#Golden Age | Scams

[xtruss]

Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams

— By Alana Semuels | September 18, 2024

Illustration By Dan Page For Time Magazine

Not Long Ago, Monica Cotelingham found herself stuffing cash into a Bitcoin machine at a gas station in suburban Maryland and weeping.

Earlier that day, she had received a call from a phone number with the same area code as Cotelingham’s father in Louisiana. When she answered, someone identifying themselves as a U.S. customs officer said the government had found a package addressed to Cotelingham that contained stolen passports and driver’s licenses. She was in a lot of trouble; law enforcement was going to call her back. When Cotelingham’s phone rang next, the number that came up was from local police, who told her the FBI would be in touch. Minutes later, she got a call from a number that matched the bureau’s. The person on the line told Cotelingham that she could get out of the mess by depositing $18,000 into a Bitcoin machine.

In retrospect, Cotelingham says, she should have known it was a scam. The game of law-enforcement telephone made no sense. All the callers had heavy accents. Each instructed her not to tell anyone what she was doing. The bank teller at Truist, where she withdrew the $18,000, asked if Cotelingham was OK, and warned her of scams. Even the Bitcoin machine where she deposited the money had a warning, in big red letters, to beware of scams and fraud.

But Cotelingham, who received the calls on her first day of a medical leave of absence from her job as a psychiatrist, believed at the time that they were legitimate. And so, sobbing in distress, she stuffed $10,000 into the machine until she asked the clerk for help to stop. “Even then, I think part of me knew,” she says. “It was incredibly traumatic.”

Cotelingham’s experience is increasingly common. We are living in the golden age of scams. U.S. consumers lost a record $10 billion to fraud in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a 14% increase over 2022. That tally is almost certainly an undercount. More than three-­quarters of victims, including Cotelingham, don’t report to authorities that they’ve been defrauded. We are constantly baited by scammers—by text, by email, by phone. The average smartphone owner in the U.S. gets an estimated 42 spam texts and 28 spam calls per month, according to RoboKiller, an app for screening calls.

The scams themselves are more sophisticated than ever before, capable of duping the most skeptical consumers. There are romance scams, investment scams, and fake-job scams. Scammers target everyone from pharmacists in Wisconsin (trying to persuade them to send money because their credentials have supposedly expired) to employees of specific companies (sending emails or texts that say they’re from the CEO and instructing employees to buy gift cards). “We are at an epidemic level of fraud,” says Kathy Stokes, director of fraud-­prevention programs with AARP.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one reason. It made people lonelier and more isolated, which research shows makes them more susceptible to fraud, and it pushed more transactions online, where we can more easily fall victim. One in 3 Americans experiences feelings of loneliness at least once a week, according to a recent poll from the American Psychiatric Association. Members of Gen Z are more anxious and depressed than previous ­generations—and three times as likely to fall for scams as baby boomers.

But there are other factors. Technology enables scammers to reach more marks, robo-­dialing many more numbers in a day or using AI to send carefully crafted emails and text messages. It’s also given rise to online marketplaces selling hacker services, scam scripts, and other tools of deception. Social media helps scammers find information about individuals and use it against them. And fraudsters have more of that information because of increasingly common data breaches, and can use it to trick us into thinking they’re someone they’re not.

That specific kind of grift is known as an impostor scam. A perpetrator reaches out, pretending to be a government official, a bank representative, or a law-­enforcement agent. Impostor scams like the one Cotelingham fell victim to were responsible for nearly half of all frauds reported to the FTC in 2023, with about 490,000 people reporting them. Americans said they lost $1.1 billion to impostor scams last year, three times what they lost in 2020. The success of the impostor scam ­illuminates ­another reason criminals are able to bilk Americans today. Our trust in institutions has collapsed, making it easier for scammers to pose as authority figures, says Stacey Wood, a fraud expert and professor at Scripps College in California. “Authority can look very different now,” Wood says. “If someone is skeptical of the U.S. government, they often trust someone else—who can scam them.”

Americans may not believe in the government or the media, but we want to believe in ­something—and sometimes that’s a stranger who says they can solve our problems, or love us, or give us our dream job, or take our money in exchange for a better life.

Doug Shadel, a Fraud Expert and Consultant who recently directed AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, has fought scammers since the 1990s. Back then, employed by the Washington State attorney general’s office, he used to bust so-called boiler rooms—places where dozens of people made scam calls, reading from prewritten scripts and dialing numbers one by one. The scammers might reach a few hundred people in a day, Shadel says, and would have to pay long-­distance charges for the phone lines. Now, Shadel says, voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology allows scammers anywhere to dial hundreds of thousands of phones in a day for free—what Shadel calls “spray and pray” dialing. They can “spoof” phone numbers, making it look like they’re calling from a government ­number. And they know much more about who they’re calling than ever before.

There were 3,205 reported data breaches impacting around 353 million people in 2023, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. As a result, many of our Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, or affinity-­group memberships are available to resourceful scammers. One California family, who requested anonymity for fear of being bilked again, lost $400,000 when a scammer, armed with one of their Social Security numbers, called Bank of America 16 different times to try to change the password and information on an account, according to the family’s lawyer, Nick Barthel. Fifteen bank representatives refused, but the 16th was duped, according to Barthel, who says the scammer wired the family’s savings out of the account. The bank has not refunded the family, Barthel says. (Bank of America says it cannot comment on pending litigation. Police eventually found the perpetrator, but he was deceased and the money was nowhere to be found.) “This could happen to anybody,” says Barthel. “All the guy needed was the basic information you would get from a data breach.”

This data often finds its way onto messaging apps like Telegram, says Frank McKenna, co-founder of PointPredictive, an AI firm that detects frauds. Cybercriminals can buy and sell tutorials and scripts for scamming people, as well as victims’ personal information. For $500, you can purchase a live scamming class, 25,000 U.S. phone numbers, and instructions for sending spam links, according to a report from the security firm Guard.Io. “Social media platforms like Telegram began to emerge as these hubs of scam knowledge and transfer,” McKenna says. (Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was taken into custody in Paris on Aug. 24 and faces charges stemming from the platform’s alleged role in enabling criminal activity; Durov calls the charges “misguided.”)

Scam syndicates exist all over the world, from Southeast Asia to Mexico to the Middle East, says Marti DeLiema, a professor who studies scams at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work. “This is the new mafia,” DeLiema says. The work can be lucrative. A 2024 report by the U.S. Institute of Peace found that transnational criminal networks based in Southeast Asia steal $64 billion annually through scams. In Myanmar, according to the report, there are “scam compounds” where people who have been lured by fake online job ads are held prisoner and forced to make calls to try to swindle Americans.

The rise of artificial intelligence has been a boon for these scammers. A decade ago, you might have been the target of a poorly written email from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince and asking for money to help them regain access to their wealth. Today, AI helps non-English speakers write more convincing missives. The technology can also be used to copy voices and likenesses to convince people that their family members are in danger. That’s what happened to Fauzia Vandermeer.

Vandermeer, a 51-year-old radiologist who lives in Baltimore, received a call earlier this year from a number she didn’t recognize. She ignored it, but the person called again, so Vandermeer picked up, worried that something had happened to a family member. She heard the sound of her sister’s voice, sobbing and asking for help.

