#pay as you go

[whisperthatruns]

I might have been going this way, or I might have been going the other, I really couldn't be sure. Anyway, don't try telling stuff like that to certain people, you'd just be wasting your time. I don't even want to talk about it, to tell you the truth. Sometimes he'd sell off the first couple things he could get his hands on for some change to spend at his man on the corner, but it'd take you a while to recognize what the things had been. Like, I used to have this xylophone. It wasn't the best xylophone in the world or anything, but I knew a few jingles to play on it. Except once when I was older I went looking for it and all the keys were missing. I mean, every, single, one---it was just a wooden block left behind with a pair of rubber-tipped sticks. That's good copper you had lying around, boy! he said. Who are you, the queen of the world? "That's not the point!" Damn: all of a sudden I was yelling out loud in those woods. Something off to my side scurried away at the sound of my voice. "It's not just the queen of the world who gets to keep her stuff. It can be the rest of us too." Pah. More drivel. Same as ever, I see. "Shut up!" Where are you now? Lost, I bet. I was plunging farther still into the smells of wet bough and rotten moss. Dark things with pinpoints for eyes were moving in the trees. I heard his mean footsteps coming down the stairs after one of his sleepless nights spent arguing on the phone. The dungeon of my imagination had been flung open without the sun to keep watch. "You don't get to do that," I said, and I meant it. You don't get to go around selling all the copper you find because you think no one can do anything about it. Not the copper, not the bicycle pedals, the motors for my toy cars, the night-lights. Not the screws from the bed frame so that the mattress had to be put on the floor, or the graduation rings, the razor blades, the alarm clocks, the cuff links for my one good shirt, the remote for the TV. I stopped where I was and dropped to my haunches. The swamp water was chilling my clothes and that was the reason I was shaking. "I'm not some coward." Geez, I was having some serious tremors. My clothes were really damp. Something must have flown into my eyes, too, since I was having to wipe them a lot all of a sudden. All that ever happened to me was bad luck and cold clothes, and I was tired of it. And as a matter of fact, I was lying just now, it was the best damn xylophone in the world. And he had been the one to teach me the jingles on it. So if some of us who you see out here are not musicians, it's only because those we loved the most once took back the keys.

Eskor David Johnson, Pay as You Go (McSweeney’s, 2023)

[uncanny-tranny]

Fat people deserve mobility aids, too. No matter if it's connected to their fatness or not, because having a mobility issue that is connected to one's fatness won't change that they're still fat and still have the issue at hand. Fat people don't deserve to "tough it out" because fatness should be this divine punishment doled out to those who "deserve" it. Fat disabled people deserve to have the peace of mind that they can exist in whatever way is most comfortable and accessible to them

[mydairpercabeth]

Ares saying he hates his own kids and the worst day of the year is when they visit him makes my heart break for Clarisse more. Clarisse fights so hard for scraps of her father’s attention and Ares sees her as just another nuisance. He doesn’t care about her unless she’s able to serve him. But Clarisse (like Annabeth) thinks she just has to work harder for him to love her. In her mind, it’s all her fault. Which is why she is so angry when little punk Percy strolls in at twelve years old, no training and unclaimed, and immediately defeats the minotaur. In three days hes already got the gods attention and his father claimed him. Of course she’s angry.

[bulletsgirl]

ppl who werent changed forever by youre gonna go far kid by the offspring when they were like 11 and insanely impressionable you just cant understand me

[chloesimaginationthings]

This will be the first scene of FNAF 2 movie…

[deadsetobsessions]

Sea Cryptic! Danny AU- Pt.3

[Pt.1] [Pt.2] [Pt.4][Pt.5][Pt.6][Pt.7]

“Aquaman.” Batman swept into the room, beelining straight for the suddenly apprehensive Atlantean king.

“Batman. What can I do for you?”

“Phantom. Does he pay taxes?”

“Pardon?”

Batman makes a low noise that had Aquaman’s danger senses buzzing.

“Does Phantom have to pay taxes. Towards Atlantis.”

“No…? Why?”

“He wanted money, in exchange for… information, of a delicate sort,” Batman said, diplomatically avoiding the topic of Phantom bargaining for the identities of corpses in exchange for a measly $100 dollars per identity. Like a flea market dealer, that one was.

