#I don't really understand the us and how the employees don't get their money and depend on tips

[wishful-seeker]

I would like to see more people talk about how jobs treat disabled employees.

I used to prep, wash dishes, and cook at mellow mushroom. I had chronic pain that wasn't NEARLY as bad as it is today, but it was still very debilitating. I told my employer "i cannot stand more than 4 to 6 hours. I CANNOT do shifts longer than this due to my illness." And even though i made my boundaries VERY clear, everyday i worked it was 8 hours at the least and 10 or 12 at the most. I would go up to my manager and say "look i really need to leave, my shift is over, my chronic pain is killing me." And he'd say "we really need to here, you HAVE to push through." And so i did, and after one, ONE month of that job my crps got incredibly worse to the point where i could no longer walk my dog around the block which was .5 miles. I quit, and that was FOUR years ago, and ever since that day I HAVE BEEN BEDRIDDEN AND HAVE TO USE A WHEELCHAIR. It is my biggest regret in life.

My best friend who has seen my whole journey has recently developed undiagnosed chronic pain, and she is in the EXACT same scenario i was 4 years ago. Busting her ass at a pizza place with extreme pain that hurts her so much she tells me "im in so much pain i don't even feel like a person." She doesn't feel LUCID. And her manager and coworkers are saying the same thing "if you don't help us you will let us down, we'll be in the shit."

That job thats hurting you isn't fucking worth it. I promise you no money is worth losing all your physical abilities and never getting them back. Your coworkers and boss do not give a shit about you, so don't you dare suffer for them. They will never understand your struggle and they will never try. They truly think being understaffed is worse than whatever pain you experience. They would rather you permanently damage yourself than inconvenience them. FUCK THEM. DON'T FUCKING DO IT!

[brazilian-whalien52]

I feel so bad that i am a terrible tiper in the us standard, but I make 4,50 an hour, a regular meal tip is like one hour of my work

[exeggcute]

the great reddit API meltdown of '23, or: this was always bound to happen

there's a lot of press about what's going on with reddit right now (app shutdowns, subreddit blackouts, the CEO continually putting his foot in his mouth), but I haven't seen as much stuff talking about how reddit got into this situation to begin with. so as a certified non-expert and Context Enjoyer I thought it might be helpful to lay things out as I understand them—a high-level view, surveying the whole landscape—in the wonderful world of startups, IPOs, and extremely angry users.

disclaimer that I am not a founder or VC (lmao), have yet to work at a company with a successful IPO, and am not a reddit employee or third-party reddit developer or even a subreddit moderator. I do work at a startup, know my way around an API or two, and have spent twelve regrettable years on reddit itself. which is to say that I make no promises of infallibility, but I hope you'll at least find all this interesting.

profit now or profit later

before you can really get into reddit as reddit, it helps to know a bit about startups (of which reddit is one). and before I launch into that, let me share my Three Types Of Websites framework, which is basically just a mental model about financial incentives that's helped me contextualize some of this stuff.

(1) website/software that does not exist to make money: relatively rare, for a variety of reasons, among them that it costs money to build and maintain a website in the first place. wikipedia is the evergreen example, although even wikipedia's been subject to criticism for how the wikimedia foundation pays out its employees and all that fun nonprofit stuff. what's important here is that even when making money is not the goal, money itself is still a factor, whether it's solicited via donations or it's just one guy paying out of pocket to host a hobby site. but websites in this category do, generally, offer free, no-strings-attached experiences to their users.

(I do want push back against the retrospective nostalgia of "everything on the internet used to be this way" because I don't think that was ever really true—look at AOL, the dotcom boom, the rise of banner ads. I distinctly remember that neopets had multiple corporate sponsors, including a cookie crisp-themed flash game. yahoo bought geocities for $3.6 billion; money's always been trading hands, obvious or not. it's indisputable that the internet is simply different now than it was ten or twenty years ago, and that monetization models themselves have largely changed as well (I have thoughts about this as it relates to web 1.0 vs web 2.0 and their associated costs/scale/etc.), but I think the only time people weren't trying to squeeze the internet for all the dimes it can offer was when the internet was first conceived as a tool for national defense.)

(2) website/software that exists to make money now: the type that requires the least explanation. mostly non-startup apps and services, including any random ecommerce storefront, mobile apps that cost three bucks to download, an MMO with a recurring subscription, or even a news website that runs banner ads and/or offers paid subscriptions. in most (but not all) cases, the "make money now" part is obvious, so these things don't feel free to us as users, even to the extent that they might have watered-down free versions or limited access free trials. no one's shocked when WoW offers another paid expansion packs because WoW's been around for two decades and has explicitly been trying to make money that whole time.

(3) website/software that exists to make money later: this is the fun one, and more common than you'd think. "make money later" is more or less the entire startup business model—I'll get into that in the next section—and is deployed with the expectation that you will make money at some point, but not always by means as obvious as "selling WoW expansions for forty bucks a pop."

companies in this category tend to have two closely entwined characteristics: they prioritize growth above all else, regardless of whether this growth is profitable in any way (now, or sometimes, ever), and they do this by offering users really cool and awesome shit at little to no cost (or, if not for free, then at least at a significant loss to the company).

so from a user perspective, these things either seem free or far cheaper than their competitors. but of course websites and software and apps and [blank]-as-a-service tools cost money to build and maintain, and that money has to come from somewhere, and the people supplying that money, generally, expect to get it back...

just not immediately.

startups, VCs, IPOs, and you

here's the extremely condensed "did NOT go to harvard business school" version of how a startup works:

(1) you have a cool idea.

(2) you convince some venture capitalists (also known as VCs) that your idea is cool. if they see the potential in what you're pitching, they'll give you money in exchange for partial ownership of your company—which means that if/when the company starts trading its stock publicly, these investors will own X numbers of shares that they can sell at any time. in other words, you get free money now (and you'll likely seek multiple "rounds" of investors over the years to sustain your company), but with the explicit expectations that these investors will get their payoff later, assuming you don't crash and burn before that happens.

during this phase, you want to do anything in your power to make your company appealing to investors so you can attract more of them and raise funds as needed. because you are definitely not bringing in the necessary revenue to offset operating costs by yourself.

it's also worth nothing that this is less about projecting the long-term profitability of your company than it's about its perceived profitability—i.e., VCs want to put their money behind a company that other people will also have confidence in, because that's what makes stock valuable, and VCs are in it for stock prices.

(3) there are two non-exclusive win conditions for your startup: you can get acquired, and you can have an IPO (also referred to as "going public"). these are often called "exit scenarios" and they benefit VCs and founders, as well as some employees. it's also possible for a company to get acquired, possibly even more than once, and then later go public.

acquisition: sell the whole damn thing to someone else. there are a million ways this can happen, some better than others, but in many cases this means anyone with ownership of the company (which includes both investors and employees who hold stock options) get their stock bought out by the acquiring company and end up with cash in hand. in varying amounts, of course. sometimes the founders walk away, sometimes the employees get laid off, but not always.

IPO: short for "initial public offering," this is when the company starts trading its stocks publicly, which means anyone who wants to can start buying that company's stock, which really means that VCs (and employees with stock options) can turn that hypothetical money into real money by selling their company stock to interested buyers.

drawing from that, companies don't go for an IPO until they think their stock will actually be worth something (or else what's the point?)—specifically, worth more than the amount of money that investors poured into it. The Powers That Be will speculate about a company's IPO potential way ahead of time, which is where you'll hear stuff about companies who have an estimated IPO evaluation of (to pull a completely random example) $10B. actually I lied, that was not a random example, that was reddit's valuation back in 2021 lol. but a valuation is basically just "how much will people be interested in our stock?"

as such, in the time leading up to an IPO, it's really really important to do everything you can to make your company seem like a good investment (which is how you get stock prices up), usually by making the company's numbers look good. but! if you plan on cashing out, the long-term effects of your decisions aren't top of mind here. remember, the industry lingo is "exit scenario."

if all of this seems like a good short-term strategy for companies and their VCs, but an unsustainable model for anyone who's buying those stocks during the IPO, that's because it often is.

also worth noting that it's possible for a company to be technically unprofitable as a business (meaning their costs outstrip their revenue) and still trade enormously well on the stock market; uber is the perennial example of this. to the people who make money solely off of buying and selling stock, it literally does not matter that the actual rideshare model isn't netting any income—people think the stock is valuable, so it's valuable.

this is also why, for example, elon musk is richer than god: if he were only the CEO of tesla, the money he'd make from selling mediocre cars would be (comparatively, lol) minimal. but he's also one of tesla's angel investors, which means he holds a shitload of tesla stock, and tesla's stock has performed well since their IPO a decade ago (despite recent dips)—even if tesla itself has never been a huge moneymaker, public faith in the company's eventual success has kept them trading at high levels. granted, this also means most of musk's wealth is hypothetical and not liquid; if TSLA dropped to nothing, so would the value of all the stock he holds (and his net work with it).

what's an API, anyway?

to move in an entirely different direction: we can't get into reddit's API debacle without understanding what an API itself is.

an API (short for "application programming interface," not that it really matters) is a series of code instructions that independent developers can use to plug their shit into someone else's shit. like a series of tin cans on strings between two kids' treehouses, but for sending and receiving data.

APIs work by yoinking data directly from a company's servers instead of displaying anything visually to users. so I could use reddit's API to build my own app that takes the day's top r/AITA post and transcribes it into pig latin: my app is a bunch of lines of code, and some of those lines of code fetch data from reddit (and then transcribe that data into pig latin), and then my app displays the content to anyone who wants to see it, not reddit itself. as far as reddit is concerned, no additional human beings laid eyeballs on that r/AITA post, and reddit never had a chance to serve ads alongside the pig-latinized content in my app. (put a pin in this part—it'll be relevant later.)

but at its core, an API is really a type of protocol, which encompasses a broad category of formats and business models and so on. some APIs are completely free to use, like how anyone can build a discord bot (but you still have to host it yourself). some companies offer free APIs to third-party developers can build their own plugins, and then the company and the third-party dev split the profit on those plugins. some APIs have a free tier for hobbyists and a paid tier for big professional projects (like every weather API ever, lol). some APIs are strictly paid services because the API itself is the company's core offering.

reddit's financial foundations

okay thanks for sticking with me. I promise we're almost ready to be almost ready to talk about the current backlash.

reddit has always been a startup's startup from day one: its founders created the site after attending a startup incubator (which is basically a summer camp run by VCs) with the successful goal of creating a financially successful site. backed by that delicious y combinator money, reddit got acquired by conde nast only a year or two after its creation, which netted its founders a couple million each. this was back in like, 2006 by the way. in the time since that acquisition, reddit's gone through a bunch of additional funding rounds, including from big-name investors like a16z, peter thiel (yes, that guy), sam altman (yes, also that guy), sequoia, fidelity, and tencent. crunchbase says that they've raised a total of $1.3B in investor backing.

in all this time, reddit has never been a public company, or, strictly speaking, profitable.

APIs and third-party apps

reddit has offered free API access for basically as long as it's had a public API—remember, as a "make money later" company, their primary goal is growth, which means attracting as many users as possible to the platform. so letting anyone build an app or widget is (or really, was) in line with that goal.

as such, third-party reddit apps have been around forever. by third-party apps, I mean apps that use the reddit API to display actual reddit content in an unofficial wrapper. iirc reddit didn't even have an official mobile app until semi-recently, so many of these third-party mobile apps in particular just sprung up to meet an unmet need, and they've kept a small but dedicated userbase ever since. some people also prefer the user experience of the unofficial apps, especially since they offer extra settings to customize what you're seeing and few to no ads (and any ads these apps do display are to the benefit of the third-party developers, not reddit itself.)

