#genuinely quite pleased with this

[gabe-lovebot]

councilor 3D model

i learnt 3d modelling from the ground up to bring him to life. he's yours now. do whatever you want with him

[link]

please credit me if you make something using the model (or even ping/link me to it, i would love to see what you made!)

currently available as a .blend, .fbx and an SFM port.

[miracumess]

so why exactly do some people think nico giving will his ring is out of character? what is out of character about nico giving someone he’s clearly very in love with an item so close to his heart? where in the text does it suggest that nico would absolutely never do something like this? we already know the lengths nico goes for the people he loves, but him giving the love of his life his ring is OOC?

“it’s a family ring” and?? if anything doesn’t it mean he considers will his family? nico loves will. i don’t know what else to tell you. YOU might not like or agree with it but that doesn’t always mean it’s OOC.

[podcast-hemocytoblast]

By the time cars were invented, Jonah Magnus was already well into the body hopping game, which raises the question: has he ever actually learn to drive? Did this man sit through driver’s ed? Or has he just been getting out of legal repercussions for his shit driving by telling the cops everything he knows about their deepest darkest secrets every time he gets pulled over?

[todayisafridaynight]

rate the outfit

[aroaceleovaldez]

finally finished my project of collecting voiceclaims that are as close as i can find for my hcs of the main HoO cast - just for funsies so it's not as perfect as I'd like but whatever, it was a neat exploration and exercise of me trying to think of literally any franchise for voice actors.

Leo got two cause I had trouble of finding good clips for the voiceclaim that's closers to my hcs for him (the second half of his section). Also got to play the fun game of digging through my art for decent doodles of each character.

Also fun fact, I am almost completely unfamiliar with 3 franchises in this video and was just digging for voice clips on youtube. Try to guess which ones.

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.

[enhanced-operatives-division]

Junicrane/Starstruck Ramble

I will not be brief, all under the cut

To clear some things right off the bat:

No corpse, no proof with Juniper. Obligatory this is set in a canon where he's alive and adjacent to the agency in some way.

Reggie & Juniper are just gay to me, but I don't mind any interpretation of their sexuality

The games are set in 1967/68 to me (based on a couple bits in game) which is before it was legal to be gay in America at least (1971), which is relevant to how I interpret canon as being somewhat grounded in reality, despite unrealistic elements.

This is just an insane amount of headcanons/elements of and AU all culminated into one post. I will talk about some headcanons like they're just facts because they are established in my head, and it saves me over explaining literally everything, however I will explain some parts a little bit for clarity.

Alright. Actual beginning of the ramble:

Juniper is a character to me who had gotten so lost in his job as an actor and a social presence that in the end his whole life revolved around that 'role'. Because of this, by the time he's put into the situation where he's around the Agency, he basically knows nothing about himself, though he doesn't realise at first. Furthermore, what little identity he had has changed in so many ways. He's no longer a beloved famous actor in the prominence of public light, he's legally dead and he tarnished his career just before he was supposed to die, with the bonus of that making him lose the majority of his estate. From that, he also has horrific facial scarring from the electrical burns from literally having his face fried. I believe a friend of mine made a post about this a while ago (I also think they were the first to think it up also), but, to me, Juniper has a permanent trimmer in his right arm (aka his dominant hand) from the electrical current and it is messing with his nervous system.

All in all, he's not doing great, but he's too proud to admit that he's not doing great, because if anything, what's left of his ego is all he has as a defense since he's deep in unfamiliar water.

Before ending up around the agency (I have multiple interpretations of this, so I'm just going to bring it up generally), he'd never actually seen Reggie, and his only impression of him is a single voicemail, which was his only reference he had to later impersonate him. Juniper probably has very little feelings other than the ones he projects onto him because of Phoenix and that, at the very least, he's physically attracted to Reggie to some degree (that's like the beginning of how everything else would tumble into place in this sort of interpretation at least).

