#"landlord" and "tenant"

[carefreecoffee]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷Hi Neighbor!: Aizawa Shouta x readerˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Word count: 1.8k, Gender neutral reader

You knew that living on your own wasn't going to be easy at first. Moving in, making friends, finishing paperwork, all of it had finally caught up to you. As the weeks eased in and the weather got warmer, you increasingly found those hardships to have become fruitless. Their meaning no longer evident as you happily walked up to your floor, fishing your keys out of your pocket.

As you lift your head, a yellow paper is seen hanging on the front of your door, bold letters harboring it.

“TENANTS!!

PLEASE REGARD THE FOLLOWING RULES AND REGULATIONS…”

You quirk a brow, reading over the lists. He was basically pitching a rant through the ink, talking about rent increases if any of the following were to continue. Noise, damage, even new utility fees.

The hell!? This was not the first time he's done this but it would be the last time you'd put up with it.

As you look over the paper once more, you can hear footsteps approaching, possibly another tenant. They stop behind you, you peek over to see what you assumed to be your neighbor across the hall holding the same yellow paper in his hand. 

You had never been able to properly introduce yourself to him, he had always seemed so reserved and distant. A small grunt leaves his chest as he reads. You decide to clear your throat after a moment, facing him slightly.

“...bullshit, right?”

All he does is nod in response, folding the paper up and headinging inside of his apartment.

Quite reserved…too reserved. You knew you could crack him one of these days.

About a week goes by before that eye sore of a yellow paper seems to make it back to your door. You groan, ripping it off and staring at it intently. All you needed when getting off of work was a nice hot bath and your comfort food. No this. Apparently people had been disregarding the “rules”, Yeah right. Like a landlord could legally make you do anything listed.

In your silent frustration, it seems your neighbor had arrived at his home once more, taking off the paper and glancing at you, noticing how deep you were in your frustration.

“You were right”

You perk your head up curiously, meeting the man's gaze. You had never been able to get a good look at him until now but damn was he a sight to behold. A sharp jaw, even sharper eyes, dark hair disheveled but actually kinda suited him and a rather sizable scar under his eye. Curious..

You tilt your head, “Right about what?”

He looks down at the paper, “It's bullshit.” You stand there in silence, Did he really just quote you from days ago?? So he was listening..

You nod eagerly, “Exactly! Who does this guy think he is? Can't even come home in peace, y’know?” You make eye contact with him once more, folding the paper absentmindedly between your fingers.

You notice the slight tilt of a grin surrounded by his rough stubble. All he replies with is a quaint ‘yeah’ before returning into his apartment.

You were getting closer, you knew it. You wouldn't pressure him but would it really hurt to get to know eachother better? Maybe this landlord fiasco would be your in.

As you're making your way up your complex stairs, you notice the man from before standing there in the hall. He must've gotten there before you. You wave with a quick hello, hoping to garner his attention one way or another. He doesn't reply, it wasn't unusual but it ticked you off a bit. Looking over his shoulder slightly, you notice a blue slip now in his grasp. Low and behold, it's on your door as well. 

You swipe it off, not caring of the condition. It seems that nothing has gotten better, the landlord being more like a land demon at this point reeking havoc on your paychecks. It wasn't your guys’ fault that the utilities and expenses were shitty, maybe he should take better responsibility of his complex and maybe-

“I think your slip has taken enough hits” You’re cut out of your thinking by the sound of the man's voice breaking the silence. You glance at him quizzically, “Huh?”

He nods down towards the blue paper in your tight grasp, “You’ve been staring daggers into it for a couple minutes now.” Oh god did he see that?! You quickly compose yourself. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. This land lord is gonna be the death of me though, maybe even my paycheck” 

He stifles a chuckle, you immediately look over at the strictly stoic man in front of you. A small grin makes its way to your face from the sound, you’ve finally cracked him…at least to some degree.

“Seriously. This guy does not know how to back off.” He crumples the paper in his grasp, unlocking his apartment door. You hum in agreement, going to unlock your own door as well before turning to the man. “Hey, i never caught your name”

He turns around, black strands of hair slightly obscuring his face as he grumbles out, “...Aizawa”

You nod, a small smile gracing your face. “L/N, nice to finally make your acquaintance, Aizawa”

He’s silent for a moment, giving you a curt nod as he enters his home. You sighed, walking into your apartment and kicking your shoes off. It was tough, though knowing you had made some sort of progress with the rugged man gave your heart an elated sensation, and maybe one day it’ll be easier to catch his attention.

Its been a couple days, whenever you had come home it seems he was already there in his own and vice versa, like your paths were rarely meeting. The smell of the food you were preparing for dinner filled the dim air in your apartment, it had been the one day you had off of work and damnit if you weren’t going to enjoy the hell out of it. 

As you turned down the heat on the stove, a pert knock was heard on your door. You set the stove down to the lowest setting and put the lid over it, “One moment, please!” Your voice rang in reference to the door, quickly cleaning off your hands and looking through the peephole. 

It was.. Aizawa? Well, now this was quite unusual, he had never approached you directly before so why now? 

You opened the door to be met with his face, “Hey Aizawa-Kun, something the matter?” You leaned on the doorway, taking in his usual cold demeanor. He had his arms crossed, long black tee and pants as usual; what's new?

Aizawa looks up and down the hallway before looking back at you, his hair hiding his eyes as usual. He lets out a small sigh before speaking, "Can I come in for a minute?" You nod, “Oh yeah, of course” You move out of the way, letting him in. As he enters, he immediately takes note of the smell of food coming from the kitchen. He takes a moment to look around your apartment before speaking again

"You were in the middle of cooking?"

You look over to the kitchen, waving it off. “Oh yeah, don't worry, it's just simmering.” You cross your arms and look at him curiously “Sooo, what's up?”

"Well..." He hesitates for a moment, his hand going up to his hair and gripping some strands as his eyes glance at the ground before looking back at you. "You see... I'm... I'm moving out soon..."

Your face drops slightly at the statement, taken aback by the declaration. “Oh” That's all you could muster. You weren’t too close with him but you can't lie that you were getting used to his usual small talk. He nods his head slowly and lets go of the strands of hair in his hand. "Yes... I already found another place to stay but I wanted to keep in touch with you.” 

Your head perks up at that. Keep in touch with you?? After all of his one-offs and solemn demeanor, you didn't think he’d actually want to get to know you more like you did with him. 

He notices how you perk up when he mentions keeping in touch with you and feels some relief. He runs a hand through his hair again and nods. "Yes. We didn't get to know each other that much since we only really spoke a few times and well...I enjoyed the little conversations we had and I was hoping we could continue talking even though I won't be living next to you anymore.."

Part of you was jumping with glee, feeling straight out of a slice of life manga- but no, you can't get ahead of yourself. You barely know him, you talked a few times and maybe he was just that interesting but…but… damnit.

“Yes! Of course! I-i mean yeah totally” You scramble over to your living room, grabbing your phone off of the table and handing it to him, contacts open. You swear you saw a hint of a smirk on his face as he took the device from you, punching in his numbers and handing it abc. You quickly made his contact and nodded. “I’ll text you in a bit so you have my number, ‘kay?” 

Your eagerness was met with his usual calm and stoic demeanor, you didn't care about it now because you learned it's a part of him. There was nothing more to earn than his attention. He nods, opening the door slightly. “I’ll look out for it” 

The small grin on your face never fades, holding your phone in your slightly sweaty palm, “I hope your moving goes well!” You move to hold the door open as he leaves, waving to him as he enters his almost-former apartment. 

Closing the door, you couldn't help but take in the interaction. Did that just happen? Are you hallucinating? You walk back to the kitchen, taking the lid off of the food and putting the heat up. 

You glance at your phone, seeing his contact ‘Aizawa’. Nope, not dreaming. You text hastily.

“Hi! It's L/N from across the hall, making sure you have my number!”

You set the phone back down as if it were on fire. Was that too straightforward? You stir the food. Was that too preppy? The food sizzles slightly on the pan. Should you have- ‘ping!’

You pick up the phone quickly, the light illuminating your eager expression. 

“Got it, thank you L/N.”

���If you are wanting to, i would like to take you to the cafe just down the road.”

Now you were shitting bricks. Duh! Of course you would! You’d love nothing more!

“Sounds awesome! Let's plan it one of these days :)”

Now you felt as if you didn't have to worry about how excited you were, in this moment you could care less just knowing he was thinking about you in his own, Aizawa way. To say you ate in peace was an understatement, the prospect of hanging out with the solemn man on what could realistically be called a date made the food somehow taste 100x better. Maybe even 100,000x.

[rotenotes]

Reading "Anarchist communism" @wikipedia (20131015)

Reading Anarchist communism ((accessdate=20131015)) {{Anarcho-communism sidebar|expanded=all}} Part of a series on Anarcho-communism Concepts Anarchy Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Anti-statism Proletarian internationalism Class consciousness Class struggle Classless society Common ownership Commons Commune Consensus democracy Co-operative economics Direct democracy Egalitarian…

[opstandelse]

Reading "Anarchist communism" @wikipedia (20131015)

Reading Anarchist communism ((accessdate=20131015)) {{Anarcho-communism sidebar|expanded=all}} Part of a series on Anarcho-communism Concepts Anarchy Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Anti-statism Proletarian internationalism Class consciousness Class struggle Classless society Common ownership Commons Commune Consensus democracy Co-operative economics Direct democracy Egalitarian…

[canceriancryptid]

my ex landlord is lying about me and i cant breathe

i cant even fight it if i want to be able to rent anywhere in the future

my friends told me my only option is to go to the mediation and then settle

either way, she wins and i have to just figure it out

[pshaven]

APPLE CIDER lee heeseung ౨ৎ

synopsis! your new roommate, heeseung, seems to underestimate just how naive you really are when you catch him in a compromising situation. wc! 5k cw! perv!hee, switch!heeseung & switch!reader but make it competitive, voyeurism(??), size kink if u squint, male masturbation, degradation, praising, oral (m!receiving), grinding, riding, no protection (Plz wrap it), hee a FREAAKKK, creampie, unspoken aftercare but like barely??, hee calls reader baby, good girl, slut, i think that's it lmk if i missed any!

BREAK THE SKIN M.LST

previous > next

“jay, i do not have time for a party right now!” you complain, getting dragged by your best friend into some frat party. he’s been urging you to get your mind off of your living situation, as it seems like it’s all you can think about these past few weeks. 

thanks to your idiot landlord, he’s made some overlap in the house you’re supposed to be living in for the next school year, thus leaving you in the dust since the other tenant had a better credit score than you (you can thank your impulse purchases for that). so you’ve been crashing at jay’s place for a bit and you’re starting to get sick of the boy house smell, and have been wanting to get out as soon as possible. 

unfortunately, the odds seem to not be in your favor as it seems like everyone you know doesn’t know anyone else who’s been looking for a roommate. 

