#;;a starter mid convo?? more likely than you think

[faiirytalcs]

closed: angelica pickles ( @cynthiastan ) location: moonlight casino

“Well, if none of these idiots catch your attention, you know where to find me.” Luis spoke with a smirk as he finished off his drink, knowing his break was almost over and he should head back over to the card table soon.

[basil223]

Queer Girl Rambles pt.1

(If you don’t like long stories that could be said in only a few sentences, skip this. It’s a winding road, so either get in the car and drive with me, or skip the party)

I’m a recently self accepted Queer person. I realized I was a homosexual a little over a year ago and it took a bit for me to be comfy with that. And then I decided I’d download the Her app. It was beginning of lockdown (although if you had asked me then I would have said it was mid lockdown, so I guess this qualifier doesn’t really matter), and I, as a socially out, but familial closeted person decided that talking to women on a dating app might give me a chance to spread my little gay wings.

It took about 20 minutes but a girl, let’s call her Hannah, messaged me. She was funny and actually held a conversation, and Hannah made it very very clear that she thought I was beautiful and that had COVID not been a thing, she would have asked me on a date.

I was shocked, delighted, and baffled. A woman? Liked me? I had never felt desirable before then. No one had ever actively pursued my attention before ~at least, in a respectful way~I was excited.

But here’s some things you’ve got to know. I am a college student. I am a college student who struggles with school. I am a college student who struggles with anxiety. I am a college student who’s main goal is to graduate with possible grades and this is her one try main focus. And most importantly I am a college student who is trying their best.

Sounds normal right?

I get busy, everyone does. Over the next week, Hannah and I seemed to be playing phone tag. One of us would respond, and then along while later the other would. Eventually we exchanged Snapchat’s.

Ok. More backstory...at the time I was taking summer classes, which is essentially a 3 month course jammed into a 4-6 week period. I was taking not only Physicsand Physics lab, but I was also taking Calculas. A class I had failed, in a normal term, twice already. My strengths are not in math or science but I had to take these to keep my graduation date from pushing back. For MANY reasons, it was one of the most anxiety ridden summers I’d ever had. But I handled myself. I’d gone to therapy a few years before, and I had some therapist sanctioned coping mechanisms, and some self taught ones. For example. Spoons. You have 20 spoons a day and you can spend them on whatever you like. Some tasks take more spoons than others, but you only get 20. So use them well. At the time, school was about 15 spoons. Staying closeted during a pandemic and social movements in a southern conservative home took up 4. Which left me about one spoon to spend. Most days this was spent laying on the floor with my puppies or attempting to keep in contact with my ride or die friends. Because that’s one of my self taught coping mechanisms, which may not be healthy or not. But when I reach my capacity, I shut out the world. I cannot respond to texts or calls or, anything. And at this point in my life, my friends understand that. If they don’t hear back from me, I don’t HAVE to worry about upsetting them( I mean I still worry but as I said. Anxiety). At the very least I can just text them spoons and they get it. I try to respond as fast as possible but sometimes things get pushed back a few days.

Anyway, back to the story. We had been snap chatting a bit, at least everyday, but it wasn’t the same. I began to notice that Hannah never seemed to talk about herself. I’d ask her questions about herself but I’d get very little information. And she’d quickly turn the convo back to me. And let me tell you. There is only so much of talking about my own life that I can do. I tried using convorsation starters or asking her opinions on things I had never experience but she had, and...still she gave little information and turned it back to me. It was frustrating, but I accepted it. Maybe she wasn’t as good a conversationalist as I first thought. And another thing I noticed was that she never seemed to be able to chat with me first. I was the one who had to initiate it first. One day I decided that I wasn’t going to message first. A few hours go by and I see on her story that she posted a meme about people not texting people. It seemed weird but I thought, no can’t be about me. The next week I tried it again. The meme was way more pointed and most could argue passive aggressive. I called her out on it, and told her if she wanted to talk to me, she didn’t have to wait for me to do it. She agreed said she’d do that. ~stage whispers~ she didn’t.

These passive aggressive story posts would continue for,gosh a half a year now. If I didn’t text her for a stretch there would be a post on her story about it. It got to a point where I wouldn’t open her stories or even Snapchat at all.

In December I got an internship, which is essentially a full time job and it’s expected I take night classes to accommodate this (it’s part of my major so it sounds crazy but I swear it’s normal). I was anxious and it’s been a huge learning curve. Throughout this time, I would off and on respond to her texts, I’d tell her how the internship was going all that jaz. But there would be days where my spoons we spent and most defiantly not on her. Her call out posts increased. My anxiety got real bad and her posts only made things worse. So eventually her messages sat in my inbox, unread, for 3 weeks. I contemplated never opening them. But I felt bad. I opened them and reexplained why I couldn’t answer in a timely mannor, apologized for the unintentional ghosting, and made it very clear that if she wished to continue texting me, that I couldn’t promis a prompt response. She said “don’t worry about it. I get it. Just remember to text me when you’ve got time!”

Last week J hit, and while Im still not comfy with what was going on in my job and life, I was mentally able to make a rare Snapchat story about getting to pick music at work.

I still didn’t have a lot of spoons to answer her, so her comment on my story sat untouched in my inbox till tonight.

Tonight I found the courage to leave a groupme of people I am no longer friends with. And I opened Snapchat to leave our Snapchat groupchat, when I began to think about Hannah. Because there on her story was another call out post. I had just left groupchat a of toxic people and yet here I was clinging to a girl who made me feel so bad about spending my spoons. Who could not, for whatever reason, have an adult behavior about her feelings and what she wanted and needed out of our “friendship”. I decided I’d remove and block her. I don’t need this in my life.

But her unopened messages were still there. I opened them. There on my screen was Hannah’s response to my week old Snapchat about picking music. The gist of the message? “Looks like your not to busy to post on Snapchat”

All my guilt and remorse flew out the window, and Hannah was immediately blocked from my life.

Why did I wait this long to boot her out? I think it’s because she was the first, and so far the only woman to show interest in me. And I was scared that by blocking her, I was giving up my proof of gayness. Her interest made me feel more valid in my identity.

But that’s the thing. My identity is MINE. And it took my first year of Gay to understand what that meant. I am queer. And that is not dependent on if someone of my sex finding me attractive. That is not dependent of somone giving me attention. I will not be giving others the power to hold my identity hostage anymore

[museswithinx]

‘And besides, you were always the one that had my heart, you know?’ { Ian for Erin }

gia (1998) sentence starters.

This weekend was supposed to be fun. Just the packs, plus a little extra, and a lake all to themselves. In true Ian Thomas fashion though, he managed to completely sour the mood and now Erin was sitting with the pieces of her heart in her lap again. The most depressing part of it all was she’d probably go crawling back like the fool she was. No matter how many times they did this dance, she just didn’t learn.

While Gina and the other girls headed inside to get ready for a movie, Erin stayed behind for to be alone for a bit. Mid text convo with her dad though, she hears footsteps approach as Ian seizes his chance without her friends or family interfering. 

“I’m not really in the mood for your excuses right now, Ian.” She tells him, moving to stand before he takes her gently by the arm stopping her. “I’m not kidding. I don’t want to hear it anymore!” As Ian pleads for just five minutes of her time though, she finds herself caving as the fool in her takes over. Settling back in her chair, she gives him a stern look. “Five minutes. That’s all I’m giving you.”

Needing no more persuasion than that, Ian launches into another one of his speeches about messing up and her being the realest thing he’d ever known. She was his best friend, he hated being the main cause of her unhappiness, etcetera etcetera. It was all things Erin had heard plenty before, but his behavior never seemed to reflect it.

‘And besides, you were always the one that had my heart, you know?’ He finishes.

“Then why do you keep hurting me?” She asks him in a quiet voice. “If I really have your heart like you say, then why do you treat me like any other girl. I don’t understand.” Shaking her head, she takes a deep breath in attempt to keep her emotions at bay. “I don’t want to be in a polyamorous relationship with you, Ian. I’m not wired for that kind of thing. You know I’m not and if you think I'm okay with that, this is never going to work.”

Her lower lip wobbles as she struggles to keep a hold over her emotions. She was so hopelessly in love with him and it hurt. “I don’t want to be one of your many. I want to be the girl. The only girl. But it seems like you’re either not interested in that with me or you just get bored after a day.” Taking another breath, she finishes, “telling me I have your heart isn’t enough anymore. If I really do, then prove it.”

[sambergscott]

‘cause you’ll be safe in these arms of mine

Summary: Jake and Amy asking people to be godparents, inspired by a convo with @capnperaltiago who asked for me to write this <3

She asks Rosa two minutes after the plastic stick says pregnant.

Jake and Holt are out working a case and Terry’s taken the day off to be with his girls, leaving Amy in charge of the Nine-Nine. Hitchcock and Scully have already started a small fire, one of the uniformed officers lost a piece of evidence and there was a fight amongst two perps in the holding cell. And Amy can’t stop throwing up.

At first she blames it on work-related stress and then she thinks it must have been the Chinese she ate last night while watching re-runs of Friends. It’s not until Rosa pulls out a pregnancy test she picked up from the store that she realises it could be morning sickness.

They’re not even properly trying yet. Sure, she’s come off her birth control because she’s done enough research to know that it could take months to get pregnant after coming off them and they still can’t take their hands off each other, even after over a year of marriage, but neither of them were expecting anything to happen this soon.

She pees on the stick and, several anxiety-ridden minutes later, it comes back positive.

She’s pregnant.

And she panics.

This is what she wanted, what she’s always wanted, but what if Jake��s still not quite ready yet and what if one of them dies on the job and what if they can’t actually afford this and-.

“Santiago,” comes Rosa’s gruff voice, her hands steadying Amy’s quivering shoulders, “you two have got this. You’re gonna be the best parents I know.”

“Even better than Terry and Sharon?” She snivels.

“Yeah.” Then, quickly, “don’t tell them I said that.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Amy promises, zipping her mouth shut.

“Yours too.” Rosa mimics her zipping action, throwing the imaginary key into the toilet like she’s Steph Curry.

Amy laughs, a sudden idea popping into her head. It seems weird to ask before consulting Jake, before Jake even knows there’s a baby inside her, but it also feels right. She rips off the bandaid. “Will you be the godmother?”

The detective freezes, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “Me?”

“Mm-hmm.” Amy smiles at Rosa’s surprise. They are complete opposites — Rosa likes motorbikes, Amy likes binders, Rosa likes leather jackets and big boots, Amy likes sensible pantsuits — yet they’ve become sisters, sleuth sisters, over the past nine years. There’s nobody else Amy would consider for the job. “You’ve always had my back and I think you’d have our baby’s back, too. Plus, if our baby turns out like Jake, you’ve always known how to handle him.”

Rosa snorts, then smiles back at her. Amy thinks she detects a few tears in Rosa’s eyes, but doesn’t say a word, not wanting to ruin the moment. Rosa eventually nods. “Yeah. I’m in.”

“C’mere,” Amy cries, the damn pregnancy hormones already making her emotions crazy as she pulls Rosa into a tight hug.

++

It’s Jake’s idea to make Charles godfather.

Amy’s a little… apprehensive at first, to say the least, considering Charles’ track record of being totally obsessed with every aspect of their personal lives. He’s sent her 75 emails about birthing tips, offering his doula services at the end of each one, in the last week alone. He came round their apartment one night to get rid of all coffee, alcohol, shame cigarettes and any other No-No foods during pregnancy. He’s already suggested the names Charles Peralta if it’s a boy and Charlotte if it’s a girl, which Amy vetoed immediately. Making Charles godfather would only allow him into their lives further. And she loves her husband’s best friend, she really does, but she doesn’t want their kid becoming obsessed with weird milk and beige-coloured clothes and the TV show Bunheads.

