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#which is why the bonuses are so high
spilledkaleidoscope · 10 months
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the skill talk got me thimking
Control: +3 Gearhead: +3 Processor: +2 Survivor: +2 Corpus: +1 A Weak Muscle: +1 Vice: -1 (Kim skills from my fic lol)
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front-facing-pokemon · 5 months
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#something is very obviously different about these two compared to my normal images on this blog. i acknowledge this#also the sv model is Really good. and since they always stare straight at the camera anyway… and no one pays attention to the background…#and the only high-quality phantump model i could find was so horribly shiny that its eyes were just white voids#in my defense‚ phantump always just stare straight at you in game#the lighting is different‚ yeah. that's probably the dead giveaway. beyond the background. but like. i'm the only being on the planet who#really likes phantump anyway. i feel like it's a generally forgettable pokémon to most folks#phantump#HELLO this one is a weird one. i have some explaining to do. so when i did this one i didn't know how to edit models really at all#and when i got the models for these‚ the xy models were super shiny. shiny to the point that it made their eyes fuckin invisible#and i decided that since you could barely tell it was phantump‚ i needed a different way to get these images#i remembered that in the SV dlc‚ every time you find a wild phantump‚ it just fucking. stares. at you. and i was like. aha#i kinda remembered because of the test stream that i did. tumblr user alligayytorr (am i getting the right amount of Ys) said#“haha i am getting a sneak peek” when i zoomed the camera in on a phantump. and i remembered that. and i was like. i can utilize this#and ended up using just an in-game screenshot of SV in replacement of the regular content. later on‚ after that#once we got into gen 7 and it became less and less reliable to find models‚ i had to learn how to edit them manually to remove the shine#i am a software dev. not a 3d modeler. this ended up coming down to editing the code of the models directly (which i ended up writing a#script to automate). now‚ today‚ january 22nd (the day of me writing these tags and updating this post)‚ i remembered this post was in the#queue and was not normal. so i went back‚ ran the script on the phantump and trevenant models‚ and unshinified them#then edited these two posts to be normal. i have left the original pictures i took under the cut for reference and as bonuses#because i really enjoy phantump. so that's why those images are there‚ and that's why these tags are here#just for posterity's sake‚ the folks who come here mostly for my commentary‚ i've left the ORIGINAL tags of the post when i initially#made it with the SV pictures up at the top (i wanted to rearrange them‚ but tumblr makes that Very difficult‚ so i left them as-is)#so if these tags are confusing to read i Apologize. but i hope now that you're at the bottom you understand what happened#i'm gonna go edit the trevenant post now
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sttm99 · 6 months
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Bakugo understands that he spends a lot of money on you for just being his personal assistant. But he can't help it.
You honestly deserve it. You're smart, responsible, diligent. You're a hard worker with principles, and your work ethic is something he respects.
It didn't matter how many people were against him promoting you from secretary to PA so soon in your career. Your work was top notch, and you kept him organised.
Sure, you were pretty as well, a sight for sore eyes, really. But that wasn't his fault, was it? It wasn't your fault either.
It's not like you came into work every day with full glam, diamond earrings, or elaborate hairstyles.
It had pissed him off at first, when people demeaned you or underestimated your work because of your looks, especially when he knew you worked so hard so you wouldn't be considered some dumb corporate bimbo.
But now? Now he loved it. He loved when he had clients over, and they'd do a double take when he sent for you to take notes or deliver documents to his table.
He'd noticed the modesty with which you'd dressed when you first started working for him, how you tried to dim yourself with drab colours that obviously washed you out, or plain hairstyles.
Not like it stopped anybody from being able to tell how pretty you were.
But after, when you'd started garnering his attention and racking up more bonuses from your diligence, he began noticing you wearing nicer things.
Of course, you had to up your wardrobe once you were promoted to the role of Personal Assistant to one of the biggest heroes in Japan. But that wasn't it.
Bakugo loved seeing you walk in with a new shirt or new shoes or new earrings after he'd rewarded you a bonus or a pay increase. There was a sort of high he got, knowing that you took care of yourself with the money he gave you.
Oh, he spoilt you rotten.
Month end rewards became the norm for you. He just closed a hefty advertising deal? Best believe you were getting a cut out of that. He was given a bottle of champagne as a gift? You're drinking it with him in his office.
Sure, it may have seemed a bit inappropriate to some people; him locking the doors and closing the windows, and having you sit on his lap prettily whilst he poured it out into a flute for you.
Sure, it was inappropriate for him to have his hands up your skirt as you recounted the month end figures for him, but you were comfortable that way. He was, too. Oh, so comfortable with your hands inside his trousers and his teasing at the lining of your panties.
He was just taking care of his best employee.
And maybe he did spend a lot of money on you, but you had to keep up appearances. He needed you looking your best when you were next to him.
It wasn't his fault you were so beautiful that brands reached out to him to get you to model for then after seeing you appear in some pictures by his side.
It wasn't his fault that he couldn't get anyone else to come with him to the Hero Gala. Besides, you're meant to be with him during these things to take notes for him. So having you as his date was basically killing two birds with one stone.
"Your assistant's fucking sexy," Kaminari whispered into Bakugo's ear, both of them watching you go to order a drink for your boss.
Bakugo smirked to himself, his eyes raking over your body, clad in the tight fitting dress he'd bought for you to wear. He'd also bought the earrings you had on, and the shoes and the necklace. Sure, it cost him quite a lot, but he just couldn't help it when you looked so good.
"She's single, isn't she?"
Now, that had him snapping his head in Kaminari's direction. "Don't even fucking think about."
Kaminari whined, "But why? She's your assistant, not your sister or your girlfriend."
"She's my assistant," Bakugo seethed, standing up from his seat. "She's my employee, and I won't have you lowering her efficiency." He murmured as he made his way to where you were.
You smiled brightly as you turned around to see him, handing him the second glass of champagne in your hands. "You look like you'd rather be somewhere else." You laughed softly.
He grinned down at you before downing the drink quickly. "I would," he said before dropping his glass back on the bar. "Come on."
He spoilt you rotten, but he couldn't help it. You looked so beautiful in your tight dress and pretty hair and beautiful face.
Sure, being seated on the sink and having your legs spread before his lips in the bathroom at the Hero Gala may have been a tad inappropriate, but how could he stop himself?
You were quivering for him, thighs pressing down and shaking on either side of his head, and your fingers gripping harshly at his hair, pulling him even closer as you rutted your heat against his lips.
He let out a desperate groan, burying his face deeper into your cunt, eating you out shamelessly, hungrily.
"Fuuck..." He growled into you.
You'd been so shy the first time he had his way with you, refusing to touch him, grind on him, behaving so meek and cute.
Now look at you, so selfish and desperate, almost suffocating him as he feasted. He spoilt you rotten, sure, but you deserved every morsel of it.
"Katsuki..." You whined desperately, your back arching off the mirror, the hand not pulling at his hair tightly gripping the edge of the counter. "Katsuki, I'm so close... I'm so fucking close, baby-"
His hands dug into the flesh of your ass, pulling your harsher into him, your clit pressing against his nose as his tongue made a meal of you. He was always so desperate for it, digging the wet muscle so far into your pussy you saw stars.
And he was messy too, his saliva and your arousal staying your thighs, dripping from the marble counter unto the ground as he ate from you.
Anyone who came in after would probably be able to tell from the smell of the bathroom alone. The cum leaking unto the floor would only solidify it.
But the thought of someone finding out that your boss had his face buried deep in your pussy wasn't exactly what you were thinking about when you came for him, hard and rough, your hips shaking and raising off the counter as you rode out your high.
"We shouldn't be doing such during events, sir." You whispered to him as you both walked down the corridors back into the hall where the gala was being held.
He had his large palm over your ass, groping you just in the dark of the hallway, letting go just as you stepped into the crowded hall.
"Just be a good girl and wait for me to fuck you on the way home, hm?" He smirked at you, a small sheen still visible on his lips.
He never cleaned his mouth properly after eating you out during such events. It was inappropriate, sure, but he just couldn't help himself.
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Big Train managers earn bonuses for greenlighting unsafe cars
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Tomorrow (November 16) I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.
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Almost no one knows this, but last June, a 90-car train got away from its crew in Hernando, MS, rolling three miles through two public crossings, a ghost train that included 47 potentially explosive propane cars. The "bomb train" neither crashed nor derailed, which meant that Grenada Railroad/Gulf & Atantic didn't have to report it.
