#In a world with so many children without families spending so much money to have biological offspring is unethical

[coochiequeens]

"If compensation were forbidden, surrogacy would endure the same fate as kidney transplants, where shortages and delays abound. This may be what Lahl wants, but it is hard to imagine a worse model: Because of existing laws prohibiting compensation, 100,000 Americans languish on kidney transplant waiting lists, and 4,000 Americans die annually as they wait for a kidney, despite nearly everyone having a kidney they could donate."

False equivalence. People NEED a kidney to live a healthy life. People don't NEED to have biological offspring. And surrogacy is a service that only women can provide, and women already donate more organs then men do.

By Vanessa Brown Calder | From the March 2025 issue

Evelyn and Will Clark met after college through mutual friends. Their shared sense of humor sparked a friendship that blossomed, and "it just felt meant to be, with no question that it was right and the timing was perfect for both of us," Evelyn recalled.

The Clarks were involved at their church, and they dreamed of raising a family together in the town where Will grew up and where they met. Everything was falling into place: After dating for less than a year, they got engaged, and four months later they were married. They found a home in a safe neighborhood with great schools, close to relatives.

Unbeknownst to the Clarks, the road to expanding their family would be a long and grueling one—a roller coaster of heartbreak, hope, and medical intervention. Realizing their dream would require the help of a series of specialists, plus a woman who started out as a perfect stranger.

Around four years into marriage, frustrated by her inability to conceive, Evelyn submitted to a battery of invasive and uncomfortable fertility tests. Sometimes it is relatively simple to treat fertility issues. But when it is not, the results of these tests can crush patients. Unfortunately, Evelyn's diagnosis revealed an issue impossible to fix. A brusque radiologist delivered the news that she had a congenital abnormality—a unicornuate, or partial, uterus.

Would she ever be able to have children, she wondered? It's possible, he replied, but perhaps "half" as many as your friends do. Then he laughed.

The sting of the doctor's joke remains fixed in her memory years later. In a follow-up conversation with her reproductive endocrinologist, the news got worse: Her uterine abnormality meant not only that becoming pregnant would be difficult, but that any given pregnancy had just a 28 percent likelihood of ending with a live baby. She was at higher risk of miscarriage and stillbirth, but also of ectopic pregnancy—a potentially lethal condition where an embryo implants outside of the uterus.

This unnerving possibility would stop many women from trying to conceive altogether. Yet even with the deck stacked against her, Evelyn was committed to finding a way. Although fertility treatment could not resolve the risks attendant to a partial uterus, it could increase Evelyn's chances of conceiving. "I'm not brave by nature," Evelyn ventures. But she was determined.

IVF Under the Microscope

A couple years ago, fertility treatments weren't on the public policy radar. The use and existence of reproductive technologies were largely taken for granted. That changed after the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision kicked off a wave of stricter abortion laws at the state level. The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) were legally children, halting fertility treatment for some women in the state and catapulting the topic into the national spotlight.

Although Alabama's Legislature hurriedly passed legislation granting patients and medical providers immunity from prosecution, IVF became a live policy issue overnight. Pro-life commentators and research analysts quickly began to wade into the debate.

IVF joins human eggs and sperm in a lab and transfers the resulting embryo back to the patient in hopes of a successful pregnancy. It is the most effective way for patients to overcome a varied list of male and female fertility issues, from damaged fallopian tubes to low sperm motility, and it produces about 97,000 U.S. births annually.

Despite these benefits, critics have laid out an expansive list of concerns. These range from anxieties about separating procreation from the marital act to exaggerated worries about medical risks. But for pro-lifers, the leading fear is that doctors are discarding or indefinitely freezing unborn children. As then-Rep. Matt Rosendale (R–Mont.) put it, "If you believe that life begins at conception…there is no difference between an abortion and the destruction of an IVF embryo."

It is true that IVF sometimes creates extra embryos that are not transferred back to the patient. At the outset, patients and doctors don't know how many embryos will develop successfully (two-thirds of embryos' development arrests) or how many embryo transfers will be required to produce a live birth for an individual patient. Beginning the process with more embryos increases the likelihood of success.

Such critics downplay how much the creation of human life is an inefficient process, whether it happens inside or outside the body. Conventional conception results in significant embryo loss, and the body regularly and naturally discards embryos in the process of trying to create life. Research suggests around 70 percent of conventional human conceptions do not survive to live birth, which makes IVF more like conventional reproduction than IVF critics care to admit.

President Donald Trump says he does not subscribe to his right flank's more extreme views on this topic. Indeed, he promised during the campaign that the "government will pay" or "your insurance company will be required to pay" for all IVF treatment costs—proposals that pose their own problems, including high costs and unintended incentives for would-be parents to delay childbearing.

Yet despite Trump's embrace of reproductive technology, fertility treatment feels fraught today in a way that it didn't one year ago. IVF is a fresh target for activists emboldened by a major win on abortion. Since states will continue to set new abortion policy in the coming years, there will be many natural openings for policies that limit fertility treatments.

But when Evelyn began pursuing treatment several years ago, the political outlook was simpler. So instead of worrying about political complexities, she steadied herself and then launched headlong into a series of treatments with increasing levels of invasiveness, cost, and corresponding likelihood of success.

Fertility doctors often initially run patients through a course of intrauterine insemination, or IUIs, which have a low success rate of 5 percent to 15 percent. The thinking is that sometimes these procedures work, and the invasiveness of the process is so much lower than IVF that if it does work, patients have saved themselves some pain, time, and money.

But IUIs often don't work. If patients grow tired of disappointment after several rounds of treatment over multiple months, the next step is IVF, which has higher odds of success—25 percent to 50 percent per cycle for women 40 and under. After several failed rounds of IUI, Evelyn's doctor recommended IVF.

IVF is a complex, absorbing, and time-sensitive process, and it's taxing for the patient: daily injections and medications, regular appointments, reading consent forms, making decisions, and generally staying informed about a complex regimen.

Evelyn's years of fertility treatment were rewarded with two healthy babies—an incredible success. But that success wasn't without grave risk to her personally or to the babies themselves. Both pregnancies were high-risk, and in each pregnancy she developed gestational diabetes and hypertension. The latter can lead to a variety of complications, including preterm birth, poor fetal growth, and stillbirth.

With Evelyn's second pregnancy, the fetus's movement slowed so much in the third trimester that it required constant monitoring. At delivery, the baby's umbilical cord was triple wrapped around its neck; the girl was lucky to be alive.

Evelyn's doctor told her that, in light of her history, it was not safe for her to get pregnant and carry a baby again. Although she'd gambled twice, the odds were never in her favor and now looked much worse.

But the feeling that her family wasn't complete continued to nag at Evelyn. Being a mother, she felt, was her calling and purpose. After careful consideration, research, and discussion, Evelyn felt called to move forward with gestational surrogacy, by far the most common form of surrogacy today.

Surrogacy in the Courtroom

Surrogacy initially burst into the popular consciousness with the Baby M custody dispute of the late '80s. In that case, the genetic surrogate, Mary Beth Whitehead, initially relinquished her rights to the baby but then sensationally threatened the intended parents and kidnapped Baby M for nearly three months.

Following trial and appeal, the courts gave Baby M's intended parents custody, with Whitehead awarded visitation rights. In the end, the grown-up child legally terminated Whitehead's parental rights, stating that she loved and was happy with the intended parents who raised her.

Since then, reproductive technology has improved so much that modern-day surrogacy is categorically different from the technology at the center of the Baby M case. While Baby M was genetically related to the surrogate who carried her, gestational surrogacy, where the gestational carrier is not related to the child, is today's norm. In this type of surrogacy, IVF is used to produce embryos, usually using the intended parents' genetic material. This gives couples an opportunity to have genetically related children while bypassing obstacles that make it difficult or impossible to conceive.

Despite its value to these parents, gestational surrogacy has its own cadre of detractors. For critics on the political right, all the usual objections to IVF apply, with additional concerns besides. An article by Carmel Richardson in Compact hints that commercial surrogacy constitutes "baby selling," and characterizes the American approach to surrogacy as irresponsibly laissez faire. In First Things, Catholic University of America professor Michael Hanby criticized surrogacy as one component of "the conception machine" that must be resisted in a dystopian "brave new world."

Meanwhile, the conservative Heritage Foundation alleges that surrogacy harms women and children. Internationally, Pope Francis describes the practice as "deplorable" and "based on exploitation." Conservative critics have also implied that surrogate pregnancies are frequently terminated, referencing sensational reporting and defying all logic.

Although the political left has recently been more restrained on the topic, "exploitation" is a common refrain from liberal critics as well. Some critics argue that surrogacy "extend[s] the oppressive logic of the market to its farthest and final frontier." Prominent feminists such as Gloria Steinem vocally oppose commercial surrogacy on grounds that it is coercive for low-income women and poses serious risks, and feminist icon Margaret Atwood's popular book The Handmaid's Tale (and associated TV drama) depicts surrogacy as a nonconsensual nightmare.

Yet American surrogacy is nothing like the Brave New World of the right or The Handmaid's Tale of the left, and current research does not support critics' views. Instead, surrogacy is voluntary, gestational carriers are well-compensated to the tune of $30,000 to $60,000 personally, and the vast majority of carriers have their own legal representation during the process. Gestational carriers also report undergoing medical and psychological screenings, during which they are informed of the possible risks.

Gestational carriers typically have positive long-term psychological outcomes—and although pregnancy and fertility treatment are not risk-free, medical outcomes for gestational carriers resemble outcomes for the general population of women using IVF. Children resulting from surrogacy generally do well from a psychological and medical perspective.

If surrogates feel exploited by the process, the research doesn't show that. Instead, gestational carriers often experience a sense of self-worth and achievement following the process; there is little evidence of post​surrogacy regret, and many surrogates would consider carrying again. A long-term study that followed gestational and genetic surrogates in the U.K. found that no surrogates expressed regret about their involvement in surrogacy 10 years after the birth of a child. A separate survey showed 83 percent of gestational carriers in California said they would consider becoming a gestational carrier again.

The Clarks' own experience with surrogacy is a far cry from the cynically transactional picture painted by critics. Following the completion of another IVF cycle, Evelyn's clinic matched her with the person she calls her "angel on earth," Sarah Schneider. (All the names of the families are pseudonyms.) In a phone call, Evelyn's nurse noted Sarah's "pure intentions"—interviews, research, and nonscientific surveys find that gestational carriers are commonly motivated by altruism—and the nurse provided Evelyn with Sarah's email address so she could reach out for an initial conversation.

Following an introductory call where the women shared their histories and hopes for the future, and following a dinner date that included Evelyn, Will, Sarah, and Sarah's husband, the Clarks and Schneiders decided it made sense to move forward. "We felt like old friends and honestly everything just felt right," Sarah says. That's when the start of the many legal, medical, psychological, and insurance hurdles began.

While gestational surrogacy can be miraculous, it is by no means easy. IVF is complex, and gestational surrogacy increases the complexity by leaps and bounds, as it adds an entirely new set of legal, financial, medical, and psychological requirements for both intended parents and gestational carrier.

If IVF feels like a part-time job, navigating gestational surrogacy is like a full-time one. The requirements for the Clarks and Schneiders included individual psychological assessments, as well as group counseling, where they ran through every possible scenario, including how they would feel if Sarah lost the baby during pregnancy or delivery.

The legal process was similarly structured to cover every possible contingency. The Clarks paid for the Schneiders to have their own counsel, which is common. Then, together and separately, the couples considered potentially thorny hypotheticals, including how many embryos Sarah was willing to transfer and under what circumstance all parties would be unwilling or willing to terminate the pregnancy. (For such meticulously planned and desperately hoped-for pregnancies, this scenario is vanishingly rare.)

Alongside these sensitive questions, the Clarks and Schneiders worked through financial questions about compensation in case of bed rest, compensation for house cleaning, and even compensation for major medical issues, should these needs result from pregnancy or delivery. Intended parents also typically cover the cost of agency fees, legal fees, IVF, health insurance, and other miscellaneous expenses related to the pregnancy (clothing, travel, lodging, and more), and it is these costs that lead to the eye-popping "all-in" cost for intended parents of $100,000 to $225,000.

Despite the enormous financial cost, and although the Clarks covered what economists call the "opportunity cost" of Sarah's time and the risks she was voluntarily taking, they knew that what Sarah gave them was a gift. And although money would change hands in the process, it would not change the moral case for their joint project. As Evelyn put it, "You know, the compensation was such a small part of it. After we signed the contracts, we never spoke of it again."

Baby Bobbie

Although compensation was not a central focal point for the Clarks and Schneiders, compensation is a major sticking point for critics of surrogacy in the U.S. and elsewhere. Various countries—including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—have made compensated surrogacy illegal while allowing uncompensated surrogacy.

In the U.S., most surrogacy is compensated, and gestational carriers and intended parents are both made better off under voluntary compensated surrogacy arrangements. In a curious paradox, critics characterize surrogacy as "exploitative" but are eager to outlaw the payments that cover gestational surrogates' time, efforts, and voluntarily taken risks, even though outlawing payment would make gestational carriers objectively worse off.

Outspoken antisurrogacy advocates, such as Jennifer Lahl, think compensating surrogates is harmful and should be illegal in the U.S. and around the world. Lahl founded The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network and is part of an international campaign to ban commercial surrogacy, though she maintains that ultimately all types of surrogacy—compensated or not—are unethical.

Lahl sees parallels between surrogacy and organ donation, where policy prohibits compensation for organ donors, and she believes organ donation policy provides useful insights for third-party reproduction. She has written that "organ donation should be motivated by the desire to freely give a gift—not by the lure of financial incentives," and she feels it would be best if gestational surrogacy followed suit.

If compensation were forbidden, surrogacy would endure the same fate as kidney transplants, where shortages and delays abound. This may be what Lahl wants, but it is hard to imagine a worse model: Because of existing laws prohibiting compensation, 100,000 Americans languish on kidney transplant waiting lists, and 4,000 Americans die annually as they wait for a kidney, despite nearly everyone having a kidney they could donate.

Prohibiting compensated surrogacy would be similarly tragic, forcing intended parents to endure agonizing and futile waits, pushing intended parents to look for surrogacy services in riskier contexts, and leaving many couples ultimately unsuccessful at expanding their families. Thousands fewer babies would be born in the U.S. annually.

Compensation helps efficiently allocate resources, provides incentives for participation, effectively signals a need, and ensures participants are treated fairly. These benefits are most important when human life is on the line.