“yeah, but you said it yourself! you’re sick of… the ‘boy’ smell at my place. you’re not smelling it anymore, right?” he teases, using air quotes as the both of you arrive at the front door and exchanging a nod with the frat boy at the front before walking inside. you huff out a sigh, releasing your wrist from jay’s grip. he is right in some way.. you’ve been looking nonstop for some place to stay at and you do need a break at some point. 

you hear someone call jay’s name, approaching the two of you. “hey, jay, nice to see you!” they greet, and you excuse yourself because you refuse to stand there awkwardly as the two of them catch up. you make your way to the kitchen, seeing the multiple bottles of different alcohol brands lined up on the island and you scrunch your nose. you and jay never talked about who’s being the designated driver tonight, so you decide to be safe and just have something else. 

you find a cooler beside the counter on the floor, hoping there’s something for you to drink. bending down and opening the cooler, another hand invades your view of your options and you see that they’ve grabbed the last bottle of apple juice. you frown a bit, searching through the ice cubes to only find gatorade and lemonade left.

you stand up, shutting the cooler with a hefty sigh, a clear pout on your face that doesn’t go unnoticed by the culprit who stole the last apple juice. “oh, oops. did you want this?” he asks, tearing the straw from the carton and poking it in. as if he’s taunting you, he’s slightly shaking the juice in his hand. 

“oh, it’s alright. i’m sure i can just have something else…” you mumble, but offer a smile to him anyway since he was nice enough to offer it to you. 

he nods, “good. i wasn’t gonna give it up anyway.” he gives you a boyish grin, sipping the juice in front of you like he’s doing it on purpose, in the most menacing way possible. his words have you choking your thoughts, eyes narrowing at this ridiculous(ly handsome) boy in front of you, innocently sipping at his apple juice. 

“wh- you dick??” you gape, brows furrowing in frustration. your hands think on their own, reaching up for his juice carton and squeezing at the sides so that the juice goes to spill all over his clothes. and it’s his turn to gape at you, eyes wide and mouth open in shock as he comprehends what you just did. 

“morning,” you hear a grumble from behind you, a sleepy heeseung clad in plaid pajama pants and a teen titans t-shirt making loud footsteps towards you in the kitchen. you raise your brow at him as you turn around, holding a cup of apple juice in your hands.

“umm, don’t you have a ten am class today? it’s eleven,” you inform him curiously, watching his eyes still try to blink open from sleep as he’s opening the fridge in haste. he throws his head back, groaning loudly and proceeds to stomp on the ground like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

“you finished the apple juice?!” heeseung whines, lips forming a pout like you did that night at the party, turning his head over his shoulder to look at you. you roll your eyes, setting your half-finished cup of juice on the counter and sliding it towards him as if it’s your nth time dealing with this (it is. it happens every time at the end of the week). 

he gratefully takes your cup, chugging down the apple juice before licking his lips in satisfaction. he completely ignores your question, passing you to get to the sink to wash the mug. you turn your body to look at him again, head tilted to the side curiously as you watch his lazy hands scrubbing the soap sloppily on the cup. 

he’s extra sleepy this morning, and he’s usually not the type to skip his classes (surprisingly), especially not his important classes that impact his major. “are you okay?” you ask him once he finishes, setting the cup upside down to dry. 

heeseung pauses in his tracks a bit, blinking blankly before meeting eyes with you. “oh… yeah. don’t worry about me. just had a rough night i guess…” he mumbles, sheepishly rubbing the nape of his neck awkwardly. 

it’s a habit you notice that he does every time he’s nervous or when he’s hiding something. although the two of you have been roommates for over four months now and have a good friendship, bonding over your love for anything apple juice or apple cider, you wouldn’t think he would be the type to confide in you. 

“it’s all that gaming you do,” you reprimand him like you’re his mother, patting him on his shoulder before walking back into your room. he releases a breath he doesn’t realize he’s been holding once your door shut, leaving him alone in the kitchen. 

rubbing a hand over his face, heeseung does his best to recollect himself but his lower half seems to have a mind of his own, creating a clear imprint of his hardon through his pajama pants. he shuffles his way to his own bedroom, hurriedly shutting the door as he lays himself down on his bed. “fuck,” he huffs out, eyes screwing shut. not his fault, he tells himself; you just look too pretty in the morning, slightly ruffled up hair and not to mention your cute pajamas.

but he thinks nothing beats the outfit you wore to the party the night he met you.

all dolled up, putting in effort to the way you look but not trying too hard. he blesses jake for convincing him into going that night, or else he probably would never get a pretty roommate like you. you were so cute to him, eyes widening in shock at your own action when you had sprayed the juice all over him. sure, the stain never got out of his favorite shirt but you definitely made it up to him that same night. 

his cock restrained in his pajama pants only feel tighter the more he resists, a grumbly groan leaving his lips as he shamefully fishes his cock out. his hand begins to slowly move up and down, hips lifting off the bed from being impatient as he needily thrusts up into his fist. 

his breath starts to pick up when he hears you humming on the other side of the wall, presumably with your headphones on as you study or do homework. so cute, so innocent, you have no idea that he fucks his hand to you every night.

“god–” he gasps, fist speeding up as he pretends you’re doing it for him; soft and pliant hands wrapping around his thick girth– you probably can’t even fully wrap your hand around him. the thought sends him into a needier state, letting a whine slip from his lips before he captures his bottom lip between his teeth to quiet down. 

he reminisces about your pretty party outfit, simple yet effective enough to get him worked up. your small hands immediately reaching for his chest in a terrible attempt to clean him up, still shocked about what you had just done. the mere size difference of his broad chest compared to your hand has him reeling, imagining that you’re on top of him and discovering his body. 

he pretends his hand is yours, his free hand going underneath his t-shirt and scratching at his stomach but his dull nails are nothing compared to your pretty, manicured nails. he licks his drying lips, fist tightening around his cock as he feels himself get close. he muffles his voice again, having a bad habit of being too loud when he’s approaching his high. 

he moans into his hand, hips twitching and still slightly thrusting up to get the last bit of satisfying overstimulation. his cum spread all over his hand and shirt, he lets out a sigh, one of relief and shame.

he feels so dirty, so gross and perverted– what was meant to just be two people temporarily taking advantage of each other’s situation is going on for too long. 

“oh god, i’m so sorry!” you quickly apologize, hands wiping at his clothed chest to get rid of the juice but you realize you’re only making it worse. “fuck, i’m sorry,” you mumble another apology, but the man in front of you only laughs. you cock a brow, thinking he’s laughing at you. maybe you don’t regret squeezing the juice box all over him. 

“no, sorry, i–” he breaks out into another fit of laughter, slightly hunching over and you just don’t get what is so funny. you cross your arms across your chest, brows furrowing as you watch him collect himself once more. “damn. i don’t know someone who takes apple juice this seriously.”

you frown, “i’m not. sorry, i’m just stressed cause no one has a free space for me to live in temporarily, and all i wanted was a sweet box of apple juice but someone took the last one!” you say pointedly, eyeing him up and down with narrow eyes (in a judgemental manner… totally not checking him out). 

he raises his hands up in surrender, shoulders shrugging. “whoops! well you should’ve just told me that. then i would’ve offered to share,” he hums, flashing you another boyish grin. you think he’s lucky he’s attractive, because if he wasn’t, you would’ve been long gone out of this conversation. 

“wow, just ‘share’? that’s how you’re gonna treat me while i’m in a crisis?!” you exaggerate, eyes wide with sarcasm as you scoff at him. 

he giggles at you, enjoying how expressive you are.  “you do know you’re not the only one experiencing a crisis, right?” he raises a brow at you, grin still remaining on his face. 

the rest seemed to be history, him explaining to you that his dickhead old roommate just stopped paying rent and was kicked out so now he’s paying the entire floor and is in dire need for a roommate to fill in. 

it was all too convenient, it seemed too good to be true. 

heeseung is a good roommate. you had your doubts about living with a guy, especially after staying with jay for a while, you were worried the boy stench would apply to living with heeseung too. but since it was just him, it wasn’t overwhelming as long as you didn’t step foot into his man cave. 

he does his fair share of chores, like doing the dishes and taking out the trash. he’s clean in the shared space and has yet to ever make you uncomfortable or doubt living with him. but of course, jay has his own reservations about you living with heeseung. 

“what?” jay’s voice pierces your ears, his tone of disbelief and disappointment at the same time making you a bit wary. you shrug, giving your best friend a sheepish smile before you try to defend yourself. 

“come on! it’s a win-win situation? i’ve been looking for weeks! i need a place to stay!” you plead your case, folding your hands like you’re praying (for jay to not kill you). 

he scoffs, eyes rolling. “you do have a place to stay. here! safe! and not with a stranger!” jay reprimands you, finger pointing down to the couch the two of you are sitting on. 

you sigh in return, “he’s not a stranger! plus, aren’t you guys friends?” you suddenly question, brow raising up at him and he seems to be appalled at your accusation. 

“huh?? where did you get that from? me and heeseung are not friends. i don’t like him. he’s weird for asking you to live with him,” jay mumbles in the last sentence, eyes peeling off of you for a second as he looks at his fiddling hands. 

you find his sudden change in attitude strange, your best friend usually never gets shy around you to say what’s on his mind. nor does he ever get this heated about a choice you’ve made. “okay, geez. i just thought you guys hung out with the same crowd…” you frown, your fingers now nervously playing with the hem of your shirt.

jay makes you nervous. despite being your bestest and longest friend, he seems to always have certain reserves around you and it’s difficult for you to point out sometimes. you know he cares for you and vice versa– that will never change. but it’s hard to understand what he’s feeling if it’s not already written all over his face. that means it’s already too late, he’s been feeling that way for a long time. 

nonetheless, through all his protests and complaining that you should absolutely not move in with heeseung, he still helped you move in the next week. 

heeseung’s been nothing but good. 

until you decide to skip class one day, holed up in your room because you weren’t feeling well that day. you don’t have heeseung’s schedule memorized yet, since it’s only been three weeks since you first moved in. but you hear shuffling from outside your room, and if there’s one thing you discovered, it’s that heeseung is a loud walker.

the footsteps stop, but then a few minutes later, you hear faint moaning. it’s so quiet that you think you imagined it, but now your ears are perked up to try and perceive what you’re hearing. you swear the sounds go up a decimal higher, and you can pick up high-pitched squeals and moans from outside your room. 

your eyes widen, half of your face hidden underneath your blanket as you piece together the scenario. is he really watching porn out in the living room? it’s not that you’re judging him for watching porn, but out in the shared space that the two of you have movie nights and eat dinner together feels… dirty. 

but you suppose you’re not any better. the fact that heeseung is a few feet away from you, horny and doing god knows what in an intimate space that the two of you share.. your thighs squeeze together under your bed sheets. 