And on Crane's side? His feelings towards Juniper are probably very intense and muddled. On the one hand, he adores musical theatre, and that's his now ex-favourite actor. The thought of just casually being around him blows the bit of fanboy in him away at first because THAT'S the GUY, plus the inklings of a celebrity crush which still poke at him. And then there's the rational side of him, which knows Juniper has committed absolute atrocities on the side of Zoraxis, and hates him for that. Then there's how much Juniper comes off as an asshole at first because he refuses to cooperate with anything the Agency tried to put in place. He finds Juniper endlessly frustrating, and yet he's stuck working with him since, afterall, he's the one who knows the Agency's history with Juniper the best. I imagine him acting a lot like how he does IEYTD 1 around Juniper.

At this point, I'm just describing the pitch for a romcom.

I think the start of their relationship with one another largely started with Juniper trying to wind Crane up. It was a way of getting his attention, and I don't think Juniper knows why he's so dead set on that at first, because I don't think he realises he has a crush on 'this grump' at first. (I think that's actually the fun part about these two, because it's almost like a role reversal of the celebrity crush dynamic. This ex-big name actor has a TERRIBLE crush on an average joe and it is KILLING HIM.) But of course the Agency keeps them together because Juniper is at least conversing with Crane, so it's a start.

Through one way or another, they actually get talking casually, at least mildly at first. It takes Juniper a long time to fully deconstruct the wall he's built, and the thing is, Crane isn't the one trying to deconstruct it, at least at first, because yeah, Juniper realises if he wants Reggie to actually like him in any way, he can't keep winding him up. So they talk. Small talk at first, something rhythmic and almost easy to keep to a script. And over time that turns into actual conversations. Genuine ones in which Reggie rips out the occasional one of his jokes which Juniper is endlessly endeared about. The way he smiles just before he makes them, like he wants to chuckle at what he's about to say before he says it. That's probably when Juniper realised that he does have some vague crush on him, and that it wasn't going away.

This is what kickstarts John I can't-buy-you-things-to-impress-you-so-acts-of-service-it-is Juniper to do little things for him. It mostly starts off as him trying to make Reggie his tea how he likes it. However, the nerve damage in his arm makes that hard, as the weight of the kettle and trying to pour is hard all of a sudden. And he refuses to accept that, so he tries for a very long while. Long enough that Crane would go to investigate what was going on. And when he does see Juniper leaning over a cup with the kettle as he uneasily tries to pour it, and when Crane asks Juniper responds so matter-of-fact that his intention is nothing but genuine. And it catches Reggie off guard because Juniper hadn't done anything like that up to that point, and his very apparent vulnerability is so clearly on show.

It shifts something between them.

From that point on, conversations are longer, more familiar. Both of their attitudes soften, and Reggie makes more jokes. Juniper learns how to better use his left hand while strengthening his right back to a point where it could be used again. Slowly, they're both spending time with one another not because they have to, but just because they can. Little bits at first, not too far outside what they already were doing, but those little bits turned into long bits to a point where the other person's company was genuinely desirable.

As time passes, Juniper probably realises that he doesn't genuinely know much about himself or what hobbies he's into, because he never really had the time when he got big, and his home life in his youth wasn't bad, but it wasn't picturesque. I think Reggie would pick up on it, and absolutely try to introduce him to some things he's into. Some things stick, other things don't (corn husking very much stays Reggie's passion, and John will go with him sometimes because it's him, but it's not something he strongly cares for). Crane introduces him to a lot of music, and it's something that becomes a staple between them, with tracks they listen to more than others (tragically, I know relatively little about 60s music so I couldn't really say what). Occasionally they dance, never anything intense, think slow dancing, but the closeness is nice.

Through all of it, Juniper is battling the worst crush of his life, and he can't stand it, because I think he struggles to read people since he doesn't have anything like a script or a director to refer back to, so he has no idea if Reggie likes him back or if he's just desperate for that to be true. I think because of that any sort of confession between them would be incredibly raw, not only because of the time they live in making it hard for them to be truthful about how they love, but because it's a complete show of Juniper who's worked to be this better person. I don't exactly know how that would go, mainly because I don't have one set version of their dynamic, this post is just a generalisation of main consistent points.

Reggie does like him back, because he's gotten used to Juniper being just this guy, not a figure in the public eye, not a Zoraxis lackey, and not any sort of Agency operative (despite being under their care to some degree). He's someone he genuinely cares for, because they've given one another the time of day to learn one another, and I think because Reggie was a field agent, he was a lot better at reading Juniper than Juniper was at reading him. Eventually Juniper's company becomes something he could see around him for the rest of his life, and I think he accepts that he likes Juniper a lot more gracefully.

