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#my two cents plus tax

toonco17 · 3 days

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Still thinkin about this to be going on next few weeks ='D Guess who don't give a shit about work huh

#my two cents plus tax #mtcpt #Sanders has his stoneface on as usually but actually carried away

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azherwind-art · 15 days

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I'm so happy to have discovered "My two cents PLUS TAX" by @geezerflakes ! It's truly a hidden gem of a web comic, I don't know when was the last time I read something this funny And the world gives me this slight Welcome to Nightvale vibes type of feel and humor, consider checking it out on Webtoon! I want to do more fan art once in a while about web comics, little independent authors deserve so much the visibility, there is so much hard work and passion behind these type of small creators and I wish there was more hype and community around them and not just on big media

#my two cents plus tax #MTCPT #Jock #Sanders #webtoon #webtoon canvas #web comic #gay middle aged chaos men work as tax collectors

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daintev · 5 days

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Art Dump

I haven't used Tumbler in who knows how long so I thought what better to come back than an art dump.

Also I found this really good webcomic called My Two Cents Plus Tax and I've been obsessed with it ever since <3 So, here's a bunch of art and sketches I've made of over the past couple of weeks! I mainly post on Insta so there's a fair amount :,)

You can read the webcomic on webtoons or tapas, I've linked the webtoon one: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/my-two-cents-plus-tax/list?title_no=888566

Seriously an amazing webcomic and one of my favourites of all time, all made by @geezerflakes I highly recommend giving it a read!! :D

#webcomic #fanart #guys seriously read this webcomic its crazy good #my two cents plus tax #mtcpt

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sadcabbages · 3 days

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Been obsessed with this amazing webcomic by @geezerflakes if you like silliness and gayness and not taking itself seriously you should definitely check it out it's acalled my two cents, PLUS TAX and it's about tax collectors who collect silly taxes anyway here's some poorly drawn fanart

#Mtcpt #my two cents plus tax

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bobokitty · 10 months

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Drawing of these two idiot tax collectors who can’t communicate their feelings for each other from @geezerflakes My Two Cents, PLUS TAX

I have no idea what style I was going for lol

#my art #drawing #fanart #my two cents plus tax #mtcpt #sanders grave #jock picnicle #jock #sanders #will these two ever realize that they like each other???#probably not lol

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cozylittleartblog · 4 months

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hey, so I'm trying to figure out what places would be good to sell my own art at, and I'm wondering- what has been your experience with selling on etsy? I've heard mixed reviews from people, and I want to know your perspective as an etsy seller.

etsy is not perfect but i think it gets a little more shit than it deserves, i've thought about opening my own website but generally i'm actually pretty okay with the services i get on etsy compared to what it costs so i'm just gonna make a subjective pros/cons list for you under the cut (because its loooong)

oh and if anyone else has experience selling on etsy and would like to add their two cents in the replies/reblogs please do!

Pros

⭐ The search function - this is etsy's biggest selling point. it already has a dedicated userbase of millions of people and a search feature to help them find your shop, which takes a lot of the load of marketing off your shoulders, and marketing is a huge factor for pushing sales. i am not good at marketing and a lot of my sales just come from people searching my stuff up lol

⭐ Purchase protection program - if USPS loses or damages your package, you file a missing package report and they confirm they don't know where it is, Etsy will refund your buyers order out of their own pocket (under $250). this is my favorite etsy feature because USPS likes to eat packages every now and again. delicious keychains. if you had your own storefront, you'd just have to replace the order yourself.

⭐ Share & Save program - every time someone makes an order on your shop through a special Share & Save link, etsy will refund you 4% of the fees. it's a nice perk to doing some of your own marketing and it helps combat the moderately high etsy fees!

Trackable letter mail - selling stickers but think it's insane to charge $4 shipping? you can buy letter mail labels for about the rate of regular postage, which is like .65c. this tracking is done through etsy though so you can't track with usps, but it does give customers a little peace of mind. this only works in the 50 US states though.

Customs forms built into your shipping label - shipping internationally is a nightmare. etsy makes it easy though, generating everything you need to ship internationally on one label that you just have to sign and date and slap on your package like normal. for some countries they will actually just have your package sent to a domestic facility where they literally do all that for you. this is miles easier than having to do all that paperwork yourself.

buy shipping labels directly from etsy - related point, and just what it says on the tin. when you fulfill an order, you can buy your labels right there on Etsy so you don't have to mess around with a third party website. it comes out of your sale funds so you don't need to charge a card or a bank account or anything.

star seller program - some people say this is completely useless but i actually disagree! it's incredibly easy to earn this badge, and it lets buyers know you've got some of the best products, shipping, and customer service around. it helps you stand out from some of the more... questionable shops on the website.

sales tax - they remit sales tax for you. i don't think any of the other online platforms similar to etsy do this but i could be wrong. doing any kind of taxes sucks so i consider it a perk if they do it for you.

website promotions - every now and again etsy likes to host sales out of their own pocket. you get all the perks of having a sale without eating into ur profit margin. HUGE sale booster

generally the site is just very easy to learn and use and it's very beginner and dumbass friendly. i say this as a former beginner and current dumbass 👍

Cons

❌ the fees. oogh the fees. they claim it's just a 6.5% fee per sale, but on top of that you have to pay .20c automatically for every individual item you sell, plus there are processing fees (3% + .25c) that apply both to the item you sold AND the cost of shipping. i think it comes out to like 10% total in fees on average @ > @

❌ but wait, there's more fees! if you make more than $10k in sales a year (very easy number to hit actually) you are forced to participate in offsite ads, which i believe takes 15% of your total sale on top of the fees in the previous point. these kinds of sales are not as common as you'd think, but it's still annoying having a couple bucks shaved off your profits a few times a month because of them.

corporate bullshit - etsy is like renting a space in a mall. you don't own your lot, nor the mall itself, so if upper management decides to make any stupid ass decisions, you just have to deal with it or pick up and move. if they decide to raise fees again, you just gotta Deal. you are a little bit helpless on this website unfortunately

the push for discounts - etsy is constantly shoving it in your face that they want you to do discounts. they want you to have free shipping on orders over $35, they want you to do 25% off or more on sales, they want you to have returning customer discounts and abandoned cart discounts and 'you recently favorited this item' discounts - but you already have to compete with the steep fees, and when a customer gets free shipping, you still owe USPS that $4-ish bucks to send the package. you don't have to do any of this, but they do reward participating shops by favoring them in the algorithm and search results, so you can feel like you're missing out.

there aren't as many cons imo but they Are steeper cons. generally etsy is very beginner friendly and easy to get into and set up, and in spite of everything i do actually recommend everyone looking to get into online retail start on etsy and perhaps move to other platforms in the future. plus, you can combat all the fees by just... making your prices a dollar or two higher than you initially wanted to, and using your 'save and share' link as frequently as possible. the fees are a little bit much, but you have to think about what you get in exchange:

the search is invaluable, you could argue the fees are partially a marketing budget lmao. if you have a private website you alone have to push traffic to your website, and not as many people know about things like shopify and bigcartel so they might not be as trusting putting their card details into it. i miss out on a lot of REALLY COOL STUFF because artists only advertise on instagram and i don't hear about them, meanwhile if i want some cool owl house stuff i can literally just search that in etsy and find a lot of TOH stuff super easily. i cannot highlight enough how GOOD the search function is, especially in this day and age where social media like instagram and twitter will blacklist your posts if you say words like 'shop' or 'sale' and now nobody can find your stuff in that website's search either. its very hard to do your own marketing now a days :(

being able to refund customer's lost orders out of the company's pocket is such a nice thing to fall back on if you have to and worth its weight in fees. USPS lost like... four or five packages of mine in december. that's like $100 or more worth of stuff that Etsy Covered Completely, and a lot of the times the customer will take that refund to make their order again. don't abuse this system, make sure you check with usps that the package is actually Gone, but it's a godsend when you don't make billions of dollars and eating the cost of lost orders would otherwise sting a bit.

if etsy did not make international shipping easy i simply would not ship anywhere but the US to be honest. shipping to europe is still a headache though but that's because europe is stupid

that's everything i can think of, but tl;dr yes please open an etsy 👍 i recommend it completely in spite of everything

⭐ if anyone wants to open their own etsy shop, use my referral link to make your first 40 listings for free! :)c ⭐

#etsy #small business #advice #ask #anonymous #anon #selling on etsy

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ducktoonsfanart · 13 days

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Scrooge McDuck vs Flintheart Glomgold - The Terror of the Transval and The Second-Richest Duck - The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck - Carl Barks and Don Rosa - Duck comics and Duckverse

Well, I haven't drawn the conflicts between Scrooge and Glomgold for a long time, so I drew them together again as a redraw of scenes from two comics. The first drawing is a redraw that I drew is from a scene from Don Rosa' comic "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" from the sixth part called "The Terror of the Transvaal" in which Scrooge McDuck goes to South Africa in search of a valuable fortune and finds the then drunkard and hunter Flintheart Glomgold, who is a Boer. After Glomgold stole things from Scrooge one night even though Scrooge saved his life, Scrooge still entered the saloon and shot Glomgold and threatened him with the words, "But you,…you just made me mean!" and shot the tar of mud and feathers and defeated Glomgold and took him to prison. Yes, Scrooge is like a cowboy in this comic.

