#if they want you to do work it BETTER come with fair payment or rent reductions

[little-klng]

landlords are parasites but i think nothing convinces me of that more than the sheer number of times my landlords have asked me, often repeatedly/every time i see them, to come over and spend hours in their house doing their housework for them, and either guilt trip me the entire time im saying no, or straight up threaten my shelter security for saying no. like i dont think ive ever had a landlord that didnt at least try a couple times to force me to do free housework for them

[adrianastrix]

The reason why I'm so adamant about separating "earning money from your work" from "capitalism" is, firstly, that capitalism spreads the lie that "money = capitalism, so capitalism exists since money was invented and will exist until money fades out", making it look way more universal and strong that it actually is (capitalism is actually a development from 18th century free market ideology meeting freaking colonialism, so it's very recent and has a very spotty past).

But what gets me is that this association of capitalism with money, salaries and trading makes it so every time an artist sees how screwed we all are by this system and denounces it, they lock themselves out of financial support. Everyone start to spew vitriol about how you shouldn't take money since you hate capitalism so much, like the two things are equivalent.

You know what kind of people think that someone asking for payment in exchange for a service is fundamentally greedy, it doesn't matter how reasonable the price is?

Slave. Owners.

They are the ones who think every service should be provided for people who HAVE to work for them whenever they want, however degrading it might be, and for NO PAY WHATSOEVER. And that providing those workers with the bare minimum food and shelter instead of letting them die and buying new slaves is charity.

In every non-slave society, it IS expected that goods and services will be traded for fair rates. Criticizing capitalism has nothing to do with buy or selling things, it has nothing to do with believing that money, or trading, or advertising shouldn't exist. It has to do with criticizing a system that treat workers like uppity slaves that should be happy that they get a ridiculously low salary for brutal hours of work and aren't legally bound 24/7 to the whims of their employer anymore. What more should they want??? After all, if they get more money and free time they will blow it all in drugs and depravities anyway. Hey, y'all, are we sure those people shouldn't be legally bound 24/7 to the whims of their employer? For their own good?

So, by all means. Charge whatever you want to charge (or DON'T charge if you don't want to), buy iPhones, advertize like crazy and criticize capitalism at every single corner. The only ones who are hypocrites when they criticize capitalism are the capitalist themselves.

(And "capitalists" aren't all bosses. Capitalists are bosses who don't have to work. They make their whole living from the profits of other people's work (i.e., the capital). They are people who live from the interest the bank pays for their inheritance money, or from the rent paid by their 5 or more tennants, or from loaning some money to a company - "investing" on it - on a non-limited interest rate, siphoning that company's profits like crazy without ever lifting a finger to make it better. Sometimes, actively making it worse by imposing ridiculous conditions for their loan... *cough* investment. What, you thought interest in investments come from thin air, like magic? It's thinly disguised loan-sharking, my guys.

Your boss that will be broken in the streets if their bakery/youtube channel/print service fails isn't a capitalist, they are just a commoner providing goods and services like you, and they are in for a rude awakening if they think they can get away with acting like the local lord on the long run.)

[investorsbuyinghouses]

Are any cash home buyer companies legit?

Introduction

When you're in a hurry, the process of selling a house can be difficult. Cash home purchaser organizations guarantee fast and bother-free deals, yet how can you say whether they're genuine? We'll look at how to find reputable cash home buyers, avoid common rip-offs, and learn about the advantages of selling your house for cash in this post. Learn how we buy ugly houses Michigan.

What Are Cash Home Buyer Companies?

Cash home purchaser organizations are organizations that spend significant time buying homes straightforwardly from property holders for cash. Dissimilar to customary home deals, which commonly include realtors, various appearances, and possibly months available, cash home purchasers smooth out the interaction by making direct offers and shutting rapidly. Here is a more intensive glance at what these organizations do and how they work:

How Cash Home Buyer Companies Work

Direct Buy: Money home purchaser organizations purchase properties altogether, without the requirement for supporting or home loan endorsement. As a result, they can close deals much more quickly than traditional buyers.

As-Is condition: These companies typically purchase homes in their current condition, saving you time and money on renovations and upgrades. Homeowners whose properties require significant renovations may particularly benefit from this.

Worked on Interaction: The cycle with a money home purchaser is commonly direct. You contact the organization, they assess your property (frequently with a speedy visit or even photographs), and afterward, they make a money offer. If you acknowledge the proposition, the deal can shut surprisingly fast or weeks, contingent upon your necessities.

Types of Properties Purchased

Cash home buyer companies buy a wide range of properties, including:

Homes in need of significant repairs or updates

Inherited properties

Rental properties with tenants

Homes facing foreclosure

Properties in any condition or location

Normal Wordings

Organizations known as "We Purchase Houses": Publicize their ability to buy properties in any condition by utilizing expressions, for example, "We Purchase Terrible Houses" or "We Purchase Houses for Money."

Investors: Investors are a lot of people who buy houses with cash and want to make a profit or rent them out.

Considerations While Selling

Despite the numerous advantages provided by companies that buy houses with cash, it is essential to:

Research: Conduct research to ensure the credibility of the company. Verify their credentials, inquire about references, and check their reviews.

Get multiple offers: Don't acknowledge the primary offer; get multiple propositions instead. Compare offers from various customers with the assurance that you are receiving a fair price.

Handle the Terms: Make sure you sort out the terms of the agreement and any costs or fees that come with them.

Instructions for Differentiating Authentic Money Home Purchaser Organizations

Identifying a genuine money home purchaser organization necessitates careful research. The following are a couple of pointers to assist you with tracking down trustworthy clients:

Confirm Qualifications: Verify whether the organization is enrolled and has an ongoing permit to operate. You can check this information with the local business agency.

Grasp Studies: Seeking recommendations and praise from previous customers. Two examples of useful assets are Trust pilot and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Ask for References: A reputable business will gladly provide references from previous customers. Get in touch with these references to learn more about their experiences.

Straightforward Methods: All parts of a real organization's methodology, including the way that they show up at the proposition cost and any related expenses, will be unveiled.

No upfront fees: Avoid businesses that require upfront payments. The majority of legitimate cash buyers won't ask for any money before the deal is settled.

Common Scams and Red Flags

There are legitimate cash home buyer businesses, but there are also con artists to avoid. In here you can learn how we buy ugly houses Michigan. Here are a few normal warnings:

Spontaneous Offers: Be careful of spontaneous offers, particularly those that appear to be unrealistic.

Techniques of Pressure: Trustworthy businesses will not pressure you into making a quick decision. Buyers who demand an immediate agreement should be avoided.

Incomplete Information: Avoid businesses that provide insufficient or hazy information regarding their fees and processes.

No Physical Address: If the company does not have a physical office address, check it out. Swindlers frequently operate without a physical presence.

No Written Agreement: If there is no written agreement, you must always insist on a written agreement that lays out all of the terms and conditions. Stay away from organizations that depend entirely on verbal arrangements.

Benefits of Selling to a Legitimate Cash Home Buyer

Offering your home to a genuine money home purchaser offers a few advantages:

Quick Sale: Cash buyers can usually close the deal in a few days or weeks, giving you money right away.

No Repairs Needed: Cash buyers typically purchase homes as-is, saving you time and money on renovations and repairs.

Simplified Procedure: Compared to traditional sales, the sale procedure is typically straightforward and less complicated, with fewer contingencies.

Sureness: When a money offer is made and acknowledged, the deal is practically ensured, decreasing the gamble of the arrangement failing to work out.

Adaptability: Many money purchasers offer adaptable shutting dates, permitting you to pick a course of events that turns out best for you.

Conclusion

Even though selling your house for cash can be a quick and easy option, you should make sure you are managing a reputable money home purchaser company. Assuming you follow the previously mentioned guidance and know about normal shams, you can receive the rewards of a fast deal that is liberated from problems and also come to know how we buy ugly houses Michigan. Do all necessary investigations and pose the right inquiries while working with a reliable purchaser, and you'll feel quieter.

[webuyhousesstlouisfast]

Sell Your Home Fast in St. Louis: A Guide to Cash Buyers

Are you a St. Louis homeowner looking to sell your property quickly and hassle-free? Selling to a local cash home buyer may be the solution.

Cash buyers allow you to sell your house fast, as-is, without paying hefty realtor fees or commission. You can get a competitive cash offer in days, then close on your own timeline.

In this guide, we’ll explain:

How cash buyers work

The top benefits of selling for cash

What types of homes cash buyers purchase

Things that may increase your offer

Expert tips to maximize your payout

Missteps to avoid during the process

Whether you inherited a home, are relocating, or just want to sell quickly, partnering with a local cash buyer can streamline the entire process.

How Do Cash Home Buyers Work?

Cash home buyers have become increasingly popular in recent years. Here's an overview of how they work:

You contact local cash buyers and provide details about your property.

The buyer will schedule a time to visit and evaluate your home’s condition.

Usually within 1-3 days, the buyer presents a fair, no-obligation cash offer to purchase your home as-is.

If you accept, you pick a closing date that works for your schedule.

On closing day, you sign over the deed & receive the full cash payment on the spot.

It's a fast and convenient way to sell without the steps of listing through an agent. Now let's explore the key benefits...

Top 5 Benefits of Selling Your House For Cash

Ditching the traditional route for a cash buyer offers many perks:

1. Sell As-Is

No need to invest time and money into repairs, painting, or intense cleaning. Cash buyers purchase homes in their current condition.

2. Bypass Realtor Fees

You can avoid paying commissions of 5-6% by selling directly to a cash buyer instead of an agent. This saves thousands of dollars.

3. Quick Process

Instead of waiting months or years for the right offer, you can get a cash deal done in as little as 10 days in many cases.

4. You Control the Timeline

Once you accept the cash offer, you determine the ideal closing date based on your needs.

5. No Uncertainty

Cash deals have fewer contingencies, backed-out offers, and other stressors that can stall traditional sales.

Selling for cash helps maximize your profit while minimizing the work and uncertainty.

What Types of Properties Do Cash Buyers Want?

One huge benefit of cash buyers is they purchase a wide variety of houses - not just updated, perfect homes. Some examples of properties cash buyers will purchase:

Older homes needing renovations

Homes with structural damage or foundation issues

Rental properties with tenants

Houses going through foreclosure

Vacant homes/abandoned properties

Homes that need extensive cleaning/junk removal

Fire damaged or flooded houses

Homes with title/ownership challenges

And more!

There are very few homes cash buyers won’t consider buying. They expect to renovate places from top to bottom before selling or renting.

Tips to Potentially Increase Your Cash Offer

Remember, cash buyers purchase homes as-is. But if you want to potentially maximize your offer, consider these tips:

Make minor repairs like leaky faucets or broken windows

Clean out clutter and make rooms appear larger

Have a lawncare service mow/maintain the yard

Clear any trash or junk from the property

Paint over offensive graffiti inside

Remove valuables so home appears empty

Taking some steps to have your home “show ready” can result in a better offer when the buyer visits. But this is absolutely not required.

Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your House For Cash

To ensure the sale goes smoothly, be aware of these common missteps:

Not verifying the buyer is properly licensed

Allowing a buyer to take early occupancy before closing

Skipping the inspection or legal contract review

Taking the first offer that comes in without comparison shopping

Agreeing to “rent back” your home without protections

Assuming there are no fees - get it in writing!

Ignoring red flags about a shady buyer

Doing your due diligence avoids headaches when selling for cash. Now let’s look at common questions...

Answers to FAQs About Selling Your St. Louis Home For Cash

How long does it take to get a cash offer on my house?

A local cash buyer can usually provide an initial offer within 24-48 hours. Offers may come back even faster.

What will the cash offer be based on?

Buyers will assess the home’s condition, features, recent comparable sales, and market factors to determine a fair cash price.

Are there any fees if I sell my home for cash?

Nope! Reputable cash buyers cover all closing costs and there are no extra fees or commissions the seller pays.

Do I have to agree to the first offer I receive?

Not at all. Shop around with multiple buyers to maximize your payout. And never feel pressured to accept an offer.

When will I get my payment if I sell for cash?

Full payment is made on the closing date, at the same time you sign over the deed and title. Expect funds within days or weeks.

Can I sell my home if I still have a mortgage?

Yes, cash buyers can pay off any remaining mortgage balance owed as part of the transaction. This eliminates future payments.

Get a Serious Cash Offer for Your St. Louis Home

Selling your property directly to a local cash buyer simplifies the entire process. You can get a solid offer in days, close on your timeline, avoid showings and repairs, and eliminate agent fees.

To get started, contact us today to learn more about our easy process for helping St. Louis homeowners sell fast and hassle-free!

[cardwellthaxton]

6 Things You Can Do To Stop Foreclosure of Your New Jersey House

By Cardwell Thaxton

For homeowners who want to stop foreclosure in New Jersey, the future can look pretty grim. In our latest post, we offer 6 ways homeowners can stop foreclosure of their homes in the New Jersey area.

Has it become difficult to pay your mortgage each month? Are the bills piling up, with no end in sight? At some point, before the bank comes in and takes your home, you need to find a way out. Keep reading to learn more about what you can do and how The Cardwell Thaxton Group can help you stop the foreclosure of your house in New Jersey.

