#but the majority of people pay in cash and we found a way to take payment on the phone so it’s ok

[bingwriterxo]

the shakespeare exhibit - part 1

pairing: tara carpenter x reader

summary: in which tara finds herself in a weird place in the museum

warnings: none

word count: 1700+

author's note: this was a request (find here)! hope u guys enjoy :D the english major in me really popped the fuck out in this one 🤭

next part

Spending a rainy Sunday in the Museum of Modern Art was far from what Tara wanted to do, but she had been outvoted by the rest of her friends, all of whom thought that it would be fun (well, all but Chad, who wanted to stay in and have a movie marathon).

She found herself wandering aimlessly through the halls, glancing this way and that at different exhibits, though nothing really piqued her interest. Sam and Danny had escaped to the Egyptian gallery, Chad and Ethan were exploring the gift shop, Mindy and Anika had rushed off on their own almost as soon as the group walked through the front doors--if Tara had to put money on it, she would guess that they were making out in the bathroom--and Quinn was flirting with the ticket booth guy.

Tara pulled her phone from her back pocket.

Tara (3:46pm): can we go soon im bored

Sam (3:48pm): Danny and I are only halfway done!

Chad (3:49pm): anyone got some extra cash??? really want this weird t-shirt

Ethan (3:49pm): i got u buddy

Mindy (3:51pm): fh2p9hr2$!8tn

Sam (3:51pm): Mindy, what?

Mindy (3:52pm): sorry butt text

Mindy (3:52pm): me and nika r busy

She huffed when no one in the group chat seemed to be on the same wavelength as her and shoved her phone back in her pocket, continuing her shuffling. She wasn't even sure where in the museum she was, and she didn't really care.

Or, at least, she didn't care until she heard that voice.

"And here we have a painting depicting the celebration that occurs in the beginning of one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, Titus Andronicus."

Tara looked to her right, where the voice was coming from, and was met with a large sign that read Pop-Up Shakespeare Exhibit! She frowned. Shakespeare? she thought. Seriously?

"Now, this celebration is quite important to the rest of the play as..."

The voice was luring her in. Okay, maybe I can dig Shakespeare.

She wandered into the room, eyes flitting around as she searched for the person that the voice belonged to. Instead, she was met with numerous paintings of different scenes from Shakespeares' plays, or people that influenced him or were important during his time period.

And why the fuck is this man so iconic? she thought as she quickly scanned over each painting, finding nothing extraordinarily special about them. This shit is boring.

Still, she ventured farther in, determined to find the reason she had entered the exhibit in the first place. She wasn't, however, paying much attention to her feet or the paces in front of her, and the next thing she knew, she had bumped into someone else.

"Oh, sorry," she said.

"It's okay! That's my bad!" you replied, and Tara's eyes widened as she glanced in your direction. You were the voice that she was trying to find, and now that she had found you...well, she wasn't really sure what to do.

Honestly, she hadn't expected you to be so, in layman's terms, hot, and she could feel herself blushing up to her ears as she stared at you, awestruck and nervous and itching to talk to you all at once.

You offered her a wide grin and gestured toward the painting the two of you had ended up in front of. "Big fan of King Lear?" you asked.

Tara glanced at the painting. Two men stood in a vaguely grassy area, one old and the other younger. The older one had his arms thrown out, and despair was clearly controlling his emotions. The younger one was simply standing back and watching. What the fuck is this shit? she thought before realizing that you were awaiting her response.

"Yeah, definitely!" she lied. "It's probably my favorite Shakespeare play."

You furrowed your eyebrows. "Really? You strike me as more of a..." You trailed off as your eyes flitted down her body, taking her in. Tara gulped. "I would say Twelfth Night kind of girl."

Tara shrugged. "Well, I can be surprising." She pointed lamely at the painting. "Besides, I love history plays."

"Oh!" You raised your eyebrows as your eyes widened, and you chuckled. "King Lear isn't a history; it's a tragedy."

"Right! I--That's what I meant," she rushed out, trying to backtrack. "But, I mean, couldn't all of Shakespeare's plays technically be histories? They're all old."

You giggled, and Tara found that she liked that sound even more than she liked your voice. "That's not really how it works." You pulled your bottom lip between your teeth and glanced at the watch on your wrist. "If you want, I could give you a tour through the exhibit and explain some of the plays to you. My next group isn't coming for another hour."

I would rather Ghostface pop out of one of these paintings and attack me than have these boring-ass plays explained to me. She wanted to say that--god, did she want to--but you were looking at her with a soft smile and even softer eyes, your hands buried in your back pockets as you shifted on the balls of your feet, and her reply was tumbling from her lips before she could stop it.

"That would be great!"

* * *

You were only halfway through the exhibit, talking about some lady named Portia who could only marry the man that chose the correct casket--how fucking stupid, Tara thought--when you turned to her, a pitiful smile pulling at your lips.

"You find this boring, don't you?" you asked, though there was no judgment in your voice. If anything, Tara could detect a hint of teasing.

She shook her head. "No, no. Portia and Bassanio and caskets are all very...interesting." When you tilted your head at her, your eyes sparkling with disbelief, she sighed in defeat, allowing her shoulders to slump slightly. "Yeah," she admitted, "it's kind of boring."

You shrugged half-heartedly, a crooked smile on your lips. "That's okay. Shakespeare's definitely not for everyone." You looked back at the painting you stood in front of. "I mean, even I hated half the plays when I first read them."

"Then why are you a tour guide for this exhibit?"

"Money," you confessed. "I'm a broke college student who has tuition to pay for. Plus, I've read all of these plays ten times over, so I know them pretty well."

Tara wrinkled her nose. "Why would you subject yourself to that?" she asked. "I couldn't even imagine reading these plays once, let alone"--she gestured in the air--"as many times as you've read them."

"I'm an English Lit. major, so it's kind of my thing." You sighed in a dreamy sort of way, and Tara couldn't help as her eyes flitted down to your lips, her tongue dragging across her bottom one. She quickly shifted back to your eyes when you looked at her. "But it's not everyone's thing. I get it."

She frowned. "Sorry if I, like, wasted your time."

You waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I like talking about the plays, and if anything I said in the last fifty minutes got through to you, then I did my job."

Tara nodded. "Oh, it definitely did. Yeah, I learned so much about Shakespeare today," she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

You chuckled. "Sure you did."

She took a deep breath in and then rushed out, "If I could prove to you that I learned something, would you let me take you on a date?" She watched as your eyes widened in surprise before being narrowed by the smile that took over your face.

"Okay," you agreed. "I'll ask you a question, and if you can answer it, then I'll give you my number. How's that?"

"Yeah," she said, grinning. "That works."

You glanced around the parts of the exhibit that you had taken Tara through, and she watched as you thought for a moment, your eyebrows furrowing in concentration and your hand scratching at the side of your neck.

"Oh!" you said after a minute. "I've got it." You turned to her, a wicked smile on your face. "In Twelfth Night, what's the name of Viola's brother?"

Oh shit, Tara thought. I should've listened harder when she was talking about that play. But it's not my fault she looked so cute when she was talking about the different theories of human gender.

She blinked at you, trying to come up with the name, or, frankly, any name that you had mentioned during your little tour. You waited patiently, watching her as the gears turned in her head.

Orsino? No, no--that's the Duke. Was it Cesario? Toby? Malvolio? None of those. Oh! It was--

"Sebastian!" she practically yelled.

You giggled at her enthusiasm and pulled the pen from your front pocket. As you clicked it open, you said, "I guess you do listen." You took her arm, pushed up her sleeve so that you had enough skin to write, and jotted down your number on her forearm. She looked at it when you were done, blushing at the sight of a poorly-drawn heart at the end. "Text me, yeah?"

"Totally," she breathed out. "Yeah, I'll do that. For sure."

"Okay." You glanced at your watch. "My next tour's starting in, like, a minute, so I've gotta run." You quickly looked around the exhibit and, upon finding no one near, leaned close and pressed a short kiss to her cheek. "Bye!"

Tara was left in the center of the Shakespeare exhibit, watching as you walked back toward the entrance, with a burning cheek and butterflies stirring in her stomach. She looked at the portrait on her right.

"Shakespeare, you're not good for much, but apparently you're good for getting cute girls' numbers," she muttered.

bonus: "so, what exhibits did you go to, tara?" sam asked as the group sat in a little coffee shop down the street from the MoMA.

"uh, the shakespeare one," tara mumbled.

everyone's eyes widened. "what?" came the resounding reply from all of her friends.

"you hate shakespeare," mindy stated.

"yeah. when they tried to teach us about it in senior year, you literally left the classroom," chad said.

"why the hell would you spend all your time in a shakespeare exhibit?" sam asked, furrowing her eyebrows at tara.

anika reached over and pulled at tara's shirt sleeve, revealing the numbers hidden beneath. "i think that might be why."

tara groaned as everyone started talking over one another, asking questions (sam) and squealing (quinn and mindy) and grumbling (chad and ethan).

"god," mindy started when everyone was finally quiet, "you are so gay, t."

#tara carpenter x reader #tara carpenter #tara x reader #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega #scream 6 #scream 5 #museum tara

[kwyw]

Hey “Karlie Kloss is married” Anon:

You are aware that in 2023, the LGBTQIA community is still fighting for basic human rights, no?

You are aware that in 2023, people are banning FICTIONAL books because of the mere mention of LGBTQIA characters, right? What about the banning of drag shows? “Don’t Say Gay” in Florida?

Read the room, a book or maybe watch/read the news. The LGBTQIA community exists and will continue to exist regardless of the treatment they receive from those who claim to “not judge people for who they love because love is love” when it’s convenient for them and who misquote & misinterpret Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words on the one day out of the year they try to show they don’t discriminate against people in any way, shape or form.

However, it’s people with mindsets like yours who will always force the LGBTQIA+ community to continue the fight for equality, even in 2023!

Lavender marriages exist. People aren’t making this up or pulling it from the depths of their asses. If it were so easy to “just come out”, people would more frequently because that would mean people truly don’t care.

People lose jobs for being gay. They’re turned away from restaurants. Refused wedding cakes. Overlooked for promotions when they’re more than qualified or deserving. Denied the opportunity to buy a house or adopt a child. Called mentally ill or pedophiles. Physically attacked. Harassed. Murdered. All because of who they lay beside at night.

Just because Taylor is a billionaire doesn’t mean people wouldn’t treat her differently if she ever (allegedly) came out and the same for Karlie (allegedly). She would lose fans. Her albums may not sell as much. Venues may not want her to perform there to avoid protesters. People may stop buying a company’s products if she endorses them. Look at Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney.

Because for some reason, some people in society think money loses it’s value if someone’s sexual orientation isn’t the same as theirs, but guess what:

Money is still green and it’s still paper, whether it comes from a gay person hands or not. That same green paper is what people want others to spend to support *them* and *their* business. You want it as a reward for your hard work at your job. You accept it as a gift. If you found $50 outside of a gay bar, you’re gonna pick it up because it’s $50 on the ground, right?

People will accept cash, card, credit, Apple Pay, etc., but won’t accept other people based on their race, sexuality, etc.

Crazy world we live in.

It’s not even easy for people to become billionaires, much less come out of the closet because in either scenario, they could lose everything.

Why do you think Scott Swift and that other guy were so against her speaking about politics? Ask yourself why you’re so triggered at the possibility that Taylor and Karlie could be or are (allegedly) gay?

Why do you think Josh (allegedly) takes Karlie on the majority of his business trips? His own family refused to acknowledge her for years. Josh himself referred to his friend Mikey (also married with two kids) as their roommate. Have you seen his past birthday tributes to Mikey compared to Karlie’s?

At the end of the day, people in some industries have to present themselves a certain way to be successful. It’s like code switching. You have to change or suppress things about yourself to appease other people.