you secretly wish that the living room was closer to your room since it’s hard for you to really hear anything other than the porn playing. but then it suddenly stops, the sound from the video no longer masking the pants and moans of your roommate. he doesn’t seem to be shy given how vocal he is, probably because he thought he was alone. 

you can’t help but feel a little guilty, thighs rubbing together as your heated face stares up at the ceiling, trying to get rid of the visual your brain presents of heeseung stroking his cock, probably manspreading with his head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut with pleasure.

you didn’t regret moving in with heeseung at first. now that you know his secret, you regret it a little bit. 

either heeseung has no shame or he’s really good at hiding it. he doesn’t seem to be affected when sitting on the couch together, indulged in whatever movie he had picked while you two ate dinner. you were a bit awkward at first, eyes wandering around the couch to look for stains, shifting as if you’re impatient to the point that heeseung had to ask if you were okay.

he’s impressively well at keeping things casual with you, like he’s the most innocent man in the world. you suppose you’re doing the same– you’re not exactly in the clear, listening in on him when you could’ve easily thrown on some headphones for the sake of his privacy. 

this went on for months, and now that you’re on month four of living together, you’ve almost forgotten about that incident… or perhaps you just pushed it to the back of your mind to not distract you. 

and while you think heeseung might be unintentionally a freaky pervert, he’s really quite the opposite. getting off to the mere thought of you possibly hearing him gets him worked up, and your innocent conversations you have with him the next day only gets him hot and bothered. 

the thought of you possibly knowing his “habit” has crossed his mind more than a few times, but he highly doubts it since you’re able to sit down and have dinner with him on the very same couch that he had just cleaned cum off of an hour ago. you just seem too sweet, too distracted with your difficult classes to even bother with him. 

but he likes to indulge himself, always imagining you walking in on him. perhaps your class ended early, and you open the door to find him jerking off on the couch with a picture of you from  your instagram on his phone screen. 

until the imagination falls short, and he hears your voice. his eyes open, hand halting to a stop on his hard cock and he’s faced with the sight of you standing in front of him, between his thighs. his throat goes dry, pupils enlarging as he cranes his neck to look up at you. 

his eyes follow your gaze– you’re not even looking at his face, instead you’re looking at his thick length, accompanied by his large hand and he thinks you’ve fallen into some sort of trance. but heeseung, too horny to even comprehend this situation, manspreads wider than usual on the couch to allow you some room. 

“go ahead,” he speaks after some silence, your eyes finally meeting his as he directs you to look back at his neglected, throbbing cock. you feel unsure, you feel like you’re possessed, maybe your horny spirit finally letting you indulge in your secret crush on your roommate, but you drop  to your knees, your hands going over heeseung’s own hand still on his cock. 

the size difference of yours on top of his is enough to make his dick twitch, his hips lifting off the couch with need. “fuck, c’mon, you’re looking at it like you need it. good girls like you always get what they want, right?” he says through gritted teeth, nudging his cock towards your mouth. 

his praise goes straight into your head, making your brain and lower stomach feel fuzzy. your mouth opens, tongue shyly going past your bottom lip and heeseung takes this opportunity to rest his tip on your peeked tongue, instantly hissing at the wetness. “s’cute, now take as much as you want, okay?” he praises, slowly guiding you down his cock with your hands still on top of his own. 

your lips envelope around the head of his cock, taking it deeper and doing as he says. your hands stay on his hand, starting to go deeper until your lips meet his finger. heeseung groans, resisting on bucking his hips into your warm and wet mouth. 

“shit, coulda’ just said you wanted all of me,” he mumbles, watching you start to get used to the feeling of him inside your mouth. “fuck– just like that, y/n,” he whines, barely keeping his eyes open but forcing himself so he can keep looking at you, cheeks puffed out and drool slipping from the corner of your lips already. 

you try to whine in protest from his words, but it only gets muffled with your mouth stuffed full of your roommate’s dick. he chuckles at you, his free hand resting on top of your head. “roomie,” he teases as your brows furrow together but he only thinks you look cuter like this, “don’t you know to not talk with your mouth full? where’s your manners?” he tsks, but gets shortly cut off by his own moans, your tongue working at his sensitive tip. 

heeseung curses under his breath, his hand on your head starting to push you down more. “since– hah– someone forgot their manners… i feel like i need to teach you a few things,” he hums, low-lidded eyes peering down at you. he suddenly pulls you off, strings of saliva attached from his cock to your wet lips. 

truth be told, he was getting impossibly close but he didn’t wait four months just to cum inside your mouth. 

he grabs you by your waist, hoisting you up onto the couch and laying you on your back. “now lemme just see how wet you got from sucking my cock,” he grins, but it’s different from his usual boyish smiles, it’s one that speaks he’s getting more than just a ‘look’. 

heeseung tugs your bottoms off, throwing them onto the floor beside the couch. he moans at the sight of a wet spot through your white panties, soaked to the point where he could see the outline of your pussy. “shit,” he groans, index finger prodding at your covered entrance. he leans in closer, tongue slipping past his lips and pressing against your panties.

his hot breath is enough to rip a shaky moan out of you, your hands unsure of what to do as you grab at a random couch pillow. he looks up at you through his lashes, pressing his tongue more against your clothed pussy to add pressure. you whine, a pout forming at your lips, “fuck! you’re so annoying,” you huff.

you pull your hips away from him, and he gives you a confused look until he understands that you’re just pulling your panties down in a hurry. he chuckles at you, amused in your rush to get fucked by him. he grabs at your thighs, pulling you back down closer to him. “what? you want me that bad or you just desperate for some dick like a slut?”

his words have your eyes widening, look at him still in between your legs. “the fuck?” you curse at him, and heeseung only laughs mockingly some more. “i think you’re the slut, no? jacking off in our shared space where i could walk in anytime,” you scoff, shuffling as you sit up on your elbows, “you wanted me to see you like this, right?” you taunt, your hand now pushing at his chest to lay him down on his back. 

“you’re the one desperate for some pussy like a slut,” you whisper, cunt hovering over his cock that’s laid hard on his stomach. you lower your hips, pussy meeting the thick veins of his cock as you begin to rock your hips against him. he gasps at the contact, hands flying to your waist as he looks down at where the two of you meet. 

“fuck–” he hisses, his own hips bucking up to meet your slow grinds but he feels even more desperate, feeling his cock twitch against his stomach and your wet cunt. it’s your turn to grin down at him, your hands on his chest keeping you up. “now you got nothing to say? not even a sorry for acting so innocent when you’re not?” you hum, beginning to grind faster on him. 

heeseung whines at the sloppy noises from your cunt grinding on him, the sounds so sticky and lewd that only makes him feel like he’s going to cum faster. “i’m–” he moans loud, his hands on your waist gripping tighter. “i’m sorry! fuck, stop, i’m close–!” he whines and begs, desperate to not cum like this on his own stomach.

you giggle as you lift your hips up, away from his cock as you watch him catch his breath, chest heaving up and down. you pout at him, a hand reaching to cup at his jaw as your thumb rubs soothingly at his cheek. “i dunno, i think you liked th–at!” you begin to speak, but your voice breaks when you feel a sudden intrusion at your entrance.

“fuckkk,” heeseung moans, his hands on your hips reaching down to your ass as he slowly guides you down his cock, “you’re so fucking hot talking to me like that,” he chuckles breathlessly, staring at your shocked expression as you feel the stretch of your pussy from his cock. 

you whine at the pressure of him pushing his cock into you, your chest meeting his after your arms felt too weak to keep you up. “oh my fuck!” you squeal, eyes squeezing shut as he keeps on going deeper slowly, inch by inch that makes you feel like passing out. 

“so good,” he breathes out, a hand leaving your ass but to grab at the nape of your neck to pull you into a kiss, a messy and sloppy one, but it also feels like he’s been waiting to do this since the day he met you. you whine into the kiss, tongues meeting and sliding against each other and he takes this as his opportunity to bottom out on you.

he swallows your moans, inhaling your scent, your lips, your everything as he stays still to let you adjust to the feeling of him inside you. you whimper as you pull away from him, barely catching your breath as you begin to rock your hips impatiently on him, causing him to moan out your name.

“fuck, hahh~! feels so good,” you slur, biting your lower lip as you grind on him, feeling your clit meet his pelvic bone each time that only makes your stomach tighten. he leans back more, his arms wrapping around your entire body before he snaps his hips up into you, making you take it as he maneuvers your body. 

you cry out, your cunt barely able to accommodate his size but the burning stretch makes your head feel blank as you bury your face into his neck, your moans sounding muffled out. heeseung groans with each thrust, your wet pussy making his lower stomach messy as your juices slap against his balls. 

“shit, you’re so fucking hot,” he moans out, hips beginning to get sloppy but it only turns you on more to see him become desperate for you. you put in effort to lift your head up, meeting your lips with his and the two of you moan and whine into each other's mouths, the entire living room echoing of wet skin slapping and sloppy kisses.

“ah– don’t stop! pleaseee,” you beg, your nails scratching at his shoulder blade and chest as you feel the knot in your lower belly tighten, threatening to snap. “fuck–shit, me too, baby, g’na cum too!” heeseung moans out, leaving wet, open mouthed kisses at your sensitive lower jaw and neck that only sends shivers down your spine, leaving you shaking as you reach your orgasm over his cock. 

“fuck, fuck fuck, y/n,” he whimpers, lips releasing from your neck as he throws his head back in pleasure. your walls contracting and pulsating against his twitching cock pushes him further into his high, his hips sporadically delivering you deep and fast thrusts that have you hiccuping as you moan. 

the two of you catch your breath, your forehead meeting his chest as you both breathe in silence, chests heaving up and down. he stays still inside you, his softening cock making his cum leak down the inside of your thighs. neither of you say anything, despite the soothing back rubs that heeseung gives you and your hand in his hair that is gently massaging at his scalp. 

the buzzing of your phone on the coffee table reaches both of your ears, and you shoot up from heeseung’s chest, sitting up straight and still on his cock. the both of you wince at your sudden movement from being too sensitive. “sorry…” you say quietly, bending slightly to get your phone. 

jake (project partner): hey. are you on your way yet?

you curse underneath your breath, slapping your hand against your forehead as you had forgotten about your project with jake. heeseung gives you a curious raised brow, “is everything alright…?”

you purse your lips before giving him a sheepish smile as you carefully lift your hips off of him, slightly wincing at the uncomfortable feeling of his cum slipping out even more. “uh… i actually got a project to do right now.. so…” you trail off, meeting his eyes and the two of you look at each other in silence for a good ten seconds. 

you slowly bend down awkwardly, grabbing your discarded bottoms and giving your roommate (that you just fucked) a small wave goodbye before rushing to the bathroom to wash up.

heeseung opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out as he watches your bare butt with his cum dripping out of your cunt go into the bathroom. he sighs, awkwardly shuffling his pants back on as he tries to pretend that it’s normal to fuck his roommate.

it’s normal, right?

