Patton gets lost through, for once, no fault of his own.

Warnings: none

A/N: I feel bad for giving Virgil a hard time in these next few chapters but like, not bad enough to stop doing it lol

Read on AO3

Virgil came to in an unfamiliar part of the forest with an awful headache.  He shot to his feet as soon as he remembered what had happened.  He could move normally now, at least, but the sense of danger he felt only increased as he took in his surroundings.

Neither of his friends were anywhere to be seen, and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be a good idea to try calling for them.  It shouldn’t be nighttime at this point, but it certainly seemed like it was.  The main difference was that instead of crickets and whatever making noise, there was a near-total eerie silence, save for the occasional rustling of leaves. The trees above him were simply so thick that almost no light reached the ground, not to mention bigger in every dimension than Virgil was entirely comfortable with a tree or anything else being.  He didn’t like being loomed over, even by plants.  The point was, he couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead with any clarity.  The air had an earthy, almost primeval scent, so strong it overwhelmed him at first, and it was strangely cold despite the fact that every day previous had been practically summery.  He suspected it was a result of the location, not the actual weather.  Wherever he was, it did not feel like a place he wanted to be.

He bent down to pull a silver-handled dagger out of its hiding place in his boot and walked forward slowly, doing his best not to step on anything loud.  It wasn’t just the trees that were thick.  With the amount of underbrush and weird roots sticking up around here, he’d almost believe the forest was actively trying to trip him.  He really, really hoped it wasn’t, but… you never know. Something touched the back of his neck and he whipped around ready to defend himself- it was only a vine hanging down from a branch, but he took a step away from it anyway.  He wasn’t going to trust anything around here, no matter how inanimate it may appear to be.

His footsteps crunched on the ground, obvious in the silence despite his best efforts.  The only thing louder was his heartbeat.  He had a growing certainty that he was being watched, though it had been fifteen minutes and he had yet to see another living creature, and put his hood up in an attempt to block out the feeling of eyes on him from behind.

The brush tangling at his feet grew steadily thicker and taller the further he walked, reaching almost to his hips.  Thorns tore at his clothes, and he thanked his past self for designing an outfit that covered all his skin.  Maybe this was a sign he was going the right way… or maybe it was a sign he was going the wrong way and was headed toward an even more dangerous area.  The thought that this area had yet to prove itself at all dangerous didn’t even cross his mind- he was too busy wondering what might be ahead.

He turned around, having second-guessed himself enough that he thought maybe he should just go back the way he’d come and try a less prickly direction, only to find that the way he’d come wasn’t… there anymore.  The growth behind him was now so thick he couldn’t force his way through it if he tried, and he feared that if he tried too hard he’d end up stuck and probably, like, die there or something.  Well… either he was going the right way after all, or it was too late now to escape the trap he’d walked into.  He turned back around, swallowing hard and shifting his grip on his dagger, and pushed on.

When Logan opened his eyes, he found himself in a strange cavern. A torch on the wall nearby cast flickering light and shadow on the area around him.  He stood and brushed himself off, and found his bag on the ground nearby. The contents didn’t appear to have been disturbed, which left the motives of whoever had put him here a complete enigma.  “Curiouser and curiouser,” he muttered to himself, raising an eyebrow.  The reference seemed fitting.

He wasn’t going to find out where he was or how he’d gotten there by standing around wondering about it.  He took the torch down, careful not to burn himself, and went to investigate the areas still hidden in darkness.  It turned out that he was in less of a cave and more of a decently sized room carved out of what may have started as a cave, in that the opposite side of the cavern featured the outline of a door.  However, there was no handle, and pushing on it did nothing.  Fortunately, it wasn’t the only thing on that side.

Something resembling a pipe ran along the floor, connecting the assumed door to a strange device several feet away.  Logan walked over and examined it, finding a convenient bracket to set the torch in on the wall nearby.  The device appeared rather simple, the only part of it he could interact with being a currently-useless switch, but the pipe leading up to it twisted around itself in knots and was covered in runes of a presumably magical nature.  He would have liked to take a picture of it, but his phone had long since run out of battery thanks to all the other things he’d wanted pictures of, so he settled for scribbling down as much of the writing as he could make out in one of his notebooks.

Just below the switch and at the end of the twisted pipe was a metal bowl.  The outside of the bowl had as much writing all over it as did the pipe itself.  The inside, however, was inscribed with only a single symbol, glowing a faint orange.  Even more of note was the pedestal next to the device, which held a baseball-sized metallic sphere and, beside it, a tool which resembled an expensive ballpoint pen from an alternate universe where pens are one solid piece with no recognizable ink and glow the same orange color as the symbol in that metal bowl.  There seemed to be a fairly obvious solution to try.  Logan picked up both items and carefully copied the symbol onto the sphere using the probably-magic writing instrument, painting it with that orange light, then placed it in the bowl.

As soon as the two metal objects touched, the writing on both changed from orange to blue and the room shook with a low grinding sound. Logan grabbed the pedestal for balance. When he looked up again, the door was open.  He smiled faintly, a bit pleased with himself for working out how to open it despite the fact that the solution had practically been handed to him.  Removing the metal ball from the mechanism caused the door to lower again, and he had no desire to be crushed by it, so he left the ball where it was, retrieved his torch and proceeded on to the next chamber. If his tentative theory on what sort of place he’d found himself in was correct, he would have no shortage of opportunities to test his puzzle-solving skills.

Patton yawned and rolled onto his back, blinking lazily against the warm sunlight that had woken him.  He should get up; his friends were probably waiting on him so they could finish their trip through the forest.  Where were his glasses?  Right, a few feet off to the side- Virgil had insisted on putting them a safe distance away so they wouldn’t get broken if he moved around in his sleep.  He always thought of everything.  Patton would be lost without him and Logan, both literally and metaphorically.

Speaking of Virgil and Logan, where had those two wandered off to?  When Patton sat up, he didn’t see them anywhere.  He shook his head at them even though they weren’t there to see it, clicking his tongue in mild disapproval.  Even if they did think he wouldn’t wake up before they came back, it would have been more considerate to leave him a note before going to find their bearings or whatever else they were doing.

“Oh well,” he said to himself, looking around at the clearing.  “I’ll just wait…”  If they were here, that’s what they would tell him to do.  They wouldn’t want him to get lost trying to find them.  He was sure they would come back soon, anyway, and until then, he had a nice comfy spot to sit against a tree and enjoy the lovely day he’d woken up to.

He sat and waited, and got bored and walked around the clearing for a bit looking for interesting plants, and sat back down in a different spot because he was overheating a little with the sun on him, and waited some more.  What on earth were his friends taking so long to do?  He really hoped they hadn’t gotten lost!  Maybe he should go look for them after all.  He took another look around, hoping there was some clue as to where they’d gone that he just missed when he first woke up, and… He frowned in confusion.

“Wait a minute…”

There had been a blanket on the ground when he’d fallen asleep, and now there wasn’t, which incidentally meant his hair was full of pine needles, but that wasn’t the important part right now.  He didn’t see how they could have gotten it out from under him and put it away without waking him up.  Also, come to think of it, why would they have left him alone and unsupervised when Virgil had previously insisted on holding his hand like he was a small child to make sure nothing happened to him?  And, and the trees, it had been kinda hard to see last night, but he was pretty sure the trees looked different than before!

“Uh-oh,” Patton whispered to himself.  “I don’t think this is the same clearing…”

He had no idea how it had happened, but he was in a different place now than he’d been last night. Maybe all the magic made him start sleepwalking?  ...And he’d somehow remembered to bring his glasses with him?  He hoped Logan and Virgil weren’t too worried about him, but knew they almost definitely were if he’d just up and vanished in the night before they could wake him for his turn on watch.

