#internet-marketing-group
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booksncalm · 6 months ago
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Top Internet Marketing Techniques For Online!
Don’t stop just there, because a simple paragraph with a little innovation can bring you profits. True! you can make millions in a short time, provided that you know what what are the necessary internet marketing strategies to take. The bottom-line is, businesses that totally focus the majority of their functions within a determined topographical distance are losing out on potential individuals,…
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catsmeow39 · 6 months ago
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Top Internet Marketing Techniques For Online!
Don’t stop just there, because a simple paragraph with a little innovation can bring you profits. True! you can make millions in a short time, provided that you know what what are the necessary internet marketing strategies to take. The bottom-line is, businesses that totally focus the majority of their functions within a determined topographical distance are losing out on potential individuals,…
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clearancecreedwatersurvival · 7 months ago
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Reminder that people who have been in one high control group tend to end up joining other high control groups (including the guy who developed the BITE model).
Reminder internet movements/communities/pipelines often become high control groups.
Reminder that online communities that demand you at all times police yourself and everyone else around you, and/or sell you a worldview of complete nihilism where people not in the in group are evil or stupid and only you the people in the group Know The Truth and embody Goodness because what the group believes is the only correct way to be Are High Control Groups and if you find yourself in one you should consider getting the fuck out of there.
If it walks like a cult and quacks like a cult, it’s probably a fucking cult.
Flat-earthers/Q-anon/Atlantean/ancient alien conspiracy theorists (all of which are rooted in anti-semitism and most of which originated with the Nazi party) are high control groups, and most of the people in those communities are also in fundie Christian cults.
The ‘rationalists’ who push shit like the imminent evil ai which must be protected against and simulation theory and a Lot of Eugenics and also that one extremely notorious Harry Potter fanfic back in the day are high control groups.
Terfs are a high control group, and so are the community which is basically their inverse: the black-pilled part of the manosphere/incels. Once again most people in those groups are also in or formerly from fundie Christian cults. In the case of terfs, some people in the community genuinely believe that they are progressive and feminist which I find very darkly funny given that the entire terf movement has been proved to be intentionally created and spread by, you guessed it, the same fundamentalist Christian evangelical death cultists who are trying to seize governmental power and proposing anti trans bathroom laws and bans to anything remotely sexual or divisive in internet spaces.
Multi-level-marketing companies form high control groups out of their ‘sales rep’ consumer bases who don’t realize that 96% of them will never make a profit and they’re not supposed to, because they are actually the company’s market. And yes, mlms are incredibly popular with people who are also in a fundie cult, which is why they’re the most popular in the United States in Utah.
And the anti-shipping community is also a high control group which has found extreme purchase in algorithmic rabbitholes on tiktok and twitter. And it’s pretty apparent that most people in that community are either currently in some sort of repressive Christian religious environment or formerly so, given how many of them keep telling people to burn in hell for disagreeing with them.
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techtimechronicles24 · 6 months ago
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🚨 As many of you know, VK is shutting down ICQ to focus on their own VK messenger. However, this is a big mistake. ICQ is a globally recognized brand, while VK is mostly known only in Russia.
❗️Users loyal to the nostalgic ICQ brand are moving to Telegram instead. This shows VK's strategy is failing.
🌐 ICQ had a unique charm and a worldwide user base that VK doesn't. By closing ICQ, VK is losing an iconic brand and pushing users to competitors.
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shrimp1y · 1 year ago
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the relationship between labels and someone's personal/social identity is kinda getting completely demented due to capitalism and social media
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squidmoon · 8 months ago
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controversial take or whatever but brennan lee mulligan & the mcelroys have done irreparable harm to the ttrpg scene with their wotc brand shilling
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kraniumet · 1 year ago
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"cultural analysis" youtubers read something that isn't a medium/vouge/vox op-ed as research challange
#creating a new aesthetic called echo chamber core#edit. started thinking about it and actually i think my head died during the aesthetics vs subculture vid why did i watch that.#the bizzare way it ostensibly sets out to critique subcultures reduction to “fashion” or whatever while entirely reducing the concept of#subculture to fashion throughout the video. the seemingly willful misunderstanding of subculture studies origins to make a cheap crack#about 1920s cultural studies “not being interested in women” (also: not true).#the fact that its a 40 minute long video on aesthetics that never once mentions nazism but has a shout out to cottagecore being a positive#new subcultural group.#the annoyance at calling light blue nails “blueberry milk nails” as a “trendy signifier” when that type of naming is exactly like whats#on an actual nail polish bottle. just. the level of internet brain that is unble to fathom subcultures still existing outside the internet#or the idea that fashion isn't always the primary expression of subculture.#the circular fashion brained argument that “how you dress can no longer be counter cultural or revolutionary because everyone can buy a#shein dupe miu miu skirt now"#while acknowledging that working class brittish people's participation in subculture (for instance)#did not improve their financial or social situation#but at the same time not mentioning the arguably inherent fashion marketing origins of punk fashion.#the insistence on constantly citing one single person of origin for internet trends.#the reoccurring narrative of claimed “deeper capitalist critiquing“ fashion movements being ”co-opted“ and appropriated as#”less deep“ fashion marketing trends by big fashion inc. as if that kind of#posture of anticapitalist agenda and confusing pseudo intellectualism (health goth manifesto) isn't commonly occuring in fashion marketing.#like people dont walk down fashion week runways wearing tulle maxi dresses spelling ���fuck capitalism”.#or žižek didn't write copy for an a&f mag#recuperation 101
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webheads-dot-com · 2 years ago
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Webheads Press Release, 9/11/2001 (yeah…) from the archived iwebheads.com
HWH CHOSEN TO REPRESENT NEW LINE OF COMPUTER DOLLS
Inventor of the Popular Couch Potato Doll Creates a Presence "On" the Computer and the Net
September 11, 2001- HWH Public Relations/New Media is pleased to announce it has been chosen to represent New York-based First Ideas' latest creation, The WEBHEADS. These adorable, soft plush dolls have heads that are computer monitors with screens that double as picture frames. WEBHEADS, personalized with a favorite photo, are designed to sit atop computers and are sure to become collectables for your "A" list.
