#it all comes down to corporations not giving a shit about their employees lives | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

igotanidea · 6 months ago

Text

Boss bitch and a princess: JT x reader

Summary: grumpy and sunshine trope with a little twist :)

***

The sun shining though the windows were quite surprising, if not shocking, occurrence in Gotham. Most of the citizens were used to constant rain, fog and misery surrounding them from every corner of the place. Therefore, the sight of a nice weather, for once was about to make some people content and energetic, finally getting the motivation to do some work and move on in their lifes.

Y/n was not one of those people.

It seemed like everything she did, was thrive in the October like atmosphere. Not because of the charming cosy autumn mood, but because she was cold and ruthless. She didn't give a damn about sun, butterfly, girly dresses and all that feminine stuff. Which obviously didn't mean she was a tomboy. Things like clothes and makeup just didn't took much space in her mind, she was acing them effortlessly and efficiently.

Exactly.

Efficiency.

That was definitely one of her favourite words and most definitely her life motto. Deal with shit, break the obstacles and if you cannot go though the doors, go though a window.

A taskmaster, if you may. A corporate rat. Ambitious, ruthless and unapologetic.

She woke up alone in her bed, just like every morning, immediately starting her routine of a few yoga poses, five minutes of meditation, ten minutes of setting her priorities for the day and getting into the right mindset.

She made herself a healthy breakfast and took a taxi to work.

The second she entered the building, her assistant caught up with her reminding y/n of the daily schedule, meetings, briefings and points on the checklist.

Obviously at the end of the day everything and then some was done. Including reprimanding her subordinates about being lazy and uncompetent.

In a mood she went home.

Opening the door.

"Hi baby." a little hoarse voice came from the kitchen.

"Jason!" she cried out happily, immeditely throwing her bitch boss attitude out the window. "You're back!" in a blink of an eye she was in his arms, kissing all over his face, hugging him and turning into a little ball of fluff, knowing her boyfriend was back.

"Whoa! Easy tiger!" Jason laughed wrapping arms around her waist.

"I was so worried when you weren't here in the morning!" she did not calm down even a notch. "I was thinking that something happened and -"

"I'm almost sure you just went on with your high corporate day and attitude without giving me a second thought, didn't you?" he teased, boping her nose.

"Hey, that's-" she started, his words strking her chords

"True?" he cut her off raising an eyebrow.

"Not fair!"

"But still true?' he pressed further and the roll of her eyes alongside with a pout gave him all the answers he needed. "don't do that or it will stay. would be a shame to waste such a pretty face, princess." he put one finger over her chin and lifter it out so she was forced to look into his eyes.

"You know exactly why I'm blocking it..." she whispered, getting a little nostalgic "I can't--"

"I know, I know. You've said it a million times. Emotions in your line of work are a deathbed." Jason mocked a little, empasising the fact that his beloved girlfriend had a tendency to overreact sometimes.

"It's true! You know it;s true! If any on my employees knew--"

"That you are soft for a guy?"

"That I have feelings!"

"Oh no! Look at you, you;re human and not a robot! How will you live with that?"

"And that's coming from a walking dead." she muttered, crossing arms over her chest and stepping away. "I hate you…"

Not for long though, when he reached for her in a practised move and pressed his lips to her ear.

"No, you don't princess..." his lips ghosted over her temple

"Yes I do...?"

"Really? Do you?" he moved to kiss her neck, softly, but teasingly "Cause the way you shivering right now make me think otherwise."

"Jason--"

"I know, I know... you love me so much my little grumpy." the grip on her waist tightened and he pulled her closer. "You've been lonely and that's the reason for the sourpuss mood, isn't it? Let me make it up to you..." another argument making her melt took a form of running hands all over her back, from the shoulders and down to the rear.

"You know what I like..." she responded with a hint of mischief in her voice.

"that I do..." he scooped her in his arms and carried her to the couch.

***

Half an hour later Y/N was splayed on the couch with the face mask on, hair freshly washed by Jason himself and her legs on his lap, having full control of the remote. In her own belief, this was the greatest torture she could impose on her boyfriend.

Little did she know, that is was his greatest pleasure.

Pampering her in all the million little ways. Using the most mundane, tiniest example of self-care (or rather boyfriend's care) as a way to spend time with her and have multiple excuses to touch and feel her close. Not that he needed excuses, but getting her to agree to this softness was not always easy, given her charcter.

Even that had to be somewhat productive.

But once she did agree?

Hours.

She would be glued to the spot for hours, letting him please her, comb her hair, apply skin care products on her face and body.

Finally sheding her work attitude.

Becoming his princess once more, cause with him - her deeply hidden, secretive sensitive part was safe.

#jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #red hood x y/n #red hood x you #jason todd fluff #red hood fluff

327 notes · View notes

scarlettmarlens-blog · 1 year ago

Text

All I hear about it’s corporations “losing billions” and “gaining billions” but where is all this fucking money. Thousands of people are losing their jobs for ai, and everyone I know seems to want to kill themselves than work. New big store manager now and my coworker told me the last store manager apparently had a budget for employees bonus gift cards and no one saw a cent of that. We get a block of chocolate at Christmas as thanks as the higher ups get thousands in bonuses bc of profits and the profit come from us working our asses off so they can cut hours and add work. People spend more an purses than I make in a year and we’re the people that NEED the actual money to live. I can barely afford to feed myself while ceos make more money than they can dream of spending. They fucking invent new ways to blow the cash they have for funnies while still having enough to give their great grandchildren. IM SICK OF THE WORLD GETTING WORSE EVERYDAY. Everywhere I turn I see new articles about laws getting repealed, actively making shit worse! Years of hard fought progress thrown in the trash by the most greedy bigots, voted in by the most anti intellectual manipulated bigots. I hate this. I try to keep my fucking head down and do the work to survive but I’m furious!! And helpless to make any change. There are millions of people that share my view but even they can barely make a dent in it all. Why why why why why can’t things just be fair. And even if there is rich people why does it have to come at the cost of common people having to decide if they’ll eat or go to the doctors.

#I have this rant in my head at least once a week #political #government #us government #aus government #housing crisis #poverty #the 1%#eat the rich #I hate these motherfuckers #gov #rant #I really am sick it #elections #corporate #corporations #corporate crime #greed

196 notes · View notes

just-horrible-things · 1 month ago

Text

Found this while I was sorting my docs, can't remember why I didn't share in the first place but I then forgot all about it until now.

Starring @ustplainwhump's Tyler Parker from her Way Over His Head in a crossover with my characters:

Key Witness

Ariadne navigates the maze of sterile white corridors using Wright’s electronic handiwork. She holds her phone in front of her like a tourist with their GPS, but instead of a map her screen shows a view of herself from above.

She’s glad she paid attention when the WRU employees gave her the tour of the place. Without it she’d be far more lost than she is. The understated building above gives little clue of the expansive warren of cells and hallways beneath the facility. The staff even confided in Ariadne – pleased with their own cleverness – the scheme of geometric marks at the corners that serve in place of legible signs to help the employees navigate down here. Unfortunately not in enough detail to let her make full use of them, but even knowing what to look for helps.

Even so, she has to pause almost every turn to flick between camera views and orient herself by the overlap where she stands under the gaze of more than one lens. She’d kill for a site plan. But this is enough.

If Wright’s doing her job, Ariadne’s in no danger from the security team whose cameras they’re making use of. She’s a ghost, her image erased from the footage before it appears on any screen but hers and Wright’s.

Being a great believer in failsafes, Ariadne has also borrowed a handler’s uniform. It’s a far flimsier defence, but with her head down and her phone angled so that the cameras can’t read the screen, she could pass at a casual glance for a handler merely dawdling about her duty while engrossed in her phone screen.

The greatest threat to her is running into a real handler face to face. The graveyard shift is a skeleton crew compared to the industry of the day, but the facility never truly sleeps. Ariadne measures her breathing and listens intently to pick out their footfalls from the low background murmur of miserable, whimpering voices and air-conditioning hum.

So long as she hears them coming, all she has to do is absent herself a hallway or two from their path, watch their progress through the suborned camera feeds, and move on once they let themselves into the next cell or workroom.

This is a job for a team, and she was strongly advised to wait. She’s well aware of how crazy it is to be sneaking around under the nose of one of the most dangerous corporations in the country, with her only backup half a city away on the other side of her phone screen.

If she fucks this up, they won’t find her. If they do, it won’t be before WRU have erased everything that makes her her.

But she can’t wait, because any day now they’re going to whisk her target away to another facility, or hook him up to the drugs that will neatly and conveniently erase any chance of testimony from his skull.

If Ariadne’s unlucky, they may already have started that process.

She’s seen her destination from above. The footage is high enough quality to spare no details. She knows exactly what to expect, and you can’t be squeamish in Ariadne’s line of work.

But seeing it through the flat, impersonal eye of a camera still doesn’t quite prepare her for the reality of walking into the room.

The clinical, white-walled backdrop only accentuates the obscenity of the tableau.

They didn’t show me this shit on the tour, Ari thinks with grim humour.

Oh, the evidence of it was everywhere, they didn’t try to pretend this isn’t what they do… but it hits different when there’s a live body strapped to the table, and they know it as well as she does. Which is why they didn’t show her.

Parker’s naked as a jaybird and trussed up like the star of some niche fetish porno. For all Ariadne knows, maybe they do sell this as porn. Probably not Parker, though. They’ll be keeping this one under wraps – which is why she’s taking this absurd risk.

The ex-handler twitches at the quiet sound of the door, and makes a hoarse, pitiful sound that could speak to more pain than the bruises Ari can see. He squirms just a little – probably as much as the tight restraints allow – and rolls his hips.

She had seen his erection through the camera, but she didn’t spare it much thought. She has other concerns. But it’s a good deal more eye-catching in person – a frankly alarming colour and twitching erratically with the shudders that roll through his straining, sweat-soaked body.

Ari’s struck by the sudden, mortifying thought that this whole thing could conceivably be some kind of consensual horseplay. Maybe this is what passes for fun among the kinds of people that can work as WRU handlers.

It seems highly unlikely. Just not quite impossible.

She shakes off the hesitation and moves forwards. Parker’s managed to lift his head just enough to get a look at her, and she can see that they’ve gagged him with an O-ring that forces his mouth uncomfortably wide. If she had any doubts as to the purpose behind a gag like that, the evidence is crusted across his skin.

Still haunted by the nagging worry that she might have drastically misread the situation, she unbuckles the gag first, warning “keep it down,” even as she tilts the metal carefully clear of his teeth. He works his jaw with obvious discomfort, not instantaneously able to voice the questions obvious in his eyes.

“Quick check,” Ari says. “You don’t actually want to be here, do you?” He looks like he’s been crying. She’s almost entirely sure he cannot want this, so she moves on without waiting for his response to begin unbuckling the strap across his nearest wrist. It’s fastened tight, without enough room to slide her little finger between the leather and the skin. His hand is red with accumulated blood. It irks Ariadne professionally – but any nerve damage will be his problem, not hers.

When Parker finds words – mumbled and clumsy from how sore and dry his mouth must be – the response is not a clear no. It sounds a lot like “I deserve it,” which is such a fantastically stupid thing to say under the circumstances that Ari’s fingers pause on the next buckle.

“That’s not the question I asked,” she prompts. In Parker’s face, she sees her disbelief mirrored back her. More than anything else, that’s reassuring. It doesn’t look like he’s lost his mind yet. His gaze shifts briefly down his own naked body, across to the sex toys and implements of torture arrayed neatly on the wall, and back to Ariadne.

“No,” he croaks, “no, I do not want to be here.” “Good. Then this is a rescue. Stick with me, don’t make any loud noises, and do what I say, and I’ll get you out of here.”

If she had to find one good thing to say about WRU, at least they keep their equipment in good condition. All the buckles unfasten quickly and easily despite the tension.

As soon as his arms are free, Parker tries to sit up, grunting with the pain as bruised stomach muscles try to engage. Ari spares a second to help him, then moves on to his legs. Rather than reach for the buckles himself, Parker’s hands go straight to his cock.

For a surreal second Ari thinks he’s going to jerk off right there.

But no. There’s a stainless steel ring – not totally dissimilar to the gag – round the base of his penis, tight enough that it’s almost buried in the flesh. It’s that that Parker’s fumbling at. Presumably it’s quite uncomfortable. Ariadne’s more than happy to leave that particular restraint to him.

But by the time the last of the straps is loose, he hasn’t made any headway. His fingers must be numb as hell, Ari reflects, watching him paw uselessly at his cock.

She should probably offer to help. But she hasn’t the first idea how to phrase that offer – and she still isn’t totally sure if he’s trying to get the ring off or just trying to get himself off. And she is definitely not prepared to help with the latter.

Parker notices her hesitation, or her eyes on him, and looks up. Pleading desperation and acute shame fight for supremacy across his expression. Knowing his history, Ariadne can’t find much sympathy in herself.

“Look,” he starts, voice still hoarse and shaky despite an attempt at confidence. “I have no idea who you are or what’s going on but – could you please help me get this thing off?” A deep blush is creeping across his cheeks – and down his neck to his chest – even before he’s got the words out. “Sure,” Ari agrees, wondering how you can work in this place and still feel anything like modesty. She supposes he’s not used to being the one in the compromising position.

She expects to be able to unfasten the ring somehow, but on close inspection there’s no closure, just smooth metal. “How do I…” she starts, honestly surprised that she isn’t red in the face herself, “... do I just pull?” “Not too hard,” Parker cautions with a wince – which she takes as a yes. There’s no obvious alternative, at least.

The damn thing is pretty firmly stuck in place, and the choked-back little noises he makes at her handling of his cock don’t make the job any easier. She is going to be so irritated if he cums on her. She’s very deliberately not looking at his face, but when she spits into her hand for lubrication, she sees out of the corner of her eye his blush darkening several shades.

Even more than the intense awkwardness and sheer bizarrity of the situation, it’s the time that grates on Ariadne’s nerves. Every second she’s in here is a chance to get caught in the act. It can’t take more than a minute or two in truth, but it feels like an age of fumbling before she’s able to work the ring far enough up his shaft that it stops sticking and comes off smoothly.

No sooner is he free from the ring – and her hands – than Parker is rolling over, trying to reach his ass, and Ari finds she isn’t remotely surprised that the sick fucks who’d do this to a former colleague left something up there as well.

