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butwhyduh · 4 years ago

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Pregnancy scare with the Batboys?

These all happen at different times in their lives. Dick at 24, Jason 26, and Tim 20 because I feel like that’s the ages they’d like have this.

Warning: it’s gotta little bit of everything. Fluff, smut, convenience story robbery, blood, one little crude sex joke.

Dick

“I stopped at the store and got everything we need before the store comes in. Even got those pad tampon things you use,” Dick said waving the box proudly. You rolled your eyes and grabbed the box.

“And what prompted that?” You asked, eyes narrowed.

“A coupon deal on them,” Dick answered and you laughed.

“That makes more sense. Let me put these up and I’ll cook dinner,” you said, walking to the bathroom.

“Nope! I’m cooking,” Dick said happily.

“Okay,” you said planning to help him anyways.

You walked in the bathroom to put the box in your usual drawer only to find it full. When was the last time you needed one? You did the math and realized that it’s been almost 2 months. With your university schedule being crazy and Dick got hurt a few weeks ago, you’d forgotten all about your period.

You skin chilled at the thought. What if you were- what if you were pregnant? You were too young. You were 24 but it felt too young. You were only dating. You hadn’t gotten to the kids talk yet.

“Hey babe, where is the- what’s wrong?” Dick asked from the doorway. He looked at the package in your hand and the matching one in the drawer with confusion.

“Uh, I missed my period last month,” you said and his eyes widened. “I completely forgot.”

“Oh.”

He looked at you frozen. “Wait- are you saying you might be...”

“Maybe,” you answered. “We gotta get tests and everything. And stress can mess it up. And we’ve been using protection every time.”

“Yeah. I’ll run to the store, okay?” He said before hurrying out the door. You sat on the toilet with the box still in hand. What if you were pregnant? Dick was a good guy but he didn’t exactly have a ton of money. He was a part time gymnastics teacher. You were in college.

“Okay I got 4,” Dick said, back in record time. He gave you the bag and watched you.

“Dick?”

“Hu?”

“Get out of the bathroom.”

“Oh right,” he said, leaving and shutting the door. You could hear him pacing as you took the tests. You unlocked the door as you waited for the tests to finish. A neat little row of absolute terror on the side of the bathtub.

“Are they done?” Dick asked anxiously.

“No. We wait two minutes,” you said almost hollowly with stress and he nodded roughly.

“If you are... I’ll be here. I’ll be here for whatever you decide. No matter your choice,” Dick said holding your hands. You gulped.

“Yeah. Thanks. I can’t believe I forgot,” you said with a little laugh. He hugged your shoulders.

“Things have been crazy,” Dick said with a shrug. Your phone alarm went off and you quickly looked at all of the tests. Negative. You both relaxed. You sighed in relief.

“That would have been crazy,” you said with a laugh. Dick laughed a little too. “I am not ready to be a mom.”

“Yeah. Same. I’d need a better job and a better place. Not that there’s anything wrong with our apartment but it’s too small for a baby,” Dick rambled on. He stopped when he noticed your little grin. “You know, I meant what I said. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for you.”

You didn’t answer but pulled him in for a kiss that Dick eagerly returned before finally pulling away because you were in the bathroom surrounded by used pregnancy tests and boxes of menstrual products.

“I’ll clean up while you get dinner started. Yeah?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dick said with a kiss to your cheek.

Jason

You’d been thinking about it for a few days with a sense of denial. Your period was late. And you were mentally freaking out. You were too young. I mean, you were 26 but it felt too young! Your relationship was too new! You had been dating for 2 years but it felt too fast!

You hurried down to a corner store that you didn’t normally visit near your apartment to grab some tests. You jumped a little when the bell on the door rang as another customer entered the store. You had been too worried and stressed about picking from the 7 different types of pregnancy tests. Were they all the same or totally different? You just wanted to know ‘baby or naw.’ You grabbed three and put them in a hand basket.

“PUT your hands up where we can see them,” a man yelled and you froze before looking up, your hands above your head, basket on your wrist. “Take off any jewelry and pull out your wallets. We’ll be taking those,” a man in a ski mask said. There were a total of 12 customers and 2 shop clerks.

You carefully pulled your crossbody bag off your shoulder and held it out. A man grabbed it roughly from you and you made a tiny noise that made him smile. He looked you over and you wanted to shrink away.

There was a loud crashing noise as the side glass was broken and a man with a pair of guns blazing stood in the middle. The bright red helmet let you know that it was Jason and you almost sagged in relief. Almost. He pointed the gun at both criminals and shot at their knees. The rubber bullets hit them both in the knees and they fell before you could even move. He quickly punched them both in the head and they lost consciousness. Jason roughly tied them up by the register and everyone started to leave the building quickly while grabbing their things.

Jason grabbed you and pulled you from the building and up to the roof, basket still on your wrist. He rolled his helmet off and looked you over.

“Are you alright?” He asked holding your face in his hands. You grasped his wrists.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” you reassured him. He looked you over before his eyes fell to the basket. Jason froze as he looked at the contents. A candy bar and 3 pregnancy tests.

“Are you? Why do you have these?” He asked, looking at your face quickly. You sat the basket down.

“Maybe,” you answered quietly. His mouth opened a little as if you speak but he didn’t. “I mean, I’m late.”

“Okay. Alright,” he said nodding. “We just need to test first. God, you were almost shot and you might be pregnant.”

He pulled you tightly in his arms until the armor pressed against you. Jason’s lips pressed against the side of your head. For one of the first times, he looked scared.

Back at your apartment, you could hear Jason pacing as you took the test. You unlocked the door and he came in, staring at them. Neither one of you spoke before the results came in. Negative. You breathed a sigh of relief.

“I would have been there for you. No matter what. But I’m glad that it’s negative. We should plan this stuff, you know? My job... it’s too dangerous,” Jason said carefully.

“I know. We can’t,” you said with a dry smile.

“I’d quit. If you were. So that you and the baby would be safe,” he said and you quickly looked at him.

“You shouldn’t have to,” you said.

“But I would.”

Tim

Tim’s hands were tight on your hips as he thrust in your from behind and you couldn’t stop making little noises. God, were you always this tight? He could barely control himself and the second you clamped around him in pleasure, Tim came as well. Both of you panted as he roughly and slowly thrust through your highs. Tim pushed in deeply before stopping to catch his breath and then pulling out.

“Fuck,” he said in a terrified voice. You turned to look at him confused. “The condom came off.”

Your eyes widened at the implication. “Did you- did you finish inside?” You asked as cold panic flooded your body. You were only using condoms at this point in time.

“Yeah. Definitely,” he said, looking down and in literally any other situation he would have loved the sight before him. His cum leaked out of you and Tim winced.

After a few minutes of trying to finally get the useless condom out, you were almost in full freak out. You were only 20. You couldn’t get pregnant!

“I’ll get plan B. Unless you don’t want it,” Tim said looking at you.

“Good idea. We definitely need that,” you said nodding. “But you can’t go to the store and buy plan B. Timothy Drake-Wayne buys plan B. Playboy like his father Bruce Wayne? I could just see the headline. I’ll go.”

“Smart,” he said. You quickly took a shower and threw on clothes before running down to a pharmacy. Your heart pounded as you asked the pharmacist for a plan B but she simply gave you a box that you paid for. You took the pill before even leaving the store and threw away the evidence as if someone cared what you did.

That night you had some nausea and cramping but were fine otherwise. Tim was extra nice in the next few weeks as you both waited to see if your period would ever come. He put in effort to see you more often and stay off his phone when you were together. Finally you woke up one morning with cramps where actually pleasantly happy to see that you had finally started to bleed. That didn’t happen often.

You told Tim who sagged in relief. He didn’t even know how much tension he held in his body before releasing it. He kissed your cheek and you laughed a little.

“Never buying that brand of condoms again,” he swore.

“I’m making an appointment to get birth control,” you said and he quickly turned to you.

“Really? No more condoms?” Tim said hopefully.

“It’ll take a little while to start working but yeah,” you said with a little smile. “Then I can be your Twinkie instead of your toaster strudel,” you laughed.

“Wow. I wish I could time travel to unhear that,” Tim said covering his face with a hand while laughing.

“You know that’s a good joke,” you laughed pushing his shoulder.

“...yeah,” he said with a grin.

#dick Grayson x reader #nightwing x reader #Jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #Tim drake x reader #Red Robin x reader

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coeurdastronaute · 4 years ago

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Essays in Existentialism: Plus One, Ch. 2

Previously on Plus One

It oscillated every other minute between being an amazing idea, but also being the worst idea of all time, and Lexa was mostly exhausted of bouncing back and forth. It might be easier, she decided, if she just got herself on board with it being a good idea, but a deep, gnawing hole seemed to manifest itself in her gut at the very thought of seeing her ex.

As she went through the motions of finishing the day, of doing inventory because it was Wednesday, Lexa tried not to distract herself with the thoughts of her impending trip. In just forty-eight hours, she’d be face to face with Costia, who she hadn’t seen in months, who she avoided before occasionally running awkwardly into each other at mutual friends’ events. She’d come face to face with her ex who was getting married.

And she was going to do it with a complete stranger on her arm.

With a heavy sigh, Lexa tossed her clipboard on her tiny desk in the storage closet and plopped down in the squeaky chair, tipping it back with a wail. Her sister was the worst.

It was quiet in the shop, closed for just a handful of hours, Lexa always took a day to inventory and repair the damage of the week. She enjoyed the late evening work, when her workers were gone, and the shop was empty and full of dreams. No one knew how the cabinets stayed so clean, or how the scratches on table tops got sanded and fixed, or how the wobbly table by the window was miraculous cured one day, or how the ceiling fans got dusted, just that it all happened, and Lexa was off, meaning she didn’t come in until at least ten, the following morning.

But Lexa sat in the chair and let her brain do the same mental gymnastics it always seemed to do in the new quiet she found herself craving. She opened her laptop and ignored the awaiting spreadsheet, and instead opted to look over the answer Clarke had given her to the “Know your partner” quiz Clarke googled and made them both do. A mix of basic information and Newlywed Game style innuendos, Lexa filled hers out after a bottle of wine and anxiously waited for Clarke’s.

That was what started the daydreaming. She scrolled through Clarke’s answers and furrowed, doing her best to memorizing all that she could, as if she’d be tested on it all, as if it’d be impossible to believe she could be happy with someone like Clarke.

And when those thoughts started to seep into her brain, Lexa leaned back again and dug the tips of her fingers into her eyes.

In a week it’d be over.

And with that and a deep, heavy sigh, Lexa looked at the screen again and went about learning Clarke.

She started professionally, of course, looking at her corporate page and resume, because this was, if not anything, simply a business transaction and Lexa thought it was easier to parse a person if she didn’t actually have to fall for her.

A graphic designer at Anya’s firm, Clarke held accolades and a long list of references. The link to her work showed a wide range of commercial campaigns and a certain amount of talent evident by her list of upcoming projects. A graduate of a small, private, liberal arts university, her academics leaned heavily scientific, which was a surprise until Lexa read some of the answers in the survey about a degree in physics given up for art.

Lexa promised that she wouldn’t have looked at Clarke’s Instagram if Clarke hadn’t requested her first. She wasn’t someone who lurked, or at least she thought she wasn’t. She didn’t want to be someone who snuck around, digging through someone’s past, analyzing every filter and caption like a private investigator. But then Clarke appeared.

And there were pictures of Clarke with friends getting drinks on a rooftop. And then the one with her laughing and baking. Or the Christmas party where she was on a corporate Santa’s lap, smiling so wide her eyes were shut. Despite herself Lexa found herself smiling along with the girl in the pictures. The one who went hiking with a pack of dogs, and the one who seemed to always be eating something. The one who had a lot of friends and enjoyed making them smile and laugh. The girl who posted storie about her morning run, and the girl who seemed to have a healthy work life balance.

Lexa closed the webpages and stared at her inventory for exactly two seconds before curiosity won again and Lexa started looking at Costia’s account. There were the standard pictures of her pre-wedding planning. There was Costia working out. There was her new bride-to-be, happy and smiling at a gift for her birthday.

And then a throwback that made Lexa’s stomach drop as she stared at a familiar image of Costia smiling in a bikini on a beach. It was from the last trip they took. Lexa was the one behind the camera.

Three weeks after that picture was taken, Lexa walked in on Costia and a girl in the middle of the afternoon. Right in their own bed. Only to then discover it’d been going on for months. And it wasn’t the first. And then, Lexa didn’t remember much except that she moved into the apartment above her coffee shop and woke up one morning alone on sheets that weren’t familiar, in a room full of boxes.

It seemed even more difficult to start inventory after that shot to the gut.

But her phone went off, and Lexa leaned back in her chair after shutting the laptop again, wondering if that sinking feeling ever went away when it came to someone you love, or loved, or once loved, even for a moment. She didn’t have anything to compare it to, and she didn’t have any idea what love really was.

It felt like a deep wound was scratched open, the scab pulled back, and a burning numbness gnawing at the bottom of her spine. It felt like it would swallow her whole, and Lexa hated, more than anything, giving anyone the power to do anything as such over her.

Hey! Do you think this will go with your outfit?

An image came next, of Clarke in a dressing room wearing a very pretty dress, with very messy hair with her tongue sticking out. Lexa didn’t notice the gnawing feeling disappear.

We don’t have to match completely.

We do! Don’t you know how to date?

Not really.

Another picture of another dress came a moment later. Clarke was pretty. She was happy and silly and kind. It felt oddly normal, for as crazy as the whole scheme actually was.

I like that one, Lexa wrote, making sure to add a heart-eyed emoji to emphasize her point. Maybe that was flirting. Maybe she was allowed. She definitely needed more rules.

Good, I do too. It matches your tie, you know? And these heels will still leave you a little taller than me.

Sounds good to me!

Kind of excited. I guess I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow.

I’ll be the one at the bar.

I’ve heard it’s possible to find your soulmate at the airport. Something about the crossing of paths and time and space.

If my soulmate is a bottle of wine, then I reckon I might.

A love story for the ages.

Lexa smiled once more at her phone before tossing it to the side and letting her head drop to the desk. With a groan she growled into her hands and broke it down. She just needed to make it seventy-two hours. That was it. She could sleep for about twenty of those. She could drink for another twenty or more, if she really tried.

But this was it. This was the end.

And regardless of the weight of everything else, there was something satisfying about knowing it was almost over.

XXXXXXXXXX

The airport was absolutely teaming with bodies and people, weaving their way through the swelling crowds, loading and unloading the terminals at a constant, steady thumping rate, so regular one could set a watch to the heartbeat of the building.

Clarke adjusted her bag on her shoulder and tapped the ticket against her thigh as she moved through the security line. The nerves were coming for some reason. That was why she was at the airport three hours before the flight. She was anxious and needed a stiff drink and a few moments to catch her breath. She needed to escape the whirlwind she’d allowed herself to create.

Carefully, she made her way through the airport, checking the boards and finding her way to a seat in the empty waiting room. Not even an attendant waited at the kiosk.

Once again, she let herself awkwardly scroll on her phone, learning everything she could about her future date and weekend plans.

Lexa was nearly non-existent online. She didn’t have any pictures of herself. She rarely posted anything on her personal account, and when she did, it was just a book or a coffee or from a trip. She wasn’t one to enjoy being the center of attention, but when it came to her shop, she made sure to post almost daily, highlighting her employees and their recommendations, she made share to highlight events, she made sure to be as active as possible.

Anya had already warned Clarke that her sister was devoted to her work. She’d poured all of her effort into being successful and part of the community, and Clarke admired it, she just wished that there was more for her to see.

And so, once more, she flipped back to the long line of questions they’d filled out before giving up and gazing out the window at the planes coming and going.

For a moment, she allowed herself to think that she was doing something nice and good. It was an act of charity. It was the shake up Clarke needed and was selfishly trying to package as benevolent.

“You beat me, and I’m usually the first one here for a flight,” Lexa observed, walking up to Clarke, stealing her from her reverie.

“I like airports. Just waiting for true love to stroll up and introduce themselves.”

Lexa shoved her hands in her pockets, her bag balanced on her shoulder as she cautiously looked around, surveying the empty terminal slowly. Clarke watched her look around, smiled at the innocence of it. Enjoyed the way she ran her hand through her hair, mussing it up a bit and tossing it to another side.

“No one likes airports,” Lexa shook her head before taking the seat beside her.

“I do. They’re romantic.”

“Romantic?”

“You can get onto a plane, and a few hours later, you’re hundred of miles away, and it’s different weather, and it’s a different time zone. You can go to sleep in a different state. How can you not be romantic about that.”

“It’s a tin can filled with recycle air.”

“But there are peanuts.”

That did it. Lexa cracked a smile to herself and relaxed a little.

“I was going to be the first one here. Surprise you with coffee, but you beat me to it.”

“You are quite a good girlfriend. Someone clearly trained you well.”

Lexa shook her head, somewhat bashful, somewhat reserved. There was always something right there, just below the surface, obfuscated by a kind of resolve to never give anything away, not at any price. Clarke read it between words in their texts and emails, a glaring finality in the simple pixel of a period.

“Can I get you a coffee? Two creams, two sugar right?”

“You don’t have to--”

“It’s early and I’m trying to be charming. Allow me to somewhat repay you for this whole endeavour.”

“Sounds good. Thanks, darling.”

With the term of endearment, Lexa nodded, grinning into her chest as she stood and made her way across the terminal in search of sustenance. Clarke watched her take out her phone, texting her sister no doubt.

Once more, Clarke resumed the digging on her own, scrolling on her own phone at old pictures on Lexa’s profile. She was ready for fun, and she was ready to crack at that facade.