First Ideas, as its name implies, has always been in the forefront of market trends with creations such as the hugely successful Couch Potato dolls, which kept millions of television viewers company while engaged in their favorite activity. The premise for the WEBHEADS is similar: colorful, fun, soft-bodied dolls with photos in their computer screen picture-frame heads, that serve as companions through the long days and nights of computer isolation. They'll give you something to smile at when you come up for air.
The WEBHEADS dolls include personalities with computer and Internet double entendre names, such as Dot e.COM, The Luv Bug, Web Surfer, Auntie Virus (who better to protect your computer from nasty infections?) and the classic Web gossip Queen, Cookie. WEBHEADS can be customized by putting your daughter's picture into Baby G-URL, your pet Fido's pic into WEB Hound, and some of you gals might even know an E-Male who communicates effortlessly, whose picture you'd like on top of your computer.
First Ideas chose HWH because of HWH's experience with other clever and successful toy and doll phenomenons, including Cabbage Patch dolls and Cabbage Patch videos; 2XL, the first interactive robot learn and play toy, developed by the renowned toy inventor Michael Freeman; and the former Leisure Concepts, run by AL Kahn, the licensor of Pokeman.
Craig Richardson, creator and CIS (Chief Idea Surfer) of First Ideas has spent years creating and developing ideas for his and other companies. Richardson sees the nearly 100 million people using computers in the United States today (over 30 million new PC's will be shipped this year alone) as evidence of a niche to fill when it comes to personalizing and creating something fun while working or surfing. Since computers are used by every age and social/ economic demographic globally there's a WEBHEADS doll for everyone.
So come on, join the fun, which WEBHEAD doll fits your personality? Visit the WebHeads Web site, at www.iwebhead.com and find out.
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senilthesynth · 3 months ago
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Dead for now, and WHEN it comes back it'll Definitely be even worse but continue to hide its true face behind "think of the children". I need to check this *so do not believe me here*, but part of why it never got brought up in the House was that House republicans wanted something even more strict when it comes to shutting things down. Better "guidelines" of a sort at least, instead of "idk whatever a state decides could distress children" to give a clear "X, Y, Z things should be monitored the closest."
Regardless, it's been *temporarily* halted. It'll come back with a vengeance though, and as we saw the vast majority of Senate Democrats voted for it. Biden supported it. House Dems probably supported it to a point. It needs to become a big ticket issue as well. No to online censorship, especially when guided by vague principles that can and will be abused by bad actors *by design*.
Fuck Blumenthal. Fuck Blackburn. Fuck every Senate dem who voted for this shit, knowing the full impact and implications or not.
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thank you everyone for addressing concerns to your representatives because it works and for now we have a free and open internet!!!
(they'll definitely bring this shit up and revive it yet again but for now we can celebrate)
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reachingeec · 5 months ago
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CPR Training On the GO!
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Here's a little bit of why CPR Training is so important!
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Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a critical skill that can make the difference between life and death in emergency situations. Whether you're a healthcare professional, a parent, or simply a concerned citizen, understanding and being able to perform CPR is invaluable. In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of CPR, the steps involved, and how you can get trained to save lives.
Understanding CPR: What Is It?
CPR is an emergency procedure performed when the heart stops beating. It combines chest compressions and artificial ventilation to maintain circulatory flow and oxygenation during cardiac arrest. The main goal of CPR is to keep oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs until professional medical help arrives.
Finding the Best CPR Training
The quality of CPR training can significantly impact your ability to effectively perform the procedure. Here are some top options for CPR training and ReachingEEC is AHA certified who can certify anyone within the United States.
American Heart Association (AHA): AHA is a renowned provider of CPR training, offering courses for both healthcare providers and the general public. Their courses are comprehensive, widely respected, and include hands-on practice with mannequins.
2. Red Cross: The Red Cross provides excellent CPR training with a focus on practical skills and real-life scenarios. They offer both in-person and blended learning options, which combine online coursework with in-person practice.
3. National Safety Council (NSC): NSC offers detailed CPR training that includes additional first aid techniques. Their programs are available for different skill levels and are often integrated into workplace safety training.
4. Online Courses: For those with busy schedules, accredited online courses can be a flexible and effective way to learn CPR. Websites like ProCPR and CPR Certification Institute provide certification courses that are recognized nationwide.
Book your CPR course with the BEST CPR training center in town!
At Reaching EEC we want to help you obtain the CPR skills needed to save a life!
