#i’m literally creating a sims world as we speak

[guess-my-next-obsession]

i have no business plotting a summer romance turned oh my god you’re my professor?? fic right now but alas here i am plotting

[vickozone]

The Magnus Archives

-S3 Notes-

WAY MORE NOTES

More fanart is definitely coming soon.

<- previous notes next notes ->

Handwriting translated below:

#81 childhood neurodivergent trauma. I like Georgie already. … I… didn’t like this episode very much. It reminds me too much of myself…

#82 Elias has the eye powers

#83 “The Stranger.” Circus and delivery service seem to theme. But, how?

#84 Martin is filling in for Jon, old “graveyard”, Melanie is archival assistant?

#85 “The Spiral”, someone isn’t not existing, Georgie is going on a date.

#86 The blanket never did anything, Jon spills some tea.

#87 Sebastian was so oblivious that Megan had to invite him back to notice something was up. [what an icon] Also, mentions of the lightless flame, the stranger, and some weird ritual. Jude Perry even needed to show up!

#88 The calliope is GONE. DIG. Martin really got into that statement and I do not trust Daisy one bit.

#89 Perry is The Desolation and Jon’s hand is TOTALLY singed off

#90 Jared is a bodybuilder and a butcher? He’s the Barbie of TMA. Also, strong women.

#91 Just as quick as he came, Michael Crew, [avatar of?] The Vast, is dead. Daisy is strangling Jon and we learn he can make people speak. AAAA NOT HIS THROAT!

#92 Elias confesses to killing Gertrude and Jurgen, Basira now works at the institute, “Hunt” is associated with Daisy, Jon is so mentally and physically unwell, and more details about the avatars.

#93 Admiral, delivery service, Georgie learns the truth, “Jonathan Sims, are you trying to save the world?”

#94 Georgie talks about her own experiences with death

#95 Martin reads statement regarding 2nd World War. He cares for Jon… a lot…

#96 Breekon and Hope backstory, and Daisy/Jon interview Sarah Baldwin

#97 “ELIAS, WHAT IS MY METAPHORICAL PIT?!” Also, Nikola Orsinov is that stranger chic.

#98 Maxwell, sandman, and Mel is new to poisoning people.

#99 The buried, Michael used to work for Gertrude, Jon is moving out and he got kidnapped— HOW MANY TIMES IS HE GONNA GET HURT?! (HIS LAST NAME IS SHELLEY?! 🥺)

#100 This is so hard to listen to. This literally hurts my brain.

#101 Michael. He… IT shares its statement. Gertrude created Michael. It got sucked through its own door, making way for… Helen Richardson. “He trusted her.” (I feel I am being too tame. MICHAEL IS DEAD?!)

#102 Jon + Mel planning to kill Elias right in front of him, Jon spoke French, more bugs.

#103 Demon pig

#104 If Tim dies… oh, he’s so hurt…

#105 Jon goes to china, The End mentioned, he is rather oblivious.

#106 The space and vast, also Melanie + Basira are shipping Martin and Jon. Stoppp! Also, Elias is pure evil. Jon is also ace.

#107 Jon travels the world, meets murderer’s daughter and vampire hunter! Power trio!

#108 “The world’s a stage…” + PETER LUKAS, MY BOY

#109 More of the trio and how they met. Mustermann just needs some quiet lol

#110 creepy spider movie director. Martin finds a way to distract Elias. ALEXIA. YOU GO!

#111 GERRY! NO! Also, there’s 14 fears. This episode is legit one of the most important.

#112 Friends take turns killing one another, and Barisa + Daisy are… friendly

#113 Gertrude knew Adelard, The End avatar, and Martin needs to keep his hands to himself! “TURN IT OFF!” 😰

#114 Hill Top Road cleaner, and we are off to blow a place up! :D

#115 yo. It’s the antique guy. Also, Helen is nothing like Michael… she’s… pure, somehow?

#116 This was the most confusing thing I’ve ever heard. I’m killing Leitner again if Tim dies.

#117 They all give their statements before The Unknowing. Tim… oh, Martin is so gay and Gerard is gone…

#118 I actually cried. Martin, you sweet boy, you don’t deserve this— WHAT IS HAPPENING!? NAH! NOPE!

#119 16 MINUTES OF PURE CONFUSION. I CAN’T EVEN START IMAGINING A SETTING! Kaboom.

#120 Tim is… dead. Lukas is in charge and Jon is in the hospital. (I need to lie down)

[cinamun]

So, I was inspired by your most recent ask to ask my own question that will most likely stir the pot and shake it up some but I’m one of those “let’s dive into the mind of a serial killer” people. Will we ever get a backstory for Bishop? Or at least learn more about him and what shaped him into what he is today. There has to be a story there and I’m sure it’s a tragic one or just wild at the very least. Not trying to excuse his actions in any way but I feel like everyone keeps asking “why why why” in regards to Mercy but to my knowledge no one has asked “why why why” for Bishop. It’s easy to write him off since he’s the villain but I myself love a villain origin story. I absolutely love all the rawness you put in your stories and people that are hating on you for it don’t realize you could go sooo much deeper into the chaos than you have so far. I literally was giving my husband a full rundown of the story because I was audibly gasping at your scenes. You’re an amazing story teller. And not just with this story, I love literally everything you’ve created. Yes, they’re little pixel people but I’m so attached to them and every time I read about them I feel like I’m in their world with them

(P.s. when infants drops, provided they’re not broken to hell, I’d LOVE a separate teen pregnancy story if you feel up for it! Kind of like how you did a specified story for the greenwoods testing out the pack ☺️)

Oh we LOVE a good villian, right?! We do, we hate it, but we do LOL. So Bishop is a crossover situation. He was an evil, EVIL sim from the Blackburn Family from the well known saga Let it Burn who, we thought, met an untimely death. Somehow, he reappeared in an entirely different universe, found yet another victim, and here we are. I'll let the good sis @therichantsim dive into any backstory because, well, she created him. But I like to do my research, and to my knowledge he was born this way (lady gaga voice). Some folks are just bad seeds. But maybe there's more? Who knows....

And what better way to start BHM than to have this Black girl over here blushing? LMFAO THANK YOU! This is my hobby and I love that y'all love it. And it gets dark, and its happy and its joyful and its evil. So when the good sis was like "I have an evil sim...." I was like SAY NO MORE FAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM again, here we are lol.

Say hello to your husband for me! And right, they're pixels and I really need to stop referring to them as people but my brain is stuck now since I've been playing this game forever lmfao

Speaking of infants, I'm actually GLAD we have until March because I am plotting RIGHT NOW on how we gon' do this because oh, we are PLAYING THAT NEW PACK baby! But when the infants drop, I haven't figured out how or if that will play into the story. What I do know is, you better stay tuned!

[lilypixels]

I’ve been doing thinking on all this (which maybe I shouldn’t lol) and I’m gonna say some things that hopefully don’t get skewed somehow or anything....maybe I shouldn’t say anything at all but again just speaking thoughts 

putting under a read more cause idk how long this'll get and I'm sure everyone's tired of this already 

ok so I've never totally been against early access, let me preface by saying this. In fact, I can understand people trying to just make some money due to varying circumstances; I’m sure many of us could use more money honestly. I think early access and just simple donations are almost the same too (with one having a little more incentive sure but at the end of day, the content is still got?) so I can’t quite wrap my head around why it seems to be such a big deal to get rid of and switch to donation only

also, again I can understand wanting to earn some extra money for things you do or put time into, but I also think it’s a bit ummm strange? funny? to make creating content for a game your “job”. This game could literally be gone at a moments notice, and you thought the smart business plan was to base your livelihood on it?? idk maybe not the smartest move, especially if that's all you do

Further still, making a hobby based community built around pixels profitable...what kind of capitalist bs honestly. we’re all supposed to just be here to have fun and share what happens to our silly pixels, to show off our pixel dolls, it was never meant to be monetized y’know?? While I may not be “active” in some other gaming communities, what I do know is I’ve never seen this same thing happen in them and to such extent. I use mods for skyrim, fallout, and dai and never once have I seen someone make people to pay for them. nexusmods has a wholeeeee host of mods for many games: all free. And those modders can do a whole heck of a lot more than some do here for sims (not discounting sims creators and their work but like skyrim for example has mods like falskaar and beyond skyrim bruma that add literal new worlds populated with new characters and quest and its all, you guessed it, free) so idk why the sims community is the one that can’t seem to do the same. is it because it’s easier to mod? accessible to more people? maybe its due to the foundations its built upon with EA itself and a lackluster game? who knows, but the fact remains that it seems to be a problem only here....which is funny too cause I thought we were supposed to be the more community based one, the one that's supposed to be one of the biggest on tumblr, the one that supports each other and enjoy dressing up our pixel dolls....sad to see that this continues to not be the case, but maybe we can get that sense of community back yet

and no, I'm not saying that one era of simblr was necessarily better than the other, there has always been problems. there has, however, been a huge surge lately in people flocking here just to make money off creations for this game, or heck conversions they don't even own. does anyone actually enjoy playing anymore? is everyone here just to profit? do some of these creators actually play at all?? I'm inclined to think not

as I wrap this post up, I think back to who I've subbed to on patreon: a whole four creators in my time. most all were cause they offered exclusives, but no doubt I loved their content, otherwise I'd have no reason to pay. I’m only currently subbed to one though (1 I didn't really use content of anymore, 1 never sent me anything so rip, the other upped prices and I couldn't justify the costs as a student). honestly, I really love this one persons creations and wouldn't mind donating if they switched to it; I was already paying money in the first place for it. sure, maybe I wouldn't pay every month, but I could do it every other month maybe. and yet, here I am having to wonder whether they will stay at all, even though they could very well keep making some money if they did.

[jewishjon]

The Magnus Archives and Fear

(A speech I wrote that I’m giving to my English class for a speaking assessment and thought I might share here too)

Picture this. The year is 1850-something. Hoop skirts are all the rage, dishwashers have just been invented, and architect Robert Smirke, most well-known nowadays for designing and building the British Museum, creates a classification system for the fourteen otherworldly, god-like entities of fear that control our world. This system is groundbreaking - although these entities have existed as long as, or perhaps longer than, humanity, it is only Smirke who has managed to classify them into a comprehensive list of fourteen.

This, of course, never happened. Robert Smirke, whilst very much a real man, did not come up with a classification system for fear entities just outside our world, nor was he involved in any way with the supernatural. This is, however, a major plot point in horror fiction podcast The Magnus Archives. The Magnus Archives was released weekly over the course of five years and five seasons, from 2016 to 2021, as 200 twenty five minute long episodes. It is by Jonathan Sims and follows our main character, a man named Jonathan Sims (yes, the writer named the main character after himself), as he becomes Head Archivist of an institution called the Magnus Institute, which is dedicated to taking and researching statements about people’s supernatural experiences. Whilst it initially seems like an anthology podcast, with each episode featuring a different short horror story or ‘statement’ being recorded into audio by Jon, connections slowly begin to form between the statements, and Jon and his Archival Assistants find themselves pulled into the mysteries.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you about The Magnus Archives. Well, other than it being one of my favourite pieces of media in general right now, I’m fascinated by how it examines fear - more specifically, the big fears of society. I think horror is an excellent way for people to analyse and deal with their fear, and TMA is a great example of this. See, there was a reason I was talking about a random architect from the 1800s and something he never actually did. In the universe of The Magnus Archives, Smirke’s Fourteen are the root of all fear in the universe. Whether they came before the fear or were created because of it is unknown, but they encourage it and feed on it. They range from the Slaughter, fear of pure, unmotivated violence, to the Web, fear of being manipulated, and the Vast, fear of wide open spaces and our insignificance in the universe. Although I’d love to stand here and explain all of the fourteen fears in detail, I think I might send half of you to sleep, so I’ve picked a few of the most interesting, relevant ones to discuss.

