Where I live, a common scam is for someone to knock on your door and say, "we're giving estimates to everyone in the neighborhood." I think it's the sort of scam that must be common in suburban areas, which is odd because A.) I do not live in a suburb and B.) I live in a very strange location that adds an almost fae-like surreal layer to the grift.
A nervous young man in an ill-fitting uniform knocks on my door and wants to know if I have problems with unwanted pests. Do I have any yellow jackets in my walls? Ants crawling across my counters? Spider season is upon us, am I ready?
He turns around and points in the distance.
At first, I think he is pointing up into the maple tree behind him. There is a low hanging cone of mud and spittle, a fully formed paper wasp nest. It has been active for months. The brood are voracious consumers of aphids and invasive grubs. Paper wasps are social creatures who recognize their neighbors, know how to avoid unnecessary conflict so long as resources are plentiful.
Instead, the young man is pointing at a house nearby. He calls the owner by name. Says he gave her an excellent price for treatment of the yard and house.
Her yard is sterile grass. No matter how she tries, nothing much else grows. Her daisies wilt in decent weather. Her plum trees do not blossom. There is no movement.
I have to step outside to properly continue speaking. The cats are trying to escape through the open threshold. They need kicking back, a door shutting. I cradle my cup of tea and beetles creep between my toes.
I ask him only, does it look like anything is unwanted here?
He blinks at me, then blinks again. Finally, he really looks.
There is no sterile grass. Only broadleaf herbs and purple clover and wild vetch toppling unto itself climbing up up up onto any surface. There are patches of field designated for flowers bursting in every color, always something blooming no matter the season. Gourds slither between corn stalks, over dragon's tongues.
Bees are resting on every blossom. Ants are keeping the soil aerated. Cicadas are humming in the summer heat. Damselflies are dancing to the tune.
A magnolia tree towers over us both, its leaves lousy with spicebush caterpillars.
Everything is living. Everything is dying. And nothing for the fault of simply existing.
The young man looks back at me with different eyes. He thanks me for my time.
He returns to his company car and I return inside. There is the overwhelming feeling that an unspoken test has been passed. Though neither of us is certain which one of us was the fae.
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Hey, it's Reinhard.Living with diabetes has always been tough, but now it's a matter of life and death. Insulin costs have gone so high and I can't afford it anymore. Meanwhile, my family's trapped in Rafah, Gaza, amidst militia chaos. My grandma's battling cancer, and we're stuck, helpless, and scared. They're holed up in an apartment building, surrounded. We need medication, a way out—anything to survive. Please, help us through this nightmare. Share our story, lend a hand if you can. We're counting on you.
i don't have money to begin with and you are a scammer
get the fuck out of my inbox and stop using a humanitarian crisis for your own financial gain
cunt
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Hi I can't stop thinking about Scam X Jodie. Like every time I stop thinking about something else, it just pops back up, like hey, remember this? Remember how fucking weird this is? What the fuck.
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father grimaldi: forgive me, lord, for i have sinned.
constantine: — understatement of the bloody century, that is.
father grimaldi: the chapel is closed to the public! who are you? how did you get in here . . .?
constantine: did you know vatican city has the highest per-capita crime rate of any nation state in the world? i'd have thought a touch of breaking and entering's pretty much par for the course around here.
so #1, an undeniable slay.
#2, how long do we think he was sitting in the confessional booth waiting for the guy to wake up from ellie's fake vision quest. like an hour? checking his light, practicing his Big Reveal Pose TM? he probably brought a book with him and just shoved it underneath the seat cushion when it was time to show off.
#3, knowing how intensely he studied & continues to study in order to teach himself magic at such an absurdly advanced level without any teachers to formally guide him? and how that level of dedication would absolutely carry over into researching a mark / making sure he had every corner of a confidence scheme nailed down pat? i like to imagine that the day before this meeting was spent with his severely under-caffeinated ass parked at a public library computer, squinting at articles for 'most important things to know about vatican city before you travel' or 'top 10 little-known facts about vatican city' and using the back of his boarding pass to take notes on what would be the best throwaway line to blow off all the usual questions with.
also, he probably woke up still in his travel clothes less than two hours before this scene and had to hustle to get suited up in time for his Dramatic Apparition. the demon blood was boiling so bad in that chapel that it was giving him a killer migraine. he didn't get breakfast so his stomach was growling the ENTIRE time. but all that meant was he had plenty of room to eat UP the runway and that's EXACTLY what the fuck he did.i'm
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freeloader!toji would have one of those like cheap plastic harmonicas for whenever you kick him out. he’ll suddenly have striped clothes on like he’s a prisoner and will play that harmonica horribly in front of your window like a cat that wont leave you alone. like you cant sleep at night its so rancid to listen to, tears in your eyes trying to get sleep while he’s heartbroken at your front door because now he can’t scam kids on your laptop on roblox in adopt me to make “profit” anymore
LMFAOOOOOOOOOOO I CANNOT BREATHEEKLESLKGF
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i cannot believe white people pay other white people to stick needles in their dog and call it "dog acupuncture". what in the colonialism hell?
it's bad enough to have white folks calling themselves buddhist while spouting conspiracy theory racism or white men thinking they're "kung fu" experts when they've never engaged with the intellectual/philosophical side of any martial arts and just use it for domineering violence
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Were this a lawless land I would obliterate whoever at Xfinity decided to raise my bill again for no good fucking reason.
I signed a fucking contract to pay a specific amount for a specific period of time they shouldn't be able to charge me more with almost zero notice and then force me to use their dogshit website where I have to reset my password in order to access my account and maybe figure out why the fuck they're doing this to me.
I can look into other internet service providers but this stupid company is the only one in many areas capable of delivering service to older homes and my chances don't feel good. Not to mention there's the possibility that they'll fucking charge me for quitting their service!
Edit: WAS ANYONE GONNA TELL ME THERE WAS A FUCKING SECURITY BREACH THAT AFFECTS ALL CUSTOMERS?! Supposedly they sent out an email when it happened, in late October, but I never got an email about it or a letter in the mail, meaning I didn't know until just fucking now that my username, password, and basically all personal information was hacked.
Yep. Whatever it takes I'm switching to another provider. This is absolute horseshit.
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