#Traffic Problems

[geopsych]

Traffic tie-up in eastern Pennsylvania, summer 2018.

[jess-dailylife]

A Long Drive, A Lost Idea, and A Starbucks Fix

So this morning I had such a long drive to my client’s. They reduced the lanes to one, and all the cars were making up their own lanes just to get by faster—when in reality, it was only making things slower. I ended up arriving late, but at least I had my Starbucks to get me through the morning.

Now, while stuck in traffic, I had what I thought was an amazing idea—spoiler alert: it turned out to not be that amazing at all. I literally thought I had the brilliant idea of downloading an audio app to record voice notes whenever I had a thought or wanted to vent. The plan was to have it summarize my audio, which I could then use as an outline for my blog post here. Genius, right?

Little did I know that while trying to record my first audio for the first half of my day, the app wouldn’t save anything if I switched to a different screen. So I lost my whole rant—my thoughts, my feelings, everything. Now here I am, trying to summarize what I feel and think, and it’s not even half of what I wanted to write about.

Moral of the story? Sometimes shortcuts just end up making things harder, and sometimes the old-fashioned way is still the best way.

-Just a girl in Ontario

[aanews69]

Wij leveren verhalen. We geven je ook handleidingen, tips en trucs over hoe je je eigen kunt maken.Dit kanaal is gewijd aan willekeurige dingen die op onze b...

[ohnonotthehorrors]

Can I... talk about the theory that winners help craft the next game?

Because, and I really can not say this enough, it puts So Much into perspective.

Everything starts out Normal. Three lives, simple, cut and dry, there hasn't been a winner yet. No one to help craft the game. (And there's something to be said about how simple it really was. Not even a real expectation of the world becoming pvp or combative. No idea of the war to come)

Then Grian wins. The green killer, the man who vowed his first life to the one whose life he took. The next game the boogie man is born. A mechanic that allows and, in fact, demands, a green kill. People can trade lives back and forth, currency and debt wrapped up in one. (can we still be friends? Said the red partner. A life time later and reds are hostile, alone. Maybe it's an answer: No. Not anymore)

Scott wins this time. He refuses to play the game. He will not kill his team, he will love and he will do so fiercely and with all of himself. The next game people are attached through to their very souls. Every bit of damage to one soul is done to its twin. There is no boogeyman. (There is no way for a widow to be left without their love)

Pearl wins and she wins a blood bath. Spent the game draped in red, only wolves for company. Sitting in her tower, shivering in ice, maybe she wanted it to end. To see where it would. Limited life rewards you for killing, limited life has a clock tick tick ticking down, you always no how long you have. A curse yes, but a blessing too.

Now It's Martyn's turn.

And what a turn it is.

Keep your secrets, says the disloyal man, keep them well. Everything hurts, everything Matters, says the man fracturing with every loss. (What if we could love each other without hurting? Says The Hand, who never wanted to be coated in blood)

More importantly, Martyn has always seen the watchers below the surface. Now, they're right here in front of him. Something that could almost... be rebelled against, no? Something that someone else could finally point to and say: hey, hey isn't that familiar?

[silverorchideon]

You and Me, We're Not the Same.

So the latest fic from TT by @amethystfairy1 absolutely got me going insane, so I made fanart! Imp and Skizz are growing to be my favourite duos in TT.

[dredgesnails]

grian posted a picture of traffic lights so here's another life series team lineup but this time i assigned them all characters from gravity falls but you have to guess who's who

[sydneytheforestqueer]

curly haired Scott

That's it that's the post

[echo-stimmingrose]

Another attempt to get myself to enjoy doing art again.

Scarlett Pearl

[ooooo-mcyt]

So like, that scene in Double Life is insane. I don't have the words to analyze it yet so I'm jut going to describe it how I read it because I'm gnawing on it. I cannot believe I forgot this scene ever happened (or somehow skipped it in my earlier watchthroughs of both povs??)