One of my favourite parts of horror is how it can be used to examine major fears and issues in society. The Magnus Archives and its fourteen fear entities are an excellent example of this, as each of the fears reflect a different aspect of our lives that people are scared of, universal but manifesting in many different ways. Something that stuck out to me during my current relisten of TMA is how many statements there are about the entity the Buried in the USA, in comparison to the other entities. For example, the aptly titled ‘We All Ignore The Pit’ tells the story of a man who moves into a new town in Washington and finds there is a pit in the middle of the road that the entire town, shockingly, ignores - except for when they all line up in it some nights and a few of them get pit-eaten. It’s actually mentioned in the podcast that the USA is the Buried’s most powerful location, and when you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. The Buried, like many of the fears, has both literal and more emotional manifestations, often intertwined - whilst on the surface it is the fear of enclosed spaces, being trapped underground, it also represents non-literal pressure and being choked by financial stress. In the USA, where medical debt and student loans pile and pile on top of people, it’s surely no surprise that the entity representing fear of crushing debt is well-fed.

And the Buried is far from the only entity that reflects pressing current issues. The Eye, which is the fear of being watched and having all your secrets exposed, deals heavily with current concerns around cameras and the fear of a surveillance state. The Corruption, fear of both insects and rot and also toxic love (often in the form of an insect hive), draws in many people who are so desperate to be loved, and have a home, that they’re willing to become part of the Corruption. Many of these people’s alienation is through capitalism, a system which makes it so hard to find community and a meaning that they’re forced into a mental place where the Corruption’s ‘love’ is enticing.

Another aspect of the entities that I find extremely interesting is how they show human fears evolving over time. See, when I said there were fourteen fears, I wasn’t entirely telling the truth. The oldest fear is the Dark (pretty self explanatory), something that humans have been scared of since the dawn of time. The newest established fear is the Flesh, the animal fear of being killed for meat, which was only solidified during the Industrial Revolution when enough animals were mass bred to be eaten that it became a significant fear. And then there’s the fifteenth fear, which is revealed in season four to be just now gaining prominence: the Extinction. Because, of course, what are people more scared of right now than being made extinct by a creation of their own invention? Whether it’s climate change or nuclear bombs, radiation or war, there’s nothing people are more aware of than the ticking time bomb on our own existence, and that’s what makes the Extinction so timely. The relevant statements are some of the most unsettling in the entire podcast, from an extremely creepy numbers station predicting the doom of the human race to an alternate, radiation-ravaged world, where malnourished shells of people eat each other to survive. It’s not hard to understand why many listeners were deeply affected by these episodes.

So, what is there to take away from The Magnus Archives and its fifteen entities of fear? Well, to start, horror isn’t all jumpscares and horrifying monsters (although those can also be plenty of fun). It can be an excellent way to examine major issues from a new perspective, and even overcome your fear of them. It may sound absurd, but it’s genuinely reassuring that when I’m overthinking whether someone hates me I can think ‘It’s just the Spiral at it again!’. Horror can be cathartic for many people as a way to confront their fears directly. Also, please listen to The Magnus Archives. I may have spoiled you for one big twist but there are many, many more to come, and I went in having been spoiled for about half of it and still had a great time. In my opinion, it’s brilliant, whether or not you’re already a horror fan - I certainly wasn’t at the start, and now I’m giving a speech about it. Thank you.

[hiddenspriings]

✨Check-in Tag✨

Thank you @happy-lemon for tagging me ♥

Why did you choose your url? I wanted something that will connect my blog to ts3 gameplay specifically but I was super new to the game so I just went with the world I knew of :)

How long have you been on tumblr? Oh it’s definitely over a year (or two?) now on this blog and literal yearsss on tumblr in general. Previously I was also on ts4 side of the community

Do you have a queue tag? Nope, I don’t consider it ‘useful’ for the way I post on this blog, otherwise all my posts will have the queue tag and that kind of lose make it lose it’s original purpose right?

Why did you start your blog in the first place? I’m all about online communities and sharing og content with others, I think it gives me satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment in my hobbies plus I really just like watching other people’s content. I have a bad experience with ts4 side of tumblr but ts3 side seemed much smaller and chill. Like you can see there’s nothing about popularity and growing big blogs here, maybe because the community grew over years and who wanted to stay and share a content stayed and who cared about network moved on? I might be very wrong but that’s how I felt when I decided to join. I do really enjoy it here

Why did you choose your icon/pfp? I tend to change my pfp a lot but it’s always the sim I created and play with :) I love their cute faces (and also it shows I’m a sims blog after all right?)

Why did you choose your header? I don’t have a header atm

What’s your post with the most notes? Currently it’s my ‘first’ post with Cassie, right when I came back with new posts after I deleted everything

How many mutuals do you have? I honestly have no idea XD but the community is so close here I think most of us are mutuals

How many followers do you have? 1489 as we speak, and I’m grateful for each one of you!

How many people do you follow? 258 (that is actually so little, Im sorry)

Have you ever made a shit post? I feel I’m too old to understand the idea of a shitposting XD but maybe when I was younger and on another blog?

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won? I don’t think so, I try to avoid dramas as much as I can. I’m mostly a ts3 content creator so I’m here to share my content, not to create beef with people I don’t agree with and be an attention seeker

How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts? I don’t think anyone should feel obligated to reblog something they don’t want to. Yeah, there are important issues within the community and this world but I believe we all come here to enjoy the game and sometimes we just want to have a moment to not care about any current issues

Do you like tag games? I love them!

Do you like ask games? Well, same thing as stated above

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? I mean... all of them? We are close knitted small community, it’s like everyone knows everyone XD

Do you have a crush on a mutual? Crush as a traditional meaning of that word or crush as ‘I adore your content’? If so I have a ‘simblr crush’ on many people tbh. For example I love @pixelbots (bc for real, who doesn’t?), @tragicpixel and @teekapoa because of how they can make such unique sims with huge personalities, @walkofpixels I am jealous of her slow paced gameplay! ughhhh all my mutuals are fantastic!

I don’t feel like tagging anyone specific bc for real I don’t keep track of what tags ppl did in the past anymore, so I tag you reading this!!! hehe

[scribbly-dee]

Question- how well do you think the Monster Pig Or the Admiral would have done as the archivist?

Extension of this post where I graded how well the non-archivist characters would have damned humanity if they had been the archivist.

Monster Pig 6/10, points awarded for initiating a pacific rim style apocalypse with himself as the kaiju, points deducted because he's a successful one pig union against the fear bosses and would literally eat the rich.

Idk if we ever got more meat on the bones re monster pig's entity influence but I interpreted him as a flesh/slaughter duel alignment. This avatar apparently walked off an ax chop but also "couldn't be bothered" to kick the lock off the barn door and help himself to some real havoc. Instead of seeking out brains to eat in cafés like Jon, he was content with letting havoc come to him instead and you know what? It worked? Like a black hole, the lack of fucks given created a vacuum which pullef both Gertrude and Jon to him.

He refused to terrorize any more than necessary. Fear bosses and their insatiable hunger be damned, Monster Pig will punch his time card every day at 4:30 p.m. and say "I'm done cannibalizing Toby the pig for today, see you at 8:00 a.m., Comrade Dylan Anderson." Antichrist point deduction for eating the cogs in TMA's capitalism metaphor

The marks would be a non-issue, he can apparently survive attacks ranging from stabbing to pennywise, the clown he ate. He has a ton of weird scars, so he may already be fully marked, which restores some points. But he still insists on doing it strictly within work hours, and will otherwise go on strike a la fucking off to a new farm and eating the competition.

The multiverse plan ultimately doesn't work because after Monster Pig slowly eats every avatar and trapped denizen, he would move on to eat the fear gods, which poetically solves the overharvested fear-farm dilema the Web was stressing over. Play stupid games, win stupid pr👁zes.

The Admiral 5/10, unstoppable force, Jon Sims's using his body as a stab vest for his son, meets unmoveable object, a tragedy chocolate torte that the cat steals off the counter despite all cats disliking sweet tastes and an inability to survive chocolate

Look me in the eye and tell me either Jonathan sims, head archivist magnus institute London or Jonathan sims, acclaimed writer/performer who openly avoids animal death in his podcast, would ever let anything mark to this boy. Hilarious.

That said, my cats crave death and I can't be everywhere at once. One time my cat chased a tiny lizard, the lizard bit his nose and clamped down so it was swung around as my cat flailed. My cat swatted it off, immediately went back to hunting the lizard, immediately got the lizard stuck on his nose again. If Michael does that trick where he pulls a jump road through a spiral door to lure children, he would immediately snag The Admiral, that's just science. Even if The Admiral survives, Michael just needs a new piece of string and he's back in the game.

(Those lizard bites are comparable to a clip-on earing, btw, my cat was surprised, not hurt)

The eye mark would be easiest to obtain once Beholding!Jon realizes he can speak cat. Jon deadass saturates him enough so eventually this cat can also read watcher crown statements. Despite The Admiral now having the likewise power to understand human, he's exactly as recalcitrant as a trained cat who doesn't feel like doing tricks. This is the immediate roadblock the entities encounter and honestly, they're not even mad.

How is this different than Monster Pig eating the cogs in the metaphor you ask? Monster Pig does just eldritch bullshit, no more no less, but it's all on his terms. The Admiral's tomfuckery will be the flavor of tomfuckery that aligns with the fear gods goal if we're lucky and we'll take what we can get.

As soon as The Admiral starts his apocalypse, the world is literally, not figuratively, his ball of string and we're just living in it. Until we're not.

[enderspawn]

dream smp asagao au, aka the very specific high school au

also aka the post thats very self indulgent for me and maybe 3 other people.

in short: its a dsmp high school au based on the game asagao academy, where everyone is part of a gaming club and compete against one another in tournaments. more in depth info about the AU/Asagao itself, as well as more info about the plot and roles of the AU itself.

Asagao Academy Basics

So to start, let’s cover the basics: what is Asagao Academy. ….well, an old Youtuber dating sim game (which, despite unfortunately including some fairly questionable CCs, IS still really good and well written and I recommend it) But what is it for AU purposes?

Asagao Academy is a highly elite world-wide boarding school set in Japan for those who are either rich enough to afford it, or those skilled enough to get scholarships. Within the game, there are two main clubs: Normal Boots and Hidden Block. They’re both gaming clubs, and joining is seen as super exclusive since they’re ALSO the most popular people in the school.

The two clubs compete with each other in various tournament events with specific categories. For example: Satch (from NB) and Jimmy (from HB) both compete in the “Tech and Invention” category, where they have to create/invent something related to gaming and have it judged at the event like a science fair. Meanwhile, Jared (from NB) and Wallid (from HB) both compete in “Dance” aka DDR and the person with the highest score wins.

