#its discouraging never getting any wins

[primordialwhale]

i finally won a ✨️single✨️ game in mtg arena (that wasnt bc the other person forfeit) with a deck i threw together myself

everybody cheer for me this is monumental

[st4r-th0ughts]

I’ll let myself get violent for you.

masterlist

Aventurine x gn bodyguard (ex assassin) reader

ʚɞ series masterlist

ʚɞ recommend to read first

ׂ╰┈➤

tw/cw: ambiguous relationship, violence, death, racism, aven’s past is brought up along with demeaning implications, reader protects our bbg bc we aint taking shi thrown at him, graphic descriptions, i dont have a single clue about poker so the terms are from google, also reader has fangs, not proofread!

note(s): it hurt writing this, also this isn’t my best work bc I rlly wanted to write this on a whim so sorry, tags: @walpurg @rxzennia @honkai-star-thirst @sh1-n0bu

summary: A violent dog that defends its owner.

(word count: 2.3k)

ׂ╰┈➤ [𓏵]- your name

The night in Pier Point is lively. Of course it would be, it housed the IPC’s headquarters, and by extension, a lot of the IPC employees, and many rich buisness people or people of similar standings often come to this planet, whether for deals are made under the table, for the most part, rather unimpressive but horrendously expensive cuisines, and for the casinos.

Casinos are Aventurine’s second home, with how often he’s there and how often he’s winning every single game he’s in, his name is a popular topic amongst the gossip girlies who sit at the bar and try to find a rich man to bed and siphon money from.

In the months you have been in Aventurine’s employment, you are very familiar with the bright chandeliers than hang above the large rooms, the roundtables often having people crowded around them, and the arcade machines have people either leaping for joy as they have won, or have people yelling in rage and trashing the area around them before being kicied out of security.

Aventurine gambles in those luxurious, private rooms with people of his stature. You accompany him without any complaint from the security at the zone, partially because you threatened the last security guard who tried to forcefully keep you from doing your job with shoving a heap of casino chips up his anus.

Aventurine always seats himself in one of the red cushioned chairs, his fingers will trace over the sleek black wood while your hands will be crossed behind your back, your form is situated right beside him, your presence serving as a warning for most intelligent people that you were not above violence when it comes to your job.

Every hour, the stack of chips in your boss’s name increases, to the point that it had to be transferred to another table from the staggering amount, the sight itself discouraging a few weak willed to give up and forfeit, while the rest will greedily gaze at the chips as if they were of pure gold, thinking they would definitely win them.

Eveyrtime you see one of those people again, you scoff internally and roll your eyes and give Aventurine a look, your lips will be pursed as the gambler grins back at you through rose tinted lenses. Aventurine plays for the thrill, the rest play for their own greedy desires.

At the end of the night, when the final card is played, Aventurine is always the winner. The people across from him are either resigned, regretful they didnt forfeit with dignity, some keeping their composure from crumbling as they struggle not to breakdown or rage, and the final, most unpleasant type of unsavory character you deal with, the ones who spew insults and make any menacing moves.

You never needed to use actual violence. Your hand slamming with controlled force on the edge of the table, just enough to tilt it and hit the ground with a resounding ‘thud’, your lips pressed into a tight scowl, and your gaze lingering on whoever dares make a move. It shuts them down successfully, no words or blows needed to be exchanged, and you get a teasing compliment from your boss, which makes your heart leap in its chest.

Tonight was suppose to be a regular a night. Aventurine was winning, per usual. But the man across him… the final player in the game, was someone you recognised from your assassin days. He wasn’t one of your targets, but when you were sneaking around mansion, you noticed him making shady deals with the Duke, overhearing that since they followed the same Aeon, they should join forces.

And that man was not a pleasant one. Middle aged and balding, a thick cigar in his mouth, the smoke making you turn your nose up while Aventurine seems unbothered, a pouchy stomach to add to his unpleasant smell of whiskey reeking off him, so much different from how your boss will cutely, drunkenly cling to you on rare occasions.

The moment Aventurine lays his cards on the table, the cards displaying those numbers and shapes you dont exactly understand despite months of trying to study poker techniques to impress the gambler, and the middle aged man in front of you goes into a stunned silence, his cigarette dropping out of his mouth as he gazes wildly at the fact he has lost, lost to some lucky dog from the IPC.

“This- this is rigged! You cheated! There is no way you could have won against me!”

Aventurine, calm and composed as ever, laughs at the man’s enraged state, resting his cheek on his knuckles as he crossed one leg over the other, a smirk gracing his expression as he teasingly tuts his tongue, your eyes widning slightly as your pupils dart between the growing fury of the middle aged man and the way Aventurine doenst care of provoking him.

“Oh? Y’know, if i got a million dollars for everytime i heard someone say that, I’ll be ri-”

“Shut up, you Sigonian dog!”

The way Aventurine’s smile falters slightly as his eyes widen behind his lenses, and the way he seems to remember something he doesnt want to, something he has long since tried to keep buried, and the bubbling fury that starts to simmer under the surface of your skin.

“You fucking Avgin scammer, you think i wont see your tricks and lies? Did you use that mouth of yours to weasel your way to winning?”

The man continues his profanity infused tirade, eyes darting wildly before they landed on the branding located on Aventurine’s neck, his chair screeching back, the whiskey smell assaults your nostrils as he walks around the table, and Aventurine, frozen, almost, just barely shrinks back out of instinct, a hint of fear in his eyes as the man’s hand reach out to try and grab your boss’s chin with his disgusting hands.

“Someone should teach you your place, little slave, someone like you doenst deserve to sit at this table.”

Your hand reaches out to grab the man’s arm before he could touch your boss, giving him a silent glare of warning, your hand clenching at it’s side. It does little to deter the man, as he balls his hand into a fist and punches you right in the face, your vision blurred for a few seconds though your grip doesnt loosen.

“So you’re the so called ‘fearsome bodyguard’ for the IPC, eh? You dont look like much other than a rabid dog.”

The man’s slurred sneer is cut short by his scream as in one, swift flick of your wrist, you snap his elbow in the wrong way. A fury bubbles in your chest, raw and ugly as you send a hard kick to the man’s pudgey stomach with the tip of your shoe, watching him kneel over and cough blood from the sheer force, you make sure it only gets on your uniform instead of Aventurine’s.

Your hands reach out to grab the man’s neck, tossing him effortlessly against one of the tables across the room, the others who were staring wide eyed at the scene panicking as champagne glasses shatter as they rush out of the room or scoot to a corner to keep watching the show. It sickens you, how they see this as a type of entertainment, but you have more important things to deal with.

You growl lowly, your primal instincts of carnage taking over, grabbing the man from the middle of the broken table as coloured wooden shards are embedded in his back, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth and nose, your face edging to the side, your voice a low, dangerous whisper.

“Do you believe in Aeons?”

The man is clearly terrified, considering someone who is half his size has not only given him a broken nose and elbow, that same person just tanked a hard hit to their nose with no substantial damage. Yet, he foolishly tries to intimidate you, and you can feel Aventurine’s gaze on your back, in your haze of anger, you can’t figure out whether he’s staring at you in fear or something else.

“Hah, you’re defending that Sigonian pig so nobly? Do you know who I a-”

You slam him into the floor, your sharp teeth baring as you tighten your grip, only needing your non dominant hand to hold him down, your other hand brandishing a gun that cocks under the man’s jaw, your voice soft, deceptively so, with a undercurrent of threat. Blood trickles from your nose onto the man’s shirt.

“I dont give two shits who you are. I don’t give a damn of what Aeon you worship. Divine judgement doesnt scare me at all.”

“Your Aeon can look me straight in the eyes, asking me why I decided to pull the trigger and let your brains paint the wall behind you right now, I’ll proudly tell THEM I’ll do it again.”

