#accomplished social media marketer

[dammn-dean]

Hii could you do Simon and his wife arguing like pretty badly and their shouting at each other as their arguing she hears her newborn cry and once she goes to the baby room and feeds looks after her baby she didn’t wanna go downstairs to talk to him she just went on her phone on social media.

(If you’re okay with doing that!)

Thank you so much for the request! I hope that this is what you wanted... I changed it up a little, but I still think it fits the request. Thanks again 🖤

Whispers and Words

Pairing: Ghost (Simon Riley) x Female Reader

Words: Almost 3k (oops)

Warnings: Reader is a new mom, Simon is a bit mean/clueless, reader is insecure, arguing, barely there sexual talk if you squint

Staring back at your reflection in the mirror, a small smile on your lips. You felt like you looked nice. A very casual, but cute dress adorned your body for the first time in a long time. Your baby went down for bed already, giving you a little extra time to yourself to shower and get ready for Simon to get home. You even fixed your hair and put on a little make-up. You felt good.

There really hasn’t been much time over the past 6 months for you to treat yourself, much less dress up. Having a newborn was a full time job! Simon had been gone almost the entire time, not by choice but because of work. You weren’t sure if that was supposed to make you feel any better, because.. Well it really didn’t. You missed him so much, and he missed so many things your baby was accomplishing. Getting bigger by the day. He was home off and on for a combined maybe 4 weeks the past 6 months, two weeks straight after she was born and a few days here and there since. All of that felt like it didn’t even really matter at the moment, your Simon should be home any minute now. 

You had decided to spend the time you had getting ready, which didn’t really leave you a lot of time to cook for him like you had wanted. Instead you settled on ordering in from a few of his favorite places, so he would have plenty to eat over the next couple of days. Simon was always a big eater, and you hoped you could get to the market to buy groceries in the next day or two. You loved cooking for him, and he loved eating your food. As much as you would love for him to come home to a big home cooked meal, this would work just fine. The last bit of food you ordered arrived not long ago, so you started moving some food to serving dishes. You hoped it would make it easier on him, just get home and dig in. 

Simon was due home about an hour ago, which had you a little worried. You sent him a text about 30 minutes ago, a simple, “You okay?” with no response. You felt crazy checking your phone every other minute, seeing if there was a call or text from him. Nothing yet. You stood from the stool you were perched at, tired of staring at the now cold food. You decided as an attempt to salvage the meal, you moved some food to baking dishes, turned the oven to keep warm and began boxing up the rest for later. Your back was to the door as you had placed the last of the food in the fridge when you heard the sound of a key entering the front door. 

Giddiness filled your body, a smile on your lips as you quickly shut the refrigerator door and made your way to the living room. Smoothing your dress nervously as he entered through the doorway.

Simon takes a couple steps in the house, pausing by the door to slip his mask over his head and set it on the side table there for the sole purpose of holding his mask. His eyes then search around the flat looking for you. His tired eyes fall on you with a small smile on his lips. You don’t miss the way his eyes flutter down your frame with slow blinks, which make your cheeks warm. You hoped he liked your dress.

“Look at you sweetheart,” he all but coos, with his arm out for you to fall in with a hug.

You couldn’t help the giggle that escaped once you were in his embrace. Your head rests on his chest, arms wrapped around him as well as you can muster. His strong arms swallow you whole, making you feel a warmth you haven’t felt in a long time. 

“I missed you so much, Si.” Your voice is muffled into his chest. You can feel the rumble of his laugh more than you can hear it.

“I missed you,” he responds with a kiss on the top of your head. 

You pulled back a little to look into his deep brown eyes, loving that he is here with you more than you can even explain. Simon leans down to press a gentle kiss against your lips, which you return immediately. His hands began working his way over your shoulders, down your spine, before gently resting on your hips. The feeling of his large hands on you in such an intimate spot, that is a bit softer than it was before the baby, caused your spine to straighten. 

You pulled yourself from the kiss. “Oh! Food, let me pull it out of the oven for you.” You gave a quick peck to his lips at that and pulled yourself from his embrace to head into the kitchen.

Simon followed in after you, watching you pull a few trays of food from the oven. 

“I’m sorry it isn’t homemade… but I ordered all your favorites. I tried my best to keep it warm for you,” you explained. “I was expecting you a bit earlier, so I kept some in the oven for you. The rest is in the fridge!” You clapped your hands together with a small smile. “So you can have more of your favorites over the next few days.” 

Once your eyes fell back onto him, he held an odd expression, almost sorrowful. Your throat tightened at the look. Feeling like you made a mistake with the food. Internally cursing yourself, you were so sure he would be excited about having a bit of all his favorite take out, but maybe you were wrong. 

“Or if you want I can just put it all up and make you something!” You attempted to sound cheery, but you knew there were barely any groceries in the house.

You turned to the cupboards, looking through them all. Hoping something would magically appear even though you know there isn’t much in there besides some dried pasta, canned goods and cereal. For some odd reason your eyes began to burn with humiliation. Of course he wanted to come home to a home cooked meal, he’s been gone for months and I just ordered him take out. 

“Love,” Simon said softly. You ignored him, heading to the fridge. Knowing exactly what’s in there isn’t much better than the cupboards, but you didn’t know what else to do.

Standing there with the door to the fridge open, Simon slips up behind you. He slowly wraps his arms around you, pulling your form firmly against his. Your breath hitched in your throat. As much as you missed his touch, you weren’t prepared for how feeling his strong hands on your soft stomach would feel. Your body has changed a lot since giving birth, which is to be expected, you know that. The both of you just haven’t had any time to be intimate with each other since the baby. Your body needed to heal, and Simon was beyond understanding of that. Then your doctor cleared you, your body was better and this is the first time really seeing him since.

“You did great sweetheart, thank you for ordering all my favorites,” he whispers into your ear. Sending chills down your spine. “I will eat every last bit of it, promise.”

“You sure?” You question softly.

“Of course lovie,” he kisses the back of your head tenderly. “But Johnny asked the team if we wanted to go to the pub tonight.”

Eyebrows pulling down at that with a frown on your face. You turned your head to the side, attempting to see his face from your peripheral. 

“What?” Surely he wasn’t going to go.

“Yeah,” Simon pulled back from you to go around the island and perch on the stool you were previously on. “This last mission was a bit tough, and we all wanted to celebrate it going as well as it did. Happy to be back home, ya know?” He says as plain as ever. Reaching over to one of the baking trays and grabbing some chips to toss into his mouth.

“Sure Si, I get it,” you start, slowly turning around to face him. “But… Well it’s just that I haven’t seen you in almost two months, and I was really hoping we could spend some time together.” You bit your lip softly, eyes not leaving his. You hoped he could see the desperation on your face without you having to say it outloud. After a few moments of his blank stare, you decided to change the subject to your daughter. “You haven’t even had a chance to see the baby. And-”

“Y/N, don’t do that.” Simon started with a bit of an edge to his voice. “You know how much I miss you both. I can go out for a couple of drinks with the team, and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“She’s been asleep for a while now, I know she will be up soon. She would love to see her dada, Si.” You felt your heartbeat in your throat now. If he won’t stay home for you, surely he will stay home for her. 

“That isn’t fair.” Simon stood from his chair. “You can’t hold her over my head. Our daughter isn’t supposed to be used as leverage.” 

“Of course not Simon, that isn’t what I meant. I just meant-”

“What did you mean then? To make me feel even worse about being gone from her? Because I don’t need your help to feel bad about that.” Simon’s voice was unintentionally raising by the second. You had no idea what it was like for him out there, on the job constantly thinking about you and your daughter. 

“I’m not trying to make you feel bad Si…” You gulped in some air, hoping it’ll calm your pounding heart. “I just have been so lonely and I was really looking forward to being with you tonight,” you explained softly. 

“It’ll be a couple hours Y/N.” Simon firmly stated with no room for argument. “I will be back before you know it.”

“I know that, but-” Cries echo throughout the flat, starting at the baby monitor on the kitchen island. You closed your eyes, telling yourself to keep your face even as your bottom lip attempted to wobble. You felt so sad and dejected. “Okay, Si.” You opened your watery eyes and gave a small smile that didn’t quite perk up the rest of your face. “Have fun and be safe okay?” 

You didn’t wait for a response before heading to your daughter's bedroom.

“What’s the matter baby girl?” You ask gently as you lean over the crib to pick her up.

“Hungry?” You whisper. 

Taking your spot in the corner of the room where your rocking chair is. You set up to feed her. You hum a small song to her as her cries finally calm and she accepts you feeding her. After her little belly was full you made sure that she was burped, then you changed her nappy and she was asleep again. You were grateful she was currently pretty good about getting back to sleep at night. Her tiny body was back in the crib as you looked her over. Perfect in every way. You gently brushed her head one last time before you turned to head back out of the room, but before your hand could twist the knob you changed your mind. 

You sat yourself back to the rocking chair, snagging your phone from the end table you had sat it on when you came into the room. You decided to just scroll for a while, not looking at anything in particular, just wanted to mindlessly scroll. Unfortunately it didn’t last long, after 10 minutes of not being able to take your mind off of him. You gave in, phone falling into your lap as the tears began to fall. You held your face in your hand, mascara long forgotten. You tried your best to keep quiet, not wanting to disturb the sleeping baby. Your mind just kept spiraling. 

“How could he not want to be here with me?”

“ I felt like I looked pretty… as pretty as I can look anyway.”

“Maybe I should have expected this. It’s so selfish of me to assume he would want to be intimate with me again, looking like this.”

 And worst of all, your mind started to wonder if he was even going out with the team at all. “Surely there isn’t someone else… No Y/N stop that.”

 You told yourself, nipping that in the bud. Simon would never do that to you, you knew that.  

The tears just kept on going and going, until you had no more tears left to cry. You felt exhausted, you couldn’t remember the last time you cried like this and it really took it out of you.  Checking your phone again, noting how much time has passed, you decided it was time to just go to bed. Using the back of your hands to wipe away the tears as best as you could before standing with a small sigh. You opened the door gently and slipped out without making any noise at all. 

Before heading to bed you wanted to drink some water, you could feel the beginning of a headache coming on. You started on your way to the kitchen, but stopped dead in your tracks before making it more than a few steps. Simon was still sitting at the stool where he was when you went to feed the baby.

“Si, I thought you were gone to the pub,” you breathed embarrassed. You couldn't help but notice the baby monitor in his hand. 

“I heard you talking to her, and humming that song you always do,” he started. “And I was just going to listen for a moment until you came back out.” His hazel eyes gazed upon you, heavy with the weight of sorrow. “Then you didn’t come out, and I heard you…” He stopped.

You swallowed nervously, hands knotted into your dress, eyes on the floor. Trying to do anything to avoid the tension rolling off of you in waves. 

“Baby,” he started only to falter momentarily. “Look at me please.” 

Unsure why, but you just couldn't bring yourself to look up at him. The stool was pushed back, as he gently stood up, his boots thud across the floor stopping in your line of sight.

His thumb and index finger grip your chin gently, pulling it up to force you to look at him. You weren’t sure what to expect, but seeing his beautiful brown eyes watery wasn’t it. 

“I’m sorry Si, I didn’t want you to hear that,” you tried to explain. “I’m just being selfish. I don’t want to force you to be here. I’m okay, go out with the team.” You attempt to reassure him. “I just want you to be happy.”

Your poor dress is a wrinkled mess, your sweaty palms constantly bunching and un-bunching the fabric. You weren’t sure why you felt so embarrassed, but you felt shame to your core over him hearing you cry like that. 

