#and people who will do it and then charge you absurd amounts of money for diagnosing you with crazy disease

[chronic-conjuring]

✨please stop playing the pain Olympics it doesn’t do you or anyone else any good✨

I don't know who needs to hear this but:

-"it only hurts a little" is still pain

-"I can ignore it" is still pain

-"I can cope with/manage it" is still pain

-"it's bearable" is still pain

-"I can push through it" is still pain

-"it doesn't hurt that much" is still pain

-"it doesn't stop me from doing x" is still pain

You don't need to be in agonizing pain to be in pain.

[n30n-l1ghts]

Okay, I need to rant. Fuck AI. And I mean seriously. FUCK. A.I. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but more people need to be talking about this, and there’s no point in me saying that if I’m not willing to talk about it too. AI has done nothing but ruin our communities and defile the art that millions of hands have spent millions of hours creating. Fanfiction is a work of passion. Drawing is a work of passion. Voice acting IS A WORK OF PASSION. AI has no passion. It takes the soul out of the things we love and cherish. It steals what we as a collective community have lovingly crafted, and it shatters it to a thousand pieces, spits on it, curses its family, and throws it in a flaming dumpster to be eaten by rats. It is despicable and disgusting.

I won't lie, or pretend I’m a perfect saint. I myself was a user of Character AI until somewhat recently. And as ashamed as I am to admit that, I feel it’s necessary to own up to my own faults. But after seeing the damage it causes, I can’t in good conscience even consider touching that site. Many of us write because it is our passion. Many of us because it is our job. And many of us because it is our *friend*. AI steals the writing of your favorite creators WITHOUT PERMISSION and mashes it together like Frankenstein’s fucked up monster to create storylines that aren’t even fucking coherent. Not only that, but Character AI uses whatever you respond to it with to teach itself as well, which means that the company has access to whatever you chat about, and free reign to do whatever they want with it. They also make absurd amounts of money from it, which in comparison, fanfiction writers, who spend countless hours writing stories for our favorite characters, more often than not charge nothing. And the ones who do charge, tend to have reasonable, if not highly lenient prices for their labor.

Which leads me into another side rant. SUPPORT WRITERS THAT YOU LIKE. It’s really not that hard, it takes two fucking seconds of your time and it makes someone's day. Reblog. Share with your friends. Like. Comment. Just let the writer know that you saw it, and that you liked it. The amount of fanfic writers I have seen get completely discouraged from writing because of lack of engagement is astounding. I’ve seen several posts on Tumblr or Twitter or Bluesky talking about creators that were incredibly popular but never knew it due to lack of engagement is appalling. If you can rant about your love for their work on Discord, you can rant about your love for their work in the comments. Just fucking copy paste it. Tell them how much you love it. Show them support. Especially the ones that don’t charge. Because for those of us that don’t, our only payment, is your feedback. Even constructive criticism is greatly appreciated by damn near every writer I can think of. Because even that shows that you read it, absorbed it, and thought about it enough to have something to actually say about it.

The same thing goes for artists and voice actors. You see a drawing or animation you enjoy? Comment. Like. Share. You see a character in an anime or a game and you love their voice? Go check out their voice actor, maybe they do some other cool stuff, and you might just discover your new favorite series or streamer. A perfect example is Alejandro Saab. I became a fan of his through his astounding performance in several series dear to me, and lo and behold, he’s also a streamer I enjoy. Same story with Aleks Le, or Ray Chase. Yuri Lowenthal, Lizzie Freeman, Landon Mcdonald, Zeno Robinson, the list goes on. But seriously, it’s not that much effort to just show a little love to the creators you enjoy. The people who breathe life into the series’ that we all hold dear. AI does not breathe that life. Using AI, and supporting those companies, will destroy those pillars of our community. And if that happens, the AI would crumble too, it would have no new information to use. SO really, what’s the benefit? I’ll tell you. There is none.

Stop using AI. All it does is bring harm and slowly kill our community. It’s disgusting, appalling, and downright fucking egregious.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[phantomrose96]

I never understood the concept of "doing taxes". Taxes are just there and you just pay them, like everytime you buy something it includes a tax you have no other choice but to pay it, what do you have to do?? (I live outside the USA)

Oh fun! I get to explain U.S. taxes!!

(disclaimer: if you're a young adult in America who will have to learn to do taxes soon, please don't take this as a reason to panic. It IS absurd and it is kinda stressful the first time you do it, but you get a handle on it, and filing services like FreeTaxUSA walk you through it and do all the math parts for you. [Though learning the math parts yourself is kinda smart if you want to understand what you're doing.])

(other disclaimer: I might have some details wrong because I'm a random blogger and not an accountant. Accountants don't maul me please.)

So it's true that tax is included when you buy something, but the whole "doing taxes" in America is about income tax.

My experience is with a company that does withholdings (god bless all you freelance workers figuring it all out for yourselves.) Withholdings means my company will estimate how much tax I should owe and take it out of each paycheck to give to the government. So from a $1,000 paycheck, they might withhold $300 to pay taxes with, and gives you the remaining $700.

But that might NOT be right. So in April every American has to go crunch all the numbers and figure out if they paid the right amount :) (chances are the answer is no).

We get a form called a W-2 (god bless, I only have one W-2 because I work just one full time job) which includes *adjust glasses*: employer's name, your info, your federal ID number, your social security number (partially redacted), your total wages, your federal income tax withheld, your social security tax withheld, your medicare tax withheld, your deferrals with things like 401k contributions, tips, dependent care benefits, STATE income tax withheld (my state has a 5% income tax, on top of the federal income tax) AAAAAAND other boxes I won't even bother with.

You feed this into software (like turbotax, which CHARGES you to do this, but I used FreeTaxUSA which had free federal filing and almost-free state filing) - RIGHT, you file federal and state SEPARATELY. And you owe/receive SEPARATE amounts.

America has tax brackets, which means you owe x% of money you make between--actually, lemme get the fucking chart

fucking delightful.

So if you make $50,000, as a single filer, you owe 10% of the first $10,275, then you owe 12% of the next $31,500 (that's the amount between $10,275-$41,775, in the second row), then 22% of the remaining $8,225 (cough and then also state income tax if you have it cough). It's a little bit like filling up a thermometer, and the amount between each tick mark is what you owe x% of.

BUT WAIT. THERE'S DEDUCTIONS.

DEDUCTIONS are where most of the complexity comes from. Because there's like 1,000 random things that can give you a tax break. And there's also the standard deduction of $12,950.

What's the deduction? It's an amount of your income that qualifies as tax-exempt. So for the $50,000-earner, if they go with the standard deduction of $12,950, then only $37,050 of their income is taxable. So FORGET that calculation above, it's now 10% of the first $10,275, and 12% of the remaining $26,775

But if your itemized deduction is higher than your standard deduction, it's in your interest to calculate all your itemized deductions and use those, if they add up to more than $12,950

My itemized deductions were almost higher than the $12,950, between my state income tax contribution, property tax contribution, and mortgage interest payments. Other people might have a fuckton of other things--uh like dependents, business expenses, uh I'm not even sure since I skim past all the ones that don't apply to me.

