#gift cards were a good scam companies thought of

[thepowerisyouth]

This started as a simple rant about gift cards but is probably turning into my master post on the lost story of the corporate gift card valuation crisis.

Starts as the simple rant but gets more technical in economics and accounting as it goes on- so fair warning.

-----

Gift cards are often thought of as a boring, low effort gift, although more polite than cash. Plenty of good reasons why they are a bad gift from a thoughtfulness standpoint, but I'm going to focus on the financial value.

Adult humans that live under capitalism are generally, learnedly able to understand the time value of money, even if they cant physically execute the calculations on paper. If you dont believe me, just trust me-- its how all of economics works. We are generally able to value things very well according to our own subconscious estimations.

This is not to say people who receive a gift card are just focused on the dollar figure, however I think the financial frustration lies with the fact that, inherently a $25 gift card is worth less than $25 cash. Probably a lot less

-------

As a present, gift cards remind me, actually, of the stereotype of a grandparent buying their descendents, "war bonds", but somehow gift cards are even worse.

Sorry this is going to be a long explanation of why gift cards suck--

A war bond, which is now simply called a US Treasury bill or bond, is a 'redeemable certificate', which allows the current owner to be sure that the dollar amount (face value) shown on the certificate will be granted, plus interest accumulated from the point of issue until the present date, and the note is redeemable early in most common cases, and is redeemable at most banks or financial institutions around the world. Well... they might not now but they are supposed to

Section 1. Bond overviews

These Treasury bonds are just debt that the US government, i.e. the taxpayers, have to pay back to whoever purchased this bond.

Economics is intended to be confusing to understand, an example of this being how they love to make it hard to understand that every time you hear about bonds and interest rates they are talking about gambling with our public taxpayer debt. Calling it "buying bonds" makes it seem more normal investy stuff

Anyway-- so this is debt right? Well like all debt, it requires a good credit score, and collateral. The official term is "backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government"

In summary of this section using numbers:

If you get a treasury bond that says $100 & 5% annual interest, the Treasury department guarentees you can receive $100 amount in the future (maturity date), as well as $5 per year for your troubles, unless the US government is toast at any point.

If the holder sells the bond prematurely on the 'secondary market'--which is the clever term for the stock market for bonds-- they might get more or less than the "face value" depending on current interest rates, if those current rates differ from the interest rate set on the bond at hand.

---

Section 2: Basic Bond Valuation

So using previous example, the face value of $100, and that only comes back from the treasury department on maturity day (up to 30 years away now for long term bonds)

So in the meantime, people "trade" (gamble most of the time) those bonds on the market. Cause why the fuck not?

---

Most of the time, in a non inflationary environment, bonds with expiration dates of less than 5 years do not change price much at all in this 'secondary market'.

Why? Well--

In an inflationary environment (only recent examples are 1970s & 2020s) most bonds are decreasing in value, with the lowest interest rate bonds decreasing the most. Every other period has bond prices generally flat (so you still get the 5% interest) or trending up

The economic mechanics behind what lowers bond prices in high interest rate environments is pretty simple-- if I have a 30 year loan the government owes me, with 5% annual interest, and the guy who bought the same 30 year bond back in 2017 only got 2% interest, then I have an inherently more valuable loan or bond.

Going to start circling back to gift cards-- A 0% bond is only worth more than a negative interest bond.

(looking at you japan they were briefly paying banks 0.5% interest to borrow money from the government. As in a -0.5% interest loan)

Okay gift cards time

$25 Gift card = corporate bond of face value $25, with 0% interest, and is only redeemable in person at the companies restaurant with immediate purchase of their product

A gift card is identical then to the boring "war bond" gift, except that:

1) it can only be redeemed at their limited locations in person, and only with immediate purchase of their product or service

2) this certificate does not accrue any interest, which means that from a value standpoint its guarenteed to lose value over time unless interest rates are below 0% like japan had

------

Again, most people are very capable of understanding that the value of a 0% corporate bond which cannot be easily sold is worth less than the face value-- much less. Just most people probably dont have the experience in finance to put to words why exactly that situation is so frustrating from a financial standpoint

What a stupid gift, cash is way better.

Especially in an inflationary environment like the 2020s. my god the valuation loss of all the gift cards recently is incalculablely enormous

It would be a very snarky, not nice response to being gifted a gift card if the receiver replies back that the technical market value of this $25 gift card is actually $14.75 due to the current globally high interest rate environment in addition to the company having a BBB Moody's credit rating rather than a perfect AAA

I'm very, very tempted to do a sample valuation of a random hypothetical gift card to reinforce this point, but valuations arent quick and I already know it would take me half the day just researching the numbers to put together for it

----

I had no idea I was going to have this much to say but we're on edit #4 to this post Im gonna keep going:

The inflation of the 2020s has led to the largest (by dollar value and probably other metrics) corporate bond valuation crash of the.. ever

But corporate bonds are mostly held by the upper middle class & higher, as well as other corporations. So of course we hear them crying about their loss of wealth. Easiest example can be found by looking for the annual returns on an ETF which trades only corporate bonds. They got fucked in 2021 and arent back yet

What I'm getting at is that most poor people do not own individual bonds-- its just not really something that makes sense as a poor person.

Back to poor people's wealth--

Someone who has a retirement funds might invest in corporate bonds through that fund. But dont get me started on how complicated those funds investment strategies are to mitigate the risk (but yes they arent good at risk mitigation lose value a lot from dumb preventable mistakes).

And also looking at 5 yr price charts for many retirement funds, the ones with more corporate bond holdings have done way worse than their peers in the retirement fund game who put more money in stocks over that period

Poor people do, however, give each other gift cards... a lot. Weve kind of been told for a long time that its a more appropriate gift than cash. I wonder whod want us to think that. Maybe the corporations who are getting away with selling hard-to-redeem junk bonds as "gift cards"?

Likewise with all corporate bonds lately, the total balance of gift cards issued & held by the general public is larger than it has ever been in prior decades like the 1970s. There was issues with gift cards then, just the total amount was much, much less

Except probably not anymore-- only the face value being reported on their financial statements is that high, as accounting standards do not require companies to regularly value their gift card balances at market value. They are allowed to report it at face value, until it is removed from their balance sheet and resolved as pure income. Not 100% sure the GAAP guidance for it, but I know they dont HAVE to specifically mark down gift cards as they dont have expiration dates. I know that if a company did need to mark down that debt balance for whatever reason, the only way to lower that balance is by calling it "other income".

So poor people have felt a multi-billion dollar loss of wealth from gift card values, which is obviously not ever going to be studied or talked about cause who the fuck cares about poor people

And when that loss does get "realized" from an accountant standpoint-- it would be considered income for the fucking corporations.

Actually reminds me of Starbucks class action about the gift card balance. Lot to dig into there but thats more because of their extra predatory practices around redeeming it

[fuck-customers]

My store has a VERY lenient return policy.

(Personally, I think it's TOO lenient.)

The policy is:

•return WITH receipt= full refund, refund goes back on original form of payment, except for debit. Returns that were paid debit get cash refunds.

•return WITHOUT receipt= lowest price of item in last 90 days, store credit

•opened packages are returnable

•used products are returnable (this one has some restrictions, but not really. Cashiers are only "supposed" to accept returns if the item is still sellable, but most cashiers don't inspect the items and if a cashier deems the product unsellable, the customer bitches to the manager who licks their entire ass and does a full refund for them)

•seasonal products are returnable even after season has ended (Christmas items can be returned all year, same with Easter, Halloween, etc)

•there is seemingly no restrictions on how soon a customer has to return an item. Just 2 weeks ago (March 2024) I had a customer bring in products and a receipt from 2019 and the system accepted it. It had been so long that we literally got a whole new register system in between the original purchase and the return and it STILL went through.

What the store DOESN'T accept for returns:

• Products from other companies?? Hello??

This woman brought in a bag from a completely different company (the logos aren't similar and the colors are completely different. Red and blue compared to green and white) And at first, I thought she just recycled the bag, but she pulled out a receipt from the red and blue store and an item that I'm 100% positive was never sold at my company and wouldn't listen when I repeatedly explained that I COULD NOT refund an item we have never sold. I scanned the item on the register and showed her the error message that said "item not in inventory" I showed her that the item was in fact on her receipt from Red And Blue Store and showed her the big ass Red And Blue Store label on the receipt. I fucking called a manager over because she insisted and was adamant that she bought the item here. The MANAGER said the same fucking thing about the receipt and item being from a completely different company. 20 minutes later, she finally fucking gave up and accepted that she couldn't scam us today.

Which. It's SO easy to scam this store. Just steal an item. We do not have security. We have security cameras, but I suspect they don't work, since no one has been banned for shoplifting or anything and I KNOW people shoplift. (I support it and look the other way) We do not have enough staff to patrol the store, so the only staff members are 1 cashier and 1 department monitor and as long as you don't blatantly steal in front of the cashier, you're good. We do not have sensors on the door. 90% of the products are not locked up. Basically just don't steal spray paint, because that's the one thing that's locked up. And if you DO steal, just be cool about it and don't draw attention to yourself. We do not check bags or pockets or anything like that. And if you panic and run, just don't stop running until you're outside of the building. We are not allowed to chase you outside of the building.

And if you manage to get through these unbelievably easy obstacles and steal some items, you can just fucking bring them back and say you lost your receipt but want to return them and you will literally get free money. Sure, it's a gift card, but if the return is under $5, you get cash. Green Crafts and Fabric Store fyi for anyone who wants some free shit.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[aclosetfan]

Got any headcannons for Valentine’s Day with the ppg and rrb?

lol i forgot about valentine's day because it's such a non-holiday for me. But, off the top of my head, here's my take on how the six would react to v-day:

Blossom: thinks it's a heartless cash grab created by card companies, but her aesthetic is full of pinks, reds, and whites, so she ends up vibing with it. Plus, she likes all the chocolates. When she was little, she'd make sure everyone in her class/loved ones got a valentine. Pulls in a sizeable amount of valentines in return. Date-wise, I think it depends. I feel like if she'd liked someone/had a significant other, then sure, but I don't think she'd really care.

Bubbles: LOVES valentines day, but I think it'd be funny if she were perpetually dateless on valentines day, or at the very least, her date always ends up failing in some spectacular way (i.e., monster tried eating her boyfriend). Makes customized valentines for EVERYONE as well as baked goods/chocolates. Probably dresses for the holiday weeks in advance. She is probably given a shitload of valentines in return.

Buttercup: literally does not realize valentine's day has happened until three weeks later when she's eaten the last of Bubbles valentine's cookie stash. If she paid an ounce of attention, she'd notice a few brave souls always ask her to be their valentine, but she usually, accidentally, friendzone's them. Doesn't make any valentine's day cards and just thinks that everyone (including her sisters) that gave her a card during the holiday messed up her birthday. (she's dumb)

Brick: Like Blossom, he also thinks valentine's day is a heartless cash grab created by greedy capitalists. But because he's a bad guy, he's low-key pissed he didn't think of it first. Takes advantage of the day by scamming all the boyfriends who forgot about Valentine's day Ed, Edd, and Eddy style by selling reservation spots at fancy restaurants or offering up fake jewelry/flowers/gifts/etc. (he's opportunistic)

Butch: Takes ample advantage of all the restaurants doing "couple" discounts, leading to many fake girlfriend/boyfriend scenarios. Outside of that, he doesn't give two shits.

Boomer: When he was little, he thought Valentine's day was for losers. Now, he spends it trying to get laid. Though he doesn't try very hard, he is still somehow successful. It's funny to compare his effort to Bubbles, who tries very hard to have a romantic holiday. If you ship the blues, I bet they'd have one hell of a time.

[mustardyellowanti]

I.

Sebastian Oh Summer // Before Senior 

“Safe to say I think you have everyone else’s birthday present beat,” Finley commented, eyes glancing up to see Sebastian through the rearview mirror. Sebastian hummed pulling his earpods out, the low rumbled of one Anto’s favourite songs leaving his ears. She had decided to diversify Sebastian playlist with all her favourite songs and while Sebastian understood next to none of what was been said it was an easy listen. He glanced up at the elderly driver, Finley had been in his family for years, and over time he became more than just a simple chauffeur. He had been working for his mother since she in her late teens and now on the eve of her 45th birthday remained a trusted confidant to his mother and admittedly Sebastian.

“I don’t know if you asked certain people my presence is not a present at all,” Sebastian commented with a sigh looking out the window. While he had no issues about celebrating his mother’s birthday, he was unashamedly a mothers boy, but dealing with the rest of his family was never high on his to-do list. The rest of his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts, American royalty at its best were divided into blindly hating him because he was the heir apparent and the others sucked up to him for the exact same reason. Then there was his father and brothers, while there was no doubt his father was head over heels in love with his mother, his father didn’t share that same love for the fruits of their love. Sebastian’s father was all too happy to pretend Sebastian did not exist. His brothers weren’t too different, indifferent, borderline hateful of Sebastian all because he got everything they wanted without even trying.

“Who cares what certain people think?” Finley huffed, “No of them matter in the grand scheme of things, do they? You are coming back to surprise your mum and I know for a fact that she would be ecstatic that you here, probably going to end up crying when you step in the house,” he said. ���Happy tears of course,” he tacked in causing Sebastian’s lip to quirk up in a small smile.

“As long as they are happy tears I guess I can handle the rest,” Sebastian said with a shrug. He was trying to come across as carefree as possible, fall back into the normal arrogance and aloofness he usually had but the growing pit in his stomach was hard to ignore and as they got closer and closer to the Hamptons.

“Of course you can,” Finley hummed. “Though once the tears are over your mum is going to be in full fret over Sebastian mode and then ofcourse its going to be a whole lot of people asking if you met their oh so wonderful daughter,” Finley said sounding far too amused. “Such a hard life you got there,” he teased. “I would offer my daughter but she has been married for the past 15 years, maybe granddaughter Lily,” he laughed.

“The five-year-old?” Seb laughed, “Well she might be more interesting than half the people at this party but I’ve got what another 20 years before I start dating girls half my age right?” he mocked. The men in this world are known for throwing their wealth around at younger women desperate enough to do anything to get ahead in life. He couldn’t fault the woman, if a man as rich as some of those men were and were dumb enough to get scammed then shame on them.

“Oh so you heard about Mister Langford, just turned sixty and his new wife turned 22 – “ Finley teased. “Lovely wedding, his kids looked like they really enjoyed it,” he laughed. “They were so in love with each other they forget to sign a prenup,” he added. Sebastian smirked he couldn’t only imagine how the Langford children would have reacted to that news. A murder was certainly on the cards, whether it be the kids getting rid of the 22-year-old obstacle or the 22-year-old obstacle getting rid of the old man who thought a little too highly of himself.

“Finn I am trusting you to off me before I ever end up like that,” Sebastian commented shaking his head. “Just make it look like an accident,” he said.

Finley snorted. “By the time you are at that age I am pretty sure I will be six feet under,” he said.

“What? No, you are a young lad,” Sebastian said biting back a smile at the way Finley rolled his eyes. “Besides you are like immortal anyway,” he continued.

“What? Who told you?” Finley said dramatically. “You can’t be telling rich old men that I found the secret to living forever they’d skin me on sight,” he joked. Sebastian snorted but dragged a finger across his lips to show his lips were sealed.

Silence fell over them once again, they were getting closer to the Hampton home. They were already on billionaire row, they’d be there in a few seconds. “You’ll be fine kid,” Finley spoke, Sebastian sat straight up straighter. He wasn’t a kid anymore and he highly doubted that he would be fine. “Don’t let them spoil your time here,” he said. “The last thing we need is them scaring you off, boy if you heard all the rants from your mother about you never been here –“ Finley shook his head.

“And here I thought you actually missed my company,” Sebastian teased. Finley’s lips quirked up into a smile.

  Sebastian sucked in a deep breath as he stepped into his parent’s Hampton home, while his Grandfather’s home was the classic Hampton house, his parents were more modern in design. To some people it was considered modest, Sebastian knew he could be a bit insensitive to those who didn’t have the same level of wealth as him but even he knew an 11,000 square foot home on roughly 3 acres of beachfront was not modest by any standard.

“Did you forget something, Irene? I gave you the night off,” Sebastian heard his mother call out, Irene was her assistant/house helper. She had always kept the families staff to a minimum believing it was better if people knew how to do the basics their selves. “Did Jac-“ his mother said stepping into the corridor turning to see Sebastian and freezing, maybe Finley had got it wrong, that didn’t seem like a happy reaction. Maybe he stayed away a little too long and somehow managed to alienate the one family member that actually loved him.

“Hi,” Sebastian waved awkwardly his voice croaking slightly as he spoke.

The noise that left his mother’s mouth could only be described as inhuman, she ran down the hall to where Sebastian stood pulling him into a hug. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? How did I not you were coming? What happened to your trip with Theo? Is he okay? Is he here too? How did you get here? Oh my gosh,” she said frantically causing Sebastian to chuckle. “It’s so good to see you,” she whimpered burying her head into his shoulder. “Ugh when did you get so tall,” she said hitting his chest.

“Taller than you? Sometime after my tenth birthday,” Sebastian joked as his mother pulled back, “And I wouldn’t miss your birthday,” he said. “I know I am not –“

“Shhhh I know you are going to say some sort of nonsense so just stop,” his mother said quickly, eyes narrowing. “There will be no self-deprecating in the house thank you very much,” she said pointedly. “Now let’s get a drink and you can tell all about how you managed to keep this a secret from me,” she said grabbing his hand and dragging him to the kitchen area.

“Hmm,” she said grabbing two glass flutes before looking back at Sebastian. “I guess since it’s my birthday, letting you having a glass of champagne wouldn’t be considered bad parenting,” she hummed.

“What happened to no self-deprecating, it hasn’t even been five minutes mother,” Sebastian teased. “And you’ve changed the marble benches,” Sebastian commented running his hand among the new, well new to him, Granite countertops.

“Yes, the marble had to go, to easy to stain,” His mother waved a hand dismissively. “The amount of time someone has knocked their glass of wine over,” she tsked. “Anyway, that is not important,” she said handing him a now full chute of glass. “I am not going to sit here and talk kitchen décor when my baby is home,” she said sitting down on a stool. “Now care to explain how I didn’t catch wind of this?”

“Well,” Sebastian said taking a sip of his champagne. “I wanted to surprise you so Finley and I planned this, Theo let me borrow his plane and well here I am,” he offered as his mum rolled her eyes.

“Of course it was Finn,” she hummed. “Well I think this is the best present I am going to get so I won’t be too hard on him,” she said. “How is Theo? You could have bought him along, you know he is always welcome,” she said with a soft smile. “Just like you are,” she tacked on. Seb hummed around his glass, if it was just his mum he’d believe it but considering his father was lurking around somewhere that wasn’t exactly true.