If they hadn’t found him by now, they probably had no idea where he was.  He didn’t have any way to contact them, either, his phone dead for reasons that definitely had nothing to do with playing Candy Crush because he got bored. The only other thing he could think of to do was just… start walking, and he’d get out of the forest eventually, and then meet back up with his friends when they got out.  They’d all walked for a long time yesterday, so it couldn’t be too much farther, right? (He ignored the fact that they may very well have gone in the complete opposite direction while running away from that… horrible giant murder-bug.  And also the fact that he had no idea which way was out now.)  He just needed to pick a direction.

“Uh…”  Everything around him looked pretty much the same.  It was all just… trees.  He closed his eyes and spun in a circle, only to make himself dizzy and trip over his own feet.  “Haha, whoops,” he laughed at himself.  He sat up and almost gasped when he saw the bit of forest he’d landed closest to.  He hadn’t noticed from the angle he’d been looking from before, but there was something of a natural path, lit by sunlight that filtered through the trees.  That had to lead somewhere!  He stood and brushed the dirt and pine needles off his cloak, feeling much more sure of himself.  “Well then, looks like I’m going that way!”

[samblogz]

GATE 2019 Preparation and Experience

Having scored AIR 56 in GATE 2019, a lot of people asked me how I prepared for GATE so this is the reason why I decided to write this post. I have explained in great detail the work I did. I have also discussed the problems I faced and how I solved these problems. Everyone will make mistakes and everyone will have some unique problems. But figuring out the solutions to these problems is part of the preparation. So don't give up and keep on working. 

The two most important resources for me were GateOverflow and RavindraBabu Ravula (RVB). I am very thankful to both of them.

During my third or fourth semester, I learned about RVB through my friends while I was preparing for a test. I got to know about GATE through him (specifically through this video - "After BTech, MS or MTech or MBA or a job??"). I started thinking about the long term options I had and GATE seemed like a good option.

Growing up I never studied for getting good grades. I always studied to learn. While studying anything I just had one goal - To understand the concept clearly enough so that I could at least explain the concept to anyone. I always got good grades but I missed something, the feeling one gets while working hard. I never thought I gave anything my 100 percent. My thoughts were very nihilistic.

I thought about the 10,000-hour rule and to be a master I had to dedicate years. I knew I needed to focus, I needed to learn working hard and for that I needed to practice sitting for long hours. So in my fifth semester, I started studying for lengthy periods of time. Even if I was not studying I would sit on the chair and table in my hostel room. I watched movies sitting on the chair. No sitting on beds for me since. I used bed only for sleeping. After one year I was more comfortable sitting on the chair than anywhere else. I bought RVB's video package for GATE and started making notes. It was a slow process. I made most of my notes in my third year besides a few subjects. 

My college required me to have an internship for 8th semester, otherwise, I would have to stay in the college and do a project under some professor. In 7th semester, companies came to my college. I knew I studied my subjects well and was decent coder so I didn't work on the technical skills. I continued working for GATE and was making notes even at this time. To get a job offer or an internship I worked on quantitative aptitude, group discussion and my interview skills. I was pretty confident I would get an offer and I needed the offer just so I could decide after 8th semester what I wanted to do, either to pursue GATE or to continue with the job. I knew my preparation wasn't enough to crack GATE that year i.e. GATE 2018. For me cracking GATE meant to get into IISc or IIT-B, anything other than that would be failing. I got an internship at a start-up called 'HealthKart' which is based in Gurgaon.

I continued studying for GATE before I got to Gurgaon but once I was there I didn't have time to study. I hadn't attempted any mock test till then nor did I solve any previous year GATE question but I still attempted GATE 2018 and got a rank of around 6,000. I knew I could do better. I started thinking about what I should do going forward. I thought about what I would like my career to be and what options can I pursue. Thinking about these things proved very productive for me. As I would take a year to prepare for GATE, I knew I would get bored at some point of time and I would need something to continue pushing forward. Any GATE aspirant or any student who is preparing for an exam should have a very clear goal.

I was doing great at my internship and I was sure to get a job offer. But 2 or 3 years down the line, I knew I would need some higher qualification. I decided I wanted to crack GATE. But cracking GATE wasn't my only objective, I wanted to learn how to focus and I wanted to do it for a year. Failing at GATE wouldn't be a problem if only I could learn how to focus.

I left the internship around 20th June 2018 and headed to my home in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh). I completed notes for some subjects - Database Management System, Digital Logic and Design, Computer Network, Computer Organization and Architecture. This took me around two months.

After that, I started practicing previous year questions. Before starting with the previous year questions I would study a subject once from my notes, this took me 2-3 days. My notes were very detailed. Then I started solving the questions. Starting out, this was very tough for me. I never prepared seriously for JEE so I had no experience preparing for a competitive exam.

After I read the subject, I would think how difficult would it be to solve these questions. I would be able to solve 50% of the questions correctly. For the remaining questions either I wouldn't understand a question or I would do some silly mistake or I would forget the information needed to solve the question. Another unusual thing happened, starting out I thought that in one sitting I should easily be able to solve 150 questions. But in reality, I could do only 30 questions in the whole day.

When I was not able to solve questions that was failure for me and I didn't know how to deal with failure. With each question I failed to solve was a slap on my face. I was close to giving up.

Then something nice happened. I was solving questions from a book which was compiled by MadeEasy. In this book, the questions were first sorted according to the subject and then according to the topic. For each question, the answer was given along with an explanation. Sometimes I wouldn't understand the explanation or sometimes I wouldn't agree with the given answer. I would search the question on Google and would check various answers. This is the time I discovered GateOverflow. I would see a great community where people would solve the question using multiple approaches. If I had some doubt with the given answer, I saw the comments on that answer and I would find someone who had the same doubt, I would read other users' response and this would clear my doubts. If my doubt wasn't already asked, I would raise a question and eventually someone would resolve my query.

A lot of answers in this MadeEasy books were incorrect. I thought who are the guys who answered these questions. They are definitely the teachers at MadeEasy. They have taught these subjects for years but still they made so many mistakes, so it is very trivial that I too will make mistakes. I knew if I was going to continue solving these questions I will meet failure daily and it is good to make mistakes because if I made mistakes now I won't make these mistakes in exam. From then on, each day I would wake up ready to fail and at the end of each day I tire myself wrestling with failure. Now failure was a very good friend of mine. Once I was ready to accept failure, the number of questions I solved increased over time. (By the way, if someone from MadeEasy wants to correct the wrong solutions, then I have marked all the questions with incorrect answers in their collection of previous year questions.)

I developed the following system to solve questions and clear my concepts. I would solve the questions on one topic, then I would mark them right or wrong according to the given answers. Then I would read the questions I solved once again, if I had some doubt in the question or if my answer was incorrect, I would search the question on 'GATE Overflow' (or 'GeeksForGeeks' in some cases) and would clear my doubts. This went on till the beginning of November 2018.

I read somewhere that to get AIR-1 in GATE one should solve previous year questions two times at least, but I didn't have time for that so I tried to absorb the concepts completely the first time.

While solving questions during this time I also used to revise subjects. Whenever I got bored with solving the questions in one subject, I would start revising some other subject. I did this so as not to waste time. When we are bored with something, we take longer to perform that task. Then later after I finished the other subject's or topic's revision, I would get back to the previous subject. I revised according to the strategy given by RVB ("How to revise and remember the topics for long!!"). After I finished solving previous year questions I would still need a day to revise the whole subject, earlier I thought this time would reduce to 2-3 hours but it didn't. This would be a problem according to my plan. I had planned that in January when I will be taking full-length test I would revise one or two subjects each day. Since I was taking a day or a day and a half to revise a subject completely, this plan won't work. Then again something nice happened.