When Jake argues that nobody else is gonna love their kid more than Charles, Amy finally agrees. Charles will shower their baby with all the love in the world. And if Charles has any influence at all on his godchild, it will be that their kid will be just as big a fan of Jake as Charles is.

Unlike Rosa, they both agree that they can’t just ask Charles. It needs to be an event — like when Jake asked him to be his best man with sparklers and a big ol’ banner. Amy suggests they ask him on Halloween and they spend a full evening planning how it’s going to go down.

“This year’s object is this t-shirt,” Jake announces to the squad on the biggest night of the year, holding up a plain white t-shirt with the words “Amazing Human/Genius” printed in gold foiling. “Whoever has it in their possession at midnight will be declared the winner.”

Like Halloween V, Jake has the real prize waiting in the evidence lock-up. But he doesn’t tell anyone that.

When The Tramps (with Rosa in on Jake and Amy’s secret) barge into the evidence lock-up at two minutes before midnight, thinking they’re finally the champions, Charles is the first to lift the t-shirt out of the storage box.

(It was the one with the uneven dust pattern, just like when Jake proposed to Amy, just like he’d heard a million times over when he asked to hear the story on a bi-weekly basis).

He furrows his brow when he realises the words don’t say what they’re supposed to.

Jake and Amy jump out from behind a stack of evidence boxes and Charles shrieks. For a second they think they’ve caused yet another colleague to die from a heart attack, but he somehow stays on his feet.

“Amazing Godfather/Genius,” he reads the adapted text, trembling like a leaf. His eyes meet Jake’s, who nods, confirming that, yes, his wildest dreams have indeed come true.

“What do you say, bud?” Jake prompts.

“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”

Amy laughs happily as she watches her husband and his best friend embrace, exchanging wide grins with Terry and Rosa. Their kid is a lucky guy or girl with their entire Nine-Nine family looking out for them.

There’s only one last thing to do.

++

They arrange to have dinner with Holt and Kevin to ask them if they will be the “god-grandfathers” of their unborn child.

(“God-grandfathers are not a thing, Peralta,” Amy had said when he first proposed the word, rolling her eyes.

“Who says?”

“The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, for starters.”

“Well, it’s a thing now,” Jake decided. He’d never cared for the Merriam-Webster Dictionary before, so why should he now? No use changing the habit of a lifetime. “It’s our thing. Because they’re our #Dads. I wouldn’t feel comfortable raising our kid without them.”

Her face softened, tears pricking at her eyes — those damn pregnancy hormones again — and she finally agreed. “God-grandfathers it is.”)

She’s incredibly nervous by the time they’re at the front door of the Holt-Cozner home, her fingers twisting the ends of her hair into a messy braid.

Jake places his hand atop hers, stilling her fingers. He gives her hand a supportive squeeze. “It’s gonna be great, Ames.”

They don’t bring it up until there’s a lull in conversation mid-way through the casserole Kevin prepared for them, unable to wait any longer. Even Jake is a little anxious, his leg bouncing beneath the table, when he broaches the subject.

“You know how Charles and Rosa are going to be our baby’s godparents?”

“Yes, I recall Raymond mentioning the fact,” Kevin responds. “Apparently it is all Detective Boyle talks about.”

“He’s very excited,” Amy says, amused. She finds herself less annoyed and more touched by Charles’ antics when they’re directed at others and not her or her email inbox.

“Well, Ames and I would love it if you two would have an important role in our kid’s life because, I don’t know if you’ve noticed because we’re super subtle about it, but we kind of consider you both as father figures.”

“We have noticed.”

“You are not subtle at all,” Holt assures them.

“Cool, cool, cool. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. What do you say? Would you like to be the god-grandfathers to Nakatomi Peralta?”

“Please tell me you’re not naming your child after a building from your favourite movie,” Holt says disapprovingly.

“No,” Jake scoffs, then, under his breath, “Nakatomi is a character, too.”

“We would be honoured.” Kevin smiles lovingly at his husband, then at Jake and Amy. After a few seconds, his smile falls. “Although you are aware god-grandfathers are not a real thing, yes?”

“It’s our thing,” Amy repeats Jake’s words from earlier, beaming from ear to ear.

++

When their baby arrives, seven point five pounds of perfection, they have a lot of visitors, all wanting to feast their eyes on the precious addition to the family. The grandparents get first hold (apparently Victor and Roger had another arm wrestling match in the hospital waiting room to decide who got the very first hold), then Amy’s brothers that live in the city, then the godparents and god-grandparents.

Charles starts crying the moment he’s in the same room as her, only stopping when Amy threatens to make him leave.

Rosa smiles more than either Jake and Amy have ever seen her smile.

Captain Holt is quite simply enamoured with the little bundle of blankets, unable to mask his emotions in his usual robotic way when his god-granddaughter grips his pinky finger.

Jake and Amy exchange proud parent smiles as they watch their hours-old daughter with four of the people they trust most, knowing she will always be safe, loved and happy when in their arms.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, mid July to August, 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from July 14 to August 24, although some may be older than that.

Tumblr has not been saving all of my drafts correctly, which has led to me rewriting some of this post more than once. (I’m now going to be compiling it elsewhere & pasting it here when done, to avoid this issue in the future.) That, a heavy workload, and some vacation time delayed & truncated this report. 

But the good news is I am now on a more consistent schedule, with more time to read and write. I expect to be getting this back to 3 times a month very soon. 

Are there types of news you would like to see here? Please let me know! Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

The priority placement is US search for items that ship free has been around for nearly 4 weeks, and doesn’t seem as disruptive as some feared. Etsy is conscious that non-US sellers are particularly upset about this, and have therefore published a list of things they are doing to help international sellers. (note that most of those things also help US sellers that ship to other countries, 

Etsy’s 2nd quarter results came out on August 1. Everything was up, but not quite as much as some experts predicted, so the stock is down quite a bit. The big announcement was that Etsy will be combining Promoted Listings & Google Shopping ads bought by sellers into Etsy Ads. They are supposed to launch in August, but I have yet to hear of any seller who thought this was a good idea.

3.5 million people worldwide use at least one social media platform. (That’s 46% of the planet’s population.) And more than half of the planet  - over 4 billion people - watch videos online. “[H]alf of all internet users below the age of 35″ use voice to operate their devices, with 43% of internet users worldwide using voice at least occasionally. 

SEO isn’t enough; you are going to have to spend money to be seen, if you don’t already “The last 18 years have been an anomaly. Twenty years ago, if a brand couldn't afford to pay for a newspaper or a radio ad, the media company didn't give the company time to publish a public service announcement. SEO allowed companies to go through a period where they received free listings on search engines like Google and Bing. Sending people to a brand's website is like getting a free television or radio commercial or newspaper ad or billboard at the baseball park in 1984″

Trend watch: both clothing retailers and makeup companies are seeing a drop in sales as their markets shrink. If you sell either, you will want to read both articles, as there are some parallels between the two areas in regard to what is and is not working. 

ETSY NEWS

Etsy purchased musical gear website Reverb for $275 million; it will continue to run separate from Etsy. Etsy stock went up at the time. This is notable because Etsy hasn’t bought much lately; it looks like they are slowly dialing back the panic mode, single-goal approach. Their business acumen has disappointed one commentator [humour].

Etsy is “improving” Etsy shop stats. (Note that the Google Shopping category is apparently for the ads you buy yourself only, not the ones Etsy buys, so you will need to use Google Analytics to look at those hits for the moment.) This seems to be leading up to the launch of Etsy Ads (see above).

Here’s some coverage of Etsy changes in the past few years (not a lot new, with some errors). 

Etsy seems to be ramping up its monitoring of seller customer service factors, as more people are receiving email notifications that their shops are falling below Etsy’s customer service expectations. I expect that any updates in this area might involve the new chat convo thingy: Convos are changing to live chat threads, which you cannot write more than one paragraph for because hitting return sends the message. It’s a mess. (Please forgive my frustration; I’ve already had to deal with over 40 separate convos from one buyer alone.)

There will be a site-wide Labour Day sale August 30-September 2, which Etsy will apparently be promoting. 

Fall fashion trends as promoted by Etsy: apparently silk scarves are in, for all sorts of uses. They also released their holiday trend report (pdf file), which I will summarize next week if I can find the time. It’s worth a look, because they divulge some top search data. You can also listen to the podcast, or read the podcast transcript. 

This article on tiered pricing and increasing your average order value is geared towards people using the $35 free shipping guarantee, but it is also useful for anyone wanting their customers to buy more from them. 

Staff will be using the Etsy Success section of the forum to post weekly tips called “Etsy Insights”. So far, they have been posting each week’s thread in that announcement post, so it is easy to skim and see if any topics are relevant for you. 

They are also asking members to sign up for more research surveys; so far, I am finding it pretty boring, and all of the content on their “hub” page is over a year old. 

The expansion into India saw their domestic listings more than double last year. Free workshops have helped bring many new sellers aboard. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google’s John Mu, who does SEO outreach & education, reminds us that “LSI keywords” are not actually a thing. (LSI was a computer method to figure out relationships between words back in the 1980s; no search engine today is using it, as they have real search data on how people relate words to each other, and it just doesn’t give any insight into modern search technology.)

You don’t need tons of backlinks, but you do need good ones. And linking out on your own site is a good idea in many cases [video], as long as it serves your readers. 

Using images that show up on many different web pages can harm your SEO. They used stock photos that showed up on hundreds of pages for this experiment, so it is not likely that using your own image on 5 sites, for example, would be a problem. 

It looks like there was a fairly significant Google update around July 18th; there’s a bit more coverage here. The last 3 large Google updates are summarized & analyzed here. 

Google then released a blog post explaining their core updates and what you should do if you are negatively affected by one. They linked to several SEO websites explaining Google’s concept “E-A-T” (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness), which is particularly important if you produce blog posts or educational materials.  

Less than half of Google searches now lead to a click on a website result, at least on desktop. Mobile Google searches overwhelmingly do not result in traffic to a website any more. (Note: as I always remind people, the data from these types of studies is always a bit suspect, because they only have a slice of the data, but the provider here probably has the biggest slice worldwide. 

Do you do some simple coding on your website or blog? You will find this beginners’ guide to canonical tags and the different uses of redirects and canonical tags [video & transcript] very helpful. If you are a bit more advanced than that, here’s a good guide to meta tags. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Hubspot puts out a lot of good digital marketing guides; check out their “Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution”. Also, they covered how to write a great (& SEO-effective) blog headline, with examples. 

Some stats on current social media usage [infographic]. 

Verizon sold Tumblr to Wordpress owner Automattic. 

Snapchat users continue to increase, as does revenue. They still aren’t profitable, but didn’t expect to be yet. 

Not getting enough traffic on Facebook? Here’s how to get seen by more people there. 

There are ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get more sales.

How to get valuable Twitter followers, that is, not bots. (They use Etsy as an example of a well-optimized Twitter profile.) 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Amazon is making advertising an even bigger slice of its income. 

Digital ad spending is continuing to increase in most areas.

Facebook is expanding its search ads to more businesses; it’s not really clear how it all works, though. The ads must also run as news feed ads. Here are some basic tips on how to get the most out of Facebook’s ad algorithm. 

With Etsy possibly ending the free Google Shopping ads it currently buys for us (see the Etsy Ads announcement above), this might be a good time to look into buying Google Shopping ads for your website; here is your complete guide to setting them up. 

