#national rent control

[guildmasterbeaver]

I’m so damn tired of this

[alanshemper]

the rent is too damn high

[jeff-davis]

RENT CONTROL

RENT CONTROL RENT CONTROL (Feed generated with FetchRSS) via Just A Thought January 29, 2024 at 09:12AM

[metamatar]

some of you are being outflanked from the left by the jacobin. lol.

For many loyal Democrats, this will not compute. The Biden economy, party-loyal pundits have said over and over again, is tremendous — low unemployment, strong GDP growth, slowing inflation, a booming stock market — and anyone unhappy about it must simply be brainwashed. Out of view in this self-congratulatory hall of mirrors were the constant statistics that said otherwise: evictions up past pre-pandemic levels, record-high homelessness, cost-burdened renters at an all-time high, median household income lower than the last pre-pandemic year, inequality returning to pre-pandemic levels, and food insecurity and poverty growing by large double digits since 2021, including a historic spike in child poverty. Here’s another thing you might not have heard. Largely due to a trick of history, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a Democratic-controlled Congress, Trump was partly responsible for the creation of what the New York Times called “something akin to a European-style welfare state” in 2020 that reduced inequality and even helped some Americans improve their finances for a short spell — and under Biden, all of it went away. Sometimes that happened due to factors outside Biden’s control and sometimes because of his own decisions, but it always took place with little fight from the president, and it contributed to the ominous rise in hardship under his tenure. That meant not only adding to people’s already onerous monthly expenses — in one case in a self-imposed October surprise that made student loan repayment much more unforgiving for tens of millions of borrowers just before voting. It also saw twenty-five million people being thrown off their public health insurance, many of them in some of the battleground states Harris lost last night. Recall that one of Biden’s attack lines against Trump four years ago was that Trump was going to strip twenty million people of their health insurance. This might have been mitigated had the president passed the flagship policies on his agenda, helping people weather the storm of rising living costs. Those that he did enact he sometimes self-sabotaged. (...)

As a result, Harris’s run was a major downgrade from the 2020 Democratic effort. Biden’s never-passed ambitions to historically expand the social safety net became firmly relegated to distant memory, never to be revived; only the child tax credit and a modest expansion of Medicare benefits survived. The campaign combined a sharp rightward lurch on foreign policy and immigration with a handful of laudable populist proposals to ban price gouging and help out first-time homebuyers (while largely avoiding the national 5 percent rent cap that Biden desperately took on before dropping out and that had earlier made its way into the Democratic platform). Beyond the Medicare proposal and vague promises to protect and strengthen Obamacare, the idea of reforming the broken US health care system — one of Americans’ biggest and most anxiety-inducing costs — was almost entirely absent from the campaign. When voters in a Univision town hall came to Harris with their bleak personal stories of suffering under the health care system and asked how she would solve them, she could give them nothing, because her only real major health care policy was for those over sixty-five and already insured under Medicare.

[stillnaomi]

the fight for political reforms is an important part of raising class consciousness. when people join a union, it's because they realize that they have a shared interest with their colleagues against their employer. but when people join a campaign to change national or statewide policy, it's because they recognize a shared interest with their wider class beyond their individual workplace. the fights for a higher minimum wage, rent controls, or improved school funding aren't private disputes between an employer and their employees, they're political disputes between classes, fought out on the national or statewide stage. through these struggles people can become aware of their class position, and ultimately learn the limits of organizing within the capitalist system

[welcometoqueer]

U.S. programs and services in danger of being diminished or fully cut:

Social Security

Department of Education

Department of Labor

Department of Transportation

Medicaid

Medicare

Obamacare

FDA

CDC

USDA

FAFSA

FEMA

ACA

SNAP

EPA

FTC

FEC

HUD

HHS

NOAA

SCHIP

FAA

National Weather Service

Hurricane and other disaster warnings

Unemployment services

Student loans

Pell grants

Libraries

Fluoride treatment in our water

Meat and food inspections

National Parks

Other concerns:

(International relations)

Loss of U.S. membership in NATO

Potential UN ramifications

Tariffs

Support of Israel winning the war

Putin and Russian relations

(Loss of Rights)

Voting rights

Miranda rights

LGBTQ+, POC, and other minority rights

Reproductive rights

Protection against pre-existing conditions

Protection against assault and harassment

Child labor protections

(Daily living)

Prescription prices skyrocketing

No rent control

Little to no reproductive or health care access

Legalized police brutality

Diminished or cut protections and rights for minority groups

Restrictions on gender affirming care or legal services

Increased taxes and cost of living for the non-wealthy

No more $35 insulin

No labor laws - 40+ hour work weeks, no mandatory breaks, no paid sick or vacation leave

[apas-95]

Is there a story behind China's one child policy that makes it not as horrifying as western media claims?

The defining feature of China's development for the past 70 years has been the urban-rural divide. In order to develop a semi-feudal country with a very low industrial level into an industrialised, socialist nation, it was necessary to develop industrial centres. To 'organically' develop industrial centres would have taken many decades, if not centuries of continued impoverishment and starvation, so programs were put in place to accelerate the development of industry by preferentially supporting cities.

Programs like the 'urban-rural price scissors' placed price controls on agricultural products, which made food affordable for city-dwellers, at the direct expense of reducing the income of rural, agricultural areas. This hits on the heart of the issue - to preferentially develop industrial centres in order to support the rest of the country, the rest of the country must first take up the burden of supporting those centres. Either some get out of poverty *first*, or nobody gets out of poverty at all. The result being: a divide between urban and rural areas in their quality of life and prospects. In order to keep this system from falling apart, several other policies were needed to support it, such as the Hukou system, which controlled immigration within the country. The Hukou system differentiated between rural and urban residents, and restricted immigration to urban areas - because, given the urban-rural divide, everyone would rather just try to move to the cities, leaving the agricultural industry to collapse. The Hukou system (alongside being a piece in many other problems, like the 'one country two systems', etc) prevented this, and prevented the entire thing from collapsing. The 'one child policy' was another system supporting this mode of development. It applied principally to city-dwellers, to prevent the populations of cities expanding beyond the limited size the agricultural regions could support, and generally had no 'punishments' greater than a lack of government child-support, or even a fine, for those who still wanted additional children. Ethnic minorities, and rural residents, were granted additional children, with rural ethnic minorities getting double. It wasn't something anyone would love, but it served an important purpose.

I use the past-tense, here, because these systems have either already been phased out or are in the process of being phased out. The method of urban-rural price scissors as a method of development ran its course, and, ultimately, was exhausted - the negative aspects, of its underdevelopment of rural regions, began to overwhelm its positive aspects. So, it was replaced with the paradigm of 'Reform and Opening Up' around the 1980s. Urban-rural price scissors were removed (leading to protests by urban workers and intellectuals in the late '80s), and the Hukou system, along with the 'one child policy', were and are being slowly eased out as lessening inequality between the urban and rural areas make them unnecessary. Under the new system, the driver of development was no longer at the expense of rural regions, but was carried out through the internal market and external capital. The development paradigm of Reform and Opening Up worked to resolved some contradictions, in the form of the urban-rural divide, and created some of its own, in the form of internal wealth divisions within the cities. Through it, over 800 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty - almost all of them being in rural areas - and extreme poverty was completely abolished within China. 'Extreme poverty' can be a difficult thing for westerners to grasp, wherein poverty means not paying rent on time, but to illustrate - many of the last holdout regions of extreme poverty were originally guerrilla base areas, impassable regions of mountainside which were long hikes away from schools or hospitals, wherein entire villages were living in conditions not dissimilar to their feudal state a century before. These villages were, when possible, given infrastructure and a meaningful local industry accounting their environment and tradition (like growing a certain type of mountainous fruit), or entirely relocated to free government-built housing lower down the mountain that was theirs to own. These were the people the 'one child policy' was aiding, by reducing the urban population they had to support. Again, there were exemptions for rural and ethnic minority populations to the policy.

Even now, Reform and Opening Up is running its course. Its own negative aspects, such as urban wealth inequality, are beginning to overcome its positive aspects. So, the new paradigm is 'Common Prosperity', which will work to resolve the past system's contradictions, and surely introduce its own contradictions in the form of chafing against the national bourgeoisie, as it increases state control and ownership of industry, and furthers a reintroduced collectivisation. Organising a nation of well over a billion people is not simple. It is not done based on soundbytes and on picking apart policies in the abstract for how 'dystopian' they sound. It is an exceedingly complex and interconnected process based on a dialectical, material analysis of things; not a utopian, idealist one. What matters is this: those 800,000,000 people now freed from absolute poverty. The things necessary to achieve that were, unquestionably, good things - because they achieved that. They had their negative aspects, as does everything that exists, but they were unquestionably correct and progressive things.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Lies, damned lies, and Uber

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT in PHOENIX (Changing Hands, Feb 29) then Tucson (Mar 10-11), San Francisco (Mar 13), and more!

Uber lies about everything, especially money. Oh, and labour. Especially labour. And geometry. Especially geometry! But especially especially money. They constantly lie about money.

Uber are virtuosos of mendacity, but in Toronto, the company has attained a heretofore unseen hat-trick: they told a single lie that is dramatically, materially untruthful about money, labour and geometry! It's an achievement for the ages.

Here's how they did it.

