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marinetteplztakeabreak · 11 months

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Another little essay on the mls5 finale

Tl;dr Gabriel Agreste Was Not Redeemed but it Makes Sense to feel weird and gross about it! And i think it was definitely Designed that way and did a very cool job of showing some complicated things

(Under a cut for ml s5 finale spoilers and also She-Ra spoilers because i’m comparing arcs, you dont have to have seen she-ra for this to make sense just, you will get spoilers)

Gabriel Agreste’s death reminded me IMMENSELY of shadow weaver’s death in she-ra. it left me with the same emotions. and i think they’re both Clearly trying to show the same thing

In both, there is this, almost *parody* of a heroic sacrifice??? There is a villain/abusive parent who is SHOWN repeatedly to be evil and to Cause Repeated Harm to their child/main character. But the main character can never quite renounce them because they’re always thrown the tiniest scraps at the very last minute. And this main character is trapped in a never ending cycle of needing to crawl back for help because despite it all they WANT to believe that there is some Pure Underlying Motive behind it all and that actually their parent DOES love them and IS good. Because who WOULDN’T want to believe that, especially in moments of terror and lonliness and the world falling to pieces???

And BOTH of these villains die by a “heroic sacrifice” that THEY think redeems them. They both die as a sacrifice ONLY when it’s a last resort and they’re going to die ANYWAYS if they DONT do anything. and they both make SURE that a child they’ve traumatized On Purpose is Watching Them Die Heroically. For both of them there’s this element of… their death is one last act of traumatizing the person they’re saving and ALSO one last act of making them feel Trapped and like they are In Debt and Have To Stay Loyal to their abusive parent?????

Like???? Gabriel LITERALLY does those tears that may or may not have been fake but were Definitely weaponized to play with marinette’s moral compass and catch her off guard. followed by the like… cackling evil villain act. Istg he was like Playing with marinette like a little ragdoll and Relishing in how Helpless she was as he made the wish. He KNEW he had her trapped, not just By The Miraculous but also Emotionally. He KNEW she had no one else to turn to. He KNEW he held the cards and he could say “make sure adrien remembers me as a hero” and that she’d HAVE to do it. Because he was about to die in front of her and she was going to be messed up by the whole thing and all these secrets and she wasn’t gonna have much choice other than to just Believe He Was Right And Good. As a coping mechanism.

And i think,,, there’s this aura of… he Genuinely thinks he has won. He thinks that he has succeeded in being a Good Father. He thinks that he has Manipulated and Snared his way into being a Hero and Right because he thinks that’s a thing you can do!!!! He doesn’t even consider changing his ways, not when natalie AND adrien AND ladybug all BEG him to listen. He doesnt consider treating anyone else as a person or admitting he could be wrong????? He just doubles down Harder and goes “hahaaaa i have manipulated and traumatized this teenager into continuing my lies and making up a narrative for me where im the hero… this is the same as being a genuienly good parent.”

And i GET the feelings of grossness bc that was a gross thing he did!!!! I agree!!!

But i DONT think he got to get away free or be redeemed????

If anything, it gave me the same gut feeling as shadow weaver’s death in she ra????? Like????? This is the Final Proof that he’s beyond saving because he cant even DIE without using it as one last opportunity to hurt someone he should be protecting????? And he doesnt even Realize that’s messed up he’s just like “heehee i win at tricking those stupid little teenagers into thinking im a hero” with no sense of self reflection.

After watching through that scene a few times i am CONFIDENT it was meant to come off that way and im not actually Sure how much they’ll address it??????

(And im also a teensy bit confused because??? I dont know who the target audience is at this point??? If it really is little kids as the target i am Sure they’ll address it blatantly but the show’s been getting darker and more Nuanced lately. But this is a different point)

but even if they DON’T!!!!! This is just!!! So similar to shadow weaver’s death in she-ra, another cartoon theoretically aimed at children and they DIDNT even address that one at all because it was just,,,,,, SO obvious that even if she DID save the main characters with her death she also used it as a way to twist the knife?????

And so far ive just been talking about Recreation Specifically???? But the REASON gane was dying was bc he literally CATACLYSMED HIMSELF with chat’s hand as a way to trauamtize ladynoir because he thought it would catch them off guard and screw with them!!!!!!!!!!

This is not the narrative saying “oh he had good intentions and was right all along uwu” to me, this was very clearly the narrative saying “sometimes people are so far convinced that theyre the only one that matters that they cant even DIE without using it as a way to hurt and manipulate everyone they should be supporting and wow can that screw people up when they’re left to pick up those pieces and leave them with a complicated mess of emotions.”

and also its saying that it is in fact okay to hate your dead parents if they sucked . And its okay to be have complicated feelings about it, u dont have to be able to make an opinion immediately or seperate yourself from the situation. Sometimes it hurts and you mourn what you shouldve had Anyway.

And i think just like she ra, this is a very Mature and Complicated take and its Okay to have mixed feelings about it, but i just wanted to reassure people that the ending absolutely did not say that gabe was a good person.

It MIGHT have said that the wish actually helped make the world better!!! We don’t know that part yet!!!!

But we DO know that it said,,,,, even IF gabe made One Good Decision, he did it at the cost of everyone he should have been supporting and died with everyone he loved hating him for Good Reason and he used his last seconds of life to traumatize and manipulate a scared little kid into telling everyone he was A Hero . And he was not above beating up and hurting said little kid (ladybug) for funsies. I think even IF his wish IS proven to be A Good Thing (big if) there will STILL be a very valid question of “was it worth it.” There will still be tons of trauma on adrien and marinette’s part that Isnt going away. And that is on him and him alone

#ml spoilers #ml s5 spoilers #ml s5 finale #ml recreation #ml meta #spop #just in case someones blocking or filtering tags idk #gabriel agreste

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msmcnevertweet · 11 months

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Into the Blind, and Wot I Like about Space Stuff

I've been working on this for a while in between breaks updating As the Sun Forever Sets. Why is my idea of a break from writing games just writing a different game? I have dumb bitch disease. I wanted to talk about some of the inspirations for it.

Welcome to The Rim

Into the Blind is a sci fi game about a group of gig economy workers living contract to contract on the roiling, wild edge of space. It's about CRT screens, mechanical keyboards, junction boxes, pipes and wires. It's about the unknown, the stresses of capital, and horror - visceral and ephemeral. It's about working hard jobs in dangerous conditions for little pay, and the chance of a better life.

You are a Freelancer - Salvager, Shipbreaker, Courier, Bodyguard, Assassin, First Responder, Negotiator, Investigator, Debt Collector. A Freelancer is any and all of these, depending on the contract. You'll take whatever you can get to make ends meet.

Every job you do balances your need to pay the rent on your ship against your desire to remain alive. Grab what you can, get paid, and stay alive.

If this sounds cool to you, you can grab a free preview (with the old name) below.

Let me show you my favourite space things

Ok, time for the self indulgent ramblings.

(Potential) Spoilers for: Gravity, Interstellar, Contact, Arrival, The Expanse, the Alien series, the Thing, Annihilation, Homeworld: Cataclysm and Magnetic Rose.

Physics and Feelings at 10km/s

There are a lot of sci-fi horror TTRPGS out there. Like a lot a lot. Mothership, Death in Space, the Alien RPG, You're in Space and Everything's Fucked, the list goes on and on. Not that that matters - people should make the games they wanna make and I wanted to make a scary sci-fi game with spaceships, so eh fuck it.

Something I realised while writing stuff for Into the Blind and working on the system is that the themes and feeling of a lot of the sci-fi stuff I'm into didn't revolve around a towering monster skulking around dark spaceship. Like, sure, Into the Blind will have a nasty alien somewhere, I don't need to say that I like Alien or talk about why it's good (I do, it is, and I'm going to), but there's more to write about than monsters. Space is already intrinsically stressful and horrifying:

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Neil Degrasse Tyson and Chris Hadfield can shut the fuck up, Gravity has some of the scariest, tensest scenes in a movie I've ever seen in my fucking life. After watching this you could never pay me enough to go to space. The only enemy here is inertia, the only monster are the principles of physics that cause a cloud of debris to whip through orbit at 22,000 miles an hour.

Aside from the spectacle, Gravity is a film about finding the will to go on when you have nothing to live for and everything's against you. It's heavily implied that Dr Stone went to space because she's tired of existing on earth (or at least that's my read). She wants mercy and relief from the pain of her life, and watching it you want to gift it to her so badly, but the debris field crashes into her life over and over. It's a relentless, uncaring solar tide that returns like clockwork when to fuck her up any time she gets a break.

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These extreme forces also generate incredible tragedy and loss. Interstellar is kind of a dumb movie but despite the memes about this scene it always gets me. You don't know what you have until it's gone, and sometimes the distance between you knowing you've lost something and it becoming lost can (thanks to black holes and weird gravity stuff) slip by you in an age that feels like an instant.

Both Gravity and Interstellar have soft, beating hearts encased behind the layers of radiation shielding, technobabble and worn metal, and when the colossal forces that make the universe turn rip it open, they're laid bare.

That's a fucking cool thing to make a game about!

Indistinguishable from Magic

I'm not a big brain science person, when it comes to wormholes, relativity, folding space time and all that, I don't really get it. I just know that it's cool as hell and opens the door to powerful character stories about finding meaning and confronting your feelings at the edge of our understanding of reality.

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Contact and Arrival are two sides of the same movie to me. Both are heavily grounded in big Theory and big Science Words, both are about powerful sciencey girlbosses who've lost something dear to them (one in the future, one in the past.) Contact leans more towards the hard science approach, but both are at their best when they're balanced on the edge of the plausible and the implausible. They're both about the incredible, incomprehensible nature of the universe. They're both about people who change the world, in ways both vast impercievable to everyone else.

They're both stories of hope and benevolence, but Contact frames this through 90's optimism and the power of nations working together towards a common goal (it's so optimistic, even the villain-coded megacorporation decides to help out, which uhhhh), Arrival frames these themes through personal tragedy - Dr Banks pays a high price to save humanity from itself.

Behind the calculations and clipboards and theories, these are stories about personal discovery, love and heartache.

These are also fucking cool things to make games about!

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Magnetic Rose is probably the single biggest influence on Into the Blind - there's a full adventure heavily inspired by it in the preview. It's just so good. The visual design and animation are simultaneously grounded and real yet brilliantly beautiful and surreal. It's tragic gothic horror at the dark, gritty edge of space, and it's so good at being sad. The penultimate scenes in heart of the tomb-like space station, surrounded by rank brown water and decaying metal are heartwrenching. Heintz is tormented by visions of his past and you feel it so hard. The film doesn't care to tell you how this is all happening - are his memories ghosts? holograms? hallucinations? It only cares about the why, and it's incredible.

