#also posting on a friday evening is a surefire way for this to get as little traction as possible because that is how posting schedules wor | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

indiejones · 11 months ago

Text

THE FILM 'TIS BELIEVED….NO, 'TIS KNOWN…GOD HERSELF MOTHERED & NURTURED FOR MORE THAN A YEAR….IN INDIAN THEATERS ! …… - THE STORY OF THE ONLY INDIAN FILM THAT'S ON SEVERAL POLICE RECORDS, FOR HAVING CREATED A SERIOUS LAW & ORDER PROBLEM ACROSS THE LENGTH & BREADTH OF INDIA ! …….. - HOW A FILM LITERALLY MADE ON STARVATION BUDGET, BECAME THE 10TH MOST MONETARILY SUCCESSFUL FILM IN INDIAN HISTORY! ………. - THE ONE MOVIE THAT REACHED THE HEIGHTS OF 'MOVIE DHAM' ! …….. - THE FILM THAT ANNOUNCED ADVENT OF A NEW GOD ON PLANET EARTH ! - “JAISA GANESH, VAISI USKI BETI!” … - THE STORY OF THE UNPRECEDENTED, UNPARALLELED, & HISTORIC BOX-OFFICE SUCCESS OF 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' !

Film actor Ashish Kumar & his actress wife Bela Bose were happily married for a while yet childless. Among the many 'totkas' women adopt, she also came up with one such desire to follow a once-a-week 16 week 'fasting' pattern for the Goddess Santoshi, that was recommended to her. And within a few weeks of this fast, she conceived & bore a child! Some time elapsed, & Ashish on one of his many story sittings, in a general chat happened to mention this miraculous feat to his producer friend, Satram Rohara. Satram heard it, & jumped up, for he too had exactly the same story to tell with his own wife! So moved were they, that decided to make a film tributing Goddess Santoshi. Despite knowing how mythos despite being a safe commission earning bet thru 30s-60s, were surefire b.o flops. in mid 70s. Anita Guha who'd made a name for herself as mytho queen way back in 60s, but long retired, was chosen for the Goddess's role & a famous Gujarati & Bhojpuri heroine Kanan Kaushal as the leading lady, Music Dir & Playbacks too being the supposed B-rung of then. All this supposed 'sidie' line-up you see, for they knew how this film was doomed to lose money, yet that they just had to make to thank the Lord! … But something interesting started happening as the film was being made. The songs that were coming to the sets from the studios, were far superior than what anyone'd bargained for! Much that huge crowds began gathering around the area it was being filmed just to hear them! This level of live support heightened excitement among the crew, much that began working super efficiently to complete it well. Now to the next sequence of events..This buzz affected Anita ji on her first day too, who in her earnestness it turns out forgets to have breakfast, & while trying to learn her next set of heavy-duty lines, misses lunch too. When producer organizes a buffet dinner for all at night, Anita ji who was available for just a few days, & had to shoot post dinner too, realizes this might entail removing all her make-up & re-applying it, & to avoid all that fuss, decides to skip dinner as well. On her way home, a thot strikes her! - This was the first time in all her working yrs this'd happened..& what if it was a sign from God! At that very moment she decides to observe a fast for all her days of shoot on this film! & Thus the film very amiable & efficiently gets to verge of completion. But another, it seems important part of The Good Lord's plan was yet to take it's position.

NOW COMES MONDAY…AND THE MIRACLE IS AFOOT! You see many of the villagers who'd seen the film at Edwards, each go to their resp villages, & make mention of this lovely film on Goddess Santoshi they've just seen..TO THEIR LADIES! AND MADNESS BEGINS! It seems Goddess Santoshi, not a very popular Goddess in India then, had bestowed her blessings on many families sporadically across India, incl very many villages. And many ladies of almost every village were her quiet yet ardent devotees. And they began coaxing their hubbies & families to collectively make a trip to Mumbai, & watch their Goddess on screen! People tell of how that Monday saw endless streams of bullock carts from every conceivable (pun intended I guess) village of Maharashtra entering Mumbai to watch this one film alone! Media ofcourse gets to hear of it, & flashes it on front pages the next day! BY TUESDAY, WHOLE OF INDIA KNOWS 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' IS RUNNING IN MUMBAI, & STARTS PLANNING A TRIP! Similar stories emerge of 100's of villages emptying out to reach nearest cinema halls, even 100s of kms away! Police across all states are out on high alert..A UNCONSCIOUS MASS MIGRATION IS BEING SEEN ACROSS INDIA ALL AT ONCE! Producers are sent urgent calls, not just from distributors & exhibitors, but law enforcement, to send more prints! How many?? As many as you can..300-400! "WE DON'T WANT RIOTS!" "But this will cost atleast 30 lakhs" .. "Beg, borrow, steal..but do this for your nation". 600 PRINTS ARE RELEASED! THE RETURNS? …. 208 TIMES OVER PRODUCTION & PUBLICITY COST (PER RECORDS..THE ONLY TIME EVER IN HISTORY! WE TODAY INFLATION-ADJUSTED ESTIMATE 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' AS HAVING EARNED RS. 3,120 CRORES AT THE INDIAN BOX OFFICE!

TILL TODAY REGARDED AS THE 10TH & 22ND MOST MONETARILY SUCCESSFUL (IE BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER) FILM OF INDIAN & WORLD CINEMA RESPECTIVELY!

What you just heard was public record. What you're about to hear next, is nothing short of real-life mythology in itself.

Women not just from villages but also small & bigger towns, started making visits to this film a near daily event. The cottage tourism industry starts picking up all of sudden, for the now routine mass bookings made by kitty parties across India, to their nearest 'Santoshi Maa Theaters'.

What starts drawing interest next, is not the repeat & mass value of this film, but the manner of visitation. Women & even men, in their millions, started bringing flowers, fruits & even sweets along, males generally entrusted with the 'prasad' distribution duties to every visitor as exited the film, while women left to their 'prayers' inside the hall, once each & every song began, taking turns in groups to come to the space at the front, in their hundreds, with none of the admin staff daring to stop any! Reason being, what'd happen next! - You see each of the ladies after their flower & fruit sacrifices, would also generously remove their coin-wallets from inside of their blouses, all coins to be thrown as forcefully as could so to veritably touch the silver screens!- the farther the more blissed & more blessed..& all this money btw meant for that cinema staff alone ! (Many of who's families that owe their decent prosperity till today to this one film) Paid shoe stalls now started privately springing up outside many theaters..for how wear footwear be spending half your time praying & singing Lord's praise at! Hey, temples too built in places where open lands across halls! Now in all this euphoria, we've almost forgotten Santoshi Maa, I mean Anita ji herself! .. People leaving cinema halls, be all so taken, began craving a personal 'darshan' of that image for real. And Anita Guha's Bandra house soon became public knowledge, people first watching the film, next making their way to below her house! Anita ji herself recounts umpteen stories of women throwing their new borns into her arms, as left home each day! Anita Guha,mind u,was ranked among Top 10 Heroines of 1950s & Top 5-6 of 1960s. Yet remembered by most post 70s only as 'Santoshi Maa'! THAT'S LIFE! ..WONDERFUL!

'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' RAN MORE THAN A YEAR & CELEBRATED A MOST UNFORGETTABLE GOLDEN JUBILEE AT ALL CINEMA HALLS IT RAN ON!

& AS TRIBUTE TO THE ONE FILM THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES, EDWARDS & MANY MUMBAI THEATERS ~50 YRS ON, KEEP MEMENTOS OF IT'S 50TH WEEK RUN TILL TODAY… MARKING THE ONE YEAR, GOD CAME TO LIVE WITH THEM!

And just as inauspicious & bad events have their aftermaths, greatest events leave their aftermaths too!

Here's recounting some of them:

See as news of this unbelievable level of mass hysteria & success were naturally going to cross all borders, also reached leading & most renowned sociological researchers around the world, incl leading world historian Michael Brand, Prof John Hawley of Barnard College, Columbia Univ, Prof Cathleen Arnold of Florida State Univ, Prof Philip Lutgendorf of Iowa Univ, famous writer Stanley Kurtz, & many other leading historians & international journalists of the times, who all came to India, conducted several interviews across the board, collectively pooled their heads to try make sense of this most unique phenomena they'd just witnessed..and alongside Indian sociologists like Veena Das, published their own research papers on it! The only other time sociologists have been known to enter the film arena for wide-scale research, was to deconstruct Rajesh Khanna's magical 2 decade reign over Bollywood, again from India!

2. The culture of fasting in name of Maa Santoshi, that began after this film, continues as c/f tradition till today across India.

3. There was a practice of writing 'Om Shubh Labh' atop letters till then. That was soon replaced enmasse by "Jai Santoshi Maa!"

4. A new, slightly devious side-culture/biz of sending Santoshi Maa's 16-chain postcards sprang up,to maximize blessings…& POSTCARD SECTION OF INDIA'S POSTAL SERVICE SHUT DOWN, FOR PAUCITY OF RESOURCES!

5. Only time ever, a full LP of a mythological film was released worldwide by music cos!

6. Now to makers- Producer Satram Rohara & Distributor Kedarnath Agarwal, both went bankrupt, Satram people say for no favorable profit-sharing contract with Dist at time of release, & Distr in turn being duped by own brothers. Film's leading light,Anita Guha,too didn't exactly meet most peaceful end-suffering heart ailment & leucoderma (skin whitening), she would die in her old age unwilling to be seen w/o make-up. People say,atleast first 2 suffered for promising temples on Maa yet failing to build,yet most believe Good Goddess actually fast-tracked karmas of all it's makers,a great blessing in disguise!

7. Ganesh's daughter didn't have many sites in India till then..but everything would change post 1975, & Santoshi Maa temples became regular feature of every city & town!

8. & WE NOW KNOW FIRST-HAND..HOW GOD WORKS TO ESTABLISH HIS OR HER KINGDOM, WHEN SEES FIT!

1 note · View note

maybe-theres-hope · 3 years ago

Text

I try to keep it silent (but you can read my mind)

AKA the ‘reunion s*x fic’ because I can’t be stopped from writing nearly 8k of porn with feelings when literally one person makes a post about wanting it (this is for @actuallysara bc she literally asked)

7.7k | E | ao3

It’s the sixth week after TK comes home–to their home –when he finally cracks.

He’s been doing much better lately. His breathing treatments are further apart and the doctors say it won’t be long before he can stop them entirely. He doesn’t get winded going for a walk to the little corner store with the amazing deli twice a week. He’s even able to do a passable weight lifting routine in the living room (nothing like his usual routine from when he was an active firefighter, but still it’s an accomplishment).

His doctor has even cleared him for light duty, his first shift of which is Monday.

But tonight is Friday, and TK is humming with an energy that has been making its presence known more explicitly with each passing day.

He’s never claimed to be a monk, even when he and Carlos were apart. No, he hadn’t sought the company of anyone else – it hadn’t even crossed his mind, what with the emotional whirlwind his life had become at that point – but he’d taken care of himself more often than not. And more often than not, he’d done it thinking about Carlos. As much as it pained him to do it while they were apart, as much as it hurt to conjure up the image of his former lover’s face and body and the memory of his dexterous touch against TK’s skin, he’d done it anyway.

It was a surefire finish every time.

Since his latest stint in the hospital, he’s had other shit to think about like his recovery and whether he was going to be able to sit upright long enough to eat dinner without keeling over in those first few days. But with each passing day it gets easier to remember what life used to be like. When he’d come home from a 24 hour shift to find Carlos swaying his hips to upbeat reggaeton in the kitchen, the smell of chili peppers sizzling into his nose. When they’d curl up on the couch to watch whatever reruns of The Office or Friends were playing, and not really paying attention to it.

Or when they’d slip into bed beside each other and gravitate together like two magnets with no other choice but to fuse themselves. The long, languid kisses Carlos would trail down the skin of his neck and shoulder, the feel of powerful arms honed for force gently embracing him in their protective cage. The intimate slide of their bodies against the sheets and each other, fingers grasping for purchase amidst the glisten of sweat in the heated Texas night. The whisper of Carlos’ voice in his ear, calling TK’s name as he buried himself inside.

TK is currently sitting on the couch pretending to read a book and just this slant of his thoughts has him nearly fully hard in his sweatpants.

However, he knows better than to ask for what he’s thinking of. One of the reasons he loves Carlos so much is his unwavering heart and his care for those he calls family. TK, now counted amongst that number, has been on the receiving end of Carlos’ care and attention since he was released from the hospital. It has involved the cooking of meals, the massaging of temples, the tucking of blankets, and the steadying of balance on numerous occasions. But TK has also been trying to push his boundaries as an invalid in the past week or so – since his doctor cleared him for “moderately vigorous activity”...

“I’ve been feeling great, Doc. Honestly I could start going for runs once or twice a week,” he said, hoping she’d be on board.

“I don’t know if I’d take it that far, but a 20-30 minute walk three times a week sounds good. It can be vigorous, you shouldn’t have to hold back to just a stroll. Work your way up to power walking,” she teased, though her smile was kind. TK had come to really like and trust her over the past few weeks since he’d been out of the ICU. It was why he was able to pluck up the courage to ask his next question.

“Okay, so…speaking of ‘vigorous’...” he began. She raised an eyebrow, but he could tell she knew exactly what he was going to ask. “What’s the timeline on…whether or not I can be, uh…intimately–” he struggled for a delicate way to put it, but she cut him off.

“You have a partner?” she asked. He knew she already knew the answer, technically, but TK had never said outright what he and Carlos were.

"Yes.”

“That sweet police officer that left a permanent imprint of his body in the chair next to your bed for the entirety of your stay with us?”

TK felt like he was being teased by a particularly tipsy wine aunt, but he couldn’t fault her.

“Yes, ma’am.” He couldn’t help the blush he could feel darkening his cheeks. She took pity on him finally.

“Alright, Mr. Strand. I’m going to speak as a medical professional here, and nothing else. If you wish to engage in sexual activity, up to and including penetrative intercourse, I can say it should be alright but with a few conditions for the time being.”

TK was stuck on the phrase ‘penetrative intercourse’ because honestly, he’d never heard anything less sexy sounding. Then he registered her next words. “Conditions?” he repeated.

“Yes. Now, please do not take this as me dictating your personal life. I’m only looking out for your safety. If you really can’t wait, I’d recommend activities and positions that significantly reduce or completely eliminate the strain on you.” TK felt his blush deepen, but she just looked at him as if she expected him to nod like he understood, so he did. “Your lungs are still weaker than you think they are, and while you don’t need to worry about muscle atrophy, your diaphragm is not going to expand like it used to for a good while.” She paused a moment more, before adding a little more candidly, “Lay back and let him do the work, is what I’m saying.”

“Mmhmm, yeah, okay. Got it. Loud and clear. Uh huh,” he babbled. His face burned.

"And one more thing, while we’re on the subject,” she added as he began rising from his seat to go, feeling like this meeting could not end fast enough. “Concerning oral sex.”

TK choked on air for a moment but recovered quickly enough that he didn’t think she’d noticed.

“Receiving is fine, as long as you follow my guidelines from before. But you are forbidden to give.” She raised an eyebrow again, waiting for him to respond.

“What?” he sputtered. “I…uh…” he foundered a bit before he figured, fuck it , this coversation had been a rollercoaster already. “It’s just, I feel like…that …is the thing that’s like, at the top of the list of things that he deserves at this point? After everything?” TK wasn’t sure why he was prolonging this conversation, but he was honestly at his wits end about it anyway.

She gave him an unimpressed look. “Mr. Strand, you were intubated. You’re a paramedic, you know what that means. Don’t do anything that could damage the already raw state of the area, okay?”

“Oh my god…” he breathed, and he could feel the blush creep down past his collarbone.

“All of this is perfectly normal to be concerned about, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. Trust me, you are far from the first person to ask me such things and you won’t be the last.”

“Uh…yeah…okay. Thanks, Doc.” he turned to leave, desperate to end this exercise in humiliation.

“See you in a week, have fun!” she called as he exited to the reception area, face flaming.

TK can’t deny that he’s glad he had the conversation though. Because he definitely knows if he tries to bring it up with Carlos, he’ll be much more cautious than the doctor had been. At least now, he has ammo to rebut with.

“Hey baby?” he calls to Carlos, who is wiping down the kitchen counters from their earlier cookie-baking shenanigans.

“Mmm?” is the reply.

“Come here, please?” TK puts on his best puppy face when Carlos turns to face him, dish towel thrown over his shoulder. He just smiles when he sees his boyfriend’s begging face, and turns to put down his towel and the cleaning spray on the counter; dropping everything because the love of his life asked for his attention.

TK can work with that.

Carlos comes to sit on the couch but leaves a foot between them. TK remedies that by crawling into his lap amid startled protests and halfhearted shoves to get him to stop. He just smiles into the kiss Carlos gives him, the one that stops before anything can get heated. Just as it has for the past six weeks.

Before that had been a necessity, but now that TK knows they could take it further, it’s an annoying hurdle.

“Yes, Tyler?” Carlos intones like a frustrated teacher, though his fond smile ruins the effect.

“I’ve been thinking,” he begins.

“Always dangerous,” Carlos teases. TK just gives him the stink eye. “Fine, fine, I’m sorry. Go on,” he laughs.

TK takes a few moments to gather his thoughts, and also to leave Carlos hanging in retaliation for the teasing. “I miss you,” he settles on, because it’s true. Sure, they’ve been back together and living in each other’s space for weeks now, but it’s been a slow burn. A simmer under TK’s skin like he’s been standing on a platform waiting for a train to begin an important journey and all that whizzes by him minute after minute is the cool breeze. The tension within stretches thin with each passing day and he’s slowly starting to unravel at the seams.

“I’m right here, love,” Carlos answers sincerely, all teasing vanished, because he’s a goddamn saint. “I love you and I’m right here for you. You can come to me with anything, okay?”

“I know that,” TK sighs. “I just mean…Okay, so like. You know the other night when we were making out in bed, and I was trying to pull you closer and you told me you had to wake up early so we shouldn’t start anything?”

Instantly he can feel Carlos tense under him. Probably because TK knows Carlos had nothing to do that morning anyway and he’d been trying to steer TK away from sex because he was afraid of hurting him, but also afraid of offending him. Hence the white lie.

“TK–”

“No, listen. I understand why you did it. I understand why you’re afraid. But remember what led to us being apart in the first place? Not communicating. So, I’m trying to communicate here.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I miss you,” he says again, but with a different inflection that Carlos immediately catches, TK can see it in his face. “I miss your hands on me, I miss feeling your touch all over.” He’s scooted into Carlos’ space even more – as much as he can when he’s already in his lap – and he’s practically speaking directly into his ear, firmly laying the words into his skin.

“I miss feeling you here with me, and before you say anything,” he says before Carlos can interrupt, “you know exactly what I mean. We’ve been…careful with each other since I’ve been home. I know why you’re careful with me, that part’s obvious. But do you know what makes me want to be careful with you?” he asks as he sits back to look his boyfriend in the eye again.

Carlos’ hands have made their way to rest on TK’s thighs, solidly holding but not attempting anything stronger, no fingers digging in or pulling closer, nearly proving TK’s point. He shakes his head and looks questioningly at TK, waiting for him to continue.

“I hurt you, really hurt you, Carlos. By all accounts, I don’t really deserve to have you in my life anymo–”

“No, TK. That isn’t true and I won’t hear you say anything like that anymore.” Carlos’ words are pointed and hard, no room for argument. “You were scared, you felt cornered, and you reacted. It’s like you said, we should have communicated. We already talked about this. Extensively .”

“I know, but just hear me out, okay?” He waits for Carlos to settle again, and rests a hand on his cheek to make sure he has his full attention and Carlos isn’t still stewing. That he’s in the here and now. “I did hurt you. Not only by walking out, leaving you alone and pulling us apart, but when I was in the hospital. Sure, yes, we’ve talked about how I take risks I shouldn’t take – and we can argue later about each side of that coin – but the fact remains I did take a risk and while it worked out in one way, it went bad in another. My actions led to you feeling helpless and hopeless and heartbroken for days because you had no idea if we’d ever get any closure. We’ve been in limbo for months and Carlos, let me tell you, seeing you that morning at the furniture store…it was…” he fights to find the words, and comes up short.

Carlos sniffles and says nothing, looking him in the eye and not wavering.

“I don’t know if I said this before, but your expression when you turned around to face me when we showed up? That was the first thing I thought about when I felt myself hit the water. For a split second, I thought I was dying, and all I could think was that we left things so stupidly…stilted? And that I’d have no chance to get my own head out of my ass because I was going to die there. Then, you know, my brain switched back on and I did my job like I was supposed to.

“But then…then I was dying. I wasn’t all that…coherent or anything, but I remember thinking the same sort of thing: I felt so utterly stupid and stubborn for leaving things the way they were. I’d have given anything to just tell you I was sorry in that moment, then everything went black. And Carlos…” he heaves a breath, feeling the prick of tears behind his eyes but he turns his gaze up into the harsh brightness of the pendant light above and doesn’t let them fall, “when I opened my eyes and saw you there, I can’t tell you…can’t tell you what that meant to me. You didn’t have to be there. I’d pushed you away so firmly, and yet still you cared. You stayed with me, watched over me, even when my own father wasn’t there. You gave me your faith and your love and I know it drained you and I just…”

He hadn’t meant to get this far into his feelings, he’s just been wanting intimacy, but he finds once the flood’s started he can’t stop it. Carlos seems content to listen and he hasn’t looked away and TK is so so grateful this man exists.

“What I mean when I say I want to be careful with you is…you’ve been hurt, injured , just like I was. You’ve needed time to recover, to mend yourself, to take things slow and I get we’re doing that. But I think it’s time we take another step in the direction of…not who we used to be, because we can’t be that anymore, but something more evolved.”

He trails off, not quite done but having no more speech prepared behind his tongue, so he remains quiet for a moment.

“I understand what you mean,” Carlos says into the space between them. His hands have moved from simply resting on TK’s thighs up to his waist, holding like he’s steadying him, even though TK hasn’t felt himself off balance since he’s been in Carlos’ arms. It’s nearly unconscious at this point, he assumes, for Carlos to want to comfort someone he loves instead of receiving that comfort himself. He’s noticed through his speech that Carlos is listening but he doesn’t look like he’s actually absorbing what TK’s trying to say. He’s trying to remain strong in the face of TK’s emotions, and that’s not what TK wants.

“Do you? Look, I’ll put it another way. I know you’re probably going to think this is shallow, but I really do want to have sex with you right now. I need it, I think, and I’m trying to explain why so that you know it’s not shallow.”

