#renter nightmare

[mercury-sappho]

Welp. our future landlords fucked is over with two weeks before we move in. Guess it’s time to listen to the Dark Side of the Moon again and try not to fucking cry

[elizakai]

“what’s Nightmare doing signing paperwork all day”

“is he catelogging aus”

“is he signing 100 treaties”

“is he writing fanfiction”

NO. (well. maybe the fanfic.)

you guys what if Nightmare is just a landlord?

over the last 500+ years he’s accumulated property after property and he makes fucking bank. gramps just monopolized the housing industry (s. plural industries. multiversal)

why does he need money? because he wants it duh. also leverage, he can bribe anyone who won’t be intimidated by him.

he pays for his castle of course! he’s much harder to trace if the records for his property are that of an honest, tax paying citizen!

who’s to say nightmare didn’t build the castle himself at this point!

he’s managing legions of properties and renters on the daily, very high maintenance, lots of paperwork to file and mail to send daily.

he went

“How do i make people most miserable”

“I know.”

“I’ll be a landlord”

[risuola]

▶ ONE BEDROOM? — short memory about how you found yourself sharing a bed with two of your best friends.

contents: college+roommates!au, fluffy, silly Satoru, caring Suguru and all that jazz — wc. 916

a/n: feel free to send me suggestions for entries of this series! any specific situations you think might be funny? any topics that sound interesting to you? let me know!

𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝙀𝘿𝙇𝙀𝙔 | series masterlist

“Alright, I found one,” Satoru informed, a grin of mischief tugging on his lips and both you and Suguru knew immediately that there are some gears turning below the mop of white hair of your best friend. “Near our uni, rent’s cheaper than any other we looked at, it looks nice, and there’s even a balcony for the addict. Available anytime.”

It sounded too good to be true, really. You’ve been looking for weeks now, desperate to find the right balance between the price and quality and it turned out to be the hardest thing you had to face in your lives. It was honestly a nightmare, turned out that you were way too late to find a rental with three rooms in the college area �� everything was already taken and you were forced to scratch the idea of all having separate rooms. Two bedrooms, turned out, were just as hard to find. You were slowly coming to terms that you’re gonna have to either spend three hours in metro every day just to get in and out of uni or pay an unreasonable amount of money just to live even moderately close. In your head, you already saw yourself searching for the second job.

“Where’s the catch?” Suguru’s raised an eyebrow, his mind analytic as always and his questioning tone matched your thoughts perfectly. He wrapped one arm around your waist and reached with the other to snatch a phone out of Gojo’s hands, but the snow-whites grin grew even wider as he dodged the attempt. You could feel your friend taking a deeper breath behind your back, you were seated next to him, resting against his body whilst Satoru was on the floor, with his head comfortably on your thigh. “Is it one of those ‘rent a room along with ten other students’ kind of deal?”

“Nah, it’s a separate apartment. It’s not big, by any means, but as far as I’m concerned, it should be more than enough for us,” you reached your hand, but instead of giving you his phone, Gojo put his chin on your palm, smiling with the typical amount of cat-like mischief. “In fact,” he said, pulling the lollipop out of his mouth with a loud pop and threatening to lick you. The trail of sticky sugar covering his lips in a reddish tint from the cherry, his favorite, flavored candy. “I already sent a message to the renter.”

“Toru, spill it,” you pushed, pinching his cheek and with a theatrical roll of his pretty blue eyes, he put his phone into your hand, sticking the candy back into his mouth. You leaned back against Suguru’s chest again and with his head on your shoulder, you swiped through the pictures of the offer. “It… does look nice?”

“Sus,” the brunette mumbled, reaching to swipe over the screen with his own finger. “Very sus. What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it,” Satoru said in fake offense and got up to his knees to peek on what you two were doing, sticking his nose in front of the screen so aggressively that you had to push him away. “But—”

“Wait, is there one bedroom in this apartment?” You noticed. The pictures you were analyzing all showed the same room and the living area with joined kitchen, the bathroom, and again the same room, and some weird kind of storage? and again the same room.

“That explains a lot,” Suguru laughed lightly and leaned back again.

“We can see the place in an hour” Satoru showed off his pearly whites. “Come on, let’s at least see it, yeah?”

“I guess we can see it,” you gave it a nod. “The price is really nice.”

“Alright… so let’s get going.”

And so, all of you hopped on the bikes, you behind Satoru, and took the ride to see the apartment. Turned out, it really was perfect. Despite the apartment having just one bedroom, it was spacious enough to fit all three of you. The bed was so big it could easily fit five and during the many years of friendship, you and two of your friends shared way too many single person mattresses, sandwiched and squished together to think twice about it. The odd storage room seemed to be a perfect candidate to become a guest room (later called: a fuck room).

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Satoru grinned, looking at both of you as he was bouncing his ass on the bed, testing it as if he was already the owner.

“It is nice, I’ll admit,” you said, looking at Suguru to hear his opinion, but the man seemed to be thinking still. “Sug?”

“For me, it’s perfect. But,” he looked at you, a concern clearly written in his eyes, “is it alright with you?”

Geto has a way of constantly reminding you why you love him. He doesn’t look like it, in fact, he looks quite intimidating to anyone who doesn’t know him, but to you he’s just the sweetest, most caring friend you could ever wish for. If anyone was to worry about your comfort, it was him because it is true that all three of you slept together already, sharing sheets and being as close and personal as it was possible, but a random sleepover doesn’t equal sleeping with them every single day.