More changes to regular Google ads mean less control for the business buying ads, meaning that exact match phrases are no longer even close. “Google says 15% of its daily searches are new — and advertisers will miss out on these new queries if matching is too tightly controlled. Its machine learning systems, the company says, can infer intent and spare advertisers from creating exhaustive keyword lists in order to get their ads to trigger on relevant queries.”

If you are thinking about paying for ads on Pinterest, you will want to read this starter guide. 

Twitter video ads now have an option to not pay for a click unless people view at least 6 seconds of the video. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

How to use Instagram Analytics to boost your business. (That is written for companies that are larger than most Etsy shops, but there is plenty of good material there.)

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

eBay beat earnings expectations in the second quarter. 

Amazon had higher than expected sales but lower than expected earnings in the second quarter. They keep thriving despite low profits margins because they have a massive cash flow. 

Alibaba reported higher than expected revenue and profit for its first quarter ending June 30th. 

Amazon sales on Prime Day (July 15-16, actually 2 days) were greater than last year’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday combined, and also signed up more new Prime members on each than ever before. Other websites also saw a big boost, especially for electronics. 

Amazon forced to amend its seller policies worldwide following German legal action. As of August 16, they will give 30 days notice for standard account cancellations. 

And they have expanded their robot deliveries (still followed by humans, though!)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

While buyers do love free shipping, nearly half of US consumers surveyed will choose to pay for shipping in certain circumstances, most commonly when they really want the product. Only 11% said they never buy unless shipping is free. 

When you are trying to sell something, and especially if you want a repeat buyer, make sure you are pitching it to the right target market. For example, people who don’t want to spend a lot of money won’t buy things they can get for free elsewhere. Provide value for the right people. (A lot of this article is pitched at entrepreneurs selling classes and events, not tangible products, but I think there is a lot of value in the explanations.)

MISCELLANEOUS

WordPress is one of the most popular ways to set up your own website; here’s a beginner’s guide to getting started. 

Google beat earnings expectations in the second quarter. Ad revenue was up a lot. Microsoft also had a better-than-expected quarter, but the growth of their search ads and of LinkedIn (which they own) has slowed. 

How to choose colours that will work together well. 

There is a lot of research on productivity; here are 10 things you can do to get more done. 

If you use Chrome, you could really use these Chrome keyboard shortcuts. 

[sireneia-a]

this happens every time i pull up the love growths and the jealousy rates in genealogy so i’m unpacking that too but for all my fe4 muses. going in roster order for this. why am i doing this?? cause i love storytelling via game mechanics and think more games should do it. not necessarily in relation to romance though, like leif’s arc is pretty amazingly displayed through mechanics in both his game appearances but i can ramble about that another time.

for the record, i’m assuming a love growth of +2 as what a “normal” pace for falling in love is since it’s the most common growth rate in the game. the format that this reads as is 0+2 then which translates to “a love base of zero, a love growth of two.” 

under the cut cause i still have no idea how to be succinct and also i’m talking about eight characters so yknow

lene: 

almost every guy has 0+2 for her. she doesn’t have any particular attraction to any guy as a result, though she’s open to falling in love with any of them with no biases. the only exception to this trend is ares who is set at 300+1. this is one of the highest love bases in the entire game if not THE highest. 

even disregarding their canon dialogue making me believe they are in a “more than friends, less than lovers” situation, this love base alone hints towards that too. 300 love points makes the game register the two as having taken a fancy to one another, 400 points is when they’re officially “well and truly in love” with one another, and 500 is when they’re literally married.

the fact that lene’s growth is at +1 with ares makes me think that although she has a high love base with him, she’s slow to realize her own feelings for him and would take a while to actually transition into being ACTUAL lovers. she would take a while to believe she should make a move. this is supported by the fact that she is at the low end of ares’s jealousy spectrum. she just doesn’t easily get jealous over other girls spending time with him.

interestingly enough, the people that she’s more easy to become jealous over are ced, oifey, and iucharba. 

leif: 

leif has a 0+2 for everyone except julia, nanna, jeanne, tine and linda. julia is set at 0+0 for everyone except seliph so that’s why there. nanna and jeanne both are set to 100+2 which means he has yet to even think about either of them in a romantic way. 

200 points is when the characters are thinking more frequently about the person for reference. however, leif’s shared childhood with nanna and jeanne undeniably has a foundation for him to see either of them in a romantic light and them growing up together is likely the reason behind his falling in love eventually. despite this, he goes at a normal pace with either of them still. 

the interesting thing is that he is set to 0+3 with tine and linda. whilst he has no foundation with either of them, this tells me that he is quicker to fall in love with them and his relationship might be likened more to a whirlwind romance. it’s also interesting to me because linda and tine are... nothing like nanna and jeanne KGHFKFHKFS 

i guess leif’s taste in women might be more like linda and tine but he’s just got more backstory with nanna and jeanne to build upon. either that or leif probably interacts more with tine and linda then and has more opportunity to fall in love with either of them mid-war. 

leif also has an equal jealousy rate with all girls which just means nobody ever gets jealous over him. Ever. what that means?? hell if i know how to dissect that

dew: 

hi token first gen! he has a more unique spread, so i’ll just write it down first here.

edain 0+2 / ayra 0+2 / lachesis 50+2 / erinys 50+2 / silvia 0+3 / brigid 50+2 / tailtiu 120+3

due to his backstory and how he didn’t know any of these people until the war, i’m going to interpret a higher love base to mean he’s more strongly attracted to those characters upon a first impression.

but... why those four? that’s a tricky one. i can’t just say he likes women who can kick his ass cause ayra isn’t included. i was going to say it’s strong-willed women, but again ayra would’ve been included. i can’t say he’s just attracted to longer hair cause all of them have long hair, and i can’t say it’s that he thinks lighter colored hair is gorgeous because erinys with her trademark silessian green hair is there. 

i might still say though he’s attracted to women who he immediately understands their convictions and motivations. by the time he meets ayra, presumably he would not be able to witness her devotion to shannan as strongly as, say, sigurd would have. but lachesis he’d see her desire to be strong for her brother, erinys her love for her homeland and proper strict attitude, brigid her backstory as a rare female captain amongst pirates, and tailtiu her desire to follow claud no matter where. he’s less certain with ayra for reasons explained, edain because he just meets her in jail and his mind is fixated solely on getting out, and silvia because he only interprets her as a dancer and probably doesn’t immediately catch onto her attraction to lewyn.

tailtiu is the highest, so i’m going to interpret that as him either thinking thunder magic is extremely intimidating and awesome or because he just likes girls in ponytails. him having a higher growth with silvia and tailtiu tells me he gets along better with girls who are upbeat but have a sadness underneath it, and he might just naturally feel more for them as time goes on.

his jealousy rates are complicated cause genealogy separates priority for first gen hardcore based on whether or not you’ve turned your console on and off again yet. a shared theme between the two versions though is that edain and ayra more easily get jealous over dew. also interesting is that dew’s jealousy rates post-resetting are identical to jamke’s -- a fact i choose to believe because dew and jamke likely hang out a lot around one another in the game, solidified by their ch5 convo having dew getting uncharacteristically sentimental on the archer prince before running off.

iuchar:

iuchar’s rates are mostly 0+2 so standard fare but the unique stuff comes to predictably larcei and more unpredictably tine. 

larcei is set to 200+2 which i think makes sense considering he literally gets recruited under the pretense that he’s so in love with larcei that he’s willing to betray his family for her. i know the rate is set lower because he’s recruited in the first chapter of the first gen, but i want to believe that it’s a nod to the fact that he’s not as head over heels for larcei as he claims to be. again, 200 means he’s thinking about her but not necessarily in love with her. the fact that they have a growth of 2 points per turn makes me believe that them developing a romantic relationship would be at a normal pace, just in general normal and not affected by his supposed affections for her. he wouldn’t be pushing things aggressively as a result, but also neither of them are necessarily extremely opposed to it.

tine is set to 0+3. this... i’m going to unpack when i get to her because i thought at first this was something specific to leif since leif and tine are predestined lovers ( a fancy term used to describe pairings the game recommends or otherwise they have conversations with one another ) but i’m beginning to realize there’s something else here. 

i can’t analyze iuchar’s jealousy rates because i can only see iucharba’s, and although the two have identical love growths and bases with one another, i don’t feel right just assuming their jealousy rates are the same. if they ARE though, it’s a wild time cause it’s:

nanna > larcei > fee > tine > lene > lana > patty > altena

tine:

i promised to deliver on analyzing iuchar’s rate with her here and yeah. 

tine’s set to 0+3 with EVERYONE. EVERYONE. NO EXCEPTIONS. thank you for consistency for starters but oh boy.

so since i’m running on the idea that +2 is normal for love growths, i have no choice but to recognize that tine just falls in love really quickly. a +4 growth DOES exist though it’s basically for brigid only. the only other weirdly high love growth rate to be featured in game is finn who has a +10 with brigid and tailtiu because finn has only 50 turns to fall in love with either of those two so good luck and hope those jealousy rates don’t kill you if that’s your aim. regardless, all of tine’s romances edge on whirlwind romances. but why?

well, i have a feeling it ties into the fact that tine is supposed to be the second gen deirdre equivalent. this is showcased by her lover’s convo with seliph where she remarks that she doesn’t want to end up just like deirdre. this does not happen in any other lovers convo with seliph, so i’m pretty sure that’s just her role. her having silver hair, being associated with purple, a mage, and also a sheltered girl also helps the connections further.

tine’s fast rates ensure that no matter whom she falls in love with, it’ll be fast-paced in a way similar to how deirdre’s relationship with sigurd went. there’s nothing to make someone fall in love at first sight with tine, but she’s quick to fall in love with and reciprocate.

her jealousy rates are a bit more complicated to look at, but a general note is that she’s the girl that gets the most jealous easily over ced hinting at her own preference to him. behind that, in order, are ulster, diarmuid, oifey and iucharba equally, shannan and ares equally, and then every other guy. i don’t really know how to interpret that except that barring ced, i guess she just. favors the tirnanog gang i guess???

febail:

febail apparently ALSO HAS A 0+3 WITH EVERYONE except julia and lene. i have literally no explanation for this the way i did tine, but i’m going to try.

i’m going to interpret this to mean that febail falls in love easier than he lets on. this might be a byproduct of him being a sensitive person at heart, something shown and exemplified by how he serves as a father figure to all the orphans in conote. hell, he even has a card where they’re all crying as they’re rushing to hug him.

febail indiscriminately falls in love, and perhaps him being kind of bad at hiding how sentimental and compassionate he is towards the orphans is what helps others fall in love with him quickly too. 

except lene and julia. lmao. i get why julia is the exception, but i just think it’s really funny that lene also isn’t falling for this dude easily either. which might just say something about lene’s maturity and inability to just recklessly develop affections for others.

febail has the MOST confusing jealousy rates in my opinion because his is just. altena > everybody else. the reason why it’s weird that altena gets jealous over him easily is because altena shouldn’t be falling in love with anyone. it’s not even like julia’s case where julia is 0+0 for everyone except seliph. altena has NO rates or bases. 

febail how did you do it,

coirpre:

i already kinda talked about his love growths and bases in this post but i’ll talk more about it cause there’s definitely stuff i missed.