Contact us now:
www.reachingeec.com
Call or Text 561-571-2295
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pdbrebbe · 1 year ago
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Internet Marketing At Its Best
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You will have costs for hosting, domain registration, web design and a few other small costs. The biggest investment that most people make when starting up is time. Myth: More traffic equals more sales. Fact: More traffic can sometimes mean more sales, but only when the traffic is quality targeted traffic. Getting your name out there is important, but traffic programs that simply send uninterested individuals to your site will get you no where. Build streams of traffic that are interested in what you have to offer and you will see profitability begin to build. Myth: The Internet is faceless. Fact: Many believe that since you do not have face-to-face contact with your customers, anything goes on the Internet. No one will find out if you use a few shady business practices, right? The Internet is smaller than you think and it has a long memory. Create a reputation for yourself as a spammer or scammer and it will follow you for a long, long time. You may fool a handful of people, but it will come back to haunt you at some point. Especially with networking sites like Twitter, you need to be careful what you do online, bad news spreads instantly. There are dozens more myths that can turn your business from a moneymaking machine into a losing battle. However, by studying business best practices and learning the ropes, you can avoid Internet marketing myths and make your website more profitable. Internet Marketing help you sell what you have to offer among a large mass of potential customers. Interconnectivity over the internet gives a higher probability of making sales on a regular basis. Not too long ago, the primary way that people were able to make money was through a regular job. They would travel to the job site, trade time for money, and come back home waiting to do it again. Once the Internet became something available for everyone, it began to change the landscape of how people were able to make money. Instead of having to travel to a certain destination in order to work, many people learned how to use the Internet in order to make a part-time or full-time income. Without having to travel anywhere, they were able to replace their regular income, or supplement it, by using the Internet. In this article, we will present several reasons why Internet marketing works and how you can tap into this very modern and unique way to earn a living on the web. Internet Marketing has come a long way since its early beginnings. If you want to succeed online, you must get your basics right. Learning the basics of internet marketing is your key to succeed online. You need to know how to properly market your products online and how to connect with prospects to increase your online income. In order to accelerate your online business, you need to firstly show your expertise online. More and more internet users are complaining that they pay for useless information online and that pose a challenge for you to earn money online. Even when you publish original and valuable information, your prospects might still doubt your credibility. If you are serious to make long term income from internet marketing, you can ask other experienced internet marketer to joint venture with you. Now, with other expert speaking for you, you will certainly increase your reputation online. As long as you are running a business, you will need to advertise for it. The beauty of online marketing is that you can choose paid advertising or free advertising. If you have extra money to spend, you can choose to advertise your online business with PPC or hire professionals to optimize your webpage. If you have a talent on writing, you can write "useful how to e-books" which relates to your business, and offer it online. Some of the e-books were downloaded even up to 7,000 times. It means that your investment cost per head is only 0.003 cents! That is way much cheaper than a PPC campaign. To furthermore add a viral element in it, you can give permission for other people to pass your e-book for free, or use it as a gift on their website as long as they don't change your content. Again, the important thing here is quality content, then only people will be willing to pass or recommend your e-book. Every marketer knows that networking is a very important aspect in business. The Internet had made it even easier with lots of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and many other. There are many different social media sites, and each one has their own unique features. To use social media effectively, first clarify your purpose on why you want to use them. And then choose the most suitable social media site. Focus on it, and build your network which is based on trust and win-win situations. They have a problem that needs solving or they see something that they must have. This fits well into the online marketing plan of reselling information because those who want to succeed at internet marketing but have failed need to fill that emotion and impulse void. You do not have to be a teacher to resell this product. In fact, you do not have to know anything other than the program works. You know this because you used the videos, you created the website and used the sales letter. What better testimonials than your own. Take what you learned and create a video to add to your site. Let others know that they can learn from this program just as you have. Even if you do not have a product, use this information to create an online business because the master resale rights allows you to resell the material. If you did not have something to sell, now you do. Take what you learned, sell it to others, and profit. You know it works, so there are no worries about wondering if people will buy. You just show them how you got started and how it can work for them and there you have your online business. A one-time sale is worthless. A good relationship with loyal customers is worth a fortune in your internet marketing strategy. That's the most valuable thing any business can have. The key here is to build your large list of "lifetime customers who trust you." Achieve this and you're set for life. 4. You do this by selling your prospects something that solves their common problems and helps them achieve their dreams. It doesn't have to be a full-length book, it doesn't have to be complicated, but you must have your own product to build this relationship. Reselling someone else's stuff is not enough. Giving something away is not enough. By having your customers pay YOU for the solution, you will gain their trust right away and they will listen to you from there on. Your front-end product must make your customers extremely satisfied. 5. You need to create a proven, optimized sales process and automate as much as possible.
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patriotjunkie00 · 1 year ago
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If You Are Doing Online Marketing
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But choosing the best course is somewhat challenging. It will also cover a little history of this field. No sign up fees, registration fees, or submission fees are required. Stop! Before you even consider dropping out of the online marketing "game", consider whether you have an action plan for success. SEM is a combination of paid or sponsored listing and organic results in search engines e. Along with this one has to monitor the apparent trends such as which pages are visited most frequently thus planning accordingly for the promotion of business. This highlights the product in the competitive world. The small business houses will find their own segment of consumers with the increased popularity of web clusters and widgets in the future. Gates points out precisely how in the future decade the companies who have the best and the most content could be the ones to reign over the online markets Many people are making very significant amounts of money from internet marketing so keep in your mind just what your success will mean to both you and your family. You will have tough days and exasperating failures at times but, if you are able to accept these and be prepared to learn from your mistakes, success will eventually come. You can only reap what you sow On the other hands, it will be more time and labor saving as well. If newspaper and TV are your Advertising tools, it may take a lot more steps to know how your customers think about your product. This could be a simple report, or you could actually have a physical product that you sell online He was in New York during a bitter cold spell and saw a long line of people ("the crowd") waiting for cabs at the airport. The foundations of success in any business lie in the mindset of the budding entrepreneur. You still have to learn how to sell. You wouldn't do that, now would you? I know I have, and the results were NOT pretty. There are a lot of internet marketing training programs these days that teach people to get started with affiliate marketing and just "share" their link on Facebook, forums, and search engines
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sobhaprojects · 1 year ago
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Explore Sobha's exceptional residential projects in Bangalore, offering luxurious apartments and villas with world-class amenities. Discover your dream home in prime locations such as Whitefield, Hosa Road, Banashankari, and more. Immerse yourself in the elegance, quality, and comfort of Sobha properties, designed to enhance your living experience in the bustling city of Bangalore.
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centrally-unplanned · 1 year ago
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We (somewhat rightly) mock the 2000's era fansub translation notes for their otaku fixations and privileging of trivia over the media, but they should be understood as serving their purpose for a bit of a different era in the anime fandom. Take this classic:
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Like, its so obvious, right? Just say "pervert", you don't need the note! Which is true, for like a 'normie' audience member who just wants to watch A TV Show - but no one watching, uh *quick google* "Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne" in 1999 is that person. The audience is weebs, and for them the fact that show is Japanese is a huge selling point. They want it to feel as 'anime' as possible; and in the west language was one of the core signifiers of anime-ness. 2004 con-goers calling their friends "-kun" and throwing in "nani?" into conversations was the way this was done, and alongside that a lexicon of western anime fandom terminology was born. Seeing "ecchi" on the screen is, to this person, a better viewing experience - it enhances their connection to otaku identity the show is providing, and reinforces their shared cultural lexicon (Ecchi is now a term one 'expects' anime fans to know - a truth that translator notes like this simultaneously created and reflected).