The second drawing shows a redraw of a scene from the 1956 Carl Barks comic "The Second Richest Duck" in which Flintheart Glomgold makes his first appearance claiming to have earned the most money at one multiplujillion and nine obsquatumatillion, while Scrooge claims to have one multiplujillion, nine obsquatumatillion, six hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents and that's how their rivalry about who has more wealth began. And that's where the fight started, from which I drew my drawing. Only Rockerduck is missing and we have a complete scene. XD He will be invented by Barks five years later. Anyway, since I didn't get to do it in time for Carl Barks' birthday, I did this in his honor. Happy belated birthday to Carl Barks, who celebrates on March 27th and is the best writer of Donald Duck comics. Yes, I love Don Rosa as well as other writers and artists of Donald Duck comics that I enjoy a lot. I certainly drew both drawings in my own style.

I hope you like these drawings and these ideas and feel free to like and reblog this! Plus, happy belated tax day, which these rich people can't stand and it's celebrated on April 15th!

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raepritewrites · 2 months

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If Heather were ever to write a memoir about being a superhero, she was going to include an entire chapter about what to do when you get sucked into a portal, because it was a surprisingly frequent hazard of the job and was confusing as hell if you didn't know what you were doing.

Fortunately, she’d been through this song and dance a few times, so she started with gathering the basics. Who, what, where, how, and when?

First, who? Some c-lister villain who called himself Vibe. The team had been working on a case of break-ins where banks would be robbed through some sort of portal technology. In and out, easy as pie, with almost no trace left behind. The guy was slick she could give him that.

Nightwing had theorized the guy might have a teleport ray, judging by the tachyon readings they were getting. Further investigation, however, and a quick conversation with Flash had revealed that Vibe was a meta created from the particle accelerator explosion of Central City, which had given the speedster his own powers. It hadn't been too hard to track the guy down from there.

Second, what? Well, bad guy plus warehouse equals superhero fight. It had just been Nightwing, Superboy, and herself who went to track down and capture the meta. The rest of the squads had all been busy on other assignments, and really, how hard could it be to take this guy down with three of their heavy hitters on it?

Apparently, harder than they'd thought.

Vibe, it seemed, was just as slick at evading capture as burglary. The idea had been for Nightwing and Scarlet Spider to wear the guy out and keep him distracted until Superboy could get in a final hit. It had briefly worked, and then everything went wrong.

Scarlet probably shouldn't have antagonized Vibe so much, but it was fun winding bad guys up. She and Nightwing had come up with some good lines as they danced around the teleporter. She had so much experience fighting alongside Nightcrawler that she assumed she could guess this guy's next move without any trouble. He would zig, she would zag. She'd been... a little too confident. Her spider sense had warned her of the danger as she swung towards Vibe for one more kick to the gut, but her momentum had been too strong, and there was no avoiding the inevitable.

Vibe had realized the game they'd been playing with him and grabbed Superboy as he'd tried to sneak up from behind, flinging him over his shoulder and into her. They'd crashed into Nightwing in a pile of tangled limbs and curses.

By the time Scarlet Spider looked up, Vibe had a new portal open behind him. "As fun as this has been, I'll be taking my leave now. This earth has always been a little too hero-happy for my tastes," the man smirked and saluted them, stepping backwards into the swirl of blue and white light.

If Heather had a nickle for every time she made a very stupid last-minute decision, she and Bruce Wayne would be in the same tax bracket. This was just another five cents in her fictional bank account. She sent a webline to the ceiling, propelling her up and off of her teammates and into the portal, which promptly closed behind her.

Third question, where?

On the other side of the portal, it dawned on Heather very quickly how stupid she was as she found herself free-falling. High-rises and skyscrapers rushed past her in a blur as she struggled to orient herself.

Some part of her brain that sounded a lot like her step-father screamed at her to throw a webline, and after two desperate attempts failed to land on anything, her third try caught a gargoyle. Her arm wrenched in its socket from the abrupt change in trajectory, and she gritted her teeth to stifle the howl of agony that crawled up her throat. She looked around desperately and spotted a rooftop not far away that she could reach.

Her landing was less than ideal, tumbling head over heels before rolling to a painful stop on the tarmac. She lay for a moment to let the panic subside, panting heavily from the spasms radiating from her arm and down her torso. She stared up at a smog filled night sky and the glowing neon sign of an office building as her brain rebooted.

Once she could hear more than just her own heartbeat thundering in her ears, she took stock of her situation. While she'd torn a few muscles in her arm, the damage was minimal compared to being a smear on the sidewalk. She'd twisted her ankle when she'd landed, and it throbbed in a familiar way - not broken, but definitely sprained. Everything else seemed negligible; cuts, scrapes, and general bruises. She would deal.

She sat up slowly and frowned at the office building's sign, declaring it to be one of Wayne Enterprises' headquarters. Why Vibe had thought running to Gotham was a good idea was anyone's guess.

She checked her comm, but only received static in reply, no matter what frequency she tried. Maybe it had been damaged in the fall? Her phone worked, but had no signal at all, not even wifi. That was strange; WE had public wifi available at all there buildings. She needed to reach the team somehow to let them know her status, and that despite her best (very stupid) efforts their suspect was in the wind. She wasn't sure where the closest zeta beam was from here, but maybe she could reach Nightwing a different way.

Did Heather feel bad breaking into the department store? Yes, a little, but desperate times and all that.

She'd grabbed a pair of jeans, a belt (because of course the jeans didn't fit right, but she didn't have the luxury of time on her side to find a pair that did), and an oversized sweatshirt. She dropped a pre-paid credit card on the counter with the tags of the items she was stealing, hoping the owners wouldn't be too mad at her. She then made triple sure that all the cameras she'd covered in webbing were still technically functional -just ineffective for a few hours - and grabbed a shopping bag from the register to stuff her gear into it.

Outside the store, it had begun raining, because this was Gotham and she had Parker luck. It was only natural. After trudging through the rain for a few blocks, Heather finally hailed a cab in a more populated part of the city. The clock on the dash of the taxi read a little after four am, and the driver looked like he wasn't thrilled to have found a customer.

"I need to get to Bristol," Heather told him, trying to be short but polite.

The cabby raised an eyebrow at her, blowing smoke from his cigarette out his cracked window. "That's going to cost you, lady," he told her flatly. "If you hadn't noticed, this is the Diamond District, that's a long drive."

"If you can get me there quickly, I'll pay you double the fare in tip," Heather promised.

Both eyebrows went up at that. "You're the boss," he shrugged and pulled away from the curb.

Once they reached Bristol, Heather had the cab drop her off at the Drake Estate, a few miles from Wayne Manor. She didn't think the cab driver really cared about where this woman in ill-fitting clothes was going at the crack of dawn out in the most expensive neighborhood in Gotham. But just in case someone asked him about it later, she didn't want him saying he'd dropped the weird woman off at Brucie Wayne's mansion. Never could be too careful.

True to her word, Heather had tipped extra generously, and the cab had taken off as soon as she was out of the backseat.