“You aren’t selfish Y/N, and I am happy, here with you and our daughter. It’s where I am my happiest, love,” he clarifies. “You two are my world, and you don’t need to apologize to me. I am the one who is sorry.” Simon pauses for a second to clear his throat, not allowing himself to get choked up. “I never want to hear you cry like that ever again, especially over me. You don’t deserve that, my sweet girl.” He presses a soft kiss on your mascara stained cheek. “The perfect mama to our perfect baby,” he whispers against your cheek. “My beautiful darling.” Mirroring the previous action, kissing your opposite cheek just as gently as before. 

His large hands reach for yours, gently coaxing them from your dress, forcing them to relax. He takes one hand in his and brings it to his lips, placing a soft kiss to it before repeating the same with your other hand. Simon warily looks you over, you are so beautiful, and yet your eyes are so sad. All because you want to spend time with him, how could he be so foolish. 

“You look amazing tonight sweetheart, this dress looks great on you,” he gushed. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it before.” His warm hands resume their spot on your waist. 

“Oh, it’s nothing,” you blush.

“Definitely not nothing, love.” Simon realized his mistakes, he was always a bit slow when it came to things like this. 

“How about we eat some dinner and get ready for bed love?” He asked sweetly. Large hands engulfing your hips, guiding you to the kitchen. “How does that sound?”

You couldn’t help the smile from forming on your lips. 

“I would love that Simon,” you muttered. 

Once he gets you to sit on a stool, he grabs some plates for the two of you and places a bit of food on each before sliding the plates over to where the stools are. Simon takes his spot beside you, and leans over to you and whispers, “Maybe then we can have some dessert, yeah?” 

Your eyes widen at that, as your duck your head to hide your burning cheeks. 

“You up for it, lovie?” Simon beckoned, placing a kiss on your warm cheek. 

“I- uh I mean we can, do whatever you want,” you kiss his cheek in return. 

“I have a few things that I want.” Simon says with a grin. “Eat up sweetheart.” 

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it, and let me know if you have any ideas or requests.

[thewriteblrlibrary]

A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide so we can spite traditional publishers (and make people cry).

~ This is a guide specific for fiction/writeblr. All of this is for free and there is little social media posting/ads involved (unless you want to venture into that). ~

Within the writeblr spheres, there's this underlying hope that our stories will find their audience. Perhaps we'll have a fandom full of fanart and video essays, or maybe we'll be an instant classic and sit on collectors' beloved bookshelves. Our stories could sit within the deepest corners of someone's heart and maybe they never tell a soul about what's so special to them. Maybe our stories become those 'underrated masterpieces'.

Or we just want to see people ugly cry over our writing.

Whatever your hope may be, marketing is an important path to venture on (especially because traditional publishers are rejecting diverse books in favor of ones that are already famous + the whole sub-par machine thing they seem obsessed with.)

And thus, my childhood marketing obsession will hopefully be of use to you. This is all for free (unless you want to spend money) and you don't need to figure out social media platforms (unless you want to, and this guide works if you decide to take that route too.)

Step One: Characters

Marketing spheres will define these fictious people as 'avatars' or 'the target audience'. You could also call them characters. Because that's what they are: fictional people.

For this step, you shall create characters that would love your story.

And here's some great news: You've already done this.

Perhaps you wrote your story to comfort a prior version of yourself. Perhaps each character in your story holds an aspect of your personality. Perhaps you were ridiculously self-indulgent and made the story you would've loved to read. These are all possible characters you can reuse for marketing.

Write down 2-4 quick archetypes for these characters. You'll chose an aspect of your story (characters, themes, or the younger-self that you wrote it for) and write a thumbnail sketch. (Main issue, fears, wants, personality traits if they relate to the main issue.)

I'll do it for my story (the Land of the Fallen Fairies) down below:

Anuli-like (my MC): Overthinking and aloof. Wants a happy ending but thinks their current personality/character isn't good enough for one. The present stales in comparison to the past/the childhood they lost. The 'gifted theater kids'. Kamari-like (side character): Postpones happiness in favor of creating a perfect schedule/getting accomplishments. Heavy masking. Creative but doesn't create anymore. Promises themself they'll enjoy themselves later, when they've earned it. Workaholics. My younger self: Wanting a fantasy escapism to embody the traits they wish they had in real life. Dissatisfied and worried about reality. Perfectionists. Self-indulgent: People who love plants and forests and fantasy worlds far away from reality/humanity.

Great! Now it's time to find these characters.

Step Two: Setting.

(Let's assume you're using the internet for your marketing. But a similar method works for real life too.)

Where do the characters live?

In order to figure that out, we need to discover the characters' interests, what they watch to solve their problems, and who they find #relatable.

(You can do this for each character or for all the characters at once.)

For example:

Anuli-like -

interests: Stories. Analysis videos. Fantasy escapism. Things that remind them of their childhood. (so nature, warmth, comfort, play, imagination and the times they would actually enjoy learning.)

Places to look: Nature quotes, ambience videos, children's shows and fairytales (comfort shows). Fandom culture - fanfic video essays, fan art.

Solving problems (the problem being wanting a 'happy ending' but feeling that their personality/lifestyle/characteristics aren't right for one): Mindfulness things. Self-healing. Quotes and meditations and candles galore. Slow living. Nature vlogs. Self care. All that 'live in the moment' culture.

Places to look: Slow living. Nature vlogs. The 'softer self-help' (spirituality stuff. Magic/ overnight answers). Witchcraft. 'aesthetic nature' places. Guided meditations.

#relatable: Burnt out gifted kids. People who think so much that their life passes them by. Storytellers and creative who create to make sense of the world. People who like dark, gory things in spite of who they want to be. People who don't like reality.

Places to look: Those 'learn better and remember everything' places. (The 'burnt-out gifted kid' recovery places.) Stop overthinking spots. Those quotes on Pinterest from poetic people who think too much /aff. Storyteller places. Dark academia. Classical music. One off quotes/ poetry.

Okie dokie. Once you have this, find channels, social media accounts, blogs, songs, books, etc. that fit with the categories you wrote down. (They should appeal to the characters) You can search up some of the terms you listed into searches and see who pops up. Bonus points if you find people that overlap with multiple sections.

I know I didn't include booktube or booktok in here. You can if you want too. But those can be a bit... 'consume these 500 books'. You also want to find other places where people who would like you story live, even if they don't follow booktube or booktok.

Congrats! Now you know where your characters live!

Step Three: the scary part

Take everyone you found on your search for the settings and write them down a list. Make sure you get an email/contact info. (they usually list them somewhere under 'for business inquires') Also feel free to watch their content and get to know what attributes these settings have.

And now... we talk to them. about our stories. You can do it. I believe in you.

This called 'pitching your product' in marketing spheres. But you can be informal about it.

I know it can be difficult to talk about your work, so here's a tone to have:

'I made this thing I like and I think you'll like it too'.

What you'll do is send an email (or dm) that goes like this (inspired by Creative Hive on youtube):

Hi [name],

[Genuine compliment]

[Quick sentence or two about your story. Include the themes and who it appeals to. If you have a logline/sentence summary, include that. But I find that the underlying themes and 'who's it's for' is more engaging.

For my story, I might say something like.

I've written a story you might enjoy, since you like [interest]. It's called the Land of the Fallen Fairies. It's a nature-themed commentary on the pursuit of happiness and fixing yourself to deserve that happiness, told by an overthinking, unreliable, houseplant narrator. It was supposed to comfort me when I got frustrated with myself and my happiness chasing, and I hope it can comfort others too.

(That's probably a bit long and I can trim it down a bit.)

You can phrase it like a gift if you want too.]

[Call to action.

'If you like it, I'd appreciate a mention on your [platform].

I know this part may be difficult to mention (imposter syndrome is not fun.) But I promise that if they do like it, they'll be happy to mention it.]

If they don't respond within... four-ish days? (A week at most). then you can include a follow up. For this you can include a template with info about your story. This way it's easy for them to talk about your story.

The template:

title

genre

blurb

Author

where to find the book

Bonus points if you have an additional, physical thing to send them.

Congrats! Now do this pitching process a few times until you've covered most of your bases. (Pitch to as many people as you can. It will get more comfortable as you do it. Play your favorite song and don't let yourself think too hard about it.)

----------

The benefits of this process are that you find people that are already interested in the themes and vibes of your story (in comparison to to ads, which get shoved in everyone's faces.). Someone your audience already trusts will talk about it, which means you don't need to do all this trial and error to find your audience and make content for them.

It's basically a bunch of people talking about something they like!

AND you diversify your audience across niches, but with an underlying theme/interests. Booktok/booktube must appeal to everyone, so it's a hit or miss for recommendations. (Unless there is someone that specifically does one genre/type of story.)

From here you can do fun little things to build up hype and make the book launch feel like this fun event. (I love it when that happens so here's my thoughts about trying to create an event with your story... although that may require another post entirely.)

preorder goals

charity goals

Arg's and puzzles

fund with side plushies and trinkets

Book blog tour

book boxes

as many memes as you can make

rewards (like bookmarks or posters or smth) that people can get for supporting

Talk about the process of creating your story. I know this one channel called 'Dead Sound' that creates 'making of' videos for his short films and they are some of the best videos on youtube.

Okay dear storyteller! Now go forth and share your story with the world!

Additional resources:

Creative Hive <-- a youtube channel that goes through the pitching process.

This video is also very good <-- Haven't watched the rest of the channel but I assume it's also good.

One of the best marketing channels on the internet (the videos are actually entertianing to watch.

Seth Goldin <-- I read his book and took the parts I liked and modified for storytelling marketing.

Dead Sound <-- propaganda to watch the short film series he has (he did the whole 2-d 3-d style wayyyy before spiderverse did... and he's one person making these. One person. It's amazing.

Glitch <--- If someone can figure out how The Amazing Digital Circus was marketed then I will pay you money. It seems to be a lot of memes and funny things.

[lurkingshan]

why do you continue to watch gmmtv shows when you clearly don’t enjoy them?

This is the kind of rude, cowardly anonymous ask that I would typically just delete, but I’m in the mood to be generous so I will respond and use it as an educational moment.

I have to start by rejecting your premise. I enjoy plenty of GMMTV shows. My favorite Thai bl of this year is Cherry Magic Thailand. I wrote quite lovingly about it on this hellsite for 12 weeks. I was also a big fan of Cooking Crush and The Trainee this year, Kidnap is giving me joy weekly, and I’m currently in the midst of a really interesting discussion with people far more mature than you about Peaceful Property. GMMTV is also responsible for some of my all time favorite Thai shows including Bad Buddy, 3 Will Be Free, Midnight Museum, Theory of Love, Moonlight Chicken, and Dark Blue Kiss, and many more besides that I liked a lot. You don't know me. You have made the mistake of assuming that because you’ve seen a small fraction of my posts about specific things, you know what I think about all kinds of things. But as my beloved departed grandfather loved to say, when you assume you make an ass out of u and me. 

So with that out of the way, let’s get to the real question underneath your logical fallacy: why don’t I keep my mouth shut instead of posting about the flaws I observe in these shows? There are a number of reasons for that.

First, I am extremely open about the fact that I am interested in the art and science of narrative storytelling, and I often post about it from a critical lens. This is all in the pinned post at the top of my blog, but I doubt someone with your lack of manners bothered to look there before sending me this ask. 

Second, I don’t believe in the popular fandom idea that all meta discussion of shows should be positive and centered on stanning for actors or pairs and their shows. That's a fine pursuit for folks who enjoy engaging with media that way, but I personally find that boring and intellectually empty, and have very little interest in it. I like to learn from the things I enjoy, and you can't learn if you're not willing to think critically about why something in a story may or may not be working.

Third, my favorite thing about watching media is discussing it with like-minded people, and the way to find like-minded people is to share your honest feelings about what you're watching. I have made some of the best friends of my life by posting my unfiltered thoughts about whatever I'm watching in various social media spaces, and having people come and say "hey, me too" or "I don't quite agree but what an interesting thought." We connect with others through sharing our thoughts and feelings. If you censor yourself in fandom spaces, you will not find your people.

