#who does customer service report to

[noimnotmae]

𝐌𝐈𝐗-𝐔𝐏 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐏 — Lando Norris⁴

summary: After landing in Miami for his race, Lando carelessly places his bag next to an identical one as he rushes to the bathroom. And in a hurry, you mistakenly grab his bag, thinking it's yours. And during the next five days in Miami, everything took an unexpected turn, escalating into something far bigger than either of you had anticipated.

˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷ lando norris x female! reader 🔸

Ｐａｒｔ １

— "Oh no," the sound of your troubled voice alerted your best friend, who immediately went to your side asking, "What's wrong?" You rummaged through what you thought was your bag, only to find that the contents inside were not your belongings. You looked at your friend, panic evident in your eyes, and said, "This isn't my bag."

Your friend took a closer look at the bag. Due to all the rummaging, a single golf ball fell from it. "A golf ball?" you asked, confused, immediately running after the ball to catch it. After retrieving the ball, you walked back to where your friend stood and put the ball back inside the bag before zipping it close.

"Okay, where did you last place your actual bag?" your friend asked. "Over on that bench over there," you replied, pointing at the bench. "Alright, let's see if it's still there. If it's not, let's report it." You nodded as both of you went to the bench. Reaching the bench, you see that your bag was nowhere to be found.

"No, no, no, all my important stuff was in that bag!" Out of frustration you almost threw the bag in your hands, thankfully your friend was there to prevent that from happening. "Let's not take our anger out on the poor bag," she took the bag from you and rubbed circles on your back to calm you down. "Right, this is my fault anyways— I took the bag randomly."

"Let's go make a report, see if the airport does something about it," your friend suggests. "Alright," you say, trying to sound optimistic.

[texts]

[twitter]

[Instagram]

ynusername

Miami, Florida

liked by lhea_theitgirl, livduh and 503 others

ynusername posting aesthetic pics to cope with the loss 👜 💔 . . . more

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livduh Girl?

ynusername never visiting you again

liveduh Why're you blaming me??

lhea_theitgirl she's blaming everything and everyone at this point, even the bag.

livduh uncool

ynusername 😞

user1 pretty 🤩

user2 explanation for the caption?

ynusername lost my bag in the airport

lhea_theitgirl you mean you grabbed the wrong bag?

ynusername it's the same thing 🙄

user2 omg yn 😭

user3 absolutely stunning ✨

[twitter]

[Instagram]

viewed by livduh, lhea_theitgirl and 43 others

[Irl]

As you waited at the bench, fidgeting nervously, your friend noticed as you stood up and headed back to the customer service desk, the wrong bag slung over your shoulder. You were growing impatient with each passing second.

At the desk, you accidentally slapped your hand on the counter. "Girl, calm down," your friend whispered. Her words went unheard as you began asking questions to the woman behind the desk counter.

Unbeknownst to you, a guy with a similar bag approached the desk. Your friend tried to get your attention, but you brushed her off. She watched as you and the guy made complaints about your bags.

"Is there any update on my bag?"

"I'm here to report a missing bag."

You turned to the man's voice and saw your bag in his hands. Both bags were identical.

"Anyways, as I was trying to say, I think I found your bag," your friend chuckled.

You glanced at the bag, then at the man, before taking a hesitant step forward. "Could I check if that's mine?" you asked, your voice tinged with uncertainty. He met your gaze briefly before glancing at the bag you held. "In exchange, could I see if that one is mine?" you agreed with a nod.

As you both swapped bags, you wasted no time in going through the contents of the one you now held. A wave of relief washed over you as you spotted your wallet inside. With shaky laughter, you checked that everything else was intact. "Thank goodness!" you exclaimed.

"Is that yours?" the man's friend inquired. "Thankfully, yes," he breathed out in relief. After zipping the bag closed, the man turned to you, taking a step forward and extending his hand. "Thanks for not taking off with my bag." With a smile, you shook his hand, letting out a light chuckle. "I couldn't do that, especially when mine is with this bag's owner," you joked, eliciting a laugh from the man.

"YN, it's time to go. We need check into our hotel," your best friend whispered in your ear. You nodded in agreement, releasing the man's hand. "Thank you once again," you offered a slight bow to him and the woman at the front desk, expressing your apologies for the inconvenience. Sliding your bag over your shoulder and grabbing your suitcases, you made your way to the exit, waving goodbye to the stranger.

[Instagram]

ynusername

Miami, Florida

liked by livduh, lhea_theitgirl and 427 others

ynusername Got to our hotel 😍 . . . more

View all comments

livduh finally got your bag back i see. now get your asses here

ynusername gurl wait, we're getting ready!

lhea_theitgirl can't wait to go to the beach!

user4 omg, you're in Miami!

user5 my family's going to Miami tomorrow. I hope I'll get the chance to meet you 😍

[Twitter]

[Texts]

[Irl]

You locked your hotel room door and turned towards the way to the elevator, only to freeze when you spotted a familiar face down the hallway. Surprise painted both your expressions as recognition dawned.

The awkward silence stretched between you until he finally spoke up. "It's you again," he chuckled softly. You managed a sheepish smile. "What a coincidence," you replied.

His smile softened, and you couldn't help but notice how cute he looked when he smiled– well, cute overall, really. You mentally shook off the thought. "Yeah, who knew we'd end up at the same hotel," you said with a forced laugh.

Sensing your nervousness, he extended his hand. "I'm Lando, Lando Norris," he introduced himself, mirroring your airport encounter. You accepted his handshake, feeling your shoulders relax at the contact. "Nice to meet you, Lando," you replied.

Your phone buzzed in your other hand, interrupting the moment. Cursing softly, you released his hand. "I'm YN, and I have to go. See you later, Lando!" With that, you dashed off towards the elevator.

Lando watched you go, a smile lingering on his lips. What a day it had been.

Ｐａｒｔ ２ — Ｍａｓｔｅｒｌｉｓｔ

A/N : Wanted to write about my fav F1 Driver so here it is. Literally started writing this before the final race in Miami. Still can't believe Lando won his first ever race. Honestly, I have to constantly make sure I'm not dreaming, lmao.

Also, if anyone wants to be tagged for this series just let me know in the comments.

[emergency-plan]

DPxDC Idea

I had a little idea an have no time to actually write a fic, so I just wrote a sorta-summary and am posting it like this.

This is inspired by the game Home Safety Hotline and may contain hints to spoilers for that game. It's really clever, I really like it. I recommend you play it if slightly spooky without any "real" horror appeals to you.

Alright, Danny's been Ghost King for a few years and has realized more than just his usual rogues make their way to the living world, and a lot of those ghosts don't stay in Amity. By himself, it'd take forever to track down all those spirits and specters that are out causing mischief. Luckily, not many that escaped his notice are all that powerful and could only cause minor disturbances, just enough to get noticed by the living.

Many people outside Amity don't even recognize the activity as ghosts, so they blame other sources. Scratching in the walls is mistaken as mice, whispers and apparitions are mistaken as hallucinations and carbon monoxide hallucinations, attempted overshadowings mistaken as stokes or migraines. In this day and age, where does everyone turn to when looking for advice or how to solve problems? The internet.

Team Phantom devise a method to try and track down ghosts that are stuck or tormenting the living by building a website meant to look like a help hotline, and with some algorithm trickery make it one of the top options when searching for signs similar to ghost presences. Add some bits and bobs to make it appear as a more normal-looking website on any computer affiliated with government organizations, and you’ve got some protection from the GIW.

Calls start slowly, so the three of them can handle it by themselves. Once more people are calling, they decide to start a call center. They hired some trusted people around Amity and even a few ghosts who want to help. To get around worrying about the ghosts messing with the tech while personally taking a call, they decide to automate the system to record caller’s reports for the employees to listen to, and then send a report back, offering their services to bring the spirit back to the Realms.

It’s been surprisingly lucrative, and Danny hasn’t had to dip into his kingly funds much other than at the start. He still keeps prices low, just enough to not garner suspicions at offering a free service while paying his workers fairly (he doesn’t want to know why some of the ghosts want mortal money). What he’s started having more trouble with is not enough employees to take the calls. Sometimes ghosts lose track of time and don’t show up for their shifts (he doesn’t blame them, time gets weird in the Ghost Zone), and he’s run out of people he trusts who want the job.

Eventually he decides to put out an ad, deciding he’ll slowly trust whoever takes the job with a little more information over time, see how they react, and measure to see if they’re trustworthy.

What he doesn’t think about is how posting it on the website will let more people than just those that live in Amity apply.

Meanwhile, in Gotham, one Cassandra Cain is looking for a job. She doesn’t need the money, B gives her access to way too much, but she wants the experience. She’s at the age she’s heard most kids get a job, and she wants to see what it’s like.

And she quickly found out retail and fast food are NOT for her. She doesn’t think those conditions are fit for anyone, honestly. She’d have to see if she could get Bruce to work on that. But that still leaves her out of a job. She got overwhelmed with a lot of people, so virtual options would probably be best, and something that let her interact with people without having to speak. There weren’t a lot of options out there, and she wasn’t skilled enough with a computer yet to take programming ones.

That’s when she found the listing for the hotline call center. Based in a small Illinois town, but had virtual options, listen to recorded customer calls, diagnose their issue, and send an information packet on potential next steps. It was indirect, could also help her practice her reading, and flexible. It was perfect.