(let me add this preemptively: one solution I've seen proposed to the paid API backlash is that reddit should have third-party developers display reddit's ads in those third-party apps, but this isn't really possible or advisable due to boring adtech reasons I won't inflict on you here. source: just trust me bro)

in addition to mobile apps, there are also third-party tools that don’t replace the Official Reddit Viewing Experience but do offer auxiliary features like being able to mass-delete your post history, tools that make the site more accessible to people who use screen readers, and tools that help moderators of subreddits moderate more easily. not to mention a small army of reddit bots like u/AutoWikibot or u/RemindMebot (and then the bots that tally the number of people who reply to bot comments with “good bot” or “bad bot).

the number of people who use third-party apps is relatively small, but they arguably comprise some of reddit’s most dedicated users, which means that third-party apps are important to the people who keep reddit running and the people who supply reddit with high-quality content.

unpaid moderators and user-generated content

so reddit is sort of two things: reddit is a platform, but it’s also a community.

the platform is all the unsexy (or, if you like python, sexy) stuff under the hood that actually makes the damn thing work. this is what the company spends money building and maintaining and "owns." the community is all the stuff that happens on the platform: posts, people, petty squabbles. so the platform is where the content lives, but ultimately the content is the reason people use reddit—no one’s like “yeah, I spend time on here because the backend framework really impressed me."

and all of this content is supplied by users, which is not unique among social media platforms, but the content is also managed by users, which is. paid employees do not govern subreddits; unpaid volunteers do. and moderation is the only thing that keeps reddit even remotely tolerable—without someone to remove spam, ban annoying users, and (god willing) enforce rules against abuse and hate speech, a subreddit loses its appeal and therefore its users. not dissimilar to the situation we’re seeing play out at twitter, except at twitter it was the loss of paid moderators;  reddit is arguably in a more precarious position because they could lose this unpaid labor at any moment, and as an already-unprofitable company they absolutely cannot afford to implement paid labor as a substitute.

oh yeah? spell "IPO" backwards

so here we are, June 2023, and reddit is licking its lips in anticipation of a long-fabled IPO. which means it’s time to start fluffing themselves up for investors by cutting costs (yay, layoffs!) and seeking new avenues of profit, however small.

this brings us to the current controversy: reddit announced a new API pricing plan that more or less prevents anyone from using it for free.

from reddit's perspective, the ostensible benefits of charging for API access are twofold: first, there's direct profit to be made off of the developers who (may or may not) pay several thousand dollars a month to use it, and second, cutting off unsanctioned third-party mobile apps (possibly) funnels those apps' users back into the official reddit mobile app. and since users on third-party apps reap the benefit of reddit's site architecture (and hosting, and development, and all the other expenses the site itself incurs) without “earning” money for reddit by generating ad impressions, there’s a financial incentive at work here: even if only a small percentage of people use third-party apps, getting them to use the official app instead translates to increased ad revenue, however marginal.

(also worth mentioning that chatGPT and other LLMs were trained via tools that used reddit's API to scrape post and content data, and now that openAI is reaping the profits of that training without giving reddit any kickbacks, reddit probably wants to prevent repeats of this from happening in the future. if you want to train the next LLM, it's gonna cost you.)

of course, these changes only benefit reddit if they actually increase the company’s revenue and perceived value/growth—which is hard to do when your users (who are also the people who supply the content for other users to engage with, who are also the people who moderate your communities and make them fun to participate in) get really fucking pissed and threaten to walk.

pricing shenanigans

under the new API pricing plan, third-party developers are suddenly facing steep costs to maintain the apps and tools they’ve built.

most paid APIs are priced by volume: basically, the more data you send and receive, the more money it costs. so if your third-party app has a lot of users, you’ll have to make more API requests to fetch content for those users, and your app becomes more expensive to maintain. (this isn’t an issue if the tool you’re building also turns a profit, but most third-party reddit apps make little, if any, money.)

which is why, even though third-party apps capture a relatively small portion of reddit’s users, the developer of a popular third-party app called apollo recently learned that it would cost them about $20 million a year to keep the app running. and apollo actually offers some paid features (for extra in-app features independent of what reddit offers), but nowhere near enough to break even on those API costs.

so apollo, any many apps like it, were suddenly unable to keep their doors open under the new API pricing model and announced that they'd be forced to shut down.

backlash, blackout

plenty has been said already about the current subreddit blackouts—in like, official news outlets and everything—so this might be the least interesting section of my whole post lol. the short version is that enough redditors got pissed enough that they collectively decided to take subreddits “offline” in protest, either by making them read-only or making them completely inaccessible. their goal was to send a message, and that message was "if you piss us off and we bail, here's what reddit's gonna be like: a ghost town."

but, you may ask, if third-party apps only captured a small number of users in the first place, how was the backlash strong enough to result in a near-sitewide blackout? well, two reasons:

first and foremost, since moderators in particular are fond of third-party tools, and since moderators wield outsized power (as both the people who keep your site more or less civil, and as the people who can take a subreddit offline if they feel like it), it’s in your best interests to keep them happy. especially since they don’t get paid to do this job in the first place, won’t keep doing it if it gets too hard, and essentially have nothing to lose by stepping down.

then, to a lesser extent, the non-moderator users on third-party apps tend to be Power Users who’ve been on reddit since its inception, and as such likely supply a disproportionate amount of the high-quality content for other users to see (and for ads to be served alongside). if you drive away those users, you’re effectively kneecapping your overall site traffic (which is bad for Growth) and reducing the number/value of any ad impressions you can serve (which is bad for revenue).

also a secret third reason, which is that even people who use the official apps have no stake in a potential IPO, can smell the general unfairness of this whole situation, and would enjoy the schadenfreude of investors getting fucked over. not to mention that reddit’s current CEO has made a complete ass of himself and now everyone hates him and wants to see him suffer personally.

(granted, it seems like reddit may acquiesce slightly and grant free API access to a select set of moderation/accessibility tools, but at this point it comes across as an empty gesture.)

"later" is now "now"

TL;DR: this whole thing is a combination of many factors, specifically reddit being intensely user-driven and self-governed, but also a high-traffic site that costs a lot of money to run (why they willingly decided to start hosting video a few years back is beyond me...), while also being angled as a public stock market offering in the very near future. to some extent I understand why reddit’s CEO doubled down on the changes—he wants to look strong for investors—but he’s also made a fool of himself and cast a shadow of uncertainty onto reddit’s future, not to mention the PR nightmare surrounding all of this. and since arguably the most important thing in an IPO is how much faith people have in your company, I honestly think reddit would’ve fared better if they hadn’t gone nuclear with the API changes in the first place.

that said, I also think it’s a mistake to assume that reddit care (or needs to care) about its users in any meaningful way, or at least not as more than means to an end. if reddit shuts down in three years, but all of the people sitting on stock options right now cashed out at $120/share and escaped unscathed... that’s a success story! you got your money! VCs want to recoup their investment—they don’t care about longevity (at least not after they’re gone), user experience, or even sustained profit. those were never the forces driving them, because these were never the ultimate metrics of their success.

and to be clear: this isn’t unique to reddit. this is how pretty much all startups operate.

I talked about the difference between “make money now” companies and “make money later” companies, and what we’re experiencing is the painful transition from “later” to “now.” as users, this change is almost invisible until it’s already happened—it’s like a rug we didn’t even know existed gets pulled out from under us.

the pre-IPO honeymoon phase is awesome as a user, because companies have no expectation of profit, only growth. if you can rely on VC money to stay afloat, your only concern is building a user base, not squeezing a profit out of them. and to do that, you offer cool shit at a loss: everything’s chocolate and flowers and quarterly reports about the number of signups you’re getting!

...until you reach a critical mass of users, VCs want to cash in, and to prepare for that IPO leadership starts thinking of ways to make the website (appear) profitable and implements a bunch of shit that makes users go “wait, what?”

I also touched on this earlier, but I want to reiterate a bit here: I think the myth of the benign non-monetized internet of yore is exactly that—a myth. what has changed are the specific market factors behind these websites, and their scale, and the means by which they attempt to monetize their services and/or make their services look attractive to investors, and so from a user perspective things feel worse because the specific ways we’re getting squeezed have evolved. maybe they are even worse, at least in the ways that matter. but I’m also increasingly less surprised when this occurs, because making money is and has always been the goal for all of these ventures, regardless of how they try to do so.

[trashfangirlsworld]

Hello! I've been inactive due to the current events in the mcyt community, but I've been keeping up with the qsmp admin situation and I thought I'd share some opinions because the amount of doomposting I've seen the last few weeks has been more than I've seen in any fandom in a while and I feel like it's reached the point where people really need to chill the fuck out because they're not thinking straight and actively not helping. Everything I'm gonna say is based on stuff I've seen on both tumblr and twitter.

they should not promote/release merch! : one of the things that baffles me the most tbh; how do you expect any employee to be payed then? Merch is so far the only big source of income for the server besides q's own cc salary or whatever income they get through the official qsmp channel on twitch and youtube (which I don't think is a lot). "I get that they said they have no funds, but still it doesn't feel right"... sorry but at this point I don't know what to tell you, do you expect them to pull money out of their asses? You can't demand that they stop making merch and then complain that they can't afford the twitter admins at the same time. If you don't feel comfortable buying anything from them it's fine obviously, but if your reason for it is that you're helping the admins then I have bad news for you. I have seen people propose that quackity sets up a patreon, and while I think it would be a good idea, I understand why he's not doing it, since with the merch he can at least give something back to the people that choose to support his project instead of people just giving him money for free, especially with what's happening now. Also with how much hate he's been receiving simply for the merch I can't imagine that a patreon would be recieved well.

we don't know if the money is going to the admins/ they should not use pomme's likeness! : the money is definitely going to go to the employees and admins because otherwise the server would not last. And as much as I understand people feeling protective over pomme's admin, quackity studios is very much allowed to sell merch of the character because it is not the likeness of the admin, it's a minecraft model made by the people that work there. Would you have rathered they skip her character entirely? Do you really think that would have been okay?. Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I've seen posts and tweets saying that pomme's admin has been confirmed to come back with the other eggs whenever it happens by pierre, who talked with her admin.

the admins of the update accounts got fired, it means they want to fire everyone, they aren't making things better! : it sucks that the updates accounts had to end and I feel bad for every twitter admin that clearly cared a lot about the project, but unfortunately it had to happen if there simply isn't enough money to pay them adequately like they deserved and ultimately the update accounts were not essential to keep the project going, so it makes sense that they were let go unfortunately. This is not gonna be the case for the egg admins because if they got fired (which they didn't), the server would basically end. Just because a cc does not know when they will be back does not mean it's not gonna happen. Just because tubbo randomly said that he's not sure if they will be back does not mean they were fired; tubbo is normally not a reliable source of information, even less so when he's been live nonstop for the past 20 days, which is prior to everything happening. If you genuinely didn't expect a reduction in non essential staff considering everything, then you have unreasonable expectations on how this stuff goes. As I write this, I'm seeing people saying that "they would understand this decision if q had set up a patreon to pay the admins", and once again I don't understand how people don't realize why quackity might not be keen on the idea of having his fans pay his own employees for his own project instead of, you know, doing it himself; and, again, do not fool yourself into thinking it would be recieved well. That being said, it's fair to criticize how everything was communicated to the admins, but I'll get to this in more detail later.

quackity should not have uninstalled social media, he's trying to avoid everything! : he's not avoiding anything, he's been off social media for a while now, which is why it took him that long to remove wilbur from the server. He has every right to not want to look at social media, as his focus should be on restructuring his server instead of doomscrolling on twitter because people think he needs to see how much people dislike him. The only people that he should talk to are those that have important information to tell him, like josè with the document. He explicitly said on stream where to contact him if you have helpful information and I'm sure that despite multiple well liked posts saying not to spam his email, people are definitely doing it anyway, which is probably gonna slow the whole thing down even more. I hope josè's document is able to be seen with pierre's help as well.

quackity studios is not communicating with their employees and leaving them in the dark and that's not okay : I agree with this. i think a huge chunk of doomposting lately has been due the lack of communication not with the audience, but with the admins, and they deserve to know what is happening behind the scenes more then us since this is about their current or future job.... that being said, I do kind of understand why they're being so secretive and shutting everyone out, and that's due to all the "leaks" that have been spread online. I understand the anger but I really wish some people would realize that discussing leaked bts lore stuff in ccs discord servers does not help the situation at all and instead makes it seem like they're only doing this to rile up the fandom against quackity studios by using the lore of people's fav characters.

