#but the bar is much higher if you want to do anything actually important and worth a lot of praise with it''

[cluster-b-culture-is]

NPD culture is that i should probably mention to my therapist how annoyed I get that my brother's foot problems are always the center of attention but my joint pain seems to be constantly on the back burner and he's beeb doing this for almost 10 years so when am i going to get attention for my pain? but tbh I'm just used to it from every party involved 🤷 such is the younger sibling way

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

autism awareness & autism acceptance not either or. not mutually exclusive. can coexist. need coexist.

“there enough awareness for autism already 🙄 we need acceptance”

ok. you aware of high support needs autism? aware what that even means? not “need reminder take meds need remind take shower” “high” support needs autism, but “need full physical help do bADLs lack danger awareness may accidentally hurt self or even kill self without support” high support needs autism? not just higher support needs people who can be independently online do advocacy, but those who need help from others even be online, or those who cannot be online at. all.?

aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people? not just nonverbal nonspeaking people who can write grammatically correct cannot tell apart base on writing. not just nonverbal nonspeaking people who can be online who can advocate online.

aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people who cannot communicate in way that easily understood, either for now, or ever? aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people without functional communication, aware of how without functional communication, how that drastically limit communication, even though behaviors are valid communication? aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people who may never use AAC fluently even with best support?

aware of technically verbal but very limited verbal autistics who may only able say wants & needs but not other things and certainly not online advocacy, “despite being verbal”?

aware of just how much our life depends on caregiver/carer/PCA/etc? aware how vulnerable that make us? aware of abuse from caregivers? aware of caregiver burnout from lack of support for caregivers, & how that impact our care we receive? have you even heard of term respite care? aware of those of us who cannot separate ourselves from caregiver? aware of those of us who cannot participate in autism community without caregiver?

aware of visibly autistic people? aware how we not automatically believed? aware how we often bear blunt of violence because we most easily identified target because we visible? aware visible =/= get support, aware that many those diagnosed severe who now adult so no longer qualify for services under 21 year old, languish in hospitals because nowhere to go? aware how long life saving necessary waitlists are? aware that even to this day parents have to fight school fight day service fight government fight insurance for them give their nonverbal nonspeaking child AAC & be properly taught how use it? actually, are you aware of how properly teach AAC to nonverbal nonspeaking, developmentally delayed child who may or may not have intellectual disability?

actually, aware of autistics with (correctly diagnosed) intellectual disability & how they make up big amount of autistic? aware of institutional systemic & legal impact of mental [r word] right & the human rights abuse justified using r word right? wait, you aware that r word come from old term for intellectual disability, that, actually, still in many laws because no one bothered updating, right? aware of what severe profound ID look like? and aware they real and they still human deserve education deserve life deserve care, yes?

aware of early diagnosis 20 30 or even 10 years ago, not same as now, even less resources & knowledge about autism now? aware that while gender race class 1000% impacted diagnoses, a lot of early diagnosed people early diagnosed because… they die without support unlocked by diagnosis, right? but also, aware that in old times, early diagnosis often did mean doom, not because autism bad or anything, but because severe lack of support & diagnosis can literally bar you from so many things including basic education?

aware that for many people in special education, which impact specific group of autistic people, they not get degree when graduate high school, they just get certificate, which limit their educational & employment opportunities & others?

aware of life saving importance and necessity of masking for autistic of color especially Black autistic people, despite stress inducing traumatic? aware that live in broken system be victim of hate crime & police brutality just as traumatic often even more traumatic than masking? aware that many Black & other parents of color forced to teach their child masking because of this?

are you aware of most marginalized autistic people? aware of leadership of most impacted?

aware you can and need to care about autistic experiences & form of autism you not experience? aware that you can and need to do that without try twist your experience into our experience into our words our community?

aware that advocacy goes beyond about you?

aware that you can’t speak for all autistic? aware that you shouldn’t speak for all autistic?

are you aware of when you need to stop talking & listen & amplify others? aware of when and how to decenter self?

aware that even this long post, barely scratch surface? still so much to say?

[better worded version of original post]

[winchesterandpie]

Commander Seresin

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x wife!reader

Word Count: 1446

Warnings: sooo self indulgent, insecure reader, feeling inadequate, sweet Jake, lead in to some spiciness at the end, but nothing actually happens

A/N: Do you ever change your tumblr profile pic and then when you're scrolling through your dash, you don't realize it's you? Just me? Ok. Anyways, as you may have guessed from some of my other fics, I have problems with insecurities, so I wrote some Jake being soft and comforting. Enjoy!

You watched Jake glide easily around the pool table, laughing with his fellow aviators. As they’d been kept together at North Island following the uranium mission, he had mellowed out significantly. Now, the snarky comments were more intended in good fun, less sharp. He was still the same man he had always been, just better at sharing pieces of himself, and it had won him solid friendships with the Dagger Squad.

He had gotten a promotion too, one that would be officially presented tomorrow. Lieutenant Commander Seresin. It had a nice ring to it. Though it was also true that you thought your husband’s name generally had a nice ring to it.

Tonight, everyone was celebrating. You had been in an equally celebratory mood mere moments ago, incredibly proud of your husband. Then, when you stepped away to get drink refills for everyone, stepped outside the conversation, it all settled in.

At first, it was fond--an affectionate recollection of everything your husband had accomplished in his career. Then, as the tally of his merits and achievements piled ever higher, you started to wonder what he saw in you. Your own pile of accomplishments felt so small in comparison as to not be worth mentioning.

Even when you had just met, Jake had already flown important missions and graduated from Top Gun. He had only continued to accumulate achievements, while you had… just sort of existed. You were living your life, sure, but you didn’t feel that your life was anything particularly remarkable. Certainly not like his.

You knew Jake saw the slow fall of your smile between knocking stripes into the table’s pockets. To anyone else, it likely would have gone unnoticed, but to Jake, you were an open book. He flashed a wickedly triumphant grin at Javy when he sank the final ball, then excused himself from the tournament. He made his way over to you, pressing a kiss to your forehead in greeting.

“Tired, sweets?” he asked, pulling the smile back to your face. He knew being around so many people, even friends, could be draining for you. Even though that wasn’t the cause of your gloom, it made you feel warm to know he looked out for you. “We can head out for the night if you’re done.”

“Tonight’s about you, sunshine. I can’t very well steal the guest of honor.” You would feel bad if he left the celebration because of you.

“I’ve always been all yours.” The unsaid message there was that he didn’t care about the party. “Ready to go?”

You hesitated for a moment, wavering under his gentle gaze. Finally, you nodded, dropping your head to his shoulder in something akin to defeat. Jake’s arm slid around you, holding you securely to him as he shielded you from view. He gave you as much privacy as he could in the crowded bar. After a moment and a deep breath, you nodded again and pushed yourself off the stool.

He kept you tucked close, waving a quick goodbye to the other pilots as the two of you made your way out of the Hard Deck to his truck. Jake smiled softly at you as he opened the car door and helped you into the seat. After climbing into the driver’s seat and pulling out of the parking lot, he took your hand and he didn’t let go. 

You tried to focus on the feeling of his fingers between yours rather than the thoughts swirling around your head. You didn’t want this night or this promotion to be about you. You knew he loved you. He told you so frequently and showed it even more. You knew, consciously, that he didn’t care about comparing your accomplishments to his, that it didn’t factor even remotely into his love. So, you tried desperately to silence your doubts and push them from your mind.

When you pulled into your driveway, he brought your hand to his lips before letting you go. Often, you would get out of the car yourself and meet him at the front of it, but today, you took the extra time in an attempt to compose yourself. Jake came around to your side, opening the door slowly.

“You okay?” he asked quietly, his green eyes fixed on you. He knew you weren’t, but he also knew that you would come to him in your own time.

And that time was not yet. You just nodded in response to his question, took his offered hand, and let him lead you into the house.

It wasn’t until you were in bed lying on his chest that you finally resigned yourself to telling him. You had been unable to quiet your mind on your own. Ultimately, you knew only he could calm the storm, so you reluctantly spoke up.

“Jake, you…” you started hesitantly, trailing your fingers up his chest. “You are so amazing. You’ve accomplished so many incredible things, and I am so proud of you.” You did mean that, despite everything.

“Thank you,” he replied, kissing your forehead. “I couldn’t do it without you.”

“You’d do just fine,” you snorted a derisive laugh. “You never needed me to be great.”

He let the quiet settle over you for a moment, his fingers trailing up and down along your spine. “What’s this about, pretty girl?” Jake asked at last, deciding that you needed a nudge to open up.

You sighed, your shoulders drooping in his hold. “What do you see in me?”

“I see my wife, the woman I love,” was his easy answer, given with a smile before he watched you more seriously. “What are you asking?”

“You have done so many impressive things, love. The life you lead is so exciting and you’ve accomplished so, so much. I just feel… boring in comparison,” you admitted. “I haven’t done anything particularly cool or noteworthy, and you just keep racking up achievements and commendations.

“And don’t get me wrong,” you continued hurriedly, not wanting him to misinterpret, “I love you so much and I know how hard you work. I am so proud of everything you do. I’m… I’m really sorry this is happening today, I really wanted to just be happy for you. I am happy for you, I promise.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I know,” he reassured softly, his free hand coming up to caress your cheek and tilt your chin up. “I know.” Once he was confident that you didn’t feel like you had to apologize for your feelings, he continued, his gaze never wavering from yours. “You are so not boring. Darlin’, the things you do may not come with the visible rewards and medals, but that doesn’t make them any less worthwhile.”

“But--”

“No buts. Your accomplishments are just as big as mine.” He nudged your nose with his. “Since we met, you have done so much and grown so much. I am so proud of everything you’re becoming. I should tell you that more often.”

