#at least with the bet it was a stable number of people

[the-roadtrip-system]

This has just been our entire day

dawn: *closes her left eye because it started twitching* siffrin: *shows up* hi

aizawa: *complains about siffrin showing up* heizou: *shows up* you shouldve seen when there were seventeen people at once. *leaves after a few minutes*

stelle: isnt this the song that people associate with dottore? i hope he doesnt show up. dottore: *forms seconds later and puts the song on loop*

stelle: at least heizou isnt here like he was last time this happened heizou: *shows up again* well thats rude :(

silver wolf: *shows up* hi roulette: is firefly not with you? firefly: *shows up* hi

roulette: at least that galaxy ranger isnt fronting too acheron: *shows up* hey

roulette: at least sparkle isnt here sparkle: *shows up* you sure about that?

roulette: sure would be nice if xiao was here too xiao: *shows up* you called?

post on the dashboard: shoutout to dsmp fictives dream: *shows up* oh hey thats me :)

vox: i wish ike was here :c ike: *exists now* hii

alhaitham: *shows up* stelle: isnt kaveh normally with you? kaveh: *shows up and starts arguing with alhaitham*

tumblr dashboard: *reblogs afterdeath fanart* reapertale!sans: *shows up* :)

stelle: *LITERALLY WRITING THIS POST* "puts the song on loop" loop: *shows up* did someone say loop?!

what is going on

[ms-demeanor]

On insurance: I still live with my parents and don't know a lot yet about the sorts of things adults usually have to spend money on. I've always been skeptical of things like insurance and credit cards because it seems to me they wouldn't be selling that if they didn't expect to make money from it. I talked to my cousin a while ago about credit cards and basically came to the conclusion that they do that because they're betting on the customer getting sloppy and letting their debts stack up, and the way you beat that and get money from credit card companies is just by being careful.

I'm a little more confused about insurance though because it seems much more straightforwardly like a gamble they will simply not take if it won't pay off for them. Like, you don't go to a casino because every game they play at a casino is one they've done the math on and have determined that statistically most people will lose money on most of the time. Is insurance not kinda the same? Where they estimate the risk and then charge you an amount calculated to make sure it probably won't be worth it for you?

I know if you have a car you legally need car insurance so everyone knows you can pay for another car if you crash into someone, and I gather that here in the US at least health insurance companies have some kinda deal with hospitals so that the prices go down or something, and there's a reason I don't fully understand why not having health insurance is Really Bad. But we get to pet insurance, or like when I buy a concert ticket and it offers ticket insurance in case I can't make it to the show, and surely if they thought they were gonna lose money on that they just wouldn't sell it, right? Or they'd raise the price of it until it became worth the risk that something bad actually will happen? Wouldn't it only be worth it to buy insurance if you know something the insurance company doesn't?

So the deal is that most people don't use their insurance much, and often insurance companies will incentivize doing things that will make you use your insurance less.

So, for example, you can get a discount on car insurance if you have multiple cars because people who insure multiple cars are more likely to be responsible drivers (the ability to pay for multiple cars stands in as a representation of responsibility here). The longer you go without an accident, the lower your premiums get because that means that you are not costing your insurance company anything but you are paying into the system. The car insurance company's goal is to have the most responsible, safest drivers who never get into car accidents because they can predict (roughly) how much they're going to have to pay out to their customers and they want the number they pay out to be lower than what's paid in. So they try to discourage irresponsible drivers by raising their rates and encourage responsible drivers by giving them discounts.

Health insurance companies often do the same thing: I recently got a gift card from my health insurance company because I had a visit from a nurse who interviewed me about my overall health and made sure I had stable blood pressure and access to medications. It is literally cheaper for my insurance company to give me a $100 giftcard and hire a nurse to visit me than it is for me to go to my doctor's office a couple of times, so they try to make sure that their customers are getting preventative care and are seeing inexpensive medical professionals regularly so that they don't have to suddenly see very expensive professionals after a long time without care.

Insurance in the US has many, many, many problems and should be replaced with socialized healthcare for a huge number of reasons but right now, because it is an insurance-based system, you need to have insurance.

We're going to use Large Bastard as an example.

Large Bastard had insurance when he had his heart attack and when he needed multiple organs transplanted. He didn't *want* to be paying for insurance, because he thought he was healthy enough to get by, but I insisted. His premium is four hundred dollars a month, and his out of pocket maximum is eight thousand dollars a year. That means that every year, he pays about $5000 whether he uses his insurance or not, and if he DOES need to use the insurance, he pays the first $8k worth of care, so every year his insurance has the possibility of costing him thirteen thousand dollars.

The bill for his bypass surgery was a quarter million dollars.

The bill for his transplant was over one and a half million dollars.

His medication each month is around six hundred dollars. He needs to have multiple biopsies - which are surgeries - each year, and each one costs about twenty thousand dollars.

Without health insurance, he would very likely be dead, or we would be *even more* incapable of paying for his healthcare than we are right now. He almost ditched his insurance because he was a healthy-seeming 40-year-old and he didn't think he'd get sick. And then he proceeded to be the sickest human being I've ever known personally who did not actually die.

Health insurance costs a lot of money. It costs less money for people who are young and who are expected to be healthy. But the thing is, everybody pays into health insurance, and very, very few people end up using as much money for their medical expenses as Large Bastard did. There are a few thousand transplants in the US ever year, but there are hundreds of millions of people paying for insurance.

This ends up balancing out (sort of) so that people who pay for insurance get a much lower cost on care if they need it, hospitals get paid for the care they provide, and the insurance company makes enough money to continue to exist. Part of the reason that people don't like this scheme is because "insurance company" could feasibly be replaced by "government" and it would cost less and provide a better standard of care, but again, with things as they are now, you need to have insurance. Insurance companies are large entities that are able to negotiate down costs with the providers they work with, you are not. If you get hit by a car you may be able to get your medical bills significantly reduced through a number of means, but you're very unlikely to get your bills lower than the cost of insurance and a copay.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, which is flawed but which did a LOT of good, medical insurance companies cannot refuse to treat you because of preexisting conditions and also cannot jack up your premiums to intolerable rates - since Large Bastard got sick, he has had the standard price increases you'd expect from aging, but nothing like the gouging you might expect from an insurance company deciding you're not worth it.

Pet insurance works on the same model. Millions of people pay for the insurance, thousands of people end up needing it, a few hundred end up needing a LOT of it, and the insurance companies are able to make more money than they hand out, so they continue to exist. This is part of why it's less expensive to get pet insurance for younger animals - people who sign up puppies and kittens are likely to be paying for a very long time and are likely to provide a lot of preventative care for their animals, so they're a good bet for the insurer. Animals signed up when they are older are more likely to have health problems (and pet insurance CAN turn animals away for preexisting conditions) and are going to cost the insurance companies more, so they cost more to enroll (and animals over a certain age or with certain conditions may be denied entirely).

This weighing risk/reward is called actuarial science, and the insurance industry is built on it.

But yeah it's kind of betting. The insurance company says "I'll insure ten thousand dogs and I'm going to bet that only a hundred of them will need surgery at some point in the next year" and if they're correct, they make money and the dogs who need surgery get their surgery paid for out of the premiums from the nine thousand nine hundred dogs who didn't need surgery.

Your assessment of credit is correct: credit card companies expect that you will end up carrying a balance, and that balance will accrue interest, and the interest is how they make the money.

And it is EASY to fuck up financially as an adult. REALLY EASY. But you are still likely to need a good credit score so you will need a credit history. That means that the correct way to use a credit card is to have a card, but not carry a balance.

To do this, never buy anything on the card that you can't afford. In order to avoid needing the card for emergencies, start an emergency fund that is at least 3 months of your total pay *before* you get a credit card. That seems like a *lot* of savings to have, but from the perspective of someone who has had plenty of mess-ups, it's a lot easier to build up a $10k emergency fund than it is to pay off a $10k credit card debt.

If you don't understand how interest works on credit cards, or why a 10k savings is different than a 10k debt, here are some examples working with $10k of debt, 23% interest (an average-ish rate for people with average credit), and various payments.

With that debt and that interest, here's how much it costs and how long it would take to pay off with $200 as the monthly payment:

Fourteen years, and it would cost you about twenty four thousand dollars in interest, for a total amount paid of about thirty four thousand dollars.

To save $10k at $200 a month would take four years and two months.

Here's the same debt at $300 a month:

4.5 Years and it costs about six grand (again, just in interest - sixteen thousand dollars total). Saving ten thousand dollars at three hundred dollars a month would take just under three years.

Here's the same debt at $400 a month:

3 years, about $4000 dollars (fourteen thousand dollars total). Saving ten thousand dollars at $400 a month takes just over two years.

The thing is, with all of these models you're going to end up paying one way or another. Insurance vs out of pocket is you weighing the risk of losing a fair amount of money by signing up but not using the system, or potentially losing a catastrophic amount of money by not signing up.

For credit cards they really only work if you know you're never going to need them for an emergency, because an emergency is what you're not going to be able to pay off right away. I didn't have an emergency fund when Large Bastard had his heart attack and needed surgery, or when we moved between states suddenly, or when we moved between states suddenly AGAIN and needed to pay storage costs, or when Large Bastard needed a transplant, or when Tiny Bastard got in a fight with my MiL's dog, and the fact that I didn't have an emergency fund is still costing me a lot of money.

So, young folks out there: what's the takeaway?

Get insurance. Get the best deal possible, which usually ends up being the one you sign up for early. You may think you can let it ride without insurance, but man in the six months between when I graduate college (and lost my school insurance) and when care kicked in after 90 days at my job I got electrocuted and needed to go to the ER. If that hadn't been a worker's comp payout I would have had thousands of dollars in bills. Something could happen. You could break your leg, you could get hit by a car, you could suddenly find out that you actually have heart disease at twenty, you could develop cancer. Have insurance, you need insurance. You legally need car insurance in the US, and you financially need health insurance. If you have a pet, I think it's a good idea for them to have pet insurance.

Credit cards are not for emergencies, they are not for fun, they are not for buying things that are just ever so slightly out of your budget, they are for taking advantage of the credit card company and managing to get by in a system that demands you have a credit score. ONLY put purchases on your credit card that you already have cash for. Before you get a credit card, build up an emergency savings so that you aren't tempted to put emergency charges on your card.

If you DO end up with an interest-bearing debt, pay it off as fast as possible because letting it linger costs you a LOT of money in the long run.

Stay the fuck away from tobacco and nicotine products they are fucking terrible for you, they are fucking expensive, and they are not worth it put the vapes down put the zyns down put the cigarettes down I will begin manifesting in your house physically i swear to fuck. Knock that shit off and put the cash that you'd be spending on nicotine into a savings account.

Take care, sorry everything sucks, I promise that in some ways it actually sucks less than it did before and we're working on trying to make it suck even less but it's taking a while.

[ghostedgrim]

She's all that is about the popular guy being dared to date the "nerdy girl" by his so called friend, he takes the dare but ends up falling for her. She finds out and they have a fight and break up. He wins her back in the end. Take it anyway you want! I do want Eric to be jealous as hell after they break up when other guys start taking an interest in reader!!

She's All That pt.1

Pt2. Request page. Masterlist

Warnings ⚠️: Getting dared to pretend to date someone, implied violence, jealousy,

"Eric, with all so respect, you're a Dauntless leader, yet you've been single since day one." The music in the bar is so loud that for a moment Eric almost didn't hear him.

"Personally James, I don't see how that's relevant. I have enough hookups to satisfy me plenty, I don't need some girl or whatever. Relationships I just a bothersome hassle."

"I bet you don't have a single romantic bone in your body."

"That's what you think, James," the bartender hands Eric a plate of food and leaves her number on the receipt. "Now if I were an unromantic man, that woman wouldn't have given me her number just now."

"Okay whatever, we both know you're good at getting men and women into your bed, but can you handle a full on relationship?"

"Yes, I just prefer not to, I don't need it" Eric shrugs.

James smirks and holds up his wallet. "Prove it then, date y/n then, the ex Erudite girl from your iniation class. You don't have to love her back, just make her love you. Do it and I'll pay for your next tattoo."

"Fine, how long do I have?"

"I'll give you about a month."

"Then we have deal James."