Fourth, on the specific topic of GMMTV: they are the largest and best resourced ql-producing studio in the biggest ql-producing country, and part of a giant media conglomerate that controls much of the media in Thailand. Their shows matter in terms of the influence they have over the rest of the industry, and so the messages they send with their shows also matter. I will never ignore them completely even when I choose not to watch some of their shows, because where they go, the larger ql industry follows. When I see a trend in their shows that is harmful, like, say, the repeated use of marginalized identities for marketing their shows that they then disrespect in the way the stories are executed, that needs to be pointed out and examined, and I am hardly the only one doing so.

I'll end by asking you a question, anon: what did you hope to accomplish by sending me this ask? Unlike many of the other folks who have been engaging in critical discussion with me over the last couple days, you had nothing constructive to say. You didn't put forward an interpretation or share your own feelings, you didn't contribute to the collective analysis process, and you didn't offer any commiseration or even a clear disagreement with anything I said. From where I'm sitting, your only intent was to attempt to shame me for speaking. You will never be successful at that, and it's a pretty ugly impulse that you should examine in yourself. When you find yourself being awful to real human beings because you can't manage your emotions about fictional media, it's time to think about what you're doing here. I hope you'll reflect on that, and take good care.

[reality-detective]

More on JD Vance 👇

There's a connection here and I haven't found it as of yet. 👇

Something else to think about 👇

More dots are being connected 👇

Sidney Austin Law Firm - Specialties:

Artificial Intelligence, Accountants and Professional Liability, Agribusiness and Food, Antitrust and Competition, Aviation and Airlines, Banking and Financial Services, Capital Markets, Commercial Litigation and Disputes, Consumer Class Actions, Corporate Governance, Crisis Management, Entertainment Sports and Media, Environmental Social and Governance, Food Drug and Medical Device, Government Strategies, Healthcare, Hospitals, `National Security, Rails, Real Estate, Supreme Court, Taxes, Telecom and Internet Connection, Transportation

What do they have in common? All things the cabal controls!

Yale Graduate and Wife of JD Vance, Usha Chilukuri?? A marriage made in Freemason Cabal Heaven. She worked in the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project. She also worked as Law Clerk for both the Supreme Court and DING DING DING worked for Chief Justice Epstein Island regular customer, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh. Her voting History shows she has not VOTED in Hamilton County since 2022 and voted Democrat when she lived in Connecticut......I smell a Deep State fake Republican! 👇

Connected to the CIA 👇

CIA Pride👇

Q has even mentioned a JD Vance connection in a post 👇

Feel free to go down some rabbit holes because I am just about done with what appears to be another deep state clown 🤡 👇

Has a deal been made? Was he infiltrating the swamp? Is he going to be exposing more turds floating in the punchbowl? Do you think it is odd to see all these accomplishments at the age of 39?

Trump put ass clowns like this in the spotlight for a reason in the past... Is he doing it again? Trump keeps his friends close but he keeps his enemies closer. Remember we're at war, a mop-up situation... You Decide 🤔

[bewareofchris]

I've been on the writer's tag again.

Listen guys.

Nobody owes your fanfic anything. I know that you want validation and adoration and those are both completely normal things to want. But this obsessive demand for comments over kudos and reblogs over likes is A Problem.

I won't bore you with tales of yore where we literally punted our fiction into the world with no idea of how it was being perceived by others because the only way to know if anyone even glanced at it was by the incredibly inaccurate page counter on our shitty geocities page.

(But that was a thing and it's semi-relevant to my point.)

A lot of you are growing up in a era of social media and viral marketing. You are babies of the influencer age, raised on the myth that if you can just get enough attention you'll get famous for something. I don't mean 10 million followers on insta famous but famous in your specific sphere.

That will not happen for you.

Not because people aren't reblogging your shit or writing out loving comments but because it's a myth. The idea that if you shame, beg and cajole enough people into interacting with your creation you'll access some serotonin high and ascend to a greater state of being is also a myth.

Here's the truth:

Most writers do not know how the majority of their audience feels about their fics. Those very few novels that you see on booktok, X (former twitter) or wherever else you get your writing news represent an infinitesimal portion of stories written and books published.

Most writers do have writing buddies or trusted members of an inner circle that they share their writing with.

For most fandoms, fanfics are so plentiful it's like going into a mall sized grocery store that sells only apples and then demanding the customer review every apple they touch.

For those few fanfics that you see that have an outrageous number of comments there are three possible explanations: 1. that person is what we used to call a "Big Name Ficcer" and they have amassed a following through consistent production of whatever that fandom is into, 2. that is a fic so long you have to sign a waiver to start reading it and despite the fact it was started seven years ago its still getting updated, or 3. that person is writing a viral fic in a fandom that is presently on fire.

Your self worth and self esteem cannot be tied to writing and posting fanfiction. It might be a fun outlet or you might be looking for your viral moment, but either way the moment you start weighing your worth as an author or creator based on what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of you is the moment you give up on yourself.

Social media has brainwashed you into thinking that you must be recognized and rewarded for the things that you put onto the internet. Or maybe it hasn't brainwashed you, maybe you just want to get a comment because you worked super hard on something and you feel like if you can't even get one decent response then its all been wasted. (I.e. you've been brainwashed into the feeling that you need the validation of strangers for happiness purposes.)

So what are you going to do about this?

Get off the internet. I don't mean permanently. I don't even mean literally. I mean take yourself out of the spaces that reinforce the idea that you need validation from strangers to be happy. Stop going on the social media sites for a few days (or a few weeks). If you've got a friend in fandom that you share fics, headcanons, ideas or anything with start chatting with them about something you want to write. Invest in them, in what they're doing and their opinions and how they react to your creations.

Put your shit on the internet like you literally don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion. Explain nothing about your writing choices. Put warnings, no more than 5 tags and drop that shit into the world like a newborn giraffe. Then ignore it.

Teach yourself to seek validation from your accomplishments: write a slightly longer fic, write a fic in a different genre, write a fic in a different rating, write a fic in a different fandom.

Find an actual friend that you actually interact with whose opinion you know matters because you agree on the important stuff.

Stop begging strangers for compliments like a cartoon hobo shaking a cup for coins. You're better than that.

[blueboyluca]

And yet, in attempting to solve one set of problems, pit bull advocates inadvertently stumbled on a different set. "If pit bulls are so difficult to identify," Dr. James Serpell, the director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, asked me, "then how do these advocacy groups know what they are rescuing? You can’t have it both ways." Others wondered why one type of dog needed an entire social movement in the first place. Weren’t breed-specific incentives, parades, and moral crusades the flip side of breed-specific laws? Didn’t it feed into the same sort of tribalism? "I once knew someone who said that pit bull pride is worth the prejudice," Berkey told me. "But trust me, it isn’t." Some of the old negative inaccuracies about locking jaws and supernatural strength were replaced with positive untruths, such as the trope that pit bulls were referred to as "nanny dogs" in the early twentieth century. Just as the twenty-four-hour news cycle amplified 1980s fearmongering, so, too, did the rise of social media make it possible for reams of feel-good myths to circulate. Now anyone who had ever seen a pit bull could declare himself an authority and insist that "it’s all how you raise them." Additionally, some animal advocates displayed a cringe-worthy lack of cultural sensitivity by first equating breedism with human racism, then using coded racial language to condemn certain pit bull owners. A popular T-shirt read "Pit Bulls Are for Hugs, Not Thugs." This type of marketing implied that pit bulls were only acceptable pets when they belonged to upper- and middle-class white people. It allowed the specter of the "sinister other" to lurk in the background.

...

"Our job should be to put ourselves out of business," Jane Berkey once told me. Yet the paradox of "different is dead" makes this task infinitely more difficult. AFF [Animal Farm Foundation] continues to fund breed-specific initiatives in shelters around the country, she said, because "the damage done to these dogs was so great that some kind of extra help was necessary." But doing so, she acknowledged, necessitates treating the dogs "differently." That is the central conundrum of the pit bull movement, for Berkey and others: How do you know when your mission has been accomplished? And what will become of pit bull advocates when that happens? Is there a future for National Love Your Average Pet Day? "All I want is for this to be over," Berkey said. "I am ready to move on to other things." As for the charges of "pit bull lobbying" leveled against her by proponents of breed bans, she laughed. "If it were possible to simply buy a solution to this problem, I would have done it," she said. "But trust me, if it were that easy, this would have been over years ago." Her greatest hope is that the day will come when pit bull advocacy is no longer necessary, when America relinquishes its tight grip on the image and identity of the pit bull and simply lets them be dogs. "It will happen one dog at a time, one mind at a time," Jane said. "The dogs will open people’s hearts. All we have to do is get out of their way."

— Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull (2016)

[weaselle]

My perfect day is…

i want to wake up around 6:30 and snuggle someone, have coffee over parallel-play style Gentle Mentals [as in an activity that provides gentle mental stimulation, for example scrolling social media, reading a newspaper, finishing last nights chapter in the book you’re reading, doing a crossword puzzle etc]

Then trade cooking breakfast and clean up with shower times [A showers while B cooks, then B showers while A does final cook phase, plates breakfast and does clean up, and we trade off who is A and who is B depending on how we feel about cooking or cleaning- and when i'm B i'm for sure going to do be doing some breakfasts that are clean as you go finishers so my partner gets a little No Clean Up Surprise some mornings]

Then we eat, dress, and i Clock On For Myself [as an entrepreneur which i am currently trying again because i would really like my own little enterprise instead of working to make other people's dreams come true]

I'd love to spend work time with a partner, either just in the business partnership sense with someone, or with my romantic partner, who could also be my business partner if they were into that like i am, but even if we were just each doing our own work, i’d love to work with my romantic partner even just in a parallel-play sense. Like, even if i have no business partner AND my romantic partner is not my business partner, and i am just hard at work for myself as a small business entrepreneur, then in an ideal world i would like at least part of our workday to be sharing space in some way, just, to feed off each other’s getting-shit-done vibes if nothing else. But it would be nice to be able to idk, complain about a tough client, or brag about a workday accomplishment to each other, maybe eat lunch together or something)

Finish up the day in time to have an afternoon/evening shift for self, i.e. go to the gym, go to a dance class, do a big cooking dinner thing, run errands, whatever.

Have at least an hour of recreation time with partner in the evening. Snuggles and books or a show/movie in bed for favorite. Sleep by 10:30

And then days off where we lean into the romance of the moment.

Uh, you know, when you Lean Into the Romance of the Moment?

Like, if it’s raining, then we we're probably gonna do candles and books and tea or hot cocoa and listen to the rain on the roof, or light a fire in the fireplace and eat stew and binge watch something under the blankets on the couch. That’s what i mean by leaning into the romance of the moment, like if it’s morning and we’re super tired from a hard week or a late night, then we do PJs in the cafe and/or the sunglasses indoors brunch, or the wake and bake cartoons and munchies day, really lean into the romance of the hangover sunday vibe. And if it’s nice and we’re feeling it we go road-tripping or backpacking or kayaking or museum hopping or go-cart racing or nature walking or have some kind of Hallmark Holiday Date experience where we, like, go on a bike ride together and then drink hot pumpkin spice drinks while we wander the local farmer’s market. Oh and the Zoo and probably an amusement park and we could pack a day bag and hop a ferry to the city and do some urban exploration. I just. Want a life where i can live comfortably (rent a decent apartment, save for my old age) with a real partnery partner, and do those kinds of things.

ANYway, that’s what i want. Not that weird to do list i made when i first tried this.

[thatdisasterauthor]

AI and the Bursting of the Social Media Bubble: How to Survive as a Creative

I've been wanting to put my thoughts on AI and Social Media into a more collected format, so I've written up a longer post on it on my blog on my website, and I'm sharing it here as well.

