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am-i-the-asshole-official · 1 year ago

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AITA for being "negative" about a bunny and refusing to apologize? I don't think I can really shorten this, so I'm sorry for the lack of a TL;DR :/ It's pretty long!! TW for animal death(and potentially animal abuse?)

My mom(42 F) has a habit of randomly bringing pets home. For context, she's a single mother with four kids, with me(17) being the oldest, alongside my sister("E",13) and my two brothers(7 and 4, not relevant to the story). My sister and I share a room and my brothers share one too. My mom works a job that involves sleeping at work and doesn't think it's worth it for us to rent a three bedroom, so she sleeps on the couch on her nights off.

The first time was mid-2020 when she brought home a feral kitten my grandpa found underneath his house. What was supposed to be a family pet quickly turned into a pet that was kept only to E's and my room. He had some sort of sinus issue where he snotted everywhere all the time, so snot was constantly needing to be cleaned and being found randomly on our things. The cat was eventually rehomed after a year because it scratched my sister really badly to the point that my mom was concerned she would need stitches(she didn't. the cat didn't like being pet / touched and my sister wouldn't respect its boundries).

The second time was another cat(2021) that followed my mom from her cat to her place of work. This was when I started getting frustrated with my mom randomly bringing home animals, since the same set up that happened last time happened again- except this time, the cat got old enough to spray, and my mom kept forgetting to get him fixed so our room just smelled fucking awful. This cat was also rehomed when I broke down after realizing it has sprayed all over my books. I told my mom he either needed to be fixed or she needed to get rid of him. He was gone the next week.

Then last year it happened again- except this time, with a puppy(2022). My aunt was looking to get a new dog and sent some puppy photos to my mom, which she cooed over and showed me. She told me she was considering bringing one home, which I instantly told her was a bad idea and went over all the cons. Mom seemed to agree. Then guess what happened to be an early Christmas gift.... -_-

My sister and I took charge on the dog. We got our brothers to agree on a name for him(anyone with younger siblings knows this is a BIG deal lmao), started attempting to crate train him(basically making sure he's okay with eventually being left alone without crying the whole time), and we were the only ones trying to potty train him. Our mom didn't stick to any of this(including choosing a new name??) and the dog still isn't potty trained, and I'm the only one other than my mom that doesn't refuse to clean up after him. The dog doesn't stay in our room like the other animals, but it took months for my sister and I to convince our mom to get a hook lock for our door so the dog wouldn't keep coming in and peeing. The dog didn't end up getting rehomed, but now regularly stays at our aunt's house way more than ours.

It's worth noting at this point that all of these pets were "family pets" according to mom, and she would get upset when me and E pointed out we were really the only one taking care of them. The dog evened out after a while and now it's mostly my mom and I doing the work when he's here, but the cats are still a point of tension for us.

And now. For the fucking bunny!! Jesus christ I'm sorry there's so much backstory to this!!

A week ago my sister comes into our room and wakes me up to tell me mom brought home a baby bunny. It was scary small(3.5 inches long not stretching, 2 weeks old), and wasn't moving much but was clearly alive. My mom said it ran into my Nana's yard after the dog next door scared it off, and it's pretty safe to assume the nest is destroyed. But instead of bringing the rabbit to a wildlife rehab or something, my mom brought it home and told my sister she could keep it. They then put it in a box with some grass and water and did no further research.

I was pretty livid, because 1. This is a WILD rabbit. That's a crime in my state, 2. I think it was insanely irresponsible for my mom to drop this on us, 3. This is not a pet and it's very likely it'll die in our care just from us not being experienced, and 4. On a very basic and selfish level, I didn't want to take care of this animal and I didn't want it in our room(which it had to be). But E has been asking for a bunny for years, so for once she wasn't on my side about a new pet being dropped on us. So I was pretty outnumbered.

I kept pushing for my mom to contact a professional at the very least to ask about its diet(it's very easy to kill baby bunnies by feeding them the wrong thing), and kept trying to get my sister to stop holding / petting it since rabbits can die of stress. My mom listened after a day and my sister never did. Tbh I also thought if my mom contacted a professional the pro would tell her to absolutely not keep the bunny? But it was never brought up in their convo, so I think my mom might have lied about it or something, idk.

I continued being "negetive" about the rabbit and my sister kicked me out of our room for it. I refused to care for it too, even though my mom kept insisting it was a "family" pet(without me it was just her and E taking care of it, and since it stayed in our room my brothers never really got to see it). To be honest I really didn't feel like I had a lot of options, and I thought if I didn't help then maybe they would get overwhelmed or something and decide to give it to a professional. But I still kept trying to give pet care advice, because I didn't want any harm to come to the bunny(for example, my sister likes our room to never have to ac on, but i made sure she was keeping it cool enough for the bunny).

Well... After four days, the bunny died. E was pretty heartbroken, obviously, and my mom was sad, but to be honest I'm just sort of bitter. I'm upset a rabbit died just because my mom wouldn't listen. For more context, I also thought bringing in the bunny was a bad idea because my sister recently lost her dad, and I knew if it didn't end well this would just add more grief to her life. I 100% don't think she's TA in this situation, even if she has frustrated me.

I'm still pretty pissed at my mom for all of this, so yesterday when she sat me down and told me I should apologize to E for how I behaved, I didn't take it well. She said my negetivity made it so E didn't fully enjoy her time with the bunny, and that if I had handled things differently maybe things would have tunred out better. I know E has been avoiding me, which started when we first got the bunny and she kicked me out of the room for being too negetive. I feel like she just needs time to process, and to be honest I don't think this is something I should apologize for, even if it is an apology just to make her feel better. It feels like that would be irresponsible of me? Idk. I told my mom none of this would have happened if SHE hadn't been so irresponsible and brought the bunny home to a grieving teenager, when there wasn't much of a chance of the bunny surviving with us in the first place, but tbh ever since her dad died I've been really trying to do right by E, so I second-guess myself a lot now.

So AITA for being negetive about the bunny and refusing to apologize? To be clear again I don't think E is TA here, but they're both upset with me so idk.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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jeon-s-sins · 2 years ago

Text

Fighter │ One

Synopsis: YN has just moved to one of the neighborhoods in the northeast of the capital. A neighborhood is known for its dangers and mischief. But with her student budget and the short time her previous landlord gave her to move, she had no choice but to take what she could get. When she went on a last-minute shopping spree, YN had no idea what she was in for and was confronted with the danger lurking in the neighborhood.

Warning: YN is followed in the street; non-consensual touching, fighting; brothel, and prostitution are mentioned.

Word count: 3.5 k

Chapter’s song: none

n/a: English is not my first language, so I may have missed some mistakes while proofreading. Enjoy your reading, and please don’t forget to vote and comment 😁.

Translations, republications, and rewritings of my stories are not allowed. Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action.

©Jeon_s_Sins

Index │ m.list │ ☕️

Whew. It's about time. You've spent hours decorating your new home.

You were kicked out of the old dump you dared to call home. One day, as you sat quietly on your couch, doing your nails and watching Netflix, the doorbell rang. Your landlord had given you barely a week to pack up and find another place to live. So, with nowhere else to go, you took the first place you could find.

This new place could have been better, and the neighborhood was one of the worst, if not the worst. Your new apartment was in a community in northeastern Seoul. This area was known for its bad business and many cases of prostitution. It had such a bad reputation that even the police didn't go there anymore.

As an orphan, you had always had to fend for yourself, so any opportunity was welcome. You were also a student; this would be your last year before you finished school for good and got a steady job. You only had a few months before the end of the school year, so you could hang on.

Besides, you could not afford to rent an apartment in Seoul with your meager salary. When you looked at it, the condo was decent. You had a nice living space, and your room was about fifteen square meters, bigger than your old apartment. The kitchen was open and led directly into the living room, with a counter separating them.

The bathroom was pretty badly decorated, and you were planning to do some redecorating – in all the rooms, for that matter. But it was okay. There were no leaks, the toilet worked perfectly, and the water didn't overflow when flushed. So everything was fine. On the plus side, you even had a terrace where you could sunbathe, and you were planning to develop it further to make it your secret garden. But hey, everything was going according to plan.

The downside was living above a brothel. Contrary to what you might think, the house's insulation seemed practical. You couldn't hear the sounds coming from below.

For the moment, your refrigerator and cupboards were as empty as your stomach. It was time to go shopping. When you looked out the window, you saw that the sun had already set, and you planned to watch the sunset on the roof, which only you had access to. But that was just a postponement. From your house, you could see Seoul's N Tower in the distance – it was built on the highest point in the city, and no matter where you lived, you could see it.

