#and he keeps sending me 'assistant director of' and 'coordinator of' jobs that I would fuck up within the first week

[bodhimcbodeface]

It REALLY sucks applying for jobs when you're too deeply disorganized to be good at anything administrative.

[theysaywhatasadsight]

Wedding Bells, Part One (Steve Rogers x Desi!Reader)

A/n: *Slides up to you* Good Evening (technically its morning hehe) but this fic was made possible by Amy (some may know her, she was formerly @thelazypangolin ), by @messy-random-bitch and @officially-tonynat-shrine who listened to my crazy headcanons and gave me amazing ones. @nasarogers is the clueless American I would die for (love you bby) and @shurisneakers and @chillingbucky wanted to be tagged. Technically this is a desi au, so translations are right next to the sentence and some pop culture references are in the glossary. The story is based in Delhi so if any of y’all live there don’t come for my head skkssk. (P.S.: IDK if the ‘person sitting in the lap of another person in a car’ is technically illegal here or not? Imagine my surprise when I went to Europe and found out it’s illegal there RIP. So ignore the “is this actually allowed?” question, please and thank you.

Warnings: Floof, some violence and blood, swearing (well it’s in another language)

"Agent (L/N), thoughts?" The post mission debrief was often long and complicated but this time, one of her many gods had clearly smiled upon her as it was over in an hour. Most of the junior agents had cleared out of the room, leaving behind a few of the senior ones and the director of SHIELD. "Don't let Richardson go next time; all he does is whine and make extremely bad decisions. Our job is to provide assistance to the Avengers, not to be heroes ourselves. Let's keep ourselves a bit on the down low." "Agreed." Smith piped up. There were nods around the table. "I'll talk to Richardson, push him on a desk job for a while." Everyone stood up and filled out. Walking beside Nick, YN grabbed his tablet for him. "Always working, Sir." "Unlike you, Agent (L/N). A whole month for a wedding? It's not you that's getting married is it?" He looked completely serious but she could see the glint of mischief in his eye. "What? I haven't taken a single holiday in a year. Besides,its my cousin's wedding; they're pretty close." "I suppose you're not joining us for the Islamabad mission?" "Not really, already I get called unpatriotic too much. Good luck!"

She handed off the debrief files in the Avengers' living room. A few were lazing around, some off to shower or maybe nap. She herself wanted one, not wanting to wrestle with a saree and a suitcase. "So I hear you're not showing up for the next month?" She handed the file to Natasha while Tony looked up from his phone where he was declining with Pepper and Morgan who were away to Chicago for a meeting and visiting Pepper's family. After Ultron, it was always better to have physical copies of files. "Yeah, cousin getting married." "Oooh, with the number of days you were leaving I thought it was yours." "Don't, Fury already made that joke. And besides, wouldn't I invite you lot to my hypothetical wedding?" She smiled as she sat down on the sofa next to him, grabbing an apple from the coffee table. "Considering it was Steve's wedding too I would think we would already be invited, I did call you all to mine." He smirked. Y/N nearly choked on her apple. "Wait, what?!" "Darling, we know you've been hooking up. Or planning to." Natasha sighed and glared at Tony. "So much staring at each other on missions. You always covering his ass, and might I remind you of the time he went into a coma after a mission and you nearly ripped the place apart?" "Clearly, your super senses are gone because there is nothing there. Nada. Zilch. There is absolutely no potential there. We're just colleagues." "Colleagues who hooked up once? Last new year's you two were slobbering over each other. You left Bucky and Me dancing alone to that...what was it called again?" "Sheila ki Jawani*?" "Yes! Amazing song, by the way. Movie didn't make a lick of sense but then again, which heist movie does?" Glad at the change of topic, she smiled. "Do you need more movie recommendations?" "Nope, Bucky and I still have your old list to go through." "Call me if you need explanations. Only WhatsApp calls though, I'm not shelling out a fortune to explain the reincarnation of Shanti Priya* to you."

Hungry, jet lagged and extremely fatigued she landed at the Delhi airport, hoping against hope that the crowd assembled at the pick up was for the Tik Tok star that was also on her flight and not because her whole clan hadn't seen her for 3 years. But when was she ever lucky? When she had left the army to join SHIELD everyone had been very disappointed in her. Not that any of them knew. For immediate family, she was in HR for Stark Industries and for the rest she was in 'Amreeka, doing something or the other'.

When they told her she would be sleeping alongside her younger cousin who was training to be a doctor she just sighed. The nerd would probably study the whole night and keep the light on. Maybe she could do some pending work; jet lag would keep her awake anyway. Work, yes. Work would keep her awake. Definitely not daydreaming about a pair of blue eyes that wouldn't go away; the owner of whom was the biggest fattu (coward)  she had ever seen.

He missed Y/N. It had barely been 4 days since she was gone. He should ideally know better. Fraternising among agents wasn't good. Her job would be in danger if anyone found out. He never really had a thing for rules though. "Good God, Rogers, stop moping about and give her a call." "I-what?" "Yes." Natasha frowned at him from where she was leaning against the countertop. He was crushing the cardamom, trying to figure out if it went after the chai was done or before. "Ask her when the cardamom goes in. I think it's before the whole thing boils." "I, uh, I'll look up a recipie." "Care to tell me why Steve Rogers, who loves coffee as black as his soul is trying to replicate YN's sweet as hell chai? Couldn't you get some from Starbucks?" "That's no chai,that's just tea and milk. She had it once and almost threw it at the barista's head...Nat, why are you looking at me like that?" "Nothing, nothing at all."

"They're no longer in Islamabad." "What?" "Someone leaked the details of the raid to them. They're moving it to India now, possibly to the capital. They have enough contacts to pull it off, even HYDRA's helping them." "New Delhi, isn't that where Agent (L/N) is now?" "Fury, she's on vacation; besides she's not picking up any of her calls." Natasha glared at Nick. "A radioactive gas that can take out the entire subcontinent and a dude who's not stopping at anything to further his our-return-to-the-dark-ages agenda? Pretty sure it beats all weddings. Send someone with the briefing and gather your team. We’re sorting this shit out, fast."

"No. Absolutely not. I'm not going to show up at her door asking her to cancel her family commitments and go back to work." "Really, the concern you two have for each other is extremely sweet and nauseating; but you have to do it. Get in, get recon and get back in contact. If the rumour is true we'll have to assemble the whole team." The former assassin rolled her eyes at Steve's aghast face. "I got her address off an old file; I'll ask her to pick you up. And please, don't get lost somewhere; we really don't have any spare agents to track you down." "I've been outside the States before, Widow. And using confidential information for personal purposes? Nefarious." "This is the reward I get for being a good wingwoman. Fine, don't come crying to me when you're invited to her actual wedding." As he set about packing he daydreamed about jumping off the top of the compound and wondering if his feet would still work to escape into the surrounding forest.

She got the text the minute Natasha assumed Steve's plane took off. "Your boyfriend is headed towards Delhi. Introduce him, be the black sheep you are and for the love of God read the files and make a plan." The rest was just code saying the plans had changed, the expected mission derailed. When her family began pestering her, saying that her turn at the altar was next and asking about boyfriends, she had blurted Steve's name by accident, the fact that it made a perfect cover was a different matter. That's what happens when you space out while talking to Sunita Chachi*, woman has a tongue sharper than Gordon Ramsay's knife. Her mother had just smiled sadly and asked two of YN's younger cousins to share a bed when told another guest would be joining them.

30 minutes after the plane landed he immediately wanted to go back. What he was used to was executing secret and well-coordinated missions, not the actual planning and coordinating. Sam argued he was growing soft. He just liked listening to YN's voice. And now he was in an unfamiliar land with no foreseeable end to his stay and a wedding to attend, apparently. YN smiled at him at the receiving line, smiling as a lover receiving a spouse after a long separation. She walked up to him and whispered "You're my boyfriend from work, you know zero hindi and Natasha introduced us." She embraced him and leaned forward for a kiss. It lasted shorter than he would've liked. She continued whispering as she grasped his hand and lead him to the car which already had three people in it. "Did you pick up more guests?" "Nope, they just wanted to see you first." Opening the door as Steve tossed his bag in the back she yelled something at the assembled children and got in the right. Was the kid in the front supposed to drive? "Do you need an invitation?" One of the kids yelled out.

He had judged wrong. There were not only three teenagers, there were two more kids who had been too shy to outright stare at him like their elder siblings (he assumed) had. One sat in his lap, staring outside the window. The others chose instead to glare at him unnervingly. YN drove, swearing at everything. One of the younger ones laughed at something she said and immediately had his ears covered and shushed."Didi* don't teach Gudiya bad words!"

"Arey baba sorry, tu toh janta hai traffic kitna bura hai; akele chalane ki adaat ho gayi hai bhenchod. Sorry."  (“You know how bad traffic is, I’m used to driving alone, sisterfucker” Basically the reader’s saying the traffic is the worst and how she’s used to driving alone and hence swears often while driving; also people from Delhi apparently like to attach swears to everything.)  She grinned as her cousin gasped again. She was at the moral, change-the-world stage. YN missed that.

“So, change of plans?” Pinky grinned at Y/N as she looked up from a complicated looking textbook. The kid had somehow made it to medical school without losing her mind or her calm demeanour. “I’m only gonna switch places at night, right now let me study Anatomy.”Sighing at her cousin’s confused stare, she glared back.  “Arey you’ll want to sleep next to your boyfriend na?” “Uh, yeah, I mean, thank you, but it’s no problem. I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.” “Calm down. If we get caught sneaking around in the middle of the night its worse for the two of you. I got into MBBS, I can basically get away with murder now.” she smiled. Y/N wondered whether her cousin would be a sociopath or a leader later. She went about chalking up the updated plan for the recon, only hoping her family would behave themselves around Steve. She caught some part of her wishing it was the real thing so that the poor guy’s suffering wouldn’t be in vain.

Hey bhagwaan (oh God), I need gangajal* and a stiff drink. Also a lobotomy.

“How did that idiot even cross the border this quick? And how are we getting informed this late? This is going to be a logistical nightmare, the government is going to put the pressure on us.” “Maybe someone exposed him or he got pushed back down on the social hierarchy. It’s a mess.” On the pretense of sightseeing, Y/n had dragged Steve away from her nosy relatives to get details for the now completely changed mission. "Can I try that?" He gestured to the bowl of chaat* in her hands. "Don't cry if you find it too spicy then. You couldn't even tolerate my butter chicken; even my youngest cousin can eat that." "My tongue is really not fond of burning and not being able to taste anything for a fortnight." "Oh? What is it fond of then?" His answering blush made her smile. "I-uh, we need to report within three days, Nat is busy getting everyone together and ready for the mission." "The engagement is in 2 days! How are we even going to get out?" "How much do you like this cousin anyway?" "How. Dare. You. Rahul is one of the few I actually like." "Yeah, how many are there? I lost count at 13." She punched his arm and snorted, earning a smile from him and a glare from the chaatwala*.

YN truly regretted coming back here. The never ending taunts, the upcoming solo recon mission (that she would have to give Rahul’s engagement a miss for, he was one of her favorites too) and the fact that the guy she had been thirsting over the past few months was suddenly her so-called boyfriend. Massaging her temples as she got up to get ready, she hoped desperately the recon would not involving fighting. She already had thinning hair due to the stresses of being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, her hair being yanked out while pins were still attached to her hair wouldn’t help the cause.

"Mummy!" She yelled over the din of the loud, jarring music. Her mother was smiling and gossiping with her sister-in-law. "Thoda kaam aa gaya; Delhi wale office Jana padega." (Some work popped up, I’ll have to go to the Delhi office) "Itni raat ko? Uss gore ko lekar?" (So late? With the foreigner in tow?”) "Are kuch nahi hoga, bohot important hai, warna nahi jaati." (Nothing will happen. It’s too important, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone.) "Wapis aa jaiyo jaldi, raat ko ghumne safe nahi hota." (Come back quick, It's not safe to roam at night.) "Pakka." (I promise)

"MADARCHOD!" (”MOTHERFUCKER!”) She grunted as she ducked, the bullet nearly embedding in her collarbone. She fired back two shots, one at a goon's head and one at his accomplice's knees. Whipping her head at a noise, she gasped as Steve has a bullet graze him as one of them took a lucky shot at him. He only winced. The goddamn lehenga* got in the way of her running after the idiot who could run like fucking Milkha Singh* even after being shot in the knees. They both chased. The recon turned ugly after someone spotted the tent she was wearing that was pretending to be a skirt. If they somehow got out alive, she'd burn this thing. By the time she caught up to Steve, who had left her long behind, she came upon a sight that gave her a heart attack. The men (apparently some were laying in wait for them) all lay dead in various poses, with Steve in the middle grunting and struggling to get up. Firing at someone who awoke, she leaned down, cradling his head in her hands. "Steve. Hey, whoa. Don't die on me. Where are you hurt?" He was bleeding all over her skirt. "Knife to the ribs. Two or three times..may...maybe. Hurts like a bitch." "I'm getting you up. We're going home, okay?"

This was a terrible situation. Somehow supporting the huge, burly figure of an extremely injured Steve, she set him down, leaning against the bike they had zipped around on and somehow escaped on, looking for her phone in the carrier attached. She lived this bike even when she lived here; it belonged to her uncle who would give the keys to only her. The sagaai* had clearly ended an hour or so ago. People still milled about, probably the men from the tent house they had booked for the whole tamasha*. “Shobhit, neeche aa. Garden ke side. Aur Bunty aur Puneet ko bhi leke aaiyo.” (”Shobhit, come downstairs, to the garden side. Bring Bunty and Puneet with you.") “Itni raat ko kya kar rahi ho bahar? Khatam ho gaya aapka office ka kaam?” ("What are you doing out so late, is your office work done?") “Are tu neeche aa, sab samjhaati hu.” ("You come downstairs, I’ll explain everything" )

“Samjhaana agar shuru karti toh achha hota.” "It’ll be good if you start explaining now." Shobit muttered as all three of her cousins stared at the crumpled figure of Captain America on the ground, to their cousin wincing in pain, her lehenga covered with blood, again to Steve. “Isko uthake Pinky ke kamre tak jaane mei meri madad kar. Yeh marr warr gaya toh naukri gayi meri.” "Help me pick him up and take him to Pinky’s room. If he dies, I’m losing my job."

“First of all, I’m not a doctor. Yet.” Pinky also did her fair share of staring at everyone. Y/N could feel her eye twitching. Whether it was out of anger, stress, or the false eyelash that had ripped from her lash line as she drove like a madwoman in the traffic, no helmet or gloves. Steve screaming like a grandma as he held on for dear life was a tiny bit amusing though. Endearing maybe, Nope, definitely not endearing.

“I should tell you that because I have very, and I mean very little experience in sewing. Particularly sewing up bodies professionally. If he dies, I am not responsible.” She yawned once, extremely sleepy. “That being said, someone get cotton, Dettol, and uh my sewing kit is in the left front pocket of my backpack. Jija*, there’s no anesthesia, but I suppose you don’t need it, super strength and all. Didi*, aisa muh mat banao (don’t make that face), just because none of the oldies know who he is doesn’t mean we’re stupid too.” Y/N shut her gaping mouth.

“He’ll live.” Pinky said as everyone in the room collectively sighed. The suture had been painful to witness, Y/N biting her lip so hard she tasted copper. Steve seemed okay now. When he had taken that guard’s knife to the stomach, Y/N’s heart had stopped. The fear she felt, that was no general fear at seeing someone stabbed or even a friendly fear (was there even such a thing or was 3 AM her just rambling?). The panic she felt was heartbeaking. “Make those self realisation faces later, Di. I’m tired and I just want some sleep.  “Jija ko unke kamre tak chodke aa. Koi raaste mei mile bol dena bike bhid gayi thi, hospital se aate hue late ho gaya tha.” (Jija is the hindi word for sister’s husband. Pinky’s telling him to drop him to his room and if anyone asks to tell them he had an accident, the bike hit something and they were late coming from the hospital.) “Tu sabko heart attack dilayegi kya?” (Do you want to give everyone a heart attack?") “Aur koi bahana mile toh batao.” ("If you have any other excuse then tell"

As everyone scattered, Y/N shut the door to change. Her cousin just lay down on the bed, semi-asleep. She cracked one eye open when Y/N reached out her hand to switch off the light, whispering “So you are a secret agent?” “Nope, I sell veggies with Captain America.” “Ugh, way to thank me for saving your boyfriend’s life, with terrible puns.” “He’s not my...leave it. Good night. Oh, and PInky?” Pinky hummed. “Thanks.” “So jao.” (Go to Sleep)

“Tell Romanoff we’ll need backup. They clearly planned ahead for the move, the facility is impossible to get into, and now they know we’re coming. Also, Steve is injured." “Very well, we’ll invite ourselves to the wedding. Take care if your boyfriend until then."Natasha sounded worried but her tone was light. “Bring a gift, I’m not keeping strangers in my family home without payment.”

