#gen alpha is built different

[long-sleeved-sandwich]

yall the other day i took my lil sis to the park and tell me why my neighbour’s 11 year old daughter was there and told me i “look like a femboy on his way to church” 😭😭😭😭

[decolonize-the-everything]

When are we going to talk about how gen z and alpha growing up with lifelong access to tech didn't make them good with technology, it made them bad with people.

A lot of people, when Leave the World Behind was released, related to the youngest character. The daughter who's only priority and desire was to watch the Friends finale as the adults around her were crippled with anxiety about politics, current events, and the very real possibility a war was happening.

One of her most hard-hitting lines was about wanting nothing but the smallest of comforts in a world that guaranteed you none. So if she was gonna die, she was gonna die watching Friends.

She had little to no empathy for her parents or the rest world, which is key to her character's behavior throughout the movie.

"yes, okay the internet is out and there's a blackout and flamingos are in the pool in the USA, and you're terrified, but can you just please fix the TV for me?"

And yeah, I do think it was the damn phones. Because what she's doing isn't all that different from what a LOT of Americans and Gen Z are doing right now while genocides happen.

It's not that different from what a lot of us do. See something awful on our phone and at some point put the phone down like we didn't. Instead we make dinner, do laundry, go to work.

It's our routine.

But gen z and alpha were born into that climate, unlike the rest of us. They didn't grow up seeing the internet be built. They didn't grow up with friends who created forums or sites or were constantly finding new ones. All that already existed. The internet doesn't have secret corners to hide in anymore. Just shadowy ones you really shouldn't wander into.

The work that needed to be done was already done or being done by someone else. Markets and sites were already saturated. If I want to Google something right now, I know for a fact that someone already posted sources and a webpage for it, too.

So much was simply Provided to them. They're so used to the idea of Unknown Others solving problems for them.

Why would they make the effort to solve anything themselves when experience has shown they just have to Google it. Or that it probably already exists. And what difference would They make anyway?

Afterall they themselves are just another Unknown Other in someone else's life, aren't they? Someone nobody thinks about again after their avatar scrolls by.

Is it really that far of a stretch to say that doing this everyday or even just seeing it happen everyday has had material and tangible effects on us as a society?

That it's resulted in a generation of kids who not only undervalue themselves but the impact they are capable of having on their society. Who have resigned to simply Existing within the world instead of trying to thrive in it?

Can we talk about how millennials saying "the next generation will handle it" was nothing but entitlement? We wanted to stop fighting and tried to pass the torch onto a generation that hadn't even graduated high school yet.

And we made things worse by doing that. If we can refuse to fight for them, why would they fight for anyone else? And when parents hand their kids an iPad and send them off to occupy themselves why would they look for human connections?

We taught them not to.

The internet was and is the only consistent thing Gen Z and alpha has had that did not expect anything of them.

And now most of us would be content to doomscroll in the apocalypse in the name of our "mental health"

We've all seen the memes and jokes about it, don't backpedal now. Like I said, a lot of people saw Rose in that movie and made #me & #same posts.

Few would get up and try to cause the change to change anything. Which, in that movie and IRL is how change is made. Real people getting up and working together. Someone doing the work nobody else wants to because someone has to.

But what happens when you grew up thinking someone else was always gonna do it for you anyway?

And that if they didn't, that you were the least qualified because the internet is Full of people more capable than you, right?

The world is full of people more capable than you. Your phone told you that, didn't it? So there's no point in you doing anything.

Is there?

X

People need people, in case you forgot. People need you, in case you forgot.

You're not an Unknown Other in my phone. You are person, in case you forgot.

My tribe has this saying that I know is shared with other natives "be a good ancestor"

A reminder that not only are we the product of the people who came before us, but the people after us will be products of us and our choices, too. That time is linear and goes forward and that how we spend that time matters. Not just for us, but for every single person who will come after us.

A reminder that even though we may be one person in a very long line, we are never ever without the power to change our future. That we have a responsibility to our community and family to use the time we are given for good. A reminder that the life I have isnt just for me. It's for a we.

That I am not just some Unknown Other. I'm a community member, I'm a person, and as such I owe it to my community to be better and demand better for them.

I think a lot of people need that lesson.

You're not an Unknown Other that nobody thinks about. Youre a community member and I actually think about you all the time.

I think about everyone who has resigned to doomerism all the time and I wish y'all would wake up. You're like the depressed cousin on the couch who naps too much and this is me trying to snap you out of it again.

Wake up.

You're loved and valued and people need you. Get up. Be a good ancestor.

[pokemonfangame]

PokeWilds

PokeWilds is a Gen 2 game/engine built using libGDX. It uses procedural generation to create large worlds with different biomes, each with their own unique monsters. The levels of wild monsters increase the further you explore, meaning that some biomes with rare mons are difficult to get to. Your monsters can help you explore the world by usual means (cut, fly, surf etc), but there are also be new HMs that allow you to interact with the world in new ways, like building structures/houses, jumping up ledges, starting fires, and more.

DISCLAIMER: this is currently in Alpha.

[behindthesefangirleyes]

I remember seeing a post once about how Gen Z or Gen Alpha are built different from 2000s film tropes, because they’d get morally outraged if someone suggested they are homophobic and would respond, ‘No, I just hate you.’

And that’s exactly Vincent to Simon in s3. 😆

[trainsinanime]

Hold on, what's this European model train method of generations?

The European model train method of generations (specifically continental European, the UK uses something different) is a rough standard for how to divide the history of railroads into currently six eras or epochs. It exists to give a rough indication of where something falls in history, so you can combine things in useful ways. E.g. if you buy a model train locomotive that says "Epoch III", and a model train car that says "Epoch III", you can put them in a train together and it won't look too weird.

The whole thing is defined in model railroad standard NEM 800 (also in German and French). There are also country-specific versions of this (most of which haven't been translated to English yet, again, the UK uses something different) in the 800 section.

The divisions according to this are:

Epoch I: Anything before the end of World War I (the specific date in Germany is 1924 when the railroads got reorganised there). A very broad time period because nobody really cares about it that much.

Epoch II: Between the world wars. Again, the official end is when the railroads got reorganised, which would be 1949 in Germany. This maps to parts of the "Greatest" and "Silent" Generations.

Epoch III: The post-war years. Rebuilding, and a new generation of railroading as steam reached its peak and gave way to diesel and electricity. This epoch doesn't end in a war, but at a somewhat arbitrary point at the end of the 1960s, when all European rolling stock got new numbers painted on them according to a new computer-based number system. The specific date depends on when each railroad got around to it; in West Germany, it was 1968, in East Germany, it was 1970. Very popular with model railroaders, there are companies that basically only build stuff from that era, and it's not hard to see why: This era matches Baby Boomers almost exactly, and most importantly, it's the era when they were little and first gained an interest in trains.

