#...technically I no longer have a car loan

[chibisquirt]

#this is why you don't buy shit on credit #the likelihood of it financially destroying you is high

I'm sorry, but that is absolutely the wrong take in response to this.

Buying on credit is not the problem; in fact, in many cases, it's the only way to do something. Think about buying a house; most people don't exactly have the cash to buy outright! Oftentimes buying a car, or furniture, is the same kettle of fish. Heck, that's how I bought my furniture! 12-months no interest, yes please!

The problem comes when you lose track of how much you have bought on credit--and you can lose track of how much you've bought just as easily with a checkbook as you can with a credit card or loans.

When I bought my furniture on 12-month no-interest financing, I made damn sure that I wasn't committing to more than I knew I could pay in a month, and I kept track to make sure that I had it paid off before the promotional period ended. And look! No problems!

The people the above person is talking about have purchased much, much more than they can conceivably pay off independently. That is the issue with that scenario. They've spent more on transportation than I spent on my house, given the economic bracket he's describing they probably spent a minimum of $350k on the house and that's in my incredibly low cost-of-living area--on the coasts who knows how much it would be--and they have more on their credit cards than I spent on my car.

So yes, they have a problem with finances--but the problem isn't the existence of credit. The problem is the absence of accountability. After all, I, too, have a car loan, a house loan, and credit cards; the difference is, I live within my means.

[chussyracing]

What has been happening in the world of motorsports?

I probably forgot a lot of stuff since I took too much time to post it, but the roundup is under the cut. All mistakes are my own!

Drivers and teams

All teams will have a shared launch event in London for next year, all drivers are confirmed to take part in it and there should be famous names like Madonna and Justin Bieber (who is funnily enough blacklisted from Ferrari after repainting his against their rules hehe) also Max already stated he would rather be sick that week than be included

Update there is slight backleash from fans because it sold out very quickly and then tickets already get resold for much higher price

Also Ferrari already announced their own launch event in Maranello and all Italian fans (or fans physically in Italy) that buy tickets to their museums can be entered into the giveaway for tickets to get there

In 2025 VCARB should be named Racing Bulls

They should also be using some parts from RB20 (I think suspension?) on for Las Vegas which should speed them up

Dan Fallowes left Aston Martin’s position of technical director after Brazil

Also Aston Martin scored a new partnership with Puma for 2025

According to FIA’s newest controls Red Bull didn’t use the front bib to alter the ride height between quali and races so there was no cheating from their side

Antonio Fuoco will do a junior FP1 session for Ferrari in Abu Dhabi in Carlos’ car after Ollie can no longer be considered as junior (he drove 3 races and the rules specifically state no more than two to be considered junior)

Nico, Este and Carlos has been cleared from their teams to do Abu Dhabi post season tests for their new teams

The same cannot be said about Lewis but the date when he will go to Maranello for the first time has been set already, as have been the details of him driving f1-75 since only old spec is allowed outside of texting and filming days

To nobody’s surprised Alpine will use Mercedes PUs from 2026 onwards (it should be a 5-year deal as of now and since it ramps up the value of the team I expect them to start looking for a buyer after 2026)

Inaki Rueda (yes, THE race strat head from Ferrari that we made petitions against) joined Audi under Binotto (he replaces Zehnder who will move into a different position in the team)

Red Bull accused certain teams that acquired their engineers and mechanics over the years from cheating with tyres by inserting a small amount of water in them to help cool them down and Pirelli responded that they found no evidence for this so far (also red bull thinks so because they were the ones who tried to find a way to cheat with this but weren’t successful SO FAR)

James Vowles mentioned how after all the heavy crashes, with only 3 races to go and a small budget, it will be difficult to bring parts to Las Vegas which caused a few ill-minded articles about no Williams in Vegas BUT the truth is they might bring in old specs and with no spare parts but they will be there

Merc is preparing a special goodbye livery for Lewis for Abu Dhabi (and you can be a part of it if you sign up on their website and get chosen)

Audi (or Stake because it will be funnier what I say next) is selling a stake in the team to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund

Recent interviews with Toto (a motorsport podcast and the new motorsport book) show him as a pretty big loser because he spoke about Lewis mentioning that Sainz Sr told him about the move in Abu Dhabi 2023 and he texted Fred who left him on read and he also said that Lewis saved him some trouble hinting that they would need to get rid of him because of… *checks notes* lack of cognitive sharpness since everyone has shelf life??

Williams will add more yellow color to their Vegas livery for Keeper sponsorship

Silly season

Sauber confirm both Valtteri and Guanyu are out of the team at the end of the season and their 2025 driver line up is Nico and Gabriel Bortoleto (who untied the relationship with McLaren where he was on loan)

There are growing speculations (almost confirmed tbh) that Val could become Mercedes’ reserve driver

There are also MANY speculations about Franco: Horner visited Williams’ motorhome and they rumoredly offered to buy him for 10m and Williams said no unless they come up with a bigger check (Briatore is also looking at the possibilities of hiring him which would put Jack Doohan aside after he signed the deal with them for next year)

There are rumors Checo could get replaced next year, there are ones he will keep the seat and that he will bring more sponsorship money (choose your fighter)

What happened in the sport recently

Toto Wolff was missing from Brazilian GP

To celebrate Senna, Brazil had special pole award with Brazilian colors, special top 3 caps for the podium in yellow and green and with “Senna” at the back and Lewis drove Senna’s McLaren as the honorary citizen of Brazil

McLaren said the WDC was never their priority, and they always went for the constructor’s title after Brazil where they made Oscar let Lando in front twice in the same weekend (el oh el)

Little hats off to Fernando (it’s not really news but he deserves it), his back pain was so bad in Brazil he couldn’t even get out of the car afterwards, yet he decided to finish the race for the mechanics that worked to get the car repaired for the race after he crashed it in qualifying the same day

Women in motorsport and juniors

Alex Powell became Italian F4 rookie champ for 2024 I thought that is very neat

Rafaela Ferreira becomes another confirmed member of F1 Academy’s 2025 line up and will be driving for VCARB (she is the first female race winner of the Brazilian F4 Championship)

The 2024 F1 Academy champ (so most likely Abbi Pulling) will get a fully funded GB3 seat with Rodin for 2025 and 20 paid days of testing in the car before the season

Callum Voisin will stay with Rodin in F3 for 2025

There is rumor (which I wouldn’t believe so far) that Briatore is interested in Franco Colapinto and would like to set Jack Doohan’s contract aside for him

Dino will be racing for DAMS in F2 for the rest of the season to replace Juan Manuel Correa (yes but also nooooo)

With Jack confirmed for Alpine 2025 (for now at least) there are speculations of Paul Aron possibly becoming their reserve driver since the current TP of Alpine was also his boss in Hitech

Max Esterson will finish the season for Trident in F2

There is a RUMOUR for now that Roman Staněk could have a deal with Invicta in F2 for a full season seat next year (please and thank you)

Thomas Bearman (yes, Ollie’s baby brother) became first confirmed British F4 driver for 2025 (he will be racing with Hitech since he already had two races with them)

Chloe Grant is leaving the world of single seaters but wants to explore other racing options

Hailie Deegan will be driving Indy NXT in 2025 with HMD Motorsports

Richard Verschoor is switching to MP Motorsport after leaving Trident, meaning Denis Hauger is out of F2 for the rest of the season (he will move to Andretti in Indy though)

Nikola Tsolov (my arch nemesis) became the newest part of Red Bull junior academy

Roman Bilinski will be Rodin’s F3 driver in 2025

Nikola Tsolov will be Campos’ F3 driver in 2025

Nicola Lacorte will be DAMS’ F3 driver in 2025

Fia, rules and future of the sport

Honda got fined 600k for engine budget cap breach (incorrectly filled out documentation) and Alpine got fined 400k for engine budget cap breach (late submission of the documentation)

GPDA made an Instagram account and put up a joint statement/an open letter to Bey Sulayem mentioning swearing, jewelry and underwear rules and urging the president to change his tone when talking to and about the drivers and be transparent about the use of money they get from all the financial fines as it is unclear as it stands now

FUNNILY enough, Sulayem who is biggest voice calling for lack of politic gestures and speech from all sport figures in F1 congratulated Trump publicly on his elections campaign

Domenicali said to be ready for the news very soon which should be linked to the rotating calendar for European races he couldn’t stop talking about for a year now (after Monaco extended its contract it could be Spa and Zandvoort and also potentially Monza and Imola)

Oh, also he said that Argentina is among the candidates who would like to get added to the calendar

Race director Niels Wittich was fired from his role unexpectedly (according to him, he only got told on Tuesday morning) and he will be replaced by Rui Maques from Las Vegas on

Paolo Basarri also left the role of FIA compliance officer (and yes, he was most likely fired as well)

Monaco will stay on the calendar at least till 2031 after extending their deal, the date will be moved back to the start of June starting from 2026 (happy pride to all the non-straight non-cis chirlies out there we stay winning) so it will no longer clash with Indy 500 and the new deal includes higher hosting fees (of course)

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei leaves his position in the lead at the end of the year but will continue as an adviser (they are apparently restructuring so let’s see how it goes)

Drivers will have cooling sets for extreme heat races from 2025 onwards (when FIA proclaims the race as extremely warm one that is)

The rookie sprint got a green light from all teams but they will need some preparations to make that happen so they will aim to have it ready for 2026

Also there should be gender neutral wording in the FIA rules starting with 2026 onwards

Ohh and! If a car cannot start the race, the grid should now be brought closer

Other series

Arthur Leclerc’s team Scuderia Baldini won the Italian GT championship

Kinda not my playing ground but: Norman Nato will be driving for WEC Jota Sport team (they partnered with Cadillac tho, also he will be teammates with Jenson Button)

Joseph Loake drove Aston at Silverstone as his prize for winning Autosport Young Driver of the Year (and apparently his time was pretty good?)

Jak Crawford became Andretti’s reserve driver for Formula E

REMINDER MACAU GP THIS WEEKEND (before I forget :))

Another thing I am not really following but I just learned Nascar works in playoff system until 4 people stay (Joey Logano won for those who wanna know!! Also, the guy with most points ended up p5 WHAT)

Logan Sargeant did a seat fit with Meyer Shank Racing Honda and will be testing with them next week as well

Seb is in talks with WEC next year with Porsche (probably for Le Mans only tho)

Robert Schwartzman will leave Ferrari WEC at the end of the season and go to Prema in IndyCar, meaning we will also need a new reserve driver with Ollie in F1 and Arthur with his own race weekends

Toyota Gazoo Racing won WEC constructor title, Jota won the hypercar title

Enzo Fittipaldi will be doing IndyCar testing for McLaren (so random)

Non-sport news

With Lewis leaving, Mercedes put up a vacant position for Marketing Operations Driver Clothing Executive

Ferrari partnered with IBM on a multi-year basis starting in 2025

Oh, they also partnered with Chivas Regal whiskey (so I suppose this is what the leaked Charles by the piano pic is all about)

Williams also scored new deals with Zoox/Robotaxi

F1 Fantasy will feature a new mini league for Las Vegas only

Car fucker fun fact of the day: Bugatti W16 mistral set a new open roof speed record of 453.91 kmph

Las Vegas is apparently struggling to sell out the tickets for the race so there are many exclusive offers and sales (also apparently, they are giving away a lot of ticket packages to influencers)

Ferrari partnered with Gladiator movie producers so the main actor (Paul or Pedro I forgot I am sorry) went to Austin with them and on the other hand Charles and Carlos went to the premiere

Daniel and Max played padel which is something I would normally not mention on my blog even at the gunpoint but apparently a 13-year-old kiddo beat them (which makes it funnier that they did good when max was partnered with Charles that one time so I am automatically ranking him highly above most other drivers and you cannot stop me)

Carlos was at Maranello this week and the Scuderia clubs (are they still called that?) threw a little goodbye party for him with cake and a little plaque

McLaren will have a little fashion show with Abercrombie in Las Vegas

Speaking of Vegas, they partnered with Snoopy and made a special edition merch only available in shops there

Kit Kat became F1’s official partner (which is sus when they have publicly been Checo’s sponsor for years now)

Wait ok this rumor is so funny I need to add it: apparently there are rumors at Norwegian gossip websites that their princess could be dating Franco

Max was on some charity sim racing and apparently his car made fun of Lando, so people got into a lot of discourse

Ollie will be at Autosport Internation Show at NEC in January

Damon Hill is leaving Sky Sport after 13 years with the team

Yeah help, did you see Pierre has told kids in a podcast that him and Charles got asked for a threesome/polyam by some fan once????????

