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nickgerlich · 1 year

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Jet Set

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”  

It’s an oft spoken phrase, and essentially it means that we should learn from our mistakes, hopefully never to repeat them. While we can also argue that we should learn from our successes—a topic broached by my podcast guest on 17th April—the broader point must be taken: We must always be in learning mode.

And with this the final episode of the Daily Blog for the Spring 2023 semester—can I get a hallelujah?— it is only fitting that I focus on just that. By now, you have long grown accustomed to my style. I write 700-900 words every morning, and whenever possible, try to wrap it up in a story. You know how you trick your dog to take its meds by wrapping those pills in cheese? Yeah. That’s my MO. The cheese is just the story. Inside is the stuff you need to take in.

For my parting shot, I choose to use an example that was actually suggested by one of my MBA students this term. It’s a good one, and even though it predates much of the digital era as we know it, the lessons are huge and just as applicable. It even spawned a four-part Netflix limited series late last year.

For now, put yourselves back in 1996. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been locked in the Cola Wars for decades, a battle that intensified in the 1970s with the Pepsi Challenge and blind taste-testing taking center stage. Pepsi, long mired in second place, learned that in tests like those, consumers actually preferred the taste of that product instead of Coke. Yet those same shoppers were undeterred by reality: they kept buying Coke anyway, and the rankings never changed, even when Coca-Cola blinked in 1985 and killed “Old Coke,” replacing it with “New Coke,” and then having to backstroke by (re-)introducing Coca-Cola Classic.  

That’s another story for a different day. In 1996, though, Pepsi decided it was time for a sweepstakes that encouraged brand loyalty and frequent consumption. Collect Pepsi Points from cans and bottles, and redeem them for merch. It is a campaign that many marketers have used through the years.

But wait, there’s more. Pepsi listed one especially interesting prize: a $23 million fighter jet. Who would possibly take Pepsi seriously when they said you could redeem seven million points for the jet? Well, a 20-year-old college student named John Leonard did, and he set out to claim his jet. The problem, though, was that Pepsi had also made it possible for people to acquire needed points pretty cheap—10 cents apiece.  

Mr. Leonard thought on this. He could buy seven million points for $700,000. Being a college student, he did not have that kind of money around, but he convinced millionaire Todd Hoffman to front the money. Bingo. Todd had the points needed to get his $23 million fighter jet, a bargain considering he could do it for $700,000.

The only problem is that Pepsi wasn’t buying it. JK, they said. Surely no one would take them seriously, right?

But Mr. Leonard did, and took them to trial. He claimed it was an offer, and that he had complied. Fortunately for Pepsi, though, the court ruled that an advertising claim does not constitute a unilateral offer. “Whew,” said the folks at Pepsi HQ. That was a close one. Never mind the hoops and hurdles of—you know—actually delivering a military-grade fighter jet to a private citizen. The story is so legendary that Netflix released it as “Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?” It’s a great watch, something I did last winter shortly after it was released.

Even though Pepsi prevailed, it had massive amounts of egg on its face. How stupid could a company be to promote something it had no intention whatsoever of following through on? The message is clear for any marketer staging similar promotions: If you are kidding, then you need to make that abundantly clear. It costs money to defend yourself, even if you win. And the black eye it suffered was not worth any value it received from the rest of the folks redeeming points for far more mundane things.

Now skip forward—notice how we no longer say fast-forward like in the days of VHS—to the digital era. Imagine how this would have played out on social media. It would have been far bigger, and millions more people would have known. Class action lawsuits would have been filed. Major media coverage would have ensued. I suspect there would have been boycotts, because…why not?

This is a sad story for Pepsi, but they are lucky it happened in 1996 instead of 2023. I really didn’t even need to wrap cheese around this one, because it is tasty on its own. I mean, unless you work for Pepsi. I can only imagine folks in the C-suite at Coca-Cola giddy with laughter.

Complicating matters is that, as we have discussed just this week, sometimes companies do things for shock value because they think or know it will all work out in the end anyway. Ask the folks at AB InBev about that. Or, listen to the latest podcast episode tomorrow in which I feature the Mayor of Uranus. Yeah. Shock. Insert every double entendre you can imagine. He wins; Pepsi lost.

It has been my pleasure to serve as your guide this term. It is customary that I leave you with a benediction. It will feel strange tomorrow morning knowing that I don’t need to write a blog until the 5th of June for summer term. It will be great that I have more time to work on a couple of book projects I put on the back burner.

Now may you all go forward with the realization that you must be information sponges in order to be an informed businessperson. May you keep your eyes, ears, and—most importantly—your minds open to the changes around you. And may you act responsibly, ethically, and professionally in all that you do. Good health, and shalom, y’all.

Dr “Stay In Touch—I Mean it“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #Pepsi #fighterjet #sweepstakes

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denckermacmillan25 · 2 months

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Sneaky Sniper Online Sniper Game

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#ta88

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unforth · 3 years

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The 2021 Destiel Favs Survey!

The December, 2020 edition of the Destiel Fan Favorites Survey is now completed! I got 340 submissions, the most I’ve received since the first time I did the survey in 2017 (this is the fifth time). Since the inception of the survey, I’ve received 1372 surveys, reflecting the tastes of those in the fandom at the time they did the survey and completed especially with an eye toward highlighting excellent lesser-known works.

On the latest survey, 336 different authors were listed as favorites! 165 of these authors were added to the list for the first time. Across all five times I’ve given this survey, 700 authors (on the nose!) have been listed as favorites. You can view a list of all those authors, and links to their accounts, here!

On this survey, an astonishing 1,448 stories received a vote!! The majority - 891 works - were added to the collection for the first time, which is absolutely thrilling to me. 253 of the authors of these works had never been listed before, and now know - they’re someone’s favorite. How awesome is that?

Since the inception of this survey, 3,544 stories by 1,365 different authors have been named as someone’s favorite. All of these works are assembled in a collection that you can view on AO3 here! (works that aren’t on AO3 are bookmarked, as are the works of author’s who chose not to accept the invite to the collection; 210 invites are still pending from the 2021 survey; if authors don’t add their works by next weekend, I’ll bookmark them). Alternatively, you can view a list of every work in the collection, and a link to access the work if it’s still available online, here!

By far, the best way to navigate the collection is to go to the AO3 Collection and use the tags searches and filters to find works that appeal to you. That said, I know some people are curious about results. It’s outside my ability to make lists that include every work, and so I do in general compile some of the data and share those who got the “top” results (not in a ranking, only in alphabetical order). If you’re interested, keep reading...

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if you are having trouble seeing the links on this post, please access it on pillowfort here: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/1967244

In the past, I've done an annotated "Top 20 Authors" list, where I list (in alphabetical, not ranked) order the authors who received the most votes and every work they have in the collection. I will not be doing that this year. I'll give the top 20 list, but not list all their fics - it's too much, and too many of these authors are the same as previous years. The goal of the Collection is and always has been to highlight the works of authors who don't get as much love and aren't as well known, and I've come to feel the Top 20 list doesn't serve that goal effectively. As such, I will instead be doing a "Rookies of the Year" list, listing 10 authors who have not been on the top 20 list previously, and a "Top New Stories" list, with the 10 most popular stories added to the collection this year.

You can see the past top lists at these links:

January, 2020

June, 2018

March, 2017

I also have done a number of rec lists based on the data, but not since the last two surveys (the collection has grown too big, and I don’t have time any longer). These are also all available on pillowfort.

All lists are in alphabetical order! These are not rankings!

Rookies of the Year! A list ten authors who’ve scored highly for the first time on the survey, and every work they’ve written that received at least one vote in the survey!

Desirae

After the Darkness (Series) (26,438 words, 6 works). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Canon divergent AU where Dean goes missing.

Angel Bridge (55,944 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Paranormal writer Dean meets Wiccan Castiel.

Autumn in His Eyes (50,452 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Artist Castiel, retreating to seclusion to avoid the paparazzi, meets small-town Dean.

The Bond-Breaker Murders (75,696 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Detective Dean and his partner Castiel hunt a serial killer.

The Deal (29,094 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Business owners Dean and Castiel meet soon after Castiel’s divorce.

Finding Home (42,828 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Bakery owner Dean and writer Emmanuel aren’t sure what’s drawing them together, but they’re sure something is.

Ghosts (Series) (71,676 words, 2 works). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Paranormal investigator Dean Winchester doesn’t believe in ghosts and definitely doesn’t believe scam artist Castiel.

I'm the Only (25,121 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Professor Dean and tattoo artist Castiel look back on how they meet.

Lojacked (28,393 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Guidance Counselor Dean is kidnapped days before the anniversary of his marriage to Detective Castiel.

Loved You Forever (Series) (98,896 words, 21 works). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Mechanic Dean has been in love with his best friend Professor Castiel since they were children, but has never told.

Parking Lot Confessions (3,820 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Castiel gets hit with a truth spell, and Sam learns far more than he expected.

Remember Me After the Storm (47,425 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. After a car accident, Castiel doesn’t remember the past 13 years of his life with Dean.

Duckyboos

Bitch Better Have My Money (Series) (247,834 words, 4 works). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Dean’s suburban life goes to hell in a hand basket after he meets a devil with the face of an angel.

The Card Cheat (3,101 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Dean and Castiel are hitmen who hate working together.

Chronicles of a Serial Killer (Series) (52,760 words, 2 works, second is a work in progress). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Detective Dean Winchester is intrigued by the newest serial killer operating in his jurisdiction.

Dial "M" for Monster (23,809 words). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Baker/Vigilante Dean investigates the haunted rooms at Castiel’s motel.

I Only Come When You Scream (Series) (23,117 words, 7 works). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used, Graphic Depictions of Violence. Three serial killers meet over coffee.

Interview with the Vampire's Wife (6,040 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. A vampire’s wife walks into PI Dean’s office.

Lock Stock and Two Smokin' Winchesters (29,392 words). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Boxers Dean and Sam are fucked when they run afoul of Crowley and his prize fighter Castiel.

Murder Ballads (Series) (97,416 words, 3 works). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Serial Killer Castiel sets his sites on Dean.

My Whole Existence is Flawed (6,388 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean accidentally flirts with Castiel, with whom he had a relationship in high school.

Number 1 Crush (103,891 words). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. College friends Dean and Castiel meet up with some college buddies just as Dean’s college stalker comes after him.

Stone by Stone (37,269 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Teacher Castiel and student Dean find trouble together.

EllenofOz

Baby Whispering 101 (2,835 words). Gen. No Warnings Apply. Castiel has to bring his daughter to class, but Professor Winchester doesn’t mind.

Bunker Files (30,519 words, work in progress). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Canon Divergent AU, where the British Men of Letters hear more than they bargained for.

Dark Blue, Dark Blue (36,112 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Online friends Dean and Castiel come to meet in person after Castiel’s meatspace life puts him in danger.

A Demon Like Him (24,595 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Warlock Dean isn’t sure if he should work with incubus Castiel.

Drunk Texts and Midnight Snacks (4,589 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. College AU. Dean keeps sending Castiel drunk texts...until he stops.

Felix in Aeternum (23,837 words, work in progress). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Castiel meets Dean at a Halloween festival and learns maybe there’s some supernatural in the world after all.

For a Dream's Sake (28,511 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU during season 13. Castiel falls into a djinn dream.

Lonely Eden (Co-written with Threshie) (44,091 words). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Dean and Sam deal with the aftermath of the Croatoan outbreak until they meet a lone uninfected man, Castiel.

Profound Magic (Series, Co-written with Trenchcoatbaby) (227,233 words, 2 works). Occult student Dean runs into trouble with his strict thesis advisor, Castiel.

Season Z (by multiple authors). (220,673 words). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Canon Divergent AU, post season 14, with zombies.

Undercover Angel (Series) (44,716 words, 3 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU where Dean discovers that Castiel has a panty kink.

emmbrancsxx0

Departure Strategy (Co-written with choranaptyxic) (39,778 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean and Castiel meet when Mary decides to contact Castiel’s employers for their help assisting her suicide.

Castiel Novak's Office, This is Dean (121,472 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean and Castiel have a one night stand...and then Dean finds out Castiel is his new boss.

Evangelist (334,398 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Wealthy business heir Castiel meets poor Dean.

Five Ways to Wake Dean Winchester (without Getting Shot) (1,598 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. “Sometimes, Dean’s dreams are violent.”

Halloween Horror (Series) (117,399 words, 4 works). Canon divergent AU. Castiel and Dean discover a haunted house while cataloguing a Men of Letters library.