But of course your audiences have different levels of otaku-dom, and so you can't just say 'ecchi' and call it a day - so for those who are only Level 2 on their anime journey, you give them a translation note. Most of the translation notes of the era are like this - terms the fansubber thought the audience might know well enough that they would understand it and want that pure Japanese cultural experience, but that not all of them would know, so you have to hedge. The Lucky Star one I posted is a great example of that:
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Its Lucky Star, the otaku-crown of anime! You desperately want the core text to preserve as much anime vocab as possible, to give off that feeling, but you can't assume everyone knows what a GALGE is - doing both is the only way to solve that dilemma.
This is often a good guideline when looking at old memetically bad fansubs by the way:
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This isn't real, no fansub had this - it was a meme that was posted on a wiki forum in 2007. Which makes sense, right? "Plan" isn't a Japanese cultural or otaku term, so there is no reason not to translate it, it doesn't deepen the ~otaku connection~.
Which, I know, I'm explaining the joke right now, but over time I think many have grown to believe that this (and others like it) is a real fansub, and that these sort of arbitrary untranslations just peppered fansub works of the time? It happened, sure, but they would be equally mocked back then as missteps - or were jokes themselves. Some groups even had a reputation for inserting jokes into their works, imo Commie Subs was most notable for this; part of the competitive & casual environment of the time. But they weren't serious, they are not examples of "bad fansubs" in the same way.
This all faded for a bunch of reasons - primarily that the market for anime expanded dramatically. First, that lead to professionally released translations by centralized agencies that had universal standards for their subs and accountability to the original creators of the show. Second, the far larger audience is far less invested in anime-as-identity; they like it, but its not special the way its special when you are a bullied internet recluse in 2004. They just want to watch the show, and would find "caring" about translation nuances to be cringe. And since these centralized agencies release their product infinitely faster and more accessibly than fansubs ever did, their copies now dominate the space (including being the versions ripped to all illegal streaming sites), so fansubs died.
Though not totally - a lot of those fansub groups are still around! Commie Subs is still kicking for example. They either do the weird nuance stuff, or fansub unreleased-in-the-west old or niche anime, or even have pivoted to non-anime Japanese content that never gets international release. But they used to be the taste-makers of the community; now they are the fringe devotees in a culture that has moved beyond them. So fansubs remain something of a joke of the 90's and 2000's in the eyes of the anime culture of today, in a way that maybe they don't deserve.
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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 month ago
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Everyday homeowners are human shields for Wall Street’s Internet of Shit slumlords
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The American Dream, such as it is, used to be two dreams, one based on work and solidarity, the other on asset appreciation and disconnected individualism. We killed the first one.
As the New Deal gave way to the post-war social safety net, Americans discovered two paths to social mobility: they could join a union, and they could buy a home. Joining a union meant that your wages would rise with productivity, and that the democratic ideal that you were meant to approach once every two years at the ballot-box could follow you into the building you spent more waking hours in than any other: your jobsite.
Labor unions used their political power to win labor rights, so that even workers who weren't a union couldn't be arbitrarily fired, or maimed on the job with impunity, or harassed or abused. And while the labor movement was mired in the same racist legacy that every American institution brought forward out of genocide and slavery, where racialized people started unions of their own or demanded representation from the unions who nominally represented them, they thrived.
Then there were houses. On the one hand, owning your home insulated you from the petty tyranny of the landlord, the threat of eviction, rent hikes, indifferent or dangerous building maintenance, and all the other miseries that arise when you think of a building as your home and someone else thinks of it as an asset, and the board is tilted so that they win every argument.
But homeownership wasn't just sold as a way to get out from under scumbag landlords: it was primarily sold as a way to build intergenerational wealth. Your house wasn't just a place to live: it was an asset, and it appreciated.
And if the dividends of labor protection were unevenly distributed between white people and racial minorities, the dividends of home ownership were almost entirely hoarded by white families. Federal policies – redlining – combined with racist lending at the local level, meant that Black families and other racialized groups were stuck in tenancy, while white families build wealth thanks to federal subsidies:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170220005558/https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Asset%20Value%20of%20Whiteness.pdf
Those were the two American dreams: a good job and your own home. We killed the first one, and the second one devoured us whole.
Without a strong labor movement, wages stagnated. Corporate power waxed, and with it, the power to pollute, to poison, to maim and to defraud. The labor movement wasn't strong enough to stop Reagan from killing free UC tuition when he was governor of California. It wasn't strong enough to hold back spiraling health care prices. It wasn't strong enough to block the business lobby from neutering antitrust and ushering in four decades of market concentration, market capture and corruption. Workers couldn't save their defined benefits pension and were railroaded into market-based 401(k)s, forcing them to play the stock casino against their bosses, ever the sucker at the poker table.
With stagnant wages and out of control medical, educational and end-of-life bills, homeownership – the thing you do as an individual, where your gain is someone else's loss – became the American secular religion. Your house wasn't just a place to sleep and keep your photo albums: if it appreciated enough, you might be able to liquidate it on your deathbed and pay off your eldercare, your healthcare, your kids' college debt, and leave enough left over for your kids' downpayments.
And so every American who had a home became the enemy of every American who didn't – including one another's children. Every home built threatened your own property values. The racist, batshit American school funding formula, which sees schools funded out of property taxes, meaning the richest kids get the best schools, turned out to be a great way to increase your property values.
Protections for tenants, meanwhile, threatened the entire American way of life – the American dream itself. Every protection a tenant got – protection from eviction or rent hikes, the legal right to a safe and well-maintained home – reduced the value of every home in town.