One night I was sleepless. In the last 4 days I had completed the subject revision of Algorithms, C & Data Structures and Theory of Computation. And in these 4 days I was worried that I may not have the time to revise these subjects once again as I hadn't attempted any topic test, subject test, multi-subject test and full-length test and I had to solve them too. So I worked extra slowly trying to stuff these concepts in my mind. Remembering things isn't my strong suit and the tension that I won't be able to revise kept me from sleeping that night. I had an idea. I had tried studied these subjects very carefully this time, observing the arrangement of topics within my notes. If I could remember the name of the topic and its order, then I would able to remember the things I learned from the notes. So I did a mental revision. It took me two hours. But in these two hours while laying on my bed I revised 3 subjects completely and the types of questions asked from each topic. While doing this mental revision I identified the topics which I had learned completely and the topics where I was missing something.

I knew I was onto something. I hadn't prepared any short notes and I didn't have the time to prepare short notes. I decided to prepare short notes but in my way. For each subject, I started with a single topic. I would read the topic, if I knew everything in the topic I would just write the topic name in one line. If I knew I couldn't remember something then in-short I would write contents of this topic or just create a diagram to capture this concept completely. I did this for all my subjects and this took me one and a half months approximately.

Preparing for Mathematics was a different game altogether. I knew I didn't have grasp over all the concepts needed to solve the questions. I knew I didn't have the time to do it in the way I wanted. And I was doubtful whether I would be able to remember these concepts. Scoring in Mathematics was never difficult for me but when I prepared for Mathematics earlier it was in a very different fashion. This is the kind of problem most students face in India. I knew I had to handle this differently starting now. I wanted to pursue Machine Learning (ML) during my M.Tech and for those of you who don't know ML is a dwarf which stands on the shoulders Mathematics and modeling. I knew I had start visualizing Mathematics as I will need it in the future and I will need it to understand and solve questions faster in GATE.

I was scared what kind of questions will I get in Calculus and how will I be able to remember all the formulae in it. Then I did some research, talked to a few friends in other departments. I found out that in GATE CSE the focus wasn't much on difficult questions in Calculus. It focused more on discrete mathematics - set theory, linear algebra, probability - and somewhat on graph theory. To clear my concepts I learned some things from Khan Academy. For Mathematical Logic, Combinatorics and Probability I saw the complete playlist from PacketPrep on Youtube. For combinatorics, TrevTutor helped me. All this was in addition to RVB content.

I joined the GATExcel test series by RVB. I started giving topical tests around 13th November 2018. I had to make up for less time. I gave multiple tests a day. After topical tests and some other tests, I made short notes that I described earlier. During my preparation I didn't solve any question from GATE 2018, so after I was done preparing I took GATE 2018 full-length test. I performed terribly. That is when I realized I had to start giving full-length tests. I needed to learn managing time in the paper. Before this I was just postponing the full-length tests. So I started giving full-length tests around 20th January 2019. Apart from RVB's tests, I also gave full-length tests by mentors on GateOverflow. With each test, I could feel the improvement.

Eventually, I took GATE 2019. Even on the day of exam I made a mistake. I had problem understanding a NAT question so I left it for the end. In the last two minutes I got back to the question, understood it and did the calculation. Only one minute was remaining now. I entered the value but I thought of rechecking the answer, I rechecked the calculation and found that my answer was correct. By now the time was over and I hadn't saved the answer. I realized this only when at the end of the examination I saw 7 questions were unanswered.

RVB is an amazing teacher and his course is great. When you will solve questions you will find that some topics are not covered by him and you will have to work on it yourself. Well that is because these questions have accumulated over a long period of time and the syllabus kept on changing. Also his test series has a good level of difficulty. While taking the tests I found some questions were erroneous. Any test series you take will have some questions with incorrect answers. But RVB's team was a great help, they helped clarify my doubts or cleared their errors. I don't know if any other coaching provides this kind of support.

'GATE Overflow' was also a tremendous help. CS students are lucky that we have such a great resource. They also have great tests. I recommend buying the question bank compiled by them. It is very good. 'GeeksForGeeks' is another great resource. The articles or short notes provided by them were a great help.

[tumblunni]

Random game idea that came to mind: clockwork man simulator

I dunno, i just got the general image in my head of a soft homey aesthetic equivelant of that terrible game about the androids. Itd be more like just a life-living game, like stuff like animal crossing or harvest moon. Just fully exploring the perspective of these creatures and the world that created them, rather than BOOM ACTION SETPIECES or whatever

I only have some scattered ideas for it tho, and not really any idea of a main plot or gameplay gimmick or 3 act structure or like.. Anything to take this from idea to game, lol.

SO ITS MISC IDEAS TIME

* more of an olden timey fantasy style instead of sci fi. Youre still an artificial person created to run errands for humans, but youre more of a combination of clockwork and magic. There's still an element of being made of inanimate object parts but there's also some glowy energy core or something. Possibly would be interesting if it was something unusual to use as a power source? Like i dunno, a bell or an acorn or a teacup or one of those rocks with the hole in it that sometimes wash up on beaches. Or just a glowy orb of Generically Defined Energy Substance, which flows through you like aesthetically pleasing glowy veins

* you're a service clockwork homunculus thingy, bought by a disabled person who needs help around the house. PERHAPS A SWEET OLD GRANDMA! Whatever i decide on (IT'LL PROBABLY BE THE GRANDMA), your owner is a kind person who sees you as part of the family and feels guilty using an android as they believe you are absolutely a real person and wish they could set you free. Unfortunately theyre kinda one of the people who needs androids the most, as they dont have any family who can help them. At the same time though, they are very old and quite resigned to nobody caring about them, plus theyre just a good person who'd put your life over their own. So i feel like the plot would literally start with this person trying to set you free and you are just like "i do npt understand the concept, that is not in my programming". Its become kind of a morning routine now to hear "youre free! Get out, dammit!" and have a brisk argument over breakfast that inevitably always ends with you refusing. Grandma's prpbably got so desperate they're resorting to tactics like trying to trick you into getting on the bus out of town or "if you dont leave im gonna hold my breath and i wont stop til i pass out". All inevitabley failing! So they just try and help you understand your sentience and become more independant, encouraging you to take free time every day and go around the town to enjoy yourself. Which is kinda a concept you dont understand yet, so its just like MISSION RECEIVED: WALK IN CIRCLE AROUND PERIMETER OF TOWN. And its kind of a hit and miss experience because the people in this town have never seen an android before- this magic is usually a thing for rich people and this proposed scheme of disability assistance androids is still in its test run. Some people are suspicious or hateful, but there are others who welcome you to the village and brighten up your day. Not just a world of 100% everyone assholes to make a melodramatic point delivered awfully through racist stereotypes.

* i think a good subplot with this disabled grandma would be to show her regaining her independance too. Like she starts off quite fatalistic and used to nobody caring about her, all this mobility aid stuff is new and she feels like its too complicated and she'll never get it, or its too expensive and she doesnt deserve it, or all the nonsense that ableist society drills into people. But with the support of her new friend and access to more tools to help take her life into her own hands, she starts regaining hope again! Like ironically she felt like her previous carers were all the kinds of awful things people expect these androids to be. Robotic, emotionless monsters who dont care about the person's feelings and comfort, and certainly not independance. She suffered from a lot of the same nightmares that androids do too: being forced into a rigid schedule, limited in her options, deprived of basic rights, being told how she's supposed to feel, etc. But to an android that all seems like an inefficient way to do things! My function is healing and human healing efficiency is decreased in this circumstance! I am incapable of ignoring data due to personal bias! Basically imagine MAGIC BAYMAX ok. Anyway this plot would progress with grandma regaining her smile and eventually itd be a super happy day when she's able to get her new wheelchair that she can wheel to the shops on her own without needing someone to push her. Itd be really sweet from the player's perspective to get used to saying goodbye to her every morning and then suddenly you see her wandering around the shops with everyone else and she can become a part of the vibrant town too. Im thinking give her more complex AI than all the other villagers even, like give her a more complicated set of actions and move routes and stuff like SHE IS EVERYWHERE and she is LOVING IT! Life is back where it belongs: in the hands of the person living it! And it also intensifies the message of android slavery not being necessary or moral or good. Like i mean here this lady benefitted from getting an android but literally all she needed was a friend, a healthcare professional who gave a shit, and affordable access to mobility aids. Humans could have done that if they werent lazy assholes! And this android deserves the right to the same uplifting independenceifying experience they helped this grandma have!!