Epoch IV: The time until German reunification (the standard is heavily focused on Germany because that's the biggest model rail market in continental Europe, and perhaps the world). The official end is, again, when the railroads got reorganised, which was 1994 in Germany. Steam is basically gone, high speed rail is starting to appear, but we're still in the era of state railways as national champions with their national industries, custom trains, custom headlights and so on. This is my era. It overlaps with Gen X and early millennials.

Epoch V: A relatively short transitional time that ends with yet another new rail number scheme in 2007, as privatisation ramps up, and we go from bespoke trains designed by railroads and built by their local industry to trains designed by global train builders and sold to everyone more or less unchanged. This is Gen Z.

Epoch VI: Modern times, Gen Alpha.

There are also subdivisions like Epoch IIIb or similar, which are country-specific and nobody uses them. People who are that into things will look at specific dates and then write long forum posts about "well 042 007 was no longer stationed in Regensburg and hadn't been for six months by the time this type of train car was first delivered to Bavaria, so this train is completely unrealistic!!!!!!" (fictional example).

So, compared to "Boomers/Millenials/Gen X/Gen α", this system for model railroads is:

Surprisingly similar. It divides the world in sections of roughly twenty years, sometimes aligned to specific world events like world wars or the collapse of the Soviet Union and "end of history". It does this for completely different reasons, but still, railroads do reflect the same history that affects humans.

Way better defined, with precise dates that align with… well, when new logos got painted on train, because it's a system designed to help people who buy miniature trains. But still, there is no doubt whether someone is Millenial or Gen X, there is a clear dividing line, which cuts off a lot of arguments.

Completely arbitrary and useless, just like the generations thing. Because who really cares which logo gets painted on which train when? Even I don't, not really, I have no qualms letting Epoch V and VI trains run together. Because there were specific dates when the trains got repainted, but it's not like the entire world changed, especially after we got past the world wars. The way people think and behave does not change completely whenever trains get repainted anymore than it does whenever another arbitrary "generation" boundary gets defined. The system is definitely flawed in a lot of ways - not all train cars were repainted in 1968 or 1970, for example, not by a long shot. And the whole system falls completely apart in many countries like e.g. Switzerland or Belgium.

Taken all together, it's about as useful as the "generations" thing.

It's ultimately a short-hand for history, and as such it can be useful, sometimes. But it does not fully describe history. The "generations" are really just as arbitrary and weird and misaligned with history and humans as the system we use for describing German train eras. Saying "boomers" or "millennials" is functionally equivalent to saying "people from model railroad Epoch III" or "people from model railroad epoch IV/V". The latter just makes it a bit more clear how absurd this way of thinking really is, and that's why I prefer it.

Below the cut, my thoughts on how to adapt this to the English-speaking world, just because that's the kind of thing that occupies my mind most days:

For the US:

Epoch I and II equivalent to Europe, i.e. up to the end of the World Wars with the USRAs

Epoch III ends with the end of Penn Central, the start of Conrail and Amtrak

Epoch IV ends with the 1990s reshuffling of the entire US rail landscape: Formation of BNSF, UP taking over SP, CSX and NS dismantling Conrail.

There is no useful clear dividing line between Epoch V and VI, just like in Europe (I am not a fan of Epoch VI honestly), so I'm going to be completely arbitrary and assign it to the appearance of ALP-45DP. I guess the introduction of PSR might be a better switchover, but I can't put any good date on that.

For the UK:

Epoch I: Pre-Grouping

Epoch II: Grouping

Epoch III: Early British Rail

Epoch IV: TOPS

Epoch V: Privatisation

Epoch VI: Like in Europe, the pan-european NVR numbers being painted on trains.

I don't think introducing this system to either country solves anything, but it pleases my particular railroad OCD to have definitions for it.

[twinsimming]

Get To Know You - Sims Style

Thank you to @descendantdragfi and @bioniczombie for tagging me 💙💙💙

What’s your favorite Sims death?

I haven’t had any sims die recently, but I do have one wild story from several years ago.

When my 2nd Gen heir Maya and her sister went off to university, they stayed in the sorority house. The general university shenanigans were taking place (sims not cleaning up after themselves, piles of laundry everywhere, etc.), but I didn’t realize some of their roommates weren’t eating... until it was too late 😬

THREE (3) girls in the dorm died in one night! Two of starvation and the third from thirst (idk how she became a vampire). Since they all died so close together, the Grim Reaper just hung around the dorm until he reaped all of them. I had Maya collect their tombstones and take them back with her to Lucky Palms when the semester ended. Now they’re all resting in the mausoleum, hopefully in peace lol.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis-match with some alpha pieces here and there. Though I feel like the line between what’s considered maxis-match and what’s considered alpha in TS3 is way more blurred that in TS4.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Rarely. Some of EA’s premades are just so skinny sometimes!

Do you move objects?

All. The. Time. I can’t remember a time where I’ve played or built without it on. It makes it so much easier to squeeze sitting chairs or plants or floor lamps into tight corners and make nice collages of different wall art that overlap each other a little.

Favorite Mod?

Gosh there are so many mods that I absolutely love, and lately the TS3 modding scene has been putting out banger after banger, but my most recent favorite mod is @thesweetsimmer111′s More Toddler Interactions! I love being able to feed toddlers outside of the highchair and actually give them baths. And Savanita’s animations are always so cute!

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

The Sims 3: Showtime! (crazy, I know lol)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

ALIVE. Idc if it’s the wrong pronunciation, I’ve committed to it 😤

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Probably my test sim, Leia. I created her from scratch and use her to test my mods and any CC I download, but lately I’ve been thinking of actually playing out her life. She’s also the adult sim in my Yoga Mod cover photo. Here she is!

Have you made a simself?

I did a few years ago, but I never got around to playing her. I wonder if I still have my simself’s household somewhere...

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I haven’t used an EA preset hair in 10,000 years, but I guess the black one isn’t too terrible.

Favorite EA hair?

The braids from The Sims 3: Island Paradise!

Favorite life stage?

I feel like Young Adult is a boring answer, so I’ll say Teens lol.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Mostly gameplay (and testing mods/cc :p). When I build, it’s usually remodeling the interior of an already existing build. 

Are you a CC creator?

Yes!! I started with TS4 to TS3 conversions, but I’m also a modder now 😁

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

The Sims 3 community on Tumblr is pretty small, and I feel like we all know, follow, or are in a Discord server with each other (shoutout to the TS3 Creator’s Cave members!!). So, in a way, we’re all in the same squad ✌

Do you have any sims merch?

Unfortunately, no.

