#they had access to my account and info and i had to pay them in bitcoins to get it back????

[yellowjellobean]

my heart is beating so fast istg i just got a notification from my 2fa app asking for a login confirmation and it was definitely not me... why are there fuckers trying to log into my accounts??? MIND YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS LOSERS, GO FIND A FUCKING REAL JOB.

[ashleyisartsy]

Problems (objective and personal) I'm not seeing discussed a lot w this new WatcherTV thing, in no particular order:

-Alienates people internationally who literally CANNOT GET the streaming service!

-Alienates casual fans who don't watch or want to watch all of their shows. Putting down 60 bucks a year to watch just one or two shows is kind of insane, at least for me.

-The volume of content Watcher has produced historically hasn't been enough to justify a separate streamer. I understand there's no way a small team could compete with something like Netflix, obviously, but that's what you're trying to do by putting yourself in the streamer market.

-Will this streamer be secure? What steps are in place to protect your viewers info? ESPECIALLY payment info.

-Will it be easily watchable on multiple devices? I watch YouTube videos on my phone at work 90% of the time, or at home on my TV thru my switch. Is this a browser only deal?

-What are the internet requirements for this? Believe it or not most streaming services won't run on my internet personally. I don't have any for that reason. I can watch YouTube on 360p, or on my 2-bar-reception phone data. Not everywhere has stable reliable internet.

-The suddenness and totality of the move was going to be jarring no matter what, if the idea had been introduced gradually or started as a hybrid model to test audience interest there wouldn't be nearly this amount of pushback.

-I understand the people saying "pay artists!!" Bc I am one, and I get that their quality is expensive and they have a whole company's worth of people to support. I do actually think their work is worth paying for! Everyone's is! But convincing anyone to pay for something they previously got for free is going to be a hard sell. They were still getting paid before, they're now just asking us to pay instead of the advertisers. Idk about you, but that's a way bigger hit to my pocketbook than a multimillion dollar company's bank account.

-I get that YouTube can be a really shitty place to be a creator sometimes, and that being beholden to advertisers is something they don't want to be. It's why they left Buzzfeed! They already have a patreon and merch and it's clearly not been enough for their ambitions. But shooting yourself in the foot because your running shoes are wearing out isn't going to make you a better marathon runner. They had to know that there was going to be a not small portion of their audience unwilling to make this move with them (and again, lots literally aren't able to!)

-If they had a free w/ ads option, or even did a hybrid model with whole shows behind the pay wall, or even just ran a fucking crowd funding campaign to help cover costs of new seasons of shows, any of those things could have worked. They don't even have YouTube memberships turned on, which I've personally seen many many channels do even when they already have a patreon. It really doesn't seem like they've exhausted other options, at least from an outside perspective, which is all we have as viewers!

-I get that this has been in the works for a long time, and that there probably isn't a way for them to back out now. But I hope they can find a way to make this more accessible if they want it to work at all. I truly am not wishing for their downfall, but the whole situation is an awful mess.

Idk, rant over. As a lot of you are I'm feeling very disappointed and upset with this one, and I'm not paying for it either. Hope the boys can salvage this one for their and their crew's sake. Would really hate for this to be the end.

[in-any-universe-ever]

Legit wondering if Lucerys and drunkmond ever argued

I think this requires some background info first:

At the time that Viserys cut them off, Aemond is about 23 and Aegon is 25. Luke is 18.

Aemond and Aegon both work in the family business, so being "cut off" really means they no longer have access to their credit cards, which Viserys pays. They still have their income from their jobs, so they have money, but don't have unlimited money. Given that they've been partying like this for multiple years, they're used to racking up the tab and letting Daddy take care of it, so when they have to dip into their own bank accounts to pay a tab they're like "fuck shit fuck that's a lot of money and I still gotta pay the mortgage etc etc." They are by no means destitute.

Luke has just graduated HS and has also joined the Driftmark division of the family business (College? Who needs college? says Corlys), but instead of the territory being a whole world, all of these are just different neighborhoods or buildings (I haven't decided yet) within the same city, so they are all physically close to each other despite working in different areas.

Okay, so arguments:

It was late - obnoxiously late. Luke, worried about the hour, fell asleep on the couch in the living room when the side door opened and Aemond finally came home.

He knew this when he agreed to move in. He knew this when Aemond kissed him. He'd known this for years. Aemond liked to party. At first there was the excuse that he was supposed to keep an eye on Aegon, make sure Viserys' eldest son didn't ruin the reputation of the entire family, but that was just at first. It didn't take long for Aemond to become Aegon's party partner, able to match him round for round, always ready for more, always down for a line or two when offered. Luke knew this was just something Aemond did, but it wasn't who Aemond was. Because Aemond was a different person when he didn't party, and Luke was helplessly in love with that man.

Aemond partied a lot at the beginning. When Viserys cut them off, they were going out multiple times a week. The lack of financial assistance helped somewhat, and ultimately it was how Aemond and Luke started hanging out. What had been a regular occurrence became once a week, then once every other week, then even less when Helaena had the twins and Aegon attempted to be a responsible father.

But after Luke moved in, sometimes crept back to regularly, and Luke found himself paying the bills just to keep the lights on since Aemond used all of his own money at the club. Luke wasn't cut off, and he made plenty of money at Driftmark to cover their bills, but he couldn't keep funding Aemond's habits, especially if they were occurring so often his performance at work was tanking again.

So when Aemond stumbled down the hall toward the stairs, Luke wrapped himself up in a blanket and turned on the light, startling Aemond into falling over.

"What the fuck - oh, oh hello, beautiful."

"I'm not in the mood," Luke snapped. "Wake the fuck up; we're having a conversation right now."

"It's four in the morning, baby."

"I'm well aware what time it is. You were the one out partying all night while I waited on the couch staring at my phone to make sure I wouldn't get a phone call from the hospital saying you wandered into traffic and died."

Aemond rolled his eye.

"I know better than that."

"I seriously doubt it. Splash some water on your face and meet me in the living room in one minute."

Aemond begrudgingly obliged and looked slightly more alert when he joined Luke in the living room. Luke purposefully sat in the armchair to avoid Aemond sitting too close.

"I'm not doing this anymore," Luke said the moment Aemond sat down.

"Doing what, love?"

"I'm not funding your bad decisions. I refuse to wait up for you to come home, to worry all night that you're okay, to use all of my money to keep the house in order while you're out doing gods know what with gods know who. I'm done."

"You sound like my father," Aemond muttered.

"And evidently he did nothing to change your mind. I know you don't care about your father, but you care about me, so here's the deal: stop partying or I leave."

Luke expected an argument, but instead Aemond sunk into himself, six feet of overconfident bravado melting into a pathetic young man who hated himself.

"It's probably for the best, anyway. I was never good enough for you."

"Seven hells, Aemond, when are you going to see it?"

Aemond looked over; the unspoken question was there. See what? I can't see anything anymore.

"You are so wonderful when you're sober. You are by far my favorite person in the world. I love you so much and I -" Luke felt the tears in his eyes and cursed them, because he'd been steeling himself up to this for weeks and promised himself he wouldn't cry. "I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Get married, have kids, build a real life with goals and happiness. How am I supposed to do that when you're gone all the time?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. I'm so sorry."

"I know you are. You always are."

Luke stood. "I won't leave tonight. It's late, we have to work in the morning, and you're not sober. Let's go to bed and talk about it again when you are, when you can think right."

They went to bed, and for the first time Luke slept at the edge, far from Aemond's reach.

It was just two hours later when the alarm woke them. Luke clicked it off and rolled over. Aemond's eye was open, bloodshot red for multiple reasons. He was frowning, grimacing really, and reached his hand out across the void of empty space in their bed. Luke hesitated but reached out his own. Aemond gripped it hard.

"I'll do it," Aemond said, his voice hoarse. "I'll stop for you."

Luke didn't hold onto hope, but nodded. "Then prove it."

