#Debt Collector process

[commercialrecoverydebt]

Tips Given by Debt collectors To Improve the Debt Collection Process

Small businesses are always looking for solutions and strategies to enhance their income, but several factors influence them to restrict their income and to keep it limited. One of these factors is outstanding debt, and their condition remains the same until they hire a debt collector agency for the same. 

The good thing about these debt collection agencies is that apart from collecting debt on your behalf, they are always ready to offer their specialised suggestions on making debt collection faster. In this post here, we go through some common tips that these professionals have for small businesses to speed up the collection process.

Define Payment Terms Clearly

A significant mistake that lenders commit is that they stay casual when a debtor comes their way. As a result, they ignore defining payment terms and conditions clearly, and this becomes beneficial for the debtor. Debt collector Sydney professionals recommend defining payment terms as clearly as possible both during initial invoicing and also during the debt collection process. Debt collector Perth professionals say that irrespective of the invoicing system you use, the payment terms should be clearly defined as to how much payment is due and when, along with the due date.

Delinquencies Should Not Be Ignored

An essential tip given by every debt collector Sydney is that delinquencies should be acted upon without any delay. Not doing this gives an impression to the debtor that you are not very serious, and it also allows other debtors to think that they can also delay the invoice payments. This will lead to cash flow shortfalls, and hence, it is essential that you act upon any delinquency very seriously and very promptly.

Get Help from Debt Collectors

There is nothing wrong in attempting DIY debt collection from debtors, but business owners should understand that this is a time and money-consuming process that can be very stressful as well. Hence, no hesitation should be there in seeking services from any reputed debt collector Perth, as these professionals specialise in debt collection from any industry.

[a-dream-seeking-light]

brandon gobey - debt collectors (2020)

a regional hub for government activity, one of the first buildings to experiment with anti-gravity manipulation.

process stages: 

[auxpay]

Overcoming Cash Flow Challenges: AuxDrive's Solutions for Auto Dealership Payment Collections

Introduction

In the dynamic world of auto dealerships, where cash flow is king, managing payment collections efficiently is critical. AuxDrive, with its human-centric approach, emerges as a strategic ally for auto dealers, offering tailored solutions to address the nuances of payment collections. Let's delve into how AuxDrive is revolutionizing the landscape of auto dealership finances.

Navigating the Cash Flow Maze

Auto dealerships, ranging from independent lots to large franchises, grapple with the complexities of payment collections. Timely and streamlined transactions are imperative for sustaining a healthy cash flow. AuxDrive recognizes the unique challenges in this industry and tailors its solutions to empower auto dealerships in overcoming cash flow hurdles.

Customization for Diverse Dealerships

Understanding Diverse Needs

One size doesn't fit all in the auto industry, and AuxDrive understands this. It takes a personalized approach, comprehending the distinct needs of independent dealers, franchise networks, and everything in between. By acknowledging this diversity, AuxDrive ensures that its solutions align seamlessly with the operational intricacies of each dealership.

Efficiency Through Customization

AuxDrive's customization extends beyond a mere feature; it's a philosophy. Whether dealing with fluctuating sales volumes or intricate financial flows, AuxDrive adapts its systems to provide bespoke solutions. This adaptability ensures that auto dealers experience not just efficiency but a tailored approach that resonates with their specific requirements.

Automation: Simplifying the Payment Process

Streamlined Operations

Efficiency is at the core of AuxDrive's strategy. By introducing automation into various aspects of payment collections, including reminders, invoicing, and transaction processing, AuxDrive streamlines operations. This not only reduces the administrative burden on dealership staff but also ensures that payments are processed promptly, contributing to a healthier cash flow.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Beyond efficiency, AuxDrive places a strong emphasis on enhancing the customer experience. Its user-friendly interface allows customers to make payments effortlessly, view transaction histories, and interact with customer support seamlessly. In an industry often criticized for impersonal transactions, AuxDrive humanizes the payment experience, fostering better relationships between dealerships and their valued customers.

Preparing for the Future: Technology-Driven Operations

Embracing Future-Ready Technology

As technology continues to shape the future of auto dealership operations, AuxDrive positions itself at the forefront. By combining automation with a human touch, AuxDrive not only meets the current demands of auto dealerships but also prepares them for a future where technology plays a pivotal role in every aspect of operations.

Conclusion: AuxDrive — Transforming Auto Dealership Finances

In conclusion, AuxDrive is not merely a payment processing platform; it's a transformative tool for auto dealerships seeking efficiency, customer satisfaction, and a competitive edge. By tailoring solutions, introducing automation, and embracing future-ready technology, AuxDrive is reshaping the narrative of payment collections in the auto industry. Auto dealerships looking to overcome cash flow challenges and streamline payment operations should consider AuxDrive as their strategic financial partner. Visit AuxDrive.net to explore how its innovative solutions can transform your auto dealership's payment collections.

[mnscredit]

Discover expert insights on debt collection agencies in Indonesia through MNS Credit's informative blog post. Debt Collection Indonesia, MNS has long experience to help companies in the efficient collection and recovery of outstanding debts. Learn about the challenges, strategies, and legal aspects associated with debt collection in one of Southeast Asia's most dynamic economies.

[livmadart]

Ran vs. the Phantom Thieves

Set in the Phantom Thief Twins AU and taking the place during the Black Star heist! Please enjoy this, it was really fun to write! Shoutout to my amazing lovely editor ^_^ <3

One by one, the lights flickered off down the hallway. Ran suppressed a shiver, hunching her shoulders and drawing her hands to her chest. Clutched tightly in her grip was the Black Star, a giant, flawless pearl: the target of the night’s heist.

Why did it have to be me? Ran grimaced. Of all the bad luck…

Problems had followed one after another that night, each escalating in cosmic ridiculousness. Her dress had been late from the cleaners, delivered by an apologetic employee only moments before she had planned to leave. Her father slipped away from her the moment they stepped foot on the boat, becoming embarrassingly drunk in record speed. Then there was the collision with Sonoko’s mother, sending their broaches—which were supposed to be replicas of the Black Star—clattering to the floor, evidently mixing them up in the process. When Kaito KID, landing lightly as a dove, deduced that the real Black Star was being held safe by its owner, a pit opened up in Ran’s stomach. Slowly, she sidled through the crowd and towards the nearest door.

