#almost at 500 followers and almost lost 500 followers in the span of a few seconds

[https-furina]

OHMONDIEU maman i am counting our lucky stars for you not actually deleting your blog,, i think i would actually have cried if you did omg😭😭 be careful okayy

i’m being so careful my love ;; it was so scary aaa

[dizzythegreat]

Keeper of the Lost Cities meta: a hopefully-not-too-critical analysis

Starting off by saying that this whole thing is a just little too pretentious and a just little too fueled by irritation so don't take everything I say as fact! I'm just kind of ranting about things that I feel like most people are annoyed with (?) please share your thoughts with me! I think it's important for discourse like this to happen to keep fandoms alive!! non-Keeper mutuals feel free to DISREGARD!

First of all Keeper has such a special place in my heart, I started reading the series when I was 12 and I'm 16 now, so I really did kind of grow up with the books. I LOVED the series as a kid and hyperfixated on it for a really long time. As the series progresses and as I read it from a different lens, I'm seeing all of the flaws so much more clearly, so this whole rant basically stems from realizing something so special to me is flawed media and wanting to get my thoughts somewhere. All of this comes from a loving place! I'm just putting down my top few issues with the series and my opinions on a lot of different elements <3

DISCLAIMER I'm doing a reread but I'm only on book 1 and my memory is shit. Any false information is literally not my fault leave me alone

1. Length, redundancy, and predictability

This one really starts in Flashback #7 for me. It will always, always evade me why that book contains ~300 straight pages of Sophitz fluff and fucking around in the healing center. I know that a lot of people enjoyed those parts, which is totally valid! Shipping is a cornerstone of this series! But for me it felt so pointless and fan servicey, idk. And this is maybe my biggest problem with the books: they drag. We're at 9 and a half books now, each spanning like 500-800 pages, and the plot drags and drags and drags. I don't know if Shannon's publisher makes her fill a certain number of pages or what, but I feel like at least 100 pages of bullshit could be cut from each book and nothing would change. They start to almost follow a formula: 200 or so pages of figuring out the Neverseen's plan of the hour, another 200-ish to plan how to defeat them, and then finally we learn that the Neverseen is actually always one step ahead and the crew gets crushed oh my god tragic!! It worked as a subversion of expectations the first couple times but by now I feel like most people could basically just predict what's going to happen in any given book. Sometimes I wonder got left on the cutting room floor because it feels like SM wrote a first draft, barely trimmed it down, and published just that. The plot spins in circles, the protagonists are confused yet again, I am pulling my hair out in chunks.

It's a huge turn-off to a lot of new readers seeing these super thick books, and it's even a turn-off to me when I do rereads because surprise surprise, I don't actually really give a fuck if Fitz likes Sophie back, or at least not enough to read 300 pages on it per book. If the books were more concise, not only would that fix a lot of the plot and character development issues, it would also make them way more digestible because to be honest with you I probably couldn't remember half of what happens in most of them.

2. Sophie...

I think this is a very polarizing opinion but I just kind of don't like Sophie as a main character? I honestly think she's fallen victim to becoming a Mary Sue and not even in a "wehhh powerful woman make me mad" type way! It's just that Sophie at her fullest power is undeniably the most powerful elf in a battle, so to counteract this, Shannon has to keep finding ways for the Neverseen to take away Sophie's power. Whether through the whole "she can only inflict everyone at once" thing or breaking every bone in her hand or creating forcefields or literally fucking anything to stop this kid with five million superpowers, they have to find a way to effectively tie her down so the battles seem somewhat realistic. This then creates a weird pattern where every battle goes one of two ways: Neverseen finds a way to effectively debilitate Sophie and all her friends, or she just goes fucking sicko mode and destroys everyone. You just can't have a main character who's this much ahead of everyone else in terms of raw power.

For me, I think the biggest issue with Sophie is she's not relatable to the average reader. The age demographic for Keeper is preteens and teens. How many 13 year olds are the most powerful, unstoppable person in their friend group, in which three hot guys are head-over-heels in love with them, living in very comfortable conditions, with like five hundred friends? If you were that fucking baller at 13 then go fuck yourself that's super cool for you! But the core pillars of Sophie's life, disregarding the all the magical stuff (which obviously requires some suspension of disbelief) are simply not relatable or recognizable to the average reader. So how are we as readers supposed to feel connected to Sophie's life and situation if we never have (and let's face it, never will) experience anything close to the more realistically human parts of her life?

3. Character development (and the lack thereof)

Say what you will but to me the character development is so pale and arguably just doesn't exist. It feels like everyone has become so one-dimensional, so predictable, and so limp. Sophie has it the worst because we read from her POV, so all of her quirks and thoughts become really fucking annoying to read over and over again. For example, The whole oblivious "omg does Dex like me? does Keefe like me? DO I LIKE FITZ???" thing was cute when she was 12 back in book one but by now I am genuinely tearing my hair out when I have to read "Sophie blushed" every two pages. The whole "I'm a freak and nothing I do ever works and all is hopeless" thing was easy to feel sympathy for the first few times, but by now it's just kind of... exhausting? It feels like the naïve, oblivious Sophie from book 1 is exactly the same person as Stellarlune Sophie, no matter how many hideouts SM makes her burn down to prove she's ruthless or something. At this point, I feel like Sophie's choices throughout the series end up either being really predictable or wildly out of left field.

Every character other than Fitz, Keefe, and Sophie (and you could make a case for the three of them too) have become a shadow of themselves and they all get at most two conversations worth of pagetime. This can be attributed to a lot of things that I don't feel like talking about so here they are in point form: excessive focus on the main "love triangle", overloaded cast of protagonists, too much emphasis on A) furthering the plot and B) Sophie's inner thoughts instead of character relationships and found family. I think the books have lost sight of the original love, trust, and bond created by the five mains, and those super interesting dynamics between the different sets of friends that were so abundant in the first few installements have become few and far between. When I was a kid, I loved the books for the warm friendships and soft moments between Sophie and Dex, and now we're lucky if they even really talk to each other if not to push the plot. Biana barely exists, Marella and Linh show up every once in a while to be gay as fuck and then leave, Stina turned nice and then immediately went back to being a bitch because SM, for some reason, un-did all her redemption, and everyone else fucks around until they're plot-relevant. Where's the squad where's the crew where's the homoerotic undertones?!

4. Miscellaneous whining

Fitz's character is wildly inconsistent imo. I love you Sophie but I'm going to consistently get mad at you over irrelevant things and ice you out even though you need my support! Your boyfriend is for the streets girl

Fuck this whole half-book thing I'm sorry. Understandably, things have slowed down now that SM has two kids and I'm really truly happy for her and I'm glad she's taking time out of her work for herself and her family. But when she keeps releasing these weird novellas every year as some kind of "solution", it really just seems like a cop-out or a cash grab. I wish we could tell Shannon that we don't necessarily need a 700+ page novel to consider it a book! I personally would love if book 10 was more concise!! Let's just get this plot moving a bit!!

Sophie burning Gisela's book BURNS MY BLOOD. SM just had no fucking idea what she wanted that book to say + it would probably end the series too quick so she got Sophie to burn the most crucial piece of information they could have ever used under pretense of "refusing to follow Gisela's trap" or whatever OH MY GOD

Sooo many dropped plot lines/plot holes there is no way this shit is being resolved in the next 1 and a half books. See you all in 2034 for book 13.125

Sokeefe endgame was great but so predictable. Half the reason most people read this series is for the will-they-won't-they thing with Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe (justice for Dex!), and I think it was executed very badly. You could predict that Sophie and Fitz would burn out, you could predict that she would end up with Keefe, there was net 0 suspense by the time Fitz made his 500th dick move. I know I just complained about things being stretched out for so long but this one could have done with some taking it slow without making it obvious what was going to happen

Can Marella and Linh just kiss already

Anyways this all comes from a place of loving frustration. Oh Keeper my love, look what has become of you. Ultimately, SM started a fantasy series without knowing the ending, and it's spun out of control, but what can you do? I appreciate the series for what it is, I wish it was better, but I'll always love it. Through all my bitching and moaning I'm still rereading it to this day so who's really winning here? Please rb and comment and dm I love discussing Keeper!!! If you think I'm an idiot tell me!!! If you agree with me tell me!!! Don't be a dick!! Thanks for making it this far! Don't forget to like and subscribe and smash that bell

[tomreview]

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The 14 Best Times to Drink Water in a Day to prevent Dehydration

The Best Times to drink water matter because it’s clear that drinking enough water is important to health. Water accounts for up to 75% of the body weight, water plays a key role in regulating everything from brain function to physical performance to digestion and many more .

Everyone should be aware that drinking water daily is just  good to maintain one’s health and their well-being. One can have it ice cold, hot, infused with fruit, and many other ways to quench that thirst. But though, there are best times to drink water.

This article takes a look at best times to drink water and these include;

1. When One is feeling Hungry

One could really be thirsty. Most people don’t know they’re actually thirsty when hunger seems to strike. The brain recognizes these triggers in same. So before you hit the pantry, drink some water first. Then give it a few minutes to see if it satisfies the urge to eat.

2. Before having a Meal

Drinking water before a meal call it  “preloading”  can help you lose weight. A small study tested people who drank 500 milliliters that’s a little over 16 ounces of tap or bottled water about 30 minutes before mealtimes and throughout the day as they wished. Over 12 weeks, the preloaders lost almost 3 pounds more than those who didn’t follow the protocol.

3. Whenever you perspire

Anything that makes you sweat forexample a sauna or a hot tub, time outside on a hot, muggy day can make the body to lose fluid. Ditto with exercise. As the muscles warm up, the body perspires to cast off heat. You’ll need to cool down with lots of water.

4. Before, during, and after exercise

You need enough of water to replace what you sweat out. Before you work out or spend time outside, fill up your bottle with 16 to 20 ounces of water. Drink 6 to 12 ounces about every 10-15 minutes while you’re active. Afterward, drink up again another 16 to 24 ounces.

5. When one is unwell

Hydration is important to healing when you’re sick. Symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, and fever can cause extreme water loss. At the first sign of illness, drink lots of water, especially when you’re not hungry.  Avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks. They’ll dry out the system even more.

6. When you’re on a plane

Ever wondered why you get so parched and thirsty when you are on the plane, It’s all about altitude. The higher the plane goes, the drier the cabin air becomes and around half the air in the cabin flows in from outside. To combat the super-low humidity level, carry on an empty water bottle to fill up as needed during your flight.

7. When you Get a Massage

The massage therapist will thank you if you take water before you hit the table. The muscles will be softer and more supple, which makes it easier for them to manipulate the tender tissue. This body work releases substances you should flush out afterward with plenty of water, too. This is extra important if you have a deep tissue or other heavy-duty massage

8. Before Gaming

Do you know almost three-fourths of the brain contains fluid? If your levels dip too low, the blood vessels in this organ shrink. This can affect coordination, short-term memory, attention span, and stamina, a Chinese study found. So if you feel tired and muddled, pass up a caffeine-charged energy drink. Simply drinking water can help you bounce back.

9. When You’re in a Midday Slump

It’s mid-afternoon and the energy has left the building. Don’t start a new pot of coffee, though. Instead, have a tall glass of water maybe sparkling to add some pizza with lemon or another flavoring to bump up the mood. Your hydration state directly affects mood, memory, and visual perception, the British Journal of Nutrition reports.

10. When you have a headache

One of the top migraine triggers is dehydration. Some people report that even a slight dip in fluid intake can bring on an intense headache. It also can make you feel fuzzy, and in some cases even require medical treatment. Especially if you’re migraine-prone, keep a water bottle handy at all times and track your intake. If you feel a twinge coming on, a glass can save your day.

11. When You get up from bed

First thing in the morning is one of the best times to hydrate. Your body has gone through a long fast. For a simple jump start, squirt half a lemon in your first glass of a.m. water for a bright boost of antioxidant phytonutrients, vitamin C, and potassium.

12. Take enough water

More fluid is better for average, healthy adults. 15.5 cups a day is good for men, while 11.5 cups a day from all food and drinks is enough for most women. But this includes hydration from food and all beverage sources. Your own needs depend on your health, how much you need

13. Before your menstrual Period

One can ease premenstrual discomfort and reduce bloating by drinking lots of water before the period, as well as during. One of the biggest causes of cramps or headaches is dehydration. A recent study of young women with dysmenorrhea (very painful menstruation) found that drinking more water shortened their cycles, eased pelvic pain, and lessened their need for pain relief.

14. When you want to chop weight

Water is more than a calorie-free way to help yourself feel full. It may also rev up your metabolism. In one study, 50 girls with extra weight drank about 2 cups of water half an hour before breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no other changes in their diet. After 8 weeks, they lost weight and lowered their body mass index and body composition scores. Water also speeds up lipolysis, your body’s process of burning fat for energy

Conclusion

After reading through it, I hope these recommendations can help you know the best times to drink water in a day. Set yourself up for success in your routine. Implementing these small changes can make a world of difference in the long run.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 286: VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “what’s the record for most consecutive bone breaks within the span of a single minute” and, without waiting for an answer, proceeded to unleash roughly 17 Smashes onto Tomura. Kacchan was all “THAT DOES IT, I’M TAKING THE REINS OF THIS SHITSHOW” and carried Endeavor and Shouto up to where the action was so Endeavor could hit Tomura with a Prominence Burn. AFO was all “Tomura would you rather burn to death or let me take over your body” and Tomura was all “...” and so AFO TOOK OVER and was all “STABBITY STABBITY” and used his Stabbing Quirk to do some Good Old Fashioned STABBIN’. First he stabbed Endeavor, and then he was all “hee and now I’m gonna stab Deku”, but Kacchan was all “SIR THAT’S MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT RIVAL” and so he rushed on in AND GOT HIMSELF STABBED INSTEAD. And so basically THIS PAST WHOLE WEEK HAS BEEN A RIDE, LET ME TELL YOU.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all “sup Deku lemme just downplay how I totally took this fatal blow for you just now” before he dramatically passes out and is caught by Todoroki “BTDUBS I CAN FLY NOW” Shouto, who is also carrying his dad because the kids really are just doing it all, here. AllForRaki Tomura For One is all “HAHA BAKUGOU IS PRETTY DUMB”, at which point Deku just LOSES IT ENTIRELY and ASCENDS INTO A NEW PLANE OF FURY LIKE A LITTLE GREEN RAGE BUDDHA. But then like two seconds later Tomura is all “ANYWAY, SO” and FUCKING TOUCHES DEKU’S FACE, CAUSING THE TWO OF THEM TO ASTROPROJECT INTO THE FREAKY OFA/AFO MINDSCAPE BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS BANANAS. Vestige!AFO is all “reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated but aren’t you glad I saved your life though, Tomura”, while Tomura is all “!!” because he’s hopefully starting to get A Clue, and meanwhile Deku just stands there watching all “what the fuck.” The chapter ends with SHIMURA MCFUCKING NANA showing up all, “HI, I HEARD SOME BITCHES WERE TRYING TO HAVE A GIRL POWER ARC, AND THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME.” Go on, Nana. Give ‘em hell.