“I know,” Sebastian with a weak smile, “But I figured having the two of us surprise you might be a little too much so I left him partying with our classmates,” he shrugged. “But he has sent a gift, it’s probably already at our New York apartment,” he said.

“Well that is sweet of him,” she commented with a smile. “I am glad you have a friend like him when I was your age, I had a lot of trouble finding real friends,” she frowned clearly getting lost in her memories. “Ah look at me getting lost in things that aren’t important,” she said shaking her head. “Maybe I’ve already had too much champagne,” she said shaking her head. “Irene and I had a boozy lunch,” she explained.

“It’s almost your birthday, If you can’t overindulge in champagne then when can you?” Sebastian joked with a cheeky grin.

“Exactly,” His mother nodded before reaching over and pinching his cheek. “Look at those dimples,” she giggled. “I remember when I first found out I was having a boy, those dimples were the number one thing I hoped you inherited from your father,” she said. Sebastian’s face scrunched up as he removed his mother’s hands from his cheek. He already knew that if his father could he would remove any trace of his DNA from Sebastian’s body.

“Seb,” His mother said, eyes softening. She opened her mouth to say something more but stopped. Perhaps she had grown tired of trying to make excuses for her husband, lord knows Sebastian was tired of hearing them.

“It's fine,” Sebastian said with a wave of his hand, swallowing down the lump that was forming in his throat. “You’re being nostalgic, it happens when you have had too much champagne, that or your old age is getting to you already,” Sebastian teased watching the way his mum’s face contorted at the mention of age.

“Hey,” she laughed. “I know I taught you better than to talk to women about their age.”

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

11. You Used to Love It

This chapter is the last good one for a while. I mean, there’s some pain here, I suppose, but nothing like what’s about to happen in the next few chapters. And, I’d like to dedicate this particular one to the apex of the Mall Rats shippers @scipunk63 and of course, my Infinity Train fandom ace boon koon @i-am-a-passenger 3668 Words

Previous

Even the idea of going back to school after the awesome summer that she had SUCKED. She halfway had the mind to tell her parents that she’d like to go back to personal professors, but she knew that ship had sailed. With her father being up in arms about her academic career and the fact that she hadn’t yet started looking for colleges… She didn’t NEED college, and if ever she did, she’d have enough to go then, so there was no need for her to lose her mind over it like he was.

“Grace!” Ah, finally. Some good fucking company. 

Simon rushed to her and grabbed her from the ground to squeeze her into a tight hug. He immediately began talking to her about school. She sighed. They had one more weekend before school began, so she straight up just cupped her hand over his mouth and shook her head. Then, she removed her hand and eyed him suspiciously.

“What’s happened to your face?” she asked.

“What’s… happened… to it?” He repeated, confused.

“Did you do something?”

“Is this like that time you thought my eye color changed?”

“No! This is real… WAIT. Did you do your eyebrows? AND shave off your peach fuzz??” She was on the verge of laughter.

“I think it makes me look more presidential,” he said, straightening the collar of his hoodie.

She laughed, “Sir, you are the junior class president…”

“Also debate captain, academic decathlon, I have a position in journalism,” he grumbled, ‘Two actually,” and completed his list, “As well as STILL the top of our class. People won’t take me seriously if I don’t take myself seriously. That’s one thing that my dad taught me.”

“He should’ve added that they won’t take you seriously if you take yourself too seriously, because I definitely do not.”

“Rude. I shouldn't give you your welcome home present… But, I already spent money on it.”

“You… spent money on me? Simon! You KNOW that you don’t have to do that!”

“Yeah, but I wanted to, and I rarely ever do. Besides, it’s a special occasion. The Apex is back together.” He pulled a gift basket out of his bag and presented it to her. 

“This is from that fancy custom basket place near the mall!” she said. That was WAY out of Simon’s budget, but also, not returnable. “Simon!” She fussed.

“Please, just tell me that you love it.”

“I do!” She accepted it with damp eyes and a trembling lip. There was a boxed honeycomb, a bottle of honeysuckle nectar extract, and a honey bun shaped like a bear. “This is really cute, Simon. I really love it. It’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever given me.” She reached out to hug him and he went in for a kiss. She gasped and he startled, then she rested her head against his chest and he rested his face on her hair… both confused as to why the other acted that way.

.

Honey had become one of Grace’s things, because of the products she represented and her natural branding, over the summer, she’d been being called, The Internet’s Honey, and so she ran with it. Apex members were putting the little honeypot emojis in her comments, brands started sending her their honey - which she loved because she could use it for SO many health and beauty purposes, but also, she was reckless and sometimes, just wanted to eat it. Her favorite way was to eat the honeycomb, with a fancy soft cheese and some fruit - generally honeydew melon, just because there sort of was a flow of collaboration. 

Simon had commented on a post she made while she was on the road that she should do one of those ASMR eating honeycomb videos… More people liked that comment than she expected. She wasn’t planning on doing ASMR anything and thought it was such a weird thing for Simon, of all people to comment on a post of hers! But, even though she wasn’t going to do one of those at this point in time - she just felt weird about all of her followers watching her eat, even if it was trendy - she still ate around Simon, and on their calls he kept asking her to do the honeycomb thing.

“What is with you, Dude?”

He blushed a lot and shook his head, “I just like it. There’s something soothing about watching you eat and it’s something you love, and I really like the sound, too.” 

She gave him a look but reached for her snacking sack and looked through it. “I’ve got mostly fruit snacks in this thing. Ummm… some dried mango, banana, pineapple… a jar of country peach preserves…”

“Are the preserves chunky?”

She examined the jar, “There are pretty big peach pieces in here, actually.” She looked at the anticipation on his face and wondered, “What, you expect me to just eat this with my hands? I definitely don’t have a spoon in here,” she glanced around the hotel she was staying in.

“What’s wrong with eating with your fingers?” he wondered.

“It’s messy! Then, I’ll have to suck my fingers, and this is already weird enough, Simon. What… is this gonna do for you?”

He shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know,  it’s relaxing, and you’re just usually the person who helps me relax the most.”

“The anticipation of school got you riled up?”

“The anticipation of things with your dad.” he sighed. 

She nodded, “He stresses me out too.” She laughed at herself, shook her head and said, “Fine, fine. I guess… here I am eating peach preserves out of a jar, with my fingers, for my best friend.”

“It’s a show of love,” he said, as he began recording her on their video call.

Presently, she asked him, “Are you gonna wanna watch me eat the contents of this gift?”

“Very intently.” She laughed. She didn’t get it, but also… It did seem to help him out the times she’d done so on his calls, and it didn’t seem sexual or anything.

Over the weekend, he was with her at the house. Her parents were away, and most likely wouldn’t be back until the week after school began. That meant that Simon would be spending every night that they weren’t there with her. She didn’t want to stay in the house, either. Especially if they were going to be milking the boyfriend/girlfriend thing. She wanted to be out and about with him, maybe cause some trouble, do some secret destroying. 

He was perfectly content to just stay inside, just the two of them, because they hadn’t been able to be that way for a while. Of course, her desires won out. They went to the mall that evening. It was only open for a few more hours, but they loved the mall. They used to frequent it and were actually banned from a few stores, but they hadn’t been in a while and she wanted a corn dog from the Corn Dog Express. 

She generally didn’t have any pockets, and Simon generally had several large ones (some with buttons), so he always carried her wallet and whenever they (she) bought something, he usually handed over the card. She thought about carrying a fanny pack, because it latched on to you, but she just couldn’t rectify the thought with the fact that those things were hideous. Maybe if she were trapped in uncivilized society...

So, whenever they got to the Corn Dog Express and ordered, she turned to look at him when they were given the total. “I… don’t have it..” Simon told her. She furrowed her eyebrows and patted herself down. Did she… forget her wallet? And her cell phone?? The clerk looked annoyed while Grace looked worried. She could have sworn that she picked them up on their way out of the door..

“Did you two really order all of this without any money?”

“Chill out. She may have forgotten her wallet. It happens.” Simon said, annoyed at the guy’s tone.  He went to the back and Simon heard him say that there was “some Black girl out there trying to scam” them. He immediately was not pleased with that, and he saw from Grace’s face that she’d heard it too. 

“Let’s just go,” she said, softly. “I should’ve been more attentive.”

“Mmhmm,” Simon said, but he didn’t budge, save to pull out his phone. 

She made a sad face. She really wanted the dogs. “Simon? Did you hear me? I left my wallet at home, not to mention my cell phone. No need for me to further embarrass myself. I don’t even think we’ll have time to go get it and come back before the mall closes.” 

But whenever the clerk came back with the manager with him, Simon began announcing, “This null who works at the Corn Dog Express just described Grace Monroe, of the Monroe Square Monroes, as ‘this Black chick trying to scam them.’ Scam them. At the Corn Dog Express. In the mall. That’s it. That’s the entire post.” 

Grace covered her mouth and said, “Umm… Simon…” She was actually even more embarrassed, because obviously, these people didn’t know her. They weren’t her target audience, probably had only seen her family name on the plaques of buildings, and she really just wanted to go.

“You are fucking lucky that I don’t make you bob for corn dogs in that hot grease, you…” Grace pulled Simon’s arm and called his name. “You fucking short sighted, beast faced, insignificant little prick. She could buy this entire mall, never touch it again and STILL be above you. Who do you think you are?” The clerk was grateful that they had a plastic display between him and Simon. He looked terrified and the manager was confused but trying to speak on behalf of the company that they didn’t intend to upset Ms. Monroe... 

“Simon! Can we PLEASE. Just. Go?” He looked over and she had her fists clenched and she was shaking. He didn’t know if she was mad or sad… or what. It was unclear, but she was asking for them to go. That was clear.

“Are you sure?” he asked her, an eyebrow raised. He had been two seconds away from hopping the counter after this guy.

“I’m positive,” she said, through her teeth, tugging him by the sleeve to come with her. He knocked over everything on the counter, with purpose, looking right into the eyes of his target of anger as they passed it. “Sorry,” she told the workers. She would make sure that they were compensated for that entire scene.

Simon was casually on his phone as she dragged him outside of the mall and whenever they got to the parking lot, he said, “Posted it! We’ll let the Apex at him, now.” She groaned and released him with a shove of the hand she had been clutching his sleeve with.

“What?” He asked.

“Simon… I left my wallet at home. That experience was because of MY mistake, and you just attacked that guy like he was some kind of enemy combatant.”

“He was very rude to you and I didn’t like his tone when he spoke about you. I was defending you. How is that a problem?”

“Because, I have a reputation, Simon! I have a brand. An image! I can’t just go around slapping things off of counters whenever I can’t pay the man at the counter! People SAW us! Some looked like they were recording!” She was highly upset. “You… are gonna go to college, get a degree, build a career. You have several talents and intelligence and pathways. I’ve got THIS, Simon. MY future is nested inside of my personality, and the world can’t think that I’m this person that goes off on people like a rotten brat. I can’t believe that you would put me in something like this!”

“I thought we were in this together. The Apex sticks together.”

“I wish you would’ve stuck with me when I was asking you to leave!” 

He ran his hands through his hanging strands of hair and shook his head, “I thought you’d be happy. You used to love when I defended you.”

“We’re not kids anymore, Simon! You can’t DO THAT to people!” she snapped and walked off, hugging herself. “You can’t do that to people,” she said softly and sniffled. Where the hell was she going? He followed her, silently. He had already apologized. Why wasn’t she… doing something to make him feel better about her being upset with him?

“Okay. I’ll follow your lead, Grace. I won’t react next time unless you tell me to.” 

She looked at him. She seemed like she wanted to say more to him, but she just gave him a small smile and collected him by his hoodie string. “Let’s just go home and order in. We can watch one of your fantasy movies, or something.” he still looked nervous, like he was worried that she was still mad. She… didn’t ever get mad at him and she was realizing this as she watched him process how she’d just yelled at him in this public space. “That okay with you, Eyebrows?” he chuckled and wrapped an arm around her with a single nod. 

Still… They both felt it. Something just wasn’t right between them.

.

It blew up. Of course it did. What started with Simon’s post generating a massive amount of hate at the Corn Dog Express and the employees there, spiraled into Apex stans making death threats, doxxing these people, and harassing their family members. Grace went live several times to remind them not to do this and to explain that it was indeed her fault that she couldn’t pay because she left her wallet, and assuring fans that she paid after the fact and held no hostility for the staff there. 

“I am demanding that the real Apex stand down this time. I’m human. I made a mistake. Yes, the clerk could have been nicer, but I don’t know what kind of day he had or what’s happened to him before. I didn’t take it personally. Simon is a little bit more sensitive about these things happening to me and he got upset and tried to defend me. We’ve talked about it. We’re on the same page. Please leave that guy alone, Apex. Come on. Listen to your Honey.” 

With the incident going viral, in those comments appeared a very aggressive woman who wanted to draw people’s attention to her post from a few years prior. It was a post where she cried on camera, showed off bruises and described two kids that beat her up on the train. 

Grace gasped whenever she noticed her. Apex members were cussing her out and accusing her of lying, but she was claiming that she even tore out a handful of the girl’s hair and that she was POSITIVE that it was the girl in this video, and she knew that Simon was the same boy, because he looked exactly the same, but longer. She meant taller, and Grace hadn’t thought about that woman in almost as much time since her hair grew back.But, she definitely recognized her whenever she went to her profile.

Then Shana’s little bitch ass comes in to comment, “Actually, I very clearly remember her showing up in society with a shaved head around that time, so I believe you. They call her the Internet’s Honey, but she’s actually a violent, destructive sociopath and I hope that you get your justice.”

Grace’s head was spinning. She didn’t know what to do with bad publicity and this felt like it was a lot. Should she call her mom? Her mom would kill her! 

She saw Simon arguing with Shana in the comments, “Do you realize that whenever Grace went natural we were 12? You’re going to believe this stranger when she says that unprovoked Grace and I just beat her up for no reason? I know you’re a jerk, but I thought you were smart.”

The woman fussed, “You put me in a choke hold and crushed my esophagus while she punched me in the ribs and stomach!”

“Prove it, null,” Simon almost instantly typed.

“I still have her hair!”

“And what? You think that your lawyers are going to be able to demand that she release a sample to check it against the hair that your nasty ass has been carrying around for god knows how long? FOH. You deserved to be thrown to the wheels of the train and you got off easy, Jealous Null. You’re jealous of her. Every hater is jealous. Shana certainly is. She’d say anything to try to look better, since the hair weave and makeup doesn’t help.”

“If it doesn’t help, how come you think I’m almost as pretty as her?”

Grace waited for Simon to respond, but instead, she watched as both Shana’s and the woman’s comments vanished… Simon had obviously signed into her account and blocked them. She was both relieved and upset. 

This was EXACTLY the kind of thing that she wanted him to not do on her behalf. She started crying. Moments later, he was calling. “Hey… I spoke with your dad. They’re gonna take care of it, okay?”

“What? What did you say?”

“I said that a woman who attacked you a few years ago on the train is claiming that we beat her up, when we actually defended you against her and I gave him the time and date and train, in case they need to go back and check out the surveillance. If it still exists.”

“What?? My parents can’t know that I got into a fight on the train, Simon!”

“You defended yourself on the train. We were 12. That was a grown ass woman and she hit you first.” There was silence. “Grace, please don’t tell me that you’re mad at me again for fixing the problem for you?”

“No,” but she was frustrated about all of this. “I just… My dad… how did he sound?”

“He said he was pleased that I thought to call him.”

“I just don’t want them to be disappointed in me. I don’t want to hurt them like that, and I don’t want them to hurt me.”

“They won’t.” He heard her sniffling on the other end of the calling as she read the comments. “I’m coming over.”

“We’ve got school in the morning.”

“Yeah, which we would’ve rode together to anyway.”

“Simon…”

“You don’t need me?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then, I’m on my way.

Grace cried a lot, curled up in a ball in Simon’s lap. It wasn’t their usual. She didn’t generally come to him with things. She cried on her own, but since he had insisted on being there and insisted on holding her, that’s where she landed and she had to admit that it wasn’t bad, at all. He had told her father that he was going to keep her company and make sure she was safe and sound all night and her father had advised them both to go to school the following day and if anyone asked anything about that woman and her accusations to tell them that they are not at liberty to speak about it.

Grace just hoped that this weekend was not some indication of what type of school year that they might have. She woke up to see Simon climbing out of her bed, shirtless? When did he take off his shirt? Probably in the middle of the night, because he was always hot and always in long sleeves. She had never seen his physique before, that she could remember. Even when they went swimming, he generally wore a wetsuit that was tight fitting, but still covered up everything. He heard her gasp and he jumped and looked at her. “Simon, what happened to your arm?” She asked, climbing out of bed to rush to him. “… Did your mom do this to you?” She wondered, touching his faded tally marks. 

He quickly grabbed his undershirt and said, “I won’t like to talk about this.” She bit her lip and wished that she could help him somehow. He smiled softly and kissed her on the forehead, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about me. Just… If you need me today, say the word.”

“What should I even say?”

He thought for a while, “Say, charge.”

She laughed, “Are you gonna charge?”

“If you say charge, somebody is getting messed up.” She laughed lightly. She needed his sense of humor.

“I’m not saying charge, Dude. The way that the Internet has reacted to me telling you NOT to do something? I say charge and they’ll crucify me. My mom’s gonna wind up taking over my social media again.” She rolled her eyes and went for her uniform.

“A signal, then. I need to know when you need me to attack.”

“Simon,” she laughed. “I don’t ever need you to attack. Remember that you’ve got college courses starting this year and college is like super important to you?”

“You’re super important to me too,” he confessed, casually.

Soon, they were dressed, out the door, and heading for the campus. More kids were around outside than typically and Simon knew that it was because they were all waiting for them to arrive. He met Grace at her door and helped her out of the car. They checked each other out, gave a nod to each other that both were good to go, and turned at the same time to walk into the school. 

Simon was confident. He had nothing to be ashamed of. Grace had gotten upset over the weekend, but he had done nothing wrong and she was clearly just stressed out, because last night, she’d let him comfort her and be her support system. She had let him hold her and wipe her tears and lift her up. She had let him back in. He was confident that the Apex was going to become stronger than ever before, and keep growing. They stopped at the stop of the stairs and she leaned on his shoulder. A couple of the boys that Grace had kissed on the cheek the previous year rushed to grab the doors for them and the other present Apex kids gathered behind them, following them inside when they went into the building.

