#jumble sale chic

[vibesaresimplyatrocious]

Most of what I know about the fantastic four comes from spidey-torch content, so maybe the answer should be obvious, but why do you hate Reed Richards so much?

The thing about Reed Richards is that he fits this specific brand of comic book superhero that I've never really been able to vibe with, and his is ratcheted up to a very intense degree. Namely, the super smart character who thinks he's always right and can make decisions for everyone else. Professor X is another one that falls into this category for me--more the comic version of him than the movie version of him, but the movie version of him doesn't get a full pass either.

The thing about comics is that a lot of characters run off half-cocked and don't consult the other people in their lives before they do shit. and then subject those people in their lives to decisions they made unilaterally. But there are certain characters who do it to just. ridiculous degrees. And have a bit of god complexes about themselves. and reed richards is one of them. but with reed, it's especially egregious, because the team he's steamrolling is like. his family.

a lot of the explicit problems i have with him are from the Superhuman Registration Act arc from the comics. In it, he goes on the pro-Registration side because of some like, math formula. But he specifically 1) makes the Negative Zone prison and 2) helps make the Thor clone.

the negative zone prison/prison 42 is a nigh-inescapable prison he built to house violators of the superhuman registration act in the comic book civil war arc. the raft would be the comparable movie equivalent. now, i'm HUGELY anti-registration act/accords for a lot of reasons. reed richards basically just used a math formula to decide that the registration would, ultimately, be for the greater good, then put his full back into going after anyone against the registration act. a lot of whom were his colleagues. like, his own family didn't support the registration act and they got directly hurt by this.

The second thing he did pursuant to the registration act was help make Ragnarok the thor clone. 

Basically, they decided that they’d need serious muscle to make the registration act work. So, they (tony stark, reed richards, hank pym) cloned thor, without thor’s knowledge or consent. said clone then tries to go on a killing spree. whoopsie, says people who cloned thor. 

And reed richards just. does this kind of thing a lot. He’s on the illuminati, who i also hate, because it’s another case of “smart powerful people think they get to make decisions for everyone, don’t actually check with anyone first.”

I’m just really big on consent? to like, everything. So those characters who just make decisions for everyone and then don’t learn from it irk me. And, granted, a lot of comic book characters run off half-cocked and do whatever without consulting other people first. but it’s more extreme with reed richards and the way it’s framed just makes it so he has little redeeming features for me to like instead 

which was pretty much my basis for the hate on him in jumble sale chic? I couldn’t see any version of reed richards who would actually take johnny at his word that he had it handled and they could trust peter, no, you don’t get to know why, just trust that johnny knows what is doing. he’d trust his own read of the facts, which would miss out on the detail that peter is spiderman 

#reed richards #jumble sale chic

[evilwickedme]

This wasn't asked for because nobody in their right mind would ask for this but this is a fic rec list of fics I cannot stop rereading

Just started yet another reread of Inimitable Verse by deniigiq and I fully plan on rereading their into the multiverse series which occasionally crosses over also - this is a Spider-Man/team red focused series, think comics canon infused early mcu-spidey since only homecoming had come out for a non substantial amount of time they were working on the series and the daredevil stuff is explicitly tv show AND comics. Also the multiverse series is how I got into Murderdock and therefore how I got into Spider Gwen

Unpretty's Sorrowful And Immaculate Hearts series which is just a loosely interconnected series of DC fics. My personal favorites are Empty Graves, in which Martha Kent keeps killing time travelers trying to kill baby! Clark; any of their clois fics but especially Third Wheel; and Anti-Social, which is a social media fic mostly about Tim and Bruce that made me cry laughing. Catch Bruce trying to get Walmart's employees to unionize. Also shout out to unpretty's only fic with Jason in it, it looks awesome but is tragically incomplete

This particular Reverse Robin AU which put in the work to reverse every single younger generation and is chef's kiss I LOVE this version of Tim he's wild

Both of Shoalsea's fics are in constant rotation for me I talk about Into The Brighter Night all the time in the tags of reblogs and stuff it truly lives in my head rent free. Anyway Tim gets kidnapped by aliens and the batfam have to watch as yj98 saves him and it's angsty and funny and such a good take on what could have been if the new 52 hadn't happened. And Compassion Builds No House is about Tim and Pru from Red Robin. Ugh they're both so good

Speaking of Clois (I did you've just forgotten this by now) brilliant (like a confession) by kathkin (penny-anna on the hellsite) is so fucking good I'm. Okay. Anyway it'll be listed as inspiration if/when I finally post my two person love triangle fic for them

I'm too anxious to catch up on this before it's done but jumble sale chic is hands down the best spideydevil fic series despite and because of the omegaverse

Make A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul is my favorite take on Jason, period, and has a lot of fantastic Damian stuff going on too. It's updating every few weeks still! Sometimes more often! I love you bacondoughnut it's me JustGail the person who will not stop commenting on your fic you're stuck with me forever

I lied above Rumspringa Murderdock is what got me into Murderdock but that series is second place. I found this one while scrolling through the tv show's mattfoggy tag, thinking I was safe

Speaking of Murderdock mattfoggy, The Lawyer All the Wickedness was written early on in spider-gwen's history and so diverges from canon really early in ways that I think are super interesting and creative

Oh also straight on 'til morning by merils (Tumblr url mamawasatesttube) does SUCH a great job unpacking Kon's trauma and building up healthy relationships around him including a budding timkon romance and yeah it makes me sad and happy at the same time

We're getting into poisonivory territory so just trust if you like the pairing and poisonivory is writing it you'll like it. Ok rapidfire

Like A Handprint On My Heart mattfoggy soulmate au with a twist

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Damijon future fic/au. Jon came back from the future when both of them were 19. Demisexual!Damian at its best. Damian's terrified of being abandoned by Jon again and it made my heart hurt

I feel like I've already recommended every JayRoy fic by poisonivory and genuinely I do reread them all, sometimes in order of publication if I'm in a particular mood. Maybe the one I've read most though is I've Got the Feeling You're the Right Thing After All which is about Roy and Jason starting a fwb thing while Roy still harbors old feelings for Dick. Can't see anything going wrong here lmao

Mmm this post is long enough so I'll leave it at just superhero fic for now but I do in fact have the ability to do a whole post just for the Witcher or Leverage so I might do that. Anyway thanks for following me on yet another burst of insanity it will happen again

#fic recs #team red #spiderman #mattfoggy #murderdock #daredevil #spideydevil #damijon #timkon #jayroy #clois #batfam #superfam #marvel comics #dd tv #marvel #dc #gail speaks #if I didn't also list their tumblr urls we're not mutuals #although obviously a lot of them are in fact on tumblr

[stylecouncil]

“Bowie has brought along a contact sheet of a photo session he did with William Burroughs in 1973. Today Bowie is dressed just like Burroughs was – gray suit, white shirt with a thin, dark stripe, and a fedora. Brett is dressed like Brett, in what the tabloids have taken to referring to as his “jumble sale chic”.

‘Tell you what, I’ll be Bill and you be me,’ Bowie says to Brett. It helps break the ice.’” - NME 20 March 1993

1993 📸: Pennie Smith / 1974 📸: Terry O’Neil

#david bowie #brett anderson #william s burroughs

[stackthedeck]

💯 and 📚

Have a nice day!

💯 A fic that makes you think #writergoals

Okay I gotta pick two for this one. @spideywhites series ultraviolent because he gets Peter like no one else does but two the prose are fucking excellent!! like "the way the Spider is like steel that breathes, diamond that bleeds" I'm going to kill you to steal your power

also the jumble sale chic series by thevibesaresimplyatrocious god I envy the way they write dialogue, the seamless subversion of genre and world-building, the subtle unstated emotions! I always spell out excellent how a character is feeling but I want to get to the point where I don't have to, where the reader just knows, where the "I love you" is redundant and limiting. God this series is beautiful and I'm so happy we have it

📚 A fic you wish you could display on your bookshelf

So I'm taking this in the exact opposite direction that this was intended, so it's One Reason Why by NotEvenCloseToStraight, but not because it's like a good fanfic, but because I know it would make a phenomenal novel. I'm so picky when it comes to spideypool fics, I don't want ocs named Peter and Wade, I want the comic-accurate characterization. These are ocs name Peter and Wade but I was so invested in them by the first 100 words that I just had to keep reading. I know this sounds like an insult but I mean it as the highest praise. This beautifully crafted story is completely 100% original with some inspiration from spideypool. Change the names and add some character descriptions here and there and this could be published. I want this bound with a sensual oil painting on the cover and on my shelf

#asks #ask game

[freakingoutthesquares]

How to dress exactly like Pulp did in the 90s

2 December 2015 Text Alex Denney

Wanna look like common people? Former Pulp member Russell Senior spills on the band’s Britpop style inspirations.

Russell Senior was the secret coolest member of Pulp. Back in Britpop’s heyday, when Jarvis Cocker was a spindly ever-present on Top of the Pops, Senior could be seen stage-left in a pair of Charles Jourdan sunglasses, blithely sawing at his violin like a member of the Velvet Underground on loan.

In fact, the musician was instrumental in shaping the sexy, shopworn look that Pulp perfected in the early-mid 90s, a look that’s weathered better than other, more leisurewear-inclined strains of the Britpop aesthetic. An occasional antiques dealer with a weakness for “Scandi-modernism” and an eye for a dashingly cut suit, Senior bowed out of the band in 1997, after their “Common People”-era peak, before returning for their triumphant comeback shows of 2011/12 – here, he looks at some of the inspirations behind the band’s mismatched aesthetic.

TAKE A BAG TO A JUMBLE-SALE AND FILL IT UP

“We were all great lovers of jumble sales, although we kind of abhorred each other’s tastes – Jarvis would always look at suits like, ‘Look how wide these lapels are!’, and I’d be like, ‘Christ, what does he look like?’ You don’t know what you’re going to find at a jumble sale. You’re going to get things that other people aren’t wearing – you’re not choosing it so much, you’re just getting this random bag of stuff and then you get a new version of yourself. I used to enjoy the idea of being really conservative in my dress-sense – you could be a revolutionary communist dressed like a bank manager with a briefcase! I really did have a briefcase, by the way.

“Jumble-sale chic was a term that got applied to us a lot. It wasn’t just a poverty thing, it was a pride thing. We would come in and go, ‘My underwear cost more than my outfit!’ (Our look) was kind of artless, it was whatever you chanced upon, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an intellect about it. We were proud of our cheapness!”

CHOOSE TIGHT OVER BAGGY

“Baggy was a genre but it was also a kind of look...or a ‘non-look’. For a while (in the early 90s) our music was quite baggy – we were using that kind of wah-wah sound. So we became quite popular in Manchester, but even though we liked the music we had this contrary thing of wanting to be different – like, all the band t-shirts at the time were really baggy, so we went the other way, but it was hard finding t-shirts as tight as we wanted them.”

IF YOU’RE IN A BAND, COPY YOUR AUDIENCE

“Our audience influenced our look a lot. People would come to our concerts in feather boas and they would end up finding their way into our photoshoots. Or you’d have girls in the audience with necklaces made out of sweets and they’d be carrying Barbie dolls, but they weren’t 15 years old, they would be 23 and doing a degree in postmodern irony! We had Love Hearts thrown at us at shows, so we ended up getting plates made in the form of Love Hearts for one of our videos. We were getting things sent in the post – Candida (Doyle, keyboardist) got jars of kitsch jewellery from people who were picking up on the fact that we were just like them, finding our style on a budget. We had cool audiences, they were often very interesting people. And we fed back into it – our look would give people a bit of boldness, just to walk through town in those outfits. It something that’s articulated best in the ‘Misshapes’ video.”

