#Junk Removal Cost

[ultimatecontractingllc]

When it comes to managing unwanted clutter, delaying junk removal may seem harmless, but it can lead to significant issues. Whether it’s old furniture, construction debris, or household junk, postponing removal can pose health, safety, and environmental risks. Below are some of the hidden dangers of not addressing junk removal promptly.

[moghedien]

honestly I encourage everyone to get comfortable opening up their electronics. game consoles. computers. phones. keyboards. headphones. whatever. like obviously don't start with the most difficult thing to open up and don't just mindlessly pop open something and lose all the screws and don't do it while its on. but get comfortable looking inside your stuff yourself

its not hard to open up most electronics that don't have an apple logo on them (and even a lot of those are easier than you'd think) and it DOES NOT VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

Companies will try to scare you from learning how to care for your own stuff because they get money that way. Warranty stickers are technically illegal in the US but just isn't enforced, and a company can't actually void your warranty if you repair something yourself, so long as you don't break something else in the process.

like I look at threads all the time where people express fear about just opening up a console and looking at the internals to see which version they have but don't be! its easy, its safe, its free! get comfortable with your electronics and learn how to clean and repair stuff yourself, it isn't scary, companies just want you to think it is!

[kirkwallguy]

Um. if potions are an ability. and there are the potion pots in the environment to heal us. does that mean that we don't have like. poultices or bombs or anything anymore.

[junkgrab]

Junk removal services in New York City are essential for homeowners, businesses, and property managers looking to clear clutter quickly and efficiently. Whether you’re cleaning out your apartment, renovating a space, or just decluttering, knowing how much junk removal in NYC costs is key to planning your project and budgeting accordingly.

[junkbegonedenver]

Eco-Friendly Junk Removal Options: Denver's Sustainable Solutions

In today's environmentally conscious world, more and more people in Denver are seeking eco-friendly solutions for junk removal. As awareness of climate change and environmental degradation grows, individuals and businesses are increasingly looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and minimize waste. Fortunately, Denver offers a variety of sustainable junk removal options, providing residents with the opportunity to dispose of unwanted items responsibly while contributing to a greener future.

One such company leading the charge in eco-friendly junk removal in Denver is Junk Be Gone. With a commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, Junk Be Gone offers innovative solutions for disposing of unwanted items while minimizing harm to the planet. By prioritizing recycling, donation, and proper disposal practices, Junk Be Gone ensures that as much waste as possible is diverted from landfills.

One of the key eco-friendly initiatives offered by Junk Be Gone is their comprehensive recycling program. Rather than simply discarding items in a landfill, the company works diligently to separate materials that can be recycled, such as metal, plastic, paper, and electronics. By partnering with local recycling facilities, Junk Be Gone helps to conserve natural resources and reduce energy consumption associated with manufacturing new products.

Additionally, Junk Be Gone emphasizes the importance of donation as a means of reducing waste and supporting the community. Through partnerships with local charities and non-profit organizations, the company is able to redirect usable items, such as clothing, furniture, and household goods, to those in need. Not only does this approach help to minimize waste, but it also enables Denver residents to give back to their community and support worthwhile causes.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, Junk Be Gone provides transparent pricing for their services, ensuring that customers are aware of the junk pickup cost in Denver upfront. By offering competitive rates and flexible scheduling options, the company strives to make eco-friendly junk removal accessible and affordable for all residents.

By choosing eco-friendly junk removal options like those offered by Junk Be Gone, residents of Denver can feel confident that they are making a positive impact on the environment while decluttering their homes or businesses. With a focus on sustainability, recycling, and community support, Junk Be Gone is leading the way toward a cleaner, greener future for Denver and beyond.

In conclusion, for those seeking environmentally conscious trash removal services in Denver, Junk Be Gone provides sustainable solutions that prioritize recycling, donation, and responsible disposal practices. By opting for eco-friendly junk removal options, residents can contribute to a healthier planet while enjoying the convenience and affordability of professional trash removal services in Denver.

[bluebliss1]

The Surprising Link between Junk Food and Kidney Stones: What You Need to Know

Introduction:

Kidney stones, those tiny yet painful formations within the kidneys, have become a prevalent health concern. Surprisingly, our dietary choices, including the consumption of junk food, can significantly contribute to their development. In this article, we'll explore the impact of junk food on kidney stone formation, provide a list of foods that can cause kidney stones, and discuss effective treatments and renowned kidney specialists in Bangalore.

The Relationship between Junk Food and Kidney Stones:

Studies have revealed that junk food, high in sodium, unhealthy fats, and sugar, can disrupt the body's mineral balance, particularly calcium and oxalate.

This imbalance increases the risk of kidney stone formation.

Foods That Cause Kidney Stones:

Certain foods can increase the likelihood of developing kidney stones:

Sodium-rich Foods: Excessive consumption of processed foods, fast food, and canned soups high in sodium can raise calcium levels in urine, increasing the risk of kidney stones.

Oxalate-rich Foods: Foods like spinach, rhubarb, beets, chocolate, nuts, and tea contain high levels of oxalate, contributing to the formation of calcium oxalate stones, the most common type of kidney stone.

Animal Protein: Reducing intake of animal protein from sources like red meat, poultry, and seafood helps lower the risk of kidney stones, as excessive protein intake can increase calcium and uric acid levels in the urine.

Sugary Beverages: Soft drinks and sweetened juices containing fructose and phosphoric acid can promote kidney stone formation.

Kidney Stone Treatment in Bangalore:

If you require kidney stone treatment in Bangalore, consider consulting these renowned specialists:

Dr.L N Raju – Urologist at Blue Bliss Hospital With extensive experience in diagnosing and treating kidney stones personalized care and utilizes advanced techniques for effective stone management.

Conclusion: Understanding the impact of our dietary choices, particularly junk food, on kidney stone formation is crucial. By being mindful of foods that can contribute to kidney stones and making healthier choices, we can take proactive steps towards prevention. Seeking guidance from experienced kidney specialists in Bangalore ensures proper diagnosis and effective treatment when needed. Remember to maintain a balanced diet, hydrate adequately, and prioritize your kidney health to minimize the risk of kidney stone formation.

