#labour freeloaders

[ivovynckier]

Is there still a Tony Benn in the Labour Party? Didn't think so...

[norikuna]

r/AsksReddit | Help! I think I accidentally summoned the King of Curses ! ⌦ part one of ?

💬 hi reddit, i know this sounds fake but i swear on my life it's true. i was just messing around with this prank book my friends got me last christmas and it had some 'ancient' summoning spells in it. i didn't even think it would work but there's a 7ft demon looking guy sitting on my couch and i don't know how to get rid of him.

Sorry, this post has been removed by moderators of r/AsksReddit. MOD: Please ask real and serious questions, thank you.

💬 update! the mods removed my post but i'm genuinely telling the truth here. anyway, it turns out that by summoning him, i think i bound us together for eternity. sukuna (that's his name) isn't that bad and he's kinda like a big, lazy cat.

u/9to5exorcist : Ryomen Sukuna? Are you quite sure? u/tenshadowsanimalcrossing : You're joking, no way u summoned sukuna lmfao. u/you : not joking! i took him grocery shopping today! u/SixEyesSensei : dm me asap!!!! please!!!!!!!!!!!!!

inspired by @kasukuna and the most amazing dumbass boyfriend!sukuna fics 🤎

absolutely refuses to use your furniture properly. sukuna insults your apartment for at least 2 whole days and calls it a sad, little domain. he has no idea what paying rent is like in this economy. lounges across the couch with all four arms spread, sits on the kitchen counters, and insists on rearranging your entire living room spread so he can move around it easier.

now you're constantly sleep deprived by having this deadbeat, massive behemoth of an awful flatmate. sukuna keeps telling you that he's a medieval sorcerer, someone who flattened entire clans and mountains but it's hard to take him seriously when he keeps hitting his head on your low ceilings. he's always so loud around the apartment, complaining about how boring it is for him to be stuck and bound to you forever. if you're a university student or just someone who's employed, he thinks he's being helpful by offering to curse your professors/employees.

you have to beg him to get some real clothes. you're slowly getting used to the anatomically strange sight of a 7ft man with four arms, but you know that others are going to call the police. he's usually wondering around your apartment and loitering in his loose, wide pants. nothing else, not even a shirt. occasionally sukuna will drape a cloak around his torso but you have to basically wrestle a baggy shirt over his head. and he bites you, at least thrice.

refuses to help clean, and claims he's very much above menial labour. one day, you threaten to leave sukuna hungry if he doesn't contribute for at least five minutes. he begrudgingly starts picking up after himself, but not before bestowing you with the ugliest death threats of all time.

sukuna is the very definition of a lazy freeloader. well, you told him to be useful and get a job, but then the idea of him causing more problems and insurance paperwork later made you break out in a cold sweat. so he usually spends his hours just loitering around your apartment, and draining your resources. never puts dishes in the sink and still doesn't grasp the concept of a fridge so he's always leaving the door open.

but he is very curious about modern day life. seems like the world has really moved ahead in the one thousand years that sukuna hasn't walked the earth. asks a million questions about wifi, the internet, a phone, streaming services and so on. he will be the last to admit it but he loves trashy reality television, and he enjoys watching 'pathetic humans squabbling over pathetic things'. has an ugly, evil-ass laugh that wakes up your neighbours at 3am.

after weeks of being cooped up in your apartment, he starts complaining. loudly. stomping around and getting even nastier, to the point where you have to give in. he tells you that he is no house pet, and if you don't let him outside, he will go anyway and have his own fun. god help you, sukuna's idea of fun in the big city will involve blood and destruction so you relent and prep him with a million rules that he ignores.

has a beef with a bunch of birds that sit outside your apartment every morning. definitely the type of weirdo that glares back at birds and throws rocks at them. backfired, because the entire swarm started flocking around him. but you did promise him that you'd let him go outside, so you decide to start with somewhere easy. grocery shopping.