“I don’t know if this will help,” Lexa sighed as she sat down. “I didn’t sleep a wink last night.”

“Oh this won’t be good for me either,” Clarke said as she took a sip. “I’m a fairly nervous flyer.”

“And yet you let me get us both coffee.”

“You made a good point, and I’m prepared to be paid back all weekend.”

With another grin, Lexa leaned back, her arm going on the back of the chair that Clarke inhabited, naturally, with ease, with a level of comfort.

“Are you ready to tell me the story?”

“Which one is that?” Clarke turned to look at her date, returned from an absent moment.

“How we met.”

“How we met,” she nodded, her smile bordering on mischievous. “That’s simple. Don’t you remember? It was a very blustery Tuesday, and I was trying to escape the wind and rain. I almost tripped coming into your coffee shop, but you happened to be sweeping, and were kind enough to catch me.”

“You’re severely overestimating my reflexes.”

“Fine. I ran you over and we both ended up on our asses in the middle of the coffee shop. Coffee everywhere.”

“Sounds pretty likely.”

“And I knew right there, I was hooked. Those eyes, all angry and annoyed at me for not looking where I was going, despite my persistent defense that I’d been assaulted by the weather.”

“Why do I have to be the angry one?”

“Wouldn’t you be though?” Clarke returned, daring her to be contradicted.

“Maybe,” Lexa agreed over the lid of her cup, fretting with it nervously.

“So I crashed into you, and you bought be a coffee. I turned up every day after that until I finally asked you out. You took longer than I would have liked to answer me, but I accepted it anyway, and we’ve been madly in love ever since.”

“And when was this?”

“About eight months ago.”

“How’s it going so far?”

“Splendidly. I’ve already met your sister, who it happens that I work with, which is super convenient for everyone.”

Quietly, Lexa sat there, going over the story, going over all of the past eight months of apparent bliss in her head. Clarke watched her furrow before softening, her eyes not seeing, but rather looking through the window as a plane took off and another landed. The softening of her features was soon met with a perplexion, a slight, gentle contortion of the brow and the lips, a tightening as a kind of confusion overtook the ease of the entire story.

“Is it that easy?” Lexa asked quietly, turning her head toward her date. Clarke cocked her head, waiting for more. “Is all of it… just… a wind? Waiting for someone to just ask you out? Is it that easy? Does that happen to people?”

“It can. How does anything happen in the world? It just… does. The universe is just a series of things happening, all of the time, right?”

“But is it that easy?”

To her credit, Clarke thought about it. She flexed her jaw and took a deep breath before slowing letting it go as she wondered if it really was.

“I don’t know. Maybe it can be.”

“How?”

“I guess there has to be a balance to making things happen and letting things happen.”

“I don’t know if I’m good at either of those things,” Lexa confessed. She sat up straighter a moment later, afraid of her honesty, and surprised more by how easily it came out.

“I think you can be.”

“That’s probably too kind.”

“We’ll see.”

Clarke rubbed Lexa’s shoulder, rubbed the middle of her back between her shoulder blades until she reached the collar of her shirt, where she massaged her neck. She tensed before relaxing, and Clarke didn’t stop, just rubbed there gently, slowly until she knew it was enough and she trailed her palm back toward the seat.

It was right there, they just didn’t know it.

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varanusniloticus · 4 years ago

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So... two years.

Its almost two years to date that I had my last drink. Eleven since I quit smoking. Two years since I had to be admitted to a psychiatric institution and spent some weeks locked up there. I guess it’s time to tell the tale, to shake off a bit of the gravity of that matter, to write about it. I don’t really care if others read this, this is mainly an exercise in selfishness, these words are for me. I hope they are a reminder not only of why I had to go there, but also why I was discharged.

Long story boring: I got really, really drunk and had a psychotic episode. Blacked out. Engaged in loud, verbal violent outbursts and started self inflicting physical harm. In the struggle of my detention I begged to be shot by a cop, tried to wrestle his service gun off him and placed it in my mouth. This starts when one day I notice a sharp pain on my chest, went to get tested and learned that I have a heart problem (hypertension and cardiomyopathy from stress, that had never been detected before). I was drinking a lot at the time. A case of beer by myself, often a Bourbon bottle every two or three days. Sometimes I went to sleep and woke up to go to work still completely wasted. I have no idea if this was just to distract myself, or to find courage to do something more dire and irrational. This derailed to the point that I ended up on the streets making a fuss, hurting myself (apparently I bit a bottle and tried to swallow glass) until the neighbors, who were unable to control me, had to call the police to stop me. Waking up tied, completely unaware of where (or when) you are has to be one of the scariest things that can happen to anyone. Add to that the confusion and haziness of the sedatives, a monstrous thirst and hangover and the pain on my wrists, raw flesh exposed from struggling so much when I was handcuffed. I remember I had grass, small pebbles and shards of glass stuck between my lower lip and gums that I had to push out of my mouth with my tongue, because I was restrained.

Sleep came and went, and eventually I realized I was not in jail, but institutionalized and under medical supervision. Fuck, psychiatrics hospitals are scary. The caretakers are really nice and so, so SO calm. I don't know if they’re just used to it all, completely jaded or super professional, but my fellow crazies were a nightmare. Some threaten you and try to fight you, some try to fondle you, some talk and talk and you can’t make sense of what they’re trying to convey. Some stare, some avoided me, some screamed if I made accidental eye contact.

Like all bad experiences I try to make sense of it and look for an opportunity to improve.

Months after being released I had a hard time focusing. It seemed impossible to engage in long conversations. At the time, I was sure the damage was permanent. To date I surprise myself becoming irrationally upset when I see couples showing affection. Small details, even pictures or hearing tones of voice and words that I associate with happier times can trigger my discomfort. I am not always able to ignore it, it is always uncomfortable, but bearable.

I still get anxiety attacks: my eyes lose focus, I run short of breath and an sudden and imperious need to cry crushes me to the ground. Sometimes just thinking about my state of mind I makes a lump in my throat appear, my jaw tenses and starts to tremble. But these events are becoming rarer.

I am still concerned of losing the ability to find happiness in life. I notice that I’m way more cynical and less and less interested in activities that I once found entertaining, and a constant lack of inspiration. There’s an uneasy certainty of having wasted my youth, and of losing the disposition and the energy that I once thought characterized me. There is a part of me that all I want to do is lie in bed all day, watch movies and play games. My days have turned into a routine of mental gymnastics and excuses to get up, take my medicine, take a shower, go to work and ignore that part of me that wants to stay locked up. I miss and at the same time resent the absence of my previous partner. I feel guilty for avoiding responsibilities and for not taking charge of what could be important for my future.

But I returned to work and have been sober ever since. Went to therapy. I take my meds. I post on tumblr. You people help.

#personal #me #sad stuff #dysthymic disorder #dysthimia #persistent depressive disorder

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all-the-love-harold · 5 years ago

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Chapter 2 - I’m Having your Baby

Master Post

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: None

***

December 21st 2019

Poppy was late. 3 days late. Or maybe it was 4. She couldn’t quite remember, but she knew that she was late. She also knew that she was stressed with Christmas coming up, and that when she got stressed her period tended to stay away for a while, so she wasn’t getting her hopes up. Nonetheless, when she was out getting herself and Harry a coffee she ducked into the pharmacy nearby and bought a few home pregnancy tests, just to be sure. She was in no rush to take them though and if she was honest, she didn’t really have a spare second to think about it once she got home. Between making sure Oli got his lunch and preparing things for his 2nd birthday party which they were crazy enough to be having just three days before Christmas. Oh and did she mention that her and Harry were hosting Christmas lunch this year for his family AND hers.

The pregnancy test crossed her mind again when she was giving Oli his bath that night and Oli picked up his doll that they kept as a bath toy.

“Bubba” he said, dunking it’s head in the water “wash hair bubba”

Poppy couldn’t help but giggle “You’re gonna a great big brother buddy.”

She was glad that he was too young to really understand what that meant, if he was any older she’d be getting a thousand questions about a baby she doesn’t even know that she had yet.

“Pop, I’m going to pick up your family from the airport now” Harry called from downstairs “Need anything while I’m out?”

“No, we’re all good H, good luck” Poppy called back “Love you”

“Love you too” he said and she heard the door shut behind him.

“Alright Ol, let’s hop out now, get you dressed”

“Love you Mum” he smiled up at her as she helped him to stand up and wrapped his tiny toddler towel around him. Her heart melted and she placed a gentle kiss on his head.

“I love you too Oli.”

She helped him to get dressed into his pyjamas, encouraged him to use the toilet (he wasn’t quite ready to be out of nappies yet, but he was getting close) and brushed his hair so that he was all ready for bed. Since dropping his afternoon nap, it had been much easier to get him to sleep at night, which Harry and Poppy were both pleased about.

“Right” Poppy said to Oli once he was all tucked up in bed “Have you got Itchy?”

He nodded holding on tightly to his toy.

“And Pippy?” she asked and he pulled his dummy out of his mouth, showed it to her and put it back

“And a big kiss from mummy” she kissed his forehead and pulled the side of the cot up so that he couldn’t perform some kind of gymnastics and escape from his bed in the middle of the night.

“Sleep tight my big boy”

“Night night Mum” he said as Poppy closed the door to his bedroom.

She went straight to the bathroom and pulled out the pregnancy test, feeling more broody than ever knowing that her first baby turns two tomorrow. She remembered what it had been like taking the test when she thought she was having Oli, she was scared then because she wasn’t sure that she was ready to be a mum and now she was scared because she wasn’t sure she could face not becoming a mum again. Her heart pounded as she waited for the results to show. 3 minutes had never felt so long.

“Poppy, dear - we’re here” she heard the sound of her mother’s voice walking in the front door.

“Shit” she whispered to herself as she left the bathroom, making sure to close the door behind her. She made a mental note to come back to it as soon as she could but she couldn’t leave her family waiting, not after they’d been on a twenty four hour flight.

“Hi Mum, Hi Dad” she said, half running down the stairs to give them a hug “Good flight?”

“Awful” her dad, John, shook his head “Can’t smoke on planes these days, did you know that?” he began pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket

“Can’t smoke in my house either Dad” Poppy said sternly “Follow the stairs all the way up and you’ll find a garden and be quiet, Oli’s just gone to bed”

“It’s freezing out there Pop” he huffed but started climbing the stairs anyway.

“Don’t I get a hello?” Her sister Addison said from next to Harry.

“Of course you do” Poppy side stepped her mum and wrapped her sister in the biggest hug of them all “God you’re getting so adult, can you stop please?”

“I’m as old as you were when you moved here” Addie added “And I still live with mum dad”

“It’s much cheaper that way” Poppy smiled

“Yeah, you spent so much money in that first year didn’t you love” Harry said sarcastically

“Enough outta you” Poppy squeezed his cheek making him giggle.

“Can I get anyone tea or coffee or anything?” Harry asked trying to get them all out of the entryway

“I’d love to see my grandson” Linda said, turning towards the stairs

“I’ve just put him to bed Mum, you’ll see him in the morning, he’ll be up bright and early”

“Right, well in that case, I’d love a glass of wine” she smiled at Harry.

“Of course” Harry nodded tentatively, not entirely sure he had any wine to give her “Addie, wine? Tea?”

Addie shook her head “No thanks Harry”

“Vodka?” he asked

“I’m fine” she giggled, although a shot or two of vodka was temping after being on a plane with her parents for 24 hours.

“I’ll show you both around while Harry does that” Poppy added and started going upstairs. Linda and Addie followed, with their bags still in their hands.

“Leave those” Poppy said “Your rooms are downstairs anyway”

They dropped the bags and followed Poppy. A grimace already evident on Linda’s face

“So this is mine and Harry’s room” she said when they got upstairs pointing to their bedroom door “It’s a mess so we won’t go in there”

“Never have been able to keep your room clean have you Poppy” Linda added, peering in anyway

“It’s so nice to have you here Mum” Poppy said, unable to hold her tongue. “And that room there is Oli’s so let’s be a little quiet”

“Is he a good sleeper” Addie asked. She knew a lot about babies, she worked in a nursery back home, very similar to the one Oli goes to.

“He’s been much better since we stopped the day sleep”

“His teachers must hate that” she laughed

“They don’t seem to mind” Poppy shrugged and continued the tour down the hallway towards the next staircase

“This is where Harry’s mum sleeps when she stays, so we’re keeping that for her and you guys will all be downstairs

“How many bedrooms is this place?” Linda asked, looking up the staircase

“6 or 7” Poppy said “That’s Harry’s office up there and there’s a studio downstairs, but he never uses it”

“I accidentally told him I loved the album like 6 times on the way here” Addie giggled “he probably thinks I’m weirdly into him”

“He wouldn’t think that much of it Addie” Poppy smiled “Shall we go downstairs?”

“Shouldn’t we go up?” Linda asked

“We can” Poppy nodded “There’s not much to see up there though, it’s just a desk and the garden which I’ll show you in the morning”

“Oh alright” Linda sighed and turned around on her heel with a huff in her breath . Poppy was starting to remember exactly why she’s decided to move to the other side of the world at just 18. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, she just found her selfishness intolerable.

“Not giving a tour without me are you Pop?” John bellowed as he walked down the stairs, lips blue from the cold.

“There’s not much to see dear, just a few oversized bedrooms” Linda drew her lips into a sharp line “That haven’t been cleaned. You know with Harry’s salary you could afford a cleaner”

Poppy and Addie shared a knowing look and Addie turned away from her parents and walked down the hallway towards the stairs.

“I’m going to find that vodka Harry mentioned” she called, waving her hand for them to follow. And they did, without saying a word. Poppy had always admired how easily Addie could read people and turn a situation around in seconds without offending anyone and she smiled to herself because that hadn’t changed.

In the Kitchen, Harry had two glasses of red wine sitting on the bench waiting for them and he had his head stuck in the fridge searching for something that seemed to be buried in the depths.

“What are you looking for H?” Poppy said as she made herself comfortable on one of the bar stools.

“All that cheese we bought the other day,” he said, head still in the fridge “and the dip”

“That’s in the butler’s fridge” she said quietly, suddenly realising that somehow she was living a life very different from the she left behind.

“You have a butler?” Addie said, shocked “and he has his own fridge?”

“No” Poppy laughed “there’s a mini kitchen in that little room over there” she pointed to the door that harry was opening “they call it a butler’s pantry, so we call the fridge the butlers fridge”

“Oh Harry you’ll have to get me something else, I don’t drink red wine” Linda said before Addie had the chance to respond to Poppy.

Harry, who was safley hidden away in the butlers pantry rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. If this was how he felt after an hour with Poppy’s family, how was he going to spend a whole two weeks with them. He did, however, take comfort in knowing that Poppy was feeling the same way.

“I want to tip the wine over her head” Poppy whispered walking into the pantry with the glass in her hand. Harry took the glass, put it on the bench next to him and wrapped his arms around Poppy.

“We could probably survive off the food in here for the next two weeks if you want to lock the door?” he whispered back

“Believe me, if I could I would” Poppy said with her head still pressed against his chest. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and pulled away from the hug.

“Guess I’ll go pull some white wine out of my ass then” he said, only half joking.

“There’s some in the bar fridge in your man cave, I think sarah left it here” she called after him as he walked out again.

The rest of the evening passed by slowly, Addie, John and Linda filled Poppy and Harry in on what was going on back in Australia, it was nothing to really write home about, just the usual kinds of things that happen in a tiny coastal town, known for being home to quite a few Great White Sharks, that somehow never made an appearance on the beaches. Poppy was not at all surprised by her Mother’s lack of interest in anything about her life in London, if it wasn’t for Addie, all they would have talked about would be when Poppy was going to move back home again. She always thought that would happen when she had children, she wanted them to have the childhood that she did, but now that she’s here in London with Oli she couldn’t imagine anything else for him, because their life was here, with Harry. Linda thought that was ludicrous though and with every opportunity, she found a reason to tell Poppy that a child shouldn’t grow up in a city, especially a city without a beach. But, just like she had upstairs, Addie managed to turn the conversation around every time without offending anyone, until she mentioned the possibility of moving to London too.

“There’s plenty of spare rooms here Addie” Harry said to her before linda could shut her down “We’d love to have you”

“I might just not leave” she laughed and stood up from the table “I am going to go to bed though”

“I’ll show you to your room” Poppy stood up too and chauffeured her out of the room towards the living room, which lead onto the bedrooms.

“You’re in this one Addie, and Mum and Dad are next door”

“Thanks Pop” she smiled “I’m not joking about moving to London, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now”

Poppy hugged her “Like Harry said, you’re always welcome here, this room can be all yours”

“Was this your room when you first arrived?”

Poppy shook her head “No I was always upstairs, in Oli’s room”

“Right next door to Harry” Addie giggled “makes sense”

“Good night Addie” Poppy said, putting an end to that conversation before it even started.

Poppy didn’t go back into the kitchen, she slipped straight into her bedroom and into bed. Who knew working full time and being a mother would be so exhausting. Her heavy eyes fell closed and she only stirred when Harry came into the room an hour later and wrapped his arms around her.

December 22nd 2019

Poppy rolled over in her bed, exposing her upper arm to the cold morning air and saw that Harry was still fast asleep next to her. She reached for her phone to check the time, wondering why she’d not yet been woken by Oli’s cries to be taken out of the crib.

7:03. He was usually awake by now, but she shrugged it off, because he did go to sleep late last night and rolled back over to face Harry, placing a kiss on the tip of his nose to wake him. He blinked a few times and scrunched up his face as she giggled

“Morning love” he smiled, finally opening his eyes and wrapping his arms around her “Oli not up yet?”