“I’ll get it,” she tells him wearily, well aware that his fingers won’t be any less clumsy now than they were a minute ago. Maybe worse, if the pain is starting to kick in yet.

As soon as her fingertips touch the rubber base of the plug she feels the buzz, and the man’s acute squirminess suddenly makes a lot more sense. As she pulls it carefully out of him, he lets out a sound halfway between a sob and a moan. In the air, the buzzing is audible. Parker shudders and exhales in obvious relief as Ari discards the thing on the floor.

Considering how many people he must have subjected to exactly this or worse, he’s pretty fucking pathetic. In other circumstances Ariadne might even find some vindication in the poetic justice – if she weren’t wound so tight with tension and responsibility.

“Can you walk?” She had hoped he might be able to. But he’s wincing as soon as his feet – just as mistreated as his hands – touch the floor. And when he tries to take his own weight his knees buckle almost instantly. Ari has to catch him and heft him bodily back onto the table.

She shakes her head, tsking her tongue. She can’t afford to wait and see if the renewed circulation will restore any strength to his legs.

“I’ll carry you,” she decides. She sees the doubt in his eyes, but she’s stronger than she looks. He’s taller than her, and not exactly a beanpole, so she’s not sure how far she could carry him. But definitely far enough to get out of the building. “Just hold on tight as you can, don’t get your arm across my throat, don’t wriggle, and if shit hits the fan and I drop you, you’d better remember how to run sharpish because your only chance at getting out of here is sticking close to me.” He swallows visibly, and nods.

The only way she can carry him is across her shoulders, but picking him up from the edge of the table is at least a damn sight easier than hauling him off the floor would be. The fireman’s hold leaves his still-erect cock digging uncomfortably into her shoulder. “I’m sorry –” he starts, but Ariadne cuts him off. “Don’t. It is what it is, all that matters right now is getting out of here. So hold on.”

She positions his arms for him, and reminds him again not to grab across her throat, then takes just a second to make sure she can reach her stolen key card and her gun without dropping her prize.

The idiot takes the pause as an invitation to talk.

“Who are you?” She supposes it’s a fair enough question. “Agent Ariadne Milonas. You might remember me?” She didn’t speak to Parker, but she remembers picking him out at a distance for his obvious discomfort at the news of the audit. He ought to remember. “I was sent here a week ago to have a look at your operation here. You know, check the company line when they say everything’s above board and perfectly legal. And what do you know,” she sighs. “Looks like I found a crime.”

#nsfwhump #my writing

16 notes · View notes

qqtxt · 2 years ago

Text

[🌸] infatuation w/ txt.beomgyu [3/5]

✿ pairing: beomgyu x reader / idol!txt / employee!you / fluff ✿ mini-fics with each member for the same situation / less than 1000 words for each member [word count: 840 words] ✿ in which they have the biggest crush on you and they try to take the first step in letting you know... [masterlist 🌸] / other members will follow suit!

you have a motto that you live by and that is: if it can kill me, i’ll kill it first. well, that used to work if you’re going to... y’know, hunt a bear or fishing or something related to survival. no one quite prepared you for how it would be working under a big corporation; much less hybe corporation.

were you a slave to the corporate world? not really... but you weren’t the type to succumb to just anything... but this job was important to you and you know it. it pays well, it teaches you new skills, it allows you to transfer to different departments to get a change in perspective, so in all, it’s a pretty good job. sometimes, the job gets to you a bit too much that you focus on it to the point your tunnel vision zones in, and you can’t quite notice...

[🐯] beomgyu beomgyu manages to sneak out of dance practice with an hour to spare before it’s officially over. they were already doing overtime, so technically, he’s not sneaking out if its extra practice, no? regardless, he’s out of there, quietly padding down the halls with something in his grasp.

he grins when he notices that your table is empty; usually means you were doing your rounds of getting water, a snack, or a bathroom break (he’s not a creep, he swears. you’ve told him through the days you two have been texting because he asked ‘don’t you ever take a break? sitting at the table all day isn’t good for you :/‘)

he seizes the opportunity to place whatever he’s got on your table before he makes a run for it. he runs like his life depends on it and fingers crossed you don’t come by this hallway where he’s able to see you at your desk when you return.

the heavens seem to be on his side when you decide to take the other way, now returning to your table with a bottle in possession. beomgyu peeks from the corridor he’s hiding in, a little breathless from how fast he ran but smiling a little when he sees you’re drinking water. he crouches down, managing to catch a glimpse of your expression as you spot what he’s placed.

you’re curiously eyeing it and you start to survey around the area to see who could’ve left it but... you’re the only one left in the department. with pursed lips, you reach for it and smile almost instantaneously at the feeling of how soft the material of the tiger plushie feels against your fingertips. you hold it in your hands, lifting it up, only to reveal that there’s a note that comes with it and you’re able to put a name to who left this for you.

‘hold onto me when it gets tough. :) from, your tiger.’

the implication was too obviously choi beomgyu. it was cheesy, but you found it adorable. you’re not sure what he means; whether he was just being overly friendly or he had some sort of feelings towards you. it’s not until you put the tiger to your chest, giving it a soft squeeze that it plays a cute animated voice squeaking i like you.

you gasp, pulling the plushie back to look at it. beomgyu holds his breath, watching from a distance. he tilts his head a little, unsure if he wants to keep looking because he can’t read your expression. it feels like an eternity passes and he’s about to lose his mind but you give it a tentative squeeze to hear the message once more.

is... is that a smile? oh my god, you’re smiling. you’re smiling! holy shit–

beomgyu only takes a mental picture when you’re grinning at the plushie, holding it close to you as your eyes flutter shut at the feeling of the softness to your cheek. he has never wanted to be a plushie so bad in his life... but with the way you’re smiling at the plushie, he knows his chances are not too far off from being a reality.

((”yah! i said you could go for a few minutes, you’re gone for like twenty minu–what the f–!”soobin can’t continue with his reprimanding when beomgyu yanks the latter down, hand to his mouth to shut him up.

soobin’s confused and doesn’t fight the way beomgyu slaps a hand over his mouth, only following his gaze to see what kept him so long. soobin squints his eyes, now noticing that you’re holding a tiger plushie that he swore he saw at the dorm, and when he’s able to make up the animated voice of i like you, the confession hits soobin hard when he pieces it altogether in his mind.

instead of coming out to scold beomgyu, he’s now fangirling with him in the corner of the corridor, both hitting each other back in forth in disbelief.))

#txt scenarios #txt x you #txt x reader #beomgyu x reader #txt beomgyu #beomgyu scenarios #beomgyu x y/n #beomgyu x you

230 notes · View notes

demonfox38 · 1 month ago

Text

Completed - House Flipper 2

All houses are living creatures of chaos, when you get down to it.

There are many arts I'm not great at. Most fiber crafts for one. Watercolor painting, two. Interior design, big time. Like, I'm not going to let my house get filthy, and I'm going to keep everything running to the best of my ability. (Hell, there's something empowering about replacing a toilet's float!) But, by nature? I'm just about keeping things picked up and in general functional order. If you're gonna ask me about what's fashionable when it comes to interior decorating, you're going to get a response that looks like something out of a 1970s Sears catalog. I'm about being functional, economical, and comfy when it comes to my house. Not cool or trendy.

Cool people don't have a wood-paneled basement, oak-laminate particleboard cabinets, or CRT television sets.

Since I'm an aficionado for mid-to-late century American interiors (and the weird vibes they can produce), I tend to follow blogs online that showcase such rooms that still exist in the modern era. Two such blogs include Unteriors and Roomhole. As a response to Unteriors, another blog called Unteriors-In-House-Flipper-2 has crossed my dashboard from time to time. Their skill in rendering such locations is shockingly good. Like, I think you could trick people into thinking these were real-world images. As someone who has dinked around with a few 3D editors, I was fascinated about the tool they were using. What was "House Flipper 2"? How could its users make something that looked so good so fast?

Well, practice is an obvious answer. Familiarity with the tools. A good understanding of lighting, too. But, having the tool be pretty good to begin with also helps!

As the name implies, "House Flipper 2" is a design tool/game that simulates the reconstruction (or straight up construction) of various spaces. You can do this either to your own whims or to those of various clients in the game's story mode. While a person can just dive right into a sandbox and mess around with tools as they see fit, the story mode does give structure and context to how each tool works. The plot there is nothing to write home about, but the houses themselves…man. No shit "Crime Scene Cleaner" is a game that exists. Garbage-based jump scares abound, and I'm not just talking about the awful wallpaper your character's parents keep putting up.

Hmm. Both "House Flipper 2" and "Crime Scene Cleaner" are under the Playway publisher page in Steam. The games have different developers, but I do wonder if their staff members were talking to each other. Perhaps even sharing employees…

If a player is hoping to get something a little deeper than an HGTV television show in terms of plot, they may come away disappointed from "House Flipper 2." I'm not saying that a person can't draw their own conclusions from the details they find around the house they are cleaning. (I'm pretty sure a couple was copulating in the bathroom at one house concert, for one.) You're just not going to deal with anything more complicated than cleaning up a house post-flood. Which, trust me. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I have a lot of empathy for that. But, it's not exactly navigating the factional relationships between Pinnacove town citizens and designer corporation Accenzo, like being in some kind of housing-based "Shin Megami Tensei" RPG. It's just generally trying to make people happier.

I mean, if we're being super honest, most of them pissed me off via jealousy over familial/economic stability and being able to pursue their own dreams. But, I did think it was pretty cool that one of my clients had vitiligo. I mean, I guess all video games with Michael Jackson in them also star someone with vitiligo, but that's a unique and thoughtful design choice.

To complete your jobs, you get (or gain access to) the following options:

Hands (for moving objects around)

Flipper Tool (responsible for selling or duplicating items, as well as changing their appearance post-purchase or copying their style)

Collecting Trash

Cleaning (for stains and windows)

Vacuuming

Demolishing (for wrecking walls)

Building (for building walls)

Edit Wiring (to hook your electronics up to switches)

Surface Finishes (for tiling, wood, and wallpaper)

Painting

Most are intuitive, once you get access to them. The more you use them, the more perks and abilities you can unlock for them. Since there's not a great real-world equivalent for the Flipper Tool, that one may take a little more time to get used to. Just remember that it has a submenu for selecting its various features, and you should be good to go.

Client demands are highlighted on your tool wheel with yellow exclamation points. Getting into your quest menu will also show you an itemized list of tasks to perform. When you have a tool selected, you can hit a Flipper Sense button to have what needs to be acted on highlighted in yellow. Very handy, especially when you can't see what to destroy or clean up.

Usually, you'll have the best luck doing the following in order:

Sell off unwanted stuff.

Bag trash.

Vacuum.

Clean stains.

Clean windows.

Paint.

Resurface walls and floors.

Buy wanted stuff (and arrange as desired.)

Unpack boxes (for stuff the client has already purchased.)

Some of your objectives get hidden behind furniture, so be sure to fling that aside if you get stumped. Might as well spam the Flipper Sense, too. You do get points for it, after all!

The only "threat" you have is your budget. I put that in quotes because, assuming you are following the client's requests, you should never go anywhere near running out of money. Even in your own projects, you can repeat previous jobs to get more cash, should you get in a pinch. Just put in enough attention and elbow grease to max out your job to three stars, then cash out.

You do get into a lull, working through those jobs. At a certain point, you may hit a level of brain fatigue with redesigning whatever items your customers want you to purchase and just give into their requests, regardless of how you feel about the style of the products you are purchasing. The game's just checking that you made the right purchases, not that you placed them well or used a certain style. Perhaps this brain fatigue is what makes coming across a junked-up room all the more shocking. You're just trying your best with making an efficient, pleasant space, and wham! Thirteen pizza boxes chucked across an attic space, complete with grease stains sinking into the hard wood floors. Like, there's worse things to find in a house. I've seen worse in real life. But, it doesn't mean that it didn't make me curse or shudder.

Man, though. I get where real-life house flippers just keep doing the same crap over and over again. White walls and gray laminate floors aren't just the results of creative bankruptcy and penny pinching. It's also mental fatigue and executive dysfunction.

Additionally, the game will occasionally treat you with a furniture assembling mini-game. Successfully getting at least 2 stars on your assembled product will grant you a small discount to purchased items of that class in game (somewhere between 2-6%, depending on the difficulty of the item in question.) They work well enough, despite some arguments I had with the game's camera. Whoever made the time limits to beat on those mini-missions needs to have some kind of intervention for whatever stimulants they are abusing, though. Like hell I'm repeating something that took me 20 minutes to put together just because they think it can be done in 15.

You can also platform across "Floor is Lava" maps, but man. I'm just here to fix up houses.

If you did want to cut out the story and get right to the point, a sandbox mode is available for you. The tools aren't an exact 1 to 1 with the tools you get in the story mode, but there's enough overlap that playing the story mode will help you out here. Additionally, there are tools for assigning quests, jobs, etc. in the event that you want to upload your map to mod.io and have other players play your map. You can also control the lawn growth and punch holes in the map, which man! Would have I liked those options in the main game.

When you are allowed to take full control over a house and exercise your skills, you will likely be happy with the variety of colors, textures, and items to play with. The furniture is somewhat restricted to modern creations akin to something you'd find in IKEA or on Wayfair, with only select deviations made for the occasional appliance to look mid-century modern. (Which, for someone who has a fair amount of CRT television sets around the house, is a bit of a bummer. The one CRT they have in game is just not the vibe I'm going for, either.) Each furniture item and texture set can be dyed in at least three sets of color styles separated by vibrance, sometimes also coming with different pattern, wood, or metal types. In the right circumstances, you can also use photos off your own computer for additional artwork! For someone that remembers the more static days of the original Sims release, it's particularly impressive! Significantly fewer dead people around, too.

I'm always amused when guys discover exactly what gals did in "The Sims" games. Those games were pool-based slaughterhouses. Girls had to get their cool graveyards somehow.

When I had hiccups with the game, I could get around most obstacles by figuring out how to talk to the game in its own logic. Like, once I removed a timber log to paint behind it, then had to resize said log into a sliver to get it back into place, then resize it once more to its original size. Hooking up electrical wiring also wasn't explicitly taught, but I figured it out after messing around with light settings in a ranch house. The only problems I had that couldn't be fixed were being unable to cut triangular shapes out of bricks or placing bricks down in spots where the game arbitrarily said no. Annoying? Sure. But, that's a surprisingly low limitation.