The other categories featured in game include: Puzzle games (like Bejeweled or Tetris), Video Game Trivia, Pinball, Retro Platformers, a three-person fighting game, and 100% completion speedruns. So tldr; the categories can be kind of fiddled with and be whatever you want them to be, because even the original ones are pretty wack.

Also, there’s no rules against competing in multiple categories— in fact, most of the HB members in game do! It’s more about balancing time and practicing for them alongside school and other activities.

The winner of the competition is the team/competitor(s) with the most total wins.

Another thing to note: despite competing as clubs, they’re all actually pretty good friends. It’s all lighthearted and fun in the end, hell the leader of the opposing club even helps the main character join the main club just because he wants a decent challenge.

Speaking of… the main character! Hana Mizuno! I don’t have any current plans to include her in this AU (a la new dating routes), but I wanted to mention her for a few reasons.

For the main reason: her hair. Even as soon as she shows up, Mai (her best friend and roommate, who can break the 4th wall) immediately calls her out for her hair for looking like a main character which as we learn… isn’t an exaggeration. She’s literally a born protagonist, thus being born with naturally pink hair and a tragic backstory. Not only that, but other people are also born protagonists with pink hair as well— she isn’t an exception.

About the AU -- Revolution Era

A few things to note: in this au, when I first drafted it I… wasn’t looking to include 20+ people. I cut a lot of characters, but instead working with the idea that they’re still THERE, they just… don’t compete? Either they aren’t in the club and are just friends with the members, or they’re members who just don’t compete professionally. It’s nothing personal against those CCs and tbh as times goes they may get added more, but for now they’re just in the BG vibin.

It covers a really basic retelling of s1 for most of the planned au. It starts with One Club: the Dream Team. Members include: Dream (sophomore), Sapnap (sophomore), George (junior), Wilbur (junior), Eret (junior), and Fundy (freshman).

For reasons, possibly just as a goof or spite towards their American counterparts, Wilbur declares independence from the Dream Team and makes his OWN gaming club: L’Manberg. He takes Eret (a close friend from his grade) and Fundy (the freshman he immediately adopted) with him, causing the two teams to be 3v3.

But Wilbur’s got a dastardly surprise up his sleeve: TOMMY, HIS YOUNGER BROTHER (bc I am nothing if not a dedicated crimebros stan), AND TUBBO. They’re both too young to actually attend Asagao yet, but theres no age rules in the actual competitions so its fair play. They’re Wilbur’s secret weapon. After all, a 5v3 where the team with the most wins wins the competition? That’s a massive advantage.

… we all know how this goes though don’t we. Wilbur’s day be so fine, then BOOM, Eret betrayal 😔

In this case Eret feels it’s a LITTLE unfair to blindside them like that, plus Dream promised to make him the Leader of the Dream Team and, yknow, that kind of stuff DOES look good on resumes, so…

TLDR; Eret rejoins the Dream Team crew, as well as informing them of Wilbur’s plan with including Tommy and Tubbo and becomes leader. They’re still letting Dream and Co. basically actually do the leading, they don’t care that much, the title is just nice. L’Manberg cusses her out and promises to hold a grudge, but it’s all in good fun. After all, they’re just teens goofing around and playing. The clubs are again 4v4.

Dream tells the L’Manberg club that they can separate, sure… under one condition. They have to win the competition. If they lose, they have to rejoin the Dream Team club.

L’Manberg accepts, but come competition day… they lose. Tommy outright challenges Dream post awards to a speedrun competition for L’Manberg instead. …which Dream professionally competes in, and Tommy DOESN’T.

He loses, but he puts up a good fight despite having little to no actual practice put in, so Dream “grants” L’Manberg their “Independence”. (In this au, instead of being like… weirdly obsessive over Tommy, it’s a lot more “he sees himself in Tommy and wants to support/mentor him” and a “friendly rivalry” kind of deal bc its a damn HIGH SCHOOL AU)

So L’Manberg can be it’s own club! …Next year, when Tommy and Tubbo actually attend, since Wilbur and Fundy aren’t allowed a two person club.

About the AU -- Election Era

SO time skip! Congrats, everything up to now has been BACKSTORY. It’s now the next school year, with two main clubs (I’ve tried to keep them fairly balanced, which is why not all CCs are featured, sorry!)

Dream Team club:

Dream - junior

George - senior

Sapnap - junior

Eret - senior

Punz - junior

BBH - senior

Awesamdude - junior

Ponk - junior

L’Manberg club:

Wilbur - senior

Tommy - freshman

Tubbo - freshman

Fundy - sophomore

Schlatt - senior

Quackity - junior

Niki - sophomore

Jack - sophomore

(Also fun fact! Their grades are loosely based on the CCs actual ages! …Except Fundy, who got Baby-fied to fit the “Wilbur’s Kid” joke, and Eret bc it fit better to be the same age as Wilbur I thought. Oops HEKANDNSN)

So, for whatever Reason (listen this was an au I made in like one night when plagued with brainrot, it’s not all figured out), L’Manberg holds an election. Maybe it’s related to Wilbur wanting L’Manberg to be meaningfully different from Dream Team, maybe it’s a joke, idk!

…. SOMEHOW, Schlatt wins. Which ticks off Wilbur a lot. It’s his damn club, and the whole point was to avoid Americans, tf?? The two start to feud a lot and it threatens to split the club entirely via ppl taking sides. Worse, it means people aren’t practicing for the competition.

All while this is happening, there’s a new intrigue building. Dream catches word of an infamous player in the area, someone known to win entire competitions against teams of people all by HIMSELF. A man with bright bubblegum pink hair called Technoblade. That’s right, literal universe-assigned protagonist Techno. If Dream could enlist him, there’s no doubt in hell they’d be able to beat L’Manberg.

L’Manberg hears of him too and works to try and enlist him as well, so he basically gets courted by both clubs trying to get him to play for them to mixed results. He’s pretty chill vibin by himself, so what’s in it for him? (….I don’t know, remember how this is a WIP au I worked on once?)

Eventually, a teacher named Phil (who’s been the honorary sponsor of the L’Manberg club) gets pissed at Schlatt and Wilbur’s fighting and bans both from competing (aka this AUs version of them dying). Which fucking SUCKS for L’Manberg. They’re now going 6v8 with a wildcard player who’s undeclared on which side he’ll join, if at all.

… honestly, that’s as far as I got. Theoretically, Techno joins L’Manberg to reflect Pogtopia and they win. I never had plans to go into s2 due to its darker theme, but there are definitely changes that could (and might?) be made for the s1 plot just so it flows better.

I already had to shift Wil and Schkatt’s “deaths” to fit, unless I were to have them LITERALLY make a new club. Maybe Schlatt uses his power as Club President to make them work with Dream Team (to the point it basically merges the clubs). Sure, they might be guaranteed to win now but it removes the competition and fun as well as the spirit of OG L’Manberg. So then Wilbur rebels and makes his own club AGAIN, calling it Pogtopia with the intent to get L’Manberg back. Then Techno, intrigued with this group of like 2-3 ppl going against a team of like 13ish people, decides to join them. Idk! Alternative possible plot based more closely on s1 I guess!

I’m gonna add a list of characters in full with their age, their club, and what they compete in (if it’s already brainstormed, most ppl are unknown) below

Character List

dream (DT) - junior - speedrunning

george (DT) - senior - coding/tech and invention

sapnap (DT)- junior -

eret (DT) - senior -

wilbur (LM) - senior - rhythm game/guitar hero-esque

tommy (LM) - freshman - (possibly pick up speed running during election arc?)

tubbo (LM) - freshman - chess

fundy (LM) - sophomore - coding/tech and invention

schlatt (LM) - senior - he never actually declares what he plans to play and then gets banned anyway, aka no game kekw

quackity (LM)- junior - dance

niki (LM) - sophomore -

jack (LM) - sophomore-

punz (DT) - junior -

bbh (DT) - senior -

awesamdude (DT) - junior -

ponk (DT) - junior

technoblade (SOLO) - junior - multiple categories

FINAL BIT

here’s some scraps for ppl who know Asagao already as well as small bits I didn’t bother to write up any further

- Karl, much like Mai, is ALSO aware of the 4th wall and has time travel powers because of it.

- Purpled (undecided if he’s a solo player like Techno or has his own team he competes with that’s not a formal club) plays Literally Bedwars in competitions

- Callahan is the Dream Team club sponsor, Phil is L’Manberg’s club sponsor

- Karlnapity is real and canon bc I say so

- both for balance/laziness, every person only competes in one category. also bc it makes Techno that much more Protagonist-y that he does

- I made this AU in like February man idk I’m just vibin

- Fuck I never even included Ranboo huh

[sweet-evie]

The Emperor's Wish: My Personal Favorite [Fanfic Commentary #10]

Fanfic AO3

His final judgment is at hand. The price is set and the plan is in motion. But Emperor Lelouch uncovers his lover's secret, and it will haunt him beyond his own death.

[FANFIC COMMENTARY]

Legit, I’m proud of this one. I don’t know why… Probably not the best either. But this was incredibly self-indulgent, and hey, it turned out so well. Would you find it funny if I told you that this fic premise was in my head ever since I wanted to write for CLuCLu? Like, after watching the movie, I was always imagining how it would pan out so differently if Lelouch had a child, and C.C. is left to care for her lover and her son. 

This is my baby and my pride and joy. My only one probably 😅 There are lots of made-up quotes in that fic that I’m really (and I mean, really proud of, and I don’t say that often because my writing is ~Hit or miss~ )

Unlike One Day at a Time, this one took a genuine effort to understand characters and how they would react in this what-if situation I created in my fucked up head. 🤣😂

It was written during the thick of quarantine and lockdown last year (April 2020), and I guess that helped fuel my timeliness and speedy updates. Because I was writing fanfic for the majority of the day, with minimal breaks in-between. Some of the reviewers on FFN can attest to the daily updates I had for The Emperor’s Wish.

It started as a one-shot with the Prologue, as my way of testing the waters. When I felt secure and sure that I could finish it, I went headfirst, never looked back, and came out of the other side, proud of myself for not abandoning a WIP 😅. But that was also because I had so much fun with it. It was nice to imagine a world where Lelouch had proper closure with his friends and family.

My favorite moment from The Emperor’s Wish (aside from the blatant CLuCLu romance) is Lelouch and Suzaku’s relationship. I love how I wrote them there. I love their bromance, as well as the subtle Ned Stark & Robert Baratheon allusion towards Chapter 11: Rewriting the Stars.

Suzaku never had a brother. And Lelouch never truly liked any of his… But even if they weren't bound by blood, theirs was a bond built on so much more.

For you are the brother I chose…

Perchance if some reader is as obsessed and familiar with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire as me, then I bet they would have caught that… Or not. And it was simply self-satisfaction for the writer. Either way, I. Don’t. Regret. It.

And of course, I loved writing it mostly because of the star of that fanfic: Alexander Lamperouge himself. 🤩

He’s now in my Sims 4 universe, as a spellcaster. 😂

My Loves and Regrets

I LOVE how I wrote Nunnally here, honestly. She’s not a character I’d imagine that I could ever pull off flawlessly, and while I don’t think I accomplished the ‘flawless’ part, I think I did a decent job fleshing out her reaction and what a decent conversation with her older brother and C.C. could have gone like, also her reaction to finding out she had a nephew.