“I don’t think it’s shallow–”

“Let me finish?”

“Is there any point where you get off this soap box and we actually take off our clothes?” Carlos teases, and TK knows the line is still open.

TK wriggles his hips a little and smirks. “I dunno. This is a pretty comfy soap box I’m on.” He smiles even while raising a disapproving eyebrow.

“Alright, fine. I’m done this time, I promise.”

“I love you,” TK says simply, because he needs to say it.

“I love you, too,” is Carlos’ immediate response. TK takes a deep breath and continues his logic.

“Look, we connected over sex in the first place. We both know we didn’t do much talking in between the first three or four times we slept together, and even after that we texted about dumb shit. We weren’t getting in deep, we weren’t trying to. But we did anyway. We both felt way more connected to each other than we should have after a few…admittedly fantastic fucks. We’ve talked about it before: we both felt the earth move a little each time even though we were trying to keep it casual.”

“Shallow or not, it’s a thing for us, is what you’re saying,” Carlos says.

“Yes,” TK breathes, relieved. “And like I said, after everything, I need that thing. I need to feel that connection. But all that I was saying before? I meant that you need it, too.”

“Oh?” Carlos doesn’t look sarcastic, only curious as to how TK will explain himself.

“Like I said, I hurt you. I was dying and we were apart but you still loved me and I still loved you but you had no way of knowing that for sure and yet you gave me all of yourself that you were able to give. You need this thing we have, because you need to feel me here , alive and well because I don’t think you’ve fully accepted it yet.”

He sees the moment he strikes a nerve, and he internally applauds himself for retaining such intimate knowledge of this man even after months apart. He remains silent and waits for Carlos to speak.

“You’re right,” he says softly. He sniffles again, and those deep brown eyes are glassy with unshed tears. “I don’t think I’ve…really let myself believe that you’re okay. That you’re alive, and you’re here and we’re home together and–” His breath hitches. “Yeah, just…you’re right.”

“Hey,” TK says cupping Carlos’ cheek once again before leaning in to kiss along his temple. “I’m here. I’m here, baby. And I’m never going anywhere again, not without you.” He presses his face into the spot he just kissed, feeling warmth and solidity and everything that Carlos has always represented. TK’s the shaky one, the one always walking a tightrope between fight and flight. He’s already made the decision to use Carlos as his anchor, to stop trying to go it alone when he doesn’t have to anymore. Now, he’s making the conscious decision to also do the same for Carlos – who is a master of hiding his emotions until they cannot be contained anymore, and by that time he’s lost his once strong grip on them.

The strongest presence in TK’s life needs a soft place to land, too, and he vows to be that, however he can.

Carlos reaches up to cup the back of TK’s head, angling him in for a deep kiss that curls his toes and stokes the flame in his belly back up from where it had waned during his impassioned plea. The bliss is short-lived though, as Carlos pulls back a fraction. TK huffs his disappointment before he can tamp it down.

“I just need to ask…are you sure you’re up for this? Should we ask your doctor? You’re still doing breathing treatments and–”

“She said it was fine, as long as I took it easy,” TK breathes out, trying to go back to kissing. Carlos pulls back even further with an incredulous expression.

“You asked your doctor if we could have sex?”

TK sighs again, resigning himself to his boyfriend’s over-caring, which he absolutely loves but will deny to his last breath. “Yes, of course I did, because I knew you’d ask this. She said sex is fine if I, and I quote, ‘lay back and let you do all the work’,” TK says, remembering his blush in her office and trying not to bring it back.

“Mmm,” Carlos hummed, a devilish smile finally replacing the carefully constrained concern of the past few minutes. “Taking care of you like you should be taken care of? I can get behind that. I’ve missed it. In that case–” and he moves to try and stand, but TK doubles down with as much strength as he can muster in his current position.

“No baby, please let’s stay right here, I don’t want to move,” he whines, wrapping his arms more tightly around Carlos’ neck.

A soft chuckle finds its way into his ear. “I hate to break it to you, mi amor , but if you want me to strip you down, we’re gonna have to.”

TK has never hated pants as much as he hates pants in this moment.

“Come on, sweetheart, let me take care of you.”

TK complies with as little protest as possible, and slides back until he’s able to plant his feet back on the floor and stand. He is pliant and warm as Carlos reaches underneath his black hoodie to caress the skin underneath, causing shivers to erupt all over. Those hands work the fabric up past his stomach, his chest, finally pulling at his arms and causing him to raise them over his head for Carlos to tug the hoodie all the way off. The cool air in the loft is a welcome on his heated skin, and he relishes every goose pimple that breaks out along his shoulders and arms.

“Beautiful,” Carlos murmurs, hands caressing over his jaw and neck, down over his gunshot scar, and trailing down his abs to the waistband of his sweats. They drop easily to the floor alongside the hoodie, and because TK came into this conversation prepared, there is nothing else to remove. He feels more than hears Carlos’ groan echo between them. The next kiss is even deeper than the last, the promise of more finally leaking through.

“My turn to take care of you,” TK says with a small smile. He begins with Carlos’ loose long sleeved t-shirt, bringing it up and over his body and using the motion to feel him up as much as he can. His hands skim across hard muscles and soft skin, a metaphor for Carlos’ vulnerable heart hidden behind a sometimes stoic facade. To TK it feels like home, the texture and scent of his beloved pulling him in with every touch, the pads of his fingers magnetized, sparking with electricity.

When Carlos’ head pops through the fabric and the shirt falls to the floor, TK’s thoughts stop short for a moment. He hasn’t been with anyone in nearly half a year and yes, he has definitely kept up a running rolodex of fantastic images from the course of their relationship to keep him company during his many nights alone, but seeing Carlos again in the flesh with the promise of what’s to come makes him shiver all over again.

He drops his fingers to Carlos’ belt, deftly pulling it out of its buckle and not bothering to remove it completely before going for the button and fly of his jeans. They’re tight fitting, because Carlos is a good Texas boy who knows he looks good in ridiculously tight jeans damn him , so when TK yanks the denim over his hips, his boxer briefs come with it, which is just dandy. TK knows he’s biting his lip and he looks like a virgin seeing his first cock, but he can’t help it.

He drops a little to guide the tight fitting fabric down and off Carlos’ ankles and for a moment he’s face to face with that absolutely gorgeous cock and he feels his mouth water. However, his doctor’s words from earlier in the week come back to him, and he knows that avenue is closed for the moment. It doesn’t help that his blush comes back in full force just as he thinks about it, and Carlos notices.

“What?” he asks as TK stands fully again. But TK’s not going to talk about it right now, so he just shakes his head and nudges Carlos to sit back down on the couch before straddling him once more and oh , naked couch cuddling is definitely a thing he missed.

There’s something uniquely intimate about the skin on the backs of his thighs being tickled by the coarse hair along Carlos’ own powerful quads that TK gets lost in for a few moments.

“You with me, love?” Carlos says into the skin of his shoulder as he folds his arms around TK’s waist again.

“Yeah, yeah, just… shit I missed this.” TK slides his hands up through Carlos’ curls, scratching lightly and causing the man to bite his lip as TK presses their foreheads together. He adjusts his position a bit, which causes their cocks to slide against each other and even dry it feels incredible and they both let out soft moans.

“Me too, baby. But I hate to break it to you, but you’re gonna have to get up again,” Carlos says softly, still soaking up the feeling of TK’s fingers in his hair.

“Why?” TK whines.

“Well, at some point, we’re gonna need lube. And it’s not like we’ve had reason to stash some around the place yet, so…”

“Ah, you underestimate my determination,” TK teases, reaching over to the far right side of the couch and rooting around underneath the cushion until his fingers alight on hard plastic and he pulls the bottle free. He wiggles it in front of Carlos’ face with a grin.

“You really did think this whole seduction thing out beforehand, didn’t you?”

“Mmmhm, yeah,” TK says into another kiss while he presses the bottle into Carlos’ palm. “Come on, baby, get me ready.”

“You don’t want to take this a little slower?” Carlos asks, the concern in his voice bleeding through the need threatening to overtake it.

“We’ve waited long enough as it is,” he answers. “I want you, baby. Now .”

“Yes sir,” Carlos quips with a smile and another kiss to TK’s lips, which are already feeling swollen and isn’t that a wonderful thing to feel again? “But,” he interrupts, “you have to promise to tell me if you need to pause or stop, okay? Please promise me you’ll listen to your body and take care of yourself?”

“I promise,” TK says sincerely, making sure he maintains eye contact so Carlos knows he means it, down to his soul. He doesn’t want to hurt his beloved again when it could be prevented. He’ll monitor himself closely just to make Carlos happy.

TK continues kissing Carlos all over his face, completely uncaring of how he’s hindering the man from slicking up his fingers. He’s just along for the ride however and whenever they get to their destination.

When he feels the first slippery digit caress across his hole, he lets out a sound he had forgotten he was capable of making – a high pitched whine of want that echoes through the room. Thankfully, Carlos takes the hint and begins circling and slowly working that finger inside, barely a stretch but so much sensation that TK has trouble focusing on kissing anymore. He lays his head against Carlos’ temple again so he can hone in on the feel of Carlos opening him up.

Once Carlos’ middle finger is steadily and easily moving in and out of him, he feels another slide up beside it without having to ask. Carlos seems to pick up on his neediness growing with each passing moment, because he wastes no time working TK up to three fingers in a matter of minutes, pumping slowly and subtly spreading them just a bit as he bottoms out at the knuckle, and TK bites his lip hard to keep from whining louder. He’s started moving his hips in time with the movements of those fingers, unable to keep himself from following the rhythm of pleasure unfurling from Carlos’ expert touch.

Carlos’ free hand is holding steady at his hip, occasionally squeezing enough that he traps a bit of TK’s flesh in the pinch of his palm and TK relishes the soreness he’s going to feel in the morning. It’s not rough treatment, but it’s more than Carlos has been comfortable offering before now, because he’d been afraid to hurt TK, as if he was still fragile enough to shatter. As if TK wouldn’t shatter without this treatment now, if he was denied it.

“Come on, come on, please, I’m ready…” TK’s begun to babble pleas at Carlos, who is relentless in his methodical precision as he moves his fingers inside TK, alighting on deep seated zones of pleasure that TK has never been able to find on himself and he thinks it’s probably because Carlos is superhuman when it comes to making TK feel good because god .

“I don’t want to hurt you, love. Just a little more, okay?” he soothes into the pulse point under TK’s jaw. TK has noticed Carlos’ obsession with his pulse points lately. A hand caressing his arm when they’re in bed, ghosting over his brachial artery. When they kiss, fingers pressed to his carotid just firm enough to feel the thump against the pads. When they’re laying on the couch, TK’s feet in Carlos’ lap, and those same fingers press into the point just next to his ankle. He can’t fault Carlos for always checking – he knows PTSD when he sees it, no matter how “mild” it might be – and he loves that he gets to satisfy Carlos’ craving to feel life thrumming through his veins.

He feels a fourth finger sneak it’s way in next to the rest, and he keens in the back of his throat, uncaring what the neighbors will think because he gets to live in this moment and he’s not going to hold back for god or money.

TK doesn’t have words for a long while, just riding the wave of sensation that he’s missed for so many months. It’s when Carlos removes his fingers that he snaps back into the present moment, readying himself for what’s coming next, relishing it. He picks himself up just a bit so Carlos can reach around him and position himself, lining them up. Then Carlos’ hands are back on his hips, guiding him to ease down back into his lap.

TK lets out a moan that reverberates off the walls of their cavernous living room as the head of Carlos’ cock slips inside him, the stretch so sublime he gets lost in it once again. The hands are still guiding him, dropping him down onto Carlos slowly but deliberately, and he feels each inch as it enters him, like coming home.

“Oh my god , TK, you… fuck –” It seems Carlos has also lost his grip on language, but that suits TK just fine.

They sit there for a moment once TK is fully seated against Carlos’ thighs once again, just reveling in the sensation of being connected once again in that way that harkens back to their beginnings. TK was right, the sex had never been casual no matter what the two of them tried to say about it back then.

Their breathing evens out over the course of the next few minutes, as they adjust to being this close again without moving around much, just feeling the connection. They exchange kisses that don’t go anywhere, and hands roam leisurely up and down arms and chests.

“You alright?” Carlos asks. TK hears the real concern in his voice and tries to soothe it.

“I’m fantastic, I promise.”

“Good, then hang on,” Carlos says before not giving TK any time to anticipate his next move. He grips TK’s thighs firmly and heaves them both up off the couch, and TK barely has the presence of mind to snag the bottle of lube before it’s out of his reach.

“What the hell?’ TK laughs as he hangs on for dear life while Carlos makes his way back to the bedroom.

“You said to let you relax, that I should do all the work. That’s not gonna happen if you try and ride me on the couch, babe,” he answers with infuriating logic. Then again, TK is getting to experience his boyfriend’s brute strength the likes of which have entered his masturbatory fantasies on more than one occasion in the past months apart. Being manhandled always has turned him on, and Carlos knows this, hence his smug little smile when TK braves a look at him.

He’s gently lowered onto the bed, Carlos somehow never slipping free of his body, and they resume their gentle rhythm of kissing and TK unconsciously swiveling his hips just to feel the movement of Carlos inside him while they remain relatively still.

Before long, however, TK gets impatient for more. He starts moving his hips a little more, his breathing picking up with the effort of trying to urge Carlos to move, letting out little mewls all the while.

“Alright, sweetheart, alright. Let me love on you,” Carlos whispers between kisses, and TK tries to relax as Carlos begins to move.

It’s subtle at first, just a small swivel of his hips similar to what TK had been doing, just alighting the nerve endings and sending little zips of pleasure up TK’s spine but nothing earth shattering. Just sweet, slow love making that could last for hours or days.

But then he gets more intent with it, pulling out almost entirely before easing back in slowly, inch by inch, until their hips are flush again. It’s like he’s savoring it, every moment, just like TK asked him to, because it’s true: they need this. Carlos giving in to that need is a tender thing that clenches TK’s heart.

Meanwhile, TK’s hands are everywhere because he can’t keep them still. They’re running through Carlos’ hair and down the back of his head and neck, pulling him in for deep, languid kisses that take their breath away. They’re working their way slowly down the front of his torso, feeling every peak and valley of the most glorious abs TK has ever seen on another human. They’re reaching down to his hips, pulling Carlos into him – or trying to, except Carlos is setting a slow and deliberate pace that TK can’t hope to hurry along, because Carlos keeps stopping, burying himself deep and rolling his hips and causing TK to gasp and cry out every time he tries to take the reigns.

“Relax, love, come on,” he says into TK’s mouth on the next kiss as he pulls out and thrusts his hips just a little bit quicker this time. TK’s body clenches around him which causes them both to moan out loud this time, feeding off each other.

They’ve had a number of amazing sexual encounters before but this is…different. TK feels as if time itself has slowed to a crawl to allow them to have this moment for as long as they want. It’s honestly a little cliche and twisted, TK thinks to himself, to put this much stock in sex, but he can’t help the way it feels. It’s about being close to Carlos again, and allowing Carlos to be close to him in return. It’s about the vulnerability of allowing someone so close at all, and the feeling of knowing he won’t be compromised in the end, that he’ll be taken care of and he can take care of his partner in return.

He’s still trying to forcefully pull Carlos closer as their pace picks up; he’s desperate for every part of them to meld together and despite the incredible feeling of Carlos thrusting a little bit quicker and grazing his prostate every few strokes causing lightning to burst behind his eyes, he can’t help that the position is hindering this need to fit them together like puzzle pieces.

“What’s wrong?” Carlos asks, because at this point they might as well be one person and Carlos knows his frustration even though he’s sure he hasn’t shown it on his face through the absolute bliss he’s otherwise feeling. “Talk to me, love.”

The sweat clinging to Carlos’ brow is beautiful, his smile genuine, his concern endearing. TK has trouble with words for a moment.

“It’s not enough,” he manages through his panting breaths. “I need…” he trails off, but his hands scrabble over Carlos’ skin again, trying to pull him in but the position renders his efforts nearly useless.

“Okay, okay, sweetheart, hang on.” Carlos kisses his forehead and pulls out, much to TK’s loud protest, but a smile and a caress on the cheek is all he gets before he’s being maneuvered up onto his knees. Carlos very gently coaxes him into the position he wants him in, facing the headboard with hands on it to steady himself, kneeling but up off his feet, stance rather wide so Carlos can slip his own knees in between TK’s.

“Alright, sit back against me, slowly, that’s it baby…” he coos as TK follows his instruction, sitting back as if he’s going to sit on his heels until he encounters Carlos instead, slipping inside of him again to the tune of TK moaning loudly again, the pitch kicking up higher as he keeps lowering himself practically into Carlos’ lap until they are spooned up against each other, which causes Carlos to reach depths heretofore uncharted. TK feels Carlos everywhere , they are touching at nearly every point of their bodies and yes, yes , this is what he wanted.

He’s even able to comfortably hold himself in place, not using too much effort, while Carlos moves his hips and grinds up into him. They both groan at the sensation of being so deep, so molded into each other.

Soon enough, TK gets impatient and pleads for more.

“Please, baby, please–”

“What is it, TK? Tell me what you want,” Carlos croons into his ear, his arms like a vice around TK, holding him hostage but TK would never want to leave this prison.

“Harder, please…want to…” he pants through his plea, “want to feel you in the morning.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Carlos laments as he keeps up his steady pace that’s honestly driving them both mad at this point.

“You won’t, I promise to tell you if I need to stop, remember? I promise. Please, baby, please–”

“Okay, love, okay,” Carlos says as he takes TK’s hands and places them firmly against the wood of the headboard, curling his fingers around the top and making sure he’s got a good grip. “Just hold yourself in one place, alright?” He then places his hands on TK’s hips, guiding him up and slightly off of Carlos, leaving a few inches of space between them for Carlos to move.

Once he’s sure TK is relatively comfortable and staying stable with minimal effort, he wraps his arms around TK’s middle again, pressing his chest against TK’s back.

“You okay?” he asks. TK nods. Carlos takes a deep breath. “Okay. Hang on then, mi amor .” He gives TK a small bite to the juncture of his neck and shoulder, the only warning before the storm.

Then, he starts to move. It’s slow at first, reminiscent of the beginning when they were face to face, but he quickly picks up the pace. His arms are a cage around TK, protecting him, holding him in the moment as Carlos’ movement starts to get pointed enough that the sound of their hips hitting each other is starting to echo through the room.

TK wants him to know he’s on the right track, so he starts babbling words instead of just sounds. “Yeah baby, yeah, fuck , just like that–”

Each thrust sends an electric jolt up TK’s spine, every stroke hitting home inside him like he was meant to be only a vessel for this height of pleasure. God almighty he’d missed this so much.

“TK, oh god, baby, you’re so beautiful, I love you so much, fuck, yes baby–” TK isn’t the only one without a filter it seems. He revels in Carlos’ running commentary on how much he loves him, how sexy he is, how he’s so glad they get to have this. He listens to Carlos finally give himself over to the moment, even though he’s sure there’s still the worry in the back of his mind, it’s been quieted in favor of this.

The pace Carlos sets now is relentless, heeding TK’s pleas of harder, harder, please until each thrust sends TK nearly careening into the headboard, and he has to lock his elbows to prevent that from happening. Strong biceps are still locked around him, keeping them from getting too far from each other regardless of the earthquake going on in this bed.

Every sensation is magnified tenfold because TK has been imagining this, wanting this, needing this for much longer than he cares to admit. And sure, he’d said as much in his long winded speech earlier, but he doesn’t think he can convey to Carlos – at least not in this moment – how scared he was when he started noticing the gray creeping into his world again. When TK walked out, he triggered a backwards spiral that had him walking through his days like a spectator, not really in reality. He was so touch starved after just a week that he’d routinely ask Mateo if he could half-cuddle with him while they watched TV.

But those memories pale in comparison to being so utterly owned down to his bones by this man who can shatter TK’s entire world with the flick of a wrist but chooses to lift him up instead.

The pleasure unfolds. On every stroke he shivers like a leaf in the wind, and every withdrawal rolls his eyes into the back of his head. It never stops, constantly grows and shifts and changes until the inevitable creeps in, and he feels it stoke the fire inside him.

He picks one hand up off the headboard to reach back and grip the back of Carlos’ head. Carlos has his face buried in TK’s neck, and TK can feel the sweat slick between them as Carlos continues to fuck up into him with unrelenting strength. He’s crying out words and sounds he doesn’t think about, just lets his body be and do and feel. He gives himself over to it all, relishing in it as it washes over him.

He’s so deep in it that as soon as Carlos gets a hand on his cock it takes less than two quick strokes over the head and his love’s strained voice begging him to come, sweetheart, come with me to have him spilling. TK heaves a gasp as he comes, every muscle in his admittedly weak body seizing up and zeroing in on how incredible he feels at this exact moment, a moment he hopes goes on forever. The waves roll over him, the shivers rock him so violently that he knows he’ll be sore in the morning in more than one place, and all thought leaves him except for this .

Except he’s not alone, and he doesn’t notice how long he’s drowning in bliss until Carlos whispers “breathe, baby, breathe,” into the skin of his neck and TK does, lets out a stuttering breath that causes a small coughing fit that he successfully fights down after a minute or so.

They’re still audibly panting when Carlos moves to slip out of him, holding him steady with both hands on his hips as he maneuvers them around to spoon on their sides. TK hits the bed with a thump and a huff, using his grip on Carlos’ wrist to pull him in closer behind him. Carlos just hums his contentment. They lay like that for long minutes that turn into hours, dozing on and off.

“Thank you,” TK whispers, not knowing if Carlos is even awake to hear it but needing to say it nonetheless.

“You too. You were right, I needed that,” comes the quiet answer from behind him, breath tickling the back of his neck.

“I didn’t think I’d get you to let loose like that. Like I said, you’re careful with me. I love that about you, though. That you care enough to save me from myself.”

“I figured if you could still talk and beg me for more, you were okay,” Carlos says and TK can feel his smile. “I’m glad you got the balls to ask the doctor about it, though, because I wasn’t looking forward to having to do it myself,” he chuckles.

TK laughs with him for a moment before he remembers the other embarrassing part of that conversation. “She did give me some not so great news, though.”

“Oh?” He can hear Carlos’ genuine concern.

“Yeah. She specifically said I couldn’t blow you. So, sorry, but you won’t get your proper ‘thank you’ for a while, babe.”

There’s silence for a moment before Carlos burst out laughing, causing TK to join in. They shake the bed for a different reason entirely, and it’s wonderful.