For several decades, Toronto has been clobbered by the misrule of a series of far-right, clownish mayors. This was the result of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris's great gerrymander of 1998, when the city of Toronto was amalgamated with its car-dependent suburbs. This set the tone for the next quarter-century, as these outlying regions – utterly dependent on Toronto for core economic activity and massive subsidies to pay the unsustainable utility and infrastructure bills for sprawling neighborhoods of single-family homes – proceeded to gut the city they relied on.

These "conservative" mayors – the philanderer, the crackhead, the sexual predator – turned the city into a corporate playground, swapping public housing and rent controls for out-of-control real-estate speculation and trading out some of the world's best transit for total car-dependency. As part of that decay, the city rolled out the red carpet for Uber, allowing the company to put as many unlicensed taxis as they wanted on the city's streets.

Now, it's hard to overstate the dire traffic situation in Toronto. Years of neglect and underinvestment in both the roads and the transit system have left both in a state of near collapse and it's not uncommon for multiple, consecutive main arteries to shut down without notice for weeks, months, or, in a few cases, years. The proliferation of Ubers on the road – driven by desperate people trying to survive the city's cost-of-living catastrophe – has only exacerbated this problem.

Uber, of course, would dispute this. The company insists – despite all common sense and peer-reviewed research – that adding more cars to the streets alleviates traffic. This is easily disproved: there just isn't any way to swap buses, streetcars, and subways for cars. The road space needed for all those single-occupancy cars pushes everything further apart, which means we need more cars, which means more roads, which means more distance between things, and so on.

It is an undeniable fact that geometry hates cars. But geometry loathes Uber. Because Ubers have all the problems of single-occupancy vehicles, and then they have the separate problem that they just end up circling idly around the city's streets, waiting for a rider. The more Ubers there are on the road, the longer each car ends up waiting for a passenger:

https://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Uber-Lyft-San-Francisco-pros-cons-ride-hailing-13841277.php

Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. After years of bumbling-to-sinister municipal rule, Toronto finally reclaimed its political power and voted in a new mayor, Olivia Chow, a progressive of long tenure and great standing (I used to ring doorbells for her when she was campaigning for her city council seat). Mayor Chow announced that she was going to reclaim the city's prerogative to limit the number of Ubers on the road, ending the period of Uber's "self-regulation."

Uber, naturally, lost its shit. The company claims to be more than a (geometrically impossible) provider of convenient transportation for Torontonians, but also a provider of good jobs for working people. And to prove it, the company has promised to pay its drivers "120% of minimum wage." As I write for Ricochet, that's a whopper, even by Uber's standards:

https://ricochet.media/en/4039/uber-is-lying-again-the-company-has-no-intention-of-paying-drivers-a-living-wage

Here's the thing: Uber is only proposing to pay 120% of the minimum wage while drivers have a passenger in the vehicle. And with the number of vehicles Uber wants on the road, most drivers will be earning nothing most of the time. Factor in that unpaid time, as well as expenses for vehicles, and the average Toronto Uber driver stands to make $2.50 per hour (Canadian):

https://ridefair.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Legislated-Poverty.pdf

Now, Uber's told a lot of lies over the years. Right from the start, the company implicitly lied about what it cost to provide an Uber. For its first 12 years, Uber lost $0.41 on every dollar it brought in, lighting tens of billions in investment capital provided by the Saudi royals on fire in an effort to bankrupt rival transportation firms and disinvestment in municipal transit.

Uber then lied to retail investors about the business-case for buying its stock so that the House of Saud and other early investors could unload their stock. Uber claimed that they were on the verge of producing a self-driving car that would allow them to get rid of drivers, zero out their wage bill, and finally turn a profit. The company spent $2.5b on this, making it the most expensive Big Store in the history of cons:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/infighting-busywork-missed-warnings-how-uber-wasted-2-5-billion-on-self-driving-cars

After years, Uber produced a "self-driving car" that could travel one half of one American mile before experiencing a potentially lethal collision. Uber quietly paid another company $400m to take this disaster off its hands:

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/12/10/why-is-uber-selling-its-autonomous-vehicle-division

The self-driving car lie was tied up in another lie – that somehow, automation could triumph over geometry. Robocabs, we were told, would travel in formations so tight that they would finally end the Red Queen's Race of more cars – more roads – more distance – more cars. That lie wormed its way into the company's IPO prospectus, which promised retail investors that profitability lay in replacing every journey – by car, cab, bike, bus, tram or train – with an Uber ride:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1RN2SK/

The company has been bleeding out money ever since – though you wouldn't know it by looking at its investor disclosures. Every quarter, Uber trumpets that it has finally become profitable, and every quarter, Hubert Horan dissects its balance sheets to find the accounting trick the company thought of this time. There was one quarter where Uber declared profitability by marking up the value of stock it held in Uber-like companies in other countries.

How did it get this stock? Well, Uber tried to run a business in those countries and it was such a total disaster that they had to flee the country, selling their business to a failing domestic competitor in exchange for stock in its collapsing business. Naturally, there's no market for this stock, which, in Uber-land, means you can assign any value you want to it. So that one quarter, Uber just asserted that the stock had shot up in value and voila, profit!

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/hubert-horan-can-uber-ever-deliver-part-twenty-nine-despite-massive-price-increases-uber-losses-top-31-billion.html

But all of those lies are as nothing to the whopper that Uber is trying to sell to Torontonians by blanketing the city in ads: the lie that by paying drivers $2.50/hour to fill the streets with more single-occupancy cars, they will turn a profit, reduce the city's traffic, and provide good jobs. Uber says it can vanquish geometry, economics and working poverty with the awesome power of narrative.

In other words, it's taking Toronto for a bunch of suckers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible

Image: Rob Sinclair (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Night_skyline_of_Toronto_May_2009.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[natalievoncatte]

Content Warning: This is a dark, angsty ficlet. There’s major character death. (They get better)

Kara gave the last of the trees a meaty shove and clapped her hands lightly, to shake off the dirt and tree bark that clung to her palms. She’d been called away from National City about twenty minutes ago to respond to a catastrophic landslide in Oregon that looked like a job for Supergirl. The villain trade had been a little light lately ever since the League went public, and she heard-

A thin crackle.

“Kara, get back to the Tower,” it was Alex, and her voice was strained, trembling. “Come back here right now. Directly here. Don’t stop anywhere and get here as fast as you can.”

Her feet had already left the ground by the time Alex had finished her message. Kara took off and ascended almost straight up, so that when she went hypersonic it didn’t harm anyone below.

“Alex?” she called, as she came in for a landing on the balcony. “What is it?”

Alex was inside with the others, wearing her costume but not her makeup or mask. She was deathly pale and her eyes were red rimmed and puffy from crying. Her voice hitched.

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Alex began.

Kara’s stomach dropped.

“Tell me what?”

Alex went still, as if the words would not leave her. Kara could see her straining with the effort, cords standing out on her throat.

“Tell me what?”

“I… I can’t do this…”

“Tell me what?” Kara demanded.

“Lena’s been shot.”

Kara stared at her. Her eyes went wide and she felt a cold rush through her body as if someone had opened a door behind her into a blizzard.

“Where is she?”

“Kara, try to stay calm, let me-“

“I want to see her now, Alex. Where is she?”

Alex swallowed.

“She’s, ah, gone, Kara.”

“Gone where?”

“They tried to resuscitate her, but there was too much damage to her heart.”

“Okay, so we need a transplant? Do we have a candidate? Or an artificial one? She probably has one in her lab.”

A manic frenzy began to overtake her, as though energy crackled down her limbs. What Alex was saying made no sense. Lena wouldn’t need to be resuscitated. She was fine. She had to be fine. Lena was fine. That was that. Kara would go wait for her in her hospital room by the bedside, and-

“She passed, Kara. She didn’t make it.”

Kara blinked.

“Didn’t… make it… passed… you mean she… wait… Alex what the fuck are you saying to me?”

Alex looked away, hugging herself.

“She died, Kara. Lena’s gone.”

She stood there for a shocked instant, paralyzed, some part of her mind shielding her from the full implication of what she just heard.

Then it slammed into her like a freight train. Like an earthquake. Like the shockwave from her exploding home world. Kara had been off saving some rich fuck’s house from fucking mud and Lena was dead. Lena was dead. Lena was-

Kara screamed.

The initial blast blew Alex off her feet and sent her sliding a good ten feet across the floor as she clapped her hands over her ears. Every window and every piece of glass in the Tower shattered at once and every one in the surrounding buildings cracked. All over the city, dogs began barking.

When Kara fell to her knees, the world around her was rimed with frost; her wail had been an arctic blast. Alex sat up, staring at the blood on her palms that had trickled from her ears. Some distant, emotionally controlled, Kryptonian part of her concluded that she’d probably just destroyed her sister’s eardrums.

Alex was trying to say something but the words didn’t reach her. Everything was far away, on the other side of a low whine in her ears and the sound of her own rushing blood in her veins. Red-sun fire boiled within her, setting her eyes alight and wreathing her in vapor as her tears turned to steam.

“Kara,” she finally heard Alex say, but it was too late.

She flew straight up, heedless of the rent she tore in the roof of the Tower as she took flight. She screamed again, a wail of primal torment and rage, and the world went silent.

Truly silent.