It didn’t take long to hear back after she applied (Danny was freaking out, he didn’t think anyone outside Amity would apply. He’d turn this kid down, but she’d mentioned her difficulties with speaking in her application and SWEETY YOU DONT MENTION STUFF LIKE THAT ON AN APPLICATION. But she said the job would be perfect for her and he just couldn’t…) and she got the job!

Her first day rolls around and she’s given access to the database. A lot has been redacted, but she has descriptions for common problems like mice, carbon monoxide, black mold, etc. she gets her first call recording and carefully reads through the entries before selecting the one that sounds right. She sends it off and waits for the next. The calls come a little too regularly, with too similar intervals between them, so she figures her new employer is testing how well she’s doing (Danny’s giving her previous resolved calls that weren’t anything supernatural. She even got the ants right! He had even gotten that wrong!)

Eventually, her shift ends and she tells her family how well her first day went at dinner. They congratulate her and go on patrol as usual. The next day, things ramp up a little.

She logs into the database at the beginning of her shift and noticed some new entries. She now had access to descriptions of shades, blob ghosts, will o’ wisps, and more minor spirits. She gets a recording reminding her all this info is confidential and that she’s not allowed to share it with anyone. She’s a little confused, but she reads through each just as carefully. The calls come less regularly, so she figures she’s actually connected to the system now (Danny gave her access to the most common ghosts they get calls about and is listening in while he’s handling ghosts to make sure she doesn’t get anything she’s not prepared for).

Her shift ends and over dinner, she mentions that she’s had to diagnose some odd things. They assure her there’s more pests and hazards out there than you’d expect. She doesn’t tell her family about the distraught woman haunted by the Ecto-Echo of her husband’s habit of making her coffee every morning after he passed a few weeks ago. Or the person who had a Shade masquerading as their shadow. Just about one of her caller's cockroach problem.

The next day follows a similar pattern; more entries, slightly more powerful ghosts, reminder that the info she's been given access to is confidential and could get people hurt if it got in the wrong hands, congratulated for her good work, read through carefully and learn signs of each, diagnose calls, before calling it a day (Danny was so proud of her, she'd only confused a blob ghost with a ghost animal once, and it hadn't caused him any trouble when he went to collect them).

She'd used the bat-computer to check up on some of the callers she'd diagnosed, and they seemed to be doing fine. Some had posted about their weird experiences on their social media and how her employer had somehow helped them, but often didn't quite know how (Danny liked to hide his powers, so most of what customers saw was him using ghost tech. When it couldn't be solved with just a quick souping, he had to pull a little ghostly trickery while the customer wasn't watching). She didn't know how her boss was somehow across the world multiple times a day to help clients in different countries, but he seemed to at least be helping people. She started not having any stories she could tell her family at dinner.

At some point, she heard reports that one of the speedsters probably messed with time travel again before clocking into her shift. She had almost all the available entries and had gotten very good at recognizing tricky cases. She answered a recorded call, just like at the beginning of each of her shifts, but this one was a little different. Danny had sent out an announcement to be on the lookout for a specific phenomena that often occurred after shifts in reality, as they were highly dangerous and needed to be dealt with swiftly.

She studied each entry and paused on what she was supposed to keep a careful eye out for. Revenants, corpses that came back to life, often seen shambling around the graveyards they were buried in. Something about that sounded familiar. A section in their entry said the person brought back often had a ghost in the Realms (which she still didn't know what that was) that was in terrible pain from shifts in reality trying to pull them back to their body, but the separation of dimensions preventing them.

Expectedly, she did get a call from someone convinced there was a zombie wandering somewhere along the east coast. She double checked it couldn't be anything else before submitting it and notifying her boss.

Curious, and she knew no one would be in the batcave around this time of day, she brought her laptop with her down to the bat-computer. She found cameras in the area the caller reported, and froze at what she saw. Shambling across an abandoned street was a rotting corpse. It really did look like a zombie. It was covered in dirt, wearing an old-fashioned suit, and had skin sloughing off its bones.

But what Cass could only focus on was how much its movements read that it was in pain. It was suffering in such a horrible way its mindless being didn't even deserve. It was horrible.

Then, there was a flash of green and an area of the cameras were covered in static. The glitched portion somehow read with kindness and pity. It slowly approached the corpse, simple reaching out gently (what was presumably a hand), ignoring the way it lashed out. It suddenly fell, caught and slowly lower to the ground by the strange being she couldn't see. It closed the thing's eyes before carrying it off in the direction the map said a graveyard could be found.

After that, she finished her shift and went to dinner. Her family asked if she was alright, and she only replied it'd been a long day.

She clocked in early the next day and messaged her boss for more information on Revenants. Dinner that night was one of the few times Jason agreed to come by, and if he noticed how she kept glancing at him, he didn't say anything.

A week later, she asked her boss what might happen if a Revenant was exposed to, as it was called in its entry, a "Corrupted Ecto-Spring" ("...an ugly hole in the fabric of reality that connects the world of the living to the Realms. The ectoplasm that leaks through the tear stagnates and festers into toxic pools that kills humans and makes ghosts sick."). Danny requested a video call.

[20dollarlolita]

joke's on you; I don't know what you're doing.

context 1) at some point in my store's history, someone who works here out up a "service dogs only" sign on our front window

Context 2) we have a customer, who spends a lot of money with us, who is so allergic to dogs that she once injected herself with an epi-pen and sat outside the store wheezing and waiting for the ambulance she called for herself.

Context 3) I have a coworker who loves flexing the rules on people and making them do what she wants

Context 4) I have been bit by service dogs (or "service dogs", not my place to determine which as long as they answer The Two Questions) in our store who have never interacted with wheelchairs before. No hard feelings as the dog thought they were protecting themselves or their humans from a scary indoor car that's getting way too close for comfort, but it is never a fun incident report to file.

Customer comes in to pick up an item she ordered. Says she wants to apologize because last time she brought her dog.

Me: oh wow why's she apologizing instead of being mad?

Customer goes on about how she's brought her dog in over 50 times and never had a problem. Goes on about how her dog is about to pass the service dog test (does not go into where or what test) but keeps failing because she loves her mommy too much. Continues at length about how she doesn't want to make anyone unhappy.

Me: something feels off about this but I'm not sure what.

Customer continues about how she was just shocked because there was no way she could have known because it was never a problem before

The voice of Bob Dylan in my head: and you know something is happening here but you don't know what it is.

My confused ass mentions how some workers in the store get very serious about our front door sign as we've had major accidents involving ambulances and blood.

Customer sighs, shuts up, and leaves.

Me: very confused.

Me, on my lunch, three hours later: OH I GET IT, she's doing that bullshit thing my grandma does where she apologizes to show how wrong and stupid someone was!! Hahaha jokes the fuck on her, I absolutely did not understand at all that it was what was happening!

So customer service tip, always take customers at face value, because a review of "I fake apologized to the girl and she didn't react like I wanted her to" doesn't get much traction with higher-ups. Neither did, "I told them it was fine when they asked me if they were all right to do their training exercise in the aisle I was shopping in, but they should have understood that I was being sarcastic." But that's another story for another day at work.

[neil-gaiman]

Honestly, the main reason I sent that ask is because I was up all night freezing in my own home, as you so eloquently put it, so I can get to winter only £400 in debt to the energy company instead of £500.

Unfortunately, I’m not a retired author. Like most people in my situation, I work full time.

So when you use quaint euphemisms like fed or comfortable to mean very wealthy it’s callously insulting.

I know what comfortable money is and if you were getting that from Netflix they’d be paying you less than a customer service supervisor.

Most of the authors who we support at the Authors League Fund don't consider themselves retired, even in their 70s and 80s. They can't afford to retire, and because an author's life is a precarious one, few of them have pensions or savings enough -- and those who do have savings often find that one medical emergency can wipe them out. They'd love to be writing if anyone would publish them, or be teaching, and almost all of them are working however they can to make whatever money they can. And the Fund helps them with the money to eat, to pay dental or medical bills, to get cars back on the road, to pay rent, or pay energy bills. So when I'm talking about copyright feeding authors, I'm not talking about me, specifically, I'm talking about most authors (only 2% of whom can support themselves through their writing alone, per the last statistics I saw, but it may have dropped since then). These aren't "quaint euphemisms". When I say "fed" and "comfortable" I'm talking about survival. (And yes, some of these authors are people you've heard of and whose books you probably love.)

Here's the Author's League Fund link -- please read the link on what we do and how it works, and donations are always very welcome:

And, yes, I'm an international best-selling author: I actually take a pay-cut to work on Good Omens, Anansi Boys and Sandman, because I'd be making vastly more writing new books, instead of showrunning. I'm an outlier in all this, and I'm not pretending I'm not. (I know it's not usual to be making things that have an affect on a whole country's economy, as in https://deadline.com/2022/06/screen-scotland-report-half-billion-dollars-scotland-economy-good-omens-1235051307/.)

But...

If I'd died in my late thirties, back when I wasn't an outlier, with three children under the age of 18, and all my copyrights and royalties had terminated at my death, my kids would have been watching the Sandman and Good Omens TV adaptations, or the Stardust movie, and seeing the books and comics on sale and wondering why it was fair that huge corporations were making enormous amounts of money on their dad's creations, and reprinting his books and comics, while they, too, were struggling to pay for food or heat.

