#these are excellent guidelines though

[hotpinkboots]

~~~~~

~"𝓡𝓮𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼𝓪𝓵𝓼"~

(Erik Destler x Fem!Reader Fluff)

Summary: Erik had intended to assist you in rehearsing for the next performance. He soon finds he cannot be near you for long without melting in your mere presence.

Warning(s): It is mentioned that the actor the Reader must perform with is perverted (Erik isn't having that dw)

How long it took to write: 4 Hours

~~~~~

The orchestra thundered from above the Phantom's lair, muffled, but loud enough for you and your lover to feel and hear. The world had stopped spinning, this moment in time was the only moment that had ever existed- it felt as though the world had been created just for the two of you. You danced across the floor with the Opera Ghost, Erik, of whose name only was allowed to grace your ears, and to be silenced and secret from all others.

Erik had insisted that he lead your dance rehearsals for this Opera, for seeing you dance lovingly with another man filled his chest with a fit of restricting jealousy so hot that it burned like wildfire. His fury was only heightened further when he had spotted the man earlier, staring at you in a perverted manner just as he had stared at all the other women. Erik would not allow you to be touched by the man longer than you had to on stage.

There was not much room to dance, but it sufficed. Anytime you'd knock a lit candle over, he'd catch the candelabra with a nimble hand without needing to tear his gaze away from your sweet features. His gloved hands guided your movements knowingly, for he had an excellent memory that allowed him to memorize and understand a dance in only a few practices.

After rehearsing the dance three times, Erik had decided he'd grown bored of it. The dramatic steps faded into a basic gentle box step. Erik's gloved hand lifted to smooth back the frizzed baby hairs on your hairline. He leaned in to press his warm lips against your forehead, allowing the kiss to linger. He turned his head to rest his left cheek atop your head. "You dance beautifully. Like an angel."

Your Phantom had compared you to the most heavenly of angels countless times. Although you may have gotten used to it with how often he repeated it, it never lost meaning for him. The masked gentleman truly found you to be the most divine of all. You were his angel, his goddess, his salvation.

You returned his affections by gliding the pads of your fingers tenderly up and down the back of his neck. He suppressed a shudder at the feel of your loving fingertips. How touch-starved he was to shudder at a simple caress. "Thank you," you accepted his sweet compliment humbly, a smile gracing your lips.

~~~~~

Request Guidelines!

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~~~~~

~Love, PinkBoots

[novlr]

How to write a harmonious and mentally healthy relationship between a couple in love who is in a long relationship?

This is a great question. Existing relationships have their own patterns and rhythms and are quite different from the flush of a new relationship. I’ll answer this within the context of a romantic partnership (or polyamorous relationship) though most of this will apply to platonic relationships such as close friends and family too. 

These guidelines can also be used to write less harmonious relationships by knowing how to best break them. I taught the Psychology of Human Development for many years as a lecturer, so I’ll be drawing my response from research on human development across the lifespan. 

What is a healthy relationship?

Let’s start with some definitions. The question is specifically asking about harmonious and mentally healthy relationships. Harmony is a state that people fall in and out of. It’s not something achieved and forever maintained. 

People will have disagreements and conflicts even when they are in love. Possibly because they are in love and value that relationship. What happens when couples (or polyamorous relationships) are pulled in different directions by careers, moral-value systems, or differences in problem-solving approaches? 

This is where having a healthy relationship comes in. Healthy relationships are sustainable and a foundation for everything else. Some hallmarks of healthy relationships include good communication, trust, and respect. 

Good communication includes active listening, empathy, and clearly stating needs, wants, and desires. There is a willingness to compromise and to recognize when that isn’t possible. If one partner can’t compromise, can the other work with that out of a place of respect? Is there some way to reshape the situation so that both parties can feel comfortable with the solution? These conversations may be heated at times. The important thing is that people return to the touchstones of respect and trust, and then move forward to a resolution of the conflict that all parties involved can accept. It’s hard work, and it means no one always gets everything they want. It also means doing relationship repair by acknowledging the sacrifices being made and finding ways to compensate for that. 

Relationship as a character

Think of the relationship as a character in the story in addition to each of the characters in that relationship. Develop the backstory and character arc for the relationship. How do the characteristics of the relationship and the story arc for it impact the characters in the relationship and the other characters in the story? Is it a minor background character, or is it the main character of the story? 

Give it the same degree of development you would for any other character in that position. How does the relationship impact all the other characters, and how is it impacted by the events of your story? How does it influence the direction of your story? 

Backstory

You still need to think about how the characters first met and the arc of their relationship up to the point they appear in your story. You won’t necessarily use most of this in your work, though it will give you a foundation from which to draw references and determine how they react to one another. Here are some excellent seeds for building their backstory: 

How did they meet? Was it love at first sight, an enemies-to-lovers story, or something in between? 

How long were they together before deciding to commit to a long-term relationship? Was it ever formalized or are they still together because it’s easier than breaking up? 

Are there children involved, either with each other or from previous relationships? If yes, how old? 

How often have they moved household? How do they decide when to move? Does one partner’s job take precedence over the others when it comes to deciding who stays home if there’s a sick child/pet/family member or if they need to relocate? 

How do they split the day-to-day chores of living – shopping, cooking, cleaning, paying bills? People in healthy relationships will balance workloads and decision-making with respect for one another’s contributions. They will play to one another’s strengths and step in to help when a partner can’t pull their usual load.

What are other major life events they have been through together? Which of these brought them closer together, and which pulled them apart? Healthy relationships will weather these events even if initially pulled apart. Conflict is a part of life. Conflict resolution and relationship repair are learned skills. How do your characters navigate these?  

Social Context

Relationships don’t exist in a vacuum. How does the world around them view their relationship? Do they have the support of family and friends? What are the societal rules about the type of relationship they have – is it the sort most people have, or are there any taboos being broken by them? 

Some examples to consider would be same-sex relationships, marrying outside the culture, sharing a household without being married, or deciding to remain childless. All of this will inform how your characters behave around others. 

Ebb and flow

One of the films I loved to show my classes was a documentary about couples who had been together for fifty years or more. I’ve put links to similar projects in the resources section. Here are some of the highlights: 

Being together for many years means you won’t always be happy. Working through those times is hard, but worth it. Are your characters happy with their relationship at the moment of the story? If not, are they working through that?

People change over time. One man said he felt like he’d been married to five different women over the years as his wife changed and grew as a person. How have your characters changed over time? How do they remember each other in the past? 

Most reported that their partner was their best friend. Do your characters feel that way about one another? 

The couples often helped each other remember things with prompts, corrections, and clarifications. What are some ways your characters aid each other’s memories or rely on one another to keep track of various sorts of information? 

Most couples had phrases or words or body language that they shared and could use to communicate in an abbreviated way that outsiders might not understand. What are some ways your characters do this? 

Companionate vs romantic love

Romantic love is most often written about in first-meets and blooming relationship stories. It is a fire that burns hot and bright in the initial stages. Over time, the fire settles into a more sustainable bed of coals. This is companionate love. 

Romantic love will flare up again intermittently and can be stoked with romantic dates. Companionate love is what allows people to get on with life and support one another over the long term. It is the process of becoming life companions. 

How do your characters express companionate love? Is it making a cup of coffee, helping with a project? Listening while the other brainstorms or rants? How do they express their deep and abiding affection? How do they stoke the flames of romantic love as a way of deepening their bonds? 

Fidelity

How do your characters feel about monogamy? Have either of them had an affair? If they are polyamorous, what are the rules for seeing others outside the primary relationship? Or is this relationship a secondary one for each of them? If it is an illicit affair, then does the primary partner(s) know about it? 

I know all (most) of your secrets

People in long-term relationships know a lot about each other. What secrets are they keeping for one another? Are there secrets they haven’t shared? 

People don’t always share everything, even in healthy relationships. The difference is in how they share when something is revealed and how they react to such revelations. 

The importance of people watching

Watch how couples interact in the real world, look for documentaries such as the ones linked below, and even draw on well done movies and books for inspiration. 

What moments of harmony have you observed? What telegraphed that to you? If you witness disharmony, how is it resolved? When you see a less functional relationship, what could have made it work better? Keep notes about your thoughts and observations so you can incorporate them into your writing and character development.

Summary

Long-term relationships can be a lot of fun to write. It provides a basis for supporting a character through difficult points in the plot and a touchstone when someone is uncertain of how to proceed. Don’t shy away from conflict between characters in a healthy relationship. The way they experience and resolve that conflict can move the story forward.

Resources

We spoke to couples who have been together more than 50 years — Los Angeles Times 

Couples Together 30+ years give us love advice — Great Big Story

Answered by Kimberley Long-Ewing.

[txttletale]

Your discussions on AI art have been really interesting and changed my mind on it quite a bit, so thank you for that! I don’t think I’m interested in using it, but I feel much less threatened by it in the same way. That being said, I was wondering, how you felt about AI generated creative writing: not, like AI writing in the context of garbage listicles or academic essays, but like, people who generate short stories and then submit them to contests. Do you think it’s the same sort of situation as AI art? Do you think there’s a difference in ChatGPT vs mid journey? Legitimate curiosity here! I don’t quite have an opinion on this in the same way, and I’ve seen v little from folks about creative writing in particular vs generated academic essays/articles

i think that ai generated writing is also indisputably writing but it is mostly really really fucking awful writing for the same reason that most ai art is not good art -- that the large training sets and low 'temperature' of commercially available/mass market models mean that anything produced will be the most generic version of itself. i also think that narrative writing is very very poorly suited to LLM generation because it generally requires very basic internal logic which LLMs are famously bad at (i imagine you'd have similar problems trying to create something visual like a comic that requires consistent character or location design rather than the singular images that AI art is mostly used for). i think it's going to be a very long time before we see anything good long-form from an LLM, especially because it's just not a priority for the people making them.

ultimately though i think you could absolutely do some really cool stuff with AI generated text if you had a tighter training set and let it get a bit wild with it. i've really enjoyed a lot of AI writing for being funny, especially when it was being done with tools like botnik that involve more human curation but still have the ability to completely blindside you with choices -- i unironically think the botnik collegehumour sketch is funnier than anything human-written on the channel. & i think that means it could reliably be used, with similar levels of curation, to make some stuff that feels alien, or unsettling, or etheral, or horrifying, because those are somewhat adjacent to the surreal humour i think it excels at. i could absolutely see it being used in workflows -- one of my friends told me recently, essentially, "if i'm stuck with writer's block, i ask chatgpt what should happen next, it gives me a horrible idea, and i immediately think 'that's shit, and i can do much better' and start writing again" -- which is both very funny but i think presents a great use case as a 'rubber duck'.

but yea i think that if there's anything good to be found in AI-written fiction or poetry it's not going to come from chatGPT specifically, it's going to come from some locally hosted GPT model trained on a curated set of influences -- and will have to either be kind of incoherent or heavily curated into coherence.

that said the submission of AI-written stories to short story mags & such fucking blows -- not because it's "not writing" but because it's just bad writing that's very very easy to produce (as in, 'just tell chatGPT 'write a short story'-easy) -- which ofc isn't bad in and of itself but means that the already existing phenomenon of people cynically submitting awful garbage to literary mags that doesn't even meet the submission guidelines has been magnified immensely and editors are finding it hard to keep up. i think part of believing that generative writing and art are legitimate mediums is also believing they are and should be treated as though they are separate mediums -- i don't think that there's no skill in these disciplines (like, if someone managed to make writing with chatGPT that wasnt unreadably bad, i would be very fucking impressed!) but they're deeply different skills to the traditional artforms and so imo should be in general judged, presented, published etc. separately.

