#NOT TO MENTION i get paid more there.

[blushft]

working in fast food is so enriching. youre telling me i have to pretend to be normal for several hours to get along with coworkers AND i get to be torn to fucking shreds over putting one extra piece of bacon on a bacon burger??

damn! this place really has it all. :D

[katoska]

Theory why Betelgeuse left Lydia's side to "go to the little boys' room" and took over for Richard at his booth for a bit:

Yes, he could have dealt with Jeremy without playing dress-up and taking over Richard's job, and didn't have to enable Richy to get a little more family time in the process. They could have saved Astrid just fine without that, so it seems unnecessary, for him to do that. OOC, even. Except

2) Richard wouldn't owe Betelgeuse a big favor for said taking over of his job and enabling the extra family time with Lydia and Astrid. Also, ofc, for saving his daughter from trading places with Jeremy. Betelgeuse did all that at great cost to himself: A Code 699 violation (see screenshot of transcript from reddit below) gets you extra time working as a civil servant, it gets your topside privileges revoked, and it voids any marriage you entered into, so his contract for payment from/marriage to Lydia was meaningless (well, if it had been a marriage certificate rather than just an agreement to get married in the future. and if he'd actually signed it. and then possibly only if he'd signed it before entering the Netherworld so there'd be a marriage TO void, rather than... not signing it at all... *sigh* he totally burned that half-signed and not-yet-binding contract himself bc he understood she wasn't ready to marry him yet, is what I'm saying, but I digress).

1) Lydia wouldn't have gotten closure for her ex's death without it. Closure which she sorely needed, because the fact that Richard's body was never found plus her seeming inability to see his ghost (Richard: "I know you two can't see me, but I check in on you all the time") add up to her having been in denial of his death. She couldn't see his ghost because she really really did not want to see proof that he was dead. So now she gets to move on from him. Which is very convenient for B. Especially as Richard is unlikely to be able to visit her anytime soon even now that Lydia has accepted his death and should be able to see him again, but I'm getting to that.

Still 2): Anyway, B doesn't do favors. He does business. If people are allowed to take over for others at their jobs in the afterlife, but those jobs are also a form of punishment where you have to "do time" at them for a specific duration, then those work hours are a currency that you can give away or trade. You can, if you find someone who is willing, get someone to do your time for you (hell, you can even get a naive Breather to trade their actual Life for your afterlife existence).

So yeah, I don't think Betelgeuse took over Richard's booth just out of the goodness of his heart. I think they made a deal, one that means that B will be topside again much sooner than the Deetz' will expect so he can get back to trying to seduce Richard's ex (hey, Richard always supported lost causes, so... 😆), while Richard will be stuck at work, unable to visit the Living for a long and unspecified amount of time. Not that his family's gonna notice, bc they never used to see him visit them, anyway.

And yeah, according to someone from reddit who decyphered that page in the Handbook, there's a bit about how the Deceased who violated Code 699 has to cease Trading, if applicable.

But I think that only goes for post-conviction of the crime, not as an automatic consequence of the crime, as B was also still able to visit the Living World to attempt the church wedding. Which, actually, is yet more evidence that this latest marriage attempt was more for the sake of declaring his feelings and testing the waters (and showing off, and getting rid at the competition) than him trying to actually get, and stay, married. Cause the church wedding would have been voided by a conviction, too.

Anyway, that's my theory on B's incredibly considerate, and therefore incredibly suspicious, detour to Richard's booth and letting Richard have his heroic moment.

And tbf, Lydia and Astrid are Richard's family. So it wouldn't even be unreasonable to expect Richard to pay for the legal trouble B got into from saving them. Like, I'm sure he'd have done it anyway, but if B can pass on that buck then ofc he's gonna.

