#if you charge me a late fee you should also be charged a late fee

[quietly-collecting-spoons]

I think if drs are late to see you you should get a partial refund

[roselinbooks-archive]

Etsy vs. Ko-Fi for Paperback Books

Hello, Writeblr and Bookblr! I need your opinions!

I currently sell signed paperback copies of my books on Etsy. Unfortunately this has been...less than profitable lately, since Etsy not only charges a listing fee for all items but ALSO takes anywhere from 75-80% of sales in fees. I have to sell quite a few books on Etsy to break even, let alone be profitable, on the platform. As a small creator, it's not very sustainable right now.

So, I am considering moving my paperback sales to Ko-Fi instead. I currently sell eBooks on Ko-Fi with a "pay what you want" feature (min. $1) and am curious if anyone has experience selling physical goods on Ko-Fi. How does it compare to Etsy, and what features does it offer? Is it worth it to get Ko-Fi Gold?

Or should I continue on Etsy and just promote it more to make those sales goals?

Please reblog, comment, send me an ask, or vote in the poll to help me make a decision on this!

Note: I was tempted to add a "use both" option but due to my mental health and stress levels, I don't think I could manage and promote two different platforms right now. I only "use both" right now because Ko-Fi ONLY has the eBooks, which don't require nearly as much work from me to fulfill orders on as paperback orders. This post is strictly about where signed paperback orders should be.

[vaguekayla]

Dancing With Your Ghost • Eddie Munson

a/n: oh god, I haven’t actually written anything in years and the first thing I decide to tackle is Eddie Munson. I must be a glutton for punishment or something. Inspired by Dancing With Your Ghost by Sasha Alex Sloan. Dedicated to @buckysdollforlife because we are constantly sharing stories with each other so I thought why not share one of my own. Especially since you’re the biggest Eddie fan I know. Also dedicated to @luveline because June Baby melts my heart and gave me the Eddie bug. Seriously go check out her work. Pretty sure I gave myself more trauma with this shit, but whatever. They say in order to create art, you must be willing to bleed.

Updated author’s note: I wrote this almost two years ago completely forgot about it then remembered it only for my self doubt to keep me from posting, but here we are!

Summary: You grieve the loss of your boyfriend, Eddie Munson.

Trigger Warning: angst, character death, slight spoilers for season four maybe. (Let me know if I should add any others.) Not proofread.

Meeting Eddie Munson was something of a coincidence. It wasn’t planned nor was it something you ever contemplated.

The metalhead would one day tell you that he believed the two of you meeting was destiny.

By some happen stance, Dustin needed a ride from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign one night and though he had asked Steve, somehow it ended up being you to pick him up.

It wasn’t anything special about meeting Eddie that night. It was a pretty normal evening.

You were a little late picking up Dustin because it was such a sudden change of plans, so Eddie had waited outside the school with him until you got there.

Dustin introduced you to one another and you both exchanged a few words, but nothing worthy enough to take note of.

Your next ‘meeting’ of sorts is what really made you capture Eddie’s attention.

You really hadn’t planned on coming to Hawkins High on your lunch break just because Dustin forgot his English textbook. What could you say though? You’d grown attached to the kid in the last few years. Him and his friends.

You’d always help them out when they asked. Even when it was something as stupid as a forgotten schoolbook.

But this made three times this week.

After stopping by the office, you’d started to make your way to the cafeteria. You had graduated just last year, so it’s not like you didn’t know where everything was. The cafeteria was loud, not surprising, and you thanked every god you could think of that you were done with this hellhole.

Finding Dustin was easy. His curly hair was unmistakable and his laugh just called for attention.

Whatever he was saying to the group he ate lunch with was cut off by the slam of his textbook as you dropped it front of him over his head.

“You forget that thing any more this week, I’m gonna start charging a delivery fee,” your voice rang out behind him.

There was a teasing lilt to your words, but it didn’t erase the sheepish smile Dustin flashed your way as he turned to look at you.

“Sorry. I’ve just been super excited about this campaign that Eddie’s been telling us about all week and I keep forgetting to grab it. It won’t happen again,” the teen rushed out his apology.

He looked around at Lucas and Mike to back him up, all three rapidly nodding their heads to try and convince you.

You fondly rolled your eyes because you knew it would indeed happen again, but you didn’t really mind.

“So, you’re the reason I’ve been missing my lunch breaks all week, Munson?” an eyebrow rose in the direction of the group leader.

“What? No. I’m not responsible for—”

Eddie cut himself off as he noticed the amused look on your face, letting him know you weren’t actually mad.

The smile you had reflected on the metalhead’s face as he realized you were just teasing.

“What can I say? Storming the gates of Waterdeep is way more fun than reading ‘Hamlet’,” Eddie teased you with a self-satisfied smirk.

The rest of the table all nodded and murmured in agreement, the three youngest imploring you to understand with their pleading eyes.

“It’s fine,” you promised Dustin, assuring him you weren’t upset, “I’d just like to actually eat lunch on my lunch break.”

You exchanged a few more words with the table, being introduced to Gareth, Jeff, and another upper classman whose name you didn’t quite catch.

Checking your watch, you were about to say your goodbyes and go back to work, when you heard your name being called.

It took everything in you not to roll your eyes as you watched Jason Carver walk up to you. The smile on his face unsettled you in ways you couldn’t explain.

Jason had spent an entire school year trying to get you to go out with him before you graduated. You never agreed as there was just something about the guy that always rubbed you the wrong way. Hearing from Dustin and Mike that he and his friends had a habit of bullying their group didn’t help change your opinion about Jason. If you remembered correctly, he had been dating Chrissy Cunnigham since the summer.

That didn’t seem to stop him from making a point to come over and try to chat with you. Even if your break wasn’t coming to an end, you still wouldn’t stick around for that.

“Jason,” you greeted him politely, tense tone that the teen didn’t appear to pick up.

“Haven’t seen you since you graduated. How have you been?”

“Been fine. Working.”

You hoped short answers would be obvious enough to let on that you really didn’t want to talk. Apparently, you overestimated Jason’s intelligence because he just kept talking.

Being rude was something you hated, but you really did have to go.

“Look, this is… great,” you hesitated to use any positive word, “but I really have to get back to work. I just came to bring Dustin his textbook.”

It seemed Jason only just noticed by your words what table you were standing at. His friendly smile dropped as he looked from each table member then back to you.

Any normal person would have tried to be discreet with what was said next, but not Jason. No, never Jason.

Because Jason was a world class jackass.

“You know, I’m a little worried about you if these are the kinds of people you hang out with.”

“’These kinds of people’?” you questioned, brows furrowed.

You weren’t stupid. You had heard the stories from Mike and Dustin, but you wanted to know if Jason was really dumb enough to make this kind of a scene in a public school cafeteria.

Turns out he was. No surprise there.

“Freaks,” he answered as if it was obvious, no hesitation in his response.

If Jason noticed the way your jaw clenched, he didn’t say anything. Dustin noticed though because he subtly took hold of your hand closest to him in an attempt to keep you calm.

It wasn’t a secret you had a temper especially when provoked.

The gentle squeeze on your fingers from Dustin was enough to remind yourself not to let your anger get the best of you.

Eddie noticed your shift in attitude as well and was about to intervene when you spoke up.

“Jason, I know your pea sized brain can’t possibly comprehend this, but just because someone is different from you doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing,” you went to take a step forward, but Dustin’s grip held you back.

It was probably for the best anyway.

“I don’t know what the hell makes you think you have the right to judge people who aren’t like you and your brain-dead teammates, but nothing gives you the right to be an asshole to people you don’t even know.”

You hadn’t noticed but you had gained some attention from the other cafeteria goers with your small rant.

Maybe your words had stunned him or maybe he just wasn’t expecting you to say something like that, but Jason didn’t say anything for a moment.

When he finally did, it was the stupidest thing you had ever heard in your life.

“Girls shouldn’t curse.”

You rolled your eyes at his words. Out of all the things he could have said, it had to be something like that.

“Get fucked,” you immediately replied, before turning away from him and back to the table.

You softly pulled your hand from Dustin’s grasp as you looked down at him in his seat. He was hesitant to let go until you gave him a smile to assure him you were alright.

You murmured a quiet goodbye to the table, ruffling Mike’s hair affectionately.

“Don’t forget that book tomorrow,” you pointed a finger at Dustin with a smile before you left the cafeteria and the school.

You never noticed the look of awe that followed you from one Eddie Munson.

Meeting Eddie may have been a game of chance. Falling in love with him, on the other hand, seemed to be some divine decree. That’s what you both liked to think anyway.

“It’s written in the stars,” he would say.

There was no doubt in his mind that he was made to love you and you him.

