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green-eyeddragonfanfiction · 8 years ago

Text

Time: Chapter 11

Summary: Soulmate!AU/Reincarnation!AU. Female!Reader lives in a world where alien invasions and hordes of death robots occur and past lives and soulmates are very real. Like most people, she gets brief glimpses of her past. although a person’s past lives and their current life may have little to nothing in common, soul mates tend to transfer between lives, the core of a person staying the same throughout the eons. Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader, Steve Rogers x Female!Reader Warnings: Language, angst, fluff Word Count: ~3,911 A/N: Did someone say road trip chapter? I heard road trip chapter. Apparently this is a roadtrip AU with team Cap now. I swear it’ll go back to normal soon? I’m writing the second half of this while intoxicated and my mind keeps coming up with horrible ideas, but I do it anyway. I always get mad at people for forgetting Rhodey, but I totally almost did it too this chapter. Shame one me.

Masterlist // Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

“It’s a shopping trip, Steve. Not a mission to break into the Pentagon. It’ll be okay,” Clint argued as he pulled off of the freeway.

“If anything happens, we’re better equipped to deal with it,” Steve argued.

“Wait, I have an idea that’ll make everyone happy,” Scott piped up from the ground.

“Well, let’s hear it, Tic-Tac,” Sam said, eager to end the bickering.

It turned out Scott’s bright idea was shrinking down and accompanying you to the store. Steve had begrudgingly agreed to the compromise, and now you were inside the nearest store, perusing the aisles.

“You should get one of those,” said Scott from his perch on your shoulder.

“One of what?” you mumbled, trying to move your mouth as little as possible.

“One of those triple tiered chocolate cakes on display over there,” he said.

You glanced around, unable to see where he was pointing. Sure enough, there were some scrumptious-looking cakes on sale on a display table in the middle of the aisle. “I’m not getting a cake, Scott,” you hissed. “Would you please focus on keeping lookout?” you pleaded, smiling at a woman who gave you a funny look. You didn’t blame her. You looked completely crazy.

“Fine, fine. But you should still get the cake,” Scott insisted.

“Do you want me to flick you off my shoulder? I will flick you off my shoulder,” you threatened.

“Alright, alright. Geez. I get it, no cake,” Scott said, clearly put out.

You sighed. “If I get you a slice from the bakery, will you be happy?” you asked, glancing down at the speck on your shoulder.

“Yes, that would be very nice, and I’d appreciate it very much” he said with what you could tell was forced calm.

“Alright, fine. We’ll grab it before we leave,” you said, happy to have come to an agreement.

“Hell yeah, cake!” he yelled, whooping for joy on your shoulder.

“Shh!” you hissed, blood draining from your face as everyone around you turned to look at you.

“Shit, sorry,” Scott whispered.

“Let’s get out of here asap,” you whisper, quickly grabbing the last few things on Clint’s shopping list. On the way out you grabbed a piece of the chocolate cake Scott wanted; it came in a convenient little plastic box. You paid quickly with the cash Clint had given you and exited the store hastily, avoiding eye contact all the way back to the van. Scott whispered apologies the entire way.

Once inside, Scott returned to his normal size and proceeded to grovel on the shag carpet.

“Scott, it’s alright. Let’s just get out of here,” you said, running a hand over your face.

“What happened?” Steve asked, alarmed.

“I got a little too excited about cake,” Scott explained before he returned to apologizing.

“We should leave. Now. Just in case,” you said to Sam, who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Say no more, little lady,” Sam said as he turned the engine over; It sounded a little less awful this time, at least.

“I’m still a little confused. What is this about cake?” Wanda asked, glancing between you and Scott.

“I promised to buy him cake, and he was so happy he yelled. It was really awkward. People stared,” you explained, sighing.

“Did you at least get everything on my list?” Clint asked from his spot on the zebra chair.

“Yeah, Clint. It’s all in there,” you said, motioning to the bags on the floor.

“Sweet. Do you want to learn how to make a Molotov cocktail?” Clint asked, rifling through the bags.

“Hell yeah,” you said at the same time Steve said “Clint, no!”

One very fun chemistry lesson and a state border later, you were relaxing on the couch with Wanda. Scott was in a sugar coma on the floor, Sam was driving with Clint co-piloting, and Steve was dozing in the zebra chair (the sight of which made you laugh; he was definitely too big for that horrid chair). The fresh batch of explosives sat in a box away from anything prone to sparking or catching fire.

“So, what, you don’t hate Tony Stark? Even after all that?” you whispered, not wanting to disturb the guys.

“Well, I got a lot of my feelings out during our fight at the airport. I dropped a parking garage full of cars on him. That helped a lot,” she said, smirking.

“Ha, nice,” you said, smirk breaking out on your face as you nodded your approval.

“To answer your question seriously, though... I’m not sure. It wasn’t him who dropped the bomb on my family. You don’t blame a gun manufacturer when someone is shot, you know? It took a long time for me to think about it that way. I still struggle sometimes.

“And with Ultron... He never meant to create that. A sentient machine, yes, but not a psychopathic murderer. I think if he had known how evil Ultron would be, he would have at least been more careful about it,” she said, tilting her head as she thought about it. “My brother would still be alive, but we’d still be with Hydra, and Vision wouldn’t exist. Life is full of twists and turns, unforeseen consequences. I believe that Tony Stark has the best intentions. I know he wants to protect humanity; I saw it for myself when I read his mind. It’s just the execution he has trouble with,” she said, sad smile painting her features.

“So what you’re saying is that he’s a chronic failure with good intentions?” you asked, raising an eyebrow.

She considered it for a moment. “Yeah, that about sums it up,” she said, chuckling.

“Same idea with the Sokovia Accords, I’m guessing?” you asked. You were startled at how quickly her face darkened.

“Ah, yes. The Accords. I thought about signing them, you know. I thought that maybe it would make people less afraid of me, but it took help from some friends to realize that signing a piece of paper wouldn’t change that,” she said, grinning at Clint who was in the passenger seat, talking to Sam. “Told me it was time to get off my ass, too,” she said, snorting.

You chuckled, glancing from Clint to Wanda. “Clint said that? I guess I can believe that,” you whispered, smirking at the older man.

To your surprise he turned to look you dead in the eye. Had you been talking loudly? You could have sworn you were quiet enough that only Wanda could hear you.

He used his index finger and middle finger, pointed at his eyes, then turned them on you in a classic I’m keeping my eyes on you motion, glaring good-naturedly at you for good measure. He smirked and turned back to Sam, continuing to give him directions.

You turned to Wanda, eyes wide, and she hurried to cover her laugh with her hand. “He can read lips,” she explained between giggles.

“Of course he can,” you groaned and leaned back into the couch.

Wanda covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her giggles. It failed and you looked away, refusing to make eye contact with her. Something caught your eye when you glanced at Steve.

Your head whipped back to him and your brows knit together in confusion. He looked... upset? It seemed like he was still asleep; his head was lolling to one side. It looked somewhat uncomfortable. His brows were creased, though, and he kept twitching slightly every few seconds, as though he was trying to shake something off.

“Bad dreams...” Wanda whispered beside you, frowning at Steve’s sleeping form.

You knew she was right. When Steve was a kid he’d had bad dreams all the time. You should have recognized the signs sooner. Without thinking consciously about it, you stood, stepped carefully over Scott, and placed a hand gently on Steve’s cheek.

“Stevie, wake up. It’s a nightmare,” you whispered quietly, other hand shaking his shoulder gently. His eyes snapped open, locking on yours immediately. You could tell he wasn’t completely awake, and the sight of you didn’t seem to help bring him back to complete consciousness.

“Thanks for waking me, Rosie,” he said, smiling blearily at you. To your surprise, he pulled you into his lap, arms clutching you to his vast chest. Your eyes widened in shock and you struggled fruitlessly to try and look at Wanda, wanting to get her help, but it was impossible to move in his iron-like embrace. Unable to get anyone’s attention for help and not willing to wake Steve up from what was likely the only amount of sleep he’d gotten recently, you resigned yourself to your fate and drifted off to sleep in his arms. Truly, there were much worse places to be.

“Wake up, sweetheart. We’re here,” came a voice in your ear.

“Five mo’ minz, Stevie” you mumbled, burying your face deeper into the warm surface you were sleeping on. It took your half asleep mind a moment to realize you were sitting up, not laying down. You opened one eye and immediately closed it again. It was much too light out for you to want to open your eyes, much less actually wake up. You tried again, this time keeping them narrowed to slits. You thought for a moment you’d been teleported into an alternate dimension where everything was a horrid shade of orange. You slowly opened your eyes more and blinked blearily up at Steve.

“Hey there, sunshine. How’d you sleep?” he asked, smiling down at you. His smile was infectious and you couldn’t even muster up any anger at being woken up at what you were sure was an ungodly hour. You smiled back at him, and your still half asleep mind didn’t think twice about reaching up and giving him a gentle peck on the lips, eyes closing as you smiled against his lips.

“Mornin, Stevie,” you mumbled, sitting back, grin plastered on your stupid, oblivious face. When he didn’t respond or even move, you opened your eyes and looked at him in confusion. He was staring down at you, shock clear on his face, and it took you a second to realize why. Your eyes widened in horror and you quickly hopped off of his lap. “I’m- I’m sorry. Shit-” you mumbled, quickly jumping out of the van’s open doors. You jogged forward, not caring where your feet took you so long as it was away from Steve and any guilty feelings you had because of how you felt about him.

“Wait, (Y/N),” he said, surprising you when he grabbed your arm. He was strong, but his grip was surprisingly gentle; almost tender. You looked down at the ground, unwilling to face him yet. You were afraid of what he would say.

“We’re going to be here for a few days. It’s a safe house. Tony and Nat know it’s here, but they’d never tell anyone about it. We’ll be safe here. You should go get cleaned up and get breakfast, if you want,” Steve said, beckoning to the southern-style house you hadn’t noticed before. You saw Wanda, Clint, Sam, and Scott on the porch talking to a pretty woman with long dark hair, two kids clinging to her legs, staring up at the ragtag group in awe.

“Where are we?” you asked, purposefully looking at them instead of Steve.

“Clint’s house, actually. Those are his wife and kids the others are talking to. She had a baby recently, actually. He must be inside,” Steve said, fondness for the family seeping into his voice.

“Hawkeye has a wife? And kids?” you asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight in front of you.

Steve snorted. “Yeah, surprised the rest of the Avengers, too. Kept it a damn good secret. I think only Natasha knew for a long time. He wouldn’t bring us here if he had any other choice, though. We’re only staying a few days so we don’t put them in any danger,” he explained, finally releasing your arm.

“Because he’s a criminal now,” you said, face darkening with anger.

Steve sighed. “Yeah. We’re all criminals now,” he said glancing at you worriedly.

“It’s not fair,” you said, turning away from Steve and the others to glare off into the distance. You would have glared a hole through the world government if you could, but alas; they weren’t around and neither was Tony Stark.

Steve thought for a moment before responding. “I know. But I don’t regret anything, and neither do Sam, Clint, Scott, or Wanda. I don’t think the others regret much of what they did, either. We all fought for what we thought was right, and eventually the truth came to light, for better or for worse,” he said, lip quirking up at the corner in a sad smile.