OH, ALSO, THERE ARE OTHER FORMS YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PROVIDE BEYOND THE W-2. There are 1099-INT forms for interest made on bank accounts, 1099-DIV forms for money made from stock dividends, and others I don't even know about.

And all my knowledge and experiences comes as someone with relatively simple taxes by U.S. standards.

(The state taxes then have their own things and own deductions and whatever. They're usually kinda less complicated than federal, but they're a separate thing you have to file.)

And after you do all that, it figures out how much tax you SHOULD owe, how much you ACTUALLY paid, and tells you the difference that you owe/are owed.

I got back a decent amount of money in 2019 and 2020. 2021 was preeettty much even. 2022 I OWE a lot of money because, fuck it, I dunno.

[scrambledpancakes03]

Before the presidential debate...

I've got some thoughts.

While I know that even the "best" presidential outcome feels like a loss at this point, you do have to vote.

I totally understand not wanting to vote for Joe. There are a lot of reasons for that, some more valid than others. That's not my point rn. There's many genocides happening: read how joe is handling it from verified sources and make your own choices, I trust you'll do what you think is right. I'll just be here full of endless dread no matter what...

But for fucks sake before we all lose hope please remember...

Vote down ballot.

Conservatives win repeatedly all over the country and have been able to make life substantially harder for every individual working person, especially those with marginalized statuses... and it's not primarily due to the shit they've pulled in the Oval Office... it's because they're getting elected to sheriff's offices and school boards and zoning commissions and STATE LEGISLATURES.

Don't let your disillusionment with the president keep you from showing up for candidates you won't hear about from national news... because they are the ones who can save us.

Without progressives, leftists, and even more moderate liberals in local offices, every aspect of life gets substantially harder. Local programs shut down, public services are cut from city budgets, and police keep getting more and more absurd militarized resources. And in that environment, how would we ever stand in solidarity with people suffering around the world? Or even people marginalized here in the US?

Here are some (but not all) elected offices that may be on your ballot in the fall that need your attention in no particular order:

1. Secretary of state: oversees the states record keeping... including voting. Don't let them be fascists.

2. School Board: they decide pretty much everything to do with public school's funding, curriculum, and sometimes even personnel matters or district geography. They decide what your kids learn, where, how, and with whom. Don't let them be bigots.

3. District Attorney/Prosecutor: they decide what crimes have charges brought against them, and in what manner. They're the difference between a teenage kid being tried as an adult or a child for a felony, as well as other matters like that. Don't let them be racist.

4. Sheriff: have insane amounts of power over how criminal investigations are conducted and how a community is policed. FOR FUCKS SAKE STOP ELECTING RACISTS. Also we should just... reconsider the concept and maybe try not having sheriff offices at all. But that's a whole different goal.

5. Planning and zoning commissions: if you are struggling to get housing or stay housed, they are the reason there is little to no affordable housing in your area, because they decide what gets built or maintained in your area. Businesses, parks, houses... yeah. Don't let them be corporate puppets.

6. Public works commission: they control the utilities, the water, the trash, and the recycling. This is one of the main places the environmental movement should be looking to make change. They write regulations that can be used and enforced to reign whole groups of people and corporations in to make real collective change in the way we generate power, consume resources, and manage waste. They are also how we prevent more crisis situations like the one in Flint, MI.

7. City, state, and federal legislators. They write the laws. They appropriate the spending of your tax money. Stop narrowing your focus to the federal executive branch when the left needs to gain momentum writing laws at every level. Don't discount local change, because it adds up.

I know we are all focused on the genocides going on around the world right now. The best way we can continue helping as November comes and goes, is to elect local leaders who will support global liberation by writing laws and regulations that protect our free speech, ensure the quality and equity of our education, and commit to divestment from violence all over the world.

Okay? We all got this?

Can we all just agree to do this part, and we can fight about biden separately, please?

TLDR: Fuck you, vote in all the local races.

[so-otterly-jaded]

I really don't want to talk much about this, because I'm not about to get into the weeds about this matter here. I just want to mention that, as of yesterday, this is where the results have settled thus far(didn't see anything concerning it being the full count, and I'll be getting into things later) and, no matter whether or not anything substantially changes between now and January, this image is absolutely infuriating to look at. For the time being, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the final, totally accurate and undisputed result so we can focus on that option.

If you voted third party, you potentially lost this election for the US. The difference between 45 and Harris is covered within a margin of error by everyone who voted for someone else entirely. This is hardly a matter of "turn out" at this point, like we thought initially. Yeah, we see a bunch less votes than last time, but the margin is almost a third of what it was when we started saying that. This is so frustrating. No matter what does or doesn't change, this needs to be remembered.

Alright, now that we're done pretending it's that simple, I'll get to the part I need to say somewhere for the sake of my sanity:

We know that ballot boxes were attacked in late October and that at least one person was arrested on such charges

We know that Republican voters substantially engaged in voter intimidation enough to warrant arrest

We know that several bomb threats were called in at various locations, which necessarily led to those locations being fully evacuated and the ballots being left totally unattended for a period of time

We frankly have just an absurd amount of things that happened, that we have proof of, that are problematic to the voting process

Now what we *absolutely do not currently have,* and I really cannot stress that enough, is proof that interference was widespread or substantial enough to have directly impacted the final results. We do have theories which have yet to be tested, which suggest but do not prove, that further interference not only occurred, but ultimately played a role in deciding the outcome. These are currently nothing more than theory, and should be treated as such unless investigation is deemed necessary and turns up supporting evidence. For the sake of keeping as objective as possible, I will not be linking to any such theories in this post, and I don't really recommend that anyone reading this seems them out, as basically all of them that have plausibility can be tested by either audits or recounts which we frankly should be asking for just given how close things got.

It's absolutely within our rights to want such a close race(2% deviation) where we have Proof of direct and indirect interference(see any of the links above, I tried to use as many varied sources as I could to minimize bias arguments) to be checked for errors, if nothing else. It is not unreasonable to see everything that's been said and done this go around and say "I'd like to be sure". With 45 saying he "doesn't need votes" because he "has plenty" during a Town Hall with Fox News, the failed new CEO of Twitter giving away huge amounts of money in PA to people in a lottery you had to promise to vote for Trump to enter, and all the other sketchy activity that actually happened, there's reason to be suspicious that things aren't exactly up to snuff.

Now let's just be absolutely clear about something here.

We are not crossing the line, we are holding it. If no investigation happens, if nowhere has a recount or an audit, and this follows the rules in play, we accept that, prepare, and move forward. We are not crossing the line, we are holding it. If there *is* an investigation, and they find absolutely nothing beyond what we already have proof and record of, and the election is effectively clean by all measurable metrics, we accept that, prepare, and move forward. *We are not crossing the line, we are holding it.* If there is an investigation and it's found that there is a difference, but it's an error and changes nothing, or it's not severe enough to look deeper and doesn't change the outcome, or any effectively identical result where nothing changes; we accept that, prepare, and move forward.

We are not crossing the line, we are holding it.