And so Aemond did.

[roebeanstalk]

general commission info/process update

Howdy y’all!

tl;dr:

-Commission prices are increasing to account for cost of living, increased quality, and more. -Those with colored sketches currently outstanding are being upgraded to my new "Standard Commission" as a thank you for your patience. -A new Patreon tier has a 5% commission discount as a perk. -I've adopted a new workload management system where I focus on 5 pieces at a time, and reload the workbench on Mondays. My Trello has been updated with general info on this.

The whole update:

I am raising my commission prices. This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, but it is ultimately for the best for myself, my clients, and more.

Since I’ve started doing commissions regularly, the amount of time I want to spend on any particular piece has grown, but I haven’t had the time due to a large workload. With this price increase, I’m able to spend more time on each commission and create work at a quality that I am happy with. I’ve found myself working back and forth with clients more, creating more technically sound drawings, and being happier overall with my work. That being said, the prices I have been charging are not enough and often work out to less than minimum wage.

I have added a new tier on Patreon that gives a 5% discount on all commissions from me, in addition to all the perks on my $5 tier.

Pay What You Want commissions are something I have loved doing, and I want to be able to continue to do them moving forward. I love being able to offer a more affordable, sliding scale commission. This allows access to folks who might not otherwise be able to commission artwork from me. The price increase on my commissions will also make this more sustainable.

In addition to the price change, I have recently adjusted the way that I handle my queue. I have a “Workbench” which contains five things that I am working on currently. This allows me to focus on a smaller amount of projects despite how many pieces are in my queue. I can specialize and give each piece the attention it needs. Each Monday, I refill the workbench to 5 pieces by pulling them from the queue.

I’ve been doing this system for the last few weeks, and it has been a revelation. I am much calmer while working, and I am able to work back and forth with clients in a more personal way that feels really fulfilling. I’m also less likely to be super worried about everything I have on my plate, by focusing on a smaller portion. My work quality has increased from this alone.

My new Standard Commission is an upgraded version of the colored sketch commissions I was offering before. Those who are on my queue for colored sketches have been waiting for a bit, and I am so grateful for their patience. It will still be a little bit, but I am excited to deliver them good quality commissions. As a thank you for their patience and to slightly make up for the time, I’m upgrading all colored sketches on my queue to the new Standard Commission. This means a bit more back and forth, making it a piece we’ll both be happier with.

With all of these changes, I am hopeful that so many other things about my work, my life, and more will improve. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me through commissions, donations, kind words, follows, reblogs, everything. It means the absolute world to me, and I am so excited to keep pushing forward.

<3 Robin

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Please share your reasoning when you get a chance on why you don't believe Theresa Longo Fans. Granted, they have been wrong before.

So the TL;DR of it is:

They're anonymous journalists and that's suspicious.

They haven't updated their brag sheet in 6 years, which means they haven't had a good source in 6 years.

They plagiarize almost everything.

They use vague language and broad generalities in their scoops that lets them take credit no matter what happens.

Keep reading for the longer explanations.

1. I'm always immediately suspicious of anyone in journalism that doesn't use their name. When a journalist is anonymous, especially when they have no need to be like in TLF's case, it's not easy to hold them accountable to lies and mistakes. The two guys behind TLF like to brag about their journalism credentials, and that's huge because there's no way to follow up to make sure they are who they say they are. They rely on "just trust me" authority, and when has that ever worked out? Especially with blind gossip sites (in addition to TLF, this includes CDAN, Blind Gossip, DeuxMoi, and Exposing SMG), you can't verify the accuracy of what they post - especially when you consider that CDAN, Enty, and DeuxMoi all admitted they make stuff up.

(And also ExposingSMG rarely has new information when it comes to the BRF. (They might have sources for other celebs, but I don't pay attention close enough.) Specifically, they just repeat what was being discussed on the blogs and reddit, calling them "my source" so they don't have to cite. BTW, ExposingSMG has since rebranded as Scandalous.Media. They posted about the Sussexes recently and some of their quoted sources or "revelations" are things that have been around for awhile. This one in particular I think is a combination of info from CDAN and SMM.)

I saw somewhere once that the TLF guys don't share their names so they can protect the privacy and confidentiality of their sources. But I call BS. If journalists needed anonymity to protect their sources, then why aren't more journalists reporting anonymously? These two guys are the only people I know that calls themselves journalists who do this, and to me that is suspicious. (Exceptions only for reporters in war zones.)

2. Look at the scoops they take credit for in their pinned tweet: Sussex baby #1, Khloe Kardashian's pregnancy, Kylie Jenner's baby, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's divorce, Megxit, Wendy Williams's show demise, and the Pulse/Orlando nightclub shooting. What these all have in common is that they are events from 2016 - 2019. Meaning they had really good sources, contacts, and access 6-8 years ago. And that list not having anything more recent suggests they don't have the kind of sources, contacts, and access anymore. If they did, and if they were still getting the same sort of accurate scoops that they were 7 years ago, this list would be updated to inclde those more recent events. Why haven't they?

Now, that's not to say they never had good sources. They did have good sources, and whoever it was, their information was solid enough that it upset Meghan enough to get Bouzy to take TLF down. That doesn't really mean anything because a broken clock is still correct twice a day.

3. The tweets themselves are problematic. In fact, most of them are plagiarized.

If there's a direct quote in the tweet, it's plagiarized from some other source/news media and TLF never cites the source. For example, this TLF tweet from January 8th:

It implies that they've interviewed Dominic himself. But they never spoke to Dominic. The quotes come, verbatim, from this January 6th article published by The Mirror.

And for tweets without a direct quote in it, they usually try to pass it off as their own scoop but nine times out of ten, it isn't. For example, this tweet:

It looks like a good scoop. At face value, it is: they know someone who saw Shia at church and connected one plus one.

But #1, when you search "Actor Shia LaBeouf appears to have converted to Catholicism after being seen at a New Year's Eve Mass presided over by Capuchin Franciscan friars," this article from the Associated Press on December 31st comes up:

Almost everything they publish is like this. Go ahead - choose any tweet, copy the text into a search engine, and see what happens.

And #2, look at their verbiage. Specifically, the phrase appears to have in the Shia tweet above. This is how they get away with passing off their stories as scoops, with vague verbage that could go either way. That way, when an article is later published about it, they can grab the "original" tweet and claim credit with "as we told our followers back in..." or "no surprise to our followers..." tweets.

*******************************

Now, specific to royal-watching: they completely and totally missed the ball on big stuff (like Platinum Jubilee and Coronation appearances), but they got it on the smaller stuff (Spare and Frogmore). But the kicker is that the smaller stuff is things that were either written about by royal reporters or was plausible gossip floating around the royal fandom.

The things they were wildly wrong on - for instance, the children being on the balcony at the Platinum Jubilee and the royals hosting a birthday party for Archie after the coronation - were things that came directly from Meghan's PR. So either they didn't realize it was Meghan's PR or they decided to hedge their bets and post it anyway on the off-chance it happened, which I think is in poor taste but it makes for very fun entertainment.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for faking my death?

I [26M] had just been through a year that felt like I was going through hell. First, a friend from childhood shows up out of nowhere and makes me start questioning my world views. Then I was framed for murder, which led to me finding out that the man who raised and mentored me for the past 15 years was the one who killed my dad when I was 10. Then some rumors about me got proven true because one of my bosses tricked me into lying.

So after all that, I needed to get away for a bit. I left a note on my desk saying “[title and name] has chosen death,” and left for another continent for a year to reflect. I told one coworker so he could handle my affairs while I was gone.

I thought it was an obvious bit of poetic license about how I was leaving my old world view behind and becoming a new person (hence me including my job title and not just my name). However, when I arrived home a year later, my childhood companion and my adopted sister were furious for me leaving them to grieve for a year.