“Nope” she emphasized the end of the word, burying her head in his chest “either that or my mother got up to him”

Harry scoffed “Seems unlikely, your sister, maybe”

“That sounds more possible”

He let a content sigh “This time two years ago, we were sitting in that hospital room, waiting for him to arrive”

Poppy sat up “Harry, today’s his second birthday”

He furrowed his brow at her “Yeah” he said, sounding confused “I was just sayin’ that”

“And we haven’t heard a thing from Danny”

The realisation dawned on him and a huge smile spread across his face “We haven’t heard anything from Danny- shit Pop I can adopt him”

“You can adopt him H” she smiled kissing his puffy morning lips “You’ll have to give the lawyers a call tomorrow, but it should be a pretty simple process, they should still have all the paperwork we filled out before the hearing, we’ll just have to sign it”

“Easy” he kissed her again “He could be mine by Christmas”

“I doubt it, red tape takes time and there’s only three days to go” she heard the faint sounds of Oli stirring next door “I’ll go” she smiled, throwing the blankets off and shivering at the cold December air. She wrapped her big fluffy dressing gown around her and walked out of the room to go and get Oli out of bed, leaving Harry there, smile spread across his face.

“Happy Birthday big boy” she said walking into his room

“Mumma” he smiled at her throwing his dummy out of the cot “Pippy” he tried to reach for the dummy that was now on the floor.

“Pippy’s on the ground bub”she leaned down and picked it up “mummy get it for you”

“Ta” he took it from her and stuck it back in his mouth.

Poppy reached into the cot and unzipped his sleeping bag as she picked him up “Where’s itchy?” she said. Oli had become quite attached to it when they took him on tour with Harry last year and after seeing Mitch playing the guitar at one of the shows he’d started calling it ‘itchy’ unable to say the ‘m’ sound in his name, and he couldn’t go anywhere without it.

“Itchy’s gone mum” he frowned shrugging his shoulders and looked around the room.

“He can’t be gone bub” Poppy giggled searching behind the cot and spotted him on the floor behind it “there he is! He’s hiding from you Oli” she put him down and moved the cot out from the wall, so she could lean down and pick the toy up. “Silly itchy” she said handing it to him.

“itchy silly mummy” he giggled giving the toy a big cuddle

“Shall we go see Daddy?” she ruffled his hair

“Yeah” he said, nodding his head

“Come on then” she walked out of the room and he followed her.

“DADDY!” he burst into their bedroom and climbed into the bed next to harry.

“There’s my big two-year-old!” Harry said, and Oli snuggled into his side “Happy birthday little man” he kissed the top of his head. Poppy stood in the doorway watching their interaction, heart filled with more love than she’d ever thought possible.

Oli handed Harry itchy “Daddy, itchy hiding”

Harry furrowed his brow “Was itchy hiding from you bub?” he chuckled, turning to look at Poppy “what’s mummy doing all the way over there?” he asked, “There’s room for one more in here”

“Why don’t we all go downstairs for some breakfast, Mummy’s hungry”

“Breakfast!” Oli nodded and jumped down from the bed, toddling out of the room and downstairs. She followed him closely behind, making sure he didn’t slip and helped him into his high chair.

“What would you like today birthday boy?”

“Toast” he said enthusiastically, which made Poppy and Harry both giggle

“Daddy can make you pancakes if you want little man?” Harry offered, searching the pantry for all the ingredients

“No, toast” he nodded

“Fine” Harry huffed pulling the jar of strawberry jam from the shelf in front of him “Jam toast it is”

“No Daddy, Mite toast”

Poppy giggled to herself, handing Harry the Jar of vegemite “the kid knows what he wants”

“You’re a bad influence on him,” he said, putting a piece of bread in the toaster, shaking his head at her

“I’ll do this” Poppy said, taking the butter knife off him “you go get the presents”

He placed a kiss on her cheek and walked off, upstairs to get Oli’s birthday presents. Once the toast was ready she spread the vegemite lightly across its surface and cut it into four triangles, placing it onto a Winnie the Pooh plate that Grimmers had given them when he first started eating solids.

“Vegemite toast for the Birthday boy” Poppy smiled, pinching his cheeks as she laid the plate in front of him.

“Thanks Mumma” he smiled.

“Good Morning” Linda yawned, walking into the kitchen in a very light cotton dressing gown “It’s freezing here”

“It’s London” Poppy admitted “I’ve turned the heating on”

“Good” Linda smiled “Now where’s my grandson”

“He’s eating his birthday breakfast” Poppy said excitedly while pointing to the high chair “Oli, say hi to nanna”

She wasn’t quite sure how he would react to linda, he’d really only met her through facetime and part of her was convinced that he thought she was just the lady that existed in the phone. He turned in his high chair and looked at Linda. He was puzzled at first but his expression soon changed and a big toothy smile grew on his face.

“Nanna” he said, taking a bite of his toast.

“Hi Big Boy” Linda smiled back, placing a big sloppy kiss on his cheek “Happy Birthday”

“Do you want anything Mum? Tea, Coffee, Breakfast?”

“I wouldn’t mind a tea and some eggs” she said and sat down next to Oli. “Is that vegemite you’ve got there?” she said to him

“Mite” he smiled and held the toast up to her

“You’re a real little Aussie then, just have to get your mum to bring you home”

Poppy filled a pot with water and put it on the stove so that she could poach some eggs for everyone when they eventually woke up and she heard her phone ringing on the bench behind her. Seeing Harry’s name on the screen, she answered it, confused.

“Did you forget where we hid the presents?” she giggled into the phone as Oli sat in his high chair giggling away at Linda as she pulled faces at him.

“No” he said flatly “Can you come here for a sec, need your help with the big one”

“I think it’s time you started those personal training sessions again then Styles” Poppy said standing up from her chair “I’ll be right up” she hung up the phone and turned to Linda and Oli

“Oli, Mummy’s just going to help daddy for a few minutes, I’ll be right back” she kissed his head and walked upstairs into her bedroom where she found Harry standing in the bathroom doorway holding what like a pregnancy test.

“What’s this love?” he asked, handing it to her

“Shit” she said, not looking at it “I took this last night and left it to do it’s thing when you got home from the airport and I kinda forgot about it with all the chaos”

“It’s positive love”

Poppy turned it over in her hand and saw the same two blue lines that she’d seen almost three years ago when she found out she was having Oli, and a few tears formed in her eyes as she looked up at Harry “It’s positive H”

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her in close to his chest, “We’re having a baby Poppy.”

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rallamajoop · 5 years ago

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Inception: A Fannish Retrospective

For a while now I’ve found myself craving a fic of a particular hard-to-define quality – something with a bit of grit and maturity – not graphic or grim, but perhaps the kind of seedy underworld setting you might find in the better parts of Tarantino or Guy Richie’s oeuvre. The kind of fic that lets me believe that if the author toned down the slash and published it as a mainstream crime or espionage thriller, I’d still be enthused about reading it. Cord Smithee’s work is a particularly good example, for the UNCLE fans out there, but you can only reread those fics so many times, and fic of that quality has been especially sparse in the last few fandoms I’ve drifted through, and so the craving lingered.

Then it hit me: hey, you know what fandom used to be really good for that kind of fic? Inception.

And after all this time in Venom fandom, it was hardly a big jump to more Tom Hardy, so.

Maybe the bigger wonder is that nearly ten years on, most of the fic is still just as good as I remember it being. Mirabella’s Towards Zero remains one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever read in any fandom, and delires’ chav!Eames AU is better than any idea that cracked has any goddamn right to be, and (at least as long as you’re into the juggernaut ship that is Arthur/Eames) you are spoilt for choice for more.

But revisiting a fandom this much later and binging this much fic, you notice things. We’ll start with…

The Film

Still holds up on rewatching today. It will never be nearly as smart a film as I’ve seen some claim: totems, for one, make no fucking sense (they’re objects with details known only to you, but if Cobb can unintentionally bring a carbon copy of his wife into a dream, why not a top that falls over when spun? And why does it keep spinning indefinitely in dreams, anyway?), and for all the exposition on ‘kicks’, why the kicks need to be synchronised to work under sedation is woefully under-explained, to the point I’m always by distracted trying to make sense of it in the middle of the third act. (Do not even get me started on the ‘it’s actually about filmmaking!’ theory – the mental gymnastics required to explain how Yusuf or Mal fits in or why we’re so fixated on the importance of the set designer, of all roles, is laughable. Some of the parallels are moderately entertaining, but don’t try to tell me you’ve unlocked the secret meaning of the film – Inception is not a movie that makes you work that hard to find its main themes.)

But the film works despite its plotholes because it’s not, ultimately, a story driven by its mechanics: the endlessly spinning top may make no sense, but film is a visual medium, and it’s such a good visual gimmick it’s gets a pass. The practical stunts are still as impressive ever, but what really lifts Inception so far beyond your typical action/heist film – for me, at least – are the characters, and the huge emotional payoffs at the end. Fischer’s reconciliation with his father is no less moving for its falseness, “We did grow old together” has gotten a sniffle out of me time and again, and the final “We’ll be young men together” scene is wonderful in so many ways I could only dream there was the Cobb/Saito fic to live up to. It’s not for nothing I’ve got Inception mentally filed in my very short list of humanist action movies along with Mad Max: Fury Road, Terminator II, and precious few others.

And then there’s…

The Fandom

Film fandoms are always an interesting beast, peaking as they do when the film is still in theatres, when most folks writing fic are working off imperfect memories of having seen an hour or two’s worth of canon maybe once or twice at most. Fanon can go feral in far less conducive environments, is my point here – inevitably, there’ll be the details that get analysed to death or flanderised to the point of parody, and the details that get altogether forgotten. Here’s just one example that hit me on a rewatch: I have lately read god knows how many different theories on just what it means that Arthur knew Eames was in Mombasa – none of them the least bothered by how everything in Cobb’s behaviour in that scene suggests he already knows exactly where he’s going, and may even be right now leaving to catch his flight. We could talk about the artefacts of clunky exposition being shoehorned into the dialogue, or the actual intent of that exchange, but shipper-goggles give you some powerful tunnel-vision (and I say this as someone who ships it like burning).

Binge as much fic as fast as I have in the last few months, and you begin to notice trends. Common themes and popular fanon that have ascended to gospel, and facets of the original film I’d love to see explored that fandom seems to have collectively missed altogether (and the sad lack of decent Cobb/Saito is only one). Below, in no particular order, are some of those observations.

Since most of these come across as critical, I want to emphasise that I have had a ball revisiting the fic in this fandom, and there are probably multiple fics guilty of everything I touch on below which I have loved to bits. It’s only the repetition that really starts to make you sit up and notice.

1. The Cobb-bashing, oh my god the Cobb-bashing! I had forgotten just how much this fandom hates Cobb. In the film, Cobb’s plan is the only reason Arthur and Eames ever end up in the same room at all – yet in fanfic, Cobb has been recast as the only thing keeping them apart. I’m not kidding there – fic with that exact premise is almost its own genre. In Inception fanon, Cobb is crazy and cares only about himself, and Arthur has wasted years of misplaced loyalty keeping him alive. Fanon!Eames hates Cobb for monopolising Arthur’s attention (in the film, Eames seems underwhelmed to learn Cobb is still working with Arthur at all). Fanon!Eames only works with Cobb at all because it’s an excuse to work with Arthur (in the film, they’re barely capable of having a civil conversation). Fanon!Eames never forgives Cobb for concealing the level of sedation they were under Inception job, and nor does Arthur (in the film, no-one even mentions Cobb’s deception after they leave the first level, and Eames’ main disappointment at the end is that he won’t get to see the Fischers’ big reconciliation, but why let that douse a good hateboner?) Meanwhile, Yusuf’s corresponding betrayal and Arthur’s equally-disastrous research-fail are rarely referenced. It’s not every fic, but the base level of Cobb-hate around these parts is pretty astounding. There’s nothing new about fans bashing the main character for having the gall to take screentime away from their OTP, and I’d be the last to play down Cobb’s real failings. But when one finds oneself tempted to leave enthusiastic comments on decade-old fic, praising the author for giving Cobb a minor scene or two where he gets to be a total bro to Arthur for a change… I promise you, it’s not me, it’s this fandom.

2. For all that Eames is basically the single biggest reason I’m reading in this fandom, his fanon characterisation leaves something to be desired. I do get the appeal of flirty!Eames or pining!Eames – it’s just that once in a while, you find yourself longing for fic about the guy who was actually in the movie – y’know, the one who’s first response to Arthur’s name was, “Arthur? Are you still working with that stick-in-the-mud?” I am totally down with the idea he was feigning indifference– maybe for Cobb’s benefit, maybe he’s actively in denial himself, whatevs. But fanon!Eames characterisation typically ranges from “hopelessly in love with Arthur from the moment they met” to “a walking sexual harassment lawsuit in action,” and neither of those guys could convincingly feign indifference to save their lives. It’s also a shame we don’t see more of the side of Eames that got so genuinely, unashamedly invested in what they were doing for Fischer – quite beyond the money and the prestige, Eames loves that they get to fix Fischer’s relationship with his father and reveal Browning as the rat that he is, and it’s a wonderfully humanising side to such a shady character. There should be so much scope in there to cast Eames was a guy with a real idealistic streak, or more conscience than he’d usually admit to, or just an abiding love for melodrama – the possibilities go on and on (and if you can’t think of a dozen ways to tie any of those in as fuel for his rivalry with Arthur for bonus shippy fodder, you aren’t even trying). But that part of Eames never does seem to have found a place in the fandom’s collective headcanon, because hell if I can find any exploration of it in fic, le sigh. (Cynically, I have to wonder if it’s because it clashes with the fanon where Eames spent the Inception job furiously hating Cobb and focused on Arthur, but even that seems somewhat lacking as an answer. Who even knows?)

3. As a corollary to the above, remarkably few fics make any attempt to deal with the fact that Arthur and Eames a) basically hate each other, b) for reasons that do not entirely revolve around how Arthur won’t put out. Obviously, this is a ‘hate’ that covers a much deeper well of underlying respect, but these are two guys who only stop taking potshots at each other when they’re being shot at for real, and to me that is 95% of the fun of the pairing – why does no-one even seem to try to recreate that dynamic in fic? Even 99% of Eames’ infamous ‘flirting’ would be better described as him pulling Arthur’s pigtails. Yet virtually no-one seems to want to tackle their antipathy head-on – even fic that acknowledges it as a past phase of their relationship isn’t set during that phase. I’m all for seeing them eventually end up friendlier, but you’ve got to show me how they get there first – that’s the good bit! Why does everyone skip over it? :((((

4. This fandom has SUCH a thing for underage!Arthur. Fics will go on and on about how young he looks, or theorise that he was actually underaged when he first got into dreamshare, or at least looked it. Seriously, the idea of Eames having mistaken Arthur for a teen when they first met is, like, the accepted pan-fandom headcanon as to why they don’t get on (unless we’re in military-backstory land, in which case it’s that Arthur had to deal with Eames hitting on him during the time of DADT). Then there are the many (MANY) AUs where Arthur really is a teen, hitting on the much-older Eames – there’s that one semi-parody where even twenty-something!Arthur gets cockblocked by his own looks, and there’s even at least one that flips things so that Eames the one who was underage when they met, just for variety.

It’s a real Thing, and I only wish I understood where it comes from, since (to me) Arthur has always looked like the 29yo man JGL legitimately was back when Inception hit screens – I don’t think he’d even passed as a Hollywood!teen for a solid half a decade at that point. So… are there really that many people who thought JGL looked that young when the film came out, or is this just one of those fannish meme things? I may never know.

5. No-one (by which I mean almost no-one) gets how limbo works. Fic after fic treats it as basically just a garden-variety coma, and colleagues can spend days or months moving the victim, gathering a team and planning a complex rescue. Rarely is it ever remembered the whole point of limbo is that you can age and die trapped in your own mind in no more than hours in the real world. When Eames talks about being ‘trapped in limbo until our brains turn to scrambled egg’, I think it’s safe to assume he’s being pretty literal. Basically, if you’re not treating limbo as the temporal equivalent of the Total Perspective Vortex, you’re probably doing it wrong.

6. No-one does anything interesting with Ariadne. This, I have some sympathy for: it’s hard to know where to go with someone who ends the film where she does – her push-pull relationship with the world of illegal dreamshare is not a contradiction that can be easily resolved in a subplot, if at all. But the Ariadne who so quickly had Cobb picked as a loose canon never seems to appear in fic either, and nor does the Ariadne with the guts to sneak into his dream to find answers, or the prodigy whose last-minute moment of inspiration saved the whole job. No, Inception fic is more likely to give you an Ariadne who giggles and drags her teammates out partying than any of that, which is absurd to the point of being genuinely offensive. Seriously, that is some A-grade “all we remembered about her is that she’s female”-bullshit. Even when she’s not saddled with OOC giggle fits, fic!Ariadne also remains frustrating static: years after the film, she’ll still be doing extractions with the Inception team, despite seeming no more at home in their world. Where’s the Ariadne who embraces the underworld wholeheartedly and reaches Arthur or Cobb levels of badassery? The Ariadne whose natural gifts and overconfidence get her into Cobb-levels of trouble? Who takes the Inception job as inspiration to go into therapeutic uses of dreams? Who finds legitimate dream-related work through Miles or Saito, but still lets the old team drag her back into extractions every once in a while (because she’s easily one of the most reliable architects in the whole shady business, and there’s a part of her that still kind of loves it)? WHERE?