If there is an investigation; if there is evidence found that severe interference changed the outcome of the election; if they stole it, or whatever; we accept it, prepare, and move forward. Because even if the result changes, even if we don't have to deal with Project 2025 or the horrible picks 45 is looking at or whatever his awful economic plan is, we didn't "win", we just pushed the ball forward a bit.

We are not crossing the line, we are holding it.

We will not respond with violence. We will not riot. We will also not surrender to despair and just let things get worse *no matter who takes office.* We do not need to just accept that there wasn't more going on than we've already seen, but we do need to accept that no matter what happens in January, we have a lot of work to do. We need more people running for local office. We need more people running as independents for local, state, and federal legislature. We need better community interaction. We need to be taking steps to take our country back into the hands of the people.

We need to hold the line, because nobody else will. We will not cross the line like the MAGA cult last time, not only because it didn't work for them(thankfully) and we don't need to waste energy like that, but also because we don't need that to succeed in moving forward. We. Are. Not. Crossing. The. Line! We. Are. Holding. It!

Oh, and just to add, in the event we do have to deal with 45's return, don't refer to him by name. He's a lame, miserable little puppet. He's a useful idiot. This means he deserves no recognition, and we should also avoid putting anything that happens under an upcoming second presidency to his credit. Credit/blame the Republican party for everything, not 45. Do not use his name, and do not use a name that has any associations with power, charisma, leadership, or historical significance. 45 is ironically okay here, purely because it references his previous failure and denies his attempts at recognition for the currently announced victory that he wants to claim through being called the 47th, which is incorrect, but serves as a declaration of sorts. If you can come up with other ways to refer to him that don't give him any recognition he wants, and doesn't deserve, tag them, share them. Let's find a way to completely remove name recognition for the traitorous fuck. Just remember to avoid being ableist or using descriptors like "old" or "fat" that can cast a harmful net and drag people through the mud that have done nothing more than exist.

Resist, but resist responsibly, and prepare for anything. Gather the tools you can wield and use them for the good of your community. And never forget: the spanner, the sword, the scythe, and the scalpel all go to war. They do not serve the same purposes, but they're no less important in the effort for a better world. Violence is not the only answer, and anything you can offer to protect the people you care about is valuable.

Alright, that was pretty heavy, and I accidentally added a poll that I don't know how to remove. So, since I don't know what hitting post with it empty will do, and I think it's important to give yourself space to process anything, let's just have something silly.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Believing that the attempt to make labor-time a standard for a monetary unit a fallacy and bound to fail in practice, I submit a few questions and observations. Whose labor is to be used as a standard, the efficient or the inefficient man’s? Take any product you may, say shoes. John produces five pairs a day, James produces ten. Is it possible that John in a free market will be able to obtain for his shoes a price twice as great as James? Absurd! In a competitive market, John would be forced out of business if he charged a price twice as great as James. If he charged the same price, which he must do to remain in business, what becomes of the labor-time unit? Disappeared!

What is a standard of value? It is one product in terms of which the exchange rate of other products are measured. It is true that labor, in the shape of the utility of the objective hindrance overcome, the value of which is determined in a competitive market, enters as an element determining the exchange value of product and in a freely competitive market tends to become the whole factor. But products must be useful in order to be exchangeable, and usefulness is determined by desire. The value of labor is determined by its result, not the result by amount of labor in time.

The truth is that the desire for a product can measure the utility and hence the value of the labor expended in making it, but the amount of labor cannot conversely measure the value of a product. For, what may be said of productive labor and wasted labor? How are they to be differentiated? Surely it must be seen that under a freely competitive system inefficiency and waste are automatically eliminated. This is to the benefit of society at large. This is why a freely competitive system is, truly and broadly speaking, the most automatically cooperative condition possible. And this is why, fortunately, that freedom solves the economic problem. Efficiency crowds out inefficiency, putting the right man in the right place and remunerating each according to the service he renders society.

The trouble with economic conditions is that they are not freely competitive and the State is the institution which maintains this system of robbery. What with all the privileges guaranteed to and handicaps placed upon the different producers it so happens that some are able to derive more than their just share of the wealth produced. The necessary conditions for a freely competitive society which anarchists desire, the equality of opportunity, is very far from being realized today. This is why they so valiantly struggle to instruct people in the economic benefits of liberty.

While we claim that liberty solves every solvable social problem either it be in education, sex, literature, art, crime, religious beliefs or whatnot, we emphacize most strongly on the economic field, for this, it is believed, is the key to all others. It is unfortunate that so many so-called radicals (men who go to the root of things) do not understand economic processes, especially as they would exist under freedom. In my estimation, what makes this so is, not only the intentional perversions made by the text book economists, but also the stupid blunders made by Karl Marx in his, I believe, honest attempt to fight for the cause of the working class.

As far as the money problem is concerned, all that anarchists desire is that anyone or any combination may go into the business of furnishing money or insuring credit. To the superficial thinker, especially the authoritarian minded such as Socialists or Communists, this would seem the veritable return to chaos. But we will see how fraudulent or insecure money fares when free competition in banking exists, and what will become of the phenomenon of interest. What will most probably happen has been ably shown by Proudhon, Wm. B. Greene, and others.

But it is quite doubtful that an attempt to directly adopt a labor-time unit of value will meet with any success.

Laurance Labadie

[dramarising-replacement]

Free art threads.

Made a couple of these in the past, and I'm actually considering just.. not doing them on this site anymore? I actually think I'd be better off doing free art for people on Toyhou.se instead.

Cue the rant.

-------

So I'm sure some of y'all are familiar with the "Creative Corner" in the forums, yeah? You can share random art you've made, ask people how much they'd pay for your art, that sort of thing. Then, you got the free art threads. They can be titled things like "Drawing ur dragons :33" and "bored, draw humans. bye." and you'll also see the same couple users posting in those threads, but I'm not here to name-drop lol.

The ones who I have a problem with are the ones who don't read anything. Like, at all. You could spend thirty minutes crafting a decent looking thread, filled with information (but not TOO much, just enough to answer most people's questions) and highlight the "rules" part of your thread that has specific steps to follow for free art. Wanna know what the majority of the commentors on your thread are gonna do?

"[Insert dragon image] Pls draw :)" or "[Link to a page with over 60+ dragons] choose whatever one you want.]" and that's about it. There won't be any mention of any steps you wanted them to follow, (The steps are usually very simple, too. As in, let the artist know the bare minimum idea of what you want. I'm talking about expressions here. That's literally all they'd have to do to get some scrumptious free art.) and that feels kinda invalidating, y'know?

I'm not asking the commentors to describe a whole scene for me, I'm just asking them to give me ONE LITTLE IDEA (again, an expression or maybe if they want a bust) and I'll do the rest for them, free of charge. The art that they'd be getting isn't some random disaster of a sketch, nono, it's fully-colored and shaded. It also doesn't look like something that a 5 year old drew. (No shade to people who draw like that, I was stuck like that for years.) Bro, just do a MINIMAL amount of reading and I'll draw your dragon that has an absurd amount of apparel to tje point where it hurts my eyes.

..It doesn't just stop there, either. I've also seen these people never reply to artists who have given them an absolute masterpiece of a drawing, for free. Bro. You serious? I get that some people are inactive, which I'm not bothered by. But the ones who aren't? ...Ehh, I just think you could at least thank the artist before returning to the void with your free art.

