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republicansaredomesticterrorists · 2 months

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Trump and his sycophants have destroyed the Republican Party. They are no longer conservatives either fiscally or on foreign policy. They are a party of chaos beholden to the right-wing culture warrior oligarchs. They are the derogatory agents of those oligarchs and the corporations owned by them. They make decisions based on the whim of a deranged madman.

They have gone from being closet racists/bigots to being full blown Nazis that call for the extermination of their culture war scapegoats they call “vermin” (marginalized people/political rivals). They take this term directly from Hitler who they openly embrace in speech and writing. They no longer care about tax cuts for all but just for the 1% and corporations. They want endless wars to profit from and to distract and rally their deplorable base. They no longer want small, limited government but opt for a massive government that intrudes into its citizens private lives and tramples their freedoms.

The party of law and order is now a party of criminals, sex offenders, grifters, traitors, and murderous street thugs. They are proud of this and fund raise and merchandise from their lawlessness. They have bought control of what is now an illegitimate SCOTUS which never allows them to be held accountable.

They use the KKK, Neo-Nazi groups, armed right-wing militias, Neo-Confederates, and white supremacists to persecute their opponents and victims in the streets and inside the Capitol itself. They tell us to “get over it” when mindless gun violence decimates our families in every public venue from churches, to schools, to 4th of July celebrations, movie theaters, shopping malls, and even a Super Bowl parade.

The police, courts, and legislatures are infested with their white nationalist/supremacists and Christo-fascists. They openly take money from Russia and others to influence our foreign policy and economic policy. Money from Russia is funneled into the NRA and Congress to allow a massive proliferation of gun violence on our streets that destabilizes our society.

They claim to be the party of the military but they degrade and insult our troops and cast our veterans into the streets. They abandon our allies and our treaty obligations at the behest of foreign dictators that bribe them.

They bust our unions and pass laws to weaken or prevent organized labor. They are forcing society to become wage slaves with no security, insurance, or pensions. They force our workers into the “gig economy” where everyone works incredible hours 7 days a week at multiple jobs and still are left unable to afford rent or mortgages. Nearly the entire population is one or two paychecks away from being homeless.

Decades of trickle down economics has seen our tax dollars poured into the accounts of billionaires, millionaires, and corporations with not a penny trickling down to the working class. The middle class has been practically wiped out by cruel Republican legislation written by political think tanks established and funded by oligarchs. The only thing these pseudo-conservatives conserve is their own wealth.

This is late stage capitalism run amok. The economy has been drained and now the oligarchs and corporations are plundering the government. They have taken advantage of decades of right-wing propaganda proliferated by Fox News, conservatives talk radio, and internet podcasts that have brain washed the rural areas into blaming the Democrats that are trying help them while convincing them to vote for the Republicans who have impoverished them. The French Revolution in reverse.

They see the Orange Dictator as their last best chance to completely take over the government and create a kleptocracy that pulls the strings behind an autocracy that pretends to be a republic.

The chaos of the Republican puppets is to distract everyone from the takeover by the oligarchs, corporations, and deep pocketed foreign adversaries.

#vote Biden Harris 2024 #vote blue always #vote democratic down the ballot #republican assholes #traitor trump #crooked donald #Republican corruption #Republican chaos

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magz · 10 months

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"Uber Eats drivers in South Africa are unionizing"

(Article date: July 20, 2023)

Article quotes:

Uber Eats delivery drivers in South Africa are looking to form a union to hold the company accountable. -

Drivers say they lack basic equipment and benefits, and that Uber Eats has not been responsive to their grievances, forcing them to consider unionizing. -

Uber says it has done its best to create flexible and rewarding work conditions for its drivers, including providing insurance. But drivers say they have not received any such benefits.

The working conditions for gig workers in South Africa are far worse than their peers in other parts of the world,

according to studies by Fairwork — a global research project that analyzes digital labor platforms — and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. [...]

Globally, unionizing has been effective in helping gig workers fight for their rights.

In 2021 the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that two dozen of its drivers were workers — and not independent contractors — which set a precedent for the tens of thousands of drivers who operate in the country. [...]

According to the Uber spokesperson, the company offers both funeral and accidental insurance to all its drivers in South Africa.

But drivers allege they have been unable to access these benefits.

“As drivers, we are having to find our own way to survive by contributing money for funerals, forming our own security teams to guard against bike theft, and doing cash stokvels [community-based savings schemes] to assist each other in the case of robberies, sickness, or accidents,” Dlodlo said.

“Uber must be pushed to play its part and that’s where a union comes in.” [...]

The union, with its over 90,000 members, is attempting to unite all South African gig workers — including cabbies and food delivery drivers — under one body, Tamela told Rest of World.

#link post #protest #workers union #south africa #uber #uber eats #my upload

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seeker-of-truth · 7 months

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VERENA SOTO

So post 2.0 some things about my gorl changed. Figured it was high time I updated her profile, enjoy!

BASICS

AGE: 27 during game

DOB: June 10, 2049

ETHNICITY: American Latina

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUALLY: Queer, uninterested in labels

NICKNAMES: V, Rena (reserved for the people closest to her), Rennie (childhood)

BIRTH PLACE: Wellsprings, Heywood, NC

HEIGHT: 5'6"

WEIGHT: 138 lbs

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English almost exclusively, some Spanish picked up from around the home.

BODY TYPE: Think super featherweight boxer during off-season || ex: Alycia Baumgardner || Strong but with curves and softness – still a round-faced queen tho

HAIR COLOR: natural - very dark brown || During her corpo days, she keeps it gray as a small form of self-expression, always pulled back into a tight bun. || After Konpeki she wants to feel in control of her body again and dyes it canary yellow and cuts her hair to a shoulder-length mullet to make the shaving Vik had to do to save her life look more intentional — both the cut and color stick.

EYE COLOR: Kiroshi optics designed to look identical to her natural deep brown eyes.

CYBERWARE: EMP Threading || Contraceptive Implant || Neural Link || 2 Chip Slots || Interface Plug || Auxiliary Netrunning Interface Plug || Smart Link || Raven Microcybernetics Syn-Lungs || Arasaka Cyberleg || NetWatch Netdriver MK.1 Cyberdeck || Modified Arasaka Self-Ice || Kiroshi Sentry Optics || Kendachi Monowire || MoorE Technologies Bionic Joints || Dynalar Universal Booster || Militech Revulsor Reflex Tuner || Dynalar Subdermal Armor || Kang Tao Optical Camo || Zetatech Pain Editor || MedTech Biomonitor || Zetatech Reinforced Tendons || FIA Behavioral Imprint-Synced Faceplate

CLASS: What I’ve taken to calling the “Buff Netrunner” - mostly relies on combat hacking but will physically mess you up if you get too close.

