#Cabs in toronto
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OC SHIP ART PSYCHIC ATTACK! HIIIYAAA!!!!!
Trafficjam and his huge bus wife Halt [: 💜
#for those of you new here YES Trafficjam's earth mode is based off those ugly ass beck cabs from toronto <3 I LOVE THEM!!!#transformers#transformers oc#transformers ocs#transformers art#maccadam#ocs#my ocs#oc#oc x oc#oc ship#original character#original characters
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so i looked at the russian, japanese and korean wikipedias, went to their hockey-based articles, translated them into english and the results are a fucking trip.
Bonus: These absolute gems from Chinese Wikipedia.
#eye contact#<-just a bit#tw alchohol mention#tj oshie#jonathan toews#and multiple other players that i cant be assed to tag right now#new york rangers#chicago blackhawks#vegas golden knights#toronto maple leafs#st louis blues#washington capitals#montreal canadiens#probably a lot more teams but whatever#hockey#wikipedia#google translate#by the way i am definitely referring to kane's cab incident as “malicious mischief�� going forward lmfao
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The yellow cab in which driver Richard Turkiewicz, 50, of Margueretta St. was found shot to death is in the police garage at Birchmount and Eglinton, where officers are studying it. 1976 [TPL Archives]
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Airport limo in Ajax!
ensuring a seamless and stress-free experience from start to finish. 🌟Toronto's Most Trusted Airport Transfer.
Affordable Airport transfer in Toronto! Discover the best Airport transfer Contact us: 1844-398-8055 | www.prestigeairportcars.ca
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#luxury#cabs#limo service in toronto#Toronto#airport transfer#airportcars#airporttransfers#bestcabs#cab service#Ajax#cars#Aurora#pickering#limousine#chauffeurs#airportlimotoronto#airport limo service#corporate limo
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airport corporate car service Toronto |: Your Ultimate Guide to Airport Limousine Services in Toronto
Introduction
Traveling can be both exciting and exhausting. Whether you're a frequent traveler or embarking on a special journey, your airport experience sets the tone for your trip. While Toronto Pearson International Airport is one of the busiest in the world, navigating the bustling terminals and traffic can be daunting. That's where airport limousine services step in, offering a seamless blend of luxury, comfort, and convenience. In this guide, we'll explore the world of airport limousine services in Toronto, helping you make the most of your travel experience.
The Essence of Airport Limousine Services
Airport limousine services are the epitome of sophistication and convenience. They provide a luxurious alternative to traditional airport transportation, ensuring that you arrive at your destination with style and grace. These services are particularly popular among business travelers, celebrities, and anyone who values comfort and privacy.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book Now!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Visit site:https://www.prestigeairportcars.ca/
Benefits of Choosing Airport Limousine Services
Stress-Free Travel: Navigating through busy airports and unfamiliar roads can be stressful. Airport limousine services offer a peace of mind, allowing you to relax and unwind while a professional chauffeur handles the logistics.
Punctuality: Time is of the essence when traveling. With airport limousine services, you can expect punctuality and timely pickups, ensuring you reach your destination on schedule.
Comfort and Luxury: Step into a world of comfort and luxury as you settle into plush leather seats and enjoy amenities like climate control, entertainment systems, and even refreshments. This level of comfort is unparalleled, especially after a long flight.
Professional Chauffeurs: Experienced chauffeurs with extensive knowledge of Toronto's roadways ensure a smooth ride. They are well-trained to prioritize your safety, comfort, and privacy throughout the journey.
Efficiency: Airport limousine services often track your flight's schedule to ensure they are ready to pick you up when you land. This eliminates any unnecessary waiting time and guarantees a swift transition from the airport to your destination.
Choosing the Right Airport Limousine Service
Research: Before making a reservation, research reputable airport limousine services in Toronto. Read reviews, check their fleet, and ensure they have a positive track record for reliability.
Fleet Variety: Different occasions and group sizes call for different types of vehicles. Look for a service that offers a diverse fleet of vehicles, from executive sedans to spacious SUVs, to accommodate your needs.
Rates and Packages: Compare pricing among different providers. While luxury comes at a cost, a transparent pricing structure is essential. Consider any additional fees, gratuity, and package offerings.
Availability: Ensure that the service you choose operates 24/7 to accommodate any flight schedule, whether you have an early morning departure or a late-night arrival.
Conclusion
When it comes to airport transportation, airport limousine services in Toronto stand out as the pinnacle of comfort, style, and convenience. Whether you're a weary traveler in need of relaxation or a business professional looking to make a statement, these services offer a holistic experience that begins and ends with luxury. By choosing an airport limousine service that aligns with your needs and preferences, you can elevate your travel experience and make every journey an unforgettable one.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book Now!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Visit site:https://www.prestigeairportcars.ca/
#luxury#cabs#limoserviceintoronto#Toronto#airporttransfer#airportcars#airporttransfers#bestcabs#cabservice#Ajax#cars#Aurora#pickering#limousine#chauffeurs#airportlimotoronto#airport limo service#corporate limo service#limoservicenearme#toronto
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corporate airport transfer Toronto| Toronto airport cars airport limo Toronto
Luxury and Convenience: Your Ultimate Guide to Airport Limousine Services in Toronto
Introduction
Traveling can be both exciting and exhausting. Whether you're a frequent traveler or embarking on a special journey, your airport experience sets the tone for your trip. While Toronto Pearson International Airport is one of the busiest in the world, navigating the bustling terminals and traffic can be daunting. That's where airport limousine services step in, offering a seamless blend of luxury, comfort, and convenience. In this guide, we'll explore the world of airport limousine services in Toronto, helping you make the most of your travel experience.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book Now!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Visit site:https://www.prestigeairportcars.ca/
The Essence of Airport Limousine Services
Airport limousine services are the epitome of sophistication and convenience. They provide a luxurious alternative to traditional airport transportation, ensuring that you arrive at your destination with style and grace. These services are particularly popular among business travelers, celebrities, and anyone who values comfort and privacy.
Benefits of Choosing Airport Limousine Services
Stress-Free Travel: Navigating through busy airports and unfamiliar roads can be stressful. Airport limousine services offer a peace of mind, allowing you to relax and unwind while a professional chauffeur handles the logistics.
Punctuality: Time is of the essence when traveling. With airport limousine services, you can expect punctuality and timely pickups, ensuring you reach your destination on schedule.
