#Upgraded High School

[evaiskindaweird]

I HAVE POSTED THIS EMO BITCH 17 TIMES PROBABLY BUT I DONT CARE

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK CAUSED THIS

[stealurheartsandiego]

Based on this fic. I kinda wanted to do art for it. (Also a present for the author). might to more of these "gifts" for other authors. ALSOO i focused on my coloring for once so this piece is def my fav at the moment.

[loafbud]

I ordered the new laptop w/ the funds i received from the kofi goal, so I'm still waiting on that to arrive!! Crossing my fingers that it still arrives in time before school starts! 😭

But I realized I had a little amount of money leftover from it, so I went and got me a capture card 👀

Gaming livestreams & Let's Plays from me is about to become real very very soon

[futuristicbarbie]

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer OT3 Week, Day Two: The Cool Kid, The Jock, And The Nerd

OT3 Week (as per @ot3-week) continues with a prompt that definitely seemed suited for a High School AU -- "The cool kid, the jock, and the nerd!" I think we can all agree that would be Smiler, Alice, and Victor respectively. :p At any rate, here's a high school version of the trio hanging out together at lunch -- with Victor having a rather important question for Smiler...

--

“...why do you hang out with me?”

To Victor’s horror, Smiler looked up from their sandwich, confirming that he had indeed said that out loud. “Because...I like you?” they said once they’d finished chewing and swallowing. “Do I need a better reason than that?”

“I – um, it’s just...” Shut up shut up shut up – but now that the door had been opened, Victor found himself plunging onward, needing to know. “You’re easily the popular, well-liked person in this school. The coolest of the cool kids. People think you’re the greatest – and you are!” he hastened to add, waving his hands. “You’re funny, and friendly, and you really s-seem to take an interest in e-everyone – anybody and everyone likes to hang out with you! You could be friends with anyone! And – and I’m–” Victor swallowed, trying to find the words. “I’m – n-not that. I’m – me.”

Smiler gave him a long look – the kind of look that suggested some kind of “Victor Is Having Self-Esteem Issues Again” alarm was going off in their head. Then they put down their sandwich in favor of taking his hand. “And I like you,” they repeated, looking Victor in the eye. “Even if you’re nothing like me. Especially since you’re nothing like me! I don’t need another me in my life – I’ve already got me! But I didn’t have a ‘you’ until I met you. And now I do.” They shot him one of those stunning grins. “And I’m very happy about that.”

“I...” Victor pulled at his tie, trying not to think about how warm Smiler’s hand felt against his. This wouldn’t be half as hard if I hadn’t had a very enlightening dream about my romantic tastes last night, he groused to himself. Why couldn’t this have happened before I realized I had a crush? “I just – don’t get it? W-why you would want a me?”

“Well, for starters–”

“What’s going on?”

Victor looked up as Alice (aka the other person that he was crushing on, and who hopefully would never find out that fact) came over, carrying a tray. “I mean, I can guess from context that Victor just had a self-loathing moment, but fill me in on the specifics,” she continued, sitting down.

“Not much to fill in – Victor just asked me why I hang out with him, and I’m in the process of reminding him that he doesn’t have to be one of the ‘cool kids’ for people to like him,” Smiler told her.

“Ah.” Alice picked up a chip and popped it into her mouth. “Well, allow me to second the sentiment. I personally find ‘cool’ is often overrated.”

“Maybe, but...I-I just have a hard time seeing the a-appeal of me,” Victor said, looking between them. “Especially – Smiler, like I said, you’re already the most popular kid in school. You don’t need to hang out with someone like me if you want company. And Alice – you’re smart, you’re witty, you have an amazing imagination – oh, and you’re an incredible fencer. The absolute star of the team!”

“I’m also the girl who most people avoid because she spent the majority of her childhood in supervised hospitalization after her family died in a horrific house fire,” Alice retorted, taking a swig from her bottle of soda. “And the one who still talks to invisible creatures on the regular, because so far every medication I’ve tried has had side effects that just are not worth it. Just because I’m like, three percent jock doesn’t mean my social life is any better than yours.” She jerked her head to the side. “Do you think I understand why Smiler’s here? They could do damn better than hanging out with the local loony, that’s for sure.”

“What do I have to do to make you both understand I like you and that’s the end of it?” Smiler grumbled, folding their arms.

“Go back in time and stop the murder of my parents and sister,” Alice replied, waving a fry at them.