“I was totally freaking out,” Vandermeer remembers. The voice that resembled her sister’s told Vandermeer that she was at a Walmart and had gotten into an accident. Then a man came on the line. He said that Vandermeer’s sister had hit his van, which had kilos of drugs in it, and that he needed to be compensated. Vandermeer was in her car, ready to drive to the Walmart, when the man told her that the matter needed to be dealt with “sensitively,” she says. Suspicious, Vandermeer asked one of her children to try to locate her sister, which they did with the Find My Friend function on their iPhone. Vandermeer’s sister was at home. Vandermeer sidestepped the scam, but says she easily could have been victimized. “To hear a loved one on the phone, crying for help,” she says, “immediately you are kicked into this stress response.”

People are more likely to fall prey to scams when they are in a heightened emotional state. That’s why scammers try to target your emotions, telling you that you’ve won some sort of prize or money, or that something terrible has happened. It’s a big reason people get duped by frauds that strike observers as obvious. A 2021 AARP study found that scam victims reported experiencing twice as many stressful life events in the past year as nonvictims.

The Department of Justice says it has stepped up efforts to catch and prosecute scammers who target Americans, even when those criminals are in other countries. From July 2022 through June 2023, the department says it pursued 300 criminal and civil actions against more than 650 defendants who collectively stole more than $1.5 billion from over 2.4 million victims. U.S. authorities also partner with foreign law-­enforcement offices. One such collaboration last year led Indian police to raid call centers, arresting 26 people and seizing equipment used in scamming, according to a senior DOJ official, who says a similar effort is under way in Ghana.

Some people, frustrated with the government’s inability to combat scammers, have taken on the task themselves. They’re known as scam baiters, and they embrace a kind of vigilante justice—working to lure the scammers into targeting them and then hacking into their computers or collecting evidence they can turn over to authorities.

One such scam baiter is Jim Browning. He’s an IT specialist in Ireland who got frustrated by the bombardment of scam calls and emails he was receiving. Browning, who uses a pseudonym, tries to catch scammers and turn them over to authorities, as well as to educate viewers on his YouTube channel, which has 4.3 million subscribers. His technological prowess offers him—and his ­viewers—­insight into who the perpetrators are and how their operations work. In one of his most-­watched videos, Browning accesses CCTV camera footage to watch Indian scammers run the same grift that duped Monica Cotelingham. The footage shows young men sitting in cubicles in a call center, dialing potential victims until eventually one finds a mark. The scammer instructs the target to deposit money into a Bitcoin machine before passing the phone to his superior—a “closer,” Browning explains, someone with better English and more experience.

Browning’s channel illustrates how hard it is to stop people from being scammed, even when they’re made aware that a crime is unfolding. In the video, Browning hears where the scammers tell the victim to deposit the money, calls the location—a store in Michigan—and reaches a clerk. Browning tells the clerk that the woman stuffing money into the store’s Bitcoin machine is being scammed. The clerk acts quickly, passing the information on to the woman. But she can’t be deterred. “She’s not budging on thinking that it’s real,” the clerk tells Browning. It’s also why Browning, who has worked as a scam baiter for a decade, is skeptical about law enforcement’s ability to counter fraudsters. “I have encountered thousands of scam operations,” he says, “and the percentage of people who actually get arrested is tiny.”

Another scam baiter, an American who uses the alias Kitboga, tries to torment or prank the scammers as a form of payback. Kitboga, who has 3.6 million subscribers on YouTube, will give scammers access to his computer and then go into theirs to delete files. He says he takes these steps because law enforcement isn’t equipped to deal with all the scammers out there and he wants to educate people about the risks. “This is,” he says, “a pandemic-­type situation.”

Pierogi, the nom de guerre of a popular YouTuber who runs a scam-­baiting channel called Scammer Payback, says he has started feeding federal authorities information about scam rings. “All different sorts of agencies have knocked on my door,” says Pierogi, a onetime cyber­security expert who adopted the pseudonym because his wife is Russian. (Yes, he knows pierogi are ­Polish.) Yet even when police get involved, it can be hard to put scammers away. A conviction can require law-enforcement cooperation across multiple countries and victims willing to testify. Scammers sometimes still escape with just a slap on the wrist. “We’re making it harder for the scammers, but they’re also getting smarter,” Pierogi says. “It’s this cat-and-mouse game.”

The true toll of these scams goes far beyond the financial losses. In the age of scams, consumers are stuck in a vicious cycle: a lack of faith in institutions makes us fall victim to fraud, which in turn makes us even less trusting of institutions. Monica Cotelingham is still reeling from the scam that targeted her in 2022. She says she’s less trusting and never answers her phone if it’s not someone in her contacts. “I’m very careful about what information I reveal,” she says. She was too trusting just once, she says—and now she finds it difficult to believe in anyone at all.

[thinkbolt]

Fool Coverage (WB, 1952) - dir. Robert McKimson

[creature-wizard]

Scams, Hoaxes, Conspiracy Theories, & Cults Everyone Should Know About

Jilly Juice: Jillian Mai Thi Epperly claimed drinking sixteen cups of her super salty cabbage concoction each day could regrow missing limbs and cure everything from cancer to homosexuality. In reality, overdosing on so much salt caused followers a host of health issues that Epperley dismissed as "healing symptoms."

Nonhuman Body Hoax: Jaime Maussan attempted to pass off mummified human remains as nonhuman beings to the Mexican government. (This isn't even Maussan's first hoax, by the way. He has a history.)

Love Has Won: Amy Carlson, a woman who'd walked out on her own children, started a New Age cult in which she presented herself as "Mother God," the creator of the universe. She claimed to be in contact with dead celebrities and alien beings, and taught a conspiratorial worldview. As her health declined, she attempted to treat herself with colloidal silver and alcohol, and her behavior became increasingly abusive. When she finally died, her followers sincerely believed she would return to life and kept her body in a sleeping bag. (She did not return to life.)

Seed Faith Offerings: Reverend Gene Ewing came up with the perfect get-rich-quick scheme to prey on desperate Christian believers: tell believers that if they "sowed seed" by giving money to him, God would bless them with even more money in the future. He made millions of dollars from these donations, while most of his followers never saw the miraculous returns they were promised.

William Walker Atkinson: In the early 20th century, William Walker Atkinson wrote around one hundred books, many of which he wrote under various pseudonyms. Some of these pseudonyms included alleged Hindu mystics. That's right - this guy was practicing literary brownface to sell his mystical ideas.

The LDS Church: In the 19th century, a man named Joseph Smith claimed that an angel had told him where to dig up a set of golden plates that were supposedly written by ancient Hebrews who'd come to North America. Smith even had eleven close associates who vouched for the plates' existence. Yet the script they were allegedly written in bore no relation to actual ancient scripts of the Near East, and the the names the locations in the books he "translated" were very obviously derived from placenames he would have been familiar with. (For example, Oneida/Onidah.) Oh, and actual archaeology and DNA studies have discredited pretty much everything from this guy's weird racist narrative.

Fake Cancer, Fake Cure: Wellness entrepreneur Belle Gibson claimed that she'd cured her brain cancer with natural remedies. Gibson never actually had cancer in the first place.

Medbeds: Back in 2020, QAnons and QAnon-adjacent people started circulating claims that a new form of healing technology was about to become available to the public within the next several months or so. Depending on who you asked, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and even the Galactic Federation of Light were involved. The time of their supposed unveiling came and went, and what do you know, there are still no functioning medbeds used in actual medicine.

COVID Vaccine Zombies: Conspiracy theorists have been claiming the government practices high-tech mind control for ages now. One recent iteration of this is a conspiracy theory claiming that people who'd received COVID vaccinations would have malicious DNA code activated by 5G on October 4, 2023, turn into zombies, and riot. The time came and went, and no zombie outbreak happened.