[legy]

hi! i'm caelum. you might know me from @goldentruths-pod or from posting online. im in a financial quicksand pit and i really, really, really need help.

i'm disabled and receive approx ~$950 a month from social security. this has gone from "rough but survivable" when i first started receiving SSI to "i am literally not making ends meet" in 2024. right now my current status is that i am covering my basic needs but any kind of extra purchases are impossible. and the extra purchases i need to make keep piling up because i just can't afford them. some things i need include, in vague level of priority:

dolphin, my cat, is years overdue for a vet visit. this is going to be $300 minimum, possibly more because she has an adversarial relationship with the vet. she needs dental work done which they had quoted me as being $1500 but ive been putting it off for so long that i would not be surprised if that's more expensive too

i have learned today that my gold crown needs to be replaced. really unhappy about this one. it was a miserable experience the first time (everything that went wrong did go wrong, i'll spare you the details) but what is relevant here is that my insurance does not cover this and it was $900 last time. insurance also does not cover extracting the tooth either so that's cool. i have some time before this one is due (my next consult is in july)

my phone is approaching "unusably broken". i've had it for close to 4 years now. the call speaker no longer works (i can only use the phone on speaker mode) and it struggles to run apps or a web browser which makes things like GPS pretty dire. this would be like ~$100-$150 probably, i havent done serious phone shopping yet

my driver's license is expired and i need to get a new one. this was $110 last time. note i havent driven a car in years due to the disability but it's really valuable to have a universally recognized form of photo ID and ive already been hassled over it being expired

god this one is so embarrassing to get into but i had to flee my previous apartment last year due to it escalating into a DV situation. the other tenants did not pay the heating bill, which was in my name (and my dumb ass didnt close the account because it was the middle of february and i didnt want to freeze them to death) so i have a $250 utility bill in collections. i might be able to dispute or debt forgiveness this one but tbh ive been so fucking drained given everything else going on and also my phone barely works so i havent pursued it. especially since i can't afford to pay it if i cant challenge it

i would really like to have a passport again. my previous one was destroyed by my landlord in 2018 but even if it wasnt it'd also be expired now. not sure how much this one costs. likely $200?

my food stamps were slashed in half (covid emergency ending lol) and do not cover my food costs for the month so im paying like $150 a month on food that i didnt have to previously. i can maybe fix this one but im slowly losing my mind from malnutrition from trying to not go into debt and also eat. so i havent had it in me to go 1v1 welfare bureaucracy and possibly make everything even worse

my shoes are probably two months out from fully decomposing. they were $100 three years ago and id like to get something comparable given they lasted me this long

the rest of my clothes are also very literally becoming threadbare, falling apart, or are too big and keep slipping off. i legitimately feel embarrassed to go in public these days because i dress so shitty all the time

insurance doesnt cover my HRT anymore so that's $30 a month i didnt used to have to pay

im sorry this turned into such a ramble. i'm in such a bad way right now, i have been for quite a while and the dental work news is really just the final straw. i can't really have a fundraising goal because due to the SSI asset limit i can never own more than $2000. & i'm aware both that this is the poor people sending each other the same 20 dollars website and that there are people urgently trying to raise money to escape an active genocide. but i held off from making this post as long as possible & idk what else i can do

anyway if theres anything you can contribute to help me i would appreciate it more than anything. at the very least i need to do something about my tooth.

http://paypal.me/hivehum

[lovesickallovermybed]

Reason number 1000 that landlords are the worst: My landlord has had it out for me since September of this year. She claims I owe her $300 for “rewriting the lease” but I have never seen an official documentation that I signed that states I owe this amount of money. She then said she would send it to collections but never did. She is now trying to use this as a reason for us to get evicted even though this $300 fee is not written in the lease or mentioned in any official paperwork.

Furthermore, she claims there is a cat urine smell. Everyone who has come to my apartment has not said they smell said smell and there have also been no complaints from downstairs neighbors. I have also had the carpet deep cleaned twice now. She’s also extremely unprofessional and rude. She told me I am no longer allowed to contact her through phone or text but only email communication (meaning if there was an emergency she might not see that email until during the business day).

She allegedly inspected our apartment but has never entered the property as we have proof via security camera and ring doorbell camera she never did. There has not been an ongoing cat urine issue as the last time she is referring to was in June 2023.

Finally, I am tasked with needing to pay a plumber bill because, quote, “the plumbing was the tenants fault”. But ther plumber did not tell us that this was our fault or that a clog was the reasoning. I now owe $495 which is a ridiculous amount of money.

If you are able please help by donating even $10. My handle on all cash apps (Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal) is @torigibsonn.

Also! If you have any legal advice or advice for dealing with landlords like this please leave it in the comments.

https://www.paypal.me/torigibsonn

https://cash.app/$torigibsonn

https://venmo.com/u/ToriGibsonn

[loathsome-little-creature]

EXTREMELY URGENT REQUEST FOR AID!

MOHAMMED HABOUB’S FAMILY, (@mohammedhaboubsblog) INCLUDING ONE MEMBER WHO HAS BEEN WOUNDED BY FRAGMENTATION FROM A GUIDED MISSILE ATTACK ON AL-TABIEEN SCHOOL WILL BE HOMELESS IN GAZA ON SEPTEMBER FIRST UNLESS THEY CAN RAISE $2200 USD

Even in Gaza, landlords continue to extort money from their tenants. Despite the horrific genocide being carried out by Israeli forces, many Palestinians still have to pay rent comparable to an apartment in a major American city.

To quote Mohammed directly, these landlords are “despicable people who don’t take into account anything” and will throw people out onto the streets to the mercy of drones and bombs over a late rent payment. The streets of Gaza almost a year into the genocide are a deadly, terrifying place, where disease and death are never far away. To throw someone out onto those streets is nothing short of attempted murder.

If you can donate, now is the time. Mohammed’s fundraiser has been vetted more than enough times, so you have no reason not to donate at least a little. Please. Anything you can donate will help save these people’s lives. If you truly can’t donate anything, please at least reblog the post so it can reach someone who can.

[plaguedocboi]

My personal favorite parts of the first few chapters of Moby Dick (which aren’t just quotes from every book mentioning whales) since Whale Weekly is to that point now:

1. Ishmael (completely sober) stumbling into a church during an ongoing sermon, knocks an ashtray all over himself, choking on ash, talks to himself, runs out. What do you even do if you’re attending that church? How do you get back on track after that?

2. Walks into the inn and describes every item and person inside in great detail. I imagine him just staring at everything for three full minutes like he’s zoned out but really he’s holding a lengthy soliloquy in his mind. Everyone probably thinks he’s insane.

3. There’s Only One Bed

4. The bed already belongs to someone, but he is out late (trying to sell a pickled human head on the street) so Ishmael just gets in his bed. The landlord doesn’t bother to mention to his tenant that there is going to be a strange man in his bed. When he gets in bed he is understandably surprised. Both are screaming and running around. The landlord has to get involved. It’s chaos.

5. Spoiler alert; this is their meet-cute. They cuddle. The next day Queequeg is like “btw we’re married now” and Ishmael is fine with that. They share a bed for the foreseeable future.

[sandsorghum]

pondering all the potential, wonderful challenges of writing Higuruma in a relationship, because there's so much nuance with each possibility of what one imagines his past experience (or lack thereof) to be.

First and foremost I headcannon Higuruma as someone who hasn't had a lot of time and space to invest in Love, not properly - or not on a level that rivals his passion for the Law, or his ideals of improving the world.

And there's a lot of ways to go about presenting that; I think he could have had any number of situationships or romances but not a serious relationship, a full commitment that he hasn't been willing to let fizzle out at the mercy of hectic arraignment schedules, sparks barely kept guttering with office trysts and motel rendezvous.

I like toying with the idea of a Higuruma who approaches sex as a (biological) hassle on some level, but also isn't that cerebral about it; he can be a beast when he wants to be <3

I could characterise Higuruma as someone who's had a lot of (sexual) encounters, but finds actual intimacy unfamiliar territory. Someone for whom it's simple enough to find a person to sleep with, but might be slightly flummoxed that person is still by his side, tolerating his snoring six months or a year later. maybe he'd even be downright befuddled at how it could get to a couple of years of mornings of sprawled limbs and entwined legs and offensively chilly soles despite the cuddles and blanket forts. (Lemme have my soft spot!)

Although speaking of cold feet, I don't think Hiromi really gets any - even if he were to find himself head over heels someday. Similar to how swiftly he adapted to the realities of jujutsu, I think there's something unshakeable about his emotional interiority, however new and overwhelming these intense feelings get. Though it'd be very fun to write a smitten Higuruma (I think he could be so unabashed and shameless about his desires, especially post "went off the rails in my 30s" Hiromi who's decided he's pretty done with decorum and excessive regard for others' opinions - tldr this is a man who will convince you to let him eat you out on a balcony if the whim catches him, and if your whines reach the neighbours' ears? Whatever he's just gonna quote Paragraph iiv Subsection C of the tenants' agreement at them. Maybe he'd even mock their polite sensibilities and taunt them by printing out a template complaint letter to the landlord for their convenience, knowing they'd be too embarrassed to actually bring it up.

"Mr Takeda, this thinness of the walls that you speak of, must be as imaginary as my patience.")

Higuruma isn't one to deny or bullshit himself about what he wants, whether that's a more just world or a woman he's certain is his equal, perfect partner. He has such astute assessments of the world, and how to shape it, he doesn't see why applying that same effort and logic wouldn't guarantee him similar results in a relationship.

That's one of the most attractive (and annoying) qualities to me in writing him, he's didactic and dynamic and direct, so to come up with scenarios that challenge those traits, or where those traits might be a hindrance or have unintended outcomes in communication objectives, requires a lot of writing layered conversations.

With Nanami, it's easy to misinterpret the unsaid - with Higuruma it's vice versa. He could be both so verbose and incisive, getting to the rational conclusion before you do, or before the emotional reality sets in perhaps. (I also think there is quite limited space in his world view for emotional realities taking precedence over objective facts.Growth for him in a relationship, with a partner for whom such things matter more at least, would be to accommodate this alternative view.)

I might also enjoy expanding the psychology of Higuruma's darker streaks; Obsession as the flip side to Devotion. One has to be a little "crazy" to be a criminal attorney in Japan, to go against the odds of 99%. His is a conviction that warps worlds, bends it to his will with eloquence and insight. He could flay someone apart and wrap the shreds of their self around his finger...(yall lucky im too lazy/busy rn to properly give a YandereHiromi a run)

On the opposite end, I haven't contended completely with what vulnerability looks like for Hiromi -- that'd depend a lot on how closely the canon influences the setting of one's story, or the points where it'd depart. How drastically different might Pre and post Culling Games Hiromi be?

