#ad code bank

[agent4justice]

Scammers sophistication technique have reached a new apex, making Banking Fraud just like a walk in the park to this crime syndicates with richer background helter-skelters depositors and has been keeping most retirees that reinvested most of their retirement plan sleepless after words of the threat that swept the streets does not seem to have not weakened at all.

Masses are appealing for a more stringent countermeasure to be in place as soon as possible, such are adding more authentication request. Although retina scanner can slow down the process with the amount or rather the size of the data, but it also gives us an opportunity of having time to lockout perpetrators. The size of the data makes it at least 70% better than an iris scan and many more folds multiplied compared to a fingerprint.

Several years ago, I foresaw that the mCommerce (mobile commerce) would be ruled out as the mainstay of electronic processing for the sole reason that it is the most affordable business appliance that can serve the majority, representing the poor to medium class and the trending plot of global economic structure just like a triangle.

Having mCommerce | Mobile Technology as our economic transport offers the possibility of catering and adding the biggest chunk of our global population to pitch in the global trade for us to achieve having reserves and surplus will be more conceivable.

To make it a little impenetrable and globally under tighter scrutiny, I proposed that we adopt the universal identification system. We will integrate every other form of identity attached to it using our mobile number as the key index that will permanently our lifetime phone number. In the event of loss, the telco will make a SIM based on a secret code given to the subscriber upon the receipt of your subscription and issuance, which will be honored and will be service by other Telcos if subscriber opt to change carrier. The number coding of telcos should also compliment tracking effort, narrowed down within the radius and range of a few kilometers apart where the last signal was received or transmitted. The succeeding successful connection recorded by cell sites would enable us to speculate the linear direction as it trends.

We will enable the mobile technology to be a conduit of payment gateways or as a payment gateway itself. Our objective is to open the global trade and cover a larger scope and as far-reaching it could service most specially the marginalized poor a chance to lift their social status getting connected and finally be able to join our bandwagon to the brighter future. The fact can't be denied that they have been left without an adequate means to tap the convenience and business opportunity through eCommerce. Through the mobile payment gateway, even in the absence of a banking system in their region, they can now fulfill the checkout process by loading or charging it from your telco which is even less intricate than having a debit card or as to many known financial credibility.

#mobilepaymentgateway

#mobiletechnology

#mCommerce

#onlinefraud

#RetinaScan

Scammers sophistication technique have reached a new apex, making Banking Fraud just like a walk in the park to this crime syndicates with richer background helter-skelters depositors and has been keeping most retirees that reinvested most of their retirement plan sleepless after words of the threat that swept the streets does not seem to have not weakened at all.

Masses are appealing for a more stringent countermeasure to be in place as soon as possible, such are adding more authentication request. Although retina scanner can slow down the process with the amount or rather the size of the data, but it also gives us an opportunity of having time to lockout perpetrators. The size of the data makes it at least 70% better than an iris scan and many more folds multiplied compared to a fingerprint.

Several years ago, I foresaw that the mCommerce (mobile commerce) would be ruled out as the mainstay of electronic processing for the sole reason that it is the most affordable business appliance that can serve the majority, representing the poor to medium class and the trending plot of global economic structure just like a triangle.

Having mCommerce | Mobile Technology as our economic transport offers the possibility of catering and adding the biggest chunk of our global population to pitch in the global trade for us to achieve having reserves and surplus will be more conceivable.

To make it a little impenetrable and globally under tighter scrutiny, I proposed that we adopt the universal identification system. We will integrate every other form of identity attached to it using our mobile number as the key index that will permanently our lifetime phone number. In the event of loss, the telco will make a SIM based on a secret code given to the subscriber upon the receipt of your subscription and issuance, which will be honored and will be service by other Telcos if subscriber opt to change carrier. The number coding of telcos should also compliment tracking effort, narrowed down within the radius and range of a few kilometers apart where the last signal was received or transmitted. The succeeding successful connection recorded by cell sites would enable us to speculate the linear direction as it trends.

We will enable the mobile technology to be a conduit of payment gateways or as a payment gateway itself. Our objective is to open the global trade and cover a larger scope and as far-reaching it could service most specially the marginalized poor a chance to lift their social status getting connected and finally be able to join our bandwagon to the brighter future. The fact can't be denied that they have been left without an adequate means to tap the convenience and business opportunity through eCommerce. Through the mobile payment gateway, even in the absence of a banking system in their region, they can now fulfill the checkout process by loading or charging it from your telco which is even less intricate than having a debit card or as to many known financial credibility.

#mobilepaymentgateway

#mobiletechnology

#mCommerce

#onlinefraud

#RetinaScan

#FraudAlert

#FraudAlert

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Why are games so expensive nowadays? What the doodly doo is going on? We don't even get the physical copy anymore.

Pretty much the same as with movie budgets, development costs and greed!

On one hand, all the big games nowadays obvs need more to build so they can keep up with the scope (graphics, length, coding complexity, etc) so that cranks the price up- Tetris isn’t a Final Fantasy 7 Remake- but then all the major companies are led by greedy corporate assholes who like to squeeze every cent out of everything. It’s also why you straight up have to pay extra for your ps5 to even be able to play physical - same price but no production costs in making it physical, so they’re pushing in that direction.

Though, if bought in a physical location, sometimes shops just like to sell things for more than the producer sets as a price. Local now-nonexistent-basically Wallmart would put the default price for Nintendo games at 65€, while the hardware store across the street sells them for the standard 50€ over here. That is…really not that much different from the 45€ I kept forking off for 3DS games 10 years ago, actually? Or the 40 that Wii and DS games were priced at 20 (ouch) years ago. And most of the modern games that aren’t obvious "will be a game awards nominee“ drop to 30 after a year anyways, while the others often get sales in the eshop at least.

Meanwhile Nintendo of America puts all these games at a base 60-80 and apparently never does sales, ever, Pokemon Company crunches the dev’s to hell and back to milk their content farm because there’ll always be enough people blinded by nostalgia to buy them at full price, and some companies are EA and Konami.

So, hello corporate greed. All the exec’s just think, why make expensive games cheap if people buy cheaply made games for expensive prices? And they see the numbers go up, so it works. By the time a game has been broken too much to still make money, they’ll have made (or bought) a new one to rip all promise out off.

TLDR depending on what device you play on, it’s not actually changed that much, but generally speaking indie games (or setting sails) are the way to go because there’s no corporate meddling, ig.

[nihilityuniverse]

𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 | 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐱 𝐅𝐄𝐌! 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

ᴡʜᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝗲��𝘁𝗼𝗿 ᴏꜰ ᴛᴇʏᴠᴀᴛ 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗼𝘀𝘀.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Story inspired by Acheron's Lore, Power, and Personality...

ENG is not my First language

I do not own Genshin Impact or any of the pictures used.

Do NOT Repost

Story also available on WattPad: Chapter 0 | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Chapter 0 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏

𝐀 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭'𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐳𝐨

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Eight members of the Harbingers had gathered in the palace-like church. Inside, the air was so frigid that the nation's flags began to freeze, crackling under the intense cold. No candles lit the space; only the ethereal glow of the polar lights streaming through the stained-glass windows provided illumination.

A petite woman with long hair, her eyes concealed behind a delicate white lace mask, hums a familiar lullaby from her deceased friend as she leans against a casket. Her voice echoes softly in the frozen stillness.

The eight other Harbingers watched her from a distance, each wearing a similar coat of identical design. By order of Her Royal Highness Tsaritsa, all Harbingers were required to attend the funeral, even the elusive 0th Harbinger.

The 0th Harbinger, code name: Innamorati — The Lovers;

A figure shrouded in mystery and danger, Innamorati remained an enigma even to her fellow Harbingers.

Known only by whispers and rumors, she was a being crafted by the Cryo Archon herself, a weapon designed to challenge the Celestial Gods. Hidden away for years, her existence was the subject of much speculation.