Also, Karlie *has* actively dropped Easter eggs (hello, cardigan/folklore!). You probably just don’t like the messenger. For example:

Her using Labyrinth’s music in her IG stories just for Labyrinth to be a song on midnights?

Her own sister, Kimby, saying “la la la la” on twitter, just for Karlie to pop up at the LA show.

Taylor said in MA that she and her partner decided together they wanted their relationship to be private.

Wouldn’t you say that fits Taylor/Karlie? Because when you don’t see two people associating as much publicly as they used to, you automatically assume something happened or that they aren’t friends…right? Because that’s what everyone assumed until Karlie showed up at the rep tour and the eras tour.

#all of this #freaking exactly

[microwave-core]

We All Love O'Nare of the Glitterati <3

Listen, I know that she’s married to Boy Toy McGee, but she’s too perfect for an April Fool’s post for me to pass up, so let’s just assume that she’s not. Or maybe you’re just a side piece. Or he's the side piece. I never really decided.

______________________________________________________

Obviously, when you first see O’Nare, you fall head over heels for her, because who wouldn’t? She’s so wonderfully beautiful and charitable, it’s hard to resist her pull. And she, in tow, fell in love with you thanks to the positive energy radiating from your being.

Originally, she believed you to just be another commoner, a rare commodity for the likes of her, sparking intrigue. It wasn’t often that she got to interact with the common folk, leading to her seeking you out for your opinions about certain matters. She makes sure to pay you for your time, of course. She loves to spread charity to the commoners.

Once you both fall, it’s only a matter of time before she spills her true feelings for you. She never thought a commoner would be the one to catch her heart, but she wasn’t about to let such a catch slip through her fingers. Besides, getting with you would allow her to cherish you in lavish luxury, give you a life you deserved.

Being the President of Paldea Realty, she is often very busy, but loves to take trips with her dearest Billy in search of true beauty in the region, visiting both major landmarks for inspiration and remote areas to clear her mind. Bringing you along brings her great joy. She loves eating up your time, enjoying the positivity of Paldea’s landscape alongside your positive aura.

Alongside throwing you some cash when you join her, you will also receive incredible pearls of wisdom. She seeks to guide you through life, ensuring you walk down the path of beauty and positive energy rather than one that is dingy and dull. 

Battles are the true path to her heart. Despite all of her… eccentric tendencies, O’Nare strive to understand more about the world and people around her. Even if they may seem dull and small in comparison to her wonderfully lavish life, she understands that beauty and positivity can be found in all things if you look deep enough. And what better way to learn more about the people around you than to battle them?

Although, while she loves to battle and to spread riches among the less fortunate, she does hate to see her darling Arbolivia and Persian get hurt. Alas, it is a small sacrifice that she must put up with, making sure to use the best medicine and plenty of PDA to make it up to them after the fact.

Along with those two, I assume she has at least three or four Meowths in her egregiously sized mansion, with personal attendants to ensure maximum happiness. She prefers the Kantonian variant, but also appreciates the Alolan form. The Galarian form, on the other hand… she believes they deserve just as much love as the others, but she is also aware of the destruction they can bring to the objects around them, along with how much they shed. Although, if you wanted one, she would be willing to make an exception. Love is a powerful thing, after all.

Speaking of her home, it’s, as expected as of a billionaire, fucking massive and also terribly furnished. I hate to say it, but O’Nare has rich person taste, meaning her home is full of weird ass furniture. Inconvenient chairs and uncanny statues and rooms dedicated to niche hobbies that no normal person would ever think would need a full room to complete are littered all over her home.

Originally, I was going to peg her down as a sugar mommy, but I don’t think that’s quite the case (I also kinda gave that roll to Geeta so that spot was taken). You aren’t a sugar baby in this relationship, you’re a trophy wife. She dresses you in the finest luxury brands and styles and brings you to all kinds of fancy smancy rich people events to show you off.

No price is too high for someone such as herself. Simply name anything you want and she will get it for you, no questions. O’Nare enjoys the feeling of spending money on someone she cares for, so don’t be shy to ask for anything that may cross your mind, big or small. 

Of course, she will also shower you with gifts whenever she finds something you might like. She doesn’t care how expensive her gifts may be, so don’t even try to deny them because they seem too nice to just take without anything in return. Your love and devotion is a far greater gift to her than anything money could buy. 

Also it took me reading through the Bulbepedia page to realize that their names (Billy and O’Nare) was a play on billionaire woops.

#pokemon x reader #o'nare x reader #pokemon o'nare #your april fools headcanons milord #i got distracted while spitting this into a document watching asmr woops #its still done on time tho #so does it really matter? #anyways #i have got to get back to my farm wife bye bye

[corpsegirldick]

The Graveyard... After hours.

So you chose to stay until the sun set. Before we can discuss what you will be getting into, there are some disclaimers that must be regarded.

-This page is a space strictly for adults. No minors are welcome here, and should not interact.

-This page is a home for the freaks, the perverse, and the monster within us all.

-TERFs, Zionists, kinkshamers, and other hateful ideologies are not welcome in this place.

-The things that will be found here are not for the faint of heart. Tread carefully.

With this out of the way, we may begin.

This is my NSFW sideblog to SabreWife, my main page. I felt that making one of these would help me vent my urges, but in full admittance, money is tight. I will be posting pictures of our body, fantasies and microfiction here as a form of expression, so that I can both come to love myself more, and maybe make friends with other kinky dykes so I don't feel as alone here.

In addition to what I will be posting here, I will also be accepting money for customised and more explicit scenes, pictures, and custom stories. Above all other forms of expression, I love writing, especially for and about other trans and queer people. Loving other queer people is my specialty, especially freaks like me. If you can't afford to pay for custom works, I'll gladly do it for free.

Now, let's get into the meat of this, what I'm sure you're here for.

I'm a switch, and always eager for a back and forth. I love other trans people dearly, and any chance to sink my teeth into another dyke or plaything, I often take. I can be as rough or as soft as one desires, plaything or mistress, and as weak or as strong as needed.

Naturally, I'm a monsterfucker, a slut for all things inhuman with little or no humanity remaining. The grace of the machine, the divine touch of an Angel or a Witch, or even the claws of a werewolf, the fangs of a vampire, I seek it out readily.

My preference is typically other things on the dyke side of the scale, but all other trans people are free game for my claws. Won't you let me sink them in?

My kinks extend in depth, and are quite heavy at times, but I am also very accomodating to others preferences.

My limits reside at scat, detrans, sissy, and chaser-esque interests.

Anywho, I believe that covers everything basic. If you want to get to know me a little better, and want to toss some cash my way, continue past the read more. Otherwise, welcome in, and enjoy yourself. Oh, and please tell me if you had a good time. I love knowing if I've made others feel good.

Before continuing further, my Cashapp is $SabreWife. If you want to discuss what you would like, or just chat, feel free to DM me! You shouldn't be shy, I only bite if you want me to.

Anywho, we are the Lilac System, as a whole. I am the host, Escila. I will be the one running this page a majority of the time, but do not be surprised if my protector, Lilith, or someone else makes a post on occasion. They will tag their posts with their initials. For example, Lilith's posts will be tagged as L.C.

As for my interests, I really enjoy writing and gaming. I love bartending, firearms, and going out into the woods late at night, whether it be for camping or just a nice evening walk. I'm always looking for people to infodump to about my niche little hyperfixations, like Signalis or Ultrakill. As for my writing, I have a lot of original universes and characters, but I also have a bunch of fanfiction for Bloodborne, Cyberpunk, and Signalis. Oh, and you should definitely ask me about Ace Combat and Project Wingman. I love planes and funny plane games.

Apart for that, I am on the East Coast of the US(unfortunately), though I am not from here. I'm Canadian, and I've been living in the US for a majority of my life. Maybe someday, when the world isn't ravaged by oppressive governments and colonialism, I would like to travel and experience everything the world has to offer.

I love music of all varieties, typically listening to anything from synthwave to thrash metal. I especially love punk music from queer authors, and if I could, I would be going to rock venues and dives every night.

I aspire to have a lot of piercings, tattoos, and body modifications, but I don't have the money for any of it currently.

Hm, let's see... I think that's about everything. If you're curious about anything, or even just want to chat sometime, please DM me! I need more friends, especially people like me.

[astraltrickster]

An issue I have with media critique is when people correctly point out problems with worsening quality control under late-stage capitalism, then completely undermine their point by putting on the thickest nostalgia goggles they can find.

This is really common in critique of video games - YES, developers are getting overreliant on day-one patches and crunch and it's getting worse because hehe line go up. YES, obsession with preorders and preorder bonuses is letting AAA studios get away with selling you garbage. YES, monetization models are getting greedier and greedier with microtransactions and lootboxes and DLC-locking major parts of a game. YES, this is extremely bad practice for both employees AND consumers.

NO, there was no magical Before Time when all commercially available games were passion projects and totally not cash grabs made by happy and totally not overworked developers and totally free of game-breaking glitches at launch. Before patches became a thing, if a game was broken at launch, if a cartridge would brick if you approached a quest the wrong way, if you would almost always get softlocked without a guide, those games would typically just bomb and get forgotten to time because they couldn't be fixed without just straight up being updated and rereleased. The idea that retro games were all masterpieces with only obscure glitches found by running into the tricks they used to carefully allocate the system's extremely limited memory is an invention of survivorship bias.

Or, how about film and special effects? YES, overreliance on greenscreen and CGI to avoid paying unionized prop and set and even costume designers is bad for everyone involved in the process except the CEOs. YES, movies getting increasingly formulaic, to the point where you can go to pretty much any big budget movie and predict what's going to happen by watching the clock equally if not more reliably than by watching the movie, is exhausting if you're over 12 or not successfully lured in by big names and nostalgia. YES, the anti-competitive practices by Disney are horrifying (and in fact even a halfway decent lawyer could easily argue that they're illegal, unfortunately Disney can afford to argue their way out of it), and YES, there used to be a lot more mid-size studios making a lot more varied films.

NO, there was no era where all practical effects were beautiful and no actor or film crew was ever mistreated to save a buck. NO, there was no time when the supergiants of the industry were willing to take big risks, or cared more about art than profits, unless you count Disney undermining their own projects to punish employees for being too ambitious (see: Treasure Planet). As for the less convincing side of practical effects, we're in love with them now because we've seen the monstrosities that have replaced them, but when they came out people pointed and laughed and rolled their eyes and thought "damn, they really were too cheap to do any better?"

The reason I hate this is the same reason I hate a lot of fandom and shipping drama: because take a step back and look at what's happening here. It sounds petty, because it's based on something fairly frivolous, but what's happening here is that you're correctly identifying a bad trend, but exaggerating the difference between then and now and romanticizing a past that never existed. You know, just like shit like trad recruiting.

Yeah, I know that sounds like catastrophizing, it's movies and video games! It's not like there have been entire reactionary movements born of people angry about something as stupid as gaming and using that as an excuse to take action on their bigoted ideals-

Oh. Wait. Huh.

But even if it never comes to the worst-case scenario, where you end up obsessing over some nostalgic golden age to the point of resisting any and all positive change and decide that NO, things were PERFECT once upon a time, We Need To Go Back, reject modernity etc. etc., and anyone who WASN'T happy in this perfect idyllic before time needs to be stamped out lest they ruin it for you everyone, you're still horribly oversimplifying the problem. We can't fix it by "going back" because even when things were better in the ways we can identify, the people with the money were already laying the groundwork for the exploitative hellscape we know today. Things need to be totally overhauled.

Don't fall into the nostalgia trap, and don't assume the nostalgia trap is harmless because "it's just games and movies."

#media #crapitalism #serious tag

[dark-arts-and-crafts-universe]

A Dying Art (Chapter 17)

A Dying Art

Lorcan Verdigris is a time wizard, a misanthrope, and a single father to a household of magically-sentient furniture.

