#but no its just the company . literally everyone has been cut down to about 10 hours

[komohine]

hello oh my gyad you’re my favourite artist EVER. I love the warm tones of your drawings and the way you draw keith and james is so so pretty (you have 100% converted me to be a jaither) like seriously keith is gorgeous and the outfits you draw him in are ethereal. I have many questions ive been brewing for a little bit and you don’t have to answer all of them but feel free idunoo👍👍👍

1. in the college au, does keith have his cheek scar? if so, how did he get it?

2. what is james’ and keith’s favourite thing to do with each other in free time? in every and any au you have

3. how does wearing clothes bode for james in the android au? does every tiny string get caught between the metal or does he just not wear a shirt half the time? or the third more sinister option, fabric just doesn’t catch in the plating at all

4. what colour are keith’s eyes.

5. does james play any sports/instruments like every freakish extracurricular absent parent having kid ever?

6. thoughts on the keith neurodivergent headcannon?

7. would james ever introduce keith to his family? or is he no contact/they wouldn’t care?

8. do you headcanon keith with any galra features? if so, what are they?

9. favourite food and colour headcanons for the both of them?

10. do you think keith would have any piercings?

+ a singular drawing request, soggy keith (thankyu for reading c:)

Hello i love you guys take notes from this anon please ask more questions like this i wish tumblr allowed me to answer a question more than once but PLEASE ASK HUGE QUESTIONS LIKE THIS I LOVE YAPPING ‼️😄 I LOVE YAPPING ‼️😄

Also THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMEBTS HEEHEE 🙏 i try my very best to deliver fire content 🫡 which is why i havent posted a finished piece in a while… im cooking… 😈 also its way too late for me rn to get out of bed and draw so i will reblog this with soggy keith… sometime later…

Beware a huge freaking wall of text… but id appreciate it so much if anyone reads and responds to my headcanons and adds on 😄

1) TW: ASSAULT. i was debating this, and i think yes but its much smaller than the one he has in canon. He gets it in roughly the same way, an altercation with kuron (evil shiro, except kuron is just a major asshole who isn’t related to shiro but tries to take his place through manipulation. Keith (and everyone except james actually) fell for it). Keith eventually confronted kuron outside a bar after repeated attempts to get closer with keith during their night out and kuron got pissed and pulled a knife. Fortunately keith is also an mma legend and wiped kurons ass but he got a pretty bad cut on his cheek. James made sure everyone knew about what kuron did (james is hella connected because of his parents wealth and also bcs he was trained for a while to inherit his parents company. Also, James is an incredibly smooth talker and can convince anyone of anything. So kuron pretty much has zero chance at a job in the future cause he got blacklisted from everywhere lol). This is me painting sheith as the weird freaky violently uncomfortable shit it actually is lol 😄

2) canon compliant: literally anything that isn’t high risk and stressful. Cooking, reading, sitting on the couch watching bad horror movies and shouting out plot predictions and then laughing when they’re right. Because theyve had too much drama in their life. They really appreciate the times when they can wind down. Playing fetch with kosmo is also fun, because yk teleporting wolf, so they need to get creative to get kosmo to exercise.

College AU: similar, chill things. But because of james’ absolutely insane schedule and keith’s investigative work about his father’s unusual death, they don’t really get much time together outside of studying together, lunch dates (james always makes time for lunch. Well he tries, but he has notoriously bad scheduling luck so he’ll end up with back to back classes from 8 am to 9 pm, no lunch break, or random 2 hour gaps where he needs to go off campus to a diff location for his next class so he cant acc spend those 2 hours relaxing its just him fighting downtown phoenix traffic), etc. but they’re both pretty outdoorsy, so both him and keith like going camping when they can. Its a nice break for the both of them. Also james made keith run a marathon with him once. Keith barely survived, snd slept for 18 hours after, but it was fun! In return keith dragged james to his mma gym and tried to get him to do a kick (because james is one hell of a sprinter. He has sprinter legs. That should theoretically translate super well into an insanely strong kick) but james was too nervous. every time he stepped in the ring he’d just stand there awkwardly and not move. He did send one of those punching bags flying with a kick though after he worked up the confidence (keith was right!)

Android au: uhhh kind of not applicable i fear. I cannot say why. But sometimes james lets keith clean his gun. When things get rough, he’ll let keith fix him up if there’s anything broken.

3) lowkey the sinister third option. Maybe they have some special super tightly knit fabric that’s impossible to catch on things. But also, the androids are designed pretty well, and are surprisingly devoid of super snaggy edges

4) violet. In human au, black, but im a firm believer of him having dark eyes that shine a dusty violet when the light hits them just right

5) canon compliant: TRUMPET AHHAH HES A TRUMPET PRODIGY no actually it makes me a little mad just how good he probably is at trumpet. Like gorgeous, bright tone. Huge dynamic range and lung capacity. Im so mad. Probably also piano. And fencing. He is also extremely good at sabre fencing. And i was saving this hc for later but wtv ill just repeat it: james was the one who taught keith how to wield a sword because i refuse to believe keith picked up his bayard and it formed into a sword just because. No man, its because james would beg keith to practice fencing with him and keith would finally relent and james would teach him pretty much all he knows. And keith remembered those lessons.

College au: track and field. Specifically, sprinting. James is acc so good at sprinting that he went to the olympics twice and won silver in the 200m the first time, and gold in the 100m the second time (lets pretend youssef flash (usain bolt counterpart) stayed home that year for whatever reason). And also ballroom dancing! Like waltzes and shit. Hes such a loser. And probably piano and trumpet too but they’re not so important lore wise.

6) YEEESSSS i also believe in james being neurodivergent in some way. No neurotypical man likes finance that much (my personal headcanon. Also in college au he does high level 1000 page math workbooks for fun.)

7) canon compliant: i havent thought that much abt james’ family in the canon universe. Tbh theyre probably all dead (hence why he reacted so harshly to hunk in that one scene) by the time he and keith get together officially so there’s not much he can do. He’d take keith to his sisters grave just to tell her the news (his older sister was the only person in his family of like 7 that gave a fuck abt him). During their garrison days, he probably never mentioned keith as a way of protecting him from his family.

College au: yes! He tried! Unfortunately his homophobic republican christian parents did not appreciate it. James really introduced keith as a last olive branch because he was alr so close to cutting them off, but their reactions were so bad he lost his temper in public (never before seen) and stormed out halfway through their planned lunch dragging keith by the wrist. And then he cut them off.

8) me personally no. If im being so fr every time i see galra feature Keith it always comes across as infantilizing in some way? 😭 like “ooo kitty ear keith!” somehow you are infantilizing both asians AND a completely made up race guys. The only real feature is maybe his funny coloured eyes? But galra eyes are yellow so uhhh… but i think internally there’s a lot more galra presentation. Like his heat/sickness tolerance, sleep cycle, endurance, etc.

9) i havent really thought of this, i have colours I personally associate with them but hmmm. (Canon compliant, but probably applies to all of my aus) Keith’s favourite colour? I dont think he would really have one specific one but he might list off some colour combos he thinks looks nice. Like red and black. Hes also not super picky, but he really misses his dad’s halo halo. James is too depressed to have a favourite colour. And he likes anything that is a painful experience while consuming. Like very strong and bitter black coffee, straight everclear, your most acrid cigarettes. Because he hates himself.

10) in my college au he has a snake bite! Only one though, on his right (our left) side. Also he has his lobes pierced. I dont think he’d have anything in canon compliant, just bcs his hair is already pushing the garrison guidelines and i dont think they’d let him pierce anything. Maybe earlobes, but thats it. Same goes for android au.

[toastthewolfie]

its done

silly. Silly guy. Silly man. Silly sopping wet golden retriever. Filled with soup and anxiety. (dont worry. They will eventually come out as it does reach a point where the closet is fucking glass)

His name’s Issac Giselle, his callsign is Coyote :D

info from @/olibird’s template under the cut :)

Name: Isabella (Issac) Giselle 

Aliases: Coyote and 10-19

Nationality: American       Ethnicity: Latina (I am unsure how to represent this, so it will probbaly not be very prevalent. Sorry D:)

Age:  23              DoB: (M/D/Y) 6/15/2001

Pronouns: Uses She/Her but prefers he/they Gender: transman (Closeted)            Sex: Female

Sexuality: Questioning

Height: 5’2

Languages: English, Spanish (Mexican)

Which CoD Universe: the Modern Warfare Reboot timeline

Branches of Service: N/A

Affiliation:  (Former) Mercenary for unnamed Company, Shadow Company

Specialties: Demolition. Fights extremely fast and relies heavily overwhelming the enemy but can easily be overpowered if the enemy has more experience than him.

Personality: sad golden retriever boy who’s a doormat.

Backstory: 

Was one of many adultified children after his parents moved from Mexico to the States. Mother was busy, father was unable to work due to health and visa issues and was practically a vegetable so basically he had to raise his little sister (who’s 4 years younger than him). Was kicked out at 19 for expressing the desire to be a man, stumbled into a man (who will remain unnamed until further notice) and joined an unnamed Mercenary Company (they explicitly chose to remain unnamed. It, quote, allowed “less strings to be attached or followed”. Most just refer to it as ‘The Company’). 

Met Phillip Graves during a random mission when he was 21, they exchanged information (rather, Graves was interested in their abilities and forced them to exchange information (doesn’t help that Issac’s a doormat’ so he could contact him later). After a bit of discussion, he made the decision to join Shadow Company and leave ‘The Company’. Everyone there was extremely against it but what was done was done (even if he started to heavily regret it) and he’s been here ever since.

Issues: extremely touch starved, very big doormat, extremely likely to hold back any form of tears (even if caused by pain) as he believes that emotions like that are messy and will cause unnecessary distress (where he grew up and worked, pain was seen as weakness or caused distress, and those are two things he wants to avoid).

Habits: holds self very tightly, as if trying to take up very little space. Stretches when bored.

Scars: large, jagged scars on face, hands, and most of his forearms and legs.

Preferred method of showing care/affection/love language: Any. My guy will literally take sword fighting and turn it into a sign of affection 😭 (edited bc i wrote this at like 12 and forgot this was SHOWING and not RECIEVING)

Preferred way of receiving care/affection: Physical touch

Eye Color: amber

Hair description: cut just above the neck and very flowy, its a dark reddish brown (not chestnut, just a slightly redder brown)

Clothing description:

Combat: fairly standard combat gear in black and varying shades of grey with a balaclava only cut around the eyes

Casual: a green hoodie with two slightly darker patches on the right arm that read ‘Giselle’ and ‘10-19’ respectively. Grey leggings and green shoes.

Body description: skinny. They aren’t very muscular and act more as a scout.

Favorite Activities: observing. He writes down little notes in a small brown-leather notebook about everyone he’s around for more than half a day.

Blood Type: O+

Favorite color: Platinum

Favorite animal: dogs (german shepherds specifically)

Favorite food/Dessert: they like mango slushies :)

Other Fun Facts:

allergic to Grandpa and his children D: (they try to hide it tho and wear a mask around him to prevent sneezing)

He’s also allergic to cacao (it’s not a bad allergy, just kinda itchy mouth and stuff)

He and Selena are frenemies. Selena has kinda taken Issac under her wing but since she HATES doormats, she’s trying to teach him to standup for himself (but he usually almost starts crying because he thinks Selena is upset at him leading to a very awkward comfort session).

Selena was probably the first person he approached first, as he was VERY interested in her previous work with MWDs (and potentially her adopted German Shepherd named Skye who was a former MWD that she trained)

people have assume they’re a dude, and despite being in the closet, they dont bother to correct people (it feels nice, being called what you want to. Most people just assume he doesn’t care lol)

[pigswithwings]

ramble abt ur ocs buddy. for me <3

I LOVE YOU. OKAY SO . basically . ill be rambling about some different ocs thank you :]]

first oc. my friends have heard ALLL about this guy but my proudest oc is nova.

^ it looks like this and is incredibly shivering beast btw . hops under the cut

anyways the setting for nova is basically. it's many, many millenia into the future. aliens have been discovered (sick and rad). capitalism still exists (not sick or rad).

anyways the No Space Unexplored corporation, or just N.S.U, developed the NOVA project, which consisted of sending several intelligent humanoid droids (called Navigators) onto various habited planets by themselves, mostly to figure out whether they were profitable. whoops! some of the Navigators happen to be a bit buggy, and a few behavioural errors are noticed early on during some of the droids' first few days after landing on different planets. hopefully nothing happens because of that!

Flashforward a few weeks and the N.S.U becomes involved in a big old legal case that ultimately shuts them down. oh boy well what happens to their property and various pioneering space related projects? instead of being regular about the whole deal, the company just. destroys any old property. cuts off all contact with various rovers and projects because they're petty about it. the Navigator droids are shut down and presumed destroyed by any alien environments or animals.

oops. welll except for one. Navigator #4 sure did get cut off from any contact with Earth, but guess who lived, bitch? she did. built different.

and yeah Nova gets pronouns now (she/it). anyways Navigator #4 gets her name from the company project. she doesn't have a very good imagination or as much creativity as the average human because she runs on literal numbers, but she is pretty good at surviving on planet #5098 like she was designed to. although it does happen to have a varied ecosystem and several very large predator animals. but it's okay! it's living life pretty well and has settled into its (possibly permanent) residence on this planet. so thumbs up!!