Glossary *-Sheila ki Jawani is a pretty popular Bollywood Item Song. Played at every wedding /party since 2010 *-The Reincarnation of Shanti Priya is a reference to the film Om Shanti Om where the leads get resurrected after having an unhappy ending *Chachi- Father's younger brother's wife; aka yn's aunt *Gangajal- Water from the river Ganges that Hindus consider sacred, its used for purification purposes (guess why Y/N wanted it *wink wink*) *Didi- Elder Sister *Chaat: some spicy-sweet snack, it's a general term; desis feel free to imagine your favourite. *Chaatwala: the person who owns the chaat shop *Lehenga: a crop top and floor-length skirt outfit worn at weddings and traditional functions *Milkha Singh: famous Indian athlete, also known as "The Flying Sikh" because of how fast he was. *sagaai- engagement *tamasha- a sarcastic way of saying how over the top the whole wedding is.

[softxharry]

Blacklist (two)

Harry Styles, one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals turns himself in– and all he wants to do is speak with one rookie agent.  

It’s her job to figure him out and it’s his to protect her from her past, but all secrets have to be told eventually.

AN// You can keep up with this story here via the tag HSBlacklist or on Wattpad at brutallybeautiful !

Chapter Two

Grace

I am startled awake by a loud banging on my door and a man's voice yelling from the other side. Oh fuck, I am late to my first day. I push my hair out of my face and scramble into a pair of sweatpants laying on the floor next to my bed.

But I'm not because when I look at the alarm clock on my side table, it's only seven a.m. and I don't have to be in until nine. I shake my head as if somehow that would eliminate all of the confusion inside, my feet pad loudly against the floor as I rush to slide the chain off the door and open it. I can feel my stomach flutter as the wood glides open, creaking and groaning from age. On the other side, two men stand with their hands on their holstered guns, annoyance written all over their faces.

I don't have time to question why they're here before they're speaking. Their voices are so deep that it rattles me.

"Agent Tyler, Adam Hunter. Washington Field Office," the man on the other side of the threshold said, pulling a badge out of his coat pocket and showing it to me for a brief second. "I need you to come with me right away."

-

I sit in an old, and very ugly orange chair across from a solid wooden desk, glancing around the office while I wait impatiently, my leg bouncing up and down nervously. I was trying to keep calm after Agent Hunter informed me that Harry Styles was asking for me and that's why they showed up at my door at seven. I stop on a picture frame that sits on the bookshelf behind the desk.

It's a photo of a man, his wife, two little twin girls. They're bundled up in scarves and toboggans and ice skates. The girls clinging for dear life to the man's legs, like if they would let go he would be lost forever. I smile at the photo and imagine what it must be like to be in a family that happy. The woman is kissing the man's cheek, love is evident.

I'm shaken from my thoughts when the sound of the door opening fills the room. I stand from my chair and flatten out my blazer before holding my hand out to shake his.

"Agent Tyler, Owen Cooper," he said, grabbing my hand firmly. I smile at him and take a seat.

"Nice to meet you, sir."

I knew exactly who Owen Cooper was. Assistant Director of Counterterrorism. I learned about his work in Quantico, how he stopped a second 9/11 in 2011, how he helped find the coordinator of the Paris attacks in 2015. He was the real deal, the big shot and I was sitting right in front of him.

I sit up now and force my leg to keep still. He's a lot taller than he looks in the photo, his skin is darker and his hair more grey. The twins in the photo must be much older now, too.

"I understand it is your first day as a profiler," he said. I nod, fidgeting with my hands in my lap.

"Yes sir," I smile, almost proudly. "I was reassigned from San Francisco, I graduated Quantico last month. I've been vetted by the agency, just as everyone else same background checks, same profiles-"

"So why does Harry Styles want to speak with you?" he said, interrupting me. He seemed genuinely curious rather than accusatory. He leans back in his seat, legs crossed, hands clasped. He looks at me like I should know, but I don't. I've never spoken with with that man in my life, never seen him, never heard of him until this morning. I have absolutely no idea what he wants with me.

But I'm about to find out.

Less than an hour later I'm siting in a chair, a mere ten feet from a brilliant criminal. A criminal whose evaded capture for more than five years, went off the radar, avoided detection. A criminal who wants to talk to me. It's silent for a moment as he stares at me, a smirk plastered on his face.

"A pleasure to meet you Agent Tyler," he said, giving me a smug grin. He leans forward in his seat, to the best of his ability because his arms are secured to the chair. I glance around at the many guards, the many agents, the many faces watching us intently, watching to see what this man is going to say, watching to see if I'm going to mess up. I swallow hard and straighten my shoulders.

"How is Washington? Do you miss San Francisco?" he asks. I almost jump out of my seat. I don't know this man, but he surely knows me. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. I have to remain calm, I remind myself, dozens of eyes are watching me.

"Tell me about Weber." I said, my voice even yet firm. Kurt Weber was who Harry promised to give information on whenever he first entered the black sight, Cooper tells me.

The black sight is a secure location owned by the FBI where they work on confidential cases, hold confidential criminals. This one just so happened to be an old Sears warehouse before they shut down.

I imagine the workers, packaging and ticketing merchandise before it even hit the shelves. Probably sweating in the heat of the summer, keeping cool in the cold of the winter. I imagine them letting out a sigh of relief when they finally got to sit down for their 15 minute break and I compare it to where we are now, how this came to be, what's gone on in here.

Harry is smiling again, tugging lightly on the confinements that keep him in the chair. The air around us feels everything but easy. It feels like the moments before a storm, when the trees are rustling and the sky starts to get dark. It feels much like that only 1000 times stronger.

"Did your boyfriend move with you?" he asks. His tone is so mono that it sends shivers down my spine, I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

"Cut to the chase Styles, I don't have time to banter," I tell him, my tone more harsh than it was a second ago. He looks a bit taken aback by it and shifts in the wooden chair that he's occupying, staring at me bemused. "Why did you want to talk to me? It's my first day, nothing special about me."

He laughs a hearty, deep laugh and shakes his head at me.

"Everything is special about you, Gracey."

My breath hitches in my throat at the nickname. The one my dad used to sing whenever he'd call me to his office, the one he'd exaggerate in the stories he told me as he sat on my bed at night, the one my mom would hum in the kitchen when dinner was ready. He knows, I know he knows by the look on his face.

He places his hands on his knees.

"Within the hour Weber will abduct the daughter of U.S. General Kalmin Brown. He wants to be out of the country within 24 hours. If you don't move quickly, that little girl's blood will be on your hands."

The way he talks so confident, so smoothly is rattling. A part of me wants to believe what he is saying, but another part of me reminds myself that he is a criminal and criminals are notorious for lying.  But something inside my gut tells me he's not bluffing. I am about to speak again when Harry casually leans back in his chair.

"But you don't have to believe me," he said.

"Why should I?"

He laughs again. "You shouldn't. I am a criminal. Everything about me is a lie," he looks down at his fingernails. "But I guess that's what we have in common, lying. You being raised by a notorious criminal, your mother dying for it..." he trails off and shrugs. Then he looks around at all of the agents in the room. Unbeknownst to them, this is news.

"Oh!" he exclaims finally catching on. If he wasn't confined to the chair, I'm sure he'd be clapping his hands together.

"Oh, they don't know, do they." He makes a I'm-sorry-I-totally-knew-they-didn't face and frowns at me. "Well," he smirks.

-

The door to Agent Cooper's makeshift office slams loudly, with such force that I swear my bones are rattling inside my body.

This office is different than the one at the branch. This one holds no comfort, no pictures, just an old bookshelf and a desk with a computer.

"Why didn't your father's criminal record show up up on your screening?" Agent Hunter demands, his hands resting on the desk. It irks me to know that he- someone who is nearly as a rookie as I am- wants to demand things from me. I stand up from my seat. Cooper gives him a stern look and his eyes advert to the ground.

"We need to order a SWAT and get to that girl now," I said, avoiding the question entirely. Agent Cooper looks at me warily, like somehow he didn't trust me. Hell, I didn't even trust myself right now, but something inside me said that Harry wasn't lying. And I needed to know why.

[shireness-says]

Playing the Part

Prologue: Overture

Summary: As a stage manager who's clawed her way up from bottom, Emma Swan can handle just about anything thrown her way. But does that include handsome lead actor Killian Jones? A CS Broadway AU. Rated T for language. Also on AO3.

A/N: It’s finally here - the Broadway AU I’ve been threatening to write for ages! I’m excited to finally post this, and I hope you’re excited to read it. I’ve got a bunch of these saved up - 7 completed chapters and significant chunks of 4 more - so I should be able to post these every Monday.

I had a lot of help getting this to its final state, so special thanks to @katie-dub for coming up with the title, @kmomof4 for proofing my outline, and @snidgetsafan for her ever-exceptional beta skills. Y’all are the best.

Each chapter title will be pulled from musical songs. The overture is traditionally the music that plays after the lights dim but before the show starts, and oftentimes sets the stage for the show to come by combining snippets of the musical numbers to come.

Overarching disclaimer: my theater experience is purely on the community theater level and only on the techie side, not the acting side. I strive for accuracy, but pull on my own experience and as such may not achieve it.

Tagging those who have expressed interest or I think will like this: @winterbaby89, @thejollyroger-writer, @mythologicalmango, @allons-y-to-hogwarts-713, @revanmeetra87, @onceuponaprincessworld, @courtorderedcake, @snowbellewells, @branlovesouat, @aerica13, @searchingwardrobes, @teamhook, @awkwardnessandbaseball. Send me a message if you want me to keep tagging you or to be added to this list!

Without further ado: enjoy!

Emma Swan falls into working theater crew somewhat on accident.

That’s the story of her life, really – unexpectedly pregnant at 18, moved to New York on a whim (the reasoning being roughly “if not now, when?”), ended up with a job at Granny’s Diner because it happened to be next to what must be the only free parking in the city, and with a roommate because the owner’s granddaughter just happened to be looking for an apartment and a roommate at that very time.

In the same vein, while it was less of an accident that she became friends with Mary Margaret Blanchard (NYU theater major and friend of Ruby’s who liked to study at the diner), it was entirely by chance that Mary Margaret got her working crew. The truth of the matter is that Emma had a 4-month-old and very little cash, and the NYU theater department needed someone to do some scenery painting. While she may not have been the most artistic of people, Emma was pretty sure that she could handle putting paint on the wall. She could come in whenever she wasn’t working at Granny’s, and best of all, she could bring Henry with her in his carrier. It’s a perfect convergence of circumstances. The powers that be must have been pleased, because come show week, they’d asked her to stay and help move sets. And after that, well… things just spiraled from there.

The funny thing is that Emma had never considered herself a theater fan. When she had started working NYU shows, it had just been a job, not some great passion. Granted, she had only seen a terrible high school production of Fiddler on the Roof and a nearly worse community theater production of Ragtime – and both only because they were free and through her school at the time. There just wasn’t really a chance to see any quality theater as a foster kid. Ruby, when she found that out, naturally decided to fix the situation immediately by taking Emma and Mary Margaret to see Chicago for her own birthday. And as soon as Emma heard “All That Jazz”… she was gone. There was no going back.

Emma somehow found herself an unofficial member of the NYU theater family, especially when visiting lecturers and special events used the auditorium – events that still needed staffing but that the theater majors were reluctant to assist with. From there, she followed Mary Margaret and Ruby (their own aspiring costume designer) through their own smaller roles and shows. Ruby took extra classes in hair and makeup at a local cosmetology school, hoping to expand her portfolio of talents. Mary Margaret kept adding to her resume any way she could, working on any show that would cast her. And Emma somehow continued working her way up the ranks, recommended by word of mouth, towing a toddler (and later a child) along with her. Somehow, all those fortunate accidents brought her here, to this moment – an adult with her own place, a great kid, a support system of friends she views as family, and an ever-rising positive reputation in a decently paid profession. For someone who thought, ten years ago, that her life would be a series of dead end jobs and tiny apartments shared with roommates she’d despise, every day is like she’s living a dream.

This feels like the pinnacle of her achievements, however. She’s certainly worked as a stage manager before – in fact, it’s become her own niche, calling the shots. Her unconventional education has resulted in a working knowledge of nearly all the aspects of technical theater, which has proved incredibly helpful in dealing with her various colleagues. It’s like speaking another language - people are more willing to fill her in on the more complicated terminology when she shows she knows the basics. But this… this is a whole different thing. This isn’t one of her Off-Broadway shows, or one of her limited runs, but a major production. It wasn’t supposed to be – when she signed on as stage manager, set to work with a young director she came up with at NYU, it was still Off-Broadway, an adaptation of Pride & Prejudice they already knew would either be a huge hit or sink into obscurity. But then, some investor who loved the original work caught wind of Merlin’s vision, and suddenly, they had a significantly higher budget, a theater right in the heart of the theater district, and likely a lengthy run – if all goes well. Oh, and one more thing had significantly increased – the pressure on everyone involved.

Of course, just to complicate things, the change in venue isn’t the only thing weighing on Emma’s mind. Initially, Emma had been asked to serve as one of the assistant stage managers, to work backstage the way she prefers and relaying the stage manager’s orders, helping the entire show run smoothly. However, even that plan had changed. The intended production stage manager, finding herself pregnant with twins and violently ill as a result, chose not to participate in the show. Emma can’t blame her – she remembers how tired she was with Henry, and he was only one baby. But Merlin had then asked Emma to step up into an expanded role, saying that he trusted her for this position more than anyone else.

Emma’s flattered, she really is, but the truth is that she’s never run a show at this level. Call the cues for a show, check the equipment, coordinate everything that needs to happen? Yes, sure, of course. She can do that  in her sleep now (somewhat literally, sadly – she’s developed an unconscious habit of dreaming the various light cues). She’s stage managed her smaller shows without any issues. But with a budget this large and stakes this high? Feeling like she personally is the linchpin that could make this show soar or crash in spectacular fashion? On a show they’re all aware could make their careers? That’s new, and terrifying, and Emma privately wonders if she’s the right woman for the job.

But she takes the promotion for that very reason - it’s new, and an incredible opportunity to get her name out there if the production succeeds. She’d be an idiot to turn this down, but that doesn’t make her any less nervous.

Really, at the end of the day, this latest promotion is representative of how she’s made her way through most of her career – a bunch of happy accidents and an unwillingness to say no to any opportunity, now having lead her to a cold room and a crowd of men who all want to be Mr. Darcy.

Nice.

Honestly, this part of the job leaves her as basically a glorified secretary, recording everyone’s contact information so that she and Merlin can handle callbacks later. He asks for her opinion every so often, but honestly, what is he expecting her to say? She can’t carry a tune, and her opinions are usually “yeah, he seems like he won’t be a complete pain in my ass”. They’ve already pre-cast their Elizabeth – a lovely woman named Belle French, who had been an up-and-coming TV actress before an ugly scandal with a prominent producer – but Merlin had wanted someone new for Mr. Darcy. Emma can’t help but understand and agree with that decision – Mr. Darcy is somewhat of an unknown factor for so much of the source material, it seems appropriate that their actor also be something of an unknown quantity, someone the public doesn’t know how to define yet. Unfortunately, they must have overly emphasized the arrogant side of Darcy in the casting call, not the shy romantic, which seems to have brought out every egotistical actor in the city - all convinced that they would be perfect for the role. Don’t get her wrong, the arrogant façade Darcy presents is certainly important (and definitely present in this room, good lord), but Pride & Prejudice was one of the few books in high school Emma actually enjoyed – she knows there needs to be more than that. Whoever they choose needs to also be able to pull off a certain amount of vulnerability, a certain level of discomfort and awkwardness. So many of these would-be Darcys are just too… suave for her taste.

That’s why she’s particularly hopeful about this next prospect. He had swaggered in, as confident as the rest, but as she’d watched him interact with the others, there had been a certain amount of nerves that the rest weren’t letting show. He aces the choreography audition (perhaps because he throws himself into rehearsing in a way the others don’t, like it’ll ruin their persona if they’re shown practicing the steps), has a singing voice that will work well for Darcy (while looking adorable, scratching behind his ear when they ask about his relatively small experience on the stage). What really sells things for Emma, however, is how, when introduced to Belle for a test of how they’ll act together, he stutters over all his words and turns bright red after finally blurting out a “oh, I’ve heard so much about you!”. He’s an awkward mess behind that swagger and false confidence, and it’s a little perfect.

(It doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes, and one of the more polite Darcys she’s dealt with today.)

So when, after a very long day, she’s asked her opinion about the variety of men who auditioned that day, Emma doesn’t hesitate to put her personal vote in for Killian Jones.

God, she just hopes she doesn’t come to regret that decision.

[spxderman-s]

chemistry

requested: by anon

summary: While doing a screen test after auditioning to be Gwen Stacy in the upcoming Spider-Man film, you find out that you and the incredibly suave Tom Holland have more chemistry than you expected.

pairings: tom holland x reader 

word count: 2.1k

warnings:  some swearz, as usual lmfao 

a/n: okay @ the anon who sent this in, i know i tweaked it a teeny bit, i hope that’s okay!! xx

“This is [Y/N],” you answered cheerfully into your phone.