Next

[averyb0423-blog]

Blog #1

Welcome to my blog! Today’s blog will be about the life of online shopping. I will be covering many different topics, but mainly focusing on about two different factors that include: advantages and disadvantages, perceived risk of e-shopping. When thinking about online shopping and for someone that does it often, I love it! It allows myself and consumers to move around to all kinds of their favorite stores without having to walk around a mall to find them. I will say that I am a little old fashion when it comes to buying clothes online, just because I am a taller person, I am also very picky about how my clothes fit, so when it comes to finding jeans or shirts that I would like to wear I want to try them on. I don’t like when you order jeans online and they aren’t the right fit so you have to send them back and try all over again. When it comes to shoe shopping, I really like to do that online because I usually know how the shoe is going to fit and what size my foot is. These are all just personal preference. 

Let’s first dive into the perceived risk of online shopping. When thinking about this a few things come to my mind; it’s a scam, I will never receive my clothes and they are going to steal my money. These are the simple ones. I found an article that is a study done by a man named Charu Panwar who is a research scholar at Amity School of Mass communication (ASCO). His study was aimed to understand the perceived risk in online shopping so that it can help marketers to get rid of this. His first point is the financial risk. This is scary for everyone because people work hard for their money and don’t want it taken away with an online scam. Consumers think, “My credit card information might be misused when I shop online.”, “The retailer might overcharge me as it has my credit card information.” (Panwar, 2018). These are very common thoughts when I am online shopping also. His second point is product risk. So is the product I just ordered going to be defective? That I might receive something different from what I actually ordered, and it is also hard to judge the quality and other attributes over the internet. Then of course their is the delivery risk. There is always the risk of the product not coming in time; and of course is the product even going to come? Then finally, privacy risk. Online shopping companies have a moral standard that they must stick to, because they have a lot of information on a customer. Most e-retailers are very good about this, but it's the companies that don’t that push a lot of consumers away. Things that they can do is sell customer information to other companies that have similar products, they then will bomb emails and maybe even phone calls. 

Next, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping? Online shopping has a lot of advantages and that's why it has become so popular, it has changed the way consumers shop because of the numerous benefits. I would say that more people would prefer to online shop rather than drive to the mall and walk around. Some of the advantages that come to mind right away are: Convenience, no crowds and it’s super easy to compare prices from store to store. The only disadvantages that come to my mind are the risk. So I did some research and was able to find a great article called “Top 10 Benefits of online shopping (and 10 Disadavtages)”. Some of Advantages that Anamika Jain has listed were: convenience, better prices, more variety, easy to send gifts and more control. For the disadvantages: shipping problems and delays, risk of fraud, less contact with you community and returns can be complicated. I would say the convenience is the biggest perk when it comes to online shopping; people pay for convenience. The reason I say this is because where else can you find your favorite shoes while you sit in your underwear in the comfort of your own home. You also don't have to wait in line or track an employee down to ask for help and who doesn’t love getting all their shopping needs done in minutes. The next advantage is the better prices than going to your normal brick-and-mortar store. The reason that the prices are better is because products come to you direct from the manufacturer or seller with involving any kind of middle man. Plus, you can compare prices from store to store to find the best one. (Jain, 2018). One of the things that many people do not know is that online shops are only required to collect sales tax from you if they have a physical location in the state that you are located. Then don’t forget you have to factor in the prices of gas, parking, and time is money. So you can actually end of saving yourself a lot of money in the long run. 

The disadvantage that really stood out to me is, less contact with your community. At first I really didn’t understand this one, I just thought that it meant saying hi to people that live in the area. After reading what Anamika had to say about it, the more important it came to me. When you have a brand and the only type of shopping you have is online you are not creating brand loyal customers, therefore, not getting much word of mouth advertising. This is some of the most important advertising, it can really make or break a start-up company. Also, when a brand has loyal customers then you know that you will always have some sort of business, where as if you are exclusively online people may just shop for that one product you have and move on after they purchased it. A thing that I also get very frustrated when it comes to online shopping is the returns. Sometimes it makes me feel like the company is making it almost impossible for you to be able to send the product back. This has actually made me stop shopping online at a store before because they kept on saying that I was doing it wrong, but I was following every step that they had for return policy. 

Jain, A. S. (2018, October 31). Top 10 Benefits of Online Shopping (and 10 Disadvantages). Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://toughnickel.com/frugal-living/Online-shopping-sites-benefits.

Panwar, C. (2018, September 12). Consumer perceived risk in online shopping environment via Facebook as medium. Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328774137_Consumer_perceived_risk_in_online_shopping_environment_via_Facebook_as_medium.

[inyournightmares97]

GOT7 AS: Managers in a Company

Just a few thoughts about what GOT7 would be like if they were managers/Head of Department in a company. Totally inspired by the fact that I’ve been watching the kdrama Chief Kim lately and corporate politics fascinates me. 

Mark

Mr. Tuan is the head of the IT Department. 

He works with computers and is the acknowledged technological genius of the company. It takes Mark Tuan exactly two minutes to scan a software and he can suddenly use it as though he designed it himself. 

At the insistence of the employees from other departments, he regularly conducts tutorials and FAQ sessions to help employees better utilize the office software but nobody ever attends those. Instead, they just summon the IT Department to their desks whenever they can’t figure out something. 

It makes Mark furious. 

Sometimes there isn’t even any problem with the software. It’s just the female employees who have nothing better to do and want the chance to flirt with the cute guy from IT. 

He was even slipped a man’s number once. 

Mark finally ended up going to the CEO and making his tutorial sessions mandatory for all employees, So now on the first Tuesday of every month, all the employees have to gather in the auditorium for an hour and listen to Mr. Tuan give a lecture on the latest updates to the office Intranet and  explain how to use the software. 

He knows it’s a waste of his time since people will keep calling the IT Department for help anyway, but Mark figures the least he can do is waste some of their time in exchange. It gives him a small sense of achievement to look at all their bored and miserable faces.

Mark is a silent genius when it comes to IT, but his managerial skills are... non-existent.

The IT Department essentially does whatever they feel like because Mark has never scolded his employees or even told them to get back to work.

His only strategy is non-interference. He doesn’t care if the employees are playing games during office hours (he often does so himself, with the door to his office locked and his secretary warned to send all visitors away) and even if he catches them in the act he never says a word. 

But the employees know better than to completely neglect their work, because if they do, somebody from another department might file a complaint about them and that complaint would get forwarded to Mr. Tuan. 

Complaints = Paperwork

There is nothing Mr. Tuan hates more than paperwork. The only time his smiling and handsome face turns dangerous is when somebody comes up to him with paperwork. He would rather install the intranet software into a hundred office computers than file a single report. 

Mark doesn’t even remember the names of all the people who work underneath him in the department. So during performance reviews, everyone just gets a good/decent review because who knows how much work is being done by each employee? Certainly not Mark Tuan. He couldn’t care less. 

Mr. Tuan has never worked a minute of overtime in his life. 

He leaves the office at 5 pm sharp, every single day and he does not come in on weekends under any circumstances. I’m sorry, the company is about to fall to pieces and you need someone to fix the software? Sure, remind me first thing on Monday morning. 

Orders pizza and coke for the entire Department whenever it’s somebody’s birthday (his secretary slides him a note to remind him whenever that is the case). 

He’s a little absent-minded and clueless at times, but the entire IT department agrees that they pretty much lucked out getting Mark Tuan as a manager. They wouldn’t exchange him for the world. 

Jaebum

Mr. Im Jaebum manages the Production Department

Production and manufacturing isn’t easy work. There are deadlines to meet and quality standards to maintain. Production is the lifeblood of the corporation. 

The quality of the products is extremely important to the company’s reputation and Im Jaebum does not compromise on anything. Everything has to be done perfectly and he expects his employees to come up with flawless results. He comes up with numbers and his employees have to bring them into existence. 

But his expectations come with a responsibility of his own.

Jaebum takes excellent care of his employees. Even though the production goals he sets seem a little high at times, he also makes sure that every single employee, right down to the lowest factory worker is well-taken care of. 

The company hasn’t faced a single worker’s strike since Mr. Im took over the Production Department. He can often be found arguing with the Directors and higher-ups to ensure better working conditions and benefits for his employees. A healthy workforce makes for a healthy company. He genuinely believes that his workers need to be happy for the department to function efficiently. 

Mr. Im is both feared and respected. 

He sometimes goes down the factories himself and conducts surprise inspections, so the warehouses and production facilities are always on high alert. But if the inspection goes well, then he treats all the workers to drinks after working hours end. 

Jaebum sometimes gets a little drunk himself and does a really good impression of the CEO which gets everyone cracking up. But if anyone tries to take a video of him doing it, they’re going to be treated to a death glare. 

Jaebum also secretly really adores kids, even though he doesn’t have any of his own. So he organizes a ‘bring-your-kids-to-work’ day twice a year. All the employees of his department can bring their kids to work to see what their parents do. Jaebum places a huge jar of candy on his desk and blushes whenever the kids come up to him. He’s too awkward to actually entertain them but he thinks they’re really cute. 

He even let a particularly adorable five-year-old girl sit in his large, swirly leather office chair and wheeled her around like a rocket until he noticed the other employees were looking at him weirdly. 

Even though Jaebum works them hard and enforces a lot of strict rules, everyone in the Production Department agrees that you can never find a manager more fair or just than Mr. Im Jaebum. 

Jackson

Mr. Jackson Wang is head of the PR Department: Public Relations is his natural calling.

Jackson is that guy who constantly has a little Bluetooth mic in his ear; it’s really hard to tell whether he’s addressing you in front of him or he’s just talking to somebody through the Bluetooth. He likes to pace up and down the main office while taking calls in a loud voice. It makes him feel important. 

Jackson takes a lot of phone calls. Most of them aren’t even work related, he’s just chatting with people in high positions but he claims that “maintaining contacts” is what he’s getting paid for.

Mr. Wang also uses the company card a lot. He submits receipts for various clubs and restaurants that he took some big politician or journalist to. Jackson can often be found in the Finance Manager, Park Jinyoung’s office towards the end of the month, begging him to clear all sorts of absurd expenses made in the company’s name. They usually have an hour-long meeting in Mr. Park’s office and Jackson ends up paying for the events by himself. 

He’s not the best problem-solver. Jackson’s solution to just about any problem is “let’s call for a press conference.”

- “Mr. Wang, it’s actually very important that we keep this information away from the press for the time being-”

- “Yeah, yeah, I get that. But don’t you think we should hold a press conference? I’ll set one up right away!”

Somehow, he’s extremely hurt and surprised whenever he finds out that he’s been kept in the dark about confidential company matters. 

Whenever there is a press conference though, Jackson makes it the most flashy and extravagant event possible. He hands out imported care packages to all the journalists and gives them free hampers with company products.

Every minuscule charitable contribution the company makes is on international headlines the next day. Pictures of the CEO visiting orphanages and making donations to starving children in poor countries can be found all over the internet. Jackson put them there. 

He has a special team of people dedicated to leaving nice comments about the company on all sorts of internet fora. Sometimes he logs on himself and responds to haters just for the hell of it. He also manages the company’s social media presence; they have an Instagram page, a Twitter page, a Facebook page and exist on pretty much every social media platform ever. 

Jackson has an excellent employee incentive scheme. Friday mornings are brainstorming sessions and anybody who comes up with a good idea to boost the company’s image gets a special gift; usually an expensive bottle of wine Jackson scored from a guy he knows, or a little bonus. The Finance Department severely disapproves of this scheme, so the funds come directly from Jackson’s own pocket. 

He also likes a comfortable and bright environment. The PR Department’s office spaces are all painted in colorful shades, with beanbags and funny-looking chairs and fluffy rugs. He tried to get a cafe installed but the Finance Department put an end to that nonsense very quickly. 

Although Jackson can be a little wild and loud at times, everyone agrees that the PR Department is undoubtedly the most fun department to work in. 

Jinyoung

Mr. Park Jinyoung manages the Finance Department.

Before he turned up, the department was a corrupt mess. There were accounting scams everywhere, people at all levels of the corporate structure were siphoning off money whenever they pleased. Jinyoung personally tracked every single one of these people down and found proof that they’d been embezzling company funds. 

Let’s just say that a lot of employees got arrested during the first two months of Mr. Park’s appointment. The PR Department was in panic (the only time Jackson Wang was forced to actually work overtime to ensure the entire company wasn’t labelled as corrupt by the media), but it worked out in the long run. Now the company is clean and Mr. Park does not compromise on integrity. 

Jinyoung has one golden rule, which is written in bold letters and pasted on his office for everyone to see as they arrive. The sign reads ‘No Wasteful Expenditure’. There is nothing Jinyoung hates more than useless expenditure. Every penny spent must bring in some solid, traceable returns and that is how he runs the finances of the company.

He can regularly be seen arguing with Mr. Wang of the PR Department in his office. “Taking the journalists to a strip club is NOT a business expense! I refuse to sanction your reimbursements! Pay for your own entertainment!”

Jinyoung is also extremely stingy about allocating budgets to the Research and Development team. Kim Yugyeom can often be found in Mr. Park’s office as well, pleading for more funds while Jinyoung ignores him completely. “When is the last time your Department ever designed anything worth selling? All the money we’ve allocated you in the past is a sunk cost. Do you know what that means, Mr. Kim? It means it’s sunk to the bottom of the fucking ocean and we’re never getting that money back!”

Mr. Kim Yugyeom doesn’t ask for money anymore. R&D make do with what they have. 

Jinyoung is extremely anal about his office space. The entire Finance Department is stuck with posters like “Reuse and Recycle” and there are reminders to turn off the lights when not in use. Jinyoung also insists that the air-conditioning be switched off for at least two hours every day. Even in summer. Sweating is good for your body. 

The prevailing system is tough love. Jinyoung is harsh with employee performance reviews and getting a bonus is not easy if you work for the Finance Department. He’s also a micro-manager, requiring that every small thing be passed through him for approval. 

Delegation is not a term well-respected in Mr. Park’s vocabulary. He doesn’t trust people to do things themselves. Sometimes he wanders around the employee’s desks for no reason, hovering over them like a schoolteacher trying to make sure the students aren’t cheating on an exam. 

Whenever the auditing season is over, though, Jinyoung makes sure to throw a huge party for the accounting branch and invites the entire Finance Department. Work outings aren’t often but when they do take place, they get wild. 

Overall, the employees of the Finance Department work hard and long hours, but they can’t really complain because Mr. Park works just as hard as them and he never sets any standards that he doesn’t follow himself. 

Youngjae

Mr. Choi Youngjae is the friendly Human Resources manager. 

The HR Department is a very calm and peaceful place. Youngjae has strategically placed potpourri all over the Department office to disseminate calming fragrances and he keeps scented candles in his own office. It’s his way of relieving stress after a long day of dealing with people screaming at him. 

“Yes, sir, I understand that you booked the conference room in advance and that the PR Department should not be allowed to play loud music and disturb your meeting. Yes, I’ll have a talk with Mr. Wang about this.”

“It does make sense that an executive of your level should be allowed to travel in business class, but it’s up to the Finance Department to allocate budget and sanction your... yes, I understand. I’ll talk to Mr. Park.”

The HR Department is essentially the anger management center for all the other employees. Many of the managers like to come and walk into Mr. Choi’s office at all times of the day to vent their problems to him. He’s often dealing with noise complaints filed against the PR Department and the Marketing Department. 

His only friend in the office is Jaebum, who often comes to talk to him about employee benefits and payroll issues. Youngjae admires how passionate Jaebum is about worker’s rights and he generally backs him when trying to beg the Board to allow for an increase in wages or additional holiday bonuses for the employees. It’s the only time Youngjae’s job feels worthwhile. 

Youngjae is also required to hold seminars and training courses on conflict resolution and workplace ethics every quarter. The sessions are largely pointless because they usually just end in Jinyoung making snarky remarks about how all of the other departments waste the company’s money and Jackson’s cellphone goes off every five minutes because he refuses to keep it on silent. Bambam and Yugyeom are usually entirely absent from the seminars completely; they translate seminar day to mean holiday. 

Youngjae is extremely grateful to Mark and Jaebum for being the only two people who actually pay attention to his seminars, but they’re never involved in any conflict anyway so it makes no sense. 

Youngjae also regularly has to talk to Bambam about taking too many vacations days. Somehow, the man turns up with perfectly valid medical certificates stating that he was ill even though everyone knows he went on a trip to Bangkok with his new girlfriend. Youngjae doesn’t really know how to deal with the problem. He chooses to ignore it. 

On slow days, Youngjae brings his dog into work and spends the afternoon playing with Coco. 

Overall, he’s an extremely sweet HR manager who secretly hates his job but puts up with it because he doesn’t know what else he would do. Also leaves work at exactly 5 pm sharp and sometimes runs into Mark in the parking lot. 

Bambam

Bambam runs the Marketing Department.

The Department is largely a mess. It’s meant to be a hub of creativity, and the office is filled with drawing boards and sticky notes and all sorts of scribbles all over the place. 

A clean environment does not get one’s creative juices flowing. 

Bambam also has dartboards with pictures of their major competitors set up all over the office. Employees are encouraged to use them often. 

The job of marketing is to get products to sell and Bambam firmly believes that there is one foolproof way to do that; glamour. 

He makes the company sign endorsement deals with almost every single famous celebrity in town; actresses, sports-persons, singers... Bambam knows them all and they’re all endorsing his products. If his team can’t come up with a good enough marketing strategy then they can just take their pick of all the celebrities Bambam has signed deals with and use one of them to endorse the product.

It’s not easy convincing Jinyoung to part with millions so that he can pay some famous actress to advertise their cosmetics line, but Bambam is better at wearing Jinyoung down than the other managers. Also, sales figures have been skyrocketing ever since Bambam took over so Jinyoung has a soft spot for him. At least he brings in results, unlike the R&D team. 

Bambam maintains a very casual work environment with his employees. The moment their workload decreases, he’s usually off visiting some exotic foreign country. It’s surprising how he manages to get work done despite almost never being in his office; but Bambam parties hard and works harder. 

He probably would have been fired by now if he hadn’t been bringing in so many sales, and if Youngjae hadn’t been too soft to bring up the matter of him overstepping his allocated vacation days.  

All the same, all his employees love him. 

Yugyeom

Mr. Kim Yugyeom manages the Research and Development team

The R&D team was one of the biggest spenders in the company until Mr. Park Jinyoung was hired and slashed their budget in half. They’ve been struggling to operate since then, but their productivity hasn’t increased much. They still produce next to nothing. 

Yugyeom always encourages his employees to share their wild and insane product ideas. Since the R&D department don’t actually have to show any concrete results, they can often be seen slacking off. Most of their ideas are insane from the start and could never have been implemented anyway.

The only productive research that was taking place through the R&D Department was in the cosmetics line, but Yugyeom had that research shut down after he found out that they were testing the cosmetics on little bunnies and mice. He spent the rest of the day locked up in his office watching PETA videos on the horrors of animal testing and crying himself to sleep. 

