#I will delete this as fast as I can if I start receiving hate

[alexjcrowley]

Fuck it let's self-promote a new chapter of my riddlebat fic just came out

[tinyfantasminha]

👍

[cheeseceli]

SKZ arguing over the bill

Pairing: ot8!skz × gn!reader (individually)

Genre: fluff

Request: yes!

Warning: mentions of food, reader never pays lmao. Changbin, Chan, Seungmin's were heavily inspired by "Telling your Stray Kids boyfriend you can’t afford to eat out with them" by @ronnierites . If you don't allow this pls lemme know and I'll delete this post. Not proofread

A/n: that's kinda a new format, hope you guys like it! And this have been on my to do list since forever lol sorry for the wait

Bang Chan

Doesn't want you to feel uncomfortable

But he wants to spoil you so badly

Would let you pay if you were uncomfortable but he wants to make sure you get it he would love to pay for you as well

"You know Chris, I can pay for it."

"I know."

"So?"

"I'd rather do it. But thank you baby."

"But-" you stopped talking once you saw his card swiping. You truly should be used at this point "oh."

"Why do I feel like you're unhappy?"

"It's not that I am not happy, it's just that you always pay."

"It's my pleasure."

"But I don't know, I don't want you to think you're being pressured or something like that."

"Babe, I don't feel like that at all. Don't you worry. You're always doing so much for me, that's just a little 'thank you' of mine."

You gave him a little smile and proceeded to hug him, feeling safe in his warmth.

"I'm so lucky to have you."

"I should be the one saying it."

Lee Know

Bro you don't even spare a chance

He's paying before you even have a chance to take your wallet out of your pocket

I'm surprised you even try tbh

"Should we ask for the bill?"

"Oh, I already paid for it, don't worry."

You looked dumbfounded at him while he was finishing his food. You didn't see him talk to a waiter and you're sure he didn't pay for it before you two had your meal.

"What? When?"

"When we were asking for the dishes. Didn't you see it?"

"No?" you tried to recall the moment with no success "Why would you pay? I feel bad that you pay for everything all the time. I don't feel like reciprocating enough."

His eyes soften and a little smile comes to his lips while he watches you pout. If only you knew how much you did for him.

"Hey, look at me. It's okay. You already reciprocate with everything you do. That's already perfect"

Changbin

He pays with the money, you pay back with kisses

Sorry but that's his boyfriend duty

He is physically incapable of not paying for everything

"Hey baby. I'm off work in 40 minutes. I'll pick you up so we can have lunch, okay?"

You were glad that for once you were on a voice call with him instead of being in a face time like you'd usually do. This way he didn't see the way your smile dropped so quickly.

"Um, I don't think I'll be able to."

"Oh? Why?"

"I'm kinda... broke right now. I haven't received my last payment yet."

"Okay? What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't want you to be the one who always pays for our things. I should be able to pay sometimes."

"You don't need to. That's my boyfriend duty. You know I don't mind, I actually enjoy it quite a lot."

"Still bothers me though. I'd hate to not contribute at all."

"You can always cuddle with me and shower me with kisses. That will make me happier than anything money can buy."

Hyunjin

Stop he'll be like genuinely so sad if he can't pay

He would let you pay if you were really insistent

But then he'll go like :( and you would let him take the bill out of pity lmao

"Hyunjin, stop looking at me like that."

"But darling, I can pay. You know it doesn't bother me."

"Just this once, let me pay, okay?"

"Okay"

"...Jinnie I really need you to stop that."

"I'm not even doing anything."

"Oh God" you sigh and let your head fall, knowing the man beside you won the argument once more "Fine. You can pay."

He didn't waste a second, swiping his card as fast as possible just so you couldn't have the time to change your mind. After he payed the meal, he took your hand in his and started to walk in the direction of the restaurant's exit with a triumphant (and really sweet) smile.

"I swear I don't get why you like to pay so much."

"My love should be treated as royalty, and that includes me paying for everything you wish for."

Han

Bro is offended

Believes with all his heart that he should be the one paying

Tries to distract you when the time to pay comes

"Were you paying while I was in the restroom?"

"... perhaps."

"Han."

"Baby. You know I like to pay for you."

"But you do that all the time."

"It's my way of showing love! If you ask me, I actually don't think it's enough. It's the least I can do."

He could see in your eyes that you weren't convinced. Unfortunately (for you), he only saw that as an opportunity to spend even more money. Maybe then you would believe him.

"C'mon, lemme show you a little bit of love. You can pay me back with thousands of kisses if that's what's bothering you."

Felix

He loves to pay.

If he could, he would pay for absolutely everything that you could ever want or need.

But if that's something which really bothers you, he will let you pay as well

Tries to do that "the one who invites is the one who pays" thing and fails

"Felix. Don't even dare."

He looked at you confused until he realised you were staring at the credit card in his hand, probably hoping that it could disappear before the waiter came back with the bill.

"C'mon, it's just a small lunch. I can pay for it."

"No. I invited you. I pay."

"Actually, if you think about it, I'm the one who suggested this place."

"Two years ago."

"Still counts."

"Not as an invitation though. I'm the one who asked if you wanted to come here."

Felix sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to convince you of otherwise. If only he could.

"Okay. Next time it's on me."

Seungmin

LMAO sorry you're 100% not paying

Don't even try

Boyfriend duty pt 2 except he is even more dedicated somehow

"Why did you bring your wallet?"

"I wanted to pay for this one."

"... why?"

"You always pay for everything."

"And I don't plan on stopping so you can take your wallet away."

"Minnie, please. I don't want you to be the one who always end up paying for everything."

"But I want to. I wouldn't mind paying for every single thing for the rest of our lives. So you can't take your money away of my sight because I'm paying."

"For the rest of our lives huh?"

"Don't tease." But you didn't miss how the corners of his lips lifted once he thought you weren't looking anymore.

I.N

Rock, paper, scissors. The winner is the one who pays

It's funny and neither of you can complain about the outcome of it because it's technically fair

Except you always throw scissors first and never noticed it

And Jeongin doesn't have the heart to tell you

"We should change this game."

"No way" he said while giving the money to the cashier whilst trying to hide his grin from you "Not my fault you are horrible at this."

"Seriously though, I think you're cheating. It's impossible for you to win every single time."

"How does one cheat at 'rock, paper, scissors'? Besides, you won yesterday."

"After losing at least 50 times. And I got to pay for some ice cream. It's not the same as paying for a whole meal."

"Get better at this and maybe you get to pay for a whole meal one day. C'mon, we can have some milkshake now. Maybe you'll win this time."

You had a feeling you wouldn't though. He was sure you wouldn't.

Reblogs and feedback are appreciated!

Dividers by @cafekitsune

[sebastiansluts]

Please please please a part 2 to that delicious destroyer chris imagine you wrote where his cock is so sensitive and swollen and he cums so easily.

Destroyer Chris x Reader; extra sensitive cock, excessive coming, overstimulation, oral m receiving, vaginal sex, cockwarming

ANY HATE WILL BE DELETED THIS IS A JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE DON’T LIKE, DON’T INTERACT; MINORS DO NOT INTERACT 18+

“Wanna try somethin’ different tonight pretty girl,” Chris murmured in your ear, the two of you sitting on the couch, the house empty for once. You were laying with your head in his lap, his hand stroking your hair. You sat up, grinning at Chris as you turned to face him. 

“C’mere,” Chris said, grabbing you by your waist and lifting you until you were on his lap, straddling him. You bit your lip, grinding down onto his bulge, Chris shuddering as it swelled, already sensitive. 

“Yeah? Y’want me on top tonight baby?” you asked, rocking back and forth along his bulge, his dick growing until it was straining the zipper of his pants. 

“Wait, wait, lemme- fuck, I can’t, oh jesus that feels better,” Chris groaned as he undid his button and the zipper pulled down itself, his hard cock poking out of his boxers, tip already red and leaking. 

You licked your lips, sitting back on Chris’ thighs and bending until you could lick a stripe up the vein on the underside of his cock. Chris moaned and precum dripped onto his boxers. You licked up his cock, sucking lightly on the head and he spasmed, coming before he could warn you, but you were ready for it, swallowing it down and licking his tip clean. 

“Sh-shit baby, m’sorry! Fuck you look so good with my cum on your tongue,” Chris groaned and you flushed, his filthy mouth still managing to make you blush. “C’mon pretty girl, want you sittin’ on my dick next time I come.”

You nodded quickly, standing up and dropping your sweats and panties, clambering back onto Chris’ lap and raising your dripping pussy above his dick. His hands were tight on your hips, helping you stay up, then he began pulling you down, the head of his dick bumping against your entrance before catching and slipping in. 

You moaned immediately, his size always a lot at first, but you relished the burn, forcing your hips down faster, Chris’ eyes widening. 

“Baby wait, can’t- too fast,” he moaned, burying his face in your chest, hands clenching and releasing on your hips as he came. You giggled, holding his mostly shaved head against you, grinning when you were able to slide down another few inches thanks to the cum filling you. 

Chris gasped, biting down on your tit as he bottomed out, your ass against his thighs. You yelped, clenching around his dick and Chris cried out, breathing heavily as he tried to compose himself. 

“This what y’wanted baby?” you asked him, trying to roll your hips, but he grabbed you harder, forcing you still. 

“Fuck, p-please pretty girl, needta fill you up again and again, can ya do that baby, can you let me?” Chris asked desperately, blue eyes shining, and you smiled, it turning into a smirk as you leaned forwards, his eyes pleading with you, as you captured his lips with yours. 

“M’all yours Chris,” you murmured between kisses and he groaned low in his throat, dragging you up off his dick until just the tip was in, then you slammed down onto his lap, a higher pitched groan escaping him as he came immediately, your cunt milking his dick until he was nearly babbling.

“Fuckfuckfuck shitfuck p-pretty girl, d-drain me baby, please, drain me and- and take it all, f-fill you up,” Chris said mindlessly, barely even noticing when you started rocking in his lap, grinding your clit against his pelvic bone. 