Some Harbingers were indifferent, focusing solely on the success of their plans, while others were intensely curious. Pierro, the Director of the Fatui, claimed to know nothing about her, adding to her mystique.

Rumors abounded: some said Innamorati would annihilate anyone who crossed her path; others believed she had perished decades ago, her legend merely a shadow from the past.

What they all knew for certain was that Innamorati had a notorious reputation for forgetting critical missions assigned by Tsaritsa herself. This unreliability made her both feared and ridiculed within their ranks.

"We are gathered here today to remember our dear comrade," an old dwarf with a long nose and mustache solemnly broke the deafening silence. "In honor of her sacrifice, all work shall halt for half a day as the nation mourns her passing."

"Hehe, merely half a day...?" Pantalone laughed coldly, crossing his hands in front of his chest with a mocking smile. "People say the Northland Bank's true currencies are blood and tears... But mayor, even speaking as a banker, that sounds a little unconscionable."

"Rosalyne died in a foreign land," Arlecchino stepped forward, her crimson red X-cross pupils glowing dangerously bright with annoyance. "But you heartless businessmen and dignitaries always find a convenient excuse to remain in the comfort of your homeland..." She frowned. "You couldn't hope to understand, so why don't you keep your mouth shut?! We don't want to make the children cry."

"Hey, c'mon now, even I don't think this is the right time or place for a fight," Childe chipped in, lazily sitting on one of the wooden benches.

"Utterly risible!" Sandrone mocked, and the machine behind her emitted an audible angry sound.

"Though her methods tarnished her honor, Lohefalter's sacrifice is a great pity. Her loss shall not hinder our progress," Capitano's deep voice resonated through the entire palace, catching everyone's attention.

He turned towards the Doctor, his face hidden behind a dark veil. "But Dottore... What of Scaramouche and the Gnosis from Inazuma?"

Dottore smiled, twirling a tube filled with blue liquid between his fingers. "Conventional wisdom holds that Divine Knowledge cannot be rationally comprehended. After conquering the Divine Gaze, he will make his next move."

The heavy, frozen church door creaked open, allowing the bitter winter air to sweep inside. Everyone turned their gaze towards it, even Columbina, who had paused her humming. 

A woman, clad in a coat of the same design as theirs, stepped into the church, holding a red paper umbrella. The door closed behind her with a resounding bang. The click of her heels on the marble floor echoed through the hall, a stark contrast to the silence that had filled the room.

Her face remained obscured by shadows, yet every person in the room knew instinctively that she was not someone to be trifled with. 

The sense of her power and presence was palpable, a mutual understanding among them all. To cross her would be to invite disaster.

This was Innamorati, the 0th Harbinger, a figure shrouded in mystery and danger, whose very presence commanded respect and fear.

As she advanced, the air seemed to grow even colder, the weight of her presence adding to the already frigid atmosphere. Each step she took resonated with authority, and the silence in the room deepened, a silent acknowledgment of her status among them.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Finally, you found your way to the place where the funeral was to be held. You hadn't thought you would make it in time, given the ferocity of the snowstorm that had nearly obscured your path and made the journey treacherous.

Your heels clicked sharply with each step as you approached the group of people gathered at the center, where the casket lay. You set your red paper umbrella on one of the wooden benches, the action deliberate and unhurried. 

As the shadow over your face disappeared, the polar light from the stained-glass windows illuminated your features.

With the shadow gone, the collective breath of the eight Harbingers halted involuntarily.

Your beauty was striking: peach-colored, plump lips; long, dark eyelashes framing eyes that seemed to hold the very essence of winter. Your skin was pale and flawless, with a cold radiance that mirrored the icy surroundings. Your presence was both ethereal and commanding, a juxtaposition of delicate grace and chilling power.

You stopped a few steps before the group of Harbingers—your comrades—and looked up at them. 

"0th Harbinger, Innamorati... That is what they call me. You may call me whatever you wish," you introduced yourself, your voice ethereal and soft, yet so cold and lifeless it sent shivers down their spines. "This must be the first time we meet."

"You are quite late, Lord Innamorati," Pulcinella, the old dwarf, addressed you with a mix of respect and caution.

After all, The top-ranked Harbingers, from rank 1 to No. 3, possess powers that can rival the gods. So what about No. 0? Could she surpass the powers of the gods? Or even be greater?

You let out an annoyed sigh. "All the snow-covered streets look the same, and the blizzard did not make navigating to this gathering any easier."

Pantalone chuckled, turning towards you with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"If I had known, I would have taken you with me in my carriage, Lady Innamorati. Alas, I am left to wonder why there were no escorts ready for you. I thought I had ordered the highest-ranked Skirmishers for your protection." His voice was dangerously smooth, laden with speculation, hinting at the rumors of you annihilating anyone who crossed your path.

Before you could respond, Childe interjected from the side. "Huh? The oh-so-feared Innamorati getting lost in a mere snowstorm? This is truly a sight to behold." His tone dripped with mockery. 

"Were you also getting lost on the way to your missions?" His voice carried an angry undertone, bitterness seeping through his words. 

He had often been the one to hurriedly take on your missions at the last minute, running from one nation to another like a lackey. The mission to obtain the Geo Archon's Gnosis had been assigned to you, not him, nor the now-deceased Signora. In the end, he had faced severe repercussions after the Northland Bank had to pay heavy reparations.

If gazes could kill, Childe would have been long dead under Pantalone's icy stare. Though his slight smile remained, his eyes closed behind his glasses, he radiated a murderous aura. He longed to hear your voice again and to capture your attention. Such a rare opportunity shouldn't be wasted.

"Insolent child! How dare you—!" Sandrone hissed at Childe, her anger palpable. She, too, feared inciting your wrath. If Childe weren't a fellow Harbinger, Sandrone would have killed him long ago for destroying her ruin guard factory.

"It's time to end tonight's foolish theatrics." 

A deep, husky voice resonated through the church, cutting through the cold silence like a blade.

The man stepped forward from the shadows, his right side concealed by a dark mask. It was Pierro, the Director of the Fatui, and his presence commanded instant respect.

His voice, cold and demanding, echoed with authority as he advanced towards the casket.

"Right now, you have no captive audience," he said, his gaze sweeping over the assembled Harbingers and guests, silently commanding them to gather and pay heed.

You stood on the opposite side of Pierro, your own presence a stark contrast to his imposing figure.

"Let every worthy sacrifice be carved in ice, and let this nation endure for all time," Pierro intoned, his voice carrying the weight of solemn duty.

The assembly lowered their heads in reverence, eyes closing as he delivered the farewell speech. Your hand drifted absently towards your Divine Key, a subconscious gesture.

"In the name of Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa," Pierro continued, his voice imbued with a steely resolve, "we will seize authority from the gods."

After several minutes of mournful meditation, Pierro broke the silence and left the building, his movements purposeful and commanding.

The others followed in silent procession, a testament to their respect and shared grief. You took your red paper umbrella, closing your eyes briefly before stepping into the freezing, snow-covered landscape.

"Absolute peace."

As you all departed, the church behind you began to freeze over, layers of crystal ice encasing it under the unyielding winter sky, which shimmered with the ethereal glow of the aurora.

"Such is the gift from the Tsaritsa, such is Her Majesty's benevolence," Pierro declared, his voice carrying a chilling reverence as he halted and gazed up at the celestial lights.

"Now you rest in this coffin, encased in layer upon layer of ice. But, Rosalyne, I promise you..."

"Your final resting place will be the entirety of the Old World," Pierro's voice echoed through the night sky, his farewell imbued with a cold resolve that matched the frozen land around you.

As you watched the polar light dancing across the vast darkness of the sky, a thought surfaced in your mind. You had never known this person, but you had made a promise to someone...

You halted in your steps and glanced back at the frozen church.

Some tasks have to be done, even if they seem pointless.

Amidst the snow, you caught a glimpse of shadowy hands emerging from the icy landscape, reaching out towards the sky one by one, as if seeking transcendence. As you blinked, everything returned to normal.

"Another Memory..."