At the end of the day, I think people just aren't used to dealing with a situation that does not have a clear cut solution and someone to clearly hate, so the result is this doomposting and the over aggressiveness toward anything related to the project. Personally, I haven't witnessed anything that made me lose faith in the qsmp like some people have been saying, as every change that we've seen so far coincides with what quackity said on stream a while ago. I only wish things were communicated properly to the admins clearly, as they're the ones most affected, so I hope that's resolved soon. Ultimately quackity is singlehandedly restructuring the server from basically zero, has had to fire people that were misusing money and power and, depending on what josè's document said, is probably gonna have to fire some more. This is not an easy process, nor a quick one, you're not gonna hear about sunshine and rainbows for a while and doomposting about everything you hear because you expected quick change is useless. Think before you speak, have a clear head and most importantly have empathy.

[harunayuuka2060]

Cheka and Grim: *sleeping on top of MC*

MC: *who just woke up* *yawns* Seriously, what's the use of renovating two rooms if I'd just end up being a bed? *slowly gets up so as to not wake up the two*

Cheka and Grim: *sleeping soundly*

MC: *decides to call Ruggie* 'Sup, hyena-boy.

Ruggie: Yo, boss! How can I help ya'?

MC: Come over here and cook breakfast. Just break the door so you could get in.

Ruggie: Geez, boss. You know I can just pick the lock. But okay. See you in a bit. *hangs up*

Grim: *wakes up* Hench-human?

MC: Mornin'.

Grim: Good morning... *then nudges Cheka*

Cheka: Huh...?

Grim: Wake up, you freeloader.

Cheka: *yawns* *then beams* MC! Good morning! *giggles*

MC: ...

MC: Wow.

MC: ...

MC: Just sleep again. I'm not dealing with this cheerfulness first thing in the morning.

Cheka: But I'm awake now!

MC: Yeah, yeah. You have like, *checks their non-existent watch*, 20 minutes. Yes.

MC: Thanks for the help, Ruggie. I'll send the money to your account.

Ruggie: Thanks, boss! Shyeheehee!

Ruggie: By the way, are you not going to send Cheka back home?

MC: They shipped him back. Looks like I'll be raising the kid. The fuck.

Ruggie: *laughs*

Crowley: MC~ My favorite employee~.

MC: What d'you want?

Crowley: *clears throat* Well, there's something I would like to confirm.

Crowley: Did you, by any chance, visit a stripper's club?

MC: Yeah. Why?

Crowley: *smiles*

Crowley: A NIGHT RAVEN COLLEGE PARENT HAD SEEN YOU! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING DANCING ON A POLE?!!

MC: *looks unfazed* You're yelling at me?

Crowley: Um, no. I'm sorry. Though I deserve an explanation to that behavior, don't I?

MC: I just danced. I didn't strip. Unless that's fucking illegal, in which I don't give a fuck also.

Crowley: ...

Crowley: But the parent is the Leech Twin's father.

MC: Huh. So? That shouldn't be a big deal to him.

Crowley: He wanted me to dismiss you!

MC: Because he wanted to hire me and my schedule's already full.

Crowley: Oh.

Crowley: Alright. I was almost outsmarted. Thank you for enlightening me.

MC: ...

MC: Tch.

Floyd: Come with us at the Coral Sea~. *while holding a knife*

MC: What? You think I have gills?

Jade: We've prepared a potion for you.

Azul: Floyd and Jade's father really wants to meet you.

MC: That little— What does he not understand with the word "no"?

Jade: I believe he mentioned that he deserves to have a pole-dancing rematch.

MC: ...

MC: Huh. I can't reject that.

Azul: You're free to bring your two kids.

MC: *clicks tongue*

Floyd: We can hire a nanny~.

MC: It's settled then.

[iimr3]

reasons why (in my opinion) the try guys hit the nail on the head with forming a subscription service where watcher fumbled:

try guys has already been making TV-caliber content for a while. without a recipe and phoning it in both feel like professional cooking shows, and the fact that they have actual celebrity guests adds to that. their audience is extremely familiar with them having this huge set and a ton of employees working to produce the videos they love. on top of that, they've been around longer. they mention at the beginning of the announcement they've been on YouTube for ten years, & dropout/CH similarly had been around for a while when it's streaming service dropped. try guys just always felt more professional & as a fan you immediately understand why they would need more money

(edit) also, they have formed an emotional connection between the audience and their employees! people love rachel & know how hard she works & want to see her get paid well for that work. not that the watcher team don't deserve that, but their audience is way less emotionally invested in their employees' wellbeings than with the try guys audience & their non-talent team (& I say this as a fan & regular viewer of both channels).

try guys already had experience with paid content that went over really well with their audience. their live shows proved that their audience was willing to pay a decent amount every once in a while for something cool, and they proved that they would actually provide something cool for that money. people pointed out how watcher neglected their patreon; the try guys made very good use of their live shows imo. and as a result, they are able to say "you'll get free tickets to the live shows!" which is a really good perk if you are someone who enjoys those. instead of paying $20 every once in a while for one live show, you can pay 5$ for free live shows and early content and exclusive new content.

plus, they also reveal their expanded cast, which is something all of their fans have been wondering about for over a year. it's not just keith and zach you get to see, but all of these people their audience now loves and is always talking about wanting to join the try guys officially. collectively the try guys announcement feels more positive in multiple senses, both in emotional vibe and in what the audience is getting out of this.

also: no one can say for certain whether or not they decided to keep posting on YT after the watcher debacle, but I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt & believe that they always intended to stay on YouTube. it makes sense as a business decision & it's clear they've been working on this for some time (despite what some people seem to think??). tbh I don't think they were trying to be cruel to watcher in their announcement, I think they just saw that shitstorm and understood they needed to make it clear to their audience that they are not making the same mistakes. EDIT: in the most recent trypod, zach confirmed that they have been planning to 1) create a streaming service 2) keep posting content free on YouTube since 2023. so, no, they did not create 2nd Try or decide to stay on YouTube because of Watcher. stop trying to manufacture drama.

also also: they have, especially in the trypod, been very candid about their struggles with the algorithm and appealing to youtube's demands for content. in one episode I remember them talking about how they wanted to reject the "constant expansion" mindset, placing more focus on what their existing audience wants rather than trying to constantly get new people. they have been open about how certain things they want to do are not viable because of monetization issues; smoke show is a recent example of this.

another edit: also in the recent episode of the trypod, Zach says that they reached out to Sam Reich of Dropout for tips on starting a streaming service & things to avoid. we have no way of telling if Watcher did this, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was also key in why they turned out differently.

tl;dr i think it comes down to what was presented (not leaving youtube, new content that wouldn't be allowed on youtube, free live shows, new cast), how it was presented (shorter video, focus on the excitement & positives, show of respect to those who can't afford the price), and the context surrounding it (being older, a reputation for more professional content, having prepared their audience for a big shift, having previously discussed issues with youtube and their content)

[phantomrose96]

twice now ive started and not finished silt verses. (no particular reason i didnt finish, ive really enjoyed it both times and keep thinking that i gotta get back to it.)

a moment that really hit me, and i think i'll always remember, is in hayward's first episode. the series starts with carpenter, so we know that worshipping the trawlerman is illegal and a bit about what that worship is like, but not much about how worshipping other gods works. even with the deer/hound people (who i forget if they happened before or after hayward's intro), that's another illegal and hidden religion. it leaves space to assume that the deadliness and the human sacrifice is WHY these gods are forbidden.

and then hayward's ep happens. and he says, offhand, like it's something completely unremarkable (paraphrased), 'people following those kinds of gods wouldn't get in trouble over it if they could just be reasonable about these things. there's a right and wrong way to do this, like how every new building starts construction by drowning two criminals in the cement foundation.' hearing that, and hearing how casual he was about it, i felt my entire understanding of the setting shift drastically.

legality wasn't about whether a group of worshippers do or don't kill. it was about what worshippers kill the acceptable targets, in the right way. and suddenly i find myself much more distrustful of a society that's motivated to create acceptable targets than i ever was of how carpenter and faulkner do things.

its a really chilling and well done bit of writing.

someday ill get past five episodes. im sure i'll really enjoy it.

Yes!!! YES!!!!

I've mentioned once or twice in my ramblings here that that was also my biggest "Oh" moment for TSV.

I started out episode 1 vaguely thinking of Carpenter and Faulkner as if you'd made a podcast following TMA Avatars as main characters. We know right off the bat the Trawlerman's people are human-sacrificing cultists. Obviously Nana Glass wasn't a good person. She killed people! And she got killed in a police stand-off because she was a mass murderer. And we know Carpenter and Faulkner are following in her same line of work so, really, we're following antagonists aren't we?

And then my "Oh" came later with (not necessarily that Hayward scene specifically) but when I went "Oh. The Trawlerman's people are being persecuted by the authorities not because they're human-sacrificing cultists. But because they're the losing human-sacrificing cultists."

Because actually, the legal authorities, the politicians, the corporations, are all very much part of human-sacrificing religions. That part is allowed. These "backwards hick" gods are illegal and horrible, because their kind of human sacrifice is uncivilized. Unlike the civilized people's human sacrifice, which is allowed because the corporations and the institutions have okayed it :).

They do so much with it over the series.

Also I see you're only on episode 5 so actually I'm putting this part beneath a readmore since I checked and this is about episode 7

The episode with Paige recounting what happened to Vaughan is what drove it in for me, I think. It plays out line-for-line like a corporation going through lay-offs "These are tough times :(. We understand this is difficult for everyone leaving us today :(." but they are... just... allowed to kill these employees they're letting go in a ritual sacrifice. To a legal god. And Paige thinks surely they won't--surely good people won't do that--but they do, very much, kill Vaughan.

Money is tight and times are hard and ritualistic human sacrifice is, in fact, incredibly allowed... As long as you're one of the legal powers, doing it the correct way.

[judenostopwaitkeepgoing]

Cursed CEOs 😈

18+ | Suggestive Content | MDNI! | CEO!Crown x Secretary!Reader

Imagine the members of Crown as your CEOs... 👔 🤭

CW: suggestive content / power imbalances / Alfons's and Jude's sections mention sexual harassment because of course w/ those two 🙃

(EN-released Villains only)

William Rex

Boss energy! "Sir" energy!

Will would look so suave in a suit. 😮‍💨 You would be so attracted to his commanding presence. Just sitting behind his big desk, giving orders to his subordinates, making a fuck ton of money... Yeesh.

He has such a powerful aura as a CEO, you can't help but be entranced. He’d definitely send you on all kinds of tasks that seem like they’re for him but are really for you.

"I need you to make a reservation at this restaurant for two for this evening."

"Oh? Do you have an important client dinner? I'm sorry I don't have that in the calendar..."

"Mm, yes, a very important client..." 😉

Harrison Gray

The more subtle, quiet, brooding type who seems genuinely attached to his work. His air of mystery and the distant authority he wields inexplicably excite you, making you want to learn more about him and do more for him. He carries a lot on his shoulders in private, but keeps up a relaxed demeanor in front of everyone. But you notice this about him and go out of your way to be helpful! And frankly, he is so turned on by that lol.

One night, he would be working late and you’d knock lightly on his door to say goodbye for the evening but he would find some excuse to make you stay late with him, and... well... 😉

Liam Evans

Sweetie alert! Liam is a kind boss. His employees respect and admire his understanding attitude and don't want to disappoint him.

