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mostlysignssomeportents · 10 months

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"Open" "AI" isn’t

Tomorrow (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

The crybabies who freak out about The Communist Manifesto appearing on university curriculum clearly never read it – chapter one is basically a long hymn to capitalism's flexibility and inventiveness, its ability to change form and adapt itself to everything the world throws at it and come out on top:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007

Today, leftists signal this protean capacity of capital with the -washing suffix: greenwashing, genderwashing, queerwashing, wokewashing – all the ways capital cloaks itself in liberatory, progressive values, while still serving as a force for extraction, exploitation, and political corruption.

A smart capitalist is someone who, sensing the outrage at a world run by 150 old white guys in boardrooms, proposes replacing half of them with women, queers, and people of color. This is a superficial maneuver, sure, but it's an incredibly effective one.

In "Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI," a new working paper, Meredith Whittaker, David Gray Widder and Sarah B Myers document a new kind of -washing: openwashing:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

Openwashing is the trick that large "AI" companies use to evade regulation and neutralizing critics, by casting themselves as forces of ethical capitalism, committed to the virtue of openness. No one should be surprised to learn that the products of the "open" wing of an industry whose products are neither "artificial," nor "intelligent," are also not "open." Every word AI huxters say is a lie; including "and," and "the."

So what work does the "open" in "open AI" do? "Open" here is supposed to invoke the "open" in "open source," a movement that emphasizes a software development methodology that promotes code transparency, reusability and extensibility, which are three important virtues.

But "open source" itself is an offshoot of a more foundational movement, the Free Software movement, whose goal is to promote freedom, and whose method is openness. The point of software freedom was technological self-determination, the right of technology users to decide not just what their technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The open source split from free software was ostensibly driven by the need to reassure investors and businesspeople so they would join the movement. The "free" in free software is (deliberately) ambiguous, a bit of wordplay that sometimes misleads people into thinking it means "Free as in Beer" when really it means "Free as in Speech" (in Romance languages, these distinctions are captured by translating "free" as "libre" rather than "gratis").

The idea behind open source was to rebrand free software in a less ambiguous – and more instrumental – package that stressed cost-savings and software quality, as well as "ecosystem benefits" from a co-operative form of development that recruited tinkerers, independents, and rivals to contribute to a robust infrastructural commons.

But "open" doesn't merely resolve the linguistic ambiguity of libre vs gratis – it does so by removing the "liberty" from "libre," the "freedom" from "free." "Open" changes the pole-star that movement participants follow as they set their course. Rather than asking "Which course of action makes us more free?" they ask, "Which course of action makes our software better?"

Thus, by dribs and drabs, the freedom leeches out of openness. Today's tech giants have mobilized "open" to create a two-tier system: the largest tech firms enjoy broad freedom themselves – they alone get to decide how their software stack is configured. But for all of us who rely on that (increasingly unavoidable) software stack, all we have is "open": the ability to peer inside that software and see how it works, and perhaps suggest improvements to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBknF2yUZZ8

In the Big Tech internet, it's freedom for them, openness for us. "Openness" – transparency, reusability and extensibility – is valuable, but it shouldn't be mistaken for technological self-determination. As the tech sector becomes ever-more concentrated, the limits of openness become more apparent.

But even by those standards, the openness of "open AI" is thin gruel indeed (that goes triple for the company that calls itself "OpenAI," which is a particularly egregious openwasher).

The paper's authors start by suggesting that the "open" in "open AI" is meant to imply that an "open AI" can be scratch-built by competitors (or even hobbyists), but that this isn't true. Not only is the material that "open AI" companies publish insufficient for reproducing their products, even if those gaps were plugged, the resource burden required to do so is so intense that only the largest companies could do so.

Beyond this, the "open" parts of "open AI" are insufficient for achieving the other claimed benefits of "open AI": they don't promote auditing, or safety, or competition. Indeed, they often cut against these goals.

"Open AI" is a wordgame that exploits the malleability of "open," but also the ambiguity of the term "AI": "a grab bag of approaches, not… a technical term of art, but more … marketing and a signifier of aspirations." Hitching this vague term to "open" creates all kinds of bait-and-switch opportunities.

That's how you get Meta claiming that LLaMa2 is "open source," despite being licensed in a way that is absolutely incompatible with any widely accepted definition of the term:

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

LLaMa-2 is a particularly egregious openwashing example, but there are plenty of other ways that "open" is misleadingly applied to AI: sometimes it means you can see the source code, sometimes that you can see the training data, and sometimes that you can tune a model, all to different degrees, alone and in combination.

But even the most "open" systems can't be independently replicated, due to raw computing requirements. This isn't the fault of the AI industry – the computational intensity is a fact, not a choice – but when the AI industry claims that "open" will "democratize" AI, they are hiding the ball. People who hear these "democratization" claims (especially policymakers) are thinking about entrepreneurial kids in garages, but unless these kids have access to multi-billion-dollar data centers, they can't be "disruptors" who topple tech giants with cool new ideas. At best, they can hope to pay rent to those giants for access to their compute grids, in order to create products and services at the margin that rely on existing products, rather than displacing them.

The "open" story, with its claims of democratization, is an especially important one in the context of regulation. In Europe, where a variety of AI regulations have been proposed, the AI industry has co-opted the open source movement's hard-won narrative battles about the harms of ill-considered regulation.

For open source (and free software) advocates, many tech regulations aimed at taming large, abusive companies – such as requirements to surveil and control users to extinguish toxic behavior – wreak collateral damage on the free, open, user-centric systems that we see as superior alternatives to Big Tech. This leads to the paradoxical effect of passing regulation to "punish" Big Tech that end up simply shaving an infinitesimal percentage off the giants' profits, while destroying the small co-ops, nonprofits and startups before they can grow to be a viable alternative.

The years-long fight to get regulators to understand this risk has been waged by principled actors working for subsistence nonprofit wages or for free, and now the AI industry is capitalizing on lawmakers' hard-won consideration for collateral damage by claiming to be "open AI" and thus vulnerable to overbroad regulation.

But the "open" projects that lawmakers have been coached to value are precious because they deliver a level playing field, competition, innovation and democratization – all things that "open AI" fails to deliver. The regulations the AI industry is fighting also don't necessarily implicate the speech implications that are core to protecting free software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech

Just think about LLaMa-2. You can download it for free, along with the model weights it relies on – but not detailed specs for the data that was used in its training. And the source-code is licensed under a homebrewed license cooked up by Meta's lawyers, a license that only glancingly resembles anything from the Open Source Definition:

https://opensource.org/osd/

Core to Big Tech companies' "open AI" offerings are tools, like Meta's PyTorch and Google's TensorFlow. These tools are indeed "open source," licensed under real OSS terms. But they are designed and maintained by the companies that sponsor them, and optimize for the proprietary back-ends each company offers in its own cloud. When programmers train themselves to develop in these environments, they are gaining expertise in adding value to a monopolist's ecosystem, locking themselves in with their own expertise. This a classic example of software freedom for tech giants and open source for the rest of us.

One way to understand how "open" can produce a lock-in that "free" might prevent is to think of Android: Android is an open platform in the sense that its sourcecode is freely licensed, but the existence of Android doesn't make it any easier to challenge the mobile OS duopoly with a new mobile OS; nor does it make it easier to switch from Android to iOS and vice versa.

Another example: MongoDB, a free/open database tool that was adopted by Amazon, which subsequently forked the codebase and tuning it to work on their proprietary cloud infrastructure.

The value of open tooling as a stickytrap for creating a pool of developers who end up as sharecroppers who are glued to a specific company's closed infrastructure is well-understood and openly acknowledged by "open AI" companies. Zuckerberg boasts about how PyTorch ropes developers into Meta's stack, "when there are opportunities to make integrations with products, [so] it’s much easier to make sure that developers and other folks are compatible with the things that we need in the way that our systems work."

Tooling is a relatively obscure issue, primarily debated by developers. A much broader debate has raged over training data – how it is acquired, labeled, sorted and used. Many of the biggest "open AI" companies are totally opaque when it comes to training data. Google and OpenAI won't even say how many pieces of data went into their models' training – let alone which data they used.

Other "open AI" companies use publicly available datasets like the Pile and CommonCrawl. But you can't replicate their models by shoveling these datasets into an algorithm. Each one has to be groomed – labeled, sorted, de-duplicated, and otherwise filtered. Many "open" models merge these datasets with other, proprietary sets, in varying (and secret) proportions.

