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sio-writes · 11 months

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Sacrifice - Chapter 8

<Chapter 7

<<Chapter 1

Summary: This winter has been brutal, and Kyla is out of options. So, with teary eyes, she takes her best goat into the woods, hoping for some pity from whatever god finds her. And oh, she is found.

Tags: Casual alcohol consumption; NSFW; sexual manipulation through edging

Aurelius continues his routine and I continue mine, and we step around each other like ghosts, neither acknowledging the other's presence or ignoring completely. Dachaigh keeps me company while I mull over my conversation with Eodine.

Aurelius, as it turns out, is very good at hiding, both himself and his things. Dachaigh must be in leagues with him, because after examining every book on the lower floor I still have the exact same information as last week. No other journal or anything written in Aurelius’ handwriting exists where I can reach.

The upper floors are impossible, too. When I try to reach even the closest one, just one level up, the height makes me so dizzy I can barely grab a handful of books before I fall over the railing. I go through each with a swift hand, only stopping to squint at the handwriting before moving onto the next. The process takes up my morning energy, and I quietly pray for the goat’s forgiveness in skipping their breakfast.

But each book I pull down is a dead end. Nothing. And my patience thins with each hour that drags on.

After several days of searching and coming up empty handed, I’m too frustrated to continue. I leave Aurelius’ home and walk down the river path to the changeling cottage, and they greet me with smiles and hugs.

Gregory leads me by the hand to the back of the house, where the group is engrossed in some kind of game. There’s a square folding board on the low table surrounded by an array of drinks, and in the center is a tower of wooden blocks, stacked in alternating rows of three,and several have been removed making the tower lean dangerously to the right. In the corner of the room is a phonograph, much fancier than I've ever seen, softly playing an easy tune with instruments I've never heard before. The music fills the brief pauses, carrying the conversations like boats on a wave.

Sveta offers me her seat, but I don’t know how to play the game, so I find a free spot on the end of the couch and watch until I understand the rules.

The game starts with a person carefully removing one of the colored blocks from the tower, and written on the block is an action they must perform. If they don’t perform the action, they draw two more blocks, and then four, and then eight and so on. The most common actions involve the drinks such as adding more alcohol or finishing it off and making another, and the other actions are usually small things, like standing on one foot for the duration of the game, or only speaking in chicken squawks. I think Kimiko even threw some household chores in there, given that she smirks each time one of her blocks is drawn.

By the look of the half-empty glasses and opened bottles and tilting tower, they're nearly through with this round. They're all energetic and full of laughter, and it's hard not to laugh with them, leaning in every time someone pulls a block and the tower jolts dangerously.

Gregory's turn is the last of this round-- he's swaying on his knees as he leans over the table, tapping on the edge of a block with short nails, leaving a single block in the center to carry all the weight above it. The moment Gregory removes his block, the tower collapses and the whole group throws jeers at him.

Another round is set up, and Sveta turns to me.

“Kaitlyn, you should play!” she encourages, and I chew the inside of my cheek as I consider it.

I’ve only been out drinking once or twice, when my mother and my schedule both permitted it. But the ale at the town tavern was watered down and chalky, and our tavernkeep lacked the gold for anything of higher quality, so I only needed those few trips to steer me away from the bar for good. But the drinks here are more colorful, the glass bottles of alcohol and spirits on the table remind me of the bathroom soaps that Dachaigh lets me use.

They're all looking at me expectantly, even icy Josefina is staring a challenge, and I am truly interested in this game, the rowdiness and jeering have drawn me in. I finally concede.

“I suppose so,” I say, and Gregory jumps from the spot he’s standing in, legs fused together from the last block he chose as he hops to the kitchen.

“Whaddya like, Kate?” he shouts.

“Anything but ale,” I respond as both Sveta and Emile crunch themselves together to make room for me.

Gregory steps out of the kitchen, walking normally and sticking his nose up at the boos and hisses of the others.

"I'm not spilling this beautiful drink," he says as he sets it in front of me. The drink is bubbly, with the top a bright cranberry-red that fades to clear at the bottom, and he's taken a wedge of lime and stuck it to the rim.

"It's a good beginner cocktail, but you'll wanna stir it first," Gregory says, nudging my shoulder with his own and winking at me.

I stir the drink with my finger until the whole thing is a pale pink, and then I pop my finger into my mouth. Oh! It is cranberry! And the fizziness reminds me of ale, but with a different taste, it's not bitter or lingering. I most definitely feel the burn of alcohol behind it all, but the cranberry and this sweet fizzy drink have cut through it.

I take a long sip of my drink and Gregory rests his shoulder against mine. "You like it?"

"I do, thank you so much."

The next tower is set up while I sip on my drink, and I share pleasantries with Gregory and Sveta. They tell me to come visit more often, to stop by with more fruit, and it makes me feel warm that they enjoy my company. Kimiko asks about my dress, and when I tell her I made it her mouth opens on an 'O', and starts the others on a tirade of questions about how I made it.

The dress is one from the fabric stocks from the market, a deep purple with a triangle pattern woven in. It had been one of the nicer fabrics I'd received and wanted to use right away, and their acknowledgment of my craftsmanship makes me want to hide behind my drink. I've always loved to sew.

The game starts with Sveta and goes through each person, and eventually my turn is up. I copy Josefina's method of testing a few blocks with my fingers to see if they're loose, and pull one out with ease, squinting at the small script. “Um, I have to…” I flip the block around, but that doesn’t make the words magically appear.

“My handwriting can’t be that bad,” Gregory jokes, leaning over my shoulder to examine the block.

I puff my cheeks out, indignant. “I’m still learning,” I mutter, embarrassed, but the alcohol numbs the effect.

Gregory reaches for the block, turning it back over, and making a noise of understanding. “It says you can’t speak a word for the next hour,” Gregory says, and blows a stray piece of hair from his face. “Well that’s far too easy for you. You’re as quiet as a church mouse.”

“Draw another,” Sveta says, eyes glittering. They all turn to me with the same expression as Sveta chants, “Do it, do it!” And as the rest join in, I laugh.

Their joy is infectious. I know I need to stand my ground in this world, but this feels like an exception. I’m among friends, I realize, and friends aren’t something I’ve had in years. I want them to like me, I want to gain their approval, to be part of the group even though I don’t live with them. Even Josefina is wearing a smirk as they all lean in. I draw a second block and they all cheer, and it’s hard not to smile at their energy.

This block is much easier to read: Take a shot. “What’s a shot?”

“It’s a swig of pure alcohol,” Kimiko says.

“That…sounds horrible,” I say, and the others laugh as if I’ve made a joke.

“It is,” Kimiko says, nodding. “That’s why you gotta drink it fast.”

Emile holds up two large bottles, both nearly empty save for a few fingers of clear liquid in the bottom. “Tequila or vodka?”

My head is already pleasantly swimming from the drink Gregory made me, and my words come out before I have a chance to think, “Whichever will get me drunk faster.”

This isn't like me, I usually think before I speak. Should I be worried about what they may get me to do if I become too drunk? My gut tells me 'no' but my gut is also requesting more alcohol, so I'm not sure how trustworthy it is at the moment.

“Tequila, definitely,” Emile says, handing me the bottle in his right hand. It smells foul when I bring it to my nose, and I wonder if the other one would’ve been any better.

"Oo-- wait!" Gregory bounces up and jumps into the kitchen, and comes back with a sliver of lime and the table salt. "Do it this way, makes it easier to swallow."

Sveta snickers behind her hand and Gregory flips her off before showing me the process. Salt on the hand first, then tequila, then bite down on the lime. At first glance it seems like a lot, but I manage to do everything in the right order. The tequila tastes foul, but it warms my belly as it goes down.

The game continues for another hour, another round of drinks and even more shots. There’s laughter and gossip and chatter all around, and it’s easy to fall back and let it take me wherever it needs to go. I’m giddy, I feel lighter than air, I want to spread myself over the couch and take a nap.

Eventually, the game is abandoned in favor of conversation. They’re not confined to a single place like I am, lucky bastards. They can go to and from the market, learn magic on their own time, and even meet up with other fae without worrying about a hulking guardian in their shadow.

Their looks are deceiving as well. Sveta is nearly three times my age, and Gregory claims he was brought here nearly forty years ago.

I originally came here for a break, but maybe they have answers for me. I wait for a lull in conversation before asking, “Do you all know anything about Aure— the forest god?”

“Only that he’s terrifying,” Gregory says, laughing. “But he’s very important. Oversees the forests everywhere.”

I scoot forward. “Has he ever brought another human here?”

Gregory squints. “I dunno. Sveta you’ve been here the longest, has he ever brought a human back?”

Sveta’s head falls heavily to the side as she purses her lips. “Not that I remember.”

Kimiko mutters behind me, “He probably ate them.”

Gregory balks. “Kimi! That’s not nice.”

“What? We’re all thinking it! He’s the most powerful god this side of the world, and he picks a single human to shack up with? Of course there was one before, there’s probably hundreds he brought back! They probably realized how horrifying he is and tried to take off, and he ate them!”

The others laugh, but Emile hums in thought. “That sounds awfully sad,” he says. “To seek out companionship in another only to have them leave.”

Emile has been almost as quiet as I’ve been this evening. Not brooding, but observing. I get the feeling he’s very studious, maybe he could help me learn to read.

“That’s on him, though,” Josefina says. “That’s not the humans’ problem.”

“How do you get rid of something ingrained into your very being, though?”

Kimiko kicks her feet onto the table, brushing several blocks to the floor. “Don’t know, don’t care. Do you wanna live with him?”

“No, but I know someone who already does,” he says, nodding his head towards me.

I move to rub my arm, but overshoot and my hand winds up wrapping around the side and back. "I don't think he's all bad. Kind of pushy, but not cruel."

"Interesting," Kimiko says, leaning forward. "Tell us more.”

My face is already flushed from the alcohol, but I feel it growing steadily worse the longer the group looks at me, and that urge to please them comes back. I tell them what I can, about the house with its winding halls and nonsense layout. I tell them how Aurelius leaves me alone most of the day, of the animals I tend to and the library where I sleep. Telling them feels like unclogging a stream, the words flow forth and before I know it I’m speaking of our relationship— the woes we’ve been having recently.

I finish my tirade with a huge sigh, letting my chin fall into my hand. “How do I make him listen?”

“How have you gotten his attention in the past?”

I flush as I remember. “Sex, usually.”

“Then do that!”

“Isn’t that…not right?”

She scoffs. “You’re a woman! You have to use what the gods gave you. Besides, you’re not dealing with a regular human, or even a standard fair folk. You’re bargaining with a god.”

I mull over her words for far too long, and GRegory claps me over the shoulder. “Kimi’s right, you’ve got to use what you’re given.”

I hum, thinking it over. It doesn’t sit easy in my stomach, but it’s the only thing I haven’t tried yet, the only thing left. I don’t want to manipulate Aurelius through this, but what other choice has he given me?

Sveta’s eyes glitter as she says, “Let us know how it works out.”

***

The walk back and a skein of water clears my head enough for me to walk up the stairs and navigate the halls back to the library. It's still difficult; the sun has long since gone down and I've never navigated the path in the dark before, let alone walking it backwards and slightly inebriated. But I make it back, carefully stepping around a each book I’d tossed aside.

We haven’t spoken since he confessed his love for me. Would he be suspicious of my actions? Pick up on the deception? Even thinking of deceiving Aurelius through such a manner makes my mouth sour. I tip the remaining water into my mouth and swallow as I think.

He’s not listened to me in a way that matters, not since we came here. I want him to hear me, to see me as more than a pet or trinket to be toted around. I’m not a handbag, and he needs to see things my way. If the only way is to train his attention on something else while I get what I need, then so be it.

And I’m pretty enough to pull this off! My hair is clean and my skin unblemished, my frame isn’t too manish from chores or my nails dirty. I’m decent at sex, I suppose I could be better, more confident in my abilities. The show I’d put on for Aurelius at the altar had been a good start, but what else is there?

The world tilts as I swing my legs over the sill and stand far too fast, but I have my wits about me in a moment’s time. I can do this, I can.

The door to Aurelius’ room is heavier than I remember, but I may be weaker at the moment. Still, it slides open without a sound and I step into the warm air of his quarters.

I whisper to the room, “Aurelius?”

No response. Listening, I hear the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing. Perfect.

As I crawl into the nest and around Aurelius' huge sleeping animal body, he rouses awake.

“Kyla…?” He says, voice low, lifting his head to look at me. He stills, taking in my nudity. “Are you hurt?”

He surges forward, inky arms coming from his form to pat me down. They're warm from sleep, warmer than usual, soft and attentive in their motions.

“I’m fine, I’m fine! I just…” I trail off, shifting my weight from foot to foot. No, this won't do. Confidence. If I want something, I have to take it. I grab one of the hands that was patting me down and hold it to my breast.

Aurelius pauses, parsing my meaning, and a low, pleased growl making me and the whole nest shiver. Without another word, shadowy tendrils pick me up off the ground, holding my wrists together and my legs apart. I kick and thrash with what little movement I'm allowed as Aurelius grabs one of my feet and presses my knee to my chest. “Wait!”

He stops immediately, hovering over me in that massive, animalistic form. “Is this not part of the game?”

I shake my head, deciding to unpack that comment later, and give him my best pout. “I want to play a different game. Would you lie back for me?”

He stares at me for a long moment, before releasing me from his grasp and setting me down on the floor. “As you wish,” he says quietly. His form shrinks to the one I’m familiar with, the shadowy cloak falling away to reveal the rest of his body. Still like a man’s body, with long limbs and dark skin that blends into the shadows and shimmers out of focus the longer I look at it. His skin is rough like cloth, and the muscle underneath flexes as he moves.

“You weren’t here today,” he says, keeping his gaze on me as I throw my dress over my head. It lands in a far corner of the nest, where I can get to it later.

"I was with friends," I reply quietly.

"The humans," he growls, and I nod. "You're supposed to stay here."

"I’m not doing that," I say, surprising myself with how firm my voice is.

Aurelius doesn't ask me anything further after that. He remains reclined like I asked, but I see his hands flexing against the floor as I step forward and spread my fingers over his belly.

“Why don’t you show me this more?” I ask as I run my hand up his stomach. I’m so preoccupied with seeing him— truly seeing him since that first time— that I nearly miss how his breath hitches at my touch. My heart skips over itself in nervousness. This is going to be easy.

“What is this new game?” He asks instead, long hands wrapping around my wrist and pulling me forward. My hand glides up over his ribs, past his chest to land on his shoulder.

“It’s called, uh, bartering,” I say.

Aurelius stares at me, and says flatly, “I know what bartering is.”

I grin, showing my teeth. “Wonderful! Then you already know how to play.”

I swing my leg over his hips and smooth my hands up his chest. I can't lose myself to him this time, I need my wits about me if I want this to go the way I need it to. The notion of what I’m about to do as some sort of transaction has that sour feeling returning, but I push it back. As much as I don’t like it, this is how we fit together, there isn’t an alternative.

My heart lurches again-- even when I’m just sitting on him, I can already feel him hardening against my ass.

"I give you something," I say, reaching behind my back and blindly feeling until my hand wraps around his cock. "You give me something back."

Aurelius doesn't immediately respond, and even props himself up on his arms like he means to throw me off. Instead, he leans forward, reaching out a hand as if to cup my face. But he stops at the last moment, so close I can feel the heat of his skin, and pulls his hand back and lowers himself to the floor.