Ms.Scribe: In the early 2000s, a Harry Potter fan known as "msscribe" or "Ms.Scribe" faked her own harassment through a number of sockpuppets, with the apparent goal of becoming friends with some Harry Potter fandom bigwigs. She manipulated the fandom for a few years until the deception was finally uncovered.

[stjohnstarling]

This article is so crazy, following a librarian as she discovers that she had unwittingly purchased more than a hundred AI audiobooks by possibly nonexistent authors:

Robin hadn’t initially noticed it was an AI narrator because she never pays attention to the narrator when there’s a patron report of a problem with an audiobook: “It’s always file problems, not narrator problems.” “And it’s probably still not a narrator problem. It could have happened to any file. BUT, it sent me down the rabbit hole of ‘oh shit, I bought an AI narrated book?’ “I wonder how many of those I bought on accident.” “OH SHIT, we have HOW MANY?”

It's a bit of a cliché at this point to say that we are living through a golden age of scams, but it's mind-bending to see stuff like this penetrating even into public library systems.

[punkpandapatrixk]

🎡Cosmic Messages for Workers of Light ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

Those of you who’ve always had a feeling that you were born to do something important; those of you who’ve recently been feeling like you’re being called to something higher than the mundane; YO, this reading has appeared in your Reality now to signal that the lights are green~🥝🥦🥑

Many people have been on different timelines that are now converging as one singular trajectory of where Humanity is heading. It’s a little bit more convoluted than that tho, because we each experience this Game a whole lot differently, too. But essentially, we’re wrapping up karmic cycles and entering a Golden Age of Workers of Light~★

Technically speaking, the essence…the theme…of the New Age of Aquarius is accountability. This is an era of accountability, folks. People can no longer be supported by any kind of cosmic power to perpetuate deceit and the misuse of knowledge.

‘But when knowledge is abused or put to the servility of coining wealth for a few, without respect of the treasury which all inherit, then humanity departs from the machine and all is toil without profit. For the false-hearted who would tear knowledge apart, diminishing the light and shielding its beams from us, will make mechanicals of us all.’ – excerpt from Manifesto of The Guild of Artificers; The Steampunk Tarot

What’s your current timeline? Which trajectory of the future of Humanity are you on? This reading serves as a prelude to what’s going to be revealed more in-depth in the ‘Lion’s Gate Portal to XXX’ PAC~💋

INTELLIGENCE: Mission Mind Control (1979) on Nuclear Vault

TECHNOMAGY: Probability Alteration and Luck (Energetically Programmed Audio) by Sapien Medicine

deck-bottom: XXI The World Rx, Silver Geographer (Francis Drake) & Priestess of Shine

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings]

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – You’re Going to Change the World by Making It Innocent Again

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 585, 627, 657, 757, 818, 828

the meaning of NOW – 6 of Pentacles Rx

Have you ever had glimpses of imagination, or a sense of knowing, or it’s just a feeling, like you were dropped to Earth by mistake? Perhaps it’s a feeling as if you were a Greek god banished from the realms of the gods and entered Earth as a form of punishment? Or a bit of a feeling like you got scammed and arrived on the wrong Planet? LMAO Why am I thinking of that Bollywood movie called ‘PK’?

The alien kid arrived on a strange Planet: Earth. And Humanity—Indian primarily—befuddles the living shit out of him XD I think you’ve known for quite a while that you’re not from around here. You’ve never really fit in. I think you weren’t treated nicely by most people—could be your own blood ‘family’, could be your schoolmates, teachers, neighbours. Just basically, you’re seen as a bit of a freak.

It’s hard for you to feel a sense of community. No matter what stage of Life you are in, it’s always felt like that. If at the moment of reading this you’re older in age, I think you’re managing a lot better now. You’ve learnt to be OK with your own company because you’re the most smartest and interesting person you could have conversations with. But if you’re comparatively younger, you’re probably still going through the motion, and that’s OK, because it’s just part of the lore building ;P

bridging the future – King of Wands

The simplest truth about your existence is that you aren’t meant to ‘grow up’ in the same sense as most other people do. Growing up is a wonderful thing, of course, we all need to grow up and become smarter and amazinger! But what doesn’t sit right with you is people’s twisted idea of ‘growing up’ is all about. To most lame-ass Humans on this Planet, ‘growing up’ means abandoning the core essence of what makes you, you.

On this Planet, ‘growing up’ means letting go of your innocence and simple kindness in exchange for survival and brutality (in the workplace, I guess). Here on this Planet, ‘growing up’ means burning your passion to ashes; not living Life fuelled by a burning passion. Here, ‘growing up’ means being punished for authenticity and the childlike courage to question authority. Growing up, here, means becoming complicit to evil abuse of power and greed.

How are you supposed to comply to any of that? Don’t you realise how pure your Heart is? Your sense of justice is clear since day one. It’s something you may not be able to express clearly but you know what’s right and wrong on the basis of what’s good and bad for people as….just people…not numbers or statistics or traffic or casualties. ‘People are PEOPLE, dammit!’

you’re going to MAKE IT – 3 of Cups Rx

You’re befuddled? This world is befuddled! If you’ve chosen this Pile as your main pile, you have it written in your Soul’s blueprint that you’re going to be involved in the politics of the world. Yes, some of you could become politicians or activists, but even those that aren’t interested in any of that, you’re still going to have opinions and perspectives that touch on the subject of Humanity and how psychopath politicians are fucking things up for Humans.

You know what I mean? Some of you could become world players that implement new laws and principles in your society. Some of you will have the power to influence public opinions so that people begin to demand accountability from their corrupt governments. Back to basics, baby. What is Humanity, basically? What does it mean to even be Human living in a Human World, basically? You’ve questioned all of this and you will one day have a platform to extend this musing to a larger audience.

The lights are GREEN now. You’ve experienced so much personal conflict with people who don’t understand your values, all so you would learn to forge connections with people who are just as innocently passionate as you are. That was your training ground, bitch~♥︎ Your personal experiences were a microcosm model of what’s going to sweep out the entire world in the coming decades, if not centuries.

Basically, it's time nations started actually taking care of their own issues before they raid and destroy other nations for resources is what your Soul is understanding.

TIMELINE🔻💛

daydreaming – Gold Magus (Johannes Faustus)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Innocence

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – You’re Not Confused; This World Is; So You’re Alright

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 111, 123, 222, 414, 444, 647

the meaning of NOW – 9 of Cups

Head in the clouds, baby? You’re the type of person who has many dreams and ideas, and it’s like, it’s easy for you to get interested in all kinds of pursuits. But then, it’s also just as easy to lose interest in all of those novelties; it feels like your heart and mind are always being pulled by newer interests or topics. I’m reminded of this meme or whisper that says something like, ‘Not tonight babe. A YouTuber has just posted a 4-hour video about a topic I’ve never heard about before.’

You like to study new things or basically just drown yourself in new hobbies/interests because you’re trying to make sense out of your very existence. I think you’ve felt incredibly confused your entire Life. If not ‘confused’ per se, it still feels like you’re lacking a sense of direction. You don’t really know what’s the purpose of being here on this Planet. You’re weirded out by the fact that you’re not motivated by the same things that others have convinced you to get excited about.

