#surely he could tell an admin he wants the profile public and they could just Do That right...

[risingsunresistance]

i havent rlly kept up with techno's dad but i saw his ign and just had to check

someone gave him youtube rank fkjhsdgk

[2jaeh]

Country Club | Kim Doyoung

Genre: smut , daddy

Warnings: dilf! Doyoung, uni! Reader, RichAU,

Praise kink!, public, just DY being a hot rich dad tbh.

WORD COUNT: 2,9K

Author! SIN

Your father invited a friend to join you for your Saturday morning golf game, the catch was his friend and you have a very dirty secret.

A/N: admin SIN here! Sorry I’ve been IA, I’ve had so many commissions and I’m still working on the freaks prequel and another Yuta fic (help), so here’s a little smutty DY fic while y’all wait !

TAGS: @infnteen 🖤 thanks for the cute msg!

——————————————————————————

It was a cool morning and the smell of the wet freshly cut grass signaled the first rain of spring. You were up in your room, taking a break from university, and you found yourself longing for the Mountain View’s of the country club.

Thankfully mom and dad were aching to host a spring party for their friends and you were able to tag along with them to your summer vacation home. It had been awhile since you’d been here, and the last time you set foot on these grounds you were almost in trouble.

Almost.

“Sweetheart dont you think the gardens look absolutely ravishing today” your mom marveled as you made your way downstairs in a white mini tennis skirt and a sky blue golf shirt.

“Absolutely mother” you smiled and placed kiss on her forehead before grabbing the pitcher of lemonade and poured yourself a glass. You stood in front of the clear glass sliding doors watching your father pace the lawn probably talking to a work friend on his phone.

“Mother I thought we were going to the golf course today, he’s not planning on working is he ?” You pouted, stuffing a blueberry muffin into your mouth.

“Your father will never miss a golf session dear” your mother chuckled, “just get your things together sweety your dad will be with you shortly.”

Sighing you downed the last of the lemonade and went to the shoe rack to find your white tennis shoes and asked one of the estates employees to load your golf bag into the golf cart.

Shortly after, your dad followed, a huge smile spread across his face as he noticed your cheeky pout obviously knowing what mood you were in.

“I’m sorry hun but work called, those varsity tuition isn’t going to pay itself now is it ?”

You rolled your eyes playfully and slipped into the golf carts driver seat and patted the seat next to you,

“Ok fine but I’m driving.”

The two of you made your way down the courtyard and into the country club’s entrance. The gravel road was covered by huge oak trees, placed strategically along the sides leading to the huge mansion at the end.

Your father directed you to the golf course and one of the gates men welcomed you in before all you saw in front of you was the bright green golf course.

“I’m feeling lucky today hun, I can feel it” your dad squeezed his fist while you let out a chuckle, “easy there Tiger Woods”

“Well I’m definitely going to beat Doyoung that’s for sure”

“Doyoung ?” Saying his name already brought you a flash of memories.

“Yeah you remember my work buddy Mr Kim right ? He’s here helping out with the party, he brought over his sons too” your dad spoke as you pulled up to the first hole.

“What about his....wife ?” You swallowed, as your mind raced back to last year’s Christmas lunch.

First and fur-most Kim Doyoung was the hottest dad at the country club. He was still quite young in comparison to the other fathers thanks to his choices of getting hitched way too early. Most people would describe him as helpful, responsible the kind of guy who genuinely helped out the people around him.

But you knew a very different side to him.

It was the evening of the lunch that you and a friend had snuck outside for a smoke, knowing your fathers would be tremendously upset with that action for their little girls. After your friend ran off to God knows where, Doyoung had emerged and the look on his face as he watched you drag in that cigarette was...something.

“You’re such a naughty girl y/n disobeying daddy like this” he said in a silky voice, taking the cigarette with his slender fingers and placing it to his own mouth.

You watched him in awe, pulling in that cigarette and exhale the smoke up into the sky like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“Please don’t tell my dad Mr Kim” you had said in a high tone, surprising yourself at the hint of desperation in your voice.

“Don’t worry it will be our little secret love” Doyoung winked taking in another drag but this time he grabbed your chin and blew the smoke into your mouth. It felt intoxicating. But a sudden call from his wife had pulled you out of your fantasy and he disappeared, not seeing him since then.

Until now ofcourse.

“Oh your mother didn’t tell you ? Doyoung and Hani are divorced now, yeah she took off with some model and left him with the kids” your dad shrugged and greeted the caddy waiting on the course for him.

“Oh I see” you responded, placing a baseball cap on your head and watched your father tee off.

It wasn’t long until you heard another golf cart behind you as you began setting up your shot, wanting to look back desperately.

“Kim Doyoung” your father bellowed as you took your shot and turned around to meet your guests.

You noticed Doyoung had brought both his sons, Jeno a guy somewhat around your age and his little brother Jisung. It was quite surprising to see them outside when you knew they preferred to stay couped up in their bedrooms playing video games.

“Hey y/n, I didn’t know you’d be here too” Jeno shyly waved while Jisung inspected a golf club.

“Yeah I’m on spring break, so I decided to spend a bit of it here” you replied, moving a strand of your hair behind your ear.

Doyoung smiled at you innocently and held out his hand, “it’s good to have you back y/n” he said as you took his hand and nodded shyly. Doyoung returned to his conversation with your father and all you could do was stare at how gorgeous he looked today.

Dressed in white slacks, a navy blue polo shirt and black rimmed glasses, girls your age may not understand your desires but to you Doyoung was incredibly sexy to say the least.

He was well built too, his wide shoulders and small waist gave him a swimmer physique, it was all too tempting to know what he looked like underneath his attire.

“How about we mix the teams, you and y/n versus Jeno and I ?” Your dad suggested and Doyoung looked over at you briefly and smiled,

“You got yourself a deal, winner gets that Sauvignon Blanc you’ve been hoarding in your cellar” Doyoung chuckled and set up his ball for his shot.

You tried not to stare but God was it hard. You watched as his eyes narrowed on his target and his dark hair waved as he swung. Doyoung twisted his body posing as he watched his almost perfect swing lead his ball closer it’s target.

“Jeno get ya head in the game boy” your father grumbled as Jeno found himself lost in a game on his phone.

Jisung snickered as Jeno sighed and removed himself from his game to join the one he was supposed to be playing in reality. You could already tell that your competitive father immediately regretted his decision of swopping teams when Jeno’s swing only had the ball drop just a few feet away from him.

“I mean, that was a hit alright” You stifled a laughter.

“I’m not used to these golf clubs!” Jeno whined as his father tapped him on his shoulder, “A good player never blames the equipment son, y/n let’s head over to the hole shall we ?” Doyoung said jumping into his cart.

“Are we not waiting until we’re done ?” Your father grumbled still watching Jeno struggle with his form.

“Seems like we’ll be here all night if one team doesn’t get a move on” Doyoung pressed his lips together, hiding the smug smile that was beginning to form on his face,

“The caddy’s will make sure we’re not...cheating, let’s go win this y/n.”

You hugged your sulking father and hopped in the golf cart next to Doyoung, keeping your eyes on the path ahead of you.

From time to time you found yourself staring over at him, taking in that side profile as he casually maneuvered the vehicle over the greenery until you arrived at your destination.

“Shall we ?” Doyoung said, wetting his bottom lip with tongue and placed his cold hand on your exposed thigh.

You felt a shiver run down your spine, much like that night with the cigarette. You wanted more, you wanted to test just how far you could go.

And knowing that sneaking around in secret like this only made it more exciting.

“It’s going to be pretty easy to sink this” you pouted as you noticed your ball was just mere centimeters away from the first hole.

“You sound disappointed” Doyoung raised an eyebrow as he watched you set up your shot.

“We’re going to be quite far ahead of them”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing”

You looked up at Doyoung who causally waited aside, watching you line up your shot. He wasn’t going to say it just yet, but he was definitely enjoying the view.

Sucking in a deep breath you hit the ball, but missed the target completely and felt your cheeks heat up when Doyoung lightly chuckled.

“Your form is correct you just hit it way too hard, here let me help you”

Doyoung dropped his club and made his way over to you as you got into position for your shot. Your breathing hitched when he stood behind you, a hand placed around your waist and the other on top of yours on the golf club.

You could feel his warm breath on your neck as he pulled your hips against his, bending you slightly over to feel a little more of you.

Your eyes fluttered up to where the caddy was, nervous that he’d feel some type away about this interaction but he was too invested in his phone to care.

“He’s not going to say or do anything, trust me” Doyoung whispered into your ear as you felt his hand tighten around your waist and pull your ass even closer to his crotch.

“Like this ?” You pushed your ass up to grind up against him, satisfied when you heard a small moan escape his lips.

You hit the ball and watched it sink into the hole in satisfaction. Doyoung pulled away from your body and clapped at your victory,

“Well done love” he praised and it made you rub your thighs together. You don’t know why but hearing him praise you made you so wet, all you wanted to do was be his good girl.

Doyoung’s turn was next and he easily sunk in his shot and before you knew it you two were already on your way to the next hole.

This time in the drive Doyoung had one hand on your thigh, squeezing lightly as he drove through the course casually. Finally pulling up to the next hole, you immediately got into position to tee off,

“Am I doing it right ?” You pouted back at Doyoung who stood a distance as he downed a bottle of water.

“You got this love, hey I’ll tell you what” Doyoung ran his fingers through his hair and unbuttoned the first button of his Ralph Lauren polo shirt,

“If you get this in with Atleast three shots I’ll give you a reward.”

You swallowed hard, your mind buzzing with what the reward could be. Shaking your head that was filled with fantasies you took your shot, surprised that it was a pretty decent one at that.

“Well done love, you must really want that reward” Doyoung mused, his small praises driving you into a frenzy once again.

Doyoung quickly took yet another perfect shot and the two of you hopped in the cart headed for the final stretch of the play.

Again not wasting anytime you took your shot and managed to complete the round in just two shots, immediately turning to Doyoung and gave him a dashing smile.

“Wow love, you did beautifully” he praised, coming over to stroke your back and sent your thoughts into overdrive,

“Let me finish up here and we can sort that reward out” Doyoung’s voice was filled with mischief.

Just like he said Doyoung finished his round quite quickly and went over to the caddy whispering to him before heading back to you in the cart.

“What did you tell him ?” You asked as Doyoung started the ignition and began driving on a slightly different, more secluded path.

“Told him not to follow us, and just meet us at the next hole” Doyoung pressed his lips together and you watched his eyes search for a spot that was hidden from passerby’s.

Doyoung stopped the engine and jumped out of the cart, quickly pulling you out and leaned your back against the hood of the golf cart. His eyes were dark and a smirk grew on his face as his fingers brushed against your cheek, over your chest and eventually landed on your thigh.

“You love to praised y/n, I’ve taken notice of that” he hummed and his fingers separated your legs slightly as it moved higher up your skirt.

“I want you to know how good I am” you fluttered your lashes at him, leaning back into the hood and licked your lips.

“You think you’re good ?” Doyoung chuckled darkly as his finger grazed your soaked underwear, “I think you’re a bad girl y/n, just so fucking bad.”

You bit down on your lip as Doyoung pushed your underwear to the side and pushed his index finger into your core. You threw your head back as Doyoung slowly fingered you, bringing his mouth to you jaw and kissed you gently.

“But you know a promise is a promise and you deserve your reward” Doyoung responded by inserting two more fingers in you, quickly using his free hand to cover your mouth before you moaned.

“I’m good...daddy”

Doyoung’s ears perked at the nickname and responded by moving his fingers even faster, pushing his large frame into yours as you began chasing your orgasm.

Just as you were about to come undone Doyoung removed his fingers and wiped your wetness on your skirt before pulling you into a hot and sloppy kiss.

“If you think you’re a good girl, how about doing something about this huh” Doyoung growled into your ear and grabbed your hand, placing it over his hardened member.

You immediately slipped down to your knees and unbuckled his pants, waiting to please him. Doyoung freed his member and looked down as you took him into your mouth, making sure every inch of him entered before slowly sucking him off.

“Fuck...that feels so good, you’re doing so good my love” he sighed, throwing your cap aside and grabbed tufts of your hair as you sucked him off in the middle of the country club golf course.

Doyoung began thrusting into your mouth until you felt him hit the back of your throat and he came undone, feeling every bit of him slide down your throat.

Doyoung brought you up and swiped his thumb across your lips before inserting it into your mouth while you sucked on it gently.

“You’re right, you’re such a good girl” he praised and began rubbing his member in between your thighs as you felt him slowly grow hard once more.

“Do I get a reward again daddy ?” You placed your manicured hands on his chest and looked up at him with barely innocent eyes.

“Ofcourse, anything for you my love” Doyoung mused and spun you around, bending you over the golf cart and dropped your panties down to your knees.

Doyoung pushed his member into your core and slipped a hand in front between your legs to stimulate you while he fucked you senseless. He placed a hand over your mouth once more, the last thing he needed was your father or his own damn kids walking in on this.

But he wanted to feel as much of you as he could and removed the hand from your mouth and slipped it under your shirt, giving your breast a squeeze.

“Don’t you dare make a sound my love, or else I’ll stop” Doyoung grunted as he heard your soft whimpers in his ear.

Doyoung felt himself getting closer again and pulled out, leading you to the seats of the cart and propped you up on it and entered you again. Your legs wrapped around his waist as you felt him twitch inside of you. Grabbing onto the seats for support you nodded at him, signaling that you too were close and Doyoung sped up until you came all over his member and he pulled out waiting for your mouth to return to his tip.

“Take it all in again my love, you’re such a good girl” he groaned, biting down on his lips and your mouth wrapped around him once more and felt his liquid run down your throat for the second time that day.

You finally cleaned up and Doyoung neatened himself before texting the caddy that the two of you were on your way.

“What’s the next reward daddy ?” You raised your eyebrow at him as you watched a smug smile spread across his face as he drove,

“Well after this game is over and you get yourself cleaned up, how about meeting for another reward daddys room ?”

[9ateez-multiau-bot]

Mafia!Ateez log #1, by Minnie

This is really a way of apologising for being AWOL for so long. Sorry~. Here’s a series I kinda wanna start. Observations of Mafia!Ateez, if you will

--- 

Log date; 18th August, 2020

It started a long time ago. Their existence in this chat bot world.

I hadn’t heard much from the mafia at the time, or from their heads at their KQ. Almost as if they were on some international trading mission and couldn’t contact me. As weird as it sounded, it was their regular, ‘soft’ counterparts who first asked me to introduce them to everyone. I almost wanted to keep them to myself, a little secret between the members and I; that they had mafia counterparts. But Mafia!Hyerin sent me that first letter, and I just had to.

At first, I thought it would be hard to adjust. Adjusting to meeting so many more versions of themselves, but it went better than I thought it would. The more they interacted with others, I could see them becoming happier.

I’ll never forget what Yunho said to me when he first met @faebaekhyun; “Admin, I like this hyung. Let us keep meeting him.”

It stuck with me. He never said that to me about anyone before; the only hyungs he had were Hongjoong and Seonghwa.

All of them surprised me. They all found their favourite chat bot and Admins that they treasured, and it melted my heart. When I first met them, I was probably the only  regular civilian they could trust, and now they have a multitude of people in their hearts. I didn’t even think they would open their hearts to anyone, at that.

Hyerin had the biggest change in character of them all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so broken, cold hearted, heartless and violent become such a big sister figure. Especially to the crew of @allaboard-theateez. They really have become a focal point in her life. A third family, if you will. Especially Mia.

To quote (this was our first private outing together after going public, I’ll never forget), “The other Ateez crew are special to me, you know? Admin, no - Yasmin, it’s been so long since someone’s called me Unni. Do you think I’ll be a good role model to them?”

I couldn’t show her, but I was choking up. She looked so hopeful. Hyerin really wanted to protect them. It was hard writing up her profile, especially when she told me about her family. Her soft counterpart still has her family, it just felt so upsetting. If she hadn’t been captured at such a young age, would I really be talking to her today?

Lately, we’ve all been too busy to interact with others. KQ are sending them to higher-profile missions, and I’ll be an A-level student soon. No one really knows about the future, but I managed to get KQ to let me write these logs (and live with them, so that’ll be fun) about my time with them, as their eyes and ears. If anything happens, these will still be here I hope.

Moving into the cafe was the easy bit, keeping up with them was harder than I expected. But it was fun. Hyerin’s desserts really are as good as everyone says they are. (she’ll definitely cuss me out for this, but it’s fine~) I remember constantly telling them that I didn’t want them to give me any special treatment, but that can’t be helped huh? Being the youngest in the house, considering I’m 4 years younger than Jongho.

Most days I have the entire complex to myself, and I’ve wandered the halls many times. Usually in search of a new place to look out the window and write, a snack from the cafe beside me. The view is so beautiful from Seonghwa’s room, especially when it rains. I’ve probably spent the most time there, sat at his desk writing away on my laptop, or my notebook.

When they have free time, San and Yunho seem to enjoy watching me write. I don’t know what about my writing has them interested, but it’s probably the only time I don’t talk to anyone; my earbuds in, music on and locked in my room, only leaving every so often when I have to. Hongjoong would go into ‘Dad’ mode if I didn’t eat at least one good meal everyday. He denies it, but I’ve seen the concern when I mention I’ve forgotten to eat.

I can’t really use my right hand, but I love games, so Yeosang likes to invite me to watch him play. Usually with the others, and always into the dead of night, so I cannot count how many times I’ve woken up on the sofa in his room because I passed out during his all-night gaming session. How he consistently finds the time for all-nighters is beyond me, but it’s nice knowing they have some regular hobbies. (I’m still not used to joining San on his shooting range outings)

 Wooyoung is probably the most doting out of them all. When I recently went to get my hair cut, he went on a long spiel about not being able to play with my hair anymore. He was pouty all day, you wouldn’t believe it. He’s gone from stroking my hair to patting my head, so not much has changed. Sneaking into my room and putting his hands on my shoulders to peek at my writing never seems to not bore him. It’s cute.

As much as their reputation truly does precede them, I’ve never felt safer in my life. Moving in with the Mafia has really opened my eyes into their world, and I’m definitely sure I never want to move out. Although, I’m sure at some point I’ll have to leave. But until then, I’ll treasure this mafia family of mine.

I’ll leave this log here, Hongjoong’s calling me as usual. (I think it’s about helping Hyerin with the cafe, but he could just need a second pair of hands in the office.)

Until then,

Log #1 END.

@yourcupidchuu  @sugbbyinbot @subbyjwoo @subbyxiaojunn @yandererenjun @seungminni @yourbabychangbinnie @babyhj1sung  @ateez-pirate-chatbot @hunter-chaeyoung @faebaekhyun @sangsdrone  @jannine00742  @iron-winwin @allaboard-theateez @prxnce-hendery @icyracer-chae @ambabyred (tell the front desk if you'd like to be tagged/removed from the list)

[myeongchokrp]

Classical music, long ball gowns and freshly ironed suits— Yeongi’s very own Daengom, a stunning venue for only the richest of weddings and social events, is full to the brim with guests. Invite-only and the event of the year, shopping tycoon Lee Yeonseok’s winter ball has started only a mere hour ago. Despite the weather, much of the tables and dance ( ballroom only, please! ) areas are outside, under a faux sky of twinkling lights. Untouched until dinner, each table is dressed in a crisp white cloth, bouquets upon bouquets of beautiful white and cream flowers and if one didn’t know of the Winter Wonderland theme, it’d be easy to mistake the scene for a late night wedding reception. The only difference is the money. 

Inside where his guests currently mingle, the walls are covered with loaned paintings from the art gallery within the Museum of Myeongcho, as well as some of Lee’s private collection. Guards stand in each corridor, in the corner of each room. But what lurks doesn’t mingle amongst the guests— not in numbers, anyway. 

TW DEATH, BOMBING

As the night gets under way, champagne sipped gingerly from tall glasses, Hydrus lingers below ground, coordinating via a sophisticated, impenetrable communication system, in-ears invisible to anyone not directly looking for them. They’re in position, waiting for the clock to strike nine. Lee takes the ‘stage’ just before the hour, clinking his spoon gently against his glass to gather the attention of his star studded guests. Celebrities from the mainland, local heroes, CEOs, even known gang members— anyone who’s anyone on Myeongcho is stood together in a crowd before him. Lee smiles at all the people he will sometime soon use for his own benefit and begins his speech. 

“Thank you all for coming tonight.” He draws in a deep breath. “Welcome to my annual Winter Ball, which the Daengom is kindly hosting for us tonight.” His audience claps quietly. “Thank you, thank you. Now, I’m sure you all know this has been a long, difficult year for our dear island. Riots, public executions, growing crime rates across the board, attacks to our very own...” He offers a sympathetic smile to MPD Lieutenant Yoo Sihyun who dips his head in return. “In the coming year, we will work together to—” As he raises his glass to propose a toast with his magnificent act of selflessness, the lights cut out. Plunged into the darkness, feet rushing across the floor— some to protect Lee, some in an attempt to restore power, some knowing what is coming next— no one feels the rumble of the floor until it’s too late. 