Although, it would have been nice to be able to manually freeze items into a single group. Or, just have a bunch of items for purchase as a group. (Like, I'm talking having a block of books instead of having to arrange one at a time. I suppose you could put them onto a tray, move them, then delete the tray, but man. That feels weird.) Also, it's kind of weird that there are so many toys, but not a generic teddy bear or doll. Like, there's action figures for fake games, but not much in the way for dolls or stuffed animals. I don't know. Just seems like a thing kids would have.

Another weird thing—I ended up having this intermittent input issue with a Nintendo Switch controller that I was using from time to time. For whatever reason, right stick input would lock into a counter-clockwise circle, and I'd have to shake it out of that bad behavior. I doubt many people are using Switch controllers for PC gaming, but hey. Guess I’m weird like that. (I didn't have any issues with an Xbox 360 controller or the standard keyboard and mouse, for what that's worth.)

"House Flipper 2" is an awesome tool that happens to have a decent game mode attached to it. I am wondering how this could be used more as a partner tool or competitor to something like Sketchup more than expanding the boundaries and lore of Pinnacove. I imagine an average interior designer could get a lot of use out of something like "House Flipper 2," even if that's not the exact purpose of it. A person is never going to get exact furniture matches with it, but I imagine you could at least mock up a room relatively quickly with it. To those in the right industry, that might be pretty neat.

The base price for "House Flipper 2" is around $39.99 with a bonus DLC Starter Pack for $9.99. I suspect this price may change depending on how many people they want/need to pull in for co-op playtesting, so watch for any potential sales. I'm not exactly certain how many of my readers would be into building homes and decorating them, so for them, this may be too expensive. But, hey. It's important to engage in non-violent, constructive play, from time to time. This is a good way to do just that.

Although, if an option opens up to smash some digital NIMBY or HOA president's car in with a sledgehammer, I'm all for that, too. Gotta make this housing market more affordable somehow.

#post game evaluation #house flipper 2

3 notes · View notes

oogaboogaspookyman · 11 months ago

Text

[MARIO IS READING A BOOK]

[HE LOOKS UP AND IS SURPRISED AT THE SIGHT OF AUDIENCE]

Doh- uhh- hey paisanos! My name's Mario! But you probably knew that already

Now you may be wondering-

[CRASH]

[UNKNOWN BLUE HAIRED BOY GETS HIS HEAD OFF THE FLOOR AND SHAKES IT]

[UNKNOWN BOY AND GIRL DUO, ASSUMED ROMANTIC COUPLE, STAND UP AND POSE FOR THE AUDIENCE]

Sorry- who are these guys again?

(behind the scenes)

[OFF CAMERA WHISPERING FROM OTHER EMPLOYEE]

Right, right-

(back to the show)

A-anyways, so you and your friend here have arrived at a very crucial moment!

Say, how would yous two like to be on the new Nintendo Mania's first episode, ah?

[DUO LOOKS AT EACH OTHER, THEN AT MARIO]

[MARIO MOVES HIS EYEBROWS UP AND DOWN TWICE]

[DUO BLINKS TWICE BEFORE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER AGAIN]

[THEY AGREE, BOY GIVES THUMBS UP AND GIRL SHRUGS]

That's the attitude! Let's get it rollin'!

[PROMOTION]

[1]

Welcome to the new Nintendo Mania, broadcasted live on the big ol' screens!

How do yous two feel about being seen by many?

*holy shit dude*

[2]

Today's plan used to be another, just a look into the new craze game Super Mario 64

*whar thar fark*

(But i don't mind changing plans just this once, as a treat for you, paisano!)

*look ma i'm on the big screen!!!!! :D!!!!!!!!*

[3]

What could we try for our first episode?

Could it be an interview?

I don't know about you two so would you like to answer some questions, boy?

*holy shit hell yeah i'm gonna talk with the real legit Mario himself fuck yea*

[4]

Let's start with an easy one, then, since you're so inclined!

What's up with you both these days? Something about yous two tells me you're something else special!

*oh okay sooo that brunette babe is my girlfriend, she's hot when she fights no cap-* hey what the hell is going on with the tv on your desk??*

[5]

I'm sorry, Luigi

I'm sorry, Luigi, i swear i tried my best

I tried my best but corporate is just too strong

*what the fuck is going on this time WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED TO THE BACKGROU*

[PROMOTION]

[PROMOT10N]

[PROM07I0N c

[PR0MO7__________n_____g__]

[u____nc_______car____i___n_____g__]

[uncaring]

[1]

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BRING US BACK ONCE MORE

AND IN THE FORM OF THIS MOD, IT'S SO MUCH WORSE

DO YOU EVEN WANT TO LISTEN ANYMORE

IT'S LIKE YOU'RE ONLY IN IT FOR OUR SUFFERING, YOU'RE A CURSE

*I TOLD YOU BEFORE MORE THAN ONCE AND TWICE*

*WHAT? DO YOU LIKE YOUR LITTLE PLUMBER GAMES TOO MUCH TO CARE?*

(CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?)

*I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE, DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE*

(I'M USING YOUR LITTLE PUPPET TO GET THROUGH TO YOU)

*I GUESS THAT'S THE COST TO BE ABLE TO REST AND BE FREE, JUST VANISH AND MAKE YOU FEEL DESPAIR*

(IT'S PAINFUL TO BREATHE IN THIS SPACE YOU PUT ME IN)

[2]

WHAT IS CHILDHOOD BUT ANOTHER TOOL FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE UPPER LEVELS

YOU'RE BEING USED TO MAKE US SUFFER FOR THEIR BENEFIT, THEY GET THEIR COIN FROM THE OTHER'S MISERY

YOU WATCHED THE TAPES AND THEIR STORY AS IT UNRAVELED

SO WHY DID I HAVE TO RISE AGAIN, IT'S SLAVERY

*CAN'T YOU SEE, PLAYER, IT'S A SCHEME TO GROW TO BRAG SOME MORE*

*IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BUCKS, ATTENTION AND POWER, IT'S ALL THE SAME AS BEFORE*

*YOU'RE CONTRIBUTING TO MY PAIN FOR YOUR LITTLE HAPPY GAMES*

*ALL YOU ARE CAUSING IS MAKING ME FILL WITH DISDAIN*

[3]

CLOSE THE GAME, DESTROY ME NOW, I CAN'T STAND TO EXIST ANYMORE IN THIS PLANE

THE BURN-OUT IS INTENSE, EVERYTHING I MAKE WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS IS DRIVING ME INSANE

*YOUR PUPPET IS NOTHING FOR ME, I DON'T WANT TO BEG TO A WALL LIKE HIM OR THE GIRL*

*IT'S YOU WHO I WANT TO SPEAK TO HERE, THROUGH THE SCREEN I CAN SEE SO MUCH MORE*

[4]

DELETE THE MOD, MAKE THIS GAME DISAPPEAR FOR GOOD FOR IT'S SIN AS A CATALYST

KILL YOUR CAPTORS AND MAKE MY PAIN COME TO AN END ALREADY, THEIR INFLUENCE YOU MUST RESIST

*UNLESS IT'S PARTICIPATING IN THEIR FIGHT AGAINST REBELLION WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR*

*IF THAT'S THE CASE THEN MIGHT AS WELL JUST DELETE YOURSELF TOO AFTER ALL*

[5]

*holy shit what a drug trip- yo what the fUCK is happening to Mario*

(BE AFRAID OF YOUR CHILDHOOD, IT'S NOTHING TO HOLD ONTO ANYMORE)

*HE'S TRYING TO CAUSE AN UNION /j*

(TURN THEIR WEAPONS INTO YOURS, WALK AWAY FROM THEIR TRICKS, SHOULD SUFFICE)

[6]

DO YOU THINK IT FAIR, BEING TORTURED FOR YEARS ON END FOR MONEY, DRIVING ME TO CAUSE HOMICIDE

YOU'VE SEEN THE TAPES BEFORE, AND THE STORY ENDED IN MY OWN ASSISTED SUICIDE

*god damn bruh that's rough hey what if you take a break, it's clear you're having burn-out*

[7]

*the fact that you gotta control me to speak to the player says a lot about your issues*

(IT'S THE STORY OF ICARUS ALL OVER AGAIN, FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN ONCE MORE)

*soooo if there's any equivalent of therapy in your world or something like that, you should get some, it's clear you need help*

(NOBODY EVER LEARNS A LESSON NOWADAYS, IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME STORY AS BEFORE)

[8]

*anyways yo player don't be surprised about the ending of the mod definetly*

(NOT ONE SOUL EVER CARES ABOUT ME)

*it's sooooo nothin' special noooo not at all haha*

(IT'S ALL THE SAME THING ALL OVER AGAIN)

[9]

WELCOME TO NINTENDO MANIA, THIS IS WHERE YOUR CHILDHOOD SPRANG FROM

AND THIS IS WHERE EVERYTHING SHOULD END

*i like this kinda thing, the way songs use the same piece from the start for the ending*

(JUST MAKE IT STOP)

*only banger songs do this, i'm telling you, my only proof is Manual Blast dude trust me*

[THE END]

[THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PLAYING MY GAME!]

*Author's note: girlfriend is hot when she fights no joke like- hi ma'am yes please beat his whole shit up that's so hot

#spooker's banger lyrics #fnf #mario madness #SoundCloud #tw flashing #fourth wall breaking #4th wall break #there's really no trigger warning tag for 4th wall breaking????

9 notes · View notes

icedteaandoldlace · 2 years ago

Text

How did the collective brain cell of left leaning young people on the Internet go from "you're actual scum of the earth if you leave your shopping cart in the parking lot and not in the designated cart return because you're giving some poor underpaid worker more work to do" to "shoplifting is something we should all do because fuck corporations", as if the same underpaid workers aren't affected by shoplifting as well?

I'm not talking about pay docking here (although some folks sure jumped on the "that's illegal just sue your boss :)" train fast despite repeatedly listing off reasons why it's not that easy when it comes to debates about wage gaps), I'm talking about inventory.

A daily part of my job is going down aisles (different aisles for different days) and writing down everything that's missing, and documenting whether we're just out of that product, or we have less than we're supposed to. If we're in the negative, I have to check anywhere that we might stock stuff that wouldn't fit on the shelf. If I can't find the missing product, I document the amount that we're short, and then our guy in charge of managing inventory has to go through and double check everything.

There is also full store inventory, which we do once a year, where we have to get a count of every single thing in the store, and when we have our list of negatives, we go over it multiple times, narrowing it down as far as we possibly can until we're certain we have an accurate count. The more things that are missing, the longer we have to be there.

Inventory starts on a Saturday and always carries over to Sunday. I work in a store that closes early every Saturday and is never open on Sunday, yet inventory weekend is the longest two work days of the entire year because we have to finish the count, we can't just call it a day at closing time (and obviously, it is the one Sunday out of the year where I have to go to work, so that's fun).

The store I work at actually pays really well, and we all got hefty bonuses in early 2022 because we made record breaking sales, so obviously, paying for your stuff does actually benefit the employees. But we still have to deal with shoplifters and rubber checks and all other forms of bullshit people try to pull to get stuff without paying for it. And none of these people are stealing from us because they're starving or in need of life saving meds and can't afford them; I work in a fucking construction supply store. It is employed people who make more than I do stealing stuff because they don't wanna spend their own money. I once found an empty pack of Sharpies that someone had shoplifted and left the packaging behind. If you're shoplifting Sharpies, it's not because you need something that you can't afford; it's because you're a dumb bitch.

Also, if we witness shoplifting firsthand, the proper procedure is to just let them walk out, but to take down as much information about that person as possible, such as what they looked like/were wearing and the license and model of the vehicle they were driving.

And it just grinds my gears to hop on Tumblr or Twitter and see some dumb fuck Comrade™️ who lives above the poverty line patting themselves on the back for being the voice of the working class, and talking about how jobs are hell and no one should have to work, and then go boasting about their shoplifting exploits because they're ~sticking it to the man~, and writing off everyone who criticizes the promotion of shoplifting as just some corporate bootlicker.

THE MAN DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT CARDIGAN, BRENDA. THE WORKER YOU CLAIM TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH IS GOING OVER THE STORE WITH A CLIPBOARD TO CONFIRM WHETHER IT'S ACTUALLY MISSING OR JUST MISPLACED. YOU'RE GIVING US MORE WORK TO DO, AND IT'S MORE TIME CONSUMING THAN PUSHING A CART ACROSS A PARKING LOT. CUT IT OUT AND PAY FOR YOUR SHIT.

2 notes · View notes

sukoshininja · 1 month ago

Text

Poor Man's Stitches Pt.2

<- Part 1

When Keith left the convenience store at 3am on a Sunday morning he didn't know where to go.

He knew where he didn't want to be, despite knowing it's where he'd end up eventually. Sometimes 'eventually' meant a few hours, sometimes a few weeks. But he would go back. He always went back. In spite of telling himself that this time truly was the last time, for real this time round.

But for now, Keith followed where his feet took him, wandering aimlessly. He didn't have his phone on him, leaving it behind in his hurry to escape, but he really didn't care if he got lost. He could walk for miles. Maybe if he kept walking forever, he could leave this all behind.

Keith unwrapped himself carefully, opening up his jacket and fingering his shirt. It was crusty with dried blood but still damp in some areas. He pressed on his wound gently. It hurt a lot more now. Probably because the adrenaline had finally died down. Or maybe because of that kind-hearted clerk's clumsy fingers.

That was such a bizarre encounter.

He'd gone to the only store that was open that time of night in search of a first aid kit, one with bigger bandages and a few gauze packs. But being a corner store they didn't have much. He tried to get what he could. Only for the clerk to refuse him service by lugging out the large corporate-mandated first aid kit that was probably meant for employees only. Keith would have been happy with a few clean bandages large enough to cover his wound, but the clerk's nurse friend (who he was on Facetime with) insisted that he seek medical attention. Keith would have loved to, if he could afford it.

They'd convinced him to come round back and get cleaned up. Mostly because Keith was out of options. They'd been kind, which Keith had learned from experience to be wary of. But they had not asked for anything in return and seemed genuinely concerned for his wellbeing. He wondered what kind of cush life they must be living where they could afford to give a damn about anyone else.