---------

Let’s face it, being a creative is becoming a rougher and rougher ride lately, especially if you’re a creative who grew up on the internet. A lot has changed in just the last year. The downfall of Twitter, the rise of AI. For awhile there we had a golden age of social media platforms that could really help us build our audience and careers, only for that all to start evaporating seemingly overnight, leaving a lot of creators stranded and disoriented. Look on any site right now and you’ll find creators terrified of losing everything to AI, creators terrified of losing their audience if their main social media presence gets shut down or banned, creators completely unsure of how to navigate the industry with half their tools taken away.

It sucks.

But, at the same time, as quick as it feels, this has been a long time coming. The social media bubble has been primed to burst for awhile now. What made social media a great tool for creators in the beginning was its authenticity. Social media was social. You found people you liked, you followed them, and you saw what they posted in the order they posted it. There were no games. No tricks. Ads that were present were less intrusive, less targeted, and less frequent. People weren’t as determined to play numbers games with who could get the most followers, the most likes, the most most most. An independent creator or small studio might sell to you, but you knew there were people behind those products. You knew there was a person who cared, who just wanted to show you the neat thing they made, not drive up their metrics or try out all those Cool Tricks they learned in a business psychology class.

Then big companies said “hey, we want a piece of that pie too,” so they started hopping on to social media as well. But it didn’t work for them, not the way it did for independent creators, because it wasn’t authentic. It was marketing. There wasn’t a person who cared behind the screen, it was some kid hired fresh out of school and handed a brand standards packet and told to make it work. They didn’t care about really connecting with people, they cared about sales and sales alone.

The big companies didn’t like that it wasn’t working for them, oh no. People should be giving them attention too!!!1! So the shift began. Ads got more targeted and more frequent. Algorithms grew in size and scope, driving people towards content they never asked for or showed any real interest in, barely showing things that people had actually followed at all. Social media stopped being social. It became marketing media and, as a consequence, small creators got buried in the deluge. Some gave up, some did their best to trundle along doing what they could, and some tried to play the game under its new rules only to have their audience still evaporate because, without a huge marketing budget, the corporate method doesn’t work at all. A few got lucky and went viral, rising to the top without having to play by the rules, but many of those struggled to maintain it and crashed back down soon after.

Then there’s the homogenization. Facebook bought Instagram. TikTok exploded in popularity, so Youtube added Shorts and Instagram added Reels. Twitter added longer and longer content options, despite being a micro blogging site. Patreon took off, so everyone started adding paid content options. Social media sites were so terrified of someone doing better than them that they all became exactly the same. Before, you had an account on every site because they each did something different. They each had their own value. But now they’re all the same, so why bother having multiple accounts if you can accomplish the same thing on each one? These companies have shot themselves in the foot by no longer offering anything unique, then got mad that they were bleeding and blamed their users even though they were the ones holding the gun.

And, of course, Twitter is over there bleeding out on the floor. Plenty of social media sites have risen and fallen over the years—Myspace, DeviantART, to name a couple—but Twitter is the first one to be so maliciously and quickly taken out with a shot to the head. Almost overnight creators have lost a major source of connection to literary agents, art directors, job boards, and just a generally vibrant network of other creators and supporters. A few contenders tried to step into the ring to replace Twitter, but all seem to have fizzled out within a few months.

Amidst the social media meltdown, a new player stomped onto the scene: Artificial Intelligence. It swept in just as quickly as the demise of Twitter and at about the same time. Within just months it went from generating strange blobby horses with too many legs to almost perfectly replicating the styles of well known artists. Which, understandably, made everyone panic. As soon as it was on the scene we saw major publishers using it to create book covers (rather than hire an artist), news sites using it to create graphics (rather than hire an artist), people using it to pump out low quality books to put on Amazon (rather than learning to write themselves), and plenty more. We learned that the data sets these AI were trained on were all stolen art and writing. We watched everyone wave off our concerns and tell us we were overreacting, that this was just the “democratization of art.” Nevermind that a computer doesn’t need to pay rent, or fill the fridge, or pay medical bills.

The AI saga is still ongoing, and likely will be for a long time yet. But this article isn’t about AI in and of itself, so we’ll leave it there.

In the latest development of the social media bubble burst, the RESTRICT act got thrown into the pile. Falsely dubbed the “TikTok Ban,” the RESTRICT act is a vastly overreaching bill that would decimate the internet as we know it. It actually doesn’t mention TikTok at all within the text of the bill, TikTok is just the Trojan horse being used to try and push the bill through. It has, however, garnered vehement disagreement from both sides of the aisle so who knows what will happen there.

That’s where we stand right now. Many social media sites are dying, AI is stealing work, and the government is trying to destroy the internet as we know it. Good times. Good times. So what the hell are us creators supposed to do? Well, there’s a few ways to go about it and a few good ways to protect yourself.

Firstly: remember that you are unique. AI is not actually intelligent, it cannot actually learn, it can just cobble together data with zero actual understanding of what that data means. Only you can come up with your characters, your stories, your designs. Even an AI trained exclusively on your work cannot create the things you will create in the future. An AI can’t know why it’s important to draw seams on clothing to give the shapes more form, it can’t know why it’s important to show not tell in a story, it can’t understand the importance of proper kerning in a logo. Do you think Good Omens (both the book and the show) would have the nuanced characterization it does if there weren’t real people with real experiences behind its creation? Your creations are yours, you learned the things you needed to to bring them to life, you cobbled together dozens of tiny, seemingly inconsequential experiences from your own life to create them, and that is why they will always have value.

Secondly: be authentic. Be excited about your own work. Be a person. Don’t just push your content and shop and sales all the time. Relax. Geek out about a fandom. Share a meme. Get in a lengthy friendly debate about ancient copper merchants. You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, overshare your personal life, but you can and should still be a person. You are not a corporation and trying to act like one, trying to keep pace with what they do, will just hinder you. Being authentic will build trust between you and your audience, and that is key to creating a stable environment. An extension of this: don’t beg. Your audience does not owe you attention. Give them a reason to care and they will, even if it takes awhile.

Thirdly: own your audience. Have your own website, even if it is a simple single page business card website to point people to other places. Make it your hub so that people—fans, art directors, agents, etc.—will be able to find you and reach out to you even if your social media sites go down. Have a newsletter that people can sign up for, and back that data up frequently. Don’t rely on any social media website to hold your following for you, because it can vanish overnight and suddenly you’ll be back at square one. But a CSV of emails backed up onto a couple of hard drives? That’s YOURS. Substack died? Oh well, you backed up the CSV a couple days ago and now you can just upload it to a different newsletter platform and pick up right where you left off.

Fourthly: figure out what kind of creative you want to be. Yeah, some work is going to be lost to AI. Yeah, you’re going to miss out on some jobs because you can’t chat with art directors on Twitter anymore. But there will always be work out there for creatives, even if it is different than you used to imagine. Maybe you won’t be able to get into concept art with a huge gaming company the way you dreamed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a great indie studio to work with. Maybe you won’t be able to get a traditional publishing deal because you don’t like their values anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t run a great self-publishing campaign on Kickstarter.

Fifthly: support other creators. Share their work. Point art directors their way if you don’t have time for a particular job. Introduce them to your own audience. Boost their commission info posts. Build your network.

Lastly, ask yourself this: are you going to stop consuming content from your favorite creators just because AI exists? Just because Twitter died? Are you going to shelve all your favorite books because AI is out there? Stop looking at art that isn’t made by an AI? No. You’re not. You’re going to keep consuming the things you love, and so will everyone else. Maybe not in the same ways, maybe not in the same amounts, but they will.

One final note: do you know what happened when photography started to become widely available and affordable? Illustrators panicked. If newspapers could just snap a quick photo of the latest news, they wouldn’t need to hire illustrators. If catalogues could photograph their products, they wouldn’t need to hire illustrators. It was a huge shift in the entire industry, and illustrators did lose work. But you know what? A century later, we’re still here. We still have value. We still get work. We still create amazing things that can’t be done any other way. Our ancestors have weathered this storm before, and we will weather it this time, even if we get a little banged up in the process.

If you enjoyed this content, tips are very much appreciated! (But 100% not required!)

[i-amm-mj]

Anything for you - Katsuki Bakugo x Afab!Reader

A/N: This work was inspired by this request that i couldn´t accomplished 2 months ago due to a lot thing that happened to me in that period, but here it is now, and i hope this is of the liking of anyone who reads it. Specially, the person that send it. :)

Angst to Fluff to Comfort.

Warnings: mentions of non consensual sex with a past partner, mentions of consensual sex with current partner, mentions of drugs, mentions of symptoms of PTSD. READ UNDER YOUR RESPONSABILITY.

Words: 2k

No proofread so it might have some errors hahaha :p

It happened when you were 17 years old, almost 6 years ago. He was your first boyfriend, and it was the very first time you had a sexual encounter. To be honest, you don´t even remember how it happened, you just remember the tears your eyes spilled while begging him to stop, the way your body just froze, and how your mind shut down to protect you from more damage besides the one it was suffering. You were an UA student at the time, and the man that ruined your life an ex-classmate from your old school who you happened to know since childhood.

"Is it Christmas already?" a hoarse voice said behind you and your body automatically tense after recognizing it “Look what a cutie you turn out to become” it continued to speak in a flirty tone. You didn’t turn, you were in panic.

You and Katsuki had had a date that morning and you needed to buy some ingredients before getting back home to make dinner together. But your boyfriend had left to go to the bathroom just 5 minutes before it all happened. To this moment your life had been better than you ever imagine. You had a strong and handsome boyfriend who you recently moved in with; you accomplished your dream of becoming a hero and you were improving yourself constantly in every aspect of your life. So, this had to be a sick joke, right?  

“Hey, look at me!” the man forced you to turn around. You could have punch him, break his arm or something for the matter, you were a pro hero for God´s sake… but in that moment you couldn´t react, your body was afraid of moving “I heard you are dating Dynamight” he smirked “Is he enjoying my leftovers? I bet he is. You are a sweet little thing anyways.” Your eyes opened in terror, you didn´t know what to do, how to react.

“Leave me alone… please” you almost beg with watery eyes.

“Awn, are you going to cry? Weren´t you a strong hero? I think you are more like a fragile doll.” He mocked.

“Stop.” You murmured “please. Just let me go.” you were crying at this point.

“But we are just starting, pretty” the man pushed you towards the shelves, trapping you with his body. He bent over with a twisted smile and tried to reach your lips, but then a muscular arm shoved the man and made him fall on his arm.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing!?” the loud voice of Katsuki resonated along the market “Who the fuck do you think you are to lay a finger on her, huh!?” with heavy and long strides your boyfriend was on top of the man in less than a second, holding him by the shirt. He had a murderous expression on his face.

“Katsuki…” your voice was weak, you were shaking.

“Are you ok, princess?” Katsuki asked in a sweet and gentle tone without taking his eyes from the man whining of terror under him. You nodded even when he couldn´t see you.

“I wasn´t doing anything, dude” the man said with panic in his voice “She´s an old friend and I just wanted to say hello.”     

“You don´t need to be that close just to say hello…” Katsuki growled. And due to the loud voice of your boyfriend, other costumers started to accumulate around you three. If some customer took a picture or a video of what was happening and share it on social media, the career of Katsuki would be fucked. The press and his haters on social media were looking for an excuse to talk shit about him anytime given, and it was obvious that they weren´t going to take the time to investigate what was really going on. So, struggling to put yourself together you decided to act. You reached for your boyfriend´s hand, helped him to get up, and got out of the store the faster your trembling knees allowed you to.

