#video game berry farm

[thoughtsforsoob]

txt - how they propose

a/n: I got inspo to write this when dates dropped for the tour! i am not officialy in posession of a pre-sale code and im hoping to get some good tickets!! i will come back with an update (LA moa's lets talk :) anyways, please enjoy! this piece was meant to be really sweet and even silly at times so please let me know what you think of it! as always, inbox is open.

yeonjun

at a fancy dinner

yeonjun is really excited when it comes to fancy, romantic outings but this one was going to be the best one of all. Of course, that’s because of his proposal plans. He is definitely the kind of guy that sort of spoils it or gives hints because he tells you to go out and get your nails, hair, etc… done. especially emphasizes getting your nails done. He covers it up by saying he loves seeing you all pretty and pampered but deep down, you sort of know what he’s hinting at. Anyways, moving on to dinner. He takes you to a fancy new restaurant that just opened in the city. It was on the top floor of some fancy building. There was a view of the city from where you both were seated at a small booth. He was sitting right next to you and talking your ear off about the day he’d had at work. He didn;t even drink, opting to let you order a drink so he can drive home. He buys you whatever you want to eat and watches you enjoy your food with those adorable, lovesick eyes. You whine at him to stop watching you but he says he can’t help but watch the love of his life. Eventually, he takes you out onto the patio of this restaurant and it was pretty empty since there were only a few more couples around. He takes in the view with you and asks you to take a cute video with him. He sets up his phone at a good angle and presses the record. He goes back to you and kisses your cheek. He takes your distraction as an opportunity to pull the ring out of his pants pocket and when he pulls away, he gets down on one knee and proposes. “Will you do me the biggest favor ever and be my Mrs. Choi?” 

soobin 

at home

Soobin was never one for big romantic gestures and he was happy that you were okay with it. His ideal date was at home, snuggled up on the couch or in a pillow fort, watching movies or playing video games together. sure, he did take you on little outings once in a while but he preferred staying home. When it came to his proposal plans, his logic was to stay home, plan and cook a little dinner and use all the extra money to buy you the prettiest ring he could find. He loved the whole ring shopping process “i know this probably isn't from some of the members. anyways, he tells you of his date plans for the night and you were into it. He tells you to dress normally with one of his hoodies and your favorite sweatpants or leggings (soobin loves your legs in leggings btw. he said so). you come in and he is dressed relaxed as well in those gray sweats you liked and a t-shirt you gave him as part of his birthday gift. He serves your dinners and then he takes you to his bed, getting comfortable together. after one episode of that new anime the both of you had started, he turns over to get something from his nightstand. he shuffles to sit on his knees and reveals the box to you, opening it shortly after. "i know this probably isn't the best proposal but we’ve had such a nice night. I love spending time at home with you. can we be homebodies together, forever?'' You nod and hug him super tight and he returns the hog. He gives you a sweet kiss after putting the ring on your finger and you two go back to watching your show and cuddling.

beomgyu

theme / amusement park

This man is so cute when it comes to a proposal. Let’s just say for the sake of this story that he takes you on an LA trip and you both have a knotts berry farm day! You two decided to skip out on disney because you two have already been together on a previous trip. You both also really wanted to see all of the snoopy memorabilia. You both have an amazing day getting on rides, drinking boysenberry juice and talking to each other the whole time. He loves seeing you so happy so he never says no to you not once that whole day. He lets you drag him to all of the performances happening at the park and even lets you take a picture of him with Snoopy, making finger guns at one another. As the day starts to wind down, you both decided to go souvenir shopping. Huening specifically requested a snoopy t-shirt so you both went to find him one. Beomgyu asks you to pick the t-shirt and he stays behind to find a snoopy plush to include in his proposal. He finds one and pays for it, as well as the requested souvenir you picked. He takes you back out to the park and you both take a seat to rest for a while before leaving the park. You take out your phone and dont notice when he turns around. He takes the plush out of the store bag and the ring out of his bag. He puts it in the plushies hand and turns back around. He taps your shoulder and you are met with a snoopy with an engagement ring in his hand. “Will you marry me, pretty lady?” he says in a high pitched voice and you gasp so loud that people turn around to look. You are absolutely red but you nod and beomgyu makes the plush put the ring on your finger. You call him a dork but he doesn't mind. He's your dork, forever. 

taehyun

at the beach

you and taehyun went to the beach often. it was always so quiet, especially when you two visited at night. These outings were frequent, especially when you both went to travel somewhere different. In this case though, you were both home in Korean. Taehyun was on a small break during the summer time before their next tour and he decided that now was as good as ever to propose. He drove the both of you to your favorite beach at around 8pm. On the way there, you both made stops to get dinner and then to pick up some snacks to enjoy while hanging out at the beach. Once you both get there, Taehyun sets up your beach blanket and you both sit down, starting to snack on some grapes. Taehyun took about 30 minutes before he decided to ask you. He scoots close to you and pulls the little box out of his bag. you give him a confused look and he opens it, looking at your shocked reaction. He wanted to give a whole speech but his words got stuck in his throat when he saw your reaction. you say yes to him and he hugs you, slipping the ring on after.

huening kai

in your hometown / family dinner

I think kai is really big when it comes to family so having your family present for such a big event was important for him. Not only that, it was also really important for him to get along with your family and have their approval. So, during this trip to your hometown over a winter break, he sends you off to go shopping with your close cousin/sibling. He takes this opportunity to gather the rest of your family and ask for their approval to propose to you and of course they say yes! They even help him plan a whole thing. They were excited to see that he loved you a lot and cared enough to ask for their opinions and approval. This especially swayed your parents, who came up to him after and had a little chat with him about what they’d do if he ever hurt you. Moving on….you come back home from shopping and you show kai all your finds! Later on that night, your family is all gathered together in the backyard around a bonfire, having drinks and chatting. After a little while, your family gives kai strange looks and you’re sitting there absolutely confused. Kai looked over at you and smiled, “hey baby. I wanna ask you something. Will you do me a big honor and marry me?” he pulls out the ring and as soon as you say yes, he slips it on your finger and everyone cheers!

#txt imagines #txt fluff #txt headcanons #txt x reader #txt reactions #txt texts #beomgyu x reader #soobin x reader #huening kai x reader #yeonjun x reader #taehyun x reader #tomorrow x together #txt smau #txt post #txt

[stemmmm]

My second entry into this series...

Stem's Thoughts on the Game Design of Harvest Moon 1 for GameBoy

What is a farming game if you take everything away other than the farming? If you whittle the whole thing down to its very core without any distractions? In this case it turns into a paradoxical kind of game that wants nothing more than for you NOT to play it.

Intro –  Memories of the Past

To understand what I mean by that, let’s take a step back to explain exactly what this game is. While I wasn’t overly familiar with this game before I played it for my research purposes, there were certain aspects of it seared into my brain as a child because it was the first Harvest Moon game I’d ever played (and one of the first games I’d played period). I remembered you could farm, and there was some kind of weird cave. I remembered you could have a cat or a dog and that you could play as a boy or a girl. I remembered that the town was just a menu where you could see the girls who run the shops. Most importantly, I remembered that the game autosaved. I remembered all of this because I had borrowed my friend’s copy of the game before going on a family trip where my mom made me share my games with my toddler cousin. He promptly destroyed my friend’s save file and I spent that trip in a 6-year-old panic trying to cover up that anything happened by making the file look the same as I remembered it being, in a desperate hope my new friend would still talk to me after I returned her game. (Everything was fine but she was mad.)

Returning to the game over 20 years later, I discovered that it’s pretty much a port of the SNES game, though not a good one, but I felt forgiving because it was on the dinky GameBoy. Instead of leaving home to take on a random farm, the game opens on the ghost of your grandpa pleading to you to become a MASTER RANCHER! He tells you that he’ll come back at the end of winter to see how you’ve been doing before he floats back up to heaven and leaves you with a video tutorial of how to farm, which existed in the SNES version but as an option on the title screen, so it was a bit less intrusive. 

So, similarities with SNES: the farm layout is generally the same, with all the same buildings like house, barn, coop, and shed, and the fence is still there too. Details like the well and the stumps that you’d originally find Harvest Sprites in are gone, and the flowerbox that keeps track of your power berry progress has been moved inside your house, which means that your fields have a lot less random stuff blocking off spaces, and that there’s actual room for crops inside your starting fence! The tool shed is the same, holding all of your working equipment, plus one of each kind of spring seed to help you get started. The shed is a more mandatory part of your daily routine than it was previously, because the lack of buttons on the GameBoy means there’s nothing you can press to swap out your tools, so swapping just isn’t an option. This doesn’t end up being as painful as it sounds because you’ll want to go to the shed every day anyway to see the Harvest Sprites who live in the cave in the back. The cave has four rooms, a main room where you can harvest mushrooms that grow every day, which makes up for the lack of forest to forage in, then there are three side rooms with a hot spring, a river which starts blocked off by a giant rock, and a room full of impassable stone pillars. The last two rooms don’t come into play until much later in the game.

Inside your house, there’s a note on the dining table that lists your animals, money, and also how much food and drink you have stocked. This is, in my opinion, part of the most interesting mechanic this game introduces, which is having to buy food to eat. There’s no cooking mechanic, so you’re forced to spend your money to buy meals and beverages at the restaurant and bar in town. Every morning, noon, and night, your character will automatically eat something, which restores a little bit of energy and indicates to you what time it is in the day. This mechanic existed in the SNES version too, but you never had to buy food. Having food in this game helps keep your happiness score up which is required for good endings, and it gives you something to spend your money on, though food and drink don’t really cost enough for it to be noticeable.

The town is, of course, a menu. You get to choose between the flower shop, bar, carpenter, church, tool shop, restaurant, and animal shop. Each place is manned by one character from the SNES version, mostly the marriageable girls, with the carpenter and animal shop manned by the two men who owned them in the other version since they ran out of girls. You have the ability to buy things, but that’s it. I won’t keep you waiting to know if there’s anything more to their stuff in this game because I already knew it going in. There’s no relationship mechanics with any of them, no marriage (after all, you can play as a girl and this game is old). You can't even talk to them. There’s a couple random events with the girls but they trigger based on the day more than anything else.

And that’s it! That’s the whole game! Get farming! 

I won’t lie, I was actually kind of excited at this point. From any reasonable angle, a farming game where the only thing to do is farm and farm and farm with no other real goal or progression outside of that is very obviously a red flag for what is at best an extremely boring game, but I was in something of a mood I guess. I was riding the high of SNES and at the time, I was interested in playing farming sims in the worst possible way– spending every last cent I ever made on crops, whether I could sustain all of them or not. It was my way of inserting a challenge into games that were otherwise extremely easy, because I found that once I stopped struggling, the game stopped being fun. By some kind of miracle, I had stumbled into a game that seemed to be designed for me to do exactly that, so I ran with it!

Immediately, I spent every last cent I could scrounge together on seeds, and while I waited for them to grow, I made friends with the Harvest Sprites. They told me that if we became better friends, they would help me on the farm, which was an interesting proposition! They didn’t do much of anything for me in the last game, so I was curious what they could do here. I gave them the mushrooms growing in the cave rather than sell them, to get the sprites’ friendships even higher. My efforts very quickly came to fruition when one offered to take my sickle to upgrade it. It would only take twelve hours, how exciting! One in-game day later and I learned that they meant twelve REAL LIFE HOURS. 

This is where things became concerning. I was trying to avoid wikis at this point because I wanted a genuine-feeling blind playthrough, so I didn’t know if this meant twelve hours of gameplay or twelve hours in general. I also wasn’t even sure if any of it would work right because I wasn’t playing on original hardware, though I expected whoever put it on the 3DS eShop wouldn’t make such a poor oversight that would cause the game to straight up not function… right?

A day of real life later and I noticed a distinct lack of sickle in my toolshed. It was about to become a problem. I managed to finally plant enough grass to buy a chicken, but I wasn’t able to actually cut the grass and the game wouldn’t let me take the chicken outside, so rather than earn money on eggs, I had to spend it all on more feed for it at the animal store. I was also using whatever time I had left in my short days to clear out my field of tree stumps, stones, and weeds to make room for my ever expanding crop empire. While this was happening, I started purposefully leaving the game on and idle whenever I wasn’t playing to make time pass more in hopes that I’d get over the twelve hour mark. By the end of spring, the sprites started to tell me that we were good enough friends that they would help on the farm, but I never noticed them do anything. My greatest saving grace was that when summer came, my unharvested crops didn’t wilt. Rather, they just vanished completely and left their tilled spaces in their wake ready for more planting– a blessing because without a scythe, I would have been completely screwed by having a massive amount of unfarmable land around my house.