You snarl scathingly, your fingers digging into the skin round the man’s neck. Your enveloped in a shadow of your past. Violence was all you ever knew for a long time, and after meeting Aventurine, resolving to not work for the Annhilation Gang anymore, you have tried hard to pacify your temper. And now, you’d gladly make this pig, and the people who are staring, almost anticipating your next move, as your outlets.

He looks pathetic, in all honestly. The man below you, one you used to stay away because he was in cahoots with eth Duke, was now at your very mercy, currently looking paled and about to have a heart attack, yet still keeps up the act of being all high and mighty. He doesnt know nor remember you, but you’ll make sure he does.

“You really are just the IPC’s pathetic dog, arent you? Defending some Sigonian slave because he sucks you off?”

A single shot rings out as the man lets out a cut off noise, one eye popping out of it’s socket as pink, fleshy brain matter and crimson blood soak the room’s walls, one of the women huddled in the corner screaming in terror as you feel the blood splatter across you face, mixing with your own, watching the man’s body convulse. If he had just shut up, you would have let him go. Oh well.

You get up and smoothen your clothes, red soaking into your tie, your eyes casting upon the group in the corner who were watching the entire ordeal play out. The room is deathly silent as you take one step closer, your gun still smoking at the tip.

“Leave.”

That single word sends everybody save for Aventurine scrambling, and the security guards who take one step in immediately shrink back when they see the carnage that has befalled the room. Your breathing is shallow and ragged, your eyes darting from the corpse to Aventurine, who stares blankly at the floor. You’re able to discern that internally he’s distraught, and you start to panic.

Was he disgusted with your actions? He wasnt supposed to see you like this. Like a vicious predator that gnaws and rips apart it’s prey. It feels as if the months of trying to control your temper, prevent and restrain your intent to shed blood and bathe in the crimson, but it seems in the end, there was only one thing that makes you snap.

“Sir. Sir, are you alright?”

You’ll have your existential crisis later, now, your instinct makes you want to comfort Aventurine, but when your hands reach out to try and touch him, you freeze before your fingers can reach for his, staring dumbfoundedly at the blood that soaks them. The corpse behind you is completely still, blood pooling under his head.

You blink once, twice, before settiling for holding the armrest of the chair, since at least the blood wont be too visible on the dark paint, watching Aventurine carefully, observing how he straightens his glasses, laughing softly, clearly forced in a attempt to calm himself down.

“I’m fine, [𓏵], afterall, my darling bodyguard has protected and taken a hit for me once more~”

“Don’t lie to me.”

Your words come out snappy, leftover adrenaline from having killed someone after so long making your heart pace faster, giving your boss a firm glare, not a harsh one, just one that makes him stop putting up that false wall of bravado. You close your eyes when his smile drops at your irritated tone, your blood trickling into your mouth as you sigh.

“I saw the way his comments affected you. I wont pry why he was making those comments, it isnt my business. But my business, is making sure you feel safe.”

You wipe your hands on your pants as you gently take Aventurine’s trembling hands into your own, staring at your reflection in the polished gold of the rings, seeing the blood that spaltters across your features, and the bruise that is forming on your nose from the punch. You widen your eyes a little as the gambler’s hand pries away from yours, his fingers running gently over your face.

“You’re hurt, [𓏵]. I’ll bring you to the medical wing later.”

Aventurine murmurs softly, his smug front gone as he lets himself be just a bit more vulnerable as his hand traces your jaw tenderly, his mouth downturned as he stares at your bruised nose and all the blood, his eyes trailing behind you to the corpse, a piece of brain matter splatting on the floor as your boss smirks slightly.

“I’ll pay for a cleanup crew. I’m not letting my precious bodyguard go to jail tonight.”

You snort softly, walking over to the table full of casino chips, a low whistle escaping as you take one that sits at the top of one of the stacks, fiddling with it clumsily in your hands, glancing at the manager of the casino that was standing hesitantly at the entrance of the room door.

“Cash these in, will you?”

fin.

© st4r-th0ughts 2025, I don’t allow reposts, reuploads, translations, or copies.

[zurifushigurxz]

Hi its me again 🤍 Can i request some headcanons for ushijima with an s/o who is also a volleyball player but for the girls team? some fluff too cuz i miss him sm (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥) Thank u sm bff ! 🤍

AGH I LOVE THIS CONCEPT SM MOOTIE! i havent written for him yet but i tried my best ^^!

Bf!Ushijima Headcanons ⁺˳✧༚

bf!ushijima x volleyball player reader

———*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ ⁺˳✧༚ ･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*———

༄ Bf!Ushijima who tries his absolute best to subtly glance at the crowd to see if you’re watching him during a match

༄ Bf!Ushijima who immediately runs to you when his team wins

༄ Bf!Ushijima who practices with you and helps you improve your skills

༄ Bf!Ushijima who unintentionally has amazing hand placement and gets confused when you get flustered. Can you blame him? It’s not his fault that he doesn’t understand why touching on your waist makes you go all quiet. His social skills are limited! He’s not very good at reading people. （＾_＾）

༄ Bf!Ushijima who pushes you to work hard when practicing together because he knows how great you are, and he wants you to be your absolute best.

༄ Bf!Ushijima who can never take his eyes off of you when you’re playing during a game.

༄ Bf!Ushijima who intimidates any guys trying to praise you after a good match, but secretly loves how much people know how amazing his girl is.

༄ Bf!Ushijima who feels his heart break a little when you get discouraged and talk down on yourself when you lose a game.

༄ Bf!Ushijima who doesn’t usually know what to say when you’re upset, but will silently embrace you until he knows for sure that you’re feeling a little better

༄ Bf!Ushijima who reassures you all the time, whether its about his love for you or about volleyball. Any praise or constructive critiscism from him is always sincere and never sugar-coated. But you can’t help but love that about him ( ◠‿◠ )

[42ap]

More thoughts on Stanley's personality in the Evil Twin AU 🤔

After the mayoral election, Stan was furious that Gideon dared to target his family again. In a fit of rage, he killed Gideon’s family dog in front of his dad and some customers, chopped off its head, and threw it in front of Gideon during his outdoor break through the iron bars. While fleeing amid blaring alarms, he threw out his back. Getting old sure is a hassle.

As for sex, the two of them basically never engage in penetrative acts. It’s usually handjobs or dry humping. Why? Because it’s pointless… it’s just a physiological need. Why bother with anything complicated or elaborate? The result is the same anyway, so the simplest way is the best. Stan doesn’t have any opinions on this because everything is decided by Ford. His own input doesn’t matter.

During an argument, things got physical. Unfortunately for Stan, he couldn’t win against Ford. Any slight advantage he had in his youth is long gone, and Ford has returned to being the flawless older brother who completely overwhelms him in every way. But even if Stan can’t win, he won’t stop fighting, struggling and cursing while Ford pins him down by the throat, restricting his airway. Though it’s far from life-threatening, the discomfort is unbearable. Ford stares at him, expressionless, until Stan, suffocating, finally stops resisting, and only then does Ford let go—

“A choke collar is a type of dog collar that tightens around a dog’s neck when it pulls on the leash. It’s also known as a slip chain or check chain. Choke collars are intended for training purposes only, as the tightening of the collar discourages the dog from pulling.”

Ford must hate him. Hate how indifferent he is, hate how selfish he is, hate the way he looks at Ford as if he’s nothing but a stain. And yet, every act of intimacy is initiated by Ford. Ford waiting silently in the bedroom for him to return. Ford appearing behind him suddenly in the bathroom. Ford pulling him away wordlessly in front of the kids. Ford holding onto him like he’s on the verge of death, unable to let go.

There are always dark circles under Ford’s eyes. Increasingly, Ford has started falling asleep near him. He doesn’t care about his own contradictions because he’s not the one suffering from them. He doesn’t care what Stan feels. If Ford could just hate him consistently, through and through, it would’ve been much easier to cut him off.

