#business success in Direct Selling

[directsellingnow]

Network Marketing: सहयोग से Direct Selling में सफलता: Mahendra Suryavanshi

Network Marketing: Direct Selling (डायरेक्ट सेलिंग) की दुनिया में सफलता हासिल करने के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण गुण की आवश्यकता होती है—सहयोग की भावना (spirit of cooperation)। यह भावना न केवल एक मजबूत टीम का निर्माण करती है, बल्कि पूरे व्यवसा�� को नई ऊँचाइयों तक ले जाती है। इस लेख में, हम विस्तार से समझेंगे कि कैसे सहयोग की भावना Direct Selling में आपकी सफलता को सुनिश्चित कर सकती है और इसके विभिन्न पहलुओं…

[theshayariphoto]

नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग से पैसे कैसे कमाएं, How to Earn Money from Network Marketing.

नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग एक व्यापारिक प्रणाली है। जहा आप अपने नेटवर्क को उपयोग करके अपने उत्पादों और सेवाओं का प्रचार करते हैं। साथ ही नए सदस्यों को अपने बिजनेस में जुड़ाते हैं। इस तरीके में आपकी मेहनत और सामर्थ्य के हिसाब से आपकी कमाई को बढ़ाया जा सकता है। नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग एक व्यवसाय होने के साथ साथ एक संवाद का माध्यम भी है। जो आपके निर्माणात्मक और वित्तीय स्वतंत्रता का माध्यम बन…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The one weird monopoly trick that gave us Walmart and Amazon and killed Main Street

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

Walmart didn't just happen. The rise of Walmart – and Amazon, its online successor – was the result of a specific policy choice, the decision by the Reagan administration not to enforce a key antitrust law. Walmart may have been founded by Sam Walton, but its success (and the demise of the American Main Street) are down to Reaganomics.

The law that Reagan neutered? The Robinson-Patman Act, a very boring-sounding law that makes it illegal for powerful companies (like Walmart) to demand preferential pricing from their suppliers (farmers, packaged goods makers, meat producers, etc). The idea here is straightforward. A company like Walmart is a powerful buyer (a "monopsonist" – compare with "monopolist," a powerful seller). That means that they can demand deep discounts from suppliers. Smaller stores – the mom and pop store on your Main Street – don't have the clout to demand those discounts. Worse, because those buyers are weak, the sellers – packaged goods companies, agribusiness cartels, Big Meat – can actually charge them more to make up for the losses they're taking in selling below cost to Walmart.

Reagan ordered his antitrust cops to stop enforcing Robinson-Patman, which was a huge giveaway to big business. Of course, that's not how Reagan framed it: He called Robinson-Patman a declaration of "war on low prices," because it prevented big companies from using their buying power to squeeze huge discounts. Reagan's court sorcerers/economists asserted that if Walmart could get goods at lower prices, they would sell goods at lower prices.

Which was true…up to a point. Because preferential discounting (offering better discounts to bigger customers) creates a structural advantage over smaller businesses, it meant that big box stores would eventually eliminate virtually all of their smaller competitors. That's exactly what happened: downtowns withered, suburban big boxes grew. Spending that would have formerly stayed in the community was whisked away to corporate headquarters. These corporate HQs were inevitably located in "onshore-offshore" tax haven states, meaning they were barely taxed at the state level. That left plenty of money in these big companies' coffers to spend on funny accountants who'd help them avoid federal taxes, too. That's another structural advantage the big box stores had over the mom-and-pops: not only did they get their inventory at below-cost discounts, they didn't have to pay tax on the profits, either.

MBA programs actually teach this as a strategy to pursue: they usually refer to Amazon's "flywheel" where lower prices bring in more customers which allows them to demand even lower prices:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaSwWYemLek

You might have heard about rural and inner-city "food deserts," where all the independent grocery stores have shuttered, leaving behind nothing but dollar stores? These are the direct product of the decision not to enforce Robinson-Patman. Dollar stores target working class neighborhoods with functional, beloved local grocers. They open multiple dollar stores nearby (nearly all the dollar stores you see are owned by one of two conglomerates, no matter what the sign over the door says). They price goods below cost and pay for high levels of staffing, draining business off the community grocery store until it collapses. Then, all the dollar stores except one close and the remaining store fires most of its staff (working at a dollar store is incredibly dangerous, thanks to low staffing levels that make them easy targets for armed robbers). Then, they jack up prices, selling goods in "cheater" sizes that are smaller than the normal retail packaging, and which are only made available to large dollar store conglomerates:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

Writing in The American Prospect, Max M Miller and Bryce Tuttle1 – a current and a former staffer for FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya – write about the long shadow cast by Reagan's decision to put Robinson-Patman in mothballs:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-08-13-stopping-excessive-market-power-monopoly/

They tell the story of Robinson-Patman's origins in 1936, when A&P was using preferential discounts to destroy the independent grocery sector and endanger the American food system. A&P didn't just demand preferential discounts from its suppliers; it also charged them a fortune to be displayed on its shelves, an early version of Amazon's $38b/year payola system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

They point out that Robinson-Patman didn't really need to be enacted; America already had an antitrust law that banned this conduct: section 2 of the the Clayton Act, which was passed in 1914. But for decades, the US courts refused to interpret the Clayton Act according to its plain meaning, with judges tying themselves in knots to insist that the law couldn't possibly mean what it said. Robinson-Patman was one of a series of antitrust laws that Congress passed in a bid to explain in words so small even federal judges could understand them that the purpose of American antitrust law was to keep corporations weak:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

Both the Clayton Act and Robinson-Patman reject the argument that it's OK to let monopolies form and come to dominate critical sectors of the American economy based on the theoretical possibility that this will lead to lower prices. They reject this idea first as a legal matter. We don't let giant corporations victimize small businesses and their suppliers just because that might help someone else.

Beyond this, there's the realpolitik of monopoly. Yes, companies could pass lower costs on to customers, but will they? Look at Amazon: the company takes $0.45-$0.51 out of every dollar that its sellers earn, and requires them to offer their lowest price on Amazon. No one has a 45-51% margin, so every seller jacks up their prices on Amazon, but you don't notice it, because Amazon forces them to jack up prices everywhere else:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

The Robinson-Patman Act did important work, and its absence led to many of the horribles we're living through today. This week on his Peoples & Things podcast, Lee Vinsel talked with Benjamin Waterhouse about his new book, One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America:

https://athenaeum.vt.domains/peoplesandthings/2024/08/12/78-benjamin-c-waterhouse-on-one-day-ill-work-for-myself-the-dream-and-delusion-that-conquered-america/

Towards the end of the discussion, Vinsel and Waterhouse turn to Robinson-Patman, its author, Wright Patman, and the politics of small business in America. They point out – correctly – that Wright Patman was something of a creep, a "Dixiecrat" (southern Democrat) who was either an ideological segregationist or someone who didn't mind supporting segregation irrespective of his beliefs.