“C’mon Chris, c’mon fill me up, just like you said, you can take some more right? Need to fill me up til I’m bursting, gimme it all baby,” you whispered in his ear, and he cried out raggedly, his hips jerking beneath you, rutting into your pussy with desperation. 

“M’gonna- m’gonna make you mine forever,” Chris groaned, and you gasped, his dick hitting that place inside you. Now you rut back against him, rolling your hips again and again until you were screaming your release. 

You could feel Chris coming again, dripping out of you along with your slick, making a mess of his boxers. You couldn’t bring yourself to care, riding your high and giggling when you saw him almost passed out beneath you. You thought about moving, but as his dick stayed partially hard inside you, you stayed where you were, cunt lightly pulsing. You put your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes, smiling to yourself as you felt his dick twitch, pulsing one last time into you as he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you in. He moaned softly as you sank into him, pressing his lips to your temple. 

“Mmm my pretty girl, don’ move. Jus’ stay here,” Chris mumbled, half asleep and trying to go all the way. You grinned and kissed his neck, his breath hitching, before you closed your eyes and just relaxed.

[tenderlyrenjun]

tenderlyrenjun coming back

(super tentative)

The last time I was on here and actually posting, I kept getting a severe amount of unjustified criticism.

At the time, and I literally said this, I was completing my third bachelor’s degree in literally one year because my dad told me not to be lazy during my break from school. I had literally been in school from age 2 until age 22, when I graduated with my first and second bachelor’s degrees. Fast forward one year, I get accepted into medical school, which is the one thing I do not want most in this world. I am still in medical school to this day, because, at the time, when everyone was calling me bipolar and crazy and untalented and stupid, my dad kicked me out of the house for MENTIONING that I don’t want to go to medical school, despite being IN the MD/PhD programme between TWO universities. So, my dad kicked me out of his house; I had no money until my trust fund kicked in later; and I am being forced to undergo a medical degree just to not be ostracized by my

Everyone kept telling me “you’re a bad writer and should stop writing”, “you’re xenophobic to Europeans”, “this is my favourite tv show (me constantly having breakdowns from people telling me that I suck at this)”.

Someone literally rated my fic a 2/5 (BTW, DON’T FUCKING RATE FICS), which sparked several people to tell me that I am a bad writer, I don’t know how to take “valid” criticism, my English is bad, stop writing cause I’ll never get better, I’m being dramatic for all the “valid” criticism, and more.

I’m still writing because that’s literally the only thing that I can do in my very rare free time that keeps me sane, and I want to post again, but I will delete my account off the face of the internet again, if this keeps happening.

It happened while I was in undergrad - everyone gaslit me into thinking that I don’t deserve feedback, I don’t deserve writer mutuals, I don’t deserve to interact or post my fics because “no one owes me anything”.

It happened while I was having the worst mental breakdown of my life - everyone gaslit me into thinking that I was only receiving valid criticisms and that I was crazy for defending myself against the “bad writing” hate, because yes, it was hate.

I will just stop overall again, and delete everything, and literally never comeback.

You wonder why your favorite writers are leaving? You wonder why there are so few fics to even read?

I am going to start being even worse and so much more mean if people run up my inbox with hate comments again.

[starlazergazer]

Hii!! I’m the anon who asked if u had an ao3, and I’m sooo glad I can have all your fics in one PDF thank u so much 🙏 I can quickly pressed the download button so fast. youre genuinely one of my fav anakin fic writers in the entire galaxy (far far away). Your writing is so so gorgeous and complex, and it just feels soooo real—how each person has their own depth—so much thought is put into every word and how it’s framed.

I just read your latest fic, Separated, and my god I SOBBED. It was SO good. I was listening to sad songs too, to get more into the mood, and it made me cry even harder. My heart just dropped out of my body when Reader and Anakin were saying their last words towards each other through the call: they were so emotionally close but so physically far from each other. How they were imagining a different life where everything was more softer and happier, that living handle their souls more gently, when in reality one was killing her, and the other was walking towards a path of destruction? AARAAGGH IM GOING CRAZY WITH YOUR WRITING (COMPLIMENT). I can’t wait to see the second part and how you plan to execute the follow up.

Btw. Do you have any tips on how you can finish writing stories? You write so much and it’s all such high quality. How do you do it? I have so many ideas but I never actually commit to it. I have this idea where Reader is also on par with Anakin’s skills as a mechanic except she gets extreme motion sickness, which I think would be so funny considering she’s good at building ships but not flying them.

(I really hope you’re okay with me posting this I know your first message was sent anonymously so I wasn’t sure but if you’re not definitely just let me know and I’ll get rid of it) but Oh my god I sobbed reading this 😭. Genuinely this is the biggest compliment I’ve ever received and it means so much to me I’m positively overflowing right now and a little upset I cannot find the words to properly express how much this means to me. I already go back through some of the messages Ive received periodically as a little pick-me-up but I already know this one will be revisited weekly it just means so much to me the way you’ve picked up on everything I’ve tried so hard to do well in my writing making the dialog and situations and characters feel real and complex and messy ugghhhhh I love you so much this means the world 🫶🏻

As far as writing tips for finishing stories I have many cause it’s definitely something I struggle with all the time lol! I’d say the biggest thing for me is to focus on just getting something down rather than finishing a certain work. At any one time I have four or five word documents open on my computer because I’m regularly only writing a scene or a piece of dialog or literally just an idea. A lot of the time I get halfway through something and decide I hate it but keep it there anyways. What usually ends up happening though is I take ideas or scenes from all the different pieces and drop them into my “main story” if I think they fit well so it all works out in the end but just writing (even if it’s not related even remotely to what you feel like you “should” write) is ultimately what’s important.

I also regularly skip around when I’m writing. I find I like writing the big plot points or bits of dialogue the most so a lot of the time I write those first then fill in the gaps later. Finishing a story is a lot less daunting when you already have all of the big pieces in place and just need a few tiny bridges to bring everything together.

Lastly I would say again just get something down on the paper. I’ve written a lot of really bad stuff lol and sometimes I can feel it while I’m writing it and there’s a part of me that wants to just delete it and start over but having the ideas down on the page is always 100% better than having nothing and editing the crap out of what you already have is way easier than starting over from scratch.

Anyways that’s probably way more than what you wanted lol but I really hope it helps! I think just remember this is supposed to be fun, if you’re getting frustration or exasperation out of it more than anything totally feel free to take a step back. I’m known to go MIA for months at a time cause I have periods where I just am not feeling it and forcing myself through it does nothing for anyone.

Seriously though thank you thank you thank you I’m so absolutely overjoyed that you like my writing enough to want to keep it in any form it means the absolute world to me! Also good luck with your potential fic! Tag me if/when you finish it! I’ve been wanting to do a mechanic reader fic forever but never gotten far enough into actually planning it out to start writing anything so I’d love to see your take on it

[kaddyssammlung]

Do you Wish that you loved me – Analysis

"Do you roll with the waves? Or do you duck into deep blue safety?"

I really like this. It reminds me of the teachings from Eckhart Tolle. He always talks about accepting the present moment. He says that situations just are. The problem beings when start to see them as bad. It’s only our thoughts that we have about the situation that make it bad.

It just reminds me of this. Eckhart often uses the ocean and also a ripple in the ocean to explain something.

Or maybe the alchemical view on it: take that situation and transform it by becoming aware of it and also by just letting it be and not fighting what is.

Pretty much the same as Eckhart Tolle teaches this.

"Is it always the same? Do you wish that you loved me?"

I really like the idea that this song is Vessel talking to himself as if he was looking into a mirror. That he is not who can’t love himself.

"Do you pull at the chains?"

Rosegold chains? All of this imagery about being trapped, tangled in, or having chains. Idk what to do with it though. If he pulls at the chains does not hurt? Because the chains are attached to something.

"Or do you push into constant aching?"

Reminds of the times where it sounds as if he was wallowing in depression, self-doubt or self-pity. I’ve been there.

"Each and every day"

I feel this.

"Is there something you give That you will never receive in return? Do you know what it is?"

I wonder what that is. To me maybe again love? Or really loving someone? Or maybe offering someone help and you get nothing for it other than the joy of helping them or serving them in some way?

"And are you trying to live Like everything is a lesson to learn?"

I really like this! Yes we can learn something from everything. Just like I said in the begging. When we surrender and accept what’s being presented to us then we can easily learn. When there is no resistance to what is. This is easier said than done. I can assure you that from my own experience.

"Can you ever forgive (yourself)?"

The debt that I owe? I wonder what it is…there are many things that I did and that I still feel horrible for.

"And my reflection just won't smile back at me like I know it should"

I can relate to this. I still hate looking into a mirror. I always feel fat and all of the scars don’t really help either.

"And I would turn into a stranger in an instant if I could"

Me, too.

"And there is something eating me alive, I don't know what it is"

I used to feel like this until I understood what it was. I don’t know what’s better. Maybe knowing what it is and being able to deal with it. But dealing with stuff that probably was buried a long time ago, is really hard.

"Maybe not that you conceal your feelings, they just don't exist"

You don’t really love, you just hate to be alone….

I do think that he does have a lot of feelings……what’s with all the on stage crying then? Not being able to feel is horrible. I can understand why we are able to dissociate. When something horrible happens then it’s something to keep you safe. But when this becomes your default then it’s just exhausting.

"Do you ever believe That we can turn into different people?"

Everyone can change. But you must really want it and it’s hard but yes, sure.

"It's getting harder to be (myself)"

Oh well….I’m sorry! I can understand! I often felt like that and I finally had enough energy to change.

"Could we ever release? Is it better to just not feel?"

No, it’s not better to just not feel. Sometimes maybe but idk…I dissociate so damn fast and well….honestly I don’t know what’s better or worse. Not being able to feel or feel all the pain.

I get why I dissociate. It's just a trauma reaction. Being stuck in this is horrible.

"Can we hit delete?"

