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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months ago

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Why Millennials aren’t leaving Tiktok

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The news that Gen Z users have abandoned Tiktok in such numbers that the median Tiktoker is a Millennial (or someone even older) prompted commentators to dunk on Tiktok as uncool by dint of having lost its youthful sheen:

https://www.garbageday.email/p/tiktok-millennials-turns

But "why are Gen Z kids leaving Tiktok?" is the wrong question. The right question is, why aren't Millennials leaving Tiktok? After all, we are living through the enshittocene, the great enshittening, in which every platform gets monotonically, irreversibly worse over time, and Tiktok is no exception:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

To understand why older users are stuck to Tiktok, we need to start with why younger users relentlessly seek out new platforms. To some extent, it's just down to youth's appetite for novelty, but that's only part of the story. To really understand why people come to – and leave – platforms, you have to understand switching costs.

"Switching costs" is the economists' term for everything you have to give up when you change products or services. Switching from Ios to Android probably means giving up a bunch of your apps and purchased media. Switching from an airline where you're a high-status frequent flier to another carrier means giving up on free checked bags and early boarding.

In an open market, rivals have lots of ways to lower these switching costs (it's an open secret that you can call an airline and say, "Hi, I'm a 33rd Order Mason on American Airlines, will you make me a Triple Platinum Diamond Sky-Baron if I switch to Delta?"). Of course, big incumbents hate this, and do everything they can to increase their switching costs, finding ways to impose high switching costs that punish disloyal consumers who have the temerity to go elsewhere.

With social media, lock-in comes for free, thanks to the "collective action problem." Getting people to agree on a given course of action is hard, and as you add more people to the picture, the problem gets harder. It's hard enough to get half a dozen people in your group-chat to agree on where to go for dinner or what board-game to play. But once you're reliant on a social media service to stay in touch with friends, relatives around the world, customers, communities (say, rare disease support groups), and coordination (like organizing your kid's little league car-pool), the problem becomes nearly insoluble. Maybe you can convince your overseas relatives to switch to a Signal group, but can you do the same for your small business's customers, or your old high-school pals?

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/29/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms/

Taken together, switching costs and collective action problems make platforms "sticky," and sticky platforms inevitably enshittify.

Platforms, after all, generate value. They connect end-users with each other (say, little league parents) and they connect end-users to business customers (you and your small business's customers). That value needs to be parceled out among end users, business customers, and the platform's shareholders. A platform can make life better for business customers at its end users' expense by increasing the number of ads (hello, Youtube!), and it can make life better for its shareholders at its business customers' expense by decreasing the share of ad revenue given to publishers or performers (oh, hello again, Youtube!).

From a platform's perspective, the ideal state is one in which end users and business customers get no value from the platform, because it's all being captured by the platform's shareholders. But if Youtube interrupted every 30 seconds of video for ten minutes of ads and paid the video creators nothing, both users and creators would ditch the platform – and advertisers would follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dab8sKg8Ko8

So platforms seek an equilibrium: "what is the least value we apportion to end-users and business customers without triggering their departure?" Maybe that means giving more value to end-users (for example, keeping Uber fares low by suppressing wages), or to business-customers (crowding more ads into your social media feed).

Every business – including brick-and-mortar, non-digitized ones – wants to find some kind of equilibrium between the value going to its suppliers, its customers and its owners, but digital businesses have an advantage here: digital systems are flexible in ways that analog, hard-goods businesses are not. Digital businesses can alter pricing, payouts and other dynamics from moment to moment – second to second – and make a different offer to every supplier and customer. They have a bunch of knobs, and they can twiddle them at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Well, not quite at will. Businesses face constraints on their twiddling. If they get too greedy, users or business customers might weigh the cost of staying against the switching costs and decide it's not worth it. But the more expensive – the more painful – a platform can make leaving, the more pain they can inflict on the people who stay.

In other words, there's two ways to keep a customer or supplier's business: you can make a better service so they won't want to leave, or you can make leaving the service so painful that they stay even if you mistreat them.

There's three ways a digital company can make things worse for their customers and users without losing their business.

First, they can eliminate competition (think of Mark Zuckerberg buying Instagram to recapture the users who'd fled Facebook to escape his poor management):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Second, they can capture their regulators and avoid punishment for trampling their suppliers' or users' legal rights (think of how Amazon has raised the price of everything we buy, both on- and off Amazon, through its "most favored nation" deals):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Third, they can use IP law to prevent competitors from modifying their services to claw back some of that value (think of how Apple used legal threats to block an Android version of Imessage, blocking Apple customers from having private conversations that included non-Apple customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Companies can't just use this tricks at will, of course. Antitrust laws can block companies from making anticompetitve acquisitions or mergers. Regulators can punish companies for cheating their customers, workers and users. Technologists can come up with clever ways of modding or reconfiguring existing services with "interoperable" add-ons that let users bargain for better treatment by refusing to accept worse:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Day in, day out, the decision-makers at tech companies test these constraints, twisting the knobs that shift value away from users to shareholders. Their bosses and boards motivate them with "KPIs" that dangle the promise of huge bonuses and promotions for any manager who successfully enshittifies part of the company's products:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

Decades of pro-corporate, pro-monopoly policy has loosened those knobs. 40 years of lax antitrust meant that companies had a lot of leeway to buy or merge with rivals – that's changing today, but it's tough sledding:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