[night-market-if]

I do kinda see where people are coming from but this isn't the right way to mention it and also its your story so come on people. To me personally the ROs who seem more into the MC compared to other people are Hazel, Bella, and even though people probably won't agree, Malcolm because honestly his relationship with the MC seems to be on much greater footing than his one with Milo. Milo is charming but kind of cat-like with their love, Gabe's romance had the big elephant in the room with him still being attracted to Bella (I can't think of any other reason for some of his actions in book 1 but I could be wrong!!) even though they never actually did anything with each other and were just good friends, and I guess its a bit discouraging with Penn bc it seemed they had eyes for the MC more? I know attraction is different from love, Penn has something deeper going on with NM, and the NM character probably doesn't even care if they're romanced. But I get what people mean when with the silly "spin the bottle" ask none of the ones who played thought NM was the most beautiful to kiss 😂 which again is kinda silly? Since the NM can take on any form? Anyway I think if people are looking for ROs who put the MC on a pedestal they shouldn't try to make you conform yours to that standard. There are plenty of ifs where the mc has completely captivated ROs.

I really do not get this Gabriel being attracted to Bella thing. He has never said it. He isn't. And he is not looking at her constantly. Gabriel, in fact, doesn't take physical appearance into account at all. He is very demi in the end. But, that is an argument I'm never going to win. I can't even remember the last time I wrote those two in the same room together that wasn't on the poly route. They didn't even see each other when MC was gone.

Which, just to be clear anon, the above thing isn't so much a frustration directed at you. I'm just speaking out loud. I think it can be misconstrued however.

And yes, a lot of this is silly. Because NM could change into any persona they wanted to.

In the end, people are getting more up in arms about silly comments made on Tumblr than the content of the actual book. Which is amusing because it tells me who has and has not read it and which age bracket I'm responding to.

[wherethemoonguides]

over the course of the shipping polls, me and a lot of other people have noticed some major issues in the fandom that i honestly believe need to be addressed.

the shipping in the les mis fandom can be incredibly problematic.

what do i mean by this? simple, people are too defensive over their favs or being honest, ship stuff that is straight up illegal (yes it's fiction, but would you really apply some of these ships to real life? No. No you wouldn't). i believe this is a topic that needs to be talked about, hence this post.

to start, i've noticed that especially a lot of the fanbase can get SO incredibly rude about other people's ships winning or putting more effort into winning which? is incredibly unfair and an insane way to behave. i fully understand being disappointed in your fav not making it but the moment it delves onto making subtle hate posts about specific people that’s when you’re taking it too far.

another issue is the fact that a lot of the fandom normalise proshipping. someone needed to say it!

since i've been in the fandom i have seen an unbelievable amount of minor x adult content, incest and a lot of other things. before you say "oh, every fandom has people like that", they do BUT it is too normalised in this fandom? i have NEVER seen anyone talk out about how weird it is for people to be shipping the Thenardier kids (who are all aged under 17) for example, with ANY adult characters (Javert, Montparnasse, the students, members of the Patron-Minette and most of the time this is smut where people do NOT age these characters up! which, even needing to age a character up to ship them is such an insane thing (how do you see a child character and say "they need to be aged up so i can ship them with this adult") because that isn't normal behaviour!!!!

another major issue is that a lot of these characters are reduced down to ships, for example, i could perhaps mention javert and somehow it'll link to valvert and then his character is immediately reduced down to liking valjean or vice versa. same with enjolras and grantaire, ive noticed that grantaire can't be mentioned in a conversation on his own without enjolras being related even though he can be a great character without looking solely at enjoltaire.

i really, really love this fandom but it is so discouraging to interact with it sometimes because of the content i see and how NO ONE else talks about it. maybe it's because i'm younger than most of the fandom and i have a different view on it (im a minor) and for me and others, seeing adults ship children with characters MUCH older than them is so uncomfortable to see!

and yes, tag blocking is a system on tumblr which i use before anyone suggests it, but if you use this feature you'd know it doesn't always work and a lot of these posts/ blogs i've blocked can still appear through other people's reblogs.

i will add, i am NOT saying every single shipper is like this because not everyone is! what i am saying is its a pattern myself and others have started to notice more and more and its honestly really concerning to me. i know that les mis has a lot of different ways people interpret characters, ships, etc, but i really do believe there’s a point where certain things should not be encouraged and it becomes too much and hurtful.

that’s enough for now, i honestly have a lot of thoughts about this topic but… thanks for reading this if anyone did, i'd love to hear others opinions on this because i really do believe this is a subject that NEEDS to be talked about

[aibidil]

In honor of Debate Day (I'm cringing already, and I have to watch with my kid for a school assignment): I keep seeing political posts on here that demonstrate a misunderstanding of the American electoral system, and I want to explain a few points. Because I have a PhD in Political Science and apparently I can't help myself.

E.g. "You people keep saying to vote for the (blameworthy) democrat and then force them to the left, but then you never force them to the left!" <- in a way, this statement is true enough, but not for the reasons that it seems to imply.

The US Constitution doesn't establish a two-party system. However, it does establish the Electoral College, which is a major way in which the US electoral system diverges from a popular vote. The manner in which each state chooses and constrains its electors (the people who make up the Electoral College) is left to the states, but 48 of the 50 states use a voting system called "First Past the Post," or first-preference plurality. FPTP is a system in which voters choose one candidate and the candidate with the largest number of votes (a plurality) "takes it all," even if they do not secure a majority of the votes. So if there are three candidates—say, Gore, Bush, and Nader—and Bush gets the plurality of electors, Bush wins. Even if more voters voted for Gore than Bush. Even if Nader voters indicated in exit polls that their second choice was much more likely to be Gore than Bush. US Congressional seats, likewise, are elected in single-member districts with FPTP winner-takes-all. So in a FPTP system, the makeup of the electoral body is not proportional to the votes cast by voters, and in the Electoral College, it may lead to results in which a candidate with a plurality of overall votes doesn't win the election.

Single-member FPTP systems therefore discourage voting for smaller parties and encourage, as the rational outcome of the electoral system, strategic voting for one of two big parties. This is in direct contrast to electoral systems that run on some variation of proportional representation (ranked preference voting, multi-member districts, etc), where the percentages of votes for each party are reflected in the final makeup of the elected body.

So even though there's nothing in the US Constitution saying we have to have a two-party system, in Political Sciencey terms: Duverger's Law states that all FPTP systems will become two-party systems. This is true because it is the logical outcome of rational actors operating in the system.

Okay, but who cares if we have a two-party system? We can still push democrats to the left, right?

Well, kind of? But ultimately, not really. Because think about it: if you have two parties competing for votes among the entire populace, they can only position themselves against the other party. You've got one candidate on the right and one candidate on the left. Committed leftists and committed right-wingers are going to vote for their party (or not vote at all). There's no incentive for a party to make any concessions to those voters. Whose votes are they trying to get? The people in the middle. Those are the only people they should care about, if they want to win. So the voters in the middle can exert influence over the platforms, and that has the effect of pulling both sides toward the very middle.

(One thing that has happened in recent years is that the Republicans have been successful at moving the entire distribution of votes farther to the right. This hasn't changed the fact that the two-party system will always pull both parties toward the center of the vote distribution, but it's definitely fucked us over. If the democrats had any way to enact this sort of shift, I would be all over it, but I don't see how they could. The entire system is fucked even beyond all I've already said by gerrymandering and the fact that leftists are geographically isolated in cities, both of which systematically benefit the right, so it doesn't seem likely that the democrats could be successful at a shift like that without changing some of the laws about gerrymandering, if not also the Electoral College.)