This is just one of many terrifying near-misses that are increasingly common in America's hyper-concentrated, private equity-dominated rail sector, where unsafe practices dominate and whistleblowers face brutal retaliation for coming forward to regulators.
These unsafe practices – and the corporate policies that deliberately gave rise to them – are documented in terrifying, eye-watering detail in a deeply reported Propublica story by Topher Sanders, Jessica Lussenhop,Dan Schwartz, Danelle Morton and Gabriel L Sandoval:
https://www.propublica.org/article/railroad-safety-union-pacific-csx-bnsf-trains-freight
It's a tale of depraved indifference to public safety, backstopped by worker intimidation. The reporting is centered on railyard maintenance inspectors, who are charged with writing up "bad orders" to prevent unsafe railcars from shipping out. As private equity firms consolidated rail into an ever-dwindling number of companies, these workers face supervisors who are increasingly hostile to these bad orders.
It got so alarming that some staffers started carrying hidden digital recorders, so they could capture audio of their bosses illegally ordering them to greenlight railcars that were too unsafe for use. The article features direct – and alarming – quotes, like supervisor Andrew Letcher, boss of the maintenance crews at Union Pacific's Kansas City yard saying, "If I was an inspector on a train I would probably let some of that nitpicky shit go."
Letcher – and fellow managers for other Tier 1 railroads quoted in the piece – aren't innately hostile to public safety. They are quite frank about why they want inspectors to "let that nitpicky shit go." As Letcher explains, "The first thing that I’m getting questioned about right now, every day, is why we’re over 200 bad orders and what we’re doing to get them down."
In other words, corporate rail owners have ordered their supervisors to reduce the amount of maintenance outages on the rail lines, but have not given them additional preventative maintenance budgets or crew. These supervisors warn their employees that high numbers of bad orders could cost them their jobs, even lead to the shutdown of the car shops where inspectors are prone to pulling dangerous cars out of service.
It's a ruthless form of winnowing. Gresham's Law holds that "bad money drives out good" – in an economy where counterfeit money circulates, people preferentially spend their fake money to get it out of their hands, until all the money in circulation is funny money. This is the rail safety equivalent: simply fire everyone who reports unsafe conditions and all your railcars will be deemed safe, with the worst railcars shipped out first. A market for lemons – except these aren't balky used sedans, they're unsafe railcars full of toxic chemicals or explosive propane.
When cataclysmic rail disasters occur – like this year's East Palestine derailment – the rail industry reassures us that this is an isolated incident, pointing to the system's excellent overall safety record. But that record is a mirage, because the near-misses don't have to be reported. Those near-misses are coming more frequently, as the culture of profit over safety incurs a mounting maintenance debt, filling America's rails with potential "bomb cars."
Rail mergers and other forms of deregulated, anything-goes capitalism are justified by conservative economists who insist that "incentives matter," and that the profit motive provides the incentive to improve efficiency, leading to lower costs and better service. But the incentive to externalize risk, kick the can down the road, and capture regulators rarely concerns the "incentives matter" crowd.
Here's an incentive that matters. Rail managers' bonuses – as much as a fifth of their take home pay – are only paid if the trains they oversee run on time. Inspectors have recorded their managers admitting that they have quotas – a maximum number of bad orders their facility may produce, irrespective of how much unsafe rolling stock passes through the facility.
Inspectors have caught their managers removing repair order tags from cars they've flagged as unsafe. Inspectors will log orders in a database, only to have the record mysteriously deleted, or marked as serviced when no service has occurred. Some inspectors have seen the same cars in their yard with the same problems, and repeatedly flagged them without any maintenance being performed before they're shipped out again.
Former managers from Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern told Propublica that they operated in an environment where safety reports were discouraged, and that workers who filed these reports were viewed as "complainers." Workers furnished Propublica with recordings of rail managers berating them for reporting persistent unsafe conditions the Federal Railroad Administration. Other workers from BNSF said that they believed that their bosses were told when they called the company's "confidential" work-safety tipline, setting them up for retaliation by bosses who'd falsified safety reports.
Whistleblowers who seek justice at OSHA are stymied by long delays, and while switching their cases to court can win them cash settlements, these do not get recorded on the company's safety record, which allows the company to go on claiming to be a paragon of safety and prudence.
The culture of retaliation is pervasive, which explains how the 47-cars worth of propane on the "bomb train" that rolled unattended over three miles of track never made the news. There is a voluntary Close Call Reporting System (operated by NASA!) where rail companies can report these disasters. Not one of America's Class 1 rail companies participate in it.
After the East Palestine disaster, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed the rail companies to join, but a year later, none have. It's part of an overall pattern with Secretary Buttigieg, who has prodigious, far-reaching powers under USC40 Section 41712(a), which allow him to punish companies for "unfair and deceptive" practices or "unfair methods of competition":
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
Buttigieg can't simply hand down orders under 41712(a) – to wield this power, he must follow administrative procedures, conducting market studies, seeking comment, and proposing a rule. Other members of the Biden administration with similar powers, like FTC chair Lina Khan, arrived in office with a ranked-priority list of bad corporate conduct and immediately set about teeing up rules to give relief to the American public.
By contrast, Buttigieg's agency has done precious little to establish the evidentiary record to punish the worst American companies under its remit. His most-touted achievement was to fine five airlines for saving money by cancelling their flights and stranding their passengers. But of the five airlines affected by Buttigieg's order, four were not US companies. The sole affected US carrier was Spirit airlines, with 2% of the market. The Big Four US airlines – who have a much worse record than the ones that were fined – were not affected at all:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/ftc-noncompete-airline-flight-cancellation-buttigieg/
Rather than directly regulating the US transportation sector, Buttigieg prefers exacting nonbinding promises from them (like the Tier 1 rail companies' broken promise to sign up to the Close Call Reporting System). Under his leadership, the Federal Railroad Agency has proposed weakening rail safety standards, rescinding an order to improve the braking systems on undermaintained, mile-long trains carrying potentially deadly freight:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp
The US transportation system is accumulating a terrifying safety debt, behind a veil of corporate secrecy. It badly demands direct regulation and close oversight.
If you are interested in rail safety, I strongly recommend this episode of Well There's Your Problem, "a podcast about engineering disasters, with slides" – you will laugh your head off and then never sleep again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BMQTdYXaH8
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/15/safety-third/#all-the-livelong-day
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blamemma · 7 months
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omg emma… your tags on alexis’s post are so genius… dirtbag daniel not ready to date a guy doesn’t notice his entire existence is dedicated to making max happy… max accidentally calling daniel “daniel” on the radio when he’s at mercedes… daniel making bitchy comments to the press?!
i think i genuinely might be dying over thinking about the contrast between daniel irl leaving for renault vs. engineer max leaving daniel for mercedes. (also for me, for this to work, u gotta role-reverse the ages as well and make max older daniel younger)
max finding himself stuck...at red bull. a deep intrinsic feeling inside him that he's got nowhere to go, rised as high as he thinks he can within the team, has attached himself to someone (daniel) who doesn't need him as much as max needs him (entirely false, daniel is half the driver he is because of max) and so takes a secret meeting with toto who has been trying to poach max ever since he first started climbing the ranks at red bull and making a name for himself. toto promising him everything in the world. and more. promises him he can be lewis' engineer and head of race engineering. promises him bonuses he's never heard of. promises that max can also help out with mercedes sim racing team in his spare time at the factory. and max thinks and thinks and thinks about it and if there's one thing max is, it's honest. so he tells christian. tells him bluntly and succinctly and christian throws so much at him but realistically max's mind is made up before he even sits down with toto.
and daniel overhearing a conversation he shouldn't and barging into max's private office furious with him, why are you leaving to work for the enemy kinda shit, are you trying to stab me in the back, what have i done to deserve this betrayal etc etc. daniel punches max's office wall and max knows then and there he's made the right decision. asks daniel to leave immediately. the second half of the season goes dreadful for them, max short with daniel on the radio, doesn't play up to his antics anymore, daniel being summoned to see the stewards every race for doing dumb shit he knows he shouldn't do. sky sports always cutting to shots of max rolling his eyes. but daniel still manages to scrape the championship and the red bull mechanics hold max and daniel aloft on their shoulders and spray them with champagne and max and daniel have their arms around each others shoulders and there is a fleeting moment where max looks at daniel, the brightness and happiness on his face and he realises this is why he does his job, this is why he should stay, but he pushes it down and down and down and down. daniel goes to perth. max goes to some tropical island somewhere.