I now see how the note could have been misleading, but these are two curious individuals who seldom stay out of my personal matters. Did neither of them really think to check for a death certificate? Wonder why my house hadn’t been sold and who was paying someone to do lawn maintenance? Perhaps my friend I can forgive his obliviousness, but my sister would surely have access as my emergency contact to find enough evidence to prove I was alive. The fact that my bank account wasn’t closed and I was still getting prescriptions.

I understand how my poetic note was misleading, but surely there was enough other evidence of me not actually being dead.

So, AITA for unintentionally faking my death?

[always-is-always]

Please help report this IG account! This woman who goes by “Biko” is paying a Sasaeng for photos, videos and for access to JK’s iCloud.

She’s been talking about the photos that JK has on his iCloud like it’s not an invasion of privacy or his rights. She’s breaking laws and paying others who break them as well.

She has a large following. She has a Telegram account also. I personally think she’s deranged and missing a few functioning brain cells. Somehow she believes that it’s okay to pay for the information and then share it.

Of course her biggest claim is that JK has a girlfriend.

She’s the one who leaked the video from the boxing gym, as well as the pictures and video of JK smoking outside of that restaurant in LA.

Like I said, she is a nutcase.

I periodically take screenshots of things she posts and claims on her IG. She posts all of the “info” about idols in her stories, so things disappear quickly.

The account is set to “private”, so a person has to wait for her approval to follow the account.

Here’s a screenshot from a photo she had shared earlier today. She’s saying that a sasaeng took it through JK’s freaking window!!!

Please help out with reporting her. She’s a person who thinks nothing about sharing JK’s private information. It’s like she is an entitled spoiled little princess…. Makes my stomach turn.

Thank you for sharing this and helping to report her.

We must do what we can to protect our beloved Jungkook.

[not-poignant]

Hi there! I absolutely love your works and, having followed you for a while now, I also really admire you as a person and an author in general. Every update on AO3 and Tumblr is always such a delight. I'm sorry if this ask is coming out of the blue or if it's something you've been asked before, but how did you take the plunge from writing predominantly fanfic to posting original fiction in serial form and also self-publishing novels? I'm currently in the process of drafting two original works after writing/posting fanfic regularly for years, and I'm just lost as to how to set everything up. I have a general idea (post chapter-by-chapter on AO3 and offer early access and some exclusive content on patreon or some other subscription service), but it all feels so daunting right now. Any bit of info or advice on how you got started would be immensely appreciated <3

Hi anon,

Tbh, I went from writing fanfic to original fiction because I had original characters in my fanfiction and readers asked me about them.

I had no kind of...dreams of being an original author in this way, I was published via other pathways already, and fanfiction was really an escape for me, a chance to break with all the conventions of standard writing and just do what I wanted.

But I needed a broader cast than what the movie gave me re: my first fanfics, and I added my own OCs, and left them in the background as much as possible, but even back while writing that fanfic, even the OCs were getting fanart. Sometimes readers would send me anons about them, or ask me more details about them.

Finally, I decided to write some hatesex between them, just something to kind of...idk get it out of my system? Answer what the readers were looking for?

The flow through therefore felt natural. Game Theory flows very naturally on from From the Darkness We Rise & Into Shadows We Fall. And from there, moving into other original works has been easy, in part, because I've often being doing alternate universes from a core of original characters.

If I want to introduce new original characters, I introduce them in stories where pre-existing original characters have already been established.

I didn't even start writing original works with a view to making money off that. In fact I thought it was a very foolish thing to do. A lot of people on AO3 don't want to read original works on AO3 and refuse to do it or only do it if it's PWP / pornography.

I started my Patreon account because readers asked me to. I got asks from very very generous people who wanted to know my Paypal, or asked if I'd start a Ko-Fi, and finally a few people just asked if I'd start a Patreon. I said I didn't think it was a good idea, and they said it was up to them if they wanted to pay me or not, but I should at least consider giving them the choice.

From there, I found it all very overwhelming. I made lots of mistakes. I had to go on hiatus for a year because I promised too much and couldn't deliver on many of those rewards. And for many years I only offered one early access chapter per week for one story, and my main stories were never early access (and still aren't, Underline the Black goes up for everyone at the same time - and while that may change in the future, it's definitely unconventional).

I've always been transparent with my readers that with very few exceptions, if they just wait, they eventually get everything for free. But if they want to support this kind of writing and/or enjoy it, and can comfortably afford to send some dollars my way, they can ensure that I can keep writing this way.

I have for a long time offered no exclusive content at all, I believe that can do well, but it's not my preferred way of doing things.

This career has been incredibly reader driven, anon. I would not personally attempt it cold, without a really fantastic readerbase who encouraged me every step of the way in the first place, because I am a cautious, insecure writer who doesn't like to take risks. So I can't give you advice on how to build this career without the support of the readers there in the first place, and I believe the only reason why I had their support was, in part, because of the actual strength of the writing itself. Which isn't to say it's the best, it's not, it's what I needed at the time and it's what a few other people needed, and that's basically how this works.

If you turn up with the writing, and the audience comes, and they want the story, you have the career.

In terms of practical advice - you can introduce original characters in fanfiction, just be aware that readers tend to be hostile by default if they pull any significant 'screen time' away from the fandom characters (and readers are extremely savvy to authors trying to build a financial business through AO3)

It IS daunting, but the good news is you can do a soft launch. You can open a Patreon or Ream account tomorrow and tell no one. You can mess with your graphics and your tier rewards to your heart's content when you don't have any subscribers. Build a buffer of early access/chapters, and make sure you don't overpromise on anything. Whatever you think you can realistically deliver to readers, cut it in half, because the stress of chapter update deadlines every month can really add up and it's a very different landscape to novel releases.

You can take your time, you can build interest slowly.

Remember you can never ever mention any kind of site where you're getting paid inadvertently, sneakily, or directly on AO3. You can't mention Ream, you can't mention Patreon, you can't mention Ko-Fi, you can't go 'learn more about my writing here' and link to those places. You can't mention buy links. You can only mention sites like Tumblr, Linktree, Twitter etc. Places where the point of sale isn't happening. Not doing so risks AO3's Not For Profit status and risks your entire account, and it's not worth it.

I did an interview with Subscriptions for Authors where I actually talk about many of these things so you can watch (or listen to) the podcast here if you're inclined! It also talks about the importance of community-building, gratitude to the readers, and generosity.

I am here because my readers wanted me to be. So I'm very concerned with making sure I can give them the best writing possible within my abilities. This makes me not very suited to offering 'how to start in this career' advice because it was a happy accident. It's hard to teach something I have never done your way myself, anon, because I worry I'd give bad advice. My writing had people turning up, but I'm not sure anything else I did, added much! I think responding to Tumblr asks and replying to every comment helped too! But...I don't know for sure.

But this career path does make me pretty well suited to offering 'how to keep this going' advice, because I've been doing this for ten years. <3333

[kwaggysshardmindemporium]

I've been using Pokemon Sleep for about five weeks now. Here's some thoughts below the cut. It's a long one.

First, my opinions about the nuts and bolts of how it works. This is... mostly complaints.

- The monetization in this game is absolutely disgusting. Like just heinous. If you're the kind of person that needs to avoid stuff with microtransactions, do not install this game. I haven't given them a dime, but I've also at this point built up a strong resistance to monetization tricks. DO NOT let your kids play this game if they have a credit/debit card hooked up to their accounts.

- On the flip side, credit where due, when they say on the load screen that you can play 100% of the game without paying, this is true. You'll progress faster and with less effort if you pony up some cash, but the game gives you a decent stream of the premium currency, Diamonds, that will get you access to whatever niceties you'd like. If I wanted something that requires the premium currency to get, I haven't found myself walled behind a massive wait for the drip feed to catch up.

- The game wants roughly thirty minutes to an hour of your time a day not counting the sleep tracking. Three ten to twenty minute chunks. One in the morning to review last night's sleep data and feed Snorlax breakfast, one in the afternoon for lunch, and then one or two in the evening for dinner and switching on the sleep tracking.