Breathable Air Prepayment Meters

It's been ages since I watched The Expanse, so I'm not gonna dwell on it too much, but what I remember focused heavily on how capital and government care little about those they govern and sell to.

The level that our existence is monetised and used as a cudgel against us currently can surely only expand along with our expansion into the stars. You can go there right now if you have enough money to do so, and when life beyond earth becomes feasible, the companies that financed it will need someone to clean the ducts and polish the solar arrays. The amount of things that can be sold to you can only increase out in space. You think rents are high now? Wait till you see the price of a 1 bedroom apartment in orbit around Mars. Add nice breathable mix of nitrogen and oxygen to your list of monthly outgoings. You think you'll be able to repair your C02 scrubbers without voiding the warranty? Fuck no.

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The Alien movies are obviously (despite what some grognards on twitter dot com will tell you) deeply about extreme capitalism. The galaxy is ruled by companies that could not care less about you, and the bottom line is all that matters. This kinda matters less and less as the films wear on, but the first 3 are all about working class people sacrificed on the altar of the interstellar dollar.

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Alien 3 in particular has a lot of problems, but the edgy teen in me is still really fond of this scene. It's doing a Big Foreshadow (Do you get it? The alien is like.. the flower he's talking about right? But the flower is bad?) But it feels like an appropriate lament for prisoners on the ass end of space. Despite what the company wants you to believe, the inmates of Fury 161 don't deserve to die, aren't expendable.

We all have flowers within us waiting to grow, out from the shadow of capital.

You might've noticed mentions of a nasty guy in those last clips.

Ok fine, also Monsters

We all love a little nasty guy, I cannot resist the pull of the weird monster that does Big Themes. Like I said, there's so much TTRPG stuff focused on them for good reason And space is ripe for the nastiest of guys.

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There's really nothing more to be said about The Thing, it just fucking rules. It's a movie that cares as much about what a monster can do to peoples bodies as what it can do to their minds and relationships.

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What a horrible fate for Sheppard. The idea of Annihilations mutant bear is just so sinister it makes my gut drop whenever I re-watch it. Again, not much else to be said about this movie. It rips.

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Homeworld: Cataclysm is a weird game. It's a survival horror.. strategy game? Set in space? Where you never see a single person?? And somehow it's voice acting and plot is incredible???

The Beast is the nickname for the microorganism that emerges from the millenia old wreckage the mining vessel Kuun-Lan happens upon whilst scouring deep space for valuable minerals. The threat it presents is so real and visceral, it's one of those "if this hits our planet, it's so over" monsters, and it's obscenely scary and gruesome. Even the Bentusi, a race of nigh-on ageless benevolent machine beings are absolutely terrified, and try to abandon the galaxy in the face of it (they fear their biological minds will be trapped in their machine bodies if they're taken over by The Beast, locked in and forced to watch what it does to the galaxy. Damn.)

The scene where you and your fleet fight the Bentusi as they try to evacuate known space to force them to help you is intense and incredible. You're fighting gods, and all you can do is crash against their incredible technology again and again like a stiff breeze, pleading for help and humanity. You shame them into taking responsibility for helping the mortals in the galaxy against this ancient threat. That's the fear inspired by The Beast.

Thank you for coming to my Space Ted Talk

I told you it was self indulgent huh. Hopefully this goes some way to explaining what I'm going for with this game. Not only monsters, but the experiences of people trapped by incredible forces of nature, corporations and circumstance. Not only horror, but exploitation, sadness, love, longing and loss. Thanks for reading.

Again, if you want to check out Into the Blind, you can get the free preview below, and follow me on Itch to get notified for when game releases (soon? idk)

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #ttrpg design #horror #science fiction #y'all ever go on a spaceship and cry #incredible self indulgence #am I accidently doing a Substack on tumblr dot com?

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softboynick · 3 months

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wip wednesday - 3/13/24

it's wednesday, already??? thank you for the tags, my dears! @bigassbowlingballhead @onthewaytosomewhere @captainjunglegym @priincebutt. sharing two snippets today for my honeys and lavenders! no pressure tags under the cut + OPEN TAG to anyone who'd like to share (please tag me!)

(1) excerpt from a beautiful chance chapter 3 (posting some time tomorrow!):

Favorite ice cream? Alex texts him one day, to which Henry responds with a simple: Cornettos. Anything you like to do in your free time? Alex sends, and Henry says: I like to read. Write. Walk my dog. Watch Bake Off. You know that last one already. Favorite author? Alex asks, and he answers: Jane Austen. Every message tugs at the thick, stubborn layers that keep the enigma that is Alexander Claremont-Diaz from being exposed to broad daylight, but when Henry answers his every question with an easy honesty that scares him, he realizes he is also giving a piece of himself away in return. Now, of course, he isn’t ready to share the darkness that lies beneath his breastbone and in the deep recesses of his mind, but he can still give away what is on the surface, and he is certain Alex won’t pressure him by asking for more than that. So he gives what he can and avoids what he can’t, and he looks forward to Friday amidst expensive Egyptian cotton sheets and strange hands and mouths caressing his body.

(2) excerpt from taken and tenured, a college professor au from an outsiders pov because i am a sucker for politics prof dr. acd and english lit prof dr. fox:

Observation #1: Teenagers fresh out of high school should not be making financial decisions that cost them tens of thousands of dollars of student debt (and be obligated to start paying it off for the rest of their sorry lives.) Observation #2: The folks at Matto never fail to make her the best dirty chai she’s ever had. Bonus observation: Hailee the Latte Girl has the cutest smile, and she’s been trying to build up the nerve to ask her out. But her dumbass can’t even move past the first, “Hey,” without blushing. Observation #3: Dr. Henry Fox has to be one of her favorite professors. The way he immediately goes on a rant about the feminist ideas embedded in eighteenth century literature on the first day of class and waxes poetry about Jane Austen nearly makes her fall in love with him right then and there. She knows he is very enthusiastically gay (and married!), but that doesn’t stop her from fantasizing. Observation #4: Dr. Alex “Just Call me Alex or ACD” Claremont-Diaz, the extremely cool, extremely attractive Poli Sci professor everyone on campus is in love with, is weirdly obsessed with Dr. Fox. Observation #5: Dr. Fox happens to be just as obsessed. And finally, Observation #6: Dr. Claremont-Diaz and Dr. Fox absolutely fucking hate each other.

@henrysfox @taste-thewaste @tinyarmedtrex @eusuntgratie @onpurposeilovehimonpurpose @junebugclaremontdiaz @england-would-fall @anincompletelist @wordsofhoneydew @bitbybitwrites @itsmaybitheway

#wip wednesday #my writing

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Rent control works

This Saturday (May 20), I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on May 22, I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

On May 23, I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

David Roth memorably described the job of neoliberal economists as finding “new ways to say ‘actually, your boss is right.’” Not just your boss: for decades, economists have formed a bulwark against seemingly obvious responses to the most painful parts of our daily lives, from wages to education to health to shelter:

https://popula.com/2023/04/30/yakkin-about-chatgpt-with-david-roth/

How can we solve the student debt crisis? Well, we could cancel student debt and regulate the price of education, either directly or through free state college.

How can we solve America’s heath-debt crisis? We could cancel health debt and create Medicare For All.

How can we solve America’s homelessness crisis? We could build houses and let homeless people live in them.

How can we solve America’s wage-stagnation crisis? We could raise the minimum wage and/or create a federal jobs guarantee.

How can we solve America’s workplace abuse crisis? We could allow workers to unionize.

How can we solve America’s price-gouging greedflation crisis? With price controls and/or windfall taxes.

How can we solve America’s inequality crisis? We could tax billionaires.

How can we solve America’s monopoly crisis? We could break up monopolies.

How can we solve America’s traffic crisis? We could build public transit.

How can we solve America’s carbon crisis? We can regulate carbon emissions.

These answers make sense to everyone except neoliberal economists and people in their thrall. Rather than doing the thing we want, neoliberal economists insist we must unleash “markets” to solve the problems, by “creating incentives.” That may sound like a recipe for a small state, but in practice, “creating incentives” often involves building huge bureaucracies to “keep the incentives aligned” (that is, to prevent private firms from ripping off public agencies).

This is how we get “solutions” that fail catastrophically, like:

Public Service Loan Forgiveness instead of debt cancellation and free college:

https://studentloansherpa.com/likely-ineligible/

The gig economy instead of unions and minimum wages:

https://www.newswise.com/articles/research-reveals-majority-of-gig-economy-workers-are-earning-below-minimum-wage

Interest rate hikes instead of price caps and windfall taxes:

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/03/1173371788/the-fed-raises-interest-rates-again-in-what-could-be-its-final-attack-on-inflati

Tax breaks for billionaire philanthropists instead of taxing billionaires:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/11/10/winners-take-all-modern-philanthropy-means-that-giving-some-away-is-more-important-than-how-you-got-it/

Subsidizing Uber instead of building mass transit:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/cities-turn-uber-instead-buses-trains/

Fraud-riddled carbon trading instead of emissions limits:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/27/voluntary-carbon-market/#trust-me

As infuriating as all of this “actually, your boss is right” nonsense is, the most immediate and continuously frustrating aspect of it is the housing crisis, which has engulfed cities all over the world, to the detriment of nearly everyone.

America led the way on screwing up housing. There were two major New Deal/post-war policies that created broad (but imperfect and racially biased) prosperity in America: housing subsidies and labor unions. Of the two, labor unions were the most broadly inclusive, most available across racial and gender lines, and most engaged with civil rights struggles and other progressive causes.

So America declared war on labor unions and told working people that their only path to intergenerational wealth was to buy a home, wait for it to “appreciate,” and sell it on for a profit. This is a disaster. Without unions to provide countervailing force, every part of American life has worsened, with stagnating wages lagging behind skyrocketing expenses for education, health, retirement, and long-term care. For nearly every homeowner, this means that their “most valuable asset” — the roof over their head — must be liquidated to cover debts. Meanwhile, their kids, burdened with six-figure student debt — will have little or nothing left from the sale of the family home with which to cover a downpayment in a hyperinflated market:

https://gen.medium.com/the-rents-too-damned-high-520f958d5ec5

Meanwhile, rent inflation is screaming ahead of other forms of inflation, burdening working people beyond any ability to pay. Giant Wall Street firms have bought up huge swathes of the country’s housing stock, transforming it into overpriced, undermaintained slums that you can be evicted from at the drop of a hat:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

Transforming housing from a human right to an “asset” was always going to end in a failure to build new housing stock and regulate the rental market. It’s reaching a breaking point. “Superstar cities” like New York and San Francisco have long been priced out of the reach of working people, but now they’re becoming unattainable for double-income, childless, college-educated adults in their prime working years:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/15/upshot/migrations-college-super-cities.html

A city that you can’t live in is a failure. A system that can’t provide decent housing is a failure. The “your boss is right, actually” crowd won: we don’t build public housing, we don’t regulate rents, and it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.