It took the combined efforts of Youngjae and Bambam to reassure Yugyeom that he wasn’t responsible for the deaths of hundreds of animals and that he should just shift his focus to products which didn’t need to be tested on living things. 

The biggest achievement of Mr. Kim’s career was convincing the company to start a line of chocolate milk-based products. It was a line of research that Jinyoung firmly refused to fund but that didn’t matter because Yugyeom and his employees were fully willing to test the product on themselves. They drank nothing but chocolate milk for an entire month before the product was finally approved for sale. 

Nobody complained because Yugyeom looked so hopeful. 

Bambam was so proud of his friend for having finally developed a successful product that he hired one of the most popular actresses to endorse it and the chocolate milk sold like hotcakes. It’s still one of the most popular milk brands. 

On days when they don’t need to work because Youngjae is holding one of his workplace ethics seminars, he and Bambam go to the amusement park or the bowling alley and have the time of their lives. 

Most of the employees in the R&D team love Yugyeom because, well, nobody every really does any work there and he doesn’t care either. Who wouldn’t love a manager like that? 

[blueboxesandtrafficcones]

Second Chance at Forever - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 of this year’s entry for the @dwsecretsanta, my present to @wordsintimeandspace!  Beta’d by the always-kind @stupidsatsuma​

@doctorroseprompts​ and @timepetalscollective​ as an AU fic

General warnings for: alcohol use, cursing, discussions of sexual activities

Masterlist

AO3

Summary

Once upon a time, a boy and girl met at a bar and fell in love - until he ghosted her.

Five years later Rose Tyler’s best friend Mickey is getting married, and arranges a dinner for her to meet the groomsman she’ll be walking with - unaware that the two already know each other.

John Noble’s not sure how his friend and mentee managed to connive with the Universe to bring the One Who Got Away back into his life; all he knows it carefully built and maintained walls are crashing to the ground with no warning.

Feeling terrible, John picked at the chips.  “I have no idea why my card was declined, I’m so sorry.”

“It was my turn anyway.”  Seemingly nonplussed, Rose was chowing down on her own order, and he realized she must have skipped lunch.  Too busy crying over you.  Again.  Jackass.

“You’re too forgiving.”

Rose’s fork paused halfway to her mouth, before slowly lowering.  “Clearly, we have communication issues,” she started, staring down at her chips.  “And trust issues.  And you-thinking-too-hard is a problem.  But… I still think it’s worth pursuing.  I still want to find out what we’re capable of.  Do you?”

“Yes,” he said firmly, leaning forward and reaching for her hand, which she gave willingly.  “I meant it, when I said it was you.  And there hasn’t been anyone else since we first met, by the way.”

Her eyes widened, grip tightening on his hand.  “Not for me, either,” Rose breathed.  “I… really liked you, John.”

“What about now?”

She was silent for long moments, making his heart race with worry.  “I’m falling,” she finally spoke. “Hard, and fast.  And that terrifies me, because the last time you just up and disappeared on me.  I can’t… I can’t give myself to you if I still think there’s a chance you’ll vanish again.”

“I won’t,” he promised softly, thumb rubbing over the back of her hand.  “I swear to you.  How can I make you believe me?”

“Time.  That’s why I want to wait until after the wedding.  That’s what I need.”  She met his eye then, a steely glint there, and he knew he couldn’t change her mind even if he wanted to.

“Then that’s what you’ll get.  Can I make a revision to our original agreement, however?”

Rose’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded.  “Depends – what is it?”

“You said ‘friends’,” he started slowly.  “I want to say dating.  Exclusively.  And nothing physical, that’s fine, I’m not trying to talk you out of it – but it might help you to know that as far as I’m concerned, we’re together.  If that’s what you want.  So if people ask, you can say you have a boyfriend – they don’t need to know what is or isn’t happening in the bedroom.”

“You want to be my boyfriend?” Rose laughed, throwing her head back, and he was momentarily stunned by her beauty.

“Are you sure you want me?” he countered.  “I’m twenty years older than you, Rose.  Is that really what you want for your future?  I must be about your parents’ age.”

“You are,” she shrugged.  “But I don’t care.  Really, I don’t.  Because I see you, John.  I see the man you are.  That’s what I want.  I just… I knew.  I knew.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

Rose shook her head, biting her lip.  “It’s not about deserve.”

“If you say so.”  He picked up another chip, gesturing for her to continue eating.  “What will your parents say, though?  I actually don’t know much about them, you’ve never said.”

She barked out a laugh, glancing around carefully at the other patrons.  Other than them, only two or three others were scattered at the tables, none paying them a lick of attention and seemingly too far away to hear their conversation.  “Erm, they’re your age actually – they had me at twenty.  Um, they’ve been married since.  Mum used to do hairdressing and stuff, was pretty good at it – now she’s a homemaker, I guess.  We lived on an Estate until I was… about four.”

Rose licked her lips, looking nervous, and he squeezed her hand.  “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“My dad’s always been sort of an inventor, having these mad ideas.  None of them went anywhere for the longest time, until… he created this brand of health drinks.”

“It did well then?”

She snorted, rolling her eyes.  “Ever heard of Vitex?”

John’s eyes went wide, staring at her in disbelief.  “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“You’re Pete Tyler’s daughter?”

“Yep.  And thank you, for not calling me ‘the Vitex heiress’.  I hate that.”

He shook his head, trying to process this revelation.  Of course he’d heard of Vitex, everyone had. It was the best-selling health drink, and his unofficial experiments and testing of the beverages showed that while the benefits were modest, it certainly wasn’t a scam as the company’s opponents liked to claim.  Its business practices were also respectable, heavily supporting various charities and reinvesting in the community.  There were mumblings about Pete Tyler eventually running for a seat in the House of Commons, and maybe even being Prime Minister someday.

“I had no idea.”

“Thanks,” she grinned wryly.  “I may’ve grown up with money most of my life, but it was just… there.  My parents still brought me up as though it could disappear any second; I certainly wasn’t raised in the lap of luxury.  I went to a good school, but I still had crappy summer jobs and had to earn spending money.  My brother, on the other hand…”

“Do you live at home?” John asked, curious.  “At least, that was the impression I got the first time round.”

“I did then,” Rose confirmed, “but after I graduated uni I moved out.  They bought me a nice flat as a graduation gift, but I’ve been living on my salary since.”

His brow furrowed, filtering that in with what he’d already known.  “I thought you were already working when we met.”

“Yeah, but it was summer,” she explained.  “Internship.”

“Oh.”

“Does it bother you?”

“What?”

“My age.”  Rose crossed her arms, leaning forward on the table as she steadily met his gaze.  “You keep thinking it’s an issue for me… is it really a problem for you?”

John exhaled.  “I’m forty-six, Rose.  I’m a year older than your father.  What’s he going to think?”

“So that’s a yes then,” she deduced, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to deny it.  “Okay.”

“I’m falling too, Rose,” he murmured, closing his eyes.  “Desperately.  You’re not the only one afraid the other’s going to find something better.”

“So where do we go from here?”  Rose looked tired, toying with her fork and stabbing chips without lifting them to her mouth.  “What next?”

“We keep dating?”  John rubbed his hands over his face, trying to think.  “And we just… talk, I suppose.  It’s like you said – it just needs time.  Then we reevaluate after the wedding.”

“All right.”

Rose still looked sad, and hurt, and his heart ached.  “Hey.”  He extended his hands across the table, palms up, and after a long look she settled her own on top.  “There’s no one else’s hand I’d rather hold.”

She attempted a grin, and though it was still sad, it was genuine, and he smiled back.

“Okay.”

When Rose walked into the office the next morning, Donna was already seated at her desk and on the phone, arguing with a vendor.

She waved, and Rose nodded in return, wincing as Donna’s voice raised.  She was an excellent assistant, hard-working and organized, exactly what Rose’s occasionally-scatterbrained personality needed to keep her on track.  But she was scary, and Rose was always thankful when Donna’s yelling wasn’t directed at her.

Twenty minutes later, once Rose had grabbed a cuppa and started going through her emails, Donna rapped on the half-opened door.

“Come in.”

“So…” her assistant prompted, settling on one of Rose’s guest chairs.  “What happened after you left yesterday?  No dirty details, I don’t need that much information about my big brother, but otherwise, tell me everything.”

“Uh…” Rose shuffled a few papers, coughing awkwardly.  “Were you able to-”

“The Emerson meeting is fully scheduled, I sent the Robertson’s documents to the printers, and arranged all three potential-client meetings for next week.  Work is fine.  Talk personal,” Donna ordered.  “The curiosity is killing me.  The idea of you and John is at the same time mind-boggling and perfectly obvious.  I can’t believe I didn’t think of setting you up first.”

“What do you know?” Rose asked, biting her lip.

“‘Know’ might be a bit strong, but I have a few facts that I suspect are all relevant.  One – Five years ago I stand John up for drinks, and the next afternoon he calls and thanks me.  That’s beyond strange.  Two – for the following week every time I talked to him, he sounded like he was on Cloud Nine – which is impressive, considering he can be the grumpiest bastard I’ve ever met.  Three – he shows up on my doorstep at one in the morning blitzed, moaning and grumbling on about some girl’s heart I somehow broke.  Four – he hasn’t had a relationship since.  Five – in the last three weeks, he has reverted to cavity-causing-sweet happy John.  Six – he spent all of lunch yesterday telling me about all the places he’s been lately, which is surprising for a bloke who basically leaves his flat to go to work.”

“Wow,” Rose blinked at the veritable waterfall of information.  “I… don’t even know where to start with that.”

“The beginning’s usually a good place,” Donna drawled.

“The beginning,” she repeated, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her stomach.  “Okay.  Um, we met five years ago at a club, on a night when you cancelled on him at the last moment.  We were together for almost two weeks when he stood me up and completely ghosted me.  A month ago we met again at a dinner for our mutual friends, Martha… something, Jones I think, and Mickey Smith.  We’re supposed to walk together in the wedding.”

Donna’s face dropped.  “Wait, what?  He ghosted you?”

“Yep.”

“That idiot!” she burst out, to Rose’s surprise.  “I’ve seen you two together for about thirty seconds, but I know you, and I know him, and you must be the best fucking thing to ever happen to him.  And he just- moron.”

“Thank you?”  Rose was touched by her vote of confidence.  “D’you really think so?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

“The age difference?”

“So what?  Who cares?”  Rose’s eyebrow shot up, and she nodded.  “Of course he does.  Cause he’s an idiot.  Does it bother you?”

“No.  But he… seems to think I’ll want to trade him in for a younger model somewhere along the way.”

“Will you?”

Slowly, Rose shook her head.  “No.  I… well…”

Comprehension sparked in Donna’s eyes, and she nodded wisely.  “I see.  But as smart as he is- and he is, certified genius, him- he’s a right bloody idiot.  And a prat.”

“Thanks.”  The women shared a smile.

“What if…” Rose started, biting her lip in worry.  She considered Donna to be a friend, if only casually, but now she was John’s sister.  Would she keep Rose’s confidence?

“Donna your assistant’s perfectly capable of keeping secrets from Donna his sister,” Donna said, seemingly reading her mind.  “And I’m actually the perfect person to talk to, considering I know him.  Then so long as I can bully him into telling me things, then maybe I can keep you two goobers from another miscommunication.”

“What if he wants someone older?” she blurted.  “Someone his own age.”

Donna’s eyebrow shot up, and she gave her an incredulous look.  “Know a lot of blokes who’d trade younger women for older ones, do you?  In my experience, it’s usually the other way around.”

She shrugged, slumping.  “John’s not like that.  At least, I don’t think so.  He says he wants me, but… he said that the first time.  How do I know he’s not going to get scared again?”

“I can’t promise that,” Donna said quietly.  “But I can say this- he really likes you, Rose.  If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be this torn up about it all.”

Rose nodded, blinking her eyes to chase away tears.  “Thanks.”

“What’re you going to do?”

“Keep seeing each other.  After Martha and Mickey’s wedding at the end of the year we’re going to reevaluate.”

Donna merely smiled, looking down at her notebook and shuffling a few papers.  “One last thing before we focus on work…”

“Shoot.”

“We should go shopping together somewhere along the line so I can make sure John picks out a nice ring for you.”

[whimsically-ominously-auspice]

If i had to pick an American Cookie that can be bought in the store today, hands down it would be this one.

Living in New Mexico for 20 years, i rarely see a black person. I can go 785 days without seeing an African American. Because i have.

So, it's shocking to go to Arkansas or even Oklahoma and see large groups of Black People and i stare. I don't forget they exist due to the internet.. But I never see them so it's like visiting Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon. Its this natural amazing marvel. And I just stare usually with my jaw dropped like some social retard. Which I'm not typically. And Hey -- I'm not the only New Mexican that does that shit. We simply have a serious minority of African Americans here. I understand places like Mississippi don't think they're a minority. But if i can leave my house every day and not see a African American, then you're a minority. Just as in higher areas of African American Domination, i like to call it, there isn't many Latina or Hispanic or Mexicans as there are here. In Mississippi, they're a minority and here they're all "bitch we rule this shit! We own New Mexico!"

So due to actual minority being true of African Americans (in the 90s i picked it because it was always claimed officially so I just accepted as NYC is a huge vast mix of all kinds of culture. I figured they actually went out and counted them. But i wanted to explain to those whom don't travel and don't experience life in other places in the United States.

So in the 90s the Harringtons and I and as he preferred to be called, Captain Negro, his super hero name. Captain Negro del ela Ponte if you wanted to get legal about it. Decided to pick an "American Cookie" we could easily purchase for Sunday nights. And of course it had to be absolutely perfect.

"Taste Great but Look the Part as Touched by a negros heart and soul" said Captain Negroponte as I called him or Captain Negro Party or Captain Negro Parte especially when i didn't know how to explain something.

I tell you. I've always been smart. Miss Leena always hides and plays dumb and just tells history. But to compare and contrast and make analogies i truly learned from this man whom was my English Compilation Teacher, a True Super Hero.

For the cookie experiment. I talked to Miss Leena but she wouldn't explain. She just gave me the type of cookie and told me I would know what to do.

William Harrington said, "I dont know to me a cookie is just a cookie and my wife makes them great!"

And Willingima. we called her, Harrington, at the (jokingly) threat of our own lives said she did not know either she just had to bake she had said as when quietly embroidered under the table a gift for the Captain Hero's family.

So he came over and we told him and his eyes lit up and he was bouncing around with excitement at the table. "So the cookies are.... But I sure don't know how to explain anything but the chocolate"

"Okay explain me"

I did

"And these are just regular old fashioned chocolate chip, not chocolate on chocolate dough or white chocolate chip?"

"I could ask miss leena but im sure it's the old fashioned."

"Lets call her"

She said that the Chocolate dough (black/dark brown dough) with white chocolate chips would be An African cookie -- for their culture here in America and in actually Africa.

So we were all at the phone all listening in, the phone turned all the way up. Now this is the 90s wall phone no speaker phone ability.

So Captain Negroponte told me back at the table, "so you know the old fashioned. Idk why she wouldn't explain the chocolate on chocolate because of the two different browns. But you know I'll stay out of it. I think i do know the sugar but let me just check. What did she say on the phone to you when she called?"

"Well she called just out of the blue. Asked for Sabrina and i thought she was asleep and so i said she was as she hadn't came down (stairs -- our bedrooms were up and i was just living there For the summer or however long until i had to go back to work into the city i moved out October 9, 1991 due to riots in Brooklyn because i had to go help as i spoke about this last week. Officially moved in July 4th of the same year) and she said and i quote "well just tell sabrina this, that i called and she needs to do a cookie experiment. A white old fashioned cookie of chocolate chip flavor and a sugar cookie. She should know what to do with all of your help" she sounded old and she said her husband wasn't home and she was just resting. So i said "well ill let you go" and she said no and wanted to know all about our enterprise feeding the Street neighborhood kids and asked about money and she said "well Sabrina can help" do you -- do you have money? I sure am tired of eating hot dogs myself. This is getting expensive! I mean for us"

I replied "i do have some... Ill talk to Steve to see what we should do and how much and the best way to go about this"

"No now you seem nervous and she said you have a lot"

"Billions" she said the same time I said "millions"

"And you said some.. You said what? What you got now hon?"

"You said I'm a billionaire and i wouldn't ever lie to anyone but Steve explained to me, hes my lawyer, he said that i needed not to explain how rich i am but if someone needed money I'm to say i only have one million dollars and that is it. And i said "but that is a lie!" And he said "but no it is not not when I'm not allowing you to give out more than thousands without my approval" and i was mad!!! But in the end i saw what Steve said i should see. Its dangerous to advertise how rich i am"

"Bull shit! We probably have the richest girl in the world here sitting at our table and im telling her to penny pinch! Babe! We're having steaks next week! Put that on the list!"

"I'll pay you guys all back!"

"No!" "No!" "No!"

"No. Yes i mean i know you all did it from the goodness of your hearts but you shouldn't suffer. And i didn't realize that you were. I mean i thought you just wanted to eat hot dogs. I didn't know there was any difference"

"Blah!"

"So what I'll do. Because Steve said I'm allowed up to thousands and you're still in hundreds last i checked. $991 for the last three weeks for the entire house budget. So I'll at least double that and give Captain Nero the same. For the time y'all have spent working and then what i meant i would have to talk to Steve is that I would have to design a plan for the future. What he's talked about is supplying a credit card with a limit capable of exceeding the design purchases. So like if you need $900,000 a month then the credit card would allow $1 million. That's what hes explained to me. Then he would supply 12 blank checks for the year then all you would do is call the number on the back of the card once monthly to find out the balance and get the address, write the check and then mail it to the credit card company. Easy as that. He would get the bills to look over to see you're not scamming me. Then he can stop payment on the rest of the checks if you are and cancel the card. That goes for everyone. So for this i think that is what he would pick. It sounds simple. Of course, I don't pay bills or anything like that. Steve always handles it for me. But I'll still have to talk to Steve to get that program under way. And I'll make sure he pays you and you and of course you for past supplies and your time"

So they agreed to the extra payment but wanted to do work free. Mrs Harrington got $15 per day for taking care of me. And still does although she doesn't take care of me anymore, her influence still lives within me and is what made me who I truly am today.

If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't ever asked criminals how they wanted their ending to be. I would have ripped them off the streets and tortured them one by one ripping off pieces of their body while injected with a chemical that made them highly alert and aware of what was happening. For 6 years and 600 days. Them never knowing when it would be the day to lose something they deemed important.

Instead of dungeons and torture chambers, they have a chance at luxury and happiness.

Those asking for death instead have a right to live in peace and make their amends and do as they need. The miserable are killed first to stop their pain and suffering. 72 wanted vacation before. They got that.

If it wasn't for the Harringtons and Captain Negro, never would that occurred.