The tension in the ride home was more than evident. Of course, Katsuki wasn´t mad at you, but he wasn´t happy either. He had a lot of things to ask you, but he couldn´t pressure you. He didn´t want to put you into more stress. Not after how you reacted to that jerk. He couldn´t comprehend. You were one of the best at martial arts of the heroes he knew, so that man had to be someone you were painfully scared of. A bully maybe? He tsked. That was plausible, you always have been sweet, and to be honest, a little naïve in your younger years.

When you entered the shared apartment, your nervousness took the better of you, and you ran to the bathroom with the excuse of feeling tired and the need of taking a shower before going to bed. Katsuki wasn´t a fool and you knew it, but you didn’t have the energy nor the courage to be confronted about what happened at the store just yet. Katsuki let you be for the moment. You´d open up to him later, you had to if you wanted to maintain the kind relationship you two had.

You love Katsuki, a lot. You could even say that you´ve never loved anyone like that before. That didn’t mean that you were that experience at the romantic department, because you only had two boyfriends besides him: Shinso and Yo, but to be honest, even when you loved each of them, you never felt the connection you had with Katsuki. If soulmates were real, you were sure he was yours, and you will do everything in your power to stay with him for as long as he wanted you to. It was that, right now… you just wanted to cry, and you didn’t want Katsuki to see you like that… You thought that therapy had helped, that it was just a bad experience and that you wouldn´t let it get in your way… that you had get over it and put it in the back of your mind so it would never bother you again, but you were wrong. That voice, that smell, that presence was… terrifying. 

Once you opened the shower, you let yourself being engulfed by the warm of the water and let your eyes spill the pain your soul and heart were holding. Bakugo could hear your crying clearly from the outside, and he would be lying if he didn´t had the instinct to run inside the bathroom and held you the better he can. His heart was suffering seeing you suffering. He couldn´t help but feeling enraged at himself for not being able to help you. The love of his life was in pain because of something an asshole has done to her in the past and he wasn´t there to protect you.

You were calmer right now. You´d cried enough and were ready lo leave the bathroom and face your boyfriend. You thought he was going to be waiting for you sitting on the edge of the bed to confront you about what happened a few hours ago, but he wasn´t there.

“Kats?” you asked peeking your head through the door.

“Kitchen!” he answered. You smiled and let your feet guide you to him.

“Hey…” you murmured. Your boyfriend was making dinner himself. He glanced to you over his shoulder and smiled “I thought we were gonna cook together.”

 “It´s ok, you can rest.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, sure.”

You knew that once he had decided something you could never change his mind, so you decided the wiser and made yourself comfortable on the couch in front of the TV. And after a couple of minutes scrolling aimlessly through Netflix, you decided on watching some new anime about zombies that has just been released. And when you pushed play, you felt the weight of your boyfriend sank besides you and his arm snake around your waist to pull you towards his chest. He then kissed your temple and let a deep sigh escape his chest. You knew what he was thinking about.

“You know I love you, right?” he whispered in the soft tone only you had been able to pull out of him.

“I love you too…” you answered with your eyes processing the images on the TV. Somehow the protagonist of the show reminded you of Izuku, you smiled softly.

“What is it?” he questioned.

“He reminds me of Izuku.” To that he let a giggle escape his mouth.

“You´re fucking right. He does looks and acts like Deku. Bet he is a loser too.”

“Hey, don´t be mean, I think he is cute” Bakugo groaned and raised a brow.

“You think Deku is cute? Seriously?”

“Well, yeah. He´s cute like a baby panda type of cute.”

“So, you are into nerds?” He said in disbelieved.

“Well, I´m into you.”

“I´m not a nerd.”

“I wasn´t the third place in grades at school.” You retorted while laughing.

“Oh, is that so?” he placed you on his lap with one swift movement.

“Katsuki!” you shrieked taken aback. You were now facing him. His face with a glint of joy and mischief on his features. “You could have injured me or something, you know?”

“I would never.” He spoke softly. His face turning into a sad expression. “I will kill myself before doing something that could hurt you.” You frowned. You knew exactly what was this about.

“That man…” you started, avoiding his eyes “He was my first boyfriend and my first sexual experience…” you stuttered, Katsuki adjusted his hands on your back so you could feel secure in his arms “I- I didn´t wanna do it, and he forced me to do it…” your eyes watered at the memory and the body of your boyfriend tensed, clenching his fist on your clothes unconsciously.

“What…?” his mind could not process the information properly.

“I begged him to stop, but he kept going.” You were crying at this point “I never said anything because I thought that no one would believe me, but… I took therapy and…” Katsuki wanted to murder him. Really. He was sure that it destiny put the bastard in front of him again, he wouldn´t let him go alive. But right now, he just wanted to comfort you “I´m sorry” you said weakly.

“For what?”

“Because I didn´t tell you…” you sobbed, and his hand landed softly on your cheek.  He brushed the tears away and with the softest voice he had ever spoken to you said “You have nothing to be sorry about. It wasn´t your fault. Thanks for sharing this with me.”

You embraced him, crying again but this time from happiness. The hand on your back held you close to his chest, while the other hand tried to sooth you, rubbing your back “It´s ok, love. I´m here. I´m never gonna let anyone hurt you ever again.” You sat straight to look him in the eyes, and then you squished his cheeks on both your hands. “What the fuck!?” he opened his eyes in almost panic.

“You are so cute…” you said with the biggest smile he´s seen on you.

“No, I´m not, you idiot” he tried to defend himself but wasn´t really fighting you back.

“And you make so happy…” you whispered leaning towards him to give a kiss on the lips that he responded to almost instantly.   

After a couple of minutes, the soft kisses turned into passionate kisses, completely forgetting about the show you were watching, the food Katsuki was making or the entire world outside. He caressed your face with both his hands, whispering little I love you´s between kisses. You sighed, glad to be in love and being love by a man like Katsuki.

That night, after eating dinner and turning off the TV, he made love to you. The sweetest and softest way he could. Worshipping your body, kissing the bruises of the battle, holding your hands in his, making you cum like nobody else would. Just reminding you that he was by your side from now on and that he would never leave you alone.

This week was your first week off in months. No hero duty, no filling documents, no calls from the police station to arrest a villain, just pure laziness at home. You loved this way of living, but you missed the heat of your boyfriend besides you. Unfortunately, he was the head of his own agency with Kirishima and couldn´t have many vacations, at least no when he was on a big mission about a bunch of villains related with very dangerous drugs. And today was the day he was going to put them under arrest, so you took a rest from the anime you were watching to scroll through social media looking for any news about the case, and you find them a couple of minutes after.  

You sheepishly smiled to yourself when you caught a glimpse of the gorgeous scowl of your boyfriend in his winter hero suit while talking to the police. You had to admit that his serious expression was sexy. You continued to scroll in search for some good pictures of him to download, until a video of him manhandling a resisting man came up. Your eyes almost popped out of your skull when you recognized who it was.

You search for more information about the man and the reason of his detention and found out that he was being charged for possession and distribution of drugs, plus the aggression towards a hero. All of that could cost him at least 12 years in prison. As the hero you were yourself, and above all the girlfriend of Katsuki, you knew that it was all a lie. That your boyfriend had incriminated this man for what he did to you, and while a part of you was mad at him for use his authority for this, the other part was very pleased to see the bastard behind bars even when it wasn´t for the crime he must have been paying for.

You truly loved Katsuki and everything he could do for you…

[qqueenofhades]

I can't tell if part of the reason people don't recognize Biden's accomplishments is because society is so shallow and easily swayed by loudness over depth, or because Biden is just too quiet and prone to focusing on the idea that his actions speak louder than his words.

Like yeah, the latter thing is important, but we live in a REALLY shallow society; maybe a bit more bragging about your substantial achievements would be helpful here.

I get what you're saying here, but this kind of thing always seems to hinge on "the Democrats need to be doing more/Biden needs to be saying more/the Democrats are not doing it right/etc," and I just don't think that's the actual problem. Yes, in the past the Democrats have relied on the tactic of just doing good things and hoping that people will notice enough to vote for them, but that TORPEDOED them in 2010 (they didn't aggressively defend/market the Affordable Care Act, the Tea Party crazies got to set the narrative about GOVERNMENT OVERREACH, and they got shellacked so badly that they didn't control the House again for the rest of Obama's time in office). Fortunately, they have awoken to the fact that we live in a corporate noise machine owned and operated by cartoonishly villainous billionaire oligarchs who don't care if the country is pushed into fascism as long as they get their tax breaks, and where the average voter is well conditioned by said media to accept the BOTH SIDES BAD narrative without question.

Whether it's true or not is beside the point; if you flood the zone with enough BS, people act as if it is. See all those polls about how people think the Democrats are "too liberal" more than they think the GOP is "too conservative," even though only one of those parties is actively trying to end democracy. See the people who think Trump and Biden are equally ethically compromised. Etc. etc. Biden has already been considerably vocal about his accomplishments, has given several major speeches about the danger to democracy (which he did just the other day), but it is already so filtered and twisted in a radioactively toxic media atmosphere that just talking more or trying to trumpet more isn't going to help.

The DC media is full of a bunch of narcissists who like to make false equivalences and also openly hanker for Trump to be back in office because it makes them more relevant; they get to break juicy exposes and shocking headlines and whatever else, that gets more clicks, they get more exposure, etc. Biden is (as noted) boring, as in he's not on Twitter every day saying something ludicrous (and if he said even ONE ludicrous thing, far less the nonstop stream of BS that Trump constantly spews and which somehow still makes the media yell about how BIDEN should be the one to step aside, he'd be toast), and just does the job. That's not very Sexy and Marketable. When he talks about how he's doing the job and what he plans to do next, the media is too busy commissioning a dozen bullshit Horserace!!! polls and talking about how, in case we haven't noticed, he is 80 and that is somehow, implicitly, a more disqualifying fact than Trump's 91 goddamn serious treason-level felonies, including for literally trying to overthrow the government. Our politics and civic society have been so irreparably poisoned that actual competence is completely beside the point and makes a normal president less appealing than one who's just insane all the time. Everything's just a game show! Everyone's opinions are equal! Live in all the alternate universes you want! Who cares if we accidentally end democracy? Just another headline!

This is likewise not helped by the fact that in this relentlessly commodified social-media universe, Republicans are constantly on message and united behind their candidates, no matter how openly fucking awful they are, while leftists/liberals/Democrats (and people who claim to be) are constantly tearing into and criticizing their candidates in a way that makes Joe and Jane Low Information Voter even more susceptible to believing the "Both Sides" narrative -- after all, if the Democrats are attacking the Democrats, they really must be bad! Yes, we are not in a cult and therefore are able to have an actual discussion about things, but this falls into the "We're Just Holding Them Accountable!!" line that is just an excuse for ripping the Democrats even more than any of those people ever criticize or actively oppose the Republicans.

Hence all these braindead takes about how Biden should step aside, Biden should drop Harris, Biden should do X Y and Z and this is all his fault, instead of anyone remotely trying to come to grips with the extreme polarization and fascism of the other side. I keep yelling about it, and a lot of other people I respect keep yelling about it, because yet again, we've learned fucking nothing from 2016 and we're teetering on a repeat of it. See how all these Online Leftists want to scream and yell about Biden ending the train strike, and then somehow never seem to have heard that he kept working with the unions for months afterward and got their sick days. Even the people who, in a remotely more functional political landscape and/or if they possessed one (1) working brain cell, would vote for the Democrats get their endless jollies and moral holier-than-thous by absolutely incinerating them. Who needs the Republicans, when these guys will do it for you?

Anyway. Because America is a land of morons manipulated by billionaire corporate interests, just doing the right thing and hoping people notice enough to vote for you is not enough. That's why, indeed, the Democrats have learned that you have to talk about it and push back and argue for what you've done. But when it still exists in this environment that will twist and taint and misrepresent and grind it into tiny pieces, because said billionaire corporate interests are genuinely afraid that the Democrats' current policy plans could dismantle their hegemony if allowed to continue, that's only a very small part of the problem, and we have to recognize that.