Maybe we could try doing things instead of “aligning incentives?”

Like, how about rent control.

God, you can already hear them squealing! “Price controls artificially distort well-functioning markets, resulting in a mismatch between supply and demand and the creation of the dreaded deadweight loss triangle!”

Rent control “causes widespread shortages, leaving would-be renters high and dry while screwing landlords (the road to hell, so says the orthodox economist, is paved with good intentions).”

That’s been the received wisdom for decades, fed to us by Chicago School economists who are so besotted with their own mathematical models that any mismatch between the models’ predictions and the real world is chalked up to errors in the real world, not the models. It’s pure economism: “If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

But, as Mark Paul writes for The American Prospect, rent control works:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2023-05-16-economists-hate-rent-control/

Rent control doesn’t constrain housing supply:

https://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/rent-matters

At least some of the time, rent control expands housing supply:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2007.00334.x

The real risk of rent control is landlords exploiting badly written laws to kick out tenants and convert their units to condos — that’s not a problem with rent control, it’s a problem with eviction law:

https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf

Meanwhile, removing rent control doesn’t trigger the predicted increases in housing supply:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119006000635

Rent control might create winners (tenants) and losers (landlords), but it certainly doesn’t make everyone worse off — as the neoliberal doctrine insists it must. Instead, tenants who benefit from rent control have extra money in their pockets to spend on groceries, debt service, vacations, and child-care.

Those happier, more prosperous people, in turn, increase the value of their landlords’ properties, by creating happy, prosperous neighborhoods. Rent control means that when people in a neighborhood increase its value, their landlords can’t kick them out and rent to richer people, capturing all the value the old tenants created.

What is life like under rent control? It’s great. You and your family get to stay put until you’re ready to move on, as do your neighbors. Your kids don’t have to change schools and find new friends. Old people aren’t torn away from communities who care for them:

https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/landec/v58y1982i1p109-117.html

In Massachusetts, tenants with rent control pay half the rent that their non-rent-controlled neighbors pay:

https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/publications/housing%20market%202014.pdf

Rent control doesn’t just make tenants better off, it makes society better off. Rather than money flowing from a neighborhood to landlords, rent control allows the people in a community to invest it there: opening and patronizing businesses.

Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop. As the housing crisis worsens, states are finally bringing back rent control. New York has strengthened rent control for the first time in 40 years:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/nyregion/rent-regulation-laws-new-york.html

California has a new statewide rent control law:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/business/economy/california-rent-control.html

They’re battling against anti-rent-control state laws pushed by ALEC, the right-wing architects of model legislation banning action on climate change, broadband access, and abortion:

https://www.nmhc.org/research-insight/analysis-and-guidance/rent-control-laws-by-state/

But rent control has broad, democratic support. Strong majorities of likely voters support rent control:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/07/metro/new-statewide-poll-shows-strong-support-rent-control/

And there’s a kind of rent control that has near unanimous support: the 30-year fixed mortgage. For the 67% of Americans who live in owner-occupied homes, the existence of the federally-backed (and thus federally subsidized) fixed mortgage means that your monthly shelter costs are fixed for life. What’s more, these costs go down the longer you pay them, as mortgage borrowers refinance when interest rates dip.

We have a two-tier system: if you own a home, then the longer you stay put, the cheaper your “rent” gets. If you rent a home, the longer you stay put, the more expensive your home gets over time.

America needs a shit-ton more housing — regular housing for working people. Mr Market doesn’t want to build it, no matter how many “incentives” we dangle. Maybe it’s time we just did stuff instead of building elaborate Rube Goldberg machines in the hopes of luring the market’s animal sentiments into doing it for us.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

[Image ID: A beautifully laid dining room table in a luxury flat. Outside of the windows looms a rotting shanty town with storm-clouds overhead.]

Image: ozz13x (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanty_Town_Hong_Kong_China_March_2013.jpg

Matt Brown (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dining_room_in_Centre_Point_penthouse.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #urbanism #weaponized shelter #housing #the rent's too damned high #rent control #economism #neoliberalism #monetarism #mr market #landlord brain #speculation

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nekoannie-chan · 2 months

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Opportunity

Title: Opportunity.

Fandom: Marvel, Captain America.

Ship: Pre-serum!Steve Rogers X Reader.

Word count: 322 words.

Square: B2 “Pre-serum Steve.”

Rating: Teen.

Summary: You were looking for Steve to join the army.

Major Tags: Fluff.

Additional tags: This is my entry to @steverogersbingo Steve Rogers Bingo round 3. SB3090.

Links: Wattpad, Ao3, Spanish version.

@saiyanprincessswanie

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

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You read the forms Steve had filled out in different places, then you saw the photographs, and finally Erskine.

“Are you sure about this, doctor? “you questioned, your voice sounding skeptical.

“He's the one we need to test the serum," Abraham confirmed.

“There are other candidates; I'm not sure he'll stand up to the experiment." You had too many doubts, the main one being the reason why the doctor wanted to send you to find Steve.

You closed your bag after taking out the paper where Steve's address was written down. You turned to see the street sign; it seemed that you were close. You didn't know the place; maybe you should ask. You approached a lady who was arranging fruit.

“Excuse me, do you know how to get to this address?"

The woman gave you directions; you only had to walk two more streets. You looked for the number of Steve's flat and knocked on the door.

Steve was startled when he heard the knock on his door. He hoped it wasn't some debt collector; sometimes they wanted to trick him by telling him he had to pay his mother's outstanding bills, but he had taken care of that several years before, and now he was living debt-free.

When he opened the door, he was speechless. He wasn't expecting anyone, but he didn't think he was going to meet you either.

“Are you Steve Rogers? “you asked, although you knew that if it was him, you simply wanted to confirm it.

“It's me."

“You are to attend the army post on Monday, as indicated on the paper," you informed him.

“Did they accept me?“ Steve asked.

“Of course, and if all goes well, we can go for ice cream together afterwards," you proposed.

"But I can't eat ice cream."

“If you join the army, you can," you assured him.

Maybe it wasn't so bad working with Dr. Erskine after all.

#steve rogers bingo round 3

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mappingthemoon · 5 months

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For the past several years (can’t remember if this attitude predates the pandemic), I’ve been kinda “meh”/side-eye re: New Year’s Resolutions. I am a very goal-oriented person and feel existentially unmoored when I don’t have something that I’m working toward, be it a class, a trip, a concert, a zine or other artsy project. But I also tend to have very unrealistic expectations, namely of how much time it will actually take me to complete tasks and how much energy I will still possess after I get home from work every day. So I don’t want to put all this abstract pressure on myself for the new year and then get burned by my, idk, ENORMOUSLY OVERWHELMING CAPACITY FOR HOPES AND DREAMS (or inability to accept reality or whatever, I guess, depending on your viewpoint lol).

Last year, I got a faculty librarian job and I was able to finally quit doing part-time transcription work, a (second) job I’d held for over 11 years. I thought the sudden influx of “free time” would result in a flood of creative projects in 2023, but I didn’t get nearly as much done (or started) as I’d hoped. My new job duties brought increased stress – I supervise someone now and received zero training for this so I’m having to figure out all this soft skills work relationship stuff on my own, I’m one of only two special collections catalogers in a large academic institution and ofc our backlog is a million miles long, I have to deal with so many more dang emails and meetings as a faculty person than I did as a staff, our institution is grossly underfunded and understaffed and people keep leaving bc our wages are comparatively Bad; many of my colleagues and I are burnt out af. SO ANYWAY due to all that, instead of blossoming into a creative powerhouse now that I have only one day-job, I instead found myself sinking into the couch after work, watching youtube on the big tv screen and transforming into a sad amorphous blob.

BUT! One reason I am risking feeling slightly more hopeful about 2024 is that this year, I am scheduled to have two out of four credit card loans paid off! (I had five but already paid one off this year too :D) This will put like… nearly $400 back into my pocket each month. I hate complaining about my money situation bc I do make what would be a decent living wage for my ~lifestyle~ (2 very frugal working adults, no kids in the home), but nearly 25% of my income goes to debt (not including mortgage lol). (The reason I am carrying so much debt is because I didn’t make anything even remotely close to a living wage for the entirety of my working life until I got the librarian job last year and I had to use credit cards for things like groceries and travelling home for funerals and then I’d transfer the credit card balance onto a loan and then I’d be like “okay, as long as we have no more emergencies for 18 months, we’ll be good,” and then there’d be another emergency and I’d have to borrow more money again 🇺🇸) So the TL;DR is I strongly suspect that when I have a bit more of a financial cushion and don’t have to deprive myself of most material pleasures (such as the occasional deli sandwich or vinyl record! I have simple desires!) and white-knuckle it through the last week of every month, I might be a bit less exhausted and stressed out on a daily basis?

So based on that completely speculative hope, here are my goals/resolutions for 2024:

Start a monthly one-pager photozine (my intention is for this to be a simple project to keep me active in the zine community and more ~intentional~ with my photography). Finish writing Moonshot #3 (Summer 2024) and #4 (Fall 2024). Start outlining (at least) Phases of the Moon #7. Maybe: Think abt starting a new art/literary comp zine. [I used to do tons of comp zines when I was younger and I’ve been revisiting them in my zine digitization/archiving project and feeling inspired!! Love bringing a variety of people together to collectively work on an amazing goal! ♈]

Do something analog with photography – maybe cyanotypes? [I’m despondent that I’ve been dragging an enlarger around for over 10 years but still haven’t built a home darkroom. This can still happen someday, but in the meantime, I know there are other analog photographic processes I can do without a full darkroom!] I also want to get back into photographing concerts. [I was a little disappointed that my Quintron pics {still forthcoming sry} didn’t turn out fantastic but it was my own damn fault for falling out of practice with my DSLR, and also forgetting to turn on autofocus lmao.] AND, I think it would be fairly easy to turn my bedroom into a camera obscura, which would be TOTALLY AWESOME and SWEET.

Redesign my website/portfolio: selenographer.info. Try to actually post some newsletters once in a while?

Finish at least one cross-stitch!

Leave the house more often for social activities?????

Better daily health routine [I already do this stuff, but I’m not always consistent]: Meditate & do yoga, preferably in the morning. Teeth care at least twice a day [sry if it’s TMI gross but brushing before bed was never part of my childhood and it has been a constant struggle to solidify this habit as an adult, ugh] and actually use the dang waterpik & electric toothbrush that I bought. Wear the sleep apnea device every night. [This thing works. But I fucking hate wearing it and I skip nights which makes me feel like a big dummy since I borrowed an additional $3000 to treat this problem.] STOP TAKING GOODY’S POWDER. [This should follow if I am consistent in wearing the apnea device bc I won’t get morning headaches if I am not waking up in a state of oxygen deprivation!]