Quality filtering and labeling for training data is incredibly expensive and labor-intensive, and involves some of the most exploitative and traumatizing clickwork in the world, as poorly paid workers in the Global South make pennies for reviewing data that includes graphic violence, rape, and gore.

Not only is the product of this "data pipeline" kept a secret by "open" companies, the very nature of the pipeline is likewise cloaked in mystery, in order to obscure the exploitative labor relations it embodies (the joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians" comes out of the South Asian clickwork industry).

The most common "open" in "open AI" is a model that arrives built and trained, which is "open" in the sense that end-users can "fine-tune" it – usually while running it on the manufacturer's own proprietary cloud hardware, under that company's supervision and surveillance. These tunable models are undocumented blobs, not the rigorously peer-reviewed transparent tools celebrated by the open source movement.

If "open" was a way to transform "free software" from an ethical proposition to an efficient methodology for developing high-quality software; then "open AI" is a way to transform "open source" into a rent-extracting black box.

Some "open AI" has slipped out of the corporate silo. Meta's LLaMa was leaked by early testers, republished on 4chan, and is now in the wild. Some exciting stuff has emerged from this, but despite this work happening outside of Meta's control, it is not without benefits to Meta. As an infamous leaked Google memo explains:

Paradoxically, the one clear winner in all of this is Meta. Because the leaked model was theirs, they have effectively garnered an entire planet's worth of free labor. Since most open source innovation is happening on top of their architecture, there is nothing stopping them from directly incorporating it into their products.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/leaked-google-memo-admits-defeat-by-open-source-ai/486290/

Thus, "open AI" is best understood as "as free product development" for large, well-capitalized AI companies, conducted by tinkerers who will not be able to escape these giants' proprietary compute silos and opaque training corpuses, and whose work product is guaranteed to be compatible with the giants' own systems.

The instrumental story about the virtues of "open" often invoke auditability: the fact that anyone can look at the source code makes it easier for bugs to be identified. But as open source projects have learned the hard way, the fact that anyone can audit your widely used, high-stakes code doesn't mean that anyone will.

The Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL was a wake-up call for the open source movement – a bug that endangered every secure webserver connection in the world, which had hidden in plain sight for years. The result was an admirable and successful effort to build institutions whose job it is to actually make use of open source transparency to conduct regular, deep, systemic audits.

In other words, "open" is a necessary, but insufficient, precondition for auditing. But when the "open AI" movement touts its "safety" thanks to its "auditability," it fails to describe any steps it is taking to replicate these auditing institutions – how they'll be constituted, funded and directed. The story starts and ends with "transparency" and then makes the unjustifiable leap to "safety," without any intermediate steps about how the one will turn into the other.

It's a Magic Underpants Gnome story, in other words:

Step One: Transparency

Step Two: ??

Step Three: Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA

Meanwhile, OpenAI itself has gone on record as objecting to "burdensome mechanisms like licenses or audits" as an impediment to "innovation" – all the while arguing that these "burdensome mechanisms" should be mandatory for rival offerings that are more advanced than its own. To call this a "transparent ruse" is to do violence to good, hardworking transparent ruses all the world over:

https://openai.com/blog/governance-of-superintelligence

Some "open AI" is much more open than the industry dominating offerings. There's EleutherAI, a donor-supported nonprofit whose model comes with documentation and code, licensed Apache 2.0. There are also some smaller academic offerings: Vicuna (UCSD/CMU/Berkeley); Koala (Berkeley) and Alpaca (Stanford).

These are indeed more open (though Alpaca – which ran on a laptop – had to be withdrawn because it "hallucinated" so profusely). But to the extent that the "open AI" movement invokes (or cares about) these projects, it is in order to brandish them before hostile policymakers and say, "Won't someone please think of the academics?" These are the poster children for proposals like exempting AI from antitrust enforcement, but they're not significant players in the "open AI" industry, nor are they likely to be for so long as the largest companies are running the show:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4493900

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #llama-2 #meta #openwashing #floss #free software #open ai #open source #osi #open source initiative #osd #open source definition #code is speech

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mookymilksims · 2 months

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ULTIMATE Realistic Family Gameplay Guide

youtube

Hello, everyone. I ran a poll on my channel for you all to decide on which realism guide you'd like to see next and Family Gameplay won. While I'm aware there are hundreds of family gameplay guides out there, and you'll probably have most of these mods already installed, what I think I can offer different are fixes to the EA code, and expansions on gameplay mechanics already included in the game, as well as a masterlist that has been extensively playtested for the last 6-7 years (still testing the newer mods though!). These mods have been run through Delphy's Dashboard, and have even caught conflicts and corrected that Delphy's couldn't catch.

We will break this guide down in simpler sections.

Children can series.

XML's, Tweaks, Tunings (Non-scripts). Special section for fixes.

Scripts and scripted objects.

This guide is also aimed at overall family play. I do not just think of new interactions for babies, toddlers, children, and teens. I also consider the parents. I've included mods for parents in different roleplay scenarios, as well as, single adults looking to create a family, so we will focus on some mods that can promote the family before the family is made.

I will also included a personal recommended list of lots you'd want to include in any world you play in for an ultimate family play experience.

Now that that's out of the way:

This can be followed alongside the youtube guide, we've got a lot of mods to get through so let's jump straight into it.

Children Can Series:

We will start with the most intricate install process. There are many children can mods. And many mods that conflict with each other. I caught all of them through Delphy's Dashboard, so you will only install the mods highlighted in this guide for the most optimal and conflict free experience. These mods are self explanatory but I'm going to explain why you want them at the end of this section.

CamKitty - Children can werewolf hunt.

kls77 - children can repair, tinker, and upgrade.

kls77 - children can time travel.

Bluegentsu - Children can use fortune cookie maker

Jonha - Children can use urinals.

Kap Children can series:

ONLY DOWNLOAD THESE MODS FOR COMPATIBILITY

can call services can check skills can cut and trans gems and ingots can do laundry can get mail can make nectar can read skillbook music can use sketchbook

OEM Children can series:

ONLY DOWNLOAD THESE MODS FOR COMPATIBILITY

can air guitar can chess can conjure apple no auto can feed cowplant (only if you have store cow plant) can hack can magic mirror can mermaid eat can microwave can neat trait clean house can photos-phonesmart can post forum can practice speech mirror can practice speech vanity dresser can solve hard problems

All of these mods enable features already in the game that children were unable to do. Each of these small mods brings back playability with children in very big ways. This also makes children much more independent so you won't always need an adult or teen around to take care of them. For example, children can now order pizza on the phone, or microwave food, instead of needing adults to always cook for them. You can roleplay more chores with children by allowing them to do laundry, this can also be roleplayed in a scenario where a parent isn't very consistent and the child has to be. This could create amazing stories for your gameplay. Without these mods, playing with children feels so much more restrictive. They feel like cute dolls you just send to school and forget about for a couple of hours. Allowing them more agency and free will for my gameplay allowed me to immerse myself more in their child years.

We are now going to focus on XML's, tweaks, and Tunings. These are all non scripts. This is also where I will include fixes. These are very lightweight mods that change what is already in the game and do not create gameplay lag.

Adoption Costs 5 k - I made adoption more expansive because I wanted to be able to feel this decision in game. Adoption isn't neccassarily free in real life. Between the paperwork, meetings, travel, and transitioning the children into your life this can obviously be very expensive. So this mod helps me roleplay this aspect of real life.

Arcade claw machine tweaks - Family fun center version. Arcades are extremely important for my family playthrough's, as it's one of the lots where I can put plenty of interactive objects for all ages. Including a little playpen for toddlers, that won't be out of place. This can also double as a traditional birthday party lot, with closed off rooms. From time to time I like to bring my families to these lots when I want them all to get out of the house together. So with this mod, it tweaks the prizes you can win from the claw machines, increasing your chances of winning a ton more stuff.

BlueGentsu

5% chance of teen mood swings - Makes the mood swings feel a lot more impactful when they happen instead of every other day. This is especially helpful for those who play on longer lifespans.

Skates - all enabled for pregnancy - does just as it says, pregnant sims should be allowed to have a little more fun.

No blowhorns noisemakers at Age ups - It's just annoying and buggy, so removing it altogether optimizes age transitions. This also makes the event seem a bit more realistic, while everyone just cheers and laughs instead.

Toddler's can turn off stereo - Combined with my NRAAS GoHere settings, which allows for inactive daycares to be possible, sometimes when a daycare staff puts your sims down to sleep, they won't turn off the stereo so you as the toddler will have to autonomously do it so they can peacefully take their nap.

Boarding school is expensive - Again, this is so the decision feels a lot more impactful in game. This can also be roleplayed as sending your child to private school when in a wealthy family, so the prices also make more sense for this.