The one sound she always listened for above all others was not there. The steady drum beat was not there. Kara lashed out at herself, tearing at fistfuls of her hair.

An inescapable certainty seized her: Lena had died knowing Kara was not going to save her.

Another scream, followed by twin beams of infinite heat blasting skyward like a false sunrise, bathing the world below in crimson hues. Part of her wanted to sweep her gaze down and burn it all, just start smashing and tossing and punching and wreck everything she could lay her hands on.

Her family, her home, her culture, her foster father, her aunt, they were all taken from her. Kara gave and gave and gave and no matter how she martyred herself the world just kept taking.

They took her Lena.

Kara looked down. Rage burned furnace hot inside her chest, threatening to consume her. Why wasn’t someone protecting her? Why was this allowed to happen? Someone just shot her?

She would find who did it and she would end him. She’d tear him to shreds with her bare hands and she would know who was responsible for this and she would smash and burn her way to them and they would pay. She would make them pay.

And her Lena would still be gone.

Nothing Kara could do would bring her back. She was helpless. She crushed her head in her hands and screamed and screamed again; there were military aircraft and police helicopters approaching and she didn’t care.

It was as if some great hooked claws had rent her open, as if every single one of her old wounds had burst at once. Kara had died for this world twice over and this was how they repaid her?

It was worse than that.

In her miserable fucking cowardice Kara has never told her.

Lena would never know how much Kara loved her. She would never smile for Kara again, never crinkle around her eyes as she laughed or look so achingly beautiful as she became lost in some scientific problem or journal article. She had been Kara’s red sunrise and now the sun was set forever.

There was no bringing her back.

Wait.

Kara’s eyes flew open.

There was a way. Clark had confessed it to her, and warned her never to try it.

Fuck that.

Kara rocketed straight up, tearing through the atmosphere until the void clapped straight around her. She had to be free of all resistance, not because it would slow her, but because she would ignite the atmosphere. This might not even work. She might solar flare right in the middle of it and die.

Maybe if she did she’d be with Lena. Maybe Rao would actually do something for her for once and she’d find herself in sunlit fields under a red sky with her Lena there for her.

Anything had to be better than this.

Kara flew. She put every iota of force she could muster into her flight, curving around the Earth. Within moments she was making complete orbits every few seconds.

It’s working, she thought. The red shift.

At this speed, all suns were red. The sky was an endless chaos of red pinpricks.

Faster.

Kara didn’t know how she flew. Not even her precious Lena had been able to crack that question, and she’s tried. Kara had never attempted to find her top speed, never tried to find out how fast she could go.

She could go faster.

Beneath her, Earth was frozen. When she used her super-speed, her mind sped up with it, and everything slowed to a crawl.

She was close now, she could feel it. She just had to go faster.

Faster.

FASTER

And she did.

The stars were gone. The Earth was gone. There was only endless black and-

Void. Nothingness. It had no color, nothing to actually see, just a limitless nothing.

Almost. There was one thing in the darkness, in the endless Outside.

“Clark?”

He was there with her in the void, just there, cape and spitcurl and all. Clark. Kal-El. Kara’s final mission from her people and the greatest of her many failures. Her cousin.

“What happened?” he said.

“It’s Lena,” Kara blurted.

He looked at her with big sad eyes. “Do you mean Lex’s sister?”

Kara blinked. “Who the hell else would I mean, Clark?”

“Oh,” he said. “When I got here you two hadn’t met yet, I suppose. You’re friends with her?”

Kara looked at him.

“Where are we?”

“The other side of the speed of light. This is what happens when you go superluminal without a warp drive or a hypergate.”

Kara flinched back.

“From your perspective you haven’t left yet,” said Kara. But how did…”

Her eyes went wide. Of course. She didn’t realize it at first because she had outrun the concept of movement itself.

She was still moving.

All she had to do was…

Stop.

Kara’s stomach did a backflip and she vomited into the vacuum, turning in space so she didn’t have to watch orbs of her own puke falling into the atmosphere.

She dove, straight down into the sky, chased by everlasting sunrise.

It only took a glance, and Kara saw a red streak headed north for Oregon, away from National City. She was watching herself fly away.

It worked.

It worked!

She slowed. She stopped. She listened. She found it.

Lena had left the Foundation and was walking downtown, probably to her new favorite coffee spot, just another woman in the crowd. Since she’s turned over control of the company to Sam and focused her working days on her philanthropy, she’d become softer, more casual, more, as she put it, west coast. She was just strolling down the street in a hoodie and scrolling her phone on her way to her inevitable end.

Kara steeled herself.

I’m Supergirl. I can do anything.

She swept low over the downtown crowd and landed in front of Lena.

She was so beautiful, so soft. So confused. She stared at Kara.

“I thought you were going to Oregon and we were getting dinner later?”

“Come with me now. Please. Please, Lee. I’m begging you.”

There was a brief, heavy pause. Kara swallowed hard. Lena looked at her for the barest moment, then allowed herself to be scooped up into Kara’s arms and flown gently, so very carefully, to the Tower.

When she landed, Kara gingerly set Lena on her feet and took a short step back. Alex came running into the room.

“Kara?”

“What?” said a voice in her ear. Her own voice, on her comms, entangled somehow because she was in both places at once.

Alex drew her weapon and aimed it at Kara’s head, gently taking Lena’s arm and pulling her back, then poked her ear.

“Kara you’ve got a doppleganger here. I’m not sure if she’s extra-dimensional or a shapeshifter.”

Kara sighed when she felt the rush behind her, the gust of air and the heavy landing of boot heels on the balcony.

“Don’t move,” Kara told Kara.

“I won’t,” she told herself.

“Who are you and what are you do-“

Kara turned and looked at herself. She’d experienced this too many times before. Shapeshifters, a clone, an evil version of herself from a broken timeline.

This was different in some inexplicable way, and the pain came.

They both screamed, not so loud this time, and suddenly Kara was actually in two places at once, looking at herself looking at herself in an infinite loop and then…

One.

Kara was staring at Lena and Alex, standing where her past self had been standing a few moments earlier. She shook her head and… Lena.

Lena!

Kara rushed to her, gathering her up in a fierce hug, nuzzling her nose into her hair to take in her scent.

“You’re alive!” Kara exulted.

“You’re covered in mud,” Lena protested, pushing her back.

Kara let her.

Lena looked at Kara, then at Alex.

“Wait,” she said, soft eyes searching. “How did I get here, exactly?”

“How did you get here?” said Alex. “I don’t remember you coming in. I thought I was calling Kara back. I had to tell her something. It was…” her brows furrowed.

Kara swallowed, hard.

Wait. Why had she come back? She’s dealt with the landslide but she… just went hypersonic to get here? Why?

It didn’t matter. She was gripped by conviction. She just knew, somehow, that she had to do this.

“Lena, I’m sorry about the mud. Listen, since you’re here, I wanted to ask you… want to hang out tonight? At my place?”

“S-sure,” Lena said, blinking.

“What’s wrong?” said Alex.

“I don’t know,” said Lena. “I felt this odd sensation for a moment and then it was… almost like deja vu, but then…” she trailed off. “I need to get back to my office.”

“I’ll change and walk you back,” said Kara.

“Right. I’ll wait in the rec room.”

Lena turned and walked slowly out of the room, muttering to herself.

Alex stared at her.

“What was that about?”

“I’m telling her tonight.”

“Telling her what?”

“That I’m in love with her.”

Alex looked at her flatly.

“Well,” she said, “it’s about fucking time.”

[ayeforscotland]

First five things you’d do as First Minister with a huge majority?

Massive housing reform - Rent Controls, increased taxation on 2nd properties, massive regulation brought against AirBnB landlords, and increase the number of social housing.

Universal Basic Income/Government Job Guarantee Program - Job guarantee program would create a true national living wage

Massive Digital Transformation overhaul for the Public Sector - Get everyone speaking the same language, focus on regional economic development

Adopt immigration policy that encourages more people to come to Scotland

Abolish Conversion Therapy, pass Gender Recognition Reform and officially recognise non-binary genders.

Answering this as if I was FM of 1st Indy Scottish Government.

[fatehbaz]

When you tag things “#abolition”, what are you referring to? Abolishing what?

Prisons, generally. Though not just physical walls of formal prisons, but also captivity, carcerality, and carceral thinking. Including migration prevention and barriers to mobility; detention; national borders; indentured servitude; inability to move due to, and labor coerced through, debt; police and policing; de facto imprisonment and isolation of the disabled and medically pathologized; privatization and enclosure of land; sacrifice zones at the periphery; the urge to punish; categories of “criminality"; (and nationalism, rent, debt, capitalism, plantation monoculture, of course); etc.

In favor of other, better lives and futures.

Specifically, I am grateful to have learned from the work of these people:

Katherine McKittrick on imaginative geographies; emotional engagement with place; legacy of imperialism/slavery in conceptions of physical space and in devaluation of other-than-human lifeforms; legacies of racism/imperialism in academia and the sciences; escaping enclosure; plantation “afterlives” and how plantation logics continue to thrive in contemporary structures/institutions like debt colonies, workplace environments, prisons, etc.; a range of rebellions through collaborative acts, refusal of the dominant order, and subversion through joy and autonomy.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore on “abolition geography”.

