#at the very least you have to interview people

[ms-demeanor]

On insurance: I still live with my parents and don't know a lot yet about the sorts of things adults usually have to spend money on. I've always been skeptical of things like insurance and credit cards because it seems to me they wouldn't be selling that if they didn't expect to make money from it. I talked to my cousin a while ago about credit cards and basically came to the conclusion that they do that because they're betting on the customer getting sloppy and letting their debts stack up, and the way you beat that and get money from credit card companies is just by being careful.

I'm a little more confused about insurance though because it seems much more straightforwardly like a gamble they will simply not take if it won't pay off for them. Like, you don't go to a casino because every game they play at a casino is one they've done the math on and have determined that statistically most people will lose money on most of the time. Is insurance not kinda the same? Where they estimate the risk and then charge you an amount calculated to make sure it probably won't be worth it for you?

I know if you have a car you legally need car insurance so everyone knows you can pay for another car if you crash into someone, and I gather that here in the US at least health insurance companies have some kinda deal with hospitals so that the prices go down or something, and there's a reason I don't fully understand why not having health insurance is Really Bad. But we get to pet insurance, or like when I buy a concert ticket and it offers ticket insurance in case I can't make it to the show, and surely if they thought they were gonna lose money on that they just wouldn't sell it, right? Or they'd raise the price of it until it became worth the risk that something bad actually will happen? Wouldn't it only be worth it to buy insurance if you know something the insurance company doesn't?

So the deal is that most people don't use their insurance much, and often insurance companies will incentivize doing things that will make you use your insurance less.

So, for example, you can get a discount on car insurance if you have multiple cars because people who insure multiple cars are more likely to be responsible drivers (the ability to pay for multiple cars stands in as a representation of responsibility here). The longer you go without an accident, the lower your premiums get because that means that you are not costing your insurance company anything but you are paying into the system. The car insurance company's goal is to have the most responsible, safest drivers who never get into car accidents because they can predict (roughly) how much they're going to have to pay out to their customers and they want the number they pay out to be lower than what's paid in. So they try to discourage irresponsible drivers by raising their rates and encourage responsible drivers by giving them discounts.

Health insurance companies often do the same thing: I recently got a gift card from my health insurance company because I had a visit from a nurse who interviewed me about my overall health and made sure I had stable blood pressure and access to medications. It is literally cheaper for my insurance company to give me a $100 giftcard and hire a nurse to visit me than it is for me to go to my doctor's office a couple of times, so they try to make sure that their customers are getting preventative care and are seeing inexpensive medical professionals regularly so that they don't have to suddenly see very expensive professionals after a long time without care.

Insurance in the US has many, many, many problems and should be replaced with socialized healthcare for a huge number of reasons but right now, because it is an insurance-based system, you need to have insurance.

We're going to use Large Bastard as an example.

Large Bastard had insurance when he had his heart attack and when he needed multiple organs transplanted. He didn't *want* to be paying for insurance, because he thought he was healthy enough to get by, but I insisted. His premium is four hundred dollars a month, and his out of pocket maximum is eight thousand dollars a year. That means that every year, he pays about $5000 whether he uses his insurance or not, and if he DOES need to use the insurance, he pays the first $8k worth of care, so every year his insurance has the possibility of costing him thirteen thousand dollars.

The bill for his bypass surgery was a quarter million dollars.

The bill for his transplant was over one and a half million dollars.

His medication each month is around six hundred dollars. He needs to have multiple biopsies - which are surgeries - each year, and each one costs about twenty thousand dollars.

Without health insurance, he would very likely be dead, or we would be *even more* incapable of paying for his healthcare than we are right now. He almost ditched his insurance because he was a healthy-seeming 40-year-old and he didn't think he'd get sick. And then he proceeded to be the sickest human being I've ever known personally who did not actually die.

Health insurance costs a lot of money. It costs less money for people who are young and who are expected to be healthy. But the thing is, everybody pays into health insurance, and very, very few people end up using as much money for their medical expenses as Large Bastard did. There are a few thousand transplants in the US ever year, but there are hundreds of millions of people paying for insurance.

This ends up balancing out (sort of) so that people who pay for insurance get a much lower cost on care if they need it, hospitals get paid for the care they provide, and the insurance company makes enough money to continue to exist. Part of the reason that people don't like this scheme is because "insurance company" could feasibly be replaced by "government" and it would cost less and provide a better standard of care, but again, with things as they are now, you need to have insurance. Insurance companies are large entities that are able to negotiate down costs with the providers they work with, you are not. If you get hit by a car you may be able to get your medical bills significantly reduced through a number of means, but you're very unlikely to get your bills lower than the cost of insurance and a copay.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, which is flawed but which did a LOT of good, medical insurance companies cannot refuse to treat you because of preexisting conditions and also cannot jack up your premiums to intolerable rates - since Large Bastard got sick, he has had the standard price increases you'd expect from aging, but nothing like the gouging you might expect from an insurance company deciding you're not worth it.

Pet insurance works on the same model. Millions of people pay for the insurance, thousands of people end up needing it, a few hundred end up needing a LOT of it, and the insurance companies are able to make more money than they hand out, so they continue to exist. This is part of why it's less expensive to get pet insurance for younger animals - people who sign up puppies and kittens are likely to be paying for a very long time and are likely to provide a lot of preventative care for their animals, so they're a good bet for the insurer. Animals signed up when they are older are more likely to have health problems (and pet insurance CAN turn animals away for preexisting conditions) and are going to cost the insurance companies more, so they cost more to enroll (and animals over a certain age or with certain conditions may be denied entirely).

This weighing risk/reward is called actuarial science, and the insurance industry is built on it.

But yeah it's kind of betting. The insurance company says "I'll insure ten thousand dogs and I'm going to bet that only a hundred of them will need surgery at some point in the next year" and if they're correct, they make money and the dogs who need surgery get their surgery paid for out of the premiums from the nine thousand nine hundred dogs who didn't need surgery.

Your assessment of credit is correct: credit card companies expect that you will end up carrying a balance, and that balance will accrue interest, and the interest is how they make the money.

And it is EASY to fuck up financially as an adult. REALLY EASY. But you are still likely to need a good credit score so you will need a credit history. That means that the correct way to use a credit card is to have a card, but not carry a balance.

To do this, never buy anything on the card that you can't afford. In order to avoid needing the card for emergencies, start an emergency fund that is at least 3 months of your total pay *before* you get a credit card. That seems like a *lot* of savings to have, but from the perspective of someone who has had plenty of mess-ups, it's a lot easier to build up a $10k emergency fund than it is to pay off a $10k credit card debt.

If you don't understand how interest works on credit cards, or why a 10k savings is different than a 10k debt, here are some examples working with $10k of debt, 23% interest (an average-ish rate for people with average credit), and various payments.

