#will do considering i will be underpaid and underappreciated

[eerna]

at 16 I saw Yato's "don't stress about picking the perfect career because doing something you don't wanna do is part of having a job" and felt comforted, at 19 I was like "man, he has no idea what he's talking about, if you pick a hobby for your career you won't work a day in your life!!" and now at 24 I am back to the first one but in a "YEAAAAH DON'T DREAM OF LABOR SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACKKKKK" way

[scarletttries]

Kendall Roy Dating Reader with different jobs... (Succession Request)

Pairing: Kendall Roy x F!Reader

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: Just fluff, nothing explicit.

Author’s Note: I've had a bunch of different requests for what Kendall Roy would be like for a reader with a specific career/background so I thought I would write some headcanons for each job in this one post, enjoy! :)

Kendall Roy Dating Reader with different jobs...

Teacher! Reader

- Kendall never really considered the kind of selfless person you need to be to take a job that is endlessly tiring, chronically underpaid and completely underappreciated. His world was about hoarding money and power, leaving morals by the wayside once they started to get in your way.

- But trying to be a better dad to his children, he scheduled time once a week to pick them up from school himself, trying to be a more active parent now that he had lost his own. As his car finally rolled to a stop at pick-up after twenty minutes of sitting in traffic caused exclusively by black SVU's, he could feel his commitment to this wavering, willing himself to stroll up the front entrance and stand with all the other parents, like he was just one of the masses.

- That's where he saw you, perched on the stone steps, taking Iverson through his schedule for tomorrow as Sophie peered over your shoulder, voice so soothing Kendall could feel his shoulder began to drop as he stepped slowly towards you, a grin forming across his cheeks as he watched his son smile at your instructions.

"Dad!" Sophie would notice him first, pleasantly surprised that he not only followed through with his promise, but even looked happy to see them, running over to crash into his arms.

"Hey Soph! You and Ives ready to go, or are you still talking to Mrs...?" This wasn't the first time you'd had a dad trying to scope out your situation, but you couldn't help but warm towards him a little as his kids clung eagerly to his hands.

"Miss (Y/L/N), it's nice to meet you." You offered, extending your hand towards him in time for Sophie to let him go just long enough for him to reach out and shake it.

"Kendall Roy, I'll be doing pick up once a week now, so I'll see you around." He tried to say it casually, but you could tell from his beaming smile this man would be nothing but trouble for you.

- Surely enough the next week Kendall returns, having thought about little else and prying a few details unsubtly from Iverson about what turned out to be his favourite teacher. Expect weekly pick-up to start including gifts (for the kids and for you), Kendall insisting it's the least he could do for someone 'with an actually difficult job' finally building up the nerve to ask you if he can take you out for dinner the week before Winter break, as a thank you for being Iverson's favourite teacher.

- Once you accept, prepare to be fully suckered into Kendall's charm; this man knows how to plan a first date. He'll have orchestrated everything to give you the date of your dreams, before casually dropping into conversation that he's made an enormous donation to your school to ensure student have only the best supplies 'since he knows they already have the best teacher.'

- Seeing the way his kids adore you would have Kendall immediately thinking long term with you, exactly the type of kind, selfless, wholesome person that he has always wanted to be with.

Ballerina! Reader

- Kendall could hardly believe that Connor had dragged him out to some ridiculous ballet, just so Willa could rub shoulders with the theatre director in the hopes of producing another failing Broadway show. As he slumped into his box seat and leaned down over the railings he could almost peep behind the curtains at the side of the stage, seeing a few elegant forms flitting about as the lights began to dim.

- The moment you stepped on stage, he was captivated. The lightness with which you moved, the emotion your body portrayed so beautifully, the glistening beauty of your face as you stared up into the spotlight. Kendall felt like he couldn't take a breath the entire performance, hooked on your every step, everything about you ethereal and otherworldly.

- Kendall was rarely nervous, but he felt the butterflies stirring through his stomach as Connor and Willa dragged him backstage after the performance, leaving him alone and face-to-face with the object of his obsession. He'd walk past every other performer, you standing out to him even in a crowd of matching costumes and make-up. Gushing about your performance, his intensity might take you by surprise for a moment, but only long enough for him to completely win you over before you've finished your first glass of champagne.

- Once you start dating, Kendall is at every one of your performances, watching you dance from his private box and feeling like it's for him alone. His perfect performer, shining so brightly for him to marvel at. He'd consider inviting his family, so proud of the way you dance, but ultimately decides it feels too intimate to share with anyone else, a private dance for him every time you're on stage.

- After rehearsals expect Kendall to be cooing over your aching body, running luxurious baths full of oils and steaming salts, settling in behind you and having you lay back against his chest, soothing your tired muscles with soft strokes of his hands for as long as it takes for you to feel rested again. If you're sat on his sofa with him, he'll pull your feet onto his lap and knead the flesh gently, in awe of just what they can do in those slippers.

- Whenever you're at a bar or a party he loves to hit the dance floor with you, watching you sway in perfect time, so in control of your body, feeling endlessly privileged that he's the one that gets to dance alongside you at moments like this.

Waitress at your Family Restaurant

- Your parents had never been rich, but they'd put every effort and penny and hour they had into the family restaurant and you'd never felt like you missed out on anything because you came from a working class background.

- Growing up your family was always close, spending your teenage years waiting on tables, and then sticking with it, knowing one day the family business will be yours to take over. Your parents were so proud of you, and you knew they would have supported you in whatever you wanted to do, but this was where your heart was always going to be.

- You'd never had a lot of money to play with growing up, so you never really cared about having fancy things, knowing you had everything you needed to live a happy life.

- When Kendall ends up in an unfamiliar part of town, and you serve him one of the most spiritually fulfilling meals he's ever had, he leaves you his number with a tip that could pay off a mortgage and you realise just how rich he is.

- Kendall would quickly notice how out of place you feel at the elaborate events his presence is required at, realising just how privileged he is to have an unlimited wardrobe that constantly updates with the latest styles - and so he takes you shopping on your third date.

- Shopping with Kendall is a marathon, him excitedly pulling you into every store and watching as shopgirls that would usually turn their nose up at you suddenly start fawning over you and rushing to bring you dress after dress once they see one of Kendall's assistants pull out an array of black credit cards. It would feel a little uncomfortable having Kendall pay for thousands of dollars of designer clothes, but the sheer joy on his face as you parade in and out of a dressing room in items chosen by him would quickly let you know he's enjoying this even more than you are. Everytime he sees you in an item he chose on that shopping trip he feels a rush of pride, so happy he can treat you to all the amazing things you deserve.

- And this is anything but one-sided as Kendall gets more and more accustomed to visiting your family's restaurant, absorbing all the positive energy your parents emit as they gush with pride and remind him he's always welcome, and a part of the family.

Fashion Designer! Reader

- It's no secret that Kendall considers himself someone with an eye for fashion, enjoying wearing the latest trends and finding unique items that help him express himself more than he can in his usual corporate uniform.

- So when he's at yet another new york fashion event and he hears rumours about a new designer showing a collection that afternoon, he's more than a little intrigued. Then he sees your designs strutting down the catwalk and he can tell there's something really special to this person, their creative eye resonating with exactly what he looks for in art, without even realising and in a way he can't quite put his finger on. Kendall scouts the after party excitedly, trying to track down this up and coming star, ready to negotiate a deal for a custom design he can't wait to brag about. But what he wasn't expecting is for the beautiful brain behind his new favourite looks to belong to such a beautiful person.

- By the end of the night he's secured a jacket from your upcoming collection, and a brunch date that weekend.

- Kendall would be your biggest supporter, investing emotionally and financially into your brand, your designs and your business, and using every resource he has to make you the star you deserve to be - just be prepared that he's going to want to buy one of everything.

- Definitely claims to be your muse at fashion shows, letting you use him as a human mannequin when you get struck by inspiration and your staying over at his place.

- He can no longer get dressed without asking for your input, looking momentarily unamused in just his underwear when you say he's in the perfect outfit as he is, before that mischievous grin flashes across his face and he's diving across the bed to ask you to make a lingerie collection and model it for him.