All he wants, though... is to reward his star employee: you! He gets so distracted by you that he had to shift your desk assignment to be further away from him. But then he missed you so he changed it back! He's always lingering by your desk and asking you about your life outside of work. Over time he starts to flirt with you more and more, almost crossing an HR boundary more than once.

May or may not use his power to disguise himself and follow you around, who knows! Lol.

Elbert Gretia

Elbie isn’t exactly comfortable in positions of authority, so he’d be a very low-key CEO. He is a very good boss in most ways because of this. You can't help but worry about him, so you'd be super attentive, anticipating every task that he would like completed.

You often catch him watching you, taking in your brilliant competence. Unbeknownst to you, he's actually considering demanding that you not leave his office because he doesn’t want the other employees to see how sexy you look in your work attire...

Alfons Sylvatica

Sexual harassment incoming! Haha. Alfons would be the biggest HR nightmare lol. He would be the most corrupt boss you could imagine. Blatantly making you uncomfortable, quid-pro-quo-ing left and right for sexual favors from you, ‘disciplining’ you for shoddy work... you’d get so fed up with him, but even more fed up with the fact that you can't stop thinking about him outside of work... All you want is to please him, to hear him praise you, to show him how good at your job you can be... 🫠

Roger Barel

Distractingly hot boss! Also cocky!

And what's even worse is that he can tell that you’re totally flustered by him! And he loves every second of it!

He’d call you into his office to “check something” and end up getting you to come over to his side of the desk. As you bend over to check, you feel something running up the back of your leg... it’s the brush of his fingertips...

"Keep checking," he'd say, without taking his eyes off of your face, "we don’t want to have any errors in this report.”

Things would devolve from there lol.

Victor

... Victor in a suit and tie? 😵‍💫

He would be so effusive and complimentary. It'd start out just as praising your work but then he'd start praising your appearance, too... Calling you the sexiest secretary he's ever had and what not. It's technically inappropriate, but he's so playful about it that it disarms your cautiousness. Plus, occasionally he'll be really stern about something, and you have to admit... it's kind of hot! Your flustered reaction makes him chuckle to himself. He loves his adorable little secretary! 😙

Jude Jazza

If Alfons was harassing, Jude is downright abusive lol. You thought you knew what you were getting into when you applied to be his secretary, but even you are shocked by how fucking evil he can be.

He’d call you into his office and berate you for making the tiniest mistake, demanding that you do the same menial task over and over until you can’t see straight from looking at the files for so long. Even after the tenth or twelfth re-do, he'd still be unsatisfied. He’d have no choice but to punish you for being such a bad secretary.

He’d threaten to fire you... unless you perform some other “work-related” tasks... 😈

Ellis Twilight

Sweetest boss award goes to Ellis!

He’d want all of his employees to be ‘happy’ and would make sure to praise you and thank you for your work a lot. You might end up making a move in this situation, because he’d be too proper and kind to be overt about his attraction to you. But once he knows you are into him, you best believe he’s going to fuck you stupid over his desk!

"This is what makes you happy, right? I can't have an unsatisfied employee."

[btnclmrttn]

would u ever write that Chris McLean smut…,

(thanks for the ask! yeah bro I did write it but I was so late finishing that I let it gather dust. This is the exact prompt used with some clean up. If you want anything specific just let me know!)

(18+!Boss/employee, powersub! Chris, degrading, masterbation)

~~~~

When you signed up to work for one of the most trending reality shows in Canada, never would you have imagined how much of an ass the host was. Not stuck up or posh like the usual rich and self centered kind. Instead, that screen time act of childish games was applicable to everyone under the sun.

Chris seemed to go around and "test" people and their patience with shenanigans. He has his favorites of course. Some he's nicer to. You, however? He always has a shit eating grin plastered on his face as he goes out of his way to be the biggest minor inconvinience to you.

But how you went off on him without a worry of your employment made you his favorite. Made him strike an offer with you. Just a little extra "work" for you, in exchange for quite the raise...

~~~~

Chris’ eyes scan your relaxed demeanor in front of him, you sit in a chair with your legs cross and an unamused expression. Contrast to his own smug look.

'I don’t understand how you’re not ashamed of yourself,” you scoff.

"Nice to see you too," Chris snorts, with hands not shy of roaming to the crotch of his pants, slowly rubbing the already protruding area, "Don't you look nice..."

“You disgust me,” you continue, “I’ve never met a man as nasty as you are.”

“You’re so fuckin’ mean,” he cackles, “Keep it comin’!”

While you, on the other hand, don’t have much of a problem doing this as much as you probably should. You get paid extra money to fulfill your prick boss’ fetish, all while just speaking what’s on your mind about him. 

You can tolerate the display of him getting himself off to you, with his shirt unbuttoned almost all the way, dripping sweat down its flushed complexion. As long as you remember why you can't stand him.

“Do you ever think to yourself how perverted it is to get off to being called lousy? How many workers do you need to remind you of how much of a loser you are?”

“Oh, you’re just something special,” he says. He uses his foot to pull your chair closer to him, a bit crooked, as he unbuttons his pants.

“No touching,” you growl, straightening your chair again and backing up a little.

“I’m not touching you,” he mocks.

You give him a dirty look as a shit eating grin takes on his face. His dick springs up upon losing the restraint of is pants and is pulled over the hem of his boxers. The paled tip is smeared in his precum, spread across his length when his hand twists over it in a sloppy pump of his wrist.

“You really like looking at it, don’t you?”

Chris caught you staring too much. Much to his pleasure.

“Isn’t much to look at,” you say as you look back up.

Like he deserves the satisfaction of your attention.

“I think you do enjoy this as much as I do...”

“Pathetic is a great look on you!” You say with fake enthusiasm, “Fucking slut.”

“Yeah?” He sighs, his hips rolling into his hand.

“Really? You like that? Slut?” 

Chris’ face flushes a deeper red as he shudders at your taunting, his hand pumping his cock just a bit more.

“You’re a sick fucking man.”

“Mm-hmm...”

You watch as his eyes flutter shut while his head tips back as he starts to loose himself in his own pleasure. All just from your simple words.

“You’re pathetic, aren’t you?”

What if you play the part more?

“Oh, yes…”

“Say it, then”

He starts to twist his wrist a little faster. “I’m pathetic…I’mma whore…”

“Come on,” you instigate.

“I’m so pathetic,” he starts chuckling again, looking back down toward you. Strands of his hair stick to his face, “I’m so pathetic for you…come on, ___, I could make you feel so good if you let me…”

“With that little thing?” You’re quick speak without hesitation. The second thought following silently.

“Don’t give me that,” he laughs, “I’m average!”

The way his moans weave in so nicely with his laughter is undoubtedly getting you a little. You hold your breath enough to not crack a sound. This bastard and his charisma is no joke.

“I have my doubts, if your laziness goes as far as your usual hosting.”

“Aw, low blow,” Chris laughs even more, “What about if you touched yourself?”

You raise a brow, deciding to tease him by uncrossing your legs. “Touch myself?”

An excitement spreads on his face when his eyes jump to between your legs, "Please…?”

“You think you’re worth even seeing me like that?” you sneer.

He bites his bottom lip as he stares directly at your crotch, “Why not? You’d look so good touching…yourself..."

His hand starts pumping faster as his imagination florishes at the idea. The sound of smacking skin growing louder.

“Please, ___?” Chris asks again, whines creeping in.

“Why should I?”

“I can beg, I can beg...You know I can beg real nice.”

"I don't think you deserve that."

"P-Please, ____?"

He's panting like a dog.

"I don't even think you deserve to cum. Matter of fact, stop.”

Chris looks at you, surprised, as you’ve yet to ever give him an actual order like this, “H-huh?”

“Stop,” you repeat yourself, “Now.”

His whine from the denied access grows into laughter as a smile spreads across his face

"Oh, fuck, ____. You drive me insane…"

Standing from your seat, your hand undoes the button of your jeans as you close the little distance between each other. His expression flashes to a plesanly surprised while red spreads across his face and neck.

“Oh?”

“Start begging, Chris.”

“...oh…”

[unluckywisher]

MI CIELO !!!!!! DROPPING A predictable REQUEST IN YOUR INBOX BEFORE I HEAD TO SLEEP <3 anything with comfort vibes for luke (and/or?) kieran pretty pretty pleaseeeeeee 🥰🥰🥰🥰

BNUUY! Hehehe okay 🥰 (that bun is so cute i'm planting my face on its fur 😭)

Twinkle Toys was holding a promotional event as a new plushie had been introduced: The ever elusive Double Trouble, two smol round birbs stacked on top of each other. Of course, you were determined to get it.

But it was no use. The claw would drop it every time, since its shape was slippery. You had spent a lot of money by now, so you decided to take a break and visit the N109 Zone.

Sylus was away at a business meeting with a dealer, so Luke and Kieran were the ones to greet you. They were quick to notice your less-than-happy mood.

You explained the situation with the plushie. "Why don't we get it for you?" Luke suggested. "Yeah, we've had to deal with many situations in our line of work. How difficult could it be?" Added Kieran.

They changed into their 'plain clothes', much more casual - a hoodie and jeans, though they were still wearing a face mask covering the lower half of their faces and a cap to cast a shadow over their eyes.

Entering Twinkle Toys once again, they looked around with awe. It seemed like they had never been at one of these establishments.

You pointed at the accursed claw machine, housing the plushie, almost mocking you. They frowned at it, Luke pointing at his eyes with two fingers, then pointing at the plushie, and Kieran shaking his head disapprovingly at the machine. They only wanted to make you smile with their theatrics, really.

Since you had explained you had already spent a bunch of money, they refused to let you spend more. Plus, they looked really excited to try all of this for themselves.

Tray of spare change in hand, you three stood in front of the claw machine.

You were the first to try, since you had to explain the controls to them. Once again, the plushie flopped down before it could reach the exit chute. You sighed, "See?" They nodded in understanding.

Luke was next. He had a face of pure concentration, and you guessed he was probably sticking his tongue out under the mask. The claw missed the plushie completely. You had to hold back laughter. Luke facepalmed against the control panel and Kieran pat his back to comfort him.

Kieran's turn. He took his time to set the claw right above the plushie, learning from his brother's impulsiveness. It caught on, and for a moment you thought this might be it, but just like it had happened to you, it fell out of the claw's grasp. Kieran threw his hands up in frustration.

An hour went by, your hands still empty. More importantly, your tray with spare change also empty. "This this is rigged!" Luke said, kicking the bottom of the machine and regretting it fast with an 'ow'. Kieran nodded, huffing.

More than anything, you had enjoyed their reactions and their company in your misery, so you weren't that upset anymore. You shrugged, "It's okay. At least you tried. Thank you!" And hugged them both. They hugged you back.

When you pulled back, however, they had a mischievous glint in their eyes. "Why do you talk like we're done here?" "What do you mean?"

You ran. You ran so fast, giggling. There were so many plushies in your arms, in Luke's arms, in Kieran's arms... An angry Twinkle Toys employee chased you for a couple of streets, but you eventually lost him. You stopped in a hidden alley to catch your breath.

Perhaps using the twin's skills to break open the machine and get all the plushies was wrong, but with how much money you had spent already in the establishment, it was practically fair. They were very satisfied with themselves.

"Don't worry, I'll hack their cameras and erase all the footage of our crime later." Reassured Kieran. "These plushies are really cute." Said Luke, hugging all the ones in his arms.

"Well, I don't need this many plushies so, you can keep the ones you got!" You smiled. There were at least ten in your hold. "Thank you."

The tips of their ears turn visibly red. "It's nothing... We're happy we could help you!"

Their beds at Onychinus' base had been decorated with a pile of Double Troubles ever since.