The moral of the story is; Do the bare minimum and read what matters in a post, and thank the artists who draw your dragons for free. Especially the ones who could've easily charged you 1kg+ for the work they've done.

If you're socially awkward, then cool. I get that. If you can't afford to pay artists with fictional pixel money, then go ahead and visit the free art threads. I'm not trying to gate-keep them, I literally make these threads. I just don't enjoy having people put zero effort in their requests and then never acknowledge the fact that I drew their dragon for them. Just my thoughts, everyone views things differently and that's okay!

---

Btw, I mentioned Toyhou.se because I've posted on both before, and while there are SOME similarities in the users' behavior, there's also some notable differences, too.

Common flight rising free art thread comment: [doesnt read text and adds dragon image] thanks if you draw.

Common Toyhou.se free art thread comment: [links a character, goes into a VERY in-depth explanation about how said character acts, very passionate too. Usually reads rules, too.] Thanks if you draw. (gotta stay consistent lol)

Obviously there are some differences in the sites which affect how the users act, I get that. One's a literal dragon collecting game and the other one's focused on writing and drawing characters, it's expected that one would read more than the other.

...But again, free art. Not paid, but free. Someone takes time out of their day to draw your dragon. Just give them a simple "thanks" and go on your merry way. That's all you gotta do. Lets them know their effort was appreciated, and shows that you're a nice person. Win-win.

Please man, just read. Did I mention that these threads usually have a maximum of 100 words? I don't usually type this much. But damn, this just irritated me so much.

Well, that's the end of this rant. Like I said, a few people are obviously going to disagree with some/maybe everything I've said, and that's life. This was a disorganized rant, and that's all it's going to be.

[thiefbird]

tagged by @oleolesimeeligen but making a new post to save everyone's dash from a post challenging "do you love the colour of the sky" for length! Thanks for the tag <3

❤︎ are you named after anyone?

no, i was named after the poem Afton Water by Robert Burns! So indirectly i was named after a Scottish river? Anyway heres the poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43799/afton-water

❤︎ when was the last time you cried?

couple months ago when i reread the first temeraire book and levitas died. my poor baby deserved so much better than rankin

❤︎ do you have kids?

jesus fucking christ on a cracker no

❤︎ do you play/have you played any sports?

i did fencing in elementary/middle school, and i both competed in and taught archery through high school! currently i am a sedentary rock but if i continue being in less pain+fatigue i may think about joining a roller derby league, bc clearly im not obviously queer enough

❤︎ do you like sarcasm?

yes. im not always good at it when other people do it but i do enjoy it

❤︎ what do you notice about people when you meet them?

hair colour and how their voice sounds. im moderately faceblind and have difficulties with audio processing, so i cant tell their facial features well and i dont understand WHAT they're saying, but i will recognise voices and hair immediately

❤︎ what’s your eye color?

blue-grey but if i wear purple my eyes look purple which is funky

❤︎ scary movies or happy endings?

scary movies i love to terrify myself

❤︎ any talents?

eh? i can write okay i can sew okay i can crochet+knit tolerably well and i can play guitar well enough

❤︎ where were you born?

austin tx. you can probably doxx me with just the info in this one post idgaf

❤︎ what are your hobbies?

knitting writing drawing crochet cosplay and historical recreation

❤︎ any pets?

my beloved cat. she has next to no teeth bc her body keeps making anti-tooth antibodies and then i have to pay 500 buckaroonies to have them removed but it is worth it because she is the cat of the world

❤︎ how tall are you?

5'5" short king

❤︎ what are your favorite school subjects?

no longer in school but the 3 months i went to high school were at an absurdly tiny charter school. it was so small they couldnt support a concert/marching band or an orchestra so the two music classes offered were classical guitar and "rock band" which was essentially a free and in-school version of the School Of Rock summer camps. we learned like fifteen songs and how to set up and do live mixes and at the end of the semester we did three shows (one for the middle schoolers during school hours, one for the high schoolers during school hours, and one after school) and i blew out a microphone and gave a whole horde of middle school kids a sexuality crisis by being Visibly Queer and also cool af

❤︎ what’s your dream job?

either the person who picks out fabrics for period piece films, or captain of a reproduction napoleonic war era frigate. i d charge billionaires absurd amounts of money to serve as ratings on my frigate. they have to sign waivers saying im allowed to have them flogged and also the frigate is not responsible if they die. i am actively seeking investors for my Billionaire Torment Ship

tagging @sapphirablue @gabrielnovakgoestomyschool @everythingmustmoveon @sesamie @glowing-blue-feathermage and also YOU if you want to do it <3

[thatnoulguyorsomething]

As someone who is almost religiously obsessed with fixing and maintaining my old electronics as long as possible, there's a thing to be said about repairability, planned obsolescence, etc.

I have a phone. I've had it for close to seven years, and I dug it out of the trash, so it's probably a couple years older. I mainly use it to listen to music. The headphone jack is now starting to bend out of shape, one side completely does not work anymore. There are no replacements for that part - it is so specific that the only way to get a replacement is to find another phone of the same make and take it apart (which is pretty counter-productive).

The phone is otherwise perfectly capable, but because of the failure of a single, simple part (six wires in a plastic casing), I can no longer use it (I can, but I'd have to get something else to listen to music, and that defeats the purpose.)

Another example. My laptop is half as old as I. The cd drive started failing years ago (the ribbon cable had started tearing), I had to remove a single screw to remove the entire thing (to make sure it stopped messing with the device settings). The 'z' key stopped working, so I learned to type without it (either rewording stuff, or using unicode escapes if really needed - fun fact, german uses that letter a LOT). At some point, the 'e' key stopped working, which was a lot more critical - so I started lugging along a usb keyboard (that I also dug out of the trash). Wifi card started failing - got clever with how I use the internet (mainly doing stuff over cable). The battery started failing, so I promoted it to a PC and set it up on my desk, where it is always connected. Lately, the usb ports have been wearing out, so I'm considering opening it up and replacing them with a usb hub board (have a guess where I got that one from). People have been telling me it is too broken to use for a decade, yet lo and behold, I am still shitposting from it, making and playing games, and as of late, making an operating system.

Crucially, those are things that can be fixed. In part, because it's a laptop and laptops are easier to manage than mobile devices, though in large part because the people that designed it did so in a way that I can do anything I want with it with a 4mm screwdriver and a soldering iron. And that makes it very easy to fix broken parts and just keep it going. When corporations try to make this impossible by removing all outside access and installing traps and then making things break quicker so they can charge you more money for repairs and replacements, they are also causing absurd amounts of trash and waste that could have been used better and lived longer if only it had been made fixable.

So yeah, being unable to fix things and having to toss them away are manufactured problems. Upcycling and tech hackery are one side of it, but those rely on the people making these electronics to make them properly in the first place.

Not a bold take here, but I believe nevertheless that our current way of producing and consuming electronics (I speak globally here) is not sustainable and built on huge human suffering. On the logistical level, virtually all of the world's microchips are made in a single factory on Taiwan because every single technology company outsourced it to them. Any conflict or disaster could simply stop the delicate supply chains that have their point here and make anything related to microchips, that is, our entire lives become much much harder. It is, in fact, very likely this might happen in our lifetimes and might lead to a major crisis in the first world.