Lorcan Verdigris is not a necromancer. Anymore. But when the leader of the  local necro coven comes to him with a request he really, really can’t  refuse, past collides with present and he finds himself back in a world  he’d tried to leave behind. Someone is trying to steal a powerful  magical artifact, one whose destruction could unleash chaos upon the  city. Or save it from an even greater danger. Or do nothing at all. Who  knows. See, this is exactly why Lorcan stopped messing with the stuff.

Unfortunately,  one way or another, Lorcan’s the one stuck dealing with it. He’d like  to say this is a challenge that will take all his magic and his  ingenuity to overcome, but let’s be real, stopping this threat will take  something even more dire: actual effort. At least he’s getting paid  this time…

Previous | Table of Contents

Chapter 17: What Remains

Word count: 3,618

Content warnings: no major content warnings

So this is the last chapter of A Dying Art! I’ve been really nervous about posting this, wanted to make sure it was as good as it could be to end the story strong. I do plan to write more with these characters and universe (because wow is there a lot more story to tell) but this work represents the first major chunk of Lorcan’s arc. If you’ve stuck around until the end, thank you so much! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it.

-

Osiris did live up to their promise to pay him if he survived. They even threw in extra to cover expenses. Lorcan got the letter in his mail five days after the mall battle–he almost didn’t check until the kids pestered him about it. Alongside the cash was another message. It read: Darken my GameStop one more time, Lorcan Verdigris.

The normal people were definitely staring when Lorcan entered the mall. He couldn’t blame them–he’d found a big stick in the small patch of grass outside and was regularly jabbing it into the walls on the off-chance something started breathing. He tossed five rocks onto the escalator before deciding it was (probably) safe.

Of course, if the mall was still evil and liminal, his time sense would be killing him again and everything there was comfortably usual. So. His slipshod plan had worked, then. The scenesters hadn’t connected the mall dimension back to their plane of existence, and Osiris hadn’t taken the space for themselves. Maybe this incident wasn’t entirely over, but some things were back to the way they’d been.

“You did not bring your familiar this time,” Osiris’s voice greeted Lorcan as he stepped into the shop.

“Well, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice and I really will irradiate you to death.”

“We see,” they said, then: “That was not Dexter’s death curse.”

If Lorcan was a little bit snippy, it was because he was still catching up on sleep from the week before. He ran a hand through his hair, then asked, “Did you summon me to your shop to say things we both already knew?”

Because, duh. Dexter Young would never bury anything important in a place he and Lorcan had explored together. His trust extended just far enough to let him help with the mostly-useless first attempt, ten years ago.

But, “The prototype looked close enough to fool the others.”

“Not us, however.”

Yes. Osiris had all of Dexter’s memories. That was how that worked.

“I didn’t need to fool you,” he told them. “I just needed to get you in a position where it benefitted you to play along. The fight had been going long enough I figured you’d want it stalled, if nothing else.”

And they nodded slowly, like Lorcan had given them something they needed. “An intriguing gambit.”

There was almost a note of respect in their voice–exactly what Lorcan had hoped wasn’t going to happen. Aside from the ethical implications…he’d only been able to get the drop on Osiris because they’d underestimated him. He would bet that wasn’t going to happen in the future.

“Not without its consequences, of course,” the Crown said, probably thinking the same. “What you gained from the ploy must have been worth the risk.”

Not this again, Lorcan thought, pretending very suddenly to be interested in one video game on the shelf in front of him about…cars? “I thought my demands were clear enough. My son, and the petty, fleeting thrill of victory symbolized by a pair of overpriced shoes.”

Osiris let out a hum.

Before that hum could turn into a barbed comment, or worse a question, he added, “So I guess you won the fight, then? I mean, this place looks less hell-dimension than last time.”

He couldn’t say things seemed entirely normal–he was studiously avoiding the new, very artistic posters the Crown had added to the decor since last time–but it was still Osiris’s store, so he had to assume things had worked out for them.

“More or less,” they answered, with a tilt of their head. “After your…outburst, you could say the adrenaline of the moment had dimmed. The Dominion sought respite for their injuries–”

“Who the fuck is the Dominion?”

“The ‘scene crowd’. Their collective nom de guerre,” Osiris told him. They frowned. “They had a monologue about it when the fight began. Were you not there for that?”

“No, I was busy being left for dead,” he said.

“Ah.” They gave it a second’s thought and moved on, “The Dominion broke to in-fighting soon after you left–petty complaints about being ‘frightened’ and ‘dying’. It was as if they had not yet considered murdering a powerful necromancer might involve some degree of personal consequence. We know that you would never be so foolish.”

And Lorcan flinched at that, because it was true in exactly the way he didn’t want Osiris to think about. “They seemed pretty young,” he offered.

“In years, they did not differ much from you. In maturity…” They nodded once. “Their worldview is very much marked by youth: the old is worthless, everything must be fresh, new.”

“...like the New Osiris?”

A scowl. “That was part of the monologue, yes. A quite vainglorious sobriquet–the name Osiris is not for any common ruler to claim. It belonged to a truly admirable individual.”

Lorcan did not resist the urge to roll his eyes. “You know,” he drawled, “some people would pretend to be humble.”

The look of unamusement on Osiris’s face was expected. But it seemed different from usual. Somehow more solemn. “We mean the first Osiris. Contrary to popular belief, we chose the name out of respect.”

He turned that over in his head. The first necromancer in the area to call himself Osiris was before Lorcan’s time. But he did know the stories. “He convinced his enemies to merge their covens together,” he said, working through the thought. “No enchantments–supposedly–no shows of force. Just words and charisma.”

“Osiris the First achieved through will alone what for others required powerful magic.”

“And you…admire that?” he had to ask. Osiris (the Second) did value hard work, and skills separate from magic. The GameStop was proof of that.

What Osiris (the Second) didn’t bother with was charisma. Needing people, trusting people–Lorcan had seen their lip literally curl enough to know their disgust at the thought. The necromancer souls that made up the gestalt had needed people, and they’d failed to achieve anything close to the first Osiris. He’d think, with their ego, that would more likely lead to envy.

“You admire someone,” he repeated.

“We do have a heart, Verdigris,” they said. “On occasion it is capable of positive emotion.”

“So is this–” Lorcan pointed at himself, then the Crown, and the store. “--one of those rare moments of gratitude, then? Because I saved your ass back in that fight?”

There was the lip. “Whatever minor assistance you rendered was, truly, unnecessary in the grander scheme of things.” They paused. “But, as the opportunity did arise, we decided acquiescing to a momentary stalemate would allow us to allocate our remaining stamina for this upcoming shift. Besides which, the ritual circle had been damaged in the battle somehow.”

“Oh?”

“The liminal death dimension still exists,” Osiris explained, “but its connection to our own plane has been frayed. A new bridge would need to be built before the space is again usable.”

Little victories, Lorcan thought.

“As for the physical Spirit Halloween in this mall,” they continued. “It has vanished as quickly as it appeared. A front the entire time, we assume.”

Osiris let out a small huff of breath, not quite a sigh. It was still more defeated than Lorcan had ever seen them. “A clean victory would have been preferable, though it seems this time that was not quite possible.”

And for a moment, Lorcan could feel a sense of kinship with the wistfulness in the Crown’s voice.

“Things keep happening.” He looked down at his hands. “You don’t want to be the one who has to handle them. But you’re the one who’s there and that means it’s up to you. It sucks.”

“Indeed. ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the’…” They trailed off mid-quote, and pointed to their crown upon their head. A soft, halfway-chuckle slipped out of their mouth. “True rest escapes us still. The Dominion’s fiendish accountancy knows few bounds.”

“I thought you’d have dealt with that by now.”

“You know as well as we that the advent of online shopping was the dagger in the metaphorical intestine of the American mall,” they informed him. “It bleeds slow, but death is certain.” Sad silhouettes of signage flashed into Lorcan’s mind. Empty halls and dusty floors.

“The only locations turning a profit at this complex are this GameStop and–” Osiris let out a disgusted shudder. “--the Hot Topic. Pre-orders alone may not be enough. We will likely need to devote even greater attention to this job simply to hold the line. We may even have to cut down on our extracurricular murders.”

Hm. “That’s rough.”

“Yes. We must all make sacrifices in this trying time.” Then, after a pause, “Or rather, some of us must make fewer sacrifices. But the time of separating business from magic, at least, is at an end.”

Lorcan wouldn’t say no to less extracurricular murder, but it was overall a somber statement. A lot of necromantic status quo in the area was going to get upheaved. It might, emphasis on might, work out better for the locals for a new enemy to distract Osiris’s attention. But there was a lot of new room for innocents to get caught in the crossfire.

It had been the same way back before the Crown had merged into a necromantic gestalt, and Lorcan didn’t know what he, as one mid-tier wizard, could do to stop it.

“You did not answer our question, Verdigris.”

They were doing this, then? They were really doing this. “I’m pretty sure I did, actually,” he said. Argumentative, but there was no helping that.

“We wish to hear why you did what you did that night.”

“You know damn well why,” Lorcan snapped. “Is it really so confusing I might want to protect my children? My children who I love?”

“Perhaps.” Osiris raised an eyebrow. “It is such a feeble, human emotion, after all.”

Yeah, he didn’t buy that. “I’ve heard you do have a heart on occasion.”

It was too easy an answer: the evil, inhuman villain who does evil things because they don’t feel love. Better than admitting your old friend had just stopped caring. No, for all Osiris insisted they were no longer mortal and weak, their evil was human enough. Something about the specifics of Lorcan’s family did seem to be tripping up their inestimable wisdom. But it wasn’t that.

Osiris liked to avoid emotion. Lorcan knew firsthand that didn’t stop you from feeling it.

“And you know what,” he threw out like a challenge, “you never answered my question: did you call me here just to talk about things we both already know?”

The words were more confident than he felt, and Osiris stared at him, eyes piercing, stance sure. Lorcan tried not to shift, not to fidget. Whatever they were looking for, they were only going to see what he’d already explained. For a moment, he could see hesitation flickering in the dark of their eye.

When the Crown finally spoke, they said, “Dexter was surprised when you began calling yourself a father.”

And how could Lorcan respond to that except, “I was, too.” It was a vulnerable admission, and for once, Osiris didn’t press their advantage.

The feeling in the silence that fell prickled at his neck. It was almost like…uncertain smalltalk back in Belial’s tattoo parlor. A kind of verbal joust he still didn’t know the rules for. He was missing something big, he just didn’t know what. So there was a moment of relief when the door to the back of the shop opened, enough that he didn’t think to question who could be coming out of it.

There had to be wards hiding Jennifer Lynn’s shimmering spectral form from non-magical eyes. Even in a dying mall, there were too many people who would notice a translucent woman carrying a stack of games to the shelves like she was any normal employee. It was a sign of the upheaval Lorcan had been the unwitting architect of, he thought with a sinking heart. The days of the Crown Osiris’s GameStop being a place safe from magic were over.

Then he saw the person standing behind Jennifer Lynn.

Necromancy made a lot of common idioms hard to say with a straight face. So for Lorcan to say that spotting Kyle, in the flesh, carrying a stack of video games was like ‘seeing a ghost’--well, there was a ghost right in front of him. This was more shocking.

“You are staring,” Osiris noted.

“I’m just surprised to see him still–” Alive. “–employed.”

“Clearly we overestimated his ability to lead independently of our instruction,” they said. “It does not matter. We have long been in need of a footman whom we can provide with much firmer management.”

“And how’s Kyle feel about that?”

“Kyle?” Osiris asked him.

“Super grateful for not being dead, um, your royal magic-ness Opal ma’am!” The kid had a plastered-on smile that looked only halfway fake. “I mean, the new hours suck a bit, but it’s better than food service. Also being a, uh, footman comes with health insurance?”

It sounded more like a question than a statement. Lorcan glanced back at Osiris.

“We bound a wraith into the fabric of his soul to ensure his body will not expire before our use for him has,” they said. “That counts. Honestly, we would not have bothered in the first place,” they added with a wave of their hand. “But Jennifer Lynn saw potential in him.”