"Alright," he mumbles, almost too low for me to hear, and he sounds sad. I need to fix that.

I throw my leg back over his hips so I'm kneeling at his side, and I grasp his half-hard cock with both hands. My fingers don't meet at the widest part and even with stacked fists the head of him breaches my fingers. He's still as big as I remember him.

He hardens fully at my touch, and I'm flattered that he still feels this way, I was so sure I'd ruined myself for him. I want to meet his starry eyes, but I can't bring myself to do it. It's too much, but I have to push forward.

I shift my hand down so I can lick over the tip, tonguing the sensitive underside as I gently squeeze my hands. He tastes of iron, sharp and subtle, and smells like the forest. I take the head of him into my mouth and he gasps, the hand closest to me resting on the back of my head, brushing my hair away from my face, and I want him to leave it there, to guide me because I have no idea what I’m doing, but that’s not part of this game.

I pull off with a wet noise, spit lewdly trailing from my lips to his cock, and I frown up at him. “No, hands down.”

Immediately, his hand disentangles from my hair, and I do want the warmth back, but I can focus better like this. The branching antlers at the back of his head have his head set at an odd angle, but even with his snout pointed towards the ceiling, I can feel his gaze on me, watching.

I swallow hard. His gaze is intense, it makes me want to perform well. Like when he watched me strip, I want to please him, I want to surprise him somehow.

I squeeze my thighs together as I lean forward and take his cock into my mouth again, releasing my top hand so I can take it further down. The lowest I can go without gagging is only halfway, so I move my hands in time with my head to make up the difference.

At the contact, Aurelius chokes a noise, shifting his hips again as I bob my head at a slow, steady pace.

I learn quickly that he enjoys certain things: attention on the head, and a forceful pace over a faster one. I have no idea if this is working, or if I’m even doing this right, but I follow the sounds he makes, the noises he swallows down.

The only time I ever heard about this sort of fucking was gossip with the ladies of town. They spoke of how unpleasant it was, how their husbands always wanted it. But I don’t find this unpleasant. I only have to worry about the growing arousal between my legs which is easy to ignore, leaving me able to focus on Aurelius. His hips twitch when I squeeze my hands, his claws are pulling up that layer of down on the floor, and his breathing is almost in time with my movements.

This is a heady feeling, I realize as I twist my hands and run my tongue over his head again, tasting salt and heat. Aurelius gasps beneath me, and another bead of precome blooms over my tongue. I wait for another, when his breathing turns ragged and his legs begin to shake, to pull away with an obscene sound.

He groans to the ceiling, and his cock twitches in my hands. He turns his head down to me fully, and huffs a breath through his nose.

"Why did you stop?"

My smile is easy, and my heart is racing. "I need something from you."

"Kyla…" he warns, his voice a low growl. I frown, but I'm frowning at myself. I must not have done well enough.

I sit up and straddle his hips, lifting myself onto my knees and positioning the glistening head of his cock at my entrance. The position forces me to settle the rest of my weight on my free hand, which I place directly over his heart. "Please?" I ask, pouting.

Before he can respond, I sink my hips down. It's not without pain, but I can push it to the back of my mind for now. The moment I settle my weight on his hips, Aurelius moans outright, something I haven't heard before.

While I adjust, my hazy mind grinds away. I can't ask about the other human right out of the gate, I'll need a smaller favor so this doesn't backfire. I rest my other hand next to the first, and I feel his heartbeat like a bird underneath my fingers.

"I want more magic."

Aurelius rests his hands on my waist. "Of course."

"Hands down," I order, and he starts like he's been shocked. His hands hover over my legs for a breath, before he sets them back on the ground, palms against the floor. I shiver at the rush of power that moves through me. I grind my hips forward and back, chasing my own pleasure on that rush, disregarding why I started this and instead finding something else.

Oh, how I've missed this. The few times we've had sex since I've been here have been so…emotionally charged, like electricity beneath my fingers, here one moment and gone the next. But this, this is heat under my skin, the sun against my face, a spiraling pool of pleasure where I don't have to worry about any negative emotions. It's like the first time.

"Gods, this feels good," I moan, and Aurelius bucks beneath me.

Slowly I gain my faculties, slowing my hips and eventually stopping. “Will you teach me more magic?”

He groans, a fist thumping against the floor. “When I have the time.”

I roll my hips once and he twitches like I've hit him. “That’s not an answer.”

He exhales, and I feel the strain in his muscles as he remains still. "Whatever you want."

I grind my hips slowly. "I want more magic."

"Of course."

I reward him with an agonizingly slow pace, and I have to hold back a laugh as he shudders beneath me. His hips are moving with mine, little thrusts he can't control that shove his cock that much deeper into me. It pushes the air from my lungs, and spurs me on. "Are you going to give it to me?"

"Yes," he breathes. "Yes, I will."

This is dangerous. I feel powerful, untouchable. I could ask him for anything-- no, I could command him to do anything, and he'd be at my mercy. This all-powerful god is like wet clay in my hands.

But then, like a clap of lightning, I remember that he's lied to me, that he's toted me around like an object, treated me like an afterthought. I remember why I'm doing this, and all the heat under my skin, all the arousal and feeling of power, pops. My stomach churns as I realize I can't bring myself to finish this.

I stop all movement, slipping forward and off his cock, and he whines. "Kyla…"

"Will you—“

“Now,” Aurelius growls.

Despite the ice in my veins, the nest is getting warmer by the second, and I'm not sure how much longer he's going to last. It's now or never. “Was there another human before me?”

The very air freezes with the next thump of my heart.

“Where did you get that idea?” he says slowly, and I want to slam my hands on his chest. The fair folk won’t lie, but that doesn't mean they aren't capable.

“Tell me and I’ll let you come,” I say, pushing my hips back until I feel the hard length of him pressing against my ass. I'm losing control of the situation fast. I need answers.

Aurelius growls, and there’s a timbre to it, pitched low and dangerous. He used this on Gregory when he took me away from the market, and again when he brought me back. He’s angry. Not the fun, teasing anger that arouses me, but the hard, volatile anger of an ancient god with an ego.

“Who told you?” he asks, voice quiet and dangerous, which only sparks my anger brighter.

“You lied to me,” I press, leaning forward and bracing my hands on his chest. “So what happened?” And when Aurelius doesn’t reply, my anger comes out full force. “Did you eat them? Kill them? Tell me!"

Aurelius sits up in a flash, and I tumble to the side of the nest. As I fumble to my hands and knees, angry tears prick at my eyes. "What else are you keeping from me? What else have you lied about?!" I stand on shaking legs and wipe the tears as they fall.

Aurelius rights himself, sitting, and crosses his arms over his chest. "It was for your protection."

"It's for your protection!"

"Don't be ridicu-- Kyla!" He tries to stop me as I snatch my dress and storm out as fast as my legs will allow me. I take the barest of moments to pull the dress over my head before I'm fleeing Dachaigh and headed towards the Forest of Souls.

I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be here. And I know of a place where he'll never find me again.

I don't have any books, any extra clothes, I don't even have food or water, but I don't care. Anything is better than staying here for another minute.

I'm several dozen steps towards the forest when I pause to catch my breath. I ran all the way through Dachaigh to get out, and I ran until I was under moonlight and then some more. I'm nearly to the treeline, that soft lilting melody calling to me again, when I look back.

Dachaigh still towers up to the heavens, an obelisk in the nighttime air, as if she's swallowing the sky itself.

With space to think now, I'm hit with a pang of melancholy. I can't consider this place home, but living within those walls has been comfortable. Dachaigh is a good friend, and when Aurelius was there I enjoyed his company. It wasn't enough, but what little I did get, I treasured. The animals will miss me, I think, and I'll miss the routine. Mortimer may wonder where I've gone, and I wonder how long it will take him to realize that I'm not coming back. I won't be able to see Gregory, or Sveta, or Kimiko. I'll even miss Josefina's tilted smirks.

I turn back to the forest, and run straight into a solid shadow.

“Where are you going?” Aurelius asks, arms crossed over his chest. He's pulled himself to his full height, towering over me and blocking my line of sight to the forest. He's wearing the traveling cloak he always does, although it's askew over his shoulders as if he rushed to put it on. I stumble back, if only to allow myself space to breathe.

“I…I…”

He tilts his head like a bird, this way and that, getting a better look at me, and says again, angrily, “I ask again: Where are you going?”

I straighten, solid in my confidence. “I’m leaving.”

“You can’t,” he says simply.

I scoff. “And why not?”

“I will find you.”

“Not if I want to be lost!”

He growls, the sound reminding me of a predator. “I will not let you.”

“Like hell you will!” I push past him, making a wide arc and trying to run again.

I’m only a handful of steps past Aurelius when his large arm wraps over my waist and yanks me back. He pulls me into his body, his head above me, and he laughs. It's a chilling sound, his great jaw opening and his teeth gleaming in the moonlight. “You think you can escape me? I’ve already marked you as mine.”

I struggle against his grip the same way an insect struggles against a spider's web. “I don’t want it! I want to leave!” I push myself out of his grasp and the second I hit the ground, I start to run.

“Kyla!” He shouts, but I keep running. Almost there, almost there! “You will listen to me!”

“I’m done!” I shout back, and it hurts, oh it hurts so much to say. I’m leaving both Aurelius and my heart on the ground in front of his home. "I'm done with the whims of a single forest god!"

He catches up easily, and I'm back to struggling against his grip again. His growl shakes the trees, rumbles the very ground I'm standing on. “I am the god of every forest.”

“You do not have domain over me!” I struggle in his vice-like grip, tears streaming down my face. I was so close, so close. “Get the fuck off—I hate you!”

Aurelius pauses, and I know I hit a nerve. I didn't mean it-- it just came out. I want to correct myself, but I struggle to find the point. It's what it took for Aurelius to let me go.

The grass is wet and cold beneath my bare feet as he gently sets me down. I gather my skirts in one hand-- it'll make my trek through the underbrush quicker.

"If you wish to leave," he starts, slowly releasing me from his grasp and angling me towards the wood.

The quick change in his demeanor throws me off course. I snap my head around to look at him, and I see that he's shrinking down, skull transforming from that sharp-toothed predator I saw at the market and into his normal deer.

"Then go," he snaps, jaw clicking shut.

I take a step forward. The forest is pitch black, I can't make out anything beyond the treeline. The energy wafting from it is dangerous, yet tempting. I could truly get lost in there. Alone for eternity.

Even still, I look back at Aurelius. He's sat on the ground, legs curled up, long arms wrapped around them. His great head rests on his knees, angled towards me, watching. Not like a predator about to pounce, but a creature resigned to its own pain. When he sits on the ground like this, only his antlers are taller than me.

I look back to the forest, and I hear her whispering call, a lullaby to lure me into the depths of this ancient, consuming wood. Closing my eyes, I sway to the soft tune, a melody that rolls over itself, transforming and rearranging. It wants me to play, wants me to join them.

The spell is broken, interrupted by a low whine, like an injured animal. It's coming from behind me, and I suck in a breath as I turn just far enough to see Aurelius out of the corner of my eye. He's still sitting on the ground, watching me, and I'm hit with a realization.

I don't want to leave him, not forever. I want to get away from this harmful, sticky relationship that we're in. One where I have to get him mad to make him listen to me. Where he doesn't take me seriously until I threaten to harm myself.

Without a word, I close the distance between us. He remains still, even when I grab his great skull with both hands. His voice is barely audible, "I will miss you terribly."

And heaving a sigh, his form melts into the ground, along with it his skull, which shrinks down. He's making himself small for my benefit again.

This is the Aurelius I want to talk to. The understanding, calm one, as opposed to the volatile, angry god I've been interacting with.

I sigh through my nose, and avoid the urge to sit with him, standing my ground. I haven't fully decided to stay, not yet. "What happened to the other humans you brought here, Aurelius?"

Sensing my hesitation, Aurelius leans into my touch, but I'm not ready for that yet, so I pull away and let my hands rest at my side. I need the truth, even if it's just to know why.

"There was only one before you," he says. "It was just as I've said: he ran in fear. I lost him in the woods." Again, he tries to knock my arm with his head in his form of intimacy, but I twist away from it. He rears his head up in offense, but when I make no moves to reciprocate, he rests his chin back over his knees.

"You lied to me," I say.

"I did."

"Why?"

It’s a long, quiet moment before he answers slowly, "I did not want the cycle of time to roll over again. I asked him the same that I asked you, and he said yes. So, I brought him here. "

His head tilts the other way, resting on his folded arms. "And he hated it here, as you do. He hated our home, hated this place. Recoiled at my touch and refused to speak to me. And then one morning, he was gone." He shifts uncomfortably. "But you called me beautiful, and I thought this time would be different. I knew once I had you that I'd never find another. So I did everything with you that I didn’t with him. I gave you space, let you be. I was just happy to have our home filled with life again."

I look back to the woods as I turn his words over in my head. The temptation to leave has weakened, but I can still feel it. Eodine's words float back to me: No one would ever bother you anymore.

And that doesn't sound bad. Peaceful, even. But would I enjoy that life? Is that the way I want to live? I'd be alone, forever. I'd never see another human, or even another soul, for that matter, and I don't want to take a path like that. Could I live without companionship for eternity? I was willing to give up my entire life for this god to stay by my side.

I sigh, to myself and the world around me. No matter what path I take, a path away from Aurelius would be…lacking. I'd miss him terribly, just as he'd miss me.

I run my thumb along a line of silver in Aurelius' antlers, the shape closer to the branch of a tree than any kind of animal. He's shown me so little of himself, but I haven't shown him much of myself either. If we have the rest of eternity together, I'd like the chance to know him better, and let him know me.

"Aurelius…" I say, sighing. "I'm not afraid of you. But you treat me like an object. I'm not a pet."

“I taught you magic,” he says. “I involved you in the festival planning and brought you gifts. I wouldn’t do that for a pet.”

I sigh, pushing a lock of hair from my face. "I sleep alone, I eat alone, and I live my life in that library, alone. When we're actually together it feels like you're a ghost. You cart me around like a child and treat me like—" I stop myself, my air coming out in a rush. "You asked me to plan your festival and then discounted all of my notes."

"But it is tradition to lay the vendors a certain way," he says, tone soft and conversational.

I roll my eyes. "Is it tradition to bring a human into your home?"

He pauses, which tells me that he hadn’t considered it. "I suppose not," he says.

He did remember that I wanted to learn magic, something I mentioned nearly a month ago; he chased after me thinking I had been stolen, and put a tracking spell on me so he’d never lose me again. He thinks he loves me, and whatever that may mean truly, to him it's something important.

He sighs, mimicking me with a dramatic heave of his shoulders. "Much of the time, I am a stone in the river, pushing everything around me and unable to change my own path. I was trying to give you space so you would want to remain here, so you weren't afraid."

That makes sense, in a strange, Aurelius-esque way. It’s almost sweet, him realizing that his presence frightens others and taking steps to minimize it. I rest my hands over top one of his, and he turns his palm sideways to curl his fingers around mine.

"You left me alone," I mutter. “You know I don’t like that.”

"You weren't alone."

I try not to roll my eyes or smile. He said it so genuinely. "Dachaigh isn't you."

He speaks slowly, as if in realization, "You…prefer me."

He sounds so surprised that I can't help but laugh. “I do.”

“You want to be with me.”

I snort. "All the power you wield, and you couldn’t piece together that I enjoy your company."

"You want to eat meals with me."

"I do."