On the 2nd of summer there was a typhoon, and that’s when I really started to realize something was wrong. My chickens weren’t fed and grass wasn’t cut after a day of forcibly not being able to do anything, which proved to me that the sprites didn’t help at all. On the flip side, my crops seemed untouched, no tilled land was untilled, no new weeds or debris had shown up in my field. To top it off, after a full season of weather happening, none of my fences had rotted. Could it be the case that these things were also tied to real life hours? If so, why would nothing ever happen? Neither passing time in real life nor manually changing the time of my 3DS clock made any difference.

The Sprite Timer

I couldn’t take it anymore at this point. I gave in and tried to figure out what the hell was wrong with this game, or with the emulation of it at least, if that was the source of my problems. Spoilers didn’t matter if I couldn’t just play the game, and besides, why was I so worried about spoilers? There was barely anything TO be spoiled!

It turns out this game has a nifty feature where if you press “select” twice, not once but twice in a row without backing out of the first menu with the B button, you can find a hidden menu with a setting called “timer”. If you press that, you’re asked if you want to turn on Harvest Sprite Help and can set the speed to fast or slow. This whole time I’d been worried that I’d miss out on parts of the game by not having the little manual that came with every GameBoy game, and my god, I was feeling it now. How on earth is anyone supposed to find this otherwise? This is never indicated anywhere in the game that I could find. Meanwhile in SNES, I was constantly running into signs every two feet explaining the most basic mechanics to me inside the game!

After recovering from that heavy blow, I turned on the timer set to fast and put my game down to do a little more research. In short, time passes inside the game while help is turned on. I tried looking more into some old forums to see if people had anything to say about this, but none of them got even close to bringing it up. I did however find a thread on reddit where someone mentioned having to not just close out, but reset the game to make things work. That actually made sense to me because the virtual console really only seems to do save states. So I reset the game, set my 3ds clock 4 more hours forward, and then got back in. The game was two full days later, my grass was cut, and the sickle was done. I felt sick.

I almost dropped the game then and there because this deranged mechanic freaked me out so much. If I forgot I set the timer and left the game, I could lose entire seasons to this hellish mechanic. Why even have it? Why take the experience of playing the game away from me? The only things that kept me in were the fact that technically, I would never need to use the help mechanic again because it’s only opt-in, and the game honestly felt very good to play. I made sure the timer was turned off, and went back to the daily grind. I harvested my crops, cleared my field, bought some cows, realized that my cows couldn’t be let outside at all (but they could be taken out for walks which triggered a VERY cute animation) so the fence was truly a meaningless entity here… Then things just kind of stopped happening and I started to get bored. 

I finally went and looked up the ending requirements. Ship 4,500 items and have found six power berries. 4,500 items is steep, but I’d been planting a crazy amount and didn’t keep good track so maybe I could surprise myself. Six power berries though? That was literally impossible. Almost all power berries are dug up from your field, and only 5 in total are available until your grandpa magically expands your field at the start of year two. To top it off, if I didn’t find all of the existing ones before that happened, they would be erased. That doesn’t seem like too much of a problem since I still would only need six, but that’s only for the first ending! There are THREE! And each time the requirements increase. So with little time to spare as I was already getting into fall, I started plowing.

And plowing. And plowing. And plowing.

I was pretty over the game now. The shock of the timer mechanic was a pretty big blow, and learning the requirements for the endings, mixed with the fact that it would take years of in-game time before I’d get to use any of the rewards associated with them, had worn my enthusiasm down pretty completely. My only hope was that just maybe, if I got everything but the power berries, the game would decide that my efforts were good enough and would give me a good ending anyways. Unlike SNES, this game at least has crops for fall and winter so I wasn’t completely out of things to do when those seasons came around, but still, by the end of the first winter, I was broken. I knew I had only gotten half the crops I'd needed and was short by at least 50 happiness. My options were either to throw the game in the garbage or push through another year trying to make up for it and get the genuine experience myself. I wasn’t on a hard deadline like in the previous game anyways, so I had infinite time. The years were going to keep rolling. I should have stopped playing. Instead, I learned why the sprite timer exists.

Winning Through Inaction

Come spring of year 2, Grandpa upgraded my fields to be twice as big for absolutely no reason, since it was already a pretty unusable size to start with. I got to work spending all the money I could on all the crops I could, and covered my field in them. I did my best to manage them myself, but I was exhausted by the game at this point. One day when I was done playing, I set the timer to slow and turned the game off. When I returned and reset the virtual console, the game presented me with a screen telling me the day, time, and how much the sprites had done to help me while I was gone. The numbers were pretty meager but this made time pass faster in a game that I was truly beginning to hate, so I started doing it more. I started being more purposeful in my actions and would try to make sure my fields were freshly sown before I left so there was less chance of days where the sprites would have nothing to do, and I would get more crops out of the deal, but even that didn’t seem like enough.

So in fall and winter, I stepped it up a notch. I bought 100 seed bags at the start of each season and then went into my system settings to change the date by a few days while the sprite timer was on. It wasn’t an exact science, something didn’t go to plan pretty much every single time I did it, but the result was that by the end of winter, I’d actually shipped twice as many things as I needed to somehow, despite having only shipped half of what was needed before and working my ass off for it. But we take what we get!

I thought I was short 20 happiness by the end of year 2, but grandpa was forgiving and he gave me a fishing rod that almost exclusively pulls garbage. This item is the exclusive purpose of that one room in the cave that has a river in it. It’s useless and adds absolutely nothing to the game at a point where it’s already boring as sin to get through.

To get to the next winter, knowing I didn’t need anything else, I switched the help to fast and skipped days that way, which felt very pathetic and like a waste of time and effort, but I finally got my pickax and went to town on the last room in the cave, the one filled with pillars. There’s actually two of those rooms, and they're just wall to wall pillars that I could smash for nothing but a couple of power berries to get myself to full completion.

By the way, the last completion item you can get is an umbrella that makes it rain the next day. I don’t remember accurately, I don't think I made it to the end of the next year to pick that one up, because why would I. I didn’t actually farm anything in that last year I played because the requirements to reach the level of “Master Rancher” were already attained when I got the first special item. There was truly absolutely nothing else to do. There were no more house upgrades to get, no more fields left to clear or plow, no more money I needed– good god no, I couldn't get rid of all the money I’d made by this point if I tried. Therefore there was no reason to fish either when I’d gotten that rod; I can’t cook it, there’s not a compendium of collectable fish (foreshadowing), all I can do is sell it, so why bother? The pickax gets you power berries which are useless at this point beyond giving you a completion percentage because all they give you otherwise is more energy, and since you aren’t farming, you aren’t burning that anyways. The only unique things that can come up at this point in the game are single, random events with each of the girls that I couldn’t even get to trigger for half of them. I don’t know if they got missed because I was sleeping away entire years or if I just needed to keep playing random days until they hit, but for a couple seconds of content, is it really worth it when I’m already this sick of the game?

Don’t Play This Game

It was really, really disappointing coming from the exhilaration I felt after finishing SNES to be met with… this travesty. The game has nothing in it and gives you nothing for your time, in fact it’s so baffled at the thought that you would spend time playing it that it encourages you not to. The one good thing about this game is the fact that since the 3DS eShop closed down, there’s no legal means of easily obtaining it anymore (as far as I’m aware).

#hm posting #harvest moon #story of seasons #harvest moon gb #hm gb1 #m.txt #game review #i dont have as many pics for this game because i wasn't recording footage #however theres also. a lot less to take pictures of if im being honest

[letsunity]

With Thunder Comes Lightning

Summery: Peter and MJ tried again, but the spark wasn't there; they stay as friends to raise their soon-to-be daughter. Everything was going great until evil goop and a spooky vampire guy fall out of an orange portal. Little does Peter know that the biggest pain in his ass and future mutant best friend has landed right at his feet.

Chapter 1 - Shockwave

Is it necessary for shopping to be so dull and miserable?

Seriously, there had to be a more fun way to get groceries than meandering around looking like a blind dog. What's the difference between an orange and clementine, anyway? They're both orange balls that taste nasty after you've brushed your teeth.

Peter understood why MJ couldn't go. She's heavily pregnant, after all. She couldn't waddle around like a mentally handicapped goose with a missing foot.

The issue was that MJ was so specific that he couldn't understand sometimes. How could he tell the difference between a regular banana and a foreign one grown on some random farm in nowhere-ville? No matter where it's grown, it's just an ugly phallus-shaped berry.

Also, why are pregnant cravings so weird? The idea of pickles makes Peter want to vomit, but combined with ice cream, the tears of god? Horrific!

As soon as the baby's born, they can return to - wait, what would they do? Neither was inclined to move out anywhere.

It took longer than preferred to realise the spark wasn't there. That fizzled out a while ago, maybe even before their divorce. That didn't mean they didn't care about each other, though. She's still important in his life but felt more like a close friend than his wife.

The feeling is, thankfully, mutual.

They would've broken up, moved out and stayed friends, but then MJ's pregnancy test returned positive. Even with both jobs, plus Peter's major unpaid one, it was hard to keep that house, let alone find a new one. The economy was in the toilet. Again.

A snail would be lucky to afford a shell at this rate. Even Peter's old place, as small and pathetic as it was, had been swooped up. There's nowhere affordable or available, so they agreed to live together and raise the baby as friendly roommates.

A tiny selfish part of him is sad about sex being off the table, but it's drowned out by the excitement and terror at being a father. He realised four months in that Miles was a teenager and this would be an infant - two separate things.

Can Peter do it? Raise a baby? Not only as a mentor but helping them walk, talk and wipe their baby booty. Every decision Peter made would impact that little life.

They didn't know what the gender was, so they drew straws - MJ picked the boy's name, and Peter got the girl's name. He chose May after his aunt, the closest mother figure he ever had. The birth giver didn't count.

He wasn't sure what he wanted, partly because he didn't have a choice but more because he didn't know what to expect. He saw videos of gender reveals, and aside from the ones that caused devastating wildfires, people tended to react badly. Some guys would break stuff in a rage over getting a girl.

Peter could be a girl's dad. He could sit down, paint nails, brush hair and play princess - Peter would be the best Princess! Snow White would be blushing with envy.

He's naturally witty and creative; he would keep up with their little games regardless of what they are. All he wants, honestly, is for them to be healthy and happy. Having Peter and MJ will be good, though he's sad they'll never meet May. She would've loved the tyke.

What will they look like? Will they be wonky and crooked like Peter or smooth and graceful like MJ? It's the luck of the draw with genetics. It's not like Peter could test for that thanks to his spider DNA - that would be more of a nightmare than sleepless nights.

Peter might be reaching his forties, but that's too soon to reveal he's Spiderman. It'll happen eventually; it's impossible to avoid. He'll choose, however. When his baby is grown and safe, he'll tell the world.

On his deathbed.

Surprise, this old dying bastard is Spiderman!

Oh, will the baby inherit any of his spider powers? That's something he never considered.

If there's any luck, which Peter severely lacked, then the baby won't do an exorcist and turn their head around while hanging on the ceiling.

Tingle tingly. Something spooky is afoot.

The older man glanced over his shoulder, trying to spot what triggered his Spidey sense. So far, it looked as mundane as usual. Nameless faces wandering around seeking produce and other artificially created crap, nothing suspicious.

The tingles never lie.

Peter heard someone scream from outside the store. Whatever the tingle was about, it probably originated from there.

After the situation in Miles' world, Peter started wearing his suit under regular clothes in case of this stuff. It shouldn't be easy to change, but with the people inside drawn to the screaming outside like moths to a flame, he threw off his dull clothes, ready to face whatever was happening.

Is it Goblin again? Rhino? Doctor Octopus? Maybe it's a new loser with nothing better to do. He hadn't seen Sauron, the dino scientist, in a while. He could get lucky and have somebody else's trash.

He liked Magneto. The guy was much easier to talk to than Scorpion. Most of the X-Men's villains are more open to communication. It could be one of the loonies like Taskmaster.

God forbid Deadpool or Moon Knight was running around New York again. He liked Wade in small doses, and it's hard to predict a person if they have three identities - you never know if it's Marc, Steven or Jake. Out of that trio, he liked Steven the most.

Spin the wheel of luck and villainy, great god of this confusing and scary universe!

Placing his shopping basket and list somewhere safe, Peter hopped over the aisles and through the doors. It's chaos outside, people yelling and running for their lives.

There's a freaky tear in the sky as if some cosmic cat had torn at the sofa lining of reality itself. It's glitching and leaking something, almost like it's bleeding. He got sucked through a portal once, but it didn't look so... septic. It's diseased and necrotic, and the air around it turned grey.

A bird flew close to it, freezing and falling instantly. Stay away from the spooky sky rip.