The obvious rejoinder to all this is that it’s hardly surprising Ariadne doesn’t get much play when you’re mostly reading Arthur/Eames fic. So (because the land of fic is still terrible at cataloguing character-specific gen) I had a dig through some Arthur/Ariadne fic for comparison – only to run into much the same frustrations all over again. No-one takes her character anywhere very interesting.

So you can imagine my surprised delight when I tried a couple of Arthur/Ariadne/Eames fics on a whim, and almost immediately found not one but two different stories willing to dive headfirst into the questions surrounding Ariadne’s future in the world of illegal dreamshare (plus multiple stories which made a very convincing case that Ariadne should absolutely celebrate their successful Inception by having a threesome with her colleagues, I mean, damn).

I have absolutely no idea what it says about fandom that I had to go looking at threesome fic to find real character development, but at this point, I’ll take it.

7. So, I get why everyone reads Eames as queer (duh), but having discovered two quite excellent straight!Eames fic (which is to say, fic which utterly sells the idea that Eames considers himself straight or had no experience with men until long after meeting Arthur), the fact no equivalent seems to exist for Arthur baffles me. Sure, there’s one or two stories where one smile from Eames is about all it takes to make him change his mind, and one great kink meme fill that might have been just what I was looking for if it had ever been finished. But otherwise, the idea that Arthur (a guy who snogs Ariadne and is given no other obvious sexuality) -- the same Arthur whom every other fic portrays as seriously emotionally repressed – the idea this guy might not be experienced and comfortable dating men just… doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone. Which is so weird.

Is there not enough RL evidence that Tom Hardy can and does make straight guys reconsider their preferences? Is the idea of an Arthur who’s repressed that side of his own sexuality not a juicy enough explanation for the tension between them? How on earth did we wind up with a fandom where Eames is more likely to be the designated “straight” one at the start of the story than Arthur? The mind boggles.

Holy shit, you’re still reading? Damn! Have some more recs as thanks for listening to me ramble at so much length.

Recs!

Here’s those two from the top again, because I really do love them that much

We Can Do This Until We Pass Out by delires Disturbing London, baby, we about to branch out. (The one where Eames is a chav)

Towards Zero by Mirabella Five levels down, and five to dig yourself back out. Arthur met Eames' projection long before he met Eames.

Where the Dead Live also by Mirabella There's a monster in Arthur's basement. Maybe he shouldn't have invited it in. It’s the vampire!Apocalypse, and this one is intense. Utterly brilliant, but equally unapologetic about the implications of its premise. So, for a somewhat-lighter take on monster!Eames, I will also throw in:

Cthonical’s demon!Eames verse Unfinished -- arguably never even properly started, just a series of ficlets from a ‘verse that never quite got written, but they are scorching hot and still well worth a look.

That’s a lot of darker fic though, probably time to lighten the mood a little.

Anal [Inception] aka Not Now Cobb We're Doing BGs also by cthonical Arthur and Eames both play WoW. They kick ass at Warsong Gulch, and when they team up they’re nigh on unstoppable.They don’t know they’re playing with each other.

Champion Sound by pyrimidine Prompt: Arthur is a DJ, Eames is a bartender.

London Bridge by sorrynotsorry Arthur loves whiskey, and maybe strippers.

My two favourite Arthur/Eames/Ariadne fics

How to Cure Insomnia by wonderfulwrites When she called Arthur for advice on how to deal with the unexpected insomnia - okay, fine, on the pretense of asking for advice – she hadn’t expected to have to wade through a sea of bodies to see him. But then, she also hadn’t expected Eames’s cheerful but surprising, Just come, Ariadne. You can sleep when you’re dead. Or Eames, at all, really. The Wind on the Mountain by Starlingthefool Something in her rebels against this casual, passive seduction. God knows why, but she’s sitting up in the water, taking her foot back from Eames and dislodging Arthur’s hands from her back. She stands, wet underwear clinging ridiculously to her, and says to Arthur, “All right. Your turn.”

Aaand let’s have a few more straight Arthur/Eames to round it out.

Untitled and Untitled, redux by Helenish -- two variants on a theme, and do not let the lack of proper titles put you off, they’re both great.

Unexpected Plot Twist by ethrosdemon Post-Inception -- long and (as promised) twisty, and a very solid read.

Four Corners by Mithrigil In Eames’ line of work, a first impression means nearly everything. It’s always a pity when he doesn’t get off on the right foot.

Kiss With A Fist by cmonkatiekatie Because apparently, to find real Arthur/Eames antagonism, I have to go looking for hate sex. (Not complaining, this is some amazing hate sex.)

And also basically Everything by Wiltling There’s a darker vibe to their work, but it rarely gets oppressive -- just generally a lot of great fic.

#Inception #meta #fic recs

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youcannotfindme-blog1 · 6 years ago

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Writing Prompt: Part 1

You come back from a holiday and find your best friend missing. you search desperately, but no one has any recollection of your friend ever existing. Eventually, you’re shipped off to a lunatic asylum, where you find your best friend, who claims the same thing happened to them, but it was you that no one remembered.

This honestly was so fun, I thought cheerfully, finally something off the bucket list. My family and I were coming back home from a very interesting trip to Spain. It can be said that I’ve had too much fun.

We were at the airport in Barcelona, and we passed by a gift shop and Storm came into my mind. Storm is my bestest of the best friends I have, and the idiot was enjoying her time in Brazil right now, we were to return at around the same time and it couldn’t be more exciting to see her again. I really should bring her a souvenir or she’ll eat me alive.

I went into the shop to grab her something, maybe a number of the hot clerk at the till will do. Dean popped his head in the shop, gave me a weird look and asked: “Maddie, what on hell are you doing in there?”

There were so many options for magnets oh my goodness, I can’t choose.

“Maddie,” my brother exclaimed, “don’t ignore me, idiot.”

“I’m buying this for my boyfriend,” I sarcastically told him, rolling my eyes at my idiotic brother, “duh genius, it’s for Stormie.”

“Who?”

“Dean, I told you how much I fucking hate it when you do this,” I huffed. They really like to pretend that she’s not real.

Talk about rude.

Turns out, the whole family is making the same joke. It annoyed me so much, to be honest, you can’t erase someone's existence like that. But my parents really took it up a notch, they talked to the whole freaking town to pretend that she’s not here. I really don’t get when the joke ends.

I just want to see my best friend.

It’s been three days since the joke started, and I have had enough. Too much is too much.

So what did I do?

I confronted my family.

We were eating dinner, a pile of pizza from Pizza Hut because my mom was not bothered to cook dinner and dad cannot make peanut butter sandwiches even if his life counted on it. Everyone was watching the TV, a pre-recording for the world cup games, and I found it to be the best time to ask them nicely to tell me where Stormie is.

Or as nicely as I can get.

“When does the fucking joke ends?” I ask hotly.

My parents shot me a disapproving look and both said at the same time “Language, Mads.”

I shake my head, I didn’t care, “I really mean it, where the hell is Stormie. Did you lock her up or something? You know she’s a nice girl.” Or as nice as she can be.

Yeah, we both are two peas in a pot.

My mom sighed “That’s our line. Maddie, it’s really immature of you to keep on bugging us about the whereabouts of this Stormie or Storm when she isn’t even real. I thought you were old enough for imaginary friends.”

If I did not have anything connecting my jaw with my skull, it would have totally hit the ground.

I’m the immature one here?

“I’m the immature one?” I voiced my thoughts, screaming at them, “you’re not allowing me to see my best friend and because what? Because you hate her for some weird reason.”

“Maddie,” my dad scolded, “watch your tone. Apologise to your mother. Now,” he stood up from his seat on the couch getting angrier by the minute.

Good, someone is also getting angrier by the minute, and that's fucking me.

“I’ve tolerated this for three days okay? Three days without seeing my best friend,” I angrily explained. I shouldn’t explain myself to them, they were the ones who didn’t want to tell me where she is.

And I will raise hell if I have to.

“That's it, Maddie,” my dad shouted at me, taking the tomatoes place of being the reddest thing on Earth, “I’ve had enough of your Stormie bullshit.” Oh, so he’s still playing the game. Well, two can play this. I raised an eyebrow and taunted him with what he hated the most, having his words thrown back at him, “Language.”

And that is, my friends, is how you tip the scale with my dad.

That earned me a warning for not mentioning Stormie for the rest of my life or he will personally deliver me to the mental asylum where I’m “supposed to be” in, not to mention that I am also grounded. No going out or having fun. He also took my freaking laptop. That one hurt real bad.

Guess what though.

I am not one to actually listen.

So, that very night, when everyone was finally asleep in their relative bedrooms, I snuck out from my second story window soundlessly. I love how I use what I learn in Gymnastics to save the life of my best friend. After school activities is actually doing me good. I would have never thought.

That bitch should really be grateful when I see her.

Scaling down from the window is actually the easy part. Not getting caught by the motion detector flashlight was the tough bit. But I’ve done this a million times, so I know the right places were I should go and where I shouldn’t.

I know what you’re thinking, but they were emergencies. They were Stormie emergencies.

I was about to reach the sidewalk in front of our house to turn left to start the trip to Stormie’s house when what I didn’t anticipate happened. Lucy happened, the little bitch. She started barking and wiggling her tail when she saw me from the lounge window that’s facing the road. I started panicking when I saw the light in my parent's bedroom on, and I did the only thing that popped into my mind. Run.

And so I ran and ran until the cops actually chased me down and made me stop.

But I was not going down without a fight because I knew that my parents told these cops to pretend that my best friend is imaginary and that I am mentally disabled. Once both cops got out of the car I made a run for it.

I tried really because they caught up to me almost immediately.

What the hell? I thought I was fit.

They handcuffed me, I’m not lying, and shoved all not too nicely into the back of the car.

I’m not going to lie, this isn’t the first time I was back here.

What? I didn’t say I was a saint, I made mistakes.

The car ride was getting longer than it should. Anxiety settled in, what on Earth is happening to this God forsaken town? Is time bending a thing?

I mustered up whatever courage and calmness left in me and curiously asked “Where are we going? Because you missed the turn that would take us to the Station.”

The cop driving looked at me from the review mirror and ignored me.

Uh, rude.

“Can you please answer my question?” I asked politely. Look, I’m making effort. My mom would be so proud.

The other officer, the one riding shotgun, answered instead of officer driving (I’ll call him Officer Egg because he rudely ignored me and I hate eggs) “no one said we were going to the station.”

Okay, officer shotgun (I’ll call this one Officer Kale because that grass thing is the nastiest thing on Earth, and because I hated vague people) did not make it any better.

Officer Egg chucked at my annoyed expression. I huffed and kept on asking because everyone hates that one person who keeps on asking questions, whether they were idiots or did it to spite the ones questioned. And I am no idiot.

“Where are we going?

Are we lost?

Can you take off my handcuffs cuz they hurt me, plus, it’s pretty kinky, don’t you think?

Hello? Is there a brain somewhere in that skull of yours?

Cuz you both sure look like you need a brain transplant soon.

Ooo have you seen the zombie movie Warm Bodies? Nicholas is a hottie, I would so tap that,”

Honestly? So much respect here.

“Who’s your celebrity crush? Oh wait, are you two married?

You don’t happen to be married... like to each other, are you?”

My trump card.

“NO,” they both shouted. They stammered and tried saying that they were just partners.

I grinned like the cat from Alice in Wonderland, they so like each other.

I approve honestly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” I assured them.

“There isn’t anything to tell about us,” Officer Kale exclaimed, his voice a few notches higher. Officer Egg just gave him a pointed look to tell him to shut up.

This is very interesting.

I love this.

“I won’t tell anyone,” I repeated, but felt more than I saw, my smile turn as dark as the night sky, “unless you tell me where we are going.”

The silence that followed was so thick you could have probably cut it with a butter knife. The tension was so obvious on both of their shoulders. Was really any relationships between partners that bad? I personally find it cute.

But that's my opinion, one that I wouldn’t speak about right now.

Officer Egg sighed.

Victory to me bitches.

He stayed silent for a long time, and it irritated me to no end.

“Well?” I asked eagerly, “Where are we going?”

Officer Kale looked at me and then back to Officer Egg and then back at me, obviously at a loss.

“Speak up,” I scowled. This is taking too long.

Officer Kale sighed “You’ll see it soon. We’re near.”

“No,” I fumed, “I want to know now.”

I sounded like such a brat.

“Don’t be a brat,” Officer Egg shot back.

He reads my mind, crap.

I was about to retort a reply to Officer Egg but then I saw the sign outside and it stopped my brain from functioning.

The Jensen Mental Hospital.

A freaking lunatic asylum.

“No. Fucking. Way.” The words were breathy, my throat is actually closing on me.

I’m going to faint.

I am shipped to a mental asylum.

To the freaking Jensen Asylum nonetheless.

We were pulling into the entrance, a team was waiting.

Waiting for me.

“No, no no no there must be a mistake. I can’t go there. I am not crazy.”

The car stopped and the officers got out.

“There is a mistake,” I screamed repeatedly.

“Please do not make it harder on us, Ms Fallon,” Officer Kale tried calming me when he opened the door to pull me out.

“There is no way in HELL that I am admitted into a lunatic asylum,” I shouted at his face, “I am not crazy.”

“Said all the crazy people,” Officer Egg muttered as he pulled me out.

“My parents,” I shouted. My parents will tell them that I am not crazy. “Talk to my parents, they’ll tell you I’m not crazy.”

“Ms Fallon,” a doctor in his white coat greeted at the entrance as the officers kept on dragging me into the asylum, “your parents were the people who called us to admit you here. You were showing some disturbing signs of mental disorders.”

I froze in my place. My mind a mess, not being able to process the fact that my parents did this to me.

This joke is not funny.

“This is not funny,” I screamed, “it’s enough that no one believes that Stormie fucking disappeared from the face of Earth like she never existed in the first place. This is taking is too far.” My throat is burning with the shrilling.

This is too far.

“We will take care of you, Ms Fallon,” one of the nurses that strapped me into a hospital bed when I was in my frozen state. I thrashed at the table, trying to get one of the straps to loosen up so I could escape.

Fucking run out of this place.

Nothing prepared me for the harsh pinch of a needle going into my arm, immediately drugging me to the point where I saw nothing but darkness.

Betrayal, cold darkness.

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ashroadtrek-blog · 7 years ago

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The Squire of Gothos

Air Date: January 12, 1967

Writer: Paul Schneider

Director: Don McDougall

Preface: I have just 12 episodes left of season 1, and I’m somewhat impressed I’ve been able to keep a steady pace. I’m also impressed that I’ve been able to enjoy TOS even more here on my second viewing - the first time I watched it I thought I’d be unable to stomach the 50-year-old production values and dated socio-cultural attitudes; it really speaks to how ahead of the times it was (for the most part).

The Squire of Gothos was written by Paul Schneider, whose name you may recognize from Balance of Terror - that’s right, the man who invented and introduced the iconic Romulans also created the character who could be interpreted as prototypical for a certain iconic TNG antagonist - there certainly are a number of similarities between that alien and the titular Squire of Gothos.

Moi?

The similarities: a fascination with the violent nature of humans, a penchant for ham and costumes, matching wits and words with a Starfleet captain, a proclivity for historical European military titles and rank, an ego the size of his planet...oh, and he puts Kirk on trial as proxy.

Apparently, in Peter David’s beta-canon novel Q-Squared, Trelane is a young Q being mentored by John DeLancie’s Q. The problem is that Voyager established the birth of a new Q as something entirely new to the Q, but I prefer to sweep that under the rug and do some mental gymnastics and say that the act of reproduction was new to our favorite Q and his girlfriend. Indeed, one could even imagine that our favorite Q had just hit Qberty - after all, he acted more like a horny teenager with superpowers than someone who was familiar with the actual ins and outs of courtship and copulation.

Okay, not quite...

I enjoyed The Squire of Gothos. While I don’t quite recall how often they appear going forward, it is the first energy being episode since Charlie X’s Thasian abusers came back for their runaway little sociopath. It’s not a badly done episode at all, but then again I’m a sucker for the Q episodes of the later series so maybe it just tickled that particular pickle for me.

The Enterprise is doing what it does best - getting sidetracked by an astronomical phenomenon en route to a colony to offload supplies. What I found funny was that in the foreshadowing of the opener Kirk tells Bones they’re 900 light-years away from a desert, when nearly every planet thus far has been a desert! By my reckoning, they just got finished with Shore Leave after The Galileo Seven and the events of The Menagerie.

They stumble on Gothos, and Kirk gives an interesting order:

Is that the same ship we’ve all been getting to know over the past 9 weeks? DSC takes place 10 years prior, I’m disinclined to believe the DASH-drive equipped NCC-1031 is the same as this Discovery that Uhura notifies...and then a bit of digging reveals that the line was “Uhura, report the discovery on subspace radio.” Shatner misread the line, and now we’ve got a continuity hangnail.

Moving on.

Kirk and Sulu disappear. This week’s navigator (DeSalle) and Bones want to immediately put together an away team to go find them, but the ship’s meteorologist reveals the planet is a toxic volcanic wasteland.

If my experience is any indication, they’ll be dealing with lots of cliff racers

Now, I tried keeping Takei and Sulu separate, and maybe I’ve been listening to too much Treknobabble lately (as if!) and Richard’s die-hard ‘Sulu is gay and every navigator is his boyfriend’ theory has grown on me, but DeSalle is pretty insistent on going down to rescue his counterpart at the helm.

Then some dickhead starts sexting the Enterprise.

This is basically Victorian sexting, right?

Spock puts together a team to beam down to the incongruous habitable region to see if the messages may be coming from Kirk or Sulu - and if they are, then Spock needs to get them back before things get too crazy...

>Pic related

Bones, DeSalle, and the meteorologist Jaeger beam down to discover a castle and enter it to find a familiar face...