After all, the better a landlord has to treat their tenants, the less money a landlord can make from a rental property. The less money a landlord can make from a rental property, the less they'd bid on a house like yours if it went up for sale.
And since anyone planning to buy your house to live in it has to outbid a landlord who might want to rent it out, giving tenants any protection threatened everything – the one asset you owned, which was your plan a, b and c for paying off all that health, education, and assisted living debt:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/
Today, the house-as-asset scam is breathing its last. There are millions more people who need homes than there are homes available. Sure, homelessness is a fantastically complex problem, but you could address every aspect of it – addiction, mental illness, joblessness – and millions of people would still be homeless, because there aren't enough homes for them to live in:
https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/myths-about-homeless-people-with-dr-margot-kushel
70% of all inflation in 2024 came from the cost of housing; a quarter of that came from illegal collusive behavior by landlords to hike rents:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/up-to-a-quarter-of-rental-inflation
Wall Street landlords have raised gigantic war-chests and are buying up homes at a rate never before seen, converting every available single-family home in many cities from an owner-occupied home to a rental. Private equity and hedge fund landlords have elevated charging junk fees to an absurdist theater project: you pay a "convenience" charge for paying your rent in cash. But also for paying your rent by direct transfer. Oh, and also for paying in cash. When Wall Street is your landlord, your home is a slum, dangerously undermaintained, sometimes lethally so:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords
Capitalists hate capitalism. The best thing to sell is something your customer can't live without, and that no one else has for sale. That's why "the market" loves private prisons so much:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch
The vast sums Wall Street is putting into buying up all of America's available housing stock is a bet that they can establish regional monopolies over having a home, and charge all the market can bear.
That's the plan at Invitation Homes, a company that was just targeted by the FTC for a slate of eye-watering crimes against the tenants in the 80,000 single-family homes they've acquired:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-takes-action-against-invitation-homes-deceiving-renters-charging-junk-fees-withholding-security
Invitation Homes purchases homes as they come on the market, and they're also a leading customer of the "build-to-rent" housing industry, a fast-growing segment of new housing starts.
Writing about the FTC's enforcement action against Invitation Homes, Matt Soller brings in Starwood Capital Group, who manage Invitation Homes properties, and own 14,000 more homes in the sunbelt. Invitation and Starwood hate the anti-monopoly movement, and Barry Sternlicht, Starwood's billionaire CEO, really hates FTC Chair Lina Khan:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-corporate-slumlords
The FTC complaint lays out a suite of just comically sleazy things ways that Invitation abuses its tenants, starting with false advertising. The company lists its houses at relatively low rents, then charges a large fee to apply to live there. When you pass the application process, you're told the rent is actually much higher, and if you walk away from the deal, you forfeit your application fee. That scam's netted Invitation $18m since 2019.
Stoller really hates junk fees, calling them "convenience fees without any convenience, service charges without any service performed." He lays out Invitation's long list of junk fees, which honestly sound like a list that Chatgpt would spit out if you prompted it for fifty junk fees that wouldn't pass the giggle-test: "utility management fees" "Lease Easy bundle fees," "air filter delivery fee," "smart home technology fees," etc etc.
"Smart home technology fee?" Yeah, Invitation's gone in hard for Internet of Shit smart home tech. The SVP who oversees Invitation's smart home fee program was ordered to "juice this hog" (you guys, juice doesn't come from hogs).
After decades of recruiting everyday American homeowners to demand anti-tenant policies that benefit giant corporations, American tenants have few rights on paper and even fewer in practice. That's left the door wide open for Invitation to abuse their tenants in a myriad of dismal and unimaginative ways: stealing their deposits, trashing their credit reports to retaliate against complaints, illegal evictions, busted appliances, mold, vermin, insects – the whole slumlord playbook.
As Stoller writes, there's a twist: "this landlord isn’t just a random slumlord, it’s one of the biggest Wall Street players in housing."
There are vast fortunes to be made in converting the human right to housing into an asset class, but those fortunes end up in the hands of a very small number of billionaires. On their own, they wouldn't have the political power to dismantle protections for tenants.
Realistically speaking, most kids who grew up in their parents' owner-occupied homes are going to end up tenants, thanks to undersupply and housing inflation. But those kids' parents have spent decades demanding policies to make their homes as valuable as possible – including mortgage tax breaks (but not rent tax breaks!), looser eviction laws, and less enforcement of what few protections tenants have.
Middle class homeowners are the useful idiots and human shields of the billionaires who are determined to force every American under 40 raise their kids in a rented slum full of spiders, ratshit and black mold, which will still cost 60% of their take-home salary.
That's why the FTC's action against Invitation Homes is such a big deal. And as Stoller points out, Chair Khan is really just implementing Kamala Harris's campaign promise to get Wall Street out of the landlord business.
Wall Street's raid on your bedroom and kitchen has inspired a generation of "finfluencer" copycats who buy and flip apartment buildings, sucking ever-larger amounts of cash out of them until they're unfit for human habitation, with mountains of rat-infested garbage ringing their crumbling walls:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston
Any future worth living in is going to get housing right. We need to stop thinking of housing as an asset and realize that it is, first and foremost, a human right. That's the premise of my 2023 solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which just came out in paperback:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865946/thelostcause
You can't protect yourself from rising seas or rising healthcare bills through individual home-ownership. Solidarity – the kind of solidarity that once powered the union movement, and that is powering it again – is the only way to defeat the housing profiteers. The New Deal wasn't perfect, which is why whatever we do next has to be bigger, further reaching, and more inclusive than what FDR did almost a century ago.
The only minority that should be excluded from the next New Deal is billionaires.
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Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/01/housing-is-a-human-right/#rentier-tech
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Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/
Carlos Delgado (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_-_New_York_Stock_Exchange.jpg
CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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corollaservant · 6 months ago
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Night in the Net // Shigaraki x f! reader (18+)
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Synopsis: You find yourself stranded in one hell of a sexist environment: the small town's internet café. Shigaraki's on the night shift. (3.6k)
Warnings: sex with Shiggy basically, mild degradation and misogyny from our fav incel, dom!Shiggy with a twist (no quirk obviously), use of “dollface” (i like it)
A/N: No dark themes here, peace n luv. Also.. yeah he is always linked to some gaming/electronic business ik!! but I like the trope/hc/almost canon.