Gloating at the futile ruse, the thief held the pearl delicately up to the light—and cut his monologue short. Shrouded by top hat and monocle, he cast his gaze over the room, and seemed to lock on to Ran’s soul itself with uncanny speed. His stance shifted from a poised gentleman into that of a predator preparing for pursuit. But before he could make a move, a wave of undercover police crashed into the thief. Ran seized the chance to dash out the door and down the hall.

And yet, that only won her a brief respite. The lights switched off, one by one by one…and she soon found herself stranded in the darkened corridor, cursing the strange way her luck had drained away.

The police are probably arresting him now… right? She told herself, ignoring the unsteady tattoo beating in her chest. As a champion black belt, Ran would never be afraid of some measly thief whose tricks were no match for her fists. But one distinctly nasty rumor, whispered about the thief after his miraculous return, just wouldn’t leave her mind.

Before his disappearance eight years ago, Kaito KID was known as a relentless, but chivalrous, gentleman thief, descending like an angel in white to whisk away his target. But now, witnesses told tales of a team: Kaito KID, sweeping and grand as he ever was, and a second, ragged figure lurking in his wake like a detached shadow. They called this one the Phantom Baron—king among ghosts—and described a wraith wrapped in bandages and tattered clothes, armed with a shining, wicked blade. It seemed to take pleasure in scaring guards senseless—and all too frequently, those guards would turn up dead before the night was ended. Although the killer was usually quickly caught, be it a jilted lover, a cruel debt collector, or a slighted friend, the trail of bodies was simply too clear to ignore—

Sure, Ran could handle a human thief, but a demon was another matter entirely.

A rattle overhead broke her out of her thoughts. In the dim light, she could make out a vent cover above her, which trembled, then swung open silently like the lid of a tomb. Stumbling back, she watched, transfixed, as a liquid shadow dropped bonelessly to the ground.

Writhing in a way no human should, the pool of darkness collected itself, rising up on four spindly limbs. Its wrapped bandages unraveled to reveal a half-shrouded face—leering at her upside down.

The thief balanced in a backbend, spine arched severely. Its single visible eye—a startling, piercing blue—never leaving her face, the thief pushed upwards, contorting around to face her, flowing forward in a single move to reach for the pearl in Ran’s hands, its long fingers grasping like claws.

Deep, primal fear washed through Ran in an icy rush—and when faced with such fear, Ran was a girl whose instincts would always firmly choose fight.

Faster than the eye could follow, her foot snapped up in a deadly kick, forcing the thief to rear back at the last moment, its eye blowing wide. Ran closed the distance in an instant, ready with a deluge of punches strong enough to crack concrete. Again, the thief barely dodged, slipping under her flying fists like a snake. It brushed her side ever so lightly, but when she whipped around, the Black Star pearl was already shining in its grasp. At that moment, the moon burst through its cover of clouds, flooding through the portholes to illuminate the thief’s sharp, toothy grin.

“That could’ve really hurt,” the Phantom Baron exclaimed breathlessly. He spoke in a rough voice, but its higher pitch gave Ran the impression of someone young. The crazed grin remained fixed on his face—he seemed almost excited. “You almost caught me.”

Ran stepped back, shifting into a defensive position for a retaliation which never came. Instead, the thief reached for his saber, which hung from the bandages wrapping his waist. With a flinch, Ran’s eyes shrank to pinpricks—is he really going to attack?—but the thief just whirled his weapon deftly before launching it at the porthole. The glass shattered into a spray of tiny diamonds, glittering in the moonlight like the caps of the waves far below.

Without a word, the Phantom Baron dove for the porthole, slipping through the impossibly tight window. Ran stood for a moment, stunned, before rushing to the porthole, mindful of the jagged shards of glass left behind. She could see the thief plummeting through the night air, holding tight to a length of bandage attached firmly to the saber’s hilt. The weapon sailed forward before him, its blade separating and segmenting strangely until it looked more like a grappling hook, latching neatly onto the railing of a lower deck. He used the sudden tension to swing off the side of the ship, the long tails of his scarf-like bandages trailing behind him until they suddenly snapped into shape, forming a pair of tattered wings. Gliding on the ocean winds, his distant figure was swallowed shortly by the night, and followed closely by a silent white sail.

With a shuddering breath, the adrenaline left Ran all at once—just in time for the lights to snap on and for the clatter of the police’s clumsy pursuit to reach her ears.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Sonoko chided, not for the first time. “Kaito KID is unstoppable! It was all my mother’s fault for the stupid trick anyways.”

Still, Ran hunched lower, unable to forget the events of the night before. Was there anything different she could have done? Was there something she had missed? Even now, walking to school in the plain light of day, the memory of that dark hall turned over and over in her head.

“…There were two,” she mumbled, which may have been an excuse—or perhaps an admission that things had truly been out of her hands.

Sonoko blinked. “So it’s true? You saw it? The Phantom?”

Ran nodded, a little numbly. “It—he—moved weirdly. All twisty limbs. But I think… it almost sounded like he was having fun.”

They came to an intersection, waiting on the curb for the light to turn. Sonoko, stars in her eyes, leaned her head back into the clouds where her head so often resided.

“Dark and mysterious!” she gushed. “The polar opposite of my lovely, charming KID. I wonder what he looks like under those bandages—!”

She cut off abruptly, fixed on something across the street. Ran followed her gaze to find a trio of teens on the opposite curb. A girl, notable for her mane of wild, wavy hair, chatted happily with her companions: a pair of perfectly, completely identical boys, differentiated only by the unkempt appearance of one, and the carefully combed look of the other.

“Twins!” she exclaimed, in a slightly crazed tone that warned Ran of the ridiculous fantasies to come. She gripped her best friend’s arm, looking at the boys appraisingly. “They’re cute, too… Can you imagine, Ran? If we married twins, we’d be sisters!”