Wait a minute - Trelane reveals that he has been observing Earth through a 900-year lens, so why the hell does he have a salt vampire from M-113? Trelane has decorated everything in a vague 18th/19th century flair, fascinated by humans - and by that he apparently means Europeans because there is nothing to suggest, say, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, indigenous North, South, or Central American cultures there.

Wait ‘til this guy peeps the Nazis...

Another incongruous bit in his collection is the bird alien from The Cage, barely glimpsed in that first pilot.

Via Memory-Alpha

I think Trelane only wants to hang with humans and maybe meet some ladies, but Kirk isn’t having it - he’s got no time for diversions or hammy little aliens with an Earth fetish. Spock manages to beam the away team up, and they get ready to bail on Gothos and resume course.

Trelane spars words with Spock, who isn’t impressed by him - and Trelane doesn’t like that, his ego can’t handle someone who doesn’t like him.

>Charles Evans.jpg

Spock refuses to respect someone who has intellect without discipline, power without constructive purpose. Trelane brings the bridge crew (sans Leslie) down to his dining room, where he hits on Yeoman Ross and gives Uhura the knowledge to play an antique piano. The food sucks, and Kirk and Spock work out a way to stop Trelane’s shenanigans and get back to work. More or less, the whole thing is a holodeck with replicators.

Kirk just about has it with Trelane’s bullshit, but I can’t help but feel they might have gotten through it if they had simply hung out with the guy and gotten him laid...but only if it’s consensual, of course, and not an order. Hey, Yeoman Ross seems to be enjoying herself!

Trelane, like a gangbanger with too much testosterone, is excited by the prospect of violence and whips out a pair of dueling pistols. He lets Kirk have the first shot after throwing his own into the ceiling, and in classic Kirk third-option form, our favorite captain shoots the mirror instead, wounding Trelane in the one place he can hurt: his ego.

Trelane bails, and the crew beams back aboard. Kirk has a few words with Ross, and I guess he found a Yeoman he actually likes for once.

You understand at this point that the writers and producers partly shitcanned Rand because they wanted Kirk to deal with a girl of the week, rather than have a melodramatic will-they won’t-they with Janice Rand. Rand was okay, but she quickly becomes an artifact of a rougher draft of the show. Personally, I never felt she had much chemistry with Kirk, and so far Ross and Barrows - though appearing in one episode each - are much more effective because they aren’t attached to Kirk. Granted, they are treated objectively rather than as characters in their own right; their purpose is to be fought over and rescued, never having much to do other than hang off the arms of a man or sit patiently so that the Galileo Seven isn’t a sausage fest.

In the 60s, there are secretaries in space.

On a final note about Yeomen (for now), Rand was also pushed out because a different girl each week is more likely to draw in viewers interested in that sort of thing - the fantasy of a girl in every deck. (Then there’s the sexual harassment allegations that reportedly go back to Roddenberry himself, which I’m saving for a retrospective.)

Moving on.

So they try to get away, but Trelane keeps shoving Gothos in their path. Kirk has had it with his shit, and Trelane confronts him in a courtroom. I mean seriously, this guy is a Q, he has to be. Kirk offers himself up as proxy for his ship, gets in Trelane’s face, and Trelane gets angry...

Trelane enjoyed being angry! He’s positively gleeful, considering it a grand experiment but still more than willing to murder - I mean execute - Kirk. Kirk outwits him into giving him a fighting chance - a hunt! Kirk convinces him he’d have more fun in murder by prolonging the experience. How many budding young serial killers took notes from this? Jesus.

The important thing to take away here is that Kirk may be beaten, but he is not defeated, and I think that is an important distinction. You can be beaten, but as long as you’re willing to fight you will never be defeated, and that is such a Star Trek lesson that it brings a delta-shaped tear to my eye. Cornered, Kirk starts slapping Trelane around like a capital G.

Trelane’s parents appear, a couple of energy being clouds who tell him he is disobedient and cruel, that if he can’t play with his pets nicely he doesn’t deserve to play at all. Trelane drops the foppish accent and the actor masterfully becomes a petulant, whiny child. Trelane’s parents defend humans as having spirit, classifying them as superior beings. We in the audience get the satisfaction of seeing this asshole cry.

Finally, back on the ship, Spock asks Kirk how to classify Trelane, to which Kirk sarcastically responds “god of war” and “spoiled brat” (more or less) before going into a series of dated shenanigans that boys pulled on girls back in the 40s or so (whenever these writers were kids, maybe even the 30s), such as dipping their curls in inkwells.

Rating: 4/5; Rewatch

The Squire of Gothos is an immensely enjoyable episode that reminds seasoned viewers of John DeLancie’s Q and is sure to entertain new viewers with William Campbell’s excellent performance as an overgrown child pretentiously LARPing as a late second millenium European fop.

#star trek #Star Trek: The Original Series #TOS #doctor mccoy #captain kirk #mr spock #william campbell #trelane #Q #the squire of gothos #ashroadtrek

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heatherrdavis1 · 5 years ago

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BITCOIN $13000 BEFORE HALVING!! Ethereum $500? Programmer explains

