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esotericalchemist · 2 months ago

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𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬: 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

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In astrology, Venus represents the essence of attraction, guiding how you draw love, beauty, and wealth into your life. It symbolizes your values and desires, particularly when it comes to relationships, pleasure, and material abundance. Venus reveals your approach to money, showing not just how you earn, but how you appreciate and manage what you have. It also speaks to your relationship with luxury, comfort, and the things that bring you joy. Understanding your Venus sign offers insights into how you can align your financial path with your emotional and aesthetic needs, allowing you to attract wealth in a way that feels natural and fulfilling. By tapping into the energy of your Venus sign, you can create a harmonious flow of prosperity, rooted in what brings you true satisfaction and happiness.

𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For those with Venus in Aries, attracting wealth is all about embracing your bold, independent, and assertive nature. Aries Venus thrives on quick decisions and a competitive edge, so financial success often comes when you're willing to take risks, start new projects, and go after opportunities where you can stand out. You're likely to attract abundance by being fearless, stepping into leadership roles, and not hesitating to explore fresh ventures. With this placement, wealth is closely tied to your willingness to act and push forward confidently. The more you channel your pioneering spirit, the more doors open for financial prosperity.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Wealth flows when you embrace your individuality and confidence. By stepping into the spotlight and owning your unique qualities, you naturally draw attention and resources toward yourself.

2nd House: Your financial success is directly linked to taking action. You’re motivated to earn through entrepreneurial efforts, bold ventures, and quick-thinking initiatives that allow you to create wealth from scratch.

3rd House: Money comes through communication, writing, sales, or short-term projects. Your ability to network, act swiftly, and seize local opportunities can drive financial growth.

4th House: Financial gain may come through real estate, home-based projects, or family-related ventures. Invest in your personal space, and take charge of innovative ideas connected to property or domestic life.

5th House: Creative pursuits, entrepreneurship, and speculative ventures are tied to your financial success. Use your competitive edge in the arts, entertainment, or even sports industries to attract wealth.

6th House: Hard work pays off when you bring energy and a proactive mindset. You can attract money through leadership in everyday work, service-oriented jobs, or the health and fitness sectors, solving problems quickly for financial gain.

7th House: Partnerships, both business and personal, play a major role in your wealth creation. While you’ll need to collaborate, you’ll often take the lead in these relationships, driving the ventures toward success.

8th House: Wealth may come from joint ventures, investments, or other people’s resources. Financial transformations and taking strategic risks in areas like taxes, inheritance, or insurance can lead to prosperity.

9th House: Money could be gained through higher education, travel, or international ventures. Your bold ideas and willingness to explore new philosophies and global opportunities can inspire financial growth.

10th House: Career success—and the wealth that follows—depends on your leadership and initiative. You’ll attract financial opportunities by seeking recognition, going after promotions, or starting your own business.

11th House: Financial growth comes through your social network and group affiliations. By leading within communities or taking charge of bold initiatives in areas like technology, innovation, or social causes, you attract wealth.

12th House: Behind-the-scenes work, spiritual pursuits, or hidden resources like grants and donations could be sources of wealth. Embracing solitude and taking charge of your inner world may unexpectedly lead to financial rewards.

𝐓𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Taurus, attracting wealth revolves around stability, patience, and a natural affinity for material comfort. As Venus is at home in Taurus, this placement provides a strong ability to manifest financial abundance. Wealth comes when you focus on long-term goals, steady effort, and nurturing your resources. You naturally draw in prosperity by creating tangible results and valuing the process of building security. Your practical and grounded approach allows you to accumulate wealth gradually, with a keen focus on luxury, comfort, and sustainability.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success flows when you present yourself as confident, stable, and reliable. Your grounded nature and charm naturally attract wealth opportunities, often tied to how you carry yourself or express your values.

2nd House: This is the prime placement for Venus in Taurus. You have a natural talent for attracting money through investments, personal efforts, and financial stability. You build wealth through slow, consistent growth and wise material choices.

3rd House: Wealth can come through communication, writing, or local ventures. You may find financial success in marketing, sales, or networking, particularly through projects that focus on lasting value and stability.

4th House: Financial security is tied to property, home-based ventures, or family inheritance. Building wealth through real estate, or investing in family-oriented projects, provides a solid foundation for long-term financial success.

5th House: You can attract financial abundance through creative expression, entertainment, or speculative ventures. Money flows when you tap into your artistic talents or work on luxury projects that reflect beauty and quality.

6th House: Consistency and dependability in your work lead to financial success. Steady growth in your career, particularly in service-based industries or health and wellness fields, will build a solid financial foundation over time.

7th House: Partnerships, both business and personal, are key to your financial growth. You attract wealth through stable, long-term relationships, where both parties share a mutual vision of security and loyalty.

8th House: Wealth may come from joint ventures, inheritances, or shared resources. You have a natural ability to manage investments and grow money through transformative financial partnerships.

9th House: Money can be gained through higher education, international ventures, or global business. Your patience and focus on long-term goals bring wealth through teaching, publishing, or pursuing broad, expansive opportunities.

10th House: Financial success is closely tied to your career and public image. You attract wealth by building a solid reputation and advancing steadily in your profession, particularly in fields like luxury, real estate, or the arts.

11th House: Your social network and community play a big role in financial growth. By leading or participating in groups that align with your values, you’ll attract wealth through long-term ventures, especially in social or technological innovation.

12th House: Wealth may come from hidden or unexpected sources, such as behind-the-scenes work, charitable endeavors, or spiritual pursuits. Slowly building wealth through private or healing professions can bring financial success.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Gemini, attracting wealth comes through leveraging your communication skills, adaptability, and intellectual interests. This placement thrives in dynamic environments where quick thinking, networking, and versatility are essential. You draw in abundance by staying curious, open to new ideas, and building connections that lead to financial opportunities. Whether through writing, teaching, or speaking, your intellect and social skills are the key to unlocking wealth. Financial success often comes from exploring multiple income streams, staying flexible, and using your wit to navigate opportunities.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from how you engage with others—your charm, curiosity, and adaptability open doors. Present yourself as communicative and approachable, and you’ll naturally attract wealth through social interactions.

2nd House: Your intellectual skills are a direct path to earning money. Writing, teaching, or selling ideas are lucrative ways to build wealth. By diversifying your income streams, you’ll keep things stimulating while attracting financial growth.

3rd House: Money comes through communication-based fields like writing, speaking, or short-term projects. Networking and staying attuned to trends, particularly in media or marketing, will help you generate financial opportunities.

4th House: Financial stability might stem from intellectual home projects, such as freelance writing or working in real estate. Family businesses tied to teaching, communication, or technology can be strong sources of wealth.

5th House: Creative pursuits, especially those involving writing, media, or speculative ventures, are tied to financial success. Investing in art, entertainment, or even emerging markets like cryptocurrency can also be profitable.

6th House: You attract wealth by using your intellectual talents in your daily work. Financial success comes from work that involves communication, technology, or writing. Staying adaptable and versatile will keep your income steady.

7th House: Financial growth is linked to partnerships where intellectual exchange is central. You attract wealth through collaborations in business or personal relationships, especially when ideas are shared and developed into ventures.

8th House: Joint financial ventures and investments, especially those involving intellectual collaboration, can be lucrative. You may find financial transformation through research, innovation, or partnerships that involve shared resources.

9th House: Wealth can be attracted through higher education, publishing, or global travel. Teaching, writing, or intellectual pursuits that have a broad impact will bring financial rewards, especially on an international scale.

10th House: Communication and intellectual pursuits are key to your career success. Wealth comes through adaptability in professional environments, such as media, public speaking, or networking, where you can showcase your quick-thinking nature.

11th House: Social networks, technology, and innovation are your financial allies. Engage with communities that align with your ideas, and wealth will flow through collaborative ventures in technology or social causes.

12th House: Financial success may come from intellectual work done behind the scenes, such as research or writing in solitude. Spiritual or psychological pursuits, or hidden opportunities in these areas, can also bring unexpected wealth.

𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Cancer, attracting wealth comes from tapping into your emotional intelligence, nurturing nature, and strong connection to home and family. Venus in Cancer thrives when it feels emotionally secure, and financial success follows when you invest in ventures that offer both material and emotional stability. You draw wealth by creating safe, comforting environments, whether through home-based businesses, real estate, or family enterprises. Your ability to care for others, build meaningful relationships, and prioritize emotional fulfillment leads to financial abundance.

Through the Houses:

1st House: You attract wealth by presenting yourself as nurturing, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent. Your ability to connect with others on a deep level draws financial opportunities, often through personal relationships and your caring nature.

2nd House: Financial success is closely tied to your home and family. You build wealth through property investments, family businesses, or by creating a stable financial foundation that supports your loved ones and provides long-term security.

3rd House: Money comes through communication that reflects emotional intelligence, such as writing, teaching, or counseling. You may also attract wealth through sibling relationships or short-term projects that involve nurturing others.

4th House: Wealth flows through real estate, home-based businesses, or family ventures. Your ability to create a comfortable, nurturing environment at home leads to financial abundance, particularly when you invest in property or family-oriented projects.

5th House: Financial success comes through creative endeavors that evoke strong emotional connections, or through activities related to children and family. You attract wealth by investing in artistic projects or businesses that involve nurturing and caregiving.

6th House: You attract money through caregiving professions, health, or nurturing roles. Fields like healthcare, therapy, or social services, where emotional intelligence and empathy are essential, can bring financial success and fulfillment.

7th House: Partnerships are key to your financial growth. Whether in business or marriage, you attract wealth through emotionally connected, supportive relationships that foster mutual growth and create a stable financial foundation.

8th House: Wealth may come from joint ventures, inheritances, or other people’s resources. Your deep emotional connections with partners can lead to financial transformations, allowing you to share and manage wealth effectively.

9th House: You attract wealth through emotionally fulfilling ventures related to travel, education, or spiritual growth. Teaching, nurturing others on a global scale, or engaging in meaningful cultural or spiritual exchanges can lead to financial success.

10th House: Career success and financial abundance are linked to emotionally fulfilling work, particularly in real estate, caring professions, or roles that provide security and comfort to others. You attract wealth by nurturing others through your professional life.

11th House: Financial growth comes through your emotional connections within groups or communities. You attract wealth by leading or nurturing social causes, particularly those focused on emotional well-being, family, or group support.

12th House: Wealth may come from hidden sources, spiritual pursuits, or behind-the-scenes efforts. Your compassion and emotional depth can attract financial opportunities in healing, caregiving, or charitable work.

𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Leo, attracting wealth is all about embracing your creativity, confidence, and desire for the spotlight. This placement thrives when you can express yourself boldly, drawing money through artistic endeavors, entertainment, or leadership roles. You attract wealth by owning your charisma, inspiring others, and creating something of value that highlights your talents. Financial success follows when you are able to shine, whether it's through a creative project, a business, or a leadership position. Your magnetic personality naturally draws abundance when you're in spaces that allow you to express your uniqueness.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success is linked to how confidently and boldly you present yourself. By embracing your natural leadership qualities and taking center stage, you attract wealth and recognition effortlessly.

2nd House: You can attract money through luxury ventures or creative talents. Financial success is tied to activities that bring you joy, such as indulging in your artistic skills or leadership abilities, allowing you to earn through self-expression.

3rd House: Wealth may come through communication, creative writing, or media-related projects. Your charismatic, expressive nature can lead to financial opportunities through public speaking or local ventures where you showcase your flair.

4th House: Financial success could come through property investments, home-based businesses, or family ventures. You may also attract wealth by transforming your home into a space of creativity and luxury or through creative real estate projects.

5th House: This is a highly favorable placement for Venus in Leo to attract wealth. Financial success comes through artistic endeavors, entertainment, or speculative ventures. You might find money flowing through the arts, sports, or investments in entertainment.

6th House: You attract wealth through leadership roles in your daily work. Financial success follows when you bring creativity and passion into your job. You may also find opportunities in fields related to the arts or luxury services.

7th House: Partnerships play a crucial role in your financial success. Wealth may come through business or marriage relationships where creativity, collaboration, and leadership are key. You thrive when you can express your flair alongside a partner.

8th House: Wealth may come through joint financial ventures, inheritances, or other people’s resources. Financial transformation is possible through bold investments, particularly in creative or artistic fields, or through dynamic partnerships.

9th House: You can attract wealth through teaching, travel, or international ventures. Financial success comes when you take on opportunities that allow you to shine on a global scale, such as publishing or sharing your expertise in a way that inspires others.

10th House: Career success is closely tied to creative leadership roles. You attract money by being recognized for your talents and passion. Financial success comes from being at the forefront of your profession, particularly in industries where you can express your creativity.

11th House: You attract wealth through your social network and involvement in large groups or organizations. Leading in creative or entertainment-based groups, or social causes where you can inspire others, brings financial rewards.

12th House: Financial success may come from behind-the-scenes work, such as creative projects done in solitude or spiritual endeavors. You might also attract wealth through charitable work or personal, reflective creative pursuits.

𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Virgo, attracting wealth revolves around your practical, analytical, and detail-oriented mindset. Venus in this sign thrives in environments where organization, efficiency, and service are key. Financial success comes from applying your talents in fields that demand precision, whether it's in healthcare, service industries, or professions that benefit from your meticulous nature. You draw money by offering value through problem-solving, improving systems, and being of service to others. Your careful, methodical approach to finances allows you to build wealth gradually and sensibly, focusing on sustainable growth.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from presenting yourself as dependable and detail-oriented. Your ability to solve problems efficiently and with precision naturally attracts wealth, as people recognize your analytical skills and practical value.

2nd House: You attract wealth through careful budgeting, service-based work, and practical investments. Financial success stems from your ability to plan meticulously and manage money wisely, ensuring slow and steady growth.

3rd House: Wealth may come through communication-based professions, such as writing, editing, or teaching. Your ability to convey well-researched, thoughtful insights can lead to financial success, particularly in areas requiring intellectual precision.

4th House: Financial success is linked to your home environment. You might attract wealth by managing family finances, working in real estate, or operating a home-based business where your organizational skills can shine.

5th House: You attract wealth through creative endeavors that are structured and well-planned. Financial success may come through teaching, wellness projects, or health-related creative ventures. Analyzing speculative investments can also bring profitable outcomes.

6th House: This placement is ideal for Venus in Virgo to attract wealth. You build financial success through hard work, attention to detail, and offering practical services. Health, wellness, or service-oriented careers provide a steady path to wealth.

7th House: Financial growth comes through partnerships and collaborations. You attract wealth by being a valuable problem-solver in business or personal relationships. Financial success is linked to partnerships that appreciate your meticulous and organized approach.

8th House: Money may come through shared resources, joint ventures, or investments. You manage other people’s finances with care, attracting wealth by offering practical, transformative solutions in financial partnerships.

9th House: Financial success may come through teaching, publishing, or international business. You attract wealth through intellectual pursuits that emphasize practical application, where your attention to detail and research is valued.

10th House: Career success is tied to your meticulous and organized approach to work. Financial growth comes from service-based careers, health and wellness industries, or roles where you can streamline processes and improve efficiency.

11th House: You attract wealth through social networks or organizations that value practicality and intellectual rigor. Financial success comes from working with groups that focus on service, improvement, or the exchange of helpful, detailed ideas.

12th House: Financial success may come through behind-the-scenes work, research, or spiritual and healing professions. You attract wealth by offering practical, often overlooked solutions in areas where deep insight and discretion are needed.

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Libra, attracting wealth revolves around your charm, diplomacy, and ability to build strong social connections. Venus thrives in Libra, a sign focused on balance and harmony, making you naturally adept at drawing wealth through relationships, partnerships, and an appreciation for beauty. Financial success comes when you leverage your sense of fairness, aesthetic sensibility, and social skills. Whether through negotiation, business collaborations, or creative endeavors, you attract money by creating harmony, cultivating relationships, and using your natural grace to foster balance in your environment.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from how you present yourself—graceful, balanced, and charming. Your sociability and ability to build strong relationships naturally attract wealth and opportunities through your public image and interactions.

2nd House: You attract wealth through partnerships and ventures related to luxury, beauty, or aesthetics. Financial success follows when you align your personal values with those of others, often earning through design, social work, or luxury goods.

3rd House: Wealth comes through communication, writing, or social media where you can charm and connect with others. Building harmonious relationships in your local environment will lead to financial opportunities, especially through negotiation or collaboration.