With that debt and that interest, here's how much it costs and how long it would take to pay off with $200 as the monthly payment:

Fourteen years, and it would cost you about twenty four thousand dollars in interest, for a total amount paid of about thirty four thousand dollars.

To save $10k at $200 a month would take four years and two months.

Here's the same debt at $300 a month:

4.5 Years and it costs about six grand (again, just in interest - sixteen thousand dollars total). Saving ten thousand dollars at three hundred dollars a month would take just under three years.

Here's the same debt at $400 a month:

3 years, about $4000 dollars (fourteen thousand dollars total). Saving ten thousand dollars at $400 a month takes just over two years.

The thing is, with all of these models you're going to end up paying one way or another. Insurance vs out of pocket is you weighing the risk of losing a fair amount of money by signing up but not using the system, or potentially losing a catastrophic amount of money by not signing up.

For credit cards they really only work if you know you're never going to need them for an emergency, because an emergency is what you're not going to be able to pay off right away. I didn't have an emergency fund when Large Bastard had his heart attack and needed surgery, or when we moved between states suddenly, or when we moved between states suddenly AGAIN and needed to pay storage costs, or when Large Bastard needed a transplant, or when Tiny Bastard got in a fight with my MiL's dog, and the fact that I didn't have an emergency fund is still costing me a lot of money.

So, young folks out there: what's the takeaway?

Get insurance. Get the best deal possible, which usually ends up being the one you sign up for early. You may think you can let it ride without insurance, but man in the six months between when I graduate college (and lost my school insurance) and when care kicked in after 90 days at my job I got electrocuted and needed to go to the ER. If that hadn't been a worker's comp payout I would have had thousands of dollars in bills. Something could happen. You could break your leg, you could get hit by a car, you could suddenly find out that you actually have heart disease at twenty, you could develop cancer. Have insurance, you need insurance. You legally need car insurance in the US, and you financially need health insurance. If you have a pet, I think it's a good idea for them to have pet insurance.

Credit cards are not for emergencies, they are not for fun, they are not for buying things that are just ever so slightly out of your budget, they are for taking advantage of the credit card company and managing to get by in a system that demands you have a credit score. ONLY put purchases on your credit card that you already have cash for. Before you get a credit card, build up an emergency savings so that you aren't tempted to put emergency charges on your card.

If you DO end up with an interest-bearing debt, pay it off as fast as possible because letting it linger costs you a LOT of money in the long run.

Stay the fuck away from tobacco and nicotine products they are fucking terrible for you, they are fucking expensive, and they are not worth it put the vapes down put the zyns down put the cigarettes down I will begin manifesting in your house physically i swear to fuck. Knock that shit off and put the cash that you'd be spending on nicotine into a savings account.

Take care, sorry everything sucks, I promise that in some ways it actually sucks less than it did before and we're working on trying to make it suck even less but it's taking a while.

[alphajocklover]

InstaJock: Going Viral

**Hey! This is my entry for @occamstfs Viral Transformation Challenge. Congrats on getting 2,000 followers, and thank you for beta reading this and helping me edit it. I hope I can get to 2,000 followers myself one day! For those who are new to my stories, this does connect to the plot established in my blog, but the concept is simple enough you should be able to follow along even if you don't usually read my stuff! I hope you all enjoy!**

When I talk about the InstaJock App Phenomenon – which I seem to do a lot. What is this, the 17th InstaJock related post? I need to diversify more – I usually talk about the transformation aspects and not the app itself. That’s partially because the transformation is the most interesting and hottest part, but it’s also because I haven’t been able to take a good look at the app. Even with all the protective spells and equipment I have, I can’t use a phone with InstaJock on it for very long without getting an urge to set up an account. 

Until now.

With some help from the devilishly handsome (and literally devilish) Nick, I’ve been able to get my hands on some better equipment and better explore the app. I was able to spend a couple hours on it before I needed to quit, and actually got some very interesting information, mainly about how the app works post-transformation. I had always assumed that once a user got transformed into a jock, they’d ignore the app from then on unless they wanted to change someone. I was very, very wrong, not just about that but about the purpose of the app itself. It’s not just for making people into jocks: it’s for finding the best ones.

The app generally works like any other social media app, with its members posting about their interests. It’s set up is a lot like Instagram, where pictures and videos are the main format used for posting, but what really makes it different from other social media apps is the content. You can probably guess what an app full of buff cocky jocks looks like, but I’ll confirm it for you: the app is a thirst trap paradise.

The entire app is stuffed with half naked –  and sometimes fully naked – photos of buff jocks, ones of all different kinds. If you can think up a jock related stereotype, they have a full hashtag dedicated to it. Just buff jocks playing sports, flexing and making out with other hot people, for as far. I know that doesn’t sound too different from normal social media apps, as most have a healthy NSFW side, but the posts have more in common then just showing jocks. Each and every post, every one that I saw, mentioned a Master. Some were talking about how they were getting pumped up at the gym for Master, some were talking about how they loved being jocks and were so glad Master had found them, and some were literally begging for Master to notice them, often wantonly describing how they’d debase themselves and be the sluttiest jock ever, all for him. Everyone on the app would post at least once a day about this mysterious Master. It doesn’t seem to matter if the jock is a dom, a sub, a top, a bottom, in a relationship, single, gay or even straight, all of them wanted this mysterious unnamed master – so much so they seemed to completely change personalities whenever he is mentioned. It seems instaJock has an additional side effect I didn’t know about till now: complete and utter devotion to their Master.

It took me a while, and some covert interviewing of a number of jocks in their DMs, but I think I figured out what's happening. The Jocks aren’t just posting for fun, they’re competing with each other. InstaJock isn’t really a social media app, it’s a sort of ranking app. Every day the jocks log on, post a picture of themselves with a caption somehow related to their Master, and leave likes on some of the other posts, usually the ones they find hot. If a jock’s post gets enough likes though, they get what every jock wants, what all of them are trying to get. They get to Go Viral.

Going Viral on IntsaJock isn’t like going viral on a regular app. It essentially means you’ve gotten enough likes, been reposted enough times, and have become popular enough on the site… that Master has noticed you. That's what the social media part of the app is really for. It’s just a way for Master’s jocks to organize themselves so only the hottest ones show up on his feed. If he really likes you, he’ll do more than just look too. Soon that Jock will disappear from his regular life, never to be seen again, whisked away to become a part of Master’s personal harem. This entire time the app has been about one thing: creating lovestruck sex slaves for the man who created InstaJock.

Like most actual social media apps, InstaJock jumps from one thing to another, and what's viral is always changing. But there are two tags that are always trending on InstaJock. The first, and most popular, is #JockMaster, which is only ever used by this mysterious Master when he makes a post. I’ve seen his account. He never shows his face on it, but from what little of his body that makes it into the photos, he’s… enchanting. As much as I hate to admit it, seeing just a bit of that creep almost made me drool. He usually only posts a couple times a week, as opposed to the jock who posts daily, but everything he posts goes viral on the app in moments. I’ll admit, there's something about his posts that is just… hypnotic. I almost set up an account after seeing one myself, and probably would have if Nick wasn’t there to stop me.

