#also also I don't control shipping prices.

[omg-snakes]

Probably the hardest part of breeding corn snakes is the selling of them. Not the part where it's bittersweet to see them go off to homes after they're sold. I love that part! It's all the stuff that has to happen between listing them for sale and finally shipping them off to their new person that takes a toll. Handling inquiries, sharing additional information about an individual animal, sometimes having to haggle a bit on a price (which I absolutely despise), and keeping track of invoices.

I've had a lot of tire-kickers, low-ballers, very rude people, and ghosts lately and that can be really mentally draining. I try to focus on the positive interactions and the really great folks I've met and just let the less than stellar interactions fade from memory. It's definitely tough to keep a thick skin at all times, though, and maintain composure and professionalism when someone's being especially nasty or noncommunicative.

I guess let's just remember to be kind to each other.

[littledemonlucina]

Last Weekend to Pre-Order! Shops will close on Nov 4th 11 p.m. CEST!

As you can see in the title, the last weekend to pre-order is approaching and we need about 25 more sales to fund the whole project. If you are interested in any of the designs, please consider buying them in the next days. They won't be available again for a while and maybe some of the pins you hope for won't return at all because they didn't get funded. We have two shops you can order from. One on Etsy and one on Ko-Fi and there are some notes on both.

Etsy

The Etsy shop has its location in America and belongs to a friend that is so sweet to help me out on this. I have no control on shipping prices, they get generated by the website and there is no option to get a bundle besides a complete set of all the designs. People that order on Etsy also don't get an exclusive free gift. That is reserved for the Ko-Fi shop.

Ko-Fi

The Ko-Fi shop is located in Austria. Every Ko-Fi order will come with an exclusive free gift, that gets produced in Austria. I can't send it over to America in large quantity, so that is why it's Ko-Fi exclusive. The pins on Ko-Fi are slightly cheaper, due to less fees than on Etsy. On Ko-Fi I am able to offer bundles and can give an overview over the shipping costs:

6$ for Austria 10$ for Europe 13$ for Great Britain and Ireland 18$ Worldwide

- Production time can take up to +8 months! Keep that in mind before ordering! - NO REFUNDS! (Unless a design gets not funded) - Please notify me on Ko-Fi if you have food allergies! I want to send snacks with her orders that you can enjoy.

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Vesuvia Weekly: MC is M6's embodied impulse control

Hear me out, Julian mutters, elbow deep in ink stained parchment sheets with eyebags for days. It's moments like these that you can really understand where the "mad scientist" rumors of him started. He's been obsessing over this new article published in a Prakran journal ever since it arrived at the clinic - three days ago. You can't even tell which eye is plagued and which is just bloodshot.

"Julian, you need to sleep."

"Hear me out, my dear -"

"No."

~

Hear me out, Asra chuckles, that impish smirk dancing around their face while they hold their latest creation out of your reach. Should you have known better than to leave him unsupervised with the shipment of new sample items to add to your shop? Yes. Did it happen anyways? Also yes. Does the mystery glob in their hand appear to be gaining sentience? You don't want to know.

"Either let me see it or take it outside, Asra."

"Hear me out, my love -"

"No."

~

Hear me out, Nadia croons, two slender, gauze covered arms circling your waist. You know better than to fall for her suggestions as easily as you normally might. Tonight is a meeting of all kinds of important guests, crucial to Vesuvia's progress on the international political and economic stage, and about to be very boring. You'd like to give in and discover what her sultry tone is offering, but you know better.

"Nadia, you know how important this event is."

"Hear me out, my darling -"

You groan. "No."

~

Hear me out, Muriel grumbles, burly arms protectively folded around the bundle of muddy fur and a furious blush creeping its way up his face. You love his heart for nature, you really do. You also love your indoor living space to feel like an indoor living space. Having what appears to be a muddy, hyperactive, flea-ridden skunk with a nervous tick as your new bed mate doesn't feel very "indoors."

"Muriel, I just cleaned the hut."

"... hear me out."

*SKREEEEEE*

"No."

~

Hear me out, Portia slurs, loose curls all spilling to one side as her eyelids droop and her lips stretch in a relaxed grin. You love it when she tells Barth to "surprise her" with her drinks on date night. You love it, but you don't necessarily support it when she suggests setting fire to the ship of that one sailor who looked at you wrong several hours ago and making off with all the gold in the hold.

"Portia, that's arson."

"Exactly. So hear me out, cutie -"

"No."

~

Hear me out, Lucio whines, bottom lip jutting out and hands folded in his attempt to plead with you. It's not easy to interlace your fingers when one set of them is made of spiky gold but he does it somehow. You glance from his silver puppy eyes, to the traveling fair of curious wonders, to the absolutely ludicrous prices posted at every booth, to the half-empty coin purse hanging limply at your hip.

"We can have fun there, or we can eat for the rest of the week, Lucio."

"I have an idea, hear me out -"

"No."

[kitsu-katsu]

There's SO FUCKING MUCH going on in the QSMP with the eggs, the dragon, whatever Dark is, appearing for Leonarda and possibly being the same monster as Quackity's vision after Tilín's death. It possibly being what kills the eggs when the parents don't cime within a day, as BBH pointed out, it's weird that they just die like that, they're getting hunted

Cucurucho. In general. And his apparent rivalry with the angel, telling Maxo not to trust him. Spying on everyone even more now. Watching Slime sleep, watching the group of Maxo, BBH and Foolish as they try and piece together the truth. Him showing Slime footage of his daughter getting killed

The angel telling Slime to pick between bringing back Flipa or Tilín and him choosing Tilín hoping Quackity won't find out

Maxo wanting to make a church to bring his son Trump back, but not trusting Cucurucho, telling him this better not be a joke and Cucurucho laughing at him. Maxo fearing he might become a robot like Luzu, because nobody knows who the fuck messed with Luzu

All the parents of dead eggs are getting desperate, violent, vengeful and also closer to the truth

The eggs are most likely the lotus flower from Quackity's twitter dns. Keeping the players docile and complacent as long as they're there. The ones with dead eggs are swinging towards the other end of the spectrum

Whoever is controlling the whole island experiment also has letters, which mention something about Fabergé eggs (irl a set if 69 artisanal easter eggs for the russian tzar) and how many of them can be shipped out within a week. So the eggs we know are possibly not the only ones and whoever is running this whole thing is purposely sending out new ones

And also something about sheep's blood for potions... Because it's in style?? I don't even know where the letters came from, tbh

Translation:

Kind regards

Let's go back to the XVI century! We need to make a price quotation for sheep's blood. This last fashion trend in magic formulas should be of upmost importance for the laboratory. Yes, we already know that modern budgets almost never include sheep's blood, but this is what our fashion trends seem to require.

With appreciation, we wish to receive your commercial proposals as soon as possible. We thank your great collaboration in advance in preparing the price quotations for us

This is running DEEP

[ally1uvsu]

The dead can’t plead. | Squid game x Dystopian au

Summary; The world fell apart in the most unexpected way, nothing mattered anymore. Debts didn’t matter, getting high or worrying who’ll you sleep with in the next party. All you have to worry about is survival, if the dead won’t creep up to you at night and kill you, in a world such as this, only the fittest and the smartest survive. Giving the ones in debt a sick irony of a second chance.

Info; Okay gang, since this ain’t ao3 and I don’t have an acc, I’ll try to tag properly here; Ships so far - Choi su-bong (Thanos) x Nam-gyu, Cho hyun-ju x Gyeong Seok, Hwang In-ho x Seong Gi-hun, Kim Jun-hee x Se-mi, Park Min-su x Kang Dae-ho Tags (for the whole fanfic); angst, fluff, character death, dead dove, smoking, use of drugs, killing, blood, sexual content, sexual tension, threatening, stealing, suicide, self-harming, mutual pinning, slow burn, violence, abuse, self-harm, internalized homophobia, transphobia, trans!nam-gyu, Jun hee is still pregnant in this, autistic characters (hcs), SA, mentions and inferences to r4p3 (even scenes with it, the chapter in itself will have a TW), Implied autistic characters, organ harvesting mentions, transgender (hc and og) characters, EDs, Thanos is a little shit in the beginning, depression, EXPLICIT mentions of harmful substances, behaviors, fighting, spanking (sexual and nonsexual), overall NSFW stuff, near death experiences, stalking, kidnapping, just normal zombie apocalypse shit, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Notes; I DONT HAVE AO3 💔💔💔 I LOST MY ACC BRO but the second I get my hands on that invite I’ll update this there. I’VE BEEN W THIS IDEA IN MY HEAD FOR SOOOOO LONG LIKE!?!?! So I hope y’all enjoy it<3 (also, should I mayhaps drop this on other sites like wattpad, and etc?) Also, the main focus here is Thagyu!! We have other ships but they’re the actual mcs here. So hence why that heading, this will be Nam-gyu’s POV.