Ipamis Ol Olpri (56,418 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Castiel and Jack need John Winchester’s blood to kill Michael.

On Falling (996 words). Unrated. No Warnings Apply. “He had fallen, further and faster than any angel before him.”

Saint's Hollow (Co-written with sleepinnude) (43,718 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Five years after Castiel and Dean are estranged, they’re forced to meet each other, and their shared past, again.

The Shawnee Trail (166,094 words). Unrated. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Stagecoach messenger Dean and Doctor Castiel have to deal with outlaws in 1887 Lawrence.

everandanon

All Things in Succession (313,468 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O Dynamics. Omega Prince Castiel is bound to Alpha Knight Dean in an arranged marraige.

At Midnight (8,516 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Dean’s been pining for his best friend Castiel for a decade, and tonight he’s determined to kiss him.

By Any Other Name (6,785 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Dean doesn’t want anyone to see his soul mark...but Sam sees, and tracks down Castiel.

Casicorn (56,649 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Detective Dean gets a new, mysterious roommate.

Expectations (418,319 words). Explicit. No Warnings apply. A/B/O Dyanmics. Omega Castiel is infuriated that his sister is to be wed to the Alpha crown prince Dean, whom they’ve never met.

I'll Be Home for Christmas (3,872 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Castiel’s family has vastly misunderstood his relationship with his college roommate.

Issues (Series) (252,401 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Childhood best friends Castiel and Dean have a falling out that leads to them pretending to date.

Quarantension (129,289 words, work in progress). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. College roommates Dean and Cas quarantine together - strictly platonic, of course (yes, that includes the orgasms).

With Interest (161,935 words, work in progress). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. High School AU. Bad-boy Castiel bets he can make nerdy Dean fall in love with him.

FagurFiskur

All Been Blown Out (1,908 words). Explicit. No Warnings apply. Stripper Dean and mafioso Castiel have sex sometimes.

Anything You Can Do (21,087 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean, who is definitely straight (right?), is determined to prove by any means necessary that he’s better at sex than Castiel.

Becoming (4,924 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Dean develops a relationship with the android, Castiel, who owns the coffeeshop down the street from him.

Don't You Cry No More (5,094 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. A rewrite of 15x20.

I Leave in My Heart (3,343 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Office workers Dean and Castiel are just friends with benefits...aren’t they?

Make It That Much Better (2,469 words). Gen. No Warnings Apply. Four times people mistook Dean and Castiel for a couple.

The Novak Hickey Mystery (1,540 words). Gen. No Warnings Apply. Professor Castiel’s class isn’t sure how he got a hickey.

Picture Perfect (13,356 words, work in progress). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Castiel is attracted to a man he sees in an old photograph...and then they meet in real life.

You Start to Grow Wings (10,911 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Dean and Castiel have a relationship when they’re young, part ways, and meet against twenty years later.

LoversAntiquities

Beautiful Mess (12,849 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean grows wings, and has to deal with all the issues that arise thereafter.

Dean Winchester: Monster Fucker (30,358 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Cursed Dean finds himself disturbingly attractive to monsters...and Castiel.

Doubting Thomas (40,184 words). Mature. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Two months after disappearing, Dean and Sam appear in Castiel’s garden, and they’ve been made into angels.

Forget the Sky (26,392 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Dean wins big on a scratch off ticket, and he and Castiel go to Japan.

Heart Like a Wheel (24,921 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. College student Dean decides to model for Professor Castiel.

If Love Was a River (17,364 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Orion is missing a star, and Castiel has fallen from the sky.

A Kite (720 words). Gen. No Warnings Apply. “Two gold bands burn a hole in his pocket - he doesn’t think he can wait any longer.”

Lights (2,671 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Pre-canon Dean meets season 5 Castiel.

Lonesome Roads (Series) (12,934 words, 2 works). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Terminally ill Castiel merges with the earth to heal, and returns many years later.

Me in Honey (6,520 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Castiel goes into heat, and Dean gets more than he expects.

Rooms to Let (Series) (32,962 words, 2 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Hunter Dean finds an angel crucified to a cross.

The Rosary (9,082 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Castiel escapes from a home for stray angels and is found in the forest by a stranger.

The Safest Place (5,312 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Dean feels the urge to nest.

Through the Mists of Time (Series) (24,689 words, 2 works). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Dean is sent back in time 700 years and lands in the bedroom of the handsome Scottish Lord Castiel.

We Fly By Night (15,672 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Business owner DEan can’t get rid of a strange mark on his arm.

We Gave Love a Chance (5,210 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Team Free Will gets a chance to rest on a Florida beach.

MandalaRose

Cupcakes and Kittens (73,937 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean finds himself with an abandoned kitten, and Castiel finds himself in a baking class, and fortunately, they also find each other.

Hot Gym Guys (Series) (18,805 words, 2 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean can’t keep his eyes of the sexy owner of Healing Hands Spa and Gym.

Interrupted (5,818 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean loves his kids but is ready to do just about anything for some alone time with his husband Castiel.

It's in His Kiss (7,877 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Hockey player Dean gets put on the kiss cam while standing next to his best friend (and secret crush) Castiel.

Netflix and Chills (15,503 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Team Free Will tries to figure out if the coronavirus is Chuck’s next move.

New Holiday (6,258 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. A finale fix-it.

Paparazzi (7,004 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Hockey player Dean Winchester gets caught sleeping with billionaire Castiel.

The Shots We Don't Take (56,534 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. College senior Castiel hooks up with hockey player and playboy Dean.

Stay With Me (Series) (162,055 words, 4 works). Explicit. Graphic Depictions of Violence. Firefighter Dean rescues injured Castiel from his mangled vehicle after a car crash.

What I Need Most (32,397 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Who does Dean really need most?

Y Tu Dean Tambien (6,909 words). Teen+. Archive Warnings Not Used. Dean has managed to keep his crush secret from absolutely everyone...except his crush, Castiel.

PallasPerilous

Baby, Baby (728 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Musician Castiel and Engineer Dean meet ugly.

Boneless Wings (4,333 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Castiel’s wings aren’t always as sexy as Dean might wish them to be.

Fifty Ways to Lose Your Lover (1,106 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Fix it for 15x18.

Funny Bone (4,933 words). Mature. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Dean would give a lot to know why the posed skeleton is admiring his ass.

Occursus (4,341 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Post-canon/15x20 fix it.

Piledriver (1,815 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. 15x18 coda.

Twenty Questions (1,246 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Castiel and Sam have a chat about Dean.

tiamatv

(Atypical) Love Story (13,360 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Castiel is shocked when Dean is attracted to his scent.

Biological Imperatives (or Not) (29,103 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Charlie convinces Dean to go on a date with her awkward professor friend.

Deference (9,981 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Criminal Castiel makes torturer Dean kneel.

Epistolary (9,408 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Castiel leaves an unexpected note for Dean.

Intangible (13,927 words). Explicit. Major Character Death. Mechanic Dean loses his soulmate, and gets him back as a ghost.

Koinophilia (Series) (31,139 words, 2 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Dean refuses to talk about why his heats come so infrequently.

The Neighborhood Watch (Series) (31,628 words, 6 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Castiel and Dean are husbands living a happy suburban life.

Nightshade (3,111 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Rowena accidentally feeds Dean a cursed aphrodisiac.

Pigment (1,573 words). Gen. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Dean takes up painting.

South Side Swing (Series) (75,859 words, 6 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean, boss of the Chicago outfit, runs into trouble with Castiel, head of the Bratva.

Stripes (Series) (32,368 words, 3 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Castiel insists that he and Dean are not soulmates.

Tentacle Husbands (Series) (23,658 words, 3 works). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Octo Castiel and Prince Dean are happily married.

Top 20 authors over all: aeli_kindara, almaasi, bendingsignpost, castielslostwings, Desirae, Duckyboos, EllenofOz, followyourenergy, komodobits, ltleflrt, MalMuses, MandalaRose, NorthernSparrow, riseofthefallenone, saltyfeathers, sharkfish, tiamatv, tricia_16, whelvenwings, xylodemon

All authors who’ve ever been in the top 20: 60r3d0m, aeli_kindara, almaasi, Annie D (scaramouche), anyrei, bendingsignpost, castielslostwings, CloudyJenn, deathbanjo, Desirae, dothraki_shieldmaiden, Duckyboos, EllenofOz, emwebb17, followyourenergy, imogenbynight, jemariel, jhoom, jupiter_james, K_K_TiBal, komodobits, ltleflrt, MalMuses, MandalaRose, microcomets (formerly mishcollin), MittenWraith, museaway, NorthernSparrow, orange_crushed, ozonecologne, pantheon_of_discord, PersephoneShadow, quiettewandering, riseofthefallenone, saltnhalo, saltyfeathers, SaltyWords (agent4hire22), seperis, sharkfish, thepinupchemist, tiamatv, Trenchcoatbaby, tricia_16, unforth, VioletHaze, violue, whelvenwings, WinJennster, xylodemon, youaresunlight

The Top Ten Newly-Inducted Fics in 2021:

The Care and Feeding of Castiel by MalMuses (24,190 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Canon divergent AU. Castiel starts acting strange.

The Courtship of Combat by bendingsignpost (18,250 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. A/B/O dynamics. Castiel lies about his feelings for omega Dean to avoid an arranged marriage by his king.

Cupcakes and Kittens by MandalaRose (linked above)

Bitch Better Have My Money by Duckyboos (linked above)

Fire and Ice by Castielslostwings (189,629 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Firefighter Dean falls into bed with his best friend, EMT Castiel.

A Fish Out of Water by MalMuses (42,966 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean goes undercover at Brock Pleasure Ranch and discovers that merman Castiel is less a monster than he’d imagined.

Ghosts that We Know by dothraki_shieldmaiden (89,411 words). Explicit. Archive Warnings Not Used. Hunter Dean could wish that the best partner he’s ever had, Castiel, wasn’t a ghost.

Option C by followyourenergy (63,310 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. Dean and Castiel fake a relationship during their senior year of college to get rid of their asshole third roommate Vaughn.

Starstruck by peanutbutterjelly-pie (146,461 words). Teen+. No Warnings Apply. Castiel used to live next door to movie star Dean, but doesn’t think much of it...until he does.

Welcome to Pine Shores! by andimeantittosting (20,901 words). Explicit. No Warnings Apply. After retiring from hunting, Dean and Castiel buy a motel together, and they run it for years, and Dean pines the entire time.

The Top 20 fics of 2021:

And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets

Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone

Bitch Better Have My Money (series) by Duckyboos (linked above)

The Breath of All Things by KismetJeska

Cinderwings by bendingsignpost

The Courtship of Combat by bendingsignpost (linked above)

Cupcakes and Kittens by MandalaRose (linked above)

Fire and Ice by Castielslostwings (linked above)

A Fish Out of Water by MalMuses (linked above)

Four Letter Word for Intercourse by bendingsignpost

Not Part of the Plan (series) by Annie D (scaramouche)

Down to Agincourt by seperis

Ninety One Whiskey (series) by komodobits

Riptides by sharkfish

Russian to the Altar by MalMuses

So Says the Sword by komodobits

Stay With Me (series) by MandalaRose (linked above)

A Turn of the Earth by microcomets (formerly mishcollin)

Wild (series) by Castielslostwings

With Understanding by apokteino (not available online)

And may I just say, this is the first year that Twist and Shout didn’t make the top 20 list, and I am thrilled.