Freaky.

The hole shivered and widened almost like an eye, and two shapes fell out. The rift closed behind them, but Peter could still see a faint scar in the sky. Did Kingpin build another collider? Did the one in his universe do that? No, that was more like a Stark thing to do.

Maybe it's Doctor Strange. He's always messing with stuff that he shouldn't.

Peter swung towards the shapes, spotting them quickly.

One was so black that it absorbed all light, a writhing mass akin to a Symbiote but huge. It had red veins, almost like lightning, all over its body and a pair of viciously glowing vermillion eyes. It had a tail that twitched weakly on the melting road. Everything it touched started to decay.

The other was a Spiderman variant, already beginning to stand. He was a dark blue with red markings, ripped and tall. That guy is something new.

His spider-sense demanded he keep his distance, terrified of the black shape. Within a blink, the mass changed, spreading like a violent sea. It was roaring, crying in pain and anger and glee. Those red eyes were pulsating, swallowing the blue guy. However, Peter was unable to move.

Every cell in his body told him to flee, to get as far as possible from the Symbiote-like monster. It looked like Venom on roids!

A bulge grew within the living mound of angry flesh, soon bursting and revealing an outstretched hand covered in red and blue. There was something cylindrical and beeping.

Bomb.

The black mass seemed to realise as well, starting to disperse. However, the blue Spiderman threw something, causing a force field to form around them. It screeched, and then there was nothing, not a sound.

Peter jumped to the edge, waiting for a sign of something. His senses still told him to run, but someone needed help.

He looked for what created the barrier, quickly finding it. It's futuristic tech, but he figured it out. It took longer than he wanted to, but he's getting old; he's getting an elderly brain.

What's the age for dementia? Eh, it's not imperative.

The field disintegrated, vanishing into nothingness. There's black ooze and a cracked silver ball on the melting road. It looked dead, but he was still afraid of that stuff, whatever it was. He was worried the other guy had turned to ash before a hand tore through a charred car.

A Spiderman with talons? That's new.

The stranger pulled himself out of the car, looking intimidating and something out of Day of the Dead. He didn't get to take a step before collapsing off the roof, not moving.

Peter jumped to the guy's side, pulling him onto his back.

He could smell blood but couldn't see it. What is with the guy's suit?

"Neck," he heard; it was raspy and tired. "Nape."

Peter reached around the back of the guy's neck, feeling something that shouldn't be there. He pressed on it, and the suit vanished like a light was switched off.

How in the fuck was the man even alive? He had a gouge so deep in his abdomen that Peter could see past the fat and onto his bare intestines. Blood pooled under him, and burns covered what wasn't open or bruised.

"Burn it," the stranger spat, red trickling down his mouth. "Quémalo todo. Por favor, date prisa."

It would be great to know Spanish right now. What did he want to be burned? The guy's already flambéd.

His eyes are a beautiful red mixed with brown, the opposite of that monster's shade. He's pale from blood loss and is losing consciousness.

He can't let this guy die here.

It's not safe to take him to a hospital. He's not from their dimension; Nick Fury would pop his other eyeball out of his skull!

The only place that Peter could take him was the house where he could heal. He could already see it at work, and it was faster than Peter's healing factor; he's never seen it like that before.

"Burn it," the guy said before finally passing out.

"Come on, big guy. Let's fix you up."

Peter carefully lifted the man, well aware of their size difference. He heard a little whine of pain, which was an understatement for how fucked up he was.

What's with the funky watch?

It was hard to explain why he didn't return with groceries but brought a full-grown WWE candidate.

They used all the bandages in their first aid kids, even having to rip some of Peter's shirts to cover him up.

The regular healing was exhausting for Peter, so he couldn't imagine how much energy it'd take to recover from injuries that severe.

"So, he just fell out of a portal, like you did?" MJ questioned, rightfully confused and worried.

What's going to be the baby's future bedroom was occupied by their surprise guest. He's unconscious still, and he's a hunk of a man. What little skin that wasn't burnt, bleeding, or bruising was beautifully olive-toned and surprisingly smooth.

Those eyes lingered in Peter's mind. He hadn't seen eyes like that before, so fresh but burdened. The eyes of a Spiderman, but there's something different about that guy.

"Yeah. Unlike how I was, he's not glitching all over the place, which is a small mercy. Don't know how to get him home, though, wherever that is."

Having two spiders in New York would be helpful, but the new guy belongs in his dimension. He had a home somewhere else and probably a family as well.

"Maybe he could tell us who the other one was. The one he wanted to burn."

"I don't get it. It's all he'd say. "Burn it". It's so weird, MJ - whatever went near the sludge just died, but he was swallowed by it and came out... well, not fine, but alive."

"Must be a Spider thing. Or because it's from his dimension."

"Yeah, probably. I just have a bad feeling about that stuff. It was dead, but damn, it made my senses go wild. If I tingled anymore, I'd be vibrating."

"Peter, I hate it when you call it a "tingle". It makes me cringe."

"I like calling it a tingle! It's tingling. Like a good version of pins and needles."

"There are no good pins and needles."

"Eh, bad example."

The tingles are good! They keep Peter alive, and he can help people with them.

Oddly, they don't go off regarding the new guy. With the others, he connected to them; maybe with this guy, it cancels each other out? That would be freaky.

It would mean Peter couldn't know if their unexpected guest needed help since he clearly couldn't ask for it. It's about time he checked on the blue spider, whoever he is.

Gwen and Miles were proof that not all Spidermen had the name of Parker. It was weird to see Gwen, honestly. She and her father already died in his dimension; he cradled both their bodies.

Peter Porker made eating sausages and bacon incredibly awkward now. He also couldn't see a Rubik's Cube and not imagine Noir getting confused by it.

He missed them, honestly. It was nice to feel like Peter wasn't alone; there were more like him.

And speaking of honesty, Peter was tempted to stay in Miles' universe. Even though his molecules would've broken apart eventually, it felt like a second chance at life. He could've even retired and tried living a peaceful life.

It was a selfish desire, born partly out of fear and depression. He's glad he didn't, even though he missed that kid; Miles was what finally got Peter to face his fear of fatherhood.

Though it's hard to say when Peter will be ready, he looks forward to meeting this new life. He hoped to raise them to be like Miles; that kid was an excellent role model.

Intelligent, spunky, had the Spider attitude, curious and courageous. He learned to control his camouflage and shock powers pretty quickly.

Peter crept to the spare room; before they discovered MJ's pregnancy, it was where Peter kept his spider stuff.

In a roundabout way, it's storing spider stuff again.

Super tall and buff spider stuff with pretty reddish-brown eyes.

Huh. He'd never thought so much about a guy's eyes like that before.

Shaking that off, Peter opened the door.

The sound alerted the new guy, and red eyes snapped to Peter's location, pupils pinpricked and locking onto him. He could almost see the redness grow in vibrancy. Does he have mood stone eyes?

There was a brief grumble of annoyance and probably pain; the man's stomach was bare to the world barely half an hour ago. Even so, the individual pushed himself to sit up, though not by much. He growled, holding his abdomen.

"Maravilloso," the stranger growled, his voice strained and exhausted. He rubbed his forehead, likely stuck with a concussion. "¿Dónde estoy?"

A curious thing was how he avoided the sunlight peaking through the curtains. It must be the concussion.

"Sorry, big man, I don't speak any Spanish."

Peter got a towel from the bathroom and hung it over the curtain railing, shielding away most of the light. It instantly put the new guy at ease, his eyes dilating to regular size.

"Where are we?" the stranger reiterated, sounding tired.

He couldn't blame him. The guy survived a close contact bomb and whatever that corrosive goop was.

"Me and MJ's place," Peter answered, wondering why his spidery sense wasn't active around the newbie. "You're looking better than before; that's not saying much since I saw your guts. You got banged up pretty badly out there." Super understatement. "I'm Peter, by the way."

"I know."

How?

Maybe Peter left some of his stuff here, or there was a Peter Parker in that guy's universe. It's entirely possible.

"Great. What's your name?"

"Classified."

Oh, so they're playing that game?

"Well, Mister Classified, you need to eat something. It always helped boost my factor. What's your fancy?"

Mister Classified tried to get up, only to fail. He hissed, gripping his side, scowling at the offending location.

Peter tended to be stubborn when hurt as well. He always tried to put on a brave face and keep going, but that did him no favours. He's close to his forties, and the years weren't kind on his ageing bones. What Mister Classified needed was rest, water, morphine and food.

Running around wasn't going to help.

"Where is it?" Mister Classified grunted, loosening his grip a little. He had a good poker face; Peter would sob like a newborn. "His ash."

"Whose?" Peter inquired, confused.

"Klyntarus. The Symbiote. I told you to burn him."

Klyntar was the planet where the Symbiotes came from. It's super pretentious to name yourself after your home planet.

No human is running around named Earthus! Though there are a few called Gaia.

Peter's lack of an answer was all Mister Classified needed. There were many emotions - anger, hate, fear, regret, grief, back to anger and more fear.

Ignoring Peter, he touched the back of his neck, that suit returning and covering his entirety. He used the wall to stand, his fingers digging through the drywall. When it looked like he was going to collapse again, Peter tried to help, but he swiped Peter's hands away.

"Estúpido bastardo inútil," Mister Classified seethed, scowling through his mask. "It took me ten years to get him cornered!" He shouted, expressing his anger. "Thanks to you, he's still alive!"

A whole decade? Damn, that's some commitment.

Peter's always been good at guessing people's age. It's a sixth, or seventh, sense of his. While the man looked Peter's age, his gut told him the guy was twenty-seven, a full eleven years younger than Peter.

From the numbers, he's been fighting that nemesis slime since he was seventeen or eighteen, perhaps even longer.

He never intended to survive that bomb, did he? Mister Classified, whoever he was, was willing to die if it meant defeating Klyntarus.

And Peter let it go.

Ten years down the drain.

"Symbiotes need a host to function. He didn't have one. How did he, well, operate?"

"The sphere stabilises him. It needs lifeforce to power it. He's out there, consuming people and endangering your entire universe... He's shocking cancer."

He let that go.

"We'll take care of it; two's better than one, after all," Peter smiled, wanting to make up for his mistake. "That ball thing was pretty damaged, so he's still weak. We can get him."

Since his tingles won't go off, Peter was vigilant. He could see Mister Classified was shaking, his legs wanting to give out.

Peter could be stubborn too.

He ignored the light shove from the stranger, using his spider strength to push him back onto the mattress.

"You can't get him if you can't even stand, Mister Classified. I'll ask again, what do you want to eat? It'll make you heal faster."

Even though his healing is already faster than Peter's.

He pressed the metal bud on the guy's spine, the suit disappearing. A layer of sweat made his olive skin glisten, almost glowing. He'll need a good sleep after eating something.

"Miguel."

"Pardon?"

"My name," Miguel said, something sharp poking over his bottom lip. "Miguel O'Hara."

"Much better than Mister Classified. How about a coffee?"

It felt weird to suggest that.

"Allergic."

"No way, seriously?"

"Have a lot of them."

Who can survive without the grace of god that was coffee? It kept Peter from falling into a coma.

"Is McDonald's on the list?"

Miguel was pondering, listing things mentally.

"No."

"McDonald's it is!"

They're getting somewhere. Brilliant.

It's gross and greasy, but something about it was horrifically addictive and satisfying. When in doubt, go to the Donald.

MJ always loved her chicken nuggets. She was like a hamster with their babies with her nugs. It was always hilarious to him.

It was impressive how MJ could down twenty nuggets in mere minutes.

"How're you feeling?" she asked, wiping away some ketchup.

"Not great," Peter admitted, glancing across the hall. "Wished I listened. Never been great at that."

"He would've died if you didn't, darling. You did what you do best; you saved someone."

She always knew what to say, even though it didn't fit here.

He knows what that thing will do if Peter doesn't catch it. It's a threat to everything Peter holds dear.

MJ was right, though - Miguel would've bled out if Peter didn't grab him.

Have there been villains that Peter was willing to die to defeat? He wasn't sure.

"We don't have any shirts that fit him," MJ sighed, popping another nugget in her mouth. "I doubt even your slacks would fit him, too."

"Maybe it's an allergy thing? He mentioned having a bunch of allergies; the guy can't even drink coffee."

"Poor bastard."

"I know! I wouldn't be alive without those brown steamed bean water tears of god."

"Always a poet when it comes to food, Peter."

"It's why you love me."

"For sure."

He's an excellent foodie.

He'll need Miguel's size to get him something that wasn't a spooky Halloween hologram. That would draw too much attention. They needed to go covert to scout out possible locations.