[sgiandubh]

Why is it that it *urks* me S so easily plays the narrative with these porn loving young girls?! All he works for and accomplishes, he disrespects himself allowing his reputation to be linked to those kind of very young women. How can it be okay for him to let people believe he is a *man whore* (as the group of so called haters say)? It's not like they could still play the narrative with a beautiful woman that does not post her body parts all over social media!! I just feel like everytime they link him with one of those women, I lose a little more respect for him. For me, it also takes away from the love I've always seen between him and C. Ugh! I feel crazy for it bothering me! Am I the only one?!

Dear Bothered Anon,

I am sorry for the substantial delay. Flu happened still, and I wanted to have a clearer and rested mind in order to properly answer your question.

I shall again be brutally honest and say I really don't care at this point what brought you here: sincerity or elicitation of shippers' reactions on this very meh week-end. It doesn't really matter, either: but since Mordor is regularly accusing us of spoliation of evidence, I thought your submission deserved a careful answer. I know that annoys the shit out of them, too - not gonna lie, I am always pleased to oblige.

For our readers that have a normal life and were not here for Marple's midnight stalking session, here goes a summing-up of the facts (I hope you don't mind):

A video snippet of what is probably a more extended FaceTime conversation between S and Amanda Tutschek ( https://paintedpeachla.com/), a topless artist and painting tutor (100 USD/hour/class) from Vancouver, BC (but currently active in Venice Beach, Ca.) surfaced on Marple's account, supposedly dropped in her DMs by a good Samaritan. It is a nine second snippet ("... yeah...I was gonna put this one up here... but so funny... I was literally doing this yesterday and I was thinking about you...") with the comment: "Pimping out @samheughan's walls in Ireland (IE flag emoji)". It stayed on Tutschek's Instagram account for about four hours and then was promptly erased.

You start by telling me "S is playing the narrative with" the #silly calendar girls crowd. Is he, in this instance and if so, how can you (or anybody) be so sure?

Two scenarios are at play here:

First scenario: S/his people leaked this on purpose. Therefore, S is a troll.

Second scenario: Tutschek posted it as an Instastory on purpose. Therefore, S is a victim.

If S is trolling the fandom and I believe he is (only not now and not like this), why would he leak this on purpose? To emphatically let us know they're 'obviously not together'? To stir the pot between Queen *urv and Marple? To consolidate his man whore image, just when he was taking part in a critically important event in New York? I can understand the Lord of the Rings rigmarole (grinned for days), but assuming he is behind this strange snippet would be stretching the fabric of facts a bit too much, to my taste.

Also, despite *urv's delirious opinion ("he had a bedroom voice"), I think he just sounded tired and vaguely friendly: yes, I do think it's his voice. Not earlier than Friday evening, I received a video call on Fb from M, a (Taurus, hehe) former high school mate and one of my best friends. She always makes a point of telling me stuff like "I was buying grapes at the farmer's market and thought about you, how you absolutely hate them, so I called"/"I am at the Opera with Professor So-and-So, I told him about my brilliant friend in Athens, wanna say hi ?" That doesn't mean M wants me, the woman is happily married with two teenage boys. But she is a kind soul, with a superb understanding about what a friend really means (including being candidly obnoxious and immediately forgiven for it).

If Tutschek posted it out of her own accord on Insta, the reason would be simple: coat-tailing for clicks, shits and giggles. The insistent Ireland reference would point to that: I mean, the woman scrolled all the way down to the flag emojis to make sure we got the point (and in the process, more innuendo, mayhap). That would also explain why she promptly took it down: either because she realized somehow she pushed things a smidge too far or because she was strongly encouraged to cut the crap.

Seriously, whatever. This is just another episode of low-cost fuckery, irrespective of the two possibilities I just discussed. Her art is not as memorable as the bosom she generously shares with the world. It is borderline depressing and nothing to write home about, if you ask me. And the fact that the fandom quickly placed her in the same social circle with Quarantein Gia and Paparazzi Clarke, well... another major eyeroll, just here. The expected effect was exactly the one you described: to quietly gnaw at people's respect of S and also to chip a bit more of the fairytale.

This will happen only if you let them. These people, whoever they are, cannot challenge your reason, because there is nothing interesting or even logical about idiotic tidbits like this one. But they can and they are challenging and playing with your emotions, in order to instill doubt, insecurity, fear or disgust. I will not discuss Marple's editorial policy here (like her legally disingenuous use of someone else's material), simply because I do not want to give that derailed jukebox further space on my page. It is my sensible choice not to let these people in my world more than they deserve to be (very little). Maybe you should try it too, Anon. It could work for you as it did for me, once I came to terms with it.

I am not even sorry about the length of this answer. Haters gonna hate. I could not care less. Thanks for dropping by.

[skippygiraffee]

Hi, I'm the Raileon anon from a while back. Thank you for answering my ask! I loved reading your thoughts, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for some more. You mentioned Leon and Raihan were both fascinating characters to you separately as well, and I wanted to ask why you felt Raihan was fascinating? I have my own reasons ofc, but I'd be delighted to hear yours as well.

I absolutely never mind, thank you for the ask!! (even if it takes me a while to answer things sldjfksjf). genuinely I love talking about these characters, all the SWSH characters (and SuMo) really, and talking about Raihan is top tier for me. under the cut because it's both long and I have included images from the manga as little Raihan treats :3

in regards to Raihan, what a character, yeah? when I got this ask I immediately went into chat with @beammeupbroadway and we had the following exchange (she's the Furby icon, I'm the first message):

and to elaborate a little, we're all introduced to Raihan in the framing of him being Leon's rival, and we're not really reintroduced to him until midway through the game. so for a while we're left with this impression that Raihan is the hotheaded rival to Leon, setting them up with the same sort of framing as like Hop vs Bede (which is more a rivalry than with the player I argue) or even Red vs Blue (certainly with the Charizard and the color imagery at play with both Raihan and Leon's designs). Raihan is, at his core, a peek at what someone looks like when they grow up in the shadow of someone else.

it's stated in game he has different interests, hobbies, a career, but he's still Leon's rival Raihan. where his job as a Gym Leader and his work with the Hammerlocke Vault serve the narrative purpose of bringing the player closer to Leon and closer to solving the mystery of the Darkest Day, rather than things that allow us a better view of Raihan. not to discredit those moments, because they absolutely do allow us as to see more of Raihan, but I guess I want to argue that the game just uses them as a jumping off point to get to Leon. even Raihan's accomplishments as a Gym Leader and battler are framed within the context of him being so good he could be Champion of another region, but he can't beat Leon. from a world building and audience perspective I think it's interesting to see, but man, picturing that as how he's painted in Galar, in universe? where all of these insanely amazing accomplishments are pushed aside to market himself as Leon's rival I think genuinely ruined his self image, his self esteem, and the way he views anything he does. Raihan's social media presence got started because of Leon, even if he sometimes takes random pictures of sand storms, and the only thing removed from Leon is his love of fashion and history, but we don't even get to see a lot of that as the audience/player of the game because it's not relevant to the story in most cases, and definitely isn't relevant to Leon. this was definitely a little rambly, but at least right here I just think that like Raihan being literally overshadowed by Leon makes him fascinating to rotate around like a rotisserie chicken, because you take one whiff of that guy and you can tell he was spiced up with self loathing and angst strong enough to turn the average character into a straight up villain

ties to Leon aside, the little things about Raihan I adore ARE those little hobbies he has. fashion, history, social media all are super interesting, and ignoring the Gym Trainer battle with WEATHER EFFECTS INSIDE THE TAPESTRY VAULT aside it's clear he is a trusted expert on the matter. Sonia goes to him, even if it's a way to get the player closer to Leon Raihan is the one who grants access to the vault, and anyone who loves tapestries is immediately boosted in my books

his characterization in the manga is really cool, and I adore manga Raihan a lot. it's actually when I really fell in love with his character because he's given a lot of really neat moments, where he's kind of this key player in having everything come together. also he was a trouble maker when he was younger!!! which I think is a logical reaction to being pitted against the literal undefeated Champion for so long. but, allow me to picture that below:

I also love him spraying himself in the face with a potion after being poisoned by Eternatus in the manga. like yeah he's confused, but literally no other character is brought up, only Raihan which is funny to me

also him and Piers are just buddies!! which is neat, especially since in the post game of the base SWSH titles they're shown not to really have interacted that much

he's also super polite to Melony (my beloved Mummy Melony scene), and he's overall pretty fleshed out, with being both serious and goofy, while having this odd tension with Leon when it comes to serious moments

like it shows a lot of complicated things brewing under the surface for him, even in the manga, and I love how it keeps his characterization in tact, while expanding on it in a way that feels natural

I think in short, there's an argument to be made that Raihan could have been left as this one dimensional rival to Leon whose only purpose to push the player along their journey. a road block as a Gym Leader, a helper as the keeper of the vault, but nothing more. and yet he's a pretty fleshed out character, who has other stuff going for him. he could be so many things, and yet he's Raihan, the dragon guy who loves fashion, is a bit silly, but also takes things as serious as they need to be taken. who had a bit of a rebellious streak when he was younger, to the point Rose knows about it in depth. where, in game, he can flip from smiling like :3 to hunching over in the stadium yelling out moves. he's cool, like undeniably, but also not, and I love that skdjfklsfd. I think Raihan is a testament to the subtle ways the Pokemon writers can dish out characterization without explicitly writing things in, and I love him for it

[mollysunder]

Was Seraphine Supposed to be Piltover's Jinx?

I think it's really interesting that on a meta level, Jinx and Seraphine are near complete opposites. I'm not even talking about the punk/pop, blue hair-pink eyes and pink hair-blue eyes contrast they've got. Both champions follow similar development beats that led to very different results. Let's compare the debut of these two champions. Jinx releases with a music video, the first of its kind done by Riot/Fortiche for a champion, just because they could. Before Jinx's official release, her debut was teased a with a clever marketing campaign where she vandalized the pages of related champions like Vi with her graffiti. With Jinx’s release was also a cleaner introduction of Zaun's aesthetic shift into punk street fashion that later champions like Ekko and Zeri would take on as well, without it being too jarring. By now it's inarguable to say that Jinx has not just been well received as a flagship champion for the region, but through Arcane, has become critically acclaimed.

Seraphine has a much messier history. You can argue she was created to be an idol champion before a Piltovan champion, hence why her design doesn't really match with Piltover's aesthetics. Seraphine debuted as a part of KDA, a pre-existing LoL virtual band, and her release was marketed with a months long interactive social media campaign. In the end, all it did was give Seraphine's character more negative attention to how tone deaf Seraphine's story actually was. Seraphine as a champion had to have her story rehabbed and slowly gain more positive attention from lol fans over time.

Even on a narrative level Jinx and Seraphine are trying to accomplish two very different things coming from divergent backgrounds. Now that Arcane's canon, we can say that Jinx is an orphan whose parents died for better conditions for Zaun. Years later Jinx ensures the full separation of the two city-states by kickstarting the war between the two.

In Seraphine's original story, she's born in Piltover to Zaunite parents that sold everything to make sure their kid has a chance for a better life. Seraphine wants to use her music to unite the two cities, but to do what exactly? What does unity mean when it's not between equals? Zaun broke off from Piltover for a good reason, and I can't see many eager join hands with them.

After all these years Jinx's character and story became further elevated and enmeshed in Riot's lore and Zaun's worldbuilding, but Seraphine's in limbo as her story will have to be reworked again to account for Arcane (tho thay might be welcome because it wasn't that great to begin with).