As sectors grew more concentrated, they found it easier to capture their regulators, so that they no longer fear punishment for price-gouging, spying, or wage-theft, so applying the same amount of torque to the "break the law" knob cranks it a lot further:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Once you've captured your regulators, you can aim them at your competitors. A monopoly-friendly policy environment has transformed IP law into a bully's charter, allowing powerful companies to strangle would-be competitors who dare to offer their customers tools to shield themselves from enshittification, like scrapers, ad-blockers and alternative clients. Big companies can crank the enshittification knob all the way over and know that smaller rivals knobs won't turn at all:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

At one point, bosses faced one more constraint on knob-twiddling: their workforce. Many tech workers genuinely cared about their users' welfare, something bosses encouraged as a sneaky trick to get techies to put in long hours without exercising their leverage by quitting rather than destroying their lives to meet arbitrary deadlines. These workers would fearlessly slap their bosses' hands when they reached for the enshittification knob, threatening to quit rather than allowing the products they'd given so much for to be enshittified. Today, after hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs, tech workers are far less like to challenge their bosses' right to twiddle, and far more likely to get fired if they try:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

All this means that tech bosses don't have to change their approach at all, and yet, their services will grow steadily worse. The boss who twiddles the enshittification knob in exactly the same way as he did a year or a decade ago will find it turning much further, because his customers are locked into his platform, his regulators won't protect them, the same regulators will stop his competitors' attempts at countertwiddling, and his workers fear losing their jobs too much to speak up for their users.

That's the contagion that produced the enshittocene: the forces that constrained companies (competition, regulation, self-help and labor – all melted away, allowing every company's MBA-poisoned knob-twiddling leaders to shamelessly caress their knobs with every hour that God sends:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

Which is why people want to leave platforms. When a platform loses its users, those users have weighed the switching costs against the pain of staying and decided that it's better to bear those costs than to stay.

So why have Tiktok's younger users found the costs too high to bear, and why have their elders remained stuck to the platform?

For that, we have to look at the unique characteristics of young people – characteristics that transcend the lazy cliche that kids are easily bored, fickle novelty-seekers who hop from one service to another with unquenchable restlessness.

Whether or not kids are novelty-seekers, they are, fundamentally, a disfavored minority. They want to do things that the platforms don't want them to do – like converse without being overheard by authority figures, including their parents and their schools (also: cops and future employers, though kids may not be thinking about them as much).

In other words, kids pay intrinsically lower switching costs than adults, because a platform will always do less for them than it will for grownups. This is a characteristic kids share with other supposedly technophilic, novelty-seeking "early adopters," from sex-workers to terrorists, from sexual minorities to trolls, from political dissidents to fascists. For those groups, the cost of mastering a new technology and assembling a community around it is always more likely to be worth bearing than it would be for people who are well-served by existing tools:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Pornographers didn't jump on home video because of its superiority as a medium for capturing flesh-tones. Home video was a good porn medium because it was easier to discreetly get into the hands of porn consumers, who could, in turn, discreetly view it. The audience for porn in the privacy of your living room is larger than the audience for porn that you can only watch if you're willing to be seen marching into a dirty movie theater.

Every new technology is popularized by a mix of disfavored groups and neophiles, who normalize and refine it – and yes, infuse it with their countercultural coolth – until it becomes easy enough to use to become mainstream. As more normies drift into the new system, the switching costs associated with leaving the old system declines. It gets easier and easier to find the people and services you want in the new realm, and harder and harder to find them in the old one.

This is why tech platforms have historically experienced sudden collapse: the platform that gets more valuable and harder to leave as it accumulates users gets less valuable and easier to leave as users depart:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2022/12/05/what-if-failure-is-the-plan.html

If you're a Gen Z kid on Tiktok, you experience the same enshittification as your Millennial elders. But you also experience an additional cost to staying: as late-arriving adult authority figures become more fluent in the platform, they are more able to observe your use of it, and punish you for conduct that you used to get away with.

And if you're a Millennial who isn't leaving Tiktok, it's not just that you experience the same enshittification as those departing Gen Z kids – you also face higher switching costs if you go. The older you get, the more complex your social connections grow. A Gen Z kid in middle school doesn't have to worry about losing touch with their high-school buddies if they switch platforms (they haven't gone to high school yet – and they see their middle school friends in person all the time, giving them a side-channel to share information about who's leaving Tiktok and where they're headed to next). Middle-schoolers don't have to worry about coordinating little league car-pools or losing access to a rare disease support group.

In other words: younger people leave old platforms earlier because they have more to gain by leaving; and older people leave old platforms later because they have more to lose by leaving.

This is why Facebook is filled with Boomers. Yes, their kids bolted for the exits to avoid having their parents (or grandparents) wading into their sexual, social and professional lives. But the reason the Boomers were late joining younger users' Facebook exodus – or the reason they never joined it – is that they stand to lose more by going. Facebook deliberately cultivated this dynamic, for example, by creating a photo hosting service designed to entice users into uploading their family photos while disguising how hard it would be to take those photos with them if they left:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

The irony here is that tech has intrinsically low switching costs. All other things being equal, a new platform can always build a bridge to ease the passage of users from the old one. There's no (technical) reason that moving to Mastodon, or Bluesky, or any other platform should mean cutting ties with the people who stayed behind.