Later in your relationship he would go on to tell you that he loved you ever since that day in the cafeteria. That he was so incredibly grateful that Dustin had forgotten his English book that day.

It just took him a while to actually get up the courage to ask you out on a date.

Technically, he never asked you. He had slipped you a note. Being Eddie, though, it wasn’t a normal note.

Going to drug dealers was not something you made a habit out of. We’re just going to make that clear right now.

Steve was throwing a small party and had wanted to add marijuana on top of the alcohol that he was going to have. The only problem was that the guy he normally bought from had moved away.

It was no secret that Eddie sold drugs. He brought the lunch box with him to school, for crying out loud.

Having developed a friendship with the metalhead, Steve had asked if you could buy from Eddie for the party and you didn’t exactly say ‘no’.

You didn’t mind, it just wasn’t something you had done a lot before.

Pulling up to the trailer Eddie lived in with his uncle was a familiar thing. You’d gone there with Eddie on nights that his band played, to watch movies together, just to hang out. You’ve been there many times.

Just not as one of Eddie’s customers.

It almost seemed to catch him off guard when he swung the door open and you told him the reason for your visit.

He was more than happy to sell to you though.

Only, as he was getting the weed ready for you, he seemed to be acting strange. Well, stranger than usual.

He appeared hesitant as he handed you the bag just as you held the money out to him.

“Thanks, Eddie. I really appreciate it,” you smiled at him.

“Yeah, of course. It’s no problem.”

“We’re still on for movie night tomorrow?”

“If you still want to, absolutely,” he nodded his head.

You gave him a slightly confused look, “Why wouldn’t I want to?”

Eddie shrugged his shoulders in response, and you wanted to ask him if something was wrong.

“Don’t you have a party to get to?” he changed the subject.

Glancing down at your watch, you realized you had been at his house a little longer than you intended.

“Yeah,” you agreed, slipping the bag in your back pocket and wrapping your arms around him in a hug.

His arms were quick to wrap around you and hug back, squeezing a little tighter than usual.

“Go on before you’re too late,” he smiled at you.

You made a mental note to ask about his odd behavior tomorrow.

“See you tomorrow night,” you promised him, slipping outside and heading to your car.

You took the bag of weed out of your pocket and tossed it in the passenger seat so you wouldn’t sit on it.

Just as you were about to crank the car, something caught your attention. You had to turn the map light on to see better.

‘Want to go out on a date?’

The words were inked in black marker onto the bag Eddie had just handed you.

It took your brain a minute to fully register the words. Your body was quick to move and you sprinted from the car, up the stairs, and started knocking furiously on the front door.

As soon as Eddie opened the door, you held the bag up for him to see. Your eyes held a silent question, ‘Do you mean it?’

His right hand came up to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly as he nodded his head, and you couldn’t help but admire the bats permanently etched onto his skin. You wanted to trace every bit of ink his skin held.

“Yes,” you suddenly broke the silence.

“Yeah?” he asked, checking to make sure he heard you correctly.

Your feet carried you through the threshold of the door to right in front of him, hands itching to take his.

“Yes,” you reaffirmed your answer.

The smile that he gave you right then and there would forever be one of your favorite memories.

Loving him came so natural to you that when you first entertained the notion, you were filled with both a sense of peace and terror.

Peace because being around him was so easy. He never made you feel like you had to put on a face or hide behind a mask like you did with so many others. It was a sentiment that he had shared with you one late night.

Terror because no one had ever made you feel the way he did. Eddie brought out a side of you that no other had. You had never loved anyone so passionately and deep as you had your beloved metalhead.

That’s why his death was so hard on you. Because you knew that you would never feel for anyone the way you did Eddie.

The days following his death were a mixture of emotions. Grief being obvious.

Some days you would rage at the universe. Cursing whatever higher power saw fit to put Eddie in your path and allow you to love him. Then you would break down into sobs of guilt for feeling even the slightest regret about any of your time with him. You understood that it was just another part of the grief. There wasn’t a moment you would trade and the regret you felt was for not having more time.

It just didn’t feel fair that the universe would give him to you and then allow him to die.

Allow him to be so cruelly taken from you.

The only positive thought was the picture you had in your head of his eternal afterlife.

You would never claim to be anything of an expert of the subject, but you liked to think he was doing whatever made him happy.

Performing his music. Playing Dungeons and Dragons. Idly strumming his beloved guitar on his bed while a joint of rolled up weed hung from his lips.

There were people you had lost before so you knew time had an effect on memories of loved ones no longer around.

Photographs allowed you to see the dearly departed but other things would fade from your mind.

Soon you would forget the sound of his voice. The way his laugh sounded. The look of excitement and pride every time he finally nailed a riff in a song that took him ages to get. The smell of his cologne and a musk that was just him, a faint smell of weed clinging to him. You always told him you didn’t need alcohol or drugs because his intoxicating scent was the best high you ever felt.

You never wanted anything about Eddie to fade as life went on, so you replayed ever memory you had of him every day.

It would never be the same though and there would never be a time where you didn’t miss him.

Your first kiss played in your mind on many occasions.

You were just hanging out like normal. Eddie had taken you out on your first date the night before. It wasn’t some grand first date, but it meant everything to you.

He had taken you out to eat some greasy food and then to some movie. You don’t remember what movie as neither of you had paid attention to it after the first fifteen minutes. You just stayed and sneakily threw popcorn at some fellow movie goers until you got kicked out by security.

Your hang out turned into a movie night which was meant to make up for the movie you both didn’t watch the previous night.

“You want to stay the night?” Eddie suddenly asked as the end credits from the second movie of the night started to roll.

“Mmhm.”

You nodded your head that rested against his shoulder, eyelids beginning to feel heavy. You didn’t want to go to sleep yet. The night was perfect, in your opinion, and you didn’t want it to end. It couldn’t if you just stayed awake.

Eddie must have noticed your struggle though.

One of his hands came up to brush against your cheek. You allowed yourself to lean into his touch in your sleepy state.

“Hey,” his voice murmured softly. “We can go to sleep now if you want.”

You looked up at him bleary-eyed, brain taking a moment to fully register what he had said.

“Are you sure? There’s still one more movie you wanted to watch,” you questioned.

A quiet chuckle slipped past his lips and you almost hated how easily he could make your heart flutter. Almost.

“Sweetheart, you can barely keep your eyes open. If I put the last movie in, you won’t make it through the previews,” he pointed out.

You wanted to object to his words, but a yawn interrupted you and just proved Eddie’s point. He raised his eyebrows at you as if to say, “I told you so”.

Nodding your head in agreement and a quiet ‘okay’, Eddie turned the television off and helped your tired form to your feet. He was kind enough to let you lean up against him as he walked you both back to his bedroom. Just as he was about to cross into his room, your voice stopped his feet’s movements.

“What was that?”

“Thank you, Eddie,” you repeated your words, face pressed into his neck.

He smiled down at you, “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

You made a move to press a kiss against his cheek, but your movement caught his attention and he turned his head to see what you were doing. Which caused your kiss to miss his cheek and land directly on his lips.

Whatever sleepiness you felt almost immediately disappeared as you jumped back like you’d been shocked. Both of you stared wide-eyed at each other.

“Sorry,” you began to profusely apologize, “I was just trying to—”

Eddie was quick to cut you off as one of his hands went around the back of your neck, the other cupping your cheek, and pulled you into a deep kiss.

Your fingers tangled themselves in his hair, pulling him closer while you kissed him back. He matched your passion by pulling you as close to him as physically possible. He held you like you’d slip away if he didn’t hold you tight enough.

In the future, you would always tell him that you adored when he held you like that. It made you feel so loved. He would then say that he would always love you like that. That he couldn’t imagine a time in his life when he wouldn’t be in love with you.

Nights tended to be the hardest. There were times where the mere thought of going to bed without him was too much to bear.

In those moments, you would pull on his jacket and wrap your arms around yourself. The record player would play the song you two always danced together to.

If you really tried, you could almost pretend he was holding you and swaying you both to the music.

He’d always do that when you had a bad day. Occasionally you could swear that you heard him whispering in your ear.

“It’s alright, sweetheart. I’m right here.”

He would say it to you so softly.

It was something that he said so often to you on your off days. Eddie always wanted you to know that whatever it was you were feeling, he wasn’t going anywhere.

That was when you were so cruelly reminded that his promise was one he hadn’t been able to keep.

You were only reminded that he wasn’t there anymore.

You were very good at reminding yourself of all the things you didn’t do or wouldn’t get to share with Eddie anymore. Perhaps it was the guilt you carried around with you at not doing something to help him.

It’s not like you could do anything. You weren’t even there when he died.

You had been with Robin, Nancy, and Steve at the time of your boyfriend’s tragic death.