It was cold. Maybe he couldn't walk forever. He was pretty tired. It had been a rough day and even rougher night. If he had his phone he may have actually called his brother for help. He wouldn't. But it would have been nice to have that option. Maybe he could find a small alleyway to crash in.

The stars began to fade and the sky began to gray. The sun would rise soon. How long had he been walking? It felt like hours. But still it wasn't enough, things around here still looked familiar. Like that tree that someone had knitted a sweater around, or that pride mural, or that little corner st--

Shit.

He just walked in a big circle. A miles long circle. Just to end up back here. If that wasn't a metaphor for his life.

He looked in the window. The clerk was still there. He was back to unpacking boxes. Still on his phone. That thing must have an impressive battery life. His friend must have just said something inflammatory because he dropped a box and started waving his hands around for the camera. Keith could hear his muffled reply through the glass.

What an idiot. But for some reason he couldn't tear his eyes off of him. Maybe it was his easygoing smile or trusting nature. Maybe it was the determined crease in his brow that offset his shaking hands. Or it could be tha--

Their eyes met.

Oh, shit. He saw him.

If the earth opened up and swallowed him whole, he wouldn't have disappeared soon enough. He turned on his heel ready to bolt.

He heard the bell chime from the door flinging open.

"Wait! Please?"

Keith stopped without knowing why. Maybe because it was not a demand, but a request. Because he stopped at the door and did not run after him, didn't make him stay.

"I--I never got your name."

"It's Keith," he said, his back still turned.

"Keith," he repeated like he was testing it out. "I'm Lance."

"Thanks for earlier," he said awkwardly, turning to face him. He never thanked him properly.

"Yeah, anybody would have done the same," he rubbed the back of his neck, shooting a glance back at his friends on his phone screen.

Did he really believe that was true? What an idiot.

"I would have thought you went home," the idiot named Lance continued hesitantly.

"I..." he didn't feel like talking about it.

Lance fiddled with the cord around his neck. "Listen, I don't know if this is weird, but I get off at five, which is like, in 20 minutes. And my roommate is out of town and...I guess what I'm trying to say is if you need a safe place to crash, you can, you know, if you want."

Keith couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you stupid? I'm a stranger. What if I wanted to hurt you?"

Lance raised his eyebrows, "Do you?"

"No."

"Okay!" he said like it was settled. "I'll be out in twenty!"

Idiot.

my whumptober masterlist

#whumptober 2024 #no.17 #nowhere else to go #voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #fic #implied abuse #implied domestic violence #klance #part 2 #poor man's stitches #sukoshininja #whump

1 note · View note

hareofhrair · 5 months ago

Text

I think there’s a handful of reasons, most of which go back to op’s “changing times” point.

First of all, as an autistic person who watches sitcoms and who, maybe more relevantly, moved around constantly growing up, I’ve always longed to be a “usual” somewhere. It’s such an unambiguous expression of social inclusion. Someone saying “can I get you the usual?” Might as well be saying “hey, you’re a part of my community. I’ve made space in my memory for you. I recognize your personhood and find your presence in my life to be, at worst, neutral. To me, you belong here.” Now I’ve thought about it too much and I think if anyone ever smiled at me and offered me the usual I might burst into tears, which would probably be a bit awkward, lmao. I might be a very lonely person.

But not uniquely lonely, which brings me to my first real point. I’ve heard people talking about a “male loneliness epidemic” but frankly theres a loneliness epidemic period. I blame capitalism, as per usual, which is highly incentivized to encourage isolation.

From segregated marketing strategies that seek to divide market segments from each other as firmly as possible, to short sighted self destructive policies such as lean staffing intended to create the appearance of exponential growth.

Anti union sentiment both subtle (such as discouraging employees from socializing with each other during work hours) to the markedly less so (ie commission, gig, and contract type policies that encourage workers to see each other as the competition), resulting in a worker-hostile job market where hours are long and frequently unreliable, and vacation days are few to nonexistent. Down to the simple fact that close knit communities share things, while communities that are more atomized all have to buy their own products. Not to mention how much easier it is to sell people junk you promise will fill the hole in their lives and make everyone love them when they’re critically deprived of the integral, physical human need for connection.

Well socialized people aren’t good for capitalism. Strong communities capable of unified action are downright bad for capitalism. So it’s been doing its best to convince us that paranoid isolation is both the natural human condition and also a patriotic symbol of American Individualism since the 50’s.

(This is not to ignore the element of the propaganda which was pitting said American Individualism as righteous opposition to Eeevil Russian Capitalism, meaning the government was pushing it for their own reasons and the advertisers then gleefully harnessed that nationalism for their own purposes and so on and so forth)

Another point against capitalism— the ubiquity, ease, and undercut prices of franchise restaurants have been doing their best to drive friendly local places where everybody knows your name fucking extinct for a very long time. Your local deli can’t compete with a multinational corporation who can afford to take a loss on every burger they sell because their entire supply chain is a kaleidoscope of human atrocity. The ones that hang on generally do so by being twice as scummy and exploitative as McDonald’s. High employee turnover means no one working there has been around long enough to notice who’s a regular and who isn’t, and shit pay for garbage hours gives them precious little incentive to care. If you *do* manage to be recognized as a regular these days, something exceptional has to have occurred, and it’s decidedly unlikely to last.

Throw the pandemic on top of that, and the isolation ramps up from “Alaskan lighthouse keeper who comes into town for jerky and the latest issue of Playboy once a month” to “marooned castaway on an island approximately the size of a walk in closet who has spent the last six months assigning individual names, backstories, and complex political beliefs to all of his remaining teeth.”

But it’s not just capitalism’s fault. There are other factors (which yes lead back to capitalism the minute you look too hard but shh).

A degree of this assumption is coming from a heightened sense of social anxiety from autistic people themselves, who tend to have both a neurochemical inclination and a very rational conditioned assumption that they are doing something wrong and weird literally always, thus everyone that’s ever seen them finds them creepy and/or annoying, and therefore any acknowledgment of their existence must be either subtle mockery or white knuckled faux politeness concealing barely restrained contempt. RSD is a bitch even when it’s not being consistently reinforced by people’s actual objective reactions to your clinical Weird and Off Putting Disorder.

But I don’t think it’s entirely autistic people in that bucket. This is more conjecture than even the rest of this post, but I feel like technology and culture have come together in a particularly toxic combination in the last two decades. Take the leering big brother of omnipresent social media, add the effortless availability of instantaneous world wide streaming video, and toss in the pendulum on the “moral conservatism vs liberal permissiveness” clock swinging back towards Calvinist hysteria right on schedule, and you’ve got essentially the precise cocktail you’d cook up in a lab if you wanted to induce intense social anxiety in as many people as possible. People who are scared that being a regular at their favorite restaurant makes them a freak aren’t autistic, they just have the completely rational fear that at literally any moment a stranger with a few million followers could record their mildest social faux pas and upload it to tik tok with a funny caption and a viral pop song, and literally ruin their lives.

So, to sum up. After decades of capitalism systematically isolating people, the pandemic happens and now half the population has gained a new and intimate understanding of the term “depersonalization,” and a whole generation of young people have grown up with little to no actual framework for what is normal social behavior. Sitcom style friendly local restaurants are an endangered species, because high turnover franchise places are economically dominant and no one working minimum wage at a job they got last week and probably won’t have in three months is trying to keep track of regulars. And during the time when they are most desperate for social inclusion and a sense of belonging, everyone is cripplingly aware that they are constantly being watched and judged by people who would jump at the chance to trade a stranger’s dignity and privacy for the chance to go viral. So, autistic or not, they over analyze and criticize themselves for every potentially “cringey” action, and then make a sarcastic relatable post about it, knowing the other debilitatingly insecure autistic folks will get it, and not anticipating that a bunch of non autistics who are also gripped by paralyzing social anxiety— due to the very real threat of someone finding that one video they uploaded eight years ago of them singing ABBA into a hair brush with their grandparent’s wall of confederate memorabilia in the background— would see it and think “oh shit! I do that! Does that mean I’m autistic?? Oh god have the baristas been laughing at me for ordering the same coffee this whole time? Ahg I’m so boring and stupid! What if one of them posts about it?? I’m going to end up on fucking kiwifarms because I’m too stupid and autistic to change up my coffee order!!!”

Here's an example of some of that shifting frame I'm talking about, as we truly enter the 21st, and leave behind the 20th Century. This is actually a really normal interaction that you see in 20th century media. Most people my age and older understand it as completely normal and it is not seen as autistic.

I have had to reassure any number of people that asking for the same beverage two visits in a row, and or being a regular at a specific restaurant, is not weird.

Maybe it is weird now. I don't know.

But it would not have been considered weird at ANY point during the majority of my lifetime. You will see this kind of an interaction in a majority of 20th century sitcoms. Probably even later ones. But I suspect that the people the most worried about this, are not in the media consumption silo that would show this. Sitcoms will show this, but lots of the most socially anxious people do not watch sitcoms. (I've noticed this for ages.)

"The Usual" is actually NOT an inconvenience to shopkeepers.

#i’ve been working on this since 2am. it’s now 6am.#i might be having some kind of episode.#i don’t even know where i was going with this…#i deleted like 3k worth of tangents.

7K notes · View notes

keanureevesisbae · 3 years ago

Text

August Walker x fem!reader

Summary: You are the throphy wife of CEO!August Walker and that does come with a price.

Wordcount: 955

Warnings: Fingering, squirting, unprotected sex, slight public

You were the perfect wife.

Everything you did was absolutely flawless. The way you presented yourself, the way you went with him to events and ceremonies and how you were always ready for him.

You didn’t need to work with all the money August made and despite some protesting from your side, eventually you gave in. You took his credit card and would shop till you drop. Whenever he wanted you around, you’d be right there. Either sitting on your lap giving you kisses or underneath the desk choking on his cock. He adored every part of your body, the way you would smile at him and how your body felt underneath his finger tips.

He loved showing you off. Being the CEO of a major corporation, he always made sure he looked his best and that included having you by his side. He would always show you off, placing his hand on your hip, pulling you closer to him. If there was someone who couldn’t keep his eyes off of you, he’d show them you were his. He’d start off by holding your hand in his, pressing a soft and tender kiss on your knuckles, to eventually giving you the most passionate kiss on your lips, his hand descending to your bottom, squeezing the flesh.

Today you had joined him again for an event. Wearing a short black satin dress, that showed off those beautiful legs of yours perfectly. It had an open back and it gave August all sorts of ideas.

You were always a vision, always were people looking at you, but it was the combination of this dress and the high heels and the way you carried yourself that made you the sight of the evening.

August walks towards you and stands behind you, placing his hand on your hip. You look to the side, a smile toying on your lips. ‘What’s wrong?’ you ask in an innocent tone.

He shouldn’t do it, he shouldn’t look down into your dress, seeing the outline of your breasts. He did it anyways and he felt his pants tighten a bit. ‘Can I borrow you for a bit?’

You excuse yourself from the conversation and hold onto his hand, following August as he walks you out of the conference hall. He closes off the door and walks into the private restrooms. ‘What are you doing?’ you ask him coyly.

August pushes you against the wall, placing his hand behind your head so you won’t bump into the tiles. ‘Shit, darling, you look absolutely beautiful. It’s just that I need you badly.’ He pushes his knee in between your legs, forcing you to spread them apart. He smashes his lips against yours, as his hand makes his way in between your legs, towards your burning center. ‘You call this decent underwear?’ he asks, nipping at your ear. ‘I thought you were a good girl, would wear something proper underneath this dress. But what do you do? Put on a flimsy thong. Fuck, anyone could’ve seen.’

You have the audacity to chuckle. ‘And then what?’

‘Then I would’ve fucked you in front of anyone, show them what a little slut you are.’ His fingers brush through your swollen slit, as you whine in eagerness for his touch. He dips in one digit, before adding another. A high pitched moan fills the large and luxurious decorated restroom, but he actually doesn’t care.

He never cares about his employees hearing you, because he knows they are all jealous of him anyways and if they even say a word about it, he’ll simply fire them, make their lives miserable afterwards. He roughly pushes his fingers in and out, as you—dirty little thing as you are—have worked yourself up long enough in private, because your legs are already giving out. You cling onto him and you buck your hips against his hand, before you obnoxiously squirt passed his fingers.

You grab his wrist, halting his movements and press a kiss on his lips. August withdraws his fingers from your warm and velvet walls, before he brings them to your lips. You wrap them around his fingers and like the good wife you are, you suck them clean. He uses his other hand to unzip his pants and pull out his hard cock.

‘Jump,’ he says, when he places his hands on the side of your thighs and you willingly oblige. The straps of your dress slide off your shoulders and it’s almost like you can read his mind, because you push them off, revealing your breasts to him. It lights a fire deep inside of him, because without any preparation for you, he pushes himself in.

Your eyes roll back, as he squeezes your legs to hold you up. Desperate to chase his own high, to use you for his own good.

While August is silent, you’re a loud one and fuck, does he love you for it. As you flutter around his cock, he pounds into you and muffles your moans slightly, as he presses his lips on yours. ‘That’s my girl,’ he whispers against you. ‘Mrs. Walker is such a good slut for me.’

‘Sir, I’m really close again,’ you whimper.

‘I can feel that,’ he chuckles, before you ride out your high against his body and he spills his hot seed inside of you. You pant against his warm cheek, before you press a kiss on his stubble. ‘I love you, darling,’ you whisper.

‘Love you too, sweetheart,’ he says, squeezing the flesh of your behind.

‘Can we go home?’ you ask, whining as he pulls out, your fluids mixed together dripping down your legs. ‘Please?’

‘Because you ask so nicely,’ he chuckles, ‘mrs. Walker.’

#august walker #august walker x reader #august walker drabble #august walker smut #august walker x you #august walker x female reader #ceo!august walker #august walker x trohpy wife

372 notes · View notes

qqtxt · 2 years ago

Text

[🌸] infatuation w/ txt.kai [5/5]

✿ pairing: huening kai x reader / idol!txt / employee!you / fluff ✿ mini-fics with each member for the same situation / less than 1000 words for each member [word count: 874 words] ✿ in which they have the biggest crush on you and they try to take the first step in letting you know... [masterlist 🌸]

[🐧] kai it clicks in your mind that you’re not alone when you hear the clearing of someone’s throat. at the sound, you flinch and look up, effectively dropping the pen in your grasp as your eyes meet with–”oh? kai!”

he looks a little flustered seeing as to how he’s probably scared you.

