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If companies won’t provide me with the specific merch I crave then the only answer is to make it myself!

Her and Grandpa were in a relationship with their best friends

The four of them have been in a relationship since they were teenagers

They flipped a bottle cap to see which girl the boys would marry

Their children could have either man as their biological father but their biological mother is the mum that raised them

I am a social worker. I have worked in community mental health and in home-based healthcare. And it is much, much easier for me to help you when the situation you're in is not yet a full-blown crisis.

"I'm out of money and have been for a while and now I haven't eaten for three days." This is a crisis. A crisis where I'm likely going to have to put you in the car and take you to the nearest food bank--except food banks require appointments now, and the next opening is in four days, so you're staring down the barrel of a week with no food. That's obviously not going to work, so, let's call eight different food banks until we've found one that has an appointment the next day...except it's in the neighboring county and you can't drive. So now I'm calling your doctor to try and brow beat an emergency plan of care update out of him so I can come back the next day and drive you to the food bank. And we haven't even started on the "constantly broke" part of the problem.

"I don't think I have enough food to make it to my next paycheck. I have (xyz) in my house and that will only last until (date)." This is bad, but not a crisis. We have a few days. We make you an appointment at the food bank and contact your brother to make sure you have a ride there. Now we can spend our visit talking about what bills are causing you the most problems and make a jump on a long-term solution, like looping in a community action agency to cover your utilities and getting you an OTC card from Medicaid to cover some of your groceries every month.

"I'm ten months behind on rent, and my landlord said I have a week to get out, or the cops will throw me out. I don't have the money, and if I get evicted, I have nowhere to go." This is a crisis. Every single thing we do here is going to be some version of a Hail Mary. In Michigan, we have the state emergency relief fund for rent issues, but process time is well over one week. There are community action agencies that we can call to assist you with payment, but they are unlikely to have sufficient funds to cover nearly a year of back rent. We can contact legal aid clinics to try and prevent your landlord from evicting you, but they may look at your case and determine that too much "fault" lies with you. Most likely, I'm going to have to put you in touch with homeless shelters and the public housing office.

"I'm two months behind on rent and I don't think I'll be able to pay next month either." This is bad, but not a crisis. This is solvable. We have time to apply for SER, or put you in contact with community action agencies. We have time to review your finances and see if you qualify for a public housing wait list or other forms of ongoing rental assistance. We have time to talk about a million possible adjustments to try and ease the burden of your rent.

"I am the sole caregiver for my elderly parent who has dementia and is emotionally volatile and fully dependent on me. I have not slept through the night in weeks and I have not had an actual break for over a year. I am having screaming meltdowns multiple times a week and I am threatening self-harm unless someone comes to collect my parent and take over all caregiver duties." This is a crisis. This is a crisis where the ethical code of my profession demands that I call 911 and report the conversation to them. They will likely come to the house and interview you. If they determine your threats were serious, they will have you forcibly committed to a psych ward. Your parent will either be dumped into a random hospital or rehab center, or left in the house on their own. Upon release from your psych hold, you will be expected to resume caregiving duties as though nothing happened. Except, now, adult protective services is actively investigating you, because it was determined you may be an ongoing danger to your parent.

"I am the sole caregiver for my demented parent, and I have not had a break in a couple of weeks, and I feel angry and weepy most of the time." This is bad, but not a crisis. We can get you in touch with volunteer groups for respite, and apply for state funded programs to get more day-to-day help, and talk about long-term planning for when the dementia symptoms get worse. We can get you the phone numbers for crisis lines and enroll you in a support group.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

ROUND 2 — Match 73 of 138

Nisha Kadam (Borderlands)

Problematic because: "she’s jack’s girlfriend/enforcer and later the sheriff of lynchwood, where she rules the town like a tiny death-penalty dictatorship. she apparently has over 200 laws and every single one is punishable by death, which is honestly so ridiculous it loops back around to being horrifying. she also helps jack after the pre-sequel, is involved in the fall of new haven, captures brick, kills his puppy, and generally seems to enjoy violence way past the point of “well, it’s pandora.” like, borderlands is full of murder gremlins, but nisha really made it her personal brand." Propaganda: 1. "nisha is so bad but she’s SO fun. like yes she runs lynchwood like a murder theme park and yes every law is apparently punishable by death because she’s insane, but also she’s a gunslinger cowgirl with zero chill and i respect the commitment. she’s one of those characters where you’re like wow you are making every possible wrong choice and somehow i still want to hear what you say next. awful sheriff. great vault hunter. terrible person to date unless you are also handsome jack, which is already a warning sign." 2. "she’s hot, she’s mean, she shoots people for a living, she dated handsome jack on purpose"

vs. Margot Verger (Hannibal)

Problematic because: "She’s been horribly abused by Mason for years, and a lot of what she does comes from trying to survive him and take back the Verger inheritance before he can trap her forever. But her plan with Will is still messy - she sleeps with him because she needs a biological heir, and arguably has sex with him under false pretenses (or at least without full honesty, so no informed consent - though you could argue he should've caught on that there was more to it with her being, y'know, a lesbian, and him acknowledging this when she propositioned him), with him getting pulled into a family war he doesn’t fully understand at first. Then in Season 3, she and Alana plot around Mason, get what they need from him while he’s incapacitated, and kill him. Extremely understandable revenge, extremely not normal behaviour." Propaganda: 1. "Margot is exactly the kind of character I’ll defend while admitting she belongs here. Like, yes, she manipulates the situation with Will, yes, she helps kill Mason, yes, the inheritance baby plot is insane from basically every angle. But also… Mason. What was she supposed to do, keep politely waiting for the legal system in Hannibal world to rescue her from the rich sadist who literally controls her family, money, body, and future? That’s why I like her. Margot isn’t written as a pure victim who only suffers prettily. She’s angry, calculating, bitter, wounded, and willing to get blood on her hands if it means Mason finally loses. Her revenge isn’t clean, but I don’t think the show wants it to be. She survives by becoming more strategic than the man who thought he owned her, and honestly, good for her. Bad for the law, probably. Great for me personally." 2. "margot verger did crimes and i’m minding my business. sorry but if my brother was mason verger i too might become very creative about inheritance law and murder." 3. "She’s one of the few people in Hannibal who feels like she’s trying to claw her way out of someone else’s horror story. Mason has the money, the name, the estate, the legal leverage, the family power, and the sheer willingness to do anything to keep her under him. Margot doesn’t really get a clean path out. She gets Hannibal Lecter as a therapist, which is already a sign the universe hates you, and then a revenge plot with Alana that ends in Mason very much not surviving the season. I don’t want Margot turned into a perfect angel, because that takes away half of what makes her interesting. She’s not just sad. She’s sharp. She can be selfish. She can use people. She can decide that if the Verger family is a nightmare, she’s going to become the person who walks out of it. Is that morally pure? no. Is it satisfying? unfortunately yes."