Fortunately, the Clarks were not living under Lahl and other critics' policy prescriptions. Evelyn had two embryos left for transfer—the Clarks' last hope. They agreed to transfer both at once, and one took.

As the pregnancy progressed, Sarah messaged Evelyn several times daily to ease her nerves by letting her know that the baby was moving and wiggly. The "gratitude overrode the anxiety because I was so grateful for every month and every milestone," says Evelyn. Evelyn had full trust in Sarah, and Evelyn, Will, Sarah, and Sarah's husband attended each of the many fertility and prenatal appointments together—two grown men and two women huddled close in each small exam room.

The families lived three hours apart, so attending all those appointments together was a logistical feat. Toward the end of the pregnancy, the Schneiders began driving to doctor's appointments in the city where the Clarks lived and she would deliver. Sarah moved in with her sister for the last 10 days of the pregnancy to be closer to the hospital.

Last August,Baby Bobbie arrived perfect and healthy at 38.5 weeks and 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Before delivery, Sarah told Evelyn she couldn't wait to see her face the first time Evelyn held him. As Evelyn described it, when Bobbie arrived, the two women looked at each other as though to say, "We did it. He's here."

"The delivery itself couldn't have been more perfect," Sarah says. "He came pretty fast and it was so surreal and special and spiritual and just honestly so beautiful."

It's been a decade since the Clarks first set out to expand their family, and today they have three rosy-cheeked children to show for it. "I spent 10 years trying to get my babies here," Evelyn recalls, tucked into a recliner with her baby snuggled close in her living room. "But I felt led and supported by God the entire way. And Sarah felt supported by God the same as I did."

It is hard to imagine anyone taking issue with the family that Evelyn and Will created with the help of a generous stranger. It might be an unusual story for two families to be knit together this way, but that doesn't make it less heartfelt.

The Schneiders have returned to their former lives, but the two families stay connected through calls, texts, and pictures. In September, they joined the Clarks for Bobbie's baby blessing, a special religious rite of passage held in the Clarks' backyard. The happy family of five was surrounded by the people closest and most important to them—a group that now includes Sarah and her family.

This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Love, Money, and Surrogacy."

[arkadijxpancakes]

Yes. The Weasleys had too many kids. An analysis. (Part 2 of 2)

So, where were we? Right. The Weasleys have so many kids that it fucks with their family dynamic and with the mental health of everyone involved. Last time, we looked at Molly and Arthur during the war. We ended in 1981, which means that all kids are born, now. Molly is still nursing. (It’s common to nurse kids up to two or three years, while slowly weaning them, so I assume that this is what Molly does.) She’s finally done with becoming pregnant every other year, however. And it’s about time, because her workload is bigger, than any single person can handle. And while it will decrease over time, it will stay enormous for the next couple of years.

1982 – Bill (who will be 12 at the end of the year) starts Hogwarts. It’s his first lick of freedom. There is no babysitting-duty at Hogwarts. All he has to do is stay out of trouble and earn good grades. Other than that, he is free to do what he wants. He will be the only Weasley-sibling in Hogwarts for two years. Because of this, his parents probably have enough money in reserve to buy him a full Hogwarts-kit without resorting to second-hand-stuff too much. (He might get second-hand books, but his robes and wand are probably new.)

At home, life is still hard for Molly. She has one less kid to take care of, but the kids who are still in her care are a handful. She still needs to teach Charlie. Percy got 6 over the summer and is a little nerd, so she is likely teaching him, too. Fred and George are still chaos incarnate. (And they are just getting started, really.)

Bill’s duties (chores around the home and watching his younger brothers) get passed down to Charlie. Percy might try his hand on this, too, because he is still in direct competition with the twins and Mum gives him attention when he helps her.

The war is over and the Weasleys start to feel the effects of this. As Death Eaters are captured and sentenced, the Wizarding World starts to feel safe, again. The stress eases off (but Molly is probably still grieving.) 

Arthur’s work schedule slowly goes back to more normal levels, allowing him to spend more time at home. However, he missed out on a big chunk of his children’s childhood. It’s also hard to return to his role as a parent, because at this point, the roles of the family are pretty much established: Molly is in charge and does most of the work. Some of the easier chores are passed down to her kids (first Bill, now Charlie, later Percy). This includes watching over his younger brothers while Molly takes care of her toddlers. It’s kind of hard for him to integrate himself into this dynamic. (Just imagine him doing the laundry or the dishes – it’s very likely that he has a different way for doing this, which could easily disrupt Molly’s workflow or simply just annoy her.) 

I think he will mostly stick to the stuff he did when Bill and Charlie were little. So he’s taking his kids out for trips on the weekends. But this is difficult, too, because it’s not Bill and Charlie anymore, but Charlie, Percy, Fred and George. Their dynamic is entirely different, and it’s hard to keep an eye on all of them, while also satisfying their needs equally. (Especially because Percy, Fred and George start to clash.) As a result, the trips are probably not as frequent as they once were.

It’s also possible that Arthur picks up his Muggle-hobby at this point. (Picking up this hobby causes him to spend at least some evenings in his shed, tinkering with Muggle-stuff instead of helping his wife. I imagine him to fade into the background a little bit, while he leaves the household and child-rearing to his wife.)

1984 – Charlie starts Hogwarts.

There are now two Weasley-Siblings at Hogwarts, but things are still pretty chill for them. It’s still just Bill and Charlie, after all. Bill is probably considered trustworthy enough by his teachers to receive a time-turner, so he can take all electives Hogwarts has to offer. (I do wonder how much Molly’s expectations are playing into this. She clearly expects her children to do well at Hogwarts, both in terms of grades and behavior. At this point, he is either a massive nerd like Hermione, trying to perform well to fulfill his mother’s expectations, or both. He is also setting a standard for his siblings here, whether this is on his own accord or because of pressure he receives from Molly.)

At home, Percy (now 8) takes over Charlie’s duties. He tries to control Fred and George. It’s likely that he fails miserably. They are just too close age-wise for this to work. 

Fred and George are 6 now and start to play rough. Last year, Fred turned Ron’s teddy bear into a giant spider (which probably caused Ron to develop arachnophobia). Next year, they will try to talk Ron into making an Unbreakable Vow with them. So keeping an eye on them is getting harder, not easier.

At this point in time, Scabbers exceeds the life span of his species. Rats can get up to two or three years old. (And Rowling knows this. This information is included in book 3, when Ron takes Scabbers to the pet store to have the witch there check on him.) This is Scabbers third year with the Weasleys, so his time is up. No one seems to notice, though. I don’t blame Percy (or the other kids) for this, but Molly and Arthur should notice that they don’t have to replace a rat or have a talk about how Scabbers is happier in the great rat heaven. They don’t and I wonder why. My suggestions are: a) They are either not paying any attention to Percy and his pet (which would suck) or b) Scabbers is turning into Peter and uses a wand (his own or Molly’s) to confund them as needed (which would suck even more).

1987 – Percy starts Hogwarts.

At the end of the 1986/87 school year, Bill (who is a prefect now) takes his OWL in all 12 courses Hogwarts has to offer. It’s possible he returns his time turner after this or keeps it until his graduation to deal with his NEWT-workload. He now starts his sixth year. Charlie is in his fourth year and is already on the Quidditch team. Molly is very, very proud of both of them.

Percy is a wee first year and doesn’t have to watch out for any younger siblings for once. He can focus on learning instead. He is probably the first boy in the family to end up with hand-me-down robes, as he has a similar build as Bill and Bill has probably outgrown his first set.

Scabbers is six, now. So he has lived twice as long as a normal rat would. Still, no one has caught up to the fact that he is awfully old for a rat. It’s very likely that he accompanies Percy to Hogwarts. (It should be noted that Hogwarts only allows cats, owls and toads as pets, so Percy probably got a permission to bring a rat instead. However, no one at the school notices Scabber’s age either.)

Life at home is still chaotic. Fred and George are 10, Ron is 8 and Ginny is 7. Molly is probably teaching all of them. Her workload is slowly going down to a more manageable level, but keeping the twins in check is still a challenge.

She probably doesn’t expect Fred and George to do chores and watch over their siblings. (At least not in the same way she expected from her older kids.) Mostly, because she can’t trust them to do it. (Remember the Unbreakable Vow? Yeah, that.) Additionally, Ron simply has no authority over them, so that’s not an option either.

1989 – Fred and George start Hogwarts.

In his seventh year, Bill was made Head Boy. By now, he took his NEWTs and left school. He probably returns home for a little while, before he takes the first chance he gets to fuck off to Egypt and play with cursed tombs. (We should probably talk about English wizards, Egyptian treasures and colonialism here, but that’s a completely different can of worms.)

Charlie took his OWL and is now in his sixth year. He’s still on the Quidditch team and should be Quidditch Captain by now. He’s also a prefect. So between them, they got all the big achievements Hogwarts has to offer: Prefect (both of them), Head Boy (Bill) and Quidditch Captain (Charlie). Bill also got 12 OWL, which is an achievement on its own. Molly will measure her other children against this later.

Speaking of Molly: While her home life is going to relax a lot this year, her expectations are still around. She is still expecting her kids to do well in school. Considering that Fred and George are now at Hogwarts, the old demand “Watch over your younger siblings!” is back and in full swing. I can’t see Charlie doing it – he has his head full of dragons and Quidditch and lived five blissful years in Hogwarts without the need to look after anyone all that much. Sure, Percy was at school, but he has already learned to look after himself. I don’t think Charlie will start with this now. Not unless the twins interfere with his prefect- or Quidditch-duties or are completely out of line.

Percy is a different story, however. He is in his third year and still taking after Bill. Just like Bill he takes all electives, so it is likely that he also gets a time turner for this. At this point, Percy has ingrained the idea that he needs to perform exceptionally well at school and Bill set an incredible high bar to reach, but he is willing to do just that. He also spent a lot more time at home dealing with the twins. Molly’s expectations for him to be a good boy and to look after his younger brothers will now put pressure on him again. He will probably try to control their chaotic behavior, but they are 11 now, and they will listen to him even less than before.

For Fred and George, this is heaven. They finally escaped the watchful eyes of their mother and have a whole new world to explore. So many secret passageways and even more victims to play pranks on. Percy is annoying, but they can play pranks on him, too. They will soon steal the Marauder’s Map from Filch’s office, which will open up even more possibilities. It’s great. 10/10, no notes.

Life at home is finally manageable. It’s just Molly, Ron and Ginny (and also Arthur and his Muggle-stuff). This is probably a nice time for Ron, because there are no older siblings around to steal his limelight. However, at this point he has the family dynamic internalized and his self-esteem is pretty low overall.

1991 – Ron starts Hogwarts.

By now, Charlie has left Hogwarts. It is unlikely that he actually finished his education, however. When Harry becomes a member of the Gryffindor team in Philosopher’s Stone, Fred says: “We haven’t won since Charlie left, but this year’s team is going to be brilliant.” Had Charlie finished his education, he would have left in summer 1991. The quote is from autumn 1991. In this case, the quote would make no sense, because there were no matches for Gryffindor to lose between Charlie leaving and Harry becoming Gryffindor’s new seeker. So he must have left before then, probably sometime in his sixth or seventh year, after his seventeenth birthday.

It’s important to note that we don’t read about any fights over this. I can’t imagine Molly being happy with this, but he must have had her permission. (Otherwise we would know about it. Molly can’t shut up about the failures of the twins, she would not shut up about Charlie’s failures either.)

Percy is in his fifth year and a prefect. By now he is the career-driven rules lawyer we meet in canon. He will end this school year by taking all 12 OWL – just like Bill. (When Ron is made prefect in OotP, Molly makes sure to tell everyone that he is now a prefect, just like his older brothers, and she seems very comfortable doing so. I assume, Percy heard his fair share of this, when he was made prefect.)

The twins are in their third year and members of Gryffindor’s Quidditch team. By now, they have earned themselves a reputation as pranksters.

Ron is the sixth Weasley-kid to enter Hogwarts. While his older siblings might have gotten some second-hand stuff, everything he owns was basically handed down to him: Bill’s old robes, Charlie’s old wand and Percy’s old pet rat. To be clear: none of those things make much sense to hand down (or at least not to Ron).

Bill’s old robes should have gone to Percy after Bill left Hogwarts. They should be of a similar height, while Ron (as an eleven-year-old) should be somewhat smaller. Instead of handling it that way, Percy got new robes as a reward and Bill’s robes were handed down to Ron. This is clear favoritism on Molly’s part. It’s no surprise that Ron (who already feels overlooked by his parents) feels upset about it.

Giving him Charlie’s old wand makes even less sense. We know, that the wand chooses its wizard. Charlie’s wand did not choose Ron, so it would not perform as well for him. In addition, in book 1 the wand is described as follows: “He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.”

That thing is basically falling apart. That was either a lot of wear and tear during Charlie’s time at Hogwarts (considering the fact that we have not heard anything about this with other wands, this is unlikely) or the wand was already a hand-me-down when Charlie got it. In either case, giving Ron a wand that has its core more or less poking out, doesn’t sound very safe. I wonder why Arthur and Molly decided to do this. Did they expect Ron to have a great learning experience with a damaged wand? Did they want Ron to use the wand until it eventually did break, saving them another year or two before they had to buy a new one? (And yes, they would indeed need to buy him a new one in his third year, but they had no way of knowing that. Unless there are prophecies for that kind of shit. And even then. The fuck?)

Money is tight, of course. But is it really that tight? They could afford to get Percy an owl, after all. And buying a wand for their son is an expense they've had 11 years to plan. I understand getting second-hand robes and cauldrons, as they see a lot of wear and tear. But this should not apply to a wand in the same way. This is just really, really odd.

And then there is the elephant – and with elephant I mean rat – in the room: Scabbers. Firstly, that rat should be dead for at least seven years by now. No one seems to notice. No one cares. What the fuck.

Secondly, why is Percy giving his pet to Ron? There just isn’t a great explanation for this. Scabbers has been his pet for ten years. TEN. Percy should be attached to his pet like glue. After all, he has Scabbers since he can remember. Why is he willing to part with his rat? The only reasons I can think of:

1) He does it because Molly asks him to. She is clearly playing favorites, here. Not only does he get new robes when he becomes prefect, but he also receives his very own owl as a gift. It’s possible that this owl comes with strings attached, and Percy is required to give Scabbers to Ron to get the owl. Which would be a pretty fucked up situation for every child involved and should’ve been handled differently.