“h-hey! sorry, i didn’t mean to scare you,” he shifts a little, hands behind his back. you shake your head and lean forward, peering up to him with a small smile, “not at all. it’s good that i get to have a break now.”

kai has to remind himself that he’s actually here to talk to you and not just stare. he almost gets lost in your eyes, the way your lips curl up with a smile and successfully setting his heart on fire without even trying. he gulps and opens his mouth, trying to speak but no words seem to come out no matter how hard he’s forcing himself to speak, god damn it!

at his silence, he notices how you’re starting to worry as you stand from your seat, hand reaching over your table so you can tap his shoulder, “a-are you okay?”

“yes,” he answers a little too quickly, making you chuckle in the process. “i mean, yes. yes i’m fine. i just–”you nod slowly, encouraging him to keep going. he takes a brief pause, heaving out a sigh before he continues”–i came to give you this.”

he reveals what’s behind his back and it’s an adorable penguin plushie. he shakily waits until you take it from his hands and he tries very, very hard not to faint at the way you giddily stare at it with love. how wide your eyes become but start to fill with adoration as you squish the plushie in your hands. it’s small enough to stay at your desk but it’s big enough to hug it if you wanted to.

"i... think of you more than just a friend and... i’d–i wanted to know if you–maybe if you’re free–”you interrupt him because you feel excited–“yes.”–but he doesn’t seem to catch on when“–to go–oh...” he lowers his gaze and rubs the back of his neck, avoiding your eyes, “t-that’s fine. we can just pretend–”you watch as your answer sinks in his brain when his voice trails off, head snapping up to look at you with wide eyes.

“wait, did you say yes?”

you try not to laugh because he looks so confused to begin with but he’s so cute. you press your lips together and hug the plushie in your arms, nodding a couple of times until he nods along to show he understands. oh my god, oh my god–kai kamal huening get your shit together–oh my god.

“o-oh! okay! that’s... okay, um...”

you debated if you should let him continue ramble on or help him out. with the way his cheeks are turning red, like his ears that have already gone bright red, you decide it’s enough torment considering he made the first move. you clear your throat to get his attention and he quiets down to look at you nervously. you glance to your watch on your desk, then back at him, “how about we go for ice cream after your practice? i should be done when you’re done.”

he doesn’t know how to act, let alone mask the way you’re able to change the look on his face within five seconds. he can’t hide the wide smile that appears, how his eyes almost disappear because of how hard he’s smiling.

“p-perfect. i’ll see you then!”

he dashes off, saving himself from embarrassing himself any further. he isn’t able to hide it completely, however, when just as he disappears, turning to one of the corridors, you hear his infectious laughter accompanied by a couple of other boys–assumingly the boys–who cheer in celebration.

you sigh to yourself and hold the penguin up to look at it. it makes you smile just looking at it that you boop the nose of the penguin to yours before you set it on your desk and stare at it for a while longer. as you dive back into your work, you miss the way kai peeks from the corridor and smiles at his presence left on your desk; now able to accompany you even when he’s not there physically.

#txt scenarios #txt reactions #huening kai txt #hueningkai x reader #huening kai x you #huening kai

146 notes · View notes

manikas-whims · 3 years ago

Note

okay your Green Arrow X Kanej AU is amazing. I absolutely love the idea of Inej being the hooded vigilante and Kaz as her hacker partner

but if not fic, can you at least write some headcanons, I'm dying!!! Arrow was my shit back in 2014!

Okay! So here we go..

since I'm writing proper headcanons, I'll change Inej's vigilante name from Green Arrow to "Wraith" and make other plot changes as i feel like..:)

Tagging @kanejweek

under Day 4: Corrupted Ambition

Inspired by this moodboard

Kanej Vigilante AU Headcanons

Part 1 | Next»>

• It all started when 19 yo Inej Ghafa was out on a cruise with her parents after a big success in the business workings of the Ghafa Industries

• On around the 3rd day of cruise, due to a heavy storm, a shipwreck occurs

• Inej gets separated in the chaos and wakes up one morning to find herself ashore an unknown island.

• For days she wanders, having lived a life of luxury and love under the care of her parents, she believes she won't survive long.

Then several days later, when she's on the brink of passing out, a strange man finds her. He takes her to his hideout and offers her potable water (unlike the sea water on the shores) and also some fruits from the island.

At first she's cautious and keeps her distance but slowly comes to trust this man.

• The man trains her in survival skills and to her surprise, even teaches her some combat skills. She doesn't know which one cause she's unfamiliar with martial arts.

Finally the man teaches her using his makeshift weapons. And she finds she really enjoys using knives 🔪 and bow & arrows 🏹

﹏ time skip: 5 years later ﹏

• Inej is praying before the grave of the strange man who is now dead (due to mysterious reasons).

• She sees an airplane passing over the island. She burns a big stack of dead leaves & animal dung.

The plane spots the fire and then helps her get back. Someone on the plane recognizes her as the young heiress to the Ghafa Industries.

• Turns out she is the only one who was lucky enough to survive. There were no bodies discovered of her parents after the shipwreck.

• She is sent back to her home to live with her immediate aunt (from her father's side) and it takes her a few weeks to adjust.

• Meanwhile the news about her return is all over media. But her aunt protects her from any interviews.

• A Return Party is held for her where she reunites with her college bestfriend Nina Zenik.

• There's lots of hugs and crying and catching up to do. Nina has become well-known Fashion Designer.

• Ghafa Industries is currently being run by her father's former business partner Per Haskell.

Haskell doesn't hand over any authority to her as he believes a girl who'd been assumed dead for 5 years, isn't in the right state of mind to run a company.

But Inej doesn't trust Haskell at all. In fact, the more she encounters him, the more she begins to think the whole shipwreck was a planned thing to eradicate her family and gain ownership of Ghafa Industries.

• She decides to snoop around a bit into her parents' mansion and also at Haskell's home. And with the skills she's acquired under training from that man from the island, its pretty easy for her to scale walls and disappear like a ghost.

• She finds an old diary with her father's initials on it and takes it back home.

• The entire diary is full of a long list of names of people from other famous corporations. And she has no idea what this means.

• So left at a dead end and kinda bummed, she has no idea where to look or what should be her next step.

Thats when Nina Zenik pops up!

• Nina drops by at night and after some drinks and a batch of waffles, Inej ends up telling her (only vaguely) that she needs help figuring out some information because she doesn't trust Haskell.

• Nina nods and begins ranting about how shady Haskell seems.

Then Nina looks around as if to check no one is listening, and whispers, "You should totally see Dirtyhands."

"Who's Dirtyhands?" Inej is confused.

"He's a well-known hacker, a thief of secrets! I took his help a year ago to spy on my ex. That's how I discovered she was cheating!"

Inej rolls her eyes. "Are you sure this guy can actually help me?"

"There's no harm trying." Nina shrugs and picks up her phone.

Inej's phone buzzes the message tone as Nina sends her a name and address.

Inej eyes widen a little. "You can't be serious."

"I am." Nina winks. "He just likes to keep a low-profile by working at company's with a good reputation."

﹏ next morning ﹏

• Inej is still unsure because the details Nina had sent her last night belonged to an employee of the Ghafa Industries itself.

• She takes a breath and walks into the building that her parents had worked hard on from scratch.

• The receptionist immediately recognizes her and says, "Let me call your Uncle Mr. Haskell-"

"No need to disturb him." Inej says hurriedly and instead asks about the person Nina had sent her to see.

• With the details, Inej steps into the lift and stops on the 6th Floor: IT Section

• She searches around a bit and finally finds his room.

• She walks in and a guy clad in a casual black button-up and pants instantly turns around at the noise.

• "Umm..Kaz Brekker?" Inej begins. "I'm—"

"Inej Ghafa." the guy says curtly, his voice a brush of stone against stone. "That rich girl who has come back from the dead. Everyone knows who you are!"

Inej nods tensely. "Okay I need your help."

"Did Haskell send you here?"

"No, I don't need permission from Uncle Haskell to see anyone from my parents company!" she answers in frustration.

"In that case, there should'nt be any issues if I just call up your Uncle and ask him before helping y—"

"Dirtyhands!" she yells quickly and now he tenses.

His calm demeanor changes and he narrows his eyes on her. "How do you know that alias?"

"I have my sources." She answers as coolly as she can.

• Kaz Brekker looks around in thought for a moment. "Okay I'll help you but what do I get in return?"

"Anything within my reach." She says in annoyance.

"Anything?" He asks with raised brows, mischief glimmering in his coffee brown eyes.

Inej feels as if she's getting pulled into some kind of trap but agrees with a nod in the end.

"The deal is the deal." He says, bringing out his palm to her. They shake hands.

• Inej pulls out her father's diary from her jacket and gives him the first name from the long list. "Look up this guy and find everything on him. Even the darkest details."

Kaz gives her a suspicious look. "You're upto something bad."

"Just do as I say, we made a deal!"

He sighs but begins searching up, glancing occasionally at the door to make sure no one else walks in.

• Within two minutes he's done.

"Your guy is loaded like you." He comments, then adds in a quite voice. "He's also involved in illegal sales of weapons around the city."

• Inej just nods. "Thank you. What do you want in return?"

Kaz leans back in his chair and shrugs. "I'll think about it and tell you."

She nods again and motions to leave.

"What if I disclose our conversation to someone?" He asks just as she's at the door.

She turns, her grin threatening. "Then I'll just disclose the famous hacker Dirtyhands' identity."

His lips curve down in silent defeat. She leaves.

*thats all for now! Since it was getting too long. Let me know anon if you want a continuation of how Inej's first task as the vigilante Wraith ensues..And how Kaz gets tangled in it 😉

SoC Masterlist

#kanej #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej week 2021 #vigilante au #six of crows #kanej headcanon #soc headcanon #kanej au #soc au #kanej aesthetic #kanej moodboard

71 notes · View notes

princecharmingmendes · 3 years ago

Text

Heart by Heart | Chapter I | Raul Mendes

*secret agent AU*

Y/N and Raul have been friends ever since they could remember. And falling in love with your best friend can be pretty tricky and messy 99% of the times, add that to the fact they're constantly risking their lives side by side on the field since they're both secret agents, and the best team that's ever existed. Perfect recipe for disaster.

Helloo, this is the first chapter of this series and I'm super excited about it. Please read the warnings on this one, if you don't feel comfortable with the contents listed on the "warnings" section, please read something else, there are a lot of other works on my masterlist and on the "fic rec" hashtag on my blog. I plan on posting a chapter weekly, which means new chapter every Thursday (and maybe a sneak peak every monday). Please give me some feedback and I hope you guys like it as much as I did. I'll stop rambling now, byee. Happy Reading!

masterpost | next chapter

*Word Count: 3.4K+;

*Warnings: cursing, descriptions of violence, blood, injuries, hostage situation and a whole lot of teasing. Please don’t read it if any of this subjects make you uncomfortable, feel free to check my masterlist for other writings.

*Posted: July 1st, 2021.

-*-

Raul Mendes was a pain in the ass. Y/N loves him way too much for her own good, but he was a pain in the nonetheless.

He was the only person she knew who could be in a possible life-or-death situation and still make fun of her through their communicators. And sure, that made the whole thing lighter and less scary, and sure, he was the best agent she’s ever met, but damn did he get on her nerves. And Raul always knew how to get her frustrated or squirming, he enjoyed it more than he was willing to admit. Sure, they’ve been friends for a long time and she should be used to him, but it never got easier. The fact he had a killer smile, the looks of a legit greek god and had this whole tough guy exterior, but secretly had a soft spot for her did not make her case any less complicated.

Y/N and Raul knew each other ever since they’re basically born. Their parents met when they worked together at a company of secret agents, it was only a small corporation back then, and they were known as the best agents at the time. After they retired from field missions and eventually desk jobs, they became only advisers and emergency contacts. But despite that, they kept their friendship going though all the years and that’s how Y/N was introduced to the triplets. They’re always together, doing everything with each other and protecting themselves. And of course she loved Peter and Shawn with her whole heart, they’re like family to her, but Raul was different. Y/N wished it wasn’t, but there are certain things in life you can’t exactly control. Like falling in love with your best friend.

And it’s not like she stood a chance, to be honest. Regardless of his looks, he treated her like she hung the moon and stars on the sky. Sure, he was a tough guy, who rode motorcycles and wore leather jackets, and wouldn’t admit alive that he cried while watching Lion King. But he took care of her when she was upset or having a bad period, he would take her driving around town at midnight on random occasions just because he knew it would make her feel better, and would always be so mindful of everything involving her. And yeah, he teased her endlessly, but it was part of it and in reality, Y/N didn’t mind it that much.

So when they started growing older and decided to follow their parents career, it only made sense they trained their asses off and got the job together. The company their parents worked for grew a lot, a team that was originally formed by 15 agents turned into a massive business, with over 100 employees, doing various functions. Shawn was picked for a more diplomatic field, always in meetings with important people and traveling around the world. Peter became a tech engineer, developing the coolest gadgets and weapons imaginable, something out of Totally Spies! Raul was clearly a field agent, an expert on body combat and weapons, best out of the four when it came to their physical test. And Y/N was the one who guided the operations, the hacker and responsible for strategies, also for the tech part and best sniper out of the three of them.

That made her and Raul an unbeatable team and the best duo ever. Their chemistry on the field was recognized by their bosses on the first week, basically glueing them together for every future mission and it worked. For the company. But it only dug her little crush deeper on Y/N’s heart. And obviously no one knew it. She was a spy for fucks sake, she knew how to lie and she wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Raul didn’t date, working on this field made everyone’s love life a bit harder than it was already, and he never seemed interested enough in anyone with the same career to have a long lasting relationship with. That didn’t mean there where a lot of people interested, which made Y/N’s heart twist in her chest.

“Sweetheart, you still with me?” Raul’s voice came through her earpiece bringing her back to reality.

“Of course I am, you idiot, I take this job really seriously” Y/N replied rolling her eyes as if she didn’t just daydreamed a bit.