Sell Immediately

In order to stop foreclosure of your house in New Jersey, a direct and fast sale is often the best way to go. The Cardwell Thaxton Group is a professional buyer in New Jersey that will help you sell your house fast, stopping the banks and avoiding the destruction of your credit. Not all buyers are the same – The Cardwell Thaxton Group is dedicated to helping homeowners in difficult situations, providing fair solutions that make sense for all parties involved. While you may not receive the retail price, you will be able to sell in just a few days saving you thousands on commissions, repairs, and holding costs. Giving up your home can feel difficult, but it is better to sell by choice than to have the bank come in and forcefully take over the property.

Borrow Money

For some homeowners, borrowing money from a family member can be a quick solution to stop the bank. However, this isn’t a long-term solution to your financial struggles. If the mortgage has become difficult to pay now, it’s likely that it will be difficult to pay going forward. Getting into a pattern of continuously borrowing money will only get you into more debt, but this time it will be with multiple creditors. Borrowing money from loved ones can also strain your relationships with the people that you care about, making your difficult situation feel that much worse.

Ask For Forgiveness

One option when you are struggling to make your mortgage payments is to reach out to your lender and explain the situation. In some cases, you will be able to defer a payment or work out a payment plan to make up what you owe. That said, you will still have to find a way to pay your debts. Deferring the problem will only push things back, it won’t magically get you caught up or erase the debt you are in. Asking for forgiveness is a one-time thing, to help deal with an unexpected situation… not something to bail you out long term. Loan forgiveness is also known as loan forbearance and is used after an illness, a loss, or anther one-off circumstance.

Refinance

Refinancing your property can help you to achieve a lower monthly payment, but there is a cost. If you choose to refinance with a hard money loan, your interest rates can be through the roof. While this may help you to save your house from the bank, it will ultimately cost you more money in the long run. You can also work with your current lender to refinance your current loan; however, you need to prove you will not have trouble with your payments going forward.

Rent The Property To Someone Else

If you aren’t able to pay the mortgage yourself, maybe someone else can. Of course, This means that you will need to quickly find somewhere else to live at a price you can more easily afford. You’ll first need to find high-quality tenants who you can count on to pay the rent each month. If your situation allows, you could also choose to rent out a bedroom in your home for some extra cash, while you continue to live in the home as well. Just make sure boundaries are set on both sides so that everyone is comfortable with the living arrangements. Having the wrong people move in can cause you to default on your mortgage, anyway, ending up with the same result of losing your New Jersey house to foreclosure.

Declare Bankruptcy

Nobody is thrilled about having to declare bankruptcy, but it orders to fight off foreclosure, it may be the answer you have been waiting for. Declaring bankruptcy will restructure your debt and create a payment plan to get you back on track. While this won’t look good when applying for loans in the future, it can be a way for you to keep your current home, stopping the banks in their tracks.

At The Cardwell Thaxton Group, we want to help you stop the foreclosure of your New Jersey property. Our team can help you review your options and make you a no-obligation offer to help you sell quickly. Let our team help you quickly and efficiently handle any difficult property or situation you are dealing with.

If you are having trouble paying the mortgage, we can help you stop foreclosure of your New Jersey house! Send us a message or call The Cardwell Thaxton Group today! (908) 456-1593.

The Cardwell Thaxton Group Cardwell Thaxton, New Jersey 📲(908) 456-1593 📧CardwellThaxton@gmail.com https://www.sellmyhousefastnewjersey.org/

[nzffn]

Real Estate Company - Get The Service You Deserve

For many people, real estate is more than just a financial investment. It's their home, and when they choose to rent or buy property in the city, they have a variety of needs that must be met. 

Property owners need help with all aspects of their homes or businesses as well as other properties that belong to them. There are several Pukekohe real estate companies that can fulfill your needs:

Full-service property management

Full-service property management is a service that takes care of all aspects of managing a property. It includes the day-to-day operations, including tenant relations, maintenance, financial and legal services. Full-service property managers are responsible for all matters pertaining to the occupancy and management of your property.

Full-service property managers will assist you with leasing your home, finding tenants and screening new applicants. The company will then ensure that rent payments are made on time, maintain records as well as perform daily inspections to keep up with repairs and maintenance issues before they become critical problems for you or your tenants.

Residential and commercial real estate sales

As a real estate salesperson, you are an independent contractor and your income is based on commissions. 

You earn money when you sell homes or commercial property. As a licensed real estate salesperson, you must meet certain legal requirements that ensure the consumer is protected from fraud and other illegal practices. The Real Estate Commission has strict standards for both residential and commercial real estate licensees.

Specifically for residential real estate licensees, this includes:

completing at least 75 hours of classroom instruction within three months before the application deadline;

passing two exams—one covering state regulations pertaining to real property transactions (with at least 70 percent correct answers) and one covering state law pertaining to fair housing practices;

submitting fingerprints for criminal history checks by FBI/DOJ using National Crime Information Center data base (NICS).

Property repairs and maintenance

Many property owners don't have the time, or the skills to fix problems on their own-especially when it comes to repairs. You can't always be there to make sure things are done right, so let us do it for you.

A thorough inspection is crucial if you want any kind of peace of mind that everything is working properly with your home or business property. 

They'll find out how much damage has been done by previous tenants and make sure nothing happens again in the future because they're more vigilant than ever before thanks to all those extra hours spent combing through every nook and cranny until they're satisfied with what they see (or better yet—don't see). 

Not only do they check everything out but also report back on whether or not any potential problems exist now so that no surprises come later down this road.

We understand that it can be overwhelming to find the right Pukekohe real estate companies for your needs.

Source : https://ffnnz.postach.io/post/real-estate-company-get-the-service-you-deserve

[gamingavickreyauction]

Balance of payments surplus doesn't mean that Chinese people aren't benefiting from comparative advantage. That surplus isn't things that they're just giving away and getting nothing in return, it means China is gaining assets overseas, which they will be able to gain interest from on a permanent basis. It's still comparative advantage, it's just they're trading present goods for future goods. They still get to consume more by making the things they're good at and trading them for the things they're bad at than making the things they're bad at- that doesn't stop being true just because they're consuming it in the future instead of the present.

I agree that comparative advantage from subsidies or hostile labour laws isn't good, but comparative advantage from poverty rates is genuinely beneficial. It's... icky, certainly- it doesn't feel good to know your shoes were made by someone paid £1 an hour because they were desperate enough to agree to those conditions- because it's clearly not fair that they capture so little of the value creation just because they're already poor. But the fact that this is what desperation pushed them to means their other options were even worse.

We have a paradox here, it seems: what Evil MNC is doing is clearly exploitative- paying someone far less than the value of what they produce, and far less than what they deserve. Yet the workers are genuinely better off than if they were earning even less doing something else. I mean sometimes Coca Cola has ruined the water table and actually made people's other options worse, but I'm not talking about those cases.

I think there is a general malady of people misidentifying exploitation as the problem instead of poverty- perhaps originating with Marx. People think exploitation is bad, but really it's completely morally neutral, and that's why this seems like a paradox.

Exploitation like this happens when there's a huge gap in wealth/power, so that free trade ends up allocating almost all the surplus to the people who already have the money. This is extremely unfair. But it doesn't make the poor worse off, it just doesn't make them much better off, and it isn't any more unfair than before. So the problem isn't the trade- the economists weren't lying this time, that trade really was a Pareto improvement- it's the initial allocation of resources which was abominable, and led the final allocation of resources to be abominable also.

People tend not to see much problem with living in riches while others live in poverty, right up until those worlds come face to face with each other. But when they come face to face, you get these obviously unconscionable arrangements: a poor worker is paid 50p/hour. A woman is forced into prostitution to pay rent, etc. But a woman forced into prostitution to pay rent isn't actually more horrific than that woman being made homeless. It's just that it makes more visible, visceral, how badly society has treated her. Exploitation isn't the cause, it's the symptom. And people want to get rid of the grotesque symptom, but once it's out of sight out of mind they aren't so bothered about the disease.

You earning £100 for working on a product that someone in Kenya earned £5 working just as long on seems horrific. But if you earn £20/hr and unrelatedly someone in Kenya earns £1/hr, people don't seem to be bothered. So they want to just remove the international trade that makes the brutality of this divide obvious- which makes the trade-off between your earnings and their earnings unavoidable. And you want to avoid it because you don't want to feel bad. But removing those trade links does nothing for those Kenyans. Their conditions are just as bad as before- probably a little worse- only now you don't feel like you're responsible.

It's the same impulse behind wanting to ban sex work: it's horrific that someone would have to repeatedly have sex with someone they don't want to have sex with in order to pay rent, it's exploitative, so it feels like you should ban it. Bad thing: ban the bad thing. But that just makes those sex workers suffer in less headline-grabbing ways, which are probably even worse. You feel good because you've ended a horrible form of exploitation (or at least reduced it) but have you actually helped anyone?

The thing that makes this extremely uncomfortable is that it lifts the curtain between 'not helping someone' and 'hurting someone'. If you make lots of money out of trade with someone making a pittance, that seems like harming them- you've used your position of power to make sure you get almost all the surplus. But if you unrelatedly earn a lot more, that seems like simply not helping them, which of course you are not obliged to do. But if the only difference between these scenarios is whether you chose to engage in trade with them, and they're suffering the same either way, then you've essentially chosen to be not morally responsible for their suffering (at the cost of making them marginally worse off), even though nothing else has practically changed. Which is absurd. So I think this divide is absurd, and is just popular because it is comforting, when suffering is all around us, and we can't help most people, to have a watertight reason why it's not your responsibility. And this isn't just a neutral superstition, because it's actually hurting the people it's trying to help.

So does this mean MNCs are good actually? no. Because in some cases MNCs might actually be making other people's options worse, by weakening labour laws, and forcing a race to the bottom. But the idea that they're bad because they don't pay people enough is misidentifying the problem as corporations refusing to alleviate inequality rather than the fact that such extreme inequality exists in the first place that needs to be alleviated. Any real solution has to improve the options available to the impoverished, by increasing their access to resources, not further restrict their options. And it has to be about what will actually help the people that need help, not what the wealthy do or don't feel guilty about.

The problem is with the initial allocation, so the solution is changing the initial allocation. Protectionism just absolves responsibility to do that.

China's manufacturing development does not harm other countries; it is US protectionism that is doing so. Free trade, built on the foundation of specialized divisions of labor, allows countries to fully leverage their comparative advantages, maximizing the welfare of all trading partners. Protectionism, on the other hand, often leads to high inflation, reduced production efficiency, and increased costs of production and living. Companies shielded by trade barriers lose the incentive for technological innovation and cost optimization. Without better products and services, market demand cannot be stimulated, which in turn further drags down businesses.

Global Times is correct that free trade allows countries to benefit from comparative advantage, but only if countries import as much as they export, which China does not!

and the idea that "market demand cannot be stimulated without better products and services" is the same supply side obsession, the mistaken belief that consumers don't spend because products and services are insufficiently tempting, when consumers don't spend because they don't have any fucking money, thanks to all that "cost optimization".

[sellmyhousefastamarillo1]

Why Are You Thinking to Sell Your House fast in Amarillo?

I’m sure you have your reasons for wanting to Sell My House Fast Amarillo. Whether it’s to move closer to family, or just to upgrade to something bigger and better, the decision is yours. But before we get into the details of how to quickly sell your home, let’s explore why you are considering selling in the first place.

Maybe you’re looking for a change of scenery. Maybe you’re fed up with the neighborhood or want a different lifestyle. Or maybe you just need more space for a growing family. Whatever it is, understanding why you want to sell will help us come up with an effective plan for getting it done quickly.

Maybe money is part of the equation as well. Selling can provide some much-needed cash flow and can help free up funds for other things like investments or college tuition payments. Understanding your motivations will help us craft an effective strategy that meets all your needs and expectations while still ensuring a speedy sale.

Amarillo’s Current Housing Market

Amarillo, Texas is a bustling city with a diverse landscape of housing options. From sprawling ranch properties to luxury apartments in the downtown area, the current housing market in Amarillo has something for everyone. Whether you’re looking to buy or rent, it pays to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in Amarillo’s real estate. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at what’s happening in Amarillo’s current housing market.

The last decade has seen significant changes in Amarillo’s real estate scene. With new construction projects popping up all over town and prices continuing to climb, it can be difficult to know where you should put your money. Fortunately, there are a number of resources available to give you an edge when it comes to buying or renting property in Amarillo.

From economic forecasts to tips from local experts, this article will provide you with the information you need to make smart decisions when it comes to Amarillo’s current housing market. Whether you’re hoping to buy your dream home or just trying to stay informed about Amarillo’s ever-evolving real estate scene, this guide has everything you need. 

Choosing The Right Sales Method For Your Home

Choosing the right sales method when selling a home or unwanted property in Amarillo’s current housing market can be a daunting task. With so many options available, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each option before making a decision.

The most popular choice is to hire a real estate agent. An experienced agent can help you through the entire process, from pricing your home accurately to negotiating offers and closing the deal. Additionally, they will be familiar with local laws and regulations that could impact your sale.

If you’d prefer to go it alone, there are several online platforms that provide helpful resources for selling your home yourself. You can list your property on local real estate sites or create your own marketing materials and strategies. The downside here is that you may need to spend more time managing potential buyers and may not have access to all the same services an experienced real estate agent provides. Ultimately, if you choose this route, it is important to do plenty of research beforehand in order to properly prepare for what lies ahead to get a fair offer. 