Comfort and Luxury: Step into a world of comfort and luxury as you settle into plush leather seats and enjoy amenities like climate control, entertainment systems, and even refreshments. This level of comfort is unparalleled, especially after a long flight.
Professional Chauffeurs: Experienced chauffeurs with extensive knowledge of Toronto's roadways ensure a smooth ride. They are well-trained to prioritize your safety, comfort, and privacy throughout the journey.
Efficiency: Airport limousine services often track your flight's schedule to ensure they are ready to pick you up when you land. This eliminates any unnecessary waiting time and guarantees a swift transition from the airport to your destination.
Choosing the Right Airport Limousine Service
Research: Before making a reservation, research reputable airport limousine services in Toronto. Read reviews, check their fleet, and ensure they have a positive track record for reliability.
Fleet Variety: Different occasions and group sizes call for different types of vehicles. Look for a service that offers a diverse fleet of vehicles, from executive sedans to spacious SUVs, to accommodate your needs.
Rates and Packages: Compare pricing among different providers. While luxury comes at a cost, a transparent pricing structure is essential. Consider any additional fees, gratuity, and package offerings.
Availability: Ensure that the service you choose operates 24/7 to accommodate any flight schedule, whether you have an early morning departure or a late-night arrival.
Conclusion
When it comes to airport transportation, airport limousine services in Toronto stand out as the pinnacle of comfort, style, and convenience. Whether you're a weary traveler in need of relaxation or a business professional looking to make a statement, these services offer a holistic experience that begins and ends with luxury. By choosing an airport limousine service that aligns with your needs and preferences, you can elevate your travel experience and make every journey an unforgettable one.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book Now!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Visit site:https://www.prestigeairportcars.ca/
#luxury#cabs#limoserviceintoronto#Toronto#airporttransfer#airportcars#airporttransfers#bestcabs#cabservice#Ajax#cars#Aurora#pickering#limousine#chauffeurs#airportlimotoronto#airport limo service#corporate limo service#limoservicenearme#toronto
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We have over 100 vehicles ranging from Lexus ES 300, SUV cadillac, SUV GMC 8 passage and multi-person vehicles offering an on-demand service 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
We cover the whole of Greater Toronto and all major airports. Unlike most companies who give you an average quote, where they charge for dead KM, our pricing system generates a fixed price from ‘street to street’.
Our fares are very competitive, so why not try us for your next booking? Our experience, coupled with our passion for excellence enables us to deliver an unrivalled level of service to our clients. We pay particular attention to detail on driver training, health & safety, the environment and corporate social responsibility matters. We have both the resources and experience to provide 'The Complete Transport Solution'.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book Now!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Visit site:https://www.prestigeairportcars.ca/
#luxury#cabs#limoserviceintoronto#Toronto#airporttransfer#airportcars#airporttransfers#bestcabs#cabservice#Ajax#cars#Aurora#pickering#limousine#chauffeurs#airportlimotoronto
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It has been seventeen years since The Black Parade was sent to the MOAT. In that time, a great Dictator has risen to power, bringing about "THE CONCRETE AGE”; a glorious time of stability and abundance in the history of DRAAG. His Grand Immortal Dictator wishes to celebrate our rich and storied culture, fine foods, and musical entertainments by welcoming you to these great demonstrations of power and resolve. And lending voice and song for the first time in six thousand two hundred and forty six days, their work privilege ceremoniously reinstated, will be His Grand Immortal Dictator's National Band... The Black Parade. Long Live Draag —— “Long Live:" The Black Parade North American Tour Tickets On sale Friday, November 15, 2024 10am local time www.livenation.com | www.mychemicalromance.com/tour July 11, 2025 | Seattle, WA | Special Guest: Violent Femmes | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0F... July 19, 2025 | San Fransisco, CA | Special Guest: 100 Gecs | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C... July 26, 2025 | Los Angeles, CA | Special Guest: Wallows | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0B... August 2, 2025 | Arlington, TX | Special Guest: Garbage | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C... August 9, 2025 | East Rutherford, NJ | Special Guest: Death Cab For Cutie/Thursday | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00... August 15, 2025 | Philadelphia, PA | Special Guest: Alice Cooper | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/02... August 22, 2025 | Toronto, ON | Special Guest: Pixies | https://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/100... August 29, 2025 | Chicago, IL | Special Guest: Devo | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/04... September 7, 2025 | Boston, MA | Special Guest: Idles | www.redsox.com/MyChemicalRomance September 13, 2025 | Tampa, FL | Special Guest: Evanescence | https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0D... —— Director: Claire Marie Vogel Producer: Lars Ruch Associate Producer: Jeremy Lambert Art Direction: Matt Varnish Linguistic Specialist: Nate Piekos
My Chemical Romance
[Nov 12, 2024]
#mikey way#claire marie vogel#lars ruch#jeremy lambert#matt varnish#nate piekos#mcr#live#lltbp#youtube#2024#nov 2024#11/12/24#11/15/24#2025#jul 2025#aug 2025#sep 2025#2025 lltbp na tour#vid#text#originals#eye strain
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Prestige Airport CaBS specialize in offering the highest quality service for both business and private individuals requiring a premium airport transfer. Airport Limousine Service London www.prestigecabs.co.uk
#best airport transfer london#london to luton airport transfer#london to heathrow cabs#heathrow to gatwick shuttle#best airport cars toronto#best taxi from heathrow to gatwick#best taxi from heathrow to gatwick#limo service london#cab heathrow to gatwick#luton to london cabs
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When you need to get around in Toronto and you’re not sure which cab to hire, it can be difficult. There are a lot of local cab companies in Toronto that have been around for years. So how do you know which one is the best Toronto cab?
You could ask your family or friends who live in Toronto what they recommend, but that might not work either if they don’t like any of the local taxi cab companies. In this article, we’ll explore why it’s important to hire a local taxi cab company when you’re visiting Toronto and show you how to find the best company for your needs.
Why Hire a Local Taxi Cab Company?
Hiring a local taxi cab company is important for lots of reasons. When you’re visiting somewhere for the first time, it’s always a good idea to rely on the locals for advice when it comes to how to get around. Locals know which cabs are safe and reliable, and they’ll be able to give you insider tips about how to use public transportation in Toronto. It’s also important that your taxi driver knows where they’re going. If you’re lost or unfamiliar with the city that you’re visiting, it would be frustrating if your driver didn’t know where to take you or got lost on the way there. Hiring a local cab company will make sure you have an easy ride without any headaches!
