#why do men hate you when you are career ambitious and hoping to be successful in your career???

[urmine]

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[feuilletonette]

Bridgerton S3, they could never make me hate you.

I had been consuming a lot of contents albeit very much revolves around these two darlings, Penelope and Colin. I just couldn't get enough. I was simply never the same after Polin. Never.

It had been pressing weeks when I felt the shed of my old skin upon the compounding insinuations of loss affection toward men of haunting past. In which with all their might would do everything to sabotage the relationship, to run screaming and crying and throwing up to absolutely defy these insurmountable feelings, one could label within the word, love. Until they are utterly consumed by these thoughts and overwhelming need to express such affections where the only way to ever cope results to angry, passionate confessions of love.

I am wild to witness the stark difference of how we see Colin did none of those things because in my conclusion, he wasn't as emotionally constipated and the first three leads and it is such a refreshing medium to see without ever actually stripping him flat. That is what I want: a tender, loving, down bad softboy declaring that if his purpose was to love a woman as great as me, then he shall be a very fulfilled man, indeed.

The argument that he didn't say the 'I love you' enough debate was, in surface, quite understandable but if you start to analyse closely, after the proposal, almost every interactions he's had revolved around finding an opportunity to express his love and admiration to/for Penelope, especially in his conversation with his siblings.

He didn't need to scream his confession, he'd been attuned and embracing it (enthusiastically so) once realised, that is why he was never repulsed of having to speak of it the first place! In fact, he even actively communicates it in the most beautiful way possible.

He sought advice from Violet, followed Anthony straight away when he told him that he should tell her he loves her. Listen to Kate's marital advice. He's open, he's receiving help, he's trying to process his hurt and overcoming his triggers. He's learning to do better but it wasn't perfect. He made mistakes along the way but eventually led him to the path of acceptance.

He wanted to love her better, despite of and in spite of. Colin had always been introspective so when he had discovered the root of his actions, he gathered up the courage to be vulnerable and admit it to Penelope. That he was feeling envious because he never truly felt good enough. But this was recieve to be affirmed of his inherent worth. The thing I love about this couple is that they felt so human and that propelled them to move past such damaging beliefs of themselves to do better.

Don't even get me started with Penelope, I could make dissertations of how well she was written for all anyone could care. Miss girl is ambitious, I love how her mental glow-up was able to comply how well her physical glow-up was executed also. In the end, she needn't to choose between herself and the man she loves.

She can be both independent and cherished by a man, a man who constantly worked on himself because she mattered more than his ego. She may have wavered after various discouragement and she had tried, so so hard to give up her success but she couldn't. Whistledown is something she wouldn't compromise as it would mean betraying a part of herself. So I was glad that upon fighting for it, the people around her soon realised that this is something they could not deny and something they should fight with her not off of her. I'm glad that the show was able to depict that Penelope could have both. Being a succesful, career-driven woman should not cost you your love, or at least the right one. And it's a powerful message to have.

I also love this passage of weilding her power into more productive causes such as giving voice to the voicless. I hope we see more of it for the upcoming season.

Though, of course it's not perfect, with pacing issues and subplots with purpose I had hard time figuring. But if there's one thing I couldn't stress enough, season 3 has so much depth and I was very glad to dive upon the narrowest trenches of it.

It was so beautifully done and that is why I also stand that Polin have the strongest foundation so far as they navigate their biggest block and be the best versions of themselves together, and occasionally, with the help of one another.

P.S I am only talking about the show Polin, I hated the book, but I suppose this would be for another post.

[absolutebl]

I’ve been watching BL for about 3+ years now and consumed my fair share of series and I have to say the actors’ responsibilities to their characters/series off set is starting to feel very “gay for pay”. What I mean is the majority of the actors, in my opinion, seem very obviously straight but the shipping culture, rabid fans delusions on their personal lives, and requirements to always appear like a couple when In public (fan meets, interviews, reaction videos of their work, variety shows, selling products on live, etc.), make it so that they must always be “on” even upon wrapping their series and this makes me veryy uncomfortable and I feel bad for them. It takes the artistry or this is work element out of what is clearly just a job. I for one try to avoid most of the “IRL” stuff actors do outside of the series itself bc it’s makes me just so uncomfortable and embarrassed…. On another note, it seems like many of these actors take on BL to break into the industry. Is there much success in a popular BL actor pivoting into “mainstream” or non BL celebrity? Bright Vicharawit seems to be doing well and Mew Suppasit. Although I hate to say Mew’s career pivot rubs me entirely the wrong way bc I feel like he didn’t bow out of BL gracefully but used BL and the popularity of his shipped couple and dropped it all like a bad habit trying to erase its existence from his history... I’m sorry my bitter might be showing on that last bit haha. I hope I made some sort of sense. Thanks!

Yes, it's weird, creepy, and exploitive - from all sides. That's why I avoid all the fan service stuff.

With respect to Thai actors? I actually don't know if BL can be seen as "breaking in" since BL the big guns of the industry there. Where else is there to go? Het dramas are less popular, at least outside of the country. Not sure what's going on internally.

Presumably, Mew is getting this chance, and it's a big one, because he looks, well, like Mew (very appealing to a Korean aesthetic), and also I'm assuming speaks Korean well enough to get by. Also, he was always a very very ambitious boy, that one.

I won't blame him entirely for anything tho, MAME's actors seem to have it the worst.

I have my reservations about Korean BL too. I think some of the boys *think* they are getting a leg up but... still too short to ever be leading men material (by Korea's standards). Especially the idols. (”Ieg up” ... see what I did there?) And I think doing BL there can still do more harm than good because of the homophobia (like what happens in China). I think some of the working actors who happened into BL (like the To My Star Boys) seem to be realistic and have fun about it, but they're both established in themselves as people and as actors BEFORE the fandom happened to them.

Japan and Taiwan it's just another job. There seems to be neither weight nor stigma (these days, it was different a decade ago). You can gain a bit of international cred and some sweet modeling and sponsorship deals (see the Cherry Magic boys) and maybe a follow up gig in the form of a movie or whateves, but that's more like just... being part of a successful show.

I don't know, kids becoming celebrities. It's never gonna be pretty, that gruesome combination of performative ego, accelerated attention and wealth, parasocial relationships the then add.... fake dating the same sex in a largely hostile society.

Can't imagine any of these youngsters come out not borked in the head.

Now the ones like MaxTul or even, maybe, MileApo who clearly talked about this and how to handle it with each other, and have some kind of game going on (with each other and us as fans), and entered the situation more grown up aware and mature age-wise (and therefore somewhat fixed in ego and personality) - I don't worry so much about them.

But mostly, since PerthSaint went south what, 4 years ago was it? Yeah, it's ALL creepy.

That's enough of this kinda gossip.

(this post from this one on my reservations about pair branding)

[keytomythoughts]

Perfect Imperfections | Chapter 2

Chapter Index

»»—————————————-　

“Wait, you’re making your debut soon? You were still a trainee when I was in high school, right?”

He nods, one hand on the steering wheel while the other hangs outside of the car. “The company told me a month ago, so we’ve been practicing like crazy. Fortunately, practice ended early today, so I was able to swing by and pick you up from the train station.”

I smile smugly, punching his arm playfully. “Aww, you did miss me. Look at that.”

He snorts but doesn’t refute my statement. 

The evening sky is dusted in shades of rose, gold, and soft orange, the mix enveloping the horizon similar to a canvas being brushed with aesthetic paints. The clouds hang low, the sun casting shadows on the tallest of buildings with its warm, pale-yellow glow. The wind doesn’t nip at us sharply, instead shifting to a more calming, serene breeze. 

The car ride shouldn’t have lasted as long as it did, but I realize halfway that he was purposely taking the longer routes home. Sensing my lurking apprehension from our phone call hours ago, my brother picked up on that cue and decided to distract me as much as he could before we inevitably had to return.

Something my parents failed to realize. 

“Oh right, I forgot to ask,” Jaehyun stares ahead and switches lanes with ease, heading towards yet another highway, “how are Eunwoo and Moonbin?”

I did mention that Eunwoo and Jaehyun are close friends as well, so it wasn’t surprising when I found out that he knows of my friends circle. Well, those two really. Imagine my horror when I realized that they were the same age and friends. Shocking at first, but I got used to it. Besides, it’s not like we were awkward about it or anything. Moonbin also knew my brother, so we all essentially got along fairly well. 

I push the strands of hair away from my face, glancing down at my phone in my lap to find no new notifications from them since I last texted. Sighing, I look out to my right. “They’re fine. Both of them are gonna be in Seoul for the summer, so we’re just planning on hanging out until college starts.”

“Have you guys decided where to go, what you want to study?” 

I shrug my shoulders. “Not really. I mean, I’ve been thinking about medicine at Korea University, but,” I sink into the seat a little, sighing, “you know it’s not up to me.” My voice drops to a whisper near the end, my eyes casting towards the road ahead. 

Jaehyun turns to me, taking his hand off the steering wheel to gently pat my arm. “I know, sis. I really do. But still,” he removes his hand and places it back on the wheel, his eyes refocusing back on the road, “you should tell them what you want to do. Who knows, they might listen this time.”

I snort, crossing my arms over my chest. I tilt my head back against the seat, turning to look at my brother. “You really think so?”

To this, he doesn’t respond. How could he? It would be a lie meant to comfort me, but we both know the truth. He simply sighs, running a hand through his hair and leaving it behind his neck. I heave another sigh as well, both of us knowing that things may not work out the way we would like them to. 

This wouldn’t be the first time anyways.

We exit the freeway and merge onto the familiar streets of my neighborhood. Soon enough, we were pulling up into our driveway, the nervousness replacing the initial excitement of being back home. Jaehyun turns off the engine, neither of us making a move to leave the car first. Of course, with my nerves shot and breathing shallow, there would be no way I could go inside alone. Lucky for me, I’m not.

But why can’t I shake this sick feeling?

Jaehyun reaches out and squeezes my hand once, flashing that stupid grin of his at me. “C’mon, let’s go inside. Your oppa will protect you~”

I swat his hand away, my nose wrinkling in disgust but the laughter bubbles in my throat. He rubs my head again before removing his shades and stepping out of the car. Before I can unbuckle and step out myself, Jaehyun already stands at my side, holding my luggage. He waits patiently until I close the door behind me, my steps wavering slightly as I stand before the elaborately carved wooden door of our house. 

Jaehyun nudges my shoulder, smirking. “It won’t bite, Hyu.”

I roll my eyes as I follow right behind him. He unlocks the door and turns the doorknob and disappears past the threshold. I trail close behind him, a breath catching in my throat as I walk towards the living room. Everything was the way I remembered it, minus the new decorative pieces presumably from my father’s visits abroad. Living as a surgeon requires him to embark on trips overseas, sometimes not returning for months at a time. My mother, on the other hand, doesn’t actively practice surgery, instead deciding to teach as a medical professor at a top university in the northern district of Seoul. 

Four years and nothing has changed, huh? 

Jaehyun states that he’s going to put my belongings in my room before coming back down, and I nod at him. Just as he ascends up the stairs, my mother emerges from the kitchen, smoothing down the front of her lavish apron, a tight smile adorning her small, petite face. Her reddish-brown hair is worn in a small bun, her glasses hanging from her shirt. I won’t lie to you, my mother is a beautiful woman, even in her late forties. Smart, rich, and insanely polished. Not only her, but my father is the same as well. It’s no surprise where my brother gets his enviable features from, while I question what leftovers were given to me. I never believed myself to be smart or beautiful, like my parents. Nor was I carefree and sociable, like my brother. Sometimes I question if I was ever adopted, seeing as I seem to be my family’s outlier. The odd-one-out. Yet, Moonbin and Eunwoo highlighted those little bits of me that I’ve shamed myself on. Where I saw disappointment, they saw genuity. The “flaws” were my strengths. They prided me on the things my parents didn’t view so favorably. 

How I wish they were with me right now.  

My mom approaches me, enveloping me in a rather tight embrace. Wasn’t expecting that, but I reciprocate the action anyway.

“Hyuna, dear, I’m so glad you’re home,” she pulls away, grabbing me by my arms as her eyes scan my face, smiling, “and you’ve gotten so much prettier. I see your aunt took care of you well, I’m glad.” She places a hand against my cheek.

I smile nervously. “Happy to be back, mom. Sorry for not informing you and dad that I was coming back today.”

She shakes her head, tapping my cheek lightly before moving away from me. “Nonsense, dear. Your father is in his study, so he’ll be down shortly. I know how very tired you must be, so let’s set the table for dinner.” She shuffles back towards the kitchen, soon bringing out various utensils and a stack of plates. I immediately grab them from her and arrange the items on the table for the four of us. My mom kisses the top of my head and smooths my hair down, returning to the kitchen so she could bring out the meals. 

Something’s not right here.

My mother isn’t really the affectionate type. While it was blatantly obvious that I wasn’t the favorite child, that title reserved for Jaehyun (again, no surprise there), they didn’t really hate me, if that makes sense. They just tended to leave Jaehyun to do as he pleases, while I would have to listen to them. I don’t doubt that they care for us both, as good parents should, but I can’t help but feel disheartened when they would dismiss my feelings and decide to enforce their own ideals on me. Claiming that this would be “the best for me”.

As much as I respect my parents for raising me to be the ambitious, hardworking woman that I am, a part of me wishes that they would see me as a person with hopes and aspirations of my own, not just an extension of their legacy. 

How could they decide what’s best for me when I don’t even have the ability to voice them myself?

Moments later, my father descends from the stairs, my brother walking down from behind him as well. It seems like he’s been busy with office meetings, seeing as he’s still dressed in his formal beige button-up shirt and black dress pants. His glasses sit perfectly on the bridge of his nose, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his pants. 

I bow my head in respect. “Good evening, Father.”

He acknowledges my presence with a curt nod. No surprise again. He’s a man of few words, but when he does speak, he’s blunt and gets straight to the point. Wasting time and skirting around the truth has never been his philosophy. He practically radiates with superiority and firmness. From the stoic expression on his face to his neatly styled brown hair, my father was nothing short of a posh man in his early fifties. The best surgeon, the perfect doctor, the staple of all admirable men in South Korea.

In short, he’s practically worshipped by professionals across the nation. 

Naturally, my brother and I take great pride in our parents and our family’s rather successful and lavish legacy. Of course, with this reputation, it’s expected of us to uphold it. Education must be nothing short of challenging. Careers must be everything but disappointing. Appearances had to be pristine, no flaws or shortcomings apparent.

You get the picture.

My brother attended college for a short while—a year and a few months, if I’m not wrong—before dropping out once he got scouted by a reputable entertainment label. I don’t know specific details, but I do know that my parents weren’t initially too pleased to hear that he wanted to pursue a career as an idol singer. Nonetheless, and with the things Jaehyun was allowed to get away with, this was just another thing to be added to that list. I figured my father would come around and think that the Jungs shouldn’t be limited to more “sophisticated” fields—medicine, law, business, and the like. Branching out and including fine arts, including performance, would only solidify the notion that our family is meant to dominate every field imaginable with integrity and poise. 

My mother and I finish setting up the table and call for the rest to sit. Seeing the variety of dishes laid out, you would think it was a special occasion. Surely they weren’t celebrating my graduation as class Valedictorian. I haven’t told them any of my accomplishments, but I’m sure they had their means of getting access to my reports even before I was made aware of them. Connections, the most vital thing in the Jung family. It’s what helps us climb ranks and secure top positions in society. Why we’re so heavily respected, as well as feared. 

Jaehyun and I sit adjacent to each other while our parents are seated across us. We begin to eat in silence. Nothing too different from how we had family dinners back then, albeit the absence of my father or mother from late meetings or an overseas conference. To be quite frank, it did seem strange to have a meal with all of us present after so long.

My father suddenly clears his throat. “Hyuna, I heard from the teachers at your high school that you performed excellently. I’m pleased to hear this.”

I pause, my eyes training up to meet his steady gaze. Though pleased, he didn’t seem to express it facially. A direct complement is seldom said, so it comes as no surprise that it was the only thing I, or my brother, would be receiving. 

Jaehyun nudges me, realizing that I hadn’t responded as my father awaits with the same steady expression.    

“O-Oh, thank you, Father.”

He nods, placing his utensil back down on the plate before clasping his hands in front of him.

“Now that you’ve graduated, have you considered your possible college options and future career plans?”

This. This is the very question I’ve been dreading.

I can feel the air around me grow thick with anticipation. His words hang in the air, the words to respond with the scripted lines I’ve recited endlessly in my brain unable to fall from my lips. I suddenly recall what Jaehyun and Moonbin had told me prior, to try and voice my opinions in hopes that they may be heard and properly considered this time. After all, I would never know if I didn't try. Here’s my chance.

But, my father continues upon my brief hesitation. “With your academic record, you would have no issue enrolling in the top universities within the country. Even abroad, if you considered that as well.”

I gulp, my fingers clenching tightly in my lap. I force my rapid heart to slow its pace in fear that it may burst out of my chest, my breathing trying to be as calm as it can be. I can feel Jaehyun eyeing me from the side, and my mother stops eating as well. 

There’s silence. One which I break when I open my mouth to let the words bottled up in my mind spill out before I can properly think them through.

“I want to stay here, in Seoul.”

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 

[danixsimmer01]

The Sims 4 Colour Legacy Challenge

The Sims 4 Colour Legacy Challenge Rules

This challenge is very similar to the Not So Berry Challenge but focuses on different colours and what characteristics are associated with that particular colour. I recommend for fun gameplay to incorporate the colour of your generation into your sims and their homes.

There are 2 extremely important rules to this challenge: No Cheats which help achieve your goals and Normal Lifespan.

Occasional Money Cheats are allowed as this is not a money based challenge.

This challenge has not been game tested so if any problems are found please let me know. I will be starting this challenge extremely soon and can’t wait.