[rallentando1011]

Hello! Can I plz request the ROTTMNT turtles reacting to their s/o being girly? Their s/o is very hygienic, smells good all the time, their skin glows, their hair is always done perfectly, they wear beautiful and cute clothes, their nails are always done perfectly. They also love to collect plushies, bake and cook in their free time, and they also love donating to charities and shelters.

First request done! I really enjoyed this one, and hope you do, too! Thanks for the request <3

My guidelines for requests can be found here

ROTTMNT Turtles with a Feminine Reader

Word Count: 1410

Donnie:

Donnie is always one to appreciate when great levels of detail are paid attention to

With that in mind, he loves how on top of your game you are when it comes to which body washes and sprays you use i.e. how gosh dang delectable you smell

He would definitely probe about which products you use under the guise of an educational survey just in case he ever wants to try them out

Although he tries to remain vigilant, he takes a few days to notice when your nails change

Completely out of the blue, he takes your hand, examines your nails, gives them a nod of approval, just as abruptly goes back to whatever he was doing

Now, not to imply that he would ever condone stealing, but if you ever wear an extremely cute top or dangly jewelry, especially if it’s purple, the next time he’s at your place it’s definitely going missing

Some of your sprays also go missing

“Really? Your favorite spray and your favorite sweater went missing on the same day? While I was over? Nope. Drawing a blank. Must’ve been some other teenage mutant ninja Donnie.”

They’ll probably turn back up eventually

Initially, he’ll frequently yet quietly compliment your hair, but after a while of knowing you it’ll become commonplace for your hair to look amazing, his compliments more sparse

Doesn’t mean he’ll ever stop, though

Donnie doesn’t collect plushies, only having a few he’s gotten from his brothers over the years, but he does admire your tenacity

He also appreciates laying on your plushies if they happen to be bunched into a pile

If you’re baking with him in the room, it’ll be typical for you to be whipping something up and him to walk by and swipe some of it

Yes, it irks you, and yes, he’s tried to stop, but he subconsciously just snags some of whatever you’re making as he passes through

He likes measuring things out, however, so it’s not like he only taste-tests your food

He greatly appreciates when you bring him anything you make

It’s easy to lose track of time while working in the lab, so any confections you bring him are an excellent reprieve from whatever combination of energy drinks, tea, and snacks he’s been subsisting off of

Donnie is a highly ambitious person when it comes to his passions (e.g. inventing, conducting experiments, gaming), so when he hears about the time and money you donate to shelters and charities, he’s zealous to support you in it

Almost immediately he offers to accompany you  and help out in any way he can

Don’t expect him to pitch in monetarily, though; his money’s strictly committed to his scientific endeavors

That doesn’t mean he won’t make anything to help out

If you need anything donated or can think of a gadget that could help out, he’s your guy

At the end of the day, he’s just in awe of the awesome things you do and how amazing you are while doing them

Mikey:

Mikey is not a man to hold anything back

So you’d better be prepared for a barrage of compliments every time you see him

He’ll be giving you a simultaneously squishy and bone crushing hug while pouring over every detail of your outfit

“Ooh, you smell great! Is that vanilla? Ohmigosh, your hair! I love it! It’s so you- and your shirt! Where’d you get it?”

He could continue this for hours if you let him

Mikey is one to play with your hair if he is able to without messing up your hairstyle

It’s just so much fun for him to braid some strands, pull another into a bun, then take it all down, run his fingers through it, and do it all again

If you want, he’ll help you design and make clothing

Or, at the very least, paint on it

He loves using vibrant colors in his drawings and while spray painting graffiti around the sewers, so you can expect numerous colorful additions to your closet

He also pays attention to which outfits you wear most frequently and makes rubber band bracelets that coincide with them

Mikey can and will individually hug and nuzzle each of your plushies

That is a threat and a promise

As an avid baker and chef himself, this little guy is absolutely ecstatic that you enjoy it too!

You’re more experimental in your cooking endeavors? He’s down to clown and mess around with flavor combinations

You’re a little more technical with what you make? That’s great, too! He’s got croissant and baklava recipes he’s been dying to try out and would gladly accept the company

Whatever foundations or activities you’ve committed yourself to, be certain that he’ll join and/or support you in all of them

Leo:

Leo notices anytime you switch which products or sprays you use, barely repressing the urge to comment on and compliment the delightful scent of each

Would it be weird to say you smell nice? Probably, he assumes

He’ll just keep that comment in his head

Leo asks you what your skin care routine is, compares it with his own, and takes notes

He’s got to make sure his stripes stay vibrant and glowing

When your hairstyle allows for it, he likes to play with your hair

Bro makes the worst braids you’ve ever seen in your life but at least he tried

He’s definitely a matching outfit coordinator

Your outfits are fly, his outfits are fly, why not put the two together?

He will compliment your nails, secretly hoping that you take the hint and offer to paint his the same way

“I like your nails.” 

*silence*

“How do you think that pattern would look on three fingers?”

He recognizes that you might not want to mess up your nails while doing his, but he also really wants matching sets

At first when he sees your extensive plushie collection, he tries to act cool, nonchalant

However, if you have any unicorn ones by any chance, he automatically drops the act and is adopting that plush

It’s his child now. That’s just how it is

The extent of his baking assistance is as a taste-tester

Cooking, though, is another story

Want ingredients chopped or minced? He’ll have them ready in an unbelievably short amount of time

Mixing things? He loves it

Pretty much whatever you ask him to help with, he’s on it

Same goes for volunteering at organizations and charities

Whatever you need, be it assistance or just someone to chat with, he’s there for you

Raph: 

Raph gets very bashful when giving you compliments, but he does it anyway

It’s very obvious that you put a lot of energy into how you feel, how you look, and what you do, so it feels like his responsibility to show his admiration of your effort

Whether he’s pointing out how nice your hair looks or saying how pretty your outfit is, he’s scratching the back of his neck shyly and his face probably looks as red as his mask

“I- er, your, uh, you look really nice today… Not that you don’t every day! I- You understand what Raph’s tryna say here, right?”

He’s not used to receiving compliments, no less giving them, but as it was mentioned before, he pretty much has to

Self care days together sound great to Raph

Just you and him, putting on pajamas, wearing facemasks, painting your nails, preferably watching wrestling matches but animated, Jupiter Jim, or Lou Jitsu movies are also acceptable, seems like a dream to him

Being a plushie aficionado, Raph will eagerly ask for all of your stuffed animals’ names, backgrounds, anything, really, and will just as eagerly listen to you describe them

Ask him to have a plushie play date, and you’re done for

He will spontaneously combust (good connotation) and will show up with his collection of teddy bears

Though he’s not much of a baker himself, he will gladly accept any confections you make for him

Just don’t make him anything with peanuts

He is allergic, and he would be distraught to have to decline something you offer him because of his allergy

Raph values everything you do to promote a positive change in the world

It’s something he really cares about, one of the reasons he fights to stop crime in the first place, and he loves that you share that same spirit

[dionewrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄. ˚₊ HEADCANONS // ft. Lucifer 1.1k words · GN!Reader · SFW · Feel-good & Fluff ♛ Masterlist | Request Guidelines

⚠ Content Warning: Mention of his demon form, implicit threat and possible death, and reader being sick, stressed, unhappy, experiencing insomnia, and gaining haters. ✎ Note: This is the first work I wrote and posted here on my blog. I’ll be writing for all the demon brothers with this scenerio as well, so please look forward to it!

Lucifer is an ideal partner that certainly comes with a host of benefits. However, this demon is pretty private and keeps some of his cards close to his chest, so it’ll take time for him to fully open up. More so, showing his affection for you shamelessly.

He prefers to keep things on the down-low, so it’s not distinctly apparent that the two of you are dating, but as he falls more deeply and intensely in love with you, he becomes more comfortable and bolder in displaying his affection and declaring you’re his. Still, if one does not have eyes like a hawk, one will likely not notice those subtle cues, such as the shared pecks on the cheeks or lips when no one’s looking, the three love taps on the back of your hand to express “I love you,” his frequent stroke on your arm, hand, or shoulder blade, and how his hand is always resting on your thigh whenever you’re sitting beside him.

His most blatant public display of affection is when he spreads his wings in his demon form and wraps them around you on one side. When he’s in an excellent or sunny disposition, he’ll hold your hand and gently squeeze it from time to time, which he cutely does unconsciously, all the while entwining his fingers with yours.

He calls you “honey” or “my dear” as an endearment, but only in private. He still sticks to your name in front of others, excluding his brothers, Diavolo, Barbatos, and the occupants of the Purgatory Hall. After all, aside from gloating a bit that he’s the one you chose over them, he doesn’t really see the need to restrain himself to that extent around them.

He takes care and prioritizes your well-being around the clock. When you feel unwell or tuckered out to function for the day, he excuses you from your classes and requests a work from home for him to Diavolo to look after you. If given permission, he spends most of his time in your room and usually settles himself down, presumably working, on an armchair positioned slightly distant from your bed, just enough not to disturb your rest. This demon might seem to give off an air of calm and relaxed composure, but you bet he’s been a bundle of nerves throughout your bedridden hours. The heaps of glances he casts on you every minute are enough to reveal his uneasiness about your condition.

However, if there are very crucial matters he needs to personally manage immediately and, unfortunately, can’t be granted approval for work from home, he finishes his work as early and quickly as he can or goes back and forth between RAD and the House of Lamentation to check on you and make sure you are eating and take your medications at the right time.

Once you feel better, he teaches all the lessons while assisting you with the assignments and activities you’ve missed. He takes additional precautions to ensure you’ll not get sick again by closely monitoring your daily habits, food intake, and health condition. It may sound annoying and constant nagging, but taking extra care of your body and health is the top priority.

He can give succor and handle most of your concerns and worries. When someone wrongs or attempts to hurt you, if it requires immediate action or you want him to lift a finger, they’ll be dealt with straight away and make sure they’ll never trouble you again, though it’s a mystery whether they’re still alive…

When you feel overwhelmed and stressed, he does his utmost to reduce the task and burden placed on you, which he usually does without your knowledge. After those long days, he’ll take you on a date or short vacation (with or without his brothers) to unwind.

When you feel distressed and down in the dumps, he instantly drops whatever he’s doing, regardless of how swamped he is with work, to let you vent on him, listen to you (plus offer advice if you ask for it), and takes you into his arms while giving you slow and soft kisses or caressing your back to soothe and reassure you that you always have him and everything will be okay before long.

When you experience insomnia, he plays the musical pieces he composes for and about you on the piano. This demon has several irons in the fire, so there’s no doubt it’s surprising he has the time to spare—but little do you know, he only spends a short time composing the majority of them because, for some reason, everything easily falls into place just by thinking about you. His works are brimming with emotions, much of which focus on his deep affection, admiration, and devotion toward you.