One other thing: some of these companies provide airport shuttle services so they can help get visitors to and from the airport too.
How to Find the Best Toronto cab service?
There are two ways to go about finding the best Toronto cab service. The first is to find a taxi company that has positive reviews or testimonials from family members, friends, or other people you know who live in Toronto. You can also check out Trip Advisor and Yelp. This will give you an idea of which companies have the best reviews and are highly rated by previous customers.
The second way is to ask the hotel where you’re staying if they have a preferred local cab company. If they do, you can visit their website and book your ride through them so that you don’t have to worry about trying to find one on your own. Otherwise, if there’s not a particular taxi company recommended by the hotel where you’re staying, it’s smart to use Google Maps. In the top left corner of the screen there will be a search bar; type “taxi” into this search bar and Google Maps will display all of the taxi companies with their current prices for different destinations in Toronto. Compare these prices before making your decision on who to hire for your ride!
Toronto Cabs Guide
Toronto is a big city and it’s very hard to know which taxi company is best for you. We’re here to help!
We’ve put together some of the most important points that people should consider when choosing which local taxi company to hire in Toronto.
The uniformity of cars – Does the taxi company have a lot of different models of cars? If so, this might be a good sign.
Cost – When do they charge peak rates (during rush hour)? How much do they charge for night rates? What other charges are there?
Are the drivers friendly and personable?
Is there a flat rate fee or not?
Is there any specific service you can request from your driver?
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Prime’s enshittified advertising
Prime's gonna add more ads. They brought in ads in January, and people didn't cancel their Prime subscriptions, so Amazon figures that they can make Prime even worse and make more money:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazon-prime-video-is-getting-more-ads-next-year/
The cruelty isn't the point. Money is the point. Every ad that Amazon shows you shifts value away from you – your time, your attention – to the company's shareholders.
That's the crux of enshittification. Companies don't enshittify – making their once-useful products monotonically worse – because it amuses them to erode the quality of their offerings. They enshittify them because their products are zero-sum: the things that make them valuable to you (watching videos without ads) make things less valuable to them (because they can't monetize your attention).
This isn't new. The internet has always been dominated by intermediaries – platforms – because there are lots more people who want to use the internet than are capable of building the internet. There's more people who want to write blogs than can make a blogging app. There's more people who want to play and listen to music than can host a music streaming service. There's more people who want to write and read ebooks than want to operate an ebook store or sell an ebooks reader.
Despite all the early internet rhetoric about the glories of disintermediation, intermediaries are good, actually:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/
The problem isn't with intermediaries per se. The problem arises when intermediaries grow so powerful that they usurp the relationship between the parties they connect. The problem with Uber isn't the use of mobile phones to tell taxis that you're standing on a street somewhere and would like a cab, please. The problem is rampant worker misclassification, regulatory arbitrage, starvation wages, and price-gouging:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible
There's no problem with publishers, distributors, retailers, printers, and all the other parts of the bookselling ecosystem. While there are a few, rare authors who are capable of performing all of these functions – basically gnawing their books out of whole logs with their teeth – most writers can't, and even the ones who can, don't want to:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation
When early internet boosters spoke of disintermediation, what they mostly meant was that it would be harder for intermediaries to capture those relationships – between sellers and buyers, creators and audiences, workers and customers. As Rebecca Giblin and I wrote in our 2022 book Chokepoint Capitalism, intermediaries in every sector rely on chokepoints, narrows where they can erect tollbooths:
https://chokepointcapitalism.com/
When chokepoints exist, they multiply up and down the supply chain. In the golden age of physical, recorded music, you had several chokepoints that reinforced one another. Limited radio airwaves gave radio stations power over record labels, who had to secretly, illegally bid for prime airspace ("payola"). Retail consolidation – the growth of big record chains – drove consolidation in the distributors who sold to the chains, and the more concentrated distributors became, the more they could squeeze retailers, which drove even more consolidation in record stores. The bigger a label was, the more power it had to shove back against the muscle of the stores and the distributors (and the pressing plants, etc). Consolidation in labels also drove consolidation in talent agencies, whose large client rosters gave them power to resist the squeeze from the labels. Consolidation in venues drives consolidation in ticketing and promotion – and vice-versa.
But there's two parties to this supply chain who can't consolidate: musicians and their fans. With limits on "sectoral bargaining" (where unions can represent workers against all the companies in a sector), musicians' unions were limited in their power against key parts of the supply chain, so the creative workers who made the music were easy pickings for labels, talent reps, promoters, ticketers, venues, retailers, etc. Music fans are diffused and dispersed, and organized fan clubs were usually run by the labels, who weren't about to allow those clubs to be used against the labels.
This is a perfect case-study in the problems of powerful intermediaries, who move from facilitator to parasite, paying workers less while degrading their products, and then charge customers more for those enshittified products.
The excitement about "disintermediation" wasn't so much about eliminating intermediaries as it was about disciplining them. If there were lots of ways to market a product or service, sell it, collect payment for it, and deliver it, then the natural inclination of intermediaries to turn predator would be curbed by the difficulty of corralling their prey into chokepoints.
Now that we're a quarter century on from the Napster Wars, we can see how that worked out. Decades of failure to enforce antitrust law allowed a few companies to effectively capture the internet, buying out rivals who were willing to sell, and bankrupting those who wouldn't with illegal tactics like predatory pricing (think of Uber losing $31 billion by subsidizing $0.41 out of every dollar they charged for taxi rides for more than a decade).
The market power that platforms gained through consolidation translated into political power. When a few companies dominate a sector, they're able to come to agreement on common strategies for dealing with their regulators, and they've got plenty of excess profits to spend on those strategies. First and foremost, platforms used their power to get more power, lobbying for even less antitrust enforcement. Additionally, platforms mobilized gigantic sums to secure the right to screw customers (for example, by making binding arbitration clauses in terms of service enforceable) and workers (think of the $225m Uber and Lyft spent on California's Prop 22, which formalized their worker misclassification swindle).
So big platforms were able to insulate themselves from the risk of competition ("five giant websites, filled with screenshots of the other four" – Tom Eastman), and from regulation. They were also able to expand and mobilize IP law to prevent anyone from breaking their chokepoints or undoing the abuses that these enabled. This is a good place to get specific about how Prime Video works.