“It’s fine with me, don’t worry,” you reassured him, squeezing his bicep playfully.

“If it’s fine with you, then I guess we have a place.”

taglist: @kibananya, @r0ckst4rjk, @rixo-19, @soraya-daydreams

[genderqueerdykes]

Ditch Etsy for Good: A Disabled Etsy Seller's Experience

i started my Etsy store in August of 2022. I was in desperate need of income at the time, as I am disabled, and waiting for my full disability payments to come through. I currently make $245/month off of a general assistance program that's meant to "help" while you're waiting for those payments.

I needed, at the time, $900/month for my studio apartment, because I was on a month-to-month lease, and could not re-new it, as I was the secondary renter, and my abusive ex whom I could not contact was the primary renter. They needed his signature to renew the lease, or else I was on month-to-month status, which meant they could increase my rent to whatever price they saw fit at any point.

I was struggling to stay alive. I had a bunch of kandi supplies I had gathered over the years, pony beads, string, all that kind of stuff. So i accrued some extra supplies to make other types of necklaces and chokers. Keep in mind my level of poverty, and the level of inflation in 2022. I was having to accrue supplies secondhand, from thrift stores. Everything I bought and sold was upcycled, save for the few times I could afford things to fill in the gaps from craft stores.

After I gathered supplies, I went to work. I spent countless hours making all types of jewelry. Not really sleeping. Just countless hours of stringing beads, if I woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream or stress about homelessness, I would go back to work. I've been homeless before. Several times. Never lived on the street or in a shelter, but I have lived in hotels, cars, crashed on couches and have run from getting kicked out for making little money endless times.

I drank a lot of coffee and ate very little. Eating consumed time, time that I didn't have. Once I was done making things, it was time to photograph every. single. item., then edit them, and upload them to Etsy. I had to create listings for each individual item, all of which cost $0.20 to create, and again to renew when it ran out in 3 months if not purchased. There was already a start-up cost.

Shipping made my life a nightmare. Etsy charged me for each and every single label. I tried free shipping at first, as it's a huge draw for customers, but labels were around $3.69 from my state to the mainland United States at the time, creeping ever closer to $4. For anywhere else it would easily come to $10 or more, international shipping was easily $20 - $40. Even if the customer paid for shipping I still had to go through the process of purchasing a label.

This didn't account for the fact that I had to purchase printer, ink and paper at some point to keep printing these labels. Ink is wildly expensive and your cartridges run out faster than they should. They are rigged to flag as empty when they're not. This also does not account for ink and paper lost when the printer does something in error, which is often. The office at my apartment complex was willing to print labels and packing slips for me for a while, but they cut me off after a few months.

The biggest kick in the teeth was the processing time for my payments. Because I shipped my first few orders without tracking labels. Etsy put a hold on my money for the next 3 months. They would take a random amount of time to process each payment. I could never figure out the schedule. My money would sometimes take days or weeks to arrive when I set Etsy to a "daily" payment schedule. It was torture. I was sweating over not having money constantly, and missing payment deadlines left and right.

I was getting orders at every hour of the day. I didn't "clock out" of this job. I had to change the notification sound of the Etsy Seller app on my phone because when I heard it, I would panic. I wasn't excited, I was filled with dread. It was never ending, and I was constantly stressed about getting orders out on time. I never had time to rest. I didn't get days off. I was on the job 24/7. Unless you completely uninstall the Etsy app and refuse to check it fora while, you can't really clock out of this job.

This isn't even touching the fact that Etsy also takes a cut out of every single sale you make, meaning you have to jack up your prices wildly either to make free shipping reasonable so you're not losing money on each sale, or you have to play a dance of figuring out what the best balance between shipping and item costs are, which is time consuming. It's a lot of math and comparing against your niche's market.

Etsy has an ads feature, which you must again pay for, where they will run ads for your products in random banner ads and whatnot. You are charged if one customer clicks the ad, not purchases something, meaning this is a complete fucking scam. The minimum is $1/day and you are forced to subscribe monthly. You can cancel at any point, but sometimes it takes a full day for this to cancellation to go through. The Etsy Ads feature sucks ass. I received exactly 2 orders through their service and kept it on for a few weeks here and there. It's horrid. You do not receive a significant enough boost in traffic to make the investment worth it. Also consider how many people use adblockers these days. This isn't hard to see.

The amount of time you have to spend promoting and boosting your own shop, buying supplies, creating and photographic products, uploading them to the website, and everything else in between is not worth the amount of money you make. You do not turn a profit unless you are selling very high end products like fine jewelry and antiques. Anyone else in the bottom rungs loses money through one avenue or another, Etsy finds ways to make the entire process draining and expensive for the seller.

The also will not provide you a 1099 document to file your taxes for your earned income unless you have made over $25,000 in one year on Etsy, which is literally impossible unless you make, as I said, fine jewelry. The average Etsy seller does not make this much in one year. We do not make a liveable wage, yet Etsy pretends like we do.