(whilst in perth, daniel prints off the photo of him and max on rbr mechanic's shoulders and frames it. he puts it in his home office at first. but he doesn't spend enough time in there. he takes it out the frame and puts it on the fridge with a dutch flag magnet he has that max had gifted him after his first zandvoort win. but everytime someone came round they would look at it and ask why max would quit. he puts it back in the frame and puts it on his bedside table. it stays there)
and then they both turn up to testing. daniel in navy like always, max in a tight fitted white tommy hilfiger shirt (wHICH PERFECTLY ACCENTUATES HIS PUFFY PERKY FAT NIPPLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and daniel hates it hates it hates it hates it hates it. they ask each other how the winter break was and what they got up to but the conversation is stilted and wrong and they both leave it feeling devoid and empty. testing is testing and bahrain is bahrain. daniel and his new engineer miss a couple of points of key information and communication and its a bit of a shambles of a race but daniel still gets p2. stands below lewis on the podium. max to his immediate right-hand side. he stands tall and straight. head forward. listens to every single word of god save the king. doesn't shift slightly. listens and listens and listens. and then the trophys are handed out. he looks at it once. places it on the ground. looks at his shoes. remembers. remembers max. malaysia. bright red flushed eager and keen. stole daniel's shoe right out his hand. guzzled it down, no egging-on needed from daniel at all. the way they locked eyes afterwards. the blowjob in the club bathroom. the filthy sex they had later that evening. he looks up. oscar receives his trophy. the personnel shift and move and then he's gripping the neck of the champagne bottle hard, slamming it down on the podium, turning his back to lewis and oscar and spraying it all at max. max does the same, drenching daniel. he can see max's bright smile through the spray and daniel laughs, proper, shakes it and sprays him some more and when it's all gone, they stand, looking at each other, drenched, soaking, panting, breathless (MAXS WHITE TOMMY HILFIGER SHIRT DRIPPING WET SEE THROUGH PERKY PERKY PERKY HARD NIPPLES!!!!!!!!!) and christian horner is stood in the crowd head in hands knowing he's about to be faced with a dilemma.
and then YES "daniel 0.9 behind" and crofty picks up on it and makes some snarky comment about how red bull let max go so that he could infiltrate mercedes from the inside. daniel being sarcastic in the media when they ask him about max still calling him daniel and being like "well i obviously made an impression on him" or "its hard to forget me when i'm that good" and max hates the taunting but also loves it. gives him some sense that daniel still thinks about him also !!!
(late at night, daniel finds youtube videos of lewis' play by play race. he tells himself its to do with tactics and finding out lewis' racing lines etc. really he's listening to the radio. hearing the way max and lewis talk. trying to work out if they have the same relationship max and him have. if max uses the same intonation. the same phrases. if max flirts with lewis the way he did with daniel)
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devine-fem · 5 months
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Why I think Hellbeetle is an adorable ship although it’s so rare and I want more people to see my vision.
I don’t mind it being rare and to be honest it has its perks but this is my manifesto.
1. They hated each other at first.
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Rather it was about Eddie feeling replaced or ignored in his friend group, his hatred for Jaime grew slowly and slowly over time. Especially when it came to Rose finding interest in Jaime over Eddie, him having a crush on Rose and it rubbing him the wrong way. Although, people tell him over and over that if he just talked to Jaime then they’re sure they’ll get along and even become close immediately but Eddie refuses to accept this.
2. Scarab bonuses (1)
Because of Eddie’s high body temperature the scarab can find Eddie somewhat easily and track where he is and I think that is so adorable to think about.
3. There is a whole issue entirely about their hate for each other and blooming friendship which is the gayest thing to me.
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Throughout the entire issue it talks about how Eddie irrationally hates Jaime when he’s done nothing to him, and it irritates him. They end up finding common ground to be able to track down a bad guy and prove to their teammates they’re more than goofballs and valuable teammates. This also means they have similar struggles which is so cute.
So when everything is said and done, they start over and become friends on a better note.
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4. Undiagnosed telepathy. They always weirdly know what each other is thinking and that is so cute to me.
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(This is shown more times than just here and throughout their entire relationship they share the same braincell.)
5. They get established as a duo, they are ALWAYS right next to each other constantly in almost every panel where they’re both in it.
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6. Scarab bonuses (2).
I imagine that Eddie’s body is extremely hot, especially around his mouth and eyes so if he were to kiss someone, it would probably scorch them. Khaji Da would not like that Jaime would actively be pained when around Eddie if they were to display affection. That is so cute to me.
7. Making up a little nickname for Jaime.
I’m sorry, bug butt is such an adorable pet name for someone, especially Jaime and immediately Eddie starts to call him this and so often that other people like Jaime’s friends seem to catch on and EVEN joke about it’s flirty nature. This is sealed in the bag for me, to be honest.
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8. When it comes to Eddie’s bigger secrets, he decides to tell Jaime first before anyone and Jaime tells him that he cares and even takes off his armor so he can be more vulnerable with him because he knows Eddie lost his powers too.
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9. They have more content compared to most of their ships.
Jaime’s most popular ship is Bluepulse which doesn’t function outside of the Young Justice universe. Eddie’s most popular ship is JayEddie probably because Jason is a bat boy but they have like two interactions.
Meanwhile these two were big parts of each others lives and established so much chemistry with one another.
Even Eddie’s supposed love interest was not around nearly as much as Jaime.
I also realize that Jaime fans literally don’t have any like ships really so maybe you guys will like this. I wish he had more ships too.
10. They get formatted like the “other couple” and that’s just shipping fodder to me.
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They also go on a dinner date. I’m so serious they go on a Dinner date and sit across from each other and chat/have a good time whilst also being formatted like the other couple which is literally just a date to me.
11. When Eddie thinks his life might be over, the last thing he thinks about is Jaime’s laugh. I wish I was kidding.
12. When Eddie passes, it starts to become painful for Jaime to gear up with the scarab and I’m not sure why but it felt like it had something to do with his feelings as a hero and how he was greiving.
13. Beyond Teen Titans Vol.3 Eddie shows up in Blue Beetle (2006) Issue 33 so they writers care enough to add him.
14. They also are together in a holiday special. 15. Aesthetics. They have a red and blue color palate meaning they contrast in a way aesthetically when they are together. Red and Blue has been a cherished duo for years. Red Devil, Blue Beetle. Also, the fact that they are both anthropomorphic based heroes in a way also helps.
In conclusion, I know this was a rare ship once upon a time that people talked about like years ago and no matter how rare it is I refuse to stop talking about them even if I get no interactions because I love Jaime and I love Eddie and I love them together.
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level2janitor · 5 months
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grid-combat sandbox thing!
i get distracted with new projects a lot, but lately my brain's been hyperfocused on one in particular. i wanted to take a crack at combining 4e-style tactical combat with OSR-style sandbox play, which on the surface seem like entirely opposite directions. and they kind of are, but i think i have something
since i started work on it i ended up dropping the words "OSR" and "4e" from my descriptions of it bc i think they end up evoking the wrong image. there's a lot that's core to both playstyles that i'm omitting to make it play nicer with the other playstyle. but it's far along enough now that i can talk about some of the design philosophy and how that manifests.
little to no scaling
the traditional way modern D&D (and to an extent even old-school D&D) handles progression is with big numerical scaling. a level 2 PC has nearly twice as much HP/damage as a level 1 PC. so you scale monsters to match, because the PCs have to get into fights around their level for the game to work.
skeletons are a real danger at 1st-level. they're manageable by 3rd, easy by 5th, and a joke by 7th-level. so you just stop running into skeletons, and when you're nearing the end of that level range any skeleton encounters that do happen will have a lot of skeletons.
this is bad for sandboxes! say i'm preparing a sandbox setting ahead of time and have a dungeon with a bunch of skeletons in it somewhere. i don't know what level the PCs will find it at - depending on whether they go through it as a 2nd-level or 6th-level party, it might be incredibly easy or so dangerous there's little they can do to mitigate that difficulty. or i'll just have to redo my encounter math the moment they find it, and that sucks for both the GM and players.
so, big numerical scaling is out. there's levels, you level up, but most of what you get from that level-up is a new ability. not a big pile of hit points and more damage. there's some scaling, your numbers are like twice as big at 10th-level compared to 1st-level, but it's a small enough range that a hard encounter at 1st-level will stay relevant throughout a whole campaign.
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the game's far along enough i can create & fully level a fighter PC, so i made a 1st and 10th-level (max) character and put them side-by-side to get a feel for the scaling.
the warrior class
speaking of, the first class i made is the fighter, obviously. it's always the first thing i want to get right if i'm making a D&D-like system.