[spentgladiator]

I don't know how many of you have had the privilege of having to shop for a used car in the last four years or so but let me tell you if you haven't yet, do everything you can to avoid it. What was once an exciting adventure has turned into the most nightmarish process I have ever undergone and I've had multiple colonoscopies, an abortion with complications, and dated an abusive, cringeworthy manchild for entirely too long.

This is worse.

Our particular constraints are this: nothing more than we can afford to buy outright. This is because you save a ton on insurance when you buy outright because they only have to insure the value of the vehicle, not the loan on the vehicle. These savings add up over the time you own the vehicle. Being in southern Ontario, our rates are some of the highest in Canada. By a wide margin. It's also because we are very, VERY debt-averse, which more people could stand to be imo.

This puts us square in the 2009-2015 range of used cars. Technically we could buy older but. We live in the Rust belt.

To circumvent this rust belting, our first instinct was to exploit a loophole in Alberta's insurance which is that a vehicle is technically considered road-worthy if insurance coverage has not been broken up to the point of sale, and purchase at an auction there and take our chances.

Three rounds of auctions later and we were outbid every time. There's only so much you should be willing to put up cash wise sight unseen and auction beaters used to be a very valid means of procurement. No longer it would appear. This was two weeks or so of looking.

So we switched out to local listings. Local auctions are mostly dealer-only so that way has been closed off to us, but honestly with how expensive auction beaters are now we're better off buying off a lot with a safety cert.

Cue three days of searching. Multiple bookmarked listings. And days of me scouring every single thread learning every single piece of info about the used car market out there.

Here is the process. You cannot skip any steps in this process under any circumstances. Never EVER skip one of these steps. Buying a used car is a huge headache and involves some SERIOUS legwork but that legwork will save you thousands of dollars in the long run and you will thank yourself.

So. Step one is to cold-call a lot. Don't book appointments to test drive, it prevents shady dealerships from clearing codes on cars before you arrive, making last minute changes, prettying them up etc.

Just show up, and start asking to look around.

This is Ontario specific but you're looking for CPO or at the very least safetied with some kind of warranty.

So the steps are.

Step 0. Find a car you like the dealership will sell CPO or safetied. Never EVER buy a car as-is. The difference in price between certified and as-is is in the THOUSANDS which means the dealership is willing to lose thousands by not having it safetied meaning it will cost AT LEAST THAT MUCH to pass inspection!!! Run don't walk away!!! You're gonna get screwed!!

1. This is the where the "fun" begins. This is your due diligence so you don't get ripped off or stuck with a money pit. Google "car make/model/year/Reddit" read at least 3 threads to completion. They will tell you common problems, pitfalls, mileages when it usually gives out, etc. decide if it's worth it. This is how I stopped us from getting stuck in an otherwise beautiful car that has class-action-lawsuit bad issues. Car Reddit is your new best friend.

Step 2. Get on your belly and look under the car. We live in the rust belt. Familiarize yourself with what rust looks like at different stages and what leaks look like. Also familiarize yourself with what oil spray OVER rust looks like. I saved us from a big mistake with that one. We live in the rust belt. Shady sellers will oil coat their rust buckets and say they were sprayed every year and that's a huge lie. Don't fall for it.

Step 3. Only get to this step if step 1 & 2 satisfy you. Start the car. Pop the hood, listen for anything that sounds out of time, it should be a consistent rhythm, no squeaking or inconsistent pops or shudders. It should start easily and smoothly. Sniff around for really notable exhaust fumes, smoking or burning.

Step 4. The actual test drive. This is very important, run the car with the window down, listen for any noise from the wheel wells (it helps if you have someone else with you to listen from the passenger side) make sure all your windows work, radio, AC, heat, watch the temperature gauge, feel how it shifts if it's an automatic, should not shudder between gears (when you speed up and slow down should go smoothly). Find a way to get it up to highway speed. Ideally not ON a highway, but get it up to 90-100km/hr. This will tell you what the engine really sounds like and if it's throwing a code (that's car talk for the onboard computer senses an error or problem) will probably make it show up even if the dealer already cleared it. That will tell you if the dealer is hiding issues. Out of the vehicles we have looked at, we are at something like 10:1 for vehicles looked at to test driven. We live in the rust belt.

IF FOR SOME REASON YOUR DEALER WONT LET YOU TEST DRIVE IT RUN DONT WALK AWAY. THATS 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 LIKE THATS LESS OF A RED FLAG AND MORE OF A RED BILLBOARD.

Most will never get to the test drive phase.

If the test drive goes well, step 5 is "show me the Carfax!" Seriously. Read it front to back. The dealer SHOULD provide it, if they're not willing, you CAN check it yourself but that tells me they're hiding something in the history. Never ever buy anything with a rebuilt or salvage title. In ON a clean title is something that has a "None" branding by the MTO. Carfax clean, or relatively so (accidents will look very big and expensive on the Carfax but might have only been cosmetic damage, insurance rates for accident repair are astronomical and not reflective any and "real" value or cost, don't be too put off by it but ask about the details)

Step 6 is 3rd party inspection- find a mechanic you trust or at least one with majority positive google reviews and ask to book a pre purchase inspection. This will run you $50-$100 but could potentially save you thousands. This is to spot issues you didn't catch on your initial looking over. The reason you put so much legwork into looking over the car first is to save money by only bringing cars with relatively high likelihood of being a good purchase to your mechanic. You're trying to eliminate every possible defect or fault yourself for free before you pay to have it looked at.

IF YOUR DEALER WONT LET YOU HAVE IT LOOKED AT BY A 3RD PARTY (and no, don't fall for "you're welcome to bring him here to look" that's shady AF cuz it means dealer knows if your guy gets it up on the lift he'll see smth) RUN DONT WALK AWAY.

If, and only if your mechanic says he doesn't see any issues, it should run well for the foreseeable future. Then.

Run a quote through your insurance. And then run a quote through a couple different providers and make sure you can afford it!!! I know so many people who got fucked buying a car they loved only to find out the insurance is ASTRONOMICAL or worse, will only cover liability and nothing else (looking @ you, Kia soul owners) or they have to pay insane rates because of whatever.

Then and ONLY THEN do you start signing paperwork.

If you somehow managed to make it through this process unscathed then you must have a lot more money than me LOL

I'm so tired.

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #73

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5, The Ball, furniture

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are long, as expected by this point when Crowley is around Gabriel.

They are in the longest-length category, which also happens around Gabriel.

Given how things go from this point onward, my theory is that Crowley is actively drawing out his own demonic energy in this scene to start shifting the street into his supernatural zone.

The sideburns will shorten after this scene, but they will still be longer than they were during the ball invitations and let this supernatural zone take shape.

And I say, "theory," because technically I am guessing, but I am reasonably sure of this theory. A lot of factors are in play throughout Earthly Objects and the shared home loan that build into this zone existing. As a reminder, there were the 3 scenes of Crowley with his car in the street from episodes 1 and 2. They are clues about this zone.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

The more saturated red streak of hair can be found in some cuts.

...

Hairstyle Changes

The top hair swoops more upward and tilts to the right. The earlier curls from preceding scenes are no longer where they were.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | The Ball Invitations Checklist)

This scene has many sets, along with a touch for The Sunglasses Trick I will talk about in more detail later.

The sets might be fully chained together, with the sunglasses touch in between, but I was not able to fully compute it myself, especially once Gabriel sat down on the bed again and had a pillow visibly behind him.

In any case, this scene is loaded with earthly object touches and dialogue points.

If my calculations are right, Gabriel earns himself a solo set first with the clicker of the lamp, the light on him from that lamp, and sitting on the bed.

Then Crowley earns himself a solo set with the wine bottle, the wine glass, and having a miracle touch on the lamp when he says, "Let there be light."

I have never been able to clearly confirm for myself if a smile counts as an earthly object touch, but this scene might be it. The timing and pacing of my own play here suggests Gabriel's smile is a point, or a point from an altered enough touch on the bed. The point is the first for their first interaction set. Crowley's "Hello, Gabriel," does feel like an ominous closing two points of this first interaction set.

More happens with names, questions, and touches.

They lead up to Crowley removing his sunglasses. I will cover that particular touch further down.

Then there are still more names, touches, and questions.

It's probably worth checking in with the ball invitations checklist, given the context of the scene within the Sideburns Scheme and after the invitations were done.

Crowley has plenty of earthly object touches, so there isn't one in particular I will be looking for. He's touching the wine glass and the wine bottle. The door frame is probably a threshold he is allowed to touch because of his earthly object touches.

He has a touch on the rug with a visible step forward when he pulls out the chair. He sits on the chair. He touches the chair when he sits further back and tells Gabriel to jump out the window. He touches the chair again when asking Gabriel what he is.

He touches yet another chair when asking Gabriel questions in trying to help Gabriel remember things.

For a self-skin-contact touch, it is very very difficult to find, in my experience anyway.

Not only that, it is actually part of the touch on The Sunglasses Trick, which is part of a Threshold Trick. Crowley crosses his index and middle fingers when removing the sunglasses.

Due to the shadows, if he's actually avoiding having them touch, then his ring finger shifted upward enough to be touched by the tip of the index finger.

For a self-clothing touch, Crowley is touching his left hand on his left leg before crossing his legs.

For a self-mouth touch, Crowley clicks his tongue after he says, "No, Jim. Oh," and before he says, "Well, Mr. Fell doesn't remember it either."

For pockets, there are plenty, but if there is one that stands out more than the others, it's one with Crowley having his left arm akimbo. Through that, he makes a pocket with his left arm, left hand, and jacket torso while touching the chair and asking Gabriel, "Well, if you're really not him, what are you?"

Crowley makes yet another pocket with his right arm later in the scene when he's lowering himself and touching the other chair.

There are two crosses. One cross is the one Crowley does for his sunglasses touch. Another cross happens where Crowley is shown to actively cross his legs while sitting. It happens when he tells Gabriel to jump out the window.

Crowley's shadow can be found most easily when he pulls out the first chair.

Crowley's reflection can be found when he stands up from the first chair. There is a nearby mirror on the wall. It doesn't look like he checks his sideburn length, but it's certainly feasible if he just makes sure his eyes glance that way.

For reflections in Crowley's sunglasses, the curtains on the windows are the main reflection to be found after Crowley enters the room and before he sits down.

The scene starts with Gabriel earning a solo set by not talking.

Crowley's starting solo set does include talking with, "Let there be light."

Otherwise, much of the scene is them talking to each other.

They look at each other with Crowley even going so far as to remove his sunglasses. Aziraphale isn't with them to see the touch either.

There is something going on with sides views and these two as well.

Instead of going by Crowley being on Aziraphale's left, things seem to be based on who is on which side of the camera's view.

In the earlier part of the scene, Gabriel is the one on the camera's right. Crowley is the one the camera's left.

Once Gabriel returns to sitting on the bed, they have switched. Crowley ends up on the camera's right, and Gabriel ends up on the camera's left.

In looking to see if Gabriel ever has an illusionary touch over Crowley, there does look to be his right hand over Crowley's right thigh when Gabriel stands up from the bed.

I assume Crowley is doing things beyond what I'll be able to fully grasp, but he visibly crossed two thresholds to enter this room. He touched the inside part of a door frame. He eventually positions himself lower than Gabriel when encouraging Gabriel to try and remember anyway while Crowley is touching a chair. Crowley crosses past a threshold as he is about to leave, ensures a touch with his left thumb joint on his jacket, and then he re-enters the room to offer hot chocolate.

By having Gabriel ready himself to jump out the window, that ensures humans are shown on screen sometime during this scene. The outside does not look like a supernatural zone is forming yet due to the number of humans visible. While the fog isn't setting in yet either, that fog might be from the demons who will be arriving soon. Crowley's car is never on camera.

...

Now it's time to talk about the touch on The Sunglasses Trick.

Here is a GIF:

This touch is the third of the three Singles that become a Triple.

For the Overhead Lights, it looks like the Belt Head gets one early when Crowley is between door thresholds, and this Overhead Light is actually to Crowley's right. Since his fingers are crossed during the touch, I suspect that's why he has one of these lights to his right. Then for the actual head, the Overhead Light is the lion lamp where ensured that it would be on with his own power from the miracle touch with, "Let there be light." The lamp light is above Crowley's left ear and to his left once he sits down.

Catching that Crowley crosses his middle finger under his index finger is really difficult. I only noticed it because way back when trying to see if I could figure out pockets with the Threshold Tricks, I found that they did so. Because of this crossing, the middle finger is the finger that has the actual touch to the sunglasses end piece with the thumb.