She glanced down the Drake's long driveway to where their modern estate could be seen peaking out between the tall trees and frowned distastefully. Shaking off her feelings towards Tim's parents, she settled into a fast walk and headed towards Wayne Mansion in the thinning rain.

By the time she reached the front gates, the rain was just mist that was slowly being burned off by the morning sun, and she was soaked to the bone. Wiping water off her face, she buzzed the intercom and hoped Alfred wouldn't be mad at her for the early morning call.

"Wayne Residence, may I help you?" His British accent came through the intercom sounding slightly tinny.

"Good morning, I need to speak to Dick Grayson or Bruce Wayne. It's Heather Reilly."

There was a long pause, too long. "Do you have an appointment?"

Heather frowned. "No, not exactly. Listen, I know it's early, but I really need to talk to Dick or Mr. Wayne."

"Master Wayne is a very busy man, young lady," Alfred began, in a clearly dismissive voice.

"Wait, please! It's..." she frowned harder, brow furrowing as an uneasy feeling filled her gut. "It's Heather, Mr. Pennysworth. You know, Heather? Dick's friend? We've... I mean, don't you know who I am?"

"I'm afraid your name is not familiar to me, and young Master Dick no longer resides here at the manor. Good day, young lady." The intercom clicked off and Heather stood blinking at it for several seconds.

"What the actual fuck?" She finally muttered.

Alfred Pennyworth did not know who she was. He had dismissed her with the same polite but frosty way she'd seen him dismiss hopeful gold diggers who hung off of Bruce at parties. As her brain processed this information, something else occurred to her as well.

Vibe. He had said something just before he disappeared. That their earth was too hero-happy. Their earth. As if there was more than one.

"Well, shit," Heather sighed sharply, rubbing at a pounding headache that was beginning to build behind her eyes.

Apparently, Vibe wasn't just a teleporter like her fiance, and perhaps their assessment of him as a c-lister villain was a bit hasty. Because apparently the sucker could warp not just around the world, but also apparently around the freaking multiverse?! And Heather, dumbass extraordinaire, had followed him to a parallel universe. Which meant that the only way she was ever going to get home was to find the bastard again, and there was no way she'd be able to do that on her own.

Fourth question, how?

Heather felt significantly more guilty sneaking onto the Wayne Manor estate than she had breaking into the department store.

She hoped that her Dick and Bruce - if she ever saw them again - would understand that she hadn't meant to memorize the defenses around the estate. Really, it was more Bruce's fault than hers.

She'd spent so much time working for the man, digging through the batcomputer's files and doing the menial grunt work to help hone her skills, that of course at some point she'd gotten bored and started studying the layout of the grounds and where all the motion detectors were hidden. She was only human... well, kind of. Sort of. Not important right now.

She didn't know for certain that this version of Bruce Wayne would use the same layout for his home's defenses. Hell, she wasn't even certain that this version had even become Batman. Maybe the man actually was a clueless socialite in this universe. But Heather had a gut feeling that she couldn't shake.

Like, sure, maybe there were universes out there where that was true. But... could there really be a universe where Bruce Wayne had never become Batman, and yet he'd still taken in Dick, who then would coincidentally also have a falling out with the man and move to Bludhaven? The whole reason her Dick had moved to that awful city was to establish himself as Nightwing.

Heather knew she was holding onto a thin string of hope here. But if she was wrong, she might never make it back home, and that possibility was too terrifying to even consider.

Her universe had found multiple ways to kick her in the teeth and drag her down, over and over again. Yet, that universe was her home, and she was still standing. She'd gotten back up each time with the help of her family and friends. She would figure this out, and she would come home to them.

There wasn't an option for failure.

By the time she was standing in front of the massive doors of the manor, her shoulder and ankle were starting to throb in time with her heartbeat. The sun had burned off the remaining rain and she estimated it was closer to six or seven am now. Despite knowing she looked like a drowned rat, Heather attempted to have some dignity as she straightened her clothes, pushed back her slick hair, and reached up to knock.

"I'll get it, Alfred," She heard a young male voice on the other side of the door, and she had just enough time to think Tim when a seventeen year old boy with dark hair opened the door.

Heather blinked. This... was not her Tim. Her Tim was still thirteen and only recently reached her shoulder in height. Yet, the haircut, the blue eyes, the sharp features, all of it definitely screamed Tim Drake.

The boy frowned at her. "Can I help you?"

"Uh," Heather floundered for a second, unsure. She hadn't anticipated speaking to anyone other than Alfred, Dick or Bruce. "Yeah, I'm sorry. It's um, it's been a rough night. My name is Heather Reilly. You're Tim, right? I'm a friend of Dick Grayson's, and I really need his help."

"You again?" Alfred was suddenly behind Tim, wearing the most severe frown she'd ever seen on the man.

It immediately made her step back a half pace and her shoulders hunch. No one, not even her own parents, could make Heather feel like a small naughty child the way Mr. Pennyworth could. There was a reason even Batman deferred to him. "I was quite firm young lady. How did you manage to get past the front gate?"

Translation: How did you avoid all of Batman's security? Heather thought, but of course they wouldn't know that she knew about any of that.

"Please, Mr. Pennyworth, if you just let me explain the situation," Heather began, trying not to wither under his stony stare.

"How do you know Dick?" Tim interrupted. He looked just as suspicious as Alfred, but there was something else in his stare, curiosity or something like it. Tim, like Bruce, was a detective and Heather could tell she'd piqued his interest.

"Dick and I are old friends," She said quickly, latching onto Tim's interest like a lifeline. "We met when we were teenagers. We, uh, had a lot in common. Listen, if Dick isn't here could I at least use your phone? I lost mine, and if I can't talk to Dick, then I need to try and call another friend."

"Are you in trouble?" Alfred asked, looking a modicum less severe than before.

"Very much so, sir,'' Heather nodded, shifting her weight only to wince as she placed too much onto her bad ankle. "Shit," she hissed, unable to keep the curse in.

"What happened?" Tim asked, opening the door wider.

"I... fell," She said lamely, scratching the back of her neck. How could she explain that it was from a height of several stories? Oh, right, she couldn't. "Twisted my ankle. It's fine, I'm a fast healer."

Tim and Alfred exchanged a long look, and only years of working with the bats helped her parse out its full meaning. They didn't trust her, clearly. They thought she might even be lying, but they weren't going to leave someone soaking wet and obviously injured outside on their doorstep.

Alfred hummed, still displeased, "You may use the phone in the library, follow me. Master Tim, would you please bring me the first aid kit?"

"Sure, Alfie," Tim sent one more scrutinizing stare her way before disappearing into what she knew was a supply closet.

She followed the butler into the library, wincing as she dripped rainwater onto the expensive rugs. He led her to an antique secretary desk with a rotary phone on it, because apparently in every universe Bruce Wayne was that kind of old money rich, and insisted she sit down on the oak desk chair. Tim reappeared shortly, carrying both a first aid kit and a towel, the latter of which Heather took gratefully as she sat her plastic bag full of gear onto the floor.

Heather carefully squeezed water out of her hair, mindful of her shoulder as Alfred looked through the kit. "If you would remove your boot, Miss Reilly, I will check your ankle."

"Oh, I mean, you don't have to-" Heather began, the towel now draped over her shoulders.

"I insist," Alfred said firmly but not unkindly.

"You might as well let him look," Tim said with a chuckle. He was leaning against one of the many floor to ceiling bookcases. "He won't take no for an answer."

"Right, I knew that," Heather muttered, shaking her head. She missed the puzzled frowns Tim and Alfred shared as she reached down and started unlacing her combat boots.

Spider-Man and her father preferred their costumes with matching boots and gloves, the web design visible from top to bottom. But she'd long ago chosen steel toed black boots and fingerless black leather gloves for herself. She liked that it made the uniform her own, along with a modified version of her father's blue hoodie - cropped, slightly darker in hue, and made of a resilient Kevlar. The Scarlet Spider silhouette was still recognizable as the one Ben Reilly once wore, but she'd made it hers, and she knew her dad would have approved.