A combination of voluntary interoperability (where old platforms offer APIs to allow new services to connect with them), mandatory interop (where governments force tech companies to offer APIs) and adversarial interop (where new companies hack together their own API with reverse-engineering, scraping, bots, and other guerrilla tactics) would hypothetically allow users to hop between networks as easily as you change phone carriers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

Tech platforms tend to offer APIs when they're getting started (to ease the inward passage of new users) then shut them down after they attain dominance (locking the door behind those users). The EU is tinkering with mandatory APIs through the Digital Markets Act (though bafflingly, they're starting with encrypted messaging rather than social media). Restoring adversarial interoperability will require extensive legal reform, which is getting started through Right to Repair laws:

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/13/oregon-passes-right-to-repair-law-apple-lobbied-to-kill/

The people who are stranded on social media platforms shouldn't be mistaken for uncool, aging technophobes. They're not stubborn, they're stranded. Like the elders who can't afford to leave a dying town after the factory shuts down and the young people move away, these people are locked in. They need help evacuating – a place to go and a path to get there.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/21/involuntary-die-hards/#evacuate-the-platformsr

#pluralistic

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lovifie · 9 months ago

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Hewwo (TwT)

Can you do one with the wheelchaired user and Soap or Price? ~<3

Luv u >_<

Hi love! I hope that you like it!

I am not a wheelchair user so I hope I didn't say anything offensive, if I did please let me know ❤️

Soap

I just know this man would save your contact as "Hot Wheels 🩷"

You first met at the supermarket, he was looking for something on the top shelf and didn't notice you, accidentally pushing you slightly.

You quickly stopped the wheelchair, turning to look at him.

"Shit, sorry, bonnie. I wasn't looking." He said, stepping back so he wasn't hovering over you. "Ye alright?"

He is immediately smitten with you, the annoyed look on your face automatically making the little brat weak

You answer a bit harshly, not that he cared, and you point to what you were trying to grab for the unnecessarily high shelf. "Could you please grab one of those for me?"

He jumps at the opportunity, quickly grabbing it and handing it to you. "I'll grab the moon and the stars for you, bonnie."

You look back at him, silently pondering how much you want the cereal. "This will do, thanks."

He laughs loudly, walking along and apologising again. "Could I maybe... Take you out for a coffee? A meal?"

He is looking at you, head cocking to the side like a puppy, waiting for an answer.

"Are you a creep?" "Oh, definitely."

You still go out, and you end up having the time of your life. And as time goes on he only gets worse.

The "Don't drink and drive" his favourite joke whenever he sees you take a sip of alcohol.

And if you are able to stand? He is shouting "MIRACLE!" or "LIES! TREACHERY!' and it doesn't matter if it is the first time he has seen you standing or the 100th time.

If you ever leave the wheelchair unattended he is definitely stealing it and going Tokyo drifting around the house; only stopping when you shout his name like scolding a dog. "Sorry, bonnie"

Price

With him it would be the opposite, you bump onto him.

It was on the bus, he was a bit grumpy about having to take it since his car broke down, but he got to meet you so he took it as a godly message.

He was standing close to the bus door, you entered and before you could lock the wheels from moving the bus started sending you rolling back against him.

He grab the handles, only to avoid the hit and looked down at you with a smile when you looked at him panicked. "Well, hello to you too."

You started to apologise profusely, turning around a bit to check you haven't hurt him. You softly grazed his hands on your process of checking on him and it sent a funny feeling up his column.

"It's alright." He reassured you, resting his hand on top of yours. "I don't mind a pretty thing like you crushing on me, love."

It made you stutter, tripping over your words as you started to blush profusely. Funny enough it was him the one with a crush on you.

And he just knows he cannot let you slip away from him like that, and when you mention it is your stop he shoots. "How about you let me buy you coffee? For the trouble."

And who are you to turn him down?

That's how he got your name, your number and himself under your skin.

I just know acts of service is this man love language, constantly trying to just be of use. Wheelchair or not.

The postman left a parcel downstairs and you can't get it into the elevator? This man is taking it up on his hands, whether it is a letter or a fucking fridge.

You are almost ready to go but your phone is charging in your room? This man is sprinting down the hall as if running away from an explosion.

You are on a fancy dinner and some people are slow dancing? You looked at them for four whole minutes and you expect him to not do anything?

He's picking you up, your arms around his shoulder and just dancing with you; no matter how much you complain about being heavy or anything, he's dancing with you.

And regarding the two of them; I just know that if some stupid person ever said anything along the lines of: "Aren't you tired of taking care of them?" They would just stare at them like they are idiots, going like: "They take better care of themselves than I do of my own, if anything they are the ones tired of taking care of me."

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fireandiceland · 2 years ago

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That last point though! He is organised in some regards but at the same time all over the place and I do think England gets distracted easily.

Like he’s the type to chat with the nice parcel service guy at the door until they point out the smoke coming from the kitchen.

I saw a lot of posts and comments about england's horrible cooking skills lately and to be quite honest that makes me a little sad cause the manga says he's trying to improve his cooking and that he's getting better. so to comfort myself here's my headcanon that england learns (or tries to learn) how to cook easy dishes from his fellow nations countries and sometimes surprises his friends with a homemade snack from their country when they visit him.