Macarena Gomez-Barris on landscapes as “sacrifice zones”; people condemned to live in resource extraction colonies deemed as acceptable losses; place-making and ecological consciousness; and how “the enclosure, the plantation, the ship, and the prison” are analogous spaces of captivity.

Liat Ben-Moshe on disability; informal institutionalization and incarceration of disabled people through physical limitation, social ostracization, denial of aid, and institutional disavowal; and "letting go of hegemonic knowledge of crime”.

Achille Mbembe on co-existence and care; "necropolitics" and bare life/death; historical evolution of chattel slavery into contemporary institutions through control over food, space, and definitions of life/land; the “explicit kinship between plantation slavery, colonial predation, and contemporary resource extraction” and modern institutions.

Sylvia Wynter on the “plot against the plantation”; "plantation archipelagos"; the “revolutionary demand for happiness”; "secretive histories"; the remaking of the planet after Portuguese/Spanish plantation agriculture colonies from 1450s to 1490s cemented slavery and race in European practice in ways that infected discourses, sciences, institutions, ways of thinking.

Robin Maynard on "generative refusal"; solidarity; shared experiences among homeless, incarcerated, disabled, Indigenous, Black communities; to "build community with" those who you are told to disregard in order "to re-imagine" worlds; envisioning, imagining, and then manifesting those alternative futures which are "already" here and alive.

Elizabeth DeLoughrey on indentured labor; the role of plants, food, and botany in enslaved and fugitive communities; the nineteenth-century British Empire's labor in the South Pacific and Caribbean; the twentieth-century United States mistreatment of the South Pacific; the legacy of race/empire in academia and the sciences; panoptic imperial vision through cartography and aerial surveillance; and the role of tropical islands as "laboratories" for profit-oriented planting and isolated open-air prisons for Britain and the US.

AM Kanngieser on "deep listening"; “refusal as pedagogy”; and “attunement and attentiveness” in the face of “incomprehensible” and immense “loss of people and ecologies to capitalist brutalities”.

Stefano Harney and Fred Moten on “the undercommons”; fugitivity; dis-order in academia and institutions; and sharing of knowledge; refusal; practice.

Lisa Lowe on "the intimacies of four continents" and how British politicians and planters feared that official legal abolition of chattel slavery would endanger Caribbean plantation profits, so they devised ways to import South Asian and East Asian laborers.

Ariella Aisha Azoulay on “rehearsals with others’.

Phil Neel on p0lice departments purposely targeting the poor as a way to raise municipal funds; the "suburbanization of poverty" especially in the Great Lakes region; the rise of lucrative "logistics empires" (warehousing, online order delivery, tech industries) at the edges of major urban agglomerations in "progressive" cities like Seattle dependent on "archipelagos" of poverty; and the relationship between job loss, homelessness, gentrification, and these logistics cities.

Leniqueca Welcome on Caribbean world-making; "the apocalyptic temporality" of environmental disasters and the colonial denial of possible "revolutionary futures"; limits of reformism; "infrastructures of liberation at the end of the world."; "abolition is a practice oriented toward the full realization of decolonization, postnationalism, decarceration, and environmental sustainability."

Tim Edensor on urban "ghosts" and “industrial ruins”; "haunting" in debris; searching for the “gaps” and “silences” in the official narratives of nations/institutions, to pay attention to the histories, voices, lives obscured in formal accounts.

Alison Mountz on migrant detention; "carceral archipelagoes"; and the “death of asylum”.

Ann Laura Stoler on "imperial debris" and ruination; haunting and "living in (postcolonial) ruins"; "imperialist nostalgia" and European leisure tourism as a form of intellectual/immaterial colonization related to the nineteenth-century "salvage" mission of colonial/imperial ethnography.

Elizabeth Povinelli on "geontopower"; imperial control over "life and death"; how imperial/nationalist formalization of private landownership and commodities relies on rigid definitions of dynamic ecosystems.

Pedro Neves Marques on “one planet with many worlds inside it”; “parallel futures” of Indigenous, Black, disenfranchised communities/cosmologies; and how imperial/nationalist institutions try to foreclose or prevent other possible futures by purposely obscuring or destroying histories, cosmologies, etc.

Peter Redfield on how metropolitan residents try to hide slavery and torture/punishment on the periphery of Empire; early twentieth-century French penal colony in tropical Guiana/Guyana; the torture of the prison relies on the metropolitan imagination's invocation of exotic hinterlands and racist civilization/savagery mythologies.

Iain Chambers on racism of borders; obscured and/or forgotten lives of migrants; and disrupting modernity.

Kodwo Eshun on African cosmologies and futures; “the colonial present”; and imperialist/nationalist use of “preemptive” and “predictive” power to control the official storytelling/narrative of history and to destroy alternatives.

Megan Ybarra on place-making; "site fights"; solidarity and defiance of migrant detention; and geography of abolition/incarceration.

Sophie Sapp Moore on resistance, marronage, and "forms of counterplantation life"; "plantation worlds" which continue to live in contemporary industrial resource extraction and dispossession.

Deborah Cowen on “infrastructures of empire and resistance”; imperial/nationalist control of place/space; spaces of criminality and "making a life at the edge" of the law; “fugitive infrastructures”.

Jasbir Puar on disability; debilitation; how the control of fences, borders, movement, and time management constitute conditions of de facto imprisonment; institutional control of illness/health as a weapon to "debilitate" people; how debt and chronic illness doom us to a “slow death”.

Dixa Ramirez D’Oleo on “remaining open to the gifts of the nonhuman” ecosystems; hinterlands and peripheries of empires; attentiveness to hidden landscapes/histories; defying surveillance; and building a world of mutually-flourishing companions.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on reciprocity; Indigenous pedagogy; abolitionism in Canada; camaraderie; solidarity; and “life-affirming” environmental relationships.

Anand Yang on "forgotten histories of Indian convicts in colonial Southeast Asia" and how the British Empire deported South Asian political prisoners to the region to simultaneously separate activists from their communities while forcing them into labor.

Avery Gordon on haunting; spectrality; the “death sentence” of being deemed “social waste” and being considered someone “without future”; "refusing" to participate; "escaping hell" and “living apart” by striking, squatting, resisting; cultivating "the many-headed hydra of the revolutionary Black Atlantic"; alternative, utopian, subjugated worldviews; despite attempts to destroy these futures, manifesting these better worlds, imagining them as "already here, alive, present."

Kanwal Hameed and Katie Natanel on "liberation pedagogy"; sharing of knowledge and subversion of colonial legacy in universities; "anticolonial feminisms"; and “spaces of solidarity, revolt, retreat, and release”.

[dailynnt]

CAPTIVE OF HIS ATTENTION

♡ Summary: You're an art and design student at Seoul National University, trying to maintain your independence and focus on your studies. Your peaceful life is shattered when you meet Jungkook , a charismatic, stubborn, and unpredictable guy who pairs up with you for a group project. He starts to annoy you by challenging your principles. Jungkook, who loves to be the center of attention, uses his charming and playful nature to play with your feelings and control the situation. You are constantly trying not to succumb to his manipulations, but gradually you find that his influence on you is becoming stronger and stronger. The relationship between you is a game of power, desire, and sensation, where each tries to leave their mark without letting the other take over completely. But will you be able to maintain your independence, or will Jungkook eventually make you his?

♡ Couple: Jeon Jungkook/ Fem!Reader

♡ Characters: The Reader, Jeon Jungkook, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Min Yoongi, Kim Seokjin, Kim Namjoon, Jeon Hoseok.

♡ Age restrictions: 18+

♡ Relationships: ⚤

♡ Number of part: 2/?

♡ Tags: university life, students, from enemies to lovers, everyday life, mild longing, sex, protected sex, unprotected sex, alcohol, smoking, profanity, tags will be added as the story progresses

♡ From the author: What do you think of this part? Jungkook's proposal has an interesting connotation that Y/N doesn't fully understand yet, but she has a little guess 🤭

♡ Warning: English is not my native language, so there may be mistakes in the text. Please don't get mad at me too much! Those under 18, please don't read this story!

♡ Tag list : @kooko007, @someoneelse0109, @kelsyx33, @minimoninini, @smokinghotstargirl (Want to be on tag list? Just let me know)

PART 2: A debt that will be difficult to repay.

You are finally home. You crossed the threshold of your rented apartment feeling tired, which had been accumulating all week. You took off your coat and kicked off your sneakers. As you hung up your outerwear, you noticed coffee drips that reminded you of the morning's incident with Jungkook. You grimaced at the thought of him.

What an asshole he is. Your encounter with them in the campus cafeteria was even worse. He was so cocky and it was so fucking annoying. Can't he see that you're not the pink mass of glamorous girls who are ready to run after him if he just smiles? And worst of all, he took the liberty of asking you what you're like in bed. A cheeky guy, it seems, of the very first category in the whole university.

You could barely drag your feet to the kitchen, because you were so hungry. You never ate that chicken salad. The reason is the same Jungkook. Why did he become such a pain in the ass for you in one day? You shake your head, shaking off the thoughts of him.

Tonight, you're having fried chicken, spicy tokpokki and chajamen. It's a hearty and high-calorie meal, but you don't mind. You need to relax, and delicious food has always helped you do that.

You've had dinner and decided not to do any studying. The binge night will be your moment before the brewing storm of Jungkook and working with him on a group project.