You'd never imagine this was how your night would end.
Why are you there again? Right, your friends wanted to go to that after party, as if the club wasn't enough. What was supposed to be a night out ended up with you in the local internet café (the only after hours spot) while your friends decided to go to a house party with loud techno music, which definitely wasn’t your vibe. You and your friends lived close and would often call a taxi on your way home, money wasn’t enough for you to ride solo today though—you prayed in times like these that you at least had a job; you wouldn’t have to rely on anyone then. 
You knew pretty much everyone there, it’s not like the town had more than ten thousand residents and considering the age group and schools you’d all gone to, the internet café only had a few unknown members. On today’s shift was none other than Tomura of course, that guy was taking up as many shifts as his body would allow him to, apparently there was this rumor a family member was in crucial condition and they were in need. Tomura Shigaraki was one of these people you had branded as incel. Though hardworking (he kept a house of his own, cleaning and doing all chores by himself while providing for whomever he had), you still considered the guy as one. Now—you know the term is heavy, matter of fact, quite offending and serious as an allegation but it’s not like there weren’t rumors. Rumors he’d bash women and call them prostitutes, try to sleep with girls and trash them to his friends a day later, hating them for anything they did and claiming true love didn’t exist nowadays because “all women are sluts, who need money and validation.” Plus, he worked at the local internet café (should be enough reason), engaging in heated conversations with his friends and fellow streamers. God, one look in their chats and you'd get as violent as possible— (not much, you'd discovered it the hard way). Thus, it was no surprise that when you enter the place, you hear whispers and scoffs.
‘’The hell are you doing here?’’ A voice was heard from within, the café had the computer screens up front, a bar and a couch with TV in the back. Tomura was occupied in the designated bar the place had (you often wondered what kind of needs these people had—all they ever consumed was energy drinks and pre-packaged meals, takeouts were for reasons of competitive market prohibited).
‘’Just dropping by for a couple of hours, will leave soon.’’ You sigh as you take a seat on the couch, not bothering to talk to anyone, it wasn’t like they cared anyway. Loud noise and laughter can be heard all around, a couple of guys swearing and some younger boys excitedly standing above their screens. The store had a 16+ policy, but of course, no one ever checked so kids could practically stare unattended. Tomura also encouraged younger boys to play, such a piece of shit, you think, getting them to learn young. 
‘’Oh my fucking God, a slut just joined!’’ You hear some guy swear, presumably because a girl joined their online server. These guys were so disgusting, you cringe, it was no wonder they were celibate without wanting it. You stand up, you need to kill some time and you're feeling bored, you think about starting a fight with Tomura, how else could you have a little bit of fun?
You weren’t ever necessarily afraid of the guy, even though you had to admit, he looked intimidating. Quite tall with a pale complexion, ashy, dull hair and scars across his face; no one actually knew much about him and whether he was troubled, it’s not like he ever showed to work beaten up or high and usually kept a low profile. The only frightening thing this man had was his smile, it terrified you sometimes as it looked downright evil. 
‘’Getting them to learn young, huh?’’ You ask him, he’s washing up some cups from the previous round of gross gaming guys, who have now left.
‘’What?’’ He responds, not bothering to look up. 
‘’How to not get women, I mean.’’ You sigh as he huffs in annoyance.
‘’You should be grateful I let a female in my store in the first place.’’ He retorts, but doesn’t seem very angry, just ironic. Usual.
My store (you decide to skip over 'female') sounds funny but you choose not to comment on it. 
‘’So how long until you guys close?’’ You don't bother with the vocabulary—it’s routine at this point. It also never ends well and you had a great night so far, why ruin it now?
‘’Two hours.’’ 
‘’Mind if I sit on the couch? I’ll be quiet I promise’’ You ask—technically beg, as you see no other options.
‘’Ugh.. yeah I mind. There’s some guys wanting to use it, I have a group for GTA on the PS5.’’
‘’Seriously? People still play that?’’ You whine but force yourself to continue.
 ‘’Can I sit with you then?’’ It takes strength—but you say it regardless. You came to terms with the fact he was your last resort minutes ago.
‘’Sure. But you need to make yourself useful. Here, take this.’’ He hands you a wet sponge, ‘’Wash these up... carefully, while I go clean the floors.’’ He orders, as if you’re part of the staff (and new on the job apparently.)
‘’Do you actually want me to wash freaking dishes? I just came here to chill, I don’t even bother anyone!’’ You start feeling annoyed with the chores, you aren’t 16 and he isn’t your mom.
‘’You can always leave.’’ The running tap stops and he turns to you, practically shoving the wet gloves on your chest. 
‘’Or...you can stop being a brat and be of use during your stay, I have two hours left.’’ He smiles, that same smile that makes your skin crawl and blood boil as he moves away.
‘’Fuck! My dress, you asshole!’’ A wet patch now covers the too short dress as you glance at the time on your phone. 
Two hours. Two hours until your friends leave and he closes up anyway.
-
Tomura was at least true to his words. Within two insufferable hours of having to listen to appalling conversations between men (hardly to be considered as such), plate washing and the toilet being constantly occupied, the last customers get up to leave. 
You dry your hands and plop down the couch exhausted.
‘’Finally.’’ You exhale checking your phone, your friends hadn’t given you any life signs in the meantime, so you decide to patiently wait, they’d message eventually. Tomura is done sweeping the nasty floors from crumbs and dried Monster remnants, which he still has to mop (for the fourth time, you note and you've only been there some hours). You notice how restless he seems—the guy has been running the whole night after ignorant customers, who had not once shown basic respect for the order of the place yet never complained. Truly a shame he has such a misogynistic mindset, you think. He could get women, if he wanted to. 