WEAPONS: her main weapons are a Tsunami Nue with a discontinued XC-10 Alecto Silencer and her monowire || she will often carry a non-silenced tech pistol on gigs, after giving Johnny his Malorian back she takes to using her old Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin (he totally gets her a 3516 after everything tho) || On Jobs that look to be messy, she will take a Kang Tao G-58 Dian as an insurance policy.

VEHICLES: a Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X is her daily driver || she also has a Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech for the days ya just need a car || (Johnny's Porsche is returned to him and Jackie’s ARCH is kept in the penthouse and taken out twice a year)

PERSONALITY

Extremely guarded, likes to keep her thoughts and feelings private, feels embarrassed when her feelings spill out || Patient to a fault. has the world's longest fuse to a very big explosion || all icy, calculated fire || slow to trust but once she does, she considers that person to be family || will go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves || sarcastic || can be very ridged || highly empathetic, and will try to get people to better situations, regardless of the cost || will lie to get the best possible outcome || loves living in Night City || good with words, has learned to talk her way out of most situations || reserved, hates being approached || feels like her life happens to her a lot and is desperate for control

FAMILY HISTORY

MOTHER: Diana Soto – alive, estranged

FATHER: Mario Soto – alive, estranged

Both of her parents were regular blue-collar workers, her mother is a machinist, and her father a welder. They had met in passing as she was dropping off parts at the mechanic shop he was working at and quickly fell in love, getting married and having Verena not long after.

Her relationship with them was always strained as they were both very closed off with their emotions with her. Because of that and being an only child, she never communicated with them well, eventually closing herself off to them completely.

CHILDHOOD - TEENS

2056 - At the age of 7 the standardized tests given to students flagged her as having an aptitude for netrunning so she was placed in an exclusive boarding school in Charter Hill as part of a special outreach program sponsored by Night Corp. She excelled at her studies but struggled to make friends as most of her peers were the children of corpos. She spent summers back at home with her parents and seeing the difference in the quality of life had an effect on her, jading her to NC as she aged. Her parents were ecstatic at the thought of their child having a better life than them, so failure became something that was severely punished.

2060 - By the time she was in middle school she had a small but close-knit group of friends, both from corps backgrounds and backgrounds like her. She was fiercely protective of them and got in multiple fights defending them from the same bullying she had received.

2064 - When not studying she became very interested in edgerunning, specifically solos, but rockerboy culture as well. She liked the inherent rebellion they represented and wished she could do the same. But she knew that she would disappoint her parents if she strayed from the path she was on. She would listen to records and read about the legends of NC under her blankets at night.

2065 - At 16 she was chipped with her professional ports, she viewed them as the final seal in the life that she was going to live, like it or not. As an act of rebellion, she shaved her head and got multiple ear piercings. She was reprimanded by the school, an action that brought her parent's fists down on her as well. During the summer she would often sneak into clubs and bars to get away from her home environment.

2067 - She graduated with high enough grades that she was able to attend NCU on a full ride where she majored in Cybersecurity with a focus on Offensive Hacking. She looks back on her time there fondly as she met more like-minded people, many of whom pushed her to express herself more. She joined a small band as a guitarist. Eventually entering a relationship with the bassist – Sara. It was a very toxic relationship and they both treated each other like shit. V’s generally guarded nature closed her off the deeper in the relationship she got.

20’S

2070 - The unification war caused the university to push its students through faster, so she graduated a year early and immediately started looking for a job, not wanting to disappoint her parents.

July 2070 - With Arasaka now back in Night City they were doing massive hiring and V managed to get her foot in the door in the Counter Intelligence Division – Branch 3.

August 2070 - After an internal incident her bosses found her to be adept at espionage (both traditional and corporate), so they sent her to do black ops work with a small crew in South America for approximately a year and a half. During this time, she honed her skill with a pistol.

October 2072 - leaves to spend 11 months in Rio De Janeiro tracking a “terrorist” cell. Her team eventually took out the group after she was captured on a solo reconnaissance mission and interrogated/tortured for over a week.

September 2073 - Rio traumatized her and she crawled into herself and didn’t want to return to work so Arasaka wanted to drop her, Jenkins saw her skills as exploitable and invited her to stay in office. During this time, she became estranged from her parents.

June 2074 - Meets Jackie at the Mexican border, he saves her ass by helping her extract an agent.

July 2076 - Moves into the Wells household.

Mid-January 2077 - Konpeki Plaza Heist

End of May 2077 - I, Pre Defined Starts

#oc: verena soto #there's honestly not a lot of changes to her but the ones there are important to meeeee #also CDPR can fuck off with that V is 23 bs #and yeah she has og male V's b-day because I need her to be a gemini not a libra lol #cw: violence #cw: torture #cw: child abuse #(alluded to)

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crashtestjeffy · 4 months

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Friday Fives

I am listening to Jesus Christ Superstar on vinyl. Ian Gillan being most excellent as Jesus. True story, in the 90s I was in a production of JCS, I played an apostle. Thomas to be exact. This is only really known because we based sitting down in the classic DaVinci sitting for the Last Supper and my spot was Thomas'. So I was really just a chorus member with a couple group leads. Musical theater was not my thing but my best friend was trying it out and I went along. It was just a 350 seat theater. So nothing huge. Incidentally, Thomas in the bible later is doubtful the resurrected Christ is real so he sticks his finger in Jesus' wound in his side. This is where we get the phrase "A doubting Thomas" but I myself prefer "Thomas the Hole Poker".

I never did another acting gig after that, but I played and sang in a couple bands. I really love singing, still today. But no one ever wants to hear it. Except on occasion my daughter.

My exhaustion from Covid is still lingering. I get tired just taking a shower. It's ridiculous.

Today I feel small and insignificant. But maybe that's the thing, I am small and insignificant. No one will remember me in a few years. And nothing I have done will ever matter. Maybe that is an existential crisis I am feeling. Or maybe it is a moment of clarity. 6 of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

I had a really unsettling dream that I was homeless and so were a great many other people. And there was another class of people who were "The Haves" who went to supermarkets and shopping malls and were protected by police and security. In my dream I tried to get accepted into a shantytown, I had to meet and be selected by the boss of the shantytown to get in. It felt very much like a real dystopian reality. Like this is the future. Recently a report came out that as of this year, in Canada, the housing guidelines and budgeting shows that nowhere in this country can a person receiving welfare or disability insurance afford to rent a place to live at the current recommended guideline. This also applies to minimum wage workers. After this year it will be a world of displacement more and more as housing becomes an even greater luxury that only certain people can afford. Which means those of us on a thin string and the grace of landlords and managers are going to be removed to make room and we will have nowhere to go. I guess this has sunk into my subconscious. It's now affecting my dreams.

