#goldpost

[shinygoldstar]

edited from this

[totally-totty]

the todomatsu jewelry pillow to display your grotesquely expensive 14k gold 21 full cut diamond jewelry watch on.

[shinygoldstar]

Ace of Pentacles

Upright: new opportunities, resources, abundance, prosperity, security, stability, manifestation

Reversed: missed chances, scarcity, deficiency, instability, stinginess, bad investments

for @/dp-tarot-cards

[shinygoldstar]

pls humbly accept my low effort offerings of Danny drinking Ranch 2

(2nd pic is sized for Discord emote)

[shinygoldstar]

Knight of Swords

Upright: assertive, direct, impatient, intellectual, daring, focused, perfectionist, ambitious

Reversed: rude, tactless, forceful, bully, aggressive, vicious, ruthless, arrogant

[shinygoldstar]

Lemon Ghost doodles

(Lemon Demon Ghost belongs to @the-stove-is-on-fire - I really love Lemon Ghost :D)

pink lines because that was the last color I used. the doodles looked cuter in pink so I kept it

[shinygoldstar]

so I had this question of why is Vlad (a likely victim of US medical + student debt) acting like a Lex Luthor knock off instead of Robin Hood knock off? I played with the idea and it kinda snowballed down from here as to how college Vlad ended up like he is in canon

(tw for uh vague mentions of Vlad being threatened by loan sharks causing him to steal?)

warnings for morally dubious vlad (on topic of theft)

Vlad is most likely just another unfortunate guy with college debt who got admitted into a hospital for something not entirely his fault (he definitely violated lab safety protocols and that's on him but lab goggles still wouldn't protect him much) and probably racked up quite the number of hospital bills which he couldn't pay.

So when you're a penniless kid with piles of debt but you also have ghost powers? He probably robbed someone by accident the first time (knocked into someone, accidentally turns intangible, knocks the person's wallet out without them realizing it). He might want to return the wallet like any decent person but he has *debts* and maybe his needs are a bit more important than the wallet's owner (totally not biased here/sarcasm). With the wallet he managed to pay for his monthly rent with some cash left over which would hopefully tide him over until he gets a new job.

Unfortunately his new powers meant he never managed to hold a job for long. Accidental intangibility making him drop food plates, invisibility making things inconvenient, not to mention floating at the worst timing. Yeah he doesn't hold a job well.

He accidentally trips and fall over a cashier counter but instead of falling over it, he falls through it. And pulled out bits and pieces of cash out in the process. He guiltily returns it back.

His rent and debt installments are due. He doesn't have enough money to pay for it all. He runs. Doesn't contact people so that debt collectors can't find him. Unfortunately for him he borrowed from loan sharks to pay off his first few debt installments (because no one else would loan him money as a jobless kid with only high school degree) and they found him. He needs cash in 24 hours or they'd do more than rough him up.

Vlad was out of options. His powers acted up out of stress, giving Vlad a desperate idea. He tries to intentionally use his powers for the first time to steal money with mixed degree of success but he managed to mollify the loan sharks.

Once becomes twice, becomes a pattern. Once to get enough money so he could finish his degree and get a job. Another round to get him a place to stay. A few more to get him out of debt installments. He tries to pick only the ones that won't miss the money (he needs it more than them so they won't miss it right?) Before he knows it, he's already making a career out of stealing.

It snowballed from there. By the time he built himself up from the negatives it became something he didn't even think about anymore. (i think i accidentally created a kleptomaniac vlad..)

Vlad has money, more than enough money now. He buys a castle because he can, tries to fill it up with shades of green and gold (his fondest memories of his parents were filled with sounds of cheering and shades of green and gold) to make the place more lively. He's used to being alone now that being around other people (so mundanely ordinary) irritates him (why should he care about some popular TV series or celebrity gossips?). He can barely remember what it's like to be normal now (to be like them). There are more important things to think about, to discover. The idea that he might share his wealth to help other unfortunate people like him never occurred to him (because he needs it more than them, right?)

[shinygoldstar]

Inky (Wes' Cat from @five-rivers ' Mortified)

i couldn't decide which version i liked most so here's the other one below the cut