OKAY SECOND OC. this is mike. he/him. unidyne microphone for a head but otherwise normal <- lies

get it? anyways he's pathetic. he basically lives in a cartoon world. the cops hate him because he keeps trespassing as part of his work and also interrupting. he has horrible time mangement and does not sleep enough. forgets to take off his hat and tie before collapsing into bed.

now mike says he's a private investigator, but really he doubles as a sort of bodyguard for people who pay. and triples as "the guy who works part time at the grocer's, but only on the third weekend of every month".

he loves music but hates singing himself. humming is great, but he was born into a family of performers and always feels like his own singing isn't worth the effort or embarassment. hes my favourite and one of my oldest characters :]

third oc! zero. or xeyr real name, which is 0000. uses xhe/xher and xey/xem.

they're a bit messed up! but it's good for xem because they are incredibly nihilistic. xhe is always, constantly, 24/7 aware of xher audience and the fact that xhe is being judged for xher actions. which can make a person both paranoid and aggressive when criticized.

this isn't to say that zero's actions are always 10/10 ethical, of course. xey work on a submarine researching the deep ocean and mainly help to identify/categorize species. one win for the science community! and as a side gig, xey are employed by some pretty shady people to conduct some pretty shady experiments. normal things :]

hope everyone enjoyed ... i have more tidbits but this is the general overview for some of my ocs !!!

[gummygowon]

gonna take a quick break from writing just to talk about how much of a shitshow bbc has been lately.

obviously, bbc has thrown this cb super fucking last minute that concept images were literally shot at the most four days before they were released and bbc got exposed for reusing old mv clips along with stock videos. even with their tracklist too, there's no way in hell they had everyone in the studio recording new songs like a month before this cb. it's more likely that they're just using old tracks that never made the cut on some albums (pretty sure this has been proven since they're releasing a track with monotree, someone they've stopped working with long ago). i won't be surprised if bbc releases la maison from its dungeon just to reel orbits back in.

also, i know that bbc IMMEDIATELY denied the rumor of nine members trying to resign from the company but literally no one has been posting since the chuu departure apart from vivi and hyunjin the only two who weren't included in that rumor. so it's obvious that the girls are tryna boycott as much as they can without breaching their contract.

but thank mf god this boycott is working. i know bbc is fucking stressing the fuck out rn seeing these low ass views and very low sales (pre-order sales were literally less than 10 i think like two days after it was announced). i hope that loona either disbands and gets picked up by another company (hybe i'm looking at you or even sm) or those girls finally get fucking paid.

i know that orbit's hard work along with the moon girl's hard work is kinda going down the drain in terms of gaining popularity and becoming big. but hey, our girls deserve justice from this shitty ass company and we are so close to getting it!

if you don't know how to boycott bbc here are a few things you can do!

DO NOT STREAM THEIR MUSIC FROM SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC, ETC. -> on spotify you can even set loona to "Do not play this artist"

do not watch/stream any official music videos and teasers from their social media accounts

do not buy any albums from anywhere -> if u wanna buy their old albums buy second hand like from insta, ebay or mecari!

do not engage with any of the teasers that they post for this cb

if you wanna post/view the teasers @/loonatherepost on twt has everything!

literally go start watching those lyric mv videos from jaeguci aksjdlf

BASICALLY DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WOULD NORMALLY DO FOR A CB!!!

[voidspeaker]

p-o-3 is it too early to confess my undying love.

okay so i'm super tired rn and i know about as much lore as you do BUT! (also sorry it took so long i was making/eating mac n cheese)

So to start with, Sammy's whole character in the first game is about how he wants to go back to normal, calling his body a prison and all that. However! Something you didn't note in your rant was that Sammy, the music department director, only had 4 fingers on his hands. Whether it was because he cut them off as a sacrifice or if it was part of the hell of becoming more cartoon-like, having four fingers suddenly means that a lot of instruments are suddenly unplayable. If we go with the sacrifice idea, it wasn't just him sacrificing his body to the Ink Demon (in hopes that he'd go back to normal, not that he even remembers what that is), it was him literally giving up being able to play music, his entire job and literal purpose inside of the Studio. Not to mention, learning so many instruments takes a LOT of effort, so you KNOW he had to like doing so, and like, became well-known for his work?? He was good at it!! And he literally GAVE IT UP for the slightest chance of hope.

I can't say any more on the descent into madness that you didn't already cover entirely, but god, can you just imagine putting all of your hopes and dreams into something, and it just. Shoving it back at you while laughing. Like, firstly, it's proven that Bendy can feel when his cutouts are touched even slightly, and Sammy is literally seen carrying them around. He's got like a hundred of those things laying around. They judged my music playing. And so Bendy has to have known about him. And now, Bendy, as a demon and all that, doesn't really care about people and the ink creatures and whatnot, yeah, but that doesn't change Sammy's perspective. He'd seen something so powerful that it'd created this hellscape (kinda) and went with the idea that by gaining its favor he could return to normal. He was willing to risk ever being liked, considering everyone else hates anything to do with the Ink Demon, ever having company, because he'd then be known as a follower of the Ink Demon and thus someone to be avoided. And I can't imagine that 30 years wouldn't be horribly lonely.

Sure Sammy may have been a jerk or something but you also have to remember that he was damn good at his job, as well as having Joey Drew for a boss, who constantly told him that some piece of his was never good enough and to change it up. Suddenly he was never good enough--it's no wonder he lashed out and was known as an asshole. I would too at that point.

Like, the whole first game covers Sammy's descent into madness pretty well, and I really liked that we covered him feeling betrayed after being abandoned by the only source of hope he had. I feel like it could've been covered a lot better, but what can you do. I feel like it would've hit a lot harder if you'd (Henry) potentially had the chance to spare him or something and it ends in Sammy just like,, breaking down as the devastation truly hit. He'd never accept comfort, but I think him just laying on the floor in a pit of despair would definitely hit a lot harder for the player for the effect this all had on him.

(Weird time to mention this but the literal only thing I know about the book(s?) is that apparently Sammy is like, an 11/10 on a "morally wrong" scale. The second coming of William Afton, if you will. No clue what he did but I love him nonetheless.)

Anyways, time to finally get into the second game. This is already so long so kudos if you're still reading.

So BATDR introduces a really interesting concept right away. It's the Ink Demon and his followers vs. Wilson and whoever the fuck the Keepers are. No I have not forgiven them for hurting my baby boy (Bendy) and I will not, but this is about the injustice done to Sammy.

So I played through the whole game myself on stream when it first came out, and we got to the part where you get the wrench by ripping it out of a "ink demon follower"'s gut. And now, who do we know is the biggest ink demon follower? Me and my whole chat were screaming about it being lore about Sammy and how this could mean big Sammy things!!! i was very disappointed.

I would've been alright with no Sammy appearance at all, considering he'd supposedly died in the previous game, but the fact he showed up was so much worse. Because he was alive, and he had the perfect concept for creating lore in the game, whether by meeting Baby Bendy and you guys team up, replacing Alice's gun fight with Sammy being like "where tf is my lord what did you do with him", or even just being THE example of what happens if you follow the ink demon. Like they had him locked up, they could've tortured him easily. Don't even have to kill him, have him as an alive example of what would happen if you follow the demon.

Just, Sammy's whole character in the game is that he's a follower of the ink demon. The follower. Nobody liked him in the first game for that exact reason, and they just. Disregard that. All of his lore from the first game gone, whether because the "loop" was before Sammy had gotten betrayed by Bendy or because they didn't give him a chance to show his devotion at all. It was like. They put his character in to say stuff for 4 seconds before they killed him again. I barely even noticed him while I was playing, and i actually skipped his enclosure entirely, because the scene when he shows up already has so much going on!! The only reason I noticed Sammy was because I heard his voice and got super excited. I wasn't even sure it was him at first.

There were so many ways they could've gone with Sammy's character in the second game, and killing him for a bit was not the right way. I laughed, because it was funny, but I'm also super upset because! Why would you have an entire game dedicated around the ink demon and his followers and NOT SHOW US SAMMY. He's just a joke instead of exploring such a good concept. That's not even mentioning like. The tragedy of his life. That's just my take on his role in the game. He could've been a friend to Audrey, he could've met Baby Bendy, he could've taught Audrey how to walk through walls, he could've replaced Alice in the tragedy of their lives, he could've tried to get rid of the false Bendy (aka Baby Bendy), he could've been put on display as an example by the Keepers, he could've just stayed dead.

But no. Let's have him alive for all of 5 seconds before he gets shot to death. It was funny, but I'm also so salty.

((if you read this far congrats! i am angry about sammy's role in batdr but also he's such a loser,, who else shows up for less than 5 minutes in the entire game before dying (multiple times) and is still a fan favorite?))

i think what we’re learning from Sammy’s multiple appearances and subsequent deaths is that he should shut the fuck up

literally every time my boy opens his mouth for a new speech about his lord he dies but the one time he doesn’t say A WORD he stays alive

look at him being still currently alive through the process of shutting the fuck up

[logicalbookthief]

Christmas Movies Ranked by How Anti-Capitalist They Are

It’s a Wonderful Life

Movies that make you want to pick a fight with the 1% and also weep with joy. Absolutely a classic and anti-capitalist at its very core. Will convince you we need to start oppressing landlords again.

“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle.”

SAY THAT!!! George Bailey said fuck landlords, all my homies hate landlords, they have NO rights. Local man believes poor people are human, dedicates his life to helping them, and in his time of the need literally the whole town comes together to support him and his family. Class solidarity ftw!

“Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” Bitch I CRY EVERY GODDAMN TIME. 

10/10

Home Alone

Soundtrack goes hard, the wacky hijinks even harder. 

Loses points because the bandits had a prime opportunity to seize and redistribute some of the wealth from this ritzy Chicago neighborhood and instead they focus their energy on trying to kill an 8-year-old who outsmarts them at every turn.

2/10

Elf

A family favorite in our house. Touches on the overworking and mistreatment of employees through Greenway Press – Walter forced to choose between being with his family on Christmas Eve or losing his job, it’s implied Deb has a pet grooming business on the side to makes ends meet despite being a receptionist at a NY publishing company, etc.

Honestly most of the points come from Jonie’s underrated yet highly relatable storyline. She works in retail, exhausted and cynical towards the high-paced Christmas season which gives her little to no relief or reward, since she’s surviving on ramen noodles and using the employee showers because her water was cut off. Not expanded on enough to be considered a true Marxist piece but the effort is appreciated.

5/10

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Although the meme is correct in that Rudolph’s red nose becomes desirable only once it proves to be useful, it does get points for exposing the harmful nature of forced conformity and those alienated by these capitalist ideals -- Rudolph, Hermie, the island of misfit toys -- are given a place to belong despite the perceived “flaws” that before made them undesirable.

Also the elves definitely have a free dental-plan now thanks to Hermie and are hopefully on their way to unionizing. Fucking superb you funky little misfit.

6/10

Klaus (2019)

Turns a member of the bourgeoisie into a man I’d trust to carry my mail. Respect for postal workers this movie contains was ahead of its time.

 No direct takedown of the establishment but a heartwarming message -- “A true selfless act always sparks another” bITCH I may be crying -- that emphasizes the importance of giving to others even when there is no selfish motivation to do so, which is inherently anti-capitalist.  

8/10

The Santa Clause

Scott Calvin starts as a toy executive who takes part in the commercialization of Christmas. He was probably a business major so automatically loses points.

The Santa dynasty itself seems to operate under the cutthroat rules of the business world where you must overthrow (or in this case, throw him off the roof) the former CEO in order to seize power. 

Elves have not unionized or seized the means of production by the end.

0/10

A Christmas Carol 

THE ORIGINAL. Charles Dickens was not even in the neighborhood of fucking around with this one. CREATED the anti-capitalist Christmas genre!!

Rich man treats his employees like shit and gets terrorized by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. Force him to redistribute his wealth by dragging him through a montage of his most epic fails -- oh, hey, remember when your fiancé left you? -- and make him listen as all his employees and relatives complain about his stingy ass. 

They end this slideshow by throwing this dude into his own grave. DIRECT ACTION. 

Like damn, the ghosts really said, “If you hoard your resources and ignore those in need when you could directly improve/save lives with no cost to yourself, you will die ALONE and you WILL pay for your crimes in hell.” Literally watching this movie is a catharsis for anyone who is or has been poor and working class. 

I’m including all versions of this movie but a special shout out to the Muppet version because it fucks the hardest. 

100/10

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Listen I’m not even in realms of joking with this one. This movie is THE anti-capitalist film of the holiday season. 

WhoVille commercializing Christmas and a fixation on consumer culture to the point where anything and anyONE who cannot be commodified -- aka the GRINCH -- is alienated? The Whos rediscovering that people should be cherished over material items once it all is stolen and they must confront how empty the holiday has become??

Cindy Lou becoming disillusioned in Christmas -- at an age that coincides when many children (those who celebrate Christmas at least) lost belief in Santa and had to wrestle with what the holiday means with the magic gone and they’re more aware of the rampant consumerism that taints the season?? Her resolve to find a meaning that goes beyond material consumption because if a holiday founded on goodwill doesn’t extend that goodwill to everyone, even those society deems undesirable, then what’s the point???

The Grinch despising Christmas because he is unable to participate and isolated from the Whos and also the better qualities within himself? His alienation serving to demonize him further as it allows the public to narrow his valid criticisms of the holiday down to him being different and thus inherently predisposed to evil?? And hmm isn’t it interesting that a LOT of this demonization comes via Mayor Augustus “generously paid for by the tax-payers of Whoville” Maywho, Mr. 1% himself.

The upper vs working class divide evident in the light show competition between Martha May and Betty Lou Who?? The opening scene of the shopping frenzy that mirrors our own consumerist culture and overworking of retail/poster workers??? This entire monologue:

“That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been about. Gifts, gifts... gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts! You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I'm saying? In your garbage. I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the avarice... the avarice never ends! ‘I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make glue.’" 

MARXIST KING. MENTION IT ALL.

1000/10

[burnedbyshoto]

for want of a bento box

– It’s plain and simple, you see, someone is stealing your bento boxes and you will find your lunch thief! Or, in which Todoroki Shouto keeps taking your bento box and you declare war. 