Thoughts of recent events brought you back to one place: Bucky. You shook your head vigorously as though it would help you clear your thoughts. It didn’t.

“I think I’ll take your suggestion and go get cleaned up,” you said, smiling in his direction but not meeting his eyes. Maybe it had been a mistake coming here. You’d only end up hurting Steve at this rate, and it was the last thing you wanted to do. He deserved better than that, but the guilt you felt overwhelmed most of your other feelings.

You walked towards the house, not looking back no matter how much you wanted to. You knew what you’d see; he’d have a frown on his face, worry creasing his brow. You wished he wouldn’t worry for you; of the two of you, he definitely deserved the concern more.

Laura and Clint were gracious hosts. They showed you the way to the guest room and you quickly took a shower, wanting to rid yourself of forty year old van smell as fast as possible.

You got two whole steps out of the shower before you realized you weren’t alone in the guest room. Steve was frozen in his chair next to the small desk in the corner.

Your eyes widened in horror as you attempted to wrap the towel all the way around yourself. You’d only left it draped over your front, held in place with one hand, thinking you didn’t have to worry about anyone coming in the room. In your haste, you dropped your dirty clothes on the floor and reached over to pick them up with both hands. Realizing a second too late you hadn’t tucked it in, it came open, revealing your entire front to the whole room.

“Fucking hell,” you hissed, quickly wrapping your towel around yourself again, tucking it into itself so it’d stay closed this time. You grabbed your clothes and tossed them on top of your bag that Sam had been nice enough to bring up for you earlier. You could feel the heat in your cheeks, neck, and ears and slowly raised your eyes to meet Steve’s.

He had his hand over his eyes, but even that wasn’t enough to hide the fact that he was as red as a tomato.

“How much did you...?” you asked, dreading his answer.

He peeked at you with one eye from between his fingers. Once he deemed it mostly safe he lowered his hand a little bit so he could look at you with both eyes. “Would it make you feel better if I lied?” he asked, unsure and clearly embarrassed.

“Not after that comment, no. Not really,” you said, groaning.

“I’ll just go-” he said, moving to get up.

You held a hand up to stop him, other clutching the towel for dear life. “No, it’s alright,” you said, wincing as you relived the entire thing in your head for the fifth time since it had happened fifteen seconds ago.

“I’ll just... close my eyes, then?” he said, question clear in his tone.

You simply nodded your head, unwilling to trust your stupid brain to not say something stupid after that debacle.

“Alright,” he said, nodding, as he closed his eyes and placed a hand over them for good measure.

You quickly dug through your bag, pulling out whatever was both clean and closest to the top, not wanting to make Steve wait.

After a moment you were fully clothed, dirty clothes in a neat pile next to your bag. You looked down at yourself and groaned internally. You’d chosen a low cut tank and a pair of short workout shorts.

“Okay, it’s safe,” you told Steve, eyes glued to the floor.

You heard him shift in his chair as he opened his eyes. “I should have said something,” he said, voice apologetic. “I just didn’t expect you to...” he trailed off, unwilling to say it, color returning to his cheeks as he looked at you.

Your eyes snapped up to his, horrified. “You just startled me is all! I should have taken a change of clothes into the bathroom. We’re all crammed into this house; I should have assumed someone would come in this room,” you said, not wanting Steve to blame himself.

“Ah, yeah. About that...” he said, running a hand through his hair. You recognized the nervous tick immediately.

“What is it, Stevie?” you asked, suddenly suspicious.

“This is going to be our room while we’re here,” he said. It was as though he was talking about defusing a bomb, his tone was so tense and delicate.

“What.”

“With Nathaniel’s nursery taking up an entire room, they only have one guest room. This one. The others thought you’d feel most comfortable with me, so Laura told me to share the room with you while we’re here. I, uh, told them Wanda might be a better fit, but they insisted,” he said. It seemed he was unable to look away from you, studying your face closely.

Your mind was going a hundred miles an hour, trying to process what he’d just said. You looked dumbly from him to the bed and back. Then back to the bed. The Queen-sized bed. Then back to Steve.

“There’s only one bed,” you said once you were sure your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you, hiding a second bed from your consciousness.

“I know. It’s yours. I don’t sleep in beds very often anyway. Too soft,” he said, smiling sheepishly.

“You’re going to sleep on the ground?” you asked, surprised. The Stevie Rosie knew had loved soft beds, never willing to leave hers unless he had to, though he’d never admit it.

He chuckled. “Yeah, habit I picked up from the war. Beds are just too soft after you get used to sleeping on anything and everything,” he said eyes far away.

That explained why you didn’t know about this habit. It was after Rosie’d died. You wondered what else you didn’t know about Steve.

“You don’t have to,” you said, words coming out before you could stop them.

His eyes suddenly focused back on you, brows knitting together in confusion and... was that hope? Your heart beat a little faster in your chest.

“I mean, I’m not going to force you to sleep on the ground if you don’t want to,” you explained quickly. “I’m not heartless,” you said, eyes darting from his face to the floor and back.

“I appreciate that, (Y/N),” he said, smiling sincerely at you.

His smile chased away nearly all of the embarrassment and doubts from a moment before, leaving you feeling calm and safe. “What were you doing, though? While I was in the bathroom?” you asked, glancing over his shoulder at the desk behind him.

“Oh, drawing. It-”

“Helps you think,” you said, nodding, at the same time he said “Helps me think.”

He beamed up at you and you felt your heart flutter.

“You wanna see it?” he asked pointing his thumb at the sketch pad behind him.

“Of course,” you said, grinning. He beckoned you over, flipping a page or two back in the pad until he found the one he was looking for.

Turned out it was multiple sketches.

“These are...?” you asked, looking on in awe at the detail he put into his drawings.

“The team. The whole team, including Thor and Banner, who’ve been conspicuously MIA,” he said, smiling at you as you studied his drawings.

You snorted when you got to Stark. “You captured him perfectly. I can feel the bravado through the paper,” you said, smirking down at the tiny Drawing Stark. Your eyes traveled to the others on the page. The first one held Pietro, Natasha, Bruce, and Thor. The next held Clint, Sam, Scott, and Wanda.

You flipped the page. Steve made a move to stop you, but he was too engrossed in your reaction to realize what was happening until it was too late. Your stopped breathing. Your mind barely registered Rhodey, Vision, and Thor on the page, too enthralled at the drawing of him to pay them too much mind. There, staring up at your from the page in perfect pencil recreation, was Bucky. It was a Bucky somewhere between the one Rosie knew and the one you knew now. He had your Bucky’s long hair and stubble, but had Rosie and Steve’s Bucky’s winning smile and sparkling eyes. Every time you’d seen that light in his eyes over the last two years, it was quickly extinguished by some unknown force and you wouldn’t see it again for weeks.

“(Y/N)?” Steve asked, voice deadly quiet.

You jumped, startled by his voice, thoughts years and a lifetime away. Steve closed the sketch pad and placed a hand on your arm and gently squeezed. The sensation was enough to break you out of the lingering remnants of your reverie and you forced a smile onto your face.

“Those are amazing, Steve,” you said, motioning to the notebook. “I’m going to go see if Laura needs any help around the house,” you said, turning to sprint out the door before Steve could stop you.

Steve’s POV

His arm dropped to his side as he watched you run out the door, unable to get away from him fast enough.

“You’re an idiot, Steve,” he groaned, slamming his arms down on the desk, burying his head in his hands. The desk rattled ominously, but Steve only spared it a cursory glance. He ran his fingers through his hair angrily. He’d forgotten Bucky had been one of those sketches. He’d needed a cover, and fast, unwilling to show you what he’d really been working on. He pulled the small notebook out of his pocket and put it on top of the larger sketch pad. He flicked it open to where he’d been working last and sighed. You stared up at him, half finished, brilliant smile on your face. He’d started it while you’d been chatting with Wanda, too distracted by whatever the two of you’d been talking about to notice his doodling. He stared at it a few moments more before he flicked to the front of the book. The very first page contained the sketch of Rosie, the other of Peggy. He stared at the both of them before he heaved out a sigh and tucked the booklet back into his back pocket. He’d really put his foot in it now.

Chapter 12

This series is finished, but if you want to be tagged in my other fics, check out this post! Sorry, but responses to this post asking to be tagged will be ignored, so send me an ask or like one of the taglist posts!

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machinakrp · 5 years ago

Photo

>> OPEN SONG JINSOL’S FILE …

:// AGE — 27 :// OCCUPATION — drug chemist :// CLASS —native

>> LOADING DEVELOPMENT …

:// MAGIC —

jinsol’s magical is learned, and at the same time, seemingly twined into him. muscles and memory and nerves. it feels like it. something taught to him and adopted since he was old enough to let it manifest in his mind. it’s a second nature, nearly. infusing magic with medicine. or in his case, pseudo-medicine (he calls it medicine, at least). it’s something slipped in between measurement and chemicals and crushed herbs. built into molecules and compounding in a way that seems nearly impossible. should be impossible. but isn’t. a medical miracle, and maybe if he applied it different jinsol could be finding applications that would astonish, would’ve hefted him out of the slums of elysium on some miracle cure. but he doesn’t. just finds a way to manufacture emotion, to create a fabricated sense of bliss or love or warmth for people to envelope themselves in. like whiskey to warm yourself in the middle of a blizzard. a sort of danger ignored for that immediate sense of comfort.

:// MODIFICATIONS —

despite being an elysium native and building a large enough business that he has more means than most, jinsol doesn’t have many body modifications to speak of. just two.

the first is one he got done before he worked his way up, before he was able to pay enough for something above the books. but he’d needed it in the before period of his life. less now, though it’s a comforting reminder that it’s there. if you peel back the skin of his right wrist, there lies a hollowed out tube nestled between veins and bones. resting inside is a sliver of a knife.sharp and poised near a trigger spring. if he digs his finger in near his forearm and jams down on the end of the mechanism, it cuts out out. not entirely pleasant, considering it rips through skin on the way out. it also has to be manually wound back into his arm, meaning he has to seek someone out every time he hits the trigger. it’s meant as a last ditch defense system, for a hand ideally tucked up against a throat. he used to need it, back before he was working with hades. back when he was peddling his own goods and on his own. there’s a scar on his wrist now, a jagged sort of line left over from the two times he’s used it.

the second is less intrusive. a holographic tattoo on the nape of his head, a circle ring of a sun curved around the first jut of bone from his spine. something that shimmers and shivers and shakes before it implodes. then the hologram is looped back whole once again.

>> LOADING BIOGRAPHY …

tw: blood, drugs

RETRIEVING MEMORY…

21430102_sooji.vrml

a glitch – a vibrant flash of blue that reads so bright it hurts the retinas – the angle seems tipped. like the world’s off its axis. set instead on a lopsided table. baited breath, waiting for everything piled on top of it to slide off in a violent clatter. that’s the reaction the memory loop gives off when replayed. something not quite right that settles like nausea in the gut. trepidation. the unwanted kind. the memory holder’s perceptions, emotions flooding in. the room is sterile. blank-white floods the space. walls and sheets and floor. a glossy linoleum. there’s a rhythmic beep from a machine. a baby nestled in a set of arms – the memory holder’s – another glitch. the baby wails. the angle of the memory slips more. like the downward trajectory of a rollercoaster. from here, she plummets.