Well...I think Post-CG Hiromi would have quite a lot of remorse over the innocents he killed, that's probably something he'd have to work through with his love. There'd be bouts of doubt as to whether he deserves something so good, lapses of cynicism like what led to that initial meltdown. I'm considering in particular how he couldn't bear to be around Yuji after their fight, that opening seam of self-loathing could lead to some interesting character developments.

All of this would be compounded by how he doesn't have the best track record in getting people to stay, or not caring enough to persuade them to until real Love came along and smacked him upside both hemispheres of that gorgeous brain. As someone who doesn't extensively experience (progressively) stronger emotions, he would need some time to sort through all that. I wouldn't say he lacks that capacity, but he'd be adjusting to a realm of depths he had never figured he was capable of.

Hiromi's had a lifelong career convincing others and convinced of man's (necessarily sufferable) shortcomings - getting him to have different expectations, or even to ask what he expects of this discovery of love, could be difficult and foreign. Fortunately it's well documented that those aren't daunting factors for Hiromi, there's a version of him so determined to not screw up what he has because he has no clue how he got so lucky. Imagine that tenacious dedication he's applied to his ideals being poured into his love, he'd be one of the most loyal partners ever. And it's not zeal, it's not fanaticism, nor tempestuous passion (though there's definitely a variant of that you could write him with); A serious relationship with Hiromi has a foundation in crystal clear-eyed love, based on both the sensibility of compatibility but also the mysticism of chemistry.

He knows he's clever, has an infinite handkerchief of wry witticisms in his pockets but what Hiromi doesn't understand is how he makes you laugh so brightly, so easily at the remarks and observations he doesn't intend as jokes or barbs. He doesn't know either how the knowing smirk between the two of you slipped into something far more innocuous, him simply smiling at your upturned face, in a lull in the middle of a conversation. And you always know the right thing to say, but your silence is just as comforting.

It's both getting his sense of humour, and empathising with his frustrations. It's both innate, and it's effort - just like his intellect, or his skill with sorcery, the connection comes naturally but so what, he's still had to commit to fighting for everything he wants to accomplish and achieve. He puts in the work despite the sheer genius or talent. So similarly in a relationship, Hiromi isn't going to rest on his laurels or merely rely on what he feels. He won't take your affection (or attraction!) towards him for granted, likewise he'll constantly try to earn and keep your trust, and probably expects a similar commitment from his partner to talk through tension or hash any arguments out. (Stonewalling wouldn't work on him, it only guarantees further frustration and distance.)

That of course is an idealised, almost fully realised version of Hiromi.

I'd also like to write stuff where I examine what his flaws or oversights in a relationship would be in, I suspect they'd stem from a rigidity of certain perspectives - in the same vein of how there's usually some duality or double-edge sword aspect to our base qualities, or most inviolable ideals. (For example how does Hiromi temper justice with mercy, can he afford himself that kindness?)

It's so easy to love Hiromi, like it is with Nanami, for his beliefs. But being a good person isn't the same as being a good partner. Those with strong principles have an obstinacy about their ethics that can translate to their diagnosis of what the source of conflict and "solutions" are in relationships. And attempting to conceive a cogent argument against an attorney? His lover's got their labour cut out!

I'm addicted to analyzing these complexities of Higuruma's character, to cross-examining how his traits and tendencies would work or work against him in a relationship. How he would bring his passion, his processing, his oscillations between optimism and realism into Love. I really want to do justice (hah) to him, and it's such a struggle parsing all these things sometimes I just wanna give up and write "stress-relief" one night stand filth for him ):

[the odds im working on something like that alr is 101%]

god i've spent too many hours just thinking about this man! there's just so much to unpack with him and yknow he's also packin'

[argyrocratie]

"When You Cross Pinochet With a Cyberpunk Dystopia…"

by Kevin Carson (November 9th, 2024):

"…what do you get? Answer: “Special Little Freedom Zones.”

That’s what Reason’s Liz Wolfe calls the Honduran “charter cities,” officially known as ZEDEs  (Zones for Economic Development and Employment), which were declared illegal in September by the Honduran Supreme Court (“No More Special Little Freedom Zones,” September 25). The ruling prohibits the creation of new ZEDEs; its effect on existing ones, like Próspera, Ciudad Morazán, and Zede Orquidea, is as yet unknown. 

Wolfe describes such charter cities as “special economic economic zones that are still bound by criminal law but able to create their own civil codes.” And again: “they get to set their own laws and regulations and typically choose to create more business-friendly conditions with less taxation.” 

Reason — and more specifically Reason’s Brian Doherty — has been shilling for these “special little freedom zones” since not long after a right-wing coup regime came to power in 2009. Doherty quotes an article Bryan Caplan wrote for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:

“A charter city begins on empty land,” he said. “It can only grow by voluntary migration of workers and investors. If no one chooses to relocate, they’re no worse off than they would have been if the charter city had never existed.”

But that so-called “empty land” bears some looking into. Honduras, Lauren Carasik writes at Foreign Policy — like many other places in the Third World — has long been characterized by irregular or informal land titles not legally registered or recognized by the central government. 

Ortiz says that he has resided on the land in the community of Playa Blanca on Zacate Grande Island, off of Honduras’ west coast, for decades. The problem is that he doesn’t have a title to it, leaving him no recourse to the wall. His quandary is a common one: approximately 80 percent of the country’s privately held land is either untitled or improperly so according to a 2011 USAID report.

Writers like Hernando de Soto have argued that this lack of formal legal title, and the certainty and predictability, the ability to legally protect titles and enter into contract, that go with it, are a major reason for continued underdevelopment. De Soto sees the formalization of informal land titles as an important step toward prosperity.

The devil lies in the details. There are two ways to formalize customary or informal land claims — from the bottom up, and from the top down. Consider, for example, the 17th century English “land reform” after the Restoration of Charles II. As Christopher Hill argued, Parliament could regularize titles from the bottom up by abolishing feudal titles, fees, and rents and formally recognizing the peasant cultivators as the legal owners of the land they occupied and worked. Or, acting from the top down, it could instead abolish the feudal obligations of the landed classes and the customary rights of their peasant tenants, and transform them into fee simple owners, i.e. landlords in the modern capitalist sense — thereby turning peasant cultivators into simple tenants at will with no right to the land. Unsurprisingly Parliament — overwhelmingly dominated by the landed nobility and gentry — chose the latter course. In Christopher Hill’s words, “feudal tenures were abolished upwards only, not downwards.” 

Interestingly enough, leftist president Manuel Zelaya — the one who was overthrown in the 2009 coup — had, prior to his overthrow, been working on a land reform that would have regularized peasants’ informal and customary claims to the land they were working, and given them formal legal title. That wasn’t the kind of regularization the landed oligarchy of Honduras — any more than that of 17th century England — wanted.

President Hernandez, who was swept into power by the coup that overthrew Zelaya, approved the charter cities project. With the peasant occupants of land coveted by the ZEDE merchant-adventurers in possession of no formal legal title, the land could be treated as “unoccupied.” Carasik continues:

Zacate Grande Island, where only a few campesino families have title to their land, is a window into exactly what that process might look like. Though under the ZEDE law residents whose land is expropriated are supposed to be repaid, the majority of the island’s families lack the legal documents necessary to support claims for indemnities. And without legal and financial resources, Zacate Grande’s campesinos are unable to contest their evictions by establishing their long-term possession of the land. 

So, while neoliberal advocates of charter cities wring their hands over “weak institutions” and the need for “rule of law,” ZEDEs’ predatory promoters have in fact taken advantage of those weak institutions in order to loot the commons for their own ends. 

On top of that, while densely populated areas will be allowed to hold plebiscites as to whether or not to be incorporated into ZEDEs, sparsely populated areas like rural villages which border on ZEDEs will have no legal defense against being absorbed by them.

Another aspect of ZEDEs that doesn’t meet the smell test: Although Wolfe says the charter cities get to create “their” own civil codes, the actual “they” is the enterprises located in the zone; it’s “investors” who get to choose the legal system they’ll be subject to. Although the great majority of people living within these “charter cities” will be workers, the owners of enterprises — owners of capital — are the only sources of political authority governing the regulatory framework and civil law. 

So we’re talking about a “free market utopia” authorized by a right-wing coup regime, built on land stolen from peasants, with “property rights” created through robbery, and where the majority of the population lives under a system of laws which their employers had the only say in making. Now, that might sound like “economic freedom” to a Hoppean, or someone for whom Snow Crash sounds like an ideal world. But to the rest of us, it sounds like something else."

[ask-me-what-my-sideblog-is]

PSA: ALWAYS NEGOTIATE YOUR RENT

Real Life Scenario That Just Happened: My lease is about to end, I reached out to find out about renewal options, and my landlord told me he was raising my rent by $400 (~10%).

Now first off, where I live that's an illegally high rent increase (always know your rights!). If he wants to raise it more than 5%, he needs to give me 3 months notice (he did not). But I knew that if I replied with that information, he would probably adjust the rent increase to exactly 5%, which would be over $200 more a month.

So instead, I started even lower. I said look I've been in this apartment for over 3 years, it's not as nice as it was when I moved in, a lot of the appliances don't work as well anymore, etc and comparable apartments in the area are going for less. So I don't think my rent should increase AT ALL. (Quite honestly none of the "comparable" apartments were quite as nice as mine, but that didn't stop me).

Now I admit, I didn't actually think that would work. My plan was to start low, figuring we would compromise somewhere in the middle, but hopefully less than the full 5%. And worst case, if he wouldn't budge from $400, then I would start quoting legal code at him and force him down to 5%.

But you know what happened??? He just said "fine" and now my rent is staying the same for another year! That's $4800 saved because I gave him (what I thought was) a lowball offer to start and he caved.

Now some important context: I knew I had some power in this situation. I live in a 3-apartment building and the other two apartments are both currently empty, so I knew the landlord would be scared to lose more rent. I'm a good tenant who always pays rent on time, so I knew the landlord would have to weigh losing me (and all the costs associated with flipping the apartment, hiring a realtor to show it, etc) vs. the extra bucks he might be able to make on the free market. And as I predicted, keeping me around was more important than the $400/month!

BUT here's the kicker, if you try to negotiate and it doesn't work?? It is highly unlikely that the landlord won't accept the original offer. If he says $400 and you say $0 and he says "no way", in 99.9% of cases, he'll still accept $400! So there is literally zero harm in trying.

Quick Lease Renewal Negotiation Guide, for Recap:

Before you enter the conversation

Know your rights as a renter

Look up what similar apartments are going for in the area

Decide what your final # is (that you won't go above)

Consider if there are other things you'd be willing to offer that would sweeten the deal for the landlord (longer lease term, higher gross rent in exchange for some free months / lower net rent**, etc)

**This will likely screw you over for the following renewal, so only do this if you are planning not to renew again

During the Negotiation

Start Low! Don't start by offering your final number

Don't throw everything out all at once! Have some things in your back pocket

Don't Panic! I know this can be scary, but there's a good chance it will work and a very low chance it will make anything worse (landlords expect this!) so it's worth trying

[transthadymacdermot]

What kind of alcohol do the peasants drink? Is there a variety of types? How young do kids start drinking recreationally?