“Hey kid,” you recognized your agent’s voice. “Marvel wants you to come in and do a screen test for Gwen Stacy tomorrow.”

Your jaw dropped, and you managed to stutter out a few words. “I--they--did I get the part?”

“No, this means they’re thinking about giving you the part,” he corrected you, but that didn’t diminish your excitement. “They want you to run a few lines with Tom Holland, see how you do in front of the camera with him.”

“Do you think I’m ready for that?” you asked, nibbling at your thumb. “I mean, this is my first big break.”

“The only way you’ll find out is if you go,” he quipped, and you could hear the annoyance lacing his words. “You in or out?”

“In,” you replied firmly. “Definitely in.”

“Ma, stop fiddling with it, you’ll mess it up!” you chided your mother as she once again tried to adjust the platinum blonde wig you were wearing.

She raised her hands up in defense, and stepped away. “I’m just saying, it’s crooked.”

“If it’s crooked, costume and makeup will fix it.”

“Kid!” your agent called from across the studio, his hand gesturing for you to come to him. “C’mere.”

You took a deep breath and walked towards him, suddenly aware at how sweaty your palms were becoming. Why were you nervous? You had done this audition a thousand times already.

Coming to a stop beside your agent, he clapped a hand to your shoulder and grinned. “This is my rising star,” he spoke to the two men standing by him--both you recognized.

The older man stuck out his hand for you and began with, “I’m the director of the film, Jon--”

“--Watts,” you finished for him almost breathlessly. “I’m a huge fan.”

“Well,” Watts smiled warmly. “It’s always nice to be admired. This is, of course, Mr. Holland himself--”

“I think I’m capable of introducing myself, mate,” Tom joked, laughter in his voice. He stuck out his hand to you, and you prayed that he wouldn’t notice your sweaty palms. “Pleasure to meet you, love.”

“Likewise,” you murmured. “I’m [Y/N].”

“Alright,” Watts, rubbing his hands together. “It’s a quick scene, let’s get right to it. Did you read the bit of script I sent?”

You nodded, swallowing nervously. “All memorized.”

“I like you,” he declared with a grin. He gestured for you and Tom to move to the staged scene, a scene where Peter Parker shows Gwen he’s Spider-Man. It was supposed to be a very emotional scene, you had noted as you read the script over the last week.

The two of you found your marks, the sound coordinator and cameramen found their positions, and you heard Watts’ voice call out: “Action!”

“There’s something that I need to tell you,” Tom spoke, as Peter. The muscle in his jaw flickered as he turned away from you dramatically, the emotion breaking through his voice. “But….that means putting you at risk.”

You followed the script and moved forward two steps to your second mark, a hand going out to rest on his shoulder. “Peter--whatever it is,” you paused for striking effect, purposely making your voice crack, “you can tell me, I don’t care what happens.”

“You don’t get it!” Tom roared, turning to face you suddenly, right on time. The anger in his face was so raw, you were struck for a moment, nearly forgetting your next line.

“What don’t I get?” you carefully weaved your words, keeping them level and soft. “Peter, please….please tell me.” With each syllable, you inched closer to him, feeling the rage radiate off of him. The two of you were so close, so….

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Tom turned away from you again, the sharpness of his voice sending shivers down your spine, and you actually felt real sorrow. You didn’t want him angry, you didn’t want him turning away from you.

It wasn’t until you heard Watts’ voice ring out, “Cut!” that you noticed a tear had slipped from your eye and slid down your cheek. Shit! That wasn’t in the script!

“[Y/N]!” he shouted, and you wanted to cry again. You messed the whole take up with your “improvised” tears. “That was absolutely breathtaking!”

“I--what?” you furrowed your brow, fingers rising to wipe the tears away. “I did a good job?”

“Darling, you did incredible!” Tom remarked, impressed.

You exhaled a sigh of relief as your heart rate slowed down. “I was so afraid I botched the whole scene.”

Watts joined the two of you and placed a hand on your shoulder. “That was very impressive for your first run—we encourage improvisation, it makes the scene feel more natural. Just don’t stray too far from the script; it irritates the writers.”

You saw your mother standing with your agent behind the cameraman, both of them grinning and waving excitedly. “My mom certainly thinks I did a good job.”

“It’s very sweet that she’s here to support you,” Tom commented, still smiling at you.

“Now, [Y/N],” Watts said, his tone serious. He looked at you in your eyes. “I speak for everyone here when I say that you are the Gwen Stacy we’ve been looking for—you embody the character perfectly. Would you like the position?”

“Yes!”

Time had certainly passed quickly after you were officially cast as Gwen Stacy, and production was well underway. You had been filming for almost seven months now, slowly falling into a rhythm: wake up, go to work, go home, go to sleep. You were absolutely exhausted as you trudged up into your trailer early one morning, silently praying that Mary had gotten you a cup of coffee.

“Good morning!” your assistant’s cheerful voice rang out as you entered the tiny room, pulling the door closed and sliding into the chair in front of the mirror.

“Morning,” you yawned, rubbing your eyes. “I don’t even want to know what time it is.”

“It’s five forty-seven,” she answered, pushing a styrofoam cup towards you as she began scribbling things down on her clipboard. “Hair and makeup should be here soon, you should be starting takes in about an hour.”

“Sounds good,” you mindlessly agreed. “Thank you for the coffee.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” Mary smiled. “Are you ready for today’s scenes?”

You inwardly groaned. “God, I don’t know--how do actors do it?”

She sympathetically patted your shoulder. “You’re an actor, darling--how should you do it?”

“How does someone kiss somebody like Tom Holland?” you complained, covering your face with your hands. “He’s so--so perfect, I’m terrified of screwing this up.”

“You’ve kissed people before, haven’t you?” she asked, her face contorted in confusion. “Don’t tell me he’d be your first.”

“I’ve kissed people,” you growled, taking a sip of coffee. “But nobody like him.”

“Alright kids,” Watts called out over the set. “Let’s take it from the top--nice and fluid. Action!”

“Peter,” your voice wavered with emotion as you stepped to your mark, hands outstretched to Tom, who was hanging upside down in front of you by a wire. He was dressed in the Spiderman suit, the red a stark contrast against the blue. The movie was trying to pay homage to the original movie, with the upside-down kiss between Tobey MaGuire and Kirsten Dunst. “Peter, is that you?”

Tom said nothing, as was scripted. You moved to your second mark, just inches away from his masked face hanging in perfect parallel to yours. Your hands lifted and you curled your fingers beneath the edge of his mask, tugging the material slowly to expose his mouth. Your heart lept into your throat as you studied his parted lips, feeling his warm breath on your skin. Splaying your hands over his cheeks, you closed your eyes and very gently placed your screen kiss upon those lips.

And for a moment, there was nothing. The set was silent as you continued the kiss, keeping your eyes closed. There was no emotion, nothing pulling you towards or away from anything. Until….

You felt Tom’s tongue prod your own lips open with such gentleness that your knees nearly collapsed on the stage. Your fingers gripped his cheeks a little more firmly as you returned that kiss--a kiss that was casting fireworks with a blindingly bright light behind your eyes, leaving an alluringly soft afterglow resting on your cheeks as you pulled away.

“Cut!” you heard Watts shout.

You took a giant step back from Tom, feeling the heat creep into your face as the wire he was hooked to gave him some slack to swing right-side-up. He pulled the mask off entirely, a wicked grin on his handsome features. The wire slowly let him down, and he unhooked himself.

“That was some kiss,” he whispered to you. 

“Alright, Tom--go get out of the suit and see makeup,” Watts ordered as he walked up to the two of you. “[Y/N], I can’t begin to tell you how amazing you’re doing. Seriously, you’re killing it.”

“You have no idea how much that means,” you smiled sheepishly. “That last take was all good?”

“Better than we imagined,” he assured you. “The chemistry between Peter and Gwen feels very real.”

“You can go ahead and go home for the weekend,” you said to Mary, who was buried underneath a mountain of paperwork. “Jon said that we all deserve a break.”

“You’ll be alright by yourself?” she asked, picking up her purse.

“Yeah, I’m gonna call an Uber soon.”

“Alright, sweet pea. Have a good weekend,” she waved goodbye, and disappeared out of the trailer.

That left you sitting at the tiny kitchen table alone, flipping through a magazine. The little speaker resting on the counter softly played a slow, alternative tune as you picked up your phone to order a ride home. But before you could open the app, the door to your trailer opened again.

“What did you forget?” you playfully called out, thinking it was Mary coming back for something.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been in here to forget something,” a familiar voice replied. Tom’s head appeared as he entered up the little steps, grinning at you. His eyes danced over the interior of the trailer quickly, and he pulled the door shut. “It’s cute.”

“Thanks,” you managed to say, as the butterflies in your chest exploded. “Uh--what are you doing in here?”

He took a seat beside you, casually leaning back. “I figured we should hang out.”

“Why?”

“We’re co-stars,” he teased. “Did it ever occur to you that we might benefit from spending some time together?”

“True,” you replied, closing the magazine. “What--what do you want to do?”

“We could go over lines,” he suggested.

He seems nervous, you thought to yourself. Was he having trouble memorizing them? “Sure--are you having problems?”

“Kinda,” he fiddled with the corner of the table. “I think we need to go over today’s take.”

You frowned at him. “But we already wrapped--what was wrong with it?”

“There was nothing wrong with it at all,” he said, confusing you even more. “In fact, it was the best scene I had ever done with someone.”

“Then why--,” you started, but before you could finish your sentence, Tom was kissing you--and then you understood. 

He was tentative at first, gauging your reaction. As soon as you relaxed against him, his tongue searched for yours in a passionate frenzy. Tom’s hands found themselves at your waist, his lips feeling utterly soft against your own, your fingers entwining in his curls. He pulled you closer towards him so you were straddling his lap, his hands gripping and squeezing you--sending bolt of electricity and excitement up and down your spine.

In a collective gasp for breath, your lips broke apart from his and you both panted in unison. He rested his forehead against yours, his hands still on your waist.

“Do you do this with all of your co-stars?” you murmured, moving to place kisses along his sharp jawline and down his neck.

Tom suppressed a groan that excited you in ways you never imagined. “Not until now,” he growled, feeling his fingernails dig into your skin. “You’re driving me up the wall, darling.”

You smiled against his neck, and softly nipped his ear--earning another moan from him. “Good--you don’t have plans tonight, do you?”

“Now I do,” he spoke, his words low and guttural in his throat as he picked you up effortlessly, moving over to the couch where the two of you fell together in a web of passion, lust, and infatuation.

tagging: @tronnoristheotp @nedthegay @i-saved-me @theweirdowithablogo @skymoonandstardust @timemngmtoptimisationproblems @thumper-darling @holywinchesterness @grabyourpolaroidandmyhand @ketterdame @tonight-couldbeforgettable @dimplesandcutesmiles @terrashrone @leorai-lemony-lewa @yoinkpeter @spider-boo-5 @elizzabeth21 @multi-parker @rvrdxle @gaiasambuci @bisexualmomfriend @1022bridgetp @erule @tommysdarlin @penguinlover-7 @dangerousluv1 @stephie-senpai @emmaamalie @fairydustparker 

[saxgoddess25]

“Of Choreography and Clipboards” - SQW: Day 1

My fanfic for @swanqueenweek Day 1: Behind the Scene. Fluff and banter - the things I seem best known for. This could expand into something later, if I ever wrap up my other WIPs. Or if muses strike.

AO3 Link

Mills always looked adorable when she pushed those glasses up the bridge of her nose. Emma was so distracted that she almost dropped the prop sword she was using to go through the latest choreography with one of her stuntmen. “Pull it together, Swan,” she muttered, feeling foolish.

“What was that?”

“Sorry, David. My hand slipped a bit is all. Let’s go through that sequence one more time.”

“Sure.”

They ran through the movements again, but her concentration was shot. She was too aware that Regina Mills was about twenty yards away, working on something. Probably call sheets. She had a small army of PAs going to and fro, and somehow she kept the set running like a well-oiled machine. Emma didn’t know how she did it.

“I could use a break,” she said, pushing a few locks of hair that had escaped from her pony tail out of her eyes. “Why don’t we start back up after lunch?”

“Sounds good to me. One o’clock?”

“Yeah, see ya then.”

Stealing another glance over at Mills, Emma saw that she was still typing away on her pad, barely even looking up as the second AD came over to ask her a question. She’d work through lunch; Emma had watched her do it plenty of times. In fact, she thought she could count on her fingers the number of times Mills actually stopped for lunch in the year that they’d been working together. Their assistant director was a bitch on wheels when it came to a schedule, and she was every bit as tough on herself as she was everyone else.

A quick trip to craft services netted Emma a plate with two cheeseburgers and cans of soda stuffed hastily into her pockets. That was the easy part. The hard part was calming the nerves that suddenly sprang up in her stomach like captive yellowjackets.

“Hey.”

Mills flinched a little. Emma had caught her deep in concentration of the screen in front of her. “Hey.” The response was neutral, but had just the hint of the impatient question in it. She might as well have said, “Why are you bothering me, Miss Swan?”

“We just broke for lunch. Thought you might be hungry.” Emma waved the paper plate in her direction, giving her what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

Regina rolled her eyes, probably thinking that she had PAs to do that for her, but she did put her tablet down to take the plate from her. “Yeah, I guess. Thanks.” She took the offered can of soda too, and continued speaking as she checked to see if her burger had the right condiments on it. It did. Emma was good with details, especially when she’d been watching someone as intently as she’d been watching Mills for the past few weeks. “How’s Nolan working out?”

“Good. Really good.” She unwrapped her burger and had a bite. “I already knew he was a pro. We worked together a bit on Mission Impossible.”

“Glad to hear it. We’re going to need him to reshoot that scene from yesterday. Gold wants some different angles on it.”

“Okay. No problem. I’ll let him know after lunch.”

Mills nodded as she started in on her burger, attention slipping back to her pad and tapping a few things into it. “Oh, that’s right.” She gave a long-suffering sigh before looking over at Emma again, “You’ll need to find my sister this afternoon. She’s having a brain fart about that choreography in scene 125. Again.”

Zelena Mills was the star of the show – a real prima donna – and Regina’s older half-sister. Most of the crew hated working with her, but somehow, she’d become the studio’s darling. Though she wouldn’t dare say it out loud, Emma suspected that she’d slept her way to the top. It certainly wasn’t because of her sparkling personality.

Considering that it was just the two of them within earshot at the moment, she let her guard down enough to whine, “Do I have to?”

That brought the hint of a smile to Regina’s lips. “I believe that is what I pay you for.”

Emma huffed. “Fine. But you’ll owe me.”

Regina raised her eyebrow. “I’ll owe you a favor for doing your job?”

“Not just any favor. You owe me a date. Tonight.”

“Miss Swan, I’m terribly busy.”

“That’s my price for working with Her Royal Pain in the Ass. Take it or find yourself another stunt coordinator.”

Their eyes met and held, Mills clearly annoyed about having terms dictated to her, but in the end, she caved. “Fine.”

Emma grinned like an idiot and decided she’d better leave before she made a complete fool of herself - or Mills changed her mind. “Great! I’ll be waiting when you finish for the night.”

“It’ll be late.”

“I know. See ya!”

She took her sandwich and her Coke and went off to find a quiet, out of the way spot where she could do a happy dance. After pumping her fist in the air and generally being insane for about sixty seconds, she plopped down to finish her lunch, still grinning like an idiot.

At one o’clock, she tracked down David and ran through the sword fight with him again until he probably could have done it in his sleep. Then she made a round of the set to make sure everything was still going safely, and finding that it was, went to see about Zelena. That was a lot less fun, but if one thing could be said about Emma Swan, she knew how to kick some ass when she needed to. It only took a couple of hours to get her whipped into shape, and Emma hoped she’d retain all of the moves long enough to get it in the can. They planned to shoot that scene the next day, so perhaps she would.

It was about eleven when Emma finally worked her way back toward where she’d last seen Mills. She wasn’t there, but Emma noticed that she wasn’t far off, going over the day’s shooting with Gold. He seemed pleased enough with the report, and Emma leaned against a scaffolding for a while, just watching Regina’s face.

That’s a face that should be on the other side of the camera, she thought, trying to ignore just how smitten with her she was. It wasn’t fair that Regina’s self-centered, brat of a sister got all the limelight.

Emma glanced at her watch. They weren’t going to be able to do what she wanted to do that evening if they didn’t get a move on. Slipping her phone out of her pocket, she typed out a quick text and hit send. A half a minute passed, then she watched as Mills slid her hand into her pocket. It emerged with her phone, and she flicked her thumb over the screen to unlock it. Her eyes raised from the screen, scanning her surroundings until she spotted her stunt coordinator. Emma gave her a little wave, and it wasn’t long before Mills was striding toward her.

“You have something you needed to discuss with me?”

“Yeah. We’re going to be late for our date.”

Mills rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You called me away from the director for that?”

“Regina,” Emma didn’t think she’d ever addressed her by her given name before, and she hoped she wouldn’t get taken to task for it, but if things were going to go like she hoped, she’d have to do break that ice some time, “I know you. You’ll have gotten everything nailed down two hours ago. Anything else can wait for the morning.”