You were lying on the couch in front of the TV, barely listening to it and scrolling through social media. Suddenly, you received a message from an unknown number on KakoTalk. You logged into the app and saw the name that popped up when the user was registered.

"JK." There were only initials, but you knew exactly who they belonged to. How could he find your number if you didn't give it to him? There are two possibilities: either he got it from Miyon or he found it himself in a group chat in your study group. You're leaning toward the second option, but you'll have to ask Miyon if she gave your number to this asshole. You open the message and read it:

08.47 PM | JK: I'll be waiting for you at Smith's Cafe in Haehwa-dong tomorrow. Around 8pm.

You feel your heart beating fast in your chest. Your palms instantly sweat and for some reason you feel nauseous. Why are you reacting like this to his text? But it seems to be the context of the message itself. He writes confidently, and just puts it to you without asking you if you can come. You nervously tap the keyboard to reply to him.

08.47 PM | You: For what?

08.47 PM | JK: You read it right away. Did you wait for me to write?

You snort angrily. How annoying!

08.47 PM | You: The world doesn't revolve around you. I was just sitting on my phone. That's why I answered so quickly.

08.48 PM | You: What do you want? Why should we meet?

You wait for him to write back, but he doesn't reply for about a minute, so you exit the app, half excited and half frustrated. You scroll through your Instagram news page, but your thoughts are still on Jungkook's text messages.

The message arrives and you open the chat again.

08.49 PM | JK: We need to discuss your debt.

08.49 PM | You: I offered to pay you for the dry cleaning. What else do we have to fence?

08.49 PM | JK: I'm not interested in your money. It's not fun 😉

08.49 PM | You: 🙄 I'm not going to fulfill your wishes. Just throw me the card and I'll pay for the dry cleaning.

08.50 PM | JK: Do you think I have time to take my clothes to the dry cleaners?

08.50 PM | JK: Baby, I've spent many time to texting you than all the girls I've ever texted before. I'm already tired of typing. I'll be waiting for you tomorrow, and if you don't show up, you'll be in a lot of trouble, and trust me, you won't like it.

You squeeze the phone in your hand so hard that you think the screen is going to crack. "Baby?" Does he even hear himself? You take a deep breath, exhale. You write a reply, erase it, start again, and finally put the phone aside. That's all he wants to do, to piss you off.

You go back to the news feed, but you can't concentrate on anything. His last message keeps replaying in your head.

"I'll be waiting for you tomorrow." What does that even mean? Why would he do that? You bite your lip, considering whether to answer, and decide not to.

You put the phone down on the table, feeling the tension spread through your body. His calm tone is more annoying than if he were shouting or threatening. You realize that this is some kind of game, but he hasn't clearly explained the rules to you. You don't like Jungkook's interest in you at all.

Okay, you'll have to meeting with him, and at the same time you'll choose a topic for the project.

You look at the text message you received from Jungkook this morning again.

10.53 AM | JK: Don't be late. I'll be waiting for you on the second floor.

Saturday came and instead of enjoying your day off, you were nervous all day because you had to meet Jungkook. You were worried about the debt you owed him. Your intuition tells you that this guy is up to no good because he doesn't want the money. That's probably a good thing, because you don't have an extra thousand and a half dollars.

You close the message and just stare at the screen for a while, trying to collect your thoughts. The feeling of injustice merges with anxiety, but even more so, you're pissed off by his confidence. As if he's the boss here.

When you take a shower, you still hesitate whether to leave. But ignoring him doesn't seem like a wise decision. You choose a simple but neat look - a beige oversized sweater, black pants, and sneakers. Light hair in a messy bun, almost invisible makeup. You don't want him to think that you're trying too hard for him.

There is a cold wind outside, so you wrap yourself in your coat and try to walk quickly. You wonder why he made an appointment at this particular cafe. It is close to your home. The thought that he also lives in this neighborhood alarms you. But how can this be? He's a chaebol, it's unlikely that he would live in an ordinary apartment complex like yours. And in your neighborhood, there were mostly simple affordable apartments for students.

You arrive at the cafe a few minutes early. You didn't forget to bring your laptop and notes where you made notes about the topics you would like to choose.

With a sigh, you go inside. The cafe is filled with the aroma of fresh pastries and coffee. The music is playing softly, and the tables are filled with mostly students with laptops and pairs of notebooks. The second floor is less crowded, with only a few tables occupied.

You notice him right away. Jungkook is sitting at a table by the window, leaning back comfortably. He's wearing a black sweater and jeans, with a chain around his neck that glistens in the light of the lamps. Noticing you, he smiles slightly and waves his hand, inviting you to come over.

"You decided to come after all." - His voice sounds calm, almost warm, but there is something dangerous in his eyes. "Good girl." - Praises Jungkook. You feel something irritated in your middle when he calls you that. You don't snort loudly.

"As if you left me a choice." - You reply ironically, sinking into the chair across from him.

"There's always a choice, baby. But you made the right one." - He says, leaning forward slightly, his smile growing wider. Your heart races as he gets bolder and bolder.

"Don't call me baby. I think every woman you've ever been with has had that nickname." - You say colorlessly, but Jungkook picks up on your irritation. He smiles out of the corner of his mouth.

"Why do you think that?" - He asks, leaning back in his chair, his tattooed hand on the table, showing you the designs on the outside of his palm. You look down at them for a moment and then turn your eyes to Jungkook.

"I'm more than confident in what I said. You're too predictable." - You say with a challenge. Jungkook's eyebrows fly up and he laughs defiantly.

"Predictable?" - He asks. "That's not a characteristic I have. You can ask any of my girlfriends." - He says without losing his smile on his lips. You roll your eyes defiantly.

"No need." - You say shortly, fidgeting in your chair. Jungkook notices your nervousness.

"Are you nervous?" - He asks you pointedly. You freeze, caught off guard by his bluntness.

"No." - You answer too quickly. But you are nervous. Your heart is beating like crazy. Is it his good looks that make you this way, or his flattering tone of voice? You can't decide.

"I think it is. That's so nice. Do you want something to drink?" - He asks. You give him a killer look and wish this meeting was over. You seem to be starting to realize how hard it's going to be to write this pair project.

"I came here to take care of the issue with your sweatshirt." - You answer dryly, ignoring his offer of a drink. You in anyway wouldn't be able to drink anything anyway. Your nerves made you feel a little nauseous.

Jungkook leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table, and fixed your gaze with his. He was close enough that you could smell him-light, fresh, almost magnetic.

"Want get right to it?" - He asked playfully.

"Yes. Just tell me what you want for that fucking sweatshirt." - You ask nervously.

"I told you I'm not interested in money." - He said confidently. "So I came up with a way for you to pay off your debt. I think it will be convenient for everyone."

You felt your cheeks flush. You pressed your lips together, trying not to react to the tone in his voice that seemed downright seductive.

"So what did you come up with?" - You asked. Jungkook leaned back, his eyes seemingly illuminated by some invisible fire.

"It's nothing complicated. I just want you to be my personal assistant for a week." - Jungkook replied.

"Assistant?" - You clarified quietly.

"Yes. You'll follow me around, help me with whatever I need. And, of course..." - He smiled, tilting his head. "You'll follow my instructions." - Jungkook finished speaking, and you just stood there with your mouth open. What the hell is this? What the hell are his instructions?

You are about to scold him when coffee is brought to your table. A large cup of cappuccino is placed in front of you, and raff coffee in front of Jungkook.

"I already know you drink cappuccino." - Jungkook says as the waiter walks away from your table. There is no end to your fury.

"Are you kidding me?" - You say sharply, but your voice trembles slightly.

"Absolutely serious." - He replied, not taking his eyes off you. "It's better than the other options I had in my mind."

"What other options?" - You asked again, choking on your anger.

Jungkook leaned over, leaning on the table, close to you. He smiled his usual cocky smile that sent a new electric shock through your nervous system.

"You don't want to know." - Jungkook replied. His voice sounded so soft and heartfelt that your chest tightened. You felt your body begin to give in to the tension that was filling the space between you. "A week..." - He repeated, his voice so soft you could barely hear it. "And your problems will disappear."

You clenched your hands under the table, forcing yourself not to look away.

"It's not fair, for some clothes. I'm not your servant." - You speak passionately.

"For me it's a valuable thing. You didn't look where you were going when you ran into me, that's why you're here." - He pauses briefly and continues. "And this offer will cover my losses in full."

You knew it was a trap. But Jungkook's gaze, his low voice, and his absolute confidence somehow made you think he wanted to seduce you.

"I don't want to be your assistant." - You admit honestly. Jungkook played with a piercing with his tongue, and you tried your best to ignore it. He slowly straightened up in his chair and took a sip of coffee. His phone vibrated. He cast an indifferent glance at the screen and quickly returned his gaze to you.

"Y/N. I'm offering you the most loyal option. You're a good girl. I don't want to hurt you, but you're provoking me. Why don't you just say yes?" - Jungkook asks you. His tone is lazy and cautious, but he's visibly restraining himself from speaking to you rudely. You snort and laugh a little defiantly.

"How am I provoking you, Jeon? I'm also offering you a normal option. Why don't you just take the money from me?" - You ask your questions. Jungkook drills you with his eyes and his interest in you grows exponentially. You resist. Why is someone who is not available so magnetic?