already impressed with the idea of grocery shopping and parking lots. has no clue why humans would cram their 'carriages' in one place, and has no concept of traffic laws. you try patiently explaining that these cars weigh tonnes of metal and they can really injure a person. sukuna's pretty confident that no car could ever even scratch him. cue the big delivery truck that almost runs him down.

completely fascinated by sliding doors. it's already embarrassing enough being outside with a loud, rude tank with pink hair and tattoos. but now he's holding up gruntled customers trying to figure out what enchantment allows glass to move so smoothly on its own. keeps stepping back and forth in front of them to watch them open and close. almost breaks them with the strength of just one cracked fingers before you plead with him to keep moving.

sukuna encounters an escalator for the first time and refuses to step on it, and vows to bash in the head of the little kid who gave him a big side eye. after five minutes of arguing, he finally steps onto the moving belt and almost tilts off-balance, but he's got a tattooed hand practically gripping the side for dear life.

literally the biggest hater when he's inside properly. makes snarky remarks about how this flashy bazaar can't possibly be for real merchants who respect the trade. you try to show him the different types of stores, but he's more interested in people watching. loud people-watching. you almost go home when sukuna asks another man why he's swallowing wet balls. hint: it was an innocent guy having bubble tea.

entirely interested in new fruits and vegetables that he's never seen before. but he'll pretend he doesn't give a flying fuck. has taken a deep liking to tomatoes, and comments that these delicious, tasty red globes were not around during his era. sukuna thinks colourful cereal boxes are the worst things to ever happen to mankind, and you fear that you gave him too much internet access when he sneers at you for picking up a box of froot loops - suddenly muttering things about artificial and fake foods with fake flavours.

baffled by the concept of frozen food, and wonders what sort of jujutsu keeps the meat cold and fresh? practically wide-eyed when he reaches the butcher's stand until you tell him that 'no, sukuna. you can't buy steak and eat it raw here. we have to get home and cook it.' he's just happy to see the deli. he opens the freezer and fridge doors for too long and lets all the cold out.

he has no concept of modern money or a credit card. insists that there is no need to trade for these goods, and he can just take what he wants. you believe him but you're trying to avoid the mall police, but he just stands behind with his arms crossed, while you sigh and take out your credit card to pay at the self checkout.

sukuna refuses to sit still at the food court, and towers over the poor workers. demands to know how the food is made, "is it poisoned? who are your chefs?" the poor teenager working the kebab store has to call the manager to get this fiend of a man to back off. he's able to polish off a doner kebab in two, nasty bites. refuses to carry any of your shopping bags and claims that he's not a mule. you remind him that he put in five tubs of ice creams and two watermelons, and he begrudgingly slings the lightest bag over his shoulder and leaves you to haul the rest up.

but who knew the key to keeping your local king of curses happy was to just simply take him out for a walk? sukuna seems more energised (while you feel like death warmed over) and he's already tearing open a bag of your favourite crisps, insisting that next time he will be able to conquer this 'shopping centre' properly and rule it with ease.

[harunayuuka2060]

MC: You destroyed my wall last time and now what?

Che'nya: *hugging them*

MC: Che'nya.

Che'nya: When will nya attend classes, nya?

Che'nya: I'm sad not seeing nya everyday.

MC: ...

MC: Do I really have to? I'm not from here anyway.

Che'nya: Nya've been here for a few months now. :3

MC: ...

MC: I guess I'll just leave then.

Che'nya: Nya? :3 Why?

MC: I don't want to be a freeloader in this school. I'll leave and get a job.

Che'nya: Child labour is illegal nya. :3

MC: *frowns* I'm almost an adult.

Che'nya: Nyahaha doesn't matter. Nya need credentials.

MC: ...

MC: *clicks tongue* Fine. You've convinced me.

Che'nya: Yay~! :3

MC: Can you stop hugging me now?

Che'nya: Can't. Nya feel too cozy to move.

MC: ...

[raincitygirl76]

I just realized something. Hillerska must provide a fair bit of employment in Bjarstad. That bus stop can’t only be there for non-boarding students. There would be administrative staff, cooks, cleaners, groundskeepers, maintenance people. Plus occasional extra labour (from local catering companies, presumably) whenever Hillerska is having a special event like Parents Day or the jubilee.