4th House: Financial success may stem from home-based businesses, real estate, or creating a beautiful, harmonious home environment. You can attract wealth through property investments or family-related ventures that emphasize design and balance.

5th House: You attract wealth through creative endeavors or projects related to beauty, art, or aesthetics. Financial success may also come from speculative ventures, particularly in the arts or entertainment, where balance and harmony play a key role.

6th House: Financial success comes through service-oriented roles where balance and fairness are essential. Careers in law, social justice, healthcare, or roles that involve creating harmony in the workplace will bring wealth, particularly when aesthetics or fairness are valued.

7th House: Wealth is closely tied to partnerships, both in marriage and business. You attract financial success through balanced, harmonious relationships and collaborations that focus on mutual financial goals and shared values.

8th House: Joint financial ventures, investments, or other people’s resources may be significant sources of wealth. You attract money by negotiating fair and balanced financial partnerships, and financial transformation comes through equitable agreements.

9th House: Financial success may come through higher education, law, or international ventures focused on diplomacy or justice. You attract wealth by promoting balance and harmony in global or educational settings, especially in fields like law or teaching.

10th House: Career success and financial growth are linked to leadership roles that emphasize beauty, balance, or justice. You attract wealth through fields like law, design, or diplomacy, where fairness and aesthetics are central to your reputation and professional path.

11th House: Financial success is linked to your social network and involvement in group activities. You attract wealth by working harmoniously with like-minded individuals or through organizations focused on fairness, beauty, or social causes.

12th House: Wealth may come from behind-the-scenes work, charity, or spiritual endeavors. You attract financial success through private ventures or by creating balance in hidden areas, such as managing finances for charitable organizations or engaging in spiritual work.

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐢𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Scorpio, attracting wealth is all about harnessing your deep, transformative energy and laser-focused determination. This placement thrives in environments where you can uncover hidden opportunities and dive beneath the surface to gain control over financial resources. You attract wealth by taking calculated risks, especially in areas related to investments, joint finances, and transformative ventures. Scorpio Venus has a magnetic attraction to power, so financial success often involves profound changes and navigating complex financial dynamics, such as shared resources or inheritances. Embracing your desire for transformation and confidently tackling financial challenges leads to significant wealth-building.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from projecting intensity, focus, and magnetic confidence. You naturally attract wealth by exuding power and an ability to handle resources, often drawing financial opportunities your way through your strong presence and resourcefulness.

2nd House: You attract wealth by uncovering hidden financial opportunities and making strategic, long-term investments. Success comes from careful management of resources and the willingness to take calculated risks, particularly in building and sustaining wealth over time.

3rd House: Wealth may come through intense communication, research, or writing, especially in fields where secrets or hidden truths are revealed. Success could be found in areas like psychology, investigative journalism, or any profession requiring depth and intensity.

4th House: Financial success is tied to property, inheritance, or deep family connections. You attract wealth by transforming family resources or through real estate investments. Profound changes in your home life or family dynamics may also play a role in financial growth.

5th House: You attract wealth through passionate creative ventures or speculative investments that carry an element of risk. Financial success may come from intense projects in areas like entertainment, art, or the stock market, where deep emotional investment fuels success.

6th House: Wealth is gained through transformative work in fields like psychology, medicine, or crisis management. Your ability to focus deeply on your job, especially in service roles that require handling challenging situations, leads to financial success.

7th House: Financial success comes through deeply transformative partnerships, whether in business or romance. You attract wealth by forming committed relationships where resources are shared, and financial growth occurs through mutual investments and joint ventures.

8th House: This is a highly favorable placement for Venus in Scorpio. Wealth comes through joint ventures, inheritances, or managing other people’s resources. Financial transformation occurs through bold investments, strategic handling of shared assets, and navigating taxes or inheritances.

9th House: You attract wealth through deep philosophical exploration, transformative education, or foreign ventures. Success may come from international investments, higher learning, or ventures that require a strategic, intense approach to uncovering new opportunities.

10th House: Career success is linked to your ability to transform and take control in professional environments. You attract wealth by excelling in fields like finance, psychology, research, or crisis management, where your intense focus and leadership are key assets.

11th House: Financial success is closely tied to your powerful social connections. You attract wealth through deep, transformative relationships within groups or organizations, particularly in areas involving shared resources, financial ventures, or communal transformations.

12th House: Wealth may come from hidden sources, behind-the-scenes work, or transformative spiritual or psychological efforts. You attract financial success by focusing on inner work, managing hidden assets, or engaging in spiritual or charitable ventures that bring profound personal growth and financial rewards.

𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Sagittarius, attracting wealth involves embracing your adventurous, optimistic, and freedom-loving spirit. You thrive when exploring new opportunities in travel, education, or philosophical pursuits. Your financial success is deeply connected to ventures that expand your horizons and align with your personal values of growth and exploration. Whether through international business, teaching, or publishing, you attract wealth by seeking experiences that inspire both personal and financial growth. The key to financial success lies in pursuing opportunities that resonate with your desire for adventure, truth, and learning.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from presenting yourself as adventurous, open-minded, and optimistic. You naturally attract wealth through your vibrant personality and opportunities linked to travel, education, and cultural exchanges.

2nd House: You attract wealth by seeking new financial ventures, particularly those related to education, international business, or travel. Financial success is tied to investing in opportunities that broaden your horizons and reflect your values of exploration and freedom.

3rd House: Wealth may come through communication, writing, or teaching, particularly in areas that involve sharing knowledge and expanding minds. Financial success is likely through intellectual pursuits, travel-related writing, or media projects that inspire others.

4th House: Financial success can come through property or family ventures tied to education or travel. You attract wealth by creating a home environment focused on growth and learning, possibly earning through international real estate or family-owned educational projects.

5th House: Wealth flows through creative projects or speculative investments, especially in areas related to travel, education, or philosophical exploration. Financial success may come from creative ventures that inspire others to think broadly and embrace growth.

6th House: You attract wealth through work in service roles that involve teaching, travel, or higher learning. Financial success comes from roles that allow you to spread knowledge, inspire others, and work in international or educational settings.

7th House: Financial success is closely tied to partnerships, both business and romantic, that value freedom and exploration. You attract wealth through relationships built on shared goals related to travel, education, or philosophical pursuits.

8th House: Wealth may come through joint financial ventures, investments, or inheritances involving travel or education. Financial transformation occurs through bold, adventurous financial decisions or partnerships focused on deep exploration and growth.

9th House: This is an ideal placement for Venus in Sagittarius. You attract wealth through higher education, international ventures, teaching, or publishing. Financial success comes from expanding your knowledge and sharing it with others, especially on a global scale.

10th House: Career success is linked to leadership roles in fields like education, international business, or travel. You attract wealth by pursuing professional opportunities that allow you to inspire others and encourage exploration and growth.

11th House: Financial success is connected to your social network and involvement in groups focused on education, travel, or philosophy. You attract wealth by leading communities that value expansion, learning, and personal growth.

12th House: Wealth may come from hidden sources, spiritual work, or international ventures. Financial success is drawn from behind-the-scenes efforts or by aligning your spiritual beliefs with ventures that offer both personal and financial growth.

𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Capricorn, attracting wealth is all about discipline, structure, and long-term vision. Venus in this sign thrives on building a secure financial foundation through hard work, responsibility, and a methodical approach to managing resources. You attract wealth by focusing on steady, long-term growth rather than chasing short-term gains, often finding success in traditional, well-established industries. Your financial success comes through consistent effort, wise investments, and a strong sense of ambition. Wealth flows when you commit to ventures that promise longevity, maintain discipline, and stay focused on sustainable financial growth.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from presenting yourself as ambitious, responsible, and disciplined. Your public image reflects a strong work ethic, and you attract wealth through opportunities where your determined approach and desire for stability are recognized.

2nd House: You attract money through careful, long-term financial planning and investments. Financial success comes from steadily building wealth over time, particularly through traditional industries or ventures that offer stable returns.

3rd House: Wealth may come through structured communication, writing, or business projects that require careful planning and persistence. Financial success is achieved through intellectual endeavors that have long-term potential and value.

4th House: Financial success is often tied to real estate, property investments, or family businesses. You attract wealth by creating stability in your home and family life, and you may build lasting financial security through real estate or legacy planning.

5th House: You attract wealth through practical and structured creative endeavors. Financial success may come from investments in fields that blend creativity with structure, such as architecture, traditional arts, or engineering, where long-term planning is key.

6th House: Financial success comes through hard work, discipline, and responsibility in your daily work life. You attract wealth by staying focused on long-term career goals, particularly in fields like corporate business, government, or finance, where structure and ambition are rewarded.

7th House: Financial growth is tied to partnerships, particularly in business. You attract wealth through long-term, stable partnerships, where both parties share a focus on building a solid financial future and working toward mutual goals.

8th House: Wealth may come through joint ventures, investments, or carefully managing shared resources. Financial success is achieved through disciplined handling of other people’s money or through inheritances, where a strategic approach to long-term investments pays off.

9th House: You attract wealth through disciplined educational or international pursuits. Financial success may come from higher education, law, or structured travel-related ventures that combine personal growth with long-term financial potential.

10th House: Career success comes from leadership roles that value discipline, responsibility, and structure. You attract wealth by building a solid professional reputation over time, often finding financial success in established industries like business, law, or politics.

11th House: Financial success is linked to your involvement in structured groups or organizations. You attract wealth by leading or participating in social networks and communities that focus on long-term growth, ambition, and success.

12th House: Wealth may come from behind-the-scenes work or through spiritual or charitable endeavors. Financial success comes from disciplined efforts in solitude or private ventures that offer long-term financial security, often in areas that others overlook.

𝐀𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Aquarius, attracting wealth revolves around your innovative, unconventional, and forward-thinking approach. Venus in Aquarius thrives in exploring new ideas, technologies, and social connections that push boundaries. You naturally attract wealth by embracing your uniqueness and being open to progressive financial ventures. Financial success is often tied to your involvement in technology, humanitarian efforts, or social causes. You find wealth when you combine intellectual creativity with a sense of purpose, focusing on futuristic or community-driven financial goals that align with the greater good.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success comes from presenting yourself as innovative, unique, and open-minded. You attract wealth by showcasing your individuality and unconventional thinking, often drawing opportunities through tech-related or progressive ventures.

2nd House: You attract money through modern, forward-thinking ventures such as technology, social causes, or innovation. Financial success comes from investing in futuristic projects and earning through your social networks or involvement in the community.

3rd House: Wealth comes through communication, writing, or intellectual pursuits centered on innovation and social change. Financial success may stem from networking, teaching, or working in fields related to technology, social justice, or progressive ideas.

4th House: Financial success may be linked to unconventional home-based ventures or real estate. You attract wealth by applying modern ideas to property investments or by creating a unique, progressive home environment or family business.

5th House: You attract wealth through creative, innovative endeavors, often involving technology or speculative ventures in cutting-edge industries. Financial success comes from thinking outside the box in areas like entertainment, tech, or futuristic arts.

6th House: Financial success comes from working in service-oriented roles tied to social causes, innovation, or technology. You attract wealth by focusing on improving the collective, especially in fields like science, technology, or social reform.

7th House: Financial success is closely tied to unconventional partnerships or collaborations. You attract wealth through relationships with forward-thinking individuals who share your vision, particularly in business or social ventures focused on technology or progressive goals.

8th House: Wealth may come through joint financial ventures, investments, or managing other people’s resources in innovative ways. You attract wealth by transforming shared resources through tech-driven or unconventional methods, particularly in fields related to social causes.

9th House: You attract wealth through higher education, international ventures, or philosophical pursuits that promote progressive ideals. Financial success may come from teaching, publishing, or travel, particularly when focused on forward-thinking or humanitarian efforts.

10th House: Career success and financial growth come from leadership roles in innovative or progressive fields. You attract wealth by excelling in industries like technology, science, or social reform, often achieving financial success through careers that promote change and advancement.

11th House: Financial success is linked to your social network and community involvement. You attract wealth by leading groups or organizations focused on innovation, technology, or humanitarian causes, particularly when working within futuristic or socially conscious industries.

12th House: Wealth may come from behind-the-scenes work or involvement in charitable, spiritual, or humanitarian efforts. Financial success is often found through private ventures or by working in fields that focus on helping the collective in unconventional or innovative ways.

𝐏𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

For Venus in Pisces, attracting wealth involves channeling your imaginative, compassionate, and spiritual energy into your work. Venus in this sign thrives when it combines creativity with a deep emotional or spiritual connection, allowing you to attract wealth by following your intuition and engaging in endeavors that inspire and uplift others. Financial success comes from artistic, healing, or spiritual professions that resonate on an emotional level. Your compassionate and idealistic approach to money enables you to draw abundance by offering value through emotional fulfillment and service to others. Wealth flows when your financial path aligns with your spiritual or artistic vision.

Through the Houses:

1st House: Financial success is linked to how you present yourself—compassionate, imaginative, and spiritually connected. You attract wealth by embracing your artistic and empathetic side, often finding opportunities in creative or healing professions.

2nd House: You attract money through intuitive and creative means. Financial success comes from artistic ventures, spiritual work, or compassionate service. Professions in beauty, art, or healing can be financially rewarding for you.

3rd House: Wealth comes through communication or artistic expression, particularly when you use your empathy and imagination. Financial success is likely in writing, teaching, or creative projects that deeply inspire or emotionally touch others.

4th House: Financial success may come through property, real estate, or creating a nurturing, spiritual home environment. You can attract wealth by transforming your home into a healing or creative space or through family-related ventures.

5th House: You attract wealth through artistic and creative endeavors that are emotionally or spiritually connected. Financial success comes from engaging in music, film, visual arts, or any creative field that deeply resonates with others' emotions.

6th House: You attract wealth by working in compassionate service or healing professions. Financial success stems from serving others in ways that align with your spiritual or artistic values, particularly in healthcare, wellness, or charitable roles.

7th House: Financial success is linked to relationships and partnerships that are deeply spiritual or compassionate. You attract wealth through business or romantic relationships rooted in emotional or spiritual bonds.

8th House: Wealth may come from joint financial ventures, inheritances, or other people’s resources, particularly when connected to healing or spiritual transformation. Managing shared resources with compassion and intuition can lead to financial success.

9th House: You attract wealth through spiritual or creative teaching, travel, or higher education. Financial success may come from working in fields related to art, spirituality, or humanitarian service that reach a global or expansive audience.

10th House: Career success is linked to roles where creativity, compassion, and spirituality are central. You attract wealth by pursuing careers in healing, the arts, or spiritual guidance, often gaining recognition for your emotional depth and intuitive abilities.

11th House: Financial success comes through your social network, especially in communities focused on spirituality, healing, or creative arts. You attract wealth by engaging with groups or organizations that aim to uplift and inspire.

12th House: Wealth may come from behind-the-scenes work, spiritual endeavors, or artistic expression. Financial success arises through compassionate service, charity, or spiritual healing, especially in fields where you work quietly and intuitively.

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lua-magic · 9 months ago

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Ninth Lord and from where you will get your Luck.

Ninth house is of religion, father, morality, ritousnes, higher learning, long travels and also of Luck

Planets in ninth house and third house are extremely important for manifestation of your desires, when you allign your energy with the planets sitting in ninth and third House, you will get desires easily in your life.

Ninth house is of also of "Blessings " so if your ninth lord is afflicted, that is with rahu, ketu or with sixth, eighth and twelfth house Lord or your ninth house has malefics, or sixth, eighth, twelfth lord then only BLESSINGS of people can change your luck.

Ninth house wherever sits, you will experience luck in that area, if you work on your ninth lord.

Ninth lord in first house 🏠

It is good, because the person would be religious and lucky for himself, whatever person does, ninth lord will help him.

Person is not only lucky for himself, but also for the people around him/her .

More the person becomes religious, and develops morality and ritousnes and values in his life more Ninth Lord would favour him/her

Ninth lord in second house 🏠

You are lucky when it comes to family and money matters, more you become spiritual with regards to Money more luck will favour you.

Second house is also of words and food habits, keep your words soft and food habits simple in life .

Ninth lord in third house 🏠

Your skills will help you to manifest your desires, more you work on your skills and communication more Lucky you get in your life

Your siblings are also Lucky for you.

Third house is of short travels and ninth lord is your religious activities, more you travel to holy places or go to pilgrimages your ninth lord will improve.

Ninth lord in fourth House 🏠.