Is drinking by the chasm stupid? Yes. Do I care? Absolutely not, not when I've been on a week long trip to Amity to handle Dauntless soldiers who forgot their mission and decided to play with the Amity girls. My job is to train and direct Dauntless soldiers, yet most days I find myself spanking ass because they don't know how to behave.

"God I should've stayed in Erudite." I groan. Obviously it isn't true, the people there were cruel, liars, manipulators, vain, but I must admit I missed all the reading and research I'd done throughout my time there.

"Saying stuff like that would get you killed," I damn near jump out of my skin at the sound of the deep rumbling voice behind me. I turn around to see Eric standing right behind me. He wraps an arm around my waist to stable me, and guide me away from the chasm as I sway. "Long day?"

"More like a long week," my hard scowl meets his cold grey eyes, "What do you want Eric?"

He looks at me with a prideful expression, "I wish to take you out on a date. Don't worry about work tomorrow I'm assigning you a day off."

I scoff, taking another sip of my drink. "Me? Hookup with you? Not interested."

Eric falters for a moment, a small tick in his jaw, before returning to that prideful arrogance. "Good, I'm not interested in a hookup. Meet me tomorrow at 8pm by the train, I'd like to get to know you, nerdy and all."

Before I could even argue he walks away, that entitled ass really thinks I'll just go where he tells me because he said it's a date. I wonder if he uses that method with every girl he hooks up with. Either way I'm not going.

"I'm not going." I remind myself for the uptinth time today. I'm laying on my stomach atop a skyscraper, sniper rifle in hand. Every shooting range in Dauntless is underground except for the rifle range. Every target is at least a mile away, and every night they're moved to a new spot, hidden somewhere on the streets below, or hidden in a new room within the buildings around me. Sometimes, the targets are put on conveyors so they move around, and sometimes some are hidden so well you can only see a tiny sliver. To handle a gun that can shoot from miles away takes practice, and extreme smarts. Constantly I must calculate how the wind may effect my bullet, how far before gravity pulls it down, the most effective place to hit a target, arm to disarm, leg to stop them from running, chest or head to kill.

Only 7 people here in Dauntless have been trained and can handle a rifle and I'm one of those seven. It's one of the few jobs I can use to challenge myself. Kinda fascinating how using a gun takes so much math and knowledge in physics. None the less, I still train at least twice a week like the others.

I'm not fucking going! BANG!! My gun jerke violently, the bullet flies through the air landing perfectly onto the head of a far away target.

I look at my watch, "6:15." I'm not fucking going.

I readjust. BANG!!

I wonder what Eric could possibly have in mind for our date. Wait, why the fuck should I even care? I'm not even going.

It would be rude to stand him up though, and maybe he does actually like me, maybe he's finally going to be in a relationship and he actually chose me. I scoff, nah that's fucking stupid, as if Eric would think to pick me our of all the women already obsessed with him. I'm sure he'll live if stand him up.

BANG!! I miss by a whole 5 feet. "Fucker."

BANG!! I miss again...

It's 7:58, I'm standing by the train tracks wearing my nicest black dress, combat boots, and my favorite gun and dagger holstered to my thigh beneath the skirt of my dress. I even did my makeup. Fuck me, why the Hell did I fall for this crap?

I watch the train approach. "Where the Hell is Eric? Is this a prank?" I fail to hear the frantic footsteps from behind me. I barely have time to process anything before there's an arm around my waist and I'm getting dragged into a train car.

"Sorry I'm late, had some last second paperwork to handle. Thank God I made it in time to catch the train. You okay?" Eric is wearing his typical black cargo pants, combat boots, his black shirt is tight fitting and pared with a black jacket, his hair is in it's signature style and everything. Why the Hell am I about to swoon?

"I'm uh, yeah I'm fine." I tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear as I regain my footing. "For a moment I was scared you stood me up."

Eric scoffs, "Stand up a beautiful girl like you? I'd rather punch a brick wall." He sits down on the threshold of the door, letting his legs dangle out of the traincar as we race through the city. "Come sit," he pats his thigh.

If he's dissapointed I didn't sit on his lap he doesn't show it as I sit across from him. Unlike him I keep my legs inside the train car. "So uh..." I click my tounge, "why did you ask me out in a date, and why did you do it without the intent of hooking up? Last time I checked you never had time for a girlfriend."

"You've never been asked out before-"

"Oh so you're asking me out as a joke? Or pity? Because I'm not staying if that's the case." Eric appears to panic for a moment and quickly grips my shoulder as I try to stand.

"I wasn't finished," he states defensively, Eric's eyes stare deep into mine, their color cold as a winter storm, yet my cheeks warm and my heart stutters. I should probably check that with a doctor. "You and I came to Dauntless and went through iniation at the same time, if I recall correctly you ranked 10th place out of 35 initiates. Now you're not only training and directing Dauntless soldiers, but you're also apart of the only seven people here in Dauntless capable of handling a sniper rifle. I think I have every reason to be curious about you, because the fact that nobody has asked you out is baffling, especially considering how stunning and powerful you are."

Never have I expected a man like Eric to say such words. Stunning? Powerful? I know I'm strong, no idea where he gets the idea I have good looks, but honestly, I feel like I'm the hottest girl in Dauntless after hearing those words. Eric's hand rests atop mine, warm, strong, calloused from rigorous training, his eyes seem to trace my face, and suddenly I'm 16 and freshly transferred to Dauntless again. Eric was terrifying, but hot back then, he still is now just more tame.

I soon realize I've been gaping like a damn fish for minutes now and Eric's small chuckle breaks me from my trance. "I take it nobody has told you that before," he brings a hand to my cheek, his expression soft, "let me be the one to change that, to show and tell you just how amazing you are."

I used to imagine how his lips would taste. t

Then I turned 17 and pushed it from my mind because I was convinced Eric would never love me. He would always be too busy chasing tail to even notice me. But now his eyes are on my lips, his tounge even darts out for a moment to lick his bottom lip. He then looks back at my eyes, he leans in the hand on my cheek pulling me closer. "You smell like strawberries." Our lips are almost touching, his warm breath fanning across my jaw, he smells like gunpowder, cedarwood, and whiskey. I can barely hear anything over my pounding heart. I close my eyes, leaning forward to close the distance between us.

"Shit!" I open my eyes as Eric frantically pulls himself away from the door and the traincar is encased in darkness for several seconds until we leave the small tunnel. "Fuck," Eric laughs, "nearly lost my damn leg." I can't help but to laugh with him.

"That would certainly be quite the traumatic first date." We settle down again the wall both looking out the open door across from us. "How about we just keep all our limbs inside the train for now?" Eric sighs, and we both relax taking in the sight and sounds of the dark clouds rolling in and the distance thunder. The train rolls through the miles of green, flat land between the city and Amity. You can still see the bright lights of the Erudite buildings. It's peaceful, and I can't help but just enjoy the moment rather than talk.

"I once lit my hand on fire." Eric says it so casually as if he were talking about the damn weather.

"You what! Please do tell." I smile like a little kid excited for candy. Eric smiles back and dives into the story of how in chemistry he accidentally covered his hand in lighter fluid, then instead of washing it off he thought it faster to just burn it off. Fortunately the fire lit and burnt out too quick to cause any permanent damage.

It's pouring by the time the train reaches the Dauntless sector. Eric jumps off, then I jump right after. I barely have time to finish standing before he's wrapping his jacket around me. "I would hate for you to catch a cold. Now let me walk you home."

I'm starting to think this is a dream.

Asking her out was one thing, I never meant to get attached. We've been dating for almost a month now. Every time I see her my heart stops, and all I can do is admire her like some dumb schoolboy with a crush. Never in my life did I think I could actually fall in love, and never did I think I would stay up all night imagining what it would be like to kiss a girl, let alone replaying the sound of her laughter in my mind over and over. She's strong, smart as Hell, arguably smarter than me, and gorgeous, so fucking gorgeous I could drown in her arms. Honestly if she suffocated me I'd probably thank the damn woman.

"I'm fucked, I'm so utterly fucked." I spend maybe another hour in bed with nothing but my boxers on. I'm already running late, but fuck it, it won't kill Max if I'm late for work just once.

I'm quick to change clothes and rushed out of my home to search for y/n. I find her in the training room running a small squad through some drills. Without a single care I kiss her cheek, "Good morning, my dagger. Sorry for interrupting, but I just needed a small taste of you to get through my day." Her cheeks are dusted in red, and fuck she's just so damn cute it stabs my heart, and then her expression snaps back to stone and she shoos me away.

I catch James in the small squad of men, he's smiling and my heart drops as I remember our bet. I take my time walking up to my office. "How the Hell am I going to escape this?"

Today was exhausting, and I received far to many lewd comments about my relationship with Eric than I'd like. But now I can finally go visit Eric at the bar. For a guy known to be heartless and terrifying he's an amazing boyfriend.

Many people, especially Four, had warned me that Eric was likely dating me as a joke, but I highly doubt he'd continue fake dating me for a whole month as a joke. It's definitely not a joke. Yeah he can be mean, really mean, and cruel, especially to initiates, and yes he's heartless to seemingly everyone here in Dauntless but he has exceptions for certain people... I'm important to him, he's not dating me as a joke, sure he's capable of being that cruel but... he isn't doing that... right?

I try to shake the uneasy thoughts from my head, their just stupid fears, that's all. I pull on Eric's jacket and quickly make my way down to the bar.

I've been sitting alone at this table for nearly 20 minutes, and I can feel the eyes on me. My stomach is a storm of unease, and my doubt is ever growing. This isn't the first time Eric has been late to a date. When we first started dating, he had been cocky, full of himself, half the time it sounded like he was trying to talk me into bed. Despite our first date, it had taken me a while to finally, truly open up to him, to trust him, and believe he wouldn't hurt me. Yet here I am, sitting alone at a table a week later.

It's been a fucking hour, and I swear I can hear the whispers, feel the eyes. The waitress looks at me with contempt, as if she's won something and I lost at whatever she was winning it. My unease eventually turns to frustration and soon I'm walking through the dimly lit halls in search of Eric.

"Fuck me man, and here I thought you were incapable of a relationship." James, without a damn doubt that's his voice.

"Well I'm full of surprises." Eric? That's definitely him. Why the Hell is he with James instead of me, and why are they talking about relationships?

I stalk closer to where I'd heard them speaking, James is running his mouth about a girl's ass making it easy for me to find the two men, and watch them while remaining unseen.

"Have you both kissed, better yet fucked?" James asks and it makes my stomach turn sour. Kissing is fine, but asking about my sex life is not. Not that I have one, yet.

Eric huffs, "no we haven't had sex, and unless you count kissing on the cheek, then we haven't kissed yet."

"Ah, so in that case it isn't love." James has a concerningly victorious look.

"Just because we haven't kissed doesn't mean she isn't in love with me. She's never kissed a guy before, let alone have sex." Eric sounds somewhat annoyed.

"Well damn, a virgin, and unkisssed, I think I may need a taste myself. It's been awhile since I've tried a girl like that. Though-"

"James," Eric warns, his voice deep and posture tense. I wish I could see Eric's face, but all I can see is his back.

"Fine, fine, so you claim she's in love with you. Now I can argue that, but I saw the way that girl looked at you when you visited her last week. She looked at you the way a girl looks at a puppy." James shrugs, and then his eyes lock with mine and he smiles. "It seems I've lost our bet Eric. You can be romantic, and you are capable of making any girl, even ugly miss grumpy, genuinely fall for you. I can't wait to watch her face and see her cry when you tell her you're whole relationship has been fake."

"James-"

"Then aging you should definitely keep dating her. Think about it, maybe she'll stop being so closed off and grumpy, better yet, she'll stop being so strict on my squad. Perhaps you can make her give me a few promotions."

"Playing with her emotions to make her date me and fall in love was-"

I don't think, I just run. I don't stop running, not until my legs give out and I find myself sitting in a train car. That asshole! I trusted him, I loved him, and yet that fucker was using me for his own sick gain! My comm link keeps ringing, and in my frustration I stupidly throw it out of the train.

I'm crying so hard I can barely breathe, my chest hurts like Hell, and my vision is so blurry from tears that I can barely see shit. It was fake, it was all fake. Everything he said was fake! I was nothing to him! Absolutely nothing!