All over the UK people are struggling to pay energy bills. It's obscene. In your part of the world I'm supporting local foodbanks, and several local school "breakfast clubs" and after school groups, because I can afford to and a tiny amount of food makes a huge difference to kids (and to the people who need the foodbank assistance). But I'm not seeing that the awfulness of UK energy policy would be improved by a shorter period of copyright, and if I didn't have the copyright and royalties on things I'd created over 30 years ago, I might not be in a position to help feed people.

Does that help?

[cosmerelists]

If Cosmere Characters Had Real-World Jobs (But Not The Obvious Ones)

In this list, I wanted to try to give Cosmere characters jobs in our world while avoiding the jobs that would be the most obvious picks--like, for example, the real world equivalent of whatever their canon job is.

1. Kaladin: Professional Football Player

It's a dangerous job that Kaladin's dad would scoff at, but the other kids in town think it's really cool and also the recruiters are coming through town and, I mean, he's really good at football.

2. Lirin: Public Defender

If we avoid the obvious job (doctor), then Lirin still needs a job where he is doing good, but it's pretty thankless and the general public are suspicious and think he might actually be evil somehow. So I figure: public defender. He's highly educated, helping people who need it, and just getting nothing but grief as a result. Worst of all, his smart son wants to be a FOOTBALL player!

3. Marsh: Masseuse

I feel like people who are good at hemalurgy know about the body and its pressure points and things like that. And frankly, "acupuncturist" felt too on the nose.

4. Shallan: Park Ranger

Shallan HATES to be confined, so no way she's going into an office job. Plus, she likes nature and animals, but I'm trying to avoid the more obvious jobs (like botanist or ecologist). It's just too bad that Shallan is SO bad at staring a campfire, though.

5. Navani: Wedding Planner

Navani is VERY good at managing people and events, as seen when she had to manage everything while Gavilar was off plotting. She's also very organized and literally invented wristwatches. So I think she's be very good at this job.

6. Elend: Grad Student

This one may be too obvious, but I figure something like "politician" or "philosopher" are more obvious. But to me, Elend has major grad student energy.

7. Nale: Insurance Adjuster

Nale is a cop, of course, through and through. But if he wasn't a cop, then he'd need some other job where he uses the rules to screw people over. So I see him as, like, an evil insurance guy who's denying people medical coverage because the company wants him to.

8. Blackthorn-Era Dalinar: Debt Collector

If flashback Dalinar couldn't make a living mowing people down in battle and had to find a less obvious job, then I could see him being the guy to hunt down people and demand money they don't have. He doesn't really care about the money. He just likes the hunt.

9. Adolin: eSports Player

It's a job where you can head-to-head battle people and your dad is vaguely puzzled and thinks you should be doing something more important with your life.

10. Lightsong: Customer Service Agent

In canon, Lightsong's job is to face down a huge line of people and tell them "no" in response to them asking for something they want. So, I mean, I feel like that's equivalent to one of those shitty customer service jobs where you're not really allowed to help people (until, of course, Lightsong goes rogue and does start helping people, but that's another story...)

11. Stormfather: Bus Driver

He has his route, and he's not deviating from it. And if you miss the bus, he's not stopping. He's not going back. You can try to run, but you will not catch up to him.

12. Tress: Mechanic

As a Sprouter, Tress had to figure out how each of the spores worked and how to use them. I just feel like she'd be good at diagnosing issues in machinery and then fixing them.

13. Steris: Programmer

She's precise, she's smart, she likes rules. I think coding would suit her.

14. Yumi: Waitress

She could stack the plates SO high.

15. Marasi: Investigative Reporter

Which, honestly, is what I wish she had been rather than being a cop like in canon. I think it would suit her! She'd get to research, investigate, find the truth...

16. Kelsier: Motivational Speaker

He tells you about the power of smiling no matter what, so that you are never defeated. He tells you to carry something small, some memento or photo, to help you find your motivation. You tells you that no goal is out of reach--you just have to find the right people and the right steps to move forward. And he tells you that the most important thing is to survive.

[alithographica]

Re: Redbubble & Alternatives

Redbubble is doing some nonsense and I've deleted my account. I barely bothered with it anyway, was mostly there for people who've asked for specific images as posters.

Anyway in doing that I sacrificed the $4.35 that was still sitting in my earnings. They only let you cash out at $20, so rather than drum up sales and therefore make Redbubble more money, I'm gonna do what I feel is $4.35 in anti-publicity for them. 🥳

tl;dr there are new fees that hurt artist income at all sales levels. Redbubble is either looking to cut costs and raise profits for funsies, or is in serious financial trouble.

About the new fees:

Redbubble offers their services to artists by allowing artists to control their profit margin above a certain baseline manufacturing fee. This was pretty cool! There's now an additional fee that will be charged starting May 1, 2023. It is not an upfront fee that requires you to pay out of pocket, but it does directly cut your profit margin. How badly? Well...

By Redbubble's own example, if in one month you sell $300 in products that you had set at a 25% margin, you'd previously earn $75. Under the new structure, that earnings level means you pay a $28 fee, so you will now be paid $47. That $28 represents a 37% cut off what you were supposed to earn.

There's a full fee table in that link, but other highlights include a $1 fee if you earned $2 (aka 50%!) and big sellers who'd expect to take home $400 will now receive $320 (an $80 fee, 20%).

It also puts you in a weird spot that earning $1 more in a month may bump you to the next tier, causing you to actually take home less money. Make $1 more, end up losing $11. Make it make sense. 🤨

About the new tiers:

Each shop is evaluated and labeled Standard, Premium, or Pro. Premium and Pro shops are not subject to the new fees, but there's no clarity on how to move from one tier to another. Redbubble says it's under your control but it's clearly not. Many artists are reporting that they have accounts with next to no sales that have been labeled Pro, and accounts with thousands of annual sales that are labeled Standard.

Action items:

Look, I'm not gonna tell other artists that they have to close their shops, or tell buyers not to buy from Redbubble if your favorite artists have chosen to stay. What you do with the above info is up to you.

What I will say is that many artists are leaving because the new pay structure sucks. I encourage people who buy from Redbubble to expand their support to other sites.

Attrition is arguably their goal here—they know people will leave over this, and that'll probably lower their costs and lower competition for the remaining accounts. But goodwill is lost easily and they're playing a dangerous game on betting how many stay vs. leave. I'm out.

Feel free to leave your feedback on Redbubble's feedback form here, but it feels slightly like yelling into the void.

Alternatives:

tbh I don't have a good read on things. If you do know of any recommended (or unrecommended) print-on-demand sites, speak up!

I will say that as of now (April 2023), based on my research:

🟢 INPRNT sounds like a winner if your game is art prints and stickers. Does not have any wearable products like t-shirts.

🟡 Etsy + Printify/Printful might be viable? Etsy always had higher profit margins than POD marketplaces, but it's a bit more work and they also do weird things occasionally. Also has a listing fee so if you're the type to upload a ton of designs, pricey.

🔴 Teepublic is owned by Redbubble. Doesn't have the tier/new fee structure as of now but might be imminent. Have also heard their customer service sucks.

🔴 Society6 is going to charge artists shipping costs, and there's going to be a (mandatory?) subscription service launched in the fall, so that's not a winner anymore either.

[so-long-soldier-writes]

drabble #2 - the bots

kol mikaelson x reader

summary: thousand year old vampires vs the bots messaging you on your phone… who will win?

tags: tumblr, very confused vampires, up-to-date on modern life klaus but severely lacking kol, protective!kol

word count: 553

a/n: i wrote this soooo long ago, then forgot about it! like, wrote it when all of tumblr was being attacked by bots, before things finally settled down. also, this is cheesy af ;)

“Don’t ‘hey’ me,” you mutter at the new notification on your screen.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, not you, you’re fine.”

“Wait,” Kol sits up, “who then?”

“Oh just another stupid porn bot on tumblr.”

“A what?” At your comment, Elijah looks over to you, too. 

“Oh, right. New to the twenty-first century. Um, just a person - er, not a person, a robot - messaging me for… messaging me.” You try to explain. You had almost said, ‘messaging me for sex,’ but stopped yourself immediately. 

“Messaging for what?”

Fuck. “Um…”

Elijah then asks, “did you say a robot is messaging you?”

You focus on the elder brother’s question first, “yeah. It’s actually quite common in the last couple decades. Lots of customer service people are robots, people trying to scam others can use robots, either for identity theft or whatever else… I’m not good at explaining it, but yeah.”

“So what does your robot want?”

You grimace, “it’s certainly not my robot, it’s just messaging me. But the tumblr bots all are looking for, like, sexual engagement. They message everyone because they don’t know anything about the people they are messaging, but they want bored, horny people to click on their bio links and buy their… porn.”

“You need to tell it to go away.” Kol’s jaw is tense. 

“Yeah, I’m about to block it.”

“No, you need to tell it to stop.”

“I don’t want to actually interact with them because then they’ll keep coming back. They’re like seagulls, Kol. They don’t actually understand the words I’m saying. They see engagement in any way and take it as a win.”

“Well you need to tell someone. You’re mine and they need to know that.”

“Calm down, brother.”

You put a hand on Kol’s knee. “It’s okay, they’re not gonna have me in any way. We report them to staff and block them; it’s the easiest and most effective way to deal with them. And I’m saying ‘we’ as everyone on the app who deals with them.”

“Can you stop using the app, then?”

“Oh, sweetheart… One, no. I’ll still be blogging when I’m six feet under. Two, they’re everywhere, and there’s really no escaping them.”

Elijah steps in again, “trust her, Kol, she knows what she’s doing. Y/N’s a smart girl.”