I REGRET that I didn’t get to write a lot about Lelouch’s other friends -- Shirley, Milly, & Rivalz, to be honest. It just felt so out of left field for me to force their story somewhere in the fanfic retelling considering the entire story did revolve around the CLuCLu family. In my own way, I tried writing more for the three of them separately, but that didn’t push through, because for some reason my brain doesn’t work. The only one I made a decent attempt at is Shirley, but I didn’t publish the fic either. It was about her meeting with Lelouch again after a year or two. It was set somewhere in Dubai. She was supposed to meet his son, and see C.C. again, and the ending was supposed to have C.C. and Shirley hugging and Shirley tells C.C. to take care of Lelouch. It was a very bittersweet one-shot/drabble/plot idea that was never publicized.

I LOVE my shoddy attempt at drawing parallels between certain scenes in The Emperor’s Wish. One of the readers, Kurosawa Ayumi, actually caught it and mentioned it in a review. It was the scene where Alexander was playing with his Knightmare toys (Lancelot & Gawain), and how Lancelot was cleaved in half from being accidentally thrown or dropped, and then how Jeremiah put him back together again. And then I transitioned to the annals of the prison in Grahlbad where Lelouch and Suzaku were about to confront each other after two years of not speaking and assuming one was dead.

I REGRET that The Emperor’s Wish isn’t longer. Like, I wish I took the plunge to create complicated twists, but it just… didn’t feel right at that time, you know? 😅🤔 Considering how I framed the fanfic as a retelling and reimagination of Re;surrection’s plot from the start, I feel like it would be too far-out to suddenly make things overly complicated than they already are. Also, there literally wasn’t much information available about Shamna, Shalio, and the rest at the time.

I LOVE the scenes I added in the fic, and the ones I put my own fanfic twist on. Re;surrection was a movie, so for obvious reasons, there’s time constraints and not as much time to flesh out characters like in a series. I tried doing that in my own way in this fic, and whether I succeeded at adding believable details to their interactions or not, it’s up to the reader. I’m just relieved that I actually managed to pull it off, given how sucky I am lately.

The Epilogue

The epilogue for The Emperor’s Wish went through a lot of rewrites.

At one point, it was supposed to overtly show the CLuCLu family traveling through Georgia, Lebanon, etc., and about how exhausting and challenging it was to hunt Geass fragments, gather intel, and take care of a baby at the same time. But I scratched it in favor of the first scene in the epilogue that we have now -- which is Suzaku and Nunnally discussing the latest Black Knight report, and the convenience of the entire operation because L.L. and C.C. were involved in some ways.

Hence the lines:

"They were responsible for stopping that criminal, weren't they?" She asked even when she already knew the answer.

"Highly likely. Probably stripped him of his powers before they abandoned him to be caught by the Black Knights."

And then I decided to take the steamy-but-not-really route for the final scene. The vague lovey-dovey between Lelouch and C.C. There was also a slightly vague allusion to them getting married underneath a poplar tree.

Plus, the last line was the cherry on top of my favorite fic so far:

— professing over and over again how fortunate and how blessed he was to have and to hold her for better or for worse…

And not even Death was powerful enough to tear them apart.

And on that note,

It wasn’t the longest fic I would ever write, nor is it the best, but it’s definitely one of my favorites. 😊😍🥰 And I loved every second of writing it. 🥳

[gerbithats]

A long sims 4 rant

Starting this I can already predict it’s gonna be a big one so if you stick with me, thank you and I’ll try and add pictures to make things feel easier 😆

I was thinking about it and I mean really thinking about these community surveys we’ve been getting and how they speak volumes on the way the game is handled but also also how we position ourselves as a community. I noticed alot more game changers are starting to get pretty vocal about their thoughts since the first community survey came out and that’s refreshing to say the least, but it shows a pattern that we all present: give us what is missing no matter how. We want beaches. We want cars. We want more stairs. We want bunkbeds. Etc.

So these things are probably somehow rushed into production to please the community and then, when we finally get it, it’s like we finally realize that what this game truly lacks is gameplay and not more items.

I invite you to come and think about the packs and the stuff we got throughout these 6 years with me.

🏢 Chapter 1: The apartment issue 

Yes we got apartment buildings with city living, but sometimes it doesn’t even feel like it’s a game feature because it’s L I T E R A L L Y related to living in a city, so it’s not a real feature. We have no possible way to play with apartments and condos outside of san myshuno because for the first time ever we can’t build or own apartments. This was such a missed opportunity of giving us new lot treatments like condos and even rentable properties. I mean, just think about how those 2 features could allow so much new gameplay and stories with it (I can literally imagine being a landlord, having to go fix renters stuff in my their places and doing social events as condo meetings).

The neighbors in that type of lot could also help solve somehow what so many people mention as “boring lot gameplay”. Let’s be real. hardly something ever happens with so little npcs and only the walk by sims (You have to literally run after them to make things happen sometimes and it shouldn’t be like that). But if sims were to live in the same condo or building as yours, sharing common living spaces that’s a whole other thing. Which brings me to the fact that even in the city, where apartments exist, there’s no common area other than the halls. Imagine if we could build laundries, rooftops, basements, patios with pools and all that sort of stuff.

That sort of detaling and really getting deep into the pack’s features is even show in elevators: we can’t use them ourselves (for building) and they’re not even animated, your sim is just teleported (even the modded ones have animations and that’s just awkward).

🌊 Chapter 2: Swimming in shallow waters

“We want a beach”, we said. So they gave us a beach, and a beach only. I’ve never seen so many people call a pack “shallow” as I’ve seen it happen to Island Living and tbh I do agree with them ‘cause... there’s really not much to do in this pack. For the first time ever swimming was restricted to this pack which is already a big let down by itself, but then features like deep diving were added for no reason and of course, as a rabbit whole, not actually contributing with much to do. So how could it be better?

My answer is pretty obvious: resorts. It is a livable world, but that don’t mean your sims can’t take a vacation from work and just stay there if that’s the gameplay you want to go with and resorts match perfectly with that, not to mention it would have great integration with packs like spa day. It also means a new lot type and lot system, that wouldn’t be much new if the city living building condos and sublocating them as I mentioned would’ve already been implemented, but now with the feature of renting it yourself too. Resorts could also have their own event schedules, integrated with the seasons calendar: cava parties every wednesday, yoga lessons on thursdays, etc. And the best thing would be: if you own one, you can make your own events and traditions. imagine just how fun that would be. A feature like this would also mean it’s already done for other packs coming later on, maybe a colder destination where you can ski and build iglus or even another cultural based pack like jungle adventure.

Other obvious resolution would be better mermaids. Make it harder to become one, being only able to get the kelp from a mermaid themselves. Make it less anticlimactic, having an animation of them turning before they just walk in water with a tail all of the sudden, maybe just some scales in their legs. Give them more unique features and powers like vampires and spellcasters have, such as easily persuading people (sort of like the mind control feature aliens have) and maybe even a secret lot, like a grotto where all the mermaids are. Give them curses with the points system to go with it, some mermaids are actually sirens amirite

🥶 Chapter 3: Seasons change, gameplay stays the same

Activities truly based on the season that are specific to that moment create urgency and different moments. Something I can think of is integrating a pack we already have: spooky stuff. It does feel lackluster ‘cause it’s missing opportunities, but imagine going trick or treating but actually going, loading different houses and gathering it while a meter like the active jobs one guided you. Forming groups with friends to do it or maybe for tpeing trees and bushes if you’re on the rebel teen side and destroying their porch jack’o lanterns. It could even be randomly generated, like the game would send you to 3 different houses to do it (that would bring lots of replayability value ‘cause you could end up in houses with neighbors that love you and will give you candy no problem, but maybe also neighbors with family feuds that won’t answer their door or make it harder for you to accomplish the event objectives), maybe one of those could even be a abandoned one that’s haunted or something like that.

The implementing of a better wants and fears system is very essential for this pack. Yes your sims get overheated and a popup message tells you they need some water or lighter clothes, but it’d be so good if they’d actually want to go to the beach, swim in the ocean, take a vacation from work and go to a resort. Heatwaves that would make your sim act weird, not strangerville level of weird, but maybe not obeying your commands.

Blizzards so strong that work and school would get canceled and you actually don’t have the option to leave your home lot anymore until it passes would not only add a different element to the gameplay, but also add value to the weather controler machine.

🥺 Final chapter: The general “more stuff to do” and “more things happening” factor

The game offers all these beautiful secret worlds and yet when you finally get to them there’s not much to do other than searching for rocks and frogs and doing some fishing. I miss going to a community lot hidden somewhere and finding an eremite, goddamn bigfoot, some crazy npc or even just an actual community lot with something to do and people doing stuff in it. Unique community lots would also be a way to make towns more lively and captivating like they did so well with realm of magic and the casters alley section of the world. Maybe forgotten hollow has this abandoned haunted house where people claim they’ve seen the grim reaper walking around. Maybe sixam has a alien station where they clone human sims. Maybe sulani has this beautiful sunken ship beach where a club of people that dress up as pirated meet. Maybe Del Sol Valley has a movie theater where you can watch premieres. Maybe Oasis Springs mine hides actual gold that you can collect and get rich outta nowhere. That kind of stuff.

I can’t stress this enough, but NPCs are so important to shake things up. It was so good to have a pack like realm of magic where the we would have to go to the three sages in order to progress. Having unique sims like this or npcs that change the way your story is going like burglars, firefighters, cops, social bunny, bonehilda and even a fortune teller is so important to keep things impredictable and interesting.

Age groups really need more specific restricted gameplay for better feel of progression. Many people say sims 4 is a young adult simulator and well... there’s not much to show that differs from that. Toddlers are as interesting as hamsters, locked in an object waiting for you to feed, clean and give them attention. Teens really should feel more like a transiction period, and the wants and fears system would really help out with that. I miss being able to participate in more elements that would mark a sims life even if they’re cheesy as heck, like having a prom, graduating, having a midlife crises.

In conclusion

First of all: if you got to this point thank you and I’d really wanna know what you think about all of this.

Some people may find even ridiculous for someone to go about a rant this big on a game and to that I have to say I agree lol I can’t help it tho, honestly, the sims has always been the game I’m most passionate about and it helped me express myself and my creativity so much since I was a kid. I really do care about this game and this franchise.

The point I want to make with this is: perhaps we shouldn’t ask for more and more different stuff, but actually put some effort into showing things we already like in the game and how they can be improved to make it more interesting. At the end of the day I still want spiral staircases, ladders, paintable ceiling, werewolves and all that but does it really matter if they get added to the game following the same patterns as the things pointed in here? Also we really are getting to a point where only a few things are missing as far as cas/build/buy go and I believe it’s time for us, as a community, to give gameplay as much importance as all these things we wanted so bad that got implemented. I probaby forgot to say something here and I didn’t even mention the infamous hamster pack, but anyway, I hope the point got across.

I try really hard to believe that the gurus are here for us and that most of all we, as a community, have a very strong voice, all we need to do is make it clearer and stronger about the things we really wish for this game.