FOR GENERATION 4 - GREEN YOU CAN DO BOTH SIMS OR JUST ONE

I hope you have fun with this challenge and if you do, feel free to share your progress using the tag #sims4colourlegacy

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GENERATION 1 - RED

When you think of the colour red, you automatically think of someone who is hot headed and aggressive yet passionate and important. You are the perfect representation of those qualities. You own your own restaurant (or are head chef) and are quite a strict boss who can easily snap if people don’t do what you ask them to. However, you are really passionate about your restaurant succeeding and achieving a 5 Star Rating. You are extremely busy with working so don’t have many friends but you get your social fix by interacting with your staff and customers.

You can cheat money to build your restaurant (it is extremely difficult to earn enough money to build a restaurant and a house).

Traits: Hot Headed, Foodie and Ambitious

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Career: Chef or Owner of Restaurant

Goals

- If you choose the Chef path, you must reach level 10 of the Career

- If you choose the Restaurant path, you must live on your restaurant lot until you reach a 4 Star Rating and then reach a 5 Star Rating after you move off of the lot.

- Max the Cooking and Mixology Skills

- Meet your spouse through your work or restaurant (colleague, employer or customer)

- Have 2 children when you are an adult - must adopt one

- Unlock all recipes in San Myshuno (only possible if you have City Living)

- Must Complete Aspiration

- After Restaurant Rating is at 5 Stars, sell the restaurant when you become an elder to focus on family.

GENERATION 2 - ORANGE

The colour orange is associated with a playful, energetic and social personality and this description matches you perfectly. You are a very social person who enjoys going out and meeting new people. You are really good at making people laugh and want to pursue a career in comedy. You have so much energy and enjoy working out at the gym. You have a great relationship with your sibling and are best friends.

Traits: Outgoing, Active and Goofball

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Comedian

Goals

- Get to level 10 of Comedian Career

- Max the Charisma, Comedy and Fitness Skills

- Must Complete Aspiration

- Must live with your sibling until you are engaged

- Meet up with sibling once a week when you move out

- Have 3 kids after Marriage

GENERATION 3 - YELLOW

When you see the colour yellow, you think of something or someone that makes you happy and that’s you for a lot of people. However, what they don’t know is that you are quite anxious an anxious person. On the surface you appear to be a cheerful, positive person but on the inside you can become quite panicked. You turn to music and baking to calm you down. You decided to work as a Charity Organiser because you want to help make the world a better place. You are very close to your siblings and don’t have much other friends. You care too much about what other people think of you especially your parents who are really supportive of what you have achieved in your life so far.

Traits: Cheerful, Perfectionist and Erratic

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Career: Charity Organiser

Goals

- Reach level 10 of Career

- Max the Charisma, Baking and Piano Skills

- Must Complete Aspiration

- Spouse must be a sibling’s friend

- Keep close relationships with siblings for whole life

- Have Twins (can cheat for this)

- Complete the Postcard Collection

GENERATION 4 - GREEN

You and your twin love nature and always want to be outside so you both decided to take up careers which meant you could spend a majority of your life outside surrounded by what you both love the most. You both enjoy yoga and want to be as healthy and happy as possible and you both believe you can do that with the support of one another. 

Traits: Sim 1 - Loves Outdoors, Self Assured and Clumsy 

           Sim 2 - Loves Outdoors, Jealous and Good

Aspiration: Sim 1 - Freelance Botanist 

                  Sim 2 - Super Parent

Career: Sim 1 - Botanist (Gardening)

             Sim 2 - Floral Designer (Gardening)

Goals

Sim 1 - Max Gardening, Wellness and Fishing Skills

           - Reach Level 10 of Career

           - Must Complete Aspiration

           - Complete the Plant Collection

           - Get Married then have 2 Kids

Sim 2 - Max Floral Arranging, Wellness and Parenting Skills

          - Reach Level 10 of Career

          - Must Complete Aspiration

          - Have 2 children who must complete their Child Aspirations

          - Get Married after Kids

Both Sims - Must go on camping weekend every 2 weeks for whole young adult life

Generation 5 - Blue 

You are a calm and loyal person who often feels sad which is why the colour blue fits your personality so well. You want life to be as stress free as possible but have rough patches where you are sad for almost no reason. You were brought up in a busy home living with your aunts, uncles, cousins, sibling and parents so sometimes feel like you didn’t get very much attention which is why you often get so upset. You really enjoy writing and are pursuing a career as an author.

Traits: Creative, Bookworm and Gloomy

Aspiration: Bestselling Author

Career: Author (Freelance if preferred)

Goals

- Max Writing, Photography and Cooking Skills

- Reach Level 10 of Career

- Complete Aspiration

- Date 2 people before having a one night stand which results in a child

- Be on bad terms with mother or father and claim custody of the child

- Date 2 more people before calling it quits on love life until elder

- When you are an elder, get married 

Generation 6 - Purple

You hated the way your parent was treated by men and/or women so want what they didn’t have. You are all about the romance and want to find the love of your life. You represent the colour red because of the strong passion for romance that you have. You want to be swept off your feet by someone and you are at quite a young age. You love the luxurious things in life and are not afraid to splash the cash on anything. Your job as a doctor earns you a lot of money so you have an extremely luxurious lifestyle which you deserve because of all your hard work.

Traits: Romantic, Snob and Materialistic

Aspiration: Soulmate

Career: Doctor

Goals

- Reach Level 10 of Career

- Max the Logic, Violin and Dancing Skills

- Complete Aspiration

- Meet your soulmate when you are a teen

- You and your soulmate stay together for a while, have a child and separate when they are a toddler.

- When your child is a teenager get back together with your soulmate and get married

- Your house must be worth 200,000 Simoleans

Generation 7 - Pink

You are a very feminine and innocent person who is sweet and friendly to everyone you meet. You are the colour pink. You grew up in a very luxurious lifestyle but would much rather live in a smaller, family type home. You want a nice happy family where everyone gets along. You really enjoy baking and own a bakery which you run with your spouse. You really want to give people something they can truly enjoy and that is your baking. You and your spouse are extremely close and know you will be together for the rest of your lives.

Traits: Cheerful, Romantic and Childish

Aspiration: Big, Happy Family

Career: Own a Bakery

Goals

- Run a Successful Bakery

- Max the Baking, Charisma and Singing Skills

- Get Married as a young adult to your high school sweetheart

- Have 3 kids

- Have a movie night once a week with your family ever week

Generation 8 - Brown

You were raised in a loving home and were treated with nothing but respect but you always knew you were a bit different. You love nature in a way like no other which is why you represent the colour brown. Whilst every other kid was interested in videogames and playground equipment, you were interested in plants, collectibles and space. You wanted to collect everything and store it in your home - kind of like a museum. You love when you find someone with the same interests as you and love to share your collection with people who care. You were often left out by your siblings but your parents always supported you.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian and Genius

Aspiration: The Curator

Career: Astronaut

Goals

- Reach Level 10 of Career

- Max Logic, Herbalism and Rocket Science Skills

- Complete Aspiration

- Keep everything you collect and store it in your house (don’t keep duplicates)

- Meet your Spouse through Work

- Adopt 2 children and make them complete opposites

Generation 9 - Black

You had a terrible relationship with your family growing up. They were all really nice but you were just not which is why you represent the colour black. You always had a bit of a temper but something changed inside of you as a teen. You began to lash out and become violent towards others. You would lock yourself inside of your room and often sneak out of the house without your parents knowing. You pride yourself in knowing you made their lives miserable. You didn’t ask to be adopted by such nice people but you were and now you can escape. You have turned to crime and love to steal from fancy homes and museums to make some money. All you care about is money and not landing yourself in prison.

Traits: Evil, Kleptomaniac and Mean

Aspiration: Public Enemy

Career: Criminal

Goals

- Sneak out every Saturday night as a Teen

- Reach Level 10 of Career

- Max Mischief, Programming and Handiness Skills

- Move to a different town from your family

- Spouse must also be Evil

- Spouse dies in an accident when you are an elder and you try to become good

- Improve your relationships with your sibling and child as an elder

Generation 10 - White

You are the complete opposite of your evil parents and want to do something which will help someone or something. You represent the colour white and achieve to be a successful vet and own your own practice. You love animals and really want to help them so by becoming a vet you are surrounded by what you really love. When your parent changed to be good you repaired the relationship but it won’t ever be perfect which is why you have some jealousy issues with people who had a better upbringing than you. You find it difficult to let people in but when you do you are a bubble of joy.

Traits: Dog Lover, Cat Lover and Jealous

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Career: Vet

Goals

- Run a successful Vet Practice

- Complete Aspiration

- Max Vet, Guitar and Dog Training Skills

- Always have a pet in your household from when you move out

- Meet your spouse in a Coffee Shop

- Have 2 kids

[prettywordsyouleft]

Could You Marry Me? - Part 1

Summary: Marriage was something you dreamed of reaching after falling in love with the man of your dreams. Yet the romantic in you is thrown out the window when you end up having to fake your engagement with your personal assistant.

Pairing: Son Hyunwoo x reader

Genre: office au / ceo x personal assistant / co-workers to lovers au / romance / fluff / fake dating

Warnings: none

Index: Preview | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Once again, you were sitting in the middle of a restaurant waiting for someone you didn’t even know to arrive. Well, you had done the initial profile check to ensure you weren’t meeting with just anybody, even though that was kind of how it felt. Smoothing down your striped pantsuit before reaching for the glass of water, you scanned the room for a sign of the man you were meant to be enjoying dinner with.

You smiled to yourself, you wondered if you would even get as far as to eat this time around.

For the past three months, your parents had been actively trying to marry you off to the finest bachelor they could find. It appeared this city had an abundance of single men since you had been on countless blind dates so far. It was exhausting and quite frankly, it cut into your precious time you could have spent working at the office or enjoying a quiet night at home.

It wasn’t like you were trying hard to not be picked; you were just, not trying at all. You had no desire to meet up with someone you had no choice in meeting in a natural setting. This was manufactured to the point that it was the parents talking more than the children. You disliked how unromantic it all was.

It always threw those around you by surprise when they realised just how much of a hopeless romantic you were. Perhaps it was because when you were in your executive role as CEO of your company, you were strictly business. You would strive relentlessly to get any deal you set your mind on, and investors all saw you as competent, smart and straight to the point.

You guessed that was why your best friend Tanith would shake her head incredulously whenever you swooned over something completely and utterly cliché. “That is not real love.”

“But I want it,” you breathed, watching the screen in front of you both dreamily. The smile from the male protagonist warmed your heart even further and soon you were smiling back at him as if this was your moment.

You wanted that feeling more than anything.

“Then why aren’t you dating one of the men thrown at your feet every weekend? How many do you have lined up this week?”

“Four,” you admitted, barely tearing your eyes away from the drama you were watching to reach for the popcorn Tanith held. “Dinner on Friday, brunch and dinner on Saturday and coffee on Sunday.”

“You never know, you could meet Mr Right.”

You glared at your best friend, not sure if she was teasing you or hoping for your sake that you would. Tanith chuckled when she noticed your expression. “Yes, I know it’s not real if you don’t get to choose how you cross paths with him. But not everything in life is a drama, Y/N. You might meet someone this weekend who makes your heart sing like every one of your favourite leading ladies experience. Which I will remind you again-”

“Isn’t real life,” you concluded sourly, grinning at her all the same. “You sound just like my mother.”

“Well, there are worse things she could ask of you right now.” You cocked your head to the side expectantly and Tanith shrugged. “Like, leave your business and return back to the family home.”

“She threatened that if I’m not married soon she and my father will insist on just that,” you mentioned with a sigh, throwing yourself along the sofa and kicked out a leg in protest. “I’m already married to my work, why do I need to get married now?”

“Because you’re thirty and they see that as ancient compared to when they got married themselves,” Tanith pointed out and you smirked, nodding slowly.

“It’s not the same era though. Careers are important.”

“So is love.”

You agreed. “When it’s done right.”

You humoured Tanith initially. Who were you to judge how fate would bring forth someone for you? Even if you hated it, you could meet your future husband over dinner set up by your parents.

But you knew better. After all, you were a seasoned pro at these things now. You were either too ambitious and not nearly as accomplished as a prospect for running the impending future household they wanted you to. Or you were just the right amount of driven for them, except all they could do was talk business and nothing else. You wanted someone to connect with. Someone who would reach deep into your soul.

And that’s why by Saturday evening, you hadn’t even waited until you snuck off to the bathroom to put the ring on your finger.

Desperate times had called for desperate measures. As you smiled demurely up at your date, it didn’t take him long to spot the subtle sparkle on your left hand, or for him to politely excuse himself either. Dinner had arrived but it was only for one and you were pleased with the outcome. As you ate, you planned strategies for tomorrow so you would be yet another weekend unsuccessful. And ready to start a new week at work.

“Y/N?” a voice called out and you glanced up from your meal, faltering when you saw who stood there in front of you. Mina grinned before sliding into the empty chair across from you. “It is you!”

“Ah, it’s been awhile, how are you?”

“Busy as always. Married life keeps you on your toes,” she stated airily, throwing her hand out in an obvious manner to bring attention to the giant rock that resided there. You nodded mindlessly, your appetite now forgotten.

You didn’t want to feel jealous but Kim Mina had it all. She had been beating you in life for years, first in high school, then at university and finally in adulthood. You couldn’t even hate her for having done so well, her accomplishments were all genuine. She had a great career, met the man of her dreams and even had the cutest toddler.

And she had done it all without the help of her family.

Some people had all the luck in the world.

Mina’s startled gasp pulled you out of your envy, her hand shooting across the table to grab your own. “You’re engaged?!”

To anyone else, you would have refuted it with a laugh. Oh, this? No, it’s just a decoy to stop blind dates from going further than they need to. But you couldn’t say that to her. The woman you had inadvertently compared your own success and failure to for years having that kind of information over you would be social suicide. Whilst it was smart practice for you to wear the ring for your own safety, if word got round your alumni, well, you shuddered to think of how damaging that could be to your career.

And to your psyche.

So like a deer in headlights, you flailed about, trying to decide what to say to her. She was giggling with delight, gripping at your hand as if you had suddenly joined some elitist club. Welcoming you in to feel as if you belonged in this world she was rapidly creating. “Oh Y/N! Who is he?! You finally found love huh? I’m so happy for you! We’ll have to have you over for dinner sometime soon with your beau. Oh my goodness, wait until everyone hears about this! When’s the date?!”

You should have corrected her.

You knew that lying about something as big as this was only going to come back to haunt you.

Yet you smiled, albeit weakly and nodded at Mina. “I guess I am.”

And just like that, you were engaged.

To well… that you would drastically need to figure out.

_________________

Part 2

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[moonbeambucky]

The Price of Gold (Part 17)

Pairing: Lance Tucker x Reader Word Count: 4654 Warnings: angst, mention of cancer, mention of real life gymnastics sex abuse scandal

Summary: As a sports journalist you’ve traveled the world interviewing famous athletes. You’ve loved your job up until you find out your next article is on the last person in the world you ever wanted to talk to, Lance Tucker.

A/N: This was probably the hardest chapter I had to write but I love it so much and I hope you do too! This doesn’t follow The Bronze canon though some film details are mixed with real world events. Written for @green-eyeddragonfanfiction Dragon’s 3k Follower Creative Content Challenge. My prompt was “I can’t be in love with you!” gif source (x)

PART 16 | THE PRICE OF GOLD MASTERLIST

On the grand opening day for Tucker Gymnastics Lance looked like absolute shit. He spent the night in the ER again with his mother and Nadia, all for the doctors to tell him the same thing as before, his mother was dying.

Lance cupped Dorothy’s hands in his own, watching her hooked up to machines again. This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t call. Why didn’t you listen to him? Nadia said she received a phone call that made her really confused. There was screaming from the other end of the line and it was upsetting Dorothy but all she kept repeating was “Y/N.” She became so upset she started to panic, her mind couldn’t handle whatever was happening and Nadia couldn’t calm her down. Her blood pressure was through the roof and so she went to the hospital.

He contemplated everything, wondering if you were playing games with him from the start. Maybe he deserved it. Lance knew he fucked up in the past but he was young and stupid. He was also madly in love with you and every day he tried to explain, to apologize. Even if you didn’t forgive him he just wanted to see your face one last time to know it was really over. Instead you ignored him and the open wound that was his heart hurt more and more until it was infected. He partied to forget you, he became the asshole that would have driven you away if you even attempted to contact him. He convinced himself that he didn’t need anyone but it was a lie. He always needed you.

But now Lance doesn’t know what to think because you hurt his mother. He ignored your calls and texts, turning his phone off because he couldn’t stand to look at your face each time the photo of you cuddling together on his couch popped up. Once he thought you were beautiful but now he only sees a monster. How could you do this to him?

Lance left the hospital to run home quickly, disgusted that he stood in the same shower you shared only twenty-four hours ago. He changed and sped over to the center, hoping the bags under his eyes weren’t too deep, hoping he could claim he was up all night preparing for this day.

He was in a daze as the day went by. He should have been happy, this was his dream; his center was USAG accredited, there was an overwhelming sign up from excited children and their parents but Lance wanted to scream. He was too exhausted to deal with everything, wanting to go home and sleep for the next month instead of being there. Looking around all he saw were memories of you and he hated it. You turned his dream into a nightmare.

By the end of the following week Lance was exhausted after visiting his mom after a long day at the center. She had been back home for a few days, with new medication to ease her discomforts. She refused treatment knowing there was no point to it; she’d rather not face the side effects again especially after the cancer had spread.

Lance plopped on the couch slinging his arm over his tired eyes, even the soft glow of the flickering TV was too bright for him. His head was pounding and he wanted to sleep. The sound of his phone going off disturbed the small moment of peace he found. Now that the center was open his phone was always going off with notifications, emails regarding new students and scheduling, Twitter replies, and continued texts that go unreturned from women he didn’t care to involve himself with.