* random idea: all the events you encounter on each daily walk are actually stored in your inventory as items. Memories of experiences, good or bad, become literally experience for you! They each affect stats in different ways because of what you learned from that moment. Maybe bad experiences give you combat abilities and good ones help with your daily life skills and development of personality? And its possible to crack or even shatter a memory, if new experiences end up clashing with it. Usually its just 'oh i learned the more advanced version of this skill through better understanding of why humans do it', but also traumatic memories damaging good ones, and good ones helping ease traumatic ones. And maybe you could solve puzzles and make friendships through using these memory items? Youre faced with a challenge and have to make the connections in your mind to figure out which past experience is relevant here. And becoming more talented at something would help narrow down the choices you get given? And being unskilled would do screwy stuff with the interface like putting the correct option far away near the bottom or mixing up the names and icons of each memory. (Dunno how i'd program that though!)

* Maybe character customization similar to Medabots? The games were so cool and ahead of their time, you get to collect hundreds of different robot base frames and then mix and match the parts to make your own cool aesthetic! Shame it was only used for fighting though, that could be cool in a more social game too! Like go out wearing different fashions to help befriend different people, but its more fun cos its ROBOT FASHIONS! 'hey grandma do u think fred will like this arm or this arm?' She fusses over you all excitedly cos you showing an interest in fashion is a good sign of developing free will! Though you still get stuck in logic loops of 'you should wear what you like best, honey' 'HUMAN OPINION IS OF HIGHER PRIORITY' ...god i think i just made this character so i can ramble Relateable Social Anxiety Moments BUT ROBOTS

* possible ideas for Memory Events you can find around town! Meeting a cute neighbour cat- a fascinating creature you were not programmed to deal with, as you're a hospital android who isnt even meant to leave one single room for your whole life. You get absolutely entranced by the confusing small carpet with legs, and spend all morning interrogating it on why it wishes to rub its face on you. Why is your motor overheating, tiny carpet? Human master, how do you troubleshoot this noise?

* Another idea! You get 'mission: count the steps on the stairs to town' popping out of nowhere, and at first you ignore it because this is an illogical directive that does not come from a human. But it keeps happening every time you go here!! You try finding new ways to get to town crossing through fields or forests or walking directly into the path of a horsedrawn carriage, but ALAS it seems the only efficient path is those curious curious steps! Only then do you finally realise the mystery command is coming from yourself! You're not used to this strange concept of just..wanting to do something, all by yourself. You talk to your human and she says that's 'natural curiosity', 'personality', 'free will'...things that seem impossible to understand. You ask her to take you back to the shop to get this fault fixed, but she says its good and you should try acting on it. But it'll serve no purpose!! BUT AAARGH I HAVE TO KEEP SEEING THOSE STEPS EVERYDAY!! Eventually you do count them and you find it makes you satisfied for no logical reason. And that was the end of that small crisis, but you'll forever be confused by the whole thing! The next week you're like "what if i organized all the blue things with the blue things" and youre intensely frustrated at yourself. Human grandma says this is a "taste for fashion" but you remind her that you do not have a tongue. (And then she gets you the robo parts catalog and you unlock customization. Yay!)

* Possible idea for a sad subplot! A new human visits the village and he seems very strange, sometimes seeming kind and other times being angry and standoffish. You think its a simple 'jerk with a heart of gold' story but the truth is a lot stranger! It turns out this stranger is actually an important bishop in disguise, and he has multiple androids acting as body doubles to protect him while he's on the road. Theyre supposed to just be empty husks who only know how to imitate, but they clearly have their own personalities! You're tasked with finding all these runaway androids and returning them to their master for a reward, leading to a goofy lil game of hide and seek with twelve of the same guy. But it starts to get a bit sad because they're all convinced theyre the real one, and whenever they stumble into holes in their memory they freak out. When they all see each other gathered together its an absolute despair explosion and theyre forced to face the truth. And you can help them bond together as brothers and develop their own individual identities, even helping them pick out their own new faces from your set of fashion roboparts. Sadly you cant keep them here for long because itd obviously be suspicious to have exactly twelve new people move into the town right when twelve bots went missing. So you get help from one of grandma's friends to send them off in a stagecoach to another town where they can find employment and start their own life disguised as humans. The asshole bishop obviously doesnt react well to his androids vanishing into the night, but he never thinks of blaming you because after all you're only an android and you could never choose to help others out of all that free will you dont have. He just berates you for being so incompetant as to fail his quest to find them, and you get your reward taken back. Oh no~ i am~ very ashamed~ i will go tell my human that my ocular circuits require recalibrating~ (internally: HAHA YEH FUCK U OLD MAN) Grandma is super proud of you!

And thats all i got so far

[rueitae]

See You Yesterday (Part 2)

After joining the team of time travelers in their search for the Lions of Voltron, Lance is taken on his first mission. Pidge is cool about it, but Lance is feeling the heat - literally. There’s a volcano about to erupt and that’s exactly where the Red Lion is going to show up.

Dedicated to @flik98 who drew this wonderful piece from the first chapter. I wasn’t going to write a second part, but after that I just couldn’t leave it be.

Flik and @cgf-kat independently suggested the backdrop. (You didn’t realize it Kat, but you did.) Loosely based off of my favorite Doctor Who episode. :)

Thank you @sp4c3-0ddity for beta work. It’d have been a mess otherwise.

~4500 words

Read on Ao3

Excerpt:

Lance glared, and Pidge conveniently took a longer sip of wine than necessary, hiding a smug grin. “It’s nice to know that some of us are less nervous than others,” he harshly whispered back.

It wasn’t that he was nervous about the mission, even if it was his first. The concept was fine by him; go through the mystical time vortex, blend in with the local population and recover information about the whereabouts of the Voltron Lions, then return to base before disaster happened.

And it was a disaster he had been promised. Major historical events drew the Lions out of hidden pockets in between time. This particular moment in history, and their current location, was what had his hairs standing on end.

“Don’t get your toga all in a bunch, Lance. We’ll be out of here well before the volcano blows,” she reassured him.

Read the fic in its entirely below:

Lance held the wet cloth firmly down on the marble counter. He let his muscle memory take over, using mainly the motion in his elbow to clean the surface of spilled wine - for the tenth time today. And it was only mid-afternoon.

Getting wrapped up with time travelers, the last place he had expected to end up was back in a bar. Even so, Lance was grateful that his learned skills and natural mannerisms were useful for a stakeout of this kind. It made it easier to convince the patrons - and himself - that he belonged here.

A group of rowdy men whooped and cheered as they played their game of dice, something that Lance knew was illegal here. He understood why, remembering plenty of conflict over loaded dice back in his own time.

Patrons all around enjoyed good company, at least six different conversations happening at once. They ate the morning’s catch from nearby Herculaneum with bread and plenty of wine.

Despite the similarities, this bar was not the kind he remembered. Nor were the clothes - tunic - he wore.

He knew about ancient Rome of course, but living it was an entirely different experience.

He dared to look up from his task ever so slightly to side-eye his real objective. The muscular individual was seated alone in the far corner of the wine bar, sipping on the same cup Lance had given him nearly two hours before.

This was the guy they had to beat to the Red Lion? He was big but didn’t look Galra. If not for the in-depth briefing he’d received before coming here, Lance would have said the man was completely human. That was Galra technology he supposed. Slav used a similar device to hide his clearly alien appearance when he needed to walk around the city.

Lance felt a bead of sweat roll down his temple, and not from the warm day and hot ovens. The briefing had been clear on one thing: Sendak would attack at any time of the day regardless of witnesses.