‘Why am I not motivated by these promises and achievements? Damn, I simply can’t be motivated by something as unromantic as that. There’s no Life in any of those pursuits. My God, what should I be interested in for me to motivate myself to make something out of myself? I really don’t know what to pursue in this world. I don’t even know how to live…’ So you continue to daydream but your heart is quite heavy sometimes.

bridging the future – Ace of Cups Rx

Pile 2, you are magic, you know that? Being the way that you are, you aren’t in the wrong for being rather ‘impractical’. If anything, you’re so high-vibrational that you still remember that physical manifestation comes from the dream world first. I think you’d resonate with being a very Feminine person, aenergetically speaking? Maybe you have a strong Moon/Neptune placement in your birth chart as well.

You remember on a Soul level that all dreams can become real as long as you keep on to them. Your being a dreamer who dreams ‘too much’ is not wrong; it is this world that’s too rigid and restrictive. It’s grotesque how society has set up so many rules that limit what a being as divine as you can and can’t do/create. They say the sky’s the limit; in your case, your faith’s the limit.

There are many wonderful things that you want to make manifest but you often tell yourself that you’re dreaming too much or that there’s no way someone like you could ever achieve that. That’s where you’re doing ‘wrong’: the not believing in your own ability to create your dream Life. Remember that successful people usually say that the Life they have now exceeds even their ‘wildest’ dreams.

So dream wild. Dream big. Even if you don’t believe you can exceed your expectations, can’t you still believe that you’ll manifest something very similar?

you’re going to MAKE IT – 9 of Wands Rx

Stop stopping yourself, OK? Stop gaslighting yourself for fuck’s saké. Right now, you need to stop believing that Life’s supposed to be hard work and lived logically. You literally deserve to get paid for just existing. That sounds extra narcissistic but hope you get the idea. This modern society that favours hard work and believes that only after you’ve worked really hard can you then be worthy of a lot of abundance is stupid. This world is confused. People have forgotten the essence of dreaming and living in ease.

Some of you will resonate with being a fairy or an elven soul, and so you believe from the depths of your heart that people should be allowed an easy existence in harmony with nature. Some of you will resonate with being a futuristic alien android being who believes that human lives can be made easy with the right use of technology.

All in all, cosmically speaking, your Soul came into this world to be a ‘lazy’ genius who will switch things up for Humanity so that everybody can have an easier time existing on this Planet. Geniuses are never lazy, bitch. Not in the mind! If wanting things to be more streamlined and easy to do makes a person ‘lazy’ that’s hilarious. So what’s a not-lazy person? A low-IQ idiot who perpetually works hard because they got scammed by capitalism?

TIMELINE🔻💙

daydreaming – Green Magus (John Dee)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Ambition

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Illuminate Others’ Paths by Simply Expressing Your Truth

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 211, 217, 303, 522, 814, 999

the meaning of NOW – 3 of Swords Rx

Do you know that you’re an energy worker? I almost feel you’re a miracle worker. You’re somebody who has a special power in the way that you express yourself, whether in writing or spoken. It’s not so much what you say or write or do, it’s HOW you say or do or write your truth that moves people’s hearts. You have the power to stir some shit up in people’s aenergetic fields LOL

You have both the power to destroy your enemies and heal those who want to get better in the world. If your power is speech, it’s the aenergy with which you talk that empowers people. Ionno, think JFK, MLK? Or some fascinating YouTubers who make us feel like, ‘Oh this guy/gal is my spirit animal!!!’ It’s their aenergy, right? Same with writing or any other thing that you do. It comes natural to you to create some kind of a ripple in people’s consciousness.

For other people, just tuning in your aenergetic space stirs them. That’s why you experience a lot of extremes. Good-hearted people feel immensely healed, comforted and uplifted in your presence or when they talk/text with you. But the false-hearted ones, they also know there’s something about you that calls out their bullshit even when you’re not ‘saying’ anything. There’s something about you that inspires people to be better! And that’s fucking annoying to narcs and the losers of the world LMAO

bridging the future – 10 of Pentacles Rx

I see that you’re honestly not the kinda person who’s ambitious about changing the world, about influencing the world. Not in that ambitious manner like some activist or whatever. Your Soul is very incredibly superbly soft; you ain’t an activist, you’re an artist; you ain’t a fighter, you a lover, baby~ So I get that you sometimes don’t really know what to do with yourself XD Like there’s this desire to heal the world, but you don’t think of yourself as someone who’s fighter enough or strong enough to do any of that.

WRONG. You’re the kinda entity who’s already doing all that healing stuff by simply being the amazing person that you are. Your aenergy is like a combination of both Pile 1 and 2. The half of you is superbly soft and dreamy and you’re so kind and empathetic; the other half of you is fiercely protective of those who are hurting, and you do a lot to make things better and easier for them—in your own practical, seemingly small ways.

The good news is, you really don’t have to be a fighter if it doesn’t suit you. Basically, you just have to be yourself and express your truth. In whatever way you find most suitable to you. Your power lies in your communication, self-expression, connection. You’re going to be a trend-setter, babe~ A trend-setter of authenticity, yup, ‘real authenticity’, ironically; not ‘fake authentic’ that’s propagated by a lot of narcs on the Internet LOL

you’re going to MAKE IT – 3 of Pentacles

With narcs who are pretending so HARD at being good, you know it’s all skin-deep; it’s all just jargon. And they’re gonna get really good at weaponizing self-love concepts to justify shit behaviour, deadbeat behaviour, toxic tendencies, gaslighting atrocities and all that shit, you know? With you, your VIBRATIONS can’t be faked, let alone emulated. The world needs a role model like you. That’s why you’re going to make it. Your Soul Mission ain’t just about you, babe~

You’re literally going to be the example whom people bear witness for what being authentic is all about. They will watch you and come to their own conclusion what a genuine soul looks like. You’re reminding me of Dr Jordan B Peterson. Yep, that kinda vibe. Be weird all you want, be scandalous all you want, the right people will see that your INTENT has been good all along. And in that sense, the people who CHOOSE to view you badly are the CLOWNS, and they’re gonna be proving that to themselves.

In essence, most people’s idols are all LIARS!!! You’re meant to break that, destroy that, and usher in a new era of influencers/celebs/thought leaders/spiritual teachers/all kinds of public figures that actually operate on Light—real information and real intent—instead of fake-ass jargon that lies to people’s faces with semantics and optics! Your aenergy is insane it’s literally gonna change the world massively, and upon finding this reading, you’re riding on the winds of CHANGE so get fucking READY, bitch~! \`★_★`/

TIMELINE🔻🧡

daydreaming – Green Astronomer (Nicolaus Copernicus)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Illumination

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings]

[mitsua]

Silvery orb, I love his golden orbs

Warnings: none Genre: slight angst to fluff

Series: Obey me! SWD? Words' count: 0.71k

Pairing: Mammon × GN! Y/N

You've felt very uncomfortable since you were brought by force to the Devildom. Never expecting to meet angels and demons and not just any sort of demons or angels—but some are the ones that are biblically spoken of.

Some were very kind towards you while some weren't, as in every new classroom each new scholar year. By your age, you've come to terms with not getting along with everyone and just ignored them.

Not like you weren't afraid enough to even talk to them anyway.

Excepting the one who has been in charge of you since the beginning by Lucifer—the oldest of the brothers.

Mammon.

Just as you weren't expecting to meet demons and angels, you weren't expecting to befriend one. But here you are—laughing your ass off as Mammon shows you the latest scam he's gotten involved in.

There you are—feeling anger for him when he's unable to stand up for himself when his brothers talk badly about him.