coirpre’s spread is like this:

julia 0+0 / lana 220+3 / muirne 220+3 / larcei 0+2 / creidne 0+2 / nanna 0+2 / jeanne 0+0 / fee 0+2 / hermina 0+2 / patty 200+3 / daisy 0+3 i think / tine 0+3 / linda 0+3

him being lategame can help explain some of these but i don’t think that’s the right assumption to make? mostly because his bases and growths aren’t all across the board like how tailtiu’s are, and she’s in your army for around the same amount of time that coirpre is in yours. but they also still let him fall in love unlike altena who, as said before, should logically not fall in love but also you can rig jealousy rates i guess.

it’s also interesting because coirpre is one of the few instances where he differentiates between substitutes considering he will express absolute zero interest in jeanne no matter what but he’s open to falling in love with nanna.

there’s not really much of a common thread between all of the notable rates here, but minus tine and linda, you could say he’s taken a bias towards other characters seen as support units in a way. lana, muirne, patty, and daisy are not intended to be frontline soldiers. however, nanna and jeanne are out of the running for this, so it’s not a hard-pressed rule for him. it still makes sense that he probably hangs out more with other support units considering he himself is one.

his dynamic with patty and his dynamic with lana would probably be extremely different since lana is the more soft-spoken and sweet character whilst patty openly bickers with him. hence why i can’t say it’s a personality thing tying him to any biases.

coirpre has some of the highest bases in the game because of his being 200 or more with some of the characters. this implies he’s definitely taken a fancy to lana, muirne and patty upon first meeting them. if it weren’t muirne and nanna, i’d just say he has a preference for blondes and be done with it but of course things are Complicated.

coirpre has jealousy rates too, with his being patty > lana > altena > other girls. this gives insight to how girls feel about HIM and he’s not actually the least complicated scale, his having more people ranked than lester, febail, seliph and leif. he’s more attracted to lana at first sight but patty is more likely to feel things for him.

also altena is there for some reason. i’m DOUBLY confused on account of her not supposed to be falling in love and also the fact that coirpre sees her as a mother figure.

deimne:

deimne’s rates are identical to lester’s, not really surprising considering that he serves as lester’s substitute but only a bit surprising to me considering he has different lover’s conversations. regardless, his are pretty lackluster too, being 0+2 for everyone except julia, tine and linda.

tine and linda are at 0+3 again and julia is at 0+0. i don’t have much to add besides what’s already been said in tine’s section, but these bases DO reflect his lack of desire to interact with the nobles. doesn’t really apply that way to the substitutes though but eh. he’s still not really rejecting anyone though since he’s at +2 as opposed to +1 or +0.

i’m going to assume deimne’s jealousy rates are also identical to lester’s which means his is patty and daisy > altena > other girls. daisy and patty definitely makes sense to me since he has lover convos with them. altena is once again a wild card crashing in out of nowhere.

cause why avoid hanging out with nobles when you can have a princess of TWO houses getting jealous over you i guess.

only other notable thing is that deimne has an arc that i find sweet with his childhood friend karen who is not playable. it’s implied that she has feelings for him but he doesn’t really notice. this isn’t reflected in mechanics, but it’s a tangentially related subject.

[thesportssoundoff]

“Future Glory For Former Champions?” Two Guys Opine

Slight opening first: This was done in late November and @theanticool​  had his done first. With so many shows and news, I Wanted to wait to post it because so much has gone down and I didn’t want it getting buried. It was completed a few days before Anderson Silva vs Israel Adesanya was confirmed as not just being a fight but being a #1 contender fight. Just a heads up on that.

Two Dudes Opine!

As most of you know by listening to any sort of DojoTalkPodcast cameo I’ve done, @theanticool and I don’t agree on much of anything. That said, it’s an absolute joy to bounce ideas around, especially in the idea vacuum that is MMA, and have some good old fashioned debate on things. Conversation creates smarter people in my estimation and I obviously need all the help I can get!

I wanted to take this concept and sort of test how often we truly agree and disagree. As such, I figured he and I might want to dabble a bit to see just HOW often we agree or disagree. Once he agreed after many meetings and contractual negotiations, we agreed on a concept: I’m going to come up with a topic and present him with a list of names inside that topic. Independently we’ll each go through the names provided and see just how we match up at the end of this grabbag assignment. Our first project focused on prospects coming off a loss and I think it’s worth pointing out that Yair, Arjan Bhullar and Cynthia Calvillo were all featured in the discussion and all have gone on to win.  This month we have:

In the UFC, it's very hard to regain titles after you lose them. In the modern era, only TJ Dillashaw has flat out won back a title he lost (Daniel Cormier was given it back due to Jon Jones' drug test failure while Jose Aldo won an interim title before getting elevated up to championship status). Fighters such as Aldo, Rashad Evans, Junior Dos Santos and countless others have all come up short in quests to either regain gold or find new gold in other weight classes. With that as the set up, which of the following fighters can either regain their title in their current weight class or find championship success either up or down a weight class: 

 Conor McGregor 

 Cody Garbrandt 

 Robbie Lawler 

 Holly Holm 

 Chris Weidman 

 Anderson Silva

I’m in the bold and @theanticool is in italics!

Conor McGregor- I mean if you want to manipulate it just right, Conor McGregor can absolutely find his way back to the title scene! Conor's a weird one for me---and I'm beginning to wonder if the Conor McGregor we saw at 145 lbs was more about right time, right place and perhaps even right matchmaking than anything else. Conor's wins at 145 lbs are amazing from Chad Mendes to Jose Aldo to Dustin Poirier to even a quality mid level gatekeeper type like Dennis Siver. Even Max Holloway was a case of maybe two guys facing off before they're ready to do so. Since going up in weight, Conor's 2-2. The Eddie Alvarez fight was an absolute demolition job and one of the best wins of his career given the opponent BUT I'm a bit less high up on Alvarez after seeing him struggle with Poirier twice. The Diaz fights revealed problems with Conor's pacing but also his ability to deal with the same stylistic challenges he gives others. Lengthy opponents who won't allow him to just walk them down, put them against the cage and tee off. That and to be honest? I'm really not that high up on Nate Diaz either. The Khabib performance was really good given the circumstances (long layoff from MMA, stylistic nightmare, hurt early in the fight) but THIS is what lurks at the top at 155 lbs. Khabib, Kevin Lee, Tony Ferguson, a rejuvenated (yet still flawed) Dustin Poirier, Al Iaquinta plus other really great fighters who don't get their due because of the weight class depth. This is not to say that Conor McGregor loses to all of those guys or even that he's not a great fighter---he's just a great fighter as opposed to the meteoric supernova who ran through 145 lbs with such ease. Guys like Justin Gaethje are conditioned to wins wars of attrition, something Conor struggled with vs Nate. Guys like Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta present enough of a well rounded overall game to where you could sort of see them finding ways to get Conor in enough bad spots to steal a decision. Tony Ferguson, Dustin Poirier and Khabib are elite and while Poirier's rise to the top hasn't changed the fighter he is, I think his chances in a rematch are waaaay better now that he's not completely sunken in. This doesn't even account for Ortega or Holloway coming up eventually as well.

But this isn't about Conor entirely; it's about his chances to get back in the title picture. Conor is basically a long frustrating Khabib suspension away from being in a title fight, even if it's just an interim at 155 lbs. If the UFC opens up 165 lbs, they are absolutely going to hand him a shot to fight for the belt because that's business. Shit, Conor is one win away from facing Colby Covington (Oh lord have mercy) or even opening up the doors for something with Tyron Woodley. Conor McGregor is a star and stars can get away with doing things like that. It also helps that he's a great enough fighter that the public can absolutely buy him potentially beating a guy like Tony Ferguson or Colby Covington or Woodley or whomever pops up at 165 lbs. What Conor does well at, he's one of the best at and that will always give him a shot. Again the people he's ACTUALLY beaten are among some of the best in the sports history----so who am I to say he can't get back into the title picture?

Conor McGregor

I can see Conor politicking himself back into title contention. Let’s be real, he’s never going to be far from a title shot. With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s future kind of up in the air with the pending investigation of the NSAC and his father stating that he doesn’t want his son fighting past 30, the lightweight title could be up for grabs soon. Not to mention Khabib and Tony Ferguson are injury prone individuals. If one or both of them get hurt, McGregor is right back in the title picture. And should Ferguson and Khabib fall out of the picture, I’d like McGregor’s chances against the likes of Dustin Poirier, Kevin Lee (maybe less so him but still), Justin Gaethje, Anthony Pettis, and Nate Diaz. Heck, if the UFC ever decides to make that 165lb division you know McGregor going for his 3rd belt would be too much for the UFC to pass up. If McGregor continues fighting, he will eventually get another shot because of his popularity. By that virtue alone, he’s got a better shot than most former champions of getting a UFC  title.

Cody Garbrandt- I still like Cody but there be some issues here. For starters, backs, necks and knees don't get better. That's especially true for fighters who rely on their reflexes and quick twitch ability to enter into exchanges and for their defense. Garbrandt having back problems at the scant age of 27 is rather worrisome. That's more worrisome than the fact that he now has two losses to the champ TJ Dillashaw. Bantamweight is a bit like heavyweight and so like JDS vs Cain, Cody could realistically always just be a title change away from being back in the picture. I'm sure when I read Anticool's retort, he's not going to agree here but I DO think Cody can beat TJ. They've fought twice and he's hurt TJ and both fights. The difference is that Dillashaw is a way better finisher (If TJ knocks Cruz down the way Cody does then the fight's over) and Dillashaw instinct wise just seems better. He seems more capable of surviving bad exchanges, smarter with adjustments and more willing to not be prideful (Garbrant absolutely stands with Lineker and nobody can convince me otherwise). For Cody to get back to the top, he needs to beat somebody in the top 5 but outside of Jimmie Rivera, I don't see a lot of willing matchups. I'm on the fence here.

Cody Garbrandt

MMA is not like boxing. Getting knocked out back to back doesn’t spell immediate doom and gloom for your career. It’s still not a good look though. I really hated the immediate rematch between Garbrandt and Dillashaw because I saw it as potentially burning out a young prospect’s career in a chase for quick money. And I honestly don’t know how Garbrandt will turn out till we see him fight someone in the top 10 at bantamweight who isn’t TJ Dillashaw or Dominick Cruz. This division is currently brimming with young talented fighters who are improving dramatically between fights, while Garbrandt seemingly hasn’t. We need to see him build on his current boxing game. Maybe use more of his wrestling. Add some tools to his kickboxing arsenal that aren’t reliant on the fact that he has a lot of power in his hands. I will reserve judgement on him till we see him fight again. We just don’t know where he’s at after coming up short twice to someone he hates. That has to be mentally exhausting.

Robbie Lawler- Oh what Robbie Lawler has brought to us. Nobody should forget 2013 to 2015 when Lawler fought Johnny Hendricks twice, Jake Ellenberger, Rory MacDonald twice and Matt Brown off the top of my head. Since then? I think Robbie might be broken, dudes. Lawler is 2-2 but should really be 1-3 (fight me about it, guys) and all of those fights seemed less about the skill he had and more about the heart he still possesses. You don't have the fight of year in back to back to back years without losing a piece of you in the process and it's perhaps made all the more remarkable when you consider Robbie fought four times in 2014 and has seen the number decline from 4 to 1 in 2015 to 2 in 2016 to 2 in 2017 to nada in 2018. The matter was made worse by an ACL injury sustained in a fight vs RDA where he was pretty much wiped out even if he didn't ever seem to be in danger of being finished. I like Robbie a lot and I think a serious convo will be had about him as a hall of fame talent AND I remember when the UFC made him one of the first big signings BACK from Strikeforce when everybody had mailed it in on Lawler. A return to WW made him great again but now? I think the time has come and gone. Robbie's 36 years old coming off knee surgery in a division that's ripe to get younger real quick. Of course I can't ignore the shades of Koscheck vs Lawler with this Askren booking but Ben's a lot better than Josh was at that point in his career. I think the Lawler days are done.