I don’t think so. We can evovle. I mean you can hit delete on your computer. Other than that we evovle.

"And it's been so long that I'm forgetting what it feels like"

I wonder what he means. Being with Sleep? Another state of being? Being in a "higher state" or having a higher frequency? Idk what he could mean. Being able to look at things from a place of "love". I don't know.

"But I'd rather not remind myself and leave it all behind"

Yes, Vessel. Alchemize it, transform it, accept it, go listen to Eckhart Tolle…idk what to tell you. I sometimes feel like I should give him advice but I guess he knows stuff like that. Or maybe not.

Looking at all of this I'm sure he is fine. I have a feeling that he is. Of course I don't know that.

"And I've tried so hard to fix it all, but nothing seems to help But I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself"

I can understand this. How can you love someone when you can’t love yourself?

[darkaviarymc]

So why tf are you living with a zionist? And why tf did you get married to one in the first place?

I've gotten anons asking invasive questions about my relationship with Troy and why I have yet to end it, and I've deleted each one. I don't know if you're the same anon, but I'm guessing you follow me because my latest #aviisleaving post has no notes and was less than an hour old when I received this ask.

But.

Due to recent events in this fandom, abuse has become a spotlight topic. I don't know if I would call my marriage abusive or not. But whether or not it is, my situation and my reasons for staying in it for the time being is similar to what abusive victims face. There are many reasons not to leave, to bide your time before leaving, and to not be able to leave at the time or even at all, and I think it's an important discussion to have.

I'll start by explaining why I'm with him in the first place. We used to be closer ideologically. He wasn't always this far right and (this is where I make a confession that idk if I'm actually ready to make, but here we go) I wasn't always this far left. Seven years does a lot to change people, for better or worse. I was a left-leaning centerist, he was a right-leaning centerist, and we met in the middle to either compromise or peacefully agree to disagree.

We were both nerdy autistic weirdos with the same taste in music, same sense of humor, and enough ideologically in common to make peace. He got along well with my daughter and was quick to let me know that, if we ever got married, he'd consider her his kid as if she was his own.

I'm hyper-romantic. I see romance basically everywhere I look, and I fall in love hard and fast. He wasn't used to having a woman (my egg hadn't cracked yet, we'll get to that) who wasn't an absolute bitch be interested in him, so he fell harder than he ever had. We also both hated our situation at home, and I wouldn't pretend that wasn't a factor. We rushed the relationship and got married before we'd been together a year.

Everything changed for me when I realized I was queer.

I found the community I'd been denying for my whole life, and I learned a lot. He was an ally then. A flawed one, but he was willing to try. He was supportive of me when I came out, first as bisexual and then as nonbinary.

But everything changed for him when the wreck happened. He was driving with our mutual best friend in the front passenger seat when he lost control on black ice and slid into oncoming traffic. Our friend died at the scene, and Troy's injuries left him permanently disabled. He's since regained his independence, but he'll always struggle with his left arm.

We both took solace in our faith (I'd still consider myself a Christian, feel how you feel about that, I've heard it all) but he got lost in Christian Reddit, then Christian TikTok. Christian TikTok led to Evangelical TikTok, which led to transphobic, homophobic, MAGA, and zionist TikTok.

He ate that shit up. He fucking chugged that kool-aid. It gave him something besides himself to be angry at.

Grief opened my mind and closed his. It softened my heart and hardened his.

It just went downhill from there.

And now I can't live with this. I know he can't either, and the only reason he hasn't initiated a separation is because 1) there's no biblical grounds for divorce because I haven't cheated on him, and 2) he doesn't think a fat, autistic, disabled nerd in his 30s with a small dick and $30,000 in medical debt could ever find a godly wife. His words, not mine.

So if I want what's best for myself, my daughter, and yes, even for Troy, I need to be the one to leave.

So why haven't I yet?

First and foremost, money. We live in a society blah blah blah. Our society isn't friendly single mothers, queer people, or disabled people, and I'm about to be all three. I need to be 100% certain that I can support not only myself, but a high support needs autistic teen daughter who will likely never be able to live independently.

We currently only have one working vehicle, and aren't in a financial place to remedy that. I will need my own form of transportation if I'm going to be on my own.

All of my preparations (housing, transportation, moving logistics, etc) will have to be enacted quickly and perfectly. Surgical precision packing, moving, and stocking up on groceries so I don't have to leave the house for a while within 24 hours. Why? Because his family can't have any forewarning. I would not be safe. Currently, I'm not safe emotionally, but if I mess up even one step off the plan, if I'm not perfect in my exit strategy, I won't be safe physically, and neither will my daughter. I won't elaborate further on that.

Not only do I have to leave perfectly, but I have to be 150% positive months in advance that I can keep perfect. Because he has friends and family in places that could be dangerous for me, not the least of which is CPS. I fully expect to have them at my door by the end of the first month. I can't give them cause to take my daughter, even if it's the smallest, stupidest thing. Especially since they'll already have a small, stupid thing. Namely, my queerness and my disability.

Because I'm under no impression whatsoever that Troy won't out me to every single person who I can't safely be out to the instant he gets the chance. I will have no more help from (and possibly no contact with) my family. I will be completely alone. My support system will be gone forever. I have to be emotionally, mentally, and financially ready for that.

And I am none of those things right now.

And until I am, I have to do whatever I can to keep myself safe enough to bide my time for the right opportunity.

[the-hittite]

It's him.

The Scourge of Boston.

The Overboss of the Raiders.

The Scout from Team Fortress Two.

Gameplay notes under the cut.

Alternate start mod required if at all possible to avoid creating a nightmarish timeline in which Scout has procreated.

Strength 1. We live and die by Scouts tiny baby noodle arms. Once I got the Strength bobblehead I could start putting points into Big Leagues.

Perception can be anything. The only perk you really need is Rifleman and you can get the bobblehead basically immediately. You can maybe put points into it for things like Refractor but I never ended up doing that.

Endurance is tricky. To really drive home the fragile Scout theme you want low health, but Endurance also determines how long you can sprint. Personally I went for 7 END because lack of armor on a close range build was already a challenge and I desperately wanted Adamantium Skeleton and Rad Resistance.

Charisma 1. Self Explanatory.

Intelligence 1. Self Explanatory.

Agility 10. Self Explanatory and perks like Moving Target and Action Boy are must haves.

Luck at least 5 for Idiot Savant. You probably want it higher for Better Criticals and Critical Banker. They're incredible with a double barrel shotgun.

Clothing and hats/helmets can be worn as long as they fit the aesthetic or match an existing cosmetic (army helmet, scribe hat, etc.) Armor pieces can only be added if they apply the Sprinter's legendary effect. Damage resistance perks are acceptable since they function basically the same as MVM resistance upgrades.

Medical emergencies can be dealt with by paying a doctor or sleeping it off. In the heat of combat your only options are to either run off to find a first aid kit and immediately consume the entire contents whether you need all of them or not (preferably right before a burning Medic can get it) or by downing a Nuka Cola variant. Radiation and broken limbs are your worst enemy. It's probably a good idea to do Nuka World before the Glowing Sea since Nuka Grape is your only way to remove rads in the field.

Double Barrel Shotgun as a main. Deliverer as a secondary. Any bat as melee. For most of the game I had a pretty decent flow to combat where I'd charge up a crit with my pistol and run in close to delete things with my Force-a-Nature. Sawn Off barrel and Calibrated receiver quadruples your critical damage, and that's before perks. I literally one shot Swan just to see if I could. Deliverer ended up being my most used weapon because it's just plain good all around. The bats didn't get that much use until I finally put points into Blitz, then they got crazy fast.

With this stat spread you have access to absolutely no crafting perks, but you can still make basic upgrades or scavenge them off of other weapons. Staying in the Railroad's good graces lets you buy upgrades for Deliverer. There's a guaranteed bladed rocket bat in the Pack's area of Nuka World.

Stretch goals beyond just beating the game:

Leave Preston on read and peace out of Concord after grabbing the Perception bobblehead. Leave power armor, miniguns and settlement building to Heavy and Engineer.

Use the "sarcastic" option at every opportunity. If people don't regret initiating conversation with you, you're playing Scout wrong.

Collect every unique bat.

Complete all baseball related quests.

Capture the control point in Diamond City for the BLU team.

Buy the Home Plate.

Complete all of Nuka World and become Lord Bonk of Soda Mountain.

Institute ending just because I hate them and I can't think of a worse fate than giving Scout complete control.

[cloudy-cranium]

What kind of wish list do you have? That'd be a great idea for me but I'm not sure how to organise one.

Oh I have several systems I use to make this time of the year less of a nightmare, I'd love to share! Unfortunately I do not have a "succinct" setting so here, sorry :) here's the short version, too much under the cut.

TL;DR: Steps to an easy gift list:

1, REUSE your lists each year.

1b, LONG LISTS! Yeah no. Longer than that.

2, Categories can help

2b, Steal gift ideas from others!!

3, for REAL change your options up

4, Be specific about what you actually want

Wishlists were a pain for me for a long time. Eventually I got lazy and then I got smart. I also listened to complaints people had about others' wishlists, and tried to avoid their issues. I've used like one list for I think the last 4 years now, just refreshed. I have it in categories mostly to help me.

Tip 1: Refresh it every year. Instead of starting from scratch every season, when people start asking for my new list I just pull up last year's and delete everything I received/bought myself/just don't really need anymore.

Tip 1b: Make your list long!! Too long to be able to get everything. That lets you refresh next year, but it also gives people more options to choose from (vital) and reduces their anxiety about getting you the same thing as someone else.

Tip 2: This is optional but I use categories. They help me get more specific ideas, organize my thoughts, can help people narrow ideas down or help with off-list gift inspiration, and can also help people add to their own lists.