That's a valid critique of Wright Patman, but it's got little bearing on the substance and history of the law that bears his name, the Robinson-Patman Act. Vinsel and Waterhouse get into that as well, and while they made some good points that I wholeheartedly agreed with, I fiercely disagree with the conclusion they drew from these points.

Vinsel and Waterhouse point out (again, correctly) that small businesses have a long history of supporting reactionary causes and attacking workers' rights – associations of small businesses, small women-owned business, and small minority-owned businesses were all in on opposition to minimum wages and other key labor causes.

But while this is all true, that doesn't make Robinson-Patman a reactionary law, or bad for workers. The point of protecting small businesses from the predatory practices of large firms is to maintain an American economy where business can't trump workers or government. Large companies are literally ungovernable: they have gigantic war-chests they can spend lobbying governments and corrupting the political process, and concentrated sectors find it comparatively easy to come together to decide on a single lobbying position and then make it reality.

As Vinsel and Waterhouse discuss, US big business has traditionally hated small business. They recount a notorious and telling anaecdote about the editor of the Chamber of Commerce magazine asking his boss if he could include coverage of small businesses, given the many small business owners who belonged to the Chamber, only to be told, "Over my dead body." Why did – why does – big business hate small business so much? Because small businesses wreck the game. If they are included in hearings, notices of inquiry, or just given a vote on what the Chamber of Commerce will lobby for with their membership dollars, they will ask for things that break with the big business lobbying consensus.

That's why we should like small business. Not because small business owners are incapable of being petty tyrants, but because whatever else, they will be petty. They won't be able to hire million-dollar-a-month union-busting law-firms, they won't be able to bribe Congress to pass favorable laws, they can't capture their regulators with juicy offers of sweet jobs after their government service ends.

Vinsel and Waterhouse point out that many large firms emerged during the era in which Robinson-Patman was in force, but that misunderstands the purpose of Robinson-Patman: it wasn't designed to prevent any large businesses from emerging. There are some capital-intensive sectors (say, chip fabrication) where the minimum size for doing anything is pretty damned big.

As Miller and Tuttle write:

The goal of RPA was not to create a permanent Jeffersonian agrarian republic of exclusively small businesses. It was to preserve a diverse economy of big and small businesses. Congress recognized that the needs of communities and people—whether in their role as consumers, business owners, or workers—are varied and diverse. A handful of large chains would never be able to meet all those needs in every community, especially if they are granted pricing power.

The fight against monopoly is only secondarily a fight between small businesses and giant ones. It's foundationally a fight about whether corporations should have so much power that they are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care.

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/14/the-price-is-wright/#enforcement-priorities

[mlmdiary]

https://www.mlmdiary.com/articles/how-to-choose-best-network-marketing-company

How to Choose Best Direct Selling Company?

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Companies have become increasingly prevalent in the business world, captivating the attention of both aspiring entrepreneurs and consumers seeking alternative income opportunities. With promises of financial independence, flexible working hours, and limitless growth potential, MLM Companies have gained a reputation as both an enticing opportunity and a controversial business model.

Read Our Blog: How to Choose Best Direct Selling Company?

[andreabouzeid-blog]

It’s a great feeling reconnecting with brilliant people who challenge you to become an even better person!

[seat-safety-switch]

Based on the remarkable sales success of my powerful new business book, Sell Shit To Idiots, I've been swimming in marketing contracts. Thing is, I'm really expensive, mostly because I sell shit to rich idiots. That makes me feel guilty that I'm passing over a lot of poor idiots, who simply don't have the money for my time. Here's one for free: you can often sell more of something by making it bigger or smaller.

Cars have been getting bigger every year, and they're still selling. Theoretically, there should have been some point where we simply stopped buying them because they were the size of an elementary school gymnasium. Now they're high-school sized, and we're still going. How do you fight this trend? Tiny cars, which also sell pretty well to people who are a little weird and don't carry eight family members, sixteen dogs, and the contents of their house with them everywhere.

Bigger or smaller. This simple truism has been lost in our rush to business-school fads. Artificial "intelligence?" Who gives a shit? I dare you to find me a nerd-assed computer that is willing to say the plain truth: your product would sell better if it were much larger. Staple an "XL" on the end of the name, if you have to. Do you sell popcorn? Get a scientist to make you larger popcorn. I'm not talking a bigger bag, that's last-century talk. Bigger popcorn. Big enough that you get worried about herniating yourself when you grab a handful while watching Die Hard 2. Big enough that you could club a man with it. That shit will fly off the shelves, guaranteed. You probably want to buy it already.

Do you need additional evidence? Just take a look at cupcakes. In any major metropolitan area, there are several cupcake bakeries that exist entirely by making slightly smaller-than-normal cupcakes. What was their investment? Less. What do they charge? More. It's been awhile since I read an economics textbook, but I'm pretty sure that's how you get paid.

I can hear a lot of my haters in the back starting to get up, shuffling towards the door, unable to come up with a coherent counter-argument or even a reckless heckle in my direction. You run, you fucking cowards. And when you get home, you can write your apology letters to me with a comically large ball-point pen.

[thewritetofreespeech]

Could I request Lucifer with a reader who's an author?

Imagine Lucifer finding her naughtier works.

Lucifer x Reader

words 1.5K

The book release was a great success!

You couldn’t believe all the hard work your publishing company put into the event. Or how many people showed up. You had been greeting fans and signing books all afternoon, and it was finally time for a break.

Excusing yourself from the crowd and your table, you head over to a private area that had been sectioned off specifically for this and see Lucifer. Your partner looking positively drool worthy in his human clothes, in one of those big leather chairs, with a book in his hand. “You’re enjoying the event I see.”

“Hmm…I am. It is certainly nice to take a break from the norm. You seem quite the crowd draw.” You were positively giddy at Lucifer’s support and praise.

When you asked him to come to your event, you were nervous he might not come. That he would be too busy. Or just not interested. When he said yes you had nearly been floored, and you were glad that the event really was such a success if he was going to be here.

“Well, people liked signed books. Much easier to sell on Ebay.” Lucifer’s lips jutted up and you felt your stomach do little flip-flops. “What are you reading? Certainly not the new book.”

“Oh, no. I already read that one. The references to totalitarianism in a monarchy were inspired.” He read your book? Honestly, you might faint because you were getting so excited. “I was interested in some of your other work, since you’ve been so secretive about it, and a very nice older lady pointed me into the direction of one of your later, new releases.” Lucifer turned the cover to show you the book title, and you felt all the color drain from your face. “She said it was her favorite. A little ‘off brand’ for your usual work, but she said she couldn’t put it down.”

“Don’t read that!”