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this is a good showcase of what each class is going to end up looking like: you start with a few core features & two perks (3 for warrior bc i like them being customizable). warrior perks range from a few unique moves to useful passives that let you resist statuses, strike multiple enemies, move further, equip heavier gear, parry weak attacks, etc.
the two core features, versatile fighter & combat opportunist, are designed to reward you for engaging in core combat mechanics. you get bonuses to attack from high ground, and this increases that bonus. every weapon has a unique special move you can do with it, and this lets you use any weapon you have with no cost to switch.
i've never liked the way most D&D-likes handle weapons, where you design your build around one specific weapon. you invest all your feats into being The Polearm Guy and when you find a cool magic warhammer or dagger you're just like. well i don't want this. it's not a polearm. so this fighter is instead designed to encourage you to carry around a ton of different weapons and use all of them.
exploration & the ranger
i used to hang out in the 5e community a lot, and people hated the 5e ranger. why? cause nobody used the travel rules, and you can't really blame them. the game has rules for how far you can travel each day, for random encounters & whether they ambush you, foraging, encumbrance, different travel speeds.
but most people who play 5e don't want that kind of experience, and 5e half-commits to it by leaving these rules scattered through the dungeon master's guide and making them too tedious. everything's measured in real numbers - miles, minutes, pounds. you track weight with pounds instead of item slots. of course nobody wants to track encumbrance when they have to stop the game to ask the GM how many pounds the macguffin weighs. nobody wants to dig through the DMG looking for the rule that tells you how many miles you can move. it just gets in the way and stops the game, so nobody does.
all of this screws over the ranger class which gives you bonuses to things like travel speed, not being ambushed while traveling, finding more rations, and tracking. people disliked the ranger so much that a supplement came out that replaced all of their exploration features with naturey combat features and some skill boosts, and since then that's the actual ranger when anyone wants to play one.
with that context, here's the exploration features my game's ranger gets.
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the feature on the left is inherent while the right two are perks. there's combat features, but they're not part of the point i wanted to make.
the ranger needs to feel useful, and for that, the exploration needs to be front and center. so what better game than one designed for sandboxes?
i don't want this to be the kind of big-damn-heroes game where you skip to the next setpiece because the travel is boring. the travel is the game. that's where the OSR influence comes in.
you track rations. it's important - if a place is far from civilization, it feels like it because there's nowhere safe nearby to restock rations.
you track encumbrance. deciding how much space to spend on arrows and rations, and how much to spend on treasure, means more decision-making.
you do hexcrawling, you track time, and you care how many days a journey takes because the world changes as time passes. enemies & other factions progress their schemes, new developments come up. so sometimes you go, wow, good thing we have a ranger - we can move 3 hexes today instead of 2!
the ranger is better at foraging rations so you can venture further into the wilderness, better at moving your party faster, better at keeping watch. i want that to matter! i can envision it being so satisfying to play a ranger and constantly come in handy. and i want parties without a ranger to wish they had one in a way that isn't just tedious.
so hopefully that gives you a good idea of the sandboxy direction for this game. will be posting about it more as i make progress, and gonna continue to support iron halberd in between this sort of thing
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cherrybeartoast · 7 months
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Bleached Hair and Blue Ink Stars - Jeongin x Reader
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୨୧ a Cherry Drabble ୨୧ inspired by retro teen movies
Pairing: Jeongin x Reader
Genre: A bit of angst, fluff, pining, friends to lovers
Warnings: Don't think there are any?
Listen to: Ditto by NewJeans
Author's Note: I was talking to @thevampywolf this morning about how my mum wants me to marry Jeongin (for the record, my mum is a skz stan and refers to them as her sons, but recently she swapped from a Chan bias to a Jeongin bias, recently as in yesterday lmao) and I found this drabble which was unfinished sitting in my docs! I edited a bit and finished it up...its pretty short, but gosh it made me feel things!
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Friendship that lasted for decades came with many bonuses.
The bonuses outweighed the consequences in almost each and every way, yet so many still loomed heavily above you.
You hadn't been able to stop yourself.
Why couldn't you have just remained a normal friend, his best friend?
Why were you spending hours, analysing the simplest things that he did, things that made your heart flutter, scream, and slingshot all the way to the moon and back?
The way he ate the strawberry liquorice he loved so much; his pink tongue pointed and sticking out occasionally to brush his lower lip as he savoured the candy.
The way he'd drag you home with him almost each night after school, hand you a cherry cola, and you'd spend hours playing video games and talking and laughing. Sometimes, Jisung would join you, but those evenings you got Jeongin all to yourself were something you treasured. And sometimes, those nights would end with more than just you kissing him on the cheek goodbye. Some mornings, you’d wake up, sprawled across his chest, the ghost of his lips on your neck, and the aching feeling of missing something. The feeling that even if he held your hand all the way to school, where you’d enter class together and apologise in unison for being late, he could slip away oh so easily.
The way he had made a habit of sketching little stars in a blue ballpoint pen around the few freckles that dotted your arm.
You looked down at your skin. There were still faded sketches dotting your arm, blue ink melting into your skin. Ghosts of the drawings he’d done yesterday; disappearing but still very much so there.
Of course there were other girls. Girls who’d message him day after day, ask for his Snapchat, stick post-it notes onto his locker and cling to his arm in the hallway.
He tried not to pay too much attention to them; the occasional smile and ‘hey’, but never responding to their affection, to their endless babble.
Jeongin was made to be a high school crush. He had  bleached hair with the slightest hint of pink to it, sharp, fox-like features, contrasting wildly with his soft, dimpled cheeks, frequently flushed with a peach tinge.
You sometimes wondered why he gave you the time of day. Jeongin, although he wasn’t necessarily the most popular guy, was known across your grade and even the years above. He was older than almost everyone in the year level; an early birthday had originally granted him a move up to twelfth grade, but he’d opted against it. His friends were all in the year above, and whilst he still sometimes sat with them at break times, he’d decided to go for you.
“He hardly sits with us anymore,” Jisung mumbled to you, after Jeongin had passed out on the couch, head in your lap, arms around your waist. 
“I know. I keep asking him why. He says he sees you guys enough.”
Jisung looked down at Jeongin’s babyish expression as he slept, face pressed against your stomach. “Or he’s in love with you,” Jisung had reasoned, ruffling your hair and giving Jeongin’s arm a pinch before leaving.
You’d looked down at the pile of Jeongin lying before you; sleepy, clingy and oh so angelic. His features looked softer in the dim light, and his eyelashes fluttered every few seconds.
Every soft breath against your stomach made your heart swell, and you wished, just for a moment, that he’d say it out loud. Admit to it. 
You looked down at your arms, admiring the faded stars again. There was one in particular, a little larger than the rest. It wasn’t really a star anymore. His hand must have slipped. You craned your neck a little closer, getting a better look at the smudge of blue ink.
A heart.
You breathed out a little, and Jeongin’s eyes fluttered open.
You stroked his hair softly, hoping he’d fall back asleep, but he sat up, looking into your eyes. 
You felt so overwhelmed by him, but in the most beautiful way possible. By his sparkling eyes and his sweet face, the soft scent of his skin, and finally,
His lips on yours.
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bit-dodgy-innit · 2 years
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Playground Appropriate
Part of my 500 Follower Celebration set in The Shape of Youniverse
The Prompt: Marc is the best dad ever with Nyla at the local playground
Requested by: a lovely nonnie!
Pairing: Marc x afab!reader, background Steven x afab!reader and Jake x afab!reader, Reader is married to the system 
Spice-o-meter: 🌶🌶🌶, Explicit, Minors DNI!
Word Count: 2.5k
CW/TW: Bosses being terrible, Marc is a booty-ful DILF but reticent about another bb bc trauma, mention of lactation kink and pussy-drunkenness, dirty talk, sixty-nineing so both m! and f!receiving oral, P in V sex, a smidge of over-sensitivity and spanking, daddy kink
A/N: Is the gif shitty and low-quality with a tacky watermark? Yes, but guess what? I DON’T CARE! I made it myself because the video from whence it came and an idea from @lovetopanic that MAJORLY inspired me when writing this fill. To the beautiful little bambina who made this ovary-exploding moment happen, thank you for your service. 
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As much as you loved being back at your job, you hadn’t missed days like these. Your and Marc’s plans to take Nyla to the Discover Children’s Story Center were promptly and thoroughly ruined when your boss called early this morning, a Saturday, and demanded you report into the office for an emergency meeting. You were in charge of one of your company's largest accounts, which while it came with lucrative bonuses and more challenging, fulfilling work, it also meant dealing with your superiors’ neuroses. 