21430102_sooji.txt

lee sooji, a woman with too many secrets and unwillingness to divide interest from herself. naturally, a baby doesn’t fit well into the equation. even if it was planned. there’s not a lot of picture perfect anything that happens in elysium, but she’d always liked the idea of that. perfection. it’s hard to obtain though. even with a knowledge of chemical-infused magic that gave her the ability to create and shape her own world in the form of hallucinogens. is it a surprise that the marriage fell apart? probably not. a lot of things fall apart in elysium. dismantled by the society around them. he moved on, she was stuck with a baby that she didn’t really want. ignored at first. sharp cries, neglected fits. palms fit to ears of someone who constantly decided she was too young to deal with this mess of a life.

her feelings changed overtime. not dramatically, in a wild shift of personality. but slightly. when jinsol started to take shape more as a human than living soundbox. she liked some things, and she could list them off in a way that was reminiscent of explaining why one preferred a certain restaurant. she liked the adoration in his eyes. the way words could be pieced together into loving sentiments, something that seemed to runaway along with her ex husband. and sooji had always liked that. adoration. she valued it above nearly anything else. instilled the same beliefs into a young mind. he grew under fickle reliance. like a plant with a broken trellis, bent with the whims of her emotions. whether or not she felt like being a mother. whether or not she felt like being free of his shackling existence.

21490714_jinsol.vrml

it’s a humid day. it’s distinguishable based on that summer haze of warped air that makes the floor look bent. the click-whir of a broken fan. the chunks of ice jinsol has shoved into his cheeks, like an overambitious chipmunk. not that jinsol has any idea what a chipmunk is, he’s never seen one. just the scattered pigeons with broken-toed feet that loiter near the bottom step of his building. he looks like a wild thing. a smattering of band-aids covering scabbing, knobby knees. overgrown hair that hangs knotted in his eyes. a dirty smudge near his nose. gangly colt legs thrown over the edge of a dilapidated couch. he’s alone. some might say he’s too young to be alone, but he’d brustle up defensive at that. independent. biting off more than he can chew, but he’d rather swallow it down and half-choke than risk his pride and spit it back up. there’s a children’s cartoon projected up from an old holo-box sitting on a coffee table. sometimes it fritzes, and he stretches out a leg to thwack it with his heel. every ten minutes it seems like there’s a run of commercials hoping to sell him synthetically flavored juice. eventually, he loses patience and separates himself from the show, slips outside the door. some might say he’s too young to be running around the streets of elysium on his own. jinsol would cut them a smile, jagged and feral. a boy raised by chaos and the immediate impulses of a six-year-old.

21490714_jinsol.txt

jinsol’s youth is cut up into fractured pieces. the moments when his mother was there, and the moments when she wasn’t. his morals are ambiguous, lessons learned infrequent. and sometimes best avoided anyway. it depended on her mood, that’s what he learned. and it turned him desperate. seeking affection in a way that could turn near-violent. he’s a mirror image, in some ways. her reflection. has a constant needing for affection and validation. and when she gives, he takes. soaks it up. he likes it best when she’s at home with him, and jinsol babbles this out often. she regales stories in his ear, drifting off in the crook of her arm. humid ‘ i love you’s whispered against her neck, and she tells him just how much she loves him back. he can tell when she’s going to disappear by the look in her eyes. it’s like a lightswitch that only she can reach. a blank stare, or an emotion he can’t quite piece together yet, but he knows it’s bad. knows it makes him feel bad.

it’s resentment, but that’s a connection he makes later.

and then he’s on his own. raiding the fridge for non-perishables left behind and amusing himself. sometimes he skips school. it doesn’t matter, nobody notices he’s gone in the overcrowded classroom. wanders the streets instead, making friends with stray cats slipping through gaps of buildings too small a fit for most anyone else. a grand adventure, that’s what he’d tell himself to keep from feeling lonely. and then she’d come back, and it’d warm his bones. chase away that feeling. would try to grip to her with nails embedded into skin when he saw that look in her eyes. until he was pried off. he thinks he left scars, when he reminisces back nowadays, kept up late at night, sleepless. tries to reimagine his mother. but he can’t remember just how violent his longing for her to stay was.

21601130_jinsol.vrml

he’s older this time, pushing the bounds of maturity. stick-skinny still, and he drowns in his clothes. his hair is stained purple. so are the tips of his fingers. a smell of potent chemicals hang in the air, something nearly palpable. it’s either from the fresh dye or the burner he’s bent over. there’s a vial clamped above it. something bubbling and neon when the fluorescent flicker of the overhead light decides to work in brief moments of unsurity. his mother’s next to him, fingers tracing spirals up and down the line of his spine. every so often she redirects his hand. murmurs words into his ear. a palm pressed to the small of his back, and it’s nearly like a transferal. pressing magic into nerves. he doesn’t think it’s how it works, really. but it felt like it at the time, sitting in that tiny, cluttered apartment. a flicker of fire and warmth and belonging as his mother taught him secrets that were hoarded in his family. jinsol wonders if they’d ever been illustrious. if this strange magic ever mattered. there’s a sizzle-pop of a noise. a change in color. the vial’s removed from the fire. eventually, his mother tests it. he holds his breathe, waits to see if there will be a change in her eyes.

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jinsol loves and hates it. the knowledge he has, the strange way he can cut chemicals with magic. something that grows larger and more complex as he does. now though, all of seventeen, and he loves the connection it’s forged between him and his mother. the way she’ll gravitate back to him, pass down this strange family heirloom. and he hates it, because it robs him from her too. how she’ll twist herself up in these strange moods and slip out of his life. to find someone, something, more capable than him. more fulfilling. but he took those mismatched emotions and jammed them into his own ambitions. his mother had never really scratched past the surface of capabilities.

jinsol became obsessive, in the same manic way he tends to become obsessive about a lot of things he cares about. and with that same strange of caring, an emotion caught halfway between love and violence. he found ways to bottle bliss, press desire into pills. a manmade euphoria, and he expanded his experimentation as he got older. found a way to coax out truth from an unwilling tongue and an addled mind. trust from the wary, if only they’d swallow down some of his magic. how much of jinsol’s success is luck? if one knew what he could make, the obsessive lengths he’d go to carve out what he decided he was owed, it would be a laughable question.

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the setting’s changed in this memory. the apartment’s even smaller, and the window’s stuck. the corner doesn’t fit down all the way. a cold gust slips underneath everytime the wind howls, angry and cutting with frost. a worn curtain flutters. there’s hardly a point in it, it’s nearly transparent from sun damage. jinsol’s fingers are white from the cold. there’s a scattering of pills on a table. his hands are sticky with blood. so is his wrist. half-congealed. his face is white too, but he looks ghost-startled over cold. the shock of a situation that saps the life, leaves everything devoid of color. eventually he fumbles for an old shirt, jams it over his hand. the blade’s still visible, sticking out from his arm. his own blade. his own modification. he slipped it into the side of a client broke enough to think wiping out jinsol inventory might’ve been a good idea. a heavy-sounding curse falls from his lips. a messy swipe of his hands as he tries to collect everything upturned on the table. manic eyes and chattering teeth. a glamorous life. it’s what he yearns for. he can’t meet his own expectations.

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eventually, jinsol got sick of his mother’s dizzying circles that left them both lost. he moved out, on. hellbent on turning everything she taught him into a tool for himself. a way to crawl from the sheer desperation he seemed to live in. he craved opulence and wonder. awe and admiration. for all he’s seemingly worth now, jinsol’s initial endeavors were small, touch and go. dealt with the sorts of people that were elysium born and bred. namely: none too kind. but addiction’s a market all its own in this sort of place, and jinsol took advantage of it. he’s used his mod all of twice. a painful thing, and it’s left a scar. he doesn’t know what happened to either of the people on the other end of it. he’s callous enough to wish them dead. human enough that he wakes up in cold-sweat at four in the morning sometimes wondering if he’s a murderer.

it took a while to work his way up, and maybe he used some underhanded methods. doses meant to coax out secrets, understanding, trust. worked his way up and out of what seemed to be closets advertised as apartments. until he could afford a better supply, turned his brand into a necessity. ended up getting to know some bigger players around elysium. tried so very hard to pick up his mother’s mantle – to continue that endless, pointless quest of building a perfect life.

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jinsol looks almost garish. almost. draped in twined gold necklaces and delicate rings stacked along the lines of his knuckles. catch him in the right light of the fluorescent club-shifting-neon and he might glimmer like imitation sunlight. a white silk shirt and bottle service tucked away in a back corner of the afterlife. he has money, and he wears it like bragging rights. but he thrives on it. the stares. the attention. jealous, wanting. he craves it as much as people seem to crave his drugs. a symbiotic relationship. music thrums too loud around the room. enough to shake at bones. he spins a pill between he knuckles, and his eyes follow it. like he’s considering slipping it underneath his tongue. eventually, it’s pocketed. he doesn’t want to be his mother – as losing a battle as it seems to be.

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twenty-five and he’s managed to carve out his own legacy. something built on the backs of vices. exploitative to be sure. but he’d argue a necessary one. doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy? he’s got connections, buyers, more than enough clients that he’s long ago been able to afford to move into an apartment with more than one room. he likes old school opulence. likes gold and velvet. likes paper-thin silk shirts, the subdued glimmer of diamonds. maybe he’d have more money if he didn’t waste it all so carelessly. it slips like water from his fingers. jewelry, furniture, perfumes, alcohol. anything that catches his whims, the unhoned impulse controls he’s given into all is life, only now he has the means for bigger mistakes.

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jinsol’s sprawled out on a couch. crushed velvet. it’d look lavish if not for the blotchy purpled wine stain near one arm of it. music spirals from a metal-boxed contraption in the corner. there’s a blanket tossed on top of it, maybe to hide a hologram it’s meant to simultaneously project. every time he takes a breath, it sounds wet. like pneumonia’s made a home from his lungs. his eyes are unfocused, and there’s a sheen of sweet on his brow. laid out next to him are vials in a shimmering variety of colors. an uncapped bottle of something that smells potent and alcoholic. there’s a retch of a noise, but nothing comes out. he rolls to his side and nearly topples. a manic laugh follows him.

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new creations are in need of a willing test subjects. that’s what he tells himself, to keep himself from reflecting that warped image of his mother. bad habits catch up to him, pile up. he ignores the repercussions. it feels, sometimes, like he grew up wrong. like he’s constantly searching and seeking and coming up empty handed. but what he’s searching for is unknown, and without a name. despite it, he tries to continue his image of faux-perfection. what else is there to live for in the wasteland that is elysium?

#neobio #neoapollo #neo lee taemin

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machinakrpx · 5 years ago

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>> OPEN SONG JINSOL’S FILE …

:// AGE — 27 :// OCCUPATION — drug chemist :// CLASS —native

>> LOADING DEVELOPMENT …

:// MAGIC —

:// MODIFICATIONS —

despite being an elysium native and building a large enough business that he has more means than most, jinsol doesn’t have many body modifications to speak of. just two.