2) Percy wants to get rid of Scabbers. He doesn’t know about Scabbers’ Peter-shaped secret, of course (otherwise he would’ve reported this). But it is possible that he feels, on a subconscious level, that something about Scabbers is off. Not in a dangerous way (again, he would’ve reported this), just in an unpleasant way. (This would still be odd. Especially when we consider that no one noticed Scabbers age.)

3) Scabbers has decided that it’s time to jump ship. Percy just turned fifteen this year. He is old enough to grow suspicious of his seemingly immortal rat. It’s possible that he cozied up to Ron to manipulate both boys into making the switch. Or he turned into Peter and confunded some Weasleys. Who knows. He’s still a Death Eater and mass murderer on the run, after all.

1992 – Ginny starts Hogwarts.

The flock has left the nest. Molly’s work is mostly over. It’s just her and Arthur who stay at the burrow. She still takes care of the household, but the responsibility for her kids rest on other people’s shoulders, now. There is nothing left to do, except knitting, sending care packages, worrying about her kids careers and hexing the occasional howler. Molly could get a job now or pick up a hobby or two. I mean, she does read Gilderoy Lockhart’s shitty books. She is a fan of his, after all. But she doesn’t seem to enter any community over this (no fan club, no reading circle, no nothing. It’s just her). And there are no other hobbies outside of that. 

Apropos community: We don’t really see her having a community. She is a pretty important side character, but the books never mention that she has friends or other contacts outside her family. It seems like she is focusing on her kids and only on her kids.

Which would explain her meddling. Because Molly meddles a lot, when it comes to her kids and their futures. She keeps putting pressure on Percy to look after his younger siblings – this will expand to Harry after she gets to know him. Percy (still a good boy) does as she wishes. It’s not healthy, neither for him nor for his relationship with his siblings (who are mostly annoyed by him), but Molly either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. In the future, she will be very cross with Hermione after reading Rita Skeeters articles about her. She will also be upset about the twins' career choice and Bill's choice of girlfriend…

And yeah, that’s basically it. At this point, the family dynamic is firmly established and ingrained in her children’s heads. Percy is already set up to explode in the near future. Being Molly’s Golden Child is neither good nor healthy, especially considering all the pressure that comes along with it. His relationship with his siblings isn’t all that great, either.

Fun fact: We don’t know if anyone ever told him about Scabbers’ Peter-shaped secret. If it did happen, it was probably pretty traumatic. That shit-show was his pet for ten fucking years and he handed it down to his younger brother. That’s nightmare fuel, even if Peter never hurt any of them.

The twins have firmly established themselves as troublemakers. At least some of their “jokes” really aren’t funny and border on cruel, neglectful and/or harmful. (Remember the Unbreakable Vow? Yeah, still not funny. In 1993, they also tried to lock Percy in a pyramid. Yes, I don’t think they wanted to hurt him, not really, but that thing was still a cursed tomb. Things could have gone wrong, and at that point they were old enough to know better. In their last year they tested their joke-sweets on younger students who were neither adequately informed nor old enough to consent for something like this. Yes, they tested the sweets on themselves first, but something could still have gone wrong because of allergies and all that stuff. And after they left Hogwarts and started their joke shop, they do sell love potions to students, complete with options to smuggle that shit into school. Additionally, instead of going bad/losing their potency, those love potions get stronger with age. This alone is a horror story waiting to happen.)

Ron is affected, too. His self-esteem is pretty low when he starts Hogwarts and it will stay that way throughout the series. This will inform a lot of his decisions (especially the bad ones) in the future. 

We don’t know much about how all of this affected Bill, Charlie and Ginny. Bill and Charlie just aren’t as involved in the narrative, and Ginny stays kind of… bland and love interest-ish… throughout the story.

So… yeah?

Am I saying that the Weasleys did not love their kids? No, of course not. Especially Molly shows her love regularly. (Her love is more like a water hose than a watering can, however. Very intense and focussed on a single spot at a time, instead of reaching all her kids equally.)

What I am saying is that the Weasleys, as a family, are pretty dysfunctional. Many factors are playing into this – Molly’s and Arthur’s dynamic as a couple and as parents, the number of their kids, the war, etc. It’s impacting all of them negatively. Molly is stressed out, Arthur is out of touch and some of their kids lose their trust (either in their parents, in their siblings or in themselves.) It also makes their love feel conditional. The twins feel this whenever Molly is comparing them with their older (more well-behaved) brothers. Percy feels this when he comes home with that promotion and is demoted from Golden Child to family-traitor within a heartbeat. Ron has internalized it and desperately seeks attention and affection elsewhere.

They still love each other, but it’s a difficult position to be in for most of them.

And the worst thing: I don’t think Rowling notices any of this. She did not intend the family to be as dysfunctional as it is. She keeps portraying the Weasleys as this great, loving family who took Harry in when he needed it the most. And of course they did – but that’s not all there is to it. There are so many issues that go unresolved in the books. Molly never learns to back off. The responsibility for the conflict between Arthur and Percy is placed entirely on Percy, despite Arthur being at fault, too. The twins never really learn that a prank can go too far. Ron doesn’t really solve his self-esteem-issues. Rowling does start to give him some character development regarding his self-esteem-issues multiple times, but he always seems to revert back over the course of the summer holidays. 

The family really deserved more effort to go into the writing.

Note: This analysis is not meant to say that stay-at-home parents are bad or that Molly should have gotten a job while having seven little kids at home. What I am criticizing is the way we treat care work. Because it is work, and a lot of work. A stay-at-home parent is often on call 24/7. A stay-at-home parent never really gets to take a break, never can take a day off, and never just can leave their work for another day. But they do deserve breaks and days off, just like any person with a day job. And that is where their partners and the rest of their families come in.

And this is the other thing I wanted to criticize here: The way we glorify living as a nuclear family. It’s said that you need a village to raise a kid and I do think this is true. Having more people involved in child-rearing (be it relatives, neighbors or professionals like teachers) is a boon. Families had access to this for millennia. Raising your kids with the help of your family and your village was normal, up until very recently. And it’s a shame that the Weasleys seemingly had no help like this. And yes, I do see the fault with Rowling, who wrote them that way. She basically took the concept of the nuclear families of the 1980s and 1990s and slapped it onto the family, without any world building at all.

(Please also note, that I consider stay-at-home parents to be different from tradwives. When I use the term “tradwife”, I am specifically referring to stay-at-home mothers who do not just take care of their household and their kids, but who also commit themselves to having as many kids as possible and who tend to take on other duties (like homeschooling) as well. The most common examples of this are probably families who belong to fundamentalist Christian churches or cults.)

[cherie-doll]

Could we please have a part 2 on the vampire cod men + victorian era + vampires.

Maybe with reader moving to the countryside abd being the towns new school teacher instead?

yep! link to first part is here for anyone who hasn't read it

i rlly wanna write a whole fic off of this plot i've built up bc i have SO MUCH LORE but idk how it'll fare

𓆩♡𓆪 Headcanon: Them As Vampires #2

 ๋࣭♱ Price, Ghost, Soap, Gaz, Roach, Alejandro, Rudy, Phillip Graves, Makarov, Keegan, König, Horangi, Nikto

Price

The ripples of hysteria that had been caused by what the people believed were vampires preying on vulnerable people could barely be felt in the countryside, he had resided here for some time, surely there was no need for caution here

He was respected among neighbors, honored for his service in the past and now lived rather peacefully under protection of the wealth he had acquired in his youth

You had become an interesting individual who had dismantled his idyllic life, you were youthful, so full of vigor and life being around the children and instructing them

He sensed maturity and sagacity from you, and you revived what he thought had been dormant for a long time; lust and violent devotion, the need to possess and protect you

And passing through the final threshold you'll see he is actually the gentlest, using his many years of wisdom to guide you, convincing you to settle with him and despite the tumult you've found yourself in by being the muse of multiple vampires, he'll provide all the support and help you need to pursue your passion of teaching

Now, when accepting a vampire's offer, you must be very careful, for you may end up indebted with them and their requests may seem unreasonable, but he is not cruel, he only requires you to lend him your love for one lifetime, to save him from his many long years of solitude, that's all he asks of you

Ghost

Here was the worst of the unsalvageable, the damned, the condemned and the poor, forgotten souls of the departed beings trapped on earth, he was barely a person; a remnant and a corpse

He despises himself due to the curse he was to live with for eternity lest something put him out of his misery, the cycle of turning others into that he was; a monster, a corpse, a despicable creature

Yet the first moment he saw you, he knew he needed you, that overpowering sense of going after what called for him, he wanted you to understand his pain, of being different from everyone else because of an ugly past

It's not like you to be frightened but the scare he gave you on the first encounter was one that could have had you turning away from him had you not seen him in a moment of weakness, him doubled over, pain overtaking him, in his wild and crazed state you saw how forlorn his eyes were, half-starved was he and all you could do was observe his erratic breathing

you want to know his thoughts, you don't want him to hide any longer and to live as he's never lived before

He too, is drawn in by your soft nature, in this isolated pocket of earth, hidden from the bustling of crowds in town, you have all the time in the world to heal him, all you did was show sympathy and he took and he learned to not seize it as if you were to never offer it again but ask for it in return

Soap

He considers his bloodline irrelevant to his value, disregarding the riches his family has wanted to hand down for him to manage but he knows that as the eldest and with an eternity ahead of him, he'll be held down by earthly possessions from doing what he truly desires

He'll be more than pleased to donate some of that money to you without his family's knowledge so you can use it to give the poor children an opportunity to study without their having to pay, he knows a good natured person when he sees one, you're more good than all those bloody guilty and deceitful men who can walk by a starving child and only tip their hat in greeting

Just as he spends a great amount of time studying plants he finds himself wanting to learn more about you, observing every detail and habit of yours as if another species to learn about, he wishes he could take you home like he has done with many of his plants and keep you under his watchful eyes constantly

Stepping into his rather large estate can prove difficult due to the overgrown plants stretching and overtaking the place, they have crawled up the walls and creep into cracks which can easily get you lost if you were to enter alone

He'll give over any amount of money if you agree to have dinner with him as he gets rather lonely in his grand place he's inherited, he was to get a wife along with the passing down of the estate but he declined saying he already had his eye set on someone

Gaz

He's the most passion driven soul you've come across, his entire being emits warmth and sincerity, never would you have guessed he was half cold had he not told you so

His douceur nature is what attracts you to him, more tightly bound is this simple gesture than honeyed words of seduction which are commonly used by vampires for their victims, but his human half does not allow him to be completely consumed by carnal desire

Despite his better judgement he spends many evenings with you past what is proper of "good company" only, knowing sooner or later you'll grow curious at the mask he wears to hide what truly pains his soul, you seem to so easily read his emotions from his work as an artist

It captivates you how beautifully he can compose a dulcet song or write the pains of his melancholy on bloodstained paper, you want to mend the anguished heart within him before his sanity deteriorates and the madness awakes and takes away the human in him struggling to live with this feeling of alienation from being different from both halves

The only solace he knew before you was getting lost in the hills of this quiet countryside scenery and taking in all of what is good for the tortured senses, standing in silence to marvel at the moving clouds and sky, but now he is glad to find someone who is not only passionate about learning but also teaches the young children

Roach

How cruel had fate been to thrust him into this unchangeable course for the remainder of his days, it is terrible knowing there is something sinister living inside of you just waiting to claw out and shed your old skin, when he just wishes to live his idyllic life which is why he's even moved out to the countryside in the first place, town is no place for him, especially not a vampire

He wishes for a somewhat normal life, he sees you can your ability to be loving without being afraid of of the repercussions, he seeks the very things that may destroy him in the end if he does not learn to proceed with discretion

He is a fledgling; his lack of expertise and experience prevent him from going on with his life normally, finding it extremely hard to find the rhythm of this merry go round without the help of the sire who turned him this beast of blood

The fear upsets his heart as he ruminates on it but with time and your showing him how to prevent it from getting to him release his mind from the prison he's set for himself, he devotes his care to helping as best as he can to others

He finds a lively imagination that he can use to his benefit and it is this animated spirit that demonstrates how much he wants to live despite the cold in his body

Alejandro

He's felt a growing need to seek sanctuary in things that other vampires are unlikely to show an interest in, while others may seek riches and wealth he seeks power through ways people may be less heedful of

Just like him, humans will seek the approval of something, someone greater than their kind, and no matter how many times he is thrown away into the abyss to be forgotten he will dig through and find a way to live and make something out of himself

He just wants to avoid being forgotten about, and he is especially interested in how you are able to so easily make a place for yourself in this little countryside small town without making so much of a commotion, you quietly slipped and fell into a constant pace without clawing at anyone or having to bare your teeth

But for him to know this he must first step down from the podium he's positioned himself upon and learn to live in control of his sinful nature, the recollection of his nature and controlling it is still something he must come to terms with, especially if he's outside of the strict environment he's hidden away in for years

In time he learns to treasure those moments that will wither away with the people if he does not let them sink into his mind as he cradles your reassuring hand in his palm, enveloping your hand to remember the everlasting feeling of what amity must feel like

Rudy

He'll gently hold and savor every moment with you in his hands because chances like these only come once in an eternity, with a life like yours which is so fleeting you must allow him to admire and keep this to himself, it is not jealousy if he worries about you

Your unchanging smile that beams a little brighter for him than the others is more than enough to prove to him that there is light in the world he has seen so enclosed in darkness and seclusion, that there is no reason to hide away like all his other companions do

It is like a new world unfolding in his mind as he gets to know you, how marvelous it feels when you allow him to gaze into your eyes full of liveliness unlike the dimmed eyes he's been accustomed to seeing, you are alleviating to him like the cool shade on an overbearing summer's day

To him, it is such a beautiful thing to witness life from a human's perspective, because life for them is so fleeting and fast anything that happens is worth waiting for, unlike the same routine based lifestyle he's had to put up with for he doesn't even know how long, he only wishes to know simplicity

He is glad to finally have found someone as deserving of love to value nurturing he had kept within him for years

Phillip Graves

Will you choose the man everyone advises you not to go with? Even the undead seem to avoid him and he has few who outright declare to know him, obviously against your better judgement you will because you know no better, he has that tantalizing manner of luring you in

In a moment where you are alone, he finds you, soon as your eyes meet there already is a whole evening's worth of conversing said between the both of you and it's as if he is able to easily control your inquisitiveness to lead you astray from everyone who wishes to protect you and walk right into his arms

"It's all lies, darling" he whispers into your ear when you express worry of what others may think, truly you mustn't believe them, they just don't like outsiders, and he's been one in every place he's been to, seemingly hated or disliked by everyone except you, you make him feel welcome in your home, or so he says

There is now a tether between you and him, a bond unable to be broken so you may never want to be apart from him, why when he has everything you need in this life and the next?