I think any affection directed at Juniper would at first be met with him feeling a little muddled. Reggie was a very physically affectionate person when he could be, and sure the initial flirting with one another came with the occasional little touches, but everything now was so deeply intentional. I also don't think Juniper would almost ever get over the novelty of being able to kiss him, or many other gestures, because it made the fact that they were together so very real, and it was great. I do think it comes easier to Reggie, and it's a big way of showing how much he cares, so it's important for Juniper to try and show it back because he knows how much it means to the other.

I like the idea of them eventually living with one another, too. I think Juniper would have always had a quiet little daydream of sorts where he does just live a domestic quiet life, and he can with Reggie (well, as close as they can get between the Agency and Zoraxis always being at odds), and he loves that, and he loves him, and it's immense.

I think they cook for one another a lot, it helps Juniper work on his dexterity in a controlled environment, which means a lot because it's a huge point of insecurity (that and his scars). He does improve, and Crane is proud of that and shows it and it's great. I also think they'd probably cook together too, because they can deal with being in the kitchen together and they work well with one another. It's probably a good way for them to unwind because over time they can do it in relative silence.

As I said before, I also think music is a staple in their household, and that Reggie listens to things on vinyl almost all of the time because he likes the background noise. Sometimes Juniper will catch him chuntering along to the music which he finds endlessly endearing. I wouldn't put it past his dramatic ass to also join in to fluster Reggie, but I also don't think Reggie would mind that terribly because Juniper has listened to the music enough to know the lyrics, and that's huge to him.

I don't think they are without rough patches, no relationship is, but I think the good part about them is that they're willing to talk about it (... eventually). They're used to long conversations, and while they're often less fun conversations, they're needed and they know that, and it works out.

Alright. I think I'm done for now. I haven't mentioned everything, but this definitely got the worst of it out of my system. If you ever want to hear any specific thoughts my ask box is open but other than that, behold my general dynamic for these two which has been festering in my head for years. I think they're great

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

okay. actually compiling my thoughts in a way that is (hopefully) more organized in regards to my EOD/phoenix hypnosis au. putting it beneath the cut because idk how long it's shaping up to be

this concept is an alternative take on ieytd3 in regards to the telekinetic implants being the main focus, and prism being an important component. however, the robot agents are of minimal importance

prism does end up making the same tenative alliance with zor, getting the kinesium to work on her projects, and develops her first robotic agent. however, unlike the canon of 3, zor takes a sudden interest in robutler's behaviors… how humanlike they are

they immediately change their plans, scrapping the KBOOM project while it's still in its infancy, commandeering robutler for personal study. by proxy, roxana is forced to remain in zoraxis, having gone from an independent scientist working on her personal projects, to a reluctant scientist working on zor's latest scheme

the scheme in question? well, if kinesium can do such a great job turning unthinking metal into an obedient assistant, then surely with some tweaking, it can turn any meddlesome agent into a compliant weapon.

of course, zor doesn't want just any meddlesome agent. they'll get around to sweeping the rest of the agency's operatives out from under their feet later, of course. but their patient zero must be the phoenix. they'll settle for no less.

one kidnapping, nonconsensual surgery, and a few test drives later- with a scientist as great as prism helming the project (even if against their will), zor gets their wish.

zoraxis' perfect rendition of the phoenix is cold, calculating, completely expressionless. the mirth and looseness of their usual conduct has completely disappeared. they do not speak, nor do they communicate in sign. nobody but zor enjoys engaging with them, really

phoenix has forgotten what it means to feel fear. self preservation and pain response still applies, of course, but nothing beyond that

prism hates it. she feels like a fool for letting zor bait her with kinesium so easily… now she's lost access to the only successful robot agent she's ever built, and the only agent capable of putting a stop to zor's plans has become their unwitting underling. she's the only one with the will to stop this, but SHE doesn't know what to do!