The other tag that's always trending is… more interesting, at least to me. It’s #MastersBoyfriend. It’s another tag used only by Master, and one he uses whenever he posts a picture of one particular member of his harem. 

Whenever he posts pictures… of my Uncle John.

I finally know who took my Uncle. I know who this Master is. I suspected it was him for a while, but now I’m sure. The man who made InstaJock and the man who turned my Uncle into a slutty buff himbo are one in the same. I finally have proof.

So now what?

**The identity of the person behind InstaJock AND the person behind my Uncle's transformation and kidnapping has finally been revealed! Been working up to this for a long time, and I'm glad to keep this story moving forward! Hope you liked it as much as I do! Thank you to @occamstfs once again for being absolutely awesome and inspiring!**

[ladykailitha]

A Love Connection Part 2

Hey guys! Did you miss me? LOL!

Just a heads up this chapter is a little angsty because we have get Steve desperate enough to try going on a game show. But have no fear, it doesn't last long.

Also in this Susan Mayfield never marries Neil Hargrove, but she moves to Hawkins because her job moved her there. So Billy and Max aren't step-siblings.

Part 1

~

Steve nearly had a panic attack right there in the car when Chrissy screamed. There wasn’t a crisis. Or at least not one that needed immediate attention. What it was, was their little drunk text about #needsmoregays at A Love Connection went viral. There were actual fucking news articles. Yeah, the first was from Pink News, but the rest? Actual fucking trades. Variety, Dateline, even The Hollywood Reporter, for fuck’s sake.

Steve was going to pass out, but he managed to get them to the school safely. Thankfully there was nothing on Chrissy profile that was her real name or where she worked. She had a work Twitter for that. And that one was only on her computer at work. She was very careful not to cross the two. So there weren’t any news people out front of the school. But her DMs were filled with requests for comments or even actual interviews.

He decided she could do whatever the hell she wanted, he wasn’t going to get involved in this. She’s the one that drunk tweeted. Yeah, it was because of something he said when he was also drunk. But still!

He also decided ignore Chrissy and Robin at lunch, choosing instead to have it in his classroom to avoid them. Because, yes, he was avoiding them thank you. He just wanted to see gay people have love, too. Last Saturday was a disaster and he wanted proof that gays like he could find love.

Luckily, it was only a nine day wonder and Chrissy’s inbox went back to normal. Or as about as normal as one can get after have a tweet go viral.

They were cruising through the school year, same as always. There were always the super smart kids and the ones that didn’t care about history. So Steve always tried to make it as fun as possible.

Gladiator days where they wrestled stuff animals. Letting the kids stab him in March. Building their own mini pyramids. His hallpass was a gladius for extra fun.

They were gearing up the for Olympic games just before Christmas when Mrs. Byers, the principal pulled him out of his class.

“Hey, Steve,” she said warmly, “you’re not in trouble.”

Steve looked over his shoulder at his class before looking back at her. “Okay...”

She smiled up at him sweetly. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to watch the AV club today after school? Mr. Jenner went home because he’s puking his guts out. Normally I would just cancel, but a couple of the kids are in the club because their parents can’t pick them up until after seven.”

He let out a long sigh. He was going to go home and get ready to go try a new bar Chrissy had found. But now, by the time he got home, showered, and ate it would be too late to go out.

“Yeah, sure, Mrs. Byers,” he said.

“Thank you so much, Steve,” Mrs. Byers said. “Mr. Jenner will be so grateful too.”

Steve nodded and then waited until she walked away to roll his eyes. Nate Jenner’s alcohol problem was the worst kept secret in the school. Even students were aware that there were times he taught drunk. Most kids didn’t know why he would be slurring his words or conked out on his desk; only that they were his ‘bad days’. But the kids who did know? They tended to shield the other kids from the worst of it.

The problem was that Mr. Jenner was two years from retirement and they didn’t want to make him lose his pension. Which Steve thought that he absolutely should. That old coot had no business teaching students like that.

He went back to teaching his class, wondering who they got to cover Mr. Jenner’s classes. He finally got through to the last class and went to the science ‘wing’ of the school. He walked up to Mr. Jenner’s class room and there was Robin coming out of it.

“Now that’s just unfair,” he moaned. “If you were watching his classes, why couldn’t you watch the AV club?”

Robin patted him on the shoulder. “Because I played the dumb blonde routine until Mrs. Byers gave up.” She waved at him as she walked away.

With a sigh, Steve went into the room and began getting out the equipment that they would need. He didn’t know much about radios and shit, but he did know what they did and didn’t need.

He had just gotten set up when the first of the kids arrived.

He wasn’t surprised to see Will come in first. With his mom as principal, all of the teachers tended to tiptoe around him as to not have any ‘misdeeds’ taken back to her, so his last class never went over. Ever.

The next couple of kids to file in were Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair. They both had Robin’s Spanish class last period, so it was no surprise to see them together.

“Sinclair!” Steve said, fist bumping the kid. “What are you doing with these nerds?” He was only joking and they all knew that. Lucas had been friends with Will, Dustin, and their other friend Mike since Dustin moved in in the second grade. Lucas loved history and was one of Steve’s brightest students so he liked to pick on him for his choice of friends.

“Sorry, Coach,” Lucas said with a grin, “if I wasn’t around they’d fall into an uncovered manhole or something.”

Steve gave Dustin their secret handshake, complete with death and everything to make up for the nerd comment. But Dustin and Will took it all in stride. They were used to the teasing.

A couple other kids came in. One spotted Steve and immediately walked back out.

“Some people just aren’t made for fun,” he lamented to the kid’s retreating back. “I’m just too cool for some people’s children. It’s not my fault.”

They all chuckled and then finally the last member of the AV club arrived. Mike Wheeler.

He sighed when he saw Steve, but didn’t turn around. He threw his backpack on the nearest desk and slumped into the chair with a heavy sigh. “Why can’t we get a teaching advisor who isn’t such a flake!”

Steve wiped his brow internally. Mike didn’t like him all the time, so the fact that he was complaining about Mr. Jenner not being there rather than Steve taking his place was a relief, honestly. It meant he wouldn’t be grumpy the whole time.

“All right everyone,” Steve said, clapping his hands together. “Dustin is in charge, Will will take notes for next time. Let’s go!”

The club went as well as could be expected considering Steve really didn’t have any idea of how all this stuff worked.

After class while Steve was waiting on the curb with the ‘Party’ as they called themselves, waiting for their parents to pick them up texting Robin and Chrissy.

“Coach...” Lucas asked, “did we ruin your plans?”