This move with this cross here suggests that the crosses with the touches are supposed to have more power to them.

There were three crosses for the miracle to hide Gabriel. One cross was Nina and Maggie crossing paths with their signs before Crowley recalled the lightning back to him. Another cross was Crowley crossing his actual hands when he said, "humanity" before the miracle. The third cross was after the miracle with the Tied Hands when Crowley stood up on the chair. The scene following the one with the miracle showed the alarms went off in Heaven.

Crowley isn't aiming to set alarms off this time, but he is aiming to do something quite substantial with his power because this scene is initiating the supernatural shift. The other two hisses were with Crowley's right hand. This one is with Crowley's left hand. A lot of things in this story hint to Crowley's left being important and the stronger side of his own power, such as the Overhead Lights he receives. He used his left hand for a sunglasses touch before the miracle to hide Gabriel.

Another surprising find in this touch is that Crowley's left thumb tip is hidden by the index finger in the movement.

So, this touch here has a hiss, a cross, the left hand in use, and a hidden thumb tip where sunglasses are still switched to Door Mode, when Crowley's drawing out his demonic energy to manage his supernatural zone.

Interestingly, the lighting favors Crowley's right for this touch. That helps emphasize his long right sideburn and snake tattoo.

The left hand does create two pockets with itself in the touch. Another pocket exists between Crowley's face, shoulder, left hand, and side of the sunglasses.

While Crowley's actual left thumb tip is hidden, the tassel tips (thumb tips) of his Tied Hands do appear in a pocket Crowley makes with his body and the bottom of the screen when he sits down. It's in a cut with Crowley's back to the camera. He just finished saying, "oh very clearly," and is saying, "the look on your face" in the dialogue.

The sunglasses are what make each touch different. The sunglasses used here are the second set of present day sunglasses Crowley uses.

The demonic hiss Crowley makes is what they all have in common.

Each of these touches also has Crowley holding an earthly object during the touch. This time, he is holding a glass of wine in his right hand.

As an audience player who knows what to look for, I'm saying here and now, in this scene, it is time to merge these three Singles so that they can be switched to become the Triple of The Sunglasses Trick.

As for what I am looking for, it is a primary Single, a primary Double, and a primary Triple. This particular Trick has a special trait of being layered, and this switch is part of what makes that layering happen.

...

The Tied Hands are shown to have a shadow cast over Crowley's left leg before he tells Gabriel to jump out the window.

The tassels swing in a subtle way when Crowley is standing over Gabriel, after Gabriel sits down on the bed again.

There are certain points when a tie tassel, which is a thumb for the Tied Hands, brushes against the snake belt, which is the Belt Head.

When Crowley moves to stand up after touching the second chair, the Tied Hands retie. There is a tie clasp striking a lapel edge. The watch's face is visible. Crowley's left thumb CMC joint visibly brushes up against the back of his jacket as he starts to exit through the door frame. He turns around and has an extended finger to "make a point."

...

Story Commentary

Crowley basically goes into Demon Mode for this scene, and I suspect he does so on purpose for the shift of the street into his supernatural zone.

The music has a hint of foreboding when Crowley arrives. The subtitles include "drunkenly" when he first talks. There's an underlying menace in his entire demeanor from the start. He forces a light on with, "Let there be light." I already covered the numerous things happening with his touch on the sunglasses in the Earthly Objects section.

The story provides a notable view of Crowley's long right sideburn when he is seated, before, during, and shortly after that hiss. His eyes are fierce, and his voice grows increasingly fierce too.

The simple words "Did Not Care For it" are capitalized in the subtitles. They sound like a threat even though he's not threatening to do anything. He calmly tells Gabriel to jump out the window.

It all seems to settle down once he realizes Gabriel's obeying him without question.

Speaking of, Gabriel obeying him without question hints to the possible rank meaning the sideburns have when it comes to Crowley being with other angels.

As things tend to go in other fictional works, it's worth checking for any eye contact involved with the command. In other fictional works, powerful supernatural or magical beings can sometimes compel other characters through eye contact and verbal commands.

Crowley's looking away from Gabriel at the beginning of the command. Near the end of the command, Crowley is almost making eye contact again, but Gabriel himself is already starting to look to his left and follow Crowley's gaze. Their eyes probably do meet and make contact in that process.

That could be a layered realization Crowley is having when he watches Gabriel getting ready to jump. I think this layered realization is only a vague possibility.

...

In this scene, Crowley refers to the appearance swap he had in season 1 with Aziraphale. Season 2 actually already had appearance swaps involving Gabriel in episode 1. Gabriel himself was a fake Crowley leaving the private room. Then Aziraphale being the fake Crowley walking past a cardboard box hinted Gabriel was originally there with a different scene involving the cardboard box that has been removed from the story.

Gabriel, at some point, already knew about the appearance swap and has since forgotten it due to his current amnesia.

If the Metatron is reading the story in the book that is Earthly Objects or the book that is the Book of Life, and something like that probably is happening, this piece of information is going to attract his attention.

Crowley, by all appearances, is making a significant mistake by letting this information slip.

That is going to have consequences.

The thing to keep in mind is that this story lies and has certainly shown that Crowley uses deception as a strategy.

Crowley is implied to be drunk on his entrance, but he is sober enough to look at Gabriel about to jump out a window and stop him. There's also the great care Crowley put in that touch on the sunglasses with the crossed fingers.

Crossed fingers themselves are known to mean a person is lying in many contexts, by the way.

Plus, Crowley is making deliberate moves to get that supernatural zone in place.

The main way to find that it's intentional from him and not from the Metatron is all the touches he's been doing through the ball invitations, his own invitation, and this scene.

Did he let it slip on purpose? I wouldn't think so, but the actions he is taking are going to lead to getting the Metatron into the book that is the story, eventually. In the Final Fifteen, Crowley and Aziraphale will take advantage of the mistakes the Metatron makes for the Earthly Objects game.

Also, if the Metatron does have something against alcohol and if Crowley has an awareness of that factor, he is smiling just before he takes a drink that the camera cuts away from. That happens shortly before Crowley brings up the appearance swap from season 1.

Technically, he didn't say there was an appearance swap either. He only vaguely mentions he was "there" when Aziraphale and Gabriel last met.

...

When Gabriel compares himself to a house, Crowley is skeptical at first but seems to find the idea relatable when Gabriel says. "...and the house can sort of tell where the things used to be."

That part Crowley understands, so it hints to his own potential memory issues in the past. He acknowledges a similar feeling when saying he knows it hurts to remember but encourages Gabriel to do it anyway.

Instead of showing pain like the first time Crowley hissed at him, Gabriel has a realization that his memory isn't with him.

Crowley automatically thinks to ask where it is, and Gabriel is surprised to find he has an answer.

Crowley looks confused by the answers, but he keeps questioning. Gabriel answers what he can and mentions the matchbox we will see in the upcoming Muriel scene.

The part about the institutional problem sounds like a legitimate memory of Gabriel's despite so much of Gabriel being in the fly. The fly itself has not been shown to be around since Crowley remarked, "Well observed," in episode 3.

While Crowley has tapped into Gabriel's memory twice already while having long sideburns, this instance does not have Gabriel with purple eyes or another voice mixed with his own.

Crowley's remark about "Looking at where the furniture isn't" is a clue about how to approach this deceptive story.

Broadly, I initially took it to be about earthly objects. As in, the earthly objects are the furniture of Earth so look at them and where they are lacking.

After studying the story further, I then took it to mean it was more about looking at earthly objects when things were and were not touched.

More specifically after months of play, to me, this remark is a clue about Aziraphale's invisible chair in the coffee shop in episode 1. That leads to showing how much Aziraphale's back avoids the backs of chairs or a seat may lack a back altogether with him.

...

Crowley offers to make Gabriel hot chocolate. Of note in this offer is that nothing in the draft of the story we have been given has shown that Crowley knows Gabriel likes hot chocolate before this point. The first hot chocolate scene involved Aziraphale giving it to Gabriel, and we never saw Aziraphale tell Crowley about this interaction. The second hot chocolate scene was Gabriel alone in his room. Crowley had not arrived at the bookshop yet. In the scenes showing both Crowley and Gabriel during episode 3, the subject of hot chocolate was not in them.

So, somewhere along the way from something we have not seen, Crowley learned Gabriel likes hot chocolate.

...

If this scene has an intended scene to match it, or mirror it, then I think it's the scene for hiding Gabriel with the miracle because of the left hand with the sunglasses touch and the crosses involved.

...

It's not lost me on me that a cross is a very common symbol for Jesus Christ and his death through crucifixion on a cross.

...

While Crowley certainly acts like he means it about Aziraphale being his only friend, I think Crowley's friends with Muriel. I don't know the exact mechanics at work on that, but his bookend scenes with Muriel and their expert pocket use together suggests to me that they are friends. If they aren't friends, then I still think they have a deep trust in each other.

...

Muriel

(For reference: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2))

Much of the below is based on information in the first of the two links above.

The scene I've been covering in this post is a front bookend of the last Matchbox Muriel scene. It also includes mention of an actual matchbox.

Finally, we are back to our ominous borderline evil matchbox itself with Matchbox Muriel Scene #3. Rule of Three! This scene further manages to act as a back bookend to the last touch of the Singles that became a Triple of The Sunglasses Trick. In this matchbox scene, the subtitles say "intense music" and it is intense. The matchbox is given immediate focus to introduce the scene.

The intensity settles. Muriel is giving their report to Michael and Uriel with no Saraqael around.

In this report, Muriel says Crowley's name, including calling him, "Mr. Crowley," and describes Crowley as Aziraphale's "grumpy friend." Well, Crowley was grumpy when Muriel first saw him yes, but most of the time we saw them together, he was not grumpy. In fact, he was rather friendly. Muriel is also shown to be unaware that Crowley is a demon. When they say Aziraphale's "Mr. Fell" name, Uriel gives Muriel a look that makes Muriel definitely not say Crowley's name—not even partially.

Michael is not interested in this business of being bothered about Crowley's name usage.

Aside from Aziraphale, Shax, and any character involved in the 1941 minisode, the story itself seems to have some rather strict rules on who can say Crowley's name and when. If I remember right, Muriel never says Crowley's name again.

We, the audience, were never shown anyone giving Muriel Crowley's name before that point either. In addition to that, mysterious music plays while the angels stop in confusion as they grasp at the assistant they can't quite remember. The matchbox is not easily seen during all of this time, but we know we saw it first with the intense music.

We never saw Muriel see or speak to an assistant, Gabriel going by Jim, in the scenes given. Muriel's memory and the story's memory do not match with what we have been told is happening. And some possibly evil matchbox is making that happen...maybe. That thing gives off "trying to get back to its master" evil ring vibes towards Crowley. It's creepy.

Or maybe since this story encourages word play with its silly game, the matchbox "has the hots" for Crowley.

Well, as noted in a previous post, I honestly think the matchbox is the Book of Life in disguise, whether it is especially interested in or threatening to Crowley, or not.

The back bookend to this Muriel scene is Crowley actually giving Gabriel hot chocolate.

We will be seeing plenty of Muriel for this later part of the story, starting later on in this episode when the supernatural zone is active.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[bipolar-boygirl]

Not to be a Salty American (though as the great Hannah Gatsby once said, making fun of Americans is still technically punching up,but that window is closing), but I've been thinking a lot about a specific video from a Nigerian creator I follow whose platform is about showing that africa as a whole isn't poor and a lot of the things the west sees as signifiers of poverty are culturally preferred methods and items. Her videos are very lighthearted and funny normally, but I saw one recently about how Africans (her words) don't pay for things with credit, and that we (Americans and I'm assuming the west in general) can't live without credit, our whole system is based on credit. And she's right, but it was treated as some sort of Gotcha moment, and not the horrifying mechanic of capitalism that it is

I was lying in bed this morning after having a nightmare that I lost a part of my arm and couldn't afford the surgery, the whole dream was me trying to find ways to make the surgery cheaper, to find loopholes in my insurance, stressing about missing work, and it ended with me sobbing because I finally had enough money for the surgery but it would wipe out every cent I had, and I would be left with nothing while recovering and unable to work. This was something my subconscious mind conjured because I'm dealing with a much less life threatening equivalent of needing to get my wisdom teeth removed and not being able to afford it (though the longer I go without it the more likely I am to get an infection and if that gets into my blood or my brain I'm fucked, I'm catastrophizing here, but it's a very real fear I'm dealing with).