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pairing: todoroki shouto x reader

warnings: fluff, cursing, shouto is a bad chef, I believe I made reader pretty gender neutral but I whipped this out in two hours and I can no longer remember if I used any fem!pronouns but im pretty sure I didn’t

word count: 3,060

a/n: this is for the wonder coworker bnharem collab! I had intended on writing a completely different theme and storyline but was very overwhelmed by how much time it actually needed to be written compared to the amount of time I actually had. that version will be out another time! but for now, enjoy some pure flufffffff!!!!

⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆

Having a normal, functioning, well-paying job was probably the most desirable thing to you. It wasn’t to say that you were slacking or that you were homeless, broke, and never to be seen again because you were that in debt. But it was nice having a job!

When you entered the prestigious Toshinori Company, you joined not as an entry-level job employee but as a senior representative. You thought it was crazy.

It had to be crazy.

You had no prior experience, and now you were going to be in charge and the lead in certain areas?!

“And that was the entire layout of the office!” Mina chirped happily, throwing herself onto the desk chair across from yours with a big smile. “Any questions?”

“I don’t think so,” you mutter, brows creased as you look around the room again. 

The office space was ample, sleek, open. Each desk has its own grand computer that you currently could not afford with your own money, comfortable chairs, and beautiful wood desks. It was elegant, far superiorly fancy, and yet, you didn’t feel out of place. Strange.

“Oh!” you say with a roll of your eyes as you reach below your desk to bring up your packed lunch. “Where was the break room again? I need to refrigerate my food!”

“Omg, of course, come this way!” Mina grins, standing up and motioning you to follow her. You smile gratefully and do. 

The entire way to the office, Mina takes the time to point at the many different people on the floor and give them names. Everyone so far had sort of acknowledged you earlier as Mina was giving you the official tour. Some were much more open and friendly, and some had sneers or blank stares that left you dumbstruck. 

Definitely a personable group.

“Hm, well, I guess Todoroki-kun isn’t here today?” Mina mutters as you enter the break room that has couches and comfortable-looking chairs. “Such a shame! You would have loved to see the office hottie!”

You snort at that, lips curled into a granulous smile as you place your plastic container with food into the fridge. “I’m sure I’ll live,” you brush off the fact that there was an absent person on your floor today.

“That’s the thing, though,” Mina points a finger at you, a lone eyebrow raised and a confident smirk on her face. “You won’t be thinking that again the moment you see him!”

You laugh, eyes crinkling as Mina joins your laughter. Eventually, she motions for the both of you to leave, and you nod in understanding. And with a weird sense of comfort and belonging, you realized that this job was going to be good. 

.

.

Eventually, you had been working at Toshinori Company for two months.

Sixty-two days to be precise, and in all that time, you had only met Todoroki Shouto once. Even then, you had only seen the man walking through the office with a blank face, fingers in his pockets as two other men were walking in front of him, bickering lightly.

Had Mina not quite literally thrown herself across the table and gripped the collar of your shirt and twisted your head to look at him, you would have never caught a glimpse at the man with red and white hair. The three of them walked into the break room and came back out with their own lunches before leaving.

And that was it.

You had learned that the three of them (Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku, and Bakugou Katsuki) were within your department but worked very closely with the very high up members within the company. Many rumors pointed at one of the three taking over the company when the current CEO stepped down. They were, however, on the roster for your floor; they just never appeared except to pick up their lunches. Something they seemed to come to grab whenever you were a) way too fucking busy or b) not in the room.

You weren’t too bothered, though.

It wasn’t like you were trying to date one of them! You had only wanted to say hi.

.

.

.

Now, at ninety days, you had your first and probably most crucial evaluation. 

Toshinori Yagi, the man who founded and currently ran this company, sat before you, looking at papers within a folder with tired but kind blue eyes. He nodded, impressed (hopefully), making small comments about the work you had been able to accomplish, a smile becoming a warming grin as he looked up.

“I’m impressed by the performance you’ve managed to attend to despite the short while you’ve been here, y/l/n-shojo,” Toshinori spoke, his fingers threading together and placing them onto the table. “I knew it was an excellent decision to put you in that position, and you exceeded my entire expectation!”

You flushed at that, lips twitching as you attempted to suppress that smile of yours. 

“Thank you, Toshinori-san,” you practically wheeze as he waves off your thanks.

“No need to thank me, you’ve done all this work!” he laughs, tired eyes closing with a glorious supply of crow's feet blooming at the corner of his eyes. “Typically, at these evaluations, I ask a bunch of questions because there isn’t too much anyone can do in their first ninety days, I must admit.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm, but because I am curious, is there anything that has been happening as of late that you feel needs to be addressed with me?”

You felt yourself stiffen but knew your one and only complaint was not something to bring up in this setting.

“No, nothing,” you shrug, and Toshinori beams.

“I’m glad!”

Now, the problem.

The big, fat, stinky, hooligan, wanting to throttle someone problem.

For the past sixty of your ninety days, someone has been stealing your lunch.

Yes, you heard that correctly; someone was stealing your damn lunch! Every morning you woke up and prepared a delicious bento box for yourself. Some days you went as far as cutting shapes into your fruits and veggies just to make yourself grin. You weren’t the best chef in the world, but your bento boxes were pretty enough to make up for it, in your opinion. But the thing is, every day when you went into the communal fridge, you noticed two things.

One, your bento box was no longer in the same place, and two, the bento box was not yours at all.

The food was disastrously organized. Rice and lettuce spilling out in every partition in the box. The fruit and veggies often packed in this box had multiple cuts in them, implying that whoever did this was less than ideal with a knife. The meat was often oversalted, the sushi never sitting together, and everything was just… not it.

The first time you had sighed and eaten it, grumbling about how your precious lunch was stolen. But you had quickly figured out that it was inedible, and Mina, Uraraka, and Yaoyorozu thank god, offered to share their meals. 

Seeing that you were distressed about how someone stole your egg and octopus sausages one day, Mina declared that they would watch the break room for whoever was stealing your light blue bento box. The first day you staked out, you had done it with Mina. But ten minutes into waiting around, you needed to pee. So you stood up and left in a hurry, leaving Mina alone.

But when you returned, Mina was gone, instead standing by Kirishima’s desk with a bright grin and a stance that screamed that she heard something she liked (gossip, possible in-office romance, a love confession?). Her jaw dropped as she noticed you and Kirishima had turned and waved in your direction as you raced into the break room to open the fridge, and sure enough, your bento was gone.

The next time, you staked out with Uraraka. Your arms were folded, your bladder cleared, and your lips twisted into a pout as you glared and stared down every single member who entered the room. Uraraka whispered to you her guesses about just who might be the thief, every other person rating an 8/10 likelihood of stealing your lunch.

But as the both of you sat there, your eyes narrowed at each passerby, no one came to collect your bento today.

“Deku-kun, no packed lunch today?” Uraraka asked as the green, curly-haired man you had only met once previously raced into the break room, grabbing the extra chopsticks meticulously hidden in the third bottom draw.

“Ah, Uraraka-san, y/l/n-san! Uh, no,” Midoriya greeted you both, who apparently responds to the nickname Deku, laughs off as he grabs a handful of napkins. “Todoroki-kun left all our lunches in his car by accident, and well… they spoiled… Kacchan’s pissed, so I ran off to get lunch for us today!”

Uraraka laughed, shaking her head, “Leave it to Todoroki-kun to act that way.”

Midoriya laughed, bright and clearly in agreement, “You should have seen his face when Kacchan asked for his lunch! I swear–”

“HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GRAB FUCKING CHOPSTICKS, SHIT-KU! I’M FUCKING STARVING!” a voice roared from nowhere near the entrance of the break room. You did, however, jump a bit, eyes turning toward the break room entrance to see the blond man (Bakugou? Kacchan? You had no idea which was correct) near the entrance of the floor. 

“It’s only been a minute, Kacchan, relax!” Midoriya laughs, completely unaffected by the startling shout as he waves goodbye to both you and Uraraka before leaving, joining Bakugou as the both of them seem to talk comfortably… well, maybe more like bickering.

“Why are they–”

“Childhood friends, apparently,” Uraraka sighed, but the smile on her face betrays her exasperation.

No one stole your bento that day.

Yaoyorozu took up the third stake out, the two of you idly chatting about tea. You honestly had no idea what to talk about with Yaomomo; she was often just so elegant and mature despite being your age. When you learned that her family was in charge of the Yaoyorozu Corp, it had been strangely easy to accept that. 

It made sense.

So as the two of you stood at the kitchen sink, boiling water for tea Yaomomo swore would be the best matchup for your packed nigiri, the both of you missed the man who walked into the room, opened the fridge, and took your lunch.

“I… I am so sorry,” Yaomomo apologized, head bowed dangerously low as the both of you looked at the sloppily cut salmon in your not actual bento. “Please eat my food in reparation.”

“No, it’s okay,” you sigh, chewing on the somehow still warm salmon. “I deserved this loss.”

Luck was just on this man's side, it seemed. No matter what you did, you could never catch the man in action, and you were ready to give up.

But this was the last attempt you said to yourself as you returned to your office floor, the evaluation done, and the rest of your life coming to light. You could do this. No! You WOULD do this!

.

.

“Why don’t you just put your name on your bento box?” Bakugou asked, a lone eyebrow raised in what you could only assume was judgment and pity. The explosive man was standing in the doorway of the breakroom, watching as you and Mina were trying to climb up the counters of the breakroom to grab the camera you had previously planted. “Obviously, it doesn’t have your name on it.”

“Um,” you squeak, having been obviously caught by someone who intimidated you just the slightest bit. “That’s a good idea, thank you, Bakugou-san.”

“Tch, whatever, just clean up the damn counters, fucking nasty standing up on there. Some people prepare their food there.”

“We would never forget to do that!” you argue, desperate to not leave a bad impression on this man.

“I don’t know much about you, but I know raccoon eyes over there would.”

“MY NAME IS MINA!”

“Like I care.”

He left without so much as a wave but did seem to nod with his departure. You sighed as you hopped off the counter, Mina grabbing the cleaning supplies as she cursed out the long-gone man under her breath. 

But you were looking at the fridge with your missing bento box.

“I can’t believe I never put my name on it.”

“It’s okay! Not even Yaomomo thought of it, so I say we are still smart!”

.

.

.

It was the next day, you were at your desk, anxious as hell as you did your work, trying not to focus on the fact that it was lunchtime and you were actively avoiding the break room. You wondered if they wouldn’t come and collect it today. If somehow they were an asshole and wouldn’t care if your name was on it! What would happen then? What if it was someone like Bakugou who was taking your lunch? What then? You were sure you would cave in slight fear and major intimidation if he said that your lunch was his now.

“Want a cutie while we wait, cutie?” Mina asked, waving the small tangerine in her fingers as she grins.

“Please,” you say in gratitude for the food because you were starving. “Thank you.”

Eventually, you lost track of what was happening, becoming all too invested in the conversation that Mina was telling you about that involved Kaminari, Kirishima, Bakugou, Midoriya, twenty-seven Red Bulls, fifteen Monsters, and five shots of sake. It seemed that the former two were quite big instigators when they wanted to be, and the latter two were unable to back away from challenges, especially when the other was involved.

“Y/l/n?” an unfamiliar voice called from behind you, and you turned partially in your chair as you looked behind you.

Standing behind you was a tall man with red and white hair, and from this distance, you noticed immediately that his eyes were a deep grey and brilliant blue.

Todoroki Shouto.

“T-Todoroki-san!” you greet him back, voice unable to keep from trembling as your nerves shot up. What was going on? You two had never interacted before! He was always gone, never present, and whenever he was in the office, it seemed that you weren’t there.

He cleared his throat and raised up two identical bento boxes.

“It seems… I have apparently been stealing your bento boxes,” he concludes, pressing the blue bento box with your name written on it into your hands.

Your jaw drops as your fingers curve around the cool plastic, eyes blinking up a storm as you try to abstain from laughing high pitched and ugly like. 

“It was you?!”

A pink color blooms onto his cheeks as he averts his eye contact with you and nods slowly, “I am so sorry.”

“I just… how?!” you exclaim, exasperated, this man obviously being a bit dense if he had no idea he was taking your bento box!

“I prepare my bento boxes the night before, and I don’t really remember what I put into them….” Todoroki explains slowly, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, his tongue clicking the roof of his tongue. “I just thought that my cooking was improving and that I was somehow doing an amazing job.”

The grin that overcomes your face is one of subtle, strange fondness and soft warmth. “I can tell you that you probably haven’t improved much,” you tease, opening your bento box to see your prepared meal for the day. 

Cucumber salad, bulgogi beef, rice, and some fruit.

It was packed exactly how you remembered.

“I can’t believe I finally get to eat a meal I prepared,” you continue to tease, your eyes moving up to meet Todoroki, who was also looking at your bento previously. “Thank you for returning my meals and apologizing.”

“It was nothing,” Todoroki waved off with a single hand before opening up his own disastrously assembled bento box. It looked worse than usual today. Everything was just thrown in, it seemed. You saw egg and rice, but everything else in there was indescribable. He smiles at you before sighing at his bento. “This looks more like my stuff.”

You laugh, shaking your head, “You want to share my bento box? I’m sure you probably don’t want to return to that.”

“No, it’s okay,” Todoroki gently declined, although he looked at your bento with great want. He cleared his throat, gaze moving to lock on yours, and you swore his cheeks were still pink but no longer from embarrassment. “I just wanted to come and apologize for stealing your lunch for so long and to thank you for the meals; they were all delicious. Especially the soba you had made.”

“It’s all good; it’s in the past now,” you say gently, somehow finding yourself falling for a man you’ve barely just begun to talk with. The both of you stare at each other, and your skin feels warm. You chuckle, gaze averting for a moment before returning as you tease him. “Although, if you steal from me again, I’m not so sure if I’ll be so lenient.”