What you liked about this neighborhood was that even though it was horrible and had a bad reputation, the residents were still very concerned about the cleanliness and aesthetics of the area. Sakura trees had been planted everywhere, and no one threw their garbage on the ground, whether it was cigarette butts, plastic, garbage bags, or anything else. The streets had kept some of their traditional houses, which added to the beautiful setting when combined with a beautiful sunset. Worthy of the most beautiful postcard photos.

You quickly put on your shoes before taking your keys and going out. The front door that gave access to your apartment had a fingerprint recognition system and a code to unlock it, but the one facing the street had a classic lock.

As you walked the streets, you tried to remember every building, road, and alley you came across. You tried to find landmarks to help you find your way back to your new home. There was a butcher shop at the end of the street, a small barber shop a few steps from your house, and a beauty salon on the other. A few blocks later, you saw a bar. “The Devil's Den.” It was carved into the wooden sign above the front door. That was good to know.

A block later, you finally stumbled upon a convenience store. As you walked in, you saw a young man working the register – probably a high school student looking to make some extra money. You knew this all too well. After filling your basket with everything, you checked out and left.

You walked calmly, with your shopping bags in your hands, and didn't immediately notice three men following you. Unaware of the danger that lurked around you and was close at hand, you were still looking at the surrounding scenery. This area was a paradox in itself. According to rumors, this area was one of the worst in Seoul, yet everything seemed fine.

Carefree, you looked around as you walked toward your home. But your sixth sense had signaled – a little late – that you were not alone. Discreetly looking over your shoulder, you made out three male figures. Your heart had begun to race as fear took hold of you. Pretending to look at a cake through a bakery window, you used the crystal barrier as a mirror. You recognized one of the three men. You had seen him coming out of the grocery store. Your eyes had even met for a brief moment.

Not wanting to take any more chances of being accosted by the three strangers, you continued on your way, praying that they would not carry out their plans. You had transferred your two shopping bags to your other hand, holding the three small bags in one hand while the other was free. That hand, now free, had landed in the pocket of your sweatpants. For protection, you had tucked your key between your fingers. If they decide to make a move, you could use your key as a weapon of self-defense.

As the men got closer, you tried to keep the distance between you by increasing your speed. Now, you did not doubt that these three men were after you. Now that you were running, the men ran to catch up. “Come here, pretty girl. There is no point in running. We'll catch up with you.”

You looked over your shoulder to see where the men were. With fear, you realize that they are not far away. Still looking behind you, instead of in front of you as you should, you had bumped into someone, slowing you down. The stranger had wrapped his arms around you to prevent you from getting used to the complex, tarred pavement. Strangely, you felt safe with his big arms around your waist. His arms were twice as big as yours. He was muscular, but far from being a bodybuilder. You couldn't see his face because of his hoodie. He was dressed in black from head to toe, which gave him a mysterious look.

While your rescuer's neck was at the height of your nose, as he had to bend his legs slightly to put his arm around your waist and prevent you from falling to the ground, his smell hit you in the face. His scent was disturbing – in a good way, if that was possible. It was a mixture of orange bigarade with an overblown passion flower and the smell of fresh sea fabric softener. Breathtaking.

What was also breathtaking was his size. The stranger was at least two heads taller than you. His height and build were indeed his assets with women. He inspired security.

The security that, for the moment, was far from your case. With your sudden encounter with the man who still held you in his arms, you had completely forgotten the reason for your violent encounter. You had to get rid of his men once and for all. A place full of people would be ideal, but where? You didn't know the area; if these men were locals, they must have known the area like the back of their hand. Anyway, you were in trouble.

You couldn't give up. Only after you at least tried.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was still some distance between you and your attackers, you broke free of the stranger's grip. “Sorry!” You apologized. The stranger, for his part, had noticed your distress. You were undoubtedly in trouble.

He had seen you sneaking glances over your shoulder, somewhere behind you, so he decided to do the same. He had subtly looked up, and that's when he saw them. Three men were standing a few feet away from him. The three pretended to look at something, but your savior wasn't born yesterday. He knew something was wrong with them, and from your distress, he knew they were after you.

Nothing good could happen.

But before your savior could help you, you broke his grip and ran for your life.

You needed to put more distance between you and the three men. You didn't realize it in your panic and fear, but it wasn't wise to run toward your home. You had to deviate from your trajectory at all costs to avoid surprise visits later.

As you were about to cross an intersection, you turned left instead of going straight, which was the actual direction of your home. The three men were on you as soon as you turned the corner. Your rescuer had not had time to react in time to stop them from following you. They had all three passed in front of him like arrows. The young man knew this story would end badly if he didn't do something. He didn't think he was a hero but would feel guilty if something happened to him. Something he could have prevented. His conscience wouldn't leave him alone until he ensured everything was okay. So he led the three men on a chase.

You ran like crazy. Your heavy footsteps hit the ground, echoing in the silence of the night. You didn't know where you were going. Only two things mattered to you right now. Putting distance between you and them and getting them away from your house. You turned every corner you could, hoping to lose them, but nothing happened. They were still on your ass like leeches.

The universe seemed to be after you for something because the next time you turned down a street, a trap was set for you. The road you had just turned down was nothing but a dead end. You reacted quickly enough to turn around, hoping to escape the jam and continue, but you didn't. You could have been faster. You were slower than you thought you were. The men were at the entrance to the alley, blocking your only way out.

This alley was where you would be raped and murdered in a dumpster.

You were fucked.

The strangers moved forward as you backed away, trying to keep some distance between you. “Hey, sweetheart. It's no use running.” One of them had shouted, so you were in a position to hear. “We got you cornered.” Another had added.

So what now? How were you going to get out of this mess? You had taken boxing lessons when you were younger, but would you be a match for the three of them? It remained to be seen, but you would only go down with a fight. “Come on over here, honey. The four of us are going to have a great time.” The third, who had been silent until now, had spoken up, but he would have been better off keeping his mouth shut.

The three of them suddenly moved closer, breaking the distance between you in one move. You could see that this was not their first time. There must have been other girls who fell victim to these three bastards. It all happened so fast. In a split second, your shopping bags were on the ground as you were slammed into the brick wall behind you.

You struggled with all your might and even managed to land a few blows, making things worse and infuriating the men even more. Losing patience, one of the three grabbed your arm and lifted you off the wall before pinning you to his chest, immobilizing you as his comrade approached. “It's not very vicious, my pretty.” Said the one who came to you, making a 'no' sign with his index finger. "Not clever at all. You tore my favorite shirt." He had shown you the damage you had done.

"Now, it's only fair that I return it to you. Don't you think?" You unbuckled yourself, trying unsuccessfully to get out of the grip of the one holding you. "Please. I beg you. Let me go." You had begged them, knowing they would not capitulate and grant your wish. "And deprive you of the ultimate pleasure? Never in a million years, darling. But don't worry, you'll love it so much that you'll want it repeatedly." The one who held you in his arms had said into your ear.

A sound of tearing material could be heard in the darkness as you felt a soft breeze in your stomach and chest. The manure had torn your top completely. Only your bra 'hid' your chest. "Oh, yeah."; "Fuck, yeah."; "Nice and full, just the way I like them." All three men reacted to their partial view of your breasts.

You didn't know your background, but your body was well built, maybe too well made. You had nice curves, and your breasts were well-rounded. Nothing huge, but you were one of the lucky ones with slightly larger-than-average breasts. Lucky, depending on whose point of view it was. Certainly not yours. Sure, it looked nice when you wore clothes that weren't very revealing, but you could do without the backache that came with that "luck."

If you cared about anything, it had nice underwear. Not to please men, but it made you feel sexy psychologically. But now you were far from feeling that way and angry at yourself for not wearing the underwear you had at home and reserved for your period.

"And you wanted to hide this body from us?" Disgusting. You could have been his little sister. No respect. Then they started groping you, caressing your belly. The one behind you kissed your neck. It disgusted you. You felt dirty while you had a strong urge to vomit. Who knows, maybe if you threw up, they would leave you alone once and for all.

"Please, stop." But they went on, ignoring your complaints.

You had reached a point where you had somehow come to terms with the fact that you were not going to escape unscathed and that you were going to die in that alley, so you stopped struggling and cried silently.

The men were so focused on you that none had heard, seen, or felt the presence of a fifth person who had just appeared. As he watched the scene unfold, anger rose within him. Her crying had been the last straw. It fed his rage even more. Seeing red, he threw himself at the men, breaking their hold on you.

