mirthur asked: Surely a tax evasion game would just be “filing taxes but lying, the game” considering the list of things you’ve already disqualified from being direct tax evasion

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prokopetz:

(With reference to this post here.)

Nah, there are plenty of things you can do gamewise that constitute direct tax evasion (i.e., as opposed to shenanigans that are merely tax evasion adjacent).

For example, suppose that the player characters are inhabitants of a medieval village whose yearly tax assessment has come due, and the royal tax assessor is touring the village in order to estimate its total wealth and thereby calculate how much is owed in tax.

The player characters’ mission is basically to run around behind the tax assessor’s back playing reverse Weekend at Bernie’s and ensure that the village appears to be much less prosperous than it really is. Keep those cattle out of sight (easier said than done), disguise that lavishly appointed tavern as a church (churches are tax exempt!), maybe cover up any discrepancy between the village’s actual and reported population by faking a plague or two (where are they going to get that many skulls on short notice?), and so forth.

Basically, the easiest way to make tax evasion gameable is by contriving a scenario where taxable assets are assessed rather than reported, then identifying entertaining ways for the player characters to fuck around with the assessment process.


Tags:

#some of the context #story ideas I will never write #games #(although it seems worth noting that I *did* once see a game that was ”filing your taxes but you’re a dragon”) #(maybe you can have the dragon do some tax evasion?) #death mention #illness mention

mangledmouth:

i got a gig, telling stories to a gang of witches
they sit semicircle round me, cross legged and i tell them
every mundane detail of my day, draw out my fears
and shakes and angers and small, desolate disappointments
like strings of sugared candy. recount momentary crushes
on strangers in alleyways, on buses, in half-open coats
they’re all like—500 years old, give or take a decade
they don’t get these things anymore. some part of you dries up
so they just listen, and then they take me to the door and they put
eighty dollars in my hand, from a chest in the corner
piled high with cash, in layers of color, some older, some foreign
and i think about breaking in. but they could kill me
so easily, and they pay me over minimum wage, so i just smile
and cry on the bus, and feel odd thinking about telling them
next week, about crying on the bus.

i’ve got this girl, a couple weeks now, and i didn’t even mean to
swore i wouldn’t date when i got into this part of town
it’s like being a chip in a hurricane, marveling at the massive
unable to get your feet on the ground. but i got this girl
she’s got teeth made to pierce the important veins, but she swears
she’s seven years dry and she has bags of red stuff in her fridge
so I believe her. but, you know, they say vampires can do that
put thoughts in your head, so maybe i don’t believe her.

i think a lot about love
how it gets in your veins, parasitic
how it fucks up your brain
i think a lot about how it comes on you
about how it pulls the rug out
how it blows foundations open for the marrow
i think a lot about how i don’t want it
i think about that while she puts me on the floor and
puts her mouth on my neck, but doesn’t bite

love’s always coming for you. it’s an invisible force
sure and utter as the divine right of kings
as the bus charging fifty cents more every year

against my will, i am sent to bring you to dinner
against my will, i am in love with you
against my will, i am opening, i am opening
against my will i am opening the door

– urban fantasy; r.m.s


Tags:

#storytime #poetry #witches #vampires #death mention #this probably deserves some other warning tag but I am not sure what

emotionallaborunion:

People say that you should really do something out of your comfort zone. Why? I worked very hard to find my comfort zone. It was really rough and I can’t even get there that often. Takes all day and I gotta get off to a good start and do all the right things and avoid the right people and find all the right people and do all of these things to find my comfort zone. And then I’m supposed to do something outside of my – Fuck you! You do something outside your comfort zone. My comfort zone is hard-won….

But then, that’s where popular culture and pop psych comes in and wants – and the shtick I was looking at last night was that like, so, if it’s ‘afraid’, then, ‘You should do the things you’re afraid of’. Why? Why? I have felt quite enough fear. I don’t think I will benefit from more fear. I don’t think it’s the missing element in my life. I don’t think that’s the thing I need to be seeking out. ‘Go to the places that scare you.’ No! I have carved out an awesome space in which I don’t have to visit the places that scare me. I don’t like them there. I’ve been there. I know more about them than you, person telling me to go to the places that scare me.

John Darnielle, 2014-04-19 and 2014-04-20 at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago ( track 18 in https://archive.org/details/tmg2014-04-19.oldtown.flac16 and track 21 in https://archive.org/details/tmg2014-04-20)


Tags:

#I read a thing recently about a free-solo climber #and when they asked why he did it he was like #”I don’t want to just be happy and cozy‚ anyone can be happy and cozy‚ I want more than that” #and I was like what the fuck are you talking about #happy-and-cozy is one of the hardest things there is #you can spend a lifetime striving for it and catch only fleeting glimpses #I don’t understand skydivers and bungee-jumpers and all of that shit #they’re like ”it makes me feel alive” and I’m like ”…no‚ not alive‚ the *other* thing” #how can you be *happy* if you don’t even feel *safe*? #tag rambles #anxiety #death mention #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #and I’ll also add: #people who can distinguish between their drive for sleep and drive for sex fascinate me #my mind is complicated but is also *coherent* #everything feeds into everything else and I can see how these aspects feed into each other #(and indeed I once wrote a to-hell-with-leaving-my-comfort-zone post that was *specifically* in a sexual context)


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itsbenedict:

Star Seeker in: the Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff, my game about solving wizard murder, is out now! Thanks to Justin McElroy for voicing the trailer!