Your mother is really lucky for you, and you are lucky in terms of home, property and comfort.

Maintain good relationship with your mother and practice positive thinking and gratitude helps you to be lucky in life

Ninth lord in fifth house 🏠

Ninth house is of higher learning and fifth house is of knowledge, you get lucky when you learn more in your life.

Your children are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in sixth house 🏠 house.

Sixth house is of debt and diseases, this combination could create fight with your father or give disease or debts to your father.

More you involve yourself in social services and volunteering activities, your luck will improve.

You are lucky when it comes to do job, and go in service sector.

Ninth lord in seventh house 🏠

Your partner is lucky for you, don't disrespect your partner, otherwise you will become more unlucky in life .

Ninth lord sitting here, will help you in your business and partnerships

Ninth lord in eighth house 🏠

Eighth house is of in Laws, so your in-laws are lucky for you, you need to respect your in-laws, your in-laws could be religious and connected to their roots.

This combination gives problems with father, and causes separation from father.

Ninth lord when goes in eighth house, you need to get connected to eight house related activities like Astrology, surgeon, CA, Tax etc that would enhance your luck.

Eighth house is of secrecy, so maintain secrecy when comes to sharing your personal life and sexual activities and desires.

Have guiding figure or teacher in your life, that would help you and show you the right path, as making right decisions becomes difficult for you, because luck doesn't favour the native, so move ahead in life only with proper and right guidence .

Ninth lord in ninth House 🏡

Great, as ninth lord is sitting in its own house, so father, guru or teacher are really lucky for you.

Native would be religious, moral and have high values in his life and a great teacher and counselor.

More you become religious more luck will favour you.

Ninth lord in tenth house 🏠

Tenth house is of karma, so Ninth Lord sitting here will help you in all your duties and Karma.

It is good, because whichever job or service you do, you will get promotion easily.

Your bosses are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in eleventh house 🏠

Ninth lord sitting here, will fulfill all your wishes when it comes to material wealth.

Your elder siblings are lucky for you.

"Ask and you shall receive "

More you become social especially with spiritual people, more Lucky you get in Life.

Ninth lord in twelfth house 🏠

Twelfth house is of let go, ninth lord sitting here gives you separation from your father.

You need to let go, in order to get lucky in life, you can't have attachments with your desires.

To get lucky you need to.

Let go your attachments.

Do charity, as twelfth house is of charity as well

Settle in foreign land

Become spiritual.

When your ninth house has Rahu, then you might love to know about other religions as well.

When ninth house has ketu, then your first child would be male child, and it is good for leaning astrology and occult.

Whatever you do, remember best remedy of ninth house is your own Karma, you are responsible for your own luck.

#spirituality #astrology #astro observations #astro notes #astro community #vedic astro observations #vedic astro notes #vedic chart

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ezekiel-krishna · 8 months ago

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✧ 2nd House Ruler (WEALTH & Family) in All Houses

Part 3 (Final) ..

{ Vedic Astrology }

Your Guide to Check Your Placement (Vedic Astrology)

⇝ Refer To My Part 1

2nd Lord in 8th House

The placement of the 2nd Lord in the 8th House indicates a potential for wealth accumulation in your life. This is especially favorable for those involved in real estate, as dealing with properties can bring significant financial gains. However, it's important to consider the aspects and the sign in order to fully understand the potential outcomes. Generally speaking, this placement suggests a promising source of wealth.

On the flip side, this placement can also bring challenges in your marriage or joint finances. There may be disagreements and difficulties regarding shared financial responsibilities. It is crucial to find ways to calm these tensions and strive for more agreement with your spouse. Failure to do so can lead to further complications. Additionally, if you have elder siblings, they may also become a source of contention for you. It is essential to maintain harmonious family relationships in order to ensure a steady flow of money in your life.

The 8th House also governs inheritance and money gained from others. With the 2nd Lord placed in this house, if it is well aspected and has a beneficial aspect from the Lord, there is a potential for receiving inheritance and accumulating enormous wealth. However, it is important to exercise caution in your business dealings if the 2nd Lord is placed in the 8th House. This house is associated with secrecy, and there is a possibility that you may be secretive about your investments, business dealings, and taxes.

Engaging in any underhanded activities can have severe consequences and leave a significant dent in your finances. The 8th House is known for its transformative nature, and you may find yourself having to start from scratch and transform your savings and investments from time to time. Due to the placement of the 2nd Lord being seven houses away from its own house, you may experience a sense of financial instability.

There will be periods of financial security, but there will also be times when everything feels uncertain. It is important to adapt to these fluctuations and learn to make a profit from them. Overall, the placement of the 2nd Lord in the 8th House suggests both opportunities and challenges in terms of wealth accumulation and financial stability. By navigating these complexities with caution and adaptability, you can make the most of the potential benefits and overcome any obstacles that may arise.

2nd Lord in 9th House

This is an advantageous position for your wealth. You have a natural talent for accumulating wealth in your life. However, there is a slight issue that arises from this - you tend to hold onto your money tightly. It's difficult for you to let it go and allow it to flow freely, which can have a negative impact in the long run. The reason behind this difficulty lies in the fact that the lord of the second house has moved eight houses away from its original position. This eighth house represents fear, and as a result, you fear letting go of your wealth and spreading it around through expenses.

Your reluctance to let money go prevents it from flowing back to you. Despite your good fortune, it is important to maintain it by spending when necessary and utilizing the money you have. On the bright side, having the second lord in the ninth house makes you a highly skilled and diligent individual. You may even experience gains through speculation, such as in the stock market. However, the placement of the second lord eight houses away can bring about health issues in your childhood or early years.

Nevertheless, as you enter your middle years, you will experience prosperity and stability due to the influence of the second lord in the ninth house. The second lord represents moral and family values, and its placement in the ninth house makes you a person with strong religious and spiritual inclinations. You are drawn to pilgrimages, philosophical discussions, and seeking guidance from gurus. These pursuits bring you peace of mind, which in turn aids in your wealth accumulation. Furthermore, the placement of the second lord in the ninth house suggests the potential for expanding a family business into new areas, particularly foreign interests.

This can be highly profitable, especially if there are positive aspects to the second lord in the ninth house. Additionally, since the ninth house represents the father, it is common to see individuals in this position taking on their father's business. The ninth house also governs higher education, and pursuing further education can be a source of profit for you. You may excel as a teacher or lecturer in various fields, and higher education in any area will contribute to your increased income.

2nd Lord in 10th House

The 2nd Lord in the 10th House placement signifies that you are a person of great honor. Your reputation in your career is built on your integrity and the trustworthiness of your word. With the 2nd house ruling speech and entering the 10th house of career, it is important for you to find a profession where you can utilize your talent for communication. This could range from teaching and lecturing to media and journalism, or even politics. Your ability to effectively communicate will bring you wealth and success.

Your family of origin plays a significant role in supporting your career. They may provide you with education, financial assistance, or even a substantial inheritance. Pursuing education will greatly benefit your career and help you achieve financial gains. However, it is crucial to be cautious of the company you keep. Surrounding yourself with negative or toxic individuals can compromise your integrity and hinder your wealth-building opportunities. Choose your associations wisely and ensure that they are morally upright individuals.

Additionally, it is advisable to refrain from speculation or gambling, as it can lead to significant financial losses. Consistent hard work is the key to continuously increasing your profits. Any slack in your dedication, cutting corners, or displaying antagonistic behavior towards your superiors can result in immediate negative consequences, including the loss of your job.

Furthermore, it is important to maintain a healthy relationship with your children. Be mindful of giving them excessive amounts of money, as it can potentially strain your bond with them. Avoid spoiling them and instead focus on nurturing a balanced and loving relationship.

2nd Lord in 11th House

When the 2nd lord takes its place in the 11th house, it brings forth an abundance of wealth into your life. You have the potential to attain great riches through this placement. It particularly favors property deals and long-term investments. This position is highly advantageous for those pursuing self-employment and any form of business ventures.

Additionally, it signifies an increase in wealth after marriage and through partnerships. Your financial prospects are bright in these areas. However, it is important to note that there may be conflicts with your mother regarding financial matters. Awareness and effective communication can help navigate these potential disagreements.

With the 2nd house lord's presence in the 11th house, you possess a strong sense of honorable duty towards your profession. This makes you enterprising and dedicated to your job. If you are currently employed, this placement brings recognition and fame within your workplace. It opens doors for you to attain a high-ranking position. Moreover, your colleagues will prove to be supportive and instrumental in your growth and promotion.

2nd Lord in 12th House

When the lord of the 2nd house finds its way into the 12th house, it ignites a fiery courage within you. You become an adventurous soul, unafraid of starting anew in a different career or even a different country. Starting from scratch holds no fear for you, as you possess a true sense of adventure and freedom that is invaluable. I have witnessed individuals with the lord of the 2nd house in the 12th house completely transform their careers in the middle of their lives, achieving great success.

People are naturally drawn to you and will support and promote you because of your likable nature. However, this position also makes you prone to being a spendthrift. Money seems to slip through your fingers effortlessly. The more you earn, the more you spend. You possess a generous spirit, but struggle to maintain control over your finances. It may be wise to seek assistance from someone skilled in money management. The 12th house represents our fears, and in this placement, you tend to avoid looking at your bank balance. You prefer not to worry about it and simply turn a blind eye.

On the flip side, the 12th house is also associated with charity, and you find joy in giving to various causes. Your acts of kindness will bring positive karma into your life. Despite your own financial struggles, you have a knack for helping others manage their money. You could excel in financial management, particularly when it involves handling other people's finances or investment funds, even in foreign lands.

There may be challenges with a child, as they can be a bit quarrelsome and cause you distress at times. However, with time and effort, you will be able to work through these difficulties.

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments!

Remember This is a General Analysis , Whole Chart is to be consider for Accurate Personalized Predictions..

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🤗 Feel free to chat with me if you have any questions about my service. Don't hesitate, I'm here to help!

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formulaforza · 1 year ago

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—strawberry wine

and all the times we used to have. (nothing defines a man like love that makes him soft). pairing: daniel ricciardo x female reader warnings: language, angst babyyy love, mackie... 5k ish. this is. definitely something. perhaps it should have stayed in the drafts but dani selected it from a group of it's peers yesterday evening.

It’s been years since you last spent enough time at the vineyard to be considered even a part-time employee. It’s hard to be there, now, in a way it didn’t used to be. Watching it fade away into obscurity and beg someone–anyone–to buy the property to land so your family can get out without generational debt. The fields just hold so many memories, an ancestral kind of history; your first job, the place you had your first drink, where you fell both in, and out of love for the first time. Being there now, watching it die a malignant death is just… sad. There isn’t anything poetic about it.

You long for the days of the peak, of never ending days spent behind the counter in the barn selling wealthy people on the aesthetics of a small, family-run vineyard. Of your father hosting tours and your mother tastings, of you, pink nose and shoulders kissed by the sun, picking grapes by hand. Of the days where help still had to be hired.

For a while there, it seemed like there was a never ending rotation of teenagers and twenty-somethings willing to do manual labor for minimum wage–thirteen an hour–from sunup to sundown. They’d even host the occasional tour on busy Saturday evenings, would be compensated in under the table bottles of wine and cash tips. None of them ever stuck around longer than a couple months, found better jobs indoors, closer to school, better pay. Well, nobody except Daniel.

Daniel worked at the vineyard for… four-ish years, with varying availability depending on seasons and school and racing.

Sometimes, when you lose yourself to sentiments and fantasy, you imagine a world where the Vineyard never faced any competition, where it is still thriving and you take over your mother’s job when she retires. Daniel still works there, maybe in the fields where he was always supposed to be, or maybe front of house guiding tours and helping you with tastings. Life is simple and plain and at the end of every night you lock the barn doors and go home together and eat dinner and grocery shop and do your taxes. Daniel strums the guitar on the porch when it rains. Life is easy and fun and you laugh more than you don’t.

It’s silly, really. But first loves are always silly.

He is one of the many memories that haunt the property, walking the lines of grapevines feeling more like a walk through a fogged out graveyard than anything.

Even now, all these years later, you can still see him sat in the swivel chair in the office doorway, throwing grapes at you while you attempt to run the dusty cash register. It’s a cool July afternoon and he’s got a stupid grin on his face and can’t look anywhere but you.

Daniel is kind of like those people you know you’re given young so that for the rest of your life you know what real feels like. They’re more a lesson than a lover, unfortunately.

—

You move through the place like you own it, which, you suppose technically you do, in some will locked away in an accountant’s filing cabinet, this all belongs to you. Right now, though, you’re seventeen and just returning from school, already setting up your homework on the end of the counter, a spattering of greetings from the local customers and the local hands, the people who know that this is more of a natural habitat than anywhere else on the planet will ever be.

Danny also moves around the place like he owns it, which, if it was up to him he probably would. He hums your name as he moves past, taps the opposite shoulder to the one he leans over, reading your textbook over your shoulder. “It’s seventeen,” he quips.

“It’s a history textbook,” you reply, eyes unmoving from the page.

“Seventeen-seventy, cunt.” There’s a half-empty bowl of fruit sitting on the counter. He leans over you to grab an orange. “Captain Hook and such,” he adds, hosting himself up onto the counter with a thud. You’re sure one day the old wood is going to give out on him and he’ll fall straight onto his ass. Part of you hopes you’re around to see it, the other knows that he’ll find a way to not only make it your fault, but also tease you about it for a minimum of six months.

“Fuck off, Danny,” you punctuate, just loud enough for him to hear.

“It’s Daniel, now.”

You snort. Finally, you give him your attention. “Danny is too unprofessional for a hot-shot Red Bull junior driver like you?”

“See,” he pops his thumb harshly through the peel of the orange, the citrus scent wafting out into the humid air. “You get it.”

You pout. “I’m still going to call you Danny.”

“No you won’t,” he laughs. God, the smell of orange is overwhelming, the kind that lingers long after the fruit is gone. When Danny goes back to work in a few minutes, tosses the peel and into the trash by the office door, he’ll still linger in the room with the smell of citrus.

“I will.”

“You know what,” he hums, biting into a slice. “Let me make you a deal.”

You smile, shake your head. “Shouldn’t I be the one making you a deal?”

He groans against the fruit, “Can you just?”

When you look up again, lean back in your chair and cross your arms, he has orange juice running down the side of his hand, all sweet and sticky and summery. “Fine.”

He smiles goofily, all fucking proud of himself just because you agreed to shut up for thirty seconds. “You can keep calling me Danny, but only if you let me take you out this weekend.”

“Danny,” you protest. This is far from the first time he’s tried to plant the seed of a date with him. It’s had to’ve been a year, by now. You know he’d drop it if you would just give him an answer, but a year later you still haven’t been able to deliver anything definitive.

He shrugs. “‘Dem’s the rules, honey.”

Maybe what you say next is your greatest mistake, or maybe it was what you were always going to say. Maybe you feel like you can say it because he leaves again soon, for longer than ever. You won’t have to live with the consequences of your actions, of your words. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s simply that you think Daniel is far too proper a name for the sticky-handed vineyard tour guide you’ve grown particularly fond of. Danny is much more fitting for him, which is most certainly why you say, okay. When are you picking me up?

—

You drive out from your parents house with your dad in his old Ford Bronco. It’s half rusted out and half chipped blue paint, with worn leather seats and a steering wheel somehow more worn than the rest of it. Seven black tree air fresheners hand from the rearview mirror, new car smell. This relic is well past that–he’s been driving it out to the property literally forever, and this trip won’t be any exception.

You hardly recognize the place, you think as you slam the squeaky door shut with enough force to make sure it really latches.

The fields are overgrown with tall grass and shrubs and mustard flowers. The trunks of the grapevines act as headstones for the sprawling field of dry, sunburnt plants. You don’t think anyone has been out there with a plow in months, if not years.

The barn, the one you grew up in, has been lost with the rest of the place to time. Red paint chips off the wood in massive flakes. The branding that had once run in big wooden letters along the top of the door have all since fallen, leaving a sad outline of your family name in its weathered wake. Two padlocks, one rusted shut, sit on the lock. Every step you take kicks up more dust.

You’re removed from your thoughts, from the hauntings and the sentiment and the memories, by the creaking of the tailgate on your father’s truck. Stuffed in the back of the Bronco are your afternoon tasks; a pair of bulk cutters for the padlocks, a new, state of the art keypad lock given to your Dad by a realtor, a post hole digger, and five for-sale signs haphazardly packed any way they would fit.