She got the boot off and peeled off her wet sock, hissing as the fabric stuck around the swollen ankle joint before finally coming free. Of course, it was the ankle she'd broken previously, that was just her luck.

"Okay, it's a little worse than I thought," she admitted quietly as Alfred examined the injury.

"You seemed pretty confident it was just a sprain," Tim observed casually.

Bruce hasn't taught him all his tricks yet, Heather thought as she considered how to answer Tim's obviously prying question. "Not the first time," she said as she watched Alfred pull out a roll of bandages. "I'm clumsy."

Before Tim could form his next question, a voice called out, "Drake? Pennyworth?" This was followed shortly by a boy, maybe fourteen years old, coming into the library. He was also dark haired, but much tanner than Tim and his eyes were brown. There was something oddly familiar about the kid that Heather couldn't put her finger on.

"Who is this?" The boy demanded.

"Manners, Master Damian," Alfred chided him as he finished wrapping Heather's ankle. "It's best you remove your other boot as well, Miss, to give them a chance to dry out."

Heather nodded, "right, thank you, Mr. Pennyworth."

"Damian, this is Heather. She says she's a friend of Dick's," Tim explained.

"Richard has never mentioned you," Damian said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He spoke with the slightest accent, something Middle Eastern that Heather couldn't pin down, and the more she looked at his face the more she was sure she knew him from somewhere.

"We're, uh, very old friends," Heather explained awkwardly. "We haven't seen each other in a long time." Or ever, in this universe's case.

"Tt," Damian scoffed, sharing glances with Alfred and Tim. He wasn't even attempting to hide how suspicious he thought she was. It was sort of refreshing. "Richard isn't home. He's running errands with Father."

Now Heather was narrowing her eyes, her head tilting to the side as a memory came to her. Of a painting that hung in her universe's version of Wayne Manor featuring Thomas and Martha Wayne posing with their young son. Bruce was solemn, even as a child, and Damian had the same set to his jaw.

"Oh my god," she breathed as it clicked, suddenly standing as she pointed at the boy. "You're Bruce's kid. Like, his bio kid, aren't you?"

The others gave her various confused reactions. Alfred raised one eyebrow, Tim frowned, and Damian crossed his arms haughtily.

"Of course, I am," the younger boy snapped, like he thought Heather was an idiot. Which was fair. She kind of was most days, even she could admit that. "How do you not know who I am?"

"I -" She dropped her arm and rubbed her neck. "Right, yeah, that's an excellent question." She sighed. "Okay, truthfully? I am friends with Dick, but... not your Dick?" They frowned at her, and she couldn't blame them.

"Look, I'm going to level with you. I'm not from this universe. I work with Dick on my earth with a team of heroes. We were fighting this guy - Vibe? I did something monumentally stupid, and I ended up here. I didn't realize until I was already talking with Alfred that I was even in the wrong universe because my Alfred has known me for years. I worked with Batman for a while when I was a teenager, back when Dick was still Robin, and-"

"What are you talking about?" Tim interrupted her nervous ramblings. "Why do you think we know anything about Batman?" He added angrily. Damian looked ready to commit murder, and Alfred had disappeared at some point.

Heather groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, let's just cut past the song and dance, okay? I know all about Bruce, I have for years. In my universe, he gave me almost full access to the batcomputer's files. I trained with Robin in the batcave. I know about the entrance behind the grandfather clock in Bruce's study-"

Heather realized a few beats too late that was probably not the best way to break the news.

Damian was suddenly in her face with a knife at her throat pulled from seemingly nowhere. She reacted instinctively, grabbing the boy's wrist, twisting it down until he dropped the dagger. She pushed him into Tim, who'd been pulling out his collapsible bo staff. She'd turned with the intention of escaping through the library's other exit, but only made it a few strides when the sound of a shotgun being loaded stopped her dead in her tracks.

Right, that would be Alfred, she thought numbly, lifting her hands up as high as her injured shoulder would allow before dropping to her knees.

"Do not move," Alfred ordered.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"How did you disarm me so easily?" Damian demanded, stomping around to glare at her.

Heather gave him a small smile, which only made him angrier. "You remind me of my sister," she said instead of answering.

"I don't know what your game is," Tim told her, "but we're not playing. What do want with Dick?"

"First, poor word choice," Heather smirked at him over her shoulder. He glared back at her flatly, and she rolled her eyes. "My Tim has a much better sense of humor. I already told you exactly why I'm here. I'm in the wrong universe, and I need Batman and Nightwing to help me get home."

"Why do you keep insisting my father is the Batman?" Damian asked.

Heather sighed. "Look, we could keep going around and around on this all day, but I don't have that kind of time. Either call up Dick and Bruce so we can discuss this like adults, or-"

"Or what?" Alfred asked, suddenly reminding her there was a very protective butler with a gun pointed at her.

Heather pursed her lips, considering. "Why don't you take me down to the cave? You guys probably have a holding cell like my Batman does. You can keep me under lock and key until I can convince you I'm telling the truth, or until you can get someone from the League to come down who can wipe my memory if I can't."

"Or we could take you to Arkham Aslyum now," Damian suggested.

Heather took a deep breath, trying to be patient. Not like it could hold me. "It's up to you," she finally said.

Damian walked behind her so the three could share a whispered conference. Heather tried very hard not to hear them by humming under her breath, but it was a lost cause. Damian was coming up with some very creative forms of interrogation tactics, but was ultimately overruled by Tim and Alfred.

"Alright, let's go," Tim finally sighed. "Hands behind your back, and just keep in mind Alfred is a very good shot." She saw him pulling a pair of handcuffs from the corner of her eye.

"You're going to want to use something stronger than that," she told them mildly as Tim grabbed her wrists and yanked them behind her back. Tim hesitated for a moment, before Damian handed him something she couldn't see. She bit back a hiss of pain as they used what felt like metal cording from a grappel gun to bind her hands, then used the remaining cord to wrap around her arms and chest.

Better, she thought as Tim and Damian pulled her to her feet, but still not enough. Ah well, I'll let them have this one.

They blindfolded her before taking her to the batcave, maybe so they could still have plausible deniability. Heather let the boys lead her to the elevator, her spider-sense keeping her aware of Alfred's shotgun aimed at her chest. When the elevator stopped, her bare feet were treading the rock of the cave's floor as the boys prodded her along, her injured ankle really resenting the cold seeping into her bones. She couldn't surpress a small shiver, suddenly aware of her still soaking wet stolen clothes that were clinging to her.

"Relax, we're not going to hurt you," Tim murmured, misinterpreting her shudder.

"Unless you give us a reason too," Damian added, less meanly than he could have.

Huh, maybe the kid wasn't as blood thirsty as he seemed. I wonder who his mom is? I don't think it's Selina. He doesn't look anything like her. Heather pondered this little mystery until she heard a metal cage door opening and she was gently pushed inside the holding cell. Someone pulled off the blindfold before they locked her in. She blinked her eyes to help them adjust to the new lighting, taking in the somewhat familiar landscape around her.

"Good to know the giant penny and t-rex are consistent in every universe," Heather observed. "Still ridiculous, but consistent."

"Master Bruce and Master Dick are on their way," Alfred said, lowering the gun slightly but not putting it away.

Heather nodded. "I figured. So... bio kid, huh?" She added, conversationally.

Damian narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't reply.

"I totally see it now," Heather admitted, taking a seat on the cot in the cage. She brought her legs up to fold beneath her, trying to get comfortable. "I thought at first that Bruce's adoption habit was worse in this universe."

"What makes you think I'm adopted?" Tim asked, taking a seat on a stool he'd brought over.

Heather blinked in surprise. "Oh, my mistake, sorry. My Tim Drake is, so I guess I assumed."

"What happened to your Tim's parents?" Tim frowned, but there was something in his expression that Heather couldn't read.

Heather pursed her lips, considering how to explain. "They were very neglectful. At first, Bruce just had emergency custody of Tim while the state investigated why he was being left alone for long periods of time with only a maid checking on him. When they realized how shitty the Drakes were, that's when he put in the paperwork."

"So they're... still alive?" Tim asked in a much quieter voice.

Heather's heart stuttered painfully. "Oh... I'm so sorry."