Okay so this is more of a historical question than a story question but I will try to keep this as writing-related as possible

The peasants typically drink poitín or poteen, a type of illegal (specifically illegal. it's not poitín if it's legal) Irish alcohol made in small pot stills in isolated locations to hide from the authorities. Good fictional depictions of what it is/how it was made/its role in society in the time period that my writing takes place can be found in the book The MacDermots of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope, or in the early parts of the film Arracht, and the best nonfiction discussion of the role it played in society (and in sectarian conflict) in Ulster in the late 18thc I've found thus far is in the book The Men of No Property by Jim Smyth, in the very early chapters. Read one of those if you want more detail but for now I'll say that it's just generally illegal alcohol of dubious quality -- it might help usamerican followers to think of it as being like if moonshine was Irish (down to the "don't drink that you'll go blind 😡" stuff). And that there are Game of Thrones levels of machinations going on between rival distillers in $the background of the story (as there were with real poteen makers), but the only indication of it in the text is a couple of throwaway comments from Maguire

They pretty exclusively stick to poteen. You might say that there are different types because it... varies in quality depending on who made it and how willing the person drinking it is to drink the shadiest liquid ever produced out of desperation. Also since there isn't really a formal recipe due to the whole illegality thing it's possible that the ingredients vary but the characters don't really make the distinction

I'll admit that I'm not really sure because I've not read a lot of academic writing about recreational drinking amount Irish peasants at the time 😔 but from the general impression I have of society at the time I'd say quite young, maybe mid teens. Don't quote me on that though because it doesn't have much bearing on the story so I haven't done a terrible amount of research on it

EDIT: OH AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOR THIS they also drink punch. This is more expensive than poitín due to the ingredients and so they generally only drink it on special occasions (like at a wedding that occurs near the beginning, or when they blow up a bridge and want to celebrate). They also get drunker off it because u can just dip your cup right in the communal punch bowl and therefore it's harder to gauge how much you've had (this is something real that various people in the late 18thc complained about wrt punch drinking apparently lmao). Also there's a few times where the drinking of legal whiskey is mentioned because there was a tradition at the time where when the poorest tenants actually paid their rent for once the landlord would be expected to give them a glass to celebrate, to the point where everybody would get really mad if this all-important ritual was not performed. Thank you Maria Edgeworth for teaching me this 🔥

[valeofcashmere]

Zoom in to see a millennial landlord quoting The Fugitive at tenants.

I love that despite being busy all the time they had time to watch a rat dying from poison all day.

[cinnamaya]

Debunking Rent Control Naysayers

I was recently sent this Brookings Institute article from 2018 entitled 'What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control?' written by Rebecca Diamond as a counter argument to rent control advocacy. This article is one of many published by increasingly desperate economic think tanks. I've debunked many articles like this before in various places (and probably this one, they're all pretty indistinguishable), but I thought I'd put it together in one place as succinctly as possible. In my writing I treat the quoted piece with exactly the amount of respect and formality it deserves, which is to say, very little. So, let's take a look at what Rebecca Diamond tells us about what economic evidence tells us about rent control!

"Steadily rising housing rents in many of the US’s large, productive cities have reignited the discussion whether to expand or enact rent control provisions. Under pressure to fight rising rents, state lawmakers in Illinois, Oregon, and California are considering repealing laws that limit cities’ abilities to pass or expand rent control. While rules and regulations of rent control vary from place to place, most rent control consists of caps on price increases within the duration of a tenancy, and sometimes beyond the duration of a tenancy, as well as restrictions on eviction."

So far so good.

"New research examining how rent control affects tenants and housing markets offers insight into how rent control affects markets. While rent control appears to help current tenants in the short run, in the long run it decreases affordability, fuels gentrification, and creates negative spillovers on the surrounding neighborhood."

Because this is the Brookings Institute, this will all be very selectively chosen, pro financial capital research. Anyone expecting an actually objective article from an economic think-tank is clearly looking in the wrong place. These people's one job is to legitimize capitalism. Still, it's worth looking at their points because in this case, both their arguments and the underlying studies are both morally and logically shoddy.

"A substantial body of economic research has used theoretical arguments to highlight the potential negative efficiency consequences to keeping rents below market rates, going back to Friedman[!!!] and Stigler (1946). They argued that a cap on rents would lead landlords to sell their rental properties to owner occupants so that landlords could still earn the market price for their real estate. Rent control can also lead to “mis-match” between tenants and rental units. Once a tenant has secured a rent-controlled apartment, he may not choose to move in the future and give up his rent control, even if his housing needs change (Suen 1980, Glaeser and Luttmer 2003, Sims 2011, Bulow and Klemperer 2012). This mis-allocation can lead to empty-nest households living in family-sized apartments and young families crammed into small studios, clearly an inefficient allocation. Similarly, if rental rates are below market rates, renters may choose to consume excessive quantities of housing (Olsen 1972, Gyourko and Linneman 1989). Rent control can also lead to decay of the rental housing stock; landlords may not invest in maintenance because they can’t recoup these investment by raising rents. (Downs 1988, Sims 2007).

First of all, any article that quotes Milton Friedman is immediately suspect. He is irrelevant to economics and his ideas have had disastrous consequences for our economic system. But let's take a look at the arguments and their basic logical flaws:

Rent control leads landlords to sell their properties - This is a good thing. Landlords are an unnecessary middleman in the housing market and a drain on the economy.

Rent controls lead to "Inefficient Allocation" - A completely irrelevant argument considering a lack of rent control does nothing to increase this efficiency. Rather than people who already lived in "inefficiently allocated" apartments, however, they just go to the highest bidder.

"if rental rates are below market rates, renters may choose to consume excessive quantities of housing" - please.

Landlords wont invest in maintenance - In what world do landlords maintain their apartments anyway? Landlords will always do the bare minimum. The free market forces them to. That's market efficiency at work.

"Of course, rent control also offered potential benefits for tenants. For example, rent control provides insurance against rent increases, potentially limiting displacement. Affordable housing advocates argue that these insurance benefits are valuable to tenants. For instance, if long-term tenants have developed neighborhood-specific capital, such as a network of friends and family, proximity to a job, or children enrolled in local schools, then tenants face large risks from rent appreciation. In contrast, individuals who have little connection to any specific area can easily insure themselves against local rental price appreciation by moving to a cheaper location. Those invested in the local community are not able to use this type of “self-insurance” as easily, since they must give up some or all of their neighborhood specific capital. Rent control can provide these tenants with this type of insurance."

Yep. This is all fine.

"Until recently, there was little data or natural experiments with which to assess the importance of these competing arguments, and to assess how rent controls affects tenants, landlords, or the broader housing market. But newly-available housing-market data spanning periods of dramatic change in rent control laws in Cambridge, MA and in San Francisco, CA have allowed economists to examine these questions empirically. While these studies do find support for the idea that existing tenants benefit from the insurance provided by rent control, they also find the overall cost of providing that insurance is very large."

This is blatantly false. Rent controls have been around far longer than the USA. There is plenty of data and literally years of economic analysis on this stuff.

"From December 1970 through 1994, all rental units in Cambridge built prior to 1969 were regulated by a rent control ordinance that placed strict caps on rent increases and tightly restricted the removal of units from the rental stock. The legislative intent of the rent control ordinance was to provide affordable rental housing, and at the eve of rent control’s elimination in 1994, controlled units typically rented at 40-plus percent below the price of nearby non-controlled properties. In November 1994, the Massachusetts electorate passed a referendum to eliminate rent control by a narrow 51–49 percent margin, with nearly 60 percent of Cambridge residents voting to retain the rent control ordinance. This law change directly impacted properties previously subject to rent control, enabling landlords to begin to charge market rents."

Tragic. Let's see what the effects were.

"Autor, Palmer, and Pathak (2014) (APP), studies the impact of this unexpected change and find that newly decontrolled properties’ market values increased by 45 percent."

It inflated housing prices. Good for people to whom housing is an asset. Bad for people to whom housing is a… house.

"In addition to these direct effects of rent decontrol, APP find removing rent control has substantial indirect effects on neighboring properties, boosting their values too. Post-decontrol price appreciation was significantly greater at properties that had a larger fraction of formerly controlled neighbors: residential properties at the 75th percentile of rent control exposure gained approximately 13 percent more in property value following decontrol than did properties at the 25th percentile of exposure."

It made it more expensive to buy, not only in those houses, but the surrounding areas? Doesn't sound like it was making housing more accessible so far.

"This differential appreciation of properties in rent control–intensive locations was equally pronounced among decontrolled and never-controlled units, suggesting that the effect of rent control had been to reduce the whole neighborhood’s desirability."

Didn't they say earlier that rent controlled units were so desirable that people wouldn't move? Perhaps they mean desirability to outside landlords.

"The economic magnitude of the effect of rent control removal on the value of Cambridge’s housing stock is large, boosting property values by $2.0 billion between 1994 and 2004. Of this total effect, only $300 million is accounted for by the direct effect of decontrol on formerly controlled units, while $1.7 billion is due to the indirect effect. These estimates imply that more than half of the capitalized cost of rent control was borne by owners of never-controlled properties. Rent controlled properties create substantial negative externalities on the nearby housing market, lowering the amenity value of these neighborhoods and making them less desirable places to live.  In short, the policy imposed $2.0 billion in costs to local property owners, but only $300 million of that cost was transferred to renters in rent-controlled apartments."

"Capitalized cost" being the keyword here. Their investments weren't as profitable. This does NOT translate to actual cost like the article suggests, much less for the tenants. None of the renters were maintaining the asset prices of their rentals on balance sheets because they are tenants not owners. "But the owners have to pay the costs!" you might say. True, but if it weren't profitable, then the landlords wouldn't be renting the buildings.

"Diamond, McQuade, and Qian (2018) (DMQ) examine the consequences of an expansion of rent control on renters, landlords, and the housing market that resulted from a unique 1994 local San Francisco ballot initiative. In 1979, San Francisco imposed rent control on all standing buildings with five or more apartments. Rent control in San Francisco consists of regulated rent increases, linked to the CPI, within a tenancy, but no price regulation between tenants. New construction was exempt from rent control, since legislators did not want to discourage new development. Smaller multi-family buildings were exempt from this 1979 law change since they were viewed as more “mom and pop” ventures, and did not have market power over rents. This exemption was lifted by a 1994 San Francisco ballot initiative. Proponents of the initiative argued that small multi-family housing was now primarily owned by large businesses and should face the same rent control of large multi-family housing. Since the initial 1979 rent control law only impacted properties built from 1979 and earlier, the removal of the small multi-family exemption also only affected properties built 1979 and earlier. This led to a differential expansion in rent control in 1994 based on whether the small multi-family housing was built prior to or post 1980—a policy experiment where otherwise similar housing was treated differently by the law."