I curl up, and I hate myself for doing it, but I pull his jacket tighter around me. "Gods how can I be so fucking stupid... they warned me, so many fucking times and I ignored them like an idiot."

The sun is rising by the time I get off the train. It's freezing cold, snow covers the street and snowflakes fall from the sky. I glance at the cameras as I walk back to the compound. No doubt Four is watching me through them, or is already at my apartment with a whole essay of a lecture awaiting me. I don't even know if I have the energy to keep walking. So I just lean against a brick wall inside an alley.

I don't know how much time has passed, I'm shivering uncontrollably but I just can't seem to move.

"Y/n." His voice is deep, soft, and full of warmth and I find myself crying all over again.

"Four, I... you were right I-" He interrupts me with a tight hug and kisses my forehead.

"Later, let's just get you home and warm." Four bundles me up in a spare jacket and scarf he brought before picking me up and carrying me home. The exhaustion hits me hard and I unwillingly let myself drift asleep.

I'm bundled in thick warm blankets when I wake up, two warm hands hold one of mine. I finally open my eyes. I'm in my bedroom, Four is leaning against the wall near my door, his knuckles scabbed, and splattered with blood. Confused I look to my left to see who the Hell is holding my hand. To my suprise it's Eric. His gaze is locked on our hands, eyes are rimmed in red, bruises decorate his jaw, right eye, and possibly other places, even his nose looks broken.

"Why the fuck are you here?" Eric's head snaps up and he looks at me in such a way that I'm convinced he actually does love me.

"I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry, what happened- no, what I did was wrong. You didn't deserve any of that." A tear slips down his cheek and I roll my eyes at his pathetic attempt of gaining my pity. "Yes, James and I made a bet with him betting I couldn't make you fall in love with me. It was wrong, and it was cruel for me to manipulate you like that-"

"Get out." I snap.

"Hear him out, trust me," Four interrupts. "We both know Eric isn't the guy to let himself get beat up, especially without throwing at least one punch back." It dons on me that Four beat the shit out of Eric, but that's not what suprises me, it's the fact that Four is utterly unscathed. Eric actually let Four beat him up after what he did to me.

"I- at first it was fun, but then I started to develop feelings and holy shit I fell. I fell hard and fast and I didn't know what to do." Eric's voice breaks and he looks away from me. "You were like a goddam dagger, burrowed deep into my heart and seared into my brain. I thought, maybe to could just let myself win the bet instead of calling it off, you'd never have to know and we'd get to keep dating. You don't have to forgive me, but please know ever I've told you, it was the truth and I do love you. I love you so much it hurts."

"A part of me wants to believe you, Eric. However, the other part of me knows you're nothing more than a lying manipulative snake. I don't want to ever see you again, don't talk to me, don't even look at me."

Defeated Eric finally rids himself from my room.

"What happened to James?" I ask Four.

Four smiles, "Eric broke his jaw."

I sigh, deep in thought, "Did Eric actually let you hit him."

"Pretty much. I found him outside frantically looking for you, I punched first before asking questions. I had already seen all I needed to through the cameras. He didn't fight back once, just stood there and took my beating. I yelled st him for quite a bit before dragging his ass here then returning to the security cameras and waiting for you to step off the train."

"Four?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. And if I ever act that stupid again, slap the shit out of me."

[seirei-bh]

Jason Mendal's facade. Deep analysis about him: his past, traumas, ideologies and subsequent development -Theories

I'm going to try to do a deep analysis here about why Jason is the way he is and how he became the person he is now. At least the little info que got about him until ep 5. Before start to read, you have to keep in mind that although there is some canonical data here, there is also a lot of speculation on my part, so these theories may be refuted in future episodes.

I am going to talk here about all the possible reasons for how his behaviour is today, applied to his business, as well as to his relationships of rivalry, friendship and romance. About his ideas, mentality, his heart, and everything related to the little we know about his childhood, personality and way of behaving. It will be a long analysis with many points to discuss.

Backstory and possible traumas

To begin with, another theory about Jason that I have after ep 5 that I'm going to add to my huge list of theories about him (you can read them in some of my previous posts, like this one and others in my Jason's headcanons post) is that, regarding the big number of brief romantic partners he had, and why he doesn't want to have a long and stable romantic relationship with anyone, I think one of the reasons to that fear may also be related to the death of his father and with his own actual “perfect” life in general.

First, I mean the fact that his father died when he was a teenager has made me think that perhaps Jason's emotional situation could be similar to Anthony from Bridgerton series, who after losing his father and seeing how much his mother suffered from that loss, that created a trauma that made him never want to fall in love for fear of losing someone else whom he loves again and suffering for it.

Perhaps his mother had depression after the death of her husband, maybe because of this she neglected her son or even lost her job, so they even had financial problems, and Jason having to deal with tons of responsibilities since he was too young. That also made Jason become a person more focused on getting money and power at any price and as quickly as possible.

We do not know how his father died, it is most likely that it was due to a car accident or some serious illness. About Jason and his mother, I wonder if maybe they never got along, or if their relationship deteriorated after his father died. But regardless of that, the death of one of your parents in your teenage years is something that can affect you greatly. This makes me think about what kind of situation Jason would live in high school, I’ve the feeling that he wasn't very popular, or at least not at first, and that he was one of those people who go from being one of those who suffered bullying to those who end up bullying others as a wrong way to show that he could be stronger and thus create some popularity with which he would stop feeling alone and unprotected. I bet his "charming personality" started to come through here, and the death of his father had a lot to do with it. Being a person who did everything possible to try to fit in, even if he had to destroy others to do so.

I also wrote a long time ago in another post that it is possible that other children made fun of Jason at school for having white locks, and that he perhaps dyed his hair all brown for a long time, and that perhaps his poliosis was also a consequence of Waardenburg syndrome, which can have other consequences. Which would only add more insecurities to that little Jason and cause him to accumulate more resentment.

He saw all those popular boys at high school who were very confident guys, seemingly charming (even though they were really jerks), rich, dating with all the pretty girlfriends they want, and who had everything going well in their lives, while him, being a good and nerdy boy couldn't achieve anything and who felt more vulnerable than ever after losing his father, so he told himself that to succeed and be stronger that was the law of the jungle that prevailed and that he had to be not only like them, but better, imitating them and also later going further than them in life, whatever was the price to pay. Succeeding the unpleasant way.

To add here something more: Chinomiko said originally when New Gen was still in the previous High School ideas, Jason was a character like a “stupid comical villain”, so at least we can imagine he ended been being a jerk in his teenage years for sure. Probably the typical pathetic bully who likes to bother others, but since his character had the best glow up I also guess that now he's more complex than before too.

And all this will also manifest itself in being obsessed with the ideal of perfection and in projecting an image of himself of absolute self-confidence. Which would also make him start faking a perfect image not only at high school, later at work, but among his “friends” and with his romantic partners, so it would be exhausting for him and would end getting bored of them and don’t make him feel happy. But by the other hand, he’s afraid that a woman could find out his true self and be disappointed, so he prefers to hide his insecurity and prevent them from seeing them, ending the relationship as soon as possible.

It could also be possible that Jason's father, before he died, was a very humble and good man who had high expectations for his son and convinced him that he had to reach very high levels professionally, either because he positively supported this and had great dreams and hopes for the future of his son so he could have the better chances in life he couldn't achieve, maybe even his father was the one who had the dream about “Goldreamz” and had the desire to start his own company one day, OR on the contrary, because he was a cold man who put a lot of pressure on him to achieve excellence, because he had no expectation that his son couldn’t achieve anything like him (I think it's more probably the first option than this second one because the second one is too similar to Nathaniel's father, but who knows). Both which also led Jason to want to achieve a high professional goal, either so that his father could have been proud of him and make their dream come true, or because he wanted to show him that he could be better than the low expectations that his father had.

Someone may think that Jason getting "daddy issues" and most of his problems being caused because of this is very cliche or simple, but we have seen that before with other Mcl characters, whether due to negligence and parental abuse (Nathaniel's parents), due to little attention and abandonment (Castiel's parents, Nina's father) or due to the death of their parents or one of the parental figures (Lysander, Armin and Alexy's biological parents, or Violette's mother), so I think it wouldn't be so strange for Jason to have a trauma related to that and that a lot of things that he try to goal in his life were in some way related to that, same about why he has that behaviour in his relationships.

Another thing: Jason mentions in ep 5 that his parents were not millionaires, and his birthday was rather modest. He is quite dry and serious when mentioning this, which makes me think that it is a detail of his life that he doesn’t like to talk about, since he may consider it a weakness. And it doesn't surprise me, since Jason couldn't set up the company alone, he needed the help of various private investors to whom he now owes money and favors. Also in his description he says that he likes expensive brand clothes and numbers (I guess this refers to money, not maths XD) So the fact of appearing to be a man with a lot of money is something that probably has him obsessed, and that it has cost him a lot of sacrifice to achieve, and he may also have still debts to those investors, but he does his best to pretend that everything in life is going very very well. He won’t want his rivals, his companions, or any flirt to find out that there are things in his life that are either not going so well or have not gone well in the past. (I’m not saying he’s broke, but I mean he’s not so rich as Amanda, despite of he tries to do his best to look like that, especially because all his company investors are probably rich men of very high category, high social standards you know), basically about this Jason is a bit like Jordan in The wolf of wall street movie, in the sense of someone who started very low in the social scale and ended up climbing to the top, according to him with clean methods, but who knows if he or any of his investors actually have any illegal secrets about his finances, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case and Jason purposely ignored this, since he himself said in ep 5 that he didn't know how some of his workers did their jobs and that he "wasn't interested in knowing it." He said this about Danica, but I think it really implies that he applies it to everyone who works with him and for him.

His business ideology:

There is a saying in Spanish that is quite famous in the world in marketing and great finances and that can be applied perfectly to Jason to explain and summarize his behaviour in business and his way to see the life: it is said that in business you need to have a "mentalidad de tiburón" (literally have a mind like a shark), this refers to a white shark, if it doesn't move it sinks, and means this is the mentality that an ambitious man of business must follow in order not to sink and continue continuing with his goals and dreams, the mentality of a person whose main motivation is money, who does not mind jumping the limits of ethics and morality in order to achieve it.

The equivalent in English here is “wolf-like mentality”, it’s similar to what I’ve explain, but includes too the saying of “divide and conquer” and to clarify this even more to understand Jason’s character, here I add all the main points it includes, something that can perfectly fix in Jason’s character to understand him better, a very Maquiavelo-like:

This can also apply to his personal relationships (romantic ones included), this way of thinking can explain it very well too what could be other of the reasons why he feels he cannot have a long romantic relationship: because his business are the first, and also can explain why perhaps he lost the interest in women very quick, because he’s mostly focused in the mentality of immediate results and thinks maybe the other choice is a lost of time + the fear for the previous trauma about the attacked and losing someone I’ve mentioned before.

And about wolf mentality and his rivalry and work…

Now let’s talk about the matter of his rivalry with Devon.

Maybe the answer is just a simple as: Jason was just frustrated for not be able to achieve his dreams for all the stuff I’ve been wrote before, which led him to steal the project from Devon (whether it was stealing it by himself acting alone and by himself in a desperate act or because some third person manipulated and convinced him to do it), but even if those were the main reasons, I still think there's something more here we still don’t know. Something more that happened between them before or during the town hall project thing, something more personal and complex than what we've been told, or at least that there's something more here that Devon doesn't know.

Maybe could be also for envy too. Devon was a good person and didn't have to pretend to be perfect to achieve his dreams like Jason did to have friends or a romantic partner and Devon seems to had a loving and stable family, maybe they meet each other since they were teenagers, but we still have no confirmation about this, so maybe I’m wrong, the only thing we know for sure is that at least they didn’t meet each other since childhood, since Chinomiko said it on Instagram long ago. But still this doesn’t feel enough (to me at least) to explain Jason’s behaviour.

For now, I also keep other of my old theories about there is possible a third person involved in all this problem. We’ll see what’s the real answer to this question.

Although here I want to add one more point, and that is that Devon and Devenementiel curiously represent the exact opposite of Jason and Goldreamz in the business approach, the called “sheep mentality”, and these are the differences between them:

Ironically, today in the competitiveness of modernity in business, it's considered that in reality the best entrepreneurs are neither one nor the other, but a mix between both types of mentality. Does this mean that there will be a time in the future when both companies find themselves in a delicate situation and decide to collaborate in order to mutually triumph against a greater enemy (Ioann and his company, f*ck Ysa's ex boyfriend, I hope we can punch him, that Ioann is gonna be the new Debrah and main villain mark my words) by overcoming their differences? Well, only time will tell...