#tarlos #tarlos fic #911 lone star #911 lone star fic #brooke writes #sorry it took me so long I meant to have it out like two days ago #but they just kept having feelings #I haven't seen 3x05 yet but I hope it doesn't negate anything in here lol

87 notes · View notes

primordialpaper · 2 years ago

Text

Thinking of Me, But Just the Same

An alternate take on, or fanfiction of a fanfiction, @jinxquickfoot‘s fic The One Where Wanda is Tony’s Weakness. Highly recommend giving it a read. I don’t know if I’m going to be getting any further than what I have here, so I thought I’d just post what I’ve come up with so far.

To avoid any confusion, it should be noted that both of these fics chose to overlook Wanda’s age being retconned, so she’s 18 years old here, as she was heavily implied to have been up until WV. We also don’t talk about MoM or M*chael W*ldron in this house. Also, this takes place after AoU, pre-Civil War.

<Here, Tony’s just found the team, sans one member, after a fairly similar series of events to the original fic. They’re in a secure holding cell, with him standing outside.>

Tony began applying a steady repulsor beam to the thick metal barrier, only for the entire team to shout their protests.

He looked up to find Steve staring at him, fists pressed to whiteness against the glass between them. He’d lost his helmet, and was sporting a few cuts and bruises around his face, but his eyes were alight with distress. Tony knew what that look meant. The average beating wouldn’t cause Steve Rogers any concern. But hurting someone under his command? That was a surefire way to put such an expression on his face.

“Tony, no! Forget about us! Get-”

He was cut off when, from behind the door against the far wall, there came a scream.

Wanda.

Tony had known from his scans on the outside that the youngest of the New Avengers was likely in pain, but he found himself utterly unprepared to hear the audible result. It was a piercing, blood-chilling cry of agony that he could feel skitter over his nerves like an electrical impulse.

(At the behest of some kind of morbid curiosity, Tony had once gone looking through the files they had uncovered at Strucker’s base. The twins had been sixteen when they’d undergone experimentation. Pietro Maximoff had not lived to reach the age of majority, dying just two months prior.)

Tony considered the variables before him. His and FRIDAY’s little trick with the sensors wouldn’t last forever, and the rest of the hired guns would soon return in force. It was obvious he needed to get the others out of their cage. Iron Man alone wasn’t enough to blast their way out, and with Wanda clearly incapacitated, they had the best chance of getting out of this with everyone free and able to fight.

But Wanda needed help, now.

His plan came together with little prompting.

In one swift maneuver, Tony stepped out of his armor, keeping one of the gauntlets curled around his forearm while the main suit continued boring through the team’s cell.

“I’ve got her, Cap. You guys catch up when you can.”

Ignoring the surge of objections from his team, Tony stalked across the room, charging his repulsor to a hair's breadth away from firing before kicking the door open.

Inside was much the same as the previous rooms; concrete walls and floors, exposed plumbing, except with the addition of clusters of ancient looking lab equipment. And the fact that it was all bathed in lurid, gleaming scarlet.

A handful of men in white coats were standing at various stations, reading monitors and going over displays, with the majority gathered around the table in the middle of the room. It was there Tony could see Wanda, strapped down and writhing while it looked as if her power was being visibly torn from beneath her skin. Wisps of red leaked from her eyes, her mouth, poured out like blood from the center of her chest, all of it being funneled into a deep indigo prism that jutted out of the ground before her.

All while she screamed.

The guard nearest to Tony received a concentrated repulsor blast to the face before he could even raise his gun. The scientists quickly fled as he made his way over to them, inadvertently providing cover from the remaining goons trying to get a clear shot at him. Tony allowed himself a certain level of callousness in the way he ensured no one in the room was left standing. People who could do something like this, treat a teenager like some kind of lab rat, didn’t deserve to have him pull his punches.

In short order, he found himself stepping over unconscious evil-doers as he quickly made his way towards Wanda. She didn’t look good, hooked up to various sensors and IVs doing God knows what, wrists rubbed raw and bleeding in their restraints, along with some kind of collar around her neck. Tony tried to catch her eyes, flickering erratically between pale green and crimson, but she seemed unable to focus, merely tossing her head from side to side while her face twisted in pain. Despite the scientists all being down for the count, the purple obelisk- whatever the hell it was- was still doing its damnedest to bleed Wanda dry.

Tony would have to do something about that.

“Hang on, kid.” he urged lowly, unsure if Wanda could even understand him at the moment, before placing himself between her and the crystal. He couldn’t move her, not with the energy still pouring over her body like a personal electric fence, and it was highly unlikely that this thing was going to go quietly.

But he was an engineer. He’d weathered enough sparks and stray cinders in his time to feel more apt to withstand the blowback than the dazed young woman behind him.

Tony kept that thought in mind as he released the largest blast his gauntlet could muster at the crystal.

The resulting explosion as the prism shattered made his concentrated beam of high density muons- the equivalent of over a hundred pounds of TNT narrowed down to the atomic level- look like a cheap sparkler in comparison.

An eruption of scarlet energy surged outwards, crashing against Tony like a tidal wave, without even the hope of standing his ground. As if in slow motion, Tony could feel himself get hurled off his feet. His eyes burned, even when he closed them against the blinding red light, and his skin felt like it was going to fly off his body.

Nothing, though, could compare to the inferno raging within his skull. Thousands of blazing needles scored his brain, every synapse beaming like a supernova. His mind was expanding beyond his capacity to understand, greedily swallowing every shred of new information that made its way into his grasp. He could feel the presence of every living thing in the building, the way their existence was bearing down on his perception from all angles.

His head collided with the ground, and, if he had any space left for his own thoughts in his brain, he would’ve welcomed the unconsciousness that followed.

Ever since Afghanistan, Tony had been a troubled sleeper. If it wasn’t nightmares, he found himself shooting awake at the smallest sound, reaching for the gauntlet he kept near his bed. Having Pepper helped, like it did in regard to most things, but he couldn’t find any trace of her vanilla scented shampoo on the pillow next to him.

“- be fine. They both will.”

“- fell from a wormhole and lived,”

“- brain activity on this scale,”

That didn’t stop him from dragging the thing over his head in an attempt to block out the noise. The inside of his skull was pounding in a way that put decades of partying and subsequent hangovers to shame, and he wanted no part of the waking world. Regardless, soft snatches of conversations kept worming their way into his ears, just faint enough for him to register, no matter how firmly he buried his head.

He didn’t know where he was (certainly not at home in bed. The thread count of the sheet he was lying on was appalling compared to his standards.), or why his brain felt like it had been stomped on, and the hushed chorus of whispers around him was making it hard to think. Had he left the TV on in the other room or something?

“- hell did they do to you, kid,”

“- Stark and that girl were brought in,”

“- to have her here, she freaks me out,”

One voice, however, managed to drown out the others. It started with a sigh, followed by a plaintive, “If only you were awake, Tony. Then you could have one of these smoothies I so thoughtfully prepared.”

Tony knew that voice. He also knew there was no hope in disguising his wakefulness from someone trained to read even the smallest cues in a person’s body language. Begrudgingly, Tony lurched into a sitting position, blinking his eyes open to see Natasha reclining casually across from him, feet propped up on the chair beside the one she’d claimed, a paper tray holding three smoothies resting in her lap.

The furniture here was tacky and drab, the walls even more starkly white than the butterfly bandage holding shut the cut on Natasha’s chin... They were in the Compound’s medical wing? Why...

The memory of before: Rhodey’s distress signal, flying off into an unknown situation, finding the others, finding Wanda, the overwhelming surge of red... it all came rushing back to him alongside a burst of adrenaline, and Tony was rocking his weight back to shoot to his feet, only for Natasha’s cool, firm hands to find his shoulders before he could even rise an inch off his cot.

“Easy,” she urged, guiding him to sit back down. Trading her grip on his shoulders for a lighter hold on his hand, she deftly passed him one of the smoothies (of course, not a drop had been spilled during the move from her lap to Tony’s bed), encouraging his fingers to wrap around it before she stepped back. “Everyone’s fine, and I can give you the rundown of what happened. But I had to fight for my life with that blender to make these, so you better appreciate them.”

Tony was actually quite parched (and not at all concerned about what Natasha would do if he didn’t accept her offering), so he took a few gulps of the smoothie, only to make a face.

“Raspberries?”

“What’s wrong with raspberries?” Natasha’s tone had the barest hint of defensiveness.

“They’re a poor man’s blueberries.”

“What?” there was something in Natasha’s voice, a wariness, that set Tony on edge. It was unlike her to reveal her disquiet so easily.

“You said you were going to send in Rogers,” Tony reminded her. Why did she seem so unsettled? “I’m sorry I made fun of your raspberries, alright? Just spare me having to listen to-”

“Tony,” the spy interrupted, gravely meeting his eyes. “I didn’t say that. I thought it.”

Tony would’ve denied it, called her bluff as part of some kind of prank or practical joke, if he couldn’t inexplicably feel the genuine apprehension bleeding off of her. It was like a noxious odor, wafting over to him whether he wanted to perceive it or not, and assaulting his senses like some kind of mental second-hand smoke.

Unbeknownst to him, hairline fractures began to crawl up the window beside the door.

“That’s- I-” Tony could feel his heartbeat picking up, evidenced by the rising pitch and frequency of the sounds coming from the nearby monitor.

Those noises were merely one of several currently vying for his attention.

He could hear dozens of staff members bustling about, their thoughts a senseless cacophony of “<em>Where are those files I</em>-” and “definitely going to need a drink after-” and “If I have to answer one more-”.

He could hear Natasha, speaking lowly into a com unit on her wrist, something about “evacuate non-essential personnel,” and “reduce the risk of overstimulation,”.

He could hear his pulse thundering in his ears, growing louder when he clamped his hands over them. But not loud enough to drown out the sound of everything else.

Two streams of thought; one desperately chanting no, no, no, please no, and the other a wordless, blustery cocktail of concern and responsibility, were fast approaching. Tony lifted his head in time to see Wanda skid to a stop outside his door, Steve at her heels.

The girl, unsurprisingly, had the look of someone who’d recently been held captive by a troupe of mad scientists. Clad in a tank top and sweatpants, with bandages wrapped around her wrists and neck where the restraints had been, she was pale and unsteady on her feet, holding on to the doorframe while Steve put a hand on her elbow.

“I felt it,” she gasped, and sought out Tony with impossibly large eyes. “Just before it faded, I could feel it. Did it- Are you...”

“Wanda’s powers aren’t working.” Steve explained, glancing worriedly at his fellow Avengers. “She said she could sense them in this direction right after she woke up, but now she can’t pick up anything. Nat, that order you sent out, was it-”

The sound of fabric tearing brought the conversation to a halt.

Tony, along with everyone else in the room, glanced down to where his hand was fisted in the sheet of his cot. The cloth in his grip had started to fray, fluttering weakly as wisps of red leaked from his hold. Out of instinct, he jerked his hand away, only to be left with a pulsing mass of red energy hovering in his palm.

The same power that usually shone from Wanda’s hands.

It wasn’t instinct, but pure unbridled panic this time, that drove Tony to try and shake his hand free of the unwelcome substance, before he could remember he’d seen Wanda flatten cars with smaller gestures.

A bead of red light zipped from his palm, striking- and absolutely obliterating- the window to his room.

Steve lurched forward to yank Wanda back from the shower of glass when she’d- no doubt instinctively- raised her hand to craft a shield with her power. Power that she no longer had. Power that was currently winding through Tony’s bloodstream, wrenching open his mind to the thoughts and feelings of everyone around him.

“Fuck!” Tony forced his dangerous appendages to resume gripping the mattress, where they couldn’t be directed at anyone else in the room.

He could taste their fear, running thick like blood down the back of his throat. Fear and concern and guilt. The guilt stood out loudest of all, blaring from the one person who should have known how loud she was being.

Tucked against Steve’s chest (he hadn’t released her, wary of the glass covered ground and the girl’s lack of shoes), Wanda managed to bring a hand to her mouth, staring at Tony while he had no choice but to hear the one phrase repeating on loop in her head.

There’s nothing more horrifying than a miracle.

“Dr. Strange came to us a few months ago on behalf of his community of magic users, the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. The doctor expressed some rather...” Vision pursed his lips, drumming his fingers against the countertop in an uncharacteristic show of irritation. “uncharitable notions regarding Miss Maximoff and her abilities, and suggested she’d be more suited to instruction under him and his fellow practitioners rather than the Avengers.”

“Miss Maximoff,” Strange’s gaze wasn’t exactly cold, but it was certainly more reserved as he looked at Wanda. “I don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind about our offer to study at Kamar-Taj?”

Wanda, for all her apparent unease following the loss of her powers, still regarded Strange with an upturned chin and steady eyes.

“While I live and until I die, I am an Avenger, Doctor. That’s not going to change.”

Strange sighed, like he’d expected as much. “Of course not. Well,” he shifted his gaze to the room at large. “how might I be of assistance to Earth’s mightiest heroes?”

Any points the man might have scored with Tony on the basis of his (admittedly very nicely groomed) facial hair fell away upon the realization that he might be, in fact, a grade A asshole. In an effort to let cooler heads prevail, though, he stayed silent and allowed Vision to detail exactly how they’d come to find themselves in their current situation, beginning with the team’s capture and ending with their discovery that Wanda’s powers had found a new host in Tony.

Dr. Strange fixed him with a look of surprise, bordering on grudging respect, even. “You withstood a discharge of unbridled Chaos magic, without your suit or any defenses, and you’re still in one piece?”

Tony shrugged. “They don’t call me Iron Man for nothing.”

“And the next time your lack of understanding of your magic becomes an issue?” Strange challenged, his voice hard. “When the consequences might not be so easily undone? Your commitment to your team is admirable, but you fail to realize how dangerous an untrained sorcerer can be.”

Tony liked to think that, even if he hadn’t been supernaturally aware of how- behind her stoic expression- Wanda deeply feared Strange’s words to be true, he still would’ve stepped in. Nothing about Strange’s tone, or the sight of a grown man looming over a teenager, sat right with him, necessitating Tony to interject with a drawl of, “You know, if this is how you are with kids, I don’t think your whole ‘birthday party magician’ shtick is going to work out.”

They were using wooden blocks to practice with because, for reasons she failed to disclose, Wanda found something about it morbidly amusing.

When the blocks started lightly smoking as Tony’s frustration mounted, he got up and let them clatter to the floor, hands curling into fists as he began tersely pacing from one side of the room to the other.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wanda stoop to pick up the cubes, frowning at him like she was disappointed with his obvious agitation.

“Your emotions are sabotaging your control.” she noted bluntly. “The magic will respond to your feelings sooner than it’ll listen to your orders.”

“You keep saying that.” Tony griped testily. “When are you going to tell me how I’m supposed to control what I feel?” turning back around to face her, he threw up his hands, feeling like he was on the precipice of hysterics or a nervous breakdown. He was tired (even more so than usual), his head ached (along with his hands, eyes, and chest), and he couldn’t even set foot in his workshop for fear these new powers would trash his designs (or even worse, his bots).

Having to self-exile from his own lab was particularly grating. He was used to building things, had been doing it his whole life, ever since he could pick up a hammer. Tony Stark was an inventor, first and foremost, and it was one of the only things that could pull him out of his head when everything became too much. Except now, if he wasn’t careful, he ran the risk of destroying everything he touched.

His emotions, things he’d spent years fighting to both ignore and deal with, were more volatile than ever, and were susceptible in the worst way to his powers and how they left him permanently exposed to the thoughts and feelings of everyone around him.

“I am telling you, you just aren’t listening.” the young woman gritted out, glowering at him. Wanda, too, seemed to be reaching the end of her patience. What she had to be frustrated about, Tony couldn’t guess.

“And I’m surprised to hear about self-control from the weapon of mass destruction!”

Speaking of the thoughts and feelings of those around him, no sooner had the words left Tony’s mouth, then he was assaulted by a wave of hurt from the girl in front of him. Immediately, Tony knew he’d crossed a line just then. To Wanda’s credit, her face only conveyed a blank kind of shock, lips parted wordlessly. Lips she then fiercely pressed together into a firm line, before turning on her heel and stalking towards the door.

“Wait, kid-” Tony could already feel shame beginning to crawl up his spine. Was he really not above taking his frustration out on a girl not even in her twenties? He began walking after her. “I-”

The wooden block sent rocketing in his direction halted his pursuit. An instinctive flash of red caught it mid-air, but the intention behind it was enough to keep Tony from attempting to follow her.

With a sigh, he allowed the block to clatter to the ground.

And he’d called Dr. Strange bad with kids.

Finding his young houseguest was remarkably easy, truth be told. All Tony had to do was follow the sound of overwhelming angst until he reached the door to a rarely used guest room on the west side of the mansion. As he approached, he militantly stifled his reception to outside input like he’d been instructed, aware of just how little Wanda likely wanted to be read now of all times.

Standing at the threshold, Tony found himself utterly unsure of what to do. He couldn’t hear any sound coming from the other side (thank God. The thought of having to console a crying teenage girl terrified him.) and he knew better than trying to probe mentally for clues.

Tony glanced at the handle, and was unsurprised to see the lock had been engaged. What was more, his new senses told him that Wanda had actually gone a step further and seated herself on the floor with her back braced against the door. Both gestures seemed rather futile, he noted cynically. Even if Tony wasn’t currently packing more than enough power to level this entire building, a locked door and a broody teenager wouldn’t pose much of an obstacle to an Iron Man suit if he really wanted inside. Then, it occurred to him that perhaps Wanda was banking on the idea that, even if Tony would’ve disregarded the door being locked, he’d be unwilling to force it open if she was seated on the other side and in harm’s way.

The extra security measures weren’t necessary. Regardless of the events that lead to this moment, Tony couldn’t imagine himself ever barging into someone’s space uninvited after an argument. Especially if that someone was the newly depowered, skittish, woefully young woman he was currently hosting. He wasn’t completely tactless, after all. (Not to mention Pepper, Steve, and Natasha would all be lined up to take his head, he was certain).

Not that he could blame Wanda for doubting his character at the moment.

His knees not protesting in the slightest, Tony lowered himself to the floor, before maneuvering to sit back against the door in a reflection of the girl on the other side.

At this close proximity, he had to consciously divert his attention away from the thoughts and emotions he could pick up through the thin barrier of the door between them.

#primordial post #marvel #tony stark #wanda maximoff #my wriitng

5 notes · View notes

changeling-rin · 3 years ago

Note

Hey there, I have a friend I've been getting into DL but I don't really know how to explain the links so I was woundering what would be the best way to explain each of the links (and sequels if possible please) - Friday (Please and Thank you!)

(cracks knuckles)

ALRIGHT PEOPLE HERE WE GO, LONG POST AHEAD

THE CHAIN LINKS

Gen: The Link from Skyward Sword. Short for Genesis, which he will never ever let anyone call him by ever because he doesn't actually like it. He's generally level-headed and appreciates common sense, and gets a bit miffed when things decide to divert from said common sense. He's the group medic, not necessarily by any skill on his part, but more because the group needed a medic and he couldn't believe there wasn't one yet, so the only logical decision was to do it himself. He gets very particular about the group taking the proper amount of healing items as a result. He functions as one-third of the Leader Trio and is the effective 'super-ego', if you will

Speck: The Link from Minish Cap. He's quiet, by far the most quiet, and will really only speak up if he's a) confident in what he has to say, and b) confident that it will add something worthwhile to the discussion. He has the ability to shrink via his magic hat (Ezlo) and a magical conduit shaped like a Jar that he carries around with him. Due to the bit where he's usually in the background, the fact that he has a surprisingly violent streak catches just about all his enemies off guard - for example, his favorite method of attack is shrinking down and using his size to stab his sword directly into his opponent's eardrum. Ironically, outside of a fight, he's one of the Links most likely to apologize to a flower for stepping on it

The Four: The Link(s) from Four Swords. They're the split-in-four version of the Link who drew the Sword, but due to a hive mind effect, everything they do is in unison. They're pretty quiet most of the time, due to most people finding said unison relatively unsettling, but since the Chain couldn't care less about that they're more willing to speak up every now and then. They specialize in group attacks and such, but they're terrible at being individual. The nature of their hive mind means that it's both incredibly uncomfortable and incredibly difficult to break their unison, and so most of the time they won't even bother trying. They have a little snarky side that comes out when they're stressed, and they hang out with Speck most often due to having similar introverted dispositions

Ocarina: The Link from Ocarina of Time, and one-half of the Hero(es) of Time with Mask due to time being broken and the continuum being shot. He's the younger half, even though he's in his sixteen-year-old body, and since he has the mind of a nine-year-old it makes a very odd combination. He has occasional confidence issues and a few self-worth/doubt beliefs as the result of hanging out with his older self and worrying about how he's going to successfully grow into someone so competent. He can usually be found next to his older self, or at the very least in the general vicinity of his older self, and he has a profound distaste for the necessity for secrets. Most specifically, his future, because it's literally standing right next to him and he'd really like to know if he beats Ganondorf, thanks

Mask: The Link from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and one-half of the Hero(es) of Time with Ocarina. He's the older half despite being in the body of a twelve-year-old, and since he's technically got the mind of an eighteen-year-old at the very least it looks very strange from the outside. He's snarky, sarcastic, and takes great joy in messing with other people, most specifically his younger self by refusing to give away future hints and claiming ~Spoilers~ every time it comes up. He carries his transformation masks and uses then whenever the situation calls for it. He can usually be found next to his younger self because he's secretly worried about shattering his own personal timeline, and he puts a lot of effort into making sure Ocarina survives whatever mess they've gotten into this time. He also puts an equal amount of effort into making sure Ocarina doesn't notice this

Dusk: The Link from Twilight Princess. He functions as one-third of the Leader Trio and is the quote-unquote 'ego' - or, in othher words, he's usually the mediating force. If it's pointed out to him though, he will steadfastly deny that he's in any suited for a leadership position - which is in blatant contradiction to the fact that he's probably the most effective member of the Leader Trio. He carries the Curse Stone from Zant around his neck in a pouch and usles it to transform whenever the situation calls for it. He's also the regular soul-host for Midna, Shadow, or both, depending on the day. He's by far the most level-headed Link, taking almost everything in stride, and it takes a lot to make him lose his cool. The one surefire way to do it is to threaten someone he cares about, at which point he will waste no time completely destroying whoever was stupid enough to make said threat