Your husband patiently listened to your laments while you got ready to go into the office. You wanted nothing more than to tell them to shove it, but your family was swiftly outgrowing your current place and you needed every penny of everyone’s salaries – yours, Marc’s, Jake’s, and Steven’s – to afford more space in the overpriced and cutthroat London real estate market. 
“We can go another time,” Marc tried to downplay the inconvenience as you finished primping in the living room mirror to look office-presentable and he fed Nyla breakfast. 
“I know it’s not a big deal, it’s just–” you slipped on a pair of loafers and huffed, “--it’s the principle of it you know? Graham and Nigel are both middle-aged divorcees, they don’t have families they care about spending time with, so we all suffer. In-person too.” 
“Which is why you have to hang in there and get promoted so you can change things,” your husband reminded you. He turned to Nyla, “We’ll find something to do just the two of us.”
“You’re right,” you conceded. “But can you blame me for wanting to spend every second I can with this chunky monkey?”
Rather than waiting for Marc’s reply, you peppered your daughter’s plump little feet and legs with kisses in her high chair. She squealed in delight at your affections, flailing her hands in delight and sending her banana slices flying.  
“Thanks,” he harrumphed at the additional mess. 
“Sorry,” you apologized with a kiss to his cheek before you pulled on your jacket and grabbed your bag.
Nyla proceeded to slam the tray of her high chair and shrieked even more when she saw her mom was leaving home without her. Marc knew he’d be dealing with an irate 16-month-old if he didn’t handle this right. 
“Okay, come here little girl,” he freed his daughter from her seat and scooped her in his arms. “Let’s say goodbye to Mommy.” 
They met you in the doorway and your baby’s sweet, cherubic face, currently with banana smeared across it, tugged at your heart strings. You wanted nothing more than to text your bosses to go fuck themselves, how dare they take you away from your baby any more than necessary, but you were tolerating these nightmare men ultimately for Nyla’s benefit. “Mommy will be back soon sweetie, be a good girl for Daddy.” 
“Wave bye-bye Nyla,” Marc encouraged her, modeling the gesture himself. After a few moments of watching her father, Nyla mimicked his wave. It was the cutest thing you’d ever seen. “Bye-bye Mommy, we love you, bye-bye!” 
“Bye Smushy, love you so much,” you waved back at her, swooped in for one last kiss on those chipmunk cheeks, then addressed your husband. “I’ll text you when I’m free, honey.” 
“Sounds good, babe,” Marc murmured and pecked you on the lips. 
Leaving the two of them felt akin to a death march as you exited your building for the Tube. No matter how big Nyla got, you always felt an ache when you left her. Even when she was in the more than capable hands of her doting dad, being apart from Nyla felt as if there was a piece of you missing. It was easier to cope with when you were sleep-deprived or your daughter was driving you crazy, but you and Marc’d had such a lovely morning with her.
***
It was a herculean effort for you to maintain a professional veneer during the meeting with Graham, Nigel, and a few fellow godforsaken colleagues. Thankfully, assuaging their concerns about the account didn't take more than an hour and a half. You just needed to send a few “urgent” emails and then you could return to the quaint, quiet weekend you’d been enjoying with your family. 
You immediately fired off a text to Marc once you left the conference room. 
From me: Leaving here in 10! 
From Hubby: K, we’re at the park. 
Marc was the “coldest” texter out of him and his alters. Steven loved his emojis, while Jake messages were always a mix of English and Spanish with an abundance of typos in both languages. He wasn’t much of an emoji user, though he did love the smirking devil one. It was usually fitting, after all. Boy loved to sext. You’d tried over the years to hammer into Marc’s brain that ending texts with a period meant that you were either angry or a psychopath, but it was a lost cause. 
Today Marc redeemed his unintentionally icy text by sending a photo of Nyla on the swings at Dulwich. You were impressed that he’d not only managed to dress your daughter in an outfit that wouldn’t get her seized by the local safeguarding children board, she sported an actual hairstyle to boot. You detested the phrase, but Marc was blossoming into quite the “girl-dad”. 
From me: PIGTAILS! 
From Hubby: Steven helped with those. 
From me: Well done, you two! See you soon xx 
***
When you arrived at Dulwich playground, you spotted Marc and Nyla before they saw you. You took a moment to covertly observe them, marveling at how attentively the man who was initially afraid to hold his newborn was now playing with his daughter. He followed her every move, steadying her with gentle and firm hands when Nyla needed it, encouraging her the entire time. 
Turned out you weren’t the only one admiring Marc with Nyla. You’d be the first to sing the praises of Marc’s butt, and with him bent over tending to his daughter as she toddled around, you couldn’t exactly blame the mums and nannies that were enjoying the view. 
You approached them before it got creepy and announced yourself with the exclamation, “Is that my big, beautiful girl?!”
“MAMA!” Nyla launched herself at you and you swept her in your arms at once.  You dotted kisses all over her face, and lifted her up above your head, earning a peal of ecstatic laughter. Then, just like that, she was squirming to be released. 
Marc sidled up to you once Nyla’s feet were back on the ground to ask lowly, “Do I get a kiss?”
“Hmm, let me see.” 
He got a kiss alright. One with tongue and that included your hand wandering into the back pocket of his jeans to give one of those luscious ass cheeks a squeeze. Were you marking your territory? Maybe. 
“Now, that was not playground appropriate,” he panted when you broke apart.  
You shrugged your shoulders and answered in a voice that was not one bit repentant, “Oops.” 
“Mama!” Nyla banged on the thick plastic of one of the playground’s slides. 
“Apparently the first fifty times we went down together weren’t sufficient,” Marc observed wryly. 
“Of course not,” you laughed and passed him your bag to hold.  
Twenty minutes with Nyla and all of your work frustration was forgotten. The three of you ended up spending the remainder of the afternoon at the park, stopping to pick up a pizza for dinner on the way home since neither you or Marc felt like cooking. 
Later, your husband tucked Nyla in while you wrapped up a few outstanding emails on the couch. You met Marc just outside of her door and collectively tip-toed into your bedroom.  
“That was impressively fast,” you remarked once it was safe to speak at full volume. 
Marc emerged from the en-suite with his toothbrush in hand. “The playground tired her out thankfully.” 
You sat up on your knees from your spot on the bed. “You can’t blame me for wanting another baby when you’re so good with her.”
You and your husband had begun to discuss Baby Number Two. While Steven and Jake were on board, Marc was the hold out. The last thing you wanted to do was pressure him since you suspected his reluctance was out of lingering fear and trauma from his past. 
“Steven and Jake just want to knock you up so they can milk your tits again.” Marc earned a little shove from you for that statement, but he continued, “Also you said you wanted to be in a bigger place before we had another?” 
You cursed Marc and his stupid memory when he disappeared back into the bathroom to brush his teeth. 
He joined you on the bed, and you tucked your fingertips under his T-shirt to strip it off. “How about we compromise then, and you pound that big cock into me instead?”
Your husband groaned, both from your naughty suggestion and the touch of your hands flitting from his chest downwards. “Shit, I hope she stays asleep because I’ve wanted to fuck you raw since that move you pulled at the playground.” 
“Hmmm, I can feel it,” you purred, wrapping your fingers around his growing erection. “Watching you take such good care of our little girl made me so wet.” 
“Lemme see,” he grunted, momentarily removing your hand from his dick to knock you back among the pillows. 
You spread your legs as soon as your back hit the mattress, and Marc wasted no time hiking up your nightgown to get a glimpse of your folds. A low, aroused rumble resonated from his chest at the sight, compelling him to trail kisses up the inside of your thigh.
“This little pussy is always so pretty and glistening for me,” he growled. 
“Marc,” you sighed, your voice thin while he touched you. “Wanna suck your cock.” 
Your husband didn’t have to be told twice. He manhandled you on top of him, leveling your eyeline with his throbbing dick while he lined up his mouth with your entrance, which was currently clenching in anticipation. You drew his length between your lips and swirled your tongue around its head, tasting the salty pre-cum that had begun to leak from it. Marc groaned at the stimulation and sank his face into your pussy in turn. 
Together you made the most divine feedback loop of pleasure, your slurping around Marc’s member, spurring him to lap at your folds all that more enthusiastically. It was nearly impossible to focus enough to apply any technique to sucking your husband’s dick when he was tongue-fucking your hole and drinking down your ample nectar like a man starved. His deep moans reverberated against the wet, sensitive skin between your thighs, bringing you even closer to the orgasm steadily building within you. 