Sounds like a shopping trip. He can pick up those groceries he planned on getting before meeting his new buddy.

"Well, we have been needing to get some baby stuff. How about it, MJ? Wanna go shopping for an interdimensional vagabond?"

"I'll need measurements. Also, I want a Starbucks."

"Whatever you and the little munchkin need. It'll be funny explaining stuff - like in Miles' universe, right? They didn't even have FedEx! It was called RedEx. And Coca-Cola is Cola Soda!"

"You're easily impressed."

Peter nearly jumped out of his skin. He didn't hear or feel anything, but there Miguel was, using the doorway as support.

God damn, is that man tall.

MJ was thinking something similar, looking him up and down.

Like before, he was covering himself with his holographic suit. He still looked like crap, but not as bad as some hours ago.

"I told you eating would make you feel better," Peter grinned, happy that he looked better. Still, he should be resting, not moving around. "Miguel, this is MJ. She's the boss of the house."

"Damn straight."

"Obviamente," he grumbled. Peter suspected that he was being insulted somehow. "Parker, how many heroes are active in your universe?"

"Not sure. I mean, there's the Avengers, X-Men -"

"That's plenty. He'll be busy feeding off them for now. That gives us time before he's strong enough for us."

Though Peter didn't get on with all heroes, he was friends with many of them. Despite being kicked out of Wolverine's poker night, he still hung out with the short savage. Though cold, Black Widow was nice, too.

Peter didn't want all of them to die.

"Could we at least warn them about him?" Peter tried, worried for them.

"You'll only speed up the process. He's killed you enough times to think you aren't a threat. That's our best chance for now."

So, that's how he knew about Peter. He's seen Peter die before.

Miguel knew Klyntarus the best; he understood how he would operate and who he'd attack first.

It's strategic - remove any potential ally to your nemesis. Consuming those with abilities must give him a boost, too.

As Miguel said, he's cancer.

"How many times has he killed Peter?" MJ asked, worried.

"From what I know, twenty-three times within the past eight months. Not all universes have a Peter Parker, though, as he's seen."

More than twenty-three Spider-people. That's so many. And, most likely, their universes were gone like them.

An unfathomable amount of people are dead due to a single creature.

He let that go.

MJ used her foot to push open a chair, encouraging their surprise guest to sit with them. He stared at the invitation, perplexed, awkwardly standing there.

"Come sit with us," MJ suggested, visibly curious. Was that not an obvious thing in his universe? Then again, Noir never understood what a TV was. "You're staying with us until we figure out how to get you home."

"This can take me back," Miguel said, showing the damaged watch. "After I've repaired it, of course. Fortunately, the damage wasn't enough to disrupt the stabilising process - it'll stop me from "glitching"."

"Did you make that?" Peter asked, now very interested in the device. "Could've used that in Miles' universe. Glitching is not fun, I assure you."

"It only started working eight months ago. It'll make a secure portal to any universe logged on it. It'll be a coño to fix; the technology in your universe is... older than mine."

"Eh, we can borrow some of Stark's crap. He doesn't use half of it."

"Stark. That's the rich narcissist with a superiority complex. Right?" Miguel inquired, lucky to lack an Iron Man.

"Basically, yeah. How are you with stealth?"

It's hard to imagine him being stealthy, but Peter hasn't seen him in action.

It is creepy to almost watch the bruise over Miguel's eye heal. It was eerily fast, and it made him uncomfortable.

"You didn't hear me when I came to the kitchen. That should be your answer."

That's fair.

Hopefully, while they're out getting this guy an actual shirt, they'll hear about the evil sludge.

"By the way, we're going to go shopping to get you clothes that aren't giving villain vibes," Peter stated.

It was a little funny seeing that statement process in Miguel's deep, oddly coloured eyes. He was squinting a little, so the concussion must still irritate him. He can borrow Peter's sunglasses.

It'll be a shame not to see those eyes, though. Something about the colour was magnetising. Not many people had red eyes, and he had claws; he was even more unique than Porker!

"I don't need it."

"And that suit isn't going to draw unwanted attention?" MJ countered. "Nobody will understand why there are two Spidermen, much less one that looks like another Venom."

That weirdly seemed to hurt their new comrade. Something about that comment wounded him personally. Did he have a previous interaction with a Venom variant?

Maybe it's because Klyntarus is a Symbiote; he didn't want to be compared to that.

"Fine."

"We should go before everything closes. That'll be a pain, huh?" Peter huffed, getting out of the chair. "Come on, big guy. Time to measure you."

"Not necessary. I'll get it myself."

"With what money?" MJ inquired, raising a red brow.

"From an unattended ATM," he answered coldly.

He said it as though it was the obvious answer. Why wouldn't your first thought go to theft?

"Miguel, you're not stealing money from people," Peter stated, though that didn't change Miguel's mind. "We'll get you a shirt, some pants and shoes."

"I'm not stealing from people; I'm stealing from the bank. Es completamente diferente."

"Take Stark's money. It's not like he'll miss a few grand," MJ suggested, which wasn't helping. "I'm compromising," she shrugged.

"Can you even get into Stark's accounts?" Peter asked, admittedly curious.

"Easily. It's not the first time I've done it. Won't be the last."

Although Peter is tech-savvy, he wasn't able to get that far. Although Stark was a hero, he was a bit up his ass. It might be good to be knocked down a peg or two.

He'd be more hurt that his security failed than losing a grand or two.

It barely took Miguel five minutes to get through Tony's security. Honestly, Peter was impressed.

Although Peter didn't like the idea of stealing, they didn't have much money. It would be hard to feed three mouths, one mostly needing milk. They never had any plans for a giant man to join them.

Peter was at eye level with Miguel's chest; the man was almost a foot taller than him.

He has an impressive chest, too.

"So, do you have a new york as well?" MJ asked, trying to keep the mood up. He was still hurt, but at least he could walk without Peter's support.

"Nueva York," Miguel answered gruffly, and Peter could almost feel his eyes glaring behind those sunglasses. "It's... going through some changes."

"Yeah, we're finally getting some potholes fixed," Peter shrugged, unsure what Miguel could mean. "What villains do you have?"

"Dead ones."

Oh.

From how Miguel said it, it implied he killed his villains. It's possible not all Spider-people had a no-kill rule. That might be a problem that Peter will need to discuss.

Hopefully, none of Peter's regulars decided to test that implication.

"Miguel, can I ask how you know this guy?" MJ asked, wincing when she saw the taller man cringe. She put a hand over her abdomen, soothing herself. "It's a long story, isn't it?"

"Very," he answered, sounding less annoyed and more burdened by it. "He's why I'm a Spiderman, I guess. Él me creó."

Peter needs to get a translator or something and stat.

Finally, they reached the store where they knew they had big enough sizes for their unexpected guest. So far, it hasn't been all that bad, though Peter was worried about Klyntarus. As Miguel said, he's out there, consuming people to get stronger.

It felt stupid that they were getting clothes, but it drew less attention than the suit. Besides, he could summon it to cover his clothes; he wouldn't be naked.

Peter saw more of the man than he wanted to, but Miguel didn't seem to care. It's possible nudity doesn't mean anything in Nueva York.

It'll be cool to see him in action, though. He's been a spider for ten-odd years; he must've picked up some things.

How did he get the claws in his suit?

Peter wanted those!

"Parker."

"What is it, big man?"

"To the left."

As advised, Peter looked left. Behind the counter was a TV, which was usually for CCTV.

However, it showed a news anchor looking quite sullum and sad, a slight redness to his eyes.

"Uh, hey, can you turn that up?" asked another customer.

The look on Miguel's face told Peter enough. Whatever happened was Klyntarus' doing.

"- We lost five great heroes in their effort to protect us, the people. They will forever be remembered for their sacrifices and tremendous bravery, even in the face of such evil. We say our sorrowful goodbyes to She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Daredevil. Out of respect for their selfless endeavour to keep us safe, we won't reveal their identities. To their families, we, the people, are both grateful and sorry for your loss."

No. No, they couldn't be dead.

Peter would hang out with Matt and Carl all the time. Although Jessica and Danny weren't friendly, he got along with them great!

Regretfully, he didn't see Jennifer much, but her cousin, Bruce, was a great guy. He must be devastated to have lost her like that.

Carl and Jess' poor daughter...

"Five hours, five heroes. He's more wounded than I anticipated," Miguel said coldly, either unphased or excellent at hiding his emotions.

Miguel expected this, however. He knew that heroes were going to die.

This was Peter's fault.

"Peter," MJ whispered, holding his arm. She knew how close he was to Daredevil and Cage. They were good guys, better than him. They would've listened. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," he said, feeling numb and angry. "Let's just get this over with so we can catch him. We're going out tonight."

"He can't hide his scars. It'll be easier to spot him at night," Miguel concurred, but it didn't alleviate the growing pit in Peter's stomach.

What the hell has he left rampant in his world?

Special thanks to spider-the-bat for the borders!

#ao3 might be fucked #ao3 refugee #ao3 #ao3fic #across the spider verse #miguel o'hara #peter b parker x miguel o'hara #peter b parker #marvel #mj watson #mayday isn't born yet #spiderman atsv #spiderdads #bestie goals mj #oscar isaac is miguel o'hara #with thunder comes lightning #plague of the spiderverse series

[the-habitat-ring]

The (Real) Stardew Valley Farm

So a year and a half ago we bought a house, AKA the real life habitat ring. I swear the yard came with every single non-aquatic invasive plant we’ve got. Slowly but surely we’ve been murdering all the Japanese honeysuckle and poison hemlock, tearing up a truly inhumane amount of weed barrier and pea gravel, and adding truckloads of wood chips and other organic matter to start to repair the soil. Our goal is to replace everything with mostly native plants with an emphasis on food production.

But of course I needed more of a challenge. I love playing Stardew Valley. It’s really the only video game I play. And somewhere I got the idea, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to grow everything in Stardew Valley in our yard?” So here we are. Obviously I don’t live on some magical land with perfect weather, a giant greenhouse, and a second farm on a tropical island, so I have to make plenty of substitutions. I’m also trying to grow native plants whenever possible. Any suggestions are welcome!

2021

Amaranth - Native white amaranth (the birds love it!)

Grape - Native riverbank grapes (so many grapes) and some green cultivated variety from the neighbors

Dandelion - Obviously

Maple Tree - Native silver, red, and sugar maples (also an invasive Norway maple but we chopped it down)

Pine Tree - Not sure what kind of pines they are

Apple Tree - Not in great shape. I’d love an Enterprise apple tree at some point

Coffee Bean - Chicory (maybe that’s cheating, but it’s a naturalized plant commonly used as a coffee substitute)

Salmonberry - Not native to the Midwest, so we’re sticking with native black raspberries. We’ll likely add some pink/yellow raspberries later though

2022

Kale

Rhubarb

Strawberry - Both cultivated and native

Tulip

Radish

Tomato

Beet

Eggplant

Fairy Rose - Not a real thing so I substituted the native prairie rose

Cranberries - Native cranberry viburnum

Orange Tree -Native persimmons, which produce orange fruit

Daffodil

Spring Onion - Native nodding onions and also green onions indoors

Spice Berry - Native spicebushes

Wild Plum - Native

Hazelnut - Native

Crocus

Cherry Tree - Native black cherries and nonnative bush cherries

Tea Leaves - Native New Jersey Tea bush

Banana Tree - Native pawpaws, which are also known as Indiana bananas

Mango Tree - One of the pawpaws is a named variety called mango so I think that counts

Ginger - Attempted native wild ginger, which I don’t think survived, but am also growing ginger indoors

Green Bean

Sweet Gem Berry - Native Juneberry (Downy Serviceberry) which are a redish color

Planned for 2023

Blue Jazz - Not real so I went with the native Ozark Bluestar, which seems similar enough

Garlic

Parsnip

Apricot Tree - Native passionflower vine. Not a tree, but it is known as wild apricot

Blueberry

Sunflower - Both native and non-native sunflowers

Pineapple - Neither my spouse nor I like pineapples, so we’re going with white strawberries known as pineberries that are said to have a tropical taste

Pumpkin

Melon

Wild Horseradish - Except I’ll be growing it in a pot because it tends to get a little too wild for my tastes

Holly - Native winterberry holly

Oak Tree - Native dwarf chinquapin oak

Sweet Pea

Hot Pepper

Palm Tree - Obviosuly not going to work here but there is a native palm sedge that I’ll plant instead

Planned for 2024

Potato

Corn

Hops - Hoping to get a cutting from a native hops vine (if the local beer people don’t kill me)

Winter Root - I’m gonna go with native ground nuts because you can dig up the roots in winter

Poppy - Hopefully native wood poppy

Red Cabbage

Artichoke - Native Jerusalem artichokes

Cactus Fruit - Native prickly pear cactus

Yam

Bok Choy

Leek

Fiddlehead Fern

Blackberry

Crystal Fruit - I’m gonna go with honey berries, which produce fruit earlier than anything else

Ancient Fruit - Native Aronia berries are the only thing I can think of for this one. They’re blue(ish) and have lots of antioxidants so you live to be ancient

Figuring Out Substitutes

Rice

Wheat

Starfruit - Not really sure how to swing this one, so suggestions are welcome

Summer Spangle - Not real, so I’m open to suggestions of native plants. Possibly prairie lily? It has a similar-ish shape, is orange, and blooms in summer

Qi Fruit - Creepy little man

Taro Root - I would have to plant it in pots

Morel - I wish I could grow this

All the other mushrooms - I think I’ll just ignore any varieties and just try plugs or similar

Snow Yam

Cave Carrot - Trying to find a native carrot substitute

Coconut - I shouldn’t count this separately from palm trees, right?