TRY TO BE A MOD, BUT DON'T TRY TOO HARD

“Mod became a big current in Britpop through bands like Blur and Menswear. I’d always liked the clobber, but I didn’t conceive of myself as a mod until I went to the seaside on bank holidays and found that rockers were looking at me funny. I used to wear Union Jack socks before it became a Britpop symbol, just because I thought it looked good. Then there was the famous cover of Select with Brett Anderson against the backdrop of the Union Jack that really crystallised the feeling, and then 18 months later Oasis had a guitar with a Union Jack on it. I just thought that was a bit try-hard.”

IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE GLAM, BE TRASHY

“We all had this idea that Top of the Pops had gotten boring around 1973, when people stopped wearing outrageous outfits. But our take on glam was rather shamefully not Bowie and Roxy Music, it was the kind of glam that will forever be lodged in some town outside Birmingham, like The Glitter Band, Slade and Sweet. But there was pathos in that.

“We were into all that twisted funfair stuff. Glitter for us wasn’t just shiny, it was seedy ­– it was, like, the guy making a snuff in a garage on the outskirts of town, if you know what I mean? It was the David Lynch take on glamour. Jarvis loved all the frilly-shirted 70s stuff, which I hated because you end up looking like a working men’s club turn and that was exactly what I was trying to get away from. Mates I knew from school were playing in those sorts of bands, so the idea that you’d skate anywhere near that was absurd to me. But that was part of the tension in the band. And it was a good tension, I think.”

GET ALL YOUR SUITS TAILORED

“This was later, when we had a bit more money to throw around – but of course, the suits would all be based on the jumble-sale suits we loved that were falling to bits. There’s great joy to getting a suit made. It’s working out all the little nuances, like whether you want 13 and a half inches at the bottom of your trousers or if you can get away with a 13 – but will that make you look like a comedy mod? People did say a number of times that I was the best-dressed man in Britpop, which was nice but I also used to think, ‘Well there isn’t much competition!’”

FOOL PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING YOU’RE SEXY

“You can see it in the pictures with Jarvis. He looks like a gawky freak one day and in the next photoshoot he’s being the Jarvis you know. My Auntie Val, who liked spivs and wide-boys, had had this crush on Jarvis for a while, and we were like, ‘What are you talking about? He looks like a bad pub comedian!’ but she loved it. Jarvis started announcing it from the stage – ‘This is for Auntie Val!’ The week after he was Jarvis the sex symbol. But then he’d come offstage and he’d be clipping his toenails… The idea of this guy being a sex symbol made us burst out laughing, but he was, you know? I mean, there was a bit of postmodern irony from our fans in the whole ‘throw your knickers at Jarvis’ thing – it wasn’t really teenyboppers. But it ended up becoming the reality.”

Freak out the Squares: Life in a Band Called Pulp by Russell Senior is out now via Aurum Press

Photos from pinterest

#russell senior #printed article #pulp #fashion #90s #interview #printed interview

[creativecourse]

60-Minute Makeovers Copywriting Mini Course Information What if you could take your website or sales page... From meh to money? From bye-bye to must-buy? From so-so to SOLD! ... All with just a few powerful word tweaks that take you under an hour? Here's the Mini-Course... ...That'll get you thinking like a swift, brilliant copywriter. (Just by soaking up the glory of visual before-and-after copywriting examples!) What You’ll Learn In This Course? The homepage that missed the emotional mark with farmers…transformed so it grabs them by the farm-fresh eggs. The gift shopping site for people in recovery that tried too hard to be “sassy”…retooled to strike a note of effortless cool. The tagline that went from “all about me, me, me” to “all about the customer” with just one word. The services page for couple’s therapy that was off-putting…. tweaked to make couples feel the love and say “We’re in!!” The tech website that went from “jumble of jargon” robot-speak to clear, personable human-ese. The opt-in for Airbnb hosts that went from snoozeriffic to snap-up-abble. The law-school course sales page that needed to stop sounding like a law professor. The financial advisor’s site that needed a few rich details to finally resonate. The wine company’s mailer that was pouring for the wrong (and cheap) crowd — given a top note of exclusivity. The transformed retail site for chic diaper bags with a mission. (Don’t let the adorable “before” fool you.) The underwater-photographer’s About page that wanted a splash of personality and resonance. A targeted email for real estate agents, who always need help standing out and converting leads into clients. The social media consultant’s Work With Me page that was sounding like too much work. The edgy branding agency’s homepage that needed more edge, innuendo, and immediacy. The “financial personal trainer” site that was training people to click away…and needed language that was more on the money. About Author Laura Belgray, founder of Talking Shrimp, is an award-winning copywriting expert and unapologetic lazy person. She's written TV spots for clients like NBC, Fandango, and Bravo, and now helps entrepreneurs and creatives to cash in on their unique personalities, become binge-worthy, and get paid to be 100% themselves. The Copy Cure, her course with Marie Forleo, has helped thousands of creative pros to master and even fall in love with copywriting. More courses from the same author: Laura Belgray

[polyglotnotes]

American English to British English

airplane - aeroplane

apartment - flat

apartment building - block of flats

arugula - rocket

ATM - cashpoint/cash machine

attendance, take - register, take the

baby crib - cot

bachelor party - stag do

bachelorette party - hen do

bandaid - plaster

bangs - fringe

barf (verb) - chunder (verb)

bathrobe/robe - dressing gown

bathroom/restroom - loo (slang)

bathroom/washroom - toilet/bathroom

bathtub - bath

beets - beetroot

bell pepper - pepper/sweet pepper

Bic - biro

blinds - curtains

blood sausage/boudin noir - black pudding

broil (verb) - grill (verb)

bus - coach

camper van/RV - caravan

can - tin

candy - sweets

caravan - convoy

caregiver - carer

cart - trolley

cash register - till

checkers - draughts

checking account - current account

chic/classy/fancy - posh

closet - wardrobe

co-education/co-ed - mixed school

coach class - economy class

comforter - duvet

cookie - biscuit

corn - maize

corn starch - cornflour

cotton swab/Q-tip - cotton bud

couch - sittee

counterclockwise - anticlockwise

CPA (Certified Public Accountant) - Chartered Accountant

crosswalk - zebra crossing

custom-made - bespoke

diaper - nappy

downtown - city centre

eggplant - aubergine

elevator - lift

eraser - rubber

exclamation point - exclamation mark

expensive - dear

faculty member - academic staff

fall - autumn

faucet - tap

fire truck - fire engine

first floor - ground floor

fish sticks - fish fingers

flan (=sweet soft food) - flan (=fruit cake, not sweet)

flashlight - torch

flyby - flypast

freeway/highway - motorway

french fries - chips

French press - cafetiere

front desk - reception

furnace - central heating boiler

garbage can - dustbin

garbage collector - binman

gas/gasoline - petrol

gearshift - gearstick

grade - mark

green onion/scallion - spring onion

grocery store - grocery shop

ground beef - minced meat

ground/grounded - earth/earthed

ham - gammon

high beam (car) - full beam (car)

high school - secondary school

hot (sexy) - fit (sexy)

intersection - crossroads

janitor - caretaker

jumper dress - pinafore

jungle gym - climbing frame

kindergarten - preschool/nursery school

knickers - parcel

ladybug - ladybird

line - queue

liquor store - off license

mailman - postman

math - maths

median strip - central reservation

mom and pop store - family business

mommy/mom - mummy/mum

motorcycle - motorbike

movies, the - cinema, the

open house - open day

overalls - dungarees

pajamas - pyjamas

panties - knickers

pants/slacks - trousers

paper towel - kitchen roll

parking - car park

pay raise - pay rise

period - full stop

pharmacy - chemist

pickle - gherkin

pimple/zit - spot

pitcher - jug

plastic wrap - clingfilm

potato chips - crisps

principal - headmaster

public holiday - bank holiday

puffer vest - gilet

purse - handbag

quotation marks - inverted commas

rappel (verb, climbing) - abseil (verb, climbing)

recess - breaktime

round-trip ticket - return ticket

rubber boots - wellington boots/wellies

rummage sale - jumble sale

schedule - timetable

scotch tape - sellotape

second floor - first floor

shots - jab

sidewalk (=pavement is concrete/tarmac road) - pavement (=road for pedestrians)

silverware/flatware - cutlery

sink - washbasin

sketchy - dodgy

sneakers - trainers

soccer - football

soda/pop/coke/tonic - fizzy drink

special election - by-election

spelunking - potholing

store - shop

stove - cooker

stroller - push chair

study (verb) - read (verb)

subway/metro - underground/tube

sweater - jumper

sweater vest - sleeveless jumper/slipover

swimming suit - swimsuit

table (= verb – delay) - table (= verb – suggest)

tap - faucet

teachers' lounge - staffroom

teleprompter - autocue

teller - cashier

thong (=shoe) - thong (=underwear)

tic-tac-toe - noughts and crosses

tire - tyre

traffic circle/rotary - roundabout

trailer park - caravan park

transportation - transport

truck - lorry

trunk - boot

undershirt - vest

underwear - pants

vacation - holiday

vacationers - holidaymakers

vest - waistcoat

wallet - purse

windbreaker - cagoule

windshield - windscreen

woods, the - wood, a

yard - garden

ZIP code - postcode

zipper - zip

zucchini - courgette

#englishes #us english #british english

[elliethefroggy]

Delicately Deadly

Sangchengmonth2020 (ao3)

Day 25: Steampunk AU

“This is a terrible idea,” Jiang Cheng repeated as they walked down the cobbled streets, the damp rocks glistening under the gas lamps lining the road.

“So you keep saying,” Nie Huaisang replied. They stopped at the kerb; a carriage passed by, drawn by two mechanical steel horses, steam escaping out of their nostrils and drifting up to be lost in the cloudy evening sky.

“And I’m going to keep saying it until you start listening to me.”

They crossed the road, Jiang Cheng taking care to avoid stepping into the gutter engorged with earlier’s rain.

“Remember what happened with the last invention you tested out for Wei Wuxian?” Jiang Cheng continued, “That toaster machine exploded after the sixth use and completely destroyed our new countertops.”

“But remember how lovely and golden those five first pieces of toast had been,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Remember how that sixth one was burnt to a crisp along with half of our kitchen?”

They turned into a narrow side street and stopped at a red door that desperately needed a new coat of paint.

Jiang Cheng grabbed the handle and opened the door, letting Nie Huaisang in first. The bell over their heads jingled as they walked in.

The shop was dark and cramped, filled to bursting with all manner of curios and contraptions, though, surprisingly, the shelves lacked the usual layer dust.

“The shop’s actually looking cleaner now that Wen Ning’s started working here,” Nie Huaisang commented, looking out at the windows that could now let in some of the street light, having been rid of years’ worth of grime.

The faded black curtain separating them from the backroom was pushed aside and Wen Ning, the new shop assistant, stepped through. Wen Ning looked especially pale under the shop’s poor lighting, the black artificial veins under his skin that could be followed all the way down to his heart made his complexion as white as chalk.

“Good evening Masters Jiang and Nie,” he said in that stuttering manner he always used, bowing slightly.