You choked on your husband’s erection when he landed a slap on your ass, then moaned around him when the large pad of a calloused finger found your clit. The extra stimulation, in addition to Marc’s tongue swirling inside of you, is what you sent over the edge. Your eyes crossed, dick still in mouth, as your peak swept your body from head to toe. 
The force of your climax meant you needed to pull off his manhood to get sufficient oxygen into your lungs. Just when you’d recovered enough to resume your worship, Marc tapped your thigh to stop you. Though your husband was usually all too happy to come in your mouth, tonight was different.
“Need your cunt,” he clarified with slurred, pussy-drunk words. 
“Fuck…okay,” you gasped, your voice rough from having your husband’s dick down your throat.
Maneuvering you onto your back amongst the pillows was an easy task for Marc, your body made pliant and prone by the delicious orgasm. He leant down to share an absolutely filthy kiss with you, greedily tasting the tang of the two of you together, before he locked eyes with yours. Only once your dilated pupils had found his did Marc drape your leg over his shoulder and slide home.
You rewarded him with a drawn-out keen, writhing under his dark, suffocatingly hot gaze. He began with slow strokes, grinding himself against your pelvis, luxuriating in being one. 
“So deep, daddy,” you whined. Speared on his cock, your frame convulsed when he undulated against you, since your slit still felt like a live-wire after your orgasm. 
He rocked even more torturously slowly where you were joined, circling those sinful hips so you could feel every inch of him. “You like it?” 
“Uh huh,” you gasped, jerking once again from oversensitivity. 
Your husband transitioned to a faster pace to impale you on his member. His increase in tempo earned a euphoric whimper from you. With no orgasm to chase, you could simply revel in the sensation of his dick filling you over and over, losing yourself in the stretch of your pussy around his thick girth. 
“Yeah…come on, take daddy’s cock,” he snarled as he thrust into you, backing off his ferocious rhythm some. “So fuh-fucking tight.” 
“So big,” you whimpered, pretty sure that you were about a minute away from vibrating out of your skin. 
“No one fucks you like daddy, right?” Marc slowed, waiting for your answer before driving into you any further. 
You shook your head so rigorously, your cheeks collided with the pillow as your neck thrashed back and forth. “Please daddy, pound my pussy!” 
He approved of your response with another growl, “Well, since you asked so nicely,” and resumed a punishing pace. 
From there, it was a blur of the sound of skin slapping skin, Marc’s grunts, your cries, and your husband testing your flexibility by stretching your leg back to get a deeper angle before his hot cum was painting your walls. 
Marc straightened up after emptying himself into you, pressing a small, reverent kiss into the skin of your ankle before releasing your limb. 
Honestly surprised that you could formulate words, you somehow commented, “I know the jury’s still out on a second kid, but you are damn good at making them, Marc Spector.” 
“As are you, Mrs. Spector,” he echoed, collapsing back on the bed. 
He tugged on his boxers once again, and you pulled your nightie back down as you padded to the bathroom to clean and relieve yourself. Marc followed suit, and when he reunited with you in bed, it was important to you to confirm, “Another baby or not, you know you’re a great father, right?” 
Usually Marc would deflect with a (often dirty) joke, but this time, shrouded in the darkness of your bedroom, he replied quietly, “I hope so.” 
“You are,” you averred and snuggled closer into him. “It’s not just me either, the entire female population at the playground was salivating over you playing with Nyla today.” 
“So that’s why you greeted me with that pornographic kiss,” he chuckled.
“You’re mine,” you shrugged, not one bit ashamed of your actions. 
Marc pressed a kiss into your hair, “That’s right, baby.” 
A/N: Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by Oscar Isaac not putting a baby in you 🙋‍♀️ I’m doggedly making my way through these prompt fills, thanks to everyone again for your patience and support! 
Taglist: @twwcs​, @rmoonstoner​, @hot-mess-express1​, @murdickdocked, @toracainz​, @saahmi​, @unspokenmoon​, @winterbiipp​, @avatarofseshat​ @ilikeoldermenhelp, @losers-club6​, @harrys-tittie​, @ninebluehearts​, @lucianadraven32​, @dawnsutopia​, @strawberry1042, @nikitawolfxo​,  @weirdo125  
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utilitycaster · 4 months
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could you elucidate on why coffeelocks are bad actually? my friend is a bit obsessed with them right now and i’ve never liked the specific build but i’d love to have concrete reasons that aren’t just opinions!
YES. Somewhere in my archives I think I actually did the math on like, how many short rests you have to take for this to pay any dividends, and it was a LOT, but that was during full lockdown iirc and you do not have to do this much work.
The basic gist of coffeelock for those wondering is that warlocks recharge spell slots on a short rest, and sorcerers can convert sorcery points into spell slots and vice versa. The idea is that if you take Pact of the Tome and then Aspect of the Moon as an eldritch invocation, you never have to long rest again and can just farm sorcery points/spell slots for 8 hours each night.
Now: the most obvious issue is that any reasonable DM who hears about this will look at you and say "I don't care if it's technically legal, I think it's annoying and I'm not going to let you do it." But let's assume your DM does not shut it down.
You have infinite spell slots at level 5. You are warlock 3 sorcerer 2. You know 7 spells total, which is what you'd know had you leveled to level 5 in either of these classes, except you also know 6 level 1 spells and 1 level 2 spell, max. Someone who leveled normally would have fireball, or dispel magic, or counterspell, and if they were divine soul they might even have revivify, but not you! This will eventually get slightly better at higher levels but if you're the party's main arcane caster this sucks and if you're in a party with fewer than like, five people, or perhaps a really caster heavy party, you're putting a lot of burden on other people to do the utility early on so that your dumb ass can cast magic missile 20 times a day or whatever.
I don't actually care for sorlock just generally, in the absence of coffeelock bullshit. Yes, it depends on the same main stat, but a bard or paladin combo will actually significantly broaden your repertoire. Sorcerer and Warlock have a LOT of spell overlap, and metamagic is one of those things that is like, super clutch 0.1% of the time and the rest of the time it's like oh ok (though I guess as a coffeelock you're not even really using metamagic! total waste of being a sorcerer, which is the weakest caster already! great job.). Meanwhile, two of the big strengths of warlock are 1. eldritch blast, a cantrip you can already cast infinite times without spell slots, and 2. eldritch invocations, which you have to level in warlock to get. Dipping into sorcerer means fewer invocations. Basically, all multiclassing is a trade off and I feel like this is at most the sum of its parts, certainly not more. I also think it's very tricky to play this in a way that is narratively interesting and makes sense for your character while also abiding by the specific leveling requirements of coffeelock. This isn't an issue in a one-shot but also in a one-shot you simply might not even take a long rest which renders the entire thing useless.
You have to take Pact of the Tome, which means you are spending all this time and effort and build for infinite spell slots but also you have, without any racial bonuses, literally 9 cantrips (ie, at-will spells) at level 5. And none of them are dispel magic, because that is too high for you for at least another 2 levels and that's only if you choose to continue in warlock. Also, actually, until you reach L9 in specifically divine soul sorcerer, you don't have greater restoration as discussed, so yeah your DM can just be like "oh you don't have to sleep but you do still gain exhaustion."
I lied and I did some math. So: you are a L5 coffeelock. let's say you have exhausted all your resources on day 1. You sit down for your little bullshit 8 short rests. You can never have more than two sorcery points, because the PHB page 101 says that you can't exceed the number of sorcery points shown on the table for your level. So every hour you convert one L2 spell slot (recharging) into a L1 spell slot (non-recharging), and repeat this (you can't convert both at once! because then you exceed two sorcery points!) and you end the night with 14 L1 spells and your two L2 warlock spell slots. If you are lucky, you might get like, one short rest if there is a monk or wizard or fighter in the party and they don't hate you so much that they're willing to go without ki points/second winds/arcane recovery, and they might. I guess you just stockpile low level spells indefinitely until you have to sleep finally? if you have a week of downtime do you just. walk around with hundreds of first level spell slots and not think this is the dumbest shit of all time? ooooh look at me i can cast fucking...detect magic for 24 hours straight. can't dispel any of it though!