You found yourself on the floor from the impact of the fifth person's body. Instinctively, you pressed yourself against the wall and huddled into a ball. Relieved that your ordeal was finally over, your tears had doubled in intensity. Before you, the battle was over. The stranger had managed to knock out the three men in an instant. None of them moved.

The stranger had looked around for you, finally seeing you curled up against the wall. As if not wanting to scare you any more than you already were, he took small steps in your direction until he crouched in front of you. He had reached out to you, but you automatically backed away from the wall. "Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you." You knew that but were still in shock and had trouble breathing properly.

"Easy." Your rescuer tried to calm you down by trying a more tactile approach again. He had started by placing his hand on your shoulder. As his palm made contact with your bare skin, he felt your body shake.

You had never been in a situation like this, and God only knew that you had experienced things when you lived on the streets. But you had never been sexually molested.

Now you felt disgusting, dirty. You had a strong urge to take a soft one with acid and rub your skin until it disappeared, hoping to get a new one. You could still feel their filthy hands inappropriately caressing your skin as some of them took advantage of the situation to grab your breasts. Thank God you still had your bra on, but it felt dirty.

Seeing your distress, your savior, not knowing what to do, took you in his arms. It was the first time he had ever helped someone like that. Your face had landed between his pecs. The smell of orange, passion, and sea freshness that entered your nostrils was enough to help you calm down. In addition, his big hand, making regular up and down movements on your back, helped you even more.

"That's it. Take it easy. Breathe slowly." Without even asking aloud, you followed him without hesitation. Breathing in and out slowly. "That's good. Keep it up." You inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to finally get control of your breathing. The man was strangely calm and seemed to know what he was doing. Was he used to helping strangers? Anyway, it was official: you would be eternally grateful to him.

"Do you live far from here?" You had nodded 'no.' You didn't know where you were, but it shouldn't be too far from your house. So you gave him the name of your neighborhood. "It's not too far from here. Look, I parked my car not too far from here. Don't move. I'll go get it and take you home." Before leaving you in the alley, he removes his sweater and hands it to you. "Here, put this on." Then he was gone.

Even though you had finally regained control of your breathing and body tremors, you couldn't stop being paranoid. Every time you heard a noise, you were on the lookout with your eyes wide open. You were afraid that people would come out of nowhere and attack you.

For God's sake, come back quickly. You lifted your eyes to the sky and prayed that your savior would return soon. You feared that the strangers would retrace their steps to finish what they had started. Heaven be praised, for it seemed your prayer had been answered. A black car had pulled up a few feet from your standing. Getting out of the driver's side, your young savior had bridged the distance between you before helping you up and into his car.

Once seated and strapped in, he handed you his cell phone. You didn't quite understand what he wanted you to do with it. "Put in your address." Once that was done, he hung his device on the phone holder on the dashboard grill in the car's center. The ride had been silent, and neither of you determined to break it. It wasn't a heavy silence, let alone an uncomfortable one, but borderline comforting, which was odd. You had almost been raped in a dirty, rundown alley. And now you were standing in the car of your mysterious savior, who was still a stranger. Who knew if he had saved you from those men so that you would trust him, and then he could take advantage of you?

You had a vast imagination, but it was worth considering all possible scenarios. Even the most far-fetched were welcome.

It was a perfect way to celebrate your arrival in the area.

"YN." You had finally broken the silence. Looking out of the car window, you began to get your bearings. You knew you weren't too far from home anymore. The scent of the nameless stranger surrounded you, relaxing you considerably and distracting you from your attackers. As for the stranger, his eyes were still on the street. "Jungkook." He announced after a while of silence.

Jungkook. You repeated it in your head to make sure you wouldn't forget it. Somehow you thought his name fits him well. There are some people whose names don't quite fit, but Jungkook carried his character with grace and style.

The car stops. When you look out the window again, you see yourself standing in front of your house. "Thanks again... Jungkook." He nods without adding anything, and you get out of his car. And without turning around, you walk to your house's big armored wooden door. You realize you didn't hear the car start as you put the key in the lock. Looking over your shoulder, you see the car has not moved an inch.

Did he wait until you were safely at home before he left? If that were the case, Jungkook would definitely be an angel.

Once he was sure that you were safe and warm at home, Jungkook finally started his car to go home.

With everything that had happened that night, you had lost your appetite. After your long shower, you finally realized everything that had happened. But at the end of it all, the only thing that remained with you was the strange feeling that this was far from the last time that your and Jungkook's paths would cross.

Next ↦

n/a: I hope you enjoy this short story as much as I do. To ensure you don’t miss the progress of the chapters and their release, don’t forget to check out the Working on and Updates section. There you’ll find updates on “Fighter” and other stories and “One Shot” that you’ll probably enjoy. Also, don’t forget to check out the Masterlist. You’ll probably find something for you among my other stories in progress and those to come.

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Translations, republications, and rewritings of my stories are not allowed. Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action.

©Jeon_s_Sins

#Fighter │ One #yaya #jeon s sins #jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #bts smut #jk boxing #jungkook underground fighter #jk smut #jk fighter

54 notes · View notes

sovonight · 1 year ago

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hi sovo ;u; I hope it's okay if I ask you a shop question! So um, I'm lower on money than I've ever been and I'm too burnt out to do commissions for ppl due to personal stuff, but I feel like... if I made one charm or one sticker for a particularly huge fandom/movie that's out right now, and if I put it up as preorder and sold at least 20 keychains then I'd be able to pay my bills this month. but I've never sold physical merch before and I'm a little nervous to try it haha :'D

Would you recommend I try making an Etsy since it seems to have a large enough audience, or do you think I should try making my own website/shop? I'm definitely not ready to consistently sell things as a steady job yet, I thought I'd try literally just one single keychain or one sticker sheet (I already learned how to make those, thankfully) in order to pay my rent this month bc I've only got about a hundred dollars to my name sdflkfssdf;; and if it goes well then maybe I can try it again.

I'm also not quite sure how to price things? if I made a 3.5 inch acrylic charm with the little star shaped keychains like from Vograce, do people normally price those at $15 when they sell them? should I also account for shipping? I've also umm never shipped merch before and I'm so worried about somehow messing it up sldfjsf like I don't know what kind of envelopes I have to get or if I should even use my own address bc I'm so nervous about my personal info being out there, but I don't know if it's worth paying for a PO box if I'm so low on money already. if you have any tips on anything whatsoever, I would appreciate any feedback if you're not busy. But if you don't want to answer please don't worry about it ;u; anyway thank you so much for reading this I really appreciate you! ❤

no prob! here are my thoughts:

pros/cons of etsy:

apparently if you're new to selling on etsy, there's a probationary period where etsy withholds your profits for 3 months. i don't know anything about it personally since it started in 2020, but it seems that funds are only released when your shipped orders are scanned at the post office. i think i also remember hearing about other cases where payments aren't released at all for 3 months--and etsy customer service has a reputation of being difficult to get a hold of if you have a problem as a seller, so if etsy made a mistake with your shop, it may take even more months to resolve. since you have preorders in mind, i would hold off on etsy unless you can pay out of pocket.

etsy can drive traffic towards your listing for you (if you choose the right keywords--it's more difficult to be discovered just randomly if you don't).

they have high fees (for a $15 charm they'd take $1.88 in fees, which is 12.5%).

people may be cautious to buy from a shop that has no reviews yet, but many customers are protected by etsy's purchase protection and can be refunded at no cost to you if their order gets lost in the mail (provided that you ship with a tracking number and meet other criteria).

etsy will strongly recommend that you offer free shipping; ignore them. i don't think i've ever bought fanmerch with free shipping in my life, and their advice isn't geared towards sellers like us.

preorders don't work very well with etsy's system--iirc you're not supposed to do them (even though people still do, of course) but the main reason i remember is that the max processing time etsy lets you set per product (as in, the time between the customer purchasing the listing and you shipping it out) is 6 weeks. that means that the time you allow for customers to place their preorders, the time it takes for you to order and receive the merch, and the time it takes for you to ship out orders, all need to add up a max of 6 weeks, which was personally a difficult timeline for me to meet when making keychains. ofc, it's possible to extend the processing time, but going over the processing time may make it possible for customers to leave reviews/open cases early before you're even ready to ship out their orders, which could affect the reputation of your shop.

pros/cons of not etsy:

if you're not going with etsy, i've heard people recommend bigcartel, since it doesn't require a subscription like shopify or other places do. bigcartel's free plan is limited, but it should work for what you're looking for. another alternative might be ko-fi--i've heard that ko-fi shops aren't ideal for shipping out a large amount of orders, but since you're targeting just 20 i think it should be manageable.