Maid Costs 200 - As the title says maids will be slightly more expensive, this adds up everyday, and is for the purpose of this decision feeling more impactful. It didn't make sense for my poorer families to be able to afford a maid so this is a mod catered more towards upper middle class to wealthy families. I also combine maids with a butler as well, to give a more regal feel to the wealth your sims have obtained.

No Graduation - This is optional, if you use UC mod. This eliminates the graduation ceremony altogether, for those like myself who like to roleplay this event in game instead. By simply throwing a party on a fancy lot with formal attire.

Not just teens can prank call - Just made more sense to have this option available for everyone.

Student Services Booth mod unlocked - This can be used on High school lots as well. Especially when you turn on Summer Vacations, and send kids back to school the first day of Fall. Also, for roleplay Uni scouting events, so sim families can have a more immersive experience of browsing possible universities sims can be sent to.

More Festival Ticket Rewards - BG, SN, UNI version. Just like the claw machine this adds more rewards to win on festival lots. Makes working for the tickets more impactful.

No Auto tell ghost stories - This interaction has always annoyed me as it happens anywhere at any time. I like to plan activities almost like an itinerary when sending my sims to do longer events like vacations or simple camping trips in their homeworld. So specifically for camping, telling a ghost story with the family is a very fun activity to do at night before everyone goes to sleep around a campfire. It is where this interaction makes the most sense for me to use and leaves me excited to actually use it.

Studying is easier - I always thought the study rates of performance were super unbalanced. As I don't have sims study often when in Unni unless it makes sense for their character. And so this leaves an incentive to actually study during their free time outside of class as it brings more of a reward when it is done. However, the default rates of studying was too slow and easily took up all of my sims days. So I wanted to be able to study and be rewarded for that, while also having more time in my sims days to do things. So now I can study less often, throughout the week without the stress. I am including this in the family gameplay guide because your teens can actually study together in your homeworld which doesn't do anything for their school performance but does a lot of roleplaying study groups, since I have a homework mod that only takes 15 minutes to complete.

TwoFT Mama -

Auto Potty Training - does just as it says, this mostly helps townies, but for active households to do this on their own leaves you as the player feeling more immersed.

Better grades - Lowers the grade requirements making school a little easier. This is so while playing with UC it leaves teens and children more time to interact with each other outside of working on interactive objects.

Faster homework minutes - Reduces homework times to 15 minutes, saves up much more time in my child and teen sims days.

Fixes:

This is a smaller section for the non scripts, where I consider these mods to be complete fixes to existing EA gameplay that all the patch updates missed.

Auto Romance YA-Elder Propose going steady - This is a lightweight alternative to the NPC Romance script mod by YolkSims. While the mod was completely rebuilt from the ground up to be much more optimized, I went on a journey to find replacements to my current scripts folder that delivered what I was looking for. I found this mod. While this can go all the way up into Getting divorced. I stopped at going steady because with the Supreme AI mod sims can autonomously break up if they aren't on the best terms. This may also include divorcing, but so far it hasn't been too intrusive. Combined with the simler90 mod which includes attraction fixes, this makes romance a lot more fluid, performance friendly, autonomous, chaotic, but also predictable, aids in roleplaying, and is overall a great fix for townies and creating families with active households.

Read to sleep fix - A patch broke this interaction, so Danjaley fixes it. Without realizing it, you have another immersive gameplay mechanic for toddlers in the game. This interaction is very cute and I wouldn't believe it wasn't a mod, so I'm very happy this interaction was fixed.

Midlife Crisis Always - Adult life stages can be quite boring and monotonous. I play lifespans so long that when this event happens it's like a milestone for me. I think of it as a mini game, and try to fix everything that happens afterwards once my sim comes to their senses.

MissPat Better Playdates - Just as you may have saw in my Supreme AI playtest video, Townies will autonomously call and ask for playdates if both families have children and younger in their household. This was an EA feature, but it also got broken. This makes interacting with other families more immersive, and making children and toddlers friends much more realistic and natural in the game. For those who like to roleplay life long best friends in the game, especially.

TwoFtMama

Birthday Cakes don't catch fire - These fires are annoying and I use other mods that can cause chaotic fires randomly but REASONABLY in game.

No Curfew period - This is the only curfew remover mod that doesn't break changing clothes and dresser interactions in my game. I always thought the curfew mechanic in the game was a bit too much. Police officers wouldn't know where every single child or teen was at in the world. And sometimes, I like to take my teen and child sims out late for family events, teens on late dates, etc. With curfews enabled, police would still arrest them and bring them home, even though the parents were with them, then would have to wait for the parent to get all the way back home just to yell at them for being out late. This obviously made no sense. Combined with a punishment scripts mod, I can user direct punishments for things like this instead for a much more roleplaying and immersive experience.

Teens can take unpaid days off - This mod also made more sense and should've been included in EA features. Teens call off from work, and quite often might I add. So it helps me roleplay a more realistic teen lifestyle in game.

Now for the Final section we are going to focus on Scripts. Scripts typically do not conflict with each other but for this list some of them did. The compatibility patches and versions have been included so you don't have to worry. This is where most of you will probably already have these mods, but hopefully I introduce you to some bangers you never heard of before.

We are going to go by creator and then from A-Z for the misc scripts.

Arsil

Do Homework With - Adds the ability to do your homework with other sims the same age as your children and teens. This can make study groups more immersive, as getting homework done together will actually improve school performance the next day, but can be doubled with the UNI study together interaction the roleplay a longer study session period. These can be done in the home or the Library, which allows me to get more usage out of my Library lots and make a Kid/Teen section which is always fun.

Toddler Extra Activities - Adds a bunch of cute new interactions that toddlers can do like playing in puddles, mud, sand, eating snow, dancing, and even drawing on the walls if they have crayons in their inventory.

Arsil Futons - This is for more eastern themed family plays, but you can alternatively use these if you have a poor sim in the big city who can't even afford a bed. I typically transmogrify deco beds on the floor into this script object in game, you get a lot of creative and really fun gameplay out of this. But I wanted to toss this in here for my eastern simmers, if you don't already know about this, or you'd like to play an Asian household and make your gameplay a little more realistic. I'm definitely excited to rebuild my Korean themed Uni world I had before with these beds!

Arsil Napping Mats - These work exactly like the futons except for toddlers. It's honestly so cute. Outside of the crib and Olomaya's toddler beds, this is just another super cute way for Toddler's to fall asleep. The crib always seemed way too overbearing, and for those who roleplay toddlers aging but not yet into children, these other various options would serve you a lot better. Now for these mats specifically, I typically like using them in my inactive Daycare lots, but from time to time I'll use them in my active household's living rooms or play room, just in case I don't always feel like bringing the Toddler to another floor to fall asleep.

Arsil Low Dinner Table - Another really awesome mod for those who want to be able to roleplay better with eastern households. I always have so much fun with these tables and chairs, I've even converted some myself. One of my favorite general things to do is set the chair up in front of a TV and direct my sims to play video games. So they will be sitting on the floor and playing video games and it always looks super cute, so much nostalgia!

Arsil Limbo Mod - For the same reason I removed the autonomous ghost telling interaction, is why I use this limbo mod. Another activity for sims to do at various different parties. It's one of my favorite little events to host during a birthday party. It's seriously so cute!

FloTheory

Pay For This - Adds a mechanic where every time you change your baby and toddler diapers and give them a bottle of milk you will be charged 5 simoleons. It's such an awesome addition because when you think about it, diapers and milk should add up in real life. However, combined with the other mods in this guide, if you change their diapers and give them a bath using the store object, or give them a bath using The Sweet Simmer's mod, you won't pay for anything then. Which makes sense, sometimes you can roleplay already having diapers in supply. As well as Olomaya's toddler snacks and meals, you would shop for groceries and make the toddler whatever you have available in your fridge, but actually feeding the child those meals won't cost 5 simoleans because you already paid for the ingredients. So this interaction fixes the lack of realism with EA's diaper and bottle interaction. I find myself using all 3 mods at random, and it's always so fun.

Wedding Inactives - Adds the ability to have two sims in a relationship that your sims are friends with, to get engaged, and you can set their wedding party as well. This can give romantic stories with townies more user control. Since we are using tuning mods to make romance more autonomous, and stopped at going steady, eventually SP will push those sims to get married, but you can not only speed things up whenever you'd like, but you can also attend their wedding in the same way they attended yours! This gives the user another way to experience going to a party instead of hosting one like LN introduced. Idk about you guys but I love also feeling like a townie/NPC sometimes, it immerses me much further into my gameplay!