It wasn’t your first decision, but Nancy had pointed out they could use all the help possible to kill Vecna. Eddie, while not liking the idea of you walking straight into Vecna’s base of operations, wasn’t very fond of you being in on the decoy for the demobats.

Damn bats.

You wished you had been there now.

Maybe you could have done something different. Something to hold the bats off long enough until it was over. Or maybe you could have done something to help Eddie until you all were able to get him to a hospital.

That wasn’t fair to yourself though and the brown eyed boy you love would tell you the same thing.

God, how you wanted to scream at him for being a hero. How you hated him for being so reckless and leaving you like he did.

But you didn’t hate him.

You couldn’t.

How could you hate him for being so selfless as to put his life in danger just to give you, Steve, Robin, and Nancy a few extra minutes?

Details would fade with time.

The cocky grin on his face when he thought he had someone beat in Dungeons and Dragons. The exact shade of brown of his eyes. How his finger’s felt when he lightly traced soft patterns into your skin. Even how your name sounded falling from his lips.

There was nothing you could do against the ravages of time. Everything fell victim by its cruel hands.

But you don’t think you would ever truly forget the boy who you fell so deeply in love with.

How could you ever forget him?

[sa-kae]

neat great okay so. i've been trying to give my mom money towards bills and things (i live with her) on top of covering things like the phone bill and internet, and that's already been hard to give her like anything after i pay those and my own bills, car payment, etc... THEN she had to spend $2,500 on some emergency expenses that i won't share because that's her business, but she had to max out at least 1 credit card (to my knowledge) and dig into her savings much more than she should have to, so now more than ever I want to be able to help her out more, she's helped me so many times in the past, it's the least i can do.

This is further complicated by my debit card that's with the bank that I have a credit card and my car loan with got over drawn by just small things multiple times, and I don't even get why those things were charge to that card (it's not the debit card i primarily use anymore bc this bank has been pissing me off, for reasons you might be able to guess, so I didn't have much money in there) so i got charged the overdraw fee of $30 multiple times so now i'm in the negative by almost $130, which makes it a lot harder for me to pay the credit card bill and car loan to that bank (total due between both bills is about $160). I've also fallen behind on a couple bills in general during the last month-ish, since i really don't want to ask my mom for help when I should be the one giving HER money. I'm kind of in between jobs right now, still doordashing/doing uber eats and stuff when i can, but i've been working on transitioning to a new job, so i'm not making as much right now because i'm not making much money while i work on trainings and things for the new job...

I've been trying really hard to just do shit on my own and not ask for any help from anyone but obviously that hasn't worked well for me lately, so attached are screenshots of the different payment apps that i have.

I also have a doordash referral code that would get me a $900 bonus and you (the person being referred) $600, but that's specifically for the Minneapolis, Minnesota/twin cities and surrounding areas. If you're interested in that, shoot me an ask (off anon!) or message.

Anything helps, whether it's a donation or a reblog. Thank you.

[mayakern]

Hi there, I’m a fellow fashion designer and illustrator and I’ve been really inspired by the clothes you’ve been posting lately. Would you be open to a short conversation where I might pick your brain for some of the things you wish you’d known going into the all-over sublimation fabric printing (also, I’d love to learn more abt how you went about finding a manufacturer)

when you find a manu, make a color test garment to test their color range. i did two versions of this for working with our new manu, a color block skirt and a skirt that was a mashup of a bunch of my designs that use different color palettes and drawing processes, so i could see how the printer handled crisp line work vs textural painting etc etc.

direct to garment printing and sublimation are different processes and your files will need to be different. dtg generally maxes out at 100dpi. sublimation can go to like 1400dpi and will look bad if your files are under 300dpi.

making clothing is expensive. to make a living off of it, you need a good profit margin* and enough inventory that the net sales make you a livable wage. unless you take out a loan (something i would not recommend doing unless you are extremely confident), building up the disposable income to afford that much inventory takes time. for me it took about 3-4 years, and even then it was Tight. it takes time to educate customers about your product and credibility and it takes time to build interest/recognition. everything snowballs. it’s slow as fuck at first grows exponentially.

* generally a good rule of thumb is retail cost should be 3x the manufacturing cost. that way you make enough money that one sale can pay for you to make two of the same type of garment. this is because your revenue needs to be able to cover the cost of ONE new garment + operating costs + taxes + the stuff you need to live like food etc etc, but all of that is too complicated to factor in so that’s why the shorthand is 3x.

as for finding a manu, that’s really not my field. i started off working with companies like artscow and vograce, which are much more approachable for new ppl. after that my wife took over contacting manufacturers and started interfacing with them over alibaba. now we contract a supply chain manager to help us find manufacturers, mostly not thru alibaba. her name is ash and you can contact her at Aaccstudios1@ gmail. com if you’d like to hire her.

this is the most useful information i can think of off the bat. if you have a more specific question, feel free to send an ask, and if you are absolutely set on having a more in depth conversation with me, we can schedule a call but i will charge a small consultation fee bc it would require an amount of preparation on my part that i don’t have a lot of time for.

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

Why You Should Rethink DoorDash, and Other Courier Apps: From a Driver Based in the USA

So this is part rant and part psa. I have been doing delivery work as a gig driver for DoorDash for years bc of various personal circumstances. I'm hoping to get a CDL in the near future so I can move on to a better job, but that's besides the point for right now. Further disclaimer: I only know the intricacies of DD. I do not know how precisely GrubHub, Uber Eats, etc, work, but I presume they work much the same, since I see the same complaints come from those services too.

This is in no particular order but please, if you have the time, please read it through. I'll preface this by saying I am not going to be rude or bitchy about customers or merchants here, this isn't just me whining, I'm just trying to give a level recount of my experiences with DD, and often, they are just... Not great experiences, unfortunately.

I don't know how many people realize this, but drivers get offered a base pay of $2.00-$2.50 per delivery, depending on the area. This is all DoorDash HAS to pay a driver. Every time you submit an order via DD, it gets spit out onto drivers' apps with that base pay + tip displayed. Meaning if you do not tip, every driver sees only $2-$2.50 to deliver your order. Sometimes, if enough drivers decline an order enough times, the DD algorithm will start to slowly raise the base offered pay... by about $0.25-$1 per round depending on the mileage it takes to deliver that order. This means if you do not tip, your order will most likely be extremely delayed, or bundled with another order, which will make it late, and your food cold.

**Emphasizing this: although I find low tips frustrating, I am NOT personally faulting anyone for not tipping.** DD should just pay their drivers, and it shouldn't be up to you, especially bc ordering delivery is so damn expensive. But I'm telling you this bc they certainly don't advertise it, and many people in my experience are shocked by now little it pays. Many drivers will not accept an offer that's less than $1-$1.50/mi. This means if your restaurant is 8mi away from you, and DD pays the minimum $2, you need to be tipping at least $6-$10 for most drivers to even consider it, or else it will be sitting for a long time or get bundled with a double delivery (more chances for mistakes + takes longer for the food to get to you).

Furthermore, in certain localities, DD offers an hourly rate for its drivers. This sounds good on paper, but keep in mind that this does not include gas money, and only accounts for the time from a delivery being accepted to the time it is dropped off. If you are delivering in suburbs or, god forbid, rural areas, you will spend a lot of time not making money but still burning gas returning from a home to where restaurants are so you can get your next delivery. While the app may say something impressive like $14-$17.25/hr, in reality, it's usually half that or less when you factor in downtime.

DD orders are also exorbitantly more expensive than if you buy directly from the merchant because DD charges the merchant 15-30% of the menu price to use their platform, and the merchants pass this on, usually plus a little extra, to you. This is before you even consider "delivery fees," which are not paid to drivers and are pretty much exclusively pocketed by DD. Also, DD will often choose a store farther away from you (so, say, a McDonald's that's 5mi away from you as opposed to the one that's 1mi away) specifically so they can charge more on fees. *Sometimes* this is just bc the closer store isn't enrolled in DD, but oftentimes, it isn't.

ADDENDUM ON THIS, HOWEVER: If you are ordering directly from a merchant that you know does not have actual in-house drivers, but is offering delivery anyway, like Wendy's or McDonald's, understand that these merchants are going to send these deliveries through to DD or Uber Eats. These orders have cryptic names for items on the Dasher's end and often we cannot contact you if there's an issue with your order, because the phone numbers provided to the Dasher's app never work. If you know for certain the merchant has its own delivery team (most pizza places, Chick-fil-A, Panera, etc), please order delivery directly through them, but if you know they do not (Wendy's, McDonald's), DO NOT ORDER delivery through their apps. It displays poorly on the drivers end and is often more expensive and a less ideal experience for you.