You lunge at Lucifer to get the book away from him, but he easily pulled it out of reach of your grasp. Where once you were over the moon for him to read your work, you now wished to be buried under a ton of rock. The book in question was a romance novel, of sorts. Typical fantasy drama, swords, spells, sworn contracts with demons and the like. Spicy elements for the average reader Lucifer was describing. The problem was that if Lucifer caught on to the totalitarianism in your current novel, he would obviously catch on that the main character & her partner were you and him. “But I’m only halfway through. And according to this, it’s very rude to stop just halfway through.”

“Oh God….” You covered your face with your hands. Mortified beyond recognition.

Lucifer smirked, but then set the book down before he stood. “Don’t be embarrassed. It is very good you know.”

“I just based it off real life experiences! It’s easier for me to get a feel for the characters that way!”

“Really? I don’t remember us making love in a crowded ballroom.” You groan again. He got to that part?? “But…” You turn your head up to look at him as his hand reached out for your waist and pulled you close. “We could certainly make an effort for a crowded bookstore, with all your fans here.”

A moment ago, you felt the color drain from your face. Now it felt like it was rushing with color. “You can’t be serious?”

“Why not?” Lucifer asked. With this coy grin and confidence that made you wonder ‘yeah, why not’. “It can be inspiration for your next book. And I am suddenly feeling very….inspired.”

You weren’t sure what happened after that. Like the devil he was, Lucifer said a few sweet words and you had to obey. Suddenly, you were in a locked bathroom. A single unit with a toilet, sink, and mirror, kissing your devil with reckless abandon that would normally be reserved for more trashy romance novels.

Lucifer held you close by your waist, then lifted you up on the sink counter. You moan into the kiss. Feeling the cold of the mirror on your back and linoleum against your thighs. You instantly and eagerly spread your legs to make room for him on your little perch. Lucifer filling the space. Dominating you with his height and just the force of him.

“You need to keep your voice down.” He warned when he pulled away from your kissing. That may have been more of a warning than advice as his hand slipped up your thigh and into your panties. “You don’t want your fans to hear.”

You bit your bottom lip to stiff a moan as he touched you. But realized that that wasn’t enough as his fingers slipped inside and cover your mouth with your hand.

This was crazy. This was absolutely insane! There was literally a room full of people outside waiting for you while you were in here getting fucked by your partner. Or at least you were about to be. God you wished you were about to be. As terrifying as it was that someone might hear you, and your career could be over, all you could think about was Lucifer and having his dick inside you, and fuck let them hear how he fucked you & loved you. You really didn’t care.

You whimper and your free hand clamors for the glass behind you, trying to find purchase on something, when his thumb brushed over your clit again. “Lucifer….” The inside of your pussy clenched around his fingers. Eager for something bigger, harder, more him.

He smiled and pulled his fingers free before sliding down your panties. “Yes, yes. We need to hurry so you can get back to your fans. They are eager to see you. And I’m eager for them to see you, like this.”

You whimper again. Thinking about people seeing you. Would they know? Would they be able to tell that you were just fucked in a bathroom? Would they be able to see the lust still fogging over in your eyes from having sex with a gorgeous man just meters from their showroom? What would they think of their acclaimed, respected author if they knew she was just a dirty slut for her own demon, letting him do whatever he wanted to her and begging for more?

All those thoughts clung to your mind until Lucifer slid his cock inside you. Then it was nothing but ‘Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!’

“Gods your wet.” Lucifer groaned in your ear. His thrust faster and sharper than usual as he seems to know that they need to be quick. “I know that’s not just me. You really are enjoying this, aren’t you? My dove.” You moan. That was what the character in your book called the protagonist. Your mind suddenly shifting between the characters in your book to the real world with you & Lucifer. “Your excited for this. To go back out to that crowd with my cum still inside you. To still feel my hands on you while you greet them with a smile.”

“Yes!”

At this point you would be happy to do the remainder of the event siting on his cock. Lucifer’s lap as your chair. Ride him in front of the crowd if only he asked. “Cum inside me. Fill me up, so I can meet my fans.”

Lucifer groaned and sped up his hips. Kissing you to keep you quiet, but also himself. It doesn’t take long for you feel him cum inside you. The hot pulse of his cock sending you over the edge, and you cling to him as it felt like you would fall off the counter. He would never let that happen.

Lucifer held you until you were both done. Then he pulled back, and out of you, slipped your panties back on over your sopping cunt, and helped you off the counter. Your legs felt a little numb & wobbly, but you managed to stand.

“You should get back. I will wait here to avoid suspicion, then see myself out. I’ll come find you after the event is over.”

“Ok.” You honestly weren’t paying that much attention to what he was saying.

Lucifer reached for your hand, then lifted it to kiss it. “I hope this was certainly ‘inspirational’ for you.”

“Oh, it was.” You teased back.

The demon smirked as he released your hand. “I look forward to your next book then.” He then opened the door. His body concealed by the plywood. “Good luck with your fans.”

You gave him a smile and returned to your work. No one made any comment about your appearance, so maybe no one noticed; or was too polite to say anything. It was almost like nothing happened.

But when you moved in your seat, or shifted your legs, you could feel the wetness in your panties, or Lucifer’s cum slip out of you. So the fantasy was definitely a reality.

[evangelinesbible]

YOUR 4H AND YOUR FUTURE SPOUSES CAREER(S)

Derivative astrology timeee

7H = Spouse/ Marriage

10H = Career

10 houses away from the 7H is the 4H

SUN/LEO

Your FS will probably be someone who is quite popular or even famous in their career field. They’re probably a very creative person as well. They might potentially be any type of entertainer so, singer, actor, comedian or dancer. They might also have a job that involves children’s entertainment.

MOON/CANCER

Your FS might be a realtor or someone who builds/ flips homes for a living. They might have their own brand/ business that sells self care products. They might also be very creative and artistic so a painter, poet, or singer is very possible as well. They also might be some sort of nurse, teacher, or social worker for children.

MERCURY/ VIRGO/ GEMINI

Your FS might be a writer, journalist, public speaker or teacher. Their career field involves education and/or the mind. Your FS might also be some sort of influencer or their career involves social media. (Specifically for Gemini) Your FS might be some sort of vet, doctor farmer, trainer or life coach. (Specifically for Virgo)

VENUS/ TAURUS/ LIBRA

Your FS might be someone who is very invested in the fashion, art and music world. Specifically for Taurus they might be a singer, interior designer, chef, model, or someone who works with nature. Specifically for Libra they might also be a model, politician, lawyer, couples therapist, or a party/ event planner.

MARS/ARIES

Your FS might be into the athletic field. They themselves might be an athlete or coach a team. They might also be a personal trainer. They might have an independent brand, label or business. They’ll most likely have a job that involves leadership so directing or being a CEO.

JUPITER/SAGITTARIUS

Your FS might be someone who could do any career and they’d be successful at it. Specifically, they might be the most successful in a career that involves traveling and exploring the world. They might be a professional traveler, tour guide, flight attendant, pilot, or professor who teaches abroad

SATURN/ CAPRICORN

Your FS might be into business and marketing. They are most likely into the more corporate side of business and heavily invested in investments and stocks. They might also be some sort of doctor. They also might be apart of a management company or they manage a bunch of people themselves.