ofc, you'll have to drive all your traffic yourself, so consider if you have enough of a following in your target fandom, or how you should go about getting your post noticed by your target fandom.

unlike etsy, shipping isn't auto-calculated, so i'd probably set a flat rate (in the US i'd expect $5). flat rates might make calculating your taxes just a little bit more complicated; in california at least, you have to pay taxes on the difference between the shipping you charge your customers and the shipping you actually pay to the post office, so iirc you either refund the extra shipping to the customer or hand it all over in taxes.

pricing:

yes, the standard price for ~3" acrylic keychains is $15, though i've also seen people go up to $16 or $17, especially on etsy where the fees are high.

shipping should be a separate cost, either auto-calculated for you (if you're on etsy/shopify) or a flat rate that you set based on shipping rates for your country, so in the end a customer might pay $15 + $5 = $20 in total.

unless most of your prospective customers are international, i'd recommend against shipping internationally to avoid dealing with customs forms, especially since you already have a lot of info to take in.

you can ship everything in a regular bubble mailer, though if you're just shipping stickers not keychains, a flat envelope should work fine. when shipping packages, you'll need to know the weight of each package, but you can just go by an estimate. a 3" acrylic keychain weighs about 1 oz (it weighs less than that, but they don't accept decimals) so i just multiply based on how many keychains are in an order. for usps at least, shipping is the same rate up until 10 oz iirc, so you don't need to weigh it super accurately. you could also always just go into the post office and have them weigh and label everything for you.

po box:

if regular PO box rates in your area are too high, you can also consider using a virtual po box; they go for about $10 per month at their most basic plans. if you're not expecting to get any mail redirected back to you, you should be able to just buy a month's subscription when you're ready to ship things out.

words of caution:

you probably already know this, but large fandoms can often be oversaturated by merch, so just choosing a large fandom might not be enough to guarantee a sale--you might have to stand out by, say, choosing a character who's in demand but doesn't have much fanmerch, having a funny meme concept, or having such a unique/attractive style that people can't help but want your fanmerch in particular. if you haven't already, i'd recommend looking around the market and seeing what's out there and decide why a buyer should choose your merch over anyone else's. though honestly, depending on your fandom, it could also not be this serious and not warrant much research--it all depends!

even if the preorder process works out and you get the funds to place the order, the manufacturer could always mess up on your order, which could lead to delays in your fulfillment and at worst, more expenses if you need to pay to get them remade. if it's easier to get sticker sheets made (like if you make them yourself/locally instead of ordering from overseas) they might be a safer choice of merch to make. ofc, i don't generally see sticker sheets up for preorder so you'd probably have to order them out of pocket and hope they sell, and you'll probably have to sell more of them than you would of keychains to get the same amount of profit. i don't know the whole situation, so i can't say anything definite about the risks/rewards between choosing to sell keychains and choosing to sell stickers.

#sovo answers #hope this helps!

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bluestringpudding · 3 months ago

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I am, after months of procrastinating, seriously thinking (and even actually doing some writing) about writing the prequel to Live Like Common People, since Jules and Draco still insist on living rent free in my head.

To this end I am reminding myself of the original story (how has it been 3.5 years since I wrote it? How?!?!?), and it is eye opening.

Thoughts so far:

- Wow, that's some blunt force exposition.

- Followed swiftly by a giant leap in logic with no explanation at all (when clearly I though I had some).

- I really had NO idea where this story would end up going.

- And therefore did not think through some of the hand waving explanations I gave for some of the limited character development.

- Trying to write those into a story is going to be err, interesting.

- I had even less interest in anachronisms, and now really hope no one cares too much about them, 'cos I ain't changing them.

- My audio editing skills were distinctly lacking at the time (I'm too lazy to read, so listening to the recording)

- Things I thought were fun details at the time are going to take a whole bunch of explaining.

Overall, it had reinforced something I've always been kind of aware of anyway, which is, I'm very glad that I have no aspirations of being a professional author. I enjoy writing, but I'm happy I can look at all of the above with a shrug. It's a hobby, it doesn't need to be perfect (or even near perfect in some cases), and I feel extremely lucky that despite all it's flaws, a whole bunch of people gave always been very kind about my first foray into writing.

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm off to plot shenanigans on a global scale.

#writing #thoughts #ramblings #live like common people

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mariacallous · 10 months ago

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On an island in the Singapore Strait, a thicket of apartment blocks peers mournfully over the sea. A corps of green-shirted gardeners dutifully tends the lawns and herbaceous borders along the roadside. A few cars slip along smooth roads to a commercial center with gleaming marble floors. Amidst the hundreds of closed shopfronts three restaurants are open—a fried chicken chain, a small café, and a gleaming and empty hot pot restaurant. Five duty-free shops are doing better business; some young men are stocking up on beer and Copper Dog whiskey at 11 a.m.

Welcome to Forest City: planned residents, 700,000; current residents, roughly 9,000. Launched in 2014 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the mega-project is headed by once-real estate giant Country Garden, a behemoth that now sits on the edge of bankruptcy.

At first glance, the project seems yet another tale of a ghost-city built on the back of a Chinese real estate bubble—and then doomed by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown. Yet Forest City’s story is also a deeply Malaysian tale, involving property-speculating sultans, nationalist politicians, and the country’s complex relationship with Beijing and its own ethnically Chinese minority.

Building a new city to lodge hundreds of thousands of residents on four new artificial islands in the Singapore Strait was always an ambitious venture. But the main market was not locals, but rather speculative buyers from the People’s Republic of China. When sales opened in December 2015, buyers flooded in, many of them buying “pre-sales” of uncompleted apartments. “You’d have buses coming over from Singapore every day filled with people who just landed,” said Tan Wee Tiam, head of research at KGV International Property Consultants. “There were over 1,000 agents in the sales hall, and it still wasn’t enough. … You felt like you were in China.”

Buyers were often looking for not a permanent residence but an investment that could also be a potential holiday home, or accommodation for children who were headed to study in Singapore. Some were reportedly even offered the opportunity to buy a flat in China and get one free in Forest City, said Christine Li, head of research in the Asia-Pacific for Knight Frank.

Yet this reliance on the Chinese buyers also left the project brutally exposed to changes in Chinese policy. The first blow came in 2017, when the Chinese government suddenly imposed capital controls preventing individuals from moving more than $50,000 out of the country annually. The minimum price of a Forest City apartment sits at around $75,000 and can be as much as $3.5 million. Then came the pandemic years which froze international travel—and stamped hard on Chinese real estate and growth.

Yet, Forest City’s staff seem to be holding out hope. Shane Lim, a hire from Singapore, showed me around and assured me that the place is working to attract buyers from across the world, including the Middle East, Indonesia, and Thailand. Still, he estimated that about 70 percent of his colleagues in the sales team are from China.

Halfway through my tour, a Malaysian man calling himself Ozzy introduced himself and his two wives. Now living in the United States, he’s searching for a place to buy in Malaysia that he can use to visit his daughter in Singapore and rent out when he’s away. Looking around, though, he’s unconvinced.

“Look at how empty this place is,” he said. “I’d only be able to rent it out for one or two months a year. … When I visited in 2018 this place was packed. Now there’s no one here. It’s like it’s haunted.” Lim stared at his shoes until Ozzy moved off. He then firmly assured me that the sales hall is busier on weekends.

A wet Wednesday afternoon might not be a peak sales period, but it is hard to escape the reality that the putative new city is barely lived in. Surveying one of the towers I descend from the 34th floor to the first, looking for signs of occupancy—a pair of shoes at the door, furniture seen through the windows that face the corridor, or even just curtains drawn over said windows. The place is eerily well maintained but empty. Just 25 of the 390 flats show any signs of current occupancy.

I met a single resident, a Malaysian Indian woman who said she lived in Forest City with her husband. Declining to give her name, she informed me a neighboring tower is busier. That would not be hard to believe. Some floors in this tower were completely empty with flats whose doors open to the touch, revealing light-filled marble interiors into which dead leaves have blown. Others had notices of a residents’ meeting dated October 2022 still taped to the door.

According to Li, there are signs that buyers may be slowly coming back. But she also suggested that Country Garden might have aimed too high, used to China’s experience of breakneck speed urbanization, supported by strong government support for infrastructure development. That policy created plenty of “ghost cities” in China itself—but until the recent real estate crisis, also huge profits.

Forest City has also suffered from being a political football since its launch, something Country Garden may well not have anticipated. “I did notice Chinese developers tend not to focus on the political climate,” Li said. “They are not used to the idea of general elections, change of government, and change of policies overnight.”