Steve felt a stab in his chest as his head shot up to look the kid in the eye. He looked down at his phone where there were dozens of messages bitching Robin out for leaving him with the AV club because she had a girlfriend and Steve didn’t even have that. Or boyfriend, which was his preference. He had dated women in the past but he liked men more. Or rather liked men full stop. That was certainly a revelation and a half.

He put his phone away with a sigh. “No, Lucas you didn’t. It was due to the irresponsible behavior of Mr. Jenner. He’s the one to blame. I was just a little annoyed at Miss Buckley because she knows this stuff better than I do, but got out of it under false pretenses.” His eyes cut to Will. “Don’t tell your mom I just said that. I don’t want Miss Buckley in trouble.”

Will held up his hands in surrender. Steve nodded.

“I love history and sports and swimming,” he began, he held up his hand to stall whatever words were going to come out that kid’s mouth. “For fun, Dustin. I like swimming for fun, which is why I didn’t include it in sports.”

Dustin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest with a pout.

“I like going out with friends and meeting new people,” Steve finished, “and of course I love teaching you kids. But I look around me and I just see someone who’s stagnated before he’s even thirty.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know why I’m telling a bunch of teenagers this. Sorry.”

Will put his hand in Steve’s. “You’ll find someone. If my mom can find someone at her age, you can find someone, too.”

Steve gave his hand a squeeze and didn’t point out that Mrs. Byers, Joyce had already had two kids and had been divorced by the time she was thirty so it really didn’t count.

Mike’s mom Karen arrived first. Mike just waved goodbye and slipped into the passenger side of her car.

Steve shook his head. Mike was trying to learn how to balance friends and liking girls and after school activities. He’d get there.

Dustin’s mom and Will’s older brother Jonathan arrived at the same time. Jonathan was Steve’s age, but Will have been born over a decade after him as a last ditch attempt to save his parents’ marriage.

Steve waved goodbye to them and then it was just Steve and Lucas.

“My mom always told me,” Lucas said softly, “that there might not be one person out there for everyone, but there is the right person out there for what you need right now. I think she was trying to explain why Mrs. Byers had two husbands, but I think it works for you, too. You’ll find you right person at the right time.”

Steve blinked down at this boy, barely thirteen. He rubbed the top of Lucas’s head. “Thanks, kid.”

Just then his dad pulled up. “Go on,” Steve murmured. “I’ll see you after the break.”

Lucas re-shouldered his backpack to just the one shoulder. He paused as if he wanted to say something else, he just shook his head.

“See you later, Coach!”

He got into his into dad’s car and immediately started talking to him about school excitedly.

Steve pulled his coat tighter around him. He wanted to be that dad, but as time wore on it was looking less and less likely. He went back inside to clean up and grab his stuff. He had a pile of assignments he had to grade. He never gave homework and never did tests. Both were pointless in his opinion, plus it meant that he less stuff to mark and grade. He based his grades off participation and being able to stay on task.

He walked through the darkened halls and felt the weight of it on his shoulders. His best friend and her girlfriend were out having the time of their lives, while he was alone in more ways than one.

He didn’t even Garfield to keep him company anymore. Yeah, he was just a stupid goldfish, but he was Steve’s.

The cold seeped into his bones and buried into his heart. He was even going to be alone for Christmas. Chrissy was taking Robin to her brother’s for the holiday. They felt bad because they both knew Steve’s parents had cut him off long ago and didn’t have anywhere else to go.

But he had encouraged Robin going. Meeting her girlfriend’s family was important. And with Chrissy and her brother, Peter both being estranged from their parents it was even more important than usual. They promised they would be back for New Year’s and Steve promised he would be fine.

He stepped onto the curb and stopped, tilting his head back, eyes closed as he fought back tears. When the first snowflake landed it made him flinch at the sudden extra coldness to his cheek. That one was followed by another and another. It was hell.

He opened his eyes and let the snow melt on his lashes, the cold mingling with his hot tears.

~

Tag List: SEVEN SLOTS OPEN

1-@mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @cryptid-system

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

9- 9- @dreamercec @wheneverfeasible @garden-of-gay

[keepthedelta]

okay it's kinda specific but is there any brocedes fact that is often overlooked but you think that is essential (or perhaps gives a new approach) to the lore?

that's such a good question. i have several, i hope you don't mind

the first one is the "he'll always be my best friend in my heart" quote. i've seen a lot of people use it as a very earnest declaration etc. (or if they believe in the nico is obsessed with lewis shit as a sign of that) but it was actually nico making a joke when he was doing commentary (on the italian comms i think). he was asked a question about lewis and jokingly/sarcastically said "in my heart he'll always be my best friend", and then immediately clarified that it was a joke (maybe recognising the narrative that would be spun around it). i know this seems kind of anti-brocedes but i do think it is essential to the lore that people recognise nico is not a weird as fandom likes to make out. he's absolutely weird, and he's definitely not normal about lewis, but he's not obsessive, and he feels comfortable enough making jokes about them. when you contrast that with lewis who either refuses to say nico's name in conversations where he is the most relevant person (the better teammates than max interview) or brings him up unnecessarily and then panics about it (grill the grid), i think it changes the dynamic of who is yearning, who is "over it", who is winning the idgaf war (it's neither of them but the difference is lewis lost by playing and nico is open enough about giving a fuck that he's not pretending to play). i am biased, but i also think that if you look back at them during their careers, lewis was always weirder about nico than nico was about him, although again, neither of them can truly be described as normal about each other.

then there's nico beating lewis in the 2004 f3 series that they shared. the narrative of brocedes describes it as lewis always beating nico, lewis being the one to win and nico always being slightly behind. and largely this is true. but in 2004 they were both competing in the 2004 f3 european series, albeit for different teams. neither of them won, but nico narrowly beat lewis. now they were in different teams and nico himself has said that some teams had better cars and equipment than others and that made a difference in the end result. but, nico still beat lewis. he had nearly double the number of dnfs/dns (6 to lewis's 3) and triple the number of wins (3 to lewis's 1), finishing highest of all the entrants who eventually made it to f1 (nico himself, lewis, adrian sutil and robert kubica). but nico himself barely seems to remember this. the narrative of lewis always being better, always beating him, is something he seems to have internalised, even though it isn't quite true, or at least, not as true as people make out.

my third bit of lore is that mclaren wanted to sign nico for the 2008 season. following the drama of fernando alonso (affectionate) and spygate, mclaren had an open seat and ron dennis wanted to fill it with nico. he even offered to buy out nico's contract from williams, but frank williams viewed nico as their best hope and refused. the driver that eventually ended up replacing fernando was heikki kovaleinen, nico's gp2 rival and 100% finnish to his 50% (yes nico's national identity crisis does come into this). lewis ended up winning the championship that year. heikki took only 1 victory, and while i think lewis would have beaten nico, i think nico wouldn't have been a doormat for him like heikki, and would have won at least a couple of races, which would have allowed felipe massa and ferrari to succeed. in many ways i think an argument can be made that nico not getting that mclaren seat really helped lewis to win his first championship, in the same way that if lewis hadn't gone to mercedes, nico would have won three, or if nico had stayed, there is a very real possibility that sebastian vettel would have won 2017. their presence and their success dooms the other, and it always has.