"You want to sleep with--" I cover his snout with my hands, laughing.

"Yes, yes, you big dummy! I like being around you, except when you're being rude and pushy. I like this world you've brought me to, and the home you’ve opened up to me. I like--" I stop and bite my tongue before I say something lewd.

But the stars in his eyes sparkle as he asks, "Yes?"

And I'm very bad at denying him. "I like getting you so angry that you fuck me within an inch of my life."

He chuffs. "There are other ways to get me to fuck you."

"But," I flush, looking resolutely at his bony snout and not his eyes. "I enjoy that way."

He hums, low and approving. "Because you are mine."

"Yes," I say softly, enjoying the word on my tongue. "At least, I want to be."

"Then you are," he says, leaning forward to knock my head with his, but he stop halfway, waiting for me. I reach out my arms and pull him forward, closing the gap. My temple gently taps the side of his head, and warmth curls in my chest at the contact.

"This is called a truce. I'm giving you another chance." Even saying it has me feeling lighter. I have confidence in Aurelius, I know he can do better. I've seen it.

He hums. “How am I to repay you?"

I let my head fall against his chest, and I can feel his heartbeat in my ear, quick yet strong. "Not everything is a debt to be paid."

"It is here." His voice vibrates through his chest.

"Not between us." Not anymore. I feel the very spark of my being, maybe it's my soul, release all the tension I'd been holding for the past month as I relax into Aurelius.

The pull of the forest, that steady, whispering voice that promised me a life of solitude, is gone.

#my writing #sacrifice #nsfw.#monster writing #monsterfucker #monster boyfriend #monster lover #terato writing #skullhead #I think that's the most widely accepted moniker outside of the 'w' word which i refuse to use

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id-element0 · 2 years

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Garden Legacy for TS3

This has been sitting in my drafts for a year now. I, at least, wanted to play-test it before releasing but it's obviously not going to happen. So if anyone is in search for a new legacy to play, this one could serve as a good alternative. Credit goes to @cowplant-pizza.

I bumped into this post in one of those days and it had me intrigued. Then I found the original post and decided to convert the legacy to TS3 since there was none.

It's not updated beyond 2018. There are some revisions on the official sims forums, but I like to be as loyal to the original as possible since I like it as it is. This is just my interpretation of the legacy for Sims 3. You can change it however you want since it's your game. Check the original post for the introduction, if you like, for I will only post the generational rules. Happy simming!

Generation 1 -Rose

Traits: Ambitious, Loves the Outdoors, Vegetarian -- Optional: Daredevilnotes + 1 of these: Nurturing or Family-oriented

LTW: The Perfect Garden

Berry Colour: *if playing Berry Sims* - Red. If not, it can be the colour theme for the generation.

Info: The Founder. Escaping from the chaos of the city life to the countryside for a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle that will support future generations.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Plant and Grow 8 Different Species of Perfect Plant

Collect every Base Game plant

Have at least 2 children

Have 1 dog and 1 cat

Reach Level 10 in the Gardener Career

Reach Level 10 of the Gardening Skill

Care for at least 2 cowplants throughout your lifenotes

Keep the bees happy and honey quality highest possible in at least 1 beehive

Reach at least Level 5 of Cooking and Handiness skills + Read both pregnancy books + Buy Super Nanny Reward Traitnotes as soon as possible - Ideally before the children are all grown.

Notes:

5 traits to fill in as opposed to TS4's 3 plus 1 that comes with the Aspiration. The closest trait to TS4 Naturalist is the Daredevil in aspects to fire immunity and handling fire in general. You can also give Immune to Fire Hidden Trait via Master Controller if you really want to stay loyal to the original challenge. Or just choose both Nurturing and Family-oriented for the remaining 2 traits.

Store item - so you can tottally forgo this and maybe get some sheep instead. Or maybe horses.

The 3rd skill here was Parenting which we don't have in TS3. The closest being the Super Nanny Reward Trait - if you're one of those people who find Reward Traits cheaty for whatever reason, ignore this and choose a skill of your liking. Your game, your play.

Generation 2 -Daisy

Traits: Charismatic, Friendly, Good, Nurturing, Social Butterfly + Complete Super Friendly Charisma skill challenge as earlier as possible.

LTW: Super Popular

Berry Colour: White with Yellow Accents

Info: The heir grew up in a loving household, making them a friendly and nurturing Sim who wants nothing else than to help others.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Be Friends with 20 Sims

Reach at least Level 7 in the Political Career.

Reach Level 10 of the Charisma Skill

Reach Level 10 of the Gardening Skill

Marry your first friend

Have 4 children

Have an outing with friends at least 3 times a week

Generation 3 -Bluebell

Traits: Family-oriented, Flirty, Hopeless Romantic, Neat, Nurturing

LTW: Surrounded by Family

Berry Colour: Blue

Info: The heir grew up surrounded by siblings. It was the best childhood one could have imagined. They want to bless their own children with that same childhood!

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Raise 5 Children from Babies to Teenagers

Read both pregnancy books

Buy Super Nanny Reward Trait as earlier as possible

Remain at least as Friends with all your siblings

Have at least 5 children - via pregnancy and/or adoption + at least 1 pet

Reach Level 5 in two different careers

Plan something special to celebrate Love Day every Spring

Have an outing with the kids every Saturday

Notes:

No need to go over every little detail. As before, if you don't like reward traits, don't use them.

Generation 4 -Sunflower

Traits: Childish, Excitable, Good Sense of Humour, Irresistable, Natural Born Performer

LTW: Master Acrobat

Berry Colour: Yellow

Info: The heir was always the class clown, getting in trouble all the time. They pulled endless amounts of pranks on their siblings and parents. They never want to grow up.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Reach Level 10 in Acrobat Profession

Reach Celebrity Star Level 5

Reach at least Level 7 in Charisma Skill

Reach Level 5 of the Writing Skill

Write 3 books in Humour Genre

Successfully pull at least one prank on family members each week starting in childhood.

Use a Voodoo Dollstore item on the spouse at least 10 times

Marry a Musician

Notes:

Alternatively, one can use Arsil's Stand Up Comedy Mod instead of the Acrobat Profession.

Generation 5 -Magnolia

Traits: Clumsy, Genius, Loner, Shy, Virtuoso - in case of Uni degree: Perfectionist

LTW: One Sim Band

Berry Colour: White with Baby Pink Accents

Info: The heir's parents were born entertainers, they lived to be on the stage. The heir inherited their parents' talents but they are very shy and reserved. However, they still dream of being a well known and respected musician.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Master Bass, Guitar, Drums, and Piano Skills

Reach Level 10 in the Music Career: Symphonic Branch

Max Karaoke Hidden Skill

Learn at least 1 composition for each instrument you play

Have only 1 friend outside of your family

Marry that friend

Have 2 children: Twins - Use cheats or game mechanics

Generation 6 -Pine

Traits: Bookworm, Brooding, Commitment-Issues, Neurotic, Workaholic

LTW: Renaissance Sim

Berry Colour: Green

Info: The heir always felt like they were second best to their twin (whether this is true or not is up to you). They often spent time burying their head in books, learning lots of different things, but never mastering them.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Reach Level 10 with 3 Different Skills

Write a book - preferably an Auto-Biography

Paint 1 Masterpiece

Reach level 5 in at least 3 different careers

Change careers at Level 5

No Retirement

No Marriage

Have 3 children from seperate one-night-stands

A relationship is allowed after the children are born

No celebrations in Love Day

Generation 7 -Tulip

Traits: Computer Whiz, Couch Potato, Coward, Slob, Handy

LTW: The Tinkerer

Berry Colour: Grape Purple

Info: The heir grew up confused and conflicted about their parent’s relationships. This made them a troubled child who had to visit many therapists and doctors; finally finding comfort in video games and relying on them throughout their life.

Goals:

Coplete the LTW

Master the Handiness Skill

Master the Logic Skill

Attend University: Technology Major - Only to drop out after 1 term.

Reach Level 10 in Nerds Social Group

Reach Level 10 in the Video Game Developer Career: Engineer Branch

Marry someone you met at the Nerd Shop

Gain weight and never exercise to lose weight

Have 2 children

Generation 8 -Piccolino

Traits: Athletic, Genius, Natural Cook, Neat, Snob

LTW: World Renowned Surgeon

Berry Colour: Hot Pink or Orange

Info: After watching their parent struggle with health problems due to being overweight, the heir vowed to keep themself and their children healthy.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Reach level 10 in the Medical career track

Reach Level 10 of Athletic and Cooking skills

Jog for 1 sim-hour every morning

Marry a fellow Doctor

Have 3 children

Children can only eat home-cooked meals, no snacks, junk food or street food.

Generation 9 -Snapdragon

Traits: Athletic, Eco-friendly, Natural Cook, Vegetarian, Disciplined

LTW: Physical Perfection

Berry Colour: Light Pink or Peach

Info: The heir grew up being pushed to the limits and they loved every second of it. They love exercise and cooking and want to make their two hobbies work well together. They enjoy using fresh produce found on the family farm.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Reach Level 10 of the Martial Arts and Athletic Skills

Reach Level 10 in the Professional Sports Career

Reach Level 5 in the Culinary Career

Reach Level 10 of the Cooking Skill

Meditate for at least 1 sim-hour each day

Learn all Vegetarian recipes

Marry a Vegetarian

Have Triplets

Generation 10 -Hydrangea

Traits: Ambitious, Frugal, Hot-headed, Perfectionist, Snob

LTW: Living in the Lap of Luxury

Berry Colour: Light Blue

Info: The heir decides that their family is worth more than living on a farm forever. It’s time for their legacy to move on. They want to move out into a penthouse in the city and create an exciting future for generations to come.

Goals:

Complete the LTW

Have Household Net Worth of 100,000 Simoleons

Marry Someone wealthy and live in the city

Reach Level 10 in the Business Career

Reach Level 10 of 3 skills of your choice

Throw a party every weekend + every holiday

#ts3 #ts3 legacy #ts3 challenge #garden legacy #4to3 #ts4tots3 #ts3 garden legacy #gg

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i--antimony · 11 months

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[thru gritted teeth] tuesday! again! no problem!

laptop charger got delivered over the weekend so i once again can use my computer. also, revival of the 'playing' section of tuesdaypost!!

listening: more friends at the table but at a slower clip, on episode 41 now though!!! that's like 2/3 of the way thru! then i can power thru partisan and finally get to palisade lol. also new SSHG this week was fun.

reading: didn't read anything besides comsol documentation this past week EXCEPT i did go to the library today to get some paperwork notarized and while i was there i got some books as a treat. finally going to read every heart a doorway, and i also grabbed haunting of hill house, the gnostic gospels (pagels), and a beefy nonfiction book on the fucked up exploits of the roman catholic church through the ages. book :)

this was also my first time in my local library since it was remodeled and it's sooooo nice inside, im kinda obsessed

watching: some nicole rafiee videos, also the age gap one and the fatphobia one just as some easy background noise. also started on the well there's your problem train again

youtube

playing: BOLD RETURN OF THE PLAYING SECTION!!! i finally started playing disco elysium. it's fun! i am definitely enjoying it so far! wow my computer can Barely handle it!! it's crashed at least twice and it took some settings finagling to get it to run with any sort of bearable frame rate. quick save is my best friend but i have had to repeat convos a few times. it also drains the shit out of my laptop battery but that might just be normal for Games. my first shot at playing i died after trying and failing to ask the sweet old lady for money which rules. i also understand now why everyone would die for kim kitsuragi.

making: compromise for resurrection of the playing section means that i made Nothing this week. i did start Posting some old art on insta and here though. it's not too late for me to become an art influencer or whatever

misc: gritted teeth because hoooo baby i have been Doing Tasks. had to get some aforementioned paperwork notarized, had to file an insurance claim (waiting with baited breath to see how much my premium will skyrocket lol) (i did have the funniest interaction with a long island mechanic. just some old guy named vinnie, extremely italian, was asking what he though out of pocket price to fix would be and he was like "why the fuck do we even pay for insurance if you're not gonna use it" like yeah, fair,), miscellaneous household tasks because Puppy is A Lot Of Work, driving upstate this weekend for my brother's graduation, only like a week and a half before going abroad for two weeks (!!!), accidentally skipping a tabletop game because my schedule is a disaster rn,

sbahj 'it just keeps happening bro' dot jpeg. puppy tax

#tuesdayposting #Youtube

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6nightcrawler6 · 6 months

Text

Hi!

So uh, this is my first time posting something on here.. I've had this account for three years but recently a professor of mine told me I should start posting my stories for others to read, so here we are!

A little about myself: I go by nightcrawler, or night for short, and I'm the type of writer who just writes down whatever comes to my head LOL A vast majority of my works are all original, made from scratch. So obviously a lot of Ocs, made up worlds/places etc. I am by no means very good at this haha I am still learning and trying to become better with each piece I write.

Besides writing, I'm very into music, games and movies. Currently I'm a music major in college. I find it kind of funny, I'm taking a classical performance concentration yet my personal taste is vastly different LMAO. To be honest all my music is vastly different. I can put my phone on shuffle and have groups like Spiritbox, Knocked Loose, then jump to Melanie Martinez, to Stray Kids and Ateez. When it comes to movies I'm really into horror movies, love love horror movies. And games I'll just about play anything if I have the money to buy it.

Genres I write: Vast majority of what a write is Horror, Thriller/Mystery, and Fantasy. I personally cannot, for the life of me, write romantic stuff. LOL I try but it always comes off very...weird. But in a way I guess I can say I make up for that with drama because boy do I love to write sooo much drama between characters. And just throwing this out there I tend to write with a lot of harsh language...so if that really isn't your thing..um..yeah..

Posting schedule: Posting times may vary on many factors, such as me just not having the time due to school/life or lack of motivation, etc. As of right now I would like to post chapters once a week maybe on Wednesday, middle of the week so why not.

Request/Questions: I'm more than happy to take any request regarding prompts n such, whether it be for my own characters, your own character or already established character in media. When it comes to fan fiction however I'm a little iffy about it due to bad experiences with it in the past, but I'm willing to try again. So request away! And never be scared to ask me questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Rules: Not to be a killjoy but there are some rules in this household. -If there is a prompt or something like that I feel uncomfortable with I will not do it. -Like I said before, I'm willing to answer questions n such but I will not excuse anyone being rude or nasty to me. I'm already nervous enough doing this I don't need someone being disrespectful towards me. You will be blocked. -And lastly I will not tolerate any hate speech towards any race, religion, sexuality, etc. This is a safe place for everyone. You will be blocked. Here's to me blabbering my mouth away, Happy reading! xoxo, NightCrawler

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watchwarden · 2 years

Text

Rules

IMPORTANT!! Read the muses info before you start interacting!If I don’t reply to messages from my sideblogs, please don’t assume I’m ignoring you. I’m mostly online on the mobile app and it loves swallowing notifications.

If I don’t reply within a few days, please contact me on my main @eskelwolf, regardless of with which muse you want to play!

I’m not exclusive to Tolkien muses, I’m open to crossovers, AUs, muses from other fandoms. But I'm very selective about female OCs. I’ve been burned quite heavily recently. If the female muse fits my muses, that’s great, let’s start a thread!

I won’t soft block in any case, I will hard block if I don’t want a user near me.

REGARDING FOLLOWING

Everyone is free to follow me, personals and other roleplay blogs, no matter if multimuse, a hub or single muse.

Duplicates of my muses are also welcome.