My options for getting my wisdom teeth removed are: to continue to try to save up the money regularly, which is a very slow going process and at my current rate of saving I could break even on the surgery in about 4 months, but much like my dream it would take every dollar I have, so that's not actually true, is it? It would take me much longer to save up enough to not go broke, so realistically at my current rate I'm still probably over a year away.

Or: sign up for something like care credit, which is basically a loan specifically for medical costs. It's even interest free! Unless of course you're unable to pay back the full loan in the agreed upon time frame and then you owe a predatory interest rate on the entire amount they loaned you, regardless of how much you have left to pay off. If I had a better credit score, I might be able to put it at least partially on a credit card which would have an interest rate from the start but a lower one. But I don't have a credit card because I was forced into a position where I HAD to get a car with a car note and due to my non-existent credit score at the time I had to settle with a 20-something % interest rate and now have a $450 car note a month for like 6 years. Most starter credit cards require a cash deposit and between all my bills (aside from rent, my car note is the most expensive which is why I brought it up) and trying to save up the old fashioned way I just really don't have the money to spare to get a credit card. I could probably get one without a cash deposit, but then we run into the issue of the predatory interest rates again

Or: I could set up a gofundme, which is a whole other can of worms and with everything else happening in the world, with all of the fleeing families, and the abuse victims, and people with actual life threatening medical needs on there, my silly little wisdom teeth don't seem all that important.

So yeah, Americans can't live without credit, but it's not something we chose. It's just another tool capitalism uses to drain every last penny they can from people after inventing credit scores (didn't exist til the 80's) and making everything so fucking expensive you can't even afford it with insurance (yeah that amount I'm saving towards? That's my cost WITH insurance), so you have no choice BUT to pay for things on credit

I know it's fun to make fun of Americans guys, I used to do it all the time myself. But, just, we aren't doing so hot.

[vshamru]

hi i love YNAB. if you keep saying “man i should get a budget” but then never get around to doing it, you should get YNAB. i dont even have a referral link because if you’re a student you get a ONE YEAR FREE TRIAL!! if you’re not a student it looks like you get 34 days, and they do not charge you at the end of your trial if you sign up via their website.

the basic gist is that you have a whole bunch of categories your money can go to, and you assign the money you have to the categories you need to fill (example coming below). it’s not punitive, it’s not judgey, and it has genuinely reduced my financial stress in a lot of ways, because i no longer have to do mental math to make sure i can spend $20 on fast food and not accidentally eat into the rent money. i just look at my category for eating out, and if there’s $20 there i can spend $20 on fast food, and if not, i can look at other categories and decide if $20 on fast food now is more valuable to me than, say, $20 on groceries later. you can move money around as you need or want to!

green means my category is “fully funded,” that is, i met the goal i set for how much money id like to put into it this month. even once that money is spent (e.g., i’ve already paid my internet bill this month), it’s still green.

yellow means my category is NOT fully funded (or that you overspent that category on a credit card, which can then turn into credit card debt later). not the end of the world for me, because i know the paycheck coming soon will cover the categories i need covered.

red (which i don’t have up there) is a warning sign: it means you spent money you don’t have (via debit card or cash), and are at risk of spending the same dollar twice and overdrafting.

grey just means i don’t have a goal for that category and don’t have money in it (i keep them around because we do technically have some streaming services and i’ll eventually need to pay student loans).

it helps me a TON, because i can offload all of my mental math about what we can/can’t afford to do and what we need for rent/car insurance/etc. plus me and my husband both get a fun money category which helps me be able to actually buy myself nice things and know that that money was already put aside for that purpose.

legitimately if you want to know more about YNAB or talk about it, i would love to. i have experienced SIGNIFICANT reductions in stress because of it!!!

[batlcver]

Understandable summer was HELL on earth right now, and the season only just started. Cons of living in the south right? He was used to it, didn't mean he didn't still sweat his ass off- of course he did, he was always wearing darker colors and layers of 'em-, but it wasn't that bad anymore. Not when you've had no working AC for the past two years, something he put up with, but now that he often drove Eros around when they hung out, and now that he had this little guy, that just wasn't gonna work anymore.

❝Okay, so here's my plan then:❞

Adjusting in his seat as he pulled out the cardboard from between the frame and cranked the window down just for some kind of airflow for the puppy.

❝Asher's looking for a car right now, normally I would give him mine 'cause that's just what you do as an older brother, you give your younger brother hand-me-downs. For obvious reasons I can't do that. I could, but I actually love my brother, I'm not gonna fuck him over like that. So I'll pay your dad for his for Asher, and just get a new one for myself 'cause I do have one in mind that I'd rather get.❞

No doubts that Eros' father's was nice, he'd seen it before and it looked to be in good shape, but this just made more sense to him. That way Asher didn't have to deal with going to a dealership and not knowing what he's doing, if he's getting a good deal or not, cutting out the need for a loan entirely. He'd rather pay someone he knew for a good used car, than teach him how to deal with all that other stuff. It was hard being the father and mother of your baby sibling, truly a full-time job even when he's technically an adult now.

❝We should probably go to theeee dealership first. It's a longer process, and we don't wanna be there all day. Especially if they're going to be interested in buying this piece of shit, or if I'm going to have to figure out a buyer that takes them for scrap. That way we don't have to worry about moving bags of stuff over, I'm still gonna need to get a bunch of the shit out the console and the glovebox, but that's it. Can't keep anything in the trunk as you know, it'll just melt or get fucked up.❞

Yeah, it kinda felt sad now saying sell it as scrap, but at the same time? At least if it was used for parts it'd be of some use after him, and not just rotting and rusting in a landfill. It was way past time to get rid of this car, but he needed that push, and apparently that push came in the form of a little puppy.

❝Then after we can go by the store and get all his stuff. He's gonna need a lot, we don't have anything at home. I didn't buy anything either, like I said I was nervous that I wouldn't connect with anyone, and didn't know what I'd come out with if anything so... Just didn't prepare. After that, we can go by and see Agape. Does your dad want like cash, can you ask him? I mean probably, but you never know. My mom buys shit with paypal and venmo, that's a bad habit of hers actually from what I hear.❞

     “ I think most people get hysterical and cry over puppies, but I mean – yeah, man. ”

     Even if he's snickering about it and giving the other a gentle push. Not enough to do anything, but all the same. Eros had, after all, started bawling when Alexi told him Agape was really theirs to come home with after her training. That he could have an actual honest to God dog. And she wasn't even just a workin' girl! She was his best friend for as long as he'd had her. 

     He laughs gently as the other spoke, getting the door unlocked and into the seat. It took a bit of effort to remember how to close the door properly, but he managed to get it all the same.

     “ Yeah, we c'n go t' th' Petsmart. Get some stuff… would y'beeee averse t' takin' him by th' house so Agape c'n meet her new baby brother? ”

     He taps the wheel for a moment or two. Waiting.

     “ I mean, y'could prob'ly give him like two-hundred and he'd call it square. He didn't even want ya payin' in th' first place. And s'a pretty nice car, I jus' don't want it cuz – y'know, moped. ”

     A little shrug before he was canting his head again. A new car he was looking at? That was right, he said it wasn't the money. It was the attachment he had to this one. But now with the little void pom, he was definitely going to want something better. When he'd first gotten his moped, he'd had to make sure he could have a sidecar just for Agape to come with. She loved riding in that side car with her little goggles and her bandana. 

     Coolest dog on the block.

     “ Mas. Baby. Love of m' life… I would love nothin' more th'n t' have air conditionin' in this heat. ”

[inkskinned]

he tells me i'm jaded. he says - you love showers so much, why not stand in a rainstorm instead?

rainstorms have a potential to take down tree branches. they're unregulated. they get my clothes wet. in the time of my grandparents, maybe it would be more romantic. it's a drought where i live. the rain that comes down is sullen, yellow with pollution. i bite half my nails off reading about climate predictions. i stand in the shower and shift from one foot to the other, feeling annoyed with myself because i care about all of this, of course, but as a climate scientist i'm functionally useless.

he says - the color is all gone from the world! people used to like bright things. what happened to all of us?

i feel like rich people love minimalism differently. they like to remind others - i don't really need things. they can afford to have-less. they don't need to worry about buying extra; they can just get it later.

my car is silver so in 5 years after paying back the loan i might be able to sell it, if i don't hurt it too bad and if i don't drive it too hard, and if luck is in my corner. it's just a simple sedan, nothing-special. i guess i'm technically borrowing it from the bank. i can't really-decorate my apartment; i don't own it. i am not going to be able to afford a house any time soon. i would love to make my walls a wash of bright color - but i'd lose my deposit.

my clothes are all in neutrals; classic cuts that have very little fuss or personality attached to them. i worry about fast fashion and my finances; i want to be sure that i can wear the shirt in the future without feeling stupid and out-of-touch. the other day i finally tore through a pair of shorts i've had for about ten years now. i went home and tried to figure out how to repurpose the denim. how to make everything last a little longer. i sometimes will try on something trendy and cool and colorful - and then i pick out something i know will last me a long time instead. muted, conservative, unimpressive.

he says - the real world is waiting! everyone is so obsessed with their phones these days. go outside, connect with your friends!

it costs twenty dollars to go on the guided tour. they don't let you into the conservatory without a 320 dollar yearly membership. i come up with a spreadsheet, trying to figure out where my friends have schedule openings that overlap with mine. we both frown over our calendars - can't do thursday that week, anything in two weeks? there's no train, it costs forty dollars in transportation for her to come over; but i miss her, so i venmo her. we both bemoan the fact that there's just no way to get around without a car.

i am actually a full-blooded romantic. i am actually someone who truly and deeply believes in hope and the future of humanity. i am a poet, after all - i write because i believe someone out there, like me, is watching the world crumble while nursing a broken heart. i believe that most of us want to be kind, to be good, to turn our cheeks to the sky and be contented and warm.

it just feels like - there's this strange, brewing storm. where people with money and power and prestige get to say - hope is a yacht, just hop on and go.

and all us jaded, horrible little still-here tear-stained cockroaches, who croak and complain about global injustice: we don't accept it. we make our lives beautiful with whatever we can wrestle out of stone. we clutch our diaries and our sunflowers and our songs to our chest. ugly and hurting, we snarl - hope isn't yours though. it's ours.

it's all we have left.

[someotherdog]

selena was definitely a better roommate than her mother, big barb. the apartment was kept relatively clean, selena didn't make a ton of noise most nights, and there weren't loan sharks and debt collectors beating down the door every few weeks. in comparison, selena was a model roommate, so barbie could forgive unwashed dishes or hair in the shower. she could even forgive the wolf that selena brought home—figuratively, since she apparently didn't have bill dozing in her bedroom. “alright, miss mysterious.” barbie giggled good-naturedly as her roommate walked further into the kitchen.

despite her disapproval of bill, she tried to keep her tone light and airy whenever she brought up selena's kinda-sorta boyfriend. certainly, barbie was in no position to judge her. her own relationship with daniel was practically legendary around encantadora, and when compared, daniel didn't really measure up to bill. not in the money department, anyway. or the personality department, since in the few times she went to a club with selena and bill, he talked her ear off; she had to begrudgingly admit that she did have a good time with them (until they started making out in front of her and she had to fake a stomachache just to get away from their pda). if it weren't for the wolf tattoo on his neck, she might've thought bill was just some car salesmen or some other sleazy job that required him to be unctuous. well, selena apparently liked dangerous men, and barbie liked ne'er-do-wells.

besides, if there was any reason to dislike bill, it was the fact he was a lobo. technically, barbie's loyalties lay with the cucuys—her late father had been a member long ago, and while she hadn't actively had anything to do with the club in a long time, the city of encantadora had been split in two for years: either you sided with the gang, or the mc. because of her familial ties, barbie sided with the cucuys by default, but she personally thought they could both get fucked. the lobos were easy to spot anyway. not just the wolf tattoos they all had, but their attitudes. there was a gravitas the cucuys possessed that the lobos didn't. up against the mc, the lobos all looked like little boys playing gangster. maybe it was because to barbie, all the cucuys she knew were old men now. bill was no spring chicken as far as she knew, but he, like all the lobos, ran wild around town like the lost boys of neverland.

barbie didn't judge selena (much), but she was jealous of her. they didn't know each other very well, but something about selena seemed so carefree. like she never had a worry in her life. maybe it was because she was from vegas or something, and in barbie's mind, las vegas was a nonstop party city. maybe she was just envious that selena could basically do what she wanted and barbie had only ever known responsibility. she no longer lived in her mother's house, but whenever big barb got too drunk at scavengers too, the surly bartender always called little barb to come collect her. which, unfortunately, was a weekly thing. in fact, barbie would normally be in bed already, but she knew it was inevitable she'd be woken up at one in the morning to go get her mom. there wasn't any point in officially going to bed yet.