Good news: magic is real! Bad news: magic is highly illegal. Star Seeker is a wizard and you must solve a wizard crime or else get thrown in wizard jail by wizard– I mean, just regular police.

In this short one-room mystery adventure, collect evidence and use it to clear up the useless detective’s many confusions- and don’t worry about getting it wrong. Every hare-brained idea you can possibly pitch to the detective prompts unique dialogue!

6076392db529f54844937e1072b10b21e57dc909
5714124385a6caae99794bf6d5c3c862e6e4ac84
1fd2186a25b04425562a9eae441daf0c2f6c4f74

Twitter / Discord / Steam / itch.io / Bandcamp


Tags:

#oooooh #I haven’t had a chance to play the main game yet but the demo is great and Benedict does great stuff in general #Star Seeker #games #signal boost #death mention #(disclosure: I helped add Linux support to this game) #((like it wasn’t a paid position or anything‚ I just gave him a few tips from a long-time Linux user‚ but nor am I entirely arm’s-length))

filmnoirsbian:

5b163441ed35fdc7f60f97ebc145b5ff7e473719

Its time.

 

filmnoirsbian:

8e0053ee6be481a442dfbd78834c94610ba23c41

Off to a good start

 

filmnoirsbian:

b2cb8ae2a993cbd68bbd809318c5b77d052dbd0d
545aecd0be4ec77bb99375942a75e2a836e10ef1
68769b71656c9c341ebbdc728e344bdc3e7d8ac8
3189241aeb7e8a4c03d6d152722a802bfea968cc
4c7faddf83de42778a06f1082b7423a25134a52a
f6766c4da243f04166857f6c9a59e377afdc119c

Hello i have a new favorite movie

 

filmnoirsbian:

The heavy metal guitar solo intro music just petered off into the jurassic park theme sjsnsjejwkms

 

filmnoirsbian:

Oh this man is a himbo. Excellent.

 

filmnoirsbian:

Wait is this man a priest or a pastor 🤔 if he’s a priest then the title is false advertising

 

filmnoirsbian:

305e0327fe615843efcb5dc950188f6c0401b01f
197fecf4bd06845e85a40e6175127c3ea0f5d083
a204c13e3b637127c4f96bc96ff0cd2ccc66ed68
1f37379c55ce9bd9ccdc4b452d2721892401040f
2cc7091a51edca553abf8be34de4fda298da3fb0

I’m speechless

 

filmnoirsbian:

[gun fire]

[raptor screeches]

 

filmnoirsbian:

7e896269996b2aecfeb17fb896415f220fd9f907
e14012130d09547a9fc30cf82e25b421fd56d251
5217d75b6a348185a083b029215486bbc15fb654
b646e7cb57f9de70d17753871363053fbeef1592
955b133897a3524f8caaaa0fdd4df6848c9d6994

She’s talking abt how he turned into a dinosaur and ate the guy who was trying to rob her

 

filmnoirsbian:

“I don’t believe you! Dinosaurs never existed, and even if they did, I didn’t turn into one!”

 

filmnoirsbian:

ceed1d58393d102b12248b45fefef119c91dee47
91332a605e3b4d11e7db7bb67d12b24deb0e8b12
cad4e1030ba9e5042494e97194fe13a8e6b2b3da

Solidarity

 

filmnoirsbian:

Me: bro they better keep this shit platonic

[Carol and Priest looking at each other, smiling lightly after sharing an embrace, tension building]

Me: 😒

[Carol and Priest share a massive high five]

Me: oh??? 😏😌

 

filmnoirsbian:

fa32b8a57d1455bf10f75d9a66d6fce9168681ec

He’s literally reading a book called Crime

 

filmnoirsbian:

Velocifather: father stewart, what if i told you i was…different

Father Stewart: you’re not THAT different. they’re are plenty of people like that in the church

 

filmnoirsbian:

Bro i can’t even describe this vietnam war flashback…..there’s 5 guys in jeans and thrifted military jackets in what is clearly someone’s backyard……a bloody helmet on a garden fence is meant to symbolize how many brothers in arms they’ve lost…..they just stuck a blond wig on the old priest to show how young he was back then…….his gf just showed up and stepped on a land mine and died….which is why he joined the priesthood…the editing feels like a fever dream

 

avogadro-toast:

How can you talk about this movie without showing the fucking dinosaur

9b4c3a09f449edca9ab2c237b1aba11a23bddee8
c7773bd8d3d54f6bc144b8602802459a1a0a62e9

 

alsojetwolf:

I could not be more sincere when I say I need to see this movie more than I need to see any other movie that has ever been made.