[anarchic-miscellany]

Gundam SEED: A Dubbing Journey

More fun physical media tales! "Gundam SEED"

It's not the best Gundam series, but it's good fun and the first iteration of "Gundam" which I watched. Hence I have a sense of nostalgia for it, despite its flaws (looking at you 48 episode length...).

Anime is already a fairly niche field, despite the hilarious jokes and mainstream creep us filthy degenerates are making into modern society. The age old "debate" I guess, between those of us who have never seen the sun, seems to be between watching in the original language with subtitles, or watching it dubbed.

My personal thoughts go towards the dub. Aside from the fact that there are dozens and dozens of brilliant actors in this field who make the material fantastic and more accessible (Tara Platt, Yuri Lowenthal, Colleen Clinkenbeard, my homie Kirk Thornton, Steve Blum, Michelle Ruff, Wendee Lee, Kari Wahlgren, Todd Haberkon, Joel McDonald, so, so, so, so many others) to simply ignore the dub through snobbery is to disregard the hours and hours of effort and work put in by hard working, under-appreciated actors across the field. Voice actors are my jam.

So, "Gundam SEED" came out in 2002/2003 but was dubbed by the Ocean Group with Bandai in 2004, released by Beez on DVD. It's a good dub: No "Baccano!" or "Cowboy Bebop" but then again, what is? There are some great actors in this (Andrew Drummond's brother Brian plays the best character: Andrew Waltfeld THE DESERT TIGER, Lisa Ann Beley is the ship's captain, Trevor Devall from "Cowboy Bebop" and "Team America" as Mu La Flaga, Samuel Vincent as one of the two leads and, for some god-damned reason Brad "Light Yagami" Swaile as one of the best characters) as well as some lesser known names in the industry but also great in their parts. Chantal Strand is a standout as Lacus Clyne.

The dub was an excellent work, and my first exposure to the series, it's great.

The series was released on DVD, but had a rather short run: the always excellent Beez released it in the ever delightful format of five episodes per disc and one disc per box, their usual M.O.

I am going somewhere with this, bear with me.

So far so good.

In 2014 the series was re-released in HD, fine. Excellent! More of Beez's back catalogue coming out again and to the forefront is always a good thing.

However.

The dub was redone.

The actors, for the most part, were completely replaced from the top down. Gone were Matt Hill and Samuel Vincent as Kira and Athrun, gone were Drummond and Swaile. Everybody has been changed, right down to the lesser known actors playing some major parts in the series.

And they are the people who I want to talk about.

Bill Switzer, Sarah Johns and Lisa Ann Beley are not ever going to be household names, nor ever known truly amongst the clique-like cult who follow weaboo shit. But I am going to focus on these three people for a moment.

Respectively, in the Ocean Dub, they play Sai Argyle, Lt. Badgiruel and Captain Murrue Ramius, all fairly major characters in the series.

And they were replaced.

Bye, so long, farewell, hope that you got something out of the experience.

This isn't about rambling about how "the new dub sucks" or "Grrrr, change is bad" (well, maybe the latter a little) because, in all honesty, I haven't watched it. Heck, maybe it's fantastic!

But on a more philosophical level, I guess, consider this:

Mr Switzer, Ms Johns and Ms Beley have put a lot of work, time and effort into those parts, they're actors underappreciated, underpaid and glossed over in an already niche field, and then the one big piece of art they get to do, the one big part they have to be remembered and loved, is forgotten, soon to be washed away by the new dub. Sounds dramatic, sure, but now in future should Gundam SEED be sought out by people hoping to catch up on Gundam (though, why you'd start with "Gundam SEED" like a moron when the fantabulously gay "Gundam Wing" exists I shall never know) or just picked up and watched it's more likely that one will watch the remastered dub, and Mr Switzer and co will be banished and forgotten by history.

I guess what I wanted to say was simple:

Remember forgotten art, remember obscure actors, writers, producers and the like. All art has meaning, be it terrible, great or forgotten. Every piece of art has effort and love put into it by some people.

Don't let Bill Switzer and Sarah Johns and Lisa Ann Beley be mere forgotten footnotes.

Buy a DVD of something obscure and forgotten. Remember the effort put into it.

[hekateinhell]

i need a burn book style fic of daniel finding out coven secrets because he's a wall flower and Generally Observant™️ 🤭

Can you imagine? IWTV was basically Louis's burn book on his two exs and Daniel just took it all in like the world's most underpaid and underappreciated marriage counselor.

Now it's his turn!

It's funny because I don't think Daniel really registers to Lestat all that much—Lestat references him by name a couple times altogether after QotD, and that's in relation to Marius and only in PL?

I get the sense he's basically an NPC to Lestat, RIP. (Which is A Choice, because I did see a throwaway line in one of Anne's diaries that said she wanted to do more with Daniel around the time she was writing the new trilogy and she just... did not. 😦). So I can definitely get behind the idea that Daniel is there in the background half the time and Lestat is just indifferent because it doesn't effect him in any way, which really, that's ideal situation for a reporter if you want to observe others in their natural state.

Daniel is such a curious and inquisitive guy too, I don't think he ever loses that desire to know people and know what's going on.

I want him chatting up Barbara and Cyril (Thorne, Daniel already knows, and just consider how much he can find out by being buddies with one of the Prince's bodyguards). I want Daniel and Viktor just shooting the shit (I actually they would get along pretty well because Viktor is supposedly sweeter, softer, much more innocent Lestat). I need Daniel interviewing Riccardo's ghost to get the tea on Marius, Armand, and Bianca; past and present.

[candytheartmajor]

5 Things I learned about Online Labor

1. Exploitation in Silicon Valley

              Silicon Valley is known as the tech capital of the world. It is the most technically diverse and productive place in the world always innovating new technologies. Since 1957 Silicon valley has been viewed as having an informal place of work that sacrifices the appearance of hierarchy for an atmosphere of family. The informality of this environment discourages the formation of unions.

2. Hidden Exploitation around the world

              There are levels to the exploitation within silicon valley. Another group that is exploited, but often overlooked is those who are considered unskilled workers. These are people who participate in factory jobs that manufacture the products for companies like Apple and Microsoft. These people are unfortunately forced to work in poor conditions, are underpaid and underappreciated. An example of this would bet the Chinese manufacturing company Foxconn where workers were forced to live in dormitories within the factories with multiple people to a room. In 2010 eighteen assembly workers committed suicide as a result of the working conditions.

3. Slavery in the Modern Tech Industry

              A material that is very valuable to many companies within Silicon Valley, is cobalt. Coltan is a product that is put into many different electronic devices and products, such as phones and electric vehicles. 80% of the world’s coltan is found in Congo which has the largest cobalt mine in the world. Congo has a history of being exploited. From 1885 to 1908 Congo, known then as Belgian Congo, around 15 million people were killed in the production of rubber. The coltan nine uses cheap labour and exploits children in the cultivation of coltan. These children are kept in slave like condition, being paid barely anything and often risking their lives. (Trusolino, 2023)

4. How you are being exploited.

              As consumers of digital media, we are not only consuming content, but creating it. We are employees that keep the social media platforms of our choice alive. Though this is still morally questionable we still have the added benefit of enjoying the content we produce. This is not always the case. Lisa Nakamura in her articled titled The Unwanted Labour of Social Media where she discussed the unpaid and unappreciated labour of people of colour, specifically woman of colour online. These people take the roles of moderators on different platforms, policing misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Even though what they do is important they are often met with vitriol. These people should not have to take on these roles and if they do, should be compensated. (Nakamura, 2015)

5. The rise of Neoliberalism

              Neoliberalism was a concept firmly rooted in North American politics and government in the 1970’s. The theory liberates the individual to be able to freely use their entrepreneurial skills within the institutional framework. The results of this concept are the free market, free trade, and the privatization of property. The problem with this concept is that the government is absolved of a portion of its responsibility to the people, dropping useful programs that help facilitate peoples growth. It only benefits the people who have the ability to obtain entrepreneurial skills and discourages employees from unionizing.

Related sources:  

Nakamura, L. (2015). The Unwanted Labour of Social Media: Women of Colour Call Out Culture As Venture Community Management. New Formations, 86(86), 106–112. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF.86.06.2015

Trusolino , M. (2023). Lecture 5: Political Economy of Social Media: The Consumer and Free Labour [Power Point Slides].