"You ruined my thing. And I'm a terrible appropriator. That's why I make the rules, not you." - Jungkook says, a little bossy. You raise your eyebrows. This guy across from you is starting to piss you off. "So what do you choose? Consent or something worse?"

"Something worse? Jungkook, this sounds like a cheap drama!" -You laugh, trying to hide your nervousness, but your heart is pounding so loudly that you think he can hear it.

"A cheap drama?" - He thinks for a moment, and then suddenly stands up, grabs a chair and puts it next to you. He sits down, leans closer, stopping a few centimeters from your face. Your breath catches in your throat. "If you want, I can make it a little more dramatic, but I don't think you'll be able to take it."

You try to say something, but his closeness and the subtle smell of his perfume silence you. He notices your confusion and smiles with satisfaction.

"Well?" - His voice is quiet, but every word sounds as if your life depends on it.

"You're crazy..." - You whisper, finally leaning back.

You think, quickly analyze the situation, and feel that you should agree to his terms. One week of hell, one more week of working on a project you're sure he won't want to do, and you'll be free of this annoying, narcissistic guy forever.

"Okay. But only for a week. And only as an assistant. No... strange instructions."

Jungkook crosses his arms over his chest and smiles even wider.

"You made the right decision, as always." - Jungkook says. His phone vibrates again. He reaches for his smartphone.

You just sigh, realizing that you've just done something you'll definitely regret.

Jungkook is checking something on his phone, and you are fidgeting in your chair to get a few centimeters away from him. He puts down the phone and turns his handsome face to you. A satisfied smile spreads across his lips.

He opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by an incoming call. Jungkook blocks it without even looking at him.

You clear your throat and pick up your laptop bag. For a moment, you feel protected by Jungkook's closeness.

"Since we've already met..." - You begin confidently. "I propose we choose a topic for our pair project." - You gently push the cappuccino aside and put your laptop in front of you and take out a notebook with notes.

"Great. Let's do it." - Jungkook agrees quickly. He reaches across the table again and picks up his coffee. You click on your laptop, opening the file with the topics dropped into the group chat.

"So. I have two topics that I liked the most. The first one shows how emotions affect the perception of art. I think we can use contrast. Two opposite artistic images that convey different emotions. For example, one artwork symbolizes warmth and hope, and the other symbolizes coldness and alienation." - You explained, gesturing with your hands. Jungkook watched you carefully and didn't really listen to you. His phone vibrated again, and he locked it without looking at the screen, just like the first time. You stumbled for a moment, noticing Jungkook locking his phone, and went on. "Or we can do a project on the duality of human nature. Show how appearances often hide a person's true intentions or emotions." - You said. Jungkook raised one eyebrow and looked at you curiously.

"That sounds... interesting." - He mused out loud. You finally turned your eyes to him.

"What exactly did you like?" - You asked.

"The topic of 'duality'. Why do you choose this topic?" - Jungkook put his elbows on the table, leaning slightly toward you. You were confused for a moment, and then quickly composed yourself and explained.

"I like this topic the most from this two. I think people often show only the part of themselves they want others to see." - You said animatedly.

"Are you talking about yourself?" - Asked Jungkook. His eyes grew serious, and you didn't know how to respond.

"No." - You replied, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. "I'm talking about people in general."

"Mmm..." -Jungkook leans back a little, picking up his coffee cup again. His phone vibrates for the third time, and you're annoyed. Jungkook presses the lock button again and the phone silently incomes the call.

"Why aren't you answering the phone? Maybe it's important?" - You ask, trying to sound indifferent, even though you're curious about who's calling so annoyingly.

"It's not important." -Jungkook answers without a shadow of a doubt. His fingers slide lightly across the surface of the table, as if he's looking for something to do. You look at his tattoos and want to know their meaning.

"How is it not important? Someone seems to really need your attention." - You say, raising an eyebrow slightly. He hums, and his smile grows even more cocky.

"Are you that curious about who needs my attention?" - Jungkook asks you. Nervously, you look from his face to his phone.

"No. It's just a little disturbing." - You lie. You turn away from Jungkook. He puts his hand on the back of your chair as he approaches a little bit closer.

"Just ignore it, like I did." - He says, and his voice sounds like he's just having fun. You look at him sideways. "But if you can't, I suggest you answer the phone." - Jungkook hands you the phone, there's still an incoming call.

You round your eyes. Why you should do it? You look at the phone and see an unsigned number.

"I'm not doing this." - You say, turning away.

"Oh, you will. Hang up the phone and say I'm busy and can't talk." - Jungkook says a little rudely. You turn your head to him and freeze. "Your duties as my assistant are already in effect. So answer instead of me." - You stare at Jungkook in horror. You open your mouth to say no again, but he presses the green button and puts the phone to your ear.

"Opaaa!" - Some girl screams. "How dare you not answer me?"

You look at Jungkook's sneering smile because he can hear what the girl on the other side of the phone is screaming too. You exhale nervously and take his phone in your hand.

"Uhm. Hi." - You say. Jungkook gives a soft of laughter.

"Who is this?" - Some girl asks. She keeps the silent for a couple of seconds, most likely making sure she has dialed the right number, and then speaks. "Where is Jungkook-opa? I'm calling him."

"Jungkook is busy right now and can't talk to you." - You say colorlessly. Jungkook is amused by the situation. His smile doesn't leave his lips even when he's drinking coffee.

"What do you mean? Who are you? Is he with you now? What are you doing?" - The girl asks one question after another, and her squeaky voice makes you want to take the phone away from your ear.

"He's with me right now. That's all I can tell you. He'll call you back." - You say. Jungkook arches an eyebrow in question. You make a wry your face. God, how did you end up in this situation? You shouldn't have to deal with his girls. "Probably." - Before, that girl starts screaming into the phone, you disconnect the call and put Jungkook's phone on the table. You turn away and sit up straight.

"See, I told you it wasn't an important call." - Jungkook says.

You exhale nervously, trying to recover from this awkward situation. Jungkook looks at you with a smile that only adds fuel to the fire.

"Why did you do that? Next time, you'll have to deal with your girls yourself." - You say angrily. Jungkook laughs out loud.

"Because it's fun." - He answers without the slightest remorse. "And I think you did even better than I expected. Now I'm sure I chose the right assistant."

You roll your eyes, pretending not to pay attention to his words, but everything inside you is boiling.

"I think you need a psychologist, not an assistant." - You say half-jokingly.

"Maybe so. But I'd rather spend time with you." - Jungkook replies and leans closer. "By the way, your voice is very calm. I think it calmed her down a bit. But only for a little while."

You focus on the laptop screen, trying to ignore what he said, but your eyes fall back to his arm with the tattoos. They seem mysterious to you, and your curiosity gets the better of you.

"By the way... these tattoos of yours. What do they mean?" - You ask. You were fascinated by tattoos and the most interesting thing for you was the stories of people who told why they painted their bodies. He raises his hand, examining the ink on his skin as if for the first time.

"Oh, now you're interested in my tattoos? You better be careful with that curiosity, because it might take you too far." - His tone is flirtatious and you're visited with excitement.

"Maybe I'm just trying to find something to take your mind off of silly’s." - You counter. Jungkook smiles, shaking his head.

"Okay. I'll tell you about one of them, but let's have you pick a topic for our project first. Because to be honest, I don't care. I can do a practical assignment on any of these topics." - Jungkook says. You squint your eyes.

"I hope you're not be indifferent to work at project." - You look away and look at your notebook. The topic is duality. It's something you both like. "The theme of the duality of human nature." - You say. Jungkook stretches his lips mysteriously into a smile.

"As you wish. Now it's your turn, Y/N. What tattoo are you interested in?"

You point to the small word tattooed on the inside of his finger and wait eagerly to hear what he has to say.

"What are these initials?" - You ask. Jungkook looks at his hand and thinks about how to explain.

"These are the initials of people who are important in my life. My... so to speak, 'support squad'. Those who made me move forward, even when I wanted to stop." - His voice sounded unusually sincere, and you noticed that his gaze had softened.

You nodded, silently considering his words, but he continued, pointing to another tattoo.

"This one is an eye with a crown. It reminds me that you should always see your possibilities. Not to let yourself be broken even when the whole world is against you. And to remember that you are the king of your life." - Jungkook explains. You smiled involuntarily.

"And this?" - You asked, pointing to the small heart on his wrist.

"Oh, that's..." - Jungkook paused for a moment and then laughed, crossing his arms. "It's a reminder that love can be both the best and worst thing in life. It appeared when I thought I knew what love was. But I think I'm still learning."

"You?" - You couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Learning to love?"

He looked at you with an expression that was both serious and playful.

"Yes, Y/N. I'd like to learn how to love." - Jungkook replies. Silence falls between you and you feel tense. Does a guy like Jungkook really want to love someone? He can have any girl he wants, but it seems that no one can give him the feeling he wants. Isn't that why he says that? Then you wondered who the "love" he had that made him think it was the "worst thing". You want to ask, but you just turn away. You close your laptop and pack your things.

"I'm going to go." - You say as you get up from the table. Jungkook follows your movements. "On Monday, I'll go to the teacher and tell him the topic. Let's also start working on the project." - You say. You put on your coat, which you hung on a hanger by the table. Jungkook gets up after you.

"You didn't touch the coffee I ordered for you." - He states disappointedly. You look at the cold cup of coffee.