DD does offer DashPass, a subscription service that, for $9.99/mo, says it slashes delivery fees and other costs. Not really; the amount you pay in DashPass, especially the longer you have it, often exceeds the fees you would pay if you simply bought orders without DashPass. Also, it will advertise at you constantly via notifications and emails which will make you more likely to spend more on delivery that you wouldn't have in the first place, further eroding whatever savings you'd gain from DashPass.

DoorDash also can do a thing where they enroll stores in their platform without that store's permission. These orders require Dashers to use a red card, a notoriously buggy debit card that is supposed to get loaded with the amount of money it takes to cover the order by DD. The restaurants do not get any extra profits from these, and many store managers would love to prevent this from happening, but it requires legal action that is infeasible for most stores to do on their own. This causes friction and conflicts between store managers and drivers, delays for the customers, and solely profits DD.

DD ***does not*** reimburse for any amount of gas or car repair costs. Instead, they offer a company debit card which has tons of hidden fees for their drivers, and gives a small % cashback on gas. It is an overwhelmingly bad deal, but they use it as a shield against accusations that they don't support drivers against the cost of gas. They do...but only if you let them be your bank. Otherwise, you get your pay the Tuesday after the week you worked, or you can cash out immediately via the FastPay feature - for a $1.99 fee out of the money you earned.

DD support teams (and I know this is not unique by any measure to DD but it feels worth mentioning) are based in Taiwan, I believe, as well. I have absolutely nothing against the support teams, for they are doing the best with what they have, but DD absolutely weaponizes language barriers and the difficulty in communication to try to silence customers and dashers alike when there is a problem. DD seems to hope that if you get frustrated enough trying to talk to support (once again, not the workers' faults, the call center is absolutely being exploited too, I just don't have firsthand enough experience with that work to talk about the specifics of how), you will simply give up and not bother trying to seek a refund or half pay.

On that note, if a delivery has to be canceled for whatever reason, your driver will not get paid regardless of the time they spent on it. Very very rarely they will give "half pay," which is half of the promised payout, but only if you were on the delivery for an excessive length of time (i.e., 1+ hours).

Furthermore, if a delivery is marked as undelivered, DD will issue a contract violation against the driver. It is then up to the driver to submit proof that they completed the delivery, via pictures or video evidence, even though DD tracks our phones the entire time we are delivering and should be able to see if we were there or not. **New drivers are not properly warned about this,** so oftentimes when you have a "hand it to the customer" delivery, drivers don't think to take pictures or videos, and dashcams are expensive, not everyone has one. It is extremely hard to argue your way out of a contract violation if you do not have proof.

If you get 3 or more contract violations, you will be immediately suspended from the platform, and 2 puts you at risk of it. If you complete 100 deliveries without incident since the one that gave you the violation, it *will* just go away... But this is a subtle tactic used to scare drivers into taking more (usually very badly paying) orders, because they fear deactivation.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to get a refund, if you legitimately did not receive your order. But please, try contacting your driver directly before you contact support, and if you must contact support, really consider whether someone losing a job, even if it a side gig, is worth the amount of money you spent. You can often just lie and tell DD the order is completely wrong and they'll refund it without punishing the driver, as that's seen as a merchant error.

Also, I don't think many customers realize this: we CANNOT see delivery instructions before we accept a delivery, and they are difficult to see until after the delivery is picked up (as they are only available on a floating widget badge). If you ask for extra sauces or other things in the delivery instructions, 9 times out of 10 we will not see it until we are already on the road and headed to you. Please don't hate drivers for this; most of the drivers I've seen are more than happy to do whatever you want! But msg us via the app, DO NOT use the delivery instructions. Delivery instructions is for instructions on how to find your house or apartment if the numbers aren't very visible, or telling us to call you instead of come to your door when we arrive, that sort of thing. In fact, please be as descriptive as possible for the delivery instructions on this front- if you're ordering from a business, tell us the business name. If you're ordering from an apt, tell us the apartment complex name. If you're ordering from a house, tell us the color of your house or the cars in the driveway. It's all very helpful!

One last thing before I wrap this up: safety. Delivering is an extremely dangerous job. Pizza delivery, for example, is one of the most dangerous professions, and DD's safety features are even worse than those places. DD has implemented a feature for you to contact 911 via the Dasher app in emergencies, but often, this would still be too late. DD does NOT vet the areas for safety that they release the platform into, and there is no real recourse for violent customers aside from talking to support, which takes time and often won't communicate the issue effectively. Sometimes this works, and customers will rarely get banned from Doordash if they threaten, harass, or injure a driver. But the vast majority of these cases go unreported.

Loose dogs and carjacking are also major problems. Customers failing to notify other people in their households that they ordered delivery has led to me being threatened before. I've had people answer the door in their underwear. I had someone try to invite me into his house while wearing nothing but briefs. I had someone step out of their pickup truck carrying two rifles directly in front of me right before I delivered to their house once. I've had dogs nearly bite me - thankfully none have, I'm luckier than many others, but it's still a significant risk. A lot of people seem to trust their dogs when they really should not.

All of this, for $2.25 in base pay + a few dollars in tips.

I really do love delivering, and I do appreciate the freedom DD gives me in choosing my work schedule right now. However, the compensation is woefully bad, the company scams merchants, customers, and drivers alike, and the working conditions are very unsafe.

Idk how many people here really use DD, or what in particular can even be done about most of these issues, but I hope this enlightened some folks.

[thedisablednaturalist]

Hey y'all please I know it's scary but if you've graduated in the past year make sure you know exactly what's up with your student loans (federal and private).

You should have gotten emails from places like Advantage or Navient or whatever pestering you about your loans and you may want to ignore them thinking they're scams. No they are your loan servicer, corporations that the government hands over management of your federal loans to.

The email should tell you how to register for an account which will let you see your loan payments. They'll probably be in the hundred's of dollars depending on how long it's been since you graduated.

Don't fret! Thanks to Bidens efforts (the like one good thing he's doing), you can easily get put on the SAVE plan, where the department of education pays your interests and you make minimum payments based on your current income (which, if you're following me, probably isn't that high).

Honestly, I'd recommend calling and asking about the SAVE plan. The lady was actually super nice (I have aidvantage so your experience may differ) and my minimum payments went from like $400 a month to $0 (now they're $10 bc I got a raise last summer)

And please, for the love of god, keep an eye on your account. I thought I had set up autopay but for the past couple of months autopay wasn't on, so I got charged $30 in late fees.

These loan servicers will try to wring as much money as they can out of either you or the government. You need to babysit them and make sure everything is up to snuff.

I'd also recommend saving and making large payments every once in a while to push down your total debt. That's what the SAVE plan is great for. Instead of using all your money to pay for interest, you use that money to push down the principle.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 49 - A Storm in Tear

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Dice icon) In which coincidence twists.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene. Ailhuin returns with Juilin, a lean man with a swordbreaker almost exactly like Hurin's. He says he'll help them if he can, but he's seen men in black walking across rooftops, and he expects the High Lords may hire him to seek out thieves sooner than later, though nobody's reported a theft yet.(1)

Nyn asks what he charges, and he says a tenth of the value of some goods, or a silver mark per person, and in this case they can have the choice. Elayne distracts him by mentioning that she knows another thief-taker, a very respectful man from Shienar, who carries both sword and swordbreaker. Why doesn't he? He doesn't seem to get her reference,(2) but says there are laws against commoners wearing swords in Tear. Nyn finally counts out thirteen silver coins, probably the lightest of the silver in the purse but still thirteen.

Juilin protests, saying he'd not ask for more than coppers from them, but Nyn says she's buying exactly what she's buying: he will find the thirteen women, find them and no more. He nods, and she describes each one, giving no names because names are so easily faked. Nyn adds that at least a dozen have died at their hands so far, and they are more dangerous than he can possibly know. If they find him following them, he will die, or they will torture him to find them, and Ailhuin will likely die with them. He says he was stabbed by a woman he thought harmless once, and never makes the same mistake now. He will treat them all as if they were Aes Sedai, and Black Ajah at that. Egg almost chokes but he apologizes, and assures her that there are no Aes Sedai in Tear.(3)

He leaves, and Ailhuin assures them he's the best in the business. Nyn feels a storm coming, it will rain again before morning.(4) They go to bed, and Egg tells Nyn and El to wake her after an hour, but she goes into TAR, makes her way to the Heart of the Stone, sees Liandrin, and wakes herself up almost immediately. She tells them that the women know they're here, they're waiting for them, and outside the storm breaks.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat, playing stones with Thom, who's the clear winner. Mat asks if Thom ever loses, and he says yes, Morgase would beat him about half the time. It's said that good stones players are also good at the Game of Houses and at war.

The ship docks at Tear, the captain swearing he'll never carry anything that can talk again, and Mat pays him an exorbitant fee. He makes sure the fireworks are protected as they walk into the rainy night. Thom asks if he's ready to sell them yet, but Mat says he wants to know how they work, and won't it be fun to see him set them all off?