On the other hand, in systems that have more than two parties, you end up with bimodal distributions of votes. Why is that? Because say you have three parties on the left, and voters know that they aren't throwing their vote away if they vote for a smaller party. What will happen? The three parties on the left will be vying for the votes of the leftists. And the same thing will happen on the right. In this way, the voters will pull the party platforms farther from the middle, out to each side. The leftmost and rightmost "fringe" parties will each get a small proportion of the votes, and the more mainstream parties will get more, but those fringes have much more power than they ever could in a two-party FPTP system.

So when people say, "You say, vote for the democrat, then force them to the left, and then you don't force them to the left"—correct. There is no clear way to force a democratic candidate to the left in our two-party FPTP system. How would one even do that? The only thing leftists can threaten is to not vote, when not voting will certainly benefit the candidate on the right. So, sure, you can do that—if you want your behavior to benefit the right as a way to threaten the left. Some people will make that choice, but not many, because it will help the right!

To be clear: this is fucked! I think this is fucked! But we get nowhere by sticking our heads in the sand about how the electoral system actually works.

I'm not pretending that there's only one right way to act. Our system is fucked and has been for a long time. What I do think is key is understanding how the system actually works and making your decisions from there.

For me, I've often said, "Vote for the democrat for harm reduction, because that will absolutely reduce harm compared to the republican candidate. Then, fight the system." But I realize this maybe wasn't specific enough. What I mean when I say that is: I will vote for Kamala with zero qualms. Because I believe that Trump would be worse for literally every demographic in the world that I care about. To me, that's the only thing the vote is about. Do I agree with Kamala on Israel-Palestine? No. Do I think Trump would be worse for Palestinians and for American Jews (probably for Israeli citizens too)? Absolutely. Do I shudder to think what happened last time Trump had control over creating the Supreme Court? YES.

But when I say, "Then, fight the system," I mean specifically: the number one thing that leftists should be doing if we want to make any headway, if we want to shift that distribution of votes back from the rightward journey its taken in recent years, is to fight to overturn the electoral college and gerrymandering. Every tiny step we take in making our electoral system closer to the popular vote favors both principles of democracy and the left. If we can amend the constitution (this is enormously difficult) to get rid of the Electoral College, then we can turn to changing the electoral system to something other than FPTP.

I do not mean "vote for Kamala and then spend 4 years yelling at democrats for not being leftist enough." I agree: that is a terrible strategy, and will do nothing.

We can't keep ignoring, in between elections, that the voting system itself is where our focus should be! We can't keep pointing fingers at each other, even though we're all acting within the constraints of a fucked system, every time an election comes along! Maybe I'm getting old but I am so weary of this! We can't somehow willpower our way out of the system in which our votes are being cast! We have to change it!

[lokisasylum]

Getting this off my chest real quick:

Y'know what's really laughable? That on more than one occasion since Solo Era began, its been proven and exposed that those who call themselves "OT7s" and go around harassing anyone who tries to define themselves anything BUT that, are the first who hate, ignore, shade on and discourage EVERYONE who wants to support Jimin.

But are also the first to come around and STEAL credits of our hardworking Jimin fanbases when Jimin wins or achieves a new milestone.

We've seen the chatroom SS, read each and every word laced with bitterness when Jimin surpasses another member or the group in records.

Any member reaching a milestone:

Armys: "YES MY KING, YOU ATE. THE MAN THAT YOU ARE, WORLDWIDE SUPERSTAR--"

Versus Jimin reaching the same milestones:

Armys: "Omg not that fucking song again". "I can't wait for it to reach 1B so that it finally freefalls and disappears--", "I'm sorry I love Jimin, but I'm so sick of seeing him everywhere". "Think of how the other members must feel.", "Its probably fraudulent again.", "He's so privileged and fake--"

Jimin topped No.1 on DEEZER thanks to his solo fbs organizing a streaming party for it? Oh no, can't have DEEZER's official account praising Jimin or pjms for that milestone. Better go s*xually harass the admins until they're FORCED to write that "Army" did it, even though not a single army knew wtf DEEZER was.

If there's a voting where the category is "The most charitable angel", guess who the fandom choose to support? The one member that NEVER donates to charity OVER Jimin who's been giving money silently to those in need for years.

And the iHeart Radio Awards were no exception. Last year the fandom had NO problem winning ALL the fan-voted categories FOR MULTIPLE MEMBERS, but THIS YEAR? Not a single motherfucker even tried because in most categories it was JIMIN who got nominated. Hell, they didn't even vote for "Are You Sure?"

And these fuckers were SO FULL OF SHIT a month ago trying to make it seem like it was "jimin solos/pjms" who weren't voting/were sabotaging the votes, when the reality was that pjms were voting 24/7, even for AYS.

So what happened, babes?

What's ya'lls excuses now?

And before you do, we got receipts of "ot7s" voting for taylor and celebrating when she won over Jimin in the fan-votes. But were quick to claim victory over the "K-Pop Song Of The Year" which WASN'T fan-voted.

So save it.

[chemdisaster]

for joel, the trauma he has from the life series is not to do with the killing. no, he's fine with the killing itself, enjoys it, revels in it, has always had a natural propensity for bloodlust and destruction that exists separate from whatever server he's in at any given time. joel could be placed in a server that does everything possible to discourage its members from violence and he'd still find a way to kill and make it fun for himself.

his problem is not with the bloodlust, because bloodlust is him regardless of what server he's on or the colour of his name. his actual problem, the thing that makes the life series hurt, is the weight given to every kill that happens there. what bothers him is that here, the deaths matter, and so does being the one who has to stay alive and mourn their fallen allies. everything matters in this, the loneliness and the thrill of the chase and the emptiness and quiet grief that follows. unlike other smps, this is not a game, and yet is in the cruelest way possible.

so perhaps this is why everything that joel does is aimed at lowering the significance of all that happens to him and around him. why he builds pretty bases and falls to his own traps and keeps trying to use firework crossbows when he knows what it would take him to win. we talk about how he goes feral when red, but his red rage is never really about the bloodlust, is it? he doesn't get more bloodthirsty than he usually is - rather, he gets more desperate. more foolish. he can feel that things are about to go down, about to get serious - and he trembles with the knowledge of it all and does his best to make sure it's over as fast as possible, whether through his own death or by murdering everyone else so there's no one left around to die and make him feel stupid things about their stupid death.

for joel, it was never about the killing. it was about the game making him care in ways he never wanted to care or had to before this point. the bigger his problems got, the harder he tried to ignore them - and the more it hurt when he ultimately failed and got burnt, over and over and over once more.

[glittercake]

all this AI stuff is upsetting but being really honest, i did used the AI detection tool for some work i know is 100% human (trust the author or it was written pre-2019, which was def before chatgpt)...and chapters or the first 15k characters of the text come out between 0% (great!) to 30% AI (okay, time to look at the text more closely) generated. for works that are are not or could not possibly be AI generated.

i dunno, the two that were 70% to 80% AI generated were easier to clock. but people's hard work being called AI because some random website decided that the sentence "yes, yes, yes" was probably generated by AI is also disheartening. AI fucking sucks but the idea that some random tool known for constantly scraping the web to improve its models (and realistically, AO3 can't stop it, only "discourage" it but the scraper has to choose to respect that, i think) gets to be the one to determine what's human is just as discouraging.

i think you're right to call this out and it's not dramatic at all, maybe im being down in the dumps because now i'm looking at any fic published after 2021 sideways (esp before people knew what chatgpt actually did in the early days). but the state of fandom recently makes me think "why bother trying? im up against the computer or people who think im using a computer" because there's no way to prove i am the human who wrote it without being like 'here, actually this computer says im the human.'

Idk if you saw the recent post i made about this whole thing but it might bring you some comfort as to why we're getting these kinds of results on things we didn't expect.

Just know those detectors aren't always accurate. We should look at this from all angles and consider all possibilities. Ai text detection is but one element of it.

Fics from 2019-ish showing a positive ai result is likely due to reasons i discussed in that post and not because someone slopped it together.