It’s around 6:30 AM, when he presses a button to close the store's roll-up shutters halfway. Small light outside makes its way in but the place is still relatively dark, as he places the mop near the wall and takes a seat next to you.
‘’Fuuck, I’m so tired.’’ He sighs, making sure to spread his legs on the couch as much as he can, not caring (of course) about you also sitting on it. 
You always branded Tomura as an incel, that you knew about. But despite that, you now can’t help but feel for him, not knowing much about him at the same time. Sure, he technically isn’t the nicest guy but a look around would show you that he tries enough for a job kicking his ass. You find yourself sympathizing with a man, whose ideals you hate and try to brush these thoughts off.
‘’And why the fuck am I an incel anyway?’’ He asks, his head rests on the couch and his eyes are closed, he is scrunching severely—almost threatening to fall down. And he manspreads. A lot.
‘’W-well– I..’’ You never thought he’d caught on to that, stammering to stand your ground as you continue. ‘’Well, there have been rumors about you.’’ You say, but it doesn’t come off as confident as you’d hoped for. You also realize, it sounds kind of stupid.
‘’Reaaally? And you made sure to believe them, right?’’ His tone’s laced with irony but the way he talks like he whispers in a raspy voice doesn't annoy you anymore. It makes you more... uncomfortable? On the edge? Excited?...what?
‘’It’s not like you don’t claim it yourself.’’ You retort, finally finding some courage. You notice him looking at you as you awkwardly shuffle in your seat.
‘’All I’ve ever said was that I think women are good for nothing. And I still believe that, but I wouldn’t waste more of my time on that.’’ The statement makes you roll your eyes.
‘’How can you generalize a whole group of people, who are literally in no way inferior to you, you can’t tell me you’ve tried—’’ 
‘’Listen dollface, unless you want to change my mind there’s no reason to fuss that much, my opinion won’t change.’’
Unless you want to change my mind?
‘’I-I don’t.’’ You stammer, because the answer and pet name (dollface??) takes you by surprise and he laughs.
‘’Relax, you branded me an incel.’’ He jokes, ‘’don’t want the rape allegations on me too.’’ 
The more he talks, the more your mind races and you curse yourself. He seems..funny? He has a mole under his lips—fuck, it looks cute...He also looks good so (stupid as it is, yes!) you silently want his attention. Why can’t he just look you in the eyes more?
This is so wrong. He must've noticed your lost gaze as he speaks up.
‘’Wanna watch a movie?’’ He proposes and you nod, anything is better than the silence hanging in the air. Silence you caused. For thinking... things about him. 
Of course Tomura ends up choosing the most depressing film anyone can possibly watch in an internet café at 6 AM, Fallen Angels, and the dramatic cuts make it hard for you to concentrate. He at a certain point leans closer to you but you justify it, how else would he be able to see?
During this one scene, the woman pleasured herself with her legs closed, rubbing together and that’s when you feel a soft hand touch on your thigh. The dress you wore rode up, because your legs rested on the table ahead so it gave him the space he needed. The movement made you tingle and your core involuntarily contracted. The smooth fingers teasingly trailed up and down your leg, from your knees to your inner thighs. You didn’t want to look at him—he was too close and the scene seemed endless. But…he went on about it as if nothing was happening. 
Without saying a word, he carried on. A pad of his finger tip dangerously close to your now heated entrance, the images flashing before your eyes lewd, his hand tempting and threatening to reach your already soaked cunt—all this while the two of you hadn’t even shared a kiss. But he doesn't stop, looking ahead and acting like everything’s fine, until he touches your lower lips and you hiss, his finger traces the wet spot over your underwear while you try to move and speak up. 
‘’W–what are y—’’
‘’Shh..’’ is all he says. 
You want to tell him no. But no to what? You like the feeling of his two fingers against your folds. His palm moves your panties to the side and he stuffs them inside—they dampen from the fluids. How is he that quick? You can’t form a response but you’re about to ask him why—
‘’All that and I haven’t even kissed you.’’ He murmurs, gaze still fixated on the television ahead as you moan, when he slowly pumps them within your walls. Fuck, are you turned on by this?
‘’P-please..’’ You whisper, turning to look at him and for the first time, his eyes are removed from the stupid TV, a sly smile on his features as he tears away his hand.
‘’What is it? Want the incel to kiss you? Maybe even fuck you to prove a point?’’ He says and you frown.
‘’I—no, I have to go.’’ You get up, fixing (lowering) your dress—you have nowhere to go but you’ll figure it out eventually. You think staying longer only plays into his cruel intentions and whilst you can’t deny the pleasure he could give you, your pride’s in the way.
‘’You’re not going anywhere.’’ A wet hand clasps around your wrist and brings you on his lap, as he grins; you seem confused at the sensation. You are hiding the TV screen but he couldn't care less, he never paid attention to the movie.
‘’Feel the stain you left, too?’’ He says as he brings your face closer with the sticky palm grabbing you by the hair. You softly moan, noticing the small mole up close and feeling a bulge poke where your bodies meet. You sway your hips in a silent effort to have him initiate a kiss, you feel desperate and curse yourself again internally. He can only smile.
(You were so clueless, walking around in that slutty dress earlier—making him hard like that, did you even know it?)
He’s quick to kiss you, eager for more already, as mouths clash, teeth collide, the need you both have exceeds proper manners. You sloppily grind against him, the friction from a long outline beneath you makes it hard to think.
‘’I’m guessing, you’re really fucking the incel then.’’ He half smirks as he grabs you and repositions you to sit on his now fully hard cock that throbs in his pants; he lifts your dress above your ass and guides your hips sluggishly back and forth—he’s tormenting you and he enjoys it to the fullest.
‘’T-tomura..p-please.’’ You whine, the urge to have him inside you makes you blabber.
‘’Please what?’’ He slides a hand behind your waist, lowering it to find your slit from behind, his fingers pet your cunt and you moan. Loudly. He is tugging at your panties, the fabric annoys him and he wants full access and the words. The words to prove his point.
