#and it was $15 but i got the seller down to $12

[alchemylive]

sitting down the 40 dollars in my bank account to tell them that i'm considering spending 12 of them on an ebay stapler

[wardenparker]

Hummingbird Has Landed, ch 15

Marcus Pike x female reader Co-written with @absurdthirst

After the debacle of his failed engagement and relocating to Washington to take charge of his task force, newly minted Special Agent Marcus Pike is ready to get back out into the dating pool once more. A slew of bad dates has him feeling a little down, and he takes an old friend up on an invitation to get away and get his head on straight. Imagine his surprise when he finds not only fresh air, but his soulmate as well - hiding in plain sight but in the unlikeliest of places.

Rating: E for Explicit! 18+ Word Count: 10k Warnings: *Blanket warnings for this series: occasional mention of American politics, pregnant character, food/alcohol consumption, mentions of clothing/regulated dressing for occasions, mentions of therapy because we believe in self care here, reader is in a previous relationship, love triangle, reader is mentioned as turning 30 during the course of the story, dom/sub dynamics* Tooth-decaying sweetness, talk of pregnancy/impregnation, unexpected visitor, references to rough sex, possessiveness. Oral sex (female receiving), vaginal sex, unprotected sex. Summary: After almost a year together, you and Marcus celebrate your first Valentine's Day together with a weekend trip away. Notes: We are inching closer to the wedding with every chapter! This week enjoy some sex and romance, Pike style.

Ch1 ~ Ch 2 ~ Ch 3 ~ Ch 4 ~ Ch 5 ~ Ch 6 ~ Ch 7 ~ Ch 8 ~ Ch 9 ~ Ch 10 ~ Ch 11 ~ Ch 12 ~ Ch 13 ~ Ch 14

The flight from Dulles to JFK would be shorter, but there’s a certain charm to taking the train. The rhythmic clacking of the wheels on the track is almost romantic and Marcus had secured an entire compartment for you, him and Agent Sellers. Agent Bailey will meet you in New York with a car and to trade off with your other security detail, but for now, it seems like it’s just the two of you in the car. “Hotel first?” Marcus asks, kissing your fingertips and you look out the window at the passing scenery.

“Because you want to drop off our bags or because you want to test out the mattress?” Either way the answer is yes, and you relax in your seat all over again. This idea to go away for a few days for Valentine’s Day had made you feel guilty at first, but you were easy to convince once you remembered that it was around Valentine’s last year that everything has started to happen between you. Now that chaos of finishing the house and moving in together is over with, a couple of days in New York sounded perfect.

"I do need to see if your legs look different on my shoulders in New York than in D.C." he teases, wagging his eyebrows playfully. "Three days of no house details, no work, and all we have to worry about is walking out of our hotel room dressed."

“And making our reservations on time.” With your fingers tangled through his, this time you pull his hand over to kiss his fingers instead. “I may have called in a favor for our dinner tonight.”

"Where are we having dinner?" He had left the dinner reservations up to you, knowing you would have a list of favorite places you would want to go.

"Tonight we're going to see a friend," you hum, leaning into him as much as you can in your seat as the train speeds toward New York. "One of Syd's friends from culinary school opened a restaurant right in the city a couple of years ago and I've just never gotten the chance to go up and try it out. So I called in a favor and got us a reservation for after the theater tonight. Neo is an Italian steakhouse, which sounded right up your alley."

"Nice." He's impressed by the idea of a nice steakhouse that is close to you and Sydney. His hand slides down to your thigh and he squeezes it gently.

"And then tomorrow night..." Your hand over his on your thigh is basically just grounding. Holding you to him and making sure you don't float away on the bliss of having some time off with your fiancé. "Every time we watch FoodTV you get obsessed with watching Alex Guarnaschelli, so I got us a reservation at Butter."

"Really?" His eyes widen in delight and he can't believe that you would go through the trouble for something like that. It's the small things that you notice that makes him feel special. You do so many little things that show him you pay attention to his interests, passing or intense. "That's— wow." He shakes his head. "Thank you."

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” you hum, leaning your head on his shoulder. The train ride was a special treat but now that you’re almost in the city you’re eager for your trip to really begin. “I love you more than anything.”

"I love you too." He leans his own head against yours. "I booked our tickets to the Met." He tells you quickly, knowing you will like that.

“I’m sooooo excited for museum time with my own personal art expert.” He claims he isn’t, but you’ve learned in the last year not to listen to his protests. He practically gives guided tours whenever you go to the Smithsonian together.

He rolls his eyes playfully but he doesn’t naysay. He knows that you look at it as a point of pride almost. “Anything else you want to do? I think it’s a little too cold to take a boat out in Central Park.”

"There are a million museums and historical sites." And you can't wait to explore each and every one of them with him. "It's just too bad it's too early in the year for a ball game."

“We can always make a summer day trip.” Marcus immediately offers. “Maybe the subway series?”

"That would be fun." You perk up instantly at the idea of it. "The MET is tomorrow, so how about we ask the concierge at the hotel what their favorite underrated attraction is for today before the theater?"

“That sounds good.” He agrees. “Something that is kind of off the beaten path sounds fun.”

The last hour of the trip is smooth sailing, and early check-in at your hotel means that you and Marcus are unpacking your suitcases in almost no time. It’s snowy in New York but not in a way that will add up, and it makes the whole thing look quite picturesque from your seventh-floor window.

“Too bad the fireplaces have been closed for years.” Marcus comments. “Couldn’t you imagine curling up next to a fire and watching the snow fall?”

“Next year let’s rent a cabin,” you hum, leaning back in his arms as you look out the window together. “Get snowed in.”

“That sounds like something we can definitely do.” For the suggestion, you deserve a kiss. “Unless you are pregnant. Then I don’t know if I would want to risk it.”

“If I’m pregnant we’ll choose a very easily accessible hotel where we can watch the snow fall instead.” His concern is sweet enough to earn him a kiss in return, and they’re getting longer every time. “Someplace where we can get snacks delivered.”

“Pregnancy cravings.” Marcus practically moons at the idea and he cups your cheeks to kiss you again.

“So…I’ve been thinking about something.” This calls for a face to face conversation, and you turn around in his arms.

“Oh yeah?” He doesn’t think that it’s anything bad, you come to him when something heavy is on your mind. “Tell me what you’ve been thinking, sweetheart.”

The two of you have always agreed that the timing of your lives needed to be a joint conversation, but somehow you don’t think this particular idea is going to need much debating. Not much if any, knowing Marcus. “I think I’d like to stop taking my birth control the day before the wedding,” you tell him, slipping both arms around his waist. “I know it might not happen for us immediately, but I think everything else has fallen into place for us so maybe this might, too.”

Marcus tilts his head, a slow smile spreading over his face and lighting it up. “Yeah? You want to do that?” He asks quietly. “I— I think that’s perfect.” He admits. “As long as you are ready.”

You're glowing as you lean into him, already feeling like you could burst with happiness and pride. "I'd say we should start now but there's no way my wedding dress will fit me if I'm pregnant."

“I want you to be able to drink a toast at our wedding if we can help it.” Marcus admits.

"Especially since you went through all the trouble to pick out good toasting champagne with the wedding planner." It had been an entire conversation of wine pairings and champagne choices that you hadn't understood a word of but watching Marcus get excited about tasting notes had been well worth it.

“I think you will enjoy it. It will go well with our wedding cake.” He reminds you, knowing you are excited for the replica cake the bakery in Boston had fallen over over themselves to agree to bake.

"I'm excited for everything to come together." After so easily picking out bridesmaids' dresses last weekend and even finding a mother of the bride dress at the same shop, the wedding is feeling like everything is really falling into place. "Last things are to pick a place for the rehearsal dinner and to book our honeymoon."

“We’ve had so many ideas for our honeymoon…” he laughs quietly, remembering all the various places you’ve both come up with. “Have we actually decided on where we are going to go?”

"I think we've talked about almost every place on earth," you laugh right along with him. "But no. We haven't decided. I think the last time we talked we said it should be someplace that neither of us have been."

“Maybe we need to make a honeymoon wheel.” Marcus snorts. “Have you seen the trend where a guy will make a restaurant wheel to spin when their girlfriend or wife can’t decide?” He shrugs. “We could do the same thing with our honeymoon ideas.”

“Hotel room crafts.” It’s silly and sweet enough of an idea to make you giggle, and you press more kisses to Marcus’s lips and cheeks. “I don’t know about making a wheel, but we could do slips of paper with destinations on them in the ice bucket instead of a hat.”

“Like a lottery drawing.” He snorts. “That could be fun.”

“I have a notebook in my purse.” Which doesn’t surprise him one bit, but you tug Marcus back into the room from the window. “Grab the ice bucket?”

“In a minute.” He smirks and his hands slide from your waist to your ass. “You remember what I told you I wanted to do on the train?” He coos, leaning in and kissing your neck.

“Mmmmhmm.” A soft moan of approval and agreement sounds from deep in your throat, but you feel like teasing him just a tiny bit. “Something about…shoulders?”

“Your legs, my shoulders.” He grinds his hips against yours, his hardening cock proof of his desire and he smirks. “I need to see if you taste different in New York.”

It is pretty much never difficult to convince either of you when a good time to be intimate has appeared, and you nudge him backward again toward the bed. “Then why are we still wearing clothes?”

“That’s a good question.” He goes willingly and he reaches for the edge of your sweater to pull it up. “You’re wearing far too many of them right now.”

Sweaters, t-shirts, pants, and everything else end up scattered around the room, littering the carpet with evidence of the romance in the air. Marcus has you laid out on your back on the bed in no time and you happily tug him down to you for a kiss when he climbs in with you.

“My gorgeous hummingbird.” His hands slide over your clavicle and he kisses your collar bone gently. Worshipfully. “My love, my soulmate.”

“I love you.” Simple words, but meant with all the feeling in the world as your limbs curl around him and you melt under his kisses.

“I. Love. You. Too.” Every word is punctuated by a kiss. Making sure that he teases and caresses your skin with his lips.

“Baby.” After almost a year together, you and Marcus have no trouble finding the right buttons to push. You know each other’s favorite things, each other’s ticks and hidden kinks. You know Marcus adores being showered in praise just you like him to have a firm hand. The flow of your relationship has been built on respect and trust and mutual admiration. Which has made experimenting and finding the things you enjoy together all the more rewarding.

“What do you need, sweetheart?” Marcus pops his head up, eyes dark and fixed on you. “What do you want me to give you, sweet thing? I’ll give you anything you want, you just have to tell me.”

"Just you, baby." Anything and everything he is will to give you is always what you want. Just him. As much of Marcus as he is willing and able to pour into you any time you have moments to yourself.

“You have me, baby. You’ve got all of me.” He groans, adding to teeth to his kisses as he starts to move down your body.

"All of me." It's so true. And true for both of you. The complete devotion you have to each other is obvious. Lying naked wrapped in each other's arms might be the most honest and most vulnerable you ever are, and there is no one in the world you are more grateful to share that feeling with.

Marcus groans, your words of affirmation and affection always affect him, but none like they do when you are both stripped bare. When there is nothing between you but the air and your beating hearts. He drops a featherlight kiss on your stomach, which will one day hopefully protect his children, and then down to your hip.

"We really need to start asking hotels if they have sound proof rooms," you giggle, already sighing as Marcus moves lower and lower on your body.

"Let them hear." He chuckles, never having a problem with others knowing how satisfied you are. He brings your leg up onto his shoulder as he settles between your thighs and he licks his lips as he parts your folds to expose the sensitive little clit that he will lavish with attention.

The touch of his fingers makes you gasp, but you still chuckle despite yourself and know that you'll hold back more here than you do at home. Having the house finally be finished has been a blessing. "Last thing we need is a sound bite of the First Daughter getting eaten out."

"Then it's a good thing they don't have access to those little videos we've made, isn't it?" He smirks, having enjoyed the clips of sexy scenes both of you had made together and while you were apart to send to each other. They were in a locked file and heavily guarded so no one could get to them.

"Well I don't want you to miss me while you're on a long case," you rationalize, letting out another deep sigh as his finger paints a long stripe along your slit.

"Oh I always miss you." He promises, leaning in and nudging his nose against your clit before he samples a small taste of your essence.

He knows how to make you moan. He knows as well as he knows his own name. And yet the first moment your back lifts off the mattress always takes you by surprise and you have to remind yourself not to squeeze his head too tight between your thighs when they clench with that first feeling of pleasure. "Fuck, baby."

The noises you make are always so fucking sweet. He’s addicted to them, to you. His own groan is sounded into your pussy as his tongue flutters around, sweeping the edges of your folds in a pattern that always makes you whine.

The fingers of one hand twist into his curls and you’re prepared to thank every possible god all over again that Marcus has been growing out his hair. It’s all his own style of course, but you don’t mind having a handle to keep him close as he devours your pussy every chance he gets.

The small whine of pleasure that he gives at the pressure of your hand in his hair is one you thoroughly enjoy and he gives you that sound every time his cock twitches against the bed. Making him even more eager in his task as he flicks his tongue over your soaked hole.

Curses and praise and moans of pleasure fill the room, babble verging on incoherent as Marcus plays you with as much skill as his bass or guitar. It’s the w of pleasure that makes you feel like you’re floating all the way above the mattress. It’s ecstasy, all on the curls and flicks of your soulmate’s tongue.

Marcus has always enjoyed sex, enjoyed giving and receiving pleasure, but there is something incredibly unique about his intimacy with you. There is a fusion of your bodies that match your souls, where your pleasure magnifies his own and he gets lost in it.

You shatter for him as easily as breathing, although in the moment you come apart you’ve replaced panted breaths with an orgasm so intense that your mind goes blank as you sob his name into the bright white afternoon. It’s almost like being at peace, the way he breaks you apart and puts you back together with tender caresses and loving kisses, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Your come down is his favorite part of foreplay. The pliant limbs and pleasure warmed skin. He loves the dazed look in your eyes, as if you are surprised by how good you feel. “Maybe I need another taste.” He murmurs against your lips.

“Babyyy.” You whine and grab his shoulder when he ducks his head like he’s going to travel down your body again. “Don’t you need to see if I ride you just as well in New York?”

He stops, tilts his head as if he is considering that point before he sighs. Making it seem like it’s a big concession on his part. “I think that needs to be explored too.” You love to ride him and he always lets you be in control when you want it, since so often you want him in control.

“It seems very important.” You nod in agreement, grinning lazily to see his eyes light up at the prospect of having your tits in his face while you bounce on him.

He comes back up to kiss you thoroughly before rolling onto his back. His hard cock laying against his stomach as he reaches out and caresses your side. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

It’s just teasing, but you straddle his waist and lean over to press a kiss over his heart before shifting back into position. “That’s a very dangerous thing to promise your fiancée.”

“Not at all.” His hands find your waist and he squeezes gently. “I mean every word.”

“Dangerous.” You admonish him again with a tsk, but sink down on his length all the same — making both of you gasp and moan in unison.

Marcus’s eyes flutter closed with a silent prayer of thanks. His fingers digging into your flesh and for a second, he wishes you were already off your birth control. “Fuuuuuuuuck.” He groans when you roll your hips in a little circle and clench down around him.

“Fuck, you always feel so fucking good.” Letting your head fall back makes it feel like he’s gotten all the way up into your throat and your whole body tightens like a bowstring in response.

“That’s because you’re so perfect.” He groans in appreciation, rocking his hips up. “Tightest little cunt I’ve ever fucked.” He flashes a grin and twitches inside you. “Last little cunt I’ll ever fuck too.”

"All yours." As many times as you promise him that, it never diminishes how much you mean it. He has your whole heart for your whole life. "All yours and you're all mine and fuck you have the best cock in the world."

He chuckles, proud of your happiness with his abilities. His hand slides up your neck to cup the back of your head as he drags you down for a kiss.

The rhythm you set is quick but thorough, making sure to rise and fall on every inch of him to swallow his moans in equally thorough kisses.

He loves when you ride him. Your tits bounce and your kisses are greedy, leaving him to touch you how he wants to while you use his cock for your pleasure. “Fuck, baby.” He grunts, twitching when you swivel your hips.

The figure eights you draw in his lap are his favorite. They always have been. They're brilliantly drawn out and exaggerated to leave him groaning and greedy, pawing at you as you bounce on him. It's greedy for both of you in different ways, which is probably why this is one of your favorite positions.

“You’re teasing me.” Marcus huffs, lunging up to capture one tit in his mouth and scrape his teeth over your sensitive nipple.