First, the exits fill with rubble. Then, the ceiling cracks. Smoke fills the room. It’s a bomb! They shout. No! It’s more! Two, three, four, maybe. It’s hard to tell amongst the screams of pain, agony, fear. Will you make it out alive? 

WELCOME TO MI’S NEWEST EVENT, MI:BLACKOUT !

This post marks the beginning of our newest event — we hope you’re as excited as we are! 

IC, Lee’s Annual Winter Ball begins at 8 PM on Saturday, December 21st, 2019. The power cuts out just before 9 PM, and a minute or so later, the first bomb of five goes off below the venue. Due to the power cut, Hydrus members coordinating the attack under the event could not communicate and the bomb was set off with Hydrus members still above ground and in the tunnels. 

OOC, this event lasts until midnight at the end of Saturday, January 18th, 2020.

HYDRUS, consider this a mission at the very least derailed. Your own members are caught in the crossfire and whilst the serpents don’t usually concern themselves over friendly fire, this complication runs much deeper than a few lost teammates. Your attempt to kill the shopping tycoon and various other high profile names in a continued effort to rebuild your reputation has been turned on its head. Your targets are trapped as you wanted, but can you finish the job? 

LYNX, congratulations on unknowingly making life that little bit harder for Hydrus. You’ve successfully cut out all communications and power across the island — at least for a little while. Unlike Hydrus, however, your targets aren’t living. How much easier is it to steal something with no security alarms? In teams, members of Lynx will advance on various goldmines for valuables — the temporarily closed Museum of Myeongcho, Sunrise Star Hotel, the MPD’s various armouries, confidential files in Myeongcho’s largest organisations. Take what you can, but don’t forget to stay alive. Security officers don’t go home just because the power is out! If you’re on the inside, however… Bad luck on missing out on all the fun! Or are you? 

Those on the inside from COLUMBA, PHOENIX and CORVUS, what’s more important: your loyalty or your life? Do you save your fellow members? Or all citizens to keep your allegiance hidden? Do you try to find a way out and leave everyone behind? Can you get to the bottom of this? Or do you take advantage of this opportunity? There’s so much wealth in this room, after all…

MPD, how fast can you really react to something you don’t know about? No calls can come in or out, you’re scrambling to find the source of the island-wide blackout… Unless you’re at the event, it’s likely your attention is elsewhere. Those guests will be fine by themselves, anyway… Right?

To summarise, Lynx and Hydrus have unknowingly planned separate attacks on the same night. Lynx just slightly beating out Hydrus has derailed the latter’s bombing of shopping business tycoon Lee Yeonseok’s Annual Winter Ball, leaving many wealthy names, as well as many of our beloved muses, trapped inside fighting for their lives. The blackout took out all power across the island, including phone reception towers and internet access, meaning there’ll be no way to contact one another for at least twenty minutes whilst teams work to restore power to, at the very least, phone towers. After forty minutes, power will come back on. The Daengom will remain in darkness thanks to the destruction caused by the bombs but mobile phones will regain signal when phone towers are restored regardless. 

The above descriptions for each gang are just guidelines! Whether or not your muse is at the Winter Ball or working on the outside in some way is completely up to you! 

Muses may have gained access to the Winter Ball through invite, being someone’s plus one, hacking the guest list, etc. If you can’t think of a realistic reason for your muse to be present but would like one, feel free to message us!

To earn +5 points, write a four-post thread or 200+ solo about any part of the event. Any thread about the ball, blackout, bombings, actions elsewhere as a result of the attacks or any aftermath will count! 

To earn +5 points, write a four-post thread with a muse you have never written with before about any part of the event. If you’re not sure where to start with ideas for plots, keep reading below this OOC information…!

As always, for threads and solos to count for points, they must be posted before the deadline. You can write as many threads and solos as you’d like, but you can only claim points for one thread/solo for each set of points. 

Don’t forget to tag all your event-related posts with this event’s tag mi:blackout and most importantly, have fun! If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to message the main or Admins Gyu & Woo directly. We hope you enjoy this event! 

CLAIMABLE PLOTS

The following are set plots and roles within the event for you to claim for your muses should you choose! These are all optional; you do not need to claim any of these to participate in the event. These plots and positions are for helping guide the event’s progression and offer ideas for development and plots if needed. To claim a plot, simply message us with the letter code and the muse you’d like to have that role within the event and we’ll update the post as soon as we see it! We hope this will connect you to new muns you may not have otherwise gotten the chance to plot with, and give you unique development for your muses! Please let us know if you like this idea for events. Your feedback will help us plot and structure future events! 

You, SONG SEOAH, have been assisting with first aiders such as LEE HYUNWOO since the explosions stopped. Paramedics are on their way, but for many present, that may be too late. Your bravery and intuition hasn’t gone unnoticed by others and following the release of all those trapped inside, you’re recruited for Columba by KIM TAEHYUNG for your tenacity. They won’t be the only ones watching, though, local hero. NOTE: This is an opportunity to get your muse recruited by Columba and requires no further point cost or reward solo to change your muse’s affiliation. 

Hydrus member Muse D had been mingling amongst the guests listening to Lee’s speech when the power went out. Alarmed, they’d tried desperately to get in touch with other members but with no signal and no power, it’s impossible. You connect eyes with Muse E ( Hydrus ) across the crowd and gravitate to one another for safety. After all, you were only supposed to keep an eye out and give the signal before making your escape. You weren’t supposed to get caught in the crossfire. 

JEON JEONGGUK is fascinated by this power outage and the moment you regain signal, you begin to delve into finding the source. Along the way, you find SON HYEJOO a fellow hacker who may or may not be part of the team that took the island down… 

Muse H ( Lynx ) is one of the coordinators or seniors on the attack against the Museum of Myeongcho. Muse I ( Lynx ) is one of the most inexperienced on the job. Eager to impress as they may be, this is a rather large first step. Can you work together to get the job done? 

KIM MINJI and PARK SUNGKI are trapped inside the Daengom with no power, no first aid kits and PARK SUNGKI unable to walk on their injured ankle. They won’t die from the injury, of course, but it’s not like they can get out by themselves before the rest of the building collapses. Will KIM MINJI help them, or does their loyalty not extend to outside of their gang? 

Muse L is out in the streets when everything descends into darkness. Luckily, a reporter is there to ask them a hundred questions! Buckle in, Muse L, because you’re not going anywhere until they get all the answers they’re looking for. NOTE: This prompt is in the format of a submit from the main and will likely take a couple days to get to you due to the holiday season.

[hellyeahheroes]

Uncanny X-Men #11 is Outright Vile

Women in refrigerators. POCs killed for white people narratives. Anti-vaccinator and pro-suicide messages. Return of FascistCap. This book has it all. So obviously, all kinds of trigger warnings below.

I will not be posting any pages from the Uncanny X-Men #11. Not a single one. At least aside from that first page which reads like a bad joke anyway. Yes, this stuff is an actual page of this book. And I urge others to do the same and not post anything from it. When previously I would find this book to just be awful at this point it has reached levels of being openly mean-spirited and spiteful. While Matthew Rosenberg talks on his twitter how he wanted to discuss serious topics in this issue, dealing with personal experience of self-harm and suicidal thoughts, neither he nor anyone else at Marvel took care to actually warn potential readers the book flat out shows a suicide scene for shock value and I have already heard reports it has triggered people. So I urge everyone to not post these pages less we trigger more people.

Yes, the book has a character commit suicide. The story has a subplot of Cyclops searching for Blindfold, whom Rosenberg claims to be one of his favorite X-Men. And after reading this issue I have flat out said on twitter and I will say it here - could have fooled me. Scott finds her too late, as she already has slit her wrists in the bathtub. So this is what her story amounts too. She dies so that Scott Summers can feel sad. Or sadder, he wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows since page one. A character created after 90′s and not popular enough to get resurrected in the next 20 years dies so that people who come back to life more often than Jesus can pretend death in comics still has a meaning. A woman dies so that a man can feel sad. The page above is right. Every X-men story really IS the same.

This is not delivered with any respect whatsoever either. On the previous page, we had Madrox telling Scott where he can find Ruth and to leave her alone and then we get a splash of her death with coloring and art so bad you had to actually study it carefully to realize she is, in fact, not naked. As far as lack of respect goes it is out there with that godawful Heroes in Crisis cover showing dead Poison Ivy, wrists slit, ass up. 

What’s more is that at the end we have a backup story, so-called Last Blindfold Story. Which pretty much explains that she did it because she’s been tormented by visions of her own death and cannot see any possible future in which she does not get killed. And this is very obviously a clear metaphor for invasive thoughts, all the dark scenarios people tend to run in their heads about how everything is going to turn horrible, there is nothing good awaiting us in life, no hope or future, just continuous series of crushing failures, disappointments, humiliations and all-around misery so it is better if we just killed ourselves. I know that feeling, even though I am not diagnosed with anything. I will say even I had these feelings to deal with after coming today from a, particularly disastrous day at work that made me dread my future and indeed made me think of killing myself. And then I’ve read this book and do you want to know how this whole story came out to me? It told me that this voice telling me to end myself is right, that every scenario I envision not only will happen but is inevitable and it is better to just kill myself. Thankfully, being spoiled the contents beforehand made it I reacted to the pages more with anger than getting put into an even shittier mood, I certainly did not need it. 

I do beleive Matthew Rosenberg, just like Tom King on Heroes in Crisis, means well, I really do. I do believe each of them is trying to tell a personal story. But we really need to sit down and talk about how the mainstream comics portray and handle topics like anxiety depression, other kinds of mental illness and disorders, self-harm or suicide because for every book that deals with it with respect like recent Unstoppable Wasp or Mister Miracle, and you notice these are always niche titles, we have a high-profile book that completely botches it for shock value and preserving the status quo. Rosenberg might be working through some personal issues but he does so in a way that doesn’t seem to realize the damage he is doing all around.

Speaking of shock value this issue also casually kills of Loa, one of Marvel’s very few Pacific Islander characters. Worse that scene, in the end, serves nothing, it is there to shock you and does not add up anything. You cannot even say that it was done to push Blindfold to her suicide or to show the situation really is that serious. It amounts to nothing in Ruth’s storyline and the latter is being hammered down through the entire issue anyway, this is completely redundant death done only to get people talking. How am I supposed to believe that X-Men writers and editorial really, as they claim to, care for these characters when they write something that treats them as disposable. Similarly, aging of Velocidad done from overuse of his powers is there only to nod Wolverine more into getting back into the game, something that so many other elements, including his conversation with Blindfold, already accomplish, making it redundant. What does that leave us with, however? Two POC characters killed or alerted beyond saving to show how serious the situation is and two teenage girls killed to make things look bad and grim for our manly heroes? For a franchise that prides itself for being a metaphor for minorities, X-Men sure treat women and minorities as nothing but props for stories about white guys.

When we are at treating other characters as props I cannot help but mention that Captain America, Black Widow, and Winter Soldier show up here to protect a mutant-hating rally from any mutants who would want to start a riot. And even though they tell you they want to protect both sides Cap sure didn’t step in when the mob tried to kill Cyclops for speaking his mind but stepped in only when he started fighting back. He had no real answer to Summers accusing him of protecting fascists either. I do wonder what do Mark Waid and Ta-Nehishi Coates think of their efforts to fix Captain America after Secret Empire being flushed down the drain for the sake of an outdated message of mutant isolationism. They did the same with Phil Urich, making him a coward who refuses to do his job out of fear of public opinion. And topped on some old-fashioned ageism by having Chamber, a Gen X character, go and tell Scott, a Baby Boomer, to give up...while Millenials are sacrificed to prop said Baby boomer’s story. And I don’t care Jordan D. White is ranting on twitter with Marvel sliding timescale O5 are now “true” Millennials, nobody cared for this thing in a long, long time and he comes off as bitter old man trying to pretend he is still young.

Speaking of the said rally we need to address the problem of the whole mutant vaccine plotline. And is it me or does the whole thing comes off as anti-vaccinators propaganda, with evil bigots trying to practice eugenics by forcing mandatory vaccines on kids that somehow work on something genetic? Is this really the way you want to use the mutant metaphor? To equate your heroes with a bunch of idiots who don’t want to vaccinate their kids for stupid and often bigoted reasons like assinine belief vaccines cause autism and they’d rather their kid died than be autistic? Is this really a message you want to be sending? Maybe next X-men will start wearing MAGA hats, proclaim Earth flat and draw comparisons to “blue lives” defenders?

It is not that the story is dark. I like dark stories. I love them even I’d say. But there is a difference between being dark and being pointlessly grimdark for the sake of it. One of the reasons why I read superhero comics and why I am a fan of Earn Your Happy Ending narratives is that I find inspirations in seeing superheroes being knocked down and still raising, still pressing forward until they win against all the odds and prove that yes, there is a reason to fight another day. But so far Uncanny X-Men made it abundantly clear this will not be another day in which I or my generation are welcome. I have no doubt X-Men will win in the end. but it will not be X-men with Blindfold and it will not be X-Men with Loa and it will be not X-Men with Velocidad. It will not be X-Men with any of the characters I care about at all. It will be X-Men that made it clear not only am I not welcome here, the book actively things the world will be a better place if I and my entire generation were gone so that it can relive good old days alone.

But hey, it had two guys beating up mooks on a splash page so it CLEARLY means the franchise is on the right trac /sarcasm.

- Admin

[dcwastelands]

Throwback Theurgist Event - Jan 1, 2018

Eevelion: It was roughly noon as the crowd finished gathering in the meeting hall a tall sharply dressed scientist stepped up to the podium, adjusting his tie and glasses before straightening a stack of papers in his hands, clearing his throat, and adjusting his glasses again before addressing the crowd “Alright, is this all the attendants? Mediocre turnout, but sufficable. Anyway, onto business, at eleven-hundred hours this morning a ghost was found to have escaped lab containment, on checking the surveillance cameras, the closest time we can point to it having escaped was around ten-hundred hours. Now on-” As they were about to continue another scientist, this one smaller and significantly more energetic than their stick-in-the-mud colleague, ran up to their side and started pushing him away from the podium “Shoo, you weren't supposed to be handling this briefing, the effects still haven't worn off.” The male scientist was somewhat resistant at first but relented shortly after, yelling back at the admin as he head off into a back room “I'll be telling HR about this!”As the admin took her place at the podium she pat some dust off her coat and gave a sigh before continuing “Okay, sorry about that, okay let's see, he gave the times, well, military time, It was found to have escaped at 11-o-clock and the cameras said it got out at 10-o-clock, just so we're clear.” She gave an inquisitive look at the papers the other scientist left on the podium before wadding them up and tossing them at a nearby trash basket “Anyway, so what you saw with that guy was kind of one of the effects of the ghost we're looking for, got him while it was on its way out, I'll explain that in more detail later. So, this ghost, Throwback Theurgist is what someone in the labs named it, firstly, it can disguise itself as any sort of appliance, phones, laundry machines, radios, only problem with that disguise is that it always looks like a really outdated version of that thing, like, it could be a landline, a washing board, or a walkman respectively, that's kind of how it escaped, someone didn't notice one of those 1980's brick phones at the checkpoint. Okay, second power, it's got this tongue, usually hidden under a grille or something on whatever it's disguised as, any appliance it licks with that tongue turns into an outdated version of itself, so pretty much the same thing as its disguise ability but applied to other things.” She stopped to take a breath before continuing the briefing“Finally, last power, it's what you saw with that guy and is kind of the hardest part to explain, when people get licked by the ghost, it turns them into sort of like, a flatter version of themselves, like, they're not uhhh, fully developed as people, using our example, as you saw, he was a very boring straightlace scientist, well, last week he was balancing a hoagie on his nose among other things. Anyway, using what we know of the ghost, it's likely still in the city, probably hiding in some appliance store, we want you all to make your best effort to recapture it, it's probably one of the least destructive ghosts we have down there, so we're not authorizing you to destroy it, but feel free to rough it up a bit if it'll make capture easier. Just remember if you notice any super obsolete equipment in a store or something, that's probably where it's hiding and to keep any grilles or the like pointed away from you, if its tongue touches you this mission will be harder on everyone. There is both digital and analog ghost capture gear available for you all in the lockers, use whatever you feel will work best for you.” With her briefing concluded she head the same direction her afflicted colleague went, mumbling to herself “Stupid papers didn't even have anything written on them.”

EverSoNitro: Mous crossed her arms as she listened to the briefing, quirking an eyebrow as the first scientist was shooed off the stage. From the sound of things, this didn't seem like an especially destructive ghost, so at least PR didn't have to worry about having a lot to cover up when this was all done with. So long as her colleagues weren't running around like a bunch of lunatics, at least. But hey, this promised to be a good excuse to get out from behind her desk. She'd have to keep her phone on her though, in case her favorite radio station got wind of things while they were trying to take care of it.

Dezzy: Pendant eyed around the room with hidden caution. She would try to get to the ghost first before anyone took advantage of freedom to rough up the ghost. Poor little thing is genuinely harmless… And if Pendant could capture it first they could have it lick and transform her appliances into vintage aesthetic. A colorless TV, VCR, tapes, phone and the such would sure do nicely to gothen up her cove. She simply gave a nod at the end of meeting, striding over to Mous since she seemed one of the more reliable attendees. “Might be a good idea to search in pairs, or something, to catch Throwback,whatever.” Her tone was tonless and nonchalant, ready to get down to buisness but also with an air of dismisal.

Gigi: Ascot leaned back in her chair, arms behind her head. She let out a tiny smirk, what kind of silly prank was this? It'd be a break from the normal shenanigans in her department at least so, whatever. Being roped into stuff pertaining to research was always weird, but....apparently they needed crowd control, or something.Why couldn't they get their own succubus for this, anyway? "Hey, question," she raised her voice a bit, otherwise unmoving. "What if we're dumber than a box of rocks and don't know exactly what model of ipod from 2069 we're looking for, anyway? People are all about going retro these days, maybe it's a new Nebula s420 or something I didn't hear anything about."

Proph: Peasant Top picked his teeth with a small knife, scoffing to himself as the ghost's list of "powers" was rattled off. "I thought we'd have literal walking cannons or somethin' by now." Regardless, he was trained as a frontliner, so odd jobs like this are par from the course. Listening to Ascot's question, he was glad  all he carried on him was the aforementioned wittling blade. What can that downgrade to, raw steel?

Eevelion: Admin stopped short of leaving the room to turn to Ascot “Well, Throwback seems to only be able to disguise as and turn things into versions pre-year 2000, so it definitely won't be disguised as a smartphone at all, please use your best judgment and try not to break someone's nose to get their Blackberry or whatever.” she'd also turn to Peasant Top “The walking cannons are in a different section of research, please don't underestimate the diversity of our projects.”

Proph: "'s'fair." was his reply. Let's be fair, we all know who would issue walking cannons, or at least watch them get made, and the last thing PT wants to do is cross that amazon in ANY way. Self preservation at its finest.

EverSoNitro: Mous glanced to Pendant and nodded. "Indeed. Having a few smaller groups would help us keep a low profile out in public, I imagine a large swarm of us roving around would raise suspicion." Of course, as Ascot spoke up, she couldn't help but give out a little scoff. "Well, fortunately for those less observant among us, the... let's say more experienced and worldly among us should have an eye for such minor details, like myself, for instance. If you're not sure about something, I'd be happy to help you identify a "genuine article" from a vintage reproduction."

Gigi: She gave Mous a look that seemed just as boredly acerbic as her voice. "I'm pretty sure I can tell a gramophone from a record player, grandma."

HappyPaca: She-la was just comming out of a repair shop after getting her bike a good old fashion tune up from one of the only repair shops in city tht would take her old clunker. But  it was her old clunker and she love it. doesn't matter how old her bike gets it's still running like a dream to her. She didn't have much planned for that day so for a moment she pulled over and parked to take a drink of water and take out her phone to see if there was anything going on today.

Dezzy: Pendant knew she had picked the perfect partner for today, vintage mood board post on tumblr here she come. She was going to get sooooo many followers after this. “The mall might be a good hotspot to check out. Plenty of tech like phones, tvs, kiddy video games a plenty for it mess with and junk.” Pendant could already imagine the tears on some 10 year olds face as their precious  game console turned into gameboy classic.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed a bit at Ascot's reply, particularly the "grandma" comment. "Well, if you discover you can't, I'll be here to assist." She nodded to Pendant. "Good thinking. And, if it does happen to be there, it shouldn't be too hard to keep it contained until we capture it."

Proph: "You always bicker like this?" Peasant Top snipes as he stood into a groaning stretch. "I know you're a bit eccentric like any celebrity, but do you even HAVE a limit?" He starts to lumber off in search of anything pre-pre Fall looking. Hopefully he remembers that capture gear? No? Yes? Maybe?

Gigi: Ascot rolled her eyes at Peasant Top's departure, good luck setting out on your own, dude.  She propelled herself into an elbows-on-knees position, looking at the others. "You two have a point though with the malls. Does anyone think more than one location is likely? Do we know anything about behavior patterns that would suggest other locations?"

