#Buy Now Pay Later Market Demand

[reverie-verse]

Ooops Mating Bond - Azriel x Reader

Prompt: The time you accepted the mating bond by force feeding your mate who hadn’t eaten all day. Your a younger than Tarquin so like 40. You’re a chef for the inner circle.

Yoo so this is my first time writing an Acotar fic, ummmm also Az is my favorite right now so don’t judge. Umm I hope you enjoy it!

Also fluff❤️ lemme know if you want more! Ps I promise in the future I will grammar check okay, cuz this ish is so getting out of hand 😭😭😭

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When you first joined the inner circle it was Mor, Cassian and Nesta who had found you. You were just a plain old fisher woman, you would go out on your little boat in the early mornings (mostly) to catch as many fish you could. You’d sell them to the other restaurants. You’d take whatever earnings you’d receive and hit the market. You’d buy various Ingredients for various dishes. In the time between you would take a nap before you prepared your dishes. Later in the evening you’d wake up and begin preparing different meals and pack them. It would be nearing toward the later part of the night. You’d pack your food cart and push it towards the direction of Rita’s. The night life there was always vibrant. You figured a change in crowd might be more beneficial to you.

There you stood with your cart and all, food hot and ready to be eaten. Mor had stumbled out of the club with Amren, Varian, and Azriel. They had been giggling to no end with smiles on their faces and twinkles in their eyes. Mor was the one who had rushed to your cart when she had smelt the variety of foods. She was more than delighted to pay for the entire cart of food. Amren complained that it was too much until she had tasted your food. Then she argued with Mor even though she particularly didn’t enjoy food about getting half the cart. Varian only laughed at his lover while Mor very seriously attempted to pull out money to pay for the entire cart. Azriel on the other hand had remained quiet. He watched you with careful eyes assessing you, and the cart. He had found it odd that he had never seen you before anywhere in Velaris. The fact that you had parked your cart out and near Rita’s. He had no reasons to truly believe you were to cause any harm.

Azriels face remained stoic and brooding but as a shadow singer and one of the most fear Illyrian spy you only smiled and offered him a pastry and some savory food. The Shadowsinger was taken back, everyone was so afraid of him he hadn’t expected you to outright smile at him. He reached into his pocket to fish out his money, his sapphiron's flickered in the street light. You moved your hand over the cart stoping his.

“ It’s on the house-”

He looked at you as if you spoke another language and you continued grinning. “ -For now. But when you come back I’ll charge you and your crew. Shadow man-.” You watched as he bit into the food. His whole body sagged at the taste of the food. It was rather comforting and it certainly hit the spot. You had packed the food into containers as you handed them to Azriel who was quietly enjoying his food. Mor and Amren had squealed with joy as Varian helped the struggling eater with the containers. You had closed up shop heading on your way home. Sure you had made money that night but it was worth it watching them express happiness over the food they had consumed.

It was like that for weeks and each time they had paid for the entire cart. With each passing day a new member of the inner circle would visit the cart along with your returning customers. At one point Feyre had asked why Mor, why everyone was so invested in a small food stand. To which she only replied “ The food is divine” So Feyre went and tried it with her friends and family. Needless to say she immediately demanded Rhysand to offer you a job to work for them. Whether it was at the River House, the Town House or the House of Wind. Rhys agreed without a second thought everyone was overjoyed that their favorite person would be joining them.

The High Lord and Lady appeared on your boat offering you a job which you gladly accepted. Months later you found yourself working in all three houses cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner. You enjoyed your job more than anything in the world. The best part was that you got to live there and a person who lingered in the shadows…. Traveling became much easier. Though it was horrible when you had to walk up those ten thousand steps with groceries. When you reached the top Azriel was quick to help you with the groceries it was a coincidence he had gotten there the same time you did. Thankfully that only happened one time. That was the only night the inner circle had no dinner and everyone was mad at those stairs because of it. This time around everyone had decided to stay at the River house.

You smiled at the memory as you finished today's breakfast having Nuala and Cerridwen place the dishes on the table. You began working on lunch for the day. You could hear the inner circle chatting at the table eating their food. Busy Bodies all of them, you chuckled to yourself. You waited though for a voice in particular one that was always brooding in the dark corner, with flying globs of shadows. Speaking of shadows one in particular found a safe place to rest as it wraps itself around your wrist. You looked at the shadow and whispered to it “ Where’s your master?” You were definitely joking when you had asked the question. Though the shadow seemed to believe you had meant it. It unravels itself from your wrist in a hot pursuit to find its master. You shake your head as you roll the dough.

After an hour or two everyone had cleared the table and set off to do their duties for the time being before lunch. Even as Nuala and Cerridwen were the maidens of Feyre they stuck close by you. They watched every movement you made and you knew who they reported too. Between them and the shadows you had no idea what to do. Azriel seemed to have kept all eyes on you at all times just as Rhys does with Feyre. The two were far more alike than you’d be willing to admit out loud. You and Azriel were barely mated. It snapped a month ago when he had come home from a mission. It had been a rough one and you both found yourselves together expressing hidden unrequited love amongst other things. However you hadn’t made a meal specifically for him yet.

………………….

You had finished with lunch fairly early helping the twins set the table. You watched as the entire inner circle piled in. Elain sniffs the air gently “ Oh Y/N this smells amazing!” as she settles herself down in a chair. Nesta, not far behind her sister, finds a place to sit and she grins, which was enough said in her case. Cassian right behind Nesta and Mor hot on his heels, he shoves Mor. “I AM STARVING!”

Mor shoves “ You Pig, save some for me!!” She lunges for the table Cassian doing the same. You laugh at the two as they fought for a specific dish they wanted. Feyre and Rhys both emerged making their way to the table.

“ Don’t start fighting, guys there's plenty of food” You laughed at your two friends who were eyeing the same pastry platter but further down the table, within a second both were scrambling for it.

“ Oh wow Y/N I think this is the best spread of food you’ve made” Feyre smiles at you before taking her place at the table. Grabbing her plate and piling on the food. The table had been covered in various fruits, vegetable dishes, sandwiches and meat dishes, even some rice dishes as well. You attempted this time around to try a new pastry dish which was completely devoured by Mor and Cassian. You could see why everyone was so eager to eat it looked good.

“ Thank you, I really appreciate that” You gave her an accomplished smile. You were proud that it looked even though you felt you could’ve done better. This was good for now and everyone had the look of It hit the spot on their faces. So take that overthinking brain.

Rhys turned to you he was about to say something when Amren came barreling into the room, excitement etched on her face. “My favorite time of day!” She too also lunged for the table.

“ Looks like you finally curbed your appetite,” Nesta says from her spot.

Amren glared at Nesta “Even in this fae body, I wouldn’t mind attempting to see if my old appetite still lingers, girl”

Rhys chucked “ Enough Amren eat your lunch Y/N had worked so hard to prepare this exquisite meal for us” Rhys had taken his seat as well gathering food to put on his plate. You took a seat next to Elain taking a rest before heading back to the kitchen. You liked to hear the chatter amongst the group and about how their days were going. You were quiet and just enjoying the simplicity of it. Until your mind wandered to Azriel, who hadn’t been there for breakfast and now lunch.

You felt talons in your mind gently tapping on your shielded mind. You knew it was Rhys by how his mental talons scratched at your mind. Feyre had never done it to you but you assumed that she was a much more gentle experience than Rhys, no offense to him. You let him slip into your mind easily.

“ Why so sad little chef?”

“ Little Chef? Haha, very original old man. Where is he?” You watched as Feyre and Elain talked about her garden in the town house. Cassian slumped back in his chair giving himself a tummy rub. Nesta rolls her eyes at him as he gives her a rather suggestive look. Mor cackled when she noticed the interaction. Amren paid no mind to anyone sneaking more food onto her plate while stealing off of everyone else's.

“ Ouch, old man? Do remind me of who we are talking about again, Little Chef ” You sided eyed Rhys as his shoulders shook slightly from holding in a laugh.

“You play too many games, old man. You know who I am talking about ” You mentally rolled your own eyes, showing him the gesture while also mentally flipping him off.

“ Okay, okay, I do play games. I rather enjoy them. However your ‘old man’ of a mate is taking care of business for me.”

“ Feyre was right”

“ About what?”

“ Your all Busy bodies”

“ Hey, you looked like you needed some reassurance. It would be wrong of me to not help a fellow friend”

“ Uh-huh so when will he be back?”

“ He should be back in an hour.”

“ I am so telling Feyre you’re a busy body” By this point you and Rhys locked eyes, both of you continued communicating mentally. Any other person who looked from the outside would have guessed that maybe the two of you were staring each other down to see who would break first.

“ Y/N, that is far from the truth.” Rhys looked away briefly to roll his own eyes at you.

“ It is the truth! You swear you don’t ‘meddle in other people's business’ here you are telling me what I wanna know” You mentally pointed a finger at him as you laughed softly.

“ You looked sad! This is the last time I help you ease your mind” Rhys attempted to defend himself but it was no use, he in fact was a busy body whether he wanted to admit it or not.

“Guilty busy body old man”

“ Don’t you have food to make, Little Chef”

“Thanks,”Your eyes lit with humor as you smiled before heading off to the kitchen to prepare dinner and Azriel’s lunch.

“Of course” Dipped his head at you returning that same humorous expression.

………………..

The hour had passed and you had finished making Azriel’s plate and some of the dinner spread. You could feel the buzz of energy that belonged to him. Your bond had begun sharpening itself lately between you two. It hadn’t completely fortified itself just yet and you couldn’t figure out why. This would be the first meal you’d bring just to Azriel, your mind unbeknownst to you had not caught on to what was happening. You weren’t exactly lucky in the learning of mating. Your parents were different. You knew that, and everyone else knew that, so this concept to you was entirely new.

“ Miss?” Nuala called out to you.

“ Yes?” You replied as you fixed a missing piece to his plate before grabbing a glass of water along with it.

“ You’re running behind Miss” Nuala gives you a small smile as she shifts her gaze to the clock. You follow it cursing at yourself grabbing the plate before making your way hastily out the kitchen. Cerridwen had smiled at herself knowing what was about to transpire.

Nuala called out to you again “ Uh Miss he’s in the High lords study”.

“ Oh right, yes Okay, thank you! I will be back to help with the rest of the dinner!” You called out as you left the kitchen.

“ Should we warn her?” Cerridwen giggled. Cerridwen couldn’t help but be happy for the pair. Azriel deserved to be loved just as the rest of the group is.

“ No, let the happy couple be,” Nuala replied, continuing her work as well. Azriel deserved to be loved just as the rest of the group is. Nuala looked to her sister as they both shared a giddy giggle of happiness.

You had followed Nuala’s advice practically running down the halls to get to Azriel. You knew he had to be starving; there was no way he would not be hungry. You hadn’t realized what was happening when you entered the room. All three bat boys had been in a meeting which was abruptly stopped by you. You didn’t seem to notice as your feet carried you to Azriel. Azriel noticed the plate in your hands. His face is tinting a shade of pink. Now was definitely not the time to be giving him food. Cassian and Rhys both coughed, finding everything else in the room rather interesting.

“ Y/N now isn’t the best time for-“ Azriel started, though you cut him off quickly.

“ You didn’t eat breakfast or lunch so I made you some food.” You hand him the plate expecting him to eat it. Azriel cleared his throat nervously, he didn’t even attempt to eat it. Though his stomach growled and he so badly wanted to eat it. He also so badly wanted to have you to himself and his way with you but he couldn’t not even during an important meeting with his high lord and his general. Fuuuuccckk. He mentally groaned. This could not have happened at a far worse time than right now. He loved your innocence in all this but it was his fault he should’ve warned you.

“I understand but-“ He started again as he tried to find the words to tell you that this was extremely bad timing. You were not taking a no for an answer, the other two males had not moved fast enough to stop you either. You had shoved a piece of food in Azriel’s mouth. His eyes widened, he was shocked that you forced him to eat. Azriel made no more to chew, or swallow or make any sudden movements. Once he inhales the food it was game over for everyone including you.

“ You better chew it Az, and swallow it. You haven’t eaten a damn thing all day long and it’s the last time I tell you” You warned him. Cassian and Rhys looked at each other before lunging for you both.

Rhys was the first to grab you and pull you away. Cassain quickly grabbed the plate from Azriel’s hands carrying it like bomb “ I GOT IT!” Cassian rushed over to the window chucking it out of the study. Rhys grabbed a napkin as he marched over to Azriel “ Spit it out!” to which Azriel obliged.

Rhys handed Azriel a cup of water to which Cassian yelled “ NO NOT THE WATER” Rhys immediately switched hands and conjured up a second water.

“ You gave him water too!” Rhys groaned as he looked at Azriel who was in fact looking at you.

“ For fuck sake it’s literally water! He hasn’t eaten and I highly doubt he had water! You guys, I worked hard on that food. Cass that was also my favorite dish!” You whined as you twirled around and faced a wall that was decorated with one of Feyre’s paintings.

“ Sorry but I had to do it. I’ll buy you a new one” Cassian shrugged, though he’d have to admit it was a bit of an overreaction.

Rhys sighed “ Y/N has anyone ever spoken to you about the mating ritual?”

You froze in place, there was no way your high lord was about to teach you a lesson on mating bonds, especially the ritual, “Ooooo no, oh by the cauldron this is embarrassing” You could feel your blood heat under you skin, and creep along your chest and neck. Azriel’s eyebrows shot up realizing that maybe his brother shouldn’t express that knowledge to her. Cassian seemed to have noticed the sudden change.

“ Rhys, I think we should let Az explain to her..” Cassian suggested as he walked toward a chair and sat down.