Robbie Lawler

Hindsight is 20/20. It looks like Lawler’s fight with Condit was his last real hurrah. The Lawler that went toe-to-toe with Johny Hendricks twice and had one of the greatest fights of all time with Rory MacDonald is gone. And fair enough. That MacDonald fight honestly would have been the end of most other guys’ careers. If his fight with Rafael Dos Anjos is any indication, I do think Lawler has something left in the tank if his body can stay together for 15-25 minutes. He’s still got a lot of technical savvy and he’s still tough as hell, but I can see his upcoming fight with Ben Askren going south if the man can’t generate the volume we’ve seen from him in the past. I don’t foresee another title reign in Lawler’s future, as sad as that makes me. But he’s proved us wrong before.

Holly Holm- Chances are Holly Holm will absolutely fight for a title and pretty soon. Can she win it? Yeah, I actually kinda sorta think she can. Holm's title losses can be summed as getting taken out of her game by a very gutsy Meisha Tate, some sketchy borderline late work from Germaine De Randamie and getting outphysical'd by Cris Cyborg. Holly Holm is still a good yet flawed fighter who will probably be able to out athlete most of the fighters she faces AND if we're being 100% fair? She and Mike Winkeljohn feel like one of those pairings that just click. That on its own could be enough to get her not just back in the title picture but win her title especialyl if Nunes is broken vs Cyborg. I still think there’s SOME paper lion in Amanda Nunes’ game and I could see Holm giving her all she can handle.

Holly Holm

Of the 6 fighters considered for this article, Holly Holm is my pick for best chance to regain her former title. At least by doing it the “right” way. Of the 6, I think she’s in the best place mentally and physically. She has not shown she’s falling apart yet like Lawler and Weidman. She hasn’t shown she has slowed down yet like Silva. We haven’t seen her succumb to her own hubris yet like Garbrandt has twice. And women’s bantamweight isn’t the shark tank division that lightweight is. She can and most likely will get another shot at the women’s bantamweight title. Plus Holm presents a whole slew of challenges for Amanda Nunes that we have yet to see Nunes face. She’s a range kicker who can fight hard for 5 rounds, set a solid pace, and will have a good sized reach advantage on the outside. And unlike Shevchenko, Holm will throw volume. That of course means she’s going to leave herself more open to counters from arguably the hardest hitting woman in the sport but Nunes is fighting on a short timer. If Holm can survive the first round, you know she’s going to be the fresher of the two from rounds 2-5.

Chris Weidman- This is the one I'm most on the fence about. If Chris Weidman cuts less weight, goes up to 205 lbs and manages to stay relatively break free? I don't see why he couldn't do something really good at the top of the division. We're seeing worse fighters step in against top 10/top 15 LHWs and have zero issue being not just competitive but thrust into title contention. I know their respective styles are different but Weidman can absolutely pull an Anthony Smith; feast on being the more athletic guy with more tools in his arsenal vs bigger guys who may not even be all THAT bigger. I'm just beginning to wonder if Chris Weidman might be for a lack of a better term broken. Perhaps broken beyond repair. Weidman's kind of in that Gray Maynard stage for me now and I think that's worse than it sounds to some people. Gray Maynard after the Edgar fights was still competitive AND improving in some capacities---but his chin was cooked, his wrestling suddenly seemed either outdated or ill equipped to deal with the rising talent levels and even when he was doing good, you just felt a sense of inevitability. I never once felt like Jacare was in danger of losing vs Weidman but I spend every second of that fight believing we were just one something away from it falling apart for Chris Weidman. It's one of those weird feelings to see a fighter doing really well and just feel almost resigned to an inevitable bad thing happening. Chris Weidman fights in a much easier division at 185 lbs than Gray Maynard and could move up to an even EASIER division at 205 lbs. The problem is I just wonder how many times we can see Weidman with a bloodied up face saying "I'll be back from this" before we just have to accept that Chris Weidman hit the point of no return on his career? It's entirely possible that his win over Gastelum (another fight where he got hurt really badly) was a brief last gasp for his career as a whole. Weidman's ability to will himself through wars of attrition hasn't diminished but his body's ability to hold up in those fights has.

Chris Weidman is the ultimate boom or bust guy; the boom says that he could possibly be the champ at 205 lbs if Jon Jones vacates the premises while the bust is that Weidman takes unneeded additional damage against bigger guys who hit him really hard. I'd like to see Chris Weidman TRY at 205 lbs, maybe against a relatively easy touch. It's often times been said that the UFC doesn't just start giving guys easier opponents when they're earning bank so Weidman has a really good shot to walk into 205 lbs and be greeted by an OSP or a Shogun or someone who has name value and is probably good enough to test him. If it doesn't work then we can call it a day but if it does, I think Weidman has a sizable chance to find a way to the title.

Chris Weidman

Weidman will never be champion again at 185lbs. You can’t get stopped in 4 of your last 5 fights and expect my confidence in your chances at the belt. I am not sold on the idea though that Chris Weidman is a chinny fighter so there’s no way he could cut it at 205. Most of his stoppage losses have seemed to have come from exhaustion as much as they’ve come from eating a big shot. Weidman needs to control the pace to win fights. He can’t rely on his wrestling because it’s too draining on his stamina, except against Gastelum who basically did nothing to stop the grappling game of Weidman. It’s why we’ve seen him change from a come forward pressure fighter to an out fighter. I think his team thought it would be easier on Weidman to control his output and range if he didn’t constantly have to move forward. Problem is that being an out fighter requires a lot of movement, pivoting, and things that also require a lot of energy and precision. Weidman can’t afford to let the flow of fights get away from his because it drains his gas tank too quickly. It’s how Jacare eventually wore him down. That’s why we see him win the first round of fights where he ultimately gets stopped. When other fighters do not concede, Weidman fades. I think a move to 205 could help with a lot of these issues. No more weight cut, no more energy dump after 6-7 minutes of fighting. I am afraid though that all the injuries and the big cuts to make 185lbs are cutting short his career. The first 5 minutes of his fight with Jacare, however, was some of the best we’ve seen Weidman look technically. There could be hope for him yet at 205. I don’t know if he has what it takes to beat an Alexander Gustafsson or Jon Jones. When you consider those guys are just as likely to get either hurt (Gus) or suspended on some dumb (Jones) though, the division could be wide open for Weidman to come through and make a title run.

Anderson Silva-  Silva will not will a title. Will he fight for one? He shouldn't but he will, right? Remember Anderson Silva could have an argument to having beat Michael Bisping and he owns a win over Derek Brunson who is a top 10 gatekeeper. Silva could even go as far back as to point out that there was SOME talk that if he beat Nick Diaz, he would've gotten a title fight. My best guess is that when Silva's back, he is just one fight away. After all who isn't in MMA these days?

Anderson Silva

No. In terms of fighters that are past it, I actually think Silva is on the upper end of guys who are still functioning. If Tito Ortiz would be a sizeable favorite over 95% of fighters on the regional scene, Anderson Silva is a favorite over most middleweights not in the top 20 and probably a lot of mid-tier 205ers. His super close fights with Derek Brunson and future champion Michael Bisping attest to his ability to stick around the upper end of the division. Problem for him is the high end of middleweight has become a shark tank of athletes with well rounded technical games. He would no longer be fighting the Chael Sonnens and Yushin Okamis of the world. And honestly I don’t need to see Yoel Romero flying knee Silva’s head through the fence. I’m good. I’m content with his upcoming fight with Israel Adesanya. Of all the fights he could have gotten against the top of the division, with the exception of maybe Kelvin Gastelum, Israel Adesanya is probably the most kind. I do expect Silva to picked apart here. I don’t expect to see Silva bum rush his way into something crazy like Derek Brunson did and I don’t expect Adesanya to push a crazy pace in search of the stoppage. Maybe we’ll get some fun spinning stuff but I think the fight ends up looking similar to the Adesanya-Tavares fight - Silva being unable to pull the trigger while Adesanya casually styles on him.

[anders-deserved-better]

Hyian Lavellan: The Basics

I wanted to post Hyian’s bio here since i really have nowhere else to put it and if any of you wanted to know more about my Inquisitor here it is!

Full Name: Hyian Lavellan

Reason for Name: Thought it was cool

Nickname: Durgen, only by his clan

Reason for Nickname: In elven it means stone, bcs Hyian is just a little dense.

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Gender: Male

Place of Birth: Free Marches

Birthday: May 30th, 9:21 Dragon

Currently Living In: Ferelden (and secretly Tevinter)

Species/Race: Elven

Occupation: First to Keeper Deshanna Istimaethoriel, Inquisitor

Sexual Orientation: Gay

Social Status: Ex Ruler, spouse of a Tevinter Magister

Relationship Status: Married

Status: Alive

——

Body Build: Long and lanky, kinda spindly, long legs

Height: 6’5”

Weight: 160 lbs

Skin Color: Slightly tan, has tan lines on his mid calves and biceps though.

Hair Style: Fluffy and curly, shaves down on the sides and back

Hair Color: Copper Red

Eye Color: Red

Distinguishing Features: Gold Vallaslin, cheek and left eyebrow scar, BIG ears

Preferred Clothing: No shoes, loose flowy shirts, vests, leg wraps and leggings

Accessories: His moon necklace which was made by his father who died before he was born, he also keeps his brothers’ fire necklace and his mothers’ sun necklace near him at all times

——

Mental Age: Probably 10, he can be serious at times but he combats his stress and anxiety with humor

Act before thinking/think before acting: Act before thinking

Emotion-wise, generally: He seems calm and snarky on the outside, but inside he’s a chronic worrier, and if any of his friends get hurt on a mission when he’s not there he gets super anxious and often can’t sleep until they’re safe back at Skyhold and he can make sure they’re ok. Often expresses his distaste with off-hand remarks.

Way of speaking: Loud, has almost no filter, unabashedly says inappropriate things

Common convo starter: “Despite my current appearance I am perfectly fine.”

Swears: a LOT. Has several colorful and creative elvish curses, but has also picked up a couple Tevene ones from Dorian

——

Likes: The forest, Halla, his clan, embrium (he likes to eat it, Dorian thinks its weird), climbing things he shouldn’t, falling out of trees, not sitting right in chairs, cooking over a fire, sharing a bed roll with Dorian, pulling pranks with Sera, pissing off Cullen, Anders, Purple Hawke

Dislikes: Templars, the chantry, being called Andraste’s Herald, chantry sisters, Solas, people who call elves ‘knife ears’, people who have elven slaves, The Winter Palace, Morrigan

Hobbies: Singing, wood carving

Habits: The more anxious he is, the higher pitched his voice gets and he gets restless, his ears twitch and droop depending on his emotions, tugs on his hair when he focuses, if he doesn’t have anything to do with his hands he taps his fingers or traces his vallaslin

Strengths: Tough-skinned, can take a beating, passionate about his heritage, extremely loyal

Weaknesses: Worries too much, can’t focus in battle if a friend is hurt or injured, very emotional

Secrets: He snuck off with a city elf when he was supposed to train along the border of camp with Alleni when he was killed. He never told the clan that he wasn’t with him when he died.

Fears: His friends will die if he’s not with them like his brother did

Dreams/Goals: Help Dorian however he can to help Tevinter, despite Dorians insistence that he’s fine, raise kids with Dorian in a peaceful Thedas, not let Solas kill everyone to ‘bring back the height of the elven empire’

Opinions on Religion: The chantry is a bullshit scam, Andraste herself was pretty chill but the chantry’s version of her is a mess, but still a strong believer in the eleven gods, and was seriously shaken up when he was told by Solas that the gods he prayed to and respected were basically elven magisters.