The greatest gentrifiers are in fact not right-wing Boomers who are the villains in so many other stories. It's older Lefties who have turned their hippie ideals and arts degrees into financial security. Righties don't want to live downtown. They like suburbs and subdivisions. That's their vibe. Old barrios and hoods being made into lofts and converted condos are all older Lefties who think because they stay in the hoods they are being "of the people" and they wear blinders to the fact that all the faces around them look just like them. Voting and electoral maps tell us this in every election.

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loveoaths · 1 year

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din djarin is the most relatable star wars character because he is chronically out of his depth, living on a shoestring budget and a dream, a frustrated gig economy worker, not sure how to make friends in his thirties, trying to do his best despite the universe’s repeated attempts to kill him, in support of unions, doesn’t fuck with cops, his back constantly hurts, he’s uncomfortable around his old high school friends who never grew out of their edgelord phases, deeply embarrassed by his own teenage edgelord antics, he’s constantly punished for being ridiculously competent, has Trauma ™️ that he absolutely refuses to think about, desperately avoids getting tangled in other people’s drama, subconsciously heals his inner child by taking care of others, and refuses to take on more responsibility than he can handle yet still somehow gets saddled with everyone else’s shit. oh and his car keeps breaking down and he doesn’t have insurance.

#i just know his stomach is FUCKED from all that space ibuprofen #din djarin #the Mandalorian #Star Wars #i love this 40 yo virgin. king shit 💛#walkie talkie.

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ms-hells-bells · 2 years

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MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING FOR EXPLICIT DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ABUSE

My name is Jaime. At 15, I left home due to the abuse going on there and I became a homeless runaway living on the streets of Melbourne, Australia…

Within days I met apparently friendly older men around the age of 20 or so, who offered me a hotel room to stay in if I helped them sell newspapers on the corner. At the time I thought they were being kind. It was soon made very evident that there was an extra price for this roof over my head. There began a steady stream of strangers coming to my room and expecting all kinds of sex from me. It was a tiny room with just a single bed and a bedside table. I was not allowed to leave it for any reason other than to use the bathroom down the hall.

All I can really recall from those days are the smell of bad breath, body odour and fresh cum as the faces and ages of these men all intermingle in my nightmares. I cannot even tell you how long I was trapped in that hotel, as each day and night blurred into the next.

One night I was bundled in a car and driven to a house just outside the CBD. I was instructed to stay with the man at that house. It was made clear to me that I was expected to have sex with him. The fact he spoke English and had a lovely looking home made it seem not so bad compared to where I had been. I lied and gave him a false name and said I was 17, almost 18.

A couple of days later, he drove me back to the city hotel so I could gather the clothes and things I’d left behind. It was empty and I had nothing left to my name but the clothes on my back. So I accepted his offer to stay with him as it seemed like a better option than trying to survive on the streets.

I tried to live a normal life of getting a job at Coles and leaving my past behind. One day, my lies about my age and name caught up with me and I was put back into the government foster care system as a ward of the state. I was put in a home with much older residents and was again raped and abused, so my sense of worth was zero. I felt it was all I deserved.

At 16, I was allowed to move out of the system and back to the “home life” I knew. That is where I really began joining in with the full-on drugs, alcohol and porn/sex trade scene. Surrounded by adults who, for them, it was normal, by 17, I was stripping and nude modelling and quickly became addicted to the money. My face and my body were the only assets I had to sell.

Not long after my 18th birthday I began work for an insurance company. Another attempt at a normal life. I was subjected to sleazy bosses and customers who didn’t want the insurance I was selling. They wanted my mouth, my tits and what was between my legs.

Months went by and suddenly the homicide squad from Sydney NSW were knocking on my door. They were unsure if I was dead or alive as they had photos of me on the same roll of film as a young woman who had gone missing from the streets of St Kilda and was presumed murdered. It turned out she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and photographed naked and then killed by a man, who had come to the studio I worked at months earlier.

To this day I’m grateful I said no to his offer of more money to leave the studio to go to the beach with him for further photos – or my story would have ended there. Except as a google search for murdered sex workers in Australia.

Because of my lack of confidence that I could do anything else, I spent months stripping around the pubs and clubs of Melbourne. Private gigs were always the worst as there were more expectations of the acts we were asked to perform. Live sex acts with bucks party men. Lesbian acts were expected, condoms were not. Drugs and alcohol were a standard part of my life.

By 21, I was a single mother struggling to pay my rent. One morning, after dropping my child off at day care where I knew they would care for my child better than I could at the time, I came home in tears and picked up the paper and looked for a job. Every one of them wanted qualifications and an education level I didn’t have.

I then saw an ad for massage girls. Due to my past experiences of nude modelling and stripping, I knew what the ad meant. They were offering an immediate start. So, with my pride pushed aside, I called and arranged to go to a legal brothel in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

My idea of legal brothel work was a nice clean place, nice men who would pay good money to have sex with me, and a safe working environment because it was all legal, right? I’d been having sex with men I didn’t like for years so why not get paid for it in a legitimate business?

A friendly lady met me and took me inside and showed me around the nice-looking spa rooms and explained I could earn a lot of money being a fresh face and so pretty. At $80-90 an hour, I thought how hard could it be? I had arrived just before lunch time and was told I could start immediately as they were expecting to be busy.

I quickly learned that there was such a thing as a 15-minute booking for $50 cost to the punter – of which I received $25. There was no nice spa room for that. Instead, I was put in a tiny little room with a huge two-way mirror. My first john was a scrawny elderly man who, as a regular, was given first choice of me being fresh meat. Reeking of garlic, and with very long fingernails, he demanded I get naked and get on my knees to suck his dick. His nails dug into my head as he fucked my face and I tried not to gag at the smell of him. It was over within five minutes and he left me to clean up.

For the next two hours, I was in and out of that room faster than a swinging saloon door as men on their lunch break came in to get their rocks off as fast as they could. Sucking and fucking till I was feeling dizzy and sore. The other girls assured me it was normal for the lunch time rush and I would get used to it in a day or two and don’t forget to use as much lube as I needed.

As I walked out of there with just over a couple of hundred dollars cash, I said I’d be back tomorrow. I had two weeks rent in my pocket and I could feed my child that night. That first week I went home with enough to take my child shopping for winter clothes and shoes. I filled my fridge and pantry and, for the first time, I was a month ahead in rent and my bills were paid on time. I had a new addiction. Money of my own.