Now, about Ysaline-Jason:

There is the small detail that Ysaline comes from a rich family, or at least her mother became rich and famous in her work in recent years, and thanks to that Ysaline was able to do private and expensive studies abroad (and Jason clearly knows this, he's an stalker who got her number and email easily XD and other characters like Thomas and Amanda knew Ysaline's mother was rich too just searching some info about her on internet). And that may also cause some insecurity in Jason, fearing that perhaps Ysaline may be disappointed if she finds out that he's not as perfect as he seems or at least that he was not at all in his past. Maybe he even had an ex girlfriend who, after she found out that, felt disappointed about him and left him, and that made him more superficial and cautious with her subsequent love conquests, or maybe since he only get romances once he started to put on his popular guy facade and succeed, he thinks he needs to impress and seduces her in the same way he did it with other women, because he thinks she will only be seduced by him by superficial stuff like his charms, attractive, money and work. Until Ysaline shows him what she wants is really get to know him, with all his weakness, in heart, mind and body, and until he realizes he really wants to know her better just because he loves to spend time with her and she makes him happy, and we know that will happen.

I've read some theories from different people and social webs that some think that Jason wants to use Ysa's family's money to invest in his own company, but I think his intentions are not in that way, but rather:

I think also one of the reasons why he agreed to help in ep 5 her was not only to seduce her or to show her Goldreamz so that she would want to work there with him, but also because Jason is able to see her potential, since a person with her studies, her family money, all the important contacts her mother has, and with the previous experience of having worked in a big important company and who has also shown him face to face that she has a competitive and brave side, she can undoubtedly go very far, and obviously he wants her to go far having her by his side, but of course he will also have a conflict here since I don't think he is the type of person who is comfortable mixing love with business, not like Ioann, the hell with that shitty man.

Obviously he also wants to manipulate her or at least bother Devenementiel somehow with all this. The little we have seen of Danica in ep 5 is that she is someone very efficient and fast at her job, Jason saw that and brought her to his side, now Jason sees that although Ysaline has failed in one of her projects, she still has potential to become a great event organizer. He also wanted to closely observe how she works when she is motivated and has someone guide her in the right path, when she is herself, and maybe even Jason sees in her the person he was before he achieved excellence. And Ysaline has ambition, she herself told Devon in one of the previous eps (if you follow Devon's route) that she dreamed of one day becoming a big star in the world of events and had the goal of being one of the best at her job. Even in one of the dialogues you can get in ep 2, Jason asks Ysaline "Aren't you willing to do anything to achieve success?" Jason knows that they are both similar in that way, and he wants to take advantage of that.

However Ysaline not only has ambition and a competitive will, but also a certain level of morality and feeling of unity with her co-workers, boss and her family and friends. And although it is still early to assume this, it's quite possible that she is the character that represents the perfect mix between the two business ideologies, both the wolf and the sheep. I'll call that fussion "the kitten mentality" because I can.

Of course, returning to the relationships issue, one thing to try his best to seduce her and make her work for him or at least have her as an ally and briefly as lover, and something very different is what we know will happen: that he will fall in love with her and both will want more, but he will feel that he cannot and shouldn't go further.

So we have here all this matter about his fake perfect facade of rich, charming and popular man of business + his humble origins + wolf-like mentality + his trauma about the losing of his father and more people in the future. A perfect cocktail to be afraid to have a stable relationship.

Greetings to all Jason fans like me who have him as a route and loves to suffer. In this house we love traumatized fictional men with red flags.

And let's add of course there will probably be many more problems that will make him fear having a relationship with Ysaline once he falls in love with her, because problems already numbered in more than 2000 words weren't enough first because he will try to convince himself that he only wants to manipulate her so that she change sides and join to Goldreamz, and to seduce her so that she'd end up in his bed (and she maybe would believe that too), but then when he finds out he's in love with her, and she with him, Jason will have to make the decision about whether to go ahead with his revenge against Devenementiel or not, because he knows that will end up hurting her, since she could suffer if her colleagues and boss find out about her relationship with him and distrust her or if that even ruins her reputation, which is was already bad in her previous company because she slept with her previous boss, and above all because she will never forgive him and will hate him if the Devenementiel closes and all his friends and her loses their jobs because of Jason's actions. And having a relationship with him makes her feels more guilty for what happened, like believing she was part of his plans and she helped him in some way, and then she could believe she was nothing except another more of his conquers and everything was a lie (her ex-boyfriend trauma attacking again here), or at least she wasn't as important to him as she thought.

And perhaps, even if he tries to stop those actions, and not harm Devenementiel further so as not to make her harm her, perhaps, by then, it will be too late to stop those revenge plans...

So he will lose another person that he loves and wants in his life. The only person who accepted him and loved him exactly who he really is and who really knows him. His biggest fears making true, again.

but this is an otome game, guys, everything will be solved at the end and everybody will be happy, don't worry!

[honey-minded-hivemind]

Y'all know how I've mentioned some of my favorite Marvel characters before? And how each platonic yandere mentioned has a backstory with their bby, and regard the moment they met their bby as one of the best, if not the best, moment of their life? Well, I think maybe I can explore some of that now. Fair warning, I am only doing one character at a time. I will call these posts the Backstory!Posts! And I will go down the list of each character I've mentioned, so that means up first is Wolverine, a.k.a. Logan Howlett! Let's begin:

• Logan is not a friendly man. That is a fact. He's gruff, rough, and older than anyone can remember (even himself). He has had many, many foes... but he has also had friends, too... He can admit, he has a soft spot for kids (especially the sort who don't have anyone to rely on, or powers that scare them).

• His bby is likely a mutant who has a gift that is a bit wild, something hard to tame. They might be alone in the world, abandoned by family and friends, or maybe they have cut ties to protect those they used to know. They are hurting on the inside, and need something stable. Something that won't leave them, or toss them aside. Someone who won't be scared off or fearful of them.

• Thus enters Logan. He could meet them in a number of ways, but let's say the standard way he meets them is when they are first on their own. They are alone, trying to hide from the world and trying not to break down from the cards they've been dealt. Who wouldn't freak out if they lost everything they ever had? They are scared and panicked. And so, out of all the X-Men there are, Logan is considered the best option to handle this bby.

• And he is quite glad, later on, that he was the one to be picked for this mission. After all, this is how he met his bby, and he wouldn't miss it for the world.

• He gets the luck of handling a new mutant. Or at least one that has just had a rude awakening. For one reason or another, they are alone, terrified and hurt, and could be a danger to themselves or others. So he's the one who gets to meet and greet them. And if he gets hurt, it's not like it will take him down for long. With these thoughts, he stumbles across his bby for the first time.

• You've had a rough time for awhile now. Your powers have shown themselves, and you no longer have a place to call home. You're alone now. And you're not sure how you can survive much longer. You know anyone could come after you, and that with how some people view mutants, looking for help could be worse than staying on your own. The stress and panic inside you have built up, and it affects your abilities to a dangerous degree. And this only makes you feel worse..

• But then... someone approaches you. They aren't very big... but they are very intimidating... you try to make yourself appear smaller, not wanting to miff off this person, who seems cold and possibly dangerous... but he doesn't do anything to hurt you...

• Logan is now seeing the kid for the first time. And what a sight to see. They look worse for wear, and he can tell they're a minute from running off like a scared deer... and he sees something in their eyes, in the way they hold themselves... it reminds him of a time years ago, when he was the one acting like a lone and scared animal, with no memory of how he ended up that way... no one should go through that, least of all a kid...

• "Hey there, kid..." he starts, keeping a few feet away from them. He sees their eyes dart over him, sizing him up. Yep. Kid's actin' like a frightened animal... He lifts his hands up, showing his empty palms. "I ain't here to hurt ya, bub. Just in yer neck of the woods." Now that he's close enough to see them better, he notes a few wounds on them... Looks like someone took a shot at 'em... heh. Tough kid.

• "Ya need some help there, bub? Looks like someone tried to take ya out. Heh. Bet ya gave them a good kick in the *ss fer it, huh?" His stance is loose, and he notes how they seem to have relaxed a little... still a bit tense... he can smell blood on them... and a growl escapes him...

• You watch in silence as the man talks to you, keeping a good distance away from your personal bubble. His hands are clear of any weapons, and he's acting nicer than you expected. You feel like you can breath a little easier, at least for a moment... and then you hear him growl... and you wonder what the heck you've gotten yourself into...

• "Kid... how long have ya been bleeding? Ya need ta get some help... I know some people who can help ya... but that means ya need to trust me fer a minute." He feels concern seeing you flinch back at the noise he makes. Whatever did this to you, he really wants to have his own shot at 'em... you were bleeding and frightened, probably exhausted and needing something to eat... and honestly... it makes him feel angry... but he won't show it to you... no need in scaring you any further than you already are...

• You pause at his question. It... had been awhile since anyone seemed worried about you... and it felt nice, despite everything... but... do you really want to trust this man? What are the chances he's actually going to help you? What if he is some mad scientist, or a villain, or, or, who knows what?! Yet... he hasn't done anything except ask how you are, and offer help that you sorely needed...

• "It's gonna be okay, kid. Just take 'er easy. I won't force ya if ya don't want to go. But if ya want to come with me, I promise I'll help ya... that's what my group does. We help mutants like ya, who need help, who have nowhere ta go... I promise ya, ya don't gotta be alone... So... what do ya say? Ya care to join the X-Men?" He gives you a small grin, and you can't help but give a shaky one in turn.

• He holds his hand out... and you take it...

• "Welcome ta the group, bub. I think yer gonna fit right in..." And with that, you leave with him, cementing your choice to join the X-Men... and your future as his bby...

[theoneeyedgoldenwolf]

Attack of a Peahat

Whumptober 2024, number 24: Collapsed Building

Summary: Calm day at the Lon-Lon Ranch is disrupted by Peahat attack. Wild is NOT happy of this.

CW: Cursing, pinned down, impaled, blood, wounds, broken bones

Notion: The writing style is bit different as this is an older writing for different prompt. I got an idea for that too so no worries in there. =)

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The few last days had been calm at Lon-Lon Ranch. Or at least as calm as it could be while it was inhabited by eight young Heroes along with the place’s owners. Still, most of the rowdiness was used into the normal work done at any ranch and the Chain was more than eager of aiding around.

One night, as Malon had wanted the house just for herself and her husband for some together time, there had been three different ways of trying to get the eight others to stay out for the night. Time hadn’t been entirely happy of the idea but he couldn’t deny the fact of missing having private time with Malon. Warriors, having realized the situation long before the duo, had already tried to command the others around. The Captain had noticed the talk between the red haired woman and the one eyed man at the horse pen. Next on line Malon tried to come up with some kind of bet but she hadn’t thought things through well enough to come up with much to really convince the group to spend the night elsewhere around the ranch.

So, it had fallen down on Time himself. He had turned the situation into a small competition with the price being silver rupee which was as much as 100 in value. That had caught everyone’s notion. The rules were very simple. There were three locations in the safety of the Ranch: the barn, the horse pen and the stables. The Chain was to check all three places before choosing a place to sleep for the night. The one whom could check all three areas before picking one and giving good enough explanations for his choices would win.

After the dinner the group eagerly left the house. They all had perfect plans for the night and for choosing their places. Unfortunately, each of the eight Heroes made one simple mistake in their eagerness. They all started from the place they were quite certain to end up as their main favorite.

At the next day Time found Wind from middle of the horse pen. Wild had taken a place from the roof of a small shelter area connected to horse pen’s fence. Both were entirely outdoor people so the choice wasn’t a surprise at all. They both had been enjoying of the stars and having forgotten to check the other two places.

Hyrule was found from the barn. He was quite startled when Time woke him up. For slight sorrow, it was simply because of his past and need of well hidden place for sleeping. In all reality it hadn’t been anything of else than old habits jumping up. Legend was on the barn’s second floor of sorts. He had been meaning to go out to the horse pen with Wind but he had ended up asleep where he was. Part of him wanted to defend Hyrule and hence stayed close to him. As the Veteran was still waking up, Time told him to take it easy in the ladders while keeping close eye on the youngster.