#fair to mention that that doesn’t make one’s cooking skills bad it’s just a side effect of getting distracted that he burns food sometimes #he also lets the bathtub overflow or the car windows open while it rains #aph england #also rereading this I just realised they them parcel service guy lol #good for them

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mysticalmallard · 4 months ago

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Parcels of Hope

Description: Coco has a crush on the delivery girl who is always bringing them car and bike parts

Word Count: 679

Warnings: none I can think of

♥︎ I am starting a Mayans taglist if you wish to be added comment or message me ♥︎

Mayans MC Masterlist ♥︎ Main Masterlist

Another day, another shift at the garage. The crew is hard at work, sweating it out under the Californian sun. For Coco, however, the day holds a different kind of anticipation. Today is the day that the parcel delivery service girl would arrive with her usual load of bike parts.

As he hears the sound of tires pulling up outside, his heart starts racing. He quickly wipes the grease off his hands and walks out to the garage entrance, trying to act casual.

The delivery girl hops out of her van with a clipboard in her hands. She's dressed in uniform, her long hair pulled back in a ponytail. As she walks up to him, she gives him a friendly smile.

"Hey there," she says, looking down at the delivery manifest in her hand. "I've got a bunch of stuff for you guys today."

Coco's heart skips a beat as he hears her voice. He tries to play it cool, even though his heart is racing a mile a minute.

"Hey," he says, forcing himself to sound casual. "Yeah, we're always ordering parts for bikes and stuff. You know how it is."

He can feel his palms getting sweaty and quickly wipes them off on his jeans, hoping she doesn't notice.

As she hands him the manifest to sign, he catches a whiff of her perfume, something light and floral. He swallows hard, fighting the urge to say something stupid.

"Any of these are particularly heavy?" he asks, trying to prolong the conversation while he signs his name.

She glances down at the manifests and points at a couple of parcels. "Nah, not really. The heaviest ones are those two right there."

Coco follows her finger and nods, pretending to make a mental note of it. They're close enough now that he can see every detail of her face - the small freckle above her lip, the way her eyelashes flutter when she blinks, the way her eyes light up when she smiles. He has to force himself to keep his cool.

As she turns to retrieve the parcels from the back of the van, Coco can't help but watch her. Her uniform fits her curves perfectly, accentuating her figure in just the right places. He catches himself staring and quickly looks away, feeling his cheeks heat up.

She walks back towards the garage, carrying the parcels with ease. "So, what are you guys working on today?" she asks, still in that friendly, casual tone.

It takes Coco a moment to realize she's talking to him. He clears his throat and tries to sound nonchalant. "Oh, you know. The usual. Bikes, engine problems, some upgrades here and there."

She nods, setting the parcels down near the tool bench. "Sounds like you guys keep busy."

Coco can't help but notice how her ponytail swings back and forth as she moves. He takes a step closer, under the pretense of helping her with the parcels.

"Yeah, there's always something to fix or improve," he says as he picks up one of the parcels. It's heavier than he expected, but he doesn't let her know that. He pretends to look at the label, just to have an excuse to keep her near a little longer.

She smiles and thanks him for his help, her gaze lingering on him just a moment too long. Coco feels a flutter of hope in his chest. Maybe there's a spark there, after all?

As they finish up, she hops back into her van, waving goodbye. Coco watches her drive away, his heart heavy with a mixture of hope and doubt. He sighs and goes back to work, his mind still on the parcel girl.

#mayans mc fanfiction #mayans imagines #mayans fanfic #mayans x reader #coco cruz x reader #coco cruz #johnny coco cruz #johnny coco cruz oneshot #mayans mc #mayans mc oneshot

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carbikemovers-com · 2 months ago

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Hassle Free Car Shifting | Bike Transport by Train | Bike Transport

Experience hassle-free car shifting and reliable bike transport by train with professional services. Ensure safe, secure, and timely delivery of your vehicle across locations. Whether it's car relocation or bike transport, trust expert teams for seamless handling, from pickup to delivery, at competitive rates. For more information kindly visit our official Website Carbikemovers.com!

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movemycar1111 · 11 months ago

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Must Know Policies and Terms and Conditions of Bike Parcel Services in Ghaziabad

Hey there folks! Want to parcel your bike from Ghaziabad to another location? In order to parcel your bike to another location, you will need to hire Bike Parcel Services in Ghaziabad and before you hire the service providers there are some things you need to understand before handing them the keys of your bike. In this article, we will discuss the must know policies and the terms and conditions of bike parcel services to enjoy a smooth parceling of your bike.

What Are Some Important Policies and Terms and Conditions of Bike Parcel Services -

Clean Your Bike - You must clean your bike and remove your personal belongings from the bike before you hire and call bike parcel services at your doorstep. All you have to do is clean the body of your bike and remove it if you have any removable items from your two wheeler.

Maintain The Fuel Levels - You have to follow the fuel level rules, and the rule is simple that you have to keep your fuel tank 1/4th filled as it will help to reduce some extra weight from the bike.

License or Certificate Policy - You must have the documents which will prove that you are the owner of the bike that you are parceling. The documents may include -

Registration Certificate

Driver License

Vehicle Paperwork

Pollution Under Control - You must have pollution checked before shifting your bike and you have to show your PUC certificate for it and you might get into legal trouble if you don’t have your pollution checked.