"Lady Innamorati, is something the matter?" Pierro's voice broke through your reverie as he noticed you staring back at the frozen church.

"...meaningless," you whispered to yourself, yet the faint wind carried your words to Pierro. 

"Pardon?" Pierro asked again, this time capturing the attention of some of the other Harbingers, especially Dottore. The Doctor, ever curious, considered whether you might make an intriguing subject for his experiments.

"It's nothing. Continue without me. I wish to be alone," you ordered, your voice light as silk yet cold as ice. Pierro nodded, casting one last glance at you before leaving. 

Dottore lingered a moment longer, watching you with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. As he did, the falling snow seemed to halt and move backward, defying the natural order.

"Existence is fleeting as the dawn's dew," your voice echoed in a dimension separate from the real world, where time had ceased.

Dottore's breath caught as he watched you, disbelief etched across his features. His analytical mind struggled to comprehend the anomaly unfolding before him.

"Yet, I guide the wandering souls on the still waters of oblivion..."

The dimension around you cracked like glass, shattering as you began to walk towards the church.

"...and weep for the departed."

A powerful gust of wind struck Dottore, and in that moment, he perceived everything yet nothing. The world seemed meaningless and empty. He felt his body ascending, his soul slipping away...

"Don't look back..." Your ethereal voice called to him, a beacon of light in the encroaching darkness.

He felt a pull from behind, "Move forward," you whispered. In the next instant, he stood where Pierro had asked if you were alright moments before.

Dottore's breath hitched, his cold heart pounding faster than ever. This was neither a dream nor an illusion. He knew this with certainty. What had just happened? The question echoed in his mind, a mystery as deep as the winter night itself.

One thing was certain: he had unmistakably felt the presence of the Almighty One—the Divine Creator.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Reblog if you like this story

[dreamdolldeveloper]

back to basics

mostly free resources to help you learn the basics that i've gathered for myself so far that i think are cool

everyday

gcfglobal - about the internet, online safety and for kids, life skills like applying for jobs, career planning, resume writing, online learning, today's skills like 3d printing, photoshop, smartphone basics, microsoft office apps, and mac friendly. they have core skills like reading, math, science, language learning - some topics are sparse so hopefully they keep adding things on. great site to start off on learning.

handsonbanking - learn about finances. after highschool, credit, banking, investing, money management, debt, goal setting, loans, cars, small businesses, military, insurance, retirement, etc.

bbc - learning for all ages. primary to adult. arts, history, science, math, reading, english, french, all the way to functional and vocational skills for adults as well, great site!

education.ket - workplace essential skills

general education

mathsgenie - GCSE revision, grade 1-9, math stages 1-14, provides more resources! completely free.

khan academy - pre-k to college, life skills, test prep (sats, mcat, etc), get ready courses, AP, partner courses like NASA, etc. so much more!

aleks - k-12 + higher ed learning program. adapts to each student.

biology4kids - learn biology

cosmos4kids - learn astronomy basics

chem4kids - learn chemistry

physics4kids - learn physics

numbernut - math basics (arithmetic, fractions and decimals, roots and exponents, prealgebra)

education.ket - primary to adult. includes highschool equivalent test prep, the core skills. they have a free resource library and they sell workbooks. they have one on work-life essentials (high demand career sectors + soft skills)

youtube channels

the organic chemistry tutor

khanacademy

crashcourse

tabletclassmath

2minmaths

kevinmathscience

professor leonard

greenemath

mathantics

3blue1brown

literacy

readworks - reading comprehension, build background knowledge, grow your vocabulary, strengthen strategic reading

chompchomp - grammar knowledge

tutors

not the "free resource" part of this post but sometimes we forget we can be tutored especially as an adult. just because we don't have formal education does not mean we can't get 1:1 teaching! please do you research and don't be afraid to try out different tutors. and remember you're not dumb just because someone's teaching style doesn't match up with your learning style.

cambridge coaching - medical school, mba and business, law school, graduate, college academics, high school and college process, middle school and high school admissions

preply - language tutoring. affordable!

revolutionprep - math, science, english, history, computer science (ap, html/css, java, python c++), foreign languages (german, korean, french, italian, spanish, japanese, chinese, esl)

varsity tutors - k-5 subjects, ap, test prep, languages, math, science & engineering, coding, homeschool, college essays, essay editing, etc

chegg - biology, business, engineering/computer science, math, homework help, textbook support, rent and buying books

learn to be - k-12 subjects

for languages

lingq - app. created by steve kaufmann, a polygot (fluent in 20+ languages) an amazing language learning platform that compiles content in 20+ languages like podcasts, graded readers, story times, vlogs, radio, books, the feature to put in your own books! immersion, comprehensible input.

flexiclasses - option to study abroad, resources to learn, mandarin, cantonese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, italian, russian, taiwanese hokkien, shanghainese.

fluentin3months - bootcamp, consultation available, languages: spanish, french, korean, german, chinese, japanese, russian, italian.

fluenz - spanish immersion both online and in person - intensive.

pimsleur - not tutoring** online learning using apps and their method. up to 50 languages, free trial available.

incase time has passed since i last posted this, check on the original post (not the reblogs) to see if i updated link or added new resources. i think i want to add laguage resources at some point too but until then, happy learning!!

[ms-demeanor]

Hey if you happen to work for a small business and you use Office 365 for anything and you are not required to use 2FA to log in to your 365 account please talk to your tech people at work and see if they have plans for adding that to your security policy.

We're rolling out 2FA for all our clients who have been hesitant about it and some of them are onboard but many are resistant to the change and it's slow going and we've had 3 customers get hit with session hijacking attacks in the last month. I just had the office manager for one of the businesses we work with call me in tears because one of her customers sent $150k to a fraudulent bank account.

And if you are someone who works in accounts payable and you are doing business to business transfers if one of your customers asks you to transfer to a new account number you need to CALL THEM ON THE PHONE to verify that they really want you to use this new account before you send that money. Asking for an email with a past invoice is NOT a good enough defense against fraud if a malicious actor has taken over your vendor's email and has access to everything they've ever sent you.

While I'm at it, here are some things that I thought were very basic security stuff that are apparently getting overlooked.

CALL TO VERIFY CHANGES. This should be part of your normal policy. You should not accept payment changes, address changes, email changes, ownership changes, point-of-contact etc. from your vendors or customers without first getting on the phone and speaking to someone who YOU PERSONALLY have spoken to at the company in the past and confirming those changes.

DO NOT SEND SENSITIVE INFORMATION THROUGH EMAIL. Usernames, Passwords, Credit Card Numbers, Health information, Personally Identifying information, and all Banking information is all information that you shouldn't send even through encrypted email; either you enter that info on a secure portal or you talk to someone on the phone.

Never, ever, ever give your 2FA codes to anyone. No exceptions. If it's anyone who would legitimately need to access your system they have ways of doing it that do not require you to have access to the system.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

'We buy ugly houses' is code for 'we steal vulnerable peoples' homes'

Tonight (May 11) at 7PM, I’m in CALGARY for Wordfest, with my novel Red Team Blues; I’ll be hosted by Peter Hemminger at the Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor.

Home ownership is the American dream: not only do you get a place to live, free from the high-handed dictates of a landlord, but you also get an asset that appreciates, building intergenerational wealth while you sleep — literally.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/11/ugly-houses-ugly-truth/#homevestor

Of course, you can’t have it both ways. If your house is an asset you use to cover falling wages, rising health care costs, spiraling college tuition and paper-thin support for eldercare, then it can’t be a place you live. It’s gonna be an asset you sell — or at the very least, borrow so heavily against that you are in constant risk of losing it.