… thankfully, though, she stumbles into her saving grace practically on accident*. key memories, engrained so deeply in the phoenix's mind that they could never be erased- only forgotten and repressed, at best… so long as they're prompted to recall them in very specific ways, phoenix can be temporarily coaxed back into lucidity

*needless to say, relaxing in her office to some slow summer swing became a hell of a lot less relaxing when the phoenix suddenly bolted upright and made a mad dash for the door… she managed to wrangle them down before they blew the both of their covers, but only just barely

phoenix… is on the fence about working with roxana. but she's the only one taking care of them when they fade back into mindless compliance, so they really don't have another choice… not to mention, they're stuck in the same rut, really… both of them working for zoraxis against their will, in a sense

whenever they get time to themselves- when phoenix isn't out doing zor's dirty work and terrorizing the agency- prism feeds them stimuli to 'wake' them up. certain songs on the radio, a series of key phrases, the taste of their favorite sandwiches… whatever trigger they have at their disposal, really

occasionally, phoenix will remain lucid longer than either of them expect them to… sometimes they find themself needing to pretend to be mindless for up to hours at a time. it's terribly stressful, certainly… but phoenix has gotten good at it after a while…

they don't test their luck around zor, though. they have a feeling they would tell immediately… and they really don't think they would like whatever punishment the doctor would have in mind for breaking out of their mental restraints

[lyselkatz]

Withering Lotus Flower

深深深情幾許 如果一刀能夠化作兩段 • 就讓一切在這地方 鬆綁 • 峯已回 路已轉 此情何苦枉斷腸 • 愛是沒有人能夠解開的兩難

How deep are the deepest feelings if they can be cut clean? • Let's just let everything loose here • The Peak is behind, the path has taken a turn, why should we remain heart broken by these feelings • Love is a dilemma no one can solve

轉彎 (Turn) - Nicky Wú QíLóng 吳奇隆

Chéng Yì's cover for the MLC concert is so lovely

...☕?/commission

[mostly-void-partially-song]

The story has always been layers of political metaphor. The fictional world of the Peninsula worshiping at the altars of the saint electric, the daily grind, prosperity, and even in-universe Frosted Flakes and Red Lobster.

In the real world, we sacrifice the health of entire communities to leaden water and cancerous levels of radiation or pollution. We have a long and storied history of sacrificing children and the poor to our coal mines and steel mills and railroads. The western world is built on the sacrificing of enslaved lives. We sacrifice drinking water for millions, particularly affecting Mexico at the time of writing this, so that water can be used to cool AI, NFT, and other technology/server farms that demonstrate progress in our eyes. Just like in-universe, America continues to sacrifice incarcerated people to our gods of industry and convenience food.

Because the thing is that they're not wrong! Easy, comfortable, or within reach it might not be, but changing who we sacrifice to what ONLY changes who we sacrifice to what. The point is that there is not acceptable amount of human sacrifice. Kill your gods of convenience and luxury. Kill the god of entertainment on demand. Kill the god of wasteful consumption and fast fashion.

If there is no chocolate or coffee without slave labor, then there is no chocolate or coffee. If there are no Tyson chicken nuggets without incarcerates workers (legalized slave labor) then there are no nuggets. If there is no Shein flower dress without massively underpaid and mistreated workers then there is no dress. No Amazon packages without abused employees. No bottles water without stolen water. No Sea World without animal abuse.

"Forget the name of your god and cherish the name of your neighbor that was swallowed up by it-"

[lockandkeyhyena]

I’m sorry to be a party pooper, but as a transfem wc fan that “I've been seeing a lot of hosility towards transmascs in this community” is so weird. Because one they have my mutual who is also trans women blocked for some reason and I have never seen any negativity on transmasc in this fandom like ever. Which is crazy because this fandom is mostly dominated by transmascs and tmes.

For the first time in the entire fandoms history have we had a spike of people finally recognizing and treating trans woman in this fandom with respect, and yet that person post that begging for more mascs to be recognized. That’s not weird in the slightest.

I’m just tired… yall will NEVER treat trans women like the way you did with op.