The realtor’s shade hadn’t looked at Lorcan since she walked out, almost pointedly ignoring him. It wasn’t until the split second where Osiris turned to examine a display that she met his eyes.

Huh, he thought. How about that?

Lorcan wasn’t going to insult Jennifer Lynn’s intelligence by letting slip any more than a single nod, barely more than a twitch of his neck. But when she pivoted back to her work as if nothing had even been communicated, he thought she got the gist.

It was a bigger favor than Lorcan thought he could ask for. The situation Kyle was in was not ideal by any means. It was a lot of trouble Lorcan didn’t know if he could get him out of. But more achievable than full resurrection–he wasn’t that good a necromancer.

“You will need somebody to keep the shop running,” he said, because anything that kept Osiris from doubting Jennifer Lynn’s judgment was good. “Even if you black-market-gem your way out of debt, the customers are what keep the mall alive in the first place.”

Osiris disfavored him with a sour look. “Why should we surrender our own wealth to fix others’ inadequacies? No, we have found a more ingenious solution to our budgetary distress,” they pronounced, eyes glittering. “We have garnished Kyle’s pay.”

Lorcan glanced over to Kyle. “Hooray for capitalism,” he said.

He shouldn’t even be surprised anymore. Osiris was who they’d always been. As Dexter, as Opal, as the full gestalt. These were all people who would do anything to never need anyone.

Kind of like Lorcan. He took a deep breath. He was trying to be better. “Look, Osiris. This might be out of hand–”

“Then do not say it?”

He pressed on, “But you could consider giving a little more recognition to your underlings. There’s stuff they’re doing that you can’t, or won’t, and it doesn’t hurt you to let them pick up that slack. And maybe,” he added, “if you happen to owe someone for past services rendered, just pay them? I cannot stress enough that you’re a rich person who can do that.”

Osiris hummed to themself, seeming to consider it. “What you are saying is that re-investing in our minions now is the opportune moment to secure more unwavering loyalty in the future. Achieve our goals through mundane manipulation, like our predecessor.”

“No,” he said. “No, do not take this and turn it into a necromancy power grab. I’m trying–I am trying to be nice here, goddammit.”

“We know. It is a strange gesture. It hardly suits our working relationship.”

He sighed. “Yeah.”

“And yet you slave to the impulse in your mortal mind to meddle so. Our nigh-infinite wisdom is at a loss to explain it.” Their voice lilted for a moment, like it was a funny joke. But if they had seemed amused at first, their next words made it clear they were very, very not: “One would think the collateral damage alone from your interferences would deter you.”

Lorcan’s heart stuck in his throat. “Is that a threat?” he asked, and tried to sound confident.

“To your, ah, children? No, we have resolved that to attack ones so frail and helpless no longer befits the dignity of our gestalt. Consider it a courtesy after all you have done for us.”

Sure, he thought. That was the reason.

“No, it was,” and Lorcan knew exactly what the Crown would end that sentence with, “a simple observation. You must know by now that your nature is a poison, rather than a balm. Look at what you have wrought in the last week alone–was any of it ‘good’?”

He didn’t react. He didn’t let himself. His very breath stopped. Osiris was looking for a reaction, and he would not give them the satisfaction.

They smiled, and it was as unkind as anything Lorcan had ever done. “Some people were not made to be helpful, Verdigris. Remember that if you seek to interfere in our affairs again.”

Message received, Lorcan thought, mouth suddenly very dry. “Right,” he said, mechanically. Going through every motion. “It’s been real, Osiris. Corporate must love your progress reports.” He turned to go.

But this time, they didn’t let him leave with the parting shot. “Do you know how a conflict between us would end, Lorcan Verdigris?”

This again? “Yes,” he said tightly.

It was an obvious, obedient answer. So it sent a chill shock through his system when the Crown told him that, “We are no longer so certain. But if need be, we will put the question to the test.”

If there was one thing Lorcan had learned about Osiris, the thing that was new and strange about this person who was almost an almost-friend, it was that they liked their labels. It was their way of making the world predictable. Life and death. Work and magic. Threats and fools.

And if there was power in breaking boundaries, Lorcan might have done the worst thing he could in the long run by establishing himself as a threatening fool.

The unsettled feeling stuck with him all the way back to the apartment. “Hey, you’re still alive,” Vulk said, watching TV.

“Yeah.”

<But it’s done.> Frank flickered his light, letting out a satisfied creak.

“...Yeah.” He looked over to the desk, where Loretta’s light shade had swiveled to peer directly at him. “Loretta. Could…” He trailed off.

Going back to a lazy schedule meant he didn’t have to wear himself down thinking over everything that had happened. It meant he had plenty of time to do it anyway. And some thoughts were less avoidable than others.

His nature…a crafter’s art and their magic reflected who they were. It wasn’t supposed to be as simple as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ types of magic. But maybe Lorcan was just an unlucky jerk with nothing below the surface.

If he was a little nicer, would he have ended up with magic like Kryptonia and her friends, something that created instead of destroyed? A seer knew, at least, what it was they were supposed to do. Whether their actions would help or hurt. He could admit he envied that.

When Lorcan first saw the vision of red, he assumed it meant blood. The consequences of a bad choice. Frustrating, vague, and in the end it had been a clue to something else entirely.

No, despite the hint Lorcan was all alone, making his own choices the best he could. And look how that had gone.

In one week, he’d injured several people in a magic fight, gotten a hapless GameStop employee near-permanently subjugated, and threatened to destroy an entire mall. He’d potentially maneuvered the Crown Osiris into a position of even greater strength if they managed to win this necromantic power struggle. Vision or no, maybe there was going to be blood on his hands after all.

“I need a little more light in my room,” was what he said.

Loretta tilted her lampshade. “Sure thing, Dad,” she replied. “You’ve had a rough day.”

Lorcan took her back into his bedroom and plugged her into the outlet by his bedside table. Once he had, it felt like all the fight drained out of him; he slid down the edge of his bed to the floor, head resting against the table.

“Mad and sad, you said?” he asked softly.

He heard a squeak of metal hinges, then her voice in his head. “You did what you had to.”

“I did,” he said. “I don’t regret it. I’d do it again, if any of you needed it.”

“I know.”

His hands were shaking, and he could still feel the mall’s deathly chill. “I just wish--if my magic wasn’t like this--anybody else would have had other options.” His voice was pathetically weak as he asked, “Why me?”

Loretta didn’t answer, and Lorcan didn’t expect her to. He closed his eyes.

When he woke up hours later, his children had crowded their way into the bedroom, entertaining themselves with soft conversations in hushed voices. Loretta was watching over him, Vulk’s cord gripped his wrist, and Terry was wrapped around his shoulders to keep him warm.

Some things in Lorcan’s life were predictable. And despite everything, it was good.

#original fiction #writing #fantasy #mystery #dark arts and crafts #lorcan #lorcan's family #osiris #necromancy #a dying art #thanks again to anyone who read this far #it really means a lot

[undeadorion-archive]

Who wants to hear a long story about how stupid assholes on the internet fucked my head up so hard I still causes me anxiety and trouble to this day? Jumping between in person and online, from way back in the days of LJ RP (before tumblr even existed) to just a few years ago. 

People whose names are replaced with initials are those who are either innocent, merely suspected of involvement, or just aren’t bad enough to warrant being named. Or their actions were just heinous towards me personally. It’s a complicated mess.

I’ve always loved to RP, especially my own characters. Heck, until about 2008, I almost exclusively RPed OCs. I’d dabbled in fandom RP but just couldn’t get into the groove of it. Most of this was done with a friend who I eventually was coerced into dating, who I also lived with, named Bianca. We started out with OCs only, and eventually she moved into fandom stuff on LJ. I followed but I assumed my lack of fun was from not fitting in with fandom RP but boy was I wrong. There was so much simmering behind the scenes that I wouldn’t find out until way, way, waaay later. 

Bianca and I were in a rough spot. I was living on my own for the first time, struggling to figure out how to keep bills paid. Bianca didn’t have a job due to disabilities. Before she even moved in we made a deal. I’d handle paying for everything if she managed daily chore stuff. Not major stuff, just like doing the dishes and going to the store that was only a few blocks away. Only she didn’t. And she claimed she couldn’t because of trauma from her abusive grandmother that she’d lived with. So I ended up doing everything. Which left me drained and stressed 24/7. She then accused me of being angry any time I showed frustration in even the smallest way. Meanwhile she stayed home and got to draw and RP all day long. 

I cannot vouch for the specifics of her disability. All she told me was it was a type of seizures, but she never had one while I was around. And she never wanted me to go with her to any appointments or help her with her with trying to get on SSI. Nor did I ever see a single sheet of paperwork. 

She’d started accusing me of stealing her money at some point. She would often ask her grandfather send money to my bank account (she didn’t have one for some reason), and she’d tell me it was for bills so I used to to pay our massively overdue bills. And not giving it all to her in cash. 

Eventually, I reached a breaking point. I couldn’t handle the stress anymore. So I sat down with her and just said we needed to find another solution, even if it meant moving in with my mother or something. Not even a finite thing just “I can’t keep doing this, let’s find a solution together.” And I may as well have screamed at her to get out for how she reacted. And she was gone the very next day, acting as if I’d kicked her out. A family of her friend somehow managed to get there the next day. They lived more than a 12 hour drive away, and had enough money to take her to Disneyland for her birthday. So I often suspect that she’d had a plan in place already just gave her an excuse, but I have nothing but my gut to backup that theory.

What I found out later is that she’d been telling people that I was abusive to her. She would tell people that I ate everything in the apartment leaving nothing for her, as well, giving me a nickname that involved the word “Gluttonous” because I was overweight. Many many years later people started to see through it, saying it was her typical pattern and she’d done the same to them. She’d latch on to someone and leech off of them and when they stopped feeding into her nonsense she’d insisted they mistreated her and demonize the hell out of them so her next victim wouldn’t question anything the last person said. 

Soon after I parted ways with Bianca, I encountered B. B and I worked together in a hellish call center. She gave he yet another entry into LJ RP with a group that hadn’t already heard hellish fabricated tales of what sort of person I was. And this time it seemed to go better.

I got used to the fandom thing and found characters I enjoyed playing. But it was a headache for all new reasons (petty drama unrelated to my other issues). Finally, I gave up on fandom stuff for a bit and went back to an OC. And I thought I’d settled into a game pretty well, along with B and a few other mutual friends. 

That’s where I met Dal. The first person to really fuck me up in this tale. Dal was one of the people in charge of the game, and was the first mod to not completely ignore me. Heck, we seemed to click and RPed a lot together, our characters developing a sort of sibling dynamic. I was always low key worried about him, though. He said he had cancer, and that it had wrecked his hearing but he had a cochlear implant. But also claimed the implant had basically a headphone jack to plug directly into stuff music players hence why he was able to send me so much music. 

Some drama happened and the game split. Dal, me, and 2 others tried setting up our own game. But then somehow it felt like me and Dal versus the other two. I asked if the four of us should have a discussion together, cause I didn’t know what was happening. He said he’d handle it, and suddenly one of the other two started attacking me with vague accusations of talking behind their back. They both left the game and Dal and I tried to keep building it. But then one day he just wasn’t online. And the next day. And the next week. I feared the worst, and had no idea how to even find out the truth. I didn’t even know any of Dal’s other friends. Until after about 6 months I did some poking around and ended up messaging one person I’d seen Dal interacting with. Who just told me everything was fine and wouldn’t elaborate.

Years and years later, I found out the truth. It’s just a thing Dal did. He’d set up new identities, find new victims to isolate and torment. Feed them heaps of bullshit, usually around made up health issues. Then ghost them to start all over again with a new name. And I’d been his victim for those few months. I’d even managed to talk to one of the other two involved way after the fact. They wouldn’t tell me exactly what had been said that day, but I got enough to know that Dal told them absolute lies about me to get them to lash out. 