RGBV: Red, Green, Blue, and Vio are the Link(s) from Four Swords Adventures, and like the Four they're the result of one Link being split into four bodies. Unlike the Four, they've retained their individuality and have four very different personalities as a result. Green is the established leader of their quad-cell, and is the most level-headed one. He's not the most patient one, but he is the one who's not afraid to do what needs to be done. Red is the most emotional one, easily excitable and absolutely willing to give hugs to anyone who asks (and a few who don't). Blue is the most aggressive one, although he mostly directs it towards his enemies. He does have a on-again-off-again rivalry of sorts with Vio, but it's never gotten beyond particularly invested sibling bickering. Vio meanwhile is the book-smarts one, or at least the one with the most strategic intelligence. He's also the best ranged fighter they have

Lore: The Link from A Link to the Past, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and Link's Awakening. He functions as one-third of the Leader Trio, finishing off the dynamic as the 'id'. He's by far the most unique personality, being a hyperactive chaos entity who delights in confusing people and making them question reality. He's also a polyglot, knows at least ten languages, and is constantly hunting for new ones to learn. He's easily the most experienced Link and as a result has Seen Some Stuff, but instead of being traumatized by the weirdness he decided to go in the other direction and embrace it instead. He's an absolutely terrible shot in spite of his numerous adventures, but the sheer amount of stuff he has tends to make up for it. He hasn't met a situation yet that he doesn't have an item for and he's not about to start now - although this is mostly due to his conviction that bombs are the answer to every situation

Realm: The Link from the original Legend of Zelda. He is constantly, hopelessly, chronically lost, and has absolutely no concept of where he is in relation to where everything else is. He also has a somewhat tenuous relationship with the concept of physical space, which tends to result in him getting lost in places he really should not have been able to get lost in (for example, a volcano). Regrettably this also extends to his items, which he frequently loses. In spite of this, he's one of the most cheerful and optimistic Links in the group. It takes a lot to get him into a bad mood, and given what he already goes through while maintaining a good mood, the entire Chain has yet to see him in a bad one. A side effect of getting lost so much is that his stamina is absolutely ridiculous, which makes him very good at drawing out a fight - in fact, that's more or less his specialty

Sketch: The Link from A Link Between Worlds. He has the ability to turn his body into paint and move along the walls like a living hieroglyph. Unfortunately, due to being made of watercolors when he does this, he also has a severe phobia of water as a result of the fact that he might actually die a horrifically painful death if his paint runs too much. Outside of that, he's relatively level-headed and very crafty, in the literal sense that he likes to make things. He used to be a blacksmith's apprentice before this whole Hero business got started (his specialty is metalwork). He likes things to make sense and gets a bit snarky when the universe decides to spite him by making no sense at all. He's one of the best Links at stealth, because for some reason very few people will notice the artwork on the wall and as long as he has a surface to fuse with, he can get just about anywhere

Wind: The Link from Wind Waker. He carries said Wind Waker as part of his inventory, and it lets him control the weather. He's a certified Weather Master in everything but the official certification, because he hasn't had the chance to go back and take the test yet, but the ability to throw literal tornadoes at his enemies makes him arguably one of the most dangerous Links in the group. He does prefer to hang back in a fight and hit from a distance as opposed to getting up close and personal, but that's very typical for a mage. He has an overabundance of patience, stored up from sailing for days back on his home ocean, and he'll take just about anything in stride - unless you're threatening his family, then all bets are off. He's one of the quieter Links, being more content to wait and see the results of something rather than actively participating, but this in no way means that he's not paying attention. He knows what he's capable of, is fully willing and ready to do it if necessary, and makes no excuses to the contrary

Steam: The Link from Spirit Tracks. He has the ability to see hidden things, which extends beyond his own disembodied Princess Zelda and into things like mask spirits or just plain invisible opponents. He also has a summons in the form of the Spirit Train, which he takes great pleasure in slamming into whichever villain has annoyed him. He's got a dry sort of sarcasm and he's definitely not afraid to say what he thinks. As a result of spending most of his adventure on a Train, he's easily the least physically fit of the Links and therefore tends to hang back in a fight, relying more on his summons for heavy hits or his sight ability to provide support. His previous career choice was a locomotive engineer, and as a result he and Sketch get along very well. They have regularly scheduled brainstorm sessions about what sort of gadget they should try and make this time, usually with Steam providing the math and schematics and Sketch providing the real-world experience to make it real

Shadow: The Link from a variety of games, since whenever a Shadow or Dark Link appears, that was him. He's bitingly sarcastic, could not possibly care less about the opinions of other people, and takes great joy in finding the best way to insult someone as possible. Being formed from the darker emotions of other Links, he's understandably in a poor-to-terrible mood almost all the time, although he can usually be convinced to take it out on other people. A side effect of being made of dark magic is that he can't be out in the sunlight too long - it'll start to burn him in the same way a match burns paper. As a perk though, he can manipulate his body into any shape he wants, mostly ignoring physics as he does. This makes him easily one of the most powerful Links in the group, since he doesn't take battle damage the way a physically-bodied person would and is all but immune to being stabbed. He makes for an excellent aggro target, partly because he can take anything the opponent could give, but also because he'll give it all back and then some

Oni: The Link from before Skyward Sword. Also known as the Fierce Deity. Saying that he's overpowered is a bit of an understatement, as he can take out the likes of Majora in three hits or less, but he's very unlikely to actually use his power like that. As a result of being put into a mask, he has no actual autonomy unless someone is wearing him, at which point he takes control of the body of the wearer to manifest in the real world. This lasts with no repercussions until his mask is removed, at which point Oni returns to his bindings. He has not deigned to explain how he ended up in a mask or who managed to put him there, but the loose implication points to the aftermath of the Demon War as the cause. Further information is pending. He's stoic and composed, and has yet to be truly riled up by anything that's happened. He also refuses, as a rule, to get involved with the rest of the Chain's adventures unless his presence is truly required. As the First Link Ever, and the one from whom the entire rest of the lineage has descended, Oni feels somewhat responsible for guiding the rest of the Links through their journeys - but guiding and coddling are two different things and as far as Oni is concerned, his legacies need to be able to fight their own battles

THE SEQUEL LINKS

Rune: The Link from Breath of the Wild. He has the Champion Abilities, as well as his own Quicktime specialty, and is of course concerningly amnesiac. He's quiet to the point of almost being forgettable, which is a side effect of a) spending nearly all his time in the wilderness alone with nobody to talk to, and b) having to constantly be on the alert for Guardians because nothing alerts a Guardian like a loud hylian. His inventory is nearly bottomless, and he therefore immediately becomes the group pack mule. He's also hands-down the best chef (something which makes Gen only slightly jealous)

Lux: The Link from Hyrule Warriors. He is the quietest Link, but not because of his personality - it's because he can't talk. The most vocalization he's ever going to manage is incoherent yells of effort, because anything beyond that is locked behind a psychosomatic speech block. He has not deigned to share why he has a psychosomatic speech block and at the moment it's highly doubtful he ever will. He's second only to Shadow in his sarcasm and general displeasure with the world, and the rest of the group is lucky that hylian sign only has loosely defined curse words, otherwise he'd be going off

RSE: Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald are the Link(s) from Triforce Heroes. Emerald is the leader of the trio, more or less, while Ruby handles anything that might need a good smacking and Sapphire embodies the emotional core. They have a strange dynamic where they bicker with each other to hide the fact that they care, which is a direct result of them still settling into their own dynamics. They have their Totem formation, of course, and share an incredibly specific set of opinions about fashion. The fact that they also have their entire wardrobe on hand is complete coincidence, yep

Lyric: The Link from Cadence of Hyrule. He can hear the Universe Music better than any other Link (with the possible exception of Wind) and he will do whatever he can to follow its lead. He's constantly moving to the beat in almost everything he does, and it makes him unexpectedly deadly in a fight. It turns out that following the Universe Music gives very good buffs and Lyric is a master at following the music. Ironically enough for all his sense of rhythm, he cannot sing to save his life and is in fact instrumentally challenged, which annoys him to no end

THE OC LINKS

Codex: The Link from the Evil Overlord List, a story I write that somehow developed its own protagonist. He's snarky, sarcastic, runs on caffeine and spite, and will probably take over the world someday if he ever gets around to it. He's currently just a college student writing his thesis paper (The List), but once he graduates the world had better brace itself

Wraith: The Link that was made as a result of a random conversation one day, in which someone asked me what would happen if Demise won permanently. Five minutes with my angst-stunted brain later, I had a cheerful sunshine child who had the ability to see spirits and was getting mentored by all eighteen dead Heroes as the backup plan to deal with Demise. He's way too pure for the world and probably shouldn't be as big an optimist as he is for someone surrounded by dead people

#Changeling Answers #DL Questions #All the DL Links #literally every single one of them #Anonymous Replies #DL Master Character List #Or at least the Master Hero List #Oof

45 notes · View notes

sugar-petals · 5 years ago

Text

Your First Time With Yoongi

warnings ⚠️ femdom!reader, bondage, slapping, masturbation, name-calling, cunnilingus, wow yoongi gets NASTY

word count: 2.6k | hc

↳ ♡ NOTE › for anon who also inspired the ‘first kiss with yoongi’ post. look what you’ve done. writing this made me lose my cool. let’s dive right into it.

you’ll probably be fooling around watching miscellaneous videos from your feed

and sorting through some clothes for the upcoming friday dinner

at the cozy italian restaurant next door

when you see yoongi come home looking, maybe not concerned, but more lost in thought

it takes a day or more until you ask him about it

brooding yoongi always means he’s weighing the big decisions

that you already know

but how it could possibly be something sexual you didn’t expect at first

because the only thing he says is that your second monthiversary is coming up this sunday

you reply yoongi that’s such a funny term

he says yeah it just made him think

it takes another day until you realize that he’s been unobtrusive letting you read between the lines how you see fit

and make that decision vice versa

it is about time to bring the relationship to a next level

yoongi sees the way you look at him

the last few weeks were proof enough he was worth giving it a go. you both knew what you were in for

as of now, you did make out a little at hoseok’s last halloween party (yoongi was in such a cute ghost costume). and kissed a whole lot during your vacation in london all lovey-dovey. but you didn’t have a chat

so you nudge him at breakfast. what about friday?

after going out, you’ll have a whole evening to talk things over at home. no stress no pressure

agreed says your boyfriend

friday comes, you get a nice spot at giorgio’s rooftop terrace restaurant

literally it’s perfect to set the tone, the night sky is clear

after splitting the bill on antipasti for you and chili pepper pizza for yoongi the mood is right for some intimate talk and there’s no wine needed

but not in front of giorgio’s other guests alright

you return home flirting

to sit in your tiny courtyard garden with the fairy lights on

as long as no mosquitoes show up you have a long and frank conversation with a lot of surprising turns...

monthiversary sex on sunday it is

three cheers on that!

yoongi is giddy all saturday long and takes ten minutes more in the bathroom than usual, and five more in the shower

as if he isn’t dapper and groomed already

sunday afternoon, you do feel your hands getting a little sweaty yourself

the time has come

this will be exciting

you both prepare the living room for the evening, equip the center table with everything needed, eat some light snacks and drink plenty of water beforehand

the sun sets boom a leonardo dicaprio dvd goes right into the player

you’re both comfy on the sofa, intertwined, it’s fucking cute

you feed yoongi some more pretzel sticks

he makes you laugh

and nuzzles into the nape of your neck cuz cat behavior

the atmosphere slowly changes when the movie does

with leo getting all frisky and sweaty on screen, yoongi’s hands also begin to fumble at your hips, your skirt

and eventually

with you just murmuring just enough hot ideas in his ears

slip down to spend their time caressing between your legs

yep yep

the party is getting started

his hands are only shaky until they find the right spot.

a pianist is merely on edge until he hits his favorite key indeed. and yoongi is that pianist.

you can tell by his movements how he considers you music. now let that sink in

you’re his favorite tune

RIP panties. those huge bony fingers know how to soak them

phew

they have endurance, too

you already know that this will be a passionate night

leo goes through twenty character arcs on screen while yoongi is still flicking those tips

really. getting. into it. stimulating you with one, two, three fingers at once, curling, rubbing, stroking, dipping

miss clit says thank you

no finger cramps in sight with mister ‘miraculous’ min yoongi

meanwhile, poor leo falls victim to the pause button

you repeat the safeword to each other

‘two’

(because second monthiversary ok)

and here we go

flustered yoongi sits up, you pulling that FG shirt off, him then leaning against the backrest of the couch with legs splayed laxly

you climbing on top face to face

hot hot hot

yoongi wants restraints, he said. restraints he gets. a dozen feet of loose hemp rope are waiting on the table already.

you bind his hands before the chest, mainly knotting the rope around the wrists with an extra simple tie that keeps it foolproof.

you do have safety shears on the table also

it took some time to remember the knot but it was some interesting stuff to learn

and... we’re talking yoongi’s sexy hands

what won’t you do just to see them tied fuck yes

a kiss follows

long, deep, and increasingly lewd

only interrupted by you taking off your top and panties. the skirt stays on although it’s getting a little shoved up

yoongi remains seated as he is, starstruck as hell cuz your body has him fucked up

in the meantime you turn around to press your ass right against yoongi’s crotch

with a some more audacity right there

not taking any chances beyond this point

the poor guy

steady ruts and gyrating are sure to fry his brain with you taking all the time in the world to rub your core all over his growing boner

the skirt only provides more friction to the whole game

“you’re so cruel, please, oh my god”

someone’s worried he blows his load way too early

well oops

“take it. lil’ sucker”

you gaze back over your shoulder. sweet, suffering yoongi has his eyes closed and bites right down on his lip.

he looks more concentrated than when he produces something in the studio i’m telling you

with your every push and rub, the tent in his blue shorts gets more upright, the fabric even more tense

and his voice whinier

and your pussy much wetter

that’ll be quite a bit of laundry tomorrow

with every new grind you realize

better have mercy and slip a condom on before he does cum in his pants

regardless you decide that your new favorite hobby is to tease the living hell out of him

by just how stiff he really is you can tell there are in fact two people enjoying that

holy shit when you get his pants off there’s a sight to behold

honey boy loves the cruel girls

it’s no secret yoongi is a fan of all things technology but damn he really is a master with the electric razor those are some pube gardening skills on fire

and he smells so good

and that juicy dick

is just one of a kind

UGH

the lube that’s been waiting on the couch table... will have to keep waiting forever

hallelujah you’re dripping

“that’s... not going to be a long ride, yoongi”

“i, i know”

(just how much of a han solo is he!)

“should we wait for a minute?”

“probably better”

the boy gets the best of you it seems

oh, sweet horniness.

a two minute TLC break gets the racing pulse down and the suspense up

admittedly just cuddly stuff with yoongi doesn’t make it any better

he. really. smells. so. good.

sandalwood, jasmine, something herbal, whatever it is, that mix makes your mind implode

“yoongi. i want you.”

so bad.

just seeing him with his big dark teddy eyes and bound hands is kind of a fucking lot to take in okay

not to mention his voice just getting that extra deep edge when he tells you he wants you too

FUCK

the two minutes are so hard to bear, you just want to get going and ride him and hear all those slutty moans

and corrupt his every inch

as per friday evening you know yoongi doesn’t plan to fall short on the vocal department whatsoever and who can blame him. his raspy baritone is a surefire way to make your thighs tremble

and by virtue of profession, rappers aren’t known for staying silent when it comes to issues they’re passionate about aren’t they

rolling down the rubber you grabbed from the table is challenging enough because good heavens you’re touching him this way for the first time it’s just hard to believe and hard to the touch

his breath accelerates big time

you’re careful but also firm enough to ground him

“ok, shall we?”

yoongi’s desperate hum in reply comes with two quick nods

slow, slow, slow, take it slow you say to yourself

but your wetness doesn’t lie.

yoongi’s piano hands were like an open sesame to your walls

they went pop

let’s get down to business bring that cock

you crave that filling BAD

when you align and slip him in with one not so steady hand cuz jesus christ you’re completely high-strung

those teddy eyes are on you like big brother

because yoongi monitors hard for any discomfort you might have

he probably realizes that he’s not a desert-dry 9:50 PM tampon on the fifth period day when the backsides of your thighs cushion down on his loins

WHEW, THAT SLIP

better than any conditioner out there

he’s in

it stuffs you so well, you can’t help but moan out

yoongi’s hypervigilance still hasn’t entirely faded though

“is that okay, does it hurt? is it—”

“shush, bun. watch.” testing, you give yoongi a good first bounce, far up and down, that baywatch slow motion... mother of god, your labia have a sweet time stretching around him. “it’s very okay.”

“a-alright,” he says

oh god yeah

another bounce on that. it’s already an addictive feeling

that’s what yoongi meant by ‘seesaw’

you rest your hands on his shoulders — and they’re made for that, i mean they’re just that broad — and really feel into how he glides in so nicely

with a slick and noisy plunge

gotta make sure to really savor all of those facial expressions from him ‘cause they’re pretty damn intense you have to give him that. never did you even fathom how his eyebrows could just escalate like this

yoonaerys targaryen!

that cock’s too good

so sleek. and comfortable

advantages of having a perky lil dick

he fills out your walls so perfectly

this is getting so heated, watching his body become so twitchy, his tied hands

with all those red blotches at his neck.

it doesn’t take many more movements, no matter how playful the edge

that you have to pull off and enter phase 2 of TLC breaks with yoongi’s dick resting against his stomach all sensitive

this time you french kiss

that’s how you know yoongi is not just a sucker. he’s a sucker

obsessed with nibbling at your lips and guzzling your saliva like wtf that’s not a break yoongi that’s making your girlfriend cum like new year’s eve fireworks

are all daegu boys freaky like that what is in the groundwater there?

you have to stop his hungry mouth and take a long damn breath

why is yoongi such a sex bomb

though what’s not to love about it

seriously you can’t take it much longer and he sees that

“you wanna use your fingers, babe?”

“if you allow me,” he licks his lips, which means adding fuel to the fire, he can’t help it.

“say please.”

“please.”

you start to fiddle with the rope knots

yoonaerys targaryen soon has free hands

rope marks suit him so well, that shit just turns you on even more

time to switch it up then the final is around the corner

changing spots on the sofa, you recline, legs apart

yoongi slowly rubs you off with his flat palm to keep the pressure light

and not to overstrain his wrists too soon

then comes the infamous naughty tongue lowering down to your pelvis... nipping, swift and staccato. you have rightfully dreaded this moment because geez he hooks you on it

next comes

the tip of his cock. i know right, good grief. guided by keen hands, rubbed against your clit, patting it, poking it, glazing it until it’s all coated all wet and pulsing like mad, what the fuck yoongi

he makes you completely swollen

and repeat

it’s a triple t(h)reat technique adapted straight from the realms of fiery hell

palm, tongue, cock rubbing against you. palm, tongue, cock. palm, tongue, cock.

YOONGI HAS YOU SCREAMING AND WINDING

that demonic trick is guaranteed not to go on for very long

point of no return says hiya, i’m here to mess you up girl

next turn his curling tongue comes to visit and dips between your labia

you can’t hold back anymore

and blow up in his face

whatever control there has been in your legs has now shut down entirely

yoongi has to deal with the full dose of slowly oozing jizz cuz boy he just buries his face even deeper once he sees the contractions starting

at this point he has solidified his sucker reputation

mister miraculous min just keeps eating and slurping while you cum your soul out. the pleasure is like a current taking over

making you curse

until you’re running of breath

with ‘point of no return’ handing the baton to ‘dizzy overstimulation’ you pull yoongi’s head out from between your thighs by the hair

yoongi kneels before you ruined

man... his face is dripping

he even got cum in his lashes

“shit, yoongi!”

“please. punish, i want, i, please”

seldom that yoongi’s rapper mind says sorry i’m out like that

looking back it makes sense. who orders a flaming chili pepper pizza for date night but a grade a masochist

cue friday evening protocol

you fumble off the very slippery condom and grip his cock by the base. hard.

with your other hand just in reach of his face

in comes a ringing slap to his right cheek

“a—ah, ah! more!”

slut yoongi is back in town and his cock really has to stay strong

because holy hell you jerk him off fast

getting greedy and erratic

yoongi cries out his orgasm with a whole white milky mess landing on his stomach, his thighs, your hand, your skirt, who knows he might have shot a constellation into the sky if it wasn’t for the ceiling

with the last drops gushing out, a giant fatigue pulls the plug on him

oh man

his hair goes in all directions. his face is slapped red, his wrists are marked, he came all over himself.

100% sex wreck

you can barely keep yourself steady either

but you can at least reach for the soon-to-be-dirty-laundry towel on the table

and clean up your salivating puffy teddy

only to pull him close to you

two fucks covered in sweat all slack on the sofa, worn out

but happy

yoongi keeps on babbling and breathing hard

seeking out closeness to your belly

you let him lie down his head on there

time to pull a blanket over the two of you right there once everything cools down

yoongi gazes up at you a bit cheeky even if he’s super tired

“kinda know what you’re thinking”

“that’s what a monthiversary has to be like”

“nothing to add”

“except: repeat tomorrow”

wrapping up the weekend all sloppy is a good luck charm for monday

“my bad. of course”

“you’re just amazing, you know that.”

“i was gonna say that to you”

safe to say that guy has your heart

“so... same time, same place, different movie?”

“sure babe i’m in”

while you both doze off, intertwined just as before

you can’t help but think

man that was life-changing

#bts smut #bts headcanons #yoongi smut #yoongi x reader #bts x reader #bts #yoongi headcanons #yoongi first time #long post

668 notes · View notes

fulcrumahsokaamidala · 5 years ago

Text

Sunday Spectacular #24

Happy Sunday!!! So this is me thanking awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and all the time they put into their fics. ♥️ I want to recommend spectacular fanfic stories I read this week! ♥️ They are posted in the order I read them. All posts will be tagged #spectacular fic rec

Last week I didn’t post because it was my last week before spring break. I had so much homework that I didn’t read fic almost at all. I’m just adding what I read the week before to this post.

A Soul Lost at Sea by @tinaday3w | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Olicity Victorian AU - Five years after pirates attacked his ship, Royal Navy sailor Oliver Queen returns home to England to find his affluent family in financial ruin. So when he’s presented with the opportunity to marry Felicity, eldest daughter of the ridiculously wealthy Noah Smoak, Oliver doesn’t hesitate to capture her hand…even though he has no idea if he can capture her heart. Or if Felicity could ever possibly learn to love a soul lost at sea.

Pieces of Always by @so-caffeinated | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows.Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. You do not need to have read FiCoN to enjoy this, but it will spoil the end.

A Surefire Guide to Getting Over Your Ex by lilbluednacer | Arrow | Completed

Summary: Felicity and Oliver can totally start sleeping together without ruining their friendship… right?

An Island Of His Own Making by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Oliver broke up with Felicity and Tommy because it was the right thing to do, at least, that's what he keeps telling himself.