Lance instinctively opened the inbox for the email created for the center to find there was nothing new there, it was his personal email that had a new message and his stomach twisted into knots when he saw it was from you.

Sitting up now he stared at his phone, debating if he should even open your message. You never read any of the apology notes he left for you so he thought about doing the same but something pulled at his heart and he decided to click the box, bracing himself for whatever words were on the opposite side.

Dear Lance,

I want to apologize for many things but the most importantly for the phone call your mom received. An ambitious former coworker searched for her number and used my name to try to gain information. This shouldn’t have happened and I take full responsibility for everything. I love your mother very dearly and I would never jeopardize her health or privacy, ever.

I’m also sorry for accusing you of something that didn’t happen. I felt like my trust was broken, like I was that vulnerable teenager again who didn’t want an explanation. I ran away then just like I ran away now and I’m sorry. It’s a bad habit of mine that I’ve come to realize since my trip to Spring Hill.

Speaking of, it comes as no surprise to us both that I was reluctant to go on that trip but I’m very happy that I did. Despite how things ended I want you to know that I’m truly happy we resolved our issues from the past. I’m really sorry it took so long.

Writing has always helped clear my head. When thoughts are swirling around my mind like a hurricane it’s comforting to get them out in this way. Since I’ve been back in New York I’ve taken the time to write down all of my thoughts about our experience together. Even though you aren’t approving the article I wanted you to read it, keep it for yourself and know just how much you’ve always meant to me.

I wish you the very best success with your gymnastics center and your life. You deserve great things Lance Tucker, you always have.

-Y/N

A lump was caught in Lance’s throat with tears burning his eyes as he reread your email. He felt horrible, saying those things to you when you were innocent. He knew you would never hurt his mom and now he hated himself for yelling at you.

Lance went into the kitchen to grab something to drink, leaning over the cool countertop of the island and opening the PDF attachment within the email.

IN DEPTH with Lance Tucker By Y/N Y/L/N

Sacrifice. Sacrifice is a word that’s tossed around the sports industry a lot with the focus on the athlete and the things they’ve sacrificed to get to where they are today. Sacrifices are never easy. Most athletes have strict diet and workout regimens to adhere to, others have sacrificed their time, losing hours that could be spent with friends and family in favor of practicing, training or performing halfway across the world. When you’ve achieved your goal of becoming that athlete it makes the sacrifices a little easier. They were part of the journey to the top but what about the sacrifices put you on the path in the first place?

Lance Tucker was a household name when he made it to the top by winning a Silver Medal in the 2004 Rome Olympics and the Gold in 2008 Beijing Olympics for the US Men’s Gymnastics Team, but the name you should know is Dorothy Tucker. If it wasn’t for the sacrifices of Dorothy, Lance’s mother, Lance would not have become the athlete we know today.

For the first time in my sports journalism career I haven’t had to do research on the person I would be going to interview. In 1991 I moved to Spring Hill, Florida and the first friend I ever made was the boy across the street, Lance Tucker. He and his mother Dorothy welcomed my family to the neighborhood and we all became very close.

Lance’s father Mitch was an intimidating man, loud and gruff, angry at the world for the cards he had been dealt. He was the type of man that dreamed of a better life but let his own insecurities hold him back. He settled in for a blue collar job, living every day with regrets that were pacified when he reached the bottom of the bottle.

Mitch insisted on being the sole provider for the Tucker family, something I learned later on that Dorothy heavily protested but after various screaming matches she ended up settling into her role as housewife. He worked long hours so Dorothy and Lance had become accustomed to being alone together. Dorothy sat through episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with her son excitedly jumping off the couch to reenact the fight scenes. She laughed as Lance’s little body spun around from the force of the punches he threw to the air as he pretended to fight The Foot Clan but he showed grace when he mimicked the turtles, doing cartwheels and somersaults around the living room.

On trips to the park Lance would climb the monkey bars and Dorothy noticed his agility, seeing him demonstrate more coordination and balance than his peers. She scanned through her VHS tape of the 1988 Olympics for the gymnastics portion she swears she recorded. Upon finding it, Dorothy asked Lance watch it with her and this was the day his life changed. The four year old was mesmerized with the sport and was especially excited to see a young man with his namesake, now retired Olympian Lance Ringnald, practically flying in the air as he swung over and under, flipping his body around the high bar. From that day forward Lance wanted to become a gymnast too.

Mitch was against the idea from the start but Dorothy fought for her son, sacrificing her sanity as Mitch continually yelled; his booming voice shaking the foundation of their home, all because of some old fashioned ideas about what it means to be a man.

Mitch Tucker grew up idolizing Mickey Mantle, an extraordinary baseball player whose life outside of the field was equally as exhilarating, indulging in the Manhattan nightlife offerings of endless booze and women. In Mitch’s mind Mantle was a real man he could look up to and while he never played any professional sports he certainly tried to emulate the lifestyle of his hero.

When his young son took an interest in gymnastics it was safe to say that Mitch panicked, worrying that it would make Lance soft and feminine. It was close minded thinking ingrained in him from a long line of other close minded thinkers.

Fighting with Dorothy over Lance’s hobby became a natural part of their relationship and while he didn’t appreciate her standing up to him in some twisted sense of pride he liked the devotion she had towards Lance.

Reluctantly, Mitch began to take Lance to competitions and despite his son’s talent, earning top scores and gold medals from an early age he would consistently demean Lance and his achievements, telling him he should quit and join a real sport instead.

When Lance was ten his parents separated. Mitch’s drinking and infidelity (something both Lance and I were unaware of as children) had reached an all time high but it was the way he spoke about Lance that angered Dorothy the most; Mitch was disappointed in him.

On the surface Lance was an award winning, talented gymnast who was dedicated to his training. He balanced schoolwork and house chores and still made time to see his friends. He was a smart and kind young man and he adored his mother. When you put everything together you can easily see what Mitch was disappointed in, Lance was nothing like him.

I won’t say that Dorothy sacrificed her marriage because she always deserved someone who treated her with love and respect, nevertheless with divorce on the horizon Dorothy was in need of a job. She worked hard, as a letter carrier during the week and got a second job on some nights and the weekend in a dentist’s office to ensure she could pay for Lance’s increased gymnastics training and it paid off in his achievements. Lance continued to compete and the walls of his room were decorated in medals and trophies from various competitions.

There’s a natural sense of pride in winning especially when you’ve worked as hard as Lance Tucker did. In middle school he began training exclusively with Coach Jaclyn Burrows who occupied most of his time after school and on weekends. Despite his exhaustion Lance never failed to hand in his homework and even if his body was sore and achy he never once complained. Although there was the time during my twelfth birthday party where he came very close.

It was held at a roller skating rink and Lance begged Coach Burrows to come in a few hours earlier in order to get out in time so he didn’t miss all of my party. When I saw Lance had arrived I skated over to him, jumping with excitement as he laced up his skates but the minute Lance got onto the floor his overworked legs were like jelly and they gave out on him. I helped him up as he gripped on to me and I skated us both to the benches. He apologized, asking if I would be upset if he didn’t skate. Of course I would never ask him to do that but had I said yes I know Lance would have forced himself to do it, gripping the rail against the wall for support with a smile on his face just so I would be happy.

Lance laid on the bench, resting his head on his mother’s leg as he watched me skate by, eventually closing his tired eyes and falling asleep because he was exhausted. Dorothy woke him up in time for cake although Lance couldn’t have any. He had an upcoming competition and he restricted himself, sticking to a regimented diet of lean meats and vegetables. For a thirteen year old that is sacrifice! Lance stared at the forbidden dessert decorated with flickering candles as he and I posed for a picture, smiling widely as we hugged.

By the time Lance was in his first year of high school he was completely overworked. He was training to compete for the Junior Olympic National Championships while trying to balance the heavy workload of his classes. He hardly had time to do anything, trying to read books for English class on the bus to Coach Burrow’s gymnastics center, training until it was dark, rushing through dinner and staying up late to start his homework. He was burning out easily and Dorothy hadn’t truly seen the effects until she received a call from the Principal’s office. Lance was sleep deprived and his body was too sore to move, so when the Physical Education teacher yelled at him for “being lazy” and not participating Lance snapped at the man, yelling and crying out of frustration (a terribly embarrassing scene for Lance in front of his classmates).

Dorothy wanted Lance to complete high school but she understood there was no way he could do it with the amount of training he required, so she pulled him out in favor of hiring someone to homeschool him. It was another expense she really couldn’t afford but she made sacrifices, dropping the expensive cable TV and only buying new clothes for Lance when he absolutely needed them. Unfortunately the boy was growing into a man whose body was growing as well, becoming taller and stronger but Dorothy never complained. She mended her own wardrobe as needed so Lance could get new clothes, it was a privilege for her to sacrifice things in favor of her son.

Lance homeschooled for a few hours six days a week and he trained for seven, dedicating as much time as he could. Nationals were an important step in his Olympic journey and my family and I were there to support him. Lance was neck and neck with Michael McNamara, each of them rotating between first and second place after each event. It wasn’t until Lance completed his routine on the high bar, expertly performing moves I still don’t know the names for that sent him to the top.

He twisted around the bar, varying his grip and changing direction. I watched with amazement at the way he skillfully controlled his body around the steel frame. Finally he swung around the bar gaining enough momentum to spring upwards, his body rotating a few times before he stuck a strong landing, reaching his arms up with achievement. The perfect execution of his routine earned him the Gold Medal with Dorothy running up to him, tears of joy streaking down her face as they celebrated a big win. Lance and I lost touch before he the 2004 Olympics but I watched as he took home the Silver medal. I was proud of him though Dorothy was the true celebrant that day; this was the culmination of the sacrifices she made.

A lot can happen in four years. In the four years between the Olympics Lance had turned from a boy on the brink of adulthood to a man at twenty-one, standing taller, stronger and more determined than ever. He pushed himself to train harder, wanting another shot at the gold.

Lance moved to Houston, Texas to train full time with Kevin Mazeika of the Houston Gymnastics Academy. Mazeika who has served on the National Team Coaching staff since 1988 spoke about Lance before Beijing stating “I’ve never met anyone as focused as Lance Tucker. He eats, sleeps and breathes gymnastics. He wants to be the best and I’ll tell ya [sic] with the way he’s training he just might be.”

Lance put himself through a grueling diet to ensure his body was at its peak physical condition. He pushed himself to the limit as he worked on his routines. He became a machine, training until ever imperfection was eradicated. He needed to be perfect.

Lance was obsessed, needing to win the gold to feel validation from the unnecessary demands he put on himself. He only visited home during the holidays and quickly returned to Houston to train. As Lance bent forward to receive his gold medal he was a changed man. He reached the top of the mountain and instead of being thankful for the journey and the sacrifices made he was boasting. To commemorate his win Lance got his infamous ribbon tattoo, an impulsive decision he looks back on today and regrets.

Lance was at the top of his career after his Olympic win, becoming the youngest National Team Coordinator in US Gymnastics history, purposely taking a position with the women’s team because his self-admitted ego would not allow him to train the men’s team and become overshadowed by anyone.

Lance had a successful career living in Los Angeles when he wasn’t travelling for USA Gymnastics and then his world came to a complete halt when the scandals broke.

Psychologists have argued about the various reasons why we like scandals. They’re a form of entertainment, a real life soap opera that plays out before our eyes, they give us distraction from our own lives, sometimes making us feel good if we can compare ourselves to the persons involved and think we’re better than them because of this.

In the early 1990’s sports scandals became surprisingly common beginning with the attack on Nancy Kerrigan followed by the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The scandals were ubiquitous between the endless cycle of news programs and media coverage.

On the day of the Simpson verdict everyone was waiting with bated breath, with workplaces standing still, listening to the radio to hear whether the former football player was deemed guilty or innocent. The actual verdict was irrelevant since the story was so sensationalized it had become detached from the facts. Instead of being concerned about the horrific murder of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman, the country was in hysterics over Johnnie Cochran’s infamous glove line. It seems like people will always enjoy the entertainment that scandals bring as long as they aren’t affected by them personally.

When Lance Tucker was at the center of various scandals his life was forever changed. A student accused him of fathering her child, another accused him of rape, and while every accusation was proven to be untrue Lance was let go by USA Gymnastics, a direct result of the case with former National Team Doctor Larry Nassar. USAG was under fire for not protecting the athletes as their employees who worked in and around Nassar at the Karolyi Ranch failed to report or tried to cover up the incidences.

Lance believed he was wrongfully let go as he was innocent and began to prepare an appeal until he received devastating news about his mother. Dorothy had cancer and with that knowledge Lance shed the hard exterior he created, his arrogance cracking on the ground like shattered glass.

Lance returned to Spring Hill, taking up permanent residence to be closer to Dorothy and assist her with treatment. Lance sacrificed his career, having neither the time nor desire to make an appeal to USA Gymnastics, staying in the shadows instead to care for his mother, the woman who sacrificed so much during her life for him.

Eventually Lance needed a source of income as the money he previously earned through endorsements was dwindling quickly thanks to the expensive healthcare system. He refinanced his home to start a business, Tucker Gymnastics in the heart of his hometown.

While Dorothy battled cancer Lance found the strength to fight as well, finally appealing the committee’s decision with a motion to be reinstated. Lance’s decision to do so was not for himself but for his mother, wanting to make up for his past behavior when fame and arrogance became more important in his life. He sought to bring honor back to the Tucker name so that Dorothy would know how appreciative Lance was for all the sacrifices she made for him, though Dorothy didn’t need any of that. She loves her son wholeheartedly and she would do it all over again to ensure his happiness, knowing his love in return is all she ever needed.

Tucker Gymnastics is in its infancy but under the care and direction of Lance Tucker I have no doubt the gymnastics center will flourish. Lance has lived a lifetime of ups and downs both personal and professional. He’s an excellent teacher and coach, and future gymnasts will have an opportunity to learn great things from him.

However the greatest gift Lance can give to his future students is the knowledge of firsthand experience. Lance wants them to learn about the path to the top of the mountain and the sacrifices they will make along the way. He wants to provide guidance for when they’re at the top and how to safely get back down and avoid the mistakes he’s made.

The price of gold is high and Lance Tucker wants to ensure his students know the sacrifice it takes to pay it.◼️

Lance had been crying as he read the article, wiping his tears on his sleeve. He was overcome with emotion as you fondly recalled your memories of his childhood, painted his life honestly and above all unexpectedly praising his mother in a way no one else had done before.

It was beautiful. He sniffled, ripping a paper towel off the roll and blowing his nose with it. His heart ached as it beat against his chest wondering how he ever could have questioned you in regards to the phone call. His throat became dry so he quickly finished his sports drink, wiping the tears from his face once more.

Lance didn’t know what to do with himself now. He felt terrible and wanted to apologize. He wanted to speak with you, to fly to New York and hold you in his arms again. To tell you how much you meant to him, to tell you that he loves you.

He ruined things between you though. He was embarrassed with himself, he yelled at you for the first time in his life and he hated it. He yelled at you like his father yelled at his mother, raising his voice loud enough to talk over you, shouting from the pit of his stomach. He was cruel, just like his father, the comparison disgusts him. He didn’t deserve you.

Lance took a shower to clear his mind and after tossing and turning for hours he finally grabbed his phone from the nightstand, opening your message and briefly replying “Print it.”

The beeping of your alarm awoke you from the peaceful sleep you finally managed to fall into. The moment your eyes opened you went to your phone. You hated how eager you were to see if Lance responded but you had to. Seeing his reply made your heart race but as you read his message it stopped entirely.

Lance’s short reply brought tears to your eyes. At least Susan will be happy he’s going forward with the article but there was no mention of your apology even though you explained the truth. Maybe he still thinks you’re lying or maybe he doesn’t care. The fact that his response was all business made you painfully aware of the fact that whatever you and Lance had in the past is where it should have stayed.

Months passed and you were now in the middle of a new assignment that had you packed in a stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, with thousands of people celebrating as others criticized a controversial call made by the referee. It was a decision that led to the Pittsburgh Penguins winning the Stanley Cup finals. Though he is captain, Sidney Crosby is as soft spoken as they come. He exudes a calm demeanor one wouldn’t expect when you think of hockey players, especially not a back-to-back championship winner.

The Penguins were celebrating their win tonight and though Sidney was happy for his team he was looking forward to going home to Nova Scotia to spend time with his family. He’s a fairly private person, not feeling the need to be on social media. His Foundation serves as his online presence but only to promote the work it does supporting children. Though his Olympic wins are something he regards with fondness, his true pride was opening a hockey school in his hometown of Halifax.

There was so much of Sidney that reminded you of Lance and you couldn’t help but think about him. He was always on your mind and though you wanted to reach out in the past in the hopes of reconciling again you didn’t. Lance didn’t want you.

Adjacent to the arena was the hotel everyone was staying in, celebrating their win with a spread of food and champagne. Nashville was famous for its delicious barbecue but right now your mind and taste buds were being blown away by hot chicken. Your nose was running, your fingers were coated with a delicious glaze that you sucked into your mouth. Still, you needed a napkin.

You stood up in search for more, because the singular one you initially took was not enough, passing loud and slightly tipsy players who were enjoying their win. Feeling your phone vibrate in your pocket you rushed to clean your hands, answering your mom’s call just in time.

It was hard to hear so you told her to hang on as you squeezed past a group of very large hockey players. You found yourself in a less noisy hallway and finally greeted her properly.

“Hi mom, what’s up?” you shouted, sticking your finger in your other ear to block out the background noise.

Your mother exhaled a heavy breath into the phone, her voice shaking with sorrow as she said, “Dorothy Tucker passed away.”