you guys. I’m not normally one to take pleasure in another human being’s misfortune. BUT THAT SAID, there are exceptions to every rule, and so let’s just say certain events have transpired early this morning which have PUT ME IN A VERY, LET’S JUST SAY, NOT-TERRIBLE MOOD which this chapter will hopefully improve upon!!

oh my god Deku’s one non-fucked-up eye that he still has control over is SO WIDE YOU GUYS

hmm I know I shouldn’t be all (゜▽゜) while the two of them are all (； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) ... and yet here we are. btw I’m worried tumblr’s formatting will ruin those two emojis which I worked so hard to get just right so I’m gonna repost them on another line here just in case

(； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) that’s them. Kacchan and Deku. my boys 

HERE COMES THE CHEESY “JUST GOT STABBED BETTER PLAY IT OFF ALL COOL!!!” ONE LINER OH MY GOD

(ETA: really love how my son, with what for all he knows could be his dying breaths, decides that the absolute most important thing is to preserve his selfish asshole facade so as not to fuck up his status quo with his rival. “LOOKEE HERE I GOT MYSELF ALL STABBED AND SHIT FOR YOU, BUT I TOTALLY JUST DID IT BECAUSE I WAS TIRED OF YOU GETTING ALL THE COOL HERO MOMENTS” yeah, that’s right! SELFLESS MOTIVATIONS, WHAT ARE THOSE sob.

also tbh I’m glad they didn’t delve any further into their feelings right here and now because this really isn’t the place or time for it sadly. WE WILL JUST PUT THOSE ON HOLD UNTIL AFTER THE ARC ENDS, when they are all recovering from their various wounds and traumas and have time to catch up and have some long-overdue heart-to-hearts. it deserves its own chapter or two or three. maybe time to head back to Ground Beta once they’re healthy? “healthy” perhaps being a relative term given their current condition fjsdjkf.)

by the way it looks from here like only the ones through his torso and shoulder actually hit, so that’s something at least. WE’VE LOST ENOUGH LEGS TODAY. I need to conserve my remaining puns

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS HAVING A CRISIS

ARE YOU MAD AT YOUR EVIL DAD TOMURA. HE JUST WON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER WILL HE, THAT GUY

anyway so it looks like Kacchan might have caught a break here because AFO/Tomura is pulling the stabby quirk activation tendril things back out! rip, “Kacchan vs. Deku part 3″ theories

p.s. I got ALL CAUGHT UP IN THE DRAMA and thus glossed over the chapter title which is “one among us”! hmmm this is definitely AFO/OFA related, calling it now. ooh lord I am excited

NOW MY SON IS DRAMATICALLY FALLING

THE BLOOD FROM THE MOUTH OOF NOT GOOD AHHHH. DEKU’S FACE AHHHH. HIS BODY JUST WENT TOTALLY LIMP DID HE PASS OUT AHHHH. SOMEONE CATCH HIM!!

BY HIS FOOT, SHOUTO?!

well NOT EXACTLY THE MOST GRACEFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN, but we’ll allow it because HOLY SHIT BOY. ARE YOU ALREADY CARRYING YOUR DAD ON TOP OF THAT?? HORIKOSHI PLEASE CONFIRM, IS TODOROKI MOTHERFUCKING SHOUTO FUCKING FLYING AROUND UNBALANCED AF ON HIS ONE FLAMEY LEG, CARRYING HIS 500 LB POP AND NOW HIS FLOPPY PASSED OUT BEST FRIEND AS WELL?!? HOLY SHIT TODO?!?!

LADIES AND GENTLEFRIENDS OF THE VILLAIN STANDOM, FEAR NOT, TOMURA’S HAIR IS THE FIRST THING THAT GREW BACK LOL

even before his eyeballs kfldkakjk. which, btw, how does he even know what’s going on right now? “this fight has shed a lot of useless blood” sdkmkjl okay well (1) WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT, AGAIN??, (2) SERIOUSLY THOUGH, HOW DOES HE EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU STABBED?? ARE YOU EFFECTIVELY BLIND FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS HERE, WHAT’S GOING ON, and lastly (3) I seriously can’t tell if this is AFO or Tomura talking right now. or are they going back and forth?? help this is so confusing

HEY

THE DISRESPECT. I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW KACCHAN ANGST IS NEVER USELESS!!

AND NOW HE’S BACK TO THE STABBING JFKJLKJLF I AM NOT TOO HAPPY WITH YOU RIGHT NOW MISTER

okay and now we’re cutting to some quick panels of the unconscious Aizawa, Gran, and Ryuukyuu, along with the “still conscious but in a very real sense might as well not be counted” Manual who is really having a day, that poor guy

anyway but then there’s also some dialogue boxes being all “if you act out of rage your power will respond accordingly, the most important part is to keep your head clear.” which I’m like 90% sure is Deku/OFA related, but honestly NOTHING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER IS CLEAR SO FAR YOU GUYS. except for the Shouto-is-a-badass part anyway

HMM YEP I’M GONNA GO WITH DEKU-RELATED

it must be a callback to some line I’m forgetting. maybe Lariat explaining Blackwhip to him that one time. probably should have been in italics if it was a flashback quote, but hey. anyways the point is Deku is absolutely, 100% following this advice to the letter (/s)

(ETA: yep I’m almost positive this is the same quote from chapter 213. “listen, when you use this power out of anger, it’ll really start working for you. what really matters is controlling your heart.” which is still one of the weirdest pieces of advice in the entire series, but basically I think he was just trying to tell him it’s okay to get mad, so long as it’s calmly mad. like, controlled fury, as opposed to this white-hot berserker nonsense he’s been running on as of late. anyways I do still love me some shounen rage all the same but Lariat has a point.)

...

it took me a minute to realize THOSE WERE DEKU’S EYES. holy --

AND ANOTHER MINUTE TO REALIZE THAT DEKU FUCKING GRABBED THE ACTIVATION TENDRIL WITH HIS BUSTED UP OFA HANDS AND BIT INTO IT WITH HIS RABID OFA JAWS AND SNAPPED THAT SHIT LIKE A FUCKING KITKAT KLJLKSJDLKJFLK WOOOOOOOO I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT GODDAMN. POWER MOVE

(ETA: this is a two-page spread omg. I didn’t even realize at first. this scan ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DO THIS BADASS PAGE ANY KIND OF JUSTICE but I can’t wait to see the real deal on Sunday holy shit.)

LMAO

DEKU RAGED SO HARD HE TURNED INTO AN ANGRY GHOST SONIC THE HEDGEHOG FKLSKG

(ETA: he actually looks a bit like the Vestiges/Kurogiri tbh.)

meanwhile Tomura basically has the exact same face I would have had in his position. yeah for real man. I don’t even know

p.s. WHEN will people learn to STOP INSULTING KACCHAN IN DEKU’S PRESENCE. WHEN, I ASK!!

WHAT IN THE CINNAMON TOAST FUCK

if this was a physical page I was holding I would have FLUNG THAT SHIT AWAY LIKE THERE WAS A SPIDER CRAWLING ON IT. WHAT THE FUCK

HOT DAMN. well uh. so that’s SUPER DISTURBING, what a lovely panel of Tomura’s melted face slowly growing back while his ears lag behind, and meanwhile that little scar that had been growing and growing and which at one point certain people (ME) thought might turn him into a BEAUTIFUL BUTTERLY instead RIPS HIS FACE IN HALF to reveal the KINDER EGG AFO SURPRISE UNDERNEATH AHHHHH TAKE IT BACK

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T LET MAD SCIENTISTS PERFORM EXPERIMENTS ON YOU, KIDS. PSA. JUST SAY NO

-- NO!!!

HORIKOSHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck

oh my god. I almost would have rather cut away right after the Kacchan incident than freaking cut away NOW of all times, jesus. THAT’S JUST A BITCH MOVE, IS WHAT THAT IS. if we don’t cut back within the next three pages I SWEAR TO GOD

anyway so GUESS WHAT GIGANTOMACHIA’S DOING YOU GUYS. if you guessed “the exact same thing he was doing last time we saw him” then you are absolutely right, because it was actually PRETTY EASY TO GUESS

anyway but he says he detects “master’s scent”, except that there’s apparently two of them. interesting! one in Tartarus and one in Jakku, right? lol Horikoshi has burned me so many times already with his excruciatingly slow reveal of this that I’m not gonna hold my breath just yet, but I’ll get the hype train warmed up JUST IN CASE

okay so meanwhile in downtown Jakku, the heroes are handing off the civilians over to the police and rescue forces while they prepare to engage with “the villain”, by which I assume they mean Gigantomachia. does this mean Iida and Ochako are gonna fight Machia you guys omg

OOH!!!

“PLEASE INFORM THEM ON FOOT” well I know a certain SPEEDY BOI who would be PERFECT for that job oh my. make haste, Tenyar FastmLeggy

WAIT WHICH WAY ARE THEY HEADING

ARE THEY HEADING TOWARDS MACHIA OR TOWARDS DEKU AND AFO

so rather than answering my VERY PERTINENT question, Ochako is instead spending an entire page thinking about how their complete clusterfuck of a life keeps getting exponentially worse all the time! well but she’s not wrong though

NOW SHE’S ALL “GUYS...!” and, rather than explaining ANYTHING AT ALL, Horikoshi is again cutting back to THIS, OMG AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: good thing Kacchan wasn’t awake to see his dramatic “I’ll just get myself impaled for Deku’s sake” plan result in this outcome ALL OF TWENTY SECONDS LATER smdh.)

I ACTUALLY PREFER MY DEKUS NON-CRUMBLED, THANKS. ALSO JUST ON A SIDE NOTE, POOR SHOUTO THOUGH. THE LAST NINETY SECONDS OR SO HAVE BEEN ENOUGH NIGHTMARE FUEL FOR A LIFETIME HAVEN’T THEY

so now he’s all “MIDORIYA!!!” because OF COURSE HE IS. his best friend just got impaled, and his dad too, and now he fully expects to see his other best friend crumble to dust right before his eyes holy shit. T R A U M A ™

-- !!!

somehow in the excitement of the moment I forgot his actual goal for a sec lol. meaning I instantaneously switched from HORRIFIED to GRINNING LIKE A MANIAC :D :D :D come on OFA time to show him what’s what

AND NOW WE’RE SWITCHING OVER TO EVERYONE’S FAVORITE TRIPPY DREAM LANDSCAPE FOR ADDITIONAL DRAMA, WELL OKAY

I’M ON BOARD WITH THIS, WHATEVER. also it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Deku is in fact nekkid underneath that mystical cloud bs, so let’s hope one of his remaining yet-to-be-unlocked quirks is a pants-conjuring quirk lulz

“this place...” yeah we all fucking know what this place is son, let’s get on with this. by my count we’ve only got four pages left so PLEASE BUDGET THEM WISELY

OH MY

holy shit. I have so many screaming thoughts about this lol but I just want to keep on reading lkjlkjlkjl okay I’ll come back later and edit them in, how’s that

OR MAYBE I’LL JUST RANT ABOUT THEM NOW GODDAMMIT

shit. okay let me just try and sum this up as quick as I can

so just in case it wasn’t already crystal clear, AFO’s soul being roommates with Tomura’s seems to be just about 100% confirmed now. good for you, All For One For All theory!! the “Kacchan loses his quirk” theory died so that you might live on in glory

AFO does seem to have almost fully taken control now. it looks like Tomura’s still fighting back, but AFO clearly has the upper hand now if their body language is any indication. Tomura on his knees with AFO calmly holding him down and ignoring his struggles... not looking too good for him at the moment

people seem to have somewhat lost sight of this in the midst of the great “heroes vs. villains Who Is Right Who Is Wrong What Are Morals” debate of 2020, but just a friendly reminder that AFO is in fact responsible for 100% of all of Tomura’s suffering from pretty much the moment he was born up till this very moment we’re now witnessing!! like, you can go ahead and blame Nana and Gran and The Complacent Apathy Of Hero Society and whatever the fuck else from here till Sunday, but All for One is the reason Kotarou was orphaned. All for One is almost certainly the reason why the seemingly quirkless Tenko suddenly just magically developed THE MOST FUCKED UP QUIRK OF ALL TIME at the worst possible moment. All for One is probably the reason why no one helped Traumatized Baby Tenko in the immediate aftermath (I can and likely will write a separate post about this in the near future). All for One is definitely the reason why no one helped Tenko at any point after that. All for One is the reason why Tenko grew up all fucked in the head (“HERE’S YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S HANDS, MERRY CHRISTMAS”), and the reason why he grew up blaming Heroes and Society rather than the sole person who was actually responsible who was literally standing right in front of him the entire time. and lastly, All for One is the reason why Tomura has now been manipulated into unknowingly sacrificing his own body and possibly even his mind. so THANKS A LOT FOR THAT. more like jerk for one amiright

basically what I’m trying to say is that Deku and Tomura are not actually enemies here, and they never have been. the two of them have a common enemy, and I’m convinced Tomura’s story is about him eventually coming to realize this. and this looks to be the first step towards that, for two reasons. one, because AFO is finally starting to out himself to Tomura as the rat bastard he has always been. and two, because Deku is catching a glimpse of this now for the very first time. up until now he didn’t have a damn clue lol. but this is now something for him to file away in the back of his mind, and perhaps follow up on at a later date, once all of this craziness finally subsides and he has some time to process

anyway, so that’s basically it! tl;dr AFO is the final villain and unless I’m very much mistaken, this scene is going to finally start to set that up. let’s read on!

OMG

NANA?!?

lKDSJFLKSHGLISHDOGIHOLRKL

NOOOOOO I can’t believe it fucking ended there I can’t fucking believe it, fuck everything

smdh. what a place to end it. didn’t confirm a damn thing. not even whose mental landscape all of this is actually taking place in! like, don’t mind me though Horikoshi, it’s not like THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGES ON THIS QUESTION OR ANYTHING except oh wait it really kind of does. kljkj

but seriously. because if it’s Deku’s mind, it means that Tomura’s attempt to take his quirk wasn’t successful. but if it’s Tomura’s mind, though... well... hhhhhhkhfff

or it could be both, I guess. more of that “AFO and OFA are the same quirk and thus linked” goodness. oh man. anyways stay tuned for next week when Nana presumably helps Deku out with the rest of that black fog and also hopefully finds him some pants. or maybe Nana can just go fight AFO herself. a little payback for everything he’s done to her protege and to her grandson. either way I CAN’T WAIT omg. VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

[universitypenguin]

What happened to u? U okay?

Hello!

First off, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it and I needed it after the past two days. To answer your question - I'm doing great.

I don’t have a lot of context about your question, but I’m guessing your concern is due to my recent blocking spree. A day ago, I went through my followers list and found some minors. I’ve previously seen smut fanfic writers concerned by underage people interacting with their posts. Until I had to block a few of them, I wasn’t aware how uncomfortable it would make me feel.

Since the blocking spree, I've had a lot of thoughts. I'm about to spew them everywhere. You might regret asking me if I was okay. Sorry about that. No one needs to read this whole manifesto about my rollercoaster of emotions the past few days. But in the interest of transparency, I'm posting this very long note.

What I want my readers to know is the following:

Tumblr is both a place for fanfiction and a social media site.

When I interact with followers and write explicit content, I have to be careful about what I'm saying and who I'm saying it to.

I don't intend to block or purge my followers in the future.