Mahogany Tree

Peach Tree

Pomegranate Tree - There are Russian pomegranates that are hardy to zone 6, which just might work with climate change

#I make bad decisions but at least the wildlife love me #don’t be a petaq grow native plants #gardening #stardew valley #sdv #the habitat ring #the (real) stardew valley farm

[granblue-advisor]

Game Tips: Exo Ifrit Crucible TL;DR

Is it worth farming?

Yes, the weapon is good and it gives you a lot of crystals for your first clear. You should at least farm:

One kill of every level up to and including 150, even if you have to use Elixirs, for the clear crystals and sand

The Level 10 Wonder, to buff your fire team everywhere

At least one Attack copy of the weapon

How many Daggers do I get?

Attack: One is very important, the weapon is super strong for Manadiver, you absolutely want it.

Special: We've done some tests on it already and it doesn't seem like there's much space for it. Get one just as a filler in case you need it in the future, maybe two if you have the time. You don't really need much more.

Quwatoro has a very good video going further in-depth into it.

What's the fastest way to farm this?

For weapon and material drops: Killing the Level 80 boss in one turn with as few skills as possible.

For Wonder EXP: Either more Level 80 killing, or whatever the highest tier you can FA consistently, either is fine.

Make sure you have your Journey Drops enabled and Tien in the backrow for a higher drop rate if you have her. If you have no relevant backrow characters and no characters you want to level, SR Richard also provides a bit extra.

I personally used Dark Opus Mainhand with Echo Key (Chain of Falsehood) and the 3 skills on screen. This setup kills with Kaguya x Kaguya summons, so you can realistically kill it with any grid and weaker characters. It took me about two hours for four copies of the dagger.

The threshold is not that high with access to the Covenant buffs, so give some options a try. If you don't have access to Belial weapons, try a Beelzebub call into just the strongest auto attackers you have on you.

Is anything else in the shop worth it?

Grab the earrings and the rings you care for, then the damascus nuggets if you still need those. Anything else you can dump on elixirs or berries. Elixirs from this shop are not AP-positive, so it's really not worth clearing it out.

Edit: A More Accessible Build

As per @icharchivist's suggestion, here's an example of a build that can be performed with no limited characters and a midgame grid.

(Leviathan x Europa/Lucifer/Bahamut)

Pressing: Engage Augments (MC 1), Limit Burst (MC 2), Bounty Hunter III (MC 3), Nothing More (Sturm 3)

This might not be consistent for you because my Zeta is ringed. If it fails, add in a summon of your choice. There's better character picks too (Lecia in backrow, Grand Lancelot over Vampy).

Since this is an ougi-based build, any characters with high CA damage, or that deal extra damage after it are solid here. Other permanent picks include Vane or Romeo, or either water Eternal at level 100+ if you have them.

As for time-limited weapons in the grid, none of them are required, you can kinda freestyle this with whatever weapons you have on hand, but it might need an extra button press or two. If you're higher level and have access to Schrodingers, you can bring in two, which will make it a lot easier as well.

#gbf #granblue #granblue fantasy #granblue advisor #granblue tips

[tyo-mimt]

7/36. @tmnt-event-blog

Video games… A consistent escape.

Raph didn't get insomnia, but he did get nightmares. It was the same one, over and over again, and he always realised too late. He could spend minutes to hours trying to wake up, only to spiral deeper into those fractures of his past. Sometimes, he had to deal with them alone, and other times, he had the luck of one of his brothers being awake. They'd be there to comfort him; they always did, never complaining and always consoling.

Tonight was the former, a rare moment where everyone was seemingly able to sleep a wink. A part of him was all right with this: if he could offer his own sleep for everyone else's, he'd make that trade in a heartbeat. Heh, Donnie and Leo would be to thank for that...

He sat up in his bed, grounding himself with the steady drone of the heater in his room and the soft fabric of his plushies between his fingers. His vision wasn't something he could rely on, the nothingness on the right side of his vision served as a reminder of what came before.

Eventually, when the buzzing became more than muffled white noise and he managed to move his fingers, Raph let out a deep exhale. He opened his eyes. The right side of his room wasn't coming back; he'd accepted that a while ago.

As quietly as he could, he pushed himself off the bed and considered his options. Going back to sleep wasn't ideal; going to his brothers when they finally got some sleep also wasn't appealing; sitting it out felt boring; sparring or training or even leaving the room would wake someone else up.

He scanned his room properly, working eye landing on the small television they managed to salvage from the old lair. It was tucked away in the corner of the room, hidden beneath other things he didn't have time or energy to organise prior. There was a collection of video games stacked on an old unused console, unorganised and untouched since the day they were salvaged.

That'd do.

He sat in front of the screen, switching the screen on and rushing to turn the volume down. On the console, he chose the closest game he could reach for, the controller in his hands a foreign but familiar feeling. He was glad his first pick was a singleplayer game; he wouldn't have to rummage through the collection and risk making more noise.

It was some farming simulator; something April donated to the boys before she got fired from that retail store.

It was nice. To not need to be reminded of a fight or that he was in danger. He let his muscle memory take control as he went into autopilot, watering his digital plants from either Mikey's or Donnie's previous save file (the various clues littered throughout map didn't help on that front) and planting new crops.

He didn't want to progress the story, so he spent the night harvesting any fruits and berries. There was a little corner where he assumed Leo played for a bit, likely to mess with the holder of the save file. He decided to harvest those as well, replanting them with more carrots to pretend they went untouched.

That was the cycle; watering, harvesting, replanting, and expanding... He was a little surprised it carried him to five in the morning. The drowsiness began to settle, but sleep still wasn't particularly appealing.

He saved the game and turned the console off, erasing any trace of the progress he made on the game. Maybe he'd be able to relax enough for a nice long nap when the next night rolls in.

#rottmnt #tmnt holiday bingo #peppermint lane #rottmnt raph

[leebrontide]

Behold, my gardening white whale- one of the rarest berries on earth, the cloudberry. This subarctic dwarf raspberry will happily tolerate not only the frigid winters of Minnesota (it's actually native to the northernmost bits of my state) AND the highly acidic soil we've inherited.

It's said to have a flavor like a cross between a raspberry, a mango, apricot and passionfruit, but a bit sour eaten fresh. The fruit is so soft and delicate that they're nearly impossible to ship or sell as fresh fruit. This means they are ideal for, and highly sought after for, jams and jellies.

If you've never heard of them before it's likely because they do NOT lend themselves to farming. For one thing, you have to have both male and female plants, nearby one another. AND it takes years for the plant to reach fruiting maturity- which means you don't know whether any given plant is male or female for years after planting it. To top it off, these little plants aren't heavy producers- growing between 1 and 20 berries per year. Compare that to my raspberries which we were practically drowning in by year 3.

But just look at them.

Just little bitty 8-12" video-game-looking fruit.

And I mean they're called CLOUD berries. I live in Stormbrew House. My name is Brontide. Come on. I need them!

The barriers are these:

Water. These little guys love peat bogs. I don't have any peat. And thanks to Climate change our summers keep getting dryer and dryer. The one thing I can think is if I dig a trench near one of the roof gutter spouts- I've seen people do that to have a bit of wetlands in their yard, so maybe?

They are incredibly difficult to get ahold of! They're a threatened species in MN, and they aren't farmed. Supposedly, even in Scandinavia where they're the most plentiful the location of well-developed cloudberry communities is a family secret passed down through generations. You CAN buy seeds online, but this is a rhizome plant. It's gonna grow way better via rhizome than seed. They're notoriously finicky seeds, and tbh I'm not great at seeds at the best of times. And I can't find rhizomes or cuttings for sale. Even if I did, would they be illegally harvested? It's a conundrum.

So, my dream may or may not ever come to pass. But I live in hope.

I am very open to suggestions.

#cloudberries #cloudberry #gardenblr #Stormbrew house #Stormbrew garden #Minnesota #Native planting #rhombus house garden

[simsccfinds-world]

NOT SO BERRY CHALLENGE 2.0

Not So Berry Legacy Challenge 2.0

All credits go to Lilsimsie and AlwaySimming (I have simply made another "rainbow" of berry sims for those who already played with the original)

Do you like the rainbow? Do you like the idea of playing with berry Sims but hate berry Sims? Do you want to mess around with aspects of the game you’ve never used before? Boy, do I have the challenge for you!

Welcome to the Not So Berry Legacy Challenge, a ten generation legacy with a focus on bright colors and new experiences.

Basic Rules:

Each heir must represent the color of the generation (i.e. hair, makeup, clothing), but brightly colored skin is not necessary (these aren’t actually berry Sims, that’s the joke). Of course, this is optional but a big portion of the fun.


The colors of the spouses don’t matter as they aren’t part of the challenge. Unless otherwise stated you can do whatever you please with them.

Money cheats can be used, but not excessively. Suggestion: use freerealestate for your first home, but no cheats afterward.

You may live wherever you please unless something is specified in the rules of a generation.

Every generation is supposed to complete both the career and aspiration of the heir unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Keep the lifespan on normal.

If you play this challenge and want to share it with us, go ahead and post with #notsoberry so we can see!

______________________________________________________________________

Generation One : Black 

You have always been kind of a loner and were never really interested in love like seemingly all of your friends seemed to be. You are more focussed on your computer and books, loving to play life sim games. But you are still excited to start a family, even without finding “The One”. You have so much love in you, you are convinced you can raise a child as a single parent just as well as anyone else. 

Traits : Slob, Geek, Noncommittal Aspiration : Computer Whiz Career : tech guru

Rules : 

Never get a partner

Have one child through adoption

Master tech guru career and complete Computer Whiz aspiration

Master Video game and Parenting skills

Clothing Rule : 

Wear very covering clothes

Generation Two : Brown

You have always loved animals. Growing up, you would harass your parent about getting any kind of animal (even snakes, cows and RATS). You are now an adult and have enough money to move out into the country to start your own farm which is your dream! 

Traits : animal enthusiast, loyal, glutton Aspiration : country caretaker Career : No job (farmer)

Rules : 

Have a fully functional farm as your only form of revenue

Have part time job as a teenager

Move out with your parent (they need their own room in the new house)

Master Gardening and pet training skills

Clothing Rules : 

Wear cottagecore style clothes and have at least one outfit with galoshes

Generation Three : Red

You are the oldest sibling and you have always loved to pick on your brothers and sisters but hated when they would get revenge on you. You moved out very young because you never liked the situation at home. Now in the city, you cannot tolerate your noisy neighbors and plan to pull a prank on them…

Traits : hot-headed, mean, goofball Aspiration : Chief of Mischief Career : Business

Rules : 

Move out to San Myshuno as a teenager

Be hated by all siblings and neighbors

Master Mischief skill

Complete Chief of Mischief aspiration

Live all of your life in the city

Only have one child

Clothing Rules : 

Wear gloves with your formal and party outfit

Generation Four : White

You have never had a relationship with your extended family and you now dream of having the biggest family possible with the love of your life to give your children a less lonely childhood than yours. You also dream of becoming a well-known singer and maybe someday publish your own music. 

Traits : active, music lover, family oriented Aspiration : Musical Genius Career : Entertainer

Rules : 

Have a minimum of 4 children

Master singing and one instrument skills (any instrument)

Complete both aspiration and career

Have a good following on social media

Clothing Rules : 

Wear a lot of mom jeans

Generation Five : Teal

You have always been upset with having a clean and neat living space to the point where it becomes annoying to the people around you. You tried to go to university but were too concerned about the germ so you quit and became a scientist, simply because of the very sanitary uniform. 