**Categories: these are arbitrary and all include miscellaneous items automatically. It's just a tool. Mine are Dog Things, Hobby, Home/Personal, and Kitchen - the dog things are on their own because they don't fit anywhere else; 'Kitchen' has its own category because it's one of my biggest categories personally. Other than that, personalize it: Art Supplies. Programming. Sports & Outdoors. Tools. Books. Games. Whatever's good for you**

Tip 2b: ask all your family/friends to give you their list and then steal their ideas :) works like a charm. I'll add some of mine at the end.

Tip 3: VARIETY. IT'S IMPORTANT. Some people want to be able to drop a lot of money on something you'll definitely like - maybe all your siblings want to buy you that gaming system together. Include it (at least for inspiration). Ask for that weighted blanket you really want. Don't feel bad for including expensive options. Some people want less expensive things - you want a LOT of these, especially easy ones: candy or treats, bath bombs/nails/face masks, candles/wax melts/incense you like, stickers, fun note pads, socks etc. (When gifting, these are helpful to add with a smaller item so it brings a little extra bonus.)

Some people want to buy you something useful. Some people want to buy you something FUN! Some people want to help you by buying something you need anyway; some want to gift you something you can't justify buying yourself but still really want. Include all of these! Give people options!!

TELL PEOPLE WHERE TO GET GIFT CARDS YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE!!! These are such a helpful inclusion!!! Some people are just gift card people. If you don't want generic amaz*n/walmart/fast food gift cards, TELL PEOPLE what stores & restaurants you already go to, especially for things you enjoy. If they can give you 5 nice boba teas one one card, or gift you clothes by putting $50 on a piece of plastic for you instead of actually trying to pick out something you want themselves, they'll do it!

Tip 4: Specificity. Some things speak for themselves, but if you write one word per item on your list, expect to get some things that are technically what you wrote but definitely not what you wanted. To avoid this, list scents/colors/brands/qualities you like ('over-the-ear squishy headphones [noise-canceling?]' is better than 'headphones,' where once I got gifted a new pair of the exact set I hated and was trying to replace); the specific use of the item you need ('spice/food organizers,' 'room organizers,' 'closet organizers,' and several other things can't be substituted for each other); A LINK to an option you like (!!! I learned this from my sister-in-law, where every list item has "like this:" and a link to a model that she already likes. The links will also sho similar items, stores she trusts, more details than you could ever write down & more); okay I got tired of writing. You get the gist. BUT If you include CLOTHES YOU MUST INCLUDE SIZES. NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS. SIZES. Styles too if you don't wanna get fucked over (or!! gift cards!!!!)

Those are the things that do the most for making my life easier. I'll drop a list of examples to steal! Sorry this got away from me lol thanks for coming to my TEDtalk!!

Examples of things in my categories: Dog Stuff (toys she likes, sweater size, things like a better leash or big toy or bed); Hobby (DICE. game accessories. yarn & fibre tools. hair dye things, hard-to-find niche parts, nice markers/paper, art tools, materials, fan merch, new hobbies you want to try, instruction books, instruments, cards, GIFT CARDS to places I already go); Home/Personal (speakers/headphones/other tech, books [please god be specific here], albums, decor/organization, a new vacuum, tools you find yourself needing, stuff for your window/deck/garden, along with clothes I might want and relevant sizes, yoga mat, coats/hats/clothes for the weather, memberships or subscriptions); Kitchen (replacement dishes, nice appliances, accessories, high-quality ingredients, more tools I'd like but can't afford)

[scoobydoodean]

Curious since everytime i see your blog you place yourself as some sane anti bullying saint, what exactly is the point of sharing a post by someone solely complaining about who is reblogging their posts, i doubt the wincest tag was used ofcourse, they likely went and checked the blogs and are monitoring reblogs then had to make a declaration of how sick they are bcz someone rebogged the post. Is this not unfandom behaviour? If someone starts whining about interaction best thing to do is ignore ofcourse and they are entitled to say what they want and interact how they want (perhaps shouldn't run such a neutral public poll but whatevs) instead of provoking or sharing but anyways till this point what's your intent of haha so many wincest blogs on that post. Your entire blog is so reactionary as a dean stan and its fandom faction its just so weird to me how your entire stick is complaining about stans. But whatever. It just very much seems like an invitation to bully blogs for reblogging and existing.

Hi. I never intend to cast myself as an "anti bully saint". I try to be thoughtful about what I reblog and post, but I have absolutely come up short before, as we all do. I think we can all try to do better and be more thoughtful all of the time.

I make fun of stans, yes—including at times Dean stans and JA stans (who are very adjacent to my space). I find SPNblr and its many various little segments fascinating to explore in their depravity and complexity and everything. Sometimes SPNblr is hilarious, sometimes it's embarassing, sometimes it's toxic, sometimes it's utterly unhinged. I like to explore it with my telescope and my compass and my map. Regular old Dora the Explorer over here.

Speaking about all our various groups in general and certain elements in them (with no names, no identifying info) is very different from targeting individual specific people and their posts by screenshotting them to mock them behind a person's back in a circle, or sending people hate mail. Wincest shippers have received a lot of hate in the SPNblr space, but that does not make them a protected class who I am not allowed to talk about in a general sense when they Do Things™️. Among some wincest shippers, there is an extreme amount of cognitive dissonance about what exactly some of the other people in the space are like and a naive belief that conduct is always appropriate in that community, and that is simply not true.

All of that said, let me tell you what happened in the christ-figure bracket, because I was there, Gandalf—before OP erased the evidence of what was going on. OP made a single post expressing discomfort, which I thought was funny. I reblogged it because I thought it was funny. It seemed to me based on their tone, that OP was approaching the situation with humor. I may be wrong about that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ However, the reaction to what they said was over the top from some individuals. I think a lot of people didn't see what went on however because OP deleted it pretty fast, but I did see it because it was still there on my first reblog.

In the notes of that post, there were, in fact, several wincest shippers fucking with OP trying to get themselves blocked on purpose. There were 3-4 reblogs with gifs and/or text referencing wincest including something to the effect of, "I hope Sam got Dean to fuck him on Easter Sunday". These things were stated in an attempt to mock and upset the OP and bait a block. I reblogged the same post again talking to my friend in tags, and said, #prev#there were so many wincest shippers on that post when I reblogged it. OP blocked them all now. Pretty funny.#but also sorry op RIP inbox/notifs. When I said that, I did not mean wincest shippers just existing on the post and reblogging things and getting blocked for it. I meant some wincest shippers intentionally trying to upset the OP with what they were adding to the post. By that point, OP had blocked those accounts. Then someone sent OP some fanfiction. I'm not sure if that occurred on the previous post or was DM'd to them. This got Sam kicked out of the christ-figure poll entirely. This is both extremely funny to me, and also I think a deserved outcome for the people who were being Like That™️, who did happen to come from the wincest community.

[the-ghost-in-my-dreams]

Scott Richie's Installations

The transportation company found?

I think I found the last piece of the puzzle. In the beginning, I had done background checks on as many people, places, and things, like a lot. And I remember for Raymond, although he had been working at Amazon, another employer came up by the name Richie's Installations, with a starting date of Oct. 2022. When I looked it up, there was limited data and the only names that came up was Scott Richie. So it went nowhere because I just didn't know enough.

Fast forward to today and guess what, I found the transportation company mentioned in the ad I featured as they were looking for investors at the time. This is new information I am revealing. What got me thinking about all this is a hate message I received one time that mentions two names. Eric and Richard. The message said they were going to beat me up this and that, and that I was airing Eric and Richard's laundry out and to shut up about it basically. Ever since I wondered what it was about really, but I guess at the time I must of did something or posted something that I got right. Well I figured it out finally. First I wondered who this Eric was. Since I found Joseph name is Joseph I ruled him out. The only Eric I know that I have seen involved in this criminal network and that I have mentioned is actually his middle name. It has to be Gabe Eric S. I am pretty sure the message was referring to him. Now Richard, is this Richie's Installations post that I since deleted but I mentions Scott Richie. Upon looking it up again tonight, another name came up as a relative, Richard Lee Ritchie. So I am assuming he is referring this Richie who must also run the company as he is a relative of Scott Richie.

Now keeping that in mind, I must of missed this new information in the search but it is a transportation carrier while there is other business under Richie's Installations, and the Richie's name. I'm including a screenshot of the site and the link to it. Notice how the S is capitalized. So if your good with puzzled, you will then see the initial RS for Raymond Silva! And knowing how overconfident they are and over zealous, I can imagine they would do that to themselvess.

Looking at a map you can see that Whittier is just above this location and just above Los Angeles and Anaheim. I think I smell fraud but that is just me. I imagine from information already posted the one driver is no other that Raymond Raydawg Silva and maybe even under the name Clockwork Boy. We do know from this site there must of been a contract signed if this were to be legit. This is brand new I am going to see what else I can find stay tuned.