As long as I appropriately tag and put warnings on my work, that is adequate protection for my blog. Everything I write containing explicit content is tagged.

However, I won't interact with users who don't have an age stated in their bio.

There have to be boundaries, given the content of my writing. But I've also come around to the realization that I'm not capable of policing every interaction. Tumblr is a public forum. Minors following me makes me uncomfortable. But by the same token, my work is clearly labeled at 18+ and so is my blog.

There's a lot of explicit content out there for minors if you really think about it. In my high school freshman English class we talked about the book "The Color Purple." Believe me, that was explicit and we were only 14. Any minor with a library card and a Google browser can access a lot more intense content than what I write. I hope they're all being safe, but I can't have a melt down blocking spree again.

I'm not a cop, I'm not a parent, and what minors consume is down to them and the adult responsible for them. If I know someone is a minor I'll block them, should I notice they're trying to interact with me. Otherwise, I'm not purging my followers ever again. It's too much drama. I'd rather leave Tumblr than do that twice. I'm tired and I'm starting to work on my post graduate classes, I work full time in a demanding job, I'm in the process of editing my novel, and trying to keep up with my personal life. Quite literally, I don't have time to block. Writing fanfic is supposed to be my fun time. Let's keep it that way.

Due to the fact that some people I blocked were later unblocked after I took a closer look at their blogs, I'm posting a full explanation below. A quick summary is this:

After only writing for three months, I'd amassed 500 followers. On Monday I blocked almost 200 of them. Then I reviewed my block list and editing down some people who were prematurely blocked. [I assume the anon is one of the unblocked who had me disappear from their dash. Sorry!] This blocking thing isn't sustainable. In the future I'll run my blog differently as far as interaction goes in an effort to be responsible.

Continue reading for the saga of:

The Great Blocking Spree and Existential Crisis of an Erotic Fanfic Writer.

The Blocking Spree:

On Monday I realized a thirteen year old was following me and interacting with my work. This creeped me out.

*Commence blocking spree*

Then I realized how daunting my followers list was. I had 500 followers prior to Monday. That day I blocked about 200 people (some of them prematurely - more on that later.) So after the daunting task of trying to assume, to check bios for ages, to review blog content and determine the user's age, I was tired. Today, I even took a moment to reconsider if I wanted to use Tumblr. Because if all this is my responsibility, maybe I don't have the time or dedication to manage it. When I can be chill, I try to be. This attitude also affected by blocking. It contributed to me unblocking people. When I was doing the blocking spree, I'd give people with no age in their bio a fair shot by reviewing their posts.

I blocked some bot accounts, then a bunch of blank blogs, some ambiguous people who very well could be of age. For the first 100 followers I was pretty aggressive. Then my attention span dropped off and I was a bit more ambivalent. I realized I was doing a crappy job of moderating and wondered what the point was.

The point was that the thirteen year old interacting with my work freaked me out. When I found two sixteen year old followers, it pushed me to continue the purge.

So on I go, blocking. I'm so responsible for doing this, right? But my methodology is crap. What is context for being an adult? Someone had posted about budgeting advice. I thought the budgeting advice was too good for it not to have come from an adult. But my father's a financial advisor and to be honest, I could have given that level of advice at fifteen just from osmosis. Someone had pictures of themselves entering their marijuana plants in the Oregon State Fair. Okay, you've got to be over 18. I didn't block them. Someone else complained about their stats professor and I didn't block them. But in retrospect, one of my high school friends got permission to take college level math courses when we were seniors. She was seventeen when she had a stats professor. The thought circles back - what am I accomplishing here? Next, I went back and unblocked someone who ranted about her Tinder matches being 60 year old men. I wondered if their post was even real. I've lied on the internet before. Nonetheless, I persisted and worked through all 500 followers. When I was done I had 312 followers left.

Post Blocking Spree Existential Crisis:

I know that all the blocking in the world can't stop a teenager who wants to read smut fanfic. I'm not much for posting on social media and I'm not used to a lot of anonymous interaction online. Honestly, I got rid of my SM accounts during college when I felt it was wasting my time. This is the first time I've really use a social media site to post content since college. My twitter account is unused, my Instagram is for close personal friends only, and my TikTok is for mindless consumption of cat videos. (I've trained the algorithm to feed me only cat videos, it's great and I highly recommend it.) I don't post on TikTok, so I don't consider it full use, just lurking.

Okay, Alice, get back to the point....

Right, being anonymous on social media. My blocks are a fence and it's based on self identification from the blogs that follow me. I have little faith in underage consumers to out themselves. I have even less faith in their honesty or respect for an adult's boundaries. They're at a stage in life where they want to push the boundaries. Telling them no is all but inviting them in. I did my blocking spree because I was worried about backlash from someone's parents. But what reasonable judge would come after a fanfic writer? Come on. Logical thoughts but me emotional distress was still brewing.

Why I am the one responsible for who clicks the follow button on my blog? I've always clearly identified what I write and tagged my work as smut.

That thought snapped me out of my whirlwind of anxious thoughts. So I started looking into the laws. My regular work involves medicine, not the legal profession, so I was lost. I found some state level laws that made me glad I'd gone on a blocking spree. California and Florida have specific language in their laws about 'providing minors with explicit content.' But what exactly is that? What I researched applied to the following activities: co-writing smut fanfic with other people, sexting, roleplaying and online messaging.

I run a fanfic blog with limited interaction. I've never done an ask. I don't roleplay on here and I don't want to.

The blocks weren't personal. They were partly based on the awareness that Tumblr is an interactive site and a place that's had a problem with child pornography in the past. But I'm not the smut police. I suck at blocking, and I doubt I did a good job of purging my followers list. This is when it hit me that boundaries are only what I can enforce. They've never been about how other people relate to me, only how I relate to them. (Wow. I've never sounded more like my mother in my life...) After this thought, I started considering what actions I ought to take if I wanted to keep posting fanfic on Tumblr.

My Post Blocking Spree Clarity...

It's up to me who I interact with. I don't have to reply to every comment and re-blog, but I'd like to. I'm stuck between wanting to write for everyone and handling interactions on a social media site that's mostly anonymous.

The fact remains: I can't be the smut police because I suck at it.

What I've decided is that I'll make it very clear on my blog that this is an 18+ space where I publish erotic fanfiction. Smut will always be appropriately marked. I'm not going to interact with reviews, re-blogs, and messages from accounts who don't have their age in their profile. I won't include them in my tag list either. The internet is a public forum. Just as with publishing erotica, once it's out there online for download, it's done. As a ghost writer and an author, I don't control who buys my original fiction, which is just as spicy as my fanfiction. (Trust me, it's explicit. I once had a romance editor tell me I should dial it back on the smutty parts of a novel because "it's a lot of sex for a non-erotica market.") The key difference on Tumblr is about interaction. And that's something I can control. I can decide when I reply to other users. What brought me around to this was the realization that even after the blocking spree, I can't review every single like I get. That's an amount of time and mental energy that's beyond me. Just the past two days have been exhausting and sapped my will to write. Which sucks because I need to go write the next chapter of "Restitution" before tomorrow.

I think the reasons I went on the blocking spree are nuanced. The thirteen year old freaked me out. So did the other underaged people who had ages in their bios. But it also relates to my work. In my job I've seen some nasty child abuse cases. Early on in my career, when I was a 23 year old new hire, I was working on an autopsy for a child abuse victim who'd been murdered by their parent. It was so terrible and graphic, I had to ask one of my older colleagues to take the case. This colleague didn't like me. But she took one look at my face and took the file. She closed out the review without a question and never brought it up again to anyone. I was very grateful. Where I used to work (and where this incident took place) was a major city that holds the unfortunate title of being the human trafficking capital of the US. And something I learned working there was that most human trafficking victims go with their captors willingly. In two years at that job, I never saw one who'd been kidnapped from a dark alley like you see on TV. They were all groomed on social media and thought they were escaping their families (who were often overbearing, toxic, or dysfunctional) for a get away with friends. It was a fun adventure with their internet buddies, until it wasn't.

In retrospect, the underage interaction I found on my blog made me react because of what I've been through. The autopsy case kept coming back to me today while I was at work and I've finally untangled my emotions enough to figure out what caused my melt down. When I was blocking, I was feeling an anxious motivation that I know can only stem from the stress I deal with at my job. Don't feel sorry for me about this - I know my work in medicine helps a lot of people and it's a tremendously satisfying career.

Our Saga's Resolution & How I'm Going to Deal With This In The Future...

- - - - -

In post block clarity, I offer this conclusion:

I'm writing on a public forum. My work is appropriately tagged as smut. In the future, I will also use the tag #no minors to help with filtering. I've always asked underage people not to interact. And on a public forum, what more can I reasonably do? Going forward I will only interact with those who have their age posted in their bio. But blocking sprees and policing every interaction isn't feasible.

I'll review how I'm going to run my tag lists as well. I need to think it over and let my followers know my decision as to if I'll continue using them. Because tagging is definitely interaction and my current tag list was not screened at all. *face palm*

Finally, to my readers who have blank blogs or don't have an age listed. I respect your right to privacy and I'm careful with my personal information as well. But I've also had an uncomfortable two days. If you've lasted through this venting session until now, you must understand that I'm upset by underage interaction. I'm setting my own boundaries and going forward, I'll own my side of the internet. No interaction from me, unless I know your age. Full stop - no exceptions. I think it is reasonable for me to suggest that you leave something on your blog that signifies you are not a minor, whatever that may be. Someone who I didn't block that stands out in my memory had a bio that said "90s baby." It was simple, direct, and left no doubt they were over 18. No age reveal and not even a name. If you put something like this on your blog it'll help explicit content creators feel more comfortable about their interactions.

I went on a spree this Monday and I admit to being heavy handed and aggressive about pruning followers. I had an emotional reaction due to work stress and I didn't think things through logically. I'm relieved for the chance explain myself and set new boundaries that I'm capable of sticking to in the future. But remember - the block button is on my side of the screen. At the end of the day, you might be unhappy with me for the block, but it's my button, it's my blog, and I'll use it as I see fit.

Thank you for reading.

[monysmediareview]

Juliet, a novel by Ann Fortier Review

This time I have a review for a one-off book rather than a series for you guys and it may have actually reached the top of my list for favorite books ever. Juliet, a novel by Anne Fortier was so incredibly good I worry I’ll never be able to fully describe the way it made me feel reading it. I read this book incredibly slow because the idea of finishing it made me so upset; I didn’t want it to end but also found myself thinking about it constantly.

The Shakespeare of it All

When I found this book at goodwill, I figured I’d grab it just to see what it was. Having a degree in theatre and having studied Shakespeare in Europe, I even work for a Shakespeare specific theatre; I figured it would at the very least be interesting. And I was right, but for the wrong reasons. Shakespeare is barely mentioned as the book is actually about the true story of Romeo & Juliet.

If you don’t already know, Shakespeare stole the story of Romeo & Juliet from an Italian poet who wrote the story in the early to mid 1500’s. That story may have also been stolen from another author from France, and maybe even someone else before that. Thanks to the lack of records or copyright laws, there’s not really a way to be sure but we do know that Shakespeare was not the first, only the most famous. And to be fair, his story is much more intense since it takes place over the course of less than a week while the original plot takes months. There are a few other differences between the two but the gist of it is, two star crossed lovers separated by family feuds and ending in tragedy. And this book takes us through all of that drama and gives us a beautiful and dramatic ending to it all.

The Real Story

Some of the things I loved about this book were actually the historical events and characters. The three families in the story, the Tolomeis, the Salimbenis, and the Marescottis were apparently all real families that had feuds and stories fairly similar to what happened in this book. Fortier wrote in her authors note that she did take some liberties with the history for the sake of the story but that she tried to be faithful to them. I do highly suggest reading her author’s note if you get the book because for me, it made it that much more special.

I think that her ability to blend the past and present was well executed and emotional in ways I wasn’t expecting. I really felt the connection between the Romeo and Giulietta of 1340 and the Romeo and Guiletta of the early 2000’s. Her ability to connect these people not only by blood but by fate and destiny and emotion and passion is unmatched and she managed to do it in roughly 500 pages.

Divine Intervention

I am normally not a fan of books with religious undertones, especially without some kind of supernatural explanation to it but in Juliet it really didn’t strike me as prevalent even though it was. The Virgin Mother and the “curse on both your houses” are two huge driving forces behind this story. Both felt like completely natural pieces of the puzzle rather than an overbearing push for Catholic guilt which could have easily been the case in a story set in Italy spanning 600 years with generational family drama. There was a real feeling of the Virgin Mother being the overseer of the fate of these people and bringing them together, to righting the wrongs done in the past. In a lot of other books this might have felt preach-y or overbearing but it actually made fate feel real.

Love Story

I’m a sucker for a good romance book; I will read love story after love story after love story, but even I can get tired of the same plot over and over again. Sometimes the misogyny gets tiring and I want these female led stories to be about more than finding a man to complete them and this book gave me exactly that.

The story starts and ends with Julie Jacobs’ family. She needs to learn about her family, about her history, where she’s really from. I got so sucked into her journey of self discovery that I kind of forgot it was a love story for a while. And that kind of messed me up when we got there because I had missed a lot of the chemistry build up that I had to think back about to even realize it was there. I was so focused on her learning about her father and visiting banks and libraries that I nearly missed her falling completely in love. But in the end it was one of the most passionate and tumultuous love stories, because when you’re Romeo & Juliet, how could you have anything else?

My Personal Opinion on R&J

Following that I want to talk quickly about Romeo & Juliet. If you’ve taken a Shakespeare class or even just a high school English class at some point you’ve probably talked about this. Sometimes it gets glossed over because it’s one of the well known stories and they don’t usually waste time on it but I’m going to.

Classes like this tend to brush these lovers off as horny teenagers who are in lust and get married so they can bone each other but I think that’s a sad approach. I’ll even admit that was my view on it for a while, but not now. It’s a love story. It’s the love story. So to read an in depth story like this that doesn’t diminish the real feelings they had for each other was very pleasing. I might write a whole thing about some of my Shakespeare opinions one day but for now I will leave you with this:

To thine own self be true. Shakespeare is theatre. It isn’t mean to be read, it’s meant to be staged. And the beauty of theatre is that every single production of every play is different (at least it’s supposed to be. Some directors have yet to learn this, but I digress). This means that everyone interprets things differently, so while I think Romeo & Juliet are the ultimate lovers, you might think they were just horny teenagers. And that’s okay.

Generational Drama

Generational stories like this hold a special place in my heart. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but the idea of fate and family and stories that span hundreds of years just really get me. I won’t go on about this too much because I’ve already mentioned it a few times but I love the redemption that Romeo and Guilietta get through their ancestors, even if it was 600 years later. I love that their love lasted generations and the thought of how the spirits of the original couple feel looking at themselves, their ancestors, finally bringing their families together chokes me up a little if I’m being honest.

Alessandro

I was really not counting on Alessandro being such an important piece of this story, but his evolution as a character was a fucking ride. Going from a security guard/driver, to basically an undercover cop, to potential lover, to fake identity, to actual lover, to liar and cheat, to being framed and actually being a lover and savior was intense. Ideal. I loved and hated him through the whole thing but I was very happy with where he ended up.