“Somehow convince my mother that I’m not a complete failure of a human being,” Victor muttered, looking at his feet.

Smiler sighed. “You two sometimes...look,” they said firmly, leaning across the table. “I think you’re both awesome people, all right? Alice, I agree with everything Victor said – you’re intelligent, you’ve got a great sarcastic sense of humor, and you’re frighteningly good with a sword. I respect that a lot. And Victor – you’re kind, and artistic, and really smart yourself! You know so much about butterflies, you could write your own encyclopedia! I’ve learned a lot, hanging around you!”

“Not to mention your piano skills,” Alice said, shooting Victor a little smile that made his stomach do flip-flops. “I know your parents have got you thinking that you’re not worth anything, but – you really are. To us, at least.”

“Yeah – so could you please stop trying to understand why we’re friends with you and just accept it?” Smiler added, reaching over and giving Victor’s wrist a little squeeze. Then they shot him a disarming grin. “Or do I have to kiss you silly to get that to happen?”

Victor felt himself go beet red as a certain bit of a certain dream started replaying itself in his head. “I – uh – you – um–”

“Who put you in charge of kissing him?” Alice asked, with a playful smirk that did not do anything for the images inside his brain. “Maybe I want a go at it.”

“Maybe we should just do it both at once then,” Smiler joked back. “That’d probably reset his brain.”

“...really?”

This time it was both Smiler and Alice blinking that alerted Victor to the fact that, once again, he’d said that out loud. He dropped his head, wincing. Oh no – that’s it, that’s the bridge too far, it doesn’t matter what they said before, me blurting out that I’d be open to kissing both of them at once is sure to make them –

There was another squeeze on his wrist, and he looked up to see Smiler and Alice looking at him with – not disgust, like he’d feared, but simple surprise. And – just perhaps, if he wasn’t seeing things – a bit of interest? Could they possibly... ? “Well,” Smiler finally said with a little wink. “Think that’s a discussion we should have after school.”

Hope alighted in Victor’s heart, chasing all the dark thoughts away. “Yes,” he breathed. “After school.”

[doedipus]

That post with all the old system noises is kinda funny because they stretch from like, the late 90s to what, 2009? Was that when the dsi came out? On hardware that doesn't really have anything to do with each other?

Like they're fun musical stings but grouping them together feels weird y'know?

[violentdevotion]

through flints help I upgraded the ram on my laptop all by myself (and @cowboystatic flint) !!!!!!! LETS FUCKING GOOO

[eats-the-stars]

Consider Machines Over Customers

don’t know how useful this is, but for people who hate the customer interaction part of their jobs, like, if you think that is the worst part of your job, consider looking for a job that does not involve you interacting with customers. the hard part is that all the “basic job that you don’t need a college education to get” kind of jobs that I could think of to look for on job sites were like call center work and waitress and hotel staff and front desk work and retail and, you know, customer service positions. so I was searching job sites with those key words and did not know about a lot of other options. namely...machines. yes, that’s right. turns out there are so many machines out there and they all need people to operate them. there’s also warehouse stocking jobs but i haven’t tried one of those so I can’t endorse or diss them. BUT...I am working a machine operating job right now and I actually love machines. they are great. they also have yet to yell at me about an expired coupon. i mean, sometimes they do complain about thread breakage or refuse to read a positioning mark that is RIGHT THERE, but still...I love machines. I also do not have to see customers at all. like, I know the orders go to customers eventually, but I do not need to help them place the orders or receive the calls when their package does not arrive on time. I just need to fill the order and I’m done. whatever happens next is out of my hands. actually...the delivery workers might be another “customers are not my problem” option. they pick up orders from us and I think they just need to whip those at the front doors of customers, but they don’t actually need to talk to them.

just...the main point is that I spent a long time stuck thinking that all the “non-career” jobs I could get required customer interaction. unless you were, like, a cook in the back or stocking jobs, and i can’t cook or lift that much. so my advice is...just try getting creative with the keywords you plug into job sites. I hit on my current job by pure chance, no idea why it showed up when I was typing in stuff like “front desk” and “call center representative.” If you want machine stuff, try typing in “manufacturing” or “assembly” or “operator” or “production.” I am mostly just throwing this out there into the void in case it helps anyone. I spent way too long doing customer service and hating how draining it was and how much I would dread going to work. but now I am shocked that I actually do not mind going to work. it is tiring, but only physically, and otherwise actually enjoyable. so...consider machines over customers.