You send him a smile, then turn to your boyfriend, “I love you, Kol. Only you. I never have and never will engage with the stupid bots, okay? No one’s taking me from you.” 

He finally seems to relax after this. “I still hate them.”

“Everyone does, baby.”

“What are you three talking about?” Klaus barges into the living room. 

“Y/N just introduced us to something called a porn bot, have you heard of them?” Elijah turns to the hybrid. 

“Oh, those shucks are all over the place, can’t bloody stand them! Caroline says you block them and move on!”

He’s gone immediately after, and you turn back to Kol. “See? They even harass your brother.”

A chuckle passes his lips as he thinks of that situation. “Okay. Thank you for explaining it. I was debating if I needed to send the person a death threat, or smash your phone with a hammer.”

“Neither of those things, baby. I am completely yours, and you don’t have to worry a thing.”

[fromtenthousandfeet]

All Cash and No Credit

Let's talk about HYBE's strategy for Jimin's MUSE. It's pretty simple

Maximize Profit - Minimize Success

Let's break down how they're doing it.

Goal #1 is to get as many customers as possible to buy from Weverse instead of regular retailers like chains (Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble) and online sellers like Amazon. When fans buy on Weverse, a HYBE subsidiary, the company keeps not only the wholesale portion of the album sale, but the retail portion as well. This is obvious, right? If not, I'm happy to explain. The company likely makes twice the profit (give or take) on albums purchased via Weverse. AND, they can control when those albums are shipped, and how, when, or if the sales are reported to the music charting agencies.

The fact that Target pre-sales of MUSE is sold out within hours is suspect. This indicates limited stock, just like the strategy used for Like Crazy CD singles. Meanwhile, Geffen is very slow to release the pre-sale links for other retailers. The Walmart presale just went up. Where are B&N and Amazon? Will they have limited inventory, too?

Putting Jimin's Production Diary on Weverse only was a conscious choice. The cost of the documentary was expensive - more than the monthly fee for streaming services, the company kept all the profit (didn't have to share the costs with Netflix or Disney+), and limited his exposure to the general public. I suspect they will operate the same way with MUSE.

Goal #2 Keep Jimin as low as possible on the charts. We've seen this over and over. First, by splitting Like Crazy versions and disappearing sales, no CD restocks. Then we saw the same behavior from BH/HYBE again with Closer Than This being released on the worst possible day of the year and almost zero promotion. You know the details.

HYBE will limit stock. They will likely not report all sales.

MUSE physical albums will not be eligible for UK charts because of a random inclusion. The previous four solo album releases have had specific UK versions with no inclusions. UK fans will have to rely on digital sales for charting purposes unless BH provides a new version. Dirty.

Goal #3 Promote the album just enough to garner sales from fans while minimizing advertising to the greater public. The announcement of the new album is also strange. The teaser video was only on Instagram and only on the BigHit/BTS channel (this didn't stop anyone, though, as far as I can tell) as well as Weverse (I'm getting tired of that platform). TikTok is a far more effective advertising tool when it comes to targeting young people. Why wasn't the teaser posted to TikTok? Either way, "Jimin Jimin" was trending on X/Twitter with over 1.7 million mentions many hours after the announcement of the new album. There's only so much BH can do to suppress Jimin now that fans have taken marketing him into their own hands.

Let's keep an eye on this.

What's different this time around? This time the fandom knows who is behind thwarting Jimin's success. Precious time was lost during the FACE era when everyone was blaming Jimin's sabotage on Billboard and Spotify, rather than the rightful villain - HYBE/Big Hit. This time the fandom knows to watch their every move and call them out on their shady and unequal treatment. That said, tagging Geffen, Big Hit, and HYBE on X is pretty much useless. They have shown they won't change their behavior when fans complain. Instead, fans must start tagging Billboard, Spotify, and media outlets. Media outlets are the most important. HYBE does not care about the fandom, but they do care about their public image, especially after all the damage that's been done to the company and the stock price due to the ADOR controversy and court case.

I think Jimin is going to a different label for his solo work. That's my hunch. The company is going to squeeze as much profit out of him as possible before he goes, but it's a balancing act because they don't want him to outshine Jungkook. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

[bomberqueen17]

Liveblogging the Aubreyad: Book 3, HMS Surprise (part 1)

This one, I made notes on my phone while listening to the audiobook, so we shall see how well I distill them.

The series is hitting its stride now as a series, I think. M&C was kind of oneshottish, no real expectation of continuation; Post Captain was the pleased "oh! i get another one? great!" where he then crammed in three books' worth into one, and now HMS S is "ah. this is a series! Settle this plot down, then." pacing-wise.

So we pick up with politicians wrangling over the aftermath of the previous book, which had seemed to end so tidily and on such a happy note. Of course that is not the end-- there's a series now.

So at the end of the previous book, Jack was one of five captains sharing out a prize of some several million pounds, and this would have made him enormously wealthy and guaranteed his marriage. Of course.

In the opening scene of this one we hear that, legally, Spain had not declared war on Britain at the time, so legally, that money is not prize money, so legally, it should just be kept entirely for the government and not distributed to the sailors and officers who actually did the fighting at all, despite that being the well-established custom of the day. Legally, see, they don't have to hand it out, even though the people who designed the mission, and the people who executed the mission, all felt certain that it was a legit prize at the time and acted accordingly.

Stephen's friend Sir Joseph, head of Naval Intelligence, is arguing that of course it should be prize money, for large numbers of very good reasons, not least that he designed the mission with that in mind.

But the new First Lord of the Admiralty is a civilian politician. And he openly mentions Stephen Maturin's name, despite the fact that Sir Joseph had stressed to him that the man is a confidential agent. The First Lord does not catch the hint. And then he asks who the captains are, and remembers that Jack Aubrey's father is an opposition member in Parliament, and immediately Sir Joseph knows that it's over; this is political wrangling now, and this man will make a decision that harms the national interest and the morale of the service and everything else simply because General Aubrey is a politician he does not like.

So there is no prize money. And Jack is not out of debt. And cannot marry Sophie. And, far far far worse, Stephen's name is now exposed to a crowd of non-confidential people of no particular discretion, particularly marked as a secret agent with knowledge of Spanish affairs.

Anyway-- zooming out from that crackerjack first scene, and it is despite how it sounds, it's really well-told political intrigue with a very good layering of easy-to-understand, easy-to-deplore bullshit (and Admiral Harte gets his shitty little nose in there being a massive hypocrite, have no fear) -- the general situation is thus:

Jack, still in the Lively, is in the Med bottling up the French fleet in Toulon, and is engaged to Sophie-- legally, with all kinds of avaricious wrangles from Mrs. Williams, all the terms and conditions he acquiesced to unprotesting, so that Sophie will legally own most of their joint property. Diana has run off to India with Canning; Stephen has been collecting intelligence on them, though mostly it seems for the purpose of hurting himself with it. Stephen is to go to Minorca to do more intelligence stuff despite the fact that his name has been exposed-- the news will not have reached them, Stephen says coolly, declining to cancel the mission.

The Lively has a schoolmaster to oversee the young gentlemen's lessons. (Prior to being a midshipman, a young gentleman will be expected to have served three years of sea time, with the status of First Class Volunteer; many are listed as servants during this time, and many of them do not actually report to the ship during this time-- entering a friend's son on one's books to say he was on a ship long enough that when he joins he can just start as a midshipman with no waste of time is a perfectly accepted kind of little fraud, very common in Jack's social circles. "Young gentleman" as a category seems to include both the volunteers and rated midshipmen. But the Lively has a number of quite young gentlemen actually aboard, including the five-year-old [or, seven. he was five in the previous book but in this book, some weeks later, he is now seven] son of one of the lieutenants, as he came home from a voyage to find his wife dead and no family remaining to care for the child, so the little boy has been onboard ever since. Apparently Babbington may actually have still been a volunteer during some of the events of Master and Commander, but of course this is not consistently represented. I fully support an author doing whatever the hell he wants with timelines, and it is absolutely consistent with the inconsistency of historical records, LOL.)

Anyway-- Jack also actually went to sea as a volunteer very young, and the ship he was on did not have a competent schoolmaster, so he has suffered his entire life from not a very good education. He is sitting in on the young gentlemen's lessons ostensibly because he is concerned for them and wants to ensure they learn what they must, but in practice, he is taking advantage of this opportunity to get a proper thorough grounding in his own education, belatedly, and is thereby unlocking a real true love of mathematics, heretofore only instinctively guessed-at.

The Lively has seen long prior service in the South Pacific, and as such has a number of Asian crew members aboard. (So we do now see the word Chinaman occur, which unlike Indiaman does refer to humans, but is used as a neutral descriptor; I will nevertheless henceforth be avoiding its use, though to be fair I think it only occurs once in the book anyway.) Jack is pleased with the Chinese and Malayan crewmen, largely, as they all are unfailingly polite and have a number of useful skills, and are excellent seamen. But he finds out during an elaborate cutting-out expedition that many of them had formerly been pirates; they slaughter their opponents with absolutely stunning efficiency in a quite practiced manner despite how little combat the Lively itself has seen.