“Hello, how’s the new heart?” Nie Huaisang asked because he never could keep his nose out of other people’s business.

“It’s doing wonderfully,” Wen Ning said, clutching at his chest where the metal heart was quietly ticking away, “Master Wei replaced some of the valves, and it’s working much better now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Nie Huaisang replied.

“We’re here to pick up the new fire hazard Wei Wuxian made for Nie Huaisang,” Jiang Cheng said, having no patience for small talk.

“Of course,” Wen Ning replied, “Master Wei stayed up all night finalizing it. Please wait a moment.” He bowed again before walking back behind the curtain.

“This is still a terrible idea,” Jiang Cheng asserted once again in a whisper.

Nie Huaisang absent-mindedly shushed him.

Before Jiang Cheng could add more, Wei Wuxian came bouncing in, wearing a big smile on his face and even bigger bags under his eyes. Wen Ning followed close behind.

“Here you go, Nie Huaisang. This one shouldn’t explode,” Wei Wuxian said without bothering to greet them like a normal person.

Much to Nie Huaisang’s delight, Wei Wuxian handed him a fan made of thin sheets of dark green metal. Nie Huaisang’s fingers brushed over the intricate weaving of silver knots climbing up the fan’s guards. It had a simple elegance to it, and even Jiang Cheng had to admit it was beautiful.

“It’s capable of releasing small knives hidden in the folds and is strong enough to deflect pretty much any bullet all the while remaining chic and decorative,” Wei Wuxian said, finishing his sales pitch.

The fan was deceptively delicate just like Nie Huaisang.

With Nie Huaisang sufficiently distracted by his new toy, Jiang Cheng turned to Wei Wuxian.

“You look like shit,” he said.

“It’s good to see you too, Didi,” Wei Wuxian laughed, throwing an arm around Jiang Cheng’s shoulders. Jiang Cheng made sure to look appropriately annoyed, but didn’t try to dislodge him.

“You should take better care of yourself,” Jiang Cheng reprimanded. “If you don’t, I’m going to tell Ajie on you.”

“Jiang Cheng,” Wie Wuxian pouted, “that’s just mean, and after I made your husband a lovely gift and everything”.

“Keep pushing your luck, and I’ll tell Hanguang-Jun as well.”

Wei Wuxian shrieked in indignation, calling him a big bully, but Jiang Cheng knew he’d get a long night’s sleep after this, the prospect of Lan Wangji’s silent disappointment and discrete mothering too much for even Wei Wuxian to bear.

In the hopes of diverting Jiang Cheng’s attention, Wei Wuxian grabbed a little device he’d been working on.

“Look at this,” he said, shoving it into Jiang Cheng’s face.

It wasn’t much to look at, a jumble of wires and pipes that only made sense to Wei Wuxian.

“It’s going to be a music box,” Wei Wuxian explained, “I was thinking of giving it to Lan Zhan. It’s not done yet, but I’m close.” He pressed a button on the contraption.

Something in the machine cracked, smoke billowed out, and instead of music, shrill distorted sounds filled the shop. One of the small pipes snapped off and flew straight for Jiang Cheng’s face.

Before anyone else could think to react, Nie Huaisang, in one swift movement, opened the fan and extended his arm to block the upcoming projectile. The pipe smashed into the green metal, rebounded off of it and whizzed past right into one of the shop windows, shattering it on impact.

Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning were left staring wide-eyed at Nie Huaisang as the glass crashed down onto the ground. Nie Huaisang didn’t notice the looks, too busy inspecting the fan, searching for blemishes on the metal and finding none.

“Cool, it works,” Nie Huaisang smiled, finally looking up. “Can you make me another one in grey, please?” He asked Wei Wuxian, already planning how to accessorize the fan with all his outfits.

Wei Wuxian could only nod, unable to speak.

#sangchengmonth2020 #sangchengber #sangcheng #nie huaisang #jiang cheng #mdzs #the untamed #jiang wanyin #wen ning #wei wuxian #wei ying #alternative universe #steampunk au #grumpy jiang cheng #badass nie huaisang #nie huaisang to the rescue because he can't let anything happen to jiang cheng's pretty face #jiang cheng just has had enough #inventor wei wuxian #shop owner wei wuxian #shop assistant wen ning #cyborg wen ning #(kind of) #wen ning cleaned those windows for nothing #fans #steampunk #delicately deadly #day 25 #one step closer to freedom

[kalluun-patangaroa]

Waking up to a new morning...

The Observer, Sunday 15 September 2002

Written by Amy Raphael

After the booze, coke, crack and smack, Suede's Brett Anderson is back in the land of the living with renewed optimism and a new album 

Brett Anderson grew up hanging around car parks, drinking lukewarm cans of Special Brew and taking acid. Occasionally, he caught the train from Hayward's Heath to Brighton, less than half an hour away, but still a world away. He would buy punk records and, perhaps, a Nagasaki Nightmare patch to sew on to his red ski jacket.

His mother, who died in 1989, was an aspiring artist; his father was mostly unemployed and obsessed with classical music. He wanted his son to be a classical pianist, but Brett had other ideas. Lost in suburban adolescence, he was drawn to the Smiths, to Morrissey's melancholic lyrics, his eccentric persona. He wanted to be a pop star; he would be a pop star. He had no doubt.

Anderson moved to London in the late 1980s, living in a small flat in Notting Hill. He studied architecture at the London School of Economics, but only while he got a band together. Here he met Justine Frischmann and, with old school friend Mat Osman, formed Suede in the early Nineties as an antidote to grunge and anodyne pop.

Anderson borrowed Bowie's Seventies glamour and a little of his Anthony Newley-style vocals. He looked to the Walker Brothers's extravagant, string-laden productions and appropriated Mick Jagger's sexual flamboyance for his stage show. Yet Suede were totally original, unlike anything else at the time. Dressed in secondhand suits and with casually held cigarettes as a prop, Anderson wanted to write pop songs with an edge; sleazy, druggy, urban vignettes which would sit uncomfortably in the saccharine-tinged charts.

Like his lyrics, Anderson was brash, cocky, confident. He talked of being 'a bisexual man who's never had a homosexual experience', realising it was an interesting quote, even if he knew he would probably always lose his heart to the prettiest of girls.

When I first met him, in the spring of 1993, Suede were enjoying their second year of press hysteria, of being endlessly hailed as the best new band in Britain. Fiddling with his Bryan Ferry fringe, Anderson asserted: 'I am a ridiculous fan of Suede. I do sit at home and listen to us. I do enjoy our music.'

He talked about performing 'Metal Mickey', the band's second single, on Top of the Pops. 'When I was growing up, Top of the Pops was the greatest thing, after tea on a Thursday night... brilliant! You get a ridiculous sense of history doing it. It was a milestone in my life; it somehow validated my life, which is pathetic really.'

By rights, Suede should have been not only the best band in Britain but also the biggest. Yet it did not happen that way. During the recording of the second album, the brilliant Dog Man Star, guitarist Bernard Butler walked out. It was as though Johnny Marr had left the Smiths before completing Meat Is Murder. The band could have given up, but they did not; they went on to make Coming Up, which went straight to the top of the album charts. Then, three years ago, disaster struck during the recording of Suede's fourth album, Head Music. Anderson was in trouble: the pale adolescent who had swigged Special Brew in desolate car parks was now a pop star addicted to crack.

Brett Anderson sits in a battered leather Sixties chair in the living-room of his four- storey west London home sipping a mug of black coffee. He has lived here for three or four years, moving into the street just as Peter Mandelson was moving out. The living-room is immaculate: books, CDs and records are neatly stacked on shelves, probably in alphabetical order.

Anderson's 6ft frame is as angular as ever but more toned than before, the detail of his muscles showing through a tight black T-shirt. Gone is the jumble-sale chic of the early Nineties; he now pops into Harvey Nichols.

He appears to have lost none of his self-assurance but, a decade on from his bold entrance into the world of pop, Anderson has mellowed, grown-up. By his own admission, he is still highly strung and admits he is probably as skinny as a 17-year-old at almost 35 because of nervous energy. But he no longer refuses to listen to new bands in case they are better than Suede; he praises the Streets, the Vines and the Flaming Lips.

This healthy, relaxed person who enjoys the odd mug of strong black coffee is a recent incarnation. At some point in the late Nineties, Anderson lost himself. He became part of one his songs and ended up a drug addict.

He talks about his new regime: swimming, eating well, hardly touching alcohol. No drugs. Did he give everything up at once? 'It was kind of gradual... giving up drugs is a strange thing, because you can't just do it straight away. You stop for a bit then it bleeds into your life again. It takes great willpower to stop suddenly.'

He sighs and looks into the distance. 'I got sick of it really. I felt as though I'd outgrown it. It wasn't something I kept wanting to put myself through and I was turning into an absolute tit. Incapable of having a relationship, incapable of going out and behaving like a normal human being. Constantly paranoid...'

The drug odyssey started with cocaine, but soon it was not enough. 'Cocaine is child's play. After a while, it didn't give me enough of a buzz, so I got into crack. I was a crack addict for ages, I was a smack addict for ages...'

Another deep sigh. 'It's part of my past, really. I'm not far enough away to be talking about it. It's only recently I've been able to say the word "crack".'

When Head Music was being recorded, he says he wasn't really there. He would turn up but his mind was not focused. The album went to number one but it was not up to Suede's standards; as Anderson acknowledges, it was 'flashy, bombastic; an extreme version of the band'.

He laughs, happier to talk about the good times. 'Last year, when I decided not to destroy myself any more, I kind of disappeared off to the countryside with a huge amount of books, a guitar and a typewriter... and wondered what the outcome would be.'

He spent six months alone. It was a revelation to discover that he could spend time by himself. 'I think a lot of people are shit scared of being on their own. Me too. From the age of 14 to 30, I jumped from bed to bed in fear of being alone. Being in the cottage in the middle in Surrey, I learned that if one day everything fucks up, I could actually go and live on my own. It's a total option.'

For a long time, Anderson had avoided reading books, worried that his lyric writing would be affected by other people's use of language. Last year, he decided it was time to fill his head with some new information. Although he had been told for years that his imagery was reminiscent of J.G. Ballard, he read the author for the first time in the cottage - and was flattered. He read Ian McEwan's back catalogue and challenging books such as Michel Houellebecq's Atomised.

Despite his self-imposed exile, it still took Anderson a long time to perfect Suede's fifth album, the self-consciously celebratory A New Morning. The band tried to make an 'electronic folk' album by working with producer Tony Hoffer, who had impressed with his work on Beck's Midnight Vultures. However, unable to make an understated album, they eventually called in their old friend Stephen Street, the Smiths producer.

Yet more trouble was ahead. Anderson says Suede have faced many 'big dramas' over the past decade - Frischmann left the band early on to form Elastica and soon after ended her relationship with Anderson, moving in with Britpop's golden boy, Damon Albarn; Bernard Butler walked out with little warning; the drugs took control - but still the band were not prepared for keyboard player Neil Codling's exit. He was forced to leave in the middle of recording A New Morning suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Anderson says he was furious when Codling left.'He couldn't help it, I know, but I did feel aggrieved. I felt let down. But more at the universe than at Neil. I tend not to show how I feel about these things in public. It's like when Bernard first left, I was devastated. I felt as though that original line-up was really special. And we will never know what might have been.'