All Fics that Have Ever Made the Top 20/Top 10 List:

All Things Shining by Askance (doomcountry) and standbyme

And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets

Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone

A Beginner’s Guide to Communing with the Dead by suspiciousflashlight

Bitch Better Have My Money (series) by Duckyboos (linked above)

The Breath of All Things by KismetJeska

Broken Reflections (series) by anyrei and mugglerock

Carnival Oasis (series) by violue

Carry On by TamrynEradani (deleted)

Cinderwings by bendingsignpost

The Courtship of Combat by bendingsignpost (linked above)

Cupcakes and Chlamydia (series) by violue

Cupcakes and Kittens by MandalaRose (linked above)

Dean (and Cas’) Top 13 Zepp Traxx by pantheon_of_discord

The Dean Winchester Beat Sheet by saltyfeathers

The Dick Pic Verse (series) by Dangerousnotbroken

Down to Agincourt (series) by seperis

Fire and Ice by Castielslostwings (linked above)

A Fish Out of Water by MalMuses (linked above)

Flight by NorthernSparrow

Four Letter Word for Intercourse by bendingsignpost

Get a Whiff of This by bendingsignpost

The Graveyard Shift by riseofthefallenone

Hideaway (series) by thepinupchemist

Hooked on Your Love (series) by Ltleflrt

I Wanna Get Outside (of Me) by emwebb17

I’d Do it Over and Over Again (series) by tricia_16

I’d Rather Have You (series) by Ltleflrt

Kiss the Baker (series) by Ltleflrt

The Meaning on My Skin by saltnhalo

Not Part of the Plan (series) by Annie D (scaramouche)

Ninety One Whiskey (series) by komodobits

Oddly Shaped Empty by jemariel

Out of the Deep (series) by riseofthefallenone

Painted Angels (series) by WinJennster

The Path of Fireflies (series) by museaway

Protect and Serve by jupiter_james

PWP: Pie Without Plot by MajorEnglishEsquire and orange_crushed

Redemption Road (series) by multiple authors

Riptides by sharkfish

A Room of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow

Russian to the Altar by MalMuses

Satin and Sawdust by Ltleflrt

So Says the Sword by komodobits

Stay With Me (series) by MandalaRose (linked above)

Traveling Light by sharkfish

A Turn of the Earth by microcomets (formerly mishcollin)

Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme

Vagabonds by chevrolangels (formerly amarillogrande)

The Walk (series) by Persephoneshadow

What has Eight Tentacles and Isn’t Allowed to Eat Pie? by Annie D (scaramouche)

Where the Weeds Take Root by deathbanjo

Wild (series) by Castielslostwings

With Understanding by apokteino (not available online)

You Can Keep Holding On by NorthernSparrow

#spn #destiel #destiel favs survey #well that took almost four hours #gaaaaah #but it's finally done #so much for accomplishing anything else today

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hhawkeye · 3 years

Note

How do you go see so much theater? You must have spent my entire tuition by now! Is it, like, cheap where you are?

uhhh honestly the answer is until about 2.5 years ago i lived off of student loans (which at least here dont really count as Actual debt, i mean they are still debt but they dont count against you really and you only have to pay them off once you earn a certain amount of money per year) and had very few actual expenses (i lived at home with both my parents) and a lot of free time on my hands! so i would buy relatively cheap tickets for les mis (i’d say the average was about £35? but i’ve paid between £20 and £90 depending on where i was sitting, how far in advance i booked it, etc) and if i booked a train and hotel/hostel far enough in advance it ended up not Too expensive. i also sometimes stayed with friends or didn’t stay over in london and instead got the train down in the morning, saw les mis, then got the sleeper train home, so that cut costs down as well.

other than les mis the other musicals i’ve seen in london are uhhh… wicked, matilda, hamilton, phantom of the opera, the view upstairs, and fun home (i feel like i’m forgetting something maybe?) and i’ve seen a few plays as well, the most i’ve ever paid for a single ticket to les mis is £98 but that was for the concert version and i think pretty short notice? and they were Good seats which i generally would not go for but my friend and i went together. the most i’ve paid for a single ticket to any show is probably uh. £115 for hairspray which i am going to see next week. but that’s for a front row seat and i’m insane and feel like i deserve a treat after over a year of no theatre.

other than that i see some shows when they go on tour but generally i find the tickets for those are more expensive than they are for london, but i guess it evens out because i don’t have to pay for travel and accommodation.

next week i am seeing phantom, cinderella (??? actually don’t know if i’m seeing this now since they posted about having to close due to self isolation and have been vague about what that means), anything goes (which i booked before sutton foster was cast 😒), hairspray, and the les mis concert. most of these tickets were paid for using ticket vouchers i had received due to my bookings over the past year being cancelled, my friend and i ended up with about ~£700 tied up in ticket voucher codes between us because of all the shows we had booked but obviously had closed bc of covid, so this whole trip is kind of being paid for with money that has been out of my account for over a year now anyway.

tldr: i used to spend my money solely on les mis to the point where everyone in my life was begging me to stop, unfortunately now i have to work for a living and earn minimum wage so that combined with rising ticket prices and my hatred for cameron mackintosh means i will be going a lot less now, but also the west end is a lot cheaper than broadway and i have taken advantage of deals like day seats and cheaper midweek or matinee tickets etc. i am not rich i am very much in a lot of Real Debt now but honestly you do only live once so 🤷‍♂️

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raeynbowboi · 4 years

Text

The Character Forge: How to Play as Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl in DnD 5e

This is a rather unusual build option, as these aren’t technically characters in the Yugioh series. However, I consider it a fun and unique challenge to try and build them. Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl are the ace cards in the deck of Yami Yugi. Though in season 5 the anime decided they were the spirits of the Pharaoh’s high priests trapped as duel monsters that still serve their king in death. So that’s a fun thing to think about the next time you play one of these cards.

A Heroic Spirit

What race you choose is probably going to depend on which version you want to play. If you want to play who they were before they died, Mahad and Mana were ordinary humans with no superhuman abilities beyond the study of magic. So normal Humans works for who they once were. If you want to play as the duel spirits they became, you could choose Kalashtar because the Dark Magician is the bond of the high priest Mahad with the Illusion Magician spirit. Kalashtar is a race whose body is split between a host and a dream world spirit. Dream world, Duel Monster Spirit World. Close enough. They are also tasked with guarding and serving the Pharoah loyally, which has lowkey guardian angel traits, so Aasimar is a possibility. It’s a bit silly, but they are synthetic beings. Just holograms really. They could be Warforged since they aren’t actually real or alive. Just computer code and projected images of light as duel monsters. They could also be Variant Humans because they’re Shonen anime characters, and the spirits of former humans.

Honestly, they have no alignment and little personality. Make them however you want and go from there. I have never actually seen season 5, so I don’t know the personalities of Mahad and Mana.

For background, Mahad is a high priest and Mana is his pupil. Mahad and Mana are both Acolytes. Dark Magician is the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, so Sage is appropriate, while the obscure (but I think it’s legit?) Student of Magic is great for Dark Magician Girl.

Powers and Abilities

The Dark Magician’s primary spell is the Dark Magic Attack, and the Dark Magician Girl casts Dark Burning Attack.

As Mahad, he had the ability to summon duel spirits to fight on his behalf, conjuring them through large stone tablets. Mahad also possessed the Millennium Ring, which points you in the direction of whatever you’re trying to find, and lets you place and remove souls from bodies.

Support Cards:

Dark Burning Attack: Destroy all enemy facedown monsters Dark Burning Magic: Destroy all enemy cards. Dark Magical Circle: Add other Dark Magician support cards to your hand. Dark Magic Attack: Destroys all enemy Spells and Traps Dark Magic Expanded: one monster gains +1000 ATK and ignores enemy spells Dark Magic Inheritance: Banish 2 spells to draw 1 DM support card from deck. Dark Magic Twin Burst: DM gains ATK of all DMG on the field and in Graveyard. Dark Magic Veil: Pay 1000 LP to summon a dark spellcaster Dark Renewal: Sacrifice enemy monster and your caster. summon dark caster. Illusion Magic: Sacrifice your spellcaster. Add Dark Magician to your hand. Magic Formula: DM’s Spellbook. Increase DM or DMG ATK by 700 points. Magical Hats: Dark Magician becomes hidden beneath 1 of 4 magic hats. Magical Objection: Counter enemy spell, trap, or effect and destroy that card. Magician’s Circle: when foe summons, you and foe can summon a caster Magician’s Defense: Take half damage while you control a spellcaster. Magician’s Navigation: Summon DM from hand and dark caster from Deck/GY Mystical Box: Dark Magician trades places with another monster. Thousand Knives: Destroys 1 enemy monster

Other Common Cards

Change of Heart: Take control of enemy monster for 1 turn. Dark Hole: Destroy every card on the field. Dian Keto, the Cure Master: Gain 1000 Life Points. Magic Cylinder: Bounce enemy attack at enemy’s Life Points. Magic Jammer: Counter 1 enemy spell card. Mirror Force: Bounce enemy attack, destroy all ATK position enemy monsters. Monster Reborn: Summon 1 monster from either Graveyard. Mystical Space Typhoon: Destroy 1 Spell or Trap card. Negate Attack: Portal sucks up enemy attack, opponent battle phase ends. Raigeki: Destroy all of your opponent’s monsters Reverse Trap: Buffs and Debuffs switch. Buffs weaken, Debuffs strengthen. Spellbinding Circle: Enemy monster -700 ATK. Cannot attack/change positions. Swords of Revealing Light: 3 gleaming swords, enemy can’t attack for 3 turns. Trap Hole: Create pit trap. Destroy monster with 1500 ATK or more.

Class is in Session

Cleric Arcana: As Mahad and Mana were priests, this is a way to incorporate that religious background with their current powers.

Sorcerer Divine Soul: Similar to Arcana, Divine Soul blurs the line between magic and religion, and allows Dark Magician to pull power from the holy spirit of Mahad residing within him. Since both Dark Magician and Dark Magican Girl float, the wings this subclass gives at level 14 could be flavored as simply allowing these duel spirits to fly/float without the wings being visible. Shadow: They are the DARK magicians. Their signature spells are DARK Magic Attack and DARK Burning Attack. Pretty self-evident.

Warlock Celestial: Again like Divine Soul and Arcana, this option connects Warlock with religion, but the subclass has some Radiant flavor which is a little unusual for the DARK Magicians.

Wizard Conjuration: When Mahad lived, he used his Millennium Ring and magic powers to conjure the spirits of Duel Monster tablets to play shadow games. Lore Mastery: He’s “the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense”. It stands to reason that his understanding of magic would run so deep that he could alter and bend it to his will. Especially to turn any spell he casts into Necrotic damage for his dark magic attacks. Theurgy: Mahad was the high priest. So, he could have been a wizard who had studied the religious magic of his day to obtain his powers and to cast both Cleric and Wizard spells with one stat. War Magic: The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense is probably going to be extremely powerful in a fight, so having a build that’s made to fight is right up his alley.

How to Play as Yugi Mutou

Before making this post, I’d tried to make Yugi as a potential build. However, an obstacle I encountered was that I had Yugi as a Conjuration Wizard, and there simply weren’t enough Wizard spells that summoned creatures to fight on your behalf. However, if you combine that summoning focus of Yugi with the magical capabilities of Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl, and treat them as his Deck Master, they can work together to fill out Yugi’s spell list with DM and DMG spells and fight side by side as effectively one character.

Stats and Proficiencies

In order to be the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, Dark Magician needs the absolute maximum Intelligence and Constitution stats. He needs to be able to deal serious magical damage and shrug off enemy spells. During Yugi and Joey’s duel against Para and Dox, the Dark Magician did a front flip in what seems like medium armor. That shows quite a bit of Dexterity. Beyond that, fill out the other three stats or dump them as you see fit. However, I will admit, the Dark Magician Girl does seem more charming than her mentor, and could be a Sorcerer who casts with Charisma instead of Intelligence.