You spend most of the next couple hours digging holes along the road, filling them with the wooden posts of the for-sale signs, looking disapprovingly at the thirty-something in a suit that has been tasked with selling the unsellable property.

This is, what… the fifth person you’d hired to sell this fucking place. Soon enough, you’re going to be sticking up For Sale by Owner signs with a hand-written phone number in black sharpie along the fences that were supposed to keep animals out. Realtors were never in the budget to begin with.

—

You’re waiting on the old front porch when he pulls up in his beat-up truck, John Denver playing through the open windows, his hand moving in the wind up the entire dusty driveway. You don’t know what he can see, that your Mom is watching out the kitchen window with a friendly smile.

You’ve got your best sundress on, one that you’d debated wearing for almost thirty-six hours. The first week Danny worked in front of house with you, he spent the entire shift flirting with one of your Dad’s friend’s daughters. He said that sundresses are a crime committed against teenage boys and that when he meets God he’s going to have words with him over pretty girls and their affinity for said sundresses.

You’d laughed then, because you thought it was silly. You remembered it because you thought the new kid was kind of cute, in a you work for my parents and I could never think you’re cute way.

“Fuck,” is the first word out of his mouth, before the car door is even closed behind him, followed quickly by a check of his watch and “am I late?”

“No, no,” you smile, tucking a wind-blown strand of hair behind your ear, standing to your feet on the wooden stairs. “You’re early, actually. I think,” you chuckle. “I’m just,” you can feel your cheeks flushing. “I’m just excited.”

“Yeah,” he moves to you quickly, nervously. In the way only teenage boys on a first date do. “I’m excited too.”

“You look nice,” you say, stepping down the final couple of steps and meeting his waiting hand. “Your hair. I feel like I only ever see you in a hat.”

“Thanks, yeah,” he laughs. You’ve always loved his laugh, even when he’s annoying you and annoying customers and annoying himself. His laugh has always been good. “You look beautiful. I’ve never seen you, I mean. Not that you don’t always look–”

“Danny,” you interject as he opens the passenger side door.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah,” he offers a smile and closes the door. Just before it latches shut, though, you hear him finish his sentence. “Thank you.”

He takes you to King’s Park, to the botanical garden after a stop for ice cream. He tells you that he’s had a crush on you this entire time and you ask him to tell you something you don’t already know. It’s then, in the botanical garden next to the water garden, that he tells you about his quote-en-quote ‘silly, kind of, like, backup dream, I guess’ where he has his own vineyard, brews his own wine and spends every day half drunk and wholly happy.

He stumbles through the entire telling of it, which is how you know he’s not fucking with you. He never gets nervous when it comes to fucking with you.

Perhaps that is where your silly, kind of like, backup dream started. The one where you and Daniel are working at the vineyard together and life is all death and taxes and grocery bills but somehow, in the midst of all the dull normalcy, you’re both happy as happy can be.

—

“Someone is out there looking at the place today,” your father tells you over the phone. You try to talk every day, a habit you’ve both picked up in the past couple years, in the time and space since you’ve turned thirty.

“You’re kidding,” you say. You’re sitting at the kitchen table, shoveling spoonfuls of some health-conscious cereal into your mouth (another post-thirtieth habit). “Who?”

“I don’t know, kid,” you swear you can hear the frown on his face, the deep smile lines and the frustrated forehead wrinkles from months in the direct southern sun. “Probably some fucking developer.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, maybe,” he sighs. “If I’m right, I’d bet they break ground on a neighborhood within the year.”

Your sigh matches his. You can’t even imagine it, front yards and vinyl flooring and white walls built on a foundation of your childhood memories. It’s like going back home, to your childhood home that you sold so many years ago, and discovering it’s been bulldozed, wiped clean from the face of the Earth. “That’s so sad.”

“I know, but, well. You know, honey. It’s not like we have much choice.”

You nod. You do understand. You understand more than you wish you did. “I know. I know. Still pretty fuckin’ sad, though.”

There’s a long silence. The kind of silence that can only be shared by a father and a daughter; a silence that speaks more words than the dictionary can hold. “She’d understand it,” he finally speaks. “She wouldn’t fucking like it, but she would understand it.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I know she would.”

—

“Are you going to kill me?” You giggled, stumbling over your feet. Danny is leading you on the property, one hand over your eyes, the other on your waist, guiding you poorly.

“And be the first fucking suspect?” He laughs. “I think not.”

“Okay, then where are you taking me?” You beg. It's been going on like this for some half hour, before he even covered your eyes.

He laughs. You laugh. All the two of you do is laugh. “Can’t you lighten up?”

“Not when I’m being led to my death. No, I can’t!”

He stops, turns you around a hundred and eighty degrees and takes his hand off your eyes, fingers digging into either of your shoulders. “Babe," he says, and you'd think he was about to tell you he killed someone.

You mimic his seriousness, find humor in it. “Babe.”

“You trust me.”

“Do I?” You smile. He cocks his head to one side and rolls his big brown eyes. You would commit crimes for his eyes. “I do.”

“Okay, so then fucking trust me.”

“Okay,” you nod, closing your eyes.

“Okay?”

“Yes. Okay," you reach blindly for his hand, bring it to your eyes to block the light from them once more. "I trust you. Let’s go.”

After a short, terribly blind walk, Danny finally stops. You’ve been able to hear the river that flows out the back of the property for twenty minutes, but it’s close enough now that you can smell it; the sticks and the rocks and the mud and the water. You can practically feel the splashing of the water bouncing off the boulders.

“Okay. Open,” he instructs, removing his hand from your eye, moving his arms to hug you from behind, arms wrapped over the front of your chest.

You open your eyes to find a picnic, carefully set up with a spread of dinner and drinks and dessert, complete with a plaid flannel blanket and candles that smell like citronella masked with lavender and a bouquet of white roses already in a water filled vase. “Danny,” you hum, leaning your head back against his shoulder.

He kisses your temple, whispers against your hair, “Happy Anniversary.”

“Danny,” you drag out the letters of his name, of the nickname he only lets the people he loves call him by. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy and special.

“Honey,” he mocks you, sways behind you.

“This is too much,” You crane your neck to look at him, and then turn your whole body so you’re flush against his chest, close in a way only you get to be. “You’re so sweet.”

He laughs and it vibrates in both of your chests. A feeling you’ll never tire of. “I mean, this is not too much. Arguably, this is too little.”

“No,” you back away, out of his grip and take small steps backwards, towards the picnic and the waiting meal, pulling him along with you by interlocked pinkies. “This is perfect. You’re perfect.”

“Well,” his grin grows. “I can’t argue with that.”

“I love you so much,” you tell him, because you do, because you’re eighteen and everything in this life is so simple and black and white.

“I love you, too, and–”

“Oh my gosh,” you cut him off, wide-eyed and giddy. “Wine with strawberries?”

He nods. “Strawberry wine, if you will. For the winery with no strawberry fields.”

“This is better,” you state, with the utmost confidence, without even a sip or a sniff or any idea of what white wine he’d used as a base for his little cocktail.

“Definitely not, but sure.”

“It is, because you made it for me. That makes it perfect.”

—

You’re completely removed from the actual buying and selling of the property. It isn’t up to you to decline or accept or field offers, that’s all your dad. The place is still his, at least for a couple more weeks while all the paperwork processes.

It was an anonymous buyer, according to your Dad. Cash offer, over asking price. He’s not sure how the real estate agent managed it, and honestly? Neither are you. Objectively, that land isn’t worth the cost of cleaning it up. Everyone in their right mind knows it. You just come from a particular bloodline where the mind never was quite right when it came to the vineyard.

What shocks you most, though, is that the anonymous buyer–supposedly–is interested in restoring the place rather than bulldozing it.

“They asked me about the dirt,” your dad tells you on one of your daily phone calls. “Wanted to know about berries.”

“Berries?”

“Yeah, strawberries or raspberries or something like that.”

You scoff. What kind of fucking idiot is buying this land? It might just be a herd of manufactured houses after all. “Well, it’s too hot here for raspberries. Everyone knows that.”

“I know, that’s what I told them. They could probably grow strawberries in July or August.”

“Are they trying to make strawberry wine or something?” And, as if this is some fucked up kind of movie, and not real life, it all comes back to you. Every memory, every moment, all at the thought of fucking strawberries in wine.

“Good fucking luck to them, if they are.” Your grandparents entertained the idea of it once, all the fruit wines. It’s a fucking shit-show, according to legend. Hell to try and make, Heaven to taste. It just wasn’t worth it for them. But apparently now it’s worth it to someone.

You chew on the inside of your cheek, bite and bite until you’re worried you’ll draw blood, that you’re a single tooth away from popping a hole clear through the skin. There’s no way, there’s genuinely no way, right? “Dad?”

“Shoot.”

“It’s not.” You almost stop yourself, you almost have some common fucking sense and realize just how vast the world is and how completely unlikely it is that– almost. You almost stop yourself. “The anonymous buyer, it isn’t Daniel, is it?”

“Daniel?” He scoffs on the other end. “Better not be that fucking cunt.”

You smile, the kind of smile that you know you should feel guilty for having. “He’s not a cunt, Dad.”

“I never fucking liked that kid.”

You’re right–you think. You’re right, Dad. You didn’t like him. “You loved him.”

“No, I lost all my respect for him when he left you like he did,” his voice is laced with a calm seriousness. He’s always been your blind defender.

“Yeah, Dad,” you pause. Now’s as good a time as any, you suppose. “I’ve been… that’s not exactly how it went down.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Daniel didn’t leave me, and even if he did, Dad, he wouldn’t have done it then.”

—

“What the fuck are you talking about, you’re breaking up with me?” His voice cuts through continents. He’s somewhere in the UK, or maybe Italy, or maybe Asia. You honestly can’t keep track anymore, can barely keep track of the days of the week that you’re living much less the ones he’s in.

“It’s exactly what I said, Daniel,” you say, try to keep your voice as level headed as possible, to juxtapose the way your mind races, the way your heart rate spikes and your palms sweat and everything in you hurts. “Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“No, no. I’m making this fucking hard,” he’s riled up enough for the both of you. “You don’t just. This isn’t how this works, babe. You can’t just break up with me.” He’s raising his voice with you. You can count on one hand and have fingers left over the amount of times Danny has yelled at you, and this is the first time it’s not scary.

“I can, and I am,” your voice comes from your throat, choked out over the lull of your entire body begging you to please, please don’t do this. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry!” He yells, the last letter sound cracking with the realization of his actions. “You’re not sorry. If you were sorry, you wouldn’t be doing it.”

“Okay, sure. Whatever.” He doesn’t make this easy, not that you’d expected it to be easy. You’d hoped for something cleaner, though. Less mess. “I’m having a great time breaking your heart.”

“Just. Why? Why are you doing this? What happened? What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything, D,” you sigh. You didn’t know that your heart could physically hurt. You thought that was some crap that they made up for movies and songs and poems, some grand metaphor for how sad you get. “I can’t be a girlfriend right now. To anyone.”

“That’s such bullshit.”

You can feel yourself shutting down, closing every part of yourself off, running on pure survival instincts. “I know. I’m a cunt.”

“You aren’t… fuck me. I mean, fuck, dude.” He laughs. There’s not a thing about it that sounds happy. “I know you don’t want this, I know it. Talk to me, please. Tell me what’s going on and I can help you and everything is going to be fine, baby. Just. Please.”

“Daniel.”

“Why are you calling me that?!”

“It’s what you like to be called!” You yell back, feel the burn in your nose and your cheeks and the sting in your chest.

There’s silence for so long you wonder if he’s hung up, if you’re supposed to. It’s minutes before he speaks again. “Not by you, it’s not.”

—

It’s been just past a year since the place got sold, and nobody from your family–nobody–has been there since. You moved out of town years before the sale, and your Dad has joined you, wants to be near you in his ever increasing age and always deepening wrinkles. When the arthritis sets in, someone needs to forge my signature for me, he tells you.

It’s not until her birthday that you’re back in Perth, that you’re struck with the sudden spark, with the idea to drive past the vineyard, to see what idiot is trying to plant raspberries in the Australian heat, to see who's living in your shoes and wearing your clothes and sleeping under your bed like a monster.

“I don’t know that we should do that,” your Dad says. “It’s going to make you sad.”

You shrug in the passenger seat of the old Bronco. “We’re in the parking lot of a cemetery, so,” you offer a near silent chuckle. “I think we’re a bit past sad.”

“Okay,” he nods. “There’s something you should know, then.”

“Don’t tell me it’s a neighborhood.”

“No, no. It’s a vineyard. Strawberries and grapes in the fields.”

“Well, good then,” you nod, glide your hands through the air outside the open window. “What’s wrong with it?”

He shrugs, drums his fingers on the beat up steering wheel. “You remember when you asked me last year if it was Daniel?”

“Dad. Don’t.”

“Well, I didn’t know it then, but–”

“I’m serious. Don’t tell me this, please,” you’re a second away from sticking your fingers in your ears and humming a nursery rhyme to keep the unsaid unspoken.

“Daniel bought the place, hon.”

“My Daniel?” You squeak. You haven’t felt this young in a while. Or this small.

He laughs, turns to face you with a look that begs you not to be so damn daft. “The only Daniel that means anything to anyone in this family.”

“When did you find out?”

“As soon as they put the sign up. I was still living out here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” You have so many questions. You don’t think there’s any you actually want answers to.

“What good was it going to do? I never thought you’d be back here.”

“Well. I’m back.”

He nods. “You’re back.”

You’re back. You never really left, you don’t think. It’s not something you can do around here. Perth is in your blood the same way wine is, some grand, immovable part of your soul. You suppose Daniel is there too, taking up a plot of land in your soul that can never be sold. He lives in you like summertime and sadness and strawberries. Strawberries. Him and his fucking strawberry white wines.

“He’s got strawberries?” You croak. Tears pull on your voice but you won’t give them the satisfaction. You’re grown now, it’s time to fucking act like it.

“Strawberry wine. First batches just came out last month. I heard it’s pretty good.”

“I bet.”

“You still wanna go?”

You nod, cold and stunted. “Yeah.”

You see the cars before you see the barn, they’re overflowing out of the parking lot and stopped on the side of the dirt road that leads to the drive. You’ve never seen it so busy. It looks like the pictures your parents used to show you, the ones where the place was fresh and new and shiny. The barn has a fresh coat of red paint, the parking lot is repaved and half full of ATVs with a logo for DR3 Wines printed on either side.

Above the door, a matching phrase, in simple white wooden letters–like what once was–hangs, announces the place to passers by.

Inside, it smells like wood, like lavender and citronella and alcohol. There are pictures on every wall, carefully framed photos of everyone in the world besides him. The counter is that same old slab of wood, the one that you always hoped he would fall through. On the wall behind is are more 4x6 photos than you can count, all unframed, all messily taken. He’s in some of those, holding a camera or posing with friends or hugging a grapevine. There’s one with you, right in the middle. You and he and your Mom on the back field picking grapes. It’s taken by your dad, you still remember that morning clear as day.

There’s another of you; a selfie taken on a point-and-shoot, the two of you with glasses of white wine and strawberries. Next to it is a picture of Kristen Bell and Dax Shephard leaning against the counter, half-drunk glasses in each of their hands.

Framed, on the edge of the counter, right beside the register, is a photo of the place when he first started working there, of your Mom and your Dad standing proudly in front of it. You took it. You left it in the office when your Dad decided to lock the doors for good. Our Story, the plaque below it reads, with a QR code to scan.

It leads to a linktree, to social media links and tasting menus and a merchandise shop. The last link, though, is stomach curling. It’s her name, your Mom’s. Fighting for her, it reads. When you click it, you’re taken to a website that encourages donations, that spreads awareness and promotes research, that thanks Daniel by name twice in two paragraphs for his consistent and generous donations and support.

Before you can make a bee-line for the exit, to tell your Dad that he was right and this was a mistake, you’re met with a red-faced teenage girl asking you if there’s anything she can help you with. “No, uh,” you swallow hard. “My parents were the previous owners, we just stopped in to see the place.”

“Oh my gosh, would you like a tour?”

“Um…” you pause, because you don’t know if you can handle being here. Seeing the place like this again. “Danny’s not… Daniel isn’t here, is he?” She shakes her head. You nod. “Then yeah, I guess. Let me just grab my dad?”