They make for Minorca to pick up Stephen but he does not make the rendezvous. Another Catalan man appears, and says Stephen has been taken, and is being tortured by the French in Port Mahon. Jack knows the city. With the Catalans, he sets up a rescue mission, and frees the prisoners, burns the house (coincidentally, the house where Captain and Molly Harte used to live), and rescues Stephen, who has had all his fingernails pulled out and has been stretched on a rack. (Touchingly, he has hallucinated Jack coming in to rescue him before, and so when it truly happens, is surprisingly calm, mistaking it for another hallucination.) It is a taut little action, badass as fuck. The officers of the Lively are disappointed when Jack won't take them, but this is not an official sanctioned expedition and there will be no glory, no report, no credit, no advancement of career-- it is simply a pragmatic necessity, and he wants only people who know the ground (his own people, Killick and Bonden) plus enough to pad out the numbers to make it work, so he takes those of the Chinese and Malay pirates who choose to volunteer, since this is just the ticket for them. (All of them volunteer.)

(A side note. The Catalan who helps them is named Joan. The audiobook narrator pronounces this Catalan man's name, which in Spanish would be Juan, and is pronounced the same, as the English woman's name Joan. Come on Simon. I believed in you.)

They get Stephen and get out, and we resume the tale in England with Stephen staying at an inn in Portsmouth. The Lively has been handed back over to her real captain, Hammond, at Gibraltar.

Jack is immediately arrested for debt as he tries to get the invalid Stephen into a carriage to go from Portsmouth to London, so off he goes to a sponging-house, hero or no; he goes quietly and resignedly. Sir Joseph Blaine is shocked to hear that heroic Jack is imprisoned; he had arranged for at least a consolation, an ex gratia payment, for the captains who were denied prize rights over the Spanish treasure, but it comes out that the agent has been slow in paying it out, and Jack is helpless without it. Blaine resolves to see it settled, at least, and does-- Jack is released. At least provisionally; there are other debts.

Sir Joseph, in his gratitude for Stephen's rescue, gets Jack another ship-- HMS Surprise, on an errand to carry an emissary to Kampong. It's a good long mission in a lovely ship (in which Jack served as a midshipman long ago), and he hopes it will give Jack's affairs time to settle.

Stephen turns to Bonden, asking him to write a letter for him, since his hands are so injured, and it comes out abruptly that Bonden is illiterate.

'Bonden,' cried Stephen, 'take pen and ink, and write -' 'Write, sir?' cried Bonden. 'Yes. Sit square to your paper, and write: Landsdowne Crescent - Barret Bonden, are you brought by the lee?' 'Why, yes, sir; that I am - fair broached-to. Though I can read pretty quick, if in broad print; I can make out a watch-bill.' 'Never mind. I shall show you the way of it when we are at sea, however: it is no great matter - look at the fools who write all day long - but it is useful, by land. You can ride a horse, sure?' 'Which I have rid a horse, sir; and three or four times, too, when ashore.'

Bonden takes the message on foot, and goes and fetches Sophie and Pullings, Sophie to write the letter from Stephen to Jack, and Pullings to carry it. This allows them to arrange for Sophie to come along to the rendezvous, so that she can see and speak to Jack briefly without her mother's knowledge. Jack had tried to release her from the engagement when his renewed troubles with debt became apparent, but she wished to refuse, but could not speak to him directly about it, so this is their chance.

She sneaks out at night and goes in the coach with Stephen, and there gets a half an hour (well, forty-five minutes; Stephen with the timepiece is soft-hearted) of conversation with Jack before they must part ways, her to go home and sneak back in to her house, Stephen and Jack to go on to the Surprise, waiting in Plymouth.

The Surprise makes her way off around the world, saddled with a moderately ineffectual but amiable first lieutenant named Hervey who has influential friends, and a second lieutenant named Nicolls who is inoffensive if clearly suffering from major depression, but with Tom Pullings as the third lieutenant, competent and familiar. They are becalmed awhile, and Jack teaches Stephen to swim-- badly, but at all, which is an accomplishment.

'Did you see me?' [Stephen] cried as Jack came nearer. 'I swam the entire length: four hundred and twenty strokes without a pause!' 'Well done,' said Jack, swinging himself into the boat with an easy roll. 'Well done indeed.' Each stroke must have propelled Stephen a little less than three inches, for the Surprise was only a twenty-eight gun ship, a sixth-rate of 579 tons - the kind so harshly called a jackass frigate by those not belonging to her. 'Should you like to come aboard? Let me give you a hand.'

Some of the men get scurvy. They run short of supplies and are down to eating rats, which they euphemistically term "millers" out of absurd delicacy. Stephen has pet rats, he is feeding them madder as an experiment.

They find St. Paul's Rocks, where Stephen begs to be put ashore for a moment to study the birds. Jack declines, as it is Sunday and one cannot ask the men to work on Sunday, but the second lieutenant Nicolls volunteers to take him over in the little rowboat for a few hours.

A sudden squall damages the ship and washes poor depressed Nicolls away, along with the little boat; Stephen survives, but is stranded, and the Surprise driven away by the wind. Some undefined time later (two days?), Babbington comes in the barge with Bonden and others rowing double-banked in a great hurry straight into the eye of the wind where the ship herself could not come, certain the Doctor must be dead but hoping against hope to find him. They do, alive, and bring him back to the ship.

Stephen claims that the extreme heat on the shelter-less rock has worked miracles on his torture-twisted tendons.

'I wish you joy of your rescue, Doctor,' said Mr Atkins, the only man aboard who was not pleased to see the barge return: Stephen was attached to the mission in an artfully vague capacity, and the envoy's instructions required him to seek Dr Maturin's advice; Mr Atkins's advice or indeed presence was nowhere mentioned and he was consumed with jealousy. 'May I fetch you a towel or some other garment?'- with a look at Stephen's scrofulous shrunken belly. 'You are very officious, sir; but this is the garment in which I shall appear before God; I find it answers pretty well. It may be termed my birthday suit.' 'That has choked the bugger off,' said Pullings to Babbington, just above his breath, out of a motionless face. 'That is one in his bleeding eye.'

During Stephen's absence, however, he finds that someone has stolen his rats, and he is furious.

Babbington is given an acting promotion to lieutenant to replace Nicolls. His perfect delight in this is marred only by his guilt at having, along with the rest of the larboard midshipmen's berth, eaten Stephen's rats, and he blubberingly confesses. Stephen revenges himself only mildly for this offense.

Jack wished to avoid putting ashore in Brazil, to avoid official delays, but Stephen suggests they just find a village and buy green stuff there, which works. Stephen of course has to go ashore. He promises not to return with any vampires, but in the event comes back with a three-toed sloth, which does not like Jack. Jack wins it over by giving it grog, in time-honored sailor fashion. Stephen discovers this and is indignant, leading to possibly the funniest line in this book:

Stephen looked sharply round, saw the decanter, smelt to the sloth, and cried, 'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.'

The dignitaries aboard are annoying and take up an enormous amount of space, including Jack's entire great cabin, so that he must room with Stephen in a smaller space. The envoy himself, a Mr. Stanhope, is dignified and kind (though a bit remote: "Once he had established that Jack and Hervey were connected with families he knew, he treated them as human beings; all the others as dogs - but as good, quite intelligent dogs in a dog-loving community"), but his head secretary, Mr. Atkins, is an officious, self-important, tale-bearing busybody universally loathed onboard.

Stephen teaches Bonden to read and write. They have their lessons up in the top, for privacy-- Bonden is not keen to be mocked on his scholarly habits, and hides the book when the midshipman Callow comes up to deliver a message. Stephen doesn't notice this.

They get, finally, to the high latitudes, where there is a huge blow, though Stephen is consoled by finally seeing the albatross. The dignitaries complain that the ship leaks and demand better accomodations. Stephen refuses to pass the message and tells the officious secretary to go tell Jack himself. The man declines to do this, as Jack is currently lashed to the wheel in the driving rain working like hell round the clock with all hands to keep the ship from broaching-to and foundering, and indeed shortly after winds up clinging for his life to a broken mast in the front of the ship trying like hell to keep the sea from overwhelming them. Surprise is damaged internally, her timbers strained, and they have to limp the rest of the way. Not a single rat is left in the ship, the stores are dangerously low.

I wasn't going to do this but I'm going to divide this. I swear I'll get better at making these short. I'm kind of doing a... rehabilitative exercise on my ability to write, here. Coming up is part two, Bombay! With critical updates on How Many Indiamen Tom Pullings Has Been In! And you'll never guess who gets the clap!

[stjohnstarling]

Several years later, Facebook has been overrun by AI-generated spam and outright scams. Many of the “people” engaging with this content are bots who themselves spam the platform. Porn and nonconsensual imagery is easy to find on Facebook and Instagram. We have reported endlessly on the proliferation of paid advertisements for drugs, stolen credit cards, hacked accounts, and ads for electricians and roofers who appear to be soliciting potential customers with sex work. Its own verified influencers have their bodies regularly stolen by “AI influencers” in the service of promoting OnlyFans pages also full of stolen content. …

Experts I spoke to who once had great insight into how Facebook makes its decisions say that they no longer know what is happening at the platform … “I believe we're in a time of experimentation where platforms are willing to gamble and roll the dice and say, ‘How little content moderation can we get away with?,'” Sarah T. Roberts, a UCLA professor and author of Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media, told me.

Very good and troubling article. If Meta - one of the richest companies in the world - is giving up on moderation, what does it mean for the dying, cash-strapped website we’re all on?