Despite its vast scale, the first time locals heard about Forest City was in 2014, when fisherman woke up one day to find barges dumping sand off the coast. Newspapers dug into the story, revealing that Country Garden’s main partner was none other than the sultan of Johor state, Ibrahim Ismail.

The tie made sense. Many businesses take on Johor royals as partners, benefiting from the influence they wield in the state. The Malaysian government is also bent on transforming southern Johor into a new economic hub, the Shenzhen to Singapore’s Hong Kong. The city was made a duty-free zone. When further investigations also revealed rushed environmental reviews, it took diplomatic protests from Singapore for the central government to intervene and ensure the proper process was followed.

However, things began to shift when the Malaysian government’s grip on power loosened. Rocked by the world’s largest corruption scandal, the China-linked 1Malaysia Development Berhad, voters turned against it. And at 93 years old, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad exited retirement to lead an opposition filled with former opponents, previously imprisoned under his watch, against a government coalition he once led for 22 years.

Forest City became one of Mahathir’s favorite targets. Inveighing against government corruption and waste, he accused the government of planning to sell out Malaysia to foreigners. Most provocatively, he claimed that the thousands of mainly Chinese buyers of Forest City apartments would be allowed to settle, become Malaysian citizens, and vote in its elections. In a country where ethnically Chinese make up 23 percent of the citizenry—and are often stereotyped as wielding undue political influence due to their wealth—the claim was explosive.

After his shock triumph in the 2018 elections, then-Prime Minister Mahathir followed through on his threats declaring that foreigners would not be allowed to buy property in Forest City. Despite legal challenges, the announcement apparently hit Forest City sales hard.

Five years and a series of dizzyingly complex political maneuvers later, the current Malaysian government is led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. His support is mainly built by ethnic minority-backed parties that triumphed in 2018. To secure his grip on power he needs two things. The first is economic growth. The second is increased support from Malay voters, to which end he has courted the sultans who act as power brokers in their states and take turns acting as Malaysia’s head of state. Perhaps none is more influential than the sultan of Johor, who started his five-year tenure in February this year.

In this context, Anwar seems to have rediscovered the charm of Chinese investment, and Forest City. He has repeatedly praised the Belt and Road Initiative, and in August last year he announced Forest City would be designated a special financial zone with residents offered multiple-entry visas, fast-track entry for those working in Singapore, and a flat income tax rate of 15 percent.

The sultan of Johor has also suggested reviving a proposed high-speed rail link between Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, with an extra stop at Forest City. And who knows what will happen. After, all the $10.5 billion Melaka Gateway project—launched under the Belt and Road Initiative and apparently scrapped in 2020—is also back underway, after finding new support from the state and federal governments. The developer behind the project recently acquired a major new shareholder, the sultan of Johor.

But the heyday of Chinese investment in Malaysia may well not be coming back. Ten years since China launched the Belt and Road Initiative, it has begun to pull back sharply on its overseas investments. China’s own economic slowdown and business wariness about the increasingly capricious regulatory environment is part of the story. But, the large number of projects gone sour also appears to have made Chinese investors more wary.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is struggling not to get left holding the bag. Should Country Garden go bankrupt, it’s uncertain what will happen to Forest City. At that point the Malaysian government could face the unpalatable option of a potential bailout by the Chinese government, leaving a chunk of Malaysian land in Beijing’s hands. Alternatively, it could step in itself—becoming the proud proprietor of what the developers still proclaim to be “A Prime Model for Future Cities.”

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umichenginabroad · 11 months ago

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Madrid Week 4: the rhythm of the night

Holaaaaa otra vez!! Niko here again, back with another blog for week 4 of studying abroad in Madrid! This week marked my official first month in the city, which means that I’m 1 month down of 3.5 (or 2/9ths of the way through). I wonder how my perspective of the city and life here will have changed by the 4/9 point, by 8/9 point, and when I’m finally gone. I guess we’ll both have to wait to find out ;).

This week, February 13th, was my birthday. I turned 21 years old — which is a pretttty big deal in the United States. 21 is like the final frontier of birthdays. After that, anything (except for renting a car, for some reason) (and also running for president) is possible. Order a beer? Done. Get into a club? No problem. Is it weird to me that we can join the military before those things? Yes, but I don’t know enough about the prohibition era to make a substantial claim on the laws we have in the USA.

Being that it was a Tuesday and I wasn’t quite in the partying mood, I went out for a nice dinner with a friend and bought myself churros for the walk home -- perfect birthday tbh. However, an American in America turning 21 will typically go out, buy alcohol legally, get into some bars with their actual ID (maybe Rick’s for my UMich people, which is finally on-limits :0 ), and likely get very very drunk with their friends. In Spain, that doesn’t happen for 21 year olds — or 18 year olds, for that matter.

I think that the basic differences in drinking culture between the USA and Europe are somewhat well known. To generalize: binge drinking is much less common in Europe; people may drink more but pace themselves out over the course of many hours; people start partying late and stay out much later. However, living in Spain and experiencing the nightlife firsthand has given me a new understanding of this culture — and I’ve found that it’s a rhythm I really enjoy.

An Aside on Work-life Balance

In Madrid, the people place a lot of value on social life — which lasts throughout adulthood. I think that in the United States, social life ends up giving way to work for many adults as they get older and their career becomes more demanding. In Spain, people subscribe moreso to the ideal of “working to live” instead of “living to work”.

This is a generalization, but I think it’s a fair one to make in comparison to the culture of the USA. This perspective may be a product of the bubble I live in as a student studying abroad, but the "competitive, always-searching-for-the-next-opportunity, never-staying-complacent (satisfied?)-with-your-current-position" vibe is something I have not yet felt or witnessed here. I think that difference can be explained in part by the USA's strong capitalistic nature (and Europe's slightly more socialist environment), but I'm no expert ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I don’t think that I want to subscribe fully to either ideal.

I don’t want my work to be my life. I think that I value a lot of things higher than money — relationships, new experiences, personal growth — and that's where I want to focus. However, working is an unavoidable part of life for (almost) everyone. I think that treating the idea of work as a career — something to be developed, something to find passion in, something that adds to your life instead of taking away from it — will enable me to live a happier life. And, to become truly satisfied in my career, I’m gonna have to put in that effort.

I think that the key to maintaining a healthy relationship towards work is deriving that hard-work mentality from within, instead of from the pressure of outside influences (living up to expectations, competition with others, greed, etc). In this way, achievements will be something I can be proud of myself for -- especially because I did those things in alignment with my own contentment and happiness. Admittedly, this conclusion is spoken from my "very wise" position of having had only 1 full time internship and a few part time service jobs, but this is where I'm at with my experience pursuing a college degree. Guess we'll see how it turns out down the road.

Nightlife

Anyways, back to partying in Madrid. House parties don’t really exist like the do in the USA, or frankly, at all. This is partly because there’s an ordinance that prohibits loud noises indoors at night, and partly because there’s no need for them — there’s a seemingly infinite amount of bars and clubs to go to, on every night of the week (yes, including Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday).

First, you’ll have dinner, shared with a group of friends and never earlier than 8pm — usually closer to 10pm. Pregames (previas) might happen at someone’s apartment, they might happen on the street, either on the way to the club or in a group just chilling (botellon). In general, (especially with young people), as much alcohol as possible is consumed outside of the club, for economical reasons. A beer bought at the corner store is half the price and twice the size than at the bar. The streets in Madrid, especially on the weekend, are always lively. Simply walking around popular areas is an energizing feeling.

If you’re going out dancing to a club, you might also hit a few bars beforehand, which are more commonly frequented a bit earlier in the night - 12am ish is peak.

Like I mentioned previously, things also start late. A club will not be in full swing until 3am. If you arrive to a club at 12 (which is when most of them open), you’ll be dancing alone on the floor. This is in stark contrast to the USA, where at 3am, you might be dancing alone because everyone else has already gone home. Things will start to wind down around 5am on weekends, and a dedicated group will still be around at 6am when the lights turn on to kick everybody out.

Personally, I love this rhythm. Starting so late, you get a full day in beforehand — and much more time with friends spent during the night. Drinks are consumed slowly, and far fewer will end up on the toilet at the end of the evening. Things feel more relaxed, less like we're on a time crunch — probably because there’s simply more time to party.

I’ve only got one big qualm in comparison to the USA — sleep. If you’re out until 6am on Saturday, you’re probably sleeping until 3pm at the earliest. Which kind of throws off your Sunday. If you were looking to grab brunch, or god forbid be productive, forget it. But maybe, a loss of productivity isn't such a big deal. I would love to hear from you all what you feel about the work/productivity culture in the USA, and how you perceive (or have experienced) it in different cultures.