—

You get an invite to a VIP tasting at his vineyard two weeks after your visit. It’s scheduled during the F1 summer break, so you have no doubt he’ll be there, and if that wasn’t clue enough, his handwriting glaring back at you on the invite is about as obvious as obvious can be.

I hear you’re snooping around the old stomping grounds. I’d love to be there when you do it. Bring your Dad if he’s free. It’ll be a good night, lots of strawberry wine–the real shit this time. All love, (always your) Danny.

read part two, everywhere, everything, here!

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rockyp77mk3 · 18 days ago

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Right my side lost and your side won. I am trying to understand but I want to know what is the big difference between the Progressives and conservatives? Why do Progressives piss off conservatives so much? We only want equality and fairness.

Thank you for the question. These questions are deceptively simple but they require somewhat complicated answers. I will try.

Oh, I am not just a conservative. I am a Constitutional Conservative which means that the Constitution is considered the supreme law of the land. It is the guide against which all legislation, taxes, regulations, and issues are judged. It applies equally to all and is therefore a protection for all. It can only be changed by amendment and is not subject to any foreign law or restrictions even those promoted by the UN.

Since I like checklists I will try to answer your questions in some kind of order.

Problem solving. When presented with a problem Conservatives try to solve it using known facts and reason. Progressives tend to use spending and regulation. I have never witnessed a Progressive try to solve a problem (Or perceived problem) in any other way than raising taxes or sponsoring legislation that further truncates our individual rights.

Control. Progressives seem to love control, either being in control or being controlled in every aspect of life. They want to tell or be told what people can own, how far people can succeed in life, what people can think, what people can eat, what people can drive, and lets not forget what people should do with the very money they earn. In that last one Progressives are content to confiscate wealth through taxes for redistribution to their liking. Conservative just want to be left alone. We want to keep most of what we earn, we want to enjoy our enumerated rights unfettered by social pressure or governmental overreach. We would like government to literally get the Hell out of our lives.

Lack of tolerance. When a progressive gets an idea they believe it to be so good that it must be shared with (Inflicted upon) others even at the point of a governmental bayonet. Socialism for instance, also limiting 2ND Amendment rights, private property rights, etc. Conservatives don't care what you want to do as long as we are left alone to do what we want to do. If you don't like guns, fine, don't own one. If you want to be a socialist fine, get fifty of your closest friends and create a commune, I wish you luck. Do what ever you like, just leave me and my rights alone.

Happiness. Conservatives seem to be relatively happy. Progressives aren't happy unless they are angry or upset about a situation that either happened over 100 years ago or is an isolated incident, or is just something with which they don't agree. Progressives aren't always right but they are always certain. In that pseudo certitude they are willing to trample any and all rights. Individuals be damned the cause is all.

The US is always wrong. No matter the issue Progressives will unerringly take the side of anything that goes against the US. Progressives will support despots, terrorist groups, rouge nations, and criminal politicians as long as those support the inherent anti US sentiment of the hard left. Conservatives acknowledge that the US makes mistakes, sometimes hideous mistakes but at our core we are generally damn good. For example, if Kamala had won you won't see too many Conservatives wanting to leave the US. We are Americans and will stay and fight to the last.

Equality. Progressive want an equality of outcome. A guarantee that all people will have the same success. They call this "Equity". Conservatives believe that equality means that all people will have a fair chance at success. That hard work, effort, and inventiveness will pay off. You can't ensure outcomes only starting points.

There are more but you get the idea. By the way, Progressives don't piss us off all that much, we just don't want you in charge.

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copperbadge · 9 months ago

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Hi Mr Starbuck! Some friends and I are moving in a few months and we're eyeing various places all over the US. Chicago came up as a relatively affordable big city (compared to LA and NYC) and I have to ask the resident Tumblr Chicagoan his opinion. As a resident who lives and works in the windy city, what's your big pros and cons of residing there (especially things you might not encounter as a tourist)? (also, how accurate is your "guide to chicago" still, since its been a few years!)

Well, I definitely have opinions!

The guide to Chicago is no longer accurate -- too many places have closed or moved, and the pandemic altered a lot (for example the Money Museum still exists but I'm not sure if it has regular hours even now). I should do a new one but like, I really don't get out much anymore so I can't talk about restaurants outside of a VERY local area, and I never could talk much about hotels, which just leaves points of interest mostly already covered by Atlas Obscura. :D At this point it'd just be kind of moot, others are doing it better than I am.

Chicago is inexpensive compared to New York or Los Angeles, but like, that's everywhere in America. Chicago is still a quite pricey city to live in, mainly because the taxes are so high -- 10.25% sales tax, for example, and my property taxes are also pretty steep. People joke about Taxachusetts, but I'm pretty sure Chicago at least has it beat (and 2/3 of the state's population lives in Chicago or the outlying suburbs). Housing is not at a premium in the way it is in NY and LA but depending on where you want to live and how far you want to commute it can still be very expensive. My housing was never less than half of my monthly income until I bought this place, and then ONLY because the job I'm in now came with a $10K/yr raise from my last one.

Chicago does have great culture, great museums, great food, and it's a liberal island in a pretty conservative region. It is however quite segregated, so if you are any race other than white, living here can get a little more complicated than I've portrayed it as a white dude. There is significant crime and particularly gun crime, but it's generally confined to specific regions of the city. That said, even if you discount crime, the Chicago PD are corrupt as fuck and uninterested in being helpful, so if you are from a demographic the cops enjoy harassing, it will not be different here.

I do love the city, warts and all. I like the water, I like the people, I like the midwestern vibe. I'd find it very hard to leave, especially because I have a network of friends here, but also because I just plain like it and I know it really well. There is a very short list of cities I'd consider leaving Chicago for, and most of those would have to have a well-paying job waiting for me. But it did take me time to fall in love with it -- it took a few years before it felt like home.

It's a little difficult to get more specific without knowing more about your situation -- what you do for work, what your budget is like, what your goals are in leaving where you are. Do you prefer to drive most places? (Parking and traffic can both get dicey.) Can you tolerate taking public transit if driving is inconvenient? Is the industry in which you work something that has a lot of openings here? Do you want to live in an urban environment, and if so are you prepared to live in a likely somewhat shitty apartment to do so? If you prefer to live in a house, are you prepared for a long commute? What do you like to do for fun and is there a thriving culture for that here? What is it important to have access to -- museums, concerts, theater, sport? Where do you need to travel to regularly (ie, I go to Austin several times a year) and how do you prefer to travel there?

Anyway, yeah -- like, I love it but I have few illusions about it. If you want to chat further feel free to hit me up by email, happy to answer more specific questions!

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mariacallous · 4 months ago

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Few things are more fundamental to a society than its traditions. They guide our actions through difficult and changing times. They keep us grounded and steady. They build on the wisdom of our forerunners. At least, that is the way conservatives, usually, look at the world.

But on one issue—school vouchers—some conservatives are playing the role of radicals. The general goal of vouchers is to allow families to use government funds to pay tuition at private schools, including religious schools. The idea has been around for more than a half-century but had gone almost nowhere in the U.S., until very recently. In just the past few years, it has gone from the political desert to a core issue that is sweeping across Republican-led states.

The general idea of vouchers is radical enough, but the particular form of these new programs is far more so. Fourteen states and counting have now passed legislation creating voucher (or education savings account) programs that share some key properties. They are universal (or nearly universal), meaning that all families are eligible. They involve no meaningful public accountability or way to judge their success. They allow private schools to charge tuition over and above the voucher amount. And, finally, they are flexible in that funds can be used even to cover homeschooling expenses and other educational goods and services, such as computers and tutoring.

These aren’t just any vouchers. They are “super-vouchers,” as I call them, that promise to produce the most radical change, of any kind, in U.S. education in at least 70 years. It represents not just a change in policy or strategy but a rejection of three foundational traditions: separation of church and state, anti-discrimination, and public accountability for educational processes and outcomes funded by taxes.

In this post, I describe the threat that today’s universal voucher programs present to these traditions, and I attend to some potential counterarguments from voucher supporters.

The separation of church and state tradition

America’s education traditions can be traced far back in our history. While the U.S. Constitution does not mention education, it was an issue actively discussed by the nation’s founders, and other elements of the Constitution have a heavy bearing on education. The First Amendment includes the Establishment Clause, which prevents Congress from either supporting or limiting the free exercise of religion. This language has long been understood to imply that governments should not fund religious organizations (including religious schools), especially in a way that preferences one religion over another.

As a result of education’s omission from the Constitution, primary responsibility for education was ultimately delegated to the states. Education is one of only a few topics covered in every state constitution—with all states guaranteeing universal access and most specifically mentioning public education. To many, this means that education should be not only funded by the government but accessible to all, subject to public oversight, and, yes, non-sectarian (non-religious).

It’s easy to see how vouchers, especially the new breed of them, violate these principles. Vouchers provide government funds to churches, despite the historical separation of church and state. Voucher advocates argue that today’s voucher systems are legal, and our current Supreme Court seems to agree, but that doesn’t change the fact vouchers will entangle the government and religion. With any voucher program, the government must decide which schools are eligible to receive funding. Will the public—in particular, citizens in red states where universal ESA programs are most popular—be just as willing to fund Islamic, Hindi, Mormon, Jewish, and atheist schools as they are Christian schools? That’s not clear. Even if states treat all religions equally, some very public battles over religious schools will surely follow. Already, many voucher-supported religious schools have been the subject of front-page newspaper headlines regarding their most controversial teachings. We should expect this to continue.

Voucher proponents sometimes try to refute the idea that the separation of church and state for schooling even applies, pointing out that publicly funded schools taught religion in the early 1800s, with children reading from the Bible. However, a more complete telling of our history would note that the need for a separation between church and state became clearer as the country—and its students—grew more diverse. We shouldn’t use past wrongs to justify making the same mistakes today.

The anti-discrimination tradition

The U.S. Constitution, under the Fourteenth Amendment, establishes equal protection before the law. Ratified in the wake of the Civil War, this was meant to remediate the blatantly unequal treatment of Black people in every aspect of life, created by slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment can be viewed as reinforcing the accessible-to-all principle embodied in state constitutions.

This was not nearly enough, however, to provide meaningful access to Black Americans. Civil War Reconstruction efforts on education were modest and short lived. The Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision also established the principle of “separate but equal.” Even that low standard for access was not achieved, as few states provided more than a pittance in funding for Black schools. They were anything but equal for at least another half century. Then came the Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which reinterpreted the Fourteenth Amendment and rejected the separate-but-equal doctrine in schools. The decision began to slowly reorient public education towards an anti-discrimination tradition. Solidifying it was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin, and expanded the federal government’s authority to enforce anti-discrimination law in publicly funded programs (including public schools).

Most forms of vouchers undermine the anti-discrimination tradition. While private schools cannot legally discriminate based on race because of the Civil Rights Act, they can discriminate on most other dimensions, including religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, income, and disability status. Moreover, the protections against racial discrimination are stronger in public schools, with additional avenues for recourse available to public school students through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Discrimination issues often arise in admissions, and private schools leaders believe strongly in their right to selective admissions requirements. Put another way, private school leaders feel they should be able to determine which students get in and which get turned away. While not all admission requirements are inherently problematic, private school admissions practices leave the door open for discrimination. And with potential discriminatory treatment hidden behind opaque admissions practices, it will be exceedingly difficult to identify discrimination where it occurs. When schools are allowed to discriminate on one set of factors, it is difficult to prove that a student is discriminated against based on other factors, such as race.

This is not just an abstract argument. The conflict between integration, discrimination, and vouchers was plain to see in the wake of Brown. Segregationists searched for ways to sidestep the Court’s decision. One main solution they stumbled upon: school vouchers. They understood well that vouchers would allow them to continue their discrimination.

Voucher advocates might resist my argument about the tradition of anti-discrimination, pointing to supposed examples of discrimination in public schools. For example, public schools “discriminate” against children who do not live within their geographic boundaries. It’s true that some families cannot afford to live in expensive neighborhoods with well-resourced schools. However, public school boundaries, for all their faults, are designed to ensure that all students have access to a public school—one of the core tenets of public education. When parents drive by a school, their children might ask, “Can I go to that school?” There’s a big difference between answering with, “No, dear, because we don’t live in this neighborhood” and “No, dear, because the school doesn’t want you.”

It’s worth noting, too, that voucher advocates need the universal accessibility of public schools for voucher programs to work. With voucher-supported schools allowed to discriminate in admissions, it’s the guaranteed availability of a neighborhood public school that ensures that no child will be denied access to any school at all.

The public accountability tradition

In the U.S., school districts operate under (typically elected) boards that provide public accountability—specifically, democratic accountability to the electorate. This approach has been the norm since the early 1900s. So, both in word and deed, public accountability has been a core principle for longer than anyone reading this can remember.

More recently, state and federal governments clawed back some of that power from local districts, especially through test-based accountability policies. One driving force behind the push for state and federal accountability was rising education spending from these levels of government. Taxpayers wanted to know what they were getting for their money, and test results were one way of measuring the return on their investments.

Even if one prefers a heavier dose of market accountability—giving families more choice—the government is still an important partner. If we want families to have more choices, then we should also want them to have more information, which the government is well positioned to provide.

Today’s voucher programs are unwinding our accountability traditions. They’re allowing families to use public funds to send their children to schools that do not operate under elected school boards. These schools are subject to little, if any, test-based accountability, and they need only meet the minimal bar of accreditation to participate. The recent crop of universal vouchers even fails in providing the information needed for market accountability. Yes, some students in some voucher states will be required to take some type of standardized test. However, it’s unclear whether and how these results will be reported, and even if they are widely available, parents will not be able to compare across disparate tests.

Voucher advocates sometimes point to programs like Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as programs that provide benefits to eligible recipients to make their own consumption decisions with few strings attached. But these programs give little reason to overthrow the public accountability tradition in education. This is basically saying, “yes, our voucher program ends the public accountability tradition in an area so important that the Founding Fathers and every state constitution includes it, but that’s okay…because we also give money to the elderly to make sure they can buy groceries.” If you find that logic confusing, I don’t blame you.

The Great Unwinding

It is no exaggeration to say that universal vouchers are unwinding two centuries of public education tradition, from the nation’s founding days to the present. We are not just talking about any traditions. These are traditions with roots in the First Amendment and our state constitutions, and ones that have shaped the foundational contours of K-12 education in this country.

Voucher advocates might point out that the Supreme Court has reversed itself on vouchers in recent years, giving reason to believe that today’s programs are legally permissible. But U.S. and state constitutions aren’t just legal documents to be interpreted by lawyers and judges. They convey larger, foundational principles and traditions at play that have guided American life, including education, for centuries. The public broadly supports these traditions, regardless of what the courts say.

We do need to upend traditions from time to time. Brown v. Board upended the disgraceful mistreatment of and discrimination against Black Americans. That was a widely accepted step forward. Is it time to end church-state separation, public accountability, and anti-discrimination? You be the judge.

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terraequitygroup · 1 year ago

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#cost segregation guide #cost segregation depreciation guide #apartment building sales drop #cost segregation real estate #cost segregation commercial real estate #real estate tax benefits #irs cost segregation guide #irs cost segregation guide residential rental property #real estate syndication pitch deck #return metrics

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ohtobeleah · 2 years ago

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Don’t fuck us up with ToE when you come back.

I’m back bitches. Here’s another update for Terms of Endearment for you. This one isn’t too angsty, but there’s so much more too come. Let dive a little deeper into Fe & Jakes friendship, while also exploring Bradley’s love. 🥺

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~****~***~***~

“Your mum hates me doesn't she?” The metal room. That's where you could be found most lunch breaks. You weren't one for small talk or interactions with kids you knew didn't like you. Using your hands to create things though? That brought you a small sense of peace from the everyday dysfunctions of your home life.

“Nah.” Jake replied with a mouthful of his sandwich, sitting on top of the bench across from where you stood working on your latest project. The sandwich he brought you from home sat unwrapped but untouched next to you. Too focused on what you were working on to eat. You'd always been good with your hands. “She's just worried I'm gonna knock you up or something.” It was a joke, but you knew that in the midst of it all, there was a slither of truth behind it. Jake's mum had started to grow a genuine distaste for you recently, although she'd been the closest thing to a mother you ever had. “Doesn't want any more Seresin mouths to feed.”