[bananastarion]

The Baldur's Gate 3 companions if they were forced to work boring modern day retail jobs, for some reason

Karlach would be out there doing her best, always there to reach the shelves that are too high for everyone else and doing all the heavy lifting. She gets in trouble a lot for accidentally dropping f-bombs within earshot of customers. She's the one you call over if a customer is giving you a hard time- she has no issue with telling them off and checking in to make sure you're okay. She gets a kick out of setting off all those tacky singing and dancing stuffed animals they put out on holidays, making your ears bleed. She's a bull in a china shop, and more than occasionally you'll hear a loud crash because Karlach accidentally knocked over a display again. She's also the reason the fire alarms keep going off. But despite all of that, she's by far the most fun to work with.

Nobody in their right mind would hire Lae'zel for a customer service position- but she makes a damn effective security guard. Maybe a little too effective- most of the time she is intimidating enough that all she has to do is shoot them a threatening look, and they behave. Sometimes she goes a bit overboard, though- like that time she made a guy bow down before her and beg for mercy, all because he stole a snickers bar. He swears he has no idea how it even got in his pocket!

Astarion is the coworker from hell. He doesn't actually do any work. When he's not taking unauthorized breaks, he's sneaking around to avoid helping customers. If a customer is unlucky enough to catch him, he'll just give them a snide remark or send them to Gale. Since he was hired, there has been a very suspicious inventory shrinkage. He distracts the cashiers from doing their work and they have formed a mean girl clique that gossips about everyone else. He'll also occasionally slip a product in a customer's pocket and report to Lae'zel he saw them shoplifting, then sit back and enjoy the show. The only reason he hasn't been fired is because he flirts with your middle aged divorced boss, who is putty in his hands.

Wyll's dad is a well to-do politician, but he insisted Wyll get a blue collar job so he can better understand the merit of hard work and see how the common man lives. And Wyll does an exceptional job- he offers the best customer service and has the charisma to sell anyone anything. Of course, he is honorable enough that he'd never sell a customer an inferior or overpriced product. He knows the returning customers by name and they ask for him specifically. He's also a hit with the kids. Yet it's Astarion who keeps getting employee of the month- what is that about?? If anyone ever tries to rob the place, Wyll will likely be the one saving the day- if Lae'zel doesn't disembowel them first.

Gale is that coworkers who doesn't understand boundaries. He'll be venting to you about his ex gf and asking for advice about whether it's too soon to text her again while you're just trying to mop the floor. You'll be taking care of a huge line at the cash register and he decides that's the time to show you all the cat pictures on his phone. To be fair- his cat is really cute. He complains a lot about how he graduated from an elite school and did exceptionally well academically, yet he's stuck working this shitty job- damn this economy! He's eager to help customers, but has a habit of monologuing about all the trivia he happens to know about whatever they're buying. One time, you walked in on him gnawing on a pair of men's boots in the break room, and neither of you ever spoke of it again.

Shadowheart would be the most "normal" employee of the bunch- her customer service is adequate- courteous and professional, but with minimal small talk. "Yes, that'll be in aisle 3. Have a nice day." She often gets out of any stocking jobs she doesn't feel like doing by complaining that her hand hurts- it seems to only conveniently go off when you ask her to lift a few boxes. You try to make small talk with her in the break room, and it gets awkward because you just interrupted her before lunch prayers. And her during lunch prayers. And her after lunch prayers. Maybe take the hint already, and stop trying to get to know her.

Bonus: Withers is the store greeter. In the fall, sometimes people mistake him for a Halloween decoration...

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Since we're heading into winter...

The Supreme Court of Texas narrowly decided Friday that sovereign immunity, which largely shields government agencies from civil lawsuits, also protects the operator of the Texas electric grid.

The 5-4 opinion will likely free the nonprofit corporation from lawsuits filed by thousands of Texans for deaths, injuries and damages following the deadly 2021 winter storm, unless lawyers find another way forward.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the power supply for most of Texas, qualifies for immunity because it “provides an essential governmental service,” Chief Justice Nathan Hecht wrote in the majority opinion. State law intended for ERCOT to have the power of an “arm of the State government,” Hecht wrote. If anyone is going to hold ERCOT accountable for its actions, Hecht wrote, it should be state regulators or the Legislature, not the courts.

Freezing temperatures gripped the state during the 2021 winter storm, straining the power supply so much that ERCOT called for cutting power to millions of homes and businesses to prevent the grid’s collapse. More than 200 people died. Experts estimated afterward that financial losses totaled between $80 billion and $130 billion, including physical damage and missed economic opportunity.

Thousands of residents accused ERCOT, power companies and distribution companies of failing to prepare for the freezing weather.

Lawyers expect the high court’s decision will allow ERCOT to be dismissed from the litigation, although it does not shield other defendants.

Attorney Mia Lorick, who represents some of those plaintiffs, said she sees only a slim possibility that lawyers could keep claims against ERCOT alive by arguing that their cases have differences that somehow skirt the sovereign immunity finding.

Majed Nachawati, whose firm is representing other plaintiffs in the related cases said, “The Texas Supreme Court’s decision is disappointing to say the least. People lost their lives and the only recourse to the citizens of Texas is to be able to go through the judicial process, and the judicial system, to try to remedy or right the wrong that occurred in this case. And if you can’t count on our judiciary to protect its citizens, I think we’re in a lot of trouble.”

Justices Jeff Boyd and John Devine, along with two others, disagreed that ERCOT has sovereign immunity. Purely private entities are clearly not sovereign, and making them so undermines the public trust, they wrote. The justices argued that “no statute designates ERCOT as a part of the government” and that courts should not be barred from hearing claims against it.

The ruling sprang from two cases filed against ERCOT. San Antonio’s municipally owned utility, CPS Energy, alleged that ERCOT mishandled the soaring price of power during the 2021 winter storm. And private equity investors at Panda Power Funds alleged that 10 years earlier ERCOT issued reports that misled them about how much power the grid needed.

ERCOT spokespersons issued a statement saying that the organization was pleased with the decision. CPS Energy said in a statement that it was disappointed but thankful that four justices agreed with the utility as it sought relief for customers. The utility said the litigation still led to “critical discussions at the highest levels that are necessary to improve our power grid and energy market.”

[fatherfigurefusion]

AU where I give the DRDT cast original talents (plus my reasons for these talents)

Teruko Tawaki, the Ultimate Police Officer

(NGL: In addition to my theory of Wolfgang Akire getting a Teruko arc and my mental association between Teruko and Tsurugi Kinjo, the other reason I made Teruko a police officer was because of a Paw Patrol DRDT AU that had Chase as Teruko.)

Xander Matthews, the Ultimate Graphic Novelist

(He'd honestly write some pretty awesome graphic novels, probably centering around awesome adventures of rebellion and vigilantism.)

Eden Tobisa, the Ultimate Petsitter

(I only really gave her this talent due to that one remark she made in the prologue: "Do you think I walk dogs, silly?")

Hu Jing, the Ultimate Kickboxer

(I just love the mental image of a buff yet still chubby Hu who can and will beat someone up.)

J Moreno, the Ultimate Chess Grandmaster

(Just have the Rosales be a high-grade military family with J being groomed to be their best military strategist, only for her to just want to chill and play chess.)

Veronika Grebenshikova, the Ultimate Dollmaker

(She just has "dollmaker"/Jane Doe from "Ride the Cyclone" vibes.)

David Chiem, the Ultimate Part-Time Worker

(Customer service voice. Can also swap the XanVid dynamic by having David be a massive fan of Xander's graphic novels.)

Arturo Giles, the Ultimate Caterer

(Spending his whole life catering to and being surrounded by celebrities? That is Arturo's dream. Would cook the most elaborate and expensive dishes ever.)

Levi Fontana, the Ultimate Undertaker

(Maybe the indifference that comes from years of dealing with dead bodies could tie into both Levi's struggles with being seen as "heartless", despite wanting to be helpful, and Levi's friendship with the talentswapped Ace.)

Ace Markey, the Ultimate Paranormal Investigator

(A cowardly yet competent paranormal investigator is a character prompt that's too much comic gold to pass up. Also, see Levi's prompt above.)

Min Jeung, the Ultimate Archer

(I decided to swap Min's academic talent for an athletic talent, and found that archery would fit the focused and stoic Min. Also, Mafuyu Asahina.)

Whit Young, the Ultimate Model

(It's the Adrien Agreste energy. Also based around my theory that Kai and Diana would act like Whit figures for Damon, and decided to give Whit a talent that combines both Kai and Diana's talents.)

Charles Cuevas, the Ultimate Debater

(It's the Damon Maitsu energy.)

Arei Nageishi, the Ultimate News Reporter

(What better way to ruin people's lives then to dig up dirt on them and then put them on blast, on national television?)

Nico Hakobyan, the Ultimate Robotics Engineer

(Just swap out their love and understanding for animals with a love and understanding towards machines. Possible Entrapta kin.)

Rose Lacroix, the Ultimate Street Performer

(She would most likely take up busking, in order to support her family. I could easily picture her pulling multiple party tricks out of nowhere, wowing everybody around her.)

[piratefishmama]

So i know the poll isnt over but i'm going to assume yes, to the background information on Finders Givers lmao.

So this is basically notes, they're notes I have on these characters, things that might not explicitly make it into the fic, and some things that might be included or referenced, but they're just... things i have noted down as character motivations or bits of information for specific characters that i wanna keep note of.

so keep some of these things in mind when characters are introduced! it'll explain a lot in terms of characterizations or vague references.