Scott and Pearl had been really getting along all episode, like, they didn't argue much at all, they laughed together frequently, they worried about each other, on multiple occasions they called themselves a team without flinching. When Pearl wanted to go get her stuff, Scott volunteered to go with her, and actually asked Cleo and Martyn to stay back, and the whole time Scott and Pearl are in the tower and antagonizing the red names they really feel like a team.

And then they die. And they recoup in the bunker.

And Pearl..noticed, while they were being chased, that everyone was after Scott, not her. That they had something against Scott, not her. And.."They weren't going after me that entire time, I just feel like..maybe I should take the bigger team here, y'know? I mean you're a great partner and all, but.."

Scott is. Taken off guard. He sounds hurt, for a moment, and if he wasn't taken by surprise, he wouldn't have let himself sound hurt. "Are you gonna ditch me after this?!" Scott asks, and Pearl sounds almost ashamed as she tells him he deserves it; "Scott, come on, look how big that group is! It's just..look, don't make me feel bad, okay? It's my time to ditch you after the first episode, think of it as karma!"

This launches into maybe the most fascinating argument they've ever had about the breakdown of their relationship in episode one.

Scott snaps that from his perspective, this is all Pearl coming "full circle"! After all, she started the season by abandoning him, and now she's doing it again!

Pearl insists she didn't abandon Scott, that Scott abandoned her, and Pearl can't be blamed for spending the episode with Martyn- Scott spent it with Cleo, they both just went to the first person they found!

Scott points out that he and Cleo actually met the other soulmate pairs, they were looking for their soulmates, they knew Pearl and Martyn were their soulmates from almost as soon as they met up because they'd been looking!

Pearl argues that she and Martyn did look, they made that minigame to find their soulmates!

Scott reminds Pearl that they did that at the very end of the episode, after everyone else was "loved and doved up", after Scott and Cleo had ample time to know noone was looking for them!

And then Pearl changes her argument, she tells Scott that Martyn would have died in the nether without her, and that Cleo would have died too, so Scott should be appreciative, really, that Pearl basically saved Cleo! Which..certainly must not have felt like the most coherent argument to either of them.

It's at that point that Scott seems to give up. "Right." he replies, dully, after a very long moment of silence, before adding, as if on instinct, "Lets get out of here". And Pearl challenges him, "Lets?", because wasn't the whole premise that Pearl wasn't going to stick with him?

As they climb out of the bunker, Pearl seems to feel compelled- and it feels like guilt, to me- to talk again. She tells Scott that this is good for both of them, really, that Pearl's keeping them both alive. It's not..ditching him, it's a tactical split-up. Of course, it's hard to believe that when this argument came second to "I am ditching you and you deserve it". Maybe he's not thinking about it, or maybe he notices how frantic Pearl sounds to come up with something she can believe. Either way he doesn't mention the subtle backtracking.

Pearl asks why Scott is staying with the yellows. Scott replies- and he sounds..tired? For lack of a better word? And almost a little pained?- that he can't kill Cleo, he can't do it. Pearl argues that Scott doesn't have to kill Cleo, but I'm sure she knows that's semantics. Scott tells her that he can't help anyone kill Cleo either.

Pearl repeats that this is a strategic advantage, really. Scott is quiet for a long time. Uncharacteristically quiet when he says "Okay."

Pearl promises not to kill Cleo herself, but.."If I'm with the red team, I can't say I'm not gonna help them- Cleo's still on their yellow life, Scott, come on! They're fine!" Pearl laughs. It doesn't sound like a happy laugh. Scott doesn't reply to her statement directly, instead regaining some composure to tell Pearl that "The moments we got to be together, Pearl, were nice while they lasted", a sentiment Pearl echos.

"Tilly next time", Pearl jokes, laughing. It's too forced, and Scott doesn't give much of a laugh in return either. "I appreciate you." Pearl stops to say before she leaves, and Scott returns with "Tilly death do us part", a play on the pun Pearl made before, the same words Scott would say before blowing himself up to give Pearl the win she deserved more.

GUYS THIS SCENE IMPACTED ME IN A WAY NO OTHER LIFE SERIES SCENE HAS BEFORE THIS SCENE WILL NEVER LEAVE MY HEAD WHAT. This is why we need regular rewatches, people, otherwise we somehow forget incredibly deeply impactful characterization moments for our favorite characters???