I bought new clothes, lingerie, gowns, shoes, make up and jewellery to make sure I was the prettiest girl on shift so I would earn the most money. I also bought lots of alcohol and weed to numb myself after work. I was given a work name – so I became her and she became me and we were strong empowered women earning our own money in a legitimate business, not relying on a man to pay our bills or way through life… From legal brothels to escort services, I was doing it all, except where it was illegal: on the streets.

Meanwhile the rest of my life was falling apart. I had sex with old men. Ugly men. Savage men, who would pin me down and grind their hips into my thighs till I felt like they would dislocate. Drunk men who would get angry and demand a refund because they couldn’t cum after an hour of sucking and fucking. Entitled men who felt they had paid for the right to use my body in any way shape or form they wanted to. Perverted men who paid me more to wear a school girl uniform and call them daddy. Strange men who paid extra for me to fuck them anally with large dildos while they masturbated. Bastard men who only wanted it doggy style so they could attempt to slip the condom off. Men coming straight from a factory job covered in grease and dirt with filthy hands and nails wanting to shove as many dirty fingers into my vagina as they could. Men who were offended when I told them I needed to perform a visual STD check for crabs or herpes before the booking could go ahead. Men who were even more offended when I refused to service them due to suspicious looking critters or lesions on their dicks and told them they could return when they could supply a doctor’s certificate.

I was booked to go to men’s homes, workplaces or wherever they were. My driver I hear you ask? Surely, I was safe with a driver waiting outside? More often than not, I drove myself as the escort company’s one driver can’t drive six women to different parts of the city or suburbs all booked at different times or lengths of booking.

So off I went. Never knowing if tonight was going to be my last night alive if I displeased the john with no-one to intervene. Would my child be left growing up to discover Mum was a dead prostitute? I learned how to negotiate enough to get myself out of some pretty scary situations with johns who were drunk or high. I guess that’s one good life skill. What I use it for these days is not much, but hey, at the time, I was an expert…

Especially with the guy high on crack who was holding a large Crocodile Dundee size knife when I came back from doing a safety check of the hotel bathroom. Thankfully, he was only using it to cut the TV cord for the copper in it. But I swear in that moment, I thought I was dead and I prayed…. To Everything… Then I spent three hours fucking him so I could walk out without further incident as the image of that knife constantly flashed before me.

Every month I went to my doctor for STD tests to prove to my bosses I was fit for work, and every three months, a blood test to hopefully prove I had not contracted HIV from a john. The anxious wait for the all clear still sits in the hallowed hell of my memory bank.

I was in and out of legalised prostitution from the ages of 21 to 32. Do you know that the only kind of promotion I got in all those years was to go from the rooms to behind the counter, helping to sell other women like myself. I hate myself for that. To me, I was no better than the pimps and thugs who trade in women and children for profit. But it was all I knew and there was no real tangible support to help me turn my life around.

There was so much shame and fear associated with coming forward even to a GP, because they all seemed to think it was my choice to work as a prostitute. In some ways, it was the only choice. I knew nobody wanted to employ a woman who puts “sex worker” on their resume to fill in the 11-year gap in their working life when they attempt to reclaim some semblance of a “normal life”.

Almost none of the helping professionals I have seen over years of therapy has ever asked how this job has affected me. Even today after all these years. Instead, they try and diagnose me with borderline personality disorders or schizophrenia or bipolar and put me on medication – which never worked, by the way. If anything, they made things much worse as I was bounced from one medication to another as doctors tried to squeeze me in a neat box and tick me off as cured.

Only one got it right – in 2004. I live with Complex Post Traumatic Stress (CPTSD) and Dissociative Identity Disorder, and chronic lifelong back injuries, and vagina and rectal trauma. I’m not crazy. I’m not mental. My name is Jaime and I am the hidden result of the real horror behind the closed red doors of the sex trade industry here in Australia.

It is my lived experience that gives me the right to say that sex work is not a job like any other job and nor should it ever be seen as such. The deaths and long term mental and physical illnesses caused by this industry are ever growing and uncountable in monetary terms for society as a whole.

There is a minute percentage of people who may come out unscathed from their time in it, but I’m here to tell you an unpopular truth: I’ve personally met well over a hundred women over the years who will never have a normal life again. Beaten, bashed, raped, killed – and that’s just me.

I can’t help but think of the thousands of stories women tell each other every day as they wait in some dingy waiting room hoping to pay their rent, bills, school fees, etc. And I haven’t even started on interviewing the men/boys/trans people who have similar life stories to mine.

I don’t even know how to try and get a “normal job” – because I’ve tried – only to have to deal with men who trigger all my old memories with their sexist misogynistic views on women, their “boys will be boys” attitudes, and their locker room jokes.

After over 20 years of quietening my voice, hiding my life in shame and being frightened that no one would believe how damaging this was to me and the loved ones around me, thanks to the love, support and empathy shown towards me/us from Wahine Toa Rising’s founder, Ally Marie, I now feel safe and have the courage to speak out publicly.

Decriminalizing prostitution in countries that I know, like Australia and New Zealand, has sent the message that it’s OK to buy and sell people like pieces of meat at market. My observations of it since leaving 20 years ago, is that it’s caused an explosion in men or women with large amounts of money, mostly obtained through illegal activities, to invest in the creation and building of more brothels to fill the demand of men who want the freedom to abuse and commit violence towards people. I’m saying people as a whole because it’s not only women who are caught in the sex trade.

They target the most vulnerable ones in our societies and exploit them for profit that fills their wallets and, I promise you, the tax man barely sees a cent from them due to the front cover businesses they run at a loss.

Our elected officials are tasked with a duty of care towards the population they represent and to work in the best interests of a happy and healthy society. But they are allowing the sex slave industry to flourish unchecked. This beggars belief to someone like me and others I speak to.

As I stand here today, I implore you to look within your hearts and ask yourself, is this what you would want for your family, children and grandchildren?

To be lied to, tricked, coerced, sold, kidnapped and trafficked to strangers, numerous times a day. To be abused, raped, develop substance abuse issues, be beaten or at worst murdered, by a society that accepts this as a risk of the job that is deemed legal despite overwhelming evidence of the long-term negative ramifications.

Would you feed your family asbestos? Would you advise they take up cigarettes or drink DDT? No. Why not? Because time eventually proved the sickness and death tolls are too high.

In closing, I also ask which side of history will you want to be known for standing on? The one that ultimately destroys humanity or with the ones who did whatever they could to save it.