Please do NOT push me for replies. If I haven’t replied in two weeks, shoot me a message, that’s fine. I probably forgot, the thread got buried in notifs, etc. but it stresses me a lot when being pestered for replies.

On some days, especially when I’m already in an anxious or agitated mindset (due to suffering from a quite complex personality disorder), I might not reply to a DM right away. Please be patient with me, be mindful about the fact I’m also just a person with a private life, a spouse, a job, a household…we might be in wildly different time zones etc etc.

I ask you to not nudge me couple of times. Especially a "hello???“ after not replying for an hour or when it’s literally night in my country and I’m sleeping, it comes off as rude and on a bad day when I’m just done it might result in a bard block, even if we’re mutuals.

Please be respectful. I do respect you, I’m very understanding and kindness oriented, I ask you to be the same.

If you find a meme on my page you like, please try to reblog it from the source. If you send in an ask meme for me to reply to please include the whole prompt text.

Do not ever send me unsolicited starters or prompts. I will only accept prompts from my reblogged memes. If we’re already plotting, please do not send in our idea for a plot as an unsolicited ask. Never send a roleplay/prompt related ask or starter completely anonymous. Add your main or roleplay account to the ask or it will get deleted. Multimuse accounts please specify their acting/prompting muse!

Exception: ask games that explicitly state it’s to be sent on anon!

Also, in the same vein: please only interact with starter calls, plotting calls or open starters if you seriously intend to start a thread with me! If personals keep liking my starter calls, etc. it will result in a hard block.

DO NOT GOD MOD.

DO NOT USE “GODLY/DIVINE/ HEAVENLY INTERVENTIONS” to try and force my muse to do or not do something. Especially in combination with force shipping.Please don’t reblog threads that aren’t ours.Please don’t just ghost me, I won’t bite if you message me and ask to edit a reply, come up with something or you want to drop the current RP and start a new one, for whatever reason. I’m human, I make mistakes, and I will try to do better next time. If I get ghosted, I can’t improve my writing, because I won’t know what went wrong.

STYLE

one to multiple para.

past tense or present tense.

third person.

I used to use banners for my threads, but lately I’ve found that it’s hard to identify these threads in my archive or the mass editor. That’s why I stopped using my banners.

I’m iconless, and use no other formatting.I’m a mirroring roleplayer, which means that I will try to match your reply length, be it short or long. It doesn’t always work though. Usually I write how much comes to mind and stop when I think it’s a good moment or gave my partner enough to work with.

THREADS

SHIPPING

Please do not assume that I will ship our muses right away, even though it’s a canon muse and I’m shipping with a duplicate already!

Respect my muses’ sexuality and gender identity.

Please don’t ever force a ship on me, it will result in a hard block.

I like to plot a bit in advance. That doesn’t mean we have to thoroughly plot every step of the RP, but a little security is nice.Especially if we plan to have an angst or plot heavy thread I want to plot in advance.I plot in tumblr DMs.I only roleplay in tumblr threads, discord and other messengers are possible upon request and I tend to share my socials only with long term mutuals.

YOUR TRIGGERS

Please tell me your triggers on time when we started plotting, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable or cause you harm in any way. It’s also okay if you say you want to start gen and state your triggers later.

MY TRIGGERS

Please tag the following issues, tropes, kinks in threads, if you don’t, I will eventually unfollow or even block. please use the format ”[trigger] cw or [trigger] tw".

means, I blacklisted the following tags/ variants of it with “cw”:

tw pregnancy

tw mpreg

tw drug abuse / tw alcohol

tw self harm / tw suicide / tw animal death

tw homophobia / tw queerphobia / tw misogyny / tw sexism

tw vomiting / tw anorexia

tw bestiality / tw monsters / tw aliens / tw furry / tw distortion / tw body horror

tw enema / tw gaping

please also tag your spn related posts that include Destiel, Castiel or Misha Collins.

GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF: vomiting, self harm, abuse (sexual, emotional, physical), body horror, suicide, violence against animals, especially cats, dogs and rats. Vore.

LIST

MY NUMBER ONE TRIGGER: MPREG and PREGNANCY IN GENERAL!! It means, that under no circumstances, Galadriel will be pregnant in any thread. Celebrían is born or not born in any thread.

GLORIFICATION OF: drug abuse (including alcohol), personality disorders, misogyny, sexism, misandry, trans/queer/homophobia, eating disorders.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL/MONSTERS: furry, futa, aliens, distorted monsters. Oviposition, probing.

UNPLOTTED angst (like fights and breakups). We should plot this in advance and I need to know if the muses will reconcile or not.

CERTAIN KINKs like gaping, enemas, fisting, toilet stuff, etc. Please note that my muse’s triggers and limits are probably also the mun’s, which means, also muses share triggers. There are things none of my muses will do.

RE: SMUT

Okay, so, this happened a lot lately.

People I’m interested writing with complaining about the smut on my blog.I will only say that: I won’t tone it down. It’s tagged. Blacklist the tag and be done with it.

I’m highly comfortable with smut, yes, also the kinky and raunchy kind as long as it’s not sexist or handles trans* issues in a phobic way. I write smut with long term mutuals or when the other mun and I vibe on a certain level. This is my blog and I curate it as I want, as it's my outlet. I won’t let people police me in my own created safe space.If you want smutless threads, I’m all in. Plot heavy threads? Hit me the hell up! I’m open to anything. Just because I write smut I’m not disrespectful towards muns who value plot and development over smut or have themes/issues to explore with their muse.

If we don’t click, it’s fine. No one forces me or you to write smut. It’s all voluntary and it’s fun.

#🍃 rules.

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hakka84 · 2 years

Note

hi, sorry this is my main blog name. It's just about the consort thing. So, I'm basing all I know on what I know of english history basically what we were taught in school and on documentaries and I'm sure theres someone else out there who will tell me I'm wrong

BUT i do have a M.a in english and I did so a bit of Arthurian literature which is why I remember in quite a few interpretations they treat Gwen's role as basically what a medieval queens role would be. This is probably wrong for a number of reasons. Number one because it was written by Mallory and a few other medieval authors who are very skewed in what they write. They basically Christianise King Arthur. One of them is also french who's written about king arthur which is why we have Du Lac and all that. Which isn't all that weird because Willian I was French so a lot of frenchmen came over with him and were probably still coming and going since we live quite close.

Basically, we don't know for sure what a Queen would be like in Arthurian times. If he was a Saxon king like some people think then Gwen is definitely of the more medieval interpretation of a queen. If it's pre Saxon then Gwen would probably have a lot more in her role than she would after the Saxons ruled.

She wouldn't be consort though. She would be a queen. The best way I can describe it would be Game of Thrones. Cersei is still Queen after Robert dies but she's Queen regent meaning shes queen until Joffrey comes of age. Really she's Queen mother which is what Margery calls her, and an important thing Margery also tells her is that Cersei is expected to retire from Kings landing. Meaning she leaves her seat for the new queen to fill and lives in an old keep.

In Arthurian literature Gwen often outlives Arthur, not all the time, but enough that she's sent to a nunnery after his death. This is either because her children who she does have in some interpretations, take over ruling or one of Arthur's cousins or uncles claims the throne and sends her off. There are also some where she's in hiding because of the whole affair scandal but she's basically sent off there as well.

As for duties, the queen is mainly in charge of the household. She has children and makes sure they grow up around the right people which means looking over wet nurses and nannies and maids and whatever else they need. shes in charge of hosting, meaning she has jurisdiction over the kitchens and the bedrooms. She plays politics in a way that's rarely ever thought about. Basically, if you're an invited guest, but the king doesn't like you, expect a bad room and a seat so far away from the king you're not even going to be able to speak to him while you stay there. Shes in charge of entertainment, of trade, of inventory. Quite a lot actually.

She does the important things and measures the temperament of the people. She's also supposed to make nice with the mistresses. Mistresses back then aren't as scandalous as they are now. A king was expected to have one. It kept him happy and the queen knows its rarely a love match why they're married so a mistress can take care of this man you've been saddled with. But they have to make sure the mistress doesn't take too many liberties because some of them do. Also the mistress is kind of a backup in case the queen can't conceive or, as was the problem, can't give the king a male heir. In very rare circumstances the king can name a bastard heir which is why it's also a good thing to keep a mistress known and around because then there won't be any surprise kids claiming the throne like Morgana.

I know this was long winded, and I didn't want to put it all in a post in case you thought it was lecturing you, it's just you seemed interested and this is what I understand of a Queens role

Oh no, I did ask you and this was a lecture, but I mean it in a positive way: educational speech. I asked you to tell me more and you delivered, doing it as best as you could. It was very interesting and I'll surely incorporate some of these notions in my AUs. (also thanks to explain the GoT example, as I didn't watch the series nor read the book but you were clear enough that I understood anyway)

Morgana will have her hands full after Arthur's death, I'll have her go "kickass!Morgana" to beat the customs and keep the kingdom (as Arthur would've wanted her to). [For the Gwens, I'll just keep it more fairy tale "everything went well" like most of us in the fandom do when playing with Post-Camlann and so be it]

Thank you so much again!

#merlin bbc #meta #Guinevere Pendragon #resources for merlin fic writers #to backup later

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soullessdhampir · 2 years

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What absolute disgust that even after knowing the outrage of Americans when the decision was leaked they still stuck with it. To be honest I've already experienced all my disgust, and anger when the decision leaks came out. Now I'm just feeling disappointed. But hey welcome to America where fundamentalist Christians are gaining more control of country to turn our country of "freedom" (it was never really free only for white Christian hetero men anyone outside of that has always been left to be strangled by the barb wires of oppression to die slowly, and painfully.)

They want to revert back to 50s and below where white men controlled everything, and women just stayed home caring for children, household, birthing babies as women aren't allowed to tell their husband no to sex bc they're the husband's property, and never giving any lip unless they want a beating, or be ostracized by others for not just shutting up, and obeying. They don't care about pro life or saving the babies. Our Government forced sterilization on black, native American, latino, Asian, and Hispanic women without even telling them that they sterilized them. Our government sent children to work in factories with no rest leading to their deaths, and missing fingers/limbs. In world war 2 think of all the Asian American, and japanese American families and children put in internment camps, all the Jewish refugees being turned down by the US government. To even now today with all the Mexican children in detention camps, refusing Syrian refugees, bombing all the civilians towns over In Afghanistan, iraq, Iran, the war of the middle east how many innocent children do you think were killed, or lives uprooted bc of the bombshell aftermaths of the war? how our government enacted genocide in Panama Let alone let's not forget about the century of genocide USA committed in Panama and testing nuclear bombs, weapons, warfare there. Testing to see how radiation, and nuclear weapons affected different races in Panama, and then pulling out of Panama lying saying "oh yeah we clean up all the nuclear weapons", and left bc they were going to use Vietnam as testing grounds instead. But oh that little lie well people are still finding nuclear bombs lying around in Panama today. We never cared enough to clean anything up because why? It's not white people who live there mostly black, and brown people. All the rape, and killings that American soldiers have done on women, and children of foreign countries that we've invaded. Ohh yeah also let's absolutely not forget the centuries of atrocities that the Catholic church committed like covering up rapes, and sexual abuse of children, and women by priests, killing all pagans, jews, and anyone else who wouldn't convert to catholicism. Oh and let's not forget how Catholic church murdered over 800 Irish babies. Back when the Catholic church was in rule of Ireland they would take away the babies from unwed women, and gave them up for adoption, and would send single mothers, raped women who birthed children, and sex workers to Magdalene launderies where nuns would whip, and beat the women, and the women were forced workers. Most of the Hasbro games were made back in the day by these women in the launderies. The Catholic church covered up a mass unmarked grave of baby, and children corpses. So no none of this is about being pro life. This is clearly about power, and control.

It's time to stop being silent, being apathetic, or just letting whatever happens happen. It's time to rise up, it's time for grassroots collective organizations of us we the everyday people to band together, and demand our basic human rights! It's time to ignore, and stop playing games with, and placating liberals, moderates, and the right. I mean the Obama administration has democratic majority of both Senate, and house, they could have set permanent legal abortion rights to prevent something like this from happening, but you know what they didn't. It's time for us radical leftists to rise up, and over throw everything. I'm sorry, but it's beginning to become where democratic socialism, socialism, and even communism isn't enough. Being that those ideologies, and structures still have hierarchical oppressions, and power structures. For us as humanity to truly be collectively free, and resourceful we need to obliterate all oppressions, and free everyone from classism, racism, caste system, sexism, cissexism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and antisemitism. We are not truly ever free if we're only uplifting the few, and not everyone. I'm looking at you liberalism, white feminism, swerf/terf feminists.

Anarchy Is the one main way of collectively, and autonomously creating an existence of us not being wasteful or struggling. We produce only what we need, and support each other, and have each other backs. In most of all of history all revolutions we're backed by grassroots anarchists like for example we wouldn't have the 8 hour work day we have here in the United States of it we're for the anarchists, and unionizing of those days. Revolutionist minds like Emma Goldman, and the anarchists martyrs of the Haymarket affair that were killed by cops for protesting for labor rights. Look at the Paris commune of 1872, where the city of Paris was an autonomous city for 2 months, and unfortunately only lost bc they chose to focus on voting within their groups of who to lead than to pay attention to defending themselves and keeping from taken over. Or another example the anarchists revolution during the Spanish civil war in Spain. The anarchists were gaining majority of the factories, and having worker owned factories, lands, and collectively farming together. They almost entirely pulled off winning the war until the Stalin communists deciding to stop aiding and backing the anarchist rebels, and started telling the rebels fighting in the streets to pull back and stop fighting. Then Franco won and Spain got to enjoy 40 years of fascist Franco. Anarchists have always been at the grassroots level of organizing, and creating revolutionary uproars. We the people should never be afraid of our government, but instead the government should fear us, and never feel comfortable, or have the upper hand of control over us. What they do if all of us the people banded together, and rose up, focusing on our true advisories, instead of constant infighting that have been tearing us apart, and keeping us from achieving an uprising. If they killed, or locked all of us away who would they have to pay taxes, work, or to control? Certainly not themselves.

This is dark times that will lead to soon who knows they won their illegalizing abortion fight, next up they're coming for the trans, and gay community. They've already been demonizing the trans, and LGB+ community for years, and they have the upper hand in that department as well. But there's plenty of history we can learn from, and some badass inspiring women who started an organization called The Jane Collective, which was a group of women in the 60s and 70s who provided free, cheap, accessible, and safe abortions for all women. We could do that again now if it boiled down to it especially with the way medical equipment have become much better, and our medical knowledge too. Also the black panther party was a grassroots community support organization that provides over 60+ free public services run by volunteers, and standing up for others, and themselves within the black community from police harassment. There's plenty of examples in history of everyday people banding together to provide and meet the needs of each other that the history books and education system don't want us to know that we all the power to change, and demand a better life if we really wanted to. They got to keep us down, and weak. Knowledge is power so that is why they only want us to know what they want us to know, believe, and think.

I've been enriching as much of my mind as possible with anarcha-feminist, black anarchism, and anarchist essays, and reading about the anarchist revolution during Spanish civil war, Haymarket affair, emma Goldman, the Blair mountain labor revolt, the Paris commune of 1872, and the Jane collective to open up my mind, and enrich myself with the knowledge of the potential especially if we learn from the past, and history that if we band together, support each other, and Collectively care and provide for one another we can provide a much better life for all.