Leveling up is a bitch too if I recall. You need to level up in sorcerer to get more points so you can eventually convert to higher level spells, and the exchange rate is not generous (like, if you're not sleeping, it's ok, but it's not in your favor as shown with the L2 to L1 conversion) and imo warlock is the superior class, and you're probably not really taking advantage of metamagic anyway so you're barely reaping the benefits of being a sorcerer except for flexible casting. Do you feel good about this? Is this fun for you? Your entire table is watching you count out your spell slots each night and hoping fervently you get audited by the IRS in real life but man you sure showed them by being able to cast chromatic orb a lot!
Also you can't use items that recharge on a long rest, only ones that recharge at dawn. Sucker.
This is all very long because I think coffeelock is an annoying build for people who think they are smart and really aren't, but the gist is that you trade away a great deal of your utility, ability to help the party, and ability to do anything except cast rather low-level spells in comparison to what everyone who made better decisions is doing. Also it's LAUGHABLY easy for the DM to fuck this over for you within the bounds of the rules even if they allowed it. Your patron gets annoyed that you're only leveling in sorcerer. Levels of exhaustion. Your patron, who communicates through dreams, straight up abandons you because you're not picking up their calls. You keep being put in positions where your 75 first level spells won't do shit and a single third level spell would. They taunt you with items that recharge on a long rest.
It's just...well, quantity over quality. Shein haul ass character build.
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avissapiens · 11 months
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How to be a Himbo Ch. 7: Work
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(ID: https://twitter.com/armzbro97)
If you’ve somehow managed to snag a himbo into a standard work environment, then you have won yourself one of the best tools you could imagine.
Pure charisma and charming sex appeal; they’ll have customers begging to give you their money with just a smile. They excel in a position where all of the attention is showered on them. Maybe that’s a customer service role with slack-jawed clients barely disguising their lust for him.  Or maybe it’s a warehouse position where all the other boys can gawk and ogle at the way his khaki’s strain around his ass every time he goes to pick up a box. That’s why a Himbo comes into work. A captive audience to shower them with Adoration. Eyes coming and going and looking and staring hungrily at them. Their true job, no matter what their title, is to perform and oblige their hungering adoring fans. They know exactly which itches to scratch to get those extra bonuses at the end of the year and they are more than happy to use their most potent resource to get it.
*Omnipotent Demon narrator voice*
Sure, Victor’s been written up more times than he can count(not that he can count super high) for supposed “dress code violations”; but he knows that’s just the HR guys' way of flirting with him. He always comes back the next day, technically compliant but only technically.
With a body like his he knows he’ll get complaints about being a ‘distraction’ and ‘ a threat to my marriage’ regardless of what he wears. So might as well have fun with it right?
He knows he’s untouchable…at least in the metaphorical sense. Literally speaking he is probably the MOST touchable person around (The IT specialist wishes he could use those tits as a mousepad.) But when you basically have being the Bosses personal desk toy as a part of your total compensation, you wield the immunity and privilege that gives you as a badge of honor. Doesn’t matter what anyone says, you’ll spend all your time draped over someone else's desk or checking your hair in the mirror. It’s a part of your contract.
But Victor is a really hard worker nonetheless. It’s an exhausting, but rewarding business when your body is a product for the company. Most days it’s just a matter of undoing the top few buttons, but bigger clients can really be a handful…and a mouthful, and occasionally an ass-ful. Two if it’s a part of a joint account. But the Avis Athletics Agency prides itself on using the best practices when whoring out our top performers, and employees who prove themselves in that role can expect ample benefits and further responsibilities in the future. The bigger Victor grows those tits, the more he flashes that pretty smile, the more dress code violations he gets; the better. He knows the boss has his eye on him. That's just how he likes to do his work.
To find resources to help embody your Himbo Journey you can check out the Himbo Archetype guide on my Patreon for free .If you’d like to support the creation of files like the one in this story, or you’d like access to exclusive files and files earlier than the rest of the world, then please, Support me on Patreon, And go and follow me on Youtube for more files. Also, be sure to join me and my community on Discord. 
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The pay gap/female choices debate
I was watching this Youtube video the other day, and it pissed me off, but the main point of it was that there were these two men discussing how the pay gap isn't real because it all comes down to women's choices, citing really crappy examples as evidence. They clearly thought they were "owning the libs" too. They did this with 0 contextual analysis on why women make the decisions they do.
The first example they used was the Uber driver 7% pay gap, and how it's completely explained by three factors: (a) that women tend to be less experienced, (b) that men tend to drive faster, and (c) men drive in more lucrative locations. (This paper is Cook et al 20 by the way if you want to fact check me).
And yes, when you put it that way and remove all context for women's decisions, it certainly looks like that sort of moment. But think critically for like two seconds here:
Those more lucrative locations? The paper directly states that it's due to men's willingness to "drive in areas with higher crime and more drinking establishments". Of course men are more willing to do this! Your average woman is significantly more scared of being sexually assaulted, murdered, etc than your average man. She's going to avoid high crime areas because she's already in a vulnerable position (letting strangers into her car).
The fact that women have less experience? The attrition rate for female Uber drivers is substantially higher- 76.5% of women leave after six months, as opposed to 65% of male Uber drivers. I did found an article explaining why women self-select out of being in Uber or Lyft in the first place from Forbes. Quote, "...the job still involves driving alone and picking up strangers, often at night- situations that many women feel are dangerous. In interviews with eight female on-demand drivers, FORBES found that they usually feel safe but sometimes have doubts after troubling experiences and holes in safety policies." The article goes on to describe the experience of a female Uber driver in Atlanta, whose male customer tried to assault her. The company didn't handle the incident appropriately, and she never drove for Uber again. I'm willing to bet that this is the case for other female drivers too. The other women they interviewed (even those who are presumably still driving) described multiple similar experiences.
So, if you were a female Uber driver, you would probably leave around the six-month mark too. And as a result of this high attrition rate, the average female Uber driver will have less experience as compared to men.
And you know what? These other "gotcha" responses about the pay gap can probably be explained by outside factors too. Even in totally automated systems like Uber, where it does come down to female choices, those choices aren't being made in a freaking vacuum. It isn't just "haha pink lady brain can't drive as well", it's women don't feel safe and therefore make less money.
There's other scenarios where this is true as well. Women aren't climbing the corporate ladder as quickly as men? What else is going on? The Harvard Business Review found that more than half of men expect their careers to take precedence in a marriage- so if his is being prioritized always, what's happening to hers? When children get sick, women are ten times more likely to stay home from work to care for them (Kaiser Family Foundation). What does she miss in that lost time? When female scientists write papers, they are less likely than men to describe their accomplishments as *outstanding* or *unprecedented*, with the end result that their papers are cited less often. But it's because when women are socialized to be caretakers and to perform without complaint, this is the end result (Professional Development at Harvard). Worse, women who don't do this, and ask for raises/bonuses/etc, are more likely to be penalized than men (same source).
Yes, women sometimes make "decisions" which negatively impact their careers, but take it altogether. What makes men expect precedence of their wives? Misogyny. What makes men expect that their wives, regardless of their careers, will always nurse their sick kid? Misogyny. What makes women and their employers view female accomplishments as less valuable? You know the answer.
PS: two last things. The first is that I'm not trying to reduce the value of traditional "women's work". It isn't bad that women are taking care of their sick children, it's bad that men aren't doing it in equal numbers.
Secondly, if you're curious, there's this amazing professor named Claudia Goldin who I stumbled across while googling for this. She basically believes that the issue isn't direct discrimination from employers, but that the labor market encourages women to work differently. (And she's like 1000% more nuanced and career-specific than anything I just wrote). I put a link to an article about her below:
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pudding-parade · 5 months
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Because I can, have some pictures of ladies in the snow.
Lady reindeer, that is. In Planet Zoo.
I started a new franchise-mode game. My plan is to eventually have three smallish zoos in the franchise -- one tropical, one desert/grassland, and this one, which is in a taiga biome and will have taiga, tundra, and temperate animals. Across the franchise, I want to focus on breeding high-quality endangered/critically-endangered/extinct-in-the-wild animals to release to the wild, and I want to have all of them living in environments that are as natural-looking as possible, keeping visible habitat barriers to a minimum and not focusing so much on stuff for guests beyond the basics to keep them somewhat happy in order to keep money coming in. To the extent possible, I also want to build very large habitats with multiple species living in them, both for naturalism purposes as well as for interspecies enrichment bonuses.
So do you see any habitat barriers in these pictures? No. No, you do not. They are there, though. Especially because this habitat isn't close to finished yet, so one side of it will have ugly barriers until I build the hard shelter that I need to build for my ladies here. It also needs a lot more terrain painting and plantings and stuff. But, I'm quite proud of the terrain sculpting so far as well as how I've concealed the barriers in ways that blend in with the surroundings.