So, needless to say, I have been partying a good amount, and I think I’ve been doing so in a pretty authentically Spanish way. I’ll spare details on my escapades, but I’ll include some pictures (along with some more in depth descriptions) that may give a little insight into the ~vibes~. I’m a big fan of electronic music, and Madrid’s scene for that is vast.

For anyone reading this that’s going to Madrid sometime soon — either for studying abroad, vacation, or whatever else — I’ve been putting together this list of all the nightlife sites I’ve gone to, with little descriptions on my thoughts accompanying each one. I hope it serves at least a few people well, and spares them the work of finding the places that are a little less obvious to non-natives.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week! :)

Hasta luego,

Niko Economos

Aerospace Engineering

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Madrid, Spain

#UmichEnginAbroad #IPEUC3M #NikoEconomos #IPEWinter24 #Spain

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friendshipstates · 1 year ago

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Calling for Aid (OOC/Mun Drama)

Here's the situation:

I received a message from my landlord saying that I'm five months behind on rent. I had been unemployed and denied unemployment last summer and went three months without a job. The jobs I did have were are limited hours so I wasn't able to pay all in one go. And then my car completely died. I was able to sell it for scrap and use most of the check to pay rent that month. I've been working part time hours since October, and through that time, only been dropping $175 every few weeks on my $700 monthly rent. Due to family emergencies on his part, the landlord told me to pay what I could at the time. Now, however, I'm finally getting the full time hours, but it's not going to be enough to pay for all my bills. Now, what can I offer for commissions? I'm not artistic, or musical, but what I can do is write. Do you want a fanfiction of your ship in a safe for work scenario? I can write that. Do you want a one-shot for tabletop campaign? I've been running tabletop campaigns since I was 18. I have done everything from D&D 3.5 to FATE, to various superhero campaigns. I've been making magic at the roleplaying table, and I'd be happy to share that magic with first-time and veteran dungeon masters. Here's what I need. My total amount in arrears is $3625. But every little bit helps. For $15, I will write you a SFW fic of your characters of choice, between one and four thousand words. For every thousand words more than that, I ask five dollars more. You give me the characters, the scenario you want to see them in and I will write it for you. For $20, I will write you a one-shot for a tabletop rpg campaign. This will include: a starting location, a few potential quest givers and NPCs for your players to like, love or hate, a location to visit, a threat to face, and stat blocks for a few minions, and a final boss. I do not guarantee that your players will make it to that final boss in a single session but that's on them. For $35 I will do the same as above for the tabletop campaign, but I will also create pre-generated character sheets for your players. This will be easier if I'm familiar with the system, obviously. If you're interested, DM me here, or on discord (username: wraithstrike) and we can discuss what you're looking for.

#Mun needs #Emergency commissions #Writing Commissions

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vera-anastasia9497 · 2 years ago

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Parents

So, for a while now (over the summer) my parents have been making me go on walks with them really early in the morning. Which honestly wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have bad sleeping problems. I have to go on these walks because my parents say I'm out of shape, which basically means "fat" in their language. The path that goes around the park is about 3.5 miles. I walked all of it at first. I wanted to change it up, so I started walking a different route. Although it was a shorter distance. Today while in the car on the way back my mom starts saying that I'm doing less, and I am being lazy, so I say ok and roll my eyes, because I'm proud of the work I've been doing. My dad sees it and starts yelling at me saying I can't go on walks with them anymore because they don't like "my attitude" I mean I'm sure they would've loved to have spent their summers not sleeping in. Which I know I'm complaining about, but the worst part is after I was forced to say sorry to my mom for literally no reason my dad gets mad again since he doesn't consider it a good enough apology. He says that I'm going to start paying my insurance which is a little above $300 a month which I had already been having to pay him $100 a month before so he ups it all the way and says I should pay rent to and then he took my phone. I am 18 about to go to college! I was supposed to go see my friends since we moved away but now that I don't have my phone, I don't have a map to get there. I could barely keep up with gas and $100 for insurance before with a job. Right now, since we moved, I don't even have one yet, I only have an interview and it's for a coffee shop which I doubt will be that high paying but is the only job reaching back out to me and that is close to campus. I've spent a majority of my graduation money on dorm stuff already, so I barely have anything. I don't think I'll be able to balance a social life, school, and now having to work 24/7. I just don't know what to do. I've cried a lot today and cut myself which is the first time in a while. I've got to stop eating so at least they stop calling me "fat".

What should I do?

#emotional abuse #parents #cuttıng #stress #bad mental health #disordered eating thoughts

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unblinded-by-nostalgia-blog · 2 months ago

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SPICE AND WOLF MONTH!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a review of the Anime series only and does not reflect the thoughts of the original novels. They are two different entities and I will be treating them as such.

Part 1 (Episodes 0-6)

The Story

The story is has Holo being offered a young merchant's hand in marriage via contract.

The first part of this series is based on the third book of the series, which is my favourite in the series.

As an adaptation to the third novel, it is a good one. It isn't the most true-to-the-novel series, but I still enjoyed it. It also went into more detail on the economic side of the series than the original book which many people will appreciate, but those who know how economics works might find that this first half holds the viewer's hands too much.

As it's own entity, it's good. But it doesn't move the overall story much and the series made Holo and Lawrence a couple much faster than the original series did, which makes some of the elements of the story feel rushed.

The Characters

The two main characters get a lot of development in this arc. But I wish that the other side characters, especially Mark, the alchemist and the 'prince' had more development and in the alchemist's case, more screen time.

The Animation/Special Effects

The animation isn't as good as the first series. It recycles footage from the previous episodes and it suffers the same problem as Vampire Knight Guilty where the series had far too many flashbacks. It also uses a lot of still imagery and covers the character's mouths when they are talking, and it is really noticeable.

The Dub

The dub it still top notch, I especially love the 'prince's' voice and the alchemist's. They sound like exactly how I imagined they would sound while I was reading the original novel.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this arc was a great as an adaptation of the third book and as it's own entity. It isn't perfect by any means,nor is it a masterpiece, but it is worth watching is you have the time.

The Story 3.5/5 The Characters 3.5/5 The Animation/Special Effects 2/5 The Dub 5/5

Overall 3.5/5

Part 2 (Episodes 7-12)

The Story

Nothing really happens in the second half that is entertaining, except for the last episode where they made Holo and Lawence an official couple and Lawence lost all of his money.

Many people want a season 3 of this series, but after an ending like that (which is far different from the original book), what is there left to tell.

It would of been better if they made book 4 instead of skipping it and going straight to book 5.

The Characters

We learn a lot about Eve (she's called Abe in this series for some reason), but the rest of the cast is given very little development, heck, even Holo and Lawence don't get much development in this!

The Animation/Special Effects

The animation is slightly better, but that's not saying much because it still uses those cheap animation tricks throughout the series.

The Dub

The dub is still very well done. The only complaint I do have is that Eve sounds too much like a boy in this. She would of been better off with a lower pitch voice, but not a deep as this!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this half is definitely the weakest in the entire series. Apart from the final episode, they are skippable unless your REALLY interested in the story.

The Story 2/5 The Characters 2/5 The Animation/Special Effects 2.5/5 The Dub 4/5

Overall 2.5/5

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this series (and the first season) is overrated, but it is definitely worth a watch. While I do recommend you buy the first season, I recommend you only rent the second season.

Part 1 3.5/5 Part 2 2.5/5

Overall 3/5

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theuniverseawakens347 · 3 months ago

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We’re noticing the logic in making me homeless was absolutely stupid - Lee GARLINGTON. And Howard.

How do you tell me “get a 9-5 ( waitressing) and we’ll match rent to the days you work ( work 30 days get a month) or go to rehab again”

- for fucking what!?

Also rehab you said 30 days friendly house I signed a 3 month contract for clarity and forced a year on me .. I did river and BEFORE going YOU SAID IF I DIDNT LIKE IT I COULD COME HOME , I told you a week after I don’t like it nor need it I wana come home - I did 3.5 months … UR WORD AINT SHIT TO ME.

then Colleen gon offer me homeless shelter where YOU RAPED N BEAT MY MOM AND CHANGED HER NAME TO SOMEONE ELSE SO NO ONE RIGHT COULD FIND HER - HELLO LAPD ITS HAPPENING AGAIN. - then you pay mother fuckers off there to lie or threaten to kidnap and kill their kids .. INDIA LOVE ASS BBL

.. then Colleen tells me I need to take psych meds Yal going out of town, in order to get a condo 🫤.. - last lunch we had at st joseph bbq place

——-

2PAC A BITCH ASS NIGGA “COME W ME RUN NIGGA WE GON SEE BLAH BLAH BLAH ILLUMINATI” … snoop HE KILLED MY DADDY THRU BIGGIE AND FAITH EVANS PINNING IT ON LIL KIM BUT YOU ALSO THROWING ASS AND COKE AT MY DAD AND WHY FUCK TARD INDIA LOVE DAD ON PAPER WORK FOR ROYAL BLUNTS W MY DADS NAME KNOC OFF UGLY ASS FACE AND BANK ACCOUNT - the game!??