Fuck the system! Let your voices be heard, and rise up! Don't let them walk all over us, or keep us starving begging for scraps when they decide they want to feed us. Take, and demand what you need don't wait for it to be given to you.

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twomeeplesandadog · 3 months

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Yahtzee: A Classic with Too Much Chance

Sitting at the very top of one of our bookcases sits some of our “classic games.” (Monopoly sits in another room, far away from view). These American classics are rarely touched in our household. They require little strategy, include far too much chance, and therefore, are mainstains in homes with young children as they are easy to play for those of all ages. Being encouraged to yell out “Yahtzee!” when you hit five of a kind is also an exciting way to get everyone involved.

Yahtzee does indeed include a large amount of chance. After all, you are rolling five dice up to three times hoping to make specific combinations for points. Yahtzee, of all the classics we own, has a special place in my heart, as a favorite from childhood when my family would play games during winter vacation ski trips. My mother has never really enjoyed playing games, but Yahtzee, for whatever reason, was one she was occasionally willing to spend time playing.

Our version of Yahtzee is almost as old as the game itself, and doesn’t even include a prominent Hasbro logo on it. But the game hasn’t changed at all in the almost 70 years of its existence. That said, I’m not sure when the last time was that my wife played the game, and before starting, I needed to explain the rules to her. The lack of strategy inherent in the game led her to be baffled at the game's existence, after one play of the game even exclaiming, “That’s a dumb game.”

And she’s right, to a point. If you are able to get behind Yahtzee, there is strategy as to how you choose to score your points. Should your four 1s go down as a four of a kind or as your 1s? Since four of a kind is a total of all dice, that's a poor option for that. Whereas the 1s is simply a total of your 1s. Save those four 5s for your four of a kind.

And while you may think my wife’s issues with this game led to her losing all three plays, you’d be mistaken. The results indicated otherwise:

Game 1: Husband - 273, Wife - 228

Game 2: Husband - 174, Wife - 245

Game 3: Husband - 184, Wife - 153

By the end of our third game, wife has certainly begun to pick up on some of the strategies for the game, but still felt Yahtzee to be lacking. “I don’t feel intellectually challenged,” she remarked after we finished the games, and insisted we play something else immediately. She promptly kicked my butt in Wingspan.

#boardgamenight #tabletop #board game review #boardgame #boardgamegeek #yahtzee #classic board #board games #board game geek #dice game

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liverpoolgolf02 · 1 year

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4 Powerful Youth Golf Lesson Strategies Parents Need to Use With Kids

When you go to play golf, do you just bring them to the course? Are they a part of a golf academy's junior programmes?

Of course, the techniques may or may not need to vary based on their age, maturity, ability level, etc.

It is critical to create a strategy that works for the parents but, more importantly, supports the development of their child into adulthood as more children grow up in dual-income or single-parent households. golf courses near me cheap

Due to the prevalence of young sports in many areas, many parents are anxiously searching for the best youth golf instruction, youth golf camps, youth golf schools, youth golf advice, or a youth golf programme to help their child get ahead of the game.

You should use the following youth golf lesson techniques with your children.

Give the Right Junior Golf Equipment for Them

Most of the present parents were handed a broken club from our parents' or grandparents' set when they learnt how to play golf. A set that was far too small for them.

The clubhead weight was way too heavy for most players who start out very young, regardless of whether the length was exactly right or even near to it.

Thankfully, today's junior golfers don't have to deal with that difficulty because correct fitting and weighting can make it simpler for the player.

A reputable company provides fitting services and creates golf clubs for kids that are not just the right length but also have correctly weighted club heads. The kids may full swing the clubs more easily with the correct fitting at an academy.

Do Not Try to Be Their Coach/Let Them Call the Shots

From my experience, I can say that it is challenging for parents to accomplish this.

Every parent wants to support their children in becoming the finest "whatever it is" that they can.

Remember that your role is to facilitate their desires and make golf enjoyable.

I frequently retell the tale of how my daughter used to like hitting balls into bunkers when we would play outside when she was younger. My initial impression was that of an ordinary parent and conventional golfer.

After some reflection, she realizes that her intended target is far closer to the red than the green. When she chooses that she wants to make the green her goal, if she can reach it, she will also be able to hit the green. One of the reasons she wanted to play golf at that age was because it remained enjoyable for her.

It's important to remember that the rules are whatever you and your child decide they are, at least until they decide they want to play competitively.

Even if your junior golfer decides to play competitively, they should still find enjoyment in the game and not only see it as a chore requiring them to attend kids golf lesson after session.Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of talented young players burn out too soon. They need time to find things out on their own and grow from their mistakes

How Often Or How Much Should They Practice Golf Including Instruction

Some people might argue that there is a narrow line to walk when creating a practise schedule for children.

Knowing when your child "doesn't want to do anything" and when they may simply be feeling sleepy or sluggish can be challenging, as a parent myself.

I would let your child decide if they are in junior high school or younger.

Consider the time you were their age and were required to attend lessons because your parents insisted you "had" to do something after school.Simply because you were required to do anything, such as taking piano lessons, singing lessons, or kids golf lessons, does not indicate that the time you invested improved you or, more crucially, made you desire to do that activity more.

They should create goals and monitor their development with their instructors if they are in high school and desire to play the game at a competitive level.

It is critical that students make acquaintances at this time who share their interests and ambitions. I've discovered that a golf course or a golf academy program's "pack" mindset may keep them motivated and focused.

How to Maximize Playing Time

In most cases, the game is played in nine-hole or 18-hole intervals. That does not imply that it must be performed in that manner.

The number of holes your junior player wants to play will depend on their age, maturity, ability level, and attention span. They could simply want to play two or four holes. Thankfully, a lot of junior programmes use this technique to introduce youngsters.

For More Info: golf course for kids

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sassyhologramglitter · 2 years

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MysticalCheesecakeLight

Sims 4 base game challenges, author, gamer and anime lover and a writer

POSTS LIKES FOLLOWING ASK ME ANYTHING SUBMIT A POST ARCHIVE

🦋🌼Dream legacy🌼🦋

Struggling with trying to figure out what u want to do with ur life? Or stressed out by having ur parents harass you every 5 seconds with every chance they get about college or a job?

U will start off as a teen sim with ur family in a small town and start off without any friends at first and babysitting ur siblings while ur parents are out partying or ignoring u completely until but the only thing they can do is harass u about ur education or career choices until u are pushed to ur limit while living with ur parents for years now. and ur relationship with ur parents has gone down very badly and when ur 18th birthday comes around u pack up ur things and move to a empty lot only with 345 simoleons in ur bank account. Please Tag Me if u do my challenge.

Rules:

Have a teen sim and the proper traits for ur sim

U cannot use the money cheat at all and cannot use cheats that goes against the challenges

Have only 345 simoleons to start out with

U can play on normal and long life span

Cheats can be used if it goes along with the challenge

Generation 1 writer

In this generation u will start in the ur family household but u will also have to balance taking care of ur siblings, school and ur pre-time job and ur siblings must at least feel loved, cared for but that could all end before ur eyes but one night ur parents went out partying. Then unexpected news arrived at ur front door with a letter taped to ur door that had said “ u have 10 days to fix the environment and situation but if not we will have to take ur youngest children away.

Have the fabulously wealthy aspiration

Have the Loner and erratic traits

Take care of ur siblings once a week

Argue with ur parents to form a bad relationship with them then leave the house and spend the night at the hotel

Have good grades

Within 10days move out the youngest children into a different sim world and have the parents argue with each other

Parents end the marriage with each other

Move out with 345 simoleons

Take a part-time job

Complete the fabulously wealthy aspiration then change it to the successful lineage aspiration and complete it before becoming a elder

Have at least 3 kids

Complete the logic, painting, writing skills

Join the writers career and become a Author

Master ur career

Marry as young adult

Generation 2 entertainment

As a child u started to notice that ur parents are growing apart slowly and it began to affect u and ur sisters/ brothers very badly to the point where ur grades started to drop so badly for the past few days and when ur birthday is around the corner u decide to plan out ur life while dealing with ur crazy emotional changes in ur life just like ur mother and continued to have a amazing bond with her and ur sisters /brothers and after months going by both of ur mother’s sit u down at the dinner table and explain to u that they are separating and not getting back together again and while at school u get bad news about ur grandparents passing away

Have the erratic trait

Have the creative trait

Have the music genius aspiration as a teen

Complete the artist aspiration as a child

Randomize the 3rd trait as a young adult

Have a small friend group of 4

Complete the painting skill

Complete the guitar skill

Fall in love with a supernatural creature

Complete the comedy skill

Have 4 kids

Master the aspiration

Join the entertainment career

Master the entertainment career

Get married as a adult

Generation 3 business

U have always dreamed of becoming a successful business woman/men/they and developing most of ur time researching and looking up information within the business career and u have been really close with ur mother and aunts and them supporting ur dreams in whatever u decide to do but u also have a really bad secret that nobody knows ur half vampire and u honestly hate that u are a monster and isn’t allowed to do certain things because of ur father and it’s really hard trying to communicate with ur father when he’s not really supportive of u and ur dreams but now is the chance to prove him wrong and prove that ur dreams are something u really can’t give up on unless u really try.

Have the logic skill

Have the charisma skill

Have the genius trait

Complete logic skills

Complete charisma skill

Have the non committal trait

Randomize the 3rd trait

Have 4 ex boyfriend/girlfriends

Join the business career

Adopt 2 kids

Have 2 good relationships

Have 4 bad relationships

Reach level 8 in the business career

Mansion Baron Aspiration

Generation 4 astronaut

U have always wondered what it was like in outer space and what u could discover out of the world space and maybe meet some interesting people and u stayed up all night in ur bedroom researching about becoming a astronaut and u haven’t always been the best in highschool with grades but u won’t let that stop u from accomplishing ur dreams and ur time to explore then u

Have the logic skill

Have the rocket science skill

Have the Fitness skill

Complete the logic, rocket, and fitness skill

Master the astronaut career

Adopt 1 child and have 2

Have the genius trait and randomize the rest

Completely upgrade the rocket ship

Bring back at least 10 things from outer space

Have a baby with ur boyfriend’s brother or best friend

Leave ur boyfriend at the alter

Marry as a elder

Have a family photo wall

Get caught cheating and break up

Bodybuilder Aspiration

Generation 5 culinary career

Ur biggest dream was becoming a master chef and traveling around the world and trying new foods but on the downside when u talk about ur dream and sometimes u will end up with being bullied by other kids or teens through out ur life. Will u forget about this dream? Or will u prove ur bullies wrong and follow ur dream?

Master chef aspiration

Have the Cooking skill

Have the mixology skill

Have the Gourmet Cooking skill

Randomize all ur traits

Complete all ur skills

Master the career

Have as many kids as u want

Have a affair with 5 of ur co-workers husbands/wives

Randomize on which co-workers u should have a baby with

Get into 3 fights with the co-workers loved ones

Convince the a co-worker to leave their loved ones and invite their ex to wedding

Take a photo right in front of ur husband/wife ex

Hang up the photo in the house

Generation 6 tech guru / Criminal Career

U have always loved computers, programming and gaming and always find a way to practice ur skills but some people have always thought of u as a nerd and weird person to be around when ur really smart in school or working on the computer and u don’t really mind what other people really think about u but on the other hand u are not a really good person and tries to get back at them

Have the programming skil

Have the gaming skill

Have the Mischief skill

Have the handiness skill

Have the genius trait, mean trait and the evil trait

Complete ur skills

Join the tech guru career and quit halfway then join the criminal career and master it

Have the Chief of Mischief Aspiration

Hack at least 10 times

Steal 11 things and if u get caught u lose $50

Do voodoo at least 2 times

Adopt 2 kids

Have 4 Sims dislike u

Have a display of stuff u stole

Get married if u want to

Generation 7 secret agent career

Ur mother/father was just a amazing inspiration towards u so u decide to join the secret agent career but instead it’s for the bad guys and living the life by stealing and being mean towards other people until u ended up pregnant but u don’t remember who the father of the baby or babies are and over time when the kids where born u develop hate towards kids and don’t know what to do then ur mother suggested that u give them up for adoption ( u can place them in a different household for base game just remember one of the kids is the heir for next generation)

Have the Chief of Mischief Aspiration

Have the logic skill

Have the Mischief Skill

Have the charisma skill

Complete ur skills

Join the secret agent career and master it

Have twins or one baby

Give it baby or babies up for adoption

Have the mean trait

Have the jealousy trait

Steal 4 things

Have 5 boyfriend’s

Have 6 dislike u

Get in a least 10 fights

Generation 8 freelancer career

u have always wanted been a loner and sad sim but u always had a dream of working for urself and working hard and always thought how bad ur mother and grandmother were they never really worked hard for money in their lives cuz it was basically handed or they stole it from other people and u didn’t want to be like that so it’s ur turn to clear the dream legacy around or let it haunt the remaining 2 generations

Have the programming skil

Have the painting skill

Have the writing skill

Complete the skills

Join the freelance career

Have the creative trait and randomize the rest of the traits

Have 1 kid

Sell at least 6 paintings

Finds out that ur boyfriend is cheating on u and has another child

Get in at least 5 arguments then finds out about ur pregnancy

Breaks up with boyfriend and continues to take care of ur kids and live ur life

Write at least 4 books

Complete 3 side jobs

Complete ur skills

Generation 9 style influencer career

Ur mother had sat u down in the living room to ask u and important question "what is ur dream career and want to change in the world?” Well u didn’t really know what ur dream job was until u looked through ur notebook and decided on being a style influencer and helping others with their interesting 🤔 clothing choices or even help with earth a little bit by doing some gardening things

Have the painting skill

Have the photography skill

Have the charisma skill

Have the writing skill

Have the Friend of the World aspiration

Join the style influencer career

Have as many kids as u want

Complete ur skills

Randomize all ur traits

Complete ur skills

Master the career

Have at least 10 best friends

Have at least 3 friends

Have at least 6 enemies

Get married if u want to

Generation 10 Athlete career

Being an athlete was all u ever dreamed of doing and always talked about how u loved to work out and different ways of eating but u have to go through difficult challenges to be able to master ur career and have the best life with ur family until ur mother dies of an old age and this really broke u in the beginning but now it only motivated u to save the dream legacy for u and ur kids

Have the fitness skill

Have the charisma skill

Have the body builder aspiration

Join the athlete career

Master the career

Have at least 2 kids

Get into at least 5 fights

Complete ur skills

Have a good relationship with ur kids

Get married as a elder

Have a family photo wall

#new simblr #the sims #ts4 #ts4 legacy #gaming #ts4 challenge #let's play #maxis match #simblr #ts4 gameplay #ts4cc

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storiesforallfandoms · 3 years

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the girl next door ~ rodrick heffley;diary of a wimpy kid

word count: 1675

request?: yes!

waaaavyguurl “hey! could you do a rodrick heffley imagine where in rodrick rules the fem!reader has just moved in a house next to the heffley’s and she’s in maths class with rodrick. she’s kinda a genius, so he asks her to help him with hw and they start dating ?? maybe with an insert of greg who understands they’re together when he sees them dancing at the party ?? thank u <3″

description: in which rodrick falls for the smart girl next door

pairing: rodrick heffley x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist

His mother had been adamant about the entire Heffley family going to greet their new neighbors just a day after they moved in. Susan spent the whole night making brownies, with Manny’s “help”, and had them boxed up and ready to go the next morning.

“What if they’re allergic to brownies?” Greg asked after Frank had to literally drag him out of bed.