‘’P–please...fuck me already!’’ You breathe out and he groans to the sound of your voice. 
The ironic remark he prepared evaporates as he quickly pushes you back, just enough to not fall off his lap and quickly unzips his pants, thanking god for not wearing a belt. 
His pants and underwear are sloppily moved down his knees, as his cock jumps with a pop on his lower abdomen, stiff with a weeping tip. Pretty veins throb around it as your eyes widen.
Shit, he’s big, can you take him?
‘’I’d ask for a nice blowjob, dollface, but wouldn’t want the feminists after me.’’ He says as he brings you close, kissing you yet again, a string of spit runs down your jaw, as your hands roam his tangled, uncombed hair. 
He positions you on his cock, one hand snakes around your waist while the other one clings to the back of your scalp and you’re swiftly lifted by the head and pushed down on him, as you let out a scream.
‘’Shut the fuck up.’’ He hisses, quickly looking around, the sensation from almost his whole length makes you tremble, he feels too full, too painful...too good.
‘’Shit, c’mon now you got this.’’ He encourages as you hesitantly move up and down his cock, gripping his shoulders and looking at him; he seems more concentrated on the sensation than your body, staring at you while you wrap around his length.
‘’Fuck...dollface, this too much for ya?’’ He tries not to grunt and you give your best not to cry, each moment that goes by turning the initial pain to pleasure—your cunt adjusts slowly and bit by bit to his girth. 
‘’T-tomura... y-yes..it’s too much!’’ You whine, sweat forms in your forehead as his hand finds your swollen clit and circles it while your nails dig deeper in his shirt.
‘’You can take it.’’ He says, he feels you squeezing him in, you bounce with dedication on his legs, making the couch squeak as if on some sex tape—you want to bring yourself even closer. So nasty, aren't you? Acting righteous, only to fuck yourself on his cock like a desperate whore.
‘’I-ugh-p-please..’’ You try to speak but he secures his hand around your torso and sinks (lower than before) down the couch. Two strong hands force you to stay still in the air while he drills himself into you at a steady pace, kind of sloppily too. Both of you moan, the position gives equal pleasure, your clit bumps on his groin and his cock reaches your g-spot with ease.
‘’S–Shit, you’re squeezing way too much, haven’t you been fucked like this before?’’ He sounds annoyed but the stammer in his voice betrays him.
Not like this, you want to say but can’t really speak the words. Your weight falls entirely on him, he doesn’t mind one bit—he loves it actually, this skin on skin contact as he guides you on his cock, it feels surreal. He hits soft and spongy spots inside while you slowly fall apart. 
‘’T-Tomura right there..I ugh—I'm close!’’ The sensation overwhelms you, his eyes are still fixated on your face, yeah I can tell, he thinks. He gets off on your desperation, mouth parted all for him? Your eyes threaten to spill by the way he tears apart your cunt and morals bit by bit.. it’s–
‘’Tomura, aren't you closing yet?’’ Someone asks from outside, interrupting the moment. The shutters only reveal a pair of shoes. 
‘’Yeah, I’m on it.’’ Shigaraki stops composed, cockwarming you in a funny way, while a hand, his hand covers your mouth. Your eyes widen as slick trickles down his thighs in silence.
‘’Alright, see you then.’’ The man leaves and he cusses him out. (''Cunt.'')
‘’We’re not done.’’ He turns his attention back to you and seizes your face, bringing your mouth closer.
‘’Open up.’’ He orders and you do, clenching around him in anticipation.
He spits in it and closes the gap with his index finger. 
‘’Swallow or I won’t continue.’’ You quickly gulp down.
‘’So obedient all of a sudden, aren't you?’’ Sarcasm evident as he gives your ass a solid hit, before starting to get back on his pace, only more rough this time, he longs for your release on him. You’re moving up and down his length, trying to grab anything accessible really, his hair, the back of the couch, under his shirt and you feel your orgasm resurface stronger; the delay highlighted all of your senses.
‘’T-Tomura—’’ You shudder, as his cock hits your g-spot expertly–fuck, this guy wasn't some incel–and your swollen clit has to brush one last time past his groin before you feel an overwhelming orgasm take over. You clamp down his length and moan embarrassingly (Fuck Tomura! I–I'm...too good!) This time he lets you, he needs to hear this.
‘’Fuuck—agh, look at you dollface.’’ He hums, a feminist creaming herself on my cock, he wants to add but it’s too many words and you just came so he wastes no time. He brings your neck close to his mouth and bites on it, teeth sink into your flesh and hands force you all the way down. His cum spills inside and he groans, trying to stifle his moans by biting down the sensitive skin even harder. 
And fuck if that isn’t hot.
He keeps you on him, arms fasten around your waist with cum dripping onto his lowered pants but neither of you bother to care; ragged breaths and the sounds of the film still playing are audible as more light enters through the rolled shutters.
God must’ve been on your side that day because a message appears on your screen moments after you both wordlessly got up and cleaned yourselves in the bathroom. Tomura would have to clean again, you think, as the message on your phone signals your time to leave.
You turn to look at him, he has removed his shirt and small nail scratches decorate his pale back and you..smile. What the hell? Was this..? Oh no—You try to find an appropriate goodbye.
See you soon? Thanks for the mind blowing dick? You aren’t the incel I thought you were? Everything seems embarrassing at present time. 
‘’I-I’ll be seeing you soon.’’ You opt for that, stupid as it is, you still look at him in anticipation. He turns to you, hands on the mop cleaning near the couch and nods. 
Great, you think, that was a disaster. You defeatedly walk (actually stoop to get past the almost closed door) feeling like a hooker after a client, miserable and kind of used. This is always the worst part. 
You feel an arm touch your shoulder, you’ve only taken a few steps in the daylight.
‘’Take this in case you revoke your incel statement.’’
Tomura hands you a piece of paper and quickly disappears behind the store’s shadows.
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