[sexybritishllama]

in further neopets discord news, oh boy is there drama in my awful virtual pet game website today. strap in if you want way too much information on neopets’ broken economy

for some context, an event has just launched called the faerie festival. this is the first event to be run by the ‘new’ TNT (aka. the neopets team aka. the staff) since the leadership change, and they've said in recent editorials that this year’s faerie festival is going to be a combo of two previous popular events:

the faerie quest event, wherein people can get a free quest from a faerie every day in exchange for a reward (something that’s normally limited to random special events and therefore quite rare)

the charity corner, a highly requested event that hasn’t run since 2020, where you can donate random items to get points that can then be exchanged in a prize shop

there’s a LOT of ultimately worthless items on neopets that people gather from doing dailies and things, but charity corner actually gave a use to hoarding all of these, so people have wanted it back for ages. people have been going out of their way to hoard extra junk items for like 2 months now, after TNT teased the event in an editorial

this event was originally meant to start on 20th august, but got delayed 2 weeks, presumably because of issues behind the scenes. people were generally a bit disappointed but relieved if this meant they were going to get a proper, well prepared event without bugs

flash forward to 2nd october, the actual start of the event. nothing actually opens up for several hours on the day- that’s somewhat waved off by the fact that staff presumably need to be in the office to launch everything, a midnight launch isn’t expected

but, eventually, it opens!

well… kinda. there’s one page with one dialogue scene available and a link to an event page for spending neocash (the premium currency that costs irl money). the faerie quest page is giving out free daily quests, which is nice, but literally just the same as they did back in 2020. where’s the item recycling part? did this really need 2 weeks of delay?

the next day, the FAQ page for the event is published neopets support site (but not announced via news). still no sign of the actual event starting- seems like that might not be until moday?

as well as multiple grammatical errors, the FAQ had a few… concerning elements. most notably:

only 10 items could be donated per day

points would be awarded based on the rarity of the item, with the maximum rarity being r200-500, worth 15 points each

this meant people's hoarding of junk items for months was... essentially useless

r200-500 items basically means either hidden tower items (rare, expensive items that can only be bought in an account age locked shop with a purchase limit of 1 per day) orrrr….. neocash items. In other words, players could either spend an exorbinate amount of their in-game currency to buy up items to donate, or they could just hand over their credit card and pay to win

people were Not Happy about this

not long after info spread and the outcry started (and a sizeable number of people cancelled their premium membership in protest), the FAQ was quietly updated to remove mention of donating neocash items. that took away to pay to win element at least

however, now there was a new problem. a tombola man problem.

i mentioned already that the highest rarity items are pretty rare and expensive. one of the least expensive of these is an item called the Squeezy Tombola Guy Toy. you can probably see where this is going already

because you can only buy a maximum of one tombola guy per day from the hidden tower, your only option if you want to buy more than that in a day is to go to user shops. however, in light of the event, people had already started buying and hoarding tombola guy toys. equally, others were buying them purely to sell at a profit. this made the perfect storm and caused the price of the tombola guy toy, which was normally 110k NP, to explode up to 500k, 600k, even 700k within just one day

BUT THEN THE FAQ GOT UPDATED AGAIN. surprise, you can now donate 30 items per day! also they just got rid of the highest rarity tier altogether. the maximum you can get for an item is now 8 points, for rarity r102-r179.

this has now made the squeezy tombola guy toys useless. unless you’re a collector they don’t serve any function beyond that of a normal neopets toy (of which there’s thousands of much cheaper options). the price has now plummeted down to BELOW what it originally was and many users now have piles and piles of the dolls sitting in their inventory, mocking them

so what now? well, because no one ever learns, everyone is now flocking to what is now the cheapest high-rarity item eligible for donation. most are going for omelettes, which have a few different options at r102+. these have also inflated by like 400% from before the event, but unlike the squeeze tombola guys, these are only worth a few thousand neopoints, so not as bad a potential loss in comparison

it’s worth noting that while all this is going on in preparation for the recycling event, neopets is also experiencing insane inflation in a lot of other items right now, including those required for people to complete faerie quests. for example, a Griefer, which cost 5000 np just last week, is now worth selling for 1 MILLION

So yeah. 3 days into the event and that’s where we are so far. who knows what tomorrow might bring

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #31

August 9-16 2024

President Biden and Vice-President Harris announced together the successful conclusion of the first negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. For years Medicare was not allow to directly negotiate princes with drug companies leaving seniors to pay high prices. It has been a Democratic goal for many years to change this. President Biden noted he first introduced a bill to allow these negotiations as a Senator back in 1973. Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act, passed with no Republican support using Vice-President Harris' tie breaking vote, this long time Democratic goal is now a reality. Savings on these first ten drugs are between 38% and 79% and will collectively save seniors $1.8 billion dollars in out of pocket costs. This comes on top of the Biden-Harris Administration already having capped the price of insulin for Medicare's 3.5 million diabetics at $35 a month, as well as the Administration's plan to cap Medicare out of pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year starting January 2025.

President Biden and Vice President Harris have launched a wide ranging all of government effort to crack down on companies wasting customers time with excessive paperwork, hold times, and robots rather than real people. Some of the actions from the "Time is Money" effort include: The FTC and FCC putting forward rules that require companies to make canceling a subscription or service as easy as signing up for it. The Department of Transportation has required automatic refunds for canceled flights. The CFPB is working on rules to require companies to have to allow customers to speak to a real person with just one button click ending endless "doom loops" of recored messages. The CFPB is also working on rules around chatbots, particularly their use from banks. The FTC is working on rules to ban companies from posting fake reviews, suppressing honest negative reviews, or paying for  positive reviews. HHS and the Department of Labor are taking steps to require insurance companies to allow health claims to be submitted online. All these actions come on top of the Biden Administration's efforts to get rid of junk fees.

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden announced further funding as part of the President's Cancer Moonshot. The Cancer Moonshot was launched by then Vice-President Biden in 2016 in the aftermath of his son Beau Biden's death from brain cancer in late 2015. It was scrapped by Trump as political retaliation against the Obama-Biden Administration. Revived by President Biden in 2022 it has the goal of cutting the number of cancer deaths in half over the next 25 years, saving 4 million lives. Part of the Moonshot is Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), grants to help develop cutting edge technology to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. The President and First Lady announced $150 million in ARPA-H grants this week focused on more successful cancer surgeries. With grants to Tulane, Rice, Johns Hopkins, and Dartmouth, among others, they'll help fund imaging and microscope technology that will allow surgeons to more successfully determine if all cancer has been remove, as well as medical imaging focused on preventing damage to healthy tissues during surgeries.

Vice-President Harris announced a 4-year plan to lower housing costs. The Vice-President plans on offering $25,000 to first time home buyers in down-payment support. It's believed this will help support 1 million first time buyers a year. She also called for the building of 3 million more housing units, and a $40 billion innovation fund to spur innovative housing construction. This adds to President Biden's call for a $10,000 tax credit for first time buyers and calls by the President to punish landlords who raise the rent by over 5%.

President Biden Designates the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot a National Monument. The two day riot in Illinois capital took place just blocks away from Abraham Lincoln's Springfield home. In August 1908, 17 people die, including a black infant, and 2,000 black refugees were forced to flee the city. As a direct result of the riot, black community leaders and white allies met a few months later in New York and founded the NAACP. The new National Monument will seek to preserve the history and educate the public both on the horrible race riot as well as the foundation of the NAACP. This is the second time President Biden has used his authority to set up a National Monument protecting black history, after setting up the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument on Emmett Till's 82nd birthday July 25th 2023.

The Department of The Interior announced $775 million to help cap and clean up orphaned oil and gas wells. The money will help cap wells in 21 states. The Biden-Harris Administration has allocated $4.7 billion to plug orphaned wells, a billion of which has already been distributed. More than 8,200 such wells have been capped since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2022. Orphaned wells leak toxins into communities and are leaking the super greenhouse gas methane. Plugging them will not only improve the health of nearby communities but help fight climate change on a global level.