CONCLUSION -

These are some basic policies and terms and conditions when your car carrier India or bike parcel services to transport your vehicle from one place to another. You should have a deep conversation with your service provider about any specific rules and regulations.

#Bike Parcel Services in Ghaziabad #car carrier India

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aylish91 · 1 year ago

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More nagamob?

When an opportunity is presented to escape "The Den", you take it...Right?

Ao3 Link in Title

Caged Bird

You were in the grand kitchen making a sandwich when what you considered, “the” door, burst open. You had barely enough time to register the locks clicking before it was slamming it into the wall. Expecting your loud semi-friend Papyrus, you were not prepared for who came through instead.

A shorter skeletal Naga dressed in an impressive white satin suit made his way inside with a huff. A sky-blue tail peppered with tiny yellow speckles swished agitatedly behind him as he slipped through. Though, at the sight of you, he paused.

Something in the way he stared made you uneasy. You could tell he was hiding something behind careful neutrality. The sudden expanding of his eyelights didn’t help as his grin twitched into a smirk. Their blue and yellow glowed a little too brightly.

“HOW INTERESTING…”

While you were locked in the stare, a taller Naga sauntered in behind him. Light reflected off the orange iridescent scales, undertones of dark amber shimmering amongst soft honey. Unlike the first, his suit was dark, the jacket draped over a slouched shoulder.

The rising tickle in the back of your mind was going to drive you crazy. It felt wrong… You almost missed the grip placed on the smaller’s shoulder.

“May I be of service gentlemen?”

The blue Naga hummed. Holding up a gloved hand, a large manilla envelope quickly made its way into it. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the dense parcel slid across the counter.

“THIS IS THE MONEY RECOVERED FROM THE STYGIAN INCIDENT. MAKE SURE THIS GETS TO THE DON. I WOULD HATE FOR IT TO GET, LOST.”

He didn’t wait for you to answer, immediately turning to continue out the kitchen doors into the lounge.

Coils shifted.

“You’re that new courier that’s been going around, aren’t you?”

You wanted to sigh but knew better. Before you had been so graciously dragged here, all your new clients had called you that. Even though you had been delivering for the past two years, everyone had still considered you new. It had been rather annoying at times having to deal with those who had little faith in your abilities. It was also getting harder to hide your expressions since coming here.

“Yes sir, unless someone else has started since I last checked.”

He chuckled, eyelights flicking over you. “What has ya hangin' around the Den? Bossman decide ta pull ya under his scales?”

Your smile twitched. “You could say that.”

“How convenient.” You didn’t like the subtle shift you felt between the two of you as he leaned on the shared counter. You couldn’t quite put your finger on what had changed, but something definitely had. At least the tickling sensation started to settle and dissipate. “How about you help a guy out then? Got a… shipment need’n to be brought in from the car but I also got other business I need to get done. Promise I’ll make it worth your while~”

That familiar pit of anxiety stirred in your stomach followed by excitement. He didn’t know it, but simply being allowed outside was more than you could ask for. It was the chance you needed to finally leave this place. It had been quite a bit harder to escape than anticipated. Windows were too heavy, high, or locked. Most doors were also locked, some guarded from the outside. The only open rooms were yours and those with nothing to offer.

This man’s ignorance could very well be your ticket out. It brought a genuine smile to your face.

“Of course. I’d be happy to help.”

“Good.” Giving a nod, He pushed the envelope into your hands with a wink. “It’s all in the car, pretty bird. Don’t disappoint.”

You didn’t need to be told twice. As casually as you could, you grabbed the envelope and abandoned your half-made sandwich. From the corner of your eye, the honeyed Naga watched long enough for you to make your way through the previously locked door.

You were only mildly surprised it led into a mudroom. A large plush rug, a shelf of towels, and a wide U-shaped brush system peppered with lingering scales were only a few of the things found inside. The most important thing, though, was the exit. It was kind enough to lead outside under the cover of a covered archway.

On your right, the driveway passed under the arch into a modest courtyard. On your left was the main drive toward the estate’s gates. Across the way, the access door of a garage enticed you with its open door.

You took a breath.

You could do this. You just needed to hurry before the other house members realized.

Before Don Sans realized...

You were in the garage before you could process anything else, heart pumping. Several Monster-sized vehicles met you, each one surprisingly more nondescript than the last. You prayed you would have luck with keys.

You didn’t know how you would fare driving such a large vehicle, but you only needed to get out of the gate with it. The first opportunity you had, you planned to ditch the thing in case they were tagged. Two cars down, you found what you were looking for.

The engine was still warm, keys in the ignition. Upon further inspection, you took note of a pile of boxes in the back and the lack of “normal” seats and smiled. Your two new friends had really outdone themselves for you.

Then you saw it.

The car had been modified for the use of Monsters. More importantly, Naga, Monsters. There were no pedals of any kind. In their place were hand controls. Very fancy hand controls.

You were going to have to take the time to figure them out.

Time you might not have.

Waving caution to the wind, you threw the envelope on the modified seat and started the ignition. For a brief second, you did a double take when stacks of hundreds broke free but recovered quickly enough to start fiddling with controls.

A push of a lever had the engine revving. Cursing, you frantically pulled back until it stopped. You had to keep yourself from panicking at the noise. All you could do was keep trying and hope no one came to investigate.

Unfortunately, less than five minutes later, a tsk had ice washing over you.