URANUS/ AQUARIUS

Your FS might be into all things science and electricity, they might also be a social media influencer as well. They might be some sort of scientist, engineer, electrician, or neurologist. They might have some sort of online business or their career in loves being online. So maybe a YouTuber or Streamer.

NEPTUNE/ PISCES

Your FS might have a career that involves glamor and spirituality. They might va more flexible and laid back job. They might be an actor, musican, producer or singer. They might be into tarot, reading palms, astrology, and they might teach all of these things as well. They might also be into film and photography.

PLUTO/ SCORPIO

Your FS may have a career that is secretive, private or invades their privacy. They might be in a career field that involves research, physiology, investigation, or witchcraft. They might be in a position of power as well so some sort of CEO or business person who is really good at investing. They also might be into the police force, military, or banking.

What’s yours? Mines Scorpio 4H with Pluto/ Moon Sagittarius. 4H ruler being 4H Sagittarius Pluto/ 9H Taurus Mars.💋

-⚜️💫⚜️

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

(astarion / acebard!tav)

Astarion never received any gifts before - and if he did, he forgot - but he would have loved for the first giver to be his lover, although they seemed pretty occupied with Gale and an object that suspiciously looked like a present.

(not native in english. so sorry if the wording is clusmy in some parts, i wan't sure how to write this xD)

A/N: I made a few adjustments, but I think I know what you're getting at. Hopefully it still works. Also, this turned out way more than five sentences because I have no self control.

Astarion x AsexualBard!Tav Masterlist

Word Count: 921

Astarion couldn't remember the last time he received a gift. The idea of being gifted anything was down right laughable. Nobody truly gave anything without expecting something in return. Some way, some how a price would be paid. He didn't need that hanging over his head, along with everything else. So why did seeing you hand Gale a wrapped parcel sting so much?

He watched as the wizard pulled apart the paper, his brows furrowed with curiosity clearing into a bright smile.

"Oh this is perfect!" he exclaimed. "How did you get it?"

"Do you really want to know?" you challenged, grinning yourself.

Gale opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped himself with a guilty look. "Perhaps it's best I say thank you and leave it at that."

"What do you know, intelligent and wise," you teased. "Just make sure to pace yourself. Don't read it all in one night."

"I've made a point never to make promises I can't keep."

You laughed, giving Gale a light squeeze on the arm before turning in Astarion's direction.

He schooled his features into a casual expression, trying and failing to ignore the burning in his chest. Admittedly the fond look in your eyes did quell the fires, at least a little.

"Successful day?" he asked.

"More or less," you said, taking a seat beside him. "We've got a map. No way to read it just yet, but it's a start."

Astarion humphed, nodding in Gale's direction. "And that?"

"Just some petty thief," you explained. "Gale expressed an interest in it last time we were in town. Couldn't for the life of me explain why, but the bookseller refused to sell. Terrible way to run a business if you ask me."

This was normally when he would laugh or at least grant you an approving smile. Truly, he did love your casual relationship thievery, but it only made him more frustrated. He'd almost preferred you'd paid for it. If you had, he could dismiss the whole thing as a simple errand and not something more.

You frowned slightly, clearly taking notice of his mood.

"Alright, what's got you pouting?"

"I'm not pouting," he said, indignantly. "I'm brooding. There's a difference."

"My apologizes," you said, dryly. "What's got you brooding, oh mysterious one?"

He narrowed his eyes at you, his lips pressing into a hard line.

"I'm just surprised you would go so out of your way for a book. It's not as if you'd be able to understand it anyway."

A flash of hurt struck across your face, but you pushed it down in a way that made him sick to his stomach. What in the hells was wrong with him?

"Well, it's a good thing it wasn't for me then," you said, stiffly. "Now are you done being childish or are you actually going to tell me what's going on?"

Astarion tried to maintain eye contact in some vain attempt to hold onto his pride, but it was no use. He ducked his head down, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

"I...I don't see why you think Gale is worth the effort is all," he admitted. "It's just a stupid book. It's not as if it's useful to the rest of us. So...why bother?"

He chanced a glance in your direction. You just stared at him, your lips slightly parted as you took him in.

"Astarion, are you jealous?" you finally asked.

"No," he said, a little too quickly, even to his ears.

"So what else would you call being upset over the fact I stole something specifically for Gale and not you?"

"I'm not upset," Astarion objected. "I'm just..."

"Brooding?"

He very much wanted to say something devastating in that moment, that would shut you up and let him walk away from this with some kind of dignity; but, he couldn't think of a damned thing.

"Fine, I'm jealous," he spat. "Happy?"

"Not really."

He closed his eyes, letting out a short sigh. He deserved that.

"I'm sorry," he said, softly. "You're right, it's...petty and I shouldn't have said that to you. Gods know if it were anyone else I would have torn their throat out."

He looked to you then, hoping you would see the honest truth in his words.

"I wish I was better at this. I know you care about me and I don't need you to commit robbery to prove it. Although, I wouldn't be opposed to it."

To his relief, a small crack of a smile turned at the corner of your mouth.

"I'll keep that in mind," you said, some of the teasing coming back into your voice.

"Does that mean I'm forgiven?" he asked.

"Only if you mean it."

He didn't have an answer for that. At least, not right away.

With deliberate care, he slipped his hand into yours, raising it to his lips.

He watched as your eyes widened in surprise, only to soften as he pressed a gentle kiss to your fingers. His eyes never strayed from yours. He needed you to see him too.

"I mean it," he said.

A true smile came to your lips, as you nodded. "Then you are forgiven."

He returned your smile, feeling a lightness in his chest only you seemed to grant him.

Perhaps he was wrong in his assessment. He had been given many gifts since meeting you. You practically showered him with them every single day, and damn him for taking any of them for granted.

[themattress]

The Shitennou in the 90s anime are fantastic because each one of them is a specialist of some sort and it makes their evil operations distinct from one another, keeping things fresh.

Jadeite - The Illusionist

When it comes to Jadeite, deception is the name of the game. For his energy harvesting schemes he creates fake businesses, has his youma pose as humans, and he himself dons all sorts of disguises: radio DJ, fitness instructor, stage manager, academic professor, shrine assistant, amusement park security guard, and captain of a cruise ship. He will also utilize illusions to intimidate like when he showed a vision of Tokyo in flames, or to trick his enemies like when he had illusionary cops force the Sailor Senshi to transform so that he could learn their true identities. Unfortunately, Jadeite's pride in his capabilities means that he was stubbornly unwilling to adapt and take a more direct approach, leading to his downfall.