“They’re made from scratch, so the only allergies in it are dairy and gluten,” Susan responded.

“Why couldn’t this have waited till tonight?” Rodrick groaned. “Give them some time to breathe before we scare them off.”

“If we wait too long we’ll look like rude neighbors!”

Rodrick rolled his eyes. He was sure none of the other people on the block had went to meet the new neighbors yet, but there was no talking Susan Heffley out of something once she set her mind to it.

She made the boys dress up in their nicest clothes, which for Rodrick was a pair of jeans without holes in them and a plain black t-shirt, before they made their way across the street. Rodrick let out an annoyed sigh as Susan knocked on the door and they waited.

A girl that looked about Rodrick’s age answered the door. Rodrick couldn’t help but stand up a little straighter as her eyes wandered over the family before her. “Uh...hi?”

“Hello!” Susan greeted. “We’re the Heffleys; I’m Susan, this is my husband, Frank, and my boys, Manny, Greg, and Rodrick. We just wanted to come over and welcome you and your parents to the neighborhood with some homemade brownies!”

“Nice to meet you,” the young girl greeted. “I’m (Y/N). You guys actually just missed my parents. They both work morning shifts, they won’t be home until sometime this evening.”

Rodrick held back his desire to tell his mother “I told you so”.

“Wait, so you’re here by yourself?” Greg asked. “That’s so cool!”

(Y/N) chuckled. “I appreciate the gesture none the less, and my parents will, too. I’ll tell them you stopped by, they’ll probably invite you guys back for dinner sometime.”

“That’d be great!” Susan said. “We’ll wait for your call!”

Greg and Manny were the first to break away from their parents, excitedly running back to the house to play video games and watch cartoons like they normally did on a weekend morning. Susan chased after Manny, telling him not to run across the street without her, while Frank just silently left. Rodrick stayed a moment, trying to think of something to say to (Y/N).

“I-I guess I’ll see you at school on Monday,” he finally managed to say, immediately cringing at the stupid thing he decided to say.

(Y/N) smiled at this, though, and responded, “Yeah, I’ll see you Monday. It’ll be nice to already know a friendly face.”

Rodrick smiled back and nodded. (Y/N) closed the door as Rodrick turned away, silently celebrating to himself before joining his family back at the Heffley household.

~~~~~~

That Monday, Rodrick tried not to seem too obvious as he looked around for (Y/N) at school. He couldn’t hide his disappointment when he couldn’t find her the first half of the day.

When she walked into his sixth period math class, Rodrick smiled widely and waved at her. She smiled back and quickly sat in the empty seat next to him.

“Hey! I finally found you!” she said. “This school is so big, and there’s so many people!”

“Yeah, it is pretty big,” Rodrick responded, lamely. “How have your classes been so far?”

(Y/N) shrugged. “They’re, you know, classes. I feel like I can’t form an opinion on anything yet.”

Before Rodrick could ask anymore questions, the teacher came in to start the class.

Math class always dragged on, but that day it felt like it was going at a pace even slower than a snail. Rodrick wanted nothing more than for the class to just end so he could talk to her more.

“The answer is six,” (Y/N) whispered to herself.

Rodrick looked over at her. “What?”

(Y/N) looked at him. Her face was confused at first until she realized she had spoken out loud. Before she could respond, the teacher asked, “Do you two have something to add Miss. (Y/L/N)? Mr. Heffley?”

The two exchanged a look before (Y/N) responded. “The answer to the equation is actually six. You mixed up on your second to last calculation.”

A snicker came from her classmates as the teacher rolled his eyes at her. “I can assure you my calculations are correct Miss. (Y/L/N).”

“I’m not saying they’re all wrong, just the second to last calculation.” (Y/N) rose from her seat and made her way to the whiteboard. “May I?”

“Oh sure, since you know everything.”

(Y/N) ignored his sarcastic tone and erased everything that was on the board except for the starting equation. Rodrick watched as (Y/N) rewrote the entire equation down to the last step, in which she changed the workings to equal six.

The entire room seemed to hold their breath as (Y/N) turned to their teacher. He had a blank expression on his face before letting out a sigh. “Okay, I see your point. Well done Miss. (Y/L/N), now go sit down.”

(Y/N) returned to her seat next to Rodrick, her cheeks tinted pink.

When class finally ended, Rodrick and (Y/N) left together. “That was so impressive! You’re, like, a math genius.”

“My parents have been teaching me basically since I was born,” (Y/N) explained. “They basically made me an overachiever since birth.”

“That’s cool, though. Maybe you could help me with my homework sometime.”

(Y/N) smiled. “Yeah! I’d love to!”

~~~~~~~

Rodrick watched (Y/N) talk to some friends in the living room from his spot in the kitchen. He couldn’t help but smile when she laughed at whatever one of the girls had said.

(Y/N) had really opened up in the months following her moving in. She had gained a great group of friends and had opened up a lot to the people in their grade. She was no longer the shy new girl, but now the smart, semi-popular girl that everyone loved.

“How long till you tell mom and dad about (Y/N)?” Greg asked as he came to stand next to his big brother.

“Disintegrate child,” Rodrick hissed. “Wait, how do you know about me and (Y/N)?”

Greg scoffed. “Come on, Rodrick. You’ve never looked at a girl the way you look at her, among other very obvious tells. You are totally in love with her.”

“Whoa, whoa. Back it up little bro. In love is a strong word. I like her a lot at the most.”

“Like who a lot?”

(Y/N) walked up to the brothers and threw an arm over Rodrick’s shoulder. He felt his heart starting to race at just her close proximity, and he couldn’t stop the smile that spread on his face knowing she was there next to him.

Okay, maybe I love her a little bit.

“What lucky girl has taken little Rodrick’s heart?” (Y/N) continued with their “friends” bit.

“You can drop it. Greg knows about us.”

(Y/N) sighed with relief as she dropped her arm from Rodrick’s shoulder. “Good. There was no way I was going to be able to pretend that Rodrick liked someone else. I was sure I was gonna crack.”

Rodrick wrapped his arm around (Y/N)’s shoulder and kissed her forehead. (Y/N) leaned into his embrace, a dreamy smile on her face as she peered up at her boyfriend. Greg looked between the two of them, an amused smile on his face.

“I’m happy for you guys,” he said. “But, just remember (Y/N), you could do so much better than Rodrick.”

Rodrick untangled himself from Greg just long enough to feign a threatening punch. Greg took off as soon as Rodrick’s hand went up, disappearing into the crowd of party people around him. Rodrick shook his head and rolled his eyes as (Y/N) laughed.

“He’s smarter than you give him credit for,” (Y/N) pointed out.

“Don’t give him too much credit, it’ll go to his already massive sized head,” Rodrick warned her.

(Y/N) laughed before giving Rodrick a quick peck on her lips. “So, Greg has already figured us out. When do we tell your parents?”

Rodrick sighed as he pulled (Y/N) tightly against them. “Realistically, they’re the next step. I don’t need Greg having anything else he can hold over my head as leverage or blackmail. But...I really don’t want you to meet them. Not because I don’t think they’d like you, they already love you more than they love the three of us. It’s just...mom is super overbearing, especially with girlfriends. The last one I had that I brought to meet them, mom straight up asked her if she planned to ever have kids and get married after graduating high school.”

(Y/N) covered her mouth to try and stifle the laugh that came out. She had met Susan Heffley a few times in passing when doing homework with Rodrick, and even in the few times she had met Rodrick’s mom, she knew that Rodrick’s story was not an exaggeration.”

“Dad is just boring,” Rodrick continued. “He doesn’t do much besides work and collect figurines. He’ll probably ask you if you’ll talk me out of being in the band and actually doing something with my life.”

(Y/N) leaned into Rodrick again. “I won’t push you. You have your reasonings for not wanting me to meet them, and I understand those reasonings. But, just so you know, they’re not gonna chase me away from you. I’m in this for the long haul, Heffley. You’re stuck with me until you get tired of me.”

Rodrick smiled and kissed (Y/N) again. “I’ll never get tired of you, (Y/L/N).”

#rodrick heffley #rodrick heffley imagine #rodrick heffley x reader #Devon Bostick #devon bostick imagine #devon bostick x reader #Diary of a Wimpy Kid #diary of a wimpy kid imagine #imagine #one shot #request #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom

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bpinkee-plays · 2 years

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The Sims 4 - Inspired by Disney - Legacy Challenge

Hi all!

I’ve been looking for a new legacy challenge, one I can complete, is fairly straight forward and I haven’t done a million times. Looking at you Not-So-Berry Challenge, I love love love you but this gal needs some variety in life!

Not finding what I really want out there. Albeit didn't look overly hard, I chose to create my own, and I decided to go with some Disney Inspiration. Is it because I love Disney? Maybe. Is it because Disney gives me a lovely sense of wonder? Maybe. Is it because SpinningPlumbobs has created some super cute Little Mermaid CC and that happens to be my most favourite Disney movie ever?

Yeah

Yeah, that’s probably it.

Check it out here, SP is a GENIUS! https://www.patreon.com/spinningplumbobs

Anyway, onto the challenge. Please note, this is not just about the Disney princesses, though there may be one or two thrown in there. This is Disney as a whole, including some Pixar because I’m not going to differentiate between the two and if that triggers some of you (Dave), I’m sorry.

The Basic Rules: 1. Try not to cheat - too much. I mean the name of the game is fun and if you have fun cheating I guess go for it. We won’t know what you did. But you’ll know what you did ... 2. You can move into any home to start, and cheat your initial funds if you like. You can also start off with a rags to riches, or with the base amount of money. 3. Before moving onto the next generation, you will need to finish the aspiration, the skills and career listed (unless otherwise stated). As well as some set 'rules' for the gen. 4. There is no set gender for your heirs, if it’s the Little Mermaid era it does not mean you need to have a female. 5. Unless otherwise specified, there are no rules for the spouses. 6. It's recommended that you play this challenge on normal lifespan, however if you want it to be harder try it on short. Or go for long, really the choice is yours.

Generation 1 - It’s All About the Family - Encanto You come from a big family, and sometimes it’s hard being the only non-magical one in it. While you do your best to remain happy, cheerful and helpful you've developed a bit of a perfectionist persona, doing your best to make everyone proud of you. When your visage of perfection is shattered, you realize there is no such thing as perfection so instead you will do your best to make sure your family always comes first.

To Start: You start this challenge as a toddler. Your household must start with a minimum of five members. A grandparent, a mother, father, sibling and the heir. For added flare you're welcome to add other family members as well. Perhaps an aunt and cousin? Or uncle, one we then never talk about again, while continuously talking about him. No, no no no no ... Each family member (except you) needs to be special in some way. This includes being an occult sim, or you can cheat their aspiration points to give them, "Never Sleeps" etc. While in CAS you can use genetics in order to create your toddler self, but you can't use any toddler that is an occult sim.

Aspiration: Super Parent Career: Doctor Traits: Family Oriented, Cheerful, Perfectionist Skills: Parenting, Handiness, Logic

Requirements: > As a toddler you must get all skills to level 3. > As a child you must get an 'A' in grade school. And join the scouts. >As a teen you must get an 'A' in high school. And have an after school job. >As a young adult, go to university to become a doctor. You don't particularly WANT to be a doctor, but you feel it is expected. > Have a child with a co-worker, but do not stay with them. Raise the child on your own. If you choose to find love, you can not do so until child is at least a teen.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > As a toddler get all skills to level 5. > As a child, get all badges in scouts, AND finish your childhood aspiration. > As a teen, reach the top of whatever after school job you get.

Generation 2 - It's all Fun & Games - Toy Story You had the BEST mom, no really, the very best. She allowed you to be a kid, have fun and live in the moment. You had all the toys you could want, who needs friends any way? In fact, you took your childhood and ran with it! Your mother tried to get you to find focus in your life through music and although you can pluck away at a guitar or violin you never took it seriously. Most things in life for you are a joke, and that's how you like it!

Aspiration: Joke Star Career: Entertainer - Comedian Traits: Childish, Self-Absorbed, Goofball Skills: Comedy, Charisma, Mischief

Requirements: > Play an instrument. > Have no relationship with your other parent. > Have no friends as a child. Play with toys every day. > When in high school have at least two girlfriends/boyfriends. > Move to the city. > Marry an ambitious Sim, and have at least three children.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > As a child, choose the imagination aspiration and max it. > Max video gaming and violin

Generation 3 - Weird, but Mine - Meet the Robinsons Growing up your family was a bit weird, and large. Your parents don't really talk about them though, and when they do it's usually in hushed tones. You're beginning to wonder if your family is not as they seem. While deep diving on the web you find references to wizards, mermaids and vampires. Those can't be real though. Right?

Career: Tech Guru Skills: Programming, Video Gaming, Vampire Lore Aspiration: Computer Whiz Traits: Genius, Geek, Neat

Requirements: > Be good friends with at least 3 other family members outside of your immediate family. (Cousins, aunts, uncles etc.) > Marry your high school sweet heart. > Have twins (you can cheat to do this) > Attend geek-con. > Move back to your ancestorial home (gen 1), as a young adult to find the secrets of your family. (If your original family members have passed then you can move in alone. If your ancestors still reside in the home you can move in with them. If the house is full, feel free to do some re-arranging.)

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > After completing the Computer Whiz aspiration, choose Good Vampire, become a vampire and try to change the stigma surrounding them. All vampires, are not evil! > Have at least 8 skills at level 5 or higher.

Generation 4 - A Dalmatian Plantation - 101 Dalmatians You like dogs, I mean REALLY like dogs. While your family are out and about solving mysteries, making magic, and doing whatever else it is they do. You spend your days dreaming of having your very own dog. Your parents never get you one, so as soon as you are able you move out and get yourself a dog. Or two. Probably two.

Career: Vet Skills: Pet Training, Veterinarian, Wellness Aspiration: Friend of the Animals Traits: Dog Lover, Loves the Outdoors, Vegetarian

Requirements: > As a young adult, move to Brindleton Bay > Adopt a dog, or find a stray. (Or two) > Have at least one litter of puppies. > Buy a vet clinic, how else will you become a vet? > Marry a customer.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > Take your dog every where you go. (Including work.) > Have more dogs than children. > Have lot trait, dog hangout.

Generation 5 - No Spots, No spots at all! - Cruella Growing up in the country side, surrounded by dogs was not your idea of heaven. In fact, you'd be happy to never see a dog again. Ever! Though, you did admire some of their coats, still not worth the effort. Instead you decided to move as far away from the city as you can, somewhere, classy.

Career: Style Influencer Skills: Writing, Painting, Photography, Mixology Aspiration: Serial Romance Traits: High Maintenance, Snob, Art Lover

Requirements: > Move to Del Sol Valley. > Cheat on your partner. > Leave your partner at the alter. > Marry partner you left at the alter, but only after finishing the serial romance aspiration. > Have 4 children, by at least 2 different partners.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > Have lot trait, Celebrity Home > Finish the post card collection.

Generation 6 - Change your Fate - Brave Your mother always seemed a bit critical of you. Perhaps too critical? You grew up without having much of a relationship with her, fighting with her often, and you weren't really sure why. Your father and you were close, your siblings, well you could take or leave them. You prefer to be on your own, so you can make your own choices.