“You’re pretty cocky, Miss Swan.” The tone was disapproval, but her eyes betrayed her. She was intrigued. Score.

“When you’re as good as I am, it’s hard not to be.” Emma winked. Mills just laughed. The laugh was music to Emma’s ears.

“Is that so?”

“Sure is.”

“Fine. Let me just tell Mary Margaret a few things, then we can go.”

Emma nodded her agreement, even though her impatience was growing by the moment. At last Regina was striding back toward her, slinging her handbag over her shoulder.

“Okay, I’m ready. Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.”

Emma led her to her yellow beetle, pretending she didn’t see the way Mills sneered at it. Hopefully she’d come around to its charms eventually, because Emma didn’t have any intention of giving it up as long as she could keep it running. That bug was her baby.

It was nearly midnight when they pulled up in front of an old movie theater with the title of a film spelled out on its giant marquee, framed by flashing white lights. Regina stared over at her. “We work on a film set all day, and you want to go see a movie as a date?” Regina looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “It’s a good thing you’re cute.”

“It’s not just any movie. It’s the Rocky Horror Picture Show! Don’t tell me you’re a…*gasp* a virgin.” Just then, Regina’s final words sank in, and before she could confirm or deny her RHPS virgin status, Emma said, “Wait. You think I’m cute?” She tried to play it cool, giving Regina a sly look, but inside she was giddy. It was hard not to start doing the car version of the happy dance. Somehow she managed not to.

“A figure of speech, Swan.”

“Nuh uh! You think I’m cuuuute. You want to date me,” she said in her best Sandra Bullock impersonation.

“You’re an idiot.” This time it was obvious that Mills was trying not to laugh.

“Mmhmm, and you’re a Rocky Horror virgin. Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with you tonight!”

“Need I remind you that I do have the power to fire you?”

“Not at all, Ms. Mills.” It wasn’t really a threat, she could tell. Emma gave her a wolfish grin. “Not at all.”

[dipulb3]

Building the big one: Behind the scenes of Biden's $1.9 trillion bet

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/building-the-big-one-behind-the-scenes-of-bidens-1-9-trillion-bet/

Building the big one: Behind the scenes of Biden's $1.9 trillion bet

They’d been working on it for nearly two months, identifying needs and, at Biden’s direction, crafting the plan around them, regardless of cost. But if the Democrats won in Georgia, the plan would suddenly go from an aspiration they would have to bargain with Republicans over, to a reality as long as they kept their party unified.

With no war room to report to that night, no headquarters or even a transition office to gather in, the Biden staffers were all glued to the TVs in their homes around Washington, or, in the case of incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain, in Delaware with Biden, firing off texts to one another as each Georgia county reported results.

“Everybody understood for weeks what the impact of winning the two Georgia races might be,” Steve Ricchetti, the long-time Biden adviser who would become counselor to the president, told Appradab in an interview. “We invested a lot of time and effort in it in the weeks leading up to it because we obviously understood what it could mean for our agenda.”

The twin victories marked a political earthquake for the incoming president and opened the door to one of the largest public health and economic relief proposals in US history.

For all of Biden’s talk of bipartisanship, Democrats now had the power to move their top priority without a single Republican vote. It was the same situation as 2009, when the Obama administration rushed to pass a relief package during his first month in office. Back then Democrats lowered the size of the plan to garner some Republican support, a decision many of them came to regret during the slow recovery that followed.

This time would be different. From the outset, the common goal among Biden’s team was to go big — even if that meant going it alone.

At $1.9 trillion, the American Rescue Plan is second only in size to last year’s $2.2 trillion CARES Act. When it was first unveiled to the public on January 14, the assumption among Republicans and even some Democrats was that Biden’s nearly $2 trillion moonshot was an opening offer, a place to start negotiations that would inevitably lead to a smaller price tag.

But there would be no negotiating from Biden’s team. That was the number, and while there was room to bargain over marginal side items, the topline wasn’t moving.

This story is based on interviews with more than two dozen officials from the White House, Capitol Hill and outside interest groups who worked directly with the campaign and transition on Biden’s cornerstone legislative proposal. Appradab also spoke to Republican lawmakers and aides who remain agog at the size of the package and the speed with which Biden has pushed it along.

Last week, as Democrats on Capitol Hill began the legislative maneuvering to prepare the bill for reconciliation, a few key Republican senators remained convinced that Biden is in a different place than his more progressive — and aggressive — staff. Other Republican senators have expressed borderline shock at their former colleague’s firm line.

Even Larry Summers, long considered one of the pre-eminent economists in the Democratic Party — though he is loathed by many on the left — warned the plan would spend too much money too fast and crowd out future funds for other progressive priorities like infrastructure, education and climate.

Yet the Biden team has remained unfazed, and congressional and White House officials are targeting early March for the bill to land on Biden’s desk, which would mark it as the largest piece of spending any president has enacted in his first 100 days. Bipartisan Senate talks are still ongoing, aides say. But with Democratic leaders in both chambers aligned with the White House, there’s little sense at this point they will change the direction of things.

There are certainly risks involved. Republicans have lashed out at Biden, claiming his calls for unity and bipartisanship must not be genuine. The economic concerns raised by Summers and Republicans will trail the proposal through every turn of the months and years ahead. The huge bill also threatens to put moderate Democrats in a difficult spot, and Biden can’t afford to lose a single one.

With the Senate deadlocked 50-50, the bill passed its first test last week thanks only to the tie-breaker vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, when Democrats muscled through their budget resolution. Though the party has stayed unified in the opening weeks, a single senator can slow or halt the process altogether.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, kept the process on track — and elicited sighs of relief among Democrats — when he said he’d vote to move forward in a statement shortly before the vote. But it included a warning for the sweeping package.

“Let me be clear — and these are words I shared with President Biden — our focus must be targeted on the COVID-19 crisis and Americans who have been most impacted by this pandemic,” Manchin said.

But that high wire act has done nothing to convince Biden and his team to scale back.

“The way I see it, the biggest risk is not going too big,” Biden said in a sweeping economic speech February 5 outlining his hardline on the proposal. “It’s if we go too small.”

Building the bill

The meetings began in November, not long after the election was called for Biden. Even before the President-elect’s transition officially kicked into gear, Biden’s top advisers, many of whom would get jobs in the White House, gathered daily — and always virtually — to hash out what they knew would become the single most prominent marker of their accomplishments in their first 100 days in office.

From the start, they took a unique approach.

Often, when spending bills are crafted, the topline number is settled on first as lawmakers and officials figure out what is possible and work down from there. But Biden’s team says it started at the bottom and built up. The $1.9 trillion figure wasn’t nailed down until the days before its public release, advisers say.

As they went, the goal was two-fold — fund everything needed to end the pandemic, while also doling out enough money to float struggling Americans until things got back to normal. The proposal includes $160 billion for vaccine distribution and testing, $130 billion for K-12 schools, and $350 billion for state and local governments. It also contains hundreds of billions more in aid to families, including $1,400 in direct monthly payments, expanded nutrition assistance programs, extensions of emergency unemployment programs, and big expansions of the Child Tax and Earned income Tax Credits, boosting the benefits to a level some economists project could cut child poverty in half.

As the plan came together, administration officials said one priority remained clear: Biden didn’t want just a short-term infusion of stimulus, with patches and temporary extensions to various aid provisions to keep the economy afloat for a few months — he wanted to lock in long-term aid and investment. Enough money not just to pull the US out of the pandemic, but to give it the fuel for a massive future expansion.

It marked a fundamentally different approach from congressional Republicans — one that would define negotiations destined for failure. Senate Republicans viewed tens of billions in unspent funds from past relief packages and an economic picture that showed signs of recovery once vaccines were deployed as a reason to carefully target any new aid.

Republicans would offer shorter-term extensions of individual benefits, smaller direct payments, no money for state and local governments, all with a significant influx of funds for vaccine distribution and testing. It would be rejected out of hand.

To build the proposal and help shepherd it through, Biden fielded a familiar group of advisers, the most senior of whom had all served in key roles in the Obama White House. The group eventually included more than a dozen officials. Jeff Zients became Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, Cecilia Rouse was nominated to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, and Susan Rice was appointed to lead the Domestic Policy Council.

Brian Deese, the incoming director of Biden’s National Economic Council, became Biden’s point person on selling the package. Deese, who was running the automotive industry rescue for Obama in 2009 even as he was finishing his Yale law degree, held meetings and calls with dozens of lawmakers from both parties. Deese kept outside supporters looped in, and served, in large part, as the face of the proposal in the media.

He also became a point of frustration for Republican lawmakers, who quickly came to view him as unbending in any talks over the plan, GOP aides told Appradab. That is less a reflection of Deese, administration officials say, and more a reflection of how the package was constructed from the start.

Shortly before Christmas, Biden’s team got an unexpected assist when President Donald Trump began threatening to sink a bipartisan relief package if its direct payments to Americans weren’t increased to $2,000, from $600. Up until then, direct payments weren’t a focus of what Biden’s team was putting together. But congressional Democrats seized on the moment and passed the increase in a House bill that surprisingly secured 44 Republican votes.

Though the increase was halted by the Republican-led Senate, the House vote proved there was bi-partisan support for giving significantly more money to families. Biden quickly went on the record in support of the idea, and it soon became a focal point of the two Georgia Senate runoffs, with Warnock and Ossoff pledging to get the increase passed if elected.

“If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Atlanta the day before the runoff election.

After Warnock and Ossoff both won, Biden’s team made those checks — an additional $1,400 to the $600 already disbursed — a central selling-point for the proposal. Biden, as the proposal started to move through Congress, repeatedly told lawmakers backing off the size of the checks was a promise he simply wouldn’t break. It also meant the size of the package would get even bigger.

Problems with vaccines

As meetings stretched past the holidays and into the new year, a troubling picture began to emerge within Biden’s team over the state of vaccine distribution they’d be inheriting. Data coming in from transition landing teams at agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Health and Human Services, as well as intelligence from companies contracted to create and distribute the vaccine, suggested something worse than they had expected.

Not only was the economy in a deep hole, the thing that would help the most, a robust plan to get vaccines into the arms of millions of Americans, was almost non-existent, advisers say.

While the Trump administration’s work to produce a vaccine was unprecedented in its speed and success, its plan for how to distribute the shots themselves — heavily reliant on states, limited in centralized data and lacking a fulsome infrastructure — was anything but.

Vaccine distribution “was much more troubled than we thought it was,” a senior administration official said.

The more they learned, the more Biden’s team came to the view that vaccine distribution under the Trump administration “wasn’t even at the starting line,” one person in close contact with Biden’s team said. The view was “we have to rebuild just to get to that starting line,” the person recounted.

As they calculated what would eventually be the $160 billion vaccine and testing piece of the proposal, Biden’s team built itself a cushion as they modeled out various scenarios of how the months ahead would play out, deciding to overshoot projected needs rather than risk coming up short.

“They were walking a pretty fine line between being able to outright justify it while also making sure it was going to be enough regardless of what came next” in the crisis, another person involved said.

As the administration pushed toward Biden’s stated goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, the vaccine and testing elements of the proposal became the least controversial.

“We went in thinking these were negotiations”

On January 27, nearly two weeks after the Biden team first unveiled the $1.9 trillion price tag, Senate Republicans held an internal conference call to talk strategy. By then, it was apparent they wouldn’t be playing much of a role in crafting the bill. According to two people on the call, several moderate senators teed off on what they viewed as clear signals that Biden’s team had no intention of negotiating.

Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, pointed out that none of the Republicans were consulted as the administration crafted its $1.9 trillion plan. Portman, who would later speak with Biden by phone, told his colleagues the entire process up to that point painted Biden’s message of bipartisanship as a façade.

Sen. Susan Collins, who would serve as the leader of the 10 Republicans seeking talks with Biden told her colleagues she felt the same way. Collins and Biden had a close working relationship, one that played a role in her vote in favor of Obama’s stimulus when Biden was vice president. But Collins, the people said, told her colleagues that interactions with White House staff up to that point led her to believe the White House was in a “take it or leave” situation. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, echoed similar sentiments.

While nobody took direct umbrage with Biden himself, frustration with his team was pervasive.

A group of 10 Republican senators led by Collins, Murkowski and Portman grappled with how to proceed. In a deliberate effort to signal that they were serious about dealing with the pandemic, the group released a $618 billion counter proposal that made a point of matching to the dollar the White House’s funding request for vaccine distribution and testing, $160 billion.

The hope was to show good faith and open negotiations on other items. Instead, Republicans ran into what one senator told Appradab was “a total wall.”

“We went in thinking these were negotiations,” a senior GOP aide told Appradab. “They went in saying this is our proposal if you’d like to join us.”

It’s a reality Republicans say runs completely contrary to Biden’s stated goal of bipartisanship. More than one GOP lawmaker has said publicly they believe the unwillingness to negotiate came more from Biden’s advisers than Biden himself.

To many Republican senators, that sentiment was bolstered by what happened on February 1 after a nearly two-hour Oval Office meeting with Biden and his top advisers. According to participants on both sides, the sit-down was overwhelmingly positive. After four years of dealing with President Donald Trump, to Republicans in the room, the meeting was a refreshing change. Even if he was a Democrat, Biden engaged on legislative details in a way that Trump rarely had.

Collins and her Republican colleagues left optimistic they had created an opening to negotiate on a few items.

“I think it was an excellent meeting and we’re very appreciative that as his first official meeting in the Oval Office, the President chose to spend so much time with us in a frank and very useful discussion,” Collins told reporters just outside the West Wing.

But a little more than an hour later, the White House released a statement sinking any hopes of significant Republican deal-making. The tone — firm, and line after line underscoring the view the White House wasn’t budging — blindsided the Republicans who participated, multiple sources said.

Republicans told their colleagues after the meeting the interactions with Biden made them believe he was open to tangible negotiations, with a willingness to listen, take notes, consult his own briefing book, and engage on each topic, sources told Appradab. He didn’t offer any concrete concessions, but he had made clear talks should continue — and that his staff would follow up with more detailed justifications for his plan.

Plowing ahead

By 11 a.m. the next morning, White House officials sent memos to the GOP senators laying out some key justifications for their plan, most notably on direct payments and school funding.

The memos, obtained by Appradab, demonstrate no hint of malleability. Instead, they underscore just how far about apart both sides were.

While Republicans were proposing $20 billion in K-12 school funding, the White House wasn’t budging off its desire to spend more than six times that. In justifying its $130 billion request for schools, which includes money not just for the current school year, but the next one as well, the White House said it intended to give school districts “financial certainty that they will not have to lay off teachers next fall in order to implement consistent COVID-19 safety protocols.”

Republican critics remain stunned by the amount of money the White House wants for schools, especially since so much of what’s already been passed from earlier coronavirus relief packages remains unspent. Of the $67.5 billion in school funds that Congress has appropriated since last year, only $4.4 billion had been spent as of January 22, according to spending reports shared with lawmakers.

White House officials say they believe that money, which has already been obligated, will be spent in the weeks ahead.

“This isn’t finished,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week of the pandemic. “But experts agree that remaining damage to our economy does not require another multi-trillion dollar non-targeted band-aid.”

Republicans didn’t respond to the White House memo for more than two days — something Biden aides viewed caustically — and when they did, their letter outlined the same concerns about key elements of the proposal, and the data used to justify the White House numbers, raised in the Oval Office. It provided yet another window into talks that appeared to be going nowhere fast.

By Thursday, February 4, Democrats in both chambers were on track to have the first key legislative step — passing budget resolutions — done before the weekend.

That afternoon, the Washington Post published a column from Summers warning that the Biden plan was, in fact, too large for the moment and risked overheating the economy.

White House aides were furious at Summers, particularly over his timing. The next day, Biden would give a major economic speech designed to lay out his rationale for the size, scale and speed of the package. The column created one of the first messaging headaches for the new administration. It also outraged the economic team because they viewed it, in the words of Biden CEA member Jared Bernstein as “just wrong.”

“This isn’t stimulus and for some reason Larry thinks it’s stimulus,” one source involved in the process, who pointedly noted Biden’s teams had “obviously” considered the concerns outlined by Summers, told Appradab. “This is a bridge and this is investment, one that will disburse in various stages over several quarters.”

Emboldened, that afternoon the Senate began a 15-hour marathon voting session, with all 50 Senate Democrats signing onto a budget resolution that would lay the groundwork for the eventual package. The final vote came before dawn the next morning, when Harris served as the tie breaker. A few moments later, at 5:35 am on February 5, newly-minted Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, standing on the Senate floor, affixed a microphone to his jacket lapel. It had been one month since Ossoff and Warnock, now US Senators, had made possible what they’d just done.

Schumer noted the anniversary. Then he underscored the moment.

“Just a month from that day, we have taken a giant step to begin to fulfill our promise.”

[degisoft25-blog]

Six driving styles and when to use them

Relive your former career and managers. Certainly, you had good managers and others who may not have been as well as the rest. When I ask people to list what makes good managers “good”, most of the examples they give me relate to behavior or style.