——

Favorite Food: Smoked Fish

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Animal: Halla

Favorite Season: Fall

——

History: Hyian was born in Clan Lavellan to his mother Marianne, along with his older brother Alleni. His brother, being the eldest, was trained to be Deshanna’s First, but Hyian was trained alongside him to teach him how to control his magic before he might be sent off to be the first of another clan. His father died before he was born, but he knows from stories that his mother and brother tell him that he was a good man. He made their necklaces, Marianne’s was a sun, Alleni’s was a flame and Hyian’s is a moon. His father’s was supposedly a star, but it was buried with him. After his mother died when he was 16, he was left with Alleni for family. They became closer than ever, talking almost every night about the events that occurred that day. What trouble Hyian got into, what Alleni helped Deshanna with, etc. The day that the chantry exploded, Clan Lavellan was just outside Kirkwall, near where Clan Sabrae was in Act 1. The clan didn’t know what it was, but they knew it wasn’t good, so they decided to patrol the borders of the camp to make sure no danger came unnoticed. When Hyian was supposed to be helping Alleni with his rounds, he was off talking with a city elf that had recently escaped from Kirkwall. Hearing fighting nearby, Hyian rushed to help only to find his brother lying on the ground gushing blood, scorch marks all around him and a large gash through his stomach, which Hyian could tell was from a templar blade. He cried for help but it was already too late, and Alleni died in his arms. This shook Hyian to his core, and to this day he’s still terrified of letting his friends and loved ones on missions without him because he’s afraid they’ll die like his brother did, even if he knows they’re completely capable by themselves. After his brothers death when he was 17, Hyian became the First to the Keeper, and eventually at 20 became the Inquisitor. 2 years later during Trespasser, Hyian, in his euphoria at seeing Dorian after several months, and knowledge that he didn’t want to spend his life without him, Hyian proposes to Dorian after the talks are over and Dorian is about to leave for Tevinter again. In front of all of their friends. Dorian obviously says yes, and as the Viscount of Kirkwall, Varric officiates their wedding. Hawke and Anders also attend to congratulate the couple and Dorian eventually has to drag Hyian away from Anders after the pair talk for longer than he could handle. It was their wedding day after all! In the aftermath, about a year or so after Trespasser, Hyian has three houses. Skyhold where he continues his efforts to find and stop Solas, under the ‘control’ of Divine Victoria (Leliana), his manor in Kirkwall which he makes frequent visits to in the summer months to see Varric and Hawke and everyone, and his home with Dorian in Tevinter, where he stays most of the year, helping him behind the scenes with his connections around Thedas and raising their elven daughter, Harelath.

Personality: Loud, boisterous, chaotic good, destructive, clueless, but also protective, kind, willing to lend a hand and has a bleeding heart.

——

Family: Marianne and Alleni Lavellan

Love Interest: Dorian Pavus

Friends/Allies: Dorian, Bull, Sera, Leliana, Hawke, Anders, Varric

Enemies: Cullen, Solas

[shadesxofxblack]

@emilybrooksrpworld  [Closed Starter]

“The Death of a Bachelor”

Giving the man a pat on the back for a job well done, he handed him a wad of $100 dollar bills with a smile and said, “You just remember, champ.  Spread the word.  If I stop comin’ around for at least 3 months, it’s time to start Project Snowball.”

The pimp smiled with his gold-capped tooth gleaming from the reflection of the street light.  “Yeah, my brutha!  You got it!  We got yer back, Angelus.  You just keep those dollar signs comin’ and we got a deal.”

The vampire smirked, tipping his imaginary hat on his head as he spun away on his heal, saying as he walked off, “Always a pleasure.”

With an air of pride, he felt accomplished.  Bored, but accomplished.  Time to find his latest plaything.  He’d been watching this one for the last few nights.  Stalking her from a distance while she went about her routine.  Normally, the Scourge wouldn’t waste his time, but this girl… something about her smelled different.  Special.  He could sense it, much like the way he had back when Darla had originally found his Drusilla.  Unique. A gifted plum just ripe for the plucking.

She had obviously been on something the first time the vampire saw her.  Perhaps it was his fondness for the junkie who freed him from the cage that made him adore these types.  Maybe it was the nostalgia of hunting down and potentially creating another fanged family.  No matter. He was enjoying himself and this girl could be a whole new game for him.

Walking around the back alleys and over to her corner, Angelus lit a smoke, hovering in the shadows as he awaited her arrival.  It was getting close to 2am, her usual time for catching the drunks as they left the bars. This girl was a real pro.  A good blow or hand-job, whatever would get her enough for a score.  But she didn’t take shit, either.  That’s what impressed him the most.  This chick was damaged goods, and damn, if that wasn’t a turn on.  Angelus could definitely press the buttons on this one.

This tall drink of water had potential and that was rare in a place like Santa Monica.  Sure, Los Angeles had its fair share of joy rides, but they were nothing new.  Same song, different dance.  He needed something with more character.  Something jazzy and just all around enticing.

A wrinkle of the brow and a glance to his watch to check the time as he tapped the time piece.  She was late?  That was unusual.  She was usually early.  After all, this is how she got her fix.

Angelus walked over in the direction that she came from every evening, smelling to see if he could catch a whiff of her cigarettes and shampoo.  She used the cheap shit, but it was very recognizable.  Something of a Suave type of hair product mixed with a polyester blend of fabric.  That scent combined with alcohol, tobacco and chemicals was pretty easy to detect.  

He trotted past the graffiti on the metal fence along the harbor, suddenly hearing her voice shouting out.  Angelus took his time, avoiding being seen at first as he watched from behind a storage bin. There was no one there, but she sure seemed to think there was.  “Oh, eat me,” Angelus mumbled to himself.  “Another loony-bin.  Great. Well, it would’ve been nice, kiddo but-,” he cut off as he heard what she shouted…

Wait.  Did she just say Drusilla!?  Nooo.  Is she-… She couldn’t mean his Dru, could she?

Angelus listened more intently as another breaking revelation came forward.  “Holy Crucifixion, she’s talkin’ to Darla.”  He burst out of the shadows at that point, revving up to her in long strides as he hollered, “Excuse me, Blondie!  Don’t mean to interrupt your little convo there, but uh-, “ he paused, strutting closer with every eager step, “Can you tell Darla that she needs to mind her own business?  I got it covered.  Thanks.” He’d closed the gap and instantly punched the blonde with an abnormally hard, right-hook, knocking her unconscious. A smirk played over his lips as he let out a sigh of relief.  “Get ready, babydoll.  Your workin’ a new corner from now on.”  

Hoisting her lifeless body up and over his shoulder, he leaped with ease 30 feet into the air and onto the roof of the warehouse, quickly taking her across town and back to his underground lair.  Within an hour, he’d locked her wrists up in shackles and chains, bound to the cement wall as her body laid on the mattress.  Normally, he wouldn’t bother with such a luxury, but this was his new pet!  He couldn’t let her be completely uncomfortable. Besides, the cement floor was freezing. After all, they had ages of torture to get through.  Couldn’t have her pass out from hypothermia, now could he?  

The room was his own cell that Angel had devised years ago to hold him in case Angelus resurfaced.  Reinforced, steel bars that went from the ceiling to the floor with an extra strong, four-pronged steel lock that only opened with one key.  Angelus now kept that key close-by at all times, but not where anyone could get to it. He thought it was fitting to use soul-boy’s own device against him as a torture chamber, since it was created to save people from himself.  A bit of an ironic symbiosis, if you will.

As the woman began to stir, Angelus grinned from ear-to-ear, sitting up on a metal table on the other side of the bars.  Hands folded over his knees, the amused vamp rested his black boots against a chair as he said, “Rise and shine, Emily!” He made sure to use her name, knowing she’d never told it to him.  The creep factor just made it all the more pleasurable.

“Welcome to your new home.  Oh, and don’t bother tryin’ to hang yourself - or stab yourself - or anything like that, pretty please?  I know it might seem like it’s the end of the world, but I promise you… whatever pain you feel in the near future?...It’ll only get worse.  And just when you think it can’t?   I’ll bet you a dozen needles it does.  Oh, by golly Joe Whillacker, I sure am gonna enjoy this, muffin!  We’re gonna have SO much fun.  You are one special, little thing, aren’t you?  How long has that been goin’ on now, by the way?  The whole um… talking to dead people thing. Months?  Years?  Lemme guess-,” he broke into Lady Gaga, singing, “Baby, you were born this wayyy!” With a chuckle, Angelus hopped up to his feet and wrapped his hands around the cold bars, smiling down at her with a sigh of happiness.  

“Ahhh, you know…  I’ve gotta thank you.  I really do.  It’s been a millennium since I found someone worthy of eternal torment.  Really!  Hell, more than that.  I believe it was the mid 1800’s when I turned Drusy.  But she’s off doing her own thing these days.  She lost her verve.  Her SPARK!” He slammed the bars with both hands as he shouted that, just to get a jump out of her.  “But I guess you already knew that, huh?  Darla told you about our dear, delusional daughter, didn’t she?  How is the old ball and chain, anyway?”

[ts-seychelles]

EP. 7 - “It’s Not What I Wanted, But It’s What We Get” - ASYA

https://youtu.be/KygetX1CM98

This is a short confessional as I’m in sunny San Clemente California. This DTC gives me anxiety. Jared’s been very quiet to me since the Zach boot but I gotta put my trust in the ginger. I love our third wheel alliance though. And Roxy is targeting me first like wtf. I had nothing to do with Zach going so don’t try and put it on me. And regan knocked me out of the challenge first so I’m also nervous about that. Overall I could be going tonight and it stinks that I need to put my fate into someone else’s hands. It’s not fun.