Career: Athlete Skills: Fitness, Herbalism, Gourmet Cooking Aspiration: Body Builder Traits: Active, Ambitious, Loner

Requirements: > Max the motor aspiration as a child. > Have no romantic interest until adulthood. > Move to Willow Creek > Marry a sim who already has a child.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > Gain level 10 in Mountain Climbing, Skiing and Snowboarding

Generation 7 - Under the Sea - The Little Mermaid Your family is descendant from magical beings and you want in. While your parents want you to pay attention to your grades and focus on your future all you can think about is the sun, the sand and the waves. Something is calling to you, something under the sea!

Career: Conservationist, Marine Biologist Skills: Singing, Logic, Fitness, & 2 Other Skills Aspiration: Beach Life Traits: Music Lover, Child of the Ocean, Clumsy

Requirements: > Move to Sulani > Become a Mermaid > Complete the Sea Shells Collection > Have one declared enemy > Meet your spouse as a teen, but don't talk to them again until you're a young adult

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > Have lot challenge, volcanic activity. > Have 6 children. (Ariel had 6 sisters, and I love a good too many toddlers challenge.)

Generation 8 - Nobody Gets Left Behind - Lilo & Stitch You grew up in paradise! It was lovely and wonderful, but you need to set out on your own. In order to show your parents you have what it takes you join the military and anxiously wait for your orders.

Career: Military Skills: Logic, Fitness, Bowling, Charisma, Guitar Aspiration: Strangerville Mystery Traits: Paranoid, Self-Assured, Slob

Requirements: > Have 1 best friend, your whole life they are your ride or die! > Have 3 declared enemies from childhood. > Move to Strangerville. Once the mystery is solved, move to another world. > Retire from the military as soon as you can, to spend your remaining days bowling at least once a week.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > No one wants this, but once you finish the Strangerville aspiration, change it to Galactic Privateer. We're going to Batuu baby!

Generation 9 - A Whole New World - Aladdin You're a military brat as they say. Your parents were strict and definitely one for the rules. And you, like to break them. From a young age you have felt the thrill of the steal and have made a life of crime for yourself.

Career: Criminal Skills: Mischief, Snowboarding, Guitar Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy Traits: Kleptomaniac, Adventurous, Outgoing

Requirements: > Have a best friend since childhood. > Live in at least three worlds. > Fight with your parents before moving out, then never talk to them again.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > On the side write and publish children's books. > Whenever anything in your house breaks, purchase a new one, do not repair. > When you are invited you accept, every time. Not to spend time with people, but to steal something from their home. - Only exception is if your parents call, you ignore these calls.

Generation 10 - Together, Forever - Up You grew up in a bit of a crazy household. Your parents were a bit, shady. You would read as much as you could in order to escape your every day world. Then you meet ... them. They are perfect for you in every way. Once you meet you become inseparable, the best of friends, until that friendship turns to something more. Now, you and your partner explore the world together!

Career: Engineer Skills: Robotics, Archaeology, Selvadoradian Culture, Fishing Aspiration: Jungle Explorer Traits: Romantic, Gloomy, Bookworm

Requirements: > Meet your future spouse as a child. Become teen sweethearts, marry as soon as you become young adults. > Adopt at least one child. > Go on at least 3 vacations.

OPTIONAL EXTREME CHALLENGE > Finish the Selvaforadian Culture Artifacts Collection > Move your house. The whole thing, to a new world.

That's it! I hope you guys enjoy this Disney Inspired Legacy Challenge. Please feel free to change things as you see fit. If it's too hard, or too easy please do change it up and make it your own!

Enjoy!

#sims 4 legacy #sims 4 #sims 4 disney #sims 4 disney challenge #sims 4 disney legacy

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matchacake · 3 years

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Older Sibling Challenge for the Sims 4

A revised version of the Big Sister Challenge, brought to you by @matchacake!

Life has been unkind to you and your younger sibling, leaving you in a situation without proper parents/guardians. In this challenge your teen sim will need to provide for and raise their younger sibling.

Disclaimer: This is NOT an original challenge of mine. All credit for this challenge goes to the creator of the Big Sister Challenge (poballa on Mod The Sims), which you can find here. The original rules were posted in 2015 and we have had quite a bit of content added to the game since, so I thought I would revise the rules for my own gameplay enjoyment. If you are the original creator of this challenge and are also here on tumblr, please send me a message so I can properly credit you! xo

- rules and more info below the cut -

Create the Household:

For this challenge you will need one teen sim and one child sim that are siblings. Any traits are fine.

Your child sim can have any aspiration of your choice EXCEPT social butterfly, as it requires you to make adult friends (you don’t want adults discovering you aren’t living with a legal guardian).

Your teen sim can have any aspiration EXCEPT those that require you to either have a career, become famous, become an adult, or become an occult (not allowed: Master Actor, Public Enemy, Big Happy Family, Super Parent, Successful Lineage, Vampire Family, Master Chef, Master Mixologist, Computer Whiz, Master Vampire, Archaeology Scholar, Spellcraft & Sorcery, Academic, Jungle Explorer, Purveyor of Potions, Renaissance Sim, Soulmate, Eco Innovator, Good Vampire, Joke Star, World-Famous Celebrity).

Both sims can be whatever gender you like.

In the original Big Sister Challenge you were required to also create one or both of their parents, as CAS would not let you leave without an adult in the household. It seems this has since been patched over and teen sims can now live without adults, so this step is no longer necessary. Therefore, creating their parent(s) is optional, though I HIGHLY recommend it for storytelling purposes, especially since this challenge is very story driven.

If you do choose to make their parents, be sure to kill them off before you start the challenge. Get creative and make an interesting backstory for whatever series of unfortunate events leads to your teen and child sim becoming orphans.

Set lifespan to long. I also recommend switching the calendar to 14 days per season, though this is not necessary.

Setting Up the Lot:

If you’ve decided to create the parents, you may move your household into any lot in any world of your choice. Free real estate cheat is allowed for this step if it pertains to your backstory (maybe your teen and child sim come from a wealthy family before the tragic demise of their parents, much like the Baudelaire’s, if you get my reference).

Once you have set up your backstory, move your teen and child to a different world map (you’re starting a new life in a new neighborhood where nobody knows you).

The lot can be any size, but must be completely empty. Keep in mind that your sims are somewhat in hiding from adults/child services and should not be living in a highly visible area.

You may use the live edit objects cheat to landscape the lot.

For extra difficultly, make the lot Off-The-Grid. This is optional.

Take the ashes/graves of your parents with you in your inventory.

Imagine that your sims are only able to take whatever they can carry with them (i.e. a tent, a cooler, a backpack with only a few outfits, 1 skill building item of your choice for your teen sim, and 1 toy for your child sim).

Cheat household funds down to 0 once you are done setting up their camp.

Challenge Goals:

Complete your teen sims aspiration before they become a YA.

Once they age up you can pick any new aspiration you like, including the ones that were previously unavailable. You’re an adult now and are capable of being your younger siblings proper legal guardian.

Complete your child sims aspiration before they become a teen.

Have your younger sibling get an A grade in both elementary school AND high school.

Unlike their older sibling, any and all aspirations are allowed when they age up into a teen. The younger sibling is not required to complete their aspiration before aging up into a YA.

Challenge Rules to Follow:

The older sibling is not allowed to attend school and must focus on providing for their younger sibling.

Part-time jobs are allowed, but you can also make money by scavenging for collectibles, fishing, painting, gardening, writing etc. as long as you are not directly interacting with adult sims.

I highly recommend making sure whatever neighborhood you move to has an abundance of useful community lots. Gyms, libraries, and even art centers can really come in handy for this challenge!

Once you have saved up 10,000 simoleons you can begin building them a house. Major household items (fridge, stove, toilet etc.) cannot be purchased until you have built a structure (mini fridges, woohoo bushes, and either an outdoor grill or campfire are allowed).

You cannot travel to other worlds until your older sibling becomes a YA.

Your younger sibling must live with you until they are an adult.

Your older sibling may start a career once they age up into a YA if you’d like. Their main focus should still be caring for their younger sibling, however.

Take advantage of the rewards store! The only one you are not allowed for this challenge is the Money Tree as it makes things too easy. You may purchase rewards at any time as long as you have the points for it.

Your main objective is to care for your younger sibling, so make sure their needs are always being met!

I’m currently playing through this challenge myself and will update the rules if I come across any issues. Feel free to message me if you are playing through it and have any questions and/or suggestions! Good luck and happy simming. xo

ps. Use the hashtag #oldersiblingchallenge if you’d like me to see your gameplay! You can also check out mine at the hashtag #yunsiblings over on my blog @matchacake :)

#oldersiblingchallenge #ts4 challenge #older sibling challenge #simblr #ts4 #sims #the sims #the sims 4 #ts4 gameplay #older sibling challenge rules #oldersiblingchallengerules #sims 4 challenge #matchacake

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impostoradult · 3 years

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Media Market Research (and why its undermining all the things you love)

Trying to understand what is dysfunctional about Hollywood is an epic task, and the answers are like the stars – arguably infinite. Hollywood is dysfunctional for literally more reasons than I could count.

But market research plays a fairly heavy role in its dysfunction (IMO) and the time has finally come for me to add my professional two cents about this issue. (This rant of mine has been building for a while, FYI. Hence why it is so...comprehensive. There is a tl;dr section towards the bottom, if you want the high level summary)

*** For the last 4+ years I’ve worked in the field of market research, almost exclusively with major media makers like Warner Bros., NBCU, AMC/BBCA, Viacom, FOX (before Disney acquired them), A+E, etc. (this past year I quit the job where I was doing this work for a variety of reasons, many of which will become clear as you keep reading, but I am still listed as a consultant on the company website): https://www.kresnickaresearch.com/who/ (Rachel)

And just for comparison, here is a Halloween selfie I took 4 years ago and posted on my blog, so you can see I am who I say I am.

I know a fair amount about how market research on major media franchises is conducted and how it influences production, and a lot of these choices can also be at least somewhat tied back to the massive flaws in the market research industry and its impact. *** First, at the highest level, you need to understand market research in general is not well-conducted much of the time. Even the people doing a reasonably good job at it are VERY limited in doing it well because of financial constraints (clients don’t want to spend more than they have to), time constraints (clients want everything done as fast as humanely possible) and just the inherent problems within the industry that are decades old and difficult to fix. For example, all market research ‘screens’ participants to make sure they qualify to participate (whether it is a mass survey, a focus group, a one-on-one interview, etc.). So, we screen people based on demographics like race, gender, age, household income, to get representative samples. But people are also screened based on their consumption habits. You don’t want to bring someone into a focus group about reality TV if they don’t watch reality TV. They aren’t going to have anything useful to say.