Selling Through A Realtor

Selling your Amarillo property through a realtor is an attractive option and the traditional way for many people in Amarillo’s current housing market. Realtors have the experience and expertise to help sellers navigate the complexities of selling a home, from listing it properly to guiding them through closing day. Working with a realtor can be extremely beneficial when it comes to understanding local market trends, pricing strategies, and what potential buyers are looking for.

Real estate agents often provide services such as marketing and advertising that can help attract buyers. They use their knowledge of the current market conditions to advise on pricing and present options to ensure the home is sold for maximum value. Realtors stay up-to-date on local regulations and laws related to buying or selling a home, so they’re able to assist with any necessary paperwork or negotiations that may arise during the process.

It’s important to take time when considering whether or not hiring a realtor is right for you. Make sure you research their qualifications and experience before making any decisions, as well as explore any fees associated with their services. Doing your homework ahead of time will allow you to make an informed choice and get the most out of your investment. 

For Sale By Owner

Transitioning from the previous section, it is important to consider the option of selling a home on one’s own. Also known as ‘For Sale by Owner’ (FSBO), this approach can be attractive due to its potential cost savings. However, it may not be the best option for everyone.

When selling FSBO, you are responsible for all aspects of the sale process yourself, such as marketing and negotiating with buyers. This requires a lot of time and effort to ensure everything goes smoothly. Additionally, you must price your home competitively in order to attract buyers, as well as know relevant real estate laws and any paperwork needed for closing. Without proper knowledge of these topics, selling FSBO can be more challenging than working with a realtor.

It is also important to consider current housing market trends when deciding whether or not to go FSBO. In Amarillo, Texas for example, there are currently more sellers than buyers in the local market. As a result, it may be difficult to get your asking price without professional help from a realtor who understands pricing strategies, what would be a competitive offer, and how to negotiate with buyers. 

Selling To An Investor

The Amarillo housing market has seen a steady influx of investors looking to purchase properties at reasonable prices. This is due in large part to the growing demand for rental properties. Investing in rental properties can be a great way to generate income and build wealth over time.

When it comes to selling your home to an investor, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First, make sure you know what kind of investment you are making and how much return you expect from it. This will help guide your decision on whether or not the sale makes sense for you. You should also consider any risks associated with the property, such as tenant turnover or repairs that may need to be made.

It’s also important to understand all the legalities involved when selling a property to an investor. Make sure you are aware of any applicable zoning laws and regulations, as well as any restrictions imposed by your mortgage lender or local government. Being informed about these topics will ensure that you have a smooth transaction and get the best possible deal out of the sale. 

Finding Honest Investors

Now that you are aware of how to sell your home to an investor, it’s important to know how to find honest investors. Finding trustworthy investors can be tricky, but there are ways to ensure that the investor you choose is reliable.

First and foremost, research any potential investors before agreeing to a sale. Look into their background and learn more about their experience in the real estate industry. Check out reviews online or ask for referrals from people who have had positive experiences with them. Additionally, look into the company’s track record when it comes to closing deals on time and in full.

It is also wise to ask for a written agreement between both parties outlining all terms and conditions of the sale. This way, if something goes wrong during the process, both sides will have a legal document they can refer back to. Additionally, make sure that all documents are signed by official witnesses and notarized so that everything is clear and binding.

Finally, never rush into any agreement without taking the time to understand each detail fully. It’s important to read every word of any contract before signing anything or handing over money as this will protect you from possible scams or issues down the line. Taking these precautions will help ensure that your housing market transaction goes smoothly and securely. 

Find investors through the cash home buyer program

FORECLOSURE

Arizona allows both judicial and nonjudicial foreclosures. Because most mortgage contracts contain stipulations about what will happen in the event that you’re delinquent, the majority of lenders won’t need to take you to court in order to foreclose. Your lender can foreclose in as little as 90 days after they’ve sent you the notice.

BURNED OUT LANDLORD

You can sell your property, but you can’t sell your tenants. You’ll need to get them out before you can sell the property. Great tenants will be understanding. Let them know as soon as possible that you won’t be renewing the lease simply because you’re no longer interested in being a landlord.

PROBATE

Probate in Arizona | HBUSA PROBATE Arizona has some unique shortcuts in their probate laws that allow simplified probate for certain properties. Disregarding the entire value of the estate, you can file an affidavit with the court to claim any property valued at less than $100,000. If the home you’re inheriting is in a state of disrepair, you may be able to skip formal probate.

NEED REPAIRS / UPGRADES

How you handle a property that needs repairs depends on how much money you have to invest. Never run yourself into debt attempting to a repair a home, particularly because a lot of repairs and renovations don’t offer substantial return on investment. Some projects (such as kitchen remodels), might not offer any return on investment at all.

You’re One Step Away From Selling That House & Moving On With Life

Selling your house in Amarillo’s current housing market doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right guidance and preparation, it can be done quickly and easily. First and foremost, you must properly prepare your house for sale. This means making sure that all repairs are taken care of, the interior is well-maintained, and the exterior presents an inviting appearance. Additionally, you’ll want to price your house competitively so that it stands out in a crowded marketplace.

The next step is to find a qualified real estate agent who can help you through the process. An experienced professional will be able to guide you through every aspect of selling your home, from preparing it for sale to negotiating with potential buyers. They will also be able to provide invaluable advice on pricing strategies and other important matters related to selling your property.

Once the paperwork is complete and the buyer has been found, it’s time to close on the sale of your home. Working with an experienced real estate attorney can help ensure that all legal issues are handled correctly and efficiently. From there, all that’s left is for you to move on with life – knowing that you have sold your house successfully in Amarillo’s current housing market!

[blzzrdstryr]

Like a fairy tale

Yandere!Diluc x maid!fem!reader

Wordcount: 1921

CW: Yandere and slightly suggestive themes.

You loved reading fairy tales as a child - they were magical and hopeful, a needed retreat for a child of destitute parents. They were a promise that if you were good and kind and beautiful enough, eventually some faraway prince would come by and save you from poverty. And you tried to be good - you were obedient and hardworking and you pushed your hardest in the local school, yet hardship and scarcity still trailed your every step - the meager earnings your parents made weren't enough to buy you nice clothes or let you eat until you were sated, which in turn made social interactions harder: some kids sneered and humiliated you, some tried to help you out of pity. You disliked both groups: whether they were friendly or aggressive towards you, they still looked down on you.

Thus you decided to distance yourself from your peers - there was no knight in shining armour galloping towards you on a snow white steed, yet a good education could be your golden ticket to a better rich life. It was hard at first - to work and to study and to help your parents all while ignoring the demeaning and insulting comments the bullies made, but you gritted your teeth and pushed forward, imagining how wealthy you’ll become in the future and in the end our efforts were rewarded - you graduated as the best student, that led you to receiving a scholarship from Sumeru academy. Sparks and shine appeared in your eyes as you read the letter, barely stopping yourself from outright squealing and jumping from joy.

The moment of happiness didn’t last long though, as a reality again reminded you that there’s no place for fairy tales in the real world - scholarship covered the full cost of apprenticeship, but only it - you still had to spend money on the journey from Mondstadt to Sumeru, a place to rent and food, and if you still could find a job after your arrival in the foreign country and pay off the later two, trip required mora that you never had. At first you had a mad idea to traverse Teyvat on your own two feet - it would be a slow and arduous process, but cheap nonetheless. You later gave up on this plan - archons didn’t give you any vision, nor did you have fighting and travelling experience to aid you on the trail that no doubt would be full of slimes, hilichurls and other dangerous monsters.

And that’s how you started job hunting - you took on any work that promised you a hefty pay, be it some boring reports for guild of adventurers or an exciting yet risky endeavor of getting information for an extravagant cavalry captain, which then led you to Dawn Winery. Head housemaid, Adelinde, posted a job opening for a maid, and the prospect of a stable salary, free food and comfortable bed was enough to lure you in there - two or three years ago the previous owner of the winery died in the accident and his successor left Mond for some reason, leaving the maintenance and management of the winery on the shoulders of the said housemaid.

After a quick interview, the head maid demanded you to show her your cleaning skills, which you effortlessly did, having to look after the house by yourself all your childhood. It seems she was satisfied, as she nodded to you and asked to follow her as she led you to your room. Compared to the other two maids here, Hillie and Moco, who preferred to spend their work time in idle chat, you came off as highly professional and diligent worker. This contrast raised both your position and salary in the winery, as Adelinde started to entrust you with tasks more interesting than simple sweeping and cleaning.

You were outside the winery the day you met Diluc - returning from the city and carrying several stacks of milk and wheat you got chased by the hilichurls. Monsters didn’t leave you, no matter how long and how far you ran. You were ready to drop all the goods and have Adelinde to scold you for wastefulness and dereliction when Ragnvindr appeared and stole a breath from you. He looked just like the prince from your childhood tales, impossibly pretty and strong, arriving just when the creatures caught up with you and then defeating all of them with a single slash of great claymore. And just like a fairytale prince he helped you to get up and collect the scattered baggage and asked if you were okay. Then you two headed for the winery, you didn't know that he was it's owner at the time, chatting and thanking him, as he carried purchases. Adelinde almost fainted when she saw the return of the prodigal master in your company. After hastily taking goods from his hands, she made you apologize for rudeness and insubordination, but Diluc interrupted you saying it was fine.

Ragnvindr heir returned back to the winery and life went on its own, except the unreadable glares Diluc started to send you when you both were in the same room. It started off small: the quick glances that soon grew into intense staring. With his impassive stone face it was impossible to tell why he was glaring at you so much, so you acted as polite and professional as you could in his vicinity - after all you didn’t want to get fired and look for a new job. The key to this riddle presented itself during one day.

It was a bleak windy morning when Adelinde sent you to the city again, and as you walked the sky darkened and rain started. You returned absolutely soaked and shivering, teeth chattering and limbs slightly numb from cold and when Diluc saw you he ordered you to change in a low commanding voice. Frightened by the possible dismissal, you hurried putting on the uniform. Because of the haste you pulled it too tightly, hiking up a maid dress a little. It wasn’t up enough to reveal your hips or thighs, showing just a portion of knees that was usually hidden by the wide skirt.

Diluc’s eyes were glued on the uncovered joints, a subtle blush appearing on his pale cheeks. You continued to work, feeling how he consumed your legs with his eyes alone. He is lusting after me. You didn't know what to do with that revelation back then, embarrassed and slightly scared of attracting master Diluc's attention.

Nonetheless, an answer quickly came on the next day as you found a bonus to your salary, so big that it could be considered a payment for the next month. Diluc, despite his usually impassive face, seemed to be ashamed of the thoughts he had yesterday, with the body language telling you of his true feelings.

A plan came to mind. You hated yourself for it at first - it was low and disgraceful, you felt like a stereotypical manipulative gold digger, yet still decided to realize it in life - you needed mora, as fast and as much as possible. Over the time you spent working at the Dawn winery you noticed that Diluc, despite his obviously high intelligence, wasn't really good at judging one’s character, so he fell for your scheme pretty easily. Design you had in mind was pretty simple - to stir him up with small, innocuous gestures and changes that would slip past the outsider’s eyes.

Sometimes you applied a thin layer of healing lip balm on your lips, that so conveniently happened shine and glitter under the light, sometimes you donned your dress a little bit higher, opening the view of two delicate knees and sometimes after cleaning and working all day you felt so hot that you had to unfasten one or two buttons to cool off. Diluc, despite not showing it on his face, was obviously distracted and aroused, hands clenched into fists and a shaky, barely controlled exhale escaping his nose.

He started to pile you with bonuses and prizes; “for a well done job”, he said one time, averting his gaze and masking the shame in his voice under a huff. He also started to request you to specifically clean the rooms he occupied, his eyes sizing up almost every inch of your body. You felt how the lust and desire radiated off him, how his hands itched to trace your skin and have you at his mercy, yet he stopped every time with his steel strong control and self-discipline. You sensed how it dwindled little by little.

Diluc, in some perverted sense, was that fair prince of your childhood daydreams that would save you from poverty.

You almost had saved up the needed amount of money when you noticed the loss of your most cherished possession - an invitation to the Sumeru academy and scholarship certificate. With heart booming in your chest you started to look for it in the whole winery, without giving out that you were searching for something. It seems that you were unsuccessful in your attempts, as master of the winery soon called you into the office.

Here, he was sitting behind the desk with a familiar paper in his hand - your eyes widened as you saw it and you had an urge to run up to him and snatch the invitation from him. You performed a curtsy instead, closing the door behind you and waiting for him to speak, eyes still on the sheet in Diluc’s hold.

“[First], you are a diligent and skillful employee, Adelinde has a very high opinion of you” he started from afar, a slight rosy blush dusting his cheeks at "skillful employee".

"So as your employer I wouldn't want any harm to befall on your person, and" he shaked the invitation a couple of times, "it came to my attention that you were planning on travelling to Sumeru. I advise you against this nonsensical idea".

You gritted teeth, careful not to insult him with the couple of barbed words at the tip of your tongue. Nonsensical idea? This was your goal, a main reason why you worked so much and allowed yourself so little.