Vice-President Harris announced plans to ban price-gouging in the food and grocery industries. This would be a first ever federal ban on price gouging and Harris called for clear "rules of the road" on price rises in food, and strong penalties from the FTC for those who break them. This is in line with President Biden's launching of a federal Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing in March, and Democratic Senator Bob Casey's bill to ban "shrinkflation". In response to this pressure from Democrats on price gouging and after aggressive questions by Senator Casey and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the supermarket giant Kroger proposed dropping prices by a billion dollars

[homeandliving]

The Benefits Of Hiring A Commercial Junk Removal Service

Waste Cost Solutions is a commercial junk removal service that offers a wide range of benefits for businesses. They understand that every business is different, and we tailor our services to meet your needs. They can provide you with a full-service solution that includes waste disposal, recycling, and donation.

And they also offer a wide range of discounts for businesses that use our services regularly. We understand that companies need to save money, and we offer a variety of solutions that can help you save money on your waste disposal costs.

If you are looking for a commercial junk removal service that can provide you with the benefits you need, contact them today! They would be happy to discuss your specific needs and provide you with a proposal that outlines our services.

The Benefits of Hiring a Commercial Junk Removal Service

Most businesses produce a lot of waste, and managing it cannot be easy. Hiring a commercial junk removal service can help your business by providing convenience and efficiency. Everything from large items to small debris can be taken care of on time, which enables your business to focus on other tasks. Another benefit of hiring a commercial junk removal service is that it can save your company money in the long run. Not only can a junk removal service handle the waste and debris, but it will also help you recycle and donate items that can be reused. This means you will not have to spend extra money on waste disposal or transportation.

Moreover, commercial junk removal services offer discounts, which can be very beneficial if your business needs to get rid of large amounts of waste regularly. How a Commercial Junk Removal Service Can Help Your Business: Commercial junk removal services can help your business in more ways than one. You will save money on waste disposal and transportation costs by reducing waste in your industry.

Additionally, removing unwanted items can make more room for your business's needs. Finally, a commercial junk removal service can help your business become more environmentally friendly. Recycling and donating materials can reduce your carbon footprint and save money on waste management. Hiring a commercial junk removal service can also add value to your business by making it easier for your customers and employees. With less clutter in your workplace, you can create an environment that is more inviting, leading to higher employee morale and customer satisfaction. This can lead to better productivity and an increase in profits. The Bottom Line:

The Benefits of Hiring a Commercial Junk Removal Service

They are numerous and include cost savings, increased productivity, and environmental friendliness. They can help reduce the amount of waste, reduce transportation costs, and recycle and donate items that can be reused. These benefits can help your business save money and increase its profitability. If you want to make your business more efficient, then hiring a commercial junk removal service is the way.

[flying-womrats]

replacements for a few LMS mods

If you think you saw this post yesterday, yes you did- then I made a couple edits and realized I should have done it under a readmore in case people reblogged it... So here we go again! These are the possible replacements I found for the littlemssam mods I was using, in case they help anyone else.

Caveats: - Often not a 1:1 replacement. - I only went looking for replacements for mods I was actually using, so this only covers a fraction of her catalog. - Most of these modders still use Curseforge, they're just not exclusive to it.

Additionally, if anyone knows of a replacement for any of the following: Go For A Walk, Improved Meditation Stool, Improved Practical Spells (the improvements to the spells themselves,) No Random Job Offers (I know BosseladyTV has one, but it's CF exclusive,) Purchased Items Delivered By Mail, Release All The Ghosts, or Tea For Children, please drop me an ask! I only request no Curseforge exclusives and no Zer0.

On to the list:

Allow Stoves in University Housing -> Zerbu, No University Housing Restrictions

Auto Employees -> Kuttoe's "X Everywhere" mods, Zerbu's Spawn Refresh

Auto-Light Fireplaces Only When Cold -> Bienchen, fireplaceautonomytweak

Buy Treats via PC -> Bienchen, buypettreat

Calendar Tweaks -> Kuttoe, Less Frequent Prom (caveat: takes time to start working, especially if you're using a longer season setting)

Cookbooks -> ClaudiaSharon, Cook Experimental/Cultural/Jungle Food Without Tasting It First

Immortality Potion Fix -> Kuttoe, Potions Rework (only a half replacement- removes the VFX, but doesn't lock aging like the Scarlet/LMS mod)

Kids Can Walk Dogs -> ChippedSim, Paws & Claws (A Sim's Best Friend module)

More Away Actions -> Bienchen, awayactions (is actually included in the LMS mod)

No Burning Sun in Forgotten Hollow -> TwistedMexi, Daywalkers + Underworlds (caveat: per TMex's comment on the latter, the eternal night is only cosmetic and still requires Daywalkers for vampires to come out at "daytime". Also, Daywalkers affects all worlds. Still interested in a mod closer to LMS's if one exists!)

No Insects Herbalism -> Simularity, Improved Herbalism Potions & Features

No Shoe Sign Animation -> Lotharihoe, Shoe Sign Animation Tweaks (doesn't remove the animation entirely but does stop it from interrupting walking)

No Sick, Dirty, Sad and Hungry Pets -> Bienchen, catanddogsanity

Pregnancy Overhaul ("sims can do more" part) -> Bienchen, pregnantsimscandomore

Pregnancy Overhaul (belly sizes) -> t0nischwartz, No Bump or sonozakisisterssims4, "The belly in pregnancy depends on the number of babies" (the former is simpler but has no equivalent to the "larger belly" option, the latter has a bit more going on but has direct equivalents to LMS's sizes, so take your pick!)

Sleep All Night and Sleep In -> Midnitetech- Stay Asleep, Mokunoid- Better Sleep Autonomy or Lot 51- Sunrise depending on desired depth/customization

Social Activities -> adeepindigo, Youth, Friends and Family Activities

Small GF Reactions Overhaul -> Bienchen, lesscelebreact

Small Laundry Overhaul -> Bienchen's laundry mods cover some (but not all- anyone have something to make it cost money on community lots?) of it, along with Lotharihoe's No Autonomously Set Laundry Down to replace the "auto put away laundry" part.

Spar With For Everyone -> Bienchen, sparwithfornonmilitary

Toddler Ask For Food No Junk -> Bienchen, healthyhighchair (not quite the same thing but it solves the "why do they always give the kid chips" issue at least)

WEE: Working Elevators Everywhere -> Ravasheen, Uplifting Elevators (space and wall height permitting, it's also possible to make no-CC elevators with the RoM debug portals!)