Rhys sighed again he looked between you and Azriel, “ We aren’t leaving this room, you can explain it to her in the corner but I want you both where I can see you” Rhys walked over to his desk pulling out papers to work on while Cassian played with one of Rhys’s trinkets. Rhys reached over and took it out of his hand. “ That’s not a toy”

“ Then why is it on your desk?”

“ Because that is where I decided to place it”

“ Why would you do that”

“ Cass” Rhys had pinched the bridge of his nose as the two began a bickering of their own.

You shook your head as you walked over to Azriel shyly. Azriel reached for your wrist grabbing it as he pulled you closer to him. You were experiencing many mixed emotions and you were rather embarrassed. You wanted nothing more than to dive into your work to distract yourself. You also wanted to severely scrub this memory out of your brain. Your head hung low, Azriel let go of your wrist tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. His finger grazed along the side of your jaw before dipping under your chin to tilt your head up so that your eyes could meet. Rhys had put a shield around you so that your conversation would stay between you with no prying ears. So to speak.

“ It’s okay” His usual sharp stoic demeanor softened, his eyes gently as they searched yours. Boy did you melt into a tiny ball of goo. “ You don’t have to be embarrassed. Shall I explain the ritual to you” He offered though he was going to tell you anyway. You groaned again moving your crown against his chest as you looked at the floor and at his feet. He only chuckled at your actions.

“ I’ll take that as a yes. Well what I can tell you is that when you give a mate food it signifies the bond. It makes it, as you would put it ‘official’. It means acceptance. After the acceptance, after the male eats all of the food given to him by his mate…they- uh do- a bit of mating of their own” Azriel was not sure how to phrase that last sentence. On any other given day with his job and with his life he would have used better terms. This was new; he had never done this before.

“ Oh-ooh- Oooooh I see” You felt even worse about your decision now. Azriel again lifted your head so that your eyes could lock again.

You huffed moving away from Azriel slightly as you spoke “ So from what I gathered is that I waltzed into this meeting almost force feed you-“

“ You didn’t waltz, you ran and barged in. You absolutely force fed me” Azriel teased you which only made you glare at him.

“ That’s not funny Az, I was about to put you into a sexual frenzy. “

“ Is that such a bad thing?” He reached for your hips but you smacked his hands away, not to say he couldn’t touch you but that this really wasn’t funny. Azriel ignored the fact that you did that, completely touch starved and craving you he pulled you back to him.

You instinctively wrapped your arms around his neck. “No but- you were busy, I knew that, I just wanted to make sure you ate.” Azriel smiled as he rested his forehead against yours.

“ Tell you what, when I am done with this meeting. I will personally come find you myself. You can warm me up some food and a glass of water-” you both chuckled at that , as he leaned closer to your ear this time “ -and when I finish, for dessert,-“ he pressed your body even harder into him, closer to him impossibly close”- I want you spread out for me, so that I can devour you, leaving you wanting and needing more.”

Your eyes widened, Azriel moved away before capturing your lips in a kiss, but before it could go no further Rhys snapped the shield back, Cassian already near Azriel pulling him off and away from you. You in that moment cursed Rhys and Cass in your mind but in reality you flipped both of them off. Rhys had called for Nuala to take you back to the Kitchen. Azriel who no longer remained broody held a smirk filled with mischief and desire. His eyes twinkled with excitement, he was happy to have you as his mate. You could definitely say the same about him.

Before you completely exited the study room Azriel winked at you. You smiled at him as you shut the door heading to the kitchen with Nuala who bombarded you with questions about what happened. Cerridwen finished decorating a dish as she grabbed another, you also spilled the beans to her as she wanted every juicy detail. The three of you had grabbed dish after dish placing it on the table. You were giddy, excited, but mostly nervous about the acceptance of the bond. You knew Azriel would take care of you but you couldn’t help but worry if you’d be interrupted. Though you knew no one would bother you. Time could not have gone by any slower if it weren’t for the twins who kept you company and busy.

Once the food was ready and everyone piled in. Again you found yourself searching for Azriel. Nowhere to be found you sighed. Feyre walked over towards you and pushed you in the direction of the kitchen.

“ There’s something in the kitchen I think you should look at” She tells you and you knew what or rather who she was referring too. You giggled nodding, you head into the kitchen, when a little shadow flew towards you, wrapping around your wrist, your hair and caressing the sides of your cheeks. You grinned knowing that the man of your dreams was sitting at the island you were working on. He had a plate, a fork and nice ready to eat. A glass of water sat next to his plate. He offered you a sweet smile. He beckoned you closer and you couldn’t resist. You grabbed a chair and sat next to him. He waited for you to sit down. “ Have you eaten today?” He asked you before digging in. You grabbed a fork of your own getting ready to eat with him.

“ I’ll pick off your plate” You replied as you held the fork in hand getting ready to grab a potato.

Azriel watched you for a moment taking it in that you were his. “ I don’t know if I can last”

“ What come on listen I’ll eat one half of the plate you eat the other side. It’ll be fine-”

“ No-I meant I doubt that I’m going to be able to eat this without wanting you right now” He whispered.

You felt your blood heat up again. “ Az, eat first and then we’ll see if there’s room for…me…” Azriel’s skin tinted pink when you whispered those words. He hadn’t expected you to flirt back like that. That made him want you even more.

“ There’s always room for you” He whispers.

“ I guess we’ll have to find out. '' You teased as you began eating a few tiny pieces so that Azriel could eat the entire plate.

Azriel only shook his head as he quietly dug into his food with you by his side.

[whipped-for-kpop-fics]

X Marks the Spot - K.SY

🏴‍☠️Who; Kwon Soonyoung (Seventeen) x female reader 🏴‍☠️What; Humour. Bestfriends to lovers. I guess some tiny fluff? Adult themes. 🏴‍☠️Wordcount; 5.8k 🏴‍☠️Warnings; Profanity. Party typical alcohol mentions but neither SY nor reader are drinking. Kind of jealous/possessive Soonyoung. Making out in public places. The whole point of this story is Soonyoung in a costume marketed for women, so if that's not your vibe then this story is not for you, friend.

Although there isn't any smut, this is definitely an 18+ fic so Minors do NOT interact. I WILL block any account that interacts without an age indicator in the bio.

Summary; You stupidly left the job of buying your costumes for the party down to Soonyoung, and now you're paying for it and have to spend the night watching him dancing in those little shorts initially intended for you.

-2024 Masterlist-

A/N; this is all because I can't get the thought of Soonyoung in the pirate outfit from my "Sexy costumes for Seventeen to wear" post out of my head. made myself feral with that one.

Completely out of the blue last week, Seungkwan decided to send a message in the group chat that he's throwing a costume party. No reason for it, nothing had happened to warrant a party, he had simply decided he wanted to do it and demanded the entire group be there and in costume.

Soonyoung had, unsurprisingly, already been by your side on our couch watching the latest episode of the drama you two were obsessed with, when the message came through. After the episode you both looked at your phones and Soonyoung immediately started to look for costume ideas excitedly. He soon found and fell in love with a pirate outfit and after showing you it, he said it's part of a couple costume and as besties, you have to match because 'that's what besties do'. In the year you have known Soonyoung, you have never truly said no to him and this was no different.

Though perhaps you should've at least looked at the female half of the matching costume before agreeing instead of blindly trusting your best friend.

Which leads us to here. It's an hour before the party is due to start and Soonyoung has just turned up at your apartment to get ready together just like always. He has the parcel of costumes in his arms and a bright excited grin on his face when he hands it over to you to allow him to remove his shoes.

"I haven't opened it yet," He informs, watching you walk over to the couch to lean the parcel against the arm and open it like you knew he wanted you to. Soonyoung knows you get an odd sense of joy from opening parcels whether or not they're for you so he often brings his orders over or invites you to his apartment to allow you to open them for him.

"So I see," You muse with a little giggle.

Soonyoung appears at your back a moment later, leaning his chin on your shoulder to peer into the bag as you open it. The first costume out is his, packaged in another bag though this is clear revealing the cardboard insert with a picture of a man in the costume on the front. He takes it happily when you offer it and bounces aside to start to open it excitedly.

There's only one more item in the bag, your costume so you take it out, excited about your matching pirate outfits too. Up until you turn the packet over to look at the picture and realise that this truly is not what you expected, especially not from your best friend.

"What the actual fuck, Kwon Soonyoung?!" You demand flabbergasted.

"Uh-oh, the full name," Soonyoung looks up at you in alarm, all sign of joy gone. "Did they send the wrong thing?"

"I hope so because if you saw this on the site and still ordered it, you and I are going to have some issues." You turn the packet to show him the picture on the cardboard insert. A picture of a woman in a tiny pair of high-waisted shorts, if they could even be considered that with fishnet tights underneath. There's an attempt at a white top that honestly could be a lot worse, it's off the shoulder and cropped but it's honestly not as bad as it could be for a female-focused costume, but still far too revealing for your liking. To finish it off, she's wearing a striped bandana on her head with a plastic sword in her hands and you're very certain that the sword alone is the only reason the packet is that big because there's certainly not enough material creating the costume to require such a size bag.

Soonyoung stares at the picture for a second then looks up at you with a confused little pout. "It's a pirate outfit."

"Show me yours," You demand with a sigh. He doesn't hesitate to move over and hand you his costume, still in the packet just about.

There's a clear difference in costumes. The picture on his packet depicts a man in three-quarter length vertically striped trousers and a simple white shirt with an open neckline revealing a thin triangular strip of skin down to his sternum, finished with the same bandana as your costume and a plastic sword. Though, of course, the man's sword is bigger than the woman's sword. Of course, the men get the big boy sword and the women get the toothpick.

"You seriously don't see a problem with this?" You ask, holding the two packets up side by side so that he can see the photos together. Poor, naive Soonyoung looks between the pictures rapidly in a desperate attempt to understand. Yet he winds up just shaking his head as he looks at you with such an innocent expression that you know that he seriously doesn't understand the problem here at all. "Then you can wear this one." You declare, handing him the woman's outfit before turning to stalk off to your bedroom.

"What?!" He sputters, scrambling to follow you down the short corridor. "This is for women!"

"You've said before, clothes have no gender!" You remind, turning at the threshold with a hand on your open door ready to close it and a sweet smile on your face. "If you want to match with me, Soonyoungie, you wear that and I'll wear this."

He stares between you and the packet in his hand for a moment before agreeing with a nod and a simple "okay".

And that right there, is your second mistake.

When you had told Soonyoung to wear that outfit, you really had not been prepared for how fucking good he'd look in the skimpy little outfit. So now you have to spend the next hours at Seungkwan's bustling apartment pretending that your gaze isn't constantly locating Soonyoung in the dim lighting as he happily dances amongst other costumed bodies.

Sure, you've seen Soonyoung topless before so you know the man has a frankly incredible body usually hidden under the baggy clothes he usually prefers to wear, but the sexy little pirate outfit highlights his strong torso and biceps so well. The cropped top stops at his sternum giving full view of the top half of his defined abs, the bottom half hidden by the high waist of the shorts. And those shorts? They really do not leave a lot to the imagination at all so Soonyoung has spent the entire night so far carefully doing his best to keep the sword strapped around his hips dangling in front of his crotch. You had obligingly given him the bigger sword when you had realised that the 'woman's' sword wasn't exactly wide enough to cover him. Neither of you had made eye contact when you had handed it over without a word because you both knew what it meant and the fact you had obviously seen the bulge of his flaccid dick in the tight shorts.

Which honestly, had only made you wonder how big he was hard, and that was a thought that you usually try to avoid; thinking of your best friend in a sexual situation. Though his pure existence alone makes it very hard.

Kwon Soonyoung doesn't realise how attractive he is and you're kind of grateful about it. Because if that unfairly effortlessly attractive man knows how hot he is, then you know he'll be cocky and dress to show off more often than just for nights out or special occasions, and you would not mentally survive that.

As it is, you're not sure you'll survive the night.

"One day, you two are going to stop being stupid and just fuck it out," Chan comments from your right where he stands in his doctor's outfit; Seungkwan's wearing a matching one somewhere else in the apartment and you really can't tell if it's intentional or not with those two. They're always bickering and acting like they hate each other but they're always the first the other goes to for any reason whatsoever.

"Please make it before the end of summer so I don't lose money," Seungcheol requests from your left, leaning against the wall with you and dressed in a suit just like his own best friend and roommate, wherever she has disappeared to. She's likely with Junhui based on the way the pair have been eyeing each other for the past hour -and since they met really but that's another story entirely.

"You assholes have bets on us fucking?" You gawp in betrayed disbelief at the suited man.

"Yup," Seungcheol confirms shamelessly while Chan tries to sputter out a denial that makes you level the youngest with an unimpressed look. However, it doesn't last because you hear Soonyoung's loud voice even over the music and automatically look over to where your best friend is trying to stop Seokmin from grabbing at his sword. No euphemism even if the plastic is in the right place. "Looks like Seok's going to get further with your boy than you ever have." Seungcheol sniggers. You shove his arm making him laugh harder.

"Swordplay," Chan giggles then wanders off without another word to refill his cup after swallowing the last of its contents.

"Seriously though, you should like, go fuck him," Seungcheol speaks a moment later when Soonyoung has successfully distracted Seokmin by grabbing the younger's hands to make him dance with him. Soonyoung shoots you a world-weary, wide-eyed look that makes you snicker and wave innocently at him.

"You really don't want to lose money, huh."

"It's not even about that, just you two. This has been going on for over a year now; this gross pining shit. Just sit on his dick and ask him on a date, it's not that hard."

"You can't say shit, Cheol."

"Hey, I've fucked her, regularly," he defends with a pout before sipping at his drink.