[talking-revolver]

idk man, i think responding to backlash in a way that prioritizes the safety of human beings shouldn't be considered "cowardly" or "bending to fascism".

i don't shop at Target often, but if i had a store and my employees and customers were being threatened with bodily harm (or, if the reports are true, people were actually setting fires inside the store), their safety would be first and foremost. this isn't just MAGA chuds getting mad on Facebook and boycotting something over rainbow packaging, this is scary shit

this also isn't Blizzard announcing another lgbt Overwatch character to obfuscate another controversy. as far as i'm aware, Target has been historically supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. they're the only large chain store i'm aware of that sells tuck-friendly swimsuits, for instance. those and other stuff from their latest pride collection are still available on the online store. in a lot of cases, they just moved the displays to a less prominent place in the store.

is staying in the closet cowardly? were the gays and transexuals meeting in secret in bars and clubs cowardly? is not being unwavering proud and visible 24/7 cowardly? is it moral to prioritize pride over the safety of you and other people?

frankly, i'm glad Target responded the way they did before anyone seriously got hurt. and i think the people perpetuating the violence are a much better target for your anger anyways.

before anyone brings this up, hiring security is not as simple of a fix as you think. there's a lot of logistics involved, and as someone who works in private security, security officers/guards are usually not trained nor expected to deal with violent people directly. we're trained to call 911 and write up reports, and administer first aid where needed. (also, we're severely underpaid and underappreciated, and most officers i know either do not give 2 shits about their job or are hostile to LGBTQ folk anyways)

[weedstoner]

honestly I seriously considered becoming an english teacher and teaching middle/high schoolers but public schools are so fucking bad these days and every teacher I know is miserable and way underpaid and underappreciated and I just don't wanna do that to myself even if I think its important to teach kids

[coffeeastronaut]

midnight analysis hand it over

i desperately wish i had anything coherent to say about it.

it's just got it all. like it's a budget cheapo ep of the season for SURE and in my opinion that made it soooo much better. the small cast, the small set, never seeing the creature, all of it makes it an incredibly intimate episode.

this got so long. im so sorry.

let's start with the characters:

the show under rtdavis often uses quick and efficient dialogue to establish side characters and re-enforce the leads, and this episode is the masterclass of that concept. before anything crazy starts happening we already have a pretty firm grasp on the characters and their relationships to one another- the cane family consists of val, biff and jethro, a nuclear middle-class family with the out of touch parents of a loner child, professor hobbs and deedee are a somewhat bumbling professor with far too high an opinion of himself and his apprentice/assistant who's wildly underappreciated and very overlooked, the hostess is overworked and underpaid and somewhat a stickler for protocal, the driver joe and the mechanic claude are good at their jobs and cheerful to do them, and finally we have sky- a lonely woman traveling by herself who's nice enough, but a little shy. And of course, we have the doctor, immediately socializing and asking questions, because that's what he does. he asks questions.

this cast of characters is pretty small, and it lets us get attached and invested very quickly- later, when things go off the rails, the characters stay true to where they started. However the traits that started as 'bumbling' or 'out of touch' become far more sinister as everyone is pushed to the limit in a situation none of them asked for. professor hobbs's tendency to speak over deedee and look down on her becomes outright dismissal of her ideas and thoughts, even if they're good. val and biff's distant relationship to their son results in the same for jethro. the hostess's dedication to protocol leads the others to dismiss her as useless, since all she's done is call for help (ironic. considering.) sky's loner status means that no one, bar the doctor, have really spoken to her, giving them no reason to trust her. the doctor's constant questions mean he can't take his own advice and leave well enough alone- he just has to talk to the creature inside sky.

sidenote: while not previously established in this specific episode, 10's internal surety of his own superiority also takes a very frightening role here, revealed in the way he speaks to the other passengers, the ways he attempts to take control of the situation, and of course the 'because i'm CLEVER' line. beyond his initial 'i guess we'll have to ~talk~ to each other' line, he's mostly presenting himself as an average joe here, something he doesn't normally do. this is potentially because he doesn't have a companion with him- donna (or whoever is with him) usually backs up his demeanor (or excuses it) and takes the role of 'normal person who's okay with this,' which makes other people more comfortable with him. anyway i digress.

These traits end up amplifying past the relationships that they're tied to. the professor, val, and biff all end up bouncing off of one another and making each other worse, completely writing off any thoughts that aren't their own- they dismiss the hostess, the doctor, deedee, and jethro, despite the actual expertise or input any of them might have. this new force of nature pulls characters like deedee and jethro under the tide, making them 'agree' under pressure from their respective authority figures. The hostess is too, to a degree, but her position of authority as the tour guide makes her more ready to keep her head under pressure as well has holding her own opinions more strongly, without getting steamrolled.

that doesn't mean that the other characters are free of negative traits by any means. deedee's othering of sky with the goblin men poem, jethro's inability to stand up for himself or others, and the hostess's instant turn to murder when presented with it as an option (by val, so not an original thought, but still. she latches on very very quickly. possibly this is because the thing has already killed joe and claude, the driver and mechanic, who she likely knew personally.) all of which is brought forward by fear and stress, like the others.

the doctor, who is a steamroller in his own right, is incapable of it here. the people who he's with here are all strongly individual and refuse to be lead. It's a myriad of reasons for this, with the professor feeling he's intellectually superior, biff feeling he's more manly, and val feeling that she's more moral (her response to the doctor saying he's a traveler is to accusingly say 'like an immigrant?' implying she's one of Those people) (racist). Jethro and deedee already have people in charge of them, and the hostess is, technically, actually in charge. these are the people who are going to question him at every turn, especially since, until it hit the fan, he was presenting himself as just some guy.

the mob mentality of the cast ties in perfectly with the isolation of the bus (no contact with the outside world! can't leave because you'll be vaporized!). it means that they get no breaks from each other, no breaks from the situation, and no outside opinions- they're on their own. look how small the bus is!

it creates this island afloat on a sea of morality, where their decisions are only witnessed by themselves, and the gravity of the situation justifies it. The fear involved amplifies this by tenfold. the bus is small, too, and made smaller by the loss of the cockpit. if they were somewhere like, say, the library from the forest of the dead- there, they can have privacy, even if it's just standing around a corner. here, no such luck. we're all stuck here together. Running tangent on lighting will be at the bottom of this post.

moving on. the doctor getting taken (possessed? lets stick with taken) by the creature is incendiary, to say the least. he's let his curiosity get the better of him, and in going about it in the way that he does he's also othered himself from the riders. calling them humans, saying he's clever, showing genuine excitement. small things, but enough. when jethro calls him on it, he doubles down, further othering himself. it also outs him as genuinely being the smartest in the room, and the creature takes his voice. you can almost see the rpg 'no one liked that.' notification pop up in the corner.

his chattyness, while dooming him, is also what saves him. speaking with the hostess in the beginning is what ends up tipping her off. when deedee notices that sky is still the creature, she's overwritten by her authority figure, the professor, as well as the voices of val and biff:

[the doctor is repeating sky] VAL: Stop. Oh, my God, make him stop. Someone make him stop. DEE DEE: But she's saying it. VAL: And you can shut up. DEE DEE: But it's not him, it's her. He's just repeating. BIFF: But that's what the thing does, it repeats. HOSTESS: Just let her talk. BIFF: What do you know? Fat lot of good you've been. HOSTESS: Just let her explain. DEE DEE: I think. I mean, from what I've seen, it repeats, then it synchronizes, then it goes on to the next stage and that's exactly what the Doctor said would happen. BIFF: What, and you're on his side? DEE DEE: No. JETHRO: The voice is the thing. DEE DEE: And she's the voice. She stole it. Look at her. It's not possessing him, it's draining him. HOSTESS: She's got his voice. VAL: But that's not true, because it can't. Because I saw it pass into him. I saw it with my own eyes. [...] BIFF: Everyone saw it. Everyone. DEE DEE: You didn't. You're just making it up. I know what I saw, and I saw her stealing his voice. VAL: She's as bad as him. Someone shut her up. HOBBES: I think you should be quiet, Dee. DEE DEE: Well, I'm only saying- HOBBES: And that's an order! You're making a fool of yourself, pretending you're an expert in mechanics and hydraulics, when I can tell you, you are nothing more than average at best. Now shut up.

but the hostess listens! she uses what deedee is saying and she uses her own knowledge of the doctor's speech patterns to decide he is not possessed. unlike deedee, she's got her own authority and is more sure of herself. she's also far more aware of her duty to protect others, as both a person and as her job.

she's also faster. she grabs sky, and out they go- none of the yelling and cajoling it took to get biff and the professor to try to kill the doctor, she just does it. she's so sure! and she's right.

and then! and THEN! no one. knows. her name.

no one knows her name!

we dont even know her name!

in an episode where i can tell you everyones names. i cant tell you hers. no one spoke to her much, no one listened to her. she did her duty as a hostess, and died for it, and that's all she's known as to these people. the hostess. it's heartbreaking, and awful, and doesn't rtd just love a noble and trampled working class hero.