Wellness Treat Fix -> Bienchen, petanxiousbufffix

Also, while I wasn't using either of them myself, Meet&Mingle can replace SimDa Dating App, and Lovestruck adds a "canon" dating app (though given EA's complete lack of attention to QA etc. I wouldn't recommend paying for it.)

edit 6/26/24: added Sunrise, petanxiousbufffix, pregnantsimscandomore

edit 6/27/24: added No Bump, moved into a new post.

edit 6/29/24: added Daywalkers, No University Housing Restrictions (ty @northernnightsky!) and the sonozakisisters bump mod

edit 7/2/24: added Underworlds (ty anon), Paws & Claws, and a link to the tutorial I followed for no-CC elevators

edit 8/22/24: added Spawn Refresh

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - October 30, 2023

1. Bill to Ban Hidden Fees in California Signed into Law

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has released a statement regarding the signing of Senate Bill 478 (SB 478). SB 478, coauthored by Senators Bill Dodd and Nancy Skinner, will eliminate hidden fees, also known as 'junk fees,' in California starting from July 1, 2024. Hidden fees are deceptive charges that sellers include in transactions, either through obscured disclosures or later revelations, impacting consumers negatively.

2. New Portable Water Treatment System Vaporizes 99% of ‘Forever Chemicals’

A startup based Washington has devised a portable system capable of removing the vast majority of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from water.

The system uses hydrothermal alkaline treatment, or HALT, to eliminate 99% of forever chemicals from water.

3. Tumor-destroying sound waves receive FDA approval for liver treatment in humans

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of sound waves to break down tumors—a technique called histotripsy—in humans for liver treatment. Technique developed at the University of Michigan provides a noninvasive alternative to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer

4. Japan's top court says trans sterilisation requirement unconstitutional

Japan's Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to require citizens to be sterilised before they can officially change genders.

The 2004 law said people could only change their gender if they have no reproductive capacity. Wednesday's ruling came after a transgender woman filed a petition challenging the law.

5. Abandoned golf courses are being reclaimed by nature

Golf courses, despite occupying large green spaces, are not necessarily good for the environment.

Conservation nonprofits and local authorities are looking to acquire golf courses that have been abandoned due to high maintenance costs, low player numbers or other reasons, and repurpose them into landscapes that boost biodiversity and build natural defenses against climate change.

6. NSW court allows health officials to give blood transfusion to Jehovah's Witness toddler

Regional New South Wales health officials have won a court order authorising them to give a blood transfusion to a Jehovah's Witness toddler if needed in surgery. The Supreme Court has been told the girl, three, who can only be referred to as JI, is in need of two surgical procedures. 

On such an application, the overriding criterion to be applied by the court is the best interests and welfare of the child.

7. North Atlantic right whale population has steadied, scientists say

The population of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales appears to have levelled off after a decade of steep decline, according to updated data released this morning by Canadian and American scientists. Scientists in the consortium said Monday that the 2021 estimate of 340 North Atlantic right whales in existence has been recalculated to 365 primarily because of the number of calves born that year.

The estimate for 2022 is 356.

---

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

[simply-ivanka]

If Taylor Swift Had Endorsed Donald Trump

Democrats would scorn her business savvy, cap her ticket prices, and fret over her huge carbon footprint.

Wall Street Journal

By Allysia Finley

Forbes estimates Taylor Swift’s net worth at $1.3 billion. Despite her liberal leanings, the singer-songwriter has amassed her wealth the old-fashioned way: through hard work, talent and business savvy. Her endorsement of Kamala Harris last week is rich considering she owes her success to the capitalist system the vice president wants to tear down.

“The way I see it, fans view music the way they view their relationships,” Ms. Swift wrote in a 2014 piece for the Journal. “Some music is just for fun, a passing fling. . . . Some songs and albums represent seasons of our lives, like relationships that we hold dear in our memories but had their time and place in the past. However, some artists will be like finding ‘the one.’ ” She has become “the one” for hundreds of millions of fans worldwide with lyrics that chronicle relationship woes women commonly experience.

Ms. Swift took advantage of her ardent fan base in 2014 by removing her catalog from Spotify in a bid for higher royalties. “Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free,” she explained. “My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet, . . . is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.”

She also criticized Apple Music for not paying artists during the streaming service’s free trial, prompting the company to change its policy. As she jeers in a hit song, “Who’s afraid of little old me?” Apparently, Big Tech companies.

Last year she reportedly raked in $200 million from streaming royalties on top of the estimated $15.8 million she grossed per performance during her recent ��Eras” tour. Some fans have shelled out thousands of dollars on the resale market to see Ms. Swift perform. Americans have even traveled to Europe when they couldn’t get tickets in the U.S.

Her fan base may be more loyal and enthusiastic than Donald Trump’s. JD Vance scoffed at the idea that the star’s endorsement of Ms. Harris could influence the outcome of the election. The “billionaire celebrity,” he said, is “fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.” Maybe, but she certainly taps into the problems of young women.

Democrats hope to use Ms. Swift’s endorsement to drive them to the polls. But it isn’t difficult to imagine what the left would be saying about her had she endorsed the Republican antihero. It might go something like this:

The billionaire has gotten rich by ripping off fans, avoiding taxes and harming competitors. Time for the government to break her up. Unlike rival artists, Ms. Swift writes, performs and owns her compositions. This vertical integration allows her to charge exorbitant royalties and ticket prices.

Tickets for her “Eras” tour on average cost about $240. That’s merely the price for admission—not including food, drink or Swiftie swag. VIP passes that include memorabilia go for $899. How dare she make young women choose between paying for groceries or rent and going to a concert.

The Federal Trade Commission must cap Ms. Swift’s ticket prices at a reasonable price—say, $20—and ban her junk fees. Concertgoers shouldn’t have to pay $65 for an “I Love You It’s Ruining My Life” sweatshirt.

Her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce also unfairly boosts their star power, letting them charge more for endorsements. As Ms. Swift writes in one song, “two is better than one.” Mr. Kelce reportedly signed a $100 million podcast deal with Amazon’s Wonderly. By breaking up the couple, the government could reduce their royalties and ticket prices.

Ms. Swift, the self-described “mastermind,” also dodges taxes on her “full income,” which includes some $125 million in real estate and a music catalog worth an estimated $600 million. “They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true,” Ms. Swift acknowledges in her song “Florida!!!”

Under the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed billionaire’s tax, she would have to pay a 25% levy on the $1 billion increase in her fortune since 2017. But that isn’t enough. Ms. Swift should also have to pay taxes on the appreciating value of her “name, image and likeness,” which the Internal Revenue Service considers an asset.

How much is her brand worth? Easily billions. She might say, as she does in a song, that her “reputation has never been worse.” True, Miss Americana’s image took a hit after reports that her private-jet travel in 2022 emitted 576 times as much CO2 as the average American in a year. When Ms. Swift sings, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,” she’s correct. She and her fat-cat friends are what’s wrong with America.

Appeared in the September 16, 2024, print edition as 'If Taylor Swift Had Endorsed Donald Trump'.

[rottenshotgungames]

I want to start talking about my personal game design philosophy

Stop Saying “No”

Let’s be honest here, you’ve written a hard limit into at least one of your games. We all have, I certainly have. It’s one of those simple yet effective pieces of tech (one that’s existed since the dawn of games) that can be introduced to bring an option in line with some other option, or to prevent a scaling into eternity, or some other third thing. Maybe skills have maximums, or you can only use a certain number of consumables in a combat, or an item can only be activated every other scene or round. Whatever it is, you’ve written into your game a rule that tells the players, “No. You cannot do this thing.”