The light changed, and the three teens started to cross. Ran cringed, hoping Sonoko wouldn’t speak so loudly as they passed.

Except, just as Sonoko’s idealized future reached a fevered pitch—joint weddings, vacations, even conjoined homes—the twin with the messy hair offered a spray of playing cards to the girl walking alongside them. While she was distracted, his other hand reached around to unzip her backpack, causing her belongings to spill out onto the ground behind her. He laughed loudly as she dropped to the ground, cursing him out the whole way.

Seeing this, Sonoko cut herself short, curling her lip.

“What a childish prank. How disappointing,” she huffed.

The other brother watched his twin’s antics blankly, looking distinctly bored. Without a word, he pressed the toe of his shoe to his brother’s shoelace, holding it down against the ground. Still taunting the girl, the unkempt brother moved to leave her, only to come crashing to the ground himself.

Regarding him through half-lidded eyes, the neater brother smiled coldly.

“Might as well help Aoko out while you’re down there,” he suggested, before turning on his heel and walking off. The girl, having collected her things, stuck her tongue out at the boy still sprawled on the pavement before running off.

“Serves you right!”

The crosswalk counter ticked down, forcing Ran and Sonoko past the scene. Sonoko moved on as soon as they were out of sight, circling back to her theories on the pair of phantom thieves. Ran, however, couldn’t help but look back over her shoulder at the retreating figure of the reserved boy, who had doled out his strange, lopsided justice.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

One of America’s most corporate-crime-friendly bankruptcy judges forced to recuse himself

Today (Oct 16) I'm in Minneapolis, keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

"I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one." The now-famous quip from Robert Reich cuts to the bone of corporate personhood. Corporations are people with speech rights. They are heat-shields that absorb liability on behalf of their owners and managers.

But the membrane separating corporations from people is selectively permeable. A corporation is separate from its owners, who are not liable for its deeds – but it can also be "closely held," and so inseparable from those owners that their religious beliefs can excuse their companies from obeying laws they don't like:

https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2014/10/13/hobby-lobby-and-closely-held-corporations/

Corporations – not their owners – are liable for their misdeeds (that's the "limited liability" in "limited liablity corporation"). But owners of a murderous company can hold their victims' families hostage and secure bankruptcies for their companies that wipe out their owners' culpability – without any requirement for the owners to surrender their billions to the people they killed and maimed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Corporations are, in other words, a kind of Schroedinger's Cat for impunity: when it helps the ruling class, corporations are inseparable from their owners; when that would hinder the rich and powerful, corporations are wholly distinct entities. They exist in a state of convenient superposition that collapses only when a plutocrat opens the box and decides what is inside it. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Key to corporate impunity is the rigged bankruptcy system. "Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid," so every successful civilization has some system for discharging debt, or it risks collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/bankruptcy-protects-fake-people-brutalizes-real-ones/

When you or I declare bankruptcy, we have to give up virtually everything and endure years (or a lifetime) of punitive retaliation based on our stained credit records, and even then, our student debts continue to haunt us, as do lawless scumbag debt-collectors:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

When a giant corporation declares bankruptcy, by contrast, it emerges shorn of its union pension obligations and liabilities owed to workers and customers it abused or killed, and continues merrily on its way, re-offending at will. Big companies have mastered the Texas Two-Step, whereby a company creates a subsidiary that inherits all its liabilities, but not its assets. The liability-burdened company is declared bankrupt, and the company's sins are shriven at the bang of a judge's gavel:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

Three US judges oversee the majority of large corporate bankruptcies, and they are so reliable in their deference to this scheme that an entire industry of high-priced lawyers exists solely to game the system to ensure that their clients end up before one of these judges. When the Sacklers were seeking to abscond with their billions in opioid blood-money and stiff their victims' families, they set their sights on Judge Robert Drain in the Southern District of New York:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/23/a-bankrupt-process/#sacklers

To get in front of Drain, the Sacklers opened an office in White Plains, NY, then waited 192 days to file bankruptcy papers there (it takes six months to establish jurisdiction). Their papers including invisible metadata that identified the case as destined for Judge Drain's court, in a bid to trick the court's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system to assign the case to him.

The case was even pre-captioned "RDD" ("Robert D Drain"), to nudge clerks into getting their case into a friendly forum.

If the Sacklers hadn't opted for Judge Drain, they might have set their sights on the Houston courthouse presided over by Judge David Jones, the second of of the three most corporate-friendly large bankruptcy judges. Judge Jones is a Texas judge – as in "Texas Two-Step" – and he has a long history of allowing corporate murderers and thieves to escape with their fortunes intact and their victims penniless:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#shoppers-choice

But David Jones's reign of error is now in limbo. It turns out that he was secretly romantically involved with Elizabeth Freeman, a leading Texas corporate bankruptcy lawyer who argues Texas Two-Step cases in front of her boyfriend, Judge David Jones.

Judge Jones doesn't deny that he and Freeman are romantically involved, but said that he didn't think this fact warranted disclosure – let alone recusal – because they aren't married and "he didn't benefit economically from her legal work." He said that he'd only have to disclose if the two owned communal property, but the deed for their house lists them as co-owners:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24032507-general-warranty-deed

(Jones claims they don't live together – rather, he owns the house and pays the utility bills but lets Freeman live there.)

Even if they didn't own communal property, judges should not hear cases where one of the parties is represented by their long term romantic partner. I mean, that is a weird sentence to have to type, but I stand by it.