They saved a wretch like me and in turn, I saved those worst than me. As Jesus would. She taught me all about the belief of Jesus and who they believed he was

Over Captain Harrington's right shoulder was a cross with me looking down or asleep. They eyes were closed. I felt it was the most accurate representation of me. It even had lumps on it's chest. And I always felt so much responsibility. She believed the Unorthodox Jewish ways with a Catholic overcoat. She was non-religious before marriage so she had a mix of views and dabble in all spirits of religion. Also, the occult.

So when her cheeks were pink and her bright blue eyes lit up, and she told me about Jesus. I always prayed to the Lord in Hevaen that I would live up to her expectations.

And often I would look at that cross and feel the thorns cutting into my forehead. "I hope we can do it. Change the world as expected" I would say.

There were times i would take it off the wall "i feel Jesus should watch some T.V., too" i didn't want to say who i was. Mrs Harrington thought i felt that crown of thorns because Jesus was telling me that i knew things and i should act. Of course I didn't really know who I was, either, at first. Mommy thought it was too much but Daddy told me and said I should keep it secret. But I could tell who or what I want. So I decided to honor mommy and not say. But incorporate Jesus since he was such a big part of Catholicism and decor in the house, daddy said that would make Jesus alive in the house and keep my secret. But allow my full powers to bloom.

And it worked.

So Captain Negroponte said that day that he kept getting questions from one particular kid as tall as me about White Supremacy and how his family taught him that all white people were bad and "only play with nigger kids" so he was certain he knew how to explain the white sugar cookie as long as i could do "the chocolate chip without fail then it would all be good and life would be perfect for this particular child"

"I can. I know just what to do. It will be perfect"

"Okay don't tell me. I dont want to hear until that day"

So he left with a bounce and his eyes glittery. His soul full of tears for this young man, looking back where he left all his hope and faith, walked down the short dark hall and into the sunlight of a cool brisk Saturday afternoon.

"Hey now i might need some help. I know i need to show the white dough and then how it tans when baked. I got that talking to her on the phone"

"Well she didn't say --"

"She said Bake. And i was transformed back into her kitchen and had a white plastic bowl which i put into the oven -- it was empty and out it came a clay not crystal like ours but ceramic Brown bowl with the white inside. So i know what to say about White people tanning to make 2 races so we all have to support the black"

"You you get!! So not all white people are the same!!! Good good!!"

"Shew! Thank you! So I was at the kitchen in the sink.. I mean -- i said that backwards -- so anyway I'm in the kitchen and i see the silver sink and the bowl appears before my eyes and suddenly im holding it in my hands and i went to hand the phone to you as i tried to hand the bowl to her in my standing hands and she didn't sound old like she did in the phone, she sounded very young and sing song. And she said "no the children" so what we have to do is give the bowl to each of the children and let them mix it themselves. That will help white supremacy in however that means. So then the black kids all add the chocolate chips. And then when we bake. That will represent the Muslims that i used to help when in was younger and who framed me to be as i am today. But the kids don't all know that so it will represent all the darker but lighter skin than black you know like Puerto Riccans and Vietnamese and Chinese and all those sorts of people and how the African Americans have inserted their "language" into us to make the world such an amazing place. Without them we wouldn't be the cookie we are today here in 1991. Isn't that right, Jesus?"

"Oh don't look at him so harsh. What do you need me to do?"

"Bake the cookies. At the start we will mix then he will tell a story then we will do the baking. We can do two days in a row or we can help you here in the kitchen. Megan and i can take turns like we always do and so if we wanted to spread the word for two weeks since its getting so cold, we can start in the afternoon instead of dusk. And do the two different cookies the same time -- No i mean in the ssme day"

"Okay that could work. We will just let Captain Nero know and I'm sure he could come up with two great stories to pass the time. And you will pay?"

"Oh yes. Yes of course. And when I talk to Steve I'll ensure Miss Harriet Tubman is getting her cut although she always paid on her own and said she was on solid woman and could make it doing all she pleased, her husband is still working. But he's a police sergeant so I know its not for money. But she could buy her something nice with his pension."

"Pension?"

"Oh he has two. He works a lot. One thinks she's like 80 and the other 102 or 103 i think it is. So one will be cut surely i assume. She said she doesn't think she can make it to 120 without them getting onto her"

"And his paycheck?"

"Oh he donates it to science. They own their own trailer and car and BBQ"

"BBQ?"

"BBQ Grill. Of course though if i gave her money she would probably just clothes the whole entire neighborhood. I'll ask Steve if thats what she wants or that i could do. She said that was the only thing she had left in life to apply for. I guess she always knew i had money thats why she gave me the evil eye. She always provides them gloves in the winter -- except she buys them in the summer when they're cheaper and puts them in a box to save them till it gets cold again. I tell you. She is smart. So about these sugar cookies. I sure hope it works. It seems the opposite of what we set out to do. All white with beautiful crystals on top. She said to make them look so worthwhile and be as perfect as possible..."

So while the White Supremacist cookie is after all just a cookie that we used to explain to a child that was deeply courageous to learn more and actually educated his parents and they hugged me with forgiveness, myself being white.

I have explained the example. And to further educate, the Sugar Cookie in all other reality when not used for a demonstrations, is just a cookie we bake when we have no other additives.

But as Captain Negro (you may call him Captain Nero as Mrs Harrington would as she refused to "see" any color other than the colors of the rainbow") explained we should always try to find something good to add to something that is empty of extras. Be it fruit from like the Garden of Eden or be it nuts or seeds like Big Bird from Sesame Street, prefers, we should always fill our life and our cookies with as much goodness as possible. But some days, he said, some days its okay to have just a plain ole bit of sugar. As long as it's full of love and not hate.

So please do enjoy your plain white sugar cookies that are made with love. Black Panthers nor "all" white people do not encourage prejudice -- even if it's just against a cookie.

God bless us.

So we picked for our "American Cookie" the cookie below: because of the way it looks and the way it tastes. I encourage you to buy some today. As you can see the chocolate chips are hidden just as African American Heritage is hidden. And when we take a bite a beautiful explosion of chocolate erupts and elivenes our spirits.

And to top the cookie off, all of this occurs inside. Hidden away. Just like our souls are.

Thank you for listening. If these people could touch you just one percent how much they changed my life and gave me love and education and pride and so much faith in other people. Then you will be so better off

I hope you allow them to touch your souls.

Now here is the cookie you all have been waiting for:

We would laugh. And call it the "Soft Bitch" we may be going hard and fighting loud but we always have time for a tear, a hand to hold, a face to hug.

Because this is The United States of America. And she ain't all that bad. Not her citizens. Her government. Yes. But her citizens are blessed by her rich history of which she had no control over.

The American Cookie. A brown cookie, like a white person tans with perfect pieces of Black African American heart and soul baked in. Cookies of the United States of America. I always called them "American Cookies" We even had kids sit and mix up chocolate chip dough from scratch, each child getting to mix and have an ingredient added while they mixed. They all got to see the raw dough was White. Then They were baked with love by Momma Harrington and they came out tan. Like white people do in the sun. So they could see for certain how the African American were and are in the souls and minds of white people. And how without the African American pieces of love they were not complete. To prove this we made cookies without the chips and they were bland. "But What about White Supremacy? Because that was just America without us. But What about how they think?" I was asked. "I guess we could try Sugar Cookies then and see what happens. So we made beautiful sugar cookies with sugar crystals on top. Thank God our Black Panther Leader knew the words because i was at a loss.

"We all mixed and made those cookies. We saw what was in them! Sugar! We made them appeasing to the eye and different looking and more special looking than an old Chocolate Chip with those crystals. But those crystals?!? They ain't nothing. We got them in chocolate chip and that is all they put in the White Mass cookies. Then we sprinkled a little on top to make them look clean and beautiful like a real treasure. But the Treasure is Truth!!! They're missing the real thing! Sure they look beautiful especially in the sun, the crystals reflecting the lights all over but those crystals are Blinding us to the Truth!!! They are all a fraud!! But go ahead, eat them. I would too. White supremacist and all. Now let's growl!!"

Reminder Established in 1991:

Miss Leena has a different fund called ""Harriet Tubman's Self Worth Working Still Today" and she has 778 users of my funds whom also feed the people of their neighborhood and streets. They do collard greens, steak and potatoes soup daily. Saturday and Sunday add hot dogs and Sunday Morning they do their African American Heritage Stories. Of course 68% are certified Black Panthers as well but no one has to pledge to an organization to feed children with love m they just follow their hearts.

The account labeled "Black Panther Food Allocation - For the Street Kids" 962 people across the globe do this on their personal streets nightly. Feed kids collard greens, hot dogs and/or hamburgers (with cheese and iceberg lettuce, tomato, onions, relish and so on). And on Sundays tell the stories of Black American Leaders that intended to destroy prejudice and mistreatment and succeeded and the listeners all get cookies.

Of course I bought the secret Cookie to represent our Nation. The United States of America.

The United States was founded officially on July 4, 1776.

Due to this i requested our policy be to employ no more than 77% of African American and no less than 76% the remaining percent be of at least 4 different shades of white.

We start at $18 per hour as that is the adult age in the USA to represent freedom. We employ 2020 in each factory setting arena.

Then we changed the recipe, to take out the lumps. To promise a better and smoother future for all.

The Original cookie to represent the past is gone is pictured on the box as well as an elf. It is not misrepresentation of what is inside, unless you expected to find an elf as well. In no way is there any identifying words that says that is the what the cookie looks like inside. But it is the Original cookie artwork packaging as i bought it in 1991.

We have been sued over the artwork not representing the contents. Once i sued myself and won. I got good game. Y'all. Persuaded everyone to see it my way! It was a mock trial. And so it was to prepare for a real trial which did occur and we did win. We simply told the truth of our packaging and said we were not ready to reveal it. It was 2007 and we hadn't done a full reveal since 1991 and so why not leave us alone as we couldn't promise the change?!?!

We did word of mouth and some soft T.V. programming to indicate it. But never The full storey as I have today in pulic.

So again here is the Original cookie it did actually look like but did crumble more -- we kept that chocolate chip explosion. But bake them twice to have an outer coating of smoothness.

[thewinchesterseries]

Pilot - Part 2

*Ava's P.O.V.* I was leaned up against the side of the car staring up at the sky as I waited for Dean. The three of us had been on the road for a couple of hours driving through the night to reach Jericho. The car had been filled with a tense energy since the start but Dean tried to avoid and ease it by putting on AC/DC the entire car ride. Sam attempted to fall asleep in the back but from the looks of him this morning, he wasn't successful. It never was an easy feat for me to fall asleep with so much to think about.

Dean had decided to make a pit stop on the way at one of the most rundown gas stations I had ever laid my eyes on, and this was saying something. We were in the middle of basically nowhere as all around us stretched the plain beige color of the sand. The only other color was the light grey of the worn down road and the ugly sepia of the gas station. It looked to be out of some old cowboy movie. It already had the cacti and tumbleweeds blowing, it was only missing the saloon and the cowboy walking up its steps. It wasn't a very picturesque place.

As Dean was inside getting snacks for himself, Sam sat in the car with his door open flipping through Dean's music collection, I could hear him scoffing and mumbling a few insults every now and then about the music. Honestly, I couldn't blame him: they were the greatest hits of mullet rock.

*ding* I felt a notification ring from my phone so I turned around and reached through the window to grab it off the seat. I flipped it up and saw: From: KT-Aldin School "Where are you?? Detention is about to start but Ms. Aldin's taking roll already." I let out a quick short breath and looked up at the dingy gas station as I racked my brain for some bullshit to give her. This happened more often than I'd like to admit. I'd enroll at a school, make some friends to blend in and then I'd have to leave or I'd just decide I want to leave. The people who called themselves my friends would question my whereabouts when I’d disappear and I'd give some crap excuse in response. It was endless cycle of them trying to reach me and me fading away.I don't like doing it but I told myself that this was the only way I could keep them safe. . .or me safe, I’m not sure. It was a cycle that I wasn't necessarily proud of. "Who is it?" Sam asked. I looked over at him prepared to give him a snarky response but when I met his eyes I was met with a guilty smile. The face of someone who was trying to make things better. A smile and a good-intentioned question isn’t automatically going to make everything better but it was a start after not speaking to each other for five hours. I looked down at my phone, "um, someone that I used to know." I responded. I looked back over at him and flashed him a quick smile. He smiled back.

"Hey!" Dean called out to Sam and I startling me. I closed my phone quickly, not responding to the text and looked at Dean who looked back at us, "You want breakfast," he asked holding up sodas, chips, and what looked to be a chocolate bar. "No, thanks." Sam and I said at the same time. I felt Sam look over at me but I focused my attention on my shoelaces. One step at a time, Sammy. "Just because you put it in your mouth during breakfast time doesn't make it breakfast Dean." I said boredly leaning against the car again. I heard a grunt of approval from Sammy as he continued to browse through Dean's record collection. I heard a scoff and Dean mumble a whatever and for a second it was almost like old times when Daddy would do a hunt by himself and leave us by ourselves. Sammy and I would team up and get on Dean’s nerves and Dean would just take it because that's what older brothers do. We weren’t trying to find our Dad who was probably dead because we hunt things that weren’t supposed to be real. For a momentary second we were just siblings going on a road trip. For a momentary second we were normal "So how'd you pay for that stuff?” Our momentary second was over as Sam continued to speak, “you and dad still running credit-card scams?" he questioned. Daddy never let me do a scam and for that reason he also doesn't count me as a hunter. I’ve always asked him why but he always answered because of my heritage amongst other things which I know is total bs. I'm a witch and my mom's parents were business owners. The business grew internationally but of course my mom being the rebel that she is she didn't want to be the face of the company so my grandparents sold the company but made it so when I get older I'll inherit it. I like to think that Mom being such the rebel she was, was part of why Daddy liked her. Until I'm of age, the Hillendale's (mom's family) 51% share of funds goes to a bank account that I won't actually get until I'm 18. Before she died my mom charged an accountant/witch/friend of hers to keep watch over the account for me to make sure of no foul play. My mom might of been a rebel but she wasn't stupid. I don't know anything of the person that watches over my account except they are a witch. Not the name of the person, where they live, I don't even know if they know my dad is a hunter. I don't think they'd be so helpful if they knew I lived with people who kill witches as a profession. I do know that every month my phone bill is paid. Of course Sam and Dean don't know any of this under Daddy's request command. . .thanks to Daddy they don't know a lot about me. Dean took the pump out of the gas tank, "Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career. Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards." Dean shrugged jokingly and walked around to the car prompting me to push myself off the car and get inside. "Yeah, and what names did you write on the application this time?" Sam retorted. "Uh. . .Bert Aframian and his son, Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal." Dean got in the car with his snacks in hand. "Sounds about right." Sam chuckled, "Ava, why is that you never get a card?" Dean looked over at me in question and all I could do was glance at him and then at my hands as I racked my brain for an answer. I was silent for a moment, contemplating on how to answer. My entire life has been a constant routine of censoring and thinking before I answer. It’s been tiring, "I'm not sure. I think Daddy wants me to stay as pure as possible for as long as possible." Dean looked over at me raising his eyebrows with a smirk on his face, he snorted and responded, "yeah, cause you're such the princess. Wait till we find him ya little Gremlin. "You know it Conehead." I teased back but inside I really was nervous about seeing Daddy again. You never knew what to expect from him and last he knew I was at 'Edna Aldin's Disciplinary School for Girls'. Sam chuckled from the back, "Hey Dean? I swear man, you got to update your cassette-tape collection." "Why?" Dean argued back looking at him through the rearview mirror. "Well-for one they're cassette tapes." Sam said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And two-Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock." Sam said scrunching up his face in disapproval as I giggled to myself. I may not be a big fan of what Dean plays, on repeat, all the time, consistently but even I know him and Dad are no DJ's and not taking any request when it comes to music choices. "What are you laughing at?" Dean questioned towards me. "He has a point." I smirked back. "You know what?" Dean said snatching his tapes from Sam. "House rules, driver picks the music, shotgun and backseat driver shuts their cake holes." Dean said in an equally matter-of-fact tone. Dean revved up his engine and sped out of the gas station without giving a second thought.