Makarov

It seems death itself follows you no matter where you go, once someone in the family has been in close contact with a vampire, it is hard for the vampire to leave the members of the family alone, for it hopes to find another impressionable heart to overpower and you have been the one with the susceptible heart

He asks you to ignore all the ignorant fools, they're far too brash to bask in your kindness that you give too easily, he is by far the one you are scolded at for even thinking of going near, there have been many rumors of what he does to those who are too naive, those poor victims who have been discarded, their veins sucked dry

He could easily make you surrender completely to him, but you have placed yourself under his care so benevolently that he has felt no need to forcefully subject you to him, with your gentle caress you have made him tremble and quiver out of what can be the closest thing to love as a vampire can experience

And it is with this fragility that you have found in his heart, that you now are in control of him, what happens next is determined whether you will let it taint you by reciprocating the manner in which he has approached you or will you show it purely

Keegan

He has no interest in what humans have got to offer, he finds their existence pitiful if all their efforts are in vain for they do not live very long, he holds a certain hatred for those who are greedy and succumb to every want of theirs

Yet, you arrive without any evil in your heart and you present yourself without filter to hide your intentions, he is curious of this when most of what he's known is greed from others, he keeps mostly to himself and is rarely involved in the affair of others

Still, curiosity is a vampire's greatest weakness, he stalks you nightly to know your persona, he is there to see your disposition in helping others, your kind heart when helping the children, you've displayed more fondness than a mother

In the light of the moon he becomes aware of his senses, the turmoil soon to brew under the stars that will watch as he divulges under susurrus that catch softly in the wind and drift into your room at night through the window; the whispers of confession that you don't quite catch while awake but rather find a way to manifest in your dreams, not sure if they are a nightmare or of a terrifying reality

His deep eyes that catch the light from the candles illuminating the room as he silently observes you

König

Despite the relationship between their countries, there still seems to be some sort of tension between König and the other vampires, the alliance they once had had begun weakening and he is distrusted, just when he is ready to completely untangle himself from this mess you drew him in

Gathering all the violent tension within him and burning it away, letting his rage dwindle and water it down to nothing in the pure night where no one can observe and reprove of him

You soak him in unfathomable amounts of amour and he does not find it within him to bite back, his breath catches in his throat at this feeling he cannot name, he can barely imitate you as a meager way of loving back

You sacrifice all the love you can give for him and he marvels at how you are able with so little you have received in life to give it up to an immortal being who's lived for so long yet received so little

He holds your hand to his face, closing his eyes to remember these moments of a mortal and to not let them be erased by the wind which can so easily take

Horangi

Your curiosity shall surely be the end of you, you spoke to a gentleman at a function for one night and now he's always lurking around you whether you like it or not, you don't even know of it

A vampire's adoration can go to great lengths when they find a human they are infatuated with, other than this he has no reasonable motives, he wishes you would accept his advances, only a vampire can love you forever, he has no difficulty entertaining you with promises exchanged at midnight

This nocturnal romance which tarnishes you, whether it destroys you for nothing or everything you are worth, leaving a deep scar within your heart which you can trace with your fingertips as your ache for him to return

You venture the uneven terrain where angels fear to tread, along the long desolate hallways of an uninhabited home where no other dares to enter, you maintain there waiting and trusting that he'll return every so often to adore you like always, you may go mad but it is something you look forward in the cycle of everyday life

Nikto

In order to escape deep solitude that has turned into loneliness he takes to watching over you like a butterfly on your shoulder when he cannot be there during the day, he seeks the pulsating of your heart, the tremors that run through your bodies when together

You don't draw back in fear like the others do, and this was the first time he was truly loved, in all your fantasy, you always knew he wasn't a monster, he could love, he could be tender and gentle, there was no need for desire or selfishness to consume him entirely, there was a time for him to live the life he deserved, the one you showed him

Still, there is a darkness he cannot fight that comes when listening to your tranquil breaths, the temptation he feels growing and gnawing within him to drink and confine you to the grasps of everlasting immortality, because it truly is terrible to love something that death can take away from him

He can already see the image forming in his mind; the fog that comes from the shaky breaths escaping your lips, the rise and fall of your chest stained with droplets of blood, letting you go cold for a moment before you join him in eternalness

He can only contemplate this as he watches the sun rise over the hillsides through the curtains that shield him from the rays of light

[skay-ali]

The Forgotten Daughter

A slightly slow plot but I prefer it that way, that the obsessed characters appear little by little

Chapter 2

Damian Wayne... he was an enigmatic child for you.

The truth is that you still don't understand how you managed to get along with the boy, his curt, unfriendly and arrogant personality was difficult to deal with, if not impossible.

After his first visit you didn't expect to see him again, his upset face with a curt goodbye was the last thing you expected to see from the boy, not receiving another visit from him a few days later.

You would be lying if you said that your life became more miserable with the child, even with his witty hurtful comments they made you smile, perhaps because you did not take the child's words seriously, because you did not feel familiar with him, or because after being bothered he an adorable scene with your baby that took away his threatening appearance.

You compared him to a chihuahua, those adorable little dogs that tried to look brave and like a big threat, but they were just adorable little creatures.

You also attributed your great attitude towards the child's visits in large part to the fact that you had matured, you were already a responsible adult with a daughter who sweetened your life even more, you became one of those television mothers who was positive, above all, wearing a big smile with an air of friendliness.

“Because you smile like a fool,” the boy commented, annoyed when he saw the attitude his sister was wearing.

You snapped out of your thoughts and paid attention to your surroundings again.

“Ahhh.. it's just that you two look so adorable playing around” you defended yourself.

In a way it was true, seeing the child sitting on a puzzle-style rug that you put together in the living room, playing with some baby toys, with your little daughter, while the little girl tried to play with the child and moved her hands with excitement, It was something that warmed your heart.

You received a displeased grimace from Damian at your words, he stopped paying attention to you and looked back at Alice.

“Hey, don't bother about that, if you keep making faces you'll get old.”

“I'm not the one who should worry about getting old you know” the boy responded, but this time without paying much attention to you.

“Am I getting older, can I tell?” You worried about his words, it was a valid worry, at least for you.

This time you did not receive any attention, neither from the child, nor from your baby, great, now I will exchange you for that bad excuse of a refined child, you noticed his taste for being from a wealthy family, something that you never liked very much, although Having money and having no limit to spend it was fantastic, having many gossip about your life, seeing how luxury and money controlled people, the carelessness of some parents and others who put pressure on their children to make them their perfect puppets, no. It was something very nice.

“Well men still flirt with me, so I guess I shouldn't worry about my appearance until they stop” you joked, you were going to leave aside the fact that you were getting older with each passing day, month and year, forget that Time was still ticking for almost everyone in the world, worrying about it was stupid and a martyrdom, it caused nothing but depressive and anxious feelings.

“Who went and where?” The boy got up from the ground in a hurry and faced you.

Damian got upset when he heard that, dogs trying to seduce you for their dirty desires, he wouldn't allow it, that would affect his little niece, if his niece, it's not that he cared about you, that's clear, although you were kind to him and You treated him like a member of your family, he didn't feel anything for you…. TRUE? You were just a woman who shared blood with him, his sister, he wasn't going to admit it.

“Uggg, you sound like a protective father” you made a disgusted face.

“That your useless husband wasn't taking care of you” he ignored your mockery and continued with his interrogation.

“whaaat?” His words surprised you “Haha, I'm married, I think you hit your head.”

“What about that man who was at your house when I met you?” he asked you again, this time you could see that his calm temperament changed to an aggressive one.

“The man we had dinner with?” Damian nodded “yes that man, Alice's father?”

"Hahaha he's not Alice's father, where did you get that idea from?"

The boy didn't answer you, he just looked at you questioningly, waiting for you to continue talking.

“That man you met was Nick, Alice's godfather,” you explained, “and as for this little girl's father, he is not part of our lives.”

.

Thanksgiving was a very lively date in your home, your friends visited your house and had a delicious dinner, it was one of those days where the whole house became full of life and there was laughter in every corner, there were small arguments, but They all revolved around who gained little Alice's favor. Although she reacted well to Damian's company, she was not the same with your friends. It means that the little baby develops a demanding side with the people around her except for her family.

Today your younger brother did not attend the party, even though you invited him, it was something you expected, unfortunately, he had a family to celebrate with, his father and brothers, you assume, in his conversations he never mentioned his mother, so you assume that she It was not listed in its current home.

The surprise was pleasant, when you found the child visiting you in the early morning of the new day, although you wanted to sleep, seeing the child visiting you so late at your invitation, you suppose, warmed your heart and you accepted that the child came in. your house.

The nagging doubt of how it was possible for him to come from so far away in the middle of the night unaccompanied to your house was in your head, naaa... you would let him get away with it, he is not your son after all, and knowing the story familiar, Damian is also supposed to play superheroes like the others.

You watched as Damián devoured the food left over from the party, for some reason he decided to go out to the balcony of the house to eat and you followed him so as not to leave him alone. Yes, you were saying goodbye to the food you planned to eat the following week. At least you could save breakfast by reheating the little leftovers.

“You know you look like dad” you said looking at the child, maybe it was the dream or the silent atmosphere, between you and the child, but seeing him made you a little nostalgic.

It's funny, because even though that man never did a well-deserved action to receive such a title, you still called him your father, you hated yourself for that, you wanted to stop being stuck in a place where you were still deep inside yourself expecting something from your paternal family.

Dad... oh dad, why did you never give me such an opportunity to call you that, that man, even without effort or interest in your life, took an undeserved title.

You realized that the boy had stopped eating, to pay attention to you and your words. He didn't say anything which is a surprise, given his defensive attitude every time they spoke.

“Don't look at me like that, it's true... you look like him in many ways” you looked Damián in the eyes, you were lying with your head on the bars of the balcony without wanting to move it, with a face empty of emotions.

“I remember seeing him eat just the way you do, I never forget it, him eating with a stoic face and an air of superiority surrounding him, as if he were royalty” you did not move your eyes, always on a fixed point, observing the child who He was the exact copy of the first man who broke your heart “They are the same when eating, even if you don't believe it.”

Do you remember well when you would sneak out of your room or the kitchen where you spent your time with Alfred, just to see your father for a moment, there was something that stopped you from facing the man, sometimes he looked very tired, he was talking on the phone or someone She accompanied him at his dinner, like the women who visited the mansion with Bruce and stayed the night with him.

“Your appearance also reveals you as his son, after all you are his spitting image” you finished your ramblings, you looked away from the boy, it was better not to say anything else to him, you didn't want to bother him anymore, if he took your words the wrong way. You blame your lack of sleep for causing an impending disaster.

You'd better concentrate on observing the dark landscape full of lights that the balcony offers.

“You look like Bruce too,” Damian comments as he composes himself after being surprised by your words.

"..." You were left speechless by his sentence, how come you two looked alike and never noticed it? They had to change what made them similar to their father or treasure it with all their hearts.

You waited to hear the boy as you climbed onto the bars of the balcony and sat down, needing to clear your mind of the next words that would come out of the boy's mouth.

“You and Bruce… you are not careful in your romantic adventures and you end up with unexpected children,” he said without mincing words.

“Ahhh how embarrassing you don't say that” you tried to hide your face from the child's sight, you didn't expect him to digest something similar.

You laughed a little at what he said, in a way it was true, you didn't see it, but Damián also smiled when he saw your reaction and your smile, you didn't get angry or say anything bad against him because of his words.

He followed your steps and also sat on the bars of the balcony.

Although the adrenaline surged through your body from hanging at a high altitude above the ground, you left your worries behind and enjoyed the moment. You still kept your hands on the bars, to avoid incidents.

“Yeah, I'm sorry if what sounded bad before, the truth is that seeing you here makes me happy, I've never done something like that with dad and seeing you doesn't… wakes up emotions in me” you apologized, although the words you said were unintentional. you threw at him, you know very well that they had a bit of resentment in them.

“You are... you are the family I never had.”

Oh how stupid you were to say that, if only you knew that that closed your destiny, if you knew that by saying that, the boy whom you just started to consider a brother would see you as a valuable person in his life that he would not have the luxury of losing. , using methods at any cost to have his sister and niece by his side.

.

In another place very far from your house and the family scene you had.

Another great scene broke out, all because the "eldest" of the Wayne children went to look for his younger brother after their family dinner, but when he got to his room he noticed his absence.

This worried him, even more so knowing that he wasn't even sneaking around the city in his vigilante form.

Where had the little demon of the family gone? He scanned the boy's room, trying to find a clue to his whereabouts.

Even though he meticulously searched the entire large room, he found nothing, and about to give up, a book caught his attention.

An art book, it was rare that Damian left something visible, Dick took the moment to review his brother's art, upon seeing his few projects before he noticed that he had great talent.

He scanned the pages slowly, capturing every detail of the drawings and paintings, his brother was undoubtedly talented, but there was something, some leaves in particular, that stopped him from thinking about them.

A woman was drawn on it, a woman that he vaguely remembered, she was very familiar, but no matter how much he searched his memory he couldn't remember who she was.

When he was finally able to change the page, he noticed that all the other pages contained more drawings of the woman, or of a baby.

He took a photo of the drawings, something told him that this woman was important, he had to remember who she was.

It's time to add more characters, the good thing is that we already have a yandere.

Reader never specified that it was the paternal family that she never had, because although with Damian now they are more like brothers, she had her friends and her mother as family, may she rest in peace.

tag list: @kore-of-the-underworld @vanessa-boo @jsprien213 @delias-stuff @vanilliona @bat1212 @yanrandom @Quiarst @palabra de niño salvaje @el termino @leo227 @sirenethblog

[fangsforiris]

4 Days Before Christmas—Headcanon Edition!!

Character Select～𝒮𝒽𝓊𝓊 𝒮𝒶𝓀𝒶𝓂𝒶𝓀𝒾

♪ I’d like to think Shuu relishes in the holidays, especially Christmas.

Sure in the games he says—just like the other boys—that he doesn’t care for it, but deep down he does.

♪ It’s the feeling of nostalgia and peace he finds cathartic in realizing that just for a day, a small moment, he and his family can play house.

And sure, playing “house” does have its downsides—hence why he isn’t all for the act—the holidays brings out a side of him that many wouldn’t think to be possible. Especially for someone as reserved, withdrawn, and apathetic as Shuu.