And big regular orders to Bjarstad supermarkets, not to mention local tradespeople being called in whenever there’s a specialist problem the regular maintenance staff can’t fix. They’re old buildings. There would inevitably be plumbers, electricians, carpenters needed from time to time.

Adults Simon and Sara run into on campus would also be adults they’d run into in town. Which must have gotten seriously awkward for Simon after August leaked that fucking sex tape.

Also, while the housemasters and housemistresses would obviously have to live on campus, I doubt Hillerska would have room to house every teacher. Particularly the ones who have families of their own. And even if there was room, many teachers might prefer to have separation between work and the rest of their life. So they would live in Bjarstad.

Presumably teachers with families could send their own kids to Hillerska as non-boarders for free. That might even be a perk of teaching there. I wonder if the non-boarding kids of Hillerska teachers are treated with as much contempt as Simon and Sara.

Please note, I have discovered from helpful Swedish watchers of the show that none of the Hillerska students pay tuition to attend. It is illegal in Sweden to charge for schooling. Private boarding schools gets around this law by charging exorbitant amounts of money to the parents of boarders, theoretically for their room and board only. In practice, for the experience of upper class solidarity and an exclusive education. So non-boarders like Simon and Sara are seen as freeloaders by many of the boarders.

Please note, though, that Hillerska would receive revenue from the state for educating each and every student. I highly doubt those payments would cover all the fancy extras Hillerska offers. But Linda Eriksson is a taxpayer, and her taxes are helping to cover the expense of educating her non-boarding kids.

Also, private Swedish boarding schools can pick and choose which non-boarding applicants they will accept, unlike public schools which have to educate everyone. So I guess they’d pick the cream of the crop of Bjarstad locals, kids who stand out in some way, and will enhance the school’s standing.

Simon presumably for his musical talent, Sara probably for her grades. Or maybe on compassionate grounds, since she got bullied so unmercifully for years at the local public school. Hillerska could pat itself on the back for rescuing the poor girl from the scourge that is public education.

The above is my understanding from what I have picked up on Tumblr from Swedes. It’s entirely possible I didn’t get it all right. I’m just a Canadian, after all! If I misunderstood anything, please let me know and I’ll edit.

[firespirited]

Genuinely fascinated by the price of Facebook/Instagram ad free: $120 a year.

Is that how much they were getting from selling my data?

That cannot be how much it costs to operate.

Web hosting isn't dirt cheap anymore especially with the amount of scripts running vs just delivering a jpg. I get 5gb and a ton of bandwidth for $60 and most users won't use more than 500mb in images, videos and database info on facebook or insta.

You pay developpers, designers, you pay folks to optimise it as the data gets more complicated, and of course mods if you're running anything social but Facebook uses sweatshop labour for that.

I think they must have come up with $10 a month based on 5 coffees or just assumed $10 is pocket change. It's hilariously ill informed to think the average citizen has an extra $120 a year for Facebook/Instagram/Threads or that meta shouldn't be *grateful* for *your* patronage in these times after all, they're not going to be worth much if they're empty.

_______

Tumblr's ad free had me doing the same calculations.

I've downloaded an archive of my original posts before, it comes to more than my website could host. It's why I've put the tutorials at @doll-tutorials.

They would have had my money if they hadn't given me two different prices then eaten my credit card info (I'm in limbo - error can't pay without another credit card, won't let me remove my old info) - that's super shady. Trying to be your own payment manager is always shady (see ebay).

No-one is willing to be transparent except fan sites who will say exactly how much they earned from ads, how much it costs to run and some idea of what the userbase is worth to investors.

Because we the users are part of the draw and the value of a website. Not just for our raw data to be sold but as shiny interaction for new users to join. I'd be paying to keep seeing your posts not just to have a diary. People throw around the terms content creator and content consumer but your little posts are worth actual money. We're not freeloading mosquitos on tumblr's back, we're what makes tumblr worth scrolling.