The Green Arrow Did It by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Tommy is on the other side of the country. Oliver is at work. Felicity is home alone with the twins. The twins might be ninjas.

Pas de Deux by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: With Oliver gone, Felicity and Tommy need to figure out who they are as a couple.

Workouts and Babbles by ElasticMonk | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Oliver comes to the rescue of one cute blonde at his gym just as Felicity stumbles upon one handsome mayor at her gym. They both have something in common, but will it bring them happiness?

The Daughter That Was Left Behind by @laxit21| Arrow | WIP

Summary: Before the Gambit, Oliver Queen met QC intern Felicity Smoak. When he boarded the Gambit, he left something behind. Now, five long years later someone is waiting for him.

Artemis by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When the Queen’s Gambit sank, two people were stranded on Lian Yu. Five years later, four came back.

in another world (just the two of us) by @inlovewithimpossibillity | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: She knows she has no right, no place here to say anything about it, but she can’t help the images that flash through her brain. A different Connor, with a kinder face and no facial hair, a different Mia too for that matter, in a completely different place. Somewhere darker and grimier, as if the filter that seems to shine over Star City has been removed.

[When Dinah and Laurel restore the rest of FTA's memories, Mia and Connor talk through some of their issues... or at least they try to. It's a little hard when you have two lives' worth of memories in your head.]

The Miracle of the Avenging Angel by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: It's a typical weekend in the Merlyn-Queen-Smoak household. Temple on Friday night, church on Sunday morning, and a whole lot of smut and confusion in between. It's the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the Green Arrow in Starling City and Prue has an unusual interpretation of her superhero father.

(your love is) always on my mind by @inlovewithimpossibillity | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: She’s clearly taken some time to get ready and that thought alone has Oliver’s heart beating out of his chest at an abnormal rate. The concept that she wanted to look nice for him makes his heart glow in a way he’d forgotten it even could. And good lord, she looks so much more than nice.

[An evening set between 6x03 and 6x04 because we all know these two couldn't keep their hands off one another]

Baby Daddy by more0rLessJess | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Bartender Oliver Queen was living his twenties to the fullest, he lived with his best friend John Diggle, and his brother in everything but blood, Tommy Merlyn just moved into their apartment as he started his professional baseball career for the Starling City Rockets. On top of that, his childhood best friend Felicity Smoak, who was no longer goth and instead blonde and beautiful, was back in town and they were hanging out again. Oliver thought his days were going to be filled with partying, one night stands, and boys weekends while also spending quality time with the girl everyone kept telling him he was in love with. Until his ex-girlfriend dropped a baby on his doorstep who turned out to be his son. After a lot of thought and Felicity Smoak pep talks, Oliver decides to keep and raise his son with the help of his friends. Or the AU fic inspired by the Freeform sitcom Baby Daddy that no one asked for but I needed to write. Aka Oliver and Felicity are childhood friends and are hopelessly in love with each other and everyone knows but them, oh and now they’re raising a baby. What could go wrong?

It’s in the Air by @emmilynestill | Arrow | WIP

Summary: December 23, 2016. It’s Mayor Queen’s first-holiday party and love is in the air.

No, wait, that’s tension in the air. Bitterness. Regret. Painful longing for one’s former love. Awkward interactions with current significant others. A little humiliation mixed in. Yup, this was one great party.

Then the gas came.

Maybe love was in the air afterall.

**Just my usual lock Oliver and Felicity in a room with a mind-altering substance with a dash of holiday magic thrown in. And, by magic, I mean Sex Pollen. And maybe a little Truth Serum to stir things up.**

Always Been You by @smoaking-greenarrow | Arrow | WIP

Summary: On Oliver's last night in Starling, Tommy throws him a yacht party. When his little sister and her best friend show up, Oliver has a hard time hiding the torch he's always carried for Felicity. But he's leaving in the morning... They both know it can only be a one-time thing...

From Russia with Love by griever11 | Arrow | Completed

Summary: Rookie FBI Agent and resident IT extraordinaire Felicity Smoak has just landed the assignment of a lifetime. Together with Supervisory Senior Agent Diggle, she returns to Starling City undercover in an attempt to flush out the elusive Odessa gang that has been a thorn in the Bureau's side for many years.

Leader of the Russian mob Oliver Queen stumbles upon a piece of information that unfortunately requires a certain set of hacking skills that no one he knows seems to possess. Lucky for him, he comes across an unusual criminal hacker who has mysteriously turned up in Starling and funnily enough, seems just right for the job.

How's that for perfect timing?

All Her Firsts by @callistawolf | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity Smoak visits Starling with her high school decathlon team, prepared for a week of intellectual rigors. What she doesn’t expect is the emotional roller coaster that follows as she begins to fall for her host- the totally-out-of-her-league Oliver Queen.

Almost Lover by lust_muffin | Arrow | WIP

Summary: After the siege, after the whole mess with Slade Wilson, after telling Felicity he loved her without meaning it (but totally meaning it), things hadn’t been great between them. Tension was running high, they had problems communicating when that was something that never happened before and Laurel… Laurel was making everything worse. Until one night, she went too far. And that was the point that changed their lives forever.

Or a “what would Oliver and Felicity’s life be like if they got together sooner?”

It's A Long Corgi... by @alexiablackbriar13| Arrow | One-shot

Summary: William accidentally, secretly adopts a corgi puppy.

Felicity and Oliver eventually find out. Eventually.

Daughter of the Demon by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: What if in 1988 while traveling through Las Vegas Ra’s al Ghul bumps into a nice waitress named Donna Smoak and they have one-night stand together? A little bundle of joy named Felicity Smoak is the result. In 2014, the Demon Head becomes aware of his youngest daughter’s existence.

The Ravager by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Slade Wilson’s plan for revenge against Oliver took time, money and no shortage of lives to pull together. His plan didn’t anticipate Felicity Smoak. How will his plan change now that his lost-lost daughter is working with the very man he’s trying to destroy?

Felicity of Themiscyra by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Years ago, Donna Smoak left the island of Themiscyra and her sister Queen Hippolyta behind to live in man’s world. She never told Felicity the truth about where she came from. As a result of the Undertaking, Felicity discovers some of her Amazonian abilities and makes an interesting new friend: Diana Prince.

I Scream But No Sound Comes out by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When Oliver returns from Lian Yu after five years, he comes back different. What happened there damaged more than just his body. How will his friends and family deal with this new Oliver?

#spectacular fic rec #weekly fic recs

46 notes · View notes

xmxisxforxmaybe · 5 years ago

Text

Decryption_Error: “Fourth of July, Part I”

Summary: As Y/N deals with the stress of transitioning into her new position, she also has to find time to ask Elliot a very important question.

Story Summary, “The Server Room, Part I”, “The Server Room, Part II” “The Long Weekend, Part I”, “The Long Weekend, Part II”, “The Aftermath”, “Undecided”, **“Decided”, “Spooked”

Word Count: 5500

Tags: @sherlollydramoine @rami-malek-trash @teamwolf2411 @limabein @txmel @hopplessdreamer @alottanothing @ouatlovr @backoftheroomandnotbelonging @moon-stars-soul @free-rami @ramimedley

If you want added or I’ve missed your request, let me know : )

Warning: SMUT and a lot of it so NO under 18s

The next few workdays were a blur as I transitioned to CISTech’s General Manager. I worked long hours, learning the ins and outs of what Miles did on a daily basis. Like with most jobs, the higher you climbed, the less you actually worked within your field, which was going to be a struggle because I counted on the way analyzing trends kept my mind balanced. I took note after note until Miles banned me from writing anything else down.

“This is all sensitive material, Y/N. You have to be cautious and leaving 500 post-its lying around is a surefire way not to safeguard sensitive information.”

Despite my scowl, Miles held firm, so I stopped taking notes and stuck to paying more attention as I shadowed him.

The transition wasn’t made any easier by the impending Fourth of July weekend. Since theFourth fell on a Thursday, the office was closed on Friday, too. That meant the interviews for my replacement weren’t going to take place for at least another week or two.

And weighing the heaviest on my mind was not my new job or who my replacement would be, but that in the midst of the chaos of my promotion, I was running out of time to invite Elliot to my parents’ house in Greenwich.

What made my procrastination worse was that he was being so patient as I was barely able to see him for more than a minute or two when I passed through the cybersecurity office. Sticking with routine, if I hadn’t texted him by 7:00 pm, he’d text me to ask how I was, to ask if I needed anything, or to ask if I just wanted to talk for a bit. In short, he was being the perfect boyfriend, the very thing he thought he couldn’t possibly be.

The beginnings of relationships are always so fragile, but because Elliot and I were friends first, and because of the trust we had built after I helped him, I knew he and I would make it through this hectic transition.

However, I was not so sure if we would make it through me asking him to meet my family. I knew it was soon, but I was also sure of my feelings for Elliot—I had meant it when I decided I was going to be a constant in his life. He deserved to have someone who cared about him, and he deserved to move forward, to not be haunted by his past or by what he perceived to be his “abnormalities.”

Since it was the Monday before the Fourth, carving out a quiet moment with Elliot became a non-negotiable. I cleared my lunch hour and told my new secretary I was going to be out of the building.

When I appeared at Elliot’s desk, I almost scared him out of his skin. His fingers stumbled over the keys of his computer and he yanked out his earbuds. I had learned long ago that Elliot didn’t actually listen to music at work—he just put in his earbuds so no one would talk to him.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” I said, a smile playing with the corner of my mouth at his wide, surprised expression. “Do you have time for a quick lunch?”

More than a few eyes in the office were watching us with a mild curiosity. Word got out pretty fast about our meeting with HR, but I figured most people weren’t willing to believe Elliot and I were an actual couple. At least until they saw it for themselves.

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” Elliot said, closing out his windows and turning off his monitor.

As I watched his fingers move, I couldn’t help but to think back to what his hands felt like on my skin. And when I raked my eyes over his arms and up to his face, I couldn’t help but remember what his stubbled jaw had felt like under my fingertips as I pulled him in for that goodbye kiss—

“Is everything okay?” Elliot asked, his eyes searching my face, trying to figure out what I was thinking.

“Yeah, of course,” I said with an awkward smile as I looked down and adjusted my bag.

When Elliot stood up and slid his phone into the front pocket of his trousers, my eyes followed the movement, and I shook my head and turned around before an actual blush could appear on my face.

My body missed him.

I missed him.

We rode down the elevator in silence, standing just close enough that I could feel the fabric of his muted blue dress shirt glancing over the skin of my arm. Never had I wanted to hit the stop button on the elevator and just kiss someone senseless more than I did in that moment.

Elliot followed me out of the elevator and across the lobby. Again, neither of us spoke as we navigated the busy streets of Wall Street at lunch time, the silence between us just as loud as the bustle of taxis and cars.

“Is this good?” I asked, stopping outside of a mid-size Chinese restaurant we had ordered take-out from a few times.

“Sure.”

After we were seated and the waitress took our drink orders, I started talking in a stream-of-conscious ramble.

“I know this isn’t the ideal place or time or whatever to talk to you about this, but I’m running out of time considering I wasn’t expecting to get a promotion of all fucking things on top of a new relationship and it’s the Monday before the Fourth and I know this is last minute, especially for you, but it really can’t wait any longer.”

Elliot looked down as he muttered, “Okay,” before I started rambling again.

“My parents are having a get together over the Fourth of July, and they would really love it if you’d come. They’re eager to meet you and I’m eager for you to meet them. And by gathering I mean just my family—my mom, dad, sisters, and brother and their significant others. Oh, and my sister’s kids, of course, although I’m not really a very good aunt because I see them like three times a year.”

Elliot just stared at me, so I continued.

“I know it’s . . . a lot, but I wanted to tell you now, well, I wanted to tell you last week but time got away from me and I know you like to think about stuff, but I’m trying to give you some time to think about this because it is really important to me—don’t answer me now. Just think about it. Or ask any questions you have as you think about them. So, yeah. Think about it?”

“Are you ready to order?” the waitress asked, startling both of us from my one-sided conversation.

We ordered, me falling back on my staple of chow mein, and Elliot ordering his go-to, sesame chicken.

As soon as the waitress left, Elliot took a deep breath.

“I thought you were breaking up with me.”

I snorted, an absolutely unsophisticated honking of a laugh, which caused Elliot to half-smile.

“Well, in that case, is my actual reason for asking you to lunch better or worse?”

“Do I have to answer that right now?”

I smiled, relieved that Elliot hadn’t bolted, but saddened he still thought our relationship was so tenuous—the exact opposite of what I thought it was.

Elliot’s hands moved to circle around his glass.

“I miss you,” he said with a low voice, barely even a murmur, as his eyes watched the condensation on the glass.

I slowly reached across the table to lightly touch his finger. He moved it away from the glass and I slid my finger along his, my eyes slipping shut at the contact.

“Tonight. Stay over?”

I opened my eyes to find Elliot looking at me as I asked him to stay, and he gave me that small smile I loved so much.

“Okay.”

* * * * *

In a mimic of our first night together, the instant Elliot shut my apartment door behind him, I was on him, pressing him against the door, molding my body to his. Lunch had passed in fragments of idle conversation because we both knew the other was thinking about this.

When I pulled back from my kiss hello, he was right there, so present, in front of me with his grey eyes looking at me like I held some sort of secret he had been searching the world over for.

“Can we go slow tonight?” Elliot asked, his eyes holding mine as his hands rested lightly on my waist.

“Of course. Whatever you want,” I said gently.

“I want to be good for you,” Elliot clarified.

“Oh—” I said, a little surprised at his directness. “I want to be good for you, too. You’re not the only one who thinks about those things.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Elliot’s muscles relaxed and he tightened his grip on my waist.

“Come on,” I said, my breath ghosting across his lips.

“Wait,” Elliot said, his eyes slipping shut as he moved forward and kissed me.

His lips stayed pressed against mine for a long moment before they began to move. Elliot’s tongue softly swiped between my lips and I opened instantly, welcoming him to deepen the kiss and set the pace he wanted.

The kiss was slow as Elliot explored my mouth, his tongue moving so languidly that my body reacted, a gentle warmth of arousal building slowly within me.

He closed the kiss as softly as it began, and I opened my eyes to watch as he lazily opened his. I smiled softly and took his hand to lead him down the hallway to my room.

When I released him to pull down my comforter and to turn on some music, Elliot stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, shuffling before uncrossing, then crossing his arms again.

“Relax. We’ve already done this,” I said with a chuckle as I scrolled through my playlists.

“Not like this. This is—” Elliot trailed off as he uncrossed his arms again.

I hit play and music began to emit from my speaker, not loud enough to be distracting, but loud enough to disrupt any uncomfortable silence.

“More intimate?” I questioned, fishing for what was really bothering him.

“What if we don’t work?”

I blinked, taken aback.

“We already worked. I mean, I worked just fine and I think you did, too?”

“Not physically. In all the other ways? What if we don’t work?”

I took a deep breath, and said, “This is about this weekend.”

Elliot sort of deflated as he walked to my bed and sat down, his feet just touching the floor because of my high bedframe.

“I’ve never met someone’s parents before.”

“It’s not as intimidating as you’re imagining it to be. Everyone will be there, so it won’t feel like the focus is on you. I want them all to know you, to see how smart you are. To see how kind you are. To see the way you look at me.”

Elliot looked up and gave me just the sort of look I knew my mother would notice.

“Like that,” I chuckled. “Full of affection.”

“Am I that easy to read?”

I snorted.

“God no. It’s just that sometimes, some part of you wears your heart on your sleeve. I like those moments so much. Those moments when you’re really here, really present. Whatever bothers you—depression, or your anxieties—it’s all far away.”

“Because you make me forget,” Elliot said to the floor.

“Forget what?” I asked slowly, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.

Elliot ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the strands for a second.

“Forget what it’s like to be lonely.”

My heart fluttered at the tenderness of his sad words.

“You don’t ever have to feel like that again. I’m not going anywhere. Actually, we technically just signed a contract, remember?” I said, trying to get a little laugh out of him.

Elliot smiled softly, “If only it were that easy to make sure you stayed.”

“Boy. We’ve got loads of emotional baggage to unpack, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Elliot said, his voice barely concealing bitterness.

“All the more reason to meet my family. You can see that no family is ‘normal,’ especially not mine.”

Elliot looked up again, his voice a perfect monotone as he asked, “Are you really sure you want this—you want me so visibly in your life?”

“Elliot. We slept together once, I asked you to be my boyfriend, and then I went straight to HR to disclose. If that wasn’t a telling set of actions, I really don’t know how else to prove to you I’m really fucking sure I want to be with you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry. Show me.”

His hands gripped the edge of the mattress as he lifted his head to squarely look at me. Elliot was characteristically quiet before finally replying, “Okay—I’ll meet them. I’ll spend the weekend with your family.”

With a sharp intake of breath, I bit my lip in an attempt to hide my grin. This was a big step, and I hadn’t been sure Elliot would take it.

I crossed the room and nudged my way between his legs. He reached up and wrapped his arms around my hips, pulling me in so he could hug me, his head pressing into my chest.

I ran my hand through his hair, gently scratching along his scalp and mussing his styled-straight strands. Once Elliot released me from his grip, I took a step back so I could kneel in front of him.

He was watching me with wide eyes as I began to untie his black dress shoe. I pulled it off, then untied the other one. I slowly reached my hands under and up his dark grey trousers, feeling for the edges of his black socks. When I found them, I curled my fingers in and pulled both of them off. His toes flexed as he reached to steady himself on the floor. I ran my fingers over the tops of his feet to see if he was ticklish, but he didn’t react. I smiled because I wasn’t at all surprised that Elliot Alderson wasn’t ticklish.

I ran my hands up the back of his calves and around his knees to slide across the tops of his thighs. I braced myself and stood, my hands sliding to his hips as I leaned forward to press a soft kiss to his lips.

“Is this okay?” I whispered against his lips.

“Yes,” Elliot breathed.

I unbuckled his belt and opened his pants before moving my hands to his dress shirt. Starting from the bottom, I worked my way up, opening each button. Before I slid his shirt off, I stopped to kiss along his jaw, working my way to behind his ear. As I sucked, just a little, Elliot’s hand shot out to grip at my hip.

I pulled back and slid his shirt off, tugging before I realized I hadn’t unbuttoned his cuffs. I made quick work of those buttons, pulled off the dress shirt, and dropped it to the floor.

As I reached for the hem of his black t-shirt, I looked at him, his cheeks tinged with color and his lips parted. Elliot was always so beautiful in moments like this with his edges softened and his eagerness to be loved becoming almost tangible.

He straightened and lifted his arms as I pulled the worn fabric away from his body.

I delighted in the fact that Elliot was now mine to look at for as long as I pleased. We’d come a long way from my stolen glances in the bathroom as I tended his cuts and bruises.

“Uh?” Elliot mumbled quizzically, his hands back to grasping at the edge of the bed.

“I’m allowed to look at you as much as I want,” I said, my eyes half-lidded and with a smirk on my lips.

Elliot blinked up at me, and I smiled before I took pity on him and gave him something to do.

“Scoot back. Relax.”

He complied, and I reached to pull off his trousers, kicking them to the side so I could stand between his now dangling legs. He was perched on his elbows, watching me as I slid my nails up and down his bare thighs, loving the feeling of the thick, curly hair on his legs.

I toyed with the edges of his black boxer-briefs, sliding my fingers underneath the edges, creeping up until the fabric began to bunch.

Elliot’s cock was hard, outlined perfectly beneath his underwear, and I licked my lips before I looked up at him.

“Talk to me this time. Tell me what you like. What you want.”

And I flicked my eyes back to his underwear as I removed my hands from under them and reached to pull the waistband down. Elliot quickly lifted his hips, and I once again let my eyes rake over his body, now totally bared to me.

I didn’t look for long because his hips and his stomach were just too tempting, damn near begging to be tasted.

I bent over him, resting comfortably with my thighs pressing into the edge of the bed, and after sweeping my hair to one side, I licked a long stripe over the indentation of Elliot’s hip bone. I repeated my ministration on the other side of his body, then slowly began to kiss my way across his lower abdomen.

When I reached the dark strip of hair that extended down his stomach, I slowly licked my way up the trail, moving further and further from his cock, which was gorgeously swollen and nearly ready to leak.

Elliot’s fingers scrambled against my waist as he tugged on my shirt.

“Tell me what you want,” I said as I pressed soft kisses around his chest.

“Take off your shirt,” Elliot demanded.

A small grunt of pleasure escaped me at the way his voice rumbled through his chest, his command clear, almost confident.

I straightened and quickly pulled off my blouse. My fingers dipped under my bra straps and I stopped, looking at Elliot with a raised brow.

He nodded his head, and I slid off the straps then reached back to unclasp my bra. I ran my hands over my breasts, more out of the delight of finally being free from my bra than in an attempt to look sexy.

But Elliot definitely found my action alluring because he reached down to wrap a hand over his cock, squeezing just enough so that a drop of precum slid out and onto his thumb.

I could not have held back my moan at seeing him touch himself even if my life had depended on it.

“I—” Elliot’s voice faltered and he bit his lip.

“Tell me. Tell me what you need,” I said quietly as I leaned forward again, knowing what he wanted but needing to hear him say it.

“Your mouth. Please. I want your mouth,” he said as he gave himself one more squeeze before removing his hand and laying back on the bed.

I reached out to grip his hips on either side as I flattened my tongue and licked him from base to tip. Elliot’s body gave a little shudder, and I slid my tongue through his slit, tasting him for the first time. I hummed with pleasure and placed small kisses along his cock as I whispered, “I need to hear you, El. Don’t hold it in.”

And then I took him in my mouth, engulfing his hardness and taking him as deep as I was able.

Elliot groaned out a long, “Fuuuck.”

I removed one hand from his hip and wrapped it around the base of his cock. I worked him with my mouth, slowly, not wanting anything to end too soon and honestly, just enjoying the taste of him. I felt his fingers brush at my hair before lightly settling on my head.

I could feel Elliot’s body building to his release, and I reached down to lightly run my fingers over the smooth, tight skin of his testicles.

He groaned again before he breathed out, “Stop—stop.”

I let him go and pulled back, but Elliot was already moving, pulling me onto the bed with him.

“I want you,” he said, pushing me back and moving between my legs, reaching down to undo the clasp on my trousers, fumbling a bit before it popped open.

I helped him slide me out of my pants and my underwear, and I pointed to my nightstand’s drawer. He reached over and pulled out a condom, opening it and rolling it on. I watched and let my legs fall open in gesture of welcome.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his eyes scanning my face.

“God yes,” I said, pulling him on top of me.