At times, Anderson sounds as though he has had an epiphany in the past year. He smiles. 'Well, you only need to listen to A New Morning to realise that. The title is very much a metaphor. It's a very optimistic record; the first single is called "Positivity", for God's sake. It's a talismanic song for the album. It's a good pop single, but we've haven't gone for a Disney kitsch, happy, clappy, neon thing.'

He looks serious for a moment. 'For me, the album is about the sense that you can only experience real happiness if you've experienced real sadness.'

Has he had therapy? His whole body shakes with a strange, high-pitched laughter. 'No! No! But I am happier now. I feel more comfortable with myself. I feel as though I'm due some happiness. I've just started going out with someone I really like. I've made an album which is intimate and warm. I don't any more have the need to be talked about constantly, that adolescent need for constant pampering...'

A swig of the lukewarm coffee and a wry smile. 'And, best of all, I don't feel like a troubled, paranoid tit any more.'

A New Morning is released on 30 September

#suede #brett anderson #press #interview #the observer #anm #2002

[smilingformoney]

America’s Most Eligible 3 Diamond Scene: Put Vince in His Place

You: Ivy’s right. I’ve got plenty of dirt on you, and I’m not afraid to spill it. Vince: Oh, please. This is clearly just my ex-fiancée’s way of trying to make me look bad. You: Ivy’s just the tip if the iceberg! There’s a whole set full of people who can’t stand you. Vince: Name one.

You: How about… -Wrenn?

You: You haven’t shown them an ounce of respect since they started. They’re a producer, and you still treat them like garbage! Vince: You’re not serious. This is reality TV. If he’s that sensitive, he should work somewhere else. Omar: What the hell did you just say? Wrenn: For the last time, you greasy bigot, my pronouns are they and them. Vince: Sometimes I forget. Sue me. Wrenn: If I could, I would. You’re not forgetful, you’re hateful, and I’m sick of putting up with it. Jen: If I’d known about this, I would’ve had you kicked off the set immediately. You’re an absolute disgrace.

-Adam?

You: You tricked him into believing he was your best friend, and then threw him under the bus the first chance you got! Adam: You couldn’t face me like a real opponent, so you stabbed me in the back. After all we went through together! Chadley: I remember that! At first, I thought the definition of ‘friend’ changed, but then I realised you’re just bad at it. Vince: Are you still beating that dead horse? It’s a competition. I did what I had to do to win. Adam: That’s the problem. You’ll do whatever it takes to win, no matter who it hurts. Chadley: Yeah, I never did anything like that to win AME! You’re just a big, dumb bully with weird facial hair!

You: I could throw a dart at the cast and crew photo blindfolded, and I’d still hit someone you’ve screwed over. Vince: Please. You think something as small as that is going to paint me as a monster? Vince: This is television, Jamie. Every second that I’m on this set, I’m thinking about how to make magic. Ivy: And I guess sleeping with the Maid of Honour was just a part of the recipe? The crowd gasps! Vince: Ivy, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not interested in Sierra. I’ve only ever had eyes for you.

You: If that’s true, then… -Why was Sierra’s bra in your luggage?

You: I’ve heard of traveling with a change of underwear, but that’s going a little far, don’t you think? Sierra: She’s got you there, Vince. Good luck getting yourself out of this one.

-Let’s ask Sierra to confirm it!

The entire wedding turns to look at Sierra. Her face remains calm. Sierra: Yeah, I’ve been sleeping with Vince all season… and I’m not ashamed to admit it. His thing with Ivy was a sham.

-Why haven’t you treated Ivy right?

You: You’ve been blowing Ivy off all season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sierra made you late to the finale! Sierra: So we had a quickie and it made us a little late. Big deal?

Vince: Sierra, how could you-- Sierra: I’ve been under your thumb all season, Casanova. Frankly, I’m getting sick of it. I think it’s time for a little honesty. Sierra: Should I start by telling the fans about the day we banged it out on every piece of furniture I own? Vince: Sierra, enough! Sierra: What about how the dating advice you’ve made a career out of is completely bogus? Sierra: I just don’t get it. If you’re so rich, why did you even bother coming on this show again? For attention?

-If you spoke to Carson in Vegas

You think back to your conversation with Carson in Vegas… You: It’s not for attention. He needs the prize money. Vince’s completely broke! Ivy: His business went down the drain when he got Eliminated last season.

-If you didn’t speak to Carson in Vegas

Ivy: Well, that’s an easy fix. Vince couldn’t jump over a nickel to save a dime. He’s broke! You: Not to mention desperate.

You: That’s why… -He’s been selling lies to the tabloids!

Vince: Now that’s just ridiculous. I might be short on liquid assets— You: Save it. My fiancée and I heard you tell that reporter that out relationship was fake. Fiancée: And we know he offered to pay you off if the tip was good. You: Sounds like a sale to me.

-He’s rationing his pricey cologne!

Vince: Now that’s just ridiculous. I might be short on liquid assets-- You: You’re not talking your way out of this one. Smell him! Carson: She’s right! Vince never leaves home without spraying his signature scent-- Ivy: A mix of cotton, ink, leather, and soap, ‘to mimic the smell of money.’ Carson: But now he smells like wet grass!

-He came up with this scheme!

Vince: Now that’s just ridiculous. I might be short on liquid assets-- You: You and Ivy tried to scam the fans into believing you were in love so you could win the million dollars… You: You never cared about each other. You just wanted a quick way to make some money. Vince: People get married every day for less.

Carson: He’s a fraud! Lancelin: And worse than that, he clearly did not read the dress code. This wedding is beach chic. Penny: All I can say is, thank goodness those two never made it to the altar. Chadley: Wait… So it was all fake? Fatima: Everthing about him is fake. His hair’s not even naturally curly. I created those curls! Ivy: Vince is nothing but a lying, cheating, good-for-nothing… Wrenn: Bigoted bully! Omar: Get ‘im, Wrenn! One by one, members of the cast and crew speak up with some instance of when Vince mistreated them, until the jumbled voices are deafening!

You: Vince… -You made a big mistake coming here. +100

You: I don’t know what you thought would happen, but face it. You lost.

-What goes around comes around. +100

You: Now the whole country sees you for exactly what you are. Trash.

You: Now get the hell away from my wedding before I call the cops. Your wedding guests cheer and clap as Vince storms off, red-faced and humiliated!

#playchoices #choices stories you play #choices ame #choices america's most eligible #america's most eligible

[vibesaresimplyatrocious]

I've noticed that prostitution law seems to be a pretty inconvenient thing in jumble sale chic; you mentioned it a lot in chewing coffee but never went into detail. You think you could do that here?? Love your world building btw. Abo has so much potential and it feels like ur the only one who's noticed!!

Let’s talk about prostitution law and how it has influenced the decisions of Matt, Peter, and the Fantastic Four.

So, prostitution law is one of those things from our world that I think would be even more stringent in the omegaverse, and would exist in a way that would be a huge direct concern for Peter specifically with his actions sharing ruts with his friends.

Prostitution is a crime that is determined on a state rather than federal level. In our world, there is some kind of anti-prostitution law in 49 out of 50 states (Nevada is the exception, and only in like. certain counties.). While the exact provisions vary by state, most states have some kind of law criminalizing 1) the sale of sex, 2) the purchase of sex, 3) promoting the prostitution of other people, 4) selling obscene acts that fall below the scale of actual sex, 5) promoting the sexual or obscene acts of unwilling participants, etc. etc. And these laws usually have some kind of aggravating statutes that state that the penalty is worse if there are the presence of certain factors--if you've been caught doing this before, if a minor is involved, if you're soliciting within a certain area of a school, etc. With the ABO world, we can expect all of these laws to be present and then some.

When you're talking about law, you have to look at 1) the policy that's going to craft the law and 2) the actual laws that they're going to prosecuted under.

Policy in our world:

So, in our world, there are several policy rationales underlying anti-prostitution laws. Once again, we are going to set aside whether or not these policy rationales are correct. It's just the explicit rationale that most legislatures give--whether these laws actually serve these policy rationales is entirely independent from justifying these laws with these policies.

The number one policy rationale you're going to find for anti-prostitution laws is "public welfare." And this can be executed in a lot of different ways. Sex work is linked heavily to human trafficking. Now, whether or not criminalizing sex work actually decreases human trafficking is another debate. There's a very good argument that anti-prostitution laws make it more difficult for trafficked individuals to get help. But one valid argument is that by criminalizing these actions, you're able to interfere with more sex trafficking operations.

There's other arguments about health concerns. Sexual contact risks the spread of disease. Moreover, it's hard to track or regulate this spread--it's illegal in 37 states to knowingly spread HIV, and it can bring civil liability as well. But if a prostitute has HIV, then engages in sexual contact with customers who they do not keep any record of, then that's a big spread of disease in a criminalized manner. Each of those customers now have the risk of HIV, and they may spread it to others, and it spawns from there. now, you can prosecute the original spread of HIV. Person 1-->2. But says Person 2 didn’t realize they got HIV, and spread it to Persons 3, 4, 5, and, 6, and say Persons 4 and 6 didn’t realize they got HIV and spread it to Persons 7, 8, and 9. Now, you’ve got behavior that we’ve previously decided deserves some kind of criminal penalty (knowingly spreading HIV), and only one person you can get justice for, because only Person 2 had it spread knowingly to them. Persons 3-9 all had it spread unknowingly to them, and they may be spreading it unknowingly to other people. So there is a public policy concern in the spread of disease through commercialized sexual contact.

Another argument is public morality concerns. Whether the legislature can moderate or dictate the morality of its citizens is an idea that waxes and wanes in popularity depending on how conservative american society is at the time. But sexual acts and sexual contact outside of marriage (and inside of marriage, depending on what the acts are), particularly for pecuniary gain, is something that is, in many circles, perceived as a morally corrupt act that some state legislatures want to prevent. so they get in the business of their citizens to prevent it. This is the exact policy rationale that went into laws against gay sex, by the way, and it’s deeply fucked but it is something that happens. in the ABO world, this is going to be an even stronger sense because it’s inarguably more conservative than our world.

There's other arguments. Prostitution in a certain area may decrease its property values. It may be connected to other criminal activities. Honestly, people can bend over backwards to make any logic they want fit. But these are, generally, why a lot of sex work is prohibited in some degree in pretty much all of America.

Once again, that's not an endorsement of any of these policies or a statement as to whether they successfully achieve what they're claiming to want to do. It's just how they're justified, and it's important to understand how laws are justified to understand 1) how they're going to be actually enforced, and 2) to understand other likely ways that laws will be crafted in fictionalized societies.

Policy in the ABO world:

The thing about the ABO world is that it's even fucking weirder about sex and commitment than even the weirdest of fanatics in our world. I've mentioned this in other posts, but my rule for writing in the ABO world is that i had to take everything that is part of generally accepted ABO "lore," but how exactly it exists within the world would be up to my own discretion.