There's two ways to get Prime videos: over an app, or in your browser. Both of these streams are encrypted, and that's really important here, because of a law – Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act – which makes it really illegal to break this kind of encryption (commonly called "Digital Rights Management" or "DRM"). Practically speaking, that means that if a company encrypts its videos, no one is allowed to do anything to those videos, even things that are legal, without the company's permission, because doing all those legal things requires breaking the DRM, and breaking the DRM is a felony (five years in prison, $500k fine, for a first offense).
Copyright law actually gives subscribers to services like Prime a lot of rights, and it empowers businesses that offer tools to exercise those rights. Back in 1976, Sony rolled out the Betamax, the first major home video recorder. After an eight-year court battle, the Supreme Court weighed in on VCRs and ruled that it was legal for all of us to record videos at home, both to watch them later, and to build a library of our favorite shows. They also ruled that it was legal for Sony – and by that time, every other electronics company – to make VHS systems, even if those systems could be used in ways that violated copyright because they were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" (letting you tape shows off your TV).
Now, this was more than a decade before the DMCA – and its prohibition on breaking DRM – passed, but even after the DMCA came into effect, there was a lot of media that didn't have DRM, so a new generation of tech companies were able to make tools that were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" and that didn't have to break any DRM to do it.
Think of the Ipod and Itunes, which, together, were sold as a way to rip CDs (which weren't encrypted), and play them back from both your desktop computer and a wildly successful pocket-sized portable device. Itunes even let you stream from one computer to another. The record industry hated this, but they couldn't do anything about it, thanks to the Supreme Court's Betamax ruling.
Indeed, they eventually swallowed their bile and started selling their products through the Itunes Music Store. These tracks had DRM and were thus permanently locked to Apple's ecosystem, and Apple immediately used that power to squeeze the labels, who decided they didn't like DRM after all, and licensed all those same tracks to Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store, whose slogan was "DRM: Don't Restrict Me":
https://memex.craphound.com/2008/02/01/amazons-anti-drm-tee/
Apple played a funny double role here. In marketing Itunes/Ipods ("Rip, Mix, Burn"), they were the world's biggest cheerleaders for all the things you were allowed to do with copyrighted works, even when the copyright holder objected. But with the Itunes Music Store and its mandatory DRM, the company was also one of the world's biggest cheerleaders for wrapping copyrighted works in a thin skin of IP that would allow copyright holders to shut down products like the Ipod and Itunes.
Microsoft, predictably enough, focused on the "lock everything to our platform" strategy. Then-CEO Steve Ballmer went on record calling every Ipod owner a "thief" and arguing that every record company should wrap music in Microsoft's Zune DRM, which would allow them to restrict anything they didn't like, even if copyright allowed it (and would also give Microsoft the same abusive leverage over labels that they famously exercised over Windows software companies):
https://web.archive.org/web/20050113051129/http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39124642,00.htm
In the end, Amazon's approach won. Apple dropped DRM, and Microsoft retired the Zune and shut down its DRM servers, screwing anyone who'd ever bought a Zune track by rendering that music permanently unplayable.
Around the same time as all this was going on, another company was making history by making uses of copyrighted works that the law allowed, but which the copyright holders hated. That company was Tivo, who products did for personal video recorders (PVRs) what Apple's Ipod did for digital portable music players. With a Tivo, you could record any show over cable (which was too expensive and complicated to encrypt) and terrestrial broadcast (which is illegal to encrypt, since those are the public's airwaves, on loan to the TV stations).
That meant that you could record any show, and keep it forever. What's more, you could very easily skip through ads (and rival players quickly emerged that did automatic ad-skipping). All of this was legal, but of course the cable companies and broadcasters hated it. Like Ballmer, TV execs called Tivo owners "thieves."
But Tivo didn't usher in the ad-supported TV apocalypse that furious, spittle-flecked industry reps insisted it would. Rather, it disciplined the TV and cable operators. Tivo owners actually sought out ads that were funny and well-made enough to go viral. Meanwhile, every time the industry decided to increase the amount of advertising in a show, they also increased the likelihood that their viewers would seek out a Tivo, or worse, one of those auto-ad-skipping PVRs.
Given all the stink that TV execs raised over PVRs, you'd think that these represented a novel threat. But in fact, the TV industry's appetite for ads had been disciplined by viewers' access to new technology since 1956, when the first TV remotes appeared on the market (executives declared that anyone who changed the channel during an ad-break was a thief). Then came the mute button. Then the wireless remote. Meanwhile, a common VCR use-case – raised in the Supreme Court case – was fast-forwarding ads.
At each stage, TV adapted. Ads in TV shows represented a kind of offer: "Will you watch this many of these ads in return for a free TV show?" And the remote, the mute button, the wireless remote, the VCR, the PVR, and the ad-skipping PVR all represented a counter-offer. As economists would put it, the ability of viewers to make these counteroffers "shifted the equilibrium." If viewers had no defensive technology, they might tolerate more ads, but once they were able to enforce their preferences with technology, the industry couldn't enshittify its product to the liminal cusp of "so many ads that the viewer is right on the brink of turning off the TV (but not quite)."
This is the same equilibrium-shifting dynamic that we see on the open web, where more than 50% of users have installed an ad-blocker. The industry says, "Will you allow this many 'sign up to our mailing list' interrupters, pop ups, pop unders, autoplaying videos and other stuff that users hate but shareholders benefit from" and the ad-blocker makes a counteroffer: "How about 'nah?'":
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah
TV remotes, PVRs and ad-blockers are all examples of "adversarial interoperability" – a new product that plugs into an existing one, extending or modifying its functions without permission from (or even over the objections of) the original manufacturer:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability
Adversarial interop creates a powerful disciplining force on platform owners. Once a user grows so frustrated with a product's enshittification that they research, seek out, acquire and learn to use an adversarial interop tool, it's really game over. The printer owner who figures out where to get third-party ink is gone forever. Every time a company like HP raises its prices, they have to account for the number of customers who will finally figure out how to use generic ink and never, ever send another cent to HP.
This is where DMCA 1201 comes into play. Once a product is skinned with DRM, its manufacturers gain the right to prevent you from doing legal things, and can use the public's courts and law-enforcement apparatus to punish you for trying. Take HP: as soon as they started adding DRM to their cartridges, they gained the legal power to shut down companies that cloned, refilled or remanufactured their cartridges, and started raising the price of ink – which today sits at more than $10,000/gallon:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/30/life-finds-a-way/#ink-stained-wretches
Using third party ink in your printer isn't illegal (it's your printer, right?). But making third party ink for your printer becomes illegal once you have to break DRM to do so, and so HP gets to transform tinted water into literally the most expensive fluid on Earth. The ink you use to print your kid's homework costs more than vintage Veuve Cliquot or sperm from a Kentucky Derby-winning thoroughbred.