"I'm sorry. I don't drink coffee at night." - You answer. Jungkook walks over to the coat rack and puts on his black coat as well. You watch and don't notice how fascinated you are by him in this black coat, he is so attractive. It seems to you that everything he would wear would look perfect. Is this legitimate?

"Why are you frozen? Let's go, I'll walk you home!" - Jungkook picks up his phone from the table. You pick up your laptop.

"No need. I live nearby." - You say. Jungkook does not react to this statement. That's suspicious. He can't possibly know where you live, right?

"So what? It's late, I can't let you go alone." - He takes the bag from your hands and invites you to leave.

"I came here alone when it was already dark." - You argue.

"I'm glad you got here safely. But I'll be worried if I let you go alone." - Jungkook says and you laugh.

"So you're afraid I won't pay you back?" - You joke as you catch up with Jungkook. You go outside and it's even colder.

"Yeah, let the world fall, but you have to pay me back." - He jokes and you laugh. You wonder how your normal routine was disrupted by one person. You realize that maybe these two weeks will be the hardest in your life. Jungkook's strange offer, working on the project, and his annoying interest. Is this the horror you hope you'll withstand? Doesn't fate have anything else in store for you?

⎗ Previous chapter ❘ ☰ Index 𓏧 ❘ Next chapter ⎘

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @steddieholidaydrabbles.

Within Reach

Prompt Day 5: Winter Sports | Word Count: 846 | Rating: T | CW: Language | Tags: AU, Olympic AU, Sports AU, Doubles Luge, Childhood Friends, Secret Relationship, Steve Harrington Has Good Parents

The run is adrenaline-pumping, and makes his nerves stand on end, even all these years later, as he hurtles down the ice track.

But the launch? That's the actual terrifying part.

Getting it right, setting yourself up for a good run or a bad one, that's the part that Eddie hates.

He fell into this sport by accident, literally. Steve was the one that was signed up for the Slider Search by his parents, and Eddie just tagged along to watch. When he was asked if he wanted to do it, too, he said sure because it looked like a thrill ride. 

It wasn't ice, just pavement, but hell yeah, eleven-year-old Eddie Munson wasn't about to turn down the chance to do some daredevil shit.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Two kids from Hawkins, Indiana, on the Junior National Team, and now, Team USA.

It was unlikely, and has made for a great puff piece leading up to the Games. Everybody wants to know about the childhood friends, turned pro. Wanted to know if they hated each other yet, after living, breathing, being joined at the hip for this many years.

They don't. 

That's why this works.

Solo riders, turned doubles, because you can't manufacture the kind of trust they have in each other. Eddie is a bottom man, at least on the sled, and that means he can't see. Can't do anything, other than be along for the ride. 

But he's always been along for the ride with Steve Harrington, and he just has to trust that Steve won't steer them into certain death. 

Steve hasn't yet. 

He's steered them lots of places together, from childhood, to careers, to this love that they've tucked away and kept just for themselves.

Of course, there have been gnarly crashes, it's just the way of the sport, but when they're lucky they can turn a wreck into a controlled crash and walk away to slide again tomorrow.

He'll never forget the first time they took their newly learned skills to actual ice. It was electric. 

He never, ever could have afforded an Olympic run on his own. Wayne didn't have the money, only the love, and Eddie never would have dared to dream to ask for more from him. But the Harringtons just folded him into the budget, as if they'd always planned to have two Olympians, not one. 

Buying double the sleds, double the suits, double everything. Year after year, until they made it high enough in the ranks that their equipment was partially, then fully, covered by USA Luge. Still, the Harringtons help pay the rent for their nice apartment, and deposit money into both of their bank accounts on the regular. 

He'll never be able to repay them.

But they've never asked him to.

Steve's independent, always has been, and they've let him take the reins on his life from way younger than most do. But they were there. In the background, nudging him the right direction, and by association, Eddie, too.

The run's over, and it wasn't good enough. Getting up to their feet, Eddie wants to break the ice. Wants to tamper the stinging sadness of defeat, even if they were prepared for this to happen. They weren't front-runners. Not yet. They've worked their way up the pyramid from the bottom of the Junior National Team to the top, then starting over again at the bottom of the Senior National Team heap, until they got here. Chosen for Team USA for the fucking Olympics. 

That's wild. Crazy. Still unbelievable.

"They think we're fucking," Eddie says under his breath, waving to the crowd, just wanting to make Steve laugh.

"We are fucking," Steve hisses back through his plastered on smile.

"Yeah, but they don't know that."

Steve laughs, a real laugh, not the one he puts on for the public, and it makes Eddie grin. They didn't place. They won't make the podium, turn five was too tricky, and it just didn't go their way this time. 

At least they didn't eat shit and die. 

Next time, maybe they'll do better. With more practice. More time in the start house, the weight room. There's room for improvement. And the time. They're young. Younger than most, and they have plenty of time to peak.

They'll do it. Eddie knows it. Because Steve does everything he sets his mind to. Always has, always will.

It won't be hard to commit another four years to training, as long as he gets to do it with Steve. Still chasing their dream. The one they've had since they were little kids and playing on snow sleds up on Turn Back Hill. 

And then they aren't alone anymore.

The first one to grab him is Wayne, and right after, Mama H. They're happy, all of them. Nobody is disappointed that they finished out of the top ten.

They made the Olympics. 

They've got the time, the drive, the desire, to finish higher next time. And maybe then, when they're four years older, the podium will be within reach.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun! 🛷

Notes: Slider Search is real, and started in the US in 1985. Since 2002, at least 70% of Team USA came from Slider Search! That's pretty cool that such an open tryout event is proven to produce Olympians. I feel like that's probably not true for most Olympic sports!

[opal-owl-flight]

I absolutely adore your agent lore SO MUCH it feels really canon to me, just in a darker and realistic way!!

I am kind of wondering what your thoughts are on octavio, especially in this verse- if you have any of course LMAO 👍 so fair if you don't he just lives in my braincells rent free.

"You. Were not so different, you and I."

"|Shut. Up. Dont compare yourself to me. I did everything for this fragile world. A world you yourself almost destroyed twice.|"

"Aah, so did I, young squid. So did I."

3 rounds on the imprisoned geezer. Some thanks he got, after saving the world. The Captain was almost as bad as their old superior.

He only crosses his arms tighter as they clacked their beak.

"|The destruction of my world does not justify yours' survival.|"

Theres a dry chuckle from within the glass globe.

"Which world has the zapfishes. Which world is close to the sky? Which world allows everyone to...act the way you do. That annoyingly fresh attitude that just rubs in our face how much better you have it."

3s looking more unsure now, their hands clasping tight on their arms whenever theyre not signing. Thats a surprise.

"Mm. Do you understand, agent?"

The hesitance disappears, and their eyes and spots glint threateningly. "|Im the Captain now, and I will prefer to be referred to as such.|"

The king rolls his eyes. Mocks a salute.

"Stuffy kid. Damn. Alright, Captain.

Let me illuminate it a little more clearly for you.

You train your agents to keep my people underground. Sometimes, to the point of breaking their spirit. Because you want to keep them safe -- from me, from my troops, from anything the rough seas can throw at em. Right?"

"|I dont do it like you do. Hypnosis? Mind control? Eight ran away because of that!|"

"Who told you I used that on my entire nation? Damn old fool, that Craig.

As for your "Agent Eight"...

that one...

...had her reasons.

I hold no ill will towards her, or the others, for running.

In fact, I dont blame them one bit."

3 squints.

"They wanted a life that I cannot provide.

Its hard, underground. Constant energy crisis. Constant food shortage. Constant resource depletion. Who would stay? Except those who want to make it a better world to live in?

And you, Captain. What would you do in my place?"

And they stay quiet...

Before their voice rasps through a low hiss.

"Act...in a way... you wont."

"Hoh! So you can speak! Impressive.

But you know youd do similar. Ive heard how much Agent 4 hates your guts. Its not as easy being a leader, isnt it."

3 hisses louder, balling their fists.

"I...am not...you."*

"Yes. You. Are." The king presses his tentacles on the glass. "I did all I did for my fragile world. I continue to run my nation the way I do so everyone stays safe from the danger YOU bring. You and the REST of your nation. My troops are family. My troops are all Ive got."

He casts a glance at 4 (pre-Captain my Captain), who was approaching for her training.

"Even if they end up hating me."*

3 catches 4s gaze.

"Even if they end up deserting."

4 turns her gaze away, to look directly at Octavio.

"Do you understand?"

Now its 3 who looks, understanding dawning in their eyes.

Hes right.

"I must do what I need to, even if it hurts me. Id risk my life, my honor, my everything, for my people.

If I dont, who else will?"

3 thinks of the times theyd swooped in to save the newly returned 4 from hazards in the newer missions. The verbal and physical abuse from her beak and fists. The way they had to give her easier missions despite saying that it was tougher, just so shed have a more gradual growth. Have higher chances of surviving. Even if...underhanded.

4 herself breaks the silence, and their train of thought.

"Talking to the damn geezer again, Captain?"

"|He spoke first.

...but he makes good points.|"

"You cant seriously- hey. HEY! CAPTAIN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!"

theres a loud crash.

"|I dont think it fair to keep him here after he helped us save the world.|"

"Hohohoh! You are not so bad, Captain."