Buy a new bed! [We got one of those cheapo internet mattresses in 2018 and man is it killing me. If I ever won the lottery the first thing I would do is completely redesign the bedroom into the ideal sleep environment.] Also need to buy 1 or 2 new bookcases bc I now have 3 storage bins full of unshelved books and it makes me anxious.

Work-related goals: Reclaim as much time as possible from the workweek. Try to have at least a half-day of work-from-home time per week. Actually use the professional development time I am privileged to have as faculty! Try to detach from the stressful sense of urgency other people (inexplicably) bring to the table and don’t let that shit get to you. Figure out a better way to handle emails? [My current modes are either complete avoidance so I can hyperfocus on a task, or checking my email every 30-60 mins and spiralling into the distraction zone for hours.] Hopefully take another class at Rare Book School. Help with more outreach events (aka teaching people about ZINES! :D)

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY <3

#personal #hny #goals #iberry jaerb #zines #photography

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avampyone · 9 months

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My FFXIV OC blog ☠️

Feel free to call me Ded or Pharos. Chill, non-binary (any pronouns), pan goth with a love for vampires, RPGs and horror games! I may reblog content from other fandoms I adore.

I go between content and occasionally rping or visiting RP venues in game - venue recs welcome! I'll be posting primarily gpose (mostly Hemlocke) on here but will include gpose/story snippets and writing when I have the time and energy to do so.

☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾

Hemlocke:

Former Ishgardian noble who’s come to Eorzea searching for a specific black mage cult. A workaholic - Hemlocke is usually busy with bartending or working off his debt to the Thaumaturge guild. Confident and reckless, you’ll rarely find him without a smirk on his face no matter what situation he's facing. A mysterious elezen who's easy to talk with but difficult to truly know. Unfortunately, his supernatural constitution affects his ability to wield magic effectively, and he's likely one of the worst cooks you'll ever met. Hemlocke has a pet bat named Bruce.

https://hemlockevamp.carrd.co/

☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾

Additional Alt OC Info below the cut:

Dr Arazul De'Fleur:

A renowned doctor born of the De’Fleur family of Old Sharlayan - quiet, enigmatic and calculating. Like his father, he excels in medical practice and alchemy. A run in with the Garlemald empire and surviving Black Rose changes the course of his life forever. He awakes with an odd mark over his eye, silver hair and lips stained with a purple hue proving remnants of the poison lingers, unbalancing his aether. Worst of all, he develops a ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality’. Will he ever find a way to cure himself completely?

Seiro Malkavi:

A WoL and a skilled hunter of the Dotharl clan from the Azim Steppe. His stoic demeanor hides a softer interior, unable to ignore a cry for help. He's honest, straightforward and generally warms up to others quickly. After a tragic incident involving a friend of the Mol clan and in disagreements about war, Seiro leaves his homeland to become an adventurer. The lust for battle and desire for stronger opponents consume all sense from him, and he finds the thrill of the fight in hunting monsters.

Cerys La'Sorciere:

An eccentric sorceress from the Churning Mists who wields a powerful command over the elements and plant life. She has a knowledge of herbal remedies and potions. Merciless to her enemies and seen as a trickster to many – At her core, Cerys carries an ancient secret that none would believe. Unwelcomed in Ishgard, she is the last of the long line of the La’sorciere family whom have made the mists their home for many decades. She allies herself with the Moogle tribe, dragons and the RedBills.

Amaranth Vyce:

A Dhampir priest in training from Ishgard. Trained from his youth at the orphanage, Amaranth primarily fights against the packs of the feral undead and aids Hemlocke when he can. He seems cold, vicious and detached, but he truly doesn't want to harm anyone unless he has to. One of his strengths is the strong connection to spirits and ability to see/talk to them. As a dhampir, he naturally struggles with less than priestly thoughts and hopes fervent prayer to the fury will overcome this.

☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾ ☽༺༻☾

Alts profile carrd below:

https://pharosgremlins.carrd.co/#

FFXIV NPCs:

Carvallain De Gorgagne, considering Deryk.

#hemlockeffxiv #ffxiv oc #pinned intro #ffxiv rp #my blorbos

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tfseeds · 11 months

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The Farmer's Curse - A TF AU

(Notes: This is a short TF scene combining writing with illustrations, set in a Stardew Valley AU with my character Gaius Caster as the farmer. The family farm is intrinsically linked with a 'blessing of nature' that manifests in whoever claims the land.

I was reminded of the old transformation RPs from the Dr. Moreau GaiaOnline forums, and one of the elements I missed was the long transformation write-ups. So I decided to 'be the visceral TF write-ups I want to see in the world' and finally get some of this AU out of my head and down in writing/art.)

Gaius sat on the edge of his bed in the sad gray box that was his apartment. The remains of his instant noodles sat atop previous noodle cups, alongside empty Joja cans. The mess had accumulated forgotten amid the sleep-to-work-to-sleep grind of his daily life. But work wasn’t going to get in the way anymore.

Since he’d been fired.

Sorry. “Let go” to be precise. The department said they were “moving in a new direction” and that direction involved AI automation that did his work for zero cost. Not that Gaius had enjoyed the work, he’d never been a numbers guy, but he was sorely missing that paycheck. Rent was coming up and his bank account was severely lacking. This wouldn’t be the first time his payment was late, and the corporation that owned his apartment was consistent with reminding him of his ‘final strike’ status, courtesy of the automated calls.

He heaved a large sigh, setting aside the one beer he’d let himself indulge. His eyes fell on the tiny wooden box sitting by his bedside. He’d long forgotten it was there.

“Gaius, I’m not leaving this with you as a gift,” his grandfather had said. “It’s a responsibility - a terrible one. You have to promise me you’ll never open this box except as a last resort. You have to be certain there is no other path you would take. That you are willing to give up everything to change your lot in life.”

Gaius had accepted the wooden box with the assurance that he would keep the box safe and firmly locked. That had been mere days before his grandfather passed, and he’d kept his promise over the past year.

But now, staring down the barrel of piling debt, in a small cardboard thin apartment that cost most of monthly earnings, surrounded by trash and little else, Gaius was realizing: He was miserable. More miserable than he’d let himself realize. He’d rather do something drastic than spend one more day trying to survive in this city.

The box was small and cool, fitting easily in the palm of his large hand. It was built like a ring box though a good bit larger than one, and now Gaius wondered again what could possibly be inside that would warrant a deathbed promise. The outside was a dark wood, polished with rounded corners. Each side was adorned with similar carved images of round figures that Gaius could only associate with food mascots - like the dancing orange and apple caricatures on fruit gummy packs. A small brass latch shaped like a star kept the lid sealed.

He ran a thumb over the lid. Could this little box actually change anything? Was he really going to do this?

With a flick, he undid the latch and opened the lid.

A flash of green blinded Gaius. He dropped the box with a shout, shielding his eyes. Unseen to him, green misty energy swirled from the open box, seeping into Gaius’s body and vanishing from view. He blinked away flickering afterimages and rubbed at his eyes. “The hell was that…”

Cramping pain seized his legs. Gaius tumbled from the bed, hugging his legs. The muscles spasmed under his hands, as if triggered by an electric current. And with each rapid state of tension, they grew. Thickening, swelling.

A weird, hot, melting feeling crept up his feet and shins. Like stepping into hot mud. With it, a dull pain as his shoes compressed around his feet, cramping his toes and squeezing his heels.

But that was strange. Normally his cheap sneakers fit fine.

His right heel popped free from the shoe’s lip. Gaius staired, wide-eyed. His foot - his feet - were growing longer. Inches upon inches of length as the left one tore through the front of his shoe with a dull pop of the seam. He grabbed for his foot, momentarily forgetting the newly-muscled thighs now painfully squeezed by too-tight jeans. It was long, slender, bringing to mind an image of a dog’s leg. His sock came free as he changed position - jeans creaking in protest - and he let out a startled grunt. The second and middle toe had swollen to well over twice their regular size, pushing forward, while the digits beside them were receding. The sensation was like the swelling of a bee sting - hot, sore, and weirdly stiff. Stupefied by shock, he watched as the middle toes continued to grow, taking over the entirety of the end of his foot. His toenails grew longer, thickening, seeming to wrap around the ends of his toe-feet, the color shifting rapidly from pinkish to dark brown and off-black.

A single thought broke through the shock.

Hooves?

A jolt of pain dashed his thoughts. Gaius clutched his head as another throb coursed through his skull. Someone was pounding at his temples from the inside. A small, bony lump pushed against the skin beside each temple, slowly growing with each throb. Farther and farther the bony points pushed between his fingers, stretching the skin taught until it gave way, forced open with a small trickle of blood that was almost instantly swallowed as the torn edges re-sealed themselves around the nascent horns. As if unshackled, the horns grew faster, thickening at the base as they curled forward, pristine bone white fading to a dark near-black at the tips.

And while Gaius was preoccupied with the painful head-birthing of his new horns, his spine took the opportunity to join the fray. What started as a nub pushing at the back of his already-at-their-limit jeans quickly grew and snaked beneath the fabric. Coiling and twisting, the narrow muscled tail pushed its way over the waistband of his pants - a few seams popping open in the process - and lashed about with his pain and terror.

The throbbing in his head was starting to subside, allowing him to feel the prickling heat now surrounding his ears. The lobes shifted, skin stretching, as he felt them push away from the side of his head. The heat was contrasted sharply by the cold air he could feel across their expanding surface.

A wave of numbness followed by a million pins and needles swept down his spine, spreading beneath his skin, everywhere from his belly downward. Where the tingling lingered, thick, coarse hair follicles sprouted, covering his legs in a coat of dark brown hair - glossy and smooth. His ears also quickly sprouted a coat of their own, though theirs was a great deal softer, blending into his natural hairline.

How long he lay there, curled up on the floor in a ball of shock as his body and brain tried to make sense of everything, he couldn’t tell. His mind scrambled from thought to thought - this couldn’t be real - surely this was a dream - why him? - as the still-lingering aches in his body brought a painfully physical reality to his situation.

Why’d he open that box-

Oh! The box!

It took a moment for Gaius to right himself - horns catching on the edge of his mattress, limbs twisting around each other in new, awkward angles. He let out a yelp as shifting his weight accidentally crunched his tail under his rear.

His hooves scraped at the thin carpet as he crawled on his knees to the end of the bed where the wooden box had tumbled. Gaius reached fearfully for the opened box, but the wood remained innocently mundane as he picked it up, not a sign of any of the mayhem it had just inflicted around it. The only thing he noticed was a tiny strip of paper curled up in the bottom. He tugged it out and uncurled it in his fingers. There was some handwriting on it.

I know change is hard, but I promise - put in the work and everything will be okay.