Adversarial interoperability is a powerful tool for shifting the equilibrium between producers, intermediaries and buyers. DRM is an even more powerful way of wrenching that equilibrium back towards the intermediary, reducing the share that buyers and sellers are able to eke out of the transaction.
Prime Video, of course, is delivered via an app, which means it has DRM. That means that subscribers don't get to exercise the rights afforded to them by copyright – only the rights that Amazon permits them to have. There's no Tivo for Prime, because it would have to break the DRM to record the shows you stream from Prime. That allows Prime to pull all kinds of shady shit. For example, every year around this time, Amazon pulls popular Christmas movies from its free-to-watch tier and moves them into pay-per-view, only restoring them in the spring:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vudu/comments/1bpzanx/looks_like_amazon_removed_the_free_titles_from/
And of course, Prime sticks ads in its videos. You can't skip these ads – not because it's technically challenging to make a 30-second advance button for a video stream, and doing so wouldn't violate anyone's copyright – but because Amazon doesn't permit you to do so, and the fact that the video is wrapped in DRM makes it a felony to even try.
This means that Amazon gets to seek a different equilibrium than TV companies have had to accept since 1956 and the invention of the TV remote. Amazon doesn't have to limit the quantity, volume, and invasiveness of its ads to "less the amount that would drive our subscribers to install and use an ad-skipping plugin." Instead, they can shoot for the much more lucrative equilibrium of "so obnoxious that the viewer is almost ready to cancel their subscription (but not quite)."
That's pretty much exactly how Kelly Day, the Amazon exec in charge of Prime Video, put it to the Financial Times: they're increasing the number of ads because "we haven’t really seen a groundswell of people churning out or cancelling":
https://www.ft.com/content/f8112991-820c-4e09-bcf4-23b5e0f190a5
At this point, attentive readers might be asking themselves, "Doesn't Amazon have to worry about Prime viewers who watch in their browsers?" After all browsers are built on open standards, and anyone can make one, so there should be browsers that can auto-skip Prime ads, right?
Wrong, alas. Back in 2017, the W3C – the organization that makes the most important browser standards – caved to pressure from the entertainment industry and the largest browser companies and created "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME), a "standard" for video DRM that blocks all adversarial interoperability:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership
This had the almost immediate effect of making it impossible to create an independent browser without licensing proprietary tech from Google – now a convicted monopolist! – who won't give you a license if you implement recording, ad-skipping, or any other legal (but dispreferred) feature:
https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/posts/the-end-of-indie-web-browsers/
This means that for Amazon, there's no way to shift value away from the platform to you. The company has locked you in, and has locked out anyone who might offer you a better deal. Companies that know you are technologically defenseless are endlessly inventive in finding ways to make things worse for you to make things better for them. Take Youtube, another DRM-video-serving platform that has jacked up the number of ads you have to sit through in order to watch a video – even as they slash payments to performers. They've got a new move: they're gonna start showing you ads while your video is paused:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/09/20/youtube-pause-ads-rollout/75306204007/
That is the kind of fuckery you only come up with when your victory condition is "a service that's almost so bad our customers quit (but not quite)."
In Amazon's case, the math is even worse. After all, Youtube may have near-total market dominance over a certain segment of the video market, but Prime Video is bundled with Prime Delivery, which the vast majority of US households subscribe to. You have to give up a lot to cancel your Prime subscription – especially since Amazon's predatory pricing devastated the rest of the retail sector:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola
Amazon's founding principle was "customer obsession." Ex-Amazoners tell me that this was more than an empty platitude: arguments over product design were won or lost based on whether they could satisfy the "customer obsession" litmus test. Now, everyone falls short of their ideals, but sticking to your ideals isn't merely a matter of internal discipline, of willpower. Living up to your ideals is a matter of external discipline, too. When Amazon no longer had to contend with competitors or regulators, when it was able to use DRM to control its customers and use the law to prevent them from using its products in legal ways, it lost those external sources of discipline.
Amazon suppliers have long complained of the company's high-handed treatment of the vendors who supplied it with goods. Its workers have complained bitterly and loudly about the dangerous and oppressive conditions in its warehouses and delivery vans. But Amazon's customers have consistently given Amazon high marks on quality and trustworthiness.
The reason Amazon treated its workers and suppliers badly and its customers well wasn't that it liked customers and hated workers and suppliers. Amazon was engaged in a cold-blooded calculus: it understood that treating customers well would give it control over those customers, and that this would translate market power to retain suppliers even as it ripped them off and screwed them over.
But now, Amazon has clearly concluded that it no longer needs to keep customers happy in order to retain them. Instead, it's shooting for "keeping customers so angry that they're almost ready to take their business elsewhere (but not quite)." You see this in the steady decline of Amazon product search, which preferences the products that pay the biggest bribes for search placement over the best matches:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens
And you see it in the steady enshittification of Prime Video. Amazon's character never changed. The company always had a predatory side. But now that monopoly and IP law have insulated it from consequences for its actions, there's no longer any reason to keep the predator in check.
Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/03/mother-may-i/#minmax
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Total and life-changing solar eclipse
Michael was more than pissed off. He had been planning this April 8, 2024 for over two years. Almost all his friends from astronomy class had gone to Mazatlan, Austin or Niagara Falls. Despite all the logistical challenges, Michael wanted to see the solar eclipse at the Epi Center in Nazas. He was on the road for over 36 hours. And now his luggage with all his equipment had not arrived. And he was three and a half hours late. All he had was his special sunglasses. No telescope. No binoculars. All lost somewhere between Dublin and Mexico City… The sky was already darkening. The excursion he had signed up for was long gone somewhere in the mountains. Here, right in front of the airfield, it was full of amateurs. Idiots who didn't understand the significance of this eclipse from the Saros cycle. They probably thought it was a miracle. Michael checked Google Maps. He didn't have time to drive to the hotel first. There was no cab. But according to the satellite image, there was a large parking lot or something similar not far away. Good north-south orientation. Michael should have a good view. And hopefully it was emptier and quieter there…
He cursed the fact that he had to watch the eclipse with the naked eye. He cursed the fact that his sun cream with the sun protection factor was God knows where. His red hair shone in the sun. And he could feel himself getting sunburnt. He probably stank of sweat. The last shower had been during the stopover in Chicago. Maybe he should have flown to Toronto after all. But now he was here. And totality was getting closer and closer.