Symbolism

There is so much symbolism in this book. The gems being the color of their eyes, the golden statues, the paintings, the maestros. All of it. It can be found on almost every page. But there were a few that really stood out to me.

The cencio and dagger constantly popping up as important of the story for Giulietta was not lost on me. I’m still tossing around what I think it really means, actually, but where I stand now is the idea of an official marriage and what makes it official in the eyes of the Virgin Mother. Romeo and Giulietta weren’t considered actually married because they never consummated and it didn’t happen on the cencio if it had. So for it to have been hidden in Julie’s bed after that weird secret ceremony with Alessandro, was interesting because they also weren’t really married. Not the way we think of now. It just shows that marriage isn’t defined by sex (which I think futher proves my point that this was never just about horny teenagers. As well as the entirety of this book), or by words. Marriage is defined by love and commitment.

And then there’s the River Diana. Another thing I haven’t quite landed on a full meaning for, but I know what it made me feel. It’s hard to put into words, but the first word that came to mind was literally symbolism. This story, this curse, killed Diana, Julie’s mother. And now Julie made it to the statue, and she found her Romeo and in the moment that she almost dies it’s by drowning in the River Diana. This whole time she was drowning in what her mother started for her and it’s Alessandro that pulls her out and saves her from it. Being with him is what keeps her alive, from being swept away by this curse the way her mother was. So maybe it’s symbolic of the end. Of not falling into the same pattern or being swept into the same current.

Plot Twists

This story never went where I thought it was going to go. I don’t actually want to talk about the plot twists too much because I want people reading this to be as surprised as I was. Not like I didn’t spoil things before but there are still quite a few things I didn’t mention that really fucked me up if I’m being honest.

If you’re a fan of plot twists, please read this book.

Ye Olde Slow as Hell Language

I don’t want to scare anyone off here - most of the book is in modern language and even the parts that take us back to 1300 aren’t that bad. But they are far more detailed and can sometimes just feel really slow. But all of the information is really important so I wouldn’t skip it. But the language and the flow of the story really slows things down in these parts and it’s what made me take so long to finish this book. Well that and the fact that I just wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I finished it too soon.

However, I will give the author credit for having parallel story lines set so far apart. She really pulled it off and made the entire thing just so magical. By the time they died, I didn’t want to leave that world. I wanted to stay and watch them be happy but then I got to go back to Julie and watch her get her happily ever after

Janet’s Character Development

Right off the bat we’re supposed to hate Janet. And we do. She’s awful and when she shows back up we kind of hate her even more because of what she’s been doing. I didn’t feel sorry for her in the slightest. Up until the last few chapters of the book, these twin sisters felt very estranged so to go from that to them being a fantastic duo that you root for was a twist I wasn’t ready for but whole heartedly welcomed. It was a nice change of pace to see a female character arc into a better person instead of someone who got increasingly bitter. Still not a huge fan of the character but she ended up being kind of important and at least it passed the Betchdel test, right?

In Conclusion

I think this might be my favorite book now. High recommend.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans + Horror Movies = Nightmare fuel for psychic aliens.

Recently been on a binge of watching how alien species would react to humanity finally getting into the galactic scale of things and decided to write a short story of what happens when a psychic species attempts to mess around with a human who loves horror movies.  The Confederation of Basalva was the largest political body in the universe, spanning nearly some 500 different species, 4,000 planets, and numerous other asteroids belts, moons, and gas fields across the cosmos for the last five millennia. It's authority was regarded no less than that of an actual god. A fact that the Flinchestet had been counting on for their end game. The Flinchestet were among some of the newest members to the confederation, but despite this they had already carved out a significant power base within the confederation. Tall slender figures with pale white skin and limbs as thin as bamboo stalks, they moved gracefully and appeared almost angelic. They towered over many of the other species but given their appearance came off as frail and harmless, which was exactly what they wanted. Their real power didn't come from a large army or superior economy, nor did it come from any physical traits or great deeds they had performed in the past, no. Their power was in their well hidden psychic abilities which allowed them to subtly influence other species to do their bidding. During the mass gathering of the entire Confederation on the planet Omnicron, the seat of the governments power, they would gently probe the minds of other species and being altering their mindset so that they believed their peoples best interest lay in whatever the Flinchestet wanted. Through these tactics they had quietly altered several dozen counselors from different planets to voting with them and now were growing to a steady 1/3 majority of the entire confederation with their end goal to usurp the entire body to their will. They had played the long game to avoid the risk of discovery, but even those that did suspect them of their fowl play dared not risk raising the issue for fear of being set upon by the Flinchestet. So when humanity finally was allowed to join the ranks of the confederation no one dared warn them of the danger they now put themselves in. Despite mastering space travel and carving out a semi pocket empire of their own, humanity had been denied entry into the Confederation of Basalva for several decades. It wasn't until after humanity helped in defeating the Morimani invasion that their skills were recognized and they were granted a seat. Some felt it a fitting reward for their sacrifice, while more felt it was wise to keep such a trained warlike species close by to help whenever conflict arose. For the Flinchestet, they saw an easy target to increase their power base once again with little effort, judging that human minds were simplistic and malleable. So as the shuttle carrying the first ambassadors of humanity landed on Omnicron they were greeted by the several other ambassadors, foremost among them the female Flinchestet ambassador Raksula. Humphrie stepped down the staircase from the shuttle on to the red carpet followed shortly by his aides, advisers, and co ambassador Morgan. At the end of the carpet stood a group of aliens of whom he could guess were other representatives. He damn near tried to go over the briefing about the other ambassadors, but he was having trouble pronouncing their names let alone matching them to faces yet. At the front of the group stood a tall slender figure in robes that both spoke of modesty and yet still carried an air of superiority. "Watch out," Morgan whispered in his ear, "they might be playing "Rush the freshman"." Humphrie couldn't help but chuckle before coughing to cover it up. "Now's not the time to be making jokes you old sage." "True, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be cautious. Would you have expected such a welcome wagon?" Morgan said as his gaze stretched across the crowd of figures. "Yes, it does seem a bit much for a welcome party. Best to get on with it though instead of standing here in plane sight whispering to each other like we're already plotting on who to kill." Humphrie moved forward down the carpet and finally reach the robed figure in the front and bowed. He pulled out a translator unit and attached it to his throat. "I am the ambassador of earth, it is an honor to meet you all." The robed figure matched the bow before reaching out with a hand. "I am ambassador Raksula and the honor is ours to meet such a fierce species who came to us in our time of need." Humphrie took the hand and shook it, though Morgan couldn't help but notice a momentary freeze on Humphire 's part after touching Raskula. Raskula put her hand behind Humphrie and motioned to the other ambassadors present before introducing them. Morgan had hoped that the games wouldn't start right off the bat, but it was clear that they would need to be on their toes at such a brazen power move so early. By having Raskula introduce the others instead of letting them introduce themselves, she was making it clear who was in charge. Despite now being on the galactic stage, it seemed that the same tricks were used even now. Morgan made a mental note to do research on Raskula hoping to find out if she was playing a game or just being nice. As the group of ambassadors moved away with Humphrie and Raskula in the front, Morgan new only time would tell him his answer. ----------------- In any event it took nearly three months before Morgan was sure there was something wrong. At the first few sessions whenever Humphrie  put forward a motion Raskula and her followers would second it and then vote in its favor. This went on steadily for the first two weeks before things changed and Raskula began making motions and Humphrie  would second them despite in most cases being counter productive to not just humanity but other species as well. Morgan cornered Humphrie in his office by the fifth month after having seen Humphrie  just vote in favor of the impartial servitude clause. "Are you mad Humphrie?" Morgan near shouted at him as he sat behind his desk. "You've just seconded a motion for a slavery bill! Do you have any idea the shitstorm you just walked into?!?" Humphrie  put his hand on his chin while nodding, his eyes appearing as if he was watching something far off in the distance. "It's not a slavery bill, it's a bill to make those who default on payments to the Flinchestet repay them with servitude until the debt is paid." "My god man, you really have lost it!" Morgan swept his arm across the desk sending papers and awards flying into the wall. "Flinchestet loans are stacked with such high interest that unless you pay it back in one payment you are stuck with an ever increasing debt for the rest of your life! Then there's the clause that states that all offspring shall have the debt transferred to them in the event of the original recipient dying before the debt is paid off." "The Flinchestet have been good to us." Humphrie said as if he was reading a line from a script. "We must honor their support by supporting them."   Mogan's hand struck Humphrie's face so hard that he flew from his chair and struck the ground. Morgan was about to unleash another string of blows and insults for his friends stupidity when he took a closer look at Humphrie and stopped. He expected some sort of rebuttal or at least a fist fight to break out after taking the blow, but Humphrie was just laying on his hands and knees staring around blankly like he just fell out of bed. "Where am I?" he murmured, his hand pinching the brow of his nose and blinking rapidly. Morgan walked around the desk to Humphrie and crouched down in front of him. "Wha do you mean where are you, you're in your office you idiot. So get up I'm not done thrashing you out!" Humphrie looked up at Morgan as if he was seeing him for the first time after years apart. "Morgan?" Humphrie's voice soft and questioning as if he wasn't sure of himself. "What are we doing here? Weren't we just on the shuttle pad?" "I see I hit you so hard I sent you back in time." Morgan remarked as he hauled Humphrie to his feet. "That was near five months ago." "Really? That long?" Humphrie was gazing around the room now and Morgan knew something was wrong. "You better not be fraking with me now Humphrie, this isn't some joke right?" "I swear it isn't." Humphrie felt like his legs were turning to jelly all of a sudden and he sat back down in his chair. "What's the last thing you remember?" Humphrie's mouth opened and closed several times, his expression as if he was desperately searching his own memory for an answer. "I remember stepping off the shuttle with you and then walking down the carpet." "Anything else?" Humphrie closed his eyes tight and spoke "Then I bowed to Raskula and shook her hand. Then..then.." "What?" Morgan was convinced now something was off. He could tell Humphrie was showing signs of memory loss but the timing made no sense. "After I shook her hand a door opened up." "A door you say?" "Yes, but to the strangest room I'd ever been to." Morgan sat down opposite him. "How so?" "There was art on the walls, but it wasn't like pictures. It was like I was looking at moments from my past. And Raskula was there too." "What did she do?" Morgan had a good picture now of what had happened but needed final confirmation. "She was talking to me, pointing out instances of my past that were bad and how they could make them better." "Well frak man, sounds like you got brainwashed." Morgan said calmly. Humphrie just stared at the ceiling for a long time. "There was a time when I'd say that was horse shite, but we traveled half way across the cosmos." He sighed loudly before turning his gaze to Morgan, his eyes suddenly looking like he hadn't slept for weeks. "What should I do?" Morgan sat in silence for a long time before standing up, walking to the other side of the desk and placing his hand on Humphrie's shoulders. "Don't you worry my friend, I've got this. Just stay in your office and I'll take care of this." ------------ The main chamber was the size of a football stadium and was packed with ambassadors. Raskula was sitting in the corner surrounded by her faction members. Her satisfaction at the coming events was well hidden, but soon there would no longer be a need to hide behind masks. The bill she had put forward would ensure the servitude of all species that failed to pay back loans of the Flinchestet. The vote had been close even with nearly 1/3 of the body was firmly under her control and would vote however she wanted. What had really swung the vote for her was snagging the human ambassador. His species reputation had earned them some credit  and other species respected them enough to vote however the human voted. Their minds were far easier to manipulate that she had imagined and now with this vote the Flinchestet would be one step closer to securing total domination of the cosmos. As the final representatives began shuffling in Raskula peered over to where the human would be and rose in surprise. Ambassador Humphrie was no were to be seen and in his place was another human. Morgan, Raskula recalled, that was his name. She could barely remember his name, though she hadn't cared to fully learn after snaring the ambassador. The gong of summons was sounded and the magistrate took the stand. "The representatives are gathered and this session is now called to order to vote upon the bill put forward by ambassador  Raskula." This was bad, though Raskula. Without the human vote the measure would fail and failure was not acceptable. "A point of order my dear magistrate." Raskula spoke as she stood. "It seems we are still missing ambassador Humphrie. With such an important measure I would ask that we wait until he arrives." The magistrate turned from his high podium to gaze upon Morgan. Upon meeting the gaze Morgan bowed. "I beg your pardon magistrate and fellow ambassadors. Ambassador Humphrie has fallen ill and will not be able to be here at this time." "I do hope ambassador Humphrie is not in serious danger." Raskula said realizing she'll need her fallback plan. "I move we postpone the vote on the Flinchestet servitude bill until ambassador Humphrie recovers and can return considering he was a co-sponsor of the bill." Those ambassadors that hung on her every words all nodded their head and she felt assured she had avoided disaster. "You make a fair point ambassador." the magistrate said before turning back to Morgan. "Do you accept this proposal?" Morgan smiled and put his hand up in the air. "That is very kind of you to suggest, but ambassador Humphrie felt this vote was of such importance that I be given representation in his stead which is allowed by the Confederations regulations as I am the second ambassador of humanity." The magistrate nodded and turned back to Raskula. "The human is correct, he has the right as the second ambassador to cast a vote in the event of the first ambassador being unavailable." "Those fraking idiots!" Raskula screamed in her head. She had no sway over this second ambassador and she could not risk a vote of this importance being left to chance. If she could just touch him she could imprint enough subliminal messages to ensure he'd vote however she wanted, though he may turn brain dead afterwards. "Very well then magistrate." Raskula said, a final idea coming to her. "Though I have only briefly met ambassador Morgan I that I should welcome him in his species customary greeting to celebrate his first official vote in this hollowed hall." Thankfully that customary greeting was a "handshake" as they called it which gave her the best chance to subvert him and secure her victory. "That is most kind of you ambassador. I would gladly shake the hand of such an esteemed member of this government." Morgan said as he smiled. Raskula rose from her seat and quickly went to Morgan's place, extending her hand as she got close. Morgan stuck out his hand and grasped her hand and the world went dark.... Raskula had done this countless times and this would be no different, or so she thought. Morgan's expression never changed from a harmless smile but his grip tightened around Raskula's to the point of pain. Hardly any of the other ambassadors were paying attention to the interaction until Raskula started screaming. No one in the Confederation had ever seen a Flinchestet in pain or heard them cry out in pain, many assumed they had no concept of pain. That was quickly dispelled as Raskula let out a ear screeching scream. Morgan still stood motionless and smiling as Raskula collapsed to her knees and began desperately trying to free her grasp from Morgan's hand. The screaming continued for several more moments before to everyone's horror red gashes began forming slowly across Raskula's body. Like someone was slowly taking their time to cut into the alien flesh with a scalpel. Green blood began dripping from the wounds as more and more gashes began appearing across her body and her struggles began becoming more feral. In roughly a minute after Morgan had grasped Raskula's hand she collapsed to the ground bleeding from a dozen wounds that had appeared out of thin air. "Someone help!" Morgan shouted, quickly going to his knees to cradle Raskula. "The ambassador is hurt! Please, someone call a doctor!" Raskula stared in horror at Morgan before the room slowly turned black and she faded out of existence. --------------------- Raskula slowly stirred from her sleep. She felt weak, frail. Her limbs would barely respond when she tried to move them and with far greater effort then she thought she needed she opened her eyes. She was laying in a bed of some sort, wires stuck in her running to nearby machines which she could only assume were some sort of medical device. It didn't take long to put two and two together to figure out she was in a hospital, but how had she got here? "I'm glad to see you're finally awake." A voice came from the beside her. She slowly turned her head and saw Morgan sitting in a chair next to her bedside. Upon seeing him a cascade of horror and nightmares came flooding back to her and she felt an unworldly sense of dread and despair. She opened her mouth to scream but Morgan shushed her and put a hand over her mouth. "I don't think we need a repeat of what happened in the assembly room, do we?" His smile never left his face which made her sense of anguish even worse. "Nod your head if you agree, then be quiet and listen." The pain she felt was still as fresh as when she first shook his hand and she had no desire to repeat that. She nodded her head and Morgan removed his hand. "Good. Now you're probably wondering what the hell happened to you aren't you?" Morgan sat down and continued without even bothering to wait for her response. "You see, I found out what you did to Humphrie and let me tell you I was very upset. So I did some more research on your species and a better picture began to form about your powers." "You have the ability to invade peoples minds and begin making suggestions to them that will eventually take root and alter their character for good." Morgan chuckled as he continued. "That's a very, very impressive power you have; but it also gives you away for it's greatest weakness." Morgan leaned forward so Raskula could get a clear view of his eyes. "You have to go inside someone else's mind for it to work. So with that knowledge, I made sure to watch a few dozen of the most gruesome, bloody, sadistic, depraved, and horrifying horror movies I could find and watched them for days until they were all I could think about every waking moment." Raskula was on the verge of throwing up as she remembered what she went through when she invaded his mind. Instead of seeing past memories of Morgan's life she saw an empty room with a strange table in the center of the room. The door she had entered had slammed behind her trapping her in his mind, something she had never experienced before. The next thing she knew she was strapped down to a table unable to move as a hooded figure leaned over and began cutting her, over and over. After what felt like an eternity the rooms floor fell away and she felt like she was falling helplessly until splashing into a body of water. She barely had the strength to reach the surface to gasp for air when she saw she was in the ocean with a small island close by. She felt something behind her and she turned to see a massive shadow swimming beneath the water heading towards her. She began swimming to the island hoping that she could make it to shore and be safe. She turned around again to see if the monster was still there and all she saw was row upon row of sharp teeth clenching down on her limbs. She felt intense pain as it pulled, tugged, and ripped at her flesh and drew her down into the dark depths of the ocean. As it got deep enough she found herself once again falling back into the ocean repeating the whole situation again. Each time she scrambled for the shore, hoping each time it would be different, and each time failing and feeling herself being ripped to shreds. After that different scenarios played out one after the other, each more painful than the last until she felt what bits of her sanity crumbling. Raskula began violently coughing as she remembered every second while Morgan watched in silence.  "You....are....a..monster." Raskula coughed between gasps. Morgan laughed at that which only seemed to disturb her even more. "Yeah, I'll let you in on a secret of mine. I actually love horror movies, they're a hobby of mine to track them down and watch them. I've got a small library of horror movies that I take with me for relaxation." Raskula couldn't fully comprehend that magnitude of the monster she now faced. "This has been fun and all but it's time to get to the point." Morgan leaned closer while still smiling. "You might think I felt any of what you experienced, but I've seen it so many times I've turned numb to it. I didn't feel anything, not even a prick. So here's the deal. If you ever, EVER, use those powers of yours again like you have been I promise you I will make your existence nothing but pain and misery the likes of which you've never seen." Raskula felt some sickening feeling that he had been holding back on his worst thoughts and she tried to get as far away from Morgan as she could. He leaned over and gently placed his hand on hers and she instantly began panicking. "My species ran out of things on our planet that gave us real fear a long time ago, so we decided to invent things that scared us instead; and if we can do that to ourselves for the sheer thrill of feeling fear again, you can only imagine what we can do when we wish to inspire fear in others for a real purpose." --------- No one was sure what exactly happened during the events of the main chamber meeting, but in the following weeks the Flinchestet faction began falling apart. They simply just began agreeing with whatever the humans put forward and kept to themselves. Oddly enough, they have also begun refusing to shake hands with any human regardless of the situation. Ambassador Raskula was recalled from her position after she severed her own hands using medical equipment and was swiftly returned to the Flinchestet homeworld.  