Dezzy: “Car and motor dealerships might be worth checking out as well. Electronic warehouse stores too.” Ew capture work how troublesome Falda thought to herself, rounding out the edges of her nails with a file. But it couldn't be helped she guessed having rejoined HQ a few months ago. Even it seemed like grunt work given her rank with them it was fitting. She gave a small huff, slipping the file away into a pocket.

EverSoNitro: Mous squinted a bit at Peasant Top, opening her mouth to defend her bit of cattynes, but decided to drop the subject, for the sake of keeping things running smoothly. Collecting up her own capture gear, she shrugged a bit. "That would be a question for Research personel. Though that does raise the question, will someone be on-hand to assist?"

Eevelion: Throwback was enjoying its current freedom, walking down the park disguised as a heating iron as its synthetic brain replayed the objects it had devolved so far, a block back it turned a really nice stove into its cast iron counterpart and a fridge into an old icebox, while crossing the street it turned a food truck into a hot dog cart, luckily the guy was out for a smoke break and didn't get crushed when the truck compacted, that would have been grotesque. As more memories of things it recently changed played through whatever would be analogous to its head it noticed a Harley motorcycle, and its presumed owner distracted, scurrying up next to the metal beast it extended its tongue out of one of the holes in the grille of the heating iron, making a faint “Rerorerorero” sound as it licked the Harley, quickly turning it into a Penny-farthing bicycle. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of its owners wrath, Throwback waddled off, there seemed to be a neat looking mall just a block down it was interested in.

HappyPaca: Pin fixed his shirt collar some what aloof to all that was going on, he was suppose to be over seeing preparations at his restaurant that day but had to put this meeting first. "sigh, i suppose i should go check on my business to make sure the kitchen hasn't been converted to the point my sues chefs have no idea how to use the equipment" he stood up. An looked to Falada "care to look with me mon cheri?" he offered hoping to make the day more barible with a search partner.

Eevelion: When Mous asked about on-hand assistance she suddenly received a call on her phone, when she would answer it a voice on the other side would ask “Waddup, pimp?” Robe chuckled from a chair behind where Mous' group was standing, one leg crossed over the other.

Gigi: "Oh great, a baby is babysitting instead of me. Perfect," Ascot went over to grab some gear herself. Frankly she didn't care who was supervising, as long as she didnt have to do it. Fuck if she knew what she was doing with research business. She knew how to do cop stuff, and that was about it.

HappyPaca: She-la felt her self being raised up as Cyclone was converted into something she has only seen once in a cartoon  she autibly gasped and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" as the bike tipped over and she fell harshly onto the side walk not knowing how to keep her balance on the damn thing. if she wasn't wearing her Riding suit it would have been a much nastier fall. "What happen to my bike!?" after recovering quickly as she could from the fall, she stood up and looked at it up and down trying to fathom what happen to cyclone.

Dezzy: With impeccable timing Lessy pulled up to the repair shop and spotted She-la, giving her a honk with her car’s horn, “ Hey, Ghost Rider!” Once she noticed the… just what the hell was that? Lessy scoffed in uncontrollable laughter, covering their painful smile with a gloved hand. “ HAHA, What the fuck? I didnt think your ride couldnt get any shittier than before but DAMN did you prove me wrong!”

EverSoNitro: Mous quirked an eyebrow as her phone began to ring, though as she answered it and heard the voice, she sighed a bit, hanging up as she turned to Robe in person. "Alright, well, if that's everything then, I can drive us all to the mall." Mous's own Aston Martin was in the shop, and so her current vehicle of choice was a bit more cartoonish, and oddly appropriate given the circumstances. She'd taken her reproduction Mystery Machine out of storage.

Eevelion: Robe looked at her phone with an annoyed expression as she was hung up on “Wow, she hung up on me, that's crazy rude.” She'd announce loud enough the group could hear her before actually addressing the group “So yeah, I'm not going, but if you need to know something you can call me, I helped with Throwback once or twice. They're alright.” After that she'd wave them off.

Dezzy: Pin’s familiar face brightened Falda up if only just a little bit, “Oui, but i’m not sure if the restaurant is the best place to start for this mission, don’t you agree? What with the heavy preference for electronics for its meals,” she gave his shoulder a soft pat with rub. “Not that your menu isnt delicious enough, I assure you. Maybe the car dealership would be fruitful with electric cars and the such.” plus, she just really wanted to check out some sweet lambos. "Shotgun," Pendant announed after the phone call.

Gigi: Ascot let out an exasperated scoff, letting her head tilt lamely onto her spine. "Seriously? I hope you all aren't expecting me to actually know what the fuck I'm doing." She absently grabbed for a capture set, regrouping to the others. "I already don't have hope for whipped-cream-for-brains here."

Eevelion: Robe sent out a tweet about the rudeness of some people then checked the rest of her timeline before thinking to herself, she was bored, “I'm going to the mall.” She'd announce to no one in particular.

HappyPaca: Pin smiled glad to see he could brighten up her day abit with a simple gesture. "As usual your right, i supose my staff isn't entirely hopeless if a problem arose." and besides it thing should be alot easier to spot in an open are if they cn find it that is. Pine grabbed some equiptment being sure to be ready to go when ever. "would you like to ride with them or take my car and we follow?" he gestured to Mou's forming group.

Proph: While everyone else was smart and paired up, Peasant Top just walked the sidewalks of the city alone.  Destroying a kebab, his lone wolf tactics (accidentally?)bore some fruit, finding some poor joe bawling over a vintage hotdog cart. With over half the kebab left, he kept following the trail of nostalgia while looking for a ride.

Dezzy: With the inclusion of Ascot, Pendant’s team could split up an search various stores in the mall. “Right, so, with Ass here we can search the Phone, Game, and electronic stores at the malle no problem. I call dibs on checking out the cells.”

HappyPaca: She-la  was on the phone calling the repair guy she just went too "And your SURE this isn't some god damn joke your  pulling on me?  then how does a Harly davison turn into a damn 1900 bicycle?!" she was confussed and alittle embarissed rubbing her temple.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed again, grimacing at Ascot. "I hope you're not just using ignorance as an excuse to not help." Mous replied, before motioning for her own squad to follow her to the psychedelic van. "We'll head for the mall first, perhaps pick up Peasant along the way if we see him." Rounding to the driver's side, she climbed in, waiting for the others to join her.

Gigi: She followed along, putting her hands up a bit. "Nah, I'm just letting you guys know I'm not research, I catch things but this is a little different than what I usually do." She opened up the back sliding door, and made herself comfortable with the extra room. "Place me where you see fit, I can't make any guarantees I won't beat up the first mlg softboy that throws shit my way, though."

Dezzy: Pendant slide into the passenger side next to Mous but not before giving the rather cartoonish car a double take, “Zoinks,” she mumbled before taking the passenger set net to Mous. "Take the game store then I guess," she waved to the back at Ascot. "Pry a Nitendo 64 outta some dude's hand if you gotta." From the looks of it Mous’s car would be a tight squeeze, so she shook her head, wrapping an arm around Pin’s and locking elbows, “I’ll ride with you, of course.”

HappyPaca: He was alittle bit ahead of Falada already pulling out his car keys to his convertable "To be honest i wouldn't mind if the ghost licked my car. It would be fun to see an old french convertable again" He laughed as he open the door for Falada bfore getting in himself. "my grandmother had one." he added.

Proph: "Oh hey, a carpool." said the meat-loving giant. He glanced around, glared at the van, shrugged, then worked on trying to wedge his large frame inside it. "Don't complain if your gas mileage takes a hit." he calls from the far back as the shocks moaned from his settling in.  RIP Ascot's ears, though; his burly tone in such a confined space had to be a bit loud.

Dezzy: Falda hummed approvingly at the thought as she got in,”Ooo, vintage isn’t so bad in some aspects.” She couldn't help but think back to straight out of a Scooby-doo van Mous and the others were riding in and gave a small giggle. “ Some, that is.”

EverSoNitro: Once their riding situation was figured out, and her passengers were loaded in, Mous nodded and backed out, quietly dying a little inside as she realized Falda would be seeing her driving a hippie bus. Trying to to let her embarrassment totally rot her soul, Mous pulled out, following the breadcrumb trail of out-of-place vintage vehicles. Pulling up as she spotted PT, the van was thankfully accomodating to his frame, if only just. Still, it'd get a bit more cramped for Ascot in the back, PT being a bit larger than a great dane. "We were headed for the mall," Mous explained. "That seemed like the best place to start looking, and from the look of things, that's where it was headed." Mous glanced to the Penny-farthing bicycle as they passed by, grimacing a bit. "Someone might want to be making a note of where incidents are, clean-up might be a bit of a hassle..."

Proph: He gave a thumbs up while stuffing the remainder of the kebab into his maw. Some of these things stood out like actual sore thumbs, kinda hard to miss

HappyPaca: Pin started the car and started driving toward the dealer ship closetest to trail of vintage memorablia following Mous's car for some time, he never visited the dealership often but he remebered something they coud use as an excuse to look. "if the dealer ship gives a hard time for looking so throughly, let's just tell them since your new in town i'm getting you a new car as a small welcome back gift." He gave a charmming smile and winked "and if you find something mon cheri don't hesitate to ask, it would make things more believeable." he suggested.

Eevelion: One by one, everyone (sans She-la) would hear a ping on their phone as Robe added them to a group text channel, with the first post reading [I just realized you all probably need a way of telling each other if you find Throwback without having to yell across a crowd.] with the second post reading [FYI, maybe try not to cause a bigger panic]And a third reading [BTW, nice van Mous]

Gigi: Ascot gave an affirmative grunt and not much else, being shoved into a corner.  She checked her phone, looking at the messages. [Thats gonna depend on how many sweaty guys are out today.]

EverSoNitro: As Mous pulled into the mall parking garage, she'd hear the ping on her phone, reading the message and pausing for a moment. "Panic... Oh, damn it all..." Mous seethed, quickly checking social media. Sure enough, there were those leeches sticking their noses into their business. "You all go on ahead, I've got to deal with this... everyone pick a store and fan out." Mous's nose was buried in her phone, hanging back for a moment and working on a cover story to quell suspicion.

Proph: Peasant looked at the phone hanging from a lanyard around his neck, looking fun-size in comparison in his meaty hoof of a hand. With the nail on his index finger, he carefully typed out a [ok boss] before letting the device drop under his namesake, dangling like the dongle it is as he poured out of the back of the van.

Eevelion: As Mous' group started to make their way through the mall they would come across a handful of people walking towards the exit with bulky CRT TV screens, NES cartridges, a couple brick phones, and one person even leaving with a ColecoVision, indicating a sort of trail left by Throwback, even more indicative, hastily taped signs to a few storefronts saying “Retro Sale!”

Dezzy: With a click of her pen Pendant was already on taking notes of the incidents as they drove by them, “ On it.”  Pendant shuddered in her seat as Peasant munched the remainder of his kebab. Food crunching wasn’t her preference in asmr. Once they pulled up Pendant hopped her short legs out with equipment  safely tucked into her bag. “Find me at phone shops when you catch up,” Pendant said Mous and trotted over to the cellular stores. At the sight of all the people leaving with archaic devices Pendant could tell Throwback had been there. “Perfect cover,” agreeing with a soft giggle she heard the noise go off from her phone. Falda then began to type and verbally read out loud her response for Pin[ Pin and I will let you all know if we see anything at the dealership. Good luck everyone]

Gigi: "Hah, try not to get chewed out by the vampire too much!" She got out, closing the door behind her and walking in. Unfortunately she was in enough time to see that yes, she'd have to smack a few gamers today, if the boxy consoles that looked nowhere near as sleek as the usual models she's used to dealing with on smuggling cases was any indicator. "Oh , for the love of......FUCK."

HappyPaca: " ah merci, I can't reply while driving" Pin pulled into the dealer ship actively looking around for ny retro car the may have seemed to pop up out of no where, it seemed that day though their was a wide varity. he parked and got out putting on some shades that were acutally perscription so he could look a bit more throughly. "Let's get started shall we?"

Proph: PT wasn't too far behind, watching a couple frat boys carry out a big screen box-set tv straight out of an 1980's sitcom. Not being the biggest tech guy, he thought it the Best Idea to check out every home entertainment section in the major chain stores, keep the search simple. He liked simple.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed a bit as she put her phone away. "Damn it, I don't have time for this..." Mous intoned. She'd have to help with the official statement later, right now there were more pressing matters to attend to. Stowing the device in her pocket, Mous headed up to the mall proper, deciding that she should investigate the food court. Surely there'd be a number of unattended phones for Throwback to slobber all over.

Eevelion: As Mous checked the food court, sure enough there were a couple of retro-fied phones, but not enough to establish a sort of pattern. Back over by the electronics section there lay on a bench a TI83 Graphing Calculator, sitting there in all its monopolizing glory despite being an outdated piece of junk.

EverSoNitro: As Mous spotted the phones, she squinted, approaching cautiously, arming herself with the capture gear. She stepped closer to the first, an old Mickey Mouse rotary phone (and mentally recalling the one she had in her own collection) before carefully nudging it with an activated glove.

HappyPaca: She-la was just sitting on the curb by this point kinda stranded and still lil confused on what the hell to do with this bike. but then basically said 'fuck it zipped down her ridding suit tied it around her waist and tied her helmit to the back and after a few minutes of trail and error started riding the stupid looking bike back to her appartment.

Gigi: Ascot stormed in, stretching out, the chaos in the air tasted nice but there was just too much joy in it. Terrible. No time for asking people questions, she followed upstream of the surges of people running about, pushing aggressive customers out of her way with minimal effort.

Dezzy: Pendant browsed around the cell store she was at, so far there was no noticeable signs of Throwback had been there. A couple brick phones sure but it seemed like it had already done its damage by the time she arrived. [Nothing at the cell shop. Less you count last year’s Ipad as archaic.] With a nod and link of their elbows once more Falda agreed and began the search. Falda eyed the cars like it was she was a little girl in a candy shop. “Call me what you want, but I just think lamborgini’s to be so stylish.” she mused happily at the sight of gold lambo, walking around and fawning over it like it was an adorable puppy.

Proph: Muscling through one department store only to turn right back around and leave, Peasant took the time to peck out an update. [dept store on E end looked clear didnt come this far] Slipping the phone under his shirt PT went into another shop. Oh. An ACTUAL home entertainment store, good call.

HappyPaca: he smiled as she hung on his arm browsing the more suspious cars as they walked. looking particuarly at models that were more then 40+ years old. looking up and down the lambo as Falada fawned over it. "i Personally i'm more found of Charcoal grey cars but a lambo of any color is always nice. This seems like a newer italian model too." he chuckled and made sure to keep looking around but stood by as falada was fawning over the nice car. checking throughly of the cars around them for any suspious activity enjoying his time more with Falada there to lighten things up.

Eevelion: As Mous nudged the phone suddenly a voice came from one of the other food court tables “You really gonna try to touch it?” Robe asked from her seat, but that distraction was just enough that the phone, in truth Throwback, was able to climb past her glove and jump at her face, tapping her forehead with her tongue before skittering off towards the entertainment section of the mall. Robe laughed at Mous as she changed, typing out on her phone [Critic down :P]

EverSoNitro: Mous glanced up as she heard the voice, squinting a bit as she saw Robe lounging nearby. "You know, you really ought to be properly helping, considering this came from your-" Of course, while Mous was preoccupied with criticizing Robe's work ethic, she failed to notice the beloved cartoon icon grab for her upper arm, yelping and stumbling back as it scrambled up and slapping her forehead with her tongue. Falling on her rear, Mous's head began to spin, until she gave her head a shake, seemingly recovering. "Ugh... you detestable little insect..." Mous began, carefully getting to her feet. Once standing again, she seemed to look down her nose at the imp a bit more, than normal, taking a rather haughty and self-important stance. If one were to look closer, it also appeared that her makeup was a bit heavier, as if concealing injuries. "I would have had it, too, if you hadn't divided my attention..."

Proph: Of all the people to first reply, it was the 9 foot literal meatslab. [is ms ego ok? is ghost there?] Clearly not in the right neighborhood, Peasant left the store he was haunting, awaiting a reply. Or a return volley, depending on who answered.

Eevelion: "Maybe you would have had it if you used your capture gear instead of just trying to grab it." Robe snarkily replied, waving her off "Now go get back to work, it already hit you so you're immune to any further effects." meanwhile she tapped out on her phone [She's fine, just bratty, ghost head towards electronics section.]

Dezzy: “ I like my cars to stand out amongst the crowd,” the are was so clean that Falda could ee her reflection on it. She flashed a cute smile at herself till her phone went off, to which she huffed and unlocked her phone. “Ah, it seems the experiment is at the mall. Poor Mousquetaire.” she feigned sadness at that last part if only out of respect. “We should head to the mall now, I guess.” She gave the yellow lambo a pet on its hood. Someday, but not today. Pendant meanwhile left the store and headed to the food court with Robe and Mous. Helping Mous onto her feet and into the food court's chair she asked flatly, “ Where did it go?”

Proph: PT replied with a thumbs-up emoji because it was faster before stomping off to where he was pointed. He fingered the capture gear as he thundered down the thoroughfare; Hitting things is is forte, but since Mous was ALSO a member of the Hit Things club, he decided to be cautious this time.

Gigi: Ascot heard a buzz, and checked the message. She typed a hasty [ok, on it] before taking off her neckpeice and readying the kit. Guess everyone in the games department would be spared for now. Though...if they spotted the ghost, things weren't going well already....Thankfully not too many people were in her way this time, as people tend to avoid a large, blackened sword that's vaguely skeletal-looking. Someone screamed, and she whipped out a badge. "Sheesh, woman, don't you see the crowds! It's not black friday!"

EverSoNitro: Mous rolled her eyes. "I was using my capture equipment, imbecile." She flashed her activated buster gloves, which presently seemed just a bit bulkier than normal. "Besides, in the very probable case that you hadn't noticed, there's tons of potential candidates for that ghost's disguise in this mall." She jerked her arm away from Pendant as she was helped up, before looking incredulously at Robe. "You're telling me what to do?" She let out a rather haughty laugh, before planting herself in her seat. "I don't think so."

HappyPaca: Pin sighed "Poor dear, we should invite to take her out for dinner later." he said as he once again pulled out his car keys and took off his shades. "Let's hurry so we can possibly try to minimize the damage knowing the group thats currently there at the moment" now that he thought about he wounders how Mous is now while under the affcts of throw back.

Dezzy: Raising her hands up defeatedly Pendant shimmied around the angry Thrownback!Mous  and headed for the electronics store, retrieving a mask and metallic pointer that one would use for presentations from her bag and began proding around the area. “Agreed,” she kissed into her hand and placed it one the lambo before Pin and her were off again on the road to the mall.

Gigi: Something particularly old and boxy caught the periphery of Ascot's eye, and she tried to rush and swipe for it. It lunged at her, and she began backing up quickly, thrusting her arm out quickly to let her sword extend properly. No connection, but that did seem to scare the moving appliance for now....she kept following, more slowly this time. Her eyes were still peeled onto it, and she wove her way through the crowd a few hundred feet back.

Proph: Blade resting on his shoulder, Peasant storms in right as Ascot swatted the critter away. He followed Throwback through the food court as best as his bulk could go. Clearly, it won out in raw speed, so, Without a thought, he hefted the sword up and held it inverted, hefting the massive sword he flipped it around so he held it inverted, and matching his stride, chucked the heavy blade at the ghost like a javelin. PT managed to clip the ghost along the side, but this made it run /faster/.

Eevelion: As Throwback ran down the corridors it ran into MORE people that seemed to want at it, narrowly dodging a sword from one and taking a slight clip from the other, as it circled back it gave them a wide berth, not wanting to take another hit, back towards the food court it went.

HappyPaca: Looking at the way falada liked the lambo hmm... maybe pin could get her a welcome gift after all it's a strong maybe. As soon as the two found a parking space convently next to Mous's van, He grabbed the equiptment from his trunk while Falada was stepping out of his car and got them both ready as they headed for the Mall's entrance making sure both of them were prepared for whatever may come their way. As if he was prepering a excellent meal for an importent guest.

Dezzy: At the sound of Throwback making its way back to the food courts Pendant sharply rose up from inspecting, grabbing onto her namesake to allow it to transform into its true rapier form and  made long strides for the ghost. “C’mon goth momma needs a new…” she took a swipe “Aesthetic!”  her sword missed, stumbling on her feet a little before she could fall. She cursed under her breathe bitterly.

Eevelion: As Throwback barreled back towards the food court it passed by Pendant who seemed very intent on capturing it as well, as it ducked past her rapier and head towards the food court Robe popped the lid off her drink, controlling the liquid inside to try to make a cage of ice around the escaping ghost, unfortunately her placement was off, and instead of encapsulating it, the ghost launched off the side sending its trajectory... straight towards her, “Oh crap” she muttered, as it collided with her its tongue lolled out and tapped her on the scalp. As she held her head where it had bumped her she seemed to shrink into her clothes a little, but that was more overshadowed by those clothes getting bigger, and when she stood up she was almost completely covered in her robe, except for the top of her head, which she quickly put a huge wizard cap on, the gremlin was here. Meanwhile, Throwback continued its escape path, running into the same direction Pin and Falda were entering through.