Nephrite - The Manipulator

Nephrite is a manipulator in all senses of the word. He manipulates people, objects, events and even the stars themselves in order to achieve his villainous goals. Using the single disguise of Masato Sanjouin, he gets close to victims, then will usually give them an item he curses to amplify their innate negative energy until it matches the energy of the star they were born under, creating a special youma in the process. He eventually singles out a key victim in Naru Osaka, who has a crush on his Sanjouin persona, and manipulates her in plans to destroy the Sailor Senshi or find the Imperium Silver Crystal, and uses a special tool of his own creation known as the Dark Star Crystal. However, his cold heart ends up warmed by Naru's innocence and devotion to love, leading him to his tragic demise defending her.

Zoisite - The Cheat

While Zoisite had aid from Kunzite in strategizing, let's not sell him short when it comes to the moment of truth - Zoisite frequently prevails because he is willing to do absolutely anything to win. No method is too dirty, cheap or cowardly for him to embrace. He'll threaten someone's loved one to coerce them into doing what he wants, he'll sucker-punch his enemies out of nowhere after having previously retreated from them, he'll physically bully whoever is smaller and weaker than him then blind them to make an escape if they prove more formidable than expected, he'll pretend to surrender and then strike, he'll sic a monster on his enemy while taking his prize and running, and when all else fails a good old-fashioned stabbing in the back will suffice. Zoisite got far on dishonesty, but success went to his head and he overreached.

Kunzite - The Trap Master

At first Kunzite was a skilled tactician, but then after Zoisite died the writers made him stupider at crafting strategies without even seeming to realize it. What he remained very consistent on, however, was his brilliant and deadly traps. He engineered a fake hostage situation leading to the Sailor Senshi getting caught in a dark, ever-compressing forcefield, he cut the power in Tokyo to obstruct the Sailor Senshi's efforts and cause Mamoru and Usagi to get stuck in an elevator, he had a great idea for a DNA scanning device to catch Sailor Moon with that his youma sadly screwed up, he held a princess seminar where the target was the overall failures save for in a frisbee-tossing challenge since it reflects Sailor Moon's tiara throwing ability, he had a giant snowy chasm created for his enemies to fall right into and be unable to climb out of, he rigged an ice skating rink temperature control device to blast an obscene amount of icy coldness down on everyone and nearly freeze them to death, he played on Sailor Venus' friendship with another person to almost obtain vital information from her, he turned the Sailor Senshi's own attempt at a trap back on them because he saw right through it, and were it not for the Silver Crystal's interference would have trapped them all in time-space limbo. Of all the Shitennou, he came closest to victory on the most occasions. Additionally, he was a powerful warrior, with his power and pride sadly being his undoing.

[kentosovertime]

hiii! could i request an au where megumi is a bookstore owner and reader often drops by to read/buy R rated books, then maybe one day reader accidentally stays past closing time so her and megs are alone tgt and some boomshakalaka happens? (also i love ur writing so much i hope ur pillow is always cold <3)

𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕠… 1.8k wc, explicit content and language, semi public smut, pet names, use of daddy, choking, unprotected sex

𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣… i got you nonnie ✨ i hope you enjoy! to everyone else my ask box is open for request 😈

✨Masterlist | Tag List | Ask Box | Ko-Fi✨

It was like clockwork every week. You come in late, every time, covering your mouth with a cute yawn that has Megumi’s heart beating faster, his cheeks heating up at how adorable you are. 

He noted from behind the counter how your curious eyes always roamed the shelves, looking for your next title to read. You only ever cashed out with one or two, seeming to pace yourself from getting too out of control on your to be read pile. 

If it were anyone else, he’d obviously prefer someone to buy a lot at a time, it helps his business stay afloat, but with you? He prefers to see you as frequently as possible. The late night visits allow him to regularly admire you from afar. 

After weeks of consistent visits, he starts to notice a pattern in your reading that has his pants tightening. You always beeline to the section Tsumiki insisted he add to the store’s stock, saying it would draw in a whole new demographic of customers to his store.

He begrudgingly had to agree with his sister, it was one of his best selling sections. Not that he knew what books were there, he let her handle curating what was currently popular to fill the shelves in that section. 

It was only once he noticed you purchasing them that he started getting curious. What could be so good about these anyway?

He remembers picking up the start of a series that you bought over three visits, thinking the topic must be interesting to keep you coming back to purchase the next ones, so he borrowed his stock to read the first one that night. 

His eyes darted over the pages in rapid succession, his mouth gradually falling open at the graphic scenes playing out on the page. These scenes were in direct opposition to his original view of you, a cute, innocent woman with a quiet introverted passion for books like him. 

He noticed the more he made an effort to talk to you in the following weeks while he was cashing you out, making sure to ask you how you were enjoying your purchases, the darker your cheeks would flush crimson. Eventually, he grew more comfortable with you, bolder even, purposefully asking prodding questions about your selected novels. 

“What’s this one about?” He hums, playing at a clueless frown, acting like he hadn’t started reading ahead on popular titles that you hadn’t yet bought. He was fairly certain that this one had a particularly graphic scene in an Uber. 

“It’s um… just a romance.” You shrug and seek to fill the silence when he doesn’t immediately respond. “It is about a figure skater and a hockey player. It’s a stereotype but people say that its cute…” 

Oh, he knows it's cute. Cute that you think he doesn’t know how nasty it is.

He went along with his night in a daze, picturing you in the positions in all of the books he’s read since last seeing you, not paying attention to the time until he’s looking at a clock that shows he closed 30 minutes ago. 

Did you leave while he wasn’t able to admire you walking through his front door? He mentally huffs in disappointment, moving to the door and flicking it closed before shutting off the open sign that faces the sidewalk. 

“Excuse me-” You squeak worriedly, holding your arm full of books you intended to buy but you had lost track of time, your mind engrossed in the beginning of the newest book you had picked up. Your voice doesn’t seem to reach him as he spins on his heels and rams straight into you. 

Your breath is knocked from you as you stumble backwards, your books knocking from your arms to topple to the floor with a loud crash. You’re ready to join them and smash your face off of the table of books behind you before a pair of hard arms lace around your waist to break your fall.

“Are you okay?” He asks a bit breathlessly, trying to look over your face to see if you’re hurt, but his gaze is continually drawn back to your mouth that’s parted in shock, panting from the fear of falling and still catching up to your current position. 

“T-thanks to you.” Your voice croaks, more strained than his as the warmth of his hold on you sinks through your clothing and into your skin. Teeth bite at your lip nervously, glancing nervously at the merchandise you damaged. “I’ll pay for these. I’m sorry for being so careless.” 

His arms tighten around your middle as you try to pull away and pick up your mess, another apology on the tip of your tongue for staying past closing dies as a quiet whine is pulled from you. The way his grip digs into you, threatening to bruise with how tight he’s holding you, has your knees giving out and relying on him to keep you upright. 

“Something wrong, dear?” He murmurs, leaning his face closer, hovering his lips over yours. “If you tell me I could help you fix it.” 

