KnightedRogue

Or maybe he’s just ordering a decaf.

Maybe she’s ordering sugar free because she’s diabetic, and you’re about to put her six feet under.

Or maybe she’s just ordering sugar free,

Maybe they’re ordering non-dairy because they’re intolerant, and you’re about to ruin their day. Maybe they’re allergic, and you’re about to sponsor an all black event in an open field.

Or maybe they’re just ordering non-dairy.

Maybe they ordered gluten free because they can’t process it, and you’re about to destroy their digestive tract.

Or maybe they’re just ordering gluten free.

Maybe they’re ordering this way just because they don’t want the food, for whatever reason.

she doesn’t need to be dieting

Ugh, non dairy milk is so hard to steam, and drinking soy is a fad anyway

Life is short, eat the damn cheese bitch, it won’t kill you

I’d have to go open another bag of the gluten-free, and I don’t wanna walk all the way to the back room to go get it

At least once, I caught it maybe 3 seconds from disaster- someone with a life-threatening dairy allergy had ordered a soy latte. She told me at the register that it was a deadly allergy. I even wrote on the cup “ALLERGY- NO DAIRY”.

I caught the barista in question rolling her eyes and saying under her breath, “skinny bitches and their fake allergies, trying to get shit for free” (this particular coffee shop had a policy where a dairy allergy meant you didn’t pay the extra fee for non-dairy milk).

I saw the barista rinsing the dairy pitcher, put 2+2 together, and yelled out to the customer to stop her. She hadn’t started drinking yet, but she did lick the drips on the lid- she still needed her Epi-Pen and to go to the hospital.

Suffice to say that barista was fired on the spot… but there are many more people like that. Far too many.

Make the food/drinks people order, the way they fucking order them.

Even if she had just been trying to save the 50 cents…. so what?

Your writing doesn’t suck. Even if it’s not getting the attention you’d hoped, that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Your readers compliments ARE genuine.

Your efforts are NOT in vain.

You are NOT wasting your time.

Like yeah, it's tempting to want people to improve and be someone who can personally help them, but I find most people improve naturally as they produce more work passionately rather than having their flaws pointed out and essentially be told to do homework before they can do stuff they find passionate about again.

Everyone else is watching the Clone Troopers with indifference.

But Bail?

He knows what they’ve done. And he knows they can never come back from it. And he knows this is wrong.

But he can’t say anything.

Accountants would cry trying to tally their points. They've encountered people who did bad things for good reasons before, but the scale the Leverage team operated on is new. The personal improvement of all the Leverage crew over the course of their life is huge, but the number of people they've hurt (the system doesn't allow for "but they deserved it"; and it's really hard to measure "they would have hurt more people if we hadn't stopped them", although the accountants still have to try to factor it in).

Glenn and some friends would lobby for Nate to be made an honorary demon because they want his help designing tests. Also, he's really hard to test because he keeps figuring it out.

Vicky would keep sending Sophie through the same test--meeting a promising new thief--and insist the goal was for Sophie not to train the thief but instead discourage them from pursuing a life of crime, but really Vicky is just taking notes on all of Sophie's acting tips.

Shawn puts bad people in a situation to do bad things and Eliot close enough to see. Either the bad people won't do bad things and thus improve, Eliot will find a way to stop them without beating them up and thus improve, or Eliot will beat them up. Shawn calls it "economical and enjoyable!"

They create a neighborhood where Hardison has opportunities to fix a corrupt government or business, but he keeps using his normal methods, and "refusing to work with corrupt and unethical people on their terms" and "stops bad people from hurting innocents" count as positive points even as his methods rack up the negative points. He also hacks the Bad Place. Changing your own score is negative points. Changing other people's scores to spare them suffering is positive.

Parker's case keeps getting handed to different architects. The architects keep succumbing to the temptation to try and build a security system she can't beat rather than teach her not to steal.

At some point, Nate has figured out he's in a simulation and refused to cooperate unless he speaks to whoever is in charge ("You need my help to keep this from happening again"), Sophie has earned Vicky's trust and convinced Vicky to show off her other work, Eliot has learned to tell the demons and real people and simulations apart and followed a demon to the exit, Hardison has hacked his way out, and Parker found an air vent that leads out of the testing room, and the five meet up again, ready to break out of the Bad Place.

So, because I like learning opportunities, here’s how to steward land.

Pick a spot. An abandoned lot, a road ditch, a cemetery, a creek, a path though the woods, a piece of timber bordering a park, whatever.

If it isn’t your land and you really don’t like doing illegal shit (smh), get permission to tend it.

If you’re magically inclined, get to know the spirits there, set up altar space with items that won’t be litter if they get loose, or that won’t make animals sick if they get into them. Only do this if appropriate. I have an altar beside the creek on a few big, flat stones, but this might be less appropriate in an often visited cemetery.

Start with what’s there. If it’s all grass, mow it higher. Pick up the trash. Prune the trees and large plants, learn to identify the plants that are there and if they’re native or not.

Next step up, destroy invasive species (if you’re certain they’re invasive.) Emerald ash borers are easy to identify. Kudzu is a little less so. Water what needs watering, weed what needs weeding.

Start planting, if you can. Learn from the native people on your land if you have access to them- otherwise, check an extension office or university. Plant native species in varieties that will coexist. Start removing grass, if appropriate. Probably shouldn’t remove grass in a cemetery, but if the ditch you’re tending is just regular bluegrass, smother that shit out and start planting better things.

Make certain the area is habitable for native species of animals and insects. I cannot STRESS ENOUGH how important it is to make sure your area is accessible and habitable for native species, especially native pollinators. I live in the prairie area, and if I see one more “native species haven” with no flowers or only red ones, I’m going to flip my shit.

Finally, LISTEN TO NATIVES. If it’s your land, consider participating in a land-back program. If you ask for advice, listen to it. Check the websites that most tribes have for this purpose. And BE RESPECTFUL.