“I am sorry, master Diluc, I am afraid I can’t abandon this idea”, you say, response flat and controlled, a thunderstorm of emotions hidden beneath the faux calm, “It is my goal, and the main reason why I work here”. So I can have a bright and secure future, in which I won’t have to worry about the tomorrow ever again.

“I also learned that you were born into a low income family and you had to struggle in your life because of that ” a sudden mention of your less than glorious origin makes your face burn from the shame you thought you buried a long time ago. You are stunned, so he continues: “I believe this little endeavor of yours is also motivated by your desire for a stable future. Drop it, I travelled all across the Teyvat and there are horrors that can easily destroy you both in body and spirit”.

He stands up from the desk, and gets closer to you: “I can look after and provide for you, just stay there and you won’t have to worry about the future again ”. His hold on the paper gets tighter, pyro vision shining with a dangerous glint. A faint smell of smoke spreads through the room - a warning if you remain stubborn and unyielding.

Who could have known that the fair prince was a greedy dragon all along?

[dreamescapeswriting]

Old Friends ~ JJK [Request]

WORD COUNT: 2k

PAIRING: Jungkook x Reader

GENRE: old friends to lovers, angst (not involving Jungkook) fluffy ending

WARNING: Mentions of knives, life endangerment, blood

All anyone ever wanted from you was your money, all they ever wanted to do was use you for what you had. It was exhausting constantly having to watch your back for someone who might double-cross you. 

"We'll see you Monday," Your lawyer announced as you began to walk out of your home office with him. They were there to help you with a problem, one of your so-called friends had been stealing money from you and the businesses that you ran. There was a reason never to hire friends to work for you. 

"You look tired, you should get some sleep." Your live-in maid said as she saw you walking towards the staircase of your home. Glancing over at her you smiled weakly, 

"I will. I just need something to eat first." You mumbled before walking down the spiral staircase to see your lawyer out and finally have something to it. You felt as though you hadn't eaten all day. You'd been in and out of business meetings at the office and when you finally got home you were doing the same thing all over again.

Strolling down the corridor toward the kitchen you froze when you saw one of the guest bedroom doors were open. It wouldn't have been Roseanne as she shut and locked every door that she entered.

Slowly pushing it open you frowned seeing the state of the room, clothes were strewn about all over the floor. It looked as if someone had been living in the room without you knowing about it.

As you were about to turn around to find Roseanne someone came out of the bathroom door and you screamed. 

"Shit! Miss Y/L/n," Jungkook, one of the men that worked inside of your house began to blush and apologise over and over again. Jungkook had been working for you for almost 12 years, he'd started working in your family when you were 18 and continued to work with you when the rest of your family had passed. 

"Jungkook. What are you doing?" You questioned as you covered your eyes and began to head for the exit. Though he was covered by a towel you weren't going to stare at him the entire time. 

"I'm sorry Y/n, I didn't have anywhere to go, I thought it would-"

"Just...Just get changed and talk to me outside," You giggled a little at the thought of him stammering over his words around you. The two of you had practically known each other your whole lives. Even when he didn't work for your family his mother and father did. 

"Here," You pushed some food in front of Jungkook with a mug of hot chocolate and sat down at the table. The two of you hadn't sat down to talk like this in almost five years, it felt weird to you doing it now.

"I needed a place to stay," He told you as he looked at the food, debating whether or not to eat it. 

"You could have told me. I would have given you a better room than the smaller guest bedroom." Jungkook knew that you were kind to him but he never wanted to impose himself upon you, 

"Y/n, I never wanted you to think-"

"That you were using me?" You questioned as you looked up at him. Taking a chip from his plate and giving it to yourself. 

"You know I would never accuse you of something like that Kookie," A blush began to creep up on Jungkook's cheeks as he heard the nickname you used to use for him. It had been too long since he had the name fall from your lips. 

"You haven't called me that in years," He laughed softly as he looked up at you. The first time he'd really looked at you and taken in your appearance for a while.

You'd changed so much from the last time he'd sat down with you like this. You were matured, beautiful but you still had that goofy smile that he loved so much.

"I haven't seen you in years...You're always too busy." You laughed as you sipped on your drink. The two of you had barely seen one another since both of your families passed away.

"I'm too busy? I think the woman who runs multiple businesses and manages an empire is busier than me." He scoffed shaking his head at you,

"I do not manage an empire and they're not my businesses, they were my fathers." You reminded him as you began to play with the cup in front of you. The subject of your father was always a tricky one between the two of you. He'd always hated Jungkook because he knew of your strong feelings toward him and forbade you from ever pursuing them.

"I'm sorry about that...Again," Jungkook whispered as he remembered when your dad had passed away. The man had left everything to you in his will which you hated him for. 

Everything he knew that you didn't want he gave to you. This was never the life you wanted. Always having to watch your back in case someone was going to stab you in it. You'd seen how crazy it had driven your father and it was as if this was all some kind of sick joke to him to make you deal with it.

"It's not your fault he died." You mumbled as you looked up at him. He'd gotten so skinny it was a wonder why you had never noticed it before. You'd wondered why he never tried to come to you for help in the first place.

"You're going to stay in the guest room upstairs," You ordered him as you began to eat casually. Jungkook knew never to disobey you, you always won arguments with him anyway.

"Fine, but you have to take money for rent out of my payments." You shook your head at him. 

"No, because then how are you going to find your own place?" He glared at you playfully throwing a chip at your forehead as you screamed out.

"Hey!" You laughed picking up a chip from your own plate and throwing it back at him, 

"No fair." He chuckled doing it again.

The two of you sat throwing food back and forth at one another until Roseanne came into the kitchen. Laughing to herself when she saw the two of you together for the first time in a long time. 

"Having fun?" She laughed when she saw you both giggling with one another. 

"Too much fun, I'm sorry about the mess. Let me help," You told her as you began to go over to the mess you had left around the kitchen. 

"No, no, both of you should go and wash up and go to sleep. It's late." Smiling at her you and Jungkook began to head up the stairs toward the guest bedrooms and your own. 

The longer Jungkook stayed with you the more you began to feel young again. Everything felt as though you had gone back in time to when you were 18 and having fun. With Jungkook around, you didn't have to worry about him using you for money or only being there because you paid him to. The two of you genuinely enjoyed being around one another.

"Hey I made us popcorn withmelted chocolate," You called out from the kitchen to who you thought was Jungkook coming into the house. 

"Kookie?" You laughed moving out from the kitchen to greet him when you saw your ex-boyfriend. The bowl dropped from your hand smashing against the hardwood floor.

"It's a pleasure to see you too," He smirked as he walked over to you, taking your body into his and hugged you tightly. You froze in place. Terrified to even move an inch as you felt his arms around you. 

"Who's Kookie?" You moved away from him the second his arms released you. You scolded yourself for not keeping the panic button in your kitchen.

"Y/n! I got us a bunch of Ryan Reynold movies and I-" Jungkook stopped speaking when he saw your Ex standing there. Neither of you knew he'd gotten out of prison.

Your ex was known amongst everyone in Seoul as the Immortal Dragon and had been caught and arrested almost two years ago. Everyone feared him because he was a mafia leader. Killed people for fun and the fact that he was there made you fear everything. 

"I heard the funniest rumour while I was in prison," He laughed as he began to walk towards you, picking up a knife from the knife block.

"That the woman I loved and devoted myself to helped keep me in prison." You began to back up toward Jungkook, hoping that the two of you could make it out of the house before your ex did something irrational. 

"That's crazy, right? She wouldn't do that to me." The knife he was holding was stabbed into the counter and you flinched. Stepping onto some broken glass and hissing as you felt it pierce your foot. 

"Whatever you want, just leave," Jungkook warned as he put you behind him to stop any immediate danger from happening to you.

"You're just the help, you might as well leave. This is between the adults." Jungkook stayed in place as he looked at you and to your ex. 

"It's every bit of my business if you're hurting the one I love." He stood his ground even when your ex picked the knife up once again.

"You should leave if you want to continue living."

"You should leave if you're going to continue threatening Jungkook." You snapped as you stepped in front of Jungkook to face your ex. There was no reason you should fear him, he'd proven many times before that he would never hurt a woman. 

"I just wanted to know why you turned me in," You scoffed, 

"Because you killed people, what other reason is there. You're a sick, twisted mother fucker and I'm glad you got caught." The knife was raised above your head but you didn't move. You stared straight back at him.

"Get out before I call the police." You ordered as he stared back at you, throwing the knife against one of the cupboards and sticking it in place.

"Are you stupid?! What if he'd stabbed you?!" Jungkook panicked as soon as the door to your house shut and he was gone. Jungkook took you into his arms, pressing your head against his chest. 

"He'd never hurt a woman," You mumbled as he began kissing the top of your head. Your hurt fluttering from each and every small kiss he gave to you.

"You don't know that, you could have been hurt," He whispered as you both sat on the sofa together. 

"I'm fine Kookie," You pulled away from his chest and looked at him as he blushed. The thought of something happening to you killing him inside. 

"I don't know what I would have done if he hurt you," He mumbled and you smiled reaching up to touch his cheek. 

"I don't know what I would have done." You counted, kissing his lips softly. Jungkook's eyes widened before he relaxed, bringing you closer to him as he kissed you back.

"I guess that means you still have feelings," He mumbled against your lips as you pulled away for air, 

"It does." You breathed out, pushing your hands into his hair and pulling him to lay down on the sofa with you. 

Tagline: @lyoongx @mitzwinchester @rjsmochii @taestannie @sw33tnight @sweeneyblue1 @jin-from-the-block​ @acciocriativity​ @taeechwitaa​ @mwitsmejk​ @justbangtanthingz​ @stillwithlix​

[samwritesforyou]

lantern rite with zhongli

zhongli x reader

summary: you stay in liyue and zhongli wants you to go to the lantern rite with him

warnings: gender-neutral reader

wordcount: 2.2k

A/N: its just zhongli brain rot, can we jsut live our mundane life w him forever??

you were wandering the lands of liyue for a significant amount of time already.

you would’ve usually just camped in the open like you used to do on your adventures in mondstadt - before the knights learned about this and generously offered you an apartment with no rent required - but ever since you mentioned this idea to a powerful god of geo zhongli, he wouldn’t hear of it.

“you are staying over at the wangsheng funeral parlour, y/n,” he said in a serious, low tone that made your stomach twist in ways that you didn’t yet understand.

“what do you mean? i can’t just stay there,” you said in return, brows furrowed.

“there are a few rooms behind the official wing that we use for business and actually me and hu tao live there, we do not have a conventional “home” anywhere,” he rationally explained and continued looking steadily into your eyes.

you never had a problem managing eye contact, but with his piercing amber orbs it was quite difficult.

“zhongli, i-“ you started, looking behind him at the open entrance to the balcony.

it was getting dark already, and even though you were used to camp life, you did notice that wild liyue was rather dangerous to rest at.

“only if you really don’t mind,” you stated with a sigh of defeat, closing your eyes and putting hands on your hips, “but i’ll pay.”

“dear y/n, i simply won’t allow it,” he said and you felt his gloved fingers on your chin and opened your eyes immediately, meeting with his.

a mysterious smile played on his lips, “you can just invite me to a meal, this form of payment will be sufficient,” when he saw a blush creeping up your face, he let go of you, standing straight again and clearing his throat, becoming flustered himself and looking away.

“alright,” was all that you could muster to answer in a higher tone than usual.

.

.

.

and there began an era of you living with hu tao and zhongli for the course of weeks that stretched into months as you tried to scout out the eternity of liuye’s landscape, hopelessly looking for your lost sibling.

most days you’d come back to your new home exhausted and just plop on the couch in front of the kitchen isle, already seeing some food left on the counter for your arrival.

you were never sure if it was hu tao’s making or zhongli’s, but that question was answered tonight, as you saw geo archon finishing up tonight’s dish - slow-cooked bamboo shoot soup - not even paying attention to your shuffling in the room.

you felt grateful yet a bit guilty that you made zhongli do something for you every day this late.. sometimes you wouldn’t return until the morning and even then you found a warm plate of breakfast on the counter.

you didn’t have much free time to get to know zhongli better, but even so you two have become an acquaintances of sorts. someone could even say.. friends.

a few times during your stay you were persuaded to take a break and took a few evening walks alongside rex lapis, your conversation making you feel at ease and understood.

if only you’d have more time to just.. do nothing, then you’d even..

you were staring at his broad back for quite a while already as he was cooking, no official costume present, just a simple comfortable shirt that gave you more of a feeling how home-y you have become with him.

it felt natural to come home and see him, either reading a book or just sliding the door to his room open to say a gentle “goodnight” or ask a few questions about your day.

you really liked him. you clicked as personalities, he was interesting, handsome-

“are you here?” you suddenly felt a gentle single tap on the top of your head, as zhongli’s voice brought you back to reality from your thoughts.

from the thoughts that you shouldn’t be having, because there’s no way that something would ever happen between the two of you.

so you shook your head and then smiled at him wearily.

“yeah. sorry, a long day,” you said silently and looked at two plates that were now sitting at the table.

“i wanted to dine with you tonight, is that alright?” he asked and looked up at you with his amber eyes.

���of course!” you nodded and then looked down at the table, “and thank you.. for always making food for me.”