[coquelicoq]

what i love about the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi of it all is that...it's not just that he's famous and therefore widely recognizable wherever he goes. like yes that is very funny because he was an exorcist before he became a famous actor, which means he CHOSE, on purpose, a day job that would make it harder to hide his double life/secret identity from the hordes of his adoring public, but it's more than that. it's not just that he's famous, it's that he's famous specifically for being an ACTOR, aka a person whose job it is to dissimulate, to make believe, to inhabit roles and emotions other than his own. like he decided he was going to become as visible as possible (which again was literally not necessary! he could have gone into any other career for his day job!!) but in such a way that everyone would see him but no one would see him - they would just see his various made-up personas, including the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi persona. i can't decide if he's a genius or if he just made so many absurd decisions that they canceled each other out and circled back around to working out. he's either playing 9-dimensional chess or he's eating the pieces. too soon to say.

[rox-of-iu]

bought "immortal life" as a gift for myself and I'm immediately obsessed

it's stardew valley style farm sim but xianxia (said by someone who never played stardew or farm sims this is guesswork lol)

anyway it's early access now but it will come out as a full game in Jan 2024! and I guess there is a possibility that the price will go up once it's a full game cuz that happens sometimes so if ur interested now is your chance hah (its on sale rn for 11,19€)

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

How can I bribe you into helping me get a job in the industry, other than promising my undying love, which you already have <3

The industry is horrible and awful, low pay, long hours, no real chance of advancing.

Whenever people touring the station or new interns ask me for advice, I always tell them to change careers lol

[thosewildcharms]

I'm still in a delirious state of mind about Rick and Michonne, that we got 6 eps just about them... cant really believe that of all the shows the walking dead provided us with the best ship ever! But i will never forgive twd that we never saw Michonne talk to Rick about Andre, ESPECIALLY after Carl died. All this years later and im still bitter about it, sorry for ranting in your inbox, love reading your thoughts on Richonne 😘

oh, thank you so much anon! and please feel free to vent and rant in my inbox anytime!

you know despite being bonked over the head repeatedly by the promotional materials and danai/scott/andy themselves being like THIS IS AN EPIC LOVE STORY! ABOUT RICK AND MICHONNE! A LOVE STORY ABOUT HOW RICK AND MICHONNE LOVE EACH OTHER IN A WAY THAT IS EPIC! 6 EPISODES ABOUT RICK AND MICHONNE BEING IN LOVE, EPICALLY! i'm still reeling over how well we were fed. apologies to future!me but nothing is ever going to top this. and from the zombie show no less! can you believe!

and i'm with you about andre. sure, she did *technically* mention him (or rather, the experience of losing him) after carl's death in this scene and while i'm confident that she and rick talked about andre off screen as well i still would have loved to see it. there is a tragic lack of scenes in general where michonne is comforted and taken care of emotionally (let alone physically) and/or gets to talk about her past at all, let alone about the entire child she lost i think she is owed that. hell, I think an andre mention would have fit in perfectly somewhere in towl, where michonne's POV was much more present and the grimes family as a whole was such a focal point. the way they brought carl back into the narrative in such an integral way was beautiful and i love that they honored his memory the way they did. i think it would have been a nice parallel if andre had been brought back up as well. because there is not a single doubt in my mind (and probably not in michonne's mind either for that matter) that if andre were still alive rick would have loved him like he was his own. so it would have been really sweet, for example, if he had been paid tribute to in some way as part of their family even if rick (and we as the viewer) never got a chance to know him.

[clowningcrows]

it’s crazy how much having a safe place to be yourself and express your identity and personality and interests, both online and irl, can change your will to live. honestly.