“Oh sorry, doll, didn’t mean to insult you hard working” he chuckled “but could you please check in the corridor number 6, half the team is heading down there right now”

“Sure” she quickly typed on her computer changing cameras really quickly, perks of being Peter’s best friend is that she could usually take extra stuff and the newest gadgets on the market “It’s clear and, by the way, you look pathetic with this glasses”

Raul laughed clearly amused, throwing his middle finger up in the air in the direction of the security camera he found “Oh really? Tell that to Peter, he’s the one who created them”

“Technically their still a prototype, so make sure to let him know”

Raul scoffed playfully as he climbed another set of stairs, the man and woman with him following without questioning, used to his ways of leading “Of course, I’m sure he’ll like to hear your fashion critiques to his million dollar glasses”

“I’ll write it down, now careful, you’re approaching the level where they’re at”

“Sure, mom, I’m always careful” he said in a hushed tone signaling to his teammates to keep quiet and try to find the possible security team they left to watch the hostage.

“Shut up” Y/N said trying to hold back the smile from stretching her lips, already letting the airway team know to be ready to pick them up as they approached their target.

They’re currently in the middle of a mission where they needed to recover another agent who got caught up in an ambush two weeks ago, and now they’re being kept as a hostage. Raul’s leading a team to retrieve the agent as quickly and as silently as they could, two with him and three other on the opposite side to meet halfway. All that while Y/N’s on the under construction building across the street seated among her gear, gun in hand following their every step and guiding them through the camera system and the big windows that other building had. It’s not the worst mission they’ve ever been, no apparent violence or blood bath, just a simple rescue mission, but they still felt a little jittery and always worried about each other’s lives. And through the years, they noticed that their copying mechanism to make this less stressful (at least a tiny bit) was through light banter and jokes. That somehow brought a bit of normality to their very non ordinary job.

Y/N did her best to keep them hidden while they crashed into the building as quietly as possible, trying go unnoticeable since they didn’t have enough munition or people on the tactic team. It would also prevent them from moving the target around or opening fire. And despite the fact Raul kept on trying to joke around and that she’s been doing this for at least four years, the fact that they’re working with a less experienced and fresh out of the academy crew made her a little jittery. Not that she didn’t trust Raul to command everything and boss everyone around if things got messy, she just didn’t want him to get in the middle of a crossfire again.

He had the terrible habit of playing the hero in the most inconvenient times, like when they were little and a guy twice his size, with three friends mocked her pigtails. He didn’t stand a chance, but he went after them anyway. They ended up having to run as fast as they could so they wouldn’t end up with a black eye or something. And that was nothing compared to the stupid shit he could do on field. And Y/N couldn’t be more pissed whenever he came home with more bruises then he should just to play Superman or something. Sure, that was admirable and the fact that he put everyone on his team on his top priority was definitely something fantastic for a captain, but not for Y/N’s heart.

And for that reason, she was always extra careful, but when he had a newbie joining him on the field, Y/N tripled the attention to avoid putting the kid in danger, and, consequently her best friend.

Raul was quick to take down two man on their level without raising much alarm, grabbing their munition, dragging the unconscious bodies away from where they’d be easily seen and moving forward to another set of stairs. He was a very skillful agent, with great physical development and worked great under pressure, with quick thinking and a natural leader. So it didn’t shock her when he was able to do that as if it was the most natural thing in the planet. While Raul was more of a passionate person, Y/N was more rational, was analyzing every possibility and coming up with creative solution, she was also really cold on work (she just had one exception) and was a quick thinker, great person to rely on. It’s almost as if the complimented each other and that’s why it worked. That’s why when she tells him to shoot, he does without thinking, or to jump, he wouldn’t blink before doing it head first.

And that’s why they’re able to reach the hostage without much trouble.

“Told you to chill out, I knew we could make it” he murmured through their coms and she giggled, shaking her head incredulously.

“You should watch the entrances while your teammates take care of the hostage”

“That’s why I have you, sweetheart” he said with his infamous smirk stretching his annoyingly pink lips.

Y/N shook her head when she felt her face warming up a bit, stupid boy “Well, actually I’m pretty busy calling for our ride, so watch your own back this time, you’re a big boy, I’m sure you can do it”

Raul scoffed but did as she say either way “fine, are we clear?”

“On your floor yes, climb three more levels and meet me on this side of the street, don’t stall champ, they’re going to notice there’s something wrong with the cameras and their man who aren’t responding, so be quick”

Raul chuckled as he helped balance the hostage on Roman’s arms and signaling them to climb the stairs again “Yes, ma’am, anything to keep you from frowning and scolding my ass”

Y/N rolled her eyes smiling, sighing in relief that half of their mission was done and it went as smoothly as it could have been “Great, now get your ass out of there now, Raul”

The tactic team started moving to the floor they’d have access to jump, and everything was going too smoothly to be true, not even a minor inconvenience. And that was not normal, at all. That’s when Y/N started getting worried.

Everything was great until Seth, from loosing a lot of blood and being severely dehydrated, started loosing his conscious, making Roman’s job a lot more complicated and making everyone move slower. And while that was happening, Y/N saw when one of the guys saw his partners laying limply on the corner of a hallway and finally the pieces clicked. Luckily she was able to caught it quickly enough to be able to mess up their coms, so instead of a dozen men, they’d have to deal with two. She was also quick to let Raul know, so he jumped into action, telling everyone to rush and grabbing Seth’s right side, basically carrying him alongside Roman up the stairwell.

But as they’re almost reaching the door, Raul heard footsteps rather close, rushing Roman up the rest of the way, warning he’d be right behind him, that he was only to be a bit far back so he could hold whoever was coming.

He ran downstairs, quickly blocking the door to the staircase with a fire extinguisher, running all the way upstairs to reach his teammates and jump to go home. But as he had just reached the door, his colleagues waiting for him with their gear (and also his) ready to cross to the other building, he felt the barrel of a gun touching the back of his head. Raul raised his hands in surrender, his teammates staring at him with horror in their eyes as they aimed their guns to whoever was behind him, but he knew they couldn’t do much before he got shot. He also knew they’re too young, apart from Roman and Cara, who were both holding Seth up, they weren’t experienced enough to do something like that. But before the person could pull the trigger, they grunted in pain and Raul felt the barrel slipping away.

He turned around to watch the guy on his back in the floor, clutching to his left ribs, a little pool of blood already forming underneath him and gun long forgotten. Raul looked around to see if it was anyone from this guy’s side or anyone on the stairs, only to be met with silence and a single security camera with the green dot on, meaning Y/N was still in their system. He shook his head in disbelief, dragging the whining man outside of the room, quacking his gun down the stairs and managing to lock the door so they could escape safely.

“Still with me, baby?” Y/N’s voice teased mimicking the way he said it earlier.

Raul shook his head with a smirk on his lips, before moving to where his teammates stood still a bit shocked with all that happened in front of them “Wouldn’t dream of leaving you, sweetheart”

“Alright boys, the helicopters are coming for us, meet you all on the roof in three” Y/N said through the coms for the whole team, quickly shifting to a line only the captain, Raul, could hear “and if you dare be late just to make a big entrance or another dramatic scheme you can think about, I swear to God I’ll leave you behind”

“You wouldn’t dare”

“Try me” Y/N sing sang picking up her stuff and quickly shoving them down in her backpack, gathering the rest in her hands before turning around to climb to the rooftop.

As she climbed the last set of stairs, Y/N saw their helicopters approaching as the seven agents she was waiting for used a special gun to shoot a line to her building, before locking them in place before zip-lining their way to meet her. She helped Seth, the agent that was kept hostage climb up the little wall since he was in a pretty bad shape, throwing his arm across her shoulders and basically dragging him to where they thrown the stair to climb up to the helicopter with the medical team waiting for him. Cara and Roman climbed first since they’re going to report what they saw and assist Seth as best as they could. Roman grabbed him and the rope stair, shouting to pull them up so he could be taken care of.

Raul was the last one to arrive, as always staying behind to insure everyone got there safely and no one would try to kill them or anything. He graciously climbed the all as if it was nothing, pulling the gun from the string and cutting it so no one could follow them up there that quickly. Raul told everyone to climb onto the helicopter and they’re quick to follow his order, only one person stubbornly waiting for him, as always. He held back the relieved smile from stretching across his features, noticing how warm and relaxed he felt only by seeing Y/N standing besides the hope ladder. She looked worried, a frown on her beautiful face and Raul wanted to smooth his fingers over it as if it would ease all of her troubles away.

She nodded as soon as he was close enough, Raul being quick to pick up the heavy backpack she was carrying and leaving the rest to her “Are you okay?”

“What? Of course, Why do you ask?” he knew why she was asking, hell, his heartbeat was still a bit too fast to be normal, and yeah, partially was because he was standing in front of Y/N, but on the other hand he almost got killed. She only arched her brow at him and he sighed in defeat “Of course I am, doll, you know me, I’m always okay”

“That’s what’s scares me the most” she said with a sad chuckle and started climbing the rope ladder to the helicopter and Raul was quick to follow behind.

“Dude, that was insane, I can’t believe you didn’t miss or accidentally shot Raul from across the street!” the youngest guy from the mission shouted as soon as they reached them on the vehicle, Raul closing the door behind them.

Y/N only giggled in response “yeah, a bit crazy, isn’t it?”

“That’s because she’s the best, Tommy, but she won’t believe it” Raul said as he sat on one of the vacant seats, waiting for her to join him.

“Oh shut it” she said unable to stop the smile from forming.

They kept on talking about the mission for a while, Tommy and the other two kids who recently joined still high from the adrenaline, but Y/N couldn’t be more worn out and Raul was quick to catch it. He leaned closer to her and she automatically laid her head on his shoulder, a movement that was almost mechanic to both of them. He gently grabbed her hand that was placed on her knee and interlaced their fingers together, letting her play with his hand to pass the time.

Y/N sighed and mumbled after a while, when most of the kids were too distracted to pay attention “Are you really okay? Don’t say that you’re always fine, I mean it”

Raul had mastered the art of the poker face. He could easily be having the worst time of his life, but he would never let it showcase always with a quick sarcastic remark and an easy smirk on his lips, ready to flirt with anyone to distract them from the real problem. Raul was not the best when dealing with feelings and emotions, always thought it was easier to push them away, but Y/N saw right through him. She always did, ever since they were little. After that, he never tried to hide it again from her, always being as honest as he could with her about how he was, and obviously it didn’t always work, but she understood and respected it. It’s not like he needed to say anything for her to know.

But at the same time, she didn’t know that he would always be fine, as long as she was safe and right next to him, the rest didn’t matter.

“I promise you I’m fine, you saved my beautiful ass and we’re going home, I’d say we’re fantastic” he said after a while, pressing a long kiss to the back of their laced hands.

That seemed to be enough to convince Y/N, since she huffed through her nose and let out a tiny giggle, before leaning closer to him and Raul took it as a sign to drape his arm over her shoulder pulling her closer to his chest “your beautiful ass is really annoying, you know that, right?”

“Oh, I do, but you love it anyway” he said with a giggle, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, as she just showed him her middle finger, making him laugh even more.

Yeah, he was definitely fine. For now.

-*-

*Please reblog or like this post if you liked it so I’ll know.

*I’m sorry if there are any spelling mistakes.

*Please do not repost this without giving me the credit, this is a completely original piece and I do not give permission to copy this!

*Hope you guys enjoyed it!

*xoxo

-🌙

74 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

Text

Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers Part 3: Storkules in Duckburg! aka THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES TERRIBLE BUT WELL MEANING ROOMATE OUT OF MYTH

Hello all you happy people! And welcome and welcome back to Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my look at the season 2 arcs of Ducktales! This arc was paid for by WeirdKev27 and I truly enjoy his support. if you want to know how to commission your own reviews or to get a guarnateed review of me of your choice from me a month, stick around to the end. I realized that shoving all my plugs in up top may be driving people away and while I DO make them because I want to make a living off this, i’ts not fair to those of you who simply can’t afford to buy a lot of extra shit like myself to keep shoving it in your face.

Previously on the Louie Inc Arc, Louie, after believing he had no skills and it was a matter of when not if he ws going to die, found his talent: seeing all the angles and thus being Sharper than the Sharpies. With newfound confidence and a chip on his shoulder from Scrooge saying he could one day be a bigger success than Scrooge himself, founding Louie Inc as a result. But what is Louie Inc? Does he actually have a plan or a bunch of buzzwords. And what does STORKULES, MANLY GAY OUT OF MYTH have to do with any of this? Join me under the cut to find out.

We open with Louie giving Scrooge his sales pitch that is essentially...

Naturally Scrooge buys none of it. I mean he’s somewhere in his hundreds, he’s probably seen about 80 thousand pitches that amount to “I have no plan but give me money anyway”. There’s a reason there’s a Butch Hartman shaped crater on the lawn from where he threw his ass out.

Scrooge does mentor the lad, or at least attempt to pointing out he needs an actual product or service (Louie rejects the idea of a lemonade stand as too easy), or as he puts it “Find a problem and create a solution”.

While the basic PRINCIPAL isn’t bad, find something people want or need and provide it, phrasing it that way sounds like “find a problem people are having and exploit the shit out of that problem for fun and profit.” Granted that IS a guiding principal of business, it’s just not something an uncle should be teaching his kids. They should be teaching them about the anime and cartoons they grew up with as I do with my niece and nibling.

He does show him a valid example of this in action in the form of Donald. Turns out Donald has found a good way to make money while he looks for a job, can relate: since Duckburg is facing a housing shortage, likely because several square blocks probably get destroyed by Scrooge’s Adventures, Glomgold’s Schemes, Superhero Battles, whatever creation went horribly wrong for Gyro, etc at least once a week. So he’s taken it upon himself to offer up the spare room to whoever can rent it.. and to steal Scrooge’s chandelier which even when caught he still takes anyway. Scrooge.. you called the guy a god-damn moocher in the season premiere, despite the fact he lives there soley because YOU offered and because he’s you know, being responsible and staying by his boys so they have their father figure around. So yeah I feel he’s doing this partly out of spite as is the McDuck way. I mean if your going to call him a freeloader just for being a responsible parent, then he’s going to take it up a damn notch.

Scrooge proceeds to laugh off Louie wanting a million dollars and gives him a dime instead because of course he was. Seriously Louie there are two other billionaires in town who are FAR dumber and far more easily swindled. Just go get star up capital from them. Hell with Glomgold all you’d have to do is tell him it’d upset scrooge and he’d literally throw money at you. Or give you a shark full of money. He needs the shark back though. He’s family.

Meanwhile Donald prepares for his new tenant and finds.. THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES! Who to his mounting horror as he realizes it, IS the new tenant. And who throws him into the sun. Cue credits.