The last thing you wanted was for him to feel like he wasn’t doing enough for you. “No, Jake, you don’t--” 

“I should. I will,” he insisted quietly. “I want you to see how amazing you are.”

“You’re always wonderful to me. It’s not your fault my brain is dumb.”

“It’s no one’s fault,” Jake said with a shrug, taking hold of your hand and fiddling with your ring. “I just happen to love you, and I very much enjoy showing you just how much.” His voice roughened at the end, dropping into a familiar low register.

You giggled when he rolled the two of you over, pinning you beneath him as the tension finally seeped out of you. He always seemed to know how to bring you back to yourself. Jake beamed down at you as you laughed, propped up on his elbow. You reached up to trace the side of his face and the smile softened, just a touch.

Then you pushed yourself up so you could kiss him. He kissed you back fiercely, fanning a flame that always burned within you. When he pulled back, it was only for a moment, and then he dipped down to kiss his way down your neck and across your collarbones. Your fingers wound through his hair as your back arched up into him.

“Jake,” you groaned, utterly breathless. No matter how many years you had spent together, he could always take you apart so effortlessly.

He returned to your lips, murmuring your name in the same tone. “Let me love you tonight, baby.”

“Your wish is my command, Commander Seresin.” You winked at him

“Y’know, I’m liking that promotion more and more.”

[gh0stswh0re]

Nononono pls here me out here me out I’m begging you 🧎🏻‍♀️

Speaking of virgin!Ghost:

Virgin!Ghost who wasn’t interesting of having sex. Ofc few woman had interested of having a one nights stand with him when he is at the bar or tried to flirt with him( mysterious are sexy) and his other old team members told him to give it a chance or he will never know how good it feels to finally feel something like this rather than using his hand.

But when he meets you, this man lets all his sexual needs out on you. His members were right, it feels good but for sure it’s much better with doing it with the right person, you! This man never thought to have sex in his life but now you are here, you give him pleasure he needed, not just sexual but also the intimacy from someone he is close to and knows that they love him and he can trust with his life

Now Speaking of experience! Ghost ( what a whore)

He probably did the deeds when he was in his early 20s. I can imagine that he did here and there quickies becaus he was really frustrated but something he never did was kissing someone while doing it nor giving them any praise. For him it wasn’t making love, it was for him more feeling a quick release and that’s it. Never even saw his face, why should they? But over the years he stopped, he had better things to do and especially he lost the interested if you can say so. it didn’t felt right for him at some point and it didnt gave him any pleasure anymore

But when you both had your first sex, he knew that you were the one he needed all along. The pleasure he only felt for a short time with his flings wasn’t any good like compared to the pleasure he feels with you. This pleasure is better, longer and give him comfort he never had and most importantly it is because of you! You make him feel sooo good and if he could, he would have it done with you so much sooner! Also he maybe had flings ( not that many) but he never ate sb out or fingered them. So he learned more how to please someone on and with you and tbh, he is so happy and glad that he can learn it with you and only you. he only wants to know how to pleasure you and nobody else🫶🏻

If any of his flings recognize him, watch him looking at them with zero interest and especially when they try to hit on him. At this point, he even regret that he had a quickie with them and without shame, he even tells them to fuck off

- virgin anon ??? Jaaijsbshs help

jsjsjsj i totally see where u are coming from, because something similiar happens in my nsfw alphabet (under I = intimacy).

personally i don't ghost considers himself asexual/demisexual (probably doesn't even know what that is) but he definitely doesn't need sex - it's just not his priority. i feel like if he was at a bar, he'd rather get another drink than to go around flirting, looking to get laid.

and if he does have sex, it's to get his frustration out - he isn't violent or pushy and he'll try to make the other person cum, but it feels more like a chore, he just doesn't enjoy it the way others seem to. and he thinks everyone is straight up bullshitting with the "it will happen with the right person" until it actually happens - with you.

as we all know, he's such a simp and would do anything to pleasure you. and he loves studying how your body reacts to his touches, and he'll always make sure to memorize every thing he did that earned him a higher, more careless moan from you. also, he could literally cum on spot just because he's eating you out (nsfw alphabet again, O = oral). he loves how he can open up and relax with you - no judgement from your side. he loves pressing his naked body against yours, nothing sexual just cuddling, the skin to skin contact is so fucking important to him.

it goes without saying that he doesn't even look at anybody else and is definitely the type of guy that says "nah, i have a gf" instead of "sorry, i'm taken" 😼😼

thinking abt everything i said, maybe he is demisexual and just never realized it lol

[cerastes]

Did you have an Arknights advice tag on using Laurentina? My doll keeper experience is exclusively with kazemaru who plays differently

No, but I can talk about that.

Laurentina (AKA Specter the Unchained), like Kazemaru, can forward lane very well, and her main options, S2 and S3, give her flexibility in how exactly you want her to do her job, whether you need immortality stalling or huge damage+staying power.

Her main skill is her S3, with her S2 being more of a niche tool; until she gets Module Level 3, her S2's uptime is simply too bad for her to be able to use it as often as (Guard) Specter can use her S2. This is due to her skill not charging while Laurentina is in Doll Form, so that's 20 seconds on top of the 35 seconds she needs to normally charge it, 55 seconds. That's simply too much. With her Module 1 Level 3, however, she gets 15 SP back whenever she switches from Doll Form to Keeper Form, making he charge time a much, much better 40 seconds.

The main difference she has from Kazemaru is that, in addition to be able to do very good forward laning, Laurentina can assassinate much better thanks to her prodigious bulk likely letting her last the 10 seconds she need to get her S2 online on deployment, as well as hold high priority lanes are a damage dealing cornerstone, and for this, we use S3.

With S3, her damage is explosive. Laurentina has some of the highest sustained damage in the game, and just like other huge damage skills, it has a drawback. However, here's where Laurentina is different: Most drawbacks for these high output skills tend to relate to a malus in durability (SilverAsh S3), are on-deployment skills that necessitate a retreat and redeploy of units that aren't fast redeployment (Skadi S2, Radiant Knight S2, Surtr S3) or are logistically unviable for repeated use due to their huge charging time (Eyjafjalla S3). Laurentina doesn't have to deal with any of these. The drawback of her S3 is instead the fact that you need to micromanage it in order to truly get all of the juice out of it:

There's two very important parts to this description that are not immediately apparent. The first is +200% Max HP. This triples Laurentina's already sizeable HP pool (especially for her cost and class!) into the 9000+ HP realm. For 25 seconds, and with a charge of 40 seconds, this is immensely good upkeep. Now here's where we get technical: Tripled HP means that you are practically only receiving a third of the damage, because Laurentina keeps her HP percentage between skill being on or off, not the numerical value. So basically, as long as her S3 is on, Laurentina practically has 66% damage resistance, no matter what kind of damage, Physical, Arts, or True. This means she can brawl with absolutely anything, regardless of attack type.

The second important part is "deal 70% ATK as extra Physical damage when attacking enemies with HP percentage equal to or higher than self". Because the game doesn't tell you what values are additive and what values are multiplicative, or if boosts consider base stats or current stats, the average Arknights players tends to play it safe and consider whichever is weaker in the calculation, since even then that option tends to be strong (as opposed to insanely powerful), so for a lot of people, it may look like "wait, that's weak, I mean, she's already getting a massive +260% ATK boost, what's that extra 70% gonna do for me?" Well, the thing is, that extra 70% ATK is based on Laurentina's current attack value, after boosts, not her base value. If Laurentina attacks something with more HP% than herself, she's dealing almost double damage of her already more than tripled damage. This is a massive amount of damage! This is the sort of damage that drops most bosses health bars pretty damn fast, while also having the bulk to actually hold said bosses in place without dying instantly.

Now, the drawback: The drawback isn't that negligible 3% HP loss on attacking something with less HP%, that is trivial. As mentioned before, the drawback is that to get the most juice out of your S3, you need to activate it when Laurentina is low enough on HP that she can trigger her bonus modified 70% extra damage, but not so low that she dies (too quickly, or at all, depending on the enemy boss). This is the hardest part, because if you just pop S3 while Laurentina is topped off, you are leaving immense amounts of damage on the table, and would be better off using someone else that's easier to use, really, but pop S3 when she's too low, and she's not going to last long enough to truly put out those Lebron numbers. You have to activate S3 when Laurentina is at that perfect HP threshold where she'll get a lot of her special HP% procs, and will also last as much of the skill as possible. If you manage it, though, you basically have a nigh unkillable brawler that will knock an entire life bar out of a boss almost entirely by herself. This, of course, takes a rough approximation of how much damage any given enemy will be doing to her, but if you can juggle this info, she's immensely powerful.

Her best synergy is, of course, her beloved Captain, Gladiia. Laurentina increases Max HP of Abyssal Hunters by 20%, while Gladiia gives 2.5% of Max HP as regen per second to Hunters, meaning they are built to be used together. Since Gladiia's regen buff is percentage based, it makes Laurentina even more durable during S3, as she'll be regenerating 2.5% HP per sec of her modified, 9000+ HP. Eventually, Gladiia will get her Module, which gives Hunters in the team an unconditional 30% Phys and Arts damage resistance against everything, as well as amping that 2.5% to 3.5%. At that point, Laurentina S3 really will become Raid Boss Mode.

I personally let strong enemies take Laurentina to around 50% HP before popping S3 if I don't really know the exact % in which I should be activating, I think it's a good threshold that combines survivability and at least a sufficient amount of HP Damage procs.

[latinotiktok]

Hi. So, I just so happen to come across the asks about Coco discourse, and I know those are almost a year old and I'm super late to the party, but I feel compelled to talk about it, because even though I do get the valid criticism to the film, I felt that some takes are kinda out of place? And I just had to say anything.

Like, yeah. I understand the outrage at Disney trying to trademark Día de Muertos and how, even if it didn't happen, it could potentially lead to the exploitation and capitalization of Día de Muertos.