“I'm not my mum.” You answered with a scoff. Still focusing on using the angle grinder in your hands. Pushing the safety glasses up the bridge of your nose a little more when they slipped down. “Thirteen with my brother on her hip.” Jake had only met your mother a handful of times, so little in fact he could count the interactions he had with her on one hand.

“Thirteen huh?” Jake was quick to raise a brow as he heard the door click open behind him.

“Yep, twelve when she got pregnant.” You were determined to make a life for yourself, you didnt want to be the drug fucked mum with six kids who couldnt stand her who got daily beatdowns just for existing. You didnt wanna be like Frank either, a drug addict alcoholic. But it was hard to escape the slums when it's all you'd ever known. You'd heard some of the guys Jake played football with call you the Ghetto whore just the other day. “Not me though.” Jake had questioned you when they both showed up to practise a day later with broken noses.

Just as Jake was about to ask another question about your mum, he turned his head over his shoulder to see Mr. O’mullane standing there, just waiting for the right moment to interrupt.

“What the hell is that Y/l/n?” He asked with a ruff voice as the angle grinder slowed to a halt. Jake just sat back and watched the interaction unfold as he ate his lunch.

“This?” You smirked, knowing you could say just about anything and it would go straight over the top of Mr. O’mullanes head. “This is a helium-neon laser, I'm gonna perform lasik on near-sighted neighbourhood kids. Fifty bucks a pop.” Jake couldn't help but to laugh as he watched you size up with Mr. O’mullane. You weren't lying though, it was a helium-neon laser. “I’m just fucking with you sir, well–about charging fifty bucks a pop I was, I’m actually gonna–” Mr. O’mullane didn't let you finish before he was shaking his head with a sigh and holding the bridge of his nose. He didn't know why he had a soft stop for you–but he did. Unlike your two older brothers, you seemed to have your head screwed on enough that you wanted to do well in life. Fix the hand you were dealt. You just didnt know where the fuck to start.

“What are you doing this summer?”

“Probably pretty much what I did last summer.” You answered, the project you had been working on for most of the semester was almost finished. You'd put your name down for some stupid back alley robot war. Winner took home two grand in prize money. You were going to use the money to go towards the property tax bill that was coming up. “Drink too much beer, smoke a lot of weed–”

“Yeah, nah that ain't gonna work.” Mr. O’Mullane was the school's guidance councillor, it was his job to guide youth into adulthood and keep them on the straight and narrow. “You're gonna pad your resume for your college apps this summer.” He’d always had a particularly hard time doing his job when it came to your older brothers. “You're a poor kid from the slums and you got a 4.8.” Jake nearly choked on his sandwich as he raised his eyebrows and shot you a look of shock over Mr. O’s shoulder. You'd never actually told Jake what your GPA was, his eyes went wide when he heard Mr. O’mullane say it out loud. “That's great and all kid but you're gonna need a full ride.”

You couldn’t help but to laugh, the whole GPA thing was such bullshit. Letting grades, numbers on tests for idiotic facts define what you could and couldn’t do was such a prehistoric ideology.

“What's so goddamn funny?” Mr. O hissed as he watched you go back to messing around with a few loose wires that needed tidying up.

“Nothing sir.” You mumbled, keeping your head low as you focused on the work in front of you. Jake had always enjoyed watching you work with your hands, a world away. “It's just–um, why does everyone think I'm going to college?”

“Dummy–!” Mr O’Mullane was quick to swat the top of your head with the papers he was holding, shaking you to look up and focus on what he was saying. “Your going to fucking college kid—and you’re gonna graduate, and then you’re gonna get your masters and your doctorate and then you’re gonna make a boatload of money.” You didn’t answer, you simply stood there wondering why this guy cared so much about you and your future—no one had ever given a shit about you. Well, except Jake Seresin. “So spend the summer padding your resume, or so help me christ kid I will shove my foot so far up your goddamn ass you'll be licking my shoe clean, understood?” Mr O was a balled, ageing man. He had no time to dick around with adolescents he knew were lost causes.

He was nearing the end of his rope with you when he was informed you’d recently been arrested and charged with assault of a police officer. He knew you’d brothers had been involved—somehow you always got involved. At least the charge was juvenile and could be expunged from your adult record if you kept your nose clean.

“Uh–doing what exactly?” You asked. Jake was still looking at you like he didn’t even know you, how the fuck did you have such a high GPA when you never attended classes let alone studied? He studied he fucking ass off day in day out just to retain an ounce of information.

“I dont give a shit?” Mr. O’Mullane sighed, turning on his heels as he made his way back to the door. “Teach brain-damaged kids how to make plastic explosives or show the blind how to blow glass–” He wasn’t in the mood for your antics. “Just do something, Y/n—for crying out loud.”

It was silent for a moment as he waited by the door with his hand clasped around the handle for you to respond.

“You know, I already have my sights set on a few hundred hours of community service.” The corner of Mr. O’mullanes lips turned upright into his cheek for a second. He’d cracked you. So he thought.

“Okay–that's a start, just get it done.” He smiled, leaving the metal room as you mumbled under your breath and went back to working on the robot in front of you.

“Courtesy of Cook County juvenile court system.” Jake was still caught up on the whole GPA thing, jumping off the bench he’d been perched on for the better half of lunch to question you further.

“You got a 4.8?” Jake was seething. “My GPA is like a 4.1, How smart are you?”

“Clearly smarter than you, Seresin.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Spacious, Clean, Perfect. Three words you’d use to describe the empty house you and Bradley stood in. You haven't spoken much since Jaidyn had interrupted you in the car park, dropping the bombshell that he would be your new neighbour if you were to sign on the dotted line and accept the staff accommodation the Navy was willing to put you and your daughter in.

Rooster had never seen you shift so quickly, going from the bright and bubbly person he knew you could be to completely introverted. Not speaking a single word to anyone that was anything but necessary. You barely spoke to Julia at the admin desk when you went to collect the keys and paperwork for the house you had been put down for, Rooster did most of the talking. It had been the same at daycare pickup with Dot, you hasn’t even gotten out of the car as you sat in the passenger side seat chewing on your cuticles–looking all kinds of distressed and panicked.

“It sure is big.” Rooster cooed as he looked around, spinning the set of keys around on the index finger that was free. “Whatever you wanna do Fe, I'm with you on it.” Dot was in her favourite place these days, Bradley Bradshaw's hip. Oh so tired after a big day at daycare. She’d become increasingly clingy over the last few days, always wanting Tooster first. Before anyone—even you sometimes. “Whatcha reckon Dot? You reckon you and mum should post up here? Bet we could paint your room any colour you wanted?” Bradley is quick to smile against your little girl's cheek, kissing her soft rosie coloured cheeks until she was letting out a soft giggle. Curling into his neck to escape his kisses.

“Dop it Tooster—“ Dot mumbled against his shoulder as she turned her head, looking for you as you stood still in the middle of the foyer. Paperwork in your hand, all yours to sign if you wanted it.

“Y/n?” Bradley turned his attention back to you, noticing the way your eyes threatened to water. He swore for a split second he saw your bottom lip quiver. “You okay there baby?”

You didn't answer, you simply kept your lips pressed tight in a line as you tried to keep a level head about things. It was such a beautiful home, just perfect for you and Dot. The kitchen was open plan with a big island bench. The living room was comforting and warm from the new carpet that had just been redone. The master bedroom was spacious and even had a walk-in wardrobe with a pretty little onsite that had a shower just to die for. Dual shower heads all.

“I uh–” You choked out as you felt your knees give in, deciding that the floor looked comfortable enough to take the burden of your breakdown. Cupping your hands over your face to hide your tears, just crouching down in the middle of the empty home that should have been, could have been all yours. “Fuck this.” The paperwork crumbled in your hand stood no chance against the tears that fell. “I was so close Rooster, so fucking close I could taste a better life and then that fucker shows up again and–” Its hard to speak when all you want to do, all you can do is cry. “Fuck him.”

There's a part of Bradley who wants to take a jab at you about swearing so absentmindedly around your two year old. But he doesn’t, he knows now isnt the right time to fuck around.

“It doesn't have to not be yours.” Bradley came to sit beside you, moving Dot into his lap before she decided now would be a good time to go on an adventure, padding across the hardwood flooring, talking to herself as she explored. “Still can be, we’ll just put up some extra cameras to make sure he won't try anything.”

“Yeah, because CCTV is gonna stop him from bludgeoning me in my sleep, Rooster.” You snapped, clearly on alert and frustrated that this was happening. “If I move in here, I'm as good as dead, only a matter of time.” A thought popped into Bradleys mind that he hadn’t registered in the realm of possibility. He opened his mouth to speak but quietly closed it—he didn’t want to add to the existential crisis you were in the middle of. Decided in the moment he’d ask Jake his opinion before asking you in a blur of emotional turmoil and distress.

“Okay, alright.” Bradley cooed as you pulled you into his side, letting you cry your heart out in the middle of the empty house. “Why don't we just go back to Jakes and talk and figure out our next move yeah?”

“Oh, oh god Jake is gonna lose his mind.” You laughed, sobs quickly turning from deep and guttural cry’s to laughter that was uncontrollable and damn near maniacal. “He was more excited about this than I was.”

“He’ll understand sweetheart.” The ease that the term of endearment fell from Roosters lips made you swoon for a brief moment. Leaning into Bradley as you tried to calm down. Dot coming back to you as you opened your arms for her to drop into, snuggling into your chest as you leaned into Bradley. Your little family—lovingly and gentle, sitting in what could have been, what should have been your new home.

“Hopefully, because it looks like he’s gonna have a house mate on a more permanent basis.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Jake knew if he didn’t do something to help push you in the right direction, that you could end up falling into the same cycle of drugs and alcohol as your parents and your older brothers. He knew deep down you wanted to make a better life for yourself, wanted to escape what you’d only ever known. Your family struggled below the poverty line on a good day. You deserved so much fucking better than what this world had given you. And he loved you far too much to see you waste whatever potential you had.

Knocking his knuckles against the guidance counsellor's door, Jake was greeted with a mumble.

“Come in.” Mr. O’Mullane wiped his mouth with the few napkins he had sitting on his desk as Jake walked in. “Oh. I’m pleasantly surprised to see you at the counsellors office, Jacob—please.” Mr. O gestured at the empty chair across from his desk as Jake slung his bag into the ground at his feet. “Sit down.”

“I uh, I came to talk to you about Y/n—“ He wanted to cut right to the point, there was no need for small talk, Jake knew Mr. O saw him sitting there with you in the metal room. He knew you two were close. Best friends. “She needs help.”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss another student.” Mr. O sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “But I’d be more than happy to help you with your future options, kid.” Jake wasn’t going to sit and talk about anything other than you, you were the reason he was here. He wanted to help you. Whatever way he could. His mother kept telling him you were dragging him under, but what she didn’t see was that you were just clinging onto Jake to stop you from drowning. Your lifeline, your best fucking friend since kindergarten.

“She thinks her only options in life are getting pregnant or arrested sir.” Mr. O had seen a lot of kids come and go from his office, all searching for guidance to some extent or another, but he’d never had a kid sit across from him and want to help another student like Jake Seresin wanted to help you.

“Okay, well.” Mr. O just sighed, levelling with the teen who sat before him. “She’s got a good chance, she’s smart—just needs a solid kick up the ass to point that out to her.”

“And what are you doing about it?” Jake shrugged, leaning forward to push his index finger into the wood of Mr. O’s desk.

“Encouraging her to go to college—but she doesn’t seem to be too involved now does she.”

“You’re the guidance counsellor! Guide her!” Jake raised his voice, he was sick of people only giving you half an inch of effort. “You know she’s smart, so you should be guiding her.”

“There’s only so much I can do kid, you know that.” Mr. O’Mullane just sighed, reaching out for another bite of his lunch.

“Alright.” Jake was growing tired of the run around he was getting. “Well, what should she be doing then?”

“Eh.” Through a mouth full of tuna sandwich, Mr. I explained what you needed to be focusing on to Jake, he should have been telling you. “She should be keeping her grades up, getting teacher recommendations, finding herself a legitimate job, filling out her college applications.” Jake knew he could help with all that, he could even help you get a job down at the corner store with him on the weekends and after school. “Think you can help with any of that?”

“Maybe.” He mumbled, looking down at his shoes because all he ever wanted to do was help.

“Well all right then, if you stop by again at the end of the day I’ll pull some college brochures you can take with you.” Mr. O just smiled, he saw a little hope for you shining back at him through the eyes of Jake Seresin, a soul that would never leave you behind. “Maybe you’ll have a better chance at getting through to her than I did.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“Oh I totally forgot!” You groaned out as Rooster pulled into the drive of Jake's home, blocking in the black Nissan Micra parked in the drive. “I look like a crackhead Rooster—“

“What’s Bob doing here?” Bradley questions as you unclip and hope out the car, racing around to grab Dot from her new car seat.

“We organised to go for a run this afternoon after we were done checking out the house.” You explained as you let out a little huff when you popped Dot down on the ground, watching as she made her way over to the front door. “I look like a mess—“

“You’re still as beautiful as ever.” Bradley wrapped his arm around your shoulders, reaching in to grab Dots purple backpack. “I’m kinda offended you didn’t ask me to go for a run mama?”

“Oh I don’t think you could run in a straight line with that black eye Bradshaw.” It was the first time this afternoon that Bradley saw you smile, he revelled in it as you walked towards the front door together. He couldn’t help but to press a loving kiss to your temple, his flight suit tied around his waist. “Bradley?” You stopped in your tracks just outside the front door.

“Yeah darlin?”

“I really do love you—so much.” It made Rooster's heart burst out of his chest, sending it clear out of this world. “Thank you for just being you, I guess.” Cupping your cheeks, Rooster leaned in with a smirk painted kiss that had you melting into him. Despite everything going on you knew, for once, you were truly loved.

“I’ve never loved anyone more than I love you.” Bradley knew his mother was watching over him, he knew his father was guiding him in the right direction. They’d brought you and Odette to him. The loved of his life.

“Hey!” Jake called out from the kitchen. “You two need to fucking see the shorts this man turned up here in.” Jake had been ripping into Bob for the better half of half an hour. “Never seen a pair of thighs as white as Floyd’s.”

Wooden floors, walls and window sills. Jake's house had always been warm and inviting to you. He had tables and chairs worn by all of the dust, before you showed up it had just been him. Now there was always someone over, something happening.

This was the place where you didn’t feel alone, this was the place where you felt at home. You didn’t need a new house, with new carpet and clean windows. You just needed your family.

“They’re running shots!” Bob gruffed back as he turned to face you and Bradley. “Next time can we meet at—“ There was a silence that fell when Bob and Jake noticed the look on your face. Something was wrong, your eyes were all puffy like you’d been balling. “What’s wrong?”

“Fe? Everything alright?” Jake paused what he was doing, slicing up mini cucumbers for Dot's afternoon snack. “Rooster?”

“Bob, do you mind if we do this another day?” You cooed, barely audible as you faught of yet another bout of tears. “I think I’m just gonna get Dot in the bath and head to bed.” Jake knew something was seriously wrong by the look in your eyes. He turned his attention to Rooster for a second, eyeing off the man who still had his arm flung over your shoulder to make sure it wasn't him or something he had done.

“Uh, yeah—no sure, no problem.” Bob replied before you were scooping up Dot, without another word you were turning to kiss Rooster, his lips soft and apologetic against yours before you were heading upstairs. “She okay, Rooster? It looks like she's been crying?”

“Was the house not livable or something?” Jake asked as he took a bite of one of the mini cucumbers he'd been cutting up. Bradley just rubbed his hand through his hair, pushing it back and away from his forehead. Sauntering over to the kitchen, making a Beeline for the fridge, grabbing a beer for him and a beer for Jake, not even bothering to ask Bob if he wanted one. It was always no.

“Or something–” He ticked his chin to the side as he popped the cap off the top of the beer, taking a sip. “Turns out Jaidyn is her neighbour.” Jake thought he’d entered some fucked up episode of the twilight zone, there was no way.

“Surely not–”

“Sure as shit he is.” Rooster scoffed as he took another sip, leaning back against the kitchen island. “She cant move in there, she’s too scared he’ll fuck with her, with Odette.”

“She's not gonna get another house Bradshaw, not one works gonna up her up in.” Jake groaned, of fucking course this would happen. “God she's been waiting for a house since she started work and he gets put in one before her?” Jake was pissed, he was pissed for you and he was pissed at Jaidyn for being a thorn in your side. “She can stay here but her and Odette are gonna outgrow that room soon.”