"You — ah! — love when I tease you." And since he's so good at teasing you back, you don't ever hesitate.

Marcus just groans against your breast and slaps your ass playfully. Rocking you harder on his cock as his mouth works your breast.

It’s the hungry kind of sex where you know you’ll be sticky and sweaty and need a shower after. Where you know Marcus is going to leave teeth marks pebbling your skin. Where you know without a shadow of a doubt that you’ll be achy and feeling him in your theater seat tonight. And it’s exactly the right kind of fierceness for both of you, so you amp up your pace and throw your head back, letting the bliss of it all wash over you. Lovemaking is what you’ll do tonight, with moonlight streaming through the windows and soft touches and whispered promises. This is a deeply cathartic and energizing fuck — the perfect way to start your weekend.

“Fuck.” Marcus hisses and his fingers slide down to find your clit. Sensing the urgency to your pace and knowing how badly he wants to see you fall apart for him before he finds his own release.

Your whine of agreement is high from the added touch. His fingertips are calloused, giving you added friction as well as added tension, and every time you roll your hips you get more pressure and friction. It's stunning, the way he drives you toward the edge of that cliff of pleasure, and your head spins from how close you are.

“That’s it baby, you’re so good to me.” Marcus groans, loving how you just give him everything you’ve got. “So pretty on my cock. You gonna cum for me? You know I want to see it. Cum for me, sweetheart.”

"I'm so close baby." So close that you feel like you're about to fall over onto his chest from the way you're tensing up. Every part of you is tense, right down to the way your greedy cunt is clamping down on his cock.

“That’s it, fuck- you’re so tight.” Marcus hisses, watching you as your hips stutter and your shoulders start to shake. “So good baby, want to feel you.”

"Fuck, fuck, oh my god, Marcus!" The freedom to cry out, even though you joked about volume earlier, isn't lost on you. The way you tense and shatter and cry his name is his favourite music in the world.

He can’t help himself. Lunging up, he presses his lips to yours desperately and rolls you over to keep pistoning his hips and drilling into your spasming walls. Working you higher through your orgasm and chasing his own.

It would be a whole different ballgame if you were already off your birth control, but you still want Marcus to cum inside you. There's no better or more indulgent feeling in the world, so you wrap your legs around his waist and shake with the last waves of your own orgasm knowing that it will bring him toward his own.

“I love you, I love you. I love you.” Marcus begins to chant as his hips rock forward desperately, barely pulling back as he feels his body pull tight.

"I love you." Those words never diminish, especially not when he's driving his hips forward to bury his cock deep inside you, coating your walls with his searing hot release.

He whines your name as he rides out the release of every tense bone in his body. Pouring himself into you as he collapses against you. “Fuck.” He huffs, face buried against your neck and panting softly. “Always.” He murmurs, kissing a damp patch of skin over your pulse.

“Always.” A fact which leaves you breathless and tangled up in each other more often than not. Right now you hold him tight, hanging on to a confessional sigh. “I almost wish I was off my birth control already,” you admit quietly.

“Me too.” He chuckles because the two of you seem to always be so in sync about your goals and desires. “But we know that it would be better to keep to our original timeline.”

"It's a nice dream, though." Your fingers run up his shoulder and through his hair, and the softness in your eyes is pure adoration when your eyes meet again. "And I can't wait for it to come true."

“I know.” He smiles softly as he presses his lips to yours. “You know I’m going to be feral over you.” He warns. “Not going to be able to stop touching you.”

"Oh nooo." The laugh in your voice is as joyous as your smile but you toss a tone of sarcasm into your teasing. "That will be terrible. I just hate when my fiancé, the sexiest man in the whole world, wants to fuck me."

“You might hate sex while you are pregnant.” He huffs, knowing he would hate it, but he would never pressure you to sleep with him if you don’t feel like it. From what he can tell, it’s hard work to grow a human.

"I don't think I will." Of course, you can't be sure. But as you stretch your neck to kiss him again you enjoy the image tucked away in your mind. "I think I'm going to melt in your arms every single time like I already do."

“I love you.” The simple words are more vow than statement, completely true and undeniable. Luckily, the nasty rumors have tapered off and you have been able to enjoy the wedding planning so far.

"I love you, too." It doesn't take much surging to kiss him one more time, and then you're grinning all over again. "Now...how do you feel about naked honeymoon planning?"

“Naked anything with you is good for me.” He jokes. “Unless it’s frying bacon.”

"Aprons when we cook." You quote Sydney with a grin. "I think I can walk. I'll grab the notebook from my purse and we can write down the ideas we're serious about?"

“If you can’t, I’ll grab it for you.” He smirks, a little pleased when you are unsteady on your feet climbing out of the bed after he rolls off of you.

"Why don't you grab the ice bucket, baby?" Your purse is much closer to the bed than anything else, so it barely takes you two shaky steps before you're slumping back onto the mattress with a grin.

“Can’t make it, can you?” He chuckles as he stands up and crosses over to the desk where the ice bucket is located.

"Shut up." A playful little huff and a pout comes from the bed as you stick your tongue out at him. So what if you barely made it? You managed to grab your notebook and a pen and that's what matters. "You fucked me so good I can't walk, be nice."

He winks at you. “I fucked you so good you can’t walk because I’m nice.”

"I love you very much, now come and get back in bed," you stick your tongue out again and pick up your pen. "So what are your top choices. Are we doing top three each or top five?"

“I say we do five.” Marcus suggests, grinning as he saunters back over and plops down beside you with the bucket. “And then we use the bucket idea for the next nine anniversaries.”

"That's actually super cute." So much that it earns him a kiss when he comes and sits back down with you. A sheet of paper from your notebook is torn up into ten strips, and you hand him five. "I'm thinking my top five are Paris, Scotland, Napa Valley, New Zealand..." You grin unapologetically. "And Disney."

He shakes his head, faking a disappointed pout. “No naked honeymoon in Disney.” He grumbles. “We would be banned and then our kids would never forgive us.”

“We can still be naked in the hotel,” you remind him, grinning unapologetically as you drop the last destination into the ice bucket.

“Yeah, yeah.” He swats your thigh gently and sighs. “So I need to pick other destinations, right?”

“That’s the idea.” Being done before him lets you lay back in the pillows and idly stir the slips in the ice bucket while he thinks.

“Okay, okay…” he takes the notepad you’ve left on the bed and writes on the first one. “Ireland.” He shoots you a grin. “It’s different from Scotland.”

“Yes, it is.” You smirk at him, wondering if he’s going to pick places near all of yours.

“Let’s see…” He taps his chin. “Ohhhh Bora Bora would be good.” He scribbles it down. “Fruity alcoholic drinks, and tiny bikinis for you the entire time.”

That earns a grin from you, and you lean over to press a kiss to his shoulder. “Tiny bikinis are a favorite vacation theme for you.”

“It’s as close to naked as I can get you.” He huffs. “Unlessssss…” Marcus flashes you a teasing grin. “We go to one of those nudist resorts. Should I write Hedonism II down?”

“You try explaining that to my mother when she asks for vacation photos,” you snort, knowing that that choice would go over like screen doors on a submarine.

“Yeah…no to Hedonism.” He doesn’t write that, but he pretends to and mimes ripping the sheet out and balling it up. “How about Chile?” He asks, tilting his head curiously. “I’ve always wanted to go to the Atacama Desert or Easter Island.”

“Chile would be gorgeous. It’s too bad we couldn’t bring your bike down with us.” The image makes you hum, and your shoot him a grin. Marcus sitting astride his motorcycle in any setting just does things to you. “We’ll have to rent one when we go.”

“Absolutely.” He has rediscovered his love of having a woman on the back of his bike and often will bring you along if you can get away for a quick drive in the evenings.

“So…Ireland, Bora Bora, Chile,” you prompt him, tucking off your fingers. “Two more.”

“Greece.” Marcus decides and sends you a small smirk. “Rome.” He writes them down as well so they can be added to the trip bucket.

“Alright.” Dropping each slip into the ice bucket and stirring it around, you give it a few shakes for good measure before holding it high above either of your sight lines and angling it toward Marcus. “Go ahead. What’s our honeymoons going to be?”

Marcus grins and takes the bucket from your hands. “Let’s not pick now.” He teases. “Why don’t we pick at the end of our vacation?”

“You live to torture me!” You groan dramatically, dropping the ice bucket between you. “Do you really want to wait?”

“You don’t want to?” He teases, leaning in and kissing you playfully. “I guess we can decide now.” He rolls his eyes and picks the bucket up. “You choose. That way you can’t blame me.”

"Blame he says, as though they aren't all great choices." It calls for blowing a raspberry in his general direction, but you dip your hand into the ice bucket high above your head and swirl your fingers around to snag a single slip of paper. "Here we go," you intone dramatically, pulling the slip open and wiggling it around. "Looks like it's going to beeee..." Flipping the paper up, you grin at him. "Scotland!"

Marcus laughs at the glee on your face, knowing he would be happy going anywhere with you. “A stone cottage in the Scottish highlands where we walk the moors and burrow into each other in front of a roaring fire sounds perfect.” He puts on a thick Scottish accent for the dramatic flair.

"We can see the Highlands and the cities and go all over." Actually having a location picked out makes you giggle with excitement, and you lean over to kiss him before practically jumping out of bed. "Just like we can go explore this city right now. With clothes, of course."

“Now she can walk.” Marcus groans, climbing out of the bed after you. “What do you want to do before Ellis Island?”

"We should check what time the ferry runs." The concierge downstairs had given you a few ideas but ultimately you had decided to take the trip out to Ellis and Liberty Islands. It’s an important piece of American history and Agent Bailey won’t admit to it but she’s excited to look up her family from their crossing. "Why don't we grab a quick lunch? Give ourselves back some of the energy that we just burned off?"

“That sounds perfect.” He agrees, unable to resist grabbing a handful of your ass when you bend down to pick up your clothes. “Build up reserves for tonight.”

It's hardly a surprise when you and Marcus end up in a little café halfway between your hotel and the ferry to Ellis Island, ready to feast on French bistro classics for lunch. It's warm in the picturesque little restaurant and the snow is still falling without collecting on the sidewalk, so it's a picture-perfect winter day in the city.

“I think it’s safe to say that I will have to have the French onion soup.” Marcus tells you as he looks over the menu. “At least to start. What about you?”

"I think it's going to be a boeuf bourguignon day," you hum, spotting the item on the lunch menu and salivating over it immediately.

“Would you hate me for hurting Thumper if I had the rabbit cassoulet for the main?” He’s grinning and shrugging slightly.

"Not if you won't hate me for having cute little escargot for my first course." The one time he had expressed finding snails cute had obviously stuck with you, and since they're one of your favorite gourmet treats, it's a fair trade.

He huffs in feigned offense and sighs dramatically. “I suppose.” He jokes. “It’s only fair and I know it makes you happy.”

"What do you want to see first at the MET tomorrow?" The café is buzzing around you but you're happy in your little bubble. Just you and Marcus, cuddled together and happily plotting out the rest of your day.

“I’m not picky?” Marcus asks, playing with your fingers. “But Lady with a Parot and Perseus.” He rattles off with a guilty grin.

"Not picky, but two very specific choices." You grin at him, charmed all over again by the beauty and relaxation of the day. Agent Bailey is enjoying herself at a table across the café, also doing her best to relax despite being in the busy city. "Okay, you're on. And I want to track down Madame X."

“The American Wing.” Marcus instantly replies.

"That's my man." Of course he knows, that doesn't surprise you at all.

What does surprise you is the woman walking behind the hostess, currently approaching your table to be seated right next to you. "Vanessa?" Of all the gin joints in all the world, you think ruefully, but it's been so long since you heard from either her or Sam that you're just sort of shell shocked to see her instead of upset or angry about it.

Marcus turns to see the ex that he had hoped to never run into again - even more than Teresa - and wonders what the hell is about to happen. He warily glances behind her and around the smaller café. “This is a surprise.” He intones dryly.

“Just a coincidence.” Vanessa promises. She thanks the hostess and takes a seat, though she wishes there was literally any other table left. “I’m just having a bite after class. Forget I’m here.”

“Class?” That catches Marcus’s attention and he glances over at you to make sure that you are comfortable continuing the conversation. He feels like if there’s a change in the dynamic of your foes, you should learn all you can.

You nod subtly, but Vanessa doesn’t catch it. She’s thanking the waitress for her water. “Class,” she confirms when the waitress is gone. “I’m getting my master’s. I—” she looks between you, her former foes, and shrugs slightly. “A lot has changed.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” There’s no pressure to be applied, but it’s an offer. An olive branch, just like the one extended at the engagement party.

That’s a bit of a sticky question, but Vanessa nods. Her own is far less subtle than yours, as it’s meant to be seen. “I left Sam,” she begins, feeling that that is the most important news. “He was…he was getting out of control. There was never going to be an end to it as long as he had people on his side.”

Marcus squeezes your hand gently, the confirmation of it being on purpose was right there between the lines. “I’m sorry.” He murmurs quietly. “When you said you had discovered your soulmate, it was Sam, wasn’t it?”

“It was.” Vanessa confirms. There’s no reason to beat around the bush after everything that’s happened. “He’s just…he’s not the man he was when I first fell in love with him. Not anymore.”

“Vanessa….” Marcus sighs softly. “What was the root of the issue? We didn’t cheat. Why was Sam so obsessed with hurting us?” He phrases it that way so she doesn’t feel like he’s attacking her, and because he honestly never really imagined Vanessa being the ringleader. Now it seems as if she was a hopeless idealist, blindly following her soulmate down the wrong path.

She sighs, biting her lip slightly, and looking between you both with regret shining in her eyes. "Birdie was supposed to be his ticket to the White House," she admits, although the confession isn't hers to make. "When Marcus appeared on the scene he started getting paranoid, and then...then when you broke up with him? He seemed like he was just taking it a little too hard in the beginning but he started to go down a dark path pretty quickly."

“Did he hurt you?” Marcus’s voice gets soft, his jaw tense at the idea of violence perpetrated against any woman, even one who has wronged him. “Or made threats against Birdie we should know about?”

"No. No, he never would have had the resolve to hurt me physically. And the only threats he made never worked out." Vanessa assures him. "The worst founded one was the engagement party. Whatever you two and your social media team did to get ahead of that, well done."

“You went along with it because he’s your soulmate?” Marcus guesses. “The rumors and the whispers that were being fed from somewhere?”

"I can't exactly defend myself." Vanessa twists in her chair to face you fully, so this conversation can be quiet. "I was jealous."

"Of me...for being with the man you were in love with." You finish her thought without effort, understanding the instinct fully but from the opposite direction. "I was jealous of you. When you were with Marcus. We just...we had things switched around, I guess."

Marcus frowns, never realizing that she had been so involved with her feelings in the brief relationship. “I thought…you were waiting for your soulmate and just having fun with me?”

"I was trying to get over Sam." This is bound to be an uncomfortable conversation of confessions for Vanessa, but she is going to tell the truth. "In a sense you were a rebound for a relationship I never had. And when I realized who my soulmate was I thought everything was finally going to work out the way I wanted. But...that was even more wrong than I ever could have guessed."

“I’m sorry.” Marcus murmurs softly. “I hope that one day, you find the love and happiness you have been searching for.”

"I think I have to love myself first." Vanessa shrugs her shoulders and laughs. "I know that sounds cheesy, but...I started seeing a therapist and I got myself into grad school, and taking control of my own life has been really good for me."

“That’s great.” Marcus assures her, squeezing your hand again and glancing at you. “I can tell you that therapy will be good for you. Doesn’t matter what you’re going through. Sometimes it’s good to just learn how to cope with life.”

"I'm doing my best." Marcus has always been a kind man. It's good to know that that is just who he is, and that Vanessa hadn't been so blinded to people's good natures as to have misjudged him at any point. "I really want to apologize to both of you. Some of the things we did...that I did for him...were truly despicable. If I could take it all back, I would."

It’s not his place to accept an apology, especially when most of the attacks were focused on you. He squeezes your hand again, and defers to you.

"I wish we could have made amends sooner." You tell her, gently squeezing Marcus's hand in return. "But I'm glad that things are looking up for you, Vanessa. And I hope they continue to go in a positive direction. Nobody deserves to be defined by their mistakes when they're trying to better themselves."

It’s a gracious acceptance of the offered apology and so on point for who you are that Marcus wants to kiss you. “I completely agree.” He adds. “You focus on yourself and things will work out for the best.”