Tim shook his head. "Not your fault," he said it like it was something he told people a lot, which only made Heather feel worse.

"I really am sorry. This world is so different from my own," Heather said, mostly to keep the conversation moving. She'd always hated awkward silence. "My Tim is younger, and I've never even met him before." She tilted her head towards Damian. "I mean, he might exist on my earth. Who's your mom?"

Damian tutted again, which she was beginning to suspect was a habit. "Not that its any of your business, but my mother's name is Talia Al Ghul."

Heather blinked and sat forward. "I'm sorry - the daughter of the Demon's Head is your mom? One of the most dangerous women in the world, and the next leader of the League of Assasins?"

Damian gave her a haughty nod. "I see my mother's reputation precedes her even in another universe."

"Okay, mental note," Heather muttered. "Interrogate Bruce when I get home to make sure he actually knows how condoms work."

Tim let out an involuntary snort and Damian's pride disappated back into disdain as he muttered something in Arabic that she was sure was unflattering.

"Alrighty, anyway," She sighed. "I'm assuming you have questions you want me to answer?"

"I am not sure what we could ask you that could prove your worthiness," Damian snapped. "You are a stranger to us."

Tim nodded reluctantly. "I've never heard Dick mention anyone like you." He picked up the plastic bag they must have brought from upstairs that had her gear in it, pulling out her mask and frowning at it. "What's with the spider webs?"

"On my earth, I'm called the Scarlet Spider," Heather explained, waiting for any hint of recognition on his face, but nothing came. "You know, ally of Spider-Man? Friend of the Avengers?"

"Who?" Damian asked.

"Whoa, okay, I didn't think our earths were that different," Heather shook her head. "Wait, if Spider-Man and the Avengers don't exist in this world, does the Justice League exist?"

"Of course," Tim and Damian answered almost in unison, then glared at each other in annoyance.

"That's a relief. So the team must exist too," Heather said, only to receive another frown.

"You mean the Teen Titans?" Tim clarified.

"No...? I mean the team. We work for the Justice League? But, like, covertly. We handle missions that the League doesn't want a lot of attention on, but that still needs a lot of skill." Heather explained, "There's me, Nightwing, Superboy, Miss Martian, Robin, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Beast Boy-"

"I only recognize some of those names," Tim admitted.

"Weird," Heather muttered.

"This is a waste of time," Damian exclaimed, "She's clearly lying, Drake, we should take care of her before she can reveal our identities to anyone."

"Let's pump the breaks on the murder, alright Shortstack?" Heather couldn't help but snap. "Does your Batman actually kill? Because that's seriously messed up."

"He does not," Alfred confirmed, giving Damian a reprimanding glare.

Damian rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, muttering to himself. Tim and Alfred couldn't hear it, but Heather could perfectly. "This never would happen with Mother and Grandfather."

Tim's phone suddenly chimed at the same moment Heather heard tires crunching on the gravel outside the manor. "I'm guessing Bruce is here?" She asked Tim as he checked his phone.

"How did you-?"

"Lucky guess," Heather deflected.

Alfred finally lowered his gun and left, presumably to meet his employer and pseudo son at the door. Damian seemed to take this as an invitation to take out another dagger from some pocket and begin fiddling with it. Heather guessed this was his way of intimidating her, or it could have been a nervous habit. She didn't have the heart to tell him it was more cute than anything else.

The kid looked like he'd barely hit puberty. He reminded her of her own little brother and sister, which just made her homesick. She wanted to pull her phone out, just so she could see her photos and reassure herself that they were still out there, waiting for her, but she stopped herself from snapping her restraints. She needed this world's Batman to trust her, or she'd never get home.

"I'm assuming you're a meta human?" Tim asked her after he finished sending another text. He put his phone in his pocket so he could focus his attention on her fully.

"In a sense," Heather said reluctantly. "It's complicated."

"I have a friend who's the daughter of a demon, try me," Tim challenged.

"It's not that I'm refusing to answer the question, it's just seriously complicated," She explained. "Does this world have stable cloning technology?"

"Are you somebody's clone?"

"No- well, yes and no," She shook her head when he gave her an exasperated sigh. "Complicated! Ugh, okay, so my story starts way before I was born. On my earth there's a hero called Spider-Man. He was a regular guy who was bitten by a radioactive spider, giving him super powers."

"Usually when someone has a backstory like that, they turn to a life of crime, at least in my experience," Tim commented.

"Yeah, well, he didn't. I mean, he used his powers to win money in wrestling matches at first," Heather admitted, rolling her eyes. "He was young and dumb, don't worry about it - not important. The important thing is years later, Spider-Man gets a new rogue who called himself Jackal. The guy was crazy, but brilliant."

"We are familiar with the type," Damian commented quietly.

Heather snorted. "Trust me, I know, but unfortunately he was way less Nygma and his puzzles, and more like Crane with unethical experimentation. The guy manages to clone Spider-Man, except - plot twist - Spider-Man suddenly has a case of amnesia and he and the clone can't remember which of them is the real deal."

Tim whistled, "complicated."

"Oh trust me, tip of the iceberg," Heather complained, shaking her head. "I'll skip forward, or we'll be here for hours. The clone, he went by the name Scarlet Spider, eventually comes to a truce with Spider-Man and they become allies. In the meantime, Scarlet Spider and the woman who was once Spider-Man's fiance fall in love. Eventually, they have a kid." She shrugged as much as her restraints allowed her to.

"That was you," Damian guessed.

"Yep," Heather nodded. "Again, I'm going to skip forward for brevity's sake. I developed powers as I aged, but then suddenly one day my body freaks the fuck out. My DNA wasn't completely stable, being half human and half - er, clone slash radioactive meta slash freak lab accident." She sighed. Sometimes she couldn't believe this was her life. "My body mutated."

"It didn't kill you?" Tim asks, surprised.

"It almost did," she admits quietly. "Spider-Man saved my life. I was only nineteen."

"How old are you now?" Damian asked, almost politely.

"Almost twenty-four," Heather smiled. "My fiance, Kurt, is trying to plan a surprise party for me with my Dick Grayson's help. They're not succeeding, but it's adorable to watch so I'm letting it go for now."

"You weren't lying when you said you were close with him, were you?" Tim said, almost sounding like he was talking to himself.

"Robin was always one of my biggest heroes," Heather admitted. "When we finally met, he became one of my closest friends. He's practically my brother."

"That's why you were sure he would help you," Damian concluded.

"He's my best shot," Heather admitted as Bruce finally stepped into the cave, Dick right behind, followed by an Asian woman with short dark hair, and finally an African American teen about Tim's age.

Heather tilted her head at the woman and teen in confusion. The woman only smiled mildly and waved, while the teen mirrored her frown. Well, that's definitely new. Maybe this Bruce does have more of an adoption problem than mine.

"You got my message?" Tim asked.

"Yes. We've been watching the security cameras," Bruce muttered, eying Heather like she was one of the Riddler's newest puzzles. Which, ow.

"Hello," Heather said, giving a cheery smile despite the increase in suspicious eyes on her. "I'd get up to greet you, but..."

"Oh, this one has jokes," Dick said, coming to gently take Damian's dagger away. "That's refreshing. Last time we got someone from a parallel universe, they weren't any fun. Remember Bruce? The Stephanie doppelganger?"

"Dick," Bruce reprimanded before his eldest could go off on a tangent.

"Oh yeah, no, that one was no fun," Tim agreed, ignoring Bruce’s sigh. "This one says she's known you since you were Robin."

"Hey, I have!" Heather protested. "C'mon, we were all getting along so well. I mean, aside from the stabby child over there... but I have a feeling he's like that with most people?"

"We're trying to break him of the habit," Dick commented dryly.

"Did Damian stab her?" The black teen asked.

"Not quite," Tim shrugged. "She's fast."

"Aw, thanks Tim" Heather beamed. "That's like the nicest thing you've said to me all day. When I get home, I'll be sure to tell my Tim you were nice. Even if you do need to lighten up a little."

"What makes you think you're going anywhere?" Dick asked, but Heather couldn't hear any real threat in the words. She had a feeling this Dick had just as big of a heart as her world's.