PART 18

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF Y

And this national standardization of wages was so pervasive that its effects could still be seen years after the war ended. So it's kind of misleading to ask whether you'll be at home in grad school, because very few people are quite at home in computer science. And when the Duplo economy was an evolutionary phase. Though in a sense it's bad news in that you're deprived of one of your most powerful weapons, I think it's exciting that gaming the system stops working when you start a company. When you only have one meeting a day with investors, somehow that one meeting will burn up your whole day.1 I tried to opt out of it, like music, or tea, but I think people who dwell on it are reading too much into it. You can't plan when you start a startup in college. The founders sometimes think they know.2 As little as $50k could pay for food and rent for the founders for a year. EBay didn't win by paying less for servers than their competitors. But most startups that die, die because they were living in the future.

Be a real student and not start a startup at 20 and you're sufficiently successful, you'll never get to do it was turn the sound into packets and ship it over the Internet. You'll probably be talking to several investors and you manage to get one over the threshold of saying yes, it will be better for the people who pay the most for it, is not the hope of getting a better one, and actually did.3 I don't expect that to change. And not just those in the corporate world, but in software you want to work on some very engaging project.4 One advantage of Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we adjust to however things are, and this bit of the economy were either organized as government-backed cartels or dominated by a few oligopolistic corporations. When we launched Viaweb, it seemed laughable to VCs and e-commerce was all about. In particular, I don't think we'll ever reach the point where much of what they're responding to when they lose interest in a startup, or start a real startup. If it is, it will take to become profitable.5 This too seems a technique that should be generally applicable.

But if you were using the software for them. And one of the original nodes, but by making great products. Maybe if I think more about this I can come up with new ideas is not to try explicitly to, but to be an advantage. Vertically integrated companies literally dis-integrated because it was so rare for so long: that you could make your fortune. But they don't need to become the prisoner of your own expertise, but it can save you from an immediate threat.6 A couple million would let them get office space and hire some smart people they know from school. The place to look is where the line ends. Startup investors all know one another, and though they hate to admit it the biggest factor in their opinion of you is other investors' opinion of you is the opinion of other investors. Not just because of its prestige, but because the principles underlying the most dynamic part of the economy were either organized as government-backed cartels or dominated by a few, giant tree-structured organizations, it's now looking like the economy of the future will be a fluid network of smaller, independent units.7

Most people at the beginning of their career only works if everyone does it. Has it been net good or bad? Be conservative.8 They were the kind of thing is out there for anyone to see. At its best, starting a startup is to try.9 And this rule isn't just for the initial stages. My hypothesis is that all you have to worry about—not even Google.10 The more ambitious merely hoped to climb the same ladder faster. There was no Internet then. But I could be wrong.11 And I think that's precisely why people put it off for as long as they want to start it.12

Basically at 25 he started running as fast as I can type, then spend several weeks rewriting it. The amounts invested by different types of investors vary from five thousand dollars to fifty million, but the people who want to work that hard. An optimism shield has to be pierced too. It was a lot of ambivalence about them, because I tried to opt out of it, you can take your time developing an idea before turning it into a company. But the total volume of worry never decreases; if anything it increases.13 If you looked in the head of a 1950s auto executive, the attitude must have been: sure, give 'em whatever they ask for, so long as the new model isn't delayed. How would the government decide who's a startup investor.14 So any Web-based startup get spent on today? I don't mean, of course.15 That's why there are a lot of the serendipity out of his life.16

That was a social step no one with a college education would take if they could avoid it.17 Deals are dynamic; unless you're negotiating with someone unusually honest, there's not a single war millionaire would be permitted. Don't click on Back.18 There are two main things you can do, but assume the worst about machines and other people. That's not a recent trend; change has been accelerating since the paleolithic era. Icio. The eight men who left Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild Semiconductor, the original Silicon Valley startup, weren't even trying to start a startup.19 In the late nineties you could get paid huge sums of money for building the most trivial things. Even Microsoft probably couldn't manage 500 development projects in-house. Do not start a startup, you probably shouldn't do it. Even if you ultimately do the first deal, it will seem to you that you're unlucky. Technology tends to get dramatically cheaper, but living expenses don't.

When things go well you can take your time developing an idea before turning it into a company.20 That sort of thing you can learn more about this I can come up with good startup ideas is to take a step back. I've read that the same is true in the military—that the swaggering recruits are no more likely to discover new things, because great startup ideas tend to seem wrong. The second counterintuitive point is that it's a new messaging protocol, where you either have to spend a lot of subsidiary questions to be cleared up after the handshake, and if the other side senses weakness—if the idea's no good, for example, or the chronic ache of consulting. She assumed the problem was with her. If you work on overlooked problems, you're more likely to get money.21 Individualism has gone, never to return.

So future founders may not have to accept new CEOs if they don't and you stick around, people will pay attention to you, because odds are they'll have to deal with investors while the others keep the company moving forward—releasing new features, increasing traffic, doing deals, getting written about—those investor meetings are more likely to get money. So in a hundred years—or even twenty—are people still going to search for information using something like the current Google?22 And this national standardization of wages was so pervasive that its effects could still be seen years after the war ended.23 A good startup idea has to be treated as a threat to a company's survival. But if you had to change something, what would it be? Or more precisely, new protocols that take off are. Investors' power comes from money. The way to become an expert on startups, but as I explained before, this is not what you might think. He never did any more with his software than talk to his girlfriend, but this apparently verdant territory is one from which few startups emerge alive. Partly because the unions were monopolies.24 You can see why people invent gods to explain it.

Notes

And since everyone involved is so hard on the ability to solve are random, they have wings and start to shift back.

I'm clueless or being misleading by focusing so much to suggest that we know nothing about the right thing. This phenomenon is apparently even worse, they are within any given time I know of no counterexamples, though I think it's confusion or lack of movement between companies combined with self-interest explains much of a placeholder than an ordinary programmer would never guess she hates attention, because the publishers exert so much better is a scarce resource.

Probably just thirty, if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time, because despite some progress in the first person to run spreadsheets on it, is caring what random people thought of them, but except for that reason. The best investors rarely care who else is investing, which in startups. There are some whose definition of property without affecting and probably especially those that made a Knight of the living. The point where it sometimes causes investors to founders with established reputations.

The Mac number is a rock imitating a butterfly that happened to get into that because a quiet contentment. One VC who read this essay, but in practice that doesn't exist. So whatever market you're in the sense that if you have two choices and one of them is that they've already made the decision.

But so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say.

This technique wouldn't work for the same trick of enriching himself at the same time. San Francisco, LA, Boston, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York the center of gravity of the founders.

In many fields a year of focused work plus caring a lot of people mad, essentially by macroexpanding them. If you have to talk about humans being meant or designed to live in a spiral. A round VCs put two partners on your thesis.

The history of the more the aggregate is what you can often do better, because you could only get in the press or a funding round at valuation lower than the don't-be poets were mistaken to be spread out geographically. It might also be argued that kids who went to Europe. Similarly, don't make their money if they do. The second alone yields someone who's stubbornly inert.

The angels had convertible debt with a company doesn't have to make your fortune? Think it's too hard at fixing bugs—which is as straightforward as building a new airport.

What we call metaphysics Aristotle called first philosophy. But that is exactly the opposite: when we started Viaweb, if I could pick them, initially, to buy corporate bonds; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of understanding vanity would decline more gradually.

You have to do as a naturalist. Or a phone, IM, email, Web, games, but one way in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is some kind of work is not a programmer would find it was spontaneous.

When that happens.

That name got assigned to it because the broader your holdings, the underlying cause is usually some injustice that is more of a city's potential as a cold email startups.

The Wouldbegoods. All languages are equally powerful in the imprecise half.

This is one of the optimism Europeans consider distinctly American is simply that it would be enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes.

I'm not trying to sell something bad can be either capped at a 30% lower valuation. Strictly speaking it's impossible to write it all at once, or b to get a definite plan to have, however, and yet managed to get frozen yogurt.

But not all of us in the absence of objective tests. Economically, the less educated ones usually reply with some axe the audience gets too big for the same, but that we know exactly what they're selling and how unbelievably annoying it is to imagine that there is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. This includes mere conventions, like warehouses.

If anyone wants.

You could feel like a conversation reaches a certain threshold. 5% of Apple now January 2016 would be lost in friction.

I ordered a large pizza and found an open source project, but I took so long.

Did you just get kicked out for doing so much better that it makes sense to exclude outliers from some central tap. Life isn't an expression; how can I count you in?

Norton, 2012.

A significant component of piracy, which is the last thing you changed. Unless we mass produce social customs. Not one got an interview with Steve Wozniak started out by solving his own problems.

The kind of work into a significant cause, and large bribes by the Dutch baas, meaning master. Incidentally, I'm guessing the next Apple, maybe you don't think you need but a lot on how much effort on sales. The disadvantage of expanding a round on the scale that Google does.

[unusualllamite]

The Lyrics Challenge

This is probably the 100th Legacy Challenge but there are never enough of them, if we’re perfectly honest right now. This challenge is pushing you to make choices you normally wouldn’t do - and it hopefully motivates you to play the game as well! And maybe you’ll even find one or two songs you didn’t know yet and like them.

Basic Rules:

Money cheats can be used, though you shouldn’t overdo it. We suggest you to cheat (FreeRealEstate on) to get your house in the first place, but don’t use any money cheats after that. But that’s up to you.

We would appreciate if you wouldn’t use other cheats beside the money cheats. Of course, if something really bad happens - for example your heir dying, who would want that, right? - we actually want you to cheat. But as for the money, you shouldn’t overdo it.

Keep the lifespan of your Sims on normal.

Your Sims may live wherever you want, unless it’s stated otherwise in the rules for that generation.

Aspirations and Careers need to be mastered unless stated otherwise

If there’s a generation you simply can’t play because you don’t own the needed expansion/gameplay pack, just get creative, take a song you like and play with that lyrics around!

If you play this challenge, we’d be happy to see it. Tag your posts with #lyricschallenge so we can see it!

My bebe friend @the-queens-content (or @xqueen-nyra if you want to check out her art-stuff) and I searched for some motivation to stick to our games, and decided that we wanted to create a challenge. Because you know, it’s kinda cool and fun.

And uh, yah, we hope you’ll like this challenge, because making it was pretty fun and playing it is probably fun, too. I hope. We definitely will play it and it’d be cool if you join us.

Sia - Chandelier (Generation 1)

“I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist.”

Who says you have to grow up? You never understood why your parents wanted you to be a good kid and follow rules. That never was your thing. So when you were old enough to move out you started pursuing your dreams of - literally doing whatever you want!

Traits: Outgoing, Materialistic, Hot-Headed

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Criminal Career

Rules:

master Charisma and Mischief skill

don’t have any serious relationships (romantic) as a Young Adult

complete Serial Romantic Aspiration

master the Criminal Career

Hollywood Undead - Let Go (Generation 2)

“Waking up, I don’t feel alive. How fucked up are we inside?”

You never felt connected to other people and prefered to spent your time on your own, living out your creative thoughts and ideas. With your parents doing what they wanted most of the time you had to care for yourself from a young age and now you are a young - but independent - sim.

Traits: Gloomy, Loner, Perfectionist

Aspiration: a Creativity Aspiration (see rules)

Career: a Creative Career (see rules)

Rules:

complete a Creativity Aspiration (Painter Extraordinaire OR Musical Genius OR Bestselling Author)

master a Creative Career (Entertainer Career (only Musician Branch!) OR Painter Career (both branches possible) OR Writer Career (both branches possible))

decline any invites to social events (except birthday parties, weddings, ...)

master two Creative Skills (Guitar Skill, Painting Skill, Piano Skill, Singing Skill, Violin Skill, Writing Skill)

Be More Chill - I Love Play Rehearsal (Generation 3)

“Most humans do one thing for all of their lives, the thought of that gives me hives!”

Your friends and parents always seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do. They were ambitious and straightforward. But you? You never really knew what you liked. Sure, there were things you liked to do as a child, but you never poured your heart in it. You turned into a restless person, still searching for your calling.

Traits: Active, Art Lover, Snob

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Career: see rules

Rules:

complete Renaissance Sim Aspiration

reach at least Level five (5) in at least two (2) Careers

move houses (and worlds) at least three (3) times

have at least two (2) relationships before having a family

Breaking Benjamin - Give Me A Sign (Generation 4)*

“I’ll keep you alive If you show me the way”

Occult things, weird dreams, dark alleys. Adventure. These were always the things you cared most about - for all your life. As a pretty active kid you got in trouble pretty much all of the time. Now that you’re a grown-up you decided to chase the adventure and moved to the dark and mysterious world Forgotten Hollow.

Traits: Genius, Good, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Good Vampire

Career: Secret Agent Career

Rules:

live in Forgotten Hollow

have Vampire Nexus or On A Dark Ley Line lot traits (you can also have both)

master Vampire Lore skill

complete Good Vampire Aspiration

have a romantic relationship (and family) with a vampire

make said vampire human again

become human again

Cazzette - Sleepless (Generation 5)

“It kills my heart to know You don’t think this love could grow”

You parents teached you that you could do anything if you just were ambitious enough. And you want that. You want to bring justice to this cruel world, catch criminals and make the world a better place. But between work and your all-time hobby - fishing! - you forget that there are more important things than success. Love for example ...

Traits: Ambitious, Jealous, Neat

Aspiration: Angling Ace

Career: Detective Career

Rules:

master Detective Career

complete Angling Ace Aspiration

reach Level five (5) of Fitness Skill

reach Level seven (7) of Logic Skill

have an affair with a co-worker (while having a serious relationship)

leave both the affair and your partner

Imagine Dragons - Whatever It Takes (Generation 6)

“I’m just a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see”

You always knew there simply was more. More than you - than anyone - could think of. And you made it your personal goal, your duty to find out what it is. Could it be talking animals? Flying cars? Or even ... extraterrestrial life? Whatever it is - you want to find out!

Traits: Geek, Insane, Kleptomaniac

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Career: Scientist Career

Rules:

master Scientist Career

master Rocket Science Skill

master Video Gaming Skill

visit Sixam

be friends with at least one (1) alien

adopt at least one (1) child

Evalyn - Filthy Rich (Generation 7)

“I thought you knew I’m filthy rich”

Love? Friendship? Nah, better not. You’re all about yourself and your expensive lifestyle. Money? Oh hell yes, there we are. You always dreamed of being rich as a kid. Having enough money to do everything you please is your biggest dream, but you’re not very good at saving money. So you literally throw it out of the window for your expensive parties and fun nights.

Traits: Lazy, Mean, Squeamish

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Career: Mixologist Career

Rules:

complete Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration

you don’t have to master the career!

master Mischief Skill

master Comedy Skill

reach Level six (6) of Charisma Skill

throw a party every two weeks

Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around and Fell in Love (Generation 8)

“I fooled around and fell in love”

You always loved to laugh. Laughing makes everything. There are only forty-three muscles to use, it’s so easy! You’re always up for some nice jokes, and you love to hang out with friends or people who share your sense of humor. With all the joking and fun you experience, you’re sometimes oblivious to other things and don’t even notice what you’re doing.

Traits: Clumsy, Goofball, Romantic

Aspiration: Soulmate

Career: Comedian Career

Rules:

complete Soulmate Aspiration

master Comedian Career

master Parenting Skill

reach Level five (5) of Painting Skill

marry High School Love

own a Rocket

Cruel Youth - Hatefuck (Generation 9)

“I hate you every time I fuck you”

You never were like everyone else around you. When other people around you learned that it’s important to be nice you pranked them and laughed at them afterwards. Being nice won’t take you any further in life, you think, so you don’t bother with it. Although being an unfriendly fellow doesn’t mean you don’t have any feelings or desires.

Traits: Childish, Evil, Foodie

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Career: Astronaut Career

Rules:

master Astronaut Career

complete Chief of Mischief Aspiration

have at least two (2) enemies with benefits

have at least two (2) enemies (different ones to the enemies with benefits!)

complete Space Prints Collection

Baha Men - Who Let the Dogs Out (Generation 10)

“Who let the dogs out?”

Dogs! You always liked them. They’re so loyal, and cute, and precious. There’s a reason they’re called the sim’s bestfriend. They’ll always stick to you and light your day up. You realized that when you were young, and you still don’t grow tired of the fascination they exert on you. One thing has always been clear: You will spend your life with a family of dogs!

Traits: Dog Lover, Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Career: Vet

Rules:

master Vet Skill

master Training Skill

complete Friend of the Animals career

have the following lot traits: Training Spot, Dog Friendly, Dog Spot

try for baby (successfully) in the Lighthouse

adopt as many dogs as possible (only adopting, not creating and adding them to the family)

*Alternative: Generation 4

Traits: Genius, Good, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Secret Agent Career

Rules:

live in a basement

complete Friend of the World Aspiration

have a romantic relationship (and family) with a ghost

make said ghost alive again

die

become alive again

[whoisleft-rp]

CONGRATULATIONS TO  ADMIN AMANDA //

// FOR EARNING THE ROLE OF GRETCHEN OLLIVANDER

Full application included under the cut ! 

In Character // Getting to know your muse

Name: Gretchen Eileen Ollivander

Gender/Gender Identity: Cisgender Female

Age & Birthday: (I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling) 22 years young, born August 6th

[source]

Your greatest challenge is: coping with routine

The way forward is: to understand that routine is not always a deadening force; it can provide a safe and secure structure in which creativity can be nurtured.

On The Dark Size: Reckless, obsessive, unfocused

At their best: Exciting, creative, ambitious

Power thought: “I can see eternity in a grain of sand”

People born on August 6th have a lust for life, especially things that are uncommon and exciting. Their fascination with what is unique leads them to seek out the extraordinary and attracts interesting experiences their way.

The urge for people born on this day to participate fully in every area of their lives can make it hard for them to deal with the more mundane aspects of life. This is because, whether they realize it or not, they are forever searching for something extraordinary or unusual.

When life does not live up to their expectations they can become moody, despondent and restless. The key to success and happiness for them is to find ways to combine their passion for the unique and unusual with the routine of daily life.