Dead for a little while. | Pt.1

Nam-gyu had a huge fucking headache that no drugs or smoking could cease.

The bar he was working out was loud enough to burst his eardrums, he groaned as he cleaned some countertop, now, normally Nam-gyu would be fine, it's just that today in particular he hadn't gotten enough sleep, so he was grumpy the whole time.

Checking his phone, he had twenty minutes left on his shift, the clock marked nearly midnight; the weather was clear but cloudy, expecting rain. Nam-gyu sighed as he shoved his phone inside his pocket, this place would get fairly more humid and disgusting with the hot rain.

He tucked his hair behind his ears, not really paying mind to anyone or anything until some guy with two girls clinging to his arms came to the counter, "Hey, man. Can you pour us a few shots of whiskey? Like, three?" 

For fuck's sake, what a dumb question. Of fucking course he could. Nam-gyu lifted his head up, controlling his temper. He wasn't normally the best one to deal with migraines, and plus, judging by the look on this guy's face that had a cheeky grin as he talked to the two girls with his arms interlaced with them, he was some sort of rich guy who certainly knew how to fight.

Don't get Nam-gyu wrong, he could fight. But today he wasn't in the mood and this guy was definitely stronger than him. So against his normal behavior, Nam-gyu just nodded and dropped the cloth he was using to clean the countertops. He walked back behind the counters, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and three cups used for shots, pouring three of them and sliding them to the trio in the opposite side. 

Stating the given price, Nam-gyu took the money and watched the guy and the two girls turn around on their heels and leave off, disgusting. Not that Nam-gyu thought hooking up was bed it was just.. two girls at once seemed a bit too much.

The pounding in his head was insistent, Nam-gyu swore his head would fucking blow up if he stayed in here any longer. "So-ri, can you cover for me? My shift ends soon anyways." Said the raven haired as he called out to one of the many bartenders the club had, whose shift would be right after his.

So-ri would normally arrive twenty minutes earlier to take some time to secretly get high, and she was still good at her job even while doing so. It was admirable, really. Nam-gyu never snitched on her, ever. One because it was none of his business, two, he'd do the same. And lastly.. it just made her owe him something.

"Go ahead, dude. I'll take over. Boss' ain't even gon' care anyways." And Nam-gyu didn't have to think twice before going to the bathroom where they normally had lockers to keep their shit in. Getting in and out was fairly easy, Nam-gyu was so used to that damn combination that he could do it far more quickly than he used to.

Soon enough, he fell into step on the streets. Jacket tied around his waist and bag slung over his shoulder, again, he wasn't quite sure why he brought a jacket along with him, the weather was disgustingly humid, after all. But maybe it was just a force of habit, considering he was someone with a cold body and was cold constantly. Today was just one of the rare times where he didn't need his jacket to fell warm.

He grabbed a cigarette from his bag, lighting it up with a lighter he also kept in the back pocket of his jeans. Closing his eyes as he took a long drag and let the smoke mix into the air and become nothing, just another part of it.

His ears weren't difficult to pick up sounds of footsteps, he ignored it for the first couple of minutes, but then he figured something was wrong. And Nam-gyu knew exactly who was following him, fucking shark loans. 

He turned just around the street, and to his surprise (or maybe not), more of them were already waiting for him. Nam-gyu took the cigarette away from his lips and let his hand that was in charge of holding it fall limply to his side as his face became a grimace for a split second.

"Nam, fancy meeting you here." The guy said cheerfully, but Nam-gyu wasn't dumb. He could see the pure disdain in his eyes deep down. "Don't call me that, fuck do you want?" Nam-gyu gritted out, hell, he knew exactly what they wanted.

"You know what we want," Well, fuck him sideways, it was like they read his mind, fan-fucking-tastic. "I don't have the money right now and you know damn well our agreement isn't until next month." Nam-gyu said rather annoyedly.

"That's the same thing you said last month, wasn't it? We keep postponing the date because you can't be responsible enough to save up and pay for it." A vein popped on Nam-gyu's temple, they weren't necessarily wrong, but it still stung. Before he could even speak up again, he was cut off by that guy, Nam-gyu hated being cut off.

"And we thought we should teach you a lesson to put you straight in line." Fucking great, Nam-gyu was exhausted and outnumbered, but hey, it is what it is. He dropped his bag to the ground, tucking his hair behind his ears.

A loud sound of knuckles cracking and meeting a bone was heard, maybe someone's jaw. And then he realized, it was his jaw. Blood inevitably splattered out of his mouth and he stumbled back, he threw a punch that hit the guy in the nose and because they were all fucking pussies, like Nam-gyu thought, everyone ganged up on him.

He felt a punch on his nose, warm blood trickling down it and a bit pushing past the gap of his slightly parted lips, his tastebuds immediately catching on the sick and metallic taste of blood, he cringed. Another punch to his stomach, his head meeting the ground, his knuckles split on the second attempted impact at someone's face, he couldn't even tell who at this point. And then his wrists were pinned down, and he had to fight the stinging pain.

Eventually, it stopped. And someone's hand was on his chin. Nam-gyu's vision was turve, blurry. He couldn't exactly make out who was in front of him, just a big blur of colors before his vision somewhat focused, but never fully- maybe because Nam-gyu knew he needed stupid vision glasses.

"Now, don't be mad. This is only a lecture, nothing personal. You have until next month, Nam." The guy said as his fingers trailed down with a voice falsely dripping with gentleness, Nam-gyu would have scrunched his nose if it wasn't hurting so bad. 

The feeling of that finger, moving like a feather down his jaw, neck, trailing his collarbones so gently made Nam-gyu seriously want to puke. And then, it stopped right where his heart should be. "Otherwise we won't have a choice but to sell your organs, especially heart, to the black market. You're a shitty person, with an even shittier heart. You won't need it as much as someone else will."

Nam-gyu let the words sink in, panting and slightly wheezing for breath once the man stood up straight. "Alright, boys. Let's pack up and go, business is done around here." And then the sounds of footsteps, first loud and then slowly vanishing into the corner were picked up by his ears.

Nam-gyu slumped against the wall, the back of his hand wiping his bloody nose and his tongue licked his cracked lips, now split open at the bottom. He looked up at the sky, staying there in silence and unmoving for around five minutes, if he had to guess. 

"Fucking pussy, can't even come fight me alone." Nam-gyu finally uttered out to himself as he stood up with  the a grunt of effort, ignoring how sore and painful his muscles felt, this was nothing new. Nam-gyu deep down knew he deserved it, he was indebted and owed these guys.

He quietly walked back home, not bothering to light up another cigarette. He stared at the air with an emptied stare, this was and has been his life. Maybe that's where he realizes something inside of him is broken, maybe not. But life sucked, really fucking sucked. His job did, the people did, but it wasn't like he had a escape, hell, his money from work mostly went to drugs and sometimes he got so low he would barely have money to buy groceries, often opting for convenience stores because they were so cheap.

It took him a while, normally a walk from the club to his house was fifteen minutes. It was painful but Nam-gyu really didn't feel like sleeping in the middle of the street. The second he got home, his shoes were nowhere to be seen, maybe mingled in the mess of his other cheap ones. And his bag was thrown on the couch carelessly as he dragged himself to bed.

He didn't bother unbinding even if his ribs hurt like a fucking bitch. A groan left his lips, mixed with a sigh of relief as his eyes fluttered shut. Nam-gyu never had went to bed so.. 'dirty' but he couldn't help it when his eyes fluttered shut and he fell asleep almost instantly.