The case that led to the revelation and Jones's stepping away from his cases while the Fifth Circuit investigates is a ghastly – but typical – corporate murder trial. Corizon is a prison healthcare provider that killed prisoners with neglect, in the most cruel and awful ways imaginable. Their families sued, so Corizon budded off two new companies: YesCare got all the contracts and other assets, while Tehum Care Services got all the liabilities:

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-bankruptcy-judge-david-jones-033801325.html

Then, Tehum paid Freeman to tell her boyfriend, Judge Jones, to let it declare bankruptcy, leaving $173m for YesCare and allocating $37m for the victims suing Tehum. Corizon owes more than $1.2b, "including tens of millions of dollars in unpaid invoices and hundreds of malpractice suits filed by prisoners and their families who have alleged negligent care":

https://www.kccllc.net/tehum/document/2390086230522000000000041

Under the deal, if Corizon murdered your family member, you would get $5,000 in compensation. Corizon gets to continue operating, using that $173m to prolong its yearslong murder spree.

The revelation that Jones and Freeman are lovers has derailed this deal. Jones is under investigation and has recused himself from his cases. The US Trustee – who represents creditors in bankruptcy cases – has intervened to block the deal, calling Tehum "a barren estate, one that was stripped of all of its valuable assets as a result of the combination and divisional mergers that occurred prior to the bankruptcy filing."

This is the third high-profile sleazy corporate bankruptcy that had victory snatched from the jaws of defeat this year: there was Johnson and Johnson's attempt to escape from liability from tricking women into powder their vulvas with asbestos (no, really), the Sacklers' attempt to abscond with billions after kicking off the opioid epidemic that's killed 800,000+ Americans and counting, and now this one.

This one might be the most consequential, though – it has the potential to eliminate one third of the major crime-enabling bankruptcy judges serving today.

One down.

Two to go.

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/2023/10/16/texas-two-step/#david-jones

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 26th of September, 2024

This is speculation only

Cards drawn on the 26th of September, 2024

Question: Is Meghan divorcing Harry?

This is a one card reading

Card: The Two of Swords in reverse.

The answer I am getting from this card is that she doesn't know. As a reversal, the card answers the question with a No, but the Two of Swords in reverse means you are dithering, you have to make a decision but you are hesitating about it, you are choosing between two situations and neither seems right. It can also mean the truth is being revealed or that someone else makes the decision for you.

The energy of this card is floundering, going this way and that without coming to a conclusion. I think that staying married to Harry and being single are both equally unappealing to Meghan, and with no other romantic prospect in the offering she is hard put to decide which way is the best for her. There is no clear cut, right choice for her to make; both decisions have pros and cans.

There is an energy here of the truth being revealed and Meghan being scared of this reveal, so she may cling to Harry if she thinks she will get more protection from that.

There is a sense that if Meghan waits too long, someone else will make the decision for her - not exactly Harry, but forces behind Harry - they will somehow move Harry into a position where he divorces her (I'm seeing figures being moved on a chessboard).

The main energy of this card is yes-no-yes-no-yes-no repeating over and over again. I think that Meghan genuinely does not know what to do as there is no clear benefit to herself to pull her down one path or the other (to stay with Harry or leave him). I can see her breaking up with Harry in a fit of anger and then panicking and love bombing him to get him back, while at the same time being repulsed by living with him on a daily basis. It is energy that can't make a clear decision and stick to it at this point in time.

Underlying Energy: The Ten of Pentacles

This is the card of financial security, secure social status and family legacy. It is one of the cards that can be used to represent the BRF. This is the main reason for Meghan's dithering - she does not want to let go of the connection to the BRF and everything that goes with it, and she needs the royal fairy dust to hold off her creditors, as otherwise she is broke. I get the feeling that she has been using 'Harry's big inheritance' PR to stop the debt collectors from knocking at her door.

Conclusion: I'm not getting a yes answer or a no answer. I'm getting an 'I don't know which way is best for me" answer, a 'maybe in the future when I am better off financially' answer, an 'I don't want to lose my status' answer, so the usual yes-no-yes-no energy. Meghan may start the process and then change her mind. She may want to be shot of Harry and not see a way of surviving without him. The only thing I can say with certainty is that she can not make up her mind and stick with it.

[tofu83]

The Boss's Collection

Tax/Debt collector

"I remember I was a tax collector? One day I found out that the big boss had evaded a large amount of taxes... Why am I here? How could I be so strong? It’s impossible…"

Michael suddenly woke up, panicking about the unfamiliar environment and his body, sweating and panting nervously.

"Relax, this will help you remember your true identity."

The doctor quickly injected another injection into his neck.

The muscular man regained his composure and raised his head with a poker face.

"Now, remember who you are?"

"I am Max. The Boss's bodyguard and debt collector. "

"What are your duties?"

"I will protect The Boss aka my master and obey his orders, ensure the safety of his property and expel annoying public servants from his property."

"Do you remember Michael?"

"He was a pathetic tax collector. I accidentally killed him when I wanted to drive him away. The body and all his traces have been wiped out to ensure that no one can find him."

"At first, the Boss was satisfied with you for stopping the tax collector from harassing him, but because you went too far and killed the guy, you have to accept the punishment in addition to the reward."

"I am grateful for the rewards and punishments my master has given me!"

"Now go to the Boss's bedroom, he has been waiting for you for a long time!"

"Yes! Sir!"

Max straightened up like a soldier and headed for the Boss's bedroom, the map of the building burned into his mind as if he had been serving his master here for years.

The doctor, who was also the boss's loyal servant, looked at Max's back and snickered. Anyone who caused trouble to his master must be "process" accordingly. Transforming a tax collector who dared to threaten the boss into his debt collector and bodyguard was definitely the most correct treatment.

He couldn't wait for the Boss to finish enjoying the service of his latest slave, and then summon him to the bedroom to give him an extra reward.

[web-novel-polls]

Have You Read This Web Novel?

If you’re in the process of reading this web novel, please choose whichever option best fits your situation. You do not have to be completely finished with it to answer “yes.”

If you’ve never heard of it, please read the description below the cut!

See similar polls and results here!

Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedication and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise, can also fall…and fall he does, cast from the Heavens again and again and banished to the mortal realm. Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time. Now only a lowly scrap collector, he is dispatched to wander the earthly realm to take on tasks appointed by the heavens to pay back debts and maintain his divinity. Aided by old friends and foes alike, and graced with the company of a mysterious young man with whom he feels an instant connection, Xie Lian must confront the horrors of his past in order to dispel the curse of his present.