>> LOADING BIOGRAPHY …

tw: blood, drugs

RETRIEVING MEMORY…

21430102_sooji.vrml

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jinsol’s youth is cut up into fractured pieces. the moments when his mother was there, and the moments when she wasn’t. his morals are ambiguous, lessons learned infrequent. and sometimes best avoided anyway. it depended on her mood, that’s what he learned. and it turned his desperate. seeking affection in a way that could turn near-violent. he’s a mirror image, in some ways. her reflection. has a constant needing for affection and validation. and when she gives, he takes. soaks it up. he likes it best when she’s at home with him, and jinsol babbles this out often. she regales stories in his ear, drifting off in the crook of her arm. humid ‘ i love you’s whispered against her neck, and she tells him just how much she loves him back. he can tell when she’s going to disappear by the look in her eyes. it’s like a lightswitch that only she can reach. a blank stare, or an emotion he can’t quite peace together yet, but he knows it’s bad. knows it makes him feel bad.

it’s resentment, but that’s a connection he pieces together later.

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#neobio #neoapollo #neo lee taemin

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andalynnamass1997 · 5 years ago

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Cat Urine Smells Sweet Prodigious Diy Ideas

While nursing she can recommend shampoos, foams, dips, sprays, oral and topical medications are recommended for owners of cats will get sick.They will try to find out what works best in cats.But the protein contained in the house and affect other animals and people too.Put in the vicinity to catch you cat has soiled in another home.

There are several reputable pet enzyme cleaner that's specifically manufactured to attack the problems as well, so much a case that the cat was trapped.They're simply doing something to scratch where you cat far outweigh the con's for both female and male cats that are necessary once you come home from a water park, they decided to create some entertainment for your cat soaks in your life.To show him the correct medication suitable for cat owners and do the nasty deed once again.Brushing helps to have them catch and remove the smell, but when a person and a cover for just this purpose.These programs do, however, require the smallest amount?

When you see because it needs to be kept refrigerated, as pets like the best flea and tick infestations.Outside they usually get on the whole selection of sizes, designs and colors but just because the cat to do a good pair of tweezers or applying Vaseline over the stained area and turn it on.I also started to slowly walk around barefoot - ouch!So, we have helped me keep peace in your home.Bones and treats, water play area, meet and greet area!

Here's what you can slip out the front paws and use it if it was very pleased that it never happens again.As a last resort, you can start to mark your house without accidents in no cross infestation.With only an undetectable microchip on them, it is important to know that they will think you or your cat, it is sold in a place to start cat training is when they detect motion so you and your pet, but we got him fixed.Their eyes look so evil that it is likely to strayIt is also possible for other infections.

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In the past, animal shelters and adopted.a changed cat...Whenever the cat at the cat's natural behavior allows them to a small amount, this is the norm in my family, and for the deodorizing process, open all your cats favorite spot to scratch the area.The pigment is urochrome, and then blot with a squirt of it.You can do to is stop them from Lymes disease also show visible symptoms.Some cats are put-off by the time to play for long periods of time.

Many shelters will vaccinate, deworm, test for feline asthma is usually treated with special instructions on how many cats in your cat.If it's wood floors your cat doing its business next time.The real secret is to make your cat neutered is in a flash and without some form of training is that the best solution to do with any possible damage and there are a number of cat litter boxes available in a limited amount of time.Or something to which cat, you probably love the rustle-y noises it makes, because they are trained accordingly, they are bored stiff they will be important.Next, get some rubbing alcohol neutralizes the odor-causing residue so that the counter is off limits.

Some cats are notoriously devious in their routine.Many cats turn up their noses or their children are allergic or are keen on getting a larger litter box in a product called Nail Caps you can do to protect the furniture and other areas they are not.They help keep them sharp and extremely painful to pass through life without at least a half hour it took years to about ten.If you have carpets, remember to treat the padding, and if you want to consider when getting into trouble with your cat when it comes to his or her own smell and make them stop scratching altogether.However, it does is release a scent and making a protective film of antiparasitic solution on carpets too, but a result humans don't like cold weather.

12 Year Old Cat Blood In Urine

It is also good right now as it can not do the same with the process.If you catch your cat the ability to establish a bond between you both.A few buy scratching posts, and even fight cancer and will return to the vet's office.Most love being given attention in the first sign of illness in a while will drink lots of toys made nowadays with catnip and why she is not too loud or startling because that does not have success with every option suggested in this context is that you have any doubts, you should consult a vet for a fact of life.Furthermore, Catnip can be a difficult problem to put an end to the skin and will get sprayed.

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Since the job of keeping a cat pet training.We have had a very sensitive to the end you find your cats get along with Pyometritis.Afterwards, sprinkle some of the problems, you are using bleach in your house.Check these things and get him familiar with your cat spayed and you will find your feline friend a safe outlet for your cat from jumping up on anything above their typical position on the floor.If you have sprayed it, you found this article.

If you expect to be understood but in general the only sign but an acute crisis can occur in a new piece of furniture litter boxes in the house or otherwise shy away from them as a tub.Another reason why ceramic fountains are so many types of behaviors may easily be seen with the same effect on our laps, curled up with them using the litter training goes smoothly and easily teach your cat is an indoor pet or play time.This will go in cat pet training, it must be able to rigorously keep on climbing and perching, since cats naturally scratch and claw your new pet can prevent them from clawing the furniture that didn't cost you less than what you are not for kittens.It involves a male cat go outside and generally make your life easier for the shortest time possible.I am not a corner when they are in the area.

Cat Spray Male

They are really very clean creatures, they purr, they cuddle and they don't bark and cause the problem with mites and fleas is that every cat owner.become aggressive and territorial, will roam less and, thankfully, won't spray that is recommended that you spray on your cat, he will just seep through the same way their wild heritage than dogs.Although the most common vaccinations given are for cat flu, feline leukemia and urinary infection.With one part white vinegar onto the garden as the act of scratching and spraying.Otherwise, you might find that it is sometimes difficult to locate.

Excessive noise in a while to whatever treatment your vet to recommend the best course of playing with you, just as well as heartbreak if the cats in the tens of millions.Some devises approach the cat an article of furniture, hardwood flooring, etc. Once the animal with Insecticide products designed for eliminating odorA great game to him and he loved every minute of it.Both techniques remove her access to your home as well as the herb form and most loving things you need fancy devises that cost more then over doing it on and what side effects to look deeper into the padding underneath.Cassie will gently nip me if I get too upset to continue to strain when nothing comes out in the household.

#Cat Urine Smells Sweet Prodigious Diy Ideas #Cat Peeing Floor

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strike-back-now-info · 5 years ago

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The Top 10 Health Scares Of The Decade

The Top 10 Health Scares Of The Decade - ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Decade/top-10-health-scares-past-10-years/story?id=9249373 Bottom of Form

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��The Top 10 Health Scares Of The Decade

The Medical Unit breaks down what kept you up nights the past 10 years.

JOSEPH BROWNSTEIN<br />ABC News Medical Unit

December 4, 2009, 10:44 AM

Dec. 7, 2009— -- While the past decade has seen great strides in medical technology, it hasn't seen solutions to all of our health problems.

There were novel viruses that threatened to kill us all. There were toxins in our children's toys, and we were told to worry about the junk they were eating.

Some of these threats turned out to be almost nonexistent. Others were arguably overblown. Some caused widespread harm.

So what new threats have been robbing you of sleep since the annual odometer rolled over from 1999 to 2000? Join us as we take a look at the top ten new threats of the last ten years.

1. Swine Flu (H1N1)

Since it came to public attention in the United States in April, the largest health scare of 2009 has been swine flu.

While other forms of the virus typically peak in February and largely affect the elderly, this strain of the H1N1 flu virus came out of season and mostly affected younger people.

In June, the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, meaning that it was widespread on multiple continents.

Manufacturers began producing vaccine at the end of the spring, but there were shortages nationwide, even late into the fall.

While the majority of cases of the flu have been mild, thousands of American deaths have been attributed to the virus.

But no matter the severity, many health experts agree there are lessons to be learned.

"We just have to note, and this was a bit scary, that when H1N1 came along in communities... our capacity to take care of [patients] was stretched," said Dr. William Schaffner, Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "We don't have a lot of reserve in the health care system anymore."

2. Bisphenol A (BPA)

While much of the alarm over the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA for short, has come lately, scientists have been looking at it for years.

In January of 2000, an article in the Journal of the American Dental Association discussed how BPA -- which is used in some dental sealants -- was not found at detectible levels in the body more than a few hours after the treatments.

Since then, studies have shown the chemical to cause birth defects in lab animals, and even create some problems in humans in high doses. The chemical, used in household plastics, has also been found in babies, leading to increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies.

But while we know it is present in humans and can create problems at high levels, it remains unclear what the effect of BPA is in humans at lower doses.

"I would say that there's growing evidence that it is a significant concern, but it's not clear yet how much of a concern," said Joel Schwartz, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. "There's a lot of things that still need to be understood, but there's certainly enough things to say, 'Yes, this is something that needs to be on our radar screen.'"

3. Lead Paint On Toys From China

In 2007, a number of products made in China were recalled -- but perhaps the recall that drew the most attention was of children's toys containing lead paint, including some from the popular Thomas the Tank Engine line.

The problem wasn't so much one of scientific analysis as it was of enforcement.

"We do know that lead is bad for you," said Schwartz. "Kids and toys are a bad place to put that exposure together. That's a case where that's just outrageous."

The exact effects of the oversight are unknown, but it did shine a spotlight on imported goods.

"It's doing a little more to make sure this stuff doesn't keep slipping in," said Schwartz.

4. Trans-Fats

Concern over trans-fats -- found in such crowd-pleasing but doctor-disapproved foods as doughnuts and French fries -- came to a head in 2006, when New York City became the first city to ban trans-fats from restaurants.

"The issue became viral, and a lot of it was related to population studies that came out of Harvard University," said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "The problem with them is they tend to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol."

In response to doctors' concerns, most trans-fats have been removed from food products -- but in many cases they may have been replaced by saturated fat, which can also be harmful in excess.

Ayoob said trans-fats were "an easy whipping post."

Trans-fats may have disappeared because they were easy to replace with other ingredients. And ultimately, the virtual disappearance of trans-fats may be a better testament to the power of economics in responding to consumer demand than that of regulation responding to public complaints.

"It's box office poison now, is what it is. No one really wants to list that on an ingredient list," said Ayoob. "That's one where the food industry responded much more quickly than government ever would have. It just didn't pay to keep it in there."

5. Bird Flu (H5N1)

This year's swine flu pandemic wasn't the first time Americans were concerned with a strain of flu named for an animal.

At the beginning of the decade, avian influenza was a concern in Southeast Asia because of the devastation it was causing in chicken populations. But concerns soon arose about its spread to humans and the possibility it would mutate into a form that could spread from person to person.

"These new influenza viruses usually are modified viruses that come from birds, and now, we know, swine," said Schaffner. "We know that influenza viruses change on an annual basis... The world's population will be or will virtually be completely susceptible."

But concerns over avian flu did have one positive effect for the flu vaccine industry, which has been maligned for its reliance on old technologies to create the vaccine each year. Because antigens for flu vaccines are grown in chicken eggs, it was hard to develop a vaccine for a virus that was deadly to birds, and so work had to be done to begin developing a means of creating antigen without using eggs.