This is the contradiction at the heart of the American dream: when America turned its back on organized labor as an engine for creating prosperity and embraced property speculation, it set itself on the road to serfdom — a world where the roof over your head is also your piggy bank, destined to be smashed open to cover the rising costs that an organized labor movement would have fought:

https://gen.medium.com/the-rents-too-damned-high-520f958d5ec5

Today, we’re hit the end of the road for the post-war (unevenly, racially segregated) shared prosperity that made it seem, briefly, that everyone could get rich by owning a house, living in it, then selling it to everybody else. Now that the game is ending, the winners are cashing in their chips:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-end-of-the-road-to-serfdom-bfad6f3b35a9

The big con of home ownership is proceeding smartly on schedulee. First, you let the mark win a little, so they go all in on the scam. Then you take it all back. Obama’s tolerance of bank sleze after the Great Financial Crisis kicked off the modern era of corporations and grifters stealing Americans’ out from under them, forging deeds in robosigning mills:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-breaks-down-93-bln-robo-signing-settlement-2013-02-28

The thefts never stopped. Today on Propublica, by Anjeanette Damon, Byard Duncan and Mollie Simon bring a horrifying, brilliantly reported account of the rampant, bottomless scams of Homevestors, AKA We Buy Ugly Houses, AKA “the #1 homebuyer in the USA”:

https://www.propublica.org/article/ugly-truth-behind-we-buy-ugly-houses

Homevestors — an army of the hedge fund Bayview Asset Management — claims a public mission: to bail out homeowners sitting on unsellable houses with all-cash deals. The company’s franchisees — 1,150 of them in 48 states — then sprinkle pixie dust and secret sauce on these “ugly houses” and sell them at a profit.

But Propublica’s investigation — which relied on whistleblowers, company veterans, court records and interviews with victims — tells a very different story. The Homevestor they discovered is a predator that steals houses out from under elderly people, disabled people, people struggling with mental illness and other vulnerable people. It’s a company whose agents have a powerful, well-polished playbook that stops family members from halting the transfers the company’s high-pressure salespeople set in motion.

Propublica reveals homeowners with advanced dementia who signed their shaky signatures to transfers that same their homes sold out from under them for a fraction of their market value. They show how Homevestor targets neighborhoods struck by hurricanes, or whose owners are recently divorced, or sick. One whistleblower tells of how the company uses the surveillance advertising industry to locate elderly people who’ve broken a hip: “a 60-day countdown to death — and, possibly, a deal.” The company’s mobile ads are geofenced to target people near hospitals and rehab hospitals, in hopes of finding desperate sellers who need to liquidate homes so that Medicaid will cover their medical expenses.

The sales pitches are relentless. One of Homevestor’s targets was a Texas woman whose father had recently been murdered. As she grieved, they blanketed her in pitches to sell her father’s house until “checking her mail became a traumatic experience.”

Real-estate brokers are bound by strict regulations, but not house flippers like Homevestors. Likewise, salespeople who pitch other high-ticket items, from securities to plane tickets — are required to offer buyers a cooling-off period during which they can reconsider their purchases. By contrast, Homevestors’ franchisees are well-versed in “muddying the title” to houses after the contract is signed, filing paperwork that makes it all but impossible for sellers to withdraw from the sale.

This produces a litany of ghastly horror-stories: homeowners who end up living in their trucks after they were pressured into a lowball sales; sellers who end up dying in hospital beds haunted by the trick that cost them their homes. One woman who struggled with hoarding was tricked into selling her house by false claims that the city would evict her because of her hoarding. A widow was tricked into signing away the deed to her late husband’s house by the lie that she could do so despite not being on the deed. One seller was tricked into signing a document he believed to be a home equity loan application, only to discover he had sold his house at a huge discount on its market value. An Arizona woman was tricked into selling her dead mother’s house through the lie that the house would have to be torn down and the lot redeveloped; the Homevestor franchisee then flipped the house for 5,500% of the sale-price.

The company vigorously denies these claims. They say that most people who do business with Homevestors are happy with the outcome; in support of this claim, they cite internal surveys of their own customers that produce a 96% approval rating.

When confronted with the specifics, the company blamed rogue franchisees. But Propublica obtained training materials and other internal documents that show that the problem is widespread and endemic to Homevestors’ business. Propublica discovered that at least eight franchisees who engaged in conduct the company said it “didn’t tolerate” had been awarded prizes by the company for their business acumen.

Franchisees are on the hook for massive recurring fees and face constant pressure from corporate auditors to close sales. To make those sales, franchisees turn to Homevana’s training materials, which are rife with predatory tactics. One document counsels franchisees that “pain is always a form of motivation.” What kind of pain? Lost jobs, looming foreclosure or a child in need of surgery.

A former franchisee explained how this is put into practice in the field: he encountered a seller who needed to sell quickly so he could join his dying mother who had just entered a hospice 1,400 miles away. The seller didn’t want to sell the house; they wanted to “get to Colorado to see their dying mother.”

These same training materials warn franchisees that they must not deal with sellers who are “subject to a guardianship or has a mental capacity that is diminished to the point that the person does not understand the value of the property,” but Propublica’s investigation discovered “a pattern of disregard” for this rule. For example, there was the 2020 incident in which a 78-year-old Atlanta man sold his house to a Homevestors franchisee for half its sale price. The seller was later shown to be “unable to write a sentence or name the year, season, date or month.”

The company tried to pin the blame for all this on bad eggs among its franchisees. But Propublica found that some of the company’s most egregious offenders were celebrated and tolerated before and after they were convicted of felonies related to their conduct on behalf of the company. For example, Hi-Land Properties is a five-time winner of Homevestors’ National Franchise of the Year prize. The owner was praised by the CEO as “loyal, hardworking franchisee who has well represented our national brand, best practices and values.”

This same franchisee had “filed two dozen breach of contract lawsuits since 2016 and clouded titles on more than 300 properties by recording notices of a sales contract.” Hi-Land “sued an elderly man so incapacitated by illness he couldn’t leave his house.”

Another franchisee, Patriot Holdings, uses the courts aggressively to stop families of vulnerable people from canceling deals their relatives signed. Patriot Holdings’ co-owner, Cory Evans, eventually pleaded guilty to to two felonies, attempted grand theft of real property. He had to drop his lawsuits against buyers, and make restitution.

According to Homevestors’ internal policies, Patriot’s franchise should have been canceled. But Homevestors allowed Patriot to stay in business after Cory Evans took his name off the business, leaving his brothers and other partners to run it. Nominally, Cory Evans was out of the picture, but well after that date, internal Homevestors included Evans in an award it gave to Patriot, commemorating its sales (Homevestors claims this was an error).

Propublica’s reporters sought comment from Homevestors and its franchisees about this story. The company hired “a former FBI spokesperson who specializes in ‘crisis and special situations’ and ‘reputation management’ and funnelled future questions through him.”

Internally, company leadership scrambled to control the news. The company convened a webinar in April with all 1,150 franchisees to lay out its strategy. Company CEO David Hicks explained the company’s plan to “bury” the Propublica article with “‘strategic ad buys on social and web pages’ and ‘SEO content to minimize visibility.’”

https://www.propublica.org/article/homevestors-aims-to-bury-propublica-reporting

Franchisees were warned not to click links to the story because they “might improve its internet search ranking.”

Even as the company sought to “bury” the story and stonewalled Propublica, they cleaned house, instituting new procedures and taking action against franchisees identified in Propublica’s article. “Clouding titles” is now prohibited. Suing sellers for breach of contract is “discouraged.” Deals with seniors “should always involve family, attorneys or other guardians.”

During the webinar, franchisees “pushed back on the changes, claiming they could hurt business.”

If you’ve had experience with hard-sell house-flippers, Propublica wants to know: “If you’ve had experience with a company or buyer promising fast cash for homes, our reporting team wants to hear about it.”

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A Depression-era photo of a dour widow standing in front of a dilapidated cabin. Next to her is Ug, the caveman mascot for Homevestors, smiling and pointing at her. Behind her is a 'We buy ugly houses' sign.

Image: Homevestors https://www.homevestors.com/

Fair use: https://www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property

[gilbirda]

Personal coach Red Hood

This one goes for @impyssadobsessions, for giving ideas and encouraging me to write this!