“It won’t happen again, promise,” Todoroki smiles, and you feel your spine melt. “But I would love to make it up to you somehow. I can make you dinner one night or something?”

You laugh, head shaking, “No, absolutely not; I don’t trust your cooking skills just yet. But you can definitely take me out to dinner.”

“Yeah, I can definitely do that,” Todoroki agrees, and the both of you fall silent as the shy stares continue. “Does, um… is Friday at seven okay with you?”

“That works,” you say, and Todoroki smiles.

“Good, I’ll uh, see you then?”

“See you,” you agree with a sweet smile before turning around, your fingers raised in a small wave. 

You turn to see Mina, Uraraka, and Yaomomo staring at you, eyes comically wide and so very intrigued.

“Oh… my… GOD!” Mina shrieked as Todoroki walks away, and you shriek as she jumps across the table and shakes you, screaming about office romances and meet-cutes being entirely too underrated. “PROMISE ME I’LL BE INVITED TO THE WEDDING!!!!”

“MINA!”

.

.

.

.

.

It would take about three years of dating, several months of teaching Shouto how to cook, which resulted in a few bellyaches. Still, eventually yes, Mina would be invited to your wedding.

[i-am-dulaman]

[long post]

So the other night I was talking to the most insufferable first year business student who insisted trickle down economics was great. He for some reason was, in the middle of a night club, trying to convince me we need more tax cuts for the rich.

Anyway, ignoring that, he has annoyed me into finally doing the research into something called a worker cooperative which has been in the back of my mind for a while now.

So a worker cooperative is essentially a company which is owned by the people who work there. They either elect their own management or, for smaller firms, make management decisions democratically, and they all share in the profits. This is opposed to consumer cooperatives where the business is owned by its customers.

So with that in mind there are two things you need to know:

New Zealand is the only post-industrialized country whose agricultural sector has grown, and its the fastest growing sector of the NZ economy. 

5 of the largest agriculture businesses in NZ are cooperatives, including Fonterra, NZ’s largest company which accounts for ONE THIRD of the ENTIRE WORLDS dairy trade.

Now none of those agriculture companies are actually true worker cooperatives, they’re usually only owned partly by their workers and not all workers have a stake in the company either. For example Fonterra is owned by 11000 of its dairy farmers but has over 10000 other employees who are not owners. But it’s close enough.

So is it a coincidence the best performing sector of the NZ economy is dominated by cooperatives? I have no idea. im just looking at the numbers. But its an interesting correlation.

Worker cooperatives are actually very rare in the world, but there has been some research done on them, particularly in Italy and France and here are some highlights:

They are much more resilient, with the chance of shutting down in its first 3 years of operation between 30% and 50% lower than normal companies when fully controlled for industry/size/etc. 

During the 2008 recession, worker cooperatives in france saw a 4% increase in employment while the unemployment rate in france rose by 0.7%

Salaries were slightly lower on average in France however other studies also showed salaries being slightly higher. This is likely due to the pay distribution, where the CEOs salary will be much lower in a cooperative compared to a CEO in a normal company, thus bringing down the average.

Cooperatives are 6-14% more productive

Employees are much more committed to their work

So in other words, they work.

What’s more is it keeps the profits of the company in the local economy, with all the money going to the workers, instead of shareholders who could be anywhere in the world and would likely just put the money into savings.

However the main draw back is it is hard to get the startup funds to start new companies. Most companies of course start off small with only a handful of workers which means each would need to invest a significant amount of their own money. But I’ll address this problem further below.

Anyway so what’s my point here?

Make every company a worker cooperative by law. That’s my point. Not a 100% worker cooperative, but a law that makes every single company in NZ pay its employees 50% of its profits, on top of their regular salaries.

Now im not an economist so idk anything about this subject. I’m just a socialist who has worked for the government before so i know how inefficient true communism can be when the government owns every business, but i have also worked in a private business that could afford to pay everyone an extra $250,000 but instead gives 1 billion dollars to our australian owners and kept us short staffed and underequiped.

so i wanted an alternative, and this is what i’ve come up with just fooling around with numbers and hypotheticals.

So I would love to see an actual economists take on this, not that i expect to find one on tumblr lol i’m just writing this here cause idk where else to write my thoughts.

So why only 50% of profits instead of 100%?

I think compromise is important. Every revolution failed because of a lack of compromise. revolutionaries pushed the revolution further and further to the extreme which pushed away moderates and sparked counter-revolutionaries. Keeping it to 50% means maybe more moderates will be on board. Keeping it to 50% also means investors are still motivated to invest and receive returns, which solves the biggest problem with worker cooperatives.

I’ve gone and looked at 40 of the largest companies (by revenue, number of employees, or net profit) in NZ, and calculated what it would look like if they paid their employees 50% of their profits evenly. These companies represent about 10% of the NZ workforce.

Note that some companies can literally afford to pay ALL of their employees HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars and still keep 50% of their profits. One can even afford to make every single one of its employees a millionaire. (also note that some of this data is even from 2020/2021 with covid severely damaging the economy)

This averages out to $28000 per person. The median income of NZ is $53,000, so that would mean a sudden 52% increase in salary on average.

Not for nothing, it would also lead to an enormous amount of money in circulation, as people with more money will buy more things, and give the economy a massive boost. (The opposite of trickle down economic. Suck it first year business dude.)

I think a law like this would provide a sudden and drastic redistribution of wealth.

And i think it’s worth the time/brainpower of someone who knows more about economics than me.

[theolsentimes]

Mary-Kate Olsen's Singular Style

She came to fame as a twin, but the actress's cultish look is entirely her own. Here, with Lauren Hutton, she pays homage to another fashion inspiration, Grey Gardens. Written by Laura Brown, with photography by Peter Lindbergh (Harper's Bazaar, 2007)

VIEW GALLERY

Mary-Kate Olsen may be the only young actress who breezes into her local Starbucks wearing towering, fashion-fierce Balenciaga boots, who arrives at her latest premiere (in Mary-Kate's case, for the new season of Showtime's Weeds, in which she plays a devout Christian with a pot fetish) sporting an oversize cross, and whose favorite band is Led Zeppelin. She may, in fact, be the only young actress who knows who Led Zeppelin is. MK, as she is known to her friends and family, is also a punctual and professional sort. She arrives for a poolside tea in Los Angeles 10 minutes early, ordering a hot chocolate while explaining her fetish for all things sweet — "I'm a candy girl, like Tootsie Rolls and Swedish Fish" — and objecting when the waiter tries to take the sugar bowl away. She is wearing a nautical striped T-shirt (her mom's, from the '70s), tucked into two black Wolford slips rolled down and turned into a tight, Robert-Palmer-video-style mini, and multicolored sparkly Christian Louboutin stilettos. She's just had her hair colored, returning to a sunnier shade after some experiments with both peroxide ("I woke up one morning and was like, I want white-trash hair today") and the dark side (an auburn-haired near-Goth moment last year). She's carrying a large black fringed leather Prada tote — she doesn't do small bags — and her fingers are covered with rings, most notably two vintage coiled gold snakes stacked on top of each other. ("They remind me of twins, sort of double headed.") Altogether, the effect is less her famed "bag-lady chic" than an edgy, body-conscious, and, yes, sexy silhouette. If she weren't 21, she could be 40. And French.

Few people need reminding that Mary-Kate — with her twin sister, Ashley — literally crawled into celebrity aged nine months (courtesy of Full House) and has not been out of the spotlight ever since. She has been a celebrity for more than two decades. Perhaps that's one reason she seems as if she came out of the womb worldly, the textbook old soul. "Yeah," she says with a small shrug. "I get that a lot." With all of that attention and all of the money (her and Ashley's company, Dualstar, has famously become a "billion-dollar business"), Mary-Kate could easily have ended up the type who wears pink terry cloth and carries a variety of small dogs. "Could you imagine?" she says with the politest version of a snort. "No way." She credits her exceptionally close-knit family (she has five siblings) and, interestingly, early stardom with helping her keep her perspective. "I think it helped that I started in front of the camera, so it didn't come as a shock. If I was a teenager and was thrown into the spotlight, I don't know how I would react, to be honest." Though the tabloids are all too keen to brand her a skinny, nervous deer in the headlights, in person Mary-Kate is easy in her skin, confident and surprisingly tactile, curling up in her seat and touching you on the arm to make a point. She laments the generic style of most actresses and cites only men as style inspirations: "Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp. Men, they just dress the way they want, and they don't think about Who Wore It Best." She doesn't much care for Who Wore It Best, noting she avoids those pages by "wearing vintage so often. I just dress the way I feel instead of looking for what's the new handbag." If Mary-Kate and Ashley have their way, more people will be wearing clothes and carrying bags the way they do. They have just shown the fifth collection of their ready-to-wear line, the Row, and recently launched a contemporary label, Elizabeth and James, named after a sister and a brother. The Row's holiday collection (in stores next month) is a slick mix of skinny leather pants, razor-cut blazers, butter-soft, slouchy tees, and a destined-to-be-cultish pullover fur. Lauren Hutton, who stars in the Row's Spring '08 look book, says, "The clothes are extraordinary. A man I was with just loved them. The pieces are just so genius, soft like a baby's skin. Simple minimalist stuff, but really spectacular." Mary-Kate, designer, faces an interesting challenge. She has to marry Dualstar — which has made its fortune selling tween-tastic DVDs and pastel Mary-Kate and Ashley T-shirts at Wal-Mart — with her increasingly edgy and subversive taste. Dualstar executives, some of whom have worked with her since she was a child, often nag her, mom-style, about pulling her hair back "or wearing a color," she says with a laugh. "I had this event recently, and I was like, They're going to be so happy that I'm wearing ... purple. I actually have to think about those things, though, you know, so I don't get trashed." Get trashed sometimes she does. Hutton says, "Once in a while, she'll wear something and I'll think, Oh, baby doll, take another look. But to have the bravery, to take the chance to do that, is pretty wonderful. She is making her own way, which is hardly ever done in Hollywood." Of Mary-Kate's penchant for gigantic Balenciaga heels, Jenji Kohan, the creator of Weeds, says, laughing, "I'd be like, 'It's Tuesday. Do you really want to be wearing those shoes?' But she pulls it off." Designer Giambattista Valli, a friend, says, "She likes to take risks, but because she has such strong personal style, she always manages to make it work. Even if she had nothing on, she'd have style." And MK chic is spreading. "Sometimes I'll look at people or at a magazine and I'll do a double take because I'm like, Oh, my God, that's my outfit, but that's not me," Mary-Kate says. Playing with her wire-rimmed aviators, she jokes wryly that she should have bought shares in Ray-Ban. (She and Chloë Sevigny pretty much brought back white '80s Wayfarers.) She tends to fall in love with a look, then wear it until she's done. "If I put together a good outfit, I'll wear it for three days and then switch it up with a blazer," she says. "I still love my vintage jeans, my tights, and my pants, though." She didn't start wearing heels, in fact, until a couple of years ago: "I kept watching Ashley walk around in them so gracefully, and I'm such a klutz. But I ended up loving heels, and I don't usually take them off." She wears precisely one pair of flat shoes: Chanel's knee-high patent-leather gladiator sandals. This season, it's Balenciaga's fall collection — all of it — that has Mary-Kate obsessed. She is close to designer Nicolas Ghesquière and says, "He is so talented, but he's the nicest, most down-to-earth guy, and that makes everything he does more brilliant. I bought everything, but I haven't got anything yet," she says like a girl impatiently waiting for Christmas. Will she wear the new pieces with her infamous clodhopper boots? "Uh-huh. Wore them the other day, actually." Mary-Kate always goes with her gut, even if some people (back to those tabloids) don't quite get it. "The tabloids say things about me? What do they say?" she asks archly. "People are going to write what they want, and everyone's going to have their own idea of who I am. But I'm not trying to be friends with the people who are reading them, really." After a rough couple of years filled with near-forensic scrutiny of her weight, she'll have you know that she does eat. "This is not going to sound good," she laughs, "but I like making crispy tofu sticks with peanut sauce. I love my sashimi and my salmon and my vegetables." She observes, "Stress plays a big role in how I look day-to-day. I've always been very active — Pilates, yoga. I grew up horseback riding every day for hours. I love dancing. I usually last longer than anyone on the dance floor." A common image of Mary-Kate has her emerging from a coffee joint with an oversize cup. "I always get creamed for having my Starbucks cup," she says, sighing. "But the only time people get photos of me is when I'm getting coffee, when I can't sneak away from the camera." She also resents the pictorial implication that she and Ashley are dilettantes. "They take photos of us going into our offices, and it's 'Mary-Kate and Ashley shopping again.' But I'm going to work for eight hours, and we're working so hard. ..." She trails off. "It just shows how people want to think of you." Mary-Kate is not above celeb watching herself, however. Newly obsessed with Victoria Beckham, she notes she avidly watched Beckham's Coming to America documentary: "She's running around in a bikini and heels, and I'm like, Oh, my God! I do that, too!" How positively Grey Gardens. "I run around my house naked with heels all the time. It's so funny. All my friends will tell you I love running around in kimonos and jewelry or naked with jewelry." More people will be watching Mary-Kate soon, thanks to her role in the Emmy-nominated Weeds. "I am a very good Christian girl," she says with a wink. "She has her moral beliefs — and she happens to smoke pot." Of her newest cast member, Kohan adds, "Mary-Kate is complicated. She's a big celebrity, a huge media icon, but you have to separate the media images from someone who has the same issues, the same desires, as anyone else." Of course, Mary-Kate's image, in all its incarnations — from high fashion to small screen — is her strongest asset. And she has yet to settle on one. "I feel like I've lived 10 different lives already and I'm only 21," she says, almost as a reminder to herself. "But I also feel like I'm entering a new chapter." One thing on which she is clear, though: She doesn't need to be looked at all the time. What would she do for a day if she were invisible? "I would probably go to a restaurant with my friends, who would be able to see me, of course," she adds pragmatically, "and I would sit outside and enjoy a nice lunch with them. Then I would walk down the street." The old soul takes a sip of her little-girl-sweet hot chocolate. "That's what I would do."