 

michaelblume:

I have seen this movie and it is incredible and this post only scratches the surface of the batshit


Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #(I considered making it a roundup link instead because it has so many pictures and I’m almost out of WordPress image storage) #(but then I realised how unreadably glitchy this post is in Tumblr’s webpage view) #(so I shall have to take its layout into my own hands) #dinosaurs #long post #death mention

prokopetz:

I don’t think action roguelikes are bad by any means, but I’ve yet to encounter one that’s really captured that old-school turn based roguelike experience where you spend five minutes wracking your brain trying to figure out how to escape a situation where every move leads to certain death, then finally go “fuck it” and set off a bizarre chain reaction between four different items you’re pretty sure the developers never intended to be used together that blows up half the map, freezes your computer for a solid thirty seconds while it works out all the dice rolls, and for some reason transforms your character into a penguin.


Tags:

#roguelikes #death mention

argumate:

I still remember the way she walked into my office, which is a good sign, as it only happened this morning.

I looked her up and down; mostly down, I’m pretty tall.

She had a face.

Her lips were saying hello but her eyes were telling a very different story, blinking in morse code about the assassin in the air vent.

She knew she had me right where she wanted me: at my desk, in my office, at 11am, the time we had scheduled for this appointment.

As she leaned in close I couldn’t help noticing the kind of details that would give you an uncomfortable degree of insight into the precise contours of the author’s sexual obsessions. It was awkward.

I promised her I’d do whatever I could, because promising to do whatever I couldn’t sounded dangerously illogical.

She reached over and took a swig from the bottle on my desk in a way that was clearly intended to be alluring and transgressive but honestly just felt a little rude, and besides there could have been absolutely anything in that bottle, window cleaner, who knows. As it happens it was only water — I’m trying to stay hydrated and kick the booze habit I picked up after the untimely death of my partner — but she still knocked it back and grimaced just for show.

This Dane meant trouble. (She was from Denmark).


Tags:

#overly literal interpretations #death mention

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

Concept: a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting where the First Empire was brought low by their own hubris and annihilated utterly, except for their comprehensive – and apparently indestructible – automated public transit network, whose trains still run perfectly on schedule when everything else the Empire built has crumbled to dust. Nobody knows what (if anything) is controlling the network, but there always seems to be a train coming along in just a few minutes whenever you need one, even if anticipating that need would have required some sort of prescience, and the civilisations that rose from the First Empire’s ashes are built around the sites of the network’s former stations.

Further random thoughts:

  • The trains are capable of incredible top speeds and punch right through nearly any obstacle placed on the tracks, so efforts to block or redirect them generally fail,

  • They also take their role as public transit seriously, and seem to actively resist attempts to control access to them; if a station is secured against public access, the trains will simply pick a new stretch of track nearby and begin to stop there instead.

  • The trains will forcibly eject anyone who attempts violence against another passenger, so the interior of the cars is an enforced neutral zone. Creatures that would ordinarily be wholly inimical to humanity can be encountered safely while riding the rails – though the trains won’t stop them from following you off when you disembark!

  • The attendant difficulty of forcibly removing passengers from the trains renders them something of a sanctuary. Fugitives sometimes end up living on the trains full-time as a result, bartering with regular passengers for their daily needs; it’s whispered that even those who’ve offended the gods may find safety on the trains.

  • Owing to the trains’ apparently prescient ability to anticipate public demand, efforts have been made to predict the future – or at least the flow of commerce – from the patterns of the trains’ schedules; this typically meets with limited success.

  • Reports of the trains showing up in times of great need even where there are no tracks to run on are unsubstantiated, and are generally dismissed as superstitious folk-tales.

(Of course, it’s not all sunshine and roses; the trains are entirely amoral outside of their mandate, and will happily show up in the nick of time to provide a murderer with a convenient escape, or transport an invading army straight to your doorstep, provided that army doesn’t try to prevent others from boarding, and refrains from harming anyone while they’re actually on board!)


Tags:

#trains #story ideas I will never write #violence mention #death mention

regionalatbest:

i think that the “i do not control the ____” memes are generally tame and do not lend enough credence to the genuine absurdity of the original line that is

2ab8666dd4477851826bd520be25ca6d4d7d98ec

Tags:

#I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this meme before #but I looked at this picture and went ”is that…Josh…Peck?” #and I looked at TagViewer and to my surprise I was actually right #so I am reblogging in honour of that #Drake and Josh #prosopagnosia #death mention