[the-firebird69]

These guys have seen us to the work they know we can then we can get in a timely basis and their thing is they don't know if they should do it because they're getting kicked out and they really know it okay they know that they're asked to leave. You're playing kind of calls for it and they say I don't want to leave stuff behind but they're leaving and stuff that's actually theirs. What we say is you're leaving to make sense but we'd like to buy the land, so they don't get it now they're starting to understand it and they want to sit down and meet about it

Other areas of concern the horrible treatment our son is receiving is said to be cascading down and it's not it's my individuals here who always think they have a chance of kidnapping him. And they try everyday so he sees it all the time wait too many times. We're going to cut it short and never allow it again it's way too much we're going to start today. We hv a few people who don't understand the law at all and they simply have to leave real fast. It's terrible. And it's going to be a retribution against those people

We also have a lot of scofflass here they talked about in the meeting I'm being threatened to lower our Shields to try getting into it so I'm not going to start tightening up and then it's got a bolster elsewhere and it's happening and they're doing it and we're doing it. And thank God for this meeting. And it's necessary. They were moving now we're doing the job. It's a heartache cuz I can't stand you people you're stupid and they're wanting around him saying this dumb yesterday I turned it over to them and said you're dumber than a f****** pile of s*** and get away from me to some idiot the guy moves on some idiots laughing and making fun of him and said you put your s*** is so old and rancid nobody should listen to you but you don't have memories people try to get mad so he goes don't get mad he's so dumb you're just going to get in trouble after all that they just walk around moping. Mitch McConnell was sitting there sullen with a tear in his eye and he knew what you were going through and his gifted as well but he does the job. Just telling people to shut up and leave him alone. You heard you said whatever you said to finally it stood up to leave and he says I wonder who's moving me looks around and he saw Tommy f I said we can't even Target that guy and he's our own and he's doing the most of it so he organized people to do it it really made a big difference it made a huge difference today and tonight was what he did and people follow what he's saying is it growing moving to resist attacking the United States and he started it and he's got about half the force now but it's small now but it's going to get bigger when people realize that they're not going to back down it's going to get worse and worse and worse and they've got to stop doing it. My son says pray for Mitch it's the right thing for him to do it's probably too late but in history he'll be known as someone who's gifted and can think straight and for his people and himself and it's very rare and we acknowledge that it's past that point and people don't care this country doesn't love you for what your people are doing it hates you and what you doing is evil and he said oh there too but because you guys were right there in the military where we needed to be. It's time to tear up again and said these times are awful and we need to leave yes they don't want you here at all

The worst proceeding and the war is proceeding and the idiots are at the borders and they're in the ocean and they're trying to head this way and they are too close the submarines are within 500 miles and are being deleted the fleet itself is at 700 they've been told or you'll be fired upon and they're being hit and they are not withdrawing but hopefully it's trying to heat up and it's being hit. We also watching Trump and he's saying some stuff that's very outrageous and outlandish and he needs to be stopped I'm sitting in teams and he's saying is we need more a lot more common sense that I have it of course but a lot more a lot of us need more common sense he says he's going to do something and doesn't sound like it means it who cares he's got to go in and I mean into the grave and we're starting to understand that these people say that all the time and I'm not saying arsalenient I'm just saying it needs to happen faster and more often. We're getting to it now right now we're sending people in tons of them it is a huge huge huge influx.

The fleet is falling most of it will be gone in minutes the army's tried to advance and are destroyed

The morlok give the order to stream in. And BJ get some idea did some of these companies they said they bought and the max say they bought and we see them with a little bit of stock she's trying to pick one that looks like us and our son says narrow it down to eight and then like four so he's doing that and that's what we're doing please don't smell like this but it's stupid the max do it all the time. Oh he says. It's got four or five companies wants to bid them against each other this isn't there this huge holding company it'll be meet with Mac and it says oh yeah torture. So he's going to do that because he's going to call up and order a hundred and they make a little complex and it's nice I'm going to do it and with accelerated systems. We're going to go ahead and do it and just remind people that we clear the lot get the utilities in set the pad in one day get the Jackson and drop the apartment on it the next day and grout it. And the landscaping so two and a half days or so or less depending cuz you can get multiple trades you have an apartment complex and BJ says why not do it and try it and it's about ownership if we give give him the owner ship rights of course hand him the title to BGA and we built it especially about him owning it but it's about us building it so people want to do it so they're going to run this test they have the plans and we have a lot and we're going to meet we can do exploratory and prep is going forwards it's a good idea

Other stuff we're doing is take a little time up in Tampa with all these shops and stores we want to go in all of them held up because of one rule that you can't be an out of town contractor so we're looking for someone to JV with and they don't want to and I mostly and they say we'll build the whole thing it takes too long so contractor wants to do a deal and so we might get a call or two we do understand how this is. There's a local hire issue out there and they were pretty sure about it but they're not building anything. So the contractor wants to get to work and it said we'll look at the JV terms and has to be like 51 49 for labor. That's probably the easy part that's true so we're going forwards and requesting some terms from one of the companies cuz we talked about it right now too

One more thing I do understand you need stuff done that someone's pestering me and it's not him says a little bit but not much and I know that we're doing some dangerous business here important stuff and someone's rolling in on us I understand that pick any one of these idiots so I think I will

Thor Freya

[penissirius]

You getting Death threats from 'fans' - Hyung Line

Stray kids x male

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: S/N- Ship name, it only pops up once but like its still important information- You're in a group with 4 other people under JYP. There is a face claim used in one or two of them, if you don't like it you can reimagine it. JYP allowed you to be public about your relationship because the Stray Kids dating ban was already lifted and you were dating before your group debuted.  

AUTHOR NOTE: So it kinda feel like this is more Hate then getting actual death threats from them. Theres like mentions of being told to k*ll yourself and like one actual death threat tho. I hope it's not too bad T_T I just want it to be gooood. I was also listening to my girl group playlist while writing this so I've been vibingggg. These are all a little longer because I have no life and I love to write endlessly. But

WARNINGS: Death threats, self harm, m/n being told to k*ll himself, cussing

FEMALE ALINGED PLEASE DNI <3

Bang Chan

He was sitting in his studio on vlive filming another episode of Chans Room. Jisung, M/ns best friend who had joined him earlier, looked up from his phone telling him that M/n was gonna be here in a few minutes. M/n also being a trainee under JYP made it easier to see his idol boyfriend. He had recently been put into a group that was very close to debuting but was receiving quite a bit of hate for always being seen around Stray Kids and being too close to Jisung and Chan. Neither his group, AXIZ, nor Stray Kids knew about the hate that M/n was receiving as he kept it to himself. None of the members had ever seen a rude comment or post about him seeing as he was always quick to delete them or their managers distracted them, that was until M/n walked into the studio. “M/n!”, Jisung said from his spot on the couch. “Hi guys”, said boy walked over giving Jisung a high five and Chan a kiss on the cheek before sitting down. A good 30 minutes went by of the 3 of them laughing and joking around with each other and Stay. M/n looked at his phone which had the vlive open so he could see comments and seemed to notice that the veiwer count was going up really fast suddenly making him a bit nervous. Chan noticed that some of the new people coming in were XYs and said hi to M/n’s groups' fandom. While scrolling through the comments M/n started finding more and more hate directed towards him and less nice comments and questions, he only hoped that the other 2 boys didn't notice. They had stopped messing around with tracks and decided to just answer questions and interact with both fandoms some minutes later.

M/nSuckz25: M/n you should kys

CHanLover97: M/n better leave chan alone or ill kill him myself instead

XYForLife: AXIS would be so much better without him lol

AXIS_FanAccount: OT4 honestly….

Chan had seen these comments stick out to him through all the thousands begging for his attention. “Wait. Hold on,” he said looking at the camera looking dead serious. Jisung and M/n looked up at him from where they were playing a game together. “I don’t know why all of a sudden there's so much hate in the comments but that's not okay and the fact that you guys call yourselves Stays and XYs but are telling M/n to kill himself is fucking not acceptable”, Chan was lowkey pissed at this point and M/n was panicking cause he never planned for anyone to find out. Jisung noticed and being the caring friend he is was also pissed at the fandoms. He took m/n out of the room to help calm him down while chan continued to go off of Stays and XYs. And boy was he doing that “M/n is the most amazing, kind, beautiful, and talented person I've ever met. He tries so hard and worked to earn the spot in AXIS that he has. I will always love and be with him so sorry to break any hopes you had of getting rid of him. Giving people death threats and telling them to kill themself is never acceptable. I'm very disappointed in all of you because no one even tried to defend him at all. I'm ending this here and I don't think ill be doing another one for a while.” Chan ended the live and then went to comfort his boyfriend. A couple days later JYP released a statement saying that the debut of AXIS was to be postponed until further notice seeing as other members and JYP himself were very upset with the fandoms and to give M/n some time.

Lee Know

Lee knows being the tsundere ish person he is probably found out by himself when you weren't around and wasn't too happy about it. Minho was scrolling through Instagram on his secret personal account liking some of M/ns photos and a few edits of AXIS that he had found. He got a notification that you're group account had just posted, he had nothing better to do went to go look at it. He saw a picture of the whole group laughing and sitting on the floor in one of the many practice rooms in the JYP building. He smiled as you looked so happy sitting and talking with your members, he definitely couldn't wait until they debuted and he could shower his boyfriend in more love and support than he already does. He was going to go comment something stupid and funny like he usually does on the group posts but stops when he looked at them taking a little minute to read some of them.

AXISOT4: 5 is an odd number for AXIS and honestly they should just get rid of M/n and make it better 

M/nHater: M/n is so horrible and doesn't deserve to be in AXIS honestly. Maybe he should cut a little deeper tonight lmao 

TeaPotGurl: The reason M/ns always wears long sleeves and pants is probably that he cuts. Not deep enough apparently XD

SKZFangirl: Hey M/n Wrist check?

IloveLeeMinho: M/n just kill yourself or someone will most definitely do it for you 

To say that Minho was pissed would be a huge understatement. He was fucking livid. He switched over to the group stray kids account making a post. 

TheRealStrayKids

Hey, Stay. This right here is the most beautiful and amazing person I've ever met and I'm asking Stays to go give him some love. The amount of hate that has been in the comments of his and AXIS's official posts is horrible. Telling someone to kill themself or giving them death threats is never okay and I'm disappointed in the XYs and Stays that have been giving him hate. Stop it. - Lee Minho 

M/ns#1Fan: #StopM/nHate

Your comment was liked by TheRealStrayKids

LinoxM/n: :( he doesn't deserve any of this hate 

StayXY: I don't understand why people would hate on him I mean look at his beautiful smile

After posting that he quickly got dressed in sweatpants and his shoes before exiting his dorm in a hurry quickly telling his members that he’d be back later. He speeds to the AXIS dorm where he knows M/n will be. Minho knocks on the door and it is immediately opened by Juno the leader of AXIS. “Oh Minho I'm glad you’re here, M/n won't leave his room, and he's been crying since earlier this morning when the group photos were posted.” Minho nodded hurriedly, “Yeah I saw the comments and came immediately”. “Well come in, he's in his room and I'm sure he'll be more than happy for you to here with him through this.” Although it took Minho a little while to convince M/n to open the door and let him in when he finally did, Lee know made sure to give M/n his hoodie and spend the rest of the night cuddling him and trying to make him feel better while the rest of AXIS (especially the Hyung line) addressed the hate towards their youngest. 