[magic-bot]

in regards to your weird child cc ask recently, saying that people who have been abused support you creating it, is an awful excuse. one singular person that was once abused saying they’re okay with that stuff existing does not mean they speak for every single person that has been abused. that excuse is used as if to pardon questionable behavior. it’s literally the same as some racist saying a racial slur and defending it when others ask by telling them one singular person of that race excuses it. it does not justify doing it. something morally incorrect is still incorrect even if one particular person says it’s okay. one person allowing something does not mean they are a gate keeper for all.

in regards to the last sentence in your first paragraph, about if thinking that they can do something indecent with that content, then it speaks of their own promiscuity? nonsense. to start, that is circular reasoning which is a logical fallacy used by lawyers to manipulate and get people to seem guilty by twisting others words in favor of whatever point they’re making. if the premises are true, then the conclusion must also be true. with that out of the way and onto my second point, in your case, you’re saying that somebody having the knowledge of pedos existing and knowing what type of media they may or may not like, immediately makes them pedophilic, or “promiscuous” as well. circular reasoning is great for twisting words, manipulating, and making others out to be wrong in the public eye but if you can recognize it, it loses its power. because this clearly is not the case when it comes to pedophilia.

i feel as though i shouldn’t have to say this but i will. someone with a job that involves finding and taking down pedophiles by observing their behavior and seeing the ugly side of society does not immediately make that person a pedophile as well. but to you, it apparently does if we decide to use your logic, your wording. i understand this may not have been your intention, but it was still worded the way it was. your circular reasoning does not apply in a situation like this. if i can predict that a pedo who plays the sims would use your cc to satisfy their own lowlife urges, that does not make me morally promiscuous. it simply means that i can observe the world around me and use it in my favor to predict situations, and stop them if i need to. and i hope the person your comment was directed towards also knows this.

even if you mean no harm by making content like that, it does not mean that something harmful will/could not follow. it makes you not only complacent to lowlife behavior, but a contributor as well. even if you don’t have the bad intention. i mean, people who sell drugs don’t always intend for them to end up in the hands of children, but shit happens, right? if you don’t care about what could or could not be done with your content then that’s fine. this is just a video game anyway, and it’s undeniable that having pedophiles sticking to video games will always be better than the alternative. although some of this paragraph rings some truth, i hope my sarcasm has been showing thorough properly.

i did a very loose skim over the rest of the post(s) but i don’t feel the need to speak on it. the first paragraph had enough harmful wording to urge me to say something. i agree with some of the other things said, and don’t care or find the others viable in regards to defending your situation. you can ignore this completely, or answer and use more (il)logical fallacies to attempt at breaking down what i’ve said. it’s all in your hands. i’ve said my piece. i have no ill-intent with sending this ask, only the hope that you consider my words and understand that your first paragraph was an illogical and awful way to defend your point and did more harm than good.

Okay, I don’t want to chat about this topic anymore and I’m unlikely to give a detailed answer anymore, because your accusations from all the cracks have bothered me. It’s fucked up that you reproach me for your sexual promiscuity and that you see the same porn and suspicions everywhere. These are your problems guys. When will you realize that there is nothing behind this and calm down? - I am hiding behind the opinion of one person?

Well, you saw that this opinion was expressed in the tumblr in my ask, but people also wrote to me in private messages and I discussed this topic in real life with a few other people who are not advocates of pedophilia and who were subjected to violence. I had to provide in my defense some documents proving this or what? Or should I make excuses to zealous defenders for every word they misunderstood? This gives them no reason to raid my ask and wish me death. And the fact that I'm not trying to whitewash my name after all this scandal also does not give a reason to hang labels on me and come up with new bullshit that I have nothing to do with. - Oh, so I have to worry about abstract people who might commit a crime because of me? This is not porn content or even erotica, this is 3D mesh, nothing more. Although I already realized that any content in the direction of children will equal the fact that you are a fucking nutcase, since you created this. I already understand this, you can calm down. But I will continue to do what I want, because these are my ideas and implementation, I am not afraid of accusations, because here you have nothing to cling to anymore. - I have no idea how you connected the lawyers and my personal opinion, because there is nothing in common. It is normal to take care of yourself and monitor your actions, and not for someone, and even more so forcing them to behave in one way or another. We have special services that help people, generally accepted norms of behavior in the end. To impose someone to hide sensitive topics or to vehemently defend those who do not need protection is a kind of invasion of personal space. Do you want to do this? Go and provide help in the real world, rather than lashing out at people on the Internet who are not doing evil anyway. - This is not about what you thought about it and forgot, but about the fact that people are fixated on this and go crazy. And I understand perfectly well that it is normal if you think about it without breaking the law, but we are not talking about this here, but about the obsession of people with the topic of pedophilia. What's the problem if they pick it up themselves? They can't calm down because they cheat themselves or do they have problems taking care of others? This is insanity. - Okay, how did I harm anyone other than all these commentators by hurting their very gentle nature? Have rapists all over the world gone to commit crimes? Then can you give statistics on the commission of crimes before and after the publication of my content? NO. Because this is fucking nonsense and no one cares. Adequate people reacted neutrally / with interest, inadequate people began to raid and come up with some kind of crap. The point is not even whether I meant something, but that I will be accused anyway, regardless of who is right. - And it's very nice of you to first pour out a bunch of crap and at the end write that you had no evil intentions, etc. and so on. as if all aggression is canceled after these words. Honestly, you won't find a more toxic place than the Tumblr community and the Simmer community. I never cease to wonder what kind of kooky you throw out once again and with whom you expose ordinary authors in front of the public. And since you wrote this, I answer. Not because I want to support this theme and the fire around, but because you do it, and I do not hide your impulses. Poor you are my defenders of the rights of the not needy.

[butter-egg-toast]

YouTuber Girlfriend ▶️

I got a bunch of requests for this one. . 👍

Requested by @dragonwolfs

Long post be prepared.

I'm so sorry I couldn't think of Albert, Kadea, and Aii

Enjoy 🤗

Haru: 🎨

🌙You're a mix media ArtYouTuber.

🌙You do various art forms like painting sculpture, Ink art, ceramics, etc.

🌙You're usually not on Camara, most of your videos are focused on your art work.

🌙On some occasions Haru would draws something for you

🎨" Look (y/n), it's a Mackerel sculpture"-Haru

🌙 Haru gives art tips on the channel for beginners.

🎨"Art and swimming are similar...just go with the flow"-Haru

🌙He goes shopping with you for art supplies.

🎨" We literally only bought 4 items and it came to 40 dollars?!-Haru

🌙You and Haru did a couple of drawing challenges like:

Draw with left hand challenge,

Draw each other challenge

Draw with your eyes closed challenge

🌙At the end of the day Haru secretly enjoy making art with you.

🌙You have a simple following of 50k

Channel name: HoneycombArts.

Matoko: 🐱

🌙You're an animal YouTuber

🌙You work at a pet adoption center. So you encounter different types animals like:

Cats, dog, rabbits, birds, and many more

🌙You invited Matoko to help you with the feral kittens and cats; immediately after hissing at you and the other employees they warm up to Matoko.

🐱"Wow.. they really love me!"-Matoko

😸" Woah Her fur is so fuffy and pretty"-Matoko

🌙You give tips about properly taking care of animals.

🌙Matoko usually not on Camara that much (he's kinda shy)

🌙But when he is on Camara, The videos with the most views are usually with Matoko washing kittens.

🐱"You want to make sure the kitty is calm and not scared of you. Make sure you talk to them to calm them."-Makoto

🐱"Its okay little guy, you're gonna be a nice and clean kitty"-Makoto

🌙 You have a simple following 80k

Channel name: PreciousPets

Nagisa: 🎬

🌙You're a movie/TV show commentator. Comedy skits, you comment on badly movie reviews or simple commentary.

🌙You and Nagisa something reenact scenes from movies and TV shows.

🎬" Oi!!! Look at me when I'm talking to you *bad acting*" -Nagisa

🌙Nagisa cant get his lines right and he always laugh. That's what makes it charming.

🎬" Dont go...I..ummm... *laugh* I forgot (y/n) chan.. what's the line again?"-Nagisa.

🌙Sometimes there are cheesy skits you do together for fun.

🌙 there are some occasions were both of you and Nagisa forgot your lines and you both had to improv.

🎬" Noooooo... how.. could you betray me? Nagisa fell to his knees. "Well...you shouldn't have took my... taco.." trying your best to hold in your laughter. Nagisa confused at your choice of words. "Eh?..."-Nagisa

🌙He Loves being on Camara most of the time

You have a simple following 50k to 80k

Channel name: Tomatometer

Rei: 📘

🌙You're a History YouTuber. Educational videos, learning , science, and technology

🌙 You go over the latest new technology and you have sponsors that send you laptops and phones

🌙You have a mini segment were Rei goes over interesting fun science facts

📘"The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue"-Rei

📘" People who speak two languages may unconsciously shift their personalities when they switch from one language to another.

🌙 You and Rei do a myth busting, where you answer questions from viewers.

🌙There was even a time were you both performed a chemistry experiment that failed.

📘" *cough * see this is why its important to have safety precautions"-Rei

You have a simple following of 50k to 60k

Channel name: Learn Something Today

Rin: 🛠

🌙You're a DIY YouTuber, building and create easy life hacks

🌙You build random projects you find on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or viewers suggestion

🛠" (y/n)? That a cool sculpture"-Rin

🌙Rin is never in your videos. The only time he showed his face is when you both did a challenge together.

🛠" Woah!! This looks complicated. But nothing's too complicated for me. What do we need ,(y/n)?"-Rin

🌙Rin sometimes goes shopping with you to find your supplies.

🛠 "Huh?! This is a lot of wood (y/n), what are you making today?"-Rin

🛠" what type of wood you need?"-Rin

🌙You sometimes give away or sell your projects depending on the occasion.

🌙Rin helps with your projects on his day off, because he's curious how the project will turn out.

You have a simple following of 80k

Channel name: Fix it Make it

Souskue: 🥙

🌙You're a cooking Youtuber

🌙Sousuke something does voice overs talking about cooking traditional Japanese food and giving cooking tips.

��" Okonomiyaki is a simple pancake that is cook with cabbage."-Souskue

🌙People always send you emails asking to show your boyfriends face because they love his voice so much.

🥙" They really like me? I dont think my sounds like honey"-Souskue

🌙You sometimes do food challenge and completions with your friends and Souskue. (Souskue always win)

🌙You make a variety foods all over the world

🥙"Can you cook pork cutlets?"-Souskue

🌙The meals you and Souskue cook, you both give to homeless shelters and orphanages.

🌙Every special occasion you bake a themed caked.

🥙"Is that a shark?! How did you make this?!"-Sousuke

You have a simple following of 70k

Channel name: Cookie dough gummies

Momo: 🎮

🌙You're a Gaming YouTuber

🌙You play a wide variety of games like horror, dating Sims, action,Platformers, 3D, and many more

🌙Multiplayer with all your friends (Among us)

🌙Momo definitely loves playing adventures and scifi games with you

🌙Momo likes to bring Puyysuke with him to the gaming sessions.

🎮"Puyysuke is good luck!!"-Momo

🎮"Puyysuke is just as excited as I am with this game. "-Momo

🌙You and momo sometimes compete with each other in fighting and racing games.