On the other hand, I did think it's like a stretch to say that it panders to the diaspora than to nationals (I didn't know how else to word it, sorry if it sounds weird). I'm not familiar with the diaspora, but to my defense, I found those anons to be very out of touch with us that are non diasporic.

Like, when anon said that the U.S. is individualistic, unlike México "that is collectivist and seeks out the betterment of the whole group" I couldn't help to laugh at such idealization. I may sound salty, but it just sounded exactly like those orientalist takes that are like "oh the Japanese are a power because they're so collectivist, we should be more like them" (while ignoring the negative consequences such collectivism has to the population) but for México. Like, it's true that the U.S. is individualistic as fuck, but because of that, it should go without saying that the bar is on the ground when you compare it to other countries and cultures. It's true that us Mexicans are more collectivist, but only marginally and in a very messed up way. Like, yeah, we're generally solidary and love hospitality, but if it's more convenient to be individualistic, we tend to be pretty selfish and inconsiderate as well. Not to run on the opposite direction, but the ugly part of Mexican collectivism is that it can be motivated by the individual gain one gets out of it and not mainly for the benefit of the group (not saying that we're actually self serving and selfish but that to say we're always looking for the benefits of others first and foremost is a massive misunderstanding of our culture and a sugarcoating of it).

On one hand, I get where they're coming from, but the film resonating to their particular diasporic experiences doesn't mean that is inherently and deliberately diasporic and it doesn't feel Mexican.

Like yeah, I hated that they picked and chose regarding the lore and gave so much importance to photographs when before this century they were basically a luxury (I guess that they needed higher stakes, imho it would have been easier had it not been so sanitized and standardized to a degree) and the tradition exists even before photographs were a thing anyways, and they just had to go and turn Mictlán into a bureaucratic hell (like, again, I get it, conflict and such, but the afterlife being so mundane just kills it, no pun intended, even more so because bureaucracy is already a problem for us the living). I know that they want to reach out the largest demographic possible and of course Disney is quick to sanitize stuff, but they took more creative liberties than I would have wanted.

But even if it's obvious that this project was led by foreigners (like with Dante being a stray dog; yes xoloescuintles are an important part of Día de Muertos, but there's no way a xoloescuintle would end up a stray dog) I just can't deny how the blatant Mexican input does show up. Not to disregard the problematic aspects, but there's more nuance to it.

And as I was saying, I get where the people from the diaspora are coming from, but for me as a Mexican, the conflict of Miguel with his family felt so unambiguously Mexican. Or at least, concerning the larger demographic of working class Mexicans that live in pueblos that aren't really rural but not heavily urbanized either. Growing up as a working class, non white, non indigenous Mexican in a globalized world, makes your cultural identity something hard to deal with. Ever since Mexico begin to grow and become urbanized, there has been this contradictory discourse of modernity vs tradition, in which we as Mexicans should move on from the old, "outdated", "inferior" ways and traditions, (and such ways are more often than not, the ways of non white and indigenous, working class Mexicans) and strive for more modern, "advanced", "superior" ways of Europeans and Americans... but don't do that too much because other than those "primitive" ways, our culture is perfectly fine. I get it that it reminds of the diaspora of "the culture of my parents vs the culture of my country", but there's a similar situation with average Mexicans too.

I'm not saying that Coco properly covers that, it's not that deep. But the way that Miguel wants to pursue an uncertain and risky career path, instead of the secure, familiar and traditional family occupation, is something I'm too familiar with and something that I see too often (even if it's not necessarily about music; tell your parents that you're planning on getting a social science/humanities degree and they will probably tell you you're gonna end up starving). There's the fear of the parents about their children not landing a job after they graduate or their children also eventually ditching family traditions and the like because they came to consider that the modern, urban ways are better. But there's also something that went without mention by the anons, and it's how it's too common for Mexican parents to see their children as an extension of themselves, and their motivations to oppose their career path more often than not, may also come from a desire of keep controlling their children's life choices because that's relatively socially acceptable. I find it quite ironic how the anons mention that Miguel having different aspirations than those his family want him to follow feels more "americanized" because I've got to hear Mexican parents complaining about "bad foreigner (specially American) influences that make kids want to ditch their heritage and traditions and disrespect their parents" being the cause of their children wanting to follow non traditional paths and not, you know, the realization that we're our own person and our lives are not for our parents to live and control (which is also one of the central themes of The Book of Life, a film that was conceived and written by Mexicans, so yeah, that conflict is really frequent).

We still have a culture in which our parents are borderline venerated and family is sacred, and even if I do appreciate the importance given to family, it has led us to put up with toxic (and sometimes even abusive) behavior, and setting boundaries or standing up for yourself will surely be considered disrespectful, ungrateful or just plain rebellious. Imelda having her descendants carry on with her grudge does feel familiar to a degree too. I get the point of the anons of her working hard for the sake of the family, but her perpetuating the music prohibition through generations and refusing to let Miguel go back to the world of the living unless he gives up music, reminds me too much of the entitlement of parents and grandparents towards their descendants and the control they want to have over their lives. For me, Miguel refusing to obligue and clinging onto his passion for music in spite of his family's opposition, it's just a representation of younger generations stepping up and reclaiming that autonomy that the older generations didn't have because "this is just how things are". Him actually convincing them to let him pursue music is kinda unrealistic, but in a way it feels hopeful. I know that for more particular aspects, like the location, it may be unfamiliar to some, but México is really diverse and there's no way to cover all of it in just one film.

On a more meta level, all that initial debacle about Disney trying to trademark Día de Muertos left me with some more thoughts. Like, yeah, fuck the rat and the monopoly, but it did have positive consequences. Not so big, but they're there. Before Coco and the fiasco, Día de Muertos was gradually being sidelined and minimized. Not all over the country, as the southern states have always celebrated it (the southern states are overall more traditional), but in the rest of the country, and specially in urban areas, Día de Muertos was becoming less and less important the further north you went. Even if it's one of the most unique traditions of our culture, it was beginning to be perceived as one that the younger generation cared about because it was mandatory and not because they genuinely valued it. I've always liked it because I'm a nerd, but growing up during the 2000s and early 2010s, I mostly saw people my age treating Día de Muertos as this outdated, boring thing that wasn't as good as Halloween. I remember Halloween being controversial, but not out of satanic panic (or at least, for the most part), but because people feared that younger generations would eventually ditch Día de Muertos in favor of Halloween. It took an American greedy monopoly trying to get its hands on Día de Muertos for people to care about it again.

I'm not saying that the film single handedly saved Día de Muertos from being forgotten, but it did reignite the interest of the general population. It's kinda messed up that a considerable amount of the population only took that much interest after it received foreign attention, but I kinda expected it. Gentrification and capitalization are very much a problem, but since 2017 I've seen a genuine growing interest in Día de Muertos, so I'll take that as a win.

[unrealwasteland]

Hello friends! It has come to my attention that there's a shortage of fic rec lists in this fandom*, and as an avid fic reader, I thought I'd try my hand at making some. I was originally going to name this list something like "Roosmav 101" or "A New Shipper's Guide to Roosmav", but quickly realized that this is a very subjective list with some of my personal favorite Roosmav fics. I may be planning to make more rec lists in the future, but can't promise anything at the moment. (*here's one existing rec list that I know of!)

I'm trying to include relevant tags and warnings here, but please take a look at the full tag lists before reading. :)

in between what's already done by crawsley 5k, E, creator chose not to use archive warnings extremely dubious consent, omegaverse, daddy kink

“We aren’t doing this,” Maverick says, firmly, and he’s tensing like he’s about to move, about to shove Rooster off of him, push him away like he pushed him away before, when all Rooster had wanted was some guidance, some help, some love and kindness and— Rooster bears him to the ground, right there on the rug in the entryway.

Reccer's note: Roosmav fandom staple, this one has that delicious dynamic of Rooster taking his anger out on Mav.

seventy minutes by AortaArgent 19k, E, no archive warnings apply dubious consent, angst with a happy ending, implied/referenced child abuse, self-esteem issues, mav/ofc in first chapter

If he were staying on as an instructor, Maverick reflects, Cyclone would probably have to ream him out for employing unnecessary violence, and particularly for ending up in a brawl with civilians. Even if nobody at the unofficial-official Navy bar would side with a bunch of drunken dickheads over their own and report it, the admiral would find out soon enough. He still hasn’t actually told anyone that he’s leaving. With a trail of wreckage behind him again; Rooster’s bruised jaw, half a dishwasher tray of smashed glasses, one pool cue now in two different places in the bar, some yuppie’s no-longer veneered teeth, and his own crumpled dignity. And two crashed F-18s. Three total damaged planes, to be technical about it.

I could recommend any fic by this author, but seventy minutes is extremely important to me and a formative part of my Roosmav fandom experience. This is the fic that made me go from "I like this ship for horny reasons" to "oh shit, I actually love these characters."

Take These Broken Wings by pohjanneito 11k, E, no archive warnings apply time travel, young Maverick/canon era Rooster, emotional hurt/comfort

Bradley leaned against his cue stick, his eyes glued to Mav’s baby-smooth face. It was uncanny, like an old home movie bleeding out of the TV screen. Mav's voice was soft and pitched a little higher, but he carried himself like he did thirty years in the future, with the bravado and ego of a man twice his size. Or: Rooster travels back in time to 1986 and meets young Maverick.

Reading this fic was a very emotional experience, but in a good way. Amazing characterization and writing in general.

We'll be a fine line. by Exorin 16k, E, underage pre-canon, coming of age, grief/mourning, hurt no comfort (check author's note for info about Bradley's age in this)

Bradley really notices Maverick for the first time when he's thirteen. Every year after that is a struggle. OR: 4.5 times Maverick had no idea what was happening and 1.5 times he said “wow, what a terrible idea but I guess we're doing this”

This is a little different from the other fics listed here - there's no happy ending in this one. It works really well as a pre-canon fic though, and the angst is SO GOOD.