[velvetvexations]

I understand the instinct behind it to a degree but it really does worry me how fast people in progressive spaces are willing to buy into conspiracy level thinking about there being shadowy groups of transphobes plotting to freeze other trans people out or like, that every big news story or movie/tv/book release is planned to distract us from Sudan or Gaza, cuz like quite often things are just coincidences? The most insidious thing about systemic oppression is that it's so self-sufficient it doesn't NEED people to conspire to fuck over xyz demographic, it just does that on it's own. The instant you buy in to conspiratorial thinking you're in danger, and that includes painting a large group of queer creators as active, intentional transmisognists who should be shunned forever and ignoring the realistic read which is that it's clearly an unfortunate coincidence that can be fixed! It's the whole "if the building was designed to be inaccessible even if everyone working there loves disabled people the building is still inaccessible" thing, for a lot of reasons not a lot of trans and queer people end up even in the line to possibly be front and center in a show or two, and Dropout is clearly working to change that and include queer people, but it's slow going and the system is stacked against trans people and no one is perfect and Dropout is also still a VERY small company all things considered trying to build themselves up from almost nothing, they need support so they can offer space to more trans people and transfems! Like what good does spreading a bullshit rumor about the main cast all being closet raging transmisognists do aside from tear down one of the only queer platforms we have??

When College Humor got bought by Sam they could only afford like ONE employee, do we want to have to wait years and years and years for another new platform to arise that has the money and power to represent us?? I'd rather uplift and push to be better a platform that is run by queer people who want to do better for all of us even if they don't always succeeded than sit here begging Disney to acknowledge that we exist while spreading horrid rumors about every legit queer creator who wants to platform us secretly being a huge bigot in disguise.

It's so awful, I hate how every time someone works their ass off to make a fucking difference for queer people all the terminally online progressive queers have to rip them to shreds for not being 100% perfect in every way until we have nothing but sanitized corporate overlords who don't think we deserve to be on screen at all. Every progressive queer creator gets put through this eventually and I'm so sick of it. The Vlogbrothers, The McElroy Family, Nightvale Presents, She-ra, Steven Universe, Chappell Roan, Becky Albertalli, it KEEPS happening!! And we will never get anywhere if the slightest misstep or honest unfortunate coincidence is enough to deem the only people who are trying to represent us, many of which ARE us, as irredeemable bigots who should be crucified in the town square.

Imo this is just a massive case of people always falling for conspiratorial thinking out of a refusal to actually understand how systemic bigotry works in favor of the "everyone is always secretly intentionally conspiring against us" lie and refusing to give queer creators/allies ANY grace or room for error or the benefit of the doubt because like. I guess destroying other queer people and our allies is what some of us do best. The fact that it's only ever queer people and allies who get this treatment makes me sick. We can't let ourselves have anything, it's perfect or it's evil. What the fuck is even the point of queer rep anymore if all of it is going to get treated like this eventually?

.

[wishfuldivine]

Can I say something too?

Sergio being called a 'good servant for the team' is an insult (that and Helmut calling him a 'great helper') because we all know he didn't mean it as a compliment, he meant it as another dig, another way to show how little they think of him and I have no idea why anyone is saying that he should be grateful and go without a fight (David Coulthard I lost all the little respect I had for him after that words). The team wanted to destroy him and did so in a way and he should 'thank them for the years together'? Why? Would people be saying the same if someone said this shit about Max in 2028? Where are all the people who were outraged and called Daniel's treatment before he was fired atrocious?

The journalists calling him 'stubborn' and 'defiant' like it was an insult makes no sense because honestly, why should he just agree to all the things RBR did to him? He is not doing anything that any other driver wouldn't do in his situation and I don't understand why people expected anything different. Was he supposed to act like Daniel and just accept that the team used him and wanted him out with no deserved pay off? He has the right to defend himself as anyone would have in his place. Are people mad because he isn't a brainwashed machine blindly believing everything Helmut says? Is the problem only about him not agreeing with the team politics and knowing what he's worth?

Also Nico saying that 'he wants his money back' like it was something bad. It's not, he brought millions to the team in merch sales alone not to mention the sponsors and partnership with Ford HE HELPED SEAL. He gave his all to the team as he said and he has the right to demand something back. RBR isn't a poor victim here, they are the villains trying to change the narrative and paint Check as the greedy ungrateful guy who wants to leave them with nothing. And that's just a lie.

Also also, people ignoring Max who said multiple times that he likes working with Sergio and that he wants him as his teammate and that he is a great driver just to say that they hate each other and Max would be glad with someone else and all this positivity is just a PR play (at the same time praising how he always says what he thinks and doesn't hold back in the media - quite ironic, no?).

Ehhhh

Preach! FUCKING PREACH!

They expect Checo to take all the punches as if they weren't HARASSING him left and right.

Like, what? Do you really think someone who sued Pemex -THE oil and gas company for the entirety of Mexico and won - would not know how to defend himself? The man who saved a bunch of employees from getting fired?

Let's never forget how he has POWERFUL people behind him. Literally. And it all falls to CH and HM foaming at the mouth for not accomplishing their dirty work. Checo is a very smart man when it concerns his contracts.

Shit, can we even talk about how they IGNORED Checo about the car? Did they expect a box of donuts and a thank you card in return for all the hell they put him through? Checo was spat on the face with that. And they STILL demand respect? Nah. Checo doesn't owe Red Bull anything. Red Bull owes Checo for putting them on a high pedestal.

I'm super fucking glad Checo is going for war. That only HE can decide what his next move is. Clearly something that CH and HM aren't used to. And that is hilarious!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

So if I understand the People mag article correctly, Archwell is now firmly acting as a middle man of charity donations. They get donations from other organizations - tax write off for the organizations - and also private anonymous doners (last years it was 10mil?? This year it's 2 mil!).

Then they decide how to allocate those recieved donations further to other organizations after meeting their own costs of salaries, admin, expenses (travel, accomodation while travelling, food and drinks etc for the employees) and other costs are met first.

No clarification if the large sum donations recieved are bulk one-time payments or multiyear pledges. No clarification of doners stipulate where to donate or Archwell decides that. No clarification on when the funds actually came in or how they acquired those. (Who pitched, when, was ut random cold calls, through business or private networks, during a social event, during Invictus or random benefactors who just happened to like HnM).

What is the staffs actual role is acquiring thes donations and partnering with organization's downstream of recieving donations? How much are Meghan and Harry personally involved in this unique scheme of "charity". Was this Meghan's idea to have this working model or did it stem from Harry's idea of what being a working royal means.

Why isn't there more clarity on their partner organizations, because so far it seems rather random based on Meghan's pet causes of women empowerment and Harry's crusade of tackling disinformation.

They are making such a huge deal out of the annual report but they are basically using this as a pr gimmick. An annual report should just (ideally) summarise whatever they have been doing during 2023 and that work should have already been out there.

Most of this looks so removed from the work that we saw, which was Invictus games, the bought awards, the faux- royal toursetc. I know a lot of that was this year, 2024, but at least behind the scenes there should have been some work in 2023 which logically led to those events in 2024. so far, this looks like another attemp to attach themselves to Jill Biden through her daughter and get an in with the dek party (political aspirations much?!)

To be fair, though, a lot of charities serve as middlemen like this - they solicit donations/grants from others and then disburse grants to other organizations versus funding their own projects or doing their own research/studies.

That's why it's really important to do your own research when you're considering to give money to charity. There are a bunch of charity watchdogs that specifically look at how charities are fundraising and expensing, as well as pulling up their tax records (actual tax records, not impact reports or board statements). There are two things you want to pay attention to: 1) administrative costs and fundraising costs and 2) unrestricted giving vs restricted giving.

The administrative cost is essentially the cost for the charity to operate. It's everything like salaries and employee benefits, rent, travel, legal fees, management. The fundraising costs isn't how much money the charity fundraised for its clientele; it's how much the charity spent to raise money - marketing, merchandise, events, advertising, PR. A charity should never spend more than 35% on administrative and fundraising costs combined.

Looking specifically Archewell's numbers by People yesterday, they spent about $2.6M in operating expenses and staff salaries ("just over" $1M, which I rounded to $1.1M, on legal fees, events, and travel and $1.5M on salaries). Since People also says that $5.7M was what Archewell raised last year (and I'm not looking up the actual tax records tonight), we have to assume that the $2.6M is paid for by the $5.7M pot. $2.6M of $5.7M is 46%.

People also says that of the $5.7M, only $1.3M was actually given to charity. That's 23%. While we don't know where the other $1.8M (the remaining 30%) is going, it's either going into investments/reserve funds for future-year expenses or it's been allocated to programming that hasn't been announced or disclosed.

Let's put People aside for a second here and talk about unrestricted giving versus restricted giving.

Restricted giving is where you specifically and explicitly direct where your money should go or how it should be spent. Unrestricted giving means the charity/organization decides where to spend your money and you have no say in it, so while you may have donated that $100 check thinking the Susan B. Komen Foundation is going to use it to fund breast cancer research, that money might end up going into the CEO's end-of-year bonus or buying the ribbon magnets that the organization sells for a fundraiser.

Both types of giving are important, but the benefits are very different. Small charities need unrestricted charitable gifts because that's literally the money that keeps them in business. Larger charities love unrestricted giving because it means bigger paychecks, bonuses, and benefits for staff.

Deciding whether to give a restricted donation or an unrestricted donation is where that administrative costs + fundraising costs percentage can be very powerful. The lower that percentage is, the more likely your donation will actually be used for programming that actually helps the people/community. The higher that percentage is, the more likely your donation will go to overhead expenses. Thus, the suggestion is typically lower percentage = unrestricted giving but higher percentage = restricted giving.

(There are two exceptions to that rule of thumb, for me. First is colleges and universities. For a lot of smaller schools and public universities, unrestricted giving is what pays the faculty, staff, new construction, buys books for the libraries, funds general scholarships and work/study programs, makes campus accessible, supports student and alumni programming (like clubs, homecoming events, new student orientation), etc. Essentially, anything that tuition, fees, room + board, and specific endowments doesn't cover, colleges and universities pay for it from their unrestricted giving funds. So if you went to a school that doesn't have national name brand recognition (which is pretty much everyone outside of the Ivies and top 25 Division I schools in sports), unrestricted giving is their lifeline. So yes, give to your major/degree program, give to the sports, give to whoever, but also give to the unrestricted fund. Second is large national/multi-national corporate-type charities like Susan G. Komen - for those charities, always do restricted giving to make sure that your money is actually going towards programming, research, the community, etc. And if you're on a limited budget and you want your charitable donation to stretch the furthest it can go, look for those smaller charities instead of the name-recognized ones, like The Breasties instead of Komen.)

(I also don't mean to keep picking on Komen. I'm just not a fan. They obscure a lot of their work in programming called "education and awareness" and don't really explain what it is. They also have a huge fundraising budget, which isn't actually what they fundraise - it's the cost of fundraising, like buying those magnets, sponsoring pink October. Lastly, the CEO makes an annual salary of $888K which is 3-4 times more than the rest of the C-suite execs and I just think that's ridiculous. The CEO of Breasties, for comparison, makes only $79K.)

So since there's only a 23% chance your donation to Archewell will actually go towards programming, you'll get the most bang for your buck restricting your donation - in other words, telling the Sussexes "this donation is for the Digital Civil Rights Award" when you give them your check means they have to put that money in their Digital Civil Rights Award/NAACP bucket and if they don't, that can cause serious problems if they get audited for misuse of funds.

The second thing I want to point out about People's article and the Impact Report (I haven't read the Impact Report and I don't plan to, so this is going by what People reported) is that they write about the donations Archewell received in vague terms. If you look at that article, here's what they report Archewell received in donations:

$5 million donation from an individual donor

$335,000 from five individual contributors

$6 million gift from Fidelity Charitable (a donor-advised fund, or DAF)

$10,000 grant from TisBest Philanthropy

$1 million grant from an anonymous donor

$1 million grant from a second anonymous donor

So all that together, People makes it sound like Archewell raked in $13.3 million in donations, which makes them look far more successful than they actually are (and more importantly, makes them look "better" than The Royal Foundation, who reported raising $10.5 million last year).