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

And we’re alive. Yes, welcome to another episode of Good Morning Gripped all here, although I’m not. We are, of course, broadcasting live straight out of Stockholm, Sweden, and we do this show each and every day at 8:00 p.m. Central European summer thing as I come to like an atomic location every day. Look, I don’t need to bring you the news. You know that the markets are green like a freaking leprechaun right now. They’re so green. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. Bitcoin’s skyrocketing. We’re smashing all kinds of resistance levels were up 20 percent in the day, in the day. This is truly, truly bull market vibes. And so important to discuss really how to approach this situation, because while we’re amazingly green, also, you gotta keep your greed in check. You’ve got to tell your greed, go back into your cave and don’t come back because you need to be thinking with your head, not with your greed and not with your emotions. And so today we’ll be discussing really the potential of Bitcoin before the halving. I do think I do think that 13 came before. The hubbing is not out of the picture. Absolutely not out of the picture, especially as we’re seeing the Fed and everyone else across the world debasing their currency. And yes, they might try to do the mental gymnastics of saying that although we are debasing like crazy, there is still a lot of demand for USD worldwide. We’re printing like crazy. But look at all the demand and look at those mental gymnastics. Don’t hold long term because long term it is just supply and demand. I mean, long term is just how much you have produced versus how much it is on the market. So that’s very easy to understand. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about as well today as well. But, Amy, I guess you learned so much today. It’s amazing to see all of you who are watching. And I will not take dot com slash live. Welcome, everyone. Welcome. Also, if you watch on YouTube, but if you’re watching watching on YouTube, you should right now go to avidly dot com slash live and subscribe here. Click the subscribe button click. Enable Web alerts right here. A telecommunications do all of this good jazz. And that being said, what is going on? The Shactman. The chat is rolling like crazy. The chat is running like crazy. I see. Alfonso I see devil evil. I see crypto Hodda. Luis Valencia. Alfredo. Tiago. It’s rolling so fast I cannot even read. I cannot even really realize. That’s amazing. That’s exactly how it should be. I saw a donation here. From who? From you finally get to watch Delite. Nice, nice trade bitcoins safely from Chilla. Big shout out to Chile. So, guys, welcome, everyone. And the shot is absolutely insane right now. And what’s even more important is please let me know where you’re watching from. I want to feel our global community. I want to feel this greenmarket really going global, infiltrating all countries and really spreading the world word of Satoshi and spreading the Satoshi message across the world. Max Jocelin, can you please leave immediately? Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And local. It is because people on YouTube don’t know what we’re doing before the show. So they they’re a bit confused sometimes. Do you have. Thank you so much for the nations. Let’s see who else is here. Justin, Justin. Good, good, good, good. Guys, look. First and foremost, it’s important to note, you know, I’m preaching a new concept here. I’m preaching a new concept to the crypto community. And this concept is something that crypto community needs to hear. Really, the first time I heard this was from Grandcourt Dome. But I never heard it in the crypto community. And the concept is the following. This is really the trademark concept. I’m sharing with you, but the concept is the following. Guys, you don’t want to get get rich quick. You want to get rich for sure. All right. You don’t want to get rich quick. You want to get rich for sure. So remember this. I mean, old deformable that you’re seeing. Please keep it in mind. Keep a cool head and keep. The greed in check. Because while it’s amazing that we’re going up and it’s very important to be in this market, I even said then, look, this was yesterday. This was before we reached nine K, but we’re at eight point two, eight point one. So I said this, but also said, but we’re going to nine gay guys, please remember that we are going. But you remember it in the rational way. Don’t remember it. Don’t think about the fact that we’re going to nine K or in this situation we are actually going to 10K. We are actually going to 10K. Think about it rationally and don’t think about it emotionally. So that’s the big difference that the big difference v you have coming with helicopter money. That’s amazing. And by the way, we have smashed a new record here on our own websites. Seven hundred and twenty people watching live. So that’s that’s key. Looking at the markets and I know why. Because the markets are so green is they’re so green bitcoin plus 20 percent. We have ethe plus 11 percent above X or P plus eight percent where bitcoin cash plus eleven. BSEE 14 is so amazing to see. Let’s see the big winners today. Sixty two percent in some kind of weird streamer debt data coin. Forty two million volume nonetheless. Nonetheless. So but be careful a bit. See a coin 37 or Misick go 20 percent. Bitcoin eight. And look, bitcoin. Bitcoin is actually leading the old coin bag because for bitcoin to be amid the top five gainers of the day, it’s very unusual. It’s very unusual. It truly shows you how this is now going wild. Solid crypto. Thank you for the nation. I should mention. Thank you so much. Thanks. Look, for all of you who are in our academy. Please remember we do have our DFI Q&A. So if you are in our academy, we have our DFI Q&A and you will get an e-mail. It’s in a few hours with Amadeu brands from Maker that in a few hours who will have defied you. And then you can ask anything you want about the course content, but also anything you want about defeat. And also, please remember, as we are speaking, we’re continuing to move. We are at nine point four guys, nine point four. And if you are trading this, if you are trading this wave’s market waves. When we go up like crazy and sometimes we go down as well. You can make money both ways because you can long. You can sure you can do it on Bybee’s. We can trade bitcoin to freedom was SRP. And if you go to I will take that. Com slash Leive. You find this link where you can get the baby bonus. You can also get Flemming’s bonus and Tribbles combos. So go to the bonus land at the bonus land is exclusively it’s exclusively located in. I don’t think that. Com slash life. So go there right now, man. We are pumping like we speak and we’re almost man. We almost went to nine point five. It’s amazing. It’s amazing what’s going on right now. Now remember, in 2019 or more correctly. Yeah. Into the nineteen. It went from 10k to force and get in just a few days. Remember that. And in 2000 azy and we went from 10 K to 20 K in just a few days. It was really, really insane. How fast this moves really happened was they do happen once they do happen and we are now officially the top performing asset of 2020 again. Yet again, it’s not the first time as yet again that we are the best performing asset. And look, still the no corners still. They’re telling us that we are some kind of risky scam. It’s amazing that you’re still here. And still people are saying, hey, bitcoin is so risky. Probably it’s also a scam. Probably it’s also something that you should be careful about yet is the top performing asset of 20/20. And here is why. I do think I do think that amid all of this financial crisis and global uncertainty, him we are witnessing something that is very key and important. Bitcoin outperforming, outperforming stocks, outperforming gold, outperforming all other assets in 2020. It’s a fact. It’s a fact. Now, obviously, 2020 is not over. We don’t know what can happen in 2020 still. But until today, up until now, you are seeing Bitcoin completely outperform everything else. Now, whether Warren Buffett tells you that Bitcoin is some kind of rat poison or Peter Schiff says that bitcoins are not understanding economy and they are sitting with fool’s gold, you know. He calls Bitcoin fool’s gold. Don’t listen too much because they’re clearly they’re clearly not in this market. They’re clearly not educated. And we’ve seen it now for a decade. People declaring Bitcoin dead. Declaring Bitcoin a scam. This and that. But at the end of the day, the numbers they’ll form themselves will are the best performing assets of 2020. No question about that. No question about that. And what’s especially important is that we have recovered such an amazing, such an amazing loss we’ve had last month. So Bitcoin, obviously, last month we had the Black Thursday where we collapse. But what’s amazing is that the market is so strong. There is always demand. There’s always buyers of last resort that don’t let it fall too far. And we are now recovery. And we have recovered all the Corona Corona panic losses that we’ve had just for a few weeks. And all in all, we’re now the best performing asset in the world, in the entire world, in the entire universe, 2020, believe it or not, this is the fact. Now, while this is happening, obviously we have the Fed continuing to print and the US economy continuing to shrink. What does it mean? It means that more and more fiat, more and more can do rap. As I tell you, Fiat is like the candy rap you find on the floor. Those dollars that are basically worth the same as your Kanza rap. They are right now going to print even more, but the U.S. economy shrinks. So this means that more candy rap is competing for less services, more candy rap is competing for less productivity, for less offerings on the market, such as goods and services. What does this mean? It means that the currency is debased. It means that the currency is not really performing well. Long term. This is not something that you want to see long term. And all in all, you see that Bitcoins returns increased to 20 percent over the whole year. And we’re surging past Goldstar 12 percent and the Fed, as always, as always, making it very clear that they have an unlimited pot and that they will never run out of money. They make it very clear. And what’s important to see is that we do have unprecedented damage from the corona virus. Unfortunately, in the whole world and in the whole economy. Now, we have amazing by the way, we have amazing initiatives by the communities to solve this. And one of the best initiatives that, by the way, I know that some of you guys that who are watching the stream have made you guys have been working on this because I know that it’s a few people in the chat. I don’t want to say who they are. Maybe they can say. Themselves, that’s wrong. I don’t want to expose them, expose them, but really they’re doing something amazing with recorded now record. Now, why is it so? Well, because they’re basically creating free tools for businesses, how to, number one, survive the situation and how to grow the situation with corona virus. Small, most small businesses are going to fail. But if you go to reek of it now dot com, you can download this first aid kit, which we discussed a few weeks ago. And this is basically how to assess your financial situation. You get free excel, you get free excel. And what’s crazy is that you just download it. You just download it like this instantly. You don’t even you don’t even have to enter your email. So they’re not collecting email. They’re not really wanting to have your information. They’re just giving you free tools. And now they launched survival kit. And Survival Kit is for businesses who are struggling right now. So basically, different steps need to make, for example, step one, make a list of your customers and how much revenue they bring in. Rank them from the largest amount, the smallest amount of revenue. This and that. I mean, really, this is coming from people who run multi million multi national businesses with tens and hundreds of employees, and they’re giving it away for free. So, for example, you can download the supply chain template is just a document, no e-mails collected. It is a pure, pure initiative coming from the right place, from the right place, from this, coming from the heart. Basically, they want to save as many businesses as possible by providing free tools and free material without even collecting emails. Call it completely for free. You just go there and download. But anyway, it’s recopied now dot com. A big shout out to them for doing all this work. And so, all in all, when you’re you’re seeing the economy collapsing, when you’re seeing businesses going broke. Money just keeps flowing from the helicopter. They just drop it like a helicopter manual. Right. What does that mean, Dan? It means more upside for Bitcoin. The biggest rocket fuel for Bitcoin is, of course, the Fed. It is, of course, the traditional financial system. They are the rocket fuel. There is fueling us. They are our movement forward. They’re driving us forward because it’s their actions that make Bitcoin important. So as we’re continuing to see this and we will continue to see more money printing is inevitable. It’s absolutely inevitable because the system is structured flawed. So the only thing you can make is to just expand the money supply and try to save the world with more liquidity by debasing the currency at the end of the day. So it’s inevitable that we will continue to see printing. And therefore, it’s inevitable, according to me, not financial advice, but according to me how. I’m saying to myself, it’s inevitable that Bitcoin will also continue to grow and also continue to go up in value. Obviously, that’s absolutely true, and that is absolutely something we’ve got to keep in mind. Now, whether we’re going to go 2008 before having or not, we will see. I think it’s a good chance. It’s an absolutely fat chance that will go there. And what’s even more important is to look at other coins, look at the old coin market, because you know that when we approached 10K, that is when the old ccan strategies for me at least kick back in, they kick back in because all coins will really perform like crazy. When we go to 20 K for one bitcoin, we’ll go to new all time high. And as I told you, is important at least for me to build to build positions already before already before the All-Time High in the different Alz. And obviously Ethe is probably going to be the coin that performs the best in this bull market in regards to risk reward ratio, because the risk in it is very small. I mean, it is already successful. It is already big. It is already huge. With DFI probably is just going to grow and grow and grow. But the risk reward versus other old coins is huge. If I mean, obviously you can bet on all kinds of other exotic assets, that will probably outperform each. But the risk is so big. I’m talking about the risk reward ratio. So that’s important as well to keep in mind the potential of other currencies. And obviously, without making it too complicated, just look at the market cap. Look at the market cap of Bitcoin to see where we’re heading. Right now, we are at one hundred seventy one billion, which is absolutely nothing compared to the potential. It is absolutely nothing compared to other asset classes like gold. You know, gold is approximately fifteen trillion. If you take physical and paper gold together, approximately 15 trillion and Bitcoin is 170 billion. So if gold is Dixon trillion and you know that gold is said to 2x to 3x, according to many macro analysts in the coming years. And so if gold is to go to forty five trillion to 60 trillion, is it possible? Is it possible at all that Bitcoin would go to 10 trillion? Of course. Of course. Of course. And 10 trillion from here is is a lot. I mean, we basically to do five X to reach a trillion, more than five X, basically six X to reach a trillion. And then we need to do tennis from there. So basically 60 X. It sounds insane. It sounds. Saying if you think about it, that Bitcoin might do a 60 X, and that is kind of the end goal. That is the end game for Bitcoin because debt is a 10 trillion dollar asset. And the measuring things in dollars doesn’t really make sense either, because the dollar is devaluing, it’s is debasing. So who knows whether we will even measure it in dollars. But if you count the value in today’s dollars, in today’s dollars, then it makes sense that we might go to 10 trillion, which is the end game for Bitcoin. Now, whether it will happen this cycle, this cycle of having you know, after the halving, we enter a new cycle, a four year cycle, or whether we’ll will have to wait until the next one. So the next cycle, which starts 2024 with the next halving, is it impossible to say the timeline is arbitrary? Look, the other timeline can be today or tomorrow or in the year. So that’s very difficult to say. But what is true is that long term, this kind of thinking makes total sense. Absolutely makes total sense. Now with if we can also. Absolutely. In the near future see a doubling and absolute easy doubling. Why is it so? Well, because look at the proportions. Bitcoin is right now approximately 50 percent from the All-Time High. Ethe is just a 25 percent, 20 percent even between basically twenty two point five percent. We are because we were above 10 above one K for one in the bull market. So it’s just the potential. So ethe from a risk reward is also good because it’s so far away from its all time highs that were reached in twenty eighteen. So that is why for for East to go to five hundred in the near future. It’s not that impossible. Absolutely not that impossible. So Bitcoin 13 K and ethe 500 gate in the near future is something that I don’t remove from the picture altogether. I think it’s absolutely possible. And to me that’s even very, very probable. But not financial advice. You do you. I do me. But I think those are the numbers that that this I’m looking at now. Obviously, obviously, it’s important to note we are above eight hundred live viewers on our own website. Guys, you are amazing. You are amazing. New life record. We’re smashing new life records just like Bitcoin is smashing all kinds of resistance levels. Now, I want also to bring some fad now that we’ve had our formal section. We also need to bring in some fad. Why is it so? Because expectations. Guys, please remember that after the having a lot of miners will struggle, they will not be in the great position. This means that many miners will have to shut down. They will have to shut down and liquidate their assets. And that’s key. That’s key to understand, Johnny. Thank you so much, Dandala. Johnny, appreciate you. Appreciate it. So they they might have to liquidate and sell their assets. So you understand that when they’re having hits, we might see a few weeks, a few months of sideways and even a bit bearish action. Please expect that and understand that that is on the table. That is on the table. Now, a bigger question is how far up will we go before the hubbing in the next 10 days and the year where I think Bitcoin has a great chance and the great probability of going to 13 K. And then when we hit the halving, maybe we’ll go back to 10K returns, the 10 K support, because so many miners will simply not be in the game again. So please remember that also we need to keep in mind the traditional markets, how they will perform and what will happen there. You know that they have been very strong during the past few weeks, but it’s going to be even stronger. Bitcoin is absolutely outperforming all of these guys with by miles length, miles and miles and miles length. But they’re are also very strong right now. What happens if they take a dump? If they take a hit? Will Bitcoin follow or not? Personally, I think we are in times where Bitcoin is going to decouple. I mean, it’s basically now that Bitcoin will probably decouple. And you see that if it is true, I mean, it is true that we do see a decoupling. And right now, we’re also the best performing asset of 2020. And if we can continue to at least be stable or slightly upwards when stocks dump, you see that? Now, we’re also uncorrelated. Imagine all the capital that’s going to jump into crypto, that’s going to jump into Bitcoin. They’re seeing they’re seeing the stocks going down. They’re seeing gold going up a bit when stocks go down, maybe about gold. Also sometimes follows, you know, and then they see Bitcoin being the number one asset of twenty twenty. And also it’s uncorrelated. And that was also had decoupled. So decoupling is another is another important variable to keep an eye on. It’s kind of our joker. It’s our joker, our our wild card that can really make this whole market go parabolic even more than we than we calculate with the homy. When you see big capital managers, wealth managers, you’re seeing all of this. So that’s important. If you think back on these times when the Bitcoin level hits to 70 to 80 K whilst there just the oh, man, I clicked. I clicked away while just a toddler well above while still just. Exactly. Look, even if you go to 70 and 80 K, it is just a 10x from here. Still only going to be at a a trillion more than a trillion, but approximately a trillion. And look, at the end of the day, it is big. One trillion is big, but it’s nothing compared to gold. It’s nothing. Even if a gold 10x from here was so, so early, was so early, it’s insane. If we go tennis from here, we’re going to be at one point seven trillion. So one point seven trillion is amazing. But still nothing in the in the broader picture is still nothing. Fed prince, the prince at one point seven trillion in the in the second. They can literally printed in the millisecond and they’ve done it. We’ve seen weeks with the five trillion. Six trillion. It’s absolutely insane. So even if we tennis from here, it’s still nothing. And so that’s why that’s why it’s important to look long term. But the timeline and the timeline is difficult. Obviously always the timeline. Even though I know that we will go to 10 trillion, will it be tomorrow in the year? In five years and 10 years and fifteen years? The timeline is the issue. But we need to look at what’s in front of us and look long term, but also manage the short term situation. Moving on, moving on, moving on. We have some other news that are important to discuss. We have, for example, news from our friends over at Krypto dot com. They are our collaborators we’re working on and I am holding their coin collecting. Thank you so much. Seven dollars. I’m Hotaling, their coin s.r.o.. Just full disclosure. But what’s important right now is that they do have the hubbing special. They’re giving away 50 percent off on bitcoins. So basically you can get the Bitcoin with 50 percent cheaper. 50 percent discount. Big fat discount. And they’re selling one million bitcoin with this kind of discount. And you don’t even have to stake S.R.O. Usually you need to stake S.R.O. to be in these kinds of of sales where they give discounts. But basically, they’re also giving away one. I mean, they’re doing these huge, huge holding celebration. So go check them out right now. Krypto dot com. If you want to get fifty dollars, you want to get fifty dollars, go to that. Com slash live. And use this link for Kruijff dot com. And yeah, don’t underestimate it because they are doing a great job and it’s amazing to work together. We’re going to see how their coin performs. What is their coin. I haven’t checked it in, in the wild but it is performing amazingly well, amazingly well. It was like two zero point zero five. Just just days ago. And now it’s zero point zero six five. So, yeah, it’s it’s even the coin is reflecting. Yeah. I mean, if it is performing well. No question about that. But then I also I’m also Houghtaling MCO. Let’s see how that coin is MCO. You know, it’s difficult to keep track of all of this exotic assets. Five point six. That’s great. That’s right. So all in all, they are performing quite good. And finally, another thing I want to discuss is the telegram situation. Basically, they have reverse older project. Probably we’re not going to have any kind of telegraph network or block chain because they’re saying that we will return everything to investors. We might have to return one point two billion to investors because it seems really on our tail. And they’re not allowing us to do business. They’re not allowing us to do whatever we want to do. So that’s why probably we might have to give it all back. And unfortunately, that is how it is. The innovation in this case is stopped by the regulation, by the regulation. If it room blocks are full, says crypto fruit. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. Well, you see that it’s always like that when the prices skyrocket. And you also see, for example, the situation with Coinbase. They they got shut down yesterday for a few few hours because they always have technical issues. They oldest legal issues when the markets go up and when the markets rallying guys. That being said is so amazing that we have markets rallying. We see viewers rallying. We see jury, jury. Thanks so much for this kind words. I’m on your academy is amazing. Glad to be part of. It’s so good to hear jury. So good to hear. And please, if you want to participate in our Q&A with make your Dow and defy. I mean, any questions you have about DFI? We’ll have a Q&A for all academy members. And you can ask anything you want, anything you want. So in your profile in that guide them in. Just go and find that section with student usernames and webinars. And there you’ll see that defy. You may starting in approximately two hours, in approximately two hours. So you can ask anything you want. And that’s going to going to be amazing. All right, guys. More questions. I’m inviting the magnificent, the the honorable, the honorable Chad to the to the stream. Welcome. This is asking, Ivan, can you explain why the price of Bitcoin is different in Lebanon than in Sweden? So I guess you refer to the visa we did a few days ago about local Bitcoin in Lebanon going to fifteen K when Bitcoin was still at seven or something. Well, you realize that the markets are not efficient. It’s impossible to use up. You use arbitrage to really take advantage of the arbitrage opportunities so their market to separate their market is separate, disconnected from the world. Which means that at the end of the day, the only thing you can do is to buy from local people. And when the currency, their currency collapsed 50 percent in the last week, 50 percent. Obviously, people are running. They’re absolutely running. Two words, two words. Safe havens, two words, safe assets. They’re trying to get hold of the dollar. But that’s really difficult. And they’re also trying to get hold of Bitcoin. So the demand goes up like crazy and there is not enough supply in the country. So that’s that’s how it is. Sweden is different because it’s all open and connected. And you don’t have capital in Lebanon. You have capital controls. You cannot even access your money in your bank. So how can you buy a Bitcoin with that money? It’s very difficult. So you take all the cash you have and then you run and try to get some Bitcoin, some bitcoin, at least. All right. You can not send it to Coinbase International. You can only go spend it the like in your cities. And so that’s why that’s why Ivan is so hyped. And he can see Supercharges if if you have. But I really appreciate man and view. View f one dollar. Yep. One dollar. One dollar. But when I’m explaining, when I’m explaining and when I’m in the in the mood I’m explaining like some kind of concept. I will delay the super chats a bit and then I will come back. But if it’s like a big superjet then of course I will say it. But when I’m explaining, I don’t want to be interrupted like each five seconds. But then, of course, I’ll go back and they’ll check. So thank you so much. Everyone who is doing this crazy supercharges truly appreciate you. Let’s see, Nate. How much more or less should I, d.E.A, when business is pumping so hard? Well, Nate, it’s important to note that it’s your personal strategy that you need to develop and it’s different for different people. But I wouldn’t recommend to make big bets. So always I don’t recommend Begue making big bets because tomorrow we can literally go down with 20, 30 percent. And the question is, can you really handle that or will you sell it at minus 30 or will you be able to handle it? Most people cannot handle they’re selling because they think we’re going to go down to minus 50. We’re going to go down even more, they think. So DCA is best to do with equal miles, like all access with equal amounts and don’t care about the price. We have your strategy. You followed your strategy. And otherwise, if you start breaking your own d.E.A strategy, you will also start dumping. You will also start dumping on the bottoms because now you’re afraid. And so as soon as you let your emotions take over your strategy in the upside, when we’re going up and you’re young, you buy more because we go up so much and you get formal, the same will happen. Exactly the same will happen when we go down. And now you sell like crazy because we’re going down and you think we’re going and going to go down further, which means that you buy at the top, you sell at the bottom. So therefore, you need to have the mind of steel. You have to have the discipline of steel if you’re following this, a strategy. But look at all that. It’s your strategy. So you need to have your own strategy and follow it. And it’s different for different people, depending on the age where you are in life. If you’re old, if you’re close to the retirement, as I tell you, it might be a good idea to be a bit more careful because, look, you might need the manual soon. You might not be able to be that long term in your investments. You might need it in the next two, three years or maybe one year. But if you are a young if you are 20, 25, you have the whole life in front of you. Obviously, you can make a bigger bet. You can make a lot more risk. You can take a lot more risk. It depends. And really consult with yourself when it comes to this. I’m not your financial adviser, but this is how I’m thinking. So that’s important. No one retires any more says than that. Well, if you it depends on the mindset as well. I like the mindset of not retiring that, yes, you might be getting some stuff from the government because you are you are old enough to get it, but always growing, always doing something. That’s amazing. That’s amazing. I’ve done so since government can shut down Bitcoin can. Do you think they could set some regulation in the future for a bit for Bitcoin miners and sabotage us that way? Well, you see, the Bitcoin mining is global. It’s a global business. Alexander So how will you do it? You could do it in your country, but it means that all the miners in your country will shut down. They cannot if they cannot do that. If I followed the regulation, they will have to shut down. What does it mean? Well, some other country sees their advantage. They see that, hey, now these guys cannot do their business. We will make amazing laws that you can make your business here. All of this is global. And countries obviously want to have an upper hand. They want to have an upper hand against other countries. So that is why you see some islands in the world with amazing corporate privacy, with very low taxes, because they’re saying, hey, get on with all your money here, come with all your money. We don’t care how you got that money, but we will take care of it. Why? Why? Because they want to have some kind of upper hand man. If you are an island in the middle of nowhere, you want to be able to to help with something like to to have some kind of service you can provide. So you’ve got to keep it in mind. And so that’s. Seychelle and a bit makes exactly the e-mails say, hey, you know, where is bith mix registered, where we’re all descript or guys registered in Seychelles? Why? Because they have amazing regulation. They are very liberal. So that that’s that’s why. And you realize it will be the same with mining. If somebody is trying to stop it, someone else will open it up and you can mine from wherever you want in the world. It’s very easy to set up, very easy to move. And what’s important is that you’re literally getting this digital scarcity. You’re literally taking this digital scarcity from the universe and web limited amount of bitcoins. So all countries should encourage their citizens to mine like crazy mine as maniacs. They have to their citizens. They if if they’re smart, they will tell their citizens. Guys, you have to mine like crazy. Become a mining maniac. We will subsidize your electricity, please. Mine, please. Mine as soon as possible. This is what I would do. Why. Why is it so important? Well, you realize there is limited amount of bitcoin and that is being distributed now to some countries that have big mining industries. Not that much to other countries that don’t have a mining industry. And if it is the case that Bitcoin will play some kind of role in the next financial paradigm, which is a great chance, the risk reward on this is so huge. You cannot miss it. You cannot miss it. So obviously, you want to have people in your country who have this bitcoin because then they have it in your country. They are contributing to your economy. They are consuming goods and services with that wealth in your country, paying taxes. And so that’s why that’s why every country should tell their citizens, go in mine. We will even give you a mining machine. We will call between ourselves. So they ship a huge container for our entire country and just mine go in mine anyway. Anyway, anyway, crypto hawk. Any concerns with you on a Chinese city currently has roughly 50 percent of bitcoin cash power among the various operations and pools. Well, once again, crypto hock. It’s a global business. And the thing is, right now, we are seeing centralization in China, as you say. But like we discussed yesterday, it’s all about people realizing how easy it is to start mining and that you can reuse excess energy, you reduce excess energy. This needs to go global and it will go global. So if you have some kind of power plant, all the excess energy you can just put into mining, you have some oilrig, you have some oil that you are not able to sell. Like we saw negative oil. You know, oil companies probably going to be one of the biggest miners in the near future. So it’s all about just people understanding, understanding the simple fact. As soon as you have a bit a tiny bit of excess energy in some kind of process, you can funnel it straight into crypto, straight into mining. Previously, you couldn’t use that energy for anything because it’s not worth transporting the energy to some kind of location where it can be consumed. It’s not worth it. But with Bitcoin, you can literally funnel it into mining instantly without any transport. So when this idea goes global, you see that it’s impossible to centralize mining because now mining is everywhere. Oh, my God. We’re seeing this trimmed down. Is is this is the central bankers guys. They’re coming after us. Let’s see. I need to change. I need to change two to two. Let’s do it to Felicity. One second. One second. One second. We’ll be back. This is what happens when your life. The good thing is the good thing is that that we have already covered the most important topics. Oh, my God. We have had issues with our ISP. So that’s actually not. All right. Let’s see. Are we back? Are we back? Are we back? Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing. We’re back. We’re back. We’re back. Are we back there? We will be back in a minute. Let’s see. Let’s see. Let’s see. Man, this is what happens when you do live. This is exactly what happens. But anyway, for all of you watching on YouTube, let me know exactly how you are treating this in the comments. What will the Bitcoin prize be at the end at the end of this hubbing cycle? Let’s see if we can get back online as soon as possible with the stream. That would be the ideal situation, of course, the ideal situation. But it’s always a let down when it doesn’t happen. I think we’re alive now. We’re back live. We’re back live. We’re back live. Let’s see. It goes. Go. We’re back. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, it is saurus man. It’s like some kind of conspiracy against me. Good morning, Crypt. We’re back live. We’re stronger than ever. We’re here. We’re ready to go. We’re ready to roll. Let’s do the math. The chatter is going absolutely wild. The shuttle’s going absolutely wild. Look, they’re trying to grab the stream. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I see nation. So that’s amazing. Let me get to Alderton donation that you guys have been sending while we were off air for a few seconds. Let’s talk about idee protocols, use cases. Yes. So that’s important. Self sovereign identity, SS, I.D.. Let me just write that down. I just want to go to all of you guys who did super chat while we were off air while we simply were were cut off. I cannot scroll further up anyway. Sorry if I missed Mr. Supercheap. Look what I was even talking about. I was talking about mining. The fact that, you know, when mining is being understood worldwide and it’s being all all excess energy is being funneled into mining from all kinds of processes, then you cannot centralize. You can centralize mine. It’s impossible. Now, let’s talk about SSI. Did you understand with Block Schenn, we will have global identities. It is just a matter of time. It can be very dystopic. I mean, in one way you can say that it is extremely dystopic. This whole idea of global identity. But just like they try, they’re going to try to push digital cash and we will be push digital. They will push it down their throat in one way or another. They will also push digital global identity. So that’s that’s just a matter of time. I think you should be expecting that. You should be expecting that. Now, obviously, it could be more efficient for some processes, like, for example, when you go to a hospital in one country, they have all the information from all other hospitals. You’ve been there in all other locations. And that’s, by the way, something that would be good for many people because why is it so I go to a pharmacy. They have no clue what kind of treatment I got in the past. I they they they don’t have any of my history and so on, so forth. But at the end of the night, was the recording still. Yes. Recording was still going. That recording was still going. So please account for that if it’s possible. So that is a good use case. That is a good use case. But at the same time, you also see that now you’re tracked worldwide. Now you also see that you are being surveilled. Surveillance, surveilled, how you say surveillance and you’re being surveilled all the time. So it’s it’s dystopic. And it’s also efficient. But we probably were probably going to see it in both ways. And look, technology can be used for good and for evil, just like the Internet. The Internet is amazing. But the Internet is also used to to surveil us all the time. So. Yeah. Martin, Kate, five dollars. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. What else? What else? What else? I just got my own twelve hundred deposit. Oh, the government from the government. The helicopter money and doesn’t raid does rate in South Korea. There’s already an icon with digital I.D. starting the next in the next months. Oh you mean the ICAM project. That’s interesting. Yeah. That’s a big Korean project. Thoughts on Tasos? Well, as I’ve been telling you, I think that’s what is very interesting right now. They are doing some amazing, some amazing work with functional programming and they are moving in market cap. They are moving in a market cap. And their biggest competitor right now is kind of downlow. So as long as long as does this key keeping growing and keeping developing, it is going to be in front Basker Donnellys also now. You know, we’ve had so many news from Khaldoun as well. So these two are very important to follow. In many cases they are similar is the same kind of mindset and a lot of similarities, but also in some ways different. So keep it in mind and keep an eye on both of these two guys. That being said, that being said, we will have to end it here. Thank you so much for the. Thank you so much for all the supercharges. I truly, truly appreciate. Appreciate hanging here with you. This amazing. What is it? Thursday? Thursday morning. Unfortunately, I have to go a bit quicker today. Yes, I know. Yes, I know. Yes. I have to go a bit quicker today. We have so much work to do. Our academy is growing like crazy. And I have a meeting right now in in 30 minutes, so I really have to go. Bye, guys. This has been an amazing time. And I’m telling you, the markets are going wild. Please keep your head cool. Keep your head cool. Once again, you don’t want to get rich quick. You want to get rich for sure. That’s important. And you know that tomorrow we will be back like an atomic clock. Like always at 8:00 a.m. Central European Time. Central will be on time, 8:00 a.m. We’ll be back tomorrow. If you are watching on YouTube, go right now to Ivens or the com slash live and subscribe here. Click the subscribe button. Click enable web dollars. Click enables vacations. And so it’s your part of the real community that is here every morning and you get action and suffocations from us and you cannot be removed when YouTube decides to remove things from their platform. So that’s important. All in all, have a good day and goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum-500/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum-500-programmer-explains