Arcana Insight Perception Religion

Name: Mahad, the Dark Magician Race: Variant Human Background: Sage Alignment: Neutral Class: War Magic Wizard (20) Base Stats: Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 17 (+3) Constitution: 20 (+5) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 8 (-1) Charisma: 8 (-1) Saving Throws: Strength: -1 Dexterity: +3 Constitution: +5 Intelligence: +11 Wisdom: +5 Charisma: -1 Combat Stats: HP: 182 AC: 13 Speed: 30 Initiative: +8 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 15 Dark Vision: 0 feet Proficiencies: Arcana (Sage) History (Sage) Insight (Wizard) Religion (Wizard) Skills: Acrobatics: +3 Medicine: -1 Animal Handling: -1 Nature: +5 Arcana: +11 Perception: +5 Athletics: -1 Performance: -1 Deception: -1 Persuasion: -1 History: +11 Religion: +11 Insight: +5 Sleight of Hand: +3 Intimidation: -1 Stealth: +3 Investigation: +5 Survival: -1 Equipment: Arcane Focus: Staff

Spell Slots 1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (3) 6th (2) 7th (2) 8th (1) 9th (1)

Dark Magician’s Spellbook

Cantrips 3rd Level 6th Level Create Bonfire Call Lightning Arcane Gate Eldritch Blast Counterspell Globe of Invulnerability Firebolt Dispel Magic 7th Level Mage Hand Fireball Conjure Hezrou Mind Sliver Magic Circle Mord’s Sword Minor Illusion Summon Lesser Demons 8th Level 1st level 4th Level Antimagic Field Detect Magic Arcane Eye Dominate Monster Hex Banishment 9th Level Mage Armor Conjure Minor Elementals Prismatic Wall Magic Missile Conjure Shadow Demon Shield Leo’s Secret Chest Witch Bolt Locate Creature 2nd Level Phantasmal Killer Arcane Lock Summon Greater Demon Crown of Madness 5th Level Flock of Familiars B’s Hand (Arcane Hand) Knock Conjure Elemental Locate Object Dominate Person Magic Weapon Infernal Calling Mirror Image Legend Lore Misty Step Planar Binding Shadow Blade Synaptic Static Teleportation Circle Wall of Force

Features:

Arcane Deflection: When attacked, as a reaction, add +2 AC or +4 saving throw, but cast only cantrips next turn. Arcane Recovery: Once per day, after a short rest, restore 10 or fewer level 5 or lower used spell slots. Deflecting Shroud: 3 creatures take 10 force damage after Arcane Deflection. Durable Magic: +2 to AC and saving throws when concentrating on a spell. Magic Initiate: Learn Eldritch Blast, Mind Sliver, and Hex. Cast with INT. Power Surge: You have max 5, each surge adds 10 force damage to a spell. Researcher: You always know where to find information or who to get it from. Signature Spells: Cast Fireball and Dispel Magic without using a spell slot. Spell Mastery: Cast Magic Weapon and Mage Armor without using a spell slot. Tactical Wit: Add your INT mod to your Initiative.

keep in mind, the spell list is not conclusive, it’s a personal choice. I chose to have Dark Magician learn all the spells of the Arcane Cleric, and just tried to pick the standard magic spells, especially about anything with Arcane in its name. Because both Yugi and Mahad summon monsters to fight for them, I decided it was appropriate to give Dark Magician a lot of conjuration spells, but that doesn’t mean you have to use the Deck Master Yugi/Dark Magician build I suggested where Yugi does the summoning and Dark Magician handles everything else. It’s not a perfect build, but then, I never expected it to be. Still, I hope you guys found this to be a fun, quirky DnD concept. Let me know if you’d build this character differently than I did. And as always, thanks for joining me in The Character Forge, where heroes are made.

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koala-otter · 4 years

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the teacher and the scientist au: worldbuilding

I am writing some original stuff right now, and as a break where I can keep writing, I’m going to explain some of my worldbuilding/choices that I make when it comes to my modern “the teacher and the scientist” AU. The hope is that it will be fun for others to see what goes into a fic, or give people ideas for their own fics!

*a quick note: I am a white Latina! I have no East Asian heritage! I studied for a while in Beijing and speak Mandarin Chinese fluently, so I kind of defer to my experiences there when making worldbuilding choices in fic (because I believe strongly in writing what you know, especially given the damage you might cause by writing what you don’t know), but will also do research online or through friends on other countries and cultures that inspired the four nations in ATLA. But all of this is just to say that while I do put a lot of thought into this stuff, I am by no means the authority on any of it, and I am open to criticism and of course always want to make sure I’m not doing anything harmful with my writing. I promise to listen and adapt if you approach me about literally anything in my fic or in this post.

Ok now let’s get into it!

1. The setting: Ba Sing Se’s Natural History Museum This is based on a combination of the Beijing Museum of Natural History, the American Natural History Museum in New York, and Beijing’s Forbidden City/Gugong. Beijing I think is probably the biggest inspiration for Ba Sing Se with the ring system and centering of the palace (and I mean the Earth King’s palace is pretty directly based off of Tiananmen Square), so it seems like a pretty solid model for a modern Ba Sing Se to me.

2. The field trip I went on so many field trips to the Natural History Museum when I was little, and they were always the absolute most fun of the year. And I feel like we went to the planetarium basically every time? It was kind of fun to recall and try to capture the experience of being a little kid on this trip in this fic

3. The Lower Ring & the Middle Ring I put Zuko and his students as coming from the Lower Ring for a few reasons. Firstly, I couldn’t imagine Katara and Aang living in either the financial district that is the Middle Ring or the ostentatiousness of the Upper Ring. I think if they were in Ba Sing Se they’d work and raise their family in the Lower Ring (I will be getting into their jobs in later installments of this story, so I won’t explain them here!), which means Bumi goes to school in the Lower Ring, which then means Zuko has to work there in order to be his teacher and for this entire concept to work out (and also the reasons explained in the actual fic where he lived there with Iroh and wants to give back). And the museum is in the Middle Ring because I wanted it connected to the university, which canonically is in Ba Sing Se’s Middle Ring.

4. Sokka as an astrophysicist Because Sokka is a smart kid and a huge science nerd, okay??? And Yue and the space sword. It makes sense. Also, because Ba Sing Se = ATLA’s Beijing, I think of Ba Sing Se University as Beida （北大）or Peking University, which is China’s first national university and one of the most, if not the most, selective university in the country (disclaimer: I did not study at Beida!!). But yeah BSSU is the Earth Kingdom’s most illustrious university and one of the best research institutions in the world, and Sokka’s a tenured professor there. My boy’s world-class brilliant.

5. “Teacher Zuko” Ughhh I really struggled with this. Basically, I was taught in learning Chinese to address teachers as “Surname 老师 (lao3shi1),” which is “Surname Teacher.” But! I didn’t want to give Zuko a surname, because that seemed rife with opportunities for missteps (there’s a lot that goes into surnames of literally any country or culture, from geography to family history and occupations, and I didn’t want to co-opt anything that wasn’t mine to use). So I knew the kids would call him by his first name. But “Zuko Teacher” sounded off. And in Chinese, titles like Mr. or Miss or Mrs. go after one’s surname, while in English it’s the opposite, so I figured for this fic it was appropriate to implement the English convention. So! “Teacher Zuko.”

6. Sokka’s appearance Sokka’s one of those hot, young professors that appear only in popular media, or once in a blue moon. He finds out from Katara that white sneakers are an easy way to look in the fashion know while remaining marginally professional for class, and they become a staple of his uniform. I picture him in Stan Smiths. (And of course they’re a little beaten up! It’s Sokka!)

7. The gaang’s ages Okay, so, I can’t find the actual post where this is broken down, but I think canonically it makes sense that Katara and Aang were 22 and 20, respectively, when Bumi was born. I put them in this fic at being maybe a year or two older in this fic, so let’s say 23 and 21, when they have Bumi, in Katara’s second year of med school. So when this fic takes place, as Bumi is six years old, they are 29 and 27, and Sokka and Zuko are then 30 and 31.

oh my god we’re only 700 words into a 4,000-word fic why did I decide to do this to myself

8. Sokka looking at his watch and having a penchant for exact minutes He’s a master scheduler. That’s it.

9. “My Uncle Mushi lives in Chin City” This was just kind of an opportunity to integrate more from the ATLA universe! Obvi “Mushi” is Iroh’s refugee alias, but whatever another kid can have it, and yeah Chin City is that terrible village with all of those wacky people from “Avatar Day.” So we know the kid’s uncle is wacky. Fat chance of going on a field trip to visit him.

10. Zuko calling Bumi talented There’s that scene in the episode where they go to the Sun Warriors that Zuko calls Aang “a talented kid.” Bumi’s Aang’s son, so I figure by the transitive property Zuko would describe him the same way.

11. Zuko’s scar I don’t know why but I often forget to mention Zuko’s scar in other fics! Either way, I find kids usually respond to people’s differences better than most adults do. Kids just see things and comment on them, which, yeah, can be rude by societal standards, but I’d imagine it would be very refreshing for Zuko after going much of his life with people trying to avoid either staring at the left side of his face or talking about what happened. Also, I didn’t really want to get into the cause of the scar. Obviously Ozai did it. I don’t have an idea of how. Other fics have done that better. Explaining it within the fic the way Zuko would explain it to his class seemed like a good way to tell the reader, “Hey yeah it’s the same cause as in the show,” but then not have to get into it.

12. Sokka hates intro classes Ughhh no one likes intro classes, and I’d imagine it’s even worse for professors. Prerequisites are often too easy for the kids intending on majoring or too hard and meant to weed out the kids who can’t stick with the department’s program. College is funny.

13. Aang volunteers in Zuko’s class From what I can tell, parental involvement in schools is only getting bigger. And Aang is a great dad and I think he’d take any opportunity to get involved with Bumi’s school.

14. Zuko’s backstory I should probably take the time to explain this! Basically I think of this story existing in a universe where after they moved to Ba Sing Se under circumstances comparable to their being refugees in the show, Iroh and Zuko actually stayed in the city, and Zuko got his education there. And yeah! My boy went to BSSU, too!

15. Stargazing at the South Pole and seeing the moon at the North Pole Oh my god the pure amount of thought that went into this. I worked with the assumption that A:TLA takes place on Earth, and that then the rotations of Earth, and the rotation of the moon, are the same as what we experience now (I’ve thought about this extensively, especially as it pertains to the hemispheres and the seasons, but I don’t want to talk about it here, we simply do not have either the time or space). So the South Pole is essentially the same as our Antarctica/South Pole, except that it is capable of sustaining human life for an extended amount of time, and in theory has greater biodiversity (clearly I have also thought about this extensively, but again, we have neither the time nor the space for my theories). I had to read a NASA report on the phases of the moon as seen from the South Pole! And it turns out you can’t see much of the moon down there, and it is always in crescent form. but yeah, you see a lot of stars (but in the opposite rotation of what we see in the Northern Hemisphere), and I thought that was intriguing, especially given the importance of moon imagery throughout the show. Thus, Sokka’s first seeing the moon in the Northern Water Tribe, which ties in perfectly with his meeting Yue, his first love: “You could say the moon was my first love.” (Which someone pointed out in a comment on Ao3, and it absolutely delighted me that they noticed!)

16. Pipsqueak Just looking for more people from the show to serve as first graders in this fic. Someone commented that they pictured him the same size as he was in canon, and I laughed out loud.

17. Tuyanjing I was trying to think of constellations that look like badger-moles, and I honestly just thought, “Ursa Major. Badger-moles look like giant bears.” And “Tuyanjing” (土眼睛) is my own translation of “earth eye,” which was meant to be a nod to the animals’ connection to Toph and their blindness and earthbending.

18. All the stars & mentioning the Fire Nation & Water Tribe navigation I was initially going to write something in this scene about ancient constructions, like the pyramids, that were built using the constellations, and then create some elaborate metaphor about them and Zukka. But the only coherent thought I had about it was that it was “Too Much Work.” Instead I realized okay sailors always use the stars for navigation, and the Water Tribes and Fire Nation are the only nations we’ve seen with boats, so let’s go for that, and it works out because if you squint maybe you’ll read something about the stars guiding them to each other. Maybe we’re evoking thoughts of star-crossed lovers. And then we mention the moon again, and Zuko’s really seeing it for the first time, kind of like Sokka did, so hey I don’t know maybe that’s a symbol of something. Maybe.

And that’s really it I think! Hopefully this was at least entertaining if not entirely informative. I don’t normally write stuff out like this, but it is a good reflection of my thought process while writing most fics. Again, I am open to any kind of communication about the above as well as anything else I’ve posted! And I’d love to hear about any of your own ideas that help you with worldbuilding and writing your own fics :)

#atla #writing stuff #my writing #zukka #the teacher and the scientist

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psychicreadsgirl · 4 years

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hi, I hope my questions don't offended anyone, I'm just curious of when will bts reach their peak? and when they going their downfall? thank you

My answer will probably offend some die hard fans but people need to wake up now, especially during the pandemic.

They already peaked. It’s just that people don't realize it fully yet. Once OT7 is gone, then it will be more pronounced. Bighit is going through some rougher times financially than they advertise, just like how other entertainment companies are also struggling at this time. There’s only so much you can do with tightened/limited cash flow and it’s just going to get worse as more and more people get fired/lose their jobs.

Loss of jobs means that entertainment funds are typically cut in a household. Many of BTS fans are financed by their parents who either live pay cheque to pay cheque or are mid-to-upper income households. Yes, there are really rich fans too but those are not the norm. Many of the other BTS fans are also college students or in their early to mid 20s. These fans generally also do not have much disposable income/savings at hand. They will be begging for refunds for concert tickets, which will be extremely hard to get. You can see how Stub Hub and Ticketmaster have been treating other people who have purchased tickets from them and have had their concerts cancelled/postponed indefinitely.

These companies hold your $ hostage, especially if the concerts are postponed/rescheduled. You aren’t even allowed a refund at that point. BTS tickets and other kpop concert tickets are not “cheap” for the average household. Many overspend for them too. Imagine a $100 - $500 USD ticket that a fan/parent has spent and they are not of the upper income bracket. That is quite a lot of money held for a long time. Not to mention many fans also travel within the country or abroad to attend these concerts - that means airplane ticket costs, lodging costs (Air BNB/hotel/motel/hostel), food costs during the time of travel, etc. These can all add up. Many of these expenses may not be eligible for full refunds or even be refunded in the end. Now in that position, you already have maybe $700 - $1500 USD in total held hostage. That’s a lot of money gone that could have been used for necessary things like paying off rent/mortgage, utility bills, gas, groceries, etc.