CALIFORNIA LOVE - IMA BEAT THE LIVING FUCKING SHIT OUT OF SOMEONE FOR BEING A FUCKING PUSSY THIRSTY MONEY LOVING WHORE AND MAKING ME HOMELESS FOR NO FUCKING REASON WHEN YOU GOT THE RECORDS ON DECK AND STRAIGHT - STATION 7 VENICE RALPHS YOU DID A HO LOT OF RETARTED COON ACTIVITY TO FUCK INDIA LOVE AND KIMORA JAY DUNLAP STEVE HARVEY STASH … “the only way to get a bitch to talk is to fuck her” .. - NO YOU DUMB FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.

WHY YOU IN LAW AND KIM FUCKEDHARD KARDASHIAN WHY YOU GIVE WEST MUSIC RECORDS ABOUT MY FAMILY AND ME MISS “I wana be pro bono for the case” N KAYNE TALKING THAT GOD SHIT. NIGGA IMA PUNCH YO JAW LIKE MY DADDY BEAT YO POPS RETARTED PUSSY DRIVEN ASS - DRAKE WHY YO DUMB ASS FATHER HERE BITCH NIGGA FUCKING THE WHITE WOMAN THINKING THATS HOW YOU GET EVEN W THE WHITE MAN

- NO YOU FUCKING COONS YOU GIVING EM WHAT THEY WANT NOW OUR BLACK WOMEN THEY FUCKING HO AND YOU GOT DUMBASS INDIA LOVE A WHITE BITCH WALKING TOUND W BLACK PROPERTIES ASSESSTS AND HER MOTHER FUCKING THE BLACK MAN LIKE THEY WON SOMETHING.

- YOU LOST YOUR GOT DAMN DIGNITY WHEN YOU TAKE A STEP BACK

- CAMERON WALKER AND CORDELL B YO DADDY HALF WAS 2pac sperm that nigga a straight BITCH N HO WHO STOLE WHAT MY MOM N DAD MUSIC AND WEED AND PIMPED COKE FROM THE WHITE MAN TO COMMIT MURDER INDIANFUCKTARD WARREN WHATEVER YO MOM NAME AND THEN SEND YO OWN COLOR OFF FOR MURDER AND GET BLACK WOMEN PREGNANT BY THEM TO FEED THE BROKEN HOME BULLSHIT FURTHER // DISTRACT A NIGGA FROM THE BIG PICTURE

- WHY THE FUCK WE COME TO WORK.

Ima round house kick yo dumb asses for NOT PROTECTING ME AND LEAVING ME TO FIGURE IT THE FUCK OUT MYSELF - THE FLY VAGINA ON MY GOTDAMN ART WALL.

You stupid fucking shit heads. - MY DADDY ANGER IS WARRANT BC HOW MANY NIIGA I LOSE TELL YO DUMBASSES BOUT ME YHE ONE YOU GOT HOMELESS TO KEEP SAFE!??

FUCK YOU SINCE YOU WANT THE PPL TO HATE THE POLICE CONGRATS THATS WTF YOU GOT YO SELF FOR NOT CHECKING YOUR MORALS AND GIVING JUST ANYONE A FUCKING GUN - WHO DOING COKE AT THE OFF AND FT INDIA LOVE FOR A JERK SESSION ON LUNCH TIME. - STACHE DUNLAP STATION 7 and 25209 BELL N NO BABY HAIRS WHY YOU PIMPING YO PUSSY N MY POLE VIDEOS AND KIMORA JAY TO OTHER STATIONS TO HIDE INFO!?

YALL COME SEE ME LAPD I ONLY YELL AT THE ONES BEING BLINDED TO THE LIES AND THE ONES REALLY REALLY FUCKING DOING THE SHIT AND PLAYING DUMB “ I thought it was make believe” - STATION 7 LIKE FUCKTARD LEE SERVING ME // RESTRAINING ME THRU HOWARD AND MICHAEL 3 times .. WHOS GOING TO COURT!?? INDIA LOVE POSED AS ME AND RONNIE NUGENT. AND YOU LETTING IT HAPPEN - WE ALL LOOK REATARDED AS FUCK NOW

- BEEN OVER DUE FOR A FUCKING FACE TO FACE CONVO AND STOP WITH THE BULLSHIT “she reads minds therefore she should know” .. THATS HOW MY DAD GOT SHOT IN THE HEAD AND MY MOM MADE HOMELESS AND MY GRANNY LOST HOW MANY FUCKING CHILDREN. - MICHAEL JACKSON THEY DONT REALLY GIVE A FUCK ABOUT US. YOU JUST WANT PUSSY N DRUGS. YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS ADDICTS 🖕🖕

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msvorderofoperations · 6 months ago

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*sigh*

Been a bit since I posted just straight information about what I have going on. And shockingly, things have gotten worse!

Some backstory so you don't have to go through the tags of 50 different posts to find out what the hell is going on. I am living in a storage space in my sister's townhouse. It has a mattress, my clothes, and my computer. And basically nothing else. This was only meant to be temporary, but every other opportunity I have looked into has fallen through. Thus I have been stuck here for almost 8 months. Additionally, because of my sister's complete failure as a mother, I'm having to relive all of my childhood trauma on the daily as she constantly screams at her kids. Also, because my sister decided to live in bumfuck nowhere, I'm 40 kilometres from all of my health resources, and my girlfriend. And given that I have intense long-COVID and the nearest bus stop is a kilometre away, this makes leaving both incredibly difficult and absolutely necessary at times.

So that's the baseline of the living hell I have been through. Initially, my sister only wanted $100 a month for utilities used, and I was expected to pay for my own food. A month goes by and she says that because she had to upgrade her bandwidth cap on the internet (which she never told me about any limits) at the cost of an additional $20 a month. Obviously, this necessitated increasing my payments to $500 a month. I don't fight it because it's still lower than what I would be paying elsewhere.

Fast forward to today. I am in dire fucking straights emotionally. I am doing everything I can to keep my head above water, and I am STRUGGLING. So as I go upstairs to make lunch, she asks me if I can do another $100 a month. She gives me some explanation that because her asshole of a partner can't find enough work, and so it then falls to me to make up the shortfall. For reasons. I literally cannot work right now, and the money that I have to live off each month is from disability, which does not get yearly increases for inflation (or anything else for that matter). This is not tenable if I am going to actually have enough funds to pay for a deposit and movers when it comes time to move. After the fact I checked and she legally can't ask for more since she already increased my rent this year, and the maximum she *could* raise it by is 3.5%, not the 20% she is asking for. I try to explain this to her, but that's not a good enough answer to her mind. I then explain that I am not in good headspace to be talking about this, and she then just keeps asking "Well, when will you be?!" and I don't have a fucking answer because HOW THE FUCK CAN I?!

I am doing everything I can to establish a boundary, but she will not let up. And then she starts ranting about how my living downstairs by myself and interfacing with her family as little as possible is somehow responsible for destabilizing the household. And how I can't expect to live in the real world like this. All this is simply because she thinks I'm not looking for a new space. When in reality I am literally doing everything I physically can. I have been working with two social workers at two separate agencies, have friends looking out for me, I have an ongoing account with the registry responsible for subsidized housing, I am looking (when I can) on facebook marketplace, craigslist, and kijiji. And that last one is especially onerous because I have so much fucking trauma around housing at this point that it is a severe trigger for my depression and anxiety. And simply because I do not keep her appraised of every single thing I do (some of which I literally can't because it's not safe to discuss specifics with her) she thinks I am doing literal NOTHING. It's around here that I say that I will simplify things and move in with my mom. Which...if I'm being real is my absolute, last-resort, break-glass-in-case-of-emergency, things-cannot-get-any-worse solution.