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jeffrmayhugh · 5 years ago

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BITCOIN $13,000 BEFORE HALVING!! Ethereum $500? – Programmer explains

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum-500/ source https://cryptosharks1.tumblr.com/post/617025088364085248

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scottmapess · 5 years ago

Text

BITCOIN $13,000 BEFORE HALVING!! Ethereum $500? – Programmer explains

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum-500/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/05/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum.html

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cryptosharks1 · 5 years ago

Text

BITCOIN $13,000 BEFORE HALVING!! Ethereum $500? – Programmer explains

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-13000-before-halving-ethereum-500/

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incorrectly-quoted-queers · 5 years ago

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Drunk Punch Love 2: Chapter 3

Pairing: FemShep and Garrus Vakarian (Shakarian)

Rating: PG-13 (with some tossed F-bombs)

Summary: Their awkward, badass journey through saving the galaxy and accidentally falling in love

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089466/chapters/54170929

Part 2- Chapter 3: Enter Archangel

"So now that the clinic doesn't need me, tell me what you know about the Collectors."

Anya was only passively listening to Mordin and Miranda chatter on. She took a quick liking to the Salarian scientist, but he did talk a lot, and her brain was still sort of a slosh. Her brain cells were starting to get antsy about her getting her head on straight again. With all the back to back missions, she still didn't feel quite human.

Behind her, Miranda answered, "I can't tell you too much without the data we have on the Normandy, but I can say-"

Just then, somebody grabbed her forearm. Someone with a grip like a goddamn claw machine; inaccurate and fumbling, but still rough when it caught on. "You look like a strong type." Shepard's head turned to look at them, a krogan in Blood Pack gear. Taking a turn for the bizarre, a Blue Suns merc behind him nodded approvingly. The real offense of it all, though, was that he was close enough for Anya could smell his breath. Had the faintest hint of pyjack and ryncol.

Jerking her arm out of his grasp, she went on instinct: a krogan headbutt. Though it made her forehead feel a bit like jello, the guy staggered back. She stood her ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't touch me."

The batarian behind him started to cackle. "Even better. If you want some cash, ma'am, we need more guns to take down Archangel. Been seiging him for three days now, so he should cave any minute. You in?"

Before Miranda could try to butt in, Shepard winked at her, trying to make a point that she had this. If this was any other case, she'd probably beat their asses into the pavillion metal. But since this Archangel was one of their dossiers, this was an easy in, right? Anya laxed her face muscles and glared at him. "What's the pay like?"

"Trust me, damn good."

Cocking her head at the krogan still nursing his headplate, Shepard said, "Hope you all are made of tougher shit than him."

"Why else do you think he's been stuck out here for days recruiting?"

Anya laughed, but almost choked at the end. The second she heard it, she knew her old team would've called it out as her "fake, shitty bad guy laugh". Ruined a different mission where they were trying to infiltrate a shady mining operation. Couldn't let the batarian catch that. Instead, she crossed her arms and talked quick. "Where do I sign up and can I bring my guys?"

Almost out of nowhere, the batarian procured a tablet. Apparently, the gangs really were desperate enough to recruit her, no questions asked. "Sure. And if you sign up with me, I can get you on the next transport to kill Archangel." Anya had to stifle a real laugh. Dude was 100% a "get yourself killed" salesman, but it didn't matter to her. Not when the gangs were about to get some nice, Alliance-bred bullets to their skulls.

"Sounds like my kind of job." Signing the fake names Oksana Marakov, Dinmor Lasso, and Barbie Tits, Shepard waved off the guy and went back to her team. Miranda had a raised eyebrow.

With her best friendly smile, Anya said, "Change of plans. Mordin, Miranda, you come with me. Sounds like Archangel needs some rescuing if we want him to make it to The Normandy alive. Jacob, go back and make sure Chakwas has the medbay prepped. I'm sure the guy won't be in the best condition after what they've been putting him through." Jacob saluted and then headed towards the docking bay.

Miranda grimaced at the merc tag Shepard sent to her omni-tool. Wincing, Anya knew that her impulse name-giving probably wasn't going to be well-received. But she panicked under pressure.

The Cerberus officer groaned and asked, "Barbie Tits? C'mon."

"I'm not good at fake names okay? Just ask Joker about the Dranek mission, he'll explain it in excruciatingly embarrassing detail. Next time I'll try better. Or we'll plan beforehand. Or just revenge kill me at a later date. Right now, we need to get moving."

Mordin just blinked with that slightly unsettling grin on his face. "Never seen all three gangs work together. Will be fascinating."

With a wave of her arm, Miranda let Shepard take point. "Lead the way, Oksana Marakov." Other than Miranda's clear dissatisfaction with her code name, Anya almost started smirking off her skull. This was just the way she liked it. And while normal life still felt surreal, shooting? She was good at that.

One transport ride later, they were knee-deep in the Blood Pack, Blue Suns, and Eclipse strongholds, preparing for the next wave of attack. Unluckily for the bastards, Anya was a trained infiltrator. Minor hacking and sabotage was her jam. By the time they wanted to start a fight, she couldn't even count how many things she'd left her mark on.

After she pulled off her final masterpiece, damaging a famed Blue Suns hovercopter, Miranda kept tossing Shepard concerned, and possibly frightened, glances. As they suited up for the fight, she said, "Remind me never to get on your bad side. Guess you can do worse damage than Barbie Tits."

"I said I was sorry." Shaking her head, Anya focused instead on the good stuff. "But thank you. Mordin's suggestion of killing the mechanic probably would be more efficient, but I like to cross my wires and blow up the controls in style."

Next to her, Mordin looked dissatisfied with her choice, but also didn't seem like the guy who'd mind results. "One less Blue Sun is still one less."

"We can chat more once we've done our cute little betrayal here." Pressed up against the barrier, they linked their comms. After a few other mercs hopped the fence, she looked to her team. They were strangers still, for the most part. Other than Kirrahe, she'd never worked with a Salarian, really. And Miranda was sort of so perfect she was intimidating and worse, she knew that. It was weird to get used to. But so far, she liked them. Anya grinned, prepared for a good fight. "Ready?"

Both of them nodded.

Jumping the barrier herself, Shepard was surprised to feel a bullet already skim her shields. Anya dropped behind some new cover and felt her heart racing. They made it clear this guy was good, but not that good.

She got out her own sniper rifle to get a better view on the situation.

When she peered out from her cover, using the sights to see him, that fast heartbeat of hers went dead. Directly down her sights was another sniper, a turian, wearing distinct blue and black gear. She couldn't see his face, but every organ in her body stopped working, because the way he pulled that trigger felt so familiar.

Half out of confused panic, knowing it definitely couldn't be him, she said into her mic, "You didn't say he was a sniper."

Miranda sounded confused. "Does it matter?"

With her organs struggling to function the longer her brain did mental gymnastics to try to figure out if it even could be him, Shepard gave her honest answer, "Yes." It didn't make sense; Garrus planned on joining Spectres. Instead he went MIA, but she assumed it just meant he did the Spectre thing on his own. But this?

Across the comms, Miranda replied, "Well if you needed to know his weapon specialties, you really should've read the dossier-"

"I didn't get to his dossier. This wasn't exactly on my itinerary today."

"If you prefer to be more prepared, then-"

"It's not about being prepared!"

"Then can you stop interrupting me?"

"Yes! Now let's take out these fuckers, get upstairs, and for the love of god if either of you shoot him, I shoot you."

Behind the barrier next to her, Mordin and Miranda just blinked at her. Christ, she sounded crazy. But at least the Salarian shrugged and shot a merc walking past his position. Then he said, like that was casual, "Interesting ultimatum, but at least the mercenaries we can agree on."

Taking a deep breath, Shepard couldn't explain all the thoughts racing through her head right now. But she only knew one turian who was that good of a shot, and if there was even a 1% chance it was him... Well, she would burn this whole station down before she let anyone touch him.

Missions made the soldier in her feel real and alive, but Garrus? He made her human.

Engaging her tactical cloak, Anya started taking out all the mercs advancing on his position. A lot of them only took a quick punch and a shot to the back of the skull, but she did get to play around with some long-range when the last couple that reached the bottom floor of the apartment finally realized there was someone else shooting at them.

But scared, disorganized mercs were still easy to take out.

When Anya got to the top of the stairs, her heart was already on the fritz and had completely lost its mind. But the second they were closing in on him? It was like time stopped and then started spiraling backward. The tall, broad shoulders, the casual posture, the way he held his gun. It even still had that scrape from Feros. He said he'd get it buffed out on the Citadel. He didn't.

The turian took one last shot. A final hiding merc on the bridge dropped dead. Then, he moved away from the balcony, sat himself on some crates, and leaned his sniper against his hip. One flick of his fingers against his helmet, the thing was off, and those damned bright blue eyes were staring at her again. And when he started speaking she couldn't breathe. He practically growled, "Shepard. Thought you were dead." While he looked cool and serious, even a little angry, she knew his eyes. There was a lot more going on behind them and she didn't know what to say about that. But being able to see him again?

Well, that was worth coming back for.

There in front of her, with his stupid smirk and classic sniper rifle, was Garrus Vakarian.

A whisper to herself, she said, "Garrus." All it took was one look at him and all those feelings that felt lost, the squishy human who knew how to cry and dance and make him laugh? She was right there, screaming under the surface of her skin, infecting every pore with all the complicated things she felt. But Anya shook her head. There wasn't time for all that. She instead tried to keep everything straight and attempted to give him a more proper hello. Though, granted, she wasn't sure what the proper hello was for a friend who until thirty seconds ago thought she was dead. "Garrus Vakarian. I tried to find out where you were, but it seems you were just hiding out in this shithole under a code name. Clever. Trying to make sure I'd never find you again?"

He did that low, tired laugh of his, when he was wearing thin on a mission that went too long. If they had the time, she'd ask why he looked like this, what made him so tired and angry. Anya knew years had passed for him, of course he'd be different but... She didn't expect the way his fists kept clenching.

Garrus played it off with a friendly smile. "If I knew you'd be coming to find me, I would've left better clues."

Everything between them stayed on the surface layer while they talked. She didn't know how to do anything else under the shock and pressure of seeing him again with mercs on the fucking doorstep. But there was so much more under the surface that words couldn't cover just yet.

Instead, she said, "I'd joke that you were trying to run from all the danger I put you in, but looks like you made more than enough on your own. How'd you manage to piss off all of Omega?"

"Vigilante-ism, per usual."

Anya couldn't help but stare at him. Last she saw him, she'd just told him how much he mattered and then sent him away to save his life. And she couldn't fathom all the things he felt after all this time, after what she said.

She didn't even know what he would've said back. Maybe it was why his fist kept clenching, looking at her. That made a pit in her stomach that she didn't have the bandwidth to deal with right now.

So surface level would have to do.

But Garrus beat her to the punch. "I'd love to catch up more, tell you about my wonderful fuck-up here and all, but maybe we can save the reunion chat for after we get rid of the bloodthirsty mercs?"

"Fair." Nodding at Miranda, she said, "Stay up here with Garrus. Mordin and I will take point downstairs. We're lighter; we'll be able to take some good shots that they don't expect."

When she pulled out her pistol, Garrus's smirk felt real for the first time. "Still ruining lives with that thing?"

"It's not the exact same gun, but you gotta stick to what you're good at."

Before she walked downstairs, he grabbed her arm and said, "The second I saw that tactical cloak shooting pistol-fire, my gut said it was you. I knew you were dead, but I know you on a battlefield, Shepard." Taking a deep breath, he added, "I don't know how, but I'm happy you're back. Now, keep yourself alive this time?"

"Will do."

As she walked downstairs, it felt like she was tearing herself away from him, and it kept getting harder. With each wave they regrouped, made a plan, and then she inevitably split from him. The Blood Pack got some extra face bullets for that, as did the krogan that tried to run him down. She would fight any of them, all of them, with her bare hands if she had to.

Getting Garrus back and losing him on the same day was not an option.

Just as things seemed to calm down, he was back to his deflective smirking. "We're doing great. I was already pissing them off, but with you around they're really losing their shit."

"We've always been a good team, Vakarian."

"Trust me, I know." Hearing his voice was like waking up, for real. The past few days were this slow crawl back to reality, but he was the exact cool drink of water that made her realize this all wasn't a mirage.

Just as she got up from behind her cover and started to walk his way, he turned towards her and gave her this look, like he was seeing sun for the first time. While he looked so much rougher, angrier, a few times he looked at her and that all faded away. And it hit her so hard that she knew they'd have a lot to talk about once they got out of here. Hell, they'd always have a lot to talk about, but since the Collector attack?

Things were different. And not just because she died. She wanted to hear every word he needed to say.

Just as she stopped staring at him, though, that bastard Blue Suns ship swept down, shooting rockets. And he didn't have time to get to cover.

The next few minutes were a blur. She got rid of the threat with a few rockets of her own, blowing that asshole out of the sky. Anya's head was racing and couldn't shut up, rolling around guilt and blame on repeat. Maybe if she'd killed the mechanic he'd be okay. Maybe if she wasn't an idiot, mooning over his face and looks and all her damned memories, this wouldn't have happened.

When she knew the threat was gone, she dropped her guns and went to him.

Falling to her knees next to him, Garrus was drenched in a pool of blue blood, his mandible was ripped open, and he was blinking in and out of consciousness. Anya felt empty. She couldn't have come this far, come back from the fucking dead, just to lose him again. For years she kept losing people, but not this one. Not this time. He had to make it. If anyone deserved to drop from a rocket hit, it was her. She literally was out here shooting past her expiration date. He didn't deserve this, not when he was-

Her fingers twined into his and held tight.

As a Normandy shuttle came down with medical supplies, and some crew helped load him on, she didn't leave his side. Miranda tried to pull her away and heal her own bruises and tears, but Shepard wouldn't budge. This wasn't a time to be practical, not when her own practicality sent him away in an escape pod and abandoned him like this for two fucking years.

She wasn't going to let him go. Not again.

Very happy to have Garrus back! He's my dude. My main squeeze. My favorite part of Mass Effect.

I may be sick today, but I am going to enjoy his return with all my heart.

Thank you so much for reading! And extra, cherry on top thanks to my patrons:

Danyell Jones

Amy Connolly

If you want to support my stories (original and fanfic), my community boosting goals, and my Twitch aspirations (I play a lot of games, guys, and would love to share it. But I need a desktop first), please check out these places:

Twitter: Steph_Marceau

Wattpad: User/GraceJordan13

I offer one-shots, cameos, a discord, early access, the like. If you can help out, awesome. If not, just keep enjoying the story with me :)

#Drunk Punch Love #Shakarian #femshep x garrus #Garrus Vakarian #femshep #Anya Shepard #mass effect fanfiction #Mass Effect #Archangel #bioware romances

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fitnetpro · 6 years ago

Text

How Jeff the Doctor, Engineer, and Startup Junkie finally put himself first: A success story

Today, I have a different kind of success story for you.

It’s maybe the best example I’ve ever seen for “just knowing what to do” isn’t enough when it comes to getting healthy!

