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I wanted to make a post where I went a bit more in depth into the potentially problematic content in this story. Every new chapter will link back to this post, in addition to a short list of warnings specific to the chapter. Yes, this is a ridiculous story, but it touches upon subjects that would be serious in real life. Unlike my previous Sim-stories, The Brianna Files is TS4. In my experience, TS4 is much less batshit loony than TS2 or even TS3, which in some ways can make things that happen in it feel more real. This in turn means that this story is slightly more serious in nature than Travecy and my other legacy stories.
CWs:
* Brianna herself. She is who she is: slightly ignorant, very generic, from a background that would certainly cause you to be problematic at times. If you haven't read The Starbloom Travecy, which is a TS2 story with all the crazysauce of that game, you don't know just how ludicrous her background is. And if you have read it, then you know that Brianna has done some very questionable things in her past. This is the story about her attempt at a journey towards becoming a better version of herself, but she starts out with many problems, dude. Some of it is obvious, other things are revealed more in a "show, don't tell" kind of way.
* Me, TigerAnne. Let's be real, I'm the one writing this. Raelynn is just another of my characters, who I chose to be the narrative voice of the Starblooms. Much like Brianna, I come from a cultural background that has its differences from that of many people in the Sims community. Things that are, or used to be, normal to me could seem outrageous and unacceptable to others. I try to keep it in mind while writing, but I'm only a fallible human. Also, I don't know every stupid stereotype and prejudice that exists somewhere out there. English is also my second language, so there have been times when I've known what a word meant, but not that it was only used by a specific group or culture. I may in fact make mistakes with grammar and spelling too.
* Raelynn, our narrator. She's stuck in a time-warp, unable to age beyond 15, so she's very mentally and emotionally stunted. Occasionally she'll break off from the narrative, to go on a wild tangent, or to tell an anecdote starring herself and her weirdass family.
* It's a darkish comedy, so it will have occasional gallows humor and slightly offensive jokes.
* Keep in mind that the characters in this story represent only themselves, and no one else. Even Brianna, the basic skinny white girl that she is, is only Brianna. This is a story with a lot of WEIRD characters, and they're not based on you. I don't think that all professional female gamers with teal hair and tats have Maegan's kind of problems, or anything. However, for a story to be interesting it needs to have a bit of drama and conflict, and my characters are pretty good at causing those.
* There will be in-game deaths on occasion, as well as mention of deaths that have occurred off camera. I try to stick to death causes that are statistically uncommon or plain impossible in real life, but it's still discussion of people dying.
* Practically all of my Sims keep pets, usually cats and/or dogs. I have them spayed and neutered, which is also a practice I support in real life. Since the game defaults to free-range cats and dogs, I allow that in my gameplay and storytelling. Some characters who shouldn't have pets, at least not the pets they have, do occur in the story.
* The story features a young child as one of the central characters, and other children will appear later on. There will be instances of less than stellar parenting, on and off screen. The characters will express their own opinons on how to raise children, which aren't necessarily my opinions. I'll make jokes about dysfunctional families, however.
* The characters live in many different kinds of household/family structures, from the modern and unconventional to the very traditional. Family is an emotional topic to all of us, because we've all been in some kind of family situation, and it's shaped who we've become. Even those of us who were raised by the chickens on Grandpa's farm have our good and bad memories of it. I'm trying not to pass judgement on any kind of family arrangement, because IMO whether a family is good or bad depends SO MUCH MORE on the individuals who make it up than on the composition.
* My Sim-aesthetic is cartoony, and my characters don't necessarily look like "real people." This goes both ways, as some of them are unrealistically pretty and some are downright hideous. Brianna, in particular, is a gym rat who has much of her social scene at the various gyms. There will be depictions of Sims working out and losing weight, occasionally becoming incredibly hench.
* You'll see characters wearing somewhat revealing clothes, as well as all kinds of alternative fashions and cheugy soccer-mom threads. EVEN SAD BEIGE.
* Characters will be bad role-models. This includes the protagonists on occasion.
* There will be depictions and descriptions of unethical behaviours such as bullying, gaslighting, guilt-tripping, faking illness, compulsive lying and false rumours. Much of this is shown as happening on social media, since several of the main cast are some kind of influencers.
* I play with very few game mods, so any depiction of violence and sexuality will be the kind you see in the vanilla game. In other words, if you're looking for empowering erotic fantasies, don't read this! You'll be so disappointed. There will be mentions of implied sexual acts and bodily functions, but nothing explicit.
* (I also have an irrational dislike for the term "vanilla" when you mean to say that nothing has been added, because most things that taste or smell of vanilla have indeed had vanilla flavouring added to them. Ice cream without any flavouring tastes like whipped cream, you know?)
* My game is chock full of CC. I play on a desktop that can apparently handle it, as it doesn't groan and moan half as much about my loaded TS4 game as it does when I fire up my absolute babby that is Planet Zoo. If you're playing on a laptop, you may not be able to stuff as much CC into it before it starts struggling. I'm generally WCIF friendly, if I can remember where I got it from.
* I seriously DO NOT CARE about the whole Maxis-Match-versus-Alpha CC debate. You do you, and don't let anyone pressure you into not playing a game you find aesthetically rewarding. I play Maxis-Mix and it is righteous. (Also, "alpha" is a meshing technique, not a specific aesthetic. It doesn't always mean the same as "semi-realistic" or "photo-realistic." You can have Maxis-matchy textures on an alpha mesh, and photoskinned textures on an EA-style mesh.)