I'm going to continue enjoying fandom the way i always have. I think we all should. We've been at it for too long to let the bots win.

These fuckers will eventually expose themselves because it's never about the joy of writing/sharing for them. It is about instant validation and attention.

[moonlitcomet]

new pokemon fangame in my has-played list thanks to a recommendation from a discord member:

pokemon tectonic

please note this post is very long and very opinionated, but that's out of love for this game! pokemon tectonic has captured my interest and i'd like to see its devs improve in their next project.

my thoughts so far, after 21 hours of gameplay and 4 badges:

it needs a lot of polish, and a lot of QoL changes.

a lot of the choices made for gameplay in tectonic are really great and fun - every single pokemon getting rebalanced at least a little bit, all the new moves, the retypings and what not, that's all fantastic. i have no complaints there.

there are a lot of QoL features - such as easy move relearners and move mentoring - that make swapping your team's movesets around a breeze.

there is also an extremely expansive in-game documentation of everything - gameplay, battles, new moves and abilities, pokemon stats and learnsets, etc. you could make a wiki out of what's in here alone.

they encourage you to catch 'em all and actively reward you for it!

consumable held items will be automatically renewed at the end of a battle. you will never run out of gems or berries.

there are following pokemon, hgss style!

however, it fumbles in a lot of aspects.

gameplay

npc trainers will know your moves, and they will act depending on what moves are in your current pokemon's moveset- before any are made.

in the context of the game, this makes perfect sense. you are given an item that allows you to preview a trainer's pokemon before you battle. species, types, abilities, items, everything. trainers will react based on what they think you will do before have a chance to do anything.

but in the context of playing the game as a normal player, it feels either downright cheap or incredibly unintelligent on their parts. they will give you at least one free turn of setup, then get brutally swept by an attacking pokemon.

it would be a good idea to adjust this npc ai so you can disable use of the trainer x-ray for both battlers. i don't want them to know what i have just by looking at me, and i don't want to know what they have just by looking at them.

removing use of this tool for both sides would keep it fair. having to look at every trainer i fight in detail before i fight them is time consuming and removes a lot of the mystery and the fun of playing pokemon games to me.

trainers in this game will switch their pokemon as often as they can, and tectonic discourages you from doing that too.

a major part of pokemon's gameplay is knowing when to sacrifice a pokemon so you can bring in a waiting, healthy team member. a pokemon hanging on by a sliver of health is better to sack in the moment so your waiting team member doesn't take a strong hit, and has a turn to set up or retaliate.

tectonic actively punishes this style of gameplay.

trainers will constantly switch depending on what they think will counter your active pokemon. usually, this just means switching into a pokemon that resists your next attacking move. this is often at a detriment to them, and sometimes you can get caught in switching loops where you and the enemy trainer will change between pokemon every two turns -

attack, switch.

attack, switch.

attack, switch.

this wastes a lot of time.

an un-toggleable feature of this game is "trainer perfection". when you beat an average route npc trainer without having a single pokemon go down on your side, the trainer will run away and drop exp candy. this is a perfect win. by default, if you do not perfect a battle, the trainer will wait until you come by again to challenge you once more.

this can't be turned off except if you happen to have a special item called a stink bomb, which forces them to run away whether you've defeated them or not.

protip, you can open the debug menu using an application in your installation folder, and give yourself infinite stink bombs.

my suggestion for the perfection system is to allow players to disable it for average npcs, make it optional. or, at least, give us an option to *willingly* talk to npcs to rematch them. like the vs seeker in older games.

the devs intended this feature to not force you to rematch trainers multiple times, and instead plan your routes carefully. this has the unfortunate side effect of discouraging some players from fighting every trainer and exploring the game as they want, because the forced rematches upon coming across them again [unless you perfect them] waste more and more of their time.

also, some of these npc trainers are trainers that completely block your path - difficult ones at that. if you don't perfect or scare them off with a stink bomb, you'll have to go at them again when you come back around.

as of right now, the trainer rematches are as annoying as the pokemon breeders in gen 5. they are incessant unless you sweep them.

IVs, EVs, and natures are completely removed.

to most casual players, this would be a hooray! i'm personally happy about the removal of IVs, but it really starts to kick you in the teeth as you progress in the game. instead, what these things are replaced with are called style points. style points are minimal stat adjustments that allow you to set up different styles of battling for your pokemon.

think of it like skill points in average rpgs.

these are cool in theory. but the way they're set up is limiting and feels unnecessarily strict in application. for some unknown reason, both attacking stats are permanently linked, and you must raise both attacking stats at once. raising two attacking stats only removes one point from your remaining pool, but it feels pointless to have style points invested into a stat you will not use [ie, physical attack on a pure special attacker].

i can't believe i'm saying this, but i genuinely miss EV training over this. EV training feels like it has a much stronger impact on stats than these style points do, and you have far more control [with up to 252 in a given stat rather than 20]. it's a cool idea, just not particularly favorably executed in my opinion.

it is possible to have EVs and make them not a nightmare to deal with!

pokemon reborn has a system where all power items - anklet, lens, weight, etc - will increase its given stat EVs by 32 for every pokemon you knock out, regardless of the EVs the species naturally gives. with this feature in place, EV training becomes a breeze and you can have a fully trained 6 pokemon team in less than 10 minutes, rather than the potential hours it might take the normal way.

reborn's system is, in my opinion, an almost perfect way to do EV training. the only way to make it less hassle would be to turn EVs entirely into a menu, as tectonic has attempted to do.

you cannot use bag items - other than poke balls - in battles.

as a plus, enemy trainers cannot do this either. this is mixed based on how you like to play. i can respect this gameplay decision, as much as it very much isn't my style.

every pokemon is sorted into one or more tribes that have different effects on the battle.

honestly, i don't even use this feature. it's cool for team building i suppose, but feels tacked on and isn't my style. a point in their direction for making tribes a completely optional gameplay mechanic.

story

four out of eight badges in, the story is near nonexistent. you get scraps of it every now and then, teasing you for something large. you are wandering a world that has already been conquered. and honestly, i love that premise. people talk of someone who has already defeated the evil team in the past- you see remnants of what they did to the world around you.

this, to me, is very similar to what it feels like playing b2w2 without playing the original black & white, which i did as a child. i say this positively. traversing remnants of a world that was not yours to conquer is awesome. i'd love to see more of that.

however, halfway through the main story [i assume] and not having any of the story ramping up in any fashion feels slow. there's very little motivation for continuing aside from showing up your brother, which you are told to do before you even get your first pokemon.

everyone is just... so mean to you, for no reason. none of these characters feel particularly likeable, none of them are funny or kind as a motivation to fight for them.

[cain and hardy in reborn are my favorite examples for this, i would commit war crimes for them in spite of everything sucking early on. and it gets better. so much better.]

so you're just... trudging through a world that hates you or doesn't care about you, with no incentive to fix it from anyone you like. everything feels very obligatory, as if you have no choice in the matter, and there's no urgency at all to any situation. i'll reblog this post with an update if or when the story ramps up, but as of right now it's not hooking me too much outside of the initial concept.

final thoughts

Pokemon Tectonic is a somewhat long game with a very strong premise and unpolished execution. It feels like it's too big of a scope for how small it feels, and a lot of the effort in creating this game clearly went into rebalancing every single pokemon up to gen 8 [and some of gen 9].

What it suffers in the most is lack of accessibility and lack of options in terms of gameplay - a good game dev can add features that can modify or disable parts of their game that either make it easier or harder. Tectonic feels like it's trying to strongarm you into playing a nuzlocke or deathless run, with how it punishes you for letting a pokemon faint in battle.

I think this game could be made leagues better if it felt more customizable. As it stands, once I finish this game, I will probably not be revisiting it, as much as I like what it has going for it.

That is all I have for now. My favorite part of this game is that most avatar boss battles can be defeated with Fort Unfuckable.