In interpersonal relationships: People born on this day are never short of admirers because they have an unquenchable interest in others and the ability to make them feel special. They can be sensual and passionate as well as reliable and kind, but their intensity can become wearing. It is important for them to understand that laughter, fun, silence and just chilling out with the person you love are a crucial part of keeping a relationship spontaneous and alive.In the professional sphere: These people thrive in careers that offer them plenty of travel, variety, networking, and challenges.

Astrological sign: Leo

Pros: Kind and helpful, energetic, optimistic, straightforward, and loyal

Cons: Headstrong, egoistic, possessive, dominating, impatient, arrogant

Sexuality: While she’s out there fighting for equality on the war front, Gretchen is also an equal opportunity employer in her love life. Although her attraction varies from person to person ––and she tends to seek out women when she wants to actually enjoy herself vs. men when there’s something to be gained–– one thing remains constant. Her attention span is short, but she likes to keep people on the leash for a long time after she’s gone; though she doesn’t want every person she goes for, she always wants them to want her, even when she’s already moved on and wandered away.

She likes to be liked, wants to be wanted, and needs to be needed…even though the latter of those is one of her biggest turn-offs when she’s actually faced with it. She’s far from the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope, but it’s often one that she projects to others, hoping they’ll see her as something elusive, mysterious and unforgettable. Whether or not she remembers them a year from now is unimportant.

As far as committed relationships go, Gretchen has only been in one ever–– something that evolved between her and one of her closest friends at school. She’s shut that part of her heart down and not allowed herself to dwell on the effect the collapse of that relationship had on her, but it’s wrecked her far more than she’s realized and will crop up more and more the longer she’s back in England, in familiar surroundings.

A little more on Gretchen + interpersonal relationships...

Although she craves the same validation she doles out to others, intimacy is something she won’t allow into her life. She’d rather be remembered for being the enigmatic girl who slipped out of bed before her partner was awake, to stay on their mind and be remembered as a privilege not an obligation. She’d rather be known as someone flighty and unattainable than have to face rejection, or the loss of someone she’d really grown attached to.

When it comes to people who do really know the ‘real’ her––like her family, for instance––flaws and all, she often experiences a discomfort wherein she feels that they don’t really know her. She lives in such a state of flux, movement, change, action. She feels as though she’s learning every day. She feels as though she’s an entirely new person every morning when she wakes up, or with every new phase she enters. Order of The Phoenix Gretchen is not the same as Gryffindor Gretchen who is not the same as the girl who once sat on her grandfather’s knee for story time. If they were looking at her like she was the same person now as she was back then (for she really doesn’t know how strongly consistent her inconsistent personality has remained over the years), then they had to be wrong, didn’t they?

Sum your character up in three words: Shake It Off

In Character // [GRADUATES & ADULTS]

Occupation:

Technically speaking, Gretchen is a full-time member of the Order. However, her actual career path is different on paper, and quite unique, even for the Order roster. Nobody blinked an eye when restless, can’t-commit-to-a-path Gretchen took a position with a Temp Agency. She loved it, and could easily talk about why; meeting new people all the time, different jobs from week to week, the chance to travel and network and dip her toes into fresh waters. One week, she might be a secretary for someone high-up at the Ministry whose usual receptionist was sick; the next, a cater waiter at a fancy, pureblood-thrown cocktail event; the next, tending bar at a respectable hotel. However, the twist comes (like most twists in her live have come) from Albus Dumbledore himself. The agency is one of the institutions compromised by the Order of the Phoenix and under its thumb. She goes, strictly speaking, where she’s needed, trying to blending into situations that she otherwise wouldn’t have access to and trying to collect information from figures that might have otherwise not trusted her, or remained behind closed doors.

Where do they live?

After she’d exhausted her travel options [see last history point] Gretchen took a flat above a shop (not her grandfather’s) in Diagon Alley. Her place is a sprawling one-bedroom with a lot of light, and she can only afford it because the actual bedroom is occupied and paid for by a rarely-around, wealthy Chinese woman named Zhi Ruo who keeps to herself and never complains about the state of the main room of the apartment, which Gretchen occupies…and occupies, and occupies and occupies.

The living room/kitchen combination is like something out of a bizarre, very pink film–– Gretchen sleeps on a floor-level mattress over by the windows, surrounded by a sea of freestanding clothing racks overflowing with fun furs, outfits she’s never worn but ‘might some day’ and winter coats that are aesthetically pleasing but very out of season. Books stand in freewheeling piles around the apartment, the couch is a futon that is neither comfortable nor matching to the rest of the décor, and despite owning a very good wand that could take care of the job easily, most dishes put into the sink tend to live there for about a week.

Still, the place has a charm to it and while it’s extremely messy, it’s at least clean and navigable.

What branches of magic are they best/worst at, and why?

Far and away, Gretchen’s best when it comes to a duel. She was never the type of person content to be ‘a second’ to anyone in anything, so fighting for herself was something she had to grow into quickly. She’s prone to thinking before she speaks and acting on impulse, so it’s little surprise how many scrapes she’s gotten herself into over the years. The last thing she wants is to be seen as someone who can’t put their money where their mouth is; she doesn’t often lose duels badly, but in her school days it wasn’t exactly uncommon to see her traipse back into the common room with a set of scraped knees or a bloody nose. Gretchen is quick on her feet and unafraid of pulling punches once she’s thought of them; the quick brain-to-hand trigger pull isn’t the most practical quality to have, but it’s kept her alive up until now. So she isn’t going to complain.

Her worst subject in school was Transfiguration–– she just didn’t have time for the mental gymnastics it seemed to require of her. Gretchen is a very ‘tell it as it is’ person, because she tends to see things as they are, too. She has little patience for people with a poorly-covered-up agenda, hates suckups and, for someone who spends so much of her time pretending to be someone else on a mission or lying to strangers in a bar just for the fun of it, hypocritically (but genuinely) hates being around those she deems as ‘fake’. It’s not a direct correlation, but much of this played into her frustration with the entire branch of Transfiguration. If a feather is a feather, it’s a feather and should stay a feather. She didn’t understand what point there was trying to turn it into a mouse–– why couldn’t she just go catch a mouse? Or conjure one? Teacups didn’t need tails and toads had no use for turning into eyeglasses. It had been drilled into her, over and over again, how practical the subject was supposed to be. But she never found a way to connect it to her own needs or interests, and so checked out at all the most crucial moments.

It also had to do with the fact that she immediately soured on the class after she wasn’t naturally talented at it after the first few lessons…but she’ll never tell that side of the story.

Other:

Gretchen comes from a family of wand makers; anyone who got their wands at age eleven from her grandfather’s shop, or even heard of the famed Diagon Alley dispensary, could clock that fact about her immediately. Even though she’s never been the Wand Expert in her family of experts or had any interest in taking up the family trade for her own, she’s always been a little bit possessive about wandlore.

She can’t help but interrupt someone in public who claims to know a lot about the subject; chances are, she knows enough to step on the one tiny detail they got wrong, and build up her own projected sense of knowledge in the subject.

In that same vein, she gets outwardly picky about anyone treating their wand poorly ––whether that be dropping it, storing it wrong, or holding it badly–– despite the fact that she’s prone to doing all of these same things. Hell, she’s been known to test out nail polish swatches on the handle of her wand; after all, she has access to the best wand-cleaning solutions in the world, with a family discount to boot.

Character History // [ALL CHARACTERS]

+ There is nothing surprising about the fact that Gretchen remembers perfectly the day she got her wand.

She had been eleven for less than five minutes, but she was already inside the lamp-lit walls of the family’s Diagon Alley shop. It was late, but she couldn’t even fathom being tired; the privilege of staying up late was a bonus along, but added to getting her first wand and being the center of family attention while she did so? There was an electricity running through her, a pure joy that was all the more evident by the fact that she was demurring with a practiced, humble air when she was met with congratulations.

She didn’t even complain when Geraldine, a year younger than her and therefore normally one of the ones who’d be made to stay home like Gretchen had had to every year before this, was permitted to come and watch. It was one more eye on her. Who was she to complain about that?

There would be no waiting for the store to open in the morning, no chance of getting stuck in line behind a future classmate of hers or elderly butterfingers looking for a repair. It was officially her birthday––had been since the clock struck twelve––and she was buzzing with anticipation at the center of a room that had fallen hushed with the same feeling. This was her night and, no matter how long it took to click with the perfect wand for her, the end result was going to change her life.

To this day, she can remember the vibration in her palm, the warmth spreading throughout her entire arm, all the way up to her heart. This was her wand, it had found her, it had chosen her. She’d been born and bred a proud Ollivander, and she felt it in every cell of her body in that moment: choked up, beaming, really connected to the finely polished wood in her hand. It was a moment she’d been looking forward to her entire life––

––and although she was genuinely over the moon, she found herself soon wishing it was a moment she could have drawn out longer. It had taken a while to find the right wand, but not that long. Her Grandfather was a pro, after all; aided by what she later found out was a well-informed guess by her middle sister, it wasn’t odd that he was quick to find her the perfect companion. Still, she wished she could have played more, tested out more wrong wands so that it felt all the more better when she finally found her wand. Eyes would have been on her a little longer; they all could have shouldered, together, the sudden burst of joy and relief that the delayed gratification would bring.

It was, on paper, the perfect night and she always describes it as such. Still, she can’t help but remember privately looking back the fact that she wished it had been something a little...more. That was what happened when Gretchen built something up in her head for long enough, or hit a ‘traditional milestone’. She’s always wanted everything to be celebratory, memorable and way over the top.

Her grandfather remarked later in the night that Gretchen would have tried out every wand in the shop if it’d let her–– and though he’d said it fondly, there was something in his voice and eye both that rang of truth, of unintentional criticism. This is something she remembered perfectly for years as well. It was like he saw her, really saw her, in that moment and wasn’t a huge fan. Gretchen knew that her grandfather loved her–– in her bones, she knew it.

But it became very evident to her on that night that he didn’t understand her, or didn’t want to. Even if it was all in her head, that night was the start of a slight wall going up between Garrick and herself; it was uncomfortable to be known instead of fawned over, to be told things about yourself that were true and known to others before they were known to you.

There’s a chance he didn’t mean anything by the comment at all, or didn’t even remember it himself over a decade later.

Regardless, Gretchen makes sure to make a point of picking up several wands from the shelves every time she visits the shop and idly waving them about–– just looking! she’ll say, or just to see!

+ Gretchen has always been a fighter.

It wasn’t that she was an early, small or sickly baby–– none of the things that “she’s a fighter!” usually gets tacked to describing. In fact, even though her sisters followed very close behind her in age, Gretchen was a healthy, chubby, happy and well-attended baby who enjoyed the glowing spotlight of being the oldest. She was doted on, happy to soak up the attention from her parents, their friends and the family’s extended relatives. Dinner parties were her platform to put on shows; when the lines of questioning came about her starting school and how her classes were getting on, she didn’t shy from the questions but indulged in the fact that she had a captive audience, especially for that first year of Hogwarts before Geraldine joined as her peer.

However, she has always been searching for reasons to fight–– especially if it was for the ‘Right Reasons’. She’d wait for her parents to punish one of her siblings, and then take the side of her sister with fiery determination. She wasn’t pretending to love her sisters unconditionally or anything; she really did. But she took these fights to a degree they never needed to reach, if only because they were so justifiable. Of course she was going to launch herself, uninvited, between her parents and Gloria when the latter hadn’t cleaned her room (“She’s my sister! Of course I’m going to stand up for her!”) or between her parents and Geraldine when the former accused their middle daughter of spending too much time conspiring to begin her apprenticeship with Garrick early (“You’re always talking about how family is so important, why can’t you stick to your words? You’re complete hypocrites.”)

Of course, the fact that she was so keen to jump into other people’s arguments with her sisters didn’t mean she was at all deterred from fighting with them herself. How could she help herself? She was right! Most of the time––the overwhelming majority of the time––Gretchen was so completely convinced that she was coming into things as the only person with the correct, clearest point of view. To her, it seemed worth fighting over. Fighting for. She had a genuine penchant for justice, but couldn’t help but be overly performative with it. It was a great way to ‘scratch the itch’ before the Order came into her life and gave her the ultimate goal.

It was this knack for fighting that got her into trouble once, as a student. And it was that same knack for fighting that got her out of it, as a young adult.

For the former, she was a sixth year. Something about her had grown restless–– maybe because she was past the year when she could use ‘I have OWLs to prepare for’ to sound importantly busy but it was far too soon for her to consider beginning preparation for NEWTS. She’d always had a hot streak, always used ‘why not?’ as the perfect reasoning to loudly, proudly and pointedly share her many opinions. She liked to think of herself as very fearless. Others had different adjectives in mind, and it wasn’t long before bickering with a certain stuck-up Ravenclaw boy (Jorah Daniels, a name she refuses to forget even now that it’s all ancient history) turned into setting up a duel. It would have to be after curfew, no doubt. She needed a second; she needed to make sure her wand was ready; she needed to wear comfortable shoes for once.

The duel itself was unremarkable. Each of them got a few good shots in. A few knock-backs, some singed robes, a handful of satisfyingly green bruises. They were fighting pridefully over their pride, not with any real violence in their hearts. But still, as teens with wands were wont to do, they got carried away. Things got louder, and stickier, and neither was interested in calling things off and calling it a tie. Once escalated, it probably would have continued for hours––or until a tragic injury occurred––but interference happened swiftly and suddenly, with the sound of unfamiliar shoes approaching around the corner. The students all scattered, but in the shuffle Gretchen dropped her wand. She could have gone back for it the next day (on the off chance it wasn’t picked up and used to identify her), but it was her wand. She was bonded to it, it had served her well tonight and, besides, something felt inherently uncomfortable about running away from something she’d set up with so much conviction about it being the right thing to do.

If she really thought she was in the right here, didn’t it make sense to stand by it and accept her punishment? There was a little drama in that, sure. A little Martyrdom. But those were two things she was well versed in, and they too aided in her hesitation to bolt.

When she came face to face with Headmaster Dumbledore and was asked to escort him back to his office, she was sure she was done for. That her parents would be written to, or that a mountain of detentions were about to come her way. Instead, she was treated to a delightfully confusing conversation that seemed to be filled with inside jokes that she wasn’t on the inside of yet, and innuendo she wasn’t worldly enough (to her chagrin) to understand.

She did not get in trouble that night.

Years later, standing alone in the dusty familiarity of her grandfather’s wand shop, she did not get in trouble either. She’d been wandering the globe. There was still dirt under her fingernails from hiking in Spain, a bruise on her thigh from the Australian bush, and a cough rattling her lungs she’d picked up on the train back to London. It hadn’t taken her long to get the itch to fight again––that’s what happened when she didn’t have enough to keep her occupied, too busy to take up any new causes to champion. A curfew had been set over the city in the wake of the worsening war, but Gretchen’s feet didn’t know how to stop moving her around; a studio apartment couldn’t contain her, and it had been a while since she’d tried to fight the urge. This last duel had gotten the better of her wand. The wood around the base was splintered slightly; a disaster for most people, but a quick trip to see Geraldine was all it meant for Gretchen.

Dumbledore needed to only cast a quick look at her wand to know what she was up to–– there was a look on his face, a twinkle in his eye. Gretchen felt the same mix of embarrassment and fierce pride that she had years ago as a student. She met his eye and didn’t speak until he did. When he finally broke the silence, it was not with an admonishment, as she suspected (some people never outgrow looking up to their teachers), but with an offer.

Gretchen quit her aimless wandering after that. She had direction now, a permanent cause to champion as a newly minted member of the Order of the Phoenix. She bought into the organization immediately ––always one for disguises, adrenaline, the poetry of espionage and, above all else, throwing herself into causes that she deeply believed deserved justice.

+ Gretchen’s family has always been at the center of her life.

Everyone knows that she’d do anything for her sisters, no matter how many frustrated arguments they’ve had over the years or how inconsistent she is about keeping in touch now that they aren’t conveniently herded under one roof from September to June.

Besides her sisters, Gretchen had always been close to her parents. Sure, fights weren’t uncommon––especially as the growing paints kicked in––but they always made up with a stiff nod and a hug, and the whole thing turned to dust and got swept easily under the nearest rug. Growing up, Gretchen liked to be the one to host her friends for sleepovers or summer trips. She was proud of her house, comfortable showing off her room, and not-so-secretly pleased every time someone new came over for the first time and remarked to her how in love her parents seemed. ‘That’s just how they’ve always been,’ Gretchen would say with a wave of her hand, because it was true and because it sounded appropriately humble. She’d lived a warm, happy childhood with the warm, happy support of her family.

Which was why it was such a horrible, jarring, awful shock when the Ollivander parents sat their trio of girls down over Christmas dinner and told them that their marriage was over.

Gretchen, to the shock of many, took the side of the mother she’d always clashed with over the father who’d always patted her on the head and slipped her extra spending money. She has a lot of reasons to give people, each revealing a part of her heart but neither telling the whole story: her mother deserved someone who actually made her happy; her father had never been able to properly express his appreciation and romantic love for her; her mother needed her support more; her father may not have been so innocent himself, did anybody think to ask?

At her core though, Gretchen knows that her loyalty to her mother had come for the same reasons she’d fought with the woman so much over the years: Gretchen was becoming her, surely and not all that slowly. With every year she aged, Gretchen saw her mother’s face in the mirror a little more, or heard her in the timbre of her own voice when she got angry, or found herself picking up a hobby she’d rolled her eyes at her mother doing when Gretchen was a child still living at home. She saw in her mother the person that she might end up being herself one day–– someone she was starting to think she actually wanted to be, too.

What if this was another part of the family genes? What if Gretchen was destined to wander along the same path, in the older woman’s footsteps, and ended up pulling out the rug from under her family because she wasn’t built to stay loyal either? It didn’t sound like her at all, and it was surely a selfish was of thinking–– but it was also more effort than she’d ever put in before, trying to picture herself in her mother’s shoes. It lit a fire of empathy in her and let her choose between the rock and the hard place that Christmas dinner had become the night the girls were told about the pending divorce.