. . .

Sleep wasn't easy on him, like always. But tonight, due to the exhaustion, he might have slept a bit better. Like everyday, he was up at exactly six in the morning, taking a while to properly get up and go to the bathroom to do a proper hygiene.

Once he created enough motivation, he was back up on his feet, rubbing one of his eyes as he reached the bathroom. He turned on the tap and stared at himself in the mirror, split lip, a hint of a black eye, and dry blood around and in his nose. They really didn't go easy on him this time.

His hands moved to make a cup form to catch water, splashing it onto his face. The pointy feeling of the water waking him up somewhat, then he did it again just to make sure he was fully awake.

Opening the cabinet, he reached out for some already nearly ending bandages, three cotton pads and rubbing alcohol. He wetted one of the pads, sighing as it hovered close to his nose. He cleaned up the blood around it gently, the material gliding against his skin to clean the blood that once dirtied his face.

Other than that, he didn't bother with his other injuries, figuring he'd save the bandages and rubbing alcohol as he put them back in their designed places. Instead, he focused on brushing his teeth and brushing his hair, bothering to style it was dumb, so he never truly did.

As he moved back inside his bedroom, his mind was already thinking what to do for the day. He needed to go eat something, probably buy a few things. He didn't really pay attention to his outfit this time, nobody really would pay attention to him, or at least he hoped so.

Even then, he still reached for that face mask, he didn't feel like getting eyed for having a split lip despite having a whole ass black eye. Thankfully, his muscles were in agreement with him and weren't as sore as yesterday.

He didn't have much money, but he didn't mind it, he often got more high than bothered eating, maybe that's why he didn't gain much weight. But that was another topic, slipping the house keys inside his pocket, leaving.

He was greeted by a bit more chillier wind, good. He seriously couldn't handle horrendously humid weathers and far too hot ones that made you sweat in big amounts. But couldn’t handle too cold, too. So he had a jacket on anyways.

The breeze kissed his face as he moved, he liked weathers like this, something about it just made it comfortable.

The convenience store was around a five minute walk, good thing for him it wasn't that expensive either. He wasn't that hungry, sometimes he didn't even have an appetite and yet would still eat because if he were to wait, he would go quite a few times without eating.

Today, he opted for something lighter. A cup of microwaved tteok-bokki, and a roll of gimbap. Grabbing some water to drink with it along the way. He assumed he only grabbed enough money for breakfast, so groceries would sadly have to stay for another time.

He paid for it, sitting down by the table they left against the windowsill. Already opening his gimbap and taking one of the rolls inside his mouth while his fingers worked to open the tteok-bokki.

He added whatever was there to add, microwaved it, grabbed his chopsticks and began eating. His eyes focused on the view outside as he chewed, so many people and yet all of them had different lives.

Some of them were on shit like him, some were rich bastards, some were making enough to have a good life. All of these people looked happy, he wondered how come he couldn't be like them? Not that he envied them, it'd be wrong. He was in debt because of his own reasons, envying them would be stupid. But he meant it in a sense of being happy, enjoying the fleeting joys. Having someone, hanging out with friends on some cheap place, but then like that guy said yesterday, maybe someone else would enjoy having his organs better than he did.

As good as it was, he only finished his tteok-bokki halfway, and three rolls of gimbap were left. He neatly closed the gimbap with the plastic he hadn't yet discarded, trying to somewhat seal the container the tteok-bokki was in. 

He'd probably stay home for the rest of the day, lay down, sleep, contemplate his life. Well, at least that was his original plan. The universe however seemed to have another one. 

He was greeted by that same breeze when he stepped out, but this time, the scenario was far from pleasing. His head snapped as a blood curling scream came from somewhere in front of him, to the left. Followed by gurgling and squelching sounds. Everything around became chaos in question of seconds, people ran and screamed, and soon enough, he got a view of whatever the fuck was happening.

His eyes locked with a figure on the ground, bleeding in excess. The skin on their neck was broken, maybe bitten off. His eyes widened, the person was dead on spot.

But maybe just for a little while.

Nam-gyu didn't keep track of how long he spent standing there, maybe minutes. Chaos erupted around him, and yet he wasn't quite sure how he wasn't caught up in it. His ears tuned out the screams and cries, his vision blocked everything. He was solely focused on that person, dead on the ground.

And then they began standing up, movements all jerky, eyes white and lifeless. Making groaning sounds, shit, Nam-gyu wasn't even sure if that thing could be called human anymore.

By the time he snapped out of it, someone was already rushing into him, sending him tumbling down on his butt. He woke up to reality, shit, what the fuck was going on? 

Nam-gyu normally would think this was one of his all to real nightmares, just another one to the collection. But then, the sirens used to alarm the city began ringing, telling everyone to hide. 

His legs had never worked quickly despite the shock, maybe it was the adrenaline pumping in his veins that kept spreading when he saw people killing off each other, he stood up in a flash and was back inside the convenience store. 

He looked around frantically, someone could get in. He reached for one of the shelves, ignoring how he was knocking some food out. Pushing it until it was sturdy and firm against the door, hell, he even unplugged the refrigerator where the cold drinks were normally kept and to secure a second layer, pushed it against the shelf.

Now that was done. Nam-gyu finally let whatever the fuck happened sink in, "What the actual fuck." He mumbled to himself, breath shaky. He moved away from the door, checking for any other ways of getting inside, he only found a back door nearby the bathrooms. He covered it with some furniture, never having been so thankful that these doors opened from the inside.

He pulled his phone out, since it was buzzing in his pocket as notifications of alerts rang through it. Some saying stay at home, others saying evacuate. No way in fucking hell Nam-gyu would go anywhere out of that door.

Instead, he grabbed the fire extinguisher to use as some sort of weapon and sat in the middle of the store, trying to tune out the screams and sometimes the banging in the windows. He didn't look outside, nor at the glass doors, not at the windows. Knowing they'd likely be drenched in blood.

He turned the TV on, the channel was flicked to the news. Some woman was talking about a virus, fucking great. Viruses were bad, some weren't. But what kind of fucking virus made people die and come back from the fucking dead to eat others alive?

"Stay calm, and stay safe for now." The woman said, hell, as if Nam-gyu could be any calm.

He didn't leave the place even when he heard gunshots and sounds of cop car sirens blaring, eventually they were all replaced by screams and more sounds of gurgling and squelching as blood seeped out of their bitten skins. It was the most sane choice, he wouldn't trust some cops or even a journalist that was just reading a fucking script.

How many hours had he stayed in there? Nam-gyu wasn't totally sure. He fell asleep after hour one, not sure how he did it. Maybe it was because his brain had the urge to shut down, to do anything but hear the pleading and screams outside.

Three hours after that, he woke up. He was lying under  counter where the cashier was. The air was dead silent. Normally, Nam-gyu would think that it was all a  dream, just his mind playing tricks on him after getting that beating. 

But he woke up sleeping under the damn cashier, and reality seeped back in. It wasn't just a dream, no. It wasn't his mind playing cruel jokes on him. It was real.

He was careful to even stand up, steps slow and measured as he hunched over to get a glimpse outside from the window. He nearly couldn't stomach the sight, his lips parted open and eyes wide in shock. There was blood everywhere, people.. things, actually. Were limping, crawling, or just dragging themselves around the streets. Some people were gutted out, dead on the floor. The sight was fucking horrifying, even for someone like Nam-gyu.

"I'm so fucked." Nam-gyu muttered, maybe he was. He got lucky to be inside a convenience store, getting in here as a safe okace without even thinking. He had water, food, bathrooms, everything necessary. But he knew it wouldn't really last forever, he just created that illusion to feel at ease on day one.

The people he thought that were dead just.. came back. What a sick irony, death didn't fully claim them. Maybe the heavens listened to the pleading of the living when they wanted their loved ones to be back from the dead in flesh.

All these people who died.. they were dead, but their bodies wandered alive. And the things that came back weren't people, Nam-gyu guessed it was safe to assume they weren't people. Their conscience and form were just gone for a little while.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Is there a reason why tto:u part 2 costs 10€ more on amazon than part 1 (and part 1 is eligible for free shipping while p2 isn't)?