- Seven Seas Entertainment

[rafyki]

Episode 11 really showed Jack's growth

Okay, I know what you're gonna say: "but he lashed out at Joke! He threw him away again! He got so angry!". And like- yes he lashed out, yes he didn't stop to think, yes he got extremely angry. But that literally happened in the first ten minutes of the episode, alright? There's more than a hour after that, so please let's focus on everything else that happened too, and the fact that Jack acting like that literally only lasts for a short while (as I already said, everything happens extremely fast in this episode, if you really think about it he only stays made for less than a day, which is a perfectly valid period of time to need to sort through complicated feelings - hell, it's an incredibly short time, Jack got over himself extremely quickly).

Anyway, lemme go in order, because I'm not just talking about his relationship with Joke here, but about everything else too.

There are two main things about Jack's character arc (well, more than two, but I wanna focus on these ones now): first, his tendency to hold grudges and be hard on forgiveness and, second, the fact that he never stands up to power and powerful people in an active way (I'll explain better what I mean later).

As for the first, I made a whole other post about it, so I'm not gonna repeat everything again, but let's see how in this episode he got to the end of his growth in this aspect.

He's extremely mad at the start of the episode (rightfully so), so much that he goes on a rampage (we love to see it, tbh), even though he should know that it wouldn't end well.

When he wakes up, he's still mad - of course he is, he didn't have time to think and process everything yet, given that he was beaten unconscious until now. He gets mad at Grandma when she mentions Joke, and then he lashes out at Save and Hope. It's understandable.

But then? Then it only takes Hope saying this for him to calm down and put things into perspective

I think it's important to point out that here it's only been maybe a few hours since the hospital scene. And here, Jack finally has time to think.

This it when he finally stops and thinks and realizes that he was wrong, that he didn't have any right to be mad at Save or Hope (or, well, he does, but how should also be able to understand their positions, because he's been there too), because they're all in the same situation in the end; and he realizes that Joke only did what he did for him. This is the moment when he finally has time to think and realize he was wrong (both about Save and about Joke), realize that he doesn't want to lose Joke, that he misses him.

Let's not forget that the start of Jack's character growth was to learn to forgive. And here, he shows that he's finally able to do this.

He works together with Save and Hope, he trusts them. Why didn't he call Joke to join them then? Well, I think he probably wanted things to calm down first so that after that he would have the time to actually talk to Joke. He didn't have the time to do that in the end, and that's the tragic thing.

But we know that's what he planned to do, because that's exaclty what he says.

Anyway, let's move on or this will become way too long lmao

It's not only in terms of learning to forgive that Jack grew. It's also in the way he finally decides to actively act to oppose Boss.

I mean, Jack was caught in Boss' web of power since he was young, and he's had to deal with the fact that he couldn't escape it, couldn't defeat it, for years. And so, he always submitted to Boss, in a way.

Yes, when he was a debt collector he went against him, in secret (and sacrificing himself and his own money), until Boss found out and Jack had to bow his head againt before him. When Gradma was in the hospital, he let himself in Boss' grasp again and even when Joke and Grandma slapped some sense into him his way to oppose Boss was to simply tell him he didn't want to marry Rose anymore, but was still willing to work for him; now, we know that that only worked because Joke had stolen the ring. What would have happened if Joke hadn't done that? Boss would have refused, of course, and Jack would have had bowed his head again.

Until now, Jack's actions were often passive, a result of him having no choice. Even when he played the ladder game against Lompran, that wasn't a real choice.

Not now, though. In this episode, Jack finally realizes that he can't keep doing it, that he needs to fight back for real. And this is the first time that Jack realizes that he can't always do the morally correct thing if he wants to defeat people like Boss.

Jack has always had really solid morals, and he's always lived by the fact that he needs to be better - better than the corrupted people in power who use them and look down on them. And that means he can't accept theft as a valid way to fix things, even if it would be justifiable and it would make things easier. But he can't do that, because that would mean that he's just as bad as them. Poor people are always expected to do the right thing.

Until now. Because now Jack has finally realized that he can't play it fair against people like them, he understood how that world works, and he realized that he needs to play following their game's rules.

He's learned the power game's rules and he's ready to play.

And that's what he does. He's able to take advantage of Lompran's greed and use it for his own ends, and he's not afraid of risking his own or Save's life - because he knows at this point that they can't play it safe anymore.

He played the game but he also kept his morals, because he still didn't do it for himself; he played their game but he's still better than them

Jack has mostly been a passive force until now, but in this episode he's finally the active force - he's the one with the plan, the one who takes the lead. (Joke, on the other had, has always been the active force of the show, and in this episode he's the passive one, but I'll make another post about this another day)

And I think this will be obvious in next episode too, when he'll (finally!) get a gun and do everything that's needed to save Joke and everyone else from Boss.

And he finally understood that the world isn't black and white and that sometime you need to do something "bad" to fight back, both for youself and for others. And that that doesn't mean you're a bad person.

[missielynne]

There's so much to unpack when it comes to Isaac and his relationships. I still think the biggest problem between him and Nigel is simply that they moved too fast from crush to wedding and they never had a real conversation about their relationship. In Nigel's case, I'm not sure that he actually realized that he was Isaac's first boyfriend and that he might actually need to slow down because of that. In Isaac's case... I'm starting to think that's just how he thought relationships were supposed to work. Clearly, he and Beatrice weren't a love match, and it's likely that they got married because they got along well enough and it was socially advantageous. And I think he does accept that they both cared for each other in their own ways and that she didn't hate him. But there are some uncomfortable parallels between his first marriage and his proposal to Nigel, which really reads like Isaac was uncomfortable with how fast the relationship was moving and decided that once they got married they'd figure things out. I think maybe Isaac's realizing that he and Nigel were never quite on the same page relationship-wise, and it's making him second guess some of what he took for granted in his first marriage.