"That's very kind of both of you." And probably more than she deserves, but Vanessa isn't going to split hairs when she's stumbled into the chance to move forward. "And very diplomatic. It's...it's very easy to see, from the outside, why you're such a beloved couple." A fact which had made you both difficult to tear down, and is probably why Sam failed so entirely.

“We had some not so diplomatic moments.” Marcus admits, feeling that she is owed some truth as well. “But we aren’t going to punish you for mistakes that you are owning up to and trying to rectify.”

"Thank you." Vanessa half-smiles, looking around the small café, and makes the decision for herself with a small feeling of relief letting her shoulders relax for the first time in longer than she cares to admit. "I should let you enjoy your lunch," she says after a pause, and she stands. "It...was good to run into you. To clear the air."

“Good luck.” He won’t ask her to stay and continue the conversation and neither will you, but he wishes her well as she gathers her things.

"That was...unexpected." You murmur, watching Vanessa cross the street outside quickly, and duck into a pub instead of the little café you're still sitting in.

“Yeah.” Marcus blows out a breath and picks up your other hand. “How do you feel about it?”

"Weirdly...good?" It feels awful to admit, but getting an apology from someone who was actively trying to ruin your life not so long ago feels incredibly settling. "Or at least it feels validating. To know that we weren't crazy in thinking that Sam really was trying to hurt us so actively." It also feels awful to know that you were right about your ex not caring about you during your entire relationship, but that is a separate issue.

He sees the frown and he brings your hands up to kiss them gently. “At least we know now. You know.”

“Knowing is good.” You can agree to that, even as downtrodden as you feel right now. You got out of the relationship, found your soulmate, and are getting married. Everything is falling into place in the best way possible. But the sticky, icky, despicable sensation in your chest at being used isn’t exactly nice. “It still doesn’t feel good, though.”

“No it doesn’t.” He knows that feeling in a sense. Looking back at things objectively, it seemed like Teresa used him to prod Jane along, to pull his buried feelings out of him. “Do you want to go back to the hotel?” He asks softly, hating how your shoulders are rounded and your voice has dipped down.

“No.” This awful feeling will pass, you’ll regain your good humor, and this weekend won’t be ruined by a chance encounter in a restaurant. You won’t let it happen. “Let’s enjoy our lunch.”

He wants to ask if you’re sure, but he doesn’t. Giving you a reassuring smile, he glances towards the waiter. “How about a glass of wine?”

Determined to smile and to not be upset over a relationship that you ended willingly to begin with, you sit up your seat, roll your shoulders back, and turn your eyes back to Marcus. “Something bubbly, I think? We’re on vacation, after all.”

He smiles and nods. “I think that is completely appropriate. And it looks like they have a nice champagne on the menu.”

“Perfect.” You squeeze Marcus’s hand gently, thanking him for sticking with you through the tidal waves of clashing emotions you’re dealing with.

“Not nearly as perfect as you are.” There’s an odd sense of relief to have that chapter firmly closed, at least on Vanessa’s end. “Hopefully nothing else will happen.”

“Fingers crossed.” Huffing a soft laugh, you just shrug your shoulders and get in with ordering your lunch. It does no good to dwell and ruin the time away you have with Marcus. No good at all.

Panting, Marcus stares at the ceiling, nearly giggling at the bubbly, blissed out exhaustion that settles in the very marrow of his body. “Good girl.” He praises. “Good fucking girl.” Your own body is collapsed in a spent heap and he trails his fingers over your spine as you come down from the last, most intense orgasm of the night.

A matching giggle bubbles out of you as you curl into his side, utterly spent and gazing up at him with moony eyes. “Baby…” you laugh again, and half-turn toward him lamely. Your wrists are still bound with the tie he wore out to dinner. “Can I have my hands back?”

“Maybe I like you all bound up for me.” He teases, turning and working on the knots that are now harder than what he had originally tied because of you pulling and tugging on the restraint. Eager to touch him and frustrated by your inability to do so. “Next time I’ll tie you to the bed.”

“We’ll be back in our big four poster at home tomorrow night.” With your hands free, you loop your arms around his neck to kiss him soundly. “I’m already looking forward to it.”

“There’s something about being at home, isn’t there?” He asks, his hand coming up and tenderly caressing your throat where he had held it as he pounded into you. “I wasn’t too rough, was I?”

“Perfect level of rough,” you promise. Experimenting with his more dominant side had turned into a much-loved habit over your year together, and though you don’t get rough every single time you have sex it is definitely something you both enjoy.

“Do you need anything, sweetheart?” He asks. “Water, a rag?” Sometimes you like to keep his cum inside you, sometimes you like to clean up right after. And after every rough session, he likes to dote on you.

“I should say water.” Your eyes gleam with mischief. “But do we have any more wine? That bottle we bought in the Village was amazing.”

He smirks at your cheeky response and leans in to bite your bottom lip. “Sure.” He hums before he is climbing off the bed to get the lovely wine the two of you indulged in before your romp.

Tonight is one of those nights that you both indulged in the fantasy of getting pregnant, and lying in bed with a glass of wine with the sticky slick combination of your cum slowly dripping from your pussy sounds like pure indulgence. Plus you stashed Marcus’s Valentine’s gift in the bedside table, so there’s that too. You grab it now and slip it under your pillow, waiting for him to come back.

Pouring two glasses he turns back to admire your sprawled form as he bites his lip. It’s Valentine’s Day and the two of you have completely indulged today. Now, he needs to give you the gift he had picked out months ago.

“What’s that look for?” You hum, grinning back at him when he returns to your side in bed. “Did you suddenly remember how amazingly lucky I am to have you as my soulmate?”

“More like I remember how lucky I am.” He retorts. “I have a wonderful, sexy woman who indulges my desires and matches them.”

“So I guess we’re both lucky, then.” He hands you your glass and you take a sip, glad that you opted for a white wine tonight so you won’t accidentally ruin the sheets if you get playful. “Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day.” He smiles as he leans in to take a kiss from your wine soaked lips. “Have you enjoyed our weekend away?”

“To me it’s been perfect.” There are more kisses for both of you, never able to have enough of tasting or even just being near each other. “Have you enjoyed it too?”

“Hell yes I have.” He promises. “It’s been an incredible weekend, one we needed. No work, just us.”

“I’m just glad we both got through the weekend without any work emergencies.” The inn is in good hands, as Selena has finished her training to become your new manager and she and Malachi are running the place as smoothly as ever between them in your absence.

“Yeah, me too.” He takes a sip of the wine and sighs softly. “Part of me doesn’t want to go back. Just live in the hotel and run away from responsibility.”

“You would miss work pretty soon.” He loves his job, and you know that. It’s a very serious point of pride even though it’s very taxing on him sometimes. “My offer still stands, my love. Whenever you decide to retire from the FBI, you have my full support.”

“I know, and I’m very grateful for your support.” He promises. “It will come eventually, but I’m happy in my career right now and my team is excellent.”

“As long as you’re happy, I’m happy,” you promise him. With Marcus it’s always about support and communication, so having the small check-ins often is key.

“How about you?” He asks. “The inn is becoming even more popular and nearly full every night.”

“It’s nice that we’re not seeing the after affects of the smear campaign anymore.” It seems like the good will from your social media posts surrounding wedding planning has really worked to verse the damage Sam did months ago, and ever since the holidays the inn has been booked solid. “I’ve been thinking about adding an afternoon tea,” you admit, giving him a sheepish look. “Syd’s sous chef is English and French trained and the three of us were thinking about trying out an Italian-inspired tea service for Mother’s Day.”

“Like the tea cakes and sandwiches?” Marcus smirks slightly. “I can see that being a real draw.” He admits. “Older ladies coming in to socialize and then young girls coming in to learn how to take tea. Paninis and cannolis. Cups of tiramisu.”

“Teacups full of individual tiramisu was Syd’s first idea.” It’s sweet to see him get excited and you glow with pride. “I thought it would be nice to give Syd this Mother’s Day off but she came back with a whole new business idea.”

“I think she’s imagining Constance having tea there, with our girls when they are old enough.” Marcus smiles at the thought.

“It’s a beautiful thought.” The dreaminess on his face is obvious, making your heart swell at the promise of growing the family you’re building with this man. Your other half. Your better half. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” He promises softly, his own dreams for the future in his eyes. “I have your present, to show you how much.”

“I thought my roses were my present?” In fact, you and Marcus must have given the hotel staff a good chuckle this weekend, because you both ordered a dozen long stem red roses to the hotel room — addressed to each other — that arrived with your breakfast tray with room service this morning.

He gives you a look, one that tells you that you are being ridiculous and moves to his bag to pull out the lovely wrapped gift he had brought for you.

“Don’t look at me like that,” you laugh, sliding his gift out from under your pillow to hand over to him.

He huffs at you, even as a grin tugs at the corners of his mouth. “You should know that roses were going to be your only Valentine’s Day gift.” He hadn’t been expecting anything, and his eyes soften at the sight of a gift for him.

“They weren’t going to be your only gift either,” you tut. But sitting up together in your hotel bed, naked with glasses of wine and hearts utterly full, seems like the perfect time to exchange gifts. “This looks suspiciously like a jewelry box, Agent Pike.”

“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.” Marcus pleads his innocence, even as he smirks.

“Mmhmm.” Giggling to yourself all over again, you nudge Marcus’s package toward him so you can both open them at the same time.

“I need you to open yours first.” He wants to watch your expression and put it on you if you want.

“Very mysterious.” You eye him but obey, pulling open the ribbon on the little wrapped box and tear away the dark red paper to reveal a silver jewelry box — exactly as you suspected. When you remove the lid, a small gasp of surprise and wide eyes come with an open mouth reaction. “Is this…?” The delicate silver necklace inside has a heart pendant hanging from it in the center, but the back clasp is on display in the box: a lock, not a claw.

“A collar.” Marcus nods, watching you seriously as he picks up the small, ornate key and showing it to you. “We’ve talked about it, teasing about it, but I found this and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

"Honey, it's beautiful." To the outside observer, the inconspicuous little heart is a sweet token of love from your soulmate. For you and Marcus, it's a next step into the world that you've been exploring together. "I wouldn't have been able to stop thinking about it, either."

“You know you have me, every single part of me, and I have you.” He reaches out and caresses your neck. “This would be between us. Our little secret from the world. My claim on you.”

The little lock on the necklace is meant to be done for you, and you raise your eyes back to Marcus. "Will you do the honors?"

“Do you want to wear my collar, sweetheart?” He asks seriously. “Keeping me close to your heart every day?”

"I really do," you lean across the small expanse to kiss him, just as soft and steadily as the rhythm of your heartbeat. "Even though you're already in my heart every single day. This is just another way to show the whole world."

Marcus hums as you hold out the necklace to him and he carefully unlocks it. “I don’t ever want you to feel like you can’t take it off.” He tells you as he wraps it around your neck and closes the lock to secure it around your neck.

"I know I can always ask you." There are some occasions when it won't be appropriate -- State dinners, your wedding, the fanciest things that you'll do in your lives -- but each and every day of your life the necklace will either go on or off and that means that Marcus will always be with you even when he's away.

Once the necklace is locked around your neck, Marcus leans in and presses his lips to it and your skin gently.

"I feel a bit like I underdid it now," you admit, touching the necklace gently with your fingertips. "But I still hope you like it."

He snorts, not even able to imagine you not putting incredible thought and time into his gift. He picks up the box and shakes it like a kid at Christmas, grinning at you. “Nahhhh, sounds fun.”

"Oh yeah." You snort and wave one hand casually. "I figured Lincoln Logs were the most romantic gift possible."

He laughs and shakes his head as he starts to unwrap the beautiful paper. “Whatever it is, I appreciate you getting me something.” He murmurs. “A lot of women seem to think valentines is only for them.”

"You are the most romantic man on the planet." While he works open the paper you lean back in the pillows and toy with your new necklace. "I couldn't possibly leave you out of the celebration this weekend. That would be awful."

“You would be surprised how often it happens.” He knows you wouldn’t and it makes him appreciate you even more. “Babe….” he freezes when he opens the box and sees the lighter that is nestled into the protective fabric. “Is this— it’s a 1939-45 World War II Trench lighter.” He murmurs, admiring how the patina on the metal is meticulously cared for. “How did you know to get this?”

The awe on his face is enough to tell you that you made the right decision, and you leave a kiss on his cheek with pleasure. "I may have dug in your eBay search history a little," you admit without shame. "Your lighter collection is a point of pride and I know you want to keep growing it."

“I- I love it.” He promises you, leaning in and pressing his lips to yours. “So many of these have been lost or discarded but they all have so many stories ingrained in every flick of the flint.”

"The shop I got it from had a little history of previous owners." The handwritten card is tucked inside the lid of the cigar box, and you nudge Marcus to keep going. "You have to keep unwrapping, though."

“There’s more?” He huffs, rolling his eyes playfully and carefully setting the lighter aside to pull out a box of cigars. “Very nice.”

His smile makes you glow, so happy to see him accepting these shows of love and tokens of affection. "Now that you have a porch to sit out on at night, I thought you should be able to enjoy an indulgence you couldn't have while living in an apartment or the inn."

“That is as long as you don’t hate the smell.” He eyes you, even as he opens the box and pulls out a cigar to smell, groaning at the aroma.

"I called your dad to make sure I got the ones you and he smoke when we're in Texas," you admit. "So I already know I like the smell of these."

“Good.” He chuckles quietly and kisses you again. “You’re perfect, you know that?” He asks. “The universe couldn’t have chosen better.”

"I was just thinking the same about you." Nudging his nose with yours brings a smile to both of your faces. The perfectly contented kind of smile that is somehow both enraptured and at peace all at once. "So I'm very glad we agree."

“That’s why we are soulmates.” He reasons, giddy to be celebrating the holiday with his soulmate, his fiancée and the woman he will spend the rest of his life with.

______

Master Tags: @pixiedurango @chattychell @winter-fox-queen @lady-himbo @artsymaddie @princess76179 @paintballkid711 @missminkylove @pedrosbrat @ew-erin @sarahjkl82-blog @sharkbait77 @justanotherblonde23 @lv7867 @recklesswit @mylittlesenaar @f0rever15elf @gallowsjoker @steeevienicks @athalien @sherala007 @skvatnavle @thatpinkshirt @jaime1110 @girlimjusttryingtoreadfanfics @goodgriefitsawildworld @greeneyedblondie44 @littlemousedroid @harriedandharassed @churchill356 @ajathegreats-blog @haylzcyon   @beardsanddetectives @kirsteng42 @ladykatakuri @adancedivasmom @madiebear @tanzthompson @emilianamason @bigsdinger @xocalliexo @pedr0swh0r3 @avaleineandafryingpan @charlyrmv @avidreader73 @iceclaw101 @loveslide @elegantduckturtle @becsworld @julesonrecord @its-nebuleuse @itsrubberbisquit @mikeyswifie @guelyury @lizzie-cakes @for-a-longlongtime @vabeachazn @purplerain04 @weho2kcmo @madnessofadaydreamer

HHL: @haileymorelikestupid @anoverwhelmingdin @storiesofthefandomlovers @missladym1981 @babeincolor @angelofsmalldeath-codeine

My Masterlist!

[pralinesims]

On a fine november night at the cinema 🎬

Start | Next

TRANSCRIPT under the cut:

Pic 1: Luca: "Hey!" Emilio: "Evening..." Vale: "Oh, hey." Aaron: *eyes glued onto the screen*

Pic 2: Aaron: "You're wearing a suit?" Emilio: "Yeah, yeah, good evening to you too."

Pic 3: Emilio: "Anyways, we're late, I'm gonna grab the tickets." "I'll take care of everything, trust me, it's MY big day!" Vale: "Appreciate that!" Luca: "Thank you!" Aaron: "You really don't have to do this!"

Pic 4: Luca: "How come that you two were faster here than Emilio and me, just by walking?" Vale: "Aaron got his ass up for once, solely for some sickly sweet coffee..."

Emilio muttering to himself: "breathe, Emilio, just breathe..."

Ticket Seller: "Good evening! What can I do for-" Emilio: "Good evening, Ms! Well..."

Pic 5: Emilio: "We're 4! 3 tickets please for the movie "Crumbs of Destruction", hello and thank you very much." "3 tickets, okay? A V.I.P. is among us!"

Pic 6: Luca: "You think the movie is actually gonna be good?" Vale: "Might be." Emilio prepared himself and is ready to take over the world.

Pic 7: Ticket Seller: "Oh, I recognize your friend in green." "He'll get a free entry. Thank you for stopping by"! Emilio: "Why is HE the one getting a free ticket?!" Aaron: "..." Ticket Seller: "Sorry, I can't do anything about that. I'm just following the protocol."