For example, a lot of ABO fics center on alphas being naturally possessive and domineering, and omegas being naturally submissive caretakers. I don't like the idea that anyone's gender determines their personality, so I decided to only have it exist during the most extreme moments, aka heat and rut, when you're already so out of your goddamn mind that you're down to have sex with anything with a pulse. that's also why Ned was an alpha and MJ was an omega. I was assigning shit when it came up in a sentence, and I know that traditional ABO classifications probably wouldn't have clocked their personalities as what i made them. So i was like, cool, let's have proof of concept, it's not dispositive of your personality, and did it on that whim.

so, i grew up around very conservative circles that were super into "rad trad" relationship dynamics. it. is weird. there is a lot of weird shit about the wife being the property of the husband, has to serve and honor and care for the husband, husband being the "protector" and leader of the family, for some goddamn reason this affects who has to pick up their fucking socks off the floor, i don't know. and I'm surprised to say that the ABO world is even fucking weirder about gender roles than anything i ever encountered in the weirdest of rad trad mindsets! Ideas about gender roles and relationship dynamics are just So, since the commonly accepted community mindsets are more extreme than like, our most extreme equivalents in our world, that means the laws are even more extreme.

With the ABO dynamics in mind specifically, I can think of a few theoretical policy implications that would really make the prostitution laws stricter, and, specifically, would probably result in an absolute prohibition against selling ruts and heats specifically.

On its face, selling ruts and heats are probably very lucrative. So, say there’s a prostitute. There’s two different actions that we’d be talking about 1) selling their own mating cycle or 2) selling themselves as a participant in someone else’s mating cycle.

For the first, there’s absolutely a demand to get to spend a cycle with someone in heat or rut. You’d be buying an extended period of time with a partner willing to do basically anything. That being said, it would have a lot of severe dangers that would make this behavior absolutely prohibited in the ABO world. The person in cycle would be totally vulnerable. Their partner could film things without their consent; invite other people without their consent; perform acts they didn’t consent to; hurt them without their partner being able to defend themselves; abandon the heat or rut before it ends and leave them with major health complications. So there would be a huge public welfare concern prohibiting the sale or purchase of a mating cycle.

“But the person selling decided to take on that risk” we don’t care. There’s certain risks in the law we never allow people to assume. For example, you’re never able to enter into a lease for something below the required housing standards, even if you know that this is an unlivable space and you’re willing to take on the problems because you’re broke as fuck and this is the only place cheap enough that you can live in. you can decide to take on the risk all you want, but the law won’t recognize that fact. selling heats and ruts would have such extreme dangers involved that i can see zero chance of it ever being allowed in this kind of society.

It would be further exacerbated by the health effects by post-rut or heat. Granted, I think I made up drop for this? I don’t remember ever seeing it before; it just didn’t make sense to me for there to be like, zero potential health effects of something that would be an inherently violent biological process. that being said, there would be a similar public health concern about the fact that any sale would likely not sale to post-cycle, and it would cause health ramifications for the participants.

Likewise, there’d be substantial market for the sale of a participant in heats and ruts. Heats and ruts are difficult and sometimes dangerous alone--to the point where I could easily see there being official, licensed centers to gain a partner for one. the problem is in the unlicensed sale of a participation. A lot of the same concerns arise--the participant could do things without their consent, they could leave before it finishes, they could invite people that you didn’t consent to be there, they could film you, they could just straight up kill you in your vulnerable state and rob your corpse.

And, I want to be clear, just becuase that’s what the legislature justifies it with, that doesn’t mean what it actually does or that is what its main intent is. The real spirit behind the laws is attempts to keep people from sharing cycles with each other without it being a long term commitment. They want to maintain traditional relationship dynamics, specifically in the cases of mating cycles.

That being said, Peter’s actions dances along the line of something that could very much get him in trouble. He’s violated no letter of the law, but his behavior? Scandalous. People are going to be hostile to it. They’ll try to make the letter fit.

The actual laws:

So, not to get too deep in the weeds, but when you’re getting prosecuted under a law, it’s usually a matter of how far the prosecution can stretch the facts to wriggle it under a specific law. they have to match the elements of the crime, and you have to evaluate conduct by whether or not the policy will let it stretch far enough to fit facts.

Let’s make a hypothetical ABO anti-prostitution law.

“A person is guilty of cycle-adjacent prostitution if this person knowingly:

(a) engages, or agrees to, or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person during his or her heat or rut in exchange for compensation; or

(b) engages, or agrees to, or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another during such third party’s heat or rut in exchange for compensation, unless he or she has maintained proper licensing under all relevant state and federal authorities and all such sexual contact occurs in a properly licensed and maintained facility.”

So, now that you have the law, how do you figure out if you’ve violated it? It’s going to depend on how far these hypothetical prosecutors have been able to define the terms underneath it.

Take, for instance, “during his or her heat or rut.” How do you determine when a heat or rut starts? What if someone only sells the period of time in pre-heat or post-heat, but not the heat itself? One policy implication says that the true health concerns are raised in heat or rut itself; another policy implication says that selling pre or post cycle will ultimately affect your health during the cycle, and therefore should still be moderated. based on how hostile this world would likely be to any intimate contact between individuals not planning to mate indefinitely, I’d probably expect a broad interpretation.

I think the most important definition in this would be “for compensation.” How do you determine when someone was compensated for a heat or rut? In cases where someone writes their sexual partner a $10k check after the cycle, then never talks to them again, that’s an easy case for compensation. But if we stretch the definition, we risk getting a lot more people under the statute. Let’s look at a hypothetical:

Say an abusive ex demands that someone spend their upcoming cycle with them. Now, when they were in a relationship, the ex had a dog that the abused partner loved more than anything. The ex mistreats the dog, but the abused partner had no way of getting rights to the dog when they left, and they had to get out. If the abused partner agrees to spend the cycle together, the ex will give them full rights and ownership to the dog. If they don’t, the abusive ex will have the dog put down. Out of fear for their beloved pet, the abused partner agrees, they spend the cycle together, and in return, ownership of the dog transfers fully to the abused partner.

After, the abused partner goes to a clinic to get medication for drop. The clinic demands to know, first, why their mate is not there to soothe them through it instead. The abused partner has little to no knowledge of their rights or the law, and they opt for honesty and explain that they had an abusive ex who promised to give them their beloved dog back if and only if they spent a cycle together. The clinic calls the police and reports them for prostitution. Are they going to get successfully prosecuted?

In that case, you have someone agreeing to engage in and actually engaging in sexual contact during a heat or rut, all of which would be very easy to confirm. You got the records of the clinic from when they got medication to prove the existence of a heat or rut, you have their own statements and admissions about what happened, you have the fact that they weren’t continuing this relationship after the cycle, all of the physical evidence like bond marks, bodily fluids, etc. The case is going to turn on whether getting the dog back counts as “for compensation.” And there’d be a very good chance that it would, because policy says that we don’t want people just changing the means of transferring compensation from money into other assets of value just to skirt prostitution laws.

You can keep changing the scenario. Say you have a professor who heavily implies that spending a cycle with them would get you an A in the class, and you need it to keep your scholarship. It happens, professor doesn’t give you shit. But the actual illegal action is the act of agreeing to it in anticipation of compensation, not the compensation itself. Your professor, meanwhile, can argue that he never tried to solicit sex from anyone, he would never abuse his position like that, he has no idea if that delusional omega misunderstood their relationship. He can claim knowingly solicit the sharing of this rut for compensation, but you’ve revealed that you knowingly agreed to do this in anticipation of compensation. So you may still end up caught under these laws, and the fuckwad who coerced you into sex gets off scot-free. That’s the thing about the law. it catches way, way more than what you think of as the “classic” case for the law, and sometimes it misses the cases you actually want to catch.

And Peter knows this. He’s educated about these laws. He’s lived in fears about these laws. He’s been working in crime since he was fourteen. Which is why he’s been so careful about how he handles this post-rut.

Keep in mind, proving the crime is the prosecutor’s problem. It doesn’t have to be proven yet to be arrested. They just have to have probable cause to arrest you. Peter knows that if he walks into a clinic looking for drop supplements so soon after he just spent a different rut with a different alpha, it’s the sort of high-risk behavior that will get him flagged as a probable prostitute. It is not illegal to sleep around and spend a bunch of ruts with a bunch of different alphas. It is illegal to get compensation for it. So he knows that if he gets flagged, it’s enough for the police to arrest him and go looking for compensation, and since these laws are probably broadly defined, there’s a lot they could try to wiggle in under that. He also knows that if he gets tagged as Daredevil’s omega, it doesn’t matter whether they actually think he’s a prostitute. They’re going to try to hit him with absolutely any charge they can, because once you get him on an actual legal violation, then the DA waltzes in and offers a plea deal in exchange for Daredevil’s identity.

As it is, Peter cannot go to jail just for having sex with Daredevil. he’d sit in a cell for 48 hours, and once they failed to drag up charges on him, he’d walk. but if he got caught selling sex to Daredevil? then those are actual legal grounds to hold him under.

Peter’s actions would potentially fall under subsection b. He doesn’t have a license, there was a hell of a lot of sexual contact, and none of it happened in a proper facility. His entire case is going to turn on whether he got compensation in return. For the most part, it looks like his actions were wholly gratuitous. However, Matt did give him money afterwards to cover his expenses.

now, good news! Matt knows the law too, better than Peter even. So he knows how to make sure that no prosecutor would be able to prove compensation for Peter sharing his rut with him. For one thing, it’d be nearly impossible to prove the actual transfer of money. Matt gave him cash, and every potential eye witness would never, ever testify against Peter. But even if they could somehow prove that someone gave Peter money after the rut, there’s a very good argument that what Matt did could never be considered compensation.

When you’re thinking about policy, and whether people are going to be willing to stretch it to cover a specific fact pattern, always think “is this the kind of behavior that society wants to encourage?” In Matt’s case, he was being a good alpha! He took care of his omega in the aftermath of a rut. He made sure to make up for lost income, paid for pregnancy tests, paid for the birth control. And then he didn’t go a cent over. Granted, a big part of why Matt demanded receipts is because he knew Peter would try to fudge the numbers and low ball him and he is not having his mess cost his friend a fucking penny, but another big bit of it was that he knew how important it was to be exact on this. If he pays more than Peter’s expenses, then that’s giving him something for the rut. It’s compensation. But if he’s just paying Peter’s expenses, aka providing for his omega, he’s very solidly existing in the exact space that society actively wants him to occupy. It’s the exact behavior that they would never want to criminalize, and that’s important, because that ties judge’s hands. You can’t make exceptions in cases like this without risking fucking with precedent, especially if matt appeals any decision against peter, which he would. So, in the specific case of Matt and Peter, both of them are smart enough and legally savvy enough to know what shit the DA may pull and cover their asses ahead of time.

Now Johnny’s case is an entirely different beast. Because all we just talked about? those are poor people rules. now we have to talk about rich people rules.

the legal system does not work the same way for rich people and poor people. And, I want to be clear, it’s not like a mystic thing? you don’t walk into court and say, “hello, i’m very rich and famous, the laws do not apply to me,” and the judge says “you’re so right i am so sorry mr. storm” and then you go home. the problem is that the legal system is very difficult to navigate, and there’s a lot of points where you can win a case before you actually end up in trial that are extremely heavily weighted towards people who know how to navigate those steps.

Let’s go back to the abused partner trying to get their dog back. Three scenarios: 1) public defender 2) matt and foggy 3) rich.

Abused partner has now gotten dragged in for prostitution. They can’t afford representation, so they eventually get a public defender appointed to them. in the time before they invoked their rights, they’ve had a fully body search conducted, biological evidence taken, and they’ve rambled out a lot of probable confessions. The public defender they get is overworked, underpaid, and just out of law school. DA offers a plea bargain that still lands with the abused partner in prison. Abused partner decides not to take it. Public defender tries their best, decides that the evidence is sufficient to establish it happened, and decides their best chance is to fight on the grounds of whether the dog constitutes compensation.