Michael had been fascinated by astronomy ever since he could read. And he had taught himself at the age of four. Michael was the epitome of a nerd. Unathletic. No friends. Assistant in the computer science department at Dublin University. And now he was standing here alone in the sweltering heat in this parking lot. His head on his back. Above him, a spectacle that rarely existed in this form. His anger evaporated. His fascination with the play of sun and moon prevailed. He no longer felt the heat. In fact, it was starting to get cooler. Cooler and cooler. And it was also slowly getting noticeably darker. Until it was as if someone had switched off the light. Michael stared open-mouthed at the sky. He was overwhelmed. The Black Sun was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. All his exertions were forgotten. The thousands of euros he had spent on the plane tickets: all a trifle for this spectacle in the sky. He put his head back even further in fascination. And he fell backwards onto the ground.
Maldita sea, Miguel thought. He must have fainted a few seconds after falling to the ground. He held the back of his head. That could be a nasty bump on the head… His sunglasses had fallen off his face… He looked at the sun with a wink. Yes, you could still see the shadow of the moon in front of the sun. And? What was so special about it? It got dark every evening. Today it was also noon. Miserable astronomy crap… Even his kunkels had all gone out to a hill outside the village… He didn't care.
His ball had rolled a few meters further. Miguel took it and practiced shooting baskets. By the time his buddies got back before that nerd thing, he was in shape. And then he would beat the losers. Like every time. Miguel was simply the basketball star of his village. And he was happy when all the strangers had finally left and things were quiet again.
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Top Shelf Love: Prologue
A/N: So, if you know me, you know that I love hockey. But if there's one thing I don't love, it's hockey romances because they are always so inaccurate that it's take you out of the story SO QUICK! Like what do you mean the captain of this NCAA D1 team is undrafted? What do you mean she magically has access to an NHL locker-room in the middle of a game? So this is my response to that! A super self-indulgent Nessian Hockey AU. For additional hockey context: Cassian is a defenseman for the NY Rangers; Rhys is a center for the Montreal Canadiens; Az is a winger for the Nashville Predators; and Lucien is a winger for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Anyways! Hope everyone enjoys this prologue and this absolute meet-ugly! Happy final day of @nestaarcheronweek
Read on AO3 // Chapter Masterlist // Next Part
Nesta
Nesta sighs softly, tilting her head back against the leather of the seat. Almost instantly, she scrunches her nose, the stale scent of cigarettes, of sweat and previous occupants, flooding her senses. Eager for a distraction, she peers out the window instead. The skyscrapers loom like shadowed giants on either side of the road, a cascade of colorful lights spilling from their windows and reflecting off the wet roads, the puddles from the earlier rain. Throngs of bodies move along the sidewalks, neither the late hour or the dark clouds still clinging above deterring them clearly.
The city that never sleeps indeed.
The cab jerks to a stop along the curb, the driver not even bothering to turn around and say anything to her, merely tapping the fare display. With a roll of her eyes, Nesta fishes her wallet out of her purse to pay before finally slipping out of the cab. At least the driver pulls her suitcase from the trunk, setting it on the sidewalk beside her.
“Nesta! You finally made it!”
It takes everything within Nesta to swallow back down another sigh, takes all her willpower to force at least a hint of a smile to tug across her face. She can feel her earlier annoyance still simmering just beneath her skin, can still feel the exhaustion weighing down her bones. She’d give anything to be back in her own bed right now, anything to slip beneath her pile of blankets and curl up with a good book, but she’s here for Feyre, here to celebrate her baby sister.
So Nesta rolls her shoulders and plasters on an even wider smile before she turns around. But she should have known better, should have known that despite the physical distance between them, there’s no fooling her sisters. From the way Feyre raises an eyebrow, her lips twitching up in the barest hint of an unimpressed smirk, it’s clear she sees straight through Nesta.
“Sorry,” Nesta winces, her shoulders drooping already. “Journey from hell.”
“Sounds like you need a drink,” Elain offers with an easy smile, stepping forward and taking the handle of Nesta’s suitcase.
“Or five,” Feyre adds with a chuckle.
Nesta rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t exactly disagree. A stiff drink definitely sounds appealing after the nightmare of the day she’s had.
“I saw online that a lot of flights were just straight canceled, so I think you’re lucky to have made it at all,” Elain comments, leading the way along the sidewalk.
“I don’t know that I’d call a six hour delay lucky,” Nesta grumbles, practically shuddering at the memory of being stuck sitting and waiting in an airport for so long.
Nesta follows her sisters inside the building, but they take the elevator down, rather than up, Elain leading the way toward a black SUV. She tells her sisters more about the horrible journey as they walk. About the surprisingly long line at security. About the storms in the midwest and the delays and havoc they wreaked on all flights. About the child that seemed determined to scream for the entire five hour flight.
Once Nesta’s bags are securely locked away in Elain’s car, they return to the elevator and take it all the way up to the eighteenth floor, the doors opening with a soft ding. There’s no stopping the way Nesta’s jaw slackens as she takes it all in. A large centerpiece extends from the floor and fans out into the ceiling, the lights embedded within it casting the entire bar and its occupants in glittering golds. Live music seems to be coming from somewhere, twining and molding with the laughter, the conversations, filling the space.
But it’s the windows that really draw Nesta’s attention. Floor to ceiling windows seem to line every wall, offering a truly panoramic view of all of New York City and the Hudson. It’s a picture perfect view of the twinkling lights and night sky through the rain droplets still clinging to the panes.
“Wow,” Nesta breathes, taking it all in. “This place is definitely nicer than I was expecting.”
“If you think this is nice, you should see their venue.”
It takes a few moments for Elain’s words to register, but then Nesta is snapping her head toward Feyre. “You have a venue already? Does that mean you’ve picked a date?”
“Yes,” Feyre answers, unable to bite back her grin. “Next summer. July specifically, after Rhys’s season has ended.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit optimistic to think he’ll still be playing through June?”