But the devil is in the details - $4 million of that $13.3M is actually from 2022 and was "omitted" from their tax report due to "discrepancies in timing." Sure, but that leaves $9.3M. We know they raised $5.7M, so where's that other $3.6 million? It's definitely not programming expenses. And if the paperwork shows $9.3 million was raised in 2023, then why does the Impact Report say they raised $5.7 million? (I am not a lawyer and I am not a tax person. I put my forms in TurboTax and call it a day, so there is a 99% chance I'm completely wrong here.) And more specifically, as the other anon last night pointed out - why does the Impact Report promote having received a $6 million donation but yet only saying they raised $5.7 million? That's a huge discrepancy.

Again, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a tax person, I haven't looked at the actual tax records or the actual Impact Reports, but none of this is making sense.

Then add in everything that @benignkarma asks - what exactly does all this mean? How exactly do they run and operate Archewell? What exactly do they do? What exactly are James Holt and Shauna Nep doing that's earning them that much money? For that kind of paycheck, I'd expect it to be abundantly clear exactly everything they're doing and how they're operating. And for those kinds of gifts, donations, and grants, they really need to be on a line-item budget or expenditure report because their scrutiny (even if it's self-inflicted via PR like this is) means everything needs to be crystal clear and squeaky clean.

Now, maybe everything really is above board, but given what we've seen from Meghan's trademark applications and charity registration paperwork, I'm suspicious. If they're that sloppy on other things, then they have to be sloppy - or doing the barest bare minimum - on everything else. And I think this is being sloppy, because the People article talks about three different time periods - the 2022 tax records with the $4 million discrepancy, the 2023 tax records that have just been released, and then the 2022-2023 impact report. Meaning, someone is obscuring the actual time period - is it Archewell? Is it People? is it Meghan? - and they're probably doing that to make the numbers look more impressive than they actually are.

After all, $13.3 million is better than $5.7 million, which is better than $1.3 million. And $1.3 million in charitable giving is kiiiiiiiinda pathetic when your operating expenses and overhead is at least $2 million.

(I'll end with this - People's article, the impact report, and the tax records say that Harry and Meghan don't draw salaries from Archewell. That is, in my opinion, complete bunk. These "operating expenses" - which People cites are legal fees, travel, and events - are Harry's and Meghan's salaries. Because as much traveling as "Archewell" has done (Nigeria, Colombia, and New York), sending the staff wouldn't cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that would cause operating expenses to rack up to "just over $1 million".)

[notafunkiller]

I know many Bucky fans are mad, but I never expected him to have a lot of screen time in Thunderbolts* to begin with. Especially with such a huge team (and they need to be*come* likeable and relatable to the audience).

Thunderbolts* is NOT a solo movie, it's a team movie (Suicide Squad style).

He should've gotten a Winter Soldier film ages ago (getting some of memories back in Romania so we see many flashbacks), but in Thunderbolts*, he doesn't need to have 2h of screen time to be a key character.

And this is what I care about the most... Quality > quantity

In his MCU journey, we always found him in different stages (and this is what made it fun and exciting for Sebastian too) & I love the fact we get to put two and two together and try to understand hints rather than straight up being told everything about his life.

He is one of the most interesting characters & he carried the Cap triology (and Marvel knows it). He got less than 15 minutes of screen time & 13 lines in CATWS (a movie with his name in the title) & still stole the show... he always steals the show, he's "the underdog".

He's super popular & so is Sebastian. They don't bother to use him more because they know people (come to the cinema to) watch anything if he is in it.

They saw that with "Dumb Money".

So they might even give us Bucky in small doses intentionally.

Sebastian got more projects left, which = a safe paycheck he can use for other projects.

(This is why I disagree when people say he should leave Marvel as if:

1. He doesn't have a strict contract with more projects left & he wouldn't need to pay;

2. He doesn't need the money - to pay his employees, to produce & play in other films)

3. He doesn't find it comforting to play Bucky every 3 years...

He loves Bucky (and he is similar to Bucky) & he always gets to explore different sides of the character when he returns, which is amazing for an actor.

Also, Kevin said Bucky is the de facto leader, after all. And that doesn't mean his role isn't important (CATWS & CACW are good examples), quite the opposite.

(I think he might have a subplot & save the team at the end)

We all got ??? when we thought he's in the team because he is already pardoned. He proved he is "stable" in TFATWS.

It makes sense to me if he has his own thing.

The fact the team has to "earn the trust" aka go into a suicide mission bc they are seen as disposable is sick.

(Bucky is seen like this, too)

There is no good or bad side & Bucky sees right through this. He always did.

I'm glad Yelena is finally a lead, though & I wonder how she'll use the opportunity to take revenge on Valentina.

Also, I think she'll lose her dad (sacrifice maybe), and that will be an amazing scene.

I really hope Bucky & Yelena have at least one scene (maybe he is sent to lead them in the middle of the film or he just shows up to save the team at the end). They are similar, yet different, so a great, great duo.

Florence and Sebastian are 🙌🏻 (incredible actors... they portray the characters with so much passion. They know them so well) and I can sense a lottt of chemistry.

My point is: things always change, you never know with MCU & so let's wait and hope it's a good film⚡️

[kittygamesda]

A tier list based on how helpful various Slay the princess characters would be in a retail setting

UPDATE: I had some people ask me for my reasonings. I will put them under the read more tab for all to see

Also, to be clear, the order of the characters in each tier doesn't matter because I hate doing tier lists like that. Just assume they are all equally helpful/unhelpful based on the actual tier that they're in.

Helpful in Retail:

Damsel: Bro just tell her it would make you happy if she becomes the best minimum wage worker ever and she'll do it. I love her.

Shifty: If you are ever understaffed just ask shifty for some spare minis it would be great

Gentle Princess: She is a team player frfr. She is willing to bite her own arm off like just imagine her as a stocker

Hunted: He'll be a good worker because he understands that we need money to survive so he is a good worker to make sure we get that bag so we can survive

Witch: Only if the Opportunist is working with her. As long as the Opportunist is with her she'll work hard that way she can always be one step ahead of him. He'll never get the jump on her and if she becomes a manager she'll fire him herself. Also she is great with dealing with Karens (biting them)

Average Employee/pos

Adverary: Girl needs her gym membership. She will do whatever she needs to do to get a good fight and if that includes working minimum wage that's what she'll do. She isn't really that much as a team player but she's great at lifting heavy stuff

Happily Ever After: She's happy to help but doesn't really know what to do a lot of times. She tries her hardest though and that's appreciated.

Specter: She works in security and scares off any potential thieves. Her only qualm if that she can't really do much else because she can't grab stuff. Great conversationist tho

Narrator: He's the one guy at the office who does a lot of work but you have no idea what he even does outside of work. You sometimes hear him mumble to himself about making the world so much better but he's unnotable otherwise. A bit weird but he does his job so you don't mind.

Hero: He helps anyone who needs it and overall is great to work with. It's just that he's a bit dumb at times but that's okay.

Cheated: Works really hard but also complains about everything. Could be in the Helpful in retail tier if he just didn't complain so damn much.

Depends:

Long Quiet: Well that depends. Are YOU helpful in retail or not. The choice is yours.

Fury: On one hand I can see her doing what she told and not talking to anyone else besides that but I can see her deconstructing and reconstructing a Karen if she gets too snappy with her which would be cool to watch but would also probably get her arrested and fired so 🤷

Harsh Princess: I'm going to be honest I don't know about her specifically. She's probably just a depressed cashier tho if I had to pin on her a role but she's going so there's that

Princess and the Dragon: Maybe you guys can use your fusion thing like a walkie-talkie and do things while always be able to know if the other one needs your help I think that could be very helpful if our brains still work that way but there is no evidence that is the case. She would probably be in average employee/pos if that is the case tho.

Stubborn: Basically he's like Adversary he needs that gym membership. Though if they work together they'll start fights in the back/breakroom. He is more likely to snap at a costumer and start fights them so be careful.

Smitten: He will do anything to spoil his beloved. As much as it pains him to leave her 9 hours a day he will make every penny he makes from it worth it and spoil her to high heaven. He might get distracted if she visits him at work and while he is at work he constantly coos over her which I could imagine getting annoying very fast.

Average Employee/neg

Cage: Very depressed all the time. Barely gets her stuff done. Has to move her head everywhere so she can see what's she's doing.

Nightmare: That really creepy coworker that is just scary all the time. Probably gets her stuff done but no one wants to go near her (including customers which would probably get her fired)

Prisoner: Same as Cage but without moving her head to see bit

Thorn: She does what she needs to and nothing else but hey she can get stuff off from the high shelf if you need her too. Would probably cry in front of the customers

Wairth: She's like Specter but less social. She's probably not even considered your coworker. The store is just haunted at that point.

Contrarian: Does jackshit but he is so bubbly and friendly. Funny as hell guy but doesn't do anything. He'll probably get fired in 4 months but you always look forward to him at work so 🤷

Moment of Clarity: Would just straight up torture you/customers so like she is getting fired probably in a week. But in the meantime she is stocking stuff so quickly with all eight of those arms

Unhelpful

Stranger: She is constantly trying to do every job but she's only one body and ends up getting nothing done. Poor thang

Wounded/Network Wild: I love them but they are just roots how the hell can they get anything done.

Eye of the Needle: Very short temper. Doesn't even care about the gym membership anymore someone insults her she throws hands (and gets fired)

Paranoid: Overthinks every task and doesn't trust a single person who works here. He would try to convince you of his theories while on the clock.

Skeptic: Kinda like paranoid but would leave for hours on end to try to get to the bottom of things.

The Literal Worse

Apotheosis: Too big, would destroy the store by stepping ontop of it (could be a good thing tho.)

Beast: That's an animal. She wouldn't do anything you tell her too and she bites people.

Burned Grey: Stop setting the inventory on fire you're so sexy haha

Drowned Grey: Stop drowning the customers you're so sexy haha

Den: Same as Beast but worse. Girl can't even talk anymore.

Razor: Has no desires besides stabbing people she would suck even if she is incredibly funny

Tower: I feel like she could get in if the store is big enough but only like in a crawl. would destroy the building if she stood up. I can't imagine that being helpful.

Broken: He would find a corner that nobody knows about and sleep the entire shift. Probably would also cry in front of the customers.

Cold: would get bored and leave within the first 2 hours (and that's being incredibly generous.) He would disappear off from the radar.

Opportunist: Unlike everyone else in this tier he'll somehow convince upper management to not fire him but he'll try to convince you to do his work for him which is why he sucks.

[fangirlstorycreator]

Part 2 KK3 Terry Silver

Contains: Arguments/passing out/small injury/swearing

(Fluff, no spice, just sweetness at the end. I feel like KK3 Terry should have more sweetness)

"How the hell could you be that stupid Terry?!"

"Your calling me stupid?! It was a simple mistake Y/N!"

"No! The other week when you accidentally put hand soap on your toothbrush instead of toothpaste, THAT was a mistake! You giving John $75.000 when he told you it was for the dojo, and he blows every last cent in a strip club, DESPITE him telling you he can't stay away from there when he has anything in his wallet, is not a simple fucking mistake Terry!!"

"He's my bestfriend Y/N! I can help out my friend can't I?!"

"And I'm your wife! I've known you since we went to high school together and we have been together since we were 19! Why wouldn't you listen to me when I told you not to throw your money away like that!"

"I didn't throw it away, I gave it to John!"

"WHO THEN USED IT ALL ON LAP DANCES AND CHEAP ALCOHOL!!"

"It's my money! I earned it! I did! Not you! $75.000 is nothing to me, you know how much I have in my bank accounts!"

"That's not an excuse to act like a spendthrift! You worked hard for this money, you should take care of it"

"Like you could understand how to deal with this amount of money! Hey, how about this! Maybe when YOU have a successful career and make money like I do, then maybe you can have a fucking opinion!!"