The group continued to the stables. Warriors woke up with a start when the door was opened and quickly drew a knife while being ready to defend his own as well as his brothers’ lives. “Whoa! Easy, Captain!” Time half shouted while taking a swift step away from the unexpected half of an attack since Warriors was quick to stop his movement when he realized whom had come over.

“Sorry. Reflexes.” The Captain apologized while putting the weapon off. Time simply nodded while moving further in. He found Twilight sleeping on Epona’s back. It looked like the most natural place for him to be at. Sky was sleeping with the chickens and no-one except Time dared to approach him. After all Malon had introduced him to those birds of terror and turned him into a friend of theirs. It had taken a lot from her as well as from the chickens and the rooster but eventually Time had become quite fluent with moving and handling them.

Four was bit harder to find as he had taken the night with the Minish that lived at the Ranch. Time asked him to introduce the small creatures to him at some point as he hadn’t even known of them living around there. Four had nodded and accepted it.

Warriors, Twilight, Sky and Four hadn’t even thought about the price of the little competition. In fact, they hadn’t even thought about checking the other two places as they had known straight off where they wished to sleep at. It had been entirely natural choice from them in the end.

“I admit, I cheated on this a bit.” Time confessed when the group had come back to the house and sat down by the long dinner table. “I knew straight off where I’d find each and every one of you today. Not to mention I was quite certain that there wasn’t going to be a winner for this competition.” He told with a shrug before bit chuckling at the slightly shocked and confused looks from the Chain. “What? I’d be really bad Hero if I couldn’t observe and learn to know each and every one of you by now.” He stated out before telling the Chain to close their eyes.

As the group waited, Time rounded the table and placed a small rupee bag in front of each of them. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.” He told once he returned to his own place at the table. “There’s fifteen rupees for each of you. It makes bit more than 100 but at least there’s slight extra for the fact that I, in a way, fooled you all. So, I guess, its bit of an apology.” The Chain was bit surprised of the situation before already looking at their leader bit baffled. Time shrugged with a small smile. “Just showing how much I care about you all.”

After the breakfast the nine Heroes started to work around the Ranch. Time was with Malon at the horse pen when he heard something. “Malon, hush.” He urged while searching the sky for what had caught his notion. The second the realization struck him, he felt cold horror lodge inside of him. “SHIT!” He already cursed while dashing towards the barn. “Get the boys out of the stable! NOW!” He commanded while the Peahat came into sight not far from the barn.

Time opened the barn’s door harshly. “EVERYONE OUT OF THE BARN ON THIS INSTANT!” He screamed while dashing in to force the others away from their work. “OUT! OUT! OUT! GO!” He shouted while half dragging Four and pushing Hyrule towards the door. As the duo started to stumble away, Time was already fetching Legend before his notion fell into Wild.

The Champion was on a girder doing some simple fixations. “WILD! JUMP!” Time commanded while being entirely ready to catch him. Yet, that was when the monster attacked the barn. “WILD!” Time screamed in horror as the youngster was partly struck with the pieces of wood, hay and straws that the Peahat was sending all around. The leader didn’t think twice as he already dashed into action and caught the falling Hero. They fell roughly into the ground. “Wild?” Time called worriedly while shaking the unconscious boy. He only got a groan as an answer.

“Time! Wild! Get out of there!” The frantic shout came from the doorway and snapped Time back into the reality. The Peahat was entirely destroying the barn and crashing it to the ground. Warriors held the others from going inside the place while praying that Time could make it out with Wild.

“Look out!” The shout of warning got Time to check up just in time. The heavy girder was falling down and he knew there wasn’t a chance to avoid it. Not while dragging unconscious boy along. All he could do was to protect Wild as well as he could by his own body. “TIME!” The horrified scream was quickly brought out after his gasp of pain as he fell down by the strike.

Warriors forced others away from the crashing barn. There wasn’t anything they could do as the roof fell to ground and brought everything down with it. The Peahat pulled upwards once the storage house of sorts was demolished. “Take that shit down!” The Captain commanded as his gaze fell into the enemy.

Suddenly the monster was struck with an arrow. The Heroes turned their notion into Malon standing in middle of the horse pen with a bow and arrows. “It’s a Peahat! Flying plant which weak point is underneath it, the roots of that thing!” She shouted while shooting another arrow to catch the beast’s notion.

“You know where to hit! Attack!” The Captain shouted while dashing off to protect Malon. The woman gave him questioning but hopeful look when the knight came to her side. “I don’t know.” Warriors told and glanced at the remains of the barn. “Time and Wild are somewhere in that rubble.” He answered as honestly as he could while praying for a miracle.

As the Chain was fighting against the Peahat but not getting a strike in, Wild was slowly waking up with a groan. “Sssh, take it easy.” Time half whispered in the dimly lit area they were left into.

“Time!” Wild half shouted and turned around. Time growled in pain as he swiftly moved to protect the Champion from hitting himself into the debris around them.

“Easy! Don’t make fast moves.” Time told as the youngster sat in front of him. “There’s lot of sharp edges around here.” He warned before nodding towards a small tunnel of sorts where light was coming from. “You might get out of here from there.”

Wild glanced at the way while realizing that it was too thin for Time to get through. “But…” He started before taking a check around.

“You need to go to inform the others that I’m alive in here.” Time told with a slight grin. “Besides, you can’t move these girders off of me.” He continued while realizing where the Champion’s notion was in. There were three heavy wooden beams holding him down. One was over his legs, one over his back and slightly on shoulders and one jamming him against the stump of a vertical girder. “Not to mention that they’ll be needing your help. You’re the master archer and archery is needed the most to bring that Peahat down from the sky. Aim for the roots below the beast.” He told as calmly as he could.

Wild was entirely torn between what to do. Part of him wanted to stay with Time to keep him company if nothing else. Yet, the bigger part of him knew he needed to go and get help. Eventually he nodded and turned towards the road out. “Don’t move. Help will come soon.” He promised while starting to crawl into the thin pathway.

Once the Champion was out, Time started to try and push himself upwards. He needed to get freed but he couldn’t do much underneath the heavy girders. They did move slightly but it also changed the position of other debris around him.

“TIME!” Wild screamed out when he heard the slight movements and screeches. “DON’T MOVE! WE’LL NEED THAT PATHWAY TO GET BACK TO YOU!” He shouted almost frantically and sighed a bit in relief when the sounds ended. “Just… Wait for a moment…” He nearly begged before snapping his gaze up at the shout of his own name.

Twilight snapped his gaze into the destroyed barn when he heard Wild scream out Time’s name. “Wild!” He shouted and dashed over in worry. “Are you alright? What about Time?” The Rancher queried straight off.

“I’m fine. I’m taking that bastard down. Time’s alive but pinned down.” Wild stated out while taking out his bow and bomb arrows. His gaze was entirely fixed in the odd flying being with sharp blades circling its lowest part. He moved slowly but with full determination before starting to run.

Once close enough, the Champion hit the ground and slid underneath the monster. He laid on his back at the ground while screaming out in rage and shooting the explosives in near nonstop action. “YOU BASTARD! YOU FUCKING SICK SHITFACE! YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT! YOU’LL PAY FOR IT SO DAMN THOROUGHLY! I’M NOT FORGIVING THIS!”

Malon and the rest of the Chain were absolutely shocked of the scene. None of them had ever heard Wild scream and curse like that. The monster didn’t have even slightest bit of chances to move aside as the arrows kept coming so fast and precisely. The smoke of the explosions didn’t seem to bother the Champion at all as he kept firing them up into the beast.

When the monster started to fall, Wild finally got up and moved away from his spot. The Peahat crashed roughly into the ground before going all flat as air vanished from inside of it. The Champion was still ready to keep shooting the beast. He was panting hard while glaring fiercely at the monster. “Move and I’ll blow you to pieces even if it was the last thing I did.” He growled while daring the creature to take as much as one last breath but nothing happened.

Wild tore his gaze off of the monster and dashed back towards the destroyed barn while putting his weapons off. “Four! Wind! I need you two with me!” He nearly commanded without glancing if the duo came along. “Put on anything to help lifting heavy stuff!” He told while already going back to the spot where the thin tunnel of sorts would lead back to Time. “This way!” He stated out while crouching down and simply giving one quick glance to notice the duo having come next to him.

“Time! We’re coming over!” Wild called as he crawled through the tunnel. “Time! Answer, please!” He begged while fearing for the worst.

“Still in here, Champion.” Time called while opening his eye in the dim light. “You really shouldn’t have come back.” He told as Wild moved next to him.

“I brought Wind and Four. They can get you free.” Wild explained while ignoring Time’s disapproving gaze by not looking at him at all. “Besides, I gotta mark your place to others so that they can dig you out.” He told while taking out his bow and arrows, normal ones this time around, and started to move around carefully while not touching anything.

Four and Wind came forth soon after Wild. They took a moment to get used to the lack of light before they saw the situation. “Shit, that looks rough.” Wind commented while checking how the girders were over their leader. “Can you move?” He inquired after a moment while bit fearing of what kind of damage Time had.

Time closed his eye for a moment as he checked his body. “Yeah, everything seems to work.” He answered with slight relief in his voice while realizing that at least he wasn’t paralyzed from waist down. It was good news but he felt like there was something more too than the girders holding him down. “I’m not sure the girders are the only thing holding me down, though.” He warned as calmly as he could.

“Alright, we’ll be careful.” Four replied while nodding to Wind. The duo took a hold of the middle girder and carefully started to pull. “Just inform us if there’s anything that’ll be a danger to your life.” He told as the heavy block started to move slowly. Time simply nodded.

While the duo was working with the first girder, Wild had found a straight but narrow path out from their current placement. It was enough for an arrow and he shot it off. After that he searched a new hole from bit further and struck another arrow out. Then for third from opposite side of the first one. And lastly fourth arrow out from the opposite part from the second hole.

“There!” Legend shouted as the first arrow came into sight. He was ready to head over to start digging through the debris. “Huh…?” He was fully taken off guard when second arrow came up. “What is he…?” The Veteran asked when third arrow appeared.

“Wild’s marked the area where Time is!” Twilight shouted while already going over and marking the four small holes with pieces of wood he picked up. “They’re in middle of this area.” He stated out before already checking around. “We gotta work carefully so we won’t crash this whole creation down on them.”

As the Chain and Malon started to remove the debris from above, Four and Wind had managed to move the first girder off of Time. “How are you?” Wind asked while checking the next girder. He was checking how it was pinning their leader down and where it vanished in the debris.

“Breathing better.” Time replied while being grateful of the pressure having vanished from his chest. At least he didn’t feel like it would’ve triggered any of other damage with it.

“Okay, that’s good.” Four told with a nod while doing same as Wind to the other girder. “I think we can move this one at least.” He stated out while pointing to the one above Time’s shoulder and back.

“Same here.” Wind answered while forcing himself to stay calm. The situation wasn’t easy but he was grateful of being able to do something at least. “We could move them simultaneously upwards.” He observed before turning to Time. “Time, you think you can move away from underneath them if we lift them?”

“I can try but I can’t promise it’ll work.” Time answered while still being unable to shake off the feeling of there being more than the two girders holding him to ground. “Give it a shot. We’ll see where it goes.” He half commanded while getting himself prepared for the situation.

Four and Wind nodded in acceptance before counting from three downwards. After that they started to lift as carefully as they could. Yet, they didn’t get far when Time already nearly begged them to stop. “Stop! Stop! S-something’s wrong…” He growled in pain. “L-lower them back.” He nearly pleaded and the duo, slowly as possible to avoid causing more damage, placed the girders back down. They made sure they weren’t crushing Time any of more than before.

“W-what’s wrong?” Wild asked while having already moved into Time’s line of sight. Yet, the leader was keeping his eye closed while concentrating into his own breathing.

“I-I’m not sure of both b-but… The upper one… T-there’s… T-there’s something sticking off from it a-and… I-it… It’s impaled me.” Time told between breaths while willing the pain down. “You three… Get out… T-there’s nothing you can do at the moment…” He continued with a sorrowful smile. “H-help the others to dig me out.”