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I used to exclusively play with families and progress through a few generations, but recently, I’ve been playing with more single sims to experience parts of the game I hadn’t really touched on before. I’ve also gotten a lot better at avoiding “same face” syndrome when I give existing sims a makeover or make them from scratch. Getting more comfortable with custom sliders has definitely helped with that too.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

There are a ton of creators whose content I absolutely love, so I won’t be able to name everyone, but here are a few:

@aroundthesims, @anitmb, @aisquaredchoco, @bioniczombie, @chazybazzy,  @deniisu-sims, @danjaley, @enable--llamas, @echoweaver, @faerielandsims, @franglishetchocolat, @flotheory, @givresims, @grandelama, @greenplumbboblover, @ifcasims, @ilvansims3conversion, @jamiegirlposts, @jazzysimlife, @joojconverts, @justmiha97, @kotajose, @lazyduchess, @martassimsbookcc, @monocodoll, @mspoodle1, @nectar-cellar, @nightospheresims, @ninaaposts, @olomayasims, @omedapixel, @pandelabs, @phoebejaysims, @pixelfrogslegs, @plumbdrops, @poisonfireleafs, @potato-ballad-sims, @potatobuttcheek, @puffkins2000, @rstarsims3, @simbouquet, @simsdeogloria, @sim-songs, @simtanico, @sweetdevil-sims, @tasteslikefridge, @technicallyswagpizza, @teekapoa, @theplumdot​, @thesweetsimmer111, @xiasimla, and @zoeoe-sims!

And that doesn’t even get into all of the talented TS3 creators over on Mod The Sims or NRAAS!

How long have you had Simblr?

Going on 5 years now. At first I was just reblogging other creators’ content so I could put it in my game, but then I started doing my own conversions in late 2019, so this blog became my simblr and I continued reblogging CC on @twinsimmingccfinds.

How do you edit your pictures?

Gimp 🧍‍♀️

What expansion/game pack is your favorite?

The Sims 3: Seasons! I love watching the seasons change, the holidays, the festivals, and the feeling of progression. I also love snow and the winter season in real life, especially when I was younger, so seeing my sims going about their day in a snow covered world is very nostalgic for me.

Most people have probably been tagged by now, but if you haven’t been tagged yet, I just tagged you 😉

[meinya-fan]

Make-up Toxicity

I, like many people of my generation, love makeup. 

Growing up during the late 2000′s and 2010′s cosmetic influencers played a very important role. To this day there are many young Gen Z’ers and Gen Alphas that are coming into contact with make-up content, and generally love cosmetics.

Cosmetics are not just make up, “ A "cosmetic" is any substance used to clean, improve or change the complexion, skin, hair, nails or teeth. Cosmetics include beauty preparations (make-up, perfume, skin cream, nail polish) and grooming aids (soap, shampoo, shaving cream, deodorant).”

We don’t discuss enough how absolutely dangerous some of these products  are on the market.

I’m not just talking about your cheap dollar store make-up.

I am 100% talking about your super popular favorite eye-shadow palettes, your $60+ foundation, and your most loved mascara.

I am talking about your body wash, lotion, and even your aluminum free deodorant. Your toothpaste, your hair creams, and your gel nail polish that you cure with a uv lamp.

These chemicals are being placed on parts of your body that are supremely delicate, and your body is processing (or not) all of the materials within those products.

I feel completely psychotic writing this all down, and I doubt anyone will stop to read. You probably already think I’m crazy.

But when it comes to cancer, we shouldn’t play around, and although cancer related deaths have gone down due to medical advances in treatment and pharmaceuticals, we still need to have a discussion on why it is rates of cancer are going up so rapidly in the under 50 category. 

I am not for banning every single chemical that has a minute chance of causing cancer or endocrine disruption, but I am for smarter and longer studies of the chemicals being placed in our daily cosmetics. 

A lot of these cosmetic companies are given the go ahead to release their products to the public, as long as they do not cause any dramatic allergic reactions, but we need to be practical and make sure that the FDA is doing their due diligence.

Most of us grew up eating frozen dinners out of plastic microwaved trays, we had Johnson & Johnson baby powder placed on our bodies daily, we wore/wear chemical filled deodorant, and still continue to bathe ourselves in very unnatural but nice smelling soaps.

And as for POC, like myself, we grew up from a young age getting relaxers done on our hair and keratin treatments.

It is not logical or rational to say that one item in your regimen is going to cause terminal cancer, but a life long interaction with a multitude of products that can raise your chances... you need to ask yourself these questions: “What is this? Where did it come from? Why am I doing this? And is it worth it?” 

I can talk about a million different things that we need to change in this world, like what is our furniture made up of, and are you sure your home was built with materials that are safe for you to live in, what about your mattress? 

Are you cooking with plastic utensils, eating off of plastic plates, and cooking on a scratched up non-stick pan? Cause I know I am. I have. And I’m learning that much of the things that are natural to me, in this world, are not safe. Much of the food and products we consume on the daily are putting our families at risk.

So please do your due diligence and take care of yourself in a way that your government won’t. 

[seaside-coffeemilk]

Thinking about what would have happened if the Lightkeeper project had continued.

(this is mostly for the Alpha feels and angsty ramblings.)

----------

1. The first generation of clones might have to be raised by servitors, since the alphas passed away unexpectedly early. 😢

2. Or, to make things less sad, by the time they were at GAIA prime, they already had their successors learning alongside them. (Maybe technologies could speed up growth, so the first lightkeepers quickly were starting to learn alongside the zero dawn staff.)

But since the alphas met their fate in that meeting, to swallow their grief, the next generation of lightkeepers would try to focus on undoing the damage of APOLLO, while trying to ensure project zero dawn could still run as expected.

----------

3. Eventually, MINERVA would find the code to deactivate the swarm.

After the broadcast towers were built and finished, The Lightkeepers would continue to focus on healing the biosphere through monitoring GAIA.

4. Omega clearance would still be a issue, though there's nothing they could do until the outside world was stabilized.

----------

5. With different generations of Lightkeepers continuing the work, I'm imagining it would not be easy for the Lightkeepers' mental states, or to accept the purpose of their birth. Some might be depressed or lack the will to live / continue on.

6. If, for some reason, against all odds the Lightkeeper plan got to continue, They would form their own identities, and maybe some sort of culture or tradition would develope among them? Such as getting to choose their own individual names, or rewatching the hologram of Elisabet saying goodbye to the alphas as a way to pass down their history.

(If the deletion of APOLLO also affected the memory banks in GAIA prime, I also had the thought that they would try to pass down everything through writing down whatever they could remember. :( )

-----

5. Across the years, they worked really hard in helping GAIA settle the biosphere.

Somehow the generations continued, until the time came for the first humans to be released from the cradles.

----------

6. I imagine the newest gen of Lightkeepers ( also being the final one :( ) leading the first humans out to be settled, reintroducing them to the technologies from the world before.

7. With a new, advanced starting point + GAIA and the subfunctions, I imagine human civilization would develop to coexists peacefully with nature.

----------

8. For the next 700 or so years, humanity continues.

Eventually, the extinction signal + Nemisis would enter the picture.