Most young kids or even young adults/college students who have the luxury of not worrying so much about budgeting etc probably don’t understand why their parents are demanding them to ask for refunds for tickets etc or not letting the kids spend as much. They probably ask why are the parents so worked up about getting their money back now?!? It’s better for BigHit to have postponed the concert so we get to keep our seats and not worry about ticketing!! Well, if they see above, then they know why. Having to ticket next time should be the least of people’s concerns right now.

You should be more worried about getting your money or your parents’ money back from concert tickets, plane fees, hotel fees, etc. I highly doubt people will be getting back much for concert tickets at this time. Yes, Bighit did refund South Korea’s concert tickets but can you imagine them & the concert organizers having to refund the whole of USA, Japan, and Europe tours? Unlikely. So your or your parents’ money will probably be kept hostage with this indefinite postponement of the tour.

And let’s say if there is even a possibility of BTS booking for a stadium tour in 2021, can you even make it to that stadium? What about exams? Make up classes? Work? Planning at least a year or even more ahead for that? Lol.

This is not just about concert prices too. BTS merch sales and other sales will decrease naturally due to the recession. The economy isn’t recovering in a few months. People just don’t have that much money to spend on “extra” things. If you were down to 100 USD in your bank account and it’s either to pay a bill like internet or to get a BTS album/merch then what would you choose? Internet. Bye bye kpop album/merch.

Students at this time should also be very fearful of what will happen due to schools stopping, especially for those applying to college and who are about to graduate and are looking for jobs. Expect either to be delayed to graduate or delay in applying to colleges. Or having to use your old grades which you were probably hoping to boost through another SAT exam/AP exam/A level etc. Fewer jobs available for new graduates and if available, lower pay. More unpaid internships or part-time workers hired instead. It’s pretty grim.

#covid-19 #bts predictions #bighit #bighit predictions #economy #psychic readings #psychic predictions #kpop predictions #kpop readings

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mysmedrabbles · 5 years

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RFA Boys with Kids (Elementary School MC Works at Edition)

requested: by anonymous (with special request to make jumins the most prominent its not my fault for once guys!!!)

a/n: i think in 4th grade we had an astrologist come to our class and talk about the moon and stuff and he was terrifying cuz he sat on my desk the whole time but it was super cool and talked about the world imploding!!

if you want to support my fluff writing, buy me a coffee!

warnings: hhhh flüüf

-happy! mod alex

Jumin

-It was your guys’ 3 year anniversary, and Jumin insisted on picking you up directly after work, eager to spend every second of the next 96 hours with you, especially since you Insisted on going to work, unable to leave your precious second graders with a substitute, especially not on the last day before spring break!!!

-he’d always avoided going to your school, not because he hated kids he just... feared them.

-yes, Jumin Han, director of C+R Internationals only fear was jam-handed children. dont get me wrong, it wants a fear as in “run away screaming,” more he was afraid that anyone under the age of 10 would be intimidated and cry when he spoke. the rfa already made enough fun of him, he didn't need more rejection in his life

-sadly (for him, luckily for us), he forgot the time you got out of school, ending upside your classroom about two hours earlier

-he stops dead in his tracks, hand stopped midway to a knock as a bouquet of roses hid behind his back as he looks at the 20 or so 7 year olds staring at him with bright questioning eyes

-he tries to escape and back out of the class before you notice him, but you immediately see him, face lighting up as you bound towards him happily, throwing your arms around him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before pulling him into the class, introducing him as your husband

-a part of him likes that, the idea of not having to be “CEO” or “Mr. Han,” simply your husband

-he’s fairly awkward especially seeing as he’s so tall compare to these little Jam-Handed Monsters?? ... maybe they weren’t monsters... they were kind of cute actually...

-when you take out all the flowers from the bouquet, giving each student a flower instead, he can feel his heart melting, the first smile forming at the corners of his mouth as he sees you so bright and happy, and the way you rect upon seeing the kids own smiles

- “Everyone say Thank You Mr. Han!” followed by a chorus of “Thank you Mr.Han!!!)

-he wants to protect all these kids from all the bad in the world

-luckily, he came in time for story time, and after you slyly suggest him being the other reader, the expectant and loud children agreeing with you made him do it, doing silly cartoon voices for the characters he portrayed

-Jumin sitting on the Elementary School Rug, the one with the alphabet and boxed colours on it where everyone should sit, his expensive $700 suit wrinkling as he tries his best to kneel down and be to the kids level

-theyre not as scary as he thought! and every time he saw them really... it filled him with a sense of protectiveness he didn’t know he had for anyone outside of his immediate family

- “MC... lets start a family together”

Yoosung

-he came over for career day! being a successful vet straight out of college took skills, hence the idea that he come around to the school

-he’s really sweet with the kids, and laughs awkwardly when they ask about his and your relationship, getting flustered and immediately switching the topic to something cute Lisa did

-he can’t spend a lot of time with them because he has to get back to the office, but he also doesn’t spend a lot of time on lecturing them on his job, opting to do some colouring pages with them instead

-shy bean, he’s not necessarily the one to jump into action with them, (lets be honest, second graders are terrifying), but the class likes him, and sometimes he brings Lisa around, which blows their minds

-he’s kind, and being in the presence of Lisa he suddenly becomes so comfortable, smile forming on his face as he teaches a particularly curious girl how to properly respect a cats space, violet eyes brightening up immediately with pure joy

-supportive, and bb kit doesn’t seem to mind, even getting comfortable on some of the kids backpacks

-they all love his white lab coat, and take turns trying it on

-he almost dies of cute overload when on boy holds up his arms proudly, letting the (way too large) sleeves of the coat drop to the floor as he grins widely

Seven

-volunteers for Everything

-field trip in need of chaperones? special school events need volunteers? kids birthdays? he’s there for all of them no matter what

-he loves being present with them, a part of him feeling healed as he gets to have a glimpse of a childhood he never had, the future he would want his children to have some day

-no matter how silly it may seem, he’s the type to sit with a crying kid until theyre smiling and feeling better, telling the child little jokes and stories until they feel better, making sure to listen to their issue and support them, making sure that they know that their feelings are valid.

-everyone loves Seven in your class! he’s become a cryptid in the school, as the only people that ever actually see him is your class, and no one in the other classes is going to believe the story that theres a red-headed man with funky glasses bringing cupcakes for everyone

-he tells the most embarrassing stories about you to the kids, reveling in your embarrassment

-he gets more sad than anyone else when the school year is over, having gotten very attached to your class, where he almost cries as he wishes them a good summer

Zen

-the first time he visited your school was when you’d forgotten your lunch at home, only dropping a sweet hello to the class as he rushes to work

-he doesn’t initially has plans to come back, but a certain few students had become completely enraptured by Zens presence, and wanted to know when the “pretty weird eyed man” would be back

-he loves coming to your school, always conducting fun sing-a-longs as 20 or so 7 year olds gather around him

-having him in the class is more of a disruption, someone who’s fun to hang out with and with him, you know that no one’s going to be doing any work no matter what you say

-more than anything, he loves how the two of you will team up to help a students problem, and sometimes,, if he blocks out the rest of the world... he can imagine that that’s your child

-he’s got insane paternal instincts, and Will Not Stand For anyone getting hurt

-being at the school and seeing you at work and being around children.. really makes him crave that sense of family, building a family with you, the love of his life and being,,, well, happy.

-he lets the children play with and braid his hair, letting them even put flowers in it if they want

-a big ole softie, just wants to know everyone is happy

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revengeisalwaysanoption · 4 years

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50 QUESTIONS YOU’VE NEVER BEEN ASKED

tagged by @lovely-things3 and @silenzio-assenzio

1. what is the color of your hairbrush? Black

2. a food you never eat? Turnips.

3. are you typically too warm or too cold? At home I’m usually too warm, outside I’m too cold (also because with any temperature below 0°C my fingers really hurt, even if I’m wearing gloves!)

4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago? Doing the dishes.

5. what is your favorite candy bar? Kinder Bueno.

6. have you ever been to a professional sports event? Yes, my hometown used to have a male volleyball team in Italian Serie A and my father and I used to go and watch all the play off matches.

7. what is the last thing you said out loud? I don’t really recall, as I tend to talk to myself a lot, but it was probably “cazzo” because the water was too hot.

8. what is your favorite ice cream? Fiordilatte & Menta, Strawberry and Mango. Artisan gelato is SO MUCH BETTER THAN industrial ice-cream, by the way... And my actual favourite is frappé... I got so pissed in Mexico that they called “frappé” something with coffee in it, when in Italian it simply means a milkshake made with gelato instead of fruit.

9. what was the last thing you had to drink? A latte.

10. do you like your wallet? Yes!

11. what was the last thing you ate? Pelmeni for lunch.

12. did you buy any new clothes last weekend? Yes, a scarf because it’s impossible to find masks.

13. the last sporting event you watched? Can’t remember.

14. what is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Anything that is SALTED, ffs. I want to feel that salt BURN my lips.

15. who is the last person you sent a text message to? my mom

16. ever go camping? yes

17. do you take vitamins? no, never taken any

18. do you go to church every sunday? Never did

19. do you have a tan? Not at the moment

20. do you prefer chinese food or pizza? PIZZAAAAAAAAAAA

21. do you drink your soda with a straw? Only at the cinema

22. what color socks do you usually wear? Black or grey

23. ever drive above the speed limit? Yes (not by much)

24. what terrifies you? The future

25. look to your left, what do you see? My bed and the closet

26. what chore do you hate? Cleaning the windows. Never did it here, actually.

27. what do you think of when you hear an australian accent? Nothing, really. On the other hand when I hear some British accents I’m like “Have I have ever studied English??? What language is this ?????”

28. what’s your favorite soda? L&P... I find it slightly different than Sprite and SevenUp and just what I adore. Sadly I could only find that in NZ.

29. do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? I go in.

30. who’s the last person you talked to? On the Internet? Several people... Actually using my voice? My students, yesterday.

31. favorite cut of beef? Sirloin (at a restaurant that is well known for their meat, in Italy, I usually ask for a green pepper sirloin - rare)

32. last song you listened to? Seventeen Years, Ratatat

33. last book you read? Still reading it... “The Cockroach” by Ewan McEwan.

34. favorite day of the week? Wednesday.

35. can you say the alphabet backwards? No

36. do you like your coffee? This particular brand? Not so much. But I’m not paying 700 rubles for a can of “ILLY” (which is my favourite)

37. favorite pair of shoes? Don’t have one

38. at what time do you normally go to bed? 2 a.m., unless I am exhausted

39. at what time do you normally get up? 9:30

40. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunsets

41. how many blankets are on your bed? One

42. describe your kitchen plates. White with colored flowers on the side (for the 2nd course) and just white for pasta/soups.

43. do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage? Pastis 51 (Ouzo, Sambuca... any anise spirit, really).

44. do you play cards? Not really, but I do have favourite games: Scopa and Uno!

45. what color is your car? Grey

46. can you change a tire? No

47. what is your favorite province? I don’t have any.

48. favorite job you’ve ever had? My current one, I guess :) ! But also my 3 months in Tehuacan were great!

49. how did you get your biggest scar? Appendicectomy

50. what did you do today that made someone else happy? Posted a fic they were waiting for :D Tagging @venivivividi , @beautifulhigh , @it-s-me-ella-g and @suicidaltreasure if they feel like it!

#personal #ask meme

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shui-xi · 5 years

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P.O. : The Legendary Master’s Wife

This will be lengthy. I took this novel because, firstly, I was interested and, secondly, it felt like a popular one, little did I know that popularity and the number of chapters (700+) doesn’t mean a good storytelling to such extent. If you ever decide to take a risk, read diagonally and don’t be afraid to skip, too many fillers to bother.

LMW follows the world of wuxia, meaning practitioners, magic, aim for immortality, beasts and demons. And starts with the soul transfer of your average student You XiaoMo, who dies in an accident to a new and adventurous world. He basically wants to adapt and not being caught by the fellow disciples like himself and tries to keep a secret of his own body from others, yet things take a turn when he meets Ling Xiao, someone who has secrets too.