"Oh yeah, because fucking your best friend who you've been in love with since childhood while encouraging her to go after your friend who she's been mutually eyefucking for the past three months is so much better." You retort sarcastically and give him a look. He can't refute it at all, it's entirely true and he's confided in you enough for you both to know that he's constantly making his own heartbreak worse by continuing to indulge his best friend both in bed and when she comes home and whines over how good Junhui looks.

"We're as bad as each other," he decides after a second.

"Don't lump me with you, I've never fucked him." You scoff and turn back around to naturally locate Soonyoung where he's back to smiling away as he dances with Seokmin and some others.

"You want to,"

"Yeah, I really fucking do," you exhale and swallow down the last of your drink only to frown down into the empty disposable cup. "I need a real drink."

"You know you can't drink around him like this or you will ask to suck his dick." Seungcheol reminds you of the very reason why you're always the designated driver when Soonyoung dresses up.

Because yes, you have come close to getting on your knees in the middle of a club for him. Luckily, Seungcheol had noticed and took you home before you actually acted on the urge to publicly defile your best friend. Unluckily, Seungcheol had noticed and has not failed to mention it at every chance. But at least it's stayed between the two of you.

"At this rate, I'll do it regardless," you mutter, still frowning into your empty cup. "Back in a bit." Seungcheol just grunts to show he heard before you slump off to the kitchen to refill your cup with one of the non-alcoholic beverages lining the counter.

You've barely finished filling your cup when a familiar hand reaches around you and picks it up to start gulping down. Even though you know it's Soonyoung, you still look over your right shoulder where he's chugging down the drink entirely unaware of your thirsty gaze watching the drop of liquid that escapes from the corner of his mouth trail down over his chin and jaw and down his neck to catch on his collar bone. You refrain from leaning in to slurp it up and lick your way up the trail it left all the way to Soonyoung's mouth.

Instead of staring at the way his throat bobs as he swallows down the last drops, you turn back around and wait for him to place the cup down so that you can refill it. And then he grabs it again before you can, making you groan. "Seriously?"

"M'thirsty," he defends barely pulling the cup away and accidentally dribbling some of the liquid from his mouth onto your shoulder. You look at him in disgust. He just grins sweetly and kisses your cheek in a sticky apologetic way before leaning back up to get back to his task of once again, stealing your drink.

At least this time when you've refilled the cup, he doesn't steal it away and lets you actually lift it to your own mouth. You can feel his eyes on you as you drink so you side-eye him questioningly without moving the cup away.

"Are you taking Seungcheol home again?" He asks, stepping closer to you as someone passes too close behind him, his left hand falling to your hip and his right on the counter, sort of caging you in though you know it's unintentional even if you wish it wasn't.

"He can take himself home, he's not drinking tonight," you reply, distracted by the feeling of plastic pressing against you. "Your sword is digging into my ass."

Soonyoung lets go of the counter to tug his sword belt around and lays the toy on the outside of his left thigh leaving him pressed directly against you. You genuinely can't tell if he's even noticed that as he seems to be focused on the conversation judging by the concentrated furrow of his eyebrows. "That's not what I mean and you know it."

"If I know it, wouldn't I respond to what you mean?" You give him a look, puzzled by his own words and hoping he understands that you seem to very much not be having the same conversation here and you are completely unaware of the conversation he's having with you.

"Not when you're both pretending nothing's happening,"

"What?" You nudge him back enough so that you can turn and face him, which admittedly, is not your smartest move when he moves straight back in. He doesn't press against you again but his left foot is between yours as you lean your ass back against the counter. Any closer and his thigh will be very close to pressing to your crotch.

"Come on, I'm your best friend, I think you should at least be honest with me, even if you play ignorant with the others," he frowns and leans heavier onto his right hand on the counter beside your hip, bringing him in closer so that he doesn't have to talk so loudly to be heard over the music. "You two often leave together when we go out. And even though his place is closer than mine, you drop me off first so it's just you two left. I'm not stupid."

"Wait, you think that's so we can go fuck?" You realise with wide eyes.

"It's obvious, you always find each other when we're all together like this and spend the whole fucking night hiding off to the side whispering to each other,"

You can't help but laugh. "Do you all think we're fucking?" He nods. You laugh again. "Oh man, I gotta tell Cheolie this," you start to push off of the counter with every intention of going to find the man knowing he will find it as hilarious as you do, but Soonyoung puts his left hand on your lower stomach to push you back and then he pushes himself against you to pin you there. "Soonyoung,"

"No."

"What? No? No what?"

"I'm not letting you go back to him. You came with me, you're staying with me and leaving with me, no one else." He declares firmly.

You stare up at him trying to decipher what the fuck is actually going on right now, what prompted this sudden conversation and behaviour. Not that Soonyoung has never pinned you before but it's usually playfully as he whines and pouts cutely to get his way, or to just joke around. But he's entirely serious now and looking at you with something kind of dark in his eyes. Admittedly, it's pretty fucking hot. "Are you drunk?" You ask, even if you know he's not; you can't smell any alcohol on him and drunk Soonyoung gets cuddly and clingy, not whatever this is.

"You know I'm not," he places his left hand on the counter on your other side, well and truly caging you in and causing him to lean down a little closer to reach comfortably.

"Then why are you suddenly acting like this?"

"It's not sudden." You give him a look. "Okay, fine, acting on it is but wanting to, that's not sudden. I've wanted to do this for a long time,"

"Then why haven't you?"

"Because I care about you too much," he frowns a little as he takes in your features from up close, gaze catching on your lips for a few seconds before lifting back up to meet your eyes. "There's a bet you know, about us fucking?"

"I just found out." You pull a displeased expression. "Cheol's in on that, you know? He wouldn't bet on us fucking before the end of summer if he's fucking me."

"He is?" He raises his eyebrows in surprise. "They made it sound like he's against the bet, said he's been trying to stop them from always talking me into it,"

"Yeah, no, he just told me to fuck you. He's always telling me to fuck you."

"Oh," He licks his lips as his eyes divert thoughtfully. "Guess I should stop being a dick to him then,"

"You've been a dick to him?" You ask, genuinely surprised. You really haven't noticed Soonyoung acting badly towards Seungcheol at all.

"Mm, I always take his favourite snacks at movie night." You can't help but burst into giggling laughter at his confession.

Of course, the man doesn't have a single genuinely mean bone in his body and would think purposely taking someone's favourite snacks would be a big dick move. You bet he's been feeling kind of guilty about it while no doubt Seungcheol hasn't even noticed.

"What? Why're you laughing?" He pouts at you.

"Oh, Soonie, you're so fucking cute," you coo and cup his cheeks fondly. He smiles a little dopily at the compliment, the same smile he reserves for you and your doting attention on him even if neither of you has noticed that. The rest of your friends have though.

"Nice ass," You hear before Soonyoung's hips jerk into you when he yelps and tries to escape the slap that landed on his ass.

"Hyung!" He complains, looking over his shoulder to pout at Jeonghan as the man appears from behind your best friend.

You really can't tell exactly what Jeonghan is supposed to be, you think it's some kind of anime character, or something kinky. Maybe both. Either way, his costume is a strange mix of faux black leather and shimmery red lacey wings. And he pulls it off unfairly well considering that you know he hadn't been prepared for the party that morning at all.

"What? Don't look at me like I'm disturbing something," Jeonghan scoffs, reaching around you to grab the same big plastic bottle you had been filling your cup from. Though he stops and looks at the way Soonyoung is very much pressed against you. Jeonghan grins after noticing that Soonyoung's crotch is definitely smushed against your upper thigh; something you have been doing your best to ignore yourself because yes you can feel everything through the thin material covering you both. "Or maybe I am." He smirks at you both.

"What are you supposed to be exactly?" You ask in an attempt to change the topic to one that won't kill your last remaining dregs of sanity. Then again, with the things that come out of Yoon Jeonghan's mouth, you could still be rendered insane but for a reason other than feeling your best friend's dick pressed against you.

"No idea just grabbed some shit from Hao's costume closet." Jeonghan shrugs as he looks down at himself. "Kind of think this might be less about his costume designing and more about sex though."

"He's definitely worn that harness while fucking someone." You agree and reach out to hook your finger over the thick horizontal strap over Jeonghan's chest. You're pretty sure it's directly over his nipples, but the slightly sheer tank top he's wearing underneath the harness kind of obscures your view enough that you don't have confirmation.

"Mm, definitely." Jeonghan agrees and smirks at you. "Want to take it home yourself?"

"And take it from you? I wouldn't dare, you look so handsome, Hannie," You coo, playing along with the flirty banter you two have always partaken in. Not because anything has ever happened between you nor will it, you've discussed it plenty of times to make sure you're both on the same page still. But it's just fun to harmlessly flirt.

"Never said I won't be wearing it," he licks his lips and gives you a suggestive look.

"You're not going home with her," Soonyoung argues firmly, crowding up against you further though his gaze is on Jeonghan in warning, so he misses the way your eyes widen and dart down to where Soonyoung is now pressing his crotch against your hip, his own thigh pressing up between your thighs. Jeonghan doesn't miss it though and cackles, taking the bottle and his cup away entirely without another word.

"S-soonyoung," You stammer, hands fluttering at his sides, wanting to push him back for your sanity but you think putting your hands on his exposed skin will just make you pull him closer.

"Do you have to flirt with him all the time?" He frowns at you, entirely unaware of the screaming in your mind, mostly just sounds with the odd yell of the word penis. He'd probably laugh if he heard it, to be honest, just because of the word penis. He wouldn't even realise it's his penis you're mentally screaming about. "And when I'm right here too. Did you forget I'm here or something?"

"No," You choke out.

"Then why- are you okay?" He suddenly realises how wide your eyes are.

"I can feel your dick," You blurt, unable to think of anything else.

He blinks at you for a moment then looks down at where he's pressed against you as if he hasn't even noticed until now. "Oh," he pulls his hips back and his thigh from between yours making you let out a heavy shaky exhale as your body relaxes a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"Ha, not the word I'd use."

"What word would you use?" If he was any other man, you'd say the little quirk of his head and innocent eyes locked onto you is fake, just some kind of game, a way to flirt. But it's Soonyoung and you've seen this man miss the most obvious of flirtations since you've known him; the amount of times you or the guys have had to bluntly tell him that someone had been trying to take him home to fuck is frankly absurd. "Stop touching my ass!" His sudden exclamation makes you jump a little while he looks over his shoulder in annoyance, glaring at Seungkwan who's giving him an innocent look.

"I'm very happy that you two are finally doing something about your consistent sexual tension and mutual pining but take it out of my kitchen, please. I don't want to have to burn my home down if you defile my counters." The younger man speaks bluntly with a slightly sweet edge to his words. You can't even see him but you just know that he's got that too sweet smile on his face that always feels more threatening than anything.

"What?" Soonyoung blinks at him, the annoyance of his ass being grabbed melting away. "We're not doing anything."

"Hannie told me you're being possessive and we all know that she likes that so-"

"Hey!" You exclaim offendedly, not because you can argue it, but just more that you're being talked about like you're not there. "She has a name!"

"Well take hyung home and he can moan it for the neighbours to hear." Seungkwan gives you that sweet-threatening smile as he leans around Soonyoung to meet your gaze. "My neighbours don't want to hear it."

"My neighbours won't hear that," you scoff. Soonyoung can't help but frown, he feels like he's just been rejected even though he hadn't even gotten to the point of actually asking to take you home and fuck you like he wants to, like your mutual friends had convinced him you want him to. But your firm dismissal of Seungkwan's words sounds like you putting that boundary securely in place before he can even ask to tumble over it into your arms.

"He's loud-" Seungkwan starts to point out but you're not done talking even if you had taken a quick scoff break.

"I don't live in a cheap-ass building with paper for walls like you do, Kwannie." You finish.

Both men stare at you for a second, Seungkwan at first just blinks in surprise at the fact you're not even disputing the Soonyoung moaning your name part, just whether or not your neighbours will hear. And Soonyoung is full-on gawping at you, mouth open and eyes wide, wondering if this means that boundary even exists between you.

"Does that mean you won't get a noise complaint? Hyung is pretty loud, you know? There's a reason we don't live together anymore."

"I don't know." You reply with a shrug.

"Then go fucking home already and stop humping against my kitchen counter!" Seungkwan grabs Soonyoung by his hips to yank him backwards away from you while the scantily dressed pirate yelps and flails a little at the unexpected action. Then he's shoved towards the kitchen exit while Seungkwan grabs your wrist to tug you along.

You're both too genuinely dumbstruck by Seungkwan's sudden forceful actions to do anything but stumble along until you're both outside of the apartment, shoes in hands and staring in shock at the door that's just been shut in your faces.

"Did we just get kicked out?" You mutter.

Soonyoung nods slowly and then looks at you. "I think we got kicked out for sex."

"Is it still sexile if you're the ones getting kicked out and told to go elsewhere to fuck?" You muse, attention down as you focus on shoving your feet into your shoes, one hand on the wall behind you and the other out in the air pointlessly.

"Uh, reverse sexile?" He offers, dropping his shoes to shove his feet into.

"Sounds like a sex position."

He laughs. "What would that even look like?"

"No idea." You grin at him then figure that well, it seems like you've both been outed enough already seeing as all of your friends have stopped hiding the fact that they expect you to finally have sex, which really implies a mutual attraction. So you suck your bottom lip into your mouth for a second as he frowns down at his shoe that just will not accept his right foot for some reason. "Shall we go find out?"

Immediately, Soonyoung looks up at you with wide eyes. "What?"

"Shall we go find out what reverse sexile looks like?"

"Like…us?"

"Yeah, Soonyoung, us," You confirm with an amused twitch of your lips. "You said you're the only one to go home with me, right?" He nods. "Then let's go home and find out, Young-ah."