🎮"Awwww no fair (y/n) that's cheating !!"-Momo

🎮" Ahhh how you keep winning"-Momo

You have a simple following of 60k

Channel name: Beetle juice

Seijour: 💪

🌙You're a health and fitness Youtuber

🌙Health and fitness tips from professionals and Seijour.

💪"Having a perfect form is the most important and effective way of succeeding"-Seijour

🌙Breaking down the human body to benefit different bodies types.

💪" This exercise plan I used on the samzuka swim team. I guaranteed you will bulk up👍"-Seijour

💪No pain no gain. Keep pushing YOUR ALMOST THERE!!! You can do it!!"-Seijour

🌙 You and Seijour do couples yoga on sundays.

💪"Dont worry (y/n) I got you. Just relax your muscles"-Seijour

You have a simple following 80k

Channel name: You're lifestyle

Kisumi: 💄

🌙You're a beauty YouTuber.

🌙Hes pretty much on your channel 24/7. Everyone loves the both of you.

🌙You do make up challenges, skin care tips, and themed make up looks.

💄"Niacinamide and hyaluronic acid are the best together on your skin"-Kisumi

🌙 You and kisumi have challenges where you do each other's makeup.

💄" Eh? I used the wrong color?! Haha sorry "-Kisumi

💄"I hope I'm not too rough with your face. Let me know."-Kisumi

🌙Kisumi did a voice over on one of your tutorials twice.

💄" Now shes applying blush on...oohhwow that's a cute shade on her..its really cute (y/n)"-Kisumi

💄" wow that makes (y/n) eyes pop!"-Kisumi

🌙Kisumi loves to do seasonal makeup tutorials with you.

🌙He even let you do some makeup on him.

💄" Woah I look like a kpop male idol! How did you did that??!"-Kisumi

You have a simple following of 90k

Channel name: Velvet lips

Asahi: 🔎

🌙You're a Horror theme YouTuber

🌙Discuss Mysteries and Paranormal activity all over the world, Unsolved crimes. Mysteries death and conspiracies theories

🔎"That's interesting.. has the crime been solved?"-Asahi.

🌙Asahi is not into the paranormal because he doesn't believe in it. However, because you like, he's curious about the stuff you talk about.

🔎"wow that monster is 8 foot tall!! And it was seen in Japan??!!"-Asahi

🔎" mmmhh.. that picture is kinda convincing"-Asahi

🌙There was a time where you, Asahi, Hiyori And kisumi went to explore an abandoned house on the countryside that is known for huntings

🔎"oh... (y/n) do you want me to hold your hand if your scared?"-Asahi

🔎"huh? That noise? It may have been a rat"-Asahi

You have a simple following of 70k

Channel name: Mystery XE

Ikuya:💻

🌙You're a Anmaition Youtuber, sometime you animate your story times and do little funny Anmaition, and music video Anmaition.

*The time I accidentally pranked my teacher story time*

*Middle school experience * story time

*Worst family vacation ever* story time

*Creey encounter at work ft Ikuya* story time

*How I met my boyfriend ft Ikuya* story time

🌙Ikuya something gives you ideas for a Anmaition.

💻"How about do a little mermaid Anmaition?"-Ikuya

💻"This is cute a Anmaition, you think you can teach me how to do it?-Ikuya

🌙 You created a Anmaition for Ikuyas birthday with one of his favorite songs.

💻" I love ever bit of this. You really know what I like"-Ikuya

You have a simple following 60k

Channel name: Ms.Honbuns

Natsuya: 🗺

🌙You're a travel YouTuber/Vlogger

🌙 natsuya is on your channel 24/7

🌙You and natsuya traveled to various locations while site seeing, eating food, meeting local people, learning the language, learning the history, and having fun.

🌙You do 360 VR videos of each country, or city you visit.

🌙Sometimes you both camp and go on hikes.

🗺" ah Its so calming out here in the wild"-Natsuya

🌙Natsuya has his own little segment were you taste different types of beers and wines all over the world

🗺".. woah (y/n) you have to try this. The favor is out of this wolrd!!"-Natsuya

🗺"Where do you want to go for the spring? I was thinking 🇬🇧The UK or 🇲🇽 Italy."-Natsuya

You have a simple following 90k to 1M

Channel name: Lake side view

Nao: 🍀

🌙You're a Garden YouTuber

🌙you give gardening tips

🌙on the weekends nao helps with your garden and maintaining it.

☘"Wow!! (Y/n) your vegetables looks great "-Nao

🌙You harvest and Nao cooks the Vegetables.

🍀"Wow the vegetables this harvest is delicious"-Nao

☘"Next harvest, can we plant watermelons?"-Nao

🌙Time lapse videos of Fruits and vegetables growing and decomposing.

You have a simple following of 50k

Channel name: Growful love

Hiyori: 🛍

🌙You're a Fashion YouTuber

🌙 Discuss the newest trends and unboxing new clothes, shoes and accessories .

🌙Haul videos with Hiyori (sometimes)

🛍" These sweater feels amazing"-Hiyori

🌙You and Hiyori sometimes try on matching clothes.

🛍" Wow! We're definitely a cute couple!-Hiyori

🛍"This is something I'll definitely wear every day "-Hiyori

🌙 Most of your clothes are your choice of style. And Hiyori's is more like dark academia.

🌙 Sewing clothes for you and Hiyori.

🛍"woah!! You made this for me?! Thank you so much"-Hiyori

🌙 And some occasions you guys will go thrift shopping.

You have a simple following of 60k

Channel name: Exclusive Z

[christinaroseandrews]

Marketing Matters - Strategy - Fanfiction

Strategy - Fanfiction

So this is a bit of a taboo subject in the publishing world, but I’m going to be upfront with you all. 

We write fanfiction. 

There, I said it. 

Writing fanfic is also a viable marketing strategy for authors who are choosing to go the self-publishing route and not always for the reasons that immediately spring to mind.  In addition, the skills, fanbase, and tricks learned while writing fanfic can also apply to traditional publishing.  However, I’m going to give you one caveat right up front: many big name publishers don’t like authors who write fic. Or at least they say they don’t. It’s becoming more common, but most publishers and agents want authors to be focusing on original fic not fanfic. Several smaller presses don’t care as much, so long as your author persona and your fic persona are very separate and you don’t rub it in their faces.  But the big name publishers may require you to pull your fanworks. So that’s something to keep in mind.

So now it’s time to break it down.

About Us and What we’ve done:

We’re probably best known as fanfic writers in the Hunger Games fandom, where we have a few well regarded fics.  We’ve also dipped our toes into other fandoms including the MCU, Harry Potter, DBZ, and more drive-by one-shots in various fandoms than you can shake a stick at.

We also both were/are a part of the Sims 2 writing community and had a few well known stories there as well.  ^__^ We may or may not have met in this fandom. LOL

Both of us have been part of these fandoms for years and were active members in them. Lark started in fanfic back in 1994/5 as a beta reader (which she then parlayed that experience into becoming an editor that summer). While Rose discovered fic in college in 2002. In these fandom communities, we met people that we now call friends in real life as well as mentors, betas, advisers, and cheerleaders. We learned skills that apply both to fic and to original writing.  And, most importantly, we learned how to listen to our audience.

Let me stress that again: we learned to listen to our audience. 

When we transitioned, we hit up the people we met in these fandoms to help us with various aspects of publishing life (either paying or trading favors for work done) and we’ve also given status updates about our original writing, along with links to our author tumblr in the authors’ notes of our fics. Nothing that will violate the terms of Ao3′s Terms of use - but links to our professional website/social media.

While we write fanfic less, we still dip our fingers in now and again.

Cost:

Time. 

Straight up time.

The cost of writing fic is time, energy, and creativity.  Time spent writing fic is time NOT spent writing original works that can be published.  Time that is not spent editing or plotting or doing other sweat equity types of marketing. Which is why some authors refuse to write fic once they turn professional and it is completely understandable. Fanfic authors don’t get paid for their work and for some, getting paid is a big deal. Especially when most of your income comes from writing.

It’s a cost we willingly pay sometimes, but if a fanfic author you know also writes original works for publications. It does mean that updates may be slower and there is often less motivation to keep publishing stories -- especially if the stories don’t get much in the way of response/feedback.

It’s about return on investment.

Return on Investment:

I’m going to do this a little differently since sometimes the return isn’t monetary.  This is also likely to sound really clinical and analytical; that’s because I’m trying to be objective and I may be going too far the other way. We write fanfic because we love it, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t give back to us too.

Monetary (Language of Flowers only):

Units sold:  20

Mailing list subscribers: 6

Social media followers:  Twitter - 15, Tumblr - 60, Facebook - 8

Not Monetary but Cost Saving

Editors - 9

Cover Designers - 3

Mailing List Trades - 3

Skills Learned:

Editing (Line, Content, Story Doctoring -- Yes, all of these)

Proofreading (not the same as editing)

Creating Characters

Keeping Characters in Character

Plotting

Engaging an audience

Finishing what you start

How to handle ConCrit

How to handle Trolls

How to write to an audience

How to prevent plot holes

As you can see, the biggest return on investment of the time is in the skills section. Fanfiction is not to be taken lightly.

And as for me, Lark, I literally parlayed my experience working in fandom to actual paying jobs as an editor. I honed my skills as an editor on fanfic which I then turned around and used to get a job editing professionally. I did that multiple times for a bunch of different publishers/clients. I got my start in fanfic.

As an editor, one of the biggest problems I see with developing authors is a “sameness” in voice. AKA all of the characters sound the same.  If you want to see this in traditionally published book action, then look at Laurel K. Hamilton... Her Merry Gentry and Anita Blake heroines sound almost exactly the same. (Which not coincidentally, sounds like how she speaks in real life.)

With fanfiction, you can’t do that. You’ll get called out for being OOC. So you have to learn to adapt your voice. (Or only write characters that sound like you but that gets boring after a while.)

So in my actual job as an editor, one I get paid to do, I legitimately tell my clients to pick a character from a show they like and use them as a template for a character they’re having trouble giving a good character voice to. And unsurprisingly, it works. It’s a good trick and it subconsciously teaches your brain how to create different characters/voices.

They other HUGE takeaway from the skills is in regards to concrit and being able to take it. If you want to publish for a living and not just half-ass it, you have to develop a thick-ish skin. And fanfiction can help with that. I straight up learned to deal with harsh reviews from writing fanfiction. But more importantly, I learned how to listen to what the person was telling me and then become a better author because of it.

In fanfiction, unlike in the publishing world, the reviews are meant for the authors... not potential readers. If someone really hates your work, or worse, is apathetic to it. They just won’t comment. They’ll hit the backspace and you’ll never hear anything. Most comments, especially critical ones, are from people who legitimately like the story that you’re telling but have a problem with part of it. The comment may be harsh, it may even be mean. But it tells you something and it gives you an idea where you may be turning off readers. People aren’t always good at phrasing criticism constructively. We’re not really trained how to do that. But when someone tells you why something isn’t working for them or why they didn’t like something, listen. You don’t have to agree -- we certainly haven’t -- but listening and thinking critically about the feedback will help.

This can be seen in our first novel, The Language of Flowers, which started out its life as a fanfic. The story pissed several readers off. And we realized as we were writing it that we needed to explain something and we weren’t doing a good job of doing so. So the scene that every single one of our readers loved was born of that concrit. Our story is better and reached the top 100 in its categories on Amazon because of the feedback we got as fanfic authors.