"Look, obviously me being here is upsetting for multiple reasons. You guys love your privacy, and you hate having someone around who compromises that, I get it. Not to mention, it's probably not a good idea for someone from the wrong multiverse to stay here long term. I mean, I'm a biochemist not a theoretical physicist, but I'm assuming it's probably bad," Heather shrugged as much as her bonds allowed. "So, the way I see it is, you help me get back home, and we're all happy in the end. Right?"

"How can we trust that you're telling the truth?" Tim asked again, but she could tell Bruce was thinking it over.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Timmy," Heather told him honestly. "I mean, I could sit here all day telling you things that are true of my universe? Like, I know that Dick’s first pet was Zitka, the circus elephant. I know that my Tim basically blackmailed Batman into making him Robin. I know that my Alfred never uses cloves in his cooking because Bruce is allegic, which is why he never drinks the eggnog at the Justice League's Christmas party. Is any of that true in this universe? I don't have a clue. What I do know for certain is that you all are my only shot of getting home. If you won't help me..."

Heather swallowed, staring at nothing as the despair of that possibility hit her full force. "I'll never see my family again, and Kurt will never know what happened to me. Please, I'm begging here, help me get home."

Bruce crossed his arms and looked at the Asian woman that hadn't said a word so far. The woman looked to be in her early twenties, a little younger than this world's Dick. Heather had tried not to let it bother her, but the younger woman had been watching her intently the whole time they'd been talking. Heather couldn't help feeling like she was missing something as she watched the woman turn to Bruce and smile.

"Not lying. I trust her," She finally said.

The words were stilted in a way that normally Heather would associate with learning a new language, but the woman had a distinct Gotham accent. It almost reminded Heather of how her little sister used to talk when she'd started speech therapy, like the woman wasn't sure how to put her thoughts into spoken words.

"Okay, as much as I appreciate the vote of confidence, I have to ask - who are they?" Heather asked, unable to hide her curiosity.

"You don't have a Cassandra Cain or Duke Thomas in your world?" Dick asked.

Heather shook her head, "Doesn't ring a bell, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Like I was saying earlier, my timeline seems a little skewed from this one. My Tim is younger, and as far as I know, my Bruce doesn't have a bio kid. It's just Dick, Tim, Babs and me around."

"What about Jason Todd?" Bruce asked quietly, and if she hadn't known another version of this man so well she might not have heard his trepidation for the answer.

"That's... I mean..." Heather blew out a somber breath. "Jason was murdered by the Joker," she admitted reluctantly. Every face in the room fell, but there was an air of recognition to the grief. Clearly, the same fate had befallen their Jason as well.

Heather continued after a moment, "That was a few years ago. Recently, he, well... came back. Things are still a little delicate, so he's been staying with me and Kurt for the time being."

"Why isn't he home with us?" Dick asked.

Heather grimaced. "You have to understand, he wasn't in his right mind. He - well, he attacked our Tim and hurt him pretty badly. They're both doing better, but Jason hasn't forgiven himself and still has things to work through, and Tim needs time to recover mentally and emotionally. We're giving them both space until if and when they're ready to be in the same room."

"Wow, what a concept," Tim deadpanned, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. Bruce and Dick looked uncomfortable. Heather narrowed her eyes but decided not to ask. Not her circus, not her monkeys. She could only do so much for the Wayne family in her own universe; she couldn't possibly fix an entirely different one as well. Especially when she didn't have the complete picture.

"Ya know, I kind of wish we had a version of her," Duke spoke up. "That's like the most level headed decision I've heard from someone in this family in... no, scratch that, ever."

"Don't give me too much credit," Heather smiled, but it was self-derogatory. "I've had my fair share of screw ups, too. Sometimes, you just need an outside perspective." She sighed, wishing she could rub her eyes. "Look, I get that this is a lot to ask, but I have to track down Vibe before he disappears from this world, too. I can stay right here if it makes you all feel better, but I need help finding his tachyon signature so I can catch him and make him take us home. The batcomputer is my best chance."

"Quick question," Dick lifted a hand, frowning at her. "What do you mean by 'make us feel better'?"

Heather clicked her tongue and stood up, walking to the far wall of the cage, opposite the door. She flexed her muscles, snapping the metal grappeling cord like it was dental floss. As the cord fell into a pile on the floor, she reached forward and using two fingers on each hand, bent two of the steel bars towards each other into an 'x'. She stepped back from the cage wall and put her hands behind her back, shrugging sheepishly.

"You could escape at any time, couldn't you?" Duke guessed.

Heather nodded, chewing her cheek.

"You could have broken in here without alerting anyone, gotten what you wanted, and left without a trace," Tim added. "Just like how you got passed all of the security on the grounds."

"Well, I don't know about completely leaving without a trace," Heather hedged, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm not Kurt, I can't teleport, and I don't have invisibility either."

"Hn, perhaps you could explain your powers to us in detail while we start searching for your missing rogue," Bruce said.

She didn't know this Bruce or what had happened in his life to alter it from the man she did know, but she could hear the world's greatest detective in his voice and it made the anxiety in her chest melt. They weren't going to abandon her, they were going to help.

The only question left, was when?

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gralunaisland · 1 year

Text

juvia Wasn't Needed

by: @perfectlyimperfectcharacterfan

"juvia really wasn't needed plot wise. Some would argue she help[ed] the team enter the Tower of Heaven but I'm pretty sure they would have found a way without her. Same for Battle of Fairy tail. she literally accomplished nothing there. she was absent from Edolas and Oracion Seis.

I'd ignore the filler arcs because they are trash, but in the Daphnee arc she didn't do anything either, besides blindly defending Gray even though he was 100% in the wrong (and I say this asa massive Gray fan). In Tenrou she arguably dragged the whole fight down with her obsession with Gray. she only saved Meredy because she was about to kill Gray. And it was entirely JUVIA'S fault. If she could actually put her feelings for Gray aside in a very dangerous fight, Gray would never have been so close to die to begin with.

In GMG, she didn't care about her own guild's reputation, only to be with Gray. I'll never get over her LOSING A BATTLE IN WATER. she could have changed in water and force everyone out, but got distracted by Gray, again. her winning would have prevented Minerva from torturing Lucy. she was absent from Sun village. Only in Tartaros did she do something remotely useful by killing Keith. But that was only because he was a threat to Gray.

Also the whole fight against Invel in Alvarez was forced af. It's not indicative of juvia's usefuleness. Invel would have used anyone around."

My Two Cents

Huge thank you to @perfectlyimperfectcharacterfan (I'll refer to them as "Perfectly" for ease now in this post), a delightful regular on my blog who always comments insightful thoughts about juvia and gr///via on my posts, who sent this to me in a dm and allowed me to make a post about it!

They did an amazing job parsing through the arcs, and I really don't need to add anything, but I'll just slide in my two cents at the end here.

About the BOFT arc, one could say that juvia did manage to free her and Cana from Freid's spell, but as I've said before, that was just her earning brownie points, and she kept none of the alleged "character growth" from that. Plus in the end, it was Mirajane who had to defeat Freid anyway, so her "sacrifice" really was useless.

I love what Perfectly said about the Daphne arc. I completely and totally agree with them (and I actually have an old post about this exact topic here if y'all want to read it). I couldn't have said it better myself, that juvia blindly defended Gray despite his wrongdoings, showing how she really only "cared" about Gray and not the rest of the guildmates that got horribly hurt by his stupid mistakes. That's not trust, that's insane obsession that keeps her believing Gray is infallible and perfect no matter what he does, which is so toxic towards Gray and her and everyone around them.

In the GMG, like Perfectly touched on, juvia didn't care about the guild's reputation. she didn't care that for 7 years, Fairy Tail struggled, was bullied, was mocked, was actually oppressed by the other guilds into paying absurd taxes, because they lost their most powerful members to Tenrou Island. Not only that, but they mourned for years because their friends and family had disappeared, and they didn't know if they were dead or alive. All of this hurt and trauma FT went through couldn't matter less to juvia lockser.