Traits : neat, perfectionist, erratic Aspiration : Curator Career : Scientist

Rules : 

Collect all types of frogs and keep them in a room in your house

Clean all of the sinks at least once a day

Complete The Curator Aspiration

Make no more than one good friend (except colleagues and life partners of course)

Clothing Rules : 

Always wear gloves 

Generation Six : Lavender

You are a social butterfly. You love making friends and making people around you happy! You go through boyfriends and girlfriends very quickly, never able to settle down for just one person. 

Traits : genius, proper, dance machine Aspiration : friend of the world Career : Doctor

Rules : 

Complete Friend of the world aspiration

Master Charisma, debate and dance skills

Have lots of partners but never get married

Get pregnant when very young and pregnant again when very old 

Clothing Rules : 

Always wear dresses/skirts or flowy pieces of garment

Generation Seven : Gray 

You are messy. You have always made huge messes and never clean up after yourself because you LOVE trash! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure after all! But your messes are not only caused by your love for trash… you also have a hard time picking up after yourself and know when too much becomes too much. 

Traits : freegan, gloomy, maker Aspiration : Master Maker Career : Freelance (Maker)

Rules : 

Hire a regular maid when you become an adult 

Never clean the house yourself 

Complete Master Maker aspiration

Dumpster Diving and your freelance job are the only source of revenue allowed

Clothing Rules : 

Always wear hats 

Generation Eight : Orange 

You love parties and hate responsibilities. You love showing off your skills and make tons of friends. You only date older people. 

Traits : lazy, childish, foodie Aspiration : Master Mixologist Career : Culinary 

Rules : 

Always have bad work performance

Go to or organize parties every Friday night during your young adulthood

Complete Master Mixologist Aspiration 

Marry an older sim for the money

Order food delivery A LOT 

Clothing Rules : 

Wear fancy clothes for formal and party outfit but wear too big, not great outfits for the others

Generation Nine : Green 

You love the planet. But you are worried about it. You studied the eco footprints of your town and you want to make changes for the best. You desperately want to raise your children in a town where the air is easy to breathe and the sky's still blue. 

Traits : green fiend, vegetarian, recycle disciple Aspiration : Eco Innovator Career : Gardener

Rules : 

Complete Eco Innovator aspiration 

Have the most eco friendly home

Make and keep your eco footprint green 

Have 3 insects farm (one of each) 

Clothing Rules : 

Wear very modern fashion

Generation Ten : Rainbow 

You are a very happy person (sometimes even childish but in a good way.) You love people, you love the world, you love art, you love… well everything! But the thing you love most is a very good book! Which are starting to become rarer since you’ve read all the books in the public library! Maybe you should write your own book, you’ll be sure to love it if you decide what happens, right? 

Traits : cheerful, creative, bookworm Aspiration : Bestselling Author Career : Freelance (Writer)

Rules : 

Complet Bestselling author Aspiration

Master Writing skill

Make a lot of friends

Have a good following on social media.

Clothing Rules : 

DECORA FASHIOOOON

#sims #sims4 #lilsimsie #challenge #notsoberry #thesims #thesims cc #thesims 3 #ts4 #maxismatch #simmer #thesims 4 #the sims 4

[azure-wolf-227]

Hamefura x Pokémon AU: Changes Due to Katarina’s Actions

In this post, I’ll be discussing the premise after Katarina regains her past life’s memories, and how her actions changed things.

Sequel to this post explaining the premise of the ‘game’

Most of the plot are somewhat similar to canon, accounting for the more modern setting and the presence of Pokémon. Katarina discovers that she has reincarnated as the villainess of a video game and starts making plans on how to avoid her doom. In this AU, she confides to her Eevee (Biscuit) the truth of the matter and while Biscuit doesn’t completely understand what she’s talking about, he loyally supports her in her plans.

Per @logo-comics suggestion, Pokémon: Fortune Lover is a 2-disc set, and Katarina only completed the first disc, which covers the Academy adventures up until the condemnation scene, before she died. Therefor, she does not know stuff from disc 2 like Katarina joining Team Dark and their plot to use Yveltal for world conquest. Though she did get a spoiler that Katarina Claes dies in Part 2.

Anyway, meeting the other characters goes about the same way with some details changed due to the presence of Pokémon.

Katarina confiees to Biscuit (her Eevee) about what’s happening, and while he doesn’t understand everything he told him, the little Eevee loyally supports her. This causes him to be very wary of the Capture Targets at first before realizing they are not bad.

Biscuit becomes close to Geordo’s Eevee-later-Flareon (Fluffy) who reciprocates. Like her Trainer, Fluffy is somewhat possessive of the one she likes, so she often gets jealous when another female (and sometimes makes) get a little too friendly with him.

Biscuit also helps Katarina farm and often gets into trouble with Millidiana for tracking mud and dirt into the mansion.

Katarina calls out Geordo on treating his Pokémon like tools and for his harsh battle style.

After Keith looks himself in his room for hurting Katarina (it could still be because of the Golem but maybe his Larvitar was responsible), Biscuit destroyed the door. Katarian is severely scolded burt she argues that she didn’t order her Pokémon to destroy the door, he did it by himself.

Katarina decides that besides planting vegetables, she would also farm Berries. Like in canon, she asks for Mary’s help with her plants. This leads to Mary planting Berries as well.

Alan’s introduction is the same but it leads to him challenging Katarina to a Pokémon battle, one she easily wins. Alan keeps coming back to challenge her, leading to Katarina deciding that they play the piano instead of a battle - maybe cause the Pokémon are tired.

Alan still learns that Geordo is not perfect but, instead of using a fake snake, Katarina uses her newly acquired Shiny Ekans.

At the Prince’s tea party, Katarina purposely saves Sophia from the bullies. The billies had been using their Pokémon to threaten Sophia and her Ralts but Katarina and Biscuit scared them off.

Katarina and Sophia still bind over romance novels which also leads to Katarina also becoming friends with Nicol.

Afterwards, many childhood adventures happen and all the kids add new Pokémon to their teams. For example, when they visit the Royal Villa, Katarina and Sophia catch a Shiny Pumpkaboo and a Shiny Phantump respectively.

Timeskip to the Academy, where the students not only learn mundane stuff but also things like battling, potions, and how to fight alongside your Pokémon because it’s not fair to let them do all the work when you have powers too.

I think Geordo’s and Keith’s meetings can similar to canon or maybe a little bit different. The point is, Katarina freaks out about romance flags.

Katarina first meets Maria and Sirius in the Student Council Room. Biscuit is introduced to Maria’s own Eevee Caramel and Fluffy gets jealous.

Katarina’s friendship with Maria develops similarly to canon, only with Katarina’s Pokémon helping to protect Maria.

The school year is filled with more Poké Adventures, some based on events from canon Hamefura while others are original. The characters run into some Team Dark grunts from time to time. They also challenge the Gyms/Arenas and collect Honours in preparation for the Pokémon Tourney.

Keith and Katarina still visit Maria but instead of waiting for her at her house, they save her from some jerks that were harassing her.

The Condemnation Event goes the same, with Katarina being accused of bullying Maria and her friends defending her. Afterwards, Maria and her Pokémon disappear. Sirius places Katarina under the Dark Magic coma, and does the same to Biscuit when the Eevee tries to interfere.

Not one understands why they sleep and why they can’t wake up. The rest of Katarina’s friends are devastated and so are Katarina’s still awake Pokémon.

Katarina dreams of her past life but gets the feeling that something is missing. Acchan’s spirit helps her remember with some help from Biscuit who, though his bond with Katarina, entered her dream from his own.

Katarina awakens, much to her friends and Pokémon’s joy. Biscuit evolves into an Umbreon.

Katarina leads the group to rescue Maria and once successful, they confront Sirius. There is a short battle before Katarina calls out his real name Raphael. Soon after, they learn that Raphael’s Cofragigus is the Dark Mage who killed Raphael’s mother reborn as a Ghost-Type and was controlling Raphael. They fight it and I guess capture it or something.

The Graduation for the Second-Years goes about the same.

Now, I haven’t got a very detailed plan for Part 2 but I do have some ideas.

The Pokémon Tourney happens during the beginning of the year. I’m not sure who places where in the end but everyone who participated did very well.

I’m not sure I want to include the Katarian is kidnapped plot but I do want a part where katarian and Selena must fight Team Dark Grunt Sora so they can help their friends. Selena’s gains confidence during the battle and her timid Eevee evolves into a Sylveon.

Keith does get kidnapped. Sarah is a Team dark scientist/researcher. The Dark Familiar creation is using Dark Magic to syphon his life energy into an Egg to empower the Dark-Type inside. The Egg hatches into oddly-colored Poochyena (Pochi) that imprints on Katarina.

Katarina encounters Sarah again and they battle using Pochi against Sarah’s Dark empowered Hydreigon. We learn that Pochi has some odd abilities thanks to the experiment.

Katarina and Maria eventually discover the Covenants and learn that they are Yveltal’s and Xerneas’s chosen. Katarina freaks out, thinking it means she really is evil but gets reassured she isn’t. I can see her befriending Yveltal and leaning it’s not really malicious, just misunderstood.

So, Team Dark finds out that Katarina is Yveltal’s chosen. They know it’s impossible to recruit her so time for a kidnapping. Cue rescue mission.

This is all I have so far, please send ideas and suggestions to expand this!

#hamefura #story idea #worldbuilding #hamefura x pokemon au

[blazefire2012]

Does anyone else randomly just remember The Slog and just think that is one of the best minor settlements Bethesda has ever made?

They're a settlement of ghouls, a minority that is shunned for who they have become from no choice of their own, and have made a name for themselves. The name being a bit.... rude without context. But when you ask Wiseman about the name, he mentions people will trudge through the mud, never had to slog through so much mud, to get to them to buy their produce. Berries of all thing. The best in the commonwealth. Becuase they're smart enough, human enough regardless of their current status, to come up with a way to cultivate a staple crop of the people in the area. In a abandoned God damned swimming pool as a controlled hydroponic garden. Which is pure genius in an apocalyptic situation btw.

They've done so much good for themselves, I'm surprised they even accepted the help from the minutemen in the first place, regardless of the "in a minutes notice" protection.

Everytime I think of them, I get so emotional and proud of them for making it as far as they have. Most of them being refugees from Diamond city, kicked out after Mayor McDonough's anti-ghoul campaign, and they have come up with the most genius ways of agriculture the common wealth has seen in a hot minute that even the in game dialog mentions. And they have even made a name for themselves and are able to actually support themselves with something as simple as farming a small harvest crop.

Anyway, it's one in the morning and I'm emotional over ghouls in a video game, Goodnight lovelies <3

#fallout 4 #fallout #fallout ghouls #fallout 4 wiseman #i just love ghouls so much #theyre just amazing #they have faced so much discrimination but have accomplished so much #look at the ghouls in fallout 1 as well #theyve done so much with the scraps they get as a result of who they are #which is really fucking unfair btw #the slog #fallout 4 ghouls #fallout 4 the slog

[castletown-cafe]

Castletown Café Episode 12: Top Cake

For Clover’s birthday, Top Chef was commissioned to bake a real nice cake for her birthday party - until Susie destroyed it, leaving it….smoldering? Eh, Toby Fox logic. Take this broken cake to Malius and he’ll fix it, transforming it into the Top Cake. Said to make your taste buds spin, it’s Chapter 1’s best healing item - healing each member of your party 160 HP! Ideal for a certain battle against a [[CLOWN AROUND TOWN]].

If you’re a regular watcher of anime, reader of manga, or player of video games, chances are you’ve seen this type of cake before - it’s even in the very emoji for cake! This is the Japanese take on strawberry shortcake: a light and airy sponge cake with a filling of sliced strawberries and whipped cream in the middle, covered with whipped cream frosting and topped with whole strawberries! It is the one cake you will typically see in Japanese media, and a taste of this iconic cake is enough for anyone to see why!

It’s no wonder, then, that the sprite for the Broken Cake (and likely the fixed Top Cake) would resemble a Japanese strawberry shortcake, given how Toby Fox was influenced by JRPGs growing up, EarthBound being his biggest inspiration. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was an anime fan, too, I know I am! And it was not just anime, manga, and video games, but also my admiration of Japanese culture and cuisine, that drove me to try making these cakes for the first time many years ago!

That’s right, I’ve had experience with Japanese-style strawberry shortcake. But I’m no pro at sponge cakes, and have never been able to get their texture perfect (hard to keep it light and airy when you need to fold the flour and a few wet ingredients into the whipped egg whites, which will mess with the density). Luckily, I still get a cake that’s moist and will certainly make your taste buds spin in delight!