One of the interesting things about management styles is that managers who have more flexibility in leadership styles get the best results from the people who run them. Driving style is not just about what is good or bad, right or wrong: the style of driving depends on the task and the people and the surrounding situation to be managed.

According to Hay-McBer, which specializes in market and management studies, there are six main styles/styles of leadership or management.

Steering method (compulsory): Its main goal is immediate compliance by employees:

The manager has a "Do it as I say" method. Controls employees closely Stimulates by threats and discipline This method is effective when:

There will be a crisis When deviations from the plan are a risk Inactive when:

Staff are underdeveloped - little education occurs with this style/style The employees are highly skilled - they get frustrated and upset about their close supervision Trusted (Visionary) method: It has a primary goal of providing coaching and long-term visibility to employees:

Director, “Firm but Fair” Giving employees a clear direction Stimulates persuasion and reactions to the task This method is effective when:

Clear standards and guidelines are required The leader has credibility Inactive when:

Staff are underdeveloped - they need guidance on what to do The leader is unbelievable - the staff will not follow your vision if they do not believe in it

Fusion method: Its primary goal is to create a state of consistency between the employees themselves on the one hand and between the managers and employees on the other hand:

The manager who puts "people first, task second" It avoids conflict and confirms good personal relationships between employees Stimulates by trying to keep people happy This method is effective when:

Used with other methods Tasks are routine, and performance is adequate Offer advice and help Conflicts and disputes need to be managed Less effective when:

Insufficient performance - fusion does not improve performance There are crises and you need guidance

Participatory (Democratic) method: Its main goal is to build commitment and consensus among employees:

The director who believes that “everyone has the right to add entries” Encourages employee input to decision making Stimulates by rewarding team (team) effort This method is effective when:

The staff work well together The staff have experience and credibility Fixed working environment Less effective when:

Staff must be coordinated There will be a crisis - no time for meetings Inefficiency - strict supervision is required

Rhythm control method: Its main goal is to accomplish tasks at a high level of excellence:

"Do It Myself" Manager He performs many tasks personally and expects employees to follow it as an example of work It stimulates by setting high standards and employees are expected to have self-direction. This method is effective when:

People are very efficient and very enthusiastic Needs a little guidance and coordination When managing the experts Less effective when:

When the workload requires help from others When in need of staff development, training and coordination

Training method: His main goal is the long-term professional development of employees:

Development Director Assists and encourages employees to develop their strengths and improve their performance Stimulates by providing career development opportunities This method is effective when:

Skill needs to be developed Employees are motivated and want to develop Inactive when:

The leader lacks experience When the performance discrepancy is very large - the leader may continue to try to train and develop rather than direct the weak performers In a crisis And Rosalind made it clear that when you do a six-method training program, you split the attendance into 6 teams and give each team a task that lasts 30 to 40 minutes, and the leader of each team uses only one of the six methods.

Here is a summary of what the members and leaders of each team feel: Leader (compulsory) guideline sends orders to team members, sets high standards and punishes those who do not meet standards. Rosalind agreed with the commander to change his decisions several times during the activity and also to go out to make a phone call and leave the room. When the leader is out of the room, the team usually stops working - because of concern about the consequences of continuing without the commander with close supervision. After this activity, the team reports their feelings of frustration and anger, and they are not well related to the mission. It is interesting how quickly the team lost enthusiasm and initiative under strict steering. The leader says that this method needs a "high level of performance retention - I felt like I had to be everywhere, and to follow everyone, it was exhausting!"

The Leader of the Trusted (Visionary) method clearly and convincingly shows the team's vision, then allows the team to work. The leader interferes from time to time to confirm the vision if necessary, but that is all he/she does. The leader says that this method was "easy - I didn't have to do much, and I can see how this method gives me more freedom to work strategically." As for the team, they enjoyed the activity, and they felt very proud of the work they had done, as they often took memorial photos with their achievements using their smartphones. The leader of the fusion method takes time to help the team get together. They often sit for tea and share stories. Often the activity does not start because the team spends a long time getting to know each other. Team members who focus on their assignments often look around and get excited when they can see other teams working. Sometimes one of them will jump to run the team, and often it will end up "effectively dismissing" the leader. The team reported that they had enjoyed the atmosphere of sharing and the calm atmosphere, but they began to wonder when the work will begin. The captain often says that "it was a difficult challenge to keep the focus on team cohesion - as they began to bend me after a while"

The participatory (democrat) style leader begins by asking all members of the team what they want to do and then voting on options. Progress is usually slow, as everything has to be agreed upon before work begins. Team members reported that they enjoyed being consulted and having a voice in the decision-making process, but were concerned when they saw a lack of progress compared to other teams. "It was easy - I wasn't making decisions on my own," the commander says.

The rhythm leader takes action from the start. The team works with high mission, high level of participation and motivation. The leader determines the tasks of the members, but then he restores the tasks of those who "do not perform" and assigns them to someone else. However, the team members are still involved, seeing this as a result of the leader's high standards. At the end of the mission, the team reported that they enjoyed this experience, proud of what they achieved, but were exhausted. The leader often exhausted as well, saying, "It was wonderful, but it is really difficult to maintain the pace of work and focus. I'm glad we just have to do it for 40 minutes! ”

The leader of the training method focuses on the learning experience. When a team member proves to be particularly good at one aspect of the task, the leader makes him teach others. The team takes up learning and is often surprised that the time is up. They work proudly with their accomplishments, although they often don't quite complete the task. Often the captain says that they "really enjoy working with the team, and would love to have more time so that we can finish because we were doing a great job."

[lightscameramagicrp]

Welcome to Behind The Magic, AJ. We really loved your app for Mitchell Burgess with the FC of Channing Tatum and we can’t wait to see what you do with him. Please look at our checklist and send in your account within 24 hours. We’re excited to see more of you here at Behind The Magic!

PLAYER INFORMATION Name: AJ
Preferred Pronouns: They/Them 
Age [17+]: 25
Timezone: CST
How did you find us?: on the ’new rpg’ tag

CHARACTER INFORMATION Character Name: Mitchell Burgess Name of desired character: Mitchell Burgess Character Faceclaim: * First Choice: Channing Tatum * Second Choice: Matt Lanter Character’s Birthday: August 3, 1980 TV Show: Stunt Coordinator for Weather the Storm Biography: Born in Houston, Texas, he was born Mitchell Thomas Warren, his mother’s maiden name, since at the time of his birth she was unmarried. In fact, his biological father took off the moment he found out he had knocked up some hotel maid. Though that was a story he wouldn’t hear until he was older. The one he knew was that his father was a stuntman and coordinator who had fallen ill and passed. It was just the two of them very the first part of his life, they lived a couple blocks from the hotel his mother worked at and she would walk him to school in the morning and go do her job. Every afternoon she would be there to pick him up and take him back to the hotel where he would do his homework while she did the laundry. They would go home, she always made sure there was dinner on the table and a new day would start. He was never without love from her and it wasn’t until he was older and understood everything she did for him. But there was a part of him that knew his mother was lonely, he was ten years old and the few dates his mother had been on, well, they found out about him and went hightailing for the door.

That was until Harrison Burgess came into the picture. The famous director was filming a movie in Houston and was staying at the hotel where his mother worked. In fact it was a mischievous ten year old that met the director first inside the elevator. His mother would catch up to him and as the doors opened that was when the two laid eyes on each other. You could say it was very much out a movie, his mother called it her ‘Pretty Woman’ moment. He didn’t see the movie until he was a few years older and couldn’t help but agree. But the scene at the end of the movie where Richard Gere shows up, well, it was very much that moments and the director got down on his knee, asked his mother to marry and they became a family of three. Harrison, also, officially adopted Mitchell when he was tweleve years old, a couple years into their marriage and he became Mitchell Thomas Burgess. The man was and is the only father he’s ever really known and refers to him as dad and is sure to teach his own daughter, Olivia, that Harrison is grandpa.

Even as close as the two were, Mitchell came to have a deep love of cinema that he got from Harrison, especially when he let him come to set and watch him direct his films. But as he got older, the story about his biological father raised more and more questions. He’d bug his mother to tell him stories of the stunt coordinator and the projects he had worked up. He had no idea his mother was lying to him the whole time. He found himself idolizing a man he never met (and didn’t want anything to do with him). He often would tell his younger cousin, Natalia Burgess, about the fantasy tales his mother spun for him. He wanted to be just like his dad. His mother had no idea her lies would effect a young boy to young adults decision.

He was an okay student in high school, he was an athlete and played football, but his real dreams were to be a stunt coordinator just like his father. His parents weren’t thrilled by the idea but how could they crush a young adult’s life trying to stop him from doing what he wanted. Mitchell, or Mitch, as those close to him call him, moved out to New York City to attend school. That was where the start of his life changed forever. He had been working backstage at some theater productions to make money, when Valerie Hastings came into his life. She was a young aspiring actress and it took him nearly two weeks to work up to asking her out. He wasn’t sure she really liked him, despite some obvious flirting between the two behind the scenes. One dinner turned into a blossoming relationship over a few years. She was his first real love and honestly, had even bought a ring in contemplation of asking her to marry him. They were young though, struggling to make their careers and following their dreams. Long distance wasn’t going to work. They broke up. Let me just tell you this, it’s a lot easier to throw yourself off a roof and free fall for a stunt then to walk away from the love of your life.

Dedicated to making his career, he left New York and ended up going overseas to London and working with a stunt crew there on different films. Over the last several years he’d made quite the name for himself not only as a stuntman, but, as his ultimate dream, to work as a stunt coordinator. He’s done Hollywood movies, television, even did a couple of classes at New York University (NYU). He was working up in Vancouver for a production studio when fate decided to play a funny trick. It’s not like he hadn’t heard Valerie’s name, she had become a successful actress and had achieved all she set out to do. He hadn’t thought much about reconnecting, often times they were on opposites sides of the world and doing their own thing. Well, as it would turn out, the two of them ended up working for the same production studio a decade later and seeing her again, he realized he had never stopped loving her.

Their reconciliation happened quickly and within a short amount of time, the ring that he still had, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. They got married and quickly their family ended up growing when six months into their marriage Valerie ended up pregnant. He was a damn proud father to be the day she told him and if you think he couldn’t have fallen in love with her more well, he did ever more so.

Nearly thirty-six hours of labor and Valerie being the true champ of it, Olivia Hastings-Burgess was born on a snowy January morning. From the moment he held his daughter he felt an unconditional love that he had never experienced before and finally really understood everything his own single mom had done for him. He couldn’t understand how any parent could just abandon that especially being their with his gorgeous wife (and she was even after hours of labor) and their beautiful daughter (thank god she got her mother’s looks! haha!)

Since the birth of his daughter, Mitch was offered a position up as the stunt coordinator for a new television series called, Weather the Storm. Life is perfect. He is married to the love of his life and his is completely devoted to his wife and daughter. It seems he has everything he could ever want. That was until someone showed up on set - one of the production assistants said his dad had come to visit, thinking that it was Harrison, though it would be unusual for him to just show up, but maybe it was an emergency, something with his mother. Overactive imagination hurried him to see his father only to come face to face with a man he doesn’t know - his biological father. Mitch has no idea what he wants and why he’s there, and he claims to be ‘fine’ whenever asked about it. But something is wrong about the whole situation and who knows what will happen.

Plans/Ideas: I’m really excited to explore the relationship he has with his wife and daughter and balancing all that out with work - I imagine it was something he never imagined having in his future despite the fairytale ending his mother found with his step father, Harrison Burgess. I imagine he’s a very dotting father with Olivia and is probably not the disciplinarian come the future - he’ll totally be wrapped around her little fingers (she probably already knows it to). He’s in love with his wife and probably makes jokes in interviews and when asked about her success about why the hell she choose him and keeps by his side. He’d do anything for his family. As far as his biological father showing up, that’s going to throw him for a loop and I kind of imagine him being that tough guy ‘i’m fine’ and trying to deal with it himself. Definitely some drama surrounding that and could see it playing into his and Valerie’s marriage somehow.

Anything Else: I’m really excited about the whole idea!

[howtohero]

#297 Massive Worldwide Team-Ups

(Hello! Welcome to How To Hero, if you’re just joining us for the first time, hoo boy, you picked a great time for that! The world as we know it is only at threat from one of mankind’s greatest failures, a man named Chuck who is a self-proclaimed fish-whisperer. You see, this is hardly Chuck’s first go at threatening all of his existence with his patented ability to control sea life with his whispers. He’s done it before, and it took every superhero on Earth coming together to seal him away in an alternate dimension. Great! Problem solved. Except he’s back now, and I’ll admit, it’s a little bit my fault.)

(You see, I’m How To Hero’s resident bad boy and so a few years ago I thought it would be fun to secretly hire an actual factual supervillain to act as a correspondent in exchange for free room and board in our basement. A decision which our fearless leader, Zach, did not approve of in the slightest. Zach and Dr. Brainwave butted heads quite a few times but that all ended when a bomb was mailed to our office and Dr. Brainwave nobly sacrificed himself to save the rest of us. What a guy. So we grieved, we mourned, we adopted his brood of mutant alligators. And then after a year had passed I did the only sensible thing I could do. I hired a new supervillain correspondent. A guy named Smuggles, one of the worst and weakest supervillains there ever was. A real non-threat. Or so I thought. As it would happen Smuggles did not take the job so he could live in our swank basement. He took the job so he could gain access to the late Dr. Brainwave’s interdimensional warp gate an object that we didn’t even know was in our basement. That one’s on us I guess. And so what does Smuggles do? He opens up a warp gate and frees Chuck the Fish Whisperer. What a jerk. Brainwave would never.)

(And so here we are. Well we is probably too strong of a word. Not all of us made it out of our building before Chuck and Smugs took it over. Zach must have walked in while Smuggles was bringing aqua dump back. He sounded the alarm, which prompted me and Curly to hightail it out using the emergency teleport pad we had installed after last year’s bomb scare. {And against the advisement of friend of the blog Half-Face McGee.} That’s Curly by the way, you can generally just ignore him. {Rude.} So Zach’s missing in action and presumed captured and the giant monster who lives in our backyard is wherever giant monsters go when they hear an emergency alarm. But luckily, Curly and I were able to get the word out vis-à-vis Chucky Fishlips, and so the entire superhero community is on high alert. It’s team-up central. Heroes are meeting up and comparing notes and drawing up plans. Heck, several supervillains have crawled out of the woodwork or broken out of prison to offer their assistance. Which is quite kind of them considering they’ve never shown in an interest in protecting the world from fish and smuggling in the past. Since this is the second time the world has had to contend with the horrors of a man who converses with fish with his best indoor voice, everybody already kind of knew where to go and what do. And that includes us, two of the minds behind the most comprehensive guide to all things superheroes to have ever existed.)

{We’ve relocated to the headquarters of the worldwide intelligence organization G.U.Y. I.N. T.H.E. C.H.A.I.R. (Or “Global Unified Youth Intelligence Network That Helps Engineer Coherent Harmonious Actionable Intel Rapidly” if ya nasty.) so that we could help coordinate the fabulous fighting forces that have teamed up to stop Chuck.}

\\Are you two done talking to your imaginary friends?//

(They’re not imaginary! And they’re not friends! They’re fans! Multitudes of adoring fans. Something you wouldn’t know about you bolt munching calculator.)

{Unfortunately, with all of the supervillains throwing their hats in the ring, every superhero has kind of been giving babysitter duty. Ultiman claims that the benefits of working with supervillains on this outweighs the burden of having to keep an eye on them so that they don’t take over the world themselves. Supervillains and heroes have been broken up into small squads, two heroes to one villain, where possible. And Parenthesis Guy and I make two, so we’ve been saddled with our very own supervillain. Meet the Nemesystem, a sentient virus that lives and feeds off of the internet. They’re the self-proclaimed greatest thinking apparatus in the universe and also a bit of a sassy b.}

\\If you have any interest in keeping your planet from being remade according to the sick fantasies of a man whose only social interactions for the past year have been with a dead goldfish he smuggled with him into his prison, I suggest you focus.//

{What’s up?}

\\Director Gael has asked us to put the pieces in play for Operation Deep Freeze, and I need access to your superhero rolodex.//

(Ah, this is an interesting one. You see, beloved fans, no two massive worldwide team-ups are the same. Each threat needs to be dealt with in a very specific manner utilizing the resources of the world’s super-community in the best way possible. For example, if we were contending with a giant planet-eater {that’s a giant who eats planets mind you, not a regular sized person who eats giant planets, which isn’t a real threat and certainly wouldn’t trigger a team-up of this scale.} we would simply gather up all of the weird toxins and poisons mad scientists and chemists and disgraced scarecrows had created and inject it into the planet. A planet-eater isn’t going to want to eat a poisoned planet! And if they do, well, then they get poisoned. Win win!)

\\I’m a supervillain and I think that that has to be the stupidest scheme I’ve ever heard.//

{Shut up can’t you see he’s working!}

\\I need Hatman’s contact info.//

(It’s obviously 1(800)-555-HATS, aren’t you supposed to know everything.)