Also leads to the interesting situation where my local book chain sells one tto:u part cheaper and one more expensively than amazon

(Copy<|>paste is available at a price paperbacks are usually at around here so I'll grab that immediately and see how the other books develop/if I can get the more reliable local book store to sell me tto:u)

I have no control over storefront pricing and no idea what the fuck Amazon are doing. They were trying to sell each book for AUD$100 last week. They've got some kind of fucked up algorithm that I don't understand.

[fujoshiwarrior]

tl;dr, I am chronically ill which prevents me from consistently working, so to make some money I am selling old items, mostly clothes

as it stands right now, the current limitations of my physical and mental well-being in addition to school and therapy make it impractical and unlikely for me to hold down a job. realistically, at this point in time my best option to make money is selling old items.

i'm currently trying to build up money that i can keep in a savings account so i can eventually become financially independent from my family, who currently controls all my finances. i don't want to get into the details of it, but this leaves me in a constrained and frankly suffocating position to be in where i have little financial freedom and everything i do is scrutinized. being able to build up my own wealth, no matter how small and rudimentary, also helps me take the steps necessary for eventually leaving which will be good for me in many ways, and i'm in the early stages of drawing up plans to leave.

my mercari is here, and i will ensure that items will be shipped out as soon as possible. most of the things i have up for sale right now are clothes, but i also have some plushies too. i will be putting up more listings soon and mercari has a mechanism where prices drop the longer an item stays up, which i have enabled for every clothing item listed right now, so keep your eyes peeled if something piques your interest

this isn't as urgent as some other people's situations, but my financial situation and home situation has long since been a huge source of stress for me, so i really do appreciate it if you could spread the word or buy something if anything interests you ✌️

[heareriissmau]

❧ ❝pseudo alliance❞

mha kacchako!smau

disclaimer: if you don't like kacchako step away. this smau is only for fun. also this is gonna be filled with a lot of curses or expletives because bakugo.

genre: comedy, romance, slow burn, crack, tooth-rotting fluff summary: After the big war of today's generation, the popularity of Class 2A skyrocketed even before their debut as Pro-Heroes. Which comes with a price. The most popular students in class are getting way too much attention to the extent of being stalked. So, the students brainstormed ideas on how put a halt on these harrassments. Or; Class 2A opts for Bakugo and Uraraka to fake date to get rid of each other's strange fans. ship: Bakugo Katsuki x Uraraka Ochako (My Hero Academia)

**paragraphs are present for this part. **

word count: 1,720

katsuki semi-slams the cluster of books on the table. not loud enough to be glared at by the librarian for the second time, but loud enough to express his vexation over his project partner's tardiness. it has been well over 5 minutes, where the hell is she?

he pushes his phone away with a grunt, opening one of the books to start studying. twenty minutes already passed. he's never one to waste time.

thinking about this had him pissed off again.

"she's in charge of collecting homework today." the two-toned boy sitting across katsuki reminded, not sparing a single glance at the latter. "just saying. in case you forgot."

katsuki huffed through his nose. "of course i knew that." he did not. he did forget, so he mentally forgave his cheeky partner for not showing up at the designated time. doesn't change the fact that ochako didn't bother give him a heads up before she left!

"guess it's fine she isn't here yet," the raven-head sitting beside shoto spoke and rested a palm over her chin, observing the blond. katsuki noticed neither of them mentioned ochako's name on purpose. kyoka continued, leaning a little closer to whisper, "not much onlookers today."

she made a good point. it's rare on occasion to see the library be not filled to the brim with curious students openly watching them like hawks. it was a curse to be popular.

"aren't you a girl, too?"

"probably not."

katsuki raised his eyebrow at kyoka for the dumb response, which the raven-head shrugged at in deadpan.

it's 'cause kyoka is taken.

guess fangirls knew to respect a relationship, even if one hasn't been established yet. this left a shudder down the blond's spine. the word 'dating' has been haunting him recently. let's think about something else.

why isn't uraraka ochako here yet?

katsuki has already had the one page he's been reading over and over memorized while waiting. he could've started by himself but she borrowed his laptop to work on her part of the report. this was getting nowhere. he checked the time on his phone. 5:45 pm.

"if you need her so bad, why don't you go look for her?"

he absolutely did not like the teasing tone underneath kyoka's voice and it didn't help that he found her smiling at him like a damn cheshire cat. she's definitely mina's friend.

the twitch on katsuki's eye was beyond his control. "she ain't lost." he checked the messages on his phone for good measure, earning a snicker from the girl.

"it seems to me you're worried about her," shoto finally spoke again while taking his time writing notes for his report. "the way your leg has been bouncing up and down under the table the last several minutes is annoying, bakugo."

katsuki didn't even realize his anxiety was showing. wait, anxiety? who's anxious?! god-

fine.

he considers ochako a friend now, maybe. a friendship orchestrated by a frog every lunch break. whatever. sure. it's harmless to admit he's worried about her whereabouts and it's not weird just because she's a girl.

girls are so fucking weird.

"she could be terrorized by that kid that likes her, for all i know," katsuki blurted out of nowhere.

"so you are worried about her?" kyoka questioned.

"whatever you wanna call it." katsuki was tired.

"how sweet. hope you get worried about me, too." katsuki considered shoving a book in shoto's mouth.

"anyway, if it helps," kyoka's earlobe jack slithers back up to its original length and twirls it around at the blond like a pointer finger casting a spell at him. "there's a familiar giggle i heard in the hallway. that should be her."

as if on reflex, katsuki stood up from his seat, catching the attention of both his classmates. he blinked.

"i'mma go piss."

"gross."

"sure. of course, you are."

he nodded at no one, "be right back," and exits the library. he paid no mind to the stares bored onto his back by those two. they already know where he's actually headed anyway.

shoving both his hands in his pockets, katsuki walked down the halls and roamed his eyes discreetly around the long corridor. also completely passed the restrooms as he did. he'll go later. from a few feet away, he finally found the very girl he's wondered where the hell has been all this time, talking with a dude.

jesus, could you tell her to get a room? katsuki rolled his eyes before turning around about to leave her there until ochako saw him. her cheery, jolly expression then immediately turned sour. she widened her eyes at him, brows furrowed, lips pursed tightly. katsuki thought she looked like she was about to let out a fat shit while the dude with her was turned away, trying to find something from his backpack.

wait.

wait.

ochako's expression now looked like she was about to cry while letting out a fat shit. he pieced it together. right in front of her was the same dude trying to get into her pants even after getting rejected over and over. from the looks of it, she could be signalling katsuki to offer her help.

now, what was he supposed to do???

he scratched his head and watched as ochako still made a crying face at him. flailing an arm to get him to come until she quickly snapped out of it, back to her fake smile when her stalker turned to her again and gave her unwanted undivided attention. katsuki was very tired.

"oi, cheeks."

he finally approached. the stalker turned to the direction of the voice and flinched at the sight of the very bakugo katsuki looming behind him. that's right, get scared. "i've been waiting for an hour for you and this is where you've been?"

that wasn't a lie. though an hour was an exaggeration, but nevertheless the sense of relief painted on ochako's face was absolutely priceless. what have they been talking about for her to react like this from getting found?

"sorry, bakugo-kun! a bunch of stuff happened so," the brunette sheepishly responded and slid away from the other kid. she stood right next to katsuki like a little cat that got sprayed with water.

she turned back to the first year, presenting her usual chirpy self, "anyway, asahi-kun! what were you saying?" as if she actually cared about what he said at this point.

the kid, apparently called asahi, had his mouth agape. his eyes shifted back-and-forth from ochako to katsuki. must have been confused by the combination. "i was about to ask if you're free to go to an exhibit with me this friday?!" the ahashi kid held out the tickets to her face.

ochako made this strange apologetic look as she said, "oh, i'm sorry. we're workin' on our assignment. i'm sure you'll find somebody else to hang out with!"

oof.

wow, she's had it, huh?

that is not something ochako would usually say.

the look of confusion rather than dejected sadness that resulted on the azashitty's face was katsuki's answer. he must've been incredibly egotistic to only be confused ochako had rejected him. "then what about another day? are you free-"

alright. katsuki got the gist of it.