[fuck-kirk]

Wait i just saw your tags that your job is the "do list of tasks until complete then leave" type - what sort of job is it? Bc that sounds amazing tbh

I will say my job isn’t like this ALL the time…maybe like 50-60% of the time

I’m a “pottery operator” at a community art center—but essentially I’m the assistant to the main teacher. I also teach classes, but that’s only a few times a week. The rest of the time my boss gives me a check list of studio chores to do. She is often not there bc she owns her own gallery, so for example every Monday and Friday I spend the whole day just checking off tasks on a to-do list. Things like cleaning and organizing shelves and cupboards, loading kilns (which I LOVE to do, unironically), mix clay, prep clay and tools for lessons, etc etc… and then when I’m done, I can either “lesson plan” which is usually me looking at pintrist, writing a bit, or working on teacher samples to see how I would demo it (which is very fun to me) or I leave, because I get paid salary, so if the work is done I’m good

So basically it is literally the perfect job for me. The perfect mix of social interaction (and it’s usually with other artistic people), teaching (which I also love to do), and mentally and physically engaging but NOT back breaking menial tasks that I can just check off on a to-do list (and I usually listen to an audio book the whole time..)

So, like, a pretty niche kinda job I guess….but it’s seriously the perfect fit for me

[whyisstarkidfollowingmeshoo]

Speaking of that RENT show with Jeff Blim…

Jeff revealed they still owe him $1,000 for the job. It's nuts. It's crazy. Watch starting on 1:37:03 mark below.

A while ago, I posted on my main blog about another artist not getting paid fairly, but that was by a big corporate company. It reminded me that Jeff wasn’t paid for his role as Roger for a small independent theater company. Big or small, companies should pay their workers (contractual or not) fairly.

The company behind the RENT show — I may have their name wrong, tho — is called Cupcake Theater. I don’t know if Jeff will ever work for them again, but it's not like he was happy to mention that he hasn't been paid yet. That said, he did share that he was happy to perform in the musical after the whole COVID pandemic, and that in some way, it was kind of like payment.

Also, let me remind you that Jeff and Jon Matteson raised a lot of money on Twitch to continue the RENT show, so it’s wild that the company still hasn’t paid the artist who helped them keep it going. And honestly, a lot of people probably watched the show because of Jeff. The most viewed videos on LA TheatreSource’s YouTube channel features, you gueeeessseddd it!!!"

Also, they used videos of Jeff for marketing on IG. They knew he has a bigger fanbase than the others, so it’s verrrry contradictory that they didn’t pay him — especially since that kinda goes against the show’s message. Maybe. Kinda. I’ve only read the summary and watched bits of RENT, so yeah.

Jeff wasn’t mad or anything, maybe just disappointed, but it would be nice to hear that he finally got paid, even if it’s a delayed payment from back in 2022 or whenever. IDK. Like, what the fuck? Don’t scam your artists.

Anyway, I hope this doesn’t blow up into something negative (did not expect this to get so long either), because Jeff was pretty chill about it, despite still being owed $1,000. But maybe him being so nonchalant about it is part of the reason why he still hasn’t been paid. Or maybe he got tired of following them up about it and gave up and swore not to work with them again, and hopefully told other artists. But unfortunately Cupcake Theater is still pretty active.

Also yeah if anyone from Cupcake Studios is reading this, please pay Jeff or else (lol jk but srsly tho what the fuck. He said he hasn't been paid yet. What's your side of the story?)

Jeff Blim, you beautiful, stupid, scammed artist. You need that $1,000 for your coffee fund. It’s the only thing that makes you happy during your livestreams.

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

[batsplat]

from the stuff i’ve heard marc’s former honda teammates (dani jorge and pol in their media careers but joan also i guess) say about him now that they’re racing is generally quite positive, both on a professional/riding level but also seemingly on a personal level? i’m wondering what you make of that given that, yeah, marc doesn’t seem like a very good teammate (unless you’re alex who i’ve left off this list). like MARC wants to separate on and off track stuff and it seems like all of these guys are willing too at least in retrospect, so he can’t have truly burned bridges with them. do you have any thoughts on that