Weight Gain - Adds a random percentage of weight gain for pregnant sims during and after they give birth. Women's bodies are absolutley beautiful especially after giving birth, I always hear about those mommy curves that finally come in for so many women, while you can choose to go to the gym and work this mommy weight off, I imagine myself keeping it probably for most of my playthrough's. It's just always made sense that this should happen, our bodies can change forever after giving birth and so I'd like to roleplay that kind of wholesome realism in game, too.

GameFreak

Advice interaction - Adds a new social interaction with custom moodlets when you can ask for and give advice. There are several different kinds of advice you can give, with many random prompts, and a reasonably timed moodlet that you'll get after the interaction. While this can be applied to general gameplay mods, I'm including this in the family gameplay because there are just way too many roleplay oppurtunities you can have with this one. Siblings or parents giving romantic, career, etc advice. Friends, lovers, maybe a lover asking for romantic advice on how to sweep your sim off their feet? It adds a lot more roleplaying elements that can really help you the player put a story together. I've always had a gameplay style where I generally know what I'd like to happen but I go with the gameplay and can change the plot at will, so the gameplay has to reflect many more possibilities.

Smartphone Dating - Is a smaller mod that just adds the dating app from the computer onto your phone. I personally love to roleplay like this is Tinder for my sims. I always felt the dating app should also be available on sims phones like in real life, and it gives us some things to do when out and about or bored at home!

JunJay

Everyone Clip coupons - This, again, should've been available in the game already, it can be quite fun to shop smarter, even if you aren't poor per say but money is getting kind of tight. I know large families that do pretty well still love using coupons so I've included this mod.

Online Center - Adds a brand new scripting interaction to the PC which makes so much more sense. You can shop online for groceries, books, pets, relics, bots, consignment, potions, etc. You can check weekly events, which means you can disable the newspaper and still get those benefits. Read E-sim news. And probably my favorite, there is a new Simbook (Facebook) feature! Your sim will basically scan their timeline and comment on other townies simbook's, and you'll actually get slight relationship increases with random sims you already know, and you can even meet sims you haven't met already through this feature as well.

Study Skills Online - Adds another interaction to the online center where you can study any and all skills. Instead of having to go out and buy the things you can study them for free right from your pc at home. I typically use this interaction for my teen sims to improve their basic school skills as an extra layer of work for them to do for school. Outside of studying, creating books titled their class projects and etc.

Lizcandor

Potty Training - Adds a new interaction for toddlers to play in the toilet and use it instead of always using their potty training potty.

Independence GoHere Compatible - Adds the ability for toddler's to use stairs! Always exciting! But you'll have to keep an eye on those little rascals a bit more, which is always more realistic!

Mintbeehry

Mint Makeup - Adds a new interaction for children and toddler's to play with makeup. And some very silly makeup masks that will go over the kid's face when done. I used to play with my mom's makeup all the time so it brings back memories for me, I think it's a super cute interaction for you to experience with your sims families!

Fidget Spinner - Adds an interactive fidget spinner object that can go into your sims inventory and taken out and be played with for a couple seconds. I think these are super cute for kids to win at festivals and arcade lots so I included it as it can be combined with savvier seller mod to actually shop for it on these lots.

MonocoDoll

Remove Shoes - Another really great eastern culture gameplay mechanic or just for your more cleanly families with a mud room. Either way, you'll have plenty of fun with this mod installed for realism.

Government assistance - Adds just what it states for your sims. EBT, health insurance, Child support. It's super realistic and adds so much more depth and mechanic to your gameplay. You'll actually be able to roleplay your poor families without having to get creative. Make a side chick a baby mama to a wealthy sim who cheated on his wife, etc. Tell some crazy stories, this mod will certainly help you with all of those scenarios.

Olomaya

Hang out, Children and teens - Adds an interaction where children and teens sims will sit down on the ground and talk, laugh, etc. It increases their relationships, and can be quite a large group. I used to have the all ages version, but I think seeing teens and kids sit on the floor faired out much better in my gameplay than seeing adults. Pick which ever version you'd like, though.

Toddler Bed - Adds a functional single bed for toddlers to the game! I've planned to convert many sims 4 toddlers beds using this scripted object so we have some more variety, but for now the options available for it are so adorable. It's got one bug, where you can only enter the bed from the left side I believe, but other than that it's a much needed mod for more realism, especially for those toddlers that just turn 3 and 4 in your game.

Activity Table - Adds a crafting option, and serve snack option to the activity table. The crafting increases the painting skills but uses glitter as a prop instead. For toddler's and children, so they can both play and eat snacks at the table!

Coloring Book - Adds functional coloring books that are portable!

Smoking - Fixes Cmoney's smoking mod, optimizes the scripts, fixes the animations, adds a sitting animation, moodlets work much better, adds new custom moodlets. Also adds a vape. But most excited, this adds the ability for teens to buy fake ID's for tobacco products. I also use the fake ID's to roleplay my teen sims getting into bars and clubs. As they can actually order from the bar, I like to imagine they were able to slip passed security.

Student council - Adds a really fun almost mini-game interaction to a new student council option for teens in high school. And a new interactive board. It may not be everyone's flavor but it makes highschools a little more interactive outside of UC. See also PheobeJay's cheerleading mod for another interactive mechanic for teens and YA in UNI!

The Sweet Simmer

This is where most of you probably have these mods, so let's just do a basic checklist of all the mods you do or don't have.

Animation World

Children Can care for their little siblings

Family Kiss

Biggest Little Mod for Toddlers

Children and Toddlers can follow

Toys Are More Fun

Peek-A-Boo and Hug Toddlers

Toddlers can ride rocking rider

Replaced child hug

Toddlers can pick up easter eggs

Toddlers can sit on couches and chairs

Toddler can ask for things

Toddlers can catch butterflies and pick flowers

Outdoor activities for Toddlers

Toddlers can sit on sims laps

Toddlers can learn to walk alone

More Baby Interactions

More Toddler Interactions

Functional Baby Carrier

Pick Up Toddler Fixes

More Pregnancy Interactions

So obviously all of these mods MASSIVELY Overhaul family gameplay with babies, toddlers, and children in the game. Not only does it fix EA mechanics, but it also compliments and expands existing mechanics, and then adds even more. You'll probably never go back to regular family gameplay again after these mods. You might only have a couple so consider getting all of these mods listed above!

Twinsimming

Acne Mod - Adds acne to the game, and can randomly have break outs. This suits this theme mods list as puberty can be quite strange. This also effects adults though, and adults still get acne. I mean not me really but y'all be easy.

Dirty Laundry - Again, I think cleaning and have a family just goes hand in hand. This mod adds more custom moodlets the longer you go without washing your clothes. It's how it should've been in the game, to really incentivize you to get that laundry done.

Growing Pains - Is a great addition to family play. Whenever anything significant sad or angry happens to children and teens they will go through a time in their life that will deeply affect them (almost traumatize them in a way). Divorce and breakups, etc. It makes what story you tell with those sims more impactful on their lives.

New Scholarships - Adds new scholarships to the game, I also consider UNI to be an integrated part of Family life in the Sims 3. I love going off to Uni with my sims I watched grow up since birth. This mod just adds more ways they could get in to those Universities.

Tooth Fairy - Is a cute little mod that adds a tooth losing mechanic, it feels like it always should've been there. With custom moodlets that will make you know your kid sim is growing up.

Now we are going to move onto misc Family gameplay mods, these are from various creators where I don't have more than one of their mods installed!

All Adults carry - This is a mod that allows all adults to carry children. It was originally a feature in the sims 3 with the firefighter career, but Puddingface made it possible for all adults to pick up and carry kids. This adds another roleplay element, as sometimes I like to direct my parents to carry their rowdy kids to bed if they aren't listening and staying asleep.

Clean House for Everyone - This mod just makes the ability to clean the house for everyone. Originally this mechanic was only avilable for neat sims, but I find I have neat sims without the trait, and slobby sims who eventually wake up and want to get their house together. So it's a pretty convenient mod. The sims will autonomously be directed to every dirty object in the lot and clean it all up. This is pretty useful for those larger family homes who can't afford a maid or a butler or can, and you don't want to sacrifice a trait slot just to be able to clean your house.

Cherry Toddler interactions - This is another script mod that adds some pretty fun interactions into the game that combined with all the other scripted toddler interactions makes the game an abundance of choices you can do more with toddlers. Things like talking with another toddler, exploring around, having a bottle to themselves, and even eating pet food from their bowl.