"are we done here?"

his voice exploded from the patience that has been lost since he left the library, startling the kid in the process. "she said no, didn't she? the hell are you still yapping for? you really think over-insisting would get her to say yes? you made out of fucking gold or something?"

"don't be too loud, bakugo-kun."

"wh- w- what's it to you?! m- mind your own business!" he looked like he was about to pee on the spot. a wimp, after all.

"'mind my own business,' he says," katsuki scoffed, maintaining eye contact with the first year. indimidation works so why not use more of it. "what if i told you it is my business? i'm the one she's hanging out with this friday anyway." it's for their project but he can be smug about that too.

ochako badly wanted to roll her eyes to the back of her head, but she didn't. "let's just go to the library." she tried to avoid the whole debacle and go back but katsuki held her in place. he wrapped an arm around her neck.

this felt ominous.

"y- you? okay? what's that supposed to mean?" the kid seemed to be bothered at the sudden skinship. ochako and katsuki were always seen together, in the same group of friends. to add, ochako has always been the clingy type of friend. she's found to be linking arms with, holding hands with, resting her head against her closest friends from class but never with katsuki. the very dude that disliked skinship, a complete opposite of ochako.

so, what's going on right now could very well be a nightmare fuel.

ochako sighed. "well, he isn't wrong.

"we're partners fo-"

"we're dating."

there was silence.

the partners made eye contact. one just as surprised as the other. ochako stared right at him with crazy eyes. katsuki guessed she must've been losing it inside.

"WHAT?" but not as much as the kid before them.

the blond decided to stand his ground, breaking eye contact with the girl in his arm. "yeah," his voice cracked.

"uraraka-senpai!" the kid shifted his attention to the poor internally spiraling ochako. he just doesn't stop, doesn't he? "since when? why haven't you told me anything?! all this time i've just been stupidly chasing over someone that's taken?!"

ochako's eyebrows furrowed at the demand for an explanation. as well as the absurdity of this conversation. especially from a literal extra. "i think we're done here, asahi-kun. i would like for you to stop bothering me anymore, or i will actually call faculty on you."

ochako unhooked katsuki's arm dangling around her and held his hand, pulling him to the library with her. they walked silently, or not considering the incoherent shouts coming from a certain student.

just now did katsuki realize what he had done.

"holy fucking shit."

ochako stopped to give him a blank stare.

"... my bad."

"remember this is your fault."

"fine."

both students decided it was best to not proceed with their previous objective back at the library.

⸻ part 10: patience wasn't the key

prev part ✩ main post ✩ next part

heights alliance secrets:

denki cried on priv, asking kyoka to unblock him. he apologized.

kyoka was eavesdropping. shoto, too.

toru sent ochako one-word messages frantically that it amounted to over 50 messages notified on ochako's end.

katsuki was then given another reason to save ochako's number.

oh and they went to the courtyard because acads comes first. also, ochako needed some time to chill before coming back to the dorms and be met with interrogation.

reply if you wanna be in my taglist! ⚝

[angel-of-the-moons]

Warmth

Syzoth x Reader

TW/CW: None this is mostly cute shit I thought up due to using my own heating blanket

A/N: I love having my window open at like 30-40 some-odd degrees with my heating blanket on and a fan because I'm half penguin and hate Florida weather. Also I wrote this when I woke up at 4am because insomnia is soooooo fun

🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎

Earthrealm was cold. Especially in the winter.

And Syzoth hated the winter.

Zaterrans were cold-blooded. He didn't understand why his newfound love enjoyed the horrid little white flakes that fell from the sky, but it was worth it to see you smile as they flurried around you.

And he was dressed to the nose in the thickest winter wear you could possibly procure for him.

You compared him to something called a "marshmallow" but he had no idea why he and marshes had anything to do with his clothes.

Of course, when night came, Syzoth could barely handle it. Even in the relative warmth of your home, you seemed to keep the bare minimum to yourself.

Seeing how uncomfortable Syzoth was, and how lethargic he was being, you felt horrible, so you naturally had turned on your space heaters and made sure he was cozy.

But the heat was too much for you, who enjoyed the more frigid temperatures. After all, if you were cold, you could put on more clothes to get warm.

But if it was hot, what could you do? Rip off your skin?

In turn, Syzoth felt bad for making you uncomfortable so he would wait for you to fall asleep before turning off the heaters and snuggling tight against you.

It was a vicious cycle of the two of you trying to keep the other comfortable while sacrificing your own comfort.

But... After the tenth instance of him shivering and pressed up against you beneath your blanket, an idea struck you.

So, you made an order online and paid for one day shipping (ugh, the prices were downright criminal) and waited for it to arrive.

When the package arrived you were positively giddy.

Syzoth stood over your shoulder, a confused furrow in his brow as he watched you spread the new item across one side of your bed, tucking it beneath the main comforter you used.

"Another blanket, love? You have several." He remarked.

"Yes, but this one is special." You grinned, connecting some kind of wire to the blanket and adjusting the controls and timer.

You stand up proudly and stared down at it for a few moments while Syzoth stared at you like some kind of loon.

You then began to crawl into bed, patting the mattress next to you as Syzoth tilted his head.

"It's the middle of the day."

"Nothing wrong with a little nap, right?" You asked him, beaming with pride.

He couldn't help but smile at you, shaking his head as he did away with his shoes, climbing in next to you as you folded the blankets over him.

That's when he felt it.

Warmth.

Blissful, wonderful, absolutely amazing warmth.

He made a pleasured groan and snuggled deeper beneath it, his expression so happy he looked almost in pain.

You grinned widely, "Do you like your present?"

"By the Elder Gods, yes." He said, wrapping his arms around your waist and tucking his face into the crook of your neck. "But won't you get hot?"

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's easier to handle the heat from a blanket over the space heaters. Plus it saves on the electric bill." You smile, petting his hair idly.

"Oh..."

"That and it's why I only covered your side of the bed, so you get all the warmth." You added.

"Gods, I love you." Syzoth groaned into your neck.

"Love you too, Rango." You teased.

Syzoth made a mental note to ask you why in the world you called him that from time to time as he drifted off into blissful sleep, snuggled up tight to his lover beneath the warmth of his new gift.

[mimble-sparklepudding]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

tagged by: @dragonsongmakhali @valdiis @shadesofblades - Thank you all very much for thinking of me.

tagging: @johnnylandslide @scholarlostintime @nicholerose92 @knightofalexandria @sarenraegalpaladin @naejlas-axe @starrysnowdrop @kannedia @ubejamjar and anyone else who wants to have a go at it.

three ships I like:

I'm not sure if this means ships from my mutuals or ships between canon characters or ships in my own little brain? So mixing it up...

@starrysnowdrop has a nice OC and Aymeric Ship.

I quite like Eynzahr and Hyllfyr as a ship, but then I'm like that.

And I have a ship in mind for Humble, but it's making slow burn look like "barely smouldering".

last song you heard: Slow Moving Millie - Turns. Because I am feeling sad and listening to sad music that makes you sad when you are sad is both good and psychologically healthy. Or something.

favorite childhood book: The Hobbit. Was that predictable? I also read a lot of Willard Price and CS Lewis.

currently reading: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett.

currently watching: I don't really watch television, not because of any particular erudition, but mostly because I don't actually know where the remote control has gone. I watch a lot of Youtube, and currently watching rescue puppies having their first groom on Girl With The Dogs and being very brave.

currently consuming: I got a soup maker at Xmas, so currently I am making a lot of what might be considered an approximation of "soup" - basically tinned tomatoes and various combinations of vegetables and some bouillon powder. It remains to be seen what my body will make of all this fibre and vitamins.

currently craving: Something extremely low in fibre and vitamins.

[copperbadge]

Endeavor OTC game for ADHD

antidoteforreality

is it really different from a standard FPS game? I’m curious about it!

Hope it's okay that I popped this into its own post, I found I had a lot to say :D

Context from the earlier post: EndeavorOTC is a paid app based on EndeavorRX, which is a prescription game for kids with ADHD. RX is FDA-approved; OTC is the version that hasn't gone through FDA approval, but it's a fork of the same code. It's fairly repetitive but that's because it's a training module shaped like a game, not a game that happens to do training.