So, so true. I think that finding out Nigel was immediately in the shed with Jenkins when he hesitated about taking the kissing step just made nervousness that was already there about him and Nigel even worse. And like, he didn't want to lose him, he KNEW that Nigel thought things were going too slow, so he did what he thought Nigel would want, which is...a proposal, or at least a sign that he was in it for the long haul, even though he was still not sure yet.

I also completely agree that Nigel didn't perhaps know he was Isaac's first relationship because he himself is more comfortable with having actual relationships with men prior to being with Isaac. Like we know...we see that he is openly puzzled when Isaac's reaction to being asked to move in with him is to panic, make excuses, and run away.

And of course, you know, being men of their time or whatever, they don't sit down and talk about it. They don't talk about anything. Isaac just does whatever Nigel wants to do, or Nigel goes and is with Jenkins.

I definitely feel like between marrying Beatrice for whatever reason and his panicked proposal to Nigel, Isaac really has no idea what it means to be in a typical, loving, supportive relationship. To be in something that has stability. Like even along with his romantic relationships, his life in general seems very unsettled and uncertain because his parents were on the run from debt collectors and who knows what else so maybe he spent a lot of his life trying to figure out what stability, relationship-wise or otherwise looked like. Like he could have joined the army to try and start that process. And maybe Woodstone is giving him some of that. I agree that having the stability of the marriage or the life is the most important thing to him, and to prove competence through that: Society says that normal successful people have marriages so I got married, for instance. And yes, once he can look society or whoever in the eye and say "Look, I've been successful this way," then they can deal with the other stuff. And as a consequence, interpersonal relationships are what he's terrible at because he's always worried about how his relationships will make HIM look or what they'll do for him (or what they won't, or how they could be ruined), instead of taking time to focus how things are between him and his partner as a unit, which is what would help him in the long run more than ruminating on his own guilt.

[auxpay]

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[anarchywoofwoof]

We defend each other

No Rent No Evictions No Debt

Landlords, property managers, real estate speculators, debt collectors, police and sheriffs, be warned—in this community, we defend each other.

Home is not a private enclosure that separates us into tiny fiefdoms that can be divided and conquered one by one; it is the collective solidarity that we build in the process of standing up for each other and intervening whenever we see harm being done.

The more each of us resists, the safer all of us are.

crimethinc

[prince-liest]

inspired by a series of convos in the 3zun server and also my own recent camping trip:

please imagine mundane modern au nieyao going camping

meng yao is like twenty-three, freshly graduated from college after having to take a gap year to take care of his ailing mother. nie mingjue is in his thirties, and knows meng yao as the responsible young man who befriended his brother and is probably one of the driving forces preventing nie huaisang from having skipped too many classes to actually earn a degree. he's not technically meng yao's boss, but he works in the same organization and he thinks it's perfectly acceptable to mosey on over to meng yao's actual boss during the interview process and give them a stellar review of what he knows of meng yao's work ethic.

the fact that meng yao eventually (read: very rapidly) gets promoted to work at nie mingjue's right hand is... probably fine. it's not too strange. in fact, they're friends! good friends! good enough friends that when nie huaisang finally puts his foot down and downright refuses to go on the nie annual camping trip, citing that he is a "real" adult now (whatever that means) and that means he doesn't have to spend a week in the woods every year getting bitten by mosquitos and hunting down the nearest wifi connection if he doesn't want to, da-ge, maybe it'd be cute for taking photos if they just went for the weekend - well, then nie mingjue retorts that he doesn't see the point in driving all the way out to yosemite for a single weekend and invites meng yao instead.

meng yao, on the other hand, is thinking: hm. he is pretty sure he has seen this porno. a week out in the woods with his hot older boss who is also his best friend's big brother. you couldn't fit more tropes into it if you tried. maybe if there were debt collectors after him and nie mingjue was a mafia boss.

(there are no debt collectors. meng yao has made certain of it. he has been very financially responsible in the aftermath of his mother's passing.)

nie mingjue is a responsible hiker and at least somewhat aware that he's taking somebody with no experience on a camping trip, largely courtesy of nie huaisang. meng yao ends up dressed mostly in nie huaisang's unused hiking clothes, packing his things in nie huaisang's unused hiking backpack, and sleeping in nie huaisang's unused sleeping bag. he looks up the price of the socks that nie mingjue handed him and then decides not to look up any more for the sake of his emotional wellbeing.

they make it to yosemite. meng yao has looked up all the things to do in yosemite valley, but for some reason they end up driving way farther north through some winding mountain roads that make him wonder if the car is just going to... tip over the side and neither of them will ever be seen again. for some reason there's a random porta-potty around one of the bends that meng yao silently stares at as they pass. it takes several hours to arrive, but there's a surprising amount of gas left over in the car for how much time the trip took.

the camp grounds are a little...

"isn't this a little crowded?" meng yao asks. "why don't we go farther into the woods?"

nie mingjue looks at him like he's the strange one. this is how meng yao learns that you cannot camp just anywhere inside of a national park. apparently it's okay, because most people are respectful of the common spaces. also, there is no shower in this specific camp. nie mingjue brought wet wipes.

these are not the ideal circumstances for fucking in the woods, but meng yao is a trooper and he understands that sometimes reality is a little more complicated than not safe for work media.

it's fine. besides, they get there pretty early in the day, all-considered. and it's spring, so it's still cool enough to go hiking at midday. a waterfall sounds pretty romantic, he thinks, watching nie mingjue work some kind of eldritch magic with tent poles while taking mental notes so that he can prove himself competent should he ever need to set up a tent again in his life.

an hour and a half later, meng yao is soaked through with sweat and half-convinced that he's developed adult-onset asthma. nie mingjue is glistening attractively. for some reason the incline of the 'easy' hike to a nearby waterfall that they're on suddenly turned into a rock climbing challenge in the last quarter mile. the worst part about going down it is knowing that he will have to go back up on the way back. there aren't that many people around, but if nie mingjue is taking him here to fuck him, then meng yao is going to simply have to throw himself into the river rapids and drown. it would be a kinder form of death.