Changbin Seo

The whole group of Stray Kids was sitting in one of the practices rooms messing around on vlive. Some of them were dancing, others were joking and talking to the Stays, and a few were sitting on their phones. Changbin and Seungmin were sitting on one of the couches watching everyone mess around and scrolling. The lovely pig bunny boy was smiling looking through the pictures of M/n saved on his phone when he got a notification from the AXIS VLive account. 

[AXIS] starting live - Axis: Maknae line live! <3

He quickly connected his headphones clicking on the notification. He smiled wider when he saw the big smiles of M/n and Xiao as they said hello to all the XYs and people in the live. The stays noticed that his smile got bigger and a lot of people commented and cooed at him. “ ‘Changbin looks so happy and it's adorable’ ”, Felix looked back at him after reading that and smiled looking back at the camera, “yeah M/n probably texted him, they're so cute together”. Changbin was watching the live with Seungmin looking over his shoulder every once in a while. M/n and Xiao were playing around showing each other the tricks they can do and the different levels of flexibility they have. They were inside of one of the practice rooms not too far from the one skz is in. Eventually, they got tired and sat down to joke around and talk with their fandom. Changbin was smiling watching how happy M/n looked playing and talking with his fellow Manake. “I honestly don't know what I would've done if me and M/n didn't makeup back then.”, Xiao said smiling with his arm around M/n and messing up his hair. After he said that there were a lot of comments of confusion on what he meant by that so they decided to explain what happened. M/n swatted his Hyung by a few months' hand away before speaking, “When we were tiny little trainees like 2 years ago, me and Xiao used to butt heads a lot. We didn't get along and we used to make side comments to try to piss each other off whenever we had classes together.” They both laughed before Xiao started speaking, “The little brat used to piss me off a lot, he has a weird way of showing admiration and he jokes around a lot.” M/n swats his arm, “The big conflict we had was really over something stupid-” Xiao looked at him, “The last cookie was not stupid! I wanted it!” “I hadn't gotten one yet! And I bought you a better cookie afterward to apologize!”, M/n pouts looking at him. Changbin and Seungmin laughed at the adorable interaction between the two, Changbin had given him one of his headphones a little while after he noticed he was watching it in silence. After they had told the story the comments of the live blew up in reactions, some good but most bad. As they were reading the comments, Suengmin realized that most of the bad ones were directed at M/n. Eventually the two maknaes started to read the comments again. 

XiaoFangirl: Xiao and M/n got into an argument? It was probably M/n's fault cause Xiao is perfect.

AXIS4: Wow M/n was getting into arguments with the group before debut.

M/nsucks: That just proves he doesn't deserve to be in the group

AuthorIsOutOfNameIdeas: honesty he should just go back to cutting like he did when we were in middle school

CreativityZero: He should skip the cutting and just kill himself all together lol

M/n read these and got really quiet looking to the side. Xiao realized this and got really upset, turning the comments off. “If you guys can't say anything nice about M/n then you won't be able to comment at all. First of all we are human and we are gonna argue over little things sometimes. The argument was equally both of our faults and that was 2 years ago, the way we as a group interact has changed! M/n is and always will be the thing that holds this group together without him there would be no AXIS.”, Xiao was pissed and wanted to end the live but their manager wanted them to be on until a certain time. “Come on M/n, we can practice'', Xiao grabs M/n's arm and pulls him up and to the middle of the room. In the Skz practice room there is a visibly angry changbin and upset suengmin. The rest of the live they danced around and practiced but everyone could see that M/n wasn't all there. After it was over the amount of time that their manager wanted them to be live for Xiao was quick to come over to the camera out of breath and signing off. “Sorry but this will be the end of the live, i don't know when the next Makane live will be but it will probably not be in 2 days as scheduled.” Xiao was honestly annoyed and sorta pissed off at the fans but tried his best to keep a smile on his face. Xiao waved M/n, who was previously standing in front of the mirror still marking choreo, over to say goodbye even though he didn't want to. M/n quickly said goodbye with a fake bright smile and a wave before going back to the mirrors to continue working on the choreography. The live then ended with Xiao waving and M/n dancing in the background. Changbin got off the vlive app and texted M/n that he wants to see him when the SKZ live ends. For the rest of the live Changbin was seen angry as hell sloached with his arms crossed. Some stays made a comment on how hot he looked and the others kinda laughed it off and changed the topic when they saw how mad he was and the look Suengmin was giving them. 

*time skip because Changbins part is too long*

When the Stray kids' live finally ended Changbin was quick to grab his stuff and run to the practice room 3ish doors down from the one he was in, leaving Seungmin to explain to their leader and other members what had happened. When he bursted into the room he saw a very tired and very sweaty M/n who had gotten very spooked when Changbin came in suddenly while he was practicing. Changbin took one look at M/n and didn't say anything, just opening his arms for him. M/n didn't hesitate to run straight into his boyfriend's strong comforting arms. M/n started to cry and breakdown after over an hour of holding it all in and overworking himself. Changbin just held him and let him cry before picking him up and taking him over to the couches where he gave him all the comfort, love and reassurance M/n could ever need. Changbin spent the rest of the day and night in the AXIS dorm with M/n. The next day there were many posts and articles about the situation and JYP was quick to do something about it, giving AXIS a break to help M/n and say multiple things about the ongoing hate.

Hwang Hyunjin

Similar to Lee Know, M/n wasn’t present when the lovely Drama Llama found out about the hatred towards him. The hate has come from both XYs and Stays, and has been happening for the past few months. M/n never told anyone about all the hate not wanting to worry his members or upset the members of Stray Kids plus his boyfriend. He had planned to keep it a secret from them all as long as he could. Well that was until Hyunjin had found out about it by himself during one of his personal lives. Hyunjin was reading comments and answering, having fun as he usually does when someone asks about M/n. “ ‘How's you and M/n going?’ Oh! We’re doing good! He treats me so well and I love him so much!”, he smiles at the camera and a lot of stays cooed at how big his smile was and the amount of love you could see in his eyes. Hyunjin was going on telling some random story about M/n that he found cute and some of the wholesome stays were awwing along with him. He had finished his little story with a smile on his face reading the comments. He was answering more questions when a certain one stuck out to him.

S/NEndgame: How do you feel about all the hate M/n has been getting? 

Hyunjin looked at the camera very confused. “M/nnie is getting hate? Why didn't I know? Noone has told me and I haven't seen it!”, he got more and more upset the more he spoke. One stay had sent a link to a short video that someone made talking about the hate towards M/n. In said video there was a clip from one of M/n’s personal lives, where someone had asked why neither of groups had said anything about the hate or hinted towards knowing, they also added a side comment and said it probably because they hate M/n as well anyways. M/n’s response to that was, “They haven't said anything about it because they don't know. I delete all comments before the members can see them, don't ever bring it up, and the only people that know are my manager and Stray Kids’ Manager and they work together with me to make sure they don't find out so it's all good!”, M/n managed to say all that with a smile on his face and that was even more sad. It then skipped to another clip where a worried fan had asked why he didn't tell any of them especially Hyunjin, he responded with another smile “I don't want to worry all of my members when we’re so close to debut and that’ll just push us farther back, and Stray Kids has so many other things to worry about, I also don't wanna stress out Hyunjin I love him too much to do that to him! Not even JYP himself knows. I don't want to be a bother, I can deal with it”. By the end of the 3 minute video Hyunjin was slightly crying and very upset. He asked the Stays if they had known about this and the answer to him was alarming. A small percent of  Stays said that they didn't  know, another small percent did know but promised M/n never to tell but the other half of the Stays they had a different opinion. Comments upon comments fled into the small space of the phone screen, he could only catch and read so many of them but he knew the majority of them were hate towards M/n. 

FuckM/n: honestly he deserves the hate, it's not like he's actually talented.

IveTruelyRunOutOfNames: its said that M/n has started cutting again

ButtLicker23: hopefully he cuts deep enough to bleed out and die

Hater45: he should just leave the group and go die somewhere, no one would even care

Hyunjin started crying more by the time he read those comments and the hundreds of ones just like it. His first thought was to immediately check on his boyfriend and ask him thousands of questions. He knew though that the first thing he’d have to do was deal with this situation first. He looked at the camera with tears streaming down his face. “Why would you guys say that about M/n! He is amazing and talented and so handsome! I love him more than anything in the world! He is the reason I perform so well for you guys, the reason I learned to love myself so much, and the reason I am as happy as I am every single day! The fact that you would say that about any person is absolutely horrible! But you have the nerve to talk bad and wish death on the love of my life and talk about the anxiety and struggle he has been facing for the past few years! I truly don't understand how you could say that about anyone. But you have the nerve to hate on him and wish him more self-harm and then turn around and say I'm your bias?!” Hyunjin shook his head, willing himself to stop crying. “That's horrible, I dislike that very much. Either you guys apologize to him or stop calling yourself a stay. I can guarantee that the rest of Stray Kids and AXIS feel this way as well. I'm signing off now, don't expect another live or any bubble messages any time soon.” Hyunjin turned the live off and then ran out of his room down the hall into AXIS’ dorm straight into M/n's room. The other members thought nothing of it with this being sorta normal. M/n turned to the door when he saw him and smiled “hi baby!”. Hyunjin walked straight over to him and pulled his hoodie sleeve up looking at the various cuts sadly and starting to cry again. “Why didn't you tell me about this and the hate!” M/n looked away ashamed and shocked that he found out, “I didn't want to be a bother or a burden on you” Hyunjin immediately looked up at him kissing all over his face and down his neck and arms to accentuate every word he said, “Doll You Will Never Be A Burden Nor A Bother To me Ever” After placing one final kiss to his arms, the rest of the day was spent with the tall blonde patching up his boyfriends arms properly and clinging to him with the promise that they'd tell their CEO and both respective groups first thing in the morning about the issue on hand. 