RACE

So, i genuinely don't think this stuff was intentional. um. because it's russel 'casual racism' davies. but let's get into it anyway because it's done very well for once, intentional or not.

everyone on this stupid bus is white, except for deedee, the hostess, and the mechanic (or maybe the driver- i don't think they specify which is which). deedee and the hostess (and jethro) are the three people most ignored and looked down on. in jethro's case this is due to age, so i'll be ignoring him mostly, but even that is all tied up in privilege. anyway.

the hostess, a black woman, is talked down to by everyone, and often outright ignored or dismissed. the doctor especially dismisses her input very quickly, despite the fact that . this is her literal actual job. (10 the racist strikes again! good job rtd - i definitely dont have bitterness in my heart!)

deedee is also constantly talked down to by the professor, and later by biff and val, despite the fact that she seems to be the only one who has actual professional level knowledge of how the bus works. it feels like val (who is, textually, racist), biff, and the professor all look down on her, as a black woman.

it's notable that the hostess, the only other black woman on the bus, is the one who listens to her! this is a really small detail, and again i'm really not sure that it was intentional, but i still love it.

COMPANION

i talked a little earlier about donna being gone, and how it makes it much easier for the doctor to make stupid decisions and be off-putting. this is just like. textually canon in that rose, martha, and donna all explicitly stop him from making stupid and cruel decisions, as well as sort of.. softening his impact on normal people. rose often apologizes to people for him being rude, martha is constantly snapping him into responsibility (i will not talk about the racism involved here or i will Explode.), and donna is literally standing over his shoulder sometimes going 'hey. dont kill that guy. that's jacked up.'

the episode isn't really ABOUT this, but it definitely ties in, i think. every time 10 is alone, he does some stupid and horrific stuff (waters of mars, anyone?). later in this season we actually have something that mirrors this- in Turn Left, donna never meets the doctor, and so butterfly effects him dying and also the world ending or something. sorry it's been a minute since i've seen that one. donna is also a whole lot more miserable. neither of them can really Be without the other (bestie moment)! we're explicitly told a lot of times that the doctor just does not function without a companion, and i think that theme shows up in this episode for sure.

PEOPLE

so everyone agrees that doctor who is about the power of love and friendship and humanity being good right? yeah? yeah.

this episode is not that.

in midnight, everyone's worst sides come out. we usually see one or two people like this in any given episode- the one guy who's such a huge capitalist he doesn't care about the motw, or the chick who's put her own life above everyone elses and gets someone killed. but we never see the entire cast do this! midnight paints a very bleak picture of humans under pressure. and here's the thing. that's not doctor who! like at allll. doctor who just adores people, just really cherishes them. but here... not so much. the story still ends with the hostess sacrificing her self for everyone else, and it's all very nobel. but it's a very interesting leap from normal.

i would argue that this isn't necessarily done to say that humans suck. i think it's to more effectively show off a reoccurring theme in doctor who about how the actions of just one person can make a huge difference, no matter how small they may feel. we see a great example of this with gwyn the maid in season 1, who saves everyone from the gelth, giving up her life in the process.

this episode takes a very different path to it. especially since the other riders weren't portrayed as evil before they started panicking! they were just normal people. it's definitely a far more somber approach to the theme then usual, though.

LIGHTING AND SET

the bus is so small that no one is quite far enough to be properly alone.

but they're all trying to be- see how the canes are all split across the bus? jethro is up front, biff is on the right, and val is in the back. deedee and the professor have taken up on opposite sides of the bus. and of course, the doctor on the floor, alone. he's visually a lot lower then the rest of them, pushing the narrative on his powerlessness this episode. it also implies that after they let him go he just. didn't move. girl me too. it's also worth noting that no one is sitting directly in the center light - everyone is in the dark.

the lighting in the bus is frequently used to make it seem even smaller then it is:

note the dark lighting in the rest of the bus, but the bright halo around sky's head. she's several rows back, but the light is pulling her forward, right into the doctor's (and the audience's) space.

This trick is used several times. here, the doctor and sky are talking right after she's been possessed and the lights have gone off. the flashlights bring the other riders directly into the space- no privacy and no isolation for something that should probably have both.

Here, the doctor is talking about sky to the other riders. see how the light pulls her forward into his space? it’s impossible to not look at her, for both the audience and for the other riders.

in other scenes, the opposite is used. here, the emergency lights have come back on. the doctor and sky are talking again. the other riders are gone from the shot, and the lighting is casting both in a halo. it creates an isolated and intimate scene, and puts the doctor and sky into the same spot. for the audience, this is scary (he is alone with the creature) and for the riders it ties him with her. 

not about lighting, but relevant: the doctor does this unintentionally several times in the episode. when he speaks with her at the beginning, it’s alone. when he goes to help her, he makes everyone back off except for him. when he talks to her, he tells everyone else to shut up. even after he decides that it’s a bad idea to talk to her, he repeatedly tells everyone else to stop and then immediately goes and does it himself. we watch him become the only person properly tied to sky- two loners, two travelers, two non-humans, and two unknown elements.

back to lighting. sky is often lit up in a spotlight. people point flashlights at her, she stands Just So under a bus light, ect.

it's an interesting parallel to the creature's life before the bus, under the bright, hot, toxic light of midnight. interestingly, the creature does not describe it that way:

SKY: He's waited so long. DOCTOR: He's waited so long. SKY: In the dark. DOCTOR: In the dark. SKY: And the cold. DOCTOR: And the cold. SKY: And the diamonds. DOCTOR: And the diamonds. SKY: Until you came. DOCTOR: Until you came. SKY: Bodies so hot. DOCTOR: Bodies so hot. SKY: With blood. DOCTOR: With blood. SKY: And pain. DOCTOR: And pain.

it's instead the opposite: dark and cold. but it's definitly talking about midnight, from the way it mentions the diamonds. this isn't really relevent, just interesting. maybe the creature is blind, or has no sensation at all until it takes on a host. who knows! anyway.

back to lighting: sky's spotlights. it's a great way to other her, and to really foster that sense of unease for the audience. (sidenote. her actress really put her whole back into this. she's so unsettling.)

another interesting lighting tidbit is the colors. the lighting inside the bus is all warm and yellow and a bit dim, even when things get scary.

versus the light from outside on midnight:

it's cold, bright, and blue. it's a great way to denote that the light is dangerous and different. and sometimes:

it comes inside! before the creature gets settled into sky, and really starts making strides towards possessing her, and before the emergency lights come on. the cold blue light of the flashlights (the first things used by the riders to other sky!) mimic the light of midnight. fantastic! even later, when the creature is fully ingratiated with sky, you ca see subtle light differences:

the inside lights are warm still, but far brighter on her. and more importantly: look at that tiny tinge of blue on the doctor! midnight is getting him now! it's so cool like it's so cool. woohoo!

i would just love to get my hands on whoever was in charge of the set design and the lighting design for this episode and pick their brain for few hours.