[stanleyb-art]

Have some of my Stan twins headcanons!

Both:

They are trans men! (This one and any attached HC to this, is not ALWAYS included in my fanart/fics but it's still there)

When either man has a nightmare, they go to each other for comfort, that includes just keeping each other company, cuddling to fall back asleep, whatever they need

They draw together while travelling and show those and the large scrapbook they make to the kids when they visit next

Stan:

He 100% has ADHD

Bisexual w/masc preference

Got top surgery and testosterone from a really shady back alley surgeon/doctor until hrt became normalized

Had PTSD before weirdmageddon but that + the memory wipe worsened it in multiple ways

Actually super cuddly and affectionate but went so long without physical contact that he hates to initiate it

He knows sign language (because in canon he's HoH and doesn't want to risk not being able to communicate if he loses it fully)

Listens to rock and folk-punk

Really creative and artistic (which is obvious considering his line of work) and has endless amounts of sketch books just lying around

Was never actually failing school, he wasn't doing great but he had D's, C's and even B's (only in gym and art but still they count) but his family didn't care

Teaches Mabel and Dipper how to box the next summer they come down

Never admits it but he is incredibly insecure, but wants to seem confident and unbothered when everyone is around

Dated Fiddleford for a bit while he was still somewhat lucid (in their early 30s), but then when he got worse, he forgot Stan was Stan and started referring to him as Ford and he couldn't handle that anymore and tried to distance himself from him

Everytime he gets a new memory, he goes to Ford, because it's really scary and Ford somehow always knows how to help

Has an ACTUAL tattoo on his back, its Ford's hand, he got it when he was sixteen as a surprise for him, to hopefully make him feel better

Actively dating their universe's Rick Sanchez and has been since their late forties (knew him since his early twenties though)

Ford:

Created his own testosterone for himself, and eventually for Fiddleford, Stan and Dipper as well

Also got his top surgery from a back alley surgeon (sort of, they were in training to be a real, certified doctor but wanted MORE practice than they were getting)

Gay through and through

He's autistic AND has ADHD

Dated Fiddleford in college and after weirdmageddon is over (I also go back and forth on thinking he's Tate's dad as well which is it's own little post)

Loves playing cards against humanity while drunk

Has played not so child friendly campaigns for DD&mD (if you catch my drift)

Monster fucker

Learned multiple languages after going through the portal, and then learned sign language for Stan when he came back

Touch starved for sure and will soak up literally any affection given to him

Likes reading to people

Got used to cussing while he was away and slips up in front of the kids constantly (which leads to MANY occasions of one of them saying it and him getting yelled at by Stan who does NOT slip up somehow)

Has ptsd and nightmares due to what happened while he was away and weirdmageddon

Mabel made him a princess unattainabelle dress to wear while playing DD&mD (which he in all honesty adores and does wear multiple times)

Has over 100 tattoos, and is a part of why he wears sweaters (but also because of his scars)

TW Self harm/suicide attempts for the next few

Ford tried to have his extra fingers removed as a teen and then tried to cut them off himself when the doctor's wouldn't do it for him (Stan caught him and stopped him before he could)

Ford attempted suicide 5 times, the first was the night Stan was kicked out and he got rejected by WCT, he tried to overdose but didn't have enough pills to do it. Next was during college, he was stressed out from the work load he had taken on and tried to overdose again, but Fiddleford caught him and saved him. Third time was while he was working with Bill, the demon made some off comment about his family, and Stan, and that set him off, so he tried to slit his throat, once again being saved by Fiddleford. The fourth time was right before Stan showed up, he was going to hang himself if his brother didn't show up, but he did. The final time was about 10 years over on the other side, he lost one of his few friends he had made and was going to shoot himself, but fell through a portal before he could and met Rick Sanchez

While most of Ford's scars are from fighting, there are a lot from him cutting and burning himself when he was younger (and the one on his throat from the one attempt)

Stan also attempted to kill himself, 3 times. First was the night he was kicked out, he tried to drown himself but was pulled to shore by an incredibly worried old man (who he ends up crashing with until he was banned from NJ). Then the second was a few months after the portal incident, he felt hopeless and scared and guilty so he tried to overdose but couldn't keep the pills down and puked them up almost immediately. The last time was the morning the kids were going home, he tries to hang himself, kicks the chair over as soon as Ford comes in to talk to him about the anomalies he found, so luckily he doesn't have the chance to succeed (the kids never find out, Stan made him swear not to tell them)

Stan also has self harm scars, but his are on his stomach and chest, so nobody but Ford, Fiddleford, and Rick know about them

Let me know if anything is spelled wrong/worded oddly and I'll fix it, too much to proofread at the moment😭

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

Stories I haven’t read yet, but clearly need to put on my ever-expanding List.

~*~

Welcome back queen [Thank you, it’s so lovely to be back!] if ur still doing follower recs I gotta recommend I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett it’s soooooooo good

[This one was actually recced to me by two different people, the other of whom said, “ Maybe I'm crying a little so I feel like a should recommend ‘I would wait for a thousand years’ by bleuett on ao3.”]... it’s def. on my List!

I would wait for a thousand years

by bleuett (T, 10k, wangxian)

Summary:  During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair.

“Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.”

“I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.”

“And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.”

~*~

I just read a great fic by aisthuu "every love story is a ghost story", didn't see it in your recs so wanted to recommend it! LWJ is a guqin composer and teacher, buys a cheap guqin off eBay which ends up being attached to WWX's spirit from canon era. It's bittersweet, LWJ deals with Lan's homophobia (implicit in a Lan way) and his feelings towards the ghost. This is author's only ao3 fic and honestly I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I'm happy I did and hope you will enjoy it too!  [I’ve recently read this one, and loved it!]

every love story is a ghost story

by aisthuu (M, 59k, wangxian, my bookmark)

Summary:  The man is in Lan Zhan’s bed. Did they—he begins to wonder, eyes trailing to where the man’s body lies under the blanket. Had Lan Zhan—?

Then the sleep-fog clears and Lan Zhan realizes that the young man isn’t quite opaque around the edges.

“You’re a spirit.”

The spirit narrows its eyes. “I’m so much more than that.”

(Lan Zhan buys a guqin off eBay for a suspiciously low price, only to find that it’s haunted. And now there’s a ghost in his bed.)

~*~

Ok so I absolutely have to rec "see you yesterday" by glyphic. It's a wip, but it's currently at 101k so there's a whole lot there, and it's terrible and wonderful and beautiful all at once. The way the backstory of canon events is adapted to the modern-with-cultivation setting is brilliant, and then there's the amnesia, and then there's the time loop. This fic lives permanently rent-free in my brain.

see you yesterday

by glyphic (M, 101k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  

Wei Ying 21:09 hey lan zhan what’s the weirdest way youve died

Lan Zhan 21:11 Falling encyclopedias.

Wei Ying 21:12 omg no way that’s so rude turning books against you???

Lan Zhan 21:13 A betrayal I will never forget.

On Halloween night, an exiled demonic cultivator and a Lan disciple get stuck in a time-loop, find each other, and try to figure it all out.

~*~

If you are looking for recs for yourself I absolutely love (the complete!) story Just as the Snow Melts by draechali on AO3. It's a canon divergence where everyone lives, even WWX! ~ @airmidcelt

Just as the Snow Melts

by draechaeli (T, 67k, wangxian)

Summary:  Like a snowy mountain top in spring the residents of the Burial Mounds trickled down the mountain and joined the flow of society.

“I went to the Burial Mounds,” Lan WangJi said.

“Ah, yeah… I’m sorry Lan Zhan,” replied Wei WuXian, “I hadn’t thought anyone would come to visit. I am still not sure how it happened; I brought A-Yuan to Yiling to play by the river and then ended up somehow teaching a bunch of children swimming and writing along with him.”

~*~

Hello! It's come to my attention that you have not as yet read Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation! Please do! It's the only thing that gave me joy during 2020 😆 like proper belly laughs and disney villain style cackling. It is a wip, and it is long but so so worth it!! The author has reworked the entire canon through these message crystals and still conveys complex characters despite the tricky format. It's just so good!! Highly highly recommend it! ❤ ~ @theladypeartree  [Oh!  I’ve been subscribed to this one, and know that @swaglexander-the-great is a reliable provider of Hilarity, so I’m excited for it to be finished!]

Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation 

by Hades_the_Blingking (T, 49k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  The Untamed universe is exactly the same, except everybody has magical crystals that have a suspiciously familiar messaging system. The story is pretty much the same as the show, except everyone lives!! (so minor changes).

or in which Wei WuXian tries his darndest to date Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng possibly has a aneurysm, Jin ZiXuan is still the most awkward human alive, and Xue Yang makes me write some VERY cursed things. Written in chatfic format! :3

~*~

Chomrafy on AO3 deserves love and encouragement; she’s written a body of compact, poetic, and eloquent shortfics each of which can stand alone, but that comprise an intricately cross-referential and mostly internally-consistent universe. They’re grouped as chapters in works according to theme; for example, “in cupped hands” focuses upon Jin Ling and his second-generation baggage; “Departure in Autumn” portrays the last years of WWX’s first life. Follow the tag “Chomrafy’s MDZS shortfics.” [I don’t see this tag?]

in cupped hands

by chomrafy (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary:  Of secrets, of futures, of love. A Jin Ling-centric collection of 200-word fics.

Ch.1: Jin Ling repays a debt (JL, JC, & WWX). Ch.2: Jin Ling and a ghost in the mirror. (JL & JYL) Ch.3: A matter of friends (JL & the other kids) Ch.4: In this house we don't keep dogs (JC & WWX) Ch.5: In the end, he remains silent (JL & uncles) Ch.6: A first night hunt, of sorts (JL & the other kids) Ch.7: Jin Ling, forgiving, forgetting (JL & LXC & JGY) Ch.8: Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling argue (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.9: Jin Ling and his father (JL & JC) Ch.10: Jin Ling speaks up (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.11: Jin Ling and a piece of home (JL, JC, & WWX)

Departure in Autumn

by chomrafy (not rated, 6k)

Summary:  Four perspectives. A steady march to the end.

Ch.1: Because if anything happens to them, Wen Qing would never be able to heal with these hands again. Ch.2: As long as this is still home, Jiang Yanli will wait as long as she needs to. Ch.3: Five times Jiang Cheng reaches for Wei Wuxian, one time he turns away. Ch.4: Whether the road is broad or narrow, bright or dark, they would have to keep walking. Wei Wuxian digs Wen Qing's grave.

~*~

Hello, hope all is going well. I don't have an ask, by I do have a recommendation. I read this fic a while ago and found it again. I just wanted to recommend this for everyone. Let me know what you think please. Thank you. [Oh!  This one’s in my To Read list, but  I’d forgotten about it.  Mmmm, fox!wwx and dragon!lwj.]

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers

by Yukirin_Snow

M, 274k, wangxian

Summary:  He was a mischievous fox spirit, wreaking havoc where he went, about to depart on a journey that would span centuries.

He was a heavenly prince, a proud dragon destined to ascend the throne to become emperor.

Neither expected their paths to collide over the span of three lives.

~*~

I forgot if it was your blog 😥 that recommended “Bestseller” (when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528316/chapters/51318766)

But OMG IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I LOVED IT!! And if it wasn’t your blog, I’m so sorry for how weird this sounds 😭😭😭😭 I just loved this fic so much that I have to tell it to someone 😢 [It’s on my List, but I haven’t read it yet!]

Bestseller

by pupeez4eva

M, 8k, wangxian

Summary:  He had written the book to prove a point. It was never supposed to be a big thing, and he certainly never intended for everyone — Jiang Cheng, Zewu-Jun, the Juniors, literally everyone— to be reading about his sex life.

Oh God, he definitely needed to make sure Lan Zhan didn’t find out about this.

(Or, when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit).

~*~

I’d like to rec On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake! by @blackwiresgrowonherhead

It’s one of my absolute favorites and I laughed out loud so many times when reading it

on your marks, get set, bake!

by BlackWiresOnHerHead

G, 41k, wei wuxian & juniors

Summary:  Jin Ling resumes thumping on the door to room 721, and the small collection of freshmen starts chanting “Senior Wei! Senior Wei! Senior Wei!” with increasing volume until finally Wei Wuxian opens the door.

“Yes?” he says with his widest, most innocent eyes.

“Senior Wei!” demands Lan Jingyi, shoving himself to the front of the group. “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a contestant on this year’s season of The Great Gusu Bake Off?!?”

--

Several months ago, college student Wei Wuxian secretly competed in the most popular reality show in the country. The show starts airing in the fall. The freshmen in his dorm collectively lose their minds.

~*~

If you're in the mood for v. short ridiculous fun fic, may I suggest My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio by x_los It's 2k modern cultivators AU, featuring WWX calling LWJ's sword Bitchin' [omg I’m laughing so hard] and I think it's more fun going in blind?

My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio

by x_los

T, 2k, wangxian

Summary:  Lan Wangji finds he doesn't even need to call for help for Wei Wuxian to come running.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Paygo, false consciousness and the IRS

John Steinbeck diagnosed an important American pathology in 1966 when he called the US a nation of “temporarily embarrassed capitalists” — people who see themselves as the wealthy-in-waiting and therefore fight policies that reduce the power that comes from wealth.

It’s a restatement of Engels’ idea of “false consciousness,” and it’s the result of a deliberate strategy on the part of wealthy people — many of whom believe that they were literally genetically destined to be wealthy — to convince the rest of us that “anyone can succeed.”