"Ye-no, wait." He steps closer and takes your hand gently before you can start walking down the hall to the staircase. His fingers are barely holding onto your own. It's perhaps the most cautious he's ever taken your hand into his. Even the very first time he had boldly laced your fingers together and you had only met ten minutes previously.

"No?" You ask, feeling really kind of stupid all of a sudden. You had been so unusually confident in asking him to go home and fuck you.

"Not because I don't want to because I do seriously, I really want to fuck you." He breathes out, sounding rather affected by the thought alone as he stares at you longingly and holds your hand a little more securely. "I just…I don't want it to wind up like Seungcheol."

"Uh, what about Seungcheol?" You shuffle a little closer while giving him a questioning look.

"Regularly fucking his best friend who has a crush on someone else, while he…while he wants her as more than just company in his bed." The way his expression turns serious and yearning makes your heart start to race a little with hope.

"While he…Are you saying you want more?" You ask quietly.

"Earlier when I said I care about you too much, I meant I care too much to be able to have sex with you if it means nothing. I really fucking like you and I don't want to go home with you like this if you don't feel the same. I can't do that." He shakes his head a little. "As much as I've thought about this, about you and me doing all kinds of kinky shit all over your apartment, and mine when Jihoon isn't there. Or when he is if you're into exhibitionism, I don't know your kinks and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't even notice anyway because he never leaves his fucking room an-" He's rambling at this point, frowning down at your connected hands as he talks.

"Soonyoung." He makes a soft hum of a noise as he looks back up at you with rounded eyes. "We can talk kinks later, I'd really like to get back to the matter of it sounds like you're confessing to me?"

"Oh, right yeah, I guess I am." He chuckles a little and scratches the back of his neck with his free hand. "So uh, yeah, I really like you and uhm, I guess now comes the part where hopefully, you say you like me back but I really don't know if you do because the guys just really said you want to fuck me and-" You cover his mouth with your hand that time to shut up his second bout of nervous rambling.

"I really like you too, Soonie," You confirm softly and giggle at the way his features light up adorably behind your palm. "Can we skip the trial dating bullshit and go straight to being together? I'd like to show you off as my boyfriend," His eyes widen dramatically and then he's nodding rapidly in agreement without dislodging your hand. "You're so cute." You coo and lean in just to press a kiss to the back of your hand over his mouth. He looks utterly betrayed and heartbroken when you lean back. "What?" You play innocent and lower your hand while backing up, lacing your fingers behind your back.

"You can't tease me like that, baby!" He whines, toddling after you and dragging his feet in a sulk as he moves along the carpeted flooring of the hall.

"Tease? Me? Never," You grin at him then stop as your back hits the door to the staircase.

"You are, teased me for the past year. Teasing me now." He continues to mumble away as he nears, though cuts off when you reach out to grab the sword and yank on the plastic to pull him in right up against you. His hands automatically fly up to catch himself on the door above your head while his breath catches in his throat.

"If you're so worried I'm going to keep teasing you, Soonie, you better hurry up and take what you want." You warn in a low voice, chin tilted up so your faces are only inches apart.

Soonyoung groans in the back of his throat before he leans down and seals his lips against yours in a hungry, desperate kiss. He presses his left forearm flat against the door beside your head so that he can firmly hold your jaw with his right hand and tilt you further into him with his thumb pushing on your chin to urge your mouth open wider and deepen the kiss in a manner much too filthy for a public hallway of your friend's apartment building.

"Oh for fucks sake!" The loud voice of the friend in question forces you both apart to peer over Soonyoung's shoulder to where Seungkwan is in the hallway with the cute neighbour he's recently started to date, their hands together and clearly with one intention in mind while sneaking away from his own party. They're standing outside of the neighbour's slightly open door but Seungkwan is staring at you and Soonyoung in disbelief. "I told you to go home! Not get your booty here!"

"Ha, booty, pirate joke." You snigger and Soonyoung giggles, both at your amusement and the pun he honestly hadn't even noticed.

"You two are fucking useless." Seungkwan decides and lets his neighbour tug him into the apartment. "You better be gone before I'm back!"

"90 seconds, right?!" Soonyoung calls as Seungkwan disappears. The younger's head pops back out to glare at the other and flip him a very heartfelt middle finger before the door actually shuts behind him that time. Soonyoung turns to look at you with a mischievous smirk. "Should we go fuck on his bed just to piss him off?"

"As tempting as that sounds, I'd rather only I hear you like that, Soonie," You pout at him cutely. "I'm not very good at sharing my toys, you know."

"Oh, I'm your toy now?" He muses, reaching down to open the door carefully to back you through it with his other arm wrapping around your waist.

"Mm, mine and only mine to play with when I want, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yours and yours only, baby." He agrees lowly. "And you're mine."

"I am." You confirm and tilt up to kiss him teasingly. "Let's hurry and get home so I can show you everything that now belongs to you."

A/N; There is more to this but I had to cut it all because it really was me mostly rambling with a sort of hand job thrown in there. The title comes from a conversation in the part I haven't included, by the way. Working title was "Yo ho hoe". But if I continue that part I removed from this, I guess there will be a part 2 as a direct continuation from this and it'll include smut.

[nem0-kn0ws-n0t]

Hermit Permits- or Hermitconomics101

I would just like to start off by saying I adore the concept. It's perfect. But also, I'm a massive nerd and I wanna talk about it.This is such a fascinating little economic model. Like, the usual hermitcraft economy is already so fascinating.

Warning-Long post! Also might Slightly skew your perspective of the Gimmick.

At first Glance, the Hermitcraft economy is the epitome of a Perfect Market economy -the basic selling/buying market you think of when thinking of markets-which has a few requirements

1. Homogenous products: gunpowder from Doc's shop is the same gunpowder from Tango's or Iskall or whoever sells it

2. No barriers to entry and exit: anyone can decide to sell. The technology's there. Any hermit can decide to make a farm or manually harvest something, set up shop and sell

3. Sellers are Price takers: If say, X and False are both selling copper ingots (for example), and X prices his higher than False (and they both keep their shops stocked), Hermits will buy from False. So X has to price the same (or lower but shhhh) than False.

4. Product Transparency: If you pay 1 diamond for a stack of iron blocks, you know you're getting 1 stack of iron. (usually) no shenanigans involved

And now the interesting point->

5. Many sellers- In a perfect competition market, the market is usually saturated with sellers, to the point that everyone needs to price the same, or at exactly the cost of production (or whatever needs to be to have the last seller joining the market to have economic profit of 0 but that's real hard to count in diamonds). Usually, this is done by having many firms coming in (free market remember) and undercutting each other until it's at the point where Supply is equal to Demand (yes, exactly the graph you're thinking of). In hermits' case, rarely is there more than one shop for an item unless there is an obnoxious amount of demand for it, and often, they'll buddy up in the same shop and split the profits and the work (I'm thinking of all the wood groups) for the highly in demand items. (More on that later).

So the sellers aren't usually competing with other hermits to sell resources- they're competing with the hermits' other way of procuring resources- The Endless Grind

Think about it- The rule of thumb for establishing the scope of a market (and its competition) is to ask yourself- where do I go if the shop becomes too expensive? In our real-life situation, we go to other shops- hermits just roll up their pixilated sleeves and get to work themselves. They are the alternative. (or Lag but stealing throws off all economic models so we're assuming it doesn't exist.)

A hermit shop, to have sales, needs to price its resources low enough that other hermits will see it as a better (cheaper) alternative than acquiring it themselves.

But Nemo, I hear you ask, isn't it always going to be cheaper to collect the material themselves? All the hermits already have all the tools/technology they'd need to get the resources they'd want, so shops wouldn't work.

But they do work, every season hermits "get rich" which implies there's something "wrong" with my model, which there is.

It's Time. That's the main currency in Hermitcraft.

Any hermits can decide to get any amount of resources with no real limit except Time. Sure, some hermits are more likely to build farms and have it done quicker than others, but all of them can decide to pick up a tool and just grind away (which they do, often). The point of the shops is to be convenient. You could spend 3 hours getting 15 stacks of oak wood, but you could also drop 30 diamonds at Ren's shop and get that done in less than a minute. Which, when you're a content creator on a tight deadline, already spending hours upon hours just building and editing and living outside of work, time is precious. So Time is the real trading currency on HC.

And so there comes a wrench in the plan as you have 2 "types" of goods- you have the Sellers' resources (that cost you diamonds but less time) and your own resources (which cost you Time but fewer diamonds)

Which invalidates point 3. Price Takers- There are 2 very different prices, which you are willing to pay at different times to different degrees. Somedays, they grind somedays they pay.

And thus, there goes the perfect competition model-

~~And in comes Monopolistic competition.

Now, listen to me, this is crucial ish- this is not the same as a Monopoly.

Monopolies imply there is 1 seller. 1. there is 1 way of acquiring the good (at this point in time) (everything is taken as if time is held constant). YouTube has a monopoly on hermitcraft videos (kind of). You can't watch Hermitcraft videos anywhere else, as the hermits don't upload their videos on other websites. If YouTube started charging 10000$ per video watched, you probably wouldn't watch hermit videos anymore. That's a monopoly.

Monopolistic competition is when a few firms sell slightly different products. Think Pepsi and Coca-Cola. They're functionally the same thing (don't @/me for this), but they both still work as companies, because people tend to prefer one over the other.

And thus our model. A monopolistic competitive market.

The real competition was not store vs store (unless for the bit), it was Sellers vs the Grind.

(There are also sunk cost fallacies exhibited, when hermits make their own farms for materials they know they'll need a lot of, which then reduces the time spent, especially with AFK'ing, thus the active time spent being reduced but server time still fluctuating but that can be hermitconomics 102 lmao)

But Back to this season-

With the introduction of Hermit Permits (which, is such a fun term, I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with that first before the concept) they are forcing there to be a single official seller. But hermits are still able to collect their own resources and make their own farms. So the market stays the same.

Which is probably not what you were expecting was it. All this fanfare but theoretically, the model doesn't change. It might change the point at which a hermits decides it's better to grind it out instead of spending diamonds, but not the theory.

But here's the second hole in this theory.

One of the first assumptions one makes about any market model is that everyone involved wants to maximize profits. (which irl, is making the most money).

But the same was as the real currency is Time, the real Profit for Hermits is Content (and engagement, and a whole bunch of parasocial scales to do with audience retention but I'm an economic major, not a sociology or business student damn it, we'll stick with Content) .

Theoretically, nothing changes in the economic model, but the result changes. The potential to change things up is massive, simply because they at least superficially changed something. Rebranding something, in a way that shakes up previously established norms- That's what they're getting out of it. Forcing people to do content about things they normally wouldn't even touch, which inspires viewers to be invested, so see our favourite blorbos overcome the challenge. It's a narrative device.

(If anything, I'd expect this to actually "promote the economy" as hermits would be motivated to stock up their shops, thus making more farms/farm building episodes, or the competition occurring from additional permits being circulated.)

So yeah. Hermitconomics 101- The not-so-perfect competition. Sorry If I burst some bubbles, I just think it's fascinating.

Thanks for reading to the bottom!

TL:DR :This is gonna be so fun, and the hermit economy makes economists everywhere cry

[mbta-unofficial]

If your city is a Brand, it’s already too late

Long post time. What is it that drives gentrification? Also, what is gentrification? Is it when a city gets blue hair and pronouns? No, it probably already had those.

Gentrification is the result of concentration of wealth in the hands of business owners, including landlords, over and above the hands of residents.

Let’s start with rent. Rent, like any good, is priced according to the laws of supply and demand. Supply of available rental housing is primarily determined by construction costs and estimated return on investment for new construction, and property management costs and estimated return on investment for existing units.

Breaking that down a bit, the higher construction costs get the higher the rent needs to be to break even on new construction. Construction costs include labor (which can always go down but you want it high for moral and practical reasons), materials (highly variable depending on the project) and bureaucratic costs. A bureaucratic cost is a cost that is based on how projects fit into the legal and practical environment, and are usually non-negotiable. Dig Safe, a program which requires three days of surveying local records before breaking ground, is an example where the function is to prevent crews from flattening a neighborhood by puncturing a gas main. Environmental Impact Statements, Fire Codes, Habitability Guidelines, and other regulations increase costs to projects. These programs are good and need to exist, but do stop smaller projects from happening at all because the capital investment required just to actually break ground on a new house might cost as much as the land and materials put together at which point you might as well build another 120$/sqft luxury midrise.

Property management costs for existing units are largely dependent on age and wear. A unit with no occupant is going to depreciate little, and may also appreciate in value. Depreciation and appreciation here are sort of unintuitive because they can happen at the same time. Imagine an old luxury sports car with a high resale price. Driving depreciates the value because it’s literal condition is poorer, even as the resale value goes up over time. The appreciation needs to beat both inflation and the value of depreciation for it to go up in real value. For companies with large capital holdings however, losses such as through the upkeep of empty apartment buildings are useful to a point because they reduce these organizations’s tax burdens. A company that makes a killing on the stock market only has to pay taxes if they keep it: if they buy houses they then don’t rent, they can claim they “lost” their stock market earnings with “bad investments” and then pay no tax while saving the real estate to rent later. Again, this favors the largest possible projects and the largest possible operators because small companies can be killed by an unprofitable quarter or 4 while large ones explicitly benefit from unprofitability in reducing their tax burden.