[mariii-the-shapeshifter]

Guys

Empires doesn't get tagged in Life Series posts

RatsSmp doesn't get tagged in Life Series posts

None of fWhip's Life SMPs get tagged in Life Series posts

Not even Evo gets tagged in Life Series posts

What the hell is Hermitcraft doing here?

I unfollow the Life Series and Trafficblr tags because I need a break from all the angst and lore making n shit. And it's still around?? In the Hermitcraft tags?? Silly Tumblr users, that's not Hermitcraft!

[vaguely-concerned]

seeing people claim that lucanis is 'bad representation' is hilarious to me because in so many ways he's really the closest anything has ever gotten to capturing my own personal experience. sorry for being bad real life queer and mental health/neurodiversity representation folks 😔 I'll take time to reflect and do some work on myself and try to do better in the future

[thatstoomanysausages]

Don’t quite get the animosity against Scott considering the fact that if he hadn’t been the one to win, then it would’ve been Grian. Which would’ve also meant a double win.

AND THEN if neither of them would’ve won, it would’ve been the 3rd place, which was Scar. So out of the top three, we would’ve gotten a double win no matter what.

I really don’t think those two would’ve gotten the hate that Scott got?? So what’s the issue???? That he’s good at the game????

These series are for fun both for us and the creators, why do people have to throw a hissy fit over their headcanons being ruined when you can just headcanon that this series didn’t happen in lore due to it being a special??? Or you can just get over it???

[monkey-overalls]

[red-lives]

The talk about the winners lobby has made me realize that IMMEDIATELY after the finale of double life Pearl and Scott were stuck in a room together indefinitely

That must have been so awkward

[autumnwhistles]

(ft synthesised voice, also this isn't quite the start of the song but it works better as an excerpt)

[adragonsdance]

I may be yelling unheard into the uncaring void, but I’m gonna keep yelling about this au anyway.

I think I’m gonna call it the Corporate Problems AU, because this ship is full of Mira corporation’s Biggest Problems!

This au sits on the foundations of a lot of background worldbuilding that, admittedly, isn’t mine. At some point years ago, I read the Mimicry series on Ao3 by missteavee, and it was so good that it irrevocably rewired my brain, and completely changed the way that i view Among us. That worldbuilding is now the only thing I can think of as among us story cannon. So. It’s fantastic go check it out. There are a lotta elements that are important in like, How This World Works, but imma put a summary of the Important Bits (plus a few probably less important bits, because its fun) at the end of this post.

Because I have been Thinking about The Characters. I have ideas and concepts, but no plot. Which is a problem. But we’re not gonna think about that right now because Concepts and Characters are Fun!

The Main Cast, the crew, are Scar, Grian, Impulse, Skizz, Tango, Jimmy, Etho, Pearl, and Gem. All of them are hiding something, and all of them lied, frauded, or hacked their way onto the ship so that as far as Mira’s databases are concerned, this is a perfectly normal, approved crew traveling to Polus and following all regulations. They are not. And no one group is aware that none of the others are legitimate Mira employees either! This ship houses Chaos.

For starters, the integrity, (the name of the skeld ship, which I am treating as a standard class of Mira corporate space ships, each of which has its own name) actually belongs to a group of space pirates. Grian, scar, and jimmy stole the ship, disconnected it from all Mira systems, and proceeded to make a number of definitely illegal modifications, including making it suitable as their full-time living space. Grian used to work for Mira as a xenobiologist, until he managed to discover Mira’s corporate-genocide-coverup. Scar had been a pirate moving himself around Miras various corporate sectors and stealing tech and information for years at that point, and jimmy was Grian’s “I know a guy” computer tech guy to help them gut the ship of all of Mira’s influence.

Etho was the original founder of Mira, before it grew into a huge company, and stayed on the board as the primary influence in the company as it grew, until the rest of the board decided he had a few too many morals, and attempted to assassinate him via space-transport-malfunction. He ended up stranded on an unexplored planet, but survived. But that happened decades ago. He has not aged. He might possibly be immortal now, we have no idea.