Part of the false consciousness program is the money story that goes like this: the US government takes away “taxpayers’ money” from “makers” to fund “programs,” the bulk of which go to the “lazy takers,” who experience the “moral hazard” of subsidized unemployment.

But of course, that’s not how money works. Money originates with the federal government (and its fiscal agents, the banks). In order for the public to have money to pay off its tax liabilities, the government must first spend that money into existence.

The IRS doesn’t take our tax dollars, pile them up, and give them to Congress to spend on programs. When the IRS taxes our money, they annihilate it, removing it from circulation. When Congress spends, new money comes into existence.

The US government can’t run out of money any more than Apple can run out of Itunes gift cards. It can spend too much money — so much that prices go up because too many dollars are chasing too few goods — but it can’t run out of money.

Fed spending is constrained by resources (what’s for sale in dollars) not money (how many dollars there are). If the ratio of dollars to resources gets out of whack, there’s a risk of inflation.

There are many ways to fix this ratio. For example, the government usually issues T-bills (savings bonds) whenever it spends more than it taxes. When you buy a T-bill, you take dollars that might circulate around the economy, chasing goods and labor, and you sequester them.

A T-bill is just a dollar you’re not allowed to spend. In exchange for surrendering the right to spend your dollars for 1, 5, 10 or more years, the government offers you interest, trickling out that money over a long period.

That way the government can buy things today without bidding against your dollars.

But that’s not the only way to fight inflation while spending new money into existence. The other major way is taxation: simply removing money from the economy and annihilating it.

Taxation fights inflation. When the government runs a deficit, that means that it created more money this year via spending than it destroyed via taxes. The “government deficit” is the “public surplus” — the money left in the economy for all of us to spend on stuff.

Likewise, when the government runs a “surplus” that means it taxes more money out of existence than it spends into existence. In a year where the government runs a surplus, it means that the power of the private sector — you and me — to buy stuff has decreased overall.

This is fine if there was too much money to begin with — if inflation was kicking off — but if there’s not enough money in circulation (e.g. if there’s a recession), it just makes things worse…but not for everyone.

When the economy is starved of money, banks go to work creating new money through loans. These loans pay interest (to rich people like bank shareholders and people who securitize and buy debt).

That’s the one-two punch of spending cuts during a downturn:

I. The real economy is starved of the capital it needs to pay workers and make things for workers to buy;

II. The financial economy grows as desperate real-economy firms borrow from banks to keep the lights on.

Despite all their talk of “spending taxpayers’ money,” the wealthy understand how money works. That’s why they were totally indifferent to the running $1t/year deficits created by the Trump tax-cuts (and likewise about the Obama finance bailouts).

Giving money to rich people causes asset-bubbles (driving up the prices of houses), but not inflation (a sustained rise in the price of all goods). That’s because rich people can’t buy enough stuff (fridges, cars, oranges) to drive up prices.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/08/howard-dino/#payfors

After you’ve bought three houses and three SubZero fridges and filled them with the beef of three Kobe cows and three cases of Moet, there’s still a LOT left over (even if you’re Jeff Bezos and buy a superyacht with its own, smaller superyacht).

Those leftovers go to socially useless things, like buying houses to turn into rent-generating slums (Wall Street is fast becoming America’s biggest landlord, and single family homes are sold for cash to investment funds instead of families).

And they go to influence campaigns designed to make regular people defend massive cuts to the IRS and opposition to public spending on infrastructure, education, health, and other necessities.

This isn’t just about Republicans. For years, the Democratic leadership has supported “balanced budgets” (spending so little that no new money is left in the economy after all taxes are paid).

The “paygo” rule (which requires all new spending to be matched with cuts or tax-hikes) is religion for the likes of Pelosi and Schumer. That’s why the Democratic caucus is mired in stupid arguments about “how we will pay for the stimulus.”

As bad as the paygo rule is, though, Republicans have made it worse, by demonizing and starving the IRS. Paygo means that the US government operates under the artificial constraint of only spending if it can make cuts or raise taxes.

Raises taxes is really unpopular, for obvious reasons.

Now, raising taxes on the 1% — who have a lot of excess money that’s fueling political corruption and asset bubbles — is one way around this.

Theoretically, taxing the 1% should have a 99% approval rating.

But canny Republicans have figured out how exorcise temporarily embarrassed capitalists about the “unfairness” of taxing their bosses, in part by just flat-out lying about who new taxes would implicate.

But there’s yet another way to satisfy paygo’s artificial constraint, without changing the a single word in the tax-code: simply fund the IRS so that it can collect the trillions that the ultra-wealthy illegally avoid in tax-payments every year.

But this strategy is also a bust. The GOP campaign to destroy the IRS has been too successful.

It’s a longrunning campaign, but it achieved liftoff in 2013 when the Tea Party baselessly accused the IRS of discriminating against conservative groups seeking nonprofit status.

The work-the-ref strategy paid off, providing political cover for deep cuts to the IRS and putting IRS staffers on notice so they green lit every dark money group that applied for nonprofit status, no matter how obviously corrupt they were.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/fallout-from-allegations-of-tea-party-targeting-hamper-irs-oversight-of-nonprofits/2017/12/17/6403c1c0-c59e-11e7-a441-3a768c8586f1_story.html

After the cuts, the IRS grew easier to discredit. Understaffed and under siege, the agency’s behavior grew erratic, then indefensible. There were runaway automated processes that sent out erroneous property-seizure notices that no one could rescind:

https://theintercept.com/2019/01/14/irs-shutdown-federal-government-shut-down-irs-asset-seizures/

Then there was the aftermath of the Equifax breach, where the IRS first told Americans that it didn’t matter because they’d already been doxed by other bad companies:

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/355862-irs-significant-number-of-equifax-victims-already-had-info-accessed-by

Then came news that the IRS couldn’t cancel Equifax’s no-bid, $7.5m anti-fraud contract because it didn’t have the resources to do its own fraud prevention (Equifax eventually lost the contract because it served malware from its anti-fraud site).

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-irs-data-breach-malware-discovered/

The rich waged a successful all-out war on the IRS. Take the Global High Wealth unit. For every hour an auditor from GHW worked, they brought in $4500 in taxes the super-rich had dodged. Even by the topsy-turvy logic of “government as a business,” this was good business.

After a concerted harassment and political influence campaign, the GHW abandoned the super-rich and switched to the merely wealthy, bringing in less money and pissing off a lot more people.

The other shoe dropped in 2019, when the IRS admitted it had switched to preferentially auditing poor people because it was too politically and legally fraught to audit rich people, even the most flagrant cheaters.

https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor

That was the first year that America’s 400 highest earners paid a lower tax rate than the average American worker:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html

The IRS’s transformation into a facilitator of illegal wealth retention by the super-rich and petty harassment of the rest of Americans made them very easy to hate.

To that, add the concerted corporate campaigns to use the IRS to rip off workers.

For example, for 20 years, Intuit lobbied the IRS not to make tax-filing automatic, painless and free, ensuring that Americans would continue to pay billions to send data to the IRS that it already had:

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

Reading the IRS’s internal emails from this battle reveals an agency in retreat, where demoralized and ineffectual government employees simply rolled over for one of the greatest ripoffs in American history:

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-tried-to-hide-emails-that-show-tax-industry-influence-over-free-file-program

Intuit wanted to rip us off with taxes. Microsoft, by contrast, just wanted to break the law. Working with KPMG, the convicted monopolist created a “transfer” scheme of breathtaking illegality, using its tax-savings to bankroll its war on the IRS:

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-decided-to-get-tough-against-microsoft-microsoft-got-tougher

Which brings us to today, where Democrats are held hostage to the “payfor” rule and trying to figure out how to mobilize the trillions Biden has pledged for infrastructure, health, and care.

Republicans — pushing the big lie of “taxpayer money” — are dogwhistling hard. Senator John Thune, responding to Biden’s proposal for $80b for the IRS, says any tax enforcement efforts “must strike an appropriate balance between taxpayer responsibilities and taxpayer rights.”

Meanwhile Senator Chuck Grassley takes the nonsensical position that funding the IRS won’t help it do its job (“simply throwing money at a problem doesn’t necessarily yield a solution”).

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/553704-lawmakers-bicker-over-how-to-go-after-tax-cheats

Then there’s Rep Kevin Brady, warning that a fully funded IRS would “unleash tens of thousands of new IRS agents on families, farms and businesses.”

But the Democrats own the paygo rule, not the Republicans, and their leadership have added their own special touch to make funding the IRS impossible.

https://prospect.org/politics/infrastructure-at-a-crossroads-biden-public-investment/

According to the rules Congress gives to the Congressional Budget Office (which calculates the cost of government programs), the CBO isn’t allowed to factor in the projected additional revenue from funding the IRS, only the cost of doing so (!).

Which means that they must factor in the salaries that IRS Global High Wealth auditors will draw — but they are forbidden from counting the $4500/hour they generate when they puncture the tissue-thin financial lies of the super-rich.

The payfor and “taxpayer money” are lies.

It’s a shuck sold to the rubes, not economics. Because it’s a shuck, it doesn’t have to make any sense — and it doesn’t. We shouldn’t run government like a business, but if we must, let’s at least count revenues as well as costs.

Image: Mike Licht/notionscapital.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/48857033957/

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[dear-ao3]

Hello! I have a young child who loves dancing and I'm curious about how you were introduced to more structured dance classes. Was it your own interest? Or your parents the ones who pushed it? And what kind of dance did you initially practice? How you would suggest I offer dance to a 4-year-old? And what is your favorite kind of dance now? Sorry for all my inquiries! Answer only what you're comfortable with of course. Thanks for your time and advice <3

hello! this got long so its under the cut

so i started dancing when i was 3 i think...? my parents were either going to sign me up for soccer or dance and i think they let me pick which one i wanted to do and i apparently picked dance because i didn't want to run :) i don't quite know why they picked dance? i think that it was just cause that was a Thing for young girls to do, and also my mom had gone to the same studio when she was younger, so they knew the place. 

i know that the first class i took was called pre-dance which was 8 or 10 weeks of a 45 minute class where you don't really do anything but play with like beanbags and get used to being in a studio environment. I'm pretty sure one of my earliest memories is balancing a beanbag on my back in the downstairs studio at the studio i used to go to. 

so initially it was my parents who introduced me to it, but they made it clear that it was my decision if i wanted to keep taking it. like they asked me at the end of each year if i wanted to do it again next year. and up until i was in i think 1st grade i was taking 1 hour of dance a week, half of that hour was tap and the other half was ballet. i remember that i wanted to keep doing it because i would see the other older girls dance at the end of the year in their costumes and wanted to be like them. 

the way my studio worked (and i danced there for 15 years before going to college, from age 3-18) was that there was pre dance, then pre-school, kindergarten and 6-8 year olds (all three of those levels were an hour long and half of it was tap and half was ballet. we learned pre set dances off of literal records from the 60s and just very basic movements) and then after that it changed to a letter system that started at E and went up to A and all of those classes were at least an hour, once or twice a week. and then when you got to a certain age you could also join the company. 

what kind of styles a studio offers for younger kids wholly depends on the studio. based on my personal experiences and stories I've heard from people who danced at other places, i would try to look into a non competition studio for your daughter and this is why. i did not go to a competition studio, my studio was more or less focused on classical ballet and was Tiny. like in the upper levels there were maybe 100 of us total and we all knew each other and we knew all the teachers and the owner and the other girls parents and everything. yes, there was drama, as there is at pretty much any dance studio, but it was definitely more focused on being fun when we were younger and then as we got older we were learning proper ballet technique from professionals (like variations) and most of our teachers were professionals teaching on the side or in between jobs and while their classes were all meant to further technique and i did learn a lot from all of them, there was still the underlying notion that it was supposed to be fun and that is a lot of the reason why i stuck with it.

i have many friends who went to a variety of competition studios and that was not the case. to my understanding, competition studios are more focused on winning a competition, and with that there comes a lot more drama. both from the parents and the kids and then also the teachers. a lot of competition schools are also much larger and many of the kids who went there didn't know everyone at the studio. and a lot of the time the young kids at the studio will also be competing. that puts a lot of pressure on a young kid, first of all, and its also incredibly expensive because you need to be buying dance costumes and specific makeup in addition to shoes and tights and leotards. if it is something that your kid decides that she doesn't want to stick with, it can be kind of a waste of money. 

there’s also the fact that if she sticks with it a lot of the time the ballet technique that they teach in competition based studios is not super classical (but that's not always the case) and more focused on tricks. but that really depends on the place. 

my dance experience was certainly not perfect, but i personally think that it was better than it would have been had my parents signed me up for a studio that went to dance competitions. we used to get a lot of girls from competition studios that transferred because they were tired of the drama and the stress and the fact that they weren't finding it fun anymore. 

i would suggest finding a place that offers maybe not a whole year of classes, but allows you to sign up for a few weeks. not every place will, but some do. that way your daughter can decide if she likes it. because dance classes are kind of expensive (maybe not at that young age but i think tuition for mine and my sisters 7 classes as we got older was around like $360 every two weeks? plus shoes/tights/leotards and company tuition) on top of shoes and tights and leotards and its a waste if she doesn't like it. 

and you will know if she doesn't like it. i taught the younger girls for a few years in high school and you could tell the ones that did not want to be there because they would sit down or not want to dance or would not even want to come in. the girls that wanted to be there took it seriously and were very committed to being there and wanted to be there and were excited for class. and yeah every kid has their bad days but you will know if they don't want to go. and maybe they want to dance but they don't like the studio, that's okay too. try a different one if you can. 

and i would also take her to a performance. that might be hard because of the climate rn but if the studio has an end of year performance (most do and they're probably like now in the year) then i would take her so she can watch the “big kids” and when its done ask her if she wants to take classes like the big kids. my mom brought me to the performances at my studio when i was little and i loved them. or live dance in general. a ballet might be too long, but a lot of places have clips online you can watch. 

i would introduce her to one or two styles to start with. tap is always fun for little kids. ballet is too cause everyone wants to be like a ballerina. or jazz is fun too but not every place has it for little kids. 

as for now, my dance program at school is focused on more classical modern, ballet and west african dance but i still love tap and more contemporary styles. 

i hope this helps you a little!