[hsdiaries]

‘til forever

chapter two - 3.9k

master list

Living on the westside of LA in sunny California was never exactly on my checklist of things I needed to accomplish in life, but opening up a car repair shop was - and this for some reason became the easiest place to do it. Truthfully I owed it all to Mason, the man I ran my apprenticeship under. He took a special liking to me during my time, and when he passed, with no kids of his own, he left his shop to me. My best friend moved out here, helped me run the social media and marketing for the shop, I kept some of the team adding some younger guys for more heavy lifting jobs. We did minor maintenance to the place, spruced it up to appeal to different kinds of people, and the shop has been doing better ever since.

One thing I didn’t expect to get out of this was friendships, but here I was, walking over to meet up with one of my coworkers turned friends, meeting his group of people and new girl. I quickly turn the corner,  walking into the bar, taking the last couple bites of my croissant, licking the left over chocolate off my fingers. Mitch was thankfully easy to spot, taller than most in the room, longer hair too.

“Harry!” He quickly called out when he spotted me, I chuckled, walking over as we quickly embraced, our hands patting each other's backs.

“Everyone, this is my boss, Harry, he owns the car shop I work at. Harry, this is Niall, Chase, Pauli, and of course Sarah.” 

Mitch flushed a deep shade of red as he introduced the woman he was now dating, and I chuckled, lifting my hand up to greet everyone, “Nice meeting you all, thanks for letting me crash.”

“Mitch told us you were new in town when you opened up the shop, so we weren’t going to say no! Everyone needs friends,” the mousy haired man named Niall said.

“He’s not off, just have my best friend from college here, Marlee, she’s actually joining us later as well.” I smiled, Sarah’s eyes perking up.

“Oh thank god, another girl! I was so scared I’d be in a giant testosterone fest all night,” she said, making us all chuckle.

“Well, Horan was supposed to get Bentley here, yet we have no Bentley,” the dark haired tattooed man who I assumed was Chase spoke, hitting Niall hard on his back.

“Listen, I can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. I don’t want to pressure her into making decisions she’s not ready to make,” Niall said, sipping his beer, a Guinness.

“Including finally giving you a chance,” Pauli quipped, making Niall fake a laugh, flipping them off. I couldn’t help myself and chuckle.

“Who’s Bentley?” I asked, holding my hand up for the bartender, quickly ordering myself a beer.

“She’s our late friend Louis’….ex? I guess that’s what we would call her now. Niall’s got a thing for her since they trauma bonded, but she won’t give him the green light,” Mitch rolled his eyes and Niall scoffed.

“I’ve never asked her to give me any green light. I’m fine just being her friend, that’s all I want,” his tone clearly bothered by everyone’s antics, and I couldn’t help but feel for the guy.

“Seems like you’ve been there for her after his passing, from what Mitch said, I now remember him mentioning the situation, I know she hasn’t let anyone else in, so ignore them. Especially this one, he fucks up a car for me at least once a week,” I teased Mitch; Pauli, Chase and Sarah laughing as I paid for my beer, taking a long sip with a smile on my face.

Niall raised both his eyebrows at Mitch, who quickly shot me a glare. The overall pointing of fingers was quickly broken when the door to the bar burst open, a short brunette tripping over herself, quickly straightening out and looking over in our direction. I broke into a big smile as I saw my pixie like best friend, her smile soon reflecting mine. Her cat-like hazel eyes seemed to glimmer, as she waved at me, her cheeks red with slight embarrassment.

“And that’s Marlee, my best friend,” I said, holding my beer glass out in her direction as she made her way over. She reached me and quickly buried herself in my embrace, my lips pressing a kiss to the top of her head softly.

“Hi guys, sorry for the grand entrance. You will learn I have two left feet,” she shrugged, taking my beer and sipping from it. Everyone laughed, introducing each other to her. It was nice to mix our friendship with Mitch’s friends. I was used to a big group of friends back home, so this just felt right.

“So you two met in college?” Sarah said, bringing me another beer as the boys moved to the side to have a conversation, eyes flicking to us constantly as they did.

“Yeah, we were in American Literature together. He sat next to me, he sucked at annotating his readings, I was amazing at it. One day, he leaned over and asked me to help him. I asked to be paid in pizza rolls and he added root beer on top of it and I was sold!” Marlee quickly explained, smiling up at me and I laughed.

“She always leaves out how I helped her with math, but college calculus is a touchy subject, we shall avoid,” I said, pretending to whisper at Sarah as Mitch called me over to the rest of the guys.

Walking past the girls, I messed with Marlee’s hair, reaching the guys, left hand deep in my pocket as I took a sip of my beer. Chase clearly looked like he might foam at the mouth if he didn’t speak soon, my eyes narrowing at him.

“So that’s just your best friend? Not your best friend you secretly have feelings for but too scared to admit?” Chase said quickly, head tilting forward, eyebrow raised.

“No, that’s my best friend and just that, my best friend.” I peeked over at Marlee, then back at the guys. I wasn’t lying, that’s all she was to me. There was only one moment in time when I thought there might be more, but that was quickly squashed by how wrong it felt when I tried to kiss her. She was like my sister, it couldn’t be anything more past that for me.

“So, she’s free game then?” He raised an eyebrow making me snort out a laugh. This was something definitely I was accustomed to, my best friend was beautiful with a personality to match. The amount of time I was approached for permission to attempt to woo her was anyone I had lost count of.

“Good luck, Marlee ain’t easy, and she’s picky as hell, mate. You can give it a try though, but…” I moved my lips from side to side, leaning in closer to him, “you hurt her, I don’t mess around either.”

Chase chuckled, tossing his hands up in the air, “I’m just here for a good time, friend. I set my boundaries clear and right from the very start. Now if you’ll excuse me, Marlee looks like she needs a refill.” 

He winked obnoxiously at us, my eyes trailing his path to my best friend, my head shaking as I locked eyes with Niall who rolled his, “Ignore Chase, he thinks with his dick, so naturally, he acts like one.”

We both laughed, Mitch choking on his beer as he did as well, “Righto!” He managed out as he cleared his throat, “Even tried to put moves on Bentley, Niall shut that down so quick.”

“He was taking advantage of her vulnerability, trying to get a pity fuck so he could say he did. Louis had just gone, it was fucking wrong!” Niall exclaimed, Mitch sending him a look, teasing the real reason why Niall put a stop to it. I felt for him. You could tell he truly cared for this Bentley character, everyone trying to make it a negative thing.

“Girls that have mates like us are lucky, don’t let these dick heads try and shake how you treat her. She will always appreciate it more than she vocalizes,” I smiled at him, a small nod from him in exchange, Mitch and Pauli looking at each other, then down, embarrassed that they were teasing Niall.

“So you and Harry have been friends for a bit now then?” Sarah asked as I drank more beer. Personally I hated beer and its taste, but the new environment meant I wasn’t ready to dip my toes into hard liquor around them. It was better for all those involved.

“Yeah, I feel like I’ve known him my whole life really. It was just an instant click. Now he can’t get rid of me,” I giggled, shrugging my shoulders as she nodded. Her green eyes and their curiosity let me know exactly what question was next, bracing myself for it.

“Nothing more there?” She leaned in, her eyes hopeful, as if it would add excitement to the situation. I licked my lips, biting down on my lower lip, shaking my head.

“Yeah no. We are just best friends and it ends there. He’s like a brother,” I said, the last sentence feeling like bile in my throat. Truth was, I loved him so much more than just as friends. It would never happen though, it would never be reciprocated; the imagine of him laughing as he leaned in to kiss me forever engraved on the back of my mind. I remember my heart racing, thinking this was finally the moment he would see me as more than just his friend. The moment he realized he felt for me how I felt for him.

It wasn’t. 

Instead, he laughed about how he wasn’t sure what he was thinking, apologizing, head shaking in disbelief. I never in my life readjusted my feelings so quickly, shoving him back and calling him a weirdo for even trying in the first place. The entire time, my heart breaking, eyes fighting the tears that wanted so badly to fall.

“Sometimes that’s for the best you know? I think we all need a best guy friend, but it’s hard when they always seem to want something more. I mean, even us girls cross that line too.” She said, sipping on her beer, so unaware of my feelings.

“What about you? How long have you known the guys?” I said, wanting to direct the conversation away from me and Harry.

“Oh, it’s my first time meeting everyone too. I just started dating Mitch a month ago, thought it was time to meet the friends,” she shrugged. I nodded, licking beer off my lips.

“Well then I’m glad we’ve been thrown into this together, men are strange, women superior always,” I raised both eyebrows at her and she lifted her glass to cheers with mine. I met hers, sipping on my beer as one of the boys approached us.

“It’s Marlee right?” He said, squeezing between Sarah and I, arm resting on the bar as he smiled up at me. I shot him a look of confusion, “Yes and you are? Sorry I’m not good with names.”

“I’m Chase, thought I would personally introduce myself. Just let you know I’m super excited to add you and Harry to the group. Maybe we, you and I, can even grab a bite sometimes,” he pinched his lower lip, my eyes flashing over at Sarah’s quickly. She shrugged, my eyes moving back to Chase.

“Mmm, we’ll see. Have to decide where you rank amongst the other guys. Let’s run the trial for about two weeks and then I’ll give you a rundown on where you land,” I smirked, winking at Sarah before pushing off the bar and walking towards Harry. From the immediate laughter coming from the guys I could only imagine what his face looked like behind me.

Slipping my hand around Harry’s waist, he pulled me in for a hug, shaking his head, “Couldn’t you at least give him five minutes of your time?”

“I didn’t completely let him down, I just let him know that I needed to test out the Irish one as well, Pauli too,” I said so only he could hear, his vanilla scent strong on his hair near my face.

“Marlee, Marlee, this is why we never make new friends,” he chuckled and I shrugged.

“I never needed anyone else so, eh,” brushing it off, because it was true, all I needed was Harry, that was enough. He wrapped me up in a tight embrace, kissing the top of my head like he often did.

Soon Sarah and Chase joined us again, everyone pushing past Chase’s lame attempt to ask me out. We shared embarrassing moments, how everyone met each other, Sarah and I planned to grab lunch later next week. As much as I hated the idea of sharing Harry’s time with other people, it did feel nice to make new friends. We all moved over to the pool tables, taking turns ordering rounds of beer and playing pool against one another.

Niall began asking Harry and Mitch about the shop, hoping to bring his car in for an oil change and to get his brake pads fixed. As always Harry began playing down how good he was at fixing cars and truly how successful his shop was. He was so humble, it was his best trait, and that’s why he had me, so I could sing his praises.

“Did you all know the shop is getting the AAA Award for Outstanding Service?” I piped in, Harry’s eye flicking to me, basically yelling at me for bringing it up. I ignored him, rolling my eyes, “Yeah, he’s the best in town too, 100% mark on the award.”

“Harry, you never mentioned that!” Mitch exclaimed, back handing his chest. Harry coughed, rubbing his chest softly as he laughed.

“It just slipped my mind, I don’t…I don’t really pay attention to those things,” he said, running his ring clad fingers through his hair.

Sarah scrolled through her phone, peeking her eyes up, “Harry that’s a really good award to have. You are registered with AAA and their website. That’s why you guys have been so busy, babe!” She exclaimed looking over at Mitch, “The shop is on the site so it directs more customers! Harry, that's so amazing. Oh my gosh we should celebrate!”

“Guys, please we really don’t have to—…”

“…—no we totally should mate! It’ll be further bonding and welcoming you in the group. Maybe it’ll finally get Bentley to come out,” Niall said, something hopeful in his voice. I had no idea who Bentley was, but she felt like the motivating factor in every aspect of his life choices.

“Yeah Harry, let us celebrate to get Bentley out!” I said, shifting my body next to Niall, pulling his lower lip down gently into a pout, “Do it for Niall and Bentley.”