Part 1 || Part 2 - Part 4

-----

It was supposed to be your pretty standard run-of-the-mill bank robbery with hostage situation. He had it under control, and told the others that if they dared swing in and “help him out” he would shoot on sight. Given that there were civilians involved, and they weren’t quite sure if he was serious or not — and Oracle confirmed that everything seemed okay via the security cameras — he was left alone tying up the robbers in peace.

That was until a hostage made the stupid mistake to be brave, or a fucking idiot if you ask Jason, and tried to rush one of the guys before Jason had a chance to subdue him.

Who exactly shot first, he couldn’t be sure; but in the following chaos and screams Jason had to prioritize making sure that no one innocent was caught in the crossfire, which gave the perps the chance to escape.

With a sigh, he connected back to comms. “So… “

“They escaped, right?” Barbara’s tone was flat. Which was code that she was laughing at him.

“Yeah…”

“And you want me to alert the others.”

He sighed again, doing a final sweep just in case another hostage got funny ideas. “Yeah…”

Barbara hummed in his ears. It wasn’t a good sign. “Maybe that’s not needed.” And before he could ask what she meant, she added: “Your stalker is already on the move.”

Jason felt cold just before he was flooded with anger. Of all the stupid things! She had put herself in harm's way so many times and now she pulled something like this? Did she have a deathwish?

He rushed outside to prevent a very probable murder to find —

“Hi!” She said again, a giant smile on her face, waving one hand. “I saw them escape so I jumped in, I hope you don’t mind.” She started talking at a high speed. “So I was following you but couldn’t get inside in time and when the lockdown happened I just thought maybe you’d need backup or something? There were some guys on the rooftop but—”

“What the hell were you thinking?” He growled, maybe louder than he intended.

She blinked and got quiet. Finally.

Even the usual crowd of curious civilians watching from a safe distance stopped murmuring.

“Are you that stupid!?”

Jazz blinked again. “What?

He tried to pinch his nose, but forgot he had the helmet on. He chose to rub the helmet instead.

“Do you want to die?” For some reason this amused her, which really didn’t help her case. “Stop following me around and strong-arm yourself in dangerous situations like this!”

She frowned. “But I’m fine? I can take care of myself.”

She lifted her hands to show she was still in one piece, but Jason grabbed her right arm and pulled her towards him. Her hand was bloody and her knuckles were red, probably going to bruise.

“What’s this, then?”

“That’s not even mine,” Jazz rolled her eyes, but tried to pry her hand out from his grasp. Jason didn’t let go and grabbed her left shoulder next, growling when Jazz whimpered. “Okay that was me being distracted.”

He let her go and pushed her away. “If you show your face in my territory again, woman, you’ll pray you left when you had a chance.”

He turned around and walked to the knocked out guys on the ground, not caring if Jazz — if she was still there watching him. It was better for everyone if she abandoned the idea of vigilantism, or training with him or whatever was supposed to make sense in her head.

When the police arrived, she was already gone.

---

Back to Main Archive

Back to Danny Phantom Archive

Do you like my stuff? You can support me here!

[cityof2morrow]

CDK/MoneyMAT: Cashpointe Set

Published: 9-14-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY MoneyMAT is a collection of modified objects for financial operations and storytelling in your game. The series includes functional cash clutter, as well as tools for banking, loans, and investments. #CO2MONEYMAT This is a crossover with the #CO2CDKSERIES. Cubic Dynamics by John B. Cube and Marcel Dusims forged the future with furnishings that were minimalist in design and maximalist in erudite pretension. Generations later, the company continues to produce edge-of-cutting-edge designs. Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sims 2 (EA/Maxis, 2004) by adding various currencies from the simsverse to your game – simoleons, magicoin, simoles, OMEGA, neo simoleons, simoleon sprouts, war simoleons, and more. Canon currencies and extra recolors allow you to create a color-coded banking/investment system. All items are grabbable, sellable and available in the catalog as well. Watch out for robbers!

The newly enhanced Cashpointe ATM (Honeywell, 2019; Katy76/PC-Sims, 2007) can be used for small loans, currency exchanges, and investments: (1) LOANS of §250, §500, §1K, §5K, §10K, §20K, or §30K with no payment schedule! After repaying in full, sims can take out new loans, (2) GET CASH by converting household funds to individual cash notes, coins, rolls, stacks, cards, or palettes, and (3) INVEST in virtual currencies which increase/decrease in value over time. Children can do everything except take/repay loans.

Collector’s coins can be sold and make great gifts for investors. Simoleon, Magicoin and Simoleon Sprout coins always increase in value over time while NeoSimoleons and other CryptoCoins increase AND decrease daily (sometimes they fluctuate twice in one day). DETAILS Requires Sims2 and all EPs/SPs. §1 - §30K | Buy > Electronics/Misc You need the Company Expo (Mesh Pack) set (Simmons, 2024) for TXTRs to show properly in game. ALL files in the CASHPOINTE set with “MESH” in their name are REQUIRED. Apply a recolor of your choice to cards or cryptocoin piles AFTER purchasing them from the ATM (or select directly from the catalog). Investment objects will NOT change in value while stored in a sim’s inventory – they must be placed on a surface for that effect. IMPORTANT: The individual cash notes (§1, §5, §10, §20, §50, §100, §500, and §1000) share the same GUIDs as those in Honeywell’s Money Jar (2019). The money Jar will use the notes from this set instead. Remove the originals. ITEMS Notes (§1, §5, §10, §20, §50, §100, §500, and §1000) (4-6 poly) Rolls (§1000, §2K, §5K, and §10K) (168-170 poly) Stacks (§1000, §2K, §5K, and §10K) (20-62 poly) Coin Piles (§100, §500, §1000, §5K, §10K) (660-1904 poly) Cards (§100, §500, §1000, §5K, §10K) (4 poly) Palettes (§10K, §20K, §30K) (286-710 poly) Collector Coins (§300, §500, §1000, §2K, §5K, §10K, §20K, §30K) (76-732 poly) Signs (332-376 poly) Card Shelf (9 slots) (104 poly) DOWNLOAD (choose one) CASHPOINTE OBJECTS from SFS | from MEGA RECOLORS from SFS | from MEGA MoneyMAT COLLECTION FILE from SFS | from MEGA

CREDITS Thanks: SimCrafters, Chocolate City, and Sim Shenanigans Discord communities. Testers/TXTR Help - @logansimmingwolverine @gayars @ch4rmsing @chocolatecitysim @crispsandkerosene Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik). Other Sources: Pierre, G. via Jovan, 2014); Applesee, 2023; Cgoodw, 2024; Iamsosha 2024; Kalagoglu, 2023; Olena_Skrypka, 2024; Oliveira, 2023a-b; Sam, 2024; Solsnare, 2024; Katy76/PC-Sims, 2007; D_dgjdhh, 2019/2011; THe Ninth Wave, 2019; Tvickiesims, 2019, Honeywell, 2019.

[phoebejaysims]

Mod Updates

Bubble Bath Runs Out

The bubble bath now doubles as shower gel! Your sim will use it when taking a shower. This can be edited in the tuning if you don't wish to use this feature.

Did some internal cleaning up of the code.

Download: Simblr.cc - Bubble Baths Runs Out

Social Clubs

Added 'Practice Speech' from the podium and 'Make Potion' from the Chemistry table to the list of club activities.

The ATM can now be used autonomously so you may see positive trait scoring inactive sims using it. See ITUN for details. No deposits, withdrawals or bank card details will be stolen when interacting autonomously.

The calendar no longer shows clubs that have no members.

Download: Mod The Sims - Social Clubs Mod (+ banking) - Grow Memberships, Push Activities, Make Bank Accounts and More!

Send Greeting Cards

Added tunings to control the chance of being sent greeting and birthday cards from inactive sims. Overall, it will be less frequent with a higher chance in the summer (and on birthdays).

When buying cards from the stand or opening card packs, the card pre-set will be randomised.

Card recipients no longer have the option to change the contents of the card.