they get to the waterfall. it is spring, so the river is flowing so strongly with icemelt that it's too dangerous to truly swim. meng yao considers at least dipping in, but when he puts his feet in, the water is so cold that he decides that he likes having physical sensation above his ankles, thank you. nie mingjue smiles proudly at him and tells him that nie huaisang usually complains up a storm by this point and that he loves his brother but it's nice to be with a more appreciative partner. something in meng yao's chest squeezes a little bit.

it gets a little tighter when he realizes that he's finished all of his water and nie mingjue crouches down to show him how to use the iodine water tablets on the river water. they make the water taste strange, but meng yao is mostly distracted by the fact that nie mingjue's mouth was just on the lip of the water bottle that he's about to drink from.

he drinks, tilting his head back. his hands are shaky with exhaustion and some of the water spills. it's cool on his chin and throat and he doesn't bother brushing it away - he's so sweaty that it's probably impossible to discern what's sweat and what's water anyway. when he opens his eyes again, nie mingjue is watching him.

they hike back. by the time they arrive at camp, meng yao's legs have entirely turned into jelly and nie mingjue takes pity on him, sitting him down in a camping chair with a beer and going off to pick up dry wood ("why would I buy firewood when deadwood is free?"). he teaches meng yao how to start a campfire, stacking small twigs in increasingly larger sizes until there's enough kindling to set the big logs ablaze. meng yao finds himself shivering in the dark, pressed up against nie mingjue's side and leaning towards the flames. funny, how he thought he would never feel cooled down again just an hour ago. his face burns, and his back is only cold until nie mingjue offers him a blanket.

they absolutely do not fuck that night, nor any other night. but meng yao has fun: he hasn't felt so free to learn and mess up and explore since he was a kid, and the absolute newfound freedom that he experiences when he once asks if they could go look at something off a path and nie mingjue says yes - says, in fact, that the whole point of going off into the woods like this is being able to do and see whatever you want, as long as it's within legal boundaries - means meng yao basically forgets his initial plan entirely.

they nearly get lost on their next hike, missing a turn in the established path and only turning around when they reach what could best be described as a ravine. there are more waterfalls - meng yao didn't know there were this many waterfalls anywhere in the world. they move campgrounds a few times, too. apparently it's quite difficult to get seven straight days booked in a yosemite campground. meng yao sets up the tent the second time. some of the campgrounds have showers, wooden buildings with cool water and moths fluttering around the lights. the most delicious meal meng yao swears he's ever eaten is the cheese-filled sausages nie mingjue roasts over a campfire, combined with cup noodles that they cook using water from the same camping stove tea kettle they use for their tea in the mornings.

eventually, it is time to go home. meng yao hasn't washed his hair in two days and doesn't remember the last time he heard the ping of his phone demanding that he put out yet another fire at work. he'd been asked to keep his phone on and check his email when he can during his vacation, but most of the places they've been don't actually have service.

they drive back through the same mountains as before. the porta potty is still there. meng yao actually points out its strangeness this time, and nie mingjue laughs. meng yao smiles. he's been smiling a lot during this trip. he feels vaguely like a new person. it's fresh air and endorphins, nie mingjue says. good for the soul. meng yao is pretty sure it's nie witchcraft, too.

(or maybe it's endorphins. he certainly gets a hot flood of those when, dropping off meng yao at his doorstep, nie mingjue finally hesitates - and steps close, mumbling, "didn't wanna make you uncomfortable while you were trapped in the woods with me, but..." before kissing him. his hands are so big on meng yao's hips.)

(they do fuck that night. but not before meng yao drags both of them into his shower and scrubs himself from top to bottom. yosemite was great, but he has standards.)

[snickerdoodlles]

📓 :3

:D!

@mortimerlatrice got me thinking about a KimChay Chrestomanci AU, so more of that.

the Chrestomanci series, sidenote, is an absolutely delightful fantasy series by Diana Wynne Jones. it's composed of mostly independent stories set in a universe of 12 parallel universes (called Series), each with their own string of worlds (except Series 11). generally speaking, every person has eight identical copies borne into other series than their own, but very occasionally all nine lives will be borne into one person. this nine-life enchanter has all the power of nine magical people in them and is therefore the only person powerful enough to fill the role of Chrestomanci to regulate magical use and prevent any abuse of it across the 12 series.

which cool, very fun story premise actually, but not what I care about here. I'm setting kp in one of the series that doesn't deal much with magic because I don't care about magic meet mafia, I care about Chay having nine lives and all the ways that could make things worse.

(cw: non-permanent but slightly graphic character death under the cut. ft a dash of actual character death, but that only applies to Tawan.)

Chay doesn't have all his lives when canon starts. he lost his first one the same day he and Porsche lost their parents when he fell out of his crib trying to investigate the noise. he lost his second to food poisoning, before Porsche started working for extra food money and they had to make every scrap stretch. he lost another when a debt collector hit him too hard and snapped his neck. (Porsche wasn't home for that day. Chay told him he wasn't either.)

Chay loses his fourth life in the warehouse. it actually wasn't intentional on anyone's part -- Tawan's hired meat weren't careful enough bringing him in, and Chay's luck has his head hit a curb or scrap metal at just the right (or wrong, as it were) angle to kill him instead of concuss him, and head injuries take so long to come back from. Tawan drags out the charade because he wants Porsche desperate, not angry, and Porsche is in too deep of denial to accept the possibility of Chay actually being dead not to fall for it.

Kim arrives before Chay comes back to life. it's...bad. Porsche is screaming for him to get Chay out. Kim first checks Chay's breathing. failing to find that, he frantically (but carefully!) hauls Chay upright. that's when Chay's head flops limply to the side and reveals the dried blood down the back of his neck, which Kim had already felt grabbing but refused to process.

Kim sees red.