Tumblr's ask made sense, they're not publicly owned, they're not making a huge profit and I get a lot from this place as a host for my stuff but from the userbase (and blocking options).

Meta's ask is laughable, they need us more than we need them. There was a time where Mum was 'locked in' in that her peers were all staying in contact there but they've spread across the web: they're not just on pinterest and wordpress but on reddit goodreads letterboxd etc...

[leofrith]

capitalism is fun because you can not want to be alive but instead of having time to do the few things that do make you want to keep living you get to spend the majority of your waking hours doing meaningless labour in order to "earn" the essentials you need to survive. all this despite the fact that none of us asked to be here in the first place and there is more than enough food, water, and shelter on this planet for all of us to live comfortably but they're being hoarded by a few rich cunts who seem to find some kind of sick joy in watching all of us dance for them. because our lives have no value outside of producing profit and if you complain about it it's because you're lazy, unmotivated, a freeloader, as per the insufferable people who have been brainwashed by the grindset mindset into thinking that this way of existing is totally normal, not at all fucked up, and the best and only way to do things. like are you fucking kidding me.

[bastardblvd]

stepfather, please forgive me for i have sinned... 🧎🏻‍♀️ i didn't send in the two asks i was meant to (i'll send in the other soon). anyways, here's some more Grimetown Lore™ that was left marinating in my overcooked peanut-sized noggin.

i present to you, lawyer!Hiromi 🙌🏼

i can't remember when this came to me, but i was just thinking, imagine lawyer!Hiromi is the ONLY lawyer Grimetown has (the only one they need considering it's Grimetown). think of him as their very own Saul Goodman, just not as slimy; he's a good man, just fed up with the bullshit his slimeball clients get up to. the guy is honestly a Swiss Army Knife; he's got it ALL covered. from criminal activity to personal injury, real estate to labour law, and even patent law !!

anyways, a typical day for lawyer!Hiromi is representing drug dealer!Naoya at the District Court because, well, self-explanatory; this is all before lunchtime, mind you. then he gets a little lunch break where he eats his neatly cut cucumber sandwich before dealing with freeloader!Toji's trespassing penalty. something, something, he didn't leave Sugar Momma No. 16's property and went back to retrieve something he wasn't meant to... later on, sometime before afternoon tea, he has a meeting with landlord!Sukuna who has failed to meet Health and Safety obligations (there was mould growing in multiple apartments of the various complexes he owns on Bastard Blvd). his day finally ends with a video call with rich boy!Gojo about his possible fraud penalties because of those dodgy eight credit cards he's maxed out (there's probably some investment fraud sprinkled in there).

idk why, but i picture him driving a hearse he bought at the Gojo estate sale. don't ask me why they had a hearse; it's beyond me. also, he and bank teller!Nanami are roommates. i feel like he and bank teller!Nanami would greet each other after a long day at work like this: "I have to tell you what happened today. Gojo _____".

EVERYONE WELCOME THE GOOD LAWYER HIROMI HIGURUMA TO GRIMETOWN! 🗣️ THE IDEA OF HIM HAVING TO COVER ALL THE BASES IS KILLING ME!

hiromi has a few areas of interest but the more subjects he picks up, the less informed he is on them. sure he's kept drug dealer!naoya out of jail (and maybe accepted a few bribes from weed dealer!recovery girl to throw away the damning evidence because fuck is he tired) but good luck getting off scot-free if you're facing charges with exotic animals in grimetown. he's never left the law school phase because he's frantically studying some new law he's never even heard of the night before the trial.

[captaindibbzy]

I am struck once again by how many problems on a country wide scale could just be fixed by putting money towards it.

And how getting that money is actually super fucking easy for them. They litterally just have to tax the fuckers who make the most.

And then we as a country could help the poorest, fix the sewers, subsidise farming, put more money in to the NHS, and care systems, invest in poverty areas, invest in schools, invest in green infrastructure, and everything else we can't currently "afford".