The Story :

Basically it reminds me of Pokemon crossed with an RPG, go here, do something get a bonus/reward or meet a new beast. You might think - wow, that sounds interesting. As if! I’m currently at 200+ chapters and due to being kinda familiar with author’s style I can tell that from time to time you’ll get interesting ideas and will be rewarded with action scenes, it was like that so far, I can bet it’ll continue to be like that from now on, also it suffocates with literary style of the author. Indeed chapters are short, but they are consumed with pretty basic writing and load of filler phrases and information that doesn’t change the plot or makes a difference. Thus the number of events during those 200+ chapters is nothing impressive. So I find the writing being poor and boring.

For example, as You XiaoMo is being reborn in different body he realizes that he’s a mage (the way he finds things out is pretty lazy writing as well), mages in this world refine magic pills that help practitioners, that’s how they earn their living. The fact that there are chapters upon chapters that pay detailed and close attention to levels of pills their gradation and quality even percentage I find just too much. All this information could have been squeezed into short introduction or be given in additional world of LMW tour for example. Chapters upon chapters of a person sitting and refining pills. You might as well think - but the descritpion is detailed, it must be interesting. It’s actually not. The literary style actually lacks those sublime descriptions instead being quite basic. The text is filled with verbs and nouns, which makes it sound like a 1st grade report in English.

The World :

The world of LMW is greatly lacking so far. Indeed the author tried to fill it with people and beasts and demons, but actually the author itself contradicts themselves in descriptions and constantly shifting the importance of its inhabitants to more or less. Just a thought - demon beasts fill this world here and there, but for practiotioners and mages it seems like a rarity to even have few in their entire sect. Why? While the world is overfilled with beasts why it is a rarity? Or! The sects try to find new talents while searching for new people, yet they also have techniques to help even low-levels, yet they never do it despite the fact that the whole prestige of a sect depends on a talent and the more talented ppl you have the more powerful is your sect. Where is the logic? Damn right it got lost)))

Next part, the description of this world. Towns are described with only few streets, which makes you think of a small village not a town. There is no description of activity, law enforcements and power. Most streets have shops for mages and practitioners, yet what for? For them to develop their level? Why? The basic thing I noticed right away is that author doesn’t give practitioners and mages any jobs to make it more believable for them to even earn money. Sure thing mages refine pills for practitioners thus they earn, but how do practitioners do it? In Mo Dao Zu Shi for example, cultivators were helping people to get rid off evil forces of living dead, thus they got paid, thus the economy worked.

The economy of this world is ridiculous too, beause I can tell you how you can find it yourself, not once it was said that one family can live for a month for one gold coin. Yet you also witness in other chapters how big sects waste millions for artefacts. Where these money come from, from finding rare stuff and selling? No explanation whatsoever.

The map, from information given about the planet it is way larger than the Earth, for example, an immensely huge bird flies for a month to transport people to the other part of a continent, so you can assume how large the planet is because it’s just one continent and the bird flew for a month. Btw about that bird, who tamed it? What does it eat? Why it’s so large and no one accidentally died? No info. You see how curious I am. Because without answers it all feels ridiculous. The world of LMW same as its’ characters doesn’t show any motivation whatsoever.

The Characters :

Surprisingly, but I find the MC You XiaoMo (YXM) very unlikable. Both he and Ling Xiao (LX) are like cheat characters in a game, they were given a load fo power which they use, but that’s basically why the story is also boring, you don’t see any development as a character, not a level, he doesn’t get to face any hardships, he is always protected and gets home safe. Also he is described as petite and cute, but despite just buying and selling refined pills soon you realize his greed as a character. Basically he drools thinking of money. He’s described as an idiot, which he is, doesn’t really show any difference and also I don’t believe in his feeling for LX, because first he gave up since he was afraid for his own safety but later he’s already missing and so in love, like when did that happen.

Ling Xiao is a bit better, althoug has even more power than anyone on his way thus doesn’t face any hardships and nothing serious happens to both of them. This is why I think it’s boring, the author for 20 chapters can describe how YXM refines pills, but just in one sentence LX defeats a beast that was developing on a blood and suffering of thousands of people. To me such descriptions make these events not really deserving the attention and they also lose their weight. Many important moments come and go as something insignificant.

Both of them don’t have any motivation whatsoever. YXM had one motivation - survival, which he did. But then what? His prize - Ling Xiao - is what he now follows. Ling Xiao’s motivation was, for some reason, to find someone, and he did find YXM, that’s it, now they travel. Told you it’s like RPG and they seem to just be searching for a mission for themselves. There’s no higher aim, no secret and mysterious story to follow, just a guy who makes high-grade pills, other one is immensely strong warrior and they also have beast that follow them around.

I hope it gets anywhere from now on, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone to start, if you haven’t already. Better search for something else.

#personal opinion #the legendary master's wife

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queeniev · 5 years

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She is the Ultimate Queen - Chapter 2 (bnha x reader)

Small note: I hope you guys are enjoying this story so far! Sorry I took so long, I have a massive project in my English class that I’m just about finished, I love writing but school is very important to me :)

-chapter starts now-

All of us rush to the lockers and grab our P.E uniforms and book it to the change rooms. I can feel the nervousness and tension from all of the girls. We just got here, he can’t expel us yet....right?!

I hurriedly strip myself of our daily uniform and put on the tracksuit. I have a grey undershirt and red/black sneakers on. I sigh in exasperation at the fact that it’s only the first day, yet here we are, doing another test to see if we’re worthy enough to become a hero. This is just ridiculous. I aced the practical and written exam, but what can I do?

I go over to see Mina, for some reason she seems excited. She looks at me and smiles. “This is so exciting (y/n)! We can finally show off our quirks!” I look at her and lift one of my brows in confusion, “Aren’t you worried that someone will get expelled?” I question. She waves a hand in a dismissing manner and states “Yeah I’m a little nervous but it’ll be fun to see everyone go all out to keep their spot! Are you nervous (y/n)?” I slightly gulp and nod a little bit. “I see why your excited, but we just got here. Aizawa-Sensei has expelled an ENTIRE class, what’s to stop him from doing it again?!” I say in a rush.

Mina looks shocked, then slightly smirks and states “How did you know tha-“ before suddenly getting cut off by Aizawa-Sensei’s voice.

“Hurry up, I don’t have all day!” He drawls loudly.

We all scurry outside and clump into a group like kindergarteners who don’t understand what a “line” is. I can hear people murmuring about the circumstance we’ve been forced into.

“This is a Quirck Assesment Test” Aizawa-Sensei started explaining “ You kids have been doing these since Junior High too, right? Physical Fitness tests that didn’t allow the use of your quirk. The country still uses the average of those tests you all did.” Aizawa-Sensei finishes then asks a kid a question “In Junior High Bakugou, what was your best score?”

“67 meters” The attractive teen; now known as “Bakugou” said.

“Then try doing it with your quirk.” Aizawa-Sensei says.

All I see is the platinum haired hottie whip his arm and scream “DIE!” My brain short circuits for a second ‘Did he just yell Die?....’ we all think in union.

We all see Aizawa-Sensei turn around “That is the most rational way to form a hero” he states while holding up a device that reads 705.2 meters.

“Holy shit...” I say in astonishment. All of a sudden I see him turn around with a cocky smirk and winks at me. I flush so red I feel light headed. ‘Fuck he heard me...’ I anxiously think.

I feel a nudge on my shoulder and see Mina quickly wiggling her eyebrows in a smug way. I make a face and shove her, the both of us laughing.

All of a sudden, Aizawa-Sensei puts his hand through his hair and smiles saying “Welcome to U.As Hero Course!”

“Alright, demonstrations over. The real thing starts now.” Aizawa-Sensei says tiredly.

Quirk Test 1: 50 Meter Dash

The first person to run the dash was Iida, due to his quirk, he’s incredibly fast and finished the dash at 3.04 seconds. His competitor was Tsuyu Asui, a girl with a mutation quirk that essentially made her a frog, still cute though! She finished the dash at 5.58 seconds.

The next person I see getting ready to run is a girl with rosy cheeks. I can see her touching her P.E jacket and shoes. From what I can tell she has a quirk that uses either weight or gravity to her advantage.

Even with an extremely cool quirk like hers, she was too slow compared to the boy she was against. His quirk mutated him to have a tail. Ojiro Mashirao, is his name, at least I think it is; finished at 5.49 seconds while blushy- I mean Uraraka Ochaco finished at 7.15 seconds.

I smile when I see Mina walk up and crouch down at the start up line. I smile when she looks over at me and gives me a thumbs up. Before I can even tell her “Good Luck” a boy with a sparkly aura says “Everyone, you’re not being creative enough” he jumps up when the little bot says go and shoots a glittery beam from his stomach, he falls after a second and Mina rushes past him. He gets up and is a little dusty but unbothered and says “If I shoot for more than a second I get a stomachache”

Suddenly I feel a wave of tension. I look to see the really attractive yet angry boy I sit next to and a boy that literally looks like the human embodiment of a puppy competing. Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku are their names. I see both of them get up to run then all of a sudden Bakugou puts his arms behind him and yells “Explosive Speed” and basically flys to the finish line while Midoriya looks like he’s just....running. As if he’s not using his quirk. Bakugou finishes at 4.13 seconds while Midoriya finishes at 7.02 seconds.

Quickly everyone else runs and then I’m called up, the last one. I walk up to the line and crouch down, before I can start I hear someone ask “Why is she alone? Can’t someone join her so it’s like a competition?” I can see Aizawa-Sensei get ready to say something when a girl with a black ponytail and pretty features states “Everyone else has already gone, this is the first year there has been 21 students instead of 20. Everyone needs to save up on their energy for these tests, besides I think she’s more than capable to run without a partner, right?” The pretty girl looks over at me and I get nervous and say “Right!”

“To get the best results I should use the wind aspect of my quirk, I’m still working on it but it should do.” I quickly think. I hear the tiny robot count down. I start floating so my feet are off the ground and rush forward. Leaving a breeze behind me as I go. I reach the finish line and wait for the robot to give me my results. The cute robot beeps out 4.37 seconds. I smile at the results. Mina and Hagakure rush over and glomp me in a hug shouting “YOU’RE SO COOL” I laugh loudly and deny their claims, we all go back and forth with a playful argument.

Quirk Test 2: Strength/Grip

I get a grip machine from Aizawa-Sensei and look at it, realizing that to create this machine they used already existing sources from the Earth to create this but the down fall is it won’t help too much. Since the machine is an artificial solid and is no longer connected to the Earth, I can’t control it as much. But there should be enough oils and metals for this to work out in my favour.

I squeeze on the machine as hard as I can and end up getting a 77. Without the aspect of my quirk, my usual grip is around 30-35 depending on my anger that day.

I hear a voice yell “540 kilograms? What are you, a gorilla?! An octopus?!”

I then hear a smaller voice state “Ooh, octopuses are sexy”

I feel a shudder rack my entire body in disgust.

Tests 3 & 4 seemed to be mushed together. One was jumping side to side and the other was long jump. This part of the test was so boring to me I barely remember anything except that a really short boy with what looks like grapes on his head did really well with the side jumps and Midoriya doing bad on the long jump. I feel nervous. I don’t want him to leave. No one should get expelled on their first day, but I don’t make the rules. Sensei does.

The Final Quirk Test: Ball Throw

I see Uraraka walk up to the base and get ready to throw the baseball. Her throw is light; yet the ball went on forvever. Aizawa shows us the little machine and it has an...

“INFINITY?!” We all yell in-sync, wow we’re really good at doing that. While I’m freaking out with Mina and congratulating Uraraka, I see Midoriya step up and look at the ball in frustration, I feel a pull to comfort him but I don’t, I don’t know him well enough and I doubt he wants pity right now.

I see Midoriya’s arm light up, with a veiny effect. I feel excitement bubbling throughout my body. “He’s gonna do it, he’s finally going to use his quirk!” I squeak in my head. I rock back and forth on the balls of my feet in suspense.

The ball moves about 46 meters and we all stare in shock when Aizawa-Sensei’s hair and scarf start floating, even though I can’t see his face, his body language and aura screams intimidation.

“I erased your quirk” Aizawa-Sensei starts, Midoriya gasps and spins to face him. “That entrance exam was definitely not rational enough; From what I can tell, you can’t completely control your quirk, can you?” Aizawa-Sensei questions, more like states. He continues

“Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?” Midoriya rushes his response “Th-That’s not my intention-“ before Midoriya can even finish his sentence; Aizawa-Sensei’s scarf wraps around Midoriya and pulls him to be at least a foot away. “Izuku Midoriya. With your power, you can’t become a hero.” All of a sudden my heart stops. Even though Aizawa-Sensei isn’t talking to me, I can feel Midoriyas pain and it’s excruciating. Due to half of my power being all about life, I can sometimes feel emotions if they’re strong enough and let me tell you, it hurt.