* I am aware that TS4 as a game is flawed and glitchy, and I'll point it out.
TWs
* None of the general ones. If you have a particular trigger, feel free send me an anonymous message and ask.
CWs:
* Brianna herself. She is who she is: slightly ignorant, very generic, from a background that would certainly cause you to be problematic at times. If you haven't read The Starbloom Travecy, which is a TS2 story with all the crazysauce of that game, you don't know just how ludicrous her background is. And if you have read it, then you know that Brianna has done some very questionable things in her past. This is the story about her attempt at a journey towards becoming a better version of herself, but she starts out with many problems, dude. Some of it is obvious, other things are revealed more in a "show, don't tell" kind of way.
* Me, TigerAnne. Let's be real, I'm the one writing this. Raelynn is just another of my characters, who I chose to be the narrative voice of the Starblooms. Much like Brianna, I come from a cultural background that has its differences from that of many people in the Sims community. Things that are, or used to be, normal to me could seem outrageous and unacceptable to others. I try to keep it in mind while writing, but I'm only a fallible human. Also, I don't know every stupid stereotype and prejudice that exists somewhere out there. English is also my second language, so there have been times when I've known what a word meant, but not that it was only used by a specific group or culture. I may in fact make mistakes with grammar and spelling too.
* Raelynn, our narrator. She's stuck in a time-warp, unable to age beyond 15, so she's very mentally and emotionally stunted. Occasionally she'll break off from the narrative, to go on a wild tangent, or to tell an anecdote starring herself and her weirdass family.
* It's a darkish comedy, so it will have occasional gallows humor and slightly offensive jokes.
* Keep in mind that the characters in this story represent only themselves, and no one else. Even Brianna, the basic skinny white girl that she is, is only Brianna. This is a story with a lot of WEIRD characters, and they're not based on you. I don't think that all professional female gamers with teal hair and tats have Maegan's kind of problems, or anything. However, for a story to be interesting it needs to have a bit of drama and conflict, and my characters are pretty good at causing those.
* There will be in-game deaths on occasion, as well as mention of deaths that have occurred off camera. I try to stick to death causes that are statistically uncommon or plain impossible in real life, but it's still discussion of people dying.
* Practically all of my Sims keep pets, usually cats and/or dogs. I have them spayed and neutered, which is also a practice I support in real life. Since the game defaults to free-range cats and dogs, I allow that in my gameplay and storytelling. Some characters who shouldn't have pets, at least not the pets they have, do occur in the story.
* The story features a young child as one of the central characters, and other children will appear later on. There will be instances of less than stellar parenting, on and off screen. The characters will express their own opinons on how to raise children, which aren't necessarily my opinions. I'll make jokes about dysfunctional families, however.
* The characters live in many different kinds of household/family structures, from the modern and unconventional to the very traditional. Family is an emotional topic to all of us, because we've all been in some kind of family situation, and it's shaped who we've become. Even those of us who were raised by the chickens on Grandpa's farm have our good and bad memories of it. I'm trying not to pass judgement on any kind of family arrangement, because IMO whether a family is good or bad depends SO MUCH MORE on the individuals who make it up than on the composition.
* My Sim-aesthetic is cartoony, and my characters don't necessarily look like "real people." This goes both ways, as some of them are unrealistically pretty and some are downright hideous. Brianna, in particular, is a gym rat who has much of her social scene at the various gyms. There will be depictions of Sims working out and losing weight, occasionally becoming incredibly hench.
* You'll see characters wearing somewhat revealing clothes, as well as all kinds of alternative fashions and cheugy soccer-mom threads. EVEN SAD BEIGE.
* Characters will be bad role-models. This includes the protagonists on occasion.
* There will be depictions and descriptions of unethical behaviours such as bullying, gaslighting, guilt-tripping, faking illness, compulsive lying and false rumours. Much of this is shown as happening on social media, since several of the main cast are some kind of influencers.
* I play with very few game mods, so any depiction of violence and sexuality will be the kind you see in the vanilla game. In other words, if you're looking for empowering erotic fantasies, don't read this! You'll be so disappointed. There will be mentions of implied sexual acts and bodily functions, but nothing explicit.
* (I also have an irrational dislike for the term "vanilla" when you mean to say that nothing has been added, because most things that taste or smell of vanilla have indeed had vanilla flavouring added to them. Ice cream without any flavouring tastes like whipped cream, you know?)
* My game is chock full of CC. I play on a desktop that can apparently handle it, as it doesn't groan and moan half as much about my loaded TS4 game as it does when I fire up my absolute babby that is Planet Zoo. If you're playing on a laptop, you may not be able to stuff as much CC into it before it starts struggling. I'm generally WCIF friendly, if I can remember where I got it from.
* I seriously DO NOT CARE about the whole Maxis-Match-versus-Alpha CC debate. You do you, and don't let anyone pressure you into not playing a game you find aesthetically rewarding. I play Maxis-Mix and it is righteous. (Also, "alpha" is a meshing technique, not a specific aesthetic. It doesn't always mean the same as "semi-realistic" or "photo-realistic." You can have Maxis-matchy textures on an alpha mesh, and photoskinned textures on an EA-style mesh.)
* I am aware that TS4 as a game is flawed and glitchy, and I'll point it out.
TWs
* None of the general ones. If you have a particular trigger, feel free send me an anonymous message and ask.
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