Meet Jeff (hey, that’s me next to him!):

We met a few years back at Camp NF, one of our in-person events back in 2016 – he’s one of the most accomplished people I know (he started MED SCHOOL at age 16). However, even for a guy as smart as he is, he struggled with actually getting consistent healthy results and getting out of his own way for years.

Over the past few years, as Jeff’s startup life got busier, his health took more and more of a backseat:

Jeff has founded multiple start-ups and is currently running one.

His schedule, both for travel and eating, is completely erratic.

He spent most weekends of 2018 on airplanes, flying red-eye flights.

He kept chasing the next fad, changing his mind every other day.

And his brain wouldn’t slow down! Jeff really struggled with “analysis by paralysis,” thinking about working out way more than he actually worked out.

If this sounds like you and your brain, maybe you can relate?

It took Jeff partnering with Jim, our lead trainer in the NF Coaching Program, for the past year to slow down long enough to start to see results that would stick.

And slowing down isn’t easy for this guy.

Jeff’s brain is always going a million miles an hour, he practically lives on airplanes and red-eye flights, has a super varied eating and workout schedule, and no day is the same for him thanks to his entrepreneurial career!

I’m really proud that Jeff is one of our 1-on-1 coaching clients, and that we were able to get him the results that had eluded him for the majority of his life up to that point.

I love that even as a busy entrepreneur, he’s seeing the “return on investment” of investing in himself with coaching and taking care of his own health! If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear how we could potentially help you at Nerd Fitness Coaching – simply click the button below to learn more!

I’ve chopped this interview into multiple sections, so feel free to pick the sections that you’re most interested in!

How Jeff managed to get his own brain out of the way…

Readers of Nerd Fitness tend to be on the smarter side of average.

Like you. You smart person you.

Jeff is on a different level:

He skipped high school and started college at 13.

He began med school at 16.

He became the second youngest doctor on record at age 20.

After his fellowship, he got an MBA from UCLA.

He studied machine learning in Scotland.

He’s now running a startup in Berkeley, CA.

In other words, Jeff puts the NERD in Nerd Fitness.

In my emails back and forth with Jeff to share this story with you today, I kept thinking two things:

This guy is gonna take over the planet one day, so I’m glad he likes Team Nerd Fitness!

I can totally see why he struggled with getting in shape in the past!

So this is what I wanted to ask him about.

STEVE: You have tried and done many different exercise routines, diet strategies, and everything in between. What has your life been like in that time?

JEFF: In 2014 and 2015, I joined an amateur gymnastics club and really enjoyed the experience.

Unfortunately, when I doubled the number of overnight shifts worked to 200+ nights a year, I developed recurrent upper back/shoulder issues (too much radiology work + muscle hypertrophy from gymnastics) I stopped going to gymnastics altogether, and things deteriorated quickly.

Left to my own devices in 2016 and 2017, I barely worked out at all, and barely stuck to any diet. This is how I gained 20-odd pounds across those years.

STEVE: You’re a doctor and engineer, you have an MBA, and have started multiple startups. You get bloodwork done regularly, and you know your health and fitness information inside and out.

Why do you think you weren’t able to crack the code earlier when it comes to your health and fitness? You had all the information and tools you needed right?

JEFF: I don’t think doctoring, tech, or smarts necessarily help in the pursuit of health. On a side note, there are lots of different kinds of smarts, and the kind I have is definitely limited to very specific applications

Actually, each of these probably works against you, all things considered. It’s kinda like when we say, “Doctors make the worst patients.”

To get (and stay) in shape, I think it comes down to:

Consistency, day in and day out.

Enjoying something about working out.

Building a set of habits that you return to instinctively when life gets busy.

Being surrounded by a support network of people and environments that help you get and stay in shape.

Sufficient sleep, and the practice of de-stressing in some way.

Unfortunately, those are the 5 things I feel like I have to battle each day:

Thinking too much instead of acting.

Not actually enjoying working out. I don’t get the endorphin rush at all. Trying different sports and group activities helps, but even getting back to a sport I love like gymnastics has been remarkably difficult mentally. I’ve also found the more I aim to do HIIT, the more I subconsciously avoid cardio altogether.

Rarely sticking with something long enough to build a set of habits.

Spending almost every weekend in the airport & on red-eye flights, flipping between night and day shifts every other week, having completely variable meal & workout schedules, and lots & lots of meetings.

Usually not getting enough sleep, and not making the time to meditate or de-stress much either.

Fortunately, I’ve managed to have some success keeping the demons at bay in 2018 – as you saw in the photos above, and it’s how I ended up where I am today.

How Jeff Lost 30 Pounds By Focusing on his Diet

With Jeff’s brain being incredibly analytical you can bet he was crazy detailed with his tracking, his meals, and his metrics. You’ll see some of those specifics below,

(Note: if you’re somebody with 50-100+ pounds to lose, don’t get lost in the specifics below! Check out a story like Leslie (100+ pounds lost) or Anthony (200 pounds lost)!)

STEVE: You started working with Jim from NF Coaching back in January – And since then you’ve transformed pretty dramatically, losing 30+ pounds even while working and traveling like crazy.

Can you get into the details? What strategies worked for you?

JEFF: I started the year on a low-fat paleo-ish diet for the first six months (lots of ground meat, sauteed kale, and occasionally some oatmeal in the morning).

Because I travel a lot, and flip days and nights working, my diet varied pretty dramatically.

That got me from just over 195 lbs (“before”) down to about 170-175 lbs.

I hovered there for months and months.

In June, the weight had been hovering for about a month, and I decided to try to full-blown Keto.

I measured every meal to 25g of fat, 21g of protein, and nearly 0 carbs. I stayed in the 5 – 15g / day carb range, and entered ketosis immediately.

Keto didn’t really work for me physiologically.

My weight was remarkably stable day to day while on Keto, right around the 168 – 170 range over 2 months.

At the end of August, I got a follow-up cholesterol/lipid panel just to check where things were at — and it turns out I’m in the small subset of people whose cholesterol spikes to ridiculous levels on Keto [studies have shown a subset of people with cholesterol levels very sensitive to diet].

I stopped Keto immediately, and went back on low-fat Paleo, which got me back to the weight hovering around 170.

I went on a vacation to Greece for the first time in September, where I gained five pounds (from eating a lot more than I should : )

STEVE: I hear ya man. Keto doesn’t agree with me either, but I know it works for some! So tell me what happened specifically. So I’m glad you found low fat Paleo-ish to work for you. That’s what I’m doing too.

So what got you over that final 10-pound hurdle?

JEFF: I was hoping to be able to do a photoshoot (a big goal I had set at the beginning of the year) in November, but the scale wasn’t budging in October and I was out of time!

I had a colleague who really suggested I look at intermittent fasting. I’d never considered seriously before. The thought of not eating for these long intervals, after being so used to eating every 2 1/2 – 3 hours every single day, wasn’t appealing).

I remembered that you’d written a post on IF, so went back and read it through, and decided to give it a shot:

Started a 16/8 fast/feast protocol (1700 calories a day, carefully measured).

Moved to 18/6 the next day.

Move to 19/5.

Eventually did 20/4 for a few days

Went back to 18/6.

It worked wonders — weight started going down again.

I’m actually not sure whether I like IF yet – but it works awesomely for me – there’s a disconnect between how well something works vs. whether I actually enjoy it! Haha

Here’s why I like it: I’m more productive when not eating, show up on time to workouts, and save time by not prepping and eating six meals a day.

But we’ll see. Right now it’s working for me. And it allowed me to hit my goal on time!

STEVE: As a crazy but lazy fan of intermittent fasting, I hear ya man – it helps me make fewer decisions each day, less clean-up, less work!

Clearly, you put a huge emphasis on your nutrition, but what about your workouts?

JEFF: Workout-wise, things have varied a lot.

I still haven’t been back to gymnastics this year, but have been through all sorts of exercise routines.

To name a few:

Scheduled workouts

Unscheduled workouts

Mini-workouts at home

Assault bike sprints

Rings & small rope climb at home

A few BJJ and aikido classes

I don’t know how to do things half-assed, so I even kicked off New Year’s last year (prior to working with Jim) in Thailand for six days at a weight loss/fitness & Muay Thai bootcamp [Gym Bangarang] in Chiang Mai.

Due to my crazy travel schedule, my workout schedule has been hit and miss. That’s okay though.

So I tried all of that, but there’s been one constant over the past twelve months…

Jeff’s Experience with Trainers and NF Coaching

STEVE: Over the past few years, you’ve trained with a dozen trainers, many of them IN person. I’m curious: what was it about the NF Online Coaching program in particular that appealed to you?

JEFF: The biggest thing about the NF Coaching program is its persistent global accountability.

As long as you keep your coach updated, he/she sees the entire sweep of your nutrition & fitness-related life (as well as most everything else that’s going on in your life), and so is by far the best-equipped person to get you off your ass and eating right / working out.

Working with any other trainers in years past, the training and accountability usually ended as soon as the one-hour training session was over.

Occasionally someone might help put together a food plan, but most in-person trainers are far too busy to keep track of all their clients over the course of the week, the month and the year & help them keep themselves accountable.

STEVE: What else do you get out of NF coaching and working with a trainer like Jim?

JEFF: I started working with Jim in early 2018, and here’s what I enjoy the most:

Jim provides accountability, gets me to track my progress, and a consistent reminder that I need to be doing something:

Watching and tracking each thing I eat.

Getting a workout in whenever possible.

Replying to messages in the app

Uploading food photos.

I do my best to track weights, reps, and sets on workouts, I sometimes dump weeks of food photos in at once (and average about a 2/3 success rate on taking food photos), and I’ve been pretty slack about taking interval follow-up photos and measurements lately.

Jim always adjusts accordingly.

He’s great at providing a bit of extra slack, especially during tough weeks, and not being too critical – except when he thinks I need a push – and he’s usually right!

Here’s the other thing I love:

The chance to share the ups and downs, to celebrate the triumphs and help me make it over the hurdles, a constant social bond in the midst of never-ending work and an ever-shifting schedule.

At Camp, I really appreciated that Nerd Fitness was working hard to change people’s lives.

So no matter where NF went – whether you ever decided to do another Camp, or launch a 1:1 coaching program, or build up NF Academy – I committed to staying involved: to help out people in the NF community where possible, join the NF Academy and Coaching program and share NF with acquaintances and friends.

STEVE: What would you say to somebody considering NF Coaching?

JEFF: It works where all the other trainers and fitness programs fail. The NF Coaching program meets you right where you’re at, keeping you accountable, providing tons of encouragement, and customizing your food and workout plans specifically to you.

It’s changed my life, and it could change yours too.

THE 5 KEYS TO JEFF’S SUCCESS

#1) JEFF ACCEPTED HIS LIFE WOULD ALWAYS BE CRAZY

Every day, we’re faced with a challenge:

The way we WANT things to be, in a perfect world

The way things actually are.

The problem arises when people optimize their lives and assume that they can have things how they want:

Of course I’ll have time to cook an amazing meal each day.

Of course i”ll have 90 minutes to work out.

Of course I’ll start batch cooking and take up Yoga.

Reality paints a very different picture, and THAT’S what you need to plan for!

Jeff had health and fitness goals, and also a crazy hectic lifestyle with ungodly amounts of travel. Rather than beating himself up for this, he accepts this is his current reality and asks “Okay, how can I do the best I can under these circumstances?”

By accepting that things would be crazy, it allowed him to have GOOD success, but not completely take over his life (the startup has already done that!).

Because Jeff knew his workout schedule and access to a gym would be limited, he took the next big step:

#2) JEFF FOCUSED ON FOOD AND TRACKING.

Over the past year, Jeff has dropped significant body fat even with inconsistent or nonexistent exercise. How does that work?

Simple: nutrition is 90% of the weight loss equation.

And for Jeff, to get down to “I want to see my abs” levels of body fat, nutrition becomes 95% of the battle.

Sure, making small changes like “focusing on real food” and “eating more vegetables” can certainly help an overweight person lose weight sustainably in the beginning, but the closer you get to 10% body fat, the more strict and disciplined you need to be.

As they say: abs aren’t made in the gym, they’re made in the kitchen.

Fortunately, Jeff was CRAZY focused on his food tracking, and used metrics to make sure he was hitting his caloric goals each day:

He focused on a Paleo-ish nutritional strategy to lose the first 15-20 pounds.

He tried the Keto Diet, but a cholesterol test revealed his body wasn’t a fan of being in Ketosis. Good thing he got that test done!

He incorporated Intermittent Fasting with strict calorie tracking to lose the final 10 pounds before his photoshoot.

He knew down to the carb what he was eating on most days whenever possible. Although people that are in tip-top shape want you to think it’s effortless, the real story is often far more strict and disciplined – why? Because nobody wants to hear about counting calories and weighing their food: they just want to be told it’s easy.

If you want to get to a low body fat percentage, that’s what it will take. And it will take much longer than you expected. For Jeff, that’s what it took. It WORKED.

#3) JEFF HAS AN ACCOUNTABILITY BUDDY

What do you do when you know what needs to be done, but life gets so busy you often forget to do it? You recruit an accountability buddy. In Jeff’s case, it was Jim, his coach. This guy:

It’s amazing that a single text from a friend each day asking you if you did a particular habit is often enough to start a habit building process.

In Jeff’s case, it was Jim’s constant support, sometimes tough love, and gentle nudging that got Jeff to be more diligent and committed to the goals he knew he wanted to reach.

#4) JEFF SETS BIG GOALS TO GET OVER HURDLES

Jeff put most of his focus on his daily habits (behavior change), but he found that only took him so far – as a start-up founder and overachiever, he found that setting big goals in the future with specific deadlines really helped him buckle down and get serious:

“One thing that does sorta work (that my other trainer/friend Alan and I were chatting about earlier today) is having a big goal and a specific deadline.

For me in October, realizing the photoshoot was four weeks away got me to buckle down and do wonders with a nutrition plan, workout regimen, and final week of prep. In the month since, with the hectic trips afterward, and the lack of a well-defined or specifically timed goal, I’ve rebounded by 7 pounds.”

Looks like it’s time to set a new big goal and figure out a timeline! : )

#5) JEFF FOCUSES ON RELATIONSHIPS

I asked Jeff about his investment of coaching, and his answer surprised me:

“From my funky perspective, it’s not an expensive investment at all when you think about the value. I tend to value people, relationships and shared experiences far more than money.

I may try and jump around a lot of different things for nutrition/fitness/ personal improvement, but where it comes to people and interpersonal relationships, when I decide to commit to someone or to a friendship, I do so wholeheartedly and without reservation — and I stay committed long-term : )”

Life is all about relationships, something I think us nerds can really struggle with in this day in age. So for Jeff, not just investing in coaching, but investing in relationships with his friends is really really important. He sent me dozens of candid photos from the past year, and many of them include big groups of friends doing amazing activities.

I have NO doubt that these friends are the “constant” in Jeff’s hectic lifestyle, and help keep him grounded while everything else is moving and changing at breakneck pace.

How to Get Results Like Jeff

I’m really proud of what Jeff has accomplished over the past year. It’s been AMAZING to hear his side of the story, as I’ve been following it from the other side (through his coach Jim).

If you’re somebody who goes ALL IN and stops, if you’re somebody who can’t seem to get any progress to stick, or if you’re somebody that spends more time thinking than doing, you’re in the right place!

Here’s how to see results like Jeff:

Less thinking, more doing: Your brain will talk you into or out of anything. Act as if you already made the decision, and course correct along the way.

Pick a nutritional strategy, and track it! This is a lifelong journey, so you’re not gonna get results in a week. Stick with it. Track your calories, take photos and measurements, and see how your body transforms.

Know that nutrition is 90% of the battle. Don’t have time to exercise frequently? No problem. You have to eat every day, right? So put ALL of your focus there. Here’s our guide on healthy eating.

Be accountable to somebody else. This could be a friend who texts you each morning: “Did you work out yesterday?” Or a co-worker that you check in with each morning. In Jeff’s case, it’s his NF Coach, Jim.

Invest in relationships. Jeff’s life is chaotic, and one’s fitness journey is often a lone-wolf activity. Jeff has prioritized the relationships and friendships in his life, and it has helped keep him sane despite a hectic lifestyle!

If you can relate to Jeff (do you travel a lot? Is your life super busy? Are you struggling to get results), you’re in the right place!

Depending on your current situation, our 1-on-1 NF Coaching Program might be the droids solution you’re looking for. You can learn more by clicking on the box below and scheduling a call with our team!

Here’s what I’d want you to take away from Jeff’s Story:

Accountability is everything. Have somebody other than you invested in your success.

Want to lose weight? Focus on nutrition and tracking!

If you do those two things, I can almost guarantee you’ll be healthier 12 months from now than you are, and I’ll be sharing your story next year!

-Steve

PS: Just a quick heads up: The NF Coaching program has really exploded over the past 8 weeks (we’re closing in on 1,000 active clients! WHOA), and we’d love to help you become the next success story!

We actually speak on the phone with every single person that is interested in coaching to make sure we’re a good fit for each other, and you can schedule your call at the end of our Coaching page.

PPS: Do you have a Nerd Fitness success story of your own? Email us at contact(at)NerdFitness(dot)com and let us know so we can share your adventure with the galaxy!

PPPS: If coaching isn’t your thing, we also have two other options that have helped tens of thousands of nerds like you:

The NF Academy: 1-time payment to join a self-paced online course and private community

Rising Heroes: our habit based, story-driven team monthly adventure.

How Jeff the Doctor, Engineer, and Startup Junkie finally put himself first: A success story published first on http://fitnetpro.tumblr.com/

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almajonesnjna · 6 years ago