Please be advised there are CW's in here! CW: Mentions of ED CW: Mentions of human trafficking CW: mentions of illegal behaviour CW: mentions of past parental abuse CW: mentions of police bullshittery

The Harrington Family

Adults

Head of the family - Steve Harrington - 28 - Bisexual

Steve runs several underground businesses around the city, including drugs, fire arms, smuggling, and he owns a few clubs that deal in… illicit behaviours (strip clubs, gambling, etc.)

Steve also deals in legitimate business practices to cover up his naughty ones. He has military contracts for legal firearm development and distribution. He also owns a few local restaurants and a bakery that he bought to give Jane something soothing to do when her nerves are fried.

Steve was under his parents guidance until he was 18 years of age, they passed away in a car wreck leaving him with the 'family business' which he has since expanded and grown into a pretty sizable empire.

He lives in a high rise apartment in the city, the floor to cieling windows are bullet and blast proof and his security system is state of the art developed by his own company, he also has a security team and weapons hidden in several places around his apartment just in case anyone managed to get through the gauntlet of shit he's got lined up for them should anyone tresspass.

He owns the building, Robin lives in it, and so does Nancy and Jonathan although they're planning on getting a house somewhere just outside the city.

Steve wants the Hideout for drug and weapon smuggling purposes as one of the tunnels under it connects to a sewer line that runs to the city docks, getting the Hideout would mean he'd have access to pretty much the entire city from that one spot, as it's an access point to the tunnels not on any official city map.

Robin Buckley - 27 - Lesbian

Met Steve at a restaurant owned by his parents when they were both teenagers, Steve was still under his parents wing at that stage of his life and was held up by a rival family who caught him having dinner with friends, Robin, while working as a server, took a bullet for him, and wound up tied to a chair back to back with him in a warehouse while the bad guys tried to ransom them, took them both together thinking they knew each other because Robin took that bullet. They've been inseparable ever since.

She's the most important person in his life, he'd give up everything for her in a heartbeat. Wouldnt even think about it, he owes her his life.

Robin comes from a middle-class family and worked most of her teenage years in retail and customer service jobs, until she was taken hostage with Steve. She knows multiple languages, can play a few instruments. she's a little clumsy but she has spirit. she and Steve play basketball every now and then with the kids to unwind. She likes baking with Jane.

Nancy Wheeler - 27 - Bisexual

Steve brought her in when she was fired from her first reporter gig for some bogus political bullshit that wound up with her name being blacklisted in the industry when she went after the wrong person without any back up.

He paid for her student loans and brought her and her family into his family, she now works closely with Robin to make sure Steve doesnt do anything stupid, and if he does something stupid without telling them, she aids in damage control.

She's also a solid researcher, can find that needle in a haystack without needing a magnet. And she's really good with a gun.

Jonathan Byers - 27 - Heterosexual

Came with Nancy, is now her fiance. He's good at publicity shots, manages the galleries on the company's website. He takes most of Steve's public appearance photos. Doesn't really have the stomach for crime but he's pretty good at staying quiet.

Argyle - 27 - Pansexual

Came with Jonathan, a pretty spectacular get away driver, a good cook, and solid weed dealer, doesnt deal in anything stronger, has a quality hook up back in California that Steve was happy to connect with. He also ferries the kids around whenever they wanna do something stupid. Sometimes he appears with pizza, nobody knows where he gets the pizza, (he makes it himself).

He's currently staying with the Wheelers as there's no room for him elsewhere. He eventually moves into the block.

Billy Hargrove - 28 - one foot out of the closet Gay (still defensive about it)

Originally forced to work under Henry Creel, the head of a rival gang as an enforcer after his father racked up gambling debts with him. Billy is volatile, violent, and very defensive. He will snap to violence if he's backed into a corner.

Billy has a hair trigger temper similar to Jane, however his trauma is more related to his abusive father and being forced to work for Creel as a hitman/enforcer. He was the muscle, the guy who'd turn up to break things or kill someone. He's not a nice person by any means, he still acts a bit like a shark that's sensed blood in the water, but he's trying to be better now he's free of Creel.

He was raised by a racist, so his views on things are backwards and a lot twisted, but he's getting better. He's no longer antagonistic towards Lucas, he was for the first few months, but Max stepped in and shut that down.

He's doing a lot better now he's in a healthier environment, no longer fearing for his and Max's life, and no longer under Neil's abusive thumb, but he has unhealthy coping mechanisms for his stress and anger.

Joyce Byers - 46

Came with Jonathan. She doesnt really have a role besides keeping Hopper from arresting everyone. Everyone loves her though, she's like a mother to them all. Very protective of them. She'll do odd jobs here and there.

Jim Hopper - 46

Chief of Police in the city, Steve's parents basically blackmailed him years ago and Steve still has the material if Hopper ever stepped out of line.

Hopper has since reunited with, and fallen for Joyce, they went to school together, small world! So he can't do shit without Joyce being mad at him.

Begrudgingly he does actually like Steve though, the kid doesnt cause half as much shit as he could do given how much power he has.

The other parents

Play little to no roles. Not mentioned other than in passing.

Claudia mans the main secretaries desk at the main office which acts as a front for Steve's other shit. Steve hired her after he overheard Dustin talking to the other kids about how his mother had been made redundant at her previous job.

The Kids.

Jane Ives/Harrington - 16

Steve's most dangerous enforcer.

He recovered her from a human trafficking ring, the other victims found their way back to their homes but while they could find her mother, Terry was mentally gone after a blow to the head which happened when Jane was originally kidnapped.

Steve took her in, she uses Harrington as her last name in school. Their relationship is closer to brother/sister rather than parent/child.

Nobody expects Jane to be dangerous, and that's one of the reasons why she's the most dangerous. She's small, she's a wisp of a thing, but she will snap.

People do not take her seriously and then they die.

Jane has PTSD and intermittant explosive disorder (IED). She has trauma triggers that include claustrophobia and a fear of dark places, she doesnt trust easily and her speech is stilted from growing up in harsh conditions with no schooling or socialization.

Befriended Max at school when Steve insisted that she go to school with kids her own age to learn how to socialise (she was chaperoned and the school was well aware of her difficulties). There have been hiccups due to every school having bullies, but Steve has always paid any medical bills caused by those hiccups.

She killed Henry Creel to free both Max and her brother from his clutches using Steve's old nail bat, after convincing Max to bring her to Henry under the guise of her joining his "family".

It took a few weeks to gain his trust, but she killed him in his home by finding out his home security codes, sneaking in at night and taking him by surprise. Nail bat to the face.

Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Will - 15-16 & Erica - 13

They're the kids, they met Jane in school. They do random odd jobs here and there, mainly they act as spies around the city, they usually communicate through walkies, changing the channel once a week to avoid being listened to.

If there's anything happening around the city that's worth knowing, one of the kids will know it.

Will and Mike already knew Steve through their relatives, which made it easier for the other kids to trust him.

Steve will not allow them to do anything other than act as weird little spies but thats fine, they think it's really cool.

Max - 16

She's a solid get away driver and Billy's stepsister, will absolutely take a baseball bat to someone if necessary, she and Jane are best friends.

She acted as a drug runner for Henry for a year before Jane intervened.

She has a huge crush on Lucas, it's mutual, it's very cute.

The Block

The block is 4 storeys high, there are sixteen apartments in the block in a range of 1 to 2 bedroom. Odd numbers on the left side of the building, even numbered apartments on the right side of the building. Four apartments to a floor. Rent is usually $595pm not including any utility bills.

Eddie Munson - 29 - Gay

Lead vocalist and guitarist of Corroded Coffin which plays at the Hideout, the bar Steve is buying, every Tuesday evening.

Jobless as of start of fic due to a 'disagreement' with his line manager which ended with the manager unconscious and bleeding.

Eddie struggles to find work as he has an assault felony on his record that had him spending two years inside. He used to deal drugs back in highschool but doesnt any more. He still partakes from time to time when he can afford to buy from the shitty dealers in the block. He knows the weed is trash and not at all worth the money they're asking for, but they're easy to get to and it provides a decent enough high to pass the time, he doesnt let Chrissy partake until she's healthy again.

Argyle quickly becomes one of his friends when he moves into the block.

The assault felony was against a local police officer who attempted to coerce him into sexual acts in favour of letting him off with a warning for being caught dealing drugs, hinting that he should be grateful to get any at all given Eddie's sexuality in such a small town.

Eddie punched him and managed to launch the drugs he had into a field lost to the darkness while the officer was disorientated.

The only charge they could pull him on was assault.

When he got out, he was more a freak than ever before, now known as the local queer after the officer he'd 'assaulted' had rushed to claim Eddie came onto him to get out of a harsher charge then panicked when the officer didnt reciprocate when asked to explain Eddie lashing out, as he'd never shown any agression towards officers before and the sherrif couldn't understand why he'd start now, the Sherrif still didn't understand how that could make sense as the story was so hastily told by the officer, so Eddie got out early after a quiet internal investigation led to him being revealed as a victim.

Unfortunately as he did assault an officer, the charge was never wiped from his record.

Eddie spent a year in Hawkins with his uncle after getting out of jail, before jumping ship. Not before making friends with Chrissy Cunningham, who he'd caught at the quarry one night a little too close to the edge of the cliff.

He talked her down, made her laugh, and gave her half his sandwich which she picked at quietly.

He found out about her ED from Jason her childhood friend and 'boyfriend' (performative, acted as a shield against her mother when he could), who at first couldn't believe that Eddie was getting her to eat things, he was defensive at first, angry that she'd go to the local felon instead of him, but… eventually he conceeded that maybe she would be happier, maybe she could survive life if she stayed with Eddie.