“just catching up on a few things so i won't have to do them tomorrow.” closing out of her email tab, her eyes followed selena as she walked to the fridge and pulled out one of barbie's limoncello lacroix cans. “sure, go ahead!” barbie granted permission with a sweet smile, but there was a part of her that was a little annoyed by it. if there was a flaw in living with selena, it was that she seemed to run out of her own food often. but again, small annoyances. better that than having her mother accuse her of witchcraft or beg her to drive her to the liquor store at six in the morning. “hmm... tough choice. i mean i'm never not down for a bit of vanderpump rules, but you're right, we're not getting any younger. i'll let you decide. if you say stay, we stay. if you say let's go out, just give me, like, an hour to get ready.” it had been a long time since she hooked up with someone who wasn't daniel anyway. maybe she'd get lucky tonight and forget all about her ex-boyfriend.

"oooh, hmmm, maybe we don't worry about who is or isn't in my room right now." selena joked, hoping barbie knew she wouldn't just invite some rando to sleepover without at least a warning. first of all, it was shitty and, second, barbie did not seem like the type to tolerate her messier qualities. so, no, there wasn't anyone in her room at the moment, but that was because the one-night-stands were mostly an away game situation.

at least her roommate wasn't too judgey. or, at least, she didn't feel like she had the moral high ground to be because of dan. if not for the veterinary job, selena would've called him a feckless loser, but hard to call someone who saved cats and dogs the same thing she called the guy who cut her off coming out of the taco bell drive thru. bill on the other hand, was a tornado and, probably, a terrible house guest. only, she tended to spend time with him solely when she was good and tipsy. still, she snapchatted him a lot. even sober, she still had terrible judgement.

"working late?" she asked, crossing the room to look through the fridge. nothing that good. mostly food that wasn't hers. she frowned and held up a bubbly water. "can i have this?" it was her turn to hit the costco anyways. "want to cash in on our youth and good looks and see what the night holds for us or maybe just watch the latest vanderpump rules?"

[geekgirlsmanifesto]

Typically I leave tumblr for my interests and try as hard as I can to keep my life out of it but I need a place to just get some things off my chest that is unlikely to be stumbled upon by some well-meaning person who knows the other parties involved in this rant.

Maybe I shouldn't call it a rant because I'm not angry. If anything I'm just exhausted. It's partly my own fault because I'm seemingly incapable of handling money like an adult even though I am far into my adulthood. But there are a lot of other things that are contributing to things right now.

I decided years ago to stay with my grandma and my aunt and let the release the rest of the family from their unique needs emotionally. My brother who is older than I am freely raised his family and ended up the IT Manager at a major teaching hospital.

I ended up working at Target.

Technically I was working in human resources until a single mistake cost me my job and the only thing I could find at the time was Target. At the same time my grandmother's ability to care for herself without serious assistance deteriorated to the point that she was moved to a nursing home. And I suddenly because financially responsible for myself and my aunt who hasn't worked since the 1980s. My grandma has been fighting a lot of paranoid hallucinations about people selling her house out from under her so I have to make sure I keep the house that she and my grandfather had worked so hard for. But it's impossible on my income. And over the last year I have just found myself in a deeper and deeper hole.

Additionally, I have found myself responsible for my father who does NOT live with me but is facing a rapid decline due to ALS.

Over the last few months I have been looking hard for a new job but I'm having no luck. And I'm getting more and more behind on things.

And then Wednesday the loan company called and told me that if I didn't pay them $600 by today they would repossess my car. The car that so many people rely on whether it's to pick up medicine that is keeping them alive (my dad), getting me to work (me), or taking my aunt on daily visits to see my grandmother (both my aunt and my grandmother). So I asked my dad to borrow the money from him because my checking account balance was already in the red.

And then last night my dad texts me (because he can no longer talk) and tells me that the car that he owns broke down while his sister-in-law's friend was driving it and he wants to fix the car but has no money. And now I feel like a completely horrible person for borrowing the money.

Plus I have to pay him back within three weeks which means giving him everything I make every day. Which is just going to put me back in the same boat with the loan.

I am so far past drowning now that I don't even know which way is up anymore.

I'm not tagging this because I'm not looking for attention just someplace to dump all the things that I can't tell my family. And this massive post isn't even beginning to touch on the uselessness and self hatred I feel right now about my own inability to make more than $15 an hour.

I question my intelligence. I question my own ability. I think that I'm basically worthless because I can't take care of myself, let alone my family.

[lokilickedme]

Just realized I have no concept of time anymore.  Like, at all.  Ever since we arrived we’ve been in a weirdly surreal maze of househunting, ranch tending, phone calls with realtors/bankers/loan agents/insurance agents/construction overseers, and just holing up watching the snow through the window in general, and I have no clue what day it is or even what part of the month we’re in.  I didn’t know today was Monday and I certainly didn’t know yesterday was Sunday.  The boys aren’t registered for their semester yet because we’re technically homeless and the program requires proof of residency in the state of enrollment, which we don’t have yet even though we’ve been here a couple of weeks (has it been longer than that?  Shorter?  Who knows) so in between tending to the animals and taking care of the main ranchhouse and keeping the kids alive and trying to set up house in a place of our own that isn’t finished being built yet, I’m in a perpetual state of Saturday.  Everything feels like a Saturday.  Nothing is real and it’s all happening on a Saturday.  Even husband’s job, which went from a 5-day week back home to a 3-day week here with 12-hour onsites and a stray floating 4-hour fill-in wherever he feels like putting it is just...messing my head up.  I have no internal clock anymore except for the one that screams IS IT SATURDAY?? constantly.

But -

The house is close to completed, though it seems like the crew has slowed down ever since the sale closed.  Note to self: go to construction site and show disapproval.  Also I talked the builder into throwing in some staging furniture because I sold everything we had and he just happened to have some in storage that he’d intended to put in the house anyway for prettying-up purposes on the sale listing.  Bonus.

I don’t know if I mentioned it in here or just told it to somebody in person (is it Saturday?  It feels like Saturday) but the first house we contracted to buy ended up being yanked out from under us at the last minute due to...issues.  A crumbling foundation, an illegal non-permit-acquired addition onto the structure, and nearly half a million in liens against the property due to the deceased previous owner’s bad habits (I’m guessing gambling but who the hell knows, dude died of covid before they could break his kneecaps) - you know, the usual shit that happens when you’re about to drop your life savings and your kids’ college money on a place to live.

That ended up leading us to something better, though.  Smaller town on the outskirts of our original destination, beautiful idyllic location, close to the ranch we’re currently tending, close to the boys’ grandmother, in an incredible tourist spot so all you travel-y folks have plenty of places to stay when you come to visit :)  This second house is new construction, which wasn’t anything we remotely required in our search, but happy accidents and all and it’s always nice being the first person to pee in a bathroom you’re going to be spending the next few years using.

And my god, the eclectic mix of hippies and cowboys here is astounding.  Every time I go in the grocery store I cross paths with at least a half dozen stoners so blissed out I worry about them finding their way back home.  It’s a legal state with dispensaries everywhere and I’ve never seen a group of residents jump so collectively onto a bandwagon like this.  It’s amusing until you get stuck in line behind a guy who’s been smoking all afternoon who’s trying to get the clerk to agree with him that the produce section definitely needs to stock car parts because somebody moved the NAPA store while he was getting a pack of Ho Ho’s and his jeep is sitting at the co-op with a flat tire.

This place is going to grow on me, but it’s definitely not the same place I lived in years ago.  When I lived here before I worked in an apple packing shed at an orchard, and that’s still there, but the other place I worked at that made coil resistors for spacecraft (I worked indirectly for NASA, which was cool) has packed up and moved operations to Mexico.  Husband worked at the newspaper in the print room when we first got married, and now that’s all gone online.  He works in the bioceramics division at a huge corp now, lathing segments for cybernetic prosthetics (that’s fancyspeak for robotic arms and legs).  The company also makes beer :)

But I digress, I guess.  It��s a beautiful place but the pay is shite just about everywhere, mainly because most of the people here are either wealthy travelers hitting the hot spots between Moab and Aspen or they’re wealthy Californians moving in with a few mil in their pockets from the sale of their houses in LA.  The locals are the only ones that need work, and the work doesn’t feel the need to pay a good wage even though a quarter mil will only buy a person a sub-standard fixer-upper on a 2-inch bit of land.  There are a grand total of 14 houses for sale in the valley with price tags under $300,000 and they’re snatched up before you can even click on the listing.  We got lucky, I was holding my phone in my hand when an under-construction house in our price range popped up - it had gone on the market literally one hour previous, the app had just that moment cycled it into the listings, and husband and I jumped in the car and drove out to look at it without even grabbing our coats.  We were sitting in front of the partially completed house when we called Husband’s realtor friend and told her to submit an offer on it and to make it fast.

The next day we were under contract :)

That was on a Saturday.

We’d spent two weeks trudging from listing to listing, trying to find something.  At the last two houses we’d looked at I had sat down on the steps and cried.  Ever since the first house had fallen through nothing had worked out for us, everything was too expensive, too wrecked, too expensive, too small, too expensive - and now, finally, the perfect place.

We’re real damn close to being home, finally.  We have approximately a month to go before our closing date.  Until then I’m content to drift in my eternal Saturday, waiting for the calendar to finally click over onto an actual weekday.  It’ll stop being Saturday and I’ll get my days sorted.  Something of a schedule will fall into place, maybe even a routine of sorts, though I’ve never been big on structuring my days.  Til then I’m sitting up here in this gigantic ranch house trying to figure out if that noise downstairs at 2 am means the place is haunted or is just JD the ranch guy messing around with the feed storage in the basement, playing Fallout 3 with Big, chasing Little up and down the stairs to tire his hyper ass out, tromping around in the snow doing various ranch-type chores in my new weather-appropriate boots, battling the blissbots (stoned mountain hippies) in the grocery store for the very meagerly-stocked frozen waffles and peanut butter, trolling the thrift shops for used furniture that I can’t buy yet, and drinking copious amounts of good local coffee in between the neverending phonecalls required to get us settled.

Until then, it’s always Saturday.

[sunmoonandeddie]

pandemic overload

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

word count: 2,136

summary: You need an escape from everything, and Bucky is more than happy to give it to you.

warnings: SO MUCH FLUFF.  Bad words.  Bucky does think a naughty thing or two lol

a/n:  Thank you so much to @marylizabetha for this commission!!!!  I had so much fun with it, and honestly it was nice to get to write about escaping all of this nonsense for a little bit!!!!

He saw it when he came home from grocery shopping.  The quiver of your bottom lip.  He’d only been gone for about two hours—shopping for groceries for a super soldier can take a while, after all—but even so, it had made you anxious.  Everything about the last seven months or so made you anxious.  And he couldn’t blame you.  People were dying and it was just… frustrating how so many people didn’t seem to care.  At all.

Bucky had been the only one to leave the town house you two shared in that entire time, unless you counted the times you’d sit out on the front stoop and work on a Sudoku puzzle.  But that was a decision you had made very early on.  He was a super soldier that couldn’t get sick.  You were just a normal human.

It didn’t mean that you weren’t scared for him every time he walked outside.

Thankfully, it hadn’t taken much to convince you to stay home, even though you had to quit your job.  It wasn’t exactly the most… important thing in the world.  It wasn’t even in your field of interest.  Just a pit stop until you could put your degree to use.

But it looked like that wouldn’t be happening for a little while longer.

Technically, with how much money Bucky made from being a non-active Avenger on top of back pay from being a prisoner of war for seventy years or so and also being on an elite strike force during World War II, you would never have to work a day in your life if you didn’t want.  And, to be perfectly honest, a big part of you was seriously considering it.  It was nice to be able to sit around and do whatever you wanted to do.  You and Bucky helped each other with all the chores and such, but then you had an otherwise empty day to fill.  You’d taken up knitting and learning to play piano and yes, you did join in on that trend of people learning how to make sourdough bread from scratch.  You two had also gotten to up the amount of time you spent trying to make a positive change in the world, and you’d taken Bucky to his first twenty-first century protest.  Not a single cop had dared to fuck with you or anyone else with the former Winter Soldier by your side.

The perks of having a super intimidating boyfriend, right?

It would be completely perfect if it wasn’t for the fact that you had to stay because otherwise you might get sick.

But you were actually considering choosing to just… continue not working once all of it was over.  You and Bucky could do anything you wanted to do.  You could travel the world, maybe eventually adopt a few kids…  The possibilities were endless, especially since your boyfriend had surprised you by paying off all your student loans in one fell swoop.