“You encountered Phantom again?” Aquaman perked up.

“Yes. Gotham’s bay is… polluted.” Batman paused. “With victims. Of murder.”

The entire area quieted as heads turned towards the Dark Knight.

“Yes, I am… distantly aware of Gotham’s waters.” By that, Aquaman gets green around the gills whenever he turns his awareness in that direction. There’s a reason he doesn’t enter Gotham, and the Dark Knight’s ban is only half of that reason. “Ah, but you’re correct. For what purpose would Phantom need mortal currency?”

“Hn.”

“Maybe he needs some stuff?” Flash zipped to a stop next to Batman, feet tapping as he dug into the pile of snacks cradled in his arms. “Us mortals are always coming up with new things, maybe he wants to try some games or something?”

Batman tilted his head down, seriously considering Flash’s suggestion. “It’s plausible.”

“Barry, Barry, Barry. He’s old as hell, right? He probably wants to try the new booze!”

“Hal, my man!” Flash fist bumped Green Lantern, who came up. “You’re back! What happened to John?”

“Dunno. He got called somewhere that way,” Green Lantern waved a vague hand towards the left. “Had to deal with a politician or something from that area.” He shrugged, swinging an arm over Barry’s shoulders to put him in a headlock and stealing a chip.

“Huh. Anyways, would our mortal alcohol even work on a demi-god or something?”

“We should ask!” Hal turned towards Batman. “You should ask if he wants to go for a drink, spooky!”

“He’s a child.”

“He’s been around for more than a millennia, Bats.”

“Informational gathering, right, Hal?” Flashgot out of the headlock, quickly munching on his snacks to stop Green Lantern from stealing them.

“Totally. Yup.”

“…Fine.”

“Wait, are we just gonna ignore that Gotham’s waters are full of bodies?”

“Yes.”

——

“What?” Danny asked, mind half on the bags he’s dragging out of the water and the other half on the essay he has to submit in about four hours.

“Green Lantern wanted to invite you out for a drink.”

Danny turned to the stoic Gotham knight, who had his wrist computer out to log the bodies’ info the moment Danny gave him the information. Some of them even told Danny who murdered them, so Batman could start building cases with solid leads.

Danny’s only twenty. He’s not legal yet but he doesn’t want to give any clues to who he is. How is he supposed to…

Ah!

“Can’t.” Danny shrugged. “I’m not legal. I died when I was fourteen so…” Danny trailed off, speechless at the drowned puppy face Batman was giving him. What the fuck.

“Anyways, fork over my payment.”

Batman wordlessly hands him a wad of hundreds.

“What do you need cash for?” Batman suddenly asked.

“Huh? Isn’t it obvious?” Danny tucked it in. “Material things, obviously. I need a blanket,” because holy shit, Gotham is damn cold this time of year. “Anyways, see you same time next week, litterer.”

“I don’t litter.”

“Tell that to the batarangs I found under the water,” Danny grumbled. “But I’ll stop calling you that if you get a signature from Poison Ivy. I have a friend who loves her.”

“An alive friend?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, weatherboy?”

Danny snickered and disappeared. He’s gotta cram that essay.

——

“There’s a possibility Phantom might be homeless.”

“Batman, I mean this in the nicest way, but for the love of Atlantis, please stop giving me headaches. It’s time like these I wish I stayed a lighthouse keeper.”

[inkskinned]

hey btw if you're in the USA at  2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 4, they're testing the emergency broadcast system. your phone is probably going to make a really loud noise, even if it's on silent. there's a backup date on the 11th if they need to postpone it.

if you're not in a safe situation and have an extra phone, you should turn that phone completely off beforehand.

additionally, if you're like me, and are easily startled; i recommend treating it like a party. have a countdown or something. be surrounded by your loved ones. take the actions you personally need to take to make yourself safe.

i have already seen mockery towards any person who feels nervous about this. for the record, it completely, completely valid to have "emergency broadcast sounds" be an anxiety trigger. do not let other people make fun of you for that. emergency sounds are legitimately engineered to make us take action; those of us with high levels of anxiety and/or neurodivergence are already pre-disposed to have a Bad Time. sometimes it is best to acknowledge that the situation will be triggering for some, and to prepare for that; rather than just saying "well that's stupid, it's just a test."