Lance was not looking forward to fighting him, especially not in front of a crowd, so for the time being he needed to keep up his bartender act. As long as Sendak didn’t know there were other time travelers present, they’d be fine.

“Careful, you’re going to rub a hole into the stone,” Pidge quipped. She came up behind him, just exiting the kitchen with a basket of freshly baked bread in her hands. She placed it on the newly cleaned counter and reached over to the wine barrel, pleased to pour herself a drink.

Like him, she was also dressed for the period in a white dress covered by a pale green cloak. The gathered layers neatly hid her glasses and pocket watch.

Lance glared, and Pidge conveniently took a longer sip of wine than necessary, hiding a smug grin. “It’s nice to know that some of us are less nervous than others,” he harshly whispered back.

It wasn’t that he was nervous about the mission, even if it was his first. The concept was fine by him; go through the mystical time vortex, blend in with the local population and recover information about the whereabouts of the Voltron Lions, then return to base before disaster happened.

And it was a disaster he had been promised. Major historical events drew the Lions out of hidden pockets in between time. This particular moment in history, and their current location, was what had his hairs standing on end.

“Don’t get your toga all in a bunch, Lance. We’ll be out of here well before the volcano blows,” she reassured him.

Water dripped between his fingers as Lance tightened his grip on the moist rag. “Why do I have the feeling that’s exactly what you told Allura before you found me and ended up half a second away from getting both of us filled with lead.”

Pidge fiddled with her loosely braided hair, adorned with ribbons to match her cloak and necessary to help tame her now significantly longer hair. A time traveler’s perk, Lance had opted to keep his hairstyle the same.

He was beginning to think she looked gorgeous in any outfit. That, or he was smitten beyond redemption.

“You have to take some calculated risks with this job,” she explained, not for the first time. “We have to find the Lions first. Failure isn’t an option. If Zar —” She stopped herself, continuing in a quieter voice, “If that guy gets his hands on even one Lion he could mess with history, cause temporal anomalies which will collapse in on themselves trying - and failing thanks to the power of the Lion - to correct the timeline,” she finished firmly.

Lance only caught the gist of her explanation, but that was all he needed. He loved the confidence that radiated from her when she spoke. Her vigor was inspiring.

Smitten indeed.

“So, Voltron is like, the ultimate time machine?” Lance asked, continuing his task to appear busy. Pidge set down her cup and picked up another to clean.

“It’s a multi-reality being split into five parts,” Pidge obliged. Lance snorted as she raised a hand to adjust glasses that weren’t currently there. She glared at him for his trouble. “Allura says it’s more of a guardian of time rather than a travel machine, although I suppose traveling comes with the guardian part. Out of place and roaming free it’s already causing strange temporal fluctuations in the grandfather clock. In Zarkon’s hands they will become worse and more calculated.”

Lance nodded. He remembered the giant clock that sat in the main briefing room. Allura used it to pinpoint possible locations of the Voltron Lions.

“This was part of the briefing, you know,” Pidge told him dryly. “You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”

“I was plenty awake,” Lance bristled, offended. “I just don’t understand half the stuff you talk about.” He leaned over, resting an elbow on the counter. “It just all goes over my head.”

Pidge’s face softened at his admission. “You’ll get there, Lance. You’re catching on fast already.” She placed an encouraging hand on his shoulder with an accompanying smile. “Your wife says so.”

Her tone was teasing, but it drove heat directly into his cheeks. Pretending to be married hadn’t even been necessary for the mission, but Pidge had wanted to wear anything other than just white. Per period custom, that mean she had to be married.

He turned away, admitting only to himself that he was flustered at the idea. “Okay, I get it. Get the Lions or we actually are doomed.”

“Worse than any volcanic eruption will do to you,” Pidge confirmed. “Got your watch?”

Lance let his hand drift over his chest, his own time device secure under his robes. “Same place it was last time you asked. I’m not going to lose it,” he said, offended that she continued to ask. He understood it was his only way home and out of disaster.

Pidge nodded, satisfied. “Good. It’s your most valuable possession. Make sure you don’t.”

“When are you going to teach me those fancy tricks they can do?” Lance wondered.

“You mean the tracking and appearance shifter?” she clarified. Lance nodded once in confirmation, urging her to continue. “Hopefully I can show you on this mission. The only one you really need to know for now is how to get home.”

“Wind the watch to noon exactly and let go of the stem while holding it to any wall,” Lance recited. “I got it.” He could do this, he was confident he could help.

Apparently he didn’t show the same confidence.

“You were the one excited to help me. Losing your nerve?” she joked, taking up her filled cup again.

“I’ll be fine,” Lance insisted. “I just hate the waiting part, especially when all I can do is look at the window and stare at a volcano that I know is about to blow its top with us in its path.”

“Well you’re doing good - better than Hunk on his first go. Ask him about it sometime,” Pidge said with a grin, rolling her wrist and sloshing her drink around in its cup. “If this goes well, we can put you in any bar to listen for information. It’s the perfect guise for a stakeout.”

Lance raised an eyebrow and decided to test the waters. “What about you?” he teased. “What about your first mission?”

The cup slammed onto the counter, wine spilling onto it. A few patrons closest to them paused to look but quickly turned back to their own conversation.

Lance knew a sore subject when he saw one. “Gotcha. No questions about that,” he relented. He released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “At my old job everyone had certain things they wanted to keep close.”

Pidge’s gaze softened. “No, it’s fine. You’re involved in this now, and you’re my partner on top of it. You deserve to know.” She took an exaggerated breath. “You know my family is missing. You don’t know that it was my fault.

“I come from a family of inventors,” she began proudly. “My parents are brilliant people, and they taught me and my brother everything they know.” Her tone turned melancholy. “I found my pocket watch one day by accident. We studied it for ages, until my mom discovered that plants in the same room would grow quicker. Dad realized it was a time machine, so we tried to make it work.”

Pidge bit her lip and sucked air in through her teeth before continuing. “I took it apart, thinking that’s what we had to do to figure out how it ticked. It - it took my family. It scattered them across time.”

Lance caught his jaw hanging open. “Oh Pidge…”

Pidge composed herself. “I met Allura not even a day later. Mom had ended up in her time, and discovered the watches were made by her father. She told me about Voltron, and ever since then I’ve been helping to find the Lions while I look for my father and brother.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He didn’t know what else to say.

“You don’t have to apologize, Lance.” She smiled warmly. “It’s nice to get that off my chest every now and then.”

Lance showed her his best grin. “Well, you’ve got one more to help look now,” he said confidently. “You’re not alone.”

Pidge smiled more brightly than Lance had ever seen. She opened her mouth to respond, but her words were lost as the ground shook violently beneath their feet.

Lance braced himself with the counter, and most of the patrons did the same with less luck. Many of them were tossed to the ground with the unbolted wooden tables.

It was over as quickly as it had started, just like the last dozen over the course of the day.

Lance brushed the dust off his hair that had fallen from the ceiling. Pidge removed her white knuckles from the bar.

Her robes vibrated and Pidge fished out her golden timepiece. It continued to hum in her palm. She raised her head to look Lance in the eye.

“The Red Lion should be phasing into this timeline now,” Pidge said urgently. “The tremors are getting more frequent. It’s time to drop the facade.”

“Okay - for the fate of the universe,” Lance said, picking up Pidge’s spilled cup for a mock toast. Pidge rolled her eyes and jumped the counter, but not before he caught the smallest of grins on her face. He set the cup down and followed in kind, ecstatic to have had that effect on her.

“Remember your briefing,” Pidge said. Lance followed her purposeful steps through the dust cloud and towards Sendak. “Don’t let him grab you by his robot arm. Galra tech is harmful to the timeline as is. It could rewrite your history if you aren’t careful.”

“Got it,” Lance responded with all seriousness. His hands twitched with nervousness. Once in on the action there wouldn’t be time to think about what could go wrong.

Like Sendak not being there anymore.

Lance stood dumbstruck. “Pidge - what do we do?”