Yeah, that… that had brought on more than a few tears.

Bucky couldn’t help but smile over at you as he put away the groceries, calling out everything to you.  You were sitting up on the counter, pretty as a picture, with your legs swinging back and forth as you put in everything he’d bought to that fancy app on your phone that took everything you had in your fridge and gave you a list of recipes you could make from it.

Last week the two of you had gotten your favorite recipe so far, grilled mahi mahi tacos with a sweet pineapple salsa that served a bit of a kick at the end.

Fish so nice, they named it twice.

Bucky’s pandemic hobby had become cooking.  A lot of the time, you two just ordered food in, which was a horrible habit.  But you couldn’t help it.  You both were so busy and neither of you really had the energy or patience to cook most of the time.

But spending everyday at home meant that Bucky finally had time to learn how to do something other than boil food, and he was actually pretty good at it.

“Baby doll, let’s go on a date.”

You looked up from your phone in surprise.  “A…  A date?  Bucky Bear…  I hate to break it to you, but…  We can’t exactly go anywhere,” you said with a weak laugh.  As good as it was to be able to sit at home and work on your hobbies, you were often overwhelmed with the thoughts about how so many people were suffering because of how selfish others were.

He put the last bell pepper away in the fridge before moving to stand between your legs, his hands running over your thighs.  “Now that’s not true, sweetheart,” he said as he pressed sweet kisses along your jawline.  “I wanna take you somewhere special, okay?  We haven’t gotten to dress up in a long time…  So how about you get your cute ass in the shower and get yourself all dolled up, yeah?  I wanna treat my girl.”

Ugh.  He always knew exactly what to say to make you melt.

“Okay,” you giggled, nuzzling your nose against his.  But you took your own sweet time getting off the counter, choosing instead to wrap your legs around him and pull him in for an impromptu makeout session.

What can you say?  Your man was hot as fuck and a good ass kisser.

“I love you,” he mumbled, his hands roaming down your sides to your ass.  He gave a playful squeeze before slowly breaking the kiss, letting it linger far longer than what would be considered necessary.  “But you have to go shower and get ready, baby girl.  I gotta jump in one, too.  I wanna be nice and fresh for my girl.  Now go on.”

A purse of your lower lip.  “You don’t wanna join me?”

“Now, that’s not what I said, you little minx,” he said, tickling your sides and sending you into a fit of giggles.  “But if I get in with you, we aren’t gonna make it out for a long, long time.  And then you won’t get your surprise.”

“Fine, fine,” you groaned, pushing against his chest so you could slide off the counter.  “Bossy.”  You shot him a wink as you headed upstairs, and he can’t help but stare at your ass.

God bless the quarantine weight you’d gained.

Granted, he always loved your body—if you like the girl, you’re gonna like her body, after all—but he was still a hot-blooded man with a thing for grabbing you and loving every inch of you.

He quickly put together a basket of food, various meats and cheeses and little things like olives, and set a blanket on top of it before running upstairs to grab a shower in the guest bath.  He knew the perfect place to take you to escape the city and the suffocating threat of the pandemic.

“You gonna tell me where we’re going or not, Sarge?” You asked as you appeared in the doorway.

He looked up from where he sat at the kitchen island, and the breath was knocked straight from his lungs.  Thank god he’d already stowed the basket and blanket away in the trunk, because he would’ve completely forgotten at the sight of you.  “Holy shit, sugar…,” he whispered as he got up.  He moved towards you, strong hands grabbing your hips and pulling you into a kiss.  He knew he had to be careful about grabbing your face, not wanting to mess up the makeup you’d just put on for the first time in months.  But you’d also learned not to wear a lip product that would smear on your first date, so you both had rules about makeup now.

The fabric of your yellow sundress rested against your skin so gently, and he would be ashamed to admit that for just a second, he was jealous of a piece of clothing.  He wanted to be that close to you always, wanted to feel your skin and draw little shapes over your heart.

Maybe he’d strip it off of you the second he got you to the spot, just so he could rest his head in the valley of your breasts and listen to the steady beating of your heart.  You knew that he could hear it even just standing beside you, but you wouldn’t call him out on it.

TLC played on the radio the entire drive, his hand on your thigh except for when he needed to shift gears.  Out of all the decades of music you were working to catch him up on, the nineties were your favorite.

Not that he’d ever disagree.  No.  Not when he got to watch you with one arm out the window, your hand making waves in the wind as you sang at the top of your lungs.

Just being out of the house for less than an hour was doing you so much good.

“Bucky, you aren’t going to kill me, right?” You asked with a laugh as he parked the car in a small lot at the entrance of a trail.  “Because I really figured you would’ve done that by now, you know.”

“Nah, baby,” he said as he popped the trunk, smirking at the surprised look on your face at the sight of the basket.  The trunk closed with a slam as he tossed you the blanket, moving to your side and holding your free hand in his before leading you down the trail.  “If I wanted to murder you, I’d have done it by now.  Besides, you’re too pretty to kill.  I’d miss looking at you everyday.”

“You’re an absolute cheese ball,” you laughed, nudging his hip with yours.  Not that it actually did anything.

Ah, the disadvantages you had when it came to play fighting with your super soldier boyfriend.  Poor you.

The trail was absolutely stunning, full of wildlife and color.  The shade the trees provided was a nice reprieve to the mid-August heat, the sunlight filtering through the leaves to dapple against your cheeks.

It was about a fifteen minute walk to the Wallkill River, and you heard the rush of the water long before you get there.

“We aren’t going swimming right?” You asked, eyeing him skeptically.  “Because I just washed my hair.”

“No,” he said, amusement lacing his tone.  “We’re not swimming.  Just having a late lunch.”  He sets down the basket and takes the blanket from you, laying it out on the small clearing on the bank.  He took his time setting up the charcuterie board, the bottle of wine, and the two pillows that he stuffed in the basket for you two to rest against.  “There.  Now it’s perfect,” he said as he held his hand out to you to help you sit down on the blanket.  “Worthy of my princess.”

A familiar roll of your eyes as he pressed sweet kisses to your cheeks, just like he did anytime he doted on you.  He only ever called you princess when he got all lovey dovey like this.

Not that you’d ever complain.

“So what’s all this for?” You asked.  Unable to stop your fit of giggles, you teetered to the side as the force of his cheek kisses grew and he made more and more obnoxious noises with it, his metal hand hooked around your waist.  “Bucky Bear…”

“Okay, okay,” he relented, leaving one last, noisy kiss to your cheek before sitting up straight.  He didn’t answer you right away, choosing instead to grab the wine and pop it open, pouring you each a glass.  He was always the designated driver, since alcohol didn’t affect him.  He was silent until you had your glass in hand, and he raised his in a toast.  “I want to celebrate us, and more specifically, you.  The past seven or so months haven’t been easy, but you’ve been a champ through it all.  And also, I think we’ve done pretty damn well on living together and being around each other almost 24/7, considering that we only moved in together in November,” he said.  His startling blue eyes were so soft as he stared at you.  “I just love you so much, and I truly don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Oh, my god,” you said, your eyes glassy as you shook your head.  “Bucky, you can’t say things like that when I just did my makeup!  You’re going to make me cry!”  But you didn’t mind the tears as you leaned in and pressed your lips to his, your glasses clinking together.  “I love you, too.  And there’s no one else I’d rather go through this with.”

“Together,” he said, his nose nudging against yours.

“Together,” you agreed.

[oasisspringstownie]

FAME: A Legacy Challenge

Sul sul simmers!

Like many of you, one of my favorite things to do in The Sims is play Legacy Challenges. They lead you to explore new aspects of gameplay, give you new imaginative ideas, and facilitate storytelling. So, a couple of nights ago I got the idea to create a new kind of legacy challenge revolving around different aspects of fame.

The goal isn’t exactly to become the most famous using said career/ skill, but to play around with different elements of the fame system in the game. You by no means need all the packs to play through this legacy. While the experience would be more complete and you will be missing careers and skills and stuff you can obviously adapt it to your need. Also, you are more than welcomed to use mods to enrich your gameplay. I myself can’t play without mods and look forward to see what kind of chaos mods can add to this challenge.

So without further a do below are the 10 generations I concocted like a fever dream at 2 am on a Saturday evening:

Gen 1: A Shaky Foundation

Traits: Cheerful, Ambitious, Self-Absorbed

Career: Acting, Style Influencer (Trendsetter Branch)

You move to a new city full of hopes and dreams. You initially pursue your dream of becoming an actor. However, your career is cut short by the unexpected arrival of your first child. You retreat from the spotlight in order to raise your baby and put all of your energy into making sure they have the best future possible. The rest of the time you spend either working or trying to unwind from your demanding life. What will fate bring you and your descendants?

Goals:

Move into an empty lot with 1600 simoleons for the bare minimum.

Start in the Acting Career, but abandon it for the Style Influencer career once your first child is born. Remain in the Style Influencer Career and eventually choose the Trendsetter Branch.

Max out the Style Influencer Career.

Reach level 10 of the Parenting and Wellness Skills.

Be close friends with all of your children and make sure they each age up with at least 2 positive character attributes.

Gen 2: Get Your Head in the Game

Traits: Active, Music Lover, Outgoing

Career: Athlete, Entertainment (Musician Branch)

Your parent might have seemed very overbearing at the time, but they instilled a work ethic in you like no other. Your entire life you were split between your two passions: basketball and singing. Okay, fine, you're Troy Bolton. After succeeding in the sports world you still find yourself feeling somewhat unfulfilled. You enter the entertainment career later on in life to live out your dreams. Will this be the start of something new?

Goals:

Max out the Athlete Career and then switch to the Entertainment Career (Musician Branch).

Max out the Fitness and Singing Skills.

Be in the drama club in high school.

Gen 3: Going for the Stars

Traits: Clumsy, Loner, Genius

Career: Astronaut

Your parent always told you to shoot for the stars, you just took it a bit too seriously. This world was always a bit too pedestrian for you and you yearn to finally lay your eyes on the astronomical craters of Sixam. There's just one problem: you're terrible at it. It's not your fault, you're just a bit clumsy; but will your two left feet keep you from reaching your dreams?

Goals:

Work in the Astronaut Career your entire life. Get demoted and fired at least once in your lifetime.

Destroy and repair a rocket 3 times.

Live in a tiny home for your young adulthood and adulthood.

Have at least one set of twins. *You can cheat for this!*

Gen 4: The Finer Things in Life

Traits: Materialistic, Hates Children, Lazy

Career: None

You've seen all the generations before you work their little pixelated butts off for every simoleon, but you're not about that life. You were destined for the finer things in life.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Charisma and Mixology Skills.

Marry and survive 5 spouses. Take that wording however you want. Divorce is not allowed. You must be the last once standing. After all, spouses are like infinity stones. Meaningless.

Never have a job. Only make money from spouses, family, or children. If you get desperate enough you can ask a friend for a loan or steal, but no working of any kind.

Each child you decide to have with one of your rich spouses comes with a 20k trust fund. If they get taken away or die before coming of age, all the money has to be returned to the evil capitalist overlords. You can't get rid of them that easily.

Own at least 1 restaurant/ retail/ business with one of your spouses. Decorate it, assign the uniform, and hire everyone, but you never run it. Why would you go through the trouble?

Gen 5: My Precious

Traits: Art Lover, Kleptomaniac, Self-Assured

Career: Criminal

Your childhood was pretty hectic and you felt like you barely knew your parents. Who needs them? You've never needed anyone else anyway. On your 18th birthday, you receive your inheritance and use it to buy yourself an unfurnished apartment in the nicest building you can find and that's when your money runs out... literally. However, will a new job as a tough guy be the first of many great ideas or will it only be the beginning of the end for this famed family?

Goals

Once you become a young adult give yourself enough money to buy one of the apartments in the Uptown Neighborhood in San Myshuno. It must be unfurnished. After moving in set your money to 0 simoleons.

Complete the Criminal Career.

Reach level 10 of the Mischief and Dancing Skills.

Gain an atrocious reputation and spend the rest of your life trying to cover it up.

Steal 10 paintings from a museum and exhibit them proudly in your home. You are never allowed to sell them. As an adult, hide them in a secret attic nobody else has access to or knows about. They are your precious.

Gen 6: The Muses

Traits: Creative, Family Oriented, Insider

Career: Painter

You could have anything you wanted in the world thanks to your family's empire so you pursued your passion: painting. While you were never close to your other family members you were always very close to your art teacher. This led you to have very close ties to your friends, co-workers, and eventual children. Will your legacy remain for longer in the memory of strangers or your loved ones?