For a moment—one could even describe him as human with his true love for Christmas.

♪ Even if they all know it won’t last, and once the clock strikes 12 it’ll all be over like some fairytale: don’t be surprised when you see Shuu sitting on his signature couch, lounging about by the fire place, listening to the crackles and basking in the soft aureate glow from the tree lights and lanterns plastered on the wall, with a small smile creeping up on his lips, as his sapphire eyes glisten with a comforting touch once his brothers open gifts and glee with excitement.

♪ That’s what keeps him going. The childlike innocence in the profound realization that this is what living was made for. All for the small, trinket sized moments he can softly admire like a pretty marble in his hand, softly turning it around should he wish.

♪ He’s also definitely a great gift giver.

♪ Since the boy is so attentive, even without trying, he catches onto the small things people mention—even in light mundane conversation. It makes for a good party trick when he outdoes everyone every year for the sheer amount of gifts he gives.

♪ In fact, one year, the Sakamaki boys were shocked to see how crazy the gift giving got—with each boy receiving 8-10 presents each. Not including the stocking stuffers and the advent calendars Shuu invested in.

♪ Shuu loves decorating too—it’s the best part of the holiday and he WILL fight Reiji if the boy even so much dares to disrupt his artistic vision.

(Newsflash—Shuu always gets his way and it looks like it came out of a Dr. Seuss children’s book every time. Shuu will NEVER compromise on nostalgia. Never.)

♪ Seriously, the boy goes all out and by Christmas you’ll see the large 30 ft tree, reaching the ceilings with that golden shining star, with mountains of gifts on the bottom, threatening to fall in its sheer grandeur.

♪ Since Shuu has so much money to spend, spending it on others gives him more gratification and self fulfillment in knowing he can make others smile—in a way, healing his inner child when being devoid of all things “fun” and “childish” due to his position as Heir to The Throne™️.

He’s 100% like Emily from Pretty Little Liars and her disposition towards Christmas.

♪ Shuu doesn’t mind not receiving any gifts. All he cares about is knowing that he can spend actual quality time with others. After all, with all the money in the world at your disposal what don’t you have?

♪ He’s not much of a baker, but if need be he’ll indulge in it just for the spirit, despite not having so much of a sweet tooth.

♪ You’ll see him with some hot cocoa though, 100%.

[xjulixred45x]

Platonic Yandere Satoru Gojo x Demaryius! Reader

This is the Request of @nunezs-stuff hope You like it sweetie!

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: male

Warnings: PLATONIC YANDERE BEHAVIOR, CLINGYNESS, ABUSE OF POWER, MANIPULATION , UNHEALTY MINDSET, Satoru is Jelous of the children of reader, BLACKMAID, treats of violence, Mainly located in the Star Plasma Arc. Satoru is a Brat. I think is done.

okay, something basic that must be learned from Platonic Yandere Gojo IN THIS CIRCUMSTANCE is that although he was loved by his family, I would not say that he was completely genuine.

Satoru always felt entitled to MANY THINGS precisely because he was born so strong and everyone (including his family) followed that game.

Being loved like that felt like something written into his life. so to speak.

This is kind of where Geto's question comes in. Would his family have loved him so much if he had not been born with six eyes? Or did he depend on that to be so loved by people?

In general, Satoru doesn't know GENUINE AND PURE affection very well.

Satoru does not understand what NORMAL love is, so he wants it desperately as it is something he cannot obtain through "conventional" methods such as money or favors, no, it is something SELFLESS that he really does not distinguish.

IT FRUSTRATES him.

But he manages to reach adolescence without that feeling, he spends much of his greatest losses and TRAUMA alone (Riko, Touji almost killing him, Geto leaving him) and he doesn't have what others would have in that situation, there is no comforting hug or someone who tell him that everything "is going to be okay."

No. he is alone.

But that's when he knows you.

You are a sorcerer who has managed to stay quite long (not Tengen level, but you are quite good at what you do).

You have developed many powerful abilities, but at the same time you have also been able to see many things in the world that you have wanted to improve or change for the better.

Thanks to this, over the years you adopted many boys and girls around the world while you learned powerful techniques that made you unstoppable.

These children got everything from you, a roof, food, training, LOVE. They were indebted to you, so they followed your teachings.

They even brought even more children for you to take care of.

You were satisfied with your life.

but the higher-ups of the world of Jujustu felt threatened by you and your techniques.

It didn't help that your children were just as threatening and, unlike you, had no problem using more violent methods to defend themselves or your honor.

For this reason, Satoru was in charge of trying to find you and take you to the higher ups with the purpose of executing you.

Satoru from the beginning found this very unfair for you, because you weren't really hurting anyone, so he just thought of giving you a lecture not to use these skills in such a public way, for your own good.

He may even have found you through your children in the beginning.

and in a way, that's when he started to feel...strange, about you.

because your children spoke of you as a loving, friendly, but authoritative figure, someone too good to be true for Satoru.

But he thought your kids were just exaggerating how good you were.

But he realized it wasn't when he met you.

he met you when you were away from your family, and even if you knew what he was coming to do, you weren't angry or upset in the slightest.

You received it where you were staying and Satoru felt...strange again.

You treated him with too much familiarity. Satoru wanted to believe it was just because you wanted to blackmail him, but no.

You were just being yourself.

Satoru wanted to know better the context of WHY you were doing what you were doing (in case you were really dangerous) but he only got a more valid reason for wanting to protect you.

That's how it started, the seed was planted and it grew like a FUCKING oak tree.

You and Satoru were spending time together when he was supposedly "looking for you" and you wanted to meet him yourself.

You were one of the few people who looked through the image of Satoru Gojo and saw something REAL.

an injured boy

It reminded you of many of your children.

But when he referred to his "old friends" with an undertone of sadness, you could see that he had lost people he loved.

so you gave him a shoulder to cry on. a hug.

It was something so BASIC that the boy had NOT EVEN had access to it at his worst. It made you sad.

For you, it was lend a hand to a hurt child who NEEDED it. Like the times you make it before.

but for Satoru, IT WAS EVERYTHING.

WAS THIS? Was this what they were missing? Did it feel THIS GOOD? having someone who sincerely cares about you...

It was EVERYTHING he needed to obsess over you as a parental figure.

Satoru felt like he was FINALLY getting what he was missing all this time.

That's why it became worrying almost immediately. because Satoru became like a clingy teenager towards you.

You didn't think it was anything worrying at first, since the two of you had had quite an emotional moment and young people tend to be more affectionate after that.

You even saw it as something positive, that he was opening up to you.

but it escalated pretty quickly.

because eventually you had to return to your Clan, to your children.

Satoru insisted on accompanying you, and even if you say no, he will invite himself and go to where you live with your children.

warning sign number one!

NOW, even with all the time you spend together, I don't think you talked about your children for a mere matter of safety.

so when you get home with Satoru, keep looking closely, and find all these boys, children, even adults, calling you dad, wanting your affection, and seeing how you look at them with love...

it disgusts him.

not because of you...but because he feels a burning rush of jealousy.

and when your children notice it, he doesn't miss the opportunity to get angry with them.

when your children attack him believing him to be an intruder, even with how well trained they are, Satoru manages to beat EVERY SINGLE one of them.

Even those who didn't want to fight...

Even when you told him to stop...that he was hurting them...

when Satoru finished with all of them. He only left you one "option" (because you had no say in the situation now): do what he wanted and no one would get hurt. You wouldn't want YOUR NEW SON to be ANGRY with you, right?

If we go more advanced in time, Satoru at the beginning was much less manageable with his jealousy of your affection.

He would like to do "typical" parent-child activities, like go play together, go out, learn something together, help him choose some type of clothes, etc.

as if he wanted to relive his childhood and adolescence.

That is, without ANY comebakcs or anything similar.

He would threaten you with physical harm, breaking your legs so I could take you in a wheelchair :) (he doesn't mean it seriously but it's to make you afraid of the idea of rebelling)

He would constantly throw tantrums to get his way, threaten to hurt your children or worse, threaten to turn them over to the higher ups.

A moment that left a mark on you was on one occasion, when you were still very depressed because of all this adjustment, and so deep in your head that you answered Satoru badly.

He literally grabbed you by the hair, pulled you back so you were close and said:

"Listen, old man, I have no problem sending one of your children to the higher ups in your place and watching them execute them, so you better start cooperating or I'll have to MAKE YOU"

only to then COMPLETELY CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE and discuss with yourself what you would like to eat that night.

Trying to escape is difficult when they have your children hostage. You already know that even if you don't fulfill their fantasy well enough they could have them executed, so it's not a good idea to know what they would do in an escape scenario...

When certain events in the anime occur, he is much more mature and gentle with you AND with your children, he may even develop his own yandere tendencies about them (whether romantic or also platonic) which honestly only scares you more.

In general, at this stage of his life, his obsession with you is based more on his desire to have even some normality.

but he purposely ignores that YOU ARE NOT NORMAL and you never plan to be.

so it's an Infinite loop where Satoru tries to win your affection.

be strong.

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

[probablyasocialecologist]

We often saw a distance between the worldviews expressed by many in the top 10% and their own actions. For instance, many say they have strong meritocratic beliefs, yet are increasingly reliant on their assets and wealth to secure advantages for themselves and their children, meaning inequalities among millennials and younger generations will become more dependent on inheritance. Such thinking was captured by a recent Telegraph article that declared: “No more rags to riches – family money will be the key to getting wealthy.” The environment is another area where thoughts and actions often diverge among this high-earning group. While worrying about the environment is positively correlated with income and education, research also shows that the higher your income, the higher your carbon footprint. One potential endpoint is a world of bunkers, without trust or a functioning public realm, where we all declare one thing and do another without much heed to the common good. But increasing inequality doesn’t just threaten those in poverty – it negatively affects the whole of society. It means higher imprisonment rates and more expense devoted to security, more mistrust in everyday interactions, worse health outcomes, less social mobility and more political polarisation, to mention just a few of these effects.

[...]

Our interviewees often don’t think of themselves as beneficiaries of public policy, and tend to think state action is, almost by definition, overweening and invasive – forgetting the myriad ways that all of us depend on public infrastructure and on underpaid key workers. This even applies to those who, like Sean, do not come from wealthy families themselves. Whenever they can afford it through their own spending or as a perk from employment, high earners in the UK are increasingly relying on the private sector, especially as they see the public sector as crumbling and inefficient. The more they do so, the less likely they are to associate paying tax with something that benefits them directly and to trust public solutions to public problems.

[silent-raven13]

Miles' love

There's days when Miles is overwhelmed with the world, where his anxiety goes haywire and got him going through panic attacks. Sometimes he just needs someone to be comfortable with or be by himself. Mostly he either talks to his Hobie about personal issues, sometimes talk to his parents like stuff about school and relationship advices.

Now, many seem that Miles' is the princess type always being taken care of, always spoiled with love and being cherished like a rare gem. That may be true especially, with his punker boyfriend. Hobie had always shower his Sunflower with gifts, love, anything and everything to make sure he is happy.

But, this isn't about Miles being taken care- No, this is about Miles' being a supportive and loving partner.

Now, many would assume Hobie Brown is a punker without no issues or problems, except if he's being Spider-Punk. All Spider-Heroes have dealt with trauma and lost of their loved ones, and being a Hero- err, he doesn't believe in heroism, anyway, the struggle of protecting the innocent is already relatable with Spider-people.

However, not many knows he too have his own depression, which Miles have been very aware. it started when Hobie mentions his neglectful mother and absent father, how much he hated them for leaving such a dysfunctional family. The worst part being poor with so many siblings and trying to survive dealing with an alcoholic mother. One of the major cause of his depression when he sometimes looks over a happy family, seeing both parents loving their child can hit a nerve.

He always wanted to be loved, to be hold and often to question if he desire it. Sometimes he believe he's trash and desire to be tossed aside, because of his abusive mum's words cut him like a knife. Many think words don't bother him, it's because he had the biggest BULLY of all, his mother! Foul words have been thrown at him in such an early age that he could remember his mom sneered at how much he look a lot like his father or how ugly he is. The distasteful foul slurs she uses in spiteful hate on her children shows how bitter she became when her husband left them- her!

So yeah, he never found loving parents, and his siblings can only do so much. He always wanted to have a family that would love him. In honesty, he does get jealous at his friends' connection with their families. Of course, he loves and cherish the family he build! That's the whole point, a person create their own community, their own family with trust and love. Yet...

Ha, it's always that yet, funny?

The punker yearn to be loved, to be worth it. There's times he believe he give so much and in the end he believe he isn't worth of love. Isn't worth of being with his Sunflowers. Too flawed. Too messed up to be with his darling Miles. No, he sees how much Miles can do so much better than him- WAY BETTER!

Ganke would be perfect him.

Is always his final thoughts or many a bloke with money and kindness would be better for his Miles. These dark thoughts got him restless, spend days not sleeping well. Smoking, drinking and doing a bit of drugs would help numb the pain, and he would carefully to use a little.

Don't want to tweet out being a crackhead on the slums of New York in his world. He refuses that lifestyle, he almost went there and it was hell crawling back out especially without support.

The Punker sat on the edge of his boathouse having a smoke; a little cigarette. Days like this makes him crave for a cigarette. Just when the twenty year old tries to quit, it always comes back to him.

Miles is gonna hate me for this. Nah, he'll for sure leave. i don't deserve him. I don't deserve to be love...

He looks at the river seeing how calm it is.

Everyone is only friends with me because I don't give a shit. No one ask for my opinion or how I'me doing... I'm a shit person.

He sighs feeling his depression hitting hard.

Maybe I should call Miles- No, he doesn't want to see me like this.

He always prefer Hobie when he's cooler. The Punker believed his Sunflower wants him to be the rock, the wall that protects the two.

It's better if I just deal with this on my own.

He had trouble calling out for help, too. It's difficult for him to talk about his personal troubles rather making everything into riddles or jokes. It's a way to shield him off from the world and from his Sunflower. He knows he shouldn't, before he was about to go to his bedroom.

An orange portal opens up right in the middle of the boathouse, Miles jumps out looking at his partner. This time the nineteen year old took off his Spider-man mask to show a frown, to go over to hug him.

Hobie looked surprised for the moment, "Luv, what are you doing here?" He quickly tap his cigarette bud out.

His boyfriend hugs him tighter, "I had a feeling you weren't feeling well."

"How?"

"You're not the only that gone through this kind of stuff." Miles softly spoke, "I noticed yesterday you were quiet and distant like I was a virus. My Spider Senses been going off too. Hobie, what's wrong? You can talk to me." He kisses his Hobie's cheek, "Mi amor, please. I know, your going through with something."