For me, this is a seasonal recipe, because I only make this kind of cake once a year, during local strawberry season. It’s just better with fresh strawberries picked from a local farm as opposed to those crunchy, underripe California strawberries you find at the grocery store, which are bred for longevity. Our farms in Oregon specialize in sweeter, softer and juicer berries - albeit at the cost of a shelf life! Because of this, the cake needs to be eaten fast. And with how good it is, it disappears as quickly as it should.

In the past, I used a different recipe, but I sadly lost it, so I went with a new recipe this year, which is the one that’ll be featured in this week’s episode. It worked just as well as the old one, though I still need plenty of practice with sponge cakes (and my new stand mixer).

Normally I just make one sponge cake, level it, and have a single layer of filling. This time, I made two sponge cakes, just in case I failed on the first try. Both cakes turned out well, and so I got two delicious cakes, allowing for twice the strawberry filling between three layers of sweet cakey goodness!

The featured recipe is for just a single sponge cake. You could double the recipe, but that could mess with the end result, so I did one at a time, starting the second while the first baked in the oven. It may not be the most efficient, but it might yield better results.

For these cakes, you need to brush a layer of syrup in between the sponge. Instead of regular simple syrup which is typically used, I used homemade strawberry syrup to give it even more strawberry flavor! This time around, I also mixed in some syrup with the sliced strawberries for the filling, something that’s also not normally done (and I usually don’t do either), but given the lack of longevity on these local berries, it adds extra “strawberriness” to the filling, though I’m not sure if that affects the sliced berries in any way. It also makes the filling a little jammier and adds more sweetness to a cake that isn’t overly sweet, but of course, we don’t want this TOO sweet, in contrast to most American cakes and sweets.

We got a recipe for the syrup, too. Be sure to make the syrup before you make the cake, so it’ll be chilled and ready to use upon assembly. Gee, this rambling is already going on too long - on to the recipe!

First up, the syrup.

SIMPLE STRAWBERRY SYRUP:

2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Optional: 1-2 tsp cornstarch, mixed with about 2 tablespoons water

Wash, hull, and slice fresh strawberries, measuring 2 cups, and add to saucepan.

Add sugar and water to saucepan, combine and bring to a boil over medium or medium-low heat (depending on your stove’s setting).

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Optional: Stir in a small amount of liquid cornstarch mixture until it’s the consistency you want (don’t add too much or even all of it or your syrup will be too thick).

Remove from heat and pour your hot syrup into a blender.

Blend on Puree until smooth.

Pour through a mesh strainer into a bowl and squeeze to get as much of the pureed pulp into the bowl as possible, trapping most of the seeds and some of the remaining pulp in the strainer.

Let cool, then pour into containers for storage and keep refrigerated. Goes great on pancakes, French toast, vanilla ice cream, and in cocktails.

Now that our syrup is made, it’s onto the most important part of our cake: the sponge cake itself!

TOP CAKE:

(Makes 1 sponge cake, double or repeat the recipe for two)

4 large egg whites

1 cup (200 g) sugar

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (146.2 g?) cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp (45 g) melted butter

1 tbsp (30 ml) hot water

1 tsp (15 ml) vanilla extract

Grease and flour cake pan or line with parchment paper (cut parchment paper into rounds and strips to fit round cake pan if using parchment paper). Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C). Optional: Wet a baking strip and position it around your cake pan; this is to ensure an even bake and to avoid a dome top.

Get all ingredients out together and sift some cake flour into a bowl before measuring (as recommended on the package of Swan’s Down cake flour). Measure 1 cup and 2 tablespoons and sift cake flour again with the baking powder - sift them together twice!

Separate egg whites from yolks and pour whites into the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit stand mixer with the whisk attachment.

Whip egg whites until foamy, then slowly add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, while whipping. Whip eggs and sugar until stiff and glossy (but not too stiff), stop when the egg mixture falls off the whisk in a thick ribbon that doesn’t sink in a few seconds.

Melt butter and heat some water. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, hot water, and vanilla.

Carefully fold flour into egg whites with a rubber spatula until no streaks of flour remain, along with the wet ingredients. Fold it like you’re kneading dough, or in the direction of an 8. Stop immediately when ingredients are fully incorporated.

Pour batter into the cake pan and bake for 35 minutes. Don’t check the cake until about 30 of those minutes have passed, then you can rotate the cake if you need to in order for it to bake evenly.

When your cake is done, set it out to cool on a rack. Let it cool completely before trying to remove it from the pan. It’s best to leave it for another 6 to 8 hours before dividing and frosting; do this by wrapping it in either plastic wrap or beeswax food wrap and covering it. I make my cakes late at night so they can cool and rest overnight, then I frost and decorate the next day.

For a second cake, repeat steps 1 through 8.

We got the syrup, we got the cake, that leaves us with the final ingredients for assembly: sliced strawberries, whole strawberries, and whipped cream frosting.

CAKE ASSEMBLY:

Big fresh strawberries, about 6 or 8

2 cups sliced strawberries

1/2 cup strawberry syrup + more for spreading inside cake

2 cups heavy cream

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Find yourself 6 or 8 nice big, pretty strawberries to go on top, carefully clean with a damp paper towel, and cut off the stems. Set those aside.

Now wash and dry a ton more strawberries for the two layers of filling. Hull and slice them up for at least another 2 cups so there’s plenty of strawberry in this cake, and mix them with some syrup, about half a cup.

To make the frosting, combine 2 cups of heavy cream with 4 tablespoons powdered sugar - you don’t need a lot - and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Using a cake leveler (I recommend using these cake leveler devices by Yorwe; you simply position a bread knife in between these little devices and follow the instructions for a perfectly even levelled cake), with your cake and leveler flat on a clean surface, bring your knife to the side of the cake, perpendicular to the cake’s surface. Carefully saw your cake in half horizontally until you have successfully transformed your single sponge into two layers of cake. Repeat for the second sponge - and keep one of the four layers for snacking since only three will be used.

Make sure your bottom layer is on a cake platter and put them on a turntable because it’s time to assemble and decorate! Brush strawberry syrup on top of your bottom cake layer, and underneath your second. Add a layer of whipped cream and spread evenly, then add a layer of strawberries, spread, and then spread on another layer of whipped cream. Top with your second layer of sponge and repeat: spread syrup, whipped cream, strawberries, whipped cream, and them spread syrup on the bottom of your top layer of cake.

Now all that’s left to do is frost the outside. I highly suggest using a large piping bag and a frosting spatula for this so your frosting is even and beautiful. This is where you will want to spin your turntable as you pipe and smooth the whipped cream frosting. Fill your piping bag fitted with a wide tip by standing the bag up in a glass. When it’s nice and full, pipe whipped cream along the sides of your cake and spin the turntable while smoothing it out with your icing spatula. Repeat until the side of your cake is coated in a nice white layer of whipped cream and you can’t see the underlying cake or filling.

Do the same on top of your cake until it’s nice and even. Make sure you have enough whipped cream to pipe some extra decorative blobs on top and on the sides, I suggest using a smaller, fancier piping tip if you have one.

Finally, top the cake with your fresh strawberries and wipe down any messes you made on your cake platter while decorating so everything looks fancy! I’d say it looks social media worthy now! Share this cake with your friends and let your taste buds spin!

Sources:

Marina, “Simple Sponge Cake Recipe”, Let The Baking Begin (letthebakingbegin.com) Link: https://letthebakingbegin.com/simple-yellow-sponge-cake-recipe/

Yorwe Cake Leveler, 2 pcs, 5 layers, available on Amazon.com. Buy here!

Stone, Robyn, "Simple Strawberry Syrup Recipe", Add a Pinch (addapinch.com) Link: https://addapinch.com/strawberry-syrup-recipe/

Bruzek, Alison, "Japan's Beloved Christmas Cake Isn't About Christmas At All", npr.org. Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/12/16/369830094/a-christmas-cake-that-isn-t-about-christmas-at-all

There is no shortage of recipes online for Japanese strawberry shortcake, or Christmas cake! I'll share some right here. Each is different and unique too - everyone does it a little bit differently! I think it's important to share some sources from Japan, since that's the country of origin for this episode's recipe! Here are some of my faves:

Cooking With Dog, "How to Make Christmas Cake (Strawberry Sponge Cake Recipe) | Cooking with Dog", YouTube. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmLkPBut8nI (This has a different recipe - I'd love to try using this one, even though I don't have a convection oven! It looks like it takes a LOT of practice and seems even more challenging, though - but Chef is a pro!)

Chen, Namiko, "Japanese Strawberry Shortcake いちごのショートケーキ", justonecookbook.com. Link: https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/

Kimono Mom, "Make Christmas Cake w/ Daddy & Mommy | Vlog Recipe | Strawberry Short Cake", YouTube. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4dw82cFFz0 (Sometimes things go wrong - in fact, it happens a lot when cooking! What does Kimono Mom do when she has cream that froze solid? Watch the video to find out!)

Yumiko, "JAPANESE STRAWBERRY SPONGE CAKE (STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE)", japan.recipetineats.com. Link: https://japan.recipetineats.com/japanese-strawberry-sponge-cake-strawberry-shortcake/

Shihoko, "Strawberry Shortcake cake – Japanese version", chopstickchronicles.com. Link: https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/japanese-birthday-cake/

#castletown cafe #deltarune #deltarune chapter 1 #deltarune chapter one #top cake #cw food #deltarune top cake #deltarune food #deltarune inspired recipe #deltarune top chef #deltarune fanart #recipe #cake #cake recipe #my art #long post

[pauls4all-zambia-trip-2023]

Day 9 - Goodbye Limapela

Today we started the day with breakfast at 7:30. Surprisingly we found that we had pancakes today alongside a hard boiled egg and a sausage. We all thoroughly enjoyed the delicious and sweet pancakes which we had not enjoyed on other days. At 8:25 we reconvened full of energy for the day to come. After our short bus ride we were met with an unexpected yet thrilling goodbye assembly from the students at Limapela. In this the choir began with the Zambian national anthem and some soothing songs. After this a group of pupils, with chitenge wrapped around their waist, performed a dance for us to multiple different songs. Finally we were met with a short comedy skit about  governance and corruption where pupils acted as displeased citizens whose voices and opinions were not implemented. It was refreshing to see that schools were able to educate about the issues of poor governance. After this we were told to perform our own dance which took us by surprise as we had nothing prepared. With the help of Matthews we performed the LeLo energiser which he had taught us in previous sessions which went down well and then we followed that with a rendition ‘Today is my Miracle Day’ led by Kavin and Kian which was well appreciated by the pupils.

We finished off our morning with Maths naughts and crosses in our groups and built on some of the Maths games that we did with some of the older students over the last couple of days. Some of us were then asked by the Social Studies teacher to give a session on British life to do with culture, geography and governance, answering lots of questions about life in the UK. After some Nshima for lunch, we watched our Jolly Phonics videos alongside our brilliant actors. It was amazing to see all of the videos and pleasing to think that these will now be used as a learning resource for teachers teaching Jolly Phonics. Soon after we said our goodbyes and it was sad after spending some many wonderful days with the teachers and students.

We then spent the afternoon at Lifesong Farm where we learnt about their efforts to provide quality education and resources to orphans and disadvantaged children. We learnt how they funded this through sponsors from the US and Canada as well as income from their surrounding farms. We then drove to a very modern berry farm where we learnt about the different ways in which they efficiently farm berries. They use hydroponics on a large scale to produce strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and gooseberries and these are then sold to local supermarkets and also local people who will then sell them at the side of the street, so it helps to provide an income for a range of people. We even had a chance to try some fresh strawberries and some of us also bought some fresh jam from the farm.

We then drove to Lifesong lodge where we finished the day with some delicious chicken burgers and we came back for some evening reflections before retiring to our rooms in preparation for our final full day in Zambia.

[waywardstation]

Well, it could be that theres a root cause to these food issues.

I had played a video game in the past, called Breath of Fire 3. Which i forget if I already sent ya, but I can word things a bit better now. An early game plot involved there being a famine/lean season, because of a poor harvest combined with another monster that was overhunting all of the game. Something like that could easily fit for why things are suddenly so dire/more dire then usual. (where there were a lot of situations that all piled up at once, making things a lot more difficult)

It could also be some vague trial by the deities of some sort-where Palkia allowed such events to happen for reasons. possibly wanting the diamond/pearl clans to team together, and seeing this as a way to encourage cooperation and communication. Could work well if its tied to any problems the Diamond clan are facing, what with floods/fires/a Giant crow crashing into one of the tents. They're curious to see if they'll try to overcome it themselves, or if they'll seek others assistance.

(like Dialga and palkia are just sorta teaming up to push the clans into one larger, stronger one, as a few people have fanficed/theorized. )

Interesting concept to bring up, Anon! (And I’m not sure if you’ve brought this game up to me before, but it sounds like it’s got a cool premise!)