"loud scary sound time" isn't like, my favorite thing, but we can at least try to prevent some additional anxiety by preparing for it. maybe get yourself a cake? noise cancelling headphones? the new hozier album? whatever helps. love u, hope you're okay. we are gonna ride it out together.

[s0fter-sin]

people are acting like we’re saying creators shouldn’t be paid for their work; they absolutely should. and watcher already is. they have a patreon, they get sponsors, their videos regularly get millions of views which gives them ad revenue, they sell merch; they are getting paid. feeling indignant and disappointed that they’re asking us to pay for content we were already getting for free isn’t entitlement, it’s expected. ​they wanted to make bigger produced shows and now their budget can’t sustain it, that’s not on the viewer to make up for

[firefox-official]

weren't you straight?

when was that. Can somebody go find that for us please

[whisperthatruns]

Onward I went through that grove of shadows, the image of the hill in my mind's eye my only guide. I hardly knew my progress in so uniform a blindness. Heavens was it hard to see in there. I was starting to feel too-alert, electric, tuned in all-the-way with the senses I had left. Come over here, boy, let me learn you something. I spun around. Walking through those woods like that, I was getting to thinking about everyone who'd ever doubted me, all the lies I'd ever been told. The dark was becoming a featureless canvas on which memory could do its bidding. Right this way, I'm in my room. For instance, there was this guy I used to know, he was my grandfather, he always used to say my problem was I'd been sabotaged. Your problem, boy, is you've been sabotaged! No one raised you right! I mean, how is that a kind of thing to say? Especially when he was the one left doing the raising. Some things are true only because you've said them, but they were lies just before.

Eskor David Johnson, Pay as You Go (McSweeney's, 2023)

[celadonlonghorn]

inkling middle school

(...plus an extra i had to draw for twitter)

[doubleddenden]

Apparently the Nijisanji situation is so bad, it's being used in REAL TIME as part of law school lessons and mock trials. Actual lawyers are pointing out that this violated several Canadian, Japanese, and possibly more countries's privacy and disclosure laws as well.

Like holy fuck. They have fucked up big time.

There's entire threads on Twitter and 4chan where lawyers are going over the specific violations Doki's lawyers could have a field day with, using Niji/Elira/Vox/Ike's "our side" video as very easy evidence to site some violation or another.

And for the third time, I'm not really into Niji and keep getting into talents right before or after they announce graduation or are reborn elsewhere, strange habit, but 1. I hate companies mistreating their employees, 2. I hate bullying, 3. This is now, honestly and truthfully, one of those literal garbage fires you can't ignore once you gaze at it. Every day so far the hole Niji keeps digging gets dug deeper and deeper-

We're watching a corporation collapse in real time and pay severely for the mistreatment of its employees. Honestly I'm invested and need to see how this shit ends. This has ramifications for the vtubing sphere and even sets precedents for how similar cases like this will be handled in the future.

Doki, I hope you can live a happy life, because I respect the shit out of you, and I hope you get a lot of money out of this that you can do wonderful things with. Thank you for surviving and being alive

[coffeenonsense]

I rarely post personal stuff on here but irl I'm a writer whose work covers tech and AI quite a bit and with the WGA strike ongoing, I really want to stress that the reason Hollywood execs and higher-ups think they can just replace writers with chatgpt or have someone come and edit AI generated text is because they already think writing is that easy.

these people look at their shows, movies, etc as marketable (re, profitable) content so all they are watching for is "okay this show performed badly" and "this movie performed well" and I can promise you in a boardroom the quality, the time and effort that went into the actual writing is NEVER discussed as a contributing factor when it comes to the difference between those two things.

That's also the reason tools like chatgpt seem like magic to these people, because they've devalued the act of creation and everything that goes into making something that resonates with its audience, so naturally something that can scrape the entire digital world and spit something out that falls in line with what you asked seems like a wizard's spell, because they ALREADY think of writing as an afterthought, something where they just go "I need a show that appeals to the 16-24 age range" and writers can just fill in the blanks and they won't have to PAY PEOPLE for that.

There's a vast difference between art and content, and if you want to see more of the former, you should be furious they're trying to replace writers with what is essentially a programmable template generator. Pay your writers.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

No time to play. You are being sent away.

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