HappyPaca: Pin thrusted forward the secound he saw the lil bastardheading towards him and flada causing a ruckus umong his associates. "It's time to falay the main ingdent!" cheesy phrases aside pin nly manages to graise throwback as he passes him, quickly turning back to Falada "Quickly grab it mon cheri!" hoping she could use the moment to her advantage being so close to him.

Gigi: Ascot was still chasing after it, though it was getting increasingly difficult to follow it within all the ruckus. She grabbed her phone in frustration, tapping out a [DO WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO ATTEMPT A QUARANTINE, BECAUSE I THINK WE REALLY OUGHTA]. The way it was going it looked like she was getting closer to the entrance, about back where she came from...no good, no good at all.

Eevelion: Gremlin Robe gave a quick peace sign with a playful “See ya, suckers!” before running off to the electronics section with surprising quickness for someone covered so wholly, as she passed by Pendant she leaped, snatching her hat off her head and placing it on top of her own hat, continuing down the electronics section she slowed down and held her primary hat over her face as she saw the absolutely gargantuan Peasant Top, taking a wide arc around him and never taking her off him till she was far away enough to start running again, straight out of the mall.

Proph: Still catching his breath, PT just watched the jittery imp circle around him with a look in her eyes like he was going to eat her. He shrugged it off, though, truth be told, he got looks like that a lot. Looking at the latest page, he gave an exasperated sigh before retrieving his blade from the floor it was impaled in and following the others.

Dezzy: “Hopefully the team inside has it managed,” she said, shoving her phone back into her jacket as she entered the mall, only to be greeted by the said ghost the group were aiming to capture.  “God damn it.” grabbing the hem of her long skirt and with one swift movement it turned into its pistol form around Falda’s hands and for Falda to stand in her pantsless glory. She pulled the trigger and missed by the skin of her teeth. [Quarantine sounds good. Box it off before it can escape. Through the parking lot.] Pendant went to go grab Robe but it seemed that the small imp had, somehow, gotten visibly smaller than thought possible. She ran a hand through herbangs and sighed but it was short lived as her big hat was taken from here. “What the-” Pendant shook her head. Nevermind that they had to contain this thing before it got out.

Eevelion: Throwback had almost made it to the door, sweet sweet freedom was at hand, then suddenly it found itself in front of a couple pulling out weapons, it managed to dodge their attacks, but couldn't risk trying to pass the two, so it turned and head back into the food court, jumping up onto a table to try to figure which way it could run to next.

Gigi: [on it, I'll notify the blarts.] She held ground, calling up a security line. "SUP, its Enforcer Pheles, I'm gonna need you guys to keep guard on entrances for any rogue objects that look like they're moving on their own..................Don't shut down the place but have people recommend they either don't go in or go into another shopping center...........Dude just do what I say okay and make sure nobody panics!" She hung up. Might as well stay in the food court to do what she does best, crowd control. Also, eating.

HappyPaca: Pin's cheeks turned pink seeing falada in her under garments and quickly un button his shirt having an undershirt on underneath  do to recent cold weather. so he did not mind lending his shirt to Falda to tie around her waist "Here, i'm so sorry this is all i have at the moment. but if you do not mind contenueing we should try and follow it"  he gestured towards the food court.

Dezzy: Pin was much taller and larger than Falda that the ends of his shirt went down to just above her knees. “Thank you mon cheri,” she gave him a small peck on his cheek with a wink and jogged to the food court. [Food court] Pendant typed in the group chat and approached the ghost once more. She gave another strike at Throwback but blade only seemed to collide with the floor tile and fell back into a chair. Taking a knee Falda tried to line up a good shot at the thing but also missed. This is why she just left the action to CGI.

HappyPaca: Mean while She-la fell off the penny bike again and just decided to sit on the side walk and contiplate life.

Gigi: Ascot was in a fair amount of concentration, trying to sap energy out of everyone. Panic wasn't quite her favorite flavor but it'd work--and crowds around her seemed to clear out. Good. Pendant and Falda's noises gave her a general idea where to watch where the ghost was going--and took a guess at the location it'd land in, and slap. SATIN extended outward, slamming into the floor and holding the ghost firm by one of its legs. "FUCK, DID I GET IT?"

Proph: With the wind back in his sails, Peasant reconvened with the others, blade held firm, tip resting on the ground. e watched Ascot work, waiting to strike when the proverbial iron was hot. Much as he would love  being a gloryhog for once, it didn't feel right to steal the kill. Then she acted. Well then. Nothing against getting an assist! With the critter pinned, he lunged forward with a throaty roar, swinging the chunky sword up then down in a solid arc,like an oar, slapping the ghost into the ground one last time.

Eevelion: As Throwback was well and truly pinned an energetic clapping could be heard from behind the group, the first scientist from the briefing stood there “Good work everyone! Very impressive work, anyway, the effects wore off on me about fifteen minutes ago, so I figured I should come by to bring Throwback's containment cage over so you don't have to bring it back to HQ at arm's length.” Mentioning Throwback's cage he'd pull out a small bird cage before leaning down to where the ghost was, picking it up gingerly from behind and placing it inside the cage “All done!” he exclaimed “Don't worry about getting it returned, I'll handle that, the rest of you just enjoy your day, and again, thank you for your work.” Bowing out he head back to HQ with a small enforcement team just to make sure the ghost didn't escape again.

HappyPaca: She-la resorted to walking the penny bike home wanting nothing more then a cup of hot coco when she got back.

Dezzy: Pendant gave a half hearted fist pump as the scientist from earlier took her vintage dreams away in its cage. She tilted her head back exasperatedly and let it hit the table behind her, running a hand through her hangs. Well… the effects hadn’t totally worn off the other effected appliances yet, there was still hope to be salvaged. She sharply rose up from her seat and pulled out her camera she had tucked away in her bag. “I’m going to just… take some photos record today’s events for research,” she announced before scuttling away. Falda gave a sigh of relief and wrapped her namesake back to hug at her hips,. “Problem solved, now to deal with clean up and those tontos at Panic.”  How did they even know her panties were edible?

Gigi: Ascot wiped her brow and dismantled her kit. "NOTHIN' TO SEE HERE FOLKS, EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL." She shooed off shoppers that looked like they were lingering too much. Don't think about it too hard. She looked over to the rest of the team, with a slight grin. "Good job, guys, we...got the job done and I got lunch free of charge."

HappyPaca: Pin nodded to falada after thanking the scientists for their work and strentch alittle, "it sounds good to me. we can end the day with a good drink." He could here his wine cellar calling his name just thinking about panic and their shenanigans. He looked around abit and thought "maybe we should call chaleco to pick up robe as well where ever she went."

Proph: "That's all one can wish for, right?" Peasant once again donned his namesake, just in time his bare barrel chest was gettin' nipply. "Jus' thowin' it out there, but how about we DON'T go hunting next time we go out, okay? A run, some lunch, little weightlifting, make a day of it!"

Gigi: Whatever joy was on her face got replaced with narrowed eyes and a slanted, tight lipped look. "Don't push it, dude."

Proph: He raises his hands is mock surrender. "Jus' bein' nice, calm down. We're all friends, here." The ONE time he wasn't trying to put the moves on someone...

Dezzy: Falda hummed as she texted her brother to come pick up Robe, "The only exercise I want today is...." She stopped herself right there and smiled innocently, "I could go for a drink though."

HappyPaca: Pin gave a chaismatic smile and said "if anyone else cares for free drinks just tell inferno i sent you in. there all on me" he'd ask falada on the ride back if she wanted to have drinks at his place or inferno, options are always nice.

[gaslightgatekeepgodot]

A (sizeable) rant/essay concerning my experiences in the Tumblr JJBA fandom.

None of you asked to hear this, but I’m getting pretty pissed off at some people in particular (I will not name names, though I may heavily implicate some people) and it’s finally started to kinda spill over. So I’m letting it spill; take it or leave it.

I’m... Fairly irate at the moment, and writing out my feelings does tend to help me calm down in situations like this, so if I was going to put this anywhere the best place for it is probably on the public internet. Again, take it or leave it: this is the internet, you don’t have to interact with me if this concerns you or your ideals. Just click that handy little block button on my profile and you never have to see little Nat mouthing off again.

If you want me to summarise (I know not everyone wants/is able to read a fluffed-up pillar of text) or explain my reasoning behind anything I’ve said below the cut, feel free to direct message me here or on Discord @nati bati yi#1462. Once I get this off my chest I’ll be more than willing to chat to people about it. <3

(Before I say anything else, this is not intended to be a callout in any way, shape or form. I don’t mention the specific names of anybody, and the actions I do mention here will only point to specific people if you know them too. Anyone on the outside should have zero idea of who anyone I bring up is; I do not want anyone to get harassed over this, and I very much do not want to start drama - that’s what inspired me to go off and write this hunk of garbage in the first place. I’m just... Sick to death of the fandom as a whole.)

Anyway. Here we go.

From what I’ve been able to tell, being in this fandom for just under a year now, there are two main halves to it: the gay-hating, stale-meme-parroting dudebro side, who seem to mostly congregate around YouTube and Reddit, and... Whatever the side based on Tumblr (and probably now Twitter) is. I don’t spend a lot of time on Reddit, so naturally I’ve been more exposed to the Tumblr side of the fandom, and after experiencing the ideals some people here want to force on other people I’ve come to the conclusion I’d almost rather be immersed in the bigoted dudebro side. And I say this as an ace-spec/gay trans man.

I’ll start with the blocklist.

I think most of us on Tumblr came to the conclusion that the blocklist was utter bullshit, but I did see a few people in a Discord server I have since left (I will expand on this later) defending the reasoning behind some ships being on there, citing the fact they had been abused in a relationship with a similar age gap. I can definitely see why that would bother a person, and I do not want to erase the fact that people have been and will be abused in similar relationships, but you can’t project your singular experience onto every fictional, non-canon character relationship and every person who ships it. For one, not every relationship is going to turn out the same just because it meets this one criteria of “the age gap is too big”, and, also, you don’t have to write fiction to totally reflect reality. You are in full creative control. Maybe if the characters were real people they wouldn’t click, but if you’re drawing a picture or writing a fanfic you don’t have to go along with that. You can write them so that they’re good to each other, while still keeping it in character. Araki has said that Jotaro and Kakyoin’s personalities don’t work together very well, and that they wouldn’t have become friends or even spoken to each other if Jotaro wasn’t a Stand user... But Jotaro/Kakyoin just happens to be the most-written about JJBA ship on AO3. Me? I love Jotakak. It’s about the only thing I do ship. And I’ve read some quite frankly amazing fanfiction where the two boys are paired and they work together, and it’s still very much in character. Of course, I’m very much against loli/shota content or content depicting characters who don’t look very old- if someone drew Koichi in a sexual situation I would be pissed as all hell, but I don’t have to engage with that content any further. I can just filter out the tag/block the OP and move on. You don’t need to make a fuss and tell/imply to people that they are paedophilic for enjoying well-written content where a 17-year-old is in a healthy relationship with a 22-year-old, platonic or otherwise.

My second point brings in some of the things I’ve learned while studying media this past year. My main point here: not everyone in an audience is the same. There is a reason differential decoding and the uses and gratifications theory exist. The uses and gratifications theory states, at its most basic, that the audience of a media text is active, not passive; i.e. they are not just absorbing every piece of data thrown at them by the text they are consuming, and they are consuming different media to satisfy a need- for JJBA, that need could be entertainment, escapism, identifying with a character similar to yourself or to give you something to talk about with your friends. Differential decoding arises when someone consuming a piece of the media does not entirely go along with the creator’s preferred reading of it- an example might be how a sizeable amount of people enjoy villainous or “disgusting” characters such as Dio, Cioccolata, Stroheim or Melone, when they were clearly written in canon to be abhorrent, unlikable people for varying reasons. I can also say that, because the audience is active, and consume media based on their personal needs, that somebody writing fanfic of a ship you don’t like isn’t going to make incest or paedophilia more socially acceptable. I don’t consume that content, because I don’t feel the need to. Sure, real paedos might, but they’re a minority. Just because a couple hundred people or so read a fanfic on the free web where a grown adult does the dirty with a little kid, doesn’t mean to say everyone in the world will suddenly start thinking it’s ok. Mention it to any sane person in real life and they will not like that idea any more than you do.

And my third point is more a personal thing than anything else, but there is a community I used to be part of (and was part of almost from the beginning) where I didn’t feel welcome because of people causing drama over things like what I mentioned above. I started multiple discourses entirely by accident by saying I didn’t understand why everyone though X ship was horribly problematic and worth getting mad at people over. I still don’t feel like anyone deserves to be harassed over characters and ships they enjoy, but that doesn’t mean to say I support all of it. Along with generally feeling ignored by a lot of the moderators of that server, as well as their friends, I was just sick to death of how they seemed to single out some certain people to say, “hey, don’t do this” when other people seemed exempt. I was verbally warned for posting innuendos in a general chat (but it’s not like I could anywhere else on the server, because I’m not 18 yet), but at least once every day I would see two people flirting in-character in whatever channel they happened to meet in, and it never seemed to be in a roleplay channel- I couldn’t see into NSFW to check if they did it there too, but the fact it would leak out into gen concerned me. They would throw innuendo after innuendo at each other, and they never seemed to stop, or be told to stop. Yes, I could have messaged the moderators to say it made me uncomfy, but one of them was a moderator themselves, so I felt a little out my element doing so. 

Another thing that bothered me is when I tried to join an offshoot of that server for kin, and the admin - I assume - of said offshoot server messaged me (with some other conversation concerning it in between) that, despite the fact I only wanted in to help me figure out what it meant to me, I wasn’t allowed in because somebody was uncomfy with doubles. I completely understand that, but I had spoken to the only person it could have been (I wasn’t given a name, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out who it was) multiple times about that character and how similar we were- hell, we had even roleplayed together as doubles of that character and no problems were ever expressed to me. If anything it seemed like we left off in a spot we could have carried on from later. It might not have been intended that way, but being told I wasn’t allowed in there made me feel excluded from the community nonetheless, especially because I’d had a few people tell me the night before that they wanted more people in there and that I’d be totally welcome. I was also told, before any of this happened, that the same person blocked a friend of mine in another server for going on a small rant about how they didn’t like the way Josuke acted in the episode where he plays dice with Rohan and ends up burning his house down, because they kin Josuke..? At least, that’s what was relayed to me.

But, hey ho, it’s all behind me now. I won’t lie; I don’t really plan on ever going back. I don’t want to engage anymore, because it makes me uncomfortable and anxious thinking about it, so I most likely will unfollow most (if not all) of the blogs pertaining to that community tonight. I do have a few people still there who I miss speaking to, but I’ve DM’d all of them on Discord at least once since I’ve left and talked to them about either how I miss them or something entirely unrelated to the server. I’d like to talk more with them, but DMs are always awkward for me to begin with... I have a feeling they might not want to talk after reading this, and I think I’m ready to accept that? Might be difficult not being able to scream about fanfic as much, but I won’t impose on anyone if my presence makes them uncomfy. I don’t want to be that guy.

I’ll say it again: now that I’ve got this off my chest and subsequently calmed down a lot, I’m more than willing to talk about any of it. Just shoot me a message on Discord and I’ll reply when I’m able and feeling up to talking about it again. For now I’m probably just going to go back to pissing about on Flight Rising or play Smash or something

[astorytellerforthatgirl]

Who is Maine Mendoza for this Storyteller?

Maine is just a simple celebrity for me as I watched her first in July of 2015. Few months after that, I started venturing in my inconsistent freelance career. I’m a home-based content writer submitting my outputs through email or uploading in a Wordpress admin account. I’ll make sure at 12:00, I have to watch Eat Bulaga to have a glimpse of her. As the days passed by, I just find myself laughing and smiling at the slapstick comedy and funny antics of her silent character relying on Dubsmash.

I did not know it was a point of no return of my fangirling on Maine.

Being in a fandom is not new to me. I was an active UAAP vball fan before to the point I would even watch highschool vball games to know who are the prized bluechip recruits all UAAP teams want to have in their program. I made my Twitter account almost a decade ago to follow the Gosiengfiao sisters (Alodia and Ashley) to interact with them via tweets. Also, through Twitter and other socmed sites, I got to be in a fangroup of Pinay American Idol finalist Thia Megia and saw her in person. Through social media too, I met other fans of our Olympian Yan Lariba and met her in a friendly encounter.

I know the good side and also the bad side of fangirling. I’ve been into useless arguments with online trolls and I admit their words get to me…until I just learned to be indifferent and not mind it at all. Then here comes Maine. I was hesitant to be a vocal fan because of her immense popularity but again she just have that “something” in her that I want to root for.

I started profiling Maine like how I used to in the other celebrities I look up to her public accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Ask.fm and lastly her blog….

MAY BLOG SI MAINE!!!

MGA KAPITBAHAY MAY BLOG SI MAINE!!!

Yes, I was surprised to know she has a blog!! My writer heart is leaping with joy!! That was the conviction I told myself it would be easier to fangirl for her since writing is my core and passion.

I started following her and knowing more about her like how she is close to her family, the rumors she went to PBB Auditions, and her other past Youtube uploaded videos. But I was still a silent fan back then since I am clueless how to handle a barrage of comments from other fans once I begin to be vocal. I am happy as a silent fan until the inevitable thing happened…

Maine released her Open Letter in November 26, 2017.

Yes, I won’t forget how I cried after reading it and not enjoying the ice cream I am eating on a Sunday afternoon. I began to connect the dots. I wanted to hate some people and wish them to have double, triple the pains of whatever Maine felt. I do want to start expressing my support for her to prove there are still like me…”isa sa sampu” fans of Maine.

The problem though is I am still at a down moment by that time. I failed to handle the pressure of a teaching career. I love the kids inside the classroom but the paperworks overwhelmed me. Attendance, quizzes, understanding the lesson plan, submitting other requirement, etc---those did not fare good for me. I just realized I only want to be with the kids even if I am with them 6-7 hours straight, I don’t get tired at all. I found out I like to be a public speaker but I cannot cope up with the tremendous responsibilities of the teacher.

Being an overthinker, I felt I failed again not myself but my family and everyone who believed in me. I was down for months and clueless what to do next. I even think if there would still be a company or business owner who would take risk with me seeing my resume with months of no work as I rested after resigning from the teaching post.

I thought of how I am a burden again and have no direction in my career, whereas my batchmates might already be settling down with their partners, finishing their master’s degree, or exploring more of what they can do abroad. There I was, clueless and do not know again where to start. I am just thankful I have a supportive family and set of friends who waited until I got tired of being afraid and overthinking.

There were even days I wish I can just sleep forever and not wake up to those clueless and empty days again. I was also telling God that time I wish I was the one He took instead of my papa who passed away in 2007 due to an illness. Because my papa would be able to help my family instead of my inconsistency, fears, and overthinking. I was in that bargaining stage and I am too blinded, hurt, and tired to see my own worth and potential.

In those dark times, I would pray for a direction…for an enlightenment. Angels in the form of my friends and my family gave me words to fight back. It was enough to hold on….until I saw an excerpt from Maine’s book through an online article of cosmo.ph promoting her book:

“Things may go from bad to worse and you might feel like it’s never going to change, but believe me when I say it will get better. Everything will be all right, I promise you. We may have our own different battles, but remember there is only one God. He is always looking down on us wherever we go and whatever obstacle we face. You may currently be in a lot of pain, but you never know what God has in store for your future.

Marami pang magagandang bagay ang mangyayari sa buhay mo. Magtiwala ka. Kapit lang, laban lang.

P.S.  If you are looking for a sign on whether you should still hold on or give up, this is it. Hold on tight, my dear. Don't you ever give up; never ever give up. “

I cried and smiled after reading it. “Ikaw talaga Lord ha, si Maine pa pinadala Mo rin para sabihin kaya ko pa.” The darker those moments are for me, the brighter are all the Bearers of Light shone in my life. I begin to see more how my mama is patient with me, how my brothers would ask what do I want to eat or where do I want to go, friends who would tell me they will meet me anywhere I wish to be…and that excerpt from Maine’s book.

So I told myself: May laban pa ako. Isang subok pa.

It took me until January to gather all my guts. I started editing my resume. I came back to my freelancing career by looking for homebased jobs. It was also the time I just thought of blogging for Maine. I was still doubting if I am ready to be a vocal fan…but I know in my heart if God is telling me to do something even if I am still scared or doubtful of it.

I posted my first entry about Maine on this tumblr account. What comes next are series of unexpected blessings coming in my way…I did not look for them but the opportunities found me instead. Here are some of them:

(a)    Got a DM asking if I can write for Clairedelfinmedia.com after they read my blog about Maine and Nadine parallelisms

(b)   Got invited twice to Maine’s bday party by generous fans. First is when I told her she is a Bearer of Light and we are her 10th heartbeat in the #EnchantressMaine23. Second is when I co-host in the #DearMaine bday event.