- When the app tells you to put your phone on the bed for the sleep tracking, this is actually NECESSARY for how it functions. I had assumed it just uses audio to gauge if you snore or whatever (which it does), but it also uses your phone's accelerometer to determine if you're tossing and turning and by extension how deep you're sleeping. If you put it on a bedside table or something, it'll give you a readout saying you slept like an absolute fucking ROCK. If you're like me and toss and turn a lot, you can actually use this to cheese the game a little since certain Pokemon only appear when you sleep deeper and those are for me quite hard to get without this cheese. I would go so far as to actively recommend this tactic.

- You may notice that's kind of a creepy amount of data to collect and it feels kind of like inviting a stalker into your bedroom. You are correct. The app assures you that the actual sleep data does NOT get transmitted at all. I do not have anything other than their word to confirm that. I don't know if what it collects is fairly standard for other apps like it, but my assumption is yes?

- Because of how it tracks your sleep info, if you sleep with a partner in the same bed it completely skullfucks its tracking.

- If you have an even slightly older phone, the app chugs whenever you try to click anything. There's like a one-second lag on every click in the menu followed by a short load screen. Those 10-20 minute sessions would be about half as long if I had a phone with more processing speed.

Now all the above might sound damning as hell. But here's the thing. I like this app a lot actually. It's DEEPLY flawed, but let's talk about the game's mechanics, which is mostly positives:

- Right at the top, this app has improved my sleep schedule, pardon the pun, practically overnight. My new PC has told me twice now that step one to fixing most of my mental health issues is healthier sleep, which he knows is hard but you gotta try. I've been hesitant to take the meds he prescribed for that, but I heard about this app and figured gamifying sleeping on time would be a great way to get me to actually do it. Worked like a charm. The game asks what you'd like your nightly bedtime to be, and gives you rewards for maintaining it. You get these rewards if you go to sleep either 90 minutes prior to that time, or 30 minutes after. My doctor recommended 30 in each direction for consistency, but they don't send you a reminder notification until that 30 minute mark prior so partial credit I guess? I've missed that bedtime like 3 times in these last five weeks, and yeah my everything is way better.

- Looking at the Pokemon wandering my camp makes my brain make the happy juice in a way most Pokemon stuff really doesn't anymore. Like, there's no battles or anything (although you apparently can transfer to and from Pokemon Go, don't know how well that works because I don't play), so you just get a pleasant kind of domesticity most Pokemon stuff doesn't do.

- Here's the actual gameplay loop. You're researching Pokemon sleep patterns. To do this, you're using some nonsense machine that amplifies local Snorlax's natural aura of sleepiness to attract Pokemon to come sleep by it. Snorlax's are apparently the capybaras of the Pokeworld which I actually love. The more you feed Snorlax, the more powerful this sleepy aura becomes. It resets each week because you go to a new campsite with a new Snorlax. During the day, your team of Pokemon (max of... 5 for some reason instead of the default six everywhere else in this franchise?) gather berries to feed your Snorlax throughout the day in idle-game-esque timers, as well as ingredients for more complicated meals. You take the ingredients, make Snorlax meals up to three times a day (6am-noon for breakfast, noon-6pm for lunch, 6pm-6am for dinner). Each pokemon also has an ability that in some way helps you out. Then you can at any time turn on the sleep tracking, then turn it off when you wake up. After a rest of 90+ minutes has been tracked, it gives you a total of how much power that rest generated, and takes you to a minigame where you photograph the sleeping Pokemon that came to rest in your camp. The more power, the more varied the sleeping positions and the rarer the Pokemon. You can then feed them biscuits to befriend them. You get the equivalent of a Great Ball(/Biscuit) every day which on its own fills about 3/5 of a non-evolved Pokemon's friendship bar (the basic biscuit that you'll use most of the time fills 1/5), so there's always at least some progress towards making a friend. Sometimes a Pokemon is extra hungry and the first thing you feed them is worth triple, and you can also get that same multiplier as an RNG thing without warning. Once you fill up a bar, you've befriended that Pokemon and can now add it to your teams or send it to the professor for candies like you do in Pokemon Go. You are also given candies for every Pokemon you attracted even if you don't befriend them, plus "Sleep Points" based on how long you slept for that can be exchanged for items like more biscuits (for reference, a single basic biscuit is roughly 1.5 times a good night's sleep... fucking YIKES) plus "Dream Shards" for how cool the photos you took are, which are used mostly for leveling up your Pokemon and upgrading your camp.

- I love this gameplay loop actually. It feels way more like these Pokemon are my friends as opposed to wild animals I've caught.

- Leveling up and evolving take large amounts of those candies and dream shards. The candies feel like the primary gate on progression.

Overall, this is a game I like a lot despite its flaws, and the positive impact it's had on my health even in this short span is hard to understate. I wish they'd back off with the creepy monetization so I could actively recommend instead of recommend with an asterisk. But yeah that's my thoughts on this weird ass product.

[kierancampire]

Please, laugh at me. I'm a fucking idiot.

So I am expecting a package from Royal Mail but have had a few issues with deliveries, so when I got a text saying something went wrong, I thought "Fuck sake they did it again 🙄". I somehow failed to notice the text wasn't from Royal Mail, or that my phone suggested it was a scam, so that was failure number one. When I then clicked the link and it asked me to pay, I somehow didn't find that odd, failure number two. I then didn't notice the weird layout of the text in the payment demand, failure number three. So I put in all my details, and gave the scammers my details. The moment I hit send I realised what just happened. And then immediately after I get a text showing my card details have been stolen.

What was completely fucking embarrassing though, cause I immediately knew what happened, I raced to call my bank before anything could happen. And the way these people spoke to me. I can't even get mad cause I clearly fucking deserved it. They were telling me that the police never would ask me to pay them for helping me recover lost money, so never pay them, they were telling me never to trust links or random texts, to never give my details to people. They were talking to me like I was a senile 80 year old man. And I can't get mad cause in that moment I was. I fucking fell for a Royal Mail scam.

I dunno how, but my bank knew all the details I gave them, the texts I received, everything, I had no idea they could access all that info tied to my account, makes sense I suppose. So they froze my card, and are now issuing me a new one, which I am fucking pissed about as I have always had the same details and it took me years to remember them :') I'm an idiot.

[ktechnicolour]

Hey KT, It's Asher (Gottard) I've been offline for a bit but I was just about to ask on your discord if anyone has any tips or tricks for drawing hands when I saw your server is gone? That or I've been ousted which is perfectly fine... but I thought I'd find a way to get in touch in case the server has gone bye bye.

TLDR: KTechnicord was deleted by the hacker who stole my account. So, a little backstory on this; about 3 weeks back, my account got hacked via discord. this included my email address connected to my steam, my twitter and just about every account I have. i fought with Microsoft help for 2 weeks only to be told that since the recovery account had been changed by the hacker, there was no way they could recover that email and so they deactivated the account instead. I have also been fighting discord support trying to explain that I have no access to the original email and that I was happy to provide any info needed and had the invoices to prove I was still paying nitro on the account. I tried my best to explain the gravity of the situation and that my KTechnicord server meant the world to me. i reached out on twitter, twitter dms, emails, multiple support tickets and got ignored by all of them. Discord took so long that the thing i feared most happened, and KTechnicord was deleted. I honestly have no words to describe how devastated i am. i still intend to fight for my account back even if it means taking legal action against discord for their abysmal support systems. once I finally get a yes or no on recovering my original discord account I will be remaking KTechnicord. but for now I'm still processing the loss of the server that's been a home to me since 2017. that's 5 years of community building and memories that I will never get back. I will put up a post here when I know a little more of whats going on and what the plan for KTechnicord is going forward. until then i hope youre all staying safe yourselves and please please please make sure all your accounts have 2fA and phone numbers connected to them where you can.