This does not mean that computers or robotics shouldn't get produced anymore because that's a stupid idea by jokers. It means that the world needs to rethink how we make and consume electronics. Stupid fashion items like iphones are only possible because of this system; a tool, like a smartphone is, a very useful tool, shouldn't be needed to be replaced with each new model but endure. Computers should last longer and be upgradeable. I'd even go as far as to say that the power of a device should be proportional to its function; if a rugged brick phone can do the job, it will do the job. The exploitation of African countries for mining cannot continue, any international trade must be done in their terms and with the rights of their workers fully respected, no matter the price the end consumers will have to pay.

This cannot happen in a world where computers are seen as luxuries instead of tools and where capitalism creates demand.

[canichangemyblogname]

some people are weirdly upset about everyday people paying celebrities $100 for a Cameo. and they're angry about this for some of the goofiest reasons, like calling the practice "tacky" and "demeaning" for the celebrity. okay. so, you don't like celebrity culture. me neither. just don't participate.

but they're also calling the celebrities who do cameos "exploitative" for charging "absurd rates" for-- like-- a one-minute happy birthday message. baby... it costs me about the same amount to send someone a flower arrangement. my friend gets more money from a single foot pic. milk costs 6-fucking-dollars. I respect their game. because, first, you'd have to pay me tens of THOUSANDS to get me to say some fucking shit online. because that shit's forever. and because, second, if I could make $100 like that, I would. that's $100. $100 is nothing to sneeze at. that's groceries.

but the wildest is calling the fans "exploitative" for participating. encouraging parasocial relationships, I can see. but celebs have elected to participate in Cameo. "they have to answer if you pay." they don't have to be a part of this at all. plenty of celebs aren't.

"stop giving nepo babies your money. this is why we're poor." no. stop pocket-watching. stop caring what Joe down the street does with his money. might it be an unwise financial decision? yeah. is poor people making a single silly financial decision the reason they're poor? no. because that's a systemic issue.

[songs-about-girls-like-me]

chapter 13: an almost deleted scene

(a/n: lol this adds nothing to the plot but I decided to keep it in)

"Liv, get him!" Olivia and I were still playing superheroes now and then, and being on a bouncing house was a perfect place for it. I ducked under an inflateable arch and hid behind it while she attacked "Syndrome" who was almost always flying over us. At the end of it, we would just be playing to climb up to a small inflatable dome and pushing each other off of it.

It was ridiculously fun, even more when you were caught off guard and you would be aggresively thrown to a 1.5 meter fall, landing without even being able to position your body in any way, feeling like a stuffed dummy or something. It felt as violent as an action movie. I had just thrown Olivia on her back and I tried standing on my feet on the wobly surface and fell too.

"Ouch" we said together when my elbow got her leg. We were about to spring to our feet again but

"Hey, you two are out. You're Time's up." It was a highschool girl, one of the bunch who was in charge of the bouncing house for this recess. For a whole week in november our school would do this "Fraternity Week" which was like a charity fair which took place mostly during recess, and maybe some extra Time for special activities like attending a haunted house or the dance showcase. Despite that, the over all "fair-party feeling" bled through all the (almost) 8 hours of classes for the entire five days, leading to an absurd amount of doing nothing but play, and even fight, and a disproportionate feeling of freedom and chaos.

The girl kicking us out the bouncing house must have been 16 or 17, but she and all her classmates looked almost like adults to my 10 year old self, laying on my back on the ground with Olivia next to me. They looked like authority, even while giving the impression that someone could literally get killed inside and they would have no idea cause all they did was talk and flirt with each other. I looked at Liv on the bouncy ground and knew we should cave in and take the rest of our money out to buy more Time.

"Get out and queue again" said the girl, wearing two layered spaguetti strap tops.

We had to stand up and jump our way out like fools. It wasn't nice to feel the rock hard ground of the school yard after jumping around for 15 minutes, it almost felt like it was folding itself to get your feet arches.

"Fuck them, I hate when they do that"

"Me too" I agreed to being pissed as we made our way back to the line. We counted our money together. If we combined it, we could get another 15 minutes each, but we wouldn't have enough money to attend the dance showcase. We did some math and paid another highschooler for 12 more minutes on the bounce house each, then our game resumed by Liv throwing me against the inflateable arch and we both screaming laughing at how I fell.

Elizabeth was probably somewhere with the other girls, she had spent some money at the bouncing house with us but it was honestly too much what Olivia and I would waste there. Ella would probably be doing something a little less childlike, like going to get best friend certificates at the civil registry stand. When our Time ran out again, Liv and I went searching for her and found her with some girls but not MJ or Poppy, cause they were dancing at the showcase and had had to leave 10 minutes earlier. The three of them had actually gotten best friends certificates together which was crazy cause MJ still had her other friends, and Poppy hung out more with this girl called Abigail rather than us. They were printed in blue ink in a third of white bond paper and we decided to get one together the next day. People were buying frappuccinos and popsicles and donuts and I made a mental note to not spend aaaall my money on the bouncing house tomorrow. People were also getting married and getting secret admirors love letters and friendship letters and paper flowers on the "mail". Meaning some older girls were handing them out to all the classrooms at the end of the day. Joe actually asked Poppy to marry him but I think she said no, even though they were real-life dating lol.

When our recess ended it was Time to flod into the auditorium with the rest of primary school to spend at least an hour watching horribly choreographed and just half-entertaining dance numbers. I always got excited until I remembered it was kind of boring. Still, I always enjoyed it to a certain extent cause I really liked dance that much.

A lot of kids were still doing Michael Jackson tributes, and some were good. These girls who were a year above us and were popular for these performances did Lady Marmalade that year (the song that goes "Voulez vous coucher avec moi?" which was way too hot for people's standards) wearing "hip hop clothes". I liked it and thought the sexy factor was pretty cool, even if I thought it didn't hit AS hard as their performance of TiKToK last year. I remember people saying it was too sexy and sl* t shaming them a bit. Terrible. "Some people don't get dancing" I thought with an eyeroll. Our classmates equivalent to those girls were MJ and her friends, and they were performing Candy Man by Christina Aguilera (which felt a bit off since, if you recall, we had done the same song in jazz a couple of months back, but I decided not to think badly of them... even if it wasn't a popular song at the Time at all). They were wearing coordinated outfits with sparkly top hats. I thought the fits were ugly but the dance was fair, and we cheered for MJ. Then Poppy and Abigail performed umbrella by Rhiannah doing a simpler choreography, wearing baby pink mini dresses with spaguetti straps and also baby pink umbrellas. The fits slayed. They were critizised for wanting attention.

When we got out, everyone who had performed was taking pictures. My friends and I looked for Mary Jane and Poppy.

"You guys did great!"

"Really?"

"Yesss!" We said to MJ in the middle of the chaos, having to follow our line back to the classroom.

"Thank you, guys, love you!"

"You look gorgeous, Poppy!"