I'm not sure how the once again advanced humans would do in the future. Maybe they continue to be even more advanced? Or does a highly developed civilization fall again before Nemesis arrives?

(In real life history, for some reason, civilizations with a more basic technology level seem to be the ones that last longer? compared to modern times, although humanity has only rapidly advanced during the latest 1 or 2 centuries.)

----------

No matter where the future of humanity ends up, I like to think there's a possibility that a good ending would be easier to reach, since they have GAIA and the subfunctions to guide them in managing the planet.

[mogamingcanthink]

I truly think that some gen z kids my age in particular were just built different (An essay on the way young people around the ages of 16-19 consumed digital media from an extremely tired person in that age-range who wanted to be asleep like 3 hours ago)

Cut added because I wrote more than I expected to

Note before my first couple paragraphs that I am not condoning the types of parents who take their 9 year old to see deadpool or even their 5 year old to see the barbie movie, parents should be responsible and look at commonsense media or something similar and not bring their kids to see things they don't understand/will fuck them up

But like also my brother is at the age that I was when I watched a full ddlc playthrough as it was releasing and I came away from that like "cool that was an interesting and scary game" but I think my brother would not be able to handle it, he would have nightmares

Idk maybe he's just a wimp but I genuinely believe that the majority of gen alpha would not handle the type of content my age-group was able to consume on the internet, which is probably a good thing.

Again, parents not monitoring what media their children consume is BAD. There are scientific studies on this topic. Not all pg-13s are created equal, same with any film rating. I feel fairly lucky that I didn't encounter anything too wild when I was younger, just some horror games and buzzfeed unsolved, I didn't even watch a rated R film until sophomore year of high-school when I took a film-studies course

But yeah, letting young children watch films and YouTube videos not meant for them is not great, most people born around the same time as me were just in the golden age of not being iPad kids but also learning and adapting to technology super fast at a young age and usually having personal internet access at (based on what conversations I've had with friends) the ages 7-10. Most of us weren't chronically online until the pandemic, but we did often have an insane amount of freedom on the internet either because of boomer parents or (in my case) extremely trusting ones, whether that was trust in the internet user or the quality of YouTube children's content or god forbid the YouTube kids app.

This utter freedom in our formative years led to a lot of kids finding things not originally intended for them. I refuse to believe that Five Nights at Freddy's was originally intended to be for children with the whole serial killer thing, but it got into our grubby elementary-schooler hands and we were obsessed. DDLC was DEFINITELY not meant for kids but I watched a full playthrough of that as a wee 10-year-old who had yet to watch a PG-13 film my mom hadn't watched before me. And that's all just games. True crime documentaries, controversies, "kids" content, and challenges that could and did lead to physical harm were all at our fingertips.

The other thing is that most of us did grow up on cable, dvds, cds, and even vcr in some cases. We grew up as technology was absolutely exploding (hell, I was born the same year the iPhone was released). We were forced to play outside and with toys despite also finding an online presence. Technology and educational online games wormed their way into the school curriculum. As a first grader we would learn our spelling skills through a browser game but I'd go home and my choices were PBS kids or the backyard. Obviously technology continued to improve at this extremely accelerated rate, but I, and every one of my peers I've discussed this with, had several years where the most we'd interact with new-fangled technology was Xfinity on Demand or the Wii (both staples of my childhood).

I do think that Covid was the major cause for most of my age group being extremely online?? Prior to that (in middle school) I'd watch vines with friends while doing try not to laugh challenges, listen to music, pull up a minecraft let's play after doing my homework, and maybe play a game on the Xbox on the weekend. During covid, though, I feel as though that's when most of us started to be more online. Hell, my discord account was made in 2019 but sat dead until 2020 and is now my main form of communication. We all started to use out devices more and engaged with online content to a much higher degree. I'm sure all of our logged steam hours increased tenfold, I know mine did. Such an insane life event, a genuinely traumatic period for most of us, and probably the reason why we're so chronically online. Keep in mind we were all tweens when this hit, middle-schoolers or freshmen, and now we're either adults or will be next year. It was a wild time to be alive and definitely had a MASSIVE effect on how this age group consumes media

Gen alpha, by the most common definition, begins high-school this year (or month for most people). This is absolutely insane all things considered, but let's compare their consumption of media to gen z. First, there are still the parents who do not give a shit and take their tiny child to see deadpool but since they are the minority I won't mention them

Next, gen alpha, for the most part, was put on devices at a young age to keep them quiet. One story I know with my stepbrother is that he one time thought his grandmother's TV was broken because it started playing a "grown-up show". It was an ad. It was cable TV. If course not every kid is like this, but we need to understand that for the younger of this group (which is Who I'm referring to) maybe don't even remember the start of covid. Their parents have been trying to distract them to get their own work done for some of their most formative years. That leads to tiny children who literally come up to my waist while standing at full height knowing more about celebrity drama than I do and also pointing at popular characters in the horror or adult animation genres and saying "I know that guy". Yes I do believe that they often have less access to this kind of thing than me or my friends did when we were younger, and often these "horror games" are directed at a younger audience than they used to be. Poppy Playtime and Security Breach hardly compare to seeing Yuri literally stab herself to death and watching her corpse slowly lose life over two days. Parents have simply wisend up to what kind of stuff is on the internet, and if it isn't marketed towards children in real-life stores or isn't approved by other parents, it can simply be filtered out. Honestly I see a lot of kids who only have access to the kids tabs of large streaming services, definitely an improvement from the world of YouTube. Honestly this stuff (ie. Internet trends, slang, quotable stuff, etc) just sort of spreads to a few kids through the actual source material and to every other kid in school my word of mouth

I don't know guys, I just think that the way technology has had an affect on my life versus the lives of some young children is interesting but I've been writing this on my phone for over an hour when I was planning on checking tumblr and go to sleep this was literally just supposed to be "I don't think my brother could handle ddlc" and nothing else but here I am. Maybe I'll write a real thing on this later and actually interview my friends. Anyways I hear something crawling in my walls and it's probably a mouse lmao I'm gonna go tf to sleep

[miiishra]

My 4-year-old son and my niece are pretending to be old people walking around with canes and falling over yelling "Christ oh pizzas my back!" like Gen Alpha really is built different.

[long-sleeved-sandwich]

my 11 year old cousin just found out today that cardi b is not, in fact, japanese.

*playing Money*

me: hey (my cousin) did you know cardi is dominican?

my cousin: no isn’t she japanese??

me: japanese????

my cousin: yeah i just always thought she was japanese. like “cardi b” “konichiwa” it sounds like the same language.

[ultraternative]

Why pokemon fans should not and do not want gen 5 remakes: an essay

I said I would do it, so here I am. I'll put it under a read more just because it'll be a long one and I don't want to fill your screen without your permission. That being said, let's begin.