(x, x) most riders are quite good at not burning bridges with each other! it's not like marc's competitors don't know that this stuff is kinda part of the game. I mean, all of marc's past teammates were also trying to assert themselves within the internal hierarchy... you can say that certain teammates engage in 'worse' behaviour than others, but, like, these people do understand they're supposed to be fighting each other! a baseline degree of nastiness is factored in and will be accepted to a greater or lesser extent by your rivals - especially when it comes to asserting yourself in intra-team power struggles. you might hate the other guy in the moment, but generally speaking once the active part of the rivalry is done with... you will probably get over it. marc's fellow riders are aware of how ultra-competitive marc is - and to a certain point they do respect it, not least because they're aware that this is part of the reason why marc has ended up with all those titles. it's like dani said, right, it's marc's strong suit. and in general, you do have to say that there's relatively few teammate pairings that devolve to the level of toxicity that it completely destroys the interpersonal relationship. you might need some level of preexisting animosity... most of the purely competitive sins can be healed with a little time

on the 'separating on-track and off-track' thing... well. this is kind of a question of how you define these things, you can say that marc generally speaking isn't going to massively hold grudges over isolated on-track incidents or whatever... but he doesn't just leave his fighting to the track, and personally I've also never felt he can entirely separate these things out in his mind. can you really say his professional and private relationships with other riders are completely detached from one another? mostly, he's opted to be pretty disengaged from his fellow riders as a collective, and obviously that's a good way to not take things too personally... it's all part of the game, isn't it? sometimes it's good to go with the straightforward approach: marc tells you he will make your life hell, he does indeed make your life hell, and then you both move on with your lives and can maybe actually have a pretty amiable relationship with him in years to come. he's not really defying your expectations at any point here, is he now? it's still a question for each of them as individuals as to whether they think that kind of behaviour is above board and acceptable or not... but everyone by now knows that marc plays these games, so it's not like they're going in blind

and it's not like other former teammates are constantly badmouthing each other. I mean... look, let's just cut to the chase here and bring in valentino as our reference point (as he is for the sport as a whole, which by the way does also help create a certain baseline of acceptability for marc's antics - maybe goated riders are just supposed to be dicks who knows). vale's premier class teammates were 1) nobody (2000-01), 2) tohru ukawa (2002), 3) nicky hayden (2003; 2011-12), 4) carlos checa (2004), 5) colin edwards (2005-2007), 6) jorge lorenzo (2008-10; 2013-16), 7) maverick vinales (2017-20), 8) franco morbidelli (2021), and 9) andrea dovizioso (2021). of these eight men (let's just exclude 'nobody' for now), do you know how many had serious complaints at any point about valentino as a teammate? that's right, it's one guy. one. some of valentino's other teammates, like hayden, checa and edwards, were even quite actively positive about their whole experience. this is the thing - you do need some specific circumstances for teammate rivalries to escalate from 'being kinda bitchy every other month' to 'actively fantasising about stabbing each other'. not accounting for natural interpersonal animosity, let's list some circumstantial factors that you need to get a bridge-burning-worthy level of feud:

you need a competitive bike. it is possible to beef about development direction when you're in the trenches (cf late 2010's yamaha, 2020's honda)... but generally speaking this is going to be quite low-level petty stuff, not actual war

you also need something that approaches competitiveness between teammates. if one teammate is unquestionably stronger than the other one, then it is very unlikely that you are going to get any open hostilities. the tension comes when the two sides are close enough to each other for the internal hierarchy to actually be a contentious issue (this is also basic self preservation... if you're the far weaker teammate then you do not want to make the situation troublesome, because then you will be the one to be fired)

following on from those first two things... well, it doesn't hurt to have a title fight in the mix. there are also other ways you can generate competitive stakes, like, for instance, if you and your teammate know that one of you will be out of a job soon. basically, it helps to have something to squabble over