Dean was driving as 'A Gift to the World' by Loveless played while Sam and I were trying to find information that would actually be helpful to both the case and finding Daddy. I heard Sam say a goodbye and then his phone shut and then he whispered to me to turn the music down. I turned it down as he spoke up, "alright, so there's no one matching dad at the hospital or morgue. So that's something, I guess." "Check it out." Dean spoke up. We all looked to see a bridge that farther down had yellow tape across it. It was a crime scene and police officers were milling around. Dean pulled to the side of the road and parked, he reached in the glove compartment to get a box while I put my hair in a sensible ponytail and put on low heels that I had on the car floor, not only to make me look older but to also give me some sort of height. The boys were giants. Dean pulled out three ID's and I looked over mine to see Federal Marshal and the name 'Stevie Benatar'. "Let's go." As we got out of the car I said, "I don't understand why you guys won't give me a name like 'Tina Jackson' or 'Donna Houston'. If I'm listening to anyone from the 80's it would be them." Sam and Dean chuckled both aware of the fact that I was proud of my skin color. Sometimes I think they forgot though. Dean looked at me and said, "I'll look into it." We walked to the scene with our heads held high. It used to be difficult for me to go on hunts because I was so young and the boys wanted also to go on the hunts but I was too young to stay at a motel by myself. One would always stay behind for me though, I got most of my education from them. Both everything supernatural mostly from Dean and stuff like math and english mostly from Sam. As we approached I heard what I assumed to be a Deputy call over the bridge, "Did you guys find anything?" "No! Nothing!" someone responded. The Deputy walked over to the car to speak to what I assumed to be a forensic expert who was observing in the car. They spoke to the Deputy and said, "No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints-spotless. It's almost too clean." The Deputy sighed and said, "so this kid, Troy-he's dating your daughter, isn't he?" "Yeah." the expert said solemnly. "How's Amy doing?" the Deputy asked. "She's been putting up missing posters downtown." he responded sadly. The boys and I reached the crime scene and Dean spoke up to get their attention, "you fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" The Deputy rose up and looked at the three of us, "and who are you?" "Federal Marshals." Dean smiled as he flashed his 'badge' not for too long to catch the faux-ness of it but not too short so as to draw suspicion. "You three are a little young for Marshals, aren't you?" the Deputy said looking at me especially. I smiled and batted my eyelashes, "thanks, that's awfully kind of you." The Deputy blushed and looked down at his shoes. The way I understood hunting with my brothers was this way: Dean is muscle/bad cop, Sam is compassion/good cop, I'm hips and lips/interrogator. It doesn't matter how young you actually are in this business. It doesn't matter if you want to do it or not. You have to play your role. If you don't play the role you are given then everything goes to hell and that helps no one. "You did have another one just like this, correct?" Dean questioned, walking around the car The Deputy was still a little tentative about us but answered the question nevertheless, "Yeah, that's right, about a mile up the road. There have been others before that." "So this victim-you knew him?" Sam asked. "A town like this, everybody knows everybody." the Deputy shrugged. "Is there any connection between the two victims besides that they're all men?" I asked walking behind the car, spotting a manila folder. I walked to the folder inconspicuously and saw that it was information on the victim and quickly slipped into my jacket holding the file and its contents with my arm. "No. Not so far as we can tell." he answered as I walked back around the car closer to him. "What's the theory?" Sam asked walking to stand next to Dean. The Deputy shook his head, "honestly-we don't know-serial murder, kidnapping ring. . ." "Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys." Dean said. I heard Sam step on his foot and Dean let out a grunt while all I could do was roll my eyes. "Thank you for your time." Sam said quickly as he walked away leading Dean along, "Gentlemen." I gave a nod and smile to the Deputy and he gave me a smile back. When we were far enough Sam let out a yelp as Dean smacked him on the back of the head, "Ow! What was that for?" He whisper-shouted. "Why do you have to step on my foot?" Dean whisper-shouted back. Sam responded back just as sassily like the little brother he was, "why do you have to talk to police like that?" "Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're gonna find Dad, we've got to get to the bottom of this ourselves." I interjected wanting to get away from the crime scene as quickly as possible, "Still doesn't excuse you. Come on, we gotta go." I said tugging on Dean's arm. "Where's the fire?" Sam questioned chuckling. "In my jacket." I muttered, when I caught sight of the Sheriff. I glanced up at Dean and turned towards the Sheriff. "Can I help you all?" the Sheriff spoke in a gruff voice. His face was stern and looked rather suspicious but I couldn't tell much with the glasses that he had on. I spoke up for us giving him a small smile, "no sir, we were just leaving." The two agents behind the Sheriff walked past us and Dean nodded at them and greeted them, "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully." I had to fight myself to smack Dean in the back of his head

Dean, Sam, and I were walking down the streets of Jericho in search of more information about the town proceedings. As we walked I read the boys the file I swiped. "All right, Troy Squire, age 16, born here, goes to Jericho High School, 140 pounds blah blah blah ok so basically a bunch of useless shit." I sighed closing the folder. "There's really nothing interesting in there?" Sam asked as I handed him the folder. "Less than that." I said tiredly. I looked over Sam’s shoulder and said, "the kid was average. A's and B's, a C in Health class though." I made a face at that. "How do you fail health class?" Sam questioned, his face resembling mine. We continued to walk down the street that was mostly empty when we spotted a girl stapling posters on to a wall. "I betcha that's her." Dean said walking in her direction. "You must be Amy. Troy told us about you, we're his uncles and aunt. I'm Dean, this is Sammy, and that's Ava." "He never mentioned you to me." Amy said glancing at us before going back to sticking up her posters. "Well, that's Troy I guess. We're not around much, We're up in Modesto." Dean said passing the baton on to his next lie. Sam spoke up, "so we're looking for him, too, and we're kind of asking around. . ." A girl dressed in dark clothing and dark lipstick came up to Amy, "hey, are you okay?" they asked. "Yeah," Amy responded shrugging. I interjected, not wanting them to get cozy and run off, "Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?"

"I was on the phone with Troy." Amy said, "he was driving home. He said he would call me back, and he never did." We were sat in a booth at a local diner, Amy and her friend on one side me, Dean and Sam pulled up a chair. "He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary." Sam asked using his comforting voice. "No, nothing I can remember." "Here's the deal, ladies," I said splaying my hands on the table, "the way Troy disappeared-something's not right. So if there's anything that you can tell us. . ." The girls looked at each other "What is it?" Dean asked. "Well, it's just-i mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk." The friend answered "What do they talk about?" Sam and Dean asked in unison. "It's kind of this local legend." She began, "this one girl, she got murdered out on Centennial like decades ago. Well, supposedly, she's still out there. She hitchhikes and whoever picks her up-well, they disappear forever." She ended with a shrug. 

We were at the library trying to uncover who this mystery ghost is and Dean was typing but to no avail.

After about the tenth try, Sam grew impatient and I grew bored, "let me try." Sam said. "I got it," Dean said stubbornly, but Sam had grown tired of waiting and pushed Deans chair out of the way, "dude. you're such a control freak." Dean said as he hit Sam's arm but Sam merely glanced at him. "So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Sam asked. "Yeah." Dean and I answered. "Maybe it's not murder." Sam suggested as he replaced murder with suicide in 'female suicide centennial highway', '"this was 1981. Constance Welch, 24 years old, jumps off Sylvania bridge, drowns in the river." Sam said finally "Does it say why she did it?" Dean questioned Sam scoffed, "Yeah." Dean looked at him and then the computer screen, "what?" "An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." Sam said quietly. "'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch" Sam said. "That bridge look familiar to you guys?" Dean asked

A/N: agggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this took forever. I stayed up til 2 in the morning Monday trying to get a base down for it, forgot to post Tuesday then was too lazy to do it that night, and then decided to just edit today. It doesn't help that I'm on vacation with my grandparents and they wanted to go fishing (which I found out I totally suck at) but I finished so life is good. SPOILER ALERT:

(i mean it’s okay if you’ve already watched supernatural but you’ve been warned) When Dean asks the girls ‘what is it’ I really wanted to be a bad writer and just burst out in: we have the check stubs from separate accounts.and guys it totally makes sense because Alex was having an affair and a woman in white only kills off guys who have had affairs so yeah.

As per usual, feedback is most gracious. This may only you a couple minutes to read but it takes me a week to write and sometimes I have to cram a week’s worth of writing into two or three days so please let me know what I could work on because I want to know if this is any good or not.

@blackgirloneshots @thewinchesterdaily @dean-sam-winchesterbros @fatherofmurder @funny-supernatural @itsokaysammy @allthesupernaturalgifs @ohmysupernatural @the-mrs-deanwinchester @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @winchestheart @ilostmyshoe-79 @talesoftheimpala @thebelovedassbutt @balthazars-muse @imaginingyourfandom @fandomsimaginesandstuff @oneshotsdeanshort @graceb200371 @whyaremyshipsnevercanons @myradromance @supernaturalfanfiction-com @susan-is-in-the-house @rosegoldquintis @k-azumi @the-chaos-girl @bitchy-tacos @ketchups-bitch @wtfmireya @socialawkxiety @avengemysupernaturaldiaries @thecaptainofamerica @exo-chenyeol-61 @thelaststarheir @kamrynzam @cleverdame @superdeanatural @witchkiller33 @samwinchesterblog @frozen-delight @afunsizepanda @vansawssupernaturalpage @avengemysupernaturaldiaries @spnkisum @fandom-addict-aesthetics @alicat-life @niallismabaexx @miictecacihuatl @plotsandpromptsforall @cutiepielovely23 @watermelonpizzza @thatotherloser @missygun @kissdagirll @mikeymagee @the-sarcastic-queen @brett-talbot-beta @abnormalgirl21 @hunter-livingsrone @fandomstrend @honestly-idek @gascap @anna-ik-e @toutlamour @sammysbuttcheek

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Another guest contribution from John D to The Prepper Journal.  As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award as well as be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.

They say that if you don’t study history, you are doomed to repeat it.  Well then, what can we learn from the past that can help us better prepare for the hard times we know are coming?

In an effort to understand hard-times, the Great Depression may offer the best opportunity for learning.  Families lost their homes and businesses due to foreclosure, and shantytowns sprang up across the country as a refuge for the homeless.  Unemployed men traveled the railways to different locations, desperately searching for work.  Bread lines and soup kitchens were the only form of sustenance for many, during the Great Depression.  Surely, we as preppers can do better than that.  Can’t we?

While the Great Depression was a nightmare for a large number of people, many never felt real hardship, and some became wealthy.  There are lessons to be learned from the successes and failures that apply to prepping.  Let’s look at a few of them:

Floyd Bostwick Odlum anticipated a stock market crash, cashed in many of the stocks he thought would fail, and was left with a lot of cash when the market crash happened.  He used that cash to buy failing companies at drastically reduced prices, and then used those assets to make more cash.  His strategy was so successful, that he became one of the ten wealthiest men in the country.

Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK’s father), amassed an enormous amount of wealth, primarily through real estate, during the Great Depression.

On the other end of the spectrum were investors who didn’t anticipate the crash. They believed that the good times would never end.  Some, in fact, borrowed money for the purpose of buying stock.  Some lived like the grasshopper (in the grasshopper and the ant fairy tale), never setting aside anything for a rainy day.  Needless to say, when the crash happened, they were devastated.

Chain letters, offering get-rich-quick schemes, seem to have first appeared during the Great Depression.  That, no doubt, was an effort to take advantage of people’s desperation.  E-mail scams and social engineering are today’s version of that.

In the mountain communities of Appalachia, whole families were reduced to dandelions and blackberries for their basic diet.

What can we learn from those examples?

The things you consider assets now, may not be assets after the SHTF.  Own things that will be of great value to you, and to others, post-SHTF.  Put yourself in a positon to thrive, not just survive, in an economic downturn.  Be ready to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.  Being able to adapt to jobs in different fields is essential.

Don’t be fooled by get-rich-quick schemes.  Expect an uptick in scams as shysters try to take advantage of people’s desperation.

   Learn to grow, and preserve, your own food.  You may have read some articles about growing your own food, but don’t overestimate your ability.  Learn by doing.  That’s the only way you’ll know for sure.  What you don’t know might surprise you.  It’s better to find out what can go wrong before you’re actually depending upon those crops for survival.  Know how to minimize the effects of a drought on your plants, because water may be a precious commodity.  Save seeds from your own successful plants, but not from hybrid plants.  Anticipate your needs, and act accordingly.  You may be proud of yourself for canning 50 jars of tomatoes, and you should be, but how long will they last?  If you consume just 1 jar a day, you’ll run out early in the winter.  And needless to say, you can’t help others if you don’t even have enough to meet your own needs. During the Great Depression, communities supported each other and kept everyone fed.

  Learn about container gardening, and growing indoors.  Those too, might be skills you’ll need in the future. Teach family members those skills, because you may have to travel to a distant location, in search of work.

Use the assets you have, and don’t waste anything.  If you have an apple tree, make canned applesauce, and lots of it.  Someone will be happy to accept applesauce in trade for something you need.

Understand what’s happening, as it happens.  Mr. Odlum wasn’t just lucky.  He didn’t like what he saw in the markets, and he took the appropriate actions.  While few were as successful as Mr. Odlum, many businesses changed their tactics, in order to survive the Great Depression.  Giveaways, diversification, more and better advertising, better service, and providing more for less, were just a few of the ways many businesses were able to stay afloat.  Depending upon the nature of your business, one or more of those strategies might just help you weather the storm that you know is coming.  Plan now, before it’s too late.

What else should you be aware of?

Crime surged during the Great Depression, primarily because desperate people will do desperate things.  This should tell you that money you spend on security, weapons, and ammo, is money well spent.  Cultivate good relationships with family and friends.  You’ll need them, and they’ll need you, to stay safe and protected.

Watch the Signs:

Early on, the United States focused on domestic issues, and did not directly intervene in conflicts overseas.  But with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States could no longer continue its isolationism policy.  If conflicts overseas are ignored, sooner or later they’ll arrive on our doorstep.

The government initiated several programs during the Great Depression, including giving away blankets.  These came to be known as “Hover Blankets”, named after the president at the time, Herbert Hoover.  Sound familiar?  Recently, President Obama gave free phones to the needy.  They became known as “Obama Phones”.  Some believe that the United States dodged a bullet when Donald J. Trump was elected.  Time will tell.

        When the Great Depression hit, Mexican-Americans were accused of taking jobs away from “real” Americans and of unfairly burdening local relief efforts.  Some were “encouraged” to return to Mexico.  Sound familiar?  Not just that, but Californians tried to stop migrants from moving into their state.  It’s hard to believe these things actually happened in a state with so many “Sanctuary Cities” today.  Don’t be surprised if you see a quick change in attitudes towards people who are not native to your area, once the SHTF.  Just like in the past, minorities will be hardest-hit in the event of another economic downturn.

President Roosevelt succeeded President Hoover, and his “New Deal” radically changed the role of the Federal Government.  Many were helped, but unfortunately some came to believe that the government was the solution to every problem.  Sadly, many people still believe that, and don’t feel that they need to contribute to society.  Programs initiated during the Roosevelt administration, such as Social Security, FDIC Insurance, and Unemployment Insurance benefitted many Americans then, and still do today.  But, for everything to work like a well-oiled machine, labor participation needs to go up, as welfare participation goes down.  To have a healthy economy, all mentally and physically able people need to pull their own weight.  If history repeats itself, we’ll see new social programs, and new abuses of those programs.

Unless we have leaders who effectively deal with waste, fraud, and abuse, taxes will rise dramatically.

If you run out of money as you’re adjusting to a major financial crisis, it’s a problem.  If you have money, it’s just another day.  The Great Depression created hard times for about 40% of the population, but that means that 60% did alright.  And, a small segment of the population did exceptionally well.  Which group will you be in?

Prepare to prosper, not just survive.  To do that, you’ll first need to stay healthy.  Your odds of staying healthy improve if you have plenty of nutritious food, clean water, comfortable living conditions, and security.  If you’re currently out of shape, you should do something about that.  Life will be strenuous after the SHTF, and you need to be ready for that.  Consider creating a strategy based on your present training and skills.  If you’re a builder, can you practice your trade without electricity, and with limited availability of supplies?  If you’re in the medical field, having a good knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs will be helpful.  Having the ability to repair shoes and clothing will be another in-demand skill, because many will not be able to buy new things.  Bicycles will become a popular way of transportation when people can no longer afford cars, or when gasoline is either not available, or too expensive.  Knowing how to maintain them will be a valuable skill.

It’s interesting to note that the suffering during the Great Depression was not only due to the collapse of banks and the failure of retail businesses.  Those who made their living by farming or raising cattle suffered through an extreme drought in the early depression years.  This, perhaps, is another learning opportunity.  Water is life.  Know what to do in the event that your current supply dries up.  Rain water can be captured from your roof, and stored, if you have the appropriate catchment devices and containers.  55 gallon food-grade containers are available from local sources, such as farm supply outlets.  Know how to purify water to make it safe for drinking.  Have portable equipment, in the event you need to bug out.

You may choose a strategy based on the nature of the disaster you anticipate.  To prepare for a powerful EMP, store sensitive electrical devices and components in a Faraday Cage.  Learn about solar power systems, and stock up on component parts for that.  After all, electrical devices are of no value if you have no way to power them.  Imagine the value of a sustainable alternative source of electricity, in the event of a widespread power outage.  Imagine yourself as one of the few who can pick up emergency broadcasts (if they still exist), and have 2-way radio communications with others.  Having the ability to boil water, and cook food, without a tell-tale fire in your back yard helps to hide those activities from unwelcome guests.  Things like lights, walkie-talkies, and security equipment will contribute to your safety and comfort.  You could be one of the few in your community with a working TV.  Broadcasts may no longer exist, but DVD’s will last virtually forever.  Escape from your troubles once in a while, as many did in the depression years.  At the very least, a working TV provides a way to entertain the young, keeping their minds off of the serious nature of the situation.  The ability to play movies, shows, and recorded music will be a great moral booster.

An EMP will damage most modern automobiles, and the rest would last only as long as gasoline is available.  However, automotive batteries will probably survive an EMP attack, and can be re-purposed as emergency power sources.  Sadly though, after a widespread grid power outage, only a few people will have the ability to recharge them.  Will they bring their batteries to you, for recharging?  Probably, if you have one or more solar panels.  Consider stocking up on rechargeable flashlight batteries, and purchasing a good quality charger.  Recharging flashlight and equipment batteries is another service you could provide, in exchange for things you need.

The cost of solar panels has dropped dramatically over the past few years, to the point where almost everyone can afford a solar electric system.  The cost of energy-efficient LED lights has also dropped dramatically.  Where it once required 60 watts to power a light bulb, you can now get the same amount of light from a bulb requiring only 9 watts.  So you see, even a small system is of great value.  Don’t be misled by those who’ll tell you solar electric is not practical.  I’m sure they mean well, but perhaps are not aware of recent advances.  And, as I previously mentioned, automotive batteries may be available at little or no cost, greatly cutting the cost of a complete system.  Use marine (deep discharge) batteries if possible, since those are better suited to off-grid solar electric systems, but automotive batteries are fine as an emergency power source.

Begin by determining how much power you need, and then put together a system large enough to meet that need.  I’ve posted a TPJ article in January of 2017 that tells how to do that.  Your EMP-protected electronics stockpile should include a good quality multi-meter, preferably an analog type, since a digital one would be more susceptible to an EMP.  Understand that an EMP attack may be followed by another EMP attack at a later time.  Keep devices you’re not using in a Faraday Cage.  Keep a good supply of spare parts, such as blocking diodes for the solar panels.  If you can afford it, keep duplicates of all critical equipment.  LED bulbs might also be damaged by an EMP, so keep some protected spares of those.

There are a great many disasters, other than an EMP attack, that can cause long-term and widespread power outages.  For that reason, I consider alternative power a high priority.

If you anticipate a financial collapse, and your goal is to become wealthy, you might choose to store large amounts of gold or silver, since paper money may be worthless.  If you simply want to survive a zombie apocalypse, then perhaps weapons, ammo, and fortifications are more in tune with your prepper philosophy.  There is no one-size-fits-all plan.  It’s important to learn as much as you can, because you may not always be able to “Google” things.

Does your survival strategy take into consideration where you live?  If you live in a cold climate, you’ll have to stay warm.  If you live in a warm climate, you’ll have to stay cool.  If you live in a big city, you’ll need a bug out plan.  If you live in the desert, you’ll have to be concerned about water.  Well, you get the idea.  Stockpiling is a short-term solution to a disaster.  To survive in the long run, you have to have a sustainable strategy.  Prepare for a scenario where every service you depend upon suddenly no longer exists.  Start with your most basic needs (water, food, and shelter), and work outward from there.

When disaster strikes, you may find strength through optimism, as many did during the Great Depression.  Many looked at their disadvantages as personal challenges that could be overcome with ingenuity and hard work.  There was virtually no sense of entitlement.  People understood that they would only survive if they worked hard.  Many came to realize that they’d been given a great gift; an opportunity to experience the love of family and friends in a way that is almost unimaginable today.  Those who lived through the Great Depression learned to appreciate the simple life, and to have compassion for those in need.  If history does repeat itself, I hope I can at least match that level of compassion and generosity.  I hope you can too.