[prorevenge]

Racist mom tries to bribe son to dump me, I gain power over everything she cares about.

This is gonna be a LONG post lol, may have gotten exact timing sequences out of order.

Met a guy that we had mutual friends with and invited him to hang out with my friends and do fun stuff. Later learned he was not even allowed to hang out with my crowd cuz his mother was the very strict and hypocritical sort who thought everyone else was inferior to her precious kids. Guy was telling them he was doing work or something. Eventually he told them he wanted to date me and they flipped. The dad doesn’t have much say in the house and the mom (EM) was livid.

You know how Amish people don’t like rock and “sinful” music? Or females that wear shorts and tanks? Yuuup basically her. She went through my social medias and literally compiled and printed out giant lists of every country song I’d ever posted or concert I’d been to or clothing she thought was too provocative along and gave it to the pastors at both of our churches. EP called MY mom at 2am a couple times to rant and rave about “how could she let her daughter do such sinful things and flirt with boys yada yada yada”. She made racist remarks to Guy (I’m a super cute half Asian half messican, and all of his family is pale white golden haired angels) and even asked him if I’d molested him (I’m 5’ 2” and he’s literally a foot taller than me) and if that’s why he wanted to date and marry me. He was still at home and they went on a family trip to Colorado. Or as it turned out to be an exorcism style prayer meeting over Guy because EM just knows there must be a demon or something wrong with him. Oh and this was only within a span of a few months while he saved up to move the hell out.

Nope not over yet. EM then was harassing his work, his new church pastors (mine), his friends, got one of his business partners to leave him with lies that Guy is “bipolar” and “Schizophrenic”, thankfully most of the people had our back and we had some good laughs over what outrageous things they told us. Even driving an hour and a half to his apartment (I know dumb move to let them know where he moved to), in the middle of the night a couple times to harass and berate him and blubber about how everyone would judge her and how her reputation was going to suffer and church standing, she even dragged his two younger siblings into it all and told him they were heartbroken that he moved out and all the reasons he needed to move back home. Cue even more fun, one night he was just done so when they showed up to again try and bully him into moving back home or at least dumping me, he just up and left. Got in his mini and drove away. AND THEY FOLLOWED HIM. Unbelievable right? He used to race his mini so he lost them pretty quickly and booked it over to where I lived and spent the night there. I know, why not call the cops right? Well there was no physical damage or threats thereof. Yes she’s been verbally and borderline physically abusive to him growing up, think patriarchy super conservatives but it’s a matriarchy. At one point EM asked Guy what it would take for him to dump me, what amount of money could she pay him (Guys dad makes buttloads of moola, yeah those kind of people) to get me out of his life and for him to move back home. SHE TRIED TO BRIBE HIM TO LEAVE ME. She’d threatened to disown him and all the typical rich EP stuff before and knew he didn’t care. EM even called all his guy friends and asked if Guy has ever had any “homosexual” tendencies etc. Next month Guy proposed, and EM was SO MAD that she heard about it for the first time from a mutual friend congratulating her on the upcoming wedding! So of course she calls all the pastors and REEEEs about how we’ve been living in sin (kicker, we hadn’t even done the dirty dance but she didn’t bother asking) and telling everyone that they shouldn’t attend the wedding etc. Yea call us prudes :p EM also printed out all the reasons why I wasn’t good enough for her son and handed those out like candy to church leaders. Then when that had no effect she switched tactics and did the same thing with all her reasons why he was immature and shouldn’t get married and should move back home and be parented. Still no effect, except my dad at a huge meeting where she tried to distribute those, gathered them all back up and handed them to her and told her to stop slandering us and said how ungodly that was. And she stood there baffled and all the other people present agreed with my dad and told her to put those papers away. EMs exact words “but but I thought the very reason everyone is here is to show Guy why he needs to leave that girl and move back home!” I couldn’t help a giggle and a few other people couldn’t either. That meeting is a whole nother story, it was hilarious.

Where is the revenge you ask? Well all that was just the tip of the iceberg of course, but the revenge has been pretty simple. Spend a few obvious nights (SLEEPING ONLY) at his place, just to trigger her, but ofc our pastors and friends knew we’d committed to abstinence our entire lives up to the wedding (hella yea wedding night was killer) and other things like that to get under her skin but nothing that anyone else thought was bad. Very publicly plan and execute a HUGE wedding (over 500 people) and tell everyone about how our relationship is so beautiful and holy and how Gods destiny brought us together yada yada. She made a couple extra hoops for our pastors but we jumped through them with flying colors and everyone except her thought we were the cutest most Christian kosher thing. So basically to save face she had to fake smile and accept all the congratulations and be secretly embarrassed that we didn’t invite her to the wedding showers (she said she never wanted to see me and wouldn’t go to the wedding) and made excuses as to why she hadn’t gone, EM couldn’t tell her friends that we hadn’t invited her now could she? She went after the best man too and he almost decided against being the best man she was such a hassle and he was a pushover, but I told him the best passive way to deal with her is tell her that he wants to be there for his friend and how could she argue with that? She didn’t. But of course, what’s better than forcing her to attend the wedding but not allowing her to ruin it? Extremely petty I know, but I’m a drama llama and have enjoyed 98% of all this. I of course get ahold of EMs own mom and get to know her and she’s very sweet and loves me to death, along with Guys siblings and his dad, as many of EMs own friends and their families etc. So everyone loves me and when we invite them all to the wedding, they strong arm her into coming. I have my cop friends who have been having a heyday hearing about all this drama coming in for the wedding, one of them I make my MC so if she tried anything, not only would they take care of her swiftly, but she would also deeply embarrass herself because there was no denying that there were 500+ people there who loved Guy and I, including a lot of her friends. The ceremony was great, went off without a hitch, oh wait... I am not a bridezilla so if anything went wrong it was fine and the drama was cracking me up, I was a little disappointed she didn’t try anything drastic, but I could see on her face the entire time that EMs smile was sooo fake, and I got reports that she was seen crying outside later. Watching people congratulate her was priceless. When my own friends congratulated her a few of them later told me that she seemed surprised that I had any “respectable” friends (her literal words) who thought well of me. And no I’d arranged her to be only in one photo so she couldn’t ruin any others.

Oh and our wedding day was only the 3rd time she’d ever set eyes on me. She was against me from the start for almost a year without ever having spoken a word or ever seen me in person. Take that EM. To this day I have no idea what was her real beef with me. Happy ending: now that I provided the first grandkids, to my chagrin they’re like baby Targaryens they’re so white, and of course she’s too “young” to be a grandma so she’s called “nana”, but we laid down ground rules and she knows we will ostracize her at the drop of a hat, and she has kissed butt so hard and to her credit done her best to mend everything without ever really actually mentioning any of it. It’s great. We have holidays and fun visits in between and she showers us with super expensive gifts and will drop everything possible to help if we need anything. I think we’re friends now. One day I think she might bring it all up and try and play the victim, idk, but she’ll be hit with a carefully detailed account of everything that went down, in case her memory “fails” her. I can forgive but I’ll never forget, after all, I got my delicious revenge. Power over everything she holds dear and the evidence to expose whatever she hasn’t already done by her own dumb self and absolutely ruin her reputation and community and church standing. I feel really good right now

TLDR entitles mom wants to be petty about me dating her son so I take petty to another universe levels and crush her with epicc facts and logic and hold all the cards to ruin her life now

(source) story by (/u/cyborgurl)

[a-writing-bear]

[NedCan] Valentines Exchange 2019: Loving you through our Time Together

This is a Gift for @a-cool-canadian for the @nedcan Valentine Exchange event!!! ʕ♡˙ᴥ˙♡ʔ Please enjoy it!

Note: Happy Valentines Day Jess! My inner history buff got excited- apologies for any inaccuracy and vagueness, I don't really know much and researched a little bit. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did writing it and it brings a smile  :)

Ao3 Link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783909

This Has been cross-posted onto FF & Ao3 under Aliases: BearBooper

Fandom: Hetalia Axis Powers

Word Count: 3,272

Age Rating/Mature:  All Audiences :)

Prompt:  “Fluff moments and historical events”

It had been cold. That was one definite vivid memory he could recall when reminiscing over the long conceptual relationship he had nurtured with the Canadian. The cold dusty air of new land had the taste of excitement, and his hair had been ruffled from his pack and belongings when he first landed in what was not yet known to be the North American continent. It was a time before such modern (or what is considered to be ‘modern’ to a nearly immortal entity like themselves’) names like Matthew could be granted, let alone the title of ‘Canada’. The 1500s were a messy time, and especially considering by then it was only a mere measly 500 years of Lars officially donning ‘Holland’, his experience of running a country was dictated by his teachings of his seniors- the germanics had not yielded much besides the importance of strategy on him and the need for expansion and exploration came to him naturally, like the waves back to the shores pulling him in. His expedition to the Indies had been quite the effort and it wore Lars through and through, so his focus during 1605 was far from ogling Matthew- he was unaware of Matthew’s presence on the pristine territory entirely.  He had barely spotted a distant figure on the landing, a small one too far to be someone of importance- let alone a new country he would meet within the next few centuries. Little did he know such a blurry figure, the one that barely piqued his interest, would have morphed into an infatuation to span a lifetime.

The first formal introduction to the former-colony had been egged on by momentary passing remark from England and France, Both of which were fervently arguing over ownership of the young nation for nearly a millennium. The Netherlands, being the ever-snarky and enterprising man he is, had been engaged in some rather boring trade and naval control wars with the Englishman- the man had this rather short and delicate youth following him around some lost pup, or a deer too heavy and endearing to carry the weight of the world on his own. Too eager to impress, Matthieu (as Francis had spelt it) had the dazzling purple eyes and a smile so sickly sweet that Lars couldn’t help but pray for the youth’s survival under the Englishman’s imperial rule. No matter whose side he was on, Lars was sympathetic to the young nation as he too could remember the strife and difficulties that came with being under control of someone else. The back and forth of the many anglo-dutch wars were more of an annoyance, but Lars appreciated the interested, if not slightly concerned, glares he would receive from the colony hiding behind Arthur’s chair whenever he came to bicker over imports. He remembered the first time he had a proper conversation with Matthieu- he had been visiting some former citizens who had decided to share Dutch farming techniques to their new landowners when they had migrated to the British Isles.

“How is it you allow this?” the small voice had spooked the Netherlands as it seemingly came from nothing until his eyes trailed down to his chest to see the colony glaring at the book in his rough hands- a manual on new crops and selective planting. He recognised the being, that fluffed out hair that crowned Matthew's youthful face and those eyes that were so intensely ingrained in Lars’ memory.

“Pardon?” Lars- even though he exemplified the youthful mortal age of a 20-year-old and was still morphing with the development of his own land, was surprised to see how much Canada had grown since the last time he had seen him: Matthieu almost looked like the typical pre-teen that one could witness working in the fields of family farms and no longer the child that sat in the corner of some estate.

“Why do you allow us to take your techniques? Doesn’t it help us…? You fight with Mr England all the time but you’re allowing your skills to be taken and no offence you’re well known for your fighting” His face was soft despite his rational confusion; the questioning had put Lars in an uneasy position but who was he to deny explanation to someone still learning?