Kissing to Trick You by thedastardly 25k, E, creator chose not to use archive warnings extremely dubious consent, eating disorders, vomiting, sub!mav, sub drop, dom drop, no aftercare, injury, mentions of past icemav and hangster

Maverick doesn’t much care if his love line is long or broken, or if his life line intersects somewhere on the mound of his palm with the line of his heart. He’s played too fast and loose with this mortal coil for too long to be concerned about if the universe has foretold his fate in the lines of his hand.

Take those tags seriously - this one is pretty heavy (but definitely worth it in my opinion). There's a happy/hopeful ending and a promise of healing.

your body keeps the score by Lake 23k, E, no archive warnings apply canon divergence, hurt/comfort, physical therapy

Pete gets injured in the Darkstar ejection and the Navy assigns Bradley as his physical therapist.

Classic hurt/comfort where a character's physical recovery mirrors the emotional arc of the fic. Reading this was a life-affirming experience.

the man with the child in his eyes by hazelmotes 3k, E, no archive warnings apply angst, pining, pre-relationship

Rooster fights against the undertow.

Also known as "fic so good I once recced it to a family member" (I don't think they ever read it though, which might be for the best tbh). Truly beautiful writing and I just love the pining in this. Hopeful ending.

and yes I said yes I will Yes by hazelmotes 7.5k, E, no archive warnings apply secret marriage, wedding night, feminization

The window trim is painted the same white as the cabinets, with matching brass hardware to boot. Maverick contemplates the ledge beneath, what it could hold: a small vase of dried flowers, a colored glass catch-all dish. The kind of dish a wife places near the sink to hold her wedding ring, safe from the maw of the garbage disposal. from the kinkmeme prompt: secret marriage, honeymoon/wedding night sex

This fic is soft and tender and emotional and full of love. And the sex is super hot. Warning: it took me a whole weekend to emotionally recover from reading this.

Toxic Pony by yellow_crayon 3.5k, E, no archive warnings apply dubious consent, identity porn, pwp

The kid staring at him across the bar is young, Hawaiian shirt and blue board shorts, aviators pinned to a thin white undershirt, the V of his crooked collar showing a light smattering of freckles over sun-kissed clavicles. Probably some navy admiral's rebellious kid looking for a good time. Maverick's gone through his fair share of them way back when. This one is at least a decade too young for Maverick's current tastes. That ridiculous old-school mustache he's got going on does nothing to hide the signs of youth in the rest of his body — smooth supple skin and the effortless muscle that Maverick has to work hard to keep at his age. "Like what you see?" Maverick says in way of greeting. It's a lot more straightforward than his usual pickup lines, but he's four drinks in and itching to be bent over some flat surface and fucked hard. Something that looks like disbelief flits over the kid's face, then his expression smooths out once more, hardens. He opens his mouth and it's a man's voice that says, "Yeah, I do."

I love a good identity porn story, and yellow_crayon delivers. This is incredibly hot and also a galaxy brained way to write a pre-canon fic.

This Empty Love by yellow_crayon 11k, E, no archive warnings apply hurt/comfort, angst with a happy ending, intergenerational trauma, Maverick's a+ parenting

He’s sick in the head. Sometime in all those confusing hormonal teenage years after Maverick had left, a wire had crossed somewhere. It's not his dead dad that had messed him up. Bradley doesn't know Nick Bradshaw. Nick Bradshaw is a distant blurry concept that lives in his mother's memories and musty tomes of old faded photographs. He’s not the one Bradley busted his ass to impress growing up; the one he bled and cried for, and whose attention he spent his entire childhood obsessively trying to capture like lightning in a bottle. It’s Maverick. It’s all for Maverick.

This is a companion piece to 'Toxic Pony', but very different tonally. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and probably one of the best written fics I've ever read. I cried a lot.

[gainerbf]

The One Part V

CW: WG, FFA/BHM Relationship, Feedism, Male Feedee, Female Feedee

June 1st, 2020

The Pandemic Break

Covid. It has changed the world. I actually hate writing this part of the story because of ptsd. I despise the year 2020. I hate covid-19 more than I hate anything. This stupid disease robbed us of more than we’ll ever know. The most important thing that was taken from us? Time.

Time had been taken from Eddie and Sydney. Due to the pandemic, they were forced to stay apart for the 1st 3 months of the pandemic. Even worse, Sydney’s camera on her phone was broken and Eddie didn’t have any way to video chat so they could only voice chat on discord or talk on the phone. Sydney was worried 24/7.

Sydney: Are you eating enough?

Eddie: Yes babe.

Sydney: Are you sure? Do you need some money for food?

Eddie: No babe.

Sydney: What if I called over a pizz-

Eddie: Syd…stop. I’m eatimg more than enough.

Sydney: but but but…

Eddie: 8 eggs, a pack of bacon, 3 cinnamon rolls, 2 glasses of whole milk and a bowl of cereal…that was just breakfast babe. Don’t worry. I’m eating.

Sydney was relieved but felt useless. She wanted to feed her man. He was close to 300 pounds but Eddie wanted to tease her by not telling her how much he weighed.

Eddie: We’ll weigh in when I see you

He would reassure her.

Eddie: You might faint when you see me…

He would tease her.

Sydney: This stupid pandemic, I miss you so much Eddie.

Eddie: I miss you too Syd. Not much longer now. Looks like next week we’ll be able to meet up and finally hang out.

Sydney: Thank GOD

The week past and things started to open up on a moderate level. Enough to where Sydney and eddie could go and have a picnic.

Sydney arrived about 20 minutes early to set everything up in a nice secluded spot. She brought Eddie’s favorite lunch. A big foot long sub with all the fixins. An apple pie. Some ice cold lemonade and some chocolate covered strawberries. She was finishing up when she heard his voice.

Eddie: Well aint she the most beautiful flower in the field today

Sydney went red and turned around…

Then Sydney got light headed and fell to her knees. Her jaw hit the floor.

Eddie was big. Really big. Like well over 300 pounds big. His belly was peeking out the bottom of his shirt. His legs were definitely too big for his maxed out shorts. He grew a beard but you could see how round his face had gotten…he was even eating a candy bar as he approached.

Eddie: Well…give me a kiss baby girl.

Sydney jumped into his arms and they fell into the grass. She landed in a pool of fat and wanted to swim forever. They kissed for a long time. It was well overdue.

Sydney: You uhhh…

Eddie: I know. I’m really fat.

Sydney: It’s so hot I might explode.

Eddie: I don’t know why but ever since I met you it’s like my metabolism tanked and I couldn’t stop getting fatter.

Sydney, smirking: I have magical powers 😌 these hands are made for stuffing cute fat boys

She pinched his big lower belly.

Sydney: Well. Hope you brought your appetite. I prepared a big spread for you.

Eddie: Thank god, I’m starving

They sat and ate and enjoyed eachothers company. Yet, Sydney just needed to know. She wanted to know just how big Eddie really was.

Sydney: So..

Eddie: So?

Sydney: How much?

Eddie: How much what?

Sydney: How much weight did you gain? You were 280 last time I saw you. What’s the new number?

Eddie laughed for a second then got a little flustered.

Eddie: Oh my god 280? Yikes babe I kinda ballooned

Sydney was getting very hot and bothered now

Eddie: How about I give you 3 guesses

Sydney: 400

Eddie: Oh my god babe I’m not that big what the fuck 😂

Sydney: Ok maybe some other time. Hmmmmmmmmm. 310?

Eddie: Higher.

Sydney let out an unholy noise when he said that

Sydney: 320?

Eddie: 314

Sydney stood up and walked to a nearby bench. Eddie was confused. He got up and sat next to her…which wasn’t a great idea this bench was STRUGGLING.

Eddie: What’s the matter baby?

Sydney: Are you ok with being that big? I feel kind of guilty Eddie. You met me and put on over 110 pounds in a year and a half. What if that wasn’t what you wanted? What if.

Eddie: Stop.

Eddie halted her right then and there.

Eddie: Sydney. Meeting you was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t mind being this big, not fitting into booths, breaking furniture, outgrowing clothes as long as you love me. If you do, then I’m ok with it. You’re all I care about. If you like me big, then I’ll be HUGE for you

He kissed her on the cheek and cradled her head into his huge soft chest.

Eddie: Now, lets get ba-

Before he could finish the bench broke and down they went. They both sat up and broke out laughing.

Eddie, current weight: 314

Hope you all enjoyed this! I’d love to put out something like this every week but who knows if I can be that creative consistently 😅

[boppiy]

Tips

RULES, RULES, RULES. This is important. You need to set rules for yourself, and if you are truly ana, you will have no problem sticking to them because you are STRONG! Rules are everything. Examples: Don’t eat anything white. Do not, under any circumstances, eat after 6:00. Don’t eat before 3:00. Cut each bite into x amount of pieces, chew x amount of times. Do not eat anything that has over 3 grams of fat. Make your own and keep adding to them.

Ana must be the center of your life.

Drink a full glass of water before you eat and then sip a full glass between bites, you’ll get full much faster. Remember it takes 20 minutes for the brain to realize the stomach is full.

Eat denser food because it feels like more. Light and fluffy foods compact in your digestive tract and you will feel hungry soon after.

Take out only the amount of food you plan to eat and don’t allow seconds.

Think before you eat. Don’t eat while distracted (TV, etc). Stop and consider if you really want to eat that then consciously give yourself permission.

100-calorie meals is better than one 400-calorie meal.

Never eat anything bigger than about a cup, your stomach will expand and you’ll get hungry more. If you need to, eat more frequently, not bigger amounts.

Slim-Fast and other “healthy” bars and shakes have more carbs and calories than in the meal they’re intended to replace. Stay away.