Seriously, writing fanfic has gotten us to where we are today.

Takeaways:

My biggest take away is that writing fanfic is a great skills builder and audience builder.

Pros:

Skills. Oh so many skills. But the biggest is that you will be writing and no writing is ever wasted. It’s practice. Like an artist has to sketch or a musician practice. You’re honing and toning your writing muscles. And fanfic is absolutely valid for doing that.

Cons:

Time. Straight up Time.

Rating:

It’s been so long since I’ve done one of these that I don’t remember. But honestly, the rating varies. You get out of fanfic what you put in and what you’re willing to take from it.

(Note: This has been sitting in our drafts for about 4 years. I finally finished it up because I was bored and waiting to go to a doctor and didn’t feel like doing nothing.)

If you like our marketing posts, please consider supporting us here!

[balancingthewind]

returning

Why do I practice yoga?

Because, as much as my triggers would have me do otherwise, I need to spend time listening to my body. Because, when I don’t, I experience pain physically and mentally. Pain that is avoidable through Yoga.

Yoga is not just a blending of fanciful movements that make you acrobatically strong and flexible. Sure, those can be outcomes if they are your aims, but the heart of the practice is learning how to do the most simple of movements - sitting, standing, walking - with stability and fluidity, a fully embodied person. The Yoga poses you see are only the most superficial layer of the asana practice; what is happening in the unseen, felt sense, is the most profound gift of Yoga.

Not only does the intelligent use of our bodies bring physical alignment and grace, but longevity and health also lie in our abilities to focus our minds acutely on any subject, to quieten the chaos noise of the world and the narrating mind to see any one thing clearly. As we narrow our focus to the subtle workings of our inner bodies, we also strengthen our ability to concentrate without distraction to achieve any goal.

As a person who deals with complex trauma and its companions, dissociation and anxiety, this level of embodiment has clarified my path to mental health. Symptoms like depression and shame tug at my frays, looking for a hole through which to pull me from my body, soothing terror with waking sleep. With one-pointed focus I can feel my feet, check in with my senses, and make my way back to presence. Post-traumatic stress can bring about an overload of stress hormones, throwing my body and mind into a fight/flight/freeze response… to which, I breathe, hush the mental chatter, address the trauma on a physical level, and diffuse it. When looking at everyday, practical self-regulating tools, Yoga provides some that can directly combat both numbing and panic.

Yoga has given me the tools to cope with the past year, too - although at first glance that may be hard to see. To be perfectly honest, I was not one of the lucky ones who remained buoyant, giddily occupied in their homes. The year prior had held some pretty huge losses for me and I was dealing with insecurity on several levels when the pandemic hit, and so I fell back into my familiar coping mechanisms - checking out, smoking cigarettes, and generally not holding myself accountable for how I was treating myself and the ones I loved. On a day-to-day basis, checking in to the senses can prevent absolute neurosis, but once I built a sensitivity to my body’s need to communicate, I felt and now am paying for the long duration of silence.

I also sustained a few injuries in 2019 and 2020, altering my practice as far as removing any pose involving weight-bearing in the hands, and causing mild-to-severe constant pain in my neck and shoulder, so my relationship to my body has changed drastically, and approaching a flow (my typical mode of personal practice) isn’t really possible anymore in the way my mind isn’t able to sink completely into movement and has to stay thinking about how I need to modify the next pose, which made practicing altogether less enjoyable.

I quit teaching when studios shut down right at the beginning, and today, I am teaching my first one back (so long as anyone signs up). I have some nervousness about this, but I’m using some methods I learned in an Alexander Technique workshop to deal with this in the sense of being able to follow through with showing up.

Because that’s really been the issue. Showing up. For the past year, every time I tried to get back to health, it started with a morning Yoga asana practice, and the message at the end of the practice from inside was always, “I can do this.” Eat a good breakfast, great. But then, the day would pass, the inevitable fatigue would set in, and I would end my day with mind numbing activities until I was too tired to keep my eyes open so that I could avoid the real responsibility of acknowledging my day on a physical level, diffusing it, and getting myself to a place where I could sleep. Because I’ll be damned if I’ll ever get up for a 5am Yoga practice if I’ve been up until 1am playing Sims or watching the Great British Bake-Off. Just isn’t happening.

Even being in a yoga teacher training that started the same month as the pandemic hit Kentucky hasn’t stopped me from falling from the path for a little while. Luckily I can still use what I’ve been taught now, but there’s a little shame and remorse in letting yet another opportunity go under-fulfilled.

So yeah. In all honesty, this year has been straining and traumatizing for everyone. From some perspectives, the outlook is pretty fucking dark too. My partner and I are sinking deeper into the Great American Pit of Medical Debt as we speak, and it’s hard not to get angsty just thinking about the fact that so much of the suffering the world endures could be avoided in an alternate but feasible reality.

However, despite this apparent loss of hope, Yoga was still there for me. As someone who will probably always deal with the darkest corners of depression for life, I need a light to counter the darkness, lest it becomes too much to handle. Yoga - not in the sense of poses or breathing, but in the experience of unadulterated union between mind, body, and spirit - is that light. Whether distant, in memory, or present, Yoga is one of those things you “can’t unsee”. To remain in that state requires practice, but if you can’t practice, you at least can know that Yoga is there for you when you’re ready to return.

So, here I am, returning. Letting go of the shame of thinking I need to have had it all together, allowing ME to be good enough while honoring the responsibility of being a teacher. I’ve been practicing Yoga asana (poses), pranayama (breathwork), nidra (resting yoga) and meditation of various sorts multiple times a day for a couple weeks now. I’ve quit smoking cigarettes (again) and am working with a doctor to find medication to help stabilize my depression until the Yoga has done its work.

These are things I require of myself to be able to show up to teach: to be doing everything I can to get myself healthy, making decisions that contribute to my health, remaining diligent to my tendencies and looking for places I can implement what I’ve learned kinesthetically and philosophically to my life. In this way, I can come to the mat with a clear mind and hold space for anyone who may need Yoga in the same way I do.

So, I guess this all begs the question, why do I teach yoga?

Because I want people like me to feel safe in a Yoga class. Because I know I'm different from many in that my gauge of excellence is metered by stability and comfort, rather than physical exceptionalism, as the absence of suffering in myself and others is my highest goal. And I think I could access people who really need that, given my understanding of complex trauma and experience with and love for so many kinds of people. I want badly to create culture in my city and even farther, focused around health and community, sharing and creation. I know we can do this. It's hard work, but it can be made easier when your environment reflects positive ideals, and that is something almost everyone has control over to some extent.

If you’re interested in a trauma-informed, research-based, gentle Yoga practice for physical and mental longevity, please join me. Literally everyone is welcome, and I can modify almost all poses to be done from a chair. I’m teaching virtually on Tuesdays at 6pm and in person at Centered Holistic Health on Saturdays at 11am.

Be humble and blessed <3

[fightmeyeats]

ACNH: Colonial Desires in the Context of Quarantine

Since finishing up my undergraduate studies in June, one of the major things I've been doing with my free time is playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons (please don't @ me but I've already logged something like 400 hours). As much fun as the game is, one of the things that's really stood out to me is how much AC:NH depends on and reifies colonial logics, and how important it is to unpack this in the context of the game's popularity and the ongoing pandemic.

One of the first ways I want to address colonialism in AC:NH this is through the way I was first introduced to it, namely through its connection to my thesis and what I refer to as the "terraforming imaginary". Before I started playing or had even decided to buy the game, I was working on my thesis "Constructing New Worlds: An Investigation of Climate Change and the Terraforming Imaginary" (which, shameless self plug but if you're interested you can check out my 10 minute video presentation for symposium at Johns Hopkins University here). During this time I was talking about my thesis pretty non-stop with anyone who would listen and as a result probably about half of my friends independently sent me this meme

[ID: meme from @animalcrossingmemes which shows two children; the one on the left is smiling and looking off into the distance with the label "daydreaming about terraforming" while the child on the right looks stressed and upset with the label "actually terraforming". Beneath this meme is text from @kaijuno which reads "I realize this is an animal crossing meme but as an astrophysicist I was really excited for a second that someone was finally seeing the light on how fricking difficult an a huge waste of time it would be to try to terraform Mars". Beneath this text is another meme with four hands gripping each other's wrists to make a circle. In the center is the initial animalcrossingmemes image and each arm is labeled, respectively, "Minecraft Players," "Sims Players," "Animal Crossing Players," and "Astrophysicists apparently"]

Although my thesis addresses terraforming in the context of space exploration/colonization, AC:NH's engagement with "terraforming" (alongside other aspects of colonial practices and desires) helps to expand on the stakes of this. The reason I put "terraforming" in scare-quotes is because…technically, there isn't any terraforming in AC:NH, given that terraforming is "the operation consisting of rendering other stellar bodies—mainly planets and eventually asteroids—appropriate for human life" (Frédéric Neyrat, 46). While I'm all down for an interpretation of the Animal Crossing world as a non-Earth planet and the villagers as aliens, the island is already suitable for human life and the use of "terraforming" in the game is generally more readily identifiable as geoconstructivism: players redesign and restructure their islands, shaping waterways and topography to create idealistic spaces (as opposed to making the island literally livable). Either way, it speaks to the terraforming imaginary—the underlying set of logics and desires conducive to the imagining and desiring of “terraforming”, ie the logics and desires of colonization. Even though AC:NH's terraforming isn't technically terraforming, it is an embodiment of the terraforming imaginary, centering desires for the "civilizing"/"cultivating" of a space into an orderly, colonized ideal. On even a very surface level it is useful to think about this through the island rating system: islands are ranked out of five stars, with deductions made for things such as having "too many" weeds or not "cleaning up" by leaving items lying around rather than placed with intention. 

Another, perhaps more obvious, way in which AC:NH embodies colonial logics is through the "Nook Miles Tickets". Players trade in Nook Miles (an achievement based currency) for tickets which they can take to the airport and use to visit other, uninhabited islands which they can destroy to extract all of the resources slash-and-burn style. Players also have an increased likelihood of catching rare insects, fish, and sea animals to display to their own island museum or sell. As Wilbur, a dodo pilot, explains about this process: "we run the 'finders keepers' protocol here. Lumber, fruit, fish, whatever? Yours if you can carry it", going on to emphasize the importance of not leaving anything behind as there will be no returning; they "burn the flight plans" after each flight.

Although the rampantly destructive extraction of resources is the most apparent embodiment of colonial logics, the centrality of the museum and the imperative to complete each wing by finding and identifying all of the bugs, fish/sea creatures, fossils, and artworks in the game is an equally significant connection to colonialism. Benedict Anderson argues in Imagined Communities that the museum, along with the census and the map, "shaped the way in which the colonial state imagined its dominion—the nature of the human beings it ruled, the geography of its domain, and the legitimacy of its ancestry" (164). The specifics Anderson goes into differ of course, because he's talking about actual colonial states while AC:NH has the fluidity of embodying the underpinning desires which colonialism as process requires to function, but what holds true is that these specific forms of producing, organizing, and displaying knowledge which produced "a totalizing classificatory grid, which could be applied with endless flexibility...to be able to say of anything that it was this, not that; it belonged here, not there" (Anderson 184). Essentially, in AC:NH part of a player's ownership of the island occurs through a player's ability to classify and collect artefacts for the museum. Furthermore, this imperative to collect and preserve fossils, art work, bugs, fish, and sea creatures is part of the way the player's island is positioned as a place of value. 