There you were—taking care of him after his older brother had beaten him down for breaking the rules once more.

You couldn't really recall how many days or nights you've spent doing it anymore—not like there was any sun to call day.

You've craved to take Mammon with you to where you used to live before this cursed place and never come back again.

You knew he wouldn't accept because as much as he loves you and has told you so after building a romantic relation with you—you see how much he loves his brothers as well.

So you propose him to visit the human world with you, just for a day and a night.

You're aware Mammon has visited it hundreds of times, but you've never gone together as a couple.

You spent the day at your beach house, teaching Mammon about some human things that you'd sometimes only got to spoke about at the Devildom but weren't able to exactly show him how they function.

As the sunset came, you finally went out of the house to bury your feet in sand and play in the sea—explaining him that at that hour you've got a secret spot for yourselves until the next evening came.

So you stand there, peacefully watching the big shiny circle at the horizon come down and let the rising orb called moon bathe with its white, gentle light.

You missed this, Mammon could see it. The nostalgia in your eyes was too much to hide and it made his heart hurt.

You've spoken about moving to the human world with such an excitement that he's never noticed he's done that when giving you rational arguments to stay with his brothers.

—You know what Mammon?—you talked after so long, gusts of wind hitting your face and making your hair go along with it,—after today I've realized two things will forever stay the same for me.

Mammon gulped, awaiting for you to tell him that you want to stay in your world and that you're better off without each other. He of course didn't want any of that, but his nerves were starting to get into the surface just as the dolphin you watched hours ago jumping and splashing around.

He stayed silent, rather letting you break the subtle silence between you two and the uproar of boats passing ever so far,—I love you and after sunlit days, rises the moon in here.

You glanced at him,—I'll be wherever you want to be—. You clarified after noticing the hint of confusion on his furrowing brows, laughing softly.

Mammon had never felt so tranquil than after hearing you say that and seeing your alluring smile. He hugged you tightly and you could swear you heard him sniffle on your shoulder.

—Oh MC, I've also accepted something,—he revealed, keeping his hands on your shoulders to look you in the eyes. —You're the one I want to spend my life with, and if that comes with us having to move from the HoL, I'll go wherever you are too—.

Such fools in love you two were, weren't you?

But finally, you've come to an agreement to spend time wherever you want to that you both feel comfortable in.

—I love you to the moon and back—.

Tried out a new format!

All writings' rights reserved © 2024 Mitsua. (Credit to the respective owners of the pictures and tagged anime character.) ⌇ my navigation!

[froody]

The craziest thing about the Wild West is that many of the prominent figures who spent their prime years crossing between both sides of the law, rustling cattle, shooting people in broad daylight, bounty hunting, robbing stagecoaches, gambling, scamming and swindling etc. just got out of the game and died peacefully in their own bed at age 80. It was the same with pirates in the golden age of piracy. If you didn’t die violently, you just retired and started living like a normal civilian. Imagine your 75 year old grandma telling you about how she used to seduce and rob lone men on the Oregon trail. Your grandpa calculating how many people he killed in bar fights and coming to the conclusion it was upwards of 30. The law was not equipped to investigate and prosecute every criminal in the west so if you left the game, there was often this uneasy truce.

[pepper-makes-art]

relavity falls stans, graunts, n friends

oK THEYRE HERE NOW AND NOT JUST FIDDLEFORD!!!

fiddleford can be found here!!!

i wish i could've done more sketches but im a bit busy atm </3 will def do some on the weekends though!!

on the au:

instead of taking place in 2014, it takes place in 2024 now! which doesnt rlly change much outside of appearances and slang lol.

bold is what their au name is

stanford (ford) <--> dipper

pretty self explanatory! i feel like stanford'd be an x-men fan, hence the x patch on his shoulder lol. also yes, dipper is a trans woman here. and she has glasses bc fuck dude i hate drawing regular eyes.. i thought the design looked a bit empty, so i decided to make that cool glove thing ford had dipper's robot hand thingy!

stanley (lee) <--> mabel (mason)

stanley now wears a hat. hoorah. nothing much to say here besides him also smuggling shanklin in (w/o the knife unfortunately). mabel's still impersonating her sibling (who, before the portal scene, doesn't know that she's a girl now) under the name of mason, but has ultimately shed her sibling's fashion tastes for her own. mabel wears a turtleneck UNDER the suit bc she doesnt feel heat apparently!

candy <--> wendy

candy's now a 15 yo asian kid who took up the cashier job under grauntie bc she needed more extracurriculars and the experience. totally cant relate to that haha. wendy's now a 12 yo mischievous lil lumberjack who's best friends w/ stanley (i thought it'd be interesting since theyre all now still associated w each other) and who has ALL the middle school tea (which is A LOT)

grenda <--> soos

as much as i want the ages to line up relatively (haha get it.), i think it'd be funny if mabel just hired a bunch of teenagers to run the shack (not sure what to call it). grenda's the 15 yo handy(wo)man who has the voice of an angel and the golden mentality of "smash with couch"! soos is now a friendly n equally naive 12 yo who's best friends w stanely (yada yada) and who somehow always solves problems

on dipper and mabel (will be using he/him for pre-transition dipp):

hoo boy. i see SO many ppl arguing abt their relationship, and i just gotta say, i can tell who has siblings and who doesn't! (joke. thats a joke. mostly) anyways, theyre good siblings!! up until high school, where after drifting apart somewhat, they have a big argument abt where theyre going in life - dipper wants to go to insert rlly good college name and become a scientist while mabel, well, she doesn't know where she wants to go. unbeknownst to them, while theyre fighting, their parents are also fighting. suddenly, their parents split, and mabel is forced to live with her mom and dipper with his dad, far apart from each other. dipper (wearily) accepts this while mabel silently resents dipper for his submission

dipper attends his dream school but is unhappy in his schooling years. afterwards, with his 12 phds or whatever the hell, he goes to a quaint town named relativity falls... mabel becomes an artist of sorts, taking commissions n such, but finds that this doesn't exactly lead to profit. she then becomes a sort of con(wo)man and psychic in attempts to capitalize the strange. she DEF doesn't get into as much srs trouble as stanley did back in his day, but she still lands herself in hot water from scamming and stealing across state lines...

im tired rn so lmk if yall wanna hear more lol.

[nicherayyy]

Giorno Giovanna with Sibling!Reader hcs

Attention: you may see some spoilers to Golden Wind, so if you're still in process of watching anime/reading manga I advice you to return here after you're finished

A/N: starting to take requests again, so if you have any other ideas don't be shy and hit that ask button!

Let me say it, you and Giorno are inseparable since childhood

I mean, with how abusive your childhood was, you alway tried to look out for each other

At least you had each other in all this mess

But of course, everything changed after you've encountered that strange man

Giorno and you didn't even understand what happened before you were under protection of the mafia

The kids that were bullying you suddenly became nice

Your stepfather stopped hitting you

And life suddenly was.. not that bad

That's when you two realised who you helped that day

And since then Giorno knew who he wanted to be

And you happily followed him

But it more looked liked:

"let's join the mafia"

" ..yeah sure why not"

And then both of your hair colours suddenly changed

That was the moment when you discovered your abilities as a hairdresser

Because what can be better than sibling bonding through braiding your brother's hair?

You looked through a lot, and I mean A LOT tutorials to make Giorno's hair presentable

And he's really grateful for that

"Are you done?"