I think we overuse hard limits. My goal is to convince you that hard limits, that the “No” you’ve introduced into your rules, is the game design equivalent of junk food: easy to use and bad in large quantities.

My argument boils down to two simple points:

Hard limits are frustrating and boring

Hard limits limit your design

In addition, I will be detailing three alternatives to hard limits:

Costs

Consequences

Balance

Hard vs. Soft

Before we begin, I want to clarify the difference between a hard limit and a soft limit:

A hard limit can generally be defined as, "A rule which expressly forbids or otherwise disallows something, either in a given circumstance or in general."

A soft limit, in contrast, can generally be defined as, "A rule which disincentivizes or otherwise indirectly limits something."

Alright, on with the show.

Hard Limits are Frustrating and Boring

This is what I like to call the, “What do you mean I can’t use my telekinesis to disarm that guy??? That’s fucking stupid!” Put simply, people like using their toys, and people dislike being told they can’t use their toys for whatever reason. Even if you haven’t had as vitriolic of a reaction as the one described earlier, I’m more than positive you’ve felt this way toward some rule in an RPG at some point. Even if a hard limitation is completely reasonable, it can still be frustrating to encounter; I understand why I can’t raise my Skill levels above my character level in Pathfinder, but it was still annoying and saddening the first time I heard it.

There’s this tweet from a while back, in which one Mr. Joshy McCroo (@riseupcomus) argues that any hard CC that fully prevents you from taking actions is inherently poor design as it does nothing but frustrate the person that it’s used on. This is the very same concept, and for the very same reason: it’s just not fun.

The fundamental reason for the frustration caused by hard limits is that they restrict player choice. When you introduce a hard “no,” you often remove an opportunity to create interesting decisions, and decisions are the foundation of play. Boredom with a system or a situation is spawned by a lack of choice, by a necessity to perform the same action over and over or an inability to do anything. When you give players a variety of tools that can each be used consistently—particularly in tactical games—they will use those tools in interesting, creative, and fun ways; if you restrict those tools, restrict the freedom to use those tools as desired, boredom and frustration can set in quickly.

Hard Limits Limit Your Design

This point is less objective and far more experiential / personal. This isn’t meant to demean opposing views or differing design philosophies.

As stated earlier, hard limits are simple, effective, and easy to use. If you come up against a design wall, such as an option being too powerful or players over-centralizing, it can be easy to just institute a rule that says “You can’t use this constantly,” or “You can only have this many Gizmos™️,” but doing so will often deprive you of an opportunity to innovate or otherwise improve your design sense.

For me, learning design was a serious process of Example and Trial. I’d use reference points (such as RPGs or Video Games that I really liked) to guide me through tough decisions, and when I didn’t have that guide I’d just write and revise until something fit. Eventually, I realized that growing as a designer and developing my own philosophy meant expanding beyond (even if ever-so-slightly) my influences, and the balance shifted from Example(60)/Trial(40) to Example(30)/Trial(70). For me, the fun of design is coming up against these kinds of issues and seeing if I can develop a novel approach or take a stale approach and spice it up, and I feel myself getting better every time I try.

Hard limits are easy to use and generally (relatively) easy to implement, as such they offer less opportunity for growth.

Some alternatives to hard limits, and why you might consider using them:

Costs

Two prevalent examples of costs are weapon ammunition and (≥2) times per Scene/Combat/Rest/Day abilities (both of these can be found in D&D 3e onward and many of its derivatives).

A cost is basically just a hard limit that's been a few steps removed, but those few steps manage to turn it into a soft limit of sorts. Costs fundamentally take a hard "No" and turn it into a "Yes, but . . ."

This is probably the easiest alternative to implement, which explains why it's kinda found everywhere. Even spell slots in the Dragon Game are a form of cost limitation. It's also just a generally strong solution, usually removing a significant amount of frustration and adding opportunities for resource management gameplay. However, if not implemented with care or consideration for surrounding options, you could end up with people carrying over 500 arrows at any given time or once more falling into a set rotation of combat abilities that they perform round-to-round (thereby negating the boredom fix).

Consequences

This is my personal favorite alternative.

A consequence, like a cost, is a "Yes, but" that disincentivizes an option or changes how a player thinks about using that option. There are two major differences between a cost and a consequence:

Costs are always negative in nature (you are spending something as part of doing something), consequences can be but aren't necessarily negative.

Costs always lead to a state that acts as a hard limit (once the resource is empty, you cannot do the thing), consequences do not directly involve a hard limit.

Two prevalent examples of consequences are taking damage for doing something (such as the Stress generated by Blades in The Dark's flashback mechanic) and gaining / losing affinity with a person or faction (a la Over War: The Night Comes Down).

The primary benefit of implementing a consequence is the interconnection with other mechanics. Costs are relatively self contained—usually only branching out to a currency mechanic, a weight mechanic, or a leveling mechanic at the very most—because the threat of a hard limit somewhere down the line is often enough to change how players approach a specific mechanic or situation on its own; consequences, on the other hand, necessitate an understanding of and interaction with other mechanics in the system because they literally cannot exist without them. If using a specific ability is going to give you a status condition—for example—that status condition inherently affects other mechanics and how you interact with them as well, changing how you think about that ability and its place in your toolset pretty substantially.

As an example, there's a Priest ability in Hollow Halls (my fantasy dungeon crawler) entitled Glimpse The Plan. Glimpse The Plan doubles the user's Believe proficiency (stat used for casting Parable spells), but also afflicts them with the Blind and Afraid statuses (which are both pretty bad). The Priest playtester quickly realized that if he was Afraid all of the time, then he effectively eliminated half of the consequences—and wouldn't ya know it, there's an option to become permanently Afraid at character creation to increase your health.

All of that being said (and my favoritism clearly on display), consequences can suffer from a difficulty of implementation. Some consequences, particularly the taking of damage, are really easy to throw about haphazardly and thereby suffer from the same "limitation of design" problem that hard limits do; but escaping those, adding consequences that are unique and create interesting choices, takes time and care and an awareness of how certain mechanics can and do interact. Even the easier-to-implement consequences can often take a few tries to fine-tune.

Balance

This is simultaneously the simplest and most complicated alternative. To balance something here means to compare an option to other surrounding options, weigh the value of each, and slowly tweak numbers until they're all in line with each other. Generally speaking, the easiest way to do this is to craft an option as a baseline and balance everything else around that option, but there are times where you'll create a more powerful ability that you don't want to change, thereby causing it to become the new baseline and so on and so forth.

This alternative involves a lot of trial and error, a lot of guesswork, a lot of testing, and a willingness to add, remove, and change elements of any given option. It’s time consuming, stressful, and incredibly rewarding. I don’t recommend going pure nitty-gritty numbers-hound in every situation, or even in every game, but—if used properly—this option can create an incredibly healthy and interesting environment of options.