Expected ROI is the final piece of this, which affects both new and existing units. Every private developer and landlord wants to make as much money as they can, unless they are explicitly are renting as a service. An example of renting as a service would be families, who will rent to each other at favorable rates or for free, privileging people with large and/or wealthy families that are friendly with each other. Now, ROI is also subject to supply and demand. Everyone wants to build 120$/sqft luxury apartments but once everybody does nobody can sell/rent for those prices without setting a price floor and waiting for buyers to catch up. If you are a small developer, you can’t afford to do this. Your expenses will eat you alive. If you are a big developer, though, those expenses are offsetting the gains you make and serving to reduce you tax bill. Units at prices nobody can pay are effectively furloughed, meaning off the market, and, so long as they remain cheap to maintain, will remain that way, artificially restricting supply. It doesn’t matter if it’s for sale or not when it’s at a price you can’t afford. (Sidebar, anyone who tells you that the minimum wage depresses hiring because it artificially restricts demand is lying to you. It’s not strictly false, but like the above it’s a multi-variable equation and blanket statements about cost of labor are aimed at killing wages.)

What this alludes to also is a need for greater income equality. In order for rental to be a competitive option with furlough, not only does the price of furlough have to be increased, the real value of wages have to be increased in order to create opportunities for people to splurge. This is a twofold strategy, of both increasing the rewards of putting units on the market and increasing the costs of keeping them off. If real wages barely cover cost of living, or don’t cover cost of living, nobody can realistically spend more real wages on rent regardless of the percentage of their income it is. (Real wages here refers to the political power implied by dollar wages. A dollar is really worth whatever it can be exchanged for, whether that is a candy bar or a square inch of a 144$/sqft condo) The real value of everything except time and land are also constantly going down because of constant improvements in manufacturing. The cost in acres of land and hours of labor of a pound of beef, a bolt of cloth, or a pint of beer have dropped dramatically in the last century. Unfortunately, land is one of the few things that remains in marxist terms uncommodifiable, because it cannot be fully abstracted from the physical properties that make it valuable and we can’t make more of it just by making a better machine. This means that as the real value of things goes down because of supply and demand, the value of land only goes up because the supply is hard capped. If the value of everything under capitalism must go down because of increased production, while the value of capitalist assets must go up, or the system collapses, it makes sense that land would become a fixed point in that equation, the marxist speed of light observable from all reference points. The best approximation of land as commodity is, what else, apartments, which make available as living space the empty air above us. Because production never stops, the value of everything but land must go down. Therefore, as time passes, the price of land, and hence the price of housing, must tend upwards. Therefore, in order for housing to remain affordable, real wages must grow. This is the opposite of what is currently happening, as real wages have gone down for decades.

This income inequality which is one facet of capitalism is not new. For as long as people have lived in urban areas there have been issues between the abject class, the working class, the ruling class, and the professional class, a four part distinction I will seriously argue for in opposition to a lot of marxist theorists. The ruling and working classes ought to be familiar, or at least self explanatory. However, the other two classes I identify, the professionals and the abject, are useful to this analysis because they fill both a racial gap in the primarily marxist analysis I put forward and identify the two most likely groups to rent, which is to say the worker who works to produce but owns without governing and the professional who works to govern but does not own. The ruling class both governs and owns, but its court is full of courtiers who are there to push various agendas from within the rule of law without per se producing. Likewise, the working class pensioner exists in opposition to the abject who is denied the opportunity or the resources to be productive explicitly as a means to manufacture a threat against which inter-class solidarity between the workers and the rulers is developed. The textbook nazi conspiracy theory about “elites” doing a great racial replacement picks out perfectly what I mean by both the racial character of the professional and the abject and their utilization to foster solidarity between your plumber uncle and Elon Musk. This is relevant to both the broad theme of gentrification and the narrow theme of rent because gentrification is a wedge issue that divides the working class and the professional class far more than its impact on any other. The working class’ disidentification with doctors, lawyers, PMCs and other yuppie types, as well as the professional class’ disidentification with union politics, illegalism, and radicalism in general is brought to firecrackers in virtually any conversation about gentrification which seems in passing to be more about tapas bars than about real politics. Likewise, these groups shared distrust of and disdain for the abject, who are explicitly labeled by the state as constitutionally guilty, is the basis for the very broken windows policing strategy that empties neighborhoods of minorities regardless of class. The Rent is Too Damn High, and excluding homeless people from the “working” working class is a big part of how we got here specifically because the interests of small time owners and small time government functionaries, carried to their conclusions, are necessarily self defeating. These two groups eliminate the presence of the abject from their spaces at their own financial peril.

In addition to class, there is also a specific historical movement that is crucial to the understanding of gentrification as it exists, which is the movement of factories in search of cheap labor. The United States is not a good place to find cheap urban labor. You build a factory and suddenly everyone complains about air quality and labor violations and you can’t just kill them because everyone has lawyers. You kill one (us citizen) organizer and the NLRB is trying to get you in court for intimidation. What’s the country come to? But a shipping container costs a quarter cent per mile and the goods aren’t perishable so you go to Guangzhou or Cape Town where you can kill union bosses in peace. But for the American city, that’s a loss of what once made land prime real estate. What jobs can replace the insatiable demand for labor that a 24 hour paper mill once produced? Service labor, which crucially is site specific and therefore not outsourceable, is what the US has predominantly turned to. (and arms manufacturing which is not outsourced for very different reasons) However, service labor is only in demand if there is already a stable population that can be served, which requires a constant influx of capital holders in demand of service. This is why Airbnb exists and is hollowing out rental availability, why Boston as a college town is the way it is, and why there are in fact so many damn tapas bars. Fred Salveucci talked about being able to go north of the expressway in the 70s and being able to get a plate of mac and beans for half a buck. I went looking for a 5$ slice of pizza on my lunch break today around Government Center and found two places that were boarded up and ended up spending 20$ at Chilacates. Cities are being slowly turned into Cancun, complete with the fences to keep out the homeless.

What can be done about this? Obviously the factors we’ve discussed that favor consolidation of housing are mostly either contained within a gordion’s knot of tax policy or intrinsic to capitalism/goods as commodities. But, given that we narrow our objectives to making the rent lower, some obvious weaknesses jump out: increasing the cost of vacancy forces units out of furlough, because companies are no longer able to justify the losses, and increasing real wages increases the availability of capital for workers to spend on rent. These are the prongs I talked about earlier.

Legal means to pursue each prong exist. Both a minimum wage and a maximum wage, depending on their implementation, can potentially increase real wages, and vacancy taxes directly increase the costs of vacancy. The government can also ignore the market and directly mandate maximum rents within certain parameters. This tends to decrease the long term supply of housing for the reasons discussed at the outset, given that if the revenues from house building don’t cover the costs of building, less gets built. However, any political movement that exists exclusively within the white lines of the law fails to genuinely threaten change. Landlords, like bosses, break the law constantly with the impunity that a lawyer provides them against consequence. This is why a healthy dose of illegalism is an important part of any effective political movement. The most direct action one can take is property occupation, or squatting. Squatter’s rights are nearly non-existent in the United States. The most leeway that any state grants to any unknown persons occupying a dwelling is 60 days notice to vacate the property, and there are states that allow no notice evictions or lack statutes governing squatting at all. Every single state regards the occupation of owned property as trespassing, meaning most kinds of squatting are prosecutable offenses. However, squatting, even temporarily in ways that don’t expose the squatter to liability provided they don’t get caught, can seriously impact the value of properties. You have heard of rent lowering gunshots. This is the serious version of that. At the same time, illegal action needs legal defense, both in terms of non-compliance with police to protect those willing to take illegal actions from arrest and in terms of legal, 1st amendment protected disruption to keep focus on the issue. The most effective movements have a radical wing and a institutionalist wing who do not acknowledge each other but share the same tactics and objectives.

If you are housed, you need to be willing to protect and support homeless people because they are your front line. Start or join an Occupy movement, where they are your peers in occupying a public space illegally in a way that is too public to prosecute. Give to people on the street, and smash anti-homeless architecture if nobody is watching. Be willing to distract cops if you see someone doing something dodgy so they can get away. Remember that following the law is a tactic, and so is breaking it.

The case for this being on my transit blog is arguably weak, but I felt compelled after a particularly hateful experience looking at facebook memes about homeless people on the T. You should want those people there. You should want those people breaking down the doors of luxury apartments and setting up shop. You should want them keeping your city safe because the cops you hire to separate you from them will train their guns on you next.

And for gods sake, don’t let your city become a brand. Branding is marketing. Branding is clean, and bloodless, and a gloved hand around your throat that leaves no fingerprints.

[archoniluthradanar]

The test of a vampire : a Beauty and the Beast re-telling Part One

Please read chapters in order. It won't be a super long fic. Beauty and the Beast is a finite story after all.

The test of a vampire : A Beauty and the Beast re-telling

A farmer takes a rose from a garden, only to have the garden's owner catch him. He demands payment in the form of the farmer's daughter working at the castle. The daughter, Caterina, thinks she will not be there long, but in time, she may find she doesn't want to leave. What she doesn't know is the man acting as her employer is vampire. In fact, every resident at the castle is a vampire. Her employer has another secret, one she may be central to.

Marcus dei Volturi x female OC

Chapter One

The Debt

oooooooooooooooooooo

Mario Cassiani was a modest man, a simple man. He owned a small farm outside Volterra's village where he grew vegetables that he would later bring to the village farmer's market to sell. His wife of 37 years had passed after a long illness, but he had his beloved daughter Caterina, who had just turned twenty years of age to keep him company. She was not only beautiful, but was also a great reader. He feared for her that some ignorant man would ask for her hand, and her intelligence would go to waste. Mario knew it was more difficult for women to get educations. Wives and mothers, that was the goal for most woman in the city.

Today was Saturday, and after kissing Caterina goodbye, Mario headed to the market, his old van filled with his produce. He hoped to get a good price for all his goods so that he could use a bit of the money to buy Caterina a gift. She was a kind-hearted young woman who asked for nothing of her father. She had taken care of him since the death of her mother, keeping their cottage clean and their meals cooked. As long as she was able to borrow books from the local library, she was happy.

As dusk approached, Mario was pleased to see his entire stock of vegetables sold. Before leaving, he checked the used book seller's stall to see if he could find something for Caterina. After browsing for a few minutes, he found a travel book of places to visit around the world. If she was not able to travel herself, perhaps she would enjoy reading about the places, and dream of making that desire a reality.

On the drive home, he saw the old Palazzo dei Priori to his right, the tower's fading shadow looming over the piazza below. He passed the old stone wall that extended the length of the castle grounds, and saw a hole. Through the hole, the branch of a bush had pushed through. On the branch grew a beautiful red rose. Mario knew Caterina would love the bloom, so he stopped the van and went to the wall. Surely the owners would not mind if a rose not visible from inside was cut. Mario did just that, pulling a small pocket knife from his pants and cut the rose as far up the branch as possible. Smiling, he walked back to the van, when he felt a breeze fluff his hair.

Standing in front of Mario was a tall man with long dark hair and dark eyes that glared down at him.

"Who said you could take my roses?" he demanded. "I saw you from my room up there." He looked up at the castle, where a window was built into the old stone wall of this wing of the castle.

Mario was afraid, but he tried to reason with the tall stranger. "I did not take your roses, sir. There was just this one sticking out from the yard through that hole. I didn't think anyone would mind. I only wanted to take it home to my daughter, Caterina."

"My roses are very important to me. No one may cut them without my express permission. You will have to pay a penalty for this crime."

Mario's hand began to shake. He offered the rose to the man, apologizing profusely. "I'm sorry. Please, I will pay you for the rose, if you wish."

The tall man gazed at Mario, his eyes oddly lightening, but now appearing red. It must be the fading sunset causing the change in colour. Mario waited until finally the man spoke. "You say you have a daughter. How old is she?"

"My Caterina is just twenty years, sir."

"Very well. Bring her here tomorrow evening. Park at the back near the wrought iron gate. She will work off your debt to me, here at the castle. You may take her home when I say she may leave."

Mario was afraid for his daughter. Being that she was beautiful, he feared what this man might try to do to her if he found her desirable. And how long would she be required to stay here. "Let me pay for the rose, or let me work for you, sir. I will gladly toil in your garden or clean the castle. Please do not ask for my Caterina."

"It is decided. Bring her here tomorrow at dusk, or pay the penalty with your life. Go now, and spend time with your daughter while you can." As an after thought, he added, "You may give her the rose."

Mario bent his head to the man. When he had raised his head, he saw the man had left without a sound.

Getting into his van, he held in the tears he felt threatening his vision. It wouldn't do for him to have an accident while driving home. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes with one hand, clearing them so he could see. "My poor Caterina. What will become of you because of your father's unthinking actions?"

Once he reached his home, he went inside, and was greeted by his daughter.

"Hello, papa. Welcome home. I have your supper waiting." After giving her father a hug, Caterina fluttered around the kitchen, preparing their plates.

Mario handed Caterina the red rose, trying to smile. "This is for you, my dear. Oh, and this too." He handed her the book, wishing he had been satisfied with that.

"You must have done well at the market, papa." She looked at the cover of the book, and grinned. "A travel book. Oh, I love it. And the flower is so beautiful. Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek, then set about getting his meal on a plate, setting it on the kitchen table.

After washing his hands at the kitchen sink, he sat at the table and looked down at the plate of food. How was he going to tell his only child that she was going to have to leave her home tomorrow to work for some strange man in the village, at the castle of all places.

"Caterina, I need to tell you that the man who owned this rose caught me taking it, and now demands payment."

His daughter sat at the table, her own plate in front of her. "Papa, what do you mean you owe him payment. For a mere flower?"

"It seems he is very protective of his garden. I never should have taken it. And now he wants you to work off the debt he has in mind. You will stay at the castle and do as the residents say until such time they allow you to return home to me."

"Papa, I'm frightened. Why is this asked of me?"