“oh, it’s nothing. hu tao said that since you’re our guest i don’t have to worry about using more ingredients for food than we do usually,” he then began to eat.

as you dug in into your dish as well a comfortable silence has settled in the room.

it was always like this with him.

comfortable, safe.

you wondered how he’s gonna react when you tell him you’ll probably have to leave soon.

maybe it’s a good time to bring it up, even though it’ll ruin the moment of peace.

you mulled over the idea for a few minutes and couldn’t find any way of saying it the way you wanted it to sound, so you just started;

“uhm.. i think i’ll go back to mondstadt.”

ever so composed zhongli literally choked on his food and coughed a few times, steadying his posture once more, brows furrowing, not meeting your eyes.

“why so sudden?” he just asked simply.

“well… i don’t think i have any luck here.. and i’d love to move to the next region, but i wanted to talk it over with other knights beforehand, just to be safe,” you answered and sighed.

it’s not like you wanted to leave.

“that is a good choice indeed,” he stated, but you sensed that he wasn’t pleased by your “choice” at all, “but why won’t you stay just a few days longer?”

he finally finished up his food, gently patted his lips with a cloth and put it aside, now meeting your gaze.

“there is a lantern rite festival in the end of the week and..” seems like zhongli was trying to pick the right words, which was unusual of him, “i was hoping you’d accompany me.”

“oh,” you have heard about the event scarcely, but didn’t pay it any mind, knowing that you’d probably have no time to enjoy it anyways.

“your sibling is out there somewhere, i believe in it,” zhongli didn’t even let you speak, which was twice as unusual of him, as if he was already trying to persuade you even before hearing your verdict upon the matter, “and i wanted to offer you my help. i finally have no rites of parting to arrange and am quite free of any work that was holding me back before,” and as an afterthought he continued, “and i think you really deserve some rest, y/n. i’ve seen how hard you’ve been trying to find your sibling, help the adventurers guild.. it’s only natural and fair for you to take some rest and replenish your energy.”

you were frozen in place with a spoon half-risen to your mouth already, unable to tear your eyes from him as he finished his monologue.

you were used to him talking about the past events or fond memories for a long time, but it was never addressed directly at you.

so you just looked down and started intensely finishing up your soup, trying not to think about the way you’re probably blushing right now.

and once you did and looked back at zhongli, he was sitting composed in front of you, light smile resting on his lips.

“i’ll stay then,” you nodded and smiled at him back, his expression growing softer at your words.

“thank you,” he mirrored your nod and then took the dishes - even after your protests - and started cleaning them up himself.

.

.

.

you were so glad you decided to stay. last few days were filled with you just walking around the city and outskirts alongside zhongli as you were finally able to relax a bit and push a pressing matter of finding your sibling for a few days later.

the lantern rite day grew near and it was already happening in the evening. for some reason hu tao insisted of pampering you up and didn’t let zhongli see you until the event started.

“why are you like this?” you ask tiredly hu tao as she was helping you to put on a classic chinese dress that was worn both by men and women (and everyone in between) in this festive time.

“you think i don’t see how you’re staring at each other?” she giggled as she started rummaging through her hair pins that would look good on you.

“each other?!” you yelped in confusion, only to be met with a flustered reflection of yourself in a mirror in front of you, so you dropped your shoulders and sighed, lowering your gaze, “if anything, it’s only me who’s staring, hu tao..”

“ha!” the laugh was more similar to a bark as she reacted to your words and soon enough appeared next to you, putting a pin to your bangs, adding your hair a little decorative twist, “that’s what you think.”

you didn’t have any time to protest to that, because you heard a knock on the door and hu tao yelled “don’t you dare come in, old man!” right back.

“i just wanted to inform you two that the festival has already begun,” said a calm muffled voice outside and you found yourself smiling at that.

“okay, we’re almost done!” said hu tao and finally helped you stand up, letting you look at yourself in the mirror.

you really looked exceptional tonight and couldn’t hold your positive emotions bubbling inside of you.

“thank you,” you said to hu tao and hugged her tightly.

she just giggled and murmured something along the lines of “don’t mention it” and went with you out of the room, straight onto the balcony in front of the wangsheng funeral parlour.

your eyes found zhongli immediately as he turned and looked at you.

he gave a polite nod to his friend and then his amber orbs drifted to you and his expression broke into something way softer than you’ve ever witnessed before.

only after a while you realised that your festival dresses were matching. yours was just in lighter, yellow tones, whereas his was in dark brown ones. it complemented each other perfectly.

.

.

.

you didn’t really notice how it happened, but you two ended up alone, just walking on the outskirts of liyue harbour, after participating in many festival activities.

you were standing on the hidden viewpoint where you could see the whole city, beautifully lit up, yet where you were standing there were scarcely any lamps, so the atmosphere was dim and comfortable.

zhongli was the first one to break the pleasant silence between the two of you.

“i dont want to be straightforward,” he started as he stood next to you, his hand on the railing of the balcony, “but i’m afraid i just have to share my feelings with you, y/n.”

you looked up at him, question in your eyes.

could it be?..

“i don’t usually take interest in humans, but.. it’s safe to say you drew me in and left me enchanted,” words were rolling off his tongue effortlessly, “by your driven heart, pure intentions and determination,” he paused a little and then chuckled to himself, “kind of remind me of myself, back in the day.”

with his free hand he reached out to yours, and took it in his palm, squeezing a little;

“i’m not immune to human weaknesses either.

and my guess is that i’m certainly not immune to your charm.”

he then brought your hand to his lips and gave it a light kiss, eyes trained on you.

“so if you accept me, then i’d be happy to court and protect you,” he finished his speech more quietly than he began and now was just politely waiting for your response.

for the rest of your life, if you allow me; he thought to himself, but these kinds of words are still too heavy for you to bear, he settles and doesnt say the rest of his initial sentence.

he came to accept that his lovers will come and go, since he is an immortal being, but it won’t stop him from giving his all to his loved ones.

“zhongli..” you said with trembling lips, as you tried your hardest not to cry.

you were falling in love with him slowly day by day, not even realising it and you’d never even think of him reciprocating your feelings and now it simply feels too overwhelming. in a good way, of course.

“is that a yes?” he squeezed your hand once more, his smile growing wider and eyes softer.

“of course,” you sniffed and pushed yourself into his embrace, not willing to let him see you cry, at least not yet.

you felt his heartbeat in your hug and you swear you never wanted to let go anymore.

“thank you,” he said gently and you felt his lips pressing to the top of your head.

you really chose the best man to fall in love with. ////// if you wanna be added to my genshin (or any other fandom) tag list then please either comment or dm me! also my requests are open so feel free to text me that as well, if you’d like <3

[superhero--imagines]

Etsy Store Here l Ko-Fi l Commission Info I Instagram

Part 1 Here!

A/N: Just some extra headcanon since this basically lives in my head rent free.

* Don’t get it twisted, Nanami loves you a lot, but there’s a really big reason he picked you to be his spouse-

* “I don’t want children, now and not in the future,” He tells you

* You’re both sitting at a cafe, you were looking out the store window to the busy street when he says it

* Nanami is sweating, things have been going pretty good so far, but there’s no point in continuing on like this if you want children

* It’s not that Nanami doesn’t want kids, or that he doesn’t like kids

* It’s just if he has one of his own, there’s no way he’ll be able to die without any regrets

* He might even become a curse just to see his child again

* So he can’t have kids

* But the least he could have done is said it more tactically!

* Still, it’s better to get it out of the way now, before either of you get too attached

* He really should have said it when you first met, but he liked you, he was thrilled when you agreed to the courting period

* So he wanted to do this a bit more tactfully than last time

* Not that it was all that much better tbh

* You tilt your head to the side, that really did come out of nowhere

* Well, marriage has always meant kids right?

* Especially an arranged marriage like this, the whole point is for your elders to secure that you’ll have a family of your own

* You’re not quite sure how you feel about children, but you know that you’re not ready for them right now

* All you know that you want is a family

* But who’s to say a family means a husband and a child?

* The world is changing, there’s so many different kinds of family’s now-

* Who’s to say a family can’t just be you and your husband

* “I think that’s alright” you finally respond

* And Nanami smiles so brightly that you feel your heart race just by looking at him

* “Again,” You say

* “Huh?”

* “Smile like that again”

* “I can’t do it on command” he replies laughing

* He does smile like that again for you though, and only for you

* I know everyone says Nanami is a cat person, and don’t get me wrong he totally is-

* He can appreciate another independent creature

* But I 100% believe Nanami gets a puppy that’s a big dog breed

* I’m talking Great Dane/Mastiff/Saint Bernard/Rhodesian Lab

* A BIG dog that will protect you in case...in case he can’t one day

* “Raising a dog is a lot of work, good thing we don’t plan on having kids” you laugh, watching the puppy finally fall asleep after raising hell for 12 hours

* “Yeah” he’ll say with a small smile

* Nanami’s always thinking about the future, he’s always trying to tie up any loose strings so he won’t die with any regrets

* Everything is paid off in advance

* Your house or apartment lease, your car, even your credit cards-

* That way you won’t have to worry if he’s not around

* “Nanami-San, are you planning on going somewhere that I can’t follow soon?” You ask

* Ever since the engagement party he’s been really stern about having you understand all the household finances, how to pay bills, all the bank accounts he has

* He even made you a planner for the next year with what day what bills are due and how/when you need to pay them

* You’re asking if maybe he’s terminally Ill, that would make sense considering the way he’s acting

* Nanami still hasn’t told you about the Jujutsu world or anything like that

* He doesn’t want to burden you with it just yet

* “The future is uncertain, it’s best to be prepared”

* “I can see that” you respond, before asking him what day you need to make the insurance payment

* I think when Nanami finally does tell you he’s going to go back to being a jujutsu sorcerer, it’ll be in kind of the same manner as when he said he didn’t want kids

* “I’m thinking of quitting my job”

* You’re at his house, you were just admiring Nanami’s book collection - he said he was making you dinner tonight for you “courting outing”- when he says that, out of nowhere

* He’s been swallowing still working at his current position for the last few months-

* He wants the two of you to have some semblance of normalcy, at least for now

* But he doesn’t want you to go into this marriage under false pretenses

* “It might be a little rough, but I’m pretty sure I could cover us for a while-“ you wonder if this is why he was having you know all the budgets

* Normally under these circumstances it would be fair to assume he’s using you to cover his expenses so he can pursue some dumb venture or something-

* But you know Nanami, he’s a kind and considerate person, so you know it’s not like that

* You wonder if someone at work is giving him trouble, or if maybe something happened -

* “It’s not like that, I have another job lined up”

* “But why the sudden change?” You’re still a little uneasy, he seems well settled in his current job after all, probably in line for a promotion

* “I guess I’m disillusioned by the industry”

* Nanami tells you his story - the same one he told the bakery girl- and you hug him from behind when he comes near to the end

* “It’s okay Kento-Kun, you don’t have to feel alone anymore, I’m here”

* And for the first time in a while, even though he’s an adult, Nanami cries like a little boy

* He probably doesn’t tell you he’s a jujutsu sorcerer until your wedding night

* “I have something important to tell you-“

* Omg he’s into some weird kinky stuff isn’t he? Like beyond kinky, like borderline-

* “I’m a sorcerer”

* .

* ..

* ...

* Huh?

* You laugh about it later with him

* “Why did you tell me right then, you couldn’t have waited until the next morning at least?” You laugh and Nanami gets that familiar pink tint across his cheekbones

* “I wanted to be honest with you, we’re married now, I didn’t want to keep any secrets”

* You smile, honestly what a kind man- how did you ever get so lucky?

* “Besides it’s not like I killed the mood or anything you seemed to enjoy yourself when-“

* “Okay I get it!” You flush red covering his mouth with your hand

* He just loves you a lot

* And he’s so glad you’re his now

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Canary, Part 4

First

Previous

Okay. Fine. She’ll stop stalling.

She grabbed everything she’d need: water, snacks, her phone, Tikki, headphones, and a cheat sheet she’d written for herself… and then sat herself down on the floor, laptop in her lap.

Truly interesting stuff.

But it was about to get even more boring for her. She needed to do some hacking.

There’s three main ways to get information.

Most people master one and then team up with others. It was why a lot of groups in books are groups of three (or five, if you want to add a distinct brain and brawn).

Marinette didn’t do partners.

So, she had to do it all herself.

Grifting is the kind of thing people expect from conmen. Straight manipulation. This was her specialty. She’d learn about her marks, devise a plan, and get close enough to them to get whatever she needed -- blackmail, talking someone into something, talking someone out of something, checking to see if someone was cheating… that was what she was good at. Sometimes, when it was late at night and she was all alone, she felt bad about it. Most of the time she decided that it was their fault for letting her get that close to them -- Gothamites should know by now to be wary of short Asian women.

Thievery is almost what it sounds like. She often did straight up steal objects, from money to keycards to prototypes to files out of desks… but it also meant stealing information. She’d hide herself in vents or carve out a place in the walls and listen in on conversations. She wasn’t bad at it, but people were actually growing wise to this one. She found that many of the vents she wanted to use had cameras or motion detectors of some sort. But, a few jobs ago, she’d been given an EMP pulse gun as payment so that wasn’t as much of a problem anymore.

Hacking was… well, hacking. She… wasn’t too good at it. She’d never seen the point. Red Robin and Oracle were so good that anything she’d do would never hold up. So, she’d left that skill alone. All she ever needed was to know how to make semi-decent false identities, anyways.