“Elain!” Feyre exclaims, reaching out to smack the middle Archeron in the arm. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“What?” Elain shrugs innocently. “It’s true. I mean what’s their current record again?”
“Because the Leafs do so well when they choke every year?”
“At least they make the playoffs.”
Nesta snorts softly at her sisters’ bickering. “Since when did you become a sports fan anyways, Elain?”
“I guess Lucien’s been filling her with more than just his dick.”
“Feyre!” Elain squeaks out, her cheeks flooding with a blush.
“Darling,” a deep voice practically purrs, interrupting them. “There you are. I was wondering where my beautiful fiancée got off to.”
“Rhys, this is my oldest sister, Nesta,” Feyre offers, sidling up against Rhys’s side, her fiancé’s arm settling over her shoulders with comfortable ease.
“A pleasure to meet you at last,” Rhys greets, holding up the glass in his free hand in a mock cheers. The gesture is a bit sloppy, some of the amber liquid in the glass sloshing over the rim and spilling across his fingers, and Nesta realizes there’s a haze to his violet eyes.
“It’s an open bar,” Feyre mouths, clearly reading Nesta’s expression.
“You don’t have a drink in your hand,” Rhys suddenly says, as though he’s only just realized. “We need to fix that immediately.”
Rhys turns on his heel, pushing his way through the various guests gathered to celebrate him and Feyre without a care. Nesta rolls her eyes, but Feyre has a wide, soft smile on her face as she watches him go, eyes practically sparking with fondness. It’s clear this is the man that makes her youngest sister happy, so she can’t fault him too much.
“He’s right, you know. You do need a drink still,” Feyre says, looping her arm through Nesta’s.
Feyre leads the way toward the bar built around the large centerpiece. She leans over and gets the attention of one of the bartenders with ease, ordering what she tells Nesta is the couple's signature cocktail. It seems to be some sort of margarita, a deep blue in color with edible glitter that looks almost like stars swirling through the liquid.
“So…” Feyre starts, taking a sip of her own drink.
“So…?” Nesta echoes, although she has a strong suspicion she already knows where this conversation is going. She knows that expression on her sister’s face all too well.
“Rhys’s brothers are here tonight.”
“And you need to stop being such a busybody.”
Feyre sighs, turning so her hip leans against the bar, facing Nesta fully. “Why? I’m an excellent matchmaker. Just ask Elain…” Feyre looks over her shoulder, but frowns, turning in a full circle with her eyebrows pinched low. “Wait. Where did Elain go?”
“She and Lucien probably found some dark corner to fuck like the bunnies they are,” Nesta answers dryly. It’s certainly the trend with those two, vanishing for a few hours before appearing again with slightly mussed clothes and hair, pink often clinging to the apples of Elain’s cheeks and a wide, shit eating grin plastered across Lucien’s face.
“That just proves my point! At least tell me you stalked his Instagram or something.”
“Emerie and Gwyn did.”
Her best friends had been trying to convince her to get back out there for a month now. Even with how much time has passed since everything happened, it still feels strange. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Emerie from dragging her out to bars for trivia nights and karaoke as if they’re the best places to meet someone new. It hasn’t stopped Gwyn from trying to tempt her to start a dating profile on at least one of the plethora of app options.
It hasn’t stopped either of them from hyping her up after they spent so long helping Nesta to piece together the shattered fragments of herself, of her life, back together. It’s why Nesta loves them, why she doesn’t know what she’d do without them.
But when Feyre had suggested setting Nesta up with Rhys’s adopted brother, practically raving over the phone about what a good fit the two of them would be together, it had been like blood in the water for Emerie and Gwyn. Nesta had barely hung up with her sister by the time Gwyn had tracked down his social medias and had them displayed on the television ‘for the best viewing experience.’
Cassian Valdarez.
Any other emotions aside, Nesta can admit he’s attractive, that much was clear from the photos and videos on his Instagram. With his dark, curly hair tumbling down to his shoulders, his bright hazel eyes. He had been grinning widely in most of the photos, golden skin of his cheeks stretched and crinkles popping beside his eyes. But even the one where his lips were tugged up in a lopsided, cocksure smirk had Nesta staring.
Nesta had done a lot of staring.
Staring at the photo of him in sunglasses and shirtless, lounging casually on some sort of boat, wide shoulders and swirling lines of ink on full display. The photo of him in a locker room, dressed only from the waist down, showing off the tantalizing lines of his abs, his v-lines. The Reel of him working out, chest heaving and skin glistening, biceps bulging with every lift of the weights. The reel of him stick handling with just gloves, in a tank and shorts, the muscles and veins of his forearms working with each flick of his wrist.
“Okay, and?” Feyre’s voice draws Nesta back to the present.
“And what?”
“And what did Gwyn and Emerie think?”
Nesta sighs softly, fiddling with the stem of her glass. “I mean, they said I should go for it.”
“Ha!” Feyre exclaims, loud enough to draw the attention of a few others up at the bar. “See? I’m right. A perfect match.”
“Feyre, don’t you think—”
“Feyre, darling, I keep losing you.” Rhys slips into the space behind Feyre, wrapping an arm around her waist. He dips his head enough to press his lips to her neck before raising his gaze to peer at Nesta over Feyre’s shoulder. “Sorry. Do you mind if I steal my fiancée away for a moment?”
“Not at all,” Nesta assures him, but it’s Feyre’s gaze she meets. “I’ll be fine.”
Feyre and Rhys vanish into the crowds hand and hand, and Nesta settles at the bar, sipping her drink. Her eyes flit around, but she truly doesn’t know anyone here outside of her sisters. And despite her earlier words to Feyre, all the people, all the sounds and the lights, are starting to grate against her nerves, prickling and dragging along her skin like nails. Even downing the remains of her drink doesn’t seem to help, the alcohol only weighing heavy in her gut.
Leaving her now empty glass on the bartop, Nesta spins on her heel and stalks toward one of the walls of windows. She glances around at the different tables set up, the booths that line the windows and offer the perfect seats for the views beyond. Maybe she can find a dark corner to hide in for a few hours, or maybe, if she’s lucky, Elain and Lucien will decide they want to leave early to continue whatever they’ve started in an actual bed.
“Looking for me, sweetheart?”
The deep voice has a shiver skittering up Nesta’s spine, warm breath fanning across her ear. She spins around and comes face to face with a pair of hazel eyes, a cocksure smirk she’s only seen in photo-form before. Cassian Valdarez, in the flesh. He doesn’t even bother for subtly as his gaze rakes over her, and Nesta has to swallow hard as she tracks the way he licks his lips.