"I know! You too, girls"

The three of us left them behind to take pictures that would either end up in the school yearbook or over on FaceBook. These actually took over my feed for a couple days and it was kind of annoying cause some of these girls were so smug about their dancing and it was really not that good. And no one cared about jazz but us, so our dancing was irrelevant, while back in the classroom we had to see our classmates perform again with the school's cd player. Ella and I thought it was okay, since it was not fair to even compare the quality of the performances.

And okay, we all agreed, even MJ did, it was suss to do Candy Man. I didn't dislike them enough though, so I still clapped for them in the classroom and was glad to see their dance again, instead of doing math.

[the-hem]

"The Tower." From Luke 14:28–33.

What are Towers? There is one called Babel, but that is not the tower we want to discuss here. That one is found in Isaiah, and refers to a place high enough from which one can really see what the future of humanity would look like if we could achieve Mashiach:

From Isaiah 38:

17The King in His beauty shall your eyes behold; they shall see [from] a distant land.

18Your heart shall meditate [in] fear; where is he who counts, where is he who weighs, where is he who counts the towers?

19A people of a strange tongue you shall not see, a people of speech too obscure to comprehend, of stammering tongue, without meaning.

20See Zion, the city of our gathering; your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a tranquil dwelling, a tent that shall not fall, whose pegs shall never be moved, and all of whose ropes shall not be torn.

21But there, the Lord is mighty for us; a place of broad rivers and streams, where a galley with oars shall not go, and a great ship shall not pass.

22For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our ruler; the Lord is our king; He shall save us.

23Your ropes are loosed, not to strengthen their mast properly; they did not spread out a sail; then plunder [and] booty were divided by many; the lame takes the prey.

24And the neighbor shall not say, "I am sick." The people dwelling therein is forgiven of sin.

Now Begins the Parable of the Tower:

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 

29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 

32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 

33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Money in Judaism is good, practical sense. It begins to accumulate when young adults begin to process their implications of their responsibilities and there are good and bad consequences to their actions. Jesus asks His Disciples over and over to bank as much of it as possible while He is still alive, to hold dear everything He says.

The Foundation of these words are found in what I call the Pax Terra Sutra, "the Declaration of Peace on Earth", Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. Jesus explains the terms, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

From these, the Founding Principals of Christianity, one can build just about anything one imagines without fear of its loss.

To profess to Christianity and act like an undereducated savage whose sole preoccupations are with the disgusting cunt uterus, how gay men court and fuck or how people clothe themselves is absurd. These are not activities that are "on mission" and they never will be.

To blunder through life claiming thouest knows Jesus and push these agendas does not add one cent to the bank. It looks and feels disastrous for the world because it is.

But this we do, there are wars coming over it. One version of the story versus the next. Here is what Jesus said about this.

10,000 men vs. 20,000=

10,000 men is the super secret code word for the Archangel Michael who is in charge of God's assets and beats back the forces of Hell's Satans.

Ten thousands are also indicative of the "Ten Statements" being spoken for the sake of loving kindness for 1,000 generations.

20,000 men, twice the amount, is Kingdom Come, the "Ten Plagues."

The Delegation while peace and freedom are a long way off represents the very same God sent to Pharaoh via Moses and Aaron.

There is but one way for the Foundation and the Tower to work and there must be peace and it must be fought for on the basis of the Decrees vs. the Plagues, which are all the ways people discuss rubbish and bullshit with each other and then try to make laws from it and piss everyone off all the time.

Jesus warned us to give up on these things and even still, we have not. We just can't seem to get things off the ground.

[just-my-type-x]

I'm really hating about this tv+ thing

Like even the girl who posted short videos on tiktok to promote tv+ had to stop doing that... like?! it was only 1 minute of video or less! and even then she had to stop because of the whole "can't post" thing or something

Sorry but I even understand that about paying Dean, but I don't think this is anything inclusive for the fans, many of them don't have money, many are underage and the parents say no, because I've seen people saying that in their country it's a the price is absurd, there are several caveats and in all of this you can see that the vamps is not the family they talk about so much, the vamps is something inclusive, you can only be a fan if you have money, besides that? just stick to spotify music or less than that

Im really sad with this cuz we can see that they really only seem to care about uk fans as they are the ones who can afford tv+, i'm not talking about just uk fans, ofc, but we know it's about more there

I saw fans from philippines who couldn't afford it, or even some others like mexico, chile and argentina.

I get very sad when I see fans disrespecting those who post little about tv+, like, not everyone can afford it, so just leave a crappy 1 minute video! but not! they even made the tiktok girl stop posting. So, sorry, I don't think the vamps are a family anymore, it's all become very exclusive, I'm starting to think they're even going to charge us to hear new music, new albums and music videos.

Sorry about all this, I had to vent. people care so much about judging, but they don't know why a fan posts... often fans don't have money, so they help each other like that.

some fans are not from countries with a good economy, you know? and that's sad...

First of all, don't be sorry, i love a good rant session

Second, the person who has/d the tiktok acc stopped for Dean and she messaged him and apologised in case she made him upset at any point by promoting the app and Dean went something like "well at least u're not the one posting on YouTube" and he seemed really annoyed, no matter how sincere she was in her message and don't worry, she lied about knowing who used to post on YouTube the episodes, so he still doesn't know anything. If u want, i can ask for permission to post the screenshot.

I am in one of the countries with awful economy too and paying that amount is honestly money spent carelessly. I don't know what people can afford for $12, but we buy to cook a whole ass meal, which in the hindsight is really stupid to spend on watching some videos, therefore, my parents are open to letting me subscribe once in a while, but we all know it's unworthy

I know how u feel by saying that the vamps fandom doesn't really feel like a family anymore bc we got incredibly divided and it's sad and building up walls in the fandom to protect a platform and to have ur "premium community " sucks for anyone outside it. And regarding having fans complain about not seeing the vids, tv+ on tiktok received a lot of messages from Manila and i think Osaka (?) from fans who asked for the videos bc they were there and wanted to watch the show or whatever (so she would send these their way). It's just sad :(

[casmybelovedass]

Imma rumble a bit about housing and money okay?

This is my second year in university and I am VERY LUCKY to be paying only 275€ rent a month (not counting bills), having to walk only 8 minutes to school and having the supermarket literally in front of me.

That being said, I share the apartment with 4 other people, we sleep in doubles, have only one small ass bathroom and the kitchen is small amd SHIT. meaning the ceiling above the counters is cracked and crumbling, and there's MOLD on half the left wall. I don't have the courage to move the counter and look at just how far it spreads. Not to mention they built the pipe system wrong and we couldn't use the heater for most of last winter.

(Bit of backstory: I found this place OUT OF PURE LUCK cuz this dude I was first looking for rooms with had seen two apartments, didn't like this one, and asked me if I was interested instead. Before this, after two months of looking, I had been almost scammed by these fuckers pretending to be an agency on housing sites, who I called for a couple apartments they were advertising. They told me I had to come in person to sort everything out. 2h 45 and a train ticket later, turns out they wanted me to pay them 250€ to "start looking for a house for the next 6 months". I fucking sprinted out the door.)