SOME OTHER RANDOM STUFF:

i recommend everyone read goblin market! it's the poem that deedee quotes. while not really tying fully into the themes of the episode, it's a wonderful poem, and the choice of lines for deedee to use was great.

the rose screen in the bg gets me every time!!! as does deedee's mention of the lost moon of poosh! yes GOD. i love when they sprinkle in stuff like that all season. like sooo much. the impact bad wolf had on my psyche as a kid is immeasurable LOL.

the acting in this ep is just phenominal. -lesley sharp (sky) is AMAAAAZING, she's so scary and i cannot imagine how hard it was to sync all those lines up! sharp's use of expression and body language is so very dead on, and so delightfully scary without ever dipping into corny effects or silly faces. -tennant is also on fire here. again with the syncing. like how much did they have to practice all that. he's great with expressions as usual. you know the drill. great actor, swag expressions, let's go white boy! -deedee and the professor do a great job of selling themselves as a student/professor duo. the ways deedee reacts to the professor's worse moments are especially masterful! -val and biff and jethro also do a wonderful job and being a messy luttle family. val's actress especially feels so real- i have met that woman 100000 times.

obligatory shout out to the merlin guy (sorry)

the scene at the end of the episode, between donna and the doctor is just... it's so much. they're both very reliant on each other as friends, and it's sweet. the acknowledgement that the doctor is taking this more seriously (like straight up i'd say it's truama) then usual when donna repeats him and he tells her not to? and that's the final line of the episode. CRAZY! we normally get something chipper and upbeat, even on sad episodes.

this is just interesting to me, but: we never see the tardis! not even once, in the whole episode.

i also think setting all of this in a spa ('luxury planet"), of all things, is really fun. it's a nice way to imply that they do, like, actually do stuff off screen. he really IS taking his companions to see nice things, like spas in space. it's like the time rose is telling micky about all the places she's been with the doctor, and it's nothing we've seen on screen. just a nice detail. also, access to all time and space, and she chooses a SPA? it's VERY donna.

TLDR:

episode good. the use of mob mentality and isolation make for a great episode. the lighting and set are fantastic. the acting is top-notch. doctor who should have a budget of $3 again i think it would fix me.

[anotheronechicagobog]

Can you do one with Severide where he cheats and then tries to win the reader back? Lots of angst

Kelly Severide x Reader Liar Liar Pants on Fire

written by @anotheronechicagobog

warnings: cheating, swearing, mature themes, angst

A/N I hope that you like it! Sorry it took me so long, I’m just always nervous about the stuff I write not being long and/or good enough.

You were finally arriving home after a long, and fucking hard, day. You’d known when you chose to enter STEM in college that you’d be dealing with a ton of sexism, but right now you were exhausted. After graduating with a double major in computer programming and biochemistry, you accepted a job at Chicago PD in the crime lab. And today was awful because your lovely co-worker Manon was on vacation for the week and substitute, Jimmy, was incredibly sexist. He couldn’t go thirty seconds without making a remark, mansplaining, undressing you with his eyes, and belittling you. It took all your strength to not cave in his skull.  You just wanted to eat something to fill the hole in your stomach, and curl up in bed with your boyfriend Kelly. When you entered the apartment you shared with him and Shay something felt off. You heard loud moans of pleasure coming from upstairs, you assumed they were coming from Shay and her new lover Andrea. Even though you were slightly annoyed at the fact that you’d have a harder time falling asleep with those sounds surrounding the apartment. Your feeling of apprehension remained but you had no idea why. You decided to reheat some leftovers, once you finished the front door opened to reveal one Leslie Shay. You looked at her in shock as that feeling in your gut hardened. “Les? I thought that you were upstairs, with Andrea...”

“... No, I just came back from a movie night with Gabby and Casey, Kelly was supposed to come too, but he bailed at the last minute. I thought he was with you. Who’s upstairs? They’re really going at it.”

“I don’t know. As I said, I thought it was you and Andrea...” 

“Did  you just get back?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think someone broke in just to have sex?”

“Honestly, I’ve seen crazier things come through my lab. Let’s go deal with this.” You and Leslie marched up the spiral staircase and burst through the door to your and Kelly’s room armed with a rolling pin and frying pan. What you were met with was not two strangers taking advantage of someone else’s bed, but Kelly naked on top and inside of a brunette you didn’t recognize. They were too... wrapped up in each other to notice you two at first. You and Leslie were too much in shock to react either once the both of you realized who was doing who. It was after they both came that they noticed you. Kelly rolled off of her and noticed you and Leslie standing armed at the door. “Ah! Shit! Fuck! Y/N, I can explain!” He was hurrying to separate himself and making sure he was covered up. You lowered your rolling pin and placed it on the dresser. YOUR dresser. That you shared with Kelly. “Alright,” you said slowly and restrained, letting a quiet and calculated anger flow through you “explain.” Kelly sat there blinking, opening and closing his mouth. “Well, you said you can explain so explain.”

“I uh... Don’t really... I didn’t think you’d actually let me- I didn’t think I’d get this far...”

“UNBELIEVABLE YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! HOW DARE YOU TREAT Y/N THIS WAY!” Then Leslie turned to the girl still lying on your bed’ wrapped in your sheets, making eyes at your boyfriend. “WHAT IN THE EVER-LOVING FUCK ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?! DO YOU NOT REALIZE YOU SLEPT WITH SOMEONE’S BOYFRIEND?! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!” Leslie screaming with steam coming out of her ears made the woman jump in gear, forgoing her bra and underwear and just grabbing her dress from the floor, throwing it on, and trying to grab her stuff and catch her things that Leslie was throwing at her. When Leslie and the severely underdressed woman were out of the room you turned to Kelly with tears streaming down your face. “It’s over, Kelly. I’m going to go stay at my mom’s, I’ll come to get my stuff tomorrow, please don’t be here.”  

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Your mom had been sympathetic, she welcomed you with open arms and tubs of your favourite ice cream. She’d wrapped her arms around you and cooed promises to string Kelly up by his toes. 

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FOUR AND A HALF YEARS LATER

“Honey, I’m home.” Your boyfriend sang out in a joking manner, you two had an Iron Man marathon last night since Tony Stark is Connor’s favourite Marvel character. “Haha, how was dinner with your sister?”

“Good. It went really well, I don’t think I can thank you enough Y/N, for convincing me to try to work on my relationship with her, I didn’t realize how much I missed her. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“How was your day?” Connor poured two glasses of wine knowing full well that you would be ranting and raving about being ignored, underappreciated, and underpaid. You loved your job, you really did, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t have its cons. Once you finished your long rant and took the last sip of wine, you noticed Connor looking at you with a gentle intensity. “Connor?”

“Y/N, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you... I have tried writing a speech so many times and... I just haven’t been able to capture all of the right words. I’ve been wanting to ask you for months and I don’t think I can bear to put it off any longer. Y/N I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, have kids, cats, grandkids and grow old together. So Y/N will you marry me?” Connor had moved off the couch and was kneeling in front of you, a modest ring being held in between his nervous fingers. You looked him deep in the eyes and set your glass down, you put your hands on both sides of his face. “Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes! I love you so much and I can’t with to grow old with you too.” While both of you were smiling like fools he gently slid the ring onto your finger before leaning in to kiss you and you could feel the love and joy beaming out of your hearts.

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It took less than ten minutes for the entire station to find out you got engaged. You didn’t mind, really, you just didn’t want anyone upset that all the work wasn’t done because people kept coming by to congratulate you. Hailey walked into your office for the second time that day, the first time being to see if Platt was right and that you had a ring on your finger, this time however you could tell something was wrong. She had a dark look on her face and didn’t have any evidence with her for you to test. “Hailey? What’s up?” She sighed and gave you an annoyed smile. “There was a fire at the scene, so Truck 81 and Squad 3 were there, while waiting on the sidelines Adam and Jay were gossiping about your engagement pretty loudly, Severide overheard. He didn’t react well. Sorry.”

“Don’t be, Hailey, we all work and hang out in pretty close circles, he was bound to find out.” You shrugged and continued typing up your report for the evidence from a case Intelligence solved the other day. “He still loves you Y/N, I think you should be prepared for him to-”

“Profess his love, tell me I’m making a mistake, beg me to take me back? Yeah, he’s done all that already. He cheated on me, I left him, but he couldn’t let me go.” You sighed and stopped typing on your computer for a moment and saw Hailey smile sympathetically at you. She reached for your hands and squeezed.”Want to go get lunch?”

“Sorry, Hailey, I’m getting lunch with Claire and Connor. We want to be the ones to tell her rather than her finding out from someone else. After I’m meeting with Leslie quickly to ask her to be my maid of honour.”

“Good idea.”

“I was wondering, though, Hailey, if would you be a bridesmaid?”