As I'm sure many people know, the fifth generation of pokemon games, those being black & white and their sequels, are fan favorites and beloved by many. In fact, black 2 was my second ever pokemon game, so I'm no stranger to the magic it made people feel when they played it. It was ambitious, exciting, and completely new, so I understand people wanting to go back and live it for the first time again completely revamped and with a new coat of polish.

But that's not what this is about. I'm here arguing for the opposite, and why I think it would never work.

Remakes: an underlying problem

Yes, pokemon is no stranger to doing remakes of their games. It's been around since gen 3, with firered and leafgreen, and has been going right up until not too long ago in gen 8, with brilliant diamond and shining pearl. And I understand that it's to let players newer to the franchise play older games on recent hardware, but sometimes it's hard to stay faithful to the original while introducing new mechanics to keep old players interested.

Take for instance, omega ruby and alpha sapphire. Those games were done in a way that kept the spirit of gen 3 while having the new mechanics of mega evolution and such from gen 6. And it worked, in my opinion. But then we move on to brilliant diamond and shining pearl. Maybe it's because it was outsourced to a different development studio, or maybe it's because they wanted to be too faithful to gen 4 on a new gen console, but it didn't have the same impact as the original games. And the only new things they added was fairy type existing and a revamp of the underground, pre-post-game of course. And maybe I'm biased, but the let's go games don't appeal to me because I never got into pokemon go, and the catch mechanic is entirely based on that.

Realistically, what could we expect?

Think about it. Each remake was built in the style of its most recent generation. So if we take that and translate it over to today, we could theorize the region of unova to be a semi-open world 3d environment, letting players explore the world before moving to the next goal. But that's not the spirit of gen 5. The games were fairly railroady, putting you on a path and making you stick to it. But it also had moments like the bridge leading to castelia city being a bit overly long but mesmerizing to experience that first time. The pixel sprite of your character walking along this massive structure as the camera shifts to show off the landscape, making it feel as though you were going on an adventure just as big. How would you translate that to full 3d? How could they capture that same feeling?

Because I don't think it's possible in the current day.

The number 2 and a time skip

Yeah, this is another thing I want to bring up. After the events of black and white, the characters move on with their lives and live peacefully for a while. Then the events of black 2 and white 2 happen. Unlike every other pokemon game*, gen 5 is a canonical 2 part story. Team plasma gets up to shenanigans twice there, and a different kid has to beat them up each time. And if they really want to do remakes of gen 5, I feel they would need to incorporate both the first and second games into the same game to keep the story flow consistent and so fans don't have to deal with buying another game to continue the narrative again.

Some unaware people might say "Well what about the ultra sun and ultra moon games? Aren't those continuing the narrative from the first of those games?" No, they don't. It's roughly the same story, set at basically the same time. It's like an alternate universe at that point. It's not the same.

And I know someone is gonna bring it up, so I will address it here too. I am aware that the events of gold and silver take place after the events of red and blue. However, I am arguing that since they are different generations, they do not fit in the point I am trying to make. Black and white had direct sequels in the same generation, and if they get remakes those should be incorporated. But they won't, because they don't want people getting more games in their game.

A reasonable alternative

The whole reason I started this rant was because I saw an article saying something about players noticing the names of the bike colors in gen 8 could be the names of the gen 5 remakes, and they latched onto that pretty hard. And it also mentioned that they made that connection when the game came out, long before even the gen 4 remakes, and they just wanted to bring it back up for some reason. And I seriously doubt they would tease a game that far in advance, all things considered. I think it was just some cool names for cool decals.

But another article I didn't read said something about a potential legends style game for unova, which I think would be perfectly okay. Since it was established in legends arceus that it's very clearly a prequel to explore the origins of a region, I think it's a better plan to make that game over a glorified port that can't capture the magic of the original.

(Also I would be fine with just a straight port of gen 5 no changes but bundle the first and second games together)

Closing remarks AKA the tl;dr

Just give us legends unova. Don't bother with black & white remakes. It wouldn't be the same and they wouldn't bundle the sequels with them either.

Thanks for reading.

[theuncannymary]

Gen 5 Pokémon rant because I think it is vastly underestimated :

Okay so it's Pokémon infodump time because I just want to talk about all the things Game Freak could do with Unova and yet won't be doing because they're cowards :

1) Legends Kuyrem game

I know that the most popular opinion atm regarding a potential new game in the Legends Arceus style is Legends Celebi because time-travelling Pokémon + Game Freak reusing their tropes instead of doing something totally different

*and* I totally agree that a game where we could be a modern-day Trainer transported to the past by Celebi in order to convince Ho-Oh to save the Legendary Dogs (Entei, Raikou and Suicune) after the Bell Towers' burning by the bad guys to save Johto somehow is very cool

but !!!!! Legends Kyurem would also be a very cool idea and with the number of historical buildings we see in Unova like Lacunosa Town, Village Bridge, Opelucid City, but also the Buried Castle and Celestial Tower !!!!! There is so much history in Unova and it's so underused it's basically criminal XD

Essentially since Unova is based on New York and the United Stated in general there would be no need for time-travel, the plot could be a family of 19th century immigrants from another region going to Unova because Trainer's parents need a job and there are opportunities in Unova where people are coming from other regions (it's even mentioned in the games on the Village Bridge and they didn't talk about it since and it frustrates me !!!!! so much !!!!!),

And they move to the currently in-construction Castelia City because they came by boat (like the 19th century immigrants arriving in New York) and they get a house/flat and then the plot can be like Legends Arceus where Trainer joins the equivalent of the Survey Corps (the equivalents of the other Corps like Security, Medical, Supply, Agriculture, and Construction could also exist),

And since it would take place chronologically after Hisui all of it could have been founded by a descendant of a Galaxy Team that moved to Unova to transform it just like their ancestor transformed Hisui in Legends Arceus and be based on the same motives of filling in the Pokédex just like the Hisuian one,

And as we fill the Pokédex we meet descendents of the twin brothers (the heroes of Truth and Ideals) who could be leading their own clans like clan White and clan Black just like the Diamond and Pearl Clans in Legends Arceus, who are constantly arguing and they end up battling at the Relic Castle (which is the castle the twins built, it's canon), and in order to save the region and reconcile the brothers, we have to capture the now escaped Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem (whose existence we only learn after catching the first two) and put them back together at the Relic Castle !!!!!

The Black and White Clans would also make constant references to the Kingdom of the Vale and think their Prince/twin is right and we would use Victini (the Pokémon enclosed by their father the King) in order to save the region !!!!!

Essentially I am making my own propaganda for Legends Kyurem I hope y'all agree lolol

2) Black and White remakes

I know that will probably happen in the next generation of game consoles because there is only one generation of remakes by game console (1st gen remakes / leafgreen and firered on game boy advance, 2nd gen remakes / heartgold and soulsilver on ds, 3rd gen remakes / omega ruby and alpha sapphire on 3ds, 4th gen remakes / brilliant diamond and shining pearl on the switch), but I am a bit weary about gen 5 remakes because it's the first gen with sequels ?