For help, contact Lewis at this number. He’ll get you set proper.

A phone number was scrawled beneath it.

Gaius stared at the strip. Then took a deep breath.

Time to find his phone.

#transformation #transfur #tftuesday #tfeveryday #body horror #stardew valley curse au #evion art #gaius caster #bull tf #tf writing

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nerianasims · 3 months

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"The Bronx’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine will be tuition-free for the indefinite future thanks to a $1 billion donation from a Jewish philanthropist.

The massive gift from Dr. Ruth Gottesman, an emerita faculty member, will be “transformational” in drawing students to the medical school in the city’s poorest borough. And by eliminating up to hundreds of thousands in student debt, the donation aims to make Einstein accessible to a broader range of candidates, the college said in a statement on Monday."

#dr. ruth gottesman

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glowingbadger · 3 months

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LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY HOT OCS

A few of you beautiful people gave me permission to talk about my OCs for a bit (not that I need it but it's nice to have), and for that, there shall be consequences. I wanna show y'all a few of my beauties, tell you about them, and brag about how hot they are and all the thoughts I have about their sex lives lmao (also featuring, btw, a major DnD npc who is.... VERY inspired by Seteth lmao though his story definitely ended up going its own way from that starting point)

**Also note because I know a couple IRL friends of mine follow this blog- if you play any tabletops with me, don't you fucking dare read this I will be SO mad because there will be spoilers I'm being so serious rn lol

((Also if you don't care that much about my OCs (fair lol I get that's not what most of y'all are here for) but just wanna see some of my art maybe, feel free to just scroll through and look at four hot anime people looooool))

First, we've got Rhys Ledger! (Cyberpunk Red ttrpg) Full art here

Rhys was born with severe chronic illness and a desperately poor family. Because of this, every issue and flair up got pushed off until it absolutely HAD to be addressed by a medical professional- and this lead to both of his arms and one eye eventually becoming infected to the point of requiring the cheapest and crappiest cybernetic replacements on the market- and even these still pushed his family into horrific debt. To get the debt collectors away from his mother, he staged a big interpersonal blow-up with her, ran away, faked his death, and started sending money to the debtors anonymously on her behalf, so that he could make the payments while separating himself from his mother so she wouldn't feel compelled to try to find and help him anymore.

So basically, he's cut off his entire family, in his mind for their own good. He's in crippling and seemingly insurmountable medical debt. Plus, his cybernetic eye and arms are cheap and shitty and keep breaking- his eye even plays ads at regular intervals, and you can imagine how maddening that is. All he had to rely on was the beginnings of a medical education received from Dr. Banting, a man who provided routine checkups at minimal cost to him as a child in addition to periodically tutoring him. So he leveraged that to test into a medical education program that would basically fast-track him into indentured servitude to a major corporate medical cybernetics company. And on the side, he takes odd jobs for extra cash- which is how he ran into the rest of our tabletop party.

He's a deeply, deeply empathetic and caring person deep down, who's just been beaten down by the trials of life and grown cynical and sarcastic as a result. Unlike most quality cybernetics, his hands completely lack a nervous suite, so he has no sense of touch there, and he secretly misses that sensation desperately. All of these factors contribute to him having been in a multi-year dry spell, sexually (he's had a tendency to pull away from romantic relationships before they got more than skin-deep), and at this point he'd likely faint if confronted with a naked boob. He's incredibly touch-sensitive, and while he probably doesn't even realize it, deep down he absolutely yearns to be touched gently and intimately by someone who actually values his falling-apart body. Rhys probably needs someone who's very vocally encouraging during sex, and who will communicate clearly what they want and what they like; with that sort of person, he'd be the ultimate service-whatever. Top, bottom, all that matters is that he's doing a good job and pleasing his partner, he's not capable of taking someone for granted once they've shown they truly appreciate and desire him.

~~~

Next we have Shaeleigh Sommers (unofficial Pokemon tabletop; also a cyberpunk setting) Full art here (also some spicier pics of her here and here)

Shaeleigh, or Shae, is from a Cyberpunk Pokemon tabletop that my husband has been running for three years now with friends, so she predates Rhys, but in retrospect she's like... a perfect foil for him lol

Shae was born to a fairly well-off family with a corporate, ladder-climbing father and a trophy-wife mother (she has respect for the former and very little regard for the latter). Her older brother is following their father's footsteps, while Shae pursued... basically Pokemon veterinary studies lol. After college, she worked for a Pokemon shelter for unwanted and retired Pokemon, but it was shut down for taking on more cases than they were supposed to (not wanting to turn away any Pokemon in need), and as a result, Shae's dream is to gain the money, experience, clout and sponsors to open her own private shelter. She has an enormous soft-spot for lesser-loved Pokemon, and has no interest in the "popular picks" who will have no trouble finding a trainer to take care of them. She's somewhat naive, though she's learned a lot on her adventures, and she has a good heart despite being a bit spoiled.

Shaeleigh is also desperately in love/lust with the professor overseeing her and her allies on their journey, Professor Shoot. He's a young Professor, still technically the equivalent of an "adjunct," and Shae and her buddies are his first group of assigned trainers. Shae was immediately attracted to him physically, and overtime this has slowly developed into a deep, deep crush and potentially even love. He's gentle and kind in a way that's extremely rare in the dystopian cyberpunk future, and while he insists that, as a professor he's less a man and more a cog in a machine, Shae sees a warm and beautiful humanity in him that she clings to, as it represents her desire not to lose herself or her values despite how hard her battles may become. Also he plays piano, so like, those hands... hnnng.

Anyway, I've always viewed Shae as someone who has had a lot of flings and passing relationships, but nothing very serious. Lately, she's been hooking up with a gang leader (really closer to a warlord) from the wild, untamed underground of the city, but while she does respect him and admire his free way of life, she's truly only seeking him out as solace while she can't have her beloved Professor. With a few more badges under her belt though, she'll be considered to have a level of authority within the Pokemon League that may finally allow her to openly pursue Professor Shoot... fingers crossed for my girl lmao. In the meantime, she insists that she wants him to make the first decisive move, and they live in a surveillance state, so her desired Professor-romance has been an AGONIZING slow-burn thus far. Sexually, I think she's a bit vanilla, but very warm and encouraging, even if she doesn't care that much about the guy she's with. With someone she does care about, she's relentlessly devoted to their mutual pleasure, with incredible stamina and focus, all towards the goal of expressing even a fraction of what she feels in her heart.

~~~

Okay guys, I hope you're ready because I have SO much to say about Saul (NPC, DnD 5e) Full art here

Guys. The way my brain has been soaking in the essence of this character for like two years. And I have no outlet for this because there's SO much about him that my players in this campaign don't know about him yet. (btw this is a follow up warning to my players in my dnd campaign that I will be so, so mad if you keep reading after this point lmao)

OKAY so. On the surface, Saul is a stern but reasonable man who acts as head steward of the Temple of the Allfaith, a place where every deity in the pantheon is given due worship and respect. The philosophy behind this is that reality is formed through the interactions of countless contradictory forces, and by giving regard to all deities of all domains, we assure that each is mollified. This also makes it a place welcoming to all kinds of people from all walks of life- for the most part. Saul is, as one can imagine in such a chaotic environment, kept enormously busy at all times with paperwork, supply forms, requests, ceremonies, festivals, and all of the various needs and conflicts that arise among the clerics, priests, and so on.

Now, in truth, Saul is a Cambion- the offspring of an Incubus and his victim, who was eventually consumed by the demon who sired her child. While the Incubus moved on to terrorize some other locale, Saul was left in the small hamlet where he was born, and it was only out of regard for his late mother that the people here bothered to care enough for him to keep him alive. With time, though, their natural fear and resentment for the literal hellspawn they'd been saddled with caused constant and open mistreatment, and he was only offered the food, water and shelter he needed to survive, and absolutely no more. All the while, even as a child he potently felt the hatred evident in their eyes when he dared show himself in public.

Now, Cambions are functionally immortal, but they do age at a more or less "normal" rate until they reach maturity. When Saul reached his early teens, another young girl from the village asked to meet with him in a secluded grove beyond the town limits. When he arrived, he was cautious and on-edge, believing this to be some plot or ambush for the townspeople to finally do him in, so when the girl came to see him and made a sudden move towards him, he lashed out. His inherent fire magic abilities sparked out at her, and he killed her in an instant without ever consciously understanding his own actions. What he'll only find out through magical means later in the campaign, is that this young girl actually had grown affectionate towards him, and had hoped to confess her feelings to him that day.

After this, he fled the village and subsisted in the wild for some time, until he was of-age. During this period, he learned to harness his innate magic to disguise himself as a half-elf, but he also learned to hate and resent the people of this world. He grew to believe that they were all as cruel and corrupt as he himself was, and to prove it, he spent the following few years essentially fighting and fucking his way from town to town. Rumors of a demon of vengeance were whispered among the towns dotting the countryside, and in Saul's eyes, any who showed the slightest moral weakness was subject to his personal brand of judgement. A shady business might be burned to the ground overnight, the corrupt mayor (and potentially his wife) might suddenly become swept into a quite public and humiliating affair, the cleric skimming donation money from the congregation might be hung from a nearby tree. His reputation in the region became so fearful that a band of Paladins was sent to exorcise this demon and free the people from him.

It was then, bloodied and beaten near to death, that Saul dragged himself to the doors of the Temple of the Allfaith, where an older man named Erasmus took him in without question. Erasmus was the founder and master of the temple, and he nursed Saul back to health with his own hands, no questions asked. He took Saul in for the following years, and while he was a difficult and petulant guest at first, eventually Erasmus' open and earnest care broke through to what semblance of a soul he still possessed. The unconditional love of a father-figure gave Saul not a second chance, but the first chance he'd ever had, and over time it transformed him completely. While he remained as serious and stubborn as ever, Erasmus never gave up on Saul, and with his nurturing mentorship, he became a deeply empathetic man, and learned to open his heart and view others as worthy of kindness and compassion.

At the time of the campaign, Master Erasmus has long passed, and Saul has been the Steward to the Allfaith Temple for decades. He's known to be highly competent, deadly serious, and relentlessly stubborn, but ultimately kind. His life now is one that he lives in a constant state of repentance. He hopes that, by serving a temple to all of the gods, some day one of them may open their arms to him despite his hellish nature, and offer him the salvation he so desperately craves. The tragedy of it all is that, in all likelihood, several of the gods would now welcome him as-is in light of his life of dedicated service to others at the temple, but Saul himself has yet to view himself as redeemable.