He makes time for you. Despite having a lot on his plate, it’ll not become a serious issue because he consistently makes a special effort to be around you and involved in your every day, no matter how exhausted he is. On some days, you can see him pushing himself too hard that you’re the one who ends up canceling your plans and dates to force him to rest because he’ll never will.

He’s honest with you and won’t hide anything from you unless necessary and has a good reason for it. Even though you’re not asking or prying, he informs you about every demon, incubus, witch, or other species he meets and has a business with. Many take pleasure in spreading rumors and gossip about him, so he tells you about them to prevent misunderstandings.

His love languages are physical touch and quality time. His favorite time of the day is when he finally gets the opportunity and leisure to stick to you like glue. This demon can’t keep his hands to himself but will never verbally admit how touch-starved he is every day (unless he imbibes demonus). He always wants you to be physically close to him and enter your physical spaces. He loves how it feels to hold and be held by you. He longs for your presence and to simply spends meaningful time together.

Dating Lucifer makes others hold you in even higher regard and esteem. This is the avatar of pride we’re talking about, who’s immaculate and excellent in almost all aspects. Naturally, their respect for him is significantly extended to you. However, it’s also inevitable for many to feel envious and resentful of you, gaining numerous rivals and haters who are wishing and waiting for your breakup. Still, it’s best to feel and embrace that great pride for having him, just as much as he does for being with you as well.

[blorboindulgence]

Amnesia Was His Name - Lore Dump P1

Hello!!! I don't like writing for real so I made an excel sheet of events for this au. This takes place during chapter 3 with the despair disease motive. Maki, K1-B0, and Tenko are the first to get sick. Shuichi gets sick on the second day with forgetfulness disease. My notes are sorted by Days, investigation and trial, and post-trial. I don't have much for post-trial though. It's kind of long but nearly as long as a real fanfic. This is formatted as NOTES, don't expect regular writing. think of it as more of a guideline for a fic to be written.

Day 1

K1-B0, Tenko, and Maki are sick Gonta, Angie, and Shuichi watch over them K1-B0 has prankster disease, Tenko has cowardly disease, Maki has overbearing (child caretaker talent joke) disease K1-B0's fans are whirring to keep his body cool. He pranks everyone at the announcement, does the handshake zap to shuichi. Tenko is hiding behind Angie asking for her protection from the guys. Maki is worrying over everyone. Kaito is not helping out because he's worried of getting sick while already sick but he claims that it's because someone needs to guard maki's lab for her. Miu, tsumugi, and Himiko were not recently exposed and want to avoid getting sick. People think there's enough caretakers so they turn down Korekiyo's offer to help. Kokichi would never willingly be a caretaker lmao. Tenko is roomed with Maki because Tenko can be comforted by Maki now that she acting like a mother hen. K1-B0 is by himself being a huge hassle to deal with. Angie, Gonta, and Shuichi take turns watching over everyone. Shuichi is the first to not watch over everyone, as he is designated school investigator for labs. After that they rotate people, 1 per each room and 1 on break/gathering stuff.  The most that happens that day is K1-B0 being annoying while everyone figures out the plan for taking care of the sick.

Day 2

Shuichi gets sick Gonta, Korekiyo, Angie watch over them Shuichi has forgetfulness disease Shuichi wakes up extra early during his break, thinks he missed the breakfast alarm. He gets ready and feels awful but doesn't remember the motive. He leaves to go to the dining hall but forgets where he was heading. He remembers a question he wanted to ask Kirumi so he goes to her lab to look for her. He does not remember that she has died. He ends up passing out on one of the couches at her lab. Korekiyo plans to kill Angie and Tenko, he takes shuichi's place by saying he can help because he knows both modern and folk remedies as an anthropolgist. Due to limited space and caretakers, Shuichi is roomed with K1-B0. There is a LOT of shuichi being lied to by K1-B0 and ending up unsure if something did or did not happen. He's not as guilable as Gonta or K1-B0 when it comes to lies, but he ends up not knowing what to believe. Shuichi ends up finding Gonta to be the most comforting person to hang out with compared to Angie and Korekiyo. Gonta is the most patient with him and ends up being the only one who will answer his repeated questions. Gonta knows what it's like not being treated with patience or respect for asking the "wrong" questions.  Kokichi is the one who ends up coming across Shuichi by accident. Kokichi wanted to find masks and cleaning supplies to wipe down anything he grabbed, especially from the kitchen. He wakes up shuichi by poking him with the end of a broom, not wanting to touch him (he's wearing his scarf as a mask). "huh?! wuh?! Kokichi?!" "What are you doing over here? ditching the sick by hiding out in Kirumi's lab are you shuichi?" "What? no? What are you talking about? I just had a question for Kirumi is all."  "...right, what were you going to ask her anyways?" "I was... I um... hm... I don't remember... Why are you wearing your scarf like that?" "Well I grabbed some Fanta from the fridge but it turned out to be apple flavor and I'm hugely alleric to apples and broke out in hives, I'm just hiding it so you guys don't have to look at it! How kind of me!" "Don't you usually drink fanta though?" "I drink GRAPE fanta, shuichi! grape! you're forgetting the important details. Anyways quick question shuichi, do you remember what the new motive is?" "...motive?" ("shit, why did I have to be the one to stumble across amnesiac shuichi"). Kokichi tells shuichi to head back to the dorms, shuichi refuses because he's too tired to move. Kokichi leaves shuichi there and tells everyone at breakfast that he found shuichi that morning in kirumi's lab... but not until after waiting a few minute after everyone had already started freaking out about where he went. "Why didn't you just tell us right away!?" "Oh, I must have forgotten about it. You guys seemed to have had it pretty handled to me." eventually gonta carries shuichi back to the dorm. Korekiyo steals some knives from maki's lab while kaito was not on watch. He does during his break to get food and supplies for the sick. He also grabs sleeping pills, a rag, bleach, and rubbing alcohol from kirumi's lab hidden among common cold medicines and other cleaning supplies. He sets this up for night 3 to avoid suspicion of angie and tenko dying the same night he decided to help take care of the sick. Korekiyo's plan is to drug maki and tenko with the sleeping pills disolved in their water; chloroform angie when it's her turn to watch over them (and while the sick are drugged); and then cut angie and tenko's throats using a blade from maki's lab and framer her for the murder. Gonta's shift would come after angie's for him to discover maki alone with the bodies.

Part 2 Link

[blood-red-hummingbee]

"Wassup, it's Hernanda... Gotcha! It's just me!"

She's here! Twsted from Bruno (Encanto) it's Bruna Voz!

18 and third year at RSA, as well as vice housewarden of @screamintoad's fandorm, Befated, Bruna is autistic and has a very slapstick sense of humor, her jokes often leaving people wondering if she's serious. She's very soft-spoken and kind, preferring to distance herself from people (despite being very social), if she believes people would rather be without her.

She excels in plant and fire magic and her Signature Spell, 'Sands of Time', allows her to see into the future, though she can't be selective about what she sees. People tend to think of her as creepy and invasive because of this, and though she's hurt by it she understands. She goes out of her way to avoid people she knows she makes uncomfortable, to the point where she can avoid passing them in the halls, even if they have the same classes and such! Her outfit definitely goes against uniform guidelines, but no one can ever seem to find her to scold her for it.

She and the housewarden of Befated, Mattie, get along amazingly, something she is ever so grateful for.

[lightlycareless]

What are things that Naoya’s kids do to purposely annoy him?

Hello!!

I think they'd be many things tbh, considering he ends up having like 5 kids 🤣 so the list could be endless... but let's start with a few :> some a bit Naomi-centric because it's easier to write it like that.

warnings: none. domestic fluff. Naoya is a good dad in his own way 🥹

Also: I recommend reading these two too :> (oneshot 1, oneshot 2) somewhat related to this ask.

Happy reading!

Let's start by how cute it would be for Naoya to chase Naomi once she gets a hold of her technique (I will forever HC all of his kids being carbon copies of him 🥹❤️).

Like, he'll want her to get into the bathroom to take a shower, or get ready for school or something and she's like:

“No, papa!” Before running off giggling, Naoya trying his best to catch up. He may be an excellent sorcerer with undisputed control over his technique and seemingly never-ending stamina, but he is still nothing compared to a stubborn child determined to have her way.

Naoya eventually catches up to her, and while he's concerned (scared she might hurt herself 🥺, she’s still a baby with much to learn) and exhausted after the whole ordeal, he's happy too to see that his baby has lots of potential, essentially winning her a good position in the clan / jujutsu society.

The other thing would be feeding the cat you both eventually get her with things she's not supposed to. They're already glued to one another, but this just takes their friendship to a whole new level.

Though this would soon stop after her poor kitten gets sick :( thankfully nothing bad, but neither you nor Naoya had ever seen Naomi so distraught in your life! This definitely brought forward a much-needed conversation about proper care for pets and such. Naomi became a very responsible pet owner after that.

And lastly, this is Naoya's personal bane: when either of his kids follow Mai and Maki’s antics in bothering him. Just about… anything involving the 3 is enough to annoy him. And with good reason! They like to instigate Naoya through his babies just to hide behind you when things get too real 🤣 I envision they'd encourage Naomi into calling her papa a loser, silly, ugly, “mama is too good for him” so on and so forth.

Though there would be a point where Naomi defends her papa, especially when his affection/veracity of his relationship with you is questioned.

“Mama loves papa very much and he loves her too!!” she’d cry. “Papa loves me too… right?”

The twins would stop their teasing for a while after that, feeling like absolute garbage for upsetting such an adorable girl and subsequently doing their best to cheer her up. Or at least to stop her from telling you or Naoya what happened—wouldn’t work, but there are no real consequences since you know they meant no genuine harm.

Now of course, some of his kids are more mischievous than others (Naohime…) but I think those are like the general guidelines of things they’d do to annoy Naoya 🤭

This made me want to write more of his other kids, like, I forgot they were supposed to have 1 other boy, and twins. 😶 as well as first-time scenarios involving Naomi. Thankfully, I have enough excuses to do so hahahahaaaaaaa which I hope you'll like as well 🥹❤️

Thank you so much for sending in this adorable ask!! Take care and hope to see you soon ❤️❤️

[blueharborhq]

Hello, Blue Harbor! Happy Monday, and more importantly, happy ( almost ) fall! As you may have already noticed, with the changing of the seasons, us admins have decided to do some housekeeping on the main. Over the weekend, we installed a brand new theme with matching graphics to better represent the time of year! We think this is a wonderful idea to keep things fresh, not only for us but for you all as well, so do expect similar updates every few months or so moving forward. For now, have a look around the new blog! If there's any questions about where a specific page is located, don't hesitate to reach out and we'll point you in the right direction! That's not all, though! Alongside this housekeeping, we also figured that it was an excellent time to do some general maintenance, including but not limited to: updating our guidelines, reorganizing the news blog, adding fresh locations, and more! We ask that you please continue to read through this post in its entirety to familiarize yourself with all that may have changed.

GUIDELINE ADJUSTMENTS —

Starting on Sunday, September 22nd, we will no longer be accepting hiatus requests on the day of activity checks. While generally we have considered ourselves to be pretty lenient with hiatus requests, as we completely understand that this group is a hobby and should come secondary to real life commitments, we also understand that it may be unfair to other members if we continue to allow hiatus requests at the last minute. This is not to say that we will be striking the hammer down completely on this, since sometimes unexpected circumstances lead to dips in our online presence, but we simply ask that you uphold communication with us if you find yourself needing a hiatus, activity extension, etc! We're still here to help, and are more than willing to come to a solution so long as we're kept in the loop!