it is maybe easy to forget how rare it is this century for teammates to be fighting directly for a title, let alone over the course of multiple seasons. only two 1-2's since the year 2000 and they're both for the factory yamaha's (though 2006, 2011-13 and 2017 did all prominently feature two factory hondas). which means that for valentino, the prerequisites were met just the once in his premier class career... and yes, the results were pretty memorable, but (topic! for! another! post!) it's worth pointing out that even that relationship was pretty much 'fine' whenever there was a sizeable disparity between the two of them performance-wise (2008 and 2013 are the most clear cut examples). I think the way I'd frame it with marc is that he has a bunch of mildly dubious strategies up his sleeve to assert himself within the team, which don't really deviate that far from what you'd expect from a rider of marc's calibre and only need to be escalated under specific circumstances. that doesn't mean he doesn't have the potential to be ruthless, but up until now it's mostly been a fairly 'acceptable' level of ruthlessness on the intra-team level... and not something that is likely to make other riders actually hate him

taking marc's teammates one by one... dani was the closest to meeting the bridge-burning prerequisites, though he was only a title rival in marc's rookie season. and marc did go further with him than he did with anyone else, and dani has made some pointed comments about marc's style as a teammate... but yes, he is fonder of marc these days. partly I'd just emphasise again that this is a fairly natural progression when you've stopped directly competing for long enough, and partly it's also just a question of individual personality - dani's not massively into holding grudges. then there's jorge, who... I mean, they might as well not have been teammates, given that jorge was either too slow or too injured to even be sharing any track space with marc. you have to put that one down primarily to circumstance, seeing as jorge's own track record on the teammate front isn't exactly spotless. marc and jorge beefing in 2019 would have been pretty dumb and also a massive waste of everyone's time in a year in which marc singlehandedly won the team's championship. even those two needed more to get things going

moving on to the dark years, pol and marc had an extremely stop-and-start partnership on a honda that was generally pretty uncompetitive... so the only stuff they could get ever so mildly irritable about were riveting incidents like 'marc saying pol wasn't the biggest championship threat' (neither of them were) or 'pol saying he'd copy marc's set up' (which proved entirely useless). not exactly title decider territory, is it now, and marc very much had pol covered as a challenger throughout their partnership. also, those two do have a longer history! they've known each other since they were kids and hold a pretty significant place in each other's careers. now that pol's more or less retired, it's natural there'll be quite a lot of sentimentality there - which will paper over any small cracks that appeared during those two years. and joan was a one year teammate at a time in which the bike was consistently close to offing them both. they only managed to start a sunday race together as teammates on thirteen occasions. it would take some serious effort to engineer a feud with that little opportunity, and, really, why on earth would you bother. maybe if honda had gone for rinsy rather than joan for the factory seat, it could've been a bit more prickly, but it's unlikely that it would have escalated beyond that

this is the thing, right, the only one of these partnerships that would have been worth burning bridges over was dani, and even there marc pretty much had him handled after the first season. in general, marc has been pretty clear on how he's not interested in making friends with the other side of the garage while the teammate relationship is ongoing... which is fine! there's some prominent-ish teammate pairings that are actually good friends, some teammate pairings where one of them is actively helping out and advising the other one, but some riders prefer to just keep their distance. it would have been a little silly of marc to start a feud with a teammate who is galaxies away from being a competitive threat, let alone a title rival, but generally it is possible to toe the line between 'attempting to suppress your internal rivals enough to stop them from becoming a problem for you' and 'taking radical enough action to make your internal rivals despise you'

especially in the post-dani era, marc never really had any need to push things too far... and, let's face it, how many of your teammate relationships end up with burnt bridges is also quite frankly a question of luck and circumstance. do you want to guess which top rider on paper has the worst track record this century with premier class teammate feuds, in terms of a) how many they've had, and b) how little public reconciliation there has been since the end of the rivalry?

yes, that's right, it's the first name that comes to mind when you're thinking of toxic and conflict-prone riders: andrea dovizioso. that old devil, constantly causing trouble. just couldn't stop undermining his poor, innocent teammates. can somebody please stop this ruthless bully before it's too late