"Child, I offered my services, but was refused. I even offered to pay for the rose, but was told no. I don't know what else to do." He took her hand in his. "I'm sure they will treat you well. They would not risk me going to the police if any harm were to come to you."

Caterina bowed her head, holding back the tears that wanted to flow down her cheeks. She held her father's hand with both hers. Trying to appear brave, she said, "I will do as you say, papa. I promise to make you proud, and don't worry. I won't allow anyone to hurt me." She gave him a wink and sniffled a smile.

Mario kissed her hands, grateful he had such a wonderful daughter. Forcing themselves to forget about tomorrow, they ate and talked about their day, the amount of money Mario had earned at the market, and why he chose the book he had bought for her.

The next morning, Caterina had packed a bag of clothing, unsure as to the length of her imposed stay. She imagined she could wash things out if she was there longer than she expected. The price of a rose in exchange for her labour could not be that long of a time. She had a smaller bag for her toiletries and her new book. She left the house, and headed to the driveway, her father already waiting for her in the van.

Mario was surprised Caterina was not crying. How brave his child was in the face of the unknown. "Are you all right, dearest?"

"Yes, papa. I will look at it as an adventure. I have never been out of Volterra, but...well, this is different at least." She sat looking straight ahead. She feared if she looked at her father, she would break down. "I'll be home before you know it."

The drive to the village didn't take very long, and he did as he had been instructed, parking at the back gate. A very tall man dressed in black was obviously waiting for them at the gate. When he saw Mario park the van, he opened the gate and waited for Caterina to exit the van while Mario gathered her bags. He handed them to the tall silent man when he held out his hands for them, easily carrying them as if they weighed nothing.

Caterina hugged her father one last time, kissing his cheek. "I will be all right, papa. Perhaps they'll let me call you." She stepped back, determined not to cry, and turned to the tall man. "I'm ready now," she said to him, following him through the castle's back doors. She gave her father one last look, blowing him a kiss, then went inside.

A/N : I love the story of Beauty and the Beast, and thought what it might be like if Marcus was the Beast, being a vampire, who meets a sweet loving young woman who would come to change his heart.

[randomfanner]

Informal Introduction Part Two

Part One

“Hmm…. Yes I think this one will do,” Gale said as he placed a tomato in his basket, handing the vegetable trader the gold as he began to peer at more of the vegetables. He wanted to ensure he had the best ingredients for tonight. Tara would be joining the party for supper and he knew exactly how fussy she could be at times. 

Plus he wanted to ensure Anya had the finest meal every chance, but he also knew she was much less picky. 

With his vegetables collected, Gale strutted his way down Wyrm’s Crossing towards the fish seller as he began to pick up and study each fish carefully. Fish were creatures you had to know what to look for when buying . A skill he had learned very well from his time perusing the fish markets in Waterdeep and just what he needed for his Salmon Mousse appetizer.

It was one of Tara's favorites.

“My, my, what a handsome man. Is he a generous one too?” a female voice purred through the air, and it seemed to be talking to him.  Gale’s eyes glanced around the area and his eyes flicked down. On the ground near his feet was a sphynx cat with a green collar. Her posture was regal and her tale curled around her body. Her large eyes looked up at him.

“Why would he like to think he is,” Gale said as he glanced around, picking a rather tasty looking fish and paying for it before offering it to the feline. How could he say no to such a  sweet thing asking for food? 

“My! He is very generous indeed, and you are a wizard, aren’t you~?” the sphinx's tail flicked up in the air. “Yes, yes, you are perfect indeed. I have a quest,” the cat said.

“Alright, tell me what you need? Gale of Waterdeep is at your service,” Gale had plenty of time before he had to start cooking. Whatever this fine feline was in need of he was sure he could spare the time to help. 

“And with a title! Well then, Gale of Waterdeep. My Caretaker, a sweet girl I assure you, has a job that requires her to travel quite far. She had said that this journey would take but a tenday however it has stretched much further than that,” the cat explained. “I assure you the reward would be quite superb.”

“Oh my,” Gale took a breath. A missing girl with a cat looking for her? “I have something important to take care of in the city first,  however once I am done I would be willing to go look for her,” Gale said. 

“Hmm…. Very well, I will look for others who may help sooner but having your vow is something at least,” the cat said. She approached Gale a little bit more and stopped when she gave him a good sniff. “It seems you will be helping me sooner than I believe. My terms have changed, I need you to take me wherever you are staying at this moment. And then I shall give you my promised reward” 

“I suppose I can always come back to finish shopping later…” Gale said. “By the way, do you have a name I should call you?”

“Ah, yes please forgive me. My name is Lady Sasha, it is a pleasure,” the cat jumped from the ground and right onto Gale’s back. The wizard let out a his as her claws dug into the fabric of his robe, luckily not tearing them too bad as she steadied herself. “Now, onwards.” 

“Welcome back Ga- goodness. Sasha is that you?” Anya asked as she greeted the wizard at the door. The sphynx cat looked her up and down a moment before a paw came and batted her right on the head.  However there were no claws. 

“Yes it is! And do you have  any idea how worried I was? Where have you been?” the cat asked as she hopped down, sitting in front of Anya with her tail in the air. She demanded an explanation.

“Oh Sasha I am so sorry, there has been…. A number of problems have come up,” Anya said.

“Hmfp, so many problems you couldn't have told me that you finally found a  handsome, well off wizard to be your husband?” Sasha said, her eyes narrowing a little bit. “My word! As soon as it was official you should have come and told me, I cannot believe I had to find him myself,” Sasha gave a sigh as her ears drooped a little bit.

Anya’s cheeks instantly turned flushed. “Gale is- well- we aren’t married yet….” 

“You best not be!” Sasha exclaimed. “I still need to gift him your hand in marriage. Which is your reward by the way, good sir,” Sasha said as she turned her head towards Gale. 

Gale’s cheeks turned a bright shade of red as his eyes flicked towards Sasha and then towards Anya. “Well… I certainly cannot complain with my reward,” Gale said as he strutted over to Anya, putting an arm around that. “I shall take it with gratitude,” he said as he kissed Anya’s head.

Anya’s face burned even deeper red. “W-we- well- I am not going to say no but we should wait to make plans official for when we don’t have a tadpole in our head!” Anya exclaimed. 

“Tadpole in your head?” Sasha asked, she stood on four legs and looked at them. “It seems there are a great deal of details I am missing indeed! I insist I stay for dinner and learn everything that is going on.” 

“Well I suppose one more plate won’t hurt to make,” Gale said with a grin. “I am sure Tara will not mind too much,”  she would be a bit upset at first however Sasha and Tara certainly did seem like they would get along quite fine. 

“Wonderful, I am going to make myself comfortable then,” Sasha said as she began to strut over towards where Anya had set herself up. “You are free to join me for snuggle time later, Anya, after you have gotten rid of the scent of blood  and mud that seems to have stuck  itself to your clothes.” 

Anya and Gale both watched as the cat strutted in like she owned the place, getting the attention of most of the other residents of the room. 

“It is a pleasure to meet your cat, my love,” Gale said as he pressed another kiss to her head. 

“I am glad you enjoy her company, and I am not surprised she enjoys yours,” Anya grins and pushes a kiss to his cheek. 

“You best go join her. I have some other shopping that I need to finish but I shall return soon,” Gale showed the basket with all of the ingredients he had already gathered from his time shopping.

“Alright,” Anya said as she leaned in for a real kiss. Gale smiled as his lips met hers before he finally removed himself from her hold. “Come back safe, alright?”

“You didn’t worry about me, my love! Now go enjoy your feline friend’s company. I am sure she has missed you dearly.”

[naturalrights-retard]

The first piece of legislation passed by the new Congress of the United States of America after the ratification of the Constitution included a tariff on the import of foreign sugar. Although this tariff was passed as a means to raise the funds needed to pay the debts accrued during the Revolutionary War, coincidentally it also provided elaborate protections to the nation’s wealthiest farmers of sugarcane and sugar beets.

The indirect subsidies afforded to the sugar producers by the Tariff Act of 1789 have been reapproved and signed, now via the Farm Bill, every five years by every available president up to and including Donald J. Trump. For more than two hundred years, these sugar producers in America have been able to sell their products at prices higher than what the market would normally allow. Later this year, President Joe Biden will get the opportunity to put his signature on the bill as well.

In the late 1960s, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan discovered an enzyme that effectively and easily converted cornstarch into fructose. This technology was ultimately sold to American companies, and in 1983, the Food and Drug Administration approved high fructose corn syrup as safe for consumption. In short order, the food industry took advantage of this cheap, new form of sweetener in extraordinary amounts. Supply of this ersatz sugar became abundant. The market, as you would expect, used this opportunity to undercut the historically high prices of sugar generated by the aforementioned tariff.

Due to this market opportunity, a new agricultural policy was pushed at the highest levels of the federal government. From 1971 to 1976—under the auspices of Richard Nixon—the secretary of agriculture, a loud, boisterous man named Earl Butz, became famous for conjuring up a new “fencerow to fencerow” policy: maximum production for corn and soy, as the demand for these crops were now high. He pushed farmers to take on debt to buy more land and machines to drive production. Henceforth, lavish government subsidies (by way of the same Farm Bill mentioned earlier) were doled out to corn farmers. Production of these crops skyrocketed, and given the increased supply of corn, sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup became cheaper on the open market.

[superconductivebean]

#1023: about the update

It's alright to feel disappointed.

Building hype for this long-expected unification wasn't warranted, HL PR team. People are reasonably upset over not receiving anything for a year. We can explain it by that MMO game, older console gen ports, but looking at other releases and how this one gets handled, well.

If you'd like to indulge, feel free to jump under the cut. But before you do, know that if you're upset, I'm with you.

Why hope for the sequel when something already as costly can't put it mind to garnishing itself. It isn't an impossible ask, especially when you know the HL situation is rather unique with its update absence.

I am aware not many people came to HL after a lengthy log of games to have something to compare with, so, a few examples.

No Mаn Sky. Everyone hated on it on release for not delivering on its ambitious promises; money were spent on a nothing burger. But the devs eventually turned the bland experience into something more fun but maybe repetitive, but fun nonetheless. People don't mind a game to be repetitive at times. They are finally able to meet their friends somewhere in the game's vast expanses of the traversable universe.

Cybеrpunk. Dumpster fire. Upset people, refund river. Completely bland, according to some, and definitely not an RPG of the millennia. Like, the main character, V, is basically the HL's MC: they were made to be filled with your own colours but the devs didn't have time to implement it besides the backstory choice (which doesn't matter 95% of time). Years after the release, a few systems were revamped and remade, and a long-overdue DLC has finally seen the light of day. It's arguably the best thing in the entire game now.

Stаrdew Valley. A phenomenon. It was already awesome on release but it was only the beginning; has been becoming increasingly more complex and wholesome since. This game has been developed by just an one guy plus a very few people helped him on the way. Today, he continues to drop DLC-sized bangers, with the community's help, but it's never company-structure-size thing. This all for free.

Eurо Truck Simulatоr 2. Metric ton of content for if you love a rather monotonous gameplay loop. The devs add more to the pile: free map revamps and content updates + paid DLCs with entire countries worth of territory to explore.

Deep Rоck Galaсtic. Steep and flat learning curves, four different characters with unique play styles, free content updates + you can pay for the cosmetics for nothing more but rizz (the game is meant to be played in co-op so you'll have someone to shot it off to).

Dwаrf Fоrtrеss has been out for 20+ years and it is free and has always been updated a lot since.*

An absence of plans or content for HL is thus disheartening to me.

This game being a half-baked cookie for a steep price is, well. You'd expect the level of developmental commitment of other scandalous releases, or you'd expect the passion the less known developers nourish their projects with. In this day and age we have to live with a sad realisation that the industry would rather push the half-baked thing on the market to patch it later, or it wouldn't meet the deadline.

But it also asks to pay a hefty price. It's alright to demand your money to meet the promise given, and we certainly were promised a lot. It isn't unreasonable. It isn't dull or stupid. You bought a liter of milk and got 750ml and no promise of the missing 250ml being added later, what's here not to be upset about?

It isn't any different with anything you buy, I suppose? Would it be fair if you were told the house you're about to buy has AC but when you are moving in, the wall has only a spot where it's been mounted? Or if you bought a book with *inserttopic*, half the pages were torn away?

Games aren't any different. You pay, a lot, and sometimes get 1/3 of the amount. This -- isn't alright. And in no world it should be.

Saying 'uncommon' doesn't mean there aren't games that look oddly familiar to HL, though. Stаrbound is only alive thanks to its modding community. Ovеrwatch is just sad. Bоrdеrlands 3 flopped, stripped from everything its predecessors had besides the gunplay. It will depend on who you ask, but Minеcraft, too, has these issues. Also, Anthеm. Some will shout, ThеSims4.

So. It is alright to feel disappointed if you paid for something based on, well, what's the seller said about it and literally got little from it. And just, let's not cynically defend predatory business practices here.

It is also okay to be upset when you've been lured into hoping something is about to come only to realise it's been used in a tactic to gain cheap engagement from you.

You're most correct in being sad.

tldr; Breaking the radio silence with a hype for the long-awaited but known small pack of content wasn't the PR team's brightest idea.

[berlinini]

I have no idea what I’m talking about but I remember seeing Louis in an Oops sweatshirt and he hinted he was going to make it for sale. This was back in like 2014. He has a long term horizon. I also remember the first black oversized hoodie sweatshirt worn by Eleanor at the X Factor// it wasn’t released until 2+ years later. I think we as fans demand immediate dopamine hits with a constant need to be fed.Louis comes across to someone that has a very long term plan that he methodically executes.