It’s low-key disappointing.

i’m… sorry? i really don’t know what you’re talking about, i just wanted to lift up other transmasc artists- i don’t quite know what i did wrong? i don’t believe i said anything against transfems and i even said i haven’t seen any transmasc-directed bigotry?

here’s the post in question for those out of the loop

[victorluvsalice]

Hello all -- it's New Sims 4 Build Day here on Victor Luvs Alice this Wednesday! And I am showing off a build that I've been working on in some form or another for a good while, and which I'm rather proud of -- my new Ministry Of Joy Nightclub! Which, as you might guess, was inspired by The Smiler roller coaster over in Alton Towers. XD Specifically, this thing started life as an attempt to build what I thought like the Ministry Of Joy would look like in the Valicer In The Dark universe, but ended up morphing into this after I thought it would be fun to make it into a nightclub Sims could visit. Let me take you on a little tour:

-->The exterior of the build is based off the basic shape of the actual The Smiler coaster's station (which was SURPRISINGLY hard to find to find pictures of -- fortunately I found some videos on YouTube of the old The Smiler mobile game that had a virtual recreation of the coaster and its station that I could look at to get an idea of the shape) -- though I did change the color scheme, as the actual building is gray for some reason instead of black. It does have pipes like that on the front though! I went with a fancy Art Deco front door because it had one of the best black-and-yellow color schemes, and of course I had to slap a yellow security camera above it. XD I also put that weird spire thing atop it just because I liked it -- it felt right, is all I can say!

-->The first floor is mostly taken up by a big old dance floor (which I sized up a little bit just so it would properly take up the space), with a bar area near the front of the building; a big five-stall bathroom at the back to the left, behind the stairs to the second level; and a "chill-out" space in the weird extra room attached to the back right corner. As you can see, things are aggressively yellow and black in here. XD Though I did make sure to put some extra color in with various paintings and neon lights and such! Anything that was bold and bright and interesting. :) For a few more specific notes:

A) The area behind the DJ booth is a little dark because I was trying to use lights that wouldn't completely wash out the neon lights on the walls over there -- it's a little brighter when the laser light shows are going in Live Mode!

B) The bathroom is so big because I originally had a little side area in it for a diaper-changing station and a toddler potty, complete with its own sink -- I eventually decided that it wasn't particularly likely you would have such things in a nightclub and got rid of it, which allowed me to fit in two extra stalls. Hey, at least your Sims will never have to wait for a bathroom in this build!

C) The "chill-out" room was originally the "worship" room when I was building this as the home of the Valicer In The Dark Advocates (there was one of those weird twisty modern art statues in there with a bunch of chairs around it to represent Mar-Mal), but after I changed the theme of the place, I decided that I wanted it to play host to a couple of bubble blowers. Because the Advocates seem like bubble blower people. XD I ended up adding incense and a couple of meditation poofs for more things to do in here, and because they fit the vibe of this being a place where Sims can chill if they need to. Also, the yellow stripes in this room are the glowing Spa Day walls, because I really wanted to use them SOMEWHERE, and this seemed like the best place. XD Same with the glowing tiles underneath the statues in the corners of the room.

D) Oh, and almost all the interior lights are sized-down rec center lights from Growing Together because they looked vaguely spiraly. Gotta keep on-brand!

-->Up on the second floor, we have an arcade room and a karaoke room, because I like giving my Sims things to do at community lots and those seemed like fun rooms to have! Though, given the lack of actual arcade machines in unmodded Sims 4, I ended up making the arcade a bit more of a general "games room," with a foosball table and a table games table to fill out the area along with the big games machine and the virtual reality gaming mat. The karaoke room also ended up getting a popcorn maker because I really wanted it to have some snacks available, and popcorn seemed like the best bet.

-->And as for the roof surrounding the second floor...well, I took a look at all that empty space and went "I need to do something with this." So I turned the little "balcony" at the front into a hang-out space with spiral-themed loungers, a drinks tray, and a telescope, scattered some benches and a chess table around the place --

And set up a whole hot tub party area in the back above the chill-out room! Because who doesn't like a cool hot tub party area? Especially one with loungers, another drinks tray, an ice cream machine, and a busking area? Oh, and the most fun outdoor lights on a string that I could find? :p Advocates never do party time by halves, after all!