They set off into Tear, Mat grumbling at the mud catching his boots. He plans to get an early start of looking for Comar. Thom says there are hundreds of inns, it'll take weeks, and some of them are so small you'd never know they were there. Mat thinks of home when he thinks of small inns, thinking they should never have left Emond's Field. But, Rand surely had to, and Egwene might have died if she hadn't. Well, maybe Perrin still has a chance to go home, and if he does, Mat hopes he takes it, though, why would he? As the thought finishes, lightning strikes, and illuminates a window with herbs hanging in the window.(5)

They take rooms at an inn, Mat paying in silver since the gold is running low (the men on the ship didn't dice at all) then he and Thom go around to a couple of other inns. It's late into the night when, looking for another to check, Thom says they've just walked past three inns, can they go back and sleep now? Mat almost gives in when he swears he sees Rand up the street,(6) but looks back instead. He didn't notice the last inn, but likes the look of the name and the sign, The Golden Cup, so he goes in.

And not two steps in, he sees Comar, dicing across the room. His current dicing partner leaves and he starts calling who's next, who wants to try his luck? Mat knows something is wrong, not least because Comar is the first man he's seen wearing a sword, so he tries to think it through from all sides before rushing in.

He and Thom approach the innkeeper and ask a few discreet questions about Comar. The innkeeper assumes Comar is a merchant, thumbing his nose at the poor of the Maule, and he keeps throwing the best rolls for any game he plays. Thom shows them a trick of replacing dice by sleight of hand, and says he probably has sets of weighted dice, and is doing the same trick.

Mat tells Thom to stay at the bar, and goes to dice with Comar. He feels the luck shift as he throws his dice, and lands the winning roll. He tells Comar his luck's about used up, calls him by name, and says if he's hurt the girls, it's all gone. Comar's face goes white as he realizes what Mat just said. He lets slip that he hasn't found them, but he isn't the only one searching. Mat tells him to leave Tear, tell Gaebril anything, but leave Tear tonight. Comar takes out his sword, and Mat defeats him handily with his quarterstaff. In fact, Mat does too well, and kills him by accident. The innkeeper tells him he must go, he'll tell the Defenders it was a man he dreamed of, a tall man with red hair and gray eyes. He can show them the weighted dice now, and everyone here lost coin, they'll all attest. Mat lets himself be dragged out of the inn.

On the way back to the inn where their rooms are, Mat says he's figured out the luck: it works best when things have an element of randomness. Not much good for cards, no good at stones, too much pattern. Even finding Comar, it was a random inn. If he's going to find the wondergirls in time, he has to search without a pattern.(7)

They go back and get some sleep, but for three days and three evenings, Mat lets luck decide where he goes, picking inns at random, or sometimes just flipping a coin at an intersection and turning this way or that. Thom develops a terrible cough, so he can no longer play flute or tell stories, but he insists on going out with Mat.

He's even started to have bad dreams, especially of a man in puffy sleeves and cropped white hair, weaving a net, sometimes over the wondergirls, sometimes Moiraine, and sometimes the man held a crystal sword, only sometimes Rand held the sword. In fact, Mat dreams of Rand a great deal.(8)

Mat thinks it must just be the lack of sleep, the lack of eating regular meals, but he can't stop. He means to win his wager.

=====

(1) We don't have very many clues about what might be going on here, certainly nothing definitive, but remember that we're getting awfully close to the end of the book. (2) Frankly, nor do I. Anyone got an insight check here? Pretty sure I rolled a 1 and none of the wikis and databases I have access to, even as a full-spoil, are helping. My best guess is it's a joke about Hurin the Tolkien figure that I also don't get. (3) Oh, buddy. (4) Do you think it's still the rain Nyn's feeling, or the looming climax of the story? (5) They're SO CLOSE! But they're not thinking like people trying to be sneaky. Well, at least we know they're nearby when Thom finally wants something for that cough. (6) Oh right, Mat's been WELL out of the loop. He hasn't any of the Dragon-search stuff on his itinerary, he's just here for the ladies. Well, it seems Rand did arrive ahead of them all. (7) Find the pattern, even if that pattern is randomness. Luck is his superpower. (8) So, both Rand and whoever the local Forsaken is are affecting people's dreams now.

[big-low-t]

My Hot Date With A Bot

(Secondary Title: Where is my Pasta?)

I was bored out of my mind when a spam bot @4julia messaged me. This is the conversation we had. I love her long time. My words are in blue. If you are bored out of your skull have a read.

Hello Tim !!

Who are you and where did my pasta go?

Sorry, you got me misunderstanding what you trying to say.

Where is my macaroni and cheese? Who sent you?

Lol ?. Did you make an order?

Charges fee?

Or should I say delivery fee??

No, the bowl was sitting right beside me. I see a bunch of cleavage pictures on your tumblr page and then the bowl of macaroni was gone. Is the bowl stuck in between your breasts?

You got me there handsome. That some hard lines you used though.

Look, I'm hungry, I just want my macaroni and cheese back.

If you don't have my macaroni then why are you here? What do you want from me?

Good friends. Like close friends. Are you not good with this?

Good friends don't usually start out by stealing someone's pasta. What will you do to prove you are sorry and really a friend?

I knew it.

Why would I steal your pasta very strange you know?

Maybe you were hungry

Funny you. For the record, I never did anything like that before ok.

So this is the first time you stole a bowl of pasta? Maybe I should be honored that you chose me.

The pleasure is all mine handsome.

You keep calling me handsome and I might make you some more pasta. You make me blush.

If you don't I would love to know you well as a friend if you are good with this though.

I make a pretty good mac and cheese, I'm not going to lie. Everything else I do is a failure. But hey, I've always got my pasta, and this special night with you!

Smile. That's sweet of you though I can't wait to have that with you though.

Do you mind for me to know you more as a friend?

Well, I have to tell you that I snort loudly sometimes when I get excited. I sound a bit like pigs mating. Is that OK?

You are funny ? handsome. That's cool though don't have an issue with that.

Where are you from?

I live in Nigeria

Nigeria? Is that Africa?

Not heard a country name like that.

Yes! I love it here. I got to see an elephant one time. Where are you from babydollcleavagegirl?

Can elaborate more for me

San Francisco

Can I get a picture of you?

Is that in the United States of America? I hear they have a lot of guns and fake boobs.

Yeah. But not everyone

So tell me more about where you from

Do they say "howdy" a lot there? And do you have a gun?

And also try sending me a picture of yours.

This is a picture of me

Yes of course.

Why are you saying you are from Nigeria alaye Then?

Because my parents moved here when I was just a little handsome boy

And where are you now?

Still here

Nigeria?

Yes

What is the country like then

Where in Nigeria do you stay?

Alaye are you there?

It is a pretty country. Lots of wildlife places, some pretty waterfalls. I kissed a girl beside a waterfall. She was cute

She never took my pasta either

I live in Lagos, a city on the south coast of Nigeria

So what city are you in?

Where precisely?

What do you do for a living?

I'm not going to tell you exactly... you might come and take more of my pasta!

Can you send me a selfie of you at this moment?

I can not, I am in my pajamas now.

Just checked the time on Google it's kinda late and yet you're still up??

When you live a life like mine, time means nothing.

Just a selfie not all your body.

So what kind of life is that?

Are you trying to see my special tool? I don't show people that!

What kind of life are you living?

You don't really have an American accent. Are you sure you are in San Francrisco?

What do you do for all the living?

I make and sell pasta.

Why do I have the feeling that am talking to a dark dude?

A what?

Where is your shop located?

We all have a dark side, babydollsweety

I bet you do, too

A dark dude. Using someone else picture?

So you steal my macaroni and now you don't trust me?????

Please I did not.

I can't believe our friendship is on the rocks already. I had feelings for you. Your cleavage picture so hot.

I just have these feelings. Cause I heard the economy is very bad down there

I had feelings too, and you stomped all over them, stole my pasta and now you just broke my heart. I have tears now. Very many.

I also have feelings for you. I just felt you not being honest with me at all.

Please I did not take your pasta.

I wanted to fly to San Francoamerica and make sweet love to you on that big bridge

Then prove me wrong then.

We can still make that come through.

I'm going to go cry now, I feel we have drifted apart lately. Good luck finding a better man than me. It won't be too hard.

Just prove to me you are real that is all I am asking from you.

I won't let you see my cry. I must now say goodbye

You just don't understand me.

I'll never forget the time we shared and how you stole my pasta

Take care baby doll sweet cake love muffin

You taking this the wrong way.

Please leave me, I am sad now

You deserve better

Please stop with this pasta

It's just a question

Why are you making be like it's a big deal?