True FT member my butt; she doesn't love any of them, not even Gray. she didn't care enough to actually try in the GMG, and she actually wished for her FT guildmates to get hurt so badly that they had to drop out so she could participate with Gray. The wickedness of her heart is astounding. And yeah, she totally whiffed what should've been the easiest match up for her in the water battle, leading to Lucy being abused just as Perfectly said, and she also threw the Hide and Seek match by being a "love" obsessed idiot as she always is.

And let's not forget that after the GMG during the dragon battle, juvia literally gets Gray killed because she's not paying attention to anything except for Gray as always, even in the midst of a life-and-death situation, and makes it so that Gray has to save her butt for her. I mean, how much worse could this ship get, when it literally causes one of them (the victim, even) to die needlessly???

On the whole note of juvia's uselessness, one could even go as far to say that juvia is an active hinderance and blight on the lives of the people around her. she really constantly oozes toxicity and sucks the life out of everyone she comes into contact with, most of all Gray through her manipulation and abuse, but also all the women in Gray's life, as well as her fellow FT members. she is a weak link, a liability, an impediment, a stone dragging down and drowning everyone, including herself. she will never notice or care about that fact because she gets what she wants in the end, what she thinks is good: Gray's brow-beaten, brainwashed "affection".

No one wins when they rely on her. she is a parasite.

Anyway, gigantic shoutout to Perfectly again for taking the time to think so deeply about all these things, for sharing their thoughts with me, and for allowing me to share them with all of you! juvia really is a useless character, and the Fairy Tail story and her guildmates would've been infinitely better off without her.

#really appreciate the effort Perfectly put into all of this #this post literally spans all of fairy tail #so depressingly hilarious to see how worthless juvia has been this entire time #but hey who is surprised?#it is juvia we are talking about after all #anti gruvia #anti juvia #anti juvia lockser #anti juvia loxar #fairy tail #defend gray fullbuster #gray fullbuster #anti gray x juvia #anti gray fullbuster x juvia lockser #fairytail #fairy tail discussion #fairy tail discourse #gralunaessay

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soulmusicsongs · 9 months

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Funky Flute in 15 tracks

Funky Flute Grooves is a collection of 15 of the best funky flute grooves.

Basa Bongo - The Yoruba Singers (Basa Bongo / Black Pepper, 1975)

Bej Ge Le - Polish Radio Orchestra, Peter Sander And His Players – Melody And Rhythm Volume 10, 1976)

Cecen Kizi - Nathan Davis (The Best Of Nathan Davis '65-76, 2009)

Daddy, Daddy Come Dig Me - Inmates and Ex-Inmates (From The Cold Jaws Of Prison, 1971)

Echoes - Leon Thomas (Spirits Known And Unknown, 1969)

Fonky Flute - James Rivers (Fonky Flute / Unchained Melody, 1969)

Happy People - Pepe Lienhard Sextett (Happy People, 1973)

Honey Chile - Detroit City Limits (Honey Chile / Ninety Eight Cents Plus Tax, 1968)

Hot Mama - Soul Partners (Watch Me Now / Hot Mama, 196?)

King Porter Stomp - The Airmen Of Note (Two Sides Of The Airmen Of Note, 1973)

Music Man (Part II) - Pleasure Web (Music Man (Part I) / Music Man (Part II), 1973)

My Dear Groovin’ - Sunbirds (Zagara, 1973)

Mucho Funky - Señor Soul (Double Shot Records, 1968)

Number One - Greenlight (Ave Maria / Number One, 1971)

Obeah Woman - Priscilla Rollins ‎(Letter From Miami / Obeah Woman, 1973)

More Funky Flute

Funky Flute Grooves

Funky Flute Grooves in 25 tracks

Funky Flute Grooves

Funky Flute in 20 tracks

#Funky Flute #Flute #Soul #Soul Music #Soul Music Songs #Music #Music Songs #Soul Music List

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daintev · 5 hours

Text

So, I found out my two cents plus tax is actually a lot older than I thought it was. The original one was made in 2008 and ended in 2013!

I think the coolest part about this is the timelines are consistent between the two comics, 2008 was like 16 years ago and in the current version of mtcpt they say they've worked together for 16 years! It's a really cool detail that I like. So, I decided to draw their old designs for fun! :D

Also *adds queer joy and angst to your tax collectors*

Also made a playlist for the comic because I can't like things normally: MTCPT playlist!

#my two cents plus tax #mtcpt #webcomic #I can't be normal about this webcomic man it's completely infested my brain

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nebou · 2 years

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i saw your statements on jumin being too infatuated with mc and it would stress her out- i wanted to put my two cents! (even if it’s been awhile) i’d also like to hear your opinion on just how their relationship would pan out (mostly how jumin adjusts and how crazy he gets over safety)

soo tbh it was slightly difficult with the aftermath of Jumins route because at the back of my mind i was always scared of that. ironically i used to do the same thing that mc would worry that jumin would do. i used to throw my entire being and love onto people then instinctively leave after a while. but tbh? i don’t think Jumin would do that. While yeah his infatuation is a little much, it seems this can be a contract kind of thing (jumin gives etc while mc gives support), and mc worries abt being replaceable, i don’t think so.

In my opinion his infatuation would (hopefully) lessen to more of just a love that exists? jumin IS still the most loyal person in the world. but i also know that he’s the last person to think that his wife not “contributing” enough is literally a world ender. i’ve seen this in many relationships, and they’re probably just going to shift their love into the smaller domestic things rather than the large gestures jumin would do. it’s still there, but it’s dialed back jusstt a bit. With the rika thing, genuinely would get insecure abt that so you perfectly encapsulated how this kind of mc would react tbh.

i know myself enough that if i started getting thoughts that jumin saw me as a replacement, i’d run and never come back /j. this is long, and i’m really sorry if i’m bothering you! thankyou!

crap this was the person talking abt jumin and his infatuation and i forgot to elaborate on a point. i think he would want mc to contribute but i don’t think he expects her to be a breadwinner or to like compensate for anything? like maybe this is just 12am thoughts but i believe he’d be happy with love and the effort being put in the relationship. IMSOSORRYSJSN

first of all, thank you for the response! i don't know that i would use the word contract, to me it seems more of an understanding than Jumin is xyz type of person and MC is [whatever your MC is under the confines of canon responses] and they work well together. Jumin can support in his own way and MC can support in her own way and that's exactly what works for them. i see ppl sometimes claim that MC should be working a job like Jumin does so the responsibility of money doesn't lie solely on him and so MC is "contributing" to the relationship(usually in argument that the Normal End is actually better than the Good End, i've talked about here and here why Jumin probably wouldn't want her working if it wasn't with him) but i sincerely don't think that would be an issue for him since he a.) loves his job b.) already makes way too much money doing that job and c.) money being an issue is really only applicable for middle to lower income couples where finances can be sketchy or prone to any sort of economic fluctuation. for Jumin, MC's income would be completely superfluous and unneeded, as well as taking away time he could be spending with her/calling her/chatting with her. in his mind i think MC "contributing" to their relationship is already being fulfilled more than well enough. all Jumin needed in his life was someone to see him for who he really was and love him for it, that's one of the reasons why he loves MC. plus, what with spending time with her, talking with her, being lovey dovey, eventually starting a family, he's also having all his personal desires fulfilled as well.

i can see MC feeling replaceable, not because she thinks Jumin would be happier with someone in his own tax bracket, but because to her it feels like he might only be with her because he thinks she's the best he'll get... settling, essentially. the MC i portray is someone who isn't anyone so special, she looks bland, doesn't seem to have any particular talents, and now lives in the shadow of Rika- someone's who no one has a bad thing to say about, not even the man that is going blind because of her(as MC will later find out from Jumin). i think most people would be an insecure mess being constantly compared to that, and that's before we take into account Jumin's unrequited feelings for Rika. i guess what i'm trying to say is that money and jobs isn't, hasn't been, and never will be how she "contributes" in Jumin and MC's relationship, and it's not a reason MC should feel she's replaceable in.

and.....omg i haven't even got to your original question LMAO i just wanted to get the money/job contribution thing outta the way, my answer to what i think Jumin would do as his emotions calm in the later stages of their relationship is under the cut for length lol i'm so sorry i'm like this

i said earlier i think one of the reasons Jumin loves MC -and a big component of why he's attracted to her in the first place- in that she sees him for who he is, not who he's supposed to be(think Bad End1), nor who she wants him to be(BE2). the only people Jumin has ever felt this gaze from is his dad, Jihyun, and Rika(and by extension, Elizabeth the 3rd).