Additionally, we will no longer be allowing members to take up multiple ( 2+ ) wanted connections for the same mun. This does not apply for connections that currently exist within the game, but rather for character applications moving forward. We absolutely love that everyone is so interested in connections — to be entirely honest, we've never seen a group so eager to snatch them up, and we couldn't be more thankful for it — but in an effort to move forward with our inclusivity expectations, we'd like to implement this rule to further incentivize all members to branch out of their comfort zones!

OPERATION ADJUSTMENTS —

In regards to the Blue News blog, the weekly column will instead shift to the monthly column, posting on the first of every month. This ensures that we as admins can take the time to cook up new ideas and keep things fun and fresh for everyone, quality over quantity! This also gives you guys, our members, more freedom to make submissions of your own. If you have any submissions that you would like to make throughout the month, do not hesitate to fill out the form and it will be included in the next issue!

The weekly radio playlists will return, but biweekly, starting today! No big spiel on this, we simply have regained the time to put them together! The link to the playlist can be found here if you'd like to listen.

MISCELLENIOUS ADJUSTMENTS —

We've added four new locations! Including a lover's lane, country club, an impending multicultural institute and the renovation of one of Blue Harbor's favorites ...

Ahead of the last announcement, we have decided to re-enable the anonymous feature. However, please continue to be mindful. Questions and comments are perfectly acceptable, but outright rude messages will not be tolerated. Both of us continue to be open to kind and constructive conversation, but still withhold the right to disable the feature in the future if need be. We deeply appreciate your patience and understanding!

We have also decided that there will be a temporary ban on two careers: lawyers and writers, due to overabundance. This change will be listed on our application for future reference, and will be announced once it's taken off.

Last, but certainly not least, we will be expanding our mun count to 35! We are so honored and grateful to have kept up with being at full capacity for this long, and thought it'd be best to open a few spots to introduce new players to our lovely little community!

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding, once again, as we implement these updates. Please toss this post a like after you've read it, and as usual, if there are any questions, comments or concerns, you're more than welcome to address them to the main.

[humpandpump]

Emily's attack

My first attempt at a story!!! Explicit, proceed with caution!!!

***

I had barely gotten inside after a long day at work, still in my paramedic uniform for the day, when she knocked on my door. I checked my watch before I turned around - it was exactly 9pm, the time we had arranged. I was exhausted, not really in the mood for the lesson, but I had told her I would help, and I needed the extra money.

I opened the door and found myself looking... down. She was smaller than I had pictured, and although I didn't have any required criteria for who I could help, I found myself attracting quite a specific clientele: usually women, often young, who found themselves struggling to breathe during their intensive fitness regimen, which left them with excellent figures that made this job, well, easier.

Emily was no exception.

'Hi,' she said quietly when I struggled to form the words. She really was that beautiful, with perfect, plump lips, round breasts and a tight hourglass figure. She wore a tight tank top (no bra - she had read the guidelines for her first appointment) and loose linen shorts. Sometimes, I really loved this business. 'Is this the...'

She let it trail off when I nodded. 'Uh, yeah! Come in. Emily, right?'

I stepped back to let her into my apartment, mentally scolding myself for not tidying up beforehand. As quickly as I could, I led her to the spare room, where I had everything set up. When I was just starting out, before I knew how in demand this business would be, I ran it out of my bedroom, but that made things... complicated.

She looked around shyly, noticing the relativity empty room, with nothing but two chairs and a kitchen caddy under the window, though the blind was down - I didn't need nosey neighbours getting the wrong idea about this.

I guided her to the chair and sat across from her, resting my elbows on my thighs as I leaned forward. 'So, what's been going on?'

'I...' God, she was shy. This was going to be hard. 'I saw your services online and I thought... well, you helped some other people who are in my predicament, so I thought maybe you could help me. I've had this trouble breathing... kind of like asthma, but it doesn't come up when I'm doing usual exercise. It only happens when I'm, well, you know.' She blushed, rubbing her hands between her thighs and letting her blonde hair fall over her face. 'I don't have a boyfriend or anything, but I find it hard to have casual sex. Because I'm worried I won't be able to breathe, or I'll collapse. My throat closes up and my heart starts racing and I feel like I might be dying, and I don't know what to do. It happens when I start to get close and then, well, then I can't get there, because I'm scared of what will happen when I get over the edge, if I might die.'

I nodded solemnly. 'What you're experiencing is a very common occurrence. Trust me, I see a lot of women in this position.' At this, I gave a soft chuckle. 'What's happening is that your body is reacting to the sexual stimulation as a threat to your survival. It's a mis-wiring of the system.'

'What do we do to fix it?'

'Well, it's complex, and if you're here it means you know my methods are unorthodox. But the most success we've seen is controlled stimulation, sometimes paired with CPR, to take you to climax without killing you. It teaches your body how to react to the climax by giving it a bit of a helping hand. We do this a few times, regular sessions, until your body starts to learn on its own.'

She looked uncomfortably around the room. 'Here?' she asked.

I chuckled. 'Well, I can't exactly get a hospital bed in here. And a real bed would be too soft for CPR, it would have a detrimental effect on its effectiveness. Don't worry - I have pillows for under your hips, which keeps the blood flowing to your heart. I can go get those when you're ready.'

She looked shocked. 'What, now? Are we doing this today?'

'We don't have to,' I said, putting my hands up in defence. 'It's completely up to you. We can call this a complimentary information session.'

She looked around the room again, and then her eyes slowly passed over me. I felt exposed in my uniform - it had been getting tighter since I'd started going back to the gym more regularly, and I could feel the fabric press against the skin of my arms. Slowly, she nodded. 'No, now is as good a time as any. What do you want me to do?'

I cleared my throat. 'Well, step one is to simulate the conditions of the attack. You say it happens when you start to climax? We'll have to get you there, and then we'll start doing whatever methods necessary. First, let's get you hooked up. Could you take off your clothes?'

She lifted her tank top over her head, and I tried not to watch as her breasts bounced back into place as she lowered her arms.

'Pants too, please,' I said quietly. She slipped out of her pants, revealing a lacy pair of underwear that disappeared into a firm ass. Like I said, sometimes I really loved this job.

'Lie down, please,' I instructed, motioning to the ground. Tentatively, I pulled out the EKG machine and started to press the electrodes onto her breasts and abdomen. I could feel the heat of her skin and the lines of her abs beneath my hands. One hand could span nearly the entire length of her torso. I tried not to let my imagination get carried away with that, though I felt myself twitch beneath my pants. I then grabbed the pillow, sliding it beneath her hips.

'This will monitor your heart,' I said. She moaned slightly, and then pressed her lips together, as though it were an accident. She pulled her legs up as if trying to keep them together. I tried to suppress my smile, to keep it professional. 'Is there anything that turns you on, that might help you get to climax?'

Wordlessly, with my hands still on her abdomen from where I had pressed the last wire onto her skin, she lifted herself up onto her elbows, so that our faces were close. I could smell the mint of her breath.

'Is this allowed?' Oh, boy, yes it is allowed. This line of work wouldn't work if this was not allowed. To communicate this point, I pressed my lips to hers, feeling the hot air of her mouth and warmth of her tongue against mine. As soon as they met, the machine started to beep, slowly getting faster. Every time we pulled away, I checked the numbers, just to make sure.

Her hands roamed my body, reaching for the buttons of my uniform, but I grabbed her fingers with one hand, forcing them above her head, watching her body stretch to accommodate the motion. Her breast heaved with desire.

'The uniform is to remember who's the teacher and who's the student,' I whispered into her ear, before moving my lips to her neck. The monitor beeped faster as I sucked on the soft skin of her collarbone, letting my other hand roam of her breast and gently flick her nipples back and forth. I could feel them getting hard under my hands. Her heartbeat was climbing, climbing - I rested my hand on her ribs in an attempt to bring it down just slightly, in case I mistimed the whole thing and killed her. I could still feel her heart beneath the slight pressure of my hand on her upper abdomen.

But she was doing okay, which I occasionally paused to check, searching her eyes for signs of fear. There was nothing but desire, which made me incredibly horny, though that was probably a test of the rules. Oh well, I thought. I'm my own boss.

I moved my lips to her breast, releasing her hand to guide her nipple into my mouth as my other hand continued down to rest on the curve of her pelvis, lightly caressing her centre. God, she was so wet already. Not that the machine wasn't giving away everything, her heartbeat incredibly receptive to my every touch. I was hard as a rock, hoping she couldn't see the tent that strained my pants. Her hands pulled at my hair, at the collar of my uniform, at everything she could get her hands on.

I flicked at her nipple and let my fingers stroke the outside of her underwear in gentle motions. She liked it - the beeps gave her away.

'More,' she whispered, nearly missed in the chaos of the EKG machine and her panting breaths. I moved away from her side to between her legs, guiding her underwear over her thighs and discarding them. I could see her centre, dripping and ready, and even without me touching her, she was grinding her hips against the pillow. Without my hands, her own started to move down to her centre, though she eyed me curiously.

I moved her hand and pinned it up near her head, leaning over her as my own hand took its place, slipping a finger into her warm centre. With one finger inside her, I pressed the heel of my hand to her swollen clit as I fingered her, all while watching her breathe, just to be sure that she still was.

'You're doing so good,' I found myself moaning as I rocked my hand into her. I slipped in a second finger, feeling the push of her pelvis against my hand. She started to moan. We had lift off. I let go of her hand and settled myself with her legs over my shoulder, moving my palm to replace it with my mouth. With soft, gentle kisses at first, and then powerful, stroking licks of her clit. The moaning intensified, and her hips bucked wildly. I pressed my hand into her lower abdomen to keep her still as I licked her clit and curled my fingers in her cunt. She tasted incredible. I could hear her breathing, labouring against her lungs, as they struggled to inhale. She was getting there. Just a bit more...

And then, suddenly, I heard the sound I had been listening out for - the sound of a heart in distress. I pulled away quickly, lifting myself out from between her to first check the machine, and then her. Her heart was beating, but much too fast, and she looked at me with panicked, swirling eyes. Her hands reached for her neck, desperate.

'It's okay,' I said, immediately switching to work mode, the safe version of me. I reached for a stethoscope from the caddy and rested it over her breasts, confirming the EKG machine's diagnosis. This was the attack she feared. 'We're going to get this heartbeat down, okay?'

She shook her head, as if to tell me she didn't believe me.

'Look at me,' I said, reaching for her face. I wrapped my arm around her torso and pulled her up so I could readjust the pillow to underneath her breasts, keeping her airway open. She was light and limp as a doll. 'I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Okay?' She stared into my eyes frantically. I couldn't be sure she heard what I said. Instantly, I pinched her nose and pulled down her lower lip, closing our mouths together to blow hot air into her lungs. I could see her chest rising the slightest amount. When I pulled back, she was still staring at me, her eyes still moving in panic, not taking breaths on her own.

I did it again, sealing my lips over hers and blowing air into her, this time letting my other hand rest on her stomach to feel the rise. I couldn't tell where the air was going - stomach or lungs? I gave her more breaths, aware that the machine was still indicating her heartbeat was insanely irregular, as I applied more pressure to her body with my hand. One breath with a hand pressed to her sternum, and another with a hand pressed into her stomach. As I pressed to her chest, her heart beat wildly against my hand. It was slowing down, ever so slightly. As I gave her one more breath, I felt the rattle of her lungs as she took in my air on her own, and expelled it. Progress.