Elliot’s eyes slid closed and he kissed me as he positioned himself and entered me. We both gasped into the kiss and Elliot’s hands found my arms, sliding down to my wrists so he could pull them above my head.

He fucked me like that, slowly and sensually, his body rubbing against mine and creating the most delicious friction as I chased my release.

I was so excited by him, and Elliot was surrounding me, overwhelming me—the taste of him in my mouth, the weight of his body on mine, his eyes watching my face until they slid shut with pleasure, his fingers pressing into my wrists, and his cock driving into me.

It didn’t take long before I was flushed and panting, my head thrown back and my mouth open as I ground into him, my aching clit finally giving way to my hard orgasm that rushed through my body, electrifying my skin and pulling out of my mouth a series of praises to god and to Elliot and maybe even to his cock.

And somewhere inbetween my praises and my moans, Elliot let go, his hips slamming into me before slowing as his orgasm sweept over him, his groans and his mumble of my name against my neck so much more subdued than my earlier outburst, but the deep rumble of his voice with a slight crack as he praised me caused another impossible shiver of pleasure to spiral through me.

Too soon, Elliot untangled himself and sat up to pull the condom off. He tossed it in the trash on the other side of the nightstand and flopped back onto the bed, his chest rising and falling, a slight sheen of sweat glistening between his muscles.

“I was supposed to learn what you liked.”

“I liked that,” I said, smiling and reaching over to trace a finger down the dark trail of hair on his abdomen.

“I’m serious,” Elliot said as he rolled over to face me. “I want to be good for you.”

“Alright—is it my turn now?”

Elliot made a strangled noise of surprise as he struggled to answer, and I laughed out loud.

“I’m teasing,” I said, still laughing. “We aren’t 17.”

And, as if in agreeance with my statement, a yawn escaped, which made Elliot chuckle and hide his face in his pillow. He looked over again, sheepishly.

“I’m not the one yawning,” he said, his voice dripping with snark.

I giggled and opened my mouth in mock-offense.

“No need for the snark, Mr. Alderson.”

“Mmm,” Elliot mumbled as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. I rolled over and settled in next to him, enjoying the feeling of him holding me. I wondered if he could fall asleep like that, but I didn’t find out that night because as soon as my eyes shut, I was dead to the world.

And when I woke up, it was to Elliot pressing light kisses along my bicep, over my shoulder, and against the base of my neck.

“I … like . . . this,” I mumbled, sleep still clinging to my voice.

“Yeah?” he asked as he continued to press featherlight kisses over my skin.

I rolled onto my back to give him better access and Elliot took full advantage, sliding on top of me and settling between my thighs.

He continued to kiss all along my jaw and down my neck, lightly sucking and licking as he made his way to my breasts. He teased my nipples and my body’s response to him was almost shamefully open; my nipples hardened, and my skin prickled with goosebumps. I wanted to rub my thighs together to seek out some contact, but Elliot was in the way, his strong hand holding my hip in place.

“Tell me what you want,” Elliot growled out against my stomach.

His words were an exact echo of mine from last night, and my eyes slipped shut as I reached above my head and squirmed against him.

“Your fingers—touch me, please.”

The weight of Elliot lifted, and I knew he was looking at me, his eyes raking over my wet heat, but I kept my eyes shut tight, wanting to feel everything he was willing to give.

Soon, I felt a tentative finger sliding over my mound and between my lips. My legs fell further apart and I grasped onto the slats of the headboard. Elliot was taking his time, watching my reactions and memorizing them.

He gently slid his finger from my clit to my folds, circling my inner lips before sliding in one long digit, and twisting to seek out the bundle of nerves hidden inside of me.

I hummed with pleasure and unlike Elliot, there was no hesitancy in my request.

“I want your mouth.”

I heard him suck in a shaky breath as the bed moved, and I shivered as Elliot’s hands pushed my thighs even further apart. When his tongue slid between my folds, the moan that escaped my lips was low and filthy.

I knew I was so wet and a part of me felt bad he was going to be covered in the evidence of my arousal, but when I opened my eyes and saw Elliot’s head between my thighs, I damn near came on the spot.

His hair was a mess. His thick fingers were digging into the flesh of my thighs, holding them open, one of them still glistening from being inside of me. And his eyes, dark in the grey light of the morning, were open, locked on mine as he closed his lips over my clit and sucked.

My thighs tried to snap shut but those hands held me open. Elliot relieved some of the pressure and began gently licking at my clit, but it was too late.

I came, hard and fast, my hands gripping the wood of the headboard so tight I was afraid it would snap.

I growled in frustration and wiggled away from Elliot.

“Fuck me,” I said turning over and positioning myself on my hands and knees.

“Y/N,” Elliot moaned, reaching for the nightstand again and rolling on another condom.

There was no pause this time because there was no need to ask if I was ready. There was only the feeling of Elliot sliding his cock into my aching, tight center.

My arms trembled as we fucked, Elliot setting the brutal pace I requested with every “harder” and “faster” muttered.

His hands that were gripping my hips let go to squeeze the flesh of my ass; his groans punctured the air between my moans and my chorus of yesses.

“Fuck, Y/N,” Elliot panted. “I’m going to come.”

“Not yet, not yet,” I begged.

Elliot made a noncommittal noise and pulled at my hips, forcing my arms to buckle so he could push me down into the mattress. He ground against me, and I felt his head rest between my shoulder blades before he pushed up a little on my hip, and that was it—

My second orgasm washed over me in an echo of the one from last night. It was pulsating and slow, warming me and making my heart pound against my chest.

I could feel Elliot’s own heart hammering, and once again, I missed his actual orgasm because I was busy riding my own out.

“So…was that good?” Elliot asked, his voice nothing more than a rasp.

“Shut the fuck up,” I said, breathless and grinning as I wiggled out from under him. “I need a cold shower.”

And maybe even better than all my orgasms combined was the sound of Elliot’s laughter as I made my way to the bathroom.

* * * * *

“Elliot,” I said, rummaging through the black duffle bag on his mattress. “It’s going to be 98 degrees tomorrow. You don’t own a pair of shorts?”

“I don’t like the way they feel.”

“Alright—how about swim trunks?”

“I—don’t swim.”

“Don’t? or Can’t?”

Elliot thought it over for a moment.

“Don’t.”

“Well, that’s a big part of what we do. Swim, kayak, hang out on the beach. You’re going to have to compromise a little.”

“I could just stay here.”

“Don’t you sass me—you told me you’d go.”

“I’m not sassing.”

“Yes, you are,” I said as I tossed another black t-shirt back in his bag and flung myself onto my back, exasperated.

“You’ve gotta work with me a little…just a little.”

“But this is a lot. I don’t think you realize how much this is,” Elliot mumbled, his hands on his hips as he looked around his apartment.

I sat up on my elbows and looked at him. The purple under his eyes was back and it was obvious he was feeling overwhelmed.

“Come here,” I said patting the mattress and sliding into a sitting position, pushing a pillow between my back and the wall.

Elliot frowned, but complied. He sat down on the edge of the bed, too far out of my reach to touch him. It was difficult to be with someone who could be so loving, so open, and then not want you to touch them, but I kept reminding myself that this was new for him and it was new for me. Not every day would be like the night we spent together on Monday.

“I know you’re feeling overwhelmed. Talk to me about it.”

After a minute or so, Elliot began to talk, a quiet murmur in his trademark monotone.

“I have no idea what it’s like to be with a normal family. Mine wasn’t. At least it wasn’t normal with any consistency. All I have, when I do remember, are normal fragments mixed in with all the fucked up shit. I think—I think it was more normal before he died. I remember going to the movies. I used to talk to him all the time, especially when he’d pick me up from school and take me to work with him. After…after he was gone, Darlene was the only sort of normal I had and,” Elliot broke off with a huff of a laugh. “And Darlene isn’t exactly what anyone would describe as normal.”

“Elliot—is that all you see when you look at me? Normal?”

“No,” he said glancing at me. “It’s just hard to look around that sometimes.”

“Maybe this weekend will show you that you’re more normal than you think—we talked about this. Normal is subjective.”

“It is, but I can promise you my childhood is not anyone’s version of normal. I’m not anyone’s version of normal.”

“But you’re my version of perfect,” I said, smiling widely at Elliot, and enjoying the look of shock on his face.

“Don’t—”

“I love being with you, El. Now who can’t take a compliment?”

“I’m not perfect,” Elliot said slowly, as if I were a child.

“Perfect is subjective—”

“No. The literal definition is “free from flaws, without defects.”

“Sure—for the verb. The adjective, however, states that perfect is having all the required desirable elements, in other words, something being as good as it is possible to be. Sounds subjective to me…and sounds like I’m free to say that you, Elliot Alderson, are perfect for me.”

Elliot’s sigh let me know he wasn’t going to protest, and I said, “Come here.”

He tried to hide his small smile but failed as he scooted closer and sat next to me. I turned my body toward him and reached up to slide my hand along his jaw to cup his face. I turned his head toward me and his eyes, so alert in this moment but still dark in the dim lighting of the apartment, focused on me.

We stayed like that for a long moment until I broke our eye contact as I leaned in, my eyes sliding shut when my lips found his. This kiss was slow and sweet, lips on lips, until I felt Elliot’s tongue ghost along my lower lip.

When I pulled back, I rested my forehead against Elliot’s.

“I’m buying you some swim trunks,” I said, causing Elliot to chuckle, his breath a cool huff across my wet lips.

“Fine.”

#elliot alderson x reader #Elliot Alderson #elliot x reader #female reader #elliot alderson fanfic #mr. robot #mr robot fanfiction #rami malek #rami malek character

128 notes · View notes

mobilelegends2507 · 5 years ago

Text

How To Make A Girl Think About You https://ift.tt/2XUkTmi

Want to be the man that she constantly thinks about? It will be pretty simple after reading this article because I tell you how women think, and how to make a girl think about you non-stop! You have to connect on another level that most men don’t know how to do. So many women think, “If he only knew!” Well, you will know! This article is designed to not only keep it real with you, but also to highlight something that has worked for many clients that have been able to get women to think about them non-stop. We women desire to be wanted by a man just like a man desires to be wanted from a woman. But the ultimate connection happens when you understand how a woman thinks. We are completely different than men in the way we process things and in terms of what makes us fall in love. I invite you to leave comments or ask questions below in the comment section as I always love hearing from you! It all starts with the emotional connection when you are able to connect with her. An emotional connection does not mean that you get overly emotional and attached, but it does mean you voice your desires early on. This means you show her that you are the guy that she wants. The time that you spend with her is very important in the attraction phase. Make sure you remain calm, cool and collected while you are attracting her. You do fun things and make things pretty light-hearted early on. Do not put pressure on her. She has to want to desire you. This is how you make your presence known. So, once you start going out on dates and you want her to think about you non-stop, the goal is to remain in control of the situation. Do not tell her you want to be with her on the first, second, or third date. Also, do not get mad at petty things and throw a line like, “What kind of girl are you? Are you looking for something serious?” This is too aggressive. I see many men going in head first too soon. Listen, things come up in life so try not to respond with ego if something happens. Let things progress naturally and do not try to force anything. The attraction phase is vital for this. This is when the woman is still trying to figure out if she desires you, if she desires you sexually, and if she desires to be with you long term. This is a sensitive area that a lot of men mess up. Keep in mind that a girl does not know you when you are in the beginning stages. This is what women find attractive. I actually talk about 17 traits that make a woman attracted to you that you should check out after this. A surefire way to spark her interest is to pace yourself and get to know her. You’ll have her attention when she sees that you are holding yourself of value. Men are visual creatures and when you see a perfect girl, you tend to go all in too soon because you’ve already decided this is what you wanted. But she hasn’t decided this yet. So, in turn, you start to get too intense, too early on. You may start assuming the worst of things if things do not go exactly how you want. Then you jump to conclusions and she could end up seeing you as someone who might not be secure with themselves or who might be too clingy in the future. This is what kills attraction. I bring this up now because this is something that happens often and in order to get her thinking about you non-stop, you have to make sure you do not kill the attraction early on. So you have been going on dates and things can be going well or semi-well. Here is what you do:

1 Do not be predictable!

This is the most important thing of all. You want to show balance so she knows that she has to still to attract you and that she still has to do some work to get you. Example: If you text her “Good morning” or “Good night” all the time, then let her do it, too. Do not be the only one doing this as she has to show up in her ways too. Also, do not respond to her text to early on so she can get excited to see you on her phone. Let the anticipation build up before she sees you again.

2 – Be mysterious.

Let her wonder what you are doing. Do not post every single second on social media about what you’re doing, what you’re eating, or what you’re thinking. Post less if you are active on social media. Also, mysterious means disappearing. You don’t want to disappear for too long but you want to disappear just enough so she wonders to what you are up too. If she texts you in the morning, say something like this later on that night: “I’ve had such a busy day! I hope your day was great as well. I’m going to head to bed as I have a long day tomorrow. I’ll talk to you soon and goodnight.” Then text her again in the morning so she sees you are present but still have a life of your own. This shows her that she is not yet your priority and ultimately women love this. It shows her that you have a sense of stability in your life and that you are fulfilled with the way you live it.

3 Do this a couple times.

There are some coaches that will tell you to go off the radar for days but let’s be honest – if a woman is attractive she is not going to be turned on by this because she could think it’s shady. Instead, pop in and out on your terms. You are the busy one! Keep this up for about three days. When you start to engage in normal conversation again she is going to be thinking, “What is he up to?” She might think things like, “What is he doing that he is so invested in that he is not giving me all the time in his day?”

This stands out from a lot of other men and what they are doing right now. Remember you want to be less predictable which enhances the attraction phase. Most of the time this girl might even say, “When am I going to see you again?!” This is what you want!

4 Making the plans after being busy.

Let me clarify what I mean. You want to pop in here and there, but be less attentive during this 3 or 4 days. Do not reply to her texts all the time and don’t be too available. When you start chatting with her again, focus the conversations back on her and what she has been up to. Tell her you have been busy and that work has been crazy. You don’t want to fully answer exactly what you have been doing so you can spark the mystery.

Once you do this schedule something with her eventually. Why? The time that passes will get her excited to see you again. That time that passes will get her looking forward to a date with you. Say something like this when planning a date: “Hey, I’m busy the next two days but have some time Friday night. Would you like a grab a drink around 7 pm?” Make sure your texts are simple and to the point. You never want to become her text buddy.

The ultimate way to get a girl to want you or to think about you more is by living a life that you truly love. Never forget about your goals and aspirations, and do something daily that gets you closer to them. This is the ultimate source of attraction. Women love this! A man that is comfortable in his own skin and that has taken the time to work on himself and his own insecurities really play a part in a woman’s life. Not only because he is putting himself first, but because he sees himself as a desirable man. At the end of the day, if YOU see it then the chances of her seeing it will be increased. The man that always holds himself with pride and dignity is the man that will win. If a woman is not reciprocating then you walk away with your head up because you continue to put yourself first, just like you would want your woman to do the same.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/30BgHWr via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

1 note · View note

thewritersafterglow · 2 years ago

Text

surefire ways to get motivated to write

Intro

hey y'all! i'm sure we all could use some writing motivation right now, as we're in the thick of nanowrimo, and at a pretty stressful time of the year (what with holidays, school, exams, etc). that's why i thought i would share some of the ways i like to motivate myself to write!

note: i know the title says "surefire", but that is kinda click-bait. technically, there's no one method that works for everyone. so if something on this list doesn't work for you... don't come for me <3

Having a Partner

my writing buddy (shoutout to caroll) is one of my favorite people in the world. while we haven't discussed writing too much recently, whenever i do talk to her about my projects, or her projects, it always gets me excited to write.

so, you don't necessarily have to have one writing buddy or critique partner, but having a person to talk to about your project can remind you why you love your work so much, and why you want to continue writing it!!

Watching Writing Videos

this. this right here is carrying me through nanowrimo. i've discovered my new favorite writing yt channel, "writing with ana neu". i love her channel so much, because she posts writing tips/tutorials and vlogs. the videos are super aesthetic but also productive, and definitely motivate me to actually start writing.

this is just one example of a content creator, i thought i should mention her because ana really has helped me so much, but there are loads other out there!

anyway, i would definitely recommend watching VIDEOS rather than scrolling through reels/shorts/tiktoks. those forms of media get extremely addicting and are seemingly-never ending. while it's possible to get addicted to clicking on new videos on yt, it's definitely harder than scrolling through one minute videos for hours on end.

Stalking People's Projects (THIS TITLE IS A JOKE!!)

before i get cancelled, i'm kidding, okay? i don't stalk people or anything. i'm just saying, sometimes, looking at the progress other people have made on their work helps me out! some of my favorite accounts have highlights about their projects, and clicking through them can really excite me to write!!

i especially like doing this with authors that are published + successful, because that can be even more motivating to someone who eventually wants to get published (like me lmao).

point is, this is very similar to the tip about previous watching videos. watching other people be productive and make progress, and/or achieve really amazing success, can help you want to do that too!!

Not Being Motivated

this title makes no sense, i know.

but sometimes, motivation just will not come - and that's okay! when you're feeling so burnt out that nothing will motivate you, this is where you have to work around it. if you think it's just laziness, you can try pushing through, and just forcing yourself to write. obviously, you can't write a novel without pushing yourself even a little bit.

however, if you are really exhausted and tired, from writing or from other external pressures, it is important to remember you don't always have to write. it is okay to take a day or two off, even during nanowrimo.

if this stresses you out further, you can try re-planning your schedule so that taking a day off doesn't change your end goal. for example, if you come home from school on monday and feel like sh*t, then tell yourself you can write an extra 1,000 words on friday to make up for it!

Outro

thanks for reading through this post! if you don't know me, i'm Rayne H. Olivia, the admin of this account and the founder of the writer's afterglow.

here on instagram/tumblr, i post daily writing content/advice, and i also have a podcast called "the writer's afterglow" (available on spotify, google podcasts, and my website in my bio!)

if you want to see more of my content + stay in touch, please consider following my account! if not, i understand, and hope you have a nice day :)

keep writing,

Rayne <3

0 notes

indiejones · 2 years ago

Text

THE FILM 'TIS BELIEVED....NO, 'TIS KNOWN...GOD HERSELF MOTHERED & NURTURED FOR MORE THAN A YEAR....IN INDIAN THEATERS ! - THE STORY OF THE ONLY INDIAN FILM THAT'S ON SEVERAL POLICE RECORDS, FOR HAVING CREATED A SERIOUS LAW & ORDER PROBLEM ACROSS THE LENGTH & BREADTH OF INDIA ! - HOW A FILM LITERALLY MADE ON STARVATION BUDGET, BECAME THE 10TH MOST MONETARILY SUCCESSFUL FILM IN INDIAN HISTORY! - THE ONE MOVIE THAT REACHED THE HEIGHTS OF 'MOVIE DHAM' ! - THE FILM THAT ANNOUNCED ADVENT OF A NEW GOD ON PLANET EARTH !- “JAISA GANESH, VAISI USKI BETI!” - THE STORY OF THE UNPRECEDENTED, UNPARALLELED, & HISTORIC BOX-OFFICE SUCCESS OF 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' !

Film actor Ashish Kumar & his actress wife Bela Bose were happily married for a while yet childless. Among the many 'totkas' women adopt, she also came up with one such desire to follow a once-a-week 16 week 'fasting' pattern for the Goddess Santoshi, that was recommended to her. And within a few weeks of this fast, she conceived & bore a child! Some time elapsed, & Ashish on one of his many story sittings, in a general chat happened to mention this miraculous feat to his producer friend, Satram Rohara. Satram heard it, & jumped up, for he too had exactly the same story to tell with his own wife! So moved were they, that decided to make a film tributing Goddess Santoshi. Despite knowing how mythos despite being a safe commission earning bet thru 30s-60s, were surefire b.o flops. in mid 70s. Anita Guha who'd made a name for herself as mytho queen way back in 60s, but long retd, was chosen for the Goddess's role & a famous Gujarati & Bhojpuri heroine Kanan Kaushal as heroine, Music Dir & Playbacks too being the supposed B-rung of then. All this supposed 'sidie' line-up you see, for they knew how this film was doomed to lose money, yet that they just had to make to thank the Lord! ... But something interesting started happening as the film was being made, The songs that were coming to the sets from the studios, were far superior than what anyone'd bargained for! Much that huge crowds began gathering around the area it was being filmed just to hear them! This level of live support heightened excitement among the crew, much that began working super efficiently to complete it well. Now to the next sequence of events..This buzz affected Anita ji on her first day too, who in her earnestness it turns out forgets to have breakfast, & while trying to learn her next set of heavy-duty lines, misses lunch too. When producer organizes a buffet dinner for all at night, Anita ji who was available for just a few days, & had to shoot post dinner too, realizes this might entail removing all her make-up & re-applying it, & to avoid all that fuss, decides to skip dinner as well. On her way home, a thot strikes her! - This was the first time in all her working yrs this'd happened..& what if it was a sign from God! At that very moment she decides to observe a fast for all her days of shoot on this film! & Thus the film very amiable & efficiently gets to verge of completion. But another, it seems important part of The Good Lord's plan was yet to take it's position.

Edward Theaters at Marine Lines was historically known for only showing re-runs of decades old Hindi films. But when it's owner heard that a film by name 'Jai Santoshi Maa' was being readied for theatrical release, & with just 14 prints, he strangely volunteered to be the first to release it in his theater, the only time over it's 110 yr existence, something like this 'tis known to've done!..need it be said, to thank the sweet Goddess himself. Now Edwards was unique for showing some of the lowest-priced films anywhere, thus causing many villagers on daily wage trips to Mumbai frequenting it at evenings. The film's released, but as expected you know, earns Rs. 56 across it's 14 prints in 1st show, Rs. 64 in 2nd, Rs. 92 in 3rd, & Rs. 100 in last. This roughly carries on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Makers know its a flop, yet happy at having done their duty. NOW COMES MONDAY...AND THE MIRACLE IS AFOOT! You see many of the villagers who'd seen the film at Edwards, each go to their resp villages, & make mention of this lovely film on Goddess Santoshi they've just seen..TO THEIR LADIES! AND MADNESS BEGINS! It seems Goddess Santoshi, not a very popular Goddess in India then, had bestowed her blessings on many families sporadically across India, incl very many villages. And many ladies of almost every village were her quiet yet ardent devotees. And they began coaxing their hubbies & families to collectively make a trip to Mumbai, & watch their Goddess on screen! People tell of how that Monday saw endless streams of bullock carts from every conceivable (pun intended I guess) village of Maharashtra entering Mumbai to watch this one film alone! Media ofcourse gets to hear of it, & flashes it on front pages the next day! BY TUESDAY, WHOLE OF INDIA KNOWS 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' IS RUNNING IN MUMBAI, & STARTS PLANNING A TRIP! Similar stories emerge of 100's of villages emptying out to reach nearest cinema halls, even 100s of kms away! Police across all states are out on high alert..A UNCONSCIOUS MASS MIGRATION IS BEING SEEN ACROSS INDIA ALL AT ONCE! Producers are sent urgent calls, nor just from distributors & exhibitors, but law enforcement, to send more prints! How many?? As many as you can..300-400! "WE DON'T WANT RIOTS!" "But this will cost atleast 30 lakhs" .. "Beg, borrow, steal..but do this for your nation". 600 PRINTS ARE RELEASED! THE RETURNS? .... 208 TIMES OVER PRODN & PUBLICITY COST (PER RECORDS..THE ONLY TIME EVER IN HISTORY! WE TODAY INFLATION-ADJUSTED ESTIMATE 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' AS HAVING EARNED RS. 3,120 CRORES AT THE INDIAN BOX OFFICE!