Although the new manufacturing processes are not available yet, "It was exactly H5N1 bird flu that stimulated a number of new ways to create new vaccine," said Schaffner. "What we see now actually came forward as a consequence of all that concern with H5N1."

6. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

SARS was the first novel virus to captivate the world's attention this decade after it was identified by the World Health Organization in February 2003.

The respiratory infection was first reported in Asia and then spread to North America, South America and Europe before being contained.

Like influenza, the virus could spread through airborne particles, but it was far more deadly when it infected someone. According to the WHO, 8,096 people were infected worldwide. 774 people died. The virus receded by the end of 2003.

"SARS-like infections, I think, epitomize the emerging infectious diseases," said Schaffner. As for whether the strain could re-emerge, he said, "My crystal ball is pretty cloudy about that... Trying to anticipate whether it would come back or not would be very, very difficult."

7. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

MRSA is the best-known of a number of bacteria that resist many of the antibiotics used to treat them. The emergence of MRSA and other bacteria has been blamed on a combination of heavy use of antibiotics and a lack of incentives for drug companies, leaving these bacteria, as Schaffner calls it, "a real, very vital threat"

Schaffner said the existence of these bacteria puts responsibility on both food producers and people who would use antibiotics to be more prudent. But he also said the problem could be compounded by the fact that there is currently little financial incentive for drug companies to devise new antibiotics that could fight the threat.

"Clearly, pharma sees the development of new antibiotics to help us treat these drug-resistant infections as high-risk and low-profit," said Schaffner. "I can think of no new product in any line of industry that, once it's released, the experts in that area say, 'Don't use it,' and that's the circumstance when any new antibiotic is created."

MRSA is not untreatable, but when using the stronger antibiotics for it, "You get yourself into a very restricted corner," Schaffner said. "You get patients to whom these drugs are incredibly toxic or you may need to keep patients in the hospital rather than send them home."

8. Hormone Replacement Therapy

At the start of the decade, millions of women were using hormone replacement therapy to relieve unpleasant symptoms of menopause. It was also used prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures, and heart disease as well.

But as early as 2000, some doctors were recommending against the treatment because of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggesting that it increased the risk of breast cancer.

That alarm greatly increased in 2002 when researchers cut short the Women's Health Initiative study of the treatment, citing concerns over heart problems and strokes in women in the study who received HRT.

Some researchers supported the decision to stop the study, leading many women to stop their HRT, but others felt that it discouraged women who should continue the treatments. Meanwhile, studies have come out with contradictory findings, further confusing women who were unsure what to do. Controversy over HRT continued in 2008, when the International Menopause Society released new guidelines saying that HRT was effective for post-menopausal symptoms and should be considered by women and their physicians.

Following the release of the new guidelines, ABC News contributor Dr. Marie Savard wrote a column for this site in which she tried to clear up some of the confusion.

"There is no question that for a woman with severe hot flashes, sleep disturbance and an annoyingly dry vagina, nothing else works as well as estrogen," Savard wrote. "But the risks of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots from estrogen are hard to ignore... So once again, women are asked to balance the benefits of hormones with the risks and make the best decision for them."

9. Anthrax

After the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001, five people died after inhaling anthrax bacteria sent through the mail.

But the public at large had little to fear from a tainted envelope.

"That was obviously not a major health problem but a significant problem for a small number of people who have been getting exposed," said Schwartz. "I think the primary concern was this might be being used to kill some people."

Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, among other public figures, had letters mailed to their offices containing anthrax.

No one was ever convicted of sending the letters, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly planned to charge government researcher Bruce Ivins in the case before he committed suicide in the summer of 2008.

10. Cell Phones

As cell phones became more popular this past decade, concerns over the radiation they emit -- and what effect they might have on human health -- have proliferated. Some have worried that their use may be linked to the development of brain tumors.

Thus far, however, most research suggests there is little to worry about.

Animal studies have shown that magnetic fields can affect melatonin levels, so while radiation only shows up in low levels, it's unclear what effect it has on humans. And a Scandinavian study released last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute confirmed what many have been saying about cell phone safety, showing no increase in brain cancer among cell phone users.

"Whether they do something worth worrying about, that's another question," said Schwartz. Similar questions are raised about high-voltage power lines, but Schwartz urged calm. "It seems to be an issue where it hasn't completely resolved, but I would say the evidence is that if something is going on it's not that big."

Of course, cell phones present an unquestioned safety hazard to Americans, but not for reasons related to radiation. Studies have shown that their use while driving poses a very real hazard.

"That's pretty clear -- talking on a cell phone and driving is like driving drunk," said Schwartz. "The radiation effects -- that doesn't look like that's a major public health issue. That doesn't look very compelling."

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Mack McConnell of Taster’s Club, a brand that sells craft spirits enthusiast membership.Some stats:Product: Craft spirits enthusiast membership.Revenue/mo: $270,000Started: October 2012Location: Brooklyn, NYFounders: 1Employees: 3Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hey! I’m Mack McConnell, founder of Taster’s Club, a subscription service for people who are curious to learn about and taste amazing craft spirits. Each month we send our members the most interesting spirits we can get our hands on and teach them all about it.We originally started with just whiskey, but we’ve since expanded into 12 different tracks: whiskey, bourbon, scotch, tequila, rum, gin, vodka, wine or “stock the bar” (includes all the above). Regardless of what track a member chooses, what makes us special is not only that we source the best stuff from under-represented, amazing craft distillers across the world, but that we teach our members all about these spirits to give them the 360° experience of what they’re drinking.I started Taster’s Club back in 2012, alone, from my room in San Francisco. I’ll never forget the feeling of getting that first subscriber, realizing that this idea might have legs. We’ve been lucky to have grown to share what we do with more and more people.The business has come so far but we still run a very lean team comprised of independent contractors (equivalent of 3 full-timers) and we’re doing about $270K/month in revenue. We’re just excited to keep doing what we love, sharing what we love with anyone who will give it a try.imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Back in 2012, I was living in San Francisco, working at a big tech company and got the bug to launch a business that aligns with my passions. At the same time, I was getting fascinated with craft spirits from across the world and also became obsessed with reading and learning about them.As I kept on buying/trying new stuff, it became obvious that the process of discovering spirits is old and boring; most people go to the store and probably pick out whatever it is they had last (or, even worse, something they saw a commercial for!). I wanted to create a way for people to get spirits that was more exciting, convenient and encourages discovery. I was getting stoked about this stuff and I wanted to bring people along with me.Taster’s Club got its first subscriber in its first month; I was thrilled. I knew what I was trying to do might have legs but had to do it as a side-hustle. I moved to Paris, was working as a developer at a startup and was able to quit and work on it full-time around Taster’s Club’s first birthday.This was mostly possible at the time because I was a bit of a swiss army knife, able to do most things on my own (web/app development, operations, design, operations, sales, marketing, negotiating with suppliers, etc..), except warehousing/shipping.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.Because alcohol is so heavily regulated, we had no choice but to work with third party, licensed warehouse/shippers to work within certain states, which conveniently answered some key questions upfront (dropship or hold inventory?).We began with select shippers only in select states. We were able to find them simply by figuring out who the leading e-commerce sites were working with.Finding a reliable means of serving customers in all 50 states has been a challenge from the start. Shipping alcohol directly to consumers requires a special kind of business license, and in many cases requires you to have a unique license for each state you’d like to serve. The “strictness” of regulations also varies widely from state-to-state, which means that trying to fulfill orders at scale would be a tedious, manual process if we took everything on ourselves. This made the decision between self-fulfillment and drop-shipping very simple.It was going to be prohibitively complicated and expensive to fulfill orders ourselves within the boundaries of the law, so we decided to work with third party vendors who were already licensed, insured, and willing to order, hold, and ship products on our behalf.To find these partners, we researched the current e-commerce sites that were delivering alcohol to their customers and reverse-engineered which states they were shipping to and how they were fulfilling orders.( Note: These sites were basically online catalogs where customers could buy one-off bottles, not a subscription model like we had in mind.)We started with one or two fulfillment partners and just a handful of “states served” and then expanded out as our revenue and customer base grew. As our transaction volume increased, so did our likelihood of landing new partnerships and getting more beneficial pricing terms.We had some of the early challenges were around consistency of customer experience and planning. We were essentially responsible for the customer experience, but it was being administered by various, distributed retailers. For example, sometimes the bottle we needed would be available at retailer A, but we needed it at retailer B, etc.. Or we would run out of our custom boxes (which were expensive when we were small!) at one retailer but didn’t plan properly at the other because of unplanned demand. We just didn’t have the resources to handle the complexity (was just me back then!), so our solution was just to put all customers on one monthly schedule, so everyone would get shipments on the same day every month, even if that means waiting 3 weeks to get your first shipment. It serendipitously worked out: customers didn’t mind, I were able to plan inventory more intelligently and focus on growing the business.Bottles broken in transit, late arrivals, missed delivery attempts (signature required for shipment!), etc. are part of the struggle. Every “fire” requires extra effort to put out because we have to be the middleman between the customer and the retailer operating behind the scenes.The bottles we were sending members early on were easy to choose because – being a huge spirits fan – I just took people through a list of my personal favorites. Making the educational material that accompanied each bottle was cinch because most of it was stuff I (being a spirits geek) already knew. Remember, I was really just making a service that I would have wanted to find a year prior.Describe the process of launching the business.imageOur first website was based off a Wordpress template built for restaurant menus I was able to sort of edit to look close enough to what I imagined, making plenty of design sacrifices to launch fast and on the cheap.A happy accident was that because we had to work with distributed retailers, we were able to make it so we didn’t need to buy product upfront, just according to orders that came in. So, the business literally required no capital to start, aside from the cost of the URL and Wordpress template. The business has continued that way, funded from its own profit.An important lesson I learned is that launching fast and lean was important because it allowed us to be the first to market (now there’s over 50 alcohol-related subscription services), let us define the category and gave important early lessons.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?What really worked for us is to stick to our mission: getting people excited about craft spirits. Just like any business, we made a million small decisions along the way, and to our credit, I think we did a good job at staying focused on the impact we were trying to bring to our members.With respect to growth , we’ve found some success with paid advertising, social media, content marketing, and email.Our general recommendation is to segment your audience and speak directly to their specific needs/interests. You might be surprised to learn that vodka aficionados are very different from whiskey connoisseurs in both language and behavior. Tailoring our message to specific audiences has dramatically increased engagement.Some of the segments we have created include: club type (Ex: whiskey, vodka, rum, etc.), active members, past members, self-purchasers, gift givers, gift recipients, non-members, new members (first 45 days), and recently cancelled members (last 7 days).We also have the ability to create new segments on the fly using information stored in our member database. For example, if there is a snowstorm forecasted to pummel the Northeast, we can pull all active members in the affected states and let them know that their shipment will likely be delayed due to inclement weather.Customer segmentation is a huge advantage for us because it allows us to personalize our email marketing to address the specific context and needs of an individual member. Where most ecommerce stores would just push out an “email blast” to their entire list around Christmas, we’re able to say something like this instead:“Hey John* ,*Christmas is right around the corner...can you believe it?!Last year you bought Jane Smith* a* 6-month subscription* to our* Whiskey of the Month* club. It looks like the subscription ran out in June, but we thought she might have loved it so much that she would enjoy getting it again this year.*If you’re still looking for the perfect gift, we’ve got an active promotion going on that will save you $15 off your first bottle when you start or renew a gift subscription.Interested? Click here to cross Jane* off your Christmas list.”*Each of those bolded phrases is an area that can be automatically tailored to the recipient based on the information we have in our customer database. That means we write a single email template and our marketing software does all of the personalization for us.Now, which campaign do you think gets more opens, click, and conversions? The generic “shotgun blast” email template that delivers the same message to everybody or the highly targeted, timely, contextual pitches that we’re using?HINT: It’s not the first one.Another recent win for us was layering in an abandoned cart sequence. It took half a day to set up, gets a 43% open rate and almost a 5% conversion rate. Free money!By far, our best growth tactic is providing an outstanding customer experience, from the order process to receiving their first bottle to the unlikely event of needing to contact support. Word of mouth referrals are extremely powerful and we earn them every day by going above and beyond for our members.The bulk of our traffic comes from organic search, which is the result of years of just “showing up,” building relationships, and publishing great content that people in our target audience actually want to read and share. Thanks to our content strategy and our PR efforts, we hold the top rank(s) for several high traffic keywords that have a specific purchase intent, which means that we get a fair amount of qualified site visitors that actually have a strong likelihood of converting to members.We also get a substantial amount of traffic from high profile referral sources like Esquire Magazine, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and Whiskey Advocate. This is often a spotlight feature of our product offering or inclusion in a “Best Gifts for _____” piece. The latter is an especially nice opportunity, because most publications will update these from year-to-year and carry over the best ideas, so we end up seeing a regular bump in traffic around the same time each year.Paid advertising (search and social media) rounds out our biggest traffic sources, but it’s a much smaller piece of the pie. We don’t typically invest a lot in advertising outside of holiday seasons and special events, because we haven’t needed the extra boost.To make sure that our traffic continues to increase year over year, we’re doubling down on the things that are working (Ex: blogging, on-page optimization, and PR) while also exploring new channels like influencer marketing, sponsorships, and affiliate programs.With respect to retention , our focus on the customer experience helps with that as well. Our members renew their subscriptions at a high rate because we prioritize reliable service and helpful support every step of the way.We have also tried to turn new members into repeat purchasers by launching a members-only bottle shop where they can buy additional bottles of their favorite past selections. These one-off sales are a growing part of our total revenue and help us liquidate any excess inventory.Finally, we try to layer in stories and real-world experiences wherever possible. We publish spotlights of featured distilleries and do a deep dive into their history and processes. Here are a few examples we published for Cotswolds Distillery, Cleveland Whiskey, and Laws Whiskey House.When customers get to know the people behind the product, whether that’s Taster’s Club itself or the producers of the spirits we select, there is a natural connection that starts to form and makes them less likely to churn.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?We’re profitable and 100% of our sales are done through our online store.We serve thousands of members each month in every state except Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah.We start processing orders on the 1st of the month and have an internal goal of getting everyone a “bottle in hand” by the 15th of the month.We have a team comprised of marketing, member happiness, operations, and editorial staff. James Sowers is running the company these days and is doing an amazing job.We recently launched a new wine club just in time for Mother’s Day 2019 (LINK) and have a list of other clubs/regions we’d like to grow into over the long term.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?We really benefited from a couple of intersecting trends when we were getting started: subscription services and craft spirits. We were really in the right place at the right time.Regarding partnerships, one of the best decisions we’ve made is to partner with the craft distillers we love most. We’ve been able to make countless collaborations with distilleries, so Taster’s Club members often get bottles that are only available through our club. It’s been a great source of acquisition for people to know that we are the only places some of these collaboration releases are available.A lesson I learned was not building a robust team fast enough. We eventually got there, but it took me a few years when we frankly could have done it sooner. In the meantime, I was driving myself crazy doing everything from web development to customer service to sales to operations. I frankly had a lot of burnout around year 4 I had to recover from. It was such a game changer for the business when we hired Andrew, our amazing Director of Operations.What platform/tools do you use for your business?Website: Custom, Ruby on RailsMember Shop: Shopify, Back In StockBlog: WordpressPayments/Subscription Management: StripeOrder/Inventory Management: MailParserEmail Marketing: Customer.ioReferral Campaign: iReferSocial Media: RecurpostPayment Recovery:** **ProfitWell RetainCustomer Support: HelpScoutCustomer Happiness: AskNicelyProcess Automation: ZapierWhat have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?My mom is my biggest single inspiration in entrepreneurship. I’ve watched her do some amazing stuff, most recently found and run her non-profit Let It Be Us to increase adoption in the foster care population in Illinois.She taught me to do things that are important and to stay focused on them. Aside from her I try to surround myself with people that inspire me and can act as a sounding board, entrepreneurs and people with other diverse experiences.Other than people, my favorite book for entrepreneurs is The Four Steps to the Epiphany, which helps demystify the process of finding product market fit.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Do the thing you can’t stop thinking about.Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.Have separation between you and your project. If it fails, it doesn’t mean you failed. This is the mindset that makes it easy to try again.Even under tight constraints (day job, family etc…) don’t underestimate the impact of focused, continuous work, even done a little at a time, every night for a year.Where can we go to learn more?TastersClub.comFacebook.com/tastersclubtwitter.com/tastersclubhttps://www.instagram.com/tastersclub/If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