… but now she needed an identity that would fool even them. Which meant that it was best to use one that actually existed.

She bit her lip and turned on the first Harry Potter book as audio while she booted up her computer.

Alright, so… she needed a paper trail that would keep her in Paris for the past nine years. The camera footage of cities often didn’t keep for that long, so she only needed to have a few clips of her heading to and being in the airport.

She pulled up Gotham security cameras. She grabbed footage from the subway specifically, it had the most things she needed: leaning against walls while she waited for things, scanning tickets, setting things in bins while they checked her over for bombs…

Okay... all she needed now was to change the face on the footage to make sure that their facial recognition systems picked up that it was her. She moved over to her greenscreen and got footage of her face as she continued working.

Next, she needed to -- um? -- PAPERS. She needed to forge papers.

Well, she could claim that she had been working under her parents in exchange for food and rent… which meant dentist and doctor appointments were really all she needed.

She found older papers and used that to forge her doctor’s handwriting. She had no clue what medicines she was supposed to be taking but that’s fine. The stuff doctors prescribed were pretty much just suggestions in her eyes, anyways.

Was that all?

… she was pretty sure she was done.

She took the footage from her camera and superimposed it on the makeup-covered face she used for Gotham pixel by pixel.

By the time she had finished her audiobook had long-since ended and she had gotten pretty far into the second book. She liked the second book more than the first so far. Maybe it’s because Rowling hadn’t given away the ending in a dream sequence like she did in the first one.

She forced herself to sit up. Her bones creaked. How long had…?

Eleven hours. She’d been sitting there for eleven hours with only tiny breaks to go to the bathroom. No wonder she felt so awful.

She rubbed her eyes and walked over to the window. It was getting early. Dim light filtered through the one-way window and she looked out over the city. She had set up base on the thirteenth floor of a building. Gotham had a weird superstition about thirteenth floors -- if they had to make a building any higher than that, they would put a ‘fake floor’ in to trick… the gods? The bad luck? Something. Whatever the reason, it was good for her. It was safer than any of her other safehouses. Even if someone knew that someone lived there they would steer clear, assuming it belonged to The Court.

So, she was safe. She trudged to her fridge and listened to the audiobook speaker talk about how someone else had gotten petrified -- the name had already slipped away from her, all the names in these books were so fucking weird -- as she picked out an energy drink. She cracked it open and then took tiny sips from it as her brain tried and failed to wake up some.

She felt a tiny paw rub her head and blinked a few times to get her out of The Long Stare that she had been doing for the past… yikes, twenty minutes.

She shook her head a few times to wake herself up and then sent Tikki a tiny smile. “Thanks.”

“You’re overworking yourself.”

“I’ll only be doing this for a year,” she said. “Then, no matter what, it’s over.”

“... see, that -- that doesn’t exactly encourage me…”

Marinette giggled and pressed a kiss to the kwami’s way-too-big head. “I’ll sleep later.”

The kwami didn’t believe her.

Fair enough. She was lying.

But it wasn’t like Tikki could really stop her so… she started gathering things into a backpack. A few pairs of nondescript clothes, snacks, a bit of cash -- she’d come back for more later -- and looked around.

She couldn’t take any of her favorite knives, unfortunately, she’d have to settle for a plain old dagger and leave everything else behind. She’d kiss them goodbye but most of them were laced with either paralytics or straight up poison so that would have been a Bad Idea.

… she was missing something...

Ah. She swapped out her work phone for a burner, added a black case, and then added a phone charm. It was a tiny Robin, it would add to her credibility.

Yeah. That was probably it.

Then, she fell out of the thirteenth-story window.

(It’s fine. She lived. Obviously.)

She headed to the nearest hotel. It was a front for the mob but, really, was there any places that weren’t? She checked in, dropped her things off, and started out the door.

Where to first? It was getting time for most of the bats to stop patrolling but she supposed she could follow after Signal first.

~

… well, this sucked.

Messing up while jumping from building to building, even on purpose, was so embarrassing. She was Canary for fuck’s sake, she didn’t mess up.

But it would be kind of weird if she was too good so… she allowed herself to yelp, to fall, to curse, to scrape her knees...

God, this entire job was just so embarrassing. She was getting blackmailed by Penguin, she’d had to ask her ‘parents’ for money, and now she was falling all over the place. This was stupid. Someone kill her, please. (Or, at least, make this job end quickly.)

But this was necessary. She’d be stupid not to follow them around. They could slip up, either by saying their real names on accident or by getting hurt enough for her to sneak down and take off their masks.

(She had no delusions that they were famous, of course. They’d be stupid to be public figures. Still, a face or a name was better than nothing.)

So, she followed them. Three days went by without any of them acknowledging her existence.

Right now, she was following after Red Robin. She could tell he knew she was there, he was going slightly slower than normal, and she appreciated it -- or… fake her appreciated it? She didn’t know. This was all so weird.

Want to know what else was weird? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was the first one that she’d truly enjoyed as more than something to pass time with. She liked Cedric. All these death flags better be red herrings. She could -- and would -- cry if he died.

That would be embarrassing… which was kind of par for the course right now. She hated that she had thought that. She’d definitely jinxed it.

She stopped a few buildings down from where Red Robin was getting coffee and then smiled as he continued on the ground. Thank god. Rooftops suck.

She bit her lip nervously as she listened to Harry talk about how he was doing in the maze. The distinct lack of Cedric was worrying her.

She was so distracted that, when she followed Red Robin into an alley, it took her a few seconds to realize that he had disappeared. She stood in the middle of the alley, the hair on the back of her neck prickling as she looked up at the dead end she had been led to.

There was a crunch of gravel behind her and she allowed herself to flinch.

She turned around with a weak smile. Red Robin returned it, but the lenses of his domino were narrowed like they usually were when he was annoyed about something.

This was an expression that Canary was used to. But he shouldn’t have known she was Canary. So...

Shit.

~~~

TheBetterCanary: tim drake 🤝 red robin

throwing coffee cups in random trash cans so their families don't know how much they’re drinking

Yummmmmm: Snitch

~~~~~

Next

Perma taglist: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Canary taglist: @jayjayspixiepop @unoriginalmess @miraculousfanfic127 @probably-a-hologram

[cardwellthaxton]

6 Things You Can Do To Stop Foreclosure of Your Mercer County House

By Cardwell Thaxton

For homeowners who want to stop foreclosure in Mercer County, the future can look pretty grim. In our latest post, we offer 6 ways homeowners can stop foreclosure of their homes in the Mercer County area.

Has it become difficult to pay your mortgage each month? Are the bills piling up, with no end in sight? At some point, before the bank comes in and takes your home, you need to find a way out. Keep reading to learn more about what you can do and how The Cardwell Thaxton Group can help you stop the foreclosure of your house in Mercer County.

Sell Immediately

In order to stop foreclosure of your house in Mercer County, a direct and fast sale is often the best way to go. The Cardwell Thaxton Group is a professional buyer in Mercer County that will help you sell your house fast, stopping the banks and avoiding the destruction of your credit. Not all buyers are the same – The Cardwell Thaxton Group is dedicated to helping homeowners in difficult situations, providing fair solutions that make sense for all parties involved. While you may not receive the retail price, you will be able to sell in just a few days saving you thousands on commissions, repairs, and holding costs. Giving up your home can feel difficult, but it is better to sell by choice than to have the bank come in and forcefully take over the property.

Borrow Money

For some homeowners, borrowing money from a family member can be a quick solution to stop the bank. However, this isn’t a long-term solution to your financial struggles. If the mortgage has become difficult to pay now, it’s likely that it will be difficult to pay going forward. Getting into a pattern of continuously borrowing money will only get you into more debt, but this time it will be with multiple creditors. Borrowing money from loved ones can also strain your relationships with the people that you care about, making your difficult situation feel that much worse.

Ask For Forgiveness

One option when you are struggling to make your mortgage payments is to reach out to your lender and explain the situation. In some cases, you will be able to defer a payment or work out a payment plan to make up what you owe. That said, you will still have to find a way to pay your debts. Deferring the problem will only push things back, it won’t magically get you caught up or erase the debt you are in. Asking for forgiveness is a one-time thing, to help deal with an unexpected situation… not something to bail you out long term. Loan forgiveness is also known as loan forbearance and is used after an illness, a loss, or anther one-off circumstance.

Refinance

Refinancing your property can help you to achieve a lower monthly payment, but there is a cost. If you choose to refinance with a hard money loan, your interest rates can be through the roof. While this may help you to save your house from the bank, it will ultimately cost you more money in the long run. You can also work with your current lender to refinance your current loan; however, you need to prove you will not have trouble with your payments going forward.

Rent The Property To Someone Else

If you aren’t able to pay the mortgage yourself, maybe someone else can. Of course, This means that you will need to quickly find somewhere else to live at a price you can more easily afford. You’ll first need to find high-quality tenants who you can count on to pay the rent each month. If your situation allows, you could also choose to rent out a bedroom in your home for some extra cash, while you continue to live in the home as well. Just make sure boundaries are set on both sides so that everyone is comfortable with the living arrangements. Having the wrong people move in can cause you to default on your mortgage, anyway, ending up with the same result of losing your Mercer County house to foreclosure.

Declare Bankruptcy

Nobody is thrilled about having to declare bankruptcy, but it orders to fight off foreclosure, it may be the answer you have been waiting for. Declaring bankruptcy will restructure your debt and create a payment plan to get you back on track. While this won’t look good when applying for loans in the future, it can be a way for you to keep your current home, stopping the banks in their tracks.

At The Cardwell Thaxton Group, we want to help you stop the foreclosure of your Mercer County property. Our team can help you review your options and make you a no-obligation offer to help you sell quickly. Let our team help you quickly and efficiently handle any difficult property or situation you are dealing with.

If you are having trouble paying the mortgage, we can help you stop foreclosure of your Mercer County house! Send us a message or call The Cardwell Thaxton Group today! (908) 456-1593.

[bangtae-sohotddaeng]

we’ll be counting stars | k.th. | 4

(^ gif cred: ON THE VOYAGE | pinterest)

pairing: idol!Taehyung x publisher!Reader

rating: nc-17 (for language and themes)

summary: You’d sworn off love and relationships forever. You were here to do your job - work with the biggest boyband of the world. Not forge friendships and...and whatever it was that you and Taehyung were building up with these sneaky glances. It was, to be very fair, your Chief Editor’s fault that you’d landed in this mess. Maybe you should quit your job? Maybe you should quit life -

Oh, he was staring again, and did he freaking lick his lips?

warnings: swearing (reader’s got a potty mouth) + this is set like 5 years in the future + reader has emotional issues, she's a relationship phobe + mentions of weed

genre: so much ANGST ugh + fluff + comedy + some crack

words: 4.6 k

note: hey, y'all. i know i've been awol and i'm really sorry about it, but, well - first i went back to uni for a while and got busy with my classes and my boyfriend. but this lasted for, like, barely three weeks, and then i came back home and got covid. yep, i finally got unlucky. my parents got it, too, after me, and the three of us had been home quarantined and getting treated for the past month or so. we're in better health now, though, so i'm getting back into writing. here's hoping i pick up speed super quick! 💜

< prev | next >

series masterlist

gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

Your first week of heading this project with all its roadblocks and exhaustion, as it turned out, had merely been a taste of what was to come.

Your Wednesday at work began on a positive note, though. 

Towards the middle of the day, your phone rang, making both you and Jungkook jump. 

Cursing, you pursed your lips at Jungkook apologetically, and fished the device out. He nodded at you with a chuckle. 

Looking at your phone screen, you realised this was a call you'd been waiting for.

“Hello?” you answered.

“Hello, ma’am. I’m calling to inform you that we’re done.”

Your eyebrows immediately hiked up your forehead. “Wow, really? That’s great news!”

“Yeah, the cleaners will be in tomorrow morning. You can move in by tomorrow evening.”

You actually grinned. “That’s such fantastic news! Thank you so much, Mister Lin. I’ll initiate your payment later, today.”

“Anytime, ma’am. Thank you.”

You disconnected the call with a happy sigh. Jungkook squinted at you. “That sounded like a fun conversation.”

You nodded, smiling. “Our team is moving into an apartment, tomorrow.”

“Wow! You’ve been in the hotel for what, ten days now? Must feel nice!” Jungkook’s eyes sparkled.

You nodded with a sigh, shutting your eyes in relief. “Oh, yes. We’d made reservations at the hotel for fifteen days. We had to move into the apartments within this week. This feels so amazing. I’ll finally be able to prepare my own food.”

Jungkook giggled at that, scrunching his nose up. “Where’s the apartment? Hope it isn't too far.”

“Oh, no, it’s a few blocks away from here. Which is why we had to book a hotel in the first place. We needed two four-bedroom apartments on the same floor, in this specific radius, in three days.” You paused to laugh when Jungkook’s jaw dropped with a gasp. “It was a very hard find. But our agent was sharp, he did a great job.” You clapped your hands together. “I cannot wait to check out of the damn hotel.” 

Jungkook nodded in understanding. “Hotels are hard. It could be a seven star luxurious penthouse, but you’d still wanna run away from it after a while.” 