Ferris Wheel - This adds a new scripted object ferris wheel, you can actually ride it. Combined with all the other store content geared towards festival lots (roller coaster, carousel) this is another really fun object for your family's to go crazy on in game. It adds a custom moodlet once you've finished and it's super cute.

Icarus Scolding - This adds a new scripted mechanic where you can user direct punishments to your child and teen sims now. This is what I meant earlier with the removal of the curfew mod. If you still want to catch your teens sneaking out it can actually make more sense. Now you can do all sorts of things for your stories and gameplay. Kid didn't clean up their room like you asked? Send them to the wall. Not doing their homework? Ground them from all electronics. You get it.

Lyralei Journal - Not quite like the other journal mod, your sims won't actually write anything to publish like with buzz's notebook mod. But they will get custom moodlets after writing a passage. I like to roleplay this as a diary for my sims and also sometimes extra homework for other classes they take. You'll get random whimsical prompts after they finish writing and you can only imagine what triggered that response from your sims (it's random so get creative). You can also hide the journal, and a new interaction where a sim can ask what you wrote. It's very cute and certainly worth the install.

Fairy Tale Books - adds more fairytale books to the game. Classic ones from real life. They are classified as children's books so you can read them to your kids at night. Makes a more relatable childhood experience for us simmers out there!

Mingos Option b - This adds basically an abortion pill to the game. You take it after suspecting your sim of being pregnant. While you can get an abortion for the enhanced hospitals mod this mod adds a CVS like experience where you can buy the pills from the grocery stores yourself or pretending you got a prescription to terminate a pregnancy. So it makes 2 ways you can get an abortion in game. I'm aware that some more mods that will eventually do this are currently being developed for the game, so this one might not stay in my mods folder after extensively reading through those future mods if or when it includes them. But for now, I think it's a great realistic addition for your gameplay.

Nona Breastfeed Baby - Adds the ability to breastfeed the baby. That's all. It's really cute and realistic, it's an older mod so you might not have heard of it.

I know I've already included a Lyralei mod but the Randomizer mod is a big game changer that shouldn't be ignored. It adds way too much random EA prompt mechanics that actually impact your gameplay and story. I've got all the modules. Things like combatting rumors. Giving Advice. Getting Sick. Power and water outages. Work and School related triggers and many many more.

Zoeoe Buzzler Scribbling Pad Fixed - This is an essential fix and script optimization to this older and most adored scribbling pad mod. This works like typing/writing on the pc except you'll write in the journal and it's portable so you can do it from anywhere. I love having my working and school sims get the most use out of this. You can also use this to replace the writing pc interaction if you're playing in an older time period that didn't have computers.

Ok! Awesome! So we got through all the family gameplay mods! Now when you stick around to the end of the video I can showcase to you what all of these mods combined are going to look like in your game! We won't get through everything because there are simply WAY too many scenarios to show and we would be here all day. So I'm just going to show you how a general gameplay session would go instead!

And just as promised I'm going to recommend you a list of lots you're going to want to have in any world to get the most out of your family gameplay!

The EP's we can combine in this Theme are Seasons, UNI (although this will be in another world entirely so don't worry about this one too much), Generations, Pets, Island Paradise, and Late Night. This is the ultimate pack arsenal combined that gives you so many more features and interaction for your Family gameplay. You do not have to disable all of the other packs, you're simply going to focus on the content and lots given by these EP's in the world you chose to play your family in. Also consider adding all of the premium store content you don't need the full sets, just the functional objects.

Arcade lot - For family events and date nights. Friends meetups.

1 Dive bar - for singles to meet and date nights. Friends meetups.

1 Sports bar - for guys nights or date nights. Bachelor parties. Friends meetups.

1 Dance club - for singles and date nights and girls nights. Bachelorette parties. Friends meetups.

1 Gym - Consider adding a playpen to a toddler/child care section for those busy parents. Friends meetups.

1 Library - Consider adding a toddler playpen section, a child and teen section for homework, and a computer lab. Friends meetups.

1 church - This can double as your opened Masoleum RH, and a pretty place to get married. Friends meetups.

1 functional Movie Theater - Does not need the Theater RH rug. Use the premium store content. For family events and date nights. Friends meetups.

1 Consignment store - With savvier seller objects to buy cc deco and furniture. I use this to roleplay changing around my bedrooms for when my sims age up. I don't put everything I have in the store obviously, but I do buy some things to include in the build.

1 Bistro - Open up the RH and use Ani's Business as Unusual set. For singles, family events, and date nights. Friends meetups.

1 Diner - Same as above, more afforable and relaxed eaterie. You don't have to open up every RH, but you should focus on the ones your active family will be working in and going to school. So for schools, that would be 1 elementary and 1 high school.

1 outdoor picnic/camping lot - For in home vacations, family events, and date nights. Friends meetups.

1-4 festival lot - Could be broken up into several throughout your town, one for each season. This makes these lots more optimized and you can decorate more cc into these seasonal themed lots without worrying about overloading the lot and crashing during season transitions. For family events, singles, date nights. Friends meetups.

1 Pool lot - For everyone, and parties.

1 Fancy banquet lot - Can double as an exclusive lounge, for wealthy family events and fancy parties, can also add casino objects.

1 big park - with a playground.

1 small park - with another playground and cat and dog park.

1 pet store - using store content.

1 pet clinic - Using ATS3 pet clinic set, Pet Vet career, and a second hospital RH combined with Pet diseases mod to make the lot functional, and also adding UC.

1 art gallery - consider adding an easel room for art class, a mini winery (for paint and sip date nights), and a savvier seller gift shop, to gift to your date or friends or for yourself.

1 Fishing spot, with rentable IP boats - For those fishing trips you'll take with your kids and make memories. You can also add this lot to your vacation worlds instead.

1 CoffeeHouse or Java Hut - For singles, Friends, dates during the day. Teens and parents.

1 Laundromat - For families without the laundry objects in their home.

1 Opened up Spa - With store and script objects combined for a more luxorious experience and extra custom moodlets.

#tutorial #tutorials #roleplay #roleplayguides #roleplay guides #Youtube

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just-an-anon-reader · 2 years

Text

When nerds come together…

Summary: April finally introduces her “normal” friend. Although, she’ll have to redefine her definition of “normal”.

When Donnie first met you, he had his doubts. Apil introduced you as her "normal" friend. But this was April. "Normal" for her was in the 0.0001 percentile. Not impossible, but you might as well have thought it was. You, being introduced as such, was within reason of suspicion. In his initial observations, you were shy and borderline introverted. It was evident with you hiding behind April as you greeted them all. You spoke with so much uncertainty that you even stammered. To put it simply, Othello Von Ryan was not impressed.

"You're going to get along great," she said. "You both have so much in common," she also said. You told April prior that this wasn't going to work out. Not because of this whole...situation. Okay, so maybe a little. Luckily, she briefed you a week before heading down to the lair. But it was mainly because of who you were as a person. You weren't exactly a people person. You often find them loud and messy, and even illogical. For example, pineapple on pizza. An abomination of the truest kind. It's for reasons like this that you preferred being cooped up in your laboratory. It's quiet, spotless, and promotes a higher level of thinking. Hence, the creation of your darlings. Beautiful works of art made from metal, programming, and a boatload of caffeine.

Of course, being a genius, people aren't fans of you as much as you are of them. The teasing, you could handle. After all, you had an armada of anti-bullying technology made by yours truly. It was the social interactions that got to you, i.e., April. Who somehow barged into your life. She found you working on your tech in the library once, and ever since, she has been your self-proclaimed best friend. She mentioned her turtle buddies only recently. When she walked into the same place, and saw you tinkering with your oozequito tracking goggles. She knew she had to introduce you. Particularly to a certain purple-clad turtle genius. Of course, you wouldn't say yes immediately. But after saying the words “mystic” and “mutant” in the same sentence, she had your attention. So that's how you found yourself here, in the NY sewers. Being scrutinized by four color-coded mutant turtles with epic ninja skills.

Mikey, being the overly-friendly orange turtle, hugged you in greeting before asking you for your pizza preference. A large Cheesy Supreme. Leo was next, laying on the charm thick. The cringe was real. Raph went third. The eldest, the leader, and whose mission plans always start and end with punching like a boss. And lastly, and somewhat reluctantly, was Donnie. Eyeing you over with his goggles, rather than offering his hand to shake like a normal person, a robotic one popped out of his battle shell instead. Carefully, you shook it, admiring the intricacy and sophistication of the details of the automaton.

...

"Is this t-titanium grade 4 alloy?"