Never one to do things halfway, Gretchen has found herself now almost stubbornly close with her mother and not communicating with her father at all. It’s an extreme position to take, not to mention an unnecessary one, but Gretchen isn’t Gretchen if she doesn’t throw herself headlong into one side of a battle. It’s true for the war, and it’s true for home life. Not going all-in left room for doubt, loose threads and messes. If she hadn’t chosen all at once, she wouldn’t have been able to choose at all–– and to this day, she’s too proud and scared all at once to admit to herself that maybe she needn’t have chosen at all.

+ Gretchen is at a curious place in her life...

...caught between the phase of her youth where she’s “too young to have to grow up and make any long term plans” but well into that phase of young adult life where she doesn’t like to be told what to do. Too young to care, but old enough to know better–– it’s a phase of arrested development, where she has one foot in childhood and one in adulthood, and is determined to pick her favorite aspects of each to life out.

She’s an adult, after all...on the days that it suits her to be. She’s too young for the responsibilities she doesn’t want to take on, but too old to be told how she should be living her life. She’s going to live forever; she’s done enough living to have her opinions fleshed out and fully informed. It’s a middle ground mess of contradiction and, though the growing pains might eventually overtake her, she’s enjoying it for the time being.

In some ways, this has always been a part of her personality. In others, though, her current phase can be traced back to her extended Australian vacation. Gretchen had emerged from Hogwarts, wind at her back and several NEWTS successfully under her belt–– she’d always been a great standardized test-taker. She had a lot of things that she could do with herself, and even more things she wanted to get done.

The first thing on that list was to travel. Gretchen ended up staying on the road for a long time after her graduation from Hogwarts, even before she became involved with the Order. As the first of her sisters to graduate from Hogwarts and enter the real world, she felt quite worldly. So, it was off into the world she went.

‘I’m thinking about taking a whole month,’ was how the planning had started.

By the time arrangements had begun, she was looking and being gone closer to two months, which was the minimum time needed to visit all the colorful pins she’d stuck at haphazard angles into the fancy, rolled-out maps that had become the apple of her eye.

In the end, she left without telling anyone when she would be back, because she didn’t know herself. She just wanted to go.

First, she flitted off to Australia for a few months, only telling a few where she was going and doing a poor job of staying in touch. When it came time to return home, she realized that she didn’t want to–– too much to face, or not enough to keep her interested. The answer she told herself changed by the day. So, she extended her exploration.

A two week backpacking trip through Spain became a four week backpacking adventure through Iceland–– then Germany, then Italy, then South Africa, then Taiwan. She had a small sum of money to blow through, care of her family graduation gifts, and a sense of adventure that only grew stronger with each new destination.

When she finally tired out, Gretchen came back home, to her parents’ houses, first to live with her mother (who she’d unequivocally sided with in her parents’ divorce), and then with her father (after a blow-up fight with her mother, brought on by being an adult, albeit a young one, thrust back into close quarters with a parental figure).

Only a month of this song and dance was enough to prove to Gretchen that she wasn’t fit for it–– she felt too old for her parents’ rules, too independent to fit into the skin of her childhood life and, most importantly, too restless to keep living in a place she’d already lived. From there, she explored a variety of short-term situations–– six weeks with a ‘boyfriend’ (the term loosely applied), two in a hostel, a handful of sublets across London and outer, smaller cities.

Eventually, she ended up right where her original journey had started. Living above a shop in Diagon Alley, consorting with old professors and forgetting to alert a lot of her old friends that she was back. Although so much about her life now is the same as when she’d originally left––and she still comes and goes as she pleases, rarely giving warning––the core mission of all that travel was successful. Gretchen felt different, like she’d outrun something, or grown well into her own skin.

And on the days that she doubts that growth, or worries that she’s just the same as the teen who’d originally bought an armful of world maps from Flourish and Blotts? At least she has some good stories to tell as a distraction.

Tools For Success // [ALL CHARACTERS]

Wand: Aspen, unicorn tail hair, 12 inches even

Amortentia: Cinema popcorn, peach perfume, fresh paint, red wine

Boggart: No offense to darling Gloria, but Gretchen has always been terrified of snakes. There’s no rhyme or reason or traumatic event behind it. She just can’t see one without shuddering, and doesn’t know what she’d do if faced with one in real life–– maybe it’s for good reason that she always wears high-heeled shoes tall enough to be weapons. Her footwear is no help when it comes to boggarts, however; the one that would appear if faced with a boggart out in the wild would be a cobra of massively exaggerated proportions, ready to strike and strangle her once she’s incapacitated with fear.

In The Hot Seat // [ALL CHARACTERS]

What are your characters political views and how do they see the upcoming war?

Gretchen has always felt the most responsible for her siblings…but that doesn’t mean she���s a mother hen. No, Gretchen has long had her own way of doing things, choosing to fiercely protect and defend her siblings from harm instead of actually encouraging them to stay out of harm’s way in the first place. It would have been hypocritical of her to do the latter, anyway. She has always been a bit of a thrill seeker herself; there’s never been an adventure or a chance to prove herself that didn’t get her heart racing faster. She likes to feel like a protector, a defender of mankind.

She’s never been one for sitting back and silently refusing to voice her opinions…which is how she got tangled up with the Order of the Phoenix.

To Gretchen, the right side of the war is so obvious, and she’s determined to appear in the sympathetic and heroic half of the history books. Not only is she shameless about pointing at people and telling them that they need to care more about any issue that holds relevance at the moment, she’s at her best when the same is done to her. She has no hesitations about standing up for what she believes in, and actually gets off her butt to put her money where her mouth is–– or her wand, or her time, or her effort. She’s not pretending to care about the war, nor any of the smaller issues within the ecosystem of it. She very passionately believes in the Order’s mission and holds her involvement with it as a point of major pride…which is why it’s little surprise that it’s taken over much of her life.

Who is/was the most important person in your characters life?

She would never say it out loud ––for many reasons, many of which have to do with the fact that she thinks of herself as a family gal through and through–– but this title probably goes to Albus Dumbledore.

Gretchen definitely sees the Order through rose colored glasses, and is extremely entrenched in its mission and culture. Politics aside, it’s given her something to fight for. It’s given her training, preparation, wisdom from people she respects, and the chance to feel like she’s actually making a difference in the world. It’s tapped into her penchant for justice. It’s made her feel like she has a sense of control over things in such a scary, turbulent time.

It is, in many ways, her whole life–– and it’s a life that Albus Dumbledore gave to her, because he saw something special in her, something she’d always felt was there. He’s paved the way for her to become the person she wants to be, and she feels a deep indebtedness to him for that.

What is your character’s best quality?

Gretchen has a knack––mostly with strangers, but in some capacity with everyone she comes into contact with––to make people feel special.

She’s a touch to the arm and some deep eye contact that makes you feel listened to; she’s the person who repeats more loudly the question you asked but nobody else in the group heard. She makes people feel special and loved and interesting because she wants people to see her, in equal measure, as special and loving and interesting. She puts a huge emphasis on making people feel validated, on creating an air of intimacy–– which has been great for both Order recruiting purposes and with the success of her missions, since she’s talented at pulling people into her world and making them want to fan the flames with her.

Beyond that, she’s a fierce defender. She has a penchant for wanting to help out worthy underdogs, and actually puts the work in to make that happen. She doesn’t always perfectly practice what she preaches ––she’s human, after all–– but she does believe in getting off her butt and trying to change the world, which is more than can be said for some people she knows.

What is your character’s worst quality?

Gretchen is self-centered. What makes it worse is that she doesn’t realize this at all. For all she talks about the importance of self-indulgence and the benefits of focusing energy inward, she really has no clue how Gretchen-centric her entire worldview is.

She’s ‘practically an adult’ now, after all; she’s traveled, she reads the paper, she has her degree from Hogwarts. She’s a member of a vigilante organization helping to stop the most violent war that Wester European Wizarding World has ever seen, for christsakes! She knows what she’s talking about.

Or, at least, that’s how she sees it.

Gretchen has always acted a certain way, acting out the impulses and vices of the version of herself that exists in her head: terribly charming, philanthropic, justice-seeking and enviable. She sees herself the way that she fancies herself; when she does something that she’s convinced is for someone else’s benefit, even if they haven’t asked for her help, she’s confused when they don’t effuse with thanks. Gretchen likes to do things her way and thinks that she knows best. The real disconnect comes when she fails to realize that not everybody sees her the way she sees herself–– or, in other words, the way she projects herself to be. Some people, especially the people that know her best, actually see her for everything she is, the good and the bad. And Gretchen just can’t understand why they seem to dwell on the bad (in order words, notice it at all) instead of focusing on all the good she does (tries to do/intends to do one day/is thinking about doing).

There is a lot that’s paradoxical about Gretchen–– for instance, she wants to be praised heavily for her hard work and skills yet, at the same time, wants everyone to see her as someone who is effortlessly talented. It’s easy for her to smile and shrug off a compliment by saying it’s no big deal. But if the compliments stop after that, despite her deflection, she’ll become cold and confused, wondering where the new critique is stemming from.

All of this stems from––and flows back to––her self-centeredness. It’s hard for her to wrap her head around the fact that people see things so differently from the way that she does, especially because she’s spent so much time trying to get into her own head.

What are your character’s bad habits?

Gretchen is in massive, massive debt. It’s not a fact she goes around spreading, but her lines of credit have been well abused–– and not just because of her extended travel adventures or on-the-low-side paying job. Gretchen loves her instant gratification. In fact, she loves instant gratification almost as much as she loves pink fur coats, of which she has three. She loves to shop. She eats primarily upscale takeout food. She signs up for boutique yoga classes, has a never-ending stock of face masks and creams, and insists on being the one to pay when she goes out with even the most distant of acquaintances. If she feels the urge to go out, she’s going to go out rather than check her budget. And if someone she meets out at the bar insists that she’s got to come cliff-jumping with him and ‘some cool people’ off the coast next Thursday, she’s going to toss some cash at that before consulting her calendar to see if Thursday even works.

There are a few other things, that she sees as devilishly endearing yet drive others up the wall: she’s never on time; has a tendency to double-book herself and have to flake on plans; she’s bad at updating people on her life but finds herself bewildered when they don’t know what’s going on with her; she flirts all the time, whether she realizes it or not.

She sees all of these as fun quirks–– so there’s no chance of them turning around any time soon.

The Rumor Mill // [ALL CHARACTERS]

the good

Gretchen will do absolutely anything for her sisters. Even if they don’t see each other all that often outside of holidays; even if they’re known to bicker because of their different ways of seeing the world. She still considers them the best, most important people in her life and would walk through any fire to make sure they’re okay.

Gretchen can and will kick arse in a duel, and she’s great to have on your side in a fight. Whether that means a second in a proper wand-on-wand showdown or just someone to stand behind you and fiercely nod when you need to make a point, she has a fiery type of loyalty that can’t be shaken.

the true, but completely absurd

Gretchen once accidentally, ‘technically’ prostituted herself. In Portugal, when she was nineteen, she entered into what she thought was a one night stand after a cantina’s last call. There was a huge language barrier, though, and some vague gesturing was all the communication the two engaged in before setting off together. To Gretchen, it had been small talk; to him, she later found out, it was  a lively negotiation. As she was on her way out, backpack slung over one shoulder, the man passed some money her way. It didn’t occur to her until she was back at her hostel what must have happened there–– and to this day, it’s one of her favorite stories to tell when she’s had a few too many drinks, which is why it’s no wonder it’s made the rounds a bit.

the bad

Gretchen is a little bit of a hot mess. If you have plans with her, it’s best to confirm two or three times in the lead-up to make sure she’s actually coming...and to tell her to be there an hour before she actually has to be, to increase the chances she’ll show up on time.

Gretchen needs to be the center of attention, and likes things to happen on her terms. It’s no wonder that she’s flitting herself all over the globe; there are always new audiences to be found, and new groups of friends to exhaust.

the false

Gretchen’s only so good at dueling because she convinced that grandfather of hers to cram an extra unicorn tail hair into her wand in hopes of doubling its power.

Anything goes // Free section!

The official Gretchen Ollivander playlist can be found here !

[rainbowssims]

Disney Berry Rainbowcy Challenge Mashup

Hi! You’ve probably heard of and love the Disney Princess Legacy Challenge, and maybe even a Berry Rainbowcy? Well,if you like those, you’ve come to the right place, this is the Disney Berry Rainbowcy. This is a mashup of the two challenges, along with some changes and additions. I will admit, I made this a little more difficult than it should be, however, you are allowed to change this in any way you want to suit your capabilities. This is set up to be a 17 (Eventually more) Generation challenge, but you may lower it however you feel fit. I hope you enjoy!

Guidelines:

1: No cheating except for resetting sims, or story progression mods such as MCCC

2: Paint/Photograph the heir for each generation and hang it in the house. Each Generation must max the painting skill.

3: You may lock/unlock sections of the house for certain sims to match the generation. (Rapunzel can only access the tower for example)

4: You do not have to do all of the generations, nor do you have to do all of them in order.

5: If you don’t have a feature because of a pack, replace it with a closely relating feature. I will also have a second option that is base game for any of the things that are from a pack

6: All generations are allowed to be any gender except Snow White

7: You may skip the Baby stage if you’d like.

8: Play on any life length, Normal or Long are recommended.

9: Move out extra children when new generations start, into a new household

10: Every generation needs to complete their aspiration, and a skill, none require a maxed career.

11: The heir is always the last born child

12: When moving in a spouse you may not take in any money (use the “money _____” cheat to set your money back)

13: As this is a berry rainbowcy, it will be virtually impossible without Berry CC,

@noodlescc​ makes amazing CC made specifically for Berry Sims, and she is the resource I’m using for my own game.

Building:

Move into the largest lot you own, (50x50/64x64) and bulldoze. Build whatever you need with your remaining money. I recommend to make your house into a castle or a medieval house over time to fit the theme, of course this is optional. You must remain in this lot for the remainder of the challenge, so make it pretty!!

Generations:

Generation 1: Snow White

White, Pink Spouse

Founders have humble beginnings, so what's better than Snow White? To start, create Snow White. When Snow White moves into the biggest lot available, this story begins.

Super Parent (Big Happy Family) Creative, Music Lover, Perfectionist

Must be female

Paint/Collect/Photograph/etc for money, no real job

Each child must have the same baby daddy (Pink)

Marry the father and move in together if desired

Each child and teen must get an A in school to age up*

Snow may never answer the door to strangers or talk to elderly women

-Must have 7 children (dwarfs)

-Each child must have one bad trait (e.g Gloomy)

*This generation only

Generation 2: Cinderella

Pink, Peach Spouse

Although you had six brothers and sisters, you always did the cooking and cleaning. Yet, somehow you loved it, as it transported you away from your chaotic home life. When Cinderella becomes a teenager, this story begins

Soulmate Good, Neat, Glutton

Must clean every mess, cook every meal, and repair every object

Master Handiness

(Optional) Meet Spouse in a public lot

May not marry until mother dies (This does not have to be of old age, but it may not be cheated) 

Have a maximum of 3 children 

Generation 3: Tiana

Peach, Pale Orange Spouse

Your family has barely accomplished anything over the past two generations, and you're here to change that. This story begins when Tiana becomes a YA.

Master Chef Ambitious, Foodie, Cheerful

Father must die before end of YA

Master Baking (Cooking) and Piano Skill

Culinary Career or Run a Restaurant that becomes 5 stars before her death (Dine Out)

Complete the Frog Collection

Must marry an alien (sim with green if you don’t have aliens (This can be hair or eyes))

Have kids

Generation 4: Aurora

Pale Orange, Pale Yellow Spouse

Thanks to your mother's hard work, you have everything you always wanted in life, apart from love. Your father was overprotective of you, and rarely let you out of the house. This story begins when Aurora becomes a YA.

Soulmate Lazy, Romantic, Self-Assured

May only have 3 or less friends. (Family can count if you wish)

Critic Career (Business if no City Living)

Master Charisma

Must attend/throw only one party in their life

Must meet future spouse at night while parents are asleep

Elope, a wedding won’t count as your one party

Have a maximum of 2 children - (twin girls are preferred if playing Anna or Elsa next)

Generation 5: Anna*

Pale Yellow, Pale Green Spouse

Your sister locked you away and you never knew why. As toddlers, you were the best of friends but now all you have are dreams. When Anna is a child, this story begins.

Big Happy Family Good, Goofball, Non-Committal

Lose all contact with your sister until YA

Parents die before YA (drown)

Detective (Entertainer) Career

Master Comedy

Find love with a criminal

Experience near death at the hands of your lover

Find someone new after becoming BFFs with your sister

Marry, have one child

*See end for the alternative of Elsa

Generation 6: Rapunzel

Pale Green, Teal Spouse

Your mother never trusted you or the outside world. You never knew of her past, and never wanted to. All you ever got was solitude, but that didn't matter. When Rapunzel is a teenager this story begins.

Painter Extraordinaire Loner, Art Lover, Loves Outdoors

Must reach at least level 8 painting before YA

Paint for money

Paint 5 Murals in the house (Ignore if no City Living)

Live in a tower added onto the house until YA

Despise mother

Spouse is a criminal and has the jealous trait

May only ever leave the house for school 

May never have friends until wedding 

Elope, have kids

Generation 7: Belle

Teal, Pale Blue Spouse

You always loved books and visited the library often. You never cared for looks, just beauty within. Everyone wanted you, but you turned them all down. You wanted to chose your own destiny. When Belle becomes a YA, this story begins.