Drink at least a glass of water every hour. It’s better for weight loss to sip throughout the day than to chug a full glass (except before eating, in which case it can make you eat less, or make you slightly nauseous so you don’t want to eat at all). Try keeping a water bottle somewhere you’ll see it a lot, like every 10-20 minutes, and take a drink from it every time you see it/notice it.

Drink up to a shot of apple cider vinegar before eating, it’s supposed to minimize fat absorption. Also speeds metabolism and can help curb cravings. Drinking more than a shot causes a vague nausea which helps suppress appetite.

Ice or gum are good food substitutes. Celery works too if you’re really hungry.

Use small, dark colored plates. Dark blue or black makes you eat less, and smaller plates and utensils cause you to take smaller portions from the start.

Make a list of “bad” foods. Periodically, cross one of the list and pledge to never, ever eat it again. Eventually there will be none left.

Eat in front of a mirror, naked or in underwear if possible. If you can’t, carry a picture of yourself in a revealing outfit and look at it when you want to eat. When you have cravings pinch your fat and look at your problem areas, don’t add to them!

Eat a lot of fiber for digestive health and low calories.

Create a methodical routine for eating. Cut food into tiny pieces, count your bites and the number of times you chew, set your utensils down between bites, and sip water between bites. Add other rules or rituals of your own.

Eat higher-calorie items earlier in the day so you have more time to burn them off; if you eat late eat light or it will be more likely to be stored as fat due to inactivity. Try not to eat too late, sleep burns calories and is a good opportunity to burn fat with little effort. The body must burn through all digesting food before taking energy from stored food (fat).

When you go out, take very little money or only enough to buy whatever non-food item you plan on buying. This will make it harder to buy food on impulse.

Don’t take bites, either from others’ food or while cooking, as the calories add up surprisingly fast and you may not realize how much extra you’re taking in.

Write down everything you eat and its calories. This will make you think before eating and also make you more aware of how much food and calories you are actually consuming. You can also write down other things such as how you’re feeling, who you’re with, place, time, and why you chose to eat it, this will help you track patterns in your eating behavior.

Wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it when you want to eat. Food = pain.

Set a time you cannot eat past. 6:00 or 7:00pm are good choices. This is especially helpful if you are prone to night binging. Then make a rule that you cannot eat before 6:00 or 7:00AM, this is like having a 12-hr fast every day.

You shouldn’t eat for at least 3 hours before going to bed. The extra hours will help burn off the calories. If you eat soon before sleeping, you absorb more calories due to inactivity and you put on weight.

Have a peppermint or peppermint tea. Peppermint decreases hunger.

Brush your teeth when you want to eat. The clean feeling and mint aftertaste will put you off food.

Press on your stomach when it grumbles. TUMS also stop stomach growling and have calcium.(5 calories a piece so be careful!)

Carry a list of all the reasons you want to be thin and avoid food. Look at it when you want to eat to remind yourself why you won’t. Or, write a new list every time you want to eat. It’ll distract you, postpone eating, and thinking of the reasons will inspire you.

[balzabul]

internet co. loid headcanons bc i never rly post/think abt them

gumi - the star of course; she never let it get to her head tho, she's just as happy staying in w/ friends and family as she is performing. she always gets ppl rly kickass gifts for holidays/birthdays despite ppl often thinking she's a little absent. she's just like that! it's not her fault!

gakupo - only performs in small private venues (his own decision) after several years of dealing w/ the stress of having to live up to his human voice provider's legacy. can tell you anything at all about any famous japanese sword from the last 400 years and is thrilled to do so

gachapoid/ryuto - V3 is a child actor/singer and has a contract with a popular kids show as the host; loves his internet co. family and is always thinking of fun day trips they could do together. V2 quit performing the second V3 was released and makes several thousand dollars a month cheating at fortnite and streaming tiktok controversy reaction videos (fsr these are the only two i rly separate by voicebank version?? i dont rly have diff headcanons for gumi/lily/etc v2 versus v3 etc)

lily - an unexpected friend and protégé of miriam! miriam's like a mother to her after she went to the retired loid's cafe and bar to chat and ended up in a whole therapy session abt being a lower quality vocaloid that isnt getting any updates. she still performs acoustic covers in miriam's cafe.

CUL - the cool weed aunt of the group; she gives gachaV2 fortnite v-bucks every time she vists. while lily struggled with irrelevance CUL thrived in it; she only produces songs for a small private label she founded, and otherwise fills her time with crossfit and volunteer work

kokone - gumi's ex; it was completely amicable and they're still good friends. Gacha V2 calls her "gumi's ex" out loud occasionally bc he knows it pisses her off. she's somewhat sensitive about never taking off like some other vocaloids, but it's not like she thinks about it much

Rana - has an unofficial rivalry with gacha v3 (not v2!) but she doesn't even realize it. she's having a blast guest starring on gachaV3's morning show and having duets with powerhouses like gumi, but gachaV3 feels threatened by another childish character voice. v2 absolutely fuels this by suggesting bigger and better opportunities to rana

Galaco (prize version) - kind of like the mysterious celebrity relative? she never got huge but her name is important enough that she still arrives to holidays in a glitter-coated limousine. she has the money to upgrade every vocaloid in the house on her own dime but instead she uses it to gift tchotchkes and ugly apparel (not out of malice she's just out of touch)

chika - originally a constituent of gumi's, she never really wanted to be a singer until gumi started performing for the big leagues; inspired by her friend she joined the same record label and the two have been inseparable since, though she doesn't get as many big shows. she and lily gossip about the entertainment business

otomachi una - a lot of the internet co. household actually didn't like una when she first got signed to their label; even gumi felt somewhat threatened by a newer, higher quality voicebank. luckily everyone realized pretty quickly that she's just a funny silly gal and doesn't want to overshadow anyone. Spicy and Sugar are separate android bodies and play "the parent trap" type tricks on the rest of the household constantly

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Sygna Suit Piers

*sigh*  Okay, I promise I'll stop being a hater, just let me have this one.  Dual Toxtricity is lame, because "It's the same Pokemon twice as our event!" is the lamest possible outcome.  It was the fatal flaw of the otherwise wonderful NC Kalos duo, it was the major problem with third anniversary, it is never, ever an interesting idea.  I'm sorry.  It sucks.  There were other musically themed Pokemon.  Do better.

General Overview Piers also gets Toxtricity!  This is the other kind though.  He is Roxie's counterpart, identical yet different in every way.  Piers opts for Electric Striker, which is a bold fucking move from a guy who's got mid-300s Sp Atk.  Piers' Buddy move gets no penalty AoE and costs less in gauge, but in exchange, doesn't do the fun Sp Def debuffing utility Roxie's does.  So I like it less.  The condition is much easier though, just needing a field effect.  His secondary DPS for Poison is Sludge Bomb, which is cringe but so is the type's special damage move selection.  Piers calls Electric Terrain the instant he attacks, and his trainer move is 2MP with Poison Zone.  Problem: that's his setup.  Which is bad.  So Piers is much more support reliant than Roxie.  He does get Piercing Blows, but like all Piercing Blows users, his actual damage numbers are complete ass in compensation.  Unless you're Red, who never suffers a flaw.  Piers' grid is where things get a little nutty.  SMUN each field effect is fantastic, that's Tapu level good and he partners with SS Hau beautifully as a result.  Dirty Sync 6 is funny because he's bad at status without his 3-bar moves, and has the same Poison Zone Sync Up 9 inversion that Roxie does.  He also resets Electric Terrain on first sync if desired.

Okay so real talk, show of hands, how many people are struggling with Electric?  It's gotta be just me by now.  Great, then I can safely say you don't need this guy.  SST Red is better and everyone has him.  I'd hear out the argument for this guy over SS Hau, though that depends on whether his damage is more important than Hau's debuffs and speed generation. He shares Roxie's oddities, where Electric damage wants Poison and vice versa, and his Poison DPS is kinda crap? I fully expect it to be worse than Drasna, who wasn't even doing that well with it. Piers seems fine if you really need damage, but mostly for Electric. Which...almost no one does. His decision here is questionable. Probably should've stuck with Poison, my dude.

EX, Role, and Move Level? No penalty AoE spam, he does not need EX.  His role is Support, which I actually respect given the dual damage types, even if the stat boosts are awkward.  Move Level is similar to Roxie.  1/5 will get all the utilities you need, but as someone a bit more primary in damage, he appreciates higher move levels.

Team 1: SS Piers, SS Roxie, NC Blue/BP Janine The Toxtricity duo were made for each other, thanks to the ability to consistently call both field effects that are required for full performance. Personally I find stuff like this boring, but it is effective. SS Piers has garbage self-setup, but it's nothing that Janine can't manage with one use of his TM. If you're going hard on the Electric damage, NC Blue is the obvious best pick, whose gauge management also allows Roxie to easily spam her 4-bar Electric move.

Team 2: SS Piers, SS Hau, BP Janine "Recommending BP Janine a lot with these two." Not my fault they made her so good. Another big emphasis is SS Hau, who extends Electric Terrain that Piers can set for absurd times. Moreover, Hau has access to Mind Games, powering up Piers' AoE spam, while Hau's damage compresses once sides are down. I recommend BP Janine because Piers' self-setup is garbage, but anything that can handle Sp Atk and at least 1 point of crit is sufficient for the team's needs.

Team 3: SS Piers, Petrel/H!Iris, SS Brendan Anyone else pull Petrel? It can't just be me. Anyway, Poison-types are awkward when it comes to special, because they all need so much and are kinda bad. I actually kinda like Petrel, and I think it's worth noting that he also has Piercing Blows to bypass gimmicks, as well as flinch and Sp Def debuffing. The team still needs some quick boosting, and I'm mentioning SS Brendan because his trainer move perfectly complements Piers'.