I didn't realize how draining it was to run this store until I put it in vacation mode. I'm shutting it down as soon as I'm able to. I could not handle the pressure of orders coming in in the middle of the night. I could not handle the pressure of not being able to remember which bracelets I could wear, and which ones were up on the store. Or which ones I could give to friends freely without having to issue someone a refund because I made a mistake. The worry of sending the wrong customer the wrong product was constantly on my mind. Every review that came in made me scared I had fucked up or provided an inferior product. I was distraught, broken and scared.

Now I'm much more free. The piddly jackshit amount of income I made was not worth it at all. I don't think I made back the cost of supplies and I definitely was never compensated for the sheer amount of labor I put into my products and orders. Etsy just kept kicking me while I was down and now that they have made it so that you are unable to file a class action lawsuit against them, they are only becoming more tyrannical.

Etsy does not care about their small sellers. They only care about the big cash cows who bring in big views and line Etsy's pockets with the Etsy Ads program. If you're too poor too keep up they'll chew you up and spit you out. Fuck Etsy. Fuck the lack of respect for their sellers. Fuck them for holding my money randomly for 3 months because I didn't know tracking labels were REQUIRED in their eyes. Fuck Etsy for never letting me know when I was getting paid, and for paying me on such an irregular schedule. Fuck Etsy for the fucked up fees and expensive shipping labels.

Fuck Etsy for everything. Let them go. Cut the cord. Navigate to Ko-Fi or somewhere else. Let this horrid site fucking die.

[copperbadge]

I was reading your buying a home tag because I am in the process of buying my first home and just like. How do you not feel every second you are about to make some huge mistake??? I have found something I think I really like but it was way faster than everyone I know who owns a house has said they found something and I don’t know how to tell if I am settling or if I will regret it!

Oh, I mean, I absolutely felt like I was about to make a huge mistake the whole entire time. I just had to do it anyway in the knowledge that my anxiety ramps up about anything uncertain and I have to ignore my brain in favor of the facts.

I know I'm a bit late replying to this, but if you found something you like, take it. You'll just compare everything else you see to the thing you like and the odds of regret are pretty high. The only caveat to that is make sure that you get a good thorough home inspection and you listen to any red flags that pop up (that's the "in favor of the facts" part).

I went for a home with "good bones but bad skin" -- it was an older build and hadn't been renovated, had ugly kitchen cabinets and terrible paint, in part because I knew I wouldn't be able to afford a home that had been renovated more recently. I am actually glad I did; I have friends who bought "flipped" homes and while most of them have still been happy with their purchase, even having to invest extra to fix shit the flippers did shoddily, I do know one or two people who ended up with absolute nightmares. I'd love to renovate my place, but I'd need to save pretty significant cash -- but the only way to do that was to be an owner instead of a renter so that I had equity.

Like yeah I just dropped almost ten grand on a new HVAC and some plumbing repairs, but I was five years into the home and both were things I had already intended to do when I bought. Once that's all paid off I'm going to start putting feelers out about having the kitchen redone and start saving/investing for that.

So, I guess my advice is, acknowledge that you're afraid you're making a mistake, be realistic about seeing any signs you're making a mistake, but also remind yourself that anxiety is designed to keep us safe from getting eaten by tigers, and so we tend to overreact to ambiguity. You'll do great! Good luck to ya.

[meret118]

Among the proposals in Project 2025 relating to racial policy include stripping workforce protections from disproportionately Black federal workers; eliminating programs like minority business loans, and abolishing federal data collection on Black employment and discrimination.

But that's just the beginning, wrote Harriot: the criminal justice policy in Project 2025 can be best summed up as "Get tough on Black crime, go easy on white cops. They plan to end EVERY CONSENT DECREE filed against corrupt police agencies, undo bail reform, bring back 'stop and frisk' & use the death penalty 'when possible' — ESPECIALLY for drug dealers; Can you hear the dog whistles?

"Additionally, he wrote, Project 2025 calls for delisting white supremacist groups as terrorist organizations for the sake of protecting "free speech," and enshrining a very specific version of Christian nationalism in law that caters to predominantly white evangelical churches on a broad range of policies, giving preference to these beliefs over the beliefs of Black churches as well as the nonreligious.

"If Project 2025 became law ... not only would it repeal FDA approval for abortion drugs & sue states that require employers to cover abortions, they would rescind federal funds from any company, contractor or healthcare institution that provides LEGAL abortions," he added.

And to top it all off, Project 2025 also calls for expanding school vouchers, which were originally devised as a tool to get around school integration mandates and to this day predominantly flow to white families; as well as eliminating programs for minority renters and homebuyers, ending oversight of racial bias in real estate appraisals, which are a key obstacle to Black families building generational wealth; defunding underperforming schools, which often underperform because of ongoing segregation; and eliminating any mention of "equity" or similar terms from federal regulations.

What makes all of this particularly frightening, Harriot concluded, is that Project 2025 "is NOT a Trump Plan; it is a CONSERVATIVE plan. Many of the Project 2025 appointees can be installed by a GOP Senate. The House controls the country's purse strings, and A GOP-majority in the House enact the program in these plans WITHOUT Trump. And because it embeds MAGA workers in the gov't, it could be GENERATIONS before" we can get rid of the "MAGA infestation of the federal government."

[miniscrew-anon]

Miniscrews Masterlist

Yup, I finally got off my ass and put together a list of all my writing so that you guys can find things easier! Yay for lists and learning how to hyperlink! Now you guys can actually find all my stuff if you want (and I have an easy way of finding my old works too lol) The downside of being anon.