I think you get the point. I would personally suggest that dovi is not in fact the worst teammate it is possible to have in a motogp top team. he just happened to find himself in a situation where he was teammates with two separate guys he did not click with at all, in situations that involved a pairing of riders who were (or had the potential to be) competitive with each other, as well as some proper stakes attached to the rivalry. in general, situational factors are going to determine this stuff more than anything else... and marc more often than not does have a reasonably good feel for picking his battles. he's flirted with the line, but he's mostly avoided crossing it. he hasn't had to

[i-have-read-homestuck]

Homestuck is genuinely so good. Whatever your problems are, there's a Homestuck character you can relate to. Feel like everything is pointless and you just want to destroy everything to fix it? Feel incredibly lonely and want to act happy but everything's falling apart? Feel like you're cracked and splintered and simultaneously inescapable? And that's without the complex relationships. Uneven relationships where you really like someone but all they do is hurt you (you know they like you too), unrequited crushes where you can't help but be a burden, people you've known for forever who understand you more than anybody in the world, yet you somehow grew apart (you never got over them), wanting to take care of your friends yet not knowing how... man. When it comes to being a confused teen trying to manage yourself and your relationships, Homestuck hits the nail on the head in a billion different ways.

[sourtomatola]

Can I has more of the lights lightswitch AU?

Bro, I literally wrote at the end of the comic "This is the only one"

I have three kids in swim lessons. I don't get paid to draw. I draw when I have a moment to breath. Nothing demotivates me than people asking for stuff.

I literally had a small extra thing planned for the AU and now my motivation is gone because of this.

My blog description says "No requests or commissions" and I mean that.

If you want more from artists, leave comments. Leave kind words in the tags about why you like it or anything like that. Coming into my inbox to make demands is disheartening. Casually putting in the tags how much you like it and you hope there would be more is different

Also for the record it's "Light switched" AU

[salemoleander]

Btw idk if I've already shilled for it before, but the Steam Deck absolutely rules and I cannot recommend it enough if you play a lot of games.

To speak to what was definitely my top concern: I can play Hades 2 for several hours without having any battery issues. I can play Balatro or Slay the Spire or other games without a lot of heavy graphics/cpu use for like. 8+ hours? All day? Without charging. The fans are surprisingly quiet even when I'm putting it through its paces.

Especially as someone who works from home and thus spends a lot of time working on my computer, I fucking love being able to go lounge on the couch and play "PC" games. Take a break from Medium Screen to play Small Screen while youtube plays on Large Screen ^.^

Also the extra buttons (there's the normal LB/RB, LT/RT, but then also 2 back buttons on the left side and 3 on the right side where your fingers rest. Also left and right joysticks, arrows/buttons, and touchpads) let you get some efficient-as-hell keybinds set up. And it's a touchscreen!!

I know some people have complained about the weight but honestly it's so much more ergonomic to hold than things like the Switch that I haven't had much issue. The only exception was after a multiple days of playing Hades 2 nonstop, at which point I just started using a knitting/gaming pillow from this awesome Etsy to support my irritated wrists.

I mostly bring all this up bc I know word of mouth is important, and especially for expensive tech I tend to rely on what I've heard from people I know. So I figured if I like this thing so much, I should be vocal about that :D

[shatterthefragments]

Uhhhhhhhhhh might go out like three times this month bc of the need to shake ass and listen to music (I’m joking bc I haven’t even shaken ass in public when drunk in the hotel conferences) (but also potentially three concerts one or two smaller ones and uh. I’m fucking nuts. I need to rest. Or just get out of the house though 👀)

[b0amagination]

Tastes of Whumptober: Day 14

A different style of writing today! Friendly reminder that ACAB, I'm just using them as a device in my story because the concept can make some fun scenarios when not in a real life corrupt system.