However, I'll also note H!Iris here. If you wanted a special Poison damage partner, Piers is an option. However. Despite what he has, his low base stats suggest to me that as far as a partner for her specifically goes, Drasna's...likely better. She has a heavier multiplier and better base stats, I don't see Piers outperforming her at the secondary Poison DPS game.

Final Thoughts It's admittedly harder to find use for Piers compared to Roxie, because his entire life focus is the damage, but he's bad at self-sufficiency. This makes partner selection difficult, because there really aren't great options for managing his needs in the F2P pool. I'm sure his damage output will be great for the types he's in, but I also just don't think Electric needs much, while Poison has made a really good comeback, and his own contributions to that type are astonishingly minimal. Of the two, I prefer Roxie. I think her utility contributes more. But he is a good Electric damage dealer if you didn't have one of those.

But can I also just say, Masters is kinda running on fumes with Electric? Like aside from the fact it's got some of the most overpowered bullshit, we also had the High Score event for this type. It's not like we need to worry about it. High Score events run every other month, and there's 18 types; that's 35 months to get all types in just one time. Electric like just happened, we have almost three years before that becomes relevant again, and I promise you, it won't be relevant by the time we get there. There's more relevance in the notion of pulling him for Extreme Battle events than High Score.

[lookbluesoup]

Bitter Bitter Bitter

Short fic set sometime after Lyrha's started to have her change of heart, but before she and X'rhun are together.

The worst part of trauma is first realizing you have it because you also don't have coping mechanisms yet. It's just there. Ruining things. Lyrha isn't sure having a conscience is actually improving her life, right now, thanks.

Rating: T Tags: Angst, Implied Sex, Unreliable Narrator

---

She’d tasted bitterness before. But in the past, it’d all been bitter. Without knowing otherwise, she hadn’t had a reason to care. Hadn’t known it could be different. Not before.

Now she wanted to gag.

Lyrha watched from across the bar, as a pair of grateful women, rescued only a few hours ago from a troupe of bandits, sat on either side of X’rhun and treated him to fine ales.

He’d invited her to join, but she preferred to sit over her cup of swill and brood.

It wasn’t her victory, anyway. X’rhun had done most of the work. The ladies clearly shared the sentiment. As the night wore on it became obvious they intended to offer him an altogether different kind of gratitude. Hands wandered. Cheeks flushed. He gave them that dazzling smile. They were in for a treat.

Lyrha didn’t care.

Not really.

Not about them.

There were women in every town, and X’rhun was a handsome, charming wanderer bound to draw them out.

He gave them love so easily. Never took a breath without passion – for life, for his cause, for his people. He made folks feel like they were important. Their suffering hurt him, personally. X’rhun would do anything to protect those in need. Even strangers he’d never met before their troubles started. Because he cared. Like nobody she had ever met before in her entire life, he cared.

And he looked… happy, tonight. Two beautiful ladies crawling over him, flirting, touching, laughing. Lyrha had offered him her body once, the day he’d saved her. And he’d refused. But she hadn’t wanted him then, not really. Not like these two did. Not like she did now, watching their joy.

She wondered, bitterly, and oh how she hated the taste of it, what made them more deserving.

Lyrha knew why, of course. The jealous prickle under her skin, the greed – for something she knew she had no right to, and for moments that weren’t hers to claim – these were the marks of treachery in her blood. A black heart. She’d always had it. And always would in her core, no matter how much Red ribbon she dressed it up in.

You couldn’t want a man like X’rhun and have such vices.

If he ever found out what she really was, the things she’d done… he’d kill her. She had no doubt. She’d seen him run brigands through for lesser crimes. The hands that healed her before would become the instruments of her righteous undoing.

It was vomitous bile to swallow but therein lay the truth. If she was really the kind of person who deserved mercy, who could make use of a second chance, who could inspire loyalty and affection in a man like him… she wouldn’t be so damn incensed at being denied it all.

Rotten, she was. And too stubborn to change. And too selfish by half to get what she wanted.

Even now, she couldn’t just be happy for him, or for the women they’d saved. Only bitter.

Bitter. Bitter. Bitter.

It was all that was in her. No sweetness or softness. Nothing to win her an outstretched hand, not without lying. Dry anger festered around the bitterness until her ears burned and her vision clouded.

Lyrha was out the door into the moonlight almost before realizing she was on her feet. Smuggler’s habit, maybe. Though it wasn’t in her nature to avoid a fight, she didn’t want to start one, now. It wasn’t X’rhun’s fault she deceived him. Or his responsibility to desire her.

Or her place to ruin a good night for others. She’d ruined quite enough, already.

Silent feet tread quickly the maze of the town, subconsciously crossing her tracks and stealing through the shadowy side of each alley, to keep loose of unwanted eyes.

Instinct led her to higher ground. A rooftop, where she could watch the sea. Lyrha didn’t weep. But she tucked her knees up and rested her chin on them, wrapped her arms around and locked her unsheathed claws together so they stung her palms. And stared, unblinking, toward the vast uncaring ocean that raised her, while a cold wind bit her cheeks.

---

Also on Ao3!

[life-and-taxes]

You know what really sucks? If you know that something is important and has real consequences if you don't do it or if you do it wrong, but you have no idea how to actually do the thing. It's scary and can make doing the thing very intimidating.

You know what's a really common thing everyone has to do but very few people are taught about?

Income taxes.

This infuriates me. So I sat down to write a brief and basic breakdown of how US federal income taxes work. It ended up being less brief than I originally envisioned, but the headers are in all caps so you can skip ahead to the questions you are interested in. But first here's my disclaimer. Do your own research, talk to a tax professional if you have questions, I'm not speaking on behalf of any tax return preparation company, don't sue me if you screw up your taxes, etc, etc.  If you want to dig deeper into anything here, go to irs.gov and search for whatever you're looking for. The IRS website is actually pretty useful.

Alright. Let's go. Here's like, the basic, most over-simplified explanation of federal income taxes.

WHAT IS TAXES?

When a bunch of people get together and decide that they want to operate under the same set of rules, they form a government. That government takes money to run. They use it to hire people and fund programs that do things for their country and sometimes other countries. Sometimes the things the government spends money on are good things. Sometimes they are bad things. Sometimes they are good ideas executed poorly.

We're not going to get into that right now.

The point is, the government gets its money from the people it governs. I mean. Not all of it, probably. But the parts that are important for this conversation it does.

You, if you are a US citizen or someone living in the US, are required to pay a percentage of your income to the federal government. The amount is not a flat percentage. People who make more money get taxed on higher percentages of that money*. Somebody has to add up all the money you made during the year to figure out how much you should have paid in taxes. You do this sometime between January and mid-April (barring national disasters or ill-timed holidays that push back the due date) by filing a tax return. The normal due date is April 15.

*Look. Explaining exactly how tax brackets work requires pictures and/or hand gestures. You don't need to worry about it now.

HOW DOES A TAX RETURN WORK?

If you (and your spouse if you have one) work "normal" jobs, you'll get a form called a W-2 from any employers you worked for during the year. They contain info about how much money you made and how much of it was already sent to the government on your behalf. The most important boxes are box 1 (wages, tips, and other compensation) and box 2 (federal withholding). This shows 1. what you made before taxes were taken out and 2. how much of it was sent to the government for your federal tax payments. Filling out your tax return (Form 1040) will add up all your income, calculate how much you should have paid in taxes (AKA your tax liability), and compare that to what you DID pay. If you overpaid, you get a refund. If you underpaid, you have to make up the difference. If you underpaid by a LOT, there may be an underpayment penalty. (Note: the failure to file penalty, for not filing a tax return, is always more than the failure to pay penalty! If you owe the IRS it's better to go ahead and file on time. If you can't pay what you owe at once there are payment plan options. If you can't file on time you can file an extension which pushes your due date for filling back to October 15, usually. You can send a payment with your extension if required.) 

If you're not using a professional, I highly reccommend using some kind of tax software to fill out your tax return. You'll get tax forms from your sources of income, and a few other select places. If it came in the mail or email and says "IMPORTANT TAX DOCUMENT ENCLOSED" you should save it and have it with you when you start preparing your tax return. Your software/tax professional should ask what you have, and then you or they will plug it into the software. You should just have to plug in basic info about yourself (legal name, date of birth, social security number, address, etc) and the data from any tax forms you received, and let the software do the work! 

So that's basically it. You use the 1040 to figure out how much income you made, if you're elligible for any credits, and what you should have put into withholding. If you overpaid, you get a refund. If you underpaid, you will owe the IRS. All you really need to do is collect your tax documents and do some data entry. If you don't have any tax credits and you're not self-employed or retired and you don't have any kids or investment money, you can skip to the WHERE DO I FILE section.

WAIT WHAT ARE TAX CREDITS?

Tax credits are money that the government credits to you because you meet certain criteria. They can either be nonrefundable or refundable. Nonrefundable tax credits can reduce your tax liability (tax liability is the money you should have paid in income tax throughout the year, based on your total yearly income). Basically, if you had a tax liability of $3000 and you get a nonrefundable tax credit of $1000 it brings your tax liability down to $2000. But if you had a liability of $3000 and a nonrefundable tax credit of $4000 it can only bring your liability down to $0.

Refundable tax credits can give you money back, though. If you had a tax liability of $2000 and a refundable tax credit of $3000, that's $1000 the IRS owes YOU, baby. 

COMMON TAX CREDITS

Child Tax Credit

If you supported a descendant of yours who is under age 17 and lived with you more than half the year, you get a credit for that! The "normal" use of this credit is for your kids, but grandkids, step kids, and young siblings and niblings can count too if you are the one supporting them. If you split custody of your kids with their other parent to whom you are not married, only one of you gets to claim them. If the two of you can't peacefully decide who that is going to be, and you want to claim them, you need to be able to prove that you supported the kid(s) and they lived with you. Notes from the kid's school and/or doctor are often used for this.