After much thought and a pause that seemed to engage Matthieu, Lars voice rang out with no wavering: “Political concerns like land and trade should not interfere with the wellbeing of anybody. People deserve to eat and to survive regardless of the disagreement between myself and your superior. I like fighting- however, I don’t see the need for unnecessary suffering”. The contemplation on the colony’s face had been so clear and mesmerised. At the time Matthieu had not only absorbed such information but a hunger for more advice panged in his chest; the blonde’s youth shone towards Lars- the honest and honourable considerations of him juxtaposed the usual nonsense that had been spewed to him by Francis and Arthur. Ít was at that moment Mathieu realised the wish he had for himself...and his respect for the older country stuck with him alongside his secret interest in the mysterious private dutchman.

Years since that interaction had passed, and the news of revolution spread like wildfire throughout Europe. There was no lie that it brought a smirk to Lars’ face once he heard of British colonies throwing fits; he had only read of the conflict in his news and heard from various leaders of the tantrums over in North America, his mind flickering to the prospects of Canada and wonder over what the intention of the ‘new world’ would bring. Despite Alfred’s brash and busy nature, Matthieu had been more reserved and diplomatic in his attempts of freedom and by the time Lars had run into Canada at the time, he had grown into a much older personification and donned a rather complimentary vest that screamed professionalism and diplomacy. Lars was thankful of his ever-present striped scarf that trailed over his neck and covered his red cheeks as he bumped into Matthieu: He had grown extremely attractive, and the taller man could no longer deny that his old innocent platonic admiration of the man had now been replaced and solidified into a more romantic notion of admiration of that glorious smile and French-tinged accent.

“Hallo Matthieu, I’ve heard you are now autonomous? Has Arthur really given up his conquest of the world?” His Dutch voice almost stuttered uncharacteristically as he breathlessly watched the man fiddle slightly with his sleeves, almost wrinkling the paperwork that was stocked in hand.

“Ah- Mr Netherlands! Yes! It is very exciting- Alfred had pushed me to change my ways and govern myself, but I’m more of the talking types so I’m on my way to negotiate some more over the British North America act!”

“That’s...uh... Gefeliciteerd Matthieu-Congratulations I mean..I know it must be time-consuming.”

“Oh, very much so Mr Netherlands- what brings you to Arthur’s home? I suppose it not another war again.” Lars almost tripped over at the accusation before he saw the glint and twitch of teasing that the other had possessed.

“Ah no just some business and...call me Lars, we are equals, consider this our proper introduction. The Country of the Netherlands” His hand had been outstretched, the sleeves of his tan coat straight and eager despite Netherland’s signature poker-face saying otherwise.

“Then...Hello Lars, I am Matthew- spelt with an ‘e-w’ now, I’m the Country of Canada.” the gentle hands had a strong grip much to Lars’ surprise, and the keen thankful demeanour of Matthew warmed Lars’ soul more than he’d like to admit.

He had never been more interested in the ‘New world’ than then.

Unfortunately, the next run-in with the Canadian had been one of the unhappy circumstances rather the usual fleeting meet cute. Neutrality had allowed Lars to scrape by during the first world war and it seemed as though fate would dictate that German invasion during the second would interrupt his peaceful intentions. To this day Lars shudders at the atrocities he had endured, the suffering had left him even more remorseful with his immortality than patriotism over his survival. Finance had always been a strong factor in his strategy It seemed as though selling weapons and food had been useless in comparison to the past... occupation was a depressingly painful experience and while he has moved on from the grudge, it still bubbles up in his soul even though a century has passed. When his dear sister Belgium had been pressured, and her land trampled, the Dutchman swallowed his pride- a swell of nervousness overrode his ego as he called his allies for support. Perhaps it was futile and blissfully over hopeful for him to think any troops could have made it in time. He watched the bombings over rotterdam with gritted teeth and his calloused hands which were used to the smooth finish of coins and the flora of green valley had clenched with an anger that he was unable to work out as ‘fortress holland' had been taken. Rotterdam was cursed as he was forced to sign those ‘surrender’ agreements; everything, while blurry, was so achingly heartbreaking. Lars was consistent with the intelligence he shipped off to his allies but there was a bitterness in the fact he was left to his own devices- isolated with only the company of his enemy plaguing his land. Although the understandable ‘sorry’s of his allies rang loudly in the various calls and letters; it was the undeniable fury of Matthew that uplifted the forlorn dutchman. In contrast to the reserved nature he had conveyed- Matthew was a tactical and unwavering genius; his words of assurance was so lighthearted despite the grim situation they had found themselves in”

“I promise you Netherlands. I will keep them safe for you. I will hide them from the world If i have to.” The plan was risking everything. How on earth were they expecting to smuggle part of the government and the royal family abroad without a disaster? His mind was riddled with constant worry and the usual calculating and deadpan man was rambling with anxious desperation; They had planned for evacuation to the UK and Canada for a while but executing such an escape was now expected to be more than just spoken agreements.

“Canada I don-”

“ Lars. Trust me. ” if it wasn’t under such dire consequences, Lars would have shuddered at the way the Canadian had pronounced his name; it was melodious in its powerful statement and the seriousness of the tone stole his heart piece by piece- Matthew didn’t know how grateful he was and forever will be. They had grown close due to European deals and although the two were regularly sending mail to each other, they always referred to each other at a distant title of ‘Mr’ or ‘Sir’ - to hear the utterance of his name signalled to him Matthew’s genuine care. This was an agreement between the two of them. Not their countries. There was personal tinge to it and it made him gulp at the overwhelming insinuation of it all- Matthew was his saving grace at this point. While Canada was just another ally, The man before him known as Matthew, on the other hand, had become everything.

Matthew had kept his word and by 1943, Princess Margriet had been born in Ottawa civic hospital- and to go the extra Mile Canada had made sure the ward had been registered as international territory to secure Dutch succession rights in the interest of Lars. He was beyond grateful. If he had not admitted his feelings for the man before this, then surely this act alone was the one that tipped his pure love for his dashing saviour. Hunger winter the following year was his most pitiful hour and it almost felt humiliating to watch the sadness glow in Matthew’s wearing and exhausted eyes when he had arrived at Lars salvation; the food in his arms was more than the Dutchman could ask for. Canada had never held that moment of weakness against him and instead caressed his cheek when he found the man slumped off the wall of some building in Randstad. He could remember the tired grasp they shared, the hug so warm compared to the cold he had been fighting, the blush on both their lips barely recognisable due to the dirt and grime that covered them both. the hasty and sudden taste of Matthew’s lips on his own, his starvation being replaced with nothing more than starvation of Matthew’s long-awaited affection and contact- he was so hopelessly in love.

The liberation of the Netherlands was practically inseparable to Dutch-Canadian relations and it was no big deal when a commemoration over such sacrifices was announced. Tulips came flown in by the thousands and Matthew was more than welcoming when his house had been adorned with tulips of all types. Lars was adamant to admit his obsession to give so many bouquets stemmed from much more than appreciation over his liberation yet the moment he had once again met Matthew, any anxious uncertainty over the gift disappeared.

For once he had stepped foot in the Canadian’s homeland, and by the time he had gotten to the doorstep of the personification, his assistant had made him aware that Mattie had tried to phone him on the diplomatic line countlessly. Lars' feet shuffled, the soles of his boots grating on the wicker mat that sat judgmentally at the front door of his crush’s cabin; The flowers that seemed perfectly trimmed in His hands were a bundle of specially grown tulips, bright red in their beautiful bloom- a private batch grown in his own home rather than his national fields. The doorbell was cut off as the door flung wide open extremely quickly, Matthew’s furrowed brow jumping into a more expressive and exhilarated look of astoundment.

“Lars?! Wh-how- I was just calling you to say thank you for the flowers!”

“I’ve uh...Brought you some more..” he almost melted as Matthew broke out into a wide smile, showcasing those pearly teeth in a grin. Despite their kiss back in 1944, the two were ridiculous in their courtship, shy in their advances and had not done much but spend nights talking to each other since. He had shed his jacket as he stepped into the strawberry blonde’s home, whom of which was quickly procuring a vase for his gift before offering some drinks.

“I...missed you. We’re grateful...I’m grateful for you Mattie.” Thank fuck for his practised poker-face in making it easier to say such words, and Matthew’s close nature meant that the Canadian could tell he was being sincere regardless of the straightly-lined announcement. The two caught up, pleasantly satisfied with each other’s company. Neither of them said anything as they found themselves snuggled up on a seat, hands and legs intertwined for ‘warmth’.

The modern era was rife with issues, issues that were starkly different from those of the 15th century but stemmed from the same themes of protectionism. The creation of NATO and OSCE, as well as their positions at the table of the UN, allowed them to speak more often and technologies like phones did nothing but encourage pursuing a relationship. Yet in the millennium of beating around the bush over their relationship, neither had said anything of the relationship between Matthew and Lars. It was always just the business side of Canada and the Netherlands that interacted, the close brush of shoulders being nothing more than a lingering with of unsaid meaning.

“Why don’t you two just go make out right now?” Alfred had cornered Matthew during a lunch time break, and his new tailored suit had become unbearable as his brother tormented him with mentions of his love life. It was not that they didn’t want to enter a relationship things were just... complicated. Being a nation was complicated. He had known Lars for so long, harboured feelings for him for just as long, what if Lars found that discouraging? Besides they had kissed...not that America knew that. God. Matthew internally rolled his eyes at the fact his brother was gossiping like some teenage girl.

“It’s not that simple Al. Lars is...he might not be interested anymore.” Insecurity had got the best of him and although he was always socialising with the dutchman - whether it be at olympic games or just stately visits - there was not much to go on from besides the looks they shared. Alfred whistled in disbelief, his brother must of been blind to not see the tripping over that Lars does unconsciously for him. The Netherlands had become the 8th highest destination of canadian exports and not to mentions the countless treaties and trade deals that the two had signed. Nothing says romance more than free trade and visa exemptions right? Everyone had seen the two squabble and tiptoe around the facts, making excuses like ‘diplomatic friendship’ and ‘international cooperation’ when it was clear as the light of day that these were more just benefits to being able to visit each other freely and often. As if god wanted to torment Matthew, Lars had come over, the clicking of his shoes loud with such a fast walking pace. Alfred ‘coincidentally’ had affairs to attend to at that moment and the two were left alone besides the table of coffee and refreshments.

“Hallo schatje, How are you? Was i interrupting your brother?” Matthew flustered at the nickname, he still wasn’t quite sure what it meant and the last time he asked Belgium and luxembourg for a translation they laughed and refused to let him know what the dutchman had been naming him. “I’m alright, alfred was just gossiping again, how are you Lars? Still waiting for springtime i suppose?” he nodded, the two quickly dissolving into gleeful conversation and it was always quite the spectacle to see the usually harsh and blunt european to break out an unlikely smile in the company of the quieter sheepish north american; he only really did so with his siblings and even then it was supremely rare. It was only when Matthew had turned to pour himself another cup of coffee did he hear a mumbling of the Dutchman obviously struggling with his inner thoughts: “fuck dit is stom en moeilijk, maar ... God, wees genadig...just say it…” Under his breath and muffled slightly into the cotton scarf he heard the dutchman swear to himself.

“Is everything alright Lars? Is this about the new-”

“Would you like to go for a...date after this...this meeting...?” Matthew was speechless. His free hand straightened his tie and he tried to formulate his answer- one that was clearly a yes. As he stared into those bluish eyes and the blonde’s avoiding look, he faltered. Every thought and hesitation to pursue a relationship was obliterated by the look on Lars’ face. Lars, embarrassed by this whole attempt had tried to cough his way out, nearly retreating, ready to beat himself up at fucking up a milleniums worth of friendship…

“Thank fuck. I thought you’d never ask.” Lars’ mouth stretched into an ‘oh’ before rapidly mentioning many apologies of his romantic incompetence but Matthew paid no attention as he tried to stand on his tippy toes. With his new height barely able to reach up to his lover’s chest, His hand grasping at the scraggly orange tie Lars had chosen that day and pulled him down into an overdue kiss.

“I’ve loved you for all of history Lars.”

[dangermousie]

Reading list for the month - hooray for the Middle Ages!!

I’ve not really been watching much lately (except that I just discovered the Legend of Fuyao and it’s AHMAZING) but I have been reading a bunch, hence the reading list. I also have a v short attention span so while I am not reading all the books listed below that I recently got and/or put on my kindle, I am reading about five of them at once.

As you can tell, I am on the Middle Ages kick right now. Also, as you can tell, current historical crushes are apparently William the Conqueror and Edward the Black Prince and Richard III (always.) Hmmmm.

Valerie Anand, King of the Wood - how many novels are there about the time of William Rufus aka Fabulously Gay aka Killed By Arrow Mysteriously Probably By Orders of Baby Bro? This one revolves around William and Ralph de somebody, a minor nobleman who comes over to get lands and power. Ralph is young and hot and William fancies him and even though Ralph is not inclined that way, he is not going to turn down a roll or dozen in the hay with the king if it gets him closer to his goal. Apparently this all leads to mixed results, eventual death of William, ancient pagan rites, Ralph getting some land and a hot wife, and overall a very sympathetic portrayal of William Rufus. I have not started yet though.

Anna Belfrage, The Cold Light of Dawn - the fourth and possibly last in one of my favorite medieval series that follows the lives of a minor knight, Adam, and his arranged but then more, wife, Kit during the reigns of Edward II and III.  This is such a lovely lovely series and this book so far is as good as the rest. Adam is a protege of Roger Mortimer (of the “de facto ruler of England, lover of Queen Isabella’ fame) and when the book 1 starts is slated to arrange marry a spoiled aristocrat who is missing so her family hastily substitutes a bastard daughter and lieeeees. The books follow them as they fall in love, reveal their secrets, try to survive in a pretty horrible time period etc etc. Adam eventually becomes close to Edward III which causes all sorts of internal conflicts. Book 1 is probably my fave (though second half of it is a giant trigger warning as Despenser takes Adam and, to lesser degree, Kit, under his notice) but all of them are good and the latest is wonderful as always. Frankly, by now, I love the lead couple so much, I could just read about them going about their business in their residence for 500 pages.  

Anna Chant, Three Times the Lady - I can’t believe I found a novel about Judith, first Countess of Flanders! If you do not know who she is, Judith was a daughter of a Frank king who married her to a much older king of Wessex. When the old man died, she married his grown son (this was a few centuries before the Church would have fits about this) and when that man died, she returned back home. Daddy King did not want to lose such a valuable bargaining chip (who was still quite young) either to make her own marriage or to be taken by some lord via kidnap so he stuck her in a remote fortress while he decided which potential husband would make the best bargain. Ummm. Hunky Baldwin was guarding the place, he and Judith fell for each other and with the help of her brother ran off and got married. Daddy King lost his mind, took Baldwin’s lands, the lovers had to go to the Pope to beg for help blah blah eventually Daddy King cooled down, Baldwin became the first Court of Flanders and got nicknamed Iron Arm for how hard he fought to protect his father in law. So basically, this is a RL medieval romance, of the “hot dude in chainmail holding pretty lady on cover” variety. Seriously - I am very surprised this is the only novel of her I know. I realize records were not as good as they were later but this just gives more room for license. I am quite excited to read this since I’ve read a couple of other books by Chant set around that time and loved them.