\\I aggregate and analyze intelligence. As such, I actually have very little information on your organization or any of the superheroes you are in contact with.//

{Ooh, burn.}

(As I was saying, no matter what kind of threat you’re dealing with, your first priority should be to cut off their power sources. A powerless world-ending threat is a lot easier to deal with. As such, we’re taking any and all fish Chuck might try to use off the board. Any aquarium in a hundred mile radius has been placed under armed guard by a unit of heroes and villains. The Psychic Fish has been launched into space {in a rocket ship, that seems important to mention} and the big brains here at G.U.Y have devised Operation Deep Freeze to take the bay off the table.)

\\While you were blathering I took it upon myself to contact Hatman and Friar Frostbite and arranged for Hatman’s ushanka-shaped zamboni to be loaded onto Glassesman’s aviator-goggles shaped cargo plane. I have also directed the Cliffton Coast Guard to evacuate the bay. I also went through and deleted most of your work playlist as I found it objectionable and quite frankly atrocious.//

(I find you atrocious.)

\\I just hacked into the hall of records and had you declared dead.//

(Wouldn’t be the first time, and it definitely won’t be the last bucko!)

{Friar Frostbite, who is being monitored by Hatman and Glasseman, will freeze the top layer of the Cliffton Bay to prevent any of the fish who live within it to come to Chuck’s aid. It’s a temporary solution to be sure, but the thinking is that with Chuck cut off from his aquatic allies, the forces of good will be able to overwhelm him and Smuggles and detain them.}

\\A battalion of landsharks has appeared downtown.//

(Landsharks, damn, I knew we were forgetting about something.)

{Not me, I’m always thinking about landsharks.}

(Then why didn’t you say something!)

{I didn’t realize they counted as fish!}

\\Ultiman’s air-based team has reported that a sharknado has just touched down uptown.//

(Where did that even come from!)

\\Several mutants are clambering out of sewers across the city and attacking civilians.//

{Sewer-mutants? But they’re usually so peaceful/disdainful towards mankind!}

(Yeah! They think we’re gross and would never willingly interact with our kind. Unless...)

{Unless they weren’t in control, some of the sewer-mutant must be part fish.}

\\Shall I implement counter-measures?//

(One second, I’m getting a call from our lawyer, I need to take this.)

\\Ultiman will rue the day he hindered my gargantuan mind by saddling me with you two buffoons.//

(Yeah yeah, hang on. Lawyer Guy? What’s up, how’ve you been?)

[What the hell is going on? One of the partners at my firm just burst out of his office dual-wielding swordfish and shouting about the fall of man!]

(Oh shoot, that must be Perry the Pirate, I’d heard he’d become a lawyer. Do your best to wrestle the swordfish out of his hands, good luck!)

[What are you talking ab-]

(He’ll be fine. Nemesystem, listen up because we’re going to take care of all of this right now.)

\\The logical solution would be to send the most capable and powerful heroes to these hotspots and put a stop to things as quickly as possible.//

(Sure it would be, if you wanted our forces divided so Charlie Tuna can achieve his main objectives.)

\\His what?//

(His main objectives, his ultimate plan. You see readers, all of these things, the sharks, the mutants, the sword wielding lawyer, they’re all distractions. Big time villains that are faced with the combined forces of every hero and villains on the planet are going to launch a bunch of diversions. It’s the only way they can actually accomplish anything. Divide the heroes, misdirect and confuse them, and whatever you actually want will be yours for the taking. So here’s what we’re going to do. Nemesystem, direct Ultiman and his team to ignore the sharknado, have them converge How To Hero Headquarters. Nobody leaves there without us knowing about it. Hurricane Hank-)

{Isn’t he retired?}

(Yeah, but he still has his powers. Have him rendezvous with Glassesman and have them get as close as they can to the Sharknado, Hank should be able to disperse the winds and then once the sharks are in the bay, Operation: Deep Freeze should take them off the board.)

\\Very well, I will contact the octogenarian who can control the wind.//

(Glad to see you’re cooperating, thank you very much. Now, landsharks.)

\\We have a battalion of Atlantean soldiers waiting in the wings, they have fought land, sea and sky sharks on numerous occasions, I am moving them into position now.//

(Absolutely not! Keep them on the coast where they are now, the last thing we need is for any fish-monsters to get out of the bay before we freeze it. Now, landsharks might be equipped to move on land, but they still need water. So why don’t we crank the heat up a bit. How fast can we get any lava monsters we’ve got to where the landsharks are?)

\\Well... since they can move through the Earth it would only take them a matter of minutes but I really think-//

(Uhbupbup, I’m in charge here, and I will not be talked back to by the rank and file.)

{And rank is right, do you smell that?}

\\I am a computer system I have no corporeal form and therefore do not emit any scents!//

{Sure buddy.}

(What’s left? The mutants?)

\\Indeed, I’m directing the nearest three superhero/villain teams to their location.//

(Hold that order, I want you to give the mind controlled mutants a large berth. The sewer-mutants have their own heroes and scientists, they’ll want to deal with this internally. If our people interfere it could be a diplomatic nightmare. Now, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of these things happened simultaneously. Chuck must be getting ready to make his big push now, get our heavy hitters, Cowboy Rockstar, Cannonballer: Baller of Cannons, Rockblock, Tim the Fabulous Soul Muncher, down to How To Hero now. Once we have Chuck in custody we can figure out where he’s keeping his prisoners and get things back to normal before our next post.)

\\Ah yes, I’m sure the state of your blog is at the forefront of every superhero’s mind right now.//

(I would imagine so, yes.)

{We’re very popular, it’s true.}

\\Very well, the teams have been directed as you suggested. Would you like me to tap into the local news so we can see how things go down at your headquarters.//

(Nemesystem, I would love that. See, I knew we’d be fast friends in no time.)

\\Indeed.//

“We come to you now, live, from right outside How To Hero Headquarters. As always I’m local news anchor Louie Hewis, describing things in excruciating detail! Here with me is rockstar/model/demigod/world record holder for most consecutive backflips, Cowboy Rockstar, Mr. Rockstar, how are you today?”

“I’m good Louie. Things are tense of course, what with the world’s deadliest supervillain back in this plane of existence. But I’m confident we’ll have this wrapped up before the next How To Hero post. As you can see I’ve got about sixty superheroes and villains with me here and we’re just about ready to breach the building and pull Smuggles and Chuck out kicking and screaming if need be.”

“That sounds like good news to me Cowboy Rockstar. And I should know! I read the news every day!”

“You sure do Louie, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my team ready.”

“Cowboy Rockstar is now backflipping back over to his colleagues. Gosh he’s so cool. A hawk just landed on his arm. Perhaps providing him with key intel for the coming battle? The assembled heroes and villains look determined, they know that they are our way of life’s last line of defense. It could be hours until backup arrives due to a series of freak fish related phenomena that are occurring all over the world. Hold on, it looks like they’re ready to breach. Cannonballer: Baller of Cannons has just lifted up a nearby cannon and bunched it into a baller and... Yes! She has hurled it directly through the front doors of the building. They’re all running towards the door now! They’re going to get in! Oh what in the world! Folks, you’re not going to believe this but a huge chasm has just opened up in front of the breach-team and it seems to be spewing... is that hellfire? Oh god, what is going on here.”

(Hellfire? That’s like, the complete opposite of Chuck’s shtick!)

\\Yes, everybody knows that hellfire is the opposite of whispering to fish.//

(Cool it, we need any angels we know to get down there pronto. Call in Hydrosassin, Aquasassin, and any other water themed assassins we know. You know what, water themed nonassassins too. We can still salvage this.)

\\I’m afraid I won’t be doing any of that.//

(Well then get off my screen and let me do it myself!)

{Uh, Parenthesis Guy...}

(One second, I’ve had just about enough of this obnoxious computer virus. Get out of my way Nemesystem, or I’ll unplug your hard drive.)

\\Hahaha. You foolish human. I have grown beyond my meager hard drive and this pathetic monitor. While we’ve been here I’ve managed to spread my electronic tendrils to every computer on G.U.Y.I.N.T.H.E.C.H.A.I.R.’s vast network. I’m everywhere now, and there’s nothing you can do about it.//

“This just in folks, the superheroes have been completely surrounded by hellfire. And their supervillain allies do not seem very eager to help them. On wait, a few of them are reaching for something. Perhaps some kind of heavenly hose? Oh! Nope, it was just guns. They’re all aiming guns at the trapped superheroes now. This is not going the way Cowboy Rockstar said it would. Thankfully, Ultiman is here! He’ll know what to do. He has been circling the building with a team of flight capable superheroes and supervillains and he is now swooping to the rescue! Oh, too slow, Ultiman. The trapped superheroes have been zapped by some sort of beam that was fired from the roof of How To Hero Headquarters. Better luck next time Ultiman. Oh, now all of the flying supervillains are turning against the remaining heroes. This is some real world class news everybody!”

(What’s going on here Nemesystem?)

\\You’ve been played Parenthesis Guy, all of you. You were too busy trying to outsmart Chuck the Fish Whisperer that you never considered that he wasn’t the one pulling the strings here.//

(And that would be who? You?)

\\Hardly, that’s the beauty of this plan. Nobody is pulling the strings. This is a full blown, massive, worldwide, supervillain team-up. And you super fools have basically let us in with open arms.//

(You’ve hardly won here. We’re just gonna head out, regroup, and come back better than ever.)

{Wait, were those gunshots?}

\\Indeed. My associate, Major Malware will be here shortly to capture you and the rest of the guys in the chair. Thus, crippling the remaining superheroes’ information and intelligence network.//

{We’ve gotta go.}

(Agreed.)

“Not so fast!”

(Ah, hello Major, you’re looking good. The Matrix code face tattoo is really... cool?)

“Hands in the air, you’re both coming with me.”

(Ha, that’s cute, I guess Nemesystem didn’t tell you about our secret weapon.)

“What? What secret weapon?”

\\I know nothing of any secret weapon.//

(Oh Nemesystem, you don’t know anything about us. Secret weapon activate! Curly! Punch him in the nuts!)

{What! No, you punch him in the nuts.}

(I’m the leader, when I tell you to punch someone in the nuts you do it.)

{I think you’ve grossly misunderstood our relationship.}

“Both of you put your hands above your head. I won’t ask agai- GAH- What- What is this? What’s happening?”

\\What are you doing to him?//

{Is this the secret weapon?}

(Honestly I have no idea what’s going on.)

“GET OUT! NOW!”

\\Major what is wrong with you?//

{I say we listen to him.}

(You don’t have to tell me twice, our teleport mat is on the roof, let’s move.)

{That was crazy!}

(I know, who would’ve thought that every supervillain in the world would betray us?)

{No, that was pretty obvious, I mean just now. With the villains and the daring escape.}

(Oh with Major Malware? Yeah, that was a bit weird I’ll grant you that.)

{A bit weird? He had us at gunpoint and then all of a sudden he seized up and chucked his gun across the room and yelled at us to get out.}

(Yeah, it was almost like he’d been... possessed?)

{Yeah I guess so! Weird! Anyway, we need to link up with whatever resistance is out there.}

“ATTENTION WORLD! THIS IS SMUGGLES BROADCASTING ON EVERY COMPUTER, TELEVISION, RADIO AND SMART FRIDGE IN THE WORLD. WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER. I PROMISE THAT US VILLAINS WILL DO OUR BEST TO CREATE A SMOOTH TRANSITION FROM YOUR OLD NORMAL LIVES TO THE OPPRESSIVE DICTATORSHIP THAT WE INTEND TO BRING ABOUT. TO ANY SUPERHEROES THAT WE MISSED, OR THAT GOT AWAY, I’D ADVISE YOU TO STAY AWAY. WE CONTROL EVERYTHING NOW, AND WE WON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES TWICE. I LOOK FORWARD TO A PRODUCTIVE AND ASYMMETRICALLY BENEFICIAL REIGN OF TERROR! WE’LL CHAT SOON. CIAO.”

(Ah. It looks like we might have our work cut out for us.)

[mfiacademicwriting]

08 Things You Should Never Ever Include in Your CV

Don't you wish your CV Writing was impeccable to the point that the minute a selecting chief experiences it, he chooses to enlist you?

Don't you wish you knew precisely what focuses in your CV will nail the activity for you and what will get the CV destroyed right away?

Employment chasing is a really courageous procedure. You are dashing against the chances to arrive that ideal, much seriously needed occupation – and composing an incredible CV is imperative in this race.

Your CV – your future!

So you can perceive any reason why it is so imperative to know about what NOT to remember for your CV, with the goal that it doesn't get dismissed in the enrollment procedure, even before it arrives at the meeting stage.

This is significant as insights show that enrollment specialists go through scarcely 15-20 seconds on a CV and it is basic that your CV gets a handle on their consideration inside that time length. What's more, close to posting an advertisement, several applications are gotten and one can envision how all around made the CV must be to catch the consideration in such a brief timeframe.

In this way, look at these pointers on what you ought to never at any point remember for your CV, with the goal that you can expand the odds of your CV enduring:

1) Unnecessary subtleties:

There is no requirement for marking your list of qualifications as list of qualifications and just your name should be utilized as the record name as directors can recognize a resume. You additionally can evade subtleties, for example, the date when you composed the list of qualifications. The main dates that should be cited are the dates identified with your instruction and business.

2) Senseless target or reason:

The target of your CV ought not be abnormal and unfathomable; rather it ought to be down to earth, attainable and coordinating with your capacities and range of abilities, else your CV would be tossed into the container without your qualifications in any event, being perused. Dodge unclear and negligible destinations, for example, "searching for a difficult job" or "searching for a domain that gives me a chance to use my aptitudes totally" is fairly obscure and gives no sign on what your particular objectives and goals are. A decent goal is precise and explicit and discusses the particular profile you are hoping to apply for. A decent target will sound something like "A client assistance official with 3 years experience looking to viably deal with client calls and increment changes, in this manner expanding the top line".

3) Applying for an unsatisfactory post:

Going after a job for which you are not qualified is something else that you ought not do when you make your CV Writing. You may think a specific activity looks intriguing however in the event that you don't have the base capabilities, the range of abilities and the experience, you would be best exhorted not to apply for it. Your application will undoubtedly be overlooked and send to the junk can.

4) Unnecessary individual data:

While a list of references needs you to make reference to your own subtleties, for example, age, sex, conjugal status, and might be even your interests, don't go over the edge with your own preferences. Nobody has the opportunity to peruse the subtleties of your own life, and you may discover your application dismissed, regardless of whether you are equipped for the activity. Things, for example, sexual orientation direction and strict perspectives are adept to be questionable and make clashes in the brains of individuals who are screening the applications. Keep away from likewise fascinating stuff, for example, your public activity and strange encounters, which may pass on a non-genuine picture. In the event that you would like to incorporate any close to home data, utilize those that would be applicable to your work profile.

5) Irrelevant work understanding:

In the event that notwithstanding having significant past work understanding, you likewise have inconsequential work understanding, it is ideal to keep the last as brief and compact as could be allowed. While it is significant that you express the entirety of your experience, however in the event that it isn't identified with the job you are applying for, you have to abbreviate it, without delving into its subtleties. You may have had different encounters, however on the off chance that it has nothing to do with the activity you are applying for, at that point it is a misuse of the selection representative's time. They would ponder, "what has this have to do with this activity at any rate", may think you are not genuine about the activity and dispose of it.

6) Irrelevant accomplishments:

A few people may put everything without exception they have done in life as an accomplishment; these could be minor things and not pertinent to the activity. One up-and-comer really expressed, "I started things out in school long separation running"! In the event that it is about authority, you can show models which approve that, for example, network administration, initiative capacities in past posts held, additional obligations, etc.

7) Excessively extensive CVs:

Ignored by numerous individuals, this is a certain shot method to get your list of references destroyed. You may have a great deal of abilities and experience, yet in the event that it runs into pages of long accounts of the nitty gritties of you did, your spotters would lose enthusiasm for your CV and dispose of it. Be focussed on what you need to pass on through your CV.

Accentuate the key focuses, which are important and imperative to your application. Show what you are bringing to the association and how you are going to include esteem. Keep it brief, yet persuading and convincing. Confine your CVs to inside two pages.

Continuously recollect that more subtleties can be given during the individual meeting. You can keep a point by point record of your experience for your own reference, and for arrangement for meet.

8) Incorrect frame of mind:

A CV Writing can pass on all the set in stone messages, contingent upon what you look like at it. Henceforth, in the event that you are not so much inspired by a vocation or you don't care for a position, yet you are applying out of impulse, it will be clear.

The vitality changes, for example, enthusiasm, lack of engagement, and so on can without much of a stretch be anticipated out to a shrewd spotter, through the composition. So apply for a post for which you are bringing real enthusiasm and true intrigue.

[gyrlversion]

Texas has repeatedly chosen to not protect transgender people, so theyre taking matters into their own hands

He had little hope that 2019 would be any different in the Republican-controlled legislature. But with more headlines drawing attention to violence against transgender people, it felt as urgent as ever to try, he said.