The museum also implicitly functions to reify positions of authority, legitimizing a kind of monopoly of knowledge. In AC:NH, this primarily means the positions of the museum curator (Blathers) and, to a degree, Tom Nook (who selected and invited Blathers) are secured as the authorities on knowledge. When Tom Nook tells the player that the island(s) are deserted, we must take this as truth...yet fishing both on the player's island and the Nook Miles islands can turn up trash items like old tires, tin cans, and boots. Colonial logics depend on a management of who counts as "people" and what counts as "inhabited" and the myth of empty lands; Tom Nook's instance that these islands are all deserted is haunted by these lingering traces of some other inhabitation prior to the game's start. 

Okay, so you might be asking what does this all mean and why should we care? Let's talk about both the game's popularity and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which contextualized its release (and continues to shape daily life). Animal Crossing: New Horizons has not only received overwhelmingly positive critical reception, but is one of the best selling games both for the Switch console and the Animal Crossing series. According to freelance journalist Imad Khan's New York Times article "Why Animal Crossing Is the Game for the Coronavirus Moment," the game's appeal centers in its function as an escape to an "island paradise where bags of money fall out of trees and a talking raccoon can approve you for a mortgage". Khan quotes Dr. Ramzan (a professor of game narrative at Glasgow Caledonian University) who refers to it as "the universe you’ve always wanted, but can’t get." Given the significantly decreased mobility and connection that has accompanied social distancing, as well as the increased stress and heightened inequality which have accompanied COVID-19, this probably isn’t particularly surprising. It makes sense that a cute, low-stress video game would be a valuable form of escapism.

Mobility is a particularly fraught discourse in this context: on the one hand, concerns surrounding containment/immobility are heightened in the context of neoliberalism and within colonial societies, which depend upon discourses of individualism and independence to demarcate the “freedom” which comes from capitalist economies. At the same time, the desire for things like connection/community, movement, and spatial autonomy/sovereignty are not inherently colonial, even as colonialist logics frequently position colonial/capitalist/neoliberal expansion as the solution. Animal Crossing is heavily situated within this entanglement, simultaneously offering a very real form of connection (and even protest) for many people while also implicitly speaking to latent beliefs that colonization is a legitimate form of mobility and escapism. To say that AC:NH is the universe we’ve always wanted but can’t get is to refuse to engage with the inherent contradictions of neoliberalism and reafirm the notion that colonial capitalist worlds are worth wanting; that the fantasy of individual wealth and success through destructive extraction and market freedom, when obtainable, is good.

None of this is to say that playing AC:NH is the same as colonization, because of course it isn't. However, the colonial undertones of the game reflect the pervasiveness of colonial logics and desires in our daily lives, subsequently further normalizing them. Journalist Kazuma Hashimoto, for example, emphasizes the importance of contextualizing AC:NH's colonial undertones within Japanese Colonialism in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Japanese Colonialism". As Hashimoto argues, "I am only asking that people familiarize themselves with Japanese colonialism and why something as innocuous as discovering a deserted island can be read as colonialism — especially within the context of a Japanese game".

Inattentiveness to the more subdued, invisibilized manifestations of violence facilitates their internalization and acceptance; educating ourselves and paying attention to and challenging places where we feel comfortable with these kinds of escapist fantasies is an important exercise in critical thinking which can help us to continue to refuse their real life manifestations. 

[mcrmadness]

🌺💘🌷 GET TO KNOW YOUR MUTUALS TAG 🌷💘🌺

Rules: When you get this, it means someone wants to know more about you, so list 5 things about yourself you want your followers to know! They can be as simple as your age or as complex as your deepest fear, as long as it’s something you’re comfortable with sharing. When you’re done and if you want to, send this to 10 people you want to get to know better!

Tagged by: @cats-crushesandhistory, thank you!!! Tagging: @stufenlosregelbar, @hanhan156, @charlotte-lancer, @autumnrebel, @cupcakecurl, @lycanrvc, - six is enough for now. I’m probably forgetting about basically everyone, I literally had to go through these by letters because I can never remember anything when I should make a list and I still feel bad for not including _everyone. But I decided to include only those who I have interacted with at least a little bit - I literally don’t dare to speak to anyone unless they tell me first that I am allowed to approach them. I also did not tag anyone who I haven’t seen doing these tag games or who I don’t know if they like these or not. And all of you can also just skip this if this is not your cup of tea.

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I can never write anything short (surprise...) so I’ll just give you a short list here and you can click the read more link and see more of my thoughs on each topic there.

I am a teetotaler and I have never even tried alcohol. I also don’t and have never smoked and I stay the f* away from drugs, too.

I love cats. Like, for real, they’re the best thing in this whole world.

I love all animals overall, and I am actually a horse groom, I have a the “Vocational Qualification in Horse Care and Management”, specializing in harness racing, and I have worked with horses for over 10 years so far.

As a kid, I was a huge dinosaur nerd and I still love them.

I love comics and I have also drawn comics since I was a kid. I still have all of my old comics saved. Lately I haven’t been drawing even nearly as much and only fanart, tho. Drawing is fun but I simultaneously love and hate it.

Lol it seems I have love for everything but humans :D:D:D:D:D:D I didn’t even realize that before making this list looooooooool XD But yeah, more rambling under the cut :D But thanks for reading, if you end up reading it.

1. I am a teetotaler and I have never even tried alcohol. I also don’t smoke (and never have) and I avoid drugs - so much so that I don’t know if getting ADHD medication would break this “rule” of mine because they are made from the same stuff as one well-known drug...

I think it started as me just being so “lawful” all the time and the legal drinking age in Finland is 18, so I wanted to follow the rules at all times so I didn’t even think about drinking before the age of 18 and I was often very much shocked by other teens who did that, and I also remember being really worried when my best friend started experimenting with alcohol as a teenager. Despite the legal drinking age being 18, basically everyone here still started (and starts?) drinking between the ages of 13 and 15. So at school, from Monday to Wednesday, all that happened was overhearing the drunk stories of other kids. And from Wednesday to Friday, it changed to them discussing their plans for the next weekend. It was like this every week. And I never could wrap my head around it (I spent my weekends at home being happy that I could have free time and play The Sims 2 or something).

Then at some point I guess I just felt like I don’t even need alcohol for having fun and I still haven’t felt like that, and I don’t think I ever will either. When I turned 18, I was super annoyed by everyone because EVERYONE asked me “So you’re turning 18, did you plan on going to a bar?” and I would always answer something like “I don’t even drink (alcohol) so why would I?” and what still annoys me a little is people telling me “That’s good. That’s a good decision, drinking is bad.” and like... if you really think so, why do you drink yourself, then?

2. I love cats. Maybe that is partially visible from my blog too but I really, really love cats, and for decades my favorite animal has been tiger. When I was born, we had already 3 cats in the house and the last one of them died when I was almost 13 (he would have turned 16 that year). Before I moved out at the age of 23, there was not a single day without cats and currently my parents have 4 (plus a dog). I am still dreaming of my own cat but I can’t take one now because animals are not allowed in my flat but whenever I move out of this, I will choose one with pets allowed and I will adopt a cat. Most likely a rescue cat if I can find one, or even two so they can keep each other company. As cute as kittens are, adult cats are also important and need homes.

3. I also love animals overall. I actually like them more than humans (but technically humans are just apes so they’re my least favorite animal, then) and when I was 7-years-old, whenever I was asked about my dream job, I always said or wrote “I don’t know, probably something to do with animals!” And since my teens I have had lots of different ideas for jobs but when I was 25, I graduated as a horse groom. And have been (on-off) working with horses for over 10 years now (currently unemployed). Originally I chose the horse work because I was so pissed by the capitalist system and the thought of an office job or job at a grocery store and such was just... ew, no, never! So I chose horses because if I have to work, then I will do something useful and someone’s gotta take care of the animals too and I love animals, and animal work doesn’t feel like work but more like a lifestyle, so I’ve been basically fooling the system AND myself by that. Sometimes I also dream of the work as a zookeeper.

4. As a kid, I was a huge dinosaur nerd and I still love them (Land Before Time FTW). With my siblings we had a huge collection of dinosaur toys and I also have always loved evolution and genetics, so what we did was to give an individual name for every dinosaur we had. And we knew the species of each of them, and we knew so many facts about them too. Each dino also had their own personality and we even created family trees for them. There were generations of these dinos and we also created this “growing up order” which meant we put them all standing next to each other, usually under my brother’s bed because we had so many of them and they didn’t fit anywhere else lol, from the youngest/smallest to the oldest. And our biggest mission, that never got finished, was “The Big Play” which was us playing that the ancestor parents aka the oldest and biggest of our toys were born and we would play with them and play how they grow older and eventually start having their own kids - who were the next generation in our “growing up order” :D

No wonder why I still love playing The Sims games, especially TS3! (I even have a Finnish simsblog.) Lots of the things I have done and loved as a kid still live so strong in me, they just come out differently than what they did then. Imagination and toys changed to video games, especially The Sims (but I did play video games a lot as a kid too) and my love for genetics and evolution is still really strong.

5. I love comics. My favorite comic book character of all times is Garfield - he’s a cat and I grew up with cats so obviously I fell in love with the Garfield comics too, and I grew up with them as well. My mom subscribed to the Finnish Garfield comic in the early 90s and I have full volumes starting from the year 1994. I also have lots and lots of earlier comics and I always hunt for them from second-hand shops and I don’t have too many of them missing anymore, and I’m really proud of my collection. I also collect Lucky Luke, Rantanplan and Asterix - I have almost all of the (Finnish publications of) Lucky Lukes and Rantanplan.

I have also always loved drawing and I drew my first actual comic when I was 9 or 10 years old. Before that I had been drawing lots of “image series”, one image per paper. I still have all my old comics here in a drawer and I have had so many different characters and majority of them have had endless “plots” aka no plots whatsoever :D Before I actually never drew humans, I started drawing human portraits as fanart when I was 16 and the first human comic characters I drew (also as a fanart) when I was 18 or so. Before that everything was animals of some sort - I have had ants, flies, dogs, cats, birds... even ghosts at some point, and I also created one very simple anthropomorphic creature just so that it was easy to draw and I could concentrate on drawing clothes and hair. Oh my god I loved drawing hairdos to these, and so often I had one female “main character” and I gave her a “growth spurt” where I just drew her in different ages until she was “adult” and I continued telling about her life as an “adult”. Very often these differen phases were literally phases, there were soooooo many different styles each just for one year :D Then at some point I started coming up with actual ideas and plots instead of just drawing whatever I felt like drawing. I still draw comics nowadays, but those are mainly fanart and I haven’t drawn about OC’s in years and currently I have no active ones (except for the “self-comics” about my deep thoughts etc.) and I don’t know how to create new ones, I just have no creativity unless it’s provoked by a fandom thing or when I get a base like The Sims 3 where I don’t have an empty canvas but am given the tools for creating something new.

It might be fun to share some of my old comics here one day but this blog isn’t really an “art blog”, even tho I post some of my drawings occassionally. But let me know if you’d like to see some and maybe I will make a post about that in the future.