"I..." The Punker frowns giving a sad puppy pout with his inky eyes looking teary then he sighs being silent.

Great, now he'll get mad and leave me. All because I don't want to bloody talk! Hobart, you are one fucking wanker!

Instead of Miles being upset with the answer, he completely understood. See, he had a feeling his boyfriend might be sensitive to talk about certain stuff, so he went to Dr. Sims for advice. Rather than demanding or expecting an answer so quick, it was best to be there to listen. Dr. Sims recommended to be patient. So Miles will, gladly being the partner his Moonflower needs.

Miles cup his punker's face pulling him into a gentle kiss on the lips. "Whatever you're going through, I'm here with you." He pulls him into another tight hug, "We don't have to talk, we can be quiet, snuggling together. You know, you have me to cry on. Take all the time you need, Hobie. I love you and I'm not leaving your side." Another kiss on the punker's cheek.

Hobie felt tears coming down his cheek as he sniffs. Miles wiped them away, and gave another kiss on his boyfriend's face. "Thanks, luv... I don't fucking deserve you." Hobie finally hugs his Sunflower tightly as he weeps to him. "Sorry...Sorry, luv. I just feel like shit today!"

Miles hugs him tighter, with his face being buries into Hobie's shoulder as he spoke, "Bae- mi alma, mi carińo! I love you, and everything about you that includes your flaws. We deserve each other! You're so worth it! I'm happy being with you." He took his boyfriends' face, again to say to his face, "Hobie Laurence Brown, I fucking love you! Your mine and I will never let you go!"

"Fuck, luv. You always have a way for words." Hobie gave a small smile through his cries, he sniffs before kissing his Sunflower. "You're my everything, luv. I just often think-" Miles cut his off, "Don't ever think like that! I will always be with you! You and me are soulmates, remember! You and I made a promise we riding this train till we die."

"Heh, you're right, luv. I just-" He buries his face into his Miles' chest to breaths in his scent. "I'm sorry..."

"Shh, it's okay. Come, I'll take you to your room! Did you eat anything? Had some water?" Miles picks his boyfriend up which caught the punker off guard. It's kinda funny seeing Miles being shorter than him picking him up like a girlfriend, especially when it's a hug carry style. Then again, Spider-man powers!

"Sweeping off me feet, Sunflower? To make me feel better..." Hobie jokes.

"We both know I wear the pants of this relationship!" Miles giggles as he happily carries his boo to his bedroom, so the two can cuddle and spend some quality time. This is the perfect time for Miles to show all his love, self care to his man, and cook for him! This is the perfect cure to making his Hobie feeling better. Everyone needs some self-care from time to time.

It wasn't long till Hobie his cuddling with his Sunflower on their bed having giggles and laughter in the room as they play with the electric guitar. Miles' love is always special to him, and he knows no one will never replace that!

[stariified]

⋆ ׅ ،  ࣪ STARCRUSH is a fictional seven member co-ed group under Melody Media. Starcrush debuted in 2019 after the formation of their pre-debut group, IN-SYNC. Below are the profiles of the current members of STARCRUSH.

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ I WANNA BE, HIGH ALL THE TIME ── wang shanyuan

Wang Shanyuan, more commonly known by his stage name, Yuan, is the leader of starcrush. Born in Hangzhou, China, it was always somewhat of a struggle for Yuan growing up. The only reason they were living in Hangzhou, was because he had other family members there, who had offered to support his family, when in need. Yuan was only fluent in Mandarin and didn’t have much knowledge about any other languages in the world which was a struggle when he moved to Korea later on in his life.

Despite his home life, Yuan was extremely popular at school, due to his likeable personality and supposedly ‘good looks’ that were said to be charming to many students. This was the opposite for his sister, Wang Liling, who was constantly bullied for being the worst ‘Wang Sibling’. Yuan chose to ignore his sister’s wishes for help, not wanting to bruise his reputation until she ended up in hospital because of a damaging incident. This was what soured the relationship between the two and caused them to grow distant, Yuan still attempting to fix the relationship from time to time with no success or progress.

March of 2017, was the last time Yuan saw China, as a few days later, he moved to Korea for undisclosed reasons. During his stay, he ended up making a few friends, without knowing much of the language. He quickly started to learn the language, in hopes of being a translator in the future when he stumbled across being an Idol as a career. Yuan had never thought about it before, but he had always excelled in music during high school and he also happened to be a good dancer. So when he heard Melody Media were holding auditions close to his home, he took the opportunity and landed a spot in the pre-debut group IN-SYNC.

IN-SYNC soon disbanded as a pre-debut group in perpetration for the confirmed group’s initial debut. After many altercations and changes to the lineup, Yuan debuted with STARCRUSH on April 12th, 2019 with the viral song ‘In My Dreams’. He is currently the group’s leader, sub vocalist & lead dancer.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Yuan.

Birth name - Wang Shanyuan ( 王善源 ).

Born - June 8th, 1998 / Hangzhou, China.

Ethnicity - Chinese.

Height - 179cm ( 5’10 ).

Position - Leader, Sub Vocalist, Lead Dancer.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Dong Sicheng ( Winwin ).

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ HOPE YOU DON’T REGRET IT ── kang haesoo

Kang Haesoo, more famously known by her pseudonym, Star, was born in Changwon, South-Korea to two wealthy parents. Haesoo was an only child and was constantly given money and attention by her parents since they had no other children. This would make Haesoo seem spoiled and ungrateful to the other students that attended her middle & high school so they gave her the nickname of 'Kang Princess' to both make fun of, as well as annoy her. Haesoo attempted to ignore the constant teasing by her classmates, but it was extremely hard for her, especially when she knew what they were saying was true, she just didn't want to accept it.

When she was younger, Haesoo had already been heavily involved in child acting, her parents thrusting her into the spotlight at an early age with commercials and a few roles in tv shows and movies. This continued until she quit acting in Early 2015. She often spent time alone, being wealthy was one thing, but having zero friends was another problem. Nobody wanted to be friends with a 'spoiled rich girl' and because of this, Haesoo stayed home most days, never going out like normal teens her age would.

Spending all her time locked away in her room, studying, writing rap lyrics, or doing absolutely nothing, is what caused Haesoo to become increasingly more interested in the idol industry, and when she did, she was very eager to be apart of it. Previously, she had heard and watched many idols perform, but she didn't think about what it would be like if she was up on stage, always on camera. But when she finally did, it seemed to become a huge dream for her and she would not stop mentioning it to her parents. However, Haesoo struggled to find an entertainment that accepted her. Some offered to let her in without an audition, due to her parents wealth, but she insisted on passing with her own talents to do things without always involving money.

The last company she auditioned for, was Melody Media, and it was her last hope. If the audition didn't go well, Haesoo decided that she would just have to quit her dream and continue focusing on studying every other week. Fortunately, she passed her audition and started her life as a trainee in the middle of 2016. Shortly after, she was added to the lineup for the pre-debut group, IN-SYNC, and started training with the rest of the group until she debuted in STARCRUSH as the group's main rapper and sub vocalist.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Star ( 별 ).

Birth Name - Kang Haesoo ( 강해수 ).

Born - August 11th, 1999 / Changwon, South-Korea.

Position - Main Rapper, Sub Vocalist.

Years active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Lim Dayoung.

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ WISH I DIDN’T DOUBT IT ── cho michae

Born in 2000, Cho Michae was born in Perth, Australia along with three other siblings. From a young age, it was clear Michae was going to have a career in music. She had always dreamed of playing an instrument and was exceptional at both singing and dancing. This is what led Michae to start playing the violin as well as the guitar throughout Elementary and Middle school. Nearing the start of High School, she still stuck to the violin and dropped guitar once she realized that she was struggling to keep up with both, and she had just recently joined the school’s choir. Michae then transferred to the Australian Performing Arts Grammar School, in Glebe, Australia, for better education opportunities for her to pursue a musical career.

During her High School days, she was part of a popular band named ‘DAYDRUM’ where she was the lead guitarist and occasionally featured in the vocalist role, but since she had stopped playing the guitar a while ago, it was difficult for her to learn how to play again. A few years after the band was created, Michae realized that it just wasn’t for her and officially quit, still pursuing other interests and instruments in her spare time. This was around the time where she was emailed by Melody Media after they watched her final performance together with the band when it went viral after its upload on youtube, with it being plastered on every single social media platform. This email is what pushed Michae to attempt to enter their online global auditions, in the hopes of being accepted.

In Winter of 2015, She was accepted into Melody Media and immediately placed in the trainee group IN-SYNC. Without her family’s consent, she moved to Korea, ready to start training whenever she could. Despite her place in IN-SYNC she was later sent to participate in the M-NET produced survival show, PRODUCE 101. Michae placed 14th overall in the show, which didn’t really matter to her as she was promised a debut either way. The company expressed their thoughts on Michae being a rapper, which she shot down very quickly as she had no experience in rapping, but Melody Media insisted and she then took classes to aid her in grey areas up until debut. She then debuted in STARCRUSH as the group’s main rapper & main dancer.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Sunday ( 일요일 ).

Birth Name - Cho Michae ( 조 마이클 ).

Born - January 1st, 2000 / Perth, Australia.

Position - Main Rapper, Main Dancer.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Yoo Jimin ( Karina ).

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ IT DOESN’T MATTER IF WE’RE NEVER RICH OR FAMOUS ── kim theo

Kim Theo’s parents had disappeared and left him at a young age, so, he had always lived with his Aunt and Uncle, along with his cousins in Leicester, England. Ever since he was five years old, Theo had always been interested in being an idol as soon as he saw 2PM & SHINee on the big screen. But, his legal guardians were not very supportive or appreciative of the idea. Theo often felt isolated inside the home and it felt as if he didn’t belong there, or as if he was intruding on them constantly. He was taken care of and cared for properly, but his Aunt & Uncle refused to let him audition for any entertainment companies, explaining that it was a waste of time and that he could be doing bigger and better things in life than just one unattainable job he had wanted since childhood.

Something else that had stopped him from pursuing this dream, was an injury he sustained when he started to play football professionally for his school. Theo had severely fractured his ankle, meaning he wasn’t able to play for a year and it halted his plans to audition for entertainment companies that same year. During his recovery period, his parents finally decided to reach out to him, which angered Theo immensely and he refused to speak to them, despite their pleads for him to come back and live with them. At this point, Theo had given up on both football and being an idol. It seemed as if neither careers were going to be attainable after his injury and it felt as if everything in his life was going completely wrong, recovery was just too much for him.

Despite all this, his parents had still not given up on convincing him to live with them and decided to take it upon themselves to check him out of the hospital and tried to convince him to go home with them, which failed and a restraining order was immediately placed against the couple. Exactly a year after Theo’s incident, he had fully recovered but had clearly given up on being an idol when he was scouted in England by Melody Media after they had decided to look for more global idols for their company image. They scouted Theo mainly based on his looks, not asking for anything else during his audition and he was accepted through to the trainee section of the company.

In 2017, Theo was added to the lineup for IN-SYNC and soon after, he debuted in STARCRUSH as the group’s lead dancer & main vocalist.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Theo ( 테오 ).

Birth Name - Kim Theo ( 김태오 ).

Born - March 22nd, 2000 / Leicester, England

Position - Main Vocalist, Lead Dancer.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Kang Taehyun.

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ I DIDN’T KNOW THEY WOULDN’T MIX WITH YOUR EMOTIONS ── hwang daehyun

Hwang Daehyun, better known as Dae, had been born into a very strict and professional household with a family full of successful people who were positive Daehyun would be successful too, and he was. Daehyun had plans to become a lawyer and was constantly throwing himself into studying and education so that he wouldn’t disappoint his family. This gave Daehyun a lot of stress and he lost a lot of free time just hauled upstairs and locked away, in order for him to impress everyone he knew. Whenever his friends or other family members asked him to hang out with them, he would always have to decline to make sure he didn’t fall behind on his studies.

He kept this up until he suddenly became sick due to the lack of nutrients he wasn’t getting, and he wasn’t eating any other supplements to help this out. Instead of being worried about his condition, his parents brushed it off and told him to keep working. They claimed the reason why he fell ill was because he ‘wasn’t working hard enough’ which sent Daehyun over the edge and he decided that he had to quit, even if it meant disappointing his parents. But surprisingly, they were supportive of him, realizing that they were a little too harsh on him and that they couldn’t control everything he did in his life.

Daehyun’s friends would often joke around about being an idol and that’s where his sudden interest sparked. At first, he played along joking about the idea but then it began to intrigue him, so he then started to research about it, which further catapulted him into a spiral of questions about the industry. After a long time of thinking, Daehyun finally realized that he was set on becoming an idol and introduced this idea to his parents. This took a lot of convincing and pleading since his parents were extremely surprised that he brought this up, and weren’t extremely sure if this was something he should go for. But, they finally caved in and allowed him to start auditioning for different companies. Daehyun had been constantly practicing and this meant that a range of labels were reaching out to him and accepting his auditions. Daehyun ended up choosing Melody Media as it was one of the closest to him and he didn’t want to have to separate from his family.

He was one of the last trainees to join the IN-SYNC lineup, being added last minute in 2018 just before the disbandment of the pre-debut group meaning he only spent a few months practicing with them but still managed to stay apart of the lineup, avoiding being cut off. In spring of 2019, Daehyun debuted in STARCRUSH as the lead rapper and lead vocalist.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Dae ( 대 ).

Birth Name - Hwang Daehyun ( 황대현 ).

Born - September 9th, 2001 / Jeju-do, South-Korea

Positions - Lead Rapper, Lead Vocalist.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Lee Jaehyun ( Hyunjae ).

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ I JUST HAD TO REACH MY GOALS ── yoo bonnie

Life in California was everything but peaceful for Yoo Bonnie. Her family were also extremely rich, but often neglected and chose to ignore Bonnie and the rest of her siblings, meaning that they had to focus on raising themselves & each other. Time together was barely enough for the family, and their Mother began to realize how unhealthy it was and took off with the four siblings. Things continued to be the same and nothing changed drastically, they were all still being ignored by the only parent they had left, so Bonnie got used to the same routine everyday. Bonnie and her siblings left their Mother to live with their Aunt in South Korea for the next 3 years.