Pic 8: Emilio: "HE'S NOT EVEN IN THE MOVIE, I'M THE ONE WHO'S DEBUTING AS AN ACTOR!" Aaron: "Would you quiet down? I can pay for my own ticket..." Luca: "Should we step in?" Vale, muffled sounding: "nu-uh." Emilio (to the ticket seller): "no, no, you're getting that wrong, I'm telling the truth-" Aaron payed for his own ticket meanwhile.

Pic 9: Vale: "You EXACTLY know what happened the last time we tried to intervene." Luca: "pffft, don't remind me." Emilio: "It's time to get going, we've got the tickets."

Pic 10: Aaron: "...my god, that was SO embarassing." Emilio: "Can't you see how embarassing this was for me too?" Aaron: "Christ, YOU were the one making a scene! Why didn't you just shup up and pay?"

Pic 11: Emilio: "You're ALWAYS freeloading with that influencer bullshit." Aaron: "DUDE, I PAYED FOR THAT DAMN TICKET, I'M NOT A FREELOADER!"

Luca walking from the background towards Emilio & Luca: "Ugh... this is going to be a long night."

Emilio: "but I'M in this movie! Why don't I get any kind of compensation?"

Pic 12: Luca: "Yeah, we get you, but you're acting a bit weird today. Is everything okay?" Emilio: "...it must be the nervosity, I'm sorry. I really-" Aaron: "Just stop screaming at me."

Pic 13: Emilio: "BUT I DIDN'T SAY ANY-" Luca: "Aaron, you too. Calm down." Aaron: "Huh?"

Pic 14: Vale: "You know what?" Emilio: "At least someone told him to shut up for once." Luca: "I'm not choosing any sides. You're both insufferable right now." Aaron: "Newsflash: he's FOR REAL the one who's built this whole circus." Vale: "I can't take this anymore, let's go inside." Aaron: "CAN'T YOU EVER BEHAVE LIKE A PERSON?" Emilio: "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SUCH A SMARTASS?

Pic 15: Vale: "What the hell is wrong with them?" Luca: "...fucking finally- Yo, where did the ticket lady go?" Emilio & Aaron are still arguing in the background.

To be continued...

[wandaluvstacos]

I am begging people to stop buying this damn sewing machine for anyone older than 12.

As a toy for children, it's acceptable. If you ACTUALLY want to sew something, do not get a cheap piece of crap from Walmart for $35!! You'll work on this thing for 15 minutes, it will suck, you will get frustrated, and then you'll tell yourself that you are simply incapable of sewing and that it's too complicated for you. But it's not your fault-- you are working with a child's toy. That's like giving up on driving a car because your Barbie Jeep's battery dies the first 5 minutes you're in it.

My two recommendations:

First and most recommended: You get a LIGHTLY USED modern plastic machine for cheap off Facebook Marketplace or your local sewing machine repair shop. I'm talking less than 10 years old. You ask the seller "do you use this regularly" or "has this been serviced". Try to buy from someone who has used the machine recently because they'll know its ins-and-outs. You can find a modern machine for like $30 on Facebook Marketplace from someone who has actually used it (I would not recommend Goodwill or anywhere you can't speak to the person who used it before you, if you are just starting out). One highly recommended modern machine for beginners is the Singer Heavy Duty.

It's $200 new but you can easily find one much cheaper used. It's simple to use and will hold up to basic sewing for the time it will take you to decide whether you want to sew or not. Other modern Singers suck ass; save yourself the trouble. Go with the Singer Heavy Duty or a Brother, or even a Janome if you can find one cheap enough. Stay away from anything that's not a time-trusted brand.

The Brother CS6000i is a decent beginner's machine.

Again, do not buy machines off eBay unless they make it CLEAR that it has been fully serviced and is in perfect working condition. They honestly aren't much cheaper used on eBay than they are new, so best to buy it from someone on Facebook Marketplace or at a sewing machine repair place.

Second recommendation: Buy a VINTAGE METAL machine that has been fully serviced or in perfect working condition. These are more difficult to find serviced, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you find one on FB Marketplace (though the one I got on eBay worked perfectly out of the box). There will be TONS of very cheap vintage machines on FB Marketplace, but the problem with these is that they've often been sitting in a cabinet for 20 years, unused. Not great for learning on. You can also buy one of these machines and have it serviced, but having a machine serviced will cost more than the machine is worth, more often than not.

There are benefits to a vintage metal machine over a modern plastic one. it will last your lifetime. It can sew through thick, difficult fabrics. They're much better looking imo. They likely won't break unless you drop them down a stairwell. However, the oldest ones only do a straight stitch, and speaking as someone who has vintage and a modern machine... the automatic buttonholer and overlock stitch are nice to have! But the vast majority of the stitching you will do will only be zig zag (for stretch knits/elastic) or straight stitch. The zig zag feature became available in most domestic sewing machines by the late 1950s.

Any vintage machine made before 1970 will be fine to sew with; everything was pretty good quality back then. 1970s era Kenmores are ugly and basic but they are cheap while also being excellent machines, and they're the "newest" domestic machine you can get that's still all metal.

Any Singer will have easy-to-replace parts, have easily findable user manuals, and every sewing machine repairman will be able to fix them. The uglier ones in the 1960s are dirt cheap, if you make sure it's not younger than the 628 or 337. Both of these machines are the cheapest vintage all-metal Singers you'll find and they work fine (and they do zig zag stitches).

Do NOT get a Touch n Sew or Stylist made in the late 1960s or later. Generally if it has plastic buttons, it's got something plastic inside (not always, but with Singers, often). These Golden Touch n Sews are in fact Touch n Throw (away).

Any old black machine will be fine and very simple to use, and I think they look gorgeous, but they only straight stitch, so you won't be able to sew your own leggings on them. If you only want to make curtains, quilts, or bags or something, they will work fantastic for that. Just make sure they're serviced, as these things usually are not.

I'm going to talk to my younger, beginner self: Just because it's a used, older machine does not make it worse!

Even used modern plastic machines can work fine. It's rare that people are selling a machine as WORKING when it doesn't work. People tend to be honest about it. Usually they are selling it because they lost interest, it was given to them by a family member, or they just don't use it enough to keep around. Buying used is almost always the best, cheapest option for a beginner. Stop buying these cheapo gadgets on Amazon! They will only make you hate sewing machines.

[justafriend-ql]

times never let me go said: happy pride! 🏳️‍🌈 (part 3)

final installment by popular request 3 people and my will to procrastinate (see part 1 and part 2)

narrow hallways - our community's biggest and most underappreciated ally

2. nuengdiao ordering palm to be his friend right after insulting him this is the bitchy emo twink representation we deserve

3. palm's brain fully shutting down when nueng brings his fingers to his neck

4. (watching your father cut a man's finger off in your living room) yes, the horrors are indescribable, but you've got to serve

5. have you ever been cockblocked by a roti sai mai seller

6. the scene going a full 10 shades darker when nueng agrees to dance with ben we have entered the twilight zone

7. nueng looking palm up and down not once, not twice, but three times

8. photos taken seconds before disaster

9. nueng vowing to strike fear into the hearts of homophobes everywhere

10. mam's gaydar going off like crazy

11. alexa play 'you're sexy, i'm sexy' by eric nam

12. friendly reminder that at this point palm has seen nueng have several emotional breakdowns, willingly poison himself with alcohol, throw up off the side of a boat, and call palm his running dog like palm get upppp

13. you heard it here first folks #bebravebeyou

14. mam asking about how palm feels and him admitting that it felt good to kiss nueng I LOVE THIS SONG

15. thank you for your service pond

16. the face ben pulls when chopper says he's never been ben's type (he will ask chopper out in approx. 2 minutes)

17. mam accepting nueng as her son-in-law 🥺

18. "you can do it as much as you want" sir this is a public retail store have some decorum

19. palm's face when nueng takes off his shirt so he can join him in the tub LMAO in the midst of his grief there was suddenly powerful lust

20. spiderman pointing meme (gay cousin edition)

21. stream 'smile please' by the cast of my school president for clear skin

22. get fucking wrecked ben men aren't shit

23. kiss. his. little. cheekie!!

24. you are so stupid we are about to fuck in my office

25. who's going to tell him

26. chopper: "i think nueng will need a lot of energy for palm" ben's reaction to that information:

27. people died

28. historians will say they were very good friends

29. established gays coaching the baby gay <3

30. "you are two men dating each other. that's already hard enough. your love is impossible in this lifetime. you always have to hide your relationship. it's impossible for you to get married and start a family. you need to be reborn. things may be better at that time." and in palm and nueng's present lifetime it's the same DO YOU HEAR WHAT JOJO IS SAYING

🇹🇭 MARRIAGE EQUALITY NOW 🇹🇭

[chubbygrape]

Store: A case study 🔪🖤

Have such a love for the eldritch so Store and his little butchery thing are fascinating to me, like i love this awkward pool toy looking bird so much and I've decided to make it everyones problem with this shitpost

----------------------

Anyone too lazy to read all that tho, heres a quick summary of all points below that paint the picture of who Store really is:

-----------------

A businessman 👨‍💼📈

Concerned greatly about the future of his establishment < takes an active approach by engaging in production and release of new products. 💡

Monopoly: market forces are irrelevant < sole seller < niche market < great profits 💹

Great Marketing Skills < Utilises marketing techniques 🗂

Is a TV celebrity 🎥⭐️

Has a Phd 🎓

Loves Boss ❤️

Great hygiene 🫧🧼

Supports native fauna and flora 🌷🦇

-----------------

now lets get into it -

Inside his Butchery :

I literally love how he has just chucked all the devil meat into a literal bookshelf, like no fridge, no glass case, no nothing , just straight into the shelves.

But then i also noticed the sign at the top which translates to 'Old Meat' apparently , which made it even funnier to me like anything not fresh he just shoved right in there and thats just how you run an institute at the end of the day

2. We got some unintelligible posters, like what are those?? I kept squinting and turning the screen upside down, could literally not tell whatsover

3. Speaking of posters though, in a bonus curse the posters were replaced with a Chidaruma picture and honestly thats the cutest thing ever , big 'i love my boss' energy.

But I need to know the specifics now like was Chidaruma handing pictures, like where did Store get that pic from?

4. At another point also, after Asu was butchered, we had a new posted hand written talking about fresh meat?

So Store can write now??? Is my manic angel bird demon educated? its giving phd

5. Lastly on the point of posters, Store is out there promoting sales - a whole 20% off, he is running a business!!!

6. We got a little ottoman chair, dont want the waiting customer to be standing and getting tired ofc

7. Those horn like things that are all over Hell are also hanging from the ceiling and thats confusing to me cause like was this an active decor decision?

cause i know damn well it didnt come with the property - unless theyre like a sort of flora or fungus idk

[not even going to comment on the bats]

8. Hanging helps tenderise the meat, and its a common practice where butchers will hang the animal bodies in fridges and freezers and whatnot, but have you also considered you can just hang it in the middle of your shop, right in the open, over the customer's head?

9. Are these bones??

10. mysterious liquid jars??? (its blood isnt it)

11. A sink with some soap, we love hygiene ❤️ - An a kettle cause why not we know store likes tea

12. But then on the topic of meat, you also have sausages at a certain point - And im 99% sure Store only deals in Devil Meat (talk about niche market) , so hes just flat out making devil sausages?

Which actually not surprising - his pie chart literally shows how hes working on new releases, I mean we got a mince meat version now! ++ the Niku Strong K that helps with hair loss!

13. Big of him to be worried about keeping devil meat fresh when hes out there storing meat uncovered in room temperature but im not judging

14. Expandable areas -- There's extra rooms to the butchery we havent been shown and now I have to be mad and wonder cause how does this thing live!!!! I need to know!

My guess: guessing he has like an actual meat prep room, plus if hes mincing and making sausages sure he should have a space for that -- I think he also lives there (?) so guessing another extra room could be his room.

15. Extra: Store in a tshirt and a bib - love.

Outside the Butchery :

All these trash bags must be waste, but now I wonder who collects the trash? Does Hell has its own trash collection system?

Also is that a satellite?? Store watches TV? good for him. Actually no surprise there since he has his own channel he stars in (celebrity ⭐️)

Anyways 10/10 , he's doing a great job

Final author note: You know in retrospect, if i was one of the strongest beings in existence that could kill Devils and was the only one thus handlind Devil meat thats so essential to the lifecyle of devils, I also wouldnt give a fuck and a chuck all the meat raw in the shelves - either take it and pay up or leave it , idc

[justasmallbloginabigklainefandom]

ANYWAY, LONDON. (12th Doctor voice: "What a dump!")

Tuesday

Mum and I left our home at 7:30 (Dutch time) and arrived 12:30 or so (UK time).

We had a lunch reservation at 15:00 at Dishoom in Covent Garden and it was delicious. The restaurant itself was too crowdy, though. Definitely overwhelming. My aunt recommended it, and I paid the bill, as a surprise to my mum. She was so surprised and happy she even told our waiter while beaming.

We walked around Covent Garden and we bought tea at Tesco's for my dad. I also went to the Waterstones there.

We also explored Chinatown and I am in love.

For dinner, we had a small bite at Bao Spot.

Then we went to Picadilly Circus's Waterstones, where I bought In the Lives of Puppets. I love this bookstore.

My mum wanted to check Fortnum & Mason, because my parents bought a tea set around 11 years ago, and she wanted to see if she could add the cake stand, until she saw the price.

Unfortunately, I was up till 6:00 because of my mum's snoring.

Wednesday

So we immediately looked up where we can find a drug store to buy earplugs. I'm conviced Boots and Etos are the same.

Anyway, despite my lack of sleep, I was !!!!! because it was HADESTOWN DAY.

We grabbed something to eat at Pret a Manger and ate it at Leicester Square and I'm just going to say it, Leicester Square is fucking horrible and definitely a tourist trap with the McDonalds and M&M Store and all the souvenir + vape shops. Cannot imagine why someone would willingly go there.

But yeah, we went to the Boots in Covent Garden, since that's what my mum found, not knowing that there was a huge Boots basically next to our hotel. Oops.

After that, we went to South Kensington by tube, but we accidentally took the emergency exit as entrance, so we walked down 190 stairs.

We walked around Kensington and Chelsea and damn, people are rich here.

We bought two expensive slices of cake at the Hummingbird Bakery. Mum thought they were around £3 a slice, but I saw it was over £6 a slice. My mum has 3 cookbooks from this bakery and likes their stuff, so she needed to try it.

We had lunch reservations at 12:30, but my mum was anxious to be late, so we were already there before 12:00, aka when the restaurant was open. So we instead had an overpriced (£3,60) cup of tea at this bakery close to it.

We had lunch at La Mammas or whatever it's called. My mum wanted to go there. It was really neat.

Then we took the bus to Harrods. We didn't really plan on buying anything, but we just wanted to see. My mum loved going by bus. Also, Harrods is terribly confusing. They should give us maps.

We went to the hotel to try the cakes and they were... bad. Well, not bad as in gross, but bad as in incredibly basic bitch and boring. You were unable to taste any of the flavour and it was way too sweet. Basically, it was laughable. (Mum: "Well, for £3, it was worth trying." Me: "... yeah, about that....")

HADESTOWN

HADESTOWN

HAAAAADESTOWN

AKA THE REASON WE WENT ON THIS TRIP IN THE FIRST PLACE

HADESTOWN!!!!!!

Thursday

We checked out Soho and had another breakfast at Pret a Manger. These things are everywhere, huh?

We bought some gifts for my dad and sister at Liberty's.

I, uh, convinced my mum to go to TKTS with me to check if there were cheap matinee tickets, either for Hadestown (yes, again) or Hamilton.

That's how I unexpectedly got Hamilton tickets.

Before that, we stopped by at Chinatown for lunch. I wanted a Chinese crepe. Looks like my Chinese is decent enough, because I ordered in Chinese and the seller immediately spoke back in rapid Chinese. Uhhhh.（ 我：我不明白！！！）

HAMILTON

HAMILTON.

HAMILTON!!!!!

And then after we show, we immediately had to take the train from Victoria back to Leicester Square, because we had dinner reservations at 胖胖 Hotpot. I really, REALLY wanted to try hotpot and we chose this one, because back in China, people used to call me 胖胖. It was absolutely delicious, although one of the soups was waaaaay too spicy for us.

I didn't want to go to bed, so we strolled around Picadilly Circus a bit more.