He seemed to be speaking from his personal experience, but running away from a seven star luxurious penthouse? You couldn’t relate. You hated your hotel because the curtains weren’t dark enough and the mattress was stiff and you couldn’t afford getting any of them changed. You also hated having to order Chinese every single day, but you also knew you’d be emptying your bank account if you got anything else.

None of this would trouble someone living in a seven star’s penthouse. But you didn’t want to make Jungkook uncomfortable by stating any of this when he was just trying to be a bit compassionate and empathetic.

“Food doesn’t bother me that much, though,” Jungkook continued after a thoughtful pause. “We’re usually either on diets or order takeout. I personally hate the mattresses.”

“Oh yes,” you sighed deeply, the kink in your upper back in absolute agreement. “I’m not really a fan of sleeping anywhere other than my mattress back at home, but hotel beds are the worst of it.”

Jungkook chuckled, nodding. “I completely understand. You remember that story I told you about lugging my beddings over to our dorm when we first moved into one?”

You nodded with a laugh. “Oh, yes. The rest of the boys were getting new mattresses, and you were busy dragging your mattress from your parents’ house. It may sound hilarious, but it’s actually very relatable.”

Jungkook looked a bit bashful as he nodded. “You know, when we first started preparing for our first tour, I had a half a mind to take it with me.”

You barked out a loud laugh at that, the mental image of Jungkook dragging a seven by four piece of bedding around and stuffing it into trailers. He laughed, too.

“Yeah, it was funny and really stupid. Half the time we didn’t even get to sleep in the bed we had taken with us, but whenever we did, I was nodding off the second my head hit the pillow.” Jungkook’s eyes sparkled as he went down the memory lane. “That one was nothing in comparison to the tours we go on now, but it was our first ever experience so it was still pretty difficult adjusting, Tour schedule is a different level of hectic, you know? You don’t have time to eat, you don’t have time to sleep. Just rehearsals and fittings and sound checks. I would fall asleep in makeup chairs,” he confessed with a chuckle, shaking his head fondly, “and when noona would wake me up, I would recall how I wanted to bring my mattress here. Such naivete.”

You smiled, nodding along. You hadn’t yet gotten to the tour discussion yet, as it was planned out for the third month of your blueprint, so all of this was brand new to you. But, at this moment you didn’t want to bring up plans and blueprints. Jungkook was compassionately being candid with you. You were becoming friends, beyond your professional boundaries.

Sighing, you decided to impart something personal, too. “When I moved to the States and got into this company, I rented the apartment with an old friend who was already living there. And it wasn’t my first time living in a house away from my parents. I’d been a university student, lived in dorms then rented apartments, both solo and shared.” Jungkook looked at you pensively, nodding with a little furrow in his eyebrows. “But when I got to this apartment, got all this brilliant furniture set up, all new and fresh, I couldn’t sleep. I missed my home.” Jungkook’s eyes softened, lips pressing down into an understanding smile. “Not the dorm, not the studio I’d been renting—I missed my childhood bed.” You exhaled, recalling all your sleepless nights. “There's this connection you build with the place you call home. I’m sure you must have started to feel this way about your dorms as time went on.”

Jungkook softly smiled, nodding as he looked into space. “Very correct. Tour life made me realise this exact fact.”

You both sat in a few minutes’ quiet, basking in the nostalgic atmosphere you’d built around you.

Then Jungkook grinned at you. “Now you’ll get to experience real Seoul life.”

You laughed. “Oh, yes. And I honestly can’t wait for it. The local markets, the grocery stores, everything. Everything here is very unlike home.”

“I’m sure you’ll love it!” Jungkook exclaimed, wiggling his eyebrows smugly.

You went back to work soon after, with Jungkook tossing in questions about your move and suggestions about what all you should do in the city, every now and then.

It was a good, productive, joyous day. You were hardly even tired when you got back to your hotel to spend your last night on that stiff ass mattress.

Thursday had started off pretty much the same, except for you guys taking a slightly early departure to spare some extra time to set your new place up after your belongings were moved.

By late night, you were all settled in two, pleasant, well-furnished, well ventilated four-bedroom apartments, next to each other. Your housemates consisted of Sana and Simon. Needless to say, you weren’t a fan. But you needed a room to build the office in and you preferred it to be under the same roof as your bedroom because you tended to work odd hours when you couldn’t sleep. Simon and Sana volunteered to share the apartment with the office and you, so you didn't exactly have room for complaint.

From getting the apartment cleaned one last time to accept you all, to ensuring none of you had left anything significant behind in your hotel rooms—you didn’t trust the hotel staff enough to not misuse it if they found anything related to BTS in one of your rooms—you had been the one that took care of it all. It was kinda on you, because you didn’t trust anyone from your team to do the latter responsibly. So, quite naturally, you were dead on your feet by the time you got into your soft as a cloud beddings at nearly 3 o’clock in the morning. Sleep pulled you in the seconds you rugged your covers up.

You were very dead on your feet when you got to the BTS dorm, five hours after you’d gotten into bed. You hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in your system for more than a few weeks, now, but man did you have a hangover.

So it goes without saying that when you bumped into someone on your way to Jungkook’s studio, your eyes were half shut. You wouldn’t have thought much of it and might have slinked away with a mumbled apology, if not for the familiar voice than greeted you.

“Good morning. Looks like you had a rough night?”

You blinked, miles away from sleep within a second when your eyes met a familiar pair of brown ones. Taehyung was dressed in the routine BTS loungewear that consisted of a pastel t-shirt that was one too many sizes bigger on him and dark sweatpants that covered his feet. His hair was the usual black and curly, mostly pulled away from his forehead with a few tendrils dangling over his brows.

Your interaction with him had been meagre throughout this week, only consisting of respectful nods of greetings and waves of goodbyes. You’d meant to ask him how Simon was doing and how he felt about his ideas being taken now, after you’d had a talk with Simon about it. But you didn’t know what you would do if he said he was hating how things were and wanted you to do something about it. So you had kept your mouth shut and watched from the sidelines as you tried to gauge Taehyung’s inner feelings by his facial expressions. 

He was an extremely closed off guy, never really letting his face show what he was truly feeling. But sometimes you would catch him looking into space as if he was zoning out of his conversation with Simon. Now, he could very well be thinking deeply about something Simon said—you really couldn’t be sure with the guy. But it had you worried, nevertheless.

God. Why did Simon have to pick out Taehyung’s name?

By the time you realised you’d been staring at him for too long, he had realized it too. “Anything wrong with my… hair?” he innocently questioned, threading his fingers through the front of it.

“No!” you yelped, making him flinch. “I mean, no, it’s not that. I, um. We were moving into our apartments last night and it got kinda late. My brain’s processing things a bit slow, today.”

Taehyung chuckled at that, nodding with his teeth on display. “It’s okay. Congratulations on the move. Hotels suck.”

You sighed. “Tell me about it.”

Awkward silence hung over the two of you as you looked at the floor, at your feet, at his feet, tried to discern if his pants were very dark gray or blue, cleared your throat, scratched your ear, met his shifty eyes again— 

“How…how is working with Jungkook?”

His question caught you off-guard. You looked at him in surprise. “Uh…it’s, um. It’s good. Very comfortable, very productive. It’s great, actually.”

Taehyung nodded, pursing his lips as he looked down again. “Simon has been a better listener this week. Did you talk to him?”

A weight was lifted off your shoulders on hearing that. You grinned at him with all your teeth. “Really? That is really good to know. Comforting, even. I did talk to him, yes.”

Taehyung looked into your eyes as his lips spread into a slow, soft smile. “Thank you so much for doing this for me. I thought you would think I was stupid for demanding so much, but…” He shrugged his shoulder, one corner of his lips ticking farther up his cheek. “You made it work. I feel so much better now.”

You exhaled, willing your heart to not beat so fast. It was your job to ensure they were all comfortable, this was part of what you were getting paid for. But somehow, the way Taehyung seemed to have taken it so personally made you not wanna mention the fact in the moment.

Also, he didn’t know how this wouldn’t last. You’d been giving Simon tips to handle himself professionally around Taehyung, literally every single day. It kept the wheel running, but it was tiring both of you out, immensely. Simon was out of his element and you were getting slowly overwhelmed and under-rest due to the amount of responsibilities piling on for you. You were determined to talk this out with your boss, this Sunday, and find a way out before you broke.

Right now, though, you gave Taehyung a bashful smile. “I wanted you to be comfortable and feel good about working on this project, Tae. I am constantly working out plans to better it.”

Taehyung looked at you with so many emotions swimming in his eyes, that the intensity of it almost made you wanna look away. But you didn’t. Instead, you tried to decode what any of it could mean. 

This time the silence between you two was not awkward in the least. It was charged—heavy with this unknown tautness between your mind and heart and this indecipherable look in Taehyung’s eyes.

“Tae?”

The trance was broken by Jin, startling both of you.

He walked into the halfway from behind Taehyung, peering around him with a frown. His eyes widened when he saw you. You immediately bowed, always extremely cautious about being respectful around BTS’ oldest member. “Good morning, Jin-ssi.”

He chuckled at your address, insisting that you didn’t have to bow every single time. “Just the respectful good morning is fine. Did you just get here?”

You nodded, subtly glancing at Taehyung whose eyes were slightly rounded and still stuck on you. Why was he acting like you two were caught by Jin? You’d just been greeting each other and catching up!

Right?

Right.

“Ah! There comes Riya!” Jin suddenly announced the arrival of his partner on your team, cutely waving at someone behind you.

Your teammate Riya walked into the hallway after you, having walked here on her own insistence. “Good morning, Jin-ssi. Taehyung-ssi. Boss.”

You smiled at her, nodding in acknowledgement of the respect she paid. “Where’s Simon?” you questioned.

“Just here!” the man himself responded, rushing in after Riya. 

You met Taehyung’s eyes, and he nodded with a meaningful look and a small smile on his lips. Your heart felt light.

The unexpectedly happy and positive start you’d gotten in the morning lasted with you the whole day, making your time with Jungkook a lot fun, and fulfilling in terms of work, too.

When Sunday came in and you received your boss’ call, her first question was about how well you were settled in the apartments, followed by how you’d handled things with Simon. You had done a decent job on the former, but the latter was gradually turning out to be a pain in your ass. You told your boss as much.

“Drag it out for another week, and then design a change of gameplan. If he really isn’t doing a good enough job by himself, it’s better if he works with someone else. This whole charade will tire both of you out. And V would be facing issues, too, if Simon’s heart isn’t into it.” Your boss had looked at you solemnly through the computer screen.

“Simon’s heart’s a bit too much into it, boss, that’s the whole issue.” You had derisively chuckled at your joke, but her words had left you thinking into the late hours of the night.

Taehyung had definitely been facing issues, you’d heard it from the man himself. And the respite he thought he’d gotten this week was momentary, because neither you nor Simon could honestly keep up with it for too long. And it was very unfair to Taehyung. This book was supposed to showcase a part of all the boys. A biography was the culmination of one’s whole life—something very personal, precious and endearing. The process of its creation should have been a similar experience for the boys, too.

You really would have to assign someone else to Taehyung.

On Monday morning, you knocked at Simon’s door at seven.

“Just this week, and then you switch,” you told him.

“Really? Oh, my God, thank you so much!” Simon cried out.

“Please accommodate him the best you can.” You sighed. “I’m too tired to give you notes everyday. Will you be able to manage?”

“I’ll accommodate him the best I can, just as you said.”

You hadn’t taken his word for it, but it seemed like the knowledge of his misery ending soon had done Simon well. He did a fair job of maintaining his professional composure, and on Tuesday, when you went in to grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen, you saw the two of them laughing about something, too. Taehyung had politely greeted you, exchanging more than a nod for the first time in more than ten days—minus that one altercation in the hallway, of course—and then immediately went back into the discussion.

He seemed to be really into it.

It made you feel a lot better. 

On Friday, you and Jungkook went for a walk by the pool in the late afternoon with a cup of ice cream in your hands. He brought up Taehyung, asking how the elder was doing.

“You told me he was having some trouble with his partner?” Jungook asked, biting into a huge glob of chocolate ice-cream like a maniac and braving the brainfreeze with a straight face.

You grimaced at the sight. Then exhaled, plopping a spoonful from your own ice cream into your mouth. “He’s doing a lot better, now. It might not last, though”

Jungkook, instead of quizzing your ominous statement, nodded in understanding. “Does it have something to do with what I told you about hyung’s personality?”

You sighed. “Pretty much. We might have to change his partner.”

Jungkook paused at that. “Is there a possibility that…” He trailed off, confused, doe eyes looking at you.

You couldn’t lie to him. You shrugged. “Everything’s on the plate.”

On Sunday evening, you decided to gather the team for the call with your boss. Sending them a quick message once you all got home, you hopped into the bathroom for a long, relaxing showe. 

When you came back, you stepped into your office to the welcome sight of your team occupying bean bags and chairs and spread across the entire surface area of the place.

Collectively, you all brought up Taehyung’s partner with the Editor-in-Chief.

“Why don’t you do it, Y/N?” your boss questioned you after the rest of them had briefed her with their progress so far and detailed out their future plans with their assigned boys.

You sighed. “I have been doing just as great as the rest of them, boss. It wouldn’t be ideal for me to stop working with Jungkook after we’ve been making such great progress.”