Well, the last example wasn't too convincing. Let's see if this one is any better.

"To examine rent control’s effects on tenant migration and neighborhood choices, DMQ examine panel data that provides address-level migration decisions and housing characteristics for the majority of adults living in San Francisco in the early 1990s. This allows them to define a treatment group of renters who lived in small multi-family apartment buildings built prior to 1980 and a control group of renters living in small multi-family housing built between 1980 and 1990. Their data allows them to follow each of these groups over time up until the present, regardless of where they migrate."

So, before getting into it, what would be the ideal outcome here? If the rent control laws were effective, we would see tenants in the rent controlled buildings experiencing:

more economic freedom due to decreased housing costs

less displacement of rent controlled tenants.

The first point is pretty unambiguously clear, and supported by mountains of evidence. The real question pertains to the second point: Can the tenants benefiting from these cost reductions stay in their apartments and continue to see these benefits?

Let's see what happened.

"Between five and ten years after the law change, the beneficiaries of rent control are 19 percent less likely to have moved to a new address, relative to the control group’s migration rate. Further, impact on the likelihood of remaining in San Francisco as whole was the same, indicating a large share of the renters that rent control caused to remain at their 1994 address would have left San Francisco had they not been covered by rent control."

Holy moly.

"These effects are significantly stronger among older households and among households that have already spent a number of years at their address prior to treatment. This is consistent with the fact that both of these populations are likely to be less mobile."

So older people more integrated with their neighborhood didn't have to move? This rent control thing sounds great!

"Renters who don’t need to move very often are more likely to find it worthwhile to remain in their rent controlled apartment for a long time, enabling them to accrue larger rent savings. Finally, DMQ find these effects are especially large for racial minorities, likely indicating that minorities faced greater displacement pressures in San Francisco than whites."

Less displacement ✓

"While expansion of rent control did prevent some displacement among tenants living in San Francisco in 1994, the landlords of these properties responded to mitigate their rental losses in a number of ways."

"Rent control made me do it," - landlords.

"In practice, landlords have a few possible ways of removing tenants. First, landlords could move into the property themselves, known as move-in eviction. Second, the Ellis Act allows landlords to evict tenants if they intend to remove the property from the rental market, for instance, in order to convert the units to condos. Finally, landlords are legally allowed to offer their tenants monetary compensation for leaving. In practice, these transfer payments from landlords are common and can be quite large."

All valid points.

"DMQ find that rent-controlled buildings were 8 percentage points more likely to convert to a condo than buildings in the control group. Consistent with these findings, they find that rent control led to a 15 percentage point decline in the number of renters living in treated buildings and a 25 percentage point reduction in the number of renters living in rent-controlled units, relative to 1994 levels. This large reduction in rental housing supply was driven by converting existing structures to owner-occupied condominium housing and by replacing existing structures with new construction."

An unfortunate side effect, but there are a few things to note:

Landlords moving into their own units works exactly once.

While some renters being pushed out is bad, at least the housing is owned by individual people rather than one landlord. If anything this increases the stability of housing in the area.

"This 15 percentage point reduction in the rental supply of small multi-family housing likely led to rent increases in the long-run, consistent with standard economic theory. In this sense, rent control operated as a transfer between the future renters of San Francisco (who would pay these higher rents due to lower supply) to the renters living in San Francisco in 1994 (who benefited directly from lower rents). "

If only there were a way to control those rent increases.

"Furthermore, since many of the existing rental properties were converted to higher-end, owner-occupied condominium housing and new construction rentals, the passage of rent control ultimately led to a housing stock that caters to higher income individuals."

Except we already know people in rent controlled units experience greater overall stability even considering the housing converted into condos, so this less important movement is more than offset by the benefits.

"DMQ find that this high-end housing, developed in response to rent control, attracted residents with at least 18 percent higher income."

This is an INCREDIBLY dubious causal claim. This housing was developed after rent control, but we can look at any other city to see this isn't some unique trend. In fact, the original study cited here finds that, if anything, the displacement in rent controlled units is contingent on gentrification and not vice versa. They argue, "This evidence is consistent with the idea that landlords undertake efforts to remove their tenants or convince them to leave in improving, gentrifying areas. In addition, the rent control tenants are more likely to remain at their address within the less gentrifying areas[…]These combined effects lead tenants treated by rent control to live in lower quality areas." (Diamond, McQuade & Qian, 2019) An argument against rent controls that seems reasonable on the surface level, but is absurd upon closer inspection. These tenants remain in neighborhoods which are less desirable by choice. The argument here depends on the idea that displacement is ever acceptable, justifying it with the data suggesting some tenants on average might have been displaced into slightly higher income neighborhoods. It's a justification which I'm sure will bring great comfort to those being pushed out of their homes due to increasing rents.

Hidden deeper in this argument, however, is another flaw. The entire point is tautological. Gentrification IS the displacement of lower income tenants, so to argue that rent control pushed people out of gentrified neighborhoods and kept people in non-gentrified neighborhoods is like saying gentrified neighborhoods gentrified and non gentrified neighborhoods didn't gentrify. This isn't to suggest that this point is lost on Diamond, McQuade & Qian. I'm quite sure they understand what gentrification is and would never unintentionally make such an error.

"Taking all of these points together, it appears rent control has actually contributed to the gentrification of San Francisco, the exact opposite of the policy’s intended goal. Indeed, by simultaneously bringing in higher income residents and preventing displacement of minorities, rent control has contributed to widening income inequality of the city."

As said above, this supposed contribution to gentrification seems to actually be the reverse. Neighborhoods which were able to push out rent controlled tenants were more gentrified. It's not a particularly salient point, but to claim any more would be to make unsubstantiated causal claims. I would also like to note that this is not the policy's intended goal. Rent control is meant to keep rents cheaper in rent controlled units. Of course if you expect rent control to be a silver bullet to every problem of gentrification and urbanization, then it will be a failure in your eyes. This is doubly true in cases where the rent control is not universal.

Additionally, the fact that "preventing displacement of minorities" is a point against rent control here shows exactly who the author's sympathies are really for.

"It may seem surprising that the expansion of rent control in San Francisco led to an upgraded housing stock, catering to high-income tastes, while the removal of rent control in Cambridge also lead to upgrading and value appreciation. To reconcile these effects, it is useful to think about which types of landlords would respond to a rent control expansion versus a rent control removal. In the case of rent control expansion, some landlords will choose to recoup some of their losses by converting to condo or redeveloping their building to exempt it from rent control. However, other landlords may choose to accept the rent control regulation, and no longer perform maintenance on the building and allow it to decay."

Finally a great point! Landlords ARE bad, Rebecca, keep going…

"In the rent control expansion case, one would see an increase in condo conversions and upgrades, driven by the landlords that chose to respond in this way. However, when rent control is removed, the landlords who own the rent controlled buildings are the ones who didn’t choose to convert to condo or redevelop in response to the initial passage of rent control. Indeed, one would expect this subset of landlords to choose to upgrade and invest in their properties once the rent control regulation is removed."

This whole section is meant as some sort of justification for the fact that getting rid of rent controls leads to the same exact results that counted against rent controls in the main argument. The only point it really makes is that we shouldn't get rid of rent controls. Anyone who can't see the absurdity at this point has ulterior motives. Ultimately, one should only expect landlords to do the bare minimum, rent control or no rent control. That is why we need legal protections, and most importantly tenant organizing to make sure landlords actually keep these places livable.

"Rent control appears to help affordability in the short run for current tenants, but in the long-run decreases affordability, fuels gentrification, and creates negative externalities on the surrounding neighborhood."

Decreases affordability?? You have to wonder how the author came to that conclusion so contrary to the very first point in the article (housing prices decreased). This alone shows how deceitful this Diamond is being.

We've already seen why the gentrification point is moot. As for those "negative externalities," I fail to see how increased rents in non-rent controlled apartments is a satisfactory argument for anything but an expansion of rent control.

"These results highlight that forcing landlords to provide insurance to tenants against rent increases can ultimately be counterproductive. If society desires to provide social insurance against rent increases, it may be less distortionary to offer this subsidy in the form of a government subsidy or tax credit. This would remove landlords’ incentives to decrease the housing supply and could provide households with the insurance they desire. A point of future research would be to design an optimal social insurance program to insure renters against large rent increases."

What in this hypothetical is stopping the landlords from just increasing the rent in the long run to counteract the subsidies and tax credits?

Additionally, we see a hint of another popular anti rent control fallacy here. "Decrease housing supply" is misleading because housing supply is not decreasing. In fact, housing for sale temporarily increases. There are however two factors which lead to a decrease in the rental supply. The first is the conversion into condos, which does push rents up. This is irrelevant to the problem, however, considering that rent controls directly counteract that and any other supply based fluctuations. The other decrease of supply in the rental market, ironically, is exactly what rent controls are intended to do. This decrease is due to people renting apartments and not being forced to move. This decrease in supply also roughly coincides with a corresponding decrease in demand because people can be confident and secure staying in the rentals they choose to rent.

"The authors did not receive any financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. They are currently not an officer, director, or board member of any organization with an interest in this article."

This you?

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

One year of living here

[and what it looked like when I moved in]

Gremlin update: supplemental

Well it has officially been a year since I moved in here and maybe I should do a year end review...

Last year on June 1st the situation was this:

I had recently been pushed to tell my landlord about my roommate assaulting me because my other roommate was threatening consistently to move out and leave me alone with him, and in response, within the month, my landlord decided to sell the house we were renting, to a private family, prompting our immediate eviction [a decision he claims is unrelated]. So after a struggle to find a place at all and agreeing to pay 1000 of my 1200 pension in rent to finally secure a place, and another 1000 in moving expenses, I found myself standing in the entry to what looked like a tightly packed storage unit with my cat in his carrier and a narrow passage to the bathroom door.

And I mean so full of stuff there were things pushing up the tiles of the drop ceiling, the kitchen was fully buried, you could not tell it was an apartment. Imagine everything in a 3 story house and garage packed haphazardly into a 10X15 space... Or imagine a can of sardines. And the shelf had been partially ripped off the wall between me viewing the place and me stepping in the door...

And despite an outlet right at the door, one in the kitchen, and an explicit request not to bury my freezers because it was all of my food and I wanted to be sure they were plugged in and have access to food to eat... The movers insisted the only outlets they could find were all the way at the back of the apartment, so all I had -that I could conceivably unbury- was the can of beans and hot sauce that the previous tenant had left sealed in the nearest cupboard... Which I only knew was there because I had just enough time to drop off my plants and move anything left in the cabinets to the cabinet over the stove before having to lock the place back up. I hadn't even had the time and energy to wash down the apartment before the movers crammed everything in there.