It's less of an FPS and more of an infinite runner, like Sonic Dash or Temple Run. You're in a little ship that flies along a waterway, and you're supposed to hit "energy fields" which help you speed up to catch a critter you're chasing. You can't control your speed; you tilt your device to swerve left or right to hit the energy fields, but that's it. This is the "Steering" skill.

Your other, simultaneous task is to shoot critters that jump out of the water at you, called "targeting". It's a misnomer since you don't tap ON the creatures, you just tap anywhere on the right side of the screen and it shoots them for you, no aim required. These critters come in three colors, and at the start of every mission they tell you only ONE color to shoot. If you shoot the wrong color or miss an energy field while steering, you slow down very slightly. The goal is to speed up so fast that you catch the critter you're chasing, which is, to be fair, quite challenging.

You aren't ever penalized, really; the critter sometimes gets away, but you get points for trying. You don't have "lives", but you are time-limited -- once you've played for 25 minutes (a "dose"), the game locks down for the rest of the day. Something I REALLY like is that once you've paid the subscription price there's nothing else to buy: no ads to watch for bonuses, no microtransactions, no loot crates. You can earn coin to buy different outfits for your avatar, but that's it, and you can't buy coin, you just get a set amount per day for completing the dose. Every 15 missions or so, your ability to steer-target is evaluated and your score adjusted, which lets you know how you're progressing in terms of treatment, rather than skill at the game. You're supposed to play at least five days a week for six weeks as an initial treatment.

The reason I was willing to give it a shot was that the "targeting" aspect is based on the Go/No-Go Task, which is a legit tool they use in ADHD testing, and the aspect of the test I bombed the hardest when I was evaluated. Ongoing Go/No-Go task training has been shown in some research to help emotional regulation, although it's cognitive and not mindfulness. Overall the game is meant to improve focus but it was the Go/No-Go aspect that I found most compelling as a reason to try.

It's not cheap; you can get a 7-day trial but only if you pre-emptively subscribe, and if you don't cancel the subscription at the end of the 7 days you are charged $130, which I admit is a sneaky move to pull on a population not known for remembering to cancel subscriptions. The first thing I did after signing up was go to google play and cancel the subscription -- I still got to keep the trial -- but honestly when my trial is up I'll probably subscribe, it's a fun little game and I'm willing to risk the money to see if it helps (but I'm also in a position to spend $130 "just to see"). You can also do month-to-month for $25 but obviously the $130 yearly sub is much cheaper in the long run.

I've seen a wide variety of reactions to it, from delight to frustration, although a lot of the frustration seems to be from people who are more accustomed to intense gaming and are treating it like a video game and not a training tool. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

Isle landmarks

Port - divided in between three crews, heavily regarded as a very unpleasant area by, well. Almost everyone else. (Important to note: this goes for every single area of the Isle.) Lives at night a lot.

Jolly Roger of Captain James Hook

Scattered Hope of Captain Harriet Hook. Comparatively safer to be around, you might find some goods "accidentally left out" if the Captain's feeling it.

Lost Revenge of Captain Uma Triskelion. Safest of the pirate ships unless you are allied to Mal or insult Uma. (...You know what, I take that back.) Also, it's a cult.

Chipp Shoppe. Firmly under the rule of Lost Revenge.

Hook's inlet. That's a fancy name for a building that port adults go to pass out in by the morning at that brings substantial money to Captain Hook. (His kids are not allowed to work there. They kept stealing from the counter more than they sold.)

Serpents prep, aka the school Captain Hook was forced to fund after dr F refused to deal with two if his children at once. They've got sea ponies and surprisingly good curriculum.

The centre. Counts as, well, semi-neutral territory?

Tremaine salon. The only actual neutral territory on the Isle. You see, if you fight by the Tremaines, you won't get your hair done. (this works because the Villains and their kids are vain as fuck and value their style over their lives. Literally.) Also, Tremaines treat most of their customers as particularly annoying cats.

Mad Maddy's Apothecary. This could count as neutral territory but Mim's are playing favourites. One rule: Do NOT make out in the Apothecary.

Rose Garden of the Queen of Hearts. Yeah no. Do not go near if you like your life.

Dragon Hall, AKA the school Dr Facilier funded for very innocent and inconspicuous reasons that have nothing to do with the other Villains owing him for babysitting their brats and molding the young minds to his picture, how dare you even suggest that.

The Arcade. Funded by Dr F too and operated mostly by his daughters. Also no ulterior motives on this one. (If little kids don't come to school, they're at Arcade. It's always good to know where the kids you're paid to keep alive are.)

Storm Hall. A mostly abandoned building slightly off-the-centre that Isle kids use for official gang meetings.

Frollo's church. Later, it's ruins. The building has suffered from entirely natural structural instability ever since the first Isle kids learned what matches are. While Frollo's alive, it's unsafe to be around if you're a girl, person of colour, or of magical heritage.

Yes, there is a problem of Frollo's being entirely too close to Dragon Hall. Dr F had it under control! Really!

The Market. Yeah. Market. With very reasonable prices that are not theft at all.

Maleficent's Bargain Castle overlooks the market and her goblins provide security for shopkeepers who are willing to pay a steep price. No one's sure why Maleficent tolerates the market so close, she hates people.

Jafar's Junk Shop. If you lost something, there's like seventy percent chance it'll end up there. I've got nothing else to add.

Gaston's Duels Without Rules, slightly off the main market. And yes. It is without rules. Do not ask about the blood under the dumpsters please.

Hell Hall. Few streets down but still close enough, you'll know by the screaming. Close enough for Cruella and her minions to get the finest fabrics whenever she wishes.

Witches Academy. Yes, it is entirely too close to the market for how flammable the stands are. However, the Mims are doing what they do best and being bitches on main.

Landmarks

The End Of The World. Steep cliff on the off-side of Auradon, favourite hang-out spot for Isle kids. Who says they hadn't spent hours there looking into the waves and contemplating life, they're lying.

The Skull Rock. On the Isle for Reasons. Y'know, a generation of kids robbed off their childhood? Magic banned off? (The Isle of the Lost is Neverland and it's your problem now.)

The Jungle. No. Do NOT. You do realise that's where all the tigers and snakes and lions and wolves dwell. Also called the Zoo by kids who like dark humour and/or have a deathwish.

The Caves. There's an entrance to Hades' cave somewhere. Do not try to find it (unless you are Celia Facilier), he's on vacation and doesn't wish to be disturbed.

Other

Castle Across the Way. Is not close to the centre or the market to be counted as such. That's because the Evil Queen refused to interact with the commoners and looked substantially scarrier than Lady Tremaine while communicating that.

The Hun camp. Do NOT attempt to find it.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Two independent terrorist attacks against Israelis took place over the last 24 hours. Yesterday, a Hamas terrorist stabbed in the back a 49 years old Israeli reserves soldier, who stopped to buy something at a shop in a gas station, on his way home. The soldier turned around and, despite being injured, pursued the terrorist, shot and wounded him. The terrorist was later arrested, he had a permit to work in Israel. In the second one, a terrorist started shooting at civilian vehicles passing by, and ended up injuring a 27 years old woman. Thankfully, a baby who is 1.5 months old, who was in the car with her, was not injured, despite at least 10 bullets being retrieved from her vehicle. The IDF is searching for the terrorist.

Israeli soldiers have found and confiscated suitcases with 5 million shekels in cash from the home of a senior Hamas terrorist in Gaza. I want everyone to understand that this sum is currently 1,369,507 $ (yes, I checked with professor Google), and that most Israelis will never see that kind of money. I imagine a majority of "privileged" westerners never will, either. And this kind of money was just lying around in this terrorist's home...

The IDF has exposed and is now in control of what is likely the biggest Hamas terror tunnel. It is about 4 kilometers long (roughly 2.5 miles), and it is wide enough for vehicles to comfortably drive through it. Israeli soldiers have also found footage showing Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, doing exactly that, in addition to footage showing the construction of this terror tunnel...