Friday

Our last day :(

We decided to have breakfast at Picadilly Circus's Waterstones. It was neat. Afterwards, I explored the store again and decided to, uh, read all the new content in Alice Oseman's new reprints of the books. They all have new covers, drawn by her, and new stuff. I don't feel like buying all of them again for that, even though the covers truly are amazing, so I decided to read them there on the spot.

Radio Silence's new content was the least interesting. I'm sorry, Alice.

The interview in Solitaire was cool and I liked the new tibit about Lucas.

Loveless and IWBFT had a whole new section of story. Loveless had the moment before Pip and Rooney's first kiss. I loved Pip's "I'm too fucking gay for this." I think I loved the IWBFT one more, partially because I love IWBFT more, but I loved reading the dynamic between Rowan and Lister and reading their POVs. (And shout-out to Rowan acknowledging that people see Lister as the most attractive one, since he's the white one.)

Nick & Charlie had a new story altogether about Nick's first day at uni and I also really liked that one.

Yes. I just used this post about my trip to London for these reviews.

We walked around Covent Garden again, but now in the area that was off-limits for cars and I admired Ted Baker bags. I really like these things, but I never really wanted to buy one, because I'm not going to use them. Maybe in sale. One day.

We had lunch at Bun House in Chinatown. We ordered three bao buns and wonton soup and holy shit, sorry Dishoom and Mammas, this was the best lunch of the trip.

My mum already wanted to go to St. Pancras (again, she's anxious about being late), even though it was 15:00 and the train left at 19:30. I was like "uh no", so we went to Trafalgar Square, since that was close by and therefore "safe" to go to without having to rush back.

If there were another matinee, I, uh, would've tried to go there, but alas.

On our way to Trafalgar Square, we stumbled across the Royal Watercolour Society which held a lil exhibition showcasing miniature models of two architects. A hidden gem, to be honest.

We sat at Trafalgar Square for a while and man, the queue for the National Gallery was insane. I also spotted a Waterstones so off we went. Look, I have been looking for a hardback copy of Gentleman's Guide for a long time, okay? I wanted to try again, but again, no luck.

Then around 16:30 we went to St. Pancras. There, we had tea at Le Pain Quotidien while we waited for an hour before the line opened and yes, around 19:30, we left. We arrived in Brussels at 22:30 (Dutch time) and my dad picked us up and we drove home.

[so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed]

20 questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by the ever wonderful @londonfoginacup and @reminiscingintherain thank you so much!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

94, though I think one is a collab and one is a translation. But 90+

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

I am gonna do some math here and take off the translation because that adds 220k to my wordcount and that doesn't feel fair, lol. So that leaves 1.243.681 words. Minus about 12k that I didn't write lol, that's still a lot.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently just 1D but I am talking about writing a Lestappen fic so I might branch out!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a game that I'm destined to lose [1449 kudos, but it's from 2012] midnight doesn't last forever [1190 kudos, but it's from 2013] you've set my soul to dreaming [1162 kudos] room for your love underneath this tree [1151 kudos] some things fade (some never do) [1047 kudos]

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Um. Theoretically yes. Realistically, I haven't caught up since March and the number in my inbox is too high to look at.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I usually write HEA but I guess the one that I remember with more of an ambiguous ending is and there's no one to blame except then Sus made me write a follow up so I guess it has a happy ending now.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them? I mean, I put the characters through some serious angst, but after that, they all get their very deserved happy ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not that I know of. If I do, it's not in my face.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Occasionally. I write either quirky smut, or I write stuff for wankersday, because the only smut I write is stuff that doesn't involve other people directly apparently.

10. Do you write crossovers? What the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really, but I have a HP AU I should write at one point.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep! Someone tried to sell TNFIF online on Amazon. With a really ugly cover. Thankfully writing Tumblr came together and sent in so many bad reviews that the seller took it down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, a few!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've done a round robin a few years ago, which wasn't really my style. I've started writing an advent fic with @evilovesyou but we never got around to finishing it. I will hopefully write a fic with @chaotic-bells soon!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

For as much Larry as I write, my first true love was Ziam.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I am stubborn enough to believe I will finish all my WIPs. Eventually.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotions, I think. I've made people cry, so that's nice!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Mostly I think I struggle not to make everything too in depth. A 5k fic probably doesn't need 3k of worldbuilding.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've come across it a lot in Lestappen fics and I don't mind it as long as the translation is right behind it, and as long as it's not google translated stuff (or as long as it's google translated stuff in a language I don't know).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Possibly Gilmore Girls. I've written for a ton of fandoms, though I've been a 1D only writer since 2012.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

That's like asking me to choose between my non existent children. If I have a favourite, I can't say it out loud. (But it's this one, for all it brought me)

I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged at this point, so I am gonna tag @jacaranda-bloom and @beardyboyzx and anyone in the @1dcreatorclubhouse who wants to do it!

[kudosmyhero]

Legends of the Dark Knight (vol. 1) #137: Terror, part 1: The Blood-Bat

Read Date: January 19, 2023 Cover Date: January 2001 ● Writer: Doug Moench ● Penciler: Paul Gulacy ● Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti ● Colorist: James Sinclair ● Letterer: Kurt Hathaway ● Editor: Andrew Hefler ◦ Harvey Richards ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● (cover) Hugo's head sticking out of the water like that amuses me greatly ● (pg 2) that sleeve is pretty damn skintight if we can see Batman's veins ● (pg 3) not a single word of dialogue or narrative yet. very refreshing, considering all the 60s stuff I've been reading! just some sound effects and beautiful art ● (pg 4) waaaaait, what's going on here? ● (pg 5) ha! I didn't expect that when "Batman" turned around!

● (pg 10) I guess there are pros and cons to going after the sellers or the buyers first ● (pg 12) Batman doesn't kill, but he'll light your ass on fire ● "Flamethrower's effective, but too extreme." - Ya think? ● (pg 14) Howdy, Gordon! ● Batman and Gordon at the scene where Bat-Hugo Strange killed a guy ● (pg 15) Gordon is still a captain ● Gordon looks great here:

● (pg 16) Gordon: I hope you're wrong. / Batman: I'm not. - Batman is nothing if not self-confident ● (pg 17) I'd forgotten entirely about Strange's, um, significant other ● (pg 18) a little info about Strange's victim: Sebastian Cole, a widower left with profound grief trauma after the death of his wife. Aww… poor guy :( Underwent 3 years of therapy… with Dr. Hugo Strange. ● wtf are Catwoman's boobs doing? ● Two-Face, Scarecrow, and Joker are still "safe and unsound" in Arkham ● Strange got himself some fake credentials--"Victor Absonus"--and just landed a job at Arkham Asylum ● he is interested in meeting Jonathan Crane asap (yusss Scarecrow!) ● he's meeting with Crane and has put him under hypnosis, and he's giving him a handful of straw every time he visits ● aaaand he's reawakening Scarecrow from Crane's psyche ● 👏👏👏

Synopsis: A man in a Batman costume enters a creepy-looking house which sits secluded on a small hill. He moves into the bedroom upstairs where he kills an old man using a dagger with a bat-shaped hilt. The murderer is Hugo Strange and his revenge on Batman has begun.

At night, Batman is busting some drug dealers and he takes them down using his Batboat. Though he is successful, he warns himself not to go overboard with all his new gadgets. When he sees the Bat-Signal, Batman meets with Captain Gordon who shows him the murdered old man. The dagger and a bat painted on the wall with blood is making it a little too obvious that someone is trying to frame Batman. Both men argue that Hugo Strange may not be dead after all. Indeed, Gordon later finds out that the victim named Sebastian Cole unterwent three years of psychiatric therapy with Hugo Strange as his doctor.

While Batman also goes after Catwoman who draws more and more attention because of her increasing number of burglaries, a disguised Hugo Strange begins his new job as psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. His first patient is Scarecrow and using hypnosis Strange tries to eliminate the fear Jonathan Crane has regarding Batman …

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman:_Legends_of_the_Dark_Knight_Vol_1_137)

Fan Art: DDF2013 - Day 5: Hugo Strange by BloodySamoan

Accompanying Podcast: ● Batbooks for Beginners - episode 10

[mercykatze]

Hey there, I have some questions about selling zines in Australia? I apologise if it’s rude to ask about stuff like business, but I simply can’t find this info anywhere, so please forgive me.

How much do you stock per convention? Does it depend on where you’re selling? Do people buy original works? How did you start, how was that experience? How hard is it, as a beginner seller in Brisbane, to find venues to sell? How do you print your zines, at home or with a service?

Many thanks if you do answer, if not no worries. :-)

Not rude at all, I'm happy to answer!! Clove and I are big advocates of Zines For Everyone so the more people who have this info, the better!!

Clove and I both wrote out our answers so I'll put them under the cut here because they got pretty long! We are Passionate abt zines <3

For new zines at cons, it depends a lot on the content of that particular zine as to how much we print. Like with our old art compilation zines for example, that's a popular 'genre' right now so we printed about 12 of each. For something more obscure/niche like cloves MediZine, we printed about 5 from memory. If the zine sells well or even if people just seem to like it (even if they don't buy) we try to up the number a little or keep it steady at 12-15. Even if it doesn't sell super well, we still try to keep 3 or 4 in stock because you never know when you'll find the right person for it.

At least at the locations we sell at, there isn't a huge difference that I've noticed when it comes to zine sales. At cons there are zine hunters who hit up anyone who sells zines and we end up trading almost as many as we sell! Same goes for the nonbinary festivals that we've attended.

Original stuff absolutely sells and in my experience often sells better than fandom. People who are into zines are usually into supporting original works from artists too. Honestly as long as the zine is something you're passionate about, no matter the subject, someone will love it.

We make and print all of our zines at home. A lot of the time we use Electric Zine Maker which is a really helpful and easy to use tool and it prints guidelines on how to cut and fold which makes it super simple. And once you know the basics of zine making, it's also super easy to make one in your preferred art program and convert it to the right dimensions.

I skipped the venues question because clove is writing up an answer too and has more experience in that particular place than I (Jay) do. (I kinda just stole a seat at their goldnova table one year and never left haha) I'll post eir response down here vv

sorry I have A LOT TO SAY because I love zines and I love talking about what goes into selling merch !! there really isn't a lot of info out there about it, so this is basically a general summary of all of my thoughts on the matter. I tried to hit all of the points in your question, but this can act as a general guide as well for anyone who wants to get into making and selling zines.

first off I want to say YES people buy original works !! people will buy Any merch you have if they can see that you have passion into it, and zines are one of the most passion filled things out there. zines also help boost the sales of everything you're selling, as when you explain the zine and your passion to them, they will want to buy more things to support you. zines and original works are also a good option to have for people who want to support you, but aren't into any of your fandoms.

location and event are really big factors yes and there's no one size fits all. I usually print around 6-12 of each zine, but this is with the expectation of giving out a lot of them for free or in trades. zines also aren't our biggest item so it might be different if that's all you're selling.

for selling in general, I jumped straight into the deep end and started selling at the biggest con in the city when I had just turned 17. I did not make all my money back but it was a blast. I wouldn't recommend this as a business tactic but it sure was a fun experience!!

as for selling zines in particular, I started off by overthinking it all which I do NOT recommend and is the antithesis of zines. a lot of fandom zines these days are high production which is brilliant but puts a lot of pressure on a medium that started off being low budget and fun. the most important thing about zines is to have fun and make stupid shit. of course you will also want to make gems and you will, but don't let that stop you from making a zine that's just a list of things you saw on a walk once. people will buy it and they will love it.

we print at home for most of our zines. they will come out janky, that is okay!! I've looked into some professional printing services for some larger projects, and I have been recommended the site mixam for that, but I never went through with it for whatever reason. if your home printer isn't that good, officeworks has cheap self served printing. but honestly a simple Canon ink jet printer is under $100 and if you buy ink refill packs online (check out inkstation) it pays for itself. I would also recommend downloading the program electric zine maker as another tool in your pocket for making some quick and easy and super fun zines, especially for 8-folds.

honestly we only have experience selling at the larger and harder to get into venues, since we both work full time so can only afford to do 2 or 3 big weekends a year rather than lots of little ones. I would recommend joining a Facebook group for local merch artists as people often share events and their application dates there. the community is very kind in general in Brisbane so don't be afraid to reach out and ask the hosts of smaller venues. even if you don't get in you will learn something for next time

zines are also special in the way that they're often used for sharing ideas on top of just selling. I would recommend next time you go to a con or art event to bring some of your own zines and offer trades to anyone whose zine you like. I always make it clear that I'm equally happy to pay to purchase one of their zines so they don't feel pressured, but I find that about 70% of artists are happy to trade. this helps get your name out there and to build strong connections in the community

I hope some of this helped. I hope to see you at the next event we sell at with some zines to trade :) whether or not you're officially selling there!!

[ne0ngenisis]

Mmmmm thinking about Macs again. Adding some new stuff to the collection soon, and I've got more stuff for my wanted list >:3

Current Collection, in order of acquisition:

2001 12" iBook 500MHz

2003 13" iBook G4 1GHz (Soon to be gifted to a loved one)

2004 15" PowerBook G4 1.33GHz

2006 15" MacBook Pro 2.16GHz

2009 13" MacBook 2.13GHz (deceased)

2009 13" MacBook 2.13GHz (living)

2012 13" MacBook Pro

2014 11" MacBook Air (Soon to be received from the same loved one)

Ghost, my G4 iBook, is gonna go to a new home soon. A lovely puppy is gonna take it and give it a good home in her collection once I give it a few upgrades, like more RAM, some solid state storage, and a WiFi card, and I'm gonna take the 11" MacBook Air that she "rescued" from her workplace's recycle pile. Which is a 2014 model with the i7-4550U and 8GB of RAM. Should be a pretty sweet little machine.

I may sell the dead 2009 for parts. I'm not gonna get much use out of it the way it is now.

Those That Remain™, in order of release,

Titanium PowerBook G4 (not picky on spec)

2015 15" MacBook Pro (with dedicated graphics)

2021 14" or 16" M1 Pro MacBook Pro (not picky on spec or color)

So of course I gotta have a TiBook on here, right? I'm a Mac laptop collector, that's gotta be one of them, right up there with a clamshell G3 for some people. I'm not personally interested in a clamshell G3, though.

The 2015 15" MacBook Pro with the R7 M370 graphics is just like... the highest end Apple laptop that was made before they switched to a USB Type C-only port arrangement and got rid of the function keys and used a fragile shitty keyboard. It's right at the end of that gap between "the old Apple" and "Apple is back". These hover around $200 right now.

The M1 Pro MacBook Pro is my Holy Grail right now. They're still pretty expensive to pick up secondhand of course, $1100 for one that's pretty beat up on eBay, with lots of little nicks and dings, a scratch in the trackpad, and no included charger. But that's a laptop with an M1 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Apple still wants over $2000 for these in the refurbished store, and $1100 is also what Apple charges for a base model 13" M2 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

It's not gonna happen soon, I'm still saving for a car, but maybe somewhere down the line, it'll be a little bit easier.

Updated Feb 3rd:

I decided to snagg a 2009 MacBook Air because I'm a little impulsive, I got a discount offer from an eBay seller, and I saw it was supported by OCLP and had INCREDIBLE morbid curiosity about how the machine would handle Big Sur through Sonoma. We'll see how THAT goes.

[slopsuit]

I am also autisitic for sonic plushies but have no money so I would like to hear about them /nf

I’m not familiar with tone indicators but I’m just gonna assume that means nice and friendly etc. I’m so glad you asked. :) I am going to put this under a read more though because umm… There is a lot.

I think bootlegs in particular are underrepresented and under-respected in a lot of Sonic plush discussion, which is a shame because they’re almost always more accessible and affordable than official plushes. Most of the time, I do prefer official plushes, but I gravitate to a lot of bootlegs due to some personal preferences but also because they are much easier to obtain. Usually. There are some that are very hard to come by (at least in the US) that are very unique and interesting and good quality that I wish were easier to get. Some bootlegs also tend to be extremely rare as only a few were made and documentation of bootlegs is extremely limited.

Out of all my plushes (which is about 49 right now), 11 of them are bootlegs (I THINK… my plushes are a mess right now and they are very hard to count but there is at least that many). The most interesting I think out of all of them are my 15″ talking Boom Sonic bootleg, my Joypolis Sonic bootleg, and my Sega Toys Sonic bootleg. I don’t have the official plushes of any of these, so I can’t compare them directly, but I will go off of photos and any other information I can find.