[dunadaan]

uuuuuguguhhhh i hit the biggest snag in my grey company fic yet, which i KNEW would be a big headache but not this big.

i love the lotr films and the books but i like the films a little more- there’s a lot more breathing room and things are slowed tf down. The books are almost non stop action and travel (except when they rest for a month or two lol), and then as soon as they leave lorien they literally never stop moving and it is SUCH a big pain in the ass. (more under the cut if anyone wants to hear the ramblings of a mad woman)

in the books, pippin looks into the palantir, finds out about MT. they all ride like fucking mad men, but gandalf takes pippin to MT, theoden and GC retreat to helms deep. aragorn looks into palantir at helms deep and sees the black ships, and realizes elronds words- they have 10 days before MT falls maybe. theoden leaves first, to arrive at edoras ---> dunharrow but takes the “mountain paths”. aragorn and co and GC leave at dawn. “and while theoden went by slow paths in the hills, the Grey Company passed swiftly over the plain, and on the next day in the afternoon they came to Edoras, and there they halted only briefly, ere they passed up the valley, and so came to Dunharrow as darkness fell.” (ROTK 765) everyone pretty much knows what theyre doing, and gets it done without waiting. aragorn gets to dunharrow first, goes through paths, theoden arrives like a day or two later or smth im too lazy to delve further.

in the films though the palantir scene is delayed until after the return to Edoras with everyone and they even get a party! yay! the GC deserve a good party! especially after the shit theyve just been through lol. so the morning after pippin gets fried by the palantir, gandalf has a little meeting to tell everyone what happened. also the whole bit with Theoden being like uhm...what do we owe gondor...bitch! idk if i’d keep cuz it’s just so ooc but i get why they have it for the films they need that conflict and delay. but anyways, gandalf tells aragorn about the ships, presumably from what pippin told him about what he saw in the palantir, rather than aragorn looking into it himself. or maybe the brief moment he touched it aragorn did see it but w/e. anyways. but he doesnt tell him about the paths, elrond does (elrond is 100% cut sorry lol)

so like everyone has to sit on their ass in edoras while waiting for the beacons after Gandalf gets there (which btw fucks up my timeline so severely i’m wondering if i shouldn’t even bother with my calendar anymore bc i want the film pace in the beginning, shit NEEDS to slow down and they need a fucking break!!!!!! the GC asses are sore!!). the issue is this-- Aragorn knows he must “follow the river and look for the black ships” but not how. They all stay in Edoras sitting and farting and they all go together to Dunharrow once the beacons are lit, rather than separately. And then Elrond comes (don’t even get me STARTED on this scene i love elrond but it makes NO SENSE!!) and tells him hey. use the ghosts. not the women that could probably fight if anyone gave them a chance lol. and THATS what spurs aragorn to go through. and then legolas spouts the prophecy of malbeth which excuse me, why does he know, mirkwood bumpkin.

so now I have this dilemma of information- it’s a matter of when its given, not the information itself. The Grey Company’s whole purpose is A. to aid Aragorn in the hour of his need, at his own (subconscious) behest, and B. bring the words of Elrond to him: Bid Aragorn remember the words of the seer, and the Paths of the Dead. Why would Aragorn and the GC pause at Edoras to party if they know to go that way? If they’re back at Edoras, they don’t know that MT is the next target because Pippin only looks then, not when they’re just outside the Fords of Isen. So are the words nonsensical until they learn from the palantir? I would say maybe they don’t know quite yet where the paths are, but Aragorn in the books definitely happens to know, and in the films he stumbles on it by going with Theoden. I dont think Aragorn could rest much if he knew the words of GC, he’d be mulling them over for a while and then just leave w/o Theoden like he does in the books to get there faster once he did know....maybe we can pretend the info was lost, or Aragorn doesnt mention it until they get to dunharrow to theoden...? who tf knows. its 2am though and my brain is mush and my desk is strewn with maps and timelines and the books so. perhaps a thought for tomorrow

[mieohmy]

𝗌𝗐𝖾𝖾𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗈𝗎𝗋 | 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝖾𝖾 (𝖿𝗂𝗇𝖺𝗅)

part one | part two

PAIRING: CEO boss! jeon wonwoo x secretary! reader

GENRE: fluff, ANGST but i swear its a happy ending ;;;;

WC: 3.4k

NOTES: mentions of death, angstyy ?

❋

Oh my god.

You’re screwed.

You panic, swiping past to see pictures of you and him on the balcony from last night. You kissing him. Someone must’ve seen you two and taken pictures...

‘Y/N!!’ 

‘U awake????’

‘Someone saw you guys last night and took photos!!’

‘Leaked them and now I’m pretty sure everyone at work knows now’

‘What are u gonna do?? Maybe u shouldn’t go to work..’

‘You better respond !”

You sigh, scrolling past all of seungkwan’s messages and throwing your phone somewhere. Great, now everyone at your workplace knew. There was nothing from wonwoo.

Was going to the office a good idea? You contemplated for like 10 minutes. Maybe pretending like nothing happened would be professional. You are a professional, you are a professional..... you repeated that several hundred times before finally getting out of bed.  

And so, you got ready like a regular day of work but took the bus instead of normally being driven to wonwoo’s house. (You couldn’t bear to face the driver or wonwoo either)

Arriving at the entrance, you steeled yourself. Immediately after you entered, there were whispers and stares from everyone around, almost as if they were waiting for you to come in.

You bite your lip, continuing to the elevator. When the doors open, there are already two other people inside. They quickly shuffle away from you, moving to the other side in the small space, and you can obviously feel their eyes on you. 

Arriving at your floor, you can hear the whispers of the others. “It’s them...” “they’re the one that’s dating Mr. jeon?” Ignoring them, you slump down at your desk, burying your head in your arms. You knew you should probably talk to wonwoo, but what would you say? The secret was out already. 

You feel something soft touch your head. You groan softly. “It’s me.” Glancing up wearily, you see dokyeom looking down at you with concern. “So... I guess everyone knows now?” 

Your head falls back onto the desk. “Dokyeom, what am I gonna do?” you moan. “Nothing. I mean, so what if you two are dating? It’s your personal life, not other people’s.” 

“You’re right. It doesn’t bother me. Who cares, right?” You say absentmindedly. 

That was a lie. You cared. And it did bother you. For weeks, people would stare and whisper behind your back. All the gossip was getting to you. To the point where you would purposely hide in the restroom until the coast was clear. 

There were a lot of people who did stand up for you, all your close work friends that overheard others gossiping. You were extremely grateful for them, but it didn’t make much of a difference.

You’re staring at yourself in the restroom mirror when you hear the door open. Panicking, you quickly hide in a stall, closing the door. 

Two voices grow louder and louder. “-you hear CEO Jeon is dating his secretary?” “Of course, the whole building knows now.” “I can’t believe it, still. His secretary of all people?” “I heard that they don’t have a father, no one to support their family.” A gasp echoed in the restroom. “That explains why they’re using him. It’s always money...” 

You can’t move. Even after the others come and go, you can’t seem to budge an inch. 

❋

You kept your distance from wonwoo after that. It didn’t help that wonwoo was getting increasingly busy with work. No matter how much you wanted to see him, the words replayed in your head. 

“He’s rejected so many people but chose them?“ 

“You just want his money.” 

“How can someone like them be dating someone like him?” 

“You’re nobody.” 

The worst part is, you agreed. You were no one, just a lame secretary working to support their family. You didn’t even have passions, interests, you were always too busy trying to make money. And you didn’t even have a family to go home to. Yes, you had your friends, but you felt like such a baby for complaining to them.

The only person who truly knew you was your father. And he was gone. Maybe you deserved to be alone... Maybe they were right, wonwoo didn’t deserve you. 

❋

You tried to limit your contact with him as much as possible, strictly talking for work purposes only. Every time wonwoo would ask you out (on the rare occasions he could), you would make an excuse. you were tired or had something else to do.

Wonwoo tried, so hard, to talk to you but every time you did, the hurtful words resurfaced. You wondered if he had heard what other workers would say- probably not since they were too scared to even speak in front of him. And you didn’t tell him because you knew he would make a big deal out of it, and that was the exact opposite of what you wanted. 

Also.... maybe because you were ashamed. Ashamed at the fact that you let those words hurt you. That they cut deep into your heart and sunk into your skin. Others would probably ignore it all, but you were different. It’s like all those people knew your weakness, how to sneak into your brain and make all your insecurities stronger.

It was horrible, affecting your mind, your life. Sleep barely came. You were a living zombie. With feelings. Feelings that were beaten down and crushed, ones that couldn’t even get back up.

Seungkwan noticed, but luckily he didn’t pry too much- probably because he knew the reason behind you shutting wonwoo out-everyone out. You were so grateful for him and the others for attempting to cheer you up.

One day, you drop off wonwoo’s schedule at his desk, immediately spinning around to leave when he grabs your wrist. You can’t move, his grip tight. “Y/n, please.. tell me what’s wrong? Is it something I did? Is it because people know now? Just tell me, I can fix it. I-I just need to know..” your boss pleads.

You hated hearing him like that. And still, you remove his hand from yours. “Mr. Jeon, don’t. Let’s stop...maybe this is for the best.” 

You walk out without looking back, biting the inside of your cheek hard so you can’t feel the pain in your heart.

You can’t focus the rest of the day, moping around. You don’t even realize the time, Dokyeom comes by (knowing you were still here) and forces you to go home. You were secretly extremely grateful he didn’t try to ask anything. You didn’t want to have to say anything, telling others about all the insults and remarks would just cause more of a problem. 

❋

Opening the door, you drop all your stuff on the ground of your apartment, instantly going to change into comfortable clothes. And sulk some more. 

Your past self would be laughing at you now. Or extremely shocked. To find out that you are? were? dating the one person that you hated. Some time ago, you were crying over losing your job because of your boss, and now here you are, moping over the same person. 

Crashing into bed, you fall into a weird sleep-state, flowing in and out of sleep. A bunch of notifications at once finally awakens you fully. It usually wouldn’t bother you, but there were so many at once you had to check.

Huffing, you wearily look at the screen. Right away, you jump up. An article post was sent to you by Seungkwan.

“Jeon Wonwoo’s-CEO of one of the largest printing companies in Korea-Mother has passed away this evening.”

Horrified, you quickly scroll down, skimming through it all. The only words echoing in your mind are ‘funeral held in an hour’ and ‘son is nowhere to be found.’

Immediately, you dial Seungkwan. He picks up almost instantly. “Y/n?? Did you see what I sent?” You nod as though he can see you. “What... what’s going on?” 

You can feel seungkwan’s frustration pouring out from his side of the phone. “Didn’t you read it? Mr. Jeon’s been missing for hours. He just disappeared after finding out. No one knows where he is. Except you.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion. “What? Me?” You hear a sigh come from the phone. “Yes. You, y/n. No one knows him better.  You have to find him.” 

You hesitate, knowing you weren’t in the best conditions with him at the moment. “But....” Seungkwan cuts you off. “No, y/n. There are no buts. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but our boss is literally missing. You’re the only one who knows where he could be. “ 

It finally hits you. “You’re right, oh my god, Seungkwan. what if he’s dead? His family was always a touchy subject, and I don’t know what’s happening and-“ 

“Trust yourself y/n. You can find him. Go.” The call abruptly ends with a beep. You stare at the screen for a second, brain loading until you crash out of bed, scrambling out to quickly put on any pair of shoes. 

Even in your ratty old pajamas and dirty sneakers, you dash outside, going to every single place you can think of. It’s tiring, getting on and off buses, running around and searching each place. After about an hour and a half is when you stop. Panting, you slump down next to a bench, head in your hands. 

Wonwoo, where are you?

After a couple minutes of rest (and maybe an internal crisis), you finally get up, resolve burning. 

You’re not sure why, but your feet bring you to the mart- yes, the one where your view of jeon wonwoo completely changed.

Dragging your drained body to the entrance, you open the door, the familiar ding to signal your entrance sounding above.  

Quickly, you glance around. It wasn’t a huge place, you could almost see the whole store from the front. 

He’s not here either? For some reason, you feel disappointed. Like he was gonna be here. Deflating, you turn towards the exit, hand reaching for the door handle when you stop. 

“Wonwoo?”

He was outside, standing by the railing over the river- the one by the bridge right next to the store. You could only see his silhouette, it was dark, but his body seemed small, familiar but small.

You burst out, exhaustion dissolved. You stop a few feet away, breathing heavily even though it wasn’t far.

“Wonwoo.”

The figure shifts, slowly turning to you and his face comes into the light. You first notice his red, pained eyes, barely holding back so much emotion. His handsome face showing nothing but everything at the same time.

You stare at each other for a split second before you rush to him, throwing your arms around him. It’s only the sound of both of your breathing until his arms slowly wrap around your waist, head burying into your shoulder. 

You hold him. Until you hear the quiet sobs. And then feel the wet spots on your shirt.

Rubbing his back comfortingly, you let him grip you tighter, allowing all the emotions and feelings to flow out.

After who knows how long, he quiets down. You wait for a little before softly speaking. “Do... do you want to talk?” 

He gradually loosens his grip, moving back to look at you. Your heart pangs at the sight. His red, swollen eyes. Darker eye circles than you recognized. His lips were chapped, probably because you weren’t there to nag him about wearing it. 

Slowly, your hand comes up to wipe his tear-stained cheeks. When you drop your hand, he finally speaks, his voice quiet and raspy. 