Blackmail

Esteemed Chief Nelson,

I would like to bring yet another issue to your attention. As of late, a certain Mx. Gent has been digging into a case unrelated to their duties as a homicide detective. I’m sure such misuse of time on the clock would call for disciplinary action, including a reorganization of their official case assignments, to prevent results and suspects from being skewed by an untrustworthy perspective. I look forward to the consistent improvement and adjustment of our city’s police system. I’m sure our mutual friend is interested in these developments as well.

                              Yours Truly,

                              C

C,

+1 (2xx) xxx-xxx. I’d like to discuss these accusations further. You must understand that such egregious tips can’t always be taken at face value.

                              Chief Nelson

                              Ring ring.

                              Ring ring.

                              Ring ring.

                              Ring-

“Chief Nelson speaking.”

                              “Nel! What a delight it is to finally hear your voice again. How is everything at the precinct these days, hm?”

“Let’s talk business.”

                              “Always so impatient! And here I thought you’d like to have a word with our dear friend. How long has it been, now? One month? More?”

“Let them speak.”

                              “Let them? What do you take me for Nel, a monster?”

“I take you for much worse, C.”

                              “Goodness. I wouldn’t speak to me that way.”

                              Metal clinks against itself, then falls to the floor. Then a different voice.

                              “Sir?”

“Oh, Trent…”

                              A harsh slap of skin against skin.

                              “Agh! Nelson, I meant, I’m sorry.”

                              “That’s right. They’re not your superior anymore.”

“What-! What the fuck is he doing to you?!”

                              “I’m okay, I’m- I just screwed up, I’m gonna be okay.”

“Has he hurt you? I’ve been managing his demands, he said he wouldn’t, and we’re all trying our best. Nobody’s forgotten about you, Trent.”

                              Sniffling.

                              “Thank you, b-but… please, don’t do it for my sake…”

“Don’t say that. Are you hurt?”

                              “Are you, Trenton?”

                              “No, he’s… he’s not hurting me.”

“Trent, that’s not what I asked. Ignore him.”

                              A shuffling of clothes. Then,

                              “AAAAAAUGH!”

“C! He didn’t do anything wrong! Stop it!”

                              “I- I did, I lied. He’s been- been- …He hurts me when I break his rules.”

                              “Who is he, again?”

                              “You, Sir.”

                              A cruel laugh.

“I thought we had a deal.”

                              “As did I.”

“I’ve done everything you asked. There shouldn’t be a damn mark on him!”

                              If you’d carried out my previous demand, there may have been no need.”

“I did.” A voice crack, and a clearing of the throat. “Jean no longer works here.”

                              “Ms. Jean works from home, completing the same tasks she did before.”

“I did as you said.”

                              “And poor Trenton suffered your punishment.”

“Leave him out of this!”

                              “Can’t a man have collateral? Honestly, Nel, you of all people should understand.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

                              “Your force is full of collateral. You rest up in that luxe office while forcing your officers to do your dirty work: looking for me, my information, and when they get too close? I’m forced to step in. Just like with your precious pet here.”

“He’s not- ghh. You seem to be hurting him on your own whims anyway.”

                              “His rules? An unfortunate necessity he’s put upon himself. All he has to do is follow them, and no harm comes to him.”

“You’re sick.”

                              “Will you amend your mistakes, Nel?”

“Trent, please, do what he says. I’m gonna get you out of there, I promise! Protect yourself, I promise I’m close!”

                              “Sir, don’t let him-”

                              Click.

Esteemed Chief Nelson,

I’m saddened to know that neither of my boys can find it in them to simply follow orders. Perhaps you’ll reconsider next time. There are other items that can be sent by priority mail, you know. I trust that certain employees will be let go, lest I make good on my promise.

                              Yours Truly,

                              C

Inside the envelope were ten fully intact bloody fingernails, each with the indent of pliers on the end. And a small scrap of paper, dotted with blood.

"He screamed your name."

[lynne-monstr]

blog, I bought a whole chicken and now I have soup simmering on the stove. my whole house smells great! what a good day, I love friday