The words came out of your mouth before you could stop them. April, quite desperately too, wanted you to be friends with her...teenage mutant ninja turtle gang. And, from experience, nobody like a smartypants. You were definitely not making a great first impression. But at least you tried. It's the effort that matters, right? You could feel the beads of sweat rolling down your back and, most likely, drenching your shirt. When he replied, it definitely wasn't what you expected him to say.

"Well, of course! Only a miscreant would use anything but the best quality!"

He isn't going to laugh at me? Or look at me weirdly? Could this turtle, in all of his purple glory...be a nerd? Description-wise, April had only revealed that “you two would get along” and refused to clarify any further. There is only one way to put a theory to the test.

"You know, i-if you used uranium as an e-energy source, you could level up these darlings b-big time."

...

You saying nerdy stuff? Donnie definitely didn't expect that. You didn't look the type. And, not to be judgmental, but you didn't seem the type. But you were. And you understood his sentiments exactly. He couldn't help the excitement that bubbled up inside him.

"I know, right?! Think of all the upgrades I could do with even just an iota of uranium! I would be unstoppable! But sadly, papa rat won't let me have some.”

Donnie got a good tail slap to the back of the head for that. Feeling a bit more comfortable now, especially with the science talk, you bravely continued. A smile slowly starting to spread on your face.

"What if you had more than an iota of uranium?"

At this, April’s head did a 160 from something Leo had said to you.

"Wait a minute, didn't you say that your nuclear stable thingy was in beta? Which, you so thoroughly said, meant that it was 'Off Limits'."

Pulling up air quotations as she quotes you saying the same thing to her no more than a week ago when she bugged you about your oozequito goggles. Smugly, you smiled at your best friend as you reached into your bag and pulled out the glowing device.

"You mean my beautiful portable nuclear stabilizer? Yes, yes it was. 'Til now. "

"You brought uranium to the lair?!"

"No, I brought uranium to the school, April. Which ended with you dragging me here before I could stow it away in a safer location. A.K.A., my lab."

You hear the gasp of horror behind you as you turn to face Donnie once more. The device in your hand had an ominous green glow that eerily illuminated his face. It was quite beautiful. The turtle in question had stars in his eyes with how excited he was. He made gimme-gimme hands before coming to some sort of realization at the last minute. Taking a deep breath, he recomposed himself.

"You're just going to hand me the uranium? That sounds suspect. What's the catch?”

The small shy smile that had adorned your face before spread wide. Almost menacingly.

"As I said, uranium is a wonderful energy source. If I am to give you some of mine, it must be for a worthwhile cause. So, I want to be co-creator. From frame, to wiring, to programming, alpha, beta, and testing. Think of it as means of securing my investment."

“And if I decline your conditions?”

“Then prepare to say your sweet farewell.”

"I see. Begrudgingly, I accept. However, I will have to demand that you keep my lab as prestine as possible."

With a gleaming and potentially dangerous device in hand, you marched alongside the turtle as he led you toward his beloved laboratory. The other five, completely forgotten and left out of the conversation, looked at you two in confusion.

"What just happened?"

"I think Donnie just made a new friend!"

"Ugh, April! You said that this one was normal!"

￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣P.S. School has been so hectic lately (°▽°) I haven’t written anything almost 2 weeks. Here is some platonic? Rise!Donnie x reader. Might make a more romantic part 2 if y’all like this. And again, thank you so much for all the love my stories have been getting! Please enjoy!

P.P.S. The gif isn’t mine

#rise!april #rottmnt donnie #rise!donnie #rise!donnie x reader #rottmnt donnie x reader #platonic #Uranium babyyyy!#in the name of SCIENCE #nerds being nerds

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purplereadingenthusiast · 6 months

Text

Alador builds. He experiments. He tinkers. Day after day he spends in his lab, only leaving for food and bathroom breaks, plus the occasional promotion show. At this point, he even sleeps down there, long after his team—now only comprised of eight other people—has gone home. It’s easier that way, he reasons, with Odalia constantly requiring him to work; this way he never has to leave, never has to bear her reprimands that drain him as much as his never-ending work schedule. He feels like one of the abomatons he spends all his time creating, going through the motions of his monotonous, day-to-day life robotically as if his body and mind are comprised of goop and metal materials.

Sometimes, when he’s on a rare break and doesn’t know what to do with himself, he thinks about his younger self, and how excited and passionate he was about abominations and mechanics. How he was rarely spotted without his goggles, inspecting or creating or testing something, driven by curiosity. Sometimes Alador wonders how his younger self would react to what he’s turned into now, how the light and laughter that was his eyes is hidden behind dullness and dark eye bags. How would he explain it to himself, if he asked?

He always brushes the thought away as soon as it comes. It’s silly to reminisce on the past, he tells himself. There’s no point of pondering what could have happened, because it didn’t happen and it never will. He knows he will likely stay this way his whole life, or as long as he stays with Odalia, which is essentially the same thing. He can’t leave. She needs him as much as he needs her, and it’s easier to continue living this way than to needlessly fight it and somehow make it worse for himself.

His palisman, Patches, squeaks at him, breaking him out of his thoughts and scurrying towards the counter, where his newest project lies in wait. Alador sighs from deep in his chest, tiredness causing his whole body to protest as he walks over to the counter, giving Patches an ear scratch and putting his goggles on.

Once again, Alador is little more than a machine.

#this was roughly inspired by the song Pearl by Katy Perry and uh #it just escalated from there #my writing #creative writing #writers on tumblr #the owl house #alador blight #owl house #toh #toh fanfic #short fanfic #low-key projecting onto alador #the burnout is real #fanfic #fanfiction

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nightrae13 · 1 month

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I'm still on Neverland after the Wendy Bird Fell, so no wonder I ended up grieving again my lost OTP and fav character

Rewatching the Tinker Bell films with my 4-year old cousin (Lydia really hit it home lol), and I keep on thinking how this franchise was my first exposure to mix signals (I mean, not just in shipping, but in general), with how they kept on implying Terence and Tink's romance, but not fully committing to it until it was unfortunately cancelled... like c'mon right? You had Rosetta and Queen Clarion have cute scenes with their boyfriends, but Terence did not even speak. My inner ten-year old self is still angsty about this ship baiting. If y'all just want a representation of girl and boy just being friends, Tink with Clank and Bobble is right there! Ship what you want, but Terence was obviously framed as the love interest, and then they just did nothing with it!

Terence went from having these cute special scenes highlighting his bond with Tinker Bell since the first film, to a background character who doesn't even exchange a line or share a frame with his apparent (to the very least) best friend; Look, he was barely in GFR, but he was the first and last character Tinker Bell spoke to in that movie, and was part of the squad hanging out in the end; his presence and absence were addressed properly with respect to his character and relationship with Tink.

Afterwards... he was just there for a little fanservice in a few seconds. They started the mix signals or ship baiting by SotW when Tink looked at him at the start, and how Peri asked her about them (where she did not even deny if they're dating), yet Terence was with less than a minute screen-time and no spoken dialogue. It's just sad yk (Jesse McCartney was still credited tho lol).

I get that they had to expand the stories and characters somewhere else and he was really too kind of a character who already solved his conflict with the mc (where I think many could see as a mary-sue even tho he had his flaws and fights with Tink), but as the very least, bff character, he was just sadly overlooked. Like, why is he barely there in Pirate Fairy?? The whole movie revolving around his best friend literally is about his expertise lmaoo The writers had to throw away an already established talented dust-keeper fairy just for the plot they wanted like how they did with the concept of winter fairies in SotW.

In the end, maybe some people just don't like or care about him (which is sad, bc how could you not??), or/and the writers just wanted to focus on the girl group (or maybe Jesse's talent fee is too big who knows? haha) ... I mean, it's still good they left it open-ended, so people can ship and interpret it however they want (no wrong with that esp. since the franchise is towards a younger audience and promotes friendships more). My disappointment just mainly comes from the erasure of Terence's importance in the later films. They could have just done what GFR did; he's just a supporting character, but he was still treated as one of Tink's friends. He didn't deserve being shoved aside especially as one of the fairies who originated from the books, and her best friend.

Now, excuse me if I'll watch Lost Treasure for the nth time.

#my ramblings #commentary #disney fairies #tinkerence #tinkerbell x terence #terence tinker bell #tinkerbell #still sad how underrated Terence is #but at least Lost Treasure will always be there #otp #I respect everyone's ships tho #like I would have shipped them with other characters already if I wasn't so loyal to them lol #but then again that loyalty comes with a reason #excuse me for this rant #the inner child in me is still disappointed lmaoo

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radarchives · 1 year

Note

Can you give us context for the chat where Mammon allegedly left an anger management guide on Lucifer's desk?