“Yes! Y/N you are going to have the best bachelorette party ever!” The mood in the room suddenly became joyful, filled with sounds of excitement and happiness.

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THREE MONTHS LATER

You were buried up to your shoulders in wedding plans. Neither you nor Connor realized how much planning had to go into a wedding. Currently, you, Connor, Leslie, Hailey, Will, Claire, and Ethan were sitting in your living room with wedding plans strewn around the room. Connor and Claire were working on the guest list. “Do we really have to invite Aunt Tiffany? We haven’t seen her since before mom died and if I remember correctly, she’s a horrible person and we both hate her.”

“I know Connor, but she’s our aunt, and ALL relatives must be invited to your wedding. You will never hear the end of it if some fifth cousin three times removed is not invited.”

“C’mon, Claire, Y/N and I aren’t going to know who most of these people are!”

“Alright then, let’s take a break from our family and work on Y/N’s.”

“You aren’t going to invite all of my relatives, are you? I’m not speaking to half of them because they’re selfish and rude. I really don’t want my dad’s side at my wedding.”

“Sorry Y/N, but we have to invite everyone, but don’t worry, if they’re selfish and rude they’ll fit in well with our family.” Claire smiled at you as you groaned in frustration. You threw the papers from the catering companies on the coffee table and collapsed on the couch. You could feel a headache coming on and just wanted to close your eyes for a minute. A kiss was dropped to your forehead, you knew the feeling of those lips well and didn’t have to open your eyes. “Thanks, Connor.”

“You know I was thinking, what if we had two weddings? One small one that’s just us and the people we love, and a second one that’s large and thrown for the benefit of people we don’t like.” You opened your eyes and sat up. “That’s a good idea.”

“Y/N, Connor, you’re really considering having two weddings? That’s... Actually, yeah that sounds like a good idea. I mean it’s more work, but dad left us a ton of money.”

“How would you handle planning two weddings if you can’t handle planning one?”

“Well, Ethan, since we don’t really care about the second one we could just hire a wedding planner for that one.”

“Well since that’s settled, I’ll order dinner for all of us. Is Lebanese okay?” With a chorus of ‘yes’ from everyone, Connor went to order dinner while everyone shoved the papers into a pile in the middle of the table. When Connor returned Claire sighed. “We still have to plan one wedding, though.”

“Don’t worry about it, Claire. Connor and I can handle it. We just had trouble dealing with how big the wedding had to be, we were changing all of our plans because of it. Now that we’ve decided to have one where we actually get to make the choices we want, it’ll be a lot easier.” You felt Connor hmm an agreement from his spot curled around you. You spent the rest of the evening with your friends who you considered family, talking and laughing, eating good food and feeling loved. Without the stress of a ‘rich people wedding’, as Will had dubbed it, you and Connor felt much more relaxed and happy.

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EIGHT MONTHS LATER

You were tired but happy. The wedding planner you and Connor hired did her job well. She understood completely when you explained that you were going to have two weddings and why. She arranged everything for the big posh events that were expected from Connor and managed to keep your first wedding a secret from those you didn’t want to know. The small wedding that you planned with your fiance was going exactly as you wanted, so far at least. You were finishing getting ready to walk down the aisle. Leslie, Hailey, Claire, along with your mom and grandmother were tearing up. Claire wrapped her arms around you. “You look so beautiful, Y/N, my brother is so lucky.”

“Don’t let Leslie hear you say that, I’ve seen what Les does when she’s jealous.” Claire laughed and took deep breaths to try and stop the happy tears. As you and Claire untangled yourselves and Hailey checked your make-up to make sure it hadn’t been ruined there was a knock at the door. Leslie answered it and let out what could only be described as a feral hiss. Everyone whipped their heads to the doorway to see one Kelly Severide. “I just want to talk to Y/N.”

“How dare you, if you think-”

“Don’t bite his head off Les. Connor invited him. Let him say what he came to, it’s probably just well wishes, right Kelly?” His breathing was rapid, his eyes looked panicked, and you felt every woman in the room including yourself sigh in annoyance. “Y/N I love you, please just-”

“No. Kelly stop. It’s been years since we were together, let me go. I am happy with and I love Connor. Please don’t interfere with my happiness.” Kelly nodded with tears running down his face. “I’ll always love you, and I know that you’ll always love me too.” Kelly stumbled away, causing you to sigh. “Hey, Les? Would you mind telling Will to keep an eye on Kelly? I mean, we told the minister to not do the whole ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ bit, so we don’t have to worry about that, I just don’t want him to disturb anything.”

“Got it.”

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Hailey had just walked down the aisle, which meant that in a moment, it would be your turn. You took a deep breath and let your excitement explode on your face. You saw the heavenly way Connor was looking at you and felt the aisle was too long, keeping you from him. When you finally got to the end you handed off your bouquet to Leslie and stood facing Connor. “Hi.”

“Hey.” There was a small round of chuckles from the bridesmaids and groomsmen. “Friends, family we have all come together today to watch Connor Rhodes and Y/N Y/L/N in marriage.” You focused on Connor’s face, the minister’s words became a blur, only bringing you back to reality when they said “The bride and groom have written their own vows, so let us hear their words of love” They gestured for Connor to go first, he smiled softly and began to speak. “Y/N, when we first met, you knocked me on my ass. Literally. You were rushing to get out of our favourite cafe and while trying to dodge other people, barrelled straight into me. You ended up spilling your coffee all over the floor, right next to where I was sitting on the ground. I remember looking at you and just being in awe of you. Of the way you carried yourself, how you handled the situation, and how you knocked me down without a fight, which is something that I like to think is particularly hard to do. When I asked for your number and you actually gave it to me, I felt like I’d been handed a meddle, and while it was a bit confusing at the time, it makes so much sense now. You are the most intelligent, kind, loving, strong, terrifying person I know. You fit with me in a way no one ever has and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Suddenly you both saw commotion coming from the groom’s side, everyone turned to see Jay and Voight subtly restraining and silencing Kelly Severide. He struggled against them and looked at you with desperate, pleading eyes. You repressed the urge to march over there and slap him. You and Connor turned back to each other, your observations having taken place in three seconds. “And now for Y/N’s vows.”

“Connor, you make me so happy. I don’t want to consider a life that doesn’t have you by my side. I remember our first date, and I am so grateful that Leslie was able to talk to you at the hospital and intercept your original plans. I don’t think we would have gotten where we are now if you had actually taken me to the frufru restaurant in a limo and then renting out an art gallery. And so instead you took me to a family-owned Lebanese place and then to a board game bar. We started with Operation, because it’s one of my favourites, and you were terrible at it which is ironic because you’re, you know, a surgeon.” everyone in the room laughed. “That night was the best I’d had in a while. You made me smile and laugh and you’ve kept doing that since. I love you with every fibre of my being and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Beautiful, without further ado, I with the power vested in me by the state of Illinois, pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss!” A loud cheer came from all your friends and family as Connor swept you into a grand, loving kiss.

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At the reception, you felt like you were walking on clouds. Your first dance with Connor had been slow and warm with the sound of John Legend mixed with Connor’s heartbeat encompassing you. It had been three hours and you still couldn’t stop smiling. Connor was dancing with your mom while you chatted with Claire. “Y/N you and my brother look so happy. It’s just so heartwarming to see.”

“That means so much Claire. I know-”

“Atnmentition evey- everyone! I ha- have somating to sa- aaaay” A completely wasted Kelly Severide was standing on stage with the DJ drunkenly slurring into the mic. “Oh hell.” Everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned to watch the spectacle he was making. “I lo- lobe lobe-” He turned and threw up on the stage just as you made your way over to Connor. Antonio and Voight made their way over to Kelly and started to carry him off the stage and out of the reception hall, Kelly was crying and making reaching motions for you. You just shook your head and sighed. “Well, at least that happened at the end and not the beginning of the night.” Connor was trying to cheer you up and it worked. “You’re right, besides I think it’s time for us to leave for our honeymoon anyway.”

“Definitely.” After thanking everyone for coming you got changed into a more comfortable and travel-friendly dress you met with a beaming Connor in the middle of the dance floor. You were both smiling like fools as you made the way through the crowd of people you loved most in the world and into the car that was going to take you to the airport. As you were driving away you caught sight of Kelly lying on the curb while some of the guys were trying to coax him into the back of a car. You just turned away and kissed Connor, smiling into him. Even when you heard Kelly screaming your name, you didn’t look back. Just continued to cuddle gaze into the eyes of the love of your life.