Like there are so many things that have been added in Black 2 and White 2 that only doing a Black and White remake would be so sad... but knowing that it is very unlikely that they make remakes for both Black/White and Black 2/White 2 is already making me sad before said remakes are even announced XD

Anyways do you know how in Black 2 Opelucid City is futuristic and in White 2 it is more traditional ? And its slogan being "Time's Dividing Line : the City where Past and Future Entertwine" ? And how in Black/Black 2 there is the Black City which is futuristic and in White/White 2 there is the White Forest which is more traditional ?

How about they use that fact to introduce the future Violet Pokémon in the Black remake and the past Scarlet Pokémon in the White remake ? Maybe through the gym leaders (Drayden in Black and Iris in White) ?

Ideally they could do a Delta Episode-esque mission post-League where we go to the Mistralton Cave in the Black remake/the Buried Castle in the White remake and then have this happen :

1) In the White remake, Trainer sees a UFO that had crashed in the Mistralton Cave, is attacked by a Beheeyem but saved by a Neitram, who shows Trainer its precognition abilities and they go to the future where the Violet future Pokémon can be caught and brought to the present ?

Essentially since Neitram/Beheeyem came from a UFO (it is said so in the Pokédex), they could be the perfect Unovian ambassador for the future Violet Pokémon and a great introduction to them ; the mines in the present are abandoned but in the future they could be reopened and futuristic ?????

The Pokédex also says Beheeyem can modify memories so maybe it got scared when found out and tried to erase Trainer's memories of their encounter but then Neitram saves them because it is curious and then shows Trainer the future as gratitude ?????

2) In the White remake, Trainer meets an angry Cofagrigus who wants to attack them but they are saved by a Yamask who befriends them and shows them their memories of when the Relic Castle was first built (2,500 years ago) and they meet the past Scarlet Pokémon there and bringing them also to the present ?

Essentially since Yamask and Cofagrigus are Pokémon that have always lived in the Relic Castle and represent Ancient Egypt essentially, they could be the perfect Unovian ambassador for the past Scarlet Pokémon ; in the present, the castle is in ruins and abandoned but in the past it could have been luxurious and freshly made ?????

It is also said in the Pokédex that Cofagrigus chases treasure hunters and could have hunted Trainer because it thought they were a thief as well and then Yamask saves them and shows their memories of when it was human in the past ?????

Anyways there are so many mentions of the past and future in the gen 5 games it would be such a waste if they don't introduce the future Violet and past Scarlet Pokémon in the remakes to be honest !!!!!

Voilà essentially these are my ideas thank you for reading lolol hope I didn't get anything wrong !!!!! I did so much research hahaha I fucking love Pokémon so much T_T

[sanjosenewshq]

Framework Google companion on modular Chromebook

Framework, Google companion on modular Chromebook https://sanjosenewshq.com/framework-google-companion-on-modular-chromebook/ Google and Framework, the corporate behind the modular laptop computer of the identical title, partnered to introduce a ‘Framework Laptop computer Chromebook Version.’ Meaning prospects seeking to get an upgradable laptop computer working ChromeOS now have a strong possibility to think about. The Chromebook Version is available in gray and sports activities a “precision fashioned and milled aluminum housing” with a gear brand on the lid. It weighs in at 1.3kg (about 2.87lbs) and encompasses a 13.5-inch, 3:2 side ratio show with a 2256 x 1504 pixel decision. The laptop computer runs a twelfth Gen Intel Core i5-1240P CPU with 4+8 cores and 30W sustained efficiency. It additionally contains the Titan C safety chip that different ChromeOS units have, which permits Verified Boot. Furthermore, the Framework Chromebook will rise up to eight years of ChromeOS updates. Plus, it helps working Android apps from the Play Retailer, entry to Linux via Crostini, and Steam (with ChromeOS Alpha). Extra importantly, the Framework Chromebook helps growth playing cards to customise which ports you’ve got, and upgradable and customizable elements (together with reminiscence, storage, and extra). Each a part of the laptop computer has a scannable QR code that folks can use to search out entry to documentation and guides for repairs. For the privateness acutely aware, the Framework Chromebook additionally contains built-in privateness switches that minimize energy to the digicam and microphone while you need. You may pre-order the Framework Chromebook on the Framework web site for $1,299 in Canada, though pre-orders require a $100 deposit. The laptop computer is ready to be out there beginning in December. You may study extra in regards to the Framework Laptop computer Chromebook Version right here. Photographs credit score: Framework Supply: Framework Through: 9to5Google via San Jose News HQ https://sanjosenewshq.com September 22, 2022 at 08:30PM

[elumish]

The Unified Theory of the Omegaverse

Or: why straight published fanfiction is less unhinged than the stuff on AO3.

(CW for sexual assault and gender-based violence/oppression. Also this is very long.)

Okay, so here's my unified theory of omegaverse that you didn't ask for and may not want.

First, omegaverse as I see it exists in three main generations: the early supernatural era (first generation), the AO3/Tumblr era (second generation), and the published novel era (third generation). I've never read first generation omegaverse, so I'll only be speaking to it briefly, and almost entirely based off of stuff other people have written about it (namely Fanlore).

First gen omegaverse was Supernatural RPF that came out of a kink meme, and it was heavily focused on replicating the (misunderstood) sexual norms of wolves. MPREG, knots, excessive amounts of semen.

Second gen omegaverse came from inevitable fandom creep. A lot of people write for multiple fandoms and may read for even more, which means that stuff like this doesn't stay in its own fandom very long. It also moved from a Supernatural-specific place to the two main modern houses of multifandom: Tumblr and AO3. This omegaverse shifted more towards a societal framework for a "secondary gender" wherein some cis* men are capable of getting pregnant, biological essentialism rules and people's actions are largely driven by their secondary gender, and (usually) omegas face intense oppression in society. Male omegas are often presented as rare, but in a way that makes them desired. The part of people being driven by their secondary gender is important, and I'll get to that more later.

Second generation omegaverse is in many ways the same as D/s AUs and Sentinel/Guide AUs--many of these fics have two main secondary biological characteristics, sometimes with a neutral third (e.g., beta); these characteristics are innate but are revealed later in life, often during puberty; these characteristics are directly tied to personality, with one side being more emotional and submissive and the other side being protective, analytical, and dominant; these characteristics are tied to appearance, with those who are on the more submissive side of the characteristic divide being smaller and more physically effeminate while on the more dominant side they (at least the men) are larger and more muscular; there is some version of soul bonding that is part physical and part magical, often requiring PiV or PiA sex to be completed; the biological drive to bond is strong enough to drive people to commit sexual assault or mindlessly have sex they do not actually want; and societal hierarchy is built primarily around this secondary characteristic, often with limited intersectionality (because most characters that appear or are acknowledged are white cis* men). 