Needless to say, this whole conversation has put me in a spiral. I am freaking the fuck out, and she still maintains that she is in the right to do this. I convey to her in the most unambiguous terms that I cannot have this discussion any longer. I have been having suicidal ideation for some time, and this shit is putting me in a place where I can no longer trust myself to be safe. She keeps on rolling along saying that she is working so hard to break the cycle of abuse our parents engaged in, and I can't possibly understand the stress she is under. And I tell her that I recognize that she has been dealt a shit hand too (though most of that was due to her own fucking stupid-ass decisions, but I leave that part out), which is why I keep to myself to not add any more stress. And then she recognizes (FINALLY) that she's repeating some of the treatment my parents doled onto but her and me, but me especially. Because at one point when I was still a teen I had to make one of my parents mortgage payments because they couldn't find the money that month. I tell her that's at least part of why I'm reacting so intensely. And then she starts crying.

At this point I realize that my breathing has become extremely uneven and shaky. But I am not crying. It dawns on me that I am about to go into an anxiety attack. And sure enough! And it is by far the worst one I have ever had in my life. Despite having problems of lethargy from long COVID, my body somehow found the energy reserves to be in a full on hyperventilating panic, with intense full-body spasms and screams (which have never happened to me before) for OVER AN HOUR. I know that's how long it lasted because that's how long it took for the ambulance to arrive. By the time it did, I was somewhat able to assert control. I was still in a very bad way, but I was able to calm my breathing and tamp down on the spasms.

The ambulance takes off, and all I can manage of the ten minute ride over is stare into the middle distance and numbly answer some of the questions the EMT asks. I reach the hospital, trying not to freak out about the fact that I was going into the emergency ward without a mask, among other things. And after getting me signed in they just...left me there. I was put in a waiting room with a bench that was bolted to the floor, and had nothing on any of the walls. After about 20 minutes of that, they took me to where I was to be "treated". Another waiting room, because all of the rooms were full, as were all of the beds in the hallways. I got left in a chair, and they took my vitals again for some reason, and then had to wait another long stretch by myself. And as you might imagine, being in as dark as a place I was, the solitude did not help any. I will spare details in this moment, but suffice to say I really don't think I was best served by doing this.

Eventually I was given a more thorough questionnaire about my medical history and what happened today. By that point I was through the worst of it, but explaining things in detail still got me crying pretty badly. Then more waiting until a doctor was able to give me a once-over. He rushed me through checking my breathing (seriously, I don't think he was there for more than a minute) and told me that physically I had nothing wrong with me and I was technically free to go. Most of what happened afterwards was administrative stuff, and is not really worth getting into.

But yeah. I'm here now writing this after taking a cab back to my sister's place (for now). I don't really have an end goal with this post. I don't have a GoFundMe or other donation links, because that is not going to a tenable long-term solution, and I'm not going to ask for anything. Well, if you happen to know anybody in the Greater Vancouver Regional District that needs a roommate, let me know I suppose. But I know that's a fucking long shot. Mostly I just needed to get this all down somewhere. Hell, I know that my personal posts don't really get notes, and I know that this is a brick of a post to get through even before the emotional content of it. This is how I want to cope in this moment, is all I suppose.

#personal #long post #cw: suicide mention #cw: anxiety #ask for further tags if required I'm not operating at 100% right now so I've probably missed some important ones #christ I could use a fucking break

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lilareviewsbooks · 7 months ago

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Queer Historical Romance For Pride Month - aka the Queer Bridgerton Project

Hey guys! I have something a bit different for Pride Month, this year! Recently, my girlfriend has warmed my cold, dark heart... And we've been watching Bridgerton! And although I've been enjoying myself, I can't help wishing it was a little more queer!

So my project started - for the past month, I've been reading a bunch of queer historical romances, and I'm looking for something that fills that Bridgerton-shaped hole in my heart!! So far, I don't think I've found anything that quite fits the bill, but do have a couple of options for you!

First, a few disclaimers: I'm hardly a romance reader, so I didn't find myself giving 5 stars to most of these books, but I think it's mainly because I'm not used to the conventions of the genre. I've put down here a few of the problems I had with some of these books, so you can see if they're for you! Second, there's no trans rep in any of these books, and the POC rep is also very lacking. I'd like to apologize for that! I've been digging and I've found some books that do have rep, and so I'll be reading them and reviewing them asap! And lastly, most of these books include conversations along the lines of queerphobia. Please be careful with yourself when reading!

The Last Binding Trilogy, by Freya Marske

Time period: Edwardian era Fantastical elements?: Yes! Rep.: disability; MLM; WLW Pages: 400ish Rating: 3.5 stars

The Last Binding Trilogy, starting with A Marvellous Light, is a fantasy take on Edwardian romance! It follows a set of inter-connected characters as they uncover a conspiracy threatening the magical underground of England.

Personally, I had some problems with the third book in particular, but I thought it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. The characters are sweet and quriky, and the second book specifically has a very good set up! Lesbians on a boat!! The first and third book follow a MLM couple, though they're not on boats :( But it's fun, anyway.

I will say, the ending does a go a little crazy on the magic, but it's nothing that hard to understand. If you want more of my thoughts, I have a standalone review for this series!

Mortal Follies, by Alexis Hall

Time period: Regency era Fantastical elements?: Yes! Rep.: WLW; MLM side character Pages: 416 Rating: 2.5 stars

Mortal Follies is set in alternative regency England, where faeries and pagan goddesses exist and abound. It follows Maelys, who seems to be cursed, and the ducchess who she enlists to help her solve her predicament. What I found to be most interesting is that the book is narrated by a fae who has been banished from their court, and must now write books for living, in order to pay - gasps!! - rent.

It gives the book a nice and quirky narration, that I was a big fan of! I know a lot of people shied away from it because of that, but I honestly found it made the book stand out (alongside its gorgeous cover!). I thought it lost itself in the second half, resolving the conflict way too fast and then having to create a whole new plot in, like, 100 pages. However, I do think it's worth keeping an eye on this series (there's a new one coming out soon enough!), since the narration style is so unique and fun!

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, by KJ Charles

Time period: Regency era Fantastical elements?: No! Rep.: MLM, Black main character Pages: 331 Rating: 4 stars

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is literally comped with Bridgerton, and it's one of the ones I enjoyed the most for this project! It follows Gareth, who runs into his old lover when he comes to Romney Marsh to claim his inheritance from an absent father. It's a very sweet romance that involves a second chance, smuggling, found family (but they're biologically related, so I don't know if that's the right name?)...

The side plot revolves around smuggling, as I said, and sometimes I found it a little silly. But the emotional payback when the action ends and we go back to focusing on the romance is very worth it! The side characters are pretty nice as well, and I thought that Gareth's past trauma was very well treated. It's a very sweet one as well! Highly recommend.

Gwen & Art Are Not In Love, by Lex Croucher

Time period: Medieval, but I couldn't be more specific than that hahaha Fantastical elements?: No! Rep.: WLW, MLM, Thai love interest and Iranian MC Pages: 416 Rating: 4 stars

The title is misleading - this is not an Arthurian retelling! It's post-Arthurian, in medieval England, where everyone is named after Arthurian characters. Still a lot of fun, even if a lot of people had that expectation coming in ahahah

It's a rom-com featuring two couples and some political manouvering, surprisingly! It follows Gwen, princess of England, and her brother Gabriel, heir to the throne, as they receive her hated bethrowed, Arthur, to court. Soon, Gwen and Arthur discover a secret about each other - they're both gay as fuck, and need to find a way to keep up appereances.

I found this book to be very charming and funny, especially when it comes to dialog!! But if it's not your sense of humor, then I don't think you'll have fun - so try a couple of pages, before committing! But I did find it really charming, and listening to the audiobook added a bit of pzazz as well! The problem is I don't think the romance is that well developed - it's mostly the friendships that form in a little group of friends that are more well thought out. But those are very sweet, and so I really think it's worth a read!

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite

Time period: Regency era Fantastical elements?: No! Rep.: WLW Pages: 322 Rating: 5 stars

Best for last!! This is part of a series of standalones, but I haven't read the other ones, yet - though I've heard this one is the best one! It follows Lucy, who is an astronomer trained by her father, as she is taken in by a recently-widowed countess in order to translate a French mathematic masterpiece. It deals very empathetically with the difficulties of sexism during that time period, especially when it comes to women participating in science and art.

The side plot is very nicely woven in with the romance, which is so, so sweet. It had me crying with the earnestness of the love these women hold for one another. It reads so, so real. It was a great reading experience, and it had me addicted! Highly, highly recommend!

That's all I read for this project, but it did put some other books on my radar! I wanna read An Island Princess Starts A Scandal, The Craft of Love, A Shore Thing... I've also heard of A Husband for Hartwell, which sounds pretty great! I'll keep y'all posted :)

#historical romance #queer reads #book recs #book reviews #queer books #queer sff books #currently reading #books #booklr #queer fiction #queer sff #queer romance books #queer historical romance #lila's themed lists

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