The trio was fully reluctant to leave Time alone. Yet, they couldn’t get the girders off and Wild had already informed of the area to the others. It was as much as they could do. “O-okay… Just hang in there. We’ll get you out of here. I promise.” Wild told as confidently as he could before leading Four and Wind out of the area from the same way they had come from.

The trio joined the others as quickly as they could. “Update on things!” Wild called to catch everyone’s notion. “We got one girder moved off but two are still holding him down. There’s one over his legs and one over his shoulder. There’s a longer piece off of the one over his shoulder which has struck into him.” He explained as calmly as he could but he couldn’t stop his voice from trembling. “We don’t know how bad it is.”

“Alright. Thanks for the info.” Warriors replied while trying not to think about the situation. “Let’s continue. The quicker we get him out, the better!” He commanded and, with the three extra pair of hands in the work, the debris moved off the way bit quicker. Still, it took few hours before they reached through and got to Time.

“Time, you still conscious?” Warriors asked worriedly while having more or less jumped down to the area.

“Wars?” Time called quietly while opening his eye. The Captain sighed in relief and nodded.

“Sorry about this.” Warriors apologized while starting to feel around the girder to find the piece that had impaled Time. “Considering that you’re still breathing quite well, it hasn’t struck into lung.” He observed while moving to front. “Can’t really know how well it’s struck on your chest. If lucky, there might be a small gap between the rest of the thing and your skin.” The Captain continued while following the wooden piece through the clothes.

“I’ll check your legs. Just a sec.” Warriors told while moving away and starting to feel around the second girder. He scowled when he found another piece sticking out of it and going into Time’s left leg. “Seems like there’s another in here.” He told while getting even more worried of the situation.

The Captain observed the situation for a moment to see how much there was room to move the girders. “I think we’ll be able to set your legs free fairly easily.” He half whispered while planning things through. “The other one’s trickier.” He thought aloud before coming back in front of Time. “Sorry, again.” Warriors apologized before taking out a knife and cutting Time’s shirt open. “I need to know the situation.” He simply explained before grimacing at the scene.

“Shit…” He mumbled while praying that the blood in the wood was coming from the area which the piece had impaled. Bit fearfully but still keeping his hands steady, he started to feel around the piece of wood again. He sighed in relief when he found a gap. It was just barely enough to get a finger between but it was there. “You got lucky with this one.” He told with a small lopsided smile. “I’ll get the others here and we’ll get you the hell out of here in no time.” Warriors told confidently before already going back to the hole in the debris he had come from.

“What’s his situation?” Twilight inquired straight off when the Captain came into his sight. He was ready to jump down and aid in any way possible.

“His left leg is impaled. It’ll be easy to deal with, though. There’s enough of room. At least, if the piece isn’t too deeply lodged into the ground.” Warriors started while checking around the Chain to figure out whom would be the best ones to aid him. “The other one’s harder. It has impaled him just below the shoulder. Luckily it hasn’t struck anywhere else. It seems to be quite long piece and there isn’t much of room to move the girder. We need to cut the piece from both front and behind to get him free.” He explained before bit cursing inwardly. “Failed to check anything else, damn it.”

“Let’s get him freed first.” Twilight stated out while ignoring the slight worry of there being more of damage than mentioned ones. “I and Legend can keep the girders up while you deal with the pieces that’s impaled him.” He suggested and waited for the Captain’s choice in the matter.

“Sounds good.” Warriors replied with a nod. “Hyrule, be ready to heal him once we get him out of here.” He told and the healer nodded firmly in confirmation. After that the Captain moved aside to let Twilight and Legend in with him. “Legend and Twilight are with me in here, Time. We’ll get your leg free first.” He called out to their leader and Time simply nodded while trying to get ready for the movement and pain.

“Move your leg along once Twilight and Legend raise the girder.” Warriors half commanded before starting to count from three downwards. He wanted to give Time a chance to get prepared for the change in the situation. Legend and Twilight put lot of strength into their work while moving the girder as slowly as they could. Luckily the piece impaling Time’s leg was short enough and there was sufficient amount of height to raise the girder high enough. “This gonna hurt, Time.” The Captain warned before counting again from three downwards before yanking the leg free. Time growled in pain but held back the scream. Once the leg was free, Warriors quickly bandaged it as well as he could before moving both of the legs off the way to let Legend and Twilight lower the girder back down.

The trio moved swiftly to the other girder. “You ready?” Warriors asked worriedly while Time was still trying to ease out his breathing. Soon enough he nodded and prepared for the next situation. Again after counting from three downwards Twilight and Legend started to raise the girder slowly. Time tried to move along the girder while keeping the piece from shifting in the wound.

“Damn, that’s a long piece.” The Captain cursed as he noticed that it was still going into the ground when the room to raise the girder came to an end. “Keep it steady.” Warriors commanded before turning his notion back to Time. “I know it’ll hurt but can you lay back down? I need to cut that piece of wood from behind you.” He half queried and his leader nodded.

Time grit his teeth as he moved and half forced the wood through his wound. At least nothing else was impaled anymore as he had needed to sit up earlier to follow this specific girder’s movement. “I’m going to cut that piece of wood next. It’ll hurt again. Sorry, Sprite.” Warriors warned before counting down from three again until striking hard into the bloodied wood. He flinched at the pained growl coming from Time. Right after that he struck the wood again from higher ground to strike a big enough piece off to gain room to get Time freed. “Okay, sorry for this but, you gotta get up again so that we’ll get you out of here.” The Captain told while helping as well as he could as Time slowly sat upwards to slide off of the piece of wood.

The second Time was free, Warriors already took a good grip of him and pulled him away from the area. He rounded the vertical stump of girder by moving Time into his arms as well as he could. Once out of the harm’s way, he gave the rights to Legend and Twilight to lower the girder back to ground. The duo rushed straight to the Captain and Time the second the heavy piece of wood was off of their hands.

Time was in pain and keeping his eye closed. He concentrated fully into breathing while trying to aid in the rescue as well as he could. And yet, at the moment, he barely heard the words around him.

Legend and Twilight climbed out of the hole while Warriors carefully stood up with Time in his arms. The duo reached out and took a hold of their leader to pull him out of the debris. They worked as carefully as they could until their leader was in Twilight’s arms and he carried his mentor into the house. Warriors climbed up with the help from Legend and Wild. They followed the rest of the group inside.

Malon was already treating Time’s wounds by the time everyone had gotten inside. Warriors moved next to her to aid with the work. “Is everyone…?” Time queried quietly while being just barely conscious.

“Everyone’s safe and sound.” Malon told him calmly. In the light of the room it was clear to see that Time’s chest was bruised and there probably was rib or few broken. There were some scratches on his back but luckily nothing of worse.

“Wild…?” Time inquired while trying to find the said Hero. Yet, his sight was starting to fade and it was hard to concentrate into the people around him.

“Just bruises but nothing of worse.” Malon answered and Time sighed in relief. He had already suspected for such out of the fact how well the youngster had moved. Still, he needed to hear the truth before he could stop worrying for his boy’s wellbeing for a moment.

“The beast…?” Time asked while fighting to stay conscious. He needed to know before he could let go.

“Wild dealt with it.” Malon reassured him with a firm nod. Time actually chuckled a bit before already grimacing in pain.

“W-wish I could’ve seen that…” He half whispered before finally falling unconscious. The last sight he saw was of Hyrule coming closer. He simply wished Malon wasn’t going to let the healer overdo himself.

It didn’t take long before Time was back on his feet. Hyrule and potions had done perfect job in fixing the damage. Yet, what was more surprising was the fact of how long it took before the next portal appeared.

The truth was, with the help from the nine Heroes, the debris of the lost barn was cleared in few days. They even had time to buy new wood and girders for building the next barn. Not to mention that said barn was up and about in surprisingly swiftly too. It was only few days after all that work had been done when the next portal opened up and the Chain continued to chase down the black bloodied monsters.

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-Fi prompt from @dirigibird:

I've been looking at investment options but I don't want to be messing around too much with the stock market, and a co-worker suggested exchange traded funds. Would love to know your opinions!

LEGALLY NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed financial advisor, and it is illegal for me to advise anyone on investment in securities like stocks. My commentary here is merely opinion, not financial advice, and I urge you to not make any decisions with regards to securities investments based on my opinions, or without consulting a licensed advisor. I am also going to be talking this all over from an American POV, which means some of these things may not apply elsewhere.

So instead of letting you know what to pick or how to organize your securities, I'm going to go through the definitions of what various investment funds are, how they compare functionally, and maybe rant about how I disagree with the stock market on a fundamental ethical level if I have word count left over.

If you want more information, and are okay with jargon, I'd suggest hitting up investopedia. That is where I will be double-checking most of my information for this one.

I also encourage folks who know more about the stock market specifically to jump in! I like to think I'm good at research and explaining things, but I'm still liable to make mistakes.

Mutual Funds: A mutual fund is a pool of money and resources from multiple individuals (often vast numbers of people, actually) being put together and managed as a group by investment specialists. The primary appeal of these is that the money is professionally managed, but not personally so; it gives smaller investors access to professional money managers that they would not have access to on their own, at cheaper rates than if they tried to hire one for just their own assets. The secondary appeal is that, due to the sheer number of people, and thus capital, that is being invested at once, the money can be invested in a wide variety of industries, and is generally more stable than investing in just one company or industry. Low risk, low reward, but overall at least mostly reliable. Retirement plans are often invested in mutual funds by employer choice, through companies like Fidelity or John Hancock.

Hedge Funds: A hedge fund is a high risk, high reward mutual fund. Investors are generally wealthy, and have the room and safety to lose large amounts of money on an investment that has no promise of success, especially since money cannot be withdrawn at will, but must remain in the fund for a period of time following investment. It gets its name from "hedging your bets," as part of the strategy is to invest in the opposition of the fund's focus in order to ensure that there is a backup plan to salvage at least some money if the main plan backfires. Other strategies are also on the riskier side, often planning to take advantage of ongoing events like buyouts, mergers, incumbent bankruptcy, and shorting stocks (that's the one that caused the gamestop incident).

Private Equity: Private equity is... a nightmare that got its own incredibly good Hasan Minhaj episode of Patriot Act, so if you've got 20 minutes, an interest in comedically-delivered, easily-digestible, Real Information, and an internet connection, take a watch of that one. (If it's not available on YouTube in your country, it's originally from Netflix, or you can probably access it by VPN.) Private equity companies are effectively hedge funds that purchase entire companies, rebuild them in one way or another, and then sell them at (hopefully) a profit. Very often, the companies purchased by private equity are very negatively impacted, especially if the private equity group is a Vulture Fund. Sometimes, it's by taking it apart to sell off; sometimes it's by just bleeding it for cash until there's nothing left. Sometimes, it's taking over a hospital and overcharging the patients while also abusing the staff! (Glaucomflecken has a lot of videos on the topic of private equity in the medical industry, check him out.)

Venture Capital: In contrast to private equity, which purchases more mature companies, venture capital is focused on startups, or small businesses that have growth potential. These are the kinds of hedge funds that are like a whole group that you'd see some random tv character calling an Angel Investor (they're not actually the same thing, but they overlap by a lot). I'd hesitantly call these less ethically dubious than private equity, but I'm still suspicious.

And finally, to answer your question on what ETFs are and how they fit into the above.

Exchange Traded Funds: ETFs are... sort of like a mutual fund. Sort of. You are, to some extent, pooling your money... ish.

An ETF is like a stock that is made out of partial stocks. So instead of paying $100 for stock A, and not getting stocks B/C/D that all cost the same, you buy $100 of the ETF, which is $25 each of stocks A/B/C/D. You are getting a quarter of a unit of stock, which isn't normally an option, but because you are purchasing through an ETF that officially already bought those Whole stocks, you can now purchase the partial stocks through them.

They buy the whole stocks, then they resell you mixes of those stocks. They still officially own the whole stocks themselves, but you now own parts of the stocks. Basically, you own "stock" in a company that owns stock in other companies, and in that process you own partial stocks in those other companies.

I'm going to re-explain this using fruit.

Imagine you can buy apples, oranges, melons, grapes, etc. You can also buy fruit cups. You can only buy the individual fruits in big batches or you can pool your money with a few other people, hand it to a chef. The chef will decide which fruits look like they'll taste the best by lunch time, buy a bunch of those fruit pallets with your combined money, and plan out the best possible fruit salad for you to share with a bunch of people once lunch rolls around.