And the fucking best excuse I've heard put back for why we can't do that is "oh no the rich people will leave if we do that :(" well they fucking aren't doing shit anyway and their current contributions are pants so let them fuck off to Saudi Arabia or the US or Monaco or whenever else it is the rich play these days.

Tax multiple home owners to high fucking hell. Tax their income. Tax their stocks. Tax their savings accounts. Take their god damn money that has been built on the fucking stolen labour of countless people they've stepped on for generations and then spend it on building schools not full of RAAC. We don't want these freeloading shit heads who claim their money is some how special money that they earned all by themselves. They have so many derogatory names for people on benefits who struggle to hold down a job cause of low employment, low mental health, low education, but there are people making six figure salaries off buying properties and renting them to people on government housing benefits who then don't do a single drop of upkeep on those properties even when the mold and cold litterally kills people.

I'm not even saying people who work hard can't fucking have money, pay surgeons, pay lawyers, pay people for their work, with compensation to the years they have spent honing their skills. Subsidise farms, and education, and fishing, and the environment. I'm just saying if you're in the upper tax brackets you can fucking afford to contribute to paving the fucking roads, and if your income is passive you can fucking get a real god damn job or contribute to a society where everyone can live passively rather than just a select fucking few. People holding up the fucking world deserve to be fairly compensated with a better safety net, infrastructure that works. People who need holding up deserve the help as a matter of human decency.

[magnoliamyrrh]

What do you think about the border crisis in El Paso? Do you think this is an invasion?

no, i dont think its an invasion, but i do think its a humanitarian crisis that is being handeled horribly by both the left and right

when i was 18ish i worked w a charity in immigration law, particularly w the refugee department helping those from southern america. id put together their asylum cases and send them forward. good people, but many horrible and desperate stories. people fleeing extreme poverty, people fleeing absolutely horrible cases of gang violence (heard plenty abt ppls relatives being disemboweled, hanged in public, etc), desperate families fleeing so their children could have better lives, desperate mothers and daughters fleeing trafficking and csa cases, the list goes on and on and on. it was heartbreaking

i think theres this conception that, idk, many of these ppl are "criminals" or "freeloaders" who just want the us to take care of them, or theres the other idea that this is some sort of staged invasion to destabilize the us, but that ain't really the case. Many, if not most, are just desperate people wanting better lives for themselves and their loved ones, and theyre desperate enough to risk their lives crossing through jungles and mountains and deserts, to use coyotes who may or may not traffick them. They sure as hell arent "freeloaders" either as the republicans would say, most of these are hard working ppl who want jobs, who get jobs, who very much contribute and pay taxes and the whole ordeal

if anything the immigration laws makes it Harder for them to contribute, bc of all the bullshit regulations like theyre not allowed to drive, not allowed to get xyz job, etc etc. which is why so many end up driving and working illegally - because they need to survive. unfortunately this makes things even more dangerous for them, bc being shoved in illegal jobs often means they are taken advantage of, underpayed, mistreated, etc etc. this also makes things harder bc these ppl, whove lived in the us for years upon years, some of them whove spend their entire lives since they were babies here, end up being "criminals" and being deported for some bullshit like a minor driving infraction

also. historically. this is very much their land. california/southern western america in particular was their land, but the whole damn country was their land before western europeans showed up and genocided everyone. i find it quite unfair to paint them as invadors when,,, well. if it werent for the american empire theyd very much have the right and ability to travel and return to the lands that some of them were displaced from, or to travel as they used to. these borders between america and the southern american states are not nature, theyre not set in stone, and they got made in the wake of a brutal, brutal history

its not nearly as easy as saying "why dont they migrate legally" either. many of these ppl are poor, many are in desperate situations which theyre trying to leave as soon as they can, and the immigration system is Very hard to get through. very hard. last i was working the backlog for immigration cases spanned 5-20 years, its absolutely Insane how hard it is to get citizenship here when you come from the south. Even for those who have daca or the dreamers act its stupidly, ridiculously hard for them to get citizenship in a country theyve been living in at times their whole lives, or decades upon decades