I must go bye now. Be careful out there. I hear there are a lot of people that will try to scam you out of your money.

You are not just getting what have been trying to tell you.

And you are not getting anymore of my pasta! Go away please, I am now extra sad.

🤦‍♀️

[terraliensvent]

It's the first time for me posting here I wanted to share my thoughts on the Oil situation even if I might be late to the party lol... I'm scared to share things on these kind of blogs-

---

I believe that Xil is a dangerous person currently, especially because of their current tastes in OCS designs.

Persé they didn't do anything to get them called very serious names, people shouldn't jump to that conclusion immediately, but they should be reprehended for the things they posted and said.

Their actions are extremely harmful and recognized as harmful for minors. Especially because their influence can make said minors migrate to dangerous places out of pure curiosity and/or because a person with influence said "it's not that bad". No Xil.. that's bad, very bad. They should understand what kind of power as a moderator they have over people.

Latex is not sexual alone, Xil is correct.. but people will not look at the singular thing of an artwork or oc, but the context and the context of that SD is around BDSM gear at worst and Dominatrix/Dom kink at best.

(you don't buy/commission/look at OCS and art because of 1 singular thing everyone looks at the general context of the digital good. Both aesthetic, theme and context whise.)

Going to a more technical side of the situation:

BDSM, to my knowledge can be counted as "harmful and obscene" material, which can be reported to the authority. Of course it depends on the type and intensity but Xil might be found guilty to at least exposing kids to these kind of materials and can be possibly get at least a charge of misdemeanor or pay idk a 1000$ fee or something.

I'm not saying they will or should, but they should be mindful to what they share as it can be technically reported to the authorities.

Not only that but they can encourage others to take harmful actions on minors, such as showing more contents of that nature at best and actual enabling grooming at the very wrost from third party people out of their knowledge and control.

They can also encourage minors to do these kind of actions towards other minors which is illegal.

I'm not saying Xil will do so, but it can happen! We can't just brush it off because "eh there's the 1% of it happening" as adults it's our responsibility to not let things happen especially mods and staff or to brush it under the rug.

(this is according to my current knowledge, please don't take it as legal advice or anything to attack them do not harass anyone.)

I leave these sites in case someone wants to educate themselves on the matters, please do, as these things are very serious and dangerous. Protect yourself and know your rights especially you kids! The internet in dangerous and 2024 should be the wakeup call for how many are getting exposed for these kind of things.

https://www.patitucelaw.com/blog/2024/april/furnishing-harmful-or-obscene-materials-to-minor/

https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.68A

More general things for minors here:

https://www.vic.gov.au/sexting

https://www.roanokecriminalattorney.com/sexting-child-pornography-laws-united-states/

---

Going to Smile Demons.

Them not wishing/wanting for the species to be turned to a 18+ species can enable and create a very concerning and unsafe environment for minors.

Popularity online it's not an excuse to enable harmful and dangerous behavior as it's not only Xil the sole member part the terra/SD species. Xil should be more then aware as a moderator or staff member in general that third party people can have and will have bad intents!

Toyhouse does have people like that, never forget the reality of the world we live in, and on the internet everyone can be a monster under the sheep's clothing.

Never, never sacrifice who's most vulnerable safety's for your personal interest.

Smile Demons are quite visibly a species aimed for 18+ audiences.

Xil not wishing or suggest such change just because of frivolous reasons are very red flaggy behaviors and Xil should be quite ashamed of themselves ngl.

I give them the benefit of the doubt because Xil is 18 and they probably don't know any better yet. But 18 it's a serious age now and people will use it to judge how they behave. But I believe they can do better as anyone can, they aren't horrible for what they believe currently, their brain is still developing.

----

My final general thoughts:

Please, please PLEASE adults.. stop sharing things with minors. They are not developed enough to handle things, please find people your age. Don't vent to minors, don't share kinks with minors, don't expose them to harmful topics.

For minors, please don't engage in harmful behavior and do not migrate in dangerous places because of pure curiosity or because you think you're mature for your age. No you're not, stay in safe circles and educate yourselves on your country laws! Not only for personal knowledge but so you know the consequences and actions you must take if something happens. Also please stop sharing things between yourselves is illegal.

Stay safe everyone and God forbid people keep your preferences to yourselves smh.

I care to repeat though, to not harass anyone, spread knowledge yes but don't aggressively go to people with it or they will never learn or accept it.

If they refuse: report, block and move on.

I'm sorry blog owner, if this was a heavy topic but I wanted to let go of this thoughts of mine from the start i got knowledge of the situation.

links provided:

https://www.patitucelaw.com/blog/2024/april/furnishing-harmful-or-obscene-materials-to-minor/

https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.68A

https://www.vic.gov.au/sexting

https://www.roanokecriminalattorney.com/sexting-child-pornography-laws-united-states/

this is a very good post anon, and i agree with a lot of what youve said here

this isnt saying Xil is actively a groomer or targeting minors, thats a very serious claim to make with no evidence

BUT their talking points and insistence on ride or die-ing for smile demons (like other terra mods in the species do) has the potential to be dangerous!

based off the red flags we have already seen, i think xil should be demoted or fired. its better to take preventative measures rather than retroactively scratching your head and saying "what could we have done" in the event something ever DID happen.

thank you for the links as well anon, its really important for people to know that this isnt fun and games and you should not be dancing around what is and isnt ok to have around minors.

[xirayn]

Stonathan Week Day 3: Fake Dating- To case Roane Casino and Hotel for the next big heist, Steve and Jonathan are going to have to pretend to be in their honeymoon phase.

written by @xirayn and @aibhlynn

Trying something new by writing screenplays rather than short stories. Feedback on this format appreciated.

Public Displays of Affection

INT. HOPPER-BYERS HOUSE – KITCHEN – AFTERNOON (late 2010s)

Blueprints are spread out over a kitchen table. HOPPER, MIKE, DUSTIN, LUCAS, MAX, NANCY, JONATHAN, and STEVE are standing around it. MIKE, DUSTIN, LUCAS, and MAX are in their mid-twenties. NANCY, JONATHAN, and STEVE are early thirties. MIKE is leaning over the blueprints. He looks up at JONATHAN.

MIKE

We need pictures of the inside, whatever you can get.

JONATHAN

And why does that involve me pretending to be on my honeymoon with Steve?

DUSTIN

You can't just walk in and start taking pictures without a reason. Being on your honeymoon is the perfect cover.

MIKE

If you pretend to take selfies as a happy couple, no one will think anything about it.

JONATHAN

I get that, but doesn’t Nancy make more sense as my partner?

LUCAS

Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable, especially if it's a same-sex couple. Steve can also get away with a lot more than Nancy because society is misogynistic like that.

JONATHAN

(Conceding)

Right.

MAX

Plus, Steve is better at defusing a situation than Nancy is.

NANCY gives MAX a vaguely displeased look, but she doesn’t object. STEVE, meanwhile, is smirking across the table at Jonathan.

STEVE

(Teasingly)

What, Byers? Don’t want to play my husband?

JONATHAN rolls his eyes. STEVE laughs.

STEVE

We’ll be better for the job, anyway. The Party is shit at acting.

LUCAS

Max and I are excellent actors.

HOPPER

It’s better if you both aren’t recognized for phase two.

HOPPER points at a room on the blueprints.

HOPPER

You’ll be staying here. It’s a single king. I trust you two can be adults about that.

STEVE winks at JONATHAN, earning an unimpressed and slightly annoyed look in response.

MIKE

I've also made some reservations to prominent restaurants, a show, a spa trip – You can thank me later.

STEVE

Check your ego and I’ll think about it.

JONATHAN

How are you even paying for this?

DUSTIN

The offshore accounts from our last score. El has been charging ‘maintenance fees’.

STEVE

So we should actually be thanking her. Got it. Did Will come up with a cover story beyond being newlyweds?

MIKE

Nothing too interesting. You both went to IU in Bloomington and have been living together since graduation, but waited to get married because Jonathan has trust issues.

JONATHAN

Trust issues?

NANCY

Plausible.

JONATHAN glances at her, but quickly looks away with a bit of shame and regret. STEVE notices and his expression becomes sympathetic.

STEVE

We can get together tonight to figure out the rest. When is our flight?

DUSTIN

In two days. I’m sending you the itinerary now.

DUSTIN takes out his phone and taps on it a few times. Both JONATHAN’s and STEVE’s phones buzz shortly after DUSTIN puts his down. They take out their phones. JONATHAN pulls up the itinerary. STEVE comes up behind him, wrapping his arms around JONATHAN’s waist to look over his shoulder at the information. JONATHAN tenses.

JONATHAN

What are you doing?

STEVE

Getting you use to me being in your space. We aren’t going to be very convincing, otherwise.