(c)    An anonymous fan who works abroad gifted me a Microsoft Surface Tablet just because she is thankful for my support for Maine.

(d)   Meeting some fans who are as level-headed and as classy like Maine I felt I attended a business conference instead of a fan event.

(e)   Getting back on my feet again to find the direction in my career.

Also, I am grateful my mama is a silent fan of Maine. You see, I am already in my late 20s but she treats me like a pre-teen kid and I find it difficult to ask permission to go to different places and stay late. Kung pwede 6pm sa bahay na ako at may number si mama ng lahat ng kasama ko para mapanatag siya. So I was surprised it was easy for me to ask permission going to Maine’s bday event even if I come home late at evening. As my mama said, “May swerteng dala sayo si Maine, puntahan mo lang pag meron.”

Of course, going back to my freelance career is not as smooth as what I expected. Rejections and no follow-up interviews came, some would even ask me to stop writing for them and they would just pay me for the weeks I wrote, or I have already written an article then suddenly my contact person said the client forgot to ask for the specific writer and that isn’t me.  

It was still difficult but I am grateful to find this new courage, thanks to God’s constant faithfulness in my life and to all my Bearers of Light. In 2018 too, I found CCF, a Christian church whom I am comfortable with in sharing my flaws and mistakes. They focus more on God’s grace, justice, and mercy for everyone than other close-minded religious people or groups who condemn sinners.

Thanks to Maine too, I started to try new things which I still hesitated before. I remembered reading her IG post on her skydiving experience. She encouraged us to try things out even if we are still scared. In 2018, I tried acting workshop and auditioned in a production house for a voice-over artist. I even tried if I could be a female reporter in an FM station. Although these things haven’t yet prospered for me, I am happy to try it out and see what else I can try aside from writing.

At present, I invested in a copywriting module and joined an uplifting and supportive Filipino community of freelance copywriters in a Facebook group. I am determined to venture into copywriting because it is parallel to my passion in storytelling and writing. The process of improving myself excites me.  I am a homebased content writer (as of this time) who still have a lowpay rate but I am enjoying the flexibility of my time. Plus, the company I work for recently gave me incentives and gift certificates.

Going back to one of the dark times in my life and just want to give up, God sent His angels in different forms to remind me I still have to fulfill His purpose, His story, and His plans in my life. He intended to break my heart and dreams so He can form it with a new one. In those times, God chose Maine too to tell me I can and I will be able to do it with God’s help.

This is just a fraction of what Maine did for me. I am more than thankful and will always support her even in the future that she is a private citizen and enjoys that under-the-radar life away from the fame and attention of public.

Salamat talaga Maine sa lahat lahat! 

Bearer of Light, please keep on radiating! 

God rewarded your sacrifices and good heart.

Embrace the genuine happiness you have now.

[internetstorytime]

When someone unexpectedly disappears online it can leave a lot of questions in the wake; what happened? Where’d they go? Will they be back? Luckily a paper trail isn’t as easy to pick up as it is to place down.

Long ago there was a person called “Meow” that was established in multiple social circles and numerous friendships. One day though they up and vanished.  Nearly half a decade after their disappearance a group of past friends set out to discover what happened, where’d Meow go? Through multiple clues, look ups, and dot connecting the end result would lead to an unexpected but conclusive ending. So buckle up and get ready to chase a phantom with many faces.

Let’s go through some oddities and characteristics before we hop on the trail.

Meow’s Characteristics:

-was a fan of the Dark Souls series

-stayed up extremely late very often

-claimed to have residence in Ohio

-claimed to be mute and never spoke

-claimed to be female

-very into role playing

After the disappearance Meow’s a peculiar thing started to occur, some of Meow’s accounts started to delete. But not all accounts are deletable, like STEAM accounts. When Meow disappeared a new person claimed to have been the original owner that was lending it to Meow. They said Meow was doing other things now in life, that she was great and considering college again, and so on. That’s a nice ending to this all, perhaps Meow just was tired of the internet for whatever reason, left all her friends behind and is now socializing and partaking in greater activities. Aaaaaaand then the “original” owner removes all friends, privatizes profile and changes URL’s.

All’s well that ends well…

So let’s get started.

Friend#1              - Friend of Meow

Friend #2             - Friend of Meow

Friend #3             - Friend of Meow

Meow                   - A Ghost Themself

True Meow        - ???

It started when Friend#1 and Friend #2 were discussing past times, past groups, past people… Meow? You remember that person? What do you think happened to them? And so curiosity was sparked.

Friend#2 remembers that when you gift someone on steam a gift a receipt of sorts is sent to the person being gifted. This receipt happens to include the email address of the person who sent the gift. Niiiice. It’s a start. The email address itself is a little odd, it is seemingly a random name with no numbers.

Googling the email gets nothing, well, almost nothing. Turns out the email address is 1 letter off from being a street name in Ohio, the state Meow had claimed to live. Alright, so why would you make an email after a street let alone use it to create a steam account?

Since googling the email wasn’t getting anywhere Friend#1 was about to give up on the search but a day later recalled that reverse email search engines exist.

Bazinga, a match.

��There was an issue though. The site wouldn’t offer any more information than it had in the picture; a blurred photo and some odd censored name… Thanks too lazy programming though, we could go further. The blur filter over the image was only weakly applied. Right-clicking the image and opening it in another tab alone brought up the image without the blur filter. Google reverse image searching that picture also happened to result in a limited pool of unique hits, great. 3 out of 4 of the hits were from 4chan and the other was from a YouTube page, excellent.

Boy do things start getting wonky here.

The Youtube page had the exact same profile picture that the reverse email search had found so seemingly, this was the person except… the entire Youtube page was the polar opposite personality you’d expect Meow to have. Where Meow was known to be out spoken and kind, this profile was full of vulgarity and racism and bad memes, a huge contrast. To further add to the mystery, they had a Robloxs account linked to their profile.

 What the fuck was going on, is this even the right person? How old are they? I had to make sure this reverse email search was accurate. I searched myself, I was found. I searched a friend, they were found. I searched another friend, they were found. Alright, three is enough. This search engine *seems* to work, unfortunately.

 Looking past the /pol/ “humor” the Youtube profile’s “About” section had some further information. Supposedly they were from Greece and had a link to their Google+ account. And here’s where some connections start to be made. The Google+ account shows they’re not just into role playing themselves, it’s a huge past time to them! They’re a part of 5 role playing groups, from Five Nights at Freddy’s to Undertale to Half-Life, they’re all over. They’re even an admin of one of the role playing groups! They also happen to be into Dark Souls, so much so they’ve uploaded their own videos on it. What a coincidence.  

 Scrolling down the Google+ account, past the cringy roleplaying, past the racism, past the 12 year old humor and past the fucking Roblox we get a hit. A steam library screenshot and what lovely information we get.

Cue Friend#3!

Friend#3 enters the fray when I tell them of the search and how far I am. And they get down to business and get results fast. Friend#3 realizes the screenshot shows they use the Euro, it also shows their steam account’s username *which happens to be unique and very searchable* in the top right.

To try and cut a very, very long story short, this steam account username was the key that helped find nearly everything pertaining to this person;

-Facebook

-Soundcloud

-Flickr

-TripAdvisor

-Newgrounds

-Minecraft account

-Multiple rp forum accounts

-A Greek city public forum records

 After we sifted through all of this we felt pretty confident this person was in fact “Meow”. Lets just label them “True Meow” for simplicity. True Meow likes to role play, maybe a little too much as he has at least 5 accounts all dedicated to different characters, he also tends to delete past accounts and history as we found out. Was it mentioned they’re a “he”? Well True Meow is a “he”. We never found pictures of specifically him but his sound cloud has very low view count songs of a male character with avatars he’s used on other sites. Presumably it’s him singing. He’s went to large extents to conceal his voice on his role playing accounts (unlike his Greek accounts), as in one of his Google+ posts he mentions he talks funny or sounds off. But this is likely just a ruse to hide his Greek accent and allow him to stay immersed as his, often female, characters. Even videos titled “Reading of xxx….” He specifically deleted as they probably contained his voice while keeping up non-voice related videos. We should also throw in he claims to be 26 two years ago but who really knows. 

This Greek, role play loving, Dark Souls playing character seems to be the True Meow. But wait, there’s a cherry on top.

Googling Meow’s original alias long enough you’ll stumble onto an IRC log for UNIX support. Guess who is posting in the IRC asking for help? Someone under the alias “Meow”. They also happened to link a German language photo. (In case you’re worried that the photo is German and True Meow is Greek, True Meow’s TripAdvisor showed one logged trip, to Germany.) Why is this the cherry on top though? Because we had no hard similar links between Meow and True Meow, it was all relying on the reverse email search and common hobbies between the two. Thanks to Friend#3 though we found our True Meow posting a UNIX bug report on the same site but this time under his exact Greek name, True Meow.

“Coincidence? I think not!”

 Now we had a connection that both Meow and True Meow were caught related to other than the email. With that I think we found what happened to Meow and ultimately one of the oddest cat fishing experiences.

Did we get the wrong person?

There was some things that favored Meow’s outrageous vanishing story, even with all this evidence:

1.       Meow gave all of us a handful of free games over time while we gave nothing. Talk about a poor cat fisher if the goal was to get expensive things in return.

2.       Keeping up appearances wasn’t cheap. Not mentioning the other games, Meow gave us all a Starbound key before the game released. That’s about $50 alone just to keep up kind appearances.

3.       A point Friend#2 likes to argue, the contrast is simply too great. The belligerent, racist, unfunny True Meow is so unlike Meow that it’s unbelievable, even if it was a catfish that went on for months.

Was this just a dude that wanted to, for whatever reason, role play as a female was willing to lose money to do it? Or is this the wrong person? Won’t ever truly know for sure but I’m going with the strong evidence and multiple coincidences that Meow has indeed been found and the disappearance solved.

[sending-the-message]

Never Buy Cheap Computers on Craigslist by 2017Interloper

Ever notice the little lightbulb icon at the top of the MS Word screen, to the far right of all the options like File, Home, View, etc.? Well, I don’t know about yours, but mine isn’t working properly. It showed me something I didn’t want to see, and I may have used it to kill my girlfriend.

I just got a new laptop. For a broke ass grad student, finding a customized Lenovo ThinkPad b66 with 32G Ram and all the other awesome specs it comes with, WITH WINDOWS 7 INSTALLED (Huge selling point for me) for $300 was unreal. I use my laptop for gaming, streaming, work, school, you name it. I had to go check it out. I didn’t realize the b66 was a Lenovo model, but reading the tech specs on the Craigslist ad gave me a nerd boner for the ages.

The older lady who answered the phone number listed on the craigslist ad was really nice, and said it had belonged to her grandson. “He is gone now,” she told me. “I have no use for the thing. Is three hundred too much? It looks like a nice computer, at least, to me.” I could have been a total dick, and talked her down to 200. I am sure of it. But, I would have felt bad about it, and I happened to have the cash. Granted, it was all I had, but I had gas in the car, coffee, and my girlfriend and I had some things in the pantry that could pass as food, so we’d be ok for a few days. I noticed that the lady didn’t specify what ‘gone’ meant in reference to her grandson, whether he had died, moved away or what have you, and thought it a bit odd that she had mentioned it. Hey, maybe she was just a lonely old lady and I was the first person she had spoken to in a few days, right? I told her I was sorry about her grandson, went and cleaned out my bank account at the nearest ATM and sat in my car at the Evergreen Town Park where we had agreed to meet, waiting for her to show up.

I had to call my girlfriend, Alex. She and I had been talking about getting a new laptop for a while now; the one we currently shared was getting a little long in tooth. There was one we were looking at that was decent and in our price range, but I was resistant to spending any money on it, because they all come with Windows 10 now, and I freaking hate Windows 10. We settled on looking at used ones, and figured it would be cheaper that way anyway.

“Hey!” She answered. “Good timing. You just got me on my break. What’s up?”

“Well, I drained my bank account, but you are never going to guess what I just found for three hundred bucks!”

At first, she was weary about the cost but when I told her about the operating system and had her google the specs on the thing, all she could say was “damn.”

I saw the lady I was waiting for, at least, I figured it was her. She was driving a green Buick, and craning her neck, likely looking around for me and my car as I described it on the phone. She was probably feeling the slight anxiety that most people get when meeting someone from Craigslist, that ‘what if I just gave my car’s description to some serial killer’ feeling. I figured I’d not keep her waiting on me, and I was psyched about the computer. “Babe, I gotta run. I don’t want to be all rude and make this old lady wait. Love You.”

“Love You. Good find. Can’t wait to check it out.” We hung up and I got out of the car and waived at the lady in the Buick.

She rolled down her window halfway. “Are you Colin? The young man I spoke to earlier?” She asked, a little hesitantly.

“Yes ma’am, thank you for meeting me. My girlfriend and I have been looking for a good computer for a while now,” I told her, trying to small talk a little to make her feel at ease. I got the impression she was nervous or uncomfortable. Craigslist ads get a lot of bad publicity. For all the scams and bullshit that undoubtedly originate with Craigslist ads, most times when you buy secondhand things, rent an apartment or adopt a pet go without a hitch. But, those aren’t ever the ones you hear about. Plus, I’m a dude, so I don’t worry about that stuff as much as Alex does and I imagine other women might. I mean, it’s not like a bigger dude couldn’t lure me out to a dark alley and jump me or whatever, I guess it’s just not my nature to worry about things like that. If it happens, I’ll deal with it when the time comes. Then, I just wanted to make the old lady feel at ease, because she was doing Alex and me a huge favor with this cheap laptop.

She seemed a little uneasy still, but she stepped out of the car, and we walked over to the bench. She took the laptop out of the case and handed it to me. “Go on ahead and fire it up,” she said. “You can take a look and make sure it has everything it is supposed to have, and no viruses or bugs or whatever it is that steals all your information.” She smiled. “Forgive me, I don’t know much about these things. I had my daughter type out all of the information on that computer ad you found my number on. She showed me how to use Facebook on my phone, and that’s about as far as I go with this sort of thing.”

The laptop booted right up, appeared to have all the usual bells and whistles, had a full version of Microsoft Office on it (I would remember to switch the subscription to my name later) and a surface inspection of it looked fine. I told the lady as much. “It looks fantastic to me. I believe I owe you a few dollars?” I produced six fifty-dollar bills from my wallet and handed them to her, trying to be discreet. I’d rather have a casual onlooker think it was a drug deal than jump her because they saw me handing her cash.

She still looked a little uneasy as she stuck the bills in her wallet. “Thank you,” she said.

“Ma’am?” I asked, hoping that she hadn’t realized that she was practically giving the computer away. “Is everything all right?”

She sighed, barely audible. “Yes, thank you.” We got up and walked toward the parking lot. “I just…” She paused, looking as if she were trying to decide whether or not to tell me something. “My grandson… he was on the computer a lot. I can’t say for sure what got to him at the end, but… I don’t know. Just be careful,” she said warily. With that, she got back into the Buick and left.

I sat there holding my new computer and feeling kind of weird. I mean, what had happened to the kid? Had he gone into a chatroom and met some kind of creepy pedophile? Disappeared? Suicide? It really was nothing but idle curiosity and I supposed it didn’t matter anyway, but it gave me the creeps. I shook it off and drove home.

I took the computer into the apartment I shared with Alex, and set it down on the small, round kitchen table we had. It was getting dark, so it was probably around 6:00, and I was hungry. I figured Alex would grab a bite on her way home. She didn’t get off work until 10:30, and I wasn’t a great cook, nor did I feel like making pasta or a sandwich, which were currently my options. I grabbed the take-out box of last night’s Chinese and put it in the microwave. While my crappy takeout dinner reheated, I unzipped the bag the laptop was in and fired it up. There was a wireless mouse, a wall plugs, and a manufacturer’s CD-ROM that came with the computer neatly tucked into the bag with the laptop.

I shuddered a little seeing the dead boy’s name pop up with a little icon of a soccer ball. I was going to click “guest,” but I told myself I needed to access the admin account on the computer to create my own profile, run some anti malware and antivirus BS and all that. If I were being honest with myself, I wanted to snoop a little, because the lady’s comments were kind of weird. I pulled up Google, and just as I suspected, the kid’s account was still logged in. The microwave startled me when it let me know that my food was done with a pretentious little ‘ding!’ I got up and got my food and a fork, realizing that I felt guilty, like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar, thinking in that brief second that I may have been discovered snooping through a dead kid’s computer.

No. MY computer, I mentally corrected myself. I purchased it, and the previous owner just had something unfortunate happen to him. It wasn’t the computer. And it isn’t snooping, because it is my computer, and I would like to know if the kid had visited any websites or received any sketch emails that I should worry about stealing my credit cards and internet porn search history or anything like that. Right?

Right. And so, with that justification in mind, even though I wasn’t actually concerned about any of that, I went about my snooping. I was curious, and felt kind of guilty and a little spooked. There is something that feels intrinsically wrong about snooping through a dead person’s files, especially a dead kid. Maybe he hadn’t died, but I had the feeling he did, from the way his grandmother had warned me. My mind kicked into justification mode again and told me it was no different than wandering around an estate sale after someone died, and Alex brought me to those all the time. Truth be told, they creeped me out a little, too, but it’s just what people did. Best not to think about it.

Over the next few hours, I found very little, if any, surprising or suspicious activity on the computer. The kid mostly hung out in chat rooms, played WoW, had a reddit account, and had spent a lot of time on YouTube. Nothing that looked like it would be installing malware. (And, I thought, nothing to indicate the kid was suicidal or into anything weird). Somehow it felt like ghosts should have come flying out of the screen or something. None did, and I decided that none of it was my business anyway. I selected anything I found in documents, music, pictures, or on the desktop and each time hit shift+delete, so it would bypass the recycle bin and I would not be tempted to snoop. Snooping like that is sort of a rabbit hole, and one thing my mother always said when we would house sit for the neighbors or found ourselves in anyone else’s home when they weren’t home rung true with me here: ‘if you go looking for trouble, you’ll find it. Doesn’t enough trouble find us on its own?’ That was her ‘don’t snoop through shit that isn’t yours’ spiel, and she was probably right. Time to make it my own.

I wiped the signed-in account on the browser. I went in to the ‘users’ screen and created my own as an Admin, and I made sure any programs I would need to use were installed in a way that any user could access them. I signed in as me, and deleted the poor, dead kid’s account. I opened up Word, intending to sign in to my own “Office 365” Account, so the lady didn’t get charged or anything, and I went to the top of the screen for the “sign in” option.

It wasn’t there. Huh, weird, I thought. Could this have been one of those older copies of Microsoft you bought on a disc and didn’t have to pay a subscription fee for? Score again! I thought they had stopped making those. It looked pretty new, though. Weird. The front door opened, and I heard, “Hellooooo!” in Alex’s sing-songy voice.

“Hey babe.” She came in and kissed my cheek.

“So, you gonna show me this new hotshot computer of ours?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, yours.”

“You can use it sometimes,” I teased. She shoved my shoulder playfully.

As I suspected, she had grabbed something from Zaxby’s on the way home. I grabbed one of the fries in her meal and savored it. Zaxby’s coats their fries in seasoned salt, and they’re freaking delicious. She slapped my hand away and whined, “Hey! I haven’t eaten since noon. Back off!” She turned away from me. “Hey…” She grabbed the wireless mouse and moved it to the top of the screen. Microsoft Word was still open.

“This a bootleg or something?” She was hovering the mouse over the top part of the ribbon, where it says ‘Home, Design, Review’ and the like. Next to those options was a little lightbulb that said “TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO” and it was blinking red.

“I don’t know, but I tried to sign in to our account, and there is no place to do that,” I told her. ��What makes you say that?”

She ate another fry and thought about it. “I don’t know, it just looks different. Maybe the blinking red ‘Help’ thing?” She sat down and moved the laptop in front of her. “May I?”

“Sure.” I gestured for her to have at it. My girlfriend currently works in retail, at a department store, and a lot of people mistakenly assume that retail jobs don’t have any use for tech skills. As the Assistant Manager of her department, she used these Microsoft programs as much or more than I did.

“I can’t get over the blinking ‘TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO’ thing,” she said. “It’s weirding me out.” She clicked it and it stopped blinking.

She typed, ‘I want to get a raise at work’ and hit enter. “Let’s see what a discounted two-thousand-dollar computer with a bootleg copy of Word can do for me,” she joked.

The screen sat there loading for a minute before a pop-up appeared on the screen.

No Registered User Found. Would you like to register, Alex McCabe? (Yes, No)

“What the fuck?!” She said, scooting her chair away from the table. She looked at me.

I should have been scared, felt defensive, or been worried, but I was fascinated. “How…?”

“You should uninstall that,” she said. “It’s probably some kind of black market copy that steals your…. I don’t know.” She walked over and clicked No. The screen reverted to its usual, mostly normal format, except the red blinking message: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. “I am getting in the shower.”

As soon as I heard the bedroom door shut, I immediately began typing into the red blinking area on top of the MS word screen. ‘Tell me how you knew my girlfriend’s name.’

Loading again. Error message.