,,,,,this entire narrative is largely what is said of romanian and bulgarian workers in western europe as well. that theres too many, that its fucking western europe up, that were thieves of jobs, uncultured, we need to get out, and whatever the fuck else. except western europe wouldnt run without the labour, the ofter underpayed or all together unpayed labor of romanians and bulgarian, so its all rather hypocritical. they want our peoples out and they hate us, they treat our workers like shit, except theyd be doomed if our ppl werent working their fields, building their houses, and taking care of their eldery. same goes for america - So Much of this place is kept running by the labour of south americans, like so much of it

and also. on top of this i think its important to remember that part of the reason why so many ppl are desperate to migrate is Because of america in the first place, because of all the endless bullshit the us has done politically in southern america largely for the sake of their own profit, because of how much they've destabilized and fucked up so much of the region, because of the rampant corporations and capitalism and economic imperialism and globalizsm which have plunged so many places into severe poverty and dispair, the list goes on and on. america sure as hell doesnt have clean hands in this crisis, so maybe they shouldnt be surprised to deal with its reprocessions

a l s o. i have a personal bias bc i really like southern americans, generally speaking, as ppl. i live in california, so there's a lot of them here too - hell theyre the majority of the population i think?. some of my favorite people in this country frankly, theyre full of humour, theyre warm and kind and welcoming, soulful people, their cultures are beautiful, their food is very, very good, and ive always felt rather at home among them

all that being said, the left is doing a horrible fucking job handling all this. many democrat held cities and sanctuary cities are a damn mess, in so many regards. the homelessness and poverty and essentially slums and all this, it is really really bad, and a refugee/immigrant crisis on top of that makes it all a lot worse. when ppl yell that its ridiculous were taking other ppl when we cant take care of our own poor and homeless, i very much understand where theyre coming from. it is ridiculous, and a damn mess. democrats going on abt how "its not a humanitarian crisis" or whatever tf to be politically correct are just being stupid. it definitely is, and its putting a strain on the already failing system. thing is, i rly do think we can solve both of these issues - this country definitely has the damn money. these arent issues of lack of money, they are issues of the absolute incompetence of democratic government in this country (cali being a good example of this) and the stupid misallocation of money, as well as money stealing, as well as a falling and clogged beurocracy which talks a lot and does nothing and passes surface level look good measures which do nothing proper. this can be handeled in a more humaine, sane, rational and productive way,,,, if theyd get their shit together. something that definitely needs to happen is a reworking of the immigration system and law - so many ppl wouldnt be trying to enter "illegally" if it wasnt so stupidly hard to get citizenship or even a visa legally

..,,, and on the question of if us tax payer dollars should be spend for these ppl I think, first off, we dont need to raise taxes we just need to better use the tax money already there, and second off...... i think ppl need to spend a little bit more time putting themselves into others shoes. imagining what itd be like if they and their children were stuck in severe poverty with seemingly no hope or opportunities, what itd be like if they saw their own family members be killed and tortured in horrific ways, it their own lives and their childrens lives would the threathened....... wouldnt they hope someone would show enough humanity to help them? wouldnt they try to do just about anything for their sakes, and the sake of their children as well? i reckon they would

and. lastly. this idea of "invasion" sometimes comes w the idea that the democrats are trying to shift the vote in their favor by allowing immigrants who are gonna vote for them, but personally ehhh yea. not too sure abt that. its actually been shown that many south american immigrants are actually more conservative/republican than democrat

[ivovynckier]

Fat cat.

[leng-m]

Like, okay, say you're selling my artwork. Why don't I receive a portion of the income, then? I'm already paying for ad-free support. I understand if you need to sell my artwork because I'm a freeloader and you need help paying the bills, but I already contribute my share of the bills, so... y'know, you can just pay me for my artistic labour.

[spinchs-field]

children aren’t freeloaders. don’t fucking call them freeloaders. just say you support child labour lmao

[dr-napkin-face]

Corporations: Using AI to replace employees is good for you actually because it means you don’t have to work and get to spend time on your passions instead of menial labour 😊

Also corporations: UBI will ruin our society and no one will want to WORK anymore because kids these days are lazy freeloading snowflakes 😤

Sigh.