Download: Mod The Sims - Send Greeting Cards

Functioning Printer (plus financial module)

Printing coupons will now return 3 coupons instead of one.

Printers can break after use and may need repairing.

Dogs can bark at printers when in use.

Hopefully fixed issue with CV causing certain sims to reset.

Download:

Enjoy!

[love-and-deepspace-wiki]

Currencies & Finances

Warning: we're about to get real nerdy in here lol. Y'all about to see firsthand why earned a math degree, because "Ooooo numbers!!!". So, no yawning in my class 🧐🧐🧐 But also, I promise it's not boring! Pls stay 🙏😭🥹

Linkon City has quite a few types of currencies, so let's go over them all real quick. For this post, I'm only covering traditional currencies. No chocolates or MeowCo tokens today. But there's a bonus outlier I'll cover at the end~

Standard Currencies:

Gold: (pictured left)

Linkon City's standard currency

Diamonds: (pictured center)

Linkon City's rare currency. Used to buy more treasured items

Crystals: (pictured right)

Linkon City's very rare currency. To quote their description, "used to fuel Linkon City shopping sprees"

Currency Symbol:

The only unique currency symbol I've seen is the one used on Lumiere's "Wanted" poster (top). But elsewhere in Linkon City, they use the "$" symbol (bottom). So, I'll be using "$" unless I learn otherwise.

Exchange Rates:

From this point on, I'll use LNK as my stand-in currency code. Based on the Top Up options, we can get a general idea of how LNK correlates with USD:

And thankfully, the game provides this handy conversion for us:

So we know that 1 LNK Diamond = 1 LNK Crystal.

Now, (rubs hands together) let's get needlessly nerdy about it.

Exchange Rate Calculation:

So, the formula to calculate an indirect quote is: (base currency amount) × (exchange rate) = (foreign currency amount)

Our first step is to calculate the exchange rate. So we'll reorganize our formula for that result:

(base currency amount) ÷ (foreign currency amount) = (exchange rate)

Since the Top Up menu uses a bundled system, it means we have to calculate the individual exchange rates for each bundle. Then, we calculate the average of those exchange rates for the overall exchange rate we want. I include the additional LNK Diamonds you receive for your first Top Up for simplicity, written as "X LNK × 2":

$0.99 USD ÷ (60 LNK × 2) = 0.00825

$4.99 USD ÷ (300 LNK × 2) = 0.0083166667

$6.99 USD ÷ (450 LNK x 2) = 0.0077666667

$14.99 USD ÷ (980 LNK × 2) = 0.0076479592

$29.99 USD ÷ (1980 LNK × 2) = 0.0075732323

$49.99 USD ÷ (3280 LNK × 2) = 0.0076204268

$99.99 USD ÷ (6480 LNK × 2) = 0.0077152778

Adding up all of the individual exchange rates gives us 0.0548902295. And, after dividing that total by 7 to find the average, we get the overall exchange rate for USD to LNK: 0.0078414614

Exchange Rate Table:

$1.00 USD = $0.01 LNK

$10.00 USD = $0.08 LNK

$100.00 USD = $0.78 LNK

$1000.00 USD = $7.84 LNK

Bonus Currency - Debit/Credit Card?

The only other payment option I've seen in-game is when the protaganist goes to the Protocore auction with Sylus at Solon Hotel. He gives her his card:

Idk if "The ACME" is a bank or something. But we can glean the following details:

Card number: 6174 71026

Expiration Date: June 2051

Unless he wants my next shopping spree to be on his dime, Sylus needs to protect his details a little better 🤣

[hana-no-seiiki]

YANDERE ! BATFAM W/ MILES MORALES (BUT GENDER NEUTRAL) ! READER

Just an outline for a potential full on fic to come.

First of all, I’d like to put credit where credit is due and thank Kden (from Quotev) for creating Straight Venomous and inspiring me to start this. And thank you firefly-graphics and galacticgrafitti for the dividers.

Damian and Reader are of legal age in this fic but there will still be an age gap between them and Bruce (I mean he literally fathered the former so it can’t be helped)

This is my first fic in Tumblr so forgive me if it isn’t up to par for quality and format wise as I’m still learning.

CW/TW: Reader is POC coded as in Latino/Black like Miles although you can kinda have to squint since it’s only from the dialogue with their mother in future chapters. Reader is described to have gained “muscles” and height. Spoilers for Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. NO NSFW YET BUT WILL COME IN LATER CHAPTERS.

current status: unedited

summary: damian meets and gets attracted to wrinkly brained reader. mostly follows the into the spiderverse plot.

Reply if you’d like to be added to this series’s taglist.

[ PART TWO ] [ PART THREE ]

WHAT’S UP DANGER (PART ONE)

“If I sound lazy just ignore my tone, cause I’m always gonna answer when you call my phone

like what’s up danger?”

You most likely met Damian first.

He was astonished by how much of a failure you were. Really, he wouldn’t have noticed you in the first place if you weren’t such a catastrophe. He knew you only got to his school via raffle but even the worst students here didn’t get complete zeroes on all their scores.

He was probably assigned to be your tutor. Which you remember vehemently refusing. After all you wanted to be expunged from this god awful preppy school filled with elites of all kinds. But nope — you were forced to get along with the worst of them all. Damian Wayne. Perhaps you’ve gone too far and should have settled for a 20 or something on that paper instead . . . or all those quizzes and assignments you purposely got zeroes on.

In any case you now had the Damian Wayne inside your house (if you even call it that) and a paper to write about your ambitions or whatever.

You were basically complete opposites. He was rich, you were below average if not just straight up poor. You even bet he was a daddy’s boy or some shit. (But who were you to judge when your first day at the school literally consisted of your father forcing you to say you love him . . . with the loudest speakers known to man!) He was probably into classical music and while you did enjoy the genre as well you were more of a hip-hop, trap, pop music sorta guy. He was known as a snob that didn’t take bullshit from anyone while you were literally the definition of a pushover.

But surprisingly you two clicked really well. It started with you off-handedly correcting one of his mistakes. It wasn’t supposed to reach his ears really. But the realization that you, the bottom feeder of all bottom feeders corrected him flustered him entirely. That moment stuck within his head for the entire week that it even slipped into his vigilante activities.

Like, after single-handedly decimating a group of people trying to rob a bank he just yells, “How the hell did I get that wrong?!” while that one dude pretending to be unconscious in the background so he wouldn’t get beaten up harder just stares at him in confusion and shock.

After he cools down a bit, he starts wondering how you got it right. He looks into your scores and notices everything before his intervention were literally straight zeroes. Not just in the classes you two shared. It was either you were extremely (un)lucky or . . . you knew every answer from the start.

So he starts taunting you. Forcing you to display your prowess. Calling you an idiot, poor, nobody when you didn’t relent to his provocation.

And so you did. You showed him that you really didn’t need help from him. That you were a genius in your own right. Capable of doing advanced arithmetics within seconds in your head. You were fascinating to him.

And maybe the fact that only he got to know this side of you — not your classmates or teachers, even your parents now that you’ve secured a dorm room close to him (courtesy of the Wayne name) — knew about your intelligence inflated his ego. If only you didn’t have a roommate that bothered you two once in a while. He was quite the annoyance with how the music in his headphones could be heard even across the room. Like seriously, how was the boy not deaf yet?

It was around that time you got your powers.

You began avoiding him (and everyone really) but mostly him (he’d convinced himself). You’d only come to his desk once in a while to tell him that you weren’t available for tutoring that day, or even that entire week. Not to mention your sudden growth in height and muscles. Were you going through . . . puberty? No wait— you’re older than him by a year! Perhaps you were a late bloomer? You probably just started a gym membership. But he didn’t spot you in any gyms throughout Gotham out on his patrol. Not even at your room at night…

That and your already sus scores and attitude prompted him to instigate an entire investigation.

Who was [Y/N] [L/N]?