It’s their first voir dire. They don’t know how to do jury selection. Several people end up on the jury who think that cycles should be shared between mates and only mates, and that you have to marry whoever you spend a cycle with no matter the circumstances, and there are no other excuses. Maybe the abused partner is a person of color, and there are a few racists who got on the jury too. The public defender also has never had to argue a motion in limine before, and isn’t the best on objections, so the prosecutor spends the entire time referring to the abused partner as a sex worker, prejudicing the jury. The public defender misses a few key evidence objections, and some very damaging evidence comes in that otherwise could have been kept out.

Abused partner gets convicted. They get fines they can’t afford, jail time, a record, and they have to spend ten years on the sex offender’s list. Even when they get out, they can’t get a job, because they have a record and are on the sex offender’s list. I don’t think anyone actually thinks this person is someone deserving of punishment, but they still ended up completely fucked. a huge injustice happened because they didn’t understand the legal system and couldn’t afford someone who did. a half decent prosecutor would have dismissed all charges the second they heard the details of the case, but a lot of the time, the prosecutor is a shithead, so they go through the system instead and get spat out with their life ruined.

Scenario Two. Abused partner gets dragged in for prostitution. They’re terrified. They don’t ask for a lawyer, because they do not fully understand their rights or how to properly ask for a lawyer. They still think that maybe, if they just explain the situation, they’ll understand and let them go. Matt Murdock, however, happens to be around the corner buying a bagel from a bagel connoisseur. he hears everything, decides “fuck that,” parkours over three rooftops, and dramatically bursts into the interrogation room and rips into the presiding officer for not calling them the moment his client was brought in. Give them the room and get away from his client.

now, the story is a bit different. Foggy and Matt are the gods of law. the police weep when they swan into their precinct. they tell the DA to get the fuck out of here with that insulting plea bargain and go to trial. They, however, know how to argue in the alternative. So they plead not guilty on all charges, hold the ADA to the burden of proof, and also argue that there’s no real proof that this alleged sexual contact even occurred, but, alternatively, even if it did occur, they have an affirmative defense of coercion, but, alternatively, even if it did occur and you aren’t convinced it was coerced, the dog is not compensation. arguing in the alternative basically allows people to run mutually exclusive defenses without admitting to any single one of them. So, if you argue she was coerced, that implicitly admits that it happened, right? Wrong. she can still claim that they haven’t proven it even happened without weakening either defense. in scenario number #2, the prosecutor has to overcome a lot of other facts than in scenario #1, because it was assumed in scenario #1 that it did, indeed, happen. scenario #1, you argue your best grounds. scenario #2, you argue every ground.

Foggy runs voir dire. He’s shaped like a friend. He’s the most sexy and charming man alive. He actually convinces the racist jurors to tell the judge, in private, that they’re biased and they’re struck for cause (which people weirdly cop to more often than you think in voir dire? like. they just walk up and have teh self-awareness to confess that they’re racist and shouldn’t be on this jury. it’s beyond me.). Karen finds the publicly available social media posts of the jurors biased against anyone who shares cycles outside of marriage, now they’re struck for cause. Foggy spends the entire voir dire starting to get the jury on his side and steadily convincing them of his theory of the case. already, the client has much better odds than scenario #1.

now it’s motions in limine and motions to exclude. matt’s special talent is acting like the most offended man alive. he learned it from nuns. he’s un fucking beatable. is my client a sex worker? wow, that really sounds like the jury’s fucking job to decide, the prosecution shouldn’t be allowed to say those words ever. and? oh? there’s physical evidence against my client? evidence that they had hormones in her system consistent with a cycle? the police ran a full body cavity search and blood draw against them, actually? yeah, the prosecutor seems to have forgotten to file the fucking warrant that says that they could do any of that. Oh there wasn’t a warrant? my client consented to the search? are we sure they consented, or did your officers make them think that you were collecting evidence to prosecute their rapist? wow, it seems all they got was a fuckton of entirely inadmissible evidence, your honor. yeah, it should be kept out. the defendant isn’t getting on the stand at all, pleading the fifth, so you can’t ask them jack shit as to what happened.

now, prosecutor starts sweating, because now, it’ll be a fight to prove that a cycle even happened, because all their evidence got thrown out. but wait, they have the  person that the defendant talked to at the clinic, who they told the entire story to. that person can testify about everything that the defendant told them.

And they do, and foggy gets up, and he might be able to laboriously question them about every single off-color social media post they ever made about their views about people who have sex outside of marriage or who use birth control. The kind of posts that reflect the fact that this is the kind of person who would call the cops on a rape victim and call them a prostitute. oh, you didn’t prescribe them drop medication because you called the cops instead? how do we even know they were at this clinic for drop? could they have come for something like, say, birth control instead, and you may be someone who has some very strong views about that sort of behavior? hey, jury, does this sound like someone who would have the motive to lie? it does? shock and awe.

now let’s talk about the dog. oh, they got the dog in exchange for the cycle? yeah, did the ex actually tender any transfer of ownership? they just dumped the dog on their doorstep? do you have any actual evidence to show that this was an exchange of ownership and not an abandonment? gee, this sure just sounds like you’re persecuting someone who took in an abandoned dog. moreover, dogs cost money to take care of, don’t they? it costs more over their lifetime to feed them and pay their medical bills than their own sale value would ever be, right? Jesus, this doesn’t sound like compensation, does it? if anything, this is an expense.

Now, there’s a lot of trouble proving that there was sexual contact, that it happened during a cycle, that they got compensation, or that this wasn’t coerced behavior. cut and dry case gets destroyed.

the thing about law is that there’s a million little points to cram your fingers into and destroy a case. the good lawyers aren’t the ones who succeed on the main point; the good lawyers are the ones that succeed on a million little points. it’s about gaining ground. it takes a lot of fucking skill, and usually, people with that skill charge out the ass for it.

Now let’s talk about rich people.

This never happens to a rich person. a rich person has them arrested the first time they’re abused. the rich person calls their lawyer the second their shitbag ex tries to pressure them into sex and has them arrested for attempted solicitation. throw in charges about animal abuse while we’re at it. they sue for damages, custody of the dog, whatever. it never gets to the point that it happened if you’re poor.

But let’s try to keep it as close a scenario as possible. Abused partner is an 18 year old kid. they were scared and humiliated. it was their first relationship. they hid it from their parents, then hid the abuse, then the cycle, and kept hiding it until they end up in a police precinct with a prostitution charge hanging over their head.

well, their parent’s lawyer charges in at 3 in the fucking morning in an immaculate designer suit and they start threatening everyone in the building. You searched my client how? Without a warrant? give me your badge number and i’ll give you directions to the nearest unemployment office.

quickly, the framing of the narrative is going to change. if you’re poor, and you get dragged in for prostitution, you spend the entire fucking time battling the presumption that you’re trash and did it for the whatever. if you’re rich? this is an upstanding member of society. they were very obviously assaulted. why are you wasting fucking taxpayer dollars harassing assault victims instead of arresting their rapist?

It never goes to trial, because any DA stupid enough to green light it for trial is going to be facing reelection under the banner that they harass upstanding members of society who were victims of rape. even if it does go to trial, everything that matt and foggy did applies, because these are people with skill who get paid for their skill.

Same facts, same system, but rich people always come out better because they can hire people who know how to work the system, and they look like such upstanding members of society that the system usually has zero interest in prosecuting them.

Which is why the Fantastic Four can take a very different approach to Johnny’s rut than would ever be plausible for Matt’s.

First off, no one is going to prosecute them for it. If any one tries to investigate them, the lead attorney is going to get called into a shiny high rise run by whatever biglaw firm the F4 employs, and everyone has a nice chat about what evidence the DA doesn��t have and what upstanding citizens and  heroes the F4 is, and maybe taxpayer dollars would go a little bit better towards catching actual criminals instead of people with a contract with the citizen to catch criminals. any escort they hire is going to have vested interest in not going to prison for being a fucking prostitute, so chances of them testifying without some kind of deal is low. and compensation? you mean very necessary medical expenses for a highly dangerous rut? surely, you joke. there’d have to be something seriously political going on for anyone to even try, and all of those public policies we’ve been talking about? have been in reference to normal heats and ruts. there’s a very serious public welfare interest in the amazing flaming boy not burning down the city from an unmanaged rut. they may be willing to make a carve out for this one incredibly exceptional circumstance that’s unlikely to change how the law is implemented against wider society. it would not be worth the time, money, or effort to prosecute this case.

so no one in the F4 is going to jail for hiring a prostitute. at best, they pay a fine and have to deal with a few embarrassing headlines about the hooker who spent a rut with the human torch. as a result, it very rapidly can be considered a plausible option when potential alternatives include johnny dying in a rut-related accident. with Peter and Matt spending the rut together, both have to bend over backwards to make sure nothing they do can be construed as prostitution. They get away cleanly because they’re well-versed in the system and know how to not get caught in it. With Johnny, they have the leverage to ask around for references for discrete prostitutes willing to do shit with hazard pay.

So we see, implicitly, how privilege very seriously affects the execution of laws. Peter and the F4 are all liable under and subject to the same laws. But Peter has to live in fear of them. The F4 can make the risk calculation, and decide that while it’s distasteful, it may be the necessary and rationale response to a very serious danger to Johnny. And I want to be clear, i don’t think it would have been wrong to hire someone to help Johnny through it. It’s, specifically, the double standard that’s the issue.

the only time anti-prostitution laws would ever conceivably work would be in the case of any non-disclosure agreements.

Say you’re the Fantastic Four. You just had your youngest member’s extremely private and sensitive business leaked from someone you, personally, vetted and hired. SNL has already made a skit about it, which is currently one of the top ten trending videos on YouTube. the information is trending. the media is having a field day. it’s already looking to be a bloodbath. you want to protect your youngest member as best you can. So you go to your very high powered and expensive attorney and say “hey, how do we make sure that whoever does this can never speak about it publicly ever for as long as they live.

the thing about contracts is that there seems to be this idea in the public that they’re these absolute forces? they’re not. there’s about a million ways to get around contracts. first off, for contracts to be valid, there has to be this thing called consideration. it means "this for that.” you have to have an actual exchange of value. this is where anti-prostitution laws become a problem.

because the “this” that the F4 are getting is silence, and you have to ask what the “that” the sexual partner gets in return is. Now, if it’s just “the chance to be johnny storm’s sexual partner,” that ain’t gonna fly. for one, courts are going to be highly suspicious that this is an actual thing of value you’re getting in exchange. secondly, that means that you’ve classified sex as compensation for something else of value, which, you know. has prostitution problems.

say the F4 says, “well, we get your silence, and you get a comically large bag of money with a dollar sign written on the side.” once again, we run into prostitution laws. because underlying the transaction is, still, sex. having sex in the first place may be contingent on this deal being signed. So, you’re potentially getting the deal in consideration for the sex, and getting money in consideration for the deal, so a court may look at the underlying facts and say “yeah no this is inextricably intertwined with sex, this is prostitution.” now, it’s one thing to have a chat with a DA about whether or not they can prove that the F4 hired any prostitute. It is an entirely different thing to walk into a court of law and try to enforce an NDA and have the judge rule that this is an agreement for a prostitute. Any DA is going to have a much better case, because the F4 filed their fucking evidence on the public record.