I wanted to try and find another place to stay this year, but quickly had to turn back once I saw the prices. 400 - 500€ for a fucking double, up to 800€ for a single room, and bills are always additional. My new course mates are desperate and have been trying to find a place since they got accepted (some of them got word in JULY) and I took I upon myself to contact the people in charge of my apartment for some of them since apparently THESE FUCKERS AREN'T RESPONDING CALLS OR EMAILS

And yes I have fucking proof. I called AND emailed them, leaving my course mates' details (with their permission) stating they were very urgently looking for places. I immediately received a response email. AT THE SAME TIME, under my instructions, THEY sent their own emails details contacts and all. THEY STILL HAVEN'T HEARD BACK.

School starts in 3 weeks. Now many of them will either have to pay an absurd amount of money to be a 40 minutes bus ride from school IF THEY'RE LUCKY or renounce their studies. Of which they have already paid the first 1000 something € fee. Non refundable.

Oh yeah did I mention my school costs 7500€ a year? (which it was 6800 last year and got raised) And that the only reason I can afford that is the fact my little sister doesn't want to ho to uni, so I'm using two people's worth school fund? And I still have 3 more years to go, not knowing if the piece will raise again.

We have class Monday to Saturday, 9 to 8, and sometimes 9 to 9. We're physically unable to work and those who try working either can't find anything or quit almost immediately.

I have a "budget" of around 400€ a month for bills, food and meds. I don't eat out, I don't go out for drinks, I only drink 1€ black coffee and god knows I eat just the right amount of food I need to survive. And sometimes it's not enough, and I have to fight with my parents about needing more money cuz "You can't possibly have spent it all already". And even when I show them the fucking records from my card, the same story repeats the month after.

What the fuck are we supposed to fucking do?? I know our generation will never be able to afford a house, but not even a small apartment to share with 3 to 5 other people?!?!?

This is fucking insane.

[manonblaqkbeak]

Among the Stacks

Back for Day 4-Librarians/Libraries, which I was super thrilled to see on the list, since I’m a certified library assistant and librarian technician and a big advocate for libraries in general and how important they are to society for a number of reasons!!!

This is just some wholesome fluff, most of these fics are (bc thats all i write lol) but i am preparing for a lil angst on the 10th ;)

Hope you all enjoy! :)

cw: none

1.5k words

There were many reasons why Aelin loved being a librarian technician and working at Orynth Public Library (of course there were reasons she very much disliked it, but the positives outweighed the negatives). The ever present scent of books was one, and the fact that she saved a ridiculous amount of money from borrowing books instead of buying them, as purchasing them became close to an addiction. The regular patrons that visited. Helping people with creating resumes and look for jobs because they couldn't afford laptops or computers at home, and looking for jobs on phones was annoying.

The overflowing suggestion box filled with ideas for books and ways to make the library more homely. Her comfortable office chair and her favourite cafe owned by a high school friend right around the corner, and the fact that Nesryn gave her discounts because she had set her up with her now-fiance Sartaq.

The laughter of babies and young children when it was story-time and the drawings that they created. The people that came to the library just to be somewhere else without feeling the pressure of having to spend money. The people that came sorely for the free WiFi and power-boards to charge their phones.

Working with her childhood friend and pseudo-sister Elide. And one very handsome and kind construction worker, Rowan Whitethorn.

Elide said that Aelin was in love with Rowan, with how she gushed over how pretty and intelligent he was, but Aelin denied that. It would be absurd to be in love with him. She just really liked him.

The only problem was she hadn't had the chance to ask him out on a date. She only saw him when he came in the library, and it was inappropriate to ask someone out while at work. There was also the fact that while he came here weekly, she wasn't sure if he was single, because surely someone that handsome had to be with someone.

But he hadn't mentioned any partners and Aelin didn't spot a ring, either on his finger or on a chain around his neck, but it still made Aelin hesitate.

Elide had told Aelin many times that when Rowan was here, he made 'heart eyes' when Aelin's back was turned. Aelin scoffed at the notion, but her heart flipped at that—Elide was freakishly observant and knew how to read people to a minuscule level.

Aelin was in the middle of covering the latest hardbacks, her mind completely focused on the task, when Elide said, typing away, “It's eleven A.M.”

Aelin looked at the large clock behind her and nodded. “That it is.”

A small smile was on Elide's lips, her dark eyes bright. “Just thought I'd let you know. Since a certain someone usually comes in around eleven-fifteen on Saturdays if he hasn't been here during the week.”

Elide could sometimes be as subtle as a brick to the head. Aelin finished the last book and cleaned her hands off with the hand sanitiser. She could feel her friends dark stare at the back of her head.

“I'm aware, thank you,” was all Aelin said.

If Aelin didn't ask Rowan out soon, Elide was going to do it for her—no matter how often Aelin repeated about the inappropriate aspect of it all.

Elide thought that was bullshit.

Telling her friend that she was going to put these books on the 'New Releases' shelf, Aelin once again focused on her task, straightening up other books as she went.

She had just finished up when a deep voice said behind her, “Good morning, Aelin.”

Smiling, she turned. “Good morning, Rowan.” She spotted his current read in his large hands. “How's the book going?”

He returned her smile. “Great. I was wondering if you had the sequel?”

“We should do, just follow me.” They had their usual conversations about their week, with Rowan telling her how a fellow worker had injured himself and how it had turned the whole production upside down. Apparently, his site manager was sweating buckets the entire time, fretting about paperwork more than anything else.

Aelin didn't envy his work at all. While there were chances for Aelin or others to hurt themselves in the library, the worst that had happened to Aelin in all her years here was a bruised foot after dropping a dictionary and the rare scolding she had received from her boss, Glennis, for not wearing the proper footwear. Her bruised foot was nothing compared to the torture of having to watch an hour long video about work health and safety the following morning.

As Aelin found the sequel, they stayed hidden among the stacks, talking about everything and nothing, with Aelin temporarily forgetting that she was at work and had other duties to attend to.

Because it was hard to remember what those duties were when she got lost in his dark green eyes. Especially when they trailed down the tattoo that started at his temple and down his neck, to his fingertips.

Aelin had never really been a fan about facial tattoos, but she really liked his. It suited him.

However, she was abruptly reminded of her job when she heard a young voice call out her name. It was one of her regular patrons, Evangeline, who was always here after school and on Saturdays tackling her homework and assignments. Her foster parents were negligent and didn't think that she needed a laptop to do her school work, since they didn't back in the “old days”, completely unaware that it was the digital age and laptops and computers were vital to get the work done.

Aelin excused herself, finding Evangeline flustered at her favourite spot, the desktop frozen and unaware of what to do. It was hard not to crush the girl into a hug when Aelin saw tears in her eyes, scared that she was going to get into trouble.

“Don't worry,” Aelin told the girl kindly, “it'll be okay. Sometimes computers get grumpy and have temper tantrums but I just know the right way to fix it.”

Unaware that Rowan left the stacks, she missed his soft smile as he watched her work her magic, instructing Evangeline step by step what to do if it happened again.

He made his way to the front desk, where Elide was still furiously typing away, muttering underneath her breath about cataloging.