This is my Boom Sonic bootleg. (I made him a bigger nose because it was extremely thin and small, but he is otherwise unaltered.) He was about $15. His tush tag is very accurate to the official plush, but the print quality is very low. The official plush is TOMY brand, but there was no TOMY branding from the listing I got him from, and most importantly, this plush does not talk. There is no voice box at all and he came in a sealed clear plastic wrap. I’m glad he doesn’t talk though, I don’t really like plushes that talk so he is a perfect alternative for me.

This is a stock photo of the official plush. It comes boxed with a plush chili dog. The 12″ version of this plush also comes boxed, but it does not come with a chili dog. There is an 8″ version of this plush as well that has no voice box or accessories. There is no record of them making non-talking plushes in the 15″ or 12″ sizes. All are made by TOMY.

Because of how accurate the bootleg is I’ve seen people call it a factory reject or prototype, which could also be true! I personally think it’s more likely to be a bootleg though due to it being sold in mass-quantities all identical to each other and there is no indication that he’s supposed to have a voice box in his back. I think people calling it a factory reject is just a way for second-hand sellers to make it sound more appealing and rare to collectors.

Here is the bootleg’s back.^

And here is the official plush’s back.^ This is the 12″ version, but everything is the same in structure, just smaller.

This is my Joypolis bootleg. He was about $22. He looks almost completely identical, but there is something very special about him. The Joypolis emblem on his foot is upside down, and it appears the soles of his shoes are backwards altogether. The pointy end should be at the front of his feet, and the round end at the back, but it’s the other way around. The emblem is also on the wrong foot (at least for the white emblem variant, the blue emblem variant is on the same foot). There was no mention of Joypolis in the listing and he came from China as opposed to Japan where the Joypolis theme park is located. He also came in a sealed clear plastic wrap with no paper tags.

Here is a photo of the official plush. He usually has paper tags, but this one doesn’t have them. From this photo though, you can tell what his feet are supposed to look like. Also this is just a theory because I’ve only seen photos of this plush (I want it so desperately), but I think the bootleg is made of a different material, at least his fur. I also think the colors are different. I really want to get an official Joypolis plush to make direct comparisons, but also because he is so adorable and is the quintessential Sonic plush to me.

This is my beloved, my sweetheart, my angel. He is a distant relative of a long line of Sega Toys Sonic bootlegs and also defective on top of that. I’ve removed his tush tags, but they originally said Fun4All Corp., and he had a paper tag that was a very very poor quality scan of the tag for the fleece caps made by Great Eastern Entertainment (a company that makes a lot of Sonic plushes that are frequently bootlegged). Conflicting branding! Very fucked up and interesting! He also has blue, crooked eyes. I love him so much. He is the first bootleg I ever got, and the second Sonic plush I ever got (my first being a Nanco Sonic that’s almost 3ft tall). I fell so so so in love with him the second I saw him and refer to the photos on the listing I bought him from lovingly as his baby pictures. I spent about $20 for him which is more than I should have purely for his size and quality, but my heart ached at the thought of not having him. I needed him.

This is a photo of what he’s supposed to look like as a bootleg.^ 

And this is a photo of the original Sega Toys Sonic plush.^ This one in particular is very aged, but he’s very cute. He came in a set with Knuckles and Tails and there is a posable version that comes boxed and is reportedly 10cm larger. He was released in the early 2000s. His finger is pointing, but on my bootleg there is missing finger definition and so it just kind of looks like a penis hand.

I promise I have plushes of other characters, also about half of them are technically my boyfriend’s but we share them. We have most of Sonic, but I think only two of the Sonics are his. We might have more Shadows at this point cos I keep buying Shadows for him as presents, but only 2 or 3 of those are mine. Sonic is my favorite character and Shadow is his. Love wins. ❤️

Thank you for sending me an ask about this. :) I hope you can get lots of plushes. This is like, my only hobby, so I’ve invested a lot in it, and it helps that my boyfriend shares it. I don’t have many rare plushes at all, but there are many I dream of having someday and the feeling I get when I hold a Sonic plush is just indescribable. I feel like they are my best friends and I love them so much. I have so much information about them that will stay in my brain forever until I die so I’m really happy to have any opportunity to dump it.

[thekingsparty]

//y’all won’t believe what’s been happening here. so i lost my cat 2 weeks ago, right? and like, it hurts and i doubt it’s ever gonna drop hurting, but mom ans i spoke about this a long time ago and said that when katzi’s life ended and we’d had our time to grieve, we’d get cars from a shelter.

that said and done we had to find out that the online collection of kitten to adopt in our local shelter is abysmal. they all demand yards and shit and there’s only cats a few years and older which is something mom will never agree on. and so i’ve been looking in other places like german craigslist and blah. i know that the business of breeding and selling cats is booming and shit so i spent a lot of time trying to find someone “normal”, we’d never support inhumane breeding machinery. anyway, found a nice lady with 2 kitten, older than the others (15 weeks, most sell at 10-12 weeks to get rid of them as fast as possible) and we spike for a week and it seemed ok.

she asked to be kept in the loop so to say to see how they grow up here and blah, which ofc I agreed to and then we went to see them. They were both v thin, the girl flinched like crazy when grabbed and the kids handled her v roughly so ofc our must save kitty sensors went off. we bought them, took them home and the girl was so absent we almost brought her to the vet clinic but decided to wait till morning.

hours later when i JUST got them to open up to us and calm down, lady starter bombing me with messages saying they shouldn’t have given them away and they demand them back and would bring a lawyer and shit. did we get attached and already made plans to get them all fed and happy and blah? pretty much. but we had limited options and it would’ve been much harder to give them back after we got properly attached so.. we drove all the way back in the middle of the night.

in the morning lady spammed me with messages again how she’s sorry and how she should’ve prepared the kids before and how she demanded them back only cause the kids were upset blah. then deleted those messages and said like how sorry she is and shouldn’t have demanded them back cause they would’ve had a great life here and she would’ve had contact to them. you’d think OK, maybe she’s gonna try asking you to buy them again, right? nahhhhhhhh. she started saying how the kids are now ready cause they know they’ll have to say goodbye soon. like dude you’ve waited for someone to buy those cats for over a week and the kids weren’t ready. now 8h after we brought them back, they suddenly are? then i got. check and boom, she put them back up for sale but for more money.

like dude are you drucken serious? you made us drive hours with crying and horrified cats because you felt like you missed a good deal? like she legit could’ve told us to pay more when we were there; it was obvious we wanted them badly. but now, she decided to horrify the cats ans break our hearts instead. i called her out on it and she stopped responding lol. we reached out to an animal activist and he sent us to animal welfare after hearing about it, so that’s what we did now.

i’m so sad. when i saw their picture i instantly fell in love and when mom finally agreed after a week and we saw them and i held them.. i thought everything was finally gonna be ok. things have been so shitty lately and then i pick the 1% of douche bag out of a hundred sellers. *sigh*

[searedwood]

30 Day Gay Journal Prompts

This is specifically designed for Pride Month and self celebration, but this can be for literally any other use. Except hate. No hate allowed.

Day 1- Write your preferred name(s), pronouns, nice nouns (nouns you like to be referred to as), and bad nouns (nouns you don't like to be referred to as).

Day 2- Record your triggers, from really bad to not as bad to getting over it. Add any specifications or notes if you feel like you need them. This is so you can identify what makes you uncomfortable or panicked, which will help you be able to identify and avoid a situation in which you may feel threatened, uncomfortable, or panicked.

Day 3- Make a list of signs that you are having a panic attack. This will help you be able to communicate to close friends or family members what may happen in an event you become panicked. This will also help you identify when you're having a panic attack, which will help you be able to calm down. Additionally, record some ways that will help stop the panic attack. For me, some ways of calming down are to go outside, my stuffie, breathing and grounding exercises, comfort music, and puns or jokes.

Day 4- Take some time and think about what makes you happy and relaxed. Write down your comfort music, comfort videos, and comfort characters. If you have a comfort game or movie, include that as well. This is to help you identify a source of calm, relaxation, and happiness that you can easily fall back on if you are uncomfortable or scared.

Day 5- Do some research on LGBTQIA+ labels, flags, and symbols. Write down your gender identity and what it means for you. Write down your sexual and romantic orientations as well, and what they mean for you. Additionally, draw little Pride Flags and symbols beside each label. I drew the genderfaunet flag on the inside cover of my journal, along with corresponding flowers that represent what I see in my identity, as well as what I hope to integrate into myself (Snowdrop - rebirth, Chrysanthemum - truth, Rose leaves - hope, Lilacs - growth/progress, Yarrow - healing, and Narcissus - self love)

Day 6- Write down the titles of your favorite LGBTQIA+ books, movies, TV shows, and games, or titles you want to see/read/play. Do a little digging and find out what titles sound interesting. Supporting LGBTQIA+ creators is a wonderful way to celebrate Pride.

Day 7- Journaling doesn't have to be just writing. Try drawing some LGBTQIA+ inspired art, whether it's just a few doodles, a flag or two, or a beautiful painting. Dedicate this entry to expressing yourself and your identity in a way without words.

Day 8- Write gay poetry. You may not think yourself talented or particularly good at writing poems, but that doesn't mean you should keep yourself from doing it, even for a day. Poetry is a wonderful way to bend language to your will and express yourself in a way that only you have to understand. Write a poem expressing your experience in the LGBTQIA+ community, or a poem detailing your first gay crush. Whatever you feel on your heart today, put it into beautifully unique words.

Day 9- Write about the moment you realized you weren't straight or binary. Alternatively, write about the moment you learned what the LGBTQIA+ community was. Describe your feelings and thoughts in the moment, and reflect over how they have changed and evolved over time.

Day 10- Take a moment and think about where you would be if LGBTQIA+ rights have existed all along, without the need for reform laws or protests. Write down who you think you would be, how you would live, and how easy it would be to do things you can't right now. At the same time, think about the disadvantages. Consider the lack of a fight for freedom and how that may influence your opinion or thoughts.

Day 11- Write a letter to your younger self. Tell your younger self about who you are and who you've become. Give them words of encouragement about the journey ahead. Remind your younger self that no matter what happens, you turn out to be a wonderful and beautiful person.

Day 12- Write a letter to your older self. Detail your present experience as a member/ally of the LGBTQIA+ community. Present your ideas about where the community will be moving forward and how much progress society as a whole will make. Ask yourself some questions, like "How do you celebrate your identity?" Later in the future, you can come back to this letter and respond.

Day 13- Learn some phrases or words of Polari. Polari is a critically endangered language invented by young gay men living in Britain. It was also used by circus men and theatre kids. Few LGBTQIA+ people now know of the language, so there's no better time to try to revive it.

Day 14- Do some research on Pride history. Record interesting or important events that marked the history of the LGBTQIA+ community. What happened at the first Pride Parade? Who was the first advocate for gay and lesbian marriage? What was the LGBTQIA+ community like before it was acceptable to be openly queer?

Day 15- Write a letter to those that are anti-LGBTQIA+. Explain why queer rights are humans rights. Tell them that love is love. Or, if you're feeling like letting loose that anger, just tell them off. This letter is for your eyes only, so don't be afraid to get mean if it makes you feel better.

Day 16- Take a moment and think about how you wish to represent yourself. Do you want to wear skirts and dresses? Do you prefer baggy pants and a puffy jacket? Do you like wearing makeup? How do you style your hair? Record how you currently dress and look and how you wish you could dress and look. Write about how your wishes reflect your identity.

Day 17- Write some ways you can improve on the way you treat yourself. Are you hard on yourself because you just can't make the right grade? Do you obsess over how you don't fit in to your family's standards of gender and sexuality? Give yourself some love and think about how you can be nicer to yourself. Remind yourself that school grades aren't more important than your own needs. Remember that if you are in an unhealthy relationship with friends or family, it isn't your fault.

Day 18- Write about what really makes you feel like yourself. You know better than anyone what your authentic self is. So what is it? What makes you feel really... you?

Day 19- If someone described you, what would they say? This can be anything from physical appearance to personality. This can help you think about how you present yourself to others. Do you want more people to know exactly what gender you identify as? Do you not want people to know what pronouns you prefer?

Day 20- Do some research on neopronouns. If you don't use any, perhaps you'll find a set or three you feel comfortable with (if not, that's fine!) If you can't do your own research, try making up your own set! I sometimes feel semi-feminine, like just a little teaspoon of femininity, but I don't really like she/her pronouns. So, I made for myself a set that sounds similar but isn't quite there. Xe/Xer/Xers/Xerself. The 'x' is pronounced like the 's' in 'measure.' A good way to make sure you know how to use a set of neopronouns in a sentence is to use this example I got from pronouny: Today I went to the park with xer. Xe brought xer frisbee. At least, I think it was xers. By the end of the day, xe was throwing the frisbee to xerself.

Day 21- Have you heard the phrase "black sheep of the herd"? It refers to someone that doesn't really fit in to their social group. In what ways are you the black sheep? Is it because of your identity or orientation? How can you help others to see you aren't different and shouldn't be alienated? How can you encourage people to welcome LGBTQIA+ people to the herd?

Day 22- Imagine you are teaching a class of young children about LGBTQIA+, gender, and sexual/romantic orientations. What would you say? How would you encourage them to be open minded and to explore their own identities?

Day 23- With great Pride comes great hardships. There are many obstacles and difficulties when it comes to finding your true self and figuring out your identity and orientation. What hardships have you overcome? What have you learned from them?

Day 24- One of your friends comes to you about having questions about gender identity. They are questioning their own identity and seek your help and support. List some ways you would help your friend feel supported and loved while also helping them discover their identity.

Day 25- List three things you would do if you weren't afraid. (For me, these would easily be: attending Pride Parades, advocating for queer rights, and coming out)

Day 26- Take your favorite or least favorite LGBTQIA+ ship and rewrite a scene as if they were together, or list some of your favorite queer ships.

Day 27- Discover some gender-neutral terms for things like family members, romantic partners, or honorifics (Mister, Miss, Mx.). If you can't find any you find interesting or comfortable, try creating some of your own. My pibling (parent+sibling) calls me their nibling or nibkid (NB term for sibling's child).

Day 28- Have you ever wanted to write a story? Record an idea or two, or three or four, for LGBTQIA+ stories. They can be anything from lesbian princesses to a coming-of-age trans story. Maybe you'll end up planning out your best seller!

Day 29- Think about what rights aren't granted to LGBTQIA+ people. What are they? Do they directly affect you as well? How do these lack of rights make you feel? What can you do to help advocate for these rights?

Day 30- The last day of Pride Month doesn't mean it's the last day of acceptance and love. How can you spread Pride throughout the year? How can you keep and open mind and heart and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights? Maybe set a list of goals for yourself, things you want to keep up through the year.

[kerie-prince]

We’re Worlds Apart (1)

Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj/Muggle fem!reader

Post-Battle of Hogwarts

warnings: language

series m.list | general m.list

summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.

(gif cred)

"They want... me?"

Draco Malfoy sat across his supervisor in his office at St. Mungos. His eyes widened at the offer he was given.

"Well Mr. Malfoy, you've certainly shown us around here that you do well at your job. If I must say so myself, I believe you're ready for the job," his boss has explained. Draco had recently finished his Fellowship and became a remarkable Healer. So much so that the Santa Marie Hospital for Maj Persons in Buffalo, New York contacted his supervisor to offer him a position as Head Healer. It was an incredible opportunity, one that a person could only dream of.

Draco sat still in his chair, shocked that of all Healers from his department, Santa Marie wanted him. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco was determined to change the views people had of him. He was no longer the prejudice prat that he was at school. Draco Lucius Malfoy is now a matured, capable young man. He worked hard and was proud that he did everything on his own. No help from daddy dearest, no pressure of the Malfoy name. It was all him.

"I would love to take this job. When would I start?"

Draco finished filing his paperwork at the Ministry of Magic that was to be sent to the Magical Congress of the United States containing his work permit and all the necessary identification. Walking around London, he grew excited about it. It was a feeling he hadn't felt since he got his letter for Hogwarts.

The next thing he has left to do was to find housing. There was an office located in Diagon Alley that specialized in international real estate. Draco walked into the brightly lit office. Much to his surprise, Daphne Greengrass stood at the reception desk.

"Well, well. Long time no see, Malfoy," she said with a smile on her lips. He was quite relieved to see a familiar face. "Good to see you too, Daph. I'm checking in to see Ms. Moreau. I'm moving to America soon." Daphne was both shocked and impressed that Draco would be making such a big move. They chatted momentarily about the reason for him moving and she congratulated him. Soon enough, the real estate agent walked out and called Draco into her office.