my final thing is that they are the most successful teammate pairing in f1 history. it kind of links back to the last one, where the fact that they are each as good as they are hurts the other one, unlike a lewis and valtteri line up or a michael and rubens line up where there is a distinct number one driver and the other one is to be sacrificed for him. but, even though both of those pairs were together for longer (nico and lewis aren't even in the top 5 longest teammate pairings), it takes more than a number 1 number 2 driver lineup to be the most successful. it takes nico and lewis, who are both number 1 drivers (don't come for me on this, nico would have flattened the likes of valtteri, rubens, or mark webber and you know it). although they were only teammates for four years (and one of those was a sebastian vettel/red bull dominance year) they achieved more pole positions, front row lockouts, wins, podiums, and 1-2 finishes than any other pairing in f1 history. they were utterly, utterly dominant, and that's why they hurt each other so badly. they were the dream team, the absolute best f1 could come up with, but they weren't just competing as a team, they were competing against each other, and only one of them could win

[tgmsunmontue]

Season to Taste - 20/? WIP

Explicit Hangster - Celebrity Chef Bradley and Naval Aviator Jake Seresin who have a relationship spanning the globe before they realize how tightly bound they are to one another. Heading into this little world.

PROLOGUE/ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN FORTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN EIGHTEEN NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY – AN INTERLUDE

                “Mav, what are doing?”

                “Uh… nothing.”

                Tom sighs, because he’s clearly been doing something, and usually Pete just admits whatever it is with a sheepish smile because he knows he has Tom wrapped very firmly around his little finger.

                “Yes. Clearly nothing with the smoke alarm lying in pieces and the smell of smoke in the air. What were you doing?” Tom asks, because if he’s learnt nothing about dealing with Pete is that the framing of the question is key.

                “I was trying to… I was trying to cook.”

                Oh. Well. That explains the smoke alarm at least.

                “You… you can’t cook,” Tom says, and he knows Pete knows this, but the broken look on his face tells him that this is not just about cooking food. Since Mav watched all of Bradley’s cooking shows and interviews there’s been something even more melancholic about him. He’d gone out and bought all of the cookbooks and read all of them as well, all the little anecdotes and if anyone was looking they’d think they used the cookbooks daily with how thumbed and well-read they look. Except they’ve never cooked anything out of them.

                Until now.

                “I miss him Ice.”

                Oh.

                He bites his tongue, because this has been a constant thorn, something that will make them yell and scream at each other and then not talk to each other for days only to come back together and apologize for yelling and screaming. But not for what they said. They both think they’re in the right and he cannot make Pete see how his actions hurt Bradley so much. Now he’s got two stubborn men both too proud to even consider apologizing to the other and he has no idea what he can do about it.

                “Do you know he doesn’t talk or mention anything about us, or even Carole or Goose? It’s like he wasn’t even alive before he moved to Italy…”

                Tom keeps his mouth shut, because yes, he had noticed, but he has a relationship with Bradley. Has visited his restaurant, had Bradley sit across the table and eat with him and talk passionately about the food and he’s seen him come alive. He’s met most of the people Bradley now considers his family, the Gallo family taking his request to keep an eye on Bradley very seriously and he hadn’t meant for them to pretty much adopt Bradley as one of their own but he has no regrets about asking that of complete strangers. It has worked out better than he could have ever imagined.

                He cannot resent a family or group of people that have opened their homes and hearts, that love and support Bradley so fully and unconditionally. A family who have without doubt healed wounds and hurts that Tom never knew were even gaping open and bleeding. The maturity he sees in Bradley now amazes him, makes him inordinately proud. Except for Maverick being his blind spot. The one person he cannot seem to bring himself to forgive, and Tom promised Mav he wouldn’t share Carole’s wish, but he also has been very open about the fact he does not agree with it. With either of them. And he’s let Bradley know that too.

                “You know what you can do. It’s your decision, and you know where I stand.”

                “He seems really happy.”

                “He… does seem happy,” Ice agrees, because there is seeming happy and then being happy, and he can’t believe, won’t believe that either of them can be truly fully happy without resolving this thing between them. Even if they never become part of each other’s lives again, to continue to just avoid and ignore isn’t helping. If he could get them into the same room and lock them up until they talked and hugged it out, he would. Except Bradley has very carefully stayed away from the west coast in a deliberate act of avoidance. He knows Bradley is happy most of the time. Wouldn’t change anything.

                And yet.

…            …            …

                The thing is Pete has thought about it.

                He’s thought about it a lot.

                What he would say. How he’d say it. But with each passing day it feels more difficult to do and he simply doesn’t know how to make the first step. Can’t simply pick up the phone like Ice seems to think would be the easiest thing in the world. Watching and reading how Bradley has grown as a man, the family experiences he’s had with a mind-bogglingly big family in Italy, his restaurant and career that Pete can’t be a part of. Can’t share, even second hand, with his inability to even cook pasta he bought, let alone make it from scratch.

                He doesn’t even know what they’d talk about now.

                So he won’t call.

                Bradley doesn’t need him.

                Not anymore.

                Hasn’t for years and isn’t about to start anytime soon.

CHAPTER TWENTYONE

[fordpinesthemanyouare]

Ford x Fem!Reader

Math Assistant Pt. 2

Summary: Ford needs a math assistant and you just so happen to have a phd in applied mathematics, you are meeting Ford for an interview.

Warnings: Age gap?

A/N: Im nervy to post this one, but here it is. Dont hate the player…

<3: @potato-painter

—————

Y/n pulled up to the old diner in her beater car, the car that pulled them through a plethora of different colleges. Sitting in the driver seat, approximately 15 minutes earlier than the agreed time, she took in the scenery around her. The enormous red wood trees growing like a wall all around her in every direction, the Oregon wood’s would always be a special place in her journey, especially now that they have led her here. This small town known as Gravity Falls, in search of some type of summer work while not in school. Her car is packed with a few boxes in the back seat, keeping her belongings light as she travels from place to place. She pulled down the visor in the car and flips open the mirror, double checking her makeup isn't out of place for the interview. She genuinely had no idea what to expect, since, well the job listing was seriously vague. The free housing included in the deal certainly pulled her towards the listing, even if it only provided some other small details including large letters stating “All other questions will be answered at interview!”. She needed to have an applied mathematics degree, well, it was an easy enough feat for herself considering the Ph.D under her belt. She felt fairly confident in herself at the very least, she thought. Even if she wasn’t confident about anything else she knew she had her experience to go forth with, and hey telling people you have a Phd in anything usually impresses them.