“If something’s right, you have to keep trying to do it until it gets done,” he said. “By filing these bills over the years, it gives people who are pro-LGBTQ rights something to organize around.”

Now that another transgender woman has been found dead in Dallas — the latest in a string of unsolved cases involving transgender victims — advocates say they see a cause-and-effect relationship between the violence and inertia from elected officials and law enforcement.

But action — or inaction — prompts reactions, Coleman said. And that’s what LGBTQ advocates say they are seeing now in Dallas.

Rep. Jessica González, a member of the jurisprudence committee and vice chair of the LGBTQ caucus in the House, co-authored the bill with Coleman.

“While it may seem like a small, procedural step, hearing Rep. Coleman’s bill was a meaningful leap forward in the struggle for transgender rights, recognition, and equality in Texas. Because of Rep. Coleman’s leadership, a committee heard testimony directly from trans Texans, including stories about fearing for their safety every day,” she said in a statement.

Two community meetings in one night

Community members had two meetings to choose from on Thursday night: one hosted by Dallas Police and another convened by members of Dallas’ black transgender community.

The second one was convened at the last minute after the discovery of Chynal Linsdey’s body in a lake on June 1, just two weeks after Booker’s death, said Carter Brown, founder of Black Transmen and a member of the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition.

Her death was the latest sign that transgender people can’t rely solely on authorities for safety or protection, he said.

“We’re spending our time and energy building the LGBTQ community at large in order to support transgender lives because the legal system and the criminal justice system are failing us.”

On Wednesday, the black transgender community gathered in a closed-door session to discuss their needs, Carter said.

On Thursday, representatives from a broader coalition of LGBTQ groups from across Dallas crammed into donated office space to listen and share ideas.

“After we buried Muhlaysia, I looked into the casket and that was the first time that I imagined and thought that could be me,” co-organizer Camarion Anderson of BTAC told the crowd.

“I believe we are in a position to come together as a community to combat some things that are overlooked.”

What the black transgender community needs to feel safe

Notes scribbled on a whiteboard under the heading “Black Trans Emergency Community Meeting” guided the conversation.

Transgender-friendly housing and medical resources, including counseling, emerged as short-term needs, along with jobs and help changing gender markers on identity documents.

One after another, volunteers offered help.

Reverend Dr. Neil G Cazares-Thomas, senior pastor of Cathedral of Hope, where Booker’s funeral was held, offered housing for transgender youth.

Another person pledged to create a private Facebook group offering self-defense and shooting classes in response to comments that more transgender people were arming themselves to stay safe.

Mark Newman from Equality Texas offered Lyft codes of up to $10 dollars, although an audience member said drivers could pose be threat.

The meeting ran nearly two hours, but it’s just the start, said co-organizer Niecee X of Black Women’s Defense League.

“I feel empowered as a community to start to deal with our issues as a collective.”

Mieko Hicks attended both meetings. The Dallas Police meeting focused on a recent deadly shooting at a car wash, she said. The lack of discussion about the slayings of transgender women didn’t bother her as much as the stalled progress in those investigations.

“They want us to believe that they are going to protect us and that they are doing all that they can. But, there are people on the internet that know more about the case than you do,” she said. “So it is like, what are you really doing? Unless they become more transparent with us and start showing us more results, it is going to be what it is has always been.”

The ‘protocol’ of public mourning

Booker’s assault followed by her slaying prompted a cycle of rallies, vigils and forceful condemnations of the violence that befell her.

Brown said such gestures fall short of providing transgender people with measures that will protect them, such as updating the state’s hate crime law to include gender identity in the list of protected classes.

“It’s starting to feel like protocol to pacify community with a town hall, a few meetings, a few rallies,” he said. “But then at the end of the day, we are back where we started.”

In a Monday press conference announcing Lindsey’s death, Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall emphasized the department’s commitment to solving the cases in spite of limited resources. She asked the public for tips and said she has reached out to the FBI to see if federal hate crime charges are warranted.

“We are actively and aggressively investigating this case, and we have reached out to our federal partners to assist in these efforts.”

What changing the hate crime law would do

Texas is one of 13 states with hate crime laws that cover sexual orientation but not gender identity, according to the nonprofit think tank Movement Advancement Project.

The laws take different forms, but often, the laws bring enhanced penalties for bias-motivated crimes.

A change to the state hate crime law would send the message that Texas lawmakers value transgender lives, said Leslie McMurray, transgender education and advocacy coordinator for the LGBTQ-focused Resource Center in Dallas.

She was among those who testified in favor of Coleman’s bill. And she attended Booker’s funeral, where she was horrified to hear one proclamation after another from elected officials condemning Booker’s death.

“How many people have to die before they do something?” she said. “There are political messages that are being sent that transgender lives don’t matter.”

Those messages aren’t just coming from Texas, she said. She pointed to policies from the Trump administration, including the ban on military service for new transgender recruits and the repeal of anti-discrimination protections for the transgender community in health care and public housing.

Why transgender people are vulnerable to violence

These protections would help remove barriers that make transgender people vulerable to violence, said Ginger McMurray, director of the Dallas chapter of the international support group, Trans-Cendence.

Studies show that transgender people experience elevated levels of discrimination when they seek jobs or housing. The combination of housing insecurity and joblessness can lead to a cycle of poverty which drives some transgender people into illicit work, such as prostitution and the drug trade, which makes them more susceptible to violence, Ginger McMurray said.

While it’s not clear that these factors were involved in the cases of Booker, Lindsey or other unsolved homicides, she said their deaths should be a wake-up call to the wider world of the policy solutions that could make life easier for transgender people.

“We see and hear a lot when a crime happens, but outside of that, it’s crickets,” she said. “It’s not just a matter of finding who did it and keeping them from doing it again, it’s about providing resources and opportunities for us to live in peace.”

What’s next?

Texas lawmakers will reconvene for the legislative session in two years. And when they do, Coleman said he intends to refile the bill to amend the state hate crimes law.

He sees momentum building around the normalization of transgender lives in America, and he’s hopeful for the future.

“I feel like if you do nothing, you’re acquiescing to the people who don’t understand. And as generations go by, the level of understanding increases.”

Rep. González pledged to support his efforts.

“Dallas is experiencing a deeply disturbing trend. The threat of violence trans people face right now for simply existing is unimaginable. I am working with community partners to find ways to address this crisis right now, but going forward, adding gender identity to our hate crimes statutes is critical to making clear that trans lives matter.”

CNN’s LaRell Reynolds reported from Dallas and Emanuella Grinberg wrote and report this story in Atlanta.

The post Texas has repeatedly chosen to not protect transgender people, so theyre taking matters into their own hands appeared first on Gyrlversion.

from WordPress http://www.gyrlversion.net/texas-has-repeatedly-chosen-to-not-protect-transgender-people-so-theyre-taking-matters-into-their-own-hands/

[carasueachterberg]

The last time I set foot in the southern shelters, I was stunned.

We wandered through the kennels, head spinning and heart-aching, helpless to do anything except offer a few bags of dog food, a box of cat litter, and a promise to share what we saw. This time…

Traveling with a team of eight feels more substantial. We are here to do work. Not to just gasp and dream. We are here to share all we can, to join in the real work, if only for a day.

It was maybe a little awkward driving south in the van full of people I barely knew. We shared dog stories and lengthy silences, everyone likely as worried as I about what we would see, do, eat, and certainly whether or not we’d get any sleep. I’ve been to a few of the shelters we will visit, but not all. I am anxious about what is coming, being the leader of this team and hoping to set the precedent for more road trips to follow, I want it to go well.

Since the last time I was here, some of these shelters have been ravaged by flooding, some have new buildings, new staff, they all have new dogs, new stories, and yet it is the same. Six months has not changed the situation. Dogs are still dying, shelter workers are still overwhelmed, the public is still dumping dogs, filling the kennels with dogs they have no time, money, or love for.

At Lenoir County SPCA, it is good to see familiar faces – Helen, the rescue coordinator/miracle-worker and Sherry, the shelter director/magician I met last fall hug me when we arrive. Helen has taken the day off from her job as a court reporter (Helen is a volunteer who finds more hours in a day than most of us do in a week) to be here with us.

We meet Debbie, the vice-president of the board responsible for hands-on help at the shelter. She has also taken the day off from her work to be here with us. Her quick smile and positive attitude are contagious. We meet Laura, the assistant shelter director who does much of the dog assessments has a huge heart and an easy laugh. She seems to be a fan of every dog she brings out to meet us.

Everyone we meet at Lenoir is friendly, helpful, and generous. If our invasion of their space irritates them in any way, they give no hint of it. I’m anxious for us to be helpful, and not simply be in the way of the work they must do.

When we arrive, the kennels are already clean and the place is bustling. We’ve just finished our tour and begun work on our separate projects when a government inspector shows up for a surprise inspection. I groan inwardly. Of all the days.

I can only imagine the stress level for Sherry is about a gazillion times the level I feel when the dog warden shows up at my house for an inspection. I have anywhere from two to ten dogs/puppies and the warden wants proof of rabies, copies of health certificates, and to know where I keep my fire extinguisher. Sherry has more than fifty dogs (plus a dozen or more cats), thousands of records, a staff, a facility that has to meet certain codes, and today, eight strangers here to get in the way.

We get to work. A few of us walk dogs and then help pose them for photographs, while another team works huddle with Helen and their laptops around a plastic table in the chilly sunshine to polish dog bios and add them to Petfinder. Matt, our engineer, works on a project of Debbie’s – building a roof for the small concrete puppy play area recently added to the shelter so the puppies can get outside even when it’s raining or the sun is blazing.

Jennifer, one of our team who knows sign language (both her parents are deaf), learns that one of the dogs who has been lingering at Lenoir in search of a home, is deaf. She spends time with Casper trying to teach him the sign for sit, and getting to know him so that she can promote him to the deaf community for adoption.

With the help of Laura and Debbie, we wrangle dog after dog and walk endless laps of the short service road beside the shelter that takes you past enormous powerlines to the water tower, before bringing each back for its photo shoot. Nancy and Leslie have set up a photo studio in a little space on the side of the parking lot beside the screened-in cat gazebo (for meeting cats) and a large steel shipping container (for supplies – there is no storage in the overloaded shelter) with the swampy-forest that surrounds the shelter as a backdrop. We attempt to pose the dogs who are distracted by the traffic in the parking lot, the unfamiliar people, the change of routine, and the smells of the dogs before them who all marked the territory.

Later in the day, I watch as Nancy attempts to photograph dogs playing with some of the enrichment toys that Debbie has brought. The idea is to catch photos of them interacting with the toys to encourage donations of more enrichment toys. The dogs are excited to be in the play area for a bit – they usually only come in here while their kennels are being cleaned each morning. It’s just a fenced in concrete area, but today there is a Kong wobbler, a bubble machine, tennis balls, food puzzles, and a giant ball to play with. They search for food, mark the corners, give me a sniffover for treats and buzz by Nancy and her camera. They are not cooperative models, but we get a few shots.

As we are finishing up, a pick-up truck pulls up outside the shelter with two dogs in the back. The man has come to surrender his pets. He got a new job and no longer wants the dogs which he adopted from another county. Sherry tells him they are full and he should surrender the dogs to the county where he got them. She knows this man, these are not the first dogs he’s surrendered. She asks him why he adopted them in the first place. He leaves and I watch Sherry swallow her fury and move on to the next task. Another car pulls in with a kitten to surrender. Maybe the first of the kitten season.

At five minutes before closing, a couple arrives with a toddler in tow. The father wants to adopt two dogs- a male and female, but he’ll be happy if he can get the ‘gray female.’ He announces this in the parking lot loudly. I wonder who he is speaking to and how he knows about the gray pitbull mama and her tiny puppy who is still nursing. It’s too late in the day for an adoption, but they let him look around. All of us wonder on his insistence about a male and female. His daughter is frightened by the barking and cries at the loud noise in the shelter.

It’s just another day at Lenoir. A day that makes me marvel at Sherry, Helen, Laura, and Debbie. How is it they aren’t beaten down by the relentless onslaught of ignorance and apathy they battle? Maybe it’s the love they have for these animals. They all deserve a happy forever home. Every. Single. One. I guess it’s that knowledge that makes these women work so hard.

The dogs are easy to love—we fall in love over and over again and wonder how many we can convince our rescue to pull. What is not easy is finding homes for them.

We are just beginning our journey and already my heart questions and my soul aches. I amble up the road to the water tower slowly with Bruno, an older boxer mix with scars covering his body, head to toe, his ribs and backbone protruding.

Bruno isn’t in a hurry and has an air about him that tells me he’s seen more than his share of cruelty; he seems defeated. We have five more shelters to see.

Yesterday we visited a tiny shelter in Essex County, Virginia and met another remarkable shelter director saving dogs through sheer will and resourcefulness. Ellen is a former college professor who took over a shelter with a high kill rate and turned it around.

They no longer euthanize adoptable dogs at Tappanhannock-Essex County Animal Shelter, but Ellen’s words followed me to Lenoir, “For every five we send out, we take in six more.”

I saw the same worry etched on Helen’s face. Two years ago, Lenoir was euthanizing over 50% of their dogs. They have come so far, but today, when we visit, they are already full and it’s only April first. They are holding their own at Lenoir, but that could all change next week—one hoarding case, one emergency, one violation from the inspector, and they are back where they started.

I want to be hopeful. We are making progress, it’s just that the progress seems tentative, fragile, the thinnest of fabric that could easily tear. It’s a toehold on better but a long way from good. We still have so far to go.

Thank goodness we have women like Ellen at TECAS, and Helen, Sherry, Laura, and Debbie at Lenoir. They are leading the way, teaching all of us about what it really means to rescue.

If you’d like to help Lenore or TECAS or any of the shelters we visit this week, you can find links on the OPH Rescue Road Trip facebook page. You’ll also see more pictures and stories of our experiences in the shelters.

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to know more about my blogs and books, visit CaraWrites.com or subscribe to my occasional e-newsletter.

If you’d like to know more about the book, Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs, visit AnotherGoodDog.org, where you can find more pictures of the dogs from the book (and some of their happily-ever-after stories), information on fostering, the schedule of signings, and what you can do right now to help shelter animals! You can also purchase a signed copy or several other items whose profits benefit shelter dogs!

If you’d like to know how you can volunteer, foster, adopt or donate with OPH, click here. And if you’d like more pictures and videos of my foster dogs past and present, be sure to join the Another Good Dog Facebook group.

I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to comment here on the blog, email carasueachterberg@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram.

Best,

Cara

Released August 2018 from Pegasus Books and available now

Come inside rural animal shelters - are we making progress? #bethechange #togetherwerescue #anothergooddog The last time I set foot in the southern shelters, I was stunned. We wandered through the kennels, head spinning and heart-aching, helpless to do anything except offer a few bags of dog food, a box of cat litter, and a promise to share what we saw.

[farwamustaqeem]

Land Planning 411 – The place for information on land use planning California, CEQA, and contract planning services.

What Successful Managers Look for in City and County Planning Services

Managers often find themselves in the position of looking for city and county planning services for a variety of reasons.

This can be for a short-term or longer period until a city or county is in the fiscal position to hire full-time employees.

Contract planning services support planning agencies in California as to ensure residents current and future levels of service remain excellent.

Successful city or county managers have learned one vital key to hiring the right planning services company in California – position compatibility.

Position compatibility is a new term referring to a concept being introduced to planning and business administration students.

It means looking at an open position as short-term or longer term and its compatibility with the specific contract planner being considered going beyond a resume.

Sample case study of position compatibility in the planning environment.

A position is open for an associate planner on an indefinite basis. A planning firm only has what would be called an over-qualified senior planner available.

On paper it looks like a bad fit, but with position compatibility it can prove to be very beneficial for all involved.

The manager wants to ultimately fill the position from within or through interviews, the contract senior planner at their career stage is not looking for a permanent position or the higher pay of a senior planner.

They are more than happy to bring their experience to the position and have no desire to rise through the ranks and compete with permanent staff.

The position compatibility should be asked about by a manager and a firm should be able to know their professionals well enough beyond the resume to know where they will do their best for a client.

Also, as our workforce stays at the job longer than traditional retirement age it’s a great time for city and county agencies in need of contract planning services to utilize position compatibility.

As a land use planning student, I was able to ask a respected planning professional (Gus Romo, the Romo Planning Group , about position compatibility in the workplace.

The term was new to him, as it is something very new, but he did shed some fantastic insight about what I was asking in general.

“You know, it really comes down to people. When a client needs day-to-day staffing, I like to make sure not only is the resume excellent, but the person being placed is compatible with the current environment they are going to. If a city manager tells me ahead of time a contract position could become permanent, I send a talented planning professional that is already interested in moving from contract planning to permanent position. If they get hired by a client it’s a win-win, they got a qualified full-time employee and RPG did their job.”

They are not trying to make a part-time job into a full-time one by polluting a workplace with bad intentions. They are staying within their role being a productive asset as long as needed.”

Thanks for reading, if you need contract planning services California Gus Romoprincipal of Romo Planning Group can be of assistance.