[strike-another-match]

to give the younger generation an idea of why we say the internet used to be like the wild west:

when i was 14 and pennyless in spain i could get little cardboard burner debit cards with any amount i wanted on them, specifically designed for internet purchases, that could not be traced back to me in any way (people were extremely wary of putting any of their personal info on the internet back then, much less credit card information!), and many business like the itunes store (now called apple music i believe) would let you buy all you wanted and then charge you weekly for the sum of the purchases. to make an american account i just picked a random address (i think i even used the white house's address once) and a fake name and added my little burner debit card as payment information. the card maybe had $1 on it, but i could buy anything i wanted during the week (apps, tv episodes, movies, music, etc.) because subscriptions were not a thing, once i bought it, the actual file was downloaded on my device. id get bills of hundreds of dollars for these digital goods and not pay a single cent for any of it because the "client" was a fake name paying with a credit card that belonged to nobody. if i wanted to do it again i just needed to make another account with another burner card and voilá. i can't stress enough that i was poor as fuck and underage so imagine the thrill of being able to access stuff that not even my rich spanish classmates had bc they were not available in spain. later at 18 or so i remember signing up for an american netflix account from spain before region locking was a thing... you could just... do things with no restriction or security the systems would simply let you and most things could be used fully anonymously it was great. obviously the "we will bill you a week later for this movie" exploit needed to be patched out but man i miss the anonymity and the way nothing was connected to anything else or required verification / association with your real world self in some way

[aghostinmyownmachine]

dbh-adjacent writing-program nonsense under the cut, a.k.a. let's talk a bit about WriteMonkey 3

I've used WriteMonkey 2 and 3 on and off for. hm. I guess it's gotta be eight or nine years now? but those instances of use have always been erratic and short lived, and I've usually returned to either Scrivener or, more frequently for many reasons, MS Word. (I also did just a ton of first-draft writing in discord back when I had an account and c/ped my writing from there into Word. near-peerless syncing between devices, appalling security practices. what can ya do 🙃)

anyway, due to ~circumstances~ I've switched to writing on a computer that isn't my writing program–filled work laptop, and so I've been experimenting with WM3 again because it's super lightweight due to plaintext markdown instead of rich text and I have a license key for it, which = fun plugins. it's also way less complicated and labor intensive to set up per project and use than, say, Scrivener. I love Scrivener! but scriv can be overwhelming and distracting when all I want to do is write, especially if I want a unique, quick-to-set-up theme (and I always do, because Aesthetic Is Everything), which is one of the reasons WM3 is so handy

in addition to the gorgeous stripped-down UI that showcases whatever background I choose (mine can be found here!), WM3 has some really neat little plugins? I don't actually use the word-frequency checker myself, but WM3's shows you where each word appears in the document via the little indicator bars to the right of the word, which. rad! (you can tell at a glance which chapters are written in whose POV based off name usage alone and I think that's neat.) also, when you click on a given word in the frequency list, it'll highlight that word throughout the document and also display all uses of it vertically over the scroll bar path. lots of nice little visual indicators of what's going on. I just really like the design, it's simple but extremely useful and intuitive

admittedly, Scrivener cannot be beat when it comes to how easily you're able to make notes in it due to its multitude of note-taking locations, plus it has internal splitscreen capabilities that make referencing a second document a breeze, so there's definitely a mental transition involved when it comes to WM3 and its single-document-at-a-time system, on top of switching to markdown-style comments/reminders. that said! being able to not only see those comments below the headings in the left-hand sidebar but also jump to them when they're clicked? stellar 10/10 would use again

finally, the repository. I <3 the repository. being able to quickly toss whatever text I'm not quite ready to delete or info I know I'll want to reference at some point in the future into the repository is great. it's a seamless process, only a couple seconds' worth of effort required, allowing my focus to stay on what I'm writing instead of distracting myself by tabbing my way through various open files to find my notes. plus the repository is searchable(!!!!!), and using it also keeps the actual text editor clean visually, especially since the right-hand sidebar can be hidden too:

hm! possibly that is a sneak preview of chapter one! who can say!

so yeah! if you're looking for a stripped-down, highly customizable, portable writing program, I absolutely recommend it. there are downsides, of course, the biggest one being no official WM3 mobile options available at present, but since the program is both portable and plaintext, you can toss it into a syncing service and access it via your handheld devices that way. it's also not open source, and you need to pay to access the truly useful plugin features. with all that said, if you don't mind fiddling around with some CSS to make everything look juuuuuuuuust right, you can get yourself a really snazzy setup with relatively little effort. but maybe that's just me—aesthetic is king and all that

[p-redux]

WARNING TO ALL FANS REGARDING SCAMMERS POSING AS SAM HEUGHAN (Info Directly From Some Of The Victims)

I'm doing a post about this because, over the last year or so, I was approached by at least 4 women who were scammed by Fake Sam and I thought it was important to let fans know the extent of these scams. I want to warn people and hopefully, prevent others from suffering the same fate.

Click on Keep reading for the rest of my post. It's super long because I provide a lot of the details I was told--I think it's valuable info to have.

Soooo, we've all seen Sam periodically post these warnings letting fans know to be careful of scammers posing as him or someone associated with him. And being clear he DOES NOT, WILL NEVER message fans, including on other platforms, such as Google Hangouts or WhatsApp

👇

And a little while ago, there was even an article that addressed this. It talked in detail about a few fans who had gotten scammed out of money by a Fake Sam, and also one woman thought she was in a romantic relationship with Sam. Sadly, they were being fooled. 👇

So, you may have read the article above and thought to yourself, "How could these women believe that was Sam, how could they fall for it? That would never happen to me, I know better." Well, you'd be surprised how sophisticated and manipulative these con artists are.

Here is the experience I had with some fans who DMed me about what happened to them. I'm posting this because it seemed to happen more often than I thought and it happened to women who are intelligent and have life experience. I'm not going to post any identifying info or give too much away about who they are. My main point is to let people know the extent of these con jobs and how far they go, so people can be more vigilant.

A few of the women were approached on Google Hangouts, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc., and were convinced by Fake Sam that it was him. I won't get too into those details because I want to focus on two cases that are very disturbing and these two are much more intricate. And I do think even people who look for red flags could fall for this one type of scam. Let me tell you about it.

These two women in particular were victims of what I call "the long con." Some of these scammers are able to reel people in for years because they have multiple people they're scamming at once, therefore, they can take their time, and make more money that way. While they wait for one victim to fall for the scam, they have several others they are already scamming.

These two women had similar stories. But they don't know each other. They each DMed me to let me know that they met Sam at an Outlander fan convention and at an Outlander fan meet and greet a couple of years ago. They gave Sam something with their name on it, ie. business card, social media account name, something they made for him, or they directly told him their name. Fake Sam later contacted them online to thank them. The account looked just like Sam's verified social media accounts with the same profile pic and with the verified blue check! (As an aside, now that Twitter lets anyone pay a fee and get a blue check verified account, these types of impostors will be even more rampant).

Anyway, after Fake Sam contacted them on his fake "verified" account, he asked them to create an e-mail solely for communicating with him and he would do the same. He said this was necessary because if he continued to communicate on his "verified" account, sometimes his team would have access to it, and they may see the messages. Of course, this was all part of the ruse to make it more believable and create a special secret bond with the victims.

The women believed it was the real Sam because he knew details about what had happened at the convention/meet and greet and described what the women looked like and what they were wearing at the convention/meet and greet! Fake Sam then started communicating with them regularly, all platonic and friendly at first. He won their trust over time, telling them supposed "insider" tidbits that they believed only real Sam would know. The truth was that everything Fake Sam told them were things already out in the fandom or things that anyone could find out if they did a deep data mine, or things certain fan groups were privy to. More on that later...