Let’s pretend their highly paid attorneys heroically navigate all these hurdles. They get consideration somehow, it’s not a prostitution agreement, etc. etc. Can they now enforce an NDA about Johnny’s rut?

Probably not.

NDAs are, for the most part, very touch and go as to how to enforce them. courts are naturally hostile to them, so you have to be extremely careful about how you craft them.

first off, scope. NDAs have to be very narrowly defined. So say you want to make sure they can’t say anything about the rut. Well, how do you define the rut? They’re going to need a pre and post rut period--is that included, or is it just the week he spent in actual rut? let’s say that you want the entire thing to be kept quiet. Well, that’s more than a month of time--that’s broader than just the rut itself, so courts are now looking at this through a more hostile lens. What information do they have to keep quiet about? can they talk about moments that didn’t involve sexual contact? what if they want to talk about Johnny tripping over a doorstep three weeks before the rut begins? No sexual contact is involved, they’re not in the cycle itself--can they talk about that? you have to outline exactly what they’re not allowed to talk about, and there’s a lot you may miss, and there’s a lot the court may tell you that you’re being too overly burdensome with.

the other problem is time. depending on the state, NDAs usually have a duration that they’re limited to and it can’t be overly burdensome (unless like, trade secrets or something is involved, which this wouldn’t invoke at all). So maybe you can keep them quiet for a two year period after, and then this person starts a book tour. still doesn’t do what you want it to do.

you also have to ask--hey, what happens if they break the NDA? You take them to court and say “hey, that was a shitty thing to do, pay us money in damages.” And the opposing counsel says “What damages?”

Because the information? It’s already out. It’s public narrative. Every fucking one on the planet already knew Johnny Storm was going into rut. It’ll be a fight to actually prove that this caused any real damage to his reputation or caused any emotional distress that hadn’t already been caused by the original leak.

Let’s say they hired a prostitute, then. No escort wants to risk going to prison just to go on a talk show circuit as the person hired by Johnny Storm for his rut, right?

they’re not going to prison. there’s no deterrent.

For one thing, in order to prove that this person is a prostitute, they would have to implicitly admit to hiring a prostitute. which means they just exposed themselves to legal liability because, instead of the DA having to fight for scraps of information in a losing case, they went and put it onto the public record. say they’re willing to do that. Does the escort go to prison? No. no, they don’t. They are at the happy center of one of the most highly publicized cases of modern times. If they go to prison and the F4 doesn’t, that puts on shining display the legal system’s hypocrisy, which judges tend to not like. they can also afford a high powered attorney who can wriggle in all the difficult bits of the case and make it a nightmare to get a conviction. they get a fine, at best, and live off of their book tour money in luxury.

There’s also always public policy concerns underlying teh enforcement of NDAs. we don’t want people to be able to legally make sure that no one can ever talk about their sexual contacts ever again. that is highly susceptible to abuse and makes it difficult for people to consult friends and family about their own relationships. So courts are going to be even more hostile to enforcing this agreement.

Great lawyers can do a lot of things. but lawyers also have to be honest to their clients about their odds. So they got to their highly paid attorneys and probably get Like We’ll Try But Sorry Champ It’s Probably Coming Out. and then they devote their energy to trying to figure out if they can legally get whoever the fuck this is gonna be to waive liability regarding dick fires.

The only way to keep it out was the off chance that Johnny, who was not in a relationship and had never once been in a relationship that didn’t involve his nudes getting leaked, finding someone who, out of the sheer kindness of their heart, would be willing to risk the dick fire while getting absolutely nothing in return and keeping it quiet from every living soul afterwards. which seemed extremely unlikely considering it was the biggest news story around when Johnny walked in, beaming, and announced that he found such partner. you’ve met him. he’s that reporter with the number one newspaper for all superhero news.  oh, and all those forms you’ve been laboriously drafting with legal? he has a blanket refusal for any and all forms. he says he’s allergic. oh, no, no, he won't talk to medical either. he says that if there is a single person other than the two of them who know about or conceptualize any and all sexual acts involving him he’ll kill himself and then Johnny, actually, so like. no. no, there won’t be any medical monitoring. ambulance on standby? Get this, he’d much rather risk any dick fire damages. He sort of made me swear up and down that in the case of any dick fires, i’d shut the fuck up about it and call his buddy danny for some kind of alternative eastern medicinal cure involving fisting. Oh, birth control? he super promises he’s taking them, but, haha, he says that he still fucking hates reed after that one dinner and if anyone insults him again by asking to watch, he’ll graffiti the front door of the baxter building with an unflattering portrait of them all.

so that’s basically a broad overview of jumble sale chic’s prostitution law and the influence it has on the actors in this fic.

#daredevil #spiderman #fantastic four #johnny storm #matt murdock #peter parker #jumble sale chic #chewing coffee #omegaverse #abo dynamics #god am i a fucking omegaverse scholar now

[evilwickedme]

Do you have any femslash comic ships you like?

yeah!! I'll admit not as many as I'd like to say I do but I def ship some good ones

stephcass is a gimme honestly, I'm working on a fic rec list for them

I ship gwenmj (the earth 616 version and the earth 9319 version aka ask-spiderpool's universe lmao) and gwenemjay (the earth 65 version) and gwen squared (gwenpool/spider gwen) passively but haven't read any fic for any of them

mj/felicia is quality!! @stackthedeck has a great fic for them

this is for the nmcu not the comics but karen page/jessica jones, for comics jessica it's a similar situation to clois I just can't see her with anyone except luke

I also ship some ot3s that include two women and a man, for example mj/felicia/peter and nmcu jessica jones/luke cage/claire temple as seen for example in the phenomenal spideydevil series jumble sale chic

I know a lot of people ship barbara gordon and dinah lance and I like it!!! in theory at least this is another ship I haven't read anything for

not a ship but dc give diana wonder woman a canon female love interest challenge

much love thank you for asking!!!

#dc #marvel #marvel comics #defenders #gail speaks #ask #anonymous #actually I should definitely write gwenemjay

[dgcustomerfirstwikiworld-blog]

Making Billions at the Dollar Store (Part 1)

The square shaped, block fronted shop in the town square of Scottsville, Ky. (populace: 4,500), is one of the most established stores in the Dollar General chain—and it looks its age. The walkways are jumbled; the roofs are low; the lights are diminish. There are columns of plastic stockpiling holders, towers of paper towels, and coolers brimming with solidified pizzas—the sort of apparently irregular, low priced bric-a-brac that fits the dreary dollar-store generalization.

In any case, not far past the passage, customers can spot something indistinguishable: a smooth cooler loaded with Starbucks drinks, beaten by the espresso chain's smiley mermaid logo. There, a customer can snatch a Doubleshot coffee for $2 or get two jars of frappuccino for $5. They're the kind of humble indulgences connected more with bougie city lanes than with country town squares—and, with the closest real Starbucks a 30-minute head out, in Bowling Green, they're a magnet for caffeine cravers. Furthermore, frappuccinos aren't the main semi-upscale motivation buy on the racks. This Dollar General additionally offers Keurig K-Cups and Dannon yogurts; not some time before Christmas, it began offering Lego units evaluated from $8 to $20.

"Because I don't have a great deal of cash, that doesn't mean I don't have a craving for having a portion of the better things," says Todd Vasos, CEO of Dollar General, summarizing his prototypical customer. "We can offer her both esteem and a guilty pleasure she may need."

Vasos is on focus about his clients' pay. Some 57% of Dollar General's customers live in family units with salary of under $49,900, as indicated by research firm Kantar, and 30% make due with under $25,000. (The normal U.S. family salary is just shy of $61,000.) Of the 25 stores visited in announcing this article, each had a sizable notice in its window saying the area acknowledges sustenance stamps.

Be that as it may, by serving the base of the country's monetary pyramid, Dollar General has created one of the top execution records in retail. In 2018, the organization revealed its 29th straight year of same-store deals development—in spite of negligible e-­commerce. That is a streak no other major U.S. retailer can coordinate: Even powerful Walmart suffered almost two years of practically identical ­sales decays prior this decade.

In addition, tapping the optimistic strain that Vasos (rhymes with "Bezos") portrays has helped the organization avoid the ongoing retail emergency that has vaporized numerous other mainstream's stores lately. Dollar General piled on $25.6 billion in income in 2018 and overshadowed Macy's in retail deals out of the blue. Its stock is almost an unsurpassed high, giving it a market top of $33 billion, multiple times higher than Macy's.

The chain opened its first retail location in 1955 in Springfield, Ky., and for the majority of the following six or more decades, it has flourished with a basic playbook: Open little, no nonsense stores in towns that greater retailers disregard; offer a thin item range; and farthest point staffing, the better to keep costs shabby, shoddy, modest. "Dollar General resembled a kid whose guardians were 7-Eleven and Walmart," says David Perdue, the organization's CEO from 2003 to 2007 and now a U.S. representative from Georgia. "It offered 7-Eleven comfort at Walmart costs."

That figurative association has made a quickly developing family. Dollar General is presently the biggest U.S. retail chain by store tally, with 15,472 stores, up from 8,400 per decade prior. Astoundingly, some 75% of Americans currently live inside five miles of a Dollar General.

Be that as it may, another factor has been similarly as essential to the ongoing flood: a significant, apparently perpetual change in how American purchasers shop. Similarly as white collar class customers presently purchase more attire at deal retailer T.J. Maxx than at retail establishments, they additionally visit profound rebate dollar stores all the more regularly. "The dollar stores have turned into much increasingly satisfactory to all salary socioeconomics," says Telsey Advisory Group examiner Joe Feldman. The privations of the Great Recession scoured these unglamorous scratch and dent sections of their disgrace; the economy returned, yet the shame didn't.

The business has a lot of space to develop. As indicated by Nielsen information, dollar stores were the main class of retail whose absolute number of U.S. areas expanded a year ago. Be that as it may, by certain evaluations, they represent just 4% of absolute retail deals. Dollar General would like to continue promoting. On an income call a year ago, Vasos told experts that he thought the nation had space for another 12,000 or 13,000 dollar-store areas; this year alone, Dollar General will open 975. As Vasos notes, "Sparing currently is more chic than any other time in recent memory."

[dgcustomerfirstwikiuniverse-blog]

Making Billions at the Dollar Store (Part1)

The square shaped, block fronted shop in the town square of Scottsville, Ky. (populace: 4,500), is one of the most established stores in the Dollar General chain—and it looks its age. The paths are jumbled; the roofs are low; the lights are diminish. There are columns of plastic stockpiling holders, towers of paper towels, and coolers loaded with solidified pizzas—the sort of apparently irregular, very reasonable bric-a-brac that fits the boring dollar-store generalization.

In any case, not far past the passageway, customers can spot something ambiguous: a smooth cooler loaded with Starbucks drinks, bested by the espresso chain's smiley mermaid logo. There, a customer can get a Doubleshot coffee for $2 or get two jars of frappuccino for $5. They're the kind of humble indulgences connected more with bougie city avenues than with country town squares—and, with the closest genuine Starbucks a 30-minute head out, in Bowling Green, they're a magnet for caffeine cravers. Furthermore, frappuccinos aren't the main semi-upscale motivation buy on the racks. This Dollar General additionally offers Keurig K-Cups and Dannon yogurts; not some time before Christmas, it began offering Lego units valued from $8 to $20.