“I AM CURIOUS… WHAT AN INTERESTING CHOICE, BIRDIE. ARE YOU SURE IT WAS THE RIGHT ONE? I DO BELIEVE YOU HAVE TO PULL THE BREAKS BEFORE YOU SHIFT AND ENGAGE.” The Blue and yellow Naga from before leaned casually into the open window next to you, smile ominously bright.

You couldn’t breathe. You were stuck staring into the glow of his lidded eyelights. Your horror only grew when he reached through to pull a lever next to you. It was slow and purposeful. His smile never slipped and his eyelights never left yours. You didn’t know if his uncanny cheerfulness was better or worse than rage.

“HOW ABOUT WE MAKE A DEAL~. I LET YOU TAKE THIS CAR AND ATTEMPT AN ESCAPE, LET YOU SNITCH SANS’ MONEY, AND WHEN YOU ARE INEVITABLY CAUGHT…” His head cocked with a giggle, grin morphing into a sinister smirk. “YOU WORK FOR ME. I’M SURE WE COULD COME UP WITH QUITE THE ARRANGEMENT.”

It was hard to keep the shake out of your hands. He had you in a corner. It wouldn’t take much for him to grab you. He was already far too close. You also doubted the Don would take too kindly to your attempt at escape should you be dragged back inside. This Naga knew this, and he knew you knew it. However, you needed to know more about the type of person he was.

You swallowed. “What if I refuse?”

For just a moment his eyelights shrank and dilated, claws subtly scraping aluminum and plastic.

“YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT CAGED BIRDS…” His voice lowered. “THEY DON’T LIVE THAT LONG OUT OF CAPTIVITY.”

…

You were stuck. Context proved you couldn’t not take the deal. At least if you were able to leave now, you had a semblance of a chance at escape. You only needed to get a few blocks away for you to be able to disappear through the allies and back streets. If you refused, you were as good as dead.

Swallowing, you made up your mind. Tentatively reaching out your hand, you accepted.

He outright beamed. “SO CUTE. SO EASY. I’LL HOLD YOU TO IT, BIRDIE. I LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU~”

The blue of his scales vanished around the other vehicles before you could breathe properly again, but you didn’t allow yourself to relax. Managing to figure out and drive the vehicle to the metal gates, the honeyed Naga winked again as he distracted the guards, motioning you through to your freedom.

…

The first familiar alley you came to, you ditched the car. The Den was behind you and there had been more than enough money in the envelope to give you a plethora of ideas for escape.

It was time to do what you did best.

Disappear…

Grand Master Post Mafia Master Post

#my writing #requests #writing requests #undertale #undertale fanfiction #NagaMob #NagaMafiaTale #lamiatale #mobtale #mafiatale #underswap #underswap sans #underswap papyrus #x reader #undertale x reader

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atlurbanist · 14 days ago

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A freeway interchange as "urban renewal" in Atlanta

by Darin GIvens | Dec 9, 2024

This area, immediately south of Downtown Atlanta, is bounded on the north by Memorial Drive, on the east by Fraser Street, on the south by Fulton Street, and on the west by Central Avenue.

First photo: 1949 (GSU Digital Collections)

Second photo, showing the same area: 2024 (Google Maps)

This is part of the area dubbed Washington-Rawson during the post-WW2 Urban Renewal period. It wasn't the name of a distinct, existing neighborhood -- it was a name for a project that defined the blocks to be demolished for new development. The original plan appears to have been to displace the current population and build a place for wealthier (and whiter) residents. probably to compete with suburban flight.

It was, of course, a horrible plan that erased neighborhood fabric and uprooted thousands of residents, hitting immigrant and Black communities the hardest. The fact that it didn't actually turn out as hoped is small comfort. What did get built instead was a giant I-75/85/20 interchange, cutting off communities from each other and from walkable access to many destinations.

The following are passages from Daniel Judt's “Limitations of the Past: Atlanta’s Stadium and Atlanta’s Image, 1960-2015.” Yale Historical Review (Spring 2015)

"While the press and the Hartsfield administration maintained that clearing Washington-Rawson would get rid of one of the city’s worst slums, some saw the area as merely lower-middle class. Washington-Rawson was not a single neighborhood, but an intersection of two streets within the parameters of the urban renewal project. (Renewal projects were often named after streets.) The project pulled from parts of three neighborhoods: Summerhill, Mechanicsville, and Peoplestown" "[Mayor Ivan] Allen thought there would certainly be interest in developing an upper-middle class residential community that could link to a modernized downtown. By 1959, much of the Washington-Rawson site had been leveled...Residents of Mechanicsville and Peoplestown, the two neighborhoods directly affected by the program, saw 3,261 living units dismantled; over 3,000 individuals and families were removed." "...His plan for an area flush with businesses had, by 1963, ground to a halt. Vast amounts of land had been cleared, but the city could not find private developers interested in buying up the area. The project had lost space due to the construction of the messy intersection of Interstates 20, 75, and 85. The intersection was supposed to give the greater Atlanta region easy access to the CBD, but instead awkwardly cut off the remaining urban renewal land from the shopping district. Citizens in their cars would likely head straight home rather than traipse into downtown."

We can't entirely undo the bad plans of the past, but we can use better intentions to mitigate their impact and create good urbanism in every possible space. The few pedestrian passages that do exist near this interchange should be excellent environments for walking, and cycling (they currently are not).