[ddarker-dreams]

HWR question!!!! I’m curious what the dynamic was between Victor Avalor and Anastasia’s mom when HWR reader was growing up. Was it an arranged marriage situation? Did they genuinely love or at least like each other? Maybe it was one sided??! I must know 🙏

blessed anon ,, i'm grateful for the chance to talk about victor and dinara. their dynamic goes on to majorly influence the type of people estella, HWR reader, and become. for better or for worse. mostly the latter. i intended to reveal more about their history in bloodlines, but since that series is on a hiatus, i'll go into it here.

for some background: victor was the second son of leonid avalor, the obdurate patriarch who shaped much of survosia's future. leonid focused his attention on his first son, who, by birthright, would be leonid's true heir. victor silently simmered in resentment during his early years. he had a keen mind for business, politics, and management. what he lacked was charisma, an area his brother excelled at.

he was able to stomach perpetually living in his brother's shadow until he met dinara in his early 20s. dinara was a singer of recent renown. she accrued notoriety following the release of a single, and at the height of her popularity, was a household name throughout the country. she performed at a soirée victor happened to be attending. her velvety voice, beauty, and demure personality had him enamored. he chased every opportunity to interact with her. she took kindly to his affections. the only person within her entourage who discouraged the relationship was her bodyguard, xue ya, who left meteor city in search of a better life overseas.

leonid refused to endorse their relationship, much less a marriage. it was at that point victor realized what he subconsciously knew all along. if he ever wanted his ambitions fully realized, he'd need to be the only living person holding the avalor name. no one would hold any authority over him.

and so a 'terrible tragedy' was orchestrated that eliminated his father, mother, and eldest brother from the picture.

dinara continued to discount xue ya's warnings. getting involved with the avalor family meant entering a life she wasn't raised for. she wasn't a fighter and didn't have a strong constitution to begin with. she didn't learn this until much later, but it's possible for those who have corrupted blood, even in an inactive state, to suffer the harmful effects. a strong affinity for nen helps prevent this slow bodily deterioration. when dinara used her hatsu, she lacked the mastery necessary to simultaneously suppress corruption and maintain her aura.

their marriage wasn't perfect. dinara couldn't have possibly fathomed the full extent of the avalor family's malfeasance. spying, subterfuge, blackmail, racketeering, murder; the list went on and on. the six major families were always locked in a power struggle. victor managed to claw his way up over a mountain of corpses. still, he never did his wife harm, but didn't make an effort to hide his immorality either. especially when it came to his designs for their children. the first born would be raised to win the hearts of the nation; the family's face. a star that shines blindingly bright. and in its shadow would be the second born, the family’s executioner, who’d dirty their hands.

instead of stoking tension between them as his parents had, victor wanted to instill an unshakeable bond between the two. the birth of their third child — ash — was actually unplanned. hence ash being less involved in the family’s affairs.

in short, they did love one another, although there were times they wish they didn’t.

[sumimikyo]

Barbie Legacy Challenge

  Sims 4 Barbie Legacy Challenge

Hey you,yeah you right there are you bored and have nothing to do?,do you like sims, i mean you’re here after all,do you like Barbie? And do you like a good challenge? Well do I have a challenge for you : 

With the Barbie movie finally out as well as the ranch update out,I figured this would be a good time to introduce the Barbie Legacy Challenge,I have been working on this challenge since the announcement but never knew where to take it but I think I have finally found the groove,without further ado I present to you the challenge, rules and rundown,hope you enjoy. 

Please don’t get discouraged with the amount of generations, the requirements are not as difficult as they sound.

(Oh and if you do this challenge please use the tag #BarbieLegacyChallenge (i will try to come up with a new tag hehe) )

Please note: 

Due to this challenge being based off of Barbie the heir’s will be women but if you would like to do guys as well there is nothing wrong with that.

If you do not get a female sim within the set amount of children you have the option to change their gender in create a sim or simply keep trying until you get a girl.

The descriptions at the start of each generation are not always what has already happened but also what will happen and the storyline you are to follow.

Rules : 

Each Generation is not required to wear pink,only the first generation. (But if you want to do all pink you can)

Each Barbie’s clothing style must represent what they are. (eg, This Barbie is an Artist must wear creative freeing clothes,for eg overalls with paint on them etc.)

The first three generations are to live in the Barbie Manor but you can move the siblings out as they will be irrelevant but you must leave the first generation Barbie until she passes away.

The race of the barbie does not matter as barbies can be any race.

Each generation of Barbie sims do not have to be named barbie (as that can be boring),if you wish to keep the name Barbie you can make it their last name, e.g Alyssa Barbie.

If the job is not stated you may get a job to maintain some sort of income (specifically the first generation)

The Barbie Manor must not be touched after Gen 3 Barbie moves out and Gen 12 Barbie moves in.

Money cheats may be used when buying the first home or just use freerealestate cheats.

You can adopt any animal you want unless specified otherwise.

Unless specified you can live wherever you want.

Keep lifespan normal unless you truly wish to lengthen this challenge.

You may cheat to change the gender if as stated above you cannot get a female sim with a specific occult trait or if you are just having dumb luck and only get a football team full of boys.

The sim may move out as early as teenagehood unless stated otherwise.

Now onto the generations :

Generation 1 : This Barbie is a Horse-back rider

This Barbie comes from a long line of farmers who haven’t won a horse back riding championship since her great great grandmother.After the recent loss of her parents due to an accident after their business failed and they became bankrupt she sought out to become the Best Rider in Chestnut Ridge, buy back the Barbie Manor (64x64 lot,you can create it or get it off the gallery) and restore its Legacy.With only the clothes on her back,their family horse and 1000 dollars to her name she is determined to make things right.

 (Must start out with 1000  (after placed in home)  simoleons and move into the small lot within Chestnut Ridge but if you want a challenge you can start off with no money and house)

(Until she moves into the barbie manor must have the lot trait/challenge, Simple living,Great soil and Homey)

Traits : Horse lover,Active,Ambitious

Complete the, “Championship Rider Aspiration.”

Master : Horse-back riding,Gardening and Fitness skills

Master : horse’s temperament,agility,endurance and jumping

This Barbie must win competitions with 2 different horses and breed two of them to make a horse for the next generation.

Must make money by any means eg. painting,nectar making,farm animals,gardening odd jobs,fishing etc but cannot have a set job

Must get married when she is halfway to becoming an adult,her partner must have a well paying job to help with the funds

Have a secret romance with someone but cut it off after getting married

Can have as many children as they want but the youngest must be a girl to be the heir of gen 2.

If you haven’t gotten the funds to purchase the Barbie Manor by the time she is almost an elder you may cheat money to get it

Generation 2 : This Barbie is a Vet

Growing up alongside horses made this Barbie fall in love with animal care and wishes to learn how to help animals as a vet while simultaneously owning their own clinic.This Barbie on her time off from work is a serious jokester going about cracking jokes and pulling pranks whenever she can.

Traits : Animal enthusiast , Goofball , overachiever

Complete the, “Friend of the Animals”

Master : Pet training,Veterinarian and Comedy skills

This Barbie must have horses, coops ,sheep ,goats and chickens (basically the whole farm ranch aspect)

She must also live in the Barbie Manor with lot traits Dog Friendly and Training grounds while having her clinic elsewhere

Must marry someone from the city

Due to being a jokester this Barbie would often go to clubs and crack jokes,she will meet her husband in the nightclub and have children (can choose how many)

Generation 3 : This Barbie is an Artist

This Barbie loved living in the country,the surroundings made their creative genius shine.They chose to sell their paintings from home,go to the city for busking while also to experience the city life her father came from.