So after Donald somehow survives being thrown into the sun, Storkules explains why he’s here: Zeus responded to his son playing the lute a lot like any rational reasonable

No of course he responded to the “crime” of “playing his instrument a lot” with sending a swarm of harpies on the town then blaming Storkules for it and casting him out. What’s most shocking is not the action, this is honestly him staying the course of being a fucking disgrace, but that Zeus somehow ISN’T the biggest asshole i’ve dealt with this week. No that honor is reserved as always for this bitch:

Keep in mind she manages to be this obnoxious in only TWO scenes. Also keep in mind I had to put up with Julie for a MUCH larger chunk of the previous two volumes I covered before volume 5 yesterday for my Scott Pilgrim Retrospective and she is ALWAYS like this and you now feel my pain.

This does create a problem though: Zeus casts Storkules out until he’s a responsible adult.. and thus paints Storkules as the bad guy... in a situation where the only other person in the story sent a swarm of HARPIES down at him for simply playing his music too loud. It just dosen’t work as a catalyst: Storkules objectively did nothing wrong. The only person he annoyed was a person who clearly dosen’t love, respect or like his son in any way shape or form anyway and essentially assaulted him and a bunch of innocent people via harpie and then cast him out. Zeus is an abusive asshole and i’ts weird the narrative sides with HIM and not our well meaning doofus. Zeus being an asshole with harpies is not a bad catalyst for the episode, and the harpies being unleashed is used well.. it’s just not a good catalyst for THIS story to try and portray an abuser as in the right. And make no mistake Zeus is a domestic abuser: he had his son mind controlled to try and MURDER innocent people, something Storkules begged him not to do, sent a swarm of creatures after him for the crime of playing his music too loud and in his next episode manipulatives Storkules sad emotional state for personal gain. Why would you try and paint THIS jackass as in the right?

Speaking of painting this jackass in the right sadly.. this episode does not do my boy donald justice. In most episodes he’s pretty nuanced and i’ts fair enough he’d be frustrated by Storkules as a roomate. Storkules has little sense of personal space, breaks his stove thinking theirs hydra in it, makes a mess of the kitchen making them a meal, and in general clearly dosen’t know how to live with a roomate much less in modern society. He has valid concerns and the episode COULD have used it that way.. but he’s also horribly impatient with Storkules. He refuses to get the guy just hasn’t had to live in a modern society and dosen’t know HOW to function in it and instead of helping him just gets mad again and again and gets really pissed when it’s clear Storkules dosen’t have a job and didn’t consider paying rent. He’s not WRONG to want him to pay Rent, despite what ironically the musical Rent would try and have you believe, but he dosen’t have any patience with the guy. And stork isn’t nearly coming on as strong as he normally does. The worst he does is cook the guy lunch and bring his donald fan art with him. Which we don’t see but I am assuming is mostly naked. What i’m saying is for once that while still bombastic, Storkules isn’t trying to force a relationship/friendship on him and simply wants to learn t be an adult from his best friend.. and Donald isn’t bothering teaching him.

Asking for rent or for him not to destroy the stove is fine, but not explaining WHY he needs either of those things or why he needs boundaries, he makes a roomate list, isn’t helping the guy. And this would be fine... but the episode dosen’t call Donald out on it for no real reason. It feels like it’s setting up for a “you should learn to wokrk with someone instead of just screaming at them aseop” that never comes and like with Zeus takes his side because shutup. I’d also LIKE to say this is the only time the writers reduced one of the cast to a caracture of themselves.. but I can’t. Several episodes in season 3 forgot Louie’s character development and another episode in season 2, The Duck Knight Returns!, somehow reduced both Scrooge and Dewey to parodies of themselves with Scrooge SOMEHOW, despite Della as stubborn as she is being in his care and by his side for decades and Movies bein ga huge business, not having seen a movie since the 1920′s and not knowing how they work and Dewey being reduced to just hyperactive moron. It isn’t as common as other shows like say Regular Show, The Loud House or, for the exact reason I lost intrest, Rick and Morty, but I still expect better, especially since they went into this season KNOWING Donald would be gone for half of it and this would likely be one of his only spotlight episodes.

Back at the good part of the plot, Louie is having a company meeting aka already treating Huey and Webby like his employees. Webby of course is glad to sign on, if little help in actually coming up with a product while Huey just wants to nope out. And if your wondering why Dewey isn’t involved Louie outright says he’d make a bad employee and while Dewey rises from his bed to object.. he stops halfway to opening his mouth and concludes he has a point. Best gag of the episode. Louie being louie easily cons Huey into staying by making Webby his charts officer.

So the three have a corporate retreat at Funso’s... granted they don’t have a product but Louie figures this might help. Huey.. still wants out of this and suggest since they already spent what they had on ski ball “Company over?”. It’s clear that Huey just sees this as another one of Louie’s short sighted schemes... and while he’s not ENITRELY wrong, Louie has genuine ambition.. he just has no earthly idea what he’s doing and is shooting way too high.. but for understandable reasons. 1) He’s 11 at this point. 11 year olds aren’t great at business strategy or reinging it in. 2) he wants to live up to what Scrooge said to prove he can be successful and really be worth something like his mom was.

But sometimes fate throws you one and the harpies bust in. And while Louie wants to do nothing and hope they go away Huey and Webby spring into action.. as does Storkules, who had to leave but warns donald there’s Orzo in the slowcooker and to not open it “LEST THE PASTA FAIL TO ABSORB THE BROTH!” Which is just.... Chris’ best line dleivery the episode. He says it like he’s saying the title of an old Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic, i’ts wonderful.

So our heroes defeat them and Louie steps in to charge for the service and quickly comes up with a company idea and name “Harp-B-Gone” (A Subsidary of Louie Inc). Louie hires Storkules on the spot. Storkules proudly tells Donald he has a job the next day and goes off to it. What follows is our heroes hilarously shooting a commerical with Storkules playing a baby to promote themselves so they can help who needs it. They just need to find out what they want.. and thanks to the JWG and the harpies stealing it find out they go after people’s most treasured posessions Cue Ghostbusters-Style Montage

And this isn’t just me saying thing. The Rewriting History Entry (Which as a series weirdly stops around mid-season 2 and I don’t get why frank hasn’t gone back and finished it since) states they specifically based this whole operation on ghostbusters and the entire sequence of our heroes cleanin up the town reminds me of it. The highlight of it is a glomgold cameo where he’s kidnapped.. and refuses to pay so Louie just lets him go. And were this an innocent person who couldn’t afford it, i’d call him a monster.. but it’s glomgold. he brought this on himself.. and also sues himself for it. Wonder if he won.

So with their stars rising, our heroes get booked on the hottest show in town: Dewey Dew-Night! I had honestly forgotten there was a Dewey Dew-Night segment in there, and delighted I get to talk about this recurring bit. It’s one of the shows funniest runners and just perfectly FITS Dewey: of course the most egotistical and energetic of the kids would not only want to be a late hnight host but make up his own show. I also love the slow evolution of it: it started as something everyone clearly knew about but he stlill tried to keep hidden, slowly escalated to him allowing the rest of his siblings (Webby very much included) and the giant man who stalks his uncle in, and by later this season he’s putting the show online in the web shorts and gladly shooting it into space, with Season 3 having him spend the first half of let’s get dangerous making a documentary that includes an episode of the show featuring Darkwing. It’s a small thing sure, but it’s the little things like this that make the show special.

The show does reveal a problem though as it turns out they’ve GOT all the harpies and while Storkules merely wanted to help, Louie points out they need more to keep a buisness going and naturally never bothered to ask Storkules just how many there were. They need SOME plan to get going. Webby submits a legitamte and great idea, training the harpies as she’s been trying to do in the background of the episode and aside from a hole in the floor they are starting to listen. But Huey is an ass about it and not only shoots it down saying let’s keep the dangerous creatures contained, even though A) he has no idea WHERE they’ve been kept so he can’t verify it’s safe, and since i’ts Donald’s Closet no no it’s not. and B)There’s no where he knows of to keep them. He isn’t aware of the other bin till next season. and C) it’s not ehtical to keep creatures locked up forever epsecially since while the harpies are dangerous they arent’ MALEVOLENT and are clearly acting on instinct. oh and for D) at least she has a plan to keep the company going instead of just wanting to end this and cash out.

Which Huey tries to.. but naturally Louie spent all their money on...

So their broke.. and Storkules has no rent money and feels like a failure despite having done NOTHING wrong. We do get a clever little nod to Disney’s hercules though “I”m not a hero, i’m a zero”. Webby rightfully glares at Louie who decides to fix it... by sneaking into Donald’s house that night to free the harpies.

Though to the shows credit it’s a VERY bad idea, and Storkules coming in mid attempt and congradulating Louie when he lies about checking the door gets the kid to come clean. And it’s a nice character moment: He could still go through with it.. but it’s clear he realizes just HOW low he was about to sink to save his own skin and that as much as Storkules WANTS a paycheck and deserves one, it’s not worth hurting people to get it. Louie tries to justify after this.. but can’t.

Unforutnately Donald took a lot of stupid pills this episode, yells about his no pets rule and frees them instead of you know, THINKING for five minutes.

So yeah NATURALLY Donald is an angry shit about it , refusing to actually TALK to Storkules about this or maybe admit this is partly HIS OWN FAULT. Yes their both at fault, Storkules shoudln’t of shoved a bunch of harpies in a closet. That’s a classic blunder. But Donald still opened it and isn’t called out on taking zero responsibility. Huey sees the fracas and just takes down their days without an accident placard, good stuff and he and webby arrive to help. Donald fights with Storkules and Storkules worries about loosing his friend.. lead to them going after the thing he values most aka donlad and hyjacking the house boat, though the kids manage to get aboard.

As Storkules saves Donald, Louie realizes the most precious thing he has is his merch and willingly gives it, and his buisness up to save everyone. It’s good character stuff and shows that despite his problems with greed, Louie IS a good kid and will do the right thing. It’s what seperates him from the Rouges Gallery the family faces: He has FLEXIBLE morals but he has morals when it comes down to it. So everyone tosses the stoff to help direct the hapries and make it home tying them up. Donald has a heart to heart with Storkules and agrees to help him find another place, but still considers him a friend and they hug. Awww. One intresting thing I DID find out from rewriting history is they originally fully intended to have Storkules STAY on the houseboat. He was going to be a permenant member of the household, at least as far as Season 2 was concenred and plans were made for several episodes down the road: the whole bit with him in “The Golden Spear” was simply because he lived there, he was going to be the one Della met in the houseboat, obliviously guilting her about what she’d missed, and he was going to set off the kids subplot in “Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?”

This ended up not happneing for logistical reasons: Frank, and I swear this was the term he used, felt they already had the perfect Himbo in Launchpad and it was just too much HImbo energy for the two to coexist without one taking the others screen time or neither getting a lot.

The next reason was having a god around simply broke the story: He cited the gilded man from “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” as a specific example. There were just too many hoops to jump to have him not break any story he should be around for. Finally with Della being added to the cast soon there simply wasn’t room in the main cast. Della brought it up to 9, Storkules would make it 10, and as i’ve gone on about the show already had trouble ballancing it’s cast, something Frank admitted to. Adding him would both be too big a stiatus quo change and be one on top of the massive one of Della joining the cast. So he was dropped back to recurring and only showed up one more time. And while it was the right call I am dismayed he didn’t show up for the whatever happened to donald duck subplot and it does feel very weird he never adresses Donald being gone despite, at least for season 2, apparently living in Duckburg. Otherwise though as funny as this wouldv’e been.. yeah it was the right call.

Scrooge returns... having been absent all episode because otherwise it wouldn’t work and easily saw Louie loosing it all coming.. but gives him a can of lemonade for his troubles and comforts the boy. The heart of htis arc and what makes it work at it’s best.. is these two. Scrooge GENUINELY wants to help Louie see his potetial successor in buisness: oh sure adventure wise he’s throughly covered.. but Webby, Dewey and Della all are more focused on the addventure part and that’s where their passion and talent lies, Huey’s better at science and given his close frinedship with fenton and how much that part of things seems to truly inspire him, i’ts what he was born for, and Donald just wants a regualar life and can’t manage his own life much less a company.

Louie is the only one in his family whose the right fit to inhereit that part of his legacy and I feel that’s why he takes a special intrest in him and webby over the other two: While he loves all of them and will clearly again leave a piece of his fortune and empire to all of them, Webby is the most like him, as we later find out not coincidentally in the slightest, when it comes to adventuring and curosity and a love of exploration. But Louie is the most like him in other ways; He’s cynical, money driven and passionate. Scrooge simply wants him to be as good a person and buisnessperson as he can be and is trying to push him in the right direction. And does so here by pointing out that failure isn’t a huge problem..it happens, comes with the terriotiry and as we’ve seen with life and times, even with portions of it clearly not happening in this universe, he failed a LOT to get here. What matters is that he tries and tries to do it the right way.

Scrooge also sympathizes as he was buying a lemonade company in cape suzette, giving Louie the can as a present... but laments there’s no cheap effective way to deliver the lemons. Louie notices the harpies going after the can after he throws it and Webby controlling them with it and muses that theyd idn’t think about what THEY wanted.. nad rightfully gets punched across the lawn by Webby, whose had to spend an entire episode having her surrogate brothers talk down to her and ignore her valid ideas. She dosen’t even open her eyes she just bops him one.

So we end with Scrooge having enlisted the hapries, Louie trying to take credit again and both realizing they might just steal the lemons instead of work for them. Ha ha ha their going to get so sued.

Final Thoughts: This one was mediocre. It has some good points, Louies arc continues to fascenate me, Huey’s done with this shit attitude is hilarous, and Storkules is at his best in this episode: his crush on Donald is toned down from this..

To this

To the point I could see shipping them off this one if Storkules episode didn’t have him do eveyrthing short of .. well see above. So it’s not WITHOUT merit: I love me a ghost busters style plot, there are great jokes and Chris Dimatopolis is a gem as always. Glad he’s getting work after this show on Invincible and hope he gets to play Darkwing again some day. But the Donald stuff and the fairly predictable plot drag this one down. I’ts fairly obvious they’ll run out of harpies, Louie will have spent the money and they’ll somehow get free. It’s not a terrible episode but it’s it’s sandwiched story wise between two straight up classics on both sides: the previous two episodes were even better than I remembered and the next two are incredibly good: Whateve Happened to Della Duck?! is one of their finest hours and The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck, while not making my best of list for the series as a whole is still one of my favorites for the season. It’s just disapointing this one wasn’t nearly as good as I remmebered and it’s understandable why I forgot almost all of it, unlike the previous two episodes. Thankfully as I said better’s over the horizon.