'Okay, Emily, you're okay. I got you. You're going to be okay. I'm not going to let you die on me.' Thankfully, she was still conscious, but immobile, and fear kept her paralysed. I sat up, surveying the situation and the machine. We weren't ready for defibs - this was a manual task.

'This is the part I said before - we need to give slow chest compressions while we stimulate, to teach the heart the proper way to beat.' I placed one hand on her sternum, though my hand was big enough to nearly cover her entire breast. I then pressed my other hand over her vagina, fingers resting on the opening, palm pressed and applying pressure to the clit. She was still wet and warm, so I slipped two fingers into her vagina - in and out, in and out, as I pressed down on her chest, all while watching her face for signs. At first, I kept my compressions and fingering slow, gentle movements that kept her calm, as her heart reacted on the monitor. I could feel it against my hand, as her nipple stiffened, almost against her will - she was so panicked, and so aroused at the same time. But I was completely in control of whether she made it through this, completely in control of her heart and her body right now, and I had to make sure I kept her safe.

She was still warm and wet for me, though she had stopped grinding her hips against my hand. I counted out 30 compressions and 30 'come hither' motions in her vagina before carefully removing my hand to rest on her stomach. With the other, I pinched her nose, and she opened her mouth, ready for my air. She closed her eyes as I breathed into her lungs, feeling the gentle rise of her stomach under my hand. The EKG machine was quieter now, slightly slower.

After a few more breaths, I looked into her eyes, smoothing back her hair to check that she was okay. Her chest was still heaving desperately, but she looked less panicked, and I knew I had earned her trust. My palm found her chest again, and this time, I straddled her, letting my stiff cock press against her clit as I secured her thighs between mine. Slowly, I pressed against her sternum, one palm over the other, as I calmed her heart to beat against the rhythm I set. She looked up at me, watching me press into her, calming her breathing. I nodded at her.

'You're doing so good,' I said. 'Just keep breathing.'

She breathed between my compressions, her stomach rising against me as she inhaled. I watched the EKG machine as it steadied the rhythm, steading slowly until we came to a pace. With every drop of the machine, I lightened the pressure of my compressions, until I was barely pushing at all, holding my hands pressed to her ribs. Her own hands raised up to meet mine, as if to thank me.

She coughed, and pulled herself up on her elbows. 'That was scary,' she said, in a small voice. Immediately I pulled myself off her, grabbing my steth and coming by her side. I put the ear pieces on and pressed the bell onto her breast, listening to her steady rhythms.

'It was scary for me too,' I admitted. 'I didn't want to lose you.'

She laughed, and coughed as she did. 'Bad for business?'

I couldn't bring myself to laugh along, I was still caught up in the thought of losing this magic that I had only just found.

'Well, I think it was working,' she said. 'I think I probably need more practice, though. Should we say same time next week?'

[unseemingowl]

About this plagiarism and misinformation business

Amongst all of the schadenfreude over James Somerton being put out to dry for being the plagiarist bullshit-spewer that he is, I just want to underline – no, double underline! – the point that he’s not the only one.

As Hbomberguys’ video rightly points out, this is a widespread issue on youtube (or on any of the decentralized media platforms really – podcasts are another excellent example). Even though James Somerton is a particularly egregious case for stepping all over people from his own community and the way he panders to some of the worst impulses amongst the leftist echo chambers.

Now I love a video essay as much as the next person, Todd in the Shadows, who does the fact checking video of James Somerton, is a creator whose music criticism I’ve greatly enjoyed for years for example, but man…

I cannot help but feel that the way that the established visual language and structure of the youtube video essay has made it a lot easier to hide in plain sight. Actual good producers have done the heavy lifting that these fakers are cloaking themselves in to pass off their work as legit.

Like, I wish that the rampant misinformation or plagarism in James Somerton’s videos was what made me tune out after watching a video or two of his. It wasn’t. His videos had the superficial signifiers of a competent video essay production on topics that I did not know much about. What it didn’t have though was a host with any kind of charisma, and there was something decidedly off about the tone – as far as I recall I checked out of the Jeffrey Dahmer video because the tone was just so… I wanna say vile. If I want to be generous to myself, maybe it was the bullshit I was picking up on, but maybe not.

That’s of course not the fault of the good video essayists who have elevated the genre, but it does put a much higher demand on viewers to engage their critical thinking skills. Which goes for podcasts too by the way. It sucks, I know, sometimes I’d love to just kick back and relax and let myself be a vessel for fresh information too.

Now, I’m not an academic, so there are people much better at speaking to the intricacies of academic citation than I am, but I have spent the better part of ten years in journalism and media. I generally don’t speak much about this on tumblr, because frankly, that’s not why I come onto this site, but unsurprisingly, that means I fucking care about the topics of proper sourcing and misinformation. And a lot of these plagiarists and bullshit-spewers are trying to pass themselves off as doing proper journalism and being documentarians. They are - it should go without saying - not.

There are definitely people on youtube who have researchers working with them, and editors who do more than just figure out which kind of transition to use. But a lot of them don’t. Because it’s expensive. And why should these people do that? They’re not ashamed of what they’re doing! A lot of these actors even want to spread misinformation. And we're vulnerable now that we're heading into a big - BIG - election year. There's a reason why the EU are trying to force the big tech platforms to scale up on misinformation efforts rather than scale down.

That’s why big media organisations are good actually, as much as I know it’s popular to hate on them here on tumblr. Because big media organisations can afford to employ fact checkers, editors and researchers.

And no, big media is not infallible by a long shot, but here in my country at least, we have a press ethics committee, strict guidelines we need to follow, hard limitations on how much we can source from the work of other journalists. We are forced to acknowledge when we fuck up, we can’t just smokescreen everything on social media and claim that people were harassing us when we’re being called out for getting the facts wrong.

I have had to make corrections in my articles before, and it sucks, it’s embarrassing – and I’m very willing to be proven wrong here too. But these people are peddling half thought out or worse, willfully or ignorantly misinformed bullshit. And again, I wanna stress, they are not ashamed of doing that. They don’t care about integrity of information or journalistic ethics.

I don’t know, maybe I am just becoming a grumpy old person, but I do sometimes wanna despair about the trends that the new media platforms have created.

Like, these media platforms obviously have their merits. The main reason I watch video essays is largely to listen to inputs from lgbt+ creators and/or creators of color, because yes, both are heavily underrepresented in traditional media, but there is just so.much.noise now that those voices are drowned out more and more anyway. By grifters like James Somerton, or those like him - or worse than him! People who know how to game the algorithm. Enshittification is making it harder to find those voices. So I cannot help but feel that the focus should not be to put more power into these decentralized media platforms, but make sure that lgbt+ people, people of color and women have better access to seeing themselves represented in media and/or make sure they have access to proper media jobs – and the same thing goes for academia or publishing for that matter.

Anyways, I am actually angrier now than when I started writing this, but if you made it this far into this rant, this is your reminder to go read the BBC or The New York Times or something too, and not just get your information off of video essays. 

I'd argue that the most valuable currency we have in the current climate is healthy critical thinking skills.

[oc-challenges]

WELCOME TO THE OC NEW YEARS CHALLENGE!

Since the winter challenges struck out, we're crawling home. Luckily, the new years oc event is here and hopefully it will be the toast of the town. So before we all have to clean the glitter off the floor after the party, we're going to hold onto the memories of 2023 and looking forward to 2024. This event comes from @aliverse (me) and @elmunson with suggestions and feedback from the OC Challenges & Potluck discord, and it spans from the 26th of December 2023 to the 1st of January 2024. With the hope that you may never become a stranger to the oc community, let's go over the rules and then get to the challenges!

Rules

DO NOT copy others edits, if you feel someone has stolen your edits, follow these guidelines!

If you are doing crossovers, PLEASE make sure that the creator of the other oc is okay with crossovers.

If you want your post to be reblogged onto this blog, it must contain the hashtag onyc23.

Feel free to ask any questions, I promise I'll stay even when your scared, and I'm lost, and you're running away.

Everything is up to the creators interpretation, although I have tried to include some examples for help!

Have fun!

Day One: What A Tangled Web We Weave

On the first day, let's take part in one of my favorite trends this year—web weaving! Weave a captivating web incorporating quotes, images, screencaps, and more for your OC. If you're not familiar with the concept of web weaving, here's an account with a lot of examples.

Day Two: I Polish Up Real Nice

Sometimes we get tired or bored of an oc or an edit, but there still things we love about them. To reignite our love for these things, we're going to revise and revamp. Choose an oc, a story, or an edit to to refine and enhance to its fullest potential.

Day Three: In My ＿ Era

On the third day, let's reflect on the defining periods that have shaped either us or our original characters. Despite the initial impression, and my well known obsession, this is inspired by The Eras Tour but doesn't have anything to do with her.. We delve into the various eras within our OCs' lives, whether categorized by tv show season, movie, age, or any other criteria you can think of. Alternatively, share insights about the current era your in as a creator, like "in my hunger games oc era" or "in my gifset era".

Day Four: Everything New

Now that the studios have stopped being bitches, we can acknowledge all the remarkable releases of 2023 (a special shoutout to the talented individuals who contributed to their excellence). On day four, craft something inspired by a creation that emerged this year, whether it's an entirely new series or just a fresh installment in an existing one.

Day Five: Don't You Forget About Me

Though 365 days sounds like a long time, it doesn't always feel that way. In the midst of our activities this year, some things may have been unintentionally overlooked. Fortunately, there's still time to make up for it. Take this opportunity to craft something for an OC that took a backseat this year, bring to life that edit you've been yearning to create all along, or share that chapter you've been gradually working on throughout the year.

Day Six: In With The New

Let's not do out with the old, but we could certainly do in with the new. For day six, introduce a brand new oc or story you hope to be your newest muse for 2024.

Day Seven: Exchange The Experience

Tidings, tinsel, and a year of beginnings. It's start of a new chapter of our lives, especially for our original characters. Be sure to celebrate this new chapter by signing up for the OC Potluck New Years exchange and spreading joy.

[geniusphilester]

rory’s guide to where the howlters might move

i was talking with @underthisweather about this because we both play sims 4 and/or watch simmers that aren’t dan and phil play. there are a lot of people more well-versed in the sims 4 game and the dapg series than i am, but as someone who deliberately bought sims packs to get all the playable worlds, i can at least give it a guess.

i briefly considered making this a tier-list video but i have WAY too much on my plate to wrangle making a template and editing video right now, so quick post it is. i use all the world names, so feel free to look around youtube and other places online if you want to actually see the worlds.

Guidelines

this is all residential worlds, so vacation worlds and secret worlds aren’t being ranked. sorry, batuu (/j).

obviously, willow creek has been their home for a million years, so that’s not in the running, but i’ll talk about it a little bit before we get into the other worlds.

even though i’m not making a tier list video, i am making tiers because it’s fun. they are:

-top contenders: my best guesses for where dil, tabitha, dalien, and nuki land -possible: not my guesses, but also i won’t be completely humiliated if they pick one of these -for the bit: not likely, but if they have a particular joke or personal attachment or storyline in mind, that could keep them in the running -nah: probably not happening

if you want to jump to the end and skip my blathering, that’s where the full tier list will be.