Traits : Creative,Art Lover,Erratic

Complete the, “Painter Extraordinaire.” Aspiration

Master : Painting,Violin and Piano skills

Have 2 cats

Must marry their third lover who is a superstar and convert them from a superstar to a farmer. (just stop posting and their fame should fade away or do something to let their fame die down (eg being mean)

Move to a house somewhere in Chestnut Ridge with a lot trait of Natural Light and adopt a horse

  Have 3 children,one from each lover. (can choose who to be heir)

Generation 4 : This Barbie is a Star

Growing up this Barbie always hated the country and wanted to be in the spotlight like their father/mother was and once they became a teenager moved out as a teenager to the city until they made enough money to move to Del-Sol-Valley to pursue their dreams of being a celebrity.

Traits : Self Absorbed,Proper,Materialistic

Complete : World Famous Celebrity

Master : Charisma,Acting and singing skills

Start off with simple media production by making media videos

Then apply to the acting career

Have a pristine reputation by the time you are nearing elderhood

Become a five star celebrity

Have 2 children after marrying a fellow celebrity and neglect them by hiring a nanny 

 Have a strained relationship due to work (youngest is the next heir)

Generation 5 : This Barbie is a Mother

As a child this Barbie’s parents neglected them and their sibling with a nanny which made the two take care of each other.Due to this this Barbie gained the love for taking care of someone especially when their parents sent them to see their younger cousins.This made this Barbie strive to be a loving mother and have a big family.

Traits : Family Oriented,Neat,Socially Awkward

Complete, “Big Happy Family”

Master : Parenting,Knitting and Cross Stitch skills

Move to Copperdale as a young adult with the lot trait Good Schools and On Ley Lines and adopt a dog

Marry their highschool sweetheart

Have 11 children (the middle child (6th) will be the next heir) and successfully send 5 children to college on a scholarship.

Generation 6: This Barbie is a Mermaid

Due to growing up in a big family as a child this Barbie always wanted to be alone somewhere on the beach and have her own life instead of constantly being stuck in the middle of all family affairs in her life.As a child she loved reading and always had an infatuation with mermaids and felt a calling to her from the ocean the older she got,So instead of going to college like her older siblings as soon as she became a young adult she left home and moved to Sulani.

Traits : Child of the ocean,Vegetarian and Hates children

Complete : “Beach life” Aspiration

Master : Wellness,Guitar and Herbalism skills

Must become a mermaid before becoming an adult,use siren skills on sims,befriend a dolphin and as an adult get married to a human and lastly keep having children until you get one that is a full human (note if you get a human on the second try and are willing have one more so the story for the next generation would work)

Generation 7 : This Barbie is a Witch

Due to being the only other human sim in the family with no mermaid abilities,this Barbie was often excluded from what was called “Mermaid time” among her siblings and mother.This Barbie’s relationship between her siblings were terrible and the one with her mother was strained if it weren’t for her father she would have gone down a separate path but instead chose to make herself special by going to the Realm of Magic.

Traits : Mean,Genius,Hot Headed

Complete : Spellcraft & Sorcery

Master : Mischief and Logic skils

This Barbie must move to Glimmerbrook and have the lot trait of Private Dwellings, master all spells,learn all potions,make enemies with two of their siblings (can use magic on them) and only maintain a relationship with their father.

Must fall in love with a vampire  and have 3 children, the vampire  baby will be the next heir (must be a girl)

Generation 8 : This Barbie is a Doctor

This Barbie was born into a strange family,confused as to why she had to hide herself from others and why others were afraid of her being a vampire.She was kept hidden in Glimmerbrook until she was a teenager (this made her develop a love for gardening) and began to explore the world slowly.She was a genius and always was fascinated with humans,took pictures of them as memories and wanted to help in the best way she can in hopes of being accepted so she set out to become a doctor and simultaneously pursuing the Master Vampire Goal in hopes of convince humans that vampires aren't a threat.

Traits : Genius,Romantic,Clumsy

Complete, “Master Vampire” Aspiration

Master : Photography,Charisma and Vampire Lore skills

She must Master the Doctor's career and find her true love (doesn’t have to be human)  after failed attempts as an adult.

She will have three failed romantic pursuits ( must be with a werewolf,spellcaster or mermaid) where she will get pregnant by two of them and have the last baby with her true love. (you can choose the heir)

Generation 9 : This Barbie is an Author

This barbie always loved writing,due to having a colorful family lineage she never stopped being inspired and always wrote books in hopes of being her own author someday and maybe sharing some family stories with the world but due to her head always being in the clouds filled with her own thoughts she lost the ability to be charismatic enough to have a relationship.

Traits : High maintenance ,Unflirty,Creative

Complete , “Bestselling Author” Aspiration

Master : Entrepreneur and Writing skills

Master the writer career.

Sim must get a partner as a young adult,neglect the relationship due to managing work and trying to publish their own books and then get divorced after having a baby.

As an adult they will get remarried and have more children,this time maintaining the relationship.

Generation 10 : This Barbie is a Chef

Due to being a famous authors child,this sim has read a plethora of book genres,despite her mothers wide variety of books to entertain herself she was always interested in cook books,blogs and shows.This was the push needed for this Barbie to set out to become a chef and baker,they want to own their own bakery and restaurant.

Traits : Foodie,Bookworm and Perfectionist

 Complete, “Master Chef”

Master : Cooking,Baking and Mixology skills

Due to being so busy during their young Adulthood This Barbie never had the time to maintain a relationship long enough to have children of her own. (have failed relationships until she becomes an adult)

So when she became an adult she adopted 3 children of her own.

Generation 11 : This Barbie is a Jungle Explorer

This Barbie grew bored of helping maintain the family business while her need for an adventure grew more and more day by day.When she finally became a young adult,she expressed her need for an adventure to her mother who encouraged her to pursue her dreams because the family can handle the businesses themself.She set out to Selvadorado to uncover any secrets that she can.

Traits : Adventurous,Non-committal  and Self-Assured

Complete, “Jungle Explorer” Aspiration

Master : Archeology and Selvadoradian culture skills

Due to a constant need of Adventure this Barbie  meets a lot of people on her ventures and has broken hearts wherever she goes due to not being ready to settle down.When this Barbie masters all her skills and Aspiration she will then settle down with someone.

Generation 12 : This Barbie is a Friend of the World

As a child this Barbie was taught the importance of personal need and to aspire for whatever big dreams she had.Her mother tried to encourage her into all sorts of things in hopes she would find her calling but all this Barbie wanted to do was enjoy her time with many different sims,getting to know their story and then quietly settling down knowing she made an impact in their life.

Traits - Cheerful,Easy going,Insider

Complete, “Friend Of The World” Aspiration

Master : Charisma,Painting and Flower arranging skills

After completing all her goals this sim will settle down with animal friends of their choice in the Barbie Manor

Hopefully you all have fun with this challenge and please let me know how far you reach with the generations and remember progress is still progress no matter where you reached.

~Zee

[griseldagimpel]

Political Parties Do Not Have an Intrinsic Identity

Political parties do not have an intrinsic identity. They are a tool for accomplishing collective action, and they are what their members make of them. This, in turn, is a struggle between different factions for control of the party.

A major battleground for that struggle is primary elections.

When people say "Vote Blue No Matter Who", they are expressing the bargin of political parties. You try to control the party, but of you don't prevail, you back the winning primary candidate in the general election because if your candidate had one, you'd need the party members opposed to your candidate to vote for them, too.

Collective action only works if everyone hangs together, so fracturing is discouraged.

That said, anyone who says "Vote Blue No Matter Who" without at least trying to control the direction of the party is a chump (at best) because they're getting nothing in exchange for their loyalty, and there are some very vile people working to steer the Democratic Party in horrific directions.

IF you feel like control of a party can't be won, you can instead work to build up a new or smaller political party. I'm going to use the Green Party here as an example because it's the most well-known third party in the U.S., but any third party works here.

For a third party to be effective as a form of collective action, it needs to have sufficient support to achieve its goals. When people say "A Vote For Third Party is a Vote For Trump" - an expression that grates my teeth, just so it's clear - the sentiment being expressed is that the third party is too small to be effective.