Yeah, I mean we saw him wearing the first 28OP piece at AFHF 2021 and it was finally launched in the Fall 2023.

We know he has a 5 albums plan.

But long term vision works when it's still that - vision. Once you've launched something you need to work in the real world and that means getting your product out there in a way that reaches and pleases the consumer.

Louis has a very very loyal fanbase. We'll buy 28OP whenever it comes out - but it seems like the idea behind the brand was to reach beyond the fans, for once. But now it's being handled the same way his other fan-focused stuff is being handled.

I'd pay good money to see the strategy/marketing deck.

[thychesters]

Good morning. Quick writing prompt: One second of eye contact

The throng of people spilling out into the market is akin to fighting against the current, and Zoro is careful not to let his sheaths knock against too many passerby, lest one take their own clumsiness as an affront. Most grant him a fairly wide berth at the sight of three swords anyway, a few shooting furtive glances his way, though he can’t be bothered to pay them much mind. The pouch Nami gave him feels much lighter than usual, considering thus far all he’s purchased has been a bottle of wine Robin asked for with a name he’s never heard of. She’ll probably tell him he owes her quadruple what she gave him, though at this point he’s desensitized to it.

The man he came with zipped off the moment they crossed into the market, like he didn’t trust Zoro to get himself this far on his own. He sidesteps around the fifth person who’s stopped in their tracks to look at something, and biding his time until he catches wind of his name or a cackle demanding his attention.

He’s idling by a fruit stand, debating the merits of snagging himself a peach while a salesman tries to goad him into bartering for the gaudiest looking necklace he absolutely does not want when he can feel eyes burning into the back of his skull.

It’s impressive, really, he thinks, how he seems to automatically turn to Luffy in a crowd, how when he does he finds him already looking in his direction, features breaking into a grin with an exaggerated wave as if he can’t see him. Just as quickly as he appeared he’s gone again, straw hat disappearing behind another stall, and Zoro tosses the fruit back into the basket without looking.

On pure instinct he picks his way around bystanders, footsteps muffled against the uneven stone, and he twists and turns around stalls and other vendors trying to catch his attention, offering perfume to entice or books full of wonder or someone promising coffee that’s one of a kind that he’s certain smells exactly like the one being sold by the entrance. He follows blindly, just as he always has and a baser part of him is sure he always will.

Luffy isn’t hard to spot again, his gut leading him to standing beside him a few minutes later, and Luffy wastes little time closing the remainder of the distance between them.

“Did you find anything good?” he asks before Zoro can so much as greet him. There’s a smear of what looks like sauce on his cheek, and he pushes him away when Luffy makes to wipe his mouth off on his arm. “Why did you get wine? You don’t even drink wine. Is that the one Robin wanted?”

“Yes, and no, I didn’t find anything good.” He nudges Luffy away again. “Would you knock it off?”

“Do you still have some money?” he barrels over him instead, fingers itching for his pocket to dig out what’s left of the pouch Nami gave him. “I wanna buy some food.”

Zoro huffs, a hand on his shoulder. A rubbery arm wraps around his own twice. It earns more than a few curious looks. His other hand reaching up to wipe off his cheek with his thumb. “You telling me you didn’t get food already?”

Luffy blinks at him, hand stilling at his hip. He hooks his fingers into his pocket, tugging him closer. “I’ll share it with you.”

“No, you won’t.”

His brow puckers in thought, and Luffy drums his fingers on his bicep. Zoro takes a step closer, shaking his shoulder some and he frowns, mouth twisting.

“I’ll ... think about it? That definitely counts.”

Zoro sighs and Luffy cackles, slipping a hand into his own and tugging him back into the crowd. Later, Nami will give them both an earful at spending all of their money, but Luffy will counter with what was the point, then, but, for now, Zoro turns and blindly follows the sun.

[lionews]

“The game is getting worse, even if you don't wanna acknowledge it. “

not og anon but idk if worse is how i’d describe it. as the game grows in players, things get easier to get by literal statistics. if more players exist, more of certain items are bought and put into use in the economy. this isn’t quite like actual market where currency is printed in a controlled setting. items can be gotten from no where in exchange for essentially free energy or energy items costing some money.

when these ‘free’ assets are thrown into tc and bs at crazy low prices for quick sale urgency, it fucks things up and gives opportunities for players to take advantage of it in different ways or get screwed over by it.

ideally right now, a player with enough funds would buy these low trades out and take advantage to the max rn. that’s what those hundreds of gb trades are looking for hs or now items. then, later on in the next major breeding item month september they’ll wait for the rest of the cheap trades to be quickly bought out by demand. then capitalize by slowly raising the prices up to outrageous numbers if folks are willing to pay.

we saw this happen with crunchy worms. they raised insanely during feb, the next major breeding month after october, where everyone wanted to use their crunchies for best litter numbers and easier heats.

not saying my words are end-all-be-all but that’s my assumption.

.

[salty-dracon]

ELI5: The Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

TL:DR SVB made a somewhat risky investment which went poorly in changing market conditions, and didn’t have the money to pay back their depositors. The FDIC has decided to fund the remaining bank accounts, but shareholders will realize a total loss on their stock.

If you haven’t been following the news, the second biggest bank collapse in American history just happened. But you probably have no idea what that means, so I’m going to explain it all in simple terms, with no frills, no biases, and no opinions.

Please let me know if I get anything wrong here. While I do work in finance, I’ve heard conflicting sources on some of the events.

The Basics of How Banks Work

Left to their own devices, people ordinarily wouldn’t just give their wealth to someone else for safekeeping. But these days there are many incentives for the average person to lend their money to a bank. Yes, there’s the matter of security (robbers can steal physical tender, such as physical bills and valuables), but there is also interest. By lending your money to a bank (like a loan!), the bank then uses your balance to invest in the stock market or major projects such as other peoples’ mortgages, with the promise that all of the money you’ve placed with them will be returned to you when you ask... with a little bit extra as interest. That’s your incentive for placing your money with them.

The point is, you placed your money with a bank, and in exchange for you lending them your money, they’ve promised to give it back to you when you ask, with a little bit extra. That’s important to understanding the next topic.

Investments, Reserves, and Insolvency

Okay, but how do banks generate the “little bit extra” that they promised to give you in exchange for borrowing your money? Through investments!

Investments can be a lot of things. Mortgages are investments- a bank can lend someone a big chunk of money, and in exchange the bank receives cash monthly that ends up being worth more than they loaned out. They can be investments into the stock market- buying stocks at low price, watching the price rise, and selling them high is a way to net profit. There are other types of investments too, like bonds (mini loans), CDs (low risk, long-term investments that guarantee profits that bank customers can take out), and options (very complicated). What they have in common is that you lend your money, and hopefully get more back (though there’s some risk of loss).

As an example, let’s pretend you’ve put $20,000 in a bank account. The bank could then take $10,000 and put it into a risk-free investment that returns at 2%. One year later, the return is $10,200, at least $10,000 of which must return to you. The bank may take $100 of that as their own profit and return the remaining $10,100 to your account- the remaining $100 is your interest. (This is a theoretical example. My own bank account hasn’t generated nearly that much in interest.)

But let’s say the investment isn’t risk-free. They’ve taken $10,000 of your money, invested in that 2% return project, and it flopped. Ouch. Now they’re out $10,000- of your money! That doesn’t seem fair!

That’s why banks have reserves. It’s a buffer/stockpile of cash or liquid assets (things that can be converted to cash really quickly) that covers a depositor’s finances should the bank’s own investments go south, OR if people need to pull out their money. Banks usually have a dedicated team of analysts that calculate the amount of reserves a bank can safely set aside to cover these sorts of events. This covers souring investments as well as times when a big customer is planning to pull out a ton of savings. That $10,000 is a drop in the bucket for them, but something like $1 million is more concerning.

So, even if the investment goes south, at least you’ve still got that guaranteed $20,000 on demand in case of, say, a medical emergency.

... At least, that’s how it should work.

If a bank doesn’t have enough reserves/quick money to fulfill its obligations of money on demand to everyone who lent it to them, it becomes insolvent- basically bankrupt unless they do a lot of stuff to get money fast really quickly. This can involve pulling money out of investments (which costs money to do, and is not something any investor would want to do unless they need a lot of money really really fast). This is the worst case scenario for any financial institution and one they want to prevent at all costs.

Understandably, the insolvency of the bank you’re keeping your money at is a terrifying situation for people who really need that money. And it was a common situation up until the 1930′s.

Bank Runs

You probably know someone who lived through the Great Depression who has a large stockpile of cash and refuses to use credit cards or banks. Some people probably even call them stupid for doing so. I’m not going to call your money hoarding grandparents stupid, since they’re operating off a very real fear- the fear that a bank won’t have the legal tender to give them their money when they ask. That situation was VERY COMMON before the FDIC was created in 1933 to insure the deposits of its member banks.

What would happen is that you’d hear that some news about how a certain bank was having financial trouble, and might close very, very soon. You freak out and realize that if they close, you’ve given your money to them, and now you’re not going to get it back! You go to a branch of the bank to withdraw all of your money, only to find that everyone else had the same thoughts as you, and the branch is already out of physical tender. As more and more people realize they’re about to lose all of their savings, the bank is drained at an exponentially increasing rate- and soon, the bank has become insolvent.

Banks have defenses for this- suspending withdrawals, limiting withdrawals, and asking their central bank for more liquid funds. But in the case of a bank run, or a bank panic, which is a bunch of banks experiencing bank runs at once, those defenses might fail entirely.

The FDIC, an American Government Corporation, was created as an insurance company for banks. Basically, banks pay dues to the FDIC, and in the case of the bank’s insolvency, the FDIC guarantees deposits up to about $250,000. It was created partially as a way to avoid future bank runs and protect consumers in the case of a bank collapse.

Interest Rates and Inflation

You’ve probably heard about the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates or keeping them low throughout the recent pandemic, but what does that actually mean, and why is it relevant here?

The Federal Reserve sets target interest rates- basically, setting the price at which major banks can borrow from the government. This ends up forming the basis for other types of loans you can get from banks- mortgages, car loans, etc.. Periodically these are revised with regards to economic conditions.

Basically, raising interest rates is used to encourage people to STOP borrowing money and START lending money- the return for lending is higher, and the price of borrowing is higher. Lowering interest rates is used to encourage people to START borrowing money and STOP lending money- the return for lending is lower, and the price of borrowing is lower.

(This is why you always want a loan with a low interest rate, btw!)

(And keep in mind that these are with regards to major economic decisions, and not necessarily the types of loans an ordinary person would get.)

Now, why is inflation relevant? Yes, it’s really high right now, and that means that the prices of everything are increasing a lot! The Federal Reserve’s answer to that is to increase interest rates- by making it more costly to borrow money, they’re hoping to stop an unsustainable level of price increases in everything else.

I think I get it. Now what’s going on?

Silicon Valley Bank was a fast-growing bank that, in recent years, held a lot of funds for entrepreneurs and tech startups- about 50% of all venture capital money in the US! What this means is a. a lot of large accounts in b. mainly one sector of the economy (technology).

That being said, the bank would most certainly not outpace inflation if they didn’t invest it. However, at the time, they couldn’t find any places they could loan money to.

Furthermore, the tech/crypto/startup sector of the economy has been going through hard times for a while. Many needed to slowly pull out funds from the bank, further straining the amount of liquid cash on hand.

In 2021, SVB instead decided to invest in mortgage-backed securities with the deposits placed with them. Mortgages are basically very long loans, but they can also be very risky. Mortgage-backed securities are based on mortgages. (The risk surrounding mortgage-backed securities is one reason for the housing crisis of 2008.) It should also be noted that they’re very susceptible to changes in interest rates- if interest rates increase, mortgage-backed securities lose their value.

In 2022, we got severe inflation.

And then, the Federal Reserve’s answer to severe inflation: raising interest rates.

And the mortgage-backed securities that SVB took out became unprofitable!

Now remember how I said that banks need to be able to not only provide customers their deposits on demand, but also give it back with interest? Because the investment in mortgage-backed securities failed, SVB didn’t have money for interest OR deposits, and not enough in reserves to fill the gap. They would be insolvent, if they didn’t come up with a lot of money really, really fast. 

Word spread fast- depositors had already realized that the bank had become insolvent, and they demanded their deposits back. In other words, SVB went through a bank run, losing their money over the course of three days.

The FDIC then stepped in. Now this is a bit of an unusual case, because the FDIC only insures accounts up to $250,000. Most venture capital startups have accounts that are many times that. However, the FDIC has decided (with their own member deposits, not taxpayer money) that all of the venture capital money will be paid. All of the bankers will get their deposits back.

SVB is still closing, however, and shareholders and stockholders will not be compensated for the stock loss.

So while shareholders lose out, every creditor/depositor who invested will be getting their money back. As for Silicon Valley Bank, it’s being administered by the FDIC up until it’s time for it to close down.