Your boss took her glasses off, the highlight on her nose glistening as her movement caught light. She shook her and then sighed. “One of you is going to have to make a sacrifice.”

Simon, rightfully, flinched with a guilty face.

“So either you talk one of your team members into doing it, or you do it yourself. You’ve got one whole week to discuss it. Tell me what you decide, next Sunday.”

You kept tossing and turning in your bed. You’d either have to force one of your team members. Or you’d have to disappoint Jungkook. Your prospects really weren't looking good. 

You would like to believe you and Jungkook had become friends in these three weeks. It is impossible to remain a stone-faced stranger with someone literally relaying the story of his entire life to you. And besides that, too, Jungkook was a very likeable guy. He was a curious soul with a myriad of interests. Taking notes on literally every topic would always branch out into an enthusiastic conversation between the two of you. 

Sighing as you recalled how the two of you had shared your roller-skating experience with each other just today, you shut your eyes and decided to finally go to sleep.

On Monday morning, your team members were gathered in your new office to begin with the scripting process of the biography. As you got down to comparing notes and checking off boxes, each one of you resolutely ignored the gigantic elephant in the room—that fact that one of you would not be working with the same person when this week was up.

Strangely, this forcible change of partners was weighing down on all of you not just because of how much more labour it would cost, but on an emotional level, too. Which was a very unfamiliar concept, at least to you. You never got attached to clients, knowing it would only cause hindrances when you had to criticize their work—which was why they were talking to you in the first place. You had been somewhat lucky too, in a way, because it wasn't easy for you to get attached to people.

But Jungkook turned out to be just a really easy person to get along with. You really had become friends.

This, you suddenly realised, would also mean that Jungkook would make friends with another partner just as easily.

“Guys, remember—it’s not just their story that we’re writing, it’s ours too!” you announced to your team, clapping your hands to raise their spirits as the six of them worked on their computers. “They’re the narrators, sure, but we are the writers. Use your words wherever you find fit, do not hesitate to trim, omit or add. This is what we were hired to do.” 

At noon, you all ordered takeout and took a break.

“We’re all really on schedule, boss,” Riya, Jin’s partner, spoke up from her spot across the room from you. Her rounded eyes narrowed suddenly, and she winced. “Well… except Simon, but we kinda already expected that.”

Simon, seated on a bean bag to your immediate right, cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“You’ve been really shitty at your job, Si,” Areum, Jimin’s partner, commented, looking at Simon through her round framed glasses, her face displaying disappointment.

“He really has,” you added. “But it cannot go on like this. You’ll have to be really professional with your partner, this time round, Simon. You’ve really done a lot of damage with Taehyung. Boss won’t just pull you off the project if something like this happens again, she’ll fire you.”

Simon visibly gulped, nodding with his wide eyes fixated on you.

“So, who’s gonna take his place?” Nathan, Yoongi’s partner, butted in, prompting Sana to stop stretching. “Have you decided yet?” he asked you.

You exhaled. “Why not ask dear Simon who he wants to work with? The last time he kept protesting about the assigned choice, and I didn't listen. Maybe he’d have done better if the selection of his partner was voluntarily done by him.”

All eyes turned to Simon. He cleared his throat, looking beyond nervous. “Please don’t put me in this spot. One of you will have to let go of a month’s worth of hard work for me, as it is.”

You looked around the room. “Any one of you willing to switch?”

Five pairs of eyes turned to look at you incredulously. “No one’s gonna willingly give their research up for you, Simon,” Charlotte, the only redhead on your team and Hoseok’s partner, spoke with a roll of her eyes. “None of us.”

“Simon,” You sighed. “Choose.”

And then Simon squeezed his eyes shut and fisted both his hands to whisper, “Jungkook…maybe?”

Of fucking course.

Later that night, you had calmed yourself down enough to tell yourself that everything was gonna be okay. You could be a darn hardass professional when you needed to be. In fact, being humble and empathetic was usually what posed a challenge to you. You would very smoothly transition into working with Taehyung, you were sure of it.

You belatedly thought about how much change these past three weeks had already brought about in your nature. You were starting to show a lot more compassion than you’d thought yourself capable of. That kind of came in this job’s description, because biographies made people vulnerable, and vulnerable interviews required compassion. 

You had to unlearn some of the things you’d picked up over the span of your adult life to save yourself from hurt, and also the guilt that came with hurting others. Jungkook also helped, in a way. His openness and just the overall cheerful vibe that his nature eluded made you want to be more of a friend to him than a writing guide or an interviewer.

You wondered how Taehyung would be. 

There was something undeniably intense and mysterious about him. Now, you weren’t naive enough to want to “unravel” the guy’s mysteries, but you sure were irked and curious. Maybe he was one of those kinds of artists that literally lived in their art.

Back when you didn’t work in this company with this hectic schedule and had enough spare time on your hands to write, you used to pride yourself to be one of these kinds of artists, too. You lived in your stories, kept building characters up wherever you went, whatever you did. You wondered if it was something similar with Taehyung for music. 

You would find out, eventually. There was no point pondering it so much.

Sighing, you turned off your side lamp and decided to retire for the night.

Your writing week was gliding past smoothly. It was just Wednesday, and you all, ahead of the schedule, were at the verge of finishing up your writing parts.

“Are we super efficient or did we sign up for a longer duration of time than needed for this whole project?” Sana questioned, typing away on her laptop.

You snorted. “Or maybe, we didn’t design the blueprint with as much uniformity as we’re required to.”

“You don’t always have to critique everything, boss,” Charlotte, Hoseok’s partner chimed in, flipping her long mane of auburn hair off her shoulder as she shot you a look. 

You glared right back at her. “Uh, actually, I do. That’s kind of my job here.”

You’d been harsher than was needed, making the whole room go quiet. Only the clicking of keyboards echoed around you all for a while.

“Where’s Simon?” Nathan, Yoongi’s partner, asked after some time.

You sighed. “In his room, finishing up his writing work there. He doesn’t feel comfortable sitting between all of us because, and I quote, y’all give off really judgy vibes that fuck with my concentration.”

“That might actually be true,” Areum, Jimin’s partner, mumbled in Korean under her breath.

“Did you mail Manager Woo about the switch yet, boss?” Nathan asked you as you got up to get a refill of your coffee.

You exhaled. “Nope, I'm stalling,” you confidently confessed, leaving the office to make a trip to the kitchen. On your way back, you knocked at Simon’s door before peeking in. “You doing okay?” you asked him flatly.

Simon gave you a nod, not moving his gaze from the laptop screen. You rolled your eyes and came back to the office.

“Should one of us do it? If it won’t look too unprofessional?” Sana asked.

You wrinkled your nose. “It would look grossly unprofessional, Sana.” You pursed your lips as you sat behind your laptop again. “Fine, I’ll do it right now.”

You took a sip from your coffee, and opened your email. This was final, now — no coming back.

You were officially gonna start working with Kim Taehyung.

gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

< prev | next >

series masterlist

Tags: @tangledsparkles​ @hoefortaeshands​ @getmemyfries

[h-a-d-i-t-h-i]

Someone is babysitting a little girl. But the little girl is a 300 year old vampire and the hole thing has more of a visiting a sweet old lady vibe.

Title: You Make Ends Meet Word Count: 1300 TW: Blood, vampires, drugs Summary: Riley makes $2000 for a weekend of work.

I’m good at making ends meet. I’ve got an apartment in Brooklyn that I share with three other people, but even then rent’s not cheap. I’ve got friends in high places that make it manageable.

One of them owns a bar that I pick up shifts at whenever they’re short-staffed - under the table kind of payments. Around Christmas, there’s always someone who knows someone who needs retail work, so I pick that up too.

Emily is the real moneymaker though.

She works in fashion and spends way too much time around rich people. Not Bezos rich. They’re not the kind of people buying boats on a whim, just the kind of people who throw out their clothes every year and think spending a grand on boots is a reasonable expense.

People like that need housesitters and dogsitters and babysitters and Emily knows how to wink and imply that an agency isn’t worth their time and she can find them someone better. I’m the something better, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not better. Doesn’t really matter. Money is money.

Emily hooked me up with babysitting someone’s eight-year-old for the weekend. It was an easy live-in gig with all the food I wanted in the house, a credit card to order out, and the sweet sum of two thousand dollars at the end. Which was weird. Even for rich people.

A few Zoom calls with the exhausted parents explained that Mary was precocious - which is one of those words rich people use when their kid sucks. That made things line up. I expected a little shrieking brat who’d spend the whole weekend throwing tantrums, demanding some weird takeout from some fancy organic place, and a neverending loop of her favorite Disney movie.

I walked in and found myself face to face with a little weirdo. She was too short for eight and had this round face thick with baby fat that would’ve made me guess five at most. She was a real pretty kid though - monolid eyes and tanned skin and a button nose that made her look like a doll come to life.

“Hey, Mary.” I dropped my duffel bag and crouched, hands on my knees in that way you greet little kids. “I’m Riley. It’s nice to meet you! Did your parents already leave?”

“I’m afraid so,” she said, with an accent out of Downtown Abbey. Her voice was smooth, none of the odd stutters and breaks for air most kids had. “Very rude of them not to say hello, but I can show you where everything is, dear.”

Dear. That was precocious. I followed her around on a tour, wondering if I had somehow signed up to babysit Benjamin Button. The apartment felt creepily still. The massive four-bedroom place felt like a set - the walls were cluttered with design, but nothing was out of place. Though honestly, that’s not weird for rich people either. They love to clutter a place up with stuff and pay a maid to fix it up for them - but even maids could only do so much with a kid running around.

But Mary was precocious, I guess. And, you know, at the time, I didn’t even notice that in all that decor none of those rooms looked like they were for a kid.

By the time we were back in the kitchen, I was focused on the fridge, looking at the emergency numbers and credit cards that were all stuck to the fridge with a magnet. I didn’t see Mary get on her tiptoes to snag a muffin off a tray in the counter, but she was pushing it up towards my face sure enough.

“Would you like a muffin?” she asked. “You look like you’re wasting away.”

I raised an eyebrow as I took it from her hands. Wasting away, alright. Off came the wrapper and I shoved a bite in my mouth as I kept reading. I nearly spit it out. 

There was sugar in it, sure, but there was also a strong, bitter, earthy taste that made me want to gag. That was how organic health nuts made their food. I’d had my fair share of skinny rich ladies insisting their carob avocado pudding tasted just like the real thing.

I choked down the swallow and set the muffin on the counter. “I’ll save that for later, Mary. I’m not hungry.”

“I’m starving.”

I took the plate of muffins from the counter. Fuck, it was heavy. Slick. My hands felt oddly slick on the clean, white ceramic. “There’s plenty,” I said, and my mouth seemed too small for my tongue. I felt the weight of it as it moved.

“Muffins are a sometimes food, dear,” she said in that sweet, oddly British voice. Her little hands reached out, taking the heavy plate from my hands. So fucking heavy. The room seemed to shift under my feet, my knees too weak to hold up my gasping body. My hand gripped the countertop, and it was shaking. Every finger trembling as the room tilted and tilted and slipped.

“I need more iron in my diet,” Mary crooned.

She looked so fucking weird. Hungry. And smart. Fucking precocious. I tried to move my mouth but the floor ripped up from under me. The tile under my feet become a wall, and I slumped against the counter. Slid to the floor.

Out like a light. ——- When I woke, I was on the couch. The big-screen plasma was tuned to the Gameshow Network, and I tried to focus as buzzers blared through the fog in my ears. My arms and legs were all heavy, numb. My whole body didn’t feel like mine, and I wiggled my toes and rolled my head with a sleepy snort.

My wrist was hot, but it was a nice kind of hot. When I looked down I thought there’d be a cup of tea, or a throwaway Starbucks cup, but it was Mary. Her hair was knotted in a bun, which was pretty cool for a kid her age to do all on her own. Her face was bent like she was kissing my arm. That was kind of weird for an eight-year-old, but kids mouthed stuff, sometimes. Maybe she needed one of those chew necklaces.

And then I thought “oh fuck that’s some blood”.

There was dark red trickling from my wrist, down my arm to the brown towel beneath me. Couldn’t really get my heartrate up to feel scared in the first place, but I sighed with relief anyway. “Dude, I could not have paid for this couch.”

Mary looked up, and as her lips left my hand they were stained dark red, shiny and wet with syrup-thick blood. There was a smear of blood on her chin, and my other fingers twitched to wipe it clean, but I couldn’t make them move. Oops. Bad babysitter.

She smiled, red-streaked on her teeth and tongue and she spoke, blood mixed with spit stretching in her mouth. “Don’t worry. It’s just the weekend. I’ll take good care of you, dear.”

I sighed, watched as she went back to my bloodstained wrist with small, childish sucks. Fuckin weird. Like being a wet nurse. Wet nurse to an eight-year-old. Rich people do that too - feed their kids milk until they’re twelve or some shit. My mind fuzzed as contestants on the screen shouted for no whammies. Colored lights flashed. I could fall asleep like that.

“Two grand’s a good price for blood,” I said, and it was. You didn’t get those selling platelets at the clinic. Two grand if I lived. That’d cover rent for a bit.

I closed my eyes with a little laugh and hoped Mary would let me have something that wasn’t a rancid organic muffin for dinner.