The primary strength of numbers balancing is that you'll probably be doing it at least a little bit anyways. Unless you're part of the "balance is for pussies" crowd, some amount of balance work will be done on every option you introduce into the game. This is kinda just, y'know, the logical extreme of that process.

All three listed alternatives can be used with each other, even on a single mechanic.

Conclusion

I do not think that hard limits are inherently bad. I really need to make it clear that I DO NOT think that you should never use them (as much as that may be suggested by the title of this post). Sometimes you'll be on a serious time crunch, or you won't be able to come up with a suitable alternative, or it's the most thematically or mechanically sound option, so on and so forth. There are instances in which it will be appropriate, or even preferable, to use a hard limit—but that doesn’t make an over-reliance upon them any better for you or the people playing your game.

Honestly, what I want people to take away from this post is very simple: every design decision matters. Even seemingly inconsequential choices with limited impact can have profound effects on an important moment for some of your players, and as such are worth considering carefully.

Self-Promo

Hey, I'm Gio. I run Rotten Shotgun games. If you wanna support me, or keep up to date on my work, you can find me on Itch.io at https://rotten-shotgun-games.itch.io/

Otherwise, I hope y'all have a great night and a great day!

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

I wonder like what does Yves like to eat? Does he prefer sweet foods? Savory? Salty? Etc?

I could also imagine that he would change his darlings food cravings and wants with his reality bending if they are lacking a certain vitamin or mineral.

TW: eating disorders, gore and nasty horrible rich people stuff like making people their toilets or something, sexual harassment and human trafficking

He has expensive taste, the palate of a stereotypical rich person. It doesn't matter if the dish is sweet or savory, it must be made from scratch from the freshest produce the market can offer. He prefers to eat his own cooking as he can easily control what goes into it.

Yves has an intense aversion to strong-tasting foods, not because he can't handle the pungent aroma of garlic or other spices; he used to eat boxes upon boxes of takeout, fast food, and convenience meals.

It's because he associated them with the decades he spent struggling to find his footing in this world. They were cheap, accessible, and definitely not something he would willingly put in his body despite knowing it probably wouldn't affect him greatly in any way now.

Foods that are greasy, overly salty, processed to unrecognizable heights, and contain a barrel's worth of sugar are foods that Yves has a strong disdain for. He very much prefers eating foods that are steamed, boiled, or baked with minimal amounts of oil, salt, and sugar. His cooking is definitely still flavourful, it's mostly simple but it has a quality that makes it lavish and 'clean'.

Yves wasn't always like this though. Just like most humans, he started off hating his vegetables and fruits, yearning for junk and other vices. His previous cravings are only exacerbated by the stressful life that he lived, to no one's surprise, he wasn't always in the best shape. Or the best state of mind.

He knows what it was like to live in a severely unhealthy body on both ends of the spectrum. Yves was both a hundred pounds overweight and a hundred pounds underweight, neither phase was fun at all and it just made his life much harder than it was supposed to be.

Yves sobbed hysterically when he failed to stop himself from eating an entire 5-pound chocolate cake to cope with his emotions, then promptly threw up everything afterward on the dingy floor of his dilapidated rental. He was too familiar with the feeling of his two fingers pushing his uvula as deep as he could so he could empty his stomach into the toilet bowl, to the point that the off-white ceramic was painted red. Yves knew what half-eaten hamburgers covered in god-knows-what, found in dumpsters taste like. He knew what ingredient in candies to look for that aided him in vomiting, he tried all the slimming teas, laxatives, and enemas. Yves had his favorite brands.

Yves vividly remembers how he would be out of breath just by standing up, how his joints felt like it was about to give out at any moment. The bruises he received from merely sitting on certain types of chairs, the horrible chafing that led to nasty, debilitating infections because he didn't have the means to receive medical attention, the humiliation, and degradation, painful and permanent swellings, the increased frequency of sexual groping that usually led to something much worse, overheating in a flesh suit that he cannot just remove, the cruel loneliness, the desperation for food when he doesn't even have a single cent left to his name, his reflection and more revolting memories.

He remembers all of it. He remembers the broken bones that were forced to heal on their own, bleeding orifices leaking with excrement due to his abuse of weight-losing drugs, articles of clothing ruined by his own feces and vomit, the obsession over the number on his scale, the shivering even at scorching temperatures, locks of his hair clogging the drain, fainting spells that cost him his meager wages for the week, the taste of his own stomach acid still lingers on his tongue, his "friends" who were equally as ghoulish calling Yves a fat pig and incessantly oinking at him for finishing a whole apple by himself, being unable to chew properly because his teeth were eroded, being unable to fight back because he was just that weak, fingers that looked like it belonged to a rotting corpse, his reflection, the hunger, the hunger, the hunger...

And in both chapters of his life, one thing stayed constant. The infamous, deep-fried, saturated, tastebud-abusing slop served to the disadvantaged masses.

So please do forgive him when he gives you a blank look for an uncomfortable while when you eat a crispy fried chicken leg in front of him. He didn't mean to give the plate of french fries on the table a long, dull stare before digging in like any other normal person; with a lot more elegance. Yves just had a few memories pass through his mind, that's it.

Not to say that he will act like it's the end of the world to eat the food that he hates. You wouldn't know that he despised them unless he told you, Yves would have eaten it without complaint and hesitation, expressing his gratitude to you for getting these for him. He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, after all.

Yves understands that his experience doesn't necessarily reflect yours, he has no issue with you eating garbage foods in moderation. You will have cravings, it's simply something humans like you have to deal with. He will still agree to have a date or two at a fast-food joint even if he detests the griminess and classlessness of it all, as long as it makes you happy to see him 'enjoying' himself too. Of course, he would attempt and succeed at making healthier alternatives at home.

If you're craving something that is missing many of the key nutrients but it's not harmful to your health, he would fortify it with the needed vitamins or minerals. You couldn't even tell the difference, but your body will.

He will have a massive problem if you exhibit the same symptoms his younger self had. Yves will plant his foot firmly on the ground, he wouldn't even talk to you about it. He goes straight to rewiring your brain without even thinking if Yves noticed your struggles. You would find yourself one day 'cured' of whatever complex you had with food, baffled but grateful, brushing it off as something trivial although it is anything but.

You might notice that the fridge always has at least one tin of sturgeon caviar on a block of ice. You deduced that his favorite food is caviar, but you might not truly know why.

He isn't stingy with it. Yves told you that you are welcome to eat as much as you want (within reason, it has a ridiculously high sodium content). Whether you like eating it or not, it was astonishing that he could replace it as soon as it's finished despite needing to pay an exorbitant amount for a container the size of your palm.

And he associated that overpriced spoonful of fish eggs with the dawn of a new era and the end of his horror-filled years. His life wasn't perfect when he first tried it, far from it actually. He still gets assaulted, spat on, molested, and insulted straight to his face, more so due to his new career as a budding fashion model. But it was a change, an overall positive change.