After months and months of communicating with them, Fake Sam started to reveal that he had developed romantic feelings for them, he made them feel special. He told them despite all his fame and fortune, he was "lonely," and didn't actually have too many close friends. He told them that the women he dated were casual and he didn't have real feelings for them, and that the victims were the only ones who truly understood him. That all his other relationships with younger women, that he realized the women were immature, and he was coming to terms with how much he valued women who were more mature. Imagine how heady that would be for someone, let's just say over 40 aka a mature woman, to hear from someone as gorgeous and sexy as Sam. Very hard to resist. To be clear, Real Sam never said any of the above. This was all Fake Sam.

After over about ONE YEAR of communicating this way, when Fake Sam had good and well won these women's trust and made them feel like he had real romantic feelings for them. And that they knew his secrets, and they had a special bond, Fake Sam suddenly had...you guessed it--"financial troubles" and began asking for money.

Fake Sam made up stories that seemed plausible. He used the special bond he'd cultivated for so long to his advantage. He told them that he couldn't ask family or friends for the money because he was in legal trouble and was "too embarrassed," and didn't want his family or friends to know. But, that since he trusted the victims and he knew "you would never reveal my secrets," that they were "the only person I can turn to for help." Again, all very seductive and hard to resist. Once he established how desperate for help he was, Fake Sam gave even more credence to the story by involving "contacts" he had in the US and the UK. Supposed "management" or his "team" that "people didn't know about" because they took care of his finances behind the scenes. This Fake Management then started to communicate with the victims directly and give info on how to either wire money or directly route to a bank. It all seemed legit and on the up and up if it involved an actual bank.

At this point, most people would ask to talk to Sam on the phone or Facetime, or talk to his supposed management, right? Well, these women did just that. And guess what happened? They actually were given cell phone numbers to call these "managers" and they did talk to them on the phone! Some of the "managers" were female and some were male. And they either had an American accent or an English accent. But, doing their due diligence, the victims asked to talk directly to Sam. One woman thought she was talking to Sam, she said the person sounded "just like Sam." And the other woman insisted on a video call with Sam. And she thought she was talking to real Sam. Well, guess what? For those who are not aware, there is now technology that can fake someone's voice. And even technology that can fake Facetime calls. Google "deepfakes" of celebrities and you will see the scary truth. So, these scammers used advanced technology to literally fake Sam's voice and even his face! The fake videos can only "talk" for so long and can only "say" limited things, so the scammers would find some excuse why the video call dropped, but still it was convincing enough.

So, now that for over a year or more, Fake Sam haddeveloped a relationship with these women, bonded with them, won their trust, he and his "management" asked for the "special" help that only the victims could give. And thus, began the multiple money requests. Lots of money, but only a little at a time, so it wouldn't seem so bad. The scammers explained that Fake Sam was in trouble and if they didn't help him he could face legal problems, "including prison." No one wants to see Sam in prison if they have the means to prevent it, right? The Fake Managers and Fake Sam continued to communicate regularly with the victims and continued to rob them of their hard earned money. Both cases went on for two years!

Eventually, Fake Sam stopped communicating and now the Fake Managers started to align with the victims against Fake Sam by complaining that they weren't getting paid by Sam. Fake Sam promised the victims he would pay them back and also promised to meet them in person. When the scammers had milked the victims of as much money as they knew they could get, they started to back off, communication trickled in. But they didn't want the victims to figure out it was all a lie, so they now made it like Sam was not paying them either and they were going to quit. In the end, Fake Sam stopped communicating and the Fake Managers "quit" for non payment of salaries by Fake Sam.

Even though, Sam is a millionaire, with plenty of rich and famous friends who could help him out if need be, Fake Sam convinced the victims that he couldn't ask those he knew for help because he was "embarrassed" to and because he was "in legal trouble." Devastatingly, one victim lost over $100,000 and another almost $200,000. Yes, you read that right. It's heartbreaking.

I posted this to let people know these scams are real and they continue to happen. And also, to give you my theory on WHO is behind these particular ones, in order to WARN OUTLANDER FANS. The main thing that "hooked" the victims into believing this was real Sam was that he gave them very specific details about their time with him at the conventions and meet and greets AND that he described what the they looked like, including what they were wearing. WHO ELSE but real Sam would know that? Um, OTHER OUTLANDER FANS who were also nearby watching and listening at these conventions and meet and greets! I know, I have goosebumps too. Scarily, my friends, I think these scams are an INSIDE FANDOM JOB. The scammers had to have been there to know details about the victims. In addition, all the insider Sam and fandom info they gave the victims are only things long time fans would know. Soooo, please be very careful at future conventions and meet and greets...and if "Sam" or his "management" happens to contact you afterwards--JUST SAY NO.

And, yes, Sam is well aware. That's why he keeps posting warnings. And the fans talking to Fake Sams continue to think the warnings don't apply to them. Trust me, they do. I'm not going to say more as to not jeopardize anything that's being done to stop these scammers.

PS. Please no victim bashing in the comments. Let's practice compassion for those who have already suffered enough.

Mind blown, right?

[cophene]

004 || ☆ ⁺ « EVER HEARD OF A MAN NAMED ZERO.

previous chapter || next chapter || table of contents

pairing : vento aureo x gn reader summary : with virtually nothing left in their credit account, a gang of space thieves turn to the richest man in the galaxy to give them  a job worth millions. too bad those never come easy, even with stand abilities and pretty-faced crew notes : sci-fi au, multi-chapter fic, sfw, doesn’t follow canon plot word count : 3.2k+

★˚⋆ FOR A SECOND, YOU ALL just stared at the turtle as though it had announced it was going to explode instead of requesting a higher vantage point. You nodded at Narancia, who hesitantly lifted the turtle onto the table and immediately scooted his chair back. The crew formed a cautious semi-circle around the turtle.

[ ALRIGHT, SO YOU WANT THE LONG EXPLANATION OR THE SHORT ONE? ]

Why did this turtle sound so snarky? It reminded you of the virus Narancia had accidentally installed onto the ship's console when he'd downloaded that first-person shooter off a pirating website. The ship's systems had been stuck with the voice of a snooty Australian woman for a week.

Trish cleared her throat. "The long one, if you please. We'd like to know what's going on here."

The turtle paused for a moment. [ I AM COCO JUMBO, A HIGHLY ADVANCED ADVANCED COMPUTER PROGRAM INSTALLED ON THIS TURTLE FOR REASONS AND BY PEOPLE YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW ABOUT. NOT YET, AT LEAST. ANY INFORMATION, DATA OR CALCULATIONS YOU NEED CAN BE DONE INSTANTANEOUSLY. CONSIDER ME A HOLOPAD, EXCEPT TEN TIMES SMARTER AND WITH TEN TIMES THE PERSONALITY. ]

"Not very humble, are we?" Mista muttered.

"Is the turtle itself real?" asked Fugo.

[ OBVIOUSLY NOT, OR IT WOULD HAVE DIED WITH ALL THE MANHANDLING YOU DID. ]

"Who's your creator?" said Trish.

[ THAT'S CONFIDENTIAL. ]

Narancia made a face. "Didn't you just say you could tell us anything?"

[ WITHIN REASON. ]

"Why did you just start talking all of a sudden?" you asked. Your elector had lowered itself without you noticing. "Why were you just lying around if you're so high-tech?"

[ YOU HAPPENED TO BE EXTREMELY FORTUNATE IN SPEAKING THE PASSWORD OUT LOUD. IT WAS BELIEVED MY BEING HOUSED IN A TURTLE WAS SECURITY ENOUGH. LOCKING ME IN LAYERS AND LAYERS OF SECURITY WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE OF BEING EASILY ACCESSIBLE. ]

"Yeah, because most computers are on a holopad," Mista griped under his breath. You pinched him and he made a face.

Fugo squinted down at the turtle. "Your password was your own name? How is that a password?"

[ IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH TO FIGURE IT OUT. ]

"And it was by coincidence, too," murmured Trish.

"I still don't get it," you said. "Why are you talking to us? Don't have any protocol in place to protect your user's info? You're acting like we're your owners now."