And no, reindeer aren't endangered, but since I'm just starting out, I don't yet have the resources to buy the kinds of animals I ultimately want to breed. I managed to find my ladies here in the online market, and they have decent appeal to bring in guests money. They each have decent-to-good genes, so once a decent-to-good male shows up in the market, they can start making with the babies. Eventually, the herd of reindeer will move to a multispecies habitat, where they will live with a herd of Przewalski's horses, a herd of takins, and some Bactrian camels, and this habitat will be taken over by a pack of timber wolves.
I do have a male red panda that I managed to catch in the market for an affordable price waiting in quarantine, and red pandas are actually endangered. And also incredibly adorable. But, he'll be staying in quarantine until I finish the reindeers' temporary habitat and let some cash build up. And then I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully find a female red panda with decent fertility for a price I can afford. That's half the difficulty of franchise mode, really, especially if you want the more endangered animals.
Anyway, yeah, if you don't see me for a while this'll be why. LOL Maybe I'll share some more pics as I go, though. Because I can.
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drfirsnogayny · 4 months
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Demonic Class AU
Please rate. I want to know that I didn't try in vain and it makes sense to make content on this AU.
Main character designs:
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Events unfold within the walls of a mysterious school. One day, one of the high school students disappeared, and this event is associated with demons. His younger sister Lily wants to find her brother, her investigations led her to this very school, where she will have to become a new student.
🏵️ Lily 🍩
A new student who is looking for her brother. Her family are demon hunters, but she doesn't want to hunt them herself. She is learning the art of finding a common language with demonic ones, but so far she only has the art of overtaking and driving them away from herself. The blood color is normal.
🪡 Carla 🪛
One of the few students who is not possessed by demons. She stays alone and hates everyone around her. Especially demons. She has perfectly mastered the art of scaring them away. Hates Penny, but is really just afraid of her. She also loves to create Voodoo dolls. They work, just not on a specific victim. She doesn't like to talk about what happened to her eye. The color of blood is green.
🧿 Penny ⚙️
The head of the class and the daughter of the head teacher. Sweet and friendly, but strict. She is suspected of being possessed by demons or having connections with them, but she denies this. However, she does not tell where her red pupil comes from. Tries to make friends with Lily. Perhaps she knows something about her brother. The color of blood is blue.
🎀 Cindy 🌺
The first beauty of the class and the school as a whole. Basically the stereotypical popular girl who loves attention and doesn't like losers, including Lily. In addition, she is possessed by demonic forces and, of course, serves them. He doesn’t know about Lily’s powers and sincerely doesn’t understand why he can’t harm her. The color of blood is pink.
💎 Felix 🥇 and 🐏 Ted 🥈
Twin brothers whose parents sponsor this school. They are both possessed by demonic forces, but only recently, so their abilities are undeveloped. Felix knows how to manipulate Ted. They also both have a crush on Cindy. It's also worth noting that Ted has a horizontal pupil. The color of the blood is blue and unnaturally red, respectively.
📚 Jerome 🪀
Nothing is known about his family, except that he has an older brother. He is a smart student, but most of his time is spent in the library reading books or helping the librarian and students. He also has a key to a secret room, which only he and a few other people have the right to visit. Lily is eager to get there, and she assumes that he knows something about her brother. His connection to demons or ability is unknown. The color of blood is gold.
🩹 Vincent ❔
A student who is usually bullied. He can often be seen next to Jerome, who, however, is also not averse to offending him. Other information about him is unknown, including his involvement with demons. The color of the blood is probably silver.
📼 Billy 🐟
A student who once disappeared. He is Lily's older brother, and when he lived at home, he protected his sister from danger. He's a demon hunter and wanted to teach his sister how to do that. The color of blood is normal.
I don't have my own idea of how to add the rest of the characters here, so I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Bonuses:
Colored version
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Originals:
Oddly enough, I once created Carla and Penny, and then I wanted to draw them. Then I decided to try to create Lily and Cindy, and then it kind of went and now I have AU. And the idea to create Vincent came after I couldn't create Billy to like.
Link
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sapphichymns · 5 months
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Been trying my very best to not talk about the Timeless Child but I hate myself and enough time as passed so this post will be buried but why does the Doctor say they were abandoned?
DOCTOR: I'm adopted. RUBY: Are you? DOCTOR: Yeah, yeah. I, er... I only found out recently. CARLA: That's a coincidence. RUBY: Oh, don't be saying that! CARLA: So do you know who your parents are? DOCTOR: No, no, I was... I was abandoned. CARLA: Oh, you were a foundling, just like Ruby. Even bigger coincidence.
It's an obvious attempt to make Ruby and the Doctor parallel but it feels a bit... conflicting? In not a fun way either due to how the Doctor not knowing why the Child was in that very spot when Tecteun found them was the biggest point of tension between them:
DOCTOR: You assumed I came through that wormhole, but you don't know. What if I was waiting there to collected? What if I was supposed to be taken through it? What if whoever left me there was taken by that wormhole? TECTEUN: What if, what if, what if? DOCTOR: You denied me my life! TECTEUN: I gave you a life. Everything you are is because of me. But I understand. You think you could have been something else, someone else. DOCTOR: Maybe. I'll never know. TECTEUN: You judge me for giving you the journey of your lifetime
Going with the word 'abandoned' seems to be pushing more weight to the life the Child had before being found than to the life they had with the Time Lords and Tecteun. The Timeless Child is a story about adoption but it's also a story about medical abuse. It feels it's trying to hide the second part.
BUT I know that in the alternative timeline, there's an attempt to compare Carla to Tecteun which is baffling?
CARLA: I've never had children, mate. DOCTOR: No. You adopted her. CARLA: I foster. Now don't be so stupid. I'm a foster mother. Just do it now and then, that's all. I've had about five or six kids. DOCTOR: No, no, no, no. You had… They've gone. CARLA: Who has? DOCTOR: Your children. All those lives. You fostered 33. CARLA: How many? Not me, darling. Don't be so stupid. That's too much like hard work. No way. I just put my name on the list when I need a bit of money. DOCTOR: No, you don't. CARLA: Eight hundred quid per child. DOCTOR: Don't say that.
Are we really comparing Tecteun, a woman who clearly had a high position in an advanced society to Carla, who seems to be a woman from a working class background? Are we really doing that? She could've just not been a foster mum and it would still work. We didn't have to go the 'lower class person uses adoption for monetary bonuses' route.
Ugh.
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noctilin · 7 months
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Hey! Uhm i was hesitant to ask you so i hope you dont mind answering this question. Im really into art so im looking for an art-field job and i wanted to know if you’re working under this field or are you working under a completely different field of job? Are you a freelance illustrator, character concept artist, graphic designer etc.? If so, how difficult it is to work as one? I want to know your opinion and see if i can work under a similar job as yours. You don’t have to answer this if it’s too personal. Thanks :)
hi! not a problem at all! i've worked freelance so that's all I can really share with you. these days i mainly work for illustration but I've also accepted projects in graphic and ui/ux design when i was younger and illustration wasn't making the bank for me yet.
when it comes to it being "difficult" well... i think my lifestyle is very specific, to say the least, where working on a stable job is not really an option for me nor will it ever be in the foreseeable future. so my experience and opinion might not apply to most people. with the way my life works, i'm lucky to even be able to do freelance as an option so i'm grateful to have it at all. it gives me a chance to earn money at home while still being present at home and in the comfort of it.
i will say, the common problem or issue with working freelance is that you are your own boss. you have to manage and hold yourself accountable for everything you do. one might say "hey, that's AWESOME, i can do whatever i want" but i promise you that there will come a time when it will be a handful.
another is the fact that you hardly get additional benefits, if at all. no insurance, no yearly or holiday bonuses, etc etc., and when it comes to being paid, well, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. it's kind of a high-tide-low-tide situation especially when you start out. projects don't really roll in casually. this is why most people have a side job while freelancing because it's just not consistent sometimes, and, well, you gotta pay rent and utilities.
when it DOES roll in though, it's good times! especially when you live in a third world country like mine, being able to do freelance and accept projects from clients abroad who pay in dollars or euros is a lifechanger. so that's one of the perks of doing freelance when you also can't find a job overseas.
overall, i think it heavily depends on your lifestyle and how much you're willing to let go for what you can get, which unfortunately i can't help with aside from giving you a brief view of what's to come.
best of luck to you!
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