AO3 Stories:

You, Me and a Couple Loose Screws - Four is trying to work but Shadow just wants to be a bother, HSH

The Ace Space (is being invaded) - Four manually fixes everyones sex lives, LMTCOY

First Contact - Twilight calls up his uncle to see if he can move in, HSH

What I see my Shadow Sees - Shadow's point of view of HSH1, HSH

Like a House on Fire - Oops the house is burning down and everyone responsible is away, HSH

HSH: The Cold War - The house fights for control of the thermostat, HSH

It’s Something - A FourShadow exploration of their sex lives with an asexual, LMTCOY

180 Rupees Well Spent - The smutty Wartime sex swing fic by popular demand, LMTCOY

Old Car, New Roads - Four and Shadow talk shop, cars and future plans, HSH

Home Sweet Home: Oofs and Ouchies - My Febuwhump 2023 Collection, St0rmyverse

On Display, After Hours - Filthy Twark Smut taking place in an IKEA after hours, LMTCOY

What do you mean love is real? - Four realizes he's AroAce. While dating a bunch of people, HSH

He's Venting (seems kinda sus) - Time discovers Four's artistic hobby and has a bit of a problem with it, HSH

Add to Cart - The boys go furniture shopping and Four is forced to own his own room, HSH

Dear Sir Landlord - Warriors tries to abuse renters laws via email, HSH

Snippets and Other Things:

Perspective Flip on “You, Me and a Couple Loose Screws”

Ceiling Spider - Who wins: Shadow or a garage spider?

Dead on Revival - Shadow and Dark have a talk over Fours dead body, Count Darkula verse

Daddy Bram Stoker - Shadow and Dark discuss the father of modern vampires, Count Darkula verse

Silly Straws - Four and Shadow having a snack, Count Darkula Verse

A Dark and Shadowy Night - A typical night out for the skrunkly duo

Boys will be Boys - Just dudes being dudes

Ghost Kitchen - Four gets revenge on Wild, Funeral Derangements verse

Sex-Ed (or lack thereof) - A small collection of Hyrule and Four lamenting over the complete lack of safe sex and common sense the other links seem to have, LMTCOY verse

Measuring Stick - The boys have a literal dick measuring contest. As usual, Hyrule and Four suffer

What you find in the Dark - Time has a nightmare and Warriors is there, LMTCOY verse

Like and Subscribe - Yes Dark does and yes he will, LMTCOY Verse

Other Stuff:

HSH Castle Town House Layout - Not a story but a badly drawn house plan that I use when I write my stories.

A Small Exploration of my Blorbo (Four) - A small character analysis based on what I know about him.

These are in no order. I should have put them together based on which verse but I forgot and now I cant move them because hyperlink. oops lol. My life is in shambles.

[echodrops]

The Promises I’m Making (2024)

Sheesh, this year it was even harder than last year to make promises. In particular, I really wanted to focus on promises that wouldn't cost as much money as in prior years, so I tried to steer clear of too many promises that would cost above the basic spending amounts... But it turns out it is really hard to make resolutions if you're broke. 😂

So here's what I'm going with:

2024 Promises

1) Step down from my administrative position and return to being a full-time faculty member. I literally cannot take the clown show that is admin at my work anymore. It is actually killing me.

2) Related to this, redecorate my new office as soon as they decide where they are going to move me.

3) Apply for new jobs!! APPLY FOR NEW JOBS!!!

4) Train my replacement in the chair position well so they are super prepared to take over in fall.

5) Put a new sink/vanity in the downstairs bathroom of the Utah house.

6) Get both bedroom floors sanded in the Utah house upstairs.

7) Finally get rid of the dirt pile in front of the Utah house.

8) Take down the remains of the wooden fence posts at the Utah house.

9) Fully clean out and prepare the Utah house to be rented out to new renters. Hopefully the next people won’t sneak in a parrot that poops all over the floor… RIP…

10) Clean off my back patio/car port area so I can park my car there again.

11) Call the plumber and replace the faucets. Even if I end up having to do it myself.

12) Get the dead tree removed from the Texas house yard and call the internet company to see about the cable around the tree root.

13) Plant roses where the old ones died in front of the Texas house. 

14) Replace my CPU fan; the bearings are going out and it’s making an annoying noise.

15) Organize my documents (especially student papers)—my desktop and documents folders give me nightmares just looking at them. 

16) Related to that, lose at least 20 pounds. 2020-2023 was not kind to me and the stress eating was real.

17) Do at least one artwork to actually use that paint program I bought. 

18) Pay my credit debt down by at least $2000. I’m still paying off the hell year, but I hope I can make progress on this.

19) Buy all the Noragami volumes I am missing and do a complete re-read of Noragami now that the series is finishing up.

20) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it.

21) Finish at least five books this year.

22) Update HaaH at least once. Please, Echo???

23) Reach the new level cap with all jobs in FFXIV!

24) Go to the graduation ceremony for my family friend.

25) Catch up with hanging up all the charms/pins I’ve gotten recently on my corkboards; these are just sitting in boxes/bags around the house. D;

26) Fully deep clean and vacuum/detail my own car at home. No more of the “It doesn’t make sense to clean it out now; the dog is just going to go back in it.” The dog is always going to go back in it. Clean it, Echo.

27) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

28) See at least three new species of birds. Doesn’t matter where, just three new ones!

29) Reach 3500 followers. Can I do it? You should follow me if you’re not already; I’m pretty cool. Just sayin’!

30) Cancel all the subscriptions I don’t need. There’s literally no reason to sit around letting companies passively profit off me when I don’t even really use the services/the services keep getting worse while the costs keep going up.

31) Go out on at least a day trip to take pictures with my friend. We haven’t done this in quite some time. I need to touch grass.

32) Repair the lovely one-of-kind ceramic plate that my dog broke with kintsugi. I want to try it at least once!

33) Really look hard for my passport in my house. It’s been missing for like a year and a half now, and I don’t want to have to pay for a new one.

34) Put all the small prints, postcards, and stickers I have collected in my new mini-print books. I can even use up washi tape to decorate too. (Finally, a purpose for the washi tape…)

35) Shred the million pieces of old mail I have lying around the house. I finally got the shredder so it just makes sense to use it.

36) Have more follow-through with chores. It’s not enough to wash the clothes or do the dishes if I then procrastinate on folding the clean laundry and putting the dried dishes back in the cabinets…

37) Put reminders for birthdays and major events in my phone as well as set a monthly reminder to check these promises. Maybe I’ll be able to keep more promises if I look at the list more often throughout the year!

38) Since I can’t afford to go to the salon, spa, etc. too much this year, I should at least do some self-care days at home. Will this be the year I finally manage to use all the fancy scrubs and face masks and bath salts I keep getting from people?

39) Use up one whole notebook. It doesn’t matter what goes in the notebook, but I gotta use the whole thing from cover to cover. I have so many pretty notebooks that never get used just because they’re pretty.

40) Change the burned-out lightbulbs in the recessed lighting in the Texas house ceiling. It’s like twelve feet high and the lightbulb charger stick I bought didn’t work, so I’m going to have to find someone with a ladder. Save me, handyman. Save me.

41) Build the pretty koi paper lantern my brother got me, or the Korean temple model my coworker gave me after his trip to Korea.

42) Actually use the yoga mat I bought forever ago. At least a few times, please???

43) Finish watching the Fruits Basket remake with Kacchan. I think we stopped in the second season, RIP.

44) Spend more time with coworkers—go out to lunch more often.

45) See about removing the PMI from at least one of my house loans to try to save money. I’ve been paying on these loans long enough I shouldn’t need PMI anymore.

46) Practice my German skills (or I guess other language skills?) by translating something at least once a month.

47) Get a new bookshelf. The current ones in both my office and foyer are already overflowing. @_@

48) Make more time to call people and talk on the phone. Texting is not the same. D;

49) Get the new COVID vaccine to stay healthy.

50) I will keep my promises! 

Good luck, 2024’s me!

[palmtreepalmtree]

If this were an AITA, I think this would be an ESH. Like this is a fucking nightmare to happen to your property. But I also kinda cringe that she bought a house and then immediately put it on the rental market for $8,500 and didn't vacate the apartment she was obviously paying way less money for (like people are free to make money and manage their money, I get it, but the housing sitch here is real fucking bad so my well of sympathy is low).

But also, scammers gonna scam, I guess?

Fuck Airbnb, goes without saying.

Just...for real, everybody sucks here.

[nest-being]

it is so unbelievably telling that every single response to this post is from a woman saying they feel the same way. women are hit so much harder by housing insecurity i stg. escaping domestic violence, ending up with nothing and trying to find a home as a single mother is so incredibly difficult. australia is a nightmare realm for renters, regardless of gender, but getting dogpiled by white men on the post i made about hating australia the other day really highlighted to me that many men just have absolutely no idea the challenges that women actually face here. having moved 5 times as a child, it's hugely disruptive and difficult to have to adjust to new environments over and over again and i know so many who have had it way worse than me. at least my mum was eventually able to buy a house on her single income. with the price of rentals these days, there's little chance of anyone being able to save up and buy a home, especially when you have kids to support. even without kids, the anxiety of being potentially kicked/priced out of your home every year is intense. fuck australia. fuck the housing market here. fuck the people who have turned housing into nothing more than an investment for greedy politicians and rich people.

[riteflyzing]

I discovered after hatching a nest for a renter that the parents didn't both have "return to [user]" notes in their bios, only one did, so I checked the trade receipts and the user who sent me the dragons wasn't the username in the one parent's bio.

I've had people request that I send the dragons to a different user than themselves once the nest hatches but they hadn't mentioned that so to be on the safe side I sent the dragons back to the person who sent them. Worst case scenario with that course of action they have to do another couple CRs on their end.

Which lead me to thinking god, can you imagine if the name in the bio was from a previous owner of the dragon and this person hadn't thought to change the bios so their dragons and hatchlings were sent to some rando? Nightmare...

[sronti]

Ez tényleg nagyon hosszú, viszont az egyik legjobb, amit lakhatás témában mostanában olvastam, pedig elég sokat olvastam mostanában erről.

[titleknown]

HELLOWEEN #9: GENTIFLACCIO

-GENTIFLACCIO is a Great Mesne-Lord of Hell, with 144 Buroughs and 1,285 individual dwellings to his name. He may create mansions and fotresses in a night, and may be called to extract unpaid debts and transmute the flesh of others into gold piece-meal.

