I can’t tell you how many times I’ve complained about losing money on a product due to lack of demand/expiration date, damage, theft, etc. and the person says “well just write it off!”
Write it off = use it as a tax deduction
You don’t get the money back.
You just don’t have to pay taxes on it.
But here the thing! I don’t pay taxes on items until I sell them anyway -- that’s how retail works. So even if I were to use it as a ‘write off’ it does nothing for me.
The next thing people tell me is to claim insurance on it, but that raises my premiums like you don’t even know how bad, and I never get the real value of the items back anyway, so I never bother with insurance and just take the loss.
Recently I lost $8,000 when a shipment from South Korea was destroyed by US customs (the company I bought the goods from didn’t fill out ALL the information -- seriously it was just a missing phone number but it was enough to get the entire shipment destroyed).
I can’t claim insurance on it even if I want to because customs deemed it illegal goods even though they weren’t. I can’t go after the Korean company because they don’t give a shit and they’ll just refuse to sell to me anymore. So I just have to suck it up and politely remind them to fill out ALL the info on the customs forms each time I buy.
What most people think of as a write off is actually used by big businesses to ensure they pay almost nothing in taxes, if anything, and they get extra government assistance and bailouts.
Their accountants and lawyers use the legal provisions that should be there to help small and medium business owners survive to make sure big business continues making obscene amounts of money while the small and medium business owners can’t actually access these provisions.
So letters-to-somebody and I were talking about FAHC Ryan’s backstory and what-if Ryan originally was a student studying VFX make up and costume design for theatre and that’s how he was able to so easily reinvent himself as the Vagabond, and how he probably custom made his mask and jacket and then...
So I...
What if literally no one knows that Ryan the mask store guy and the Vagabond are the same person. Like Vagabond keeps showing up and screwing up their heists and getting away with half or more of their earnings but also never tries to kill or hurt any of them- (one time Gavin turns around and squawk-screams because Vagabond is right there and then gets whacked in the face but he swears he heard a muffled “sorry!” before Vagabond ran off and started blowing up cop cars)
And meanwhile the nice dorky and friendly Ryan gives the crew discounts on masks and disguises and sources things before they even mention needing them -but that they certainly talked about last time they shot up an armoured truck- and never asks questions which Geoff really appreciates.
And imagine one time maybe the Lads are doing a quick spur-of-the-moment robbery at a convenience store and while Michael’s screaming at the clerk to put the money in the bag and Gavin’s keeping an eye on the door, Ray’s making sure none of the customers are trying anything funny- and he realises Ryan’s one of the customers standing stock-still with a shopping basket of diet coke and random pasta ingredients. And so Ray makes a quick decision and when Michael yells they’re good to go Ray grabs Ryan by the elbow and drags him out after them, drags him all the way to the getaway car and shoves him in the backseat next to him. As they’re speeding away Gavin and Michael notice Ryan in the backseat -still clutching his grocery basket- and are like “oh shit, hi” “um... can we drop you somewhere?” and Ryan meekly half-smiles back. Cue a kinda-awkward conversation where Ryan’s like “so I take it the animal masks are comfortable to wear then?” and they end up talking adjustments and plans for future designs and make up. Gavin slips a few fifties in Ryan’s shopping basket and they drop him off with a joking “don’t tell anyone!”
When the Lads relay the story back at HQ, Jeremy just laughs his head off, Jack is mildly concerned and checks they shot out the security cameras so Ryan won’t get in trouble for being seen leaving with them, and the cogs in Geoff’s head start ticking.
A week or so later, it’s clear Ryan hasn’t let anything slip, so the crew go back to the mask store and Geoff casually mentions a permanent position in the crew as Master of Disguises. Ryan says he’s very flattered and politely asks for some time to think about it.
The crew notices that over the next few days the Vagabond doesn’t interfere with any of their heists or schemes, but each time at least one of them spots him watching not too far away -there’s even a time when Jeremy almost gets cornered down an alley, and all the cops just drop down dead, giving him enough time to scale the fence at the end and when he looks back he notices Vagabond chilling near the top of the fire escape give him a little wave.
Another week passes and the crew doesn’t hear from Ryan, and the one time Jack drops by the mask store it’s closed up. But then one night when the entire crew is winding down at Geoff’s penthouse apartment, there’s a knock on the door. Gavin goes to open it, shrieks, and there’s the sound of six different guns being pulled out and cocked, all aiming at the doorway where the Vagabond stands.
There’s about ten seconds where no one moves, and then Vagabond holds his hands up and takes a couple of slow steps forward and into the apartment, nudges the door closed with his heel, and ever so slowly reaches up to pull off his mask.
The first thing they all notice is the very familiar style of face paint, all intricate lines and details, and then-
the blue eyes-
a slightly awkward smile-
and Gavin’s the first one to just blurt out “BLOODY HELL, Ryan!”
And then the rest of the crew reacts and they’re putting away guns and all talking at once and Ryan just grins really widely and happily at them all and then looks to Geoff and says,