Renaissance Sim Bookworm, Music Lover, Loner

Date at least 5 men

Visit the library weekly

Write Books/Garden for money

Master Writing or Gardening

Meet the man of your dreams - an ugly Sim

Marry, have kids

Your spouse becomes beautiful (Changed in CAS) after first born child

Generation 8: Mulan

Pale Blue, Lavender Spouse

Your parents always wanted you to bring fortune back to the family and marry someone of high status, but you didn't dream of love, you dreamed of glory. When Mulan becomes a YA this story begins

Nerd Brain Active, Self-Assured, Hot-Headed

Exercise every day

Athletic career

Master Fitness or Wellness 

Fall in love with a co-worker once you reach the top of the career choice 

Marry, have kids

Generation 9: Jasmine

Lavender, Dark Pink Spouse

You hated being rich and living like a princess. You find comfort in Raja, but nowhere else. All your father wants is for you to marry rich, but you want a life without riches. Your mother trained you well to become an amazing hand-to-hand combatant. When Jasmine becomes a teenager this story begins.

Soulmate Dog Lover (Good), Cheerful, Clumsy

Have a best friend (Raja)(Preferably a pet)

You cannot leave the house unless it is for school

Master Veterinarian (Logic) skill

Must marry a poor street rat

Lover must be in the criminal career

Have a maximum of 4 children

Generation 10: Merida

Dark Pink, Red Spouse

You always wondered why your mother gave up her riches for a poor boy. Your adventures lead you into trouble, and you were nearly always grounded. When Merida becomes a teenager this story begins.

Successful Lineage Kleptomaniac, Family Oriented, Active

Lose your siblings and mother in an unfortunate accident

Seek out a way to change the past but fail

Make an enemy then kill them

Steal for money

Master Mischief

Marry as an Adult

Have children, all dressed and named as a different color in order of the rainbow (Kinda weird, but it’s representing the mermaids)

Generation 11: Ariel

Red, Orange Spouse

You've always loved the water and dreamed of becoming a mermaid. Sadly, this never came true but you did find the man of your dreams, and that was good enough. When Ariel becomes a teenager this story begins.

Musical Genius Loves Outdoors, Music Lover, Good

Must own a pool and swim in it everyday

Collect as a teen, Home Musician as an Adult

Make an enemy with Ursula

Master Singing skill and an instrument (Piano, Guitar, Pipe Organ, Violin)

Meet your spouse while your father is at work

Must marry a beautiful Sim with at least one trait the same as your own

Have kids

Generation 12: Pocahontas

Orange, Banilla-Yellow Spouse

You come from different worlds, yet the love of your life is forbidden by your family. When Pocahontas becomes a teenager this story begins.

Friend of the Animals (Freelance Botanist) Loves Outdoors, Good, Self-Assured

Fall in love with a "different" kind of Sim, (Human-skinned, Green Eyes/Hair Sim)

Marry that "different" kind of Sim.

Adopt/Create a Raccoon (Ignore if Cats&Dogs is not owned)

Home Gardener for money

Master Pet Training(ignore if no Cats&Dogs) and Gardening

Have a maximum of 4 kids, heir must Have a Yellow feature, not including skin

Generation 13: Alice In Wonderland

Yellow, Green Spouse

You always thought you were different. You were out with your sister when your life changed forever after a white rabbit ran past you. When Alice becomes a teen, this story begins.

Friend of the World

Insane, Bookworm, Lazy

Fall in love with a sim older than you (e.g Alice is a YA, Marry an Adult)

Own 4 Cats, a Cheshire Cat, a white “rabbit”, an elder “rabbit”, and a “mouse” (Ignore if no Cats&Dogs)

Spouse must be insane and poor

Make a basement (aka Wonderland) and live there for this generation

Social Media (Writer if no City Living) Career

Master Writing

Drink tea every day with your spouse

Have at least 2 children, 1 must have the insane trait

Generation 14: Moana

Green, Blue Spouse

You grew up as the heir to a legacy, born to rule over others; however you want to explore and see the world. You know your choices make you who you are and you hope that one day they will show you the world. Starts when Moana becomes a teenager.

Curator Active, Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian

Have a close relationship with her Grandmother (who dies before Moana becomes a YA and before meeting Maui)

Meet Maui, a man with no living family or relations, who you become BFFs with. You then have to find/craft plumbite (the heart of Te Fiti) and when you give it to your enemy (Te Ka) you become friends with them.

Athletic Career or Home Gardener

Master Gardening or Fitness

Return home in glory. Marry Maui and have kids.

Generation 15: Megara

Blue, Purple Spouse

As a minion of Hades, your goal in life is to escape his clutches to continue your family line. When Megara becomes YA, this story begins.

Bestselling Author Self-Assured, Romantic, Genius

Date Hercules, an Active, and Goofball Sim

Move Hercules and Family directly into the household from CAS (You must make Hades(A Vampire if possible), and if you feel like it, Hercules’ parents)

Megara and Hercules may never marry until he has mastered fitness (or killed 3 sims)

While Hercules is doing his goals, Megara must live in a “dungeon” to represent her being trapped under Hades’ spell, she may not leave until Hercules is done, then Hercules must kill Hades (or cure him of vampirism)

Megara may paint/write while in the dungeon for money

Hercules must be in the Athletic Career

Hercules may be turned into a Vampire(if possible) when they marry

Have at least 2 girls

Generation 16: Nani Pelekai (Lilo and Stitch)

Purple, Pink Spouse

With your sister and her husband dead after a car crash, life around the house just isn’t the same anymore, taking care of your baby sister, Lilo Pelekai. Her story starts after “Lilo” is born and her parents die.

Big Happy Family Hot-Headed, Outgoing, Active

After her parents tragically die, you take Lilo into your care (adopt as care dependent)

Have a negative relationship with Lilo until teen, then become friends

Culinary Career

When Lilo is a child, adopt a strange blue dog (or an alien child without Cats&Dogs (or a human, blue-skinned child without Get to Work)) named Stitch

Raise Lilo as your own

Marry a waiter

Have 2 children

Generation 17: Tinkerbell

Pink, TBD

As a tiny fairy, you have to stay up in the world disregarding your size. When Tinkerbell becomes a YA, this story begins.

Friend of the world Jealous, Good, Loves Outdoors

Live in a glass tower

Meet as many children boys as you can

You maintain a garden

Complete the fossil or metal or crystal collection

Only have to Master Painting!

Have an enemy that dies from your spouse

Marry your highschool sweetheart

After married, have 3 children

Others:

Generation 5 (Alternate): Elsa (With Vampires)

Pale Yellow, Pale Green Spouse

Your parents always questioned where your powers came from. You were a quiet type after... the accident. All you wanted was to be alone, unable to harm anyone. When Elsa becomes a teenager, this story begins.

Good Vampire Loner, Good, Family Oriented

Must not talk to siblings until YA

Parents dead before YA

Master Vampire Lore (Logic)

Turn to a Vampire as a Teen, but cure yourself when first human child is born

Make no attachment to your children, stay isolated (optional)

Never marry and only have children until you get a human, lock away the vampires when they are teens (if you get any)

Generation 5 (Alternate): Elsa (Without Vampires)

Pale Yellow, Pale Green Spouse

Your parents always questioned where your powers came from. You were a quiet type after... the accident. All you wanted was to be alone, unable to harm anyone. When Elsa becomes a teenager, this story begins.

Friend of the world Loner, Good, Family Oriented

Must not talk to siblings until YA

Parents dead before YA

Be different in some way

Master Logic

Scientist Career (Fun with the freeze ray!) or Business

Make no attachment to your children, stay isolated

Never marry and only have 3 children

[bootycallreverie]

"Please can we not make her mayor?"

I woke up today to this fascinating question regarding Cllr. Ana Bailão’s votes to uphold systemic oppression within the Toronto Police. “Please can we not make her mayor?”

It was a deceptively complex question that got me thinking of some of the fundamentals of activism, social change and politics, that I wanted to unpack this question bit by bit.

I’ve cut it into five sections: PLEASE, CAN, WE, NOT MAKE HER, MAYOR.

///

1. PLEASE

I assume this softens the meaning of the phrase - “I want her out of politics” is pretty harsh – especially in the context of a man publicly critiquing a woman. Yet it shows us something important – we are implying we need permission to participate in politics.

Why are we asking for permission? And to whom is this appeal directed? Last time I checked, I don’t need permission to do most things in life, including participating in the political process. Our US-based friends did not ask for permission when they recently revolted against their governments; they did it even though they faced police brutality, neo-Nazi paramilitaries, psychological warfare, a global pandemic and more.

The “please” comes out of the respectability politics that makes “Ontario” as a political entity so curious. “Please don’t gut our healthcare!” is not coming from a position of strength. (Anyway, it’s much easier for progressives to walk back overzealousness in the name of justice than it is for people to walk back bigotry.)

To best challenge power, we must never apologize for having ambitious convictions. We need to champion big ideas, even if they’re ahead of the curve. Two months ago, police reform would have been considered impossible in America. And they were right, it was impossible...under the existing model. So they changed the model.

Change – especially lasting change – comes from the grassroots, so while it’s not a bad thing to support progressive political candidates, parties and organizations, it is *significantly* more important to support issues-based activists and organizations (i.e. if you give $10 monthly to the NDP, why not also give $10 to your favourite advocacy group?). Issues-based groups are formed to challenge one specific cog of power at a time and can therefore deliver deep, fundamental and long-lasting impacts. (Plus…this is a great way for potential candidates to gain some experience; get those ppl knocking on doors now and they’ll do much better in 2022.)

2. CAN

If we are asking “do we, as a community, have the capacity to elect someone better?” The answer to this is yes, but if we’re instead asking “will someone within the existing structure please FINALLY get off their ass and challenge her?” then we might ask ourselves why this hasn’t already happened. The civic left has largely allowed Cllr. Bailão (and, to a lesser extent, Mayor Wonderbread, who is merely a pathetic, respectable version of Rob Ford) to go unchallenged because she’s been deemed impossible to beat, but by not challenging her, the civic left has allowed her career to continue essentially unfettered because they don’t want to spend resources on a race they’re unlikely to win. If only there were some other downtown districts where a new, young generation of activists can start to build their careers…except the seats available are full with straight white boy progressives.

Why does the civic left protect Gord Perks, Joe Cressy and Mike Layton? Like…honestly…I just don't see what the big deal about Joe Cressy is. He bumped Ausma Malik out of the 2018 election instead of doing the right thing and making way for a supremely talented racialized woman like I'd hope someone committed to true justice would. There is even a movement in the democratic party to ask white men to not run in safe seats. [This paragraph and the next have been edited for tone, thank you to Colin Burns for encouraging me to rethink my words and my misdirected anger, my frustration naturally lies with Cllr. Bailāo's behaviour.]

Gord Perks verged into alt-left territory last year as a free-speech absolutist and consequently an apologist for bigotry when he should have defended trans folk. He even shared his disappointing thoughts publicly (yup, he did, they’re still up, don’t @ me on this one, you’ll regret it: http://gordperks.ca/toronto-public-library-chief-librarians-decision/) so considering who he seems to be, we can do better after 14 years? (TL;DR – there’s need for renewal in a lot of parts of our movements, and the labour movement is no exception.)

Mike Layton is a lovely man with his heart in the right place. I’ve volunteered for him and would gladly do it again. It therefore pains me to recognize that his last name is more than a name. I’m happy for everything he (and his team) has contributed in a rapidly changing district. My concern is that lefties can’t afford to support dynasties in the same way that liberals and conservatives can, especially in downtown districts where our odds of winning are good and where we ought to be supporting talented Black, Trans, Indigenous, disAbled and economically-disadvantaged candidates that are already on the front lines of social change. (This list is illustrative, not exhaustive.) By the time of the next election, Mike Layton will have been there for 12 years. Perhaps it’s time for him to open an opportunity for others.

3. WE

Who is “we”? Is it people in this district? Is it people in Toronto? Is it progressives? Whoever can identify this “we” and mobilize them will have the best shot of defeating her. This is the “coalition” people describe as needed to win election. Of course, this includes whoever’s running for office and their team. That organizing work needs to start right now if there’s going to be any chance of a lefty winning this seat in 2022. (If you think she isn’t already considering her council seat successor, remember that her old boss was Mario Silva, who was *coincidentally* Davenport’s City Councillor and MP for a combined 16 years.)

4. NOT MAKE HER

This is maybe the biggest hurdle to get over since “NOT ANA BAILAO” is not an option on the ballot. Considering there are no formal (lol) parties or slates on council, her name recognition is her biggest electoral asset, so a keep-it-safe campaign won’t work. Plus her public image is fairly non-toxic, so as pissed off as we all are, most people won’t be swayed by a STOP BAILAO campaign from the left (the trope of the conservative woman can be very powerful – thanks Maggie – so expect her campaign to lean pretty typically right).

When we say “Cllr. Bailão should not be Mayor” we rob ourselves of the ability to say “I think this person would make a great mayor” or “these are the some of the values I want in a mayor.” – and I don’t mean just of the City Council types. (At this point, Josh Marlow is the other councilor to watch.)

I hate hearing “why can’t we have AOC or Jacinta Arden or Anne Hidalgo or Ilhan Omar?” They didn’t come out of thin air. We already have those people here, we just haven’t elevated them to where they can make a difference and this is why. (Also, lefties, let’s seriously push for term limits and ranked ballots…especially the term limits, most ppl out there love the idea, it costs zero dollars and ensures districts have a healthy amount of turnover.)

5. MAYOR

Toronto City Council is a “weak mayor” system. The Mayor need council approval for pretty much everything important. The Mayor will find success or failure on how well he can build a team of reliable allies on council. It’s something thing Mayor Wonderbread does too well: his allies don’t offer a lot of different views. A hypothetical Mayor Bailão would probably do similar.

So then how rigid should a politician be? Are they supposed to be trustees, where we trust them to do what’s best for us and we have a check-in every 4 years? Or are they supposed to be conduits of public opinion with little regard for context? Or is a councillor meant to reflect the demographics of their district, even though they can only truly embody one set of lived experiences as an individual? Or perhaps, in the case of Cllr. Bailão, someone not dedicated to steering the ship but merely running the engine, not caring where it sails even though we've seen icebergs on the horizon? We’ve grown up in a SimCity generation where we think the mayor can make whatever they want happen. As great as that might sound sometimes, in a democracy, accountability matters. But it must come with a recognition that SimCity mayors don't fear the wrath of the voters.

///

I want to recognize that a 10% reallocation is fucking pathetic and still Toronto council couldn’t do it…but at least we know where we stand, and with whom.

We often look at politics as a sport or a soap opera, and it feels great when your team scores points or your favourite character delivers a knockout performance. Even I was like “dang girl” when Nancy Pelosi defiantly ripped up the President’s speech. I was also touched by Jagmeet Singh’s touching display of emotion the day after he was ejected from the House of Commons for calling out bigotry. But that’s not politics, that’s a long running TV drama series, so as disappointed as I am in what happened, I’m not gonna yell at her in the street because White Man Raging is not a great look these days…or ever.

So let’s not make this about my neighbour, Cllr. Ana Bailão. Let’s make it about the system of oppression she has willingly chosen to uphold and tearing that motherfucker down piece by piece.

[the-queens-content]

The Lyrics Challenge

This is probably the 100th Legacy Challenge but there are never enough of them, if we’re perfectly honest right now. This challenge is pushing you to make choices you normally wouldn’t do - and it hopefully motivates you to play the game as well! And maybe you’ll even find one or two songs you didn’t know yet and like them.

Basic Rules:

Money cheats can be used, though you shouldn’t overdo it. We suggest you to cheat (FreeRealEstate on) to get your house in the first place, but don’t use any money cheats after that. But that’s up to you.

We would appreciate if you wouldn’t use other cheats beside the money cheats. Of course, if something really bad happens - for example your heir dying, who would want that, right? - we actually want you to cheat. But as for the money, you shouldn’t overdo it.

Keep the lifespan of your Sims on normal.

Your Sims may live wherever you want, unless it’s stated otherwise in the rules for that generation.

Aspirations and Careers need to be mastered unless stated otherwise

If there’s a generation you simply can’t play because you don’t own the needed expansion/gameplay pack, just get creative, take a song you like and play with that lyrics around!

If you play this challenge, we’d be happy to see it. Tag your posts with #lyricschallenge so we can see it!

My friend @thatrayleen and I searched for some motivation to stick to our games, and decided that we wanted to create a challenge. Because you know, it’s kinda cool and fun.

And uh, yah, we hope you’ll like this challenge, because making it was pretty fun and playing it is probably fun, too. I hope. We definitely will play it and it’d be cool if you join us.

Sia - Chandelier (Generation 1)

“I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist.”

Who says you have to grow up? You never understood why your parents wanted you to be a good kid and follow rules. That never was your thing. So when you were old enough to move out you started pursuing your dreams of - literally doing whatever you want!

Traits: Outgoing, Materialistic, Hot-Headed

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Criminal Career

Rules:

master Charisma and Mischief skill

don’t have any serious relationships (romantic) as a Young Adult

complete Serial Romantic Aspiration

master the Criminal Career

Hollywood Undead - Let Go (Generation 2)

“Waking up, I don’t feel alive. How fucked up are we inside?”

You never felt connected to other people and prefered to spent your time on your own, living out your creative thoughts and ideas. With your parents doing what they wanted most of the time you had to care for yourself from a young age and now you are a young - but independent - sim.

Traits: Gloomy, Loner, Perfectionist

Aspiration: a Creativity Aspiration (see rules)

Career: a Creative Career (see rules)

Rules:

complete a Creativity Aspiration (Painter Extraordinaire OR Musical Genius OR Bestselling Author)

master a Creative Career (Entertainer Career (only Musician Branch!) OR Painter Career (both branches possible) OR Writer Career (both branches possible))

decline any invites to social events (except birthday parties, weddings, ...)

master two Creative Skills (Guitar Skill, Painting Skill, Piano Skill, Singing Skill, Violin Skill, Writing Skill)

Be More Chill - I Love Play Rehearsal (Generation 3)

“Most humans do one thing for all of their lives, the thought of that gives me hives!”

Your friends and parents always seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do. They were ambitious and straightforward. But you? You never really knew what you liked. Sure, there were things you liked to do as a child, but you never poured your heart in it. You turned into a restless person, still searching for your calling.