Then in the blink of an eye, Aizawa-Sensei’s hair and scarf dropped back down, releasing Midoriya; his head hung low.

“I’ve returned your quirk, you have two turns for the ball throw, hurry up and get it over with.” Aizawa-Sensei says as he walks away, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Midoriya gains back the fire in his eyes and throws the ball, at the last minute he released four of his fingers and flicked the baseball, sending it flying. All of us gasp in shock and awe at the duality this guy had.

“Sensei” Midoriya says “I can still move!” While gripping his injured hand

At Midoriya’s statment, Aizawa-Sensei smiles in the weirdest way possible.

“He got over 700 meters?!” “Finally a hero-like record!” “His finger’s swollen...” Everyone states at the same time. I feel someone shaking in anger next to me. I look up and see it’s Bakugou except he no longer looks like a model, but looks like a meme. “What is the meaning of this? Hey! Tell me what’s going on Deku, you bastard!” Bakugou growls out while Midoriya flinches back in shock and in a split second; Aizawa-Sensei started using his quirk again to tie up Bakugou.

Bakugou looks back as Sensei explains his scarfs “They’re weapons for capture, made of carbon fiber and woven together with metal made of a special alley. Jeez...Don’t keep making me use my quirk over and over again, I have dry eyes! Besides we’re wasting time, whoever’s next get ready.”

I hurriedly walk up to the base and devise a plan. “ I know I’m going to have to use air so the ball stays in the air longer, but what if I condense the water in the air? Would it help...?” I sigh and whip the ball as hard as I can. Feeling confident about my score I look over to see Sensei holding up the little machine that reads “528.7” I smile and walk back over to the group. Not noticing the shocked looks on some people’s faces.

After that, the other tests were basic. Sit-ups, Seated toe touches, Long-distance run, etc. We all walk back to the ball throw area as Sensei shows us our scores. I search for my name and see it’s next to a bright 6. I feel pride coursing thorough my veins. Even though I wasn’t in the top three, I’m in the top ten which is good enough for me.

Sensei quickly shuts off the device and states “By the way, I was lying about the expulsion. It was a tactical ruse so that all of you would do your best.”

Everyone sighs in relief while Momo Yaoyorozu goes of on a tangent on “of course he was bluffing, it was obvious blah blah blah.”

“With that, we’re done here.” Aizawa-Sensei drawls as he hands Midoriya a slip of paper to go see Recovery Girl.

I slink away from my friends and walk up to Momo. We talk for a little bit and complement one another, we eventually exchange numbers. Out of everyone in the class I have four new friends. Momo, Uraraka, Mina and Hagakure.

“I need to tell you something Momo.” I say kindly “Please do not get upset” Momo looks at me and nods he head while smiling, saying that she promises to be ok. I nod back and begin “Momo, if it were anyone else, Aizawa-Sensei would have expelled them. He stated he only expelles people if they have no potential. Even tough Midoriya did below-average on every other test, he did really well on the ball throw. Aizawa-Sensei sees potential in him. That’s why he wasn’t expelled. Aizawa-Sensei has expelled an entire class before. It’s insane!” I ramble on.

Momo looks shocked and the fact Sensei expelled an entire class. We both walk and talk until we reach the change rooms. But I can confidently say, I am going to love it here.

Note: Hey Guys! I’m sorry this chapter took so long! I had a massive block and I was so focused on my school work that I forgot about this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! P.s I used “Sensei” and “Aizawa-Sensei” a LOT during this chapter. The reasoning for this is when you’re a student you always put “Mr” or “Mrs, Miss, Ms” infront of a teachers name when you talk or think about them. Though reading it was tedious and annoying, it’s proper and formal. I hope you guys don’t mind too much :)

Xoxo

-Victoria

#bnha various x reader #bnha x reader #x reader #katsuki bakugou #midoriya izuku #todoroki shouto #kirishima ejirou #kaminari denki #fluffy #possibly smutty #she is the ultimate queen

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studylifeusa · 5 years

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Moving to the USA? Learn why building credit is vital in the USA.

Most international students arrive in the U.S. with no credit history. This makes it very difficult to obtain a variety of essential services. In this article, we explain why it’s important to start building credit, and how to begin building yours upon arrival in the USA.

Students moving to the USA quickly learn that a U.S. credit score is vital for establishing themselves in the country.Without a local credit score or history, international students face a number of challenges, including getting approved for housing, credit cards, and difficulty buying, leasing or renting a vehicle or even getting a cell phone. If they are able to get approved, they typically end up paying high interest rates.

If you’re not familiar with the term “credit score,” it’s one that you will want to become familiar with during your time as an international student in the U.S. A credit score is a rating given to your financial background when assessed by a lender. When you’re applying to borrow money (like through a loan or credit card) the lender will most likely look at your credit score to see whether you are an eligible candidate.

Credit doesn’t transfer from one country to another.

As an expatriate relocating into the United States, you may not have official identification requirements like a social security number and a driver’s license. Without those essentials, it is almost impossible to establish credit.

Each country uses a different system for credit scoring, and credit does not transfer from country to country. Your credit score is what determines your creditworthiness to lenders. Since credit does not transfer from country-to-country, international students have a credit score of 0 when they first arrive in the U.S.To provide some perspective, the average American has a credit score between 600-700, and a good credit score is typically above 700.

Not having credit can make it hard to make much-needed purchases in your new country.

The chart below illustrates one example of how your credit score can affect an auto loan payment and insurance rates.

Your credit score is based on several factors.

Important transactions involve credit checks. Lenders require credit checks to obtain housing, car loans, home and auto insurance, and mobile phones. It is essential to understand what improves your overall credit score and to start building your score to give you better terms of those transactions.

In the United States, FICO®is the most common model for credit scoring, which was created by Fair Isaac & Company (FICO). Although there are competitor rating systems, this is the one you’re most likely to see during your time as an international student. A FICO®score is used to predict how reliable of a borrower you will be in terms of paying back the borrowed funds. However, typically if an individual does not have credit history that is at least six months old, they will not have a FICO®score. Additionally, different lenders will request your credit score from various sources depending on the system they use and whether they’ve adapted to the new FICO®system or use another company such as VantageScore.

When trying to build your credit there are five key factors1you need to know about that can impact your FICO®score:

1. Payment History (35%)refers to the repayments you have made on credit cards and loans in the past. Your credit score will take into consideration the speed and quantity of repayment on all the lines of credit you have taken out in the past to find the average.

2. Amount Owed (30%)The amount of your outstanding debt accounts for a large component of calculating your score. For example, does your credit card stay maxed out, or are you steadily paying it down?

3. Credit History Length (15%) The credit score will also take into consideration how long you have been building credit. If you start building credit responsibly when you are a student it will be reflected positively in your credit score. The sooner you start building your credit, the better.

4. New Credit (10%)Opening many new accounts in a short period of time suggests that you need additional forms of credit to make purchases. Using a few sources of credit wisely is better than having a large number that you can’t keep track of, or that are unnecessary.

5. Types of Credit in Use (10%)The different types of credit in your possession will be considered in your score, such as credit cards, loans and store cards. Having different forms of credit and using them responsibly can be beneficial in demonstrating how you manage your money in different areas.

Without a credit score, many establishments will not extend you credit, making it feel impossible to start building one.

So, how do you start building credit as an international student?

Open a bank account.

Check if the bank you work with in your home country has a U.S. branch near where you’re moving. If not, there are plenty of other options and your University might even have a bank on campus.

There are a couple of ways that you can build credit by using a bank account. Try opening both a checking and a saving account and regularly transfer money to your savings account if possible. This demonstrates that you’re responsible with your finances and you’re thinking long-term. It’s also a good idea to set up automatic or direct bill payments to ensure that your bills and expenses are paid on time. This is another way to demonstrate your financial responsibility, which helps build a strong credit score.

Pay utility bills.

If you are renting a property off campus you will most likely have to pay utility bills – gas, electric, phone, internet, etc. If you’re staying in on-campus accommodations you may not have all these utilities, but you will most likely need to apply for your own cell phone contract, which can also help you build credit. Making regular payments on all your utilities is another way to prove to lenders that you are responsible with your payments and will be a suitable applicant for a loan or credit option. For each of your utility bills you can request proof of your payments, which many credit providers will accept as supporting evidence of your payment background for your application.

Request store credit.

Store credit cards are used within that specific store. Just like a regular credit card, however, the store will charge you if you don’t make the payments on time. Additionally, although they’re usually easy to be approved for, store credit cards typically do not provide you with a credit limit as high as a traditional credit card. Therefore, it’s important to note that if you make minor purchases and don’t have a very high limit, your borrowed to available credit ratio could hurt your credit score.

How to get a credit card without a credit history or social security number.

Although having a credit card during your studies in the U.S. is important, it can be difficult to find a company that will allow you to open a credit card as a new international student- especially if you don’t have a Social Security Number (SSN) or credit history. However, there are some companies that will allow you to open a credit card as an international student without a SSN or credit history. Here’s how to start that process.

1. Apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (or ITIN)2

If you’re unable to get a Social Security number, you may still be able to apply for a credit card by using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a tax-processing ID number assigned to individuals by the Internal Revenue Service.

Depending on the bank or credit card company, you can sometimes use an ITIN instead of a Social Security number when applying for a credit card. There are a few easy ways to apply for an ITIN.

By mail.

Through an IRS-authorized certified acceptance agentin the U.S. or abroad.

At a designated IRS taxpayer assistance center.

After applying you should hear back from the IRS within a few weeks if you qualify and your application is complete.

2. Choose banks that accept an ITIN or alternative identification3

Credit card issuers aren’t required to ask for a Social Security number on the card application, but many do anyway. The good news is that some issuers will accept an ITIN instead. Here’s a quick rundown of issuers and where their policy currently stands on this:

Capital One

Accepts ITIN or SSN only. Learn more.

SelfScore Classic MasterCard

Does not require a SSN or ITIN. Will request your passport, U.S. student visa, most recent Form I-20 and latest U.S. bank account statements. Available only to international students studying in the U.S. Learn more.

Deserve

No SSN required for International students. Credit limits up to $5,000, $0 annual fee & no foreign transaction fees and no security deposit or co-signer required. Learn more.

3. Consider a prepaid card

If you can’t yet get approved for a credit card but still want a safer and more convenient way to pay than cash, a prepaid card could be the answer to your prayers — or at least a good payment alternative in the meantime.

While they aren’t technically credit cards, prepaid cards offer a way to keep your money in one place and pay with plastic when that’s the best and easiest option. Prepaid cards can be used in the same ways you might use a traditional credit card — to pay bills online, dine out or book an airline ticket.

The only drawback is you generally can’t build credit with a prepaid card, because your payment history typically isn’t reported to the major credit bureaus.

Financing or leading a vehicle.

Being new to the U.S. can come with a number of challenges when it comes to building credit and getting around. That where we come in, however. IAS can help you start building credit and driving record when relocating to the U.S. Our exclusive vehicle financing and leasing programs view you as a privileged customer starting with a high credit rating and safe driving record, allowing you to get the car you need while also building your credit record and driving history.

Learn more and download our free guide about why it’s important for international students to start building their credit record and driving history in the USA.

You can also learn more about how IAS can provide vehicle financing, leasing and all-inclusive rentals with no credit history.

We are the vehicle experts for expats.

IAS helps you prepare and plan for your move by getting you behind the wheel so you can be productive and focus on what you are here for your studies. Our expertise in the automotive industry has helped over 50,000 foreign nationals get settled into their new countries, careers, schools, and internships with a vehicle that fits their needs. Our Product Specialists are expert consultants, trained to identify your needs and use their extensive knowledge of the automotive market to find the right vehicle for your lifestyle and budget.