Okay so honestly this round is going to be a whole bundle of yikes. I am really trying to make sure that Ashen goes this round. Love Ashen to death, they seem like a very very nice person, but they haven't spoken to me at all, haven't attempted to form a game relationship or a connection, and I have a feeling someone from the OG Lazare is going to go home at their tribal tonight, so I've gotta make sure it's an OG Malabar, and I cannot lose an OG Lazare because then we're going to be going into a merge 6-6 with original numbers, and I lowkey don't count Nicole as an OG Lazare at this point, so I'm not feeling too confident. I also had a long talk with Augusto last night, and we spoke about a lot of things, particularly what we're going to do when we get to the merge, and we know that there are some demons we're going to have to face,,,, we spoke about Regan potentially being an ally of mine (which I actually really want to happen), and then people wanting to immediately go after the power couple of Jared/Nicole, so idkkkkkkkkkkk I know Ricky is another option because Augusto was trying to split up relationships with the original OG Lazare ladies, who apparently had an alliance bc Nicole told Vilma, and then Vilma told Augusto that there was an alliance between Asya, Nicole, Ricky and Roxy, so I know that's definitely something to worry about, letting all four of them get to merge..... BUT I am semi confident in my relationships with all of them. I'm just not too sure. I know I have my own four person alliance to combat this, because I am trying to get something together between Vilma, Dan, Augusto and myself, which I think is just really smart because all four of us seem to be middle of the road players, and we aren't drawing too much attention to ourselves in general, and there are no obvious ties that are being talked about that involve any of the four of us (or so I think), so I think it's a good foursome. I really do feel kinda confident in the merge, but I also know that there is a very good chance I'm one of the first few toast at the merge (even with my idol), but I also know I have the skill to go very deep.................... idk. This merge is going to be interesting, especially with my worrisome relationship with Jared AND Regan, so it's going to be interesting because I see both of them making the merge. SOOOOOOOO back to the plan tonight. I gotta just rationalize with the other OG Lazares (which won't be too hard) to make it seem like we're 4-3ing this bitch, but I know that Dan and Augusto are already down to get Ashen, and I just need them to go simply so I can maximize the amount of relationships I have going into the merge. I am not feeling the strongest about where I am in the game right now, but I am still alive and breathing, and if I just make myself an option to a lot of people, I think that I can make this go well for myself to at least get to that mid jury range :))

(A LITTLE LATER)

It seems like we've gotten to that point of the day today where we've all come to the general consensus that Ashen is going home today. I know we didn't get to talk, and you seem VERY nice, but you've gotta TALK to people after being on a tribe with them for 12 days or so? It isn't the fact that you've been removed from the community this whole time that is causing you to go home, it's your social game :/

I got tons to catch up on cause your resident flop here didn’t make any confessionals last round, so there’s that! From the tribal where Zach went home, I’m surprised that it went the way it did but not at the same time? The way I perceived their tribe when we first swapped was Nicole and Jared grouping together alongside Regan and JG as Malabar was low in numbers, plus Nicole felt a connection to Regan and Jared/JG have been on every tribe together so far. That being said, I totally expected it to be Alex Crooks since Nicole spoke about him really negatively when we were on NuLazare together. I am incredibly happy that sending Ruben to Ghost Island paid off because being honest, I was terrified that Regan would go home since she’s one of my closest people out here, personally and strategically so it would’ve been a massive loss. What the future holds for Nicole/Jared/JG/Regan will be interesting because I can also see Nicole/Jared flipping to the Lazares on that tribe since they are so much in the middle, moreso Nicole than anyone else.

(AFTER NUMEROUS ATTEMPTS TO RETRIEVE OUR CAMERA)

As far as the tribal council I went to last round, Vi leaving was not my PREFERRED plan, but I am also here to play a long term game, so I can’t be hellbent on making crazy moves that benefit me in a short term setting. I did think it was a good time to get rid of Ricky as Vi could’ve been used as a scapegoat for that vote and we could’ve kept Asya on her toes and gotten rid of Vi right after, but it is what it is. Will I try to keep going for Ricky/Asya ths vote? I’m not really sure because I don’t want to seem like a limited player that doesn’t see every perspective, especially if we’re heading into a merge soon.

(WE OBVIOUSLY FAILED)

Tea, tea, tea, tea, and more TEA! I really think my alliance/Final 2 with Johnny is paying off because he STAYS telling me information, so that’s exciting! For starters, there’s an alliance between himself, Vilma, and Asya. That worries me just a tad because Asya also has Ricky, so she’s kinda well protected but ngl, her social game with me is kinda ass so I’m wondering how that’ll be with other people if we merge. Johnny also let me know that Vilma found the idol clue in her beer, which she totally lied to me about but I’m not surprised cause I’d do the same thing. Said clue led her to find the Takamaka Idol however, which makes me sad because I was super close to finding it myself as it was at the Wheel at the Shipwreck, a location that I’ve been looking in for quite some time so yay for me being an unlucky dumbass. I am aware now that both Johnny and Vilma have idols, which is good for me since I’m the only person outside of Johnny to know who owns 2 idols. When I went on call with Johnny, he was telling me about his good connections with Ruben, his somewhat okay relationship with Crooks, and how he thinks Roxy is shady which was good to know. He also told me tea on how Zach tried to initiate an alliance early on in OG Lazare. It’s good to have all this tea, but Johnny is my supplier and that makes me a bit nervous that in our Final 2, he holds the reins. That’s like late game thinking and it’s too early for that, but I just gotta be realistic and keep it in the back of my mind.

(GOOD GOD)

Get your popcorn folks because tonight we’re having a Double Tribal Feature! Yeah, Double Tribals really spook me since a large part of why I have unfinished business is because I went home at a Double Tribal in Great Lakes. Hopefully, I can move past this little speedbump to race closer to the end! <3 As much as I would’ve loved a clue to the idol, it’s already been found so being put on the spot and exposed for getting a clue didn’t seem all that worth it to me, but I guess everyone else on my tribe felt the same! With no one having immunity, my odds of staying increased a bit so that’s cute, but for whatever reason I’m nervous. With me being the messy ass that I am, I did talk to Ashen about maybe voting Ricky last round and Ashen very much tried to not do that by even telling me that Ricky and them discussed how Ricky is only close to Asya from OG Lazare and how he doesn’t really fuck with anyone else. Ultimately, we all voted for Vi and that discussion died down, but I am afraid that Ashen told Ricky. Johnny also told me that Ricky was beginning to think I was the reason for his tribal anxiousness and I fear that has to do with what I told Ashen. Thankfully, Johnny deflected and Ricky isn’t TOO spooked by me. It just further shows that I can’t be trusting people with valuable information; another part of my unfinished business.

(JEFF PROBST RECAP WHO?)

Finally, a sis is in an alliance! The one with Ashen, Drake, and Samantha doesn’t really count imo so yeah. The Golden Girls is an alliance with myself, Johnny, Dan, and Vilma in it and like, I love it? It’s been in the works ever since the first or second night of this swap since we all just sorta vibed with one another but I think it’s good that we formally came together, especially for this vote as it determines the potential merge. The consensus we’ve agreed on is doing Ashen this vote, which is like good and bad for me? The only negative is that it gives Johnny and Vilma more flexibility to go between The Golden Girls and the alliance with Asya, plus the fact that we’re keeping a duo in the game. However, Ricky/Asya can be a meat shield during the merge (or a key component in a move but whatever hbgfjdks) so there’s that. Ashen is someone who has always been shady to me, so getting rid of that should lift a weight off of my shoulders. It’s been two votes where Ashen has sort of put their foot down and caused me to go in another direction, so heading into a merge with that type of player is a spell for disaster. I could also use this vote to build a bridge with Ricky and Asya since like, I might need them! Communication is a two way street and I’ve tried to cross it many times, but they usually put a stop to any convo in the past so let’s hope we can build that a bit more. As for the other tribe, I hope Ruben or Crooks leave so that I can have more options at the merge since it’s looking like I might not have all that many.

https://youtu.be/xWiMmEe2QYo

well idk what to do. I want to keep Alex but JG does not. jg is not budging like tf

So me and Johnny are playing everyone HA my life is good. I don’t feel nervous which probably means I’m donezo. I really don’t like playing the middle but ts the safest bet rn. I just am doing my best not to get caught but I’m sure I’ll be found out soon enough!!!

So going into this round I’ve been a huge ass fucking mess. First I wanted to get Jg regan and Roxy together to split up the duo but because of JG not helping me win immunity I went to Jared for help. He told me if I voted Roxy then I’ll prove my loyalty. Only thing is I risk being at the bottom of that trio by doing that

(A LITTLE LATER)

On the flip side of it regan JG and Roxy begged me saying they are loyal to that 4. They say they wanna vote Alex. So unless I’m being played which there is a huge ass chance of that I’m the swing. Part of me wants to vote out Alex but the issue is that if any of those 3 don’t vote Alex and he stays I lose my chance to prove myself and if they aren’t already voting me I go to merge with nobody

(EVEN LATER)

But I’m a risk taker and honestly this trio needs to be divided ASAP

So this round has been... wild. I'm playing so risky this round because I don't want any votes against me. I would have a lot more room to play if I didn't give a shit about that but I'm crackt and uhhhh.... here we are. I had a call with Ruben last night where I basically forced him into voting for Roxy, because I said she will already have a majority of the votes on her, so voting her would be a sign of loyalty to me, and then I will have his back in the future. I told him I was being honest and it opened up more options for him. - 1, he can take that information to gather votes against me, and if it works, good on him! - 2, if he tries that and it doesn't work, I can't trust him and he will be super fucked at merge. Then, I was honest with Alex about who I wanted out, because I want him to see I am true to my word. I told JG and Regan the plan. Roxy is voting Alex TO MY KNOWLEDGE, and Ruben has a chat with Regan and JG where he said he will vote me or Alex. I told Regan to make him think it's Alex, so I can see where his loyalty lies, AND because Alex is not actually going home----- Alex will hold a bigggg vendetta against Ruben. And IIIIIIIIIII didn't lie to Ruben, SO WE GOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!! That's if it all works out. There is potential for Roxy to play an advantage and the votes to actually be on me. If so, good on them.

https://youtu.be/LKXlhMBUhyw

Tonight is the double tribal night and it has been strangely quiet these past few hours even though tribal is already starting in a little over an hour. As far as I know Ashen is getting voted out tonight, and I was originally against the plan because Ashen was the main person who wanted to help me stay in the game a few rounds ago. I know I'm going to feel really shitty voting for them after all that happened. :''''''''''''''''''''''( It sucks. But upon reflecting I decided that I'm not going to go out of my way to save Ashen because both sides (Dan&Augusto vs. Ricky&Asya) were surprisingly okay with the idea of voting out Ashen tonight, and I want to stay on everyone's good side going to the merge. I don't want to make any big enemies just yet, since I'm sure the first merge rounds will be super intense and the alliance lines seem to be really fuzzy right now. I'm currently kinda trying to play the middle with Johnny, and it's definitely risky, but exciting at the same time! I've never really been in this middle position before. I'm still paranoid that I'm going to get blindsided tonight, but that's nothing new honestly. I'm pretty sure I'm going to hold on to my idol for another round. But I will play it as soon as I start getting any weird vibes, I definitely don't want to go home with it! Respectfully yours with sincere gratitude, Vilma666

https://youtu.be/S0UjIBwTsiE

I TOLD JARED AND THEN NICOLE I HAVE THE IDOL WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. ugh

[fireflysummers]

Mob Psycho 100 x Paranatural

Okay my dudes, I figure I may as well put these ideas down in one post since I don’t have time to draw them (or any more at least). They all stemmed from a convo a month or two ago between me and @happikattwuzheere concerning how Reigen is the Anti-Spender.

@7bluecats and @cocoa-bee I think you two were asking about this general stuff.

-cracks knuckles- 

Okay so. I have like. Several variations on the theme.

1. Total Crossover: The cast of paranatural meets the cast of MP100 (ignoring language barriers and geographical locations)

Or: The Fun AU where friendships and rivalries abound and there’s not much angst

Johnny immediately picks Mob out for a wimp and attempts to intimidate him...he is immediately stopped by (1) Ritsu, (2) Teru, (3) The Body Improvement Club

Dimple terrorizes PJ and attempts to arm wrestle Lefty

Suzy and Mezato meet. Even to those not physically present, there is an immediate chill as though some unholy partnership has been formed. (Alternatively they also compete for information because one girl is a master at bribery and blackmail, the other one literally started her own cult in her classmate’s image)

Reigen left hooks Spender for putting kids in the line of danger in order to satisfy his own ego (”You f*cked up some perfectly good children is what you did. Look at them. They’ve got anxiety!”)

Spender attempts to convince Mob (and the other Esper kids) to be his disciples. Shou laughs. Ritsu hates him more than he distrusts Reigen. Teru laughs and insults his choice of clothing. Mob is uncomfortable.

Salt Mid Student Council v Mayview Mid Student Council: an immovable object meets an unstoppable force

idk but Tome and Lisa look like they could be related all right?

The Esper kids in general get along with the Activity Club

Isaac and Ritsu have literally no patience for each other; Isaac and Teru have no patience for each other because Teru keeps insisting that he (and especially Mob) are probably stronger than Isaac

Isabel challenges them all to arm wrestles. To Shou’s horror, she wins them all.