[ BECAUSE YOU ARE. ]

"Technically, yeah, since we stole you. But we mean, your legit owners," Narancia said.

The turtle shuffled a slow circle around the table. You were about to repeat your question when it said, [ I WAS DECOMMISSIONED ACTUALLY. MY OWNER ... WASN'T PLEASED WITH MY PERFORMANCE, ALTHOUGH I COULDN'T TELL YOU WHY. I AM PERFECTLY SPECTACULAR. MY MEMORY BANKS AND INFO STORAGE WERE WIPED. I WAS GOING TO BE PUT UP FOR AUCTION. ]

"This is a load of flack," said Mista. "I say we flush this thing. Luca's not going to pay us a credit once he sees this."

[ YOU WOULD FLUSH THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER IN THE GALAXY? ]

"Man, shut up. You're not any smarter than my holopad."

[ TRY ME THEN. SEE HOW MUCH I KNOW. ]

For the next ten minutes, your crew peppered the turtle with all manner of questions, from how many stars there were in the galaxy to who the current Emperor was. Coco Jumbo's banks of knowledge were quite impressive, and as time went on, you started to believe its claim of being a supercomputer.

"Alright, we believe you," you said. "Although, this doesn't change our plans. If anything, it'll just make our case to Luca that you're worth a lot more than 10k."

[ YOU'RE GOING TO SELL ME? AFTER EVERYTHING I JUST TOLD YOU? THAT'S JUST AS BAD AS FLUSHING ME OUT THE AIRLOCK! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW USEFUL I COULD BE? ]

"Credits are credits." You shrugged. "It'd be nice to have you around, but unless you can scrounge up enough money to get our ship repaired, we're selling you."

[ YOU'RE THE BEST THIEVING CREW IN THE GALAXY. THINK OF HOW MUCH BETTER YOU'D BE WITH A SUPERCOMPUTER ON YOUR TEAM. I'D BE ABLE TO HACK INTO ANY BUILDING, GET YOU FAKE IDENTS, ANYTHING! ] 

Was it just you, or did Coco Jumbo sound a little desperate? At any rate, you didn't blame its previous owner for wanting to sell the thing.

"For all we know, you've been planted here by Inspector Asswipe," said Narancia in a low voice. "You could be pulling all our data and flushing it to the Galactic Authorities as we speak."

Trish crossed her arms over her chest. "We're putting ourselves at a risk by trusting that you have our best interests at heart. If anyone were to get a hold of you, they'd know all of our plans, contacts and goods. We'd be done for."

Coco Jumbo's head shifted. It was thinking, you realized. It probably had expected you to fall on your knees in awe of its intelligence. This wall of resistance hadn't been calculated for.

[ YOU'RE IN A TIGHT SPOT. ] said Coco Jumbo. [ YOU'RE LOW ON FUNDS AND IN MASSIVE DEBT. IT'S A MIRACLE YOUR SHIP IS EVEN FLYING. ]

"What are you getting at?" Mista said, scowling.

[ YOU'RE GOING TO THE HUB, RIGHT? I KNOW A WAY TO GET YOU OUT OF DEBT AND REFILL YOUR ACCOUNT. I KNOW A WAY YOU COULD REPAIR YOUR SHIP. ACTUALLY, YOU COULD BUY THIS SHIP TEN TIMES OVER, IF YOU WANTED. ]

You could sense the suspicion stirring among your crew. Coco Jumbo had been cute, but now it was starting to sound calculating. Conniving, almost.

[ YOU EVER HEARD OF A MAN NAMED ZERO? ]

You exchanged glances with your crew. You made it a point to stay out of galactic politics, but Zero was someone everyone knew about, the way everyone knew about the Emperor. He'd been named the richest person in the Milky Way seven times in a row by holomags, second only to a jack-of-all-trades named Diavolo and the Imperial family. But then Diavolo had been caught up in drug trafficking and assault allegations, earning a death sentence by the Emperor when they turned out to be true. So you supposed that made Zero the richest man in the galaxy now.

Zero was coldly lethal. He asked for the most illicit and extortionate of items—items most people thought weren't even possible to steal. Because of that, gains from Zero were astronomical. He was the richest man in the galaxy, and his payments showed. Most crews could only ever dream of being called on by him. It went without saying that he didn't take failure kindly. He was a regular of the Milky Way black market and intimately familiar with which crews dealt in what. Stars, most people thought he was in charge of the black market.

And there was the tiny issue of crews not being able to deliver on their jobs winding up dead. Zero was a Stand user. That wasn't a fact or anything, but all of your crew had suspected since the first time you'd heard of the guy. It was the only way he could've killed so many people off without the GA's catching wind of it. Stars knew what his ability was, but it wasn't anything to sneeze at, that was for sure.

"Are you being serious?" said Fugo tightly. "Crews can't just ask Zero for a job. Not only is that presumptuous, it's highly insulting. He'd sooner turn us over the Galactic Authorities than give us a job."

[ I'M NOT TRYING TO INSULT ANYONE. ZERO IS ONE POSSIBILITY OUT OF A DOZEN. HE JUST HAPPENS TO BE THE ONE WITH THE HIGHEST ODDS OF SUCCESS FOR YOUR CREW. ]

There was a pause.

[ WHY HAVEN'T YOU GONE TO HIM YOURSELF ALREADY? IF YOU CALL YOURSELVES THE BEST? ]

Because that crew was light years ago. Because we can barely scrape up pocket change.

Because he made me promise never to accept a job from Zero.

"I think the turtle's got a point," said Narancia. "Why haven't we gone to Zero? With where we are now, he seems like the only one who can get us out."

Trish shook her head. "You've seen the holo-casts. A job from him would be near impossible. We're not where we used to be. We don't have the resources to pull something like that off."

"But we could get the resources. From Zero." Narancia turned to look at you. "Right, Cap? You said that you wanted a job before we left the Hub. At least I think you did anyway. Well, here's our job."

"But we don't even know if Zero has a job right now," Mista cut in.

"This is Zero we're talking about. He's always got his eye on one thing or another."

Fugo raised his voice. "Are we talking about the same man here? Crews that get caught stealing for him receive life sentences. He steals from the Imperial family, for stars' sake. Would taking a risk like that be worth it?"

"Look at us, Fugo." Narancia raised his arms, gesturing to the whole of the ship. "Seems worth it to me."

That quieted your crew. They ran their eyes over the dilapidated galley, probably thinking about when it had been shiny and sleek and actually usable. They were probably thinking about the tearing seats in the bridge and rundown engine room and the bay doors that creaked protest every time they opened.

You could see them warming to the idea, tentative hope softening the uncertainty. This yawning chasm they were about to jump into had a bottom, didn't it? It would be terrifying and potentially deadly, but how would they know if they kept peering over the edge?

Your thoughts chased each other around your head. You were wary about approaching Zero, of course you were. The richer people were, the harsher the consequences tended to be when you failed. But your crew rarely failed, at least not where retrievals were concerned. Your Stands made sure of that. That was an advantage a lot of other crews didn't have, and if you told Zero about it, it'd probably give you some sway.

The part of you that was still a starry-eyed kid on Solymus yelled at you to take the chance. This was what you'd wanted when you'd started your crew. These high-profile missions with all the stakes and all the payoff. The money, the prestige, the fame that would follow if you pulled a job from Zero off? Stars, it would make these past few crummy years all worth it.

But the part of you that was a captain—that had heard of crews mysteriously disappearing and Zero's harsh conditions—was turning away. Ditzy nobles with their heads in the clouds you could deal with—they were often too afraid of facing the authorities to ever carry out their threats. But Zero's wealth put him above galactic law. If your crew couldn't pull through, you wouldn't be able to get off as easily as you had with Lady Legarde. If he wanted, he could strip your crew of whatever repute you still had, ensuring no one in the Milky Way ever did business with you again. And that was assuming he let you keep your lives.