“Can I kiss y-you?” You mumble shyly as you feel your face heat up. You hope that you weren’t reading into this too hard and making a fool out of yourself. This was your favorite book store in the city and you didn’t want to have to find another one.

“I’d let you do more than kiss me, hun.” You can feel the words vibrate in his chest with a growl, making your breath hitch at how quickly he agreed to it. The open invitation for more almost has you pausing, but you push forward despite your anxiety. 

You don’t have to lean in far for your lips to touch his in a tentative motion, almost testing if you should be doing this, you’d never had a fall conversation with this man, you’ve only admired him from afar and attempted awkward small talk at check up while trying to avoid describing the content of the books you were buy. 

You shiver as he slowly presses his lips to yours, savoring the taste, moaning into you softly when you taste better than he imagined. And out of nowhere it's like a switch flips in him, his mouth pressing into yours with more urgency, swallowing every sweet noise he forces you to make. 

One of Megumi’s hands fists into your hair, jumping on the opportunity to shove his tongue into your mouth when your lips part in a gasp, making you grab at the fabric of his shirt. 

You return his enthusiasm, pressing your body to mold his and letting your head tip back limply to allow him to devour you. The more he presses into you, attempting to get closer than physically possible, the deeper he pushes you into the store. 

The feverish kissing isn’t distracted, even when you collide against a display table of books, the jolt of the collision throwing more books to the floor. The heat rising in you is suffocating, it has your skin crawling to strip your clothing to bare yourself to him. It makes your hands wonder, pushing under his shirt to drag your nails across his skin, desperate to have him make just as much noise as you are. 

A deep groan grates from his throat as he pins you against the table for leverage so you can feel the tightness raging in his pants. He wants you to crave him like you do the men in the books your nose is always stuck in. He needs to you to sing for him, to moan like the little slut he knows you are under that facade, but he just can’t get fucking close enough to you and can’t stop. 

The groans he rewards you with quickly turn into growls of frustration, the make out session devolving into a flustered, rushed clash of lips and teeth. 

“F-fuck- fuck it.” He growls louder and pulls away from you, reaching behind you to rush to swipe the books from the table onto the floor, quickly manhandling your body to force you to lay back on the wooden surface as he pushes his pants down just enough to free his length from its confinement.

“Let me take these off- shit!” You yelp when you already find his hands pushing their way under your skirt to take hold of your hips, tugging you to hover over the edge of the table before you hear the shredding fabric of your panties as they’re tossed carelessly to the floor. 

“You wear these little skirts on purpose?” His voice rumbles straight through you, making your center feel painfully empty. 

“Mayb-” A scream flies from your mouth, cutting off your response when Megumi shoves himself into you with a grin. His hips clap into yours, ever increasing in speed until the table is scraping marks across the floor of the store as it rocks back and forth. 

“You want to live in those nasty little novels so bad don’t you?” He coos, bringing his hand up to wrap around your neck to make sure you’re held in place, completely at his mercy as he drills into you. “How do those pages stack up to the real thing?”

“G-god- s’much better-” You mewl, trying to arch your back into his harsh thrusts that are clapping into your skin at a deafening speed. Your high builds rapidly at the raw feeling off him sliding through your clamping walls, the stretch of him scratching the itch you’ve been chasing with these novels. “C-can you- fucking please - harder!” 

Your cries begging to take more of him snaps the last threads of control in him. Megumi’s teeth grit as he leans forward to adjust the angle of his thrusts before he watches your body jolt and skin ripple with the force he’s exerting on your body. 

“You feel so much better than my fucking hand.” He says between grunts, keeping your neck pinned to the table, reach between the two of you with his free hand to messily circle your clit. “Fucking cum for me, hun… You can let it go.” 

The extra stimulation has your body tensing before snapping in on itself, tremoring with a hoarse cry when he doesn’t let up, fucking himself into with the soul focus of finishing himself. 

“Inside-” You croak, your legs fall around his waist, snaking around him to lock your ankle behind him to make sure he can’t pull out. “Please c-can I have your cum?” 

“Oh god-” His cock twitches inside of you at your siren’s call. He shouldn’t, he really fucking shouldn’t but when your cunt feels this good? “Fuck yes baby, you’re gonna take it like a good girl? Let daddy feel good?” 

You nod your head vigorously, your eyes watering as they squeeze shut at how harshly he abuses your sensitive center until you’re clamping down on him again, sucking him deep when he presses into you and pumps you full. 

“Shit.” He props himself, hovering over you with a dazed look of concern as his chest heaves. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you?” 

He thinks that your blissed out grin is answer enough. 

tag list: @sugarbooger513 @sugarmapoops @roughwithfluff @severelytalentless @silversslut @dreamyyholland @wobblewobble822 @rafzaha @chososhoney @littlemochi @bebechinas99 @saoney @pelicanpizza @damncakie @katgalle @honeyyjems @tsukikoxo @kibananya @reine-son @wallflower010 @tobaccosunbxrst @whereismysane [[[ if your blog name is crossed out i couldn't tag you]]

[mozzaremi]

got too silly, made omori magic au, that i'm calling MAGIKOMORI indodump in read more! (it's long)

Magikomori (Infodump)

The whole premise of the au is that the world of omori takes place in an alternate universe where magic is real

Magic and witchery have only recently become a viable career choice in this world, with magic academies popping up to help other witches to properly hone their craft in their efforts to make a living profit from doing what they love and are passionate about.

Both Sunny and Mari come from a bloodline of witches, making them generally talented in magic and spellcasting. Their mother isa witch, while their dad is just a regular guy who doesn't have the best outlook on magic users. 

Mari develop a people-pleaser side of herself that oftentimes is directed at her father, always trying her best to receive validation from him, resulting in Mari dropping all thoughts of becoming a professional witch in the future to instead focus more on her regular school studies and perfecting her skills on the piano.

Sunny, being the opposite, fully embraces the magic side of himself. The specific type of witch ability he's good at being illusions. He can summon lifelike recreations of entities from his dreams without much trouble. His summons are able to interact with the real world around them while also having a mind of their own. Although with Sunny being a less-experienced illusionist, he cannot control them or summon many at a time (he works around this problem by being able to conjure chibi versions of his dream entities into the real world).

While Mewo is still the pet of the family and she is recognised as Mrs. Suzuki's familiar. At the time of Sunny and Mari being toddlers, they would happens to accidentally cast spells and it was Mewo's job to reverse them and babysit the children when the parents were busy.

Other noteworthy magic users from the friend group is Aubrey. While she’s not from a family that's magically inclined, after seeing all the cool stuff Mari and Sunny are able to do with their witch heritage, saying that she became inspired to dabble in magic would be an understatement! 

The particular magic Aubrey specializes in is alchemy! She’s able to use spells to conjure, combine and transform items. One of her first successful alchemy attempts was being able to transform a simple wooden broomstick into a wooden bat 

The other magic user of the group is Basil. 