a quick primer as to what we’re talking about here:

-“worlds” are a group of neighborhoods sorted by a general theme or biome or both.

-“neighborhoods” are a group of buildings/spaces grouped into a loose theme. while sims 4 isn’t open world like sims 3, it has wandering spaces between lots that don’t require additional loading that form the connective tissue of the neighborhoods

-“lots” are where specific buildings/houses go. there are a variety of lots: residential, commercial, etc., and they can have specific traits to help or challenges to make things harder, much like you can give sims traits. residential is our main focus here

-each lot has a grid size. 64x64 is huge; 20x15 is a lot smaller.

here’s what they’ve told us about what’s going to happen, pulled directly from the transcript (timestamp):

Phil: We are gonna either build a house from scratch or buy a house, but we're moving. Dan: We're shaking things up. Phil: To a new neighborhood. Dan: The Howlters are getting out of here. Look, it's that time. They lived a whole life. They were ready to retire. They got this three-bedroom massive house. They don't need all of this stuff. Phil: They don't. Dan: They need to start a new life in a new neighborhood now that their gay kids are out of there and they've got an emo and a Shiba Inu to raise. Phil: Yeah. Think about it, though. We're gonna have new neighbors, new friendships, new experiences, new jobs.

generally what we know/can guess:

-prebuilt or custom-built residences are most likely, but they can also bulldoze and build on other kinds of lots without cheats. i summarize the amount of lots each neighborhood has to give you an idea of how many potential neighbors might be around.

-dan is implying they’re going to downsize, so a smaller lot seems likely

-it sounds like dil and tabitha will be getting new jobs? that probably won’t have a ton of impact on the world/lot because jobs are largely “go somewhere else to work and you either can watch or not” or “you work from home but the neighborhood doesn’t have much impact here”. still, good to know

-

Willow Creek

just wanna give a quick shoutout to willow creek, dil’s home world from the beginning. it’s a base game world, and it’s got a lot of goodies: excellent starter homes, three empty lots (the one they used is a 30x20, which is not as big as they get, but is also not the smallest), notable townies (pancakes family!), a nice park, and a little downtown area. the vibes are distinctly southern USA in biome and architecture

neighborhoods

sage estates: mansions! two residential lots (one occupied by default, one prebuilt empty).

pendula view: historic section, featuring the goths. four lots (three prebuilt, one empty 30x20).

courtyard lane: current home of the howlters and pancakes! in their game, all five lots have houses (shout out to the owl slide).

foundry cove: starter homes. five lots (four prebuilt, one empty 30x20).

crawdad quarter: park, museum, nightclub, gym, library

-

Oasis Springs

another base game world! VERY deserty, specifically with a slightly palm springs (southern CA, USA) vibe? they have a lot of vague deserts in the sims 4 without actually considering biome too deeply, which i can say because i’m a high-desert queer. anyway.

neighborhoods

acquisition butte: midcentury and kind of mission-style mansions. four residential lots (three prebuilt, one empty 40x30).

skyward palms: two residential lots with mansions.

bedrock strait: the description calls it “delightfully kitschy”. five residential lots (four prebuilt, one empty 30x20).

parched prospect: single-family homes similar to bedrock strait, maybe with less kitsch? five residential lots (four prebuilt, one empty 30x20)

mirage canyon: downtown area, with museum, lounge, park, gym, and bar.

upsides

i wouldn’t call dan and phil desert gays, but irl palm springs is pretty gay! there are a lot of options here to renovate that aren’t giant but aren’t tiny, either. the howlters could get invested in the landgraab drama, if they wanted. the weather is also a lot less rainy than most other words, which means fewer thunderstorms (a big plus for my gameplay, hard to say for them).

downsides

as previously stated, i don’t see dan and phil as desert gays. oasis springs isn’t their architectural style, and emo dalien would probably be miserable (this could be an upside for story reasons, but i’m leaning toward it not working specifically here). plus, oasis springs is an early sims world, and i feel like they’ll go newer for the fun of it.

tier ranking

i deliberated over this one for a second because it’s mostly a no, but i think it’s just possible enough to put in “Possible”. the very bottom, though.

-

Newcrest

honestly, i’m hesitant to call newcrest a world all its own because it’s basically willow creek without anything in it. there are no preset buildings here, just three neighborhoods with five empty lots.

neighborhoods

bridgeview: lots are 2 20x15, 2 30x20, 1 40x30

llama lagoon: lots are 1 30x20, 1 30x30, 2 40x30, 1 50x40

ridgeline drive: lots are 3 30x20, 1 40x20, 1 40x30

upsides

one word: versatility. i play here all the time because it’s easy to make a tiny home (my favorite way to build my sims’ skills) on the smallest lots and build a full town around them, complete with all the houses, neighbors, and lot types you want. for youtubers who are into storytelling, it’s very appealing.

downsides

i honestly don’t see dan and phil as youtubers who want to make their own towns. they could pull from the gallery entirely without taking up too much time, but that feels too stale for their playstyle and personal aesthetics, and i think they want to shake things up more. it wouldn’t even make a good “we said we were moving but we didn’t say it would be different” bit.

tier ranking

nah

-

Magnolia Promenade

technically possible, but i doubt it’s happening: it’s a similar style to willow creek with three retail lots and one empty 30x20 residential lot.

tier ranking

nah

-

Windenburg

the world that came with get together, which we know dan and phil have. quality-wise, it’s one of the best worlds in the whole game: a bunch of lots, beautiful architecture, variety in neighborhoods. it has a real northwestern european vibe.

neighborhoods

windslar: mix of large houses and smaller. six residential lots with one empty 40x30, and a chalet gardens lot, including hedge maze.

olde platz: old downtown of windenburg with a bunch of housing but no empty lots. four residential, bar, library, cafe, nightclub, and an ancient ruins lot.

lykke centre: new downtown of winderburg. park, cafe, gym, nightclub, and a giant pool.

the crumbling isle: rich people on an island! five residential lots with one empty 20x20.

upsides

versatility, but with structure. building a new house on that 20x20 island lot seems very possible to me, but they could take one of the empty prebuilts or evict someone easily. a lot of neighbors to mess with, and a lot of destinations to play in. i visit lykke center’s nightclub and pool in my games all the time.

downsides

not only would i say tudor is not dan and phil’s style (which is a lot of the non-mansion housing), i would say that, despite the slightly more germanic or nordic bent, it might be too familiar in some ways? but the bigger impediment i think is that it isn’t silly enough for their playstyle and doesn’t fit any of the characters. emo dalien probably won’t pub crawl, you know?

tier ranking

more “Possible” than oasis springs, but not the highest

-

San Myshuno

the world that came with city living, and dab and evan’s stomping grounds! big city and mostly apartment living.

neighborhoods

spice market: listed as a “family neighborhood”. six apartment units in two buildings, one 30x30 single-family house prebuilt, one karaoke bar.

arts quarter: the “bohemian” neighborhood where the humor and hijinks festival happens. six apartment units, including a penthouse, and an art museum.

fashion district: the “young and trendy” neighborhood where the romance festival and geekcon happen. six apartment units, including a penthouse, and a karaoke bar.

uptown: the “luxurious” neighborhood, with four apartment units, a gym, and a rooftop lounge. the city park’s next to this one.

upsides

we know this is VERY dan and phil because dab and evan already live here (and their place looks like the dnp manchester flat)! it would be very funny if dab’s parents showed up and we saw dnp playing dab like he was constantly annoyed they were cramping his style. i would also enjoy if they demolished the standalone house and built a city-style house like forever home. not that i’m trying to get a house tour by any means possible or anything.

downsides

this isn’t different enough, and that’s why i mostly think it won’t happen. i think it would only happen if dab and evan went elsewhere.

tier ranking

For the bit. i think they’ll go a different direction but they also can’t resist being self-referential, so i can’t rule it out entirely

-

Forgotten Hollow

the world that came with vampires. if you’ve watched this sims series in full, you’ve seen it before. i play in it constantly, but most people aren’t into occult sims like i am or build cemetery lots to keep all their dead sims. for some reason.

lots (because there aren’t distinct neighborhoods)

garliclauter place: empty prebuilt, 30x20, vampire nexus lot trait

vatore house: prebuilt, 30x30

vlad’s house: prebuilt, 40x30

fledermaus bend: empty lot, 30x30

widowshild townhome: prebuilt, 30x20, registered vampire lair lot trait

there’s also some non-lot space that’s fun to hang out in, like the central park (that isn’t a park lot) and wilderness behind most of the lots

tier ranking

just skipping to this because it’s an easy “nah”: they’ve been here before and purely did it as an alternate-universe spooky week episode.

-

Brindleton Bay

the world that came with dogs and cats (and the first canon gay sim townies)! we know they have it because nuki exists. rainy seaside vibes.

neighborhoods

sable square: listed as both the “cultural center” of the world, but as a “monument” to their pets. three residential lots with one empty 30x20, a park with the dog-friendly lot trait, and a vet clinic.

cavalier cove: seaside residential of varying sizes. five residential lots with two empty 30x20s.

whiskerman’s wharf: touristy downtown wharf. three residential lots with one empty 40x30, a bar, and a lounge.

deadgrass isle: island with a museum lot. also has a lighthouse i think you can run around in, but i haven’t tried it.

upsides

if they were doing nuki-focused story or were looking to fill a house entirely with cats and dogs, this would be the place to go. maybe the howlters could have gay friends and live next door to the heckings! dan and phil yelling about the feral/townie cats would be a delight.

downsides

honestly, i’m just not a huge fan of this world. it never runs well on my computer, it rains all the time (which i like in real life, but not the sims), and if i have pets, i’m always in the vet clinic getting that stuff to work. obviously this is a ymmv thing, but i think it’s too bland for dan and phil as well.

tier ranking

low in “Possible”. i think oasis springs makes more sense, honestly.

-

Del Sol Valley

the world from get famous, which is basically a giant los angeles clone.

neighborhoods

mirage park: three residential lots, including one empty 50x40

starlight boulevard: the downtown area. two lounges, one museum, one nightclub, one park.

the pinnacles: mansion area. three prebuilt residential lots.

tier ranking

i’m gonna put this in “nah” quickly because dab is pursuing the actor career and might come here if he wants fame, but it’s more of a world to visit than live in. i don’t hate it or anything, but there’s few sims to interact with, and it wasn’t well-built. (one of the mansions has no bathrooms!) i think the only potential spoiler here is if dan and phil (mostly dan) wanted an outlet to rant about the entertainment industry, but they can do that without moving to del sol valley.

-

Strangerville

came with the pack of the same name! this is different than every other world because there’s a built-in narrative about the government and weird behavior, but it also has the neighborhood structure.

neighborhoods

secret lab: this is part of the narrative and is a single lot, but it gets its own neighborhood mention because, if you look up the map, it takes up the entire upper left corner.

shady acres: rich part of strangerville. five residential lots with two empty 30x20s.

strangerville plaza: main part of strangerville. four prebuilt residential lots, one library, and one bar.

upsides

honestly, that i have any is going to probably set me apart from any sims player-dapg fan combo. i think the red desert look is nicely different from the willow creek look, the build items are sometime underrated, and dan’s area 51 reference in the latest video could have been a hint. dil has been super close to alien weirdness; might as well follow that to its logical conclusion!