“And what if I wasn’t?” Nesta dares to ask, raising her chin.
Cassian chuckles, stepping closer into her space. “I think we both know you were looking for me. Why wouldn’t you be?”
Cassian’s hand reaches up in the space between them, snagging one of the stray strands of Nesta’s hair and twisting it around his fingers. Those same fingers skate down her neck, across her collarbones, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. His touch traces over her shoulder and down her arm before finally closing around her wrist, Nesta’s breath hitching at the warm of his hand, the size of it, and she can do nothing but follow along as he tugs her toward one of the booths by the windows.
He lets go long enough to fall back against the cushions, for Nesta to settle beside him, but then his hands are right back on her. This time, his palm slides against the skin above her knee, fingers teasing along the hem of her dress. His other arm stretches along the back of the booth, all but curling around her shoulders as he leans into her.
“You look gorgeous in this dress, you know.”
“But let me guess, it would look better on your bedroom floor?”
“You said it, not me, but I don’t disagree.”
Nesta snorts quietly, tempted to tell him that it was wrinkled when she yanked it out of her suitcase before she awkwardly changed into it in the airport bathroom. But she never gets the chance to. Cassian lifts his hand until his fingers curl around her jaw, tilting her chin up enough that he can slot their lips firmly together.
The kiss takes Nesta by surprise, but it doesn’t take her long to respond. She moves her lips against his, Cassian’s grip on her chin holding her exactly where he wants her. When his tongue slips into her mouth, she moans softly, fisting a hand into the front of his shirt to keep herself steady and to keep him close.
Cassian pulls back just enough that he can murmur, “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Right now?” Nesta blurts out before she can stop herself. She’s certainly not opposed to the idea, but with tonight being the first time they’re meeting, she thought he might want to get to know her more first. What exactly did Feyre tell him about her?
“You know what they say. No time like the present.”
“I should probably tell my sister I’m leaving then.”
Cassian’s eyes seem to glint, even beneath the low light of the bar. “Is your sister here? Does she want to join?”
Nesta is sure that she must have misheard him. “What?”
“It could be fun. Two sisters, one hockey player,” Cassian says easily, even daring to wink at her. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Nesta can do nothing but gape at him, her mind reeling with this turn in conversation, but then it hits her like a ton of bricks. “You don’t know who I am.”
Cassian chuckles again, that cocksure smirk of his never slipping for a moment. “Am I supposed to know who you are?”
“Do you even know my name?” Nesta snaps, pulling further away from him.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that, sweetheart. All that really matters is you knowing my name so you can scream it tonight.”
“You didn’t even want to ask for it before you kissed me? You don’t even want to ask for it now?”
“Look. We both know what you came here for, what you puck bunnies are always looking for, and trust me, sweetheart. I am more than happy to give it,” Cassian offers, the way his eyes dance over her frame again nothing short of a leer. It stokes the anger flaring in Nesta’s veins higher, until it burns bright and hot.
“Wow,” Nesta scoffs, pushing up to her feet. “Fuck you.”
Nesta doesn’t even wait to hear whatever sputtering response he might give before she turns on her heel and stalks away from Cassian, pushing through bodies to put as much distance between them as she can. She’s never felt more stupid, can’t believe that she allowed Feyre to convince her that Cassian was some great guy, that the two of them would be some perfect match.
She can’t believe that she had started to believe her sister’s words, that that damned hope had started to bloom and put down roots in the gaps between her ribs.
Because of course. Of course, Cassian is just like every other guy, only thinking with the head between his legs without a single care for what happens once the sun rises. He’s exactly what Nesta expects from a professional athlete, cocky and sure of himself, expecting every girl to fall at his feet ready to worship him and suck his dick.
She finds Elain and Lucien in one of the other booths near the opposite side of windows. Elain has her legs draped across Lucien’s lap, giggling around the straw of her drink. Lucien seems to be smirking through whatever story he’s telling, his arm stretched across the back of the booth, fingers toying aimlessly with the soft brown curls of Elain’s hair.
“Can we go?” Nesta interrupts, looking between the two.
Elain blinks a few times, but then she starts nodding her head. “Of course. You’ve already had such a long day.”
Elain pushes up and to her feet, wobbling just slightly in her heels, but Lucien is there right behind her, his hands spanning across her waist to steady her. She smiles over her shoulder up at him before turning her attention to her purse, rooting around with a frown.
“Wait. Where are the keys?”
“I have them, my love,” Lucien answers, holding up the keys dangling from his fingers. He turns his attention to Nesta, offering her a wink. “Don’t worry. She’s not driving.”
Lucien slides his hand into Elain’s, leading all three of them through the party and back toward the elevators. Nesta keeps her head down as she follows behind her sister and brother-in-law, and she certainly doesn’t bother to look back. Besides, it’s not like anyone is watching her. She’s quite confident a certain hockey player has already found some other poor, unsuspecting girl to capture his attention.
And as they take the elevators all the way down to the parking garage and back to the car, she vows to herself that she’ll never think of Cassian Valdarez ever again.
—
Taglist (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed): @moodymelanist @nesquik-arccheron @sv0430 @talkfantasytome @bookstantrash @eirini-thaleia @ubigaia @fromthelibraryofemilyj @luivagr-blog @lifeisntafantasy @superspiritfestival @hiimheresworld @marigold-morelli @sweet-pea1 @emeriethevalkyriegirl @pyxxie @dustjacketmusings @hallway5 @dongjunma @glowing-stick-generation @melonsfantasyworld @lady-nestas @goddess-aelin @melphss @theladystardust @a-trifling-matter @blueunoias @kookskoocie @wolfnesta @blurredlamplight @hereforthenessian @skaixo @jmoonjones @burningsnowleopard @whyisaravenlike-awritingdesk @ofduskanddreams @rarephloxes @thelovelymadone @books-books-books4ever @tenaciousdiplomatloverprune @that-little-red-head @readergalaxy @thesnugglingduck @kale-theteaqueen @tarquindaddy @superflurry @bri-loves-sunflowers @lady-winter-sunrise @witch-and-her-witcher @fieldofdaisiies
#NestaWeek2024#nessian#nesta archeron#cassian#acotar#acosf#nessian fanfiction#nessian fic#nesta x cassian#hockey cassian#top shelf love#my fic
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