  The post Hard Times – Lessons from the Past appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON ATLAS’ LEAD RAP MIN JOHYUN...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: N/A CURRENT AGE: 24 DEBUT AGE: 19 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 17 COMPANY: KJH SECONDARY SKILL: Modeling

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): giant, soft giant, daddy long legs, legolas. INSPIRATION: His inspiration was his father, who had always wanted to be a musician, but couldn’t follow his dream because he had to raise their family. SPECIAL TALENTS:

saying tongue twisters super quick.

he knows how to play the keyboard, the guitar and the drums.

has the lowest note among the members.

knows how to ride a motorcycle.

NOTABLE FACTS:

used to play basketball at school, and he was really good at it.

was scouted by kjh on the streets due to his looks. at first he thought it was a scam, but ended up calling them back when he saw on the internet that they were the real deal.

got some attention after debut because of his height and “elf-ish” looks. 

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

his goal as of now is to get at least slightly more popular in his group, to find his footing, a place. even though he knows he’s gotten better he still doesn’t feel like a proper part of the group’s “rap line”. he wants his covers on youtube to get more views and for his musical talent to be more recognized. little does johyun know that he should be the one to recognize it first.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

as sad as that sounds, he has none. johyun thinks short term and that has been his curse for years. he had once, years ago. when his dream was playing basketball. but that was taken away and sometimes he feels that once it did his own will also left him. now he’s this. a shadow. something that doesn’t really has any form, any shape. maybe that’s why, then. it’s easier to look to his feet, to look at the short path ahead. if he looks up, if he sees where he’s going. then he’ll stop. and he can’t do that.

IDOL IMAGE

he’s stuck.

johyun pauses in front of the mirror, a twisted, heavy feeling in his chest that he can’t shake it off. he shouldn’t be this anxious, not five years into debut. but he still is, always is. it’s almost like this awful grip in his throat just gets tighter and tighter as the years go by. instead of getting used to shows like this, used to the cameras on him, it just gets worse and worse.

and it’s even worse when it’s all of them together.

because it’s easy to get lost then, to be lost. kjh had tried for many things to be his image. they have tried the giant puppy sort of image, tried the quiet poet rapper sort of thing. truth be told in a group with so many figures it was just easy to fade in the background. and he faded to the point sometimes he wondered if even kjh remembered him, those weeks with no solo schedule, all those years with nothing going on for him except when atlas was promoting. they’re supposed to be carrying the whole world, but johyun feels like he’s not carrying anything at all. he’s not even helping them carry it.

and it’s a cycle, a never-ending one. one of anxiety and of never feeling good enough. but god knows he got better. god knows he took all the training they gave him and turned it into something worth their fucking money. god knows he has tried, still does. that he trains endlessly. that every inch of skill he got now was worked for, battled for. and still he felt ridiculous when he compared himself to the others, to how grand they are, how talented, how raw. and he has gotten better, he thinks. he says. they all tell him. johyun agrees. until another article comes out and once again all they’re talking about are his looks, his face, how broader he got over the years. visuals for days. not a word about the lines he rapped.  but it’s the only place he seems to fit, the only thing that ever got him articles. it didn’t matter how much he wrote, or how much he tried to. his company still told him he didn’t need to. and he wouldn’t even dare show it to his group members. so he keeps being the mediocre rapper. he keeps being the one who doesn’t write all of his lyrics. he keeps being the one who goes to photoshoots instead of writing music.

he clenches his fists, lowers his head. it feels like a defeat if he’s honest but he goes anyway. the camera flashes are at least better than the shadows.

IDOL HISTORY

johyun has motion sickness for longer than he remembers. but his parents always found it a bother, complained about how he was always complaining. so he sits on the backseat with his eyes closed, swallowing down the nausea. he’s only ten, but he already learned how to bite down words and not ever speak his mind.

“we’re almost there,” his father says, voice joyful. johyun wonders if his voice will be deep like his one day. “are you watching the view, son?”

“yes, father. it’s beautiful,” he says, opens his eyes slightly to watch for a second and closes them completely. at least now he isn’t lying.

his father then goes on and on about busan. about how it was growing there, about the beach. johyun just listens because he knows his father likes talking about the past. the one thing he likes talking about the most though is about his dreams of singing. about how he was almost making it when his mother died and he had to focus on working to raise him and his little sister.

but that’s okay, his father would say. you are more important to me.

and then he’d tell the story again. and again.

and again.

-

johyun wanted to be a basketball player. he played through middle school until he reached high school. he was intent in keeping his grades up so he could do it. he was intent in telling his father, intent in keeping his goal.

until one day the unimaginable happened.

they were walking on the street, coming back after johyun accompanied him to the mall. they went to buy his sister a gift. and then someone stopped him, eyed him from head to toe and asked him if he wanted to be an idol. his first reaction was to take a step back, to think of running away. who the hell was this guy and what did he want with him. but his father beamed, took his business card, smiled at johyun widely.

“it’s a scam,” johyun said when they got home, desperate. his father was already researching on the computer. he was smiling at him, pointing to the screen.

“you could be a singer!”

and that’s how he ended up here.

the training room feels like a cage to him. some sort of anxiety ending hell he got himself into willingly. though will is a hard concept for him, complex. does he even know what he wants? what he does because he likes it?

what does he want?

there’s a field in his mind. an uniform. he closes his eyes.

he wants his father to be happy too.

so he stands up and tries again. he’s not good at this, wasn’t built for it. his limbs are too long, his mind too slow. he never gets the choreo right. he never gets the tone right. though they say they could try to do something with his voice if he tries hard enough. his father likes it when he tells him that.

“you’ll be a singer,” he says and the subtext is what hurts the most. johyun clenches his teeth.

he does it again.

-

trainee period is a weird thing.

johyun doesn’t know how to take it. he doesn’t have anything, a reason why he should be here. he stays in the shadows and watches as the other kids do their thing - singing, dancing, everything is crystal clear. and then there’s johyun. he doesn’t know how to dance. he doesn’t know how to sing. his voice is too low, his limbs too long. so the company tells him one day he’s going to be a rapper. they want him in their next team and he has to have something. anything. he can’t be the guy who doesn’t have a thing going for him.

fucking christ, how humiliating is that? he always heard that the good looking kids with no talents were always stuck as the rappers.

but this is what sucks. the other trainee rappers don’t suck. they come from the underground scene or whatever, they all write their own lyrics, they all know what they’re doing. but not johyun. he’s carefully crafted. they teach him classes, they tell him how to speak. they show him the way to flow his words, they give him lyrics to recite. it’s not something that comes from his soul.

johyun doesn’t know why he sticks with it. or maybe he does. every time he comes home his father has their dinner ready, a smile so big it aches.

“how did it go?” he asks, and johyun tries to smile too.

and next day he’s back. he trains. and he trains. and he tries so damn fucking hard.

one day someone will tell johyun that doing something as big as this for other people would only break his heart. johyun will wish he’d have heard it sooner.

-

debuting comes faster than he thought, way faster. he doesn’t feel ready. he still stumbles on words. he still needs double the time than the other to memorize choreography. he still needs to stay up all night to memorize lyrics, to remember what to do in front of cameras.

he wants this. he thinks. his father is so happy he makes a small shrine for his promo pictures, talks about him to everyone. he wanted that, right?

he has to. if this is not what he wants then it was all for nothing.

what does he want?

it hurts to think so he drinks. he practices his rapping until his voice goes sore. he goes to his schedule and drown back in work. when work is not enough he starts taking pills. he plays basketball on his free time and then he stops doing it because his head and heart and soul becomes a mess.

and he feels like his company is just as lost to what to do with him as he is. they try shoving him into shows, try marketing him in this that way. this and that, this and that. nothing sticks. he feels like a wall that people keep throwing shit at him until something fits. he feels unfit. like there are no clothes that fit him, no skin that makes him comfortable. it goes on to the point he doesn’t know what he is.

or who he is.

what does he want?

he doesn’t know anymore

-

if i look back, i’m lost.

he saw that in some series but he doesn’t remember which. it rings true, somehow. so he doesn’t look back and he also doesn’t look forward. he tries to stay still.

his rapping is better, way better. kjh allowed him to have a youtube channel and it’s where johyun places most of his artistic needs. he makes acoustic covers of girlgroups, something small, something stupid. he likes it so he doesn’t mind. johyun mind very little now.

there’s something numb and sort of dead in the place of his chest. hollow and deep. people have been recognizing him now for what he does. he’s a good rapper, they say. not as good as them, but still. but still. johyun guesses he should be thankful.

and as atlas grows bigger he feels himself growing smaller. he keeps being booked for photoshoots. he keeps the lyrics he writes for himself, kjh allowing some here and there. it’s not something you need to do, they say. everything you write is too sad. and johyun nods. keep your figure, they say. stay fit. stay tall. stay handsome.

don’t look back, he says to himself. keep going. keep smiling. keep posing. keep writing. keep playing your guitar and singing to songs that aren’t yours. keep waving to the camera and pretending this is your family. that you’re comfortable. that they’re your brothers. keep taking that pill, keep drinking from that bottle. drown and drown and drown. look up.

but don’t look back.

or you’re lost.

[falke-scribblings]

not dead!

Have some TT: a still untitled typo-ridden draft chapter for yet another thing that I really want to have time to finish now, because writing it is a blast.

(Also, editing is proceeding.)

"I thought we were going to a business address," Judy said, when Nick parked them in the shade of one of the long warehouses in the old quarter. She looked through the passenger window at the trendy old ironwork and barn-style doors. These were all converted apartments.

"So did I," Nick said. He killed the engine. "Check the file again. It says Journaler Gallery, right?"

"1800 Couloir, 2A," Judy confirmed. "We're in the right spot."

And this was going to look silly if they couldn't find the place. Bogo had only given them this brand-new case to take over because they'd made such good progress on the paperwork from the Stoverborough affair, and because Del Gato and Wolford needed to stay on patrol. This one was supposed to be, in his words, 'a walk in the park,' so they couldn't well call in empty-pawed.

The little lot on the back side of the building was empty, too, so there wasn't likely to be someone to ask. The only other mammal out here-

Was Del Gato. His brush tail was vanishing around the corner of the old brick as he climbed a flight of stairs.

"Come on," Judy said, and kicked her door open. At least they hadn't been the first ones on the scene.

---

It was in fact a business, inasmuch as a private art gallery was a business. Judy followed Del Gato into a concrete-floored space that was all one big room, with a lofted ceiling. Her ears caught soft echoes off the walls. Half the floor was elevated, like a stage. It might have been where a wall stood once. There were spiral boosters for small mammals, elegant enough to be art pieces themselves, scattered around in front of a pawful of paintings.

Wolford was here already, listening to a severe-looking kudu as she gestured at the art. A moose in a gray pantsuit was up on the riser the other side of the room, inspecting one of the pieces.

Judy counted five works, space mostly evenly. "So what's missing?"

"Just one painting," Del Gato said. He pointed at the corner. "The smallest, too - it was only about a foot square."

"Do you know who it was?" Nick asked. He was frowning at the nearest painting, which looked to be a thick layer of old blue oil paint. His ears were still aimed back at them. "The artist."

"Karov or something," Del Gato said.

The lady by the door turned to raise her voice briefly. "Korlinkoff."

Del Gato's shrug went all the way through his mane. "Yeah, that."

"Timeline?" Judy asked.

"It got reported missing a couple hours ago. Miss Gremble here made the call. But the gallery's been locked tight since yesterday afternoon, as far as we can tell. Not even staff in or out."

"Two doors," Judy prompted, as they toured the space.

"With cameras watching them, and another four watching the art itself."

"What about the skylights?"

"Magnets on the catches."

"Smaller-scale doors? Unintentional gaps?" It was an older building; Maybe there were some bricks missing. They'd had a couple cases like that.

"Not that we've found. You might have the scene team look it over again, though."

It was twelve hours and change. Plenty of time, if a thief was going for something small and easily concealed. But with no sign of forced entry?

"We'll need a look at the cameras."

"Gremble says she has them," Del Gato said. "We'll send you a copy of her statement, too, and the lab tests from the swabs when they're done."

"Is she the owner?"

Del Gato shook his head. "Just runs the gallery. She said she'd get us the owner's number."

"Okay, we'll follow up there, then. Thanks." Judy let him stop and talk with his partner, and caught up with Nick where he was working his way down the row of paintings.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"What, right now?" Judy sized up the far doors. They were old, maybe original, built for large mammals and larger equipment. They'd been treated with modern weather stripping along the floor. "I don't think anybody broke in. Nobody big, anyway. They wouldn't be able to get most of pictures out with them."

"Max Korlinkoff," Nick read off the placard, where a spotlight was now illuminating a set of empty pegs. "Variation Ten." He looked at the next canvas over. "And Variation Six. You know, I think I've seen some of these at the museum."

"Here?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "Art, with a capital A. Way back. And they popped up at a special exhibition a few months ago, do you remember?"

Judy shook her head. "Where do you fence something like that?"

"I wouldn't count on a thief to sell it," someone said behind them. "We would notice right away."

They turned to see the moose had come over from the other corner. She gave them a polite nod.

"I'm sorry to intrude." She held down a hoof. "I'm Greens. Bria Greens. The insurance company sent me to look things over."

"Insurance for the building, or for the art?" Nick asked.

"Both, as it turns out," Greens said. "Though the art is much more valuable." She tilted her broad muzzle at the empty pegs. "Variation Ten sold for nearly twelve million the last time it was at auction."

For a square foot of canvas? Judy turned to take in all the paintings again. That gave her a bit of a new appreciation for the value - though the numbers quickly multiplied so high they got meaningless.

Greens had started another slow circuit of the room. She was looking into the corners, and up at the skylights.

"So you weren't here until after the reported theft," Judy said.

"That's right. I spoke with Miss Gremble as soon as I could, but she was the one who called the insurance company, and the police."

"What do you do if there's damage instead of theft?"

"I'd leave that to the company," Greens said. She opened a slim folio and gave Nick a card. "I'm an independent investigator, not an assessor."

Judy felt her ears sharpening the intrigue. They passed another canvas with a riot of splattered colors, but now she was more interested in their companion. "Like a private eye?"

"Precisely." Greens smiled. "I understand your case is ongoing, and you're limited in what you can share. But I wondered if you might trade a favor for some information."

Nick was reading her card. Now he looked up. "That depends on what you want, Ma'am."

She indicated the card. "Adler Simms will be putting in a request to view footage, since it's technically police evidence now. The sooner it gets approved, the sooner I can start work. That's all."

Nick thought about it, and tilted his head her way. Judy didn't see the harm. There weren't likely to be many requests anyway. For all the money that was apparently attached, ZPD didn't get many art cases.

"That shouldn't be a problem. I'll sign off on it myself, if I can."

Greens nodded her thanks. She stopped near the center and pointed a hoof up, toward the cameras that were clamped to the light tracks above them.

"The only anomaly, until today, was that the gallery owner delayed his opening by two weeks. He was insistent that Adler Simms vet and approve special security providers."

Judy looked from the perched cameras to where the kudu had followed the other police out. "Do you think they were involved?"

"I rather doubt it." Greens had a faint smile on her muzzle. "They're the same group that provides security for the city museums, and they have a sterling track record. If anything, it should have made theft less likely."

"That's a nice tip," Nick said. "Are you sure it's only worth a couple forms?"

"I'd follow up on it myself, but it's little more than an administrative wrinkle right now. I'll have enough to juggle just watching what happens next." She started for the door. "My number's on the card. Give me a call when your paperwork's done. Good luck, officers."

---

Judy turned that card around in her paws as Nick drove them across town, to the art museum's glittering facades on the riverfront delta.

According to ZPD's records, Bria Greens was exactly what she purported to be: an "investigative expert" on retainer with Adler Simms for her specialty in high-value property. It didn't actually say private eye anywhere, which Judy thought was a shame.

"She's on the up-and-up," Judy said. She dropped the card on the cruiser's keyboard. "She does a lot of work with the fancy insurance companies, the ones you and I can't afford. She's even helped out ZPD a couple times."

"Okay." Nick raised his eyebrows behind his sunglasses and pulled them into the parking lot. "It was awfully convenient, is all."

Judy swallowed the slightly offensive comment about gift horses and considered that Nick might have a point. Meeting Greens had been memorable, if only because Gramble had spent the entire time they'd questioned her after that looking as if she smelled something.

"More useful than the gallery manager."

"See, her I am inclined to take at face value." Nick waited until she'd popped her door to hit the locks. "She doesn't bother pretending not to be a snob."

"So you don't trust anyone as smooth as you."

That finally got him to grin. "Smooth is easy to scam people with. I should know."

Instead of the industrial chic of the downtown gallery, the Roschmann Art Museum was a brightly lit sea of white. A bunch of interconnected staircases in dark slate dominated the atrium, like they were floating.

The main desk was a long slab of polished wood. The receptionist pointed them to the bespectacled beaver curator, in his office on the second floor. He stood in the multi-species conversation circle in the corner of the room and frowned at their pitch.

"Are you suggesting someone's targeting the museum, officers?"

"No, not at all," Judy said. "We're just following common threads." She tilted her head. "But there haven't been problems here, have there?"

"Not recently." The curator thumped his tail on the cushions. "We'll get the occasional poke at the outside doors, and the motion sensors in the parking lot will fire at night sometimes, but that's about it."

"Does anyone ask about the security systems?" Nick asked. "The cameras, or what they're pointed at?"

"You mean other than the police?" He seemed to find it amusing. "Not really. We direct inquiries to Archa. That's the company that runs it for us."

"Any notable inquiries?"

"Could be. I remember a couple of reps were in here showing a pig around a few months ago because he wanted to see their work in action. We're Archa's oldest client, and they've been excellent."

"Do you remember his name?" Judy asked. "Did he give you contact information you can share?"

"Moretti, I think it was. I can look, but Archa will know better. I can tell them you're interested, if you like."

"Please."

Nick lingered to look at a map after the curator had found them their info and bid them good night. Judy stood beside him and ran a paw over the brass markers on the collection legend.

"I knew I'd seen some of these before," he said. His ears came forward. "It looks like they made it permanent since then."

"The art? Korlinkoffs?"

"This way." Nick beckoned her down the broad hallway, past the sign about cell phone use in the galleries and toward one of the tinier room off the main path.

There were four flats here, each fixed in the center of an otherwise blank grey wall that felt too large to Judy, like there wasn't enough there. She could hear Nick's claws echoing. Sharp spotlights aimed at each wall. Judy saw the network of cameras, too, blinking their red lights along the ceiling.

All of the pieces were variations on the same theme. There was an info placard at the center that showed the guide lines Korlinkoff had apparently followed a different way each time, to come up with swirls, or brown polygons, or straight lines in an eye-hurting shade of blue.