He appears as an ugly giant with a mouth in his chest, a great castle sprouting from his back and siege engines jutting from his upper body. He requires blood for his summoning, freely given by its owner as payment for a debt, though this blood may be taken from the summoner and given to Gentiflaccio to pay their debt to him-

...The author of the Final Testament seemed to struggle to understand the appearance of Gentiflaccio, as rooted in modernity as his construction-equipment arms and horrible McDonalds-Mansion-meets-post-modern-skyscraper acme may attest. Though, at least they tried, which as an author who is also a book is an effort most appreciated.

One might make the joke that "Of course there are landlords in Hell," but that would perhaps undercut the true gargantuan nightmare of Hell's land-lords. There are depths of rent-seeking depravity that would chill you to the bone, innovations that break the very laws of life itself. I have seen a streamlined biomechanical demonic Human Centipede as a rooming arrangement. I have seen a potential tenant call it "a good deal, for this side of town"

In that respect, the horror of Gentiflaccio's operations might seem superficially tame. But the scale of his operations and the gaudiness of his actions was evident in our conversation. 

His office was gaudy in a way that went past charmingly tacky into grotesque, not helped by the majority of the architecture being the bodies of certain tenants transmuted into gold, twisted and screaming. This was apparently common enough that he had developed a process for warping them into the positions he desired as they coagulated "A great asset to any showcase" he said.

The place was at once gargantuan and lonely, containing only him and me and the ugliest furniture excessive quantities of money can buy. He was easy to speak to, as my superficial flattery convinced him this was a puff piece, but the casualness with which he spoke of atrocities was in itself revealing. 

He spoke of tenants forced to give up their limbs to afford increased rent, leaving them crawling like worms to offer their tongues in exchange, of homes flattened (Perfectly legally according to the laws of hell) with the tenants still inside in such a way that their flesh was perfectly preserved to sell or; of course, transmute, of the efficiency of the boxes he built where "nobody knows anybody, so they don't have anything to distract them," and spoke elegaicly at the violence over two individuals eating each other alive over a singular apartment that he was offering.

He in particular was proud of the innovative home system he had based upon his own crainium. At the lower-level (As is considered the acme of Hell) was a simple suburban pseudo-mansion, which he described in the most glowing of terms in a way that boiled down to it being bloated, tacky, soulless, and built for the semiotics of wealth without any purpose therein, then ascending to the apex of skyscrapers as designed by a worm-ridden mind, studio-apartments into cubicles into pods, in an inverted pyramid that both conveyed excess and blocked out competition.

In particular he was proud of the rental arrangement where, at random, one individual studio was given to the dweller in the pseudo-mansion to do with as they wished, tenants included, "It's like they get to be little landlords" he said after describing something done by one bottom renter that was so profoundly hideous that I do not dare share it here.

He spoke with pride at the violence at which accompanied his housing plans, oblivious to any veiled criticisms I spoke of, thanking me whenever I voiced them. I recall him saying "The thing you oughtta know, and I say this as a gift most people don't get this for free, is that business is violence! And If i can inspire one person to go into business, I know I've done my part."

As he spoke to me, he was shoveling money into his gullet. Just, eating money, right in front of me. His mouth was full as he spoke as well. At one point he broke a tooth eating a particularly large jewel. He ate both the tooth and the jewel.

Expected, but unpleasant.

-Xavier X. Xolomon , Monsterologist and Understudy to The Librarian Of Babel

----------------------------------------------

So, I had that brainworm of the castle-headed guy Wayne Barlowe previewed in his old Guide to Extraterrestrials, and I figured I might as well combine it with the horror that is McMansions for this guy.

I will say, I may re-write this later, or at least further revisit Xavier's meeting with this character, as I feel unsatisfied with it in terms of conveying what a big deal this guy is and how his operations hurt people, at least with it rushed on this deadline. Even if I did include a little dude next to him for scale.

The buildings I used for the skyscraper part were actually mainly from PD/royalty free pictures of Frank Gehry's work because... God I hope I don't come off as reactionary for this, but his buildings look like if skyscrapers had tumors and then those tumors were extracted to become their own buildings. 

They look like if Everywhere at the End of Time was a Dr Seuss book. They look like if Cool World underwent gentrification and Barry Jackson was always  offscreen weeping a single tear like in a political cartoon.

And for the record, yes the money-eating was inspired by a very specific ProZD sketch, and yes the use of a McMansion as a base was inspired by the great @mcmansionhell

As per usual the whole descriptions, designs, ectcetera from this project are free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

[citiesandtowns]

Last year, troubled by the seeming intractability of these problems, I began looking for solutions outside the United States. Could the answer be rent control, as in Berlin? It might have seemed that way a decade or so ago, before investors and new residents began pouring into the city, causing land values to quintuple; now, despite rent-stabilization laws, even the apartments that no one else wanted to buy 15 years ago are huge moneymakers. Many residents with affordable rental contracts are locked into them because it would be too expensive or competitive to move. Frustrated by the housing squeeze, tenant organizers recently put forth an “expropriation” measure, which called for landlords with more than 3,000 units to sell their holdings back to the government at below-market prices. In a 2021 referendum, 59 percent of Berliners voted in favor of it, but it’s not clear whether it will ever be implemented.