I know where I’ll be. For I was once taught, that if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.

Thank you for your time. I pray you choose right from wrong.

#wahine toa rising is an nz women's anti prostitution group that aids survivors #they have contact with australian women too like this

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feministdragon · 2 years

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“Economics is a choice. We could choose to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 or $20 an hour and peg it to productivity growth like in the decades before 1975. We could choose to revalue work so that the majority of Americans once again earn time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours a week. We could choose to provide affordable high-quality healthcare, childcare, and education to all Americans, while modernizing our social insurance and retirement systems so that contract and gig workers aren’t left out and left behind. We could choose to make it easier for workers to organize, and to defend the rights and interests of those who can’t. We could choose to build a more equitable, resilient, and prosperous America—an America that grows its economy by intentionally including every American in it.”

i cannot believe i read this in Time magazine

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electrictoes · 1 year

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I read the summary for the OC episode with Kelli and they called her 'adjunct professor' which it makes sense but also I read on wiki and I quote: 'In the United States, an adjunct is, in most cases, a non-tenure-track faculty member' And also 'adjunct professors make up the majority of instructors in higher education (post-secondary) institutions. As with other part-time workers, they are paid less than full-time professors and do not receive employee benefits such as health insurance or an office.' which is crazy for me, and read somewhere they get paid way less. I wonder with 2 kids and one on the way if it's enough, I know now she's married so maybe she can also benefit from Carisi health insurance but I don't know if it covers the kids too since legally he's not their father yet. But also I don't know how insurance works there in US lol, I'm european that world is a puzzle to me, here we have free health care. With nypd she had everything covered and I believe svu detectives are paid better than others, I remember her saying in the past something like 'that's why we get paid the big bucks' or something, but now she works part time probably and paid not much. Also the writers probably don't care about all this since following reality sometimes is not their way lol, but I worry about my gurl lol. Who knows what they will write about her job, I'm curious. Sorry about my words vomit lol it's something that popped into my mind

They may never actually say on screen that she’s an adjunct professor, or maybe she’ll be picking up a side gig as an expert witness for the DA’s office (my wishful thinking).

Tbh, unless it some how plays into a way for her to come back I don’t imagine it’ll get mentioned at all.

#svu #svu spoilers #organized crime spoilers #anon #ask #amanda rollins #svu speculation #but of the hopeful heart variety

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awakened-human-design · 9 months

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I WAS A MILLENIAL ON A SPIRITUAL QUEST

How would you like to get started on learning Human Design?

????? what the heck is that ??????

My Story

In December 2017, I was on a call with one of my teachers from the group Trillium Awakening. They asked me for my birthday, time and place of birth, and sent me my Human Design body graph. They talked about how I was a projector, and they were too, how it was a rare type, and that I had a lot of open centers, meaning, I was really open to conditioning from the outside world.

They suggested I check it out and some of its free resources. A small tool too accelerate my spiritual process. Which, by the way, could take up to 7 years.

I *WAS* A 20?Something ON A SPIRITUAL QUEST:

THE VICTIM STORY

Yikes! This is cool, but heck if I had the time or money for more of that!

I hardly had enough money to pay for our weekly group calls in a women’s circle - that put a price beyond compare - but stretched me, even at the discounted rate they offered.

No one in my family had put money into spiritual or personal development work, while I was knee-deep in the stuff. To be honest, I didn’t really feel like I had a choice.

Doing work on spiritual development was a choice between “This stuff is so expensive. If I do this I won’t have any money and I will die” and “This stuff is absolutely what I need at this point in my life and that the world needs to evolve so if I don’t do this…I will also die.”

So? It was, as one of my teacher’s Marc Gafni would call, an erotic double-bind.

I made the choice to go knee-deep in work towards spiritual evolution.

I left the teaching world and I worked in the “gig economy.”

My resume had 5 different education companies.

I worked between 1-40 hours a week, and spent half of it driving.

For months at a time I did what I loved - working with kids - and had no “boss” to call me to the office.

Sounds good, right?

Finally free from educational institutions, I saw how life really worked in people’s homes. I saw the truth of District public and charter schools, and, no matter where I went, I taught kids in the way that felt good to me.

Of course, not everything ended well, and some parents and classroom teachers asked me to *get out* on the first day! But…the recognition of my abilities as a teacher *direct* and *instantaneous.* The progress of the children showed in their creativity.

Let’s get real though about this so-called “gig economy” that promised millennials freedom. No boss meant no W-2. No health insurance. No retirement plan. No coffee breaks. No co-workers.

The road was lonely.

Between driving to tutor or babysit kids at their home, substitute teach at a random school in Maryland, or attend a retreat in New Jersey, I started to feel less like a teacher and more like a truck driver. I took up bad habits that I never imagined as a yogi. I ate protein bars with more sugar than a Snickers and smoked the more the occasional American Spirit that even listening to Adi Da podcasts could not save me from.

I felt sad - but who else could see me but myself?

Some of my friends from my “previous life” no longer spoke to me. I felt ashamed I had left the active lifestyle I once had of biking, walking and yoga, but I knew I could not afford it. I paid for retreats by offering to cook batch meals for the sangha.

I lived in a basement apartment in a house owned by an electronic musician that hosted bands from all over the country. My next door neighbor was an indie musician as well with a great wardrobe and occasional clothing swaps with her New Zealand friends. My closest friend made her own jewelry and tye-die. Two blocks away from the thrift store! So… Major perk - getting to listen to and play music on the reg. and get free, cute clothes. Major downside - working all the time with hardly enough cash to pay the rent to show for my good deeds, and sometimes looking “woke up like this” and other time looking like I hadn’t changed out of my pajamas.

OKAY…SO WHAT IS THIS HUMAN DESIGN STUFF AND HOW DID YOU LEARN IT

Okay, cool. So back to the start of the story. My teacher gave me a tool and I don’t think I looked at it for two years.

But then …. the covid, the lockdowns, the confinement , and suddenly we all had no where to go, everywhere to be (on Zoom) and time, too much of it.

How was I ever going to ‘be’ someBODY?

I won’t go into the depth of “the lockdown” story because at this point, we all have one.

But lockdown story did not produce the kind of “free time” that one might really hope for, unless, of course, you enjoy “free time” like a character from a Albert Camus novel.

Coincidantalment**, I spent the entire time of “confinement” in two foreign

No exit. Like - am I ever going to get out of this? Am I ever going to escape this like square box my form is trapped inside of, speaking to people in a language no one understands?

Okay. I am going to revisit this Human Design stuff. I am going to learn a language that describes the programming of the human body.