Each neighborhood affected by this gulf of asphalt should be given every bit of public help available to be a complete urban space with its own shopping districts, parks, and affordable housing. Looking at the Mechanicsville neighborhood for instance (it lies immediately south of the area pictured above), one still sees a lot of empty land where buildings used to be. Looking at the neighborhood on the city’s GIS mapping tool, you can see the parcel divisions that used to be homes and more:

And Downtown, which became cut off from other parts of the city by the interstates, needs thousands of new residents to help it become a more self-sufficient place that relies less heavily on weekday commuters and events goers in order to achieve the level of vibrancy a downtown should have; and to take advantage of the high level of transit service and walkable streets here.

Making mistakes is something that all cities do at some point (though this kind of mistake is particularly egregious and worthy of scorn). Another thing cities do is make corrections -- we can do it by adding life to dead spaces and by redesigning the public realm of our streets, with an eye on equitable outcomes. It’s past time that we address the mistakes of Atlanta's Urban Renewal period in a comprehensive way that lifts up our neighborhoods above the detritus of car-centric, racist, and classist actions.

#atlanta #downtown atlanta #urbanism #urban renewal

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feigeroman · 10 months ago

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The Vicarstown Car Ferry

Above: This is not the Vicarstown car ferry train. I just needed a screenshot of a car on a train, and this was the closest I had to hand.

Every year, the Island of Sodor receives thousands of visitors from the Mainland, and obviously, the vast majority come by rail. A significant number, however, choose to arrive by car. Nowadays, this is no trouble, as they can simply drive across the Jubilee Bridge, which carries the main A950 road over the Walney Channel.

The bridge only opened in 1977, though, and any motorists arriving before then had to rely on the NWR's services to get themselves and their cars on and off of Sodor. And thereby hangs a fascinating tale about a little-known aspect of the NWR's history.

EARLY NWR EFFORTS

Above: The Vicarstown Bridge, in an undated view (obviously post-1975, given the presence of Spencer).

It all started with the construction of the NWR's own bridge over the Channel in 1915. In those days, there was no other link between Sodor and the Mainland, and thus no other way for goods and passengers to arrive. Some of those passengers wanted to bring their own horse-drawn carriages with them, and so was born one of the earliest vehicle-and-owner trains to run on Sodor. To begin with, it was simply a case of strapping the vehicle to a special carriage truck, and coupling it up to whatever passenger train its owner was travelling in. The truck then travelled as far as the nearest station to wherever the owner was going, where it was detached and the vehicle rolled off.

Above: For a time, the NWR also offered the use of a horsebox in conjunction with a carriage truck, so that the carriage’s owner could take his own horse with him, and avoid having to search for one at the other end of his journey. This cost extra, though, so there were few takers.

THE VICARSTOWN CAR FERRY

With the boom of private motoring in the early-1920s, there came a similar explosion in demand for the carriage of road vehicles by rail. This in turn resulted in the NWR running its first dedicated car-carrying trains - albeit only on an as-and-when basis, and with cars and drivers travelling in separate trains. The NWR did not return to vehicle-and-owner trains until 1927, when it launched a regular car ferry service between Vicarstown and Barrow-in-Furness - probably the best-known of all its car-carrying trains.

This new service had been made possible by the 1925 LMS Agreement, which gave the NWR running powers into Barrow, and in turn required Vicarstown to be converted for through running. Among the changes which resulted was the conversion of the adjoining goods depot to handle parcels and mail (goods facilities moving to a new depot elsewhere), and the closure of the existing parcels platform. This platform was thus free for conversion into a loading dock for the new car ferry service.

OPERATIONS

Throughout the fifty years the car ferry service ran, the basic pattern of its operation remained much the same, with only details like the motive power, rolling stock and timings seeing much change. It is thus worth looking at a typical journey for the service, starting at Vicarstown and ending at Barrow.

Below: A vague representation of how the loading process would have looked. I've employed a bit of artistic license with this photo: while the NWR did have some enclosed double-decker car carriers, these were never used on the car ferry services.

To begin with, the consist for that particular crossing was shunted into the station - the carriage trucks going to the loading dock, and the passenger coaches to one of the through platforms. Drivers and passengers boarded their coaches, leaving their cars to be loaded by the station staff. Once loading was completed, the carriage trucks were marshalled and coupled to the coaches. All shunting was done by the train engine, who then ran round to the front and hauled the train to Barrow. On arrival, the whole train was shunted to the loading dock there, where passengers and cars were unloaded together. The stock was then taken away for servicing. Of course, it goes without saying that in the opposite direction, the whole procedure was repeated, only in reverse.

In all, ten car ferry trains ran daily (five in each direction), with provisions in the working timetable for an extra four (two in each direction) if they were needed - say, during the busier summer months. To avoid overcrowding, a maximum of 20 cars were allowed on each crossing, and motorists had to book in advance. This enabled staff to work out how many carriage trucks were required, and what types, well ahead of time. It also allowed them to work out how many passenger coaches were needed - the rule here was that there should be at least one compartment for every car carried.

In the early 1930s, the NWR began allowing larger commercial vehicles to make use of the car ferry trains, and this required a slight amendment to the 20 cars rule. This amendment counted the size of a vehicle in car lengths - if, for example, a lorry turned up which was as long as three cars, then it took up three slots on that particular crossing. Any number of vehicles could thus travel on a single train, so long as their total length did not exceed 20 car lengths.