“Why don't you ask her to move in with you, Rooster?” Bob pipped in, pushing his lips together to keep the frog in his mouth. It wasn't his place to have an opinion on this. Jake shook his head when he let out a scoff at the ridiculousness of Bob's suggestion, But Rooster? He stayed silent, the answer was written clear as day across his moustache having smug face. He was going to. That was his plan, he just wanted to talk to Jake about it first.

“You aren't serious bro–” Jake was just about ready to wipe his hands clean of this whole thing. “You know if you do that then that's it, if you do this and things go south for you and Fe i'll choose her side over yours any day of the week.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to do anything less.” Bradley smirked as he took the beer to his lips. “But remember, you were the one who wanted her out of your house in the first place? Isn’t that why you set us up to begin with?”

“I was messing around!” Jake groaned out in defeat as Bob just watched Jake and Bradley interact. If you had told him he’d be standing in Jake Seresins kitchen watching him and Rooster bicker like brothers in arms he would have told you that you were crazy. “My god, I’ve aged like five years since you two fucking got together—I swear!”

“Hangman, you aren’t her dad.” Bob once again put his foot into a conversation he thought he was intruding on.

“No, I’m not Bob—“ Jake hissed as he turned to Bob. “But I’m the closest thing she’s got because her dads a genuine grade A alcoholic addict who spews in the cutlery drawers after nights out.” Jake would never forget the one time he stayed the night at your place after a big Saturday night party, his mother scolded him for it but Jake was more than happy to never want to stay at your house again. “So my apologies if I’m apprehensive about her shaking up with Bradshaw here after dating for five minutes!”

“You know I’m gonna ask her to marry me one day too.” Bradley snickered to himself, knowing the ambition would send Jake over the edge. “How does that make you feel, big guy?”

Jakes felt his heart skip a beat inside his chest when he registered what Bradley Bradshaw had just said. Jake knew if anyone roaming this earth was good enough for you it was the moustache having pain in the ass Naval Aviator who’d been family deprived for far too long. But Jake wasn’t about to give Bradley an ego boost he knew he didn’t need. So he scoffed and rolled his eyes instead.

“Like I need a fucking pepto bismol.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“Okay, play with your dollie sweetheart, mum needs to wash your hair.” Two birds with one stone. That's what had gone through your mind when you decided you would jump in the bath with Odette. Bubbles galore and saving on water usage.

“Otay mumma.” Dot was more than happy to sit in the bath amongst the ample amount of bubbles and play with her bath toys while you took a cup of water to her hair and held her forehead to stop the water running into her eyes. She was a good kid, a far better kid than you ever were.

A gentle knock echoed through the bathroom as you worked to wash your daughter's hair.

“Yeah?” You answered to the knocks that sounded like two knuckles brushing against the panelling.

“It's me–just checking to see if you’re alright?” Rooster let his forehead rest against the door as he contemplated if he should open it or not, an iced coffee in hand knowing you would usually be making one right about this time before settling down to get your next day schedule done. “Mind if I come in?” There was a pause between when Bradley asked and when you decided to answer that he thought just maybe he should leave you to be for a while. But then you answered and it made the corner of his lips into a smirk.

“Enter at your on risk Bradshaw–” He did so cautiously, peering his head in before stepping through the threshold, making sure to shut and lock the door behind him.

“Woah, where's Odette in all these bubbles huh?” It made you smile how Bradley always interacted with your daughter first and foremost whenever he entered a room, she was an extension of you and deserved all the love she got. “I thought you said you were giving Dot a bath?” Rooster cooed as he leaned over to kiss the top of your head before he sat down on the tiles beside the bath.

“I'm here Tooster, I’m here!” Dot wiggled around, making you drop the cup you had in your hand as she wiggled herself around in between your legs to climb into your lap, splashing bubbles up every which way as she did so. “I'm here!”

“Oh there you are.” Rooster rolled his eyes playfully as he scooped up a handful of suddy bubbles and placed it on top of her head. “I couldn't see you amongst all these bubbles, sorry Dotty.” You couldn't help but to laugh at the interaction, Rooster was just a natural with her. As soon as Dot was satisfied that she hadnt been looked over, she was quick to fall back between your legs, back to you, and suddenly all she cared about in the world was making sure her dolls loved each other. “Hey there Mama–” Rooster cooed, finally turning all his attention on you.

“Bradley, to what do I owe this bathroom drop in?” Rooster was trying to not let his eyes wander down too far, your tits on full display above your water, covered in bubbles. He was only human after all and fuck did he find incredibly attractive. “Eyes up here.” You smirked wildly, knowing the effect you had on Rooster.

“I brought you coffee.” Rooster stared at your nipples for a few more seconds before he shook the nasty thoughts from his mind, holding up the glass full of vanilla iced coffee for you to take a sip from. “And I wanted to ask you something.” Rooster could feel his heart racing inside his chest as he leaned over the side of the bath, going over the logistics of water displacement in his head because jumping in the tube right now seemed like a good idea. There was room, he was sure of it.

“Yeah? And what would that be?” You asked softly as you went back to washing Dots hair, working a small amount of toddler sensitive shampoo into her dark locks. Fuck it, Rooster was lifting his shirt up over his head before he knew what he was really doing. Untying the flight suit that was still wrapped around his waist. “What are you doing?”

“Shove up, I'm hopping in.” He smiled, standing to strip off the Normex suit from his legs, boxer briefs and all shimming down his thighs, suddenly you were at eye level with Bradley junior and you weren't made about it at all. “Shove–”

“I was actually enjoying this before you came in here.” You were only teasing, But as you did Rooster was climbing in behind you, watching as the water rose and damn near spilled over the edge. It didn't though, it only just lapped at the lip of the bathtub. “Jesus Rooster, it's up to her bloody neck now!”

“She’ll be right.” It was the way Bradley pulled you closer to him by the small of your waist that had your cheeks heating up. The soft kisses he left against your shoulder when your back hit his chest. “Now listen, you can say no, this is just me throwing out the option okay?”

“I don't know if I like it when you think Bradshaw, but sure, what's rattling around in that brain of yours.” You had to laugh when Bradleys grip around your waist tightened a little, hugging you from behind as you worked to rinse Dots shampoo laced hair.

“There's a house a few streets over that has three bedroom, two bathrooms.” Bradley started, kissing up the expanse of your shoulder, before moving slowly up your neck. “It's got a courtyard out the back that needs a little tender loving care but it wouldn't be too hard to fix up.”

“It's a private rental though isn't it?” You mumbled, you didn't think you had the energy to talk about your housing crisis right now.

“Nope, its government owned and currently occupied by government property.” Bradley smiled against your supply skin. “It's mine, and I want you and Odette to move in with me instead of next door to that dickhead ex of yours.” You froze, Bradley felt you stiffen in his arms. He didn't dare move an inch until you did, watching as you reached out for the conditioner after a few moments.

“Why would you want us to move in with you?” It wasnt that you didn't trust Bradley Bradshaw, it's just you felt yourself falling for him harder than you'd ever fallen for someone before, which with your current track record, made it hard to trust, to open up. “Single mum with a two year old on her hip? Just take it from Jake, we don't exactly make good company when you wanna bring some girl home from the bar.”

“Listen here mama–” Bradley waited until you had finished running the conditioner through Dot's dark curls before he was using his index finger to tilt your head to the side, kissing your cheek as he did so with love and admiration. “You are the only woman I'll ever take home again.”

“Rooster–” You tried to debate it, but Bradley was placing his lips on your just to shut you up.

“If I had a ring.” That was a lie, Bradley had his mothers engagement ring tucked away in his bedside table. He’d had it since she passed. From the first time he saw you he knew you were gonna be his future wife. Jake had smacked him upside the head when he asked who the pretty one was playing darts. Told him to say at least fifty metres away from you at all times, now look at him? He's tucked away in the bath with you between his legs. In Jake's house, asking you to move in with him. “I'd ask you to marry me right now, but the timing just doesn't seem right, so level with me real quick, you and Dot moving in with me doesn't seem like the worst possible scenario out of the options you've got if we lay them out on the table does it.” Bradley started to kiss up and down your neck again when you turned back to wash the conditioner out of Dot’s hair. “You don't have to say yes baby, and you don't have to give me a response now, but the offer is there and it's genuine and I'd really love to wake up with you every morning.”

“Ill uh–I'll think about it, okay?”

“That's good enough for me mama.” Rooster cooed, settling into the warmth of the bath a little more as he pulled you down against his chest, Dot playing at his feet. “That's good enough for me.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“It's a busy time of year, end of semester.” Mr O’mullane smirked wildly as you and Jake followed him down the hall into his office. “I have to let a litany of underachievers know they'd best be advised to cut their losses and learn a trade.” He gruffed, stepping into his office as he held the door open for the pair of you. “Something that utilises their backs instead of their brains.” But it wasn't long before he was reaching into the top drawer of his desk, looking at the piece of paper he held in his hand. “It's moments like this though, that makes the job worth it.” He scoffed. Walking around from his desk to meet you and Jake as you both stood still, side by side.

“Crap pay, miserable working conditions, but the chance to change–” He paused, handing you the graduation certificate as he smiled. “One special kid's life. Congratulations.”

“Uh–” You smiled for a brief second, looking down at your name plastered across the paper that meant fuck all to you because you never thought youd actually get it. “Guess this is where I'm supposed to, uh, thank you for never giving up on me, heh.”

“I wouldn't thank me kid, i'd be thanking your friend here, he's the one who never gave up on you.'' Jake knew you had no intention of going to graduation, you didn't really have any reason to if there wouldn't be a single person there to cheer you on. So he came with you to the guidance counsellor's office just to see the moment you got your certificate. “But just so you know, teachers are taking bets on what comes next for you–College, 10-to-1. Or Prison 4-to-1.”

“I was kinda thinking about an engineering course–” You replied softly, smiling across at Jake who was already smiling back at you. You'd done the work, but he'd been the one to help you do it.

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Tags: @a-serene-place-to-be @lilyevanswhore @thescarletknight2014 @blindedbythelightt t @averyhotchner @emma8895eb @blairfox04 @caitsymichelle13 @oxxolovemelikeyoudooxxo @teacupsandtopgun @aemondssiut @feltonswifesworld87 @akalei349 @notjustsomeblonde @americaarse @avaleineandafryingpan @phoenix1388

#terms of endearment// bradley bradshaw #terms of endearment// jake seresin #bradley bradshaw x y/n #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw angst #bradleybradshaw #rooster bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw fic #bradley rooster bradshaw #jake hangman x y/n #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin x reader

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theambitiouswoman · 1 year ago

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Hi!

Thanking for answering my ask,

If you don’t mind I would love it if you could get into the tax part, I just want to know as much as I can. 😆

Ok this is fun, prepare to have your mind blown.

I have to disclose that I am not a financial advisor or an accountant <3

Trusts: You want to consider purchasing the properties under a trust. Tax implications can vary under trusts. Revocable living trust will allow you to be treated as the owner, but in an irrevocable trust, it is a separate entity. In some structures, you would only pain capital gains, which can also be transferred to a separate trust, and you do not end up paying capital gains on the property. You do this with a charitable remainder trust. Generally, if a property is held in a trust, rental income generated from that property is typically subject to income tax. The trust itself may be responsible for paying those taxes, or the tax liability might pass through to the beneficiaries, depending on the type of trust and its specific provisions. This will change the amount you would pay in taxes. If the property was purchased as a primary home, there could also be capital gain exceptions depending on the trust. Your income affects the rates you pay on specific trusts. Before I continue, I want to suggest speaking to an actual attorney, not an accountant. Most are not knowledgable or equipped to properly guide you here. Same as with traditional, in a trust you can deduct property related expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, maintenance costs, and depreciation, from the rental income. This can help reduce the taxable income generated by the property.

IRA's: You can use a self directed IRA or other retirement accounts to invest in real estate. The gain from these investments grow tax deferred within your account. This is something you should also consider doing.

Depreciating assets: Real estate can depreciate overtime. This doesn't include land. But when it depreciates, you can deduct the properties cost. This would offset the income you would pat taxes on.

1031 Exchange: Filing a 1031 will allow you to defer paying capital gains on an investment property when it's sold, as long as another "like kind" property is purchased with the profit gained from the sale.

Mortgage Interest Deduction: Interest paid on mortgages for investment properties can be deducted.

Carry Forward: If your expenses exceed your rental income, you could have a net loss. Some of these losses can be used to offset other taxable income, while others might be carried forward to future years.

Living in the property: If you live in the property for 2 years. you can exclude a portion of the capital gains from your taxable income when you sell.

Opportunity Zones: Opportunity zones offer tax incentives, including deferring and potentially reducing capital gains taxes.

Expenses: All repair expenses can be deducted.

Installments: You can structure your sale to receive payments over time. This spreads out the capital gains and reduces tax impact.

Tax Credits: There are a ton of tax credits for investors. Would research in your state.

More deductions: Interest on a mortgage for an investment property is typically tax deductible, as are property taxes and many other expenses related to the property like Insurance premiums.

Cost segregations: You can hire someone to reclassify certain areas of your property to accelerate depreciation. This will give you a significant upfront tax deduction.

Pass throughs: Certain pass through entities (like LLCs, S Corporations, and partnerships) may be eligible for a deduction of up to 20% of their business income from rental properties.

I can keep going on this, but strongly recommend you read these books:

Loopholes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money and Pay Less Tax

Tax-Free Wealth: How to Build Massive Wealth by Permanently Lowering Your Taxes

#real estate #investment #real estate investing #investors #finance #money #property investing #homebuyers

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twohearts-hs · 16 days ago

Text

Defying The Odds: 15 - Michael Scofield x Reader Series

Words in Total: 3.8k

Pairings: Michael Scofield x Reader: afab x reader

Synopsis: Y/N was a victim of the mob since the age of fifteen, however, falling in love with the wrong guy and having an argument got her 25 years in prison for murder. She had a plan to get out in faith of her husband until she met Michael Scofield, who, despite his plan, fell in love with her. Now she has the mob and Michael Scofield's escape to worry about.

Warnings: Swearing, Prison, Intimacy, Murder, etc. you know the deal...

A/N: this is a complete series of ~105k words. Based on Season 1 & 2.

Hope you enjoy :)

Masterlist

They eventually got to Tooele. As they drove through, the town was not that impressive. However, it would do as the money would be there.

“Tooele?” Lincoln hummed, testing the town’s name on his tongue.

“I think it’s too-ill-uh,” Michael corrected Lincoln.

“Hell of a town,” Lincoln chuckled.

“Small is good. It means we can find the ranch easier,” Y/N said from the back.

“All we gotta do is get that money and we’ll be out of here by nightfall,” Michael explained, putting on his blue hat. Y/N still couldn’t get over him in the suit. Something about him all sharp made her feel something.

“Sounds good,” Y/N replied as Lincoln drove the car further into town. Y/N took the hat that was beside her, putting it on while pulling her hair into a bun. “Could we get a hotel soon? I need a shower,” Y/N muttered, “and a change of underwear.”

“Soon,” Michael responded, “once we get that money.”

They got to a payphone, a phone book in front of them as Michael pulled it out, running his finger along the paper to see for a ‘Double K ranch’. However, it was not there.

“Well guess what,” Michael caught their attention. “No listing for a Double K Ranch,” he grunt, throwing the book to the side.

Lincoln walked up to a town folk and asked where he could find a Double K ranch. However, it was no luck. The citizen was born and raised there, but still there was no knowledge of a Double K Ranch.

Michael was rubbing his face, frustrated with the whole thing. Y/N walked up to him, hand squeezing his arm but he ignored her touch.

“Looks like Westmoreland spent his last breath blowing smoke up your ass,” Lincoln stated, no jokes there but pure facts.

“Lincoln,” Y/N muttered, unimpressed. “How about property records?”

“Right, every plot is mapped out with dimensions. It’s a public record,” Michael finished her thought. “But if there is a tax assessor’s office here, it’s gonna be in there,” he said looking at the municipal building.

“Municipal building,” Y/N muttered, sighing. There would be cops there…a lot of cops.

“Cops, Michael. So many cops,” Y/N mumbled. However, they continued on their path, Michael grabbed Y/N hand, squeezing it before moving to her back. He pushed her forward, guiding her.

“Stay calm. We’ll be out of here in ten minutes,” he explained to them.

One by one they entered through the metal detectors. However, after Y/N went, Michael went through and he was halted.