[geniusvisionaryinc]

Genius Online Academy

Get Out of the Rat Race

               We’ve all worked jobs we hated. We were underpaid, underappreciated and bored out of our minds. We either quit these jobs or were fired for poor performance because we just gave up. Instead of taking that approach you need to consider every job an opportunity to learn something new that you can apply down the line to find success.When you give people the tools they need to come up with unordinary solutions, you are enhancing their lives for the long run. You need to take this approach. What if one of your terrible jobs had been one with no pay at all and you needed to come up with some ingenious ways of making money? I bet you could have found a diamond in that rough. This idea can also be used in your own company.Now, I don’t recommend going into the next meeting declaring that no one will receive pay anymore, but you can tell them that their potential raises, bonuses and other perks are now dependent on their creativity in ways to enhance business.Let’s talk about a great concept called financial literacy. This certainly isn’t something they taught you in school, but is still essential to know. So, what is financial literacy?The old school way teaches people to be good employees and not employers. This mindset will never make you wealthy. You need to focus on becoming a good employer. You also need to learn how to not only attain wealth, but sustain wealth for generations. This is what financial literacy is all about.So, how do you get out of the rat race and start working toward a wealthier future? You need to understand the difference between an asset and a liability. Take a look at your own life and you’ll probably find the following:Assets    Real Estate    Stocks    Bonds    Intellectual PropertyLiabilities    Mortgage    Consumer Loans    Credit CardsYou’ve probably been fooled into thinking things like your house, car and entertainment system are assets. They aren’t! Assets should be continuing to MAKE you money. When you continue to struggle, you are not building wealth. If you’re primary income is from wages and each time you make more money, you pay taxes-you’re not really creating wealth either, are you?So, if buying a house isn’t an asset (and, it’s not because you spend about 30 years of your life paying it off), then what is. Here are some of the best assets to attain and when you can start to actually see wealth being created because of it:Average time of holding on to an asset before selling it for a higher value:1 year    Stocks (Startups and small companies are good investments)    Bonds    Mutual funds7 years    Real estate    Notes (IOUs)    Royalties on intellectual property    Valuables that produce income or appreciateSo, here are the steps to getting out of the rat race and onto your journey of creating wealth:    Understand the difference between an asset and a liability.    Concentrate your efforts on buying income-earning assets.    Focus on keeping liabilities and expenses at a minimum.    Mind your own business.If you need help getting out of the poor mindset and into the wealthy one, try our GUIDED TOUR and work with one of our experienced business coaches today.https://geniusonlineacademy.com/guidedtourNext time we’ll talk about how to mind your own business to keep your eye on the prize.

[floraleevee]

:)))

today was one of the best days i’ve had in a while. i’ve had a solid 2+ weeks of enjoying work, which hasn’t happened for about 10 months now.

i applied to grad school on my lunch break

minutes later, i received confirmation from a large conservation group that they will support and provide the resources for an in situ conservation/education initiative partnership i proposed

within an hour, i had a meeting with my supervisor about what my dream job would look like. we’re getting a new leader in the edu dept (my boss’ boss), and my supervisor wants me to “take advantage of any possible structural change to build [my] dream career path”

i’ve been very lost since july of last year, unable to find joy in a job that hadn’t felt like work the first two years. and, without the joy, i came to realize how underpaid and underappreciated my fellow coworkers and i are- beyond even what’s considered “normal” in my field. this has had a significant effect on my mental health, and i’ve been struggling. i found a passion in carnivorous plants, and have maintained my love for herptiles and the snake surveys i do on my days off. my passions outside of work have maintained me, but that in itself has been a challenge. i chose my field to love what i do every day. now that i haven’t been, it’s felt like a mistake to be in this field. but i still love biology, and still want to prevent extinction, so i knew something needed to change.

and i visited my best friend, and we talked about graduate school. i’d thought about it in the past, but swept away the thought because of my distaste for the american education system. she convinced me otherwise by showing me how much she loved it. our personalities are very similar, and we have a similar view of the edu system here in the US. as with all things, i trust her on this. 

and, in the case that i’m not accepted (i’ve only applied to one school, due to the fact that i made the decision to apply to grad schools too late in the game for most universities), i can build something here. i don’t know if i would stay here for long, but within the next month or two i can get this conservation project started. once it’s started, i trust that the in-situ part will continue (though, ironically, it’s the edu part that i think may fall to the wayside) regardless of my continues employment at my current workplace.

but we had a meeting with the higher ups. and they really seemed to take an interest in our concerns. we’ve already seen some changes in behavior that allude to appreciating us more. i can’t tell if it’s for show yet, or genuine, but either way it feels nice. and they’re taking into account our complaints about pay. i doubt we’ll see a change there, but at least they’ve heard us. if things start to change, and if i can walk down a path that leads to my so-called dream job, then i just might stay. i love many of the people i work with. i love the animals. i love the potential of what i can do. i’m at a crossroads, and eager to see which path i’ll take.

[queenreincarnated]

I was born and raised in Holland. My mom has Antilles ancestry and Cuban ancestry. My father is Surinam. Because i have no contact nor did he ever thought me anything bout his heritage, I dont consider myself Surinam.

I understand for foreigners I could define myself as Dutch or Afro European. But that's not how I was raised in my culture the way I was brought up I was seen as a mixed race person which is very hard because both of them are black. But nonetheless that's how I was perceived. Im only starting this conversation because I remembered a time where me not disclosing my father's heritage was seen as a problem.

I remember telling my employer convert hours Dutch Antilles and Cuban. I started working in team and when I saw that maybe 70% was from Surinam I tried to connect with them by disclosing my father's heritage. Gossip started my employer that I was lying to her. After that point they start the team start looking at me differently.

They asked me things like if I could speak their languag,e something I did not. I didn't tell them that my father just saw me as my mother's heritage. I didn't tell them that my father didn't love me because I was darker skinned compared to his other children. I didn't tell them they're the only reason why I loved my mother's heritage was they were more accepting of who I was.

After that they will looking on how pronounced my Dutch. Suddenly they couldt understand me. And before I knew it my intelligence was in question. I was bullied and I doubted myself and I took myself doubt with me for a long time. It wasn't like I was in the expert the ancestry of my mother, I was born here a I knew Holland. In every sense of the word except the class I was Dutch.

And about the class I was very aware that they saw me in a different standard. All I wanted to do was just like them. But then I started to see that all they had was hard burnt , overstressed , underpaid and were underappreciated. In the beginning there had my dream but by the end of my time working there, all i could see was pain of working there. That how I knew that the office life wasnt for me.

Idk just wanted to get that off my chest

[rotationalsymmetry]

I get the idea that there are lots of nurses that do abuse their power, but I think it is incredibly harmful to paint all nurses as "mean girls" who got in the job specifically to bring pain to people. My mom is a nurse and I've met a lot of their coworkers and they are all the nicest people who work incredibly hard in very bleak conditions for little money. Nurses experience a ton of abuse as well, both physically and mentally. My mom has been slapped, bitten, had things thrown at her. Not to mention that a lot of families will treat her like a customer service worker and yell at her if she can't give 100% of her time to a patient (which is impossible because they are always understaffed and she has twice as many patients to take care of as she should). I don't thin many nurses spend years in school to study hard for these very hard tests to get a underpaid job where 50% of the time they're cleaning up human shit because they're power hungry. I get your point, trying to point out abuse, but i don't think it belongs under a post trying to debunk the idea that all nurses are bullies. They are absolutely not.