Dal was just the initial blow to my trust, though. It got so much worse than just one asshole.

Not long after, I joined the game I would be in for the longest stretch of time. Overall, I had great memories there and even still have a scant few friends from those days. But signing up there was the start of what would become a nightmare. B was there with me. And that’s where I met A, O, and T, along with their extended friend group. 

This was the group that told me I was “too eager” and wanted to be involved “too much.” Any time an event asked for volunteers, I’d volunteer. I was never picked, though. And just that act of being willing to be involved in almost anything was mocked. It didn’t matter how much I actually did. 

I always felt weirdly snubbed by A and O, but I tried to ignore it assuming it was my anxiety. But I’d learned later I should have trusted my gut. 

One thing to know for later is that any chance I got, I’d dress as my character (Crawford). Without being fully aware of it at the time, it was my first explorations of being trans. But I’d equated the way I felt to the character rather than the gender, though I only did it 2 or 3 times between conventions and halloween. A, O, and others treated me like I was super weird for it, too. In that judging looks and not wanting to be around me but not actually saying anything directly about it sort of way. 

This is because A and O lived in my same apartment complex--some time before I’d moved in with B after her previous roommate suddenly left. We were neighbors and hung out frequently. Or rather A and O hung out with B. I was just there. And they ignored me both in person and in game. But I just kept right on going. 

T got involved in person later, but she’d been in the game with us. She often came to visit from out of town and eventually wanted to move to the area. B and I had been looking for a 3rd roommate, so we made a deal. We’d cover her rent and I’d help her cover her necessary expenses so long as she was working on getting a job. Don’t ever do this, especially with someone you barely know moving out on their own for the first time. It became habit to ask how her job search went when I got home from work. Not even asking for details, and only once per day. Then out of the blue she blew up at me for “harping” on her about it. Meanwhile I was helping her pay for everything. Eventually it was discovered she wasn’t actually doing much to look for a job at all. But in the end she did find employment. Eventually.

Somewhere in this whole mess, I was still trying to make everyone like me. And I went out of my way one year to make every single person in the group a custom decorated cake for their birthday. Usually on some sort of fandom theme, and always 100% from scratch. And every time I did this, T would point out there was a cake mix in the back of the pantry and asked why I didn’t just use that. A lot of reasons: it wasn’t the right flavor, I wasn’t using box mix, and it had been in the apartment longer than I had been (it was left behind by a former roommate). For some reason she thought I was being wasteful in not using it.

Then T said she’d make my cake for my birthday. I saw her come home with the ingredients and everything. Then when she served it, she pointed asked me, in front of everyone, how it was. It was bland box cake mix made by someone who could barely scramble eggs let alone bake a cake, but I said it was good to be nice. And with all the smugness possible, she informed me it was the stale box mix from the back of the pantry. I just put my cake down and went into my room. Leaving my own birthday party. 

After all my efforts to make the group happy, it felt like a massive betrayal.

A and O’s other roommate told me later that it a cruel thing to do. She said the three of them would do something to make up for it, but nothing happened. 

Meanwhile game stuff was slowly falling apart. A was a mod, along with with a mutual friend of ours by this point. And all A did was complain that people kept asking her things while the friend was stuck doing all the work. 

Among all these people was E, who was one of the only decent people in the group. They were a college student who often crashed at our apartment to get away from campus on the weekends. Then on one long holiday I started to notice that E wasn’t bathing at all. I tried to casually remind them that the main shower was available and they seemed uncomfortable with that. So I offered mine (I had the master bedroom), and they weren’t comfortable with that either. Eventually I tried to say it was fine by going into the main bathroom and it was like stepping into Silent Hill. 

Having my own bathroom I never had occasion to even look in the main one, which always had the door shut. B and T not only didn’t clean it but did god knows what to encourage the growth of mold. The walls and ceiling were absolutely covered in black splotches. I thought I was going to be sick. Both B and T tried to pull the “I didn’t know!” excuse about needing to keep a bathroom aired out and clean. I made them scrub it all, like I was their goddamn parent and they were teenagers not two grown ass adults. And they whined the whole time like teenagers because they discovered normal bathroom cleaner wasn’t enough to fully remove it. I ended up buying them the right stuff, iirc, because neither of them had enough awareness to go to the store and look for a cleaner with big bold letters that said it killed mold.

After that, I had to get out. Our lease would be up soon and I wasn’t going to be responsible for their damages. I gave them something like a 2 month warning that I would be leaving. I spent several weeks slowly packing up my stuff and taking over the dining room for that whole time. I talked about it frequently. Then the night before the actual move, when I was talking to B about what to expect, T looked at me suddenly shocked and asked what they were going to do about rent. As if I’d just told her in that moment I was going to move. 

I cut ties with T, A, and O. And for a brief time with B. B and I ended up roommates again, but that’s a whole other story for another time. I eventually left the game because most of my actual friends had left or lost interest and most people at that point just ignored me. I tried to come back, but to no avail.

Having been in one game for so long, I felt weirdly lost. But then everything came together when I thought I’d found a new perfect game. The setting was amazing and some friends from the years-long game where there, too! I joined up and had a blast terrorizing people with a unrepentantly evil vampire. I met one of my absolute best friends of my entire life in that game. Who much, much, much later led to me meeting a second lifetime best friend. 

Only once I was IN the game, I discovered something....it had been founded by none other than Bianca. She was long gone, but some of her closest friends were still in there. At this point I still didn’t know that she’d been spreading rumors about me, let alone to what extent. I discovered this by someone being super eager to greet me into the game...before blocking me without warning when they found out who I was. 

It became a read headache because Bianca’s minions wouldn’t let other players so much as mention me or my characters around them or their characters. But he’d already become a game-wide threat that most everyone knew about. The mods had to get involved because a player wouldn’t let my character use the medical facilities because the player claimed their character was in charge of them. The mods had to inform them that their character didn’t own a predefined game setting open to all players.  

This was also when someone anonymously posted that they hated my writing style because not everything was full essay style sentences. I intentionally use sentence fragments and repetition in my writing. It’s a pretty common thing to do, and they hated it so much they wanted me to write like them. I found out later that it was likely one of the primary people I RPed with which seriously undermined my confidence. 

Eventually the tensions in the game and the stress of real life got to be too much and I left, thinking it would be temporary until I got things sorted. When I tried to rejoin a few months later I was informed I was banned because of Bianca’s minions reporting I was a bad person to the mods, but no one would tell me that. It was just a vague claim that I made people “some players” uncomfortable, without any specifics.

That’s when a years-long saga involving an entirely different group in person and online happened, this time on Tumblr. And still with ties to the old nonsense because one of the people involved was someone I’d met sort of because they were mutual friends with Bianca. I ended up repeating the same mistakes as I did with Bianca and T combined, in letting someone move in with me, offering to pay for everything while they got on their feed, coerced into a relationship, blamed for everything, and just kicked aside. And again I was accused of kicking someone out...after they were the ones to dump me and declared they were moving out before I’d fully processed what had happened? I still don’t understand what happened there. All while online drama had happened with the RP and I was called a bully for trying to stop someone who was trampling all over everyone’s fun by being mean on purpose and ignoring boundaries.

I was also manipulated by that mutual friend I mentioned, only to be treated like garbage. But those are all stories I’ve shared before. 

In among that, however, was what made me leave DW (shifted over from LJ) RP for Tumblr. I made the mistake of ignoring major red flags with Carley. She latched on to me pretty hard because I played the things she liked. But she quickly isolated me from my other online friends by occupying every possible moment of my time. She’d bombard me with messages and would demand I respond to her RP stuff immediately. Even when I was trying to work, which she didn’t think counted because I was a freelancer at the time. Carley expected all of her RP ideas to taken as a whole with no changes. If I suggested even the slightest tweak on an idea she’d say “nevermind” and throw the whole thing out and come up with a new one. And if I presented literally anything, she’d dismiss it and replace it with her own thing. Which was sometimes my idea with minor things changed. 

When anything went wrong in character, even when it was a thing that was planned to go wrong, she would blame my character and by extension me. Like she wanted an scenario where something happened that left my character feeling down so her character could comfort him. Only once I set up the scene it was his and my fault, and her character saying “well, you’re not considering MY feelings.” It was emotional whiplash, and any time I tried to explain that it wasn’t sitting right with me she acted like I was confusing IC and OOC.

This was the first time I recognized abuse in the moment. Because if that I wanted an outside opinion. So I talked to the above mentioned partner and one of her friends about it. The friend essentially mocked me and said abuse couldn’t happen like that. It was online and we weren’t in a relationship so it couldn’t be mental or emotional abuse. Which felt like a slap in the face. 

That’s when I befriended Kat and R. R and I were both caught in Carley’s nonsense, and Kat was a mutual friend of ours. It was together that we managed to get away from her before she imploded her own reputation in a very public way that would take way too long to explain. I tried one last time to explain to Carley what my problem was. And as if she was following the emotional abusers handbook she responded as though she had no idea what I was talking about and implied it was all just my perception. 

Kat, R and I got along for a while. And Kat’s in person friend E joined us for RP shenanigans. We had fun for a while. R eventually drifted away. She ended up sort of using me for something unrelated before ghosting me, but it was minor and might just be a product of not being online so much. 

E was pretty okay, but always overshadowed by Kat who was one of those people that demanded to be the center of attention always and never gave anything in return. She insisted I was her best friend. Frequently....in private. But publicly (we used a social media site called Plurk that’s popular with that particular RP crowd) she practically treated me like a stranger. She basically ignored me in her public conversations while lavishing attention on someone who was known for having a lot of money. 

And again, I repeated my mistakes. I kept thinking if I was just a better friend, then I’d earn that attention in return! I’d draw stuff for her, I’d jump on which ever new character she wanted to RP as. I’d push my interests aside in order to conform to what was needed in the moment. I was so busy trying to make HER happy that it took a while before I realized she wasn’t even doing the bare minimum one would expect from a friend, let alone what you’d expect from someone who frequently called you their best friend. 

It was stuff like the moment she’d need my attention she’d pester me until I responded and gave her what she needed. But any time I needed a friend to talk to about literally anything, she couldn’t be bothered. At first I chalked it up to her being busy, but that can only go so far. One time I expressed this frustration to her. One example I used was that she was always publicly congratulating the rich friend on every little possible thing and she couldn’t even be bothered to say anything on my birthday (not even asking her to remember it, cause I sure can’t remember anyone’s birthdays). So the next day she found some minor accomplishment to publicly congratulate me for and never did it ever again. 

She also smoked a lot of weed. Which I don’t judge anyone for, I just asked that she respect the fact that I didn’t like weed myself and would prefer to not be involved in any stoner-specific shenanigans. And for the most part she did respect my request. But we’ll get back to that.

Eventually, after tumblr, I found my way back to DW. But a lot had changed and it wasn’t really the scene I knew. Tumblr kids had invaded and sanded off all the rough edges to make it all soft and cuddly. Character tension used to be the favored thing to RP, which I live for. Fighting, arguing, anything to build off of. Only now it was cool to demonize even the slightest negative interaction. 

I didn’t realize just how bad it had gotten until I joined what looked like a delightful psychological horror setting. I was like “heck yeah, fuck my character up.” Since I’d been RPing as Thor on tumblr, I decided to bring him in, thinking he’d contrast well with a character Kat had...only she never once RPed with me there. 

Only...things got weird. Fast. I THOUGHT I was having a grand old time, but I was so wrapped up in plotting my own stuff I didn’t realize I was taking the setting more seriously than other people. There was a semi-mindcontrol event going on where during the day characters had a strong urge to play hero against mobs of people threatening player characters and at night they had a strong urge to attend what was basically a rave with body-altering drinks. Though I handwaved a lot of it, Thor spent two solid weeks barely sleeping. As if he’d resist an urge to fight or party. Especially when he was coming off the end of Ragnarok and ignoring all those weird emotions. After the two weeks were over he crashed, hard. Cause one of the side effects of giving in was exhaustion. Plus I had life stuff to do so I just said he was out for a while. 