"Stop moving your head or I'll take those scissors and chop your hair off"

Then you started to scam tourists at the airport

It's such a funny concept actually, two 15 year olds scamming people as a taxi drivers

Well, Giorno is the one who drives

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

*Giorno, having his Formula 1 moment* "Absolutely"

And well, you trust your brother with your life

But still, you hold onto that seatbelt for your dear life

"I lived a pretty good life"

"Shut it"

And then there was Bruno

Not gonna lie, this guy kind of scared you

But hey, after a fight and some torn off limbs, everything turned out just fine

And then Polpo..

Remember the lighter?

The fire in it died down.. like the first hour

And it was kind of your fault

"Hold the lighter for a bit, I.. WAIT DON'T SNEEZE"

And again, everything worked out in the end

(You still got scolded by Giorno)

(And he forgave you almost instantly)

So yeah, that's how you got in the mafia at the ripe age of 15😀👍

And it turns out, Leone treats you slightly better than Giorno

Overall, the whole gang treats you well

And you even became good friends with Narancia

But the most important thing is, you're just glad to be there for your brother

Hashtag supportive sibling

[redlenai]

So... hear me out, this is my re-do of Umbrella Academy season 4 and also the finale. So, we know Allison made a deal with Reginald and they ended up in a new world without powers and all that, and instead of getting new, weird ones, they get their original powers back, but they took only a sip of the marigold, so they are failing and not always active at will (Otherwise, Klaus, Allison, Laila and Viktor would be too OP again).

Allison got her daughter back, husband left her, I prefer that that way. I also LOVED HER in season two so why not let her be a hairdresser still? With a succesful one amongst old ladies and vintage enthusiasts. She doesn't want any of her clients dating her siblings, she is keeping her business!

Luther instead of a stripper, what about bringing back him being number 1? But not necessarily a glamorous job, but a fullfilling one with people like him who wants team work and maybe start doing some personal healing, so let's make him a Camp Counselor. He is the leader of a group of kids, kids that listen to him better than his siblings, he is nice, he is there for them, he may not be the wisest but he is attentive and sensitive, so I think that would be a good spin for him. Some moms would fawn over him, who doesn't love a big teddy?

Diego and Laila, I love they got twins, I would have liked to see them more. I would have loved for everyone to be more involved to the niblings, so Diego, I would have left him all his fighting techniques, those could had nothing to do with his perfect aim powers so he still had them. I could see him having a Dojo in a Mall and secretly teaching his daughter how to fight. Yes, Laila being totally against.

Laila I really like that growth in the beginning, mom of three, doing undercover. I liked she acknowledged being an assassin almost her entire life then this change its too sudden, yes, secrets aint good but instead of being nasty to her family, keeping that bag out of the house seems correct for me.

Klaus, hear me out, him being a germaphobe, sober, clean is golden. His fear of permament, genuine, death is glorious, and I feel so sad they didn't dive more into him stepping up for Claire, you could tell he loved his niece and even with all his flaws he was there for her and did those changes for her too, not only because of Allison's support. I think his world should have been his niblings now, he'll endure the germs of his niblings and only theirs, his siblings need to wash their hands three times and use some alcohol before touching him.

Ben, nothing much to say. He is Sparrow Ben so yes, to me him doing a bitcoin scam its perfect, I think its the only thing from the beginning of the season that I won't change one bit. I'm also keeping Luther being the one trying to incoorporate him to the family. Still a bitch, but behaves in front of the kids

Viktor, what did they do to my man. Listen, instead of him being a douche with ladies and being so far away and in a damn bar, hear me out. Violin teacher, close to family, simple as that, some of his students are making progress... his ears are no longer bleeding during sessions!

Now, Five. You know, he was in his 60s. Reaching his 70s after this one final timeskip right? (I'm not good at math). I think I would have spin things very differently for him, first, a young body is just that, a young body. He is still older than all of his siblings, he still experienced solitude, trauma and more. So I can picture him not being as sharp as before, mind sliping, stubborn, everyone tries to deny it, but Five is aging, he needs help. Instead of working for the CIA, just an old man in a young body, winning some chess contests for the thrill but tired, maybe sharing a decent apartment with Luther and Ben since the first was the first one to notice these changes.

I wouldn't have changed much of the plot, Marigold and Durango? Having to destroy all timelines? Ok, let's keep that but let's chance the way how it works. Besides, I would have introduced the Fives hanging around in the Subway quite a bit earlier or removed it entirely.

Main plot: Finding Jennifer, Reginald and Abigail come to the conclussion that the clearance IS the monster, IS the end of the world just like how it happened, but it isnt.

Sub-plots: Diego still not trusting Laila or not appreciating what he has, Klaus having a panick attack and afraid of losing all the progress he has made so far, Five's slowly going senile (Getting his powers and being able to access the Subway makes it worse), Viktor wanting closure about all the abuse Reginald has caused them.

I did like the Cult and the Umbrella effect, but lets not involve the CIA, that was a bit just too much. But I liked Abigail sabbotaging her love, I think the gang deserved to get to know her a bit better and see what was that their father longed for so long.

But understanding doesn't mean forgiving.

Laila and Five do get lost for 7 years in the Subway, Laila seeing now instead of Luther how Five IS older, IS an old man, IS aging and NEEDING his family close. I really got this image of the scene being them taking shelter in that green house, nothing romantic happens between them, just Five appreciating Laila is there just to make an odd comment "Wish the others cared to visit", then Laila having to remind him they were lost and needed to get back.

Diego, instead of having his awakening in the CIA, he just goes from sibling to sibling, yes, he does the talking! He still jumps into conclussions but now seeks imput!

Klaus as said is terrified of having his powers back, all his terrors come back to haunt him, he doesn't fall back onto the drugs in an instant, nor the alcohol. Instead of taking that TV, I really wanted Claire to be his anchor, I know, she shouldn't have such a responsability, but who wouldn't want to help the family that choose to keep the closest when you needed the most? He forgives Allison, then instead of the whole medium thing and being buried alive (despite the last being actually a reference to the comic and how originally Reginald trained him), he slowly goes back, sometimes its hard to remember too all the progress you made with your gift/curse, and thanks to not have used too much marigold helped him to gradually get used to it, especially alongside his sister and niece.

Ben and Jeniffer are in the run from Hargreeves and the Keepers, instead of them getting that rash then evolving into a monster, let's go back to my point of interest: Niblings.

Well, instead of a fricking monster, what if Ben and Jennifer just got a baby on the way, one that was growing way too fast, but not as much as the 43 children. Ben doesn't trust nor feel the others are family, he doesn't want them, his real family is dead, that's a fact.

Well, let's say seeing your love at first Durango suffering a weird pregnancy that is causing those weird stuff (I liked the Earthquackes, dead animals, people dead by ink), enemies right and left, not sure if she survives, she dies, there is a baby or monster on the way... kind of makes you want the group of nosy assholes back, especially if something bad happens to you or the mom.

II like that Abigail seemed to care about the gang, I was surprised Reginald even talked about them, so I can imagine her just wanting to care for them, so what if the gang talked during their "visit" about their kids too, wait, does that mean Reggie has grandkids? Are these my grandkids? or step-grandkids at least?

So I think the finaly argument between Reginald and Abigail should have been, yes, he should have left her die, that they were wrong, that's not the end of the world, that is a new beginning. Reggie, do the right thing, that's the 4th grandchild you won't be able to meet.

We have part of the gang trying to help soon to be Daddy Octopus prevent the Keepers, Hargreeves agents and yes, the CIA as its own thing, from entering. Then another half helping Jennifer, the birth happens.