No, this isn’t some weird genetic altering stuff. Au, the contrarie!

A system of empowerment that came along at the right time.

When we are, as David A Temple puts it posed between utopia and dystopia. We are getting the call to know ourselves - NOW - in a progressively globalizing and demanding world. And not just globalizing in terms of “oh maybe this bag of chips I’m eating right now came from a Uyghur death camp and perhaps its made of sawdust.” Okay…maybe that too…but really…Globalizing in terms of the planet - the “PLAN-(N)ET” - has a plan to catch us and we best follow her word…or…else.

TO POPPY-SEED QUEEN CURING HER ADDICTIONS: A HEROINE’S JOURNEY

So I spent…every day of French class, every morning, looking at the transits (both astro and HD), recording my dreams, reading my graph, reading the Cross of the day, the Gate, drawing the iChing…taking a university-levelcourse on iChing…ok…maybe there was some magic involved…and many sleepless nights…and…yes…going down to the depths of the bottom of the bottom…the rabbit hole…the worm hole…the brain hole…you name it…its the the “dark night of the soul “ and there ain’t no batman to help you sidekick robin so you better be the hero of your own story and save the day.

I can tell you. I’ve been there. There’s no going back.

…..*di di di di*** the song of “why do I like Human Design so much” ***do do do do**….

1- TRANSPARENT AND EASY AS F**** TO LEARN

I like Human Design because it is a very transparent system. If you’ve gotten a reading in astrology or tarot, the “method” or “magic” is usually a little hidden from the person receiving the reading. This is more “Teach yourself your Self” and a reader is more like a guide.

Like a contractor explaining the blueprint of a house from the day it was built. You might not of had the tools to build the house - but you get it. The plan is clear.

It’s not like Enneagram or Myers-Briggs where you take a quiz and find out a type, only to have it change again half-way through your life. Those tools of human development are well and good (but are subjective), and you should use those too. But that’s not what this is.

This system starts with the objective.

And then you have to test it out.

2 - the 100% USE FOR 100%…KIDS

This system, for as weird as the origin story may appear, was built by a teacher. It was built for children and the generations to come.

Anyone who has ever been a teacher (*and hopefully left the profession because they KNOW how the conditioning is happening) for kids under 7 can SEE how easily children and manipulated and cohereced into a “not-Self” program.

They are literally “programmed” to not-love themselves! The sh*t people are paying beaucoup bucks for to *fix* them later in life!

So let’s cut that s-t out before it beings. Let’s raise a generation of kids who don’t need to go to therapy when they grow up to un-do all the trauma that came from their conditioning.

And for you - “grown up” let’s help you re-parent your inner child.

(People always told me I needed to do that. I had no idea how, or the privilege, I felt, to do it.)

Let’s help you learn to “be alone” with your “Self” as you already are - whole.

3 - IS THIS A RELIgION?

Okay, let’s talk religion - if you grew up Christian (like “me” yay****) confirmed in the Christian church…yadda yadda…you probably have SOME trauma from that stuff. Don’t really care if you go to church every Sunday, are a flat-out atheist or extreme right..some body has GOT to say it…

Everything you have been brought up believe is not the meaning of the Christ.

With a little toe-dipping into esoteric Christianity…

The current image of “Jesus on the Cross” is no more than a sacrificial lamb that has you totally tricked into thinking you need to “die” (to the empire) in order to be “saved.”

No. You are a unique balance of light and dark. Although these do move in the 4 directions, they do not always look like a perfect “cross.” More on that later.

BUT The beauty of it …is also that THERE IS a cross. And you can understand it. And you can be and become your own Christ.

Your own Savior. And take back the power into your own life.

I don’t care if you can name me every book of gospel or if you tell me that Jesus was a historical figure or in fact never lived and is a myth in our imagination. Or if Jesus is coming back down from the heavens tomorrow so repent your sinners or oh shit maybe the world really *IS* on fire and maybe the highest court in the land (the UN) and now has “Inner Development Goals” and realizing that maybe infrastructure is not just made of things. It’s made of people. Who hurt. Who feel. Who laugh. Who cry. And is telling people that maybe they should consider working on themselves.

In other words: It’s not just the third world world that needs supported.

I’m not even sure if this has everything or nothing to do with a guy named Zeus with a big white beard who lives in the sky (although, I have had a couple teachers with big white beards that could compete quite fairly with Grandaddy Marx see “The Stoa” for reference)…but I do know this has everything to do with YOU and your unfolding FATE and DESTINY to live a radical life among the stars.

Yeah…there. I said it.

I’m prothetlytizing on the sidewalk sweeties and its time to convert.

Burn me for it. It’s okay.

Joan was a 5/1. She dressed up as a boy.

They canonized her has a saint.

Let’s see what the rest of us can do.

OKAY….NOW I’M THE BAD GUY BECAUSE…

This knowledge is not free. So I do charge.

It’s an Interior Science. No one will do it for you.

It takes time. You have to test it out for yourself.

Let me ask you this: If you didn’t have a story before…do you have one now?

Try Human Design.

My Design - A Poem

I’m a Savior, but not a Saint.

But the crisis is urgent. And the task is real.

There’s a Devil in command, and I’ve trained him to be quiet.

Wearing masks, playing charades, yet we know it’s all a game.

Yes, it’s all an illusion of MAIA. She’s the goddess. The veil of illusion.

She’s written these words and she’s ended my confusion.

Her values will break you apart and make you whole again.

Come home, and be your Self. No one else will do it for you.

————-

~*~ b3 @uTh3nTiC ~*~

**Spell check (?) You can send me a French dictionary later

***HD uses Kabbalah, iChing, Western Astrology, and the Chakra system.

**** For the Americans out there, Labour Day in the rest of the world is May 1st

#human design #human design projector #human design wisdom

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esleep · 7 months

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Hi! I saw your post about delivering groceries, and I'm curious. How does one go about getting a job like that? If you don't wanna respond that's okay too. Hope u have a nice day!!

i shop for instacart, which if you are unfamiliar is an app-based "freelance" gig economy-type job sorta like doordash or uber. which i don't really recommend from a monetary aspect unless you're desperate like me - it never paid a ton to begin with but in the last year or so it has started paying even less due to the corporation's insatiable greed. the nice thing about it is you can choose to shop whenever you want (although in my area there aren't enough decent-paying orders on weekdays to make it worth the time so weekends are really best but that's very dependent on where you live), there's no quota or hour requirement, you just go online when you feel like it and switch off when you're done. i think you can also work directly for some stores, i know kroger has in-store shoppers in my area and i think they do delivery as well in other places but idk how any of those function - you would probably have to apply directly with the store somehow. i just wish the 'gig' type self-regulated schedule was more sustainable pay-wise - with the rates IC is offering now, once you calculate for the gas you spend, you're sometimes pretty much breaking even on some deliveries. on top of that, what few worker protections there are in this country (im in the usa) completely evaporate when it comes to gig workers. however sometimes i just have to make fifty bucks to pay my water bill, or to prevent me from having to choose between food and electricity on those months where i'm running a little too tight for comfort. but ultimately, aside from the emergency i-have-to-eat-today situations, the best thing about grocery delivery really is the human aspect. i like helping people and find it rewarding, and i wish corporate greed did not make it so challenging to do long-term.