Joanna Courtney, The Conqueror’s Queen - Matilda, Mrs the Conqueror. Hmmmmmm. I am about 1/3 in. The book’s odd insistence on Matilda liking but not loving William despite his being amazing in beddddd and generally a stud muffin of stud muffiness is a little odd (it’s just an odd combo) but it’s a fun light read. What I would really love is for someone like Sharon Kay Penman to write a giant doorstopper of a series about that reign.

Joanna Courtney, The Constant Queen - about Elizabeth, the Russian wife of Harald Hardrada. I am about 60% in. It’s not as good as it could be (it doesn’t make Harald interesting which, even reading a short summary of his life on wikipedia - the man had an insane life) but it’s about a subject that’s not novelized often or even that well-know (in fact, prior to this book, the one thing I knew about Harald was that he was defeated by Harold Godwinson who then had to take his exhausted troops and march to fight William the Conqueror. If not for that, England now might be ruled by Harold’s and not William’s descendants.) Also, Elizabeth herself is likeable and the author does a good job on selling me that the two loved each other even while not falling into the trap of making the relationships modern (Harald has a hand-fast wife because he needs sons; it’s not much of an issue etc.) It’s a pleasant beach/travel read.

Dorothy Dunnett, King Hereafter - my favorite stand-alone period novel of all time and I am gonna reread it and bawl. It’s about Earl Thorfinn of Orkney, who Dunnett supposes to be the basis for historical Macbeth. It is simply the best historical novel ever written and if Thorfinn/Groa don’t move you, you have no heart. It’s also a rare book where people feel like people of the period, not modern people playing dress up.

Parke Godwin, Sherwood/Robin and the King - I used to love this bleak, emotional, amazing duology which moves the story of Robin Hood around the time of the Norman Conquest. I just got my hands on it again.

Karen Harper, The First Princess of Wales - ok, this is pretty much a romance novel. About Edward the Black Prince and Joan of Kent. So bring it on!

Justin Hill, Viking Fire - a novel about Harald Hardrada whose life I am fascinated by now

Thomas W. Jensen, As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields - I am currently about a third into this and loving it. It deals with basically the first half of the life of Edward the Black Prince, who is one of my favorite historical what-ifs. Oldest son and heir of Edward III, the Black Prince was a hell of a medieval warrior, very involved in Crecy and in charge in Poitiers, two of the three biggest English victories in the 100 years war. In the latter, heavily outnumbered English captured the French king himself. Also, interestingly, he married for love in quite a scandal. Instead of marrying a foreign royal, he married an English noblewoman, older than him (she was 32 when they married!!!), a widow with five children AND a scandalous history (her first two husbands had a fight that went all the way to the Pope about which one of them was her actual husband. There were secret marriages and all that.) He married in secret, his father eventually came around etc. He would have probably made a King in the scary but effective mold of Edward I, but on one of his campaigns, he contracted one of many nasty medieval diseases -  dystentery - which crippled and eventually killed him shortly before his father died, leaving his small son to become Richard II.  If the Black Prince was better about drinking clean water, Edward III would have been succeeded not by a small child who, as an adult, wasn’t particularly cut out for the rough business of medieval Kingship, but by a competent and scary adult warrior. Thus no Henry IV revolt (do you really want to face the man who almost conquered France), no war of the Roses, no Tudors, no Church of England. Anyway, he was a fascinating man, in some ways an epitome of medieval warrior class ideals but probably because of that, there aren’t too many novels about him in the last whatever years. Like Henry V, his virtues are a bit too alien for the modern world. He is VERY medieval. But I find him fascinating beyond measure and deserving of more books about him, so this excellent excellent novel is such a pleasure.

Susan Fraser King, Queen Hereafter - about Margaret, wife of Malcolm (of the son of Duncan, killer of Macbeth fame.) I know little about it except the topic interests me.

G. Lawrence, The Heart of the Conqueror - Matilda, again. Matilda here is portrayed as rather an anti-heroine, vain, ambitious and picking William because he’s the scariest and most capable man she met. They are monsters in love (though, frankly, their attitudes are not such much monstrous as early medieval) and I do love them so. I find it quite odd that the author chose to start her novel with the apocryphal story of Matilda insulting William’s courtship and calling him a bastard and William riding in to beat her up in her own father’s town and her deciding this is what she digs in a dude. Lawrence makes the beatdown, already possibly fictional, quite brutal, so it makes me wonder if Matilda is insane to decide William is it because of it. Also, he never lays a finger on her again so wtf. Oh well, historically they did seem to have a rare successful marriage so there is that - I don’t mind him being a good husband since it’s historically accurate, it’s just the weird start to the relationship that makes me boggle.

Rosanne E. Lortz, I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince - you can tell I am on the Black Prince kick, right? This is about a squire to him and looks quite interesting but I haven’t read it yet.

Isolde Martyn, The Knight and the Rose - sometimes you are just in the mood for an angsty but happy medieval romance.

Anne O’Brien, The Virgin Widow - Romancey take on Anne and Richard III? Yes PLS. If I like this, I might end up getting more of the author’s books as she appears to specialize in known but not super famous medieval women with strong romantic relationships, so YES. I did find it tragically amusing that in order to make the end happy (I peeked), she ends before all the bad stuff happens - their son dying, Anne dying, Richard being killed etc. But then I bawled with the Sunne in Spendour so....

Edith Pargeter, The Brothers of Gwynnedd - reread. It’s a great, epic, tragic, poetic tale of the end of the Welsh independence and surprisingly, in light of all the tragedy, somewhat of a comfort read.

Judith Merkle Riley, A Vision of Light - about a widow of a medieval merchant, this has been recommended to me by multiple people. We shall see.

Anya Seton, Katherine - I read that book so long ago, I barely remember anything. But it’s a classic and Katherine Swynford has always been interesting and I am a sucker for RL romance so reread!!!

Freda Warrington, The Court of the Midnight King - a fantasy AU of Richard III where he gets to live and be happy with his mistress Kate (modeled on mother of his illegitimate child in RL) Oh YES.

[thesevillereport]

In Focus: Netflix Gets Stickier

Ecosystem. We've heard the word a lot, almost to the point where we're tired of hearing it. For investors though, it's a word that can pay off big when the ecosystem is put together correctly.

For a quick tutorial on ecosystems and the value of ecosystems, check out this MKBHD video.

What ecosystems do best is make a company's offerings sticky. Several years ago Apple decided to start investing in its services business. A move that initially upset the masses on Wall Street who saw Apple as the iPhone company, and wanted Apple to just make better iPhones and sell more iPhones.

Apple understood that there is very little that separates a high end iPhone from a high end Android phone, but what could keep iPhone users coming back to buy more iPhones is the iOS ecosystem. Making an iPhone work seamlessly with Apple Music, Apple TV+, a MacBook Pro, and an iPad, made Apple and its products sticky.

So what does a company like Netflix do when its growth is starting to slow down? It attempts to make the service sticky. With growth slowing, keeping existing customers is as important as gaining new customers. For this reason, Netflix has decided to add gaming to its platform.

I've long stated that Netflix needed something else that would enhance the customer's experience and be of value to the customer. In 2019 I laid out my thoughts on why Netflix should buy Tidal and add music streaming to its video streaming.

Like anything else in life, Netflix gaming can be a massive success or a huge failure. To fail, Netflix just has to follow Google's Stadia plans. Go all in, go big right out of the gate, and try to go head-to-head with the biggest and best in gaming. But to succeed, just do the opposite. Start small, see what works, update often, and change things that aren't working quickly.

I've learned an important lesson from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, and that lesson is, not everyone has to compete to be number one.

When Apple announced it's streaming service my first thought, and the thought of many analysts was how will Apple compete with Netflix? How long will it take Apple to achieve Netflix like numbers, and what will Apple's value be if they can achieve Netflix like numbers. Those were the wrong questions and that was the wrong outlook.

For Apple to win, Apple TV+ alone doesn't need to come close to Netflix's 200 million subscribers, because again, Apple TV+ is a part of an ecosystem, and the value is in the ecosystem as a whole. Apple TV+ subscribers, Apple Music subscribers, Apple Podcast subscribers, Apple News subscribers, Apple Games subscribers, Apple Fitness+ subscribers. All of those subscribers buying into different services adds up to a nice chunk of revenue.

The same will apply for Netflix and their move into gaming. For anyone looking at Netflix to take on Stadia or Playstation or Microsoft, they're looking at it all wrong. Like Apple, Netflix's gaming arm doesn't have to overtake or even go head-to-head with any of the big gaming companies for it to be a success.

Why It Makes Sense

Sometimes, when I'm watching TV, while scrolling through TikTok, with my iPad on my lap, I often forget that in other parts of the world, a smartphone is the only device some people have. Netflix understood this and offered a low-cost mobile-only version of its service in India. Netflix could roll this plan out to other territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. A mobile gaming service add-on could go a long way in keeping Netflix subscribers in less developed countries stuck to the platform.

Also, mobile gaming is addictive. I have had a few battles with mobile gaming addiction. Temple Run, Angry Birds, Flappy Birds, The Sims, Words With Friends, have all stolen way more time from me than I care to admit. Luckily, I was able to avoid the FarmVille and Candy Crush trap, which did an amazing job in keeping people stuck to Facebook. Finding or creating a hit game is just as difficult as creating a hit streaming series, so this won't be an easy task, but when a mobile game hits, it really hits.

Last year we witnessed Among Us, a game published in 2018 find massive success, to the point where Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was able to garner a shocking 440,000 viewers to watch her play Among Us and talk politics. In comparison, Donald Trump and Joe Biden streams on Twitch for campaign events pulled in 6,000 to 17,000 viewers.

Although I don't think Netflix is going to go deep down the gaming rabbit hole and get into full fledged cloud gaming and game streaming and get a gaming team; gaming, even if it's just on a mobile level, if done correctly can be big for the company.

Can't Please Everyone

Netflix gaming will not be a source of additional revenue according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it's more of a way of making a Netflix membership more valuable to consumers. Michael Patcher, a senior analyst at Wedbush called Netflix's gaming plans dead on arrival. Patcher's main concern is Mike Verdu, the person Netflix hired to head its gaming business.

Verdu is a gaming exec who has spent time at EA Mobile, Oculus at Facebook, and mobile gaming company Zynga. On paper he has the experience, but to Patcher, Verdu hasn't developed a good game since 2001 and isn't the right person to lead this venture.

Growth on Pause

In the streaming era, Netflix's recent quarter has been one of its lowest quarters for growth. The company added 1.5 million new users to service, but it also lost 430,000 subscribers in North America. While it appears North America may be reaching saturation, there are areas internationally that have big growth potential.

The Asia is Netflix's smallest region with just under 28 million subscribers. More than half of the world's population can be found in Asia, which includes China's estimated 1.4 billion people (Netflix is banned in China).

From looking at where Netflix is in its Asia expansion, it appears growth may not be fully over for the company, but merely on pause. If the company can figure out its combination for success in Asia, big time subscriber growth could be back in full swing at Netflix.

Netflix to the Moon?

Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney believes Netflix's recent quarter is setting the stage for a rebound in fundamentals and shares. Mahaney feels the stock will surge from here, and presumes Netflix could hit 500 million subscribers and bring in close to $80 per share in profits by 2030.

Since hitting its all-time high at the time of $567 in July 2020, the stock has been in a trading range. The stock has traded to and above the $550 level five times since July 2020, but that area seems to be where the buying fades. In the same time span, the stock has established its support around the $460 area.

I'm in the Mahaney camp that Netflix's stock is set to surge. I'm a believer in the gaming plan, and see this as a good way to keep Netflix subscribers locked in. I also think, with COVID-19 restrictions lifted in many places, content production will ramp up, and Netflix will again drop another viral hit on the world. I still believe the company needs to look into a music streaming service to add to its bundle. Last year, U.K. start up MelodyVR purchased streaming service Napster, formerly known as Rhapsody for just $70 million, that would've been a drop in the bucket for Netflix.

With growth on pause for now, Netflix has moved to creating value for its current subscribers. If it can accomplish being "sticky" and hit another stage of growth, watch out.

[highbuttonsports]

Calgary vs Ottawa (2021) flames senators - Bing images

Resilience

Like a bad Vietnam flashback, the Calgary Flames must have been sitting in the dressing room with pools of sweat on floor wondering what just happened after Thursday nights game against the Ottawa Senators. Things couldn’t have gone much worse on a night where optimism was trending up coming into it. After taking 3 of a possible 4 points to the division leading Maple Leafs the previous 2 games in Toronto, the Flames were feeling good about the direction their game was heading. Sure, it wasn’t a perfect couple games by any means but given what transpired Saturday night against the Edmonton Oilers it was a huge improvement. The Oilers took it to the Flames to a tune of 7-1 and handed them, what at the time was thought to be, their worst loss of the season. That loss left everyone frustrated and wondering how to move forward. Well, they answered that by going into Toronto and shutting out the high-powered Leafs 3-0 behind the stellar goaltending of David Rittich. Big Save Dave was pressed into action after starter Jacob Markstrom couldn’t play due to an upper body injury. That remained the case the following game against Toronto, as Rittich and the Flames would try to carry that momentum into it.

Like the previous game, Calgary’s game plan appeared to be focussed on using tight defence to manufacture offence in transition. It was just as successful as they minimized scoring chances even while having to kill too many penalties. A problem they had all season as they have been short handed the 3rd most times in the league. Thanks to a PK that is operating at 80% (13th in the NHL), they were able to kill all 4 Toronto powerplays. That made for 11 straight successful PK’s against them which usually isn’t a good recipe for success especially when facing the 4th best PP. Of course, to have a good PK it usually comes down to the goaltending. Rittich once again closed the door on everything the Leafs threw at him. The Maple Leafs fired 39 shots and he was up to the task on all of them...almost. David was a minute and a half away from his 2nd consecutive shut out versus them when it all fell apart. With a 1-0 lead on a late period Mangiapane goal, Toronto pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. It almost backfired, but half a puck width is what stood between them and a 2-goal victory. The puck hit the post of an empty net and stayed out giving the Leafs hope. That unfortunate event turned into a game tying goal by William Nylander and forced overtime. It was Willy who scored again and won it in the extra frame for Toronto. That was such a disappointing way to end what was a successful 2 games to build off of. Sometimes those losses hurt more than the blowouts because the team was so close to winning. It can truly feel like something was taken from them or they let it slip away. The key is to not dwell on that missed opportunity and instead focus on all the positives that lead to being so close to victory.