“I wasn’t close with anyone growing up. I told you that. Except for my mother. She loved me the most. Stayed by my side and supported me always. I.... I just..” 

You hug him again, squeezing your eyes shut. “You don’t have to say more. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

You know there’s tension between the two of you, but decide to bury it. Now’s not the time to bring it up. 

“How are you feeling now?”

He rubs his eyes. “Better. It was just a lot... at once. But I’d rather not go back now. I don’t want to.” 

You nod. “Okay.”

You bring him to your place, no questions asked. Knowing he didn’t need to be alone, and your place was close. 

It was a little awkward, but wonwoo was stubborn even when he was upset and slept on the couch. You’re pretty sure he passed out in three minutes. To be honest, you did too, the day’s events taking over. 

❋

Awakening with a start, your eyes focus on the ceiling. You stretch for a good couple of minutes before tottering outside. 

Your feet come to a halt. Right, wonwoo. 

His body slowly rising up and down signaling he was still sleeping. 

For no reason, you move to sit in front of him, on the ground, to just look at him.

Wonwoo looked so peaceful, reminiscent of a little child- it was shocking how different he seemed in his sleep. 

You admire his face for who knows how long, starting when his eyes suddenly flutter up at you. You give him a tiny smile. “Good morning?”

You prepare breakfast. It isn’t much, but you didn’t think the two of you were that hungry anyways. There were other things to discuss.

It’s silent until you finally speak. “Wonwoo. where were you? Why did you leave for so long? Everyone was so worried you know, it was all over the news..” 

He clears his throat as you wait patiently. “Everywhere. I just needed to leave, get out. So I drove around, not necessarily going to one place. Then... you found me.”

You bite your lip, “wonwoo. I think you need to go back. Everyone’s worried, waiting. I-I think you need to talk to your family.” 

There’s a pause. He says your name softly and you look down, not able to look him in the eyes... 

“Y/n.... we’re the ones who need to talk.” You cut him off. “I know. I know we do. But I can wait. You need to go back first. Then I promise we can meet up and explain.”

You can tell he’s reluctant to leave, but eventually, he’s at your door, about to go. 

He faces you once more. 

“Y/n, promise me. You’ll meet me today at seven? After I sort everything out?”

You nod, squeezing his hand. “I promise. After you sort everything out.” 

And after he leaves, you sort everything in your head too. All your feelings that had been stuck for weeks. Wonwoo deserved to know everything. 

❋

It feels like an eternity until seven comes. You feel anxious, a queasy feeling in your stomach. When the familiar knock on the door sounds, you flinch. Quickly opening it, you see him. 

“Hi,” you say nervously. Wonwoo gestures out, and you follow him to his car. It’s a silent ride. You’re not sure where he’s taking you, but you let him lead on through the night. 

 “Did... did everything go okay?” 

“Yes. I... I explained myself. It was shocking, seeing my father show so much emotion towards me. It was just nice to talk, about the old days. Thank you, y/n. For making me go back.” 

You smile sadly, deciding to focus outside at the passing lights. It’s a surprisingly peaceful drive. You turn to him when he stops the car. 

“The park?” He only nods. 

You follow him along the path, sitting down at a bench. Wonwoo follows you, sitting next to you.

Gazing at the scenery, you lick your suddenly dry lips. “Wonwoo, I want to apologize first. You did nothing, and I never told you why I was acting like that... I wasn’t acting truthfully in our relationship, and I’m sorry.” 

He shifts, gesturing for you to continue. Inhaling, you resume. “It started after everyone found out the news, but you probably figured that already. People started saying things, about our relationship. I know it’s dumb, most people probably don’t even care, but I did. And I got self-conscious. Like I wasn’t good enough for you. I believed everything the others were saying. That you didn’t deserve someone like me.” 

You pause, voice suddenly shaky. “I-I didn’t want to tell you, so you wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. I didn’t want to seem affected by all those words. But I really was.” 

You laugh, quickly wiping away your tears so wonwoo wouldn’t see. But of course, he did. He always saw you. “That’s all. It’s a horrible reason for me acting that way, so I understand if you want to break up. I can find a new job too.” You hated how your voice cracked at the end.

You didn’t want to look at him, see his expression probably filled with disdain. But he speaks up instead. “Do you know why I hired you?”

You whip your head towards him, confused. Wonwoo’s doesn’t face you, looking off into the distance, but he proceeds.

“Because you’re strong. Compassionate. Kind. I saw you on the day of your audition, and you helped some person even though they were extremely rude and didn’t want a low person like you to help them,” he chuckles. 

“I kept you by my side for so long because you’re hardworking, stubborn, and like me.” You open your mouth to speak, slightly offended, but his eyes flick to yours, and your breath hitches. 

“And I asked you out because I love you. I understand why you felt and acted that way. But it’s okay to complain about your problems. It’s okay to feel upset and tell me. You don’t always have to be the strong one.”

You stare at him with wide eyes, wiping away tears you didn’t even notice falling.

“I’ll always be by your side. You don’t ever have to feel being alone, because I’ll be next to you. You can talk to me, I’ll listen. You can whine, I’ll deal with it. Because it’s you. And I’ll be there. ” 

You process all his words, feeling yourself about to cry harder as you continue to look into his eyes. Hesitating, you fidget with your hands, freezing when you feel his warm arms wrap around you. You close your eyes and just enjoy his warmth. 

He breaks the hug, standing up. You watch him, bewildered. Wonwoo suddenly falls to his knee, and you only watch him, furrowing your eyebrows.

When his hands move to inside his jacket, your breath hitches, hand flying to cover your mouth.

His gaze is so tender, soft, you never felt so loved.

“Y/n, I promise you that I’ll love you, forever until the end of the earth if it’s possible. So, will you accept this?” 

Wonwoo pulls out a box, opening it. You’re greeted by a sparkling ring, the gem on it your favorite color. You’re frozen in shock. 

He scratches his head. “I- uh, got it a while ago. Never had to time to really give it until now. It’s a promise ring..D-do you like it?” 

It takes a second before you can move again. You smack him. several times. Wonwoo splutters, trying to avoid your painful hits.

“Are you serious?!?! How much did this cost??? If it’s more than a hundred and fifty then I’m not taking it!! Scratch that, a hundred!!” 

Wonwoo stops, looking up at you with a dumbfounded expression. “Are you serious? I thought you were about to reject me!! And why are you worrying about the price? I’m literally the CEO of a huge company!?” 

You cough. “Right. Well then, I like it.” You reach for it, but he holds the box up high above you. Whining, you stand on your tippy-toes, trying to grab it. 

“Wonwoooo, I thought you bought this for me!” “Maybe I don’t wanna give it to you anymore,” he teases. 

You pout, flashing a cute face. “Please??” Wonwoo pretends to think, tapping his foot. “If you give me a kiss. It has to be a real one. On the lips, too.”

“Ugghh, fine,” you fake scowl. And of course, he can see right through you. “Stop acting. I know you want to kiss me.” 

“And so what if I want really to, Mr. CEO? Like I said before, you're stuck with me forever.”

❋

“Oh my god y/n is that a ring? Does that mean there’s gonna be a wedding?!?” 

“Yes, seungkwan. A promise ring. And no! We’re not getting married.... Yet.”

 -fin-

   author’s note: ngl I cringed writing the ending scenes anlkfjenfdn anyways thank you to anyone who actually read all three parts from start to end :)! I’m sorry if this is not what you were expecting- this story changed so much I struggled honestly but I’m just glad it’s done before I ruin it more  uhu 

[childofaura]

Everyone’s making a post, so I will too (Love, Death & Robots S3)

I know everyone else will already be giving their opinions on Love Death and Robots Season 3, but I have to get my opinions out too, and pretend like people wanna know what I have to say on it lol.

I will say it was underwhelming, though, and the complaint I’ve seen of people saying the company went back on their word over having more 2D animation is completely valid. There should have been way more 2D animated episodes and I’m actually a little pissed they didn’t hire the studio who did Zima Blue and Ice.

Also the NFT bullshit at the end is bullshit. But we are here to talk about the animated shorts themselves, where the studios probably had no part in the NFT bullshit.

Under the cut so as not to spoil anything for those who haven’t watched it:

1. Three Robots: Exit Strategies

Sorry, I saw the political jokes and I just skipped over this one. Legit I don’t care what side it’s poking, I just don’t wanna deal with politics right now. Judge me how you will, I probably deserve it.

2. Bad Travelling

YESSSS, HERE WE GO. RIGHT BACK ON TRACK. The violence in this episode was BRUTAL. The opening was immediately attention catching and I was NOT expecting this monster was gonna be the overall antagonist, thought it would be somewhat of a “charting into monster territory” type of episode. Fascinating that the monster had a form of communication and the gross rotting of its “puppet” was great. Torrin himself was a fantastic character, it’s incredible how one wall-flower of a character at the beginning ends up being so clever, resourceful, and at the same time (somewhat) morally sound. I think it was the same studio that animated The Secret War, because despite the realistic CGI, the characters were all stylized the same way.

10/10 episode, probably the best one in my opinion.

3. The Very Pulse of the Machine

I’m kind of mixed on this one. I liked the acting and even though this episode ends up tripping balls, I can’t really say I’m satisfied with the ending. All that work and the main character ends up throwing herself into the planet’s burning liquid. The planet’s supposed to have a level of sentience but we really can’t say if the planet is good or not; it DID cause an explosion that killed one of the other ladies.

I did like the voice acting though, it was really convincing. I liked the animation style too. Just can’t get behind the story, nor the ending. 6/10.

4. Night of the Mini-Dead.

Honestly I’m not even gonna put this one on a rating scale, it was just a funny dumb little animation. I’ll admit I chuckled here and there. It was fun and it’s way better than half of the shitty animations we got from S1 and S2 like the Hitler shit and the yogurt.

5. Kill Team Kill.

The ONLY 2D animation we got. And it was fun! I liked the character designs, the premise was so goofy that I got a laugh out of it. Felt some of the references were too forced, like the honey badger meme and the Bane meme, but some of the jokes got pretty funny. Also like how the one soldier got attached to the drone. Animation was gorgeous and fluid, the character designs were good, and the ending made me laugh. 9/10

6. Swarm

Ok. Unpopular opinion. You are all probably going to hate me for this and that’s okay, but let it be known that this is just my opinion.

I hate Swarm for the same reasons I hated Beyond the Aquila Rift. And yeah, I hated Beyond the Aquila Rift.

I don’t like the animation, but I will note the positives about the animation: It’s flawless CGI, and it works perfectly for the space environments and the Swarm’s organisms. And it did work for the body horror at the end.

That being said, this story is literally a carbon copy of Aquila Rift’s basic plot points, right down to the forced sex scene. I’m not here to watch porn, I’m here to watch interesting stories; the porn serves no purpose to the plot. I respect people’s opinion on this and Aquila Rift, but I don’t know why people think those are the best ones... unless it’s BECAUSE of the sex. And the CGI has nothing notable or interesting going for it. 4/10. I’d rate it lower but that ending scene made it better. I know that this anthology is supposed to be NSFW but if we’re being honest, it’s more that it doesn’t really add to the story; you could cut out the sex scenes in both Aquila’s Rift and Swarm and the story-telling could still illustrate the relationship between the main characters and their love interests.

7. Mason’s Rats.

Me: *Hears the most Scottish accent I ever heard.*

Me: Is that Craig Ferguson?

Me after watching the credits: I KNEW IT!!

Anyways, this one was goofy. I can’t say it’s fun because I have such a soft spot for any type of rodent (mice, rats, hamsters, squirrels, etc etc etc) so even seeing all those rats being brutally murdered made me sad. And apparently it made the farmer sad too, lol. I like that they went with a Scottish farmer because it made the dialogue that much more entertaining. I like the happy ending too, glad it got resolved the way it did. Still sad all those rats died though ;A; But it gets about a 7 or 8 out of 10.

8. In Vaulted Halls Entombed

Pretty sure this was the same studio that animated Shape-Shifters.

And like Shape-Shifters, it made me sad over the deaths of characters I had maybe five minutes with. I love the dynamic between all of them, and the horror aspect of this episode was PERFECT. I was absolutely freaked out watching this because I had no idea where it was gonna go. I will say Cthulu being in there was... weird, I guess? I feel like after the terrifying piranha spider thingies, they should have gone with something different, but it wasn’t awful. Just a little bit of a weird direction choice. Also Jeff Schine was one of the characters (can’t remember which one) so that’s always nice. The ending was freaky as fuck but I think that was neat. 8/10.

9. Jibaro

... Holy shit, we really only got nine episodes for Season 3? That feels like bullshit.

Anyways. Jibaro. I’m very mixed on this one, and most of this evaluation is based strongly on opinion. It’s the same studio that did The Witness, so the balls-to-the-walls camerawork made sense. The audio can be really jarring as someone with sensory issues, but I’m not faulting the episode for that, because it’s supposed to push how the main character is deaf. So it’s clever. The camerawork makes it a bit hard to track everything, but it adds to the frenetic energy of everything going on.

I will say though that the problems with this short lie in the story itself. Our main guy is completely deaf, so he can resist the water-lady (I’m calling her that) screaming out for people to drown to her death. She does this on purpose to kill people, and the group at the beginning wasn’t even aware that she was there, nor were they trying to harm her; she just kills them. Homeboy is completely deaf and that’s his buff against this killer spirit. He manages to gain an advantage and takes her stuff. SOMEHOW there is river magic or whatever the fuck that gives him his hearing back, and now water-lady (who I assume the show was trying to make us feel bad for her because we see her grieving over the loss of her jewelry and gold scales) is able to kill him.

... Girl, what? You’re out here drowning people; you got your ass kicked fair and square and you probably deserved worse. Homeboy deserved his win, and he didn’t deserve to magically have his hearing restored. 7/10, I call bullshit.