[hawkssucks]

After one trillion years Im finally working on a proper ref sheet for Kab

[silverandebony]

.

[wildsymposiums]

ahem

[mckinlily]

Plot armor but it’s Bruce Wayne’s wealth.

Bruce is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce does not want to be one of the richest men in world.

He starts by implementing high starting salaries and full health care coverages for all levels at Wayne Enterprises. This in vastly improves retention and worker productivity, and WE profits soar. He increases PTO, grants generous parental and family leave, funds diversity initiatives, boosts salaries again. WE is ranked “#1 worker-friendly corporation”, and productively and profits soar again.

Ok, so clearly investing his workers isn’t the profit-destroying doomed strategy his peers claim it is. Bruce is going to keep doing it obviously (his next initiative is to ensure all part-time and contractors get the same benefits and pay as full time employees), but he is going to have to find a different way to dump his money.

But you know what else is supposed to be prohibitively expensive? Green and ethical initiatives. Yes, Bruce can do that. He creates and fund a 10 year plan to covert all Wayne facilities to renewable energy. He overhauls all factories to employ the best environmentally friendly practices and technologies. He cuts contracts with all suppliers that engage in unethical employment practices and pays for other to upgrade their equipment and facilities to meet WE’s new environmental and safety requirements. He spares no expense.

Yeah, Wayne Enterprises is so successful that they spin off an entire new business arm focused on helping other companies convert to environmentally friendly and safe practices like they did in an efficient, cost effective, successful way.

Admittedly, investing in his own company was probably never going to be the best way to get rid of his wealth. He slashes his own salary to a pittance (god knows he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with already) and keeps investing the profits back into the workers, and WE keeps responding with nearly terrifying success.

So WE is a no-go, and Bruce now has numerous angry billionaires on his back because they’ve been claiming all these measures he’s implementing are too expensive to justify for decades and they’re finding it a little hard to keep the wool over everyone’s eyes when Idiot Softheart Bruice Wayne has money spilling out his ears. BUT Bruce can invest in Gotham. That’ll go well, right?

Gotham’s infrastructure is the OSHA anti-Christ and even what little is up to code is constantly getting destroyed by Rogue attacks. Surely THAT will be a money sink.

Except the only non-corrupt employer in Gotham city is….Wayne Enterprises. Or contractors or companies or businesses that somehow, in some way or other, feed back to WE. Paying wholesale for improvement to Gotham’s infrastructure somehow increases WE’s profits.

Bruce funds a full system overhaul of Gotham hospital (it’s not his fault the best administrative system software is WE—he looked), he sets up foundations and trusts for shelters, free clinics, schools, meal plans, day care, literally anything he can think of.

Gotham continues to be a shithole. Bruce Wayne continues to be richer than god against his Batman-ingrained will.

Oh, and Bruice Wayne is no longer viewed as solely a spoiled idiot nepo baby. The public responds by investing in WE and anything else he owns, and stop doing this, please.

Bruce sets up a foundation to pay the college tuition of every Gotham citizen who applies. It’s so successful that within 10 years, donations from previous recipients more than cover incoming need, and Bruce can’t even donate to his own charity.

But by this time, Bruce has children. If he can’t get rid of his wealth, he can at least distribute it, right?

Except Dick Grayson absolutely refuses to receive any of his money, won’t touch his trust fund, and in fact has never been so successful and creative with his hacking skills as he is in dumping the money BACK on Bruce. Jason died and won’t legally resurrect to take his trust fund. Tim has his own inherited wealth, refuses to inherit more, and in fact happily joins forces with Dick to hack accounts and return whatever money he tries to give them. Cass has no concept of monetary wealth and gives him panicked, overwhelmed eyes whenever he so much as implies offering more than $100 at once. Damian is showing worrying signs of following in his precious Richard’s footsteps, and Babs barely allows him to fund tech for the Clocktower. At least Steph lets him pay for her tuition and uses his credit card to buy unholy amounts of Batburger. But that is hardly a drop in the ocean of Bruce’s wealth. And she won’t even accept a trust fund of only one million.

Jason wins for best-worst child though because he currently runs a very lucrative crime empire. And although he pours the vast, vast majority of his profits back into Crime Alley, whenever he gets a little too rich for his tastes, he dumps the money on Bruce. At this point, Bruce almost wishes he was being used for money laundering because then he’s at least not have the money.