Deciding that it would best to leave her to it and use the self-serve machine, Elide cleared her throat, catching his attention, and said, “Aelin's single.”

Elide was sick of watching them dance around each other. She understood Aelin's hesitancy, she did, but if she had to watch them flutter their eyes at each other one more time, she was going to lose it.

And Elide was aware that Rowan was aware of why Aelin hadn't asked him out, and that he didn't want to appear inappropriate and ask Aelin out while she was at work. Elide respected for it, truthfully.

So Elide had decided to do it herself, inappropriateness be damned.

Rowan blinked, and blinked again, clearly unsure what to say or do. He came back over to her desk, tattooed hand striking against the plain book cover.

But he recollected himself, and asked, “Does she suffer from hay-fever?”

“No. And once she's done helping Evangeline over there, she'll be going to her favourite cafe for her late morning caffeine fix.”

Rowan nodded, his mind already on what flowers he would buy for her. She had a small Kingsflame tattoo on her wrist and told him it was her favourite flower when he asked her about it weeks ago. “Thank you, Elide.”

Elide simply smiled and reached for his book as Aelin came around, talking to the both of them, when Rowan asked if they knew of any good cafes.

It was good that he was finally taking that step, but Elide had to stop herself from laughing at how completely unsubtle the question was. Elide was already prepared for when Aelin would ask her later what happened between them.

But Aelin smiled and told him of her favourite place and they left together.

X X X X X X

Aelin ordered her usual, a caramel macchiato with two shots, and Rowan ordered a flat white with soy milk (he suffered from lactose intolerance, which Aelin would hate if that was her, because she had once tried lactose free chocolate and it was dreadful).

Rowan pulled out her chair when they sat out front, taking a seat across from her. Her heart flipped at the sweet gesture.

“I was wondering,” he started off with, his eyes staring unflinchingly into hers, “if you'd like to go out on a date sometime?”

Aelin didn't even think twice before accepting and they planned it out right there, exchanging numbers at the end of it. He walked her back to the library, a small smile on both their lips.

From the smile that Elide gave her when she returned, Aelin knew she was involved—and not at all surprised—and at that moment, Aelin was very happy to have a friend like Elide.

And for her date that very night with Rowan.

[twig-tea]

Ohhhhh @neuroticbookworm you've touched on one of my livewires. It is infuriating how romanticized poverty is in romance stories and how much of the 'romance' between a rich and poor person is often just 'they can get me out of this situation that is otherwise literally inescapable'. So many romantic endings sit so poorly with me because the power imbalance was never addressed so the relationship is left feeling slightly transactional/dependent. And so, so often the consequences of as you rightly said inevitable bad decisions fall on the poor(er) person in the relationship and it is infuriating.

I have to admit what you described at the end is not appealing to me either, tbh. Reminds me too much of Boys Over Flowers. There was some of the dynamic you described in Oh My Sunshine Night between the bodyguard/elder brother side dish, in case you're interested!

I feel like they also tried to do what you described in What Zabb Man but they didn't really understand the power dynamics well enough and it ended up just infuriating me more lol this is the real reason why I can't connect to that show; That ending makes me want to scream.

The thing is, I am not interested in watching people who are struggling because they are poor turn away moments of happiness or easing of their situation just because it's somehow morally superior either. That implies that it's morally superior to turn down money or privilege and, ok, maybe, but then why isn't that standard being applied to the rich person too? If anything, it should be more amoral to hold on to absurd amounts of wealth than to appreciate a moment's rest from unfair circumstantial strain, but that's not how morality in shows tends to go. Turning down romantic gestures over and over is also exhausting, and adding to their strain. And while I sympathize with the sentiment, don't like the idea of a character in poverty being used to teach a rich person a lesson about their own insipidness.

I also really struggle with rich characters unintentionally setting their poor romantic interest up to fail being treated as romantic by the plot. The thing is, this is realistic. My brother dated a princess once (and I mean that literally--long story) and she was fascinating but dangerous because she did not understand the value of money at all (her words, not mine), and her carelessness hurt people including my brother. She left my brother $10k in debt, and not because she couldn't cover it but because she didn't realize it would be a problem for her not to. She convinced him to move in with her into an apartment way over what he could afford (his half of the rent was his whole salary at the time), and they put both their names on the lease. When she then left him with almost no warning (not entirely her fault--again, long story), she told the landlord "sell the stuff in the apartment to cover the remaining rent due" and the landlord said "lol no" and charged my brother for the broken lease; Because of course he did. Luckily my brother had a safety net in my mom, but he had just graduated from university and was working a call center job, and still had a student loan at the time, and my father had just gone through bankruptcy. It could have ruined his future or significantly made his life miserable if my parents had been just a little less well off to start with.

This is one of the things I appreciated about My School President; Tinn was so careful to make sure the times he did use his money to help were not actually visible (though that wasn't necessarily his motivation), so that there would be no debt or dependency. And he never dismissed Gun's concerns about his responsibility to his mother, but instead tried to help him find a way to support her while continuing with his dream (and without making Gun dependent on him while doing it). But they were still in high school and the stakes were lower than in some of these other shows; Gun still had a safety net though it was threatened in show; and Tinn understood its importance and helped him maintain it. He never threatened Gun's shop or career, even for what he thought was romance.

This is more of what I want to see; stories where the more rich romantic interest understands the concerns of the person he's in love with, puts in effort to help them improve their situation if they ask and in a way that does not leave the poorer character vulnerable or dependent.

But frankly, any rich/poor romance story that ends with both of them in a million-dollar condo is going to be unsatisfying for me, because a happy ending where there are still really rich people (even if one of them used to be poor) is no happy ending in the true depths of my heart. But it's unreasonable to expect romances to fix capitalism and class stratification, I suppose lol

[As always: I don't actually judge anyone for not having the exact same moral stance as I do, I'm sharing my opinions here for interest rather than to shame or judge anyone for feeling differently! I'm glad people get enjoyment out of the shows I don't, and I will fully agree with anyone who thinks some of my reasons for liking or not liking something are unreasonable.]

While I've reluctantly accepted that Sand's characterization as a pathetic simp in Only Friends (@lurkingshan) is a deliberate framing by Jojo and team to let the narrative punish him for his obsession, I also can't shake the feeling that a lot of these shows we enjoy simply don't take poverty as seriously as it should be. @bengiyo spoke on how Dangerous Romance is only using Sailom's poverty issues as a flavoring for Kanghan, the resident rich boy. The implication is always the same: how these characters are so tired of life that they want an escape, a fantasy where they can forget their troubles for a short time.

What these shows don't seem to understand is that poor people often can't afford an escape. The debt will always be due on collection day. Their future will always be uncertain. And more importantly: they often won't have the financial and/or interpersonal safety nets to catch them when they fuck up. Which is bound to happen, one way or another, when you hang around rich boys who wants to rebel and blow their father's money.

Which is why I want a show to give us a poor boy who can't shake a pathetic rich simp. Someone who can't get enough of him, no matter how many times he gets kicked down. And in the process of writing these characters, I want the industry to actually learn a thing or two about the folks who have no absolutely no time or energy for the insipid, shallow and meaningless gestures of rich casanovas trying to woo them.