Only other players started treating it strangely. Jokes made out of character were taken as 100% serious. Then the Captain America character treated him like a child for what the player assumed to be flat out not bathing, when he’d practically been in a coma for several days and woke up exhausted and depressed. 

This was all with a side of a lot of people demanding to play things with their personal versions of Thor that they’d imagined, ignoring all of the stuff I’d already built up. It was the complicated thing of being overwhelmed with attention for once, but it was all for my character and they didn’t actually care about me as the player. Not in a “what about me” sort of way, but more about what I had planned, what I wanted to do, and my own perceptions of the character. A lot of people (like the Cap) treated him like an idiot, based on things that the character hadn’t been there for in canon, or flat out hadn’t happened. I expressed this frustration and got mocked for it. Quite a bit.

Out of spite, I dusted off Crawford for the first time since that game I’d been in for several years. And no one outside of my immediate friends wanted to RP with him. Because by now OCs were sneered at in DW. They were seen as “lesser” compared to fandom characters, all because of a few bad apples doing weird shit with OCs in the past. And this became part of my frustration that I voiced. Pointing out that people would dog pile on one of my characters and completely ignore the other. 

And then I made one fatal mistake. I’d tagged a random person with Crawford. A simple response to a public post. 

What I hadn’t known was that the character was played by someone named Red. Red had been in the years long game with me, but I didn’t really talk to them. They were friends with the A and O crew, but they didn’t interact with me much. They were just a name I vaguely recognized and had zero idea they held such a strong resentment for me. Red responded to everyone else but me, and shortly after, an anonymous post appeared. 

DW works differently than Tumblr. Instead of sending anon directly, most of it goes into a separate community. These are cesspools where everyone is anon and they use it to attack people, then they blame you for looking at it. It’s heinous. I’d peek in once in a while but generally left it alone. Only a friend told me to be careful because I’d been mentioned. 

Like a fool, I looked. And it was people tearing me and Crawford to pieces. A few people tried to get them to say what the exact and currently problem was (Despite being a cesspool there were rules about what you could drag into that space). They were mostly vague, or brought up super old stuff. They cited stuff like the fact that Crawford has a tragic backstory, responds to most things with anger, and wears a lot as legit reasons to hate on him that hard. They accused me of “soulbonding” with my own OC....an OC that was the very manifestation of my own gender issues at the time I created him. But they wouldn’t give any details on my alleged soulbonding. Just stated it as fact. 

That’s when I took a closer look at the players in the game. When I joined a new game, I looked for specific names (Bianca, Carley, etc), so no one had stood out at the time. And that’s when I realized A was there. 

My theory is that the soulbonding accusation was the result of those weird looks I got from A and her friends when I dressed as Crawford. That she and Red had warped those times into something else entirely. 

There was a lot more to it than that and it went on for hours. I felt utterly broken. I’d been struggling to make friends already so I didn’t have many people to turn to. Kat tried to talk to me and I didn’t know how to articulate what I was dealing with. I’d just said something vague about being upset. 

Already super raw from everything, her response was like grinding sand into an open wound. She said something along the lines of “I’d suggest you smoke some weed but you don’t do that!” and laughed about it. It was just a minor little comment. The tiniest betrayal of my boundaries that I would have otherwise brushed off. But it was the fact that for once I’d genuinely needed her, and she treated it like joke. I at least had my wits about me enough to calm down first.

I didn’t talk to her about it until the next day. I didn’t even say what I was upset about, just that I’d been in a bad spot and she hurt me. She of course pulled the “Well I didn’t MEAN to” tactic. That’s when I realized she wasn’t actually my friend and I’d been used the whole time. 

In dropping myself from the game we’d been in, I also removed a LOT of people from Plurk. Some of them were expected cause we didn’t talk. Others were out of paranoia because I no longer knew who I could trust. And like Tumblr, Plurk doesn’t inform anyone when you unfriend them. One of the people I removed was E, because she was so close with Kat I didn’t know whos side she’d be on. Within the hour, E realized I’d removed her and started screaming at me. Somehow thinking I secretly accused her of being involved in the anon comments being made about me. 

I just left after that. Completely.

I’ve tried to go back in some ways, but it’s just not the same. I’ve tried setting up RP stuff with friends, but all that old paranoia comes back. Heck, I have trouble even talking about my OCs anymore because of it all. 

I keep thinking it’s all over, too. That I’m finally rid of it and everyone has moved on. But its spread outside of LJ. I randomly find I’ve been blocked by someone on twitter. And 9 times out of 10 they’re either knew Bianca or the other person I dated. Or in some cases, both. And it’s not just random people. It’s people with influence in industries I want to be a part of, like Iron Spike. 

I guess this is all to say I want to work past this and share about my characters more. But there’s so much baggage and I’m sick of acting like it’s not there. And on the surface it may not seem like a lot. But your trust is seriously destroyed when you don’t even know who exactly was involved or what others have been told about you. Or when you’ve been used by just so many people who pretended to be your friend. 

To this day, anyone who calls me their best friend in private immediately puts me on high alert. But thanks to Jo and HZZ I know that not everyone is like that, and what good friends are supposed to be like. 

#emotional abuse cw #personal trauma dumping #the smallest shit can really build up huh

[lizseyi]

Is It Possible To Get A Bad-Credit Loan For Home Improvements - CashCompare 

Great numbers of us yearn to do certain things in our lives that may not be realistically possible unless we can get a quick cash injection from somewhere.

It should hardly be a massive surprise, then, that a lot of people consider taking out a loan as a way to fund home improvement work, such as redecorating, remodelling, or even something as major as converting the loft or having a house extension built.

However, if you have a less-than-immaculate credit history, you might be wondering whether you have any chance of obtaining a suitable loan to help pay for your desired home improvements.

The short answer to the question we posed at the top of this article is:

Yes, it could definitely be possible for you to be granted a loan for improvement work at your humble abode, even if you do have poor credit. However, there are certain important things to bear in mind.

While it's possible, obtaining a loan with bad credit comes with its challenges and higher interest rates. It's crucial to assess your financial situation and consider the implications carefully.

Various types of loan exist that could help you fund home improvements

Broadly speaking, there are two types of loan that you might consider if you are interested in borrowing money for home improvements; a secured loan or an unsecured one.

Failing to keep up with repayments on a secured loan can lead to losing your home. It's vital to consider your ability to maintain repayments before committing.

Secured Loans

As the term suggests, a secured loan is typically secured against something, and this type of loan also being known as a “homeowner loan” gives a clue as to what asset it is often tied to: the borrower’s home.

Certainly, you could consider this type of loan if you are a homeowner, especially if – as someone with bad credit – you are anxious to try to keep the interest rate on the loan as low as possible to help ensure affordability.

As the lender will have an asset it can take possession of in the event of you failing to keep up with your repayments, you might find that you are able to obtain a secured loan with quite an attractive interest rate.

But on the other hand, if you are borrowing money in order to fund home improvements, you might not want to create a situation where you risk losing the very thing you are trying to improve in the event of, for example, you losing your job.

Remember, failing to keep up with repayments on a secured loan can result in losing your home. Always consider if you can afford the repayments before securing debts against your home.

Could an unsecured loan be the best way to pay for your home improvement work?

Unsecured loans are also frequently referred to as “personal loans”. This type of loan might be an especially alluring and suitable option if you only need to borrow a few thousand pounds to cover the home improvement work (which may be the case if you have found an alternative way of paying for much of the work, only to still be slightly short of the entire amount you require).

And of course, an unsecured loan is exactly that – unsecured. It won’t be secured to any assets, so you won’t be at risk of losing that asset (or at least, not directly) if you later find yourself struggling to repay everything you owe on the loan.

However, it is at this point that we return to the theme of poor credit. If you have a bad credit score, and there isn’t any asset the lender is permitted to reclaim in the event of you falling behind with repayments, you might find yourself being presented with very high interest rates for an unsecured loan. This would be the lender’s way to guarding against the risk of you failing to repay them (bearing in mind that in these circumstances, the lender will perceive you as a ‘riskier’ person to lend to).

Nor should it be overlooked that as someone with bad credit, you might struggle in many cases to get a lender to present you with a loan offer at all.

There is, though, one potential remedy to this you might consider: turning to lenders that specialise in bad credit loans. Some of those lenders feature on our own panel of lenders here at CashCompare. So, if you fill in and submit our straightforward no-obligation quote request form, you could quickly get a good idea of what kind of unsecured loan could be possible from such lenders.

Specialist providers of bad credit loans serve people who may have been turned down for a loan by other lenders. So, you never know – that longed-for home improvement loan may be more attainable for you than you might think!

CashCompare is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), ensuring our commitment to providing fair and transparent advice. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

#bad credit loans

[foxpappas60]

5 Essential Elements For replica bags for sale designer replica luggage

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#replica #bags #replica bags #luxury #luxury bags

[soumenmb]

Fintech Startups of Silicon Valley of India that are in the limelight in 2024

India celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation throughout its length and breadth. Even though 2023 wasn’t one of the best years for startup culture, 2024 brings new hope, especially in the fintech in Bangalore. With the second-largest base of internet users in the world, this has had a direct impact on the demand for digitised financial services. In fact, India emerged as a global fintech power and ranked third in the world in terms of total fintech companies in bangalore (as of 2024) In this blog, we will list the top startups in Bangalore. According to the reports3, over 3,085 companies are currently (as of August 2023) operating in the fintech in Bangalore. Many of these companies are in the payments sector, followed by lending and wealth tech. As the startup companies in Bangalore expand, many players are focusing on niche sectors. Needless to say, the development has been nothing short of rapid. Today, we aim to bring those fintech startups in bangalore to the limelight they all deserve. Razorpay: One of the major fintech startups in Bangalore, Razorpay is a developer-friendly payment gateway offering a suite of products, including checkout tools and automated vendor payment solutions. The goal is to facilitate quick online payments and provide a fully functional current account, making it a versatile solution for businesses in India. Razorpay supports various payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, net banking, UPI, and popular wallets. Stripe: Stripe, one of the main fintech startups in bangalore, specializes in enabling online businesses, both big and small, to accept credit and debit card payments securely. Audited as a PCI compliance level 1 service provider, Stripe encrypts and secures credit card information with regular security scans. Used by major brands like Lyft, Amazon, and Shopify, Stripe processes over 90% of personal credit card information. BharatPe: Co-founded in 2018, BharatPe is one of the biggest Indian fintech companies in Bangalore, known for pioneering UPI payments and digital money lending for merchants. A single QR code facilitates payments from multiple UPI applications, and the company has expanded its services to provide loans. BharatPe made $93.33 Mil in revenue in the financial year 2021 and also owns the peer-to-peer lending platform, 12% Club. MoneyTap: Specialising in online personal loans in India, MoneyTap as one of the top fintech startups in Bangalore offers credit lines up to 5 lakhs. Enjoy flexibility with repayment tenures up to 36 months, and pay interest only on the amount used. Tailored loan options cover diverse personal needs, from education to travel and weddings. MoneyTap stands out for its secure, collateral-free model, providing a hassle-free borrowing experience. Viva Money: Viva Money is the latest and emerging as one of the top startups in Bangalore with its financial platform catering to individuals in Karnataka, offering quick cash and instant personal loans during unexpected financial needs. The platform welcomes people from diverse backgrounds, whether salaried employees or business owners. The user-friendly app ensures a seamless, digital lending process. Just upload your documents online, and your loan gets approved within minutes. A standout feature of Viva Money is providing interest-free loans in Karnataka, up to ₹2,00,000, with a repayment window of 51 days from disbursal. Notably, no collateral or securities are required, making Viva Money an accessible option for a broad range of individuals. Wrapping Up There has been a significant revolution in the Fintech industry in the past decade. The inception of various apps has transformed the way people transfer cash, take loans, invest in stocks and gold, and other use other financial services. Fintech companies in Bangalore have made it possible and brought the once unimagined advancement level.