‘No registered user found. Would you like to register, Colin Davies? (Y/N)’

I clicked yes. Should I have been a little more concerned that it knew the difference between me and my girlfriend? Absolutely. But I was oddly transfixed by it, and for some reason, it didn’t seem odd at the time. Maybe I was just careless, and maybe it was something else that made me click Yes; I can’t be sure now. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?

‘THANK YOU, COLIN. YOU ARE NOW THE REGISTERED USER. PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT, THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.’

Does anyone ever read the terms and conditions? I didn’t. I typed again, ‘I want to know how you knew our names.’

Loading.

Error: invalid query.

Okay, well, good parlor trick, Microsoft. Our Wi-Fi/Cable provider billed us on a joint account, so I figured it was pulling our names from the ISP. Great privacy policy, Comcast. I rolled my eyes and typed, ‘I want to see Alex get a raise at work tomorrow’ and hit enter.

Loading.

DID YOU READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS?

I clicked Yes, Ignoring the link.

Loading. Nothing happened.

“We’ll see.” I chuckled to myself and closed the lid. I figured I’d join Alex in the shower. And I did. As we were drying off, I told her how I’d registered the software in my own name, and that I told it to get her a raise.

She said, “You erased that creepy bootleg and just downloaded the regular one, right?”

“Of course.” The lie was on my lips before I had time to consider it. In hindsight, that too was odd, because Alex and I had a policy of absolute honesty. The kind of honesty that I wouldn’t recommend for most couples. She had been cheated on in the past, and I had a roommate that got into Heroin and stole from me, so when we first started dating, it was something we had easily agreed on: no lies. And usually, I kept to it. Usually, I had nothing to lie about. I didn’t even think about it as we curled up for bed that night.

Later on that night, I woke to a godawful racket that I can only compare to some sort of a ‘roided-out digital dog whistle. An alarm of some sort? I nudged Alex to see if she could hear it too. She had to. It was loud, abrasive, and probably waking the neighbors. Was it in the house? A neighbor’s alarm system? How the actual fuck was she sleeping through this? Wow. She rolled over and mumbled something incoherent. Sleeping like a baby. I got up, grabbing the .22 varmint rifle I kept next to the bed, and went to see what the noise was. In retrospect, on some level I knew that an intruder couldn’t make this sort of screeching, ear shattering noise, but I was half asleep and did the guy thing: grab gun, defend turf. Like a magnet, I was drawn into the small kitchen, and I could somehow feel that the sound was coming from that area, even though it permeated the air in a way that it was no louder or softer in one room than any other. My new laptop sat innocuously, closed, on the kitchen table, but it was emitting a sickly, orangeish red glow from the small space between the screen and the keyboard. The unnatural light formed an odd, glowing square around the laptop, except the side with the hinges that the screen rested on when you flipped it open.

Okay, I thought. I knew I should have considered that there would be something wrong with this thing. Too cheap. But could it really be making this noise? I half considered shooting the damn thing and going back to bed. I wish I had. Too much paperwork, though. Discharging a firearm in city ordinances would surely get you in deep shit, even if a rabid racoon was attacking you. Instead, God help me, I decided to open it up and see if there was some sort of alarm system or something in the computer causing the noise. Note to self, I thought, turn the damn thing all the way off before bed. In fact, remove the battery.

I sat down at the table, the unholy screeching still in my head, and flipped open the screen. The screeching immediately stopped, and the sickening glow went back to the usual, blue-light laptop screen that all of our retinas have come to know and love. I blinked a couple of times, to clear the sleep fuzz out of my eyes, and because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I’m sorry to wake you, Colin.

I need you to read the terms and conditions.

(OK/Cancel)

I clicked “cancel,” and the error message returned, and the screeching began again, worse than before. It was actually causing my eyes to water, sort of how you’ll involuntarily cry if you get punched in the nose. I never knew that ears had the same connection with the tear ducts. Today I Learned, thought dryly as I clicked Yes.

I had no intentions of reading any terms or conditions at that hour, but I knew as I was slowly scrolling through them that I would file a complaint with Lenovo, Microsoft and any other company that had any software or hardware in that computer in the morning, because that is one obnoxious way to get someone to read an End User agreement. I slowly scrolled to the bottom and when I figured that the appropriate amount of time had passed that the computer would (think???) that I had actually read all of their legal garbage, I clicked ‘I Agree’ at the bottom of the pop-up window.

I had often thought to myself that one day, I would actually need to start reading things before signing/agreeing to them. If you pay attention to the news and tech articles, you’ll see that there are certain functions on our SMART tv’s, cell phones and computers that you are not required to allow or agree to, but that we all generally do, essentially allowing these devices to access all of our personal data. I had nothing to hide, and thought that maybe if someone wanted to steal my identity, they could pay my student loan balance while they were at it, and perhaps file last year’s taxes for me. But, like a good red-blooded American, I bought anti-virus software, carried a wallet that protected my bank and credit card info from devices that could remotely steal the info, and upgraded my cards to the ones with the chips in them when my bank asked me to. This time, though, I didn’t read it because I don’t like being told what to do. It’s possible that my stubbornness has caused me a lot of trouble, because the Terms and Conditions the stupid computer wanted me to read weren’t even all that long, compared to some of the other crap I’ve had to scroll through to access my software and apps, but I was tired and still had a headache from that stupid “Terms and Conditions Police” alarm the computer had blasted into my head. I looked at the screen, which was on Microsoft Word again. I shook my head, already forgetting about how I had (told??) my computer that I wanted my girlfriend to get a raise at work.

When you do things like this, little goofy, innocuous things, you tend to forget about it. Alex and I thought we were being clever, typing about her getting a raise into an oddly-worded field (TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO) that was obviously a help field. The text would have been ingeniously created by some Adderall-popping millennial with a three-day beard and a skinny-pants suit somewhere in Silicon Valley behind a desk, who had probably been paid an obscene salary to come up with some words that were more ‘user-centered’ than the word “Help.” That’s how all of these things work, isn’t it?

Not this one. Anyway, I went about my daily business, attending classes, working my side hustle (which is what I called my part-time office job to make it sound cool. It was my only hustle, and was boring as all hell) and using the computer as one might – I worked on my Masters thesis, sent emails, procrastinated on Reddit, Facebook and occasionally (I know, NERD) played WoW or browsed the crappy, free amateur adventures of YouPorn. Normally, I didn’t bother with Porn, because Alex was… well, I’ll say the kind of girl that didn’t require a huge hand-to-man relationship most of the time. She was an awesome girlfriend, or, at least, I thought she was, before all this. She had been coming home late a lot lately, and acting a little different. Stress, I assumed, and didn’t think twice about it. I certainly didn’t want to add to it. She was hoping to go from Assistant Department Manager to Assistant Store Manager, and she had taken on some extra responsibilities in order to do that.

One night, I sat at the computer, three beers deep, trying like hell to write some stupid paper for school. I can’t even remember what it was. I stared at the computer, tired and drawing a blank, and noticed the help message at the top corner of my screen blinking red: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. I don’t know why I did it. I missed Alex, hadn’t been hanging out with my buddies from school or work much, and I guess the computer was saying something that spoke to me I typed, I WANT TO SEE ALEX.

Go figure, no weird error messages this time. I went to delete my typing and go back to my research when an odd program popped up. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. It was Alex, all right, and she was at work – but she was in the back room, I was guessing, bent over a table with her tits hanging out of her button-down shirt and her skirt hiked up around her waist. A man held her hands behind her back while he fucked her from behind. I knew this guy, it was Dan, the Store Manager. And he was fucking my girlfriend. Let me tell you, this shit put YouPorn to shame. Alex was hot, and if I wasn’t so freaked out by this, and if I wasn’t looking at my own girlfriend and her boss, I would have had a rager to take care of. If not for the audio, I could have suspected she was being raped, and sprang into action. Only, she wasn’t. People who were being raped didn’t usually tell their assailants to fuck them, and moan, and… Oh, God. I felt sick. I was in shock. There was no way that was Alex… except, hadn’t that been the outfit she left today wearing?

How the fuck did the computer do that? Maybe it was some kind of elaborate hoax. I did the only thing that my numbed brain could think of, and I called her. If I spoke to her, and she didn’t sound like she was letting some guy drill her like a porn star in the back room, maybe I would just set fire to the computer and be done with it. I called her cell phone number, and god damn it I heard her ring tone. Through the audio on that God damned video.

No, please, no. I heard her say “He’ll call back.” And with that, I knew she was cheating on me. For a sick, voyeuristic moment, I sat and watched this unfold. As they were switching positions, her on her knees, and he approaching her with his dick in his hand, I found the X at the top of the screen and closed it. Now, I had a lot on my mind. Alex, whom I was sure I would ask to marry me after grad school before that moment, was cheating on me. What’s more, somehow, my computer knew it, and had found a camera somewhere in the room and showed it to me. What was anyone hoping to accomplish with all this? What the fuck was up with this computer? What was wrong with this world?

I should have gone to Alex’s work and asked for her. I should have broken up with her on the spot, and beat the ever-loving shit out of ‘Dan,’ the man who was undoubtedly currently getting a blowjob from the mouth that kissed me every morning. Instead, I went back to the computer, and stared at the field where I had typed ‘I WANT TO SEE ALEX’, blinking red, with the message TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. My voice cracked, I could hear it through the empty apartment. I said, through very un-manly tears that I was furiously trying to choke back, “Why?”

It wasn’t loud and it wasn’t a scream; more a perfect reflection of the confusion, hurt and anger I was currently feeling. How could she? How long had it been going on? Had she ever… before we…. My train of thought was interrupted as a dialogue box popped up on the screen of my computer that said, “SHE REALLY WANTED THAT RAISE, COLIN.” I picked the computer up and heaved it against the wall, expecting to be sweeping it into the trash in a drunken rage (I pounded the rest of my beer and opened two more very shortly after) along with my hopes and dreams of a future with Alex, but it bounced off the wall and fell harmlessly to the ground. Not a chip, scratch or crack anywhere on it. What the fuck? I let out a feral cry and charged the thing. I guess I tried to tackle it. I bashed it on the floor, the table, and punched at the screen. I was seeing red.

When all was said and done, I looked at my computer, which was now on the other side of the kitchen after having been punched, slammed, kicked and punted across the room into a wall, and it sat there, unharmed, the screen seemingly taunting me with its blinking red message, which I could see across the room: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. My drunk, angry brain had now reached an eerie state of calm as I began to accept one thing about this shitty situation: somehow, this computer was able to… do things. See things. Know things. Show me things. Possibly even make things happen.

What I should have been thinking of were bets, lottery numbers, riches, success and the like. I should have confirmed what I honestly already knew. All the late nights, her emotional distance, the extra few minutes in the mirror before work, the new underwear… It all added up now, I just didn’t want to see it those past few weeks. No, I was too angry to ask my bootleg copy of Microsoft Office to give me the key to success or make me rich. All I could think of was revenge, and I sat down before I lost my nerve, opened my seventh beer for the night, and considered all of the ways I could exact it. I finally decided on one, and slowly began to type. “I want Alex McCabe to kill her boss.” The little circle spun on the screen, loading.

I sat in the dark, drinking, and waiting.

[wolf-haten]

Hi guys! I was a staff member of Wolf-Haven from 2011 to 2016, although I was not very active for the last two years because that’s around the time Karlos lost interest in WH. It was very frustrating to work for someone who did not care to be an administrator of his own site, and you can only preach to someone so much before you realize that it is a lost case and your time is better spent elsewhere.

I want to preface my statement by saying that I am not here to slander the site, spread rumors, or bash it for no reason. I am here to share facts – events that really happened – and my recollection and opinions of those events. I will probably be banned from WH if Karlos sees this, but I obviously stopped playing the game years ago and I no longer interact with the community.

Seeing Karlos’s activity elsewhere bothers me to no end. I asked him to work on things several times; he always claimed that he was going through a lot or that he was very depressed. I completely understand, and he really did experience life-changing events that affected him and forced him to step away from WH for a month here and there. That being said, these events did not last for years, which is how long it’s been since he’s given a flying fuck about the site. He has had enough time to bounce back and readjust. He has gone to furry conventions, dated multiple people, moved, etc. I think what many people failed to realize (even myself) was that Karlos was not absent; he knew exactly what was going on. Staff can see the last time a user logs on, and his timestamps were always recent. He visits the site, and he has an extensive knowledge of web coding and design. He showed me the dozens of textbooks that he read on coding and web security. Perhaps it was a lack of motivation? I’m not really sure; he definitely had the capacity to fix many of the issues that occurred.

I think that when WH was hacked in 2013, he lost a lot of confidence in himself. I don’t think the site truly ever recovered from the hack. We lost many of the most well-known members simply because of the way Karlos chose to handle the events after the hack. He banned users who disagreed with his decision to not restore XP (the site had to be reverted to a previous backup, which was at least a week or so old). He claimed that they were trashing the site and being mean to him but in reality, they were just expressing their opinion. By the way, it’s beyond me why WH wasn’t backed up more frequently.

Out of the many users that he banned, I feel that the most notable ban was Stormgaze. Stormgaze was a notorious member who knew a lot about web design and… well, he wasn’t a moron, so he could see past a lot of Karlos’s BS. And he was vocal about it. Stormgaze ran a blog where he voiced his opinions about current WH happenings, which inspired me to create my own (this is important later). Stormgaze didn’t always see eye to eye with Karlos and was willing to point out his mistakes. I don’t feel that Karlos takes criticism well because Stormgaze eventually got a permanent ban. Stormgaze was a very matter-of-fact person who held an elitist view on the site and his own choices, but he knew his shit. Looking back now, I feel that a lot of his rudeness was just him being an honest person. He saw past the façade that blinded many of us.

As for Karlos’s creepiness? I mean, I can see where you’re coming from, though I don’t think I particularly experienced any of it. I joined the staff team when I was 14 but I lied and said that I was 16 because that was the minimum age requirement after the site’s renovation. (Karlos, if you’re reading this, I’m a really shitty person and I apologize for lying to you. Regardless, I did my job and I did it damn well.) He Skyped me once out of the blue which I found a bit odd, and he had his webcam on and was showing me stuff around his room. I definitely glorified him a lot back then, so I was just excited that the site owner was talking to me personally. I don’t think he meant anything of it but it came across as really weird, especially given that I was only 16 when that happened, and he was at least 21 or 23.

Before I forget about Karlos’s extensive dating profile, remember how he used the donation money to visit his girlfriend in the United States in 2011 or 2012? The donation money that was supposed to partially be donated to a local animal shelter, and the rest was supposed to go towards hosting the site? Yeah. I can tell you now that WH has had an immense profit and it STILL somehow makes a profit because people upload multiple characters to the site. Customs cost around $10-12 and there are over 3,000 of them on-site. Many members also purchased Points to spend on leveling up their wolf and to buy artwork from other members. Do the math, and Karlos makes a royal shitton.

But does anyone remember how he put the website up for sale a few years ago and immediately removed the listing when users found out? He later denied any allegations, but I think selling the website would have been his best bet.

I’ve saved the best content for last, which is the knowledge that I have because I was a staff member. I have never kept my opinions a secret, and I’ve always been honest. Here’s where my blog becomes important: I had a WH blog where I discussed what was going on with the site after updates, gave opinions on community events, and so on. After 1.3, Karlos asked me to remove an article that critiqued his inactivity because it made him look bad. I obliged, but I felt that it was majorly fucked up. I knew that if I didn’t remove the article, he would remove me from staff. I was a new moderator with 1.3 and it was something that I worked hard for, so I was not willing to give it up.

I’m not really sure where to start. I hold a personal grudge against Karlos because I was on staff for the longest time, yet three other moderators received promotions to admin before me. Sheri was one of my good friends and she did the job well, and I’m not sure how Fang still manages to have so much passion for the site, but I respect her immensely for that (although I don’t know why she’s still wasting her time; WH is not a relevant website at this point). I always amounted their promotions to personal bonds that they had, and I was never that upset because I can entirely understand why someone would want to promote a friend. What I will never forgive Karlos for is making Jekyll a mod and an admin and choosing her to run the site. Jekyll was a rude member before she became a mod, and she was even ruder with a blue name. I turned in complaints about her behavior numerous times, and other members came to me because she was so awful to them. He always claimed that he would talk to her about her behavior but he never did. I later found out that Jekyll and Karlos were so close because Jekyll was working on Cervidae with him. Instead of creating art for WH, they made art for Cervidae. We had a staff forum where multiple artists, including Jekyll, claimed different animals to work on. Miraculously, they were never finished. Jek and Karl (more like Jekyll and Hyde) were pouring all of their energy into this deer RPG thing that never actually opened up to the public. Amazing concept, but it was executed poorly. And instead of ending WH or passing it on to someone who was capable of handling it, he put Jekyll in charge. She is the most unprofessional person that I know. Have you read the news posts? Her grammar is absurd, she unnecessarily capitalizes random words, and she just… oh my, it irks me to no end. The FRONT OF THE WEBSITE is unprofessional. Who wants to join a website where the news is updated after months and it isn’t even typed correctly? Having someone represent your website who can’t even hold a normal full-time job is really embarrassing. But maybe that’s why they got along so well! /shrug

Jek was awful with how she treated the members. We never had any protocols to follow when giving users PM warnings or mutes or bans; there was no structure so we were all doing different things. Jek would mute someone for having stolen artwork on their profile, whereas I would PM the user, explain why the artwork was considered stolen, and add it to their user notes. I brought this issue up multiple times and was told by Fang that I was actually the one in the wrong. ??? That’s so corrupt that it’s ridiculous. None of these people knew how to be a moderator. It is beyond me why someone should be muted because they broke a rule they probably didn’t even understand. The point of being a moderator is to help users to understand the rules, not to be Hitler and swing your banhammer around willy-nilly. That’s probably why I never got along with anyone on the staff team, though.

Oh, and the staff panel was broken for years. When a post was reported and you clicked on the post link, you’d get “HTTPS” in the URL bar twice, so the link would be invalid. I’m sorry, but as a staff member, I should not have to manually type in a reported post just to handle it. The fact that he couldn’t even add a simple fix to the mod CP was really offputting and made me realize that I was working for someone who didn’t care about me. We didn’t get any compensation for our work until someone suggested it in 2013. Our compensation was 5 free customs because we were staff. Cool.

It was a very hard decision for me to leave the team, but I realized that WH was not the site it once used to be and it was never going to be fixed. I was not comfortable working for Jekyll because I don’t think she has a thousand competent brain cells and she’s just not an enjoyable person to be around. It was exhausting to work for a website and try to make progressive movements, only to be shot down and ignored. I begged Karlos to get new animal artwork. I begged him to update the mod panel. To fix the referral system… nothing was ever done. I had to accept with a heavy heart that he was never going to change, and the website would never amount to much. The community is dead. All of my friends left or were banned after the hack. I hated the people I worked with; there was nothing to keep me there.

[sensationalscenarios]

[Malfeasance | Part I]

original request can be found here

takes place in the SF9 as: Mafia au; original post can be found here

heyo! so i had to break this into parts because wow i got carried away. anyways i hope yall liked the first part! stay tuned for part two!

+ admin L   

 “We’ve just received reports of a body discovered just a few meters south of Ilsan Bridge.  Officials from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency have yet to release an official statement but many are speculating. Could this be another victim of the recent serial murders in the city? Is the same group responsible for these heinous acts of violence? Stay with us as we…..”

    Inseong sighed, closing the tab with the live news footage of the newest body; the sixth one. There hadn’t been any new or useful information, not that news reporters were ever helpful to begin with. Tapping away at the keys, Inseong’s eyes darted back and forth between three different monitors (he really had five but two of them were strictly used for surveillance purposes), several windows popping up only to be discarded a second later.

    I need to find the connection he thought. Normally Inseong wouldn’t bother with such child’s play, but evidence had been found at the scene of the third murder. Evidence, that for some reason or another, had implications of the Red Dragons. Youngbin had been beyond furious when he’d found out and immediately ordered everyone to find the bastard that was trying to frame them. All of them, minus Chani, had left to meet up with various clients in hopes of gathering intel as well as reassuring them that the Red Dragons had nothing to do with it.

    Chani had offered to stay behind to help Inseong do research on the digital side, especially since he wasn’t a particular fan of field work. Inseong glanced to his right and smiled at the sight of Chani typing away furiously on the laptop he’d gotten him as a Christmas gift. Inseong was proud of how quick a learner Chani was, and admittedly having an extra pair of eyes really helped.

    Turning back to his monitors, Inseong typed out a series of codes and fed them into several different database systems, watching as multiple digital copies of case files, criminal profiles, and CCTV footage appeared across his screens. It would take hours to read through everything in detail, and then they’d have to skim through all the video footage.

    Inseong swiveled his chair around so that he was now facing Chani. The youngest had been looking into autopsy reports and lab analyses of the evidence in hopes of finding something that the officials had potentially looked over. “Chani.”

    “Yeah?” Chani replied, tilting his head slightly in acknowledgement, eyes still fixed on his screen.