Despite first trying it at a mansion owned by a syndicate of influential Oligarchs who hire conventionally beautiful people and commit unspeakable acts against them, caviar became a symbol of hope. Yves, disheveled, drugged beyond belief, and covered in bruises, cuts, and disgusting fluids, managed to slip out of the room where the torture happened. His own disorganized thoughts drowned out the screams of his colleagues and the cheers of the rich, Yves was on a mission.

He somehow maneuvered his way through the hallways without being detected by staff or other members, finding his way to one of the private chambers. It was occupied an hour ago, as shown by the mildly displaced chairs and empty crystal glasses.

Even under the influence of substances, his first instinct wasn't necessarily to run away. It was to rob them of everything they had, watches, jewelry, shoes, bags- anything he could get his sticky hands on. God, he so badly wanted to own their wardrobe. The rings looked dazzling on his fingers, and the purses fit right around his arm.

Then his bloodshot, dilated eyes landed on the glass table.

An open bottle of champagne half filled; in Yves's eyes, half-empty. A tray with something he only heard of, but never seen. A tin filled with numerous, tiny black spheres accompanied by a plate of Blinis and an intricate bowl of creme fraiche, and a couple of lemon wedges.

His hands trembled as he stumbled towards the glistening set. These are what the rich and powerful eat. He thought to himself. Yves didn't understand the fondness towards these. Tastewise, he didn't find anything particularly exciting or great. Statuswise...

For a minute, just a mere minute, Yves felt like he was at the top of the world. Yves ate what his 'masters' ate.

It didn't matter that he got caught after, it didn't matter he was made an example of by being urinated in front of an audience, beaten unconscious, and had a skull fracture. For a moment, he was their equal. And this will be the last time he will be disrespected to this level.

He escaped with enough stolen goods to buy his way out of his hell.

And he stole a coveted tin of caviar for himself.

[lazygirlie9]

Finding Home- Part one

Fandom-DC Titans (HBO Max)

Notes- Hello!, This is my first ever writing a DC fanfiction, please let me know if you guys have any suggestions for plots for this fanfic, do also let me know if you have suggestions for any other fanfic. Thank you, you can enjoy reading now. Happy reading!

Summary -In this version of events Jason Todd also had his own Batgirl, someone akin to Dick Grayson's counterpart(Barbara Gordon). Perhaps this would have steered him away from the downward spiral into drugs and heartbreak that ultimately led to his demise, or maybe not. The female OC's name is Sanny Benaxnoate. She is characterized by her bubbly and affectionate nature, coupled with her love for parties and taking risks. Despite her innocent demeanor, she possesses exceptional acrobatic skills and a unique situational intelligence that enables her to react swiftly and adeptly in perilous circumstances. Although she may be selectively intelligent, her loyalty and dedication to her friends runs deep, leading her to protect them at all costs. Her bubbly and outgoing nature masks a fierce determination and courage that only becomes apparent when push comes to shove.

Warning- Swearing, 18+,Descriptions of death, usage of drugs, Violence, injuries.

Character appearance and relevant information about the character:-Sanny's appearance is striking--shoulder-length blonde hair with a straight and pointed texture, deep green eyes, and a height of 5'7. She has a slim, athletic build and is proficient in acrobatics, Sanny has mixed fighting style of karate, Brazilian jitsu and muay-thai, she and Jason are the same age.

Character background and origin:- Sanny's parents were dead and she was taken care of by her aunt, Sanny was originally from Wales, where Sanny attended a private boarding school, when she was 10 years she found out that her parents had been murdered while they were on a trip to Spain , Sanny's aunt was later assigned as her guardian who lived all the way in Gotham in America, though her aunt lived in the wealthy Bristol side of Gotham, she was a lot abusive towards Sanny made her work all the extra work after Sanny came back from school, Sanny did start to idolize the superheroes in Gotham, Sanny knew that living in Gotham is not the same as living in Llantwit Fardre , the town she was born in, she read the news everyday and witnessed enough crimes in the city to know better , she was prepared, she had made a makeshift tools and weapons out of trash, rubber gloves, wires, broken cords, compact disks, sharp metal junk, she knew a bit of karate she had learnt before her parents died , when she still was in boarding school, she did practice all that to better herself. Once when Sanny was 16 coming back from her gymnastics classes at 8pm , she witnessed few masked robbers with guns robbing the most ostentatious and luxury jewelry shop in all of Gotham, The robbers had already stolen a significant portion of the jewelry and were preparing to flee when Batman entered the scene. He confronted the ten masked criminals, all of whom appeared highly skilled and proficient in their craft. It was a challenging ordeal for Batman to prevent the five robbers from successfully escaping in their van. Once he had successfully apprehended them, two more robbers attempted to attack him from behind, aiming to ensnare his leg with a crowbar and thereby throw him off balance but Sanny who was witnessing this, immediately runs into the scene in the alley with determination in her eyes and hits the guy behind batman with a rock with force on the head, she sprayed pepper spray on the eye area of the mask of the robber who was distracted, and tackled the other robber as she pushed him on his knees by locking his head with her arms from the back , while doing so she removed the makeshift weapon that she had made and stabbed it in the side of his neck , the metal of the weapon was poisonous as it was soaked in a chemical compound that Sanny had synthesized and had poured the chemical in the small glass weapon holder that she had designed , the robber yells in pain as he blacks out , after all the robbers had been defeated, batman stood there watching Sanny do fight them with calculated moves and creativity of the weapon she made with nothing but scraps, he was shocked yet had a look of admiration on his face, as Sanny begged him to let her be a vigilante with him just like robin(first robin-dick Grayson) used to be , Bruce eventually thought about it and saw her potential to become the second batgirl after Barbara , Bruce revealed himself to Sanny and sent her to Barbara to get her acquainted with her, Barbara saw the potential and the resoluteness in sanny's personality, Barbara passed her batgirl mantle onto sanny who latter got trained by batman to become the second batgirl , she and Jason were trained together since Bruce adopted Jason some time later he presented Sanny with the opportunity, consequently he sent Jason to find dick Grayson to warn him that members of Haly's Circus were being systematically murdered, after when the young titans arrive at san Francisco and get acquainted to the old titans' base of operations, a day after the young titans get settled there Sanny pays a surprise visit stating that she was sent by Bruce to train with the titans which dick latter calls Bruce and gets to know that it was because Sanny too needed some more experience and training and that it would benefit her and Jason both if they fought in a team.