-->As for lot traits, I went with Party Place (because look at it, this place was made for parties), Convivial (because of course the Advocates would want everyone to feel like they can get along with everyone else), and University Student Hang Out (...because I honestly wasn't sure what else to put on the lot and this way the drinks are cheaper XD).

So there you have it -- the Ministry of Joy, ready to help your Sims on the path to happiness! It's up on the Gallery if you would care to check it out, under my user ID AliceNVictor -- you can also find it under "#thesmiler" if you prefer to search by hashtag. It is one of my patented "uses fifty million packs" builds, but hopefully it can find a home in your game anyway. :P Enjoy -- next week, robots!

[hella1975]

you ever have a fic get you in such a chokehold you start pacing your room and talking to yourself

[toxifoxx]

fighting the urge to make a rant post . but once you notice you really never stop noticing!!

[books-and-kids]

My safe families coach (caseworker equivalent) is going to call me today to discuss the details of someone else taking Deshaun. I feel so guilty and inadequate not to be able to finish out his hosting but I can’t figure out a way to. I’m sick and not getting enough sleep, to the point that I felt lightheaded and dizzy last night, but I could grit my teeth and make it through that for 2 more weeks. The problem is work. He’s not allowed back to daycare until he tests negative and is symptom free for 5 days. That’s totally reasonable from daycare’s perspective, but he’s still coughing and very snotty so I suspect it will be many days until he meets that criteria. And while hes home I can only half-work. He needs constant access to me. I’m wearing him in the carrier for many hours each day, but he won’t accept that all day and the rest of the time he has to be near me, climbing all over my lap. If I ignore him he cries. If I try to type, he grabs at the laptop. I can take some calls, but it’s a crapshoot what his mood will be like. Yesterday I had an important external call that I had to take off camera and mic, listening to someone else explain my work while Deshaun screamed in the background.

My job has been incredibly flexible and supportive but it’s been a week (we tested positive last Thursday night) and I don’t want to push it. Right now is busy for me also — I’m leading an important project with a firm deadline based on external factors we can’t change, and it’s already behind schedule. If I don’t finish my pieces of it within the next 1-2 weeks, it won’t happen in time.

There’s just no slack. If daycare is out as the childcare option, there’s nothing left. No partner to trade off childcare with. I’m not allowed to hire a babysitter (safe families would require them to be certified, there’s no prudent parenting standard), and even if I was I can’t imagine finding someone who’d risk getting sick, and even if I could I couldn’t afford it. I have family in the area, but nobody who’d volunteer to babysit a sick child while I work. (Mostly when I hear about people with that kind of family support it’s from their mom, and my mom is dead.)

What am I missing? I know single parents exist and manage sick kids. Do they accept the need to take significant PTO and the limits that places on their ability to perform at work? Do they accept getting no sleep so they can catch up on work after the baby is asleep? I guess if I was truly committed I’d do some combination of those things. Am I a terrible person because I’m not willing to? (I should also say — my job is really important to me. I work for a nonprofit doing the most important work I can think of. In terms of helping people, my job does that more than hosting does. And, I’m in my early career and I want to build my reputation as a top performer. I know there are different considerations for different people.)

Of the three hostings I’ve done that involved daycare, all three have had kids home unexpectedly. Charlie was home for a day and played independently and it went fine. Bella was home for 7 consecutive work days and it wasn’t great, but she watched a lot of Barbie Dreamtopia and we muddled through. Now with Deshaun, today is the 5th consecutive work day (one day off and then 4 days working while also caring for him). Is that level of daytime childcare need typical in yalls experience? If I’m not able to manage it, does that mean I’m not cut out for hosting and should stop doing it?

[clegfly]

Unpopular opinion(?): I despise Kaeya's guts

Also omfg NATLAN!!!! MAULANI!!!

SHES SO CUTE IM GONNA SAVE UP FOR HER!!!!!!1!1!1!11!

AGH I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS ASK BUT IN REPLYING TO SAY:

I PULLED ON 10 PITY AND GOT HER!!! SO USING MY POWERS OF HAVING MUALANI IM MANIFESTING THE SAME FOR YOU HEHE >:)) GL!!!!!

(Ps so real for the Kaeya thing. For no apparent reason I just despise that dude)