Niall chuckled a bit, but kept his pout making Harry roll his eyes, “Fine, fine, we can plan something. There’s this arcade bar Marlee and I love, we can do something there, play games and shit. They have food too!”

“Perfect!” Sarah clapped her hands, moving to stand next to me, “Marlee and I will handle everything, you boys just show up, and Niall get the infamous Bentley to join us! It’ll be fun!”

—

Harry and I walked home, it was late but it was our favorite time to be out and about. The city was quiet and besides avoiding the few cars driving by, we could walk in the middle of the street.

“So everyone was really nice,” I smiled over at him, walking along the middle yellow divider, one foot in front of the other.

“Yeah, good people, normal friend group with their issues and drama. They actually lost their friend Louis about six months ago? That’s where that Bentley girl comes into play. She was dating Louis, and from what I gathered, Niall’s soft on her. Took care of her the most when he passed.”

“Mmm, that’s horrible. Do you know how it happened?” I said as he moved in front of me, walking on the same divider backwards.

“Nope. Just still feels new, you know? Mitch can barely talk about it when he does mention it. So I just avoid it,” he said, reaching out for my hands to help keep us balanced.

“I can’t even imagine losing you…I don’t know what I would do,” I said softly, his hands squeezing mine.

“I ain’t going nowhere, they’ll have to catch me first and I’m too fast,” he wiggled his furrowed brows, making me laugh.

“Yeah?” I said, my head tilting in a challenge, his hands quickly releasing mine.

“Oh come on Marlee, I drank so much beer,” he whined and I shrugged, instantly moving to tackle him, his strong arms quickly stopping me and picking me up over his shoulder, “You literally will never learn. I’m always too quick.”

I burst into laughter hitting his back over and over, “Put me down!” 

“Nope, this is how I’m getting you to your apartment. Learn your lesson,” he said, hitting my leg, my arm reaching up to pull his hair, “Ow! You brat!”

We both laughed, Harry staying true to his word, carrying me over his shoulder until we finally got to my apartment. He placed me down on the ground, helping me smooth out my hair like he often did. I inhaled, shivering slightly, something that he often ignored.

“Thanks for coming with me today, it always makes new situations easier,” he smiled, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“Course. I had a good time, and Sarah and I have lunch plans. Me, plans with a girl. Isn’t that insane?” I said with wide eyes, a soft chuckle from him, a smile from ear to ear.

“That is actually, so now I won’t be forced to go on every single shopping trip you decide to take,” he teased, my eyes narrowing.

“You know you enjoy those trips, I always buy you cinnamon pretzel bites!” I pointed at him, his lips pressing together, in a questioning manner.

“I mean…” his eyebrows raised, laughter leaving him as soon as my face dropped in disappointment, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I’ll be incredibly jealous of you and Sarah’s newfound friendship.”

“That’s better,” I said, starting to look for my keys in my purse, “So I finished all the marketing stuff for you, new flyers and all. I’ll drop them off after work tomorrow so you can go through and approve.”

“Sounds good, thanks, Mar, really. The shop got to where it was because of you, so thank you. You marketed the shit out of it,” he stuck his tongue in his cheek.

“I told you we were going to make it happen, but H, you did everything else. You fix the cars, I just let people know the hot guy in town can do the fixing,” I giggled, pulling out my keys.

“And Mitch appreciates it,” Harry joked, my hand moving to shove him back. I turned to my apartment door, unlocking the front door. I pulled it open, holding it open and peeking over at him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” 

“Yeah, go get ready. I’ll call you when I get home so we can watch New Girl before bed,” he said, reaching over and holding the door open for me.

I looked at him nodding, wondering if he ever thought it was weird how we did this. How we called each other each night, watching New Girl until we fell asleep. It started as me making him watch it from the beginning, to now just rewatching random episodes each night.

“Don’t forget I get to choose the season tonight, I’m feeling three. It feels right,” I said, and he rolled his eyes. 

“Let me guess, episode five, because you can relate to Jess’ need to stick her nose in everyone’s life?” He tilted his head at me.

“Listen if I didn’t stick my nose in your life, you never would have kept the auto shop, so…kiss my ass, Harry. Night!.” I smiled, blowing him a kiss before turning on my heel and heading into my complex.

“Night you troll!” He called out, my hand sticking up and flipping him off, his laugh trailed behind me.

Everything about tonight felt right, which was a relief, because I didn’t know how I would face Mitch at work the next day if it didn’t work out. His friends were funny, friendly and just the right amount of messy to keep things interesting. Walking to my apartment, I couldn’t help but ponder over my encounter before the bar, the girl and the chocolate croissant constantly popping into my head throughout the night. She had a permanent sadness etched into the furrow of her brows, her lips seemed unable to twitch into a convincing smile.

I couldn’t move past how stunned she was at me using “no drama” a phrase I picked up from the Australian exchange students at Uni, never thinking much of it. I wanted to stop by again every morning and every afternoon at that little shop, hoping to see her again. I wanted to find out why her brows furrowed into such sadness, what put that sadness there.

My phone went off, buzzing on my bedside as I settled into bed; without looking I knew it was Marlee, ready for our bedtime ritual. I pulled the cover on my bed quickly slipping in before calling out to my phone.

“Hey Siri, call Marlee on speaker,” I said, grabbing my laptop and opening up, starting to set up the Netflix party so we could watch together.

“I’m more than positive I grew an inch,” Marlee said when she finally answered, my eyebrow raising in confusion.

“Mar, I’m more than positive you’re past your growing age,” I said quickly sending her the link.

“Can you please just accept I’ve grown an inch?” I heard her clear pout through the phone.

“Fine, fine you grew an inch,” I gave in, adjusting in bed the show starting as she pressed play on her end. The show began playing, filling the space, my body relaxing into my bed. I loved this tradition we had, sometimes we watched, sometimes it just played as we talked or fell asleep. I bit my lip as I thought about the croissant girl again, a sigh leaving me, “I had a weird interaction with a girl today. Not weird, just…interesting.”

I chuckled, Marlee readjusting on the other side of the phone, “Oh?” She said softly.

“I needed to eat something, so I went to the cafe under the apartment—…”

“…—wait like..the store?”

“Yeah, I just knew I would be drinking, so, I just went in. I saw this chocolate croissant, went to grab it and this girl reached for it too. Pulled back freaked out, and I told her no drama, you know, and she knew what it meant - but she was weirded out that I knew what it was. I don’t know…I guess I’m just intrigued by how sad she looked. Her eyebrows were permanently skewed,” I said, realizing I was rambling. I took a deep breath, clearing my throat, “I’m wondering if I’ll see her again.”

“Well. I guess you’ll just have to see what happens. You already sound…enamored? I guess,” she said quietly, clearly tired.

“Yeah, have to see. I’m not enamored…I just, I’m just curious - but, let’s just go to sleep now. I’m exhausted after today. Night fairy girl.”

“Mm, night Harry. Love you.”

“Love you always.”

[thefalloutwiki]

Same Anon who asked about the Tandi quote. Thank you for the insight and understanding. Lots of posts online get very inflammatory or blown out of proportion and many folk are reactionary. I've only (so far) seen negative feedback on the independent wiki and some (without context) rumor of "drama"

So when said post crossed my dash I looked for the best version of it I could find (to express my concerns and avoid just pure negativity) to send to this blog as I have only ever gotten kind and thoughtful replies to the asks I've seelnt before.

Thank you for this, and thank you for what work you put into this wiki. I hope to be able to contribute in some fashion myself, as online resources now owned by marketing groups like Fandom are an important bastion of the internet.

Thank you, that means a lot to me! Really.

I've dealt with some negative reception in my 1-year tenure as the wiki's community manager (which involves social media posts), but I have tried to move past it! What matters is that we feel the work we're doing as beneficial to the community.

Every time I rewrite an article, I feel accomplished, as does the rest of the team. Fundamentally, we differ a lot from the the Fandom wiki. Speculation and theories are definitely a big part of the Fallout franchise, but for me and for us, we're always trying to inform the reader; not influence them. Objectivity is key.

When I write content for the wiki, I always I'm giving the reader all that they need to draw their own conclusion based on what's in front of them. I especially extended this to the LGBTQ Representation in Fallout page! I made sure not to assume a character was a certain sexuality because sexuality is incredibly fluid, which is something I've learned in relation to my own sexuality and identity as well.

Miranda Song, a character in Fallout 4, mentions that she became romantically involved with a woman who promised to "take [her] away from all this." This is really good WLW representation! But I never assume or put a label on her sexuality. She could be bisexual, lesbian or pansexual; I don't know which and that's okay! Even being queer myself, I worry about giving the wrong impression, but I hope what I said makes sense.

[physalian]

I’m sure it’s applicable to so many other fields so here I am (probably over-sharing) trying to raise awareness to burnout and the need for mental health breaks:

Almost a month ago, things weren’t bad, they were going well. I was racing to get my first book up for preorder, knowing that doing so wouldn’t necessarily get me sales, but it did give me time to do a little marketing with the proof copy and leave room to fix the last few things that popped up while I waited.

I was too exhausted from that sprint to even properly enjoy the monumental milestone of getting that preorder submitted on time. I just wanted to go to bed with like, zero human support systems to help me out because everyone I know is too depressed to help themselves. Depression might not literally be contagious but as the only one I know who has their shit together, when I *don’t* have my shit together, I get zero help. I still gotta help everybody else. Like, if the dishes don’t get done, it’s far easier to stack mine on top and say fuck it than ask for/wait for/do dishes that aren’t mine so I have room for mine, you know?

Not even 20 days later and it has just been one gut-punch after another. And the thing is. I’m… pessimistically inclined. Sometimes. Not because I want to be, mind you, but because life + repeat letdowns and disappointments + failures by people close to me to follow through on commitments = a cocktail of hyper-independence, trust issues, and seeing the worst in people.

Day after pre-order go-live and I got family pushing *hard* to get me on social media to market cause that’s where my audience is, allegedly (I write gay fantasy books. My audience is right here thank you very much). But I listened. And it went exactly as I expected it to. And the burnout and cynicism has done a real number on my mental health.

Oh, you got excited naively thinking an influencer actually cares about and wants to read your book? Ha ha, you shmuck. Nope! She just wants your money.

Oh, well at least she delivered a usable ad for your book, right? Nope! That Instagram account is now dead to me, infected with scammers who won’t leave me alone.

Oh, well how’s your new TikTok going? It’s going, right? Kinda! I mean the platform is rigged against you, demanding a style of performance that I hate to catch the attention of people who like shiny clickbait. And no, there’s a very real bubble preventing your videos from reaching larger audiences because the algorithm says so. And no matter how many hours you put into making videos, you *might* get 700 views. Not engagement, just views. Counting those scrolling by.

Oh…. Well you got some sales at least, right? Nope~ but hey I get it ebooks aren’t thrilling. Lacking sales are the least important element here.

You got some friends and family to read it though? One. No one I know reads, or if they do, they don’t have time to remember their promise.

But there are *some* good things that came from interacting with social media right? No? Not really? The few positive interactions I’ve had I can get anywhere.

Oh and I am still tangled up with PayPal from that first scam.

Not to even get started on stress from my day job’s compulsory OT that means no weekends, an upcoming move, a denied ESA request, and a pending new job.

Point of all this being… this was supposed to be a time to celebrate an accomplishment. And all I have taken away from it was 1) I was right, social media is ass, and 2) I was naive to get excited about absolutely any of this. Which is not a good thing to take away from this. Dangerous state of mind to be in.

When you’re pessimistic to keep your emotions safe from bad actors, and those bad actors all show up at once to validate your pessimism, it sucks. A lot. And it hasn’t even been 20 days. It feels like it’s been 3 months.

Phys wants a very long nap and some justice and a little bit of vindication and the permission to say “I told you so” with cathartic contempt. At the moment she’ll take venting to strangers on the internet.