[quasi-normalcy]

My favourite thing is when rich people try to describe a socialist dystopia and just end-up listing off a bunch of things that are already facts of life for the majority of working class people, like "oh, there will be a faceless bureaucracy monitoring you"; "you won't be able to own a home or a car"; "there will be a rapacious class of freeloaders siphoning off the fruits of your labour"; "ruthless medical panels will get to decide whether you live or die", etc.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Me strolling in with my cup of tea and some snacks: please tell me about the cat school training techniques. I want to hear what you have to say on that, that is if you want to talk about it

Well, Non. Since you've put the kettle on...

I've been mulling over how different schools train. This is partly because I'm trying to convince myself to finish my griffins WIP (and that it isn't completely worthless because it's not fluffy, self-affirming smut, or... I dunno. My brain is unkind, anyway).

CATS!

Cats were founded by a witcher who had to pull himself from a pile of his brothers' (and sisters', probably) corpses. He had to fight for his freedom. Survived at all costs. Before that, I can't imagine Gezras' life at Stygga was rainbows and sunshine either. The Stygga cats tried to mutate babies according to some canon.

I'm going off on a tangent, sorry. Right, training. So, based on this ethos of survive at all costs, I think Cats would place just as much emphasis on training in things like theivery and subterfuge as they would more classic witcher training. They would perfect the sleight of hand, how to move behind someone - a human - without being heard.

I was reading Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor" (1862) recently and he talks about “a coat … suspended on the wall with a bell attached to it … the boy [then] attempts to take the handkerchief from the pocket without the bell ringing. Until he is able to do this with proficiency he is not considered well trained.” There's also lots of sources about a mythical pickpocketing 'school' called the 'school of the seven bells'. I can imagine lots of young cats trying to rob Guxart's hanky, or some other Fagan-esque figure singing "gotta pick a pocket or two, boys" when teaching their young cats to survive. Survive, boys, if only to stick your middle finger up at the world that would see you fester and die.

This is even more important because the Cat School takes in strays and rejects. Partially mutated witchers that would probably never survive a "genuine" year on the Path. They would need a way to live, too, and no one's giving honest work to a yellow-eyed vagrant.

The cats teach balance and speed, but I don't think their fighting style will be as twisty-turny as the wolf school. I saw recently a friend talk about how Eskel's fighting style was designed to dazzle/confuse monsters - I think it was @hungarianbee, I'm crediting them anyway - which is why Caranthir kicks his ass. Eskel fights Caranthir like he would a monster, not a man. Whereas the cats? It would be tight, utilitarian. You'd never see them coming.

The final trial for the cats? You walk the rope suspended above Novigrad with the filth of humanity swarming beneath you. Your balance, your determination, your will to survive will carry you across, young cat.

I have other relevant headcanons too:

The cats operate a barter system; if you want to stay with them, you contribute. It doesn't matter how small.

The main currency of the caravan for favours is gossip. The older cats are like old washerwomen and exchange saucy tales more often than they do news about contracts.

If you're an outcast, rejected, downtrodden, the Cats will take you if you're willing to work. They don't allow freeloaders.

[captaindibbzy]

As I sit here unpicking, like, 70 stitches cause I fucked up the pattern two needles ago, I'm thinking about the entitlement of the rich.

The idea that someone won't give them their money, or labour, or anything else. The utter wobblers they throw when someone says no. It's like toddlers.

This is mostly inspired by Musk cause I've read about 4 articles about him today: about the advertisement issue twitter is having, and about the general strike going in Sweden towards Tesla cause Tesla won't sign a union agreement with people. But Trump has been around also, and I've been listening to a podcast about billionaires which goes in to how they made their money. Then there's our Benevolent Prime minister, who is also very rich. The conservatives are very against the right to strike and are making it harder to do so with laws and stuff.

Then they'll bitch about freeloaders.