Tango is an imposter, native to Polus, and a soldier in the very much active war that Mira is completely covering up. He doesn’t know that most of Mira’s employees don’t know that they’re fighting a war. He’s tech-savvy, and a very good shapeshifter by his species standards. He’s not red, because Grian’s red, but I can’t decide if I want to make him a light “frost” blue, or the shade of blue that’s literally called “tango blue”. Probably the latter. Im not sure if there’s gonna be another imposter on the ship, or who they are if they’re there.

For the rest of the crew, I’m still kinda figuring out What Their Deal Is. I think I’ve got impulse and skizz down, but from here on out, things might be subject to change.

Impulse is a bit of an inventor, with credentials in physics, and a lot of experience dabbling in other fields as well. He discovered or created something that the government was not thrilled with. I think that thing might have been a fully sentient, sapient AI, and I think that AI was skizz. After having his research publication denied, and the narrative equivalent of the FBI showing up at his house to try and confiscate his research and tech, he and skizz went on the run. They stole some advanced tech, probably from Mira, to build skizz a hyper-realistic, or possibly partially organic body, and decided that hacking into Mira’s databases and getting themselves an extended stay on Polus, one of the most remote research stations, would be a good way to hide.

Gem and peral I am much less sure of.

Gem is the ship’s acting medic. She has absolutely no medical experience. I wanted to have scientist gem, because I think that’s a fun character. She’s a xenobiologist and anthropologist. Possibly officially, possibly not. She wants to get to Plous for her own reasons, and is definitly not actually a miracle employee. One idea I had was to make her a retired or hiding mercenary or bounty hunter or something, but I’m not sure. I also kinda want to make her the other imposter, just because she gets imposter so frequently in the recent among us streams.

Peral, I really have no idea. She’s another candidate for the other imposter. She’s probably not human either way. She is a chemist though, that part of her credentials, at least, isn’t fake.

You throw all of these characters into the close quarters of a spaceship for 6-9 months, and intrigue, secrets, and shenanigans ensue! That’s about all I got for plot so far. Maybe overthrowing Mira, who knows.

————————————————————

For context, here’s the other worldbuiling this au rests on:

Imposters— they are a species of sapient predatory mimics who are native to the planet Polus. When Mira scientists first set up on Polus, they drilled into one of the imposter-inhabited caves, and had a rather disastrous first contact. The cave they drilled into was a steam cavern, seemingly inhabited by hundreds of little alien worms. Mira labeled these worms as Polus Lifeform Type x223, and deemed them of high scientific interest. Recently, the company had issued an order that these worms are very scientifically valuable, and to collect and flash-freeze samples en masse. These worms are actually the newborn stage of imposters, and the steam caverns are their nurseries. None of the average Mira employees are aware of this. The imposters are in a fully militarized guerrilla warfare against a force attempting to genocide them. It is heavily implied that this is not the first alien species they have encountered and had to fight off.

Crewmates— the crewmates are a narative-equivalent-of-humans-species called Humana/humanae. They’re basically humans but a little to the left. Particularly in that they have very colorful eyes in any visible shade. The colour of their eyes is very important, especially in the dominant culture that we see. The colour of your eyes is your name, and while in small groups, like on a ship, going by base colour (ie. Blue, or yellow) is fine, generally, people are referred to by their “perfect shade” that is your specific colour name, (ie saffron, or crimson, or cerulean, etc). I think your colour generally dominates your dress, and is the colour of your MIRA space suit. They have a cultural idea of modesty that includes covering the face in public, generally by wearing a colorful vail, and is why no one typically takes off their helmets. Aside from the heads of the company and a few select high ranking staff and scientists, none of the Humana know that they ate fighting in a war. Mira claims, and bases all their released protocols and information on the idea, that imposters are an infective parasite, not a sentient species, and they are very careful to keep just the right about of stress and fear that no one has the incentive to look too closely at the evidence. (Yes I have picked out specific colours, to the hex code, for each of the characters)