She waited impatiently in the car until there were only five minutes left, in which she grabbed her purse and jacket and got out of the car. The Oregon sun warmed her skin in the early days of May. “Before the last spring showers” she mumbled to herself lightly as she walked up to the diner, familiar with Oregon’s tendency to tease summer every other day in May. She pushed open the door and cast her gaze across the diner, not that she knew who or what to expect. As the waitress calls out a hello, her gaze met with someone else’s who was also looking towards the entrance. The back lighting of the lazy May sun came shining through the windows, absolutely highlighting his strong features. His silvery hair and glasses met your gaze and she smiled at the handsome man. Older maybe, but still incredibly handsome with a strong jawline and nose. She walked a step towards him, since he was the only person in the room who seemingly was looking for someone, and he hadn't taken his gaze off hers yet.

As she stepped further into the dining area she turned to the waitress, breaking her gaze with the handsome stranger, who was standing behind the counter, “Excuse me, but did you happen to know if there was someone holding an interview here? I might be a few minutes early…” She quickly looked down to the Casio watch on her wrist checking that she was indeed four minutes early.

The stranger from before stood up, he walked over to her after overhearing her question to the waitress. He practically towered over her when he stood before her; she didn’t realize how tall he was sitting down. Extending his hand he said, “Hello, I’m Stanford Pines. I am the one you were to meet for the interview”. She took his hand without a second thought, and introduced herself to him. Her mind quickly noted his grasp on her hand was… different, but quickly moved on from the thought. She gave the waitress a nod before Stanford walked back towards the booth he had previously been sitting at. She took her seat, not without of course awkwardly scoot-jumping into the old booths. Once settled, she was a little surprised at how high the seats were for an older diner, he sat in the seat with ease as if he had been here a lot.

“It's nice to meet you Stanford, I was wondering who I would possibly be meeting. Your listing was incredibly vague.” She said with a light smile. He gave a tight smile in response before starting, “Well, I kept it intentionally vague due to the confidential nature of the work, I’ve recently discovered something that might take some time before I can start openly speaking about it.” As he finished, the same waitress came up to take both orders. She now noticed that one of her eyes was shut closed, but paid no mind to the matter. She ordered a coffee just how she likes it and Ford ordered black coffee. She quickly left and returned with two cups and her pot, filling both cups with the coffee and gesturing to the packs of creamer and sugar on the table. Ford and Y/n thanked her, before she headed back behind the counter.

“I see, that makes sense and I had figured as much”, she agreed, nodding. “I have worked on some case sensitive projects before but nothing to this measure. I was brought in for some consulting on a government funding issue but this seems a lot more interesting than accounting errors.” She grabbed a few packets, and mixed them together in her cup before quickly taking a sip. She really had started to notice just how handsome her interviewer was, she felt the need to find something to do with her hands.

Ford listened to her words, making strong eye contact with her and he had to admit, Stan was right, she really was a “looker”. The moment she had walked in through the doors he had silently hoped she was his interview for the day. However, you were in fact his potential candidate for the position by your asking of Lazy Susan. He snapped back into his mind, needing to maintain professionalism, despite in the corners of his mind Stanley’s words kept fluttering around. He was looking at her as she spoke, his mind began to take in even more features he failed to notice as she walked in through the door. His mind betraying his virtue for professionality as he took in her voice, it sounded tenfold clearer in person rather than their short conversation on the phone.

She had bright beautiful eyes that were deep and alluring, it felt like she had grabbed him and forced him to look deep in her eyes. Along with that, her hair framed her face in just the right angles, showing off her lips and cheekbones perfectly. She had some light freckles on her face and he noticed each one as she continued to speak about some funding errors. He caught himself staring, silently cursing Stanley for putting the thought into his mind, just as she was finishing her words. “So what are some things I can expect from this position?” She decided to ask at the beat of silence after she spoke.

Ford looked down at his coffee cup and grabbed the handle and took a sip before beginning, “I am looking for someone who can work on a plethora of different kinds of equations for the next few months. I expect I would only need assistance over the summer while my family comes to visit. I am trying to balance work and spending time with them this summer. Which is where someone like you would come in, and help keep up with the mounting pile of work while I can move forward with my discoveries and being with my family.” He finished off looking down again at his coffee cup, desperately feeling like he needed the quick pick up. He had been working through the night until he looked at the clock and realized the interview was only an hour away and decided to head there early.

After taking his sip he moved some of the pages of equations he had been working on before she walked in to be in front of her while saying, “Most of these are complex linear equations, along with different types of ruled equations being applied to this side of the page.” Pointing gently to the left side of the page. She reviewed the paper, picking it up and looking over the work he had begun on the page. A moment of silence fell on the table as Ford allowed Y/n to look over the work, not without looking at her some more. Her features pulled him to look as she stared down at the sheet in concentration, her brow slightly furrowed as her eyes raced from left to right. She set the page in front of herself on the table, before reaching into her purse and pulled out a small zipper pencil case. She unzipped it on the table, pulling out a red pen before circling a few things under the printed equation, flipping it towards him. She pointed with the pen several small circles along his own penciled work as she spoke, “Although you were close you made some simple mistakes… I take it you're tired?” As she said it, she looked him in the eyes now much closer than before and had noticed his heavy eyebags. She certainly could tell Stanford knew how to do the equations from his work, however the said work was sloppy, unorganized, and some of it was just the wrong numbers written. Although he looked utterly exhausted, the five o’clock shadow he was sporting that ran down his neck slightly accentuating his Adam's apple and jaw, made him look all the more ruggedly handsome. His strewn hair from running his hands through it so much, definitely didn't help either. She pushed the thoughts away, as he took the sheet from her to raise his eyebrows at some of the markings she made on the sheet.

“I didn’t realize I had so many mistakes…” he drifted off in almost shock, his eyes widening at his simple rudimentary mistakes, but he realized how tired he must have looked if his assistant was already noticing. “Assistant?” He thought to himself, still eyeing the paper, he was already calling her his assistant even though they had barely gotten through the interview.

She chuckled softly a look of understanding in her eyes as they met once again, she started “When I was getting my Ph.D, I did the same thing: stay up all day and all night to work on my research, but I take it your not necessarily getting your Phd are you?”