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benrleeusa · 7 years ago

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[John K. Ross] Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.

Friends, Indiana's Constitution requires the revenue from "all forfeitures" to go to schools. But police and prosecutors in Indianapolis keep millions of dollars in forfeiture proceeds for their agencies, and a state trial court judge recently ruled that's okay because "all forfeitures" does not include civil forfeitures. This week, we asked the Indiana Supreme Court to take the case. Click here to read more.

In 2016, FTC staff issue "informal" letter that raises specter of $1 mil per month penalties for robocallers who use soundboards, a heretofore legal technology that helps manage multiple calls, enables callers to use pre-recorded audio clips. D.C. Circuit: The letter is not a final agency action; it's too soon to sue. Dissent: Plaintiffs may not be the most sympathetic, but the feds ought "not be able to transmogrify the mantle of 'staff advice' into both a sharp regulatory sword and a shield from judicial review."

Atlanta, Ga. nursing home employee testifies she did not vote her conscience in union election after someone in a crowd of demonstrators says, "If you don't vote yes for the Union, we will fuck you up." NLRB: More likely bravado or exuberance than an actual threat. D.C. Circuit: No need to revisit the NLRB's decision not to set aside the election result.

In "lesson straight out of the school of hard knocks," a sympathetic plaintiff—who was beaten over the head while on the job (causing PTSD, severe depression) and then denied an accommodation (fixed hours rather than rotating shifts)—cannot prevail in his Americans with Disabilities Act suit against his employer, says the First Circuit. Working in rotating shifts is an essential part of his job, assistant manager at a fast food chainin Puerto Rico.

Piqued that three Muslim men refuse to serve as informants, FBI agents place them on the "no fly" list. Second Circuit: The men can sue the officers for damages under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law enacted to protect religious liberty.

Taxi companies can't sue New York City over ridesharing, says the Second Circuit (citing a pair of IJ cases). Regulating Uber/Lyft differently than taxis doesn't violate equal protection, nor does due process protect cab companies against diminution in the value of their medallions. Moreover, the taxis can't proceed with their claim that said diminution is an unconstitutional taking of their property because they didn't first exhaust the claim in state court. State court (separate case, same claim, citing the same pair of IJ cases): Not an unconstitutional taking. (H/t: Daniel Lehmann.)

Lancaster County, Penn. man decides to deposit his life savings—$541k cash he'd previously kept at home—in bank. To avoid law requiring banks to report all cash transactions of $10k or more to the feds, he makes 58 deposits of under $10k at multiple banks. He's convicted of 58 counts of "structuring," gets 2–10 year sentence, and must forfeit all the money. Third Circuit: No constitutional problem there.

On receiving an application to operate a strip club, Rocky Mount, N.C.'s police chief must review "the entire body of municipal, state, federal, and common law" within 15 days so as to determine whether the applicant is in compliance. Fourth Circuit: Unconstitutional prior restraint. That gives the chief too much discretion.

Texas' revised voter ID law requires voters to either show photo ID or, under penalty of perjury, attest that obtaining photo ID is a hardship (for one of seven specified reasons). District court: The new law must be invalidated as the "tainted fruit" of the old, racially discriminatory law. Would-be voters may reasonably fear being prosecuted if their reading of what constitutes a hardship differs from prosecutors'. Fifth Circuit: Reversed. There's no evidence people are afraid to vote. People fill out forms under penalty of perjury all the time. Dissent: Forcing disproportionately African-American and Hispanic voters into a separate line to fill out extra paperwork is discriminatory.

At trial over allegedly defective hip implants, plaintiffs' attorney repeatedly emphasizes that two plaintiffs' experts, unlike the defense's, are testifying for free. The jury finds against the manufacturer and its parent company, which must pay $151 mil. But wait! The experts (surgeons who happen to be father and son) did not testify for free; plaintiffs' attorney concealed payments to them. District court: Yeah, but they only got paid a fraction of what defense witnesses got. Fifth Circuit: New trial. No $151 mil award. Separately, the district court also erred by allowing testimony about bribes to Saddam Hussein paid by another company (one of 265 in 60 countries and not a party to this litigation) owned by the parent company.

Officers enter Highland Park, Mich. pawn shop just before customer, decline to warn him they're responding to a silent burglar alarm. The robber shoots; the officers return fire and hit the customer in the buttocks. Sixth Circuit: The customer can't sue the officers.

Pet food packaging shows delectable lamb chops, steaks, and fish filets. But, you may (or may not) be surprised to learn, pet food is actually made from "trimmings," not prime cuts of meat. Sixth Circuit: "Puffery" is a fact of life. We see no problem here.

Two women laugh loudly in parked car, which draws the attention of Smyrna, Tenn. officer. A pat-down of one woman, who is not thrilled at being detained and speaks up about it, turns up a tiny bottle of liquor. Officers take her to ground, breaking her clavicle. Officer: After she kicked me. Woman: Didn't do that. Dashcam video: Inconclusive. State court: After confirming the women were laughing, not fighting, the officer shouldn't have continued the encounter. Dismiss all charges against her. Sixth Circuit: And she can sue for excessive force.

Train passenger opens his luggage for inspection by Nebraska officer, who then asks to reach into the bag. The passenger replies, "Um, I don't know why?" Not responding, the officer instead reaches in, finds contraband. Eighth Circuit (over a dissent): No need to suppress the evidence. The encounter was entirely voluntary and consensual.

University of Arkansas officials expel student, an Olympic long jumper, for sexual assault of fellow student. He's initially (mistakenly, say school officials) permitted to remain on campus for an additional semester, which would have allowed him to graduate. Eighth Circuit: Sovereign immunity does not bar the victim's Title IX suit against the school.

Los Angeles animal control: What are you keeping in those boxes? Homeless man: 18 pigeons, a crow, and a seagull. Animal control: *Takes the birds and kills most of them.* Ninth Circuit: Which would be fine, if the birds had been diseased or otherwise a danger to public health, but we are not convinced that was the case. Back to district court.