I don't post every single day about the Israeli soldiers injured and killed in Gaza, because the truth is that it has become technically difficult and emotionally painful to keep track. Yesterday, five more soldiers were confirmed as killed, one of them having been injured last week, and he has now succumbed to his wounds. So far, 128 soldiers were killed in Gaza.

Last month, there was a cyber attack on Israeli hospital Ziv, trying to derail its medical activity. Israel has confirmed today that it has traced Iran and Hezbollah as responsible for the attack. If we count the cyber war (and in terms of requiring manpower and resources, as well as in terms of the potential loss in human life, there is no reason not to count it), then Israel has been defending its citizens on no less than six fronts.

The Iran-funded terrorist Houthis in Yemen have been attacking ships unconnected to Israel, for simply passing through territory close to Yemen. A lot of shipment companies from around the world have announced they will not be sailing through this area for at least a time, which means they would have to sail all around Africa, to pass goods between the far east and the western world. This will hurt the entire world's economy, as shipment prices are expected to rise (think of the Evergreen ship blockade of the Suez Canal... these ships will not be trying to get anywhere near the canal. Symbolically, Evergreen is one of the companies announcing they will no longer sail through the Red Sea due to the threat of the Houthis). This will financially hurt so many countries, including Egypt (which operates the Suez Canal), the US and China (this means Iran's move has created a rare moment when American and Chinese financial interests align). The biggest question is, when will the world fully take in the fact that the biggest threat to world peace is the Islamist regime in Iran, and start acting accordingly?

This is Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Out of all of the people who helped shape the Israeli-Arab conflict, he's probably the most influential one, an antisemite, a Nazi collaborator, and a believer in pan-Arab nationalism (he didn't want to fight Jews to establish a Palestinian state, he wanted to exterminate the Jews and establish a greater Arab Islamic state, a new chaliphate, if you will. There is a FASCINATING docu series in Israel, dedicated to the Arab and Muslim leaders who have fought Jews and Israel, interviewing intelligence agents from many countries. The ep dedicated to al-Husseini is unbelievable, and I wish everyone could watch it. It's available online, but sadly, only in Hebrew. The truth is, I don't think anyone can understand the Israeli-Arab conflict without understanding the role of al-Husseini in it, and how different things could have been, if only the more moderate Arab leaders in the Land of Israel at the time had managed to squash his influence, or if the British hadn't tried to "tame" him by appointing him to the position of Jerusalem's grand mufti.

This is the Belchassan family, 31 years old Yuval and Ofir, and their two years old son Tai.

On Oct 7, Yuval left Ofir and Tai to hide in the bomb shelter, and went out to fight off the Hamas terrorists. He and his friends saved their kibbutz, but now, as Ofir is due to give birth to a daughter, they have no home to bring her back to.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[chronicbeans]

Hazbin Hotel Rewrite - Baxter

I love the little clip we got of our goober gremlin mad scientist, don't get me wrong. I just feel like we are starting to have too many characters who are played for jokes at some point, and I can see this guy falling into that category, when he could very well be used for a different reason.

So many people have been asking questions about where Charlie draws a line for rehabilitation. My version of Baxter draws no lines in his experimentation.

TW: Human Experimentation, Radiation, Radiation Poisoning/Sickness, Drowning, Brief Mentions of War (WWI and WWII, not much detail mentioned), Hazbin Hotel Criticism

For some context, my version of Alastor won't be taken as seriously as the canon version, and Lucifer is a much more purposefully neglectful father. This is also going by if my hypothetical show could have as many seasons as I want.

Baxter did not die in the 1910s in my lore. He died in the 1950s, during the midst of the US conducting a bunch of radiation experiments on humans. Baxter was not included in these experiments at all, however, but commissioned the government numerous times to try to get an idea of his through. Ironically, the reasoning for his experiments being denied was because he wanted to perform them of more rich and upper class individuals rather than random, unknowing people. That, and he doesn't want his subjects to be able to access medical care. Baxter's idea of science, while still rooted in curiosity, doesn't follow a lot of what makes science based on discovery. He wants to see what will happen in very specific scenarios to very specific people, even if it's going to be the exact same as any other scenario or group of people.

Baxter, however, didn't let that stop him. He concocted the greatest plan he could think of to get away with it. His father owned a cruise ship, and he had seen how he operated it when he'd take Baxter out at sea. He'd often lament that he hoped his son wouldn't get caught up in the second World War, and speak about his own times in the Great War. In an ironic twist, Baxter has actually decided to volunteer in World War II soon after his father passed away, becoming a part of the Navy.

He decided to have his own "cruise", inviting many right folks from nearby to come on for suspiciously low prices. On the cruise, he gave people food poisoned with radiation, giving the vacationers radiation poisoning so he could research how far it can go without medical care. That, and how the coddled rich folk in the United States would react to such a sudden and severe "discomfort" with no access to help. Due to handing radioactive materials without proper equipment, though, he also got radiation poisoning. He kept them in line by locking them in their rooms. His main reasoning for using the ship for his experiments is because it completely isolated his victims to one area, prevents them from escaping, and made it harder for him to be caught due to him not being on dry land and constantly moving around the ocean.

He died when a person on board got to the controls and sent out a distress signal. He responded by quickly ushering them back to their room, locking them in, then purposefully sinking the ship to leave them to drown. Baxter, himself, also drowned on the ship. He stayed on the front deck and chained himself to the railing. That was the point, actually. He wanted his "research" to die with him. If nobody in the government approved of it, nobody in the government deserves it.

In Hell, he took the form of a humanoid demon with an anglerfish lure and gills. His skin is dark green, his eyes a red-orange color, and his hair a dark blue with some streaks of orange. The reason why he's an anglerfish with a lure is so it can represent the glow of some radioactive materials. In fact, he can glow in the dark. Like, entirely glow. When he does this, his color palette switches to a neon version. The entirety of his color palette consists of a pink-purple, red-orange, orange, blue, green, and pink. The pink-purple and pink are used as accents on his black captain's uniform, and all colors are used as dust particles when his ability is shown off. All these colors, minus the black, glow when in the dark. The color palette represents the colors each radioactive element glows or is associated with glowing (as an example, radium only glows green when exciting a phosphor, but most people just associate it with glowing green at all times).

Outside of his palette, Baxter suffers from radiation poisoning at all times in Hell. See, in my version of Hell, sickness or poison cannot kill you because God sees it as a way to extend the suffering of sinners. If a poison or illness is bad enough to where it would kill a human, you're stuck with it for eternity or until you die by outside means and are reborn. Baxter, as punishment for his horrific human experimentation, is stuck with radiation sickness forever. This has left him wheelchair bound, as although he can walk for a few feet alright, he's too weak to walk long distances. He also doesn't mind it, and is seen with a constant, content smile on his face, because he now gets to know exactly what radiation poisoning feels like for a fish type demon... because he is one.

His ability revolves around his obsession with radiation. His body is highly radioactive, and small flakes of skin from his scalp can flutter into the air like glowing specks of dust, resulting in the air around him becoming irradiated as well. Due to this, he wears a hazmat suit while outside of his room to prevent himself from poisoning the other guests, staff, and nearby objects. He refuses to wear it outside of his room, though, and so people entering must wear hazmat suits. It's resulted in his room being constantly dark, as there's enough radioactive, glowing specks of dust in the air to light it up and a wide array of hues. Charlie insists that it looks like his room is full of stars, or like one of those old-school roller rings with the carpets that glow under black lights.

Baxter constantly speaks in a soft, quiet voice to everyone. He doesn't show much emotion in his voice outside of an odd, uneasy peace with the situation. Then, while alone in his room or when his radiation sickness causes him great pain, he suddenly springs into a manic high full of laughter and joy. Even then, his voice stays quiet, growing raspy, uneven, and a bit out of breath as he speaks quickly. His mind is full with the joy of being able to know exactly what it feels like, as well as the curiosity of how other types of demons or ghosts will respond to radiation. A way to signify whether or not he's getting angry or hitting another manic high is the fact you can hear the sound of a Geiger Counter fading in, signalling higher and higher amounts of radiation near him.