tangential little side note: if you're using your personal vehicle for gig work like deliveries, you may need to add a specific rider to your car insurance policy, otherwise if you're in an accident while "on the clock" you may find yourself with no coverage. those add-ons can vary in cost and i recommend asking your insurance agent about it if you have one. they can probably give you a quote on how much your bill would go up per month if you were to add that, so you'll know how much you have to make from it every month before you break even.

#hope this is helpful and not depressing or too scattered. i'm on an insomnia brainswirl and just saw this ask.#anyway i hope you have a good day too anon #or night or whatever it is with you now #ask

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jimmyneutronrevival · 1 year

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JIMMY NEUTRON REVIVAL PROJECT: UPDATE 33

Hi folks.

I wanted to take some serious time to discuss the events from December in this blog so that everyone, cast included, can better understand my situation and my circumstances. L.A. COMIC CON AND MY 2022 LIFE

Before I get to the L.A. Comic-Con itself, let me discuss my 2022 in a nutshell.

In April of 2022, I developed a weird tiredness feeling that I have had for many months. I had been in and out of doctor’s offices trying to figure out what it is and was put on a waiting list for an Endocrinologist who will see me on March 9th. I also suffer from depression which has plagued my personal life for many years. I have been seeking help through a talk therapist and a medication therapist who, try as they might, haven’t been able to do too much. But I am now on a medication (Wellbutrin 300mg) that has given me a little bit of my energy back which is something. However, the amount of money I have had to fork over for these visits has been anything but cheap. My insurance covers a lot of it, but the rest of the cost is up to me.

Additionally, I had been mulling over the prospect of returning to school. My current degree wasn’t helping me as far as my career prospects were concerned and I wanted to work on a business degree to improve my chances of landing a fulfilling career. As I was a gig worker and part-time online test scorer, I didn’t have a lot of money. And at the time, I had made zero plans to make any trips for the year or do anything else that would set me back financially. So, I made the decision to take the plunge and I applied to college. I was accepted and began my studies online in the fall of 2022. I spent close to $7000 on my first semester and the spring semester so far has been roughly the same, give or take a few hundred dollars.

Now, let’s go back in time to the Jimmy Neutron panel at L.A. Comic-Con which had been formally announced on October 28th. This gave me barely a month to prepare. I was scrambling to find low-cost airfare, a reasonably-priced hotel, and transportation. I did my due diligence and researched every site I could, including popular sites like Orbitz and Expedia. The airfare was going to set me back almost $500 ($400 + fees). I was able to find a hotel on the L.A. Comic-Con website, but it would have been about $700-$800 plus a large hospitality tax. The one good thing about it is that it was on the same street as the convention center and within walking distance. Then came the dilemma of finding a cab or an Uber/Lyft to get me from the airport to the hotel and the hotel back to the airport, which would have been at least $50-$75 both ways. Add food, money for souvenirs, the actual cost of two badges for the show plus fees since I would have attended 2 out of the 3 days, plus autographs and it was going to cost me close to $2000.

By the time I had the knowledge that a reunion panel was happening, $7000 was already gone due to school. I did not have enough discretionary funds I could use as far as taking any kind of a trip was concerned.

I am in the lower-income bracket along with so many other millennials. Some of us got lucky and found good careers while others like myself have had to struggle. There are probably more articles on the Internet about the struggles many of us millennials have went through than I can count. For people like me, life has been tough.

Because I am in the low-income bracket, I have to budget a lot of the things that I do. School was a major cost factor as far as my budget for 2022 was concerned, and I knew that any little bit of money I did have left would have to go to the other bills and responsibilities I must pay for each month.

In the end, after crunching the numbers, I did not have the $2000 I would need to make the journey out to the convention, and I had to make the difficult decision of informing all of my followers that I would not be able to attend. This broke my heart more than anyone could possibly realize. I was extremely upset and sad about it.

I decided to take the initiative to finish the petition so that it could be displayed at the show if the cast wished. I spent several weeks in about 3-4 settings working 3 hours at a time to edit the fake names and duplicate signatures out of the petition as well as the odd comments and duplicate comments on the petition comment page. On November 27th, at midnight, I finished everything and sent it off to the organizer of the panel and that was that.

There were a couple of people who thought that I was going to attend which caused quite a bit of confusion. I did my best to try to clear up any misunderstandings. Even though I did explain that I wasn’t coming on my socials, I know not everyone sees these posts which I totally understand.

The weekend of the show was extremely difficult. It got to a point where I had to shut my notifications off on social media so that the pictures and other notifications bombarding me about the show wouldn’t send me spiraling into a deeper state of depression. Unfortunately, I fell apart. I had been able to keep it together for so long, but the weekend of the show, I was no longer able to remain that stoic person I always try to be. I broke down several times and felt absolutely awful. I have had many days of sleepless nights and still feel absolutely guilty. I felt like I had let people down and it hurt like hell.

While I hope this is not a one-time deal, if it ends up being that way and I missed out, all I can say is I am sorry. I am sorry that the funds were not there for me to attend. This was something that I wanted to do and had I had more advance notice I would have moved mountains to try to get the money. I wish I was one of those people who could drop everything to do something like this. But unfortunately, I am not.

In order for me to attend anything like this in the future, should that happen, I would need advance notice that is more than a month, so I have the time to prepare. Otherwise, it will be hard for me to get a plan together along with the proper funding.

Also, I will try to set aside a savings account for trips so I can be a little better prepared in this way.

I hope that this explanation is helpful to my followers, the cast, or anyone else who may be reading this.

Thank you all for your understanding.

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kingofmyborrowedheart · 10 months

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I know there’s tons of talk about Taylor becoming a billionaire after the tour and re-records but those articles and tweets don’t acknowledge how many people she employs and they have insurance. Like that’s SUCH a big thing to give her team AND band/starlights. I read/listened in a rolling stone podcast/article that her band is paid some sort of salary and don’t have to work other gigs to make a living. Like I think that’s so great that everyone who works for her doesn’t have to struggle to make ends meet while she’s taking in so much money. Even her tour dancers, imagine being employed for over a year and having a steady job.