"Because I don't have a ton of cash, that doesn't mean I don't have a craving for having a portion of the better things," says Todd Vasos, CEO of Dollar General, summarizing his prototypical customer. "We can offer her both esteem and an extravagance she may need."

Vasos is on focus about his clients' salary. Some 57% of Dollar General's customers live in families with salary of under $49,900, as per research firm Kantar, and 30% make due with under $25,000. (The normal U.S. family pay is just shy of $61,000.) Of the 25 stores visited in announcing this article, each had a sizable blurb in its window saying the area acknowledges sustenance stamps.

Be that as it may, by serving the base of the country's monetary pyramid, Dollar General has created one of the top execution records in retail. In 2018, the organization detailed its 29th straight year of same-store deals development—in spite of insignificant e-­commerce. That is a streak no other major U.S. retailer can coordinate: Even powerful Walmart suffered about two years of tantamount ­sales decreases prior this decade.

Likewise, tapping the optimistic strain that Vasos (rhymes with "Bezos") portrays has helped the organization avoid the ongoing retail emergency that has vaporized numerous other popular's stores as of late. Dollar General piled on $25.6 billion in income in 2018 and obscured Macy's in retail deals out of the blue. Its stock is close to an unsurpassed high, giving it a market top of $33 billion, multiple times higher than Macy's.

The chain opened its first retail location in 1955 in Springfield, Ky., and for the vast majority of the resulting six or more decades, it has flourished with a straightforward playbook: Open little, no nonsense stores in towns that greater retailers evade; offer a restricted item range; and point of confinement staffing, the better to keep costs modest, shabby, shoddy. "Dollar General resembled a kid whose guardians were 7-Eleven and Walmart," says David Perdue, the organization's CEO from 2003 to 2007 and now a U.S. representative from Georgia. "It offered 7-Eleven accommodation at Walmart costs."

That allegorical association has made a quickly developing family. Dollar General is presently the biggest U.S. retail chain by store tally, with 15,472 stores, up from 8,400 every decade back. Strikingly, some 75% of Americans currently live inside five miles of a Dollar General.

In any case, another factor has been similarly as critical to the ongoing flood: a significant, apparently lasting change in how American purchasers shop. Similarly as white collar class customers currently purchase more attire at deal retailer T.J. Maxx than at retail establishments, they likewise visit profound rebate dollar stores all the more regularly. "The dollar stores have turned into significantly increasingly worthy to all pay socioeconomics," says Telsey Advisory Group expert Joe Feldman. The privations of the Great Recession cleaned these unglamorous scratch and dent sections of their shame; the economy returned, however the disgrace didn't.

The business has a lot of space to develop. As indicated by Nielsen information, dollar stores were the main class of retail whose all out number of U.S. areas expanded a year ago. Be that as it may, by certain appraisals, they represent just 4% of absolute retail deals. Dollar General plans to continue promoting. On an income call a year ago, Vasos told examiners that he thought the nation had space for another 12,000 or 13,000 dollar-store areas; this year alone, Dollar General will open 975. As Vasos notes, "Sparing currently is more chic than any time in recent memory."

[jk-flame-blog]

Making Billions at the Dollar General (Part 1)

The square shaped, block fronted shop in the town square of Scottsville, Ky. (populace: 4,500), is one of the most established stores in the Dollar General chain—and it looks its age. The walkways are jumbled; the roofs are low; the lights are diminish. There are lines of plastic stockpiling holders, towers of paper towels, and refrigerators loaded with solidified pizzas—the sort of apparently irregular, very economical bric-a-brac that fits the dull dollar-store generalization.

Be that as it may, not far past the passageway, customers can spot something ambiguous: a smooth cooler loaded with Starbucks drinks, bested by the espresso chain's smiley mermaid logo. There, a customer can snatch a Doubleshot coffee for $2 or get two jars of frappuccino for $5. They're the kind of humble indulgences connected more with bougie city lanes than with country town squares—and, with the closest real Starbucks a 30-minute head out, in Bowling Green, they're a magnet for caffeine cravers. Furthermore, frappuccinos aren't the main semi-upscale motivation buy on the racks. This Dollar General likewise offers Keurig K-Cups and Dannon yogurts; not some time before Christmas, it began offering Lego packs estimated from $8 to $20.

"Because I don't have a great deal of cash, that doesn't mean I don't have a craving for having a portion of the better things," says Todd Vasos, CEO of Dollar General, rewording his prototypical customer. "We can offer her both esteem and a guilty pleasure she may need."

Vasos is on focus about his clients' salary. Some 57% of Dollar General's customer base live in family units with pay of under $49,900, as indicated by research firm Kantar, and 30% make due with under $25,000. (The normal U.S. family unit pay is just shy of $61,000.) Of the 25 stores visited in announcing this article, each had a sizable blurb in its window saying the area acknowledges sustenance stamps.

In any case, by serving the base of the country's financial pyramid, Dollar General has created one of the top execution records in retail. In 2018, the organization revealed its 29th straight year of same-store deals development—in spite of negligible e-­commerce. That is a streak no other major U.S. retailer can coordinate: Even strong Walmart suffered almost two years of practically identical ­sales decays prior this decade.

Furthermore, tapping the optimistic strain that Vasos (rhymes with "Bezos") depicts has helped the organization avoid the ongoing retail emergency that has vaporized numerous other popular's stores as of late. Dollar General piled on $25.6 billion in income in 2018 and obscured Macy's in retail deals out of the blue. Its stock is close to an unequaled high, giving it a market top of $33 billion, multiple times higher than Macy's.

The chain opened its first retail location in 1955 in Springfield, Ky., and for the vast majority of the resulting six or more decades, it has flourished with a straightforward playbook: Open little, nitty gritty stores in towns that greater retailers evade; offer a restricted item range; and point of confinement staffing, the better to keep costs shoddy, modest, modest. "Dollar General resembled a kid whose guardians were 7-Eleven and Walmart," says David Perdue, the organization's CEO from 2003 to 2007 and now a U.S. representative from Georgia. "It offered 7-Eleven accommodation at Walmart costs."

That figurative association has made a quickly developing family. Dollar General is currently the biggest U.S. retail chain by store check, with 15,472 stores, up from 8,400 every decade prior. Astoundingly, some 75% of Americans currently live inside five miles of a Dollar General.

Be that as it may, another factor has been similarly as imperative to the ongoing flood: a significant, apparently perpetual change in how American customers shop. Similarly as working class customers currently purchase more attire at deal retailer T.J. Maxx than at retail establishments, they likewise visit profound rebate dollar stores all the more regularly. "The dollar stores have turned into significantly progressively worthy to all pay socioeconomics," says Telsey Advisory Group investigator Joe Feldman. The privations of the Great Recession cleaned these unglamorous scratch and dent sections of their shame; the economy returned, yet the disgrace didn't.

The business has a lot of space to develop. As indicated by Nielsen information, dollar stores were the main classification of retail whose complete number of U.S. areas expanded a year ago. Be that as it may, by certain evaluations, they represent just 4% of all out retail deals. Dollar General plans to continue promoting. On an income call a year ago, Vasos told examiners that he thought the nation had space for another 12,000 or 13,000 dollar-store areas; this year alone, Dollar General will open 975. As Vasos notes, "Sparing currently is more chic than any other time in recent memory."

[dgcustomerfirst-blog]

Making Billions at the Dollar Store (Part 1)

The square shaped, block fronted shop in the town square of Scottsville, Ky. (populace: 4,500), is one of the most established stores in the Dollar General chain—and it looks its age. The walkways are jumbled; the roofs are low; the lights are diminish. There are columns of plastic stockpiling compartments, towers of paper towels, and refrigerators loaded with solidified pizzas—the sort of apparently arbitrary, extremely inexpensive bric-a-brac that fits the dull dollar-store generalization.

Be that as it may, not far past the passage, customers can spot something incomprehensible: a smooth cooler loaded with Starbucks drinks, beaten by the espresso chain's smiley mermaid logo. There, a customer can get a Doubleshot coffee for $2 or get two jars of frappuccino for $5. They're the kind of unassuming excesses connected more with bougie city avenues than with rustic town squares—and, with the closest genuine Starbucks a 30-minute head out, in Bowling Green, they're a magnet for caffeine cravers. Also, frappuccinos aren't the main semi-upscale drive buy on the racks. This Dollar General additionally offers Keurig K-Cups and Dannon yogurts; not well before Christmas, it began offering Lego units estimated from $8 to $20.

"Because I don't have a ton of cash, that doesn't mean I don't have a craving for having a portion of the better things," says Todd Vasos, CEO of Dollar General, summarizing his prototypical customer. "We can offer her both esteem and a guilty pleasure she may need."

Vasos is on focus about his clients' salary. Some 57% of Dollar General's customer base live in family units with salary of under $49,900, as per research firm Kantar, and 30% make due with under $25,000. (The normal U.S. family unit salary is just shy of $61,000.) Of the 25 stores visited in detailing this article, each had a sizable notice in its window saying the area acknowledges nourishment stamps.

In any case, by serving the base of the country's financial pyramid, Dollar General has created one of the top execution records in retail. In 2018, the organization announced its 29th straight year of same-store deals development—regardless of insignificant e-­commerce. That is a streak no other major U.S. retailer can coordinate: Even strong Walmart suffered about two years of practically identical ­sales decays prior this decade.

Additionally, tapping the optimistic strain that Vasos (rhymes with "Bezos") portrays has helped the organization evade the ongoing retail emergency that has vaporized numerous other mainstream's stores as of late. Dollar General piled on $25.6 billion in income in 2018 and overshadowed Macy's in retail deals out of the blue. Its stock is close to an untouched high, giving it a market top of $33 billion, multiple times higher than Macy's.

The chain opened its first retail location in 1955 in Springfield, Ky., and for the vast majority of the following six or more decades, it has flourished with a straightforward playbook: Open little, no nonsense stores in towns that greater retailers evade; offer a thin item range; and point of confinement staffing, the better to keep costs modest, modest, shabby. "Dollar General resembled a kid whose guardians were 7-Eleven and Walmart," says David Perdue, the organization's CEO from 2003 to 2007 and now a U.S. representative from Georgia. "It offered 7-Eleven accommodation at Walmart costs."

That figurative association has made a quickly developing family. Dollar General is presently the biggest U.S. retail chain by store check, with 15,472 stores, up from 8,400 per decade prior. Astoundingly, some 75% of Americans currently live inside five miles of a Dollar General.

In any case, another factor has been similarly as essential to the ongoing flood: a significant, apparently perpetual change in how American customers shop. Similarly as white collar class customers currently purchase more attire at deal retailer T.J. Maxx than at retail establishments, they additionally visit profound markdown dollar stores all the more frequently. "The dollar stores have turned into significantly progressively worthy to all pay socioeconomics," says Telsey Advisory Group examiner Joe Feldman. The privations of the Great Recession scoured these unglamorous clearance rooms of their disgrace; the economy returned, yet the shame didn't.

The business has a lot of space to develop. As indicated by Nielsen information, dollar stores were the main classification of retail whose complete number of U.S. areas expanded a year ago. In any case, by certain assessments, they represent just 4% of absolute retail deals. Dollar General would like to continue underwriting. On a profit call a year ago, Vasos told investigators that he thought the nation had space for another 12,000 or 13,000 dollar-store areas; this year alone, Dollar General will open 975. As Vasos notes, "Sparing currently is more chic than any time in recent memory."