Gotta love that allegedly.

So! Satan wanted to promote RAD's library by holding a reading week at RAD. To do so, Mephisto agreed to publish several library book reviews in the newspaper. The student council members plus exchange students were taking part.

The Mammon and Lucifer chat is Reading Habits 4.

And for those interested in everyone's book choices, do not fret. My brain went into hyperfocus and forced me to write them all down.

Thirteen: Unnamed book. She mentioned it might take her a while to find one since she's unfamiliar with the library. It's possible MC ended up helping her find one and vice versa.

Lucifer: A Guide to Overcoming Anger was chosen by Mammon (probably for self-serving reasons) for him. He either fully read or at least skimmed the book, but chose a different one for his book review. Ended up choosing The Encyyclopedia of the Human World.

Belphie + Beel: Unnamed possibly boring book for Belphie and a book with many food illustrations for Beel. Both promptly got distracted since Belphie almost fell asleep reading and Beel's book made him hungry. They ended up reading each other's books out loud to each other but that didn't work out either because Beel's monotone voice made Belphie fall asleep again. These fools somehow ended up getting their reviews done after all, possibly bc MC read their books to them. I am not kidding.

Simeon: A gruesome horror novel recommended by Luke who chose the book because the cover looked interesting.

Luke: Novel recommended by Simeon.

Solomon: Scifi novel recommended by Raphael who thought Solomon looked the type to enjoy that genre, possibly because he's always in that damn room tinkering.

Raphael: A coming-of-age sports novel recommended by Solomon. Solomon chose it because he noticed Raphael getting into a coming-of-age sports drama he watched with Luke.

Diavolo: A buddy novel chosen by Barbatos.

Barbatos: A light novel recommended by Diavolo.

Asmodeus: A romance novel given to him by Satan. The ending had him bawling his eyes out.

Satan: Unknown book.

Mammon: Unnamed book, but apparently he wrote his review with Lucifer breathing down his neck.

Leviathan: Missed the memo because of a Ruri-chan event and almost handed in his review late. Levi had that gamer chad rizz apparently because after he genuinely apologized, Diavolo extended the deadline for him. Levi chose a fantasy series and ended up writing a really long review which Mephisto then was forced to edit down and promptly complained about to Luke.

#answers #summarizing all of that really does make me feel insane #this game is a fever dream

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gritsandbrits · 7 months

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Tfasona lore

My self insert moved to Detroit from the south for work, getting a low level job doin packaging for sumdac inc. During a job she saves a child from an accident thay child revealing to be sari, her boss's daughter. Isaac is pleased and gives her a promotion...as sari's governess. Whatever that means.

My oc of course doesn't like it she feels it's a glorified babysitter gig but upon further inspection she notices sari is quite lonely and offers to teach her real things. My oc also lives in a poorer part of the city and with the sudden increase rise of supervillains, those parts take the brunt of the damage left in their wake. So my oc decides to clean up part of it in secret, she doesn't expect rewards or anything but the denizens come to like her for simply being there. Tinkering with some rejected armor she becomes something of a guardian taking on petty crimes like robbers. Angry Archer is her first real supervillain that she had trouble with but successfully drove him off.

During the first episode my oc is at the factory when the mutated bugs attacked she takes the opportunity to get into gear, and that's when she meets the Autobots. She's shocked at the sight of real giant robots. She follows them back to their base and that's when she finds the allspark. The allspark senses her potential and upgrades her armor into something legit along with a heart shaped headphones. The rest of the season sees her getting to know the bots striking a particularly deep friendship with Optimus. They're accompanied by two more ocs hacktivist Alisha and former cop turned private eye Nicole Fanzone (Capt's niece). Meanwhile my other self insert Veena works under Powell, she's known for being an ice queen and keeps to her work in her office. She and junia don't like each other.

Things get rocky when Megatron gets brought back Optimus gets frustrated and kinda insults my sona. She gets mad and leaves to handle it alone but ofc they get back together after apologies.

In season 2 my si learn more about her powers, and also why Optimus was feeling the frustration in the s1 finale because of the way Sentinel treats him. Soon Junia gets sick of the cold way ultra magnus and sentinel treats Optimus and stands up to them, gently pointing out that it's unfair Optimus has done so much good for her planet and cybertron while they're waiting for him to screw up, and Optimus ia shocked that anyone stood up to the guard much less stood up for him.

Veena also lost her house during the battle and forced to move in with Junia, during which Veena learns more about her and the bot' genuine kindness, something she never got with powell. After Powell kicked Sari out Junia finally has enough and quits. She starts working odd jobs to make ends meet. But somehow they do manage to keep the plumbing running as it turns out Veena is secretly paying their bills. She is now on their side and also gathering evidence to expose Powell for the corrupt a-hole he is.

In s3 isaac comes back, veena leaks all the evidence of powell funding headmaster and several other villains, he's in DEEP shit. Junia decides not to return to Sumdac finally finding her place as a hero. Veena takes Powell's old position and eagerly gets hands on with the inventions. Towards the end Optimus and Junia finally confront their feelings for each other and start dating, the funny thing every one saw this coming.

#gb asks #tfa #transformers animated #tfa oc #selfship #self insert #funny

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tinkertoysdamn · 10 months

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As a general rule, I don't link directly to my E rated fics on Tumblr since I attempt to keep this blog safer for work.

However, if one is an adult and interested in seeing these two morons doing the do, I posted a new fic on Ao3.

You're welcome.

#thorquill #fic announcement #tinker self promotion #peter quill #thor odinson

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1stthings · 2 years

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to [MARIA ALVAREZ], the whole world looks like an open page. with a leap of faith, their ability of [ANIMAL MORPHING] grows a little stronger. they’re pledged to the [NO HOUSE] to defend the enchanted lands of cagliostro with their [ENGRAVED STONE]. for [TWENTY EIGHT] years, they have survived a world of magic with both their [RESOURCEFUL] and [CONNIVING]. they work as a [HEAD OF HR FOR THE NON-PROFIT, @MAGIC MATTERS], but if they could change their fate, they’d want to [REINVENT THE WHEEL (so to speak) AND UNLOCK THE LIMITATIONS OF MAGICAL APPLICATION]

ave maria. government name ( maria rayne alvarez. ) ( lovingly nicknamed, lovie. ) head of hr for magic matters group, a full service assistance program for magic and mortal folk in . mmg is a non-profit subsidary, created and ran by isaiah lutz of considine ltd

(daniela nieve, she/her, spirit warrior) ,,, inspired by the likes of ( the major. edward elric. kaylee frye. ellen ripley. albus dumbledore. elsa. )

she grew up in a low-class neighborhood, to a single mother. though men came in and out of their lives none ever stayed for long.

from a young age she learned how to independent and provide, picked up slack that her mother couldn’t. from anything, from meals on her own to learning how to be handy around the house. she had a hobby of tinkering and a passion for magic and often combined the two. throwing in a mixture of engineered parts to equal parts magic and seeing what would come out from it all.

getting into magic she had no business messing with at a young age, her mother barely kept her under thumb. it only worked thanks to their close bond. honestly as much as her mom raised her, she raised her mom right back. codependence and imbalance, their relationship was more of a friendship than a mother-daughter relationship in some ways.

after her mother grew ill in her teenage years, she began to search for any means to help reverse the grasp it took on their combined lives. through her experimentation she met a lot of push back from her mother at first. but then things got desperate,,,,

by the end, through complex means of alchemy, medicine and prayer, she resorted to extremes to ‘fix’ her mother. attempting a spell well beyond her means and probably the bounds of the universe (not to mention the morality of it all), she ended up making her mother’s condition worse before making it better.

doctors and powerful wizards who took a look at the condition scorned her for meddling in things she shouldn’t.

it’s was a battle both she and her mother lost in the end.

years of working, not dealing with trauma, developing obsessions put her through school at the top of her class. when it came to going to college she managed to get loans to put herself through a higher education.

being the first in her family to reach that level to her knowledge, she worked her ass off. any time she came close to failing she once again went through any means necessary to come out on top of it.

maybe you can notice the pattern of someone willing to go to extremes. she began to notice it around that time and being self aware did not make this one any better.

after graduating college she joined a business leading in the magical field and attempted to work her way up.

from entry level, she was bounced anywhere they had open positions low on the rung for a few years.

there’s plenty of stories about what happened next.

see she started moving up pretty quickly, promoted quickly. there was rumors that she was sleeping around with a higher up at first, rumors that she was cursing people into bad luck and weaponizing the opportunities it made.

of course, the rumors that she was climbing her way up through the bedroom compounded when she was spotted with the ceo late at night more than a few times and at least it was a nonmagical reason.

the ceo had a wife,,, so naturally when rumors started going wild, she was quietly transferred out of the company, to a subsidiary they owned.

now she works as a head of department for a nonprofit they own, in a different district. no one knew her there but wouldn’t you know it, the rumors were even louder at this place than the one before. how a 20 something year old, beautiful woman suddenly walked into a position so many other, arguably more qualified people were seeking,,, the stories tell themselves.

she uses the cries to her advantage. she leverages it where she can.

never giving up on her dreams and passions despite being warned to, she still practices stretching the grounds of magic to attempt greater tings with magic than warned she should. with the right mix of alchemy and magic, she aims to make become a famous wizard, known for a great many magical feats. the least of which might just be reversing death, life curing magic, practical engineering through magic and anything else she can push herself to cook up.