He smiled softly at that, the memories of his tireless and seemingly endless Phd nights researching and studying popping into his mind, it was not too far off from his current state. Ford set the paper with his work and now her corrections in the middle of the table, he met her gaze, “Ah, not this time around, the project you'd be assisting me with is something that has yet to be discovered. I'm hoping to perfect it and fully come to an understanding of it, however I don't feel entirely comfortable telling you exactly what it is until you've begun your work for me. However, I have several folders ready for you to look through when the time comes to start. That way you'll be caught up to speed when you begin.” She nodded again, understanding, “I get it, sometimes you need to make sure everything's right before shouting to the whole world that you've discovered something. Whatever it is, if this is what the general workload would look like I'd be able to do this with my eyes closed.” She gave him a confident smile, hoping that this really was it, her eyes going over the page in the middle of the table once again to make sure she understood. She had spent years doing these equations for practice, before finally becoming able to pick her choice of final research for her doctorate program.

As she was looking at the equations, they both reached for their respective mugs synchronously. The movement pulled her eyes from the page in the middle and to his large hand grabbing the handle, when she noticed that his hand was not only just large, but had an extra finger as well. Her gaze involuntarily locked onto his hand before she could think of how rude it was to stare, he noticed her noticing. His skin grew a little hot under the gaze on his hands, he could never expect what someone was going to say about the extra fingers, so before she could make a comment about it, he decided to move forward,

“This is what the majority of the work will look like, it will be a lot of recording the answers as well, but I’m sure you're comfortable with that as well given your resume.” Y/n pulled her gaze back up to his eyes and gave him a small apologetic smile as he turned to pick up a different sheet from under his few journals and folders stuffed with papers, her resume. “I was surprised to see that you had graduated only a month ago, with a masters in statistics as well. What brought you to the University of Oregon?” Ford was attempting to keep the interview questions off of his hands, and he did want to know more about her, only because they were to be working together of course.

She smiled at her accomplishment feeling good at the subtle praise and grateful she didn't have to apologize for clearly ogling his hands, “I have been traveling with my education since high school, applying to more colleges as I continue to move around. I usually move to wherever I can get the highest paid scholarship, and this year it happened to be Oregon. Last year I finished my last bachelors in Colorado.”

He nodded in understanding, he was impressed that Stanley was able to find someone with this much education history online. He figured him and not many other people in the world were interested in pursuing education as much as he was. He figured that perhaps this was not the time to bring up the fact he had 12 PhDs, “Well congratulations on your graduation, are you planning to return to school for the fall?”

Y/n smiled and sipped some more coffee, not long after setting the cup down on the table, Lazy Susan was back quickly refilling both of their cups, turning away again to tend to the other patrons.

“Thanks I appreciate it, I haven’t decided yet. I've sent my applications already, back in January to return to continue my masters for another PhD. I cast out a wide net of places to study at, but whoever will accept me is up for chance.” She looked out the window, eyeing ‘ol’ reliable’ in the parking lot. “I usually don’t plan very concretely…” She looked back at Stanford and smiled, “That's how I ended up here from your listing, another thing that drew me to it happened to be the free housing included with the deal. What does this arrangement look like?” She was reaching for more creamer to pour into her second cup of coffee as she spoke.

“We have a small storage closet that we've turned into a small bedroom, you're welcome to stay there during the work period. I also mentioned my family coming to visit, my teenage great niece and nephew. They will mostly bother me, so you might see them in the work area or around the house a lot. My twin brother lives in the household as well, and he’ll be taking care of them primarily. The living arrangement is optional and wouldn't be docked from the pay.” He cringed a little internally at the last statement, he knew that the pay wasn’t… great. He made sure that Stanley included how much it would be in the listing, so he wouldn't have to mention the low wages in person. Hopefully the complimentary housing would be able to make up for the low wages he thought warily.

Y/n sipped her coffee away, draining the second cup dangerously low again she set the cup down and nodded. She thought for a moment looking into her coffee cup, thinking about the options she had infront of her. She could take this opportunity, enjoy the nature of this small town for the summer and get out of the classroom, or she could drive her car to a new destination and see what awaits there. Y/n looked back up at Stanford and nodded again with a smile, “That seems that that would work just fine, did you happen to have space to park a car there for a while too?” She’d grown accustomed to having to search for parking, but if she was going to stay long term, she'd like to know the peace of not having to worry about broken windows in the morning. Ford nodded and said they had a parking lot, which was strange to her. A parking lot in front of a house seemed odd, but she brushed off the thought figuring she would see it eventually.

The two finished several more cups of coffee over discussing more insights of the job and her education, Lazy Susan having to brew more coffee than she had anticipated. Ford had asked when she had finished cup number four, feeling full of caffeine, “When would you be available to start?”.

Her gaze flicked out the window once again at her car full of her belongings, she had planned to either camp in the woods for the night or find a motel in town. She didn’t know anything about starting dates before she had arrived, so prepared to start very soon after. She turned her attention back to the handsome man in front of her, it suddenly dawning in the back of her mind that she would now be living with the man seated across from her.

“I could start today actually.”

————

[mariacallous]

Right-Wing Media Sails On Despite Russian Scheme

It was the day before the most recent presidential debate and Benny Johnson, the popular right-wing podcaster and YouTube show host, was amplifying the latest falsehood—soon to be heard direct from Republican candidate Donald Trump’s mouth—that Haitian immigrants were dining on people’s cats. “This story is insane, all right!” Johnson chortled on The Benny Show. “I doubt any corporate media is going to go and tell the story of Springfield, Ohio, but we have to, actually, as our social obligation to you.”

The Sept. 9 video racked up more than 132,000 views and helps explain why The Benny Show has more than 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube. It also illuminates why its host—once the viral political editor of BuzzFeed before he was fired for multiple instances of plagiarism in 2014—was recruited by Tenet Media, a right-wing Tennessee-based media company identified by the US Department of Justice this month as a “covert project” of RT, the Russian state-controlled media outlet. “Benny used to say, ‘Do you know the difference between a good click and a bad click? They’re just clicks,’” recalls Bubba Atkinson, founder of Bubba News, a daily center-right newsletter, who worked with Johnson in the past. “I think that’s demonstrative of the ethos he lives by, where, you know, almost all attention is good for him.”

Johnson has issued a statement saying he was unaware of Tenet’s Kremlin ties. So have several of the company’s other prominent commentators, most notably the self-described red-pilled former leftist Dave Rubin and skateboarding libertarian Tim Pool. That may very well be true. Still, that such relatively big names in right-wing circles could find themselves entangled with anti-American forces—wittingly or unwittingly—speaks volumes about the state of conservative media in the age of Trump.

If you think of the hierarchy of the right-wing media world, particularly on the personality side, as a three-tiered pyramid, the top is occupied by Fox News figures like Trump cheerleader Sean Hannity. Go down a level, and you’ll find Ben Shapiro and his co-hosts at the Daily Wire, the Nashville company aspiring to be a right-wing Walt Disney Co. Then there’s a third tier of self-employed figures like Johnson, Pool and Rubin. Without the protection or the guardrails of an employer, they must compete for traffic with everybody else and have a financial incentive to go to extremes.