Rika was special because she was the only woman among them to do so, and thus for a time occupied Jumin's heart in a way he never truly articulated until his own route. for Jumin it could only be a 'what if', and i think that's partially why he ended up investing so much in Elizabeth: he could almost perfectly live out his fantasy of Rika with out any fear of rejection, project all his ideals and on Elizabeth, and she could never disagree since, hey, cat's can't talk. i think the reason Jumin felt this love so deeply is because it was his first even remotely romantic possibility in his life up to that point, rather than him being especially attracted to Rika because of some particular quality about her aside from his perception of her perception of himself.

onto how i think this all comes together in how Jumin and MC's relationship is different and more meaningful; i think they're perfect for eachother. i think Jumin's love for MC isn't only limited to how she sees him, but how she treats him and those around her, he's said on multiple occasions how he finds particular features of hers to be cute like her ears and her sleepy eyes(even when Sarah Choi points out how mob MC looks lol), he loves how she treats him like letting him ramble about vitamin d and looking out for his emotional well being, he loves how she behaves like when she (can) threaten to beat up the people making his life difficult and (can) call him at ungodly hours of the night just to poke fun and mess around. for comparison we never really see him make comments quite like that about Rika, he just says she's kind and beautiful. on top of all of that, Jumin is the fiercely loyal type who's more than willing to keep someone in his life even if they grow to be different than how they met, he cares so much to the point he can't help it.

as an aside, him and Rika could never work out though since they're fundamentally incompatible and would likely both drive the relationship into the ground, it's also a personal belief of mine that Jumin would only stomach Rika's domestic violence to a certain degree, likely the point where she blinded V would be the point where he finally cuts off the relationship, since Jumin doesn't have the same savior complex as V.

as for his, ahem, strong emotions, they are certainly a force to be trifled with, and while i do think how he chooses to express those emotions will gradually peter out to a more reasonable level of dramatic, i still think the depth of his love for MC will remain the same as it did on his day 10, as that's just his nature.

there only real sticking point for his and MC's relationship ever ending prematurely is MC herself. particularly if she ever fell out of love with Jumin. this largely depends on how you see MC, if you're like me, she serves as a self-insert, and then the question becomes what do i see myself having an issue with. i'm also someone who runs away from attention for fear of rejection, so i can see MC subtly sabotaging her and Jumin's relationship as an expression of insecurity and fear. i can also see Jumin fighting for the relationship the second he realizes what is happening for all of the reasons above.

i think everyone has at least a small fear of being replaced, and in MC's situation that fear is more than justified, but the wonderful thing about their relationship is that so long as MC chooses to trust Jumin, that fear will never come to fruition, and once they both overcome that, they will have a long and healthy relationship until Luciel's spaceship explodes and destroys the earth. until then though, i'm gonna keep making comics about them because Jumin's cute and i want me and everyone else to live vicariously though MC(and even Jumin, to and extent, because everyone could use their own MC in their life)

anyway this post is long enough, thank you sm for giving me a reason to ramble away, feel free to send any more thoughts my way >:3c

#you've activated my trap card #hopefully this is coherent because i'm not gonna look it over too much lol #they exist #mysme #jumin han #anon #Anonymous #the raccoon discusses

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system-of-a-feather · 10 months

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as a fellow asian system i hope having to deal with racists doesn’t take too much of a toll on you !!

It's just a Saturday honestly.

As bad as Sophie and crew are, they're honestly not that special in terms of just being white. You can't really let their idiocy get to you otherwise you'll just sit there and be chronically angry which - while XIV 1.0 can enjoy it - it's not really my cup of tea. There's a time for being upset about things and its important to air that out, but at this point I've decided I'm kind of just over it.

I'm honestly just playing Inscryption, doing art fight, and going to my basically-mother-in-laws birthday celebration today - probably the gym and playing the guitar. While it is active on the blog right now, I just add my two cents here and there when it comes up cause the topic does actually matter to me as both an Asian and a Buddhist and I'd love to open the door to those trying to genuinely understand it more to discuss how some of these things work, cause again, it's my life and it does mean a lot to me and I like to share it, but it's kinda hard when everyone is (reasonably and validly) upset and focused on two chickens with their heads cut off running in circles making a mess of the place.

So honestly, while it was more "taxing" (<- wouldn't really say that beyond the moment whenever it got me irked) before, at this point I just sigh and go back to my things after adding my two cents.

Cause I would like to see some nice discussion on tulpa stuff and buddhism and white / western appropriation, commercialization, and sensationalism of eastern cultures and the history between the "cultural exchange" claimed - and I'd honestly like to hear other opinions and people with different knowledge than I do comment on it - but that sort of conversation is limited when we don't ignore the two that go "UM ACTUALLY EXCUSE ME WHITE PEOPLE ARE ENTIRELY INNOCENT AND YOU ARE RACIST FOR IMPLYING THAT IT MIGHT NOT BE 100% INNOCENT" and refuse to accept the basic premise that maybe - perhaps - there are a few things off about it.

But again, I digress. I have other things to sit on my mind about it today and its not really something I'm gonna let fester in here beyond when it comes up on my dash directly. I got better things to do than to put time being upset and angry at people who really don't care if I'm upset and angry.

That plus I am also just a bit tired of the sheer negative and angry intent being brought into conversations on this blog, so I am kind of debating what I intend to allow to be on this platform moving forward. I'm not sure where the line between uplifting conversation on AAPI issues begins and when it turns to the sort of syscourse/syscourse-esque things I don't really want to put on people's dash.

Regardless, thats for me to judge as I see it.

Thanks for the ask and concern though. We're doing good and long post short, we look like we are fixated on this topic more than we are cause the internet is only a fraction of our life honestly.

#alter: riku #ask #asks #tulpa tw #discourse tw #syscourse tw

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fuck-customers · 2 years

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Lady just tried to steal a bag from right under my nose

So we have cheap plastic bags (5 cents each) and slightly better reusable ones (99 cents plus tax). This lady comes up with a sheet set, I ask her if she wants one of the plastic bags, she says no. While we're going through the transaction, my supervisor says something to me, but I can't hear her bc she's helping someone at another register. I figure, I've been here two hours, it's probably time for my 15. So I go over there as soon as I'm done and ask her what she said, and she says my customer has one of the reusable bags and she didn't pay for it. The lady says she did, and that I rang it up, and I shake my head. Why tf do you think that's gonna fly, you never said anything to me about it???

Anyways she decides to pay for the bag and spends the whole time complaining about how my supervisor is so nosy and rude and should mind her own business. Lady, she was polite and also we could get in trouble for that. She was looking out for herself and for me. Go bitch somewhere else thankyouverymuch.

(got my 15 right after that)

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unhingedwomandiaries · 2 years

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Thirty-two years on this spinning rock, and what exactly have I accumulated? Not wealth or wisdom or even an acceptable level of life satisfaction, but a demand. A demand for compensation that (at least in my mind) seems completely reasonable. I want £32,000 for enduring these 32 trips around the sun. That's a decent chunk of change, I'll admit. But is it really so outrageous?

Think about what £32,000 actually buys in this mallscape of electric Milton Bradleys and compulsory contactlessness. A few used sedans, maybe. A year's rent in an affordable condominium complex surrounded by other affordable condominium complexes. Four in-state tuitions at a low-quality university. Or 32,000 Arby's Value Meals consumed alone in your idling Hyundai as you ponder whatever it is that brought you to this profoundly American moment.

When you tally the general cost of maintaining a personal existence in 2022 - the utilities, the insurance, the unceasing onslaught of subscriptions and memberships and cloud-based life taxes - £32,000 feels like a stunningly reasonable ask for 32 years of….well, of being. Of waking up and then not immediately losing the capacity for wakefulness. I'm not asking for the world here. I'm asking for the world to compensate me for being part of it. That's my two cents, plus the £31,998 I believe this indifferent universe still owes me for my continued...

#diary #Salary

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