Now, for the juicy stuff- believe me when I say that few men have ever needed to get laid like Saul does. While he was of course quite rakish as a younger man, once he took on the mantle of responsibility at the temple, the idea of engaging in intimacy with one of the priests or clerics here became unthinkable. There would be rumors, accusations of favoritism, and worst of all, the potential that his true nature might be revealed. So he has kept himself very strictly at arms-length with others for several decades now, and this combined with his normally uptight demeanor has made him the top candidate for "ready to go absolutely goddamn feral if he ever gets the chance to really fuck again." Plus, I mean, his birth father was an Incubus, so.... there are a lot of assumptions that can be made about Saul's equipment and technique, even while in his half-elven form. He's the type of man who would relish just about any form of kink with the right person; his sexuality is a dam with a hairline fracture in it ready to burst open. In particular, he would find the use of power-dynamics to be downright therapeutic. Tying him up and forcing him to surrender his control and his body, then teasing and tormenting him until his over-worked mind is finally blank? Sublime. Offering yourself to him so he can fuck you like the demon he truly is, using all of his strength and power to reduce you to his whimpering toy? Also incredible. A more structured sort of power-play session with ropes and edging and punishment and vaguely religiously toned lectures? Divine. And, as we'll see, he's just primed for a good ol' fashion enemies-to-lovers arc just LOADED with sexual tension.