Jason sought to convince Eddie to get her to move away from Hawkins with him when Eddie decided to jump ship. He didn't have to try hard. Eddie was planning on whisking her away anyway.

They moved to the city together and have been inseparable ever since as he strives to help her recover.

Lives in Apartment 8 on the second floor with Chrissy.

Chrissy Cunningham - 27 - Bisexual

Lived with abusive parents until she was 16 and then managed to split her living situation between staying with her childhood friend (Jason) under the guise of him being her boyfriend, and hiding out with friends.

Chrissy has suffered with an eating disorder since she was very young mostly due to her mother's insistent comments about her weight and pointed shaming remarks regarding her clothes needing to be let out when they didn't.

She now lives with Eddie in the city, healthier and happier than she's been in years.

Keeps in touch with Jason by semi-weekly calls, he visits every now and then to check in on her.

She's estranged from her parents and little brother, although she wishes she could see her little brother and protect him from her parents. Her parents cut all contact when Chrissy ran away with the town 'freak/felon'. Claiming they didn't want her to negatively influence their son.

Jason was absolutely in love with her, nobody doubts that, but he was aware that she wasnt there, wasnt in that headspace, and probably never would be while in Hawkins, so while he did love her, while he did 'date her' publicly, and while he was happy to pour that love onto her, it was never with any intention to have her do anything with him. It never came with pressures or expectations. He just kept her safe whenever he could.

It's been a month since she last forced herself to throw up and she's put on a small amount of weight that she's happy with. She's on the mend.

Lives in Apartment 8 on the second floor with Eddie.

Dottie and Mick - 19/21 - lesbians.

Dottie and Mick live across the hall from Eddie and Chrissy, they're a couple of runaways estranged from their families who found each other and stuck together, they're not a couple although sometimes they act like it.

They argue sometimes due to Dottie's dependance on drugs and Mick's overprotective tendencies and they're kinda punky, little grungy, but they're nice neighbours usually, and mostly keep to themselves.

Lives in apartment 7 on the second floor

Mrs Luiza Jablonski - 71 - widowed.

She's polish, jewish, and old. She lives alone and usually stays inside.

She loves her neighbours and they love her. She's everyone's grandma.

She crocheted Chrissy a sweater when she and Eddie first moved in, it's Chrissy's favourite thing to wear as it's made of thick cream coloured wool and so cosy, the arms are too long but Chrissy likes how they cover her fingers, makes her feel safe.

She also crocheted Eddie a little plush bat after she saw his tattoo. He loves it.

She has two cats, Mika and Pusia. She owns and can play a grand piano. She occasionally makes enough food to feed the whole floor with leftovers.

She's a little deaf so she doesnt mind Eddie practicing his guitar in his room, which shares the wall with her apartment. Sometimes she will play the piano along with him if she has her hearing aids in, they have little duets sometimes.

Lives in apartment 6 on the second floor.

[princess-of-the-corner]

honestly anything TA says about Chloé and her background and motives is just like, a display of shallow understanding on how society works. People don't care if the customer service workers (from waiters to doctors and any job that serves a customer, which is pretty much all of them) do their job for money or because they genuinely like said job so long as they get good service like they were promised. Privilege is part of a whole ass System and you can't say just *this one specific person* has privilege when literally a majority of the cast has white privilege, all of them are at least middle class, and Adrien, who is one of the main characters, and Felix and Gabriel, two other big names in the show, are upper class white males. the last two are people who get off scott free from all their crimes which is probably what would happen in real life because of said privileges. And even then, the money all the rich kids supposedly have? Not even theirs. They're all broke dependent children with Adrien being the only one with a job and even then where's that money going? Does Kagami get fencing prize money? Is it hers or is it her mother's? Also anyone can be abused and have trauma and mental illnesses and whatnot, and full stop. Doesn't matter what you have or don't have.

Yeah no exactly like.

If we pretend for a hot second that having wealth cancels out any other trauma, then it should cancel out at least every traumatic experience for Gabriel, Felix, Adrien and Kagami. Not to mention you have to ask where the line is drawn because a lot of the Miracuclass is pretty well-off even though they're not quite in the 'Scrooge McDuck Money' category. (seriously we have discussed the class's financial situations before and of those whose families we've seen the only one who /might/ not be some kind of rich is Mylene.)

But these things don't exist in a vacuum.

You can have all the money in the world and still have trauma from various things! Since we were just talking about a certain AU, let's gesture over to Batman who is famously very rich but also traumatized as fuck!

Someone wealthy can have fucked up events happen to them. They can have parents that abuse them. They can have partners that abuse them. They could be born with some chemical imbalance that makes them depressed despite the fact that they 'have no reason to be depressed' because fuck man that's what depression does!

And while wealth can help, as it has access to resources to help fix your problems, it doesn't solve things.

But yes! Chloé being a child has another layer to it! Because her wealth is not her own and she /can't/ use her money to fix her problems! Even if Chloé did realize 'hey I need therapy', she'd need to get her parents' permission and have them pay for it.

At the same time, she has no way to escape her situation. She is underage and needs a legal guardian of some sort. Her parents have enough money that she can't report them for child abuse and expect to be removed from their custody. She has no access to income of her own and/or skills to get income where she could petition to be emancipated from them.

And even when she /does/ become an adult, there's the question of what will happen. Because maybe they cut her off and leave her to flounder with no skills as soon as she turns 18. On the other hand, they could keep controlling her like a child because she has no skills thanks to their shitty upbringing and can't survive without them, so it's a game of 'you'll get money as long as you do exactly what I want'.

This stuff does similarly apply to Adrien, Felix and Kagami as well. They seem a bit more ready to function in the world, but even so they're still children at the whims of their parents and can only escape through their parents fucking dying.

[valeriantempest]

"So, You Want to be Part of My Club?~"

"Club Dev Hour is a nightclub which is host to all kinds of individuals. Open every night each week, you will find some comfort in the music to dance the night away to, the tasty drinks and if you want to, in the pits of someones gut or have your gut filled~"

Here are some things about the Club Dev Hour lil universe. You are welcome to make original characters or writing based in this universe, see more info below~:

You must have a ticket to enter.

Do not remove your wristband you receive while in the club, you will not be allowed back in if you leave or you can be removed if there is no valid proof you had a wristband (eg; copy of a ticket, ticket receipt, etc.)

No devouring anyone without permission! Any misbehaving with this rule will have that happen to them, often carried out by Valerian himself.

Do not do anything without another permission PERIOD! Again, this can result in a ban from the club or possible Karma brought to you.

If any guests are making you uncomfortable, harassing, etc; report to the guards or staff of the club. We strive to make sure everyone feels safe in this environment.

All employees as part of their contract will be assigned reformation to ensure if the boss does get hungry, you will return!

Some job roles include; bar tender, bouncers/guards within the club, clean up duties, performers, dj's, receptionist and hosts.

Valerian has his personal body guards which are separate from those who's roles are to make sure everyone is safe in the club

Like any job, you are given holidays and with Club Dev Hour, you are not expected to work every night!

The pay is fair for everyone

If you are having issues or problems with your tasks or another staff member, Valerian and/or his body guards will happily help out in any way they can.

You call in sick? Don't worry, we all have our off days and Valerian will happily make sure to take the time you need to rest up.

You are allowed to devour on duty, but do adhere to the rules of the club.

All guest are recommended to have an active reformation in place. We can provide a single night reformation service if you do not have one in place.

There are seven types of tickets; Prey ticket (if you are strictly prey; you will receive a special code to remember along with your full name if you are to be digested, more info below), Pred ticket (if you are strictly pred), Switch ticket (You lean both towards prey and pred, you will also be given a code like the prey ticket), D.N.E ticket (Do Not Eat which is a ticket for those who do not wish to partake in any vore happenings but wish to attend the club for its other entertainments or wish to observe instead.) and the highest priced tickets, V.I.P. tickets (Very Important Prey, Very Important Pred or Very Important Person (for those who do not want to be part of the vore aspects); these ticket holders have access to special rooms and services the club provides)

There are seasonal tickets as well which are like membership cards for reoccurring customers if they are interested. Tickets will be at a discount for these club members and offers such as a free drink or an upgraded ticket can be handed out to luck winners too.

You will receive a colored wristband which allocates you to your ticket so everyone can be identified. There are signs around the club to help you identify what each wristband means

These wristbands can not be destroyed easily so, for example, if you are an endo or temporary prey, the wristband will not dissolve.

There is on sight reformation locations for those digested on sight which allows you to receive your wristbands again. This is where you say the code or your full name to a staff member who will happily be of service to you. If you are a pred who has tested the waters, please provide your full name and we will see what we can do.

Of course I have this open to anyone who would like to create an oc or even do some writing based in Club Dev hour! There are some rules to follow that i am sure you all will do anyways:

Do not claim this as your own idea, its not nice to steal peoples ideas :(

No, you cant vore Valerian. He is strictly pred, sorry!

If you see anyone stealing this idea, please let me know!

Feel free to tag me in your works! I would love to see them so much if anyone does do anything! I might even do some works with your ocs (with permission of course ^-^)

There is a special tag for this now, #ClubDevHour ~

If you have any questions, my ask box is open for public and anon messages alike! You can also directly message me here or on my twitter or discord!

Thanks for reading, and do enjoy your stay at Club Dev Hour~

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💟Ask box open on tumblr for anon messages if you have questions or suggestions~