What you just heard was public record. What you're about to hear next, is nothing short of real-life mythology in itself. Women not just from villages but also small & bigger towns, started making visits to this film a near daily event. The cottage tourism industry starts picking up all of sudden, for the now routine mass bookings made by kitty parties across India, to their nearest 'Santoshi Maa Theaters'. What starts drawing interest next, is not the repeat & mass value of this film, but the manner of visitation. Women & even men, in their millions, started bringing flowers, fruits & even sweets along, males generally entrusted with the 'prasad' distribution duties to every visitor as exited the film, while women left to their 'prayers' inside the hall, once each & every song began, taking turns in groups to come to the space at the front, in their hundreds, with none of the admin staff daring to stop any! Reason being, what'd happen next! - You see each of the ladies after their flower & fruit sacrifices, would also generously remove their coin-wallets from inside of their blouses, all coins to be thrown as forcefully as could so to veritably touch the silver screens!- the farther the more blissed & more blessed..& all this money btw meant for that cinema staff alone ! (Many of who's families that owe their decent prosperity till today to this one film) Paid shoe stalls now started privately springing up outside many theaters..for how wear footwear be spending half your time praying & singing Lord's praise at! Hey, temples too built in places where open lands across halls! Now in all this euphoria, we've almost forgotten Santoshi Maa, I mean Anita ji herself! .. People leaving cinema halls, be all so taken, began craving a personal 'darshan' of that image for real. And Anita Guha's Bandra house soon became public knowledge, people first watching the film, next making their way to below her house! Anita ji herself recounts umpteen stories of women throwing their new borns into her arms, as left home each day! Anita Guha,mind u,was ranked among Top 10 Heroines of 1950s & Top 5-6 of 1960s. Yet remembered by most post 70s only as 'Santoshi Maa'! THAT'S LIFE! ..WONDERFUL! 'JAI SANTOSHI MAA' RAN MORE THAN A YEAR & CELEBRATED A MOST UNFORGETTABLE GOLDEN JUBILEE AT ALL CINEMA HALLS IT RAN ON! & AS TRIBUTE TO THE ONE FILM THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES, EDWARDS & MANY MUMBAI THEATERS ~50 YRS ON, KEEP MEMENTOS OF IT'S 50TH WEEK RUN TILL TODAY... MARKING THE ONE YEAR, GOD CAME TO LIVE WITH THEM!

And just as inauspicious & bad events have their aftermaths, greatest events leave their aftermaths too!

Here's recounting some of them: 1. See as news of this unbelievable level of mass hysteria & success were naturally going to cross all borders, also reached leading & most renowned sociological researchers around the world, incl leading world historian Michael Brand, Prof John Hawley of Barnard College, Columbia Univ, Prof Cathleen Arnold of Florida State Univ, Prof Philip Lutgendorf of Iowa Univ, famous writer Stanley Kurtz, & many other leading historians & international journalists of the times, who all came to India, conducted several interviews across the board, collectively pooled their heads to try make sense of this most unique phenomena they'd just witnessed..and alongside Indian sociologists like Veena Das, published their own research papers on it! The only other time sociologists have been known to enter the film arena for wide-scale research, was to deconstruct Rajesh Khanna's magical 2 decade reign over Bollywood, again from India! 2. The culture of fasting in name of Maa Santoshi, that began after this film, continues as c/f tradition till today across India. 3. There was a practice of writing 'Om Shubh Labh' atop letters till then. That was soon replaced enmasse by "Jai Santoshi Maa!" 4. A new, slightly devious side-culture/biz of sending Santoshi Maa's 16-chain postcards sprang up,to maximize blessings...& POSTCARD SECTION OF INDIA'S POSTAL SERVICE SHUT DOWN, FOR PAUCITY OF RESOURCES! 5. Only time ever, a full LP of a mythological film was released worldwide by music cos! 6. Now to makers- Producer Satram Rohara & Distributor Kedarnath Agarwal, both went bankrupt, Satram people say for no favorable profit-sharing contract with Dist at time of release, & Distr in turn being duped by own brothers. Film's leading light,Anita Guha,too didn't exactly meet most peaceful end-suffering heart ailment & leucoderma (skin whitening), she would die in her old age unwilling to be seen w/o make-up. People say,atleast first 2 suffered for promising temples on Maa yet failing to build,yet most believe Good Goddess actually fast-tracked karmas of all it's makers,a great blessing in disguise! 7. Ganesh's daughter didn't have many sites in India till then..but everything would change post 1975, & Santoshi Maa temples became regular feature of every city & town! 8. & WE NOW KNOW FIRST-HAND..HOW GOD WORKS TO ESTABLISH HIS OR HER KINGDOM, WHEN SEES FIT!

1 note · View note

talabib · 4 years ago

Text

How To Live A More Relaxed And Productive Life

Many of us feel overwhelmed with busyness. Whether it’s our smartphone and the eternal ping of urgent emails or our domestic life and all its attendant demands, there’s always something vying for our attention. What we sorely lack is time to relax and do what we want with our days. But, even when we do have time to ourselves, we often spend it worrying that we’re not accomplishing as much as we should, or wondering what the next item on our agenda is.

So how can we create a life that’s both productive and enjoyable? To find out, we’ll need to explore why some people feel as though they have all the time in the world while others never seem to have enough.

In this post, you’ll learn why most modern workplaces have developed cultures of busyness, and why it’s now normal to have much of your free time monopolized by meaningless meetings. Furthermore, you’ll learn how you can change your attitude toward time, so that you can become more relaxed and make time in your busy life for the people that matter to you. You’ll also learn what you can do right now to feel less busy and get more done.

Learn exactly what you’re doing with your time, even if it scares you, by keeping a log.

We may not readily admit it, but most of us have an obsession. Laura, for instance, is obsessed with time, and the ways in which we pass it. She’s so obsessed, in fact, that she’s spent years logging how much time she spends on different activities. Her logbook is extremely precise. For example, she could tell you that, on Friday, July 14th, 2017 she got up at precisely 6:45 a.m., spent exactly 45 minutes on paperwork from her child’s school and later, for 30 minutes, dealt with her mail.

Prior to logging her time, Laura thought she had a pretty good handle on how she spent her days. Her logbook, however, quickly showed her that she had had no clue.

For instance, despite often telling people she worked 50 hours a week, she was shocked to discover that she was actually averaging only 40 hours. And she’s not the only one prone to this overestimation. In 2011, a study by the Bureau of Labour Statistics found that people claiming to work more than 75 hours a week were typically overestimating by around 25 hours.

This raises an important question: If we’re not working as much as we think we are, where is our time really going?

Surprisingly, many people don’t want to know the answer to this question. Although rigorous time tracking provides a deeper understanding of how you’re actually spending each week, many of us are resistant to the idea.

For starters, we may worry that tracking time will show us just how many hours we’re wasting on things that aren’t meaningful or beneficial to us or our loved ones. Second, we may fear that tracking our time will constantly remind us of our finite time on earth, which will lead to anxiety about misspending each minute.

Despite these potential downsides, it is found that time tracking allows us to recalibrate our lives. Armed with greater knowledge, we can make positive changes in how we spent our time.

For instance, Jane discovered she was spending almost 327 hours per year on reading trashy magazines, she became motivated to carve out time to plan her reading habits more carefully. After making lists of good books and scheduling time to buy them, she replaced her consumption of celebrity gossip with a more nourishing diet of quality titles.

Make your hours memorable by filling them with exciting moments.

We all have memories, good and bad, which shape who we are today. Interestingly, our memories also play an important role in how we perceive time.

In general, the more memories we make, the more time we’ll feel we’ve had. The reason comes down to how the human brain processes its environment and archives what happens in it.

As we move through daily life, much of what happens to us is quickly archived in the depths of our brain, or thrown out completely. For instance, can you recall what you were doing on today’s date three years ago? Perhaps you can if something particularly noteworthy happened, but if it was a routine day like any other, you probably can’t. Why? Because we don’t think about our established routines. In fact, this lack of thought is why our routines feel so comfortable.

Unfortunately, the result of this lack of thought is that our brains don’t catalogue our routine time. For instance, if you take the same work commute 235 days of the year for around four years, then your brain will typically decide to store all these commutes – approximately one thousand of them – as a single trip! And just like that, one thousand of your precious hours have been whittled down to one. Worryingly, if your brain receives too much sameness such as this, entire years can vanish into memory black holes.

So how can you stretch your perception of time and avoid losing the hours to your routine? The key is to create memories that are intense or novel in some way. Taking vacations, for instance, is a surefire way to generate such memories. Our brains make memories out of novel experiences because they can’t be sure what they’ll need to remember in the future. As a result, they store everything that’s new.

Therefore, if you want to stretch time, have an adventure. For example, in our everyday lives, we may well remember just a handful of interesting occurrences in the course of a fortnight. But by vacationing in an exotic place, you’ll probably obtain that number of novel experiences before you’ve sat down to breakfast.

Our own insecurities keep us constantly busy, so learn to free up your calendar.

Most of us feel so busy all the time that we naturally assume every other hardworking professional must feel the same way. When scheduling a meeting with Jeff Heath, a senior director in a technology company, Laura was shocked when, after asking him when he would be available for an interview, he breezily replied that he was free all week, so when was good for her? How did a senior professional have so much free time?

When pressed on how he managed to keep blank spaces in his schedule, despite working in corporate America, Jeff replied that it was all thanks to his mind-set.

Crucially, he avoids the mental trap that so many other professionals get caught up in. Jeff thinks that despite their lamentations about not having enough free time, most professionals actually don’t like having white space on their calendar. Why? Because having a jammed schedule gives people mental reassurance that they’re doing something productive with their time. For instance, we spend so much time in meetings because they make us feel busy and useful.

According to this busy-is-good attitude, if something is scheduled at a particular time, with particular people, it’s automatically more important than unscheduled events.

Imagine that a couple has arranged for a plumber to deal with a leak in their apartment. The partner who has nothing in his calendar at work that day is much more likely to stay home and let the plumber in than the partner who has several scheduled meetings. But let’s think a little deeper. Are those meetings really more important than the uninterrupted time the other partner might have spent thinking about his biggest work dilemmas? Possibly not.

Avoid this detrimental mind-set by ignoring the temptation to fill all your spare time. You don’t have to value busyness just because the world does. Don’t say yes to meetings simply because you’re theoretically available. And if you’re feeling guilty for declining them, remember that the dirty secret about meetings is that, more often than not, they take up more time than is justified by the issue they’re addressing.

Don’t believe it? Just look at the meetings on your agenda and you’ll probably see that they’re all 30 minutes or an hour long, regardless of how much they need to accomplish. So say no, unless they’re genuinely important.

Spending time with loved ones can stretch our perception of time, and may even increase our lifespan.

Friends enrich our lives, make life feel less lonely and give it more meaning. But what does the time-management literature have to say about lingering with our treasured companions? A strict time-management schedule is incompatible with spending long afternoons and leisurely evenings with friends, right?

It’s a common misconception that time management is incompatible with leisure time with friends. In fact, a smart way to manage your time is to make friendships your priority. Why? Because devoting more time to your important relationships not only makes you happier; it can actually create a perception of having more time.

For example, in a survey of how people spent one particular day, those who spent the most time with family and friends on this day were also most likely to report feeling that they had the most amount of time in general. Conversely, those who felt they had the least amount of time in general were also the most likely to report spending less time with family and friends during this day.

Importantly, it was not the case that those with the lowest time-perception scores actually had less time than any other respondents; rather, it’s that spending time with friends and family is usually a relaxing, feel-good experience, and it therefore makes you feel as though you have all the time in the world. Time spent on, say, Twitter, won’t produce this feeling.

Furthermore, in another survey, those who strongly agreed with the statement “Yesterday, I made time for my loved ones” were 15 percent more likely to also say that, generally, they had enough time in their lives for everything they wanted to do.

Importantly, making time for those you care about may not only stretch your perception of time, but may also, in the long run, literally stretch your time. How? Well, research has shown that people with stronger social connections tend to have a longer life expectancy than those without such social connections.

This is likely the case, because good friends and close family encourage you to look after yourself, as well as care for you when you get ill. These healthy upsides to friendships mean that, when it comes to longevity, maintaining tight relationships is approximately equivalent to stopping smoking.

Accept the constraints on your time and lower your expectations.

Like many of us, Laura has a big family and a hectic life. During a recent and particularly chaotic week, she found herself thinking of those authors who seem to spend months away from their families in secluded garrets, with oodles of time to write. Why wasn’t she able to spend her time like that? Many of us have experienced this uncomfortable disconnect between our expectations and reality, but what can we do to overcome it?

The best thing to do is to alter our expectations of how we should be spending our time.

Importantly, once Laura made a conscious effort to lower her expectations about how much she should accomplish, she seemed magically able to achieve more in the little time she did have. For instance, she found she was suddenly able to write a first draft of a magazine article in a few hours, and could edit that draft in 90-minute windows of time between other domestic commitments.

How did this miracle happen? Well, when we lower our expectations of how much we can achieve, we no longer waste time worrying that we should be doing more. We often cause ourselves pain when our expectations become bigger than reality. This self-imposed suffering then leads to hours of worry about our unproductivity, which, in turn, prevents us from savoring the time we actually have.

Therefore, rather than holding big expectations about all the time you should be spending on your work, the key to long-term success is to consistently set and meet low expectations.

Consider the advances that a small child makes in learning language. Their development is not a matter of long hours of strict language lessons and harsh punishments for gradual progress. Rather, children advance slowly, and are praised for every new word acquired and for each minor linguistic breakthrough. To make a similar amount of progress toward our own goals, we adults should also adopt expectations of slow and gradual advancement.

Spend your money on enlarging pleasant experiences and minimizing bad ones.

We each have an equal amount of time allotted to us – 168 hours a week to be exact. However, while our weeks contain the same number of hours, our bank accounts don’t contain equal funds. But where does our bank balance figure in our quest for happiness? Does money make us happy, or is it simply the case that the more money we have, the more problems we can expect?

Interestingly, when it comes to money and happiness, it’s how you use your money – not how much money you have – that matters.

Money can boost happiness if you use it to buy things that facilitate pleasant experiences. These experiences later become fond memories – continuous wells of pleasure from which we can draw mental sustenance. Importantly, cherished memories aren’t subject to the diminishing returns of happiness that physical objects usually are. For instance, a child given a new toy will initially be excited to play with it. After a while, though, she will likely grow bored and stop using it. In other words, it will stop bringing her joy. In contrast, if you buy a tent and then use it to go camping, that tent may bring you lasting happiness. Why? Because you will forever remember the starry nights and campfires of that trip.

Additionally, if money is used to boost our happiness, we must rethink how we measure such happiness.

When we consider how happy we are, we often think only of life satisfaction, which refers to how well we think our life is going in general.

So, if you have a great job and a good house, you may consider yourself happy. However, this life satisfaction may not be the best measure of your happiness. Indeed, your moods are often much more driven by your hour-to-hour experiences than by your overall life satisfaction. For instance, your mood may often be depressed if you have a grueling daily commute to that dream job.

With this reality in mind, we can begin to assess which of our daily activities bring us happiness, and which make us miserable. We can then strategically use our money to either enlarge or minimize these activities. For instance, research has shown that commuting to work is often the unhappiest time of a person’s day. If this is true for you, too, then you could use your money to move closer to the office, thus reducing that commute and boosting your mood. Though this may cost a significant amount of money, it would be an important investment in your happiness.

Have time for adventures.

Ever feel like time just slips from one end of the hourglass to the other? No one can make more time, but a few simple strategies can make the time we have feel richer and fuller. Here are five tips on how to feel less busy while getting more done.

1. Figure out where the time really goes. People tell themselves plenty of stories about where the time goes (“I’m so busy! I have no free time at all!”) but why not find out for sure? Try tracking your time for a week. You can use an app, a spreadsheet, a notebook – whatever works. Most people discover that they have some pockets of time that can be redeployed for meaningful activities if they wish.

2. Plan in little adventures. When time isn’t memorable, we don’t remember it. That’s how whole years can disappear into memory sinkholes. Try planning in little adventures to make the days stand out from each other. These adventures don’t have to be elaborate. Grab colleagues for a picnic lunch. Take the kids to a playground after dinner. Just do something to switch up the routine.

3. Be careful with “yes.” If you want to have time for adventures, you can’t pack your schedule with things you don’t want to do. One strategy? When asked to do something in the future, ask yourself if you’d do it tomorrow. That makes the opportunity costs clearer. If the answer is that you’d move things around or cancel things to fit in this new obligation, then by all means say yes. But if the answer is absolutely no for tomorrow, probably that should be your answer for the future, too.

4. Slow down. Rushing just makes you feel rushed. Try noticing a moment when all is calm. Consciously call your attention to sights, sounds, details. Take deep breaths. Savoring good moments makes them seem longer – and that can stretch the experience of time.

5.Put friends on your calendar. People who spend lots of time with family and friends actually feel like they have more time than people who spend equivalent quantities of time watching TV or perusing social media. A dinner party takes effort, but it’s more rewarding than looking at photos on Instagram of other people’s dinner parties. Aim to schedule in relaxed time with friends this week. You’ll look forward to it – and feel like you’re the kind of person who has the time to get together with friends. That will make you feel less busy right there.

We all have the same amount of time each week, but our mind-set can greatly influence our perception of that time. Spending time with family and friends, and making fond memories, makes us feel as if we have more time. In contrast, worrying about our productivity and going through the motions of a boring routine can make us feel like we have less. In order to make the most of our time, it’s important to stop worrying, ditch the routine and start having adventures with those we love.

#How to live a more relaxed and productive life.

0 notes

qualitytacolover · 5 years ago

Text

The bare truth about the loss of your hair

New Post has been published on https://www.easypromhairstyles.com/the-bare-truth-about-the-loss-of-your-hair.html

The bare truth about the loss of your hair

For the average rude, image-conscious man, there are no three words in the English language that are more likely to elicit a clue than … "Baldheaded Male Pattern". A lexical trio that is so frightening that some men (Jude Law, we look at you) think that the best course of action is to completely ignore it.

But why should we? What's so terrible about being bald? Well, nothing. In fact, studies have consistently found that slick guys surpass their hairy cohorts when they are rated in terms of perceived male alpha traits such as masculinity, dominance, and power. In fact, many bald men put up with a stigma that actually only exists in their own, unconvincingly combable heads.

Yes, a complete bald head can mean you can never zip your fake fur-lined parka back to the chin without looking like a hard-boiled egg hurrying out the back of a German shepherd (the dog breed we're) You add yourself). But if that's the only downside, what is it?

To answer these and all other questions, we've briefly covered the topic of male pattern baldness to provide you with everything you need to know before embarking on your journey into the vast hairless world.

Why is this happening?

Especially for young men, recognizing that you are losing your beloved locks may make you feel that God is honoring you and punishing you for a crime that you may have committed or not. In reality, there is something less sacred in the game, but just as uncontrollable.

Premature or other hair loss in men is not caused by the judging hand of an almighty deity, but by genetics and a chemical imbalance of a hormone called DHT (or dihydrotestosterone for syllable fans).

DHT is a chemical derivative of testosterone that is produced when the androgen is mixed with an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, resulting in complicated scientific things with many numbers and letters. What we are really interested in is what DHT actually does.

DHT: The baldness hormone

"The main function of DHT in the body is to maintain and develop the sexual characteristics of the man and to promote a better well-being, as it inhibits the aromatase (an enzyme that is linked to estrogen levels)," explains the renowned hair specialist at Harley Street Raghu Reddy from the private clinic. "It also plays a key role in the development of male characteristics such as facial hair in puberty."

Simply put, DHT is the chemical responsible for giving you a nice, bushy taste savior. Although it can be good news for your chin, DHT can mean a disaster north of the eyebrows.

"While DHT helps with facial hair, it's also one of the factors that contribute to male baldness." Reddy added. "This is because in genetically susceptible men, the activity of DHT hampers the proper growth of hair follicles through a process called 'miniaturization'."

When this happens, the DHT hormone binds to the root of the hair follicle, making the growth stage shorter and shorter with every new cycle. "At some point, the hair will not grow anymore," adds dr. Reddy added. "From this point on the hair loss becomes more visible. This could be in the form of a receding hairline, a thinner coat of hair or the all-too-familiar bald head. "

Dispel the myths

For every male baldness that science has provided us, the Internet spits out several complete and complete fallacies. Allow us to expose five of the most common for you here and now.

The baldness is inherited from your mother's father

Looking at the head of your maternal grandfather is often sold as a surefire Tonsorial barometer, but as any bald grandson with a hairy grandpa will tell you, it's not always accurate.

While the X chromosome contains a key gene for baldness, a chrome dome on both sides of the family could be an indicator of your own hairless future.

Thank you, Uncle Bill.

They only kick back because they are overfilled with testosterone

I'm sorry to break you, but having a shiny melon does not mean that your body is bursting at the seams with testosterone (or "man juice," as we almost wrote, before we quickly realized our mistake) ,

Male baldness depends on testosterone, but does not necessarily mean that you have more than normal (with the obvious exception of Dwayne Johnson). Unfortunately for your boastful rights, the process is mainly due to genetics.

Your hair loss could be due to stress

In contrast to the cartoons that lead you to believe there is no association between high levels of stress and an increase in the likelihood of permanent hair loss, although this has been linked to temporary hair loss.

So do not worry if you put a week's work on your desk at 3:00 pm on Fridays – at least, your hair will not fall out forever. Unless you tear it out right away.