[tomswifty-fr]

there is not a single thing you can "invest" in on fr that'll hold value other than treasure and gems, scrolls, g1/g2 imps, and low digit dragons. maybe ks stuff but if you own ks stuff you probably do not need to invest.

scrolls will always have a minimum sell price. you may or may not make money, but you won't lose it. low digit dragons are less reliable because the value of any dragon is subjective and the price is really only what people are willing to pay for them. the only saving grace is that the supply is not going up.

dragons, even g1s and triples and doubles etc etc etc are being created every day. the supply only goes up, even more with roundsey. special eyed dragons crashed the same day scattervials crashed. lineage dragons are valuable only so much as the buyer cares about the lineage and the only ones that people really care about are naomi and ignis. heck, i have a naomi descendant

fest doesn't retire anymore. it gets harder to acquire, but it doesn't retire. even retired fest regularly gets new copies via roundsey. old fest also crashed (slightly) due to joxar - if you think sunchasers are soooo beautiful but now joxar has cindersphere baubles for a single candy coin, you are getting the baubles. the only reason you go for sunchasers at that point is if you are super picky, or doing a challenge, or want them as a status symbol.

fiona dropped demand for retired fams massively. if all you care about is completing the bestiary, you can do it now without shelling out for sprites. elimantes crashed with galore, scattervials crashed with normal vials, i don't know if invisibility cloaks have crashed yet but you know they're gonna in about *checks calender* eleven months. eggs rise and fall but the top price has been going down for years.

the uma market is massively inflated. limited skins, tons of recolors, higher prices (600g is barely unusual for an accent now) (not gonna get into stuff about artist skill and subjective value but like. that did not used to be the norm), fomo, customs commissioned just to auction later or even immediately. did i mention fomo?

if you want to get rich, get into dom and flip fodder or grind. you can always buy fest stuff and resell it later for a profit but godamn dude its a game. the devs are actively invested in making stuff easier for people to get, that's the whole point. prices going down or at least rising slower is good. stop hoarding eggs for resell and liquidate already.

mildly related: the lorwolf economy is chaos rn, because its existed for less than a week. this is supposed to happen. people are already over there freaking out because it's not behaving like a mature economy with established prices and stable ratios rn. calm down. give it time. the cross site trading is not helping btw.

[caffedrine]

Rio Ortiz Romantic Chapter 21 Summary

This is mostly a summary for me - I make no promises on the accuracy of what’s happening. I’m not nearly fluent enough to get half the jokes/innuendo much less accurate plot points.  

Whenever Emma hears the sound of rain, it reminds her of that day when she found Rio dying on the ground. He had given up on his own life and accepted his death. She often wonders what kind of life Rio led before he lost his memory, and what could have happened that made him wish for death.

It’s that life Rio is now facing. A painful past with painful memories and the reason why he wanted to die back then.

The sound of rain makes Emma wonder how she can help and support Rio. Even facing down a tyrannical prince who climbed out of a box in her room doesn’t stop her from thinking about this situation logically.

Silvio tells her that he has great news: he’s going to use her to get rid of that asshole. He tells her to be grateful. It’s hard for Emma to respond with a hand over her mouth, but her mind whirls with the fear of what Silvio is going to do to Rio.

Silvio starts forcing her to move with him, and Emma mentally reminds herself to calm down. Rio’s love book had instructions for how to act in a situation where someone is trying to kidnap her. When attacked by a thuggish prince, stay calm and look for an opening.

Silvio is unnerved by Emma’s compliance and his grip loosens, and she strikes. She stomps down on Silvio’s foot and wrests herself out of his grip, just like Rio taught her.

Unfortunately, Silvio is blocking the one entrance to her room. There is a window, but her room is high up enough that jumping out from it should only be a final-final resort.

Silvio complains about her injuring the prince of a foreign nation. Emma points out that the rules don’t apply when said prince broke into her room to kidnap her first. Silvio tells her not to treat him like some third-rate thug. He’s bought off all the servants in this area, no one will come to save her even if she screams.

Emma thinks that Silvio is at least telling a partial truth, he definitely paid off the servants who brought his box in, and that’s at least a few of them. She considers her choices going forward.

Emma asks what Silvio meant by saying he would use her to get rid of the asshole. She positions herself so that she can run out to the balcony if she needs to. Silvio snorts that she has her heart set on being impertinent. Oddly, he doesn’t seem upset by it. Unfortunately for her, there is no advantage to him divulging his reasons, so he’s not going to tell her.

With what she knows about him and his personality, that makes sense. She then recalls another page in Rio’s love book. In the section on how to deal with situations, there was a blurb about how to deal with Silvio if he should suddenly appear before her and make an outrageous demand.

To Silvio's shock, Emma tells Silvio she’s willing to negotiate with him. Why is Silvio in her room? Since he’s using this bizarre method, she can imagine that the situation is urgent. In exchange for Silvio explaining things to her, Emma will pay the price.

In Rhodolite, certain items are showing the beginnings of a trend for both commoners and aristocrats. The producers are selling it directly to their customers since the merchants haven’t figured out that the items are valuable yet. Emma is willing to tell Silvio what these items are.

This is Emma’s only trump card for dealing with Silvio, and while she hates to use it this early, she may not get a chance to use it later.

Silvio just blinks at her, and Emma guesses that he did not expect this kind of negotiation from her. Emma prods him by reminding him that he could buy all of the products from the manufacturers and gain a monopoly on the market. Just think of the fortune he could make in Rhodolite.

Silvio doesn’t think Emma has the foresight to read the market, at least not after that abysmal market inspection. This means that the shitty dog must have given her this information. Emma thinks that Silvio looks somewhat impressed, and she is also impressed with Rio’s ability.

Emma asks if that would be enough to convince Silvio to explain things to her and watches him consider it. Sweat pricks her back, her only other options are to try to survive a jump out of the window or be kidnapped by Silvio. Eventually, Silvio clicks his tongue and says that if they’re going to trade information, it’s not going to happen in the castle.

Even with bribing the servants, the beasts of Rhodolite will eventually figure something is up in Emma’s room. If they were to find him, all of Silvio’s work would be ruined. Emma doesn’t mind, after all, she plans on ruining any plots Silvio has against Rio.

Silvio snorts, he’s not after Valerio right now. Emma reminds Silvio of what she asked earlier, and Silvio points out that he calls Rio the shitty dog. The asshole would be Emidio.  Emma stares at Silvio and decides to ask him directly if he poisoned Rio.

Ah, that. Silvio tells Emma to try thinking a little and she’ll understand. With all the time they’ve spent together, does she think that he would first poison Rio, and then utterly fail?

Emma is Belle, the person responsible for seeing into the heart of the Rhodolite Princes and selecting the next king. And here she is, trying to see into Silvio’s heart, and utterly failing. What a pathetic joke she is.

But she’s certain that he’s not lying. He’s calm, and though his sea-colored eyes are intense, they’re looking straight at her. They aren’t wavering, there is no sense of guilt.

Which means that Emidio is the culprit.

Emma can’t picture that gentlemanly prince harming Rio, but there was that weird sense of something being out of place every time she met him. She still hasn’t figured it out why something is wrong, but she can set that aside for now.

She asks Silvio what kidnapping her has to do with Emidio.

As Silvio already said, they don’t have time for leisurely talk. Emma can either come with him willingly or by force, and she has about 5 seconds to choose.

Emma: Can I at least tell Sariel or one of the Princes about this?

Silvio: No! What did I just say?

Emma: Then, can I leave a letter?

Silvio agrees to let her write a letter, as long as it takes less than three minutes, and if she leaves any information he doesn’t like, he’ll rip it up and take her away.

Emma pulls out some notepaper and a quill pen, cold sweat turning her hands clammy as she wonders exactly what she could write that Silvio wouldn’t object to.

She quickly decides to address it to Nokto and starts writing. Looking over her shoulder, Silvio starts to object, and Emma quickly reminds him that he agreed to let her write a letter. Is his skill in negotiating so bad that he’ll break his promise?

Silvio swears and says that her sweet face is a lie, she’s clever enough to be the shitty dog’s woman after all. Irritated, he roughly rubs her hair, but as promised, lets her continue.

Emma is using a foreign language to write the letter. Honestly, she thinks in the palace only Chevalier would be able to read it, but she doubts he would bother since she doesn’t directly relate to his interests. So, she’s relying on Nokto, who might be aware of the only other person in Rhodolite who could decipher her letter.

Elsewhere

The sun has sunk below the horizon, leaving behind the night to cover everything in grey hues. Most of the city shops are closing, their lights going out one by one. Soon, only the light in a bookstore is left on.

Entering the store, Rio apologizes to his ‘father’ for disturbing him at this late hour. Akatsuki, who was reading a book at the counter, looked at Rio and asked what happened.

Covered in mud and blood and with some wounds still oozing blood, Rio laughs. To make a long, long story very short, he’s having a quarrel with his siblings. Akatsuki places his book on the counter and leaves to retrieve a medicine kit.

Rio thanks him and asks if he deals in medicine as well as books. Akatsuki responds that he’s keeping the kit in case Emma needs it. He sometimes collects medicine from other countries that can heal illnesses or injuries with her in mind. Rio wishes that he could emulate their father’s overprotectiveness.

Akatsuki casually mentions that he heard that Rio left that morning for Benitoite. Which, given how long he’s been gone, and the general direction of Benitoite, means that Rio shouldn’t still be here. Rio complains that his departure shouldn’t have been public enough for Akatsuki to have heard anything.

Rio explains that he didn’t have many options. He wasn’t meant to ever arrive in Benitoite, even though the king had ordered it. From the start, it had all been a trap, just like the one he fell for three years ago. He had left to spring his own trap on whichever sibling was behind the attempts on his life and bring the evidence before the king. Unfortunately, Rio’s trap also failed, and he still doesn’t know the culprit behind the attempts on his life.

But the good news is that Rio is convinced it’s Emidio. The driver and the escort had not been paid off by money but were being blackmailed into compliance. Silvio always chooses the bribing route to get people on his side.

Unfortunately, Emidio had covered his direct involvement well enough that Rio doesn’t have any concrete evidence. He doesn’t even know if Emidio’s purpose was to just kill him, or if there’s something else he’s trying. Furthermore, he still hasn’t figured out what Silvio is plotting and feels like he’s overlooking something important with that.

So, now Rio is on the lam, with his ‘escort’ spreading the news that he randomly went on a rampage and just disappeared in the middle of being transported to Benitoite.

Akatsuki asks why Rio came to his bookstore.

If Rio is found, he’s going to be officially deported to Benitoite. Until he figures out Emidio’s plans, he wants to avoid getting caught up in them again. So, he’s formally asking Akatsuki to let him hide at the bookstore for now.

Rio: Please, father.

Akatsuki: I’m not your father.

Even though Akatsuki’s expression is cloudy and troubled, he doesn’t say ‘no’, which is close enough to saying ‘yes’. Rio thanks him, and Akatsuki tells him to thank Emma instead.

Rio’s next plan is to prove that Emidio is trying to kill him and to bring him into the Benitoite court for justice. Rio can’t welcome Emma into Benitoite until Emidio has been neutralized.

Silvio aside, Emidio is a danger, especially since he’s behind the original carriage incident that almost killed Rio. No, it’s not that he’s miraculously recovered his memories, it’s something Emidio said back when he was blaming Silvio for the original carriage incident. No one, including the Benitoite Court, knew about the carriage accident. The only way Emidio could have known without being told is if he was behind it, and Emidio had included the detail that the carriage had been tampered with.

There is a chance that Rio is overthinking Emidio’s plans. It could be that Emidio is simply going to kill Rio, pin the blame on Silvio, and gain the Benitoite throne that way. Of course, Emidio might not even care about the throne and have a different motive. If only Rio could regain his memory, then he’s certain that Emidio’s motivations and plans would be clear.

However, it’s pointless to bank on something that he doesn’t even have, so Rio has to move forward cautiously. He has two major mysteries to figure out.

First is that Silvio’s movements are utterly unreadable. Because Silvio disappeared, Emidio can do whatever he wants, and the longer Silvio is gone, the worse his position is. Which he should know. There is a chance Silvio and Emidio are not working together.

Akatsuki asks if Rio trusts Silvio.

With a disgusted expression, Rio frowns and asks Akatsuki to not say that. Although . . . even though it had been for a short time, working with Silvio had given Rio a measure of his own abilities. And Silvio had plenty of opportunities to kill Rio before he disappeared.

The second one is the ring box. Even without Rio opening it, Akatsuki already knows what is inside and asks if Rio seriously pursued Emma while knowing about the ring. Rio explains that this isn’t his ring. Rio opens the small box and shows the ring to Akatsuki. It was the same one Akatsuki and Emma found three years ago, with a large and beautiful jewel still shining. While traveling in the carriage, Rio had examined the ring box itself and found a name inscribed inside. Rio removes the ring and shows the writing to Akatsuki. It’s faded, but clear enough to spell out ‘Adria’.

Adria is the previous queen of Benitoite, the mother of Silvio and Emidio. Upon her death, Rio’s mother, the king’s mistress, became the queen. So, why would Rio carry around a memento of the king’s first wife? Rio thinks that this might be related to the motive for Silvio and Emidio to want him dead.

Rio asks Akatsuki if he could use his information network to locate Emidio. He wants to speak with Emidio before making his next move. Akatsuki warns him that this is dangerous, to which Rio is well aware.

Before anything else could be said, the bell above the door rings as a new visitor enters the shop.

Nokto asks Rio what he’s doing here. Rio thinks that’s his line, what is Nokto doing here? They stare at each other, both looking confused. Nokto decides that since he was planning on writing a letter to Rio anyways, this works out for him perfectly. Without his normal smirk, Nokto explains that Silvio has kidnapped Emma.

He hands over a note, with a prominent ‘To Nokto’ written in Emma’s handwriting. The rest is in a language only King Highness could read, who was not interested in cooperating with Nokto. So, Nokto figured that someone had taught Emma this language, and the most likely person would be her father.

Akatsuki: I’m not her father.

Even while he was denying paternity, Akatsuki took the note and began to read it, his eyes narrowing the more he read.

Elsewhere

In a mansion in Rhodolite, there is the sound of glass breaking. A servant prostrates himself on the floor before Emidio, careless of the glass shards, wine soaking into his shirt. With a gentle smile, Emidio crosses his legs from his seated position, though there is no warmth anywhere in his gaze.

If that woman was taken by Silvio, he would just have to take something from that woman.