This was where Bonnie gained interest in music, and a musical career. The idol life was all everyone talked about in Korea, especially in school and Bonnie wondered what it would be like too, after watching a few performances of SNSD most days when she came home from school. But she couldn’t speak much Korean at the time, and it was a struggle for her to communicate with her friends, teachers and other students, let alone sing in a whole other language. Bonnie was not exceptional at singing either and thought did a very long time, that her lack of vocal skills would be her downfall.

At that time, Bonnie’s older sister, Melanie, was taking dance classes and she had decided that she desperately wanted to join her as she had always found dancing fun and an interesting hobby to pick up since it didn’t seem very difficult. Bonnie was completely wrong, she often came home with bruises from continuously falling over and even sometimes, sprained limbs when she tried too hard to match her sister’s pace. A year since she had started dancing, was when Bonnie could finally keep up with the rest of the class, and began to go further than most each week. A few months later, and she had already been performing at festivals, and occasionally at her school.

It wasn’t until late 2017 when both her and her older sister, Annie, were scouted at one of Bonnie’s festivals where she was currently performing in along with Melanie, their aunt cheering them both on. One of Melody Media’s scouting crew persuaded her to audition for their company and after a long conversation, she finally gave in. Bonnie was accepted into Melody Media and joined the lineup for STARCRUSH in early 2019 as the last pre-debut member of IN-SYNC. She then debuted with STARCRUSH as the group’s main dancer & lead rapper.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Bonnie ( 보니 ).

Birth Name - Yoo Bonnie ( 유 보니 ).

Born - December 30th, 2001 / California, USA.

Positions - Main Dancer, Lead Rapper.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Jeon Heejin.

𖤐 ˖   ࣪ I NEVER MEANT TO HURT YOU, THOUGH ── narumi miura

Miura Narumi, also known as Darling, was always a positive & vibrant person, even since birth. Narumi would always help out her family members and even her neighbours whenever they asked, this however, did not put her in a good spot. She was often picked on in school for being ‘naive’ and too ‘trusting’ when it came to who weren’t and who were her friends. This made Narumi often feel isolated from others and as if she didn’t have anyone else to talk to or simply just be around, since no one wanted to be near someone like her.

Narumi had always loved growing up in Japan, she loved her hometown and loved the fact that it was so easy to see her extended family members, but when it came to the time for her ti start thinking about her career, Narumi knew she didn’t want to stay stuck in Japan for the rest of her life. She didn’t have many options though, there wasn’t anything she excelled in or liked enough for her to make a career out of it, expect music. However, Narumi’s parents desperately wanted her to become a Doctor or a Teacher of some sort, which was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to be but they just would not let the idea go and continued to pressure her into it.

That was when she decided that she just couldn’t be near them anymore, and decided to go to South-Korea, alone. This decision was extremely hard for Narumi, because it meant living away from her family and going into a foreign country she knew nothing about and had no idea how to speak the language for a long period of time. Luckily for her, the rest of her family had soon followed behind her, not wanting to leave their daughter alone at such a young age. Whilst out with a few friends she had made in her short time in Korea, Narumi was scouted by Melody Media after they had heard a short few minutes of her singing.

Narumi was the last of the group to join the lineup and was a late addition, only being introduced after the disbandment of the pre-debut group IN-SYNC. She debuted in April, 2019 as the group’s lead vocalist & lead dancer.

✧ PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name - Darling ( 여보 ).

Birth Name - Miura Narumi ( 三浦成美 ).

Born - November 19th, 2002 / Hiroshima, Japan.

Positions - Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer.

Years Active - 2019 / present.

Label - Melody Media.

Faceclaim - Sohara Hinata.

[townsenddecades]

1300 - Day 2

(TW for a brief allusion to sexual coercion)

Anne’s worries about the future don’t keep said future from coming upon the Townsend farmstead - not the life-shattering consequences to her actions that she fears, but the humdrum realities of working a farm for a living. Over the next few weeks, life settles into its usual rhythm, with her keeping the house, Benedict working the fields, and the girls helping with both, as well as with their chicken coop.

They have another avenue of making some money besides their crops: beekeeping. With the girls helping on the farm, Benjamin finds some time to clean the hives and extract some honey, in hopes that they will make a tidy little side income. And Anne can use the beeswax to make some nice-smelling candles they can either use for themselves or sell, too boot!

As always, the girls make the trip to the village to get some water from the village well, too. They don’t meet any strange boys from town, this time around, but Anne steals some time to watch a lizard for a bit before heading back. With their chores done, the girls often take some time to cool down from the summer heat in the nearby river.

Luckily, all the farm work doesn’t keep Benedict entirely from spending time with his wife and children. Anne’s heart nearly breaks each time she watches his tenderness when interacting with any of their little ones. Her husband has a bit of a temper, but he loves them all more than anything else in the world. It’s what makes it so hard for her to tell him about her pregnancy, well-knowing that the child she is carrying could be another’s and that it would wound him deeply if he knew. But she knows she can’t hide it forever.

And really, she has stepped outside of her marriage one time. The Watcher wouldn’t punish her family by having her get with child by that. She isn’t a cruel deity.

(The Watcher would not, incidentally. Punishing Sims for giving in to love or pleasure or, as in Anne Townsend’s case, fear as to what refusing a powerful man might mean for her family, is not in Her divine wheelhouse. Quite the reverse: in the latter case, She would rather punish said powerful man for being a self-centred, thoughtless idiot.

The Watcher would have the child be illegitimate to enjoy the unfolding drama, however. She is not a malicious deity, but a bored one.)

Eventually, Anne decides that she has to tell him, so she approaches him while he is out checking on the chickens in the girls’ absence. She knows that she is wringing her hands, but she can’t help it.

“Benedict, love, there is something I need to tell you.”

Her heart aches as she looks at him, smiling, as if he already knows what is coming. “Yes?”

“I…I wanted to tell you that I am expecting another child.”

“Anne, that’s wonderful!”  And suddenly, he is hugging her, holding her tight. “It may be a bit of a tight squeeze, but I can’t wait.”

“I’m happy you’re so thrilled”, she says, but her eyes fill with tears as she hugs him back. Thankfully, he can’t see her face – until he pulls back to hold her at arms’ length, that is. He is frowning now.

“And you’re not?”

“I’m just worried”, she says. It isn’t a lie. “You know I want more children, but if the harvest is bad, it may get hard to have so many mouths to feed.”

At that, his smile is back. “I’m sure we’ll manage. We always do.”

She can only hope that’s true. Maybe she’ll be lucky, and the child will be born with a shock of red hair like their siblings, and she will be able to put all of this behind her.

But aside from that, the second quarter of the year comes to an end without much upheaval.

Prev: 1300, Day 1 <---> Next: 1300, Day 3

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

about freddie's privacy i remember louis wanted privacy and briana did too (idk if its real maybe i'm mixing up my memories cause its been 10 years) but she kept posting pictures of the baby, she kept fighting with other fans and i don't know how real the tweet to danielle of "you will never be his mother" is, it seems like i'm blaming briana but sometimes she just added more drama, i understand that it was her first baby and she wanted to share it with the world but didn't she see that the world was cruel to her newborn? and i know it's not her fault, she should be free to share whatever she wants about freddie but she literally had haters waiting for anything to attack and here goes my controversial part about louis, i feel like he did nothing real to stop the crazy theories the larries made up about freddie, i know they never listen to him and don't believe what he says but couldn't he and briana file a lawsuit? because they were messing with a minor, I remember I was 15 and I was just starting to use Twitter and it was the day Freddie was born and they were saying horrible things about him and Louis, I have this horrible feeling of saying he’s a baby, what is he going to feel when he’s 10 and sees all the things they said about him? I was 15 and my mind was like why are they saying these bad things about Louis? I remember very well the desperation of trying to write nice things to Louis for the birth of his son, but it was obvious that they were lost among so many malicious comments, but from the moment they saw what they were/are doing, why didn’t they give them a real consequence for their actions? I think we all know that they are never going to stop, no matter how much we tell them that Louis hates them, that he doesn't love them, that he blocks Larries on TW, that he says how much he loves his son, they are never going to stop, what I am saying is perhaps too drastic and I know that these were difficult times for Louis, but these people need to truly understand the consequences of their actions, how horrible people they are for having messed with a minor for almost nine years since before he was born, the ideal thing would be for them to grow up and leave their fantasies behind but they are not going to do that. I'm sorry, I'm not very good at writing in English, I hope you can understand my point.

Thanks for writing. I agree with a lot of what you say.

I don’t think it’s easy to “sue” Larries. The backlash and bad publicity wouldn’t be worth it. Louis would have to prove that a Larrie lied knowingly with intent to harm, which is difficult to do in court (Briana wouldn’t have the money to pay the lawyers anyway).

As I’ve said before, I think that anyone who has used Freddie for publicity has harmed his life, and that includes Freddie’s parents— Louis and Briana— and their respective families. Parading baby Freddie publicly to “prove the Larries wrong” showed poor judgment. Children cannot consent to being used in social media. The risk for consequent psychological harm is almost always uniformly high. Therefore, most celebrities rightly protect their children from public scrutiny.

It was always very clear to me that Briana was posting Freddie in order to gain fame and influence, and that she used Freddie’s parentage to climb the social scene in Hollywood, even at the bottom rungs.

The only thing I will argue is that Freddie’s family should be able to interact with him normally, without hateful comments. He should be able to spend holidays where he wants to. He should be able to go to his father’s concerts whenever he wants to (but Louis can also protect him more by letting him sit backstage or VIP, like the Tomlinsons do). As much as Louis wants a “normal life” for himself, the fact is that no celebrity at his level of fame can live a normal life, and his child needs more protection from the public than other kids. There should be a balance, but the priority should be Freddie’s safety.

You’re right that Larries will never stop. Nothing Louis says or does will discourage them. They would rather destroy him and Freddie before admitting that they’re wrong. At this point, Louis probably should ignore them and try his best to gain other non-1D fans, which means following Harry’s, Niall’s, and Zayn’s examples and blacklist 1D questions and stop covering 1D songs.

[mandsleanan]

Sorry, parents: The American dream is only for DINKS

Homebuyers with kids will likely spend 66% of their income on a mortgage and childcare this year.

Parents in Los Angeles and San Diego can expect to spend as much as 121% and 113%, respectively.

Some Californians have moved across the country to afford to buy a home.

Thinking about buying a home this year with kids already in the picture? Get ready to dig deep.

A recent study from Zillow found that potential homebuyers with children are likely to spend 66% of their income on mortgage payments and childcare expenses — an increase of nearly 50% from 2019. 

The real-estate company estimated city- and state-level childcare costs from 2009 to 2022 for the typical American family with 1.94 children by analyzing data from the Women’s Bureau of the US Department of Labor and advocacy group Child Care Aware.

According to Zillow’s analysis, in 31 of the largest 50 US metropolitan areas with available childcare cost data, families looking to buy a home can expect to spend more than 60% of their income on mortgage and childcare costs.

Some areas are even costlier, with parents in cities like Los Angeles and San Diego needing to dedicate as much as 121% and 113%, respectively. (In those areas, the cost of buying a typical home and childcare is so big relative to the median income that Zillow's calculation results in figures over 100%.)

Zillow determined that a family earning a median household income of $6,640 per month can expect to allocate $1,984 of that to childcare. If the family purchased a house at a 6.61% interest rate — the rate in early January, when the US Department of Labor released its latest data on childcare costs — and made a 10% down payment, their monthly mortgage would amount to $1,973.

That leaves just $2,683 for additional expenses like food, transportation, and healthcare. This means many households with kids are financially strained; they're likely spending more than 30% of their income on housing, well above what experts recommend.

It all adds up to a costly reality that's making the American dream of homeownership seem farther out of reach for parents than ever before.

Parents can blame a yearslong battle with inflation, as well as stubbornly high home prices and mortgage rates, for contributing to their predicament.

Based on the study, a new buyer household in the United States, making the median income, would spend 30% of it on housing. It's paying for childcare, then, that adds so much on top of the housing budget.

The upshot: Another group, less encumbered financially, appears better poised to realize the dream of homeownership: "DINKS," an acronym that stands for "dual income, no kids."

Some child-free DINKS — who boast a median net worth above $200,000 according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances — devote their disposable income to luxuries like boats and expensive cars.

Without the financial obligations of raising children, such as covering medical expenses or enrolling them in daycare or private school, DINKS can save thousands of dollars a year and build greater long-term wealth.

Some DINKS use their savings to finance vacations and travel the world, like Elizabeth Johnson and her husband, who, over the past couple of years, have hiked in the Swiss Alps, snorkeled in Hawaii, and enjoyed leaf peeping in Canada.

"We hang out with other people's kids every once in a while," Johnson previously told Business Insider's Bartie Scott and Juliana Kaplan, "but then we happily just give them back to their parents."

Some Americans with kids move to places where their money goes further

One solution to the high cost of both buying a home and raising a family?

Move.

In recent years, young Americans in higher-cost states have decided to move to places that offer them a cheaper cost of living.

Janelle Crossan moved to New Braunfels, Texas, from Costa Mesa, California, in 2020 following a divorce.

She was able to become a first-time homebuyer and found a safe community to raise her son.

"I paid $1,750 for rent in a crappy little apartment in California," Crossan told BI earlier this year. "Now, three years later, my whole payment, including mortgage and property taxes, is $1,800 a month for my three-bedroom house."

Pengyu Cheng, a program manager for a tech company, told BI in 2023 that moving from California to Texas allowed him and his wife to afford their first home, giving them the confidence and security to have their first child.

"Living in California has always been expensive," Cheng said. "I knew that when my wife and I eventually expanded our family, we wouldn't be able to afford San Francisco or the Bay Area in general — even though we both earn good salaries."

[osakaonryoif]

Other Characters, (Non-Ro's, if you feel so inclined.)

Wataru Watanabe:

The cheerful, if a bit plump, owner of the Kashas Attic, the izakaya in which Makoto lives. Is also the adoptive father of Makoto. He treats all his customers as if they were his own family, and never, ever, asks questions.

Kokona Karimoto:

A first year at a local high school, Jigoujitoku High. She regularly hangs out at the Izakaya which Makoto lives above, she ends up involved in the war between your group and the Busujimas. She takes a while to open up to strangers, and often retreats into herself, blocking out the world with the pair of red headphones that she is never seen without. She enjoys petting Kit when they are in their fox form.(I am definitely not projecting myself into this character.)

Shakunetsu Busujima:

The acting Kumicho of the Busujima Family. While technically the one in charge, he has been reduced to a mere figurehead in recent years as he has slowly succumbed to a terminal illness, and his 4 lieutenants have become the ones truely running the show. Has a reputation for being honourable and chivalrous.