Tawan knifes Big. Porsche's shouts break through the fog threatening to overwhelm Kim. then Tawan gets one very distraught, very angry, very murderous Kim materializing in front of him and going right for his eyes. it doesn't matter that Tawan's the one with a weapon, he could've had an armory and that couldn't have helped him. Kim is very, very, very good at fighting, and he's on a mission to hurt. but he's also missing his control, and kicks Tawan in the kidney so hard Tawan stumbles back into a pile of scrap and, in true irony, jostles it hard enough the end of steel beam falls on his head. as discovered earlier, metal and concrete are not kind to heads, and bullet proof vests certainly can't protect from that.

it's too quick and too kind, and Kim stares at him disbelievingly, half a mind to drag Tawan out and beat out the little life he's surely still clinging to, when Chay groans. Kim first thinks he hallucinated it, but then he sees Chay move and he's so relieved he was wrong that he shoves everything else out of his mind and just gets Chay out. then everything and one trailing shouty Porsche slams back into him the minute Chay's out of his arms and with the paramedics that Kim bolts to go hide in a dark corner in his apartment and fail to process any of it.

Chay misses all of this btws. He was dead, then he was back with a headache, and he loves Porsche but he needs Porsche to please shut the fuck up and get him some tylenol.

then apartment confrontation, where Kim says I'm sorry and shoves off even quicker because all he can remember are those moments when he'd been so sure Chay was properly dead. club scene goes down even worse when Kim yells at Chay for making stupid reckless choices that could get him killed, and Chay demands to know why Kim even cares, and Kim goes pale with anger that Chay doesn't care that he (only nearly, surely) died, and it's all very terrible and ends in them storming away from each other.

then comes Yok's bar.

Chay dies. Kim had taunted them into a direct fight inside instead of picking them off outside, and it should have been fine, would have been fine, had Chay not had a bit more awareness and looked over to see Kim pinned between two guys and rushed to help only to get shot by one of the goons on the other end of the bar. he bleeds out while Kim kills off the rest.

Chay comes back to a bar full of bodies and Kim (clutching) cradling him. Kim isn't crying. he isn't really doing much of anything other than clinging and staring off into nothing with a thoroughly haunted expression.

Chay blinks and tentatively lays his fingers against Kim's cheek. "Kim?"

Kim's eyes snap to him, but still don't quite see him. he stays looking blank for a few seconds that feel like hours before saying matter-of-factly, "I've snapped."

"Kim!" Chay protests, distressed.

"It's okay," Kim says, still matter-of-fact but smiling tenderly, "better to be mad with you than without."

it takes a while to convince Kim he's not insane and that Chay's really back. Chay's not certain he fully manages it. but his death also shook loose a lot of confessions Kim normally couldn't say out loud. ("why--" Chay starts, voice cracking, "why did you say 'I'm sorry' that day?" / "You were supposed to be safe," Kim replies hoarsely, mad smile slipping for tears.) there's more clutching and clinging, this time by Chay too. both of them manage to forget they're in a bar of dead bodies until Porsche and Kinn come crashing through the door.

"Chay!" Porsche yells when he first sees him.

"Chay," Porsche pleads brokenly when he sees Chay's blood soaked shirt.

"Not mine!" Chay says quickly, and would've been given away by how fast Kim's head snaps around in any other circumstance. "See?" he says, raising his shirt to show unblemished skin, "No injury."

this does a lot to reassure Porsche, but Chay can tell Kim still thinks he's a little bit insane. Chay decides that's fine for now, because dying takes a lot out of you and apparently everyone around you too and it's unfair to expect Kim to just bounce back from him bleeding out on him, he'll work on it after a shower and dinner.

I'm not writing this AU because I only really have these two vague scenes in my head, but Chay having multiple lives making his existence in the mafia hurt more than canon's calls to me, it really does.

oh, also: in the AU source material, one of the nine-lifers has one of his lives removed and stored into a ring for safekeeping. he later gives this ring to his to-be-wife as her wedding ring. I'm not sure yet how to work that into this AU because Chay's contact with magic and other magicals would be slim to none in this, but please picture how this would absolutely wreck Kim, because there's nothing Kim wants more than to safeguard Chay but as far as he's concerned, he's already failed Chay in that regard twice. 😈

[[ ask me about fics im not writing ]]

[seat-safety-switch]

For a long time, one of my coworkers would buy these instructional videotapes. Dozens of them. The subject? How to win at casino games. Grinning, glad-handing, well-dressed men and women would tell you about all the blind spots, short cuts, and vulnerabilities of the gambling industry. They'd hook you on a flashy commercial, and before long, you'll have bought the whole 5-tape set.

I've never been one for gambling. Well, I guess you could say that driving a rotting motor vehicle at giga-illegal rates of speed with several glaring flaws and safety issues is "gambling," but I certainly don't like you phrasing it like that when we were having such a nice conversation. In the few times I've gone to a casino in my life, I immediately lost my entire budget and then quit. It's nice to not have an addiction to something, you know?

With age and perspective, I've determined that I was simply lucky. The worst thing that could have happened to me is that I win on my first trip. I'd have convinced myself that I could win again, that I have some kind of inherent right to the riches of the casino bosses, and then I'd lose all my money chasing that original rush. My coworker, who we'll call Stan because that is the name he legally got it changed to in order to skip town – I don't deadname people, unlike the police and debt collectors – was not as lucky as me. He won, and won big.

Watching the videotapes after he fled was sort of instructive. Because there were so many, and because process servers knew where he lived, he would often bring the tapes to work and watch them on our break-room VCR. I'd come in at lunch and catch a few minutes of them while I was waiting for our wheezing Sanyo microwave to finish shooting gluons through a can of soup. The appeal to orderliness, to a "system," was undeniably exciting. To believe yourself in possession of a unique set of knowledge, despite all evidence to the contrary, must have been nice.

Too bad I'm nothing like that, an entirely rational human being. When I buy fifty- and sixty-year-old shit box cars, I know exactly what I'm doing. I have internalized the system that they operate under, and even when they surprise me by draining my entire wallet into their gaping maw, I'll just win it all back the next week by scoring an excellent low-ball deal that will end up needing no maintenance. Stick that in your car payment and smoke it, suckers. I'm on the way up.