He'd be introduced around the middle of the second season, being shown as a character Charlie sometimes meets when heading outside the Hazbin Hotel. However, he'd only join the hotel much later on, where his name is finally revealed. Even later, still, is when his complete backstory would be revealed. Before, he only told a half-truth, saying that he was involved in the radiation experiments during the 1950s without mentioning the outside factors that made it much worse than it already sounded.

The character he'd be the "closest" to is Charlie. Even then, it's not because he actually cares about Charlie as a person. He claims that Charlie reminds him of his daughter during life who cut him out when she got older... which, again, is a half-truth. She does remind him of his daughter, but she never cut him out of her life. She was actually one of the test subjects on the cruise and the person who sent out the distress signal. He mainly uses the fact that Charlie reminds him of his daughter to manipulate Charlie into having a close bond with him and to see him as family, while her father is extremely distant to her. That way, he can try to get her to bring Lucifer to the hotel, framing it as advice to help her mend the bond with her father, telling small lies here and there to get Charlie to consider the idea even though she hates her father.

Baxter is a conspiracy theorist of sorts. He's paranoid that someone will take his "research" from him. As such, him telling you about his experiments is a sign of trust from him, as well as him allowing you into his room. He also hides many other things, one of which being that he can speak fluent German, which he learned from his time working in the USA Navy and spying in on German radio signals. That's much more tied to the time period he comes from, however, where people were paranoid about German spies and sometimes saw his ability to speak the language as a sign he was one.

His motivation for staying at the hotel is not to better himself, even if that's what he says. Instead, it's to experiment on guests that he finds intriguing. The point where he decided to move in was when Charlie offhandedly mentioned her father being Lucifer himself. His main goal in the afterlife is to see how Lucifer would react to high amounts of radiation, so it was a no-brainer for him. If his daughter is running this hotel, then eventually, he must show up.

[fromtenthousandfeet]

All Cash and No Credit

Let's talk about HYBE's strategy for Jimin's MUSE. It's pretty simple

Maximize Profit - Minimize Success

Let's break down how they're doing it.

Goal #1 is to get as many customers as possible to buy from Weverse instead of regular retailers like chains (Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble) and online sellers like Amazon. When fans buy on Weverse, a HYBE subsidiary, the company keeps not only the wholesale portion of the album sale, but the retail portion as well. This is obvious, right? If not, I'm happy to explain. The company likely makes twice the profit (give or take) on albums purchased via Weverse. AND, they can control when those albums are shipped, and how, when, or if the sales are reported to the music charting agencies.

The fact that Target pre-sales of MUSE is sold out within hours is suspect. This indicates limited stock, just like the strategy used for Like Crazy CD singles. Meanwhile, Geffen is very slow to release the pre-sale links for other retailers. The Walmart presale just went up. Where are B&N and Amazon? Will they have limited inventory, too?

Putting Jimin's Production Diary on Weverse only was a conscious choice. The cost of the documentary was expensive - more than the monthly fee for streaming services, the company kept all the profit (didn't have to share the costs with Netflix or Disney+), and limited his exposure to the general public. I suspect they will operate the same way with MUSE.

Goal #2 Keep Jimin as low as possible on the charts. We've seen this over and over. First, by splitting Like Crazy versions and disappearing sales, no CD restocks. Then we saw the same behavior from BH/HYBE again with Closer Than This being released on the worst possible day of the year and almost zero promotion. You know the details.

HYBE will limit stock. They will likely not report all sales.

MUSE physical albums will not be eligible for UK charts because of a random inclusion. The previous four solo album releases have had specific UK versions with no inclusions. UK fans will have to rely on digital sales for charting purposes unless BH provides a new version. Dirty.

Goal #3 Promote the album just enough to garner sales from fans while minimizing advertising to the greater public. The announcement of the new album is also strange. The teaser video was only on Instagram and only on the BigHit/BTS channel (this didn't stop anyone, though, as far as I can tell) as well as Weverse (I'm getting tired of that platform). TikTok is a far more effective advertising tool when it comes to targeting young people. Why wasn't the teaser posted to TikTok? Either way, "Jimin Jimin" was trending on X/Twitter with over 1.7 million mentions many hours after the announcement of the new album. There's only so much BH can do to suppress Jimin now that fans have taken marketing him into their own hands.

Let's keep an eye on this.

What's different this time around? This time the fandom knows who is behind thwarting Jimin's success. Precious time was lost during the FACE era when everyone was blaming Jimin's sabotage on Billboard and Spotify, rather than the rightful villain - HYBE/Big Hit. This time the fandom knows to watch their every move and call them out on their shady and unequal treatment. That said, tagging Geffen, Big Hit, and HYBE on X is pretty much useless. They have shown they won't change their behavior when fans complain. Instead, fans must start tagging Billboard, Spotify, and media outlets. Media outlets are the most important. HYBE does not care about the fandom, but they do care about their public image, especially after all the damage that's been done to the company and the stock price due to the ADOR controversy and court case.

I think Jimin is going to a different label for his solo work. That's my hunch. The company is going to squeeze as much profit out of him as possible before he goes, but it's a balancing act because they don't want him to outshine Jungkook. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

[lunapwrites]

Ok one more political post and then I'm done today promise.

...or at least until the next horror occurs.

Anyway, point is, in a few hours I get to hop on a zoom call with my boss and co-workers. As recently as last week, these men were all trying to pooh-pooh the idea of more tariffs on China, saying that it was all posturing, and that tariffs on Canada would be a good thing, actually, because it would make our product more competitive domestically.

I have mentioned before that I work in international logistics, and I do. In the lumber industry. I've been telling them since before the election that if Trump got reelected, they should absolutely brace for more tariffs, because he was going to put them in place in the stupidest way possible. I even nailed the increase on China (I've been giving them +10% in addition to current.)

Now, my point in saying all of this is that you all have no idea how unstable the lumber market is right now. Demand is currently sitting somewhere in hell - no one can afford to buy material at the prices they are before the tariffs kick in. As much as His Majesty likes to claim we have all the wood we need, we don't. The bulk of our supply is imported. And that's not even taking into account that different wood is used for different purposes.

The wood that we tend to have the most of on the east coast is Southern Yellow Pine - this is what's usually used for treated lumber. We also have some hardwoods like Locust, Poplar, Maple, and Oak, but these forests are over harvested and so are in limited quantity. They are usually mixed together for building needs. Spruce, Hemlock (and the rare Cedar), likewise, are present but not to the degree we'd need to supply an entire industry - we get most of our Spruce from Canada. And again, this is all for building-grade, which allows for some defects. Furniture-grade does not.

On the west coast we have Western Red Cedar, which is the gold standard for high quality building material and largely what my company deals in. But most of the companies that we order from are based in Canada, where the bulk of the supply is. American domestic supply is almost entirely controlled by a single company. This company also owns most of the mills used to process the lumber and many of the largest wholesalers and installers. I'm also like 90% sure they've got a lock on the big box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, etc. Point is, there's an effective monopoly on domestic Western Red, and they've been setting the market price for a few years now. When the rest of the holdouts can no longer compete by going to Canada, this effective monopoly will likely become a monopoly in full - if they aren't owned by this company, they're supplied by them.

The only other option that we really have is something that I've been hearing some murmuring about for a few months now: Redwood. It has a lot of similar properties to Western Red Cedar, and has historically only been something you'd find in California, so the forestry practices were... about as sustainable as I think you could manage. But if this becomes the defacto replacement fiber that we need to lean on... I don't think that's going to bode well for California in the long term.

And none of this is taking into account pressure on the domestic shipping industry, which was already on the verge of collapse. Prices are absolutely going to skyrocket. I can also see them getting rid of the rule where truckers can only legally drive for so many hours a day to combat this - this will be popular among the truckers, and may reduce some pricing initially, but the reason that law exists is because the truckers would just drive themselves into exhaustion for a few extra jobs, and then wind up making poor driving decisions, causing accidents, etc. The law was written in blood.

Anyway all of this to say shit's fucked worse than you know and I'm waiting to see how long my small family owned company manages to survive.

**I specifically work in the fencing/decking industry, so if you work in another building products area or if you just know a fuck ton about North American arborvitae and your experience on this differs, happy to be corrected or added to!