The battlegrounds for growing a third party are small local elections (like school board) and uncontested elections. Run a candidate anywhere where an election might be won and build up support. That will attract voters dissatisfied with the Democratic Party.

BUT if the Green Party were ever to grow to be a force to be reckoned with, it would attract awful people looking to steer it in an awful direction.

Because no political party has an intrinsic identity.

You're never going to find the Good political party that will always and only do good things.

Every political party is going to be what you and everyone else in it collectively makes it.

So don't assume a passive role. Don't treat political parties as fixed entities where you wait for them to court your vote. Take control of your political party to the extent that you are able. Do what you can to mold them into the party you want them to be.

[Anyone who responds to this post with some version of Voting Doesn't Work or Just Don't Vote will be blocked.]

[r2b2grady]

To any and all people who see this, who are discouraged and disgusted by the chaos going on in Washington, I want to offer some encouragement. I know I'm breaking my rule on not discussing politics here, and I don't see myself discussing it here again, but I feel the situation is serious enough that it would be wrong for me not to speak about this.

First and foremost, if you think that there isn't anything you can do, then, with all gentleness, you're wrong. I know it doesn't feel like much, but absolutely contact your senators and representatives, preferably by phone if possible (according to the Berkeley Library Tips for Contacting Elected Officials). If you don't know the contact information, you can look it up at USA.gov here. And as Emily Ellsworth puts it in her Medium article, don't call them multiple times for the same issue. You can call once separately for each issue you have, but don't become background noise. The comic Laws & Sausages also has some good tips about what to say and what not to say, starting here.

And this goes for any of your federal representatives, regardless of party. In some ways, it's even more important if your representative and/or senators are Republican. In my case, all three are, which I'll admit was very disheartening. But with Congress in a double Republican majority, those are the people to reach, and you should absolutely tell them what you think of their policies and choices. As one of their constituents, they should listen to you. And even though you might be one of thousands, you can still be one of the raindrops that forms a downpour. All the more if you can organize together with people so that they get a lot of calls about this.

I also want to speak on a more personal and emotional level, and offer some encouragement because the times can seem so dark, and that is: no matter how dark they seem, this will not be the end. To quote Chesterton:

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. ~ G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, Ch. XVII

I don't mean to imply that everything will be okay, we just need to keep thinking positive thoughts. These are dark times, dark enough that I'm breaking my own rule of never discussing politics on my blog. But I think the most important thing any of us can do is to not listen to the whispers of our soul, telling us to give up or just say "well, that's just the way the world is", or any such damned lies. Because that's exactly what those temptations are—not just lies, but damned lies, straight from Hell itself. And they're all too easy to listen to because they claim to provide comfort. "You don't have to keep feeling this pain if you just give in to the despair. You won't be disappointed again if you don't hope." All of those arguments.

But the thing is, these are from the Devil. And the Devil is a bully, not a fighter. He blusters, he swaggers, but he cannot stand against resistance. And so I urge you to fight this despair, tooth and nail. Because while it is one of the Devil's greatest weapons, it's also one of his weakest. Amusingly enough, I'm most reminded of a quote from the novelization of Revenge of the Sith (this is the tail of a much longer quote, which is all about the impressive power/patience/etc. of the darkness):

The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back. Love is more than a candle. Love can ignite the stars. ~ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, novelization, Matthew Stover [emphasis mine]

The power of darkness is always, always a fleeting thing. It may not feel like it, and it's perfectly okay to feel like it's overwhelming. But the most important thing to do in those times is to push on regardless. Because at those times, that's when we prove the darkness wrong, no matter what it feels like. Those are the moments when we light a candle, a torch, or a star against the darkness.

I could go on about the importance of the word love in that quote, and how important it is to look at it as more than just affection, fuzzy feelings, romantic love, what-have-you—to use the actual agápē of scripture—but I've nattered on plenty for now anyway.

[mahalkitabbg]

𝙸𝙽𝚃𝚁𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 ⭐(bc apparently that's important-😭)

Updated Every now-and-then:

Call me 'mahalkitabbg' (HAHA), ChefBaby_j, or 'Tyume' :)

I am introverted but if I get to know you...I will never stop rambling about random stuff...I swear.

(Woo....Random blank spot...)

I'm a multi-fandom person. I really like to read, write, and draw (that should be obvi-) and practice piano. I love doing math for some weird reason like I love Algebra... (MINOR SO NO SUSSY 👺) I am American but I'm half Filipino. (Like both parents are from The Filipinas, but I am born in America.)

I am a band kid... DON'T COME AFTER US WE WILL COME AFTER YOU. Music is genuinely really fun!!

My pronouns are any, and if you were to misgender me it's fine bc I kinda like being misgendered... is that weird?... 🤷

I'm aro/ace 🧡💛🤍🩵💙 (I think...)

Oh and I call my followers 'Donkeys' in like a fun way-

Dislikes-Hates:

I HAT3 🌽 (no, not the food-),

2. 'weird' adults (flirting with minors and h@rassing them, you get it.)

3. Discouraging people.

4. People who don't wear headphones and have their phone volume at the HIGHEST POSSIBLE PUT IT DOWN THERE ARE PEOPLE AROUND YOU, LISTEN TO SIA WITH HEADPHONES!!!

Likes:

Painting

Writing-Art Form

Gardening

Ceramics-Clay-Pottery

Coding

Math + Science

Hiking

Listening to music. (ANY music)

Manok ko (My chickens-pets.)

And if you were the same race as me... you would UNDERSTAND WHAT MY USERNAME MEANS- 😭 (hint, hint... the end part is in an abbreviated English modern texting way of admiration while the rest is in another language...Just add the spaces)

I like listening to Tyler The Creator, Beabadoobee, Laufey, She & Him, Frank Sinatra, The Smiths, Alex G., TV Girl, The Cardigans, Mitski, Michael Jackson, Billie Eilish (and like 50 billion trillion somethin' more.) OH I like Ube. Like I LOVE UBE. I LIVE FOR UBE!!

Fandoms I'm in (Or ones I could talk about if I felt like it):

Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur

The Simpsons

Amphibia

The Legend of Zelda

Jollibee? (I'm just a jolly bee, 'kay? Let's all be jolly bees.)

The Owl House

The Ghost and Molly McGee

Win or Lose (OMGG I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH!!)

101 Dalmations Street

Elena of Avalor (ITS GOOD TRUST-)

My Neighbor Totoro

Peanuts (Snoopy.)

Dog Man (Don't laugh at me.)

South Park (trying to get into it more... so just saying haven't completely finished the series.)

Apple & Onion (TELL ME SOMEONE KNOWS THIS SHOW. PLEASE I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGING FOR SOMEONE TO KNOW THIS SHOW)

All of the Rick Riordan Books

Gordon Korman's Books

Asylum ( Madeleine Roux )

Studio Investigrave Games

The Amazing Digital Circus

The Amazing World of Gumball

Amanda The Adventurer

Big City Greens

Mouthwashing (The game not actual Mouthwashing-)

Argos & Mr. Plant

Ramshackle

Star VS The Forces of Evil

Bluey (Admit it, you like it, too.)

SML (Super Mario Logan)

Gravity Falls

The Holy Bible... (TRUE #1) Roman-Catholic/Christian and proud of it.

And about... 50 billion trillion more.

(up there is my persona/oc or whatever u call it. yuh. i don't actually look like that irl-)

DONT DARE MFING MIRROR THIS. I WAS HALF ASLEEP MAKING THE ART 'MKAY?

(I don't post on yt but that's there ig if ur interested...I might post one day. Idk.)

Yurt. that should be it. idk. what else might update.

If you wanna chat: .ajamanok. on discord :) (hit me up ;3)

Display name for Discord should be raisins are the best snack (that exactly)