Wow...now that hurt...you were completely taken back by that he just said. He knew you were trying your best to run your own business, he's known how difficult it was to have nothing and work your fingers to the bones, with no financial help from him or anyone else when you started. You used every cent you had to get a building for your company, go through legal routes, jump through hoop after hoop, take on and employ all the people who work for you now and even then every day was just as difficult for you. Trying your best to make your employees feel cared for, that would sometimes leave you either out of pocket or mentally deflated. This was an exhausting thing to do, and Terry knows better than anyone that you've put your blood, sweat and tears into your work. So why? Why the hell did he just say that to you? You'd never dream of saying anything so heartless to him, and yet...hear you are...hearing just that from the man you love. He was still angry, and couldn't contemplate the look of horror on your face, or the tears falling down your cheeks.

"Oh fuck this! I can't talk to you right now! I'm going to the dojo! Don't call me!"

He said, anger still etched in his voice. He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. The moment he did, you fell to the floor, utterly heartbroken and hiding your face in your hands as you wept. Crying so hard you had to gasp to breathe properly, how could Terry ever treat you like that after all you've gone through together over the years? You were there for what felt like hours, but a while later, you stand up, brush yourself down, get your breath back and wipe away your tears, trying to hold it together so you can get to work. You were about to get in the car when you get a phone call, and surprisingly, it was John.

"Hey Y/N!"

"What?"

"Oh? You don't sound happy"

"I'm not, what do you want?"

"Ok, so...Terry's come in and thrown a hissy fit, I have no idea why. He's stormed out and now I'm stuck teaching these classes all day by myself"

"What do you mean by yourself? Isn't Terry just having a breather?"

"Not really, he left the dojo and said (you deal with the lessons today! I can't be fucked!) And stormed out"

"So? What's that got to do with me?"

"I need your help. Please. I know you were a sensei a few years ago and I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate"

"Desperate huh? Like how desperate you were to spend $75.000 in a strip club?"

"Now I can explain that-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses John!"

"Ok fine, fine. Look, just...please? These kids will miss out on at least 5 lessons if I don't have someone hear"

"(Mutters swear words under breath) Ugh! Fine! What do you want me to do? Just so you know, I'm missing work at my own job for this"

"Oh thank you Y/N! Thank you! I'll explain everything when you get hear, see you soon!"

The second he ended the call, you put down the phone and try your hardest to stifle a scream of anger. It's built up in your chest, and you need to release it, thankfully, noone around could hear you shouting and swearing. A while later, you arrive at the dojo and enter to see a group very large group of children, all waiting in the main room while John is waiting. Nervously twiddling his fingers.

"Y/N! Oh thank god your hear! Ok, so hears the plan. These kids are all going to be in 2 groups, one for me, and one for you"

"2 groups? John there's nearly 100 kids hear!"

"Yeh, 50 each"

"John, I wasn't expecting this much, you know I haven't taught in years"

"I'm sure it will be fine, they're good kids, very well behaved. All we have to do is 5 lessons each and it's all done"

"Five lessons each?! John each lesson is an hour and a half long! Why didn't you tell me on the phone that you were THIS BUSY?!"

"I thought....you may not have helped me if I told you..."

"Ugh! Just give me the paperwork with the lesson plan, and stay out of my way"

"Your a life saver! Thank you"

John walks over to the kids, while you mutter under your breath

"I won't be a life saver if I ring your stupid neck..."

John addresses the children, half of them are wearing brown belts, the others in black. All the brown belts were to go with you, and the black belts with him. Taking his group into training room 1, you introduced yourself to the brown belt group and take them to training room 2. It had been a while since you had thought students, but John was right, they were well behaved. And the lessons were not bad to do at all, very busy, but not bad. However, as the lessons went on, with different children swapping and changing throughout the day, it changed from very busy to over the top. Each lesson was harder and harder on you, you hadn't eaten today, not drank anything and there was absolutely no time to think about stopping for a breather. Every time a lesson packed up and left, the next one would enter, and you'd have to start the whole process again and again and again. You had finaly finished your final lesson, hours after starting the day, and you wouldn't let the kids see as they left, you holding onto the window sill so you wouldn't collapse onto the floor. Once noone was there, you made your way to the womens bathroom, splashing water into your face and leaning against the sink to catch your breath.

"Hoooo god, what a day...oh god my head is killing me..."

Holding your head as it pounded, you try and think if there was any money in your purse for the vending machine in the main hall. One of the toilets suddenly flushes and a young girl from your last lesson walks out to wash her hands.

"Oh, hello sensei L/N"

"Hi Cassie"

"You uh, you don't look so good. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I just need a break and a drink"

"Oh ok, you were a great teacher today by the way"

"Thank you Cassie, that's nice of you to say"

"Will you be teaching again?"

"I'm not sure, I'm just covering for sensei Silver today"

"Ok, well it will be nice if you do come back"

"Thanks"

"See you later!"

"Bye Cassie"

Looking into the bathroom mirror when she left, you see the water droplets fall from your face, but your vision starts to change. It's almost...smoky? Wavy? And your not moving, but it looks like your swaying from side to side. Before you know it, you only remember a sudden pain at the side of your head when you fall down, hitting your head on the sink and passing out on the floor. Cassie, who's just close enough to hear this, runs back into the bathroom to see you lying on the floor.

"Oh my god! Sensei Kreese! Sensei Kreese!!"

John ran to the sound of Cassie's voice, she sounded scared and that just made him run faster.

"Cassie! What is it-oh god! What happened to sensei L/N?"

He asks, kneeling down to you and checking you over

"I-I don't know! We-we were talking a few minutes ago, she said just needed a break. And once I left the bathroom, I heard a loud noise and came to find her hear. Is she going to be ok?"

"I think so, she's hit her head on the sink, that'll bruise up quickly. I'll call the ambulance now, they'll help her"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Cassie, I promise. Why don't you head home? I'll stay with her until the ambulance arrives, and I'll call your mother later to let you know how she is"

"O-ok sensei"

Poor girl was still a little shocked by what happened, but John was with you know and he rang the ambulance service to come and check on you. However, you statted coming around before they made it to the dojo.

"Uugghh....my head..."

"Hey Y/N, just take it easy ok? You hit your head pretty hard"

"Hit my head?"

You ask, slowly sitting up against the wall, John supporting you as you do.

"How did-hhhsss! Ouch! Fuck me that hurts! Yep, I remember snacking my head on the sink now"

"Cassie shouted for me to come and help you"

"Wait, she saw me? Oh god is she ok?"

"She's fine, a little shocked but fine. I've told her I'll keep an eye on you and let her know how you are later"

"That poor girl shouldn't have seen me like that"

"And YOU shouldn't have ended up like that. What happened Y/N?"

"Its was just so busy today that I didn't have time to eat or drink anything, that all. Once I do that I'm sure I'll be fine"

"You haven't-Y/N! Why didn't you say anything?!"

"Because, correct me if I'm wrong. But someone begged me to help them with a job they didn't tell me was going to both physically and mentally drain me, without proper time to prepare"

"I.....I'll give you that one. But inbetween lessons, you should have told the class you were taking ten minutes to have a break"

"Again, there wasn't time John. Now, can you help me up please?"

"Maybe it's best of you stay there for the moment, I can hear the ambulance coming down the street"

"Oh god John, you didn't call an ambulance did you?"

"Of course!"

"I'm fine! There was no need to do that"

"Y/N! Your head had swollen and bruised to the size of a tennis ball, and you were unconscious! And you think your fine?!"

"I'm fine now, just help me up please"

"Hell no!"

"John!"

"I said no!"

Moments later, the ambulance crew rush in, see both you and John on the floor and ask what happened. You explain what you remember, and John tells them his side of the event, and tells them what Cassie said too. They check your blood pressure, temperature, anything else they think is necessary, then tell you and John that they're going to take you to the hospital to get your head checked, but they think it's nothing major.

"Ok, cool. And if I'm fine I can leave the hospital once I'm checked over?"

"I think so miss L/N, but we'll take you now just to be sure"

"Ok"

You were surprisingly calm through this, but John looked worried as hell.

"What's the matter John?"

"How the hell am I going to explain this to Terry?"

"You aren't"

"What?!"

"Your not going to tell him because he doesn't need to know"

"What the hell do you mean he doesn't need to know?! He's your husband and you've had an accident!"

"Me and Terry aren't having a good day today, and I'd rather not bother him with my issues"

"But Y/N-"

"I said no John! Don't tell him what happened to me today! Or do I have to do to you what I did on the night of your 24th birthday?"

"Ok ok, I won't tell him....but you will right?"

"I'll think about it. With how angry he was this morning, I'd doubt he'd come home all happy. And I'll just sleep in the spare room down the hall, I don't want another fight to occur"

"Hang on, you said he was angry this morning. Is that why he was angry when he came hear?"

"I don't want to talk anymore about it John, ok? I'll see you later"

And that was the last thing you said to him as the ambulance crew took you to the hospital. John watched you all drive away, and he really did want to tell Terry what happened, he felt so much guilt. He knew Terry loved and adored you, and if even a single hair was put out of place on your head, Terry wouldn't think twice about making sure you were ok. But he remembered how adamant you were about not telling Terry, with the threat of shaving all his hair off and waxing his eyebrows off just like she did when you were all drunk at his 24th birthday party. So what could he do? Keep quiet? Or risk his hair to salvage yours and Terry's relationship? An hour later you were being discharged from the hospital with no issues occurring from your fall. It was as you expected, low blood sugar and dehydration from not eacing or drinking. And as for your head, there was no internal damage or signs of concussion, just a whopping great bruised lump on your head. They recommended painkillers and plenty of rest, you told them you would, but just the painkiller part was easier said than done. It was too late in the day now to go to your own work place, so you just went home instead. You weren't shocked to find that Terry was not there, in fact, you didn't know where he was at all. He wasn't at the dojo today, and he wasn't hear now, so god knows what he was doing to calm down, he did look very angry about this morning. Your mind was rushing with thoughts on what you could have said instead, or done differently, but there was no answer coming to you. So you try and take a shower to clear your head, it worked, but only a little. You had got a few things from yours and Terry's bedroom and headed to the spare room, up teo flights of stairs and down a long corridor, anything to avoid another fight. You swear, you loved him with all your heart and soul, but jesus christ he can be such a grumpy, arrogant and petulant child sometimes! Ugh! Back in the day when you first started dating, angry fights tended to end up in steamy makeup sex, but now that seems to have gone straight out of the window. God he can be so infuriating! Taking your book and starting to read, it helps you take you mind off Terry, the argument, the stressful day and the whole incident in the dojo bathroom. Your head still throbbed, but not half as badly as it did earlier in the day. A good 2 hours went buy as you read your book, anger was gone, the painkillers had kicked in and you were feeling calmer than you had all day. The moment you were about to turn to another chapter, you hear Terry's car speed into the drive way, hearing the sound of the car breaking and him getting out and running to the door. You could even hear him fumble around with his keys.

"Ugh, please don't come up hear. I don't want another argument"

You say to yourself, just as you hear the front door burst open.

"Baby?! BABY?!

"Oh? Baby now is it? Your not in the mood to hear his apologies, you just wanted some peace and quiet, because if not, that anger you were feeling earlier was going to come back. The sound of him running through the rooms of the house was heard from the room you were in, he sounded desperate to see you.

"Baby?! Are you in hear?! Shit! BABY?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Remaining silent, you don't answer him, still wanting to avoid confrontation. You hear him in your bedroom, and that's shortly followed by the sound of him running up both flights of stair and down the long hallway, straight to you, bursting through the door. He held onto the doorway, sweaty, out of breath and a panicked tearful look in his eyes.

"Baby! There you are!"

He said relieved to see you, collapsing to his knees at the side of the bed where you lay. You don't move to touch him, and when reached his hand out, you moved away and looked away.