"GRAMPS IS GOING TO KILL YOU."

"Hah! No he wont. I know your old man. And for once in his life, he actually made a good call.

Captain.

Agent Three."

The mention of their old number, to refer to them, almost made tears spring to their eyes.

Almost.

After all, this was the reason they were dragged into this mess. But can they really keep blaming him for all this, after all this time?

Octavio shows...a hint of a smile.

"You make a fine protege for the man I used to know.

Keep it up."

3 holds 4 back from rushing the Octarian leader. "Go...back. Take care...of your people."

"Aye aye. Heheh. So long, suckers!!!"

And he was gone.

[sneepity-snoop-snorpity-sneep]

I gotta blabber for a sec about how much I appreciate how unique and SO not-simple of an antagonist Olrox is.

like he's introduced as the Vampire Who Kills Richter's Mom, and it was a straight-up murder. Like he fully sought her out, she was in the process of sending her kid overseas most likely because she knew he was coming - even before we fully get Olrox's side of the context, we can tell that shit was personal. Right down to the vivid green eyes, he's giving weirdly chill disney villain vibes. But the entire rest of the show? He's the dude in the bad guy car of the villain train just sitting and judging (OH is he judging) every other person there.

Olrox tracking down and killing Julia Belmont is the most confrontational we ever see him get. Every other scene he's in? He's watching, assessing, sometimes philosophizing, and eventually pulling his own chess moves, but fighting? Rarely! And the additional context of his character makes him even more fascinating!!

Olrox is really one of the only vampires in both Castlevania and C: Nocturne that seems to hold onto a connection to a human's life - even after he's no longer one. He reminisces to Mizrak about being a human during the fall of the Aztec Empire, he chooses to spend his time more like a human than any vamp since Lisa sent Dracula traveling like a human way back when.

Homeboy crossed the Atlantic by fucking ship, at a time when the trip took literal weeks and weeks and he can't even leave his quarters except at nighttime (granted, idk if he *has* a faster way to cross the ocean but it kinda seems like he'd do the ship trip anyways) he chooses to rent a room at an inn instead of staying at the chateau (and boink a cute human in said room, cough cough), and really seems to avoid other vampires - although I'm not sure if that's cuz he just doesn't vibe with 'em in general, or because he really doesn't vibe with the current hot vampire philosophy of the century, which seems to be very heavy-handled colonialism + elitism

I kinda wouldn't be surprised if it's both honestly - given that the only other vampire we meet besides him who spent time in the americas/new world was a literal plantation owning slaver (and unless I misremember, Annette says there were multiple vampires among the rich in St. Domingue), it seems pretty likely to me that whoever turned him was probably a vamp who had a direct hand in the downfall of his nation - coming to the New World specifically for conquest and to seize resources seems like it would be hella appealing for vampires. It would make a LOT of sense for Olrox's standoffish behavior around the other vamps to go back to him having been turned by someone very similar to them, who was probably not just an enemy to him, but part of this massive wave of destructive change in his human life.

like he really gives an impression of actively disliking and withdrawing from every other villain's motivation in this show - and it makes a lot of sense if my speculating is even a little bit close. The vampire's goals in Nocturne would be very nearly the same thing that drove the fall of the Aztec Empire - desire for power and control, justified by some """""natural order"""" hierarchy which really just boils down to 'we want all of this and we're going to indulge in making up a dramatic jerk-off reason why we're entitled to it, since you can't stop us taking it anyways and we've got time'

Dude seems to make little effort to be vampire-like - we rarely see him revel in his power like many other vampires do, as well as seeing him nonchalantly rubbing elbows with humans. He speaks fondly of a man he loved, who he fell for while said guy was still human, TO the other human he is currently crushing on! And I do mean crush, like he doesn't react to or treat Mizrak like a plaything, almost every time we get an Olrox lore-drop it's because he's talking to Mizrak sincerely about things that matter to him. He LIKE-likes this human, to the point of jumping directly into a fight to whisk Le Crush to safety in front of a vampire so powerful he won't directly oppose her! Absolutely fascinating behavior all around.

MAN but I want to see some flashbacks from this guy - as far as we know, vampirism is completely an Old World thing - Europe, Asia, Africa, every other vampire we've seen in both Castlevania shows has been from these continents. Were there even any vamps there at all before europeans landed on the shores of the americas???? I mean, I've heard of one of the old religions in mesoamerica having a suspiciously vampirelike god, but how would that connect to Olrox getting vampirized as a 30ish Aztec man?

MAN OH MAN but I am looking forward to seeing what Olrox gets up to in s2 -I'm burning to know if he's gonna survive the series or not, because despite him being the first villain we meet in Nocturne and doing a deed that usually gets villains the 'karmic death' ending, overall he's not really being written like a bad guy the audience wants to see go down. especially since he's not actually in opposition to our protagonists and has a vested interest in keeping one of Team Good Guys newer members alive. My guess is he's either going to get a similar ending to Isaac, a villain that we root for who actually catches a break and doesn't die, ooorrrrrrrr he's gonna get a Highly Tragic sort of death

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #18

May 10-17 2024

The Justice Department endorses lifting many restrictions on marijuana. Since the 1970s marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive classification for drugs that are highly addictive, dangerous and have no medical use, like heroin. Schedule I drugs are nearly impossible to get approval for research studies greatly hampering attempts to understand marijuana and any medical benefits it may have. The DoJ recommends moving it to Schedule III, drugs with low risk of abuse like anabolic steroids, and testosterone. This will allow for greater research, likely allow medical marijuana, and make marijuana a much less serious offense. President Biden welcomed DoJ's decision, a result a review of policy he ordered. Biden in his message talked about how he's pardoned everyone convicted of marijuana possession federally. The President repeated a phrase he's said many times "No-one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,"

The Department of Interior announced no new coal mining in America's largest coal producing region. The moratorium on new coal leases has been hailed as the single biggest step so fair toward ending coal in the US. The Powder River Basin area of Wyoming and Montana produces 40% of the nations coal, the whole state of West Virginia is just 14%. The new rule is estimated to reduce emissions by the equivalent of 293 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the same as taking 63 million gas powered cars off the road.

Vice-President Harris announced that the Biden-Harris Administration had broken records by investing $16 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Harris, a graduate of Howard University, is the first President or Vice-President to have gone to a HBCU. The Administration's investment of $900 million so far in 2024 brought the total investment of the Biden-Harris administration in HBCUs to $16 billion more than double the record $7 billion. HBCUs produce 40% of black engineers, 50% of black teachers, 70% of black doctors and dentists, and 80% of black judges. HBCUs also have a much better record of helping social mobility and moving people out of generational poverty than other colleges and universities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $30 billion dollars in renewal funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The program supports 2.3 million families that are in need of housing with vouchers that help pay rent. This funding represents a $2 billion dollar increase over last year.

The Department of Agriculture announced $671.4 million in investments in rural infrastructure. The money will go to project to improve rural electric grids, as well as drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure. The money will go to 47 projects across 23 states.

HUD announced a record breaking $1.1 billion dollar investment in Tribal housing and community development. HUD plans just over 1 billion dollars for the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program. This is a 40% increase in funding over 2023 and marks the largest ever funding investment in Indian housing. HUD also is investing $75 million in community development, supporting building and rehabbing community buildings in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Department of Transportation announced $2 billion in investments in America's busiest passenger rail route, the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston. This is part of a 15 year, $176 billion plan to rebuild the corridor’s infrastructure and prepare for increased ridership and more trains. So far investments have seen a 25% increase, 7 million riders, over figures last year. a fully funded plan would almost double Amtrak service between New York City and Washington, D.C., and increase service between New York City and Boston by 50%. It would also allow a 60% increase in commuter trains.

HUD announced plans to streamline its HOME program. Currently the largest federal program to help build affordable housing, the streamlining of the rules will speed up building and help meet the Biden Administration's goal of 2 million new affordable housing units. HUD announced last week $1.3 billion dollars for the HOME program, which built 13,000 new units of housing in 2023 and helped 13,000 families with rental assistance

The Department of Interior announced $520 million in new water projects to help protect against drought in the western states. The funding will support 57 water related projects across 18 western states. The projects focus on climate resilience and drought prevention, as well as improving aging water delivery systems, and improving hydropower generation.

The Departments of Agriculture and HHS have stepped up efforts to wipe out the H5N1 virus prevent its spread to humans while protecting farmers livelihoods. The virus is currently effecting dairy cattle in the Texas panhandle region. The USDA and HSS are releasing wide ranging funds to help support farms equipping workers with Personal Protective Equipment, covering Veterinary costs, as well as compensating farmers for lost revenue. HHS and the CDC announced $101 million in testing an monitoring. This early detection and action is key to preventing another Covid style pandemic.

The Senate confirmed Sanket Bulsara to a life time federal judgeship in New York and Eric Schulte and Camela Theeler to lifetime federal judgeships in South Dakota. This brings the total number of judges appointed by President Biden to 197. For the first time in history the majority of a President's judicial nominees have not been white men.

Bonus: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that transgender health insurance exclusions were illegal. The ruling came from a case first filed in 2019 where an employer refused to cover an employee's gender affirming surgery. The court in its ruling sited new guidance from the Biden Administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that declared that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects trans people in the work place. These kinds of guidelines are often sited in court and carry great weight.