The main aspects specific to the omegaverse are mpreg, heats and ruts (though some version of this sometimes appears in the other AUs I mention), secondary gender being identifiable by scent, and biological differences like knots and slick (the male omega version of vaginal lubrication). Second gen omegaverse stories also tend to be, on average, more sexual assault and/or dub-con heavy than their counterparts in those other AUs.

Third generation omegaverse has fully escaped containment into published (usually self-published rather than trad published) novels. While second gen is mostly M/M or M/M/M, third gen is largely M/F or M/F/M(/M/etc). In these, the soul bonding, scent, reveal of characteristics at puberty, and to some degree the social hierarchy continue, but the impact of the secondary gender on personality is less of a focus. Male omegas are often presented as rare, but in a way that makes them largely irrelevant, and the focus is more on the soul bond and the emotional dynamic that an omega brings than on who has the ability to bear the children–probably because nearly every omega we see is a cis woman and nearly every alpha is a cis man.

Third gen omegaverse has clearly created its own understanding of the world; there have been terminology shifts, for example, from the second gen references to someone "presenting" as an alpha or an omega to the third gen's "perfuming"--used mostly, from what I've seen, for omegas. This indicates that third gen omegaverse stories are, at this point, likely drawing more from each other than from their origin.

What does all of this have to do with how unhinged they are? A lot, actually. But first it needs to be made clear what makes second gen omegaverse unhinged (at least from my point of view).

The most extreme (second gen) omegaverse stories establish a world in which sexual assault is a biological imperative. Omegas go into heat (and, in some stories, alphas go into rut), and they become mindless with the need to have sex with an alpha and be knotted (where a "knot" grows at the base of an alpha's penis, locking it in place inside of the omega to seal the semen inside of them and increase the chance of them getting pregnant). In some cases, it's a fuck or die scenario; in others, it is simply a mindless need that circumvents all other needs or desires. This is often established as existing to force pregnancies; in some stories, pregnancy is basically guaranteed from penetrative sex between an alpha and an omega in heat. Alphas, scenting this heat, also become mindless with need (though always less mindless than the omegas), and they are driven to knot the omega at all costs. Consent is not possible in these circumstances unless determined beforehand; in extreme versions, omegas become entirely insensate and alphas are unable to stop themselves. These universes are ones where pregnancy is such a biological imperative that people's bodies render them unable to avoid it and the sex that goes along with it.

In some stories, a bonding is unavoidable when an unbonded alpha has sex with an unbonded omega in heat; the alpha biting the omega is a physical prerequisite, but is often similarly biologically forced during that mindless(ish) pairing.

Sexual assault is such a key assumed part of second gen omegaverse stories that authors will sometimes specifically note when it doesn’t happen in the story, like a reverse content warning. 

Secondary genders (or dynamics, depending on the story) become biological drivers of what people think men and women are like now, only all overlaid over cis* white men for whom a lot of the real world squickiness if applying biological essentialism do not apply for a lot of progressives. It's not as uncomfortable to say that some cis* white men are naturally submissive due to the same biology that makes them able to bear children, because obviously that has no bearing on real life.

Some stories that are about subverting the expectations of the genre specifically challenge the idea that omegas are naturally submissive and want to always submit (societally and sexually) to alphas, in the same way that women have been challenging for generations the idea that all women are and want to be submissive to men. This is not an accidental parallel. But those omegas (the main character, generally) are presented as the outlier–most omegas want to be oppressed. 

Now for one of the other big things, and the reason I keep putting the asterisk after cis: the mpreg thing. Based on my very scientific survey method of remembering things I've read on the internet, this is one of the most commonly cited things regarding why omegaverse stuff is weird. And so let's talk about the idea of men getting pregnant–specifically, the physiology required for cis men to carry a fetus to term and successfully give birth.

If your thought is “intersex” then congrats, you’re using a term that the vast majority of omegaverse fics do not acknowledge. But that’s what most omega men are; they are AMAB but have some levels of internal organs that allow them to bear children. They generally have penises, but in some versions those are micropenises. They may or may not have an additional opening beyond their anus that functions as a vagina or equivalent, which releases slick (which otherwise comes out of the anus). These are all built around the idea of cis men being able to bear children and not being able to impregnate others. Sometimes they can give birth naturally; other times they can’t, which leaves an open question of how that actually came about evolutionarily.

Chromosomes are never discussed, at least that I’ve read, but it’s unclear if children can be born with YY chromosomes. One would assume those fetuses aren’t viable and result in a miscarriage, so we can probably not worry about that.

Intersex bodies, to be clear, are not in any way problematic or inappropriate to show in fiction. But omegaverse fics, almost to a story, don’t just present those bodies but fetishize them–and, specifically, fetishize what makes omega bodies different from perisex cis male bodies. Omega male bodies become notable because they are not “true” male bodies, because they can bear children.

Female bodies do not get the same level of consideration in these stories, in large part because female bodies rarely exist in these stories, at least on the screen. Women are referenced, often as an afterthought–the author recognizing that they have, perhaps, forgotten about the other half of the population. Female omegas are, in essence, simply cis women with heats and omega scents and the soulbonding structure. And female alphas are rarely examined and even more rarely fetishized. This is where the childbearing framework does begin to break down, as female alphas are generally described as being, in essence, cis women as well. Penises remain solely for men in most omegaverse stories.

In most of these stories, society exists in a strict social hierarchy, one that reframes gender norms and rights into being split down secondary gender lines rather than traditional gender lines. With the exception of a rare few stories where alphas are oppressed for being naturally aggressive, omegas are the oppressed class or are just moving past a civil rights movement that has given them some level of legal equality.

In the extreme examples, omegas are “owned” by the alpha in their family (their alpha parent, their alpha sibling, and then their alpha bondmate). They are unable to do anything on their own–have a job, have a credit card, own property, in some cases even leave the house–and so must have an alpha. This can become a plot point, forcing omegas who do not have a related alpha to bond before they want to/to someone they don’t want to.

It’s a clear application of rigid gender structures that have existed and do exist up to modern times, but just placing them on white cis men. We get all those fun victimization narratives and “what ifs” that dystopian novels give us for white ablebodied cis/het people in general (the “what if straight white people weren’t allowed to be with who they love” YA novels of the world) without having to think too hard about women and disabled people and People of Color who do face situations like this in real world and who would face much worse in these worlds. But they don’t really exist in these worlds, so we don’t have to worry about that.

It’s sexy because it’s fake, you see.

All of this gives us stories where weaker, submissive, oppressed white cis men are at the mercy of stronger, aggressive, privileged white cis men, who can choose whether or not to act with basic human decency towards them. And sometimes they do, and that’s romantic, and sometimes they don’t, and that’s sexy. It’s tension.