His family is part of an ancient bloodline of seers, and are able to see visions of the future. On top of that, Basil's lineage are bearers of a curse of being subjected to frequent nightmares, taking away any semblance of peace in their day to day life, leaving them with restless nights of poor sleep, night terrors, and insomnia. This curse also affects Basil's abilities to see visions, as it's hard to separate possible future events from a bad dream.

With the help of his grandma, Basil combats the curse by creating magical potions to suppress the nightmares and give himself a better night's sleep. 

Potion making becoming his speciality, he contemplates joining a magic academy to get a permit to sell his very own potions to the public! His brews range from tea- like elixirs that help with staying calm, helping with concentration, and clearing up general sickness (so basically like the stuff you can find at a regular pharmacy but make it magical)

Both Hero and Kel staying fairly faithful to their canon counterparts, both not having that many ties to magic, but still appreciating the craft! The brothers often contemplate on learning spells for their daily use, whether it's to help with chores or to enhance the taste of a special valentine's treat for a special someone! 

Now here's the deal breaker question... does Mari die in the au?

Well... yes and no. The accident does occur, but after Sunny pushes Mari, instead of freezing up, he attempts to cast a spell to save her from the fall, but instead he fumbles the spell so bad, that Mari phases between the world of the living and the dead, Sunny and basil being the only ones who can see her.

Their dad was already showing slight agitation from the witchery mischief that that family takes part in and the accident is the last straw for him. He leaves the family right after, convinced that the spell cannot be reversed and that mari was basically murdered by Sunny's hands and magic. 

Their mom tries her hardest to reverse the spell that might as well have been a curse. But without being able to detect mari, and with Sunny and Basil being the only ones to see her, it's their responsibility to attempt to undo the spell.

Instead of framing it as a suicide, Sunny's mom filed it as a missing person's case just so nothing bad happens to the two boys. Since magic has only been recently integrated into daily life, there weren't any good sources to turn to for help, so all trust was put into basil and Sunny to fix this.

Attempts to find a way to reverse their mistake were made with the two worried boys collecting countless books on spells and curses in effort to find a solution to their problem. After months of research, things were looking hopeless. Sunny, not being able to deal with the pressure, falls into a depressive state, barely leaving his own headspace while sleeping all day and night.

After the incident, he develops the headspace that we know, though with more magical elements sprinkled in, alongside Omori and his headspace friends. Omori is almost a stand-in for Sunny's own familiar, being able to effortlessly enter the real world and also disguise himself as his cat form. Omori would cause the young witch to procrastinate on finding the right spell to bring Mari back, ensuring that Sunny doesn't become too stressed or depressed when his attempts lead him nowhere. While not doing it out of any evil reasons to keep mari stuck between planes of existence, he just wants to protect Sunny and make sure that he gets some semblance of rest and peace in his life.

Basil's mental state also worsens alongside his best friend. With his best friend shutting him out and not having that much spare time to brew potions for his nightmares, all his time is devotedto finding a way to bring back Mari even without Sunny's help.

After the disappearance of Mari, instead of Hero becoming a chef or a doctor in the future, he chooses the career path of a detective, even purchasing a very expensive crystal ball to try to contact Mari if she were to be dead. Coincidentally he has no luck with being able to contact her, leaving Hero with some hope that he might find her someday. 

Aubrey still ends up becoming a delinquent, while also using her alchemy abilities for mischief. She forms a friend group of other delinquent magic users, causing occasional acts of misbehavior in faraway town.

She still owns Bun-Bun as her pet bunny, and while not having any magical abilities, Aubrey still refers to him as her familiar companion.

Kel is still... same-old Kel, still into basketball and a personification of a ball of sunshine. He still attempts knocking at Sunny's door to see him again, with things not going well until Sunny has to move. Kel also pitched in to get Hero the crystal ball for some closure, even being surprised as well when nothing came up. 

Being stuck between being dead and alive, after the four years Mari loses any resentment she might have had for Sunny and instead feels bad for her dear little brother. While Sunny can still see Mari, it's almost as if after Omori came into the picture Sunny started ignoring Mari's presence. Noticing this, Mari would attempt invading the boy's dreams to talk to him, causing all the headspace reset shenanigans.

When it comes to magic being used to cause other people harm, it all follows the "rule of three". Whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. Being aware of this magical law does help with preventing any possible person using magic for evil. 

In Sunny's case, while it was accidental, he did cause his sister and his friends a lot of grief, so it all returned back at him, the negative energy being a lot of emotional turmoil. This feeling of physical and mental unwellness is what helped develop Omori as his supposed familiar to help him cope. 

The plot of omori would still play out as it normally would withthe main difference being that people think that mari went missing instead of her committing suicide. 

Bad and neutral omori endings are still plausible options for the plot. But in the good ending, once the friend group forgives Sunny and Basil for keeping up the lie of Mari's disappearance, they attempt to work together to undo the spell keeping Mari in limbo.

[prince-liest]

In the future, once the hotel gets big and garners more interest, I could imagine the Vees making "knock-off" redemption hotels. "Trust us! With your salvation." Cue increasing distrust in the concept

Oh my god, I love this. I actually, genuinely hope that this happens in canon in later seasons because it just seems to be so incredibly in-line with the Vees' MO to literally capitalize on the newest trend to sell people their own salvation. Also super thematic with Vox's possible original/old backstory of having been a televangelist!

I actually think that the problem this would most likely initially cause is less people distrusting the concept, and more the Vees being able to sell it better and thus stealing business from the hotel even though who knows if they have any idea how to actually redeem people. The process apparently involves death, after all. Maybe they're just knocking people off permanently! It's not like there's any way to tell - fuck, maybe they make up a "contact" up in heaven and mock up fake "post-redemption" video proof showing that their concept works as part of the sales pitch.

The thing about the Vees is that even though we know they're deeply untrustworthy, the show for the most part seems to show us that they're extremely successful in their business and in getting people to buy what they're selling. People are absolutely clamoring to get one of VoxTek's new spy drones in Vox's intro, for example. I genuinely think it seems like an extremely on-point plot point to have the Vees end up in direct competition for selling redemption, especially when they have many more resources in the form of manpower and advertising to make their own operation look glamorous and appealing compared to the Hazbin Hotel (possibly even post-renovation).

And only after they become massively successful and earn a ridiculous amount of money off of the concept would the whole thing collapse. Charlie wouldn't have real incentive to stop them at first, would she? She tends to give people the benefit of the doubt. If they're genuinely redeeming people, well - it would make her a bad person to get in the way of that, no matter how much Alastor seethes about Vox stepping in on his turf, or how vaguely uncomfortable Angel Dust is with the concept. But once the whole secret gets blown wide open and Charlie & Co save the day... if it comes out that VoxTek has been murdering people rather than saving them... even though Charlie is the one who put a stop to it all...