Start-

It was a rainy day outside , storms and chilly air passing through San Francisco's air, it had just been the first week in the titans tower and he felt irritated, annoyed and basically bored, he desperately wanted to go back to Gotham , to Bruce, to Alfred, it was so boring and lonely here, even with Sanny here, dick was not the person he expected to be, he looked grim, stoic and strict leader like figure, he gave of vibes that he positively hated his existence in the tower, he made him fight blindfolded with the other new titans Gar and Rachel, or 'outcasted freaks' as he would have called them , he was more advanced than them, but then why was dick making him fight with them, heck!, the senior members of the titans looked at him as if he was some sort of annoying cockroach that wouldn't die, not that he wasn't annoying enough as it is, Sanny was being her hyperactive self as usual he thought, it had been two days since she came and already made friends with Rachel and gar, she seemed to make the stoic faced dick crack up from her ridiculous jokes that she would often say, hank already seemed to approve of her, liking her energy, donna and dawn seemed to like her as well, she was like her usual self , chaotic mess, Sanny seemed be taking this all too well is what Jason thought. It all seemed to fit the picture of a happy family, dick being the dad of the group trying to control 4 kids, Sanny being the chaotic energy , always bubbly and yapping of something, she was so casual with dick, like she was talking to some old friends even though dick was awkward most of the times, just nodding off to whatever she said , finding a reason to just run off from her constant chattering, and he was just a temper tantrum, nosey and sticking his shit where it didn't belong to, Rachel acted like dick was her father or something and doing some voodoo shit that he thought was creepy,Gar was like the obedient kid trying to follow whatever dick was saying and just being friendly with anyone. Jason was currently all alone in the tower, dick went off to meetup with hank, donna and dawn, Gar and Rachel went to the supermarket to buy some groceries since everything “vegan” was finished, just imagining eating all that tofu and that horrible disgusting green juice with all the godamm greens in the world made Jason want to puke , 'who the hell in their right minds would drink that inedible concoction of greens anyway ,looked more like vomit', he thought. Sanny went back to Gotham to visit one of her old friends, he would rather describe them as crazy like her, one of her friends named pansy literally carries a knife inside her under pockets of her skirt, not like Jason wouldn't approve of them , sure he had done such things when he was living on streets, you never knew who would attack you at any given point of time, now here he was all alone in the tower, his tummy grumbled since he hadn't eaten anything since the morning except that apple he ate before his workout, he got up and went to the kitchen to cook something and opened the fridge to check what was there, Rachel and Gar were right nothing much in the fridge except for few tomatoes, bread , leftover chicken and the fancy ass vegan ice cream they both whipped up yesterday called “sorbet” , he opened one of the cabinets and found a pack of Kraft mac and cheese, although he would rather prefer the homemade mac and cheese with real and fresh ingredients like Alfred would have prepared , this would do for the time being, he took out the left over chicken from the fridge and started to cook the mac and cheese in a pot, drumming the spatula to one of the songs he was listening to on his headphones

He can hear the rain outside the window, drumming gently on the glass. The sound is soothing, almost hypnotic. It reminds him of the rainy nights in Gotham, when he used to be out patrolling the streets with Batman. He missed those nights, the thrill of the chase, the adrenaline rush of dodging bullets and throwing punches.

He sighs, wondering if he'll ever get that kind of action here in San Fransisco.

As he finishes cooking the mac-and-cheese, his stomach growls loudly in anticipation. He serves himself a generous portion and grabs a fork, ready to drown his thoughts in the cheesy goodness.

With a frown, he shakes his head. No, he can't think like that. This is his chance to start over, to be a part of a team, to do good. And he's got Sanny here with him, the only person here who doesn't treat him like dirt under their shoe.

He glances over at the clock, wondering how much longer it will take for Sanny to get back.

He knew sanny was oh-too-busy with god knows what, besides all the training and vigilante stuff she did, she had taken a short term hybrid course in gotham university in the field of cybersecurity , where she had made some lame ass friends whom she chatted and did assignments with. Seeing this even Bruce wanted him to go to college which obviously he denied but knew a college degree would help him in the long run. He felt bored thinking all this, he was frickin robin , way smarter than those college nerds , he knew more than what the graduates would know since Bruce had taught important and essential subjects to both him and sanny but it was'nt his problem that sanny chose to be boring and is doing a course , but in her defence she was learning something useful atleast and sanny was coax him into joining some course to deepen his knowledge but he has time so he will think about it later...maybe...or maybe before its too late.

As he stirs the pot, the sound of the front door opening catches his attention. He turns off the gas and takes off his headphones, listening intently to the sound of footsteps coming from the living room. He couldn't tell if it was just Sanny or if it was both Rachel and Gar. His heart skips a beat and he hopes it was the former. He quietly steps out from the kitchen and peeks into the living room, only to see Sanny walking in through the door. She was still wet from the rain outside, her silky blonde hair sticking to her face and her clothes damp from the water, she looked tired with a big book about cybersecurity in her hand that she had cluched it on her chest with her bag slinging to her shoulder, she slumped on the sofa of the living room looking exhausted and checked her phone as usual, as she got a call and started talking while coming into the kitchen , she smiled at him and nodded her head at him to acknowledge him as she was still humming to the person on the phone, she stole a bite of his pasta , as she pulled the bowl to her side eating few spoons of pasta and giving him hand signals that it tasted good as she was listening and humming off to someone on the call, while she slipped away to the living room sitting on the couch with his pasta bowl in her hand Jason smiled back at her and rolled his eyes at her typical food thievery. He chuckled at her hand signals and sat down beside her on the couch taking the bowl back from her hands and jokingly waving it away from her reach, as she still on the call she just pouts not being able to do much, he looks at her and

says smirking“this is mine, go make one for yourself, besides who's the lucky person on the phone taking up all your attention?".

She puts the phone away from her ear and mouths “my professor” and goes back into listening to the call and humming to the person on the call with her.

Jason huffs in tiredness, knowing she was busy , she gets up from the couch with her belongings and move towards her room, As Sanny gathers her things and heads towards her room, Jason can't help but feel a pang of loneliness and abandonment. He was used to being alone, but somehow, it stung more this time. Maybe it was because he thought he finally found someone who cared about him, someone who wouldn't ditch him like everyone else, she did care about him and always stuck to him but these days even she had gotten a bit busy, He can't help but feel a pang of loneliness, even though he knows he should be used to it. He goes back to the kitchen and continues to eat his pasta.

the silence of the tower only making him feel more isolated. As he eats, he can't help but think about how much he misses the hustle and bustle of Gotham. He misses the routine and discipline of the Batcave, the way Alfred would nag at him for not taking care of himself, he walks away to the gymnasium to get himself to start training and distract himself .

Part two coming soon-feel free to give suggestions

Thank you for reading~

[comp-lady]

An Update to the Gofundme

Sean and Syd have moved!

They are finally out of the woods and safe in the guest room of our friend Birdie. Another friend, Ghost, took the massive undertaking of driving out to them, helping them empty out their storage unit, and then shuttle them the 12 hour drive to Birdie's.

So what is this update, you ask

We're back to accepting donations because we went over the receipts of the trip and found that it went over-budget. If you follow the link to the gofundme you'll find a picture on the latest update with the receipts attached. The main culprit is a junk removal service to dispose of the extra items from Sean and Syd's storage unit. There just wasn't room in the trailer and truck to take everything, nor was there time to dispose of it themselves. Thankfully this is not an urgent update. We don't need this money Right Now This Instant. Ghost is willing to eat the cost, but the rest of us all agree that if we can gather that bit more to cover the 300$ then good.

So if you have a bit to spare we would be extremely grateful.