I thought I answered this one? Oh, I guess it's a different one on the same theme. Anon, I think you as a person are probably a perfectly fine, good person. I think your opinion as stated is bad and wrong, as well as (possibly willfully?) misinterpreting what I said. Please for the love of whatever you consider good, learn how to take a statement like "this profession sometimes shelters abusers" without reading it as "everyone who goes into this profession is a bad person." I did not say that, and I did not say anything like that. Today is Martin Luther King Day in the US, so I'm going to paraphrase a thing he said: evil doesn't just happen because bad people do bad things, it also happens because good people stay silent. Your mother is a nurse. Before I got sick, was studying to be a minister. My chosen profession has people in it who commit abuse. Your mother's chosen profession has people in it who commit abuse. Both of our professions have people who are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated (although granted, being a minister does not usually involve cleaning up shit.) Both our professions have an abuse problem. The abuse problem always gets harder to deal with every time someone says "but those people can't be abusers, look at all the hard work they do and all the horrible things they put up with and how nice they are." I'm one of the good people, or at least I like to think of myself that way, right? Part of my job is not staying silent, and not assuming that just because I would never abuse someone, nobody that I went to school with ever would either. Abusers do not have neon signs on their face saying they're abusers. They can act nice. They can clean up shit. They can be treated badly themselves. You are presumably writing this because you want to defend your mom and her coworkers, which is understandable, and basically a good impulse. I am writing what I'm writing because I want to end abuse, and that requires talking about it, and that requires understanding that people do not get "I cannot be accused of abuse" immunity by being nice enough or getting things thrown at them or cleaning up enough poop. Most of your letter basically boils down to "it is not OK to say nurses (some nurses, yeah I know, not all nurses) abuse people, because look what nurses put up with", and I think that is itself part of the problem. I think you are buying into the idea that abusers are cartoon villains and if you ever met one, you'd know, and certainly a person can't be both abusive to people under their power and (superficially or genuinely) nice.

And I can completely understand why you'd want to see the world that way. Recognizing that some people you know who seem nice and like good, giving, community-minded people could potentially also be abusers is a terrifying, nightmarish way to see the world. It's not pleasant. It's not comfortable.

I was raped by someone who brought me oranges and let me talk about things when I was suicidal. People can be nice and abusive. I can't unsee that. But I wouldn't choose to if I could, because it is a true thing about the world, and fighting abuse requires acknowledging the truth. Anon, if you are looking for people to affirm the bravery and sacrifice and essential goodness of your mom the nurse, especially in these pandemic times, I am sure you can find them. I am not going to do that as a followup to a post about how apparently nice, helping-profession people can be abusers.

(Housekeeping note: anyone writing in about this post doesn't need to specify. If it's this post I do know which one you mean. I am so sick of talking about this post. But what I'm sick of isn't talking about abuse, it's people coming at me and putting words in my mouth and telling me I'm wrong because they don't understand what I was trying to say. Maybe I said it badly. We don't really control which posts take off on this site, and I didn't know that one was going to take off and I didn't word it with the care that I would have if I had known. At the same time. My response got shared because a lot of people thought I said it well, or at least well enough.)

[beaversatemygrandma]

Bluh less than a week left of being here. I was able to hang out with two people this month and because everybody is working idk if i’ll be able to see anyone else at all. So that sucks. Haven’t seen them in a while anyways so it’s okay i guess. Not like anyone checked in through the pandemic except like maybe three of them.

I’ll make new ones after i move and get a new job and now that i’m vaxxed i guess. ;-; And then the ordeal of packing and moving. The most stressful part. I’ve moved literally five times in my life and every time I’ve hated every second of making the whole change. Can’t get used to it. Never have. Ugh.

Most disappointed about probably not being able to do one thing with the one person who kept in contact no matter what after we stopped working together. And ya know that whole shockingly mutual crush. Anyways we were going to go to the springs before i left if they got a day off in time where there weren’t any previous plans and now that it’s less than a week before i go, i guess it’ll have to wait until i visit FL again a while from now. Tho I did run past a hypothetical future situation and it was actually considered. Like after their kinda shitty roommate moves out and I’m done with my business in NC, I’ll likely move in with them. I think it would be a nice situation to have. We know we get along more than well enough, we’ve been basically fighting against work an unlucky situations for time together which rarely happens, but when it does it’s always great, when their roommate doesn’t guilt them out of leaving the house... Also i finally had the full conversation about the gender things we’ve both been going through and, im so happy for them, they’ve already gotten hormone therapy set up and it’s been settled, we definitely are both nb which is neat. Wasn’t expecting that out of when we first met. I just secretly hope their voice doesn’t change too much, it’s not terribly deep or anything, just sounds so nice. Soft and literally makes me melt. ...ahhhh im gonna send a text and see if there really is no time this week. Maybe see if i can at least sneak in one last random adventure or something if we can’t do the day trip.

Geez i don’t wanna leave people behind but i think already accidentally did when i needed like five months of no interactions to recover from the burnout that was the last two years of high school topped off with three years of working a shit deadend job where i was underpaid, underappreciated and depressed as shit trying to pay rent and barely being able to afford food. I’m mostly okay now. Yeah, i need to treat this anxiety and adhd like last year, and finally take classes and go back to school and idk get a damn car. I just wish there was more to do here and i was able to stick around more. But now that I’ve got enough money sitting in the savings to get that car, pay off those medical debts (still bitter because it was $900 for NOTHING but just existing in the ER, it’s down to 700 but STILL.) and probably take some classes at a community college (this will wipe out that whole $10k but still. It’s possible.) I’m gonna get stuck with taking care of a 12yo (the eldest daughter complex is gonna come back but at least it won’t be like it was with my mom and taking care of her dad and dealing with the fucked up parts of her side of the family, I think it’ll just be split between me and my grandma when my dad isn’t around) nbd tho that kid needs a sibling around. And then likely downloading tinder again and being that person looking for people to hang out with and show me the area bc i haven’t been there since i was 8. Going back to the hometown i don’t even know my way around lol. Could be fun, might find other people who are similar in the city. It’s a real city with places that are hopefully not filled to the brim with rednecks. Its NC, so i can’t really guarantee it for myself, but still much less seeing as it’s a big city. Could be fun. Could be fun. Just not emotionally prepared for New. 

Six days and counting. Oh boy.

[angelkate93-blog]

I think I’m doing okay.

Since I resigned from my job, I’ve been thinking if I made the right choice considering the fact that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and having a secured job is a huge blessing. However, it was just not fulfilling anymore. Yes it made me feel needed, more than I would’ve wanted, but the main problem was how the management treated us.

Even before the pandemic, I already had half a mind to resign. Back then it was because my job was not up to par with what I needed to be, career-wise.

But after months of hanging onto my patience and sanity. After months of being underappreciated and SEVERELY UNDERPAID, I decided it was time to go and prioritize what I wanted in life.

But actually, I don’t really know what I want in life...

Nonetheless, it’s been 2 months since I resigned. Oh how time flies. I’m still jobless and lost. But I haven’t been unstable since, I cry less often, I sometimes feel positive about my life (a huge change), I can finally look myself in the mirror and smile.

Yes I still have dark moments, I don’t think that’ll ever change. But still, I can say I feel good. I think I’m okay.

I’m just a little nervous, when will be the next critically dark day? 

I just hope and pray.... not soon.

[celestialaesthetical]

Take the gap year to study the hardest subject you will take and what you're focusing on and learn to like it (what we are good at, we like; so get good at it). Also, keep in mind what pay the career you're aiming for will provide. Too many girls go into teaching and other underpaid underappreciated jobs and end up tired and bitter. Study hard now, and you'll get to play later. Think about it: being able to travel, not having to worry so much about bills, cute outfits, connections with people

Um, no.

I’ve been in education for the past 15 years and I have not had a break. I’m taking a break. My gap year is to get some money and look after my mental health and enjoy myself and de-stress, so I am getting a job, and goddam if I wanna get high and read lots of books then I bloody well will. I am studying ancient history and English, completely my choice, so I know that I’m gonna enjoy it anyway. I don’t know what career I’m aiming for but hun, I’m predicted an A*, an A and a B at A-levels and I have had it really hard for the past two years and my motivation to work has been non-existent so I know I can get there and probably do better than that if I study hard, and with my work ethic? Boy, do I study hard under pressure. I’m really struggling and mentally very ill so I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be fine at uni and with my career in terms of achieving what I want anyway thnx :) Me taking a year out is gonna be me doing what I want, not me studying because I need to take a little time away from that shit, I have studied so hard for so long so it’s my time to play now whilst I’m still young. I am gonna be able to travel; and not worry about the bills; and get cute outfits; and have connections with people, whether I waste my year studying or whether I do what I want.

And considering my chosen area of study? I don’t think getting high and reading stuff is a bad idea tbh.