And that is the ending, everything fades to white.

"In October 1st of 1989.... nothing out of the ordinary happened. To be exact, the actual date is (Insert modern time). I'm just watching over a... peculiar family that found each other"

Then we have in said park the whole gang, people that didn't die nor did go to the Temps Aeternalis. Umbrellas and Sparrows as well.

There, happy ending.

[misctf]

Age Burner

“Getting older ain’t easy”. My dad would often say that when I was growing up, and like most things your parents tell you, I didn’t take it too seriously. But 30ish years later, I started to appreciate those words of wisdom. I was a college baseball player, the ladies were all over me, and I actually had hair on my head and not everywhere else. But now I can barely throw a baseball around with my son without an ache or pain. And with him about to go off to college and play baseball, it was like he was reliving my golden days.

So with father’s day and my birthday coming up, another great reminder of my age, I decided to get something for myself. I happened across an internet ad, big letters flashing “Age Burner!” Initially thought it’d be some type of scam supplement or something. But I ordered it and a few days later, a small package arrived with a single pill. I had half a mind to throw it out, but I already spent the money. I took the pill right before I went to bed as instructed, and had the best sleep of my life. When I woke up the next morning, I immediately noticed a difference. No aches or pains! My skin felt youthful and firm. No hair anywhere but my head! I ran to the mirror and was shocked- it was like time was turned back and I was my old 19-year old self. I could barely keep my hands off my firm pecs and my abs. I even flexed to show off my guns. It felt so good to be back.  

After some time, I rummaged through my closet and found my old baseball glove, a grin forming on my face. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to play ball with my son, show him what his old man was capable of back in his youth. I ran over to his room, excited to spend the day with him when my heart sunk. The man sitting in my son’s bed looked nothing like him: bald, hairy, a small flabby gut sitting between his legs. He looked up at me, a handful of his gut in his hand, too shocked to say anything.

After the initial shock subsided, and my son had two cups of coffee, we went and investigated. The pill does in fact burn away age, almost like a fat loss supplement. But that age had to go somewhere and in this case, it all went to my son. Reversal should be easy enough, he would just need to take the pill too. The problem was the pill was on back order for at least a few months- apparently it was very popular and the company was having a hard time keeping up their supply.

It’s been a few weeks without them taking any new orders, but my son seems to be adjusting well. He’s enjoyed keeping up with lawn care and found himself a construction job. And the other day, he offered to fire up the grill for me and my new buddies from the baseball team. I even came home and found him sipping a beer on the patio and laughing with a few of his new work buddies. I'm just happy he's happy. To tell you the truth, the longer things stay like this, the more I wonder if we’ll want to go back. I for damn sure know my answer.

[toskarin]

Any opinions on your mind today, boss?

while I think that the alarmist "tumblr is going to shut down tomorrow" trend is definitely wildly off-base, I also can't help but feel that tumblr shifting out of growth mode is more concerning now than ever, given the end of zero interest rate policy

it's not clear what's going to happen and anyone who tries to sell certainty is either being irrational or scamming you, but you really can't look at tumblr's past to know what's going to happen now. tech was largely built on the idea that loans were free and you could worry about paying them back later

and now that's not the case

the past ten years have been godawful, but don't forget that this decade is the end of a golden age of tech startups. the money is running out everywhere, and if you've ever wondered how companies have stayed extant while hemorrhaging money, that reality is about to come crashing down

[superman-the-secret-third-thing]

Context: This man was scamming children out of money with carnival games. Superman disapproved.

To highlight the difference between Silver and Golden Age, below is what G did in a similar situation.

Superman #143 (1961) & Superman #8 (1941)

[rainestorm05]

Ramshackle Origins Perditions/Head canons

First up, the somewhat easy one, Stone: Since us doodle followers for the Ramshackle fandom, we already know about Stone's sister Avrill. Knowing that our boy was from a rich family, I can guest two causes on what I think became his downfall to the streets. The first one being they lost their parents at a young age, giving big sister all the inherited money to spoil rotten. Leaving Stone resenting both her and the rich assholes he had to deal with for most of his life. And since he probably had no one else to talk about his problems, he resulted in one of adult's common solutions to cope; alcoholism. My guess is that during his drunken state, he did something so ridiculously embarrassing, Av disowned him into the streets to save her and the family's public image. Or two, parents never died and just favored Avrill more for probably being more sociable. And instead of being somewhat good parents and teach their son the ropes, they just expect him be like that and be disappointed when he fails. Same outcome would happen, only the parents diched him in the streets.

Next, the golden retriever incarnated, Skipp: I like to think his parents were good people who loved him very much, however, unfortunate circumstances happened. Mom was a sweet town baker until dying from childbirth, and dad was a kind and musician dreamer who tried to raise him as best he could but couldn't financially do it in the end and had to give Skipp to an orphanage for a better chance in life. Unknown to him at the time, that place became his son's number one hell until he met Vinnie, who both decided to take their chances at the streets knowing they're not wanted, and no one wants to adopt them.

Lastly, Vinnie, the goblin leader: Judging by her natural chaotic nature to scam as much people as she can, I like to think either both or one of her parents are wanted criminals. Why they gave her up? Either they didn't want their kid out on the run with them for all her life and wanted her to have a better life, or they got her by accident, and didn't want any parent responsibilities to distract them from their heists.

If I get right in any of these for the show's futures, then yippee! If not, then all when, I just did this for fun.

[doom-gender]

Amy looked at the website with confused apprehension. "ApeFist.net" it was called, the design looking straight out of the early 2000s; a simple gif of a starry night sky repeated ad nauseum forms the whole of the background page. "I thought Geocities died?" she thought.

At the fore of the webpage there was a small box for text input with the words "Make your Wish" sitting above it.

At first Amy laughed at it. The link had been spammed by some raider on her favorite trans support discord; it was stupid to even click on it, but she was compelled to check what it was in hopes that it was some kind of NFT scam - she loved making fun of NFT bros and so did most of the server.

She didn't really believe in wishes either, certainly not those given out by a webpage less modern than Craigslist. However that does not mean she had nothing to wish for. Amy's transition was a lifesaver, but her personal results are much less than she was hoping for. She started at age 19 and now at age 24 she's worried that the bulk of her transition is over. Her tiny mosquito bite tits can barely fit an A cup and her hips are practically non-existant - this combined with a general lack of confidence keeps her from being very confidant in her personal style.

After a couple minutes of consideration, she shrugs her shoulders and types into the box.

> I wish I had the body of a thick goth girl with big boobs.

She hit enter and immediately felt silly, she basically just fell for an equivalent of chain mail.

That was before the burning started.

A fire erupted in Amy's chest as she keeled over into the fetal position. Her chest began inflating outwards, settling at two jiggly mounds that were about the size of basketballs. Her stomach grew outwards with a healthy layer of fat as her hips and ass ballooned, giving her that super thick hourglass figure. Her skin prickled as it slowly lightened to a near pale white, her hair itched as it turned into a stylish black bob, and her clothes melted into a simple all black outfit.

When the pain subsided, she took stock of her body; grabbing at her curves and pawing at her crotch to realize her little e-dick had even turned into a pussy. She looked back to the computer to see not the wishing website but... a webcam software? Why was that...

She immediately became drowsy, the late golden hours of the sun shining through the window as it fades ever closer to nightfall. She passes out onto the couch.

---

Amy awoke to the sound of... Moaning? She was sitting up now in what felt like a desk chair. When she opened her eyes she could see through the groggy glaze a computer screen with... herself on it. Her new, goth self at least.