It all just makes my heart happy for everyone working for her 🩷

She’s always made a point to bonus her workers/make sure they are properly compensated from as early on as her first tour and has continued to do so even as the number of people in her employ has greatly increased. It’s very unrealistic to say that every dollar she’s earned on this tour she’s keeping when there are so many expenses to be paid/people to compensate for their work and it’s not just her single-handedly putting this tour on. I think the fact that she does credits for the dancers, band and crew at the end of her shows is very sweet and also acknowledges the fact that she couldn’t do what she does every night without them.

#asks #got something to say to you*#anons #it’s clear she takes care of everyone who’s a part of her team in every aspect that she can #and the fact that a good chunk of her band and dancers have been around for a while tells you how she treats them #like I can’t think of another concert I went to that had credits for the band/dancers/crew

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seeker-of-truth · 1 year

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VERENA SOTO

Here's the lore for my favorite girl! PS I adapted this layout from this post from @glitchinginthegarden for her fantastic profile for Vaye (please head the tags friends!)

BASICS

AGE: 27 during game

DOB: June 10, 2049

ETHNICITY: American Latina

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUALLY: Queer, uninterested in labels

NICKNAMES: V, Rena (reserved for the people closest to her), Rennie (childhood)

BIRTH PLACE: Wellsprings, Heywood, NC

HEIGHT: 5'6"

WEIGHT: 138 lbs

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English almost exclusively, some Spanish picked up from around the home

BODY TYPE: Think super featherweight boxer during off-season || ex: Alycia Baumgardner || strong but still has curves and softness. She's still a round-faced queen tho

HAIR COLOR: natural - very dark brown || During her corpo days she keeps it grey as a small form of self-expression, always pulled back into a tight bun. || After Konpeki she wants to feel in control of her body again and dyes it canary yellow and cuts her hair to shoulder length with micro bangs and an undercut. She also shaves both sides to make the shaving Vik had to do to save her life look more intentional. Both the cut and color stick.

EYE COLOR: Kiroshi optics designed to look identical to her natural deep brown eyes.

CYBERWARE: EMP Threading || Biomonitor || Contraceptive Implant || Neural Link || 2 Chip Slots || Interface Plug || Smart Link || Kiroshi Optics Mk. 3 with Chyron and Low Light filter || NetWatch Netdriver Mk.5 Cyberdeck || Kendachi Monowire || Arasaka Syn-Lungs || Self-ICE || Reflex Tuner || Arasaka Cyberleg

CLASS: What I’ve taken to calling the “Buff Netrunner” - mostly relies on combat hacking but will physically fuck you up if you get too close.

WEAPONS: her main weapons are a Tsunami Nue with an XC-10 Alecto Silencer and her monowire || in addition she will often carry a non-silenced tech pistol on gigs, after giving Johnny his Malorian back she takes to using her old Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin (he totally gets her a 3516 after everything tho) || On Jobs that look to be messy she will take a Kang Tao G-58 Dian as an insurance policy.

PERSONALITY

|| Extremely guarded, likes to keep her thoughts and feelings private, feels embarrassed when her feelings spill out || Patient to a fault. has the worlds longest fuse to a very big explosion || all icy, calculated fire || slow to trust but once she does, she considers that person to be family || will go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves || sarcastic || can be very ridged || highly empathetic, and will try to get people to better situations, regardless of the cost || will lie to get the best possible outcome || loves living in Night City || good with words, has learned to talk her way out of most situations || reserved, hates being approached || feels like here life happens to her a lot and is desperate for control. ||

FAMILY HISTORY

MOTHER: Diana Soto – alive, estranged

FATHER: Mario Soto – alive, estranged

Both of her parents were regular blue-collar workers, he mother is a machinist and her father a welder. They had met in passing as she was dropping off parts at the mechanics shop, he was working at and quickly fell in love, getting married and having Verena not long after.

CHILDHOOD - TEENS

2056 - At the age of 7 the standardized tests given to students flagged her as having an aptitude for netrunning so she was placed in an exclusive boarding school in Charter Hill as part of a special outreach program sponsored by night corp. She excelled at her studies but struggled to make friends as most of her peers were the children of corpos. She spent summers back at home with her parents and seeing the difference in the quality of life had an effect on her, jading her to NC as she aged. Her parents were ecstatic at the thought of their child having a better life than them so failure became something that was severely punished.

2060 - By the time she was in middle school she had a small but close-knit group of friends, both from corps backgrounds and backgrounds similar to her. She was fiercely protective of them and got in multiple fights defending them from the same bullying she had received.

2064 - When not studying she became very interested in edgrunning, specifically solos, but rockerboy culture as well. She liked the inherent rebellion they represented and wished she could do the same. But she knew that she would disappoint her parents if she strayed from the path she was on. So she would listen to records and read about the legends of NC under her blankets at night.

2067 - She graduated with high enough grades that she was able to attend NCU on a full ride where she majored in Cybersecurity with a focus on Offensive Hacking. She looks back on her time there fondly as she met more like-minded people, many of whom pushed her to express herself more. She joined a small band as a guitarist. Eventually entering a relationship with the basest – Sara. It was a very toxic relationship and they both treated each other like shit. V’s generally guarded nature closed her off the deeper in the relationship she got.

20’S

2070 - The unification war caused the university to push its students through faster so she graduated a year early and immediately started looking for a job, not wanting to disappoint her parents.

July 2070 - With Arasaka now back in night city they were doing massive hiring and V managed to get her foot in the door in the Counter Inelegance Division.

August 2070 - Her bosses found her to be adept at espionage so they sent her to do black ops work with a small crew in South America for approximately a year and a half. During this time she honed her skill with a pistol.

September 2073 - Rio really traumatized her and she crawled into herself and didn’t want to return to work so Arasaka wanted to drop her, Jenkins saw her skills as exploitable and invited her to stay in office. During this time she became estranged from her parents.

June 2074 - Meets Jackie at the Mexican border, he saves her ass by helping her extract an agent.

September 2076 - Moves into the Wells household.

Late February / Early March 2077 - Konpeki Plaza Heist.

End of May 2077 - I, Pre Defined Starts

#oc: verena soto #she deserves to have at least one pic of her smiling lol #cw: violence #cw: torture #cw: child abuse #(alluded to)#cyberpunk 2077 canon typical violence #(please let me know if I missed a content warning!)#Did I give her male V's b-day because I needed her to be a Gemini not a Libra? Maybe lol

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