And they had done other things like leave all my book cases empty and facing the back of the apartment so I couldn't put things in them to clear space. They had put my dresser facing the back with the drawers pulled out and stacked on top in a random pile so I would have to be able to unbury the whole thing with elbow room to condense the drawers back into the frame. They left a pile of my things outside next to the building, including things I explicitly told them not to. They had moved me in like they hate me personally for some deeply unforgivable crime and wanted me to fail and then charged me 1000$ after having quoted me 300.

I had to sleep on top of a wooden chest that was crammed at an angle through the bathroom doorway for the first week while I had to puzzle my way out of it...

Here are some photos, the way the movers left it [It doesn't look like this now, to be sure]:

And how I had to set up my phone charging, music player and a source of light in my bathroom... I cannot stress enough that this was all tidily arranged in boxes, totes, bags and a taped up clothing rack for them when they took it from the house. Yes that is my Piccolo plushy and jacket with my cane at the door where I had to put them... And 2 brooms, not some huge handled contraption, just 2 brooms... And my crutches because OH YEAH I MASSIVELY re-fucked up my ankle during the apartment searching and was back to being in a boot and crutches because I could barely fucking walk...

At this point I had been super run down by apartment hunting all over the place in a desperate scramble to not be homeless for even one night because Corona meant shelters are unsafe for me, a near guarantee of dying every night I would have to stay in one... It had already been stressful 3 months, and expensive. I have cfs, I had just gotten over the worst of a bunch of long covid bullshit when this all started going down.

So I am standing there in the 2 square feet at the door, looking at this, and thought to take a photo at least, anxious about trying to fit in the rest of my stuff from outside before someone started stealing something expensive and important or before it all got utterly ruined by rain, or before the landlord got pissed off... Having just paid 2000 for first and last and another 1000 on moving expenses, trying to tell myself I will probably get CHOB and if not I can make 200 and a food bank work...

I had no one to help me and even if I did it wouldn't have been safe due to corona. For years now I have been 'on my own' financially and in terms of help with anything, usually even despite having friends or family that I helped out when they need it... But losing everyone I had left due to corona complicating my ability to go out, and my new found inability to safely meet new people means I had, well the apartment, and no extra space or vehicle to work with... Just the storage box in front of me and myself [and Pumpkin to worry about]...

I think most people would have cried. [I'll cry about it later]

I think a lot of people would have given up.

Some would have done a violence. [still time to do that maybe]

I have this amazing ability to:

a) Not process stress or distress while I am actively experiencing it, leaving me open to critical thinking [I'll have my breakdown after the danger has passed and when I am alone and feel safe]

b) never feel bad about myself for having ended up in a shit situation thus removing guilt or same or low self esteem from the equation

c) Tell myself, after years of experience and -repeated- practice, that I have the capacity to dig myself back out of problems, physical energy permitting, speed variable

These are the bruises and injuries, some of them, I got in the first week climbing over under and around furniture, carrying other boxes and furniture to try to organize my way into having room to move.

And I ate a lot of cold sandwiches in the first couple months because I had no kitchen and OH YEAH IT WAS 50 DEGREES IN HERE [120F]... I have pots, which is made infinitely worse by being too hot... And the one tiny window that opens I couldn't even open because my neighbour wouldn't stop smoking right under it out out his front door that is right next to it and I am allergic.

One of the first things I did after making the place survivable and setting up everything Pumpkin needed in the bathroom, was start digging out my book cases so I could -at some point- unpack all my book boxes into them and get them out of the way. Having my book cases makes me feel slightly more sane and grounded. Usually they are the first thing I unpack, that was NOT the case this time.

Usually when I move I get the keys as early as I can to go over and do preliminary cleaning of shared spaces and my own space. I take measurements during the interview process and have a floor plan mapped out, and so by the time I get there everything is in the right room and roughly not horridly arranged and everything under my stuff has been cleaned of other people... Not this time.

But I did, before long, set up my book cases so I could feel like a person again... and have somewhere to put my tea. It took me till the 17th of June -last year ofc- to get this far:

Here is they, with nothing else pictured because nothing else looked like anything but pile of storage.

The first thing I had to do was dig out my freezers, confirm they were plugged in and get them halfway across the apartment, and dig out the kitchen.

And I did, one grueling and stupid step at a time.

... But yeah, that's what June a year ago looked like.

I think one of the first things I did, maybe in June idk was stack 18 or so totes into a platform in the corner and get my mattress up on it so I had somewhere to sleep... Okay actually at first the platform was in the middle of the room and a whole row higher [the artist sleeping on a stack of things about 2 feet from the ceiling was foreshadowing for my own actual life something fierce]. This platform would spend most of the next year slowly collapsing in on itself until I finally accepted failure and set up the bunk bed properly.

And then I spent July, August, and September organizing things one at a time into the next better arrangement. Then I had to rush to get all my winter groceries done before I had to shut myself in here without leaving for 6 months on account that I can't get my cart through the snow and can't get in transportation with other people due to corona...

And then I spent the winter recovering and organizing.

I should have taken more pictures of the various hellish and unconventional between steps, for sure.

June of 2024:

This place looks so different.

I can't even clearly remember how I got from there to here, it was just so much finding the next thing to move and moving it, for just months.

I can't get you pictures because my phone's cord won't stay connected to the computer long enough to transfer anything and I need to buy a new one... But Imagine it looks like there is less than 1/3 as much stuff, simply by being better arranged. And imagine it arranged in a way that looks organized.

And it looks livable.

It looks like an apartment and not a storage unit! [Or it will once I move the chairs again]

I took apart one whole desk, got rid of that green drawer plastic unit, and someone stole my bike [not the trike] is mostly what I got rid of but I also brought -in- everything from outside.

The next time I get you pictures you will actually be able to see the layout of the apartment, for one, there is mostly just one tidy stack of storage near the door and the rest is pretty well arranged. I still need to downsize but I am now in a position to safely go through everything at my own pace and actually decide what to get rid of. Also in a position to repair things to actually use them, and getting to a point where I can focus on finishing projects to downsize the scraps that are left when I am done them.

The situation now is more:

-The hair I lost from stress [or potentially being poisoned] is all growing back at various rates and I have baby bangs again at 36... But also bangs and a lot of hair that's 1-10 inches long that's all fresh growth.

-The smoking neighbour moved away or something

-I got CHOB after all -it was not a super certain thing- and am now back to 'securely' having finances to manage instead of scrambling to make 200 work for food and supplies [and I am very good with money so I have savings again].

-I'm a full day of work away from having this place in shape enough I wouldn't consider it a disaster if the landlord had to come over [and they have to give 24 hours notice]

-I have my health card and ID renewed and I am sure they were already expired by last June, so that's new

-I have an air conditioner and inclusive rent and I don't have to worry about roommates being stupid with it and running up bills.

-I have been marveling all year at just how much roommates were making my life hell and how amazing it is to live alone. My dishes are done! When I clean it stays clean! No one fucks anything up or breaks anything! There's no FLIES! There's no bugs! There's no old food! There's no mold problem! There's no icky little fly spots on everything! [I don't have to deal with Fine just letting her cat pee everywhere and not cleaning it up because she's too dense to realize the yellow staining is bleaching from urine and not "puke" or leaving things on the floor by the door which is the one way Pumpkin will pee on something]

-I haven't had a severe allergy attack or been infected with anything since having my own place and my physical health is steadily recovering to the point where I can now tolerate being a little hyperthyroid without it destroying me

-I have a switch now so I can play BOTW and TOTK to my heart's content and find all the koroks... [silly but we need whimsy]

-I have a neighbour who keeps checking to make sure I'm alive

Maybe it seems silly but the last offline friend I had and my mother both, when I asked them to check in on me with a daily phone call because I was having heart attacks -that the hospital wasn't taking seriously because they were cardiac spasms and not from clots- and I was worried I'd lose consciousness and die on my floor before someone found me, couldn't be bothered to actually do it, they both called or texted me 1-2 WEEKS later with a passive aggressive "So are you still alive or what >:("... And Yeah, I don't speak to them anymore, I don't have friends or family in my life at all anymore because everyone kept treating me like that...

So to lose everyone the moment I have to ask them to do something as simple as check in on my when I know I am in crisis [which is a very rare thing for me, most people are convinced I don't know how to ask for help]... To have my roommate/'friend' hear my book case fall over on top of me when she knew I was having heart problems and not bother saying anything or checking in on me for a whole week either... I can sit here and know it's not a reflection of my objective value all I want, but it doesn't change the fact that I had no one in my life who could be moved to act like they gave one iota of a fuck about me...

And now I have a neighbour who just noticed I was unusually shut in and alone and worries when she or her partner don't see me or Pumpkin after a while. She tries very hard to do things like text me compliments about my weird little garden [that I know is very sad actually, I haven't really gotten to the flower part more than just the green part... but she is very sweet]. Having a stranger go very out of their way past me being cranky and reclusive to respect my boundaries and leave notes in my box and text me as requested, in order to make sure I am okay is good for my mental health. I needed this. I needed it from my friend and family, really, but getting it from a complete stranger is so much better than not at all.

This week I started getting to repairing things with epoxy that had broken and getting them put in place.

I'm not as productive in winter as i tend to be in summer months in part due to SAD, not so much outright depression but just being lower energy due to a lack of sunlight, and usually being too cold, though this year it was due to being too warm due to old heating controls, but now I am set up for a summer of not overheating with the apartment looking like it's in a good starting point. I'm set up to be able to take out and address one thing at a time while I have a clean and relatively nice apartment to do it in, without overheating and having to stay laying down.

There are wildflowers in a vase on the counter! I have little packages on the way! I have a little man screaming at me for his gravy meats!

I'm starting to put up decor as I find and repair it. I'm starting to be able to decorate.

I have a full kitchen to cook for myself now! [I did not in the last place because I was isolated to the basement]

There's empty open floor space!

Everything is clean on a regular-ish basis or daily!

This summer I will undoubtedly make so much progress.

This fall I should be able to do the winter shopping at a leisurely pace.

This winter I should be 100% set up to start batch cooking and baking again, but also with the AC unit I can cook in here in the summer and fall without dying.

Still not talking to any family and I don't really have offline friends, but I have a neighbour who notices when I am too quiet or when I decorate my door or garden, or window.

I'm going to get a full sized recycle bin and organize my paperwork!

This year I am probably finally going to get a decent graphics card!

I have my noise machine and Myst music on on a regular basis now, I took out my candles and incense this week because it's safe now!

I am still so tired but nothing looks daunting anymore and the more I get done the more approachable everything looks.

By the end of this summer I should know what my "new normal" looks like and get to enjoy it.

Maybe I'll check in again June next year to recap everything I got done? I have a regular-ish blog anyway...