She sat at her desk and gestured for him to take the seat opposite her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Malfoy."

"The feeling is mutual, Ms. Moreau," Draco had slightly bowed his head.

"Please, call me Gwen," she smiled as she reached to shake his hand, "I see from your paperwork that you're moving to America, correct?" he nodded his head in response. "Fantastic! Now, looking at the locations for Buffalo, we have quite a bit of selections from houses to flats. Of course, in America they're called 'apartments'. With your budget, you would be able to get this nice house that is just a 10 minute drive to the Apparition office to Santa Marie's." She showed Draco pictures of the house. It was quaint. An all white, one story house that had three bedrooms, a lifted porch, small kitchen, two bathrooms, trimmed green grass in front and a dark stained wooden fence that went around the house. Draco nearly fell in love with it. Its contrast to the Malfoy Manor was warm and inviting.

Gwen had shown him pictures of the other places she had gathered for him, but none of them peeked his interest as the first house did. It was quite silly as he thought about it. Most likely, he would be working long hours at the hospital to even be able to appreciate the home. It made more sense to get an apartment as he would most likely just use the space to sleep and eat. But the house was begging for him to live there. After about an hour long session, Draco made his final decision on the small house.

"Excellent choice, I had hoped you'd love it. Now, before I contact the sellers about your offer, I must let you know this before you sign anything," Draco shifted in his seat. Of course there had to be a catch. A house this perfect needed one thing to go wrong. Was it busted windows? A terrible neighborhood? Shitty pipelines? He nodded for her to continue.

"This is an integrated neighborhood. Both muggles and wizards live around and you might not know which are which for a while." Muggles. He sat in silence, staring down at the photos of the house. Did he really want a muggle neighbor? No, you're past this Draco thought. The old Draco wouldn't even give the place a second thought. But he wasn't him anymore. "I don't care. I'll take it."

—

You woke up in the morning, stretching your arms and legs out of the thick blanket. It was currently 8:47 am, your alarm clock beside you still had 13 minutes to alert you to wake up. Deciding to just get a head start on the day, you walked into the your bathroom and started your shower. The water was at the hottest you took and you went about your daily routine. You said your repeated incantations in the shower as you lathered yourself with soap:

Water, water, wash away. Water, water, cleanse today.

Walking out your shower, you grabbed your towel and recited the next spell as you dried yourself:

By the earth in the soap,

by the air in the steam,

by the fire that heats the water,

by the water that cleanses,

I am cleansed, clean, and ready for the day.

When you were 12 years old, you used to watch your grandmother perform Wicca in her bedroom. Your mother didn't particularly join in on the belief, but also didn't oppose to you starting alongside your grandmother when you turned 18. Now, you were almost 26 and still kept on the same practices.

On the contrary to people's interpretation or views of witchcraft, you called yourself a White Witch; someone who performs good magick upon selfless reasons. You never hexed anyone nor wished any ill fate. The Laws of Nature was surely watching at all times and if you did, expect to get the same fate but in threefold. Not that you even had any reason to do such things, anyways.

After getting ready, you grabbed your bag, keys — which held a protection charm — and went on your way to work. Your cat sat in her tower located in your living room and she watched you walk out. Getting into your car, you noticed movement next door. A big, moving truck was parked and a crew of movers carried furniture into the house. Finally, someone new you thought.

Feeling nosy, you sat patiently to figure out who it was moving next door. Was it a family? An elderly couple? Maybe newlyweds. Right when you were about to pull out of your driveway, a handsome blond stepped out of the house guiding the movers where things were going to be placed. You couldn't hear his voice, but could tell from the distance that it had to be attractive.

He looked around the street and caught you starting from your car. You hesitantly raised your hand to wave at him but was cut off by a man walking up to him with a clipboard gesturing where to sign. You looked at the time on your watch and nearly panicked at how the time passed, leaving you with only 15 minutes to get to work. Hauling ass, your car let a screech out as your foot punched the gas pedal. You'll be able to introduce yourself later, Y/N.

—

A few days passed and Draco was headed for the Apparition office to his new workplace. He had leased a new car to drive there. According to the Magical Congress, wizards and witches that lived in integrated neighborhoods must check in at Apparition offices to not raise suspicions from No-Maj. Seemed quite silly at first, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. He remembers the first time he went to Diagon Alley with his father through the Leaky Cauldron, finding it hidden with a wall that required taps against it. Behind it, a magical alley hidden from muggles.

He pulled into the office building lot with ease. It was clean on the outside and had a sign on top that only read MCA Co,. At the front door, there was a pin pad with numbers on it that kept it locked. Draco pulled the paper from his pocket and dialed the number. The door made a clicking noise which signaled that it was unlocked.

In the front was a young man sat at a reception desk typing away onto a computer. It was a strange sight for Draco as he's never seen one before. He walked up to the desk and waited for the person to acknowledge him.

"Hello, sir. Welcome to the Magical Congress' Apparition Office. May I see your ID pass, please?"!the accent was unfamiliar to Draco, but he nonetheless reached for the pass clipped to his trousers and gave it to the receptionist. He scanned the pass, handed it back to Draco and raised up from his chair to guide Draco to the door which had a direct line to the hospital. "Have a good day, sir!" were his last words before he went back to his desk.

Draco looked at the address once more before appariting into Santa Marie's. Here goes nothing.

—

It was a long day at the office. Setting up appointments with new clients, greeting all the new people he'd be working with, and a surprise welcome party to end it. Everyone he met had different variations of American accents. Some from Chicago, some from California, and some from the native state of New York.

A man by the name of Ian Parker helped Draco navigate around the building. Draco was quite relieved to hear that Ian had lived close by, just two blocks and a turn away. They had lunch together and talked about just simple things about each other. It felt nice to meet somebody and they not know who you are and things you've done in the past.

Once he got home, the first thing Draco did was start to run the shower, gathering his sleepwear as the water heated up. Not meaning to, Draco noticed how his bedroom window had perfect view of yours. To him, it was extremely odd.

You had faux vines that curled around your four-poster bed, a couple of plants that hung against the wall and posters of movies that Draco knows for a fact he's never seen in his life. You walked into your room and went up to a small drawer and dug through it. After a few seconds, you grabbed out some incense sticks, lit them and stood them on the stand that laid on your dresser. Afterwards, you sat on the floor with your legs crossed and started taking deep breaths.

Draco caught himself staring for too long and was about to head into the shower until he saw movement from the corner of his eye. There you sat, but this time, you held items in your hands. One held what Draco thought to be just some colorful rocks. The other hand held a bundle of herbs on fire at the tips. Your lips moved and it had Draco curious. Your hand with the herbs moved in a specific pattern, creating smoke around you. Once you finished, you set the rocks and herbs down at a table and left the room. That was odd. Draco thought. He passed it off and went on about his night.

—

"It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. And trust me when I say that Hogwarts has its fair shares of odd moments," Draco sat in the break room with Ian and two other people, Ashley and Blaine. They laughed at the description Draco had of you and settled after Ian began his explanation.

"It seems that your No-Maj neighbor is considered a Wiccan." What in Merlin's name is that?

"Pardon? What's do you mean?"

"It's what they call witchcraft," Ashley added, "it became a popular thing after the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there's no real magic to it like what we can do, but they nonetheless believe it works."

Draco couldn't believe what he was hearing. Muggles are trying to be witches? This was probably the last thing he ever thought he would hear. Inside, a familiar feeling had ignited. A feeling he had, or he supposed still had, for a certain species. He didn't like it but to find out that what he is had become a fantasy to be was upsetting. He was born into this life, not them. Not you.

—

It had been a really nice day at work. People had been kind and you sold out of a new oil you made. As you entered your home, your cat ran up to your legs and purred against you. You smile down at her and made your way to prepare your dinners.

She nibbled away at her bowl and you watched in content.

Outside, you heard a car pulling in. It's probably him. You peaked out the window in the living room and your guess was correct. He stepped out of a black car and walked to his door. You tried catching his attention by waving your arms about, hoping he glanced your way. When he did, you waved excitedly to him.

He stared at you with a straight face, no hint of any feeling. It was odd, people usually like you and wave back but this guy was just looking at you. Not doing anything. You looked around to see if there was something behind you, only to look back and see that he was gone. Ooo...kay?

You grabbed your sweater and decided to introduce yourself to your new neighbor. It had been almost a week and it seemed that he still hadn't acquainted himself to anyone on the street. The cool, spring breeze sent a pleasant chill down your spine as you walked on the sidewalk.

Once you stepped in front his door, you knocked three times. No answer. Three more times. No answer. The lights that were on had turned off and curtains had been shut in almost a blink of an eye. He had made it clear that he was not in a mood to talk to anyone. It slightly hurt your feelings, but you told yourself to not dwell on it. He's just tired from work. Just then, an idea popped in your mind as you headed back home.

—

"Stupid fucking muggle clock," Draco cursed as he was running around his bedroom getting dressed. He overslept by an hour and had 10 minutes to be in the Apparition office to go to work. Damn American laws.

He grabbed an apple, not his usual sour green one but a sweet red one this time, grabbed his bag and ran for the front door. Something taped to the door caught his attention and he halted his movements. It seemed to have been a note someone left. He unfolded the paper and read it to himself;

Hello! My name's Y/N and I wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood! I hope we can become good friends~ if there's anything you need or if you'd ever like to get acquainted over coffee, please feel free to knock on my door! It'd be nice to get to know you :)

At the bottom of the note was a small drawing of a witches pointed hat and Draco immediately knew who left the note. Almost on instinct, the note caught on fire in his hands and the ashes fell to the ground. He dusted his hand off and went to work. As if we would ever become friends.

—

next chp

taglist: @beiahadid @malfoy-styles-wife @fivenightslaughter

[notebooknebula]

Improving Business Relationships Through CRM with Danny Johnson & Jay Conner

https://www.jayconner.com/improving-business-relationships-through-crm-with-danny-johnson-jay-conner/

Real Estate Investing With Jay Conner

It doesn’t matter if you are earning a million dollars a year unless you are enjoying the freedom that comes along with your business.

In today’s Real Estate Investing show with Jay Conner, Jay and his guest Danny Johnson talk about automation and organizing your business. How it will greatly help you build a real estate business that works for you and not you working the business.

Danny Johnson is a veteran real estate investor that has been flipping and wholesaling since 2003 having done nearly 1,000 deals. The financial and time freedom his real estate business created for him has allowed him to use his software background to develop the Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

He also hosts a new podcast called ‘Braver’ which is devoted to being honest about what’s holding you back so that you can transition from doing everything in your business to having the business work for you.

Timestamps:

0:01 – Get Ready To Be Plugged Into The Money

2:00 – Jay’s New Book: “Where To Get The Money Now” –https://www.JayConner.com/Book

2:41 – Today’s guest: Danny Johnson

5:17 – Getting involve in different Masterminds greatly affects the success of your real estate business.

7:25 – “ Flipping Houses Expose” – Danny Johnson

9:19 – What is your conversion now compare to when you started?

12:04 – Importance of attending immediately to a motivated seller.

13:30 – Danny Johnson’s different marketing strategies

16:17 – Significance of building rapport with your motivated seller.

18:16 – How Danny got into real estate?

21:39 – How did you transition from wearing all the hats to building a real estate business that’s working for you and not you working the business?

27:02 – The Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

29:03 – Connect with Danny Johnson – https://www.forefrontcrm.com

30:15 – Danny’s parting comments: Look at the next step that you need to do. Do it and take action.

Private Money Academy Conference:

https://jaysliveevent.com/live/?oprid=&ref=42135

Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now? It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at https://www.JayConner.com/Book

Free Webinar: http://bit.ly/jaymoneypodcast

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $64,000 per deal.

What is Real Estate Investing? Live Private Money Academy Conference

https://youtu.be/QyeBbDOF4wo

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/RealEstateInvestingWithJayConner

iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/private-money-academy-real-estate-investing-jay-conner/id1377723034

Listen to our Podcast:

https://realestateinvestingdeals.mypodcastworld.com/11208/improving-business-relationships-through-crm-with-danny-johnson-jay-conner

Jay Conner and Danny Johnson

Jay Conner

00:00:30

Well, what in the world was I talking about a second ago on plugging you into the money? Well, you see back in 2003, my wife, Carol Joy, and I started investing in single-family houses here in Eastern North Carolina. The first six years, we relied on local banks and mortgage companies and institutional money. And you know what? In January of 2009, we were cut off, lost our lines of credit, no way to fund our deals. I was introduced to this wonderful world of private money. And since that time, we have not missed out on a deal for not having the money.

And when I say private money, I’m not talking about hard money. I’m not talking about brokers. I’m not talking about institutional money. I’m talking about getting funding from individuals right now. We’ve got 46 individuals investing in funding our deals. We haven’t missed out on deals since 2009. And guess what? You can experience the very same thing and be in control of your real estate investing business. So what am I talking about? I got a free gift for you. I just released my brand new book, “Where To Get The Money Now,” subtitled: “How and Where to Get Money for Your Real Estate Deals Without Relying on Traditional Hard Money Lenders.” It hit number one on Amazon just a few short months ago. And so I want to send this book to you, just cover delivery. I will tell you how you can get this brand new book for free. Go to www.JayConner.com/Book

You know that I have amazing guests on the show and today is no different whatsoever. My dear friend, my fellow mastermind member is a veteran real estate investor. I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I mean, he’s been flipping, he’s been wholesaling all the way back to the very same year that Carol Joy and I started, back in 2003, and he’s done almost a thousand deals.  Well, the financial and time freedom that his real estate investing business created for him has allowed him to use his software background. Yes, his software background is to develop what’s called The Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

In other words, how do you keep up with all those contacts? How do you keep up with the buyers and the sellers and everything that’s going on? Well, he’s going to be telling us about that because I tell you what, I was still totally paper until about 4 years ago, maybe as recent as 3 years ago. So you want to organize your life. My guest is going to get to helping you on that in just a second. He also hosts a podcast that’s called, “Braver,” which is devoted to being honest about what’s holding you back so that you can transition from doing everything in your business to having the business work for you. And I tell you that reminds me of what my dad taught me years ago. “Make sure you get your business to where you’re running it and it’s not running you.” So we’re going to talk with my special guest right now about automation, organizing your business, and one of the best CRMs for keeping up with all your contacts, which he developed and calls, “The Forefront CRM.” With that, welcome to the show, my friend, Danny Johnson. How are you?

Danny Johnson

00:04:40

Doing great. Thank you for having me on, Jay.

Jay Conner

00:04:43

Absolutely, Danny. We’re glad to have you and tell everybody where you are speaking from today.

Danny Johnson

00:04:49

Well, I’m in San Antonio, Texas, and yeah, I like that, you know, we both started in 2003. And how you introduced me that way, that you didn’t just read the bio, like you really put it out there in a great way. It made it sound a lot more interesting. I was excited. I was like, “Who’s he going to be talking with?” But it was actually me.

Jay Conner

00:05:16

Absolutely, Danny. Well, you know, we are in a mastermind together and masterminds, being a member of a mastermind, has just been such a huge part of my real estate investing business. I really started getting involved in masterminds- Right now, I’m in 3 masterminds, got involved back in 2009. And so when you’re hanging around people that are of light minds and you’re helping each other and your business, it’s bound to grow, right?

Danny Johnson

00:05:44

Absolutely. I’m a part of 2, been a part of probably 6 in my investing career. And it was a pivotal moment in the first one that I joined where I was doing everything in the business. My ex-wife and I were doing everything in our business, wearing all the hats. We had contractors, we had an agent to sell properties, but beyond that, we did everything and that was 8 or 9 years. And it wasn’t until I joined a mastermind and hung out with people that were operating the business in a way that allowed them the time to actually work on the business more than they worked in the business. And having that firsthand experience with people that were doing it, showed that it was completely possible, and cut out a lot of time and headache and hassle and mistakes. So that was great.

Jay Conner

00:06:41

Well, I can certainly relate. I remember I had been in the business from 2003 until about 2008, five years. And I came around the corner one night and there was my Carol Joy sitting at the kitchen table, crying with 3 different checkbooks in front of her. And that was at 10 o’clock at night. And she told me she couldn’t handle it anymore. And I learned right there that you can be making a million dollars a year and it doesn’t really matter unless we are enjoying the reason we got into real estate and that’s to enjoy the freedom that comes along with it. So yeah, it took me an entire year to really hone in and start automating my business. So I can definitely relate to your story, Danny.