She was squeezing her tits and moaning provacatively into the camera - Amy could see the name at the bottom of the stream: "bigtiddygothgf".

As she came more and more to her senses she expected to feel what her body was doing on the stream, but as she became more intune with her body she became aware of a different stimulation. A hand wrapped around her cock.

She looked down, the messy contents of the desk flashing by her view before it settles on her body. A hairy man's body with a much bigger cock than she'd ever had before. She wanted to freak out, to scream, but all she could let out was a loud grunt as her hand continued to mercilessly jack off her huge, hard, manly cock.

She saw the username next to the chat input textbox: "FatBalls88". 88? Was she a 35 year old man now? The thought died as the stroke of her hand passed the head of her cock once more, matched by the perfect bouncing of the goth girl's tits on the screen.

"Fuck... So hot..."

She didn't say that! Or... did he? She was slowly losing context for why she was here, memories of her life as Amy, her job, the struggles of her transition, the events just preceding these, all began to be replaced with "Adam". Adam is a 35 year old self proclaimed "deadbeat"; in truth he's not doing that bad, he's got a fine apartment, a good job, and he keeps in reasonable shape. What he does not have is a girlfriend, explaining his semi-excessive spending on cam girls.

Amy fought back against these thoughs. "I could use a beer, that would help." She thought before realizing that was more of Adam consuming her. Amy was being deleted from all sides and shlacked over with Adam as s-s-- he came ever closer to cumming.

*click*

"Oh! Thanks for another donation FB! You're my favorite viewer." the girl smooched out at the camera while jiggling her massive tits with her hands.

Adam exploded, his eyes rolled back into his head as white hot cum splattered the bottom of his desk. His chair creaks with strain as his limp body leans further and further backwards. The absolute destruction of whatever remained of Amy and the sudden influx of everything that was Adam left the man dazed for quite awhile only to gain awareness of a ticking sound from the stream.

A spinning wheel full of the names of everyone who donated this stream stuck in front of the visage of "bigtiddygothgf". Adam grunted primally, angry that he could no longer ogle the tits, until...

"Omg FB congrats! Y'know you're my best supporter I think you deserve it the most. DM me and we'll see where we can meet up!"

Adam shook off his lusthaze and remembered: the promise of this stream was that each $1 donated gave you a chance to meet up with the goth cam girl and fuck her live on her next show.

Knocking trash and old beer bottles to the floor he rushed to attention at his keyboard and slid into her dms to set a date.

"Finally," he thought "I'll have that body all for myself..."

[daystarvoyage]

Glad Certain fans are calling out the toxicity in fandoms, hey everyone back in action for a long wait.

Hello, Everyone, It's Kyoko Cane Of Daystar Voyage Giving You A Quick Update of what's been going on,

I have been off Tumblr for a while due to situations in fandoms, & Life, if you don't know yes I am a blogger and content creator who does cosplay & creates art, I also focus a channel on animation, Family entertainment & Fandom Topics With Some variety.

But I am back now gonna try to make this a short message cut into three parts cause I have to start packing for Momocon, now that's the introduction out the way let's get on to these parts on the sections from future videos, calling out show flaws and my love for all animation & why you should give it praise,

NOW LET'S GET IT ON

1. Very Proud of People calling out Fandom Discourse on Shipping & toxic problematic stuff, way to go

when animation got through the good times of the golden age of animation 80s & '90s through my times experiencing it myself, i do love people have a natural conversation about their favorite shows and fiction & nonfiction works, it felt really organic to see others commend me for talking about things out without hiding behind a electronics, seeing growth in positive ways,

I for one watch any new shows that are lighthearted in its comedy story & world-building with good writing that excels and few who have a lot to learn from them. (Example Disneys Kiff Big City Greens Amphibia & Haileys On It) Along With light-hearted anime shojo & Josei to be exact, have really put me into a comforting mode and have made me look at a perspective of what characters have to offer.

however, that's not without its negatives.

The 2000s & 2020s later with the uprising of the cost of living, and jobs declining it really did take a toll on people's mindset without a safe space to have open-minded discussions due to toxic fandoms on the internet propelling popular media. (escapism etc)

though our love of media contorts and distorts in many ways that's not without negatives

i have suffered a lot from a recent fandom the Owl House recently,

Oh forgot to mention one part the fanfics are coming out great for the Owl House movie fanfic and short story I have to make for the Witterbane Origins so they are cooking in the oven as we speak Release coming soon

now you are wondering why I brought this series to light.

well we know things have become problematic with its fandom from shipping, writing & character exposures, I for one have been scammed in this fandom cause i wanted a specific ship (lunter) keychain & i was placated & gaslighted into thinking i got a finished product, unfortunately, it wasn't preserved properly & Toxic nonfactors who hide behind a character who wish they'll give them time of day. SEE AT THE BOTTOM BELOW

AND HAVING TO DELETE VIDEOS OF SHIPS BESIDES HUNTLOW OR LUMITY CAUSE OF BULLYING ITS DISGRACEFUL AND NASTY BEHAVIOR, DOWN Below

Yes there’s proof and FACTs THE FANDOM CANT TAKE A LOGICAL REASON AND CALL OUT THE WRITING AT TIMES., so I’ll be discussing that soon in a future video, cause nothing stopping me

Up above pics 👆 this is a prime example of how fandom has become toxicity from characters being defined by their sexuality, TV tropes not properly executed in good ways, and today's culture following suit of creators compromising the show to the audience's liking (do to fandoms)

be it Racism, Poc Representation compromised & white favoritism & supremacy. There are times the show shows bad writing & and of course shipping discourse just to make up these flaws however it doesn't save them, cause this shows fandom needs a wake-up call so ill be roasting & giving reasonable and logical critiques 247.

That is all for number 1 and I'm proud of the fandoms talking about the owl house flaws in the show

, we as fans of past present of future animated lovers should have been giving this content and I'm not bashing the owl house but waking up people to how yall act as a whole, from yall bullying other creators from new upcoming Disney shows too which is not ok, so much to say but ima save for future videos

2. Future Videos will not stop me from talking & ranting on issues be it unscripted or scripted to get my feelings out.

ill will be getting back on camera for soon with the many topics on my polls from past posts here and will be discussing my favorite genres Shojo & Josei on how the Western audience perceives it as compared to back in the day

It's been such a great way to use Tumblr to open my mind to others who agree knowing I don't have a big following.

( cause you know people all act the same on social media who lack creativity or originality)

Ill be using my channel to create content to understand my world as a genderqueer person and to know that everyone needs to bring out a confident you and speak your mind on terms & causes that matter cause where all on this earth and where all the same if we open our minds.

3. Your all Welcome to message me afternoons only (don't go too far on boundaries) Yes fanfics are in the oven, & will be doing photos at momocon cosplays YES ILL BE MAKING ENTERTAINING SHORTS and have a blessed starry day.

Last segment right now im doing better however will be going to the doctor when I can, Also Advise people to have a life outside of fandom.

I use art as a way to create and diffuse from bullying on social media cause I am single and looking for love does play a part cause as a black person, where seen as scum Not desirable, and just nothing and unpretty.

but I for one say otherwise, cause I'm defined by my heart of gold and jolly disposition, airing out my stress with art and content.

So make sure to check out my Latest videos on channel daystar voyage.

so I leave to yall for a while I may post often about other content when I have time and an update on the amity video coming up but shorts will be out in the meantime thank you so much.