I have been thinking on this a lot, and wondering if there could be a reason (because if there is a specific reason as opposed to just “oh not enough food”, it could make it a lot easier to come up with a solution for Akari to suggest haha)

I’ve been considering the idea that it’s due to the MASSIVE noble Avalugg. Avalugg may consume glaciers-amounts of ice to keep the frozen parts of its body in-tact, but its body seems to be made up of ground as well.

Lord Avalugg is absolutely massive, and hidden under the ground, buried under the Icelands when you find it. I have been considering the idea that since Lord Avalugg is so big, it spends most of its time stationary to conserve energy for its massive body, only moving in times where it needs to (like when you fight it).

What does it do all this time, under the ground? It saps nutrients from the Icelands to keep its body functioning, the parts of its body that are ground basically meshing with the earth around it.

Of course it doesn’t leave the Icelands uninhabitable, but it puts a noticable strain on the land.

This is why a lot of the trees that bare fruit in the Icelands are barren and gnarled, with no leaves. Berries are fewer and far between than other areas.

The ground has fewer nutrients in it, which is why Pearl Clan doesn’t farm- they can’t. Clearly there are plants that can sustain the snowy weather, like sand radishes, but the problem isn’t the weather, it’s the state of the soil.

And plants that do grow have so few nutrients to pull from the soil, that they’re barely worth eating.

This was what I was considering, but I am unsure. Your concept of the Pokémon gods trying to put them into hardships to rely on each other is an intriguing concept too! I might consider that! Thanks Anon!!

#ref for fic #pokémon legends arceus #Pokémon legends #Diamond clan #pearl clan

[edoro]

I think Hunter would also like Pokemon. Good and Orderly, but you also get to pet and feed cute animals. (I also think he'd like Berry farming.)

i think you're correct - Hunter would really like games that have like, collection mechanics. he'd love stuff like Pokemon, it's very straightforward, and he'd really love the strategy component as well - he would get SO into it, you know he'd have elaborate Pokemon breeding programs going on and everything.

farm sims would probably be good for him too... Stardew Valley, ofc the classic Harvest Moon, and he'd enjoy base-builders - i bet he'd love stuff like Factorio or Satisfactory or Subnautica too.

(and you know he'd go cuckoo for cocoa puffs over video game achievements!)

#hunter plays video games #hunter toh #the owl house #asks

[druiidic]

𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE SMELL LIKE?  aeron - old spice body spray. it's not intentional but its the same line of fragrance that jacob made himself back in arthurian times. jacob - vanilla, musk and cedar. he grinds up the spices himself and adds it to water and sprays himself it every morning to mask the sense of sweat throughout the day.

WHAT DO YOUR MUSE’S HANDS FEEL LIKE?  rough, both jacob and aeron hands are tough from their lines of work. whether it be jacob working out in the farm land after he is disowned or aeron loving to do garden work in merlin's yard.

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY EAT IN A DAY?  in the morning both get a piece of fruit. either an apple or some kind of peach with some oats on the side. afternoon, aeron makes a sandwich or gets take out. jacob picks on berries or eats some soup. dinner, aeron likes pasta or salad. sometimes he does eat hamburgers and some fries. jacob eats soup that is left over from the afternoon and maybe some form of meal he hunted.

DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE A GOOD SINGING VOICE?  Jacob, yes. Aeron is tone deaf.

DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE ANY BAD HABITS OR NERVOUS TICKS? when jacob is nervous, he plays with his fingers or runs his fingers on the hem of his tunic. he won't make eye contact and get be quieter than usual. aeron, withdrawls and can rock himself or he has the need to listen to music or be busy. when having a panic attack he paces and can pull at his hair or pinch at his fingers. if its really bad then he'll find a corner to hide in or a closet and curl up in a ball.

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY LOOK LIKE / WEAR? jacob's hair on top of his head is longer than his sides. he has a mohawk. he wears beaten tunics and dark trousers with old boots. when he is a noble, he dresses in the best his time can offer. aeron keeps his hair short. it sticks up normally because he has no patient to style it. he wears button down shirts with a tank top underneath and black jeans. his shoes are whatever skater sneakers he can find. when he's working, he wears a t shirt thats dark and fitted jeans along with boots.

IS YOUR MUSE AFFECTIONATE? HOW SO? both are very affectionate with their partners. aeron loves to cuddle, kiss and just to be around his person. he'll info dump alot and can just sit in the same room in silence. jacob loves to cuddle. he loves hugs, to hold hands, kiss and gift small items he finds in nature on his travels.

WHAT POSITION DOES YOUR MUSE SLEEP IN?  jacob sleeps on his back near his sword. aeron sleeps on his side and curls up in a ball.

COULD YOU HEAR YOUR MUSE IN THE HALLWAY FROM ANOTHER ROOM? no. not unless aeron is playing his video games without headphones or has music or the tv playing for background noise. he's normally fairly quiet unless he's yelling at his teammates during a stream. jacob is quiet, you won't hear him.

tagged by. @petitsdieu

#ⅹ. character study: you could have been someone #ⅲ. aeron myricks: the druid mercenary #ⅲ. jacob prowell: the druid knight

[valixthefrog]

Me and one of my friends wanted to do the Not So Berry Challenge by LilSimsie but we don’t have all the packs, so instead we just made our own. This is the Not So Fruity Challenge by Valix & Haven if anybody wants to play it:

Gen 1-  Raspberry

Your entire life you’ve had a fixation on the arts, but were told it’s an impractical career path to go for. Even as an adult you kept your childish dream of being an artist, but pushed it to the side to fund your family. After years of keeping quiet about your desires, you finally make the changes you’ve always wanted. 

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire 

Traits: Childish, Self-Assured, Art Lover

Requirements:

-Master painting and mischief skill

-Make it to level 5 of the business job, before resigning and selling paintings for money

-Have at least two children

-Complete the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration 

-Have the parent to your children be a failed relationship, get married in late adulthood/early elderhood to a separate sim 

Gen 2- Blueberry

You’ve always felt the need to keep things under your control, which results in a lot of change. Growing up you could never stick to one hobby, and didn’t have much stability in your life from a young age due to money and family problems. You enjoy the fluidity of things and constant changes, which is what draws you to Sulani. 

Aspiration: Nerd Brain

Traits: Child of the Ocean, Non-committal, Perfectionist

Requirements:

-Do the Freelance Career, and go into the Programming branch

-Complete the Nerd Brain Aspiration

-Live in three different worlds, the final being Sulani 

-Have one child

-Master the video gaming and programming skill

-Be in at least two relationships, but never get married

-Have at least three different hobbies as a child

-Have the inquisitive trait as a toddler 

-Become best friends with your sibling

Gen 3- Lime (Gatekeep, gaslight, girl boss)

As a child you met someone who just pushed your buttons from the beginning, but as you grew you saw them in a different light. You realized you had feelings for them and became a lifeguard just to be around them. Through this, you became friends but learned they had a partner. To distract yourself, you began collecting things and realized it’s something you’re quite passionate about. You love nature and everything it has to offer. 

Aspiration: The Curator 

Traits: Jealous, Creative, Vegetarian 

Requirements: 

-As a teenager work the Lifeguard job

-Master the conservationist career

-Complete the frog collection 

-Complete The Curator aspiration 

-Marry your life-long enemy 

-Be the reason your enemy separates from their partner

-Adopt at least one child, and have one biological 

-Master the photography skill

-Move out of Sulani as an elder 

-Give your kids each a frog

Gen 4- Lemon (live, laugh, frog) 

Growing up, your family life was quite hectic, so you escaped into the fantasy world of your favorite books and stories. As a child, you never had many friends, but you did hang out with your best amphibian friend, Bartholomew. It was a gift from your peculiar parents. Once you hit high school you met someone who loved you unconditionally and would someday become your spouse. Just like your parents you love nature and spend time with your family while tending to your farm and garden. 

Aspiration: Bestselling Author

Traits: Ambitious, Socially Awkward, Clumsy 

Requirements:

-Master the writing and flower arranging skills 

-Complete the Bestselling Author aspiration 

-Have three kids

-Marry your high school sweetheart, and have them be your best friend 

-Marry a loyal sim

-Live in a cottage in Henford-on-Bagley with a garden and farm animals 

-Make every Sunday a family reading day

-Have the kids help with the farm 

-Keep the frog until you die

-Visit Mt. Komorebi for a family vacation 

Gen 5- Orange

Growing up on the farm you had an affection towards animals, and keep this love your entire life. After a vacation to Mt. Komrebi with your family, you fall in love with the town. After moving out you head straight there and make it your life goal to climb the mountain. When you move you meet someone you want to spend your life with, but when you propose they reject you and end the relationship entirely. After the breakup, you spend time with yourself and your child. You meet someone new later on that you end up spending your life with, but never marry. 

Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast 

Traits: Glutton, Adventurous, Animal Enthusiast 

Requirements:

-Have at least one cat/dog 

-Master the Athlete career, and go into the Bodybuilder branch 

-Master the rock climbing and snowboarding skills 

-Climb Mt. Komorebi 

-Have the same partner throughout your young adulthood, and have a child

-Separate from your partner after a failed proposal

-Visit your parents weekly

-Get into a relationship later in life, but never get married  

Gen 6- Grape

Since you were young, you found a love for robotics. That passion has stuck with you for life. You grew up to be an engineer and became very close with a coworker. You wound up marrying them and unexpectedly having twins. You were always quite busy with work though and never gave your children the attention that they deserved. 

Aspiration: Computer Whiz

Traits: Proper, Genius, Overachiever

Requirements:

-Complete the Engineer career

-Go to University (Optional)

-Master robotics, logic, and handiness skills

-Complete the Computer Quiz aspiration

-As a kid, max out the mental skill

-Be a complete workaholic

-Marry a co-worker

-Have twins (you can cheat this)

-Don’t give your kids much attention 

Gen 7- Dragon Fruit  (BE WHO YOU ARE FOR YOUR PRRIIIIDDEEE)

As a child, you never got much attention from your overworked parents. You promised yourself that when you have a kid you would give them the attention they deserve. Your passion is anything musically, but mostly singing and guitar. You never had any interest in romantic life, so instead,  you moved to the city to focus on your career and your family. You also like snow globes. So that’s cool ig. 

Aspiration: Musical Genius 

Traits: Unflirty, Foodie, Music Lover

Requirements:

-Master the singing and guitar skills

-Adopt at least one child, and be incredibly close with them 

-Master the Entertainer career, and go into the musician branch

-Never have any romantic relationships 

-Be aro-ace

-Master the Musical Genius aspiration

-Go on vacation with your child(ren) 

-Complete the snowglobe collection 

-Live in San Myshuno 

 Gen 8- Coconut 

Growing up you learned piano, given that your parent was a very successful musician. Although, you had your eye on something more. You wanted action in your life, and to be a superhero. So to do so you became friends with as many people as you could and went into the secret agent career. But you still kept your geeky side from your childhood and love to play video games with buddies. 

Aspiration: Friend Of The World 

Traits: Active, Geek, Family Oriented 

Requirements:

-Master the Secret Agent career, and go into the diamond agent branch 

-Master the Friend of the World aspiration 

-Master the Charisma and Video Gaming skills

-Get married in young adulthood, then get divorced and remarry the same sim

-No children requirements other than to have another heir 

-Live in Oasis Springs whilst divorced, anything else is up to you

-Learn piano as a child  

-Do the postcard collection, completing it is not required

Gen 9- Blackberry

Since childhood, you’ve craved the stability of a family. Once you hit high school, you became a babysitter and discovered your passion for helping young children. You started teaching and had four children of your own. You also love caring for dogs and baking for your family. 

Aspiration: Super Parent 

Traits: Slob, Good, Dog Lover

Requirements: 

-Master the Education Career

-Do the Babysitting Job in High School 

-Have at least four children 

-Have two failed relationships before marriage 

-Complete the Super Parent aspiration

-Master the parenting and baking skills

-Have a family dog that used to be a stray

-Saturday is a family fun day

-Live in Brindleton Bay

Gen 10- Tamarind 

Growing up in a household with many siblings, you grew tired of the chaos of children. You much preferred acting and would do drama club after school. You would practice lines with your grandparents and become very close to them. Your dream was always to be rich and famous, and to be a global superstar. 

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Traits: Hates Children, Loyal, Outgoing 

Requirements:

-Master the acting career

-Reach the highest level of fame

-Master the Acting and Comedy skills

-Marry someone you meet on set

-Have an “accidental” child 

-Make it your life goal to live in a mansion in Del Sol Valley

-Do drama club as a child

-Spend time with your grandparent as a child

ReplyForward

#sims 4 maxis match #not so berry #ts4 challenge