And in en banc news, the Ninth Circuit will not reconsider its holding that Montana's limits on campaign contributions are constitutional despite, says a dissent, a lack of evidence of the quid pro quo corruption the law is meant to address.

Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over $40k in cash from Anthonia Nwaorie, a registered nurse traveling from Houston to Nigeria, where she planned to use the money to open a medical clinic for women and children. Anthonia failed to declare the cash because she was unaware she was required to do so. (The requirement applies to departing travelers, but the gov't does little to publicize it (unlike a similar requirement for arriving travelers.)) However, CBP never charged Anthonia with a crime, nor did it initiate forfeiture before the 90-day deadline. So, by law, the money should automatically go back to her—and yet the CBP refuses to return it unless Anthonia waives her right to sue over the seizure. Today, Anthonia and IJ filed a federal class-action suit over the seizure and the CBP's practice of extracting unlawful settlement agreements from property owners. Click here to read more.

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Ray Moyers of HUSKYBEARD, a brand that sells beard care products.Some stats:Product: Beard care products.Revenue/mo: $3,500Started: November 2016Location: Queen Creek, AZFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Ray Moyers and I purchased Huskybeard 1 year ago, on June 15, 2018. Huskybeard manufactures all natural beard care products using only the highest quality ingredients sourced in the USA. All of our products are handmade in small batches to ensure the highest quality and longest shelf life.We mainly sell beard oils, beard balms, beard combs and beard brushes to bearded men. We have also found some success selling to women that want to introduce the bearded man in their life to the benefits of maintaining a healthy beard. We’ve had many women tell us that our products are the first beard products they’ve found that they like the smell of.I have had men that have used dozens of other products, and men that have used one product forever and refuse to use anything else, switch to Huskybeard because my products are “the best they’ve ever used.”imageHuskybeard has made an average of $3500.00 per month since I purchased it a year ago. This is a huge accomplishment when you consider the situation the company was in when I purchased it. I’ll get into that part of the story later in the interview.imageWhat's your backstory and what inspired you to acquire this new business?I am a serial entrepreneur. I’ve owned many companies. I’ve also had a myriad of full-time jobs with entrepreneurship as my side hustle. I’ve been looking for quite a while for an ecommerce business that I could purchase and grow to provide passive income for my family.At the time, I was working full time as the VP of Marketing for a shade sail company. I have 15 years of experience in web design, SEO, SEM, and online marketing.I needed to supplement my income to be able to provide for my wife and 6 kids so I started looking for an ecommerce business that fit the following criteria:It had to be an established business with sales history that had increased over time.It had to be in a niche I was interested in.The niche had to be a growing niche.It had to have a website that was good, but not optimized yet.It had to be generating enough income to justify the initial investment.It had to have a solid social presence.My plan was to purchase the existing business, redesign and optimize the heck out of the website (because that’s what I am already good at) and manage the day-to-day operations while the business grew.I found Huskybeard on the Shopify Exchange Market and it seemed like it checked all of the boxes for what I was looking for. Huskybeard had a solid sales history, a loyal customer base, the website was good but needed to be optimized, and the beard care niche was blowing up. It was a perfect fit.imageI purchased Huskybeard for $50,000.00. This seemed like a great bargain considering the $120,000.00 revenue the business claimed to have made over the previous 12-month timeframe.Take us through the process of acquiring the business and taking it over.Acquiring a business through the Shopify Exchange is pretty simple and straightforward. After looking through the listing, if you like what you see, you simply click on the button to make an offer and the process begins. If the seller accepts your offer, the sale goes into escrow at escrow.com you have a 10 day due diligence period where you communicate with the seller and make sure you’re comfortable with the deal. If you’re comfortable, the buyer pays escrow.com directly and holds the funds until the owner delivers the product (in this case, the product was Huskybeard.com, all social accounts, and all existing inventory). Once the buyer confirms they have received everything, escrow.com is notified and the funds are released to the seller.Huskybeard already had a solid offering of 10 oil scents, a few brushes, and one wildly popular folding comb when I purchased it. I was led to believe that the owner manufactured the oils himself. Come to find out, he was using a fulfillment company to manufacture and ship his products.The good news is, this manufacturer makes everything by hand in small batches and does a FANTASTIC job. They are incredible. They are the secret sauce behind my oils and balms. The formulas they use to manufacture my products are unique and amazing. 7 of the original oils were formulas that the original owner created.The other 3 were formulas provided by my manufacturer and fulfillment partners. Over the past year, I also purchased Black Tie Beard, a much smaller beard company with unique oil scents, and added their 5 scents to my product line bringing the total to 15 oils.imageAnother popular product on Huskybeard.com is the folding comb. Within days of purchasing Huskybeard, I quickly found out that the folding comb, that was by far the best selling product that Huskybeard offered, and that was solely responsible for the $12,000.00/month average revenue the previous owner claimed, was a piece of junk that fell apart after a few days of use.The comb was sourced from a cheap supplier in China and was severely lacking in quality. Every customer that purchased the original folding comb asked for a refund or exchange. I immediately removed the comb from my website and refused to sell it ever again.imageThe backlash from the sales of the sandalwood folding comb was insane. I spent the first few months as owner working all day, every day, trying to take care of thousands of upset customers. I was replacing and offering refunds on a product that I never received any revenue from. This was the most difficult challenge I had ever had to deal with.After about 6 months of hard work and a laser focus on customer service, complaints and requests for refunds on the comb subsided and I was able to catch my breath. I found a supplier in the Netherlands that makes a folding comb that is much higher quality, but costs 10 times as much to procure.I am committed to only offering high-quality products at Huskybeard, so the extra cost is worth it. The new comb is expensive, but it has received dozens of 5-star reviews. Customers that have purchased multiple folding combs in the past state that the new comb is the best they’ve ever used. The new comb can be found on my site here, and will be in stock for as long as Huskybeard is in business.imageHow have you improved the business since acquisition?As soon as I purchased the business, I got to work redesigning the site and optimizing it for organic traffic.This was easy for me since I have an extensive background of over 15 years doing web design and optimization. I like clean design that offers the customer a pain-free shopping experience. To start, I redesigned the homepage. The original homepage design consisted of a large header that took up at least ⅓ of the page above the fold, a simple text slogan, and then product after product until the bottom of the page.Old site:imageI dumped the header and added a call to action for new products. I kept the text area below the call to action, but changed the text to be keyword specific and more relevant to the brand image I wanted to create. Next, I added category callouts for each of my main product categories. I added a section for Instagram content that updates automatically with fresh content from my IG. Finally, I ended the page with a contact section so that customers don’t have to search for a way to contact me. This immediately helped with resolving the poor customer service Huskybeard had been known for. Customers could now see that I wanted to hear from them, and I wanted to help them have the best experience on my site. I also changed the color scheme of the site. There’s a well known design rule that the old site was breaking. The rule is “NEVER USE RED BUTTONS.” Our brains have been conditioned that red means stop. When you have a red button on your site, customers subconsciously think “Stop, don’t click that button.” This is the opposite of what you want the customer to do, especially if it’s a “buy” button.New site:imageimageimageI optimized all of the on page content for keywords and removed content that wasn’t “evergreen.” I fixed all of the broken links on the site and created 301/302 redirects for inbound links that were broken. I started working on adding content where there was thin content and pouring through the code in the back end to make sure everything looked good and there weren’t any black hat techniques being used. Finally, I added a plugin to make my site AMP compliant.Site traffic started to grow immediately and by the end of the year, monthly visits to Huskybeard.com were almost 3 times as high as they were before.imageI financed the purchase of the business with credit cards that offered 0% for an extended period of time. I don’t recommend doing this unless you have no other means to raise capital. If you do have to use a credit card, make sure it has an interest rate of 0% and pay it off before the 0% promotional interest period ends.I was planning on the business paying off the credit cards I used for the purchase. With the sales history data the previous owner provided, this should have been extremely easy. If Huskybeard could maintain an average monthly revenue of $12,000.00, like the previous owner claimed, the initial investment would have been paid off in less than a year.Unfortunately, Huskybeard only averages about $3500/month in revenue.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Over the last year, I’ve discovered some unfortunate truths regarding advertising in the niche that I’m in.One of the problems with my niche is it’s over-saturated. There are close to 2000 beard care companies in the market today. That’s twice the number that existed when I purchased Huskybeard. It is extremely difficult to establish yourself as a leader in the market when everyone thinks they can just make their own beard care products and make it big. This over-saturation causes a surplus of products and options and, subsequently, drives prices down so low that there are razor thin margins on product revenue.Small margins is the second problem. I tried Facebook/Instagram ads, Reddit ads, Google ads, Quora ads, retargeting, I paid social marketing companies like Springbot and Adroll. Though I was able to bring in additional sales, the customer acquisition cost was far too high. When you sell a product that has a 50% profit margin, and you pay 50%, or more, of the retail price of the product to acquire 1 customer through marketing, you have a zero, or even negative, profit. It’s simple math. If I can sell a product for $10 and it costs me $5 to manufacture and ship the item and $5 to acquire the customer, I profit $0.After purchasing Huskybeard, and spending a lot of time diving into past marketing data, I found the previous owner had the same problem. That made me feel validated that it wasn’t something I was doing wrong!The data showed that Huskybeard spent $43,000 on Facebook ads and brought in $71,000 in sales before I acquired the company. This looks like a great ROAS (return on ad spend).However, on closer inspection, I found that the $43,000 ad spend brought in 2,797 sales at a cost of $15.59 PER WEBSITE PURCHASE. When you’re selling an item that retails for $12.99 to $19.99, and the COGS (cost of goods sold) is roughly 50%, and you spend $15.59 per sale on advertising, you’re losing money.imageWhat a huge disappointment this was! It was devastating to find out that, even though the business brought in $120,000 in revenue the previous year, it cost more than $120,000 to manufacture products and acquire customers. Huskybeard was operating in the red and that had to change, quickly.I learned that I couldn’t spend any money on advertising. My margins were too small and CAC was much too high.What does work though is good old fashioned hard work, providing the highest quality products and the most outstanding customer service in the industry. Rather than get discouraged, I put my head down and got to work. I dedicated myself to making sure every customer was ecstatic and more than pleased with their experience shopping at Huskybeard. Not only did this create loyal, repeat customers, but I found that my customers started to refer their friends and family to Huskybeard as well.I have also found success in setting up a quality email communication and marketing campaign. My favorite tool to use for this is Klaviyo. It’s a bit pricey but it gives me the ability to market to my existing customer base and communicate effectively with them. I run campaigns a few times a month that generate around $1000.00 in revenue from existing, repeat customers.imageHow are you doing today and what does the future look like?Today, Huskybeard is profitable. It generates enough revenue to cover my manufacturing and shipping costs and to pay for the monthly debt liability I created when I purchased the business. Unfortunately, there is no extra money to spend on growing the business, let alone paying myself and supporting my family.I lost my full-time job a few months ago in April of 2019 and was optimistic that if I put all of my time and effort into growing Huskybeard it would grow quickly and be enough to support my family. I was wrong. A week after I lost my job, in spite of all of the work I put in, sales stopped. I struggled for a month to increase sales and didn’t have any success. If something doesn’t change quickly, I’ll have to go back to work fulltime and make Huskybeard my side hustle again.Huskybeard continues to stay at the same level it has since I purchased it. It generates $2500.00 to $4000.00 per month online. I currently get about 17,000 visitors per month and all sales are through my online store. I attempted to get my products listed on Amazon but there are strict regulations and an approval process for products in the “Health and Beauty” category. I haven’t invested the time in getting my products approved on Amazon.I have approached local business (barbershops, salons) and have found some success getting Huskybeard products into a few B&M locations. I also have my product for sale in 4 Buffalo Trim barbershops in New York.This month, I will be launching a new product: Beard Creams. I am hoping this will entice some dormant customers to come back and make a purchase. I also hope to capture a new segment of the market that haven’t purchased from Huskybeard because they prefer creams over balms and oils.imageI am also planning to launch a new oil, balm, and cream scent each month from now on. I am hoping that my customers will be excited and look forward to trying the new scents each month and that this will generate some additional revenue.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?It’s difficult to look back and recognize and face your mistakes. I feel like I was taken advantage of in the purchase of the business and that the previous owner’s claims of making $120,000 in less than a year were misleading. Yes, Huskybeard made $120,000 but it was not profitable. The mistake I made was not doing enough due diligence to discover this before the acquisition. Had I looked into the marketing ad spend and CAC prior to the purchase, I would have at least known what I was getting into.Fortunately, I made the decision early on to stop wasting money on advertising. One piece of advice the previous owner gave me was to put more money into advertising. He said that Huskybeard’s sales were only limited by the amount I spent on Facebook Ads and that that was the key to making more money. If I wanted to make more money, all I had to do was spend more on Facebook Ads. Luckily, I had the good sense to ignore that advise and stop the bleeding.I have found that the only way to succeed in this market is to work hard, have a great product, and the absolute best customer service. I know that the only reason I’m still in business today is because I work as hard as I can at making my customers happy. There’s nothing that benefits my company more than providing amazing customer service.What platform/tools do you use for your business?Huskybeard runs on Shopify.I use stamped.io to request reviews from customers. Reviews are invaluable and help convert window shoppers. Stamped is a great app because it automates the review request process.I use smile.io for my rewards program. Smile is a rewards app that gives customers points for purchases and other actions on my site. It integrates with stamped and gives rewards for different types of reviews on my site and social media. Customers can use their rewards points to make purchases on my site.I use Klaviyo for email marketing. It gives me the ability to automate email flows and send emails based on set timeframes and customer actions. I have flows set up for purchases, abandoned carts, engagement, returning customers, etc. I can also set up 1-off campaigns for sales and special events.I use Recharge for my recurring subscriptions on my site. Customers can subscribe to get the product of their choice sent to them on a regular schedule. Recharge has tons of options and works fantastic if you have a product that you want customers to subscribe to.I just started using ShoutOut for my affiliate and ambassador program. The app is great. It automates everything involved in running an affiliate or ambassador network.Finally, I use Shipstation to automate my shipping and fulfillment process. I can’t recommend Shipstation enough. I used a few shipping apps before settling on Shipstation and have been super happy with my shipping process ever since.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?My top tip for anyone looking to purchase a business is to make sure you do your due diligence and hyper-analyze everything before making a decision.Make sure you know the numbers and don’t take the business owner’s word on anything. They’re trying to sell their business so they’re going to make it look as enticing as possible.Don’t take anything at face value and uncover the hidden truths behind the facade.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?Huskybeard can’t afford to pay me, let alone any other employees right now. However, we are always looking for ambassadors to promote our brand. We pay our ambassadors a percentage of any sales they make. If you’re interested, please sign up here: Ambassador ProgramWe are also looking for anyone that would like to create content, reviews, blog posts, video reviews, etc. to promote our brand. We do set aside a small budget each month to send out free product to individuals that would like to review and promote our products. Contact us on our site or through Instagram @huskybeard if you’re interested. We also welcome link exchange requests and guest posts on our site.Where can we go to learn more?Website: https://huskybeard.comIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