AUTHORS NOTE: By the length of some of these you can clearly tell who my bias is and when my writer's block had finally left me T~T but This took me way longer to write than I'd like to admit. But it's finally done and I can post for the first time in awhile, i'm sorry this took so long but with school, thousands of doctor appointments and the drama I ended up getting caught in the middle of I had like no free time to write T_T and then my personal computer broke so now I’m stuck writing on my school computer all the time but I promise as soon as I come back from spring break I will find a good posting schedule.

[jwnchstr]

Close as Strangers | d.r3

summary: daniel trying to reach you while you’re hospitalised.

characters: daniel ricciardo x you!reader

warning: plays with your emotion, mention of corvid-19

other fics masterlists | other f1 fics masterlists | f1 imagines

*   *   *

     “y/n? hey! it’s... it’s me danny. i... uh... i heard you fell sick the other day. um... sorry i didn’t reach you any sooner. i-- i got caught up with my job. if you got this message, please call me.”

     you pressed a button and the next voice message played in your ears.

     “um, y/n? it’s me again. you’re probably resting and recovering, right now. i shouldn’t... i shouldn’t be worried about you knowing that you’re very well taken care of, but please call me back.”

     once that message ended, you left your phone beside your ear on the pillow and let the system plays the next voice message.

     “look, i know this sounds despearate, but please call me. they wouldn’t let me visit you, but i need to hear from you. please, call me.”

     the system in your phone brought you to another voice message coming from the same person -- the one you didn’t realise you missed the most until you’re lying on your hospital bed and can’t do shit -- but knowing exactly what he was going to say, you quickly stop them. you cannot hear any more begging from him. the sound of his voice hurts you, just like how this illness hurts you in the chest.

     you felt like deleting daniel’s messages. it’s not because you hated them, but it’s actually the opposite. you’re just as desperate to see him and that’s what scares you the most because what if you didn’t survive this?

     there were a lot more voice messages received from your friends and relatives. most of them wishing you a fast recovery and hope to see you soon. however, little did they know, you have a very thin chance at living and they have a very thin chance of meeting you again. this illness is stealing your oxygen away. your chest gets very tight every time you inhale for clean air. and it hurts everywhere.

     indeed, you’re being quarantined for having the corvid-19 symptoms. you don’t know how and from whom you got it. you were fine one day, but then you had a high fever along with a very bad sore throat. the next thing you know, you’re warded because you’re very low of O2. and everyone started to get worried about you including daniel.

     you haven’t had a chance to get to know daniel that long. there were only three weeks before you were hospitalised. you didn’t remember how it happened. you just knew that you two clicked just as soon as you started a conversation with him. he was funny and talented. meanwhile, you passed his vibe check. but sometimes, what hurts the most is being so close.

     this stupid illness. fuck to those created this virus just to wipe half of the world’s population. who are you to do that? god? thanos? but even thanos was defeated by the avengers, at the end. and you? in your actual world? who are going to kill those people who invented this virus?

     you lay on your bed with oxygen mask on your face. the oxygen tank stood visibly beside you. the heart monitor beeped very slowly in your ear as if it’s telling you that your life is ending soon. but how soon? you wish you knew. even if you’re destined to die, you hope it’s easy and fast.

     after hearing the last voice message, you scroll your email inbox, your text messages, your personal instagram and twitter account. they’re filled with pictures of you smiling and being happy accompanied with the best wishes of recovery. all you can do is reply a gratitude for them remember you, but really. all you want is a friend.

     not that you don’t have a friend. you have plenty of good friends who would be there for your bad times, but are they going to understand your situation now?

     you found yourself scrolling through your contacts list and stopped when daniel’s name appeared. your finger lingered in the air for a few seconds, thinking if it’s worth calling him. after all, he was the only person who’d been leaving you multiple voice messages. decided not to want to make him worried, your thumb finally press the call button.

     “hello? y/n?” daniel sounded unsure at first.

     the wariness in his voice made you think that he must be thinking bad thing was happening to you. it might not be you who was calling. it might be one of your family members to call him. maybe to tell him that you’re gone. after all, it was in your will that you want daniel to be the first person to know if anything happens to you

     you took a deep breath and sighed as if hearing his voice lifed all the stress on your shoulders. “hello, danny.” your voice was weak. you were struggling to breathe, but for danny you tried hard.

     “y/n?” you heard him excusing himself from his little crowd. “how-- how are you, sweetheart?”

     you smiled to yourself, hearing the nickname he’d gotten for you. much like dean winchester to every girl he sees.

     “i’m... good.” you coughed. it’s so hard to talk, but you know you needed to hear his voice. you’ve only known daniel for three weeks, but as you talk to him, it felt as if you’ve known him for years.

     you felt like daniel were about to say something about the cough. you waited for it, but it didn’t come. you imagine his assuring smile that didn’t reach his sad eyes as he said, “good to hear from you.”

     “how’s work?”

     “hard that you’re not here.” daniel was always being honest with you. you know how your presence was one of the reasons behind his motivation to drive every race. “everyone is worried about you, sweetcheeks. they talk about you everyday. they hope you’ll recover soon. they miss you.”

     “aw, i miss them, too.” you smiled as you remembered how nice and welcoming you feel whenever the F1 crews are around. yes, some might treat you like you’re just a visitor, but some actually treat you good despite being an outsider. daniel brought you to his workplace as his support system since he knew you.

     “and... i...” daniel’s voice cracked. he cleared his throat before continuing. “i’ve missed you, y/n. i’m not lying.”

     you let out another cough when you’re chuckling at his brave confession. “we’ve known each other for merely three weeks, danny. how can you miss me that much?”

     “we’ve had so much laughs together... silly jokes... i miss doing them with you.”

     you stayed quiet, touched and not knowing what to say.

     “you have to be tough, okay? you’re a fighter. i know you are. fight for your family. fight for yourself. fight for me, too. i’ll be here when you’re out of the hospital.”

     “don’t wait for me.”

     “i will always wait for you.”

     there’s nothing you can say except to smile at yourself and wish daniel could hear the gratefulness in your silence.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

@la-criatura here's a followup that I think is interesting. It gives a handful of speculative reasons why people are miserable, not all of which I find compelling, but I think the two suggestions offered that best align with my anecdotal experience--and that I'm going to integrate into my personal belief system until I get a good reason otherwise--are that Americans gauge the health of the economy mainly by inflation and housing. The full article is below:

Earlier this month, a Financial Times poll of about 1,000 registered voters found that most Americans believe their financial situation has gotten worse since Joe Biden became president. The economist Claudia Sahm tweeted that the results were “impossible,” adding, “The vast majority of Americans are better off financially. Full stop”—before receiving so much pushback for her statement that she deleted the post. This online drama was part of a larger debate among economists, policy makers, and commentators who have different explanations for why Americans report negative assessments of the economy despite some objective positive measures.

Economists who agree with Sahm are heavily influenced by low unemployment, often considered the standard metric for how the economy is performing. Last month the unemployment rate was down to 3.9 percent. But it’s not just unemployment that’s headed in the right direction. The Consumer Price Index was unchanged. A new paper shows that wage inequality has fallen over the past three years, driven by workers leaving their old jobs for better-paying ones. The U.S. has been adding jobs at a record clip. And wages—adjusted for inflation—may have finally surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Despite these positive signs, the Financial Times poll was hardly the only survey to find widespread economic gloom. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index indicated in October that people remain “pessimistic” about the future. And an August CNN poll found that 75 percent of respondents rated economic conditions as very or somewhat poor.

Here are seven possible explanations for what’s going on.

1. People need a second to adjust.

COVID-19 caused an unprecedented social and economic crisis, including job loss for lots of people. In May 2020, roughly 60 million people reported that they had been unable to work in the preceding month because their employer had closed or lost business due to the pandemic. Then inflation kicked in, raising food, energy, rent, and housing prices.

Although price jumps are leveling off, it’s important to appreciate that economic conditions changed really fast in both directions, and people may need time to register what’s going on. One researcher found that although public opinion has “historically followed the business cycle” (it declines during recessions and improves during expansions), the difference now is that pay hasn’t been keeping up with inflation. That’s only just beginning to change. If job growth, wage growth, and low inflation all continue apace, people may well start to feel better about the economy.

Many of these polls, moreover, are not simply asking whether the economy is good; they’re asking whether Joe Biden’s economy is good. Even if respondents think conditions are improving, they’re rating the Joe Biden Economy based on the past two years, not just last month, and their perceptions may be baked in.

2. Inflation is just really that bad.

People seem to be more sensitive to inflation than to unemployment. The Financial Times poll found that 60 percent think avoiding inflation is more important than keeping good-paying jobs; just 30 percent favor the latter. Economists tend to think a good economy is one with a low unemployment rate, but for the public, that’s not enough.

One explanation for inflation sensitivity is that it hits everyone. Whether you’re a billionaire or a minimum-wage worker, you can see that prices have changed over the past few years. Conversely, even in periods of high unemployment, just a fraction of people lose their jobs. And although of course high unemployment has ripple effects beyond those laid off or fired, those effects are, by definition, indirect. Further, people may view raises or new jobs as fruits of their own labor, whereas inflation is out of their control, as the economist J. W. Mason argued last year. If someone has a good-paying job in an inflationary environment, they may tell a pollster that they’re doing well—but the economy is doing poorly.

3. Expectations are high.

During the pandemic, the federal government provided Americans unprecedented support. It stopped evictions; it dropped thousands of dollars into personal bank accounts; it paused student-loan repayments; it gave aid to unemployed workers; it provided tax breaks to parents of young children, and billions in aid to state and local governments. In doing so, the government may have raised expectations for what a “good economy” is supposed to feel like.

Given all of those supports, many people actually are doing worse on some measures than they were a few years ago: Real disposable personal income reached a high in March 2021 and has declined since then. In May, the economics writer Joey Politano noted that Americans had spent nearly all of the money they’d set aside during the pandemic. Put another way: In 2020 and 2021, Americans acquired new sources of income, which have since disappeared. If I found $10,000 on the ground one year, and was not so fortunate the next, I would be correct in telling a pollster that I’m worse off, even if I got a $5,000 raise.