You could also buy a fruit cup. You don't have a lot of control over what's already in the fruit cup, but there are a few different mixes available--that one has strawberries, but that one over there uses kiwi, and the other one that way has pineapple--and you can pick which mix you want. It's a pretty small fruit cup, and it's predesigned, but you can choose the one you want without having to pool money with everyone else. You just first have to let someone else design the fruit cups you choose from, and you don't know which ones are probably going to survive the best to lunch time unless you ask a chef (which defeats the purpose of buying a fruit cup instead of pooling your money, and asking the chef costs money).

That's the ETF. The ETF is the fruit cup.

The upside is that you can now just track the prices of your fruit cup, instead of tracking the prices of four different fruits, and so if the price of one fruit drops, you can just... let the other three buoy it.

Of course, in the real world, there are more than just four stocks involved in an ETF. This part of the Investopedia article lists a few examples, and they're usually themed and involve anywhere from 30 (DOW Jones) to thousands (Russell) of shares by stock type, or by commodity/industry. So with the ETF, you can invest in an entire industry, like technology, and just keep track of that single "stock" in the industry game.

They do cost less in brokerage/management fees than regular mutual funds, and they have a slightly lower liquidity (slower to cash out). There also exist actively managed ETFs, which are basically mutual funds for ETFs. You are paying the chef to buy you premade fruit cups.

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

[she-is-ovarit]

Hey, I hope your day is going well. I just wanted to say that I really value your perspective on women-specific issues, especially as it relates to transgender people. I have begun doing my own digging/research into this growing trend and found it concerning and disturbing. I have spent the last chunk of time reading your long posts and opening up some JSTOR resources to read myself. I'd like to read more concrete, primary info about Hirschfeld and Gohr...whatever his last name was. Do you know where I could access that?

Also, if you have any other primary reading, I'd love to take a look at that.

Thank you!! ❤️ (I also sent this in a DM, but then noticed you may not see it)

Hi - my apologies for what was likely a long delay, I have been on hiatus from Tumblr.

To be honest, surfing through research databases is probably your best bet, using their names plus any keywords you're wondering about. There is also a book published that at the very least mentions a bit about Hirschfeld - I haven't read it. It's called "Racism and the making of gay rights".

Malcom Clark seems to have gone down a research path about Hirschfeld. Treat this more as an opinion piece and follow the links: https://malcolmrichardclark.substack.com/p/transing-theholocaust

Something in addition to these men that I have found - even Dr. Hamburger, the sexologist who transitioned the first U.S. man (Christine Jorgeson) and fanned the flames in popularizing transsexual surgeries after he published 400 letters to his medical community (likely without the consent of the patients) by homosexual people asking to transition (and do keep in mind the 1950s was a severely homophobic time period), was also very much a eugenicist. He was also another sexologist performing "sex changes" in Germany.

Chrstine Jorgeson was a homosexual man who disavowed homosexuality due to his patriotism.

"A dual concern to cure the deviant individual and to protect society was echoed in the paper (“Transvestism”) which Jorgensen’s Danish clinicians, Drs. Christian Hamburger, Georg Stürup and Dahl-Iversen, wrote for the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1953. Preben Hertoft and Thorkil Sorensen who have studied the medical files and interviewed psychiatrist Dr. Georg Stürup claim that “the original intention of the medical team was not to change a man into a woman, but to help a man who suffered from his homosexual impulses” (167). Hamburger and his colleagues revealed their anxiety about homosexuality when they commented: “At any rate, from a eugenic point of view it would do no harm if a number of sexually abnormal men were castrated and thus deprived of their sexual libido.”"

This source also explains how the culture changed for the patients seeking these transsexual surgeries, too. Originally the trans patients (overwhelmingly male) still considered themselves as gay men and wanted to be considered as gay men - just simulating the appearance of a woman. It was in the 1960s or so that conservative doctors began pushing that they were never the sex they were born as to begin with because they believed it was the only way that this subset of patients would be able to live "fulfilling heterosexual lives".

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43308827

[alleyskywalker]

How do you think ACOK/AGOT Theon Greyjoy would have gotten along politically and personally with his uncle Rodrik “the Reader”, as well as cousin Ser Harras Harlaw? For me, Theon’s relationship with his mothers family is one of the more notable missed opportunities for interesting personal dynamics (also, if the Theon Latecomer theory comes to pass, R’hllor help us all if poor Alannys never gets to hold her baby boy one more time)

Hi! Sorry it took me so long to get to this ask. It's true that the Harlaws are not very developed, being minor characters mostly.

Harras particularly we know next to nothing about. We know he's a knight, perhaps encouraged in that direction by the Serrett/Westerlands side of his family, he's a good fighter and seems on the all-business side of things (although this is taken very from off-hand type of comments). He does not appear to be married? Not sure what that says either way. He's actually, if I'm reading the family tree right, a cousin of Rodrik the Reader, which makes him Theon's like…second uncle? Or whatever that's called? However, he's younger than Rodrik it seems, given that he was good friends with Rodrik Greyjoy, Theon's brother. While it's difficult to project a personality from these scant details, I think the friendship with Rodrik probably doesn't bode well for Theon and him being friends. Even if Harras didn't personally participate in Rodrik's bullying, he's the kind of person who would be friends with a Rodrik and, even if we say he was younger and grew out of it or whatever, Theon would still have that association. Politically, however, I see House Harlaw sticking with the Greyjoy kids, whether Asha or Theon. If we assume that Rodrik didn't consider his bullying of Theon personal (and more as normal sibling hazing he'd do to anyone), Harras might also feel an honor/chivalry-induced drive (see knighthood) to support his close friend's brother and rightful heir.

Rodrik the Reader is interesting because we do know a little more about him, but we don't see him interact with Theon or anyone else much in the family, aside from Asha. Theon's favorite uncle in his childhood seems to have been pre-conversion Aeron, i.e. someone of similar personality to himself - social, charming, fun-loving, brash, lusty, etc. Rodrik in comparison would probably feel boring or uptight to Theon. Theon in ACOK would also probably be, or at least try to appear as, on a bit of an anti-intellectualism bend. Not because he's dumb or even "was a poor student" or whatever, but because he's just not nerdy or a bookworm, generally to begin with, and he's trying extra hard to fit in with the Iron Islands cultural slant, which IS somewhat anti-intellectual relative to the mainland. (I'm willing to bet this is half of where those "Greyjoys are working class" modern AUs come from lol.) In any case, Theon is not likely to appreciate the nerdy, secluded company Rodrik would offer.

That said…an uncle doesn't need to be a buddy, necessarily. If Rodrik wanted to bond with Theon for whatever reason and/or just happened to be in the right situation… He seems to be a pretty insightful and above-average-on-empathy type of person. Theon also really needs a stable and compassionate father figure, or any family member really, who could offer him emotional safety and support. Rodrik may not be perfect in this role, but he'd probably do better than a lot of other people, especially in the Greyjoy family. So assuming either specific effort on his end or the right type of situation, I think Theon might be inclined to reach for him, just because he's so obviously starved for love.

Politically, even more so than Harras, I think Rodrik could be safely considered a supporter of Theon, at least unless he's going up against Asha. If it's Theon vs. Asha…that might be a different, difficult sort of situation which I could see falling either way due to a number of factors.

[kariachi]

Okay, some stuff for Alan's maternal family, because because

Lamar and Felicia Ellis had four children- two daughters, two sons- half of whom run the family farm

Their eldest girl- Pamela- got an office job in a city a few hours to the north, while their youngest- Robert- preaches at the local church

While only the family and people involved know what happened in Alan's premiere, that whole church knows somebody did something bigoted that got Father Ellis's ire up because he was preaching hellfire on the topic that next Sunday

The older boy and younger girl- Douglas and Jessica- both run the farm, him out there managing their workers, keeping a physical eye on things, putting in the physical labor, and her working from home managing the numbers, data files, tracking shit, and occasionally coming out to give a hand when needed or give things a once over

All the kids have land that belongs to them personally, generally just a one or two acres that all but Pam live on, but the majority of the family's land is still owned by their parents- who have technically retired from actually working the farm though they're still involved- and will be passed down to them as a group when they pass

The Ellises have their hands in a couple different pies, from crops to livestock- it doesn't so much make them more money as it does make their income more stable (if something goes wrong- which it always can with agriculture- they've got back-up income)

On the crop side you'll see a lot of dent corn that's used on-property (dent corn is the norm for animal feed) but it's generally as part of a rotation with cash crops of soy and tomatoes. You'll also see grapevines in one corner which are sold to local markets for fresh eating

Well, most of them are, Jessie has her own little plot on her land that feeds a homebrew hobby when her children and niblings aren't picking the vines clean for snacks

On the livestock side they do pasture poultry (relatively recent development, but they did the numbers and decided the higher going price for pasture made up for the expenses) and a hybrid dairy/beef system

The older three of the siblings are all married with kids- Pam's got two sons, Doug's got two daughters and a son, Jessie's got three sons and a daughter- while the youngest has neither and isn't really feeling a lack

Only one of his five cousins are Alan's age- his uncle's younger daughter, Jasmine- and the two of them have a 'besties who give each other shit' dynamic as a result of growing up together while also being rivals

While it's variable how much interest the grandchildren have in continuing work with the farm, everybody knows Alan and Jas will be running shit someday

Nine grandkids, two are guaranteed to keep with the farm, two work there in the summer to pay for college but one doesn't intend to stick around and the other is iffy, one is a definite no given the option (nasty pollen allergies and 'I am never pulling another calf fuck you'), and the younger four are all too young to really say

Jason- Jessie's youngest boy and Alan's youngest brother- is the best bet looking at him as of AF but he's also like eight so...

The family is close over all and they all get together at least once a year for Christmas, and every other year for Thanksgiving

Whatever happens, the farm their family has built over generations past is guaranteed to be in good hands going forward

[unofficialoxtimeline]

Some Lingering Questions, Part 1

I have a number of these kinds of unsolved mysteries; I cleared off several of them with the Barricade post, but here we go. First off: a lingering mystery of Foundry No. 12!

Was the grenade Edvard threatened the Brighteners with at Foundry No. 12 a real grenade?

Here's what we know for sure: Edvard ticked two separate boxes of load for two flashbangs and one fragmentation grenade. At least one of the flashbangs was detonated, blinding Zillah; neither of them were returned to Edvard during the course of the episode.

There's a couple of reasons to think the frag grenade wasn't real. Edvard has access to flashbang grenades; it would also be very easy to build a dummy grenade; it's a batshit thing to do even for Edvard, for two people who are really just his coworkers. There's also the fact that Blades is a retroactive game, and the CRB directly states in its best practices section that it is "not a no takebacks game".

Here are the reasons I suspect that it was in fact a real grenade. First is the fuse length. Grenades used to be less stable, and Edvard does say he built the frag grenade, but I decided to go off modern weapons. A frag grenade can have a fuse of between 3 and 5 seconds, but a flash grenade typically has a fuse of around 1.5 seconds, for reasons I think are obvious.

I counted up all the time Edvard said he had his finger off the lever. If he didn't give a time, I counted it as half a second. By this accounting, Edvard burned at least two seconds off the fuse of the grenade he was holding. It could have been a dummy, but if it were a flash grenade, it would have gone off in his hand.

It was a wild thing to do and over the top even for Edvard. But, if Edvard were going to do it for anyone, the groundwork was already laid for Zillah and Kasimir to be the people he'd do it for. As early as The Gut-Cutter Bargain, Kasimir says outright that he and Edvard have become close, and Edvard spends a whole phase building the electroplasmic cane for him. Edvard has a great admiration for Zillah; he takes a moment just to appreciate how cool she is in the same fight, despite the fact they're about to die. Kasimir and Zillah get a mechanical benefit for going to the fighting pit. Edvard doesn't, but he comes along and makes a little sign just to cheer her on. He doesn't do these things for other people, and coupled with his confidence in his own abilities, it ultimately makes sense that this is a bet he'd take.

Then, maybe the most important part: no takebacks.

Some newer RPGs, like Blades and the It Came From series, take what's called a cinematic perspective (explicitly in some rulesets). D&D, Pathfinder, VtM, and many other popular games are about improvisation and skill efficiency. If you don't have something, you just don't have it. They are no takebacks games. If you step in the trap, if you offend the Prince of New York, that's the ballgame.