Hayumi Busujima:

Shakunetsu’s wife, and the mother of his children. (Now deceased, may she rest in peace.)

Kaito Busujima:

The eldest son of Shakunetsu, and first in line to become the Kumicho when Shakunetsu dies or is otherwise ousted from power. This was apparently the subject of many debates between him, and his twin sister Toshiko. But the matter was supposedly settled behind closed doors, and Toshiko agreed to be second in line. He is “generally well liked and respected by even the toughest Yakuza members”. His charisma and natural leadership abilities have secured him a position of power within the family, despite his relatively “weak structure”, which he makes up for by always surrounding himself with, at minimum, 10 or more trusted bodyguards.

Toshiko Busujima:

The eldest daughter of Shakunetsu, and second in line to become the Kumicho when Shakunetsu dies or is otherwise ousted from power. This was apparently the subject of many debates between her, and her twin brother Kaito. But the matter was supposedly settled behind closed doors, and Toshiko agreed to be second in line. Toshiko is the chief enforcer of the Busujima Family, and the mere mention of her name strikes fear into even her own loyal subordinates. She has never lost a fight. Which makes her your most important target. When not in a fight, she seemingly has a tendency to “zone out”, and can often be caught reading a book in a quiet corner.

Akari Hanabusa:

The youngest of the Busjima Family’s 4 lieutenants. Akari is the Busujima’s “Entertainment director”, and spends much of her time managing the family’s illegal establishments, such as casinos, brothels, nightclubs, etc. She is notoriously bad with money, and spends anything she gets her hands on, almost immediately, on various “upgrades” to the various establishments she runs (Do not ask about the elephant incident). There are rumours that she uses her body as a bribe, and this method has supposedly brought the Osaka Police Chief onto the Busujima’s payroll.

Tsukasa Kamiyama:

Eldest of the Busujima Family’s 4 lieutenants, and a close friend of Shakunetsu and older brother figure to the twins. A notorious man of few words, Tsukasa is highly regarded as the most intelligent in the Family, acting under his principle of brains over brawn. Tsukasa is the Busujima family’s “chief economist”, and spends much of his time counting money, and allocating budget for Akari to spend as she pleases. He is not, however, afraid to get his hands dirty, and Kaito often brings him along as a hitman, freeing Kaito up to monolouge (something which Kaito is very fond of).

N700S系, Enu nanahyakuesu-kei Model Shinkansen:

(Train)

[mzannthropy]

🎄🎄🎄Merry Maudmas 🎄🎄🎄

Aunt Cyrilla's Christmas Basket

Aunt's Cyrilla's basket is full of goodies, but for some reason, her niece, Lucy Rose, gets real embarrassed about it. She says it's awfully 'countryfied', to which Aunt Cyrilla responds that she is countryfied. Lucy Rose, as the narrator tells us, is very young and has a lot to learn about the world.

Lucy Rose and her aunt have planned to spend their Christmas in a place called Pembroke, with Cyrilla's nephew Edward, his wife Geraldine and their children. It's not clear whether Edward is Lucy's brother or a cousin. Lucy really seems to have it in for the poor basket, so much that the night before their departure, she has nightmares about it.

Aunt Cyrilla fills her basket with delicious Christmas treats, adds presents for the children and, upon Lucy's sarcastic remark, tops it all off with cold roast chicken. Uncle Leopold, Cyrilla's husband (who's not coming with them), warns his wife and her niece that a storm has been forecast and they might not be able to get to Pembroke. Aunt Cyrilla is not worried--she is of the belief that everything is fore-ordained and if they are meant to get to Pembroke, they will get to Pembroke. They get on their train (not without Aunt Cyrilla giving the stationmaster and three little boys an apple apiece from her basket) and sit down. Aunt Cyrilla assesses their fellow passengers, of which there aren't many. There's a man who is clearly a minister, a woman in a sealskin coat looking discontented, a pale young woman, a young man in a military uniform and a young mother with a baby and four other children. Aunt Cyrilla says the kids look like they haven't enjoyed a square meal for a while. Lucy is only worried about what the passengers will think of the basket (she's really self conscious about the poor basket).

True to the predictions, a storm comes, the train gets delayed until it comes to a halt, and the conductor informs them that they won't be able to get to their destinations on time. Aunt Cyrilla, stoic as ever, looks at her basket and remarks at least they won't starve. She opens the basket and starts giving out the goodies.

The passengers gather together and share their stories. The soldier was invalided from South Africa (this was published in 1903, so I'm guessing it's the Second Boer War), and after spending 3 months in a hospital, he was looking forward to going home for Christmas. He has lost an arm in the war. The pale young woman says she has no family, she is a shop girl and is going to Pembroke to look for a new job. The mother's story is the saddest: she has been estranged from her family bc they disapproved of the man she married. He has now died and left her in a bad state. But her father recently wrote to her and invited her for Christmas.

It seems too bad that we are not to get there. I have to be back at work the morning after Christmas.

As it's looking like they will have to spend their Christmas on the train, they eat some of Aunt Cyrilla's food and soon, the children fall asleep. The soldier suggest they should do a Santa Claus for them. Aunt Cyrilla gives them the presents meant for Edward and Geraldine's children. They also put some money in an envelope for their mother. The lady in the sealskin coat says the baby reminds her of a baby she had many years ago that died. Aunt Cyrilla shares the same experience with her.

Christmas morning dawns, the children are delighted over their presents, the passengers have some breakfast and even have a concert. Afterwards, they eat their Christmas dinner, supplied by Aunt Cyrilla's basket.

The storm is over, the tracks get cleared and the train is finally on its way. The company parts at the next station. The mother and her kids have to get the train back home (which breaks my heart, but at least we know she and her parents are no longer estranged) and the lady in sealskin coat offers the pale girl a position at her husband's shop.

Lucy concludes that the basket is really a blessed old thing and

Please forget all the silly things I ever said about it, Aunt C'rilla.

Talk about wholesome! Another one that would make a good Christmas film, I think, kinda period piece Love Actually. It would just need fleshing out the characters more. Also I'd like to see the widowed mother being greeted at the station by her parents and her father telling her, no, you don't have to go to any work tomorrow or ever again, bc you're moving in with us!

If you want to know what was hidden in the basket:

That big fruit cake for one thing—Edward does like my fruit cake; and that cold boiled tongue for another. Those three mince pies too, they'd spoil before we got back or your uncle'd make himself sick eating them—mince pie is his besetting sin. And that little stone bottle full of cream—Geraldine may carry any amount of style, but I've yet to see her look down on real good country cream, Lucy Rose; and another bottle of my raspberry vinegar. That plate of jelly cookies and doughnuts will please the children and fill up the chinks, and you can bring me that box of ice-cream candy out of the pantry, and that bag of striped candy sticks your uncle brought home from the corner last night. And apples, of course—three or four dozen of those good eaters—and a little pot of my greengage preserves—Edward'll like that. And some sandwiches and pound cake for a snack for ourselves. Now, I guess that will do for eatables. The presents for the children can go in on top. There's a doll for Daisy and the little boat your uncle made for Ray and a tatted lace handkerchief apiece for the twins, and the crochet hood for the baby.

[edeschmedie]

I went to see Nye at the NT recently and I can't remember having a better time at the theater. It was a fantastic show. Michael Sheen was great as Nye Bevan, although he sounded less like the real Nye towards the end. Tbf I didn't really notice until the final scene.

One early scene really moved me in a way I didn't quite anticipate. Little Nye was brought to the public library by his childhood friend and the sense of wonder at the possibilities now open to them really spoke to me. Nye was amazed that he could just go into the library without feeling like he's in someone's way, could pick up any book he liked and all of that for free.

That was me. I didn't grow up in a household with books. My parents were and still are very practical people. My mother's a primary school maths teacher and my father was an engineer. There wasn't much interaction with ideas and literature at home. There was some music, but not books, unless they were the kind that you needed for school. I think it was the cultural and economic environment my parents came from that made them think of books as a luxury. We weren't exactly struggling financially, but spare money would go towards family holidays instead of things like books.

Wtv the reason, I wasn't exposed to book ownership as a child. All the books I loved back then were all borrowed from the school library. My mother taught at my school and I used to be in the library a lot while waiting for her working day to be over. I was a lonely child but it wasn't that bad because of the library.

I have been lucky enough to go on to very good schools and meet fellow students who are more likely the children of educated and well-read parents than not. And they are used to HAVING and OWNING books. I remember finding it weird that they didn't know much about local libraries and weren't as excited about them as I was. They love books. They love them so much that they don't mind spending quite a lot of money to buy them for their private collection. And they're proud of their home libraries. I suppose they should be, since it takes a lot of time and energy to maintain a home library. But it just wasn't an experience I could relate to and I have always felt like an outsider not really belonging to that world.

So that scene reminded me that there are many people like me out there who would find the idea of a public library as amazing and magical as I do. That owning books is secondary to the experience of having access to books. That it is good that one book can be read by so many, and not just one person/family. That public libraries ARE amazing and their importance should not be forgotten even when you can now afford to buy books and ownership is so convenient.

Ofc I am not against the idea of private book ownership. I own quite a few myself. But I have always been uncomfortable with excessive attachment to books. I don't think it's wrong to say book hoarding is a thing. Many people in my circle see books as a treasure to be preserved and admired to the extent that they would rather have them sit on the shelves in their living room than donate or even lend them to others. If we have to admire a library, let it be a public one, not a private one that is accessible to just one family (who are probably not all readers anyway).

Anyway, it was nice to see that scene. I am not going to forget the feeling of seeing that childhood amazement being performed on stage anytime soon. It was beautiful 🥲

[thegreatfraud]

It was always gonna end one way

In a ditch and so close to death as Huey luck finally ran out.

Everybody lose sooner or later. No matter how good Huey is. At the end of the day he just some dude with a wooden sword and powers don't work as it was a knife wound to the shoulder and a shot to the back from a bloody CHILD that caught him off guard. The kick to the bottom of the ditch as hell don't help as luckily the kids not a professional or he wouldn't even have time to realize what happened.

Street gangs using bloody CHILDREN to get back at him. Huey sigh as the kid being green helped him survive this. He can...MAYBE get up and climb out this ditch. With effort and a lot of pain. He gonna have to push himself harder then before in this city. Them blood lost not a joke,

But why should he?

What the point in all this? The struggling and the fighting for life. Not like you have anyone you love. Your partner gone. You friends are gone. Your business idea is ruin and your alone. Why fight so hard?

You should just die. You know better then anyone you been nothing but a nuisance. The Radiale be better without you in it. Your a killer and a liar. They either celebrate your death or don't give a shit. You desire to make your name stick in this city a joke.

"I can call Eidan." He a nice guy. Sure he don't like me. But he come and at least drop me off to the nearest hospital...

You really think he want to help you? After your black mailing? Nobody want you around Huey. Why struggle in this city without meaning? Just embrace it. The cold. The emptiness...maybe you can see William again. You never dies here yet have you?

"I have people that rely on me."

NPC who lives will continue even without you in the story. Your run a bloody smuggling ring and dish out justice to the highest bidder for christ sake. Your not running a thing people will miss. So what is the point of Huey Ponzi? Why struggle when your life have no meaning to it? It be much easier to die.

What is the point of Huey?

Huey realize his strength sapped half way out of the ditch as he lay on his back just a little to catch his breath. Damn he should have got a full lunch. What is the point? Not like he got anything to live for. Why climbs up the hill when there nothing waiting for you in the end? You have no love, no friends, no family, no job.

Your a loser and nothing. Even Aury at least have Klaus. You die as intended. A nobody in some random ditch in the middle of nowhere nobody would miss.

Huey close his eyes. Maybe it is better to just let the system do it's thing. Maybe it's just.....Better to give up.

Yet the body refuse even when the mind fails. Even if his ego is almost nonexistent....the Id refuse to give up on him.

A memory of cuddling with the weapons from another world who accepted him and his ugly side.

A memory of drinking with a friend who raised as a terriost.

Even if they are not here anymore. It wasn't all bad. Even if he have nobody now. The time they had was real. He HAVE made real bonds.

The memory of two brother sharing a drink in a dingy bar after the younger brother first returned job success. A precious memory. Of party, loud music, good food and good people, Money was thrown everywhere as it was the first time in a long time Huey felt alive.

Chasing down evil, taking from evil, spending money with people he love...the never ending party. It's not about making the world a better place. It's about having fun with people while pissing off the standard. The riches? The riches come and go all the time.

Huey eyes shot wide open. Strength returning back tot he limbs as he climb painfully.

Even if there no meaning he want to carry on. It's human nature to persist. Huey might be giving up in his head but his soul refuses.

"Lifes not always about the gleaming success...remember how many of our jobs we scarp by the skin of our teeth? You don't always get to look cool. In this work of ours we're not here to be liked or understood. Remember that first brief case of cash for that old lady? We tried being thief because when we took from those who have their dreams stolen. We were happy weren't we? It was fun. This isn't like last time. I'm not Robin hood. I care more about who I'm hurting then the victims. Because we never seen what we do as heroics. I'm selfish, egotistical bastard. If it helps someone by accident that fine. I came back because one job stealing from mobster was more fun then 3 years of studying for a boring ass exam."

My justice the thing that killed you after all William. That hunger for justice killed you. My obsession with bringing good into this world with our work. I promised myself i never once again wave the flag of righteous. What a joke....thieves claiming to be chivalrous. Yet i still don't wanna robbed from those who don't have it. There no joy in robbing from those who dreams are stolen.

I am a lowly maggot. I only steal because i want to steal. It's not just because i care. It's because above all else i chase the thrill. I forgotten that.

"Yeah there nobody in the Radiale that miss me when i'm gone. But..."

Even if there is no meaning to it now. Even if it's painful and lonely i wanna continue to struggle as a boring lowly human being.

"For the greatest victory. That impossible jack pot. Let's win William. Let's finally win for once and big time in this city. It make all this worth it no? That one moment of absolute victory. Let our story be forever told here. Even if the start of the story is a confusing, self pitying frustrating mess. Let's just keep going till we win."

That one moment when you win it all. When nobody bet against you and you win it all. So what if your a loser nobody with no bonds and no meaning to you? Oh it sucks for sure now.

You persist. You keep going for that final win. When you can win it all. You put up whatever mask it is to hide the truth. Faking it till you make it. Turning one lies into reality.

Hope. Even if you don't believe in it. You keep lying to yourself and putting in more effort till one day with hope comes victory.

"Oh.....i finally made it to the top."