Well, maybe the Flames took the sting of that loss with them to Ottawa the following night. In what can only be described as the worst loss of the season, the whole team decided not to show up for the game. At least that’s what it looked like. They seemed to get beat to every loose puck, lose every puck battle, and couldn’t generate any offence whatsoever. Every time they entered the offensive zone they were pressed to boards and unable to get any separation for a meaningful shot. Even David Rittich couldn’t bail them out as he was forced into playing back-to-back games with Markstrom missing another game. On top of that, all the same issues that plagued Calgary before popped up again. They started slow in finding themselves down 2-0 less than 10 minutes into the game as the Sens scored goals in 1:42. The Flames were yet again playing catch up facing a 1st intermission deficit. The shots on goal heavily favoured the Sens too as they held a 13-5 advantage. It was an awful start against what was suppose to be an inferior opponent that struggles to score. Ottawa is 24th in the NHL in goals for per game at 2.59 while they are the worst at giving up goals at 3.86/game. Calgary is actually worse at scoring coming in at 2.44 goals/game. Yet in the views of the hockey world, they are supposed to be the team more poised for success right now. There they were playing comeback hockey though. The Flames came out better to start the 2nd period, with Lucic scoring 1:41 into the period. It was his 1st goal in 9 games as he continues to drag that $5.25 million cap hit around with him. That put them back in the game, but it was short lived. 3 minutes later Lucic got stripped of the puck by Connor Brown to make it a 2-goal hole again. In fact, Lucic was responsible for giving the puck away on all 3 Ottawa goals. That doesn’t take any blame away from the listless effort of the whole team though. At the halfway mark of the game, they had only 6 SOG! It doesn’t matter how many goals the other team scores if you aren’t going to put any pressure on the opposing goalie. Things went from bad to worse from that moment on. The Sens took a 4-1 lead on what appeared to be a shoot in from just over center ice by Erik Brannstrom. At least that’s what Rittich thought. He tried cheating behind the net to intercept it, only to be fooled with a direct shot on net that he was unable to scramble back into position to stop. That was an ugly was the end an ugly night for him. After a coach’s timeout and then a t.v. timeout, Coach Ward mercifully pulled the frustrated tender. After 2 stellar performances Rittich was unable to make up for all the short comings of the team on this night. It was obvious he didn’t take that lightly either, as he could be seen walking down the tunnel towards the dressing room and smashing his stick. That about summed up the mood of the team and any fan watching this debacle. The only positive from this game is back up goalie Artyom Zagidulin got to see his 1st career NHL action. It’s not how he wanted to see it I am sure, but a nice moment for him regardless. He did give up a couple more goals to make it a 6-1 final, but by that point the game was out of hand anyways. Yes, the goaltending was bad giving up 6 goals on 31 shots but there was enough blame to go around. From the goaltending to the D to the forwards, there just wasn’t enough compete all around. There wasn’t any intensity either in what was billed as the meeting of the Tkachuk brothers. The game featured no penalties, which is a rarity in the modern NHL where penalties are assessed for the simple placing of a stick against the arm of the puck carrier. Maybe that’s exactly how Ottawa wanted to play it. Maybe it was the result of the Flames playing their 3rd game in 4 nights. Maybe they took the Senators for granted. Maybe it was just one of those games. Regardless, how they would answer that performance the next game would show what this team really is all about. If they came out flat once again and lost, the vultures would start circling.

It’s odd to say that after 21 games the Flames were at a point where the next game could decide how the next 35 would go, but here they were. Coming off their worst loss of the season, it was about character and resilience. It was about showing the fight the team had left in it. It would be easy to roll over and feel sorry for themselves. It would be easy to look at the standings and see the gap between them and the top as insurmountable. That’s not what a team with the leadership of captain Mark Giordano and Matthew Tkachuk does though. With 3 of the next 4 against the same Sens an opportunity still presented itself to pile up some points and jump back into a playoff spot. The team ahead of them, in the Montreal Canadiens, was having their own set of problems. There was still plenty of time to turn things around and cause havoc in the divisional hierarchy. However, that had to start the next game.

In Ottawa and without top netminder Jacob Markstrom for a 4th straight game, that would be a challenge. They brought him in for situations just like this. To be the guy to stop the bleeding and right a struggling team. With him out, it’s a lot to ask of backup Rittich to be that guy for long stretches. Even though he had shown back in Toronto he could do it, the team needed to come together. As well, Coach Ward decided to shake the lines up to give the players a fresh look and feel. He moved Lindholm from center to the right side of Monahan and Gaudreau. Backlund moved up to the second line between Tkachuk and Mangiapane. And Same Bennett was moved back to his more natural center position with Lucic and Dube. Those moves paid quick dividends as less than 5 mins into the game it was 2-0. They scored those 2 goals in a span of 37 seconds on the backs of goals from Valamaki (1st of the season) and Backlund. That was just the start they needed to gain confidence and quickly put the doubts seeded from last game behind them. They didn’t let up either, extending their lead to 3-1 after 1 period and a 6-2 lead after 2 periods. The newly formed Tkachuk-Backlund-Mangiapane seen this biggest boost in accounting for half of the goals and 7 points between them. With that type of offensive explosion, I expect these lines will carry forward to the next few games at least. The game was never in doubt from the drop of the puck, but even so Rittich was good when he had to be in stopping 31 of 34 shots. There is hope that Markstrom will be back for Mondays rematch the Ottawa, but if not Rittich will certainly be back between the pipes for a fifth straight start.

So, at .500 and 1 point behind the struggling Canadiens, Calgary would love nothing more than to end their 5-game eastern road trip with another win. That would give them a 7 of a possible 10 points on the trip, turning what was a low mark 6-1 loss during it into a success. Such is the highs and lows of an NHL season. The key is not to get too high on the highs and too low on the lows. It is critical for a team to remain even keeled. If they don’t it can unravel pretty quick and a couple losses can turn into a half dozen. Those types of losing streaks must be avoided in a season where the standings can swing dramatically one way or the other. Much like the way the outlook of this Flames team swung from Thursday to Sunday. Where in the former all seemed lost, now in the latter resilience and hope spring forward.

*all stats provided by NHL.com

By: Jaymee Kitchenham

[laurelkrugerr]

Dance Studio Mogul Misty Lown Explains How to Reinvent any Face-to-Face Business

Misty Lown (“the Sara Blakely of the studio industry”) has developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create revenue opportunities.

August 20, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

What would you do if one day you couldn’t meet with any of your customers or clients to deliver your product or service? That’s virtually everyone in the face-to-face and studio industry — including dance, gymnastics, yoga karate, pilates, spin studios, and more — which accounts for over $144 billion in revenue every year.

How do you stabilize and reinvent your business now or when the next pandemic strikes, while becoming competition-and recession-proof in the future? Every service business that is dependent on face-to-face delivery, like the studio industry, retail and hospitality, has been decimated, resulting in over 40 million lost jobs in the United States, and estimates of 200 million worldwide.

The Harvard Business Review reports 44% of the U.S. GDP comes from businesses with fewer than 500 employees, which represents almost half of American jobs. Most were not prepared to pivot their businesses overnight.

If you’re in the studio industry, how do you stabilize so that you can not only fix this now but remain competition and recession-proof in the future? This is either a major business opportunity or a complete disruption.

Related: Dr. Karen’s Leadership Strategy for Heart-Centered Business Growth With Military Precision

Misty Lown has been described as “the Sara Blakely of the studio industry.” She’s a self-made mogul who’s developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create opportunities, leverage, and not only thrive but grow in the new economy and new business environments.

Like many others, Lown had her world upended overnight. In the span of just a few days, she went from thriving in her physical studio environments to trying to figure out how to build a new virtual business. Through that process, she had an insight: We can continue overtime to get back into our physical businesses and to deliver classes face to face, but we are not going to let go of the new opportunity to serve people on an online platform. If we can get those two together in the right way, we have a brand-new business and a much broader market.

Lown grew up doing what she loved and eventually wanted to teach and start her own studio. She’s a dancer by trade, and her graduate degree is in education, so it was natural for her to blend her love of dance and education into a studio environment. As her profile rose, she started teaching on a national circuit and writing for magazines. People would come and wait for hours to visit and experience her classes.

Lown achieved the near-impossible at the time: a “triple win.” She and her team were making a good living, making a life outside of the business, and having a great impact on kids. That’s when she knew they had something unique — something she could build a framework around and use her educational background to teach others.

Lown is a mom of five, an entrepreneur, and just celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary. She admits none of it is easy. Like every successful entrepreneur, she’s been on a constant entrepreneurial roller coaster throughout her career. Her three-step system simplifies and maximizes life and entrepreneurship.

Misty’s three-step system

Rhythm Stabilizer: The initial process of figuring out how to integrate all the pieces of your service-based business. How are you spending your time, creating stability, and into a comfortable rhythm that moves and flows easily?

Community Optimizer: Creating a community around the business. Building a team, getting enthusiasm from the clients, and support from the larger community.

Value Maximizer: Creating value from the actual product and the business to the people that we serve and who serve with us. Adding value to that. 

Lown’s client Melanie Gibbs now owns three dance studios in Florida after raising her hand at a conference where Lown was teaching and following her three-step process. She’s living proof that the system works if you commit to it and follow through. 

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source http://www.scpie.org/dance-studio-mogul-misty-lown-explains-how-to-reinvent-any-face-to-face-business/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/dance-studio-mogul-misty-lown-explains.html

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Dance Studio Mogul Misty Lown Explains How to Reinvent any Face-to-Face Business

Misty Lown (“the Sara Blakely of the studio industry”) has developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create revenue opportunities.

August 20, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

What would you do if one day you couldn’t meet with any of your customers or clients to deliver your product or service? That’s virtually everyone in the face-to-face and studio industry — including dance, gymnastics, yoga karate, pilates, spin studios, and more — which accounts for over $144 billion in revenue every year.

How do you stabilize and reinvent your business now or when the next pandemic strikes, while becoming competition-and recession-proof in the future? Every service business that is dependent on face-to-face delivery, like the studio industry, retail and hospitality, has been decimated, resulting in over 40 million lost jobs in the United States, and estimates of 200 million worldwide.

The Harvard Business Review reports 44% of the U.S. GDP comes from businesses with fewer than 500 employees, which represents almost half of American jobs. Most were not prepared to pivot their businesses overnight.

If you’re in the studio industry, how do you stabilize so that you can not only fix this now but remain competition and recession-proof in the future? This is either a major business opportunity or a complete disruption.

Related: Dr. Karen’s Leadership Strategy for Heart-Centered Business Growth With Military Precision

Misty Lown has been described as “the Sara Blakely of the studio industry.” She’s a self-made mogul who’s developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create opportunities, leverage, and not only thrive but grow in the new economy and new business environments.

Like many others, Lown had her world upended overnight. In the span of just a few days, she went from thriving in her physical studio environments to trying to figure out how to build a new virtual business. Through that process, she had an insight: We can continue overtime to get back into our physical businesses and to deliver classes face to face, but we are not going to let go of the new opportunity to serve people on an online platform. If we can get those two together in the right way, we have a brand-new business and a much broader market.

Lown grew up doing what she loved and eventually wanted to teach and start her own studio. She’s a dancer by trade, and her graduate degree is in education, so it was natural for her to blend her love of dance and education into a studio environment. As her profile rose, she started teaching on a national circuit and writing for magazines. People would come and wait for hours to visit and experience her classes.

Lown achieved the near-impossible at the time: a “triple win.” She and her team were making a good living, making a life outside of the business, and having a great impact on kids. That’s when she knew they had something unique — something she could build a framework around and use her educational background to teach others.

Lown is a mom of five, an entrepreneur, and just celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary. She admits none of it is easy. Like every successful entrepreneur, she’s been on a constant entrepreneurial roller coaster throughout her career. Her three-step system simplifies and maximizes life and entrepreneurship.

Misty’s three-step system

Rhythm Stabilizer: The initial process of figuring out how to integrate all the pieces of your service-based business. How are you spending your time, creating stability, and into a comfortable rhythm that moves and flows easily?

Community Optimizer: Creating a community around the business. Building a team, getting enthusiasm from the clients, and support from the larger community.

Value Maximizer: Creating value from the actual product and the business to the people that we serve and who serve with us. Adding value to that. 

Lown’s client Melanie Gibbs now owns three dance studios in Florida after raising her hand at a conference where Lown was teaching and following her three-step process. She’s living proof that the system works if you commit to it and follow through. 

loading…

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Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/dance-studio-mogul-misty-lown-explains-how-to-reinvent-any-face-to-face-business/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/627046185692168192

[scpie]

Dance Studio Mogul Misty Lown Explains How to Reinvent any Face-to-Face Business

Misty Lown (“the Sara Blakely of the studio industry”) has developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create revenue opportunities.

August 20, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

What would you do if one day you couldn’t meet with any of your customers or clients to deliver your product or service? That’s virtually everyone in the face-to-face and studio industry — including dance, gymnastics, yoga karate, pilates, spin studios, and more — which accounts for over $144 billion in revenue every year.

How do you stabilize and reinvent your business now or when the next pandemic strikes, while becoming competition-and recession-proof in the future? Every service business that is dependent on face-to-face delivery, like the studio industry, retail and hospitality, has been decimated, resulting in over 40 million lost jobs in the United States, and estimates of 200 million worldwide.

The Harvard Business Review reports 44% of the U.S. GDP comes from businesses with fewer than 500 employees, which represents almost half of American jobs. Most were not prepared to pivot their businesses overnight.

If you’re in the studio industry, how do you stabilize so that you can not only fix this now but remain competition and recession-proof in the future? This is either a major business opportunity or a complete disruption.

Related: Dr. Karen’s Leadership Strategy for Heart-Centered Business Growth With Military Precision

Misty Lown has been described as “the Sara Blakely of the studio industry.” She’s a self-made mogul who’s developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create opportunities, leverage, and not only thrive but grow in the new economy and new business environments.

Like many others, Lown had her world upended overnight. In the span of just a few days, she went from thriving in her physical studio environments to trying to figure out how to build a new virtual business. Through that process, she had an insight: We can continue overtime to get back into our physical businesses and to deliver classes face to face, but we are not going to let go of the new opportunity to serve people on an online platform. If we can get those two together in the right way, we have a brand-new business and a much broader market.

Lown grew up doing what she loved and eventually wanted to teach and start her own studio. She’s a dancer by trade, and her graduate degree is in education, so it was natural for her to blend her love of dance and education into a studio environment. As her profile rose, she started teaching on a national circuit and writing for magazines. People would come and wait for hours to visit and experience her classes.

Lown achieved the near-impossible at the time: a “triple win.” She and her team were making a good living, making a life outside of the business, and having a great impact on kids. That’s when she knew they had something unique — something she could build a framework around and use her educational background to teach others.

Lown is a mom of five, an entrepreneur, and just celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary. She admits none of it is easy. Like every successful entrepreneur, she’s been on a constant entrepreneurial roller coaster throughout her career. Her three-step system simplifies and maximizes life and entrepreneurship.

Misty’s three-step system

Rhythm Stabilizer: The initial process of figuring out how to integrate all the pieces of your service-based business. How are you spending your time, creating stability, and into a comfortable rhythm that moves and flows easily?

Community Optimizer: Creating a community around the business. Building a team, getting enthusiasm from the clients, and support from the larger community.

Value Maximizer: Creating value from the actual product and the business to the people that we serve and who serve with us. Adding value to that. 

Lown’s client Melanie Gibbs now owns three dance studios in Florida after raising her hand at a conference where Lown was teaching and following her three-step process. She’s living proof that the system works if you commit to it and follow through. 

loading…

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Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/dance-studio-mogul-misty-lown-explains-how-to-reinvent-any-face-to-face-business/