Danny Johnson

00:07:23

It’s interesting. I had a book that I put out a while back called “Flipping House Exposed,” and that was 34 weeks in the life of my business where I documented every single lead that came in. And basically week by week I was breaking down what I spent on marketing, where I put my marketing, the leads that came in, all that kind of stuff. But the thing that came out of that was out of those 34 weeks, I generated 495 motivated seller leads. So these are qualified leads where people called or submitted on my website that they wanted an offer on their house. Guess how many of those I turned into a deal?

Jay Conner

00:08:04

Probably less than you would have desired.

Danny Johnson

00:08:09

Right. I wouldn’t bring it up. But yeah, it was about 11 during that 34 weeks. Right? Yeah. So that’s about one out of every 45. And so a lot of people, got into this business after reading that book and were telling me it was so great because it showed me it was a numbers game, but it wasn’t until a little bit later that I realized looking back, it was like I was killing myself trying to have more success by doing more of the same thing that I had original success with. So it was okay when I was generating, doing maybe 20 to 30 deals a year. It was okay to be focused mainly on the lead generation. Right? If I want to do more deals, I’ve got to get more leads. I mean, in my mind, that’s how it was. I don’t have a business background. I wasn’t structured in business, and looking back in hindsight, it was treating it like a hobby. It really was just, “Hey, I’m having fun. I’m doing that,” which is great, but it comes at a price. And that price is that hamster wheel of having some success and trying to have more success by just doing more of the same thing without really dialing anything in, where I’m really looking at them.

Jay Conner

00:09:18

What’s your conversion now compared to when you started?

Danny Johnson

00:09:22

Well, now I’m actually back to operating as a solo-preneur with the real estate and just doing rental properties. But we did grow from that, we were doing everything and built a team and we got to the point with the team where we were getting about one out of every five leads became a deal.  

Jay Conner

00:09:41

That’s different than one out of every 40 or 50.

Danny Johnson

00:09:43

Right. So looking back, had we had the team, had we had the business dialed in and this doesn’t even require a team. It really just dials, it requires somebody to know what’s going on in their business and fix the parts that are broken because it wasn’t so much the leads were a problem. It was what we were doing once the leads came into our business. Right?

Jay Conner

00:10:06

And in addition to not only what you were doing with them, but what you were not doing with them.

Danny Johnson

00:10:13

But that’s probably the bigger issue. So what happened? What made the transition? Obviously the team helped because as a one-man-show, taking the calls, going on appointments, scheduling contractors, checking on jobs, you get to where you’re having a lot of appointments and meetings with different people. And when those motivated sellers are calling, if you can’t take those calls right away, number one, that’s a huge problem. Somebody has to live answer that call right away because that’s a truly motivated seller, the one that’s saying, “Hey, just get over here. I wanted this thing done yesterday. I’m just done.” If you’re not the first person that answers that call, whoever is, is getting the deal most likely. And so having a way, no matter what you do.

And I did this business 3 years part-time while I was a software developer working for a defense contractor where I couldn’t even have my cell phone with me at my job. I know it’s been long enough. I had it on vibrate and if it went off, I would run out into the stairwell and return the call right away because I didn’t want to miss out on those. Once you do that, make sure you’re answering all those calls, having those come in, what happens with the building of rapport, talking with that seller, listening to them, not just asking for all the details of the house and just being all about that and scheduling an appointment, just being done. There’s a lot that goes into building that rapport with the seller.  Almost all of my deals came from motivated seller direct to seller marketing. Just found that those were always the best deals and helped us actually get through that market correction back in ’07, ’08, but by just going direct to the seller and getting those great deals.

Jay Conner

00:12:03

Since you bring it up, let’s talk about it because this is a really important point. And that is, in my experience over the years, there are 5 key components to a successful real estate investing business when it comes to talking with and marketing to motivated sellers. And this podcast is about you. It’s not about me. So I’m only going to talk about one and you already said the word, and that is the word, “immediacy.” When a motivated seller, and of course we’re talking about off-market sellers, we’re not talking about sellers or bank-owned properties that are in the multiple listing service in this market, you can’t rely on that anyway. But when that call comes in, whether it’s from a Google ad or it’s direct mail, or doesn’t matter how you are getting leads coming in, it’s like the most important thing that could ever happen is for someone on the team, your acquisition is to ever to be talking to that person like right away.

And you know, it’s the age-old argument. Do you take the calls live? I mean, there’s an argument for that. Do you have them get an operating service? And then you’re like, get through the rigmarole of trying to get them back on the phone. So share with us your experience of taking the call live, wherein if you’re not doing it yourself, which I never recommend to people. So if you have an acquisition, do you answer the phone live in the morning to when at night?

Danny Johnson

00:13:50

That’s one of the big things that made a huge difference. So we had somebody come in as an acquisitions person to take that off of my plate. And they did take the calls for a while because it made it also seamless for when somebody is answering the phone, they talk to somebody and then that’s the same person that’s coming to the house. So that’s beneficial. As you grow, that’s going to be to where it becomes a problem because that person is going on appointments and they can’t take those calls while they’re at an appointment. And we don’t want them feeling like, “Oh, I’m going to miss a call or a call came in. I missed it. I need to wrap this appointment up.” Everything that we do, we spend so much time and energy looking at different marketing tactics, executing on those and doing all of that stuff to get those calls in and then to get to the appointment.

So all of that stuff to that point is to be at that appointment. And if we’re not spending the time that’s required at that appointment where we’re wasting all the rest of it, why are we doing anything else? So our acquisitions people, it was spend as much time as you need to at each of these, make sure that you’ve got at least 2 hours so that you can sit down on that gross couch or whatever it is, and have a conversation with the seller because this is what this is all about. It’s really getting to the bottom of why they’re selling, understanding their problem, and then showing them how we can help them. It’s not just, “Here’s the offer. Do you want it? Come on, sell your house.” It’s none of that stuff. So, in answering the calls, once you have that where you have the ability to bring on that lead intake person, then that person should be somebody that’s super friendly.

That’s easy to build rapport with. That’s the first person that they’re gonna interact within your business, right? They’re representing your business. And so if you can have somebody that doesn’t even have to be in an office or anything like that, this could be your mother-in-law, this could be your aunt, somebody that’s just at home all day that can take these calls. It doesn’t need to be a professional hire or anything like that. And just a part-time, “I’m going to pay you per call that you take,” or something like that. And you train them up just to be friendly. It really requires somebody that’s super friendly that’s not going to just go down the list of questions, ask them, get them answered, and then get off the call. Because we want the person saying, “Wow, that person, this company is great. I really liked that person I just talked to.”

Jay Conner

00:16:15

Building rapport is so important and people are gonna pick up on as to, do you really care about what they’ve got going on? As you say, if there wasn’t a problem with the property, if they didn’t have a personal problem or both, we wouldn’t be there looking to help solve the problems. For example, this past Friday, I was at a seller’s house myself, right here in Morgan City, North Carolina for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Myself personally. Most of the time that doesn’t happen because even with crazy times going on, I’m still traveling a lot or I’ve started traveling a lot. But something told me that I needed to go on this appointment. We were in a small market, only 40,000 people willing to do 2-3 deals a month, but the average profits were $70,000.

So not to get into the details of that visit, but I knew it was going to take an un-rushed amount of time, un-rushed. And when I’m visiting with a potential seller, I use a technique that I call, “awkward silence.” I ask a question and I just let them talk. And when they sound like they’re finished, I go, “Uh-hmm” and they talk more. And so I tell them right up front in the visit, I say, “You know what, there’s a good number of times I’m not able to help people. And the reason why is because every transaction I do, it’s got to be a win for you. It’s gotta be a win for your husband. It’s gotta be a win for me.” And so I go ahead and get the white elephant out of the room and just let them know that I’m not here to high-pressure you. I’m here to see what we can do to work together, to make things happen. And as you said, establishing a rapport is very, very important. So let’s get right into what your specialty is, Danny, and that’s the CRM keeping up with all the leads, right? That you developed from your background as a software developer. But before we jump into that, just tell us your background as to how you got into real estate.

Danny Johnson

00:18:33

So I got into real estate. I was going through college to get my degree in computer science. My father started flipping houses and when I was growing up, he was a contractor for a real estate investor. And so as a kid, I would go to the demos and I would have to haul out the junk and all this stuff from the demos of the houses. So I got an early taste of that, but my father was a contractor at that time. So in college, he began being mentored by the person he had done a lot of contracting work for in the past. And I just saw his joy. It was just like a whole new him, my father. I’d never seen him like this. He had always struggled in his life. He had always started in different businesses that didn’t succeed.

And we had to move year after year and sometimes getting evicted. And it was just a rough, rough time and I’ve got three other siblings, but in college, it just all broke loose for him. Like he was just having so much fun talking about the deals he was doing driving around town. And I just felt this surge with him. He was like, “Oh, I want to do that, too. That’s what I want to do.” So I started part-time, also getting into the business and he worked with small towns around San Antonio and I worked in San Antonio. So the relationship was really, “Well, you go find out how you want to invest, whether that’s fix-and-flip or rentals or whatever, you just go and learn what you want to learn. When you have an issue that you come against as you’re taking action, call me.”

So it wasn’t hand-holding, what-do-I-do-next? kind of thing. That relationship was like a mentor relationship. And then his mentor also was available to me, too, whenever I had questions, which was great because it forced me to take action and make mistakes. And I tell people that one of the first, I think it was the first contract that I did directly with a motivated seller, I signed the contract then I went to the title company and I was in the parking lot. And I had to, literally, call my dad and say, “What am I supposed to say when I bring this inside of here?” I didn’t even know that step of it, but the beautiful thing was I was out there taking action, right? And even though I wasn’t well-versed in all the different things, from putting a deal under contract to getting it sold, I was taking action.

That was the important thing. So I was in the business part-time for 3 years. I was making good money as a software developer, it was really hard to leave that steady paycheck. And they let me go, thankfully, I guess they caught onto the fact that most of my day was spent on real estate investor forums and things like that. But anyway, they let me go and I became a full-time investor and my ex-wife and I ran that for 8 or 9 years alone. And then we started bringing on a team which started with my brother-in-law. He was one of the first people to sign on. And we grew that team and learned a lot after we joined the masterminds. And that’s where we started really systematizing the business, and a great book called, “Traction” by Gino Wickman really showed us how to operate the business like a true business.

Jay Conner

00:21:38

You just mentioned the phrase of transitioning in your business. So walk us through that process. How did you transition from doing everything, wearing all the hats to really building a true real estate investing business that was working for you instead of you working for it?

Danny Johnson

00:22:03

Sure. And I’ll tell you what I did first really quickly so that people don’t do what I did first because it wasn’t the right way to go about it. So the first hires, how it went down was, “Hey, yeah, sure. That’d be great. Yeah, come on and help us out. You know, you’ve been on a couple of appointments with me to talk to sellers.” And they would come in and I would just say, “Well, shadow me for a week. That’s how you’re going to learn what you’re supposed to do.” That was not the way to set somebody up for success. And so everything that I had learned over the years and doing the business 8 or 9 years, wearing all the hats, that was all in my head, and I was expecting them by just shadowing me for a week to pick up on all of it.

So when it was time for me to not be there for them to go on the appointment, they were really not set up to succeed. And I was thinking, “Well, they’ll find their own way. Like I did,” right? Not a good way to do it. So I don’t recommend that. What I recommend is setting things up. There’s a good, really good book called “Work The System,” that I forgot the author’s name, but he talks about setting up your procedures. And I wish I had done this even before I planned on bringing people in because there were so many times where I came up against the situation that I had solved before, but I didn’t remember how I solved it. And so I had to go back and spend all this time trying to figure out the right solution.

Whereas if I had just documented what to do in this situation, I would have known. And the beautiful thing about when you do that is you realize a lot of times, even with the things that you do on a weekly or daily basis, is pretty inefficient. And when you document it out and you’re like, “Whoa, what am I? Wow, I’m-” and then you realize how much you’re doing as well, which will make you want to hire someone to take a lot of that off your plate. So getting all of that documented, I use a tool called “TETTRA.” It’s free. I think you get a free account and you can document your procedures there. And then whenever you hire a team, they have a place to easily find all of those procedures. And then they have a way to communicate and update those so that they’re living documents, they’re living processes.

And so when you set those things up like that, when you bring somebody on, number one, they’re going to have a lot more trust in your company because you don’t want to be starting a job where you’re feeling like everything is just shooting from the hip and nothing is structured at all. And job security might be in question. And so having all of that to bring somebody in, to follow what you’ve proven to work, and then they can just pick it up. And what that does is that truly does free you from having to interact as much, because they have something to go off of and they won’t be calling you every hour or 30 minutes, even asking you questions about things, making you question whether even hiring somebody was the right thing to do.

Because I found that I would get into situations where I would say, “What am I doing? I can finish this faster than it would take to explain it to them.” And you do not want to fall into that trap. And so documenting those processes is absolutely critical. The next thing I don’t want to spend too much time on is, but the next thing is really having that system in place where everything in the business is in, the data is there in a place that everybody on the team has access to it. And even if you’re a small team, even when it was my ex-wife and I, having that place where everything about the lead in the deal is right there in one place, keeps everything so much more organized and less communication needing to happen. I didn’t have to bug her to find out some situation about this deal because it’s all right there in the system, right?

Yeah. And things that you can do these days with what we’ve done with Forefront and several other systems out there, all the communication can be tracked within the system. So not only do you have the deal information for one of these properties, you also can have all your communication that was ever had with them within that same record. So you can see no matter who chose the call, who sent the text, who received the text, it’s all right there on a timeline. And the beautiful thing about that is when you do that, you start to get into things that really help you also dial in your marketing because you can track, you get a different phone number per marketing channel, or even campaign. So everything’s attributed properly and it’s really producing not just the leads, but the ones that become deals. And then the profit you actually get from those deals per campaign. Because if you’re not tying all that stuff together and figuring that out, how do you make decisions on where to put your marketing?

Jay Conner

00:26:56

I love the way you got that set up. So in your CRM, Forefront, if you can get the phone numbers to track all the marketing from that same system, right?

Danny Johnson

00:27:11

We actually integrate it right now with CallRail.

Jay Conner

00:27:16

I use CallRail, but I have a VA that I actually manually puts in the information. So it’s really cool for you to have a CRM that you develop that CallRail actually communicates and it goes straight into your CRM. Right?

Danny Johnson

00:27:33

Right. And then the text messages, everything gets routed through. So you can see and listen to those calls, listen to voicemails. That’s a good way to stay on top of your team, too, when you look at the KPI page and you’re seeing that, “Hey, for some reason, we’re having less appointments being set, even though our lead count is the same or better. What’s going on?” You can go into those records and listen to the calls. And there was a situation that we ran into where that happened. And it turned out that our lead intake person taking the calls was making assumptions about the seller’s motivation level. They had plenty of equity. They didn’t know much, but they were saying, “They’re not motivated. So I didn’t set the appointment.” It’s like, when did you decide to start doing that? Like, that’s completely against what we’ve trained, you know? But something happened maybe where somebody was angry or who knows, but you’ve gotta be able to see that kind of thing in your business.

Jay Conner

00:28:32

Well, you just told the story of, by listening to the calls, you’re learning that, “Oh, my lands, what in the world is this person saying?” which reminds me of a very, very important principle that I learned years ago. And that is you cannot expect anything in your business that you cannot inspect, so you can’t expect it unless you can inspect it. And one way that you’re inspecting is by actually being able to listen to those recorded calls that come in. Danny, let’s go ahead and let folks know how they can learn about your software, your CRM system, and keeping up with all the leads.

Danny Johnson

00:29:12

You can find out more at forefrontcrm.com. We’ve got it where there’s a button to book a demo, go ahead and do that if you’re interested in finding out more, and that way we can find out what you’re looking for, what you’re needing in your business, and then tailor that demo specifically to you to show you how it can actually help you with that and show you all the cool features, everything that we’ve built, but not spend a whole day running you through everything, but just showing the pieces that make sense and matter for you and where you’re at in your investing business.

I’ve been on a couple of interviews, but it’s quite a few actually, but the big thing that I’m seeing with investors wanting to get to the next level, even if you’ve gotten to a good level, is this thing where we’ve overcome some fears and got our comfort zone and got to the next level. But sometimes we don’t realize when we get to another plateau and there’s new fears that we’re not acknowledging. And so taking a look at, no matter where you’re at in this business, if you are avoiding things and doing things that keep you in your comfort zone, or even having false beliefs about what’s keeping you stuck. Looking at that, accepting it, and then just looking at the next step. What is the next thing that you need to do? And just do that. Don’t give it too much thought. Just do it and take action.