JONATHAN, clearly still uncomfortable with STEVE being in his space, sighs in defeat. He does relax a little, though, with only STEVE’s slight smile showing that he noticed.

To be continued...

[konohamaru-sensei]

similarities

Merry Christmas @qettleqorn!! I am so happy that last year (also around christmas!) I randomly decided to VC with you and we just talked for hours that day and got a long so great! You've become one of my closes people here, someone I share a lot with (Even when I'm embarrassed) and someone I really love talking to. Thank you for everything this year and wish you all the best for the next!

--

Nanami X Oc / Also Sukuna x OC

Courtesan JJK Au with special appearance of @fireflylitsky's Izumi

sorry that it ends so suddenly I had no idea for an end so its just there! :D

--

There was a commotion outside of the doors, some yelling and something dropped something that sounded like a pan with a loud clang on the ground. Kin opened her eyes and blinked into the half light coming from the windows. “I’m sorry, my lady,” the man beside her said. “They should be more considerate of you.”

“It’s alright, Kento,” she yawned. After all, it was rather unlikely that a guest stayed over long into the next day. If she came back late, it would just cause too much chatter anyway. 

She pushed herself up and shook out the locks of her hair. “Next time you just have to come to me”, she said with a wink. “Then we can remain undisturbed as long as we like.” 

Kento smiled friendly: “I understand that the permanent place on your side is already filled by another.” He said it so sweetly, as if he was not trying to accuse her of anything, but she’d met him often enough to hear the slight wind of envy. It was true though, if Kin ordered Kento to come to the palace she would have to lend Sukuna out to someone else to make space for him and Sukuna quite liked his high position at court.

“Well maybe you could share then,” she winked back and though she had told him often enough to be honest with her, he just lowered his head a little as if to say “As you wish.” He really was very good at this. That’s why she kept coming back and kept paying the rising fees that he was worth.

She had tried, of course, to get Kento to move to the palace with her to keep him from being bought out by anyone else but her, but Kin had to learn that he very much enjoyed the work he was doing and liked the freedom that the red light district offered him. At least in comparison to the shut in feeling of palace walls. She couldn’t fault him for that, no matter how much she might have wanted to.

It was not like Kin wasn’t satisfied with the men that were brought to her. Sukuna had been such a promising courtesan that she had paid a good sum to get him to stay and though Kenjaku had left to pursue his own things, he had been more than serviceable. But she had been feeling out for something new, maybe someone younger and this house had a good line up of young shining stars. So she had come by to look for herself.

The white haired boy, Satoru, was the talk of the town, his slightly smaller but no less handsome companion Suguru had the women in the palace swooning and their friend Mei Mei was the dream that many women and men at court were too poor to afford, but Kin had immediately taken to Kento. 

He wasn’t as tall as Satoru, as conventionally handsome as Suguru or as bold as Mei Mei. He was soft, his voice was deep, his hands were warm and Kin had wanted to steal him away instantly. Without success, at least so far.

So she had no choice but to come back out here regularly to see him and his fee went up with every visit she did to see him. “Can other people even afford you still?” she had asked him jokingly one time as they were sitting in a hot bathtub together. He had smiled as friendly as always and his answer “Some” had annoyed her more than she wanted to admit.

If only Sukuna wasn’t so territorial, then maybe she could just bring him around. Sure, both men would agree to it because it was their job, but Sukuna really liked to take charge himself. Over the many years he had served Kin he really had developed a feeling of superiority over her other partners. As if he was the best person and nobody else would ever be able to satisfy her as he did.

“My lady,” Kento said and pressed a soft kiss to her naked shoulder. “I think it's about time for you to make your way.” He didn’t say it, but Kin knew he meant that he needed time to get ready for the next clients in the evening.

She was about to put his hair out of his eyes and agree with him that it was time to go when the door flew open. A boy was in the doorway and at first glance Kin could feel her heart stop for a second. The cherry blossom hair and the jawline looked way too similar to someone she knew very well.

“Itadori-kun”, Kento said and sat up. “You should not come in here at this time. Especially not without knocking.”

The boy flushed instantly: “I’m sorry Nanamin.” He was stuttering. “I just saw that you didn’t get breakfast yet and…”

A scream was audible behind the boy and then two arms reached for him. “Yuuji!” It was the voice of the woman that Kin knew as being head of the maids in the place. “What the hell are you doing?”  A head with black hair stuck their head into the room. “Uh, excuse the boy’s behaviour, madam, eh, please enjoy your time.” Then she pulled the boy and pushed the door closed.

Kin had rarely noticed what had happened, she was too fixated on the appearance of the boy. “Who is he?” She asked Kento.

“Itadori Yuuji. He was growing up around here as an orphan. Uchiha-san, the head of maids, took him in. She was the one who disciplined him just now.”

Kin nodded. “Do you know where he is from?”

Kento raised a brow as if he was curious why she wanted to know that. “Many of us people around here have no real family. He is training in this establishment to earn some money. As far as I know Master Yaga never asks for background as long as people work hard.”

So they had no idea who was among them. Kin’s heart was beating against her ribcage. It seemed impossible to think that this boy had found his way back so close to his family, with how big the world and the country was, but she would have recognised that hair colour anywhere. He had grown to look a lot like his father.

Kento seemed suspicious when Kin hurried to get dressed next to him, but etiquette told him not to ask what was on her mind. Instead he made himself presentable and walked her down the large staircase to the exit of the building as always. “When are you planning on letting me see you again?” he asked as always in this overly polite manner to not imply he was begging or trying to get her money.

“Soon,” Kin replied exactly as always. She always sent notice ahead of time for him to clear his schedule, but she never did longer than 24 h ahead. 

No kiss goodbye, they were now in public after all, but she took his hand and squeezed it before the door to the carriage opened and she slipped inside. There was a much smaller woman already sitting inside, a purple kimono matching her dark hair. She was Kin’s closest attendant and cousin, royal enough to be dressed in riches but not nearly royal enough to be of importance. They were always together.

“Did you wait long?” Kin asked, because she didn’t want to lead with her news fist.

Izumi shrugged: “You take your time with this one, I know you might be late.” She was referring to Kento. Kin had suggested Izumi go meet him too, mostly because they often shared such things with one another, but her cousin had lately been focused on her actual marriage instead of looking for fun outside of it.

“I have news,” Kin couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Incredibly big news. Izumi, my dear, I found one of them.”

The other woman turned her head: “One of what?”

“Kids.” Kin reached over to take her hand. “I found one of your kids.”

The carriage wheels wobbled forward over the cobblestone, pushing both women from left to right as the wood kept creaking under their weight. And though there was so much noise around them, the silence that fell between the two friends was almost as audible. Izumi first went white and then her cheeks coloured red.

“You’re joking”, she said as if it was a matter of fact.

Kin grabbed her hand closer: “No, I would never joke about such a thing.”

Izumi stared into her lap: “You found one of my kids? In the whorehouse?”

“Yes.” Kin knew that's not what she wanted to hear, but it was the truth.

“Which one?”

“Yuuji.” Kin was amazed that the name had stuck, even though he’d probably grown up mostly on his own.

“Yuuji..” Izumi’s eyes blurred and it looked like she was lost in memories.

“He is training there,” Kin explained. “Apparently an apprentice.”

Izumi looked up. “So we can still stop him from working! If I could just go to see -”

“You can’t.” Kin cut her off before she could finish her thought. “Remember, you can’t talk to him.”

“Right,” Izumi’s eyes fell to her hands again. “That was what I promised when I gave them away.” That was the trouble of being royal, but not royal enough. You had power to choose your high profile courtesans, but children out of marriage had to be given away. It was cruel, but it was the law.

“Will you tell him?” Izumi asked without looking at her friend. “That you found his son, I mean?”

Kin laughed a little: “I don’t think he’d care.”

“Suppose not,” Izumi agreed.

They sat side by side like this for a while, as the walls of the palace closed behind them. Kin kept holding Izumi’s hand tightly to offer her support. They’d done so much together all their lives and Kin hated that she was put in the position to give up two sons in the first place. 

After a while Izumi turned to the other woman. “Do you think I can at least look at him? See him?”

Kin didn’t know how she could summon the child without making it look suspicious, especially with Kento already having noticed something was odd, but she didn’t like it when her friend looked so defeated. “Definitely. I will make sure you will.”

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for asking for my usual detective work rate?

I (young adult, NB) am a professional detective and was recently relocated to a new city. I now work with a local detective agency, albeit only loosely; I care much more about my orders from high up the corporate ladder, whereas my boss (30s? M) is kind of an idiot.