Could the answer be loosening zoning restrictions, as Tokyo did in 2002? That has certainly helped. In 2014, there was more home construction in the city than in all of England. Since then, home prices have stabilized. Tokyo is largely celebrated as a model by YIMBYs (members of the “yes, in my backyard” movement) because they like its market-driven approach to housing abundance. They often point out that the city builds five times as much housing per capita as California. But Japan is a very different market because of its earthquake risk: Because regulatory codes and mitigation technologies are ever improving, structures often fully depreciate within 35 years. Older homes are often undermaintained because there’s little expectation that any investment might be recaptured upon resale; they’re thought of like used clothing or cars — you resell at a loss.

Auckland, New Zealand, might seem like a more applicable example. In 2016, the city, which has one of the most expensive housing markets in the world, “upzoned” 75 percent of its residential land, increasing its legal capacity for housing by about 300 percent in an effort to encourage multifamily-housing construction and tamp down prices. In areas that were upzoned, the total number of building permits granted (a way of estimating new construction) more than quadrupled from 2016 to 2021. As intended, the relative value of underdeveloped land increased, because it could suddenly host more housing, and the relative value of units in densely developed areas decreased, tempering sky-high prices. But there are limits to what upzoning can do. Often the benefits of allowing greater density are captured by developers, who price the new units far above cost. It doesn’t offer renters security or directly create the type of housing most needed: affordable housing.

That’s what differentiates Vienna. Perhaps no other developed city has done more to protect residents from the commodification of housing. In Vienna, 43 percent of all housing is insulated from the market, meaning the rental prices reflect costs or rates set by law — not “what the market will bear” or what a person with no other options will pay. The government subsidizes affordable units for a wide range of incomes. The mean gross household income in Vienna is 57,700 euros a year, but any person who makes under 70,000 euros qualifies for a Gemeindebau unit. Once in, you never have to leave. It doesn’t matter if you start earning more. The government never checks your salary again. Two-thirds of the city’s rental housing is covered by rent control, and all tenants have just-cause eviction protections. Such regulations, when coupled with adequate supply, give renters a level of stability comparable to American owners with fixed mortgages. As a result, 80 percent of all households in Vienna choose to rent.

The key difference is that Vienna prioritizes subsidizing construction, while the United States prioritizes subsidizing people, with things like housing vouchers. One model focuses on supply, the other on demand. Vienna’s choice illustrates a fundamental economic reality, which is that a large-enough supply of social housing offers a market alternative that improves housing for all.

[mysweetlouise]

full list of horror starters!

horror themed starters.

[ movie loading . . . ]

NOW PLAYING: SCREAM 

best viewed in groups of two.

a person is home alone, cooking dinner, when they get a call from a random number. what begins as playful banter soon devolves into a fight for their life as they realize their mystery caller may be closer than they think.

NOW PLAYING: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL

best viewed in groups of four or more.

when a group of strangers finds themselves summoned to an old manor to spend the night, the reason is seemingly simple: their eccentric host was promised one million dollars to whoever can stay the entire night. however, the game isn't that easy. they aren't alone, and the supernatural forces of the house want them to stay forever.

NOW PLAYING: MISERY

best viewed in groups of two.

after a car wreck, someone wakes up in a house they don't recognize, being nursed back to health by a seemingly kind person claiming to be their biggest fan. things get dicey when they realize their "guardian angel" won't let them leave. 

NOW PLAYING: SKINAMARINK

best viewed in groups of two.

two friends find themselves trapped in a hazy nightmare after an accident, and must reckon with a mysterious entity, as well as their own troubled pasts, to find their way home.

NOW PLAYING: EVIL DEAD

best viewed in groups of three or more.

on what's supposed to be a pleasant getaway for a small group of friends, the discovery of an eldritch artifact leads to hellish mayhem.

NOW PLAYING: YOU'RE NEXT

best viewed in groups of three or more.

the tension at what should be a family celebration becomes thick enough to cut - and when a group of masked criminals break in, it is.

NOW PLAYING: IT

best viewed in groups of three or more.

after fighting a terrifying creature as children, a few friends reunite in their adulthood to face their fears and destroy the monster for good.

NOW PLAYING: CARRIE

best viewed in groups of two.

when a troubled individual, bullied and ostracized in their daily life, discovers that they have strange and deadly telekinetic powers, they are eventually pushed to exact bloody revenge on their tormentors.

NOW PLAYING: SAW

best viewed in groups of two.

two strangers awake in an abandoned building, odd devices attached to their bodies and a tape player between them. they've been chosen for a deadly game - how far will they go to survive?

NOW PLAYING: ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S PSYCHO

best viewed in groups of two.

searching for a missing friend, a worried traveler finds themself in a vintage roadside bed and breakfast. however, the charming innkeeper has something to hide, and the traveler has the sinking feeling they won't be finding their friend alive.

NOW PLAYING: THE SHINING

best viewed in groups of two or more, with muses with prior experience in the manor.

a person finds themself drawn to an old manor with a companion/friend/partner/stranger or others as a caretaker, only to find that the building has many secrets. when odd events and increasingly erratic encounters challenge their perception of reality, they must grapple with the fact that they may have lived this before. they need to fight against the role they're forced into, or risk continuing the cycle of reality warping terror.