You have worn too much hat

You saw the video for Limp Bizkit's "Rollin" in 2000 and in the next two years refused to take off your red baseball cap. Since then, you have become more bitter than Fred Durst, the bassist and the drummer together. And you probably kick yourself because you've heard that wearing hats can play a role in your follicle fate. But do not worry, that's not really it.

The baldness caused by wearing a hat is simply a story for old women. So you can stop worrying about your youthful headgear habits. As for the regrettable Rap Metal phase … Yes, do not hesitate to berate yourself about it.

The shaving of the hair makes it thicker

Some teenagers with bumblebees and colds have eagerly shaved off his sideburns with his father's mach 3, hoping that maybe – only maybe – The next day he is greeted by Wolverine staring at him from the bathroom mirror. Many have tried; all have failed.

This is because shaving does not really make hair thicker. When the hair regrows, it may feel a bit coarser at first, but that's just because it has a blunt tip.

The psychological fee

Despite all the jokes it has touched, one can not escape the fact that hair loss is no picnic even for the most relaxed people. And it is not a pure image thing. Even for men who do not care about their appearance, a bald head is a sign of aging and a grim reminder that the clock is ticking.

"Although hair loss can have little impact on physical health, it can greatly affect people's mood," explains Kerry Montgomery, a senior scientist at Sheffield Hallam University who has contributed to the psychological implications of hair loss. "Hair is such a big part of our appearance and our identity. It represents our individual image and our individual style. "

Since hair loss is so much more common in men than in women, it is too often assumed that the psychological effects are much less common in people with a Y chromosome. In a world where men's care is a flourishing, multi-billion dollar industry, and social media is more obsessed with image than ever before, that could not be further from the truth.

"We know that men have difficulties," adds Montgomery. "Your daily care can change, the way you look at it, and thinking about how others see their looks are all significant changes. We also know that men are less likely to get help if they have trouble with their mood. "

However, support is available if your masculine bald trip turns out to be particularly harsh. In addition to health services, charities such as Alopecia UK can help people with hair loss, including practical advice and the opportunity to talk to others who are experiencing the same. There is even an international radio show called "The Bald Truth" which is described as a support group for people who lose their hair.

So, if hair loss really bothers you so much, what can you do to combat it?

Toupee or not toupee?

Male pattern baldness is no longer the guaranteed path to a shiny scalp that once was. We may not have a miracle cure yet, but scientists continue to assure us that they are on the brink of a major breakthrough.

In the meantime, you can try some other things to regain some of your hair.

medication

While it is true that a simple solution is only beyond the reach of science, there are medications that can combat the occurrence of hair loss in men – namely Minoxidil (marketed as Rogaine) and Finasteride (sold as Propecia). If you've noticed that you've become thinner at the top, you've probably come across one or both during a hectic Googling session. But do they really work?

"Both finasteride and minoxidil have been proven to preserve existing hair," says Dr. Reddy. Efficacy and outcomes vary from person to person, but the claims that the medications can stop hair loss are actually completely correct.

However, there are a few limitations. "None of the medicines can actually regrow hair," adds dr. Reddy added. "But finasteride tends to reverse the thinning of hair."

If you want to continue using the benefits of the drug, you need to take it until something better happens. This is a financial and other obligation that many men either choose or do not need to take.

Non-surgical hair replacement system

Old-fashioned wigs not only carry a bit of pantomime stigma, but also force the wearer to live in constant fear of strong gusts of wind, thieving pigeons and the hands of curious children sitting in the bus behind them. If the advent of driverless cars, canned sandwiches and real robots has not betrayed the game yet, this is the future we live in, and now we have the hairpieces to prove it.

Non-surgical hair replacement products provide a semi-permanent hair loss solution for men by attaching real hair to the head with a strong adhesive and ensuring that it stays firmly in place no matter how determined the child may be remove.

A hair replacement system allows the wearer to wash, dye and style the hair as if it were his own. The only downside is that it needs to be changed every 2-5 years at a cost of £ 500 + each time.

hair weaving

hair transplant

Semi-permanent options are good and good for some, but if you are looking for the full Monty (or full Rooney), the surgical route is the best way.

"Hair transplantation can significantly restore hair loss to the head and even the beard," explains Dr. Reddy. "It's a permanent solution that can be completed in just one or two sessions."

The procedure works by removing functional hair follicles from the back of the head (the donor site) and implanting them in the top of the head. Once complete, the follicles harvested from the donor site continue to behave as they did before removal, resulting in new hair growth on the previously infertile scalp.

However, what many people who are thinking of treatment fail to realize is that success depends on the combined use of minoxidil or finasteride to prevent un-grafted hair from thinning out. If you are ready to make such a commitment, a hair transplant is probably the best course of action.

Hug the bare life

Pills, potions, surgeries, and wigs may be the answer for some men, and if you are, that's fine. For the rest of us, however, there is a much simpler, faster and cheaper option. Put it this way: If you like the idea of being able to lie in bed for 10 minutes each morning and men in pubs expect you to be twice as hard as yourself, the solution is just a haircut away.

The practice of head shaving has turned bald men into badasses as long as there were razors. This wispy combo can add a touch that you can no longer control. However, if you pick up a pair of hair clippers, remove the guard, and get to work, sit back on the heavy driver's seat and experience hair loss on your own terms.

If you talk to a shaved maven, he'll probably tell you how much better he felt after he stopped desperately clinging to his last hair and bracing himself to take it off once and for all. It can be a liberating experience. Also, keep it out of the way while you're still young and get yourself a head start on your peers, most of whom are struggling with the onset of hair loss and a mid-life crisis all at the same time.

But those are not the only pluses when it comes to choosing the nuclear option. Once you've invested in and dealt with a range of hair clippers, you'll find that you're practically making money with money you would otherwise have given to a hairdresser who has tried in vain to disguise your ever-diminishing hairline. And as you are perceived by potential partners, just look at Jason Statham and Samuel L. Jackson. Even Larry David, who refuses to shave his back and sides, has made the look his own.

How to shave your head

Removing the lint is a big step, but you probably know it's right. But before you take the plunge, make sure you know what you are doing. With that in mind, we asked Joe Mills, one of London's best hairdressers, for advice.

"If you think the time has come to shave your head, then I would suggest you cut it off first," says Mills. "At first you want to start in the 3rd grade and then work shorter. If you have a round face, I would suggest that you have a 3 or 2 at the top and top of the sides and make a 1 and a crossfade around the edges. This will help to slightly change the shape of your face. "The trick is to keep the cut because it does not look good when it fluffs."

So pretty easy. However, if you have a taste of the bleak life and long for the next hit, you may decide to bring the razor in.

"If you want to shave your head bald, it's best to do it the same way you do on the face," explains Mills. "First, cut the hair off with a hair clipper, then moisten your scalp with warm water and apply a shaving cream or gel. The hair on your head are different from your face and are usually less coarse. Also, your scalp is not used to a razor. Rinse the blade regularly during shaving to keep it clean and free from stubble. "

The best haircuts for thinning hair

If you have not quite reached the thinning point of Prince William, then you should consider cutting your hairdresser off before you start to eat ham with the Bic and the shaving cream. Granted, no matter how good your hairdresser is, he can not restore any of your lost curls, but he can give you a cut that flatters your returning hairline.

But what should you ask for? Here is a selection of the best options.

The buzz cut

If you use a hair clipper to bring your hair to a consistent length anywhere, you can even out a diminishing hairline without balding. If you are thinking about shaving your head but want to test the water first, this may be the trim you are looking for.

The high and tight

If you're looking for the illusion of thicker hair, this sibling kid can give you the extra volume you want for the military crew. The cut is very short at the top and shorter at the back and sides. This will help create some balance between the thinning hair around the crown and the denser hair elsewhere.

The slicked-back undercut

This undercut look is a good option if the affected area is on the crown of your head. The combed back length on the top covers all embarrassing bald spots as soon as they are styled. Just try to avoid swimming pools.

The short harvest

If your thinning is still relatively low, a short harvest may be a good way. This style is cut short with scissors and makes your locks appear fuller than they really are.

Final thoughts

So far from being the terrible fate of many men. Getting bald is just a natural part of the aging process, and there are a number of things you can do to fight it if you decide it's the way to go.

However, do us a favor and try shaving your head first before spending your life savings on an expensive cosmetic procedure. Once you save money, have more time in the morning, and get compliments, you may never realize that a little hair is not that important.

0 notes

clarencenicholsonata · 5 years ago

Text

5 Ways to Create an Engaging Ecommerce Site

Let’s just face it -

Creating an engaging ecommerce site is challenging. There are a lot of moving parts involved, and without a good strategy, all your efforts will amount to nothing.

Luckily, there are several tactics you can use to create a more engaging ecommerce site. In fact, you might actually already be utilizing some of them. But out of all the great strategies you could focus on, there are 5 surefire strategies to get you to the finish line faster and more effectively. And then from there, you can build on to other areas of focus.

In this blog post, I’m going to run through the 5 foolproof strategies you need to help you start your ecommerce marketing on the right foot.

Target Your Existing Customers

Any good ecommerce marketer knows that increasing engagement on your site often starts with the customers you already have in your fan base. So while you probably want to jump straight to marketing your ecommerce business to new subscribers, your marketing strategy is only going to work if you focus on reconverting the customers you’ve already converted.

But why is targeting repeat customers so important?

Well, for one, existing customers are cheaper to reconvert. I mean think about it. They are more loyal to you and chances are if they’ve already bought your stuff once, it will be easier to get them to buy again.

What’s more, repeat customers typically spend more than first-time visitors. In fact, according to Bain, return customers spend 67% more than new customers.

However, customers have become a lot pickier, so simply having a solid marketing strategy won’t do. You need to do more. They want to feel valued and appreciated. That’s why it’s important to focus on ways to improve the experience for the customers you already have.

Now, this is easier said than done, especially considering that no two customers are the same. But that’s nothing that a little research can’t remedy. And as always, the devil is in the details when building a foundation for your marketing strategy for your ecommerce site. So you should ensure you know your customers. Data analytics lets you know everything from their hobbies and demographic information to what they need and their interests and values so that you can customize your products to suit their needs.

But don't just stop at finding out what your customers want. Follow up with them and listen to their feedback too. It's the best way to find out how to improve the customer experience.

Use Trust Marks and Badges

While it may not seem like it, trust badges are an important thing to consider when marketing your ecommerce business. You may say,” I have a ton of customers regardless of the fact that I don’t utilize trust badges”. Yes, but let’s not forget that engagement has a lot to do with perception. Think about it: with all the fraud cases there have been, would you engage with a business that doesn’t seem credible?

Probably not. And neither will your customers.

The truth is, the more credible your site looks, the more people will be encouraged to engage with you further. So when you’re creating a site with the purpose of converting customers and creating more engagement, you need to think about trust badges.

Ideally, you could incorporate a money back guarantee to reassure your customers about purchasing a product. You could also have trust seals to reassure the customer that their information is safe and secure whenever they are sharing it on your site.

Add Video to Your Product Pages

In ecommerce, videos are everything. Sure, images do so much for ecommerce but video can do even more. Don’t believe me?

YouTube currently has 1.5 million active users who visit the site every month. And Facebook Video is growing even more rapidly. So while images and great content are no doubt a winner, video is dominating online marketing as we know it.

So why is adding videos to your product pages so important?

If you look at statistics, people spend 2.6 times more on websites with video than those without. So it makes perfect sense to incorporate videos to your product pages to get more engagement.

Also, videos instill trust in customers. The truth is customers are more inclined to buy what they can see. And adding a video is by far the best way to bring your products to life. But it doesn’t end there. Videos also help customers see the product in real time too.

Offer Sales and Discounts When it Makes Sense

It’s no secret that sales and discounts have always been a staple in promotions. However, in the ecommerce realm, sales and discounts are more than just a purchase incentive. They act as a way to bait and engage your subscribers.

Here are some powerful reasons to offer discounts and sales:

First, everyone loves discounts. So whether you simply want to delight your customers or surprise them all together, discounts and sales are the perfect way to win your customers’ hearts.

Plus, not only will this spike traffic on your site, but it will also considerably increase engagement.

Also, discounts are a sort of customer appreciation. Your customers have been there for you since the inception of your business. They’ve been buying stuff and following all your products. The most tangible reward for loyalty is discounted prices.

Boost Engagement Using Consumer Psychology

Why does it always seem like no matter what you do, you’re still not attracting as many customers as you’d want?

The answer, you’re not tapping into the human psychology aspect of marketing. Even if you time your social posts right, use the right keywords and pump out content, at the end of the day, you have to appeal to people’s emotions and needs. So perhaps it's time to tweak your strategy.

The idea is simple: scents, surfaces, and colors have a lot to do with decision making and our propensity to purchase products. So it’s important to think about the psychology of your customers when developing a marketing strategy: what makes them tick, and what’s ultimately going to drive them to make a purchase?

One of the most powerful motivators for ecommerce is the concept of scarcity.

There's something about scarcity that triggers a strong reaction. It could be the fear of missing out, or the fear that we might regret not making the decision in time. If you look at Black Friday, you'll realize that Amazon and other ecommerce stores sell more items during Black Friday than at any other time.

While some of the purchase decisions have to do with the fact that the products are sold at a much cheaper price, a lot of it has to do with scarcity. Once Black Friday is over, then what? Probably no more amazing items on sale. Making an item scarce gives people an incentive to act fast so as not to miss out.

For boosting engagement, you may also consider sending your customers cart abandonment messages. For whatever reason, customers may or may not check out items from the cart. But that doesn’t mean that you should abandon them.

You should send them cart abandonment messages to reconnect with them and make them see the value of what you have to offer. It might not get them to finish the purchase process, but it will make them feel valued. That feeling might be enough to entice them to come back.

Conclusion

Ecommerce has become bigger than ever right now. And more people are finding themselves shopping online than at a physical store. So it’s safe to say that it’s the place to be if you want your business to take off.

However, simply having an ecommerce store alone won’t cut it. The ecommerce space is extremely volatile and the competition even more so. So you need a great ecommerce marketing strategy if you’re going to be successful.

Consider targeting repeat customers and offering discounts and you will see a considerable increase in engagement. Also, try using the human psychology aspect of marketing and using videos to increase traffic and engagement.

About the Author

Kate Lynch is a digital marketing and business blogger who spends her entire day writing quality blogs. She is a passionate reader and loves to share quality content prevalent on the web with her friends and followers and keeping a keen eye on the latest trends and news in those industries. Currently, she is associated with OmniSend, an e-commerce marketing automation platform built for growing e-commerce businesses. Follow her on twitter @IamKateLynch for more updates.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/2xsiG2q via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801

0 notes

seogine-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Virginia Beach Small Business Owner? 5 Reasons Why Small Business SEO Services Are a Must Have

Most individuals in 2019 use local searches to find businesses in their area. A lot of the in-store traffic you see as a small business originates online. Whether it's the result of social media chatter or 'near me' searches, people become aware of your store and make visits if you're highly visible online. The trick is finding a way for people to know who you are. In the face of thousands of sites in your niche and a web of difficult competitors in your geographical area, how can you trickle to the top of search results and social media feeds? The answer is search engine optimization (SEO). We're going to discuss the value of search engine optimization in addition to explaining why you need to utilize small business SEO services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV5GQxLDZ70

How Tricky is SEO?

When you look at a broad overview of search engine optimization, it might seem something of a walk in the park. We'll give you that broad overview, but we'll also dive into some of the specifics that turn a walk in the park into a climb up a mountain. The point is, SEO involves a working knowledge of search engines, websites, data analytics, writing, marketing, and various tools. That, and it requires a lot of upkeep. Take all that, and pile on our first reason for you to make use of small business SEO services.

1. Search Engine Optimization is Essential

In a country where most people use their smartphones to conduct 'near me' searches and a world projected to have 5.7 billion people using smartphones, internet visibility is quickly becoming more important. We're already at a point where online visibility greatly improves a customer's ability to find and visit a brick-and-mortar store. Each one of us has likely experienced this from the consumer side: You wake up on a Saturday morning and quickly realize that you drank your dinner on Friday night. You're starving, and a brief look around the kitchen helps you to realize that there's no way you have the energy to make breakfast. It's around noon, so most of the typical breakfast places are already closed or serving lunch. You still want breakfast, though, so you pull out your phone and search "breakfast restaurants open near me" and sift through your options.

People tend to click one of the top three search results. Very few people comb through the entire page, let alone go past the first page of the results. That is unless the search engine doesn't pull up the desired information, which is becoming less common. This process happens all of the time, with nearly every product or service, in pretty much every town. That means that all small businesses are affected by this kind of search. This makes optimization essential.

2. Mistakes are a Big Deal

When you're thinking about how to conduct SEO, the first thing you should understand is the perspective of the search engine. We often think of search engines as inherent pieces of the internet. It's almost like people see them as the gateway into the internet. This is not true. Search engines are competitive businesses just like your own small business. They simply index all of the information that they can and do their best to lay out that information to you. When you make a search, the search engine runs your keywords against the sometimes trillions of webpages that it has indexed. Based on that search engine's algorithm, it will pull up a few pages that it sees as most relevant to the search you've entered. That's a brief picture of how search engines work. We mention the fact that they're competitive and that they have specific requirements for a reason: they have an incentive to weed out results that are irrelevant. They do this by constructing the algorithm to be as specific as possible, but what happens when a site tries to cheat or cater to the algorithm too much? Sure, search engine optimization is the process of catering to the algorithm, but there needs to be a balance. Penalties When a site tries to work around the algorithm or trick the algorithm into thinking that it is relevant, penalties are given. Some of the tactics used are things like spamming vast amounts of users, stealing email information, faking metrics, and boosting sites with invisible keywords. There are a lot of other ways that a site could try to create results without putting actual work in. Broadly, this kind of activity is called "Black Hat SEO." The honest kind is called "White Hat SEO."

Penalties can come in different degrees, of course, but really make a mistake and you could be unlisted from the search engine's archive. Additionally, these mistakes could be easily made if you weren't sure what was considered punishable. If you were to do your own SEO, you might be able to get by without any penalties. At the same time, why risk it? Working with small business SEO services is a surefire way to avoid being unlisted.

3. SEO is Time Consuming

Before your site gets a lot of organic traffic coming in, you're going to have to work pretty hard to get off of the ground. First, consider the many different areas of thought that need to be understood before you can start. Sure, there is a search engine algorithm with a number of search factors, but what are the specific factors? From the over 200 search factors, you should be optimizing for, which ones are important? You'll need to understand keyword research (which is changing in a big way), backlinking, content creation, publishing strategies, web design, even back end issues like coding and how site architecture affects SEO. Each one of those pieces is just a small chunk of what websites look for when they're ranking. There are over 150 fifty other search factors that either need to be optimized for or discovered. Unfortunately, we aren't aware of each factor because search engines keep their algorithms quiet. It's the job of SEO professionals to dig into search engines and try to discover what makes them tick. When professionals start to understand too much, search engines will introduce updates to the algorithm and get us off the trail. It's like a game of cat and mouse. Those updates can really affect how the algorithm ranks, sometimes sending a page far down in the search results. If you optimize heavily for one factor and that factor is changed overnight, you naturally won't rank as well. The point we're trying to make here is that it takes a lot of time to understand and keep up with SEO, making small business SEO services a huge time and money saver.

4. Social Media is a Must as Well

We understand that being in control of your social media account may be a big deal to some people. When working with small business SEO services, you will still be in control of all of your accounts. In fact, you don't necessarily need to introduce a social media strategy. At the same time, there's a lot of time and research that SEO companies put into understanding how search engine optimization and social media interact, as well as how those two things can be used to achieve the ultimate goal, which is conversions. At the end of the day, the point of all of these strategies to end up in sales, brand awareness, or whatever your metric of success is. Social media is now becoming as important as, or more important than search engines in some cases. This is true for a few reasons: People are Always On Social Media The consistency with which people use social media is constantly growing. As technology makes social media use more seamless, it becomes more and more common for people to be checking various sites throughout the day. Different demographics use different sites as well, meaning that there's usually a way to market directly on your target audience through one site or another. Advertising on Social Media Using social media to advertise is one of the most specific, effective ways that you can market yourself online. Because social media platforms collect so much demographic information about users, they're able to pinpoint very specific groups of people to place your ads in front of. All other forms of advertising require that you put your ad out there with no guarantee of whether your target audience will see it. You might get lucky, you might not, but that's because you don't know who you're putting your ad out to. With social media advertising, you eliminate that risk. It's not like everyone will actually click on your ad, but it's far more likely if you can choose who you're putting the ad in front of. There is Immense Potential for Success Social media is fertile ground for wild, unprecedented success for your business. You probably won't end up going viral and becoming a household name, but the potential is there for you to see a lot of growth. In order to do this, though, it's essential that you develop a following and make the choice needed to see actual growth. Too often, small businesses make a social media account and fail to post regularly, don't create content to post, don't reach out to those in the community, and end up failing to have any success. There's a method to the madness, and it's important that your site is handled carefully.

5. Content Creation is a Must

The presence of keyword optimization, backlinks, freshness, and social media content are all contained in your ability to write effective content. Content is where those keywords are placed and those backlinks are sent. It's very important that the blog (or other) content that you're making is relevant, engaging, and directs the user back to your site. When you post a blog post to social media, users are required to open the post and get sent back to your site before reading. This is a great way to attract people to your site and let them explore it once they're there. The key, then, is creating content with titles that attract your users. You can achieve this by doing your keyword research. If you create content that is made in response to the popular keyword searches in your niche, you can know that the content is generally about something that people are interested in. So, there's a keyword research piece in addition to the actual content creation piece. Once find the subject matter, it's time to write the content. Most people think they're pretty good at writing. But what kind of writing are you good at? In most cases, the main formal training that people have in writing is that of school papers. Most users don't really want to relive their high school days when they're paging through your thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Writing blog content is different, and it may help to have a pro write it for you. Small business SEO services can provide quality writing. Here's Our Point... There's no getting around the fact that SEO is an essential piece of any business, big or small. Small businesses might be even more affected by a decent SEO platform because local searches are key for local customers.

You might not have a lot of competition online yet if you're a small business, either, meaning that you should get started as soon as possible. But taking care of the ins and outs of search engine optimization is a hard task, especially when you have a small business to run. There are professionals out there who can do a great job optimizing your site, leaving you to take care of the things you're passionate about.

Interested in Small Business SEO Services?

There's a lot more to learn about SEO and how it can relate to the success of a small business. It's important that you learn about those specifics in order to understand the process. While doing your research, if you find that you'd be interested in small business SEO services, visit our site to see what we could do for you. Read the full article

0 notes