Then, yes. If people can't trust VoxTek ("Trust us!") with their redemption, then why in the world would they trust Charlie's slapdash operation?

[mlmdiary]

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[phoenixyfriend]

Time for some tracts:

"How do we create jobs?" You raise the minimum wage, because if people don't need to work three jobs to make rent, those other two jobs will mysteriously open up.

"How do we support small businesses?" You raise the minimum wage, staggered to the biggest corporations first.

"How do we reduce homelessness?" You raise the minimum wage.

"How do we make sure raising the minimum wage doesn't negatively impact prices or--?"

Prices are already rising faster than wages are, this is playing catch up.

Put a cap on CEO salaries and bonuses, they can't earn more than 100 times more than their lowest paid workers. Current US ratio is 342, which is insane. (This list is mostly about the US.)

Hit corporations first, give small businesses time to adjust. McDonald's and Walmart can afford to raise wages to $20/hr before anyone else does, they have that income.

Drop the weekly hours required for insurance from thirty to fifteen. This will disincentivize employers having everyone work 29hrs a week, partly because working only 14hrs a week is a great way to have undertrained, underpracticed staff. Full time employment becomes the new rule.

Legalize salary transparency for all positions; NYC's new law is a good start.

Legislation that prevents companies from selling at American prices while paying American wages abroad. Did you know that McDonald's costs as much or more in Serbia, where the minimum wage is about $2/hr? Did you know that a lot of foreign products, like makeup, are a solid 20% more expensive? Did you know that Starbucks prices are equivalent? Did you know that these companies charge American prices while paying their employees local wages? At a more extreme example, luxury goods made in sweatshops are something we all know are a problem, from Apple iPhones to Forever 21 blouses, often involving child labor too. So a requirement to match the cost-to-wage ratio (either drop your prices or raise your wages when producing or selling abroad) would be great.

Not directly a minimum wage thing but still important:

Enact fees and caps on rent and housing. A good plan would probably be to have it in direct ratio to mortgage (or estimated building value, if it's already paid off), property tax, and estimated fees. This isn't going to work everywhere, since housing prices themselves are insanely high, but hey--people will be able to afford those difficult rent costs if they're earning more.

Trustbusting monopolies and megacorps like Amazon, Disney, Walmart, Google, Verizon, etc.

Tax the rich. I know this is incredibly basic but tax the fucking rich, please.

Fund the IRS to full power again. They are a skeleton crew that cannot audit the megarich due to lack of manpower, and that's where most of the taxes are being evaded.

Universal healthcare. This is so basic but oh my god we need universal healthcare. You can still have private practitioners and individual insurance! But a national healthcare system means people aren't going to die for a weird mole.

More government-funded college grants. One of the great issues in the US is the lack of healthcare workers. This has many elements, and while burnout is a big one, the massive financial costs of medical school and training are a major barrier to entry. While there are many industries where this is true, the medical field is one of the most impacted, and one of the most necessary to the success of a society. Lowering those financial barriers can only help the healthcare crisis by providing more medical professionals who are less prone to burnout because they don't need to work as many hours.

And even if those grants aren't total, guess what! That higher minimum wage we were talking about is a great way to ensure students have less debt coming out the other side if they're working their way through college.

------------------

Linda P requested something either really interesting or really silly and this is... definitely more of a tract on a topic of interest (the minimum wage and other ways business and government are both being impeded by corporate greed) than on a topic of Silly. Hope it's still good!

[blazehedgehog]

After watching SAGE's 2024 trailer, you ever get the feeling that most people want to be making indie games instead of fan games nowadays,? Every year there's been less and less fan works there.

This is the first year I've really felt it in any meaningful way.

There have been attempts for more than a decade to rename SAGE to drop the "Sonic" part. I've always pushed back against that and at this point the branding is too strong to give up, I think. People know about and come to SAGE because the brand is strong. Renaming it would be a death sentence.

Taking off my business hat, it's a bummer to see fangames in the minority here. Everybody wants to hop on that indie game gravy train and chase the success of Pizza Tower (seriously, count how many Pizza Tower clones are in the trailer this year) or Freedom Planet or Spark the Electric Jester or whatever.

And it's easy to congratulate people for striking out on their own and making original games. I was one of the many voices urging Sabrina to divorce Freedom Planet from the Sonic franchise and make it into an original game she could sell. So she ran a crowdfunding campaign (multiple, actually), was successful, and now we have two Freedom Planet games. And that's great!

But... does that mean all fangames should go away forever?

The example I lean on the hardest is comic books.

A lot of the guys who created the biggest super heroes aren't around anymore. They gave up control long ago or are straight up dead now. These books are effectively officialized fanfiction now, as are the $300,000,000 movies based on them. An ever-increasing number of people writing, drawing and directing these characters today were not alive when they were originally created.

But people still keep writing Batman stories, officially or otherwise. Because there are some stories you can only tell with Batman. Now, you could break off and make your own character that's similar to Batman, build up this history for him, and then finally tell your original story with that character. And maybe that's satisfying, to have built something of your own like that.

But for one: that's a lot of work. Batman is interesting because he has decades (almost a century now) of history behind him to play off of and work with. There are people out there who will tell you to just start writing your dream story and forget about building up to it first, but that's more about motivation and confidence than the idea that stories don't need historical context.

And two: that's already been done.

There's a good chance you know who Rob Liefeld is from his, uh, "distinctive" art style. He also created Deadpool, a katana-wielding mercenary assassin that dresses in red and black, whose real name is Wade Wilson. But before Deadpool, he created Deathstroke, a katana-wielding mercenary assassin that dresses in orange and black, whose real name is Slade Wilson.

Here is a guy who has built a career on copying his own work (and the work of others) over and over and over again.

Did it make Rob Liefeld rich and famous? Technically yes, but he kind of got rich because other people made better work using his characters, and he's famous for being kind of a hack.

So which is better?

Creative output you can do right here, right now, today, but is considered "fanfiction" or "fanart" or a "fangame", which may or may not lead to you being the person handling the official thing at some point down the road...

Or spending years of your life toiling to bring an original concept to life, and even if you struggle through all of the boredom and hardship of getting your original product out the door, it gets lost in the noise of now-million other creators trying to do the exact same thing. And then, at the end of your launch, after 2, 3, even 5 years of working and working and working, you've only made enough money to cover rent on your apartment for a month and a half.

Or, to put it another way:

Are you ditching fangame development because you have a legitimately great story you want to tell, or are you just doing it because you can't make money on a fangame?

Are you just creating another Bloodstrike?

As someone who has struggled to justify putting lots of hard work into a fangame myself, and have both made very popular fangames and some not-so-great original games, I don't know if I have a definitive answer for you. But I do wish there were more fangames at the fangaming event, and I will say, as always, if I could get paid a livable wage for making fangames, I would drop everything and do it in a heartbeat.