“Back up,” the officer said.

“You wearing a watch?”

“Yeah,” Michael mumbled, taking his watch off but making sure his tattoo was covered. “Nice day.” Then he went through the detector again with no alarm. “Thanks.” His hand found her back again as they went up the stairs to the archive room.

“This is exactly what we need,” Michael said, pulling out books and placing them onto the table. “It’s a map of every parcel of land. Topography, buildings, everything.”

Y/N sat next to him, rubbing her face as she looked at him, watching him flick through the book. Lincoln was across from her.

Michael’s finger ran down the page, looking for a name. “Karl Kokosing. Double K.”

Y/N’s eyes wandered the room, glancing over everything. Lincoln did the same, but her eyes narrowed onto an older gentleman in the corner who kept glnacing at them. She leaned into Michael. “Michael, I don’t like the way this guy is looking at us,” she stated.

“Same,” Lincoln added.

Michael glanced up seeing a gentleman walk away. However, he kept focusing on the book, flipping through the pages. “Where is 1213?” he mumbled more to himself. Y/N leaned over looking over the page.

“Let me look,” she mumbled, taking over but she gave up. “I don’t have my damn reading glasses,” she grunted, sitting back.

“Come on, man, we got to roll now,” Lincoln panicked, hearing talk from far away. “Come on. You got the map?”

However, as soon as Michael got to the 1213th page, hope was lost. There laid in front of him a tore in the paper…which meant a missing page.

“No. Someone else does,” Michael explained looking the over.

“Fuck,” Y/N muttered, rolling her eyes and sighing. “Let’s go.”

They left the archive room, walking down the corridors and Michael spoke up. “Someone got here before us. It’s the only explanation.”

“That was what I was thinking,” Y/N muttered.

They got the edge of the balcony and looked over, seeing a man walking. Y/N’s heart dropped, but eyes widened as she realised who it was. “Son of a bitch is still alive,” she muttered. His hair was blonde down and his hand was stitched back on with a bandage.

Instantly, they went downstairs. Michael and Lincoln walked behind them as Y/N followed.

“Hey, Pretty!” Lincoln called and T-Bag turned around. Bewilderment flashed across his face as Lincoln grabbed him by wrapping his arm around his neck, pulling him to his car. “What you gonna do, scream?”

Michael grabbed Y/N’s hand, walking behind them. They got to the car and Lincoln threw T-Bag onto the car.

“I can’t believe you’re still fucking breathing,” Y/N barked, walking up to him.

“What the hell did you do to your hand?” Michael mocked.

Lincoln grabbed him by the hand which earned a winched and a groan from T-Bag. “I recently had some work done,” T-Bag explained. Then he looked at Y/N. “You’re looking still completely dashing,” he mushed. “Though that sweater doesn’t do you justice to see how big your tits are. Pretty things like that needs to be showed off.”

Lincoln pushed him against the car again, anger radiating off of him. “Where’s the map?” he barked. “Where’s the damn map?”

“I don’t have it,” T-Bag said slowly.

“Then where is it?” Y/N asked, coming closer to him. Lincoln then searched his body. Y/N grasped him by the jaw, tilting his head up. “Where is it, you scumbag?” she barked.

“I don’t have it.”

“You were there. We saw you,” Michael muttered, eyes unimpressed as he glared at T-Bag.

“It was gone when I got there.”

“Liar. I can always tell a liar. You’re keeping eye contact,” Y/N said, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the car. “Talk. Now.”

“Pretty, what don’t you keep your bitch away from me? I’ll tell you everything I know,” T-Bag said, pushing Y/N off.

“Y/N,” Michael mumbled. Y/N dropped him, hands up as she walked back.

“He’s yours. I was just doing a little threatening,” Y/N replied going behind Michael.

“It’s the kid. He has it,” T-Bag said. “I saw him this morning and I needed some help. We made a deal, all right?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t believe that. That kid is dimmer than a light. How would he know to go to municipal?” Y/N retorted.

T-Bag ignored her. “He said that he would dig. I told him where we could get a map,” T-Bag mumbled. Lincoln grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back.

“What kid? What kid?”

Y/N sighed. “Tweener,” she mumbled, looking over to Michael. “David Apolkis.”

Lincoln shoved T-Bag into the back of the vehicle. “Sit with me,” Michael said, grabbing her arm and whispering in her ear. “I don’t trust him.”

Michael got in the car, and he pulled Y/N on top of his lap. His hands came sitting on her thigh as she took a deep breath. His head hit her back as he mumbled, “Love you, ok?” She nodded, feeling his squeeze her arms as they drove off.

They got to a road that was in the middle of nowhere. T-Bag got out of the car.

“What’s going on, friends?” he asked.

“Where did you say Tweener was headed?” Lincoln asked.

“Up on the main drag. He’s supposed to find a shovel.”

The door slammed and Michael was leaning against the car next to Y/N. He handed the car keys to Lincoln as he walked by. Lincoln opened the back of the boot, looking at T-Bag with a very serious expression.

“In,” he stated, voice unwavering.

“No…no, no, no.” He shook his head quickly.

Lincoln whipped out a gun, pointing it to T-Bag. “In!” Michael kept banging the lid of the trunk.

“You’re coming back, right? You’re coming back?”

“Yep.” Lincoln muttered, locking the trunk.

Michael put on his hat as Y/N walked to him. “He’s gonna overheat, and then we are gonna have rotting, spoiled T-Bag flesh in the back of our car and then will be bathing in stink,” she muttered.

Michael chuckled. “Sometimes you say the random of things.” Then he began to walk away.

“No, I’m serious,” she stated.

“What?” he chuckled again turning around.

“It has happened before. Disgusting,” she muttered walking past him.

“I genuinely don’t know if you’re serious,” he muttered more to himself as they walked.

There was one garden store in town and they ended up in it. “Woods Garden Centre,” proud and titled as they walked up to the place that would sell shovels.

“I’m going to go in,” Michael explained to Lincoln and Y/N. “If I’m not back soon, come get me.”

Y/N nodded. “Be careful,” she mumbled, squeezing his hand.

Michael went in, but there was commotion heard from outside. Lincoln went straight, in guns blazing. Y/N quickly followed. Michael was on the floor and Lincoln kicked the owner off of Michael. His gun was cocked and read as he pointed to the owner.

“Where’s the kid?” Y/N barked, standing behind Lincoln. “Now.”

“Where’s the kid?” Lincoln asked, voice deep and taunting, his gun came closer.

Y/N watched as Michael got back up and walked away. “He’s back here.”

“Get up,” Lincoln said to the owner. “Come on, tough guy, let’s go.”

They walked to the back to see Tweener all tied up. Y/N leaned down to Tweener helping him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m still asking that question myself,” she mumbled. Lincoln tied the owner up.

“We had to come for you, buddy,” Michael said, grabbing the phone and yanking it off the wall.

“How did you know?” Tweener asked.

“T-Bag,” Y/N stated with a sigh.

Lincoln pushed Tweener. “Hand over the map.”

“What?” Tweener said pushed against the wall.

“The map. Hand it over,” Lincoln threated, pushing him against the wall.

Tweener let out a mocking chuckle. “He told you, I had it?” Tweener scoffed.

“He doesn’t have the damn thing,” Y/N muttered, running a hand through her hair.

“Fuck,” Michael barked, slamming his fist against the wall.

“Let’s get back to the car and pray we don’t have rotisserie T-Bag,” Y/N mumbled, exiting the store.

As they walked back, Michael mumbled how this will be sorted out. He went over to the trunk of the car, unlocking it and opening it. There, T-Bag was but on top of him was page 1213 on his chest.

“Tell me that’s not what I know it is,” Michael hummed.

“It is,” T-Bag agreed. “But don’t worry, before I destroyed it, I committed it to my photographic memory.”

“Coming from a compulsive liar, I find that a little hard to believe,” Michael mumbled, hands on his hip as he glanced away.

“I’d have tattooed it to my body but I didn’t have the time,” T-Bag mocked, eating the last piece of paper before spitting on the ground.

Michael took his hat off as he glanced at Y/N. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Whenever you strip-search a lifer, you should always check his coin purse,” T-Bag smirked.

“Tell us where the money is,” Lincoln said, pulling him out of the car.

“Now let’s not dissolve into threats, all right?” T-Bag held up his good hand in protest. "I'm gonna take the high road here and suggest a mutually beneficial arrangement. I have the information, you have the manual requirements necessary to unearth Westmoreland’s buried booty. We’re partners.”

“Why’s that?” Y/N asked.

“’Cause, as of this moment, I’m your map.” Then he proceeded to walk away.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Y/N muttered. “The good old fashion way,” she muttered again but to herself. Michael watched as she wandered away and then turned.

“Michael, can I talk to you,” she stated.

Michael approached Y/N quietly, his eyes scanning her face. She was clearly on edge, her jaw clenched slightly as she stared into the distance. He stopped just a foot away, waiting for her to speak. After a beat, she sighed and met his gaze.

"Why do we need the money so badly?" she asked softly, though her voice held a clear tension. "I mean, Panama... the plan... it’s starting to feel like a race, a competition between everyone who got out."

Michael's face remained stoic, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes—an understanding, maybe, or the weight of the situation they were in. "We need the money because it's our only shot at disappearing for good," he explained, voice low but firm. "Without it, we can't get to Panama. We can't disappear."

Y/N let out a long breath, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "I don't know if it's worth it anymore," she admitted. "There's so much chaos... and now, Tweener, T-Bag... this mess just keeps getting worse."

Michael didn’t respond at first. He could see the frustration building inside her. She rubbed her temples as if trying to will away the stress. After a moment, she spoke again.

"I have six million stored at my brother's place," she said, cautiously. "We could use that and just—get out of here. Forget the rest of them."

Michael froze for a moment, his brow furrowing as he processed her words. He stepped closer, his expression hardening. "Six million... is that...?"

Y/N shifted her gaze away. "Yeah," she admitted. "It's from the murders."

Michael took a step back, his features tightening. "You’re telling me the money you have is from the men you killed?" His tone was harsh, almost accusatory.

"Yes, it is," she replied, her voice a mix of defiance and hurt. She braced herself, already anticipating his reaction.

"Y/N..." Michael sighed, his voice dropping. "I don’t want your murder money."

She flinched, his words cutting deep even though she had expected something like this. "Michael, I was trying to offer a solution," she said quietly. "We’re running out of time, and options."

"I know, but Westmoreland's money is the plan," he said firmly, his gaze hard. "We stick to that. We’re not going down that road. I’m not taking dirty money... not when we’re trying to build a new life. Not like that."

She swallowed her hurt, nodding. "Okay," she said softly. "I get it."

Michael could see the slight tremble in her hands, the way her shoulders slumped just a fraction. He wanted to reach out, to say something more, but he didn’t. Instead, he just turned to look back at the others, his jaw tightening. The tension between them hung heavy in the air, but Y/N didn't push further. She had already said too much.

"Let’s just get this done," Y/N murmured, turning her back to him. She needed a moment to collect herself, the sting of his tone still fresh in her mind.

Michael stood there for a second longer, watching her retreat. He wanted to reassure her, to say it wasn’t personal, that he understood why she had offered it, but now wasn’t the time. There was too much at stake.

They had to stay focused, and Panama was the goal. No matter what. Everyone got into the car, but Tweener was thrown into the trunk. Y/N was back on Michael’s lap as he didn’t trust her in the back with T-Bag.

Y/N shifted uncomfortably in Michael's lap, the cramped space in the car making it hard to get comfortable. T-Bag was muttering something in the backseat, his voice a low drawl that grated on her nerves, but Michael’s arm stayed securely wrapped around her waist, holding her in place. She knew why he insisted she sit with him, not that she argued. T-Bag was unpredictable, and in this confined space, she felt safer near Michael.

They'd been driving for a while now, the silence between them stretching out uncomfortably since their conversation at the garden centre. She could feel the weight of Michael's earlier words still lingering between them, heavy and unresolved.

Michael leaned in slightly, his lips barely brushing the side of her ear. His voice was so quiet she almost missed it. "I’m sorry," he whispered, his breath warm against her skin.

Y/N didn’t turn to look at him, but her shoulders tensed. She stayed still, listening.

"I just... can’t accept it," Michael continued, his voice barely a murmur, careful so Lincoln and T-Bag wouldn’t hear. "Your money—it’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just... I need to do this the right way."

She bit her lip, unsure how to respond. A part of her still stung from the rejection, but she also understood Michael in a way that maybe no one else did.

"I know," she finally whispered back, her hand resting on his arm. "You don’t have to explain again."

Michael tightened his grip on her slightly, his thumb brushing against her side in what felt like a silent apology. He didn’t say anything else, didn’t need to. The quiet between them now felt different—not angry or hurt, but an unspoken understanding. They both knew the stakes, and right now, that was enough.

They continued driving, the night growing darker, and the road ahead still long.

“You know, in Thailand they got a black market where you can get any kind of surgery you need, even a hand transplant,” T-Bag told.

Y/N grimaced, leaning further into Michael touch.

“You’re sick, you know that?” Lincoln pipped.

“Keep going, the turnoff’s just up here somewhere.”

“Before or after Sheep Road?” Lincoln asked.

Silence occurred and Y/N felt Michael shift underneath her. “What’s the matter, Theodore, did you forget?” Michael mocked.

“How could I forget a road called Sheep? It’s after,” he responded. “Don’t you feel all warm inside now that we’re working together?” T-Bag hummed.

“We aren’t working together. You’re just here to lend a hand,” Michael replied. His hand then glided down Y/N’s arms and brought closer to him. His lips went behind her ear and kissed it.

“Getting all cosy there, Pretty? You and your sweet little girlfriend?... Now, wait, wait, slow down,” T-Bag rushed. “That was it, that little bitty road right there.”

Michael and Y/N both looked back, seeing the small road. Lincoln put the car into reverse, moving it backwards before turning right onto the small road. Once parked, Michael asked how far it was from there which T-Bag responded, “Quarter mile if I remember the scale properly.”

“Start walking,” Michael announced, opening the door. Y/N got out and put her hand out for Michael to take. He removed his jacket, throwing it in the car before putting his hat on. Then they were off, walking to their destination.

Halfway through, she felt his hand on her lower back and she glanced over, smiling. T-Bag trailed behind them.

“First thing I’m gonna do with the money is buy new shoes,” Lincoln said as the three of them climbed up the mountain.

“Second thing, tacos,” Michael chuckled.

“What about a burrito,” Y/N mumbled. “Freaking love burritos. “

“Third thing, ice-cold beer,” Lincoln added.

“And a martini,” Y/N muttered.

“Extra dirty, with gin and stirred,” Michael said, remembering how she took her signature drink. Y/N smiled. “Fourth thing, a little toothpaste.”

Y/N groaned, imaging brushing her teeth. “I can’t kiss Michael right now because all I can think of is my own breath,” she mumbled.

Michael chuckled. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh, you would mind,” Y/N chuckled.

“Fifth thing, a proper sports bra,” Y/N added. “And sixth thing, new underwear. Seventh thing, clothes and shoes that actually fit me.”

“Eighth thing, a dinner on me,” Michael smiled.

“Ninth thing, a shower,” Y/N added as they neared the top of the hill.

“Tenth thing, a good night sleep,” Lincoln stated.

“A nice hotel, clean sheets and a room for just Y/N and I,” Michael smirked, and I know exactly what he was insinuating…sex.

Once they go to the top of the hill, mouths dropped. Y/N groaned, knowing exactly what was in front of her. It felt like very step they make, it was three back. It was a never ending cycle.

“Can you see the silo?” T-Bag said, all giddy as he ran up to them.

There in front of them was a neighbourhood…completely built over the farm and its silo. Michael too his hat off and groaned.

“The bastards built over it,” T-Bag said in shock.

“We’re done for,” Y/N muttered. “I’m losing hope, Michael.”

Here you go!

Hope you enjoy :)

I had so much fun writing this.

Much love,

Ava <3

Taglist:

(let me know if you want to be tagged)

@enha-stars @wonuskie @believeinthefireflies95 @esposadomd @peachmartini @rougegenshin @lindsayjoy444 @fearlessswxft

#michael scofield imagine #michael scofield smut #michael scofield fanfiction #michael scofield x reader #michael scofield #prison break #prison break x reader #prison break fanfiction #prison break imagine #lincoln burrows #lincoln burrows x reader

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