Ed and Teru for some reason actually hit it off. Mostly because Teru is a movie buff like Ed and Ed is an invaluable source of creative ideas that Teru can actual implement in battle.

Shou (on Isaac): HAHA LOOK IT’S LIKE ME AND YOU FUSED TOGETHER TO MAKE ONE SUPER VOLATILE ANGST LORD

Max doesn’t really like Reigen, but he doesn’t immediately distrust him either because, despite being a con man, Reigen is by and large more honest than Spender

Max isn’t sure if he likes Mob, but he’s nice to him. He finds Teru obnoxious, but finds Ritsu tolerable in a way that Isaac isn’t. Mostly because Ritsu doesn’t demand things like loyalty and friendship right out. He gets along best with Shou, who is King at Wicked Stunts and Lighting Stuff on Fire.

Johnny is kind of terrified of Teru because Teru has expertise in dealing with delinquents and isn’t afraid to pull that card (even without the use of his psychic powers)

Hitball tourney between the two schools. Mob spends the entire time surrounded by the Body Improvement Club. People are reasonably intimidated. Despite that though the teams are pretty evenly matched.

BL makes the mistake of trying to connect into Mob’s mind. She disconnects that one REAL FAST.

Matsuo comes home with a new collection of mundane objects that are infused with spirits of all kinds

Mob accidentally pops the bubble surrounding Mayview and unleashes the apocalypse

2. Spender is Reigen

Spender is a legitimate psychic who runs the Spirits and Such Consultation.

He is a good bit less successful than Reigen because he is actually relatively bad with interpersonal relationships

Also his main goal is boosting his own ego, as opposed to Reigen who was kind of bored but mostly wanted to help people somehow

tbh I don’t think that Mob would have stuck around Spender like he did Reigen. Spender talks too much about himself, and as hard as he tries to be inspirational he lacks the sincerity and emotional depth that Reigen does to pull it off.

But assuming that Mob did stick around, I don’t think that Spender would be healthy to his maturity

Spender wouldn’t trust Mob to make decisions as a rational individual. He’d treat him like he was kind of dumb, just because Mob approaches thoughts very differently from most people. He’d maybe try to shelter him out of this weird protective instinct, but he wouldn’t really respect Mob as an intelligent individual (and he is, that smackdown with Touchirou shows that he not only thinksa bout stuff, he thinks deeply)

Spender would take Mob’s silence as approval. All the time. 

Spender would however be able to teach Mob how to channel his powers to an extent but his teaching would always be hampered by his own inferiority complex regarding Mob’s natural ability.

In the end, Mob would have more technical mastery of his psychic skills (despite that not being what he REALLY wants out of life anyways), and also likely be a lot more doubtful of his own decisions and less likely to take risks

This story would end with the Mogami arc, wherein Spender would think himself the True Hero as he does, and attempt to take on Mogami himself.  He dies.

3. Reigen is Spender

The least developed of the AUs, in which Reigen is an American middle school teacher

He still doesn’t have powers, beyond being able to see the spirits. He can’t use spectral energy or use weapons. 

Everybody thinks he can though

As in, BL thinks that he’s an incredibly powerful spectral because he keeps resisting her attempts to link with him mentally. In reality he doesn’t even know that that dream stuff exists, or is vaguely aware of it only.

He’s known for being a little bit scattered as a teacher, easily flustered and known to bullshit his way through stuff that he obviously doesn’t know

Despite that he’s well loved because at the end of the day, no matter how frustrated or tired he is, he legitimately gives the impression that he cares about his students.

He’s slightly better at handling Isaac than Spender is. For starters, he actually gives Isaac a degree of respect, answering him honestly where he can and giving him “I can’t tell you that right now, but I promise I’ll tell you when you’re no longer inhabited by a highly dangerous spirit monster okay?” where he can’t

Also he wouldn’t have fought Forge. I mean, he doesn’t have any powers anyways, and because holy shit that thing spits fire. If the kids were in danger he would have ditched so fast because the kids always come first.

Actually he probably would have called off the mission the minute that things started turning out more dangerous than projected

Zarei would probably still hate him though because he’s the type of guy who gets under her skin

Day is sneaky af and Reigen wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating her like literally everybody else in the series right now

He’s legitimately worried about Max, who has clearly not moved on from mourning his mother. He’s a lot more attentive to this as a motivator in Max’s actions, and although he won’t ask about it directly he’s definitely checking for warning signs

He’s nearly gotten fired three times for physically threatening students (they deserved it but whatever)

Has been called a coward many, many times by almost every character in the series. Literally does not care because the people he cares about are still, by and large, alive

4. Max’s Mogami World

I don’t really remember the context of this one but it definitely started with discussing how differently Mogami’s world would have presented itself

There are a number of context clues implying that Max feels guilt over his mother’s death, so his isolation in the mind world is built around that

In this world, he still has a dad and a sister, but they both blame him for what happened to his mom. Not verbally, usually, but definitely in the coldness towards him and the way that look at him when they think he’s not looking

The move to Mayview isolates him completely, and he’s not brought into a circle of friends at his new school

Physical bullying doesn’t bother him nearly as much, because he knows how to fight back, but he takes to ditching school in an attempt to avoid his tormentors. This, in turn, causes a lot of the teachers to label him as a delinquent and start treating him more poorly

Minori (or the character equivalent in this world) finds out about Max’s mom somehow (via Suzy or somebody else snooping around), and uses that knowledge to emotionally bully Max into a corner

Max is the only one in the Paranatural cast that would have survived longer than a week in a Mogami world. Everybody else would have been too easy to pull apart.

Except maybe Ed. Mogami wouldn’t know what the heck to do with Ed. (Nobody does.)

I may have to add stuff later because I can’t remember what other stuff we talked about, but Katt and I did develop a fun new painful theory or two from this mess of stuff.

[norfolkrp]

Congratulations Felicty, you’ve been accepted as original character Lance Stirling! Go ahead and set up your account, be sure to message the main from it.

Also, be sure to:

Make sure your ask and submit are open.

Follow everyone on the masterlist.

Track the tag norfolk: starter for open dash convos.

And tell us your initial reaction to Norfolk in the tag norfolk: talk!

Name/Alias: Felicity

Age: 21

Pronouns: she/her

Timezone: EST

Personal tumblr: i have a personal but i use synodicdeicide (indie rp) more. so that’s the best contact option!

Activity level:  I’m on summer break right now, but I’m working full time at my internship until Aug 4th, and then I’ll be free (outside of my social obligations). I am a full time student and I have a research position, so I’ll probably be able to get online about 3 times a week (consistently) after the semester starts. Some weeks will be more but I don’t want to overestimate and then like never be on lol.

Triggers: None

What’s the secret password?:  Removed.

How did you find us?:  Mimi told me about you guys!

What character are you applying for?  Lance Stirling (original character) Anything else?:

Nope!

Writing sample:

The bright and unforgiving July sun is assaulting through the windshield of the 2004 Honda that Lance calls his car. The thing is on it’s last legs and in a way Lance pities the geriatric hunk of metal, the same way he would an elderly dog. He has left his grandfather’s assisted living facility, and is heading to the Norfolk University campus. It’s strange to think that, had he started classes as soon as he had graduated high school — rather than flying across the country to find his mother, who had clearly no interest in him despite her words — he would have already graduated from the sprawled, green campus. He will graduate in spring, he’s made sure of that by taking classes through the summer months. Two blocks of classes, at that. Eight weeks of classes he doesn’t care about just so he can have enough credits to graduate and (hopefully) find a job. Lance turns the air conditioning to full blast. He thinks of his parents and wonders what they would have thought of him now. Of his life in Norfolk. Of his walking through dreams like some people walk through National Parks.  Of his being an art student — he can’t imagine his father would have expected that one.  He wonders what he would have been, he’s always wondered:  What if I hadn’t left, what if they hadn’t died, what if she hadn’t given me up….   the endless scenarios eat at him constantly, day and night. In his dreams the scenarios haunt him.  His dreams are rarely based in logic, in reality, but when they are they taunt him. Perhaps that’s why he learned to find the dreams of others; of girls who dreamed of ballerinas and boys who dreamed of football players. How simple their worlds. To Lance the simplicity of other’s lives is the biggest fantasy. Pulling his backpack from the back seat of his car, Lance takes a deep breath to prepare himself for the boredom of his introduction to psychology lecture — a mandatory University course that he has left off until the last minute knowing it would be excruciating. The Professor’s monotone, sleepy voice, and the dull chill from the central air system. He knows will doze off. He always does. Some habits never change, no matter how hard you attempt to kick them. Lance snorts as he thinks of this, at the very least he has one constant in his life.

2. ORIGINAL CHARACTER

Full name: Lance Stirling

Age: 23

Sexuality: Bisexual

Species: Dreamwalker

Claimed Power: N/A

Psychic ability: N/A

Occupation:  Art student at Norfolk University & barista at The Brew

Address:  Raven’s Row (Mimi & I discussed our Judah and Lance being flatmates, so that’d be chill if that worked out, but if not that’s fine too!)

Quote: “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”

MBTI: INFP

Positive traits (3): Friendly, kind, calm

Negative traits (3): Passive, lazy, capricious

Face claim: Keith Powers

Biography:

In the mid-nineties, after two and a half years and four miscarriages, Amanda and Jason Stirling decided to go another route. Adopted at birth by the upper-middle class couple from the suburbs of Annapolis, Lance spent most of childhood wanting for nothing.  The majority of his childhood was spent staining his jeans in the grass as he rough-housed with neighborhood children in backyards filled with lush grass and dotted with daisies.  He was happy for those short years. They passed away in a car accident. Aged seven, Lance was sent to live with Jason’s father — Nathaniel — a man in his late fifties, a professor of History at Norfolk University.

Lance did not care much for school. Always distant in class, dozing off or daydreaming rather than paying attention. The problem was only exacerbated during Lance’s teenage years. On the weekends, he could sleep for fifteen hours at a time, assuming his grandfather did not force him out of bed. To appease his grandfather, he joined the cross-country team at Norfolk High School, though he attended practice only when he felt like it and only pushed himself enough to keep up with the average runners on the team.

During his years at the high school, Lance spent most of his time in the art room, it was the only place in the brick building where he could manage to stay awake.  It was there, in the room with the paint-stained floors and the splintered easels, that Lance bring his dreams to the waking world. The dreams that had become more vivid, more wondrous, more pervasive than anything in his waking life.  Living was black and white — dreaming was technicolor.

He often dreamt of his parents, of the childhood home in Maryland. After graduating from Norfolk High, Lance spent two years in Maryland, searching for his birth mother and was disappointed when he found her living in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Baltimore with a boyfriend and four kids younger than him. It made him feel abandoned, and unwanted. And he felt guilty for looking for her when the parents who loved him as their own had not lived long enough to raise him. At nineteen and a half, he returned to Washington, to Norfolk. To the place he started to think of as home, only after leaving.

His grandfather suffered from a severe stroke shortly after Lance’s return. He survived, but only continues to do so with very much assistance. Lance has since had to move out of his grandfather’s house and has started his own life, taking up Art at Norfolk University, hoping that he’ll be able to make some kind of living off of it one day.  When not asleep or in class, he works at The Brew and uses most of his salary (and tips) to pay for the small amount of tuition he has to pay — he was given a scholarship thanks to his grandfather’s many years of tenure prior to his absence for his health —  to pay the menial rent of the Raven’s Row apartment, and to help out with his grandfather.