    “I’ve pulled up all the case files, profiles, and video footage from SMPA’s database. Can you look over the criminal profiles for me and see if anyone stands out to you. Cross reference it with our database of clients and check bank deposits and withdrawals within the past eight months. Whoever’s trying to frame us knows our methods and if they’re smart enough they would have hired someone else to do all the dirty work. If that is the case I want to know who.”

    “Got it. I’ll run them against cell phone towers and GPS satellites to see if any of them were in the vicinity of the crime scenes at any given time.” Chani looked up from his laptop this time. “We’re not going to lose anything because of this are we?”

    “No we won’t. Not if I can help it.” Inseong said, turning back around. He’ll be damned if he let someone ruin his family like this. He’d do whatever it takes no matter the cost.

    “Hey Inseong.”

    “Hm?”

    “One of the reports I’m reading mentions that the most important evidence was a key witness who saw the entire fourth murder happen.”

   “And? The witness was most likely hired as well.”

    “Well here’s the thing. There’s no mention of this witness anywhere else. All I have is a grainy shot of their face and that’s it. No name no nothing, and all of the other reports make it seem as if this witness doesn’t even exist. Heck, there’s even a missing chunk of time in the CCTV footage for the fourth murder. Which doesn’t really make sense because if the person framing us wants us to take the fall for the murders wouldn’t they want their witness at the stand testifying against us? Unless…”

    “Unless the witness was just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw everything.” Inseong turned back to Chani so fast he almost spilled his coffee. “That means this witness is the key we need to find out who’s behind all of this. Chani send me the picture.” 

    Within seconds Inseong was enhancing the photograph, tapping his fingers against his desk impatiently as he waited. He didn’t recognize the girl, but finding out her name would be as easy as counting to three. It would take several minutes for his system to run facial recognition against everyone currently in Seoul, and that’s with location filters. Turning back to the other case reports, Inseong searched for any mentions of a witness, or a name that didn’t quite belong. He clicked through report after report, so much that his eyes were burning slightly.

    He’d just clicked through another one when he noticed something. One of the names in the report seemed familiar, almost as if he’d seen it before. Going backwards a few, Inseong finally found what he was looking for. The same name had appeared in another report, one where the public version had the name blacked out. At the same moment facial recognition beeped, but Inseong already knew who to look for as he grabbed his jacket and left, already tapping away on his phone.

    [Y/N]

                                                          ~~~

    You were scared shitless to say the least. Who wouldn’t be after witnessing a man dispose of a body? Of course you’d tried explaining to the police, but when that one specific man questioned you in the precinct you knew something was off.

    “So miss, you say you saw a man dump a body into the river?”

    “Yessir.”

    “And you’d be able to point him out in a line up perfectly? Without a shadow of a doubt?”

    “Yessir he was directly under a streetlight so I saw his face and everything he-”

    “And you’re sure it wasn’t any of these gentlemen?” He’d handed you nine photographs of  different boys, all of whom you didn’t recognize.

    “No sir it wasn’t any of them.”

    “You’ve been through a great ordeal. Perhaps the shock is hindering your thought process at the moment. Rest for a bit, I’ll be asking you again shortly. I’m sure you saw one of these gentlemen.”

    You’d left after that, feeling extremely uneasy. Why had that man been so adamant on you identifying one of those boys? How were they even involved? Whatever was going on, it was much bigger than you had anticipated, and you didn’t want one part of it, even though something in the back of your mind already knew that there was no escaping now.

    Hurrying down the street, you figured you’d stop for some food from one of the many street vendors before heading to a friend’s place to stay for the evening. After seeing what you saw, you really didn’t want to be alone.

    Turning a corner, you let out a small squeak as you ran into someone, nearly falling backwards before a pair of hands gripped your waist, preventing you from landing on your ass. You opened your eyes slowly, embarrassed beyond recognition. The boy you had run into was much taller than you had anticipated and you found yourself craning your neck upwards to see his face.

    Cute. Was the first thought in your mind, causing a small blush to creep up your cheeks. Light chestnut colored hair poked out from underneath a black beanie, the tips just barely brushing against his eyes. His eyes. As you looked at him you couldn’t help but shiver. Something about his expression made it seem as if he knew everything about you; knew all the secrets you might have had.

    “[Y/N] is it? Listen we need to ta-”

    “How do you know my name?!” You broke free of his grasp, taking several steps backwards.

    “Listen I can explain just-” The boy glanced around. “We can’t talk here it’s not safe.”

    “Not safe? Just who are you?” Your eyes widened as realization struck you. “You’re one of the boys from the photographs.”

    “Photographs?” He frowned, clearly not enjoying this piece of news. He looked as if he had been about to say something else but was cut off by his earpiece. “What direction?”

    You watched as he looked past you, towards the opposite side of the street. Turning, you saw a group of men making their way towards the two of you. As they walked, the wind blew back their coats slightly, allowing you to see the sunlight reflecting off the metal. “Oh my god they have guns!”

    “[Y/N] listen I need you to trust me right now please. It’s for your safety. Those men are here to either kill you or bring you to a place you really don’t want to be at. My brothers and I can help you I swear on this.” He held out his hand and for a moment you couldn’t register anything. How could so much happen in less than twenty four hours? How could a simple walk at night lead to all of this?

    “But, I don’t even know who you are, how can I possibly trust you?”

    “Look me in the eyes and tell me if you think I’m lying within the next ten seconds we have before those guys cross the street.

    You did so, and even though every part of your body screamed danger, you knew he was being genuine. Besides you needed answers to what happened at the precinct, and this boy was your best chance. Taking a deep breath, you slipped your hand into his. “Can I at least know your name?”

    He paused, as if calculating the risks in his mind before looking at you again.

    “Inseong. Kim Inseong”

    And with that, the two of you took off running.

[vieuxnoyesrp]

                                ⚜  ~ T H E   I N F E R N O ~ ⚜

The watery graves of New Orleans’ lost souls have begun the boil and steam. They are angry; they will not be appeased. Their fury burns red-hot, and they are coming to b u r n this kingdom of devils until it is the hell it deserves. For if the lost souls of New Orleans can’t have this city... 

... Then it may as well be ash. 

Beneath the cut, you’ll find an extensive summary of the character-specific plot drops that will occur during our event.

Please note that while we have laid out this guide, it is up to the individual roleplayers to decide when and how to start these threads. In order to do so effectively, please makes sure to read or at least skim each other’s threads on the dash, so as to make sure your character jumps it at the right time (in the case of a three-way para, for example) and doesn’t interrupt the flow/chronological order that is roughly set out in the summary below. Also, please read ALL of the plot under the cut; not just the section that pertains to your character. This will become increasingly significant as the event goes on.

The event will take place in three stages. Before moving onto the next section, a post will be published on the Main. Open/casual starters are permitted aside from the plot-threads listed below, though please manage your time accordingly so that the plot-threads are completed by the end of the event. Please tag your starters with VNCarreRavage and VNStarter! If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns, please do not hesitate to message the Main!

Most of all, remember to be inclusive to as many people as possible (without biting off more than you can chew), get creative, and enjoy!

~ The Admin Team @ VN

In order to celebrate Davina Claire’s seventeenth birthday, her guardian, Marcel Gerard is throwing a jazz concert in her honour. The concert is being staged at the world-famous French Opera House (Théâtre de l'Opéra) of New Orleans. But for the lonely little witch, the glitz and the glam pale in comparison to her first taste of freedom, of normalcy. For one night she’ll be allowed to celebrate like any other teen on their birthday - and Marcel has even allowed her to invite three guests of her own choosing. Joshua Rosza, Malia Tate, and Camille O’Connell are the friends she chooses. Parties aren’t Malia’s preferred scene, but she’s going to go as a favour to Davina, and because she couldn’t decipher half of the foods on the menu - which must mean it’ll be swanky and hopefully delicious. As for Cami, Marcel cheats a little and decides to invite her not as a mere guest - but as his date for the evening. Though this move gets Davina’s seal of approval, it risks Cami’s when she witnesses an exchange between Marcel and one of his ‘community workers’ that ends on a particularly volatile note. Will she stay, or will she go?... Her uncle, Father Kieran sees all from a distance, but has more to worry about than his niece’s (questionable) choice in escorts. The real reason for his presence at such a worldly event is because Marcel promised to use it as a platform to bring publicity to the chain of gruesome murders that have been happening over the last few months. The priest hopes that this publicity will apply pressure on the power-holders of the city in order to prioritize finding the culprit and putting an end to the killing-spree. 

Enter the prettily inoffensive Jennifer Blake. She hasn’t been invited to the soirée, but after taking care of that delightful old bag of bones - Sister Friede - in her last sacrifice, Jennifer’s eyes are pinned to the priest in order to see what he’ll do next. So she’s gotten as close to the event as she dares, in the hopes that she’ll manage to charm her way inside at the door. Meanwhile, other women would happily trade places with the school-teacher, including a pregnant and very uncomfortable Evelyn Jones. She doesn’t want to be in a stifling dress and at an event chock-full of strangers who see her merely as a stand-in for her VIP husband, who is, predictably, too busy to attend the concert for himself. Equally high-profile guests include Lydia Martin, who’s practically preening herself at the opportunity to attend the soirée as her mother’s +1. Oh, the perks of being the Mayor’s daughter... Even more fortunate are those directly connected to Marcel; including Damon Salvatore - who received the shock of his undead life upon receiving one of the elusive invites in the mail. He knows the pretext of amity is nothing more than a craftily hidden political message after his last conversation with Marcel; ’common enemies breed strange bedfellows’. He’s a-okay with that, and if he can mix pleasure with business on such a night, then all the better for it. 

But one look at Katherine Pierce and that smug smile may quickly disappear from his lips. What could Marcel possibly want with the traitorous, backstabbing bitch? It’s clear she hasn’t slipped in via the backdoor either; not with how the doppelganger’s sauntering around as if she owns the place. But Katherine’s on a mission - She's there partly out of Marcel's desire to keep his enemies close, and partly because he's tasked her with information-gathering on his guests. She may not give a damn about the murder spree making all the headlines lately (after all, Katherine has enough skeletons in her own closet), but if the Vampire King insists, she’ll charm and compel his guests into loosening their tongues on whatever they know. It’s always ideal to be in the king’s favor. But Katherine and Damon aren’t the only two likely to butt-heads tonight. Marcel’s calculating intent is revealed when Hayley Labonair and Derek Hale realize that they have both been invited as the honorary representative (note: single) of the wolves of the Bayou. Despite the bloom of their own private relationship, the deft, political move on Marcel’s part is a slight to each of their egos and an impassioned exchange leads to palpable tension on both their parts. Divided, he conquers. 

Then there are those outside. The willing; like Kira Yukimura who lives nearby and occasionally perches out behind the building where the wafting music inspires her creative writing - and the unwilling. Two of Miss Blake’s other students join her in the latter camp; Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski. Unlike their teacher, however, they’ve had better luck at busting their way into the venue; largely thanks to Stiles’ sleuthing skills and despite Scott’s nervous objections. Getting in is one thing - blending in will be another matter entirely. Especially with the likes of Chris Argent; invited as Marcel’s guest and clandestine representative of the Hunter’s Guild - and Matt Donovan; who was fortunate enough to be invited along with a few other members of the NOPD in gratitude for his volunteerism with the police force. Like Kira, Cora Hale is happy to remain outside of the lavish event, although she wishes her elder brother had the brains to do the same. After the string of murders and her pervading distrust of the vampires in the Quarter under Marcel’s rule, she wants Derek as far away from the supposed ‘festivities’ as possible. Jackson Kenner shares the sentiment, and is equally disappointed in Hayley for blindly accepting the invitation. He tells himself that his frustration has nothing to do with the fact that he - the longstanding Alpha in the Bayou was snubbed from the guest-list - and hopes his gut feeling about this entire charade doesn’t end up being right. For all their sake.

The following characters will not be participating in this first stage of the event, but will make their appearance in the second stage: Alaric Saltzman, Bonnie Bennett, Elena Gilbert, Jeremy Gilbert, John Alden. 

[bubblezen]

evil will never triumph

hey hey friends, admin seven is back from the dead. this is the first thing i’ve written for like, all eight or so of my blogs in a few months, so hopefully you like it! admin zen hates me for this but, y’know.

send in requests!! bubblezen is back in business

yes, a sequel is possible, and yes, i will actually finish the series this time

- admin seven!!

It’s rather calming, being able to sit down at home and watch the news without being a part of it. You grab a cold soda from the fridge to drink as the opening jingle for the local news comes on. Rather unsurprisingly, the first news story is about the local menace, the Golden Panther, as the news has dubbed him.

Being the sidekick to Zen, handsome superhero and local heartthrob, you’ve had a run in or two with the Panther, though it’s mostly been in passing. He’s quick, and he doesn’t look for trouble, unlike most of the criminals who run around this area of Seoul, which makes him a more formidable opponent than most as well.

Today, it’s been reported that the Panther stole from the rumored “most secure vault in Seoul’s history”. It’s pretty shoddy in your opinion, as the Panther was able to get in so easily, but maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to judge. After all, you aren’t the one who’s been trying to construct increasingly better security systems in order to protect the rich and famous of Seoul from the thieving paws of the latest nuisance.

No, you’re just one of the people who’s working on stopping him.

You get a text from Zen as you watch, and, mildly disappointed that you won’t have the rest of the evening to relax, you tap out a quick response, letting him know that you’ll be there as soon as you can, you grab your coat and don sunglasses, prepared to go execute whatever scheme your hero has planned this time.

Meeting out in the back of the building where Zen is shooting his latest show seems a little sketchy, but as of late, your inseparable nature has been gathering the attention of the tabloids. After all, in his civilian life, Zen is Ryu Hyun, famous musical actor who rose from nothing to the big leagues. That, of course, makes you the “mystery woman” that all celebrities seem to have at one point of another, so you determined that the easiest way to get rid of the problem would be to stay out of sight and in the shadows, no matter how dirty and smoke scented they might be.

“MC, you know we don’t have a choice in the matter!” Hyun exclaims, running a hand through his hair and tugging at it. “This Golden Panther is a menace, and I feel like the longer we let him run around, the more we become responsible for it!”

“How, exactly, are we responsible for an unknown man robbing banks? You didn’t do it, I didn’t do it, and the police told us that they could handle it when we tried to give them what we knew, Hyun. There’s not really much more that we can do.”

“So what? When has that ever stopped a true hero from pursuing justice anyway?” You can tell that he’s working himself into a passion again, something he only does when he’s beyond determined to get his way. Unbidden, a small smile rises to your lips. He can be such a child sometimes, but you suppose that’s part of why he thirsts for justice so much.

“Are we going dark?” you ask dryly, already far too aware of what the answer is. “You do have a job to do, and I’m fairly certain you can’t just go in there and tell them that you’re Zen and that you have to go save Seoul’s riches from the paws of an evil kitty cat.”

He shrugs, a mocking smile that you can’t help but love adorning his face. “It’s worth a shot, right?” He sobers, though, understanding your point. “In that regard, though, I’ve already thought of something. There’s nothing that a new show needs more than publicity, and the best way to get that is if one of your lead actors is prevalent in the news.”

“No.”

He pouts, and you have to admit, his acting is quite convincing. “Oh, come on! Is it really that unbearable for them to think that you’re some kind of secret lover for a few hours? I can even tell them that we’re friends and that I’m just going out for the publicity.”

Your breath puffs out in a cloud of irritation, wondering just how he always gets his way so easily. “It’s more realistic to just say that we’re dating. You can clarify later.”

He sends you a dazzling smile, to which you respond only with a long suffering sigh, pointing at the door. The sooner this is over, the better.

He gives you his hat and sunglasses, making sure that you can stay at least relatively anonymous before you walk in together, holding hands with your fingers interlaced. An uncomfortable jolt shoots through you with every step you take, and you have to inhale deeply to prevent yourself from panicking. Hell, MC, you think, angry with yourself. You’ve spent the last three years with this asshole, fighting crime, and yet holding hands with him sends you into a frenzy? The pettier part of you ignores the rational side and pretends that nothing is wrong.

“You’re shaking,” Zen comments, finally noticing. He leans toward you slightly, giving you his patented roguish grin. “Are you really that excited to be holding hands with me?”

Yes, you want to say, but instead you punch him in the shoulder with your free hand.

He rubs his shoulder with a pout. “Christ, you could have just said no.” His smile softens, and you feel as though he punched you in return. “For what it’s worth, you have really nice hands.”

“Thanks,” you say, flushing despite your best efforts. “Can we just go in and tell them so we can go? The longer we wait, the more time that asshole has to start preparing for another heist.”

He raises an eyebrow at your stubborn insistence, but he doesn’t comment further. Instead, he leads you through a maze-like series of corridors until the both of you make it to a rather imposing set of doors. He pushes the door open and holds it for you. You would think that it’s sweet if he didn’t have the habit of slamming them in your face all the time.

Inhaling deeply, you put on your best refined face, then step through gracefully, as though you had made it a habit to date various celebrities instead of sit at a desk all day.

The bustle in the room stops sooner than you would have expected from a production of such a large size, but apparently everyone is just as eager for something new to happen as Zen usually is.

“Hyun, who’s the lady?” A sleazy looking man promenades toward them, and from his profile, you can guess that this is the director that Zen is always complaining about.

Zen chuckles, a little bashful, and you wonder if you’re the only one who knows how great of an actor he really is. “You know how I denied all the rumors that Dispatch stirred up about me dating someone?” Everyone nods, rapt, and it’s little wonder that Zen is the musical sensation that he is when he has everyone hooked on lies so easily. You feel an uncomfortable churning in your stomach as he draws you closer, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “Here’s the rumor.”

And you don’t mind admitting to yourself, at least, that it’s nice, the way they fawn over you. How nice would it be if it were real?

You climb up the stairs to Zen’s apartment, still reeling from the shock of being around his coworkers. Everyone had welcomed you so warmly, and it stings a little to know that whoever he chooses as his real girlfriend will have that same warm welcome. You console yourself by thinking that it will be nice for him, knowing how they’ll react before it actually happens.

“MC, hurry the hell up,” Zen calls, almost a full flight above you. “This is a little time sensitive, you know.”

And you know that it’s just your dynamic, that the reason he had been so attentive and caring earlier was just to get the both of you out of there, to really sell the performance, but you selfishly want more of that.

Oh god, you’re so in love with Ryu Hyun that it hurts.

Finally, you catch up with him, and even seeing his foot tapping impatiently sends a bolt of electricity down your spine that’s so painful that you have to keep moving, pushing past him toward his apartment.

The two of you have been tracking the Golden Panther for quite a while now, and his apartment has functioned as your base of operations since the beginning. It looks like the cliche, with city maps tacked up to the wall and photos of the affected locations pinned across them. However, it’s a lot more detailed than the last time you had been over, and you had thought that he wasn’t working on it when the two of you weren’t together.

Due to the boldly circled street and the new picture on the wall, you were clearly mistaken.

“When did you have time to do all of this?” you ask. And why did you do it without me?

“I was in the coffee shop last week, the one where Ji Eun works, and she kept picking up little bits of information from her customers, so she offered to help. She’s really very helpful.”

You have no hold over him, no right to tell him to stop flirting with every girl in sight, especially when it helps both of you like this, but you want to scream. Ji Eun is not the kind of girl who is simply helpful, and it takes all of you not to imagine what her price for the information was.

“And you didn’t bother to tell me?” You can’t help it by this point, upset with him and upset with yourself, so it all just spills out. He looks wounded, and you sit down on the nearest chair as casually as you can, trying not to make it obvious how pained you feel.

“MC-”

“I’m sorry,” you say quickly, covering up whatever it is he was about to say. You don’t need that right now, not when you have a job to do. “You would have shown me eventually, and I’ve been a little busy over the past week or two. I’m just stressed.” You flash him a small smile, and for all his skill in deception, he doesn’t seem to notice it when it comes from you.

“It’s not a problem.” He holds out his hand. “Get up. I want to show you our game plan.”

You do, because it’s Zen, and you have a job to do, and even through the anxiety that flares through all of you, you would do just about anything for him.

Once he explains the game plan, all that’s left for you in the apartment is to suit up. The both of you wear rather tight fitting clothes, so they don’t get in your way, but for the sake of normalcy while walking, you both have matching scarves. They’re a Christmas gift, one that you got for the two of you two winters ago as a sort of gag gift because they were on sale. They’re kind of ugly, brown and speckled with the entire rainbow, but they’re comfortable, and it sends a flare of warmth through you that he wears it, even if it’s just a disguise.

You leave the apartment building hand in hand, and even if Dispatch sees you both before you get to the building, you appear a happy couple, laughing and making jokes with medical masks over your faces. It’s rather unnerving, how easily you both fall into your roles, and you spend the relatively short walk to the Panther’s lair thinking about things that could be.

In case Zen really does have paparazzi following him, you both circle around to the back of the building. There, he ties up his hair into a tight bun and trades his flimsy mask for one with full coverage.

You swap yours out for one that fights more tightly, and then you’re both ready to go.