Real wages are above where they were in January 2020, but they are below where they were in mid-2020. An added wrinkle is that most of the wage growth is accruing to low-income workers, which could explain why middle- and high-income workers don’t believe that the economy is doing better.

4. The rent is too damn high.

Housing affordability hit a historic low in August as high interest rates have meant that the typical family cannot afford to buy. Although inflation overall is slowing, shelter inflation is still rising.

If renters who want to own are frustrated, so are some of the so-called winners—those who have already bought their homes—because they feel locked in place by their low mortgage rate. Moving now comes with the high penalty of giving up that rate.

When asked about current conditions for buying a home, survey respondents are utterly despondent, and that could be coloring their overall perception of the economy. And of course, the main federal response to inflation has been to raise interest rates, which actually increases housing prices as mortgages and the cost of construction rise.

5. The biggest winners are at the bottom.

A new study showing declining inequality found that Americans whose incomes rank in the bottom 10 percent have seen their inflation-adjusted wages rise to new heights since the pandemic. Neither the 50th nor 90th percentile has seen similar real-wage growth. Perhaps that’s why a long-running index out of the University of Michigan found that those in the top third of the income distribution have seen the largest decline in consumer confidence, down 24 points in 2023 versus the 2000-to-2020 average. Consumer confidence among the bottom third has declined only 15 points.

Although in absolute terms, high-income people are doing better than low-income people, they may be more sensitive to the “costs” of a tight labor market.

Low unemployment—which is obviously good—does come with side effects. In a tight labor market, employers have a hard time finding workers for low pay, and a hard time retaining trained employees; customers experience worse service because of understaffed restaurants and retail establishments. These downsides may be felt more broadly than the benefits: Almost everyone with disposable income goes to restaurants or orders items online and interacts with customer-service representatives; not everyone has a new, better-paying job.

6. The media loves bad news.

When asked last month why “most people still don’t feel positive or feel good news about the economy,” Biden responded in part:

You all are not the happiest people in the world—what you report …You get more legs when you’re reporting something that’s negative. I don’t mean, I don’t mean you’re picking on me or I’m—just the nature of things. You turn on the television, and there’s not a whole lot about “boy saves dog as he swims in the lake.” You know?

Those who blame the media tend to emphasize the apparent gap between how people discuss their own financial situation and how they describe their feelings about the broader economy. According to the progressive economist Dean Baker, this gap “must be attributable to things that [people] are hearing about the economy from places like Fox News and the New York Times.” The media does have a negativity bias, which has some effect on how Americans perceive the state of the world. But when people are asked about the amount of negative or positive news they’ve heard about the economy, survey responses look relatively stable since 2020.

7. Democrats are bad cheerleaders.

A recent paper on partisanship and the economy finds that, going back to the Reagan administration, “individuals who affiliate with the party that controls the White House have systematically more optimistic economic expectations” than those who affiliate with the other party. That is, Democrats think the economy is good under Democratic presidents, Republicans under Republican presidents.

But Democrats may benefit less and suffer more from partisan cheerleading than Republicans, suggest two former Biden-administration economists. “When a Republican is in the White House, Republican survey respondents feel about 15 index points better than predicted about the economy, whereas Democrats feel around 6 index points worse,” they wrote recently. But when a Democrat is in the White House? Republicans feel 15 points worse and Democrats feel only six points better.

Beyond the question of why Americans’ feelings about the economy may have diverged from the actual economy is another, perhaps equally important question: Why are policy makers and commentators so eager to explain it—or explain it away?

I attribute all of this energy to a mad dash to set the narrative following the pandemic recession. Some believe that the government’s robust response to the crisis proves that we could stabilize working- and middle-class family finances in perpetuity. Others believe that ensuing inflation was too high a price to pay for those social supports. Yet others wish that policy makers would focus more on how their ideas and victories are translated through a fragmented media ecosystem.

Narrowly, this debate is about whether voters think the economy is good or bad, and why; the bigger issue is what lesson future politicians will draw about how to respond to recessions. Will they cower at the potential inflationary effects of fiscal stimulus? Will they require that any new social supports remain permanent rather than risk voters’ wrath when they are removed? Policy makers tend to overlearn the lessons from the last war, and every side is fighting to say what, exactly, those lessons are.

I will be curious to read the vituperative denials of the validity of this article's analysis, which is pasted below the cutoff:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” That question, first posed by Ronald Reagan in a 1980 presidential-campaign debate with Jimmy Carter, has become the quintessential political question about the economy. And most Americans today, it seems, would say their answer is no. In a new survey by Bankrate published on Wednesday, only 21 percent of those surveyed said their financial situation had improved since Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, against 50 percent who said it had gotten worse. That echoed the results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll from September, in which 44 percent of those surveyed said they were worse off financially since Biden’s election. And in a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week, 53 percent of registered voters said that Biden’s policies had hurt them personally.

As has been much commented on (including by me), this gloom is striking when contrasted with the actual performance of the U.S. economy, which grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the most recent quarter, and which has seen unemployment holding below 4 percent for more than 18 months. But the downbeat mood is perhaps even more striking when contrasted with the picture offered by the Federal Reserve’s recently released Survey of Consumer

The survey provides an in-depth analysis of the financial condition of American households, conducted for the Fed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Published every three years, it’s the proverbial gold standard of household research. The latest survey looked at Americans’ net worth as of mid-to-late 2022 and Americans’ income in 2021, comparing them with equivalent data from three years earlier. It found that despite the severe disruption to the economy caused by the pandemic and the recovery from it, Americans across the spectrum saw their incomes and wealth rise over the survey period.

The rise in median household net worth was the most notable improvement: It jumped by 37 percent from 2019 to 2022, rising to $192,000. (All numbers are adjusted for inflation.) Americans in every income bracket saw substantial gains, with the biggest gains registered by people in the middle and upper-middle brackets, which suggests that a slight narrowing of wealth inequality occurred during this time. In particular, Black and Latino households saw their median net worth rise faster than white households did—though the racial wealth gap is so wide that it narrowed only slightly as a result of this change.

A big driver of this increase was the rising value of people’s homes—and a higher percentage of Americans owned homes in 2022 than did in 2019. But households’ financial position improved in other ways too. The amount of money that the median household had in bank accounts and retirement accounts rose substantially. The percentage of Americans owning stocks directly (that is, not in retirement accounts) jumped by more than a third, from about 15 to 21 percent. The percentage of Americans with retirement accounts went from 50.5 to 54.3 percent, a notable improvement. And a fifth of Americans reported owning a business, the highest proportion since the survey began in its current form (in 1989).

Americans also reduced their debt loads during the pandemic. The median credit-card balance dropped by 14 percent, and the share of people with car loans fell. More significantly still, Americans’ median debt-to-asset, debt-to-income, and debt-payment-to-income ratios all fell, meaning that U.S. households had lower debt burdens, on average, in 2022 than they’d had three years earlier.

The gains in real income (in this case, measured from 2018 to 2021) were small—median household income rose 3 percent, with every income bracket seeing gains. But that was better than one might have expected, given that this period included a pandemic-induced recession and only a single year of recovery.

The picture the survey paints, then, is one of American households not only weathering the pandemic in surprisingly good shape, but ultimately also emerging from it in better financial shape than they were going in. And that, in turn, points to the effect of the U.S. policy response to the crisis: Stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, and the moratorium on student-loan payments boosted household income and balance sheets, helping people pay down debt and increase their savings. In the process, these policies mildly narrowed inequality.

The U.S. government’s aggressive response to the pandemic, including Biden’s stimulus spending, also helped the job market recover all its pandemic-related losses—and add millions of jobs on top. The resulting tight labor market has been a huge boon to lower-wage workers. In fact, because the Fed survey’s income data end in 2021, it understates the income gains for the bottom half of the workforce, and the shrinking income inequality they’ve produced.

Hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers (who make up about 80 percent of the American workforce) rose 4.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2023, for instance, ahead of the pace of inflation. And this was not anomalous: Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, crunched the numbers and found that real wages for that same sector of workers are not just higher than they were in 2019, but are now roughly where they would have been if we’d continued on the upward pre-pandemic trend.

The reason for this is simple: Low unemployment has translated into higher wages. As a recent working paper by Dube, David Autor, and Annie McGrew shows, the tight labor markets of the past few years have given lower-wage workers more bargaining power than in the past, leading to a compression in the wage gap between higher-paid and lower-paid workers. Of course, that gap is still immense, but the three scholars found that the wage gains for lower-paid workers have rolled back about a quarter of the rise in inequality that has occurred since the 1980s.

So what should we take away from the Survey of Consumer Finances data, and from Dube, Autor, and McGrew’s work? Not that everything is fine, but that public policy and macroeconomic management matter a lot. Enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, the stimulus payments—these things materially improved the lives of Americans and helped set the economy up for a strong recovery. If the policy response had been less aggressive, the U.S. economy would be in worse shape now. This is something you can see by looking at Europe, where economies are growing far more slowly and unemployment is higher, while inflation is no lower.

Key to this story is the fact that lower-wage workers in particular would be worse off, because they have been among the chief beneficiaries of the low unemployment created by the robust recovery. It’s a useful reminder that stagnant wages are not an inevitable result of American capitalism: When labor markets are tight, and employers have to compete with one another for employees, workers get paid more.

So, even allowing for the high inflation we saw in 2022, no one could really look at the U.S. economy today and say that the policy choices of the past three years made us poorer. Yet that, of course, is precisely how many Americans feel.

Although that pessimism does not bode well for Biden’s reelection prospects, the real problem with it is even more far-reaching: If voters think that policies that helped them actually hurt them, that makes it much less likely that politicians will embrace similar policies in the future. The U.S. got a lot right in its macroeconomic approach over the past three years. Too bad that voters think it got so much wrong.