(her mother gave her the nickname lovie technically because that’s all she’d call her. many close friends call her lovie but not everyone. stranger, coworkers, or the usual not so close friend still call her maria.)

as written by (ren, 24, they/them gmt+2) (luver boy#8289)

#cag: intro #hey everybody!!!!#thank you for the welcomes so far #lookin forward to being here #i'm usually on discord to plot any time!#just send message

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sim-it-to-win-it · 1 year

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BIG Love to 100 Base Personality Traits, which allows for a few modded traits that feel much more specifically attuned to the personalities people want to make, and the More Traits Mod for increasing the number of personality traits a Sim is allowed to have. A full breakdown of the traits and an alt text description for the vision impaired is under the cut;

SELF-ASSURED: These Sims tend to be Confident.

MAKER: These Sims become happy when making thins. They become sad when it's been too long since completing a project on a fabricator, candlemaking station, juice fizzer, or woodworking table. They do not receive negative effects from crafting or repair failures.

ADVENTUROUS: These Sims seek out new and unique experiences!

MATERIALISTIC: These Sims can admire and brag about possessions and become sad when they haven't purchased a new item for a period of time.

AMBITIOUS:These sims gain powerful moodlets from career success, gain negative moodlets from career failure, and may become upset if not promoted.

JEALOUS: these sims get jealous more easily than other sims. They gain a boost of confidence from being around their significant other, but get tense if they haven't seen them recently.

ARROGANT: these sims are very confident, but others might find their attitude grating.

PRACTICAL: these sims relate more to the realities of the world than ideas. They get focused easily, but it's hard for them to get inspired. They gain practical skills faster, but are slower at gaining skills that rely on imagination.

TINKER: these sims become happy and have fun when working on upgrades, fixing objects, or programming.

COMPETITIVE: These sims take competition very seriously and enjoy playing any type of game with other sims.

#the owl house #toh #mattholomule tholomule #gusttholomule #sims playthrough #sims!matt

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60b3r · 1 year

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Job seeking is (dehumanizing): the interview.

Ahh, searching for jobs... one of the most tedious and ridiculous experiences in human existence. At first, I was enthusiastic and applying for teaching jobs I was truly interested in. I scoured for "biology teacher" and "science teacher" jobs from prominent national and international school network. Now, weeks later, I have realized how low my standards have gotten. At this point, I would be excited to get a call from a shady, small schools in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty sure that's the goal of many employers... hopelessly shuffling the cards until your standards get so low that you'll take their low-paying, high-workload, crappy job. If this sounds grudged or too cynical, it's because I am. The job-hunting process is emotionally draining and the institutions know this. They took advantage of unsuspecting teachers and researchers in it.

After supplying personal information for internet-based loan-sharks to tinker with, then we get to the interview stage. If only the recruiter had an especially convenient commuting experience to office this morning or maybe if their significant other serviced them an exceptionally great spank-bang session last night, they might be in a good enough mood to schedule me for an interview. Or, like most occasions, my application will go forever unnoticed, and the job listing will stay up for weeks/months on end because apparently most of employers are resume hoarders. Employers can make you spend two and half an hour filling out an application online (and on paper). They will look at it for 2 seconds at most before moving on, or maybe a mere 5 seconds if they decide to call you in.

Now, we're scheduled for an interview. I was told to arrive early (but also not too early, since they may start late). Interviews was described like a matching process similar to dating, where two parties mutually decide if they're right for one another—but the steep power imbalance suggests otherwise. They pose the questions and may ask anything, which I can't do anything about (for instance if they, and surely they will, ask something discriminatory against my beliefs and ethnicity). My answers are scrutinized—an honest self-assessment is a beginning to more deprecating questions, while narcissistic promotion and extraordinary bullshit is rewarded. Insincere eagerness is too evident, so instead I had to continually hype myself up for each new possibility of reprobative travail and suffer the resulting agony for each rejection letter (that is, if any).

There's little to no expectation that employers will have rational reasons for deciding for or against one particular applicant—they may even be racist, engage in blatant nepotism, or go with their bias, and we have no recourse whatsoever. Even where there is a legal recourse written in law, the evidentiary standards are such that you could never possibly prove a claim. There was also this one school that—written at the end of the pre-interview form I filled and almost sent—claimed that they did not engage in discriminatory practices against different races, skin, colour, and nationality; but the form explicitly required me to fill in my ethnicity and my church denomination I belonged to. Just before I signed over it and sent it, I spotted it and requested a cancellation to continue my application to the next process. Such a shameful practice.

I am not going to lie, there were a few promising interviews where it seemed to go really well (including one where I rode over to where I am relocating, sat down with like 5 people over 2 hours and talked about the curriculum and it’s teaching philosophy and whatever working culture they wanted me to believe) and when I sent a follow up to them—the people that I spent hours preparing for interviews with and clearing my schedule for—don’t even have the decency to tell me they decided to go with another candidate. Like, you spent hours interviewing me, it takes less than a few seconds to replace the placeholder in an email template with my name and press send. After someone has went through several interviews, taking a moment to notify them whether they got the job (or not) is nothing compared to the amount of time and gas money the candidate has wasted. It's a basic human courtesy. If you can't complete such a menial task as that, then anyone who applied and got rejected probably dodged a bullet.

If bullshit was being written down, all possible bullshit in job interviews would be an entire library of Nalanda and Alexandria combined. Jargons like "I am very passionate about this dead-end position and very enthusiastic about making a fucking career out of this minimum wage job. My hobbies include providing phenomenal typing of a 50-page lesson plan you won't even read, participating in organizing religious event on school weekends, and memorizing the School Values and the names of the Foundation caretakers". Once the interview is over, you have to give them the firmest handshake (because apparently that is a great indicator of how well you will perform on the job) and thank them for their time (which they were actually paid for). Then, you are to be scheduled for another interview with Julius from Head of Curriculum... then another interview with Sarah the Vice Executive Principal... then you are to hear back from them by the end of the week, then... nothing.

Sometimes, if they do send a rejection letter, they are kind enough just to tell that my application is denied because there were no vacancy left open for such position. The worst letters are the ones that tell you how they think while my CV is superb and how I am a good fit for such position, but there were just all these other better applicants that best matched their needs—by that I am sure they offered these poor souls less than my previously requested pay—and then complain about how hard it was to choose between them. One could generously interpret that "being overqualified" as "letting you down easily" and to make me not lose hope in another job-seeking endeavor, but to which I suspect is more about assuaging the guilty conscience of whichever person wrote the formal letter. They also seem to have no obligation to ever communicate with me again—employers ghost would-be employees with regularity. They never seem to catch up, even when they said they would hold on to my CV, in case in the future, they have an open position to fill.

I suspect the job search everywhere bears the marks of the basic reality of our society: capital rules over humanity and is not ruled by it. Every worker is expendable and replaceable. The reserve army of the unemployed academics is real, and keeps down wages to reward meaningful research. With over hundreds of applicants for every position, of course the process is dehumanizing. Even in the present alleged "education technology boom," this remains the case. While some people suggest it, starting your own education institution is not an option—you must persuade the bank to lend capital or god-knows-how-many philanthropists to donate, and the vast majority of small schools like some preparatory courses program convened in a garage fail within a few years. In any case, small institutions are far more likely to engage in the most petty and disgusting conduct towards workers: wage-theft, unpaid overtime, arbitrary management. I once worked for this type of institution, and I survived it saying never again. The students paid the office 80 bucks for 90 minutes of my tutoring, while I only got paid 20 bucks for it, not even a gas subsidy!

#antiwork #job #recruitment #hrd #jobseeking #resume #employment #jobless #application #interview

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