Pidge held her watch out as if it were a compass and scanned the area. The minute hand flew around counterclockwise, while the hour hand twitched back and forth from the three o’clock hour.

Lance observed her wild eyes and fearful frown, trying to work out the situation at hand. She pressed the stopwatch feature rapidly, aiming it at the very seat Sendak had vacated.

“He’s hopped,” she said. “He’s sped up the timeline. The volcano is going to erupt sooner than it’s supposed to unless we get Sendak's arm out of this time period.”

“Wait, I thought we couldn’t relive a timeline?” Lance said. “That something bad would happen if we did?”

Pidge pressed her thumb on the clock face and a swirling vortex of golden energy appeared over the table, a physical manifestation of the exact problem they were trying to prevent. She looked him dead in the eye. “Now you know why Zarkon is so dangerous.”

Lance stiffened. “How are we supposed to find him now? He could be anywhere.”

“I know where he is.” Pidge bit her lip, pondering any possible course of action. “It’s weird,” she said, looking at her watch. “It says he’s still nearby, but… that would mean he traveled through time rather than spatially.”

Almost to spite their efforts, the ground rumbled yet again. Unsure even why, Lance wrapped an arm around Pidge and used the other to brace them both against the wall. Seconds seemed to last a minute.

“You okay?” he asked once it was over, face planted in her messy hair.

He couldn’t see her expression, but her breathing quickened and it took an extra moment for her to respond. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks. Good thing we’re married,” she quipped, “you’re useful for making sure I don’t fall.”

Lance laughed and matched her light tone. “One of my many talents, including my sharpshooting skills.”

“I hope we don’t have to use them; guns haven’t even been invented yet,” Pidge moaned. “Let’s get walking. I’d rather confront Sendak away from the city.”

Lance straightened and looked around the empty room. Hadn’t there been at least dozen patrons before the first earthquake?

A multitude of footsteps pounded on the stone road outside. The door slammed open, and a crowd hustled into the room, eyes angry when they settled on him and Pidge.

“There she is - the woman responsible for the earthquakes! Take her to the governor!”

Lance turned to Pidge, heart beating far more quickly than he would have liked. Her wide-eyed shock mirrored his own.

Pidge stuffed her watch back into her cloak. “D-don’t engage,” she whispered hastily as the citizens crowded around them. Two larger men took a hold of his own arms. “We’ll be fine,” she continued as they were dragged outside.

Lance understood the unsaid reason. They couldn’t get the civilians involved.

The people from this time were superstitious, Lance knew from the briefing. But how did they single out Pidge as the cause of the earthquakes?”

Rough prodding forced Lance to his knees. He caught himself from landing face first on the smooth stone. Large legs came into his field of vision and Lance stopped breathing. He made the mistake of looking up to see who they belonged to.

“You see? The earthquake stopped as soon as you found them!” Sendak said, a cruel grin saved just for them. “Let them intercede on your behalf. Give them to Vesuvius!”

The crowd cheered, but dread filled Lance. He locked eyes with Pidge, whose face told a similar story.