NOW PLAYING: MIDSOMMAR

best viewed in groups of five. strictly 18+.

when a group of friends is invited to a mysterious festival, it's only a matter of time until the celebrations turn deadly.

NOW PLAYING: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 

best viewed in groups of two or three.

a documentary crew becomes lost while trying to document a local urban legend. strange things begin to happen, and they must band together or risk dying in the woods - or worse. 

NOW PLAYING: LAST NIGHT IN SOHO 

best viewed in groups of two.

after taking up residence as a renter in a historic house, the tenant begins having intense, strange dreams of the past. as their life starts to unravel, will they solve the mystery, or fall prey to their own distraction?

NOW PLAYING: POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN

​​​best viewed in groups of two.

two friends (or more?) go shopping, and realize they're being followed by someone... or something. 

NOW PLAYING: I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM 

best viewed in groups of three or more.

held at the mercy of a spiteful godlike being, a small group of survivors finds themselves tortured, warped beyond recognition, and forced to fight for their survival and sanity.

[ more movies coming soon. ] 

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Ghosts Masterlist

A Day in the…Life? - diannagaygron

Summary:  A day in the… er, life of Dan and his ghost boyfriend, Phil.

Bury the Dead Beneath You (ao3) - pinkieprimpotter

Summary: It was a car accident. A car had rammed into Dan, as he was texting Phil that he was just down the street. He was trapped behind heat and metal, and he felt so much pain he thought he would be ripped apart.

Communication (ao3) - cafephan

Summary: Phil persuades Dan to investigate a renowned haunted house with him on Halloween.

Ghost light (ao3) - winstonlives

Summary: Dan forgets his phone charger and notebook at the latest venue. It wouldn’t be too bad but he needs that notebook. When they get back to the theater they are warned about making noise because it angers the resident ghost. Dan being a skeptic doesn’t pay much attention. He should have.

Ghostly - fiction-phan

Summary: Dan Howell has been able to see ghosts his whole life. Things have gone from bad to worse now that his mother remarried and he finds himself sharing his new room with Phil, avery good looking guy. A guy, who happens to be dead.

Ghosts Like Riding Elevators, It Raises Their Spirits (ao3) - abriata

Summary: Phil has a ghost, a roommate agreement, and a deliberately willful blindness to the practicalities of Life.

Haunted - ficster28

Summary: In which Dan is a ghost. Just. Because.

Hold Me In Your Cold Arms (ao3) - Edgy_Trashbag

Summary: A suicidal Dan moves into an old so called 'haunted' house. But the ghost is cute, and amazing.

Losing a Life (To Gain Another) - harajukuhowell

Summary: Dan’s a ghost and a bit of a cock block but Phil likes him anyways.

Middle Of Nowhere - dxnhowell

Summary:  Dan is heading towards his family house when a storm hits, causing his car to break down. Dan finds a hotel in the middle of nowhere, while staying at this hotel, Dan meets the manager named Phil Lester. But, not everything is what it seems to be when he talks to one of the employees.

Never Trust A Ouija Board - phansomedevil

Summary: In which Dan and Phil have a ghost.

Notice Me - full-dark-no-starss

Summary: Dan Howell just wants to be noticed by his crush Phil Lester. He never thought he’d be more visible as a ghost.

Paranormal Phantivity - sexyendscreensmut

Summary: Phil is haunted by not-dead university student and fan Dan Howell. Set in 2009 prior to the filming of Philisnotonfire1.

The Doorknob (ao3) - kae_karo

Summary: Dan moves to a London flat, after dropping out of Uni. Some strange things start happening (Dan POV)

The Ghost of You - auroraphilealis

Summary:  Dan keeps seeing the ghost of Phil, but he doesn’t know who it is, so he keeps asking his friend who it is. Turns out Phil saved Dan and died instead, and Dan had temporary amnesia from the accident. None of his friends wanted to tell him as they thought it was better he couldn’t remember.

The Haunted Nightmare - jilliancares

Summary: Dan doesn’t know what to do when a ghost by the name of Phil starts haunting him.

Trying To Remember How It Feels (To Have A Heartbeat) (ao3) - phantasizeit

Summary: Dan moves into a new apartment in London and, though it’s a step up from his old apartment, his landlord gives him strange warnings while he’s touring the place– something about the last renters leaving because of ghost sightings. But, Dan doesn’t believe in the supernatural. He quickly changes his tune when he meets Phil Lester, the ghost haunting his apartment. Well, if haunting means quickly becoming the best friend he’s ever had.

Watchful - cafephan

Summary: Phil is part of one of the world’s most famous paranormal investigator groups, along with his friends Joe, Zoe and Louise. The never before investigated Harrowick Penitentiary catches the group’s attention, and they settle in the town for a week long investigation. Most importantly, they hope to make contact with one spirit in particular, Dan Howell, who was falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, and was murdered in the building. When Dan becomes attached to Phil, things become a lot more complicated.

Watching You - phantasyxo-blog

Summary: Phil is a ghost and watches Dan everyday.

You Are Not Trivial - phanimist

Summary: Dan being a ghost doesn’t once hinder the friendship between him and phil. the two are constantly there for each other, despite their various differences in problems, and they never let the concepts of what’s ‘real’ and what isn’t define them and the relationship they have.