However, a lot of the people who participate in market research have made a ‘side-gig’ out of it and they know how to finesse the process. Basically, they’ve learned how to lie to get into studies that they aren’t a good match for because most market research is paid, and they want the money. So, a lot of TV and film market research is being done on people who don’t actually (or at least don’t regularly) watch those shows or movies or whatever but have learned how to lie well enough in these screening processes to make it through. And because of the aforementioned time and money issue, clients don’t want to spend the time or money to actually find GOOD participants. They just accept that as an inevitable part of the market research process and decide not to let it bother them too much. So, a fair number of the people representing YOU as a media consumer are people who may not be watching Supernatural (for example) at all or who watch a rerun occasionally on TNT but haven’t been watching consistently or with ANY amount of investment whatsoever. You can see why that creates very skewed data. But that’s just the tip of the skewed iceberg. *** Second, media market research is conducted in line with the norms of market research more broadly, and this is a huge problem because media is a very atypical product. How people engage with media is far more complex and in depth than how they engage with a pair of jeans, a car, or a coffee maker. There are only so many things that matter to people when it comes to liking or not liking a coffee maker, for example. Is it easy/intuitive to use? How much space does it take it on my counter? How expensive is it? Does it brew the coffee well? Maybe does it match my décor/kitchen aesthetic? Can I make my preferred brand of coffee in it? The things you as a consumer are going to care about when it comes to a coffee maker are limited, fairly easy to anticipate in advance, and also easy to interpret (usually). How people mentally and emotionally approach MEDIA? Whole other universe of thing. Infinitely more complex. And yet it is studied (more or less) as if it is also a coffee maker. This is one of the many reasons I decided to leave the media market research field despite my desire to have some ability to positively influence the process. As so often seems to be the case, I fought the law and the law won. I could never make the other people I worked with in the industry understand that the questions they were asking were not all that useful a lot of the time and they weren’t getting to the heart of the matter. They were just following industry standards because they didn’t know any better and none of them want to admit they don’t REALLY know what they’re doing. Which leads me to point 3. *** Most of the people doing this research don’t have any expertise in media or storytelling specifically. They are typically trained as social scientists in the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, or math/statistics. And many of them do not have any kind of specialization or education in media/storytelling beyond the English classes they took in high school and the one Media Studies course they took as an elective in college. Most of them have a very unsophisticated understanding of narrative structure, thematics, tropes, subtext, etc. They mainly think in terms of genres at the VERY broadest level. Also, not infrequently, they don’t watch or have much knowledge of the shows they are supposed to be doing research on, beyond what they’ve read on IMDb or Wikipedia or what is generally common knowledge. Unless they by chance happen to watch the shows themselves (which often they don’t) they often know very little about the shows they are crafting these questions about. Again, partly because they think it is like the coffee maker, and you don’t need to understand it in any depth to research it. (I know this must sound insane to you as avid media consumers, but that is the general attitude among those who do market research) There is such a lack of sophistication in how people in the business side of the industry understand media and storytelling. Most of them are either MBAs or social scientists and their training has not prepared them to examine fictional works with the kind of depth that people in the Humanities (who are specifically trained to study texts) have. Somehow, despite the fact that the Humanities is all about understanding texts, that is the one discipline they make almost no use of in the business side of Hollywood. And boy howdy does it show. *** Point 4 – average consumers CANNOT ARTICULATE WHY THEY LIKE THINGS. Particularly media things. I know this sounds condescending, but it is my honest observation. It is unbelievably hard to get people to have enough self-awareness to explain why they actually like things, especially things as mentally and emotionally complex as media. What typically happens when you ask people why they like a TV show or movie, for example? They will tell you what they most NOTICE about the TV show or movie, or what is distinctive to them about it (which may or may not have anything to do with what they actually LIKE about it). They will say things like “I like the genre”, “I think it’s funny”, “The car chases are exciting”, “I want to see the detective solve the puzzle.” Sometimes you can get them to talk about what they find relatable about it, if you push them a little. But often they leave it at either the level of literal identity (young black woman), basic personality traits (she’s a social butterfly and so am I) or situations they’ve personally experienced (I relate to this story of a man losing his father to cancer because I lost a close family member to cancer). But the vast, vast, vast majority of them can’t go to the deeper level of: a) Why X representation of a young black woman feels accurate/authentic/relatable and Y representation doesn’t b) Why it matters to me that X,Y,Z aspects of my personality, identity, experience get reflected in media whereas I don’t really care about seeing A,B,C aspects of my personality, identity, or experience reflected in media c) How and why they are relating to characters when they can’t see the literal connection between their identity/experience and the character’s identity/experience. (For example, many people have argued that women often relate to Dean Winchester because a lot of his struggles and past negative experiences are more stereotypical of women – being forced to raise a younger sibling on behalf of an actual parent, being seen and treated as beautiful/sexually desirable but vacuous/unintelligent, his body being treated as an instrument for a more powerful group to quite literally possess, etc. Part of the reason Supernatural has always been such a mystery/problem for the CW and Warner Bros is they could never crack the code at this level. Never.) Part of the reason they can’t crack these codes is average people CANNOT give you that kind of feedback in a survey or a focus group, or even an in-depth interview (much of the time). They just don’t have the self-awareness or the vocabulary to get it at that level. Let alone asking them to articulate why Game of Thrones is compelling to them in an era where wealth disparity is creating a ruling class that is fundamentally incompetent at maintaining a just/functional society, which is especially concerning at this particular moment, given the existential threat we face due to climate change. And the truth is, that IS part of what people – even average people – are responding to in Game of Thrones. But what they’ll tell you when you do market research on it is: they like the dragons, they like the violence, they relate to Tyrion Lannister being a smart mouth, maybe they’ll say they like the moral ambiguity of many of the conflicts (if they are more sophisticated than average). But the ‘Dean Winchester is heavily female coded despite his veneer of ultra-masculinity’ or the ‘Game of Thrones is a prescient metaphor for the current political dynamics and fissures of modern western society’ is the level you ACTUALLY need to get to. And most market research can’t get you that because the people ASKING the questions don’t know what to ask to get to this level, and most of the respondents couldn’t give you the answers even IF you were asking them the right questions (which usually you are not) And I’m not saying average people are dumb because they can’t do this. But it requires practice, it requires giving the matter a great deal of in-depth thought, and most people just don’t care enough about it to do that while taking a market research survey. (I know this is going to feel counter-intuitive to people on Tumblr. But you have to remember, you are NOT average media consumers. You are highly atypical media consumers who have far more self-awareness and a much more sophisticated engagement with media than the average person watching TV. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be here talking about it in the first place) Point 4.1 – People also lie/misrepresent their own experiences to market researchers because they want to maintain certain self-narratives. You have no idea how many people would get disqualified from our surveys for saying they watched less than 5 hours of TV a week. And sure, that might actually be true for a few of them. But if you watch TV with any regularity at all (which most people in modern America do) you probably watch more than 5 hours a week. The problem is, people think it makes them sound lazy to say they watch 15-20 hours a week, even though that’s about 2-3 hours a day (which actually isn’t THAT high). People lie and misrepresent their behaviors, thoughts and feelings because it can be socially uncomfortable to admit you do what you actually do or feel how you actually feel, even in the context of an anonymous survey, let alone a focus group or a one-on-one interview. People want to make themselves look good to THEMSELVES and to the researchers asking them questions. But that makes the market research data on media (and lots of other things) very questionable. For example, one finding we saw more than once in the surveys I was involved in conducting was people would radically downplay how much the romance elements of a story mattered to them, even large portions of female respondents. When we would ask people in surveys what parts of the story they were most invested in, romances ALWAYS came out among the lowest ranked elements. And yet, any passing familiarity with fandom would tell you that finding is just WRONG. It’s wrong. People are just flat out lying about how much that matters to them because of the negative connotations we have around being invested in romance. And never mind the issue of erotic/sexual content. (I don’t mean sexual identity here, I mean sexy content). The only people who will occasionally cop to wanting the erotic fan service is young men (and even they are hesitant to do so in market research) and women frequently REFUSE to admit that stuff in market research, or they radically downplay how much it matters to them and in what ways. There is still so much stigma towards women expressing sexuality in that way. Not to mention, you have to fight tooth and nail to even include question about erotic/sexual content because oftentimes the clients don’t even want to go there at all, partly because it is awkward for everyone involved to sit around crafting market research questions to interrogate what makes people hot and bothered. That’s socially awkward for the researchers doing the research and the businesspeople who have to sit in rooms and listen to presentations about why more women find Spock sexier than Kirk. (Which was a real thing that happened with the original Star Trek, and the network couldn’t figure out why) Aside from people not have enough deeper level self-awareness to get at what they really like about media content, they also will lie or misrepresent certain things to you because they are trying to maintain certain self-narratives and are socially performing that version of themselves to researchers. *** Point 5 – Qualitative data is way more useful for understanding people’s relationships to media. However, quantitative data is way more valued and relied upon both due to larger market research industry standards and because quantitative data is just seen as harder/more factual than qualitative data. A lot of media market research involves gathering both qualitative and quantitative data and reporting jointly on both. (Sometimes you only do one or the other, depending on your objectives, but doing both is considered ‘standard’ and higher quality). However, quantitative data is heavily prioritized in reporting and when there is a conflict between what they see in qualitative versus quantitative data, the quant data is usually relied upon to be the more accurate of the two. This is understandable to an extent, because quantitative surveys usually involve responses from a couple thousand participants, whereas qualitative data involves typically a few dozen participants at most, depending on whether you did focus groups, individual interviews, or ‘diaries’/ethnography. The larger sample is considered more reliable and more reflective of ‘the audience’ as a whole. However, quantitative surveys usually have the flattest, least nuanced data, and they can only ever reflect what questions and choices people in the survey were given. In something like focus groups or individual interviews or ethnographies, you still structure what you ask people, but they can go “off script.” They can say things you never anticipated (as a researcher) and can explain themselves and their answers with more depth. In a survey, participants can only “say” what they survey lets them say based on the questions and question responses that are pre-baked for them. And as I’ve already explained, a lot of times these quantitative surveys are written by people with no expertise in media, fiction, or textual analysis, and so they often are asking very basic, not very useful questions. In sum, the data that is the most relied upon is the least informative, least nuanced data. It is also the MOST likely to reflect the responses of people who don’t actually qualify for the research but have become good at scamming the system to make extra money. With qualitative research, they are usually a little more careful screening people (poorly qualified participants still make it through, but not as often as with mass surveys, where I suspect a good 35% of participants, at least, probably do not actually qualify for the research and are just working the system).

Most commonly, when market research gets reported to business decision-makers, it highlights the quantitative data, and uses the qualitative data to simply ‘color in’ the quantitative data. Give it a face, so to speak. Qualitative data is usually supplemental to quant data and used more to make the reports ‘fun’ and ‘warm’ because graphs and charts and stats by themselves are boring to look at in a meeting. (I’m not making this up, I can’t tell you how many times I was told to make adjustments on how things were reported on because they didn’t want to bore people in the meeting). (Sub-point – it is also worth noting that you can’t report on anything that doesn’t fit easily on a power point slide and isn’t easily digestible to any random person who might pick it up and read it. The amount of times I was told to simplify points and dumb things down so it could be made ‘digestible’ for a business audience, I can’t even tell you. It was soul crushing and another reason I stopped doing this job full time. I had to make things VERY dumb for these business audiences, which often meant losing a lot of the point I was actually trying to make) Point 5.1 – Because of the way that representative sampling works, quantitative data can be very misleading, particularly in understanding audience/fandom sentiments about media. As I’m sure most of you know, sampling is typically designed to be representative of the population, broadly speaking. So, unless a media company is specifically out to understand LGBTQ consumers or Hispanic/Latinx consumers, it will typically sample using census data as a template and represent populations that way. Roughly 50/50 male/female. Roughly even numbers in different age brackets, roughly representative samplings of the racial make-up of the country, etc. (FYI, they do often include a non-binary option in the gender category these days, but it usually ends up being like 5 people out of 2000, which is not enough of a sample to get statistical significance for them as a distinct group) There is a good reason to do this, even when a show or movie has a disproportionately female audience, or young audience. Because they need enough sample in all of the “breaks” (gender, race, age, household income, etc.) to be able to make statistically sound statements about each subgroup. If you only have 35 African American people in your sample of 1000, you can’t make any statistically sound statements about that African American cohort. The sample is just too small. So, they force minimums/quotas in a lot of the samples, to ensure they can make statistically sound statements about all the subgroups they care about. They use ratings data to understand what their audience make up actually is. (Which also has major failings, but I’ll leave that alone for the minute) With market research, they are not usually looking to proportionately represent their audience, or their fandom; they are looking to have data they can break in the ways they want to break it and still have statistically significant subgroups represented. But that means that when you report on the data as a whole sample – which you often do – it can be very skewed towards groups who don’t make up as large a portion of the show’s actual audience, or even if they do, they don’t tend to be the most invested, loyal, active fans. Men get weighted equally to women, even when women make up 65% of the audience, and 80% of the active fandom. Granted, they DO break the data by gender, and race, and age, etc. and if there are major differences in how women versus men respond, or younger people versus older people, they want to know that...sometimes. But here’s where things get complex. So, if you are doing a sample of Supernatural viewers. And you do the standard (US census-based) sampling on a group of 2000 respondents (a pretty normal sample size in market research). ~1000 are going to be female. But with something they call “interlocking quotas” the female sample is going to be representative of the other groupings to a degree. So, the female sample will have roughly equal numbers of all the age brackets (13-17, 18-24, 25-34, etc.). And it will have roughly 10% non-heterosexual respondents, and so on. They do this to ensure that these breaks aren’t too conflated with each other. (For example, if your female sample is mostly younger and your male sample is mostly older, how do you know whether it is the gender or the age that is creating differences in their responses? You don’t. So, you have to make sure that all the individual breaks (gender, race, age) have a good mix of the other breaks within them, so groups aren’t getting conflated) But what that means is, Supernatural, whose core fandom is (at a conservative guess) 65% younger, queer, women, gets represented in a lot of statistical market research sampling as maybe 50-100 people, in a 2000-person survey. 50-100 people can barely move the needle on anything in a 2000-person survey. Furthermore, usually in the analysis of data like this, you don’t go beyond looking at 2 breaks simultaneously. So you may look at young female respondents as a group, or high income male respondents, or older white respondents, but you rarely do more than 2 breaks combined. And the reason for that is, by the time you get down to 3 breaks or more (young, Hispanic, women) you usually don’t have enough sample to make statistically significant claims. (It also just takes longer to do those analyses and as I explained in the beginning, they are always rushing this stuff). To do several breaks at a time you’d have to get MUCH larger samples, and that’s too expensive for them. And again, I want to stress, this type of sampling isn’t intended to sinisterly erase anyone. Kind of the opposite. It is intended to make sure most groups have enough representation in the data that you can make sound claims about them on the subgroup level. The problem is that it can create a very skewed sense of their overall audience sentiment when they take the data at ‘face value’ so to speak, and don’t weight segments based on viewership proportion, or fandom engagement, etc. Point 5.2 – Which leads me to my next point, which is that fandom activity that doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it doesn’t make you a ‘valuable’ segment in their minds. One of the breaks they ALWAYS ask for in data like this is high income people, and people who spend a lot of MONEY on their media consumption. And they do prioritize those people’s responses and data quite a bit. And guess what – young women aren’t usually high-income earners, and although some of them are high spenders on media, high spending on media and media related merch skews toward higher income people just because they HAVE more disposable income. Older white men are usually the highest income earners (absolutely no surprise) and they are more likely in a lot of cases to report spending a lot on the media they care about. Having expendable income makes you more important in the eyes of people doing market research than if you’ve spent every day for the last 10 years blogging excessively about Supernatural. They don’t (really) care about how much you care. They care about how much money you can generate for them. And given that young audiences don’t watch TV live anymore, and they give all their (minimal) expendable income to Netflix and Hulu, you with your Supernatural blog and your 101 essays about Destiel is all but meaningless to many of them (from a business standpoint) Now, some of them kind of understand that online fandom matters to the degree that fandom spreads. Fandom creates fandom. But if the fandom you are helping to create is other young, queer women with minimal income who only watch Supernatural via Netflix, well, that’s of very limited value to them as well. I don’t want to suggest they don’t care about you at ALL. Nor do I want to suggest that the “they” we are talking about is even a cohesive “they.” Different people in the industry have different approaches to thinking about fandom, consumer engagement and strategy, market research and how it ought to be understood/used, and so on. They aren’t a monolith. BUT, they are, at the end of the day, a business trying to make money. And they are never going to place the value of your blogging ahead of the concrete income you can generate for them. (Also, highly related to my point about people lying, men are more likely to SAY they have higher incomes than they do, because it’s an ego thing for them. And women are more likely to downplay how much money they spend on ‘frivolous’ things like fandom because of the social judgement involved. Some of the money gender disparity you see in media market research is real, but some of it is being generated by the gender norms people are falsely enacting in market research– men being breadwinners, women wanting to avoid the stereotype of being frivolous with money) *** In sum/tl;dr: Point 1 – Market research in general is not well conducted because of a variety of constraints including time, money, and the historical norms of how the industry operates (e.g., there being a large subsection of almost professionalized respondents who know how to game the system for the financial incentives) Point 2 – Media is a highly atypical kind of product being studied more or less as if it were equivalent to a coffeemaker or a pair of jeans. Point 3 – Most of the people studying media consumption in the market research field have no expertise or background in media, film, narrative, storytelling, etc. They are primarily people who were trained as social scientists and statisticians, and they aren’t well equipped to research media properties and people’s deeper emotional attachment and meaning-making processes related to media properties. Point 4(etc.) – Average consumers typically don’t have enough self-awareness or the vocabulary to explain the deep, underlying reasons they like pieces of media. Furthermore, when participating in market research, people lie and misrepresent their thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses for a variety of reasons including social awkwardness and preserving certain self-narratives like “I’m above caring about dumb, low-brow things like romance.” Point 5 (etc.) – Quantitative data is treated as way more meaningful, valuable, and ‘accurate’ than qualitative data, and this is a particular problem with media market research because of how varied and complex people’s reactions to media can be. Also, the nature of statistical sampling, and how it is done, can massively misrepresent audience sentiments toward media and fail to apprehend deeper fandom sentiments and dynamics. There is also a strong bias towards the responses of high income/high spending segments, which tend to be older and male and white. Side but important point – Research reports are written to be as entertaining and digestible as possible, which sounds nice in theory, but in practice it often means you lose much of the substance you are trying to communicate for the sake of not boring people or making them feel stupid/out of their depth. (Because god forbid you make some high-level corporate suit feel stupid) *** What can be done about this? Well, the most primary thing I would recommend is for you to participate in market research, particularly if you are American (there’s a lot of American bias in researching these properties, even when they have large international fanbases). However, some international market research is done and I recommend looking into local resources for participation, where ever you are. If you are American, there are now several market research apps you can download to your smart phone and participate in paid market research through (typically paid via PayPal). Things like dscout and Surveys On the Go. And I know there are more. You should also look into becoming panelists for focus groups, particularly if you live near a large metropolitan area (another bias in market research). Just Google it and you should be able to figure it out fairly easily. Again, it is PAID, and your perspective will carry a lot more weight when it is communicated via a focus group or a dscout project, versus when it is shouted on Twitter. However, that’s merely a Band-Aid on the bigger issue, which I consider to be the fact that businesspeople think the Humanities is garbage, even when they make their living off it. There is virtually no respect for the expertise of fictional textual analysis, or how it could help Hollywood make better content. And I don’t know what the fix is for that. I spent 4 years of my life trying to get these people to understand what the Humanities has to offer them, and I got shouted down and dismissed so many times I stopped banging my head against that wall. I gave up. They don’t listen, mostly because conceding to the value of deep-reading textual analysis as a way to make better content would threaten the whole system of how they do business. And I mean that literally. So many people’s jobs, from the market researchers to the corporate strategists to the marketing departments to the writers/creatives to the C-level executives, would have to radically shift both their thinking and their modes of business operation and the inertia of ‘that’s the way it’s always been done’ is JUST SO POWERFUL. I have no earthly idea how to stop that train, let alone shift it to an entirely different track. BTW, if you want the deeper level of analysis of why I can’t stop rewatching Moneyball now that it’s been added to Netflix, the above paragraph should give you a good hint

#market research #Hollywood #media studies

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