If they didn’t do something soon, they would become history.

~~~

“I’ll admit that was pretty clever,” Pidge said, “using your timepiece to make yourself governor just so they’d turn on us.”

Lance commended her calm - he was barely keeping it together himself.

If the scene and the noticeable increase in elevation hadn’t been enough, Lance felt his own pocket watch vibrate against his chest. It meant the event was about to happen.

They were upon the volcano now, just the three of them. Sendak had removed his disguise and towered over them in all his alien glory.

Lance found some amusement in the giant purple, furred, space alien wearing something so human as a toga. His humor left every time the chariot hit a large bump, which was occurring more often now that they were on the mountain itself.

Sendak held a jagged knife close to Lance’s throat and just within his peripheral vision. It reminded Lance of his predicament far more than the giant ash plume emanating from the mouth of the volcano. He tried not to make it worse by swallowing hard, but the rocky terrain made it impossible to avoid the painful cuts.

Sendak concentrated on driving, but the sick joy of watching Lance squirm was unmistakable on his face.

Pidge stood on the other side of their captor, arms in shackles in front of her.

“The situation necessitated itself. Fortunately I could smell your Altean stench from across the room,” Sendak said in disgust. “The populace was easy to manipulate.”

“Why organize all this then?” Pidge pressed. “You knew at least one of us would be here. We would have reached the Red Lion near the same time anyway.”

The ground shook and the horse whinnied in panic. This close to the volcano, the earth opened up and split, causing the chariot to overturn.

Lance tumbled out, the sharp dagger painfully slicing open his cheek as he fell.

He landed with a skid, scraping his skin and making it burn painfully. The quake ended.

"You are fortunate to find out," Sendak continued.

Lance forced himself up to see that the Galra man recovered and shot to his feet first. He held Pidge by the arm and they walked purposefully further up the volcano. The horse sped away into the distance, but Lance kept his eyes on Pidge. He scrambled to follow them.

Their destination was now clear. A sizable cave was carved into the side of the mountain, clearly by human hands. Foreign letters decorated the trim.

Pidge struggled and squirmed as Lance ran to catch up, doing her part to get free from Sendak's grasp. She didn't complain, merely grunted angrily.

Until he took her watch.

"Give that back! It's useless to you!" Pidge yelled as they crossed the threshold.

"Haggar will be pleased to find a use for it. You will no longer need it," Sendak threatened, placing the precious object into his own robes. He pushed Pidge into a large, smooth stone that lay deeper into the cave, letters adorning its edges.

Lance ran, enraged with his fist poised in the air to strike. “Let her go!" Pidge had saved his life, he wasn't about to not repay her the favor.

Lance was thrown to the ground for his trouble, and hitting the rocky walls knocked the wind out of him. He slowly lifted himself up, not taking his eyes off Pidge.

Sendak pounded an iron rod into the stone slab between Pidge's chains, her arms stretched well over her head. In a feat of strength he twisted the metal inwards, making sure there would be no escape for her but for a key - which remained back in the city. Pidge twisted and pulled to get free, leaning her feet against the stone for leverage to no avail. She was trapped.

"This place has been used to make sacrifices to the volcano for hundreds of years. A fitting beginning to Zarkon's reign over all eternity." His words were proud, and although meant to send terror, they only enhanced Lance's anger.

"You won't get away with it!" Pidge yelled. “There are others out there to stop you!”

"I believe I already have."

A bright light lit up the very end of the cavern. Lance averted his gaze at the sensory overload, but he still heard it.

A lion's roar. The roar of the Red Lion.

That meant the volcanic explosion was imminent. The alarm on his watch vibrated once again.

Lance looked back to observe Sendak approach the Red Lion. He had seen what it looked like in briefings, mechanical in nature. What he had not been expecting was how imposing and lifelike it was. Bright yellow eyes pierced his very soul and it towered over even Sendak's large form.

"At last, the first piece to recovering Voltron," Sendak said, petting the Lion on the snout. It rumbled menacingly.

"Lance, get out of here! You have to warn Allura!" Pidge pleaded. The volcano rumbled and Lance felt the heat rise exponentially.

There was no time left. Lance clutched his pocket watch in his palm, the same that Pidge demanded he use to leave.

But that meant leaving Pidge to die, and that was not acceptable.

Lance turned his sights on Sendak. If he was going to have any chance to save Pidge he needed to take care of him first.

“Lance, don’t!” Pidge yelled as Lance launched to his feet. She’d already caught on to his plan, but he didn’t care.

Sendak wasn’t expecting him, the astonished look on his face saying as much. Lance rammed into him elbow first and it was enough force to send the both of them to the ground.

“Welp!” Sendak growled. Like a striking snake, Sendak wrapped his large, clawed hands around Lance’s neck, squeezing tight. Sparks of yellow temporal energy seeped out, threatening to ensnare Lance. If he didn’t do something soon, he’d be lost to time.

He choked, struggling from the lack of breath, but did not make an effort to free his neck. He closed an eye to focus his vision from the illusionary spots that flooded it. He raised his right arm - still holding his pocket watch…

… and slammed it into Sendak’s chest, breaking it into pieces.

Silence filled the air and a grey filter came over Lance’s view of the world. There was no low rumble of the volcano, no sound of rocks rolling down the side of the mountain, and the temperature noticeably cooled to a comfortable level.

Time had stopped.

The impact itself didn’t harm the Galra at all, but the destruction of the timepiece brought a flicker of surprise. Then anger crossed his features.

Lance used the moment to remove Sendak’s hand from his throat and push himself away.

Multi-colored whisps originating from the broken watch surrounded Sendak. Although harmless looking, the ribbons of light confined him tightly.

“When Zarkon comes into power, I will destroy you first,” he promised with infuriated huffs.

The lights flashed and when Lance looked back, Sendak was gone.

Time flowed once more. The rocky walls started to crack from the increasing pressure of the magma.

Lance ran to Pidge and hugged her tight. No words exchanged between them initially.

Hot tears fell on his shoulder and a sob that wasn’t his rang louder than the destruction around them. “You idiot,” Pidge said. “Now you’re stuck here too.”

“I was a dead man before you found me,” Lance said, finding himself oddly at peace while on death’s doorstep. “I’m not ever going to leave you.”

Sendak had her watch. With his broken, they had no way to escape the eruption. The cracks in the wall grew. If he was going to die, it was going to be holding Pidge.

The loud roar of the Red Lion interrupted Lance’s life reflection and he turned to look at it in awe.

“The volcano hasn’t erupted yet,” Pidge said, her breathing wet with tears. “We should be dead by now. I… I think the Lion is preventing it.”

Red stood to all fours, leaning over them with a single forepaw. The Lion swiped and cut Pidge’s chain off cleanly, leaving only the cuffs around her wrists. Then, it bent down before them and opened its mouth.

Lance caught his mouth agape. “Pidge, what is it doing?” he whispered.

Pidge’s brow furrowed in thought, examining the Lion. Lance could almost see the calculations running in her brain through her eyes.

“I think,” she turned to Lance, a smile once again gracing her features. “I think it’s offering to take us home.”

Lance looked around the cavern. The walls bulged but did not break, almost as if the cave was breathing.

He frowned. “But if Red is holding back the eruption and we use it to go home…” His heart filled with a guilt Lance didn’t know was possible. “Then we... we’re the reason the eruption happens. We’re the reason all those people die.”

Gently, Pidge took his hand. Her eyes held both a sympathy and a determination he wished he had at the moment.

“We can’t change history, Lance. Not like this,” she said firmly. “This eruption happens. We can’t save everyone, but we can save the future by getting the Red Lion back to headquarters.”

Lance inhaled sharply. “Isn’t there just one person? You said it yourself, if we can just save someone - like you did with me.”

Tears pricked in her eyes. “Not this time. As soon as we leave in the Red Lion the pyroclastic flow will already be over Pompeii. I’m sorry, Lance. We missed our chance here.”

“We’re time travelers,” Lance emphasized. “Why not?”

“Because now we’ve both lived this event,” Pidge said sadly. “We won’t be able to go back to the same place and time.”

Lance dropped to his knees, just barely holding back the waterfall behind his eyes. “I hate this job”--sniffed to clear his voice--“next time I am going to save someone. I swear it.”

Pidge knelt and held him close. “And I’ll be right there helping you,” she said. “We should go. The Red Lion opened up to you for a reason. Let’s not waste this second chance.” She grinned. “I don’t plan on dying until I find my family.”

“You’d better not even after you find them,” Lance insisted.

Her smile turned warm and soft. “I guess if my husband says so,” she teased.

Lance laughed. “I kind of like the sound of that. I’ll hold you to it.”

“You need my dad’s permission first,” Pidge said, helping him to his feet. “So I guess we’re courting until we find him and Matt.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “I - I wasn’t serious about that!”

She leaned up on her toes and planted a loving kiss by the corner of his mouth. His heartbeat soared.

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to going steady,” he confessed.

Pidge laughed, a sound that became more angelic to him by every passing moment. “Your cheeks burn worse than I do in the sun.” She took his hand. “To the next adventure?”

Lance grinned and jogged into the Red Lion, dragging Pidge in after him.

The next adventure indeed.

[katatty]

Moving In

Part 6 of my Custom Neighbourhood Guide

I wasn’t sure what to call this part of the guide, it’s very much a bunch of miscellaneous tasks concerning memories, family albums, family trees, debugging… all that good stuff which ties everything together.

If you’ve been following my steps in order (which you don’t have to do, of course, some creators will prefer a less structured approach) then at this stage you have your terrain, your lots, a bunch of families in the sim bin. If you haven’t already – move them into their houses! If they can’t afford them you can use the familyFunds cheat or SimPE to give them the desired funding.

Back up your neighbourhood at this point! Now, more than ever, you are going to want to be creating regular backups so that you can easily revert to an older version if you make a mistake, or change your mind about any of the story direction.

Once all your sims are moved in you’re going to want to set up the storylines and situations you’ve planned out. There are two main ways to go about this: actually playing the game and editing memories and relationships manually in SimPE. I’ll be covering both methods here and listing the pros and cons of each. You’ll probably find yourself using a combination of the two depending on the situations you’re setting up.

Playing the Game

This is the easiest way to set your families up! Simply play the game as normal, possibly using testing cheats and modded objects to speed things along. With these you can quickly change relationships, age sims up, kill sims, etc. 

When I set up Europa, I had a backstory in mind where a schoolteacher and a priest had an affair and a kid together – so when I created the sims I made father Theo an adult rather than an elder, played out their entire affair including the birth of their son, and their subsequent breakup. I also aged the kid up, had Viola manually teach him his skills, aged Theo up… strictly this wasn’t necessary, but it was easier than messing about with SimPE and also let me take in-game screenshots along the way which I used for their storytelling albums.