So children��generous, kindhearted, stubborn till the day they die the little shits, children—are also out.

Bruce was funding the Justice League. But then finances were leaked, and the public had an outcry over one man holding so much sway over the world’s superheroes (nevermind Bruce is one of those superheroes—but the public can’t know that). So Bruce had to do some fancy PR trickery, concede to a policy of not receiving a majority of funds from one individual, and significantly decrease his contributions because no one could match his donations.

At his wits end, Bruce hires a team of accounts to search through every crinkle and crevice of tax law to find what loopholes or shortcuts can be avoided in order to pay his damn taxes to the MAX.

The results are horrifying. According to the strictest definition of the law, the government owes him money.

Bruce burns the report, buries any evidence as deeply as he can, and organizes a foundation to lobby for FAR higher taxation of the upper class.

All this, and Wayne Enterprises is happily chugging along, churning profit, expanding into new markets, growing in the stock market, and trying to force the credit and proportionate compensation on their increasingly horrified CEO.

Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce Wayne will never not be one of the richest men in the world.

But by GOD is he trying.

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

so: masking: good, unequivocally. please mask and please educate others on why they should mask to make the world safer for immune compromised people to participate in.

however: masking is not my policy focus and it shouldn't be yours, either. masking is a very good mitigation against droplet-born illnesses and a slightly less effective (but still very good) mitigation against airborne illnesses, but its place in the pyramid of mitigation demands is pretty low, for several reasons:

it's an individual mitigation, not a systemic one. the best mitigations to make public life more accessible affect everyone without distributing the majority of the effort among individuals (who may not be able to comply, may not have access to education on how to comply, or may be actively malicious).

it's a post-hoc mitigation, or to put it another way, it's a band-aid over the underlying problem. even if it was possible to enforce, universal masking still wouldn't address the underlying problem that it is dangerous for sick people and immune compromised people to be in the same public locations to begin with. this is a solvable problem! we have created the societal conditions for this problem!

here are my policy focuses:

upgraded air filtration and ventilation systems for all public buildings. appropriate ventilation should be just as bog-standard as appropriately clean running water. an indoor venue without a ventilation system capable of performing 5 complete air changes per hour should be like encountering a public restroom without any sinks or hand sanitizer stations whatsoever.

enforced paid sick leave for all employees until 3-5 days without symptoms. the vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through industry sectors where employees come into work while experiencing symptoms. a taco bell worker should never be making food while experiencing strep throat symptoms, even without a strep diagnosis.

enforced virtual schooling options for sick students. the other vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through schools. the proximity of so many kids and teenagers together indoors (with little to no proper ventilation and high levels of physical activity) means that if even one person comes to school sick, hundreds will be infected in the following few days. those students will most likely infect their parents as well. allowing students to complete all readings and coursework through sites like blackboard or compass while sick will cut down massively on disease transmission.

accessible testing for everyone. not just for COVID; if there's a test for any contagious illness capable of being performed outside of lab conditions, there should be a regulated option for performing that test at home (similar to COVID rapid tests). if a test can only be performed under lab conditions, there should be a government-subsidized program to provide free of charge testing to anyone who needs it, through urgent cares and pharmacies.

the last thing to note is that these things stack; upgraded ventilation systems in all public buildings mean that students and employees get sick less often to begin with, making it less burdensome for students and employees to be absent due to sickness, and making it more likely that sick individuals will choose to stay home themselves (since it's not so costly for them).

masking is great! keep masking! please use masking as a rhetorical "this is what we can do as individuals to make public life safer while we're pushing for drastic policy changes," and don't get complacent in either direction--don't assume that masking is all you need to do or an acceptable forever-solution, and equally, don't fall prey to thinking that pushing for policy change "makes up" for not masking in public. it's not a game with scores and sides; masking is a material thing you can do to help the individual people you interact with one by one, and policy changes are what's going to make the entirety of public life safer for all immune compromised people.

[seafoodsoda]

✨💖 Oh Love This A Lot 👀💖✨

could honestly be old news, but just discovered someone recreated the pmd personality test online, with an even longer option! absolutely adore this. 🥹

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

Chemistry!

[percysheliey]

uh oh besties i’m saving up for the newest mac <3 the midnight colour is so pretty and my mac has me pulling my hair out anytime i do uni work