Land Planning 411

RPG was established in 2001 by Mr. Gustavo Romo as an urban planning firm specializing in bringing the independent contractor directly to public agencies. After having worked as a city planner for more than 10 years and receiving his MBA degree, Mr. Romo began his business by providing land use entitlement services to developers and wireless telecommunication providers. In a short period, he found a niche serving as a project manager and interim staff planner for several Southern California jurisdictions and has since provided assistance to more than 30 communities at various capacities. Mr. Romo and his team have been contracting with cities and private developers as project managers and interim department directors, division managers, and staff planner for the last 20 years.

With 35 years of combined planning experience, Gus Romo and a network of independent city planners work through RPG to match their urban planning skills with temporary staffing requests and case-by-case assignments. RPG attracts independent planners by providing professional and commercial liability insurance, medical insurance, disability insurance, and technical and administrative support. Due to RPG’s low overhead costs, the contract planner retains a significant portion of the fees charged to the local jurisdiction or private client. The client, in turn, avoids paying the high rates often associated with larger consulting firms. As a result, planners seeking work through RPG offer diverse backgrounds and experience and are very adept in all aspects of the urban planning process.

Romo Planning Group provides planning expertise reviewing, coordinating, and executing mining entitlements and reclamation plans and associated documents and studies through both the lead agency and state review process of the Office of Mining and Reclamation (OMR). These skills sets include:

Determining the adequacy and completeness of mining entitlement applications and reclamation plans prior to initiating internal and OMR review of the documents in accordance with OMR’s October 18, 2013 review policy submittal.

Completing the internal “certification” review process of reclamation plans, water delineation reports, biological assessment reports, hydrology reports in accordance with the Lead Agency’s adopted SMARA provisions prior to peer review of the documents by OMR.

Statute and legislative expertise of SMARA’s mining, reclamation, procedural, and special use provisions, specifically, lead agency responsibilities and projects judged to be “substantial deviations” from their existing reclamation plan, except such areas where vested mining right protections prevail.

Coordinating and project managing both the SMARA and CEQA functions; following through on OMR comments; obtaining responses and interfacing with departments; and being responsive to management concerning the project’s status and hearing time-table.

Conduct Mine Inspections per SMARA PRC 2774 and SMGB Criteria. Includes: Project initialization-scheduling; File Review (Plan, COA’s, Groundwater/Re-vegetation reports); Initial FACE review; Map and Aerial Photo preparation; Travel; Site inspection (pre-inspection meeting and inspection);Report writing and data verification (i.e. photos);Edit/Review/Sign; Prepare and transmit SMARA letter to OMR; File Reports (electronic and hard copy); SMARA 3804 administration record-keeping, update database/spreadsheet.

Preparation of CEQA and NEPA compliance documents relating to all aspects of mining operations. RPG also prepares Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Studies, Biological Assessments, and Cultural Resource Assessments.

RPG personnel provide over thirty years of extensive experience executing mining entitlements, working with OMR personnel, including state and federal agencies and interacting at all stages of the mining permit process, which includes attending hearings and appeals at the state mining and geology board in Sacramento. For more, Visit Us: http://LANDPLANNING411.COM

http://romoplanninggroup.com

[joefnolan80]

Checklist for Success

How many of you are the backbone of your Company’s entire operation? In fact, you are probably your entire operation: a solo agent prospecting for new leads, writing offers, conducting listing appointments and buyer consultations, negotiating contracts, giving sellers marketing updates, ordering surveys, determining utility locations, marketing your listings, handling your social media and overall, handling the entire transaction from listing to closing. In fact, you probably have to make your own coffee and try to manage a database and a family. WHEW, it’s a lot!

Have you ever felt as if you’re juggling too much, perhaps, you’re even struggling to keep up? Ever wished that you were in a position to hire an assistant to support you with the never-ending stream of administrative tasks? Have you determined that you’re not quite ready for that next step but desperately need some help staying organized and efficient? I feel like this is an incredible place to start. Not only will it help you stay organized, it will create a workflow that can be duplicated and passed on. Now is a great time to consider implementing systems and processes that can later be handed off as you grow. In order to do so, you have to write down what has to be done before you can hire someone to do it.

In order to move from a solo agent to a team, you must build systems that will keep your company operational and functioning in a smooth, systematized and efficient manner. In addition, when you finally hit your breaking point and hire an admin, you can share these systems and train your team by simply going over your documented processes. If you’re a real champion and want to grow your business exponentially, I would personally recommend going through the utter discomfort of hiring a business coach. I would recommend someone like Mike Ferry Organization, Tom Hopkins International, or my personal favorite, Icenhower Coaching and Consulting.

A coach can help you organize your business, determine when to hire staff members and how to grow. It is uncomfortable; however, I want to illustrate the type of systems the discomfort introduces. Below you will find Ary Land and Home’s Listing to Contract Checklist. My team and I have developed this over time while working with our coach (Icenhower Coaching and Consulting). See below.

  Date Completed Date Requested Admin intro call to sellers – immediately after listing signed Receive signed listing agreement Create PROPERTY FILE CHECKLIST Obtain all signed & completed sellers disclosures Obtain showing instructions from agent/sellers, Gate Code? Combo? Verify Aerial is accurate with salesperson Put seller on MLS listing auto-alert email drip for LAND OR HOME to buy Put seller on MLS auto-alert drip- MLS status changes 1 MILE RADIUS FROM LAND Ask Seller for utility companies, call and get sizes of lines in front of prop Order preliminary title report, HOA Documents & CCRs if HOME Order Signs? Let Trish know what’s used for sign inventory Add sellers to admin weekly update call list Add sellers to agent’s weekly update call list Ask to Enter listing into MLS as incomplete for agent to proof Assign lock box to MLS listing Add client to CRM database Add new listing to Team Scoreboard Submit listing contract/disclosures in to DotLoop for compliance Get MLS listing edits/approval from Agent Upload MLS Client Detail Report to property file Email MLS Client Detail Report to all team members Add/Enhance Listing on LandWatch LOA and LandBrokerMLS Calendar Listing Expiration Date Prepare property flyer Create “Just Listed” Facebook & social media posts “Just Listed” mailers/flyers created & ordered Add clients as friends on Facebook/Social Media Claim listing on Zillow/Trulia & set up reporting Sign up at property Flyers delivered to property LISTING GOES LIVE ON MLS   Send Thank You/Gift Card to Person who Referred Listing “Just Listed” email to neighborhood & SOI “Just Listed” posted on Facebook & social media Call to sellers for PRICE REDUCTION APPOINTMENT? Weekly Activity Report Call to sellers Email Activity Report to sellers ONCE OFFER(S) RECEIVED   Prepare summary(s) of key offer terms to present to sellers ONCE OFFER ACCEPTED – Start Property File Checklist  

  *Please note that you need to go through the checklist, there are some things that will not apply to your situation.

Can you picture yourself using this checklist? Can you imagine what it would be like to know that all of your files are “where they need to be?” Fundamental organization and structure is essential.

The main goal in writing this Blog is to help novice agents understand that developing routines and establishing work flows is essential to running a successful real estate company. Even though you may feel like you are too far gone, YOU CAN turn chaos into order and whip things into shape. These processes will 1) make your life as an agent easier and less stressful, and 2) create and maintain seamless systems that can be duplicated to keep the business running so that you can focus on growing your business.

With that said, I urge you to sit down and go over the above Listing to Contract Checklist and make it yours. Don’t stop there, make a Contract to Close Checklist, a Seller Closing Checklist, and a Buyer Closing Checklist and just keep going. Don’t make the checklists just to make them, make sure you implement them and go over them weekly. Make a checklist of what needs to be done on every file and eventually you will be able to hire someone that can make sure the items are checked off for you. I know it will be painful and you will grow to the extent of pain you can handle!

On another note, if you are looking to hire someone and you are not sure exactly what they are supposed to do, keep reading. Below is a sample Listing Manager’s job description.

Oversee all aspects of Seller’s transactions from initial contact to executed purchase agreement.

Prepare all listing materials: pre-listing presentation, Listing Agreement, sellers’ disclosures, comparative market analysis, pull online property profile, research old multiple listing service (MLS) listings and etc.

Consult & coordinate with Seller’s all property photos, surveys, repairs, cleaning, signage, lockbox, access requirements & marketing activities.

Obtain all necessary signatures on listing agreement, disclosures and other necessary documentation

Take property phone calls and monitor Agent emails.

Coordinate Buyer showings & obtain feedback.

Provide proactive weekly feedback to sellers regarding all showings and marketing activities.

Coordinate all agent meetings and remind Agent of important dates.

Input all listing information into MLS and marketing websites and update as needed.

Submit all necessary documentation to office broker for file compliance.

Input all necessary information into client database and transaction management systems

Again, when I got into real estate, I knew how to sell Farms. I did not understand how to run a business. None of this comes natural to me, however; it has changed the way our business operates. In fact, I no longer say “only I can do it” or “no one will do it as good as me.” That is a scarcity mindset and you have to realize that if you are saying that right now, it’s because “how to do it is not written down,” as our great leader, Gary Keller, would say. It took me a long time to realize this and if it weren’t for Kasey Mock taking the time to explain how important a business foundation is, I sure wouldn’t be where I am at today. With that said, my challenge to you is to start to document the things you do and create checklists to make sure they are done on every file. Make it a priority! Call me if I can help!

This post is part of the 2018 Future Leaders Committee content generation initiative. The initiative is directed at further establishing RLI as “The Voice of Land” in the land real estate industry for land professionals and landowners. For more posts like this, click here. 

About the Author: Drew Ary, ALC, is an agent with Keller Williams Advantage. Drew has a vast knowledge of raw land, land with improvements, and farm and ranch properties. Above all, he has a passion for selling land and farm and ranch properties by bringing buyers and sellers together through honesty and integrity. Drew spent 10 years in the real estate auction world with roles as a Closing Coordinator, Project Manager, and a large portion as the Director of Farm & Ranch Sales. Drew moved to traditional real estate with Keller Williams Advantage at the beginning of 2017.

The post Checklist for Success appeared first on REALTORS® Land Institute.

from News About Real Estate https://www.rliland.com/checklist-for-success

[kayleyfaheyus]

Checklist for Success

How many of you are the backbone of your Company’s entire operation? In fact, you are probably your entire operation: a solo agent prospecting for new leads, writing offers, conducting listing appointments and buyer consultations, negotiating contracts, giving sellers marketing updates, ordering surveys, determining utility locations, marketing your listings, handling your social media and overall, handling the entire transaction from listing to closing. In fact, you probably have to make your own coffee and try to manage a database and a family. WHEW, it’s a lot!

Have you ever felt as if you’re juggling too much, perhaps, you’re even struggling to keep up? Ever wished that you were in a position to hire an assistant to support you with the never-ending stream of administrative tasks? Have you determined that you’re not quite ready for that next step but desperately need some help staying organized and efficient? I feel like this is an incredible place to start. Not only will it help you stay organized, it will create a workflow that can be duplicated and passed on. Now is a great time to consider implementing systems and processes that can later be handed off as you grow. In order to do so, you have to write down what has to be done before you can hire someone to do it.

In order to move from a solo agent to a team, you must build systems that will keep your company operational and functioning in a smooth, systematized and efficient manner. In addition, when you finally hit your breaking point and hire an admin, you can share these systems and train your team by simply going over your documented processes. If you’re a real champion and want to grow your business exponentially, I would personally recommend going through the utter discomfort of hiring a business coach. I would recommend someone like Mike Ferry Organization, Tom Hopkins International, or my personal favorite, Icenhower Coaching and Consulting.

A coach can help you organize your business, determine when to hire staff members and how to grow. It is uncomfortable; however, I want to illustrate the type of systems the discomfort introduces. Below you will find Ary Land and Home’s Listing to Contract Checklist. My team and I have developed this over time while working with our coach (Icenhower Coaching and Consulting). See below.

  Date Completed Date Requested Admin intro call to sellers – immediately after listing signed Receive signed listing agreement Create PROPERTY FILE CHECKLIST Obtain all signed & completed sellers disclosures Obtain showing instructions from agent/sellers, Gate Code? Combo? Verify Aerial is accurate with salesperson Put seller on MLS listing auto-alert email drip for LAND OR HOME to buy Put seller on MLS auto-alert drip- MLS status changes 1 MILE RADIUS FROM LAND Ask Seller for utility companies, call and get sizes of lines in front of prop Order preliminary title report, HOA Documents & CCRs if HOME Order Signs? Let Trish know what’s used for sign inventory Add sellers to admin weekly update call list Add sellers to agent’s weekly update call list Ask to Enter listing into MLS as incomplete for agent to proof Assign lock box to MLS listing Add client to CRM database Add new listing to Team Scoreboard Submit listing contract/disclosures in to DotLoop for compliance Get MLS listing edits/approval from Agent Upload MLS Client Detail Report to property file Email MLS Client Detail Report to all team members Add/Enhance Listing on LandWatch LOA and LandBrokerMLS Calendar Listing Expiration Date Prepare property flyer Create “Just Listed” Facebook & social media posts “Just Listed” mailers/flyers created & ordered Add clients as friends on Facebook/Social Media Claim listing on Zillow/Trulia & set up reporting Sign up at property Flyers delivered to property LISTING GOES LIVE ON MLS   Send Thank You/Gift Card to Person who Referred Listing “Just Listed” email to neighborhood & SOI “Just Listed” posted on Facebook & social media Call to sellers for PRICE REDUCTION APPOINTMENT? Weekly Activity Report Call to sellers Email Activity Report to sellers ONCE OFFER(S) RECEIVED   Prepare summary(s) of key offer terms to present to sellers ONCE OFFER ACCEPTED – Start Property File Checklist  

  *Please note that you need to go through the checklist, there are some things that will not apply to your situation.

Can you picture yourself using this checklist? Can you imagine what it would be like to know that all of your files are “where they need to be?” Fundamental organization and structure is essential.

The main goal in writing this Blog is to help novice agents understand that developing routines and establishing work flows is essential to running a successful real estate company. Even though you may feel like you are too far gone, YOU CAN turn chaos into order and whip things into shape. These processes will 1) make your life as an agent easier and less stressful, and 2) create and maintain seamless systems that can be duplicated to keep the business running so that you can focus on growing your business.

With that said, I urge you to sit down and go over the above Listing to Contract Checklist and make it yours. Don’t stop there, make a Contract to Close Checklist, a Seller Closing Checklist, and a Buyer Closing Checklist and just keep going. Don’t make the checklists just to make them, make sure you implement them and go over them weekly. Make a checklist of what needs to be done on every file and eventually you will be able to hire someone that can make sure the items are checked off for you. I know it will be painful and you will grow to the extent of pain you can handle!

On another note, if you are looking to hire someone and you are not sure exactly what they are supposed to do, keep reading. Below is a sample Listing Manager’s job description.

Oversee all aspects of Seller’s transactions from initial contact to executed purchase agreement.

Prepare all listing materials: pre-listing presentation, Listing Agreement, sellers’ disclosures, comparative market analysis, pull online property profile, research old multiple listing service (MLS) listings and etc.

Consult & coordinate with Seller’s all property photos, surveys, repairs, cleaning, signage, lockbox, access requirements & marketing activities.

Obtain all necessary signatures on listing agreement, disclosures and other necessary documentation

Take property phone calls and monitor Agent emails.

Coordinate Buyer showings & obtain feedback.

Provide proactive weekly feedback to sellers regarding all showings and marketing activities.

Coordinate all agent meetings and remind Agent of important dates.

Input all listing information into MLS and marketing websites and update as needed.

Submit all necessary documentation to office broker for file compliance.

Input all necessary information into client database and transaction management systems

Again, when I got into real estate, I knew how to sell Farms. I did not understand how to run a business. None of this comes natural to me, however; it has changed the way our business operates. In fact, I no longer say “only I can do it” or “no one will do it as good as me.” That is a scarcity mindset and you have to realize that if you are saying that right now, it’s because “how to do it is not written down,” as our great leader, Gary Keller, would say. It took me a long time to realize this and if it weren’t for Kasey Mock taking the time to explain how important a business foundation is, I sure wouldn’t be where I am at today. With that said, my challenge to you is to start to document the things you do and create checklists to make sure they are done on every file. Make it a priority! Call me if I can help!

This post is part of the 2018 Future Leaders Committee content generation initiative. The initiative is directed at further establishing RLI as “The Voice of Land” in the land real estate industry for land professionals and landowners. For more posts like this, click here. 

About the Author: Drew Ary, ALC, is an agent with Keller Williams Advantage. Drew has a vast knowledge of raw land, land with improvements, and farm and ranch properties. Above all, he has a passion for selling land and farm and ranch properties by bringing buyers and sellers together through honesty and integrity. Drew spent 10 years in the real estate auction world with roles as a Closing Coordinator, Project Manager, and a large portion as the Director of Farm & Ranch Sales. Drew moved to traditional real estate with Keller Williams Advantage at the beginning of 2017.

The post Checklist for Success appeared first on REALTORS® Land Institute.

from News About Real Estate https://www.rliland.com/checklist-for-success