downsides

i don’t actually think dan and phil will do strangerville’s story because they want something a little more different. the richer housing in this world isn’t super well-built, and i can’t imagine them building a trailer in a trailer park for fun (although they should; i enjoy those kinds of build videos a lot).

tier ranking

For the bit

-

Sulani

the world that came with island living, probably most directly inspired in style by hawaii. this is a fun one because one of the neighborhoods is built on a volcano, multiple lots include sections of water, and you can turn into a mermaid! or, you know, just have a drink on the beach.

neighborhoods

lani st. taz: four residential lots including one empty 50x50, and a beach lot

mua pel’am: the volcano neighborhood! three residential lots, including one empty 40x30, and a lot of fun exploratory territory.

ohan’ali town: main town area. four prebuilt residential lots, one beach lot, one bar

upsides

very different than willow creek, good if they want to pursue a “dil and tabitha are kind of retired and immortal, why not go to the beach” storyline, generally just a good world.

downsides

if “pale nerds move to the desert” is a bad idea, “pale nerds move to the beach” isn’t much better. the off-the-grid options seem VERY unlikely!

tier ranking

no offense to sulani, but “nah” seems most likely

-

Glimmerbrook

realm of magic’s residential world! (there’s a portal to another world in this one, but you can’t live there without mods/cheats.) another world where i like it in theory, but the construction could be better, and it’s mostly centered around an occult type.

lots

glimmerbrook watch: empty 30x20

charm family: residential 40x20

amicable acolytes: residential 30x20

brooks bridge borough: residential 30x20

elixirs and brews: bar

tier ranking

nah

-

Britechester

discover university’s world! most of the housing here is specifically for students, but not all of it.

neighborhoods

foxbury university: the newer school! four university housing lots

gibbs hill: the town part of the college town. three prebuilt housing lots, one bar, and one library.

university of britechester: the older school. four university housing lots

tier ranking

i’m putting this in “Top contenders” with an asterisk: i don’t think it’ll happen yet, and if/when it does happen, it’ll be because dalien graduated high school and moved to university, which was implied in the latest video to be a likely path for dalien. my understanding is that university plays work better if the students live out of the world, but imagine dan and phil passing up a chance to talk about their uni experiences. i bet dalien will live his conflicted alien life in the dorms, at least to start with.

-

Evergreen Harbor

eco lifestyle’s world! it doesn’t have a strict narrative like strangerville does, but it’s built specifically for residents to vote on community initiatives and with mechanics that change the look depending on how environmentally conscious everyone’s being.

neighborhoods

grims quarry: former quarry turned residential neighborhood. three prebuild single-family lots and one apartment lot.

port promise: former industrial port trying to be reclaimed by the community. three prebuilt residential lots, one bar, one community space.

conifer station: former train area turned residential. two prebuilt residential lots, one apartment space, one community space.

upsides

i honestly think this one has a lot of potential, both in regards to dan and phil’s tastes and storyline options. going from strict scientist toward environmentalist would be a great route for dil, and the household could live in an apartment without being in the city, if they felt like downsizing that much. dan specifically has a reformed nihilist vibe that would go really well here, and dumpster diving/woohooing is a LOT of fun.

downsides

maybe not glamorous enough? dalien would probably hate it, which is not a hard no for me lol. they might want a world with more neighbors to torment, too. i’m also not sure if dan and phil have eco lifestyle, are interested, or even really know about it.

tier ranking

Top contenders, even if dan and phil don’t know it

-

Mt. Komorebi

snowy escape’s world, which is definitely japanese in influence, but not tokyo: it’s specifically more rural mountain areas. it’s also unique in that it’s half residential world, half vacation world, and the mountain is snowy even if you don’t have the seasons pack.

neighborhoods

yukimatsu: mountain peak with ski slopes! two rental lots, one onsen bathhouse, and one empty residential 50x50.

senbamachi: old part of town. three prebuilt residential lots, one bar, one park.

wakaba: new part of town. three residential lots, including one empty 20x15, one lounge, one rental.

upsides

look, it’s japan. dan and phil like japan (to put it mildly) and this pack melds older style with modern luxury real well. the builds are really solid as well; this was around the time when the sims team got simmers involved in making buildings, and it makes a big difference. the one time i played with dan and phil sims, they lived in mt. komorebi.

downsides

the combination of sports and vacation makes this a bit less likely as a moving destination, i think.

tier ranking

For the bit. it’s borderline imo, but if they go here, it will largely be because dan and phil love japan.

-

Henford-on-Bagley

cottage living’s world, which is very deliberately rural england in style.

neighborhoods

the bramblewood: mostly woods, with some buildings. three prebuilt residential lots, one park.

old new henford: the real farming neighborhood. four residential lots, including one empty 50x40.

finchwick: the village. two residential lots and one bar.

tier ranking

nah. if i think windenburg might be too familiar, henford-on-bagley definitely is, and i doubt they’ll do farming gameplay.

-

Tartosa

the world for the still-broken wedding stories pack! mediterranean in inspiration, mostly italy, i think.

neighborhoods

terra amorosa: waterfall, bridge, and buildings. three residential lots, including one empty 30x30, and one wedding venue.

porto luminoso: seaside town. three residential lots, including one empty 40x20, one rental lot, and one lounge.

tier ranking

nah. if we go here, it’ll be for the devan wedding, but even then i don’t think it’s super their style. (tbf i haven’t played here a ton, but the lounge is fun to visit)

-

Moonwood Mill

the werewolf pack’s world! i think this is a bit more liveable for most people than the vampire world, if only because there’s some variety in building type, but it’s still an occult pack.

lots

volkov house: occupied residential, 40x30

new moon shack: empty prebuilt residential, 20x15

the moonwood mill library: library

grimtooth bar and bunker: bar

prowler’s patch: empty residential lot, 30x30

tier ranking

nah. can i will another alternate universe episode like the vampire one into being, though?

-

Copperdale

the high school years world! mountain western united states vibe with a lake dividing the town in two. the map is beautiful, honestly.

neighborhoods

rockridge heights: the high school gets its own two-part neighborhood, divided into a high school building for regular school gameplay and an auditorium for things like prom, graduation, and a job fair.

prescott square: downtowny area. three prebuilt residential lots, one library, one thrift and bubble tea store (random, but high school years comes with thrifting as a money-making opportunity for teens).

plumbite cove: waterside area. three residential lots, including one empty 20x20, one rental, and one park, but my favorite part is the rabbit hole amusement park (you don’t get to see anyone go on the rides, but it’s a common afterparty destination).

upsides

if you ask me, this is the most likely neighborhood for howlter relocation! they specifically referenced high school years as dalien’s next stop, there’s a small empty lot to build on, it’s one of the newer sims expansions, and it’s different enough from willow creek to make it interesting while not reinventing the wheel. the social opportunities for dalien will be big! even if they don’t move here, we’re definitely going to see it a lot.

downsides

i do think dan and phil’s tastes have gotten more upscale over the years, so they outgrew willow creek, and copperdale might be a little quaint/small for them, too. doesn’t change the fact that dil and tabitha still have a teen.

tier ranking

Top contenders

-

San Sequoia

the growing together world! seaside town grown up; probably san francisco bay area since lots have the quake zone trait, “sequoia” implies that biome, and the map has a big bridge on it.

neighborhoods

anchorpoint wharf: downtown area. two residential lots, including an empty 30x20, one library, and one rental.

gilbert gardens: family recreation spot. three residential lots, including an empty 40x20, and one recreation center.

hopewell hills: more suburban. four residential lots, including an empty 30x20.

upsides

family space with a lot of options to build and annoy/clone neighbors, while not sacrificing a more urban feeling. plus, it’s the second most recent pack, which means it still feels fresh to a lot of people.

downsides

i’ll be honest, i thought san sequoia was a slam dunk when i was conceptualizing this post. but now that i’ve gone through all the other worlds, i think it’s honestly too young for the howlters. dalien is not splash pad age, for sure. i think it’s still a solid contender, but i would be a bit surprised if it gets picked.

tier ranking

Possible

-

Chestnut Ridge

horse ranch’s shiny new western US desert world! i’d say the red rock and hills makes i more utahish versus the southern california (oasis springs) and maybe arizona (strangerville) deserts. can i get one brushy high-desert landscape, please? anyway.

neighborhoods

galloping gulch: hilly living. two residential lots and one rental.

new appaloosa: downtown in yeehaw style. two residential lots, one nightclub, one bar, and a notable rabbit-hole arena for horse training next to the park.

riders’ glen: ranch and vineyard spaces. five residential lots with one empty 64x64.

tier ranking

let’s just jump to it: unless dan and phil get a hankering for dil and tabitha to ride horses or crush grapes, i suspect chestnut ridge will only possibly be a destination for dab and evan as brokeback mountain jokes. “For the bit” with an asterisk, it is!

-

Top contenders

Copperdale, Evergreen Harbor, Britechester*

Possible

Windenburg, San Sequoia, Oasis Springs, Brindleton Bay

For the bit

Mt. Komorebi, San Myshuno, Strangerville, Chestnut Ridge*

nah

Del Sol Valley, Sulani, Tartosa, Henford-on-Bagley, Newcrest, Glimmerbrook, Moonwood Mill, Forgotten Hollow, Magnolia Promenade * = not right away

[pittieandpoodle]

idk, pitbulls have such a complicated history (in america i’m american this post is us centric i’m sorry but i’m american so it’s what i know) that several things can be and are true at once

pitbulls are not inherently dangerous and violent and many of them do make excellent family pets

historically, pitbulls were bred for dog aggression and high prey drive, but not for human aggression

more recently, there’s been an increase in human-aggressive pitbulls, even though this is technically against breed standard

when pitbulls attack, it’s likely to cause a lot of damage due to their size, strength, and tenacity

not all pitbulls will attack dogs/animals/humans

some pitbulls will attack dogs/animals/humans

pitbulls are responsible for a portion of fatal dog attacks

pitbulls are not the only breed associated with fatal dog attacks

some pitbulls require experienced owners/handlers to provide them with a fulfilling, safe life

some pitbulls are happy with a first time dog owner and will likely never have a problem with safety or aggression

socialization is key to raising a pitbull

you cannot change the genetics of the pitbull you have

it’s almost like… this is an incredibly nuanced and complicated topic, and the “solution” to the “problem” of modern pitbull ownership is widespread, intense education for owners, rehabbing the shelter/rescue system (no more refusing to PTS dogs who cannot safely live in human society for the love of god), and establishing fair and enforceable guidelines for dog breeding.

to be quite honest, i don’t think i’ll live to see the day that pitbulls are not a controversial topic just by virtue of existing.

[psi-scribe]

Ok so after talking with the breeder about some scheduling, I’ve decided to go out there and see the kennel myself and introduce myself to Percival then before taking him home. Right now the breeder is away at a Ravenwing sporting event which is why it’s taking a while to bring the Scout home, which is no problem! I’m looking forward to seeing the kennel and this should help the little guy feel more at ease about his adoption and feel safer on the drive back, which was something I was worrying about, so this really does work out better. So while I sit around waiting, I figured I’d share some information about the Dark Angel breed! They are so interesting and diverse, comes with being such an old breed.