Zen gives you a boost, and you begin the climb. Most buildings had at least some nooks and crannies where you could get a decent grip, and for those times where that isn’t possible, you had climbing gear. After all, when your skill set is more in line with offensive abilities, you have to do somethings just like anyone else who scales buildings.

It goes slowly, like it usually does, and sometimes the two of you break up the monotony with a little chatter. Zen recites the lines for his duel scene in the musical for five minutes, you compose a miniature story in your head, and occasionally, he’ll direct you where to climb so neither of you alert anyone as to your whereabouts.

Finally, you both reach the roof. Zen sits down for a moment, taking the time to readjust all of his suit so it fits properly after the climb. You retie your hair, mind slowly calming until all you can focus on is the mission ahead of you.

The roof entrance is locked, but you’ve both come prepared, and you twist a bobby pin in the lock until you hear a click. Surprisingly, it’s rather dark on the staircase, and Zen uses his power to ignite a small flame in the palm of his hand. You creep down along the edges, as silent as possible in order to ascertain the number of guards that you’re up against. By your estimation, there are at least three waiting in front of the door alone.

The both of you slam out of the doors and begin fighting just as readily as you would breathe.  You send a roundhouse kick straight to the temple of the nearest guard, while Zen incinerates the other two with the grip of his hands. A fourth guard runs to the alarm, but you sprint after him and tackle him. You squeeze his throat, letting go just as he passes out. From there, neither of you have much time, so you begin an energy conserving pace as you locate the next set of stairs and go down another level.

Of course, there are more waiting, so you spring into action. Considering that it doesn’t cost Zen as much energy to summon fire, you hang back and watch his back, ensuring that no one sneaks up behind him. The guards are surprisingly not well armed, and you carve a path through them quite easily, making your way down until you’ve hit the middle of the building.

Zen signals that you’re close to where he estimated the Golden Panther would be, and from the sheer volume of guards that surround what appears to be the entrance to a great hall, he’s likely right.

“Spread out,” you mouth to him, and the both of you stick to the walls, eager to put this whole situation to bed once and for all.

You simultaneously take a step forward, and everything goes to hell.

You feel it the moment the trap triggers, pinning the both of you against the wall with a loud thud. Your head smacks against the wall, and you feel your feet slide out from underneath you. Zen begins to wrench his wrists, trying to slide them through the cuffs that attached him to the wall, and when that failed, he tries to ignite them. To both of you, this comes as quite the surprise, and, naturally, you both begin to panic. You cry out as your feet keep sliding, pulling and straining your shoulder sockets as the trap keeps you in. The crowd of guards disperse from the entryway, and so enters the Golden Panther. The lips on his mask are curled into a menacing snarl, and he’s dressed in a smart looking suit. Your heart stops. A silver knife gleams in his right hand, held loosely, but clearly with some familiarity.

“Hello,” he says, and his voice is crisp and pleasant, businesslike but not harsh. It’s comforting, almost, and you hate it. He bends before you, and you will yourself not to show fear. “You arrived just in time.”

The silver blade flashes as the handle connects with your temple, and you slump to the floor.

When you come to, you feel like you’re floating. Distantly, you wonder what you did last night, before the knowledge of what you last remember comes back to you. You blink your eyes open and immediately gulp.

You and Zen are both in the great hall that you saw earlier, strung up quite high on a wall. Your feet can touch a small ledge, which prevents you from feeling like your limbs are being ripped out, but they’re bound together, and each arm is bound separately. Next to you, about twenty feet away, Zen is tied up in much the same manner, but he’s thrashing at his bonds like a man possessed. You can see him attempt to use his innate fire, but each time, it fails, and he grows more and more frantic. You still find him beautiful, though, and it’s that realization that makes you realize that both of you are missing your masks.

Finally thinking to look down, you see the Panther standing on the ground, with a mask that seems to mock you, smiling derisively.

“Why?!” Zen shouts, crazed. “Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?!”

The Golden Panther chuckles. “That’s a lot of questions. I’m glad you’re so eager.”

This only serves to set him off further, until he’s practically rabid from anger and fear. This is the first time you’ve seen this combination on him, and it strikes you that it isn’t a good look for him. Startled, a giggle spills from your lips, then another, until you’re laughing uncontrollably. Why did it take this long to see him imperfect?

Zen continues with his panicked chants until the Panther finally intervenes. “Why?” He laughs, and the sound is so gentle that it grates against your ears, so mocking that it feels familiar. Slowly, you try to ease your foot out of its restraints. “That’s a very unintelligent question, Hyun. I expected more from you. Ah, how nice it would be to oppose someone with a brain.”

Zen spits at him, but it falls far short of his intended target.

“You’re assuming that I have a motive that would make sense to you. I’m sorry that I can’t be the sensitive villain in your musicals. I do not hate what I do. Otherwise, I would not be doing it, you see? I am afforded that luxury that so few can truly obtain.”

“Perhaps he’s doing it for a reason, you may think. Perhaps he is someone that can be reasoned with. Maybe if we help him save his mother, or whatever tragic backstory you want to give me, he’ll free us. We can all live in harmony.”

“What a bastard,” you mutter under your breath, and, almost as though he can hear you despite the many feet separating both of you, he cocks his head and lets out a laugh that you have to strain to hear. Zen doesn’t seem to hear it, as he’s too worked up in his anger.

“I am a bastard. I desire entertainment. I desire things, and how better to receive them than by taking them with my own two hands? Wealth for the sake of wealth becomes boring, after a time. Plus, it serves as the perfect alibi. Who would want to steal when they already have everything they could ever want and more?”

Zen’s eyes flash at the Golden Panther’s words, and he strains against his handcuffs. The wall lifts around the end of his chains as he pulls, and the mask’s cruel grin seems to widen.

“I hate cruel bastards like you the most,” he says, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. “You’re probably some asshole who would rather take somebody’s life than hold down a job, but don’t think that you can live this way forever. I’ll try as hard as I fucking can to put you out of your sleazy, sordid misery, and if I somehow can’t do the fucking job, then somebody else will. Evil will never triumph, you quivering cunt, and I hope you learn that the hard way.”

The Panther nods slowly, then removes his mask. Zen goes silent for a moment, thoroughly stunned. Han Jumin does not fit the usual criminal stereotype, after all, and to see him be the man under the mask is surprising, to say the least.

The suit jacket comes off next, and you’re still too busy reeling to comprehend as Han Jumin pulls out a pistol from the back of his waistband, spins it in his hand, then shoots Ryu Hyun right between the eyes.

Fuck.

[riichardwilson]

How to Start a Consulting Business: Determining Your Rates

The rates you set send a message to perspective clients.

March 10, 2020 9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

How much should you charge as a consultant? This can be an extremely challenging question to answer because it involves doing research, taking risks and proper planning. Fortunately, all three of these skills will come in handy as an entrepreneur so you may as well get used to it now. 

In most cases, I strongly suggest asking the prospect what their budget is. If they have a number in mind, you can see how well that aligns with what you were going to charge. You might find the prospect has a much higher budget than you anticipated. However, they may respond to that question by asking what your rate is. To avoid volleying back and forth before one of you gives up, you’ll need to have this established from the start. 

It’s important to remember the rate you charge will have a direct impact on how people perceive you. Too low? They could take that as a sign that you aren’t that good. Too high? You better really good — and prove it — or people are going to pass. I’ll always be in favor of doing what is required to deliver what your client needs and charging for a more premium service. You have the opportunity to build your own businesses, why wouldn’t you want to be the best solution out there for your specific audience?

Keep in mind, “premium” for your audience may not be viewed as premium — or even applicable — for other audiences. That’s why it’s so important to do deep research on who you’ll be helping. This allows you to genuinely say, “I understand you have this challenge, this is the impact it’s having on you, and I’ve developed a solution to alleviate it. Would you like my help?”

Once you’ve honed in on your audience, it is time to figure out how much to charge them for the solution you’ve developed. Here are some simple methods. 

Related: How to Start a Consulting Business: Determine Your Business Model

1. Ask people how much they paid for a similar service

This is an approach I stumbled across by accident when I first started consulting. I asked a friend if she needed help optimizing her Instagram profile so she could land more clients. She politely informed me she was already working with a consultant, with whom she was very happy. I was somewhat disappointed but decided to turn it into a learning opportunity. I asked her how much her consultant charged so I could get a feel for the going rate in New York City. I then asked her another question, “What else could they do, that would justify you paying even more?” This is a crucial question for all of us to ask. If you charge the average rate, you’ll get average results. Her response let me know exactly what I needed to do in order to be positioned as a more premium service. 

If possible, get input from 5-10 people. If you operate locally, you’ll want to inquire about the rates in your area or a similar metro. 

Related: Grow Your Side Hustle With Instagram Direct Messaging

2. Research competitors rates online

Some consultants publish their rates on their site, including me. The reason being, I don’t like yelling “Surprise!” at the end of an enrollment call as I finally disclose my rate. From my perspective, being upfront about my rate is a huge timesaver for both me and the prospect I’m connecting with. If I can’t help them on their terms (which includes their budget) it’s not worth spending 30 minutes to figure that out. I should note, the value of publishing your rates is hotly debated. Jake Savage, Sales Coach at Grow Savagely, states, “Having pricing on your website leaves everything up to a numbers game. It becomes an endless battle of trying to increase your conversion rates. Instead, get your potential client on the phone. Be persuasive and close the deal.”

That said, being able to openly disclose a rate is more aligned with a time-based or retainer model as some projects can be challenging to scope without bespoke input. For example, Jake Savage trains sales teams. If he’s training three people the rate would be lower than if he was training a team of thirty. 

Do some competitive research and keep track of the results you’re seeing in a spreadsheet. Be sure to take note of the services your competitors are offering, too. It could help improve the value you deliver to your audience. 

Related: How Not to Benchmark Your Way to the Bottom

3. Directly ask other consultants what they charge

This one may sound counterintuitive but you’ll be surprised at how many “competitors” are willing to help you out. If you offer in-person public peaking consulting in San Francisco, you’re not much of a threat to someone who offers the same service in Chicago. Consider reaching out to other consultants on LinkedIn and asking for some friendly advice. 

“Hi Mary, I see you’re a Public Speaking consultant in Chicago. I’m starting a similar business here in San Francisco and would greatly appreciate it if you could answer just one question for me. How much do you charge for your services?”

One of three things will happen:

Mary will ignore you or refuse to disclose her rates. If that’s the case, keep it moving and ask someone else. 

She’ll get back to you with a quick response. Thank her and continue doing your research.

She’ll get back to you with a longer response and potentially offer to connect with you via phone.

In the last scenario, you could potentially pick up some valuable tips that will help you accelerate the growth of your business. 

You can also ask consultants who serve the same audience, with a different service. This will give you an idea of how much they typically pay for outside help.

Related: The 7 Deadly LinkedIn Sins

4. Charge based on the value you create

Being able to determine the return on investment a prospect can expect is a gift to any consultant. It’s much easier for a prospect to justify an investment if they understand what they’ll get out of it. If you operate in a market that allows you to do so, it’s worth digging deep and crunching the numbers.

Heads up, there’s some math coming at you. 

Let’s say you’re a business process consultant, and you help clients keep better track of their leads. You’re currently talking to a prospect who has the following data points.

Leads per quarter: 200

Conversion rate: 20%

New deals per quarter: 40

Average deal value: $6,000

Average revenue per quarter: $240,000

During your enrollment call with the prospect, you discover their process for tracking leads is horrendous. They forget to call people back, aren’t taking proper notes and don’t have a clear handle on their sales pipeline. With your help, it’s obvious they could increase their conversion rate by at least 20%, which would give them a new conversion rate of 24%.

Through working with you, here’s how the new scenario could look.

Leads per quarter: 200

Conversion rate: 24%

New deals per quarter: 48

Average deal value: 6,000

Average revenue per quarter: $288,000

By helping them get a better handle on their business process, you can help them generate another $48k in just one quarter. Over the course of a year, all things being equal, that’s almost $200k in incremental revenue. Assuming they’re going to be in business for more than one year, the benefits of your work will continue to pay off. If you show them this data and tell them your rate is $25K, it’s much easier to justify the investment. 

You may be working with clients who generate more or less revenue, but the process is the same. That said, if you want to increase your rates, solve more expensive problems. 

This same approach can be applied when you’re consulting individuals. Helping an established keynote speaker further hone their public speaking skills will most likely yield greater results than helping someone who is just starting out. The established speaker knows they can get on stages, they just want to get on more, and be able to increase their rates. You can charge more because you’re solving a more expensive problem. 

Related: How to Forecast Revenue and Growth

5. Do a feasibility analysis

Once you arrive at a rate, you have to determine whether or not it makes sense based on your desired income and lifestyle. If you want to make $100k/yr before taxes and charge $2,000 per project, you need to book 50 projects per year. That’s a whole lot of enrollment calls, emails, admin work, etc. I’m not saying this isn’t doable, but you may be better off creating a solution worth $10,000 and connecting with an audience that can afford it. You’ll only need to land 10 clients per year, and will most likely have a deeper relationship with them. This can easily lead to more business through referrals and testimonials. 

6. Close with confidence

Your rate will evolve over time, but it shouldn’t evolve over the course of your first conversation. Never say “It depends” or “That’s negotiable.” Tell it to them your rate like they asked you what time it is. I know its tempting to discount fees just to win business, but that can easily throw off your projections and lead to more people wanting to work with you at a reduced rate. Referrals are one of the best ways to grow your business. If you do a good job, you’ll earn them. However, you don’t want people to say “You should work with Spencer Bell, he’s amazing, and he only charges …”

Establish a reputation based on the quality of service you provide, not a discounted rate. 

If you need any help, I’m available for remote consulting on Entrepreneur’s Ask an Expert platform. Be sure to follow along on Instagram as well. 

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-start-a-consulting-business-determining-your-rates/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/612220800806895616

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How to Start a Consulting Business: Determining Your Rates

The rates you set send a message to perspective clients.

March 10, 2020 9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

How much should you charge as a consultant? This can be an extremely challenging question to answer because it involves doing research, taking risks and proper planning. Fortunately, all three of these skills will come in handy as an entrepreneur so you may as well get used to it now. 

In most cases, I strongly suggest asking the prospect what their budget is. If they have a number in mind, you can see how well that aligns with what you were going to charge. You might find the prospect has a much higher budget than you anticipated. However, they may respond to that question by asking what your rate is. To avoid volleying back and forth before one of you gives up, you’ll need to have this established from the start. 

It’s important to remember the rate you charge will have a direct impact on how people perceive you. Too low? They could take that as a sign that you aren’t that good. Too high? You better really good — and prove it — or people are going to pass. I’ll always be in favor of doing what is required to deliver what your client needs and charging for a more premium service. You have the opportunity to build your own businesses, why wouldn’t you want to be the best solution out there for your specific audience?

Keep in mind, “premium” for your audience may not be viewed as premium — or even applicable — for other audiences. That’s why it’s so important to do deep research on who you’ll be helping. This allows you to genuinely say, “I understand you have this challenge, this is the impact it’s having on you, and I’ve developed a solution to alleviate it. Would you like my help?”

Once you’ve honed in on your audience, it is time to figure out how much to charge them for the solution you’ve developed. Here are some simple methods. 

Related: How to Start a Consulting Business: Determine Your Business Model

1. Ask people how much they paid for a similar service

This is an approach I stumbled across by accident when I first started consulting. I asked a friend if she needed help optimizing her Instagram profile so she could land more clients. She politely informed me she was already working with a consultant, with whom she was very happy. I was somewhat disappointed but decided to turn it into a learning opportunity. I asked her how much her consultant charged so I could get a feel for the going rate in New York City. I then asked her another question, “What else could they do, that would justify you paying even more?” This is a crucial question for all of us to ask. If you charge the average rate, you’ll get average results. Her response let me know exactly what I needed to do in order to be positioned as a more premium service. 

If possible, get input from 5-10 people. If you operate locally, you’ll want to inquire about the rates in your area or a similar metro. 

Related: Grow Your Side Hustle With Instagram Direct Messaging

2. Research competitors rates online

Some consultants publish their rates on their site, including me. The reason being, I don’t like yelling “Surprise!” at the end of an enrollment call as I finally disclose my rate. From my perspective, being upfront about my rate is a huge timesaver for both me and the prospect I’m connecting with. If I can’t help them on their terms (which includes their budget) it’s not worth spending 30 minutes to figure that out. I should note, the value of publishing your rates is hotly debated. Jake Savage, Sales Coach at Grow Savagely, states, “Having pricing on your website leaves everything up to a numbers game. It becomes an endless battle of trying to increase your conversion rates. Instead, get your potential client on the phone. Be persuasive and close the deal.”

That said, being able to openly disclose a rate is more aligned with a time-based or retainer model as some projects can be challenging to scope without bespoke input. For example, Jake Savage trains sales teams. If he’s training three people the rate would be lower than if he was training a team of thirty. 

Do some competitive research and keep track of the results you’re seeing in a spreadsheet. Be sure to take note of the services your competitors are offering, too. It could help improve the value you deliver to your audience. 

Related: How Not to Benchmark Your Way to the Bottom

3. Directly ask other consultants what they charge

This one may sound counterintuitive but you’ll be surprised at how many “competitors” are willing to help you out. If you offer in-person public peaking consulting in San Francisco, you’re not much of a threat to someone who offers the same service in Chicago. Consider reaching out to other consultants on LinkedIn and asking for some friendly advice. 

“Hi Mary, I see you’re a Public Speaking consultant in Chicago. I’m starting a similar business here in San Francisco and would greatly appreciate it if you could answer just one question for me. How much do you charge for your services?”

One of three things will happen:

Mary will ignore you or refuse to disclose her rates. If that’s the case, keep it moving and ask someone else. 

She’ll get back to you with a quick response. Thank her and continue doing your research.

She’ll get back to you with a longer response and potentially offer to connect with you via phone.

In the last scenario, you could potentially pick up some valuable tips that will help you accelerate the growth of your business. 

You can also ask consultants who serve the same audience, with a different service. This will give you an idea of how much they typically pay for outside help.

Related: The 7 Deadly LinkedIn Sins

4. Charge based on the value you create

Being able to determine the return on investment a prospect can expect is a gift to any consultant. It’s much easier for a prospect to justify an investment if they understand what they’ll get out of it. If you operate in a market that allows you to do so, it’s worth digging deep and crunching the numbers.

Heads up, there’s some math coming at you. 

Let’s say you’re a business process consultant, and you help clients keep better track of their leads. You’re currently talking to a prospect who has the following data points.

Leads per quarter: 200

Conversion rate: 20%

New deals per quarter: 40

Average deal value: $6,000

Average revenue per quarter: $240,000

During your enrollment call with the prospect, you discover their process for tracking leads is horrendous. They forget to call people back, aren’t taking proper notes and don’t have a clear handle on their sales pipeline. With your help, it’s obvious they could increase their conversion rate by at least 20%, which would give them a new conversion rate of 24%.

Through working with you, here’s how the new scenario could look.

Leads per quarter: 200

Conversion rate: 24%

New deals per quarter: 48

Average deal value: 6,000

Average revenue per quarter: $288,000

By helping them get a better handle on their business process, you can help them generate another $48k in just one quarter. Over the course of a year, all things being equal, that’s almost $200k in incremental revenue. Assuming they’re going to be in business for more than one year, the benefits of your work will continue to pay off. If you show them this data and tell them your rate is $25K, it’s much easier to justify the investment. 

You may be working with clients who generate more or less revenue, but the process is the same. That said, if you want to increase your rates, solve more expensive problems. 

This same approach can be applied when you’re consulting individuals. Helping an established keynote speaker further hone their public speaking skills will most likely yield greater results than helping someone who is just starting out. The established speaker knows they can get on stages, they just want to get on more, and be able to increase their rates. You can charge more because you’re solving a more expensive problem. 

Related: How to Forecast Revenue and Growth

5. Do a feasibility analysis

Once you arrive at a rate, you have to determine whether or not it makes sense based on your desired income and lifestyle. If you want to make $100k/yr before taxes and charge $2,000 per project, you need to book 50 projects per year. That’s a whole lot of enrollment calls, emails, admin work, etc. I’m not saying this isn’t doable, but you may be better off creating a solution worth $10,000 and connecting with an audience that can afford it. You’ll only need to land 10 clients per year, and will most likely have a deeper relationship with them. This can easily lead to more business through referrals and testimonials. 

6. Close with confidence

Your rate will evolve over time, but it shouldn’t evolve over the course of your first conversation. Never say “It depends” or “That’s negotiable.” Tell it to them your rate like they asked you what time it is. I know its tempting to discount fees just to win business, but that can easily throw off your projections and lead to more people wanting to work with you at a reduced rate. Referrals are one of the best ways to grow your business. If you do a good job, you’ll earn them. However, you don’t want people to say “You should work with Spencer Bell, he’s amazing, and he only charges . . .”

Establish a reputation based on the quality of service you provide, not a discounted rate. 

If you need any help, I’m available for remote consulting on Entrepreneur’s Ask an Expert platform. Be sure to follow along on Instagram as well. 

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-start-a-consulting-business-determining-your-rates/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-to-start-consulting-business.html