#finance #fintech #startup #startup in bangalore

[kamana-mishra]

What is black money and how does it work?

What do we talk about when we talk about black money and money laundering? Well, in India, it has to start with Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher and then gradually move on to Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi. “With all the kaala dhan they must have stashed in the Swiss Banks, at least 3 of their generations wouldn't have to do any labour!” - being the hackneyed dialogue. 

Why was it so unfair of Mallya to run away to the UK after he owed thousands of crores of money to the banks? How did Nirav Modi and Choksi manage to get so many fake Letters of Undertakings!

It is commonly believed that only millionaires and billionaires are the ones who own black money. Well, yes and no. It is very likely that they own black money but so could be owned by our next-door ration shop. 

When we talk about these things, do we really know what we are talking about? 

Let us learn today, what exactly is black money and why is it laundered. 

What is Black Money?

Black money is the revenue that is generated from activities that are either illegal or can include legal activities, tax on which has not been paid to the respective authorities. The transactions are mostly done through cash. The money is kept out of the banks to avoid record keeping. 

The money that the owner holds is, thus, not legitimate, and it is considered illegal to transact with it. The process through which this black money is converted to ‘white’ or legitimate money is called money laundering. The reason why it is not good for any economy is that the tax on that huge chunk of money has not been paid, and the money gets back into the system, and the huge inflow of money may lead to uncontrolled consumption and, thus, inflation. 

On the evening of 2016, when the Prime Minister announced the demonetization of notes, the whole country was shaken. But for the ones with a huge stash of black wealth, it felt like they were electrocuted. The famous/infamous demonetization was done to stop people who found a leeway to recycle their black wealth.

How does Black Money work?

Black money is generated mainly in 3 ways- 

Through illegal activities: The highly scammy cases that we hear of drug trafficking, gunrunning, terrorism, smuggling, and corruption come under this. 

Tax evasion In this, an individual or an entity conceals its actual revenue earned and does not pay taxes to the authorities. 

Tax avoidance Although tax avoidance is not illegal but falls in a grey area. This is where an entity finds some flaws and gaps in the tax filing system and avoids paying taxes.

Suppose I run a grocery store. Of all the transactions that take place, people either pay by cash or online. I provide receipts for all payments done online, and for the ones done in cash, I don't. The reason why I do this is so that I can show those online transactions in my tax filing and save taxes on the unrecorded cash sales. 

Sources of Black Money in India

These are the major sources and ways in which black money is earned:

Bullion and Jewellery market The option of converting black money to gold ingots or jewellery is very widespread in practice. 

Out-of-book transactions This one is the simplest and most used way of earning black money that even an unskilled or semi-skilled person could practise. By not providing bills and receipts for the sales, they are basically adding to their unaccounted sum of money on which they will not pay taxes. 

Hawala This is an informal and inexpensive method of transferring money without the use of the bank. It works on codes and contacts and does not require disclosure of any kind of information. 

Non-profit organizations and self-help groups Some privileges and incentives are provided to these organizations in taxing their income since they promote charity. These tax benefits are often misused and exploited for tax avoidance. Similarly, a lot of SHGs do not properly state the sources of the donations they have received, which can lead to hera-pheri of money.

Tax havens There are some small countries with liberal tax laws where foreigners don't have to pay taxes. By setting up shell companies in these countries, people redirect their funds and reduce their tax liabilities.

Real estate Since the prices of real estate are on the rise, many people undervalue their property to save on property taxes.  Continue Reading...

#black money in india #what is black money and how is it produced #sources of black money

[paypant]

[ailtrahq]

Pay-to-use blockchains are done.Not for us, of course — the nerdy crypto crowd. We’re perfectly happy to open wallets, engrave seed phrases on steel cards we bury in the ground, find exchanges we haven’t been blocked from yet, wrap some assets to leverage yield, and become OpSec professionals while we pray to the blockchain gods that the North Koreans aren’t online right now.We’re fine with this. Years of experience have dulled the pain.But the mass adoption we all hoped for? It relies on the 99% of people who have zero appetite for such trauma.If permissionless blockchains are to become the backbone of our online experiences, three major changes need to happen:They need to become free.They need to become frictionless.They need to become familiar.“Free” means free for the user, “frictionless” means as easy as opening an app or playing a video game, and “familiar” means we need to stop asking regular people to change their behavior to meet the limitations of our tech. We need to meet them where they already are.Right now, we are zero for three. In fact, we’re so far away from where we need to be that we’re not even trying to address these problems seriously — we’re busy making small, incremental improvements to dysfunctional tech rather than addressing the root of the dysfunction itself.Free to useLayer-1 blockchains have been designed, built and funded by people who figure that their value is in directly monetizing the user.This is a fallacy.Google serves you ads. It monetizes you indirectly. Facebook monetizes your data, but it doesn’t charge you to use its platform. Apple’s store takes a 30% cut from developers and publishers, not from you.In all cases, you’re paying — but not with cash.Google is visited 85 billion times a month. If it monetized directly, charging just to visit its homepage, it could theoretically pull in $85 million every single month.It doesn’t, as the pool of people who want to pay for that experience with cash is infinitesimally small compared with those who are fine with Google serving them ads and keeping it free.We are used to being monetized indirectly. But current blockchain protocols monetize us directly, asking us to pay gas fees for each transaction.One of the most exciting premises of Web3 is that it creates the possibility for aligned incentives between creators and consumers. Countless nonfungible token (NFT) creators have found ways to grow communities around such incentives — but layer-1 blockchain builders just keep doing the same thing, over and over again.And no matter how small their fees get, thanks to incremental reductions from the likes of Solana or the myriad layer 2s out there, it’s still a fee that most people won’t pay.Frictionless and simpleWe are not very loyal to our apps. Around 77% of daily active users abandon Android apps within three days. Estimates suggest that 25% of all downloaded apps are abandoned within minutes due to poor onboarding.Andrew Chen, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz investing in games, metaverse and consumer tech, shared the following graph. He suggested that “the best way to bend the retention curve is to target the first few days of usage, and in particular the first visit.”Average retention curve for Android apps. Source: Andrew Chen/QuettraCompare the onboarding process of a poorly designed app to onboarding to crypto. It may be bad, but it’s not even the same sport. Crypto is the most user-unfriendly technology ever hawked to the public. To those who struggle with tech, it’s the digital equivalent of being punched repeatedly in the face. By Mike Tyson.In his heyday.And over time, crypto has not become much friendlier. You, dear reader, are enjoying a specialist publication. You’re probably a degen with a liquidity position on Uniswap and a Milady in cold storage.So, blockchain has to change. It has to become a frictionless experience, a background technology, like everything else we use — from the internet to our phones to our TVs. We don’t care they work.

We just care they work.Familiar and funLastly, and perhaps my single biggest critique of the crypto industry, is how utterly nonchalant we have come about asking billions of people to do things they don’t really want to do.Crypto has not been good at creating decentralized social media alternatives to Facebook. It has not been good at creating unique gaming experiences. It has not been good at replacing traditional supplier-user Web2 models with aligned-incentive Web3 models.It has been good at monkey pictures, scams, arguing on Twitter and speculative trading.This is not to say that crypto is of no use. It absolutely is. The economic models that crypto enables will eventually be seen as a defining shift in power structures and personal autonomy, if we stop replicating the financial system and inequality that made crypto necessary in the first place.But only if we make it as easy to use as opening an app or clearing a level in a game. Because that’s what people actually do, in real life.This is all silly, impossible and just wishful thinking — right?None of this is impossible.We’ve just been conditioned to believe it is, as a few people have become very, very (very) rich by promoting pay-to-use foundational blockchains that have niche appeal, at best.Ethereum is a wonderful innovation that will continue to serve as the foundation for decentralized finance precisely because it is secure, decentralized and slow-moving. But it’s not going to revolutionize gaming, as gamers will not pay gas fees. Period.Solana is great for NFTs, maybe even for stablecoins. It won’t work for smart cities or the Internet of Things.It’s time for the blockchain industry to acknowledge that our path toward becoming a foundation for consumer tech is blocked by these fundamental truths:People don’t want to pay for what should be free.They don’t want to do difficult things that should be easy.And they don’t want to change their behavior to fit our vision of the world.The sooner we build protocols and applications that accept these realities, the sooner we silence the critics and change the world.Jon Rice is the founder of the Koinos Federation, an alliance of projects building on the free-to-use Koinos blockchain. He was previously editor-in-chief at Cointelegraph, Blockworks and Crypto Briefing. Source

[uboat53]

This thought came from a discussion with a friend recently, if you're interested in Trump's wealth vs. his legal fees, I found this thought process interesting. LONG RANT (TM) time?

INTRODUCTION

So one of the key mistakes we make when talking about how wealthy someone is is that we just look at assets in isolation. What we really want to know when we talk about wealth is how powerful someone is, and assets only give part of the story. Without looking at debt and net income, we don't have any idea what someone is capable of.

EXAMPLE OF ASSETS VS. DEBT

Let's take, as an example, two people who each own big buildings worth $2 billion as their only major asset. If we just look at assets, these people are the same, but what if one of them financed the purchase of the building with a $1.8 billion mortgage (putting $200 million down) while the other one owns the building outright?

All of a sudden, those two people have very different profiles. They both each own a $2 billion building, but what they can do with it is very different. Let's say they think the commercial real estate market is going to crash and they want to get out but the best offer they get for the building is $1.8 billion. The person who owns it outright can take the offer. Sure, they'll lose some money on the deal, but they'll still be a billionaire and, hopefully, they can find another investment that'll make him that money back. The person with the mortgage, on the other hand, is screwed by this deal. If they take it, they'll be able to pay back the mortgage, but they'll have lost all the money they put into the building. That person won't have the kind of assets they would need in order to find another, similar, investment opportunity.

There's also liquidity to consider. Cash is extremely liquid, you can spend it immediately and buy things at a moment's notice. A building is not liquid; in order to spend the money a building represents you have to go through the hassle and expense of selling it as well as the time it may take to get the best possible offer. The more liquid your wealth is, the more you can take advantage of opportunities quickly.

(You may, then, ask why anyone would invest in an illiquid asset. Well, cash doesn't grow in value, it shrinks over time due to inflation. Assets, on the other hand, can grow either by generating more money as income or by increasing in value. What you lose in flexibility you gain in growth potential.)

Ultimately, that's what wealth is. Wealth is options, the ability to do things. If you have $1 billion dollars, you can do things that are completely unachievable to those of us who don't. But every time you take on debt, even if you keep the asset, you reduce your ability to use that asset in certain ways.

TRUMP

This brings me back to Trump. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2.5 billion, but the problem with Forbes is that it really only considers assets. And I get why they do this, assets, most assets at least, have public records. You can find out who owns a piece of property or a share of stock fairly easily and then estimate the value of that thing. Debt is not public information and there are very few ways of finding it out without either the cooperation of the person themselves or committing criminal fraud.

Still, as I hope the above example shows, considering assets but not debt means that you don't actually have a clear view of someone's real wealth in terms of what it allows them to do.

In this case, what we're really interested in is Donald Trump's ability to finance his legal defense. He's received a lot of criticism for relying on money from his political donors to fund it when he appears to be rich enough to do so himself, but is he really?

WEALTH VS. INCOME

One of the things that really stands out about Trump from the tax returns we've seen is that he has a lot of assets but he doesn't exactly pocket a lot of income from them. I think we'd all agree that the towers, golf courses, and other real estate properties that he owns are easily worth several billions of dollars, and yet the tax returns we've seen show that only a small amount of the income they generate actually ends up in his pocket at the end of the day.