(I need y'all to realize that for how over-long that was, I skipped over a TON of info and worldbuilding and additional details, seriously, I have such brainrot about Saul you could ask me what he was doing during any single second of his life and I'd have an answer for you lmao)

~~~

Lastly, let's talk about Anya Lisianthus (NPC, DnD 5e) Full art here

Anya, at the time of the campaign, is the High Priestess of Beshaba (goddess of misfortune and bad luck), and, like most who worship such deities, she does so to pacify her goddess and free herself from the shackles of excessive misfortune. Before coming to the Temple of the Allfaith, she had been from a noble family, but one falling in its standing. She'd had many siblings, but nearly all succumbed to illness, leaving Anya to shoulder heavy responsibilities for her family that she'd had no interest in and no preparation for. Due to complicated political shifts (that we don't have time to go into here or Anya's section will be even longer than Saul's lol), her family started getting involved with some political dissidents. Anya took to their philosophies, and soon joined in with rebel groups who sought to overthrow the local religious leader who had begun exerting immense governmental control beyond their normal purview. However, a tiny instance of misfortune lead to her downfall; a coin dropped from a guard's pocket, and when he abandoned his patrol route for a moment to follow it as it rolled, he caught sight of Anya and her rebel allies. After this incident, her family labeled her a traitor and an upstart to save the remains of their own reputation, and she fled the city as a wanted criminal.

At the Allfaith Temple, she found acceptance, peace, and the promise of a goddess who could protect her from capricious misfortune. But, as Beshaba is an "evil aligned" deity, Anya is kept to the underground portion of the Temple for the most part- both by her own preference, and by the looks of suspicion and discomfort that her presence draws when around those who worship gods of light and goodness up on the surface. That said, she still carries the undeniably noble bearing of her upbringing, and is fond of hosting others for tea, provided they are able to supply interesting conversation.

She feels some resentment towards Saul, not only for being boorish and stubborn, but also for his holier-than-thou bearing, which she finds intolerable. However, as she falls in with a group of other underground clerics and priests with dubious plans of their own, she agrees to attempt to learn more about Saul for their purposes. So, she's been spending time trying to get through to him. For now, this has mostly taken the form of arguing bitterly in his office just about any time our group of adventurers pass by there, but with time, the two are going to start noticing other facets of one another. Saul views Anya as a strikingly brilliant woman, beautiful of course, but more importantly someone incredibly engaging to talk to, well-read, well-informed, and who thinks through all angles of a subject. Meanwhile, Anya will come to see that Saul's dedication to serving the people of the temple is no mere mask of piety, but a true and wholehearted desire to do good and protect those who rely on him, and that sort of genuine earnestness is hard to come by. So, y'know. We're definitely headed towards a "oh no I accidentally fell for and slept with the man I was meant to be investigating and/or manipulating oh fuck oh no I guess I'm betraying the bad guys now" kind of situation lol.

Sexually, Anya is confident, capable, but choosy. Her natural charisma may give the impression of a flirt, but in truth, not just anyone is deemed worthy to share her bed. She was nobility once, after all- there was a time when men took a knee for the privilege of an audience with her. That said, once she's decided someone meets her standards, she relishes in learning their turn-ons and desires and exploiting them mercilessly. She's every bit as sexually open and flexible as Saul, but in a far more proactive way; the lusts of her partner are intel, precious secrets to be learned and utilized to the fullest. There's nothing she finds more satisfying than seeing a lover look at her with worship in their eyes as she fulfills them absolutely. Saul, with all of his pent-up libido and sexual baggage, is going to make for an absolutely delightful partner for her. She'll never tire of learning the thousands of ways she can make his stoic facade crumble.

Anyway if you actually read all of this, please know that I hope only good things ever happen to you for the rest of your life, that someone you like kisses you on the mouth sloppy-style, and that you find twenty dollars <3

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dalishious · 1 year

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Running Commentary: The Masked Empire Ch 17 & Epilogue

TL;DR: Gaspard and Michel finally have their duel. Briala realizes Celene cannot be trusted, and takes control of the eluvians for herself, claiming them for the elves of Orlais.

—————

After the fight with the varterral, Michel and Gaspard prepare for their duel.

Briala asks Celene where she got her Lady Mantillon ring, the same one Gaspard possesses. Celene says it was given to her as a gift after her parents died, lying that the lady must have felt sorry for her. Briala pretends to believe this, and kisses Celene... when in actuality, she uses this kiss as a distraction to pick the magic ruby that unlocks the eluvians off of Celene's person. (But Celene isn't aware of this yet.)

Gaspard and Michel begin their duel, but Lienne and Mihris cheat using magic to hex Michel. Briala picks up on this, but when she tries to stop the fight, the two mages supporting Gaspard say that they can't hear her, #BecauseMagic. So Briala slits Lienne's throat, and then announces that she's figured out Mihris is possessed by Imshael. Imshael threatens to just kill everyone if he doesn't get what he wants, but is sated by Felassan's mental promises of something big to come.

“You know, you’ve got a good point,” Felassan said. “Fire and swords are dull. But what if something bigger was coming?” “I’m listening, Slow Arrow,” said the demon. “What could you possibly do that you and I have not seen a hundred times before while the sweaty mortals lusted and grappled and bled their lives away?” Felassan said nothing, just smiled, twisting the tattoos around his face. “Oh, my,” Imshael breathed. “Is that a promise?” “Well, I was going for more of a threat.” Imshael turned to Celene, who stared at him uncertainly. “Empress,” he said, “best of luck to you. I do believe you’re going to need it. Whatever happens, I believe that Orlais is going to be quite exciting for the next little while.” Then light flared around Mihris, and she fell to her knees, her staff flickering back to icy white. For a moment, a smoky shape flickered around Mihris, a haze that clung to her body, and then it was shooting across the room through one of the mirrors on the wall. The mirror flared brilliant red, then darkened back to the inert dullness of its dormant state, and the demon was gone.

(Felassan is, of course, thinking about Solas's world-ending plans.)

With that taken care of, Briala thinks about the last story Felassan told her of Fen'Harel. She interrupts the fight by calling out to Michel, saying she is enacting the debt he owes her, and orders him to yield. Michel does so, and also reveals to everyone else that his mother is an elf as he drops his sword.

Celene demands answers from Briala.

Celene spun at Briala, her daggers drawn. Briala stepped away, two steps carrying her out of range. She did not draw her own blades, but she was certainly looking at Celene now, and Celene cursed herself for a fool as she saw the anger in her lover’s eyes. “Why?” Celene gripped her blades so tightly that her fingers burned. “Tell me again how you will free my people.” “I gave you my word!” Celene stepped forward, a dagger raised. “I swore!” “And I think you even believed yourself.” Briala swallowed. “But when the nobles protested, when it threatened to weaken the empire, you would have let it go. You would have ignored your promises to me, knowing that I would always forgive. That I would always stand at your side.” Now her blades came out. “After all, I believed in you even after you killed my parents.”

Briala put together that Celene in actuality got her ring from Lady Mantillon after her first arrangement of death as part of the Game; namely, all the servants in her estate, including Briala's parents. And Briala herself, had she not successfully hidden from them, if you recall.

Celene jumps to attack Gaspard, and while everyone is focused on that, Briala dashes for the pedestal. Realizing this, Celene notices that she no longer as the keystone ruby, and that Briala took it from her in that last kiss. Celene tries to kill Briala, but is stopped by Mihris. Briala reaches the pedestal, and whispers a passphrase to secure her control of the eluvians. She announces, “I claim these eluvians for the elves of Orlais.”

Briala uses the eluvians to send Michel and Gaspard away. Celene tries one more time to say that she would have freed the elves, but Briala is done falling for that shit.

“I would have freed them, Bria.” Celene stood a few paces away. Mihris and Felassan leaned against the pedestals, not quite blocking Celene’s path to Briala. “So you say,” Briala said. “But freedom is not given. It is won.” “It is both.” Celene shook her head, wiping tears from her eyes. She seemed so much smaller now than she had in Val Royeaux. “Have you seen nothing in all the years you spent at my side? Change comes through careful planning, through compromise.” “You compromised my parents.”

Briala then sends Celene to Halamshiral.

Mihris asks if Briala will share the passphrase to the eluvians with her, which Briala laughs off, but does promise that she will work with Dalish only if they help all elves. Mihris departs, leaving just Briala and Felassan.

“Are you sincere? You will use the paths of the eluvians to help your people?” Briala thought for a moment. “Celene and Gaspard saw an army, but that would be fighting their fight. With the paths, I could get food to alienages where elves would otherwise starve. They would let me move ahead of an oncoming army and warn the target, or move behind them and attack their supply lines.” “Which army are you going to hamstring?” Briala looked over at Felassan, smiling, even as she started to shiver from the winter’s chill. “Whichever one seems to be winning. What was it? Anaris and Andruil?” Felassan smiled. “You prolong their fight, and in the chaos, your people work free from their bonds?” “It can work, I think.” Briala held her arms around her. “Halamshiral rioted because of a single nobleman. I can find elves who will help me with my work in every city in Orlais, and more who are too afraid to fight, but will serve as eyes and ears if I can help their children survive the winter.” “That is,” Felassan said, and after a pause, finished, “a unique use of the ancient relics of our people, da’len.” “I think Fen’Harel would have approved,” Briala said, and saw Felassan give a startled laugh. “He might have,” her teacher said, “though I very much doubt it.” “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said. “The passphrase to access the eluvians. In case we’re separated, it’s—” She broke off as his fingers brushed her lips, looking at him in surprise. Felassan smiled again, but his eyes were sad, and wiser than Briala could ever imagine. “Don’t.” She looked at him silently for a moment, and then put it together. “You’re leaving.” “I must.” “The Dalish?” He snorted. “Them? Please.” Then his face turned serious. “But the elves of Orlais are in good hands, it seems. Many other things are not, and I have more work to do elsewhere.” She nodded, though her eyes stung. Begging him to stay would accomplish nothing, she knew. The protestations in the back of her mind—that she had more to learn, that she could not do this without him—she silenced before they gained a voice. The wisest man she had ever known trusted her to winher people’s freedom. And to her surprise, she found that she didn’t doubt his judgment. “One last question, then, hahren. Was this…” She gestured at the tunnels; then at the woods where, somewhere a few days’ journey away, Clan Virnehn lay dead; then to the north, where Halamshiral tilted toward the war that might set her people free. “Was this always your plan?” He chuckled one last time. “No, da’len. You did this yourself.” He leaned in and kissed her gently on the forehead. His lips burned like a brand, and her head spun for a moment.

Felassan disappears, and Briala whispers the passphrase, “Fen’Harel enansal” (Dread Wolf's blessing) to seal off the tunnel.

Celene arrives in Halamshiral and begins preparations to engage in a civil war.

Gaspard and Michel are transported somewhere in the wilderness, and part ways, with Gaspard vowing to keep Michel's secret origins hidden.

Felassan contacts a mysterious person, who we know is Solas, in the Fade. He reports that he does not know the eluvian passphrase, and refuses to take it from Briala. So Solas kills him.

The Masked Empire is a wild read, because there's so much I can't stand about the story... and yet at the same time, it has some great characters in Briala and Felassan.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my commentary, and found it helpful if you've never had the opportunity to read the novel yourself.

#dragon age #the masked empire #tme commentary

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boldlyvoid · 2 years

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Breakable Heaven | Chapter Three: Emails

18+

Summary: Andy logs onto her dad's computer and steals the email of his resident genius.

Warnings: mature themes, flirting, Haley making assumptions, canon typical violence (plot points and script from season 1 episode 1)

Word count: 4.3k

Masterlist

The first thing she did when she got home that night was sneak into her dad's home office. Haley was in the master bedroom, on the other side of the second floor, so she wouldn’t hear the door creak as Andy pushed it open.

Her dad wasn’t the best with technology, so his password to his computer was on a sticky note beside the screen. She types it in, waits for the desktop to load and then finds his email.

“Search bar, search bar, ah,” she mumbles to herself while she works. “S-p-e-n there he is. [email protected]... w?” She wonders what his middle name could possibly be, but either way, she had his email now.

She logs off, turns the monitor off and shuts the door behind herself, hoping it looked like she was never in there. She skips down the hall to Haley's room, knocking lightly before she pushes the door open, “I’m home.”

“How was it?” She smiles, putting her book down and sitting up more.

“Really good,” she can’t stop smiling. “The girls and I danced for hours, I’m exhausted.”

“I’m glad, you deserve some fun with all the work you do,” she praises. “Did you need help with the zip again?”

“Oh, yeah,” she walks over to the side of the bed and sits, letting Haley undo the clip and pull the zipper down. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she pats her shoulder when she’s done. “Have a good sleep, honey. Oh, and your dads gone to Seattle for a case, so I don’t think he’ll be back tonight, can you lock up?”

“I already did,” she admits with a smile, “I saw Morgan run out of Joe’s a while ago, so I figured they had something come up.”

“Did Reid not go?” She looks disappointed for Andy.

She shakes her head, looking as disappointed as possible, “no, I didn’t see him.” It’s not like she hasn’t lied to Haley before, it just felt weird every time she did.

“I’m sure you’ll see him again soon,” Haley gives her a halfhearted smile. “Make sure you have some water and take a Tylenol, you’ll thank me tomorrow.”

She laughs, “thanks, goodnight,” she waves before closing the bedroom door.

Her dads house was big, paid for mostly by the FBI to get him to move back to Virginia to take this job, it was more like a mansion than a house. They had a lot more money now than when she was a kid, it made her excited for her little brother. He’d never have to worry about asking for a new pair of shoes or have to reuse the same backpack 2 years in a row. He wouldn’t be the only kid on the field trip there for free because their dad talked the principal into letting her go… because it really wouldn’t be fair for her to see all the kids go on a 3 day trip without her all because her dad didn’t have an extra $160 that month cause he was freshly out of law school and drowning in debt.

In her room, she slips out of her dress and hangs it back on a hanger, it still smells like Spencer and his apartment, like old books and gain laundry detergent… it was very him and she loved it.

She gets into some fresh pj’s and she takes her laptop out, it takes forever to load the internet, but she eventually gets to her email and she’s able to send one to Spencer.

Andy: Do you ever check your emails?

Dr. Reid: I’m contractually obligated to, yes. How’d you get my email address?

—

His blackberry dings in his pocket just before take-off, he knows he shouldn’t have his phone out, but he reads her messages anyway.

Andy: I logged onto my dads computer and found it. Seeing as I don’t have your phone number, I can’t just go to Quantico every time I want to talk to you.

He smiles, of course, she would break into her dads home office to talk to him.

“Spencer, phone off,” Hotch’s voice rips him out of it.

He hides his phone, “yes sir, sorry.”

“I’ve never seen you answer emails…” Derek catches on. “What is it?”

“Nothing serious, my mom has access to a computer now so I get emails from her sometimes.”

“It’s the middle of the night?”

“It’s only 10 pm in Vegas,” he corrects him.

They drop it, preparing for take-off. He buckles up, sends a simple prayer to whatever's out there and he closes his eyes as the wheels leave the tarmac. He’ll never get used to flying, especially when he knew that a large portion of aviation accidents happened in private planes, like the one they used at work. It scared him more than he’d like to admit.

It feels like forever before the seatbelt sign turns off and he can take his phone out again, just as he’s about to, files are handed out for briefing and starting their profile.