As of the time of this writing (2023), the Child Tax Credit is $2000/kid. If you make a ton of money this credit may be phased out. The Child Tax Credit is one of those nonrefundable credits that we talked about. It can only take your tax liability down to $0. BUT if you had some of the credit "left over" after your tax liability was wiped out, you may qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit, which is a refundable credit, but it maxes out at $1500/kid instead.

Other Dependent Credit

This is a credit you can get if you supported a dependent who doesn't fit the criteria for the Child Tax Credit. This can be a child age 17 or older, a parent who you support, your live-in girlfriend who doesn't work (if she lived with you ALL YEAR), etc. (Please note: your spouse is NOT your dependent. Even if they don't work.) Not sure if someone qualifies as your dependent? The IRS website has a tool for that. The Other Dependent Credit is currently $500/person.

"Daycare Credit" AKA Child and Dependent Care Expenses Credit

If you send your kid or disabled dependent or spouse to daycare so you can work, go to school, or look for work, you can get a percentage of that money back as a credit. The exact percentage depends on your income. 

The facility where you send your kid should provide you with an end of year statement showing the expenses you paid that year. You'll also need their EIN (Employer ID Number) and basic info like their name, address, and phone number. If you paid an individual you'll need their social security number instead.

Earned Income Credit

This is a credit for people who have worked during the year but who haven't made what the government considers to be "enough" money. You were trying. But you probably need some help. The amount you can receive depends on how much money you made and how many kids you have. Any tax software should calculate this automatically. It can be a real life-save for some families. 

"Solar Panel Credit" AKA Residential Energy Credit

I'm only going to talk about the solar panel part here because it's most common. Basically, if you install solar panels, you can get a credit for up to (currently; it changes year to year) 30% of what you spent/financed. BUT a VERY IMPORTANT thing that the solar salespeople often don't tell you is that this is a NONREFUNDABLE credit. If you only have a tax liability of $2000, this credit will only give you $2000 for this year even if it's a $16,000 credit! Don't count on the whole 30% to go towards your solar loan principal if you don't usually have a big tax liability! The good news is that the unused portion of your credit will "carry forward" to next year, meaning it can help reduce your next year's liability if you don't use it all up this year. And the next, etc. Keep up with your old tax returns so you can put any carryforward credit onto the next year's return!

"Higher Education Credits" AKA American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit

The short version is that if you spent money out of your pocket or if you took out a loan to pay for higher education for you, your spouse, or your dependent (or your kid that their other parent claims), you can get a percentage of that back as a credit. The AOTC is better but you can only take it for a total of 4 years, then you get bumped down to the Lifetime Learning Credit. You'll need to get the 1098-T from the school to see what you paid, and you may be able to also include expenses for things like textbooks.

Other Credits

There's also a credit if you're adopting a kid, but I'm not going to get into it here. Just know to look it up if you ever adopt!

There is a small credit for people who contribute to a retirement plan and have income under a certain amount. This is the Saver's Credit.

I'm not listing every credit that exists, just the ones I see the most. A lot of people don't know about the college credits, which sucks, because they can really help!

HANG ON I'M SELF-EMPLOYED WHAT DO I DO?

Congrats on being your own boss! If you are self-employed/freelance/contract labor, you get a 1099 at the end of the year instead of a W-2. Usually a 1099-NEC (NEC for non-employee compensation). This means that instead of your employer sending money to the government to pay your taxes for you, you have to do it yourself! The parts that go to Social Security and Medicare taxes are called "Self-Employment Taxes" and they get calculated at the end of the year in addition to your Income Taxes. 

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ME?

When you are filing your tax return, you'll have to fill out a Schedule C for each business. Do you drive for Doordash and you also clean your aunt's house every week? Congrats. You have two businesses. One as a delivery driver and one as a housekeeper. But if you drive for Doordash and Uber Eats, you just have one job as a delivery driver. 

During the year, you need to do 2 basic things:

1. Save back money to pay your taxes, and send it to the IRS quarterly. These are called Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments and you can do it by mail or online. The IRS has a tool to help you calculate how much you should be sending.

2. Keep track of your expenses and milage! If you spend money on things that you use exclusively for business, you can count those as expenses. (I'll get to expenses in a minute.) If you use something mostly for work, like a cell phone, you can count a fraction of that expense. If you drive your personal vehicle for work (not TO work; commuting doesn't count for this), keep track of the miles you drive! You get to count that as expenses, a certain number of cents/mile. It adds up. If any of this applies to you, please do more research, maybe download an app to keep track of things. This is just to let you know what you need to know so you can look up in depth what applies to you.

HOLD ON GO BACK. WHAT ARE EXPENSES?

Okay. Basically, to calculate what money is taxable if you're self-employed, you add up your income (what you got paid), and then total all your expenses (the money you spent to run your business). Income - Expenses = Profit or Loss. You only get taxed on the profit (called a "gain" on the form). A loss can offset some of your "regular" income, but please do more research if that applies to you. 

If you got paid $10,000 for the year in your home bakery business but spent $8000 on things like flour, cake boxes, and renting a catering van, you only made a profit of $2000 and that's all that counts for your income and self-employment taxes.  That's why it's important to keep track of your expenses and mileage! Less profit = less taxes. But you know. Don't make crap up. Assuming that you will be audited eventually will help keep you out of trouble!

OKAY, THIS IS ALL NICE, BUT I GET RETIREMENT MONEY

That's cool! If you get social security, you'll get an SSA-1099. If you get money from IRAs or other pensions, you'll get a 1099-R. Just plug 'em into your tax software and it will calculate everything automatically. If you tend to owe money at the end of the year and you don't want to, you can have more withholding taken out of either your social security or your pension by talking to whoever oversees your account.

WHAT IF I HAVE INVESTMENT MONEY?

Look. If you have investment income and you came here for tax advice, you are in the wrong place, buddy. I'm happy for you but we do not have time for that right now. If you get like $20 in interest from your checking account or whatever, fine. Just plug that 1099-INT into your software and you're good to go. If you have, like, dividends, or you trade stock or whatever? You're the kind of person who leaves your documents with your tax pro and they get back to you next week.

WAIT YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TALKED ABOUT SHORT FORM VS LONG FORM

That's because it's not a thing anymore, sweetie. There are only two forms for personal tax returns: the 1040 and the 1040-SR. The only difference is that the 1040-SR, for seniors, has a bigger font. Really. That's it. 

What you are thinking of is itemizing vs taking the standard deduction.

Basically, you add up your total income for the year and then subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Gross income minus standard or itemized deductions = taxable income. So the more you can deduct here, the less tax liability you have. For this year (tax year 2022 since I'm writing this in 2023), the standard deduction for single is $12,950, $25,900 for married filing jointly, and $19,400 for Head of Household (an unmarried adult who has at least one dependent). If you itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction, you can add up various deductions and subtract that from your gross income instead. Common things you can itemize include

* unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5% percent of your total income

* charitable giving

* interest on your mortgage

* state or local income or sales tax

Itemizing is only useful if the total of all the deductions you can take is higher than the standard deduction. For most people, it isn't, so I'm not going to go any deeper into this and waste everyone's time.

WHERE DO I FILE?

If all of this has made you tired, and you still just want to pay someone else to do it for you, and you can afford that, great! Professionals exist to do hard stuff for you in exchange for money. Ask about the price up front. It may vary depending on how complicated your return is. Some places will let you take your fees out of your refund, if you get one, usually for an additional fee.

I'D REALLY RATHER NOT PAY MONEY TO DO THIS ACTUALLY

Good news! If your total income was $73,000 or less (as of this writing), there are places you can do your taxes online for free! Just go to IRS.gov, click "File Your Taxes for Free," and use their tools to find a program that will work for you. You may have to pay a small fee to file a state return, if you lived or worked in a state that collects state income taxes.

GEE, THANKS FOR THE EXPLANATION. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANTED TO TELL US?

Why, yes, there is! Thanks for asking!

A TAX RETURN IS NOT A TAX REFUND.

Please stop saying "return" when you mean "refund." Yes, I know, that they are kind of synonyms in regular English but a tax return is the form you file when you file your taxes. If you get money back, that is a refund. Thank you.

JUST BECAUSE YOU WORKED HARD DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET A BIG REFUND

That's like... not how it works at all. Did I include this just because one man stormed out of my office because he was mad that he was getting only a couple hundred dollars back instead of the several thousand dollars that his underemployed girlfriend with two kids got? Maybe. Credits are for people who the government decided need help (like people with kids or low incomes) OR for things the government is bribing you to do (like install solar panels). If none of these things apply to you and you still want a big refund, you could have your employer hold more withholding out of your paychecks, but that means you'll get smaller paychecks and that the government is just using your money interest free until they give it back to you when you file your tax return. Some people like to do that, though. They treat the IRS like a savings account they're not allowed to tap into except once a year.

LET'S TALK ABOUT FILING STATUSES FOR A SECOND

There are five filing statuses:

Married Filing Jointly. This is for two people who are legally married. If you live in a state that allows for common law marriage, you can be common law married and file jointly. But if you ever decide you don't want to be married anymore you are supposed to get a divorce if you want to go back to filing single. MFJ has the highest standard deduction. One spouse will be listed as "taxpayer" and the other as "spouse." It doesn't matter which is which. Sex doesn't matter. Income doesn't matter. The IRS just wants you to do it the same every year for record-keeping purposes.

Married Filing Separately. This is for two people who are married but don't want to file jointly. It is usually the worst way to file because several credits are not available to MFS people, but sometimes your spouse won't cooperate with you or maybe they have weird financial crap going on and you don't want it tied up with your financial crap. Approach with caution. It's half the standard deduction, but if your spouse itemized, you must itemize too.