"Why didn't you answer me!? I was shouting your name through the whole house!"

"Did it occur to you that I didn't want to talk to you? Not after the morning we had"

"Y/N! Why the fuck didn't you tell me about what happened at the dojo?!"

Oh shit....he knows....

"As I recall, the last thing you said to me this morning was (don't call me)"

"I didn't mean don't call me if something bad were to happen to you! For fuck sake Y/N an ambulance took you to the fucking hospital!"

"So what? It's done now, why worry"

"WHY WORRY?! Jesus fucking christ-your my wife Y/N! My best friend and the love of my life! Why the hell wouldn't you tell me what happend to you?!"

"Well it appears John already did that"

You say slamming your book shut, throwing it on the bed and getting up to stand beside the window, not wanting to be that close to him right now. Terry stood, but stayed where he was, hands gripping his head in frustration.

"Y/N, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to talk to you today. What happened at the dojo was an accident and I'm fine"

"Oh really? Says the woman with a bruised lump on the side of her head the size of a fucking tennis ball?!"

"It's not like I'm concussed Terry"

"But your still hurt!"

"SO WHAT?! You didn't give a shit about me this morning did you?! Why the fuck would you now?!"

"Of course I give a shit about you Y/N, I love you. I love you to death!"

"Then why the hell would you say what you did?!"

"Say what I...what? What did I say?"

"Oh forget it, if you don't remember, it is very clear now that it wasn't important to yo-"

"Baby, baby! I know we argued. But what did I say to you that hurt you?"

"Oh don't play dumb! I'm not falling for this!"

Hating this moment, you storm past him and leave the room, trying to avoid him. But he follows after you, wanting to get to the bottom of this. You reach the kitchen before Terry has a chance to get infront of you and stop you.

"Get out of my way Terry"

"Not until you tell me what I said"

"You know what you said to me! YOU SAID IT!!"

"I remember telling you that lending money to John was a mistake, and it's my money and I can do with it what I like!"

"Yes! You did! And you told me I couldn't have a fucking opinion on it until I had money like you and had a successful career!"

Silence, and Terry's face fell, now he remembers saying that to you, and guilt washed through him.

"Oh, let me guess? You FINALY remember now huh? You remember saying that to me? Knowing how hard I try to have that career? Spending every cent I had, pouring my blood sweat and tears in making a career for myself, having no financial help from anyone! You've seen me at rock bottom Terry! You've seen me at my lowest when I cried myself to sleep! Worried about how to keep my business going, keep all the staff paid and happy when it came out of my bank account! Doing everything I can, and spending every hour of the day trying to build this and have something to be proud of! The whole process of this felt like I was climbing a ladder covered in spikes! And you.....what you said to me felt like you kicked me off that ladder...leaving me right at the bottom..."

"Baby, I didn't mean-"

"Save it! The last thing I wanna hear is more bullshit from you. If you give a damn about me at all, you won't follow me, and you won't talk to me again tonight. Get out of my way"

You storm past him and straight back upstairs to the spare room, there was no way anything else was going to be accomplished tonight. Anger burned inside of you, and you wanted anything that would calm you down. However, it was clear that Terry didn't listen to you as he stormed back into the room you were in.

"No! I've fucked up and you've fucked up too! I'm not leaving until I've made it up to you"

"I told you I didn't want to talk to you again tonight Terry!"

"I know! But I can't leave you so angry when I'm the reason"

"For god sake Terry! You-hang on! You said I'VE fucked up?!"

"Yes!"

"How?!"

"You didn't tell me you hurt yourself at the dojo!"

"It's not your problem!"

"Your my wife Y/N! Your problems are my problems too. It hurt me that you didn't tell me what happened to you!"

"Yeh? Well it hurt me what you told me, despite knowing all the pain I went through to try my best!"

"I.....baby I didn't know how much that affected you"

"Didn't you? Did the tears I had in my eyes not give ANY kind of indication?"

"I didn't realise ok! So what? This is my punishment now? Not being able to comfort my wife, or know when she's been in danger or pain?"

"It was just a fainting spell! That's all!"

"YOU SUFFERED ON YOUR OWN!! That's the fucking point!.....Y/N, in our wedding vows we made a promise to eachother to be there in the darkest times, and help eachother through both emotional and physical pain. I HATE that I upset you so much that you didn't tell me about this, I HATE that what I've said to you had made you feel so alone, so down...enough where you don't tell me about you getting hurt. I am so so sorry about this morning, for everything I said, I didn't mean it. I was just angry that you didn't trust me"

"You think it was because I didn't trust you? Terry it was about you having trust in the wrong person. You gave John money that he threw away. And you didn't even bat an eye. All I was trying to do this morning was try and tell you that you need to be careful with who you give your money too, and when you've worked so hard to make it too. I'm someone who grew up with nothing, you know that. In my eyes, still to this day, $1000 is a LOT of money, and I would never spend or use that amount so easily or frivolously. So seeing the man I love just GIVE $75.000 and not care about it, it's difficult to see. And you know that I want the best for you, for your future. And it's not going to be the best future if the money you spend your life and time making, is going to be thrown away"

"You just don't get what it's like having the money I have! You could never-"

The moment those words came out, he stopped. He stopped because he knew he's fucked up again. You feel defeated, lowering your head to the ground, then back up again with tears in your eyes, and trying so hard not to cry hard. Taking a deep inhale, you turn your head away, avoiding Terry's gase, which is now filled with guilt.

"........ok......"

You say, quietly and broken.

"Baby I didn't mean it-I wasn't trying to put your career down again I swear! I just-I was trying to make a point-what? What're you doing? Baby please don't pack things in your overnight bag"

"I...really don't want to be around you right now Terry"

"But I'm sorry! I want to make it up to you please!"

"I told you down stairs that I need some time to myself, and that I didn't want you to talk to me for the rest of the night. You didn't listen to me, you didn't do as I asked, and now the whole situation has gotten even harder to cope with"

"Y/N please just stop packing your things ok? Please-"

"You know! At this very moment! I really don't care what you have to say. I need some space, and I'm going to take it. I'm going to go and stay in a hotel for a few nights"

"Oh for fuck sake Y/N please! Don't do this!"

You just ignore him, walking past him with your bag of essentials and clothes. He follows you down the stairs, begging, pleading you to stay.

"I said I'm going to stay in a hotel, and that's that. I need some space from you right now"

"Just stay in the spare room you were already in baby"

"That was the plan until you barged in and we started this argument"

"Stay please! You told me a few days ago that you haven't revived a full paycheck yet! You can't afford a hotel!"

"Like that's going to stop me! Anywhere is better than hear right now!"

And that was the very last thing you said before storming out of the house and slamming the door behind you. Terry angrily throws a stool across the room, shouting and swearing out loud in frustration. Once you get into your car, you drive away as fast as you can in the dead of night. But it was still a lot to keep inside. Pulling over at the side of a road about 2 miles away, you shout and scream in the car, hitting the steering wheel and letting all the anger out. God that man made you so angry! You drive to a motel instead of a hotel instead, hoping Terry wouldn't have connections to any of them and coming to talk to you before you were ready. This place was far away, and a bit run down, but the room you were given was surprisingly comfortable. Throwing your bag of things on the floor and curling up into a ball on the bed, you stayed there, thinking, crying, hating everything that had happened today. Your phone began to ring, and of course it was Terry. You didn't pick up, and neither did you answer any of his texts.

[Y/N I love you, I love you so much. Please can you answer my call? I want to apologise for everything. You mean the world to me and I haven't shown you that recently. I miss the sound of your voice. Please pick up the phone?]

But no. You told him you need space, and no matter the hearty or sweet texts he sent, that wasn't going to change. Declining his next call, you turn your phone off and throw it with the rest of your things on the floor. You'd had enough of him, and just wanted some peace and quiet. This entire day had been too much for you, and it would seem crying yourself to sleep was the final thing to top it off, which is exactly what happened when you watched TV in your motel room. Waking up the next morning with a headache and dried tears on your face, you sit up and brush a few strands of hair from your cheek. Letting out a long yawn, you walk over to the table with the complimentary coffee and make yourself one. You finished it before grabbing a shower and ordering room service for something to eat. Once you were fed, clothed and comfortable on the motel bed, you allowed yourself to think over what happend yesterday and what you were going to do. You thought a lot, about weather it was just Terry who was in the wrong, and you can see that he was right, you were in the wrong too. You thought about how you would feel in his shoes, and if something bad had happend to him without telling you, you'd probably go just as crazy as he did. So yes, with that part, you were at fault. But Terry was too, and yes he tried to apologise last night, but you could still see the anger he felt when talking about money. You couldn't stand this anymore, this needed to stop, and it needed to stop now. You turned your phone back on, saw the missed calls, but sent a text to him instead.

[I want to talk in person. I'll see you at home]

Once you sent that text, you went to the front desk, gave your key back and headed back home to talk to Terry. You hoped he had calmed down, and you could both have a sensible conversation this time. And of course say sorry yourself. Entering the house, you see Terry sat on the living room sofa, which he quickly stands up from the moment he sees you.

"Y/N! I'm glad your back. Please, let me ex-"

"No Terry...me first...Look...I'm sorry about what I did, ok? I was so angry last night that I couldn't see how not telling you what happend to me would affect you. This morning I put myself in your shoes, and I understand now why you acted like that. I would be scared and worried if you'd been hurt too, and heartbroken that you wouldn't tell me. At the time, I didn't know that was what your were feeling. So for that, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry Terry"

"It's ok baby, I promise. Like you said, I was scared for you. And the whole argument we had didn't help. I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you, and treated you. I remember the times you struggled to make your career a real thing and I've seen the darkest days you've faced along with it. I had no right to tell you those things, and I didn't have the right to talk down to you when all you were trying to do was support me and help me keep what I earned. Oh god baby, can you please forgive me?"

Without hesitating, you drop your over night bag and go straight to him, both of you hugging eachother tightly. It felt upsetting and wonderful all at the same time to finaly release this anger and frustration, to then feel Terry's arms around you again. It truly was an emotional roller coaster. The tears flowed and you just continue to hold him, wanting to feel his comfort and embrace for as long as you could, how could that argument have gone on so long and blown up so much? Thank god it was over now, and there was no more fighting. You felt Terry kiss your head as he held you, and he rested his chin on you as he calmly said.

"You were only gone for one night but I missed you so much. When we argue for one day, it feels like weeks. I hate when we fight Y/N"

"Me too Terry. I would say let's not fight anymore, but we're a couple, and there is no couple in the world who doesn't argue"

"I think we need some kind of word to say when things are getting too much. Something to say when the argument has gone too far, and we both need some time to have a breather or to have some personal space"

"Why don't we just say pause? Like when you pause a film or a game"

"Sounds like a good idea, I like it. So our argument is finished now, so when when we have another, we should do that shall we?"

"We can definitely give it a try"

"Alright then, then that's what we'll do. Look at me"

He says sweetly, wiping the tears from your cheek and kissing you sweetly.

"I wanna make it up to you. Why don't you grab a shower and I'll set up some popcorn and a film for us in the bedroom?"

"Sweet popcorn, not salted?"

"Yep"

"I'd love that Terry. Thank you"

Again, he kisses you sweetly, god you missed his lips. They were so soft, they felt so good against yours, it was like a craving. Taking your time in the shower to relax, you felt a little more yourself when you dried off and got dressed. Your comfy pyjamas were the perfect thing to wear after a hot shower, they were so soft and smooth against your freshly moisturized skin. When you came back to the living room, Terry had lit some scented candles, turned the lights off and had a bowl of popcorn and chocolate covered strawberries waiting on the table. He came in, saw your smile and he felt so happy to see you.

"I hope this is a nice way I can say sorry to you babygirl"

"It's perfect Terry. And you don't need to do all this for me to say sorry to me Terry. All I ever need is a kiss"

"Then that...babygirl.....can definitely be arranged......"

Link to part 1 below 💚