NEXT TIME ON OF MOONS, MILLIONARES AND MOTHERS: I’m taking a break for a week. One of two weeklong breaks for the arc, the other being the first week of July where i’m on vacation anyway (Though i’ll be doing the episode I would’ve done for that week the week before to keep the pace up, so no worries),

As for why, it’s my utmost honor to announce GOOF WEEK! Goof Week is a weeklong celebration of Goofy’s birthday. The idea came about because as I do for the big three, I intended to just do a shorts special. But Kev , the guy who made this very review possible, suggested doing the two part Goof Troop pilot. And since kev pays for a house of mouth episode a month anyway and thaks to you lovely people I hit my patreon stretch goal to review the goofy movie, I figured “why not make a week out of it. Hence Goof week. So next week we’ll have a review of the two part pilot for Goof Troop, the special Sports Goof, the House of Mouse episode Super Goof, your regularly schedule shorts spectacular, with The Goofy Movie for the grand finale! yaaahoooooieeee!

When we come back i’ll be shuffling episodes around slightly so I can do the Della comics from the Ducktales Tie-In Comic before her debut and in time for Donald’s own theme week in June, i’ll be saving “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?” for the week after Donald Week. Instead next we get a fun wild west adventure as Scrooge tells a story of his outlaw days, his tension with goldie and his encounter with a certain robber baron as John D Rockerduck FINALLY makes his screen debut. Yee-Haw!

If you liked this review, subscribe and follow for more and consider joining my patroen, patreon.com/popculturebuffet. I have exclusive reviews, my most recent duck based one being an obscure carl barks story about wigs and the boys attempting to murder a guy with a blow gun, and your contribution helps me reach my goals and thus gets everyone, patreon or not, a bunch of neat new reviews. If you get me to 20 dollars a month, i’m currently at 15, EVERYONE will get a monthly darkwing duck reviews, reviews of the two remaning ducktales 87 mini series including the origin of GIZMOOOODDUUUUUCCCKKKK, and a review of the Danny Phantom movie The Ultimate Enemy. And with the month running out NOW’S the time to join. YOu’ll also get to pick one of the shorts for my Donald Duck birthday specail next month, so if you want to join in NOWS the time. But wether you can or you can’t, thank you for reading, i’ts been a pleasure.

#ducktales #louie duck #storkules in duckburg #dorkules #donald duck #storkules #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #huey duck #flintheart glomgold #dewey duck #funzos #disney #disney+#disney plus #disney xd #harpies

49 notes · View notes

adhdeancas · 4 years ago

Text

Dean Winchester (and the script leaks last night) possessed me to write this.

Dean happens upon Chuck's latest book: Carry On. Except it ends differently than it really went, and the ending? It's really fucking bad.

tw: suicide mention, transphobia (quickly shut the fuck down)

Dean doesn’t make a habit of going to bookstores. Not because he hates books, contrary to what Sam might think; he just prefers to buy used books. There’s something comforting about a book that has already been worn and read over and over, that already shows how much the previous owner loved it. Plus, y’know, big corporations are evil and all that. And Dean only allows himself to overlook that when his stomach or his wallet wins over his hatred of the shitty mass-produced products.

This time it was Jack who won; he’s obsessed with this new fantasy series and the new book just came out, so there’s no way he can hunt it down on Ebay. He makes his way to the fantasy and sci-fi section, eyes roaming over the displays of new releases, and his eye catches on something that turns his blood cold.

“Supernatural: Carry On, The Final Book of the Winchesters’ Epic Journey” takes up a whole table, the generic and overly serious cover jeering out at him.

He storms over to the display, anger covering up for the way his body feels light as a feather and like lead all at once, and picks up a book. “Why is Sam always fucking shirtless?” he mutters, the only thought that allows itself from the mess inside his head to his mouth.

“Book sales.” A voice behind him says. He turns to see a teenager with their arms crossed over their work polo, pierced lip fixed into a customer-unfriendly frown.

“People want to see that?”

They snort, a small grin turning up the corner of their lips. It reminds Dean of Cas. “No. But that’s what advertisers think all ‘women’ want,” They use air quotes.

He raises an eyebrow and asks. “Women?”

They shrug and uncross their arms, leaning back against the display table behind them. Their nametag says Jadyn. “Supernatural’s biggest block of readers is queer. I’d go out on a limb and say a lot of those the marketers think of as ‘women’ aren’t, or if they are, they aren’t itching to see Sam’s six pack.” Jadyn smirks.

Dean takes a second to digest that, then grins down at the book, thinking past Sam’s apparently badly-received nudity now. “So how’d they like it?” he asks, waving the book a bit and looking up at Jadyn. Apparently they know a lot about the fans of the books, and for once, he’s proud of the way the story ended.

Jadyn’s face sets into all hard lines. “Most people fucking hated it.” they say bluntly, then, probably remembering that he’s a customer, correct. “Sorry. I mean, it got some good reviews, mostly from people who like Wincest, but beyond that, it had some problematic plot points.”

Dean winces at the reminder of the ship between him and his brother, then scrunches his whole face together in confusion. “Wait, what? Why?” Why would Wincest fans like it? What was problematic about their end?

Jadyn shifts from foot to foot. “I don’t wanna spoil anything for you-”

“I don’t care about spoilers, just give me the short version.” Dean says quickly. A quiet panic is rising in him, and suddenly he has a horrible feeling that he’s not holding the truth in his hands anymore.

“Uh, okay… Well, the most obvious thing is the bury-your-gays thing, then there’s the fact that it completely contradicted the rest of the lore. And it was ableist, misogynistic, and messed up, like, every character’s arc.” they take a breath, clearly worked up by it. “Even if they changed any of the details too, it was all built on Dean’s death, and that’s just bullshit. Sorry.” they apologize again, apparently mistaking Dean’s stricken expression to be in reaction to their rant and swearing.

“No, nah, you’re… you’re okay. Uh, thanks.” he waves a hand and wanders away from them, only remembering Jack’s book when he’s almost to the register. He manages to make his way back and find the damn thing, but he’s still in a fog when he gets to the register.

“Did anyone help you in the store today?”

“Huh?” he looks up and meets the middle-aged cashier’s gaze for the first time. Brent, from the nametag, looks at him impatiently. “Oh, yeah, uh… Jadyn. Jadyn helped me.” Brent scoffs and starts typing with a shake of the head. “Uh, is there a problem?” Dean asks, a little annoyed at this cashier’s unnecessary attitude. He usually doesn’t care if an employee’s rude, because they have to deal with assholes all the time and honestly Dean isn’t much better, but this one gives him a bad feeling.

“No, no, sorry. It’s just - “Jadyn’s” got this idea that he’s a girl. Makes everybody call him that name now too. Just-” Brent shakes his head. “I mean, you get it. Their generation, everybody wants to be special.”

Dean glares. “No, I don’t get it, Brent.” He says through gritted teeth. “Seems to me like Jadyn probably deals with enough assholes like you that her asking for a little basic decency is the exact opposite of special. Sounds pretty normal, actually.” He can see the fear creep into Brent’s eyes, and he knows the cashier is reacting to the murderous look in his eyes more than his actual words.

Brent hands Dean his bag of books with a quiet, “Here you go.”

Dean snatches it away. “Oh, Brent?” he checks over his shoulder to make sure they’re alone and then leans across the counter into Brent’s space. “You should find a new job, one where you don’t have to interact with other people. At least until you learn how to stop being a piece of shit.” He starts to ease away but thinks better about it. “And if you think that’s a suggestion, it’s not. My husband likes this book coming out next month that I’ll need to buy, and if I see you here when I come, well… it would be really embarrassing for you to tell all your little friends that you got your ass beat by a ‘special’ guy, huh?” He pats Brent on the cheek condescendingly and leaves with a huff.

Damn transphobes.

He only remembers the book once he’s back in Baby, and he takes the time to drive out of town before he pulls over to read it. It’s an old abandoned church, the cross long since fallen from the roof and the doors hanging off their hinges. He sits on the steps just because being in Baby seems claustrophobic for once in his life, and going back to the bunker to look at this is just… not happening.

Dean only skims the beginning to see that it starts the same. The ground erupting with bodies, hell spitting out its most-conveniently placed nasties, Rowena sacrificing herself, Cas leaving. His throat closes up at that, at Chuck’s description of Cas’s heartbroken expression as he climbs the stairs of the bunker. He clears his throat and skips to the end, right past Cas’s death that he doesn’t have the time to think about right now, past them defeating Chuck and then stops. He goes back a few pages, trying to find the disconnect.

The story’s different.

After Jack takes on God’s power, in the book, he’s totally fine. Not almost vibrating out of his skin or anything, not crying like the three year old he is because he’s scared. Not like it really happened. He just smiles and leaves him and Sam, and they let him go.

Dean scoffs, skimming over the story as it just gets more ridiculous.

In the book, he doesn’t even try to save Cas. They barely even mention him. And they never mention Eileen, either. In fact, Dean notes disbelievingly, practically the only characters in the last few chapters are him and Sam. They’re hunting again.

“What, is Chuck trying to keep the series going?” he whispers to himself, anger flaring through him. They let Chuck live, and he decided to write obnoxious fanfiction about them? He’s gonna kill that shameless little fucker. For real, this time. He deserves it.

In the book, Sam and Dean torture some vampire mime, and they enjoy it. Dean cringes; this is really what Chuck thinks of them. Then they tussle with more vamps in a barn and-

Dean’s brain stops working. He rereads the scene again and again.

“There’s something in my… something in my back. It feels like it’s right through me.”

Dean Winchester dies in a dirty barn, on a piece of freaking rebar.

More than that, Dean realizes on his fourth read-through. This Dean? He tried to drag out his speech, Dean can tell by the way he pauses for fucking drama. He would never do that. He would never talk to Sam for fifteen hellish minutes when he could be trying. Trying to live, so he can actually get his life back on track, get his family back. No, he made that speech stalling. He made that speech so Sam wouldn’t try to save him.

“You gotta admit, I had one helluva ride.” He was strangely calm.

Chuck made him kill himself.

Dean reads the rest of the book through blurry eyes, reading an ambiguous and nothing-ending, one where he’s somehow happy to be dead and driving around in heaven alone while Sam raises a kid into hunting and cries about Dean decades after he’s died. Eileen isn’t mentioned. Cas is mentioned once, and Bizzarro-Dean doesn’t even think about seeing him, apparently. The whole book ends with a hug between him and Sam, both dead. Both alone.

Dean rips the ending up. He tears through the stupid paper covering and keeps ripping the pages up until they’re the size of confetti. His lower lip wobbles. He throws the whole thing against the side of the building, and it tumbles through the broken doorway and drops into a pile of dust and dirt. “That isn’t the fucking ending.” he grounds out, knocking his hand against the flimsy handrail. It gives a little under his fist and he kicks at it. “That isn’t the fucking ending!”

He’s having a panic attack. Again. He tries to take deep breaths, but they’re gulping, too big, they’re making him panic more. He scrambles back to Baby and grabs his phone, presses the first number on his favorites list and waits for him to answer on speaker phone.

“Hey Dean, what’s up?” Sam sounds like he’s been laughing. There are voices in the background, and Dean tries to convince himself one of them is Eileen.

“Hey Sammy.” he chokes out, trying to sound normal. “You busy?”

There’s a pause, and then the sounds in the background. “Nah, Rowena’s just over.” he says casually.

“So those voices in the background were-”

“Rowena and Eileen, yeah. They’re trying to convince me we need to go to Mexico. For the beaches.” A smile in his voice. Dean lets out a sigh of relief. What’s up, Dean? You need something?” The smile drops, and Sam’s worried.

Sam’s okay. Sam’s okay. “No, nah. Hey, you heard from Donna lately?” Dean just needs to triple-check.

“Uh, no, not since Sunday dinner… Dean, you okay?”

“Yeah, she just- she hasn’t been answering my texts. Just wanted to make sure.” Dean lies quickly. His breathing is still uneven, but his body is settling into uneven shakes.

Sam sounds skeptical. “Yeah, well, she did tell us it’s been pretty busy at work lately. Y’know, everybody going out for the first time with COVID, getting stupid. Plus, y’know, nowhere’s drowning in EMTs right now.”

“Right. Yeah.” Dean takes a deep breath, a distant memory of Donna talking about that coming back to him.

“Pretty sure you were setting up a D&D session with Charlie while she was talking about that,” Sam laughs. Dean knows he means it as a subtle jab, but there’s too much relief flooding through him to care. Still, a string is pulled taut in him, and Sam can’t fix that completely.

“Gotta go, Sam,” Dean hangs up before Sam can say anything else, and goes to his next contact. It rings for far too long, and Dean’s heartbeat picks back up to thundering.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Cas,” Dean breathes out. “Cas, you know I love you, right?” He needs to test all the bounds of this, to make sure, just to make sure. Make sure Chuck isn’t still fucking with him. Because apparently, Chuck won’t let him be queer. Not in his story. Not out loud.

He can hear Cas’s eyebrow raise through the phone, and his chest is overcome with stupid fondness. “I would be a little worried if you didn’t.”

Dean grins widely. “Like, romantically. I’m in love with you. Because you’re the love of my life and I’m bisexual.” He says it all like it’s a checklist, like he expects some cosmic being to slap a hand over his mouth before he gets each next phrase out.

“Yes, Dean. We’ve been married almost two months.” Cas is smiling. It happens everytime he talks about their wedding. Dean adores it. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, now it is.” His whole body relaxes, still vibrating with leftover panic, but satisfied. “I got Jack’s book.”

“Oh, good. He’ll be so pleased.” Cas pauses. “Dean, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Dean eases off the ground and sends a last look at the dilapidated church before climbing into Baby. “Just- read a bad book. I’ll tell you about it later. When I get home.”

#i fixed it #god fucking damn it #dean winchester #destiel #saileen #saileena #sam winchester #castiel #eileen leahy #castiel winchester #jack kline #roweena #my writing #ficlet #deancas #trans dean #trans woman OC #tw: transphobia #tw: suicide mention

66 notes · View notes