One of the other employees at the agency is a trainee (teen, M) who barely has a grasp on himself, much less crime-solving. Recently, he wandered into a crime scene attempting to save a child, and was nearly arrested. I saved them both out of the goodness of my heart, and also because I like beating up cops. The child then revealed that his father was falsely accused of murder, and thus asked me and my coworker for help.

I told him, straight up: if you pay my fee, I'll work on the case. He attempted to pay me in the form of a baseball, which I obviously rejected. My coworker, on the other hand, offered to do the job for free. After he investigated, he asked me for help, since he's just a trainee and really doesn't know what the hell he's doing. I told him I don't work for free, and laid out both my regular rate, plus what I expect from a client (such as payment for on-case expenses and late fees if I'm kept waiting). He seemed hesitant but agreed to pay.

To be very clear: this case was not relevant to my job. I *am* a detective, but this wasn't something I was ordered to work on. However, some of my other coworkers are now saying that I took advantage of our trainee in a desperate moment (the child's father was going to be executed, the trainee has amnesia and no money, my fees are around the price it would take to buy a luxury car, I charged him for an expensive cup of coffee that was not required to solve the case, I didn't actually solve the case for him, etc.) and should pardon his debt. I would like to get paid, though. AITA?

[desrac]

From what ive gathered online its lookin like this weeks hot topic is Beyonce goin on tour and pricing her concert tickets starting at $500? Thats what the girls are ranting about correct? Now A Beyonce tour isn’t really where Im putting my business this week but whats on my mind is the audacity and ridiculousness of this situation. Everyone is posting memes and making comments about having to skip their rent to get their coins together to be able to afford a B ticket, which is just silly. The internet has been going on for weeks about not even being able to afford the price hike of eggs and she has the audacity to charge like four weeks salary for middle class. 

Yea yea I get it, the production value of a Beyonce tour just goes up every year and her shows get bigger and bigger she’s a performer and gives the theatrics but dam are you really telling me she cant find producers to fund her over the top ideas? Instead she is forcing the girls to give up their rent money, bussy, and legs to see her for a couple hours?

Now I have no interest in attending a Beyonce concert and her newest album don’t concern me but whats bothering me is that this affects the bigger picture that Ive been seeing lately in the art and commerce world. Big companies and top artists destroying and building unhealthy standards that then become requirements that independent artists are expected to meet. A Beyonce ticket being $500 is only going to show other artists that they should steal as much as they can from their ‘fans’. Beyonce makes an album referencing ballroom culture, house music, and the gurls, yet pricing the show at silly ass numbers that cant no one afford without fucking up their monthly expenses....Zoooming out back into the art world these clients and companies expecting us to produce dover street quality while paying us wal-mart prices. They expecting us to make pitches and decks with references, that they aren't looking to reference but instead expect you to make an exact copy of what you are ‘referencing’, instead of adding any originality to it. Ive been on so many jobs where Im in the production stage and the clients are complaining or insisting that this doesn't look like the reference......ok are you serious? Did you not hire me for my style and direction????? nooo, you've hired me to reproduce the same recycled bullshit that we have all been regurgitating for the last 5 years and will forget about 10 minutes after viewers have liked the post and moved right on. Stylists are pulling from these corporate designers and then expecting independent designers to also deliver to them in the same capacity and pay them nothing for their work. You want deliverables in like a three day turn around but wont provide the funds for a team that can hand those over. Make-up and hair are paying thousands of dollars out of pocket beyond their fee and acting like its normal because thats what they've been doing. 

And the gag is all these independent artists are still taking on these jobs in desperation for work just feeding the whale so that it can turn into a shark. Theres a lot of demanding going on with no hands coming the other way and its its bad business.

[kleefkruid]

timeline of me trying to pay my insurance

New year, I know I am going to get a bill, I have the money, nothing should go wrong they just need to tell me how much exactly and to which bank account I need to send it.

They send my bill to someone elses email adress

the mail get forwarded to me by the other person

the mail doesn't contain my payment info, it sends me to an online billing service where I can find the info

the online billing service does not have the info

I call my insurance, nobody picks up

I mail my insurance telling them it doesn't work. I receive no answer

I get my first 'late payment' notice in the physical mail, which finally has a paper with it with the account I can send the money to, making it the first possible time I can actually make the payment I've been wanting to all this time. They also charge me a 20 euro 'late fee'

I receive another reminder of the bill I already paid with another 20 euro late fee

next up: I'll have to call again to solve this. This exact scenario in the same order happened last year. They asked me 'did you check your spambox?' and then tried to sell me extra insurance.

and all this while I, upon registering, could choose between electronic billing and paper billing and I said I wanted to only receive paper billing (because I know this happens)

[twistedtummies2]

COMMISSIONS 2024

Hello, everyone! It’s time to discuss a topic that I’ve put off longer than I probably should have: Story Commissions for 2024.

Let me start off by saying this flat-out: 2023 was an unmitigated disaster when it came to commissions. My plan to try and take care of crowd control backfired on a most spectacular level. And this was after me trying other experimental tactics to manage time, crowd control, and money alike, none of which really worked. As a result, my INITIAL plan for 2024 was to return to basics: to go back to the way I always did things, and just stick by that.

In some ways, that is exactly what I’m going to do. In others, not so much. So, HERE IS HOW COMMISSIONS WILL BE HANDLED FOR 2024.

I will be opening publicly in February of 2024. There will be commissions in January, BUT, for reasons I won’t go into here, I am contacting the commissioners for January privately. The specific current plan is to open publicly on February 16th, which is a Friday. If I need to open late, for any reason, the late opening will be February 19th; if I am able to open earlier, and I feel up to doing so, the early opening will be February 14th. All other dates for openings will be announced as they come.

I will LIKELY be open nine months out of the year: January (privately), February, April, May, July, August, September, October, and November. I am taking March off specifically because I’m going to be out of state for a week or so that month (unless something changes), and even if that trip gets canceled, I’ll also be having rehearsals for a play, very likely, in the time after I’d be scheduled to return. So by giving myself the extra month off, I’ll be able to ensure I complete commissions despite these hiccups, theoretically speaking. June and December I planned to take off anyway.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: I am - rather begrudgingly, I must confess - going to be raising my prices for commissions. I will also be lessening the number of commissions I take on. Specifically, I will be charging $15 per thousand words, and I will only have five slots available. As far as crowd control goes, I will deal with that on a case by case basis: if reservations for a month fill out, then I may not open publicly that month, but I will not open for multiple months at a time. I will go into why I am doing all this later in the journal, so just bear that in mind for the moment.

There will be special discounts offered in February, April, July, and November. These discounts won’t have any particular THEME, it’s just going to be a collection of characters/franchises that you can earn money off of. With the exception of July, the discounts for the other three months will all be handled the same way: if you request a piece with a character on the list, you will be charged $10 per thousand words instead of $15, basically getting five dollars off every thousand words and being charged what WAS my standard fee.

TIED TO THE PREVIOUS POINT, there will be a standing discount - which means it applies to EVERY month I’m open, not just those four - where if you request a story with one of my OCs as the main focal character, you will, again, be charged $10 per thousand words instead of $15 per thousand.

My extra fee will change slightly too: if I go 3000 words over the established minimum length, then I will start the charging at $5 instead of $10. This fee will still increase by five every thousand. So if the story is, for example, 3000 words to begin with: at $15 per thousand, this would cost $45. If I write 6000 words for that story, then the final price will be $50: forty-five plus a five-dollar extra fee. You can do the math from there.

Now that I’ve detailed all of that…let’s address the question no doubt on a lot of your minds: why have I raised the price and why have I shortened the number of stories? Well…the answer is simply one word: “necessity.” I realized, as a result of the fiasco that was 2023, and the problems with 2022 before it, that my work output has slowed down a LOT over the years, for MANY reasons. I physically cannot write the GIGANTIC stories lots of people commission from me quite as quickly as I used to. So, I’m lessening the number of stories, so that I have a better chance of finishing everything on schedule. However, if I’m going to lessen the number of stories, I then absolutely MUST raise the price: bills need to be paid, various other expenses need to be dealt with. I need to make the same amount per round as before, if not more so, and I need to do it more consistently. SO, I basically have no other recourse. It’s either only do work half the year with lots of stories but only about half the amount of money I’d make, or I do less stories, more frequently, but have to charge more as a consequence. I understand that, for lots of people, these conditions will prove troublesome. I did not blindly stagger into this decision: I consulted several friends and frequent commissioners to see what they thought, and all of them - even if they did admit it might be more difficult for a few of them - agreed this was the best choice to make.

I will be updating my Commission Info Post (and reblogging it) in the near future according to these new plans. Again, January commissions will be dealt with privately, and I plan to open publicly on February 16th. If anything else changes, I will let everybody know.

Thank you all for your patience, and your continued support. I hope this next year will be more fruitful and more fun than the last one. :-)