So let’s start with the Legion Breed! The original “Dark Angel” breed is one with a long history, founded by one “Lion El’Jonson” a Welsh gentleman, and he is Welsh, a lot of sources say he’s British, but this is incorrect, he was just educated in England and lived there for a long time but that’s a different topic. He bred the Dark Angels to be hardy, highly intelligent and cover several different kinds of roles. The original breed, which is still around to this day due to diligent and careful breeding, is known for their gleaming black coats in contrast to the “Caliban Green” that the modern Chapter Breed sports (Caliban being chosen in honor of the El’Jonson old castle). Though patterns like “checkerboard” are acceptable according to the pedigree guidelines for both.

Now I mentioned that the breed served in several different ways, and this was managed by organizing the breed into six “wings”, which are classified now as “variations”, or sub-breeds. This is something that was carried on with the Chapter/Successor breeds. This is partly to reflect the original Legion Breed and partly because Dark Angels genetically are so diverse and that effects their behavior, thus requiring different training. You can breed two Ravenwings together but not all the marinelings will turn out to be ravenwings. This genetic diversity has helped to keep the breed so strong for so long.

So, let’s talk about those “Wings”!

Most people who have poked around Dark Angel breed information sites, forums and such are likely familiar with two of them: The Deathwing and Ravenwing. Both are stunning in their own ways, fully grown Deathwing have pale coats dubbed “bone” and grow to be much taller than others of their breeds and variations. These bois were originally used for herding/guarding, especially during wartimes where they excelled (there’s actually a sad story related to that but maybe I’ll share that later). Chapter and Successor breed Ravenwing sometimes get confused for the old Legion Breed because of their black coats. The immediate difference is that ravenwing (regardless of breed) are always leaner and way more active, this is so not a variation for those living in cities, seriously.

There are or were 4 other wings belonging to the old Legion Breed but for various reasons, none of them are still around in great number. These are the: Firewing, Stormwing, Ironwing and Dreadwing.

Firewing were used back when the Legion Breed was really active in early wars, think when knights in armor and horseback were used. The best way to describe the accounts of their behavior is to imagine a highly disciplined Night Lord or Ravenguard but they were also dangerous because they could snap at any moment without warning (unless you’re familiar with the variation). But that’s what they were bred for, assassinations and such. From what pictures I’ve seen around and written descriptions, they commonly had red markings but there’s not much more beyond that.

Stormwing is more frustrating because I have not been able to find good pictures of the variation? No descriptions about what they commonly looked like or what they were bred for either. What I was able to find was that there were never a lot of them in the first place, something about the training and traits needed to be classified as one. The variation was bred for something specific during the “knightly” period but after castle sieges stopped really being a big part of battles, I guess there was no reason to keep the variation going sadly.

Ironwing! These are the heaviest and biggest of the variations, Legion Dark Angel Dreadnoughts were all classified as Ironwings when they were around in mass. You know how big dogs have deep barks? It’s the same with these guys, all their vocalizations are all deep and you feel it in your bones apparently. These guys often wore addition armor as well.

And then finally, there’s the Dreadwing. The first of the variations to be banned and breeding straight up forbidden. They were incredibly dangerous and not many people met the strict minimum required to even apprentice to handle them?? Lion El’Jonson was not messing around when he set up the guidelines for these ones. A lot of the records I managed to find (and read for that matter, old English is hard to read) were uh…gruesome. War-time variations sadly all have that in common.

Though on another interesting note! While the Legion Breed is still around and closely monitored for good breeding, there appears to be records of several “Fallen” Dark Angels around. Fallen is the term for the Legion Dark Angels that choose to abandon their owners for one reason or another/are abandoned and end up going feral. Sometimes they join up in squads but never more than that. A lot of veterans in the Dark Angel husbandry field have tried to trap and rehabilitate these Fallen, sometimes they’re successful too. Those Fallen are then dubbed “Risen” to mark that they were formerly feral and that means their requirements and needs are different. The kennel club I mentioned in another post has set up a program to help with finding and helping any Fallen they get calls about. They’re not all bad marines, they just need a second chance.

So, yeah, that my very rambling history(?) post about the Dark Angel breed!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Kraegrat

Allow me to start with a disclaimer: I woke up sick this morning, so if it seems like I'm doing a worse job than usual stringing words together, let's all agree to blame fatigue & cold medicine.

Now, on to our beast for the week. The entry people are working from can be found here:

This is kind of an interesting one: not only is there no physical description, but the entry consists entirely of describing a single behavior that has at best a tenuous connection to reality. Nevertheless, a number of people indicated that they recognized it, because this is one of those "bestiary fun facts" that tends to stick in folks' heads.

As usual, we're going to go through the depictions in roughly chronological order -- let me know if I missed yours. This week, for some reason, my original post doesn't appear under the #Kraegrat tag, so who even knows what's going on there and I'm fully willing to believe yours is hidden for some kind of absurd Tumblr reason. (Maybe it got flagged under the "don't go nuts don't show nuts" policy -- I kind of suspect that's what happened with the entry post.)

Images below the cut, because (1) aforementioned nuts, though i'm pretty sure this is within Tumblr guidelines, and (2) i really should be doing a cut for all of these but i keep forgetting.

@mobileleprechaun (link to post here) has gone all in on the pathos, making the Kraegrat small, fuzzy, and sad. They describe it as "beleaguered and persecuted" and "a poor guy" which honestly I think is pretty fair for anyone in a situation where you're constantly being hunted for your testicles. They also cite "tanuki inspo" for obvious testicle-related reasons, and yeah, I see it. Very good Sad Gentle Beast here.

@embervoices (link to post here) has done a few different species of Kraegrat, all of which have kind of a lemur look. (They also provided their own alt text, which I really appreciate, thank you.) The linked post has an explanation of design decisions, and also references that Anansi story about tiger balls. (I googled it just now, and all the results reference American Gods -- did Neil Gaiman make that one up?) Anyway, excellent whimsical lemur thing, love the depiction of it throwing the testicles.

@mayhaps-magical (link to post here) notes their "appropriate medieval disregard for standardized spelling" and explains that they reinterpreted it as "Kragen-rat". My German is almost nonexistent, so I had to do a quick check...

... okay, yeah, I see how that comes into play. I also like the idea of playing around a bit with the spelling and etymology, because gods know the medieval authors did the same with no regard for accuracy. (The vastly-encyclopedic, frequently-inaccurate work that has led Isidore of Seville to be put forth as a potential Patron Saint of the Internet is ostensibly a book of etymologies.) Anyway, I like this guy here. It kind of looks like one of those big dogs that are always kind of shy and nervous around new people, which I think fits with the description as "gentle". Also like that it apparently has both claws and I think thumbs for the throwing of testicles.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) acknowledges that they're pretty sure they know what this animal is supposed to be, but they're trying to put it out of their heads. I think they've done a very good job of that: this is a pretty naturalistic drawing of a ground-dwelling mammal that doesn't quite look like any real animals, including the one that this entry was based on. The post linked above contains a description of the design decisions behind this critter, which I of course recommend checking out.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has, as usual, done a beautifully stylized rendition of this one. She cites the famous unicorn tapestries as inspiration, and I can absolutely see it. I think it's an interesting artistic choice to focus on the hunter rather than the beast in this drawing, but one that absolutely makes sense: the entry doesn't tell us anything about the Kraegrat except how it interacts with hunters. Enjoy your bounty of severed testicles, Sir Hunter... and, um, keep an eye on your dog if you want to make sure you still have all of them when you get home. I think it's contemplating something there. The linked post contains a brief description of design decisions, and also this line, which I enjoyed:

I'd also like to state for the record that when I started this challenge, I was not expecting to draw a field of severed testicles, but here we are. It was more fun than I expected.

@rautavaara (link to post here) has again taken an unusual direction with this one. They describe their interpretation as:

Medicinal plant-like lizard that loses its tail when scared off.

Considering this and the drawing, I think I can see the path of creative interpretation. The animal as presented in the bestiary entry is obviously ridiculous: a mammal that self-castrates to save its life is not an evolutionary success. So what could it be other than that? Well, lizards detach their tails to escape predators; what if there was a lizard with nodules on its tail that medieval people interpreted as testicles?

I can't swear that that is rautavaara's thought process, of course, but it makes sense to me as an interpretation of the material provided, and if that is what they're going for, I think it's quite clever. Also, as usual, the art style here is excellent.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) explains that her design process consisted of blending together various animal features and then giving it sparkly magic balls, because that's all the entry really provides. Which, fair. Also I appreciate the taste in choosing what I think is "tapir + deer" as the animals to blend here. Those tusks kind of remind me of musk deer, which is actually pretty appropriate, as we'll see later. The facial expression plus the sparkly balls strike me as very funny, I have to say. Good beast.

@karthara (link to post here) was apparently also skeptical about the idea of a self-castrating animal, and if you check out the linked post, you'll see a brief explanation of how they resolved that as well as some other thoughts on design decisions. The gist is that the Kraegrat has decoy testicles, which I love as an interpretation. Fantastic. No further notes.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has done another ink drawing that is, frankly, delightful. Love the Kraegrat escaping into the Nonspecific Medieval Trees. Love, love, love the hunter getting smacked in the face with a set of thrown testicles while his dog watches. The above linked post also provides an explanation of design decisions which I think is worth reading, go check that out.

@treesurface (link to post here) has drawn us a rat-kangaroo thing (not to be confused with a kangaroo rat) calmly displaying its lack of testicles. Looks fairly good-natured about the situation, really. They provide a brief discussion of their design decisions in the linked post, and also express a desire for more "weird scary beasts" in the future -- so I checked, and while I can't really define what is or isn't a weird scary beast, I think we should get at least one qualifying entry in January.

@pomrania (link to post here) has made the understandable decision that they aren't going to draw animal genitalia today. Fair enough. I also think this is a pretty good depiction of a Mammal that is clearly not any animal we're familiar with -- I'm impressed by how many of the drawings we're getting for this are Plausible Yet Unfamiliar Beasts. Anyway, pomrania provides early sketches and an explanation of design decisions in the linked post. They also express relief that this is not "Yet Another Bird", and I regret to inform you all that there is a small cluster of Bird entries coming our way.

Anyhow, let's take a look at the Aberdeen Bestiary depiction for this one.

I have to say I find this illustration very funny. That bizarre pose where it's wrapped around a tree is good, but what really makes it is the hunters. Look at those two. Spear Guy looks like his eyes are about to bug out of his head, while Axe Guy seems like he's going "hey, is that normal? should we be doing something about that?"

Anyway, as some of you guessed (and as I'm sure more of you picked up from that very accurate Aberdeen illustration above), this is a Beaver.

Yeah, the whole testicle thing is probably a misunderstanding of the castor sacs that beavers use to scent-mark their territory. Castoreum is still used today, mostly in the perfume industry I think, but apparently the medievals had some kind of medicinal use in mind. So the people who surmised that this isn't actually talking about testicles but rather some other anatomical feature that looks like testicles were correct. I have no idea where the idea came from that the beaver would rip them off voluntarily, though.

So! There's this week's bestiaryposting. I will now Retreat to My Chamber and Lay As One Dead (scroll Tumblr in bed until I fall asleep).