That could mean Johnson mocking the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney and Trump nemesis Fani Willis as “Big Fani,” or Pool hosting alt-right figures such as Richard Spencer and former Breitbart News senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who’ve been largely shunned for good reason elsewhere in conservative circles. But that only seems to have made Tenet’s commentators more attractive to RT. According to the indictment, their messages “are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying US domestic divisions.”

“Look, the Russians were not stupid,” says Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and a former Republican political consultant. “They recognized that these guys are very much influencers who can spread the kind of messages they wanted distributed to a wider audience, to drive social media engagement through the roof.” (Neither Tenet nor Johnson, Pool or Rubin responded to interview requests for this story.)

Given the nature of their businesses, the Tenet figures were also clearly more susceptible to the dangling of large checks—in at least one instance, $100,000 per video—than their peers with cushier employment arrangements. As Pool put it in an appearance on The Ben Shapiro Show after the indictment’s unveiling, he gets these kinds of offers all the time. “When someone reaches out to us, I say, ‘Great, cool. Someone handle it and talk to the lawyers,’” Pool told Shapiro. “The lawyers come back, do their due diligence, and then we say sure—or whatever.”

He added, “We have people tweeting at me, like, give the money back. Like dude, let me put it this way, we’re talking to our legal department.”

None of this impresses Cenk Uygur, founder of TYTs, a progressive online news network, who has appeared on Pool’s show—or at least he did before the news of the host’s RT connection. “Come on, man, somebody gives you $100,000 a video?” Uygur says. “That makes me ask, are other people giving you $100,000 a video? And who are they? If this is so normal, how often does this happen for right-wing media? And who else is giving you money for propaganda?”

As for Johnson, he’s continuing to rack up views on YouTube. Despite his association with Tenet, he’s had little trouble getting prominent Republicans to appear, including sitting members of Congress. The Benny Show goes on.

[queer-ragnelle]

If nothing else getting treated poorly makes for writing fuel

[originalaccountname]

putting my hands on your shoulders looking directly into your eyes why are you so insistent that Dazai is faking every emotion every second of every day except when he's acting mean or evil why do you think his dark side is more true than his happier or sillier sides

do you not also have multiple facets you show different people? are we not all beautiful multifaceted individuals? are your actions and reactions not influenced by your emotions and state of mind?

can't he laugh at his own jokes? can't he fondly think of the Agency? can't he be dramatic because he wants to? can't he be surprised by something suddenly happening, even if he knew it would happen? do you not jump when the jack in the box gets out even if you were the one working the mechanism?

why would the mean persona be more real? why would any and all joy be faked? why are you only allowing him misery?

[dxxtruction]

Louis' "You're boring!" Could mean so many things, but I think what's most apparent about that line is that Armand takes no initiative just for himself. He's not really anybody, because he never goes out and finds himself or gets attached to anyone but Louis. Without Louis as his guide he's literally just sitting on a couch picking lint! That's the thing.

He orbits constantly around what would make Louis happy, and never really fully going what would make me happy? Ultimately that drive to please Louis is what drives him to torturing Daniel, not so much that he'd care to just do it. Ultimately, not giving proper care to Louis is just a way to make sure Louis knows he has to orbit around him as well, with shoving Lestat onto him just that other nail on the coffin. So, even if he fails to figure out how to make Louis happy with him, he still knows what Armand is good for, and better than.

That dependency is what drives Armand's abuse. It really just comes down to that. Armand doesn't even realize how suffocated he is by his own dependency. This is just how life is to him. (It shouldn't be lost either that dependency is a theme considering this episode also deals with addiction).

Daniel's fascinating because he's just so driven to be somebody. He's largely independent, he seeks things because he wants them. It's his drug to poke and prod at all the things that he shouldn't. Daniel's exciting because he lets Louis in to something different, lets him in to all this potential in another person that he can also do the same with for himself. It's a real connection. A two way street. It's easy to tell how Armand can be smothering then because he's never introducing him to anything really new, and most the ways both of them connect are all painful and traumatic. It's never just fun because there's always that layer of that pain. Fun died with Claudia.

50 years on they've gotten to a lot better place, both of them, but it's still that same shit. No seriously, "How is this any different from last time, Louis?"

Well... Because Armand's going to be, at the very least, making one [1] decision only for himself - and that's to hold power over Daniel's life. Fucking sick foreshadowing.

They aren't driving each other to the brink anymore but "The vampire is bored" STILL. Maybe it's even worse, despite being in better places, because Louis' sort of just been defeated by it. (I mean, can he even really leave this either?). He's accepting the dependancy cause he kind of has to. He'd literally ended up letting all the enjoyment be up where he can't reach [The book shelves]. Armand so desperately wants Louis happiness but what really ends up happening is that Louis ends up having to give Armand all his own. He's got no one or anything else to get it from. But like an iPad and an over the top eating ritual. Two extremes of what's just more lint picking.

This whole relationship is one I find just tragic inside and out. You have to just pity it, really. There's ways in which you can find yourself feeling bad for both of them. But you can only really be mad at Armand for any of it. Armand, who isn't even 'free' in any sense, having so little concept of his own independence, but is at the same time so controlling over other's. It's a tragic cycle. It's an infuriating one.

Louis at least has the mind to know when enough is enough. If just needing that extra push to get there. Armand's too scared of it being over to even try.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some fantasy traveler inventory details (like what they would carry in their bags), based on two of the recent costumes I did.. love finding random little scraps and items and putting them together lol

[nashvillethotchicken]

Thinking about Lestat seeing Louis’s eating patterns as a waste of his gift/himself while Armand gives Louis food that he literally can not enjoy or digest just so he has something on his stomach

[magentagalaxies]

i have so much work to do for finals season which is frustrating bc on the one hand i'm very glad all my classes have project-based finals where i get to be creative instead of just doing an exam or a paper. however. i have a bad habit with every project-based final ever of accidentally getting an idea that's way too ambitious and creating more work for myself than i need to do

however this semester even tho i fell into that exact same trap my two most elaborate final projects each involve 1. editing a video essay which contains an interview i did with paul bellini and at least 45 seconds of it are bellini talking about why he thinks i have great potential as a comedian, and 2. editing a ten minute reel of the documentary footage i got on tour with scott. which of course involves rewatching various videos of me and scott being extremely chaotic together. so i stay winning ig

[unproduciblesmackdown]

billions(tm): it's incredible how we just provide a little snippet of material designed to be "guy we all want to push down the stairs immediately somehow" and through this amazing acting alchemy it becomes gold. electric. magnificent. we can't get enough so we will just keep writing this loser character and the actor will somehow keep bringing the dazzling transmutation through his ability

actor will roland: [is aware autistic people are real]

[sunburnacoustic]

Interviewer: "Love Is Forever" Matt: *giggles* Apparently, 2010, before Muse's headline slot at Rock Am Ring

[louismygf]

lucky again lyrics