Goals

Complete the Painter Career

Reach level 10 of the Painting, Cooking and Baking Skills

Have a better relationship with your art teacher than anyone else in your family until you're a teen.

Move to a new world once you become a young adult and cut ties with your family.

Be the leader of one club for all your young adulthood and adulthood.

Be close friends with 3 co-workers and all of your children.

Prepare a meal at least once a week with the help of your children. *I know we don't have this in the game yet technically, but I'm hoping to have Cottage Living by the time I play with this generation*

Hang 5 paintings in a museum.

Retire from Painting Career to help care for your grandchildren.

Gen 7: Mole

Traits: Good, Perfectionist, Paranoid

Career: None

You always had a good relationship with your parents. You told each other everything... well, almost everything. You never understood why but one of your parents never talked about the rest of your family members. They explained that they simply never had a good relationship and would rather not talk about it. You respect this until their death when you return to their seemingly abandoned childhood home. While exploring the house you find a not-so-subtle bookcase door and a long forgotten attic filled with paintings. You take them in hopes of returning them but unbeknownst to you, you are being watched.

After an unfortunately unavailable nail-biting car chase, you shake off your attackers. You can't just lead them home to the rest of your family and what would the police do? They don't even arrest Vlad when he's trying to bite all of your sims!

Sorry, different rant.

So you do the only logical thing: you sell the paintings you just stole for some cash to buy an empty lot and skip town. A new life awaits you... just a bit underground.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Writing, Logic, and Handiness Skills.

Complete the Best Selling Author Aspiration.

After your parent dies, you visit Gen 5's main home and retrieve the paintings hidden in the attic generations ago. Sell them and use the money to buy an empty lot in a completely different world.

Use your remaining money to build a small underground bunker. You can now never leave your bunker or risk immediate death.

You make your income by writing books under your new name. Oh, didn't I mention that? You changed your name to avoid detection. Your children may carry this new fake last name or your partner's.

Gen 8: Part of Your World

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Outgoing, Geek

Career: Social Media

All you knew was the bunker and it's not that you hated it, you just wanted a bit more. You're basically the little mermaid, except you don't get to be a mermaid. You just get a bunker you can never leave and a desperate yearning to explore the outside world.

Your outlet is the internet. From a young age you loved using it to play video games and make friends. As a teen you began to make videos and fostered a community online. Will you finally take your place in the world or remain hidden underground?

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Media Production and Video Gaming Skills

Complete the Social Media Career.

You're never allowed to leave the underground bunker until you're a teen.

You aren't allowed to go to school. Instead you play video games and use your computer for outside interaction.

As a teen you start developing your online presence by posting on social media and making videos on the video station.

You are only allowed to move out of the household once your parent dies and you have enough money in reserves to buy a furnished home.

Gen 9: Natural Born Performer

Traits: Gloomy, Unflirty, Adventurous

Career: Entertainment (Comedy Branch)

Due to your parent's fame, it was always expected you would follow in their footsteps. While a bit more gloomy than most, you are happiest when you make others laugh. So you join the Entertainer Career where you flourish as a comedian. You're also a bit unlucky in love. Will the family name's fame and your own notoriety keep you from finding true love or are you destined to a lifetime of gold diggers and one night stands?

Goals

Complete the Entertainer Career (Comedy Branch).

Reach level 10 of the Comedy and Rock Climbing skills.

Complete Serial Romantic Aspiration

Have four children.

Die suddenly and *mysteriously* in your adulthood.

Gen 10: A Grand Finale

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Ambitious, Perfectionist

Career: Actor

After losing your parents at a very young age, you and your siblings were sent to live with some distant relatives you didn't even know about. While you and your siblings are all very different and you bicker plenty, you always stick together.

After learning you are a descendant of some of the most famous and infamous sims in history, you are determined to meet and surpass their achievements. Will you come out on top or have you flown too close to the sun?

Goals

Complete the Actor Career

Achieve level 10 of 10 skills of your choosing.

Become a Global Superstar.

Get a star on Starlight Boulevard.

Throughout your lifetime you must go on vacation to every house you lived in throughout all previous 9 generations. Oh, and your three other siblings need to come along too. Think of it as Narnia meets It. Also make sure to steal something from each of the houses as a souvenir and display it proudly in your own home.

After you've completed all the things above, get turned into a vampire and choose to end your mortal legacy here... or start a whole new type all together.

Thank you so much for indulging me in this insanity. While I haven't played through any of these generations myself as of yet, I look forward to see the chaos and cuteness possible in The Sims.

Happy simming!

V

[chubbyreaderchan]

Technically No | Jacob Black x witch!Reader | Twilight/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Crossover| 1

jacob is over 18+ in this as well as reader! It's also a slight modern au because technology makes life easier man. And no I don't know what timeline this is. It's after Jacob phases and before Buffy dies again. So you might see Glory in this. Also it’s under a cut because this introduction/beginning is super long.

"Did you make it okay?" Buffy asked over the phone.

"Yes, Buff. I'm in my new house. I am going to my new job Monday" (Y/n) said with a soft sigh as she leaned against her new counter, having just moved from one small town to the other.

Sunnydale to Forks.

"Good. I'm glad you are safe." (Y/n) smiled a small yet sort of sad smile at the prospect of leaving the scoobs but there was a job offer in Forks that was just to good for her to not take and she was damn lucky to find a house for rent. She wondered if it was haunted. Not that was a big deal for someone who went to high school on top of a literal hellmouth.

"How's Dawny?" (Y/n) also knew that Dawn's first day back to high school was coming up as well as Buffy's first day of college for the year. "And did you get your course schedule yet?" She stated sitting in the empty living room floor eating her favorite fast food meal. Her moving truck wouldn't be there with her stuff for at least another day or two.

It wasn't exactly a house full of stuff yet, of course. She had just gone from living with her parents to on her own within a flash it seemed. It was as if the universe was pulling and placing her right in the middle of now where Washington.

"Yeah but I didn't get some of the courses I wanted. Have to try next semester." She sighed over the phone. Was it normal to talk to someone you had just left the day before as if you hadn't seen them in months? Maybe not but a lot was happening as the end of summer was coming to fruition. "Dawn is excited to go back to school"

"Interesting... She wasn't yesterday." Buffy sighed over the phone as her friend teased her. "Oh! So I'm going to try to get some essentials tomorrow!" She said suddenly remembering what she called Buffy about in the first place. "What color do you think I should decorate my kitchen in? Green? Red?" Buffy almost laughed again at one of her closest friends.

"You'll know when you actually go to the store. It's not like I can see the house." "Not yet! But you all are going to come visit me some day!" She laughed a bit. Her phone buzzed at her to charge. "Hey... Buffy. I gotta go. Phones is dying. Tell Willow and everyone I miss them."

"Will do." With that, the phone was hung up and placed on its charger.

(Y/n) sighed picking up her trash and began the work to make the floor as comfortable as possible until she could actually buy a decent bed.

--

The next morning, (Y/n) woke up at a fair hour for a Saturday and took a shower. It was nice to wash out some of the travel and sleep stink off before she slipped on her clothes for the day. Then she went to grab her phone as well as keys and her wallet. There was no way she could sleep on the floor for one more day and eating fast food everyday wasn't exactly a healthy option even if she did just arrive in town.

Sure she was still tired from the plane ride but she would stay tired. She need to find at least an air mattress. The car ride was short, it was nice. Familiar. It wasn't a huge change from one small town to another... Minus the demons and vampires. She hoped. It was simple enough to find the small plaza that had a few small shops and even a diner within walking distance of each other.

It was not even remotely difficult to find the things she oh so desperately needed. It was wonderful. (Y/n) was even able to add to her growing collection of magical artifacts when she stumbled into an antique shop. She thanked the gods that her family had loaned her a bit of cash to help her get by until she was fully working again.

Her day was going great... That was until she was hit with pangs of hunger. 'Did I even eat breakfast?' she asked herself before glancing at the time and gasping. She had been out a lot longer than she had realized.

Didn't she see a diner? She walked to her rental car and started a vague drive. Ah-ha! There was a diner.

She pulled in and was seated quite quickly. It wasn't long before her meal was ordered and her attention was drawn to her phone as she waited. There was a text message from Anya complaining about an argument she and Xander were having. (Y/n) laughed softly before responding with her opinion.

While she was distracted she didn't notice the small group enter. Especially a young man who had a slight staring problem. His eyes were locked on (Y/n) as she fiddled around with her phone. The young man was known by most as Jacob Black. A good kid who was madly in love with Bella Swan, his childhood friend.

"Jake... You okay?" Bella another member of the small group asked with concern on her face. An older man in a wheelchair who was previously chatting with the other older man in the group looked at the one named Jacob. A small knowing smile flashed over his features as he looked at his son.

'It's about damn time' Billy the man in the wheelchair thought. "Jake!" Bella's voice called him again, finally snapping the dark haired young man from his thoughts.

(Y/n) who was finally served food sat her phone down finally not even noticing the set of eyes on the back of her head.

"Is she-?" Bella whispered to Jacob just low enough for her father to not hear. "I... Think so... I think..."

"Son..." It was Billy who joined the conversation. "If you don't go talk to her... I will." Jacob's eyes went wide. How embarrassing would that be? His dad talking to his imprint before he could.

Jacob looked at the girl happily eating her dinner and playing around with her technology. Then she giggled. Oh God.

How could it be that just the day before he was trying to convince Bella not to turn into a vampire? That he was so madly and so deeply in love with the vampire girl that he defied Sam his pack leader for turn into dust and be replaced instantly by a young woman he hadn't even spoken to?

Jacob was so distracted by his thoughts he barely caught his father moving to go introduce himself. "No, wait. Dad. I'll go." He quickly stood up and wandered over to the table nervously. What was he going to say? What if she didn't like him? What if he said something dumb?

"Hey I'm Jacob." He said awkwardly, causing her to jump from what she was doing. Her face scrunched up in confusion before she finally looked up. Their eyes locked and it felt like everything stopped. Her heart beat hard against her ribcage at the very tall and dark haired man before her. "You looked lonely. Uhm. I know we just got here. But..." What was he doing? Inviting her to sit with his dad and his dad's best friend for dinner? That's weird isn't it? Especially since he was going to have dinner with a girl he was in love with.

"I'd love to join you." Why did she just agree to crash someone else's dinner? It looked like a family affair of sorts. "I'm (Y/n)!" She suddenly remembered her name. It felt like her face was on fire. He shifted from slightly nervous to having a large smile on his face. How sweet.

He even helped by carrying her stuff to the table. "This is my dad Billy. His friend Charlie and his daughter Bella." Jacob introduced allowing her to sit down. Something in the back of her mind told her that this was weird.

Something was off.

It felt... Magical. She knew magical.

But then Charlie began to talk about how he was a sheriff and the weirdness seemed to disappear. "So...where are you from?" Charlie asked trying to judge if this new girl was going to cause him trouble later. "Oh. Sunnydale," she paused. "California. Also graduated from Sunnydale high." She explained with a small smile.

Maybe it wasn't so bad joining their little dinner. It was nice having people to talk to, especially when one was so new. "What do you like to do Jake?" She said looking over at him before taking a bite of food.

"Oh, uh. I buy and flip cars right now. It's more of a side hustle really." He smiled at her. "Really?" She said with a smile on her lips. "Because the car I'm in is just a rental... If you find anything good will you think of me? I can't pay the rate they are wanting forever." She joked, gently and playfully touching his arm.

It was like fire. Both literally and figuratively. If it weren't for the people she could almost throw herself at him. But then his skin was so hot that it almost burned. "Absolutely." Jacob smiled. "What's your phone number?" He looked almost like a puppy who was just given a treat. She took his phone and put her number in and he sent her a text. A wolf emoji.

Her eyes looked him over again. Then the phone in her hand began ringing. She answered it quickly, it was the moving company.

Jacob watched as she excused herself to talk to whoever. Her once happy self was instantly deflated. Jacob did not like that at all. He felt it. He actually felt the sadness in her. Is this what it was like to have an imprint? Actually feeling their pain? She walked back in and sighed. 

“Are you okay?” Jacob asked with what (Y/n) could only describe as genuine concern. 

“My moving truck is going to be late. On Monday while I’m at work instead of on Sunday.” She shouldn’t be so easy to talk to someone she had only known for 20 minutes. Jacob didn’t like the look on her face one of distress. 

Jacob looked her over again, hardly getting tired of looking at her face. “I have some friends on the Res. Maybe we can meet them. Help you out..” Jacob offered without a second thought. 