Tens of millions of dollars in (gross) income are generated from these properties every year which flow into Mr. Trump's accounts, but these properties also have maintenance costs and, in most years, most if not all of that money flows back out to pay those costs. Those can be everything from standard maintenance and upkeep to operations to even the debt that was undoubtedly taken for those properties over the years.

In other words, after taking into account his costs and expenses, Donald Trump makes, at most, a few million dollars a year in actual (net) income. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to make a few million dollars a year, but it's not enough to fund a legal defense that seems to be running well into the tens of millions of dollars in expenses so far this year alone.

ILLIQUID ASSETS

But, you may say, he still has those billions of dollars in properties! Yes, but…

Remember what I said earlier about debt being a big factor in what your options are? We actually have no idea how much debt Trump has on any given property and even the ones on which he has little debt might be financing the ones that have more. In other words, it's fairly likely that, after settling his debts, he won't end up with anywhere near the amount of money the building or property ends up actually selling for.

We also have to consider that selling a huge property like the ones that Trump owns is not a simple affair. The money being exchanged is massive so, in order to get the highest possible price, you would need to go through the full process which can take several months or even years for the buyer to fully inspect and verify so that they can be sure they're getting what they think they are for the huge amount of money they're spending. Trying to sell such a huge asset on a shorter timeline means selling it at a (usually much) lower price than you could otherwise get.

Finally, selling a huge asset like that isn't something to do lightly. Not only does that asset represent wealth according to its value, it also generates income accumulates value. Now, many of Trump's properties are huge money losers, but the only ones that would generate the kind of money that he needs in this legal battle are the ones that don't lose money. Selling one of those not only incurs the disadvantages I mentioned already, but it also means that he loses out on the income he could have if he continued to own the property.

CONCLUSION

I think I've made a fairly clear case here that assets alone do not equal wealth, that our understanding of wealth actually equates to power and options, and that debt and income must also be considered alongside assets to estimate (this is a longer piece for another day, but every calculation of wealth at this scale is truly an estimate rather than being exact) a person's true wealth.

Given that, I think it's fairly clear that Donald Trump's wealth is far less than simply the sum of his assets would indicate and that this is why he is asking for political donors to fund his legal defense. It's not just that he'd rather the money not come from his own pocket, it's fairly clear that he doesn't actually have the money at all.

Let me know if I missed anything and I hope you found this interesting.

#politics #us politics #trump #trump indicted again #trump indictment #long rant (tm) #wealth #billionaires

[wolfliving]

Lyft in big trouble

*That was then, this is now.

Hello! Hi! I’m Aarian Marshall, a staff writer at WIRED. I write about transportation and cities, and someone made the grave mistake of allowing me to fill in for Steven this week. Let’s do this.

The Plain View

Last week, Lyft suddenly announced that its cofounders, president Logan Green and CEO John Zimmer, would step away from the ride-hailing company after 11 years. David Risher, a former executive at Microsoft and Amazon who has been on Lyft’s board since 2021, will take the helm later this month.

Lyft’s C-suite shuffle was sudden, but hardly surprising. For one thing, tech companies in their teens and tweens seem to be entering a founder flop era. Twitch’s Emmett Shear, Instacart’s Apoorva Mehta, Pinterest’s Ben Silbermann, and Peloton’s John Foley all recently bid adieu. But Lyft in particular is struggling. It hasn’t turned a profit. It’s losing market share to Uber. It laid off13 percent of its staff last fall. Its stock price is down nearly 90 percent since it went public in 2019.

And yet the exits of Green and Zimmer say something about how tech industry vibes have shifted since the early 2010’s, when young-ish dudes were raising mountains of cash to disrupt, well, everything.

In the beginning, Lyft’s primary offering was … vibes. Travis Kalanick’s Uber was cutthroat, modeled after pricier black car services and founded because Kalanick and his crew aspired to be “ballers.” Lyft, by contrast, recruited anyone with a license, a vehicle, and a willingness to affix a pink fuzzy mustache to their car and greet strangers with a fist bump, welcoming passengers into their front seats. It was Lyft that piloted the peer-to-peer model of ride hailing, the idea that anyone could become a taxicab driver if they downloaded the right app.

Zimmer loved to wax on about the city-shaping potential of the service. An urban planning class at Cornell University, he oftensaid, had opened his eyes to the corrosive effects of the automobile on city life—the traffic, the smog, the too many parking lots taking up space that could become parks or playgrounds or housing. Lyft and services like it, the theory went, could help many people escape the tyranny of car ownership by letting them use other peoples’ vehicles occasionally instead. When Lyft acquired America’s major bikeshare operator in 2018, it pitched that transaction as another way to help cities.

It was a heart-warming story that got a credibility boost from the public implosion of Uber in 2017. But it didn’t quite work out. The ride-sharing concept Lyft first proved out fed the growth of the gig economy, which has some serious flaws. We are still learning about the complicated effects of decoupling service work from benefits like health care and sick pay.

Meanwhile, ride-hailing seems to have actually increased traffic in cities. And that killing car ownership thing? Just a few months ago, Lyft rolled out services to help car owners book parking and vehicle maintenance. How Lyft fits into anyone’s urban planning syllabus is less clear-cut than Zimmer might have hoped....

[biglisbonnews]

Are Old Paris Institutions Still Relevant for Emerging Designers? The menswear season just wrapped up in Paris, a city known primarily for blockbuster, big-budget shows staged by the likes of Dior and Louis Vuitton. But as the names on the schedule demonstrated, it continues to be a hotbed for the new vanguard of young designers.Still, in an over-saturated Fashion Week calendar (74 shows and presentations crammed into six days), what does it take for an emerging brand to cut through the noise and create a buzz? And why does the majority of young talent opt to show in a week that is considered subordinate to the much larger women's week in terms of celebrity and press attendance?I can empathize with the challenges that emerging brands face. I co-founded Ninamounah in 2017 from a tiny garage in Amsterdam to the runway of the official Paris Fashion Week. It’s been one hell of a ride building up a company from the ground up without investors or generational wealth and navigating the often traditional fashion establishment. We don't talk enough about the struggles that come with running an independent brand, which seems to be more and more challenging and is especially difficult now in a looming recession.The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the institute behind the men’s, women’s and couture weeks in Paris, was created in 1973. Its origins trace back to 1868 when the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, an elite selection committee presiding over what may be called true couture, was founded. The system of presenting the newest fashions twice a year was implemented in the 17th century by Louis XIV as a means to cement France as the epicenter of luxury textile and fashion production.In 2023 much has changed. Big name brands stage elaborate runway spectacles attended by the global elite and live-streamed to millions. Emerging talent from all over the world flock to the French capital to try to get a foot in the door. Yet with platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram as well as retailers and consumers operating in new ways, designers can present their work all year round whilst staying true to their identity and bypassing the pressures of the fashion ecosystem. The biggest challenge for the FHCM, an institute often described as archaic, is to remain relevant in our current age.While the major houses attract the majority of traffic both on- and offline, young labels are pivotal in keeping Paris Fashion Week relevant and adapted to the current zeitgeist. Serge Carreira, the head of the Emerging Brands Initiative at the FHCM, goes into detail on how they nurture the new wave of designers. First, the selection procedure for the calendar is very strict. An anonymous committee of buyers, journalists and federation members goes over hundreds of applications each year. According to Belgian designer and Dries van Noten alum Merryl Rogge, who held her second official presentation last September, they also consider the brand's viability from a business perspective. ‘’I'm interested in how these young brands with hardly any retailers do it," she says. "And then the answer that comes back to me is 'Well they don't pay the bills' so people take a gamble or something and hope that it's gonna boost the sales’’. Rogge's approach is more calculated — a show is definitely something that she wants to do in the future, but only when she has enough cash saved up to do it risk-free.The FHCM offers some financial support and allows brands to present their new collections in the Palais de Tokyo's Sphere space. ‘’The idea is we provide a space, let’s say an ecosystem, for brands to thrive in," Carreira explains. When asked what sets the men’s week apart from its bigger sister, he replies that it’s more experimental and innovative, with a higher concentration of young talent. But why is that?Newcomer Jeanne Friot, who describes her brand as political and genderless, reflects on why she specifically chose the men's week for her second outing. While she, just like many of the designers that have emerged recently, doesn't design with a specific gender in mind, she gravitates towards the men's shows since it attracts a broader range of buyers. It might sound like a paradox, but the men’s weeks are the only time both men’s and women’s buyers congregate in Paris to decide what can be found in stores next season. Egonlab and Louis Gabriel Nouchi are alike in the sense that they question the binary and reject traditional gender norms in their designs. ‘’What is menswear even?" asks Nouchi. "We think it’s important to stand by our values of inclusivity and love.’’ While their respective communities usually embrace this approach, buyers often still box collections into either men's or womenswear.Cobalt Agency’s Michael Krekels says that the major retailers and traditional brands operate in six seasons a year: men’s main and women’s pre-season (bought in January and June) and women’s main (bought in March and September). This system automatically forces labels with an all-gender approach onto the menswear schedule as they would otherwise miss the chance to connect with certain buyers and in turn miss out on opportunities to grow their businesses. Jules Volleberg, co-founder of progressive e-tailer APOC, points out there is no divide between genders on their online store, even though this sometimes translates into a less user-friendly shopping experience. ‘’We think that even though people like the idea of shopping gender-neutral ... it is more important to have accurate sizing information and one would like to know whether something is designed for a masculine or feminine body.’’For Switzerland-based PROTOTYPES, known for selling proto packs that equip the customer with sewing patterns and instructions to craft their own garments, it’s a conscious decision to show off-schedule. ‘’It's always the same old stuff. It's as if they're a bit stuck in time," they say. Ex-Vetements designers Laura and Callum founded the brand after becoming disillusioned with the fashion system with its endless cycle of showing and producing unwanted garments that ended up in outlets or landfill. They want to challenge the fashion industry by employing radically new strategies, rather than changing the system from within. Lorette Colé Duprat, who launched her own label late 2021 after being the head of jewelry at Mugler for three years, feels that her discipline is underrepresented on the calendar and is perhaps not perceived as equally legitimate by the FHCM as her peers focusing on ready-to-wear. "I would love to organize an event to present the collection but I think jewelry would need something different than a fashion show," she says. "The object is smaller and needs a particular kind of attention.’’ While both brands walk to the beat of their own drum in terms of when and how they present their collections, they still adhere to the traditional buying windows imposed by retailers.Maria Galvão de Sousa, creative strategist at Karla Otto Paris, says that even though the men’s week enjoys less media attendance, this does not necessarily mean brands receive less coverage. Impactful visuals and an expertly executed PR strategy make waves on social media, which often trigger journalists to cover a show even though they might not have personally been in attendance. Sia Arnika recently showed her Fall 2023 presentation in Berlin. While she’s still in the process of applying to the FHCM, she got offered financial support by Berlin Fashion Week and used the opportunity to show off her singular vision and expand on her universe. "They asked me if I wanted to show in Berlin, and I was like, Not really but let’s just do it. Paris is Paris, but I can’t source 25,000 euros on my own to stage a presentation just yet.’’ Since fashion is mostly consumed through screens nowadays, this offers young designers a certain flexibility in presenting their work before landing a coveted spot on the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule.It’s important to recognize how current retail machinations influence the creative process of emerging brands. The world has changed, the recent sociopolitical context has forced various industries to rethink their strategies, yet fashion still operates in the same cycle put in place decades ago. Scheduling shows around the sexes and wholesale buying feels dated.While the fashion ecosystem will most likely not change overnight, there is a growing force of designers challenging the status quo and carving out a name for themselves. What this would look like ten years from now remains to be seen.Top photo courtesy of Lorette Colé Duprat https://www.papermag.com/paris-emerging-designers-challenges-2659342041.html

#Paris #Fashion week #Paris fashion week #Emerging designers #Ninamounah #Op-ed #Robin Burggraaf #PAPER