Which brings us to third gen omegaverse stories–the straight ones.

Now we have a world where most omegas are cis women, and so most of the “abnormal” or intersex body stuff is irrelevant. Omegas aren’t as much about childbearing, because cis women are (usually) capable of bearing children, and so it’s not notable. And the question of whether male omegas (if they do show up) can bear children doesn’t seem to come up much, in much the same way that the question of female alphas is rarely answered in any detail in second gen omegaverse stories.

So now we’re left with the sexual assault and the strict social/legal hierarchies. And the unfortunate fact is that those are both things that women still live with right now, and so that tantalizing “what if” is gone. “What if women were regularly sexually assaulted and oppressed by men” is, unfortunately, a question we continue to have a very good answer to.

And (with a bit of a caveat), women being sexually assaulted and oppressed by men is just…less of a fantasy to female readers, who are the main target audience for these stories (as well as the main authors of these stories). (The caveat is that, of course, a lot of romance novels do have both very clear sexual assault and stuff that is definitely sexual assault but is presented as just cool and sexy and not terrible.) Women being legally owned by the men in their life and not being able to work or make financial decisions or leave the house without them is not a major sexual fantasy for most women, because that still happens and is not too distant a past in the places where it doesn’t happen now.

That’s not to say that the hierarchy and the sexual assault don’t exist, but they’re (from what I’ve seen) less extreme and less a prevalent part of the story. What is likely a tantalizing, edgy story for a lot of female readers when portraying two men becomes just dark when one of those characters is a woman. 

All of this means that third gen omegaverse is very much the omegaverse with all of its edges softened. Even the things that aren’t quite as uncomfy when placed back on women are softened down to something fantastical. Omegas are more conscious during heats, more cognizant of what’s going on. Decisions can be made during heats, something that’s often explicitly not the case in second gen omegaverse stories. And a lot of the biological essentialism is softened as well–the territorialism and over-the-top controlling behavior that’s written as innate to alphas is softened to something closer to normal romance novel male love interest behavior, and the submissiveness to the point of not being able to make eye contact or refuse commands in omegas is softened as well.

In fact, the entire idea of a strict hierarchy existing beyond just the clear alpha/beta/omega delineation tends not to be as prevalent. A lot of second gen omegaverse stories present alphas as having a range of dominance that can be, if not quantified, then at least judged on a relative basis. That tends not to be in the case in third gen omegaverse stories, at least from what I’ve seen–they’re just generally aggressive and dominant in the way that major male characters are generally written in romance novels.

Overall, the shift from M/M omegaverse stories to M/F omegaverse makes a lot of those necessary body changes in second gen omegaverse to make pregnancies possible moot, as well as resulting in the sanitization of a lot of the stuff that’s speculative when everyone involved is a man and unfortunately realistic when some people are women.

Tl;dr: as the omegaverse has moved from AO3 to the straight published space, it’s become just another vaguely-different hat to place on top of romance novels, losing a lot of what makes it specific - but the alternative is writing a universe that looks a little too uncomfortably close to the bad parts of the real world.

[airlockfailure]

Some thoughts on TBB

Hunter: Impulsive. Like, stupidly so, but in a protective way. Any time something happens that might maybe possible won't but maybe WILL put his family at risk, it's time to GO. Doesn't even stop to think about other options. Just nope, time to run again. Possible paranoia component. Talks and acts before thinking. Dude chill. Not good at negotiations. Stop threatening everyone YIKES.

Tech: Inventive. Both verbally and mechanically. Built a light bomb on the go?! Where/how did he get enough lumens for the bomb to be that bright??? WHAT DID YOU USE TECH?! Sassy to the max and underappreciated. High key cares deeply. The more he sasses, the more he cares. Carries this squad on his back. Seriously, without Tech these guys are... well... ┑(￣Д ￣)┍ If Tech got hurt, I think they'd end up relying on Echo a lot.

Wrecker: Oh man. Wrecker is all brute strength but no stamina? Maybe the group needs to keep up with regulation training protocols on their down time??? Guys?? Please?? Wrecker is exhausted dudes. (I headcanon that because he's so much bigger than the other clones, not all his organs kept pace.) The biggest heart, smart, funny, the most laid back and likes to have fun. (No wonder, Trace likes him the best LOL.) Scared of lots of things but will act like things aren't a problem if someone else is more scared.

Echo: Oldest sibling vibes here. Tired™. The funny one. Man has one arm and no legs and he's out here making jokes about it in the middle of a missions. The one who breaks up the tension (as a literary device. Not saying he's the comedic relief, but he IS from Domino Squad so...). Would love to see him get a new hand so he doesn't have a stabby scomp (use it as a weapon Echo, you know you want to). However, I believe the scomp is wired up to his brain internally if you watch the Battle of Anaxes over again so it might not be swappable. Echo is one of my favorite clones.

Crosshair: Someone get this man a snack, or five. In my head he's albino, and like Wrecker, because he's so much thinner than the other clones, his organs didn't develop properly. Mathematical genius, ergo navigation expert better than the ship's computer system. Emotional, not necessarily emotionally unstable. The reactions he has to Hunter's decisions I think are warranted for a clone whose chip was activated. To compensate for being more emotional than the others (why do you think Wrecker likes to goof around with Crosshair? Wrecker is emotionally intelligent, but it's Crosshair he harasses with Lula. I think Crosshair enjoys being pestered by his brother, and think he's secretly the softest of all of them. Which makes what he's going through even WORSE AUGH.) I think Crosshair is almost more Rules and Regs than early days Echo or even Dogma. He looks the most different from all the clones, and I imagine that bothers him. Everyone shares the same face, except him. The Kaminoans grew him too fast.

Omega: Star Wars does this thing where the women are super intuitively in sync with the men's emotional states. I dislike this, I elect to either ignore it, or attribute it to the Force is Female and so all women are at least somewhat Force Sensitive, granting them this unnatural insight into Why Men Are Acting This Way™. If Boba is Alpha, and Omega is Omega, I think she must be a gen 1 like Boba and Rex. Which means. Which MEANS!! She is the eldest in the squadron. She isn't the most experienced, but she is the oldest. Being so much older would explain her maturity and intelligence that outpaces the rest of the squadron. Additionally, she was allowed to develop normally. (Reminding you all, she is an adolescent, not 8 like I've seen some people claiming. You have to be at least 10 to be an adolescent.) This further supports that she is as old as Rex and Boba. Omega has a huge, giving, compassionate heart. She's on the run, she's in hiding, she's been kidnapped multiple times, and she's witnessed the terror of TWO chip activations (Crosshair and Wrecker). And despite all that she's still like "Hunter we have to help." I'm getting major Din Djarin vibes from her, she's just much more vocal about her decisions. "I see a village in need, I cannot not help." I love her. She's a badass. No wonder she's Cid's favorite.