You need to promise me to stay away from Zero. Whatever you do, no matter what it comes to, you can't ever make a deal with Zero.

You're better off dead than with anything he can offer.

Mista tucked his elector into his shoulder holster. Hesitantly, he said, "Say we did want to meet with Zero. What would we do?"

"But we don't," Fugo said through gritted teeth.

"I'm just asking."

From the red stone inlaid in Coco Jumbo's key, a hologram projected into the air, displaying a picture of Zero. Smartly dressed in dark colours and his signature ornate mask, golden filigree curling across the black velvet and eye holes blocked in with white material. A deep green jewel hung below his left eye, almost like a teardrop. He was never seen without that mask. It was but another layer to his elusivity. The galaxy had next to no knowledge on who he actually was.

[ YOU HAPPENED TO BE INTERESTED AT THE PERFECT TIME. ZERO'S ANNUAL GALACTIC BALL IS A FEW DAYS FROM NOW. HE'LL BE IN A GOOD MOOD THEN. IF THERE WAS EVER A TIME TO ASK FOR A JOB, IT'D BE AT THE BALL. ]

"I wanted to get out of the Hub before then," Trish sighed, leaning closer to the hologram. "The pandemonium that goes on is just ridiculous."

Why the richest man in the galaxy would hold a ball at arguably the worst spot in the galaxy was anyone's guess. The only people who didn't mind were the Hub's inhabitants, who relied on Zero's spectacle of a ball to generate capital.

"How would we even get in?" asked Narancia. "It's invite-only, right?"

[ IF ANYTHING, THAT'S THE EASY PART. I CAN OUTLINE A PLAN BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE ONBOARD. WHAT NEEDS FIGURING OUT IS WHAT YOU'LL SAY TO ZERO ONCE YOU GET THERE. YOU'LL NEED— ]

"I think that's enough," Fugo interrupted crisply. "You don't need to go into more detail."

Narancia side-eyed him, obviously annoyed. You admitted that you'd wanted to hear what else Coco Jumbo had to say too. You just wondered if that was a good idea.

[ SURE THING. LIKE I SAID, THERE ARE OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO GET CREDITS. THERE ARE SEVERAL CLIENTS ON THE HUB INTERESTED IN— ]

"We should do it." This from Mista. His expression had shifted, a light of challenge entering his eye. "Coco Jumbo has made its case. Zero's the guy to go to right now."

"That's what I've been saying!" Narancia burst out. "He's not gonna be like Lady Legarde. Yeah, his job will be dangerous, but when have you heard of a crew not getting their payment? He might be the only rich person in the galaxy who will keep up their end of the bargain."

Fugo glared at them. "Don't be naïve. How many times do I have to tell you that he'll never hire us? He only accepts the best of the best. We'd be a laughingstock."

"You don't think we could do it?" Trish asked quietly.

"How does that matter? I'm saying we shouldn't waste our time on this when we have other things to worry about! We need to find a reliable, stable buyer so we can get the Passione repaired. And buy food. And restock this place! Then we can look at risking our lives!" Fugo's voice went brittle at the edges. His face was beginning to redden—a sign of the impending storm waiting to explode.

"Fugo—" you began, but Fugo turned to the turtle.

"How do I turn you off?"

[ I DON'T NEED TO BE CHARGED, IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT MY BATTERY LI— ]

"How do I turn you off?"

[ JUST TAKE OUT THE KEY, BOSS. ]

Fugo did so, with more force than necessary. He tossed the key onto the table with a clang. "We'll vote," he said tightly, looking at each of the crew in turn. His eyes came back to rest on you. "All in favour of going to Zero, raise your hand."

Narancia's hand shot up, followed by Mista's. Trish frowned slightly at you before slowly lifting hers as well.

Decisions on this ship were made by majority rule; the decision at the moment wouldn't change however you voted. But the crew's eyes were expectant on you, waiting to see what their Captain would choose.

He might've told you not to deal with Zero, but that had been back when everyone was still a fledgling thieving crew. You had hundreds of jobs under your belt now, and your Stands would make sure you got through whatever the galaxy had to throw at you. It would've been easier if he was still here, but you'd gotten through worse without him.

You raised your hand.

Fugo's composure cracked open. He began to shout. "I don't believe this. Did you all leave your brains behind on the satellite with Lady Legarde? We can't do this! Zero isn't some ditzy noble you can trick into giving thousands of credits. He's ruthless and doesn't give a flack about crews like us. Why are we going into a deal like that? We don't have the funds, the resources, the anything! If we fail on this mission, we'll have flacking less than that!" He jabbed a painful finger into your chest, standing close enough you could see his pupils narrowed to pinpoints. "You're the Captain! You're supposed to make decisions that will keep this crew flying, not plunge us into a death mission! You should be smart enough by now to know when a mission won't work out. Do you want us to die? Or is your ego so bruised by Lady Legarde that you don't give a flack?"

"Hey, back off!" Mista pulled on the back of Fugo's jacket, yanking him back a step. "Watch yourself, Fugo. That is not how you talk to our Captain."

"Our Captain is making a mistake!" Fugo cried. "Why can't any of you see that?"

"Why do you keep saying we can't do this?" Trish retorted. Anger simmered beneath her voice. "Have you forgotten everything we've been through? We know Zero is dangerous. We're not stupid. Despite what you think, we're not going to rush into this blind."

"It's your ego that's bruised," muttered Narancia. "We couldn't sell Coco Jumbo to Lady Legarde and all of a sudden you think we can't do anything."

Fugo bit down hard on his lip. His Adam's apple bobbed as he glared at the ground, trying to get himself under control. Like you always did whenever your engineer lost his composure, you found yourself at a loss. Wanting to reach out but not overstep.

Fugo turned on his heel, away from the galley to his quarters. The room fell silent as the doors slid closed behind him, the air ringing.

"He always does this," Mista sighed. It wasn't an annoyed sigh, just a tired one.

"I'll talk to him," said Narancia, sliding off his chair. Going to Fugo's room the way he always did after a blow-up.

"No, I'll do it," you said. You put the key back into Coco Jumbo's shell, and muttered its name, waiting for its eyes to glow red before continuing. "Narancia, you can set a course for the Hub and see if you can fit us into a slot there. Tell them we'll pay for the short notice." On credit, you added mentally.

Your pilot nodded. "Got it."

"Trish and Mista can stay here and bang out a plan for going to Zero with Coco Jumbo. I want something before we get on the ferry. Think you can do that?"

"Probably." Trish shrugged. "I bet this little turtle has a whole host of ideas."

[ I DO, ACTUALLY. 2 347 PLAN VARIATIONS, TO BE EXACT. ]

Mista looked unimpressed. "Alright, Mr. Cocky."

"Call me to the bridge when everything's done. We'll go from there," you said.

"Yes, Captain."

With that done, you made your way to Fugo's room. This course of action might have been majority rule, but without the acuity of your engineer, it was unlikely your crew would get very far.

Hopefully, you could get him on your side.

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[lifewithchronicpain]

My mom bought concert tickets on Ticketmaster and I go to pull them up thinking I can save the barcode to her phone. Nope nope, it's literally animated. Plus I had to get a stupid fucking app and Ticketmaster account to view them. That should be fucking criminal.

So basically my mom does not pay for cellphone data, talk and text only. She has an iPhone but has only ever used Wi-Fi or hotspots. I don't fucking know if she will be able to access the tickets at the place.

Apparently you can save tickets to apple wallet and I did that, but it's not the barcode just ticket info. So I'm going to have to give my mom instructions for signing into a free hotspot because she is barely computer literate. It's at a big arena so I assume there will be wifi available.

But what fucking bullshit. You can't use a ticket unless you have a mobile phone? That is fucked up. I didn't buy the tickets so I don't know if they have a physical ticket option but I suspect it has a fee if it does.

Fuck Ticketmaster.