Penni talked about this too, on her commentary on my last post, and I’m going to paste what she said directly as its also insightful info:

“If you play through a full day of your old, established family, they won’t have a welcome wagon when the player starts the game, which makes sense. Play time also allows you to take advantage of the “training mechanism” to create sims with habits, and allows the sims to give you Better Ideas.  Woody’s refused first kiss with Virginia and Candy’s affairs with both Mann men were situations that came up during play - the sims’ ideas, not mine. Developmental play also doubles as playtesting time for your lots. The more real memories your sims get naturally, the less time you have to spend tediously manufacturing them in SimPE. And you can get any storytelling pictures you need.”

 As she mentions, actively playing is useful so that you can get welcome wagons out of the way, and let the future player take control at the best possible moment. Both Europa and Widespot (if I’m remembering correctly) start the game on a Friday morning so that downloaders can play out a standard week-day and then have the weekend to play about a bit more. If they start their day in their bedrooms players can also quickly tell whose room is whose! (Don’t have them actually sleeping, though. When opening a neighbourhood for the first time players will usually experience a jump-reset, so it’s best to have your sims standing idle when the neighbourhood is first loaded.)

If you want your storylines to create maximum impact, consider the timing of the events. One family in Europa contained a widower, Ronnie. I wanted his wife to have recently passed away and for the memory to be fresh when the game was first loaded so that the family would cry regularly and seem affected by her death. However, I killed off Viola right at the beginning of my gameplay, and by the end of the week the family seemed somewhat over it. I tried fiddling around in SimPE to change this later but didn’t have much luck - working with the game is a lot easier than working with SimPE, I find! I had to settle for using storytelling images and putting him in aspiration failure. Learn from my mistakes.  

One other thing to keep in mind when playing is to avoid corruption at any cost. Read the Wiki guide on avoiding corruption thoroughly and regularly check your game with Hoodchecker. Keep creating those backups!

Game guide: Avoiding corruption

In theory you could set up everything this way without even using SimPE, but it might not always be practical, especially if there are multiple generations to consider, all with their own backstories... you would have to create the founding elders and play out the entire family history! Penni details a few more potential pitfalls:

“But developmental play is time-consuming, can get bewilderingly complicated, and inevitably risks the accumulation of the grit-like minor corruption and/or serious glitches with which we are all so familiar. It might also involve the spawning of NPCs you may not want, or the creation of complications that go against the Vision, requiring quitting without saving or reverting to one of your numerous backups. Only you can do the cost-benefit analysis here.”

 Editing & Adding Memories

So, this is where editing memories manually in SimPE might come in handy. It’s good for adding all the standard family memories (toddler training, growing up well/badly, etc.) I’m going to be honest here - I found this a real pain and it took a lot of trial and error to get it right! So keep using those backups. I’ll link the the tutorials and resources I used below:

Memories - Changing and removing {tutorial} 

Game guide:Adding memories in SimPE 

List of Memories 

One really cool thing about editing memories manually is that you do stuff that wouldn’t be possible with normal gameplay, like changing the colour of a memory from the usual way it appears! Katrina Fusilli dislikes her daughter-in-law, and has a negative memory of her son marrying. Stuff like Olive Specter’s memories with the Grim Reaper would also fall under this category! Take a look at the full list of possible memories and see what you come up with. 

If you give a memory an unexpected subject instance (possibly like “going steady” with Grim although I haven’t checked this) the Hoodchecker will flag it, but as far as I know it’s not harmful to the game. There’s one of these in Widespot concerning Skye Weiss’s abduction. 

Family Trees

If your families are all set up  in-game tools with CAS or during developmental play, your family tress are probably going to look fine. But if you’re adding family relationships between households manually, you may find they don’t show up correctly on family trees. I encountered this issue when trying to make all my NPCs related. 

The only way, as far as I know, to directly edit family trees is using SimPE! It’s been a while since I did this, and I could only find one tutorial on it, but editing family tress was something I found pretty easy once I knew the correct place to look. I’ll link to the tutorial I used below:

SimPE Family Ties Tutorial

Photo Albums 

More storytelling stuff! Each household has a family album composed of in-game snapshots taken with “C”. There is also a neighbourhood album, which will pop up when a neighbourhood is first loaded! You might want to include a quick summary of each household here. 

During development play you’ll want to take pictures along the way of critical moments in the story. If you’re trying to avoid actually playing your neighbourhood too much for fear of corruption - no problem! You can stage scenes, take snapshots and then quit without saving. Your gameplay won’t be saved but the pictures will!  For Europa, I staged a few family photos using poseboxes I temporarily added to the game.

You can choose which pictures to include in a family album, which order to have them appear, and there’s also an option to include captions. I like imitating the Maxis story albums and leaving the pictures caption-less so that the player can use their imagination, but Maxon used photo captions to great effect in Polgannon! 

It’s also possible to use photos taken or edited outside of the in-game camera tool, as Maxon does above and as Maxis does! I know this is done by renaming and re-sizing the files accordingly, but I haven’t ever tried this before and can’t find a full guide on it! If anyone has any insight let me know :)

Biographies and Descriptions

Along with photo captions, you have a few other places you can write! The neighbourhood description itself, the neighbourhood story, household descriptions, and of course sim biographies! It’s up to you how much detail you want to go into on these - you might prefer to keep them vague or to go into lots of detail. 

You can also choose whether you want them similarly themed, or more varied in tone. In Veronaville, for example, almost everything is about the family feud, particularly the Juliette/Romeo love affair. Even Tybalt’s biography is about Juliette’s storyline:

The Capps and Montys have been feuding for years, but that hasn't stopped the younger generation from crossing boundaries and falling in love. Will their actions lead to ruin or bring the families together? - Veronaville’s  neighbourhood description

Juliette Capp has fallen for Romeo, golden child of the rival Monty clan. Can the Capps set aside their grudge and put Juliette's happiness first? -  The Capp household description & neighbourhood story 

Juliette loves her family and wants to please them, but her feelings for Romeo are undeniable. Can she make her family proud and make herself happy as well? - Juliette’s bio

Outspoken but surly, Tybalt is proud to carry the Capp name. Will his pride and hatred of the Montys ruin his sister Juliette's chance for happiness with Romeo? - Tybalt’s bio

For a bit of contrast, let’s look at Strangetown! The neighbourhood description is a lot more vague and nonspecific, hinting at the storylines rather than outright stating them. The household descriptions detail the family story, but character bios include fun tid-bits rather than spelling out their role in the story. 

Truth-seekers move to Strangetown hoping to discover the secrets the town holds. Do aliens live among us? Do missing Sims mysteriously appear here? In this town nothing is what it seems. - Strangetown’s neighbourhood description

In search of truth and mystery, the Curious brothers got more than they were "expecting." Can Pascal, Lazlo, and Vidcund cope with their new roles as cosmic parents? - Curious family bio & neighbourhood story entry 

No matter what happens, Pascal believes there is a logical explanation for everything. In his free time, he practices home psychoanalysis and collects conspiracy theories. - Pascal’s biography

Serious and exact, Vidcund strives to fit the universe into a nice tidy package. He has an unnatural fondness for African violets. - Vidcund’s biography

Juliette’s biography is all about family and forbidden love, but Pascal's make no mention of aliens, abductions or pregnancy. Tybalt’s bio talks about his hatred for the Montys, but Vidcund’s makes no mention of his feud with Loki Beaker or his romantic history with Circe. 

I’m being a bit roundabout here, haha, all I’m really saying is there are a lot of ways you can approach descriptions like this! Maybe you have a strong theme or storyline you want to get across to players, or maybe it’s made up of lots of little storylines. 

Playtesting & Debugging

The final stage, and most likely not a fun one. Now that you’ve finished everything up, it’s time to playtest it a little. You may do this yourself, or enlist others to help! I’m not very good at spotting my own mistakes, so I created a beta of Europa and sent it to a few playtester-volunteers. 

Things you and/your testers will want to be looking out for:

Bugs

Building issues

Playability

Signs of corruption

Spelling and grammar mistakes

Anything that seems missing or wrong

Draw up a big list of all the issues you/your testers encountered and then slowly work on fixing them. If you think you’ve solved the problem, double check it is fixed in your game, and maybe even send an updated version to your tester to verify it’s now working correctly. Don’t cross off issues as “solved” when you haven’t double checked! Some of my playtesters noticed my maid NPC had alien eyes and I never properly checked if I’d fixed it properly, so this glitch is still in the final version, hahaha. Again, learn from my mistakes! 

You may also want your testers to offer impressions of the characters and stories, opinions, & suggestions. Be sure to get across to your play-testers the sort of feedback it is you want! Perhaps you just want technical feedback and aren’t interested in any sort of critique. Being open to critique will work in your favour though, and help you make your neighbourhood as good as it can be. At the same time, don’t feel obligated to change things if they feel wrong or don’t match your vision! Ultimately you’ll never be able to please everyone, but you can certainly take their opinions on board :)

Releasing for Download

Not much to say here, really! To share it, all you need to do is compress the neighbourhood folder itself into a RAR or ZIP file. When you put it up for download you’ll likely want to list compatibility info, installation instructions, known bugs, recommended or required downloads (if applicable) and some previews of neighbourhood! 

How much information you want to give is up to you. You might want to keep things vague so that there are more surprises for the player, or you might want to give them the full facts. Pictures are always helpful, and can entice more players. Here’s Europa’s download post, for reference.

That about wraps things up, I think. I’m sure I haven’t covered everything as there is no end of stuff you can do, methods you can use and ideas you can have - you might even have thought of things I never even considered! But hopefully this guide proves useful to a few people. 

Once again, let me know if there’s anything else you’d like information on - I’ll happily edit these posts and might even make new ones if there’s demand. But for now, thanks for reading :)