“Reid, you’re up,” Gideon lets him take point.

“His first victim was 26-year-old Melissa Kirsch, stab wounds, strangulation—

“Okay, wait, wait, back up, backup,” Derek stops him before he can dig too far in the file. “He stabbed her, then strangled her to finish her off?”

“Other way around,” Gideon corrects him. “Why do you think he started using the belt with the second murder?”

“Strangulation with your bare hands is not as easy as one would believe. He tried, probably found that it took too long and—

“So he stabbed her instead,” Derek understands now. Cutting Spencer off so he wouldn’t look like the only one in the room who didn’t get it.

“And realized it would be hours cleaning up the blood,” Hotch adds.

“So the next time, our boys got a method, the belt.”

Gideon nods and turns to him, proud, “he’s learning. Perfecting his scenario. Becoming a better killer.”

The words make his spine shiver. Even if they did end up catching this monster, there were still 49 just like him roaming around the united states, just waiting for their next perfect kill.

He used to wonder what would lead a man to pick his perfect target, was it just a perfect opportunity or were they all planned. He’s grown to know the answer was much more fucked up than he hoped. A lot of the time they looked like the subject of their rage, often a mother, ex-partner, their child…

“The two victims don’t look very similar,” Spencer points out. Flipping between the photos. “Do you think they’re more victims of opportunity?”

“Possibly,” Hotch takes a look at the victim's again too. “He went from a brunette to blondes then back to brunette, another blonde and now a red-head.”

“What would possibly convince all those different women into the same man’s car?” Spencer asks.

“They’re high-risk victims, he abducts them in broad daylight without a fight, he conceals them for 3 days and then he dumps them publicly,” Derek recounts, “he has to have a job where they trust him. A cab service maybe?”

“Call Garcia, have her look into it,” Hotch directs him. “Till then, catch up on some rest.”

Spencer takes that as his chance to email Andy back, he turns away from Hotch, he takes his phone back out and types back a quick message.

Dr. Reid: Even if I gave you my number, I can’t text on my phone.

Every few minutes he refreshes his inbox, and the light from his phone illuminates his part of the cabin. No one else is asleep yet, they probably wouldn’t sleep, too busy thinking of possible scenarios for the case, but now they also wondered who he was talking to.

They don’t ask again, but they keep looking at him every time he checks. Even though it was the middle of the night, and Andy had been busy all day and she had a few drinks… she probably went to bed when he didn’t answer her right away.

So he gives in, he slides his phone into his bag and he closes his eyes with a deep sigh, and then a yawn.

—

She’s only been up for a few minutes, but she’s already logged onto her computer to see if he messaged her back. Staring at the screen with only one eye open as she typed her response.

Andy: thats a shame, you should get one of those new blackberry’s then we can BBM

She moves her laptop to the side and throws the covers off, completely forgetting when she actually went to sleep last night, she woke up in the same position she laid down in originally…

By the time she’s done her morning routine in the bathroom and back in her bed, Spencer’s sent her a pretty lengthy reply.

Dr. Reid: everyone’s wondering why I keep checking my email on my work blackberry every 20 minutes. Legally I’m not allowed to use BBM on this one, it’s in my contract. But I can see if I can get a new one when I’m done with this case.

I had to go get Gideon from the college and they’re making him go back into the field today, I’m sure you know what happened… I’m not sure if he’s ready, he’s really on edge today, we have only a few hours left to find this girl, so if I don’t answer you, that’s why.

I’ll email you when I’m on my way back if you’d like? Not sure how much contact is too much contact… so this email is probably already too much, but, it’s nice talking to you.

It makes her smile uncontrollably, it was so incredibly nice to talk with him. Like having a best friend but better.

Andy: you can email me as many times as you want. I genuinely really like talking to you too. I heard the president and the secret service use BBM cause it can’t be hacked, is that true? I feel like that’s a little fact you’d know.

I really enjoyed our time yesterday, if we had more time I would’ve liked to talk a bit more but what happened instead was nice. I’d like to see you again sometime soon, but my exams start this week. I have 2 finals, a paper and 1 more lab to finish. Masters degrees are no joke… I can’t believe you have 3 Ph.D.’s… how did you not die of stress? Is your heart okay?

She hits send before she can go too far and embarrass herself. She really wanted to tell him that he could have hers. But she had to hold back.

This was just a fun thing between two young adults, she wanted to help him experience the wonders of womanhood while also having a few pay-off moments for herself… If no one got murdered last night, she might have had one of them.

But he’s a busy boy. He’s the BAU’s golden child, their new shiny toy, so he couldn’t always reply right away. After about 40 minutes of refreshing and googling him in the meantime, she makes her way down to the kitchen for breakfast.

“Mornin’, hun,” Haley smiles, behind the counter mixing a bowl of ingredients. “I woke up needing waffles, do you want some?”

“Sure,” she takes a seat at the counter. “Do you want me to do it, you shouldn’t be walking around?”

She shrugs, “I don’t think I need to be… I’m not going to go into early labour, and if I did, it’s probably because he’s measuring a lot bigger than he should be. Who knows when I got pregnant, anyway… the last time we tried, Aaron was so horny all the time—”

“Ew,” she doesn’t want to hear more.

“After the night you had, you’re going to say ew?” She teases, giving her a knowing smirk.

“What do you mean?” Andy goes whiter than a sheet of paper, feeling like Spencer caved and the news had already traveled back home.

“You smelled like sex and someones cologne, your lipstick was gone, I didn’t do the little clip up at the back of your dress when I sent you out and yet you came home with it clipped up…” Haley has clearly spent too much time with her dad, now she’s able to profile too.

She stutters, trying to think of something to say, but there’s nothing. She slowly grows more embarrassed, the colour comes back to her cheeks, flushing a deep magenta.

“So, who was he?” Haley gets back to cooking, pouring the batter onto the waffle iron.

“I can’t tell you,” she whispers. “Because I know you tell my dad everything even if I asked you not to, and I really want to keep this to myself for a bit…”

“Is it a girl?” Haley whispers. “Oh, I’m sorry. Aaron told me this might happen, it’s okay, you can come out when you’re ready and I’ll just pretend it’s new information.”

She laughs, a little too hard, “what?”

“Well, with you playing softball and curling… and after Peter, there weren’t any boys around but you were sneaking out, plus Jasmine smiles at you a lot when she’s here…”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I like girls like that yet… but no, it wasn’t a girl I went home with last night.”

It’s a weird sentence to say, she never thought it would be something brought up in her house… it was a common misconception at school, being called Andy and wearing suits more than dresses to interviews and events. She’s been hit on by female agents at the bar, she’s debated it, but when it all came down to it, it was the agent part and not the female part that made her say no.

“Oh,” Haley’s almost disappointed. “Well, I just hope he’s nice to you and that you’re safe.”

“If you told him it was a girl I was seeing, do you think he’d be less insane this time?”

Haley shrugs, a puzzled look on her face, “there’s really no telling… just wait for Jack to be born and then he might not have enough time to stress over your boyfriends.”

“Jack?” She hasn’t heard them use a name for her new brother yet.

She nods, “we’re still debating on if we want just Jack or Jackson, but that will be his name.”

“I love it,” she doesn’t mind either way. Jack sounded like the name of her brother, it fit perfectly. “Speaking of little baby Jack, would you be okay with me making a mural in his room?”

“As long as you run the idea by your father or me first, sure,” she doesn’t mind. “It’s less painting for me to do.”

“Exactly, I want to do the whole room if you’d let me, as a gift from me to you,” she poses. “When I get back from school full time, I wanted to go to IKEA and get some things and see if Jas or even Spencer and Derek could come over and help me put it all together, it would be a group effort to make sure little Jack has the best room and you don’t strain yourself.”

“As long as I can organize the closet.”

“Of course,” Andy laughs. “I wouldn’t ruin your nesting phase for you.”

“You really are the perfect step daughter,” Haley hands her the first plate of home made waffles, as well as a fork, knife and the syrup.

“I’m really excited to be a sister too, genuinely,” she makes sure Haley see’s it in her face. “I’ve wanted this just as long as you have.”

“I’m glad,” she tries not to cry, rubbing her tummy. “I’m really glad he’ll have you.”

—

“Did you get an address on Linder?” Hotch comes barrelling through the office.

“It’s coming through now,” he answers, monotoned, bored, tired. He hates the sound of the fax machine but it was his duty as the youngest on the team. Some might even call him their bitch… a lot of people did actually.

His reason for joining the team was to give Gideon an excuse to come back, to entice him with files and build a trust that made him follow Spencer into the field. He knew he was important and yet no one else really saw it.

Before hotch can walk too far from him, he grabs his attention. “Does senior management want a field assessment of Gideon?” He asks, wondering if he had to write a part of it or not.

Hotch stops, turns around and walks stressfully close to Spencer. In his personal space bubble, he stands tall and looks down at him, “don’t worry about it.”

Something in him makes him want to fight back, “are you nervous about him being in charge?”

“Aren’t you on you’re way back to Slessman’s house to help Morgan?” He shoots back with anger in his tone.

They turn away from each other quickly, but Spencer can’t let it go. He calls to Hotch, feeling like he deserves some semblance of respect with all the work he does on the team. “Do you know why he always introduces me as Doctor Reid?”

The same name Hotch’s daughter called him last night.

Aaron stops dead in his tracks and turns to Spencer, sighing because he knows he’s right. “Because he knows that people see you as a kid and he wants to make sure they respect you.”

He takes a moment to stare into his eyes, asserting his own dominance, agreeing with what he said. He smiles slightly, it’s a silent thank you that Aaron understands.

“What’s the address?”

He glances at the page, reading it in its entirety in a matter of seconds, “I don’t think it matters anymore, he died in a car accident 2 months ago…”

Aaron sighs, “I’ll call Elle, you get to Derek. Double time it.”

“Yes sir,” Spencer nods, he immediately starts packing his bag and heads for the door. There’s a Seattle officer leaving at the same time as him, “excuse me,” he stops them.

“Yeah?” The man turns to him.

“Any chance you can drive me to Slessman’s house?”

He nods, “that’s on my patrol, hop in.”

He’s used to being in cars with strangers now, it’s a big part of the job. He was chauffeured around between crime scenes and police stations, he has seen the same beige bricked walls in almost every state in America and the inside of every cruiser too.

On the ride over, he takes his blackberry back out and he reads the last email from Andy.

“I can’t believe you have 3 Ph.D.’s… how did you not die of stress? Is your heart okay?”

If he was being honest, he’d reply that his heart was defecting… it was in another place while he was in Seattle trying to save a woman he didn’t know.

Dr. Reid: my heart is fine, thank you for the concern. It was a lot of work, but luckily I didn’t have these kinds of distractions back then…

But you asked me a question. Yes, I do believe we’re allowed to speak with other government officials through the blackberry messenger app, but not with civilians. So, if you somehow can get a job with the president this summer, then we can talk.

I also wanted to say I hope I’m not taking away from your study time? If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know, I actually know a fair bit about psychology. I know, that’s a big surprise to you (sarcasm if you can’t read that) but I mean it, I’d drop everything to help you study if you asked.

Andy: correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you have a woman to save? My homework isn’t that important, focus on her and then me, I’d really like to hear about the case and how you figured it out later, maybe if you gave me your number we could talk on the phone instead…

It doesn’t take much time for her to respond. It’s mere moments before he’s reading her words again.

“Someone special you go there?” The officer asks, referring to his head buried in his phone.

“You can say that,” he blushes. “It’s new, I really like her.”

“I hope it all works out, kid,” he’s nice about it. He has an energy that makes Spencer feel like he can trust him. “Especially in this line of work, you need a nice lady you can go home to and fall back on… someone who doesn’t see you as weak when you’re affected by it, someone who just supports you through it.”

He smiles at the thought, “thanks, I think I found that in her.”

Dr. Reid: we apprehended a suspect, pretty sure he’s working with someone, we just need to find out who. The new girl on our team, Elle, actually caught him, it was really cool.

It’s getting late here, we’re very close to figuring it all out. I’m on my way to help Derek crack the unsubs password to his computer, I think your dad was just tired of seeing me so now I’m being sent here. I’ll try and talk to you more later, hopefully, we get a hotel after the case so I can rest, and maybe call you? I miss your voice.

702-555-0103 (in case you felt the same)

—

She adds his number to her phone as soon as she reads his email.

The smile on her face makes her feel like she’s 13 again and the backstreet boys were releasing a new single… she hasn’t been this giddy over a boy in years and it honestly felt so freeing. Spending time with Spencer was more rewarding than she ever imagined it would be.

She thinks about him all day. Little things in her homework remind her of him and his list of degrees, there’s little facts she’s learning about the human brain that she’d love to pick his about. She see’s his face in her day dreams, the thought of his smile is enough to make her beam with joy.

Even though there’s large gaps between contact and her heart yearns for him, she just can’t wait until they get to talk again.

She goes to bed thinking about future dates with him, the things she’d like to do to him, both clean and dirty, her mind travelled through a million universes where they were happy and together and it worked out for them.

He’s the first thought in her mind when she wakes up the next morning too, way too early, she checks her phone to see it’s 7 am on a Sunday and there’s no reason for her to be up.

But she checks her email anyway.

Dr. Reid: we caught the other unsub just a few hours after you sent that. We have a bunch of work left to do, but we should be flying home soon. I’m in my hotel room now, I get to sleep for 3 hours before the plane home, if you’re awake, give me a call.

He only sent that 24 minutes ago, there was a good chance he was still awake, so she dials his number and hits call.

It rings twice and then he’s there.

“Andy.”

She can hear the smile on his face and her heart stops, he feels just the same way she did… which meant he might want her more than a friend too… more than a best friend even…

Being Spencer Reid’s lover would be really nice.

“Spence,” she uses his nickname too. “How are you?”

“Tired,” he admits. “Exhausted, actually. I haven’t slept since Thursday night.”

“Oh my god, Spence?” She worries for him, sitting straight up in her bed with a hand on her heart. “That’s not healthy at all, you need to get some sleep soon?”

“But I missed you?”

“That’s cute but after prohibiting your brain from sleeping for 36 hours, serious symptoms can arise, it’s not healthy,” the psychology student in her jumped out.

“Talk to me until I fall asleep then?” He whispers. She can hear rustling like he’s shuffled down his bed and adjusted his head on the pillow. “Isn’t it early for you too? Shouldn’t you get more sleep?”

“Okay, mister—

“Doctor,” he corrects her. “You know, I pissed your dad off today, well, yesterday actually, and reminded him I was a doctor…”

“What did you do?” She can’t help but wonder.

“He was treating me like a kid, thinking I didn’t know what was going on with Gideon and Strauss… It annoyed me so I snapped back and asked him why Gideon always introduces me as Doctor Reid.”

“And why does he?” Andy ponders.

“Because people see me as a kid and I deserve respect,” he states it very clearly, he’s stern and affirming, it’s worthy of respect.

“You’re hot when you stand up for yourself,” she praises him.

“Don’t turn me on, I need to sleep, remember?”

It makes her laugh, “I know, I know… it’s too bad we can’t have a sleepover.”

“I know,” he agrees, “you’re very cuddly and soft. And you smell good.”

“So do you,” she can’t stop smiling. Flirting with him like this, miles and miles away from one another, but still affecting the other's heart like they were beating side by side.

He hums, “you’re right…”

“About?”

“36 hours…” he yawns, “‘m sleepy.”

She sighs, relaxing into her bed with her phone pressed to her ear, “go to sleep, Spence, I’ll talk to you when you wake up.”

“Okay, angel,” he whispers, and then he’s out.

His breathing changes, it almost sounds like he’s snoring, but she can’t bring herself to hang up. She just listens, stuck in the moment… he really called her angel, as if being with him wasn’t heaven enough.

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