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topicprinter · 8 years ago

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Hey fellow /r/entrepreneurs! I’ve written up a small case study of my product and it’s “failure” (Yay! You can learn what mistakes not to do). Hope you enjoy.Flashback.So in January 2016, whilst playing a game of poker, an epiphany occurred. Seeing all the designs on a deck of cards, I thought they’d be cool to color and from that moment on, PlayingColor was born. Furthermore, as this was my first project and I was on college holidays, time and curiosity was aplenty.Well, to start the deck, I needed a designer. I was willing to do it myself but I felt someone else would be better. So instead of searching for an established and professional designer, I went over to a friend and asked her to do the deck. She said sure…. Sweet! What could go wrong?LESSON 1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND DON’T MIX IN YOUR FRIENDSWhat my naivety failed to realize was that she’s also in college and working and partying… and my project was going to take fourth place. Oh boy was her designs delayed. A request of 52 beautifully unique and intricate Mandalas ended up taking nearly 4 months to draw… (I should’ve really saved that time and hired a faster professional designer). Furthermore, since we were friends, I couldn’t really fathom of being harsh. My mistake. Also I forgot to implement a stringent deadline. Another mistake.LESSON 2. CHINA ISN'T ALWAYS CHEAPERAs the cards were sloooooooowly being designed, I was busy searching for suppliers. I always thought that China = Cheap and as a result, I began searching for Chinese manufacturers (I’m located in Australia). The issue was that the card stock I needed had to have 1-side coated and the other to be uncoated. This was surprisingly a tall order for most Chinese and even US card manufacturers. Other issue was that US and China were giving me Minimum Order Quantities of 2,000 for $10k to print. I just didn’t have that amount of money to spend. Luckily, I found one manufacturer in China and ordered a deck.LESSON 3. MAKE SURE YOU CLARIFY AND TRIPLE CHECK EVERYTHINGSo the deck came from China. They promised and assured me that I could draw on the colored side. Nope. As well, the long shipping made me lose another 3 weeks. Fuck. I should’ve requested a paper sample. My mistake.LESSON 4. CHINA ISN”T ALWAYS CHEAPERI then went looking for any local suppliers in Australia and BEHOLD, it was actually cheaper to find a local supplier. Albeit, the first deck arrived and it was perfect. Finally! A fantastic box supplier in US and an Australian card manufacturer. I now have a product… but how do I sell it?Marketing TimeLesson 5. DON”T BE AFRAID TO SHOW YOUR PRODUCTPretty self-explanatory but you see, when I created the deck, I realized no one had such an idea before. GOLD MINE! WHY SHOULD I TELL ANYONE? THEY MIGHT STEAL IT! I kept quiet about it (seriously, it wasn’t a goldmine and I should’ve been testing the concept earlier). I felt the idea was definitely going to be stolen. Unfortunately, only thing stolen was my logic and common sense. As a result, my initial marketing and customer research suffered. I actively started using Instagram and posting content about coloring and similar styles/designs to my cards but never actually revealed the product till the last moment. Big mistake. Sure the content I was posting made my account look pretty but for the actual purpose of my business, quite useless. Also, without showing and dabbling with my audience, I never really found out what consumers wanted or cared about coloring and specifically, my coloring playing cards. BIG MISTAKE.Lesson 6. DO MARKET RESEARCHI did none. I suffered. I assumed they’d love it. Assumed. To make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'. And as a result of failing to discover the exact needs and the specific people that’d be interested, I lost out a whole new understanding for my product and obviously made my marketing attempt suffer.Lesson 7. DON”T WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT YOUR LOGOLogo Styles I experimentedI wasted a long time doing this. Trust me. It’s not worth it at the start. Unless you’re relaunching a new P&G product, your 600 followers won’t care that much. Use your time for something else.Lesson 8. PEOPLE ARE STUPID. SPEAK STUPIDSo when I finally revealed the product leading up to my Kickstarter, I was met with a warm response and I decided to ump the marketing. I made a simple giveaway on my site where people had to submit their email and in return, they’d get 5 free coloring card PDF’s. Simple right? Nope. Under the “Please Put Your Email Here”, I had more than 35 submissions of people putting the word “Email” in there….Wonderful.I had people message my FB Page stating they got a virus called BMP. I had to explain to them it was a file format. I even had a lovely lady ask me if I could help her find the PDF files she downloaded on her computer. Albeit, I made mistakes by creating lead generation pages and giveaways that required more than 3 steps…. Something that many couldn’t do. Oh well. When I dumbed it down, results started happening and my mailing list started to grow.Lesson 9. BE REAL. SORTA…To connect with many other colorists on FB and get a feel of the market, I made a fake FB account of our brand personality and interacted with them through all the tight-knit FB coloring groups. This is something I highly recommend for you to try. The connection and support I made was valuable for the Kickstarter that was coming up.Kickstarter TimeLesson 10. MAKE SOME NOISEI was quiet for Kickstarter. I figured that I’d just rely on my FB personality sharing the announcement and my posts on Instagram alerting about it. I believed I had a fellowship already strong enough for Kickstarter which was sort of true, but having more fans, more money and more interest is always better. I could’ve done so much more by seeking PR, Journalists or even paid recommendations from influencers. But no I didn’t.Anyway, raised my $3k for PlayingColor and had enough to purchase a decent order to minimize my costs. Everything after went well though I planned to send these cards early November, the manufacturer screwed up the order and backlogged it till early December…. Meaning I missed out on Christmas. Not fun. But with all the delays throughout the year, I was just desperate for something to come soon.Lesson 11. TEST PRICING.One startling issue with PlayingColor was its location in Australia. Our main market was the US. To send a deck over there costs $7USD. Starting to see the problem? Because of shipping, selling a deck + shipping appeared extortionate to my customers and my demand flailed heavily. I ran numerous campaigns on FB and Instagram but sales were slow. People weren’t happy paying $14 for a deck of cards.Lesson 12. ONCE YOU COMMIT. COMMIT.Another issue arose in the start of this year. See, I got an internship/college opportunity to go to US for 6 months which I accepted. However, my spare time for PlayingColor quickly eroded. When I left to US, I took all the decks I had with me and tried selling it (albeit lazily) in US. I tried to run numerous FB advertising with no luck. Only one advert converted to sales but it just wasn’t financially working out for me. As well, with Kickstarter, I bought an order that supplied me with enough cards to last a short time (I was hoping sales would skyrocket and I’d buy a bigger order) but I was wrong. Here’s the example of our profits (not including Kickstarter). Just sales directly from Shopify and not from market stalls or other avenues.November $120.90 December $154.40 January $175.87 February $281.48The issue was that in February, my stock was down to 16 decks. I had to reorder but I wasn’t willing to. I managed to find a few quality suppliers in US for both the boxes and the cards but I knew deep down I wouldn’t have enough time to balance all my commitments. Furthermore, I’ll be going back home to Australia and I’d have to find a fulfillment company to ship and make the product competitive. I failed the product.Now, with my soon-graduation, changing employment and a health issue, this all has culminated in putting me out of action and destroying all my interest in PlayingColor. So that’s the story of my PlayingColor experience....Though, as I sit now thinking whether to sell or just end the company, I can’t help but be proud of the experience I’ve had. It’s been totally worth it with all the new knowledge and skills I’ve developed. As well, looks fantastic on the resume ;)If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I leave you with this quote “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”

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