Blades and It Came From are meant to be collaborative storytelling where tropes are welcome. If you don't want to do something in Blades, you can just not do it. If you step in a trap, flashback: you cased the place earlier and wedged a shim into it. If you offend the director of your spy agency in They Came From [CLASSIFIED], you buy a do-over with your points pool. They are meant to produce a world where the PCs are the heroes of their own stories, and feeling like a badass is the whole point.

Why do I go off on this? Because I think the choice of whether the grenade was real was made by both Luke and Andy, and by not making the grenade fake, they wrote it into canon as real. If something had gone wrong, if Edvard had fumbled it, if a Red Sash had tackled him, by the rules, it could have been fake at any time. The chance remained; the chance was never taken. If he walked in with a dummy grenade, he walked out leaving a real one.

In summary, I have a lot of feelings about Edvard Lumière.

[play-now-my-lord]

one of my favorite of my stories is called "Job 33:6 / The War Horse & The Glue Factory". i take a delicate touch with worldbuilding but it is set in a world where the secret of the Golem of Prague became part of the texture of life in central Europe. the protagonist, called "#25" (as all of the golems have numbers rather than names) was given life to haul munitions in the Napoleonic Wars, and it's 25 years later, and he is maintained by a stable which employs them in bloodsport, fighting each other in rigged matches that people bet on, real proto-pro-wrestling shit, except as much as they mutilate each other (which, public taste being what it is, isn't as much as they're capable of!) they can be put back together and continue to live.

the plot happens, the other golems get mad at the protagonist, and they do a shoot on him. really beat him until he's a smear on the ground. and then, the story goes, he just gets patched up and they're probably gonna keep doing the same shit to him again and again.

i could talk about it for longer than the actual story, but writing two full pages of someone getting torn physically in half and then stomped unrecognizable was cathartic, to say the least

[krsonmar]

Another point on this: if a race is a close call, it's so much easier to contest or delegitimize the results. The voter rights/suppression and "elections integrity" bills that have been passed or proposed in the past 20 years all pretty much come back to the 2000 POTUS election. That mess, where the Supreme Court had to get involved, happened because the results were close enough that a couple hundred votes were going to decide who got Florida's electoral votes and they had to do re-counts. If the margin of difference in votes had been greater, it never would have been an issue. If Al Gore had gotten, say, 54 percent of the vote to George W Bush's 46, that would have been indisputable. But Gore was considered boring and personality-less, and swing voters or those on only the slight left of the center weren't "excited" or "inspired" by him...so they stayed home. Which means American politics has unfortunately never been boring or even seemed "low-stakes" since. Boring and uneventful should be the goal, not hanging on for the next four years until we get another chance, if we get one.

Boring and uneventful mean stable, and that means a better ability to push the progress we want to make forward instead of having to desperately defend what we already have from being taken and putting out fires on too many fronts at once. Boring and uneventful means we're not spread thin, we have less activist burnout, more donations per cause because there are fewer battles to be fought, less "compassion fatigue" because the world's not on fire, and extremists aren't emboldened to see what else they can try next.

Close races mean disputed results. Close races mean SCOTUS gets involved. Close races mean people try to attack Congress so the election results can't be certified because people are used to questioning the legitimacy of elections now. Close races mean "we'll get you next election!!😡" every election, "noble lost causes" that dog the political landscape for decades, and more voter disenfranchisement bills and "citizen poll-watchers" with guns at polling places. Close races mean elected leaders can have the legitimacy of their position in office constantly challenged and they have to put energy toward that instead of getting anything done. Close races mean we win the White House but not Congress, so practically speaking, we'll be deadlocked for at least two years and nothing can get done anyway.

Showing up means wider margins. Wider margins hedge our bets and net us political capital for after the election. Wider margins show that yeah, this is the people's mandate and we have the numbers to make x thing happen.

I am not a registered Democrat. I don't love any of the candidates in this race, and if the ones I vote for get elected, I will be making sure, with my calls and e-mails over the next four years, that they keep to what they say right now that they'll do, and if they do something I don't like, they will hear about it then too, because voting is not the only step in the political process. But if they don't get elected, the Trump administration delighted in doing things because they were cruel, because we begged them not to, and that's what I mean by fearing losing my political voice. The Democrats suck but they're more likely to listen. Getting more of them into Congress and state governor and legislature offices makes our work not only infinitely easier but possible in the first place.

It's strategy, y'all. We're playing for the mid-range future here so we don't have to survive minute-to-minute. If we stabilize our position, we can then be in a place to get momentum behind a progressive agenda for the long-run. Set up the pieces into the positions you need them in early in the chess game, and you can sweep the endgame. Play turn-by-turn and you lose.

[starseedfxofficial]

Dollar Stays Strong as EUR & GBP Struggle to Keep Up The Underdog Story of DXY: Gaining Ground Amid Global Tension The U.S. dollar (DXY) just pulled a "you can't hold me down" move, staying steady above the 107.00 mark despite a chaotic mix of economic data, rising yields, and geopolitical tensions. Think of it as the dollar slipping on ice but somehow finding its balance like a professional skater – or at least a decent stuntman. Short-term yields surged alongside concerns about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, helping the greenback score a much-needed win. And let’s be honest, nothing says “I’m stable” like the world collectively freaking out. Adding to the drama, we had a mixed bag of U.S. economic data – kind of like that grocery run where you end up with eggs and cake mix but forget the bread. The dollar didn’t let this awkward data party spoil its vibe. Federal Reserve's Goolsbee even hinted that it’s time to slow down with interest rate cuts, suggesting the Fed is inching closer to their "ideal" rate levels. It’s like when your friend keeps telling you, “Just one more stop,” on a road trip – at some point, you know they mean business. EUR/USD: Chilling at the Bottom, but Where’s the Comeback? The euro (EUR/USD) wasn’t quite as lucky, languishing below the 1.0500 handle like an underdog boxer against a confident heavyweight. Consumer confidence in the EU took a beating worse than a poorly timed meme stock – and the news is, frankly, worse than expected. Plus, those ECB folks seem to be keeping the market on edge with whispers of rate cuts in the near future. Imagine you’re at a poker table, and the dealer’s signaling with their eyes that they’re holding all aces – yeah, not a fun place for the euro to be. GBP/USD: Retail Sales Hopes Resting on British Shoulders The British pound (GBP/USD) also stayed in the loser’s lounge, holding just below the 1.2600 level after hitting a six-month low. It’s waiting for Retail Sales figures to swoop in like a hero on a rainy London afternoon. Whether those numbers can actually be the much-needed cape-wearing savior or just a kid in a Superman costume remains to be seen. Cross your fingers, traders – we’re all waiting to see if the pound can recover from this funk. USD/JPY: It’s Like an Awkward Family Dance Let’s talk about the yen (USD/JPY) – staying rangebound overnight, with the currency taking a breather after it flexed some strength against the dollar yesterday. The heightened geopolitical concerns (thanks, Russia-Ukraine) seemed to have given the yen a brief power-up, but it’s like they hit "pause" for a second. Japanese inflation numbers, meanwhile, rolled out pretty much as expected, aside from that core reading slightly surprising us at 2.3% versus the anticipated 2.2%. Not exactly the life of the party, but hey, at least the numbers showed up. Antipodean Adventures: The Aussie and Kiwi Struggle And then there were the Antipodeans. The Australian dollar (AUD/USD) had a moment – a real moment – boosted by some cross flows, notably AUD/NZD popping above the 1.1100 mark. It was like seeing the smallest kid on the playground score a goal, only to have the bigger kids take over again. Sadly, that cheer didn’t last, and the Aussie came under pressure. New Zealand's dollar (NZD/USD) didn’t fare much better, slipping to its lowest level in a year. Perhaps it's the prospect of warmer weather that’s got the Kiwi thinking of other pursuits – not trading. China’s Quiet Moves: Yuan in Focus In the Far East, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) set the USD/CNY midpoint at 7.1942, which was a bit lower than the market was expecting (7.2502). It’s like China just gave the market a subtle nudge, saying, “Hey, chill on those yuan expectations, will ya?” A PBoC official further emphasized they’re determined to prevent any one-sided bets on the yuan, keeping it balanced and “reasonable” – a term that here means “good luck predicting our next move.” What’s Next for Traders? The Dollar Index seems intent on making waves, with geopolitics and economic data dancing a complicated tango. If you’re trading any of these pairs, remember that fortune favors the well-prepared (not just the bold). Don’t just trade the news – stay ahead of it. Want to make sense of these twists and turns? Our community offers a treasure trove of analysis, tips, and exclusive trading resources. Why settle for missing out? Dive into our latest economic indicators and Forex news at StarseedFX or join our community for live insights and advanced strategies. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated   Read the full article

[euro-industry-org]

Why in reality has betting on macroeconomic stability had negative consequences and not contributed to stability?

Until the 1970s, inflation was considered the main enemy of the economy. Many countries experienced catastrophic hyperinflation, although it did not reach extreme levels. Economic instability caused by high or variable inflation was not conducive to attracting investment, which hindered development. This influenced the approach to managing government budget deficits and encouraged the creation of politically independent central banks. These banks deliberately focused on controlling inflation, as economic stability was a key factor for long-term investment.

Despite the victory over inflation, the world economy has become less resilient. The optimistic claims of the past thirty years that price fluctuations had been successfully controlled did not take into account the extreme instability exhibited by economies around the world. Numerous financial crises, including the global crisis of 2008, have left many with debt, bankruptcy and unemployment. An overemphasis on fighting inflation has diverted attention away from employment issues. The pursuit of growth at the expense of flexibility in the labor market has led to precarious jobs, making people worse off. Despite claims that stable prices promote economic growth, measures to reduce inflation have caused only a slow economic recovery since the 1990s, when inflation was thought to have been defeated.

In the early 2000s, Japan's central bank governor Masaru Hayami refused to increase the money supply for fear that doing so could lead to inflation, even though the country was experiencing deflation and falling prices at the time. However, there is no convincing evidence that an increase in inflation will inevitably lead to hyperinflation, or that such a likelihood is likely. No one argues that hyperinflation is desirable or at least acceptable, but it remains debatable whether any inflation is harmful, regardless of its level.

Since the 1980s, free-market economists have been able to convince the world community that economic stability should be accompanied by minimal to no inflation. They argued that inflation was bad for the economy and should be avoided at all costs. An acceptable level of inflation, they argued, was about 1.3%. This was the figure suggested by Stanley Fischer, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chief economist at the IMF from 1994-2001.

In fact, there is no evidence that low inflation is bad for the economy. Even studies by pro-free-market economists working with organizations such as the University of Chicago or the IMF show that inflation below 8-10% has no effect on economic growth. A number of other studies set the inflation threshold even higher, at 20-40%, which also has no noticeable negative effect on economic growth.

The experience of a number of countries also shows that sufficiently high inflation can coexist with rapid economic growth. Brazil had an average inflation rate of 42% in the 1960s and 1970s, but remained one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with per capita income growth of 4.5% per year. 

During the same period, per capita income in South Korea grew by 7% annually, despite an average annual inflation rate of nearly 20%, well above many Latin American countries. Since 1996, Brazil, having overcome the traumatic stage of high inflation and hyperinflation, began to contain inflation by raising the real interest rate to one of the highest in the world at 10-12% per year. As a result, inflation fell to 7.1% per annum, but economic growth was affected as the increase in per capita income did not exceed 1.3% per annum. 

A similar situation was observed in the Republic of South Africa since 1994, when inflation control became a priority, which also led to an increase in the interest rate to a level comparable to Brazil's.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the low inflation policy seemed intended to create a sustainable and stable economic environment, but in practice has had negative consequences. The excessive focus on controlling inflation has detracted from other important aspects such as employment and the quality of life of people. As a result, even with low inflation, economic growth has been stunted and per capita income has not been able to reach significant heights. 

The experience of countries such as Brazil and South Africa shows that high inflation can coexist with rapid economic development. Thus, the question arises: does a reliance on macroeconomic stability with a focus on low inflation really contribute to a more sustainable world economy? It may well be necessary to reconsider economic policy approaches in the future, given the diversity of factors affecting the real state of the economy.