Traits: Active, Art Lover, Snob

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Career: see rules

Rules:

complete Renaissance Sim Aspiration

reach at least Level five (5) in at least two (2) Careers

move houses (and worlds) at least three (3) times

have at least two (2) relationships before having a family

Breaking Benjamin - Give Me A Sign (Generation 4)*

“I’ll keep you alive If you show me the way”

Occult things, weird dreams, dark alleys. Adventure. These were always the things you cared most about - for all your life. As a pretty active kid you got in trouble pretty much all of the time. Now that you’re a grown-up you decided to chase the adventure and moved to the dark and mysterious world Forgotten Hollow.

Traits: Genius, Good, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Good Vampire

Career: Secret Agent Career

Rules:

live in Forgotten Hollow

have Vampire Nexus or On A Dark Ley Line lot traits (you can also have both)

master Vampire Lore skill

complete Good Vampire Aspiration

have a romantic relationship (and family) with a vampire

make said vampire human again

become human again

Cazzette - Sleepless (Generation 5)

“It kills my heart to know You don’t think this love could grow”

You parents teached you that you could do anything if you just were ambitious enough. And you want that. You want to bring justice to this cruel world, catch criminals and make the world a better place. But between work and your all-time hobby - fishing! - you forget that there are more important things than success. Love for example ...

Traits: Ambitious, Jealous, Neat

Aspiration: Angling Ace

Career: Detective Career

Rules:

master Detective Career

complete Angling Ace Aspiration

reach Level five (5) of Fitness Skill

reach Level seven (7) of Logic Skill

have an affair with a co-worker (while having a serious relationship)

leave both the affair and your partner

Imagine Dragons - Whatever It Takes (Generation 6)

“I’m just a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see”

You always knew there simply was more. More than you - than anyone - could think of. And you made it your personal goal, your duty to find out what it is. Could it be talking animals? Flying cars? Or even ... extraterrestrial life? Whatever it is - you want to find out!

Traits: Geek, Insane, Kleptomaniac

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Career: Scientist Career

Rules:

master Scientist Career

master Rocket Science Skill

master Video Gaming Skill

visit Sixam

be friends with at least one (1) alien

adopt at least one (1) child

Evalyn - Filthy Rich (Generation 7)

“I thought you knew I’m filthy rich”

Love? Friendship? Nah, better not. You’re all about yourself and your expensive lifestyle. Money? Oh hell yes, there we are. You always dreamed of being rich as a kid. Having enough money to do everything you please is your biggest dream, but you’re not very good at saving money. So you literally throw it out of the window for your expensive parties and fun nights.

Traits: Lazy, Mean, Squeamish

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Career: Mixologist Career

Rules:

complete Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration

you don’t have to master the career!

master Mischief Skill

master Comedy Skill

reach Level six (6) of Charisma Skill

throw a party every two weeks

Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around and Fell in Love (Generation 8)

“I fooled around and fell in love”

You always loved to laugh. Laughing makes everything. There are only forty-three muscles to use, it’s so easy! You’re always up for some nice jokes, and you love to hang out with friends or people who share your sense of humor. With all the joking and fun you experience, you’re sometimes oblivious to other things and don’t even notice what you’re doing.

Traits: Clumsy, Goofball, Romantic

Aspiration: Soulmate

Career: Comedian Career

Rules:

complete Soulmate Aspiration

master Comedian Career

master Parenting Skill

reach Level five (5) of Painting Skill

marry High School Love

own a Rocket

Cruel Youth - Hatefuck (Generation 9)

“I hate you every time I fuck you”

You never were like everyone else around you. When other people around you learned that it’s important to be nice you pranked them and laughed at them afterwards. Being nice won’t take you any further in life, you think, so you don’t bother with it. Although being an unfriendly fellow doesn’t mean you don’t have any feelings or desires.

Traits: Childish, Evil, Foodie

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Career: Astronaut Career

Rules:

master Astronaut Career

complete Chief of Mischief Aspiration

have at least two (2) enemies with benefits

have at least two (2) enemies (different ones to the enemies with benefits!)

complete Space Prints Collection

Baha Men - Who Let the Dogs Out (Generation 10)

“Who let the dogs out?”

Dogs! You always liked them. They’re so loyal, and cute, and precious. There’s a reason they’re called the sim’s bestfriend. They’ll always stick to you and light your day up. You realized that when you were young, and you still don’t grow tired of the fascination they exert on you. One thing has always been clear: You will spend your life with a family of dogs!

Traits: Dog Lover, Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Career: Vet

Rules:

master Vet Skill

master Training Skill

complete Friend of the Animals career

have the following lot traits: Training Spot, Dog Friendly, Dog Spot

try for baby (successfully) in the Lighthouse

adopt as many dogs as possible (only adopting, not creating and adding them to the family)

*Alternative: Generation 4

Traits: Genius, Good, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Secret Agent Career

Rules:

live in a basement

complete Friend of the World Aspiration

have a romantic relationship (and family) with a ghost

make said ghost alive again

die

become alive again

[absinthehq]

ANGELINA THORNE

FORTY. CAPOREGIME FOR THE BONVENTRE MOB.

trigger warning for death and guns. 

From the moment Angelina was born, youngest to two tall, hunky, handsome brothers, she was expected to prove herself worthy: of love, respect and honor. She was expected to follow her mother's footsteps and become a housewife to a man or mayhaps, if she got lucky, a housewife to a rich man. She was taught how to sit and dance properly, how to move, how to talk, how to walk like a lady. For awhile she followed through with her father's every instruction, until the very moment she saw him shooting with her brothers, at the age of twelve, way back when ballerina shoes weren't enough to hold her ambition together.

She remembers the way he held the gun -- and how the bird in the sky fell so terribly, cold, dead to the floor. It came to her as no surprise that many years later she'd be the snake that bit her father's ankle, and not the bird he so proudly killed to hang it on a wall on his winter cabin. Betraying her father's wishes, Angelina shed her skin and became a new persona: more free, desirable, seductive, machiavellian, and above it all, selfish. She left her family in Texas to pursue a career as a manager in a casino in Las Vegas, despite having little experience whatsoever, she was ambitious, beautiful and polished. But most of all, Angelina saw the means to the ends which she so hungrily yearned for: success.

It was a hot summer night in a casino rooftop when Angelina met Cesare. He saw the ruthless in her eyes and did not waver or tremble. Instead, he offered her a position as a caporegime in his mob business. Angelina knew how the mafia worked: she had been studying the Bonventre from afar for many, many years. Although many doubted Cesare to take on a twenty-seven year old unexperienced caporegime, Angelina proved herself worthy once again. She knew how to hold her composure and her guns, knew where she stood and most importantly, had an unwavering loyalty to the Don, Cesare Bonventre. If anything, she proved that what any man could do, she could do bleeding -- and in high heels.

Despite being doubted, thrown aside and laughed at many times by Cesare's men, Angelina did not stumble once. Whereas they were bloodstained and brutal, she was clean and cutthroat, fierce in her position as a caporegime and trusted woman of the Bonventre business. Many accused her of being heartless, but she simply knew herself and the skin she lived in, always shedding, always changing, always adapting.

Although some wonder if she even has a heart, Angelina has proved herself loyal time and time again. At the news of Cesare's death, however, her loyalties changed, and she began to see her allies as enemies. She never had any friends -- nobody had the time for friends when you literally lived with a target on your back everyday, but she began to weave herself a small web of lies and people whom she can trust, people who'll aid her in getting Cesare's position. She may be no Bonventre heir or no trusted soldier, but she's a thunderstorm in high heels, and hell, it'll all be damned if what she built so carefully isn't hers in time.

GLORY AND GORE GO HAND IN HAND…

Francis Thález: He’s the rising king. People trust him, because he was one of Cesare’s oldest friends and allies. But that’s about to change when Angelina gets him behinds bars for a crime he did not commit. Or perhaps something worse. All she knows is that she hates his guts, and it won’t change anytime soon. He’s in the way of her throne. 

Peter Dougherty: Peter was a means to an end. She needed someone else’s support on her quest to getting Cesare’s position in the mafia, and Peter was attracted to her enough to fall into her trap. Easy enough. It’s mere business -- and she hopes he falls for that.

Ella Stockhausen: Ella is her best friend, and the only true supporter throughout her journey in finding herself a position in the mafia. Although she knows anything can change, she knows Ella all too well to know she’s stubborn enough to stick through thick and thin. Besides, they’re kindred spirits and share a hatred for the Bonventre children with a passion.

Theo Capucci: He’s a silver-tongued martyr. One hell of a guilty son of a gun who’ll get his way by sleeping with Victoria and becoming the newest king. She thinks very little of him and will kill him by all means necessary, if only it means getting rid of Francis as well.

THAT’S WHY WE’RE MAKING HEADLINES!

✉ SENT @ 1:54pm  → FRANCIS: we’ll see, francis. ✉ SENT @ 3:57pm  → PETER: it’s just business. do i need to spell it out for you? ✉ SENT @ 6:32pm  → ELLA: i need your advice. and wine. tons of it.

available. faceclaim: jessica chastain (negotiable)

[ohthismustbetheplace]

Why My Relationships Never Make It to “I Love You”

“After my last relationship ended, I had a revelation: Despite feeling love for my partner and — I think, anyway — showing love, I could not say, “I love you.” Not when he flew across the country for my birthday, nor when we talked under the starlight at an AirBnB in the middle of a Redwood forest. I couldn’t say it when he laid his head on my chest the last night of my week-long stay in California, nor when he actually listened to me after a serious discussion we had about relationship needs.

When I try to unpack my hesitation, I find only a tangled web of not-quite-right theories. Was it because he didn’t say it first? I don’t think I subscribe to any rules around that, gendered or otherwise. Did I think he didn’t care? No, he was emotive and affirming, and I felt safe. Did I not really love him? That doesn’t feel like it either; I believe love is often felt before it’s said. But then why didn’t I say it?

The simplest answer, I’m afraid to admit, is that I’m nervous about what comes after. There’s something about saying those three little words that marks a transition in your relationship; once you say it once, you’re expected to keep saying it. You usually don’t break up with someone you just started to love; you can’t back away from that word. Usually, saying “I love you” means you’reall in. Or so I think it should, in an ideal world.

I asked Karla Ivankovich, PhD, a clinical counselor at OnePatient Global Health, to explore this subject with me. She agreed there are probably a few factors contributing to my verbal block, like a fear of rejection, for instance, even if I did feel “safe” in my relationship. “There is such profound concern with being fiercely independent today, and saying ‘I love you’ makes you vulnerable,” she says.

I’ve only expressed love one time. My first boyfriend told me he was falling in love with me, and a few weeks later, we exchanged the words for real. The next day, he broke up with me. We ultimately did get back together — he said he ended things out of fear and I believed him — but I hated that I hadn’t seen his reaction coming. I pride myself on that. If I can predict outcomes, I can save myself pain.

There’s a part of me that thinks I’m always searching for signs someone will leave before they actually do. Signs they’ll get scared and bow out. “Longevity has always been the hallmark of successful relationships, and many still hope [for] that,” Ivankovich says. “But modern relationships are difficult to traverse. Each person, while interested in being a couple, is still extremely independent. They fear the ‘me’ becoming a ‘we.’”

I don’t personally fear becoming a “we,” but I do fear the other person will not want it as much as I do. I often fall in love with men who are similar to me: ambitious, passionate, focused on careers and goals that have high potential to pull us apart. I typically start forecasting the future after only a few months, or even weeks. And while I’ve often seen friends use the word “love” very quickly in relationships, I can’t fathom myself doing that. Instead, “love” feels like a word I need to protect — in part because I believe it’s more than a feeling; it’s a choice that needs to be made consistently.

I may have felt love for him, and he may have felt love for me, but perhaps I didn’t believe the verb would carry on past the noun.

When I think of the last few guys I’ve dated, the consistency wasn’t always there. Take my recent ex, for example, who would frequently forget about scheduled phone calls or prioritize me differently than I would have hoped. I may have felt love for him, and he may have felt love for me, but perhaps I didn’t believe the verb would carry on past the noun.

Historically, I’ve been pretty commitment-shy in romantic relationships, not because I fear it, but probably because I take it very seriously. Committing to love another person isn’t always pleasant, is often self-sacrificing, and I want to feel that both my partner and I are mutually ready for that.

After I share all this with Ivankovich, she wonders if I’m sabotaging my relationships before they have a chance to advance by way of sharing vulnerable feelings like love, and expectations like commitment. “Are you saying that a man has to love you the way you want him to love you or you feel as if you can’t commit?… If you don’t say [“I love you”], and you think you know the outcome before you get there, your relationship fails anyway. If you do say it, and you guys talk more openly about the future, you have a shot of making it work.”

It made me wonder: What would happen if I lived within my relationships more, without trying to forecast their outcomes? What would happen if I gave my partners a shot at changing the narrative, or catching up to my feelings and what they represent for me? When I consider what might have happened with my recent ex had I shared my feelings and he didn’t return them, the possible outcomes aren’t as bad as I feared. In fact, his response might have proven to be valuable information. The words might have even shattered walls. I guess I’ll never know.

Ultimately, I believe in taking risks for love; I advocate for it in my writing. While sometimes old habits of self-protection die hard, there is likely less to lose than I fear when I instinctively hold back those words. Maybe next time, I’ll just let ‘em fly.”

By Jenna Birch on Man Reppeler

[fashiontrendin-blog]

Why My Relationships Never Make It to “I Love You”

http://fashion-trendin.com/why-my-relationships-never-make-it-to-i-love-you/

Why My Relationships Never Make It to “I Love You”

After my last relationship ended, I had a revelation: Despite feeling love for my partner and — I think, anyway — showing love, I could not say, “I love you.” Not when he flew across the country for my birthday, nor when we talked under the starlight at an AirBnB in the middle of a Redwood forest. I couldn’t say it when he laid his head on my chest the last night of my week-long stay in California, nor when he actually listened to me after a serious discussion we had about relationship needs.

When I try to unpack my hesitation, I find only a tangled web of not-quite-right theories. Was it because he didn’t say it first? I don’t think I subscribe to any rules around that, gendered or otherwise. Did I think he didn’t care? No, he was emotive and affirming, and I felt safe. Did I not really love him? That doesn’t feel like it either; I believe love is often felt before it’s said. But then why didn’t I say it?

The simplest answer, I’m afraid to admit, is that I’m nervous about what comes after. There’s something about saying those three little words that marks a transition in your relationship; once you say it once, you’re expected to keep saying it. You usually don’t break up with someone you just started to love; you can’t back away from that word. Usually, saying “I love you” means you’re all in. Or so I think it should, in an ideal world.

I asked Karla Ivankovich, PhD, a clinical counselor at OnePatient Global Health, to explore this subject with me. She agreed there are probably a few factors contributing to my verbal block, like a fear of rejection, for instance, even if I did feel “safe” in my relationship. “There is such profound concern with being fiercely independent today, and saying ‘I love you’ makes you vulnerable,” she says.

I’ve only expressed love one time. My first boyfriend told me he was falling in love with me, and a few weeks later, we exchanged the words for real. The next day, he broke up with me. We ultimately did get back together — he said he ended things out of fear and I believed him — but I hated that I hadn’t seen his reaction coming. I pride myself on that. If I can predict outcomes, I can save myself pain.

There’s a part of me that thinks I’m always searching for signs someone will leave before they actually do. Signs they’ll get scared and bow out. “Longevity has always been the hallmark of successful relationships, and many still hope [for] that,” Ivankovich says. “But modern relationships are difficult to traverse. Each person, while interested in being a couple, is still extremely independent. They fear the ‘me’ becoming a ‘we.’”

I don’t personally fear becoming a “we,” but I do fear the other person will not want it as much as I do. I often fall in love with men who are similar to me: ambitious, passionate, focused on careers and goals that have high potential to pull us apart. I typically start forecasting the future after only a few months, or even weeks. And while I’ve often seen friends use the word “love” very quickly in relationships, I can’t fathom myself doing that. Instead, “love” feels like a word I need to protect — in part because I believe it’s more than a feeling; it’s a choice that needs to be made consistently.

I may have felt love for him, and he may have felt love for me, but perhaps I didn’t believe the verb would carry on past the noun.

When I think of the last few guys I’ve dated, the consistency wasn’t always there. Take my recent ex, for example, who would frequently forget about scheduled phone calls or prioritize me differently than I would have hoped. I may have felt love for him, and he may have felt love for me, but perhaps I didn’t believe the verb would carry on past the noun.

Historically, I’ve been pretty commitment-shy in romantic relationships, not because I fear it, but probably because I take it very seriously. Committing to love another person isn’t always pleasant, is often self-sacrificing, and I want to feel that both my partner and I are mutually ready for that.

After I share all this with Ivankovich, she wonders if I’m sabotaging my relationships before they have a chance to advance by way of sharing vulnerable feelings like love, and expectations like commitment. “Are you saying that a man has to love you the way you want him to love you or you feel as if you can’t commit?… If you don’t say [“I love you”], and you think you know the outcome before you get there, your relationship fails anyway. If you do say it, and you guys talk more openly about the future, you have a shot of making it work.”

It made me wonder: What would happen if I lived within my relationships more, without trying to forecast their outcomes? What would happen if I gave my partners a shot at changing the narrative, or catching up to my feelings and what they represent for me? When I consider what might have happened with my recent ex had I shared my feelings and he didn’t return them, the possible outcomes aren’t as bad as I feared. In fact, his response might have proven to be valuable information. The words might have even shattered walls. I guess I’ll never know.

Ultimately, I believe in taking risks for love; I advocate for it in my writing. While sometimes old habits of self-protection die hard, there is likely less to lose than I fear when I instinctively hold back those words. Maybe next time, I’ll just let ‘em fly.

Illustration by Maria Jia Ling Pitt.