Single. This is for people who aren't married and don't have any dependents. It's half of what the MFJ standard deduction is.

Head of Household. Forget whatever you think you know about how normal people use this phrase normally. Head of Household, for tax purposes, is for an unmarried adult with one or more dependents (if you're married and your spouse has abandoned you and you have kids you can use this status though! As long as the spouse didn't live with you for the last half of the year). It's one and a half times the single standard deduction. 

Qualifying Widow(er). This is an uncommon filing status. If someone was married with kids and their spouse died, they get to file as MFJ with that spouse the year that their spouse died, as long as they don't remarry that same year. For the next two years, the surviving spouse can file QW. The Qualifying Widow(er) deduction is the same as MFJ. After that, providing they still have dependents, they get bumped back down to Head of Household.

WOW, THANKS. TAXES DON'T SEEM SO SCARY ANYMORE.

I'm glad to hear it! Go forth with more knowledge.

[namorslutfanfiction]

hi, idk why but i have the notion of you living in california and i was wondering, would you recommend it?? i know it's expensive but average how much would you spend on a month?? i'd love to know what you think about it. (and if you don't live there i'm sorry lol). hope you're doing well!

Hello, thank you for the ask. I'm finally back on here today to reply to my inbox so you asked at a good time.

I do live in California. Northern. About an hour north east of San Francisco. My town is actually in the top ten most expensive in the country when you compare income verses cost of living. For some perspective, I was looking at a single room apartment or even a studio and unless its government housing for low income, rent starts at 1600 and can go up as high as 2200, if you don't want to live in a bad neighborhood.

As of now I am still unemployed after losing my job earlier this month. I was making decent money there at $22 an hour. As I look for jobs I'm lucky to find anything close to that, that isn't completely out of my wheelhouse of skills. I was also living almost paycheck to paycheck at $22 an hour because I have quite a bit of debt and a car payment/insurance.

Most people out here have roommates or if they can afford their own place usually work as tradesmen or in the medical field. I was working in the casino industry but had an hour commute. Traffic in Norcal is much better than Socal. But the interstate freeways definitely get kind of shitty during rush hour.

Pros of California

Decent weather most of the year. We pretty much always have some sun, barring this past crazy winter.

Very populous so lot's of fun places to go within an hour or two drive no matter where you live. I'm literally an hour from San Francisco, 45 mins to the state capital, 20 minutes to Napa/Sonoma, and there are several universities in the area which increases need for cool activities and outings.

Very diverse and liberal in metropolitan areas. Most people are actually really nice and chill.

Lot's of tech opportunities and start ups

Honestly a lot of industries have a big presence here so if you can put in the work you can find a decent job especially if you live in a big city.

Lot's of cool nature and hiking paths. It's a big state and we love to maintain some of the natural beauty. Beaches, mountain, forest, lakes and deserts. Bunch of national and state parks

No snow unless you're literally on a mountain

Lots of great authentic and diverse food.

Good place for furthering education. We have high level schools that are internationally renown.

We have a ton of farms and during peak seasons its super easy to get fresh produce for cheap from farmers markets, stalls, and fairs.

We have 9 international airports and have access to a lot of imported goods.

Most artists will have multiple CA stops on their tours.

Cons of California

Super high cost of living. Yes our average wages are higher than most states but it doesn't really cover how high cost of living is especially in metropolitan areas.

Rent and housing prices are super high throughout the state unless you live in a super rural area. Also very competitive.

Public transportation is not great even in the cities.

Traffic, especially in LA can add hours to a drive.

You have to have a car if you're not living in the middle of a big city. Most places in CA are pretty spread out and hard to navigate on foot.

WILD FIRE SEASON

39 Million people live in California the last I checked. Socal is more populous than Norcal.

You have to reserve camping spots like a year in advance at the best parks.

Housing shortage has led to a homelessness epidemic. See Skid Row in LA. And those apartments are also super expensive even surrounded by vagrants.

Sometimes the fog is so bad you can't see a few yards in front of you. Mostly during the morning. I used to drive home at 3 am after work and i was going 40 on the highway because it was so foggy.

That's all I can think of at the moment. But if you have any other questions feel free to message me or send another ask.

[coccolithophore]

5 & 10 for redeemer; 41, 44, 64 for him

this got long so im gonna slap a cut on here

neon the redeemer 5. do they follow a higher power? what are their thoughts on divinity? yeasss so this answer is gonna get long AND require some backstory lore. in the beyond religious folks worship the sun, it is a bit like fantasy catholicism but there are regional variants because there's not really a centralized church. the vague story common in the religion is that the sun was a real person who martyred themselves to save the world from darkness and became the sun you see in the sky. the basic tenants are usually just be a good person and be nice to other people. since neon is from sin city, the sun religion focuses more on forgiveness rather than actually doing good things on the day to day. "you may be a low down piece of gutter trash but hey if you go to my church and pay a low low monthly fee of $6.99 there's hope for you!" sort of thing lol neon is disgusted by the way the sun church takes advantage of people but does believe in the doctrine of forgiveness and doing good by others. their character concept is a vigilante... priest?? sort of thing. they frequent casinos, bars and places like that to keep an eye on people who are causing trouble. they're not afraid to beat people up and get their hands dirty to stop violence and crime... but sees the good in others and offers a helping hand and a chance for people who are down on their luck to turn their lives around. they run a church/sanctuary/safehouse type deal where people can get back on their feet away from the pressure of the city. neon does not aim to convert people to their religion, but to be like the sun and earn forgiveness for themselves. they hope to spread some kindness to people who have never been told they are worth saving, which they see as an act of faith in of itself.

10. how often do they lie? what situations cause them to be dishonest?

neon doesn't talk about themselves much and doesn't press others to open up either. i don't necessarily think they lie a lot but dealing with people in sin city who could kill them OR whose lives neon could potentially compromise by knowing too much would not be great so they recognize the importance of... discretion.

him: 41. what are they attracted to in other people? him gets crushes really easily and if someone pays attention to him he will hear wedding bells. ideally he would like to be with someone who would want to settle down with him and have kids. but he can basically see good traits in anyone even when he shouldn't.

physically he would notice a nice smile and laugh. and. this is not a preference or anything but he DOES get very flustered by people who are taller or larger than himself lsdf he's used to being the biggest one in a room so if someone makes him feel Small he does not know how to act.

44. what do they need to learn? that he doesn't have to do things for people in order for them to like them. and also what he actually wants to do with his life if he doesn't die trying to save the world.

64. do they value mercy or justice more? FKDJS hard question. a little of both for sure. he hates corrupt power systems and is always ready to bring down corrupt people who hurt the innocent. won't give people like that a moment of mercy. but, perhaps to a fault, he can generally understand that circumstances can lead people into bad situations and is willing to hear people out IF they haven't like. committed crimes against humanity or framed him for murder for example.

[mcdougallfoley30]

When it comes to gold, it is true that people can become drunk with its value. Whether buying, selling or caring for it, it is mesmerizing and captivating. If you want to learn all you can about gold, this article contains a great deal of priceless information you can't go on without.

Do not assume that gold that is old, ugly, broken and unwearable is not eligible to be sold for a profit. The value of gold is not based on the attractiveness of the piece. It all depends on the weight of the gold, so feel free to bring in gold that is in any condition. If you are interested in investing in the gold market, but do not have lare amounts of capital, consider purchasing scrap gold. Gold Download can be done bit by bit. For example, you might invest a bit each payday to amass an impressive collection of gold as time passes. Keep your stash in a safe place until you have enough of it to cash in. If you want to purchase a piece of gold jewelry that will last a long time, it's crucial to purchase heavier jewelry. Though they may be more expensive, heavier pieces are able to withstand pretty much anything. On the other hand, thinner more fragile pieces are more likely to break. When selling your gold, make sure that you separate each piece by its karat value. Some dealers will attempt to weigh all your gold at once then use the lowest karat value to calculate the payment. Keeping your jewelry separated out by karat values ensures that you are paid fairly for each piece. If you decide to invest in gold, you need to consider it a long-term investment. The price of gold fluctuates constantly but over the long term, prices increase. Even if you plan to make a large investment in gold, buy gold bars or coins separately over a short period of time. Do not sell your gold at a gold party. Although these parties are fun, sellers usually net less than 80 percent of the value of their gold at these parties. To get the most bang for your buck, find a reputable dealer that specializes in buying and selling gold. Separate your gold into groups based on karat values. If you keep them together, an unscrupulous dealer may try to weigh all the pieces in one batch, then pay you the lowest karat price for all of them. You will walk away with less money. Have everything organized to maximize the amount of money you get. As you prepare to sell your gold pieces, divide it into separate piles based on karat values. The value of each item is determined in part by karat value. Combining all types in a single package makes it less likely that you will be paid the optimal amount. Gold with higher karat value is more pure and therefore more valuable. Know the gold market before selling or buying gold. Much like buying and selling stock, you should always buy low and sell high. The gold market varies daily just like the stock market, so it is important to follow the trends and sell your gold when it is at its highest sales price. The first step in buying gold bullion is to be sure you know the actual price on the day of your purchase. Gold prices change daily, so precision is important. Experts say you should expect to pay more proportionately for a fraction of an ounce than you would for the full ounce. Among gold coins, the Kruggerrand coins from South Africa can usually be acquired at a cheaper price than the more popular American Eagle or Canadian Maple Leaf coins. If you are trying to sell your gold and hit a store that offers you a record high price, it's often a good idea to sell immediately. Most prices are only good for twenty four hours because the markets change so frequently. If you try to go back the next day, the store usually will not honor the original price they gave you. Now that you know so much about gold, you are ready to master the topic. Continue reading all you can so that you can continue to learn about gold. Soon enough, you will have great confidence when discussing anything involving this precious metal, and ownership will become even more enjoyable.