“Really?” she looked at him unsure at first. 

Jacob nodded, a bright smile on his face. 

“O-okay” She agreed. 

a/n: Stopping this one here and writing part 2 next. If I didn’t this would be 3000 words. Don’t worry I’m literally going from posting this part to writing the next bit because I already know what I’m going to do. Then I’m going to write a Paul version of this. 

[momentofmemory]

FICTOBER 2020 - day twenty-five

Prompt #25: “Sometimes you can even see.”

Fandom: The Old Guard

Characters: Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani

Words: 1937

Author’s Note: In the aftermath of a rough mission and all the philosophical questions it entails, Joe takes Nile to the Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark. All pieces mentioned were displayed in the Objects of Wonder: From Pedestal to Interaction exhibit, which ran from Oct. 2019- March 2020. Nile POV.

>> the sweetness remains

Nile scrolls mindlessly through Pinterest, wishing for not the first time that she’d been allowed to recreate her socials.

Copley had barred her from practically all of the actually useful ones, but she’d bullied him down to just having an account on Pinterest, with the argument being that no one cared about the site. Granted, she doesn’t really want to be on Pinterest either, but sometimes the comfort of an app with infinite scroll is all she’s looking for in a distraction.

And right now, she really, really needs to be distracted.

Overly photoshopped cat pics.

Memes ripped straight from tumblr or twitter.

The most white girl aesthetic imaginable.

Three slugs ripping through her abdomen and spitting her liver out the other side—

Nile breathes in sharply. Exhales.

Her thumb resumes scrolling.

Photos of downtown that feel like home.

Recipes for harvest butternut squash soup.

Tips for keeping braids fresh longer.

Nile scrolls, and scrolls, and breathes.

Her abdomen still aches every time her lungs expand, even though she knows it really doesn’t. It’s perfectly healed; not even a scar for her troubles. But it’s hard to forget how her instincts had screamed that a gut shot like that shouldn’t be survivable, even as she pushed herself towards the next target.

(She didn’t survive it.)

(She didn’t survive the next half dozen times it happened, either.)

“Did that phone of yours do something to offend you?”

“Whoa!” Joe’s sudden appearance next to her only makes her clench her phone tighter. She forces out a laugh and eases the tension out of her fingers. “Feel like you should know better than to sneak up on someone that’s part of a bunch of immortal warriors.”

“Most of them would have caught me coming long before you did.”

Nile snorts. She scrolls a few more seconds, then closes the app and opens Temple Run. The game’s ridiculously old, but she’s a millennial. Sue her for being nostalgic.

She can feel Joe watching her as she starts the round.

“Am I correct in thinking you enjoy the arts, Nile?”

It’s not the question she was expecting, and she winds up tilting the screen to the left a half second late, and her character falls off the bridge.

It’s okay though, because she can just use a gem and respawn in the same place, so it’s basically like not dying at all.

Right?

“Uh, yeah,” she says. She winds up restarting the round entirely. “The military was supposed to pay for my degree, but I don’t think I can cash that if I’m technically KIA.”

“That would present a certain set of problems,” Joe agrees. “Andy talk to you about that?”

“Yeah.” Nile’s stomach twists. “Guess it depends on how easy it is to schedule classes between firefights.”

She’s practically laying the opening for a talk out herself, but Joe seems uninterested in taking it.

Instead, he shifts beside her, propping an elbow on his knee. “What kinds of art did you want to specialize in?”

She dies again. This time, she begrudgingly uses the in-game save. "I prefer classic sculpture, but I’m not against modern.”

“You like what was modern art for me, then.”

Nile rolls her eyes. “I dread the day I become as weird as you guys.”

He laughs, patting her on the shoulder as he stands. “I suspect by that time you’ll be too busy tormenting our next recruit. But unfortunately, the exhibit we’re going to will be more in the contemporary style.”

It takes Nile a half second to register his words. “Wait, what?”

“The description said it would be 1960s to the present only. If it suits you, we could hold off on our discussion of it for another thousand years or so. I’m sure we can claim it as classic at that point.”

“What?” Nile locks her phone and zeros her attention on him, registering the mischievous glint in his eyes this time. “Museum?”

“The Aarhus Art Museum has a special exhibit on loan from the Tate Modern at the moment.” He glances down at her phone, the corner of his mouth forming a grin. “I’m told its purpose is to help move its audience’s attention from their devices.”

Nile scowls and looks back down at her phone. “I died a dozen times yesterday. I’m allowed my coping mechanisms of choice.”

And.

Whoops.

“Of course you are,” Joe says, offering his hand to her, and she’s once again surprised he doesn’t force the conversation. “But phones are portable. You can take it with you to the museum.”

Nile worries at the edge of her lip with her teeth. She doesn’t really want to go anywhere right now, but…

But Joe’s brown eyes are warm and welcoming, and his callouses help steady her when she takes his hand.

“You said contemporary sculpture?”

The grin he gives her is blinding. “For now.”

_________________

It’s a twenty-five minute drive from their safe house to the museum, and the route takes them next to the Bay of Aarhus for most of it.

Nile stares out at the water, determined to not give Joe any more ammunition for making fun of her regarding her phone.

It’s hard. She’d never considered herself a technology addict—never had enough time to be one—but she really, really wants to stop thinking about the fact that she knows what the inside of her liver looks like.

Or did look like, she guesses.

Nope, nuh-uh, not going there—

“D'you know about the Ship of Theseus?” She spits it out before she can decide against it. She figures if she’s thinking about it, she might as well talk about it. “And don’t say you were there for it. You’re not Andy and I at least know enough about you to know when you’re lying.”

The grin on his face tells her that he was very much intending to before she called him out on it. “It’s a thought experiment. The character Theseus owns a ship that, over a long span of time, has all of its parts replaced, until nothing of the original still remains.”

“Yeah, and so then the question is, is it even the same ship,” Nile finishes.

Joe weaves in and out of traffic, a pensive look on his face. “I assume you aren’t asking simply to test my knowledge of early western philosophy.”

“No.”

Nile looks down at her hands. She can still remember how horrifically mangled they were from her impromptu dive off a skyscraper, but at least—at least she’s pretty sure they’re the same ones she had before.

Though that might not last long.

“In your opinion,” she says, cautiously, “if—if there’s nothing left of the original—if you have to rebuild something that many times—”

“Nile.” The sound of the car’s turn signal distracts her spiraling thoughts. Joe nods towards the windshield. “We’re here.”

It’s a large, red brick square building, fairly nondescript but for the circular and multi-colored glass walking track at its top.

“Come on, he says, parking the car. “I find physical objects superior to mental ones for solving such issues.”

Nile doesn’t understand why the one time she wants to talk about something like this is the one time Joe decides to go full mysterious.

She climbs out of the car and follows him inside.

Despite her misgivings, she quickly discovers Joe was right. The exhibit is genuinely incredible, and there are pieces from multiple names she recognizes—Anish Kapoor, Donald Judd, Rasheed Araeen—and pieces she finds herself strangely moved by, such as Damian Hirst’s Away from the Flock, Richard Long’s Red Slate Circle, Rachel Whiteread’s Airbed II. Nile stares at that last one in particular for a long time: a concrete casting of an airbed, the artist’s presence made known in the negative space where her body had pressed the material down.

Joe, however, seems to be moving with a specific purpose in mind, and it’s not until they round one of the walls of the orange-pink room that Nile has a guess as to what it is.

In the far corner, bathed in the additional light of a single fill light, is a massive pile of multicolored cellophane wrapped hard candies.

Joe walks her over to it, an almost reverence to his steps.

“Untitled: Portrait of Ross in LA,” he says. “Are you familiar with the piece?”

She shakes her head, bending down to inspect it. It doesn’t look like much more than what she’d seen from a distance—candy, multicolored, on the floor. She looks to Joe for an explanation.

“Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s partner died from AIDS,” Joe says. The grief on his face is hard to look at. “To honor him, he made this as a portrait—one hundred and seventy-five pounds of candy, representing Ross’s weight from when he was still healthy.”

Nile looks at the pile—it’s a lot, but it’s not a hundred and seventy-five pounds worth of a lot.

Joe notices her confusion and smiles. “Take one.”

“What?”

“Take one,” he repeats. “The purpose of the work is to invite you to partake in both enjoying his presence and lamenting the lack of it. A sort of communion—choosing to take part of his body into your own. It was a powerful statement when so many were afraid to even be in our presence at the time.”

Nile looks at the pile again, and just like with Airbed II, her heart aches at what isn’t there, rather than what is. She selects a red piece and brings it out of the pile, cupping it in her hand and considering its weight.

“What happens when it runs out?”

Joe selects his own piece—a green one—and it rolls around in the palm of his hand. “It has. Many times. But that’s the beauty of it—it’s the curator’s responsibility to replenish the pile, metaphorically granting immortality and new life to the loss.”

The cellophane crinkles in Nile’s hand as she unwraps the piece. “How do they decide where to get the candy from?”

“The only firm rule is the original weight. Outside of that, there are no set instructions for the candies themselves.” He chuckles, threading his fingers behind his neck and leaning back against the wall. “Sometimes you can even see these strange combinations of greens, oranges, and purples.”

Nile considers the candy. “Not your favorite?”

“It has an almost Halloween quality to it. I tend to prefer the rainbow.”

The candy in her hand feels heavier than it did before—weighed down with the knowledge of what it represents, what it’s taking away.

She slips the candy into her mouth and her eyebrows raise in surprise. “It’s sweet?”

“It’s candy,” Joe says, unwrapping his own piece. “Did you expect something else?”

“I thought it’d be…” She pauses, trying to parse out her feelings. “Bitter. Or sad, somehow. Considering.”

“It could have been,” Joe agrees. “But the portrait isn’t meant to represent just grief and loss. Candy is a happy thing—a reward for yourself, or a lover’s gift on Valentine’s. And even when it’s gone, the sweetness remains. Still lingering on the tongue, or dwelling in the mind. It is the love of friends and partners that keeps the memory alive—and what keeps this the same portrait, even though its pieces have been cycled through many times.”

The candy melts away on her tongue, and she closes her eyes in grief for its loss, appreciation for what it was, and hope for the pieces that would come after it.

She swallows the last piece of it down.

Her stomach settles.

[panburger-partner]

merry christmas, loser

In the string of Extremely 2020 Bullshit, the latest is this: 

DID YOU KNOW that in the state of California a lender can repossess your car without any warning? So that when your payment (sent by mail, apparently delayed by the deluge of the postal service) does not arrive on the exact due date they can dispatch a tow truck at 1am to take your car while you sleep? 

Yes, technically they can extend a grace period and they can give you a courtesy phone call but since they don’t have to? You just wake up and your car is missing and you have to spend an entire day and about $1,000 to get your car out of impound?

Oh, but that would sound easy. Right? Just a problem you can throw money at? (should you be so lucky as to have access to money) Ahahahaha! NOPE! The tow yard has “holiday hours” so they’re only open 3 magical hours per day this week and their service is appointment-only so you can’t actually go until tomorrow - which means you pay another $100/day for them to “store” it for you. Plus, they charge you for the hassle of inventorying everything in your car and putting it in boxes. So each box ALSO costs money per day to store?

I had to go in to my local bank branch - a credit union - and the teller was so angry on my behalf (my loan is from another bank). She cancelled the check in the mail and waived all fees (”otherwise they’ll cash it tomorrow and it won’t be applied to next month’s payment, they’ll consider it an overpayment on this month even though you’ve just had to pay the current outstanding balance. THIS IS BULLSHIT! Excuse my language, but this is absolute trash”). The teller even shared that BOFA (she called them The Devil) is allowing 3 missed payments + 30 days to rectify before sending repo notices; that a smaller bank wouldn’t do the same -- AND ON CHRISTMAS WEEK!!! -- made her genuinely angry. 

In my research on WTF is happening it turns out that technically repo & tow workers are not “essential” and just like evictions, none of this is really supposed to be happening to anyone but it does and the police are going along with it and nobody has any money to fight back in court so it just keeps happening. So instead lenders are leaning on the fine print of their contracts that say that any late payment is cause for repossession/sale. And the tow yards and repo companies are delighted because of the holidays and their reduced hours means they’re holding your car longer, so you have to pay them more. I suspect I’m not alone in this. (I have not missed other payments or given them any reason to flag me in particular; which suggests that anyone who has any kind of flag in their file - lapsed insurance, registration, etc. - is on their radar for holiday repo).

TL;DR - make sure your car payment goes through on the due date or else call your lender because they can - and do - repo cars in the middle of the night without warning.