Sources:

1. “What’s in my FICO® Scores”https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score

2. “How do I apply for an ITIN?” https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/how-do-i-apply-for-an-itin

3. “How to apply for a credit card without a Social Security Number” https://www.creditkarma.com/advice/i/credit-card-without-a-social-security-number/

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weaselle · 5 years

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The Plan to Save All - speedrun

I’ve tried to write this out before and it gets really involved and complicated because it’s a big idea I’ve spend decades developing. I want to try to get it all out in one simple, short, digestible bit. Here we go ____________________________________________________________________ (edit) the MOST simplified version/overview: Phase One: initial membership all lives under one low-cost roof Phase Two: start making $$ by creating alternatives to shitty institutions Phase Three: use those institutions to create an entire city Phase Four: showcase successful alternative that self-propagates via imitation _____________________________________________________________________

PHASE ONE: -leverage group dynamics to lower living costs of both money and time -find simple solutions to complex systems by addressing them under one roof -provide affordable housing and property ownership to minimum wage workers 50 to 100 people live in a single building with communal facilities: shared industrial kitchen, showering (like at the gym -- in fact, include a gym) common areas for recreation, etc. This lowers cost through efficiency, i.e. you don’t need 50 apartments with 50 ovens, you can have a large communal kitchen with like 4 industrial ovens. One Monthly Payment: everything including food and chores -about one 50th to one100th of the 10 year mortgage (and property tax) -all utilites: garbage, gas, electricity, water, internet, group phone plan -meal plan, like at a college or whatever. -laundry plan -community fund (for building upgrades, amenities, repairs, etc) -about one 50th to one 100th of the caretaker stipend -a group healthcare/health insurance program Caretakers: about 20% of the residents no monthly bill for living there, plus paid a reasonable stipend. Caretakers have a 30 hour workweek wherein they do all building maintenance and cleaning, provide the meal plan, do the laundry, water the plants, feed the pets, etc. Not only does this solve an increasing time issue for the residents, each caretaker also receives the solution because they live in the same facility - in other words, the caretakers that do the cooking don’t have to come home after work and do laundry and the caretakers that do the laundry don’t have to come home and cook dinner. More time to be a student, do art, or care for your kids. Costs continue to lower through efficiency - you don’t need 100 apartments with 100 toolboxes containing 100 hammers. Shared facilities like gym showers means caretakers don’t have to clean 100 showers all over the building; about 25 showers in one place will probably do. Free Rooms (and board): semi-temporary room and board outreach programs it does not significantly increase each person’s monthly bill to leave about 5% of the facility’s rooms empty and absorb the corresponding room-and-board costs (in other words splitting the total bill 75 ways instead of 80 ways equals almost the same payment per person). This allows the group to offer free housing and food to whoever they decide needs help in their area - women fleeing abusive relationships, homeless veterans, disowned transgender teens, etc. Cost: about $1,000 per month, or roughly 2/3 a minimum wage income. My initial budget exploration shows that the total monthly cost to each paying resident works out to be about a thousand a month. Since about half the monthly payment is going to the mortgage, and property values / local minimum wages tend to be relative to each other, this amount tends to be about 2/3 of a full time income on minimum wage. In other words, out where minimum wage is about seven dollars, the property values are also lower, making the total monthly payment closer to $700, whereas in Oakland where I’m doing the most planning, the mortgage would make the monthly payments closer to $1,200 but minimum wage is 11 or 12 dollars. Remember, total payment includes food and everything. Built in Disposable Income Raise (through cost lowering) even if none of the residents ever get a raise in 10 years, after a decade the mortgage is paid off which means the monthly bill gets cut in half. Plus residents now own outright a share of the facility, which increases in value; the beginning of a retirement investment. But in phase two we go after more money anyway. **************************************************************************************************** PHASE TWO: -help the middle class pay minimum wage workers to create alternatives to corrupt, damaging, or flawed institutions -create monetary success and grow socio-economic\political capital -move into another, better building -help the next group of 50-100 minimum wage workers Develop Caretaker Positions into alt institutions imagine you want to start a business as a bike repair shop. Now imagine you are starting that business with 100 guaranteed customers paying a pre-arranged fee that has been budgeted to cover your business supplies, workshop lease, plus your wages and personal monthly bills. Dog walking, gardening, house cleaning, cooking or food delivery, whatever the group needs and the facility/community is designed for, there are plenty of business to start this way. A group providing a dedicated and funded laundry service to 100 people within a facility designed for it can easily expand to accommodate paying customers from outside the community and keep growing. This is how the facility can start offering house cleaning, laundry, meal plan, gardening, etc. The middle class is already paying for these things - gardeners, housekeepers, dog walkers, laundry service, food delivery... so the market is there. The wages for these jobs are typically more than minimum wage. As more middle class households become customers, more residents of the facility can quit their minimum wage jobs at corporate mega stores and start earning better wages working for themselves and each other. The community incorporates and is able to take part in all the unfair advantages afforded corporations over the common public. Soon the public will BE corporations, and either everybody has to pay a fair tax, or nobody does. This also helps the group include a health plan as part of the monthly bill. Move to Better Facility and offer the old one to a new group When the first group gets a property and pays the mortgage, they pay the bank an additional few hundred thousand dollars for their property. For instance, if you buy a 2 million dollar property from a bank and pay a 30 year mortgage, the total payments on your 2 million dollar property after 30 years will actually be about 3 million dollars. It’s less over a ten year mortgage, but still. SO when the first group owns their facility outright, they can enter a second 10 year mortgage on a different facility, but offer the first one to a second group while acting as the bank themselves - doing this for a cycle of 3 means that after 30 years the first group owns a single property just like a standard mortgage, but has helped two other groups own property and defrayed their own payments instead of shoveling so much money into a bank. The goal is to liberate more and more property from the banks and enter them into a system of citizen-to-citizen ownership where people own the buildings they live in, having paid other citizens for them. In the second facility, the building is nicer, there are more amenities, monthly payments go up, and you add people to the group. The people you add are more-than-minimum-wage professionals. Teachers, firefighters, admin clerks, paralegals. Some of them join the caretakers to provide their services to the group -- daycare, tax-filing, vehicle repair, IT service, plumbing, even community security officers who are people you know and trust who live with you... and of course coffee and cake and everything else. Once again, these are fledgling businesses with guaranteed clientele and budgeting, that can then be offered to customers outside the community. Once again, the other professionals added to the group can quit their outside jobs and work for each other and themselves. These all grow into full institutions along planned paths. The caretaker watering the plants and cleaning the house becomes a gardener and handyman. The gardener/handyman starts a landscaping home-renovation business. That business grows into a property development and construction company. The caretaker doing the laundry starts offering repairs and minor alterations (replace a button, hem some pants). They start a laundry/dry cleaner and taylor business. They grow into a clothing line. The meal plan grows into a restaurant grows into a farm-to-table network. After school programs, daycare and tutoring become a whole school. Each service within the community becomes a business that grows into an institution. PHASE THREE Build A City You have a large construction company. You have a school. You have a publicly owned non-profit bank/credit union. You have firefighters. You have Alt-mart, which I’ll have to explain fully somewhere else but involves a locally sourced mega-mart featuring a permanent farmer’s market and is designed to put Walmart and Target out of business. So. You have all the elements you need for a functioning city. Have your construction company build one. In this city, there is no private property; you lease a private residence directly from the city, which holds the whole city in a trust for the citizens and administrates it via an elected city council, which means each citizen owns an equal share of the city as a whole. The whole “rent” is therefore subject to regulation and available to fund public works instead of going into the pockets of some real estate mogul or slum lord. Imagine if your city had your entire rent payment to help end homelessness, provide healthcare, maintain infrastructure and innovate powergrid alternatives, instead of trying to do all that for the 2% of the property value they have access to now. I have a whole bunch of city design stuff that addresses things like sustainable water sourcing etc, but, I’m trying to get through this quickly PHASE FOUR this is important. By the time you get to phase 4, the project is showing a successful straight line development from minimum wage/poverty and powerlessness, to autonomous socio-economic alternative achievable by any group. You start as a fry cook in your twenties, and you end as a comfortably successful citizen in a city you created, that takes proper care of you and which has improved the lives of countless people along the way, all by the time you are 65. Now THAT’s a retirement. You KNOW people are gonna copy that all around the country. It’s my socio-economic worm ... it self replicates, and has the potential to subvert and replace existing socio-economic systems. I don’t want to tell people how to live, I’m trying to free them to live how they want. If they want a city that allows homelessness but everybody gets a horse, then fine, that’s their city (which I predict will fail, but whatever) the power will be with the people, and the city I live in will have priorities I agree with.

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citigov · 2 years

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plUNDER THE TABLE

by Eagles Eye

Courtesy: Corruption Patrol [10/08/14]

CORRUPTION - Have you ever seen a vampire sucking blood from a person? Maybe not, but that is how corruption works, the money is the blood while the person is the nation that slowly dies due to the circumstance. However, What is corruption? What are its long-term effects on a nation? Aside from this, what are the ways to stop its continuous growth?

Imagine living in a country without corruption. Students have access to free education. Citizens have a good healthcare system. Only a few people are living below poverty and people in the government are held accountable. Sadly, that is not a reality for the Philippines for now. As the country dropped from rank 95 in 2015 to 115 in 2020 in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Transparency International. With its 2020 score only reaching 34/100, which is far from the global average of 43/100.

With this instance, public trust in government institutions slowly declines. This continuous problem of corruption in the country is what bothers most people including me. As we face a health crisis that affects the world, attaining a higher score in the CPI becomes more difficult. This comes with the procurement of COVID-19 equipment not going through auditing by the Commission of Audit. In a report by CNN Philippines, a whistleblower claims PHP 15 Billion was stolen by PhilHealth executives using a fraud scheme (Jalea, 2020). In another report by Rappler, state auditors mentioned that the poor use of the PHP 67 Billion funds led to missed opportunities for DOH to strengthen its health system. These are just some of the reported cases of graft and plunder during the pandemic. How much more the things they do under the table that our eyes won't be able to see? I do not know how these people in government have been able to withstand the massive corruption. According to Deputy Ombudsman Cyril Ramos, the Philippines is losing an average of PHP 700 Billion yearly or around 20% of the yearly appropriation. Corruption comes in so many forms that sometimes you won't be able to recognize that it is corruption. Starting from the simple things like bribery when doing government transactions, to putting relatives or friends that are not fit for the job, or having a cut in the government projects. At some point, all of us may be a part of the corrupt system but still, it bothers me since government money should be spent more on social services such as healthcare, food security, education, livelihood, and housing but instead, it is being spent on the luxury living of a lot of politicians with them living like kings and queens in their respective territories. This breaks my heart knowing that it greatly widens the gap between the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, it is the poor that suffers the most because the money that politicians lavishly spend should be used for community development. On a personal level, It bothers me because some of our family friends who contracted COVID-19 had to go to Manila to seek better healthcare because corruption deprived our province of having facilities that will ensure the safety of the people. Aside from this, Imagine the number of people we can feed or give a decent home from that significant amount of money.

More than the weakening of government institutions, corruption also hinders the participation of citizens in nation-building. In the Philippines, rampant vote-buying occurs every election season. These may come in the forms of money, grocery items, construction materials, liquor, and many more. Even sometimes it already became a joke for others to say “how much is your vote?” Unfortunately, it is already embedded in the minds of most Filipinos to ask for something during elections due to the reason that politicians will only appear again next election. Aside from this, some politicians capitalize on Filipinos' innate culture of “ Utang na Loob '' to make people vote for them during elections. It is a concerning matter because these people continuously use our money to lure people to sustain their power. The sad reality is that we know who are corrupt but they can easily bend the justice system into their favor.

Overall, corruption deprived us of several years of development. Aside from this, We were left with trillions of pesos to pay as the national debt grew bigger. This is the time, Filipinos should increase participation in government and hold politicians accountable if there are corrupt practices. Aside from this, the Filipino people should learn from the mistakes of the past. We should be more critical of the leaders we elect. Always check their background regarding integrity, humility, empathy, resilience, vision, etc. Lastly, we should always be vigilant and always think critically as fake news is all over. These are just some ways of slowly eradicating corruption in the system. Even though corruption may not be gone in our lifetime due to the corrupted justice system of this country, at the very least we can say that we did our part in eradicating it.

REFERENCES:

Gagalac, R. (2019, August 15). P700 billion lost yearly due to corruption ... - ABS-CBN news. ABS CBN News. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/15/19/p700-billion-lost-yearly-due-to-corruption-says-official.

Jalea, G., & Peralta, J. (2020, August 4). Whistleblower claims ₱15 billion stolen by Philhealth Execs in fraud schemes. cnn. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/8/4/PhilHealth-P15-billion-stolen-mafia-execs.html.

Magsambol, B. (2021, August 11). Doh's poor use of P67 billion COVID-19 funds led to 'missed opportunities' – auditors. Rappler. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://www.rappler.com/nation/coa-says-poor-use-billions-covid-19-funds-led-missed-opportunities.

The views expressed in the essays appearing in this website are attributed only to the identified author/s, and do not represent the views of the entire group, the class, the course instructor, nor the university to which the student belongs.

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