He knew some facts about you just from your room, the fact that you enjoyed music of all sorts and art, more specifically the graphic - pop look. He even started noticing your name-tags that you’d put everywhere both in his civilian and vigilante life. Seriously, how were you able to put it atop this streetlamp of all places?

Then he started noticing how alike you two actually are. Aside from enjoying art and all, you were incredibly rebellious. You had a relationship with your dad that could only remind him of his with Bruce. He knew you probably get reprimanded for all the vandalism you’ve gotten up to all the time. A small smile graced his lips at the thought.

However this only made him question your avoidance even more. So he decided to take a step further and trail you as robin (even harder).

You were getting really close with this Gwen girl in class. He quipped in his head as he noticed you two walking together.

Were you . . . going to the gym to impress her?

You didn’t seem like the type to change yourself for the sake of others. Despite your downtrodden attitude about academics. He can see the hidden potential, that confidence he wanted out for him to witness and bask in. He wanted to see all sides of you he realized.

He wanted to be the only one who did.

But just as he was about to follow you two into a dark alleyway he gets called by Dick of all people to investigate something else. Something about a man trying to cross realities and universes? Pah, as if that was more important than this. Nightwing can handle himself. He couldn’t have his competence questioned though. So with a reluctant sigh, he takes off into the night sky. Wondering what the pair he followed could be doing.

[ PART TWO ] [ PART THREE ]

[woonhakist]

BLOXIAN BANTER

SYNOPSIS — jungwon’s dust-collecting piggy bank screams at him to find a roblox sugar daddy, which opens up a detour-filled robux brick road leading you to niki’s heart

GENRE — social media au, crack, romance-y, fluff-ish, streamers/youtubers (mainly roblox) au, fun for (almost) everyone, strangers to (unserious) frenemies to lovers, slow burn

PAIRING — gamer!niki x fem!reader

CHARACTERS — mainly y/n + enhypen, may feature other idols in select chapters

WARNINGS — DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS SERIES IF YOU ARE 20+, cursing, sexual jokes (no smut), death jokes, mostly crack, not SUPER focused on the romance (but it is definitely present), jakehoon + jaywon tendencies for comedic purposes, mostly/entirely on twitter bcuz i couldn’t find a messaging app i was satisfied with, ignore time stamps and all that, characters are works of fiction NOT an accurate representation of the people used (more to be added in upcoming chapters)

TAGLIST — (OPEN) send an ask, dm, comment, etc!

STATUS — discontinued

NOTES — my first smau/work ever WOW! i decided not to use any random pinterest girl pics for y/n because i felt like it kind of brings you out of the story in a way? idk maybe it’s just me that thinks that? other than that, though, if you want to you can lmk what you think abt this smau in asks, comments, dms, etc!

PROFILES (1) | PROFILES (2)

CHAPTERS

1. piggy bank trauma

2. papa jay

3. 2023 jingo card

4. #### you heeseung

5. user ju1cyf4t455

6. walmart cheeseballs > target cheeseballs

7. e-kitten hunting season

8. the great cheeseball debacle

9. notice me oppa

10. #LONGLIVEJAYLICIOUS2002

11. a kidney and 2 bucks

12. crib came with a gate and a code

13. yabba dabba doo

more l8er

start — 6/8/23

end — n/a

© woonhakist 2023

[thesiltverses]

Hello! Have you heard black sheep by poor man’s poison? It’s so carpenter and Faulkner coded I could swear you had that song in mind when you wrote it. It was the first song I added to my silt verses playlist when I made it

I have not heard either of the songs you recommended (or the bands!) but I just checked them both out this morning after spending a month glued to sound design, and I enjoyed them a lot, so thank you!

Poor Man's Poison reminded me a lot of The Devil Makes Three, this sort of straight-faced Weird West music, but I really liked Rabbitology's Bog Bodies, which took me back to Seamus Heaney's bog poems, which were very much an influence on the show as a whole.

Quick, let's have a bog poem:

BOG QUEEN I lay waiting between turf-face and demesne wall, between heathery levels and glass-toothed stone.

My body was braille for the creeping influences: dawn suns groped over my head and cooled at my feet,

through my fabrics and skins the seeps of winter digested me, the illiterate roots

pondered and died in the cavings of stomach and socket. I lay waiting

on the gravel bottom, my brain darkening, a jar of spawn fermenting underground

dreams of Baltic amber. Bruised berries under my nails, the vital hoard reducing in the crock of the pelvis.

My diadem grew carious, gemstones dropped in the peat floe like the bearings of history.

My sash was a black glacier wrinkling, dyed weaves and phoenician stitchwork retted on my breasts’

soft moraines. I knew winter cold like the nuzzle of fjords at my thighs—

the soaked fledge, the heavy swaddle of hides. My skull hibernated in the wet nest of my hair.

Which they robbed. I was barbered and stripped by a turfcutter’s spade

who veiled me again and packed coomb softly between the stone jambs at my head and my feet.

Till a peer’s wife bribed him. The plait of my hair, a slimy birth-cord of bog, had been cut

and I rose from the dark, hacked bone, skull-ware, frayed stitches, tufts, small gleams on the bank.

[talonabraxas]

Orion's belt aligned with the Giza pyramids. Al Nitak points to the Great Pyramid. The gods left many signs using mathematics and astronomy, especially those signs built into the Great Pyramid.

Lions Gate Portal 8/8

August 8th, known as the Lions Gate, has been revered for several thousand years as the date that marks the peak of an influx of high-frequency energy onto planet Earth from the star Sirius, which is in its closest proximity to earth from July 26th through August 12th – the full period of the Lions Gate opening or Galactic New Year. Second in brightness only to the sun, to Ancient Egyptians this star was revered as their “Spiritual Sun” and referred to as Auset’s star Sopdet – Spdt, meaning “she who is sharp.”

The Lions Gate is the annual season when Spdt comes into her most pristine alignment with Re [the Sun], Geb [the Earth], and Sah – the Hunter constellation identified with ancient Egypt’s King Ausar – called Orion in Greek. During this cosmic portal, Sopdet – the spiritual Sun – emits an ancient activating energy so powerful as to cause the annual inundation which has sustained Nile River Valley communities over several millennia, whilst spurring the collective ascension of human consciousness throughout earth – the land or house of Geb/Keb. As God Djehuti proclaimed, “If the truth must be told, this land is indeed THE TEMPLE OF THE WORLD…” The August 8th peak of the Lions Gate is when Sopdet is said to perfectly align with the shaft from Queen Auset’s Chamber within the Great Pyramid of Giza, in concert with that from King Ausar’s Chamber aligning with Alnitak, one of the three stars of the Hunter constellation’s belt. Known as the “3 Wise Men” or the “3 Sisters,” these three stars form the cosmic blueprint from which the complex known as the Pyramids of Giza was built.

“As above, so below… As within, so without” are codes which remain key to Kemet’s ancient Mystery System. Thus, the Nile River represents the Milky Way (called Maziwa Mkuu in Kiswahili, meaning ‘great milk’) on earth ‘below’ as in heaven ‘above’. Two lions are said to hold open this magnificent time-space portal, one of which is represented by the Great Sphinx whose figure is an earthly representation of the constellation of Leo and a key piece of the puzzle of relationships within the Milky Way galaxy ‘above & below’. Lying on the west bank of the Nile river, the Great Sphinx is poised with its tail to the west [where the sun exits] as it faces directly east towards the sun’s reentry. The Lions Gate [7/26 – 8/12] opens within the astrological season of Leo, adding to the influx of regal energy from the alignment between Earth and the Universe’s Galactic Center, which reaches its peak on 8/8 over African soil. It is a powerful reminder of Heaven-on-Earth’s potency, symbolized ‘within & without’ through the quintessential Divine Love that exists between cosmic Hunter Ausar and his earthly Gatherer, Throne Queen, and Spiritual Sun – Auset.