The multi-species consideration here was a set of graceful ramps, fixed to the tile foor. Nick leaned against one of them to study the art.

"If this Moretti guy had two of these, he was loaded," Nick said.

"Do you think our thief knew that?" Judy asked. "I thought it was because it was easy to get out for a small mammal."

Nick grinned down at her. "You're going to get taxonomics grad students on your case again."

"Don't remind me," Judy grumbled. She would rather that particular university case stay finished and forgotten. "I'm just saying, there wasn't a way for a larger mammal to get into that room without setting off alarms or being seen."

"That's true," Nick said. He was tilting his head at the swirly variation on the left.

He'd be able to carry it out of here, if the staff let him. She could do it just as easily. A mustelid or two could manage, or a team of mice. Maybe they ought to check for loose bricks again.

"Are they all this size?"

"I think so." Nick tilted his head the other way and held out his paws like a frame. "The ones I saw here back when I was just a curious museum-goer? I think they were about this big."

Judy smirked up at his reminiscing. "When was this?"

A soft chime sounded over the intercom, and a recorded voice announced the museum was closing for the evening.

Nick looked up at it. "Oh, I was still running stuff for Big. You were probably still in high school."

She waited for him at the hallway until he was done looking. "I didn't think his tastes were that modern."

Nick pointed a triumphant forefinger. "I knew you knew something about art."

"Lucky guess." Her ears wilted, in a mirror of his own expression. "Sorry. I never made time for it like you did. I didn't even know you liked it."

"It has been a while. And I didn't have long to appreciate it then, either," Nick admitted. "But you're right, it wasn't Big. The guy I was with that day had plans to sell one of the variations to some shady buyer."

"What, straight off the wall?" Judy lowered her voice as they made their way back down the atrium. There probably wasn't any harm in it, but there was no need to alarm the staff with discussions of even hypothetical theft. "It's a museum piece."

Nick shrugged and held the door for her. "He had a knack for making stuff disappear."

Every time Judy thought she had her partner dialed, some new facet of his past surfaced. She'd have to spend some snuggle time tonight getting him to spill the beans. She smelled a story, and Nick's were always fascinating.

She ran the info on their mystery security system enthusiast while Nick took them back downtown, and got a name. Emmanuel Moretti was indeed a pig, Zootopian upper crust, with a place in the Heights and a squeaky-clean record. That would make him harder to follow up on. He didn't have an occupation listed. Hopefully he'd be in on the weekend.

"Did you get Greens her paperwork?" Nick asked. "Her lead paid off, it's only fair we do the same."

"I sent it first thing," Judy said. "Should we tell her we got something?"

Nick shook his head. "Make her trade for it," he said. "She seems to like that."

Judy pulled her phone out to tap out a reminder - and because she'd set her phone to silent to comply with the museum's rules, she didn't see the email waiting in her inbox until now. It was from Greens.

I found something else you should know about, the message read. Can you meet me tomorrow? You choose the time and place.

[sphynxtee]

Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt

Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt

Searching out discounts might be a full time task for some, but many of us don t have got a way of living which may support this pastime. What do perform alternatively? We use the internet making use of the amazing suggestions identified on this page, saving cash on every thing we acquire and making certain we look for the best discounts probable.

When you find yourself making any transactions on the internet and you must come up with a user account, never ever take advantage of the identical passwords that you employ on other websites. Tend not to make use of your e-email or consumer banking password to help make an account to acquire footwear coming from a online shop. When someone surely could see this pass word, they may gain access to not only your information about the retailer s shop.

When searching for an item on-line, make time to read through reviews. Try out finding the same product on different web sites to read through as numerous critiques as is possible. Looking at a lot of evaluations can help you get yourself a more common thought of if the item you are searching for meets high standards of top quality.

Sign up to your best on the web stores news letters. Many times online retailers will send out everyday, each week or regular monthly publications with special sales, special discounts and offers. If you love to save cash, you could possibly credit score some terrific discounts on stuff you were planning to acquire anyhow.

Make an effort to make online purchases just with companies you happen to be previously familiar with. Odds are, a store you visit regularly almost certainly features a risk-free internet site. But, if you visit an internet site you understand nothing at all about, you are getting your own personal information, much like your bank card details, in jeopardy.

Be more cautious whenever you try to find shopping discounts on social websites. Although it s the best way to get announcements regarding income and coupon-codes, social media credit accounts can easily be impersonated or perhaps out-right hacked. Obtain your information about the social networking sites, then continue right to the main internet site from the retail store mentioned to wheel and offer.

Do not forget to assessment shop when you are interested in stuff on the internet. Folks generally do this when you shop in actual physical retailers, but they don t think it over on the Internet. When you go for the very first sale the truth is, you will discover a chance you may miss out on an improved bargain elsewhere.

Tend not to just go to a single on the web vendor to purchase a product. Do a little selling price evaluation with some other shops. Compare this product charges as well as shipping and delivery prices in addition to their return policy. In case you have this data, it is possible to relax ensure that you will purchase from a shop which you can rely on.

The good news is, shopping no more requires the need to push or go walking you to ultimately the nearest retail store and endure massive crowds of people. Now you can shop through the efficiency of your very own residence by online shopping. You are now mindful of superb information on shopping online, so employ them in order to take advantage of the greatest deals.

Go shopping online for amazing shirts for adult men, kids and women, Cute maternity tees and soft tank tops Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt. Not long earlier, people who found it necessary to purchase vacation or bday gifts needed to get clothed and go to the shop to do their store shopping. About to go shopping and having to deal with crowds can virtually strain all of your current vitality. Thankfully, internet shopping is already a choice. Read here for great assistance on the way to buy online. If you would like save cash on the products you buy on-line and want to make shopping online more pleasurable, take into account sale internet sites. You will get some good bargains in the event you place your offers in the appropriate time and have some fun whilst evaluating online auctions. Find out more about bidding techniques before getting started off. If you are going being doing a little shopping on the internet, ensure you comprehend the culpability for every visa or mastercard you use on the web. Several a credit card have auto scam elimination internal while others offer you it for any minimum fee. You may not have to get tied to buys produced on your greeting card in case the amount is taken. When getting things mailed to your residence that you acquired on-line, know your customer proper rights about time desks and condition of products. You have a straight to obtain goods based on the phrases stated if you ordered them and reasonable expectations of merchandise being undamaged. Consult with the Better business bureau for precise details and obtain what’s visiting you reasonably! If you feel that you will certainly be creating plenty of on the internet acquisitions in the future, look at looking for an independent visa or mastercard to utilize exclusively for these dealings. It can be quicker to path all deals when they are the only goods shown for this card’s transaction information. Moreover, you don’t be concerned regarding your individual cash simply being compromised, even for the short term, in case you are a patient of fraud. Acquiring stuff on-line is significantly more affordable than getting them with a physical retailer. You need to know exactly where these offers are available. You might have now been provided with lots of guidance to save money on the web. Put this information to work with for top level discounts about.

Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt, Hoodie, V-Neck, Sweater, Longsleeve, Tank Top, Bella Flowy and Unisex, T-Shirt

Classic Ladies

Hoodie

Unisex

Buy Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt

Just about all products are made in order to order and printed in order to the best standards obtainable Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt. Exactly how much online shopping encounter do you have? In order to find out more, then you’re not alone. Shopping online continues to change virtually day-to-day, which is definitely expanding profoundly. Consequently, it’s crucial that you take care of the occasions, so please read on for additional information concerning your shopping online practical experience. By no means make an effort to store from the link a person delivered you inside an electronic mail, except if it’s a well regarded and highly regarded internet site, like Amazon . com.com. Lots of buyers get tricked into cons via links in doubtful email messages. Look at the Link in the website described inside the email, as an alternative to visiting the hyperlink on its own. Be careful that you publish your charge card info. When you are shopping online, always employ safe web sites. These are generally web sites who have undertaken actions to protect your valuable information. A attached site will begin with HTTPS as opposed to the standard HTTP. There will also be a shut symbol, in either your street address or position pub, based on which browser you employ. Find out the online store’s return policy. When you are considering creating a obtain on something that you might like to return, be sure you find out if returning the product is undoubtedly an option. Sometimes while you shop on the internet, items simply cannot be delivered and you do not wish to be bound to an unwanted piece. Be sure that you check your credit card bill will an excellent tooth comb if one makes plenty of transactions on the internet. Lots of people are unsuccessful to get this done plus they end up spending several hundred dollars per year on expenses they failed to authorize. This really is much easier to do if you are using just one cards for on-line acquisitions. There are a lot of stuff that are wonderful about shopping on the internet and you should be aware of which now. On earth, shopping on the internet helps to keep getting bigger and bigger, and it’s a chance to go on a even bigger component! Remember the suggestions that has been detailed to ensure that you’re in a position to take part in the enjoyment. A Shynx Tee T-Shirts – Official Woman Jogging And Into The Forest I Go To Lose My Mind And Find My Soul Shirt Product.

A New and Versatile T-Shirt That Fits Your Lifestyle!

Please contact

Sphynx Tee T Shirt Store Online 2020 Designated Agent at the following address

If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, you can return the product and get a refund or exchange the product for another one, be it similar or not.

Returns Department

Phone: (231) 769-0075

1782 ORourke Blvd

Gaylord, MI 49735

United States

source https://sphynxtee.com/product/official-woman-jogging-and-into-the-forest-i-go-to-lose-my-mind-and-find-my-soul-shirt/

[amuelle]

It’s a thing!!!

My biggest mistake: I didn’t make a big deal about it. I was so consumed with my own stuff. My finances, planning trips and figuring out my life that I thought February is a really awkward time to have any expectations. Honestly no one has money in Feb. My birthday is in May and that is the priority. Birthdays are big deals. I was wrong. VERY WRONG…

WEDNESDAY…

I was texting The Sage and he asked me if I was ready for Friday. Friday? Bruhhh, Im not Ice Cube why would Friday be a big deal? His reply was simple to the point and reminded me that deep down in my heart I’m a woman who still wants a romantic gesture on Valentine’s Day. If you were expecting this to veer off into how I then rationalised it, made it make sense and realised that Valentines, is a holiday created by greeting card companies to boost business and it is just a scam. This is not that! STOP READING, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU CAME FOR!!! I’m feeing for a romantic fix and I don’t know if it’s coming. Partly…okay mainly due to my own inability to just say “Hey, I want some romance’’

As we all know you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Similarly men don’t just know what you want. They aren’t your hairdresser or dressmaker they cant ad lib when it comes to valentines. And you can’t leave it to chance! If there is anything I know from watching countless hours of interviews with addicts on YouTube it’s that in the right environment, any one can get clean. You can get off the heroine, cocaine, fentanyl, weed and stop drinking. However the instant you are back in the wrong situation, triggered, without coping mechanisms you will use again. Maybe not at the moment when you think you will or fresh out of rehab. But if your aren’t ready to acknowledge everyday that you need to cope with out the drug. That itch will sneak up on you.  JUST LIKE A FUCKING JUNKIE IM BACK, FEEINING FOR ROMANCE. I lived without it long enough. My arm is itching and I cant think about anything else. I need some romance or I think I will DIE!!!!

 THURSDAY…

Stewing in misery: Now feeining…I looked at the two shiny pennies in my bank account and thought “I don’t even have money for wine, why in the world would I be trying to do romantic shit on Valentine ’s Day?” Its simple. Like finding money in a pair of jeans you haven’t worn in a long time. A cup of tea made with love on a rainy day. Or finding the house clean when you left it a mess. Its feels GOOD…just fucking GOOD! It doesn’t have to be outrageous just sincere and it makes the top 10 of the most incredible things you can ever feel in your life.

To make it worse: As if not telling him and over thinking it wasn’t enough out of curiosity during the day I asked him what his waist size was. He told me then asked me what I was planning. I wasn’t planning at that point but now I may have created expectations. WHAT HAD I DONE??!!! What do I do now because at this point I had decided no matter what happened I would be okay. Id keep my pennies and call it a day. But that didn’t feel good in my soul. So I decided to do what feels good in my soul. I don’t care anymore. Its valentine’s day. I want to do a big, medium or small gesture because deep down in my heart I am hoping for reciprocation but its too late to ask or imply that ill be disappointed if I am the only one who shows some effort. I cant ask because Im afraid to be disappointed and to date from day one he hasn’t disappointed so why am I afraid he will? To quote my BFF “Our past experiences change us and make us people waiting to be disappointed. You cant carry someone else’s mistakes like a badge of honour. You have to decide that you are trying and actually try.” I want to try, but what if I get disappointed? What if until today it was all me reading between the lines and seeing what I wanted? What if…what if…what if????

The over thinking and feeining for romance has taken to my brain like wild fire. Sense left my body sometimes in January but now in February I can say for certain it’s gone for good. That said, I have decided. Ill risk it! All I want to do is TRY!!! Its risky and I have no idea if it will work out but who would I be if I wasn’t true to me? Who would I be if I wasn’t secretly overtly hoping that I’m not a hot mess just a woman who met a nice man and wanted to enjoy the experience whole heartedly? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be me.

Ive said it before I have no idea where it could go with this man. What I do know is that I need to always lead with what feels good in my gut and my gut says do the DAMN THING!!!

Decisions…decisions: I was still in purgatory when after a day of texting he randomly called…just to say its been three days since he last heard my voice and that didn’t make him happy. The connection was terrible so the call was cut short. That was a life changing reminder that my soul purpose on earth is to share my uniquely crafted gifts with the world. And now as part of this little patch of earth I claim that is my entire being I had to try. It is 20:56 February 13th and I am writing this and I have decided to try. I have no idea what I am going to do or where I am going to get the money but trust you me….IM GOING TO TRY!

In closing: We have all seen this meme about how you should go where you are wanted. No one ever tells you what to do when you get there. There isn’t a hand book that says when you finally get what you had hoped for this is what you should do to enjoy it. If you are anything like me you will wait for it to decay because you cant believe that things could be that good. Meaning you ultimately cheat yourself out of an experience. I’ve had some rum to calm down and I can say at this point I absolutely believe that when you get to where you are wanted. You pitch a tent and you stay. You will go from a tent, to a shack to the empire you have always wanted to build but you stay and you try. I’ve decided to try and with all the might in my little body I am committed.

Just like you want to know and feel like you are wanted. Someone else wants to hear it too. Tell them the same way you went where you were wanted they are where they are wanted.

 Bisou…bisou…

[janemikhaylovsky7-blog]

Jane Mikhaylovsky Everything You Need To Know About Multi-level Marketing

Jane Mikhaylovsky  Expert tips provider.  Multi-level marketing can be an excellent way to get involved in the business world if you know where to look, and get in with a really good opportunity. The difficulty lies in knowing where to find the perfect MLM business model. Below you will get great tips to help you locate a promising MLM business so you can be successful.

Always treat multilevel marketing as a profession. Even though you may be able to create your own schedule and do a great deal of your work from home, you should present a professional appearance and attitude to customers and members of your team. Chances are you are representing a large company, so your professionalism is both appropriate and appreciated.

Make sure you have realistic earning expectations before you decide to get into multi-level marketing. Income generation and success is not as fruitful as many multi-level marketing companies make you believe. Statistically, only one out of 100 multi-level marketing representatives make any money or are successful. Furthermore, in the MLM world there are many shady business practices and scams, so be careful.

Jane Mikhaylovsky  Top service provider.  Learn as much as you can about different ways to market when doing multi-level marketing. If direct selling is something you excel at but you are not too computer savvy, take a little time to learn the different ways a website, social media and email can excel your product sales and your business.

Be sure to ask experienced members of your upline the same sorts of questions you will be asked by customers. For example, if the product or service you are offering is more expensive than the same sort of product offered by other companies, learn the reason for this. There could be perfectly good reasons for this, such as the use of higher quality ingredients. Knowing these kids of details will help you provide better service to your customers.

Read all that you can on multi-level marketing. There are lots of articles available online, as well as many books on the subject too. The more you can learn, the more likely it is that you'll succeed. Keep a digital scrapbook of your most important articles so that you can look back.

Learn the realities of MLM. You may have seen some marketers may sell products claiming that you can earn a lot of income quickly. Be careful of scams like this. Like other endeavors, you may not earn anything in MLM. However, hard work, a solid marketing strategy, and great marketing skills can help you see success.

Utilize other online websites to create leads for your MLM opportunities. You don't need to create your own blog. You could write articles on sites like Squidoo and InfoBarrel to generate potential leads to your products. These sites let you revenue share as well on the advertising on the sites, so it's a win-win.

Remember where your loyalties lie with fellow team members. Consider rewards for a job well done. When customers place substantial orders or refer their friends, reward them. Rewards can take the form of free products, gift certificates and other truly meaningful and useful items. Try not to provide cheap-looking certificates or other gestures that have no value.

Watch out for pyramid schemes. There are both reputable MLM businesses and ones that aren't so reputable. Pyramid schemes do exist. They seem great when you see their large upfront offers, but these actually could bring about big losses for you.

Work on obtaining your long-term multi-level marketing results daily. Keep your goals and overall focus narrow instead of broad in this field. A business plan can last for many years, but you need to at least check your campaign quarterly. Doing this consistently can help you with future plans and success.

Make sure to take the time to improve your sales strategies. While in the long run you will earn more from your down line than your own sales, by creating techniques that they can use to get additional sales you will all reap the benefits. Happy recruits make for happy marketers.

When planning a get-together to present your multilevel marketing opportunity, be sure the parameters are defined. Limit the time to an hour or so. In this way, you will have plenty of time to present your thoughts, socialize and answer questions without having the event consume your entire day or evening.

Old fashioned business cards are an excellent multilevel marketing tool. Even though people typically enter contact info into their cell phones these days, a standard business card is a tangible reminder. Additionally, you can provide information about contests, opportunities and upcoming events on the back of your business card.

Keep your target market in mind at all times. While building your brand, you will need to keep this in mind at all times. Being true to yourself is important when creating your brand, but your target market is just as important. If your personality doesn't match that demographic, it will be difficult for you to get sales and recruits.

Treating your multi-level marketing business as if it were a real job is essential if you want to succeed. If you think you will only work a few hours a week and get rich, you are likely to fail. In order to be successful, you need to dedicate a lot of time to it and work hard at it.

It is vitally important that you keep careful records of what strategies are successful and failures. If you try something that doesn't work out as you had hoped, don't just try something else and move on. Figuring out why your idea failed provides a learning experience and allows you to be more successful in the future.

Jane Mikhaylovsky  Most excellent service provider.  Being a success in MLM requires that you really pay close attention to the opportunity that is front of you. Too many people get sucked in by the promise of instant riches, that they fail to see how poor the business model really is. Now that you read this article, you have solid ideas that will get you started the right way in the field of MLM.