STOCK

The car ferry trains never had a specific engine allocated to run them - generally, any engine could do the job if they happened to be at Vicarstown or Barrow at the right time. As the NWR’s locomotive roster expanded, the car ferry became the exclusive preserve of the engines based at either of those sheds - the job generally being allocated to any engine who wasn't busy anywhere else that day.

The car ferry was also a neat way of getting an engine from one station to the other, without having to find an extra path for a light engine movement. For similar reasons, it was not uncommon for visiting LMS (later BR) engines to take charge of a Barrow-bound car ferry on their way home.

Below: An example of a long-wheelbase covered carriage truck. Many were later converted for parcels, newspapers or general goods traffic. This particular example went into departmental service, and in this view is carrying engine parts.

As far as rolling stock was concerned, this mainly consisted of both open and covered carriage trucks (henceforth referred to as OCTs and CCTs respectively). When the service first started, cars were carried on short-wheelbase OCTs, but these proved unpopular with motorists, as the cars often had their paintwork spoiled by smoke and soot spewing from passing engines - and sometimes from the engine pulling the train! The NWR tried to remedy this by offering the use of protective tarpaulins, but eventually they decided it would be more prudent to switch to CCTs instead.

Single cars were carried in short-wheelbase vans, similar in design to the GWR’s Mogo vans.

For pairs of cars, longer wheelbase CCTs could be used.

For trios or quartets, bogie CCTs were employed.

When larger commercial vehicles began to be carried, bogie OCTs were used - converted from the underframes of the fabled Dublin Stock.

Because of the aforementioned one compartment for every vehicle rule, the passenger coaches were at first quite a motley collection, with the numbers being made up by any old stock just lying around. It was only from the 1930s onwards that more consistent rakes of coaches began to be used - starting with Ironclad-pattern stock, moving on to Maunsell-pattern just after the War, and finishing up with Bulleid-pattern in the BR era.

MOTORAIL

Above: A display of Scottish country dancing at...I think it's Kensington Olympia? No, I don't know why either.

In the 1960s, British Rail officially launched its Motorail service, offering fast travel for passengers and their cars to all parts of the country. To serve Sodor, one of the new services ran twice daily between Kensington Olympia and Vicarstown, and the latter’s existing loading dock was upgraded into a terminal. Two of the car ferry's ten daily crossings clashed with the proposed timings of the new Motorail services, and so were slashed from the timetable. Other than that, the car ferry was able to carry on as normal.

By then, the rolling stock used for the car ferry was beginning to show its age, and a programme of gradual replacement was implemented from about 1966 onwards:

For cars, General Utility Vans replaced the old bogie CCTs, which were retained for parcels traffic.

For commercial vehicles, Carflats replaced the OCTs, which were either scrapped or placed into departmental service.

Finally, for passengers, some of the NWR’s own allocation of BR Mk1s replaced the Bulleid-pattern stock.

The car ferry trains continued unabated into the 1970s, but it was clear they were running on borrowed time - for the first time, demand was beginning to outstrip capacity, and there was no room in the timetable to run extra trains. Then, exactly fifty years after the car ferries had first began, came a blow from which they were never to recover.

THE JUBILEE BRIDGE

That year saw the opening of the Walney Road Bridge, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Needless to say, this snuffed out the NWR's car ferry monopoly in an instant. Nobody was more incensed at this development than Sir Topham Hatt, and he saw to it that the NWR was substantially compensated for the extinguishment of their ferry rights.

Above: The Jubilee Bridge. Visitors to Barrow (and native Barrovians, too) may think that this is the only bridge here. This is an illusion!

All was not totally lost, however, for 1977 also saw the extension of BR's existing London-Vicarstown Motorail service to a brand new terminal at Killdane - a more convenient base for the visiting motorist to explore Sodor. Such was the success of this new service that further others were introduced, linking Sodor with other provincial centres. Some of these services employed the stock which had previously worked the car ferry trains.

MODERN DAY MOTORAIL

The expansion of Sodor's Motorail services came during a period of gradual decline for the brand across the rest of BR. The expansion of Britain's motorways, the improvement of car technology, and the chaos of privatisation all ultimately conspired to kill off Motorail by the early-1990s.

Above: First Great Western briefly revived the Motorail concept in the early-2000s, using a fleet of converted GUVs.

Despite this, Motorail on Sodor has continued to flourish into the present day. Not only are its existing terminals at Vicarstown and Killdane still in operation, but there is now a third terminal at Tidmouth. These form the basis for the NWR's current Motorail services, which all serve to help solve a very basic problem.

The thing is, many visitors to Sodor now arrive in their own cars, but the island's road transport infrastructure isn't really suited to the needs of the long-distance motorist. Fortunately, the NWR has them covered. Special car-carrying trains now run regularly between the Motorail terminals at Vicarstown, Killdane and Tidmouth. While you still have to book in advance, it's a small price to pay for having the convenience of a car at your disposal, without the insanity that comes from having to drive it all the way across Sodor.

Of course, while the NWR's Motorail trains are available to all motorists (local and foreign) the majority of their customers are Mainlanders - the typical Sudrian would just as soon leave his car at home altogether!

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #north western railway #vicarstown #vicarstown bridge #barrow in furness #car ferry

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