According to the mythology of Ausar-Auset, in a jealous bid to usurp their Heaven-on-Earth throne, Set murders King Ausar, dismembering his body into 14 parts and scattering them in the wilderness [African Diaspora] so as to prevent his resurrection and return. Set the antagonist is god of chaos, foreign oppressors, violence, perversion, illness, and the desert who caused Egypt to be widowed of the gods and humanity to be trapped in his false predatory & parasitic matrix. After widow Auset searches the wilderness and manages to retrieve and mummify only 13 of her husband’s mutilated body parts, it is up to Heru, her posthumously/immaculately-conceived son with King Ausar, to become the Warrior who avenges his father’s fate and restores divine order to the kingdom by defeating Set…

Pyramid texts speak of Heru as the Great Lion: “Horus who comes forth from the acacia to whom it was commanded: ‘Beware of the lion’. May he come forth to whom it was commanded: ‘Beware of the lion’.” [Pyramid Text 436a-b]

Africa’s Acacia tree, which is sacred to goddess Auset, has long been associated with ancient mysteries including the secrets to life, death, healing, sustenance, and resurrection – hence their organic ties to matriarchal goddesses. Linked to the Akashic Records, the astral ancestral library where everything that has or will ever occur is recorded, the Acacia trees in Heliopolis were thought to have been the birthplace of the very first deities. Heliopolis (called On in Lower Egypt), was the ancient worship center of sun-god Re whose celestial boat was made of Acacia wood in its hind parts (palm wood in its fore-parts). The mythologies of Ausar-Auset are Heliopolitan in their derivation and orientation, e.g. the reference to Ausar as ‘the one in the tree… the solitary one in the acacia.’ This saying was based on the version of their story in which Auset releases her husband’s body from a pillar in Byblos [a prophecy relating to the scripted bible?] that had been fashioned out of the tree which enclosed the coffin King Ausar had been tricked into entering as Set’s ploy to usurp/colonize Egypt’s throne. Symbolizing the immortality of the soul in Freemasonry, the thorny acacia tree otherwise represents Ausar’s backbone, depicted as the Djed Pillar in this particular mythological account.

Trees act as resurrection portals and/or gateways between worlds in ancient Egyptian Mysteries, such as the Sycamores (associated with goddesses Nut & Hathor) through which Re rises as the Sun each day from the east: “I know the two sycamores of turquoise between which Re comes forth, when he passes over the supports of Shu to the gate of the lord of the east from which Re comes forth” [Book of the Dead: Ch. 109]. Auset & Nepthys were regarded similarly as “the two Acacias.” Thus, these Mother Trees act as do the two lions which hold open the portal for the “Spiritual Sun” Sopdet to rise as the consort of Sah during the Lions Gate season, in order to usher forth the blessings of the Galactic New Year with the annual inundation of the Nile River. Their child, hawk god Heru-Sopdu is referred to as “Lord of the East,” thus presaging mythologies surrounding the Ausar-Auset-Heru trinity as archetypal personifications of key spiritual motifs that connect us organically to our higher selves… “As above, so below.”

“As within, so without” is a principle that plays out in the eternal relationship that exists between Ausar-Auset, their love representing a Heaven-on-Earth divine order, which is interrupted by the chaos that Set’s predatory & parasitic rule brings, i.e. until Heru is able to successfully accomplish his Hero’s Journey and restore Ma’at/UbuNtu… unity-consciousness. For Africa, the earthly source and staging of these love-as-salvation narratives, Set is representative of a false matrix built on slavery, (neo)colonialism, apartheid, misogyny, misogynoir, etc. – controlling foreign narratives which have in-formed external elite-run global systems & misled most of humanity into profound states of isolation, alienation, disconnection, and disorientation from organic & natal bonds. Heru – “[the Lion] who comes forth from the acacia…” [Pyramid Text 436a-b] – thus has his work cut out for him.

Again, in this case the acacia reference represents a fascinating organic matriarchal portal between worlds for Heru as a human prototype resident in each of those who do not entertain predatory or parasitic relationships of dysfunctional dependency [read “slavery… apartheid… (neo)colonialism… misogyny… misogynoir…”], but strategically translated into self-referential Europatriarchal scripture as mankind’s singular “savior” [Jesus]. Deep inside Africa – the regal lion‘s natal home – the acacia tree itself has a characteristic dome-shaped canopy due to the way indigenous giraffes graze, which they have to do carefully because the acacia senses this feeding activity and releases tannin, a defensive poison that can kill from the overgrazing of its leaves. The acacia then emits ethylene on the wind, a chemical that alerts other acacia trees to preemptively defend themselves against “predators” by producing tannin also. DMT, a hallucinogen associated with spiritual experiences, is present in various species of the tree such as the Acacia Nilotica.

The Lions Gate represents so much to so many, especially during this dramatic period of humanity’s ascension in 2020 (Gregorian timeline). Feline power, highly revered in Kemet, is front and center as the astrological symbol for Leo and also as the identity of the African goddess annointed as “Opener of Heaven’s Door.” Among her other titles, Goddess Seshat – “Foremost of the per-Ankh” – is also known as the “Panther Goddess” and “She of Seven Points” in reference to her highly emblematic dress and crown, respectively. Appropriated by Europatriarchs in their design of Lady Liberty following America’s post-Civil War end of slavery, Seshat‘s 7-pointed crown has symbolically countered the racist & misogynistic tendencies of false 3D matrix systems. Seshat‘s traditional panther-skin dress returns our consciousness to humanity’s African source and the need to descramble & purge predatory Victorian-era matrix codes which, during the receding Piscean era, morphed into parasitic neo-colonial arrangements, hijacking the human spirit and its potential. These & other ancient unity-conscious codes [UbuNtu] are key to human ascension and Heaven-on-Earth reparations in the dawning age of Ma’at... “Return, return, O Shulamite; return that we may look upon thee…” [SoS 6:13] “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” [Rev. 3:11] Blessed Be…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Perez and Adam Rawnsley at Rolling Stone:

THE CONSULTING FIRM led by Leonard Leo, the architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, has worked for billionaire Charles Koch’s political advocacy network and a dark-money group that is currently arguing a Supreme Court case designed to preempt a wealth tax, according to documents obtained by Rolling Stone. The firm even worked to promote a book by Donald Trump cronies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. Leo has played a central role in shifting the high court and its decisions far to the right. As former President Donald Trump’s judicial adviser, Leo helped select three of the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices. He also leads a dark-money network that boosted their confirmations and helps determine what cases the justices hear and shape their rulings. The Supreme Court connection has paid off for Leo — big time. In 2021, he was gifted control of a $1.6 billion political advocacy slush fund. Over the past decade, Leo’s dark money network has plowed more than $100 million into his for-profit consulting firm, CRC Advisors. 

Leo co-chairs the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers network. He is also the chairman of CRC. Like many consulting firms, CRC does not publicly disclose its clients. However, several of the firm’s clients were named in resumes that applicants submitted to an online jobs bank hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which accidentally left the files exposed online. One CRC employee’s 2024 resume says his clients include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a dark-money group arguing a case before the Supreme Court this term that is designed to slam the door shut on a federal wealth tax. Experts say the case could upend the nation’s tax code.  “In the last Congress, legislation to establish a wealth tax was introduced in both the House and the Senate,” CEI wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court, adding that justices should act now to “head off a major constitutional clash down the line.” During oral arguments in December, Justice Samuel Alito presented a hypothetical where “somebody graduates from school and starts up a little business in his garage, and 20 years later, 30 years later, the person is a billionaire,” and asked whether the government “can Congress tax all of that.” According to the CRC employee’s 2024 resume, Leo’s firm has also worked for the Koch network’s political advocacy arm, Americans for Prosperity. AFP’s super PAC spent more than $40 million supporting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s failed Republican primary campaign against Trump this election cycle. AFP’s charitable arm has supported a case at the Supreme Court this term pushing justices to block the government from influencing content moderation by